The show centers on young Sergeant Sousuke, a man assigned to an anti-terrorist organization, Mithral. Mithral was designed to combat well-funded terrorists that pilot various mech-robots against targets protected by friendly governments. Recently, there has been an advance in the design of such robots and both sides lay claim to the technology behind the advance and use it for their missions. The series has Sousuke on a long term protection mission of a high school girl, Kaname, and this being anime, the two fall for one another (yet won't openly admit to this fact). Apparently, she has a gift (somewhat of a mystery at this point in the series) that relates to the new technology and is considered too precious to go unprotected. As the cast goes on a number of missions, we learn a bit more about them and the near-future technology behind the show. I didn't get volume five in the series so I can't say what took place in relation to this volume but I'll try to put things in perspective when I find a sale.

Episode 19: Engaging Six And Seven:
Sergeant Major Mao, Captain Tesarossa, and Kaname all enjoy a soothing dip in a hot bath (the submarine has one built in) and exchange stories. Mao tells the others how she met Sousuke and Kurz under less than optimal conditions. Kurz was a huge flirt and Sousuke was discovered as a potential ace pilot. Keeping in mind this was long before the two were competent, they volunteered for a suicide mission of sorts.

Episode 20: Venom's Flame:
Gauron's forces, including their most powerful AS, Venom, and a group of production model AS's, Shadows, attack a chemical base on Berildaobu Island. Sousuke and the team have to protect the base and defeat the enemy but can they do it with the limited resources at hand? Making matters worse, things get personal when Sousuke has his long awaited chance to capture Gauron.

Episode 21: Deep Trap:
Gauron convinces some members of Mithril to join him and sets out to escape. Once out, Gauron attempts to take over the submarine while the team attempt to recapture him. In a desperate battle between the sides, can either win when the slightest miscalculation could cause them all to drown? Kaname sees too much and becomes the object of a deadly pursuit.

I'm glad that this volume started off with a stand-alone episode since missing volumes makes reviewing the series fairly difficult. I wish there had been better extras or another full episode but apparently the cost factor per episode makes ADV feel obligated to do this. I still think they could have some kind of interviews with the English voice cast since they use the same voices all the time or maybe put some of the Manga series on a text style feature for our viewing pleasure but the show was definitely fun enough to enjoy if you have the money. I'm going to rate this DVD as Recommended, even with my concerns, since it was well written and appealed to me on several levels.

Picture: The picture was presented in 1.33:1 ratio full screen, as expected with a modern day television released anime. It looked clear and crisp with a solid DVD transfer to enjoy. The colors were somewhat clearer than I remembered volume four being, perhaps due to the settings. The images were crisp in most cases and I saw no compression artifacts while watching the DVD.

Sound: The audio was presented in a few choices: English 5.1 or 2.0 (with optional song subtitles) or the original Japanese stereo track with English subtitles. Like the picture, the sound was exceptionally clear and well planned but I preferred the original language track. There was some dynamic range to the vocals and music but most of the time, the center speaker was where the audio action was at.

Extras: The extras were pretty solid here. The DVD cover is double sided with the inside containing background data on the episodes. The paper insert had some great attention to detail and provided background on a number of the cast, their weapons, and props. There was the usual clean opening and closing, a bunch of trailers, some cute Japanese copyright warnings (English ones over the FBI warning at the beginning too) and some production sketches. The DVD case was clear plastic and solidly built and the DVD menus were great.

Final Thoughts: I liked this one as much as Volume Four, but I strongly recommend you watch the series in order so that you're not left clueless about what takes place previously as it relates to the series. As the enemy grows stronger, Mithril gets more desperate to win the fight, meaning the next, and final, volume will sum it all up.