The show centers on a young male, Jiro, who has amnesia and wanders around the countryside with a guitar strapped to his back. Remarkably strong, the guy is discovered to be a highly evolved form of android that was made by a scientist who's daughter becomes his sole friend (when the scientist dies in what was initially thought to be an accident). It quickly becomes evident that evil forces are at work and even the girl, Mitsuko, isn't sure if the android is trustworthy or not. It appears he has a specialized computer circuit, the Gemini, which makes young Jiro act in a law-abiding manner. If the circuit is broken or becomes defective, there's no fixing it and the android must be destroyed.

As the series progressed, Jiro fought a seemingly never-ending bunch of androids, with the evil Professor Gill directing their actions. The series ended with Volume 4, where both Kikaider and his enemy appearing to die, so many people might've wondered how did this separate set of episodes come about. I've heard a few stories in regard to that but none of it confirmed so I'll just let you figure it out for yourself.

In this spin-off, Android Kikaider 01: Another Journey, young Jiro is accompanied by a gal, Rieko, and a little boy, Akira. They are being chased as the show opens up and little by way of explanation is provided as a roller coaster ride of fighting and destruction take place. It soon becomes evident that Jiro is fighting Professor Gill's minions, who seemed hell bent on capturing Rieko and Akira. As they seek to elude the forces of evil, they encounter Jiro's brothers, earlier models of his own model, Ichiro and Rei, both of whom want to stop Gill too. When Gill seeks to use his brothers against him, Jiro finds a way to fight back but ultimately wonders why the mad scientist is so intent on capturing Rieko and Akira, as well as what scheme he has for dominating the world he has this time. He knows it must be something more complicated than the boy's parental lineage.

One of the points a few fans had about the previous four DVD's centered on was how they were bogged down by lots of exposition. This has been settled at this point in the series and the thrust is now to keep the fighting up at all costs. Fans who enjoyed that aspect of the show will appreciate the way the four episodes here rarely let up on the action, although those who enjoy the subtleties of character development will feel short changed. Apparently, there were still a few secrets that the series didn't reveal so the end result is a faster paced show this time. As far as I know though, this is it and no more episodes are forthcoming. I'm going to give this one a rating of Rent It unless you're a fan of the original four DVD release, which will make this one a solid choice for your hard-earned dollars.

Picture: The picture was presented in it's original 1.33:1 ratio full frame color. For the most part, the limited anime style, called "retro" by some fans, was clear this time with few major problems. There were a few moments of color bleeding and grain but not like in the first volume.

Sound: The sound was presented with a choice of either 2.0 Dolby Digital stereo English or Japanese, and optional English subtitles. The Japanese track was the better of the two but neither was especially well developed. Most of the vocals came from the center channel with some of the explosions coming out of the side speakers.

Extras: The extras consisted of a fold out paper insert poster, a few rough sketches of the artwork and a few trailers.

Final Thoughts: If you've seen Android Kikaider 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, and Volume 4, you'll definitely want to pick this one up as well. It had a lot of action and the style was very much like those that came before it. Its stand-alone value might be somewhat lacking if you haven't watched those others but it still had a lot to offer.