The show concerns a group of super powered human fighters from another world, Leafeania, who follow some evil beings to Earth in order to restore order and capture or kill them. The demons they are chasing have the ability to hide until they are very powerful and the team of seven young men and women (several of which are young children) decide it's important that they find a being who can enhance their powers, a "pretear". This being is not known when they arrive on Earth but their survival seems to depend on finding him or her as quickly as possible. The being will have the genetic power to touch one of the team and be absorbed, giving the team member a tremendous boost (each member has their own unique abilities). Here's what the box cover said:

"Sixteen-year-old Himeno Awayuki wants a normal, happy life. But when her nutty father Kaoru marries the wealthy executive Natsue, Himeno finds herself living on an estate the size of a small country and saddled with two stepsisters, Mayune and Mawata, who won't give her the time of day! Little does Himeno know her life will go from bad to worse when the Princess of Disaster escapes from the realm of Leafeania. The dark princess is seeding the land with demon larva and intends to suck all the Leafe - the life force of all beings-from the world! Led by the brooding Hayate, seven Knights of Leafe search for the only person who can stop this catastrophe: the Pretear, a special girl who, when merged with a knight, transforms into an all-powerful defender of life. And the Pretear just happens to be Himeno! But is she up to the challenge? Don't miss the first exciting installment of Pretear!"

The four episodes included:
1: Winds Of Destiny
2: Let Me Haer Your Heart Flutter
3: The Way Of Becoming Pretear
4: A Promise Made Under The Sunlight

The episodes served to establish the basic premise, the main characters, some of the limits of the powers involved and the "rules of engagement", as well as the supporting cast members and situations. While the basic concept, a fighting anime series, has been done to death, this one focuses on a female lead, something that isn't all that common, even though females would be a great market niche to address. There was also some of the romance that series directed towards girls are known for but it wasn't so blatant and obvious as most similar efforts.

Thematically, the basic story of "good versus evil" was the most common but there were tips of the hat to various other moral principles, like loyalty, personal responsibility, and the like were brought in more than once as well. I think the series has some real potential and I enjoyed watching it a few times (it had some decent replay value too) as I checked out the two language tracks. I'm going to rate it as Recommended for anime fans of this type of series, but others might like it too. I've seen better but I've seen much worse lately as well.

Picture: The picture was presented in the industry standard 1.33:1 ratio full frame color. While not exactly top of the line, there was little grain or other problems to interfere with the picture quality. The anime style itself wasn't exactly high budget either but it was better than a number of other releases. I didn't see any major edge enhancement, artifacts, or moiré either for those of you who prefer hearing code words over a solid visual description in layman's terms.

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 optional English subtitles. In terms of music and separation, the dub track was far superior to the original language track but as much as I like some of the voice actors, the original vocals seemed a bit more refined and appropriate. The Japanese track seemed almost in monaural but depending on what you want out of the audio.

Extras: For me, the best extra was a short interview with two of the voice actors, Luci Christian and Illich Guardiola. While they weren't long enough to provide a lot of substance, I always appreciate it when a company provides extra value content on a DVD release. There was also the usual clean opening and closing, trailers, sketches, and a paper insert (which listed very little information).

Final Thoughts: As long as the series doesn't stagnate, I can see where it might rise above the masses of dreck out there on the market. The anime style wasn't the most sophisticated but it handled the subject matter fairly well and that is no small feat thee days. I hope ADV keeps putting four or more episodes on each DVD as well as adds unique extras (which are often the best way to combat piracy) but time will tell if this series keeps me entertained.