In the third volume of the series, much like Aura Battler Dunbine 2, the show continued to show some growth of the lead characters as their personal situations changed. That made the volumes less worthy of stand-alone status since missing out on earlier episodes would potentially leave a viewer confused. The show tells the story of a young man, Show Zama, whom forces from another dimension abduct. Apparently, some people on Earth have powerful auras that allow them to make use of a special kind of technology that powers a form of mech-robot. Otherwise, the dimension is medieval in terms of how things work and a major war is about to start, hence the need for additional pilots. As the series progressed, the lead character finds he's working for the wrong side and switches over to fight with the rebellion. This does not, of course, sit well with the people that brought him there to fight for them. Here's a brief breakdown of the 4 episodes included on this third DVD.

Episode Ten: Father And Child: As Drake Luft's forces continue to plow their way through the countryside, taking over all opposing forces at will, they head towards a crucial fiefdom in Mi, at the castle of Kiron. Circumstances put Keen and her noble father on opposing sides and tragedy results because of it.

Episode Eleven: Offense And Defense Of Kiron Castle: King Finigan Hamm welcomes the crew of the Zelana, hoping to combine the strength of the rebellion with his own to circumvent losing control to Luft's advances. As Luft's forces advance, his weapon smith, Shott Weapon, displays a new level of technology in their Aura Battlers, one that may well force the rebellion into abandoning their mission.

Episode Twelve: Garalia's Pursuit: As the Finigan's kingdom falls, he makes Show promise that he'll save the king's family by bringing them to a safe place. Treachery ensues and the crew faces an internal enemy that seeks to gain Luft's favor in return for information that might prove harmful to the rebellion.

Episode Thirteen: Todd's Violent Advance: Todd, a marginal Aura Battler pilot as it is, worries that a new batch of recruits from upper Earth might be better and find himself without a position in a hostile place. In order to gain favor with his masters, he challenges former friend Show to a Aura Battler duel to the death. Show, somewhat less hotheaded, doesn't want to fight but circumstances don't always allow people to do as they please.

The episodes continue to show some progress in terms of character development and complexity but remain mired in the limitations of the concept. It was a guilty pleasure and I found enough to like worth rating it as Recommended but I hope ADV spends some more time on better extras in the later episodes (or include a 5th episode per DVD) if they want to keep the MSRP so high. For such an old show, it wasn't bad on a technical level and I'm glad it wasn't heavily edited like most older shows yet I wonder if the print used for the episodes could've been cleaned up a bit more.

Picture: The picture was presented in 1.33:1 ratio full frame color. There were some scratches on the print but considering it's age, that's not a big problem. I didn't notice any artifacts and some of the colors were washed out at times, but ADV did a good job with what they had to work with.

Sound: The sound was presented in Dolby Digital mono with a choice of either the original Japanese track with English subtitles, an English dub, and the dub with song subtitles. It was a decent audio track for its age.

Extras: There was a paper insert that provided a summary of the story so far. This is a good idea since not everyone buys the volumes in the order they come out (for a number of reasons) and the best way to keep someone interested is if they can identify with the characters and events going on. There were also a number of trailers, a clean opening and closing sequence, and a photogallery included on the dvd.

Final Thoughts: No one's going to mistake this series as a lesson in high art or great military tactics but it was fun to watch and a cut above the usual beat them up, shoot them down, style of military anime show. It was very similar to the original Gundam series and fans of it will certainly appreciate the complexities this series has to offer. Unlike many newer series, or at least Americanized versions of them, people do die in the show which is something more series should recognize (glamorizing war is never a good idea).