It can be very difficult sometimes to get into an anime late in the game if you haven't caught the rest of the series. Missing key plot points, not knowing completely what's going on and what has transpired can be fairly confusing and frustrating, that's why it's so important to start a show from the very first volume. This is the case however when I sat down to watch Spiral: Notes of Truth (volume 6 in the series) and even though I had seen volume 5, I still walked away with more questions than answers.

Considering that Spiral is a mystery and detective anime I suppose it's only natural to have questions, but to be honest the only one I really have is who the heck are the Blade Children? They seem to be a group of teens that don't have much in the way of extraordinary abilities, but are considered to be cursed and find themselves being hunted relentlessly. All I know is that the main character Ayumu is living in the shadow of his older brother and his fate becomes entwined with the Blade Children's.

Volume six of the series contains the following four episodes: The Confession, Relentless Rain, The Man in the High Castle and The Sound of an Iris Freezing and Melting.

In the last volume we saw Ayumu and Eyes follow closely behind Sayoko, who is believed to be carrying a bomb. The Hunter responsible gets away but lives long enough to bait Kousuke into following him. He almost caught the Blade Child but Ryoko showed up just in time to rescue her friend and watch the Hunter get run over by a train. Ayumu is confronted by the local authorities and Kanone makes a couple of questionable appearances.

The final volume of the series starts off with the Blade Children becoming trapped by a deceptive foe who is hell bent on killing them. Madoka is also kidnapped, meaning that Ayumu has to fight through trap after trap in order to save her life as well as his own. The tension isn't as great in this volume as it was in the last even at the series' final moments. Even so the show ends on a somewhat satisfactory level even though many of the characters are forgotten about in its final moments.

Despite the fact that prior to this volume I had only watched volume five, I found myself getting into it. It's kind of funny watching a show at its end instead of from the beginning but I was still able to appreciate a lot of what happened. If you're already familiar with the series then volume six is probably already on your list, but if you haven't seen it yet start back with the first volume if this sounds like your kind of thing.

Spiral: Notes of Truth is presented with a 1.33:1 full frame aspect ratio that is a product of the original material. The image is very crisp and clean and I didn't notice any aliasing while watching. There were a few moments that had small amounts of grain and some compression artifacts, though they weren't that frequent. The art style of the show is pretty good but comes off as rather generic looking when you compare it to some other series. There were a few repeat animations and some still shots used as well as some short cuts taken in the animation process. This all alludes to an apparent low budget although the show is pretty clean looking.

There are three different audio tracks included on this disc; Japanese and English 2.0 stereo as well as a 5.1 English surround mix. The original language and the dubbed feature equally decent voiceovers for the most part, but primarily I watched the 5.1 selection. While there is some directionality with the sound, it mostly comes from the front channel since the show consists of a ton of dialogue and small bits of action. I found the quality to be clear and crisp though with no real issues.

Apart from some trailers for some other FUNimation releases and textless songs that are featured on the disc, the only extra is a commentary. The commentary is for the final episode of the series and features the English director and voice actors for the Blade Children. With so many people talking it can be a little distracting at times but all they do during the entire feature is talk about the episode while they are watching. There's really nothing technical or interesting about the commentary but fans of the series may appreciate it.

If you're already into Spiral then picking this one up is something you've probably already done. If you haven't seen the show yet and are interested, go back to the first volume and start from there since it's usually not a smart idea to start with the last volume of a show. The drama and mystery isn't very deep in this last volume as the story of the Blade Children comes to a close. I enjoyed the fifth volume more although there is a little more character development for Ayumu in the final frames. Rent It

Check out more of my reviews here. Head on over to my anime blog as well for random musings and reviews of anime, manga, and stuff from Japan!