Phase 11: Malice and Betrayal: Ryu continues to battle his inner demons about the Ex-1 (Frank) and loses his grip to the point where he attempts to finally get revenge for the death of his fiancé. After a battle in the desert, his common sense returns and we find that the base has a spy or at least a leak that is causing problems.

Phase 12: Betrayal and Despair: A huge progressive alien makes it past the space defenses and lands on Earth. It walks towards the base and seems impervious to any and all attacks, including Ex-1's attempts. Dwarfing the Ex-1 and the Mechs, the commander decides to sacrifice the EX-1 by exploding his nuclear bomb "leash" and hopefully end the threat. Nothing goes as planned.

Phase 13: Despair and Hope: As the alien continues to approach the base, a long forgotten weapon is used, a particle accelerator. Frank's efforts, along with Ryu and the rest of the pilots in their Mechs, can't prevent the base from being torn apart.

Phase 14: Hope and Chaos: This episode focused on the political machinations of the government and military in deciding what to do about the continuing threat of the aliens in light of the base's destruction. The commander finds out why being in charge of Funeral is no guarantee of respect from the weak willed politicians and brass.

I liked that the series is showing a more human side of human motivation rather than accept the pilots as one dimensional which is all too often a problem with Japanese anime series. Each has their own personality and agenda, although the primary focus, and character development, lies with Ryu's struggle to regain his humanity against overwhelming odds due, in part, to his past loss at the hands of the EX-1.

On the down side, it seemed like some of the animation was less well drawn this time. Cutting corners happens in series during hard times but it's more noticeable when there are less episodes (there were 4 this time but volumes 1 and 2 had 5 episodes with similar extras) for the same cost. The story is coming along but a few of these episodes appeared to have filler material which furthers my thoughts about the cost cutting. It's still a good series but hopefully will pick the pace back up with the next volume.

Picture: The picture was presented in full frame 1.33:1 ratio color. It looked good, if not the best Bandai has offered lately. The anime style looked less detailed this time although the colors and dvd transfer were solid.

Sound: The sound was presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo with a choice of either English or Japanese with optional English subtitles. It was a very clear Japanese track and the English track was pretty good too. The vocals were particularly clear with a good balance on the music but not a whole lot of separation in the channels.

Extras: They included a tech file which gives some background data on the mechs and such, some Personnel files which show some sketches of crew members, and some trailers. The dvd case had a paper insert detailing a couple of characters and the credits for the series.

Final Thoughts: I'm Recommending this one based on the totality of the package-the production values and story being the biggest factors-but can't give it as high marks as the volume 2 release. My fingers are crossed that the next volume returns to the highly recommended status I wanted to give this one.