The premise of the show was that a meteor crashed into the Earth and deposited a virus; much like in the mainstream hit Species. The virus invades the cells of people and turns them into powerful monsters, an idea explored quite thoroughly years ago in the Devil Lady series, who seem intent on mindlessly destroying everything around them and spreading the virus. To combat the threat of such beasts, the world governments form an organization, C.U.R.E., and it's military arm, N.O.A., develops super soldiers that are treated with Nanotechnology which allows them to form advanced armor and weapons, as well as enhance their abilities (like a great many other shows involving enhanced humans).

The series only lasted four episodes and was originally made for the Internet, with the hopes that the later sales of the home video would finance the show. The show never took off to the point where it became self-sustaining and instead of the planned series, the series was quickly wrapped up. As such, there were two major themes; the science fiction disaster angle and a love interest between the ace NOA fighter, Yuuji Tamiya, and a young gal, Ai, that has the ability to control light under certain circumstances to form the most effective means of combating the monsters when they combine into a large, Godzilla sized monster.

On the first DVD, the episodes introduced the situation and characters and the second details a predicament they face when the virus mutates. The second DVD had the cast fighting off a mutated version of the M34 virus, dubbed M36 (although the booklet listed it as being M35)., which infects even NOA soldiers. Here's a breakdown of the scenes in a bit more depth, some spoilers included:

Episode Three: Notice: The team is given some time off, which was thought of in favorable terms by the crew since they'd been fighting far too many missions lately. Soon, they are fighting each other, the new mutation of the virus becoming evident very quickly, and the military decides that they entire team needs to be suppressed for the safety of all concerned. The new version of the virus, the M36, is far more deadly and quick to infect than the earlier strain and it doesn't look good for the team, or the world.

Episode Four: Presence: Somehow, Yuuji's infection subsides after the rest of the team succumbs to the new strain. Those in charge think that somehow Ai's abilities go beyond the obvious control of the light creature and might be the key to the entire problem. After her transport machine is attacked by a host of super-enhanced monsters with the new virus, can Yuuji alone save her or will CURE just light up the entire area to cleanse the most recent outbreak?

My biggest complaint about the second part of the series was that it looked, more often than not, like the project ran out of financing. I still liked it a bit but the way it all finished up was not exactly convincing to me that my first impression (for the second half of the series) was incorrect. I'm going to rate this one as Rent It but if released with the first DVD, it might be better.

Picture: The picture was presented in 1.85:1 ratio widescreen and looked very crisp and clear. The colors looked good and the mixture of traditional anime and CGI was done with some care, making it look very modern. The DVD transfer itself was well done too and I saw no artifacts or other problems some anime series have.

Sound: The audio was presented with a choice of either a 5.1 Dolby Digital surround English track or the original 2.0 Dolby Digital Japanese track with English subtitles. My preference on this one was for the original Japanese track as the voice acting was superior but the English sound effects and spatiality seemed more advanced. It may well be the case that the modified track did this with audio engineering tricks but the end result was that each track was worth checking out.

Extras: The extras this time were heavy on the interviews, generally a good thing in my book since I enjoy hearing about the thought that goes into making a series. It started off with a 3.5 minute interview by Mitsuyasu Sakai, the science fiction setting director, who explained how the show was based in reality (at least as far as the virus idea was concerned). The next interview was with the 3D director, Yasufumi Soejima, taking a bit over four minutes to tell how the show used a few types of animation to make the different aspects of the show work. The following interview was with the Japanese voice actress, Yukari Tamura, the young gal who played Ai, giving the viewer a couple of minutes worth of discussion regarding her character and personal experiences on the set. The music director, Kenji Kawai, was next, spending a bit over four minutes to describe how he approached the series. The interviews finished up with the director, Seiji Mizushima, taking roughly six and a half minutes to tell how he combined the talents of the entire cast and crew together to make a unique project. There were also the usual trailers, production sketches and credits as well as the double-sided DVD cover but my favorite extra was the book that came inside the DVD case. It continued the roundtable discussion from the first DVD and added in some more information about the science and setting of the show.

Final Thoughts: I'd have preferred ADV put all four episodes on a single DVD but I understand the finances of doing so would make the price prohibitive. Since it's an OVA show, I won't fuss as loudly about the content to price quotient here but I'd have appreciated more extras, perhaps something from the American dubbing team or voice actors would've been cool. The show is better than I had heard from various forums on the Internet but it did rely heavily on stuff we've all seen before. It's rated by ADV as a 13+ show but aside from the blood and gore, it would've been okay for younger kids too.