Well, this was the end of the series, containing episodes twenty-two through twenty-five, and started off on a dire note with the enemy attacking the troupe at their headquarters, effectively neutralizing the team, at least initially. As some of the team appears to be missing, Sakura herself even hesitates to join in on the final defense plan as Satan and the horde of demon attack the city. Will the team be able to organize and fight them off or will they fall back to plan B, a plan that entails destroying the city by means of a super weapon, the Shogei-Maru. Will the citizens rally around the team, giving them the strength to continue fighting or will all be lost? That's what's in store in the last four episodes of the series.

Okay, the series ends on a pretty solid note with many, though not all, of the threads tied up reasonably well. While the episodes here required less background information (compared to the earlier DVD's at least), you'd still do well to watch the series in order since so much goes on that the premise can easily get lost by skipping volumes (as I have had to do). I'm going to give this one a rating of Rent It since I didn't get to see the previous volume. I'd advise you to check out the first volume in the series and then act accordingly depending on how much you like it.

Picture: The picture was presented in 1.33:1 ratio full frame as originally released in Japan. The colors were bright and accurate but there were some grain and motion artifacts to be seen. There were other minor issues that were distractive but infrequent and the transfer was pretty good.

Sound: The sound was presented with a choice of the original 2.0 Dolby Digital stereo Japanese track with English subtitles or a remastered 5.1 Dolby Digital English track. The English track made better use of the capabilities of stereo, particularly on the sound effects and music score, but both tracks were solid (I listened to a couple episodes of each, finding no major issues with either) with a slight nod going to the original Japanese audio track.

Extras: The best extra was the paper insert that detailed the weapons such as the Shogei-Maru, and a few of the characters. It was in red and white (as opposed to black and white) and also outlined some of the characters of these episodes. The other extras were the clean opening and closing, trailers and a second paper insert that lists a few of the related products in the Sakura Wars franchise by ADV.

Final Thoughts: The series has been a bit spotty for me in recent months but much of the problem lies with only getting a few volumes in the series to review. This was the strongest release in terms of traditional fighting, mech-style, anime but too much of the story relied on knowledge of what went on before and that lowered the rating for me. In all, it looked worth checking out but I'll reserve my judgment until I can watch the whole series at once.