Episode 13: The Fugue Of The Female Warrior:
The team, while treasure hunting, find themselves in the middle of an impending battle. The woods are full of hostile forces and Genie, being the most capable warrior of the bunch, volunteers to stay back and buy her friends some time. Louie, being the egocentric guy that he is, attempts to take her place. We find that long ago, Genie was in a similar situation and her under-trained male associate at the time died doing the same. Her guilt has stayed with her for all these years and is a big reason why she rides Louie so hard. The two fight it out in an effort to establish their roles.

Episode 14: Flower Vender & Flower Bride:
In a case of mistaken identity, Merrill is thought to be someone else by a wealthy man, William Wilder. He takes her to his place and offers to marry her. She finds that her greed over his tremendous fortune overwhelms her senses and that the only catch is she needs to learn social graces. The rest of the team decides to investigate and find the real woman the Prince is looking for, in order to save Merrill from herself.

Episode 15: Vacation By The Lake:
After a failed adventure, the team decides to kick back and relax for a while by a pleasant lake. Louie takes the opportunity to go fishing and soon the crew discovers that there's a "Guardian of the Lake" that is scaring off the fish and hurting people. The team decides to help out when the problem may be tied to a previous adventure of theirs (Volume 3) and they compete with an old fisherman to stop the creature.

Episode 16: The Conspiracy Of The Darkness:
While on yet another adventure to find fame and fortune, the team runs into Isabel's team who had similar plans for the same ruins. Both teams find that cooperation works better than competition when they stumble onto a plot to use the old magic's, thought to be lost eons ago, to manufacture a horde of monsters. Fighting for their lives, it becomes clear that evil plots to overthrow the kingdom are afoot, ones that will almost certainly take the forefront in later episodes.

There was a lot to like here. Plenty of the episodes were completely self-contained and the story continued to progress with suitable character development that kept my interest peaked. The humor might've been over the top at times but the overall feel has led me to think of the series, and this dvd in particular, as one worth being Highly Recommended. I especially liked the ending of the final episode, which suggests that the big picture concerns are going to come to a head before long.

Picture: The picture was presented in 1.33:1 full frame. The colors were very bright and the picture sharp and clear. There were no compression artifacts and it looked great.

Sound: The audio was presented in English Dolby Digital 5.1 or 2.0 Japanese with English subtitles. Both sounded crisp and clear. I actually preferred the English dub here but the original track had a lot to like as well. I'm as much a subtitle snob as the next guy but aside from the "coolness" factor, if the dub is well handled, I have no problem admitting it.

Extras: trailers, double sided dvd cover, paper insert with episode descriptions and art work, a couple of postcards and some temporary tattoos

Final Thoughts: When I first watched this series, I thought of it as a guilty pleasure that I really didn't want to admit to liking (to immediate friends anyway). It would be easy to dismiss it as a generic fantasy comedy with all the stereotypes present but it really works for me on a couple of levels. The humor was cute, the anime style a bit limited but cleanly handled, and the script/acting solid. The fact that it allows me to laugh so easily has helped convert a few friends who sat in on a few episodes with me, most of whom thought such shows were "too stuffy". That's as good a recommendation as you'll find from adults so imagine what a younger crowd would get out of it.