12) Death Of A Nation: Due to the combination of the Raaja and the deadly PDB bacteria released during the last episode, Japan is in trouble. The combination is breaking down all the modern chemicals and materials based on those chemicals which is essentially everything in Japan. People are starving and dying in mass quantities and no one can do anything about it. The people of the rest of the world, including the SEED organization, pretty much write them off and only Juna seems capable of reversing the tide of battle.

13) The Here And Now: Juna's decision to battle an entire nation's worth of Raaja and it's monsters proves futile and she is shot down over the sky. On the land, her efforts prove no more capable as the Raaja and PDB bacteria have been feeding on so much that they are invincible. The show ends on a mixed note that made a lot of sense for the overall environmental theme, if somewhat unsatisfying in ways.

Picture: The picture is presented in anamorphic widescreen 1.78:1 and looked great. The anime styles employed here incorporate a few methods which enhance the overall experience. I saw no flaws at all.

Sound: There was 5.1 and 2.0 tracks with both English and Japanese as well as an isolated score. I noticed no problems with any of the tracks although I favored the 5.1 Japanese track slightly. Very well done.

Extras: There were a bunch of interviews with the show's creators and English voice actors. A couple of silly shorts titled: "Appare Adventures". A karaoke music video. There were some trailers and previews along with the isolated score. There was a paper insert with the dvd that explained each episode pretty well as well as provide full credits to the cast and crew. Lastly, there was a dictionary of some of the words and concepts used in the episodes.

Final Thoughts: When preparing to review this one, I decided to watch the earlier volumes (well, 2 and 3 at least) in order to keep it all straight. This proved very helpful and when I get the first volume, it will likely prove even more helpful. The message here is about balance and the environment. While preachy at times, it's slowly won me over and I can state that it's worth a High recommendation. Lots of replay value and high quality animation make it so.