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Zone of the Enders (ZOE) - Dolores, i - The Enemy Within (Vol. 4)

ADV Films // Unrated // May 6, 2003
List Price: $29.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]

Review by Don Houston | posted May 22, 2003 | E-mail the Author
Movie: Some anime series are better as standalones than others, without a doubt. The folks at ADV Films have found this out over the years and have tried to balance such releases out with their regular one shot releases as well as boxed sets. Zone of the Enders, is a series that deals as much with smaller issues as it does with larger scale events and as such it falls into the realm of "seeing the earlier episodes would probably help understand the show better but isn't absolutely necessary". To start, an "Ender" is a person who lives or is born far from Earth in a colony on the outskirts of man's reach in space (I believe a moon of Jupiter). There is a lot of tension between the various colonies and one another as well as the military rulers of Mars. One of the primary weapons used in wars is a Mech-Robot and the focus of this series is a particular robot that seemingly develops sentience. A small crew, comprised mainly of James Link and family (who always bicker with one another), are on the run for crimes they were set up by another for. A resistance cell wants the Mech under it's control and will do anything to get it. The robot, Dolores, has other ideas as do the family-not all of whom are convinced it is truly alive. In any case, I won't break down the scenes in volume 4 since I don't have enough background with the previous episodes but if I can find them cheap, I'll revise the review in the future.

Picture: The picture was great looking and presented in 1.33: 1 ratio full frame as originally aired.

Sound: The sound was presented in 2.0 stereo with a choice of either Japanese with English subtitles or English. I preferred the English track this time but both were well done (although some of the voice actors were better than others).

Extras: The extras included some interviews with the original designers of the show, a karaoke version of the opening and closing sequence, production sketches and artwork as well as trailers. There was also some collector cards and a paper insert for the show.

Final Thoughts: While the episodes seemed to have more run of the mill clichés than average, it also showed some promise that only an investigation of the earlier three volumes would really show. As such, I'm rating it as a Recommended until I see those volumes but as a stand-alone, I think it's perhaps better as a Rental. There was a lot of action with humor and a running story that appeared to show some character development that was a bit light, but worth checking out.

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