Episode 15: Fated Guys/The Binding Spell Of Crimson:
As the team sits out a rainstorm, Gojyo recalls a night three years prior where he met Hakkai on a deserted trail. The story split off and showed Sanzo with Goku at a local temple as well. Needless to say, this was where the foursome met each other and it provided some insight as to their current relationship.

Episode 16: Be There/An Ode To The Living:
In part two of the previous episode, the three tried to track down Hakkai after he ran away from them. His past catches up to him in the form of the brother of one of his victims, and more details were unearthed about the team.

Episode 17: Eden/Eternal Paradise:
As they continue westward, the team runs across a female demon that requests passage to a small town in a hidden valley. Upon arriving there, they find a dark mist has swallowed up the town and all but Sanzo are turned to stone. Is Sanzo the chosen one, or are they all done for? In a side plot, some of Lady Koushu's administrative team frets over the team's arrival in the town.

Episode 18: Vice Or Justice/The Truth Of Justice:
Yaone is captured by a band of bounty hunters and the only way to free her is for Hakkai to fight an old friend. Past loyalties compete with current circumstances and eventually, a larger demon comes into play.

Much as in Volume 3, the show continues to unfold a variety of secrets from the character's pasts which added to the fullness of their personalities. If the series shows more development in this regard, I'll be rating it as higher than Recommended in future reviews. The combination of updated Chinese mythology, twisted anti-hero characters with dark pasts, and high-end technical values, made this a solid choice to check out.

Picture: The picture was presented in 1.33:1 ratio full frame color. For the most part, it was well done and I didn't see any compression artifacts or other problems with the picture.

Sound: The sound was presented in either a 5.1 English language Dolby Digital track or the original 2.0 Japanese track with English subtitles. During the dialogue, the separation wasn't all that great but during the fight scenes it was better. In all, I liked the Japanese track better but the English dub was also enjoyable for me.

Extras: The best extra was the background notes that filled in a lot of the cultural information for the series. Considering how limited my knowledge of Chinese mythology is, this made a number of aspects much clearer than they would've been. The other extras were trailers, sketches, a clean open and closing sequence, and a pretty color poster as an insert, which had a character quiz on one side

Final Thoughts: The show is definitely an acquired taste and I'm hoping it lives up to the promise it has shown so far. As a stand alone dvd, it would be a bit tough to follow so I suggest watching the series in order to get the most out of it. The cultural notes are recommended viewing too since they provide enough background to understand what's going on. For those who don't mind the mixing of genres and time periods, this will likely be something to provide many hours of heated discussion among fans since it leaves a lot open to interpretation so often.