The fifth volume of Galactic Railways picks up the pace and ramps up the action a couple of notches.  After starting out with a pair of stand alone episodes, the series sets things up for the concluding volume with an invasion from another galaxy, a terrific space battle, and a heart wrenching cliffhanger.
 
Series recap:

Manabu Yuuki is the son of a Captain in the SPD, Space Defense Force, the organization that protects and guards the millions of miles of interstellar space routes that the galactic trains travel across.  Manabu's father, Wataru, is the Captain of Big One, the pride of the SDF fleet.  Wataru sacrifices his life to save his crew and the passengers of a train while Manabu and his brother Mamoru look on.  A few years later Mamoru comes of age and joins the SPD, only to die in the line of duty like his father.

When Manabu reaches maturity, he feels that it's his duty to join up with the SPD also to see the universe and help his fellow man.  Over the strenuous objections of his mother, Manabu ships out.

As luck would have it, he is assigned to Sirius Platoon, a fighting unit that sees a lot of action and uses his father's old command: Big One.  In the platoon with him are Louis, an attractive new rookie, and Bruce, the old hand who doesn't approve of the newcomer.

Manabu is a little different from the other members of the SDF.  He doesn't want to see anyone die, so he'll readily attempt some dangerous plan in a hostage situation.  On top of that, the only weapon he carries is his father's old sidearm which no longer functions.  This causes some tension between Manabu and his fellow SDF officers, but his optimistic outlook wins them over.

This volume:

The disc starts off with the obligatory "trip to the hot springs" episode.  This light-hearted episode was filled with all of the cliches that countless other 'hot springs' shows have included.  Manabu ends up in the woman's side of the pool, only to get clobbered, people start talking about their love lives, and there's a tennis match that consists solely of still shot.  Even though it wasn't very original, this was a pretty enjoyable show with a lot of humor.

Next, Manabu gets a chance to train with the Space Panzer Grenadiers (SPG), the most elite fighting force in the galaxy and the unit that his brother was fighting with when he was killed.  Rumor has it that the SPG is looking forward to recruiting the young spaceman, but he's not sure if he wants to join or not even if they'll have him.

Things start getting interesting in the next show.  Sirius Platoon gets saddled with a general from the Secret Intelligence Division who accompanies them on their next mission.  He manages to rub everyone the wrong way in a very short time, but seems to know what he's talking about.  The group lands on a planet and discovers an alien of the same type that invaded the SDF headquarters earlier in the series.  This alien, Leafle, claims to be from another galaxy.  Her planet was invaded and conquered by a war-like race and enslaved.  Leafle was forced to design weapons for the invaders, but she escaped.  Now she brings a warning that the invaders have targeted our galaxy and offers a computer chip that will magnify Big One's weapons.  The only problem is that the intelligence officer thinks she's a terrorist and a spy, and doesn't believe a word that she's said.

This volume makes up for the sappy episodes that made up most of the previous disc.  The last two shows that set up the story for the concluding volume are excellent.  They are filled with action and suspense, but also link together some of the events that have happened earlier in the series.  Things that seemed to be part of a stand alone episodes are now part of a bigger story.  A very good volume that adds a lot to the series.

This volume contains four episodes  in a clear keepcase with a two sided cover.
 
Audio:

This program offers the choice of a Japanese track in stereo or and English dub in both stereo and 5.1.  I alternated tracks while viewing the show, and all three were very good. While I wish that the original language track was in 5.1 also, I couldn't complain about the sound quality. The dialog was clean, and there was no distortion or other audio problems. The English 5.1 track had a bit more punch to it, and used the soundstage a bit more. The voice actors were very good. I was quite impressed. There were not any stupid accents or phony sounding voices. While I prefer the Japanese track, I enjoyed the English dub as well.

Video:

The anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen video image is very good.  The colors are bright and solid and the lines are tight.  There is a good level of detail with even small items being crisp and clear.  Digital defects are nonexistent with even aliasing being absent. This is a very good looking show.
 
Extras:

There wasn't a lot of extras on this disc.  The most interesting bonus item was another episode of Mr. Stain in Junk Alley.  Cassette Tape  is the title of the show included on this disc. This 7-minute CGI short is pretty amusing, and I'm looking forward to seeing more.  The series is going to be released in 2006, and this is a great way to get the word out about it.

There is also a clean opening and some trailers.

Final Thoughts:

This volume was the best in the series so far.  Though the first episode on the disc was very cliched, it was still a lot of fun, and the other three episodes were very exciting.  The show really is getting good and I can't wait for the last volume to see how they resolve everything.  This disc gets a strong recommendation.