Episode 1: Kazuma: The episode is titled after the lead character, a young mercenary who isn't the brightest or most powerful "alter" (enhanced human) but has the survival skills honed by daily combat to make himself valuable to those who need his services.

Episode 2: Ryuho: This episode detailed the leading alter of HOLY who is said to be among the strongest, most controlled enhanced humans around. Having lost his mother to a powerful alter, he'll take any steps to prevent those unaffiliated with HOLY from abusing their power and considers all such people as trash.

Episode 3: Holy: This episode provided some background into the organization as seen through the eyes of a new recruit (who got the job due to her father, not having had any alter powers). Up until this point, it appeared as though Kazuma was truly a criminal in need of incarceration but the events following this one show that HOLY is anything but "holy".

Episode 4: Big Magnum: This episode further showed the inhumanity of HOLY. The title character controls a large weapon that manifests itself when he concentrates. It is shown that he has killed indiscriminately and makes Kazuma's excesses seem trivial by comparison.

Episode 5: Mimori Kiryu: Kanami, Kazuma's young charge, needs medical help and Kazuma will do anything to get it for her. He attacks a HOLD medical convoy that had Mimori aboard and she assists with curing the little girl. Kazuma fights with Oscar and his Eternity 8 alter. Having left a trail of defeated HOLY alters, not to mention his earlier escape from HOLY headquarters, Kazuma becomes public enemy #1.

Picture: The picture was presented in full frame 1.33:1 ratio. It was colorful but the animation style was often low end with little background detail. Luckily, the story was strong enough to cover for this fact.

Sound: The audio was presented in 2.0 stereo with both Japanese and English tracks. The Japanese track was superior this time by a considerable margin. I noticed that the beginning of the fifth episode lacked any English track (mastering error most likely) for those who care.

Extras: Textless openings and an ending, a summary of the setting called Lost Ground Express #1, a design gallery that details most of the main characters and their powers, and trailers. The Lost Ground Express and design Gallery really fleshed out the story to help it make more sense.

Final Thoughts: Having just gone to see the X-Men 2 movie this week, I saw the homage paid to the Marvel Comic here. Young mutants with powers they can't always control, a government afraid of those who'd abuse their powers, stereotypes and racial prejudices as well as the themes of survival in a harsh, unforgiving world, make up the bulk of the show. Yeah, there's the silly fights that a lot of fans, especially younger fans, want to see but there's a lot more than that too. I just wish that more resources had gone into the making of the original source material since the backgrounds and often enough secondary characters looked almost like that cartoon Home Movies in their simplicity. In all, I'll recommend this as a Rental but fans of beat them up fighting anime will rate it at least a Recommended if not higher.