One series that didn't get a lot of buzz when it was first released in the US was Noein.  This five volume show starts off a little slow and seems pretty similar to other shows we've all watched in the past.  If you're willing to give it a chance however, you'll be rewarded with a great SF anime show that has a lot of engaging characters and some interesting concepts.  The show has just been released in a nice money-saving boxed set that is the perfect way to get the whole show in one fell swoop.

Haruka Kaminogi is a typical school girl.  She has a good number of friends, she likes to hang out, and she's not too fond of school.  This average girl soon finds herself as a major player in a war for the entire universe.

Fifteen years in the future, a battle between two different dimensions is being waged.  The people of La'cryma are trying to stave off destruction by battling the dimension of Shangri-La which is trying to absorb, and thereby destroy, all other realities.  The people of La'cryma know that the key to their success is to find a huge power source, dubbed the Dragon Torque, which exists in some parallel dimension.  To find this item they've created the Dragon Calvary a group of modified individuals who are able to travel through the various dimensions.

As Haruka and her friend Yuu are contemplating running away from home, they encounter a Dragon Knight named Karasu.  He's detected the Dragon Torque but he pauses when he sees what it actually is: Haruka.  Not only is this power source a young girl, but it's also the girl that he fell in love with 15 years ago.  As it happens, Karasu is the adult version of Yuu.

With the whole of La'cryma trying to obtain the Dragon Torque and bring her back to their dimension, Karasu vows to protect the person he once loved.  That's a tough order, because not only are the Dragon Knights after her, but so is Noein, the ruler of Shangri-La.

This series was a little confusing at the beginning.  There's the idea of multiple dimensions and the fact that the two settings for the show occur in different times.  All the kids who play with Haruka have counter parts in the future, and they often have different names which can take some getting used to.  Just what the Dragon Torque does isn't exactly spelled out at the beginning either.

After watching the first several episodes (and it's really not all that confusing) things click into place and the show starts to get really interesting.  The characters are all very engaging, and several of them grow in ways that are quiet unexpected, which is a nice change.

This show uses a fair amount of 3D CGI animation, especially in the battle scenes, in addition to standard 2D animation, and the two styles don't mesh very well.  The creators seemed to realize this and didn't try to force it.  Instead of trying to make everything look like it belongs together they went the opposite route and intentionally made the 2D sections radically different from the 3D parts when they were interacting.  In these scenes they drew the characters in a particularly rough style, almost like an animated storyboard.  This served to make the battles feel more chaotic and raw, and while it didn't totally work, it was an interesting experiment.

This collection contains the entire 34 episodes series on 5 DVDs.  The discs seem to be identical to the individual volumes released earlier.  The discs come in a nice slipcase with the series details on the back and art on the front that wraps around to the top, bottom, and side.

Audio:

These episodes come with the original Japanese audio track as well as an English dub.  Both languages are presented in stereo and with DD 5.1 mixes, which is quite a treat.  I alternated between the 5.1 tracks with each episode until I settled on the Japanese track rather early on.  The dub track was fine, with the English voice cast doing an adequate job, but one character, Ryoko, has an obnoxious fake accent that's rather irritating.

Since the show is dialog driven to a large part, especially in the beginning, there isn't a lot of use made of the rear speakers through much of the show.  In the action sequences however, the surrounds really kick in and give the battles a very full sound.  The subwoofer also gets a workout during the fights, with a lot of low frequency rumbling that adds a lot to the feel of the show.  Overall a very nice sounding set.

Video:

This series is presented with a 1.78:1 anamorphically enhanced widescreen image that looks really good.  The colors are very vibrant, especially in the computer animated segments, and the image is very sharp.  There were a few instances of aliasing through the series, but these were rather minor and fairly rare.  Other common digital defects are absent, making this a very solid looking show.

Extras:

The set has a fair number of extras scattered across the five discs, though none of them are particularly earth shattering it is a nice selection.  There's a clean opening and closing animation, an alternate intro and outro, a few image galleries, a storyboard to finished product comparison, and TV spots.  The biggest bonus features are the three On Location segments where the director and a voice actor travel around the locations that the program is supposed to take place in.  These weren't very deep, but they're fun to watch.

Final Thoughts:

This is a great show and this boxed set is a steal.  With a MSRP that's the same as the cost of only two of the individual volumes, there are few sets that have the price-to-quality ratio that this one has.  Not only is the series cheap, but it's a well done and very engaging show.  With likeable characters, some good action scenes, and a complex plot that's fun to wade through, this show is a winner.  Highly Recommended.