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R2 DVD Reviews
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Written by maehara
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Thursday, 18 October 2007 17:00 |
 Cou’s journey with Ren and the gang from Arc Aile continues, and to be honest this time around they’re surprisingly enjoyable. Of course, when you go into a disc expecting to be bored witless, anything enjoyable is a welcome surprise...
6 - Eyeing the Pleasure
Cisqua's making sure that Cou's taking his responsibility to Ren seriously, starting with some heavy-duty training to make sure he's in good fighting shape - although when the training leaves him a physical wreck, you have to wonder if it's being just a little bit counter-productive. One thing Cisqua's able to tell, though, is that Cou's use of Ren's power - uncontrolled and uncaring, although not intentionally - is leaving Ren drained. Time for him to learn a little control - and so he turns to Rowen, who had to learn the same sort of control with Kuea, for advice. When an unexpected rival later appears to challenge him (thanks to a little scheming on Cisqua's part), Cou gets a chance to put what he's learnt into practice - except his hew opponents are a little more enthusiastic than Cisqua had counted on...
7 - Determination
Someone's busy raiding sky pirate groups, searching for Kou - a man named Grayarts, who along with his Edel Raid Cocovet is a formidable fighter. And not of the "truth and justice!" type, either. When one of the ships visited by Grayarts crash-lands near Cou and the others (with the crew either missing or dead), it's a mystery for Cou to solve - and a convenient piece of salvage that the gang can use, once they've repaired the crash damage. But their search for spare parts soon brings them to Grayarts' attention...
8 - The Edel Hunter
After repairing their airsip - again - Cou and co move on, eventually stopping to resupply in a small town where Cisqua, Rowen and Kuea head off to do the shopping, leaving Cou and Ren to look after the ship. At the landing field, they meet a young girl named Selena - an Edel Raid. Cou's able to strike up something of a friendship with her - but once Cisqua returns and Selena realises she's from Arc Aile, she tries to run. Selena is meant to be under Arc Aile's protection - but having been unhappy there, she's struck out on her own and learnt that, at least from her point of view, not everything she'd been taught there about how humans would treat Edel Raids was true. Meanwhile, another hunter manages to track down Cou...
9 - The Secret of Razfe Ankle
Back on foot again after Wolx destroyed their airship, the gang arrive at the port town of Razfe Ankle - although with no money left (it was all on the ship), finding food and lodgings is going to be a problem. Ren and Cou are sent ahead by Cisqua to scout out the town & see if they can earn some cash - and once they're gone, the others are approached by a rather hostile group and ordered to stay away from the town. Figuring out that the town has a secret they'd rather Arc Aile didn't find out about, Cisqua's curiosity is well and truly piqued. In the town, meanwhile, Ren meets a young girl, Lillia - another Edel Raid, with a very over-protective sister...
I wasn’t overly complimentary about Elemental Gelade last time I wrote about it – “mediocre, in idea, presentation and characterisations” was the phrase, and so I wasn’t in any particular hurry to put this volume into the DVD player. Despite that, and very much against my better judgement, I found myself almost enjoying the show this time around – although the key word there is “almost”. There are a few aspects thrown into the story on this volume that almost give you reason to think that there’s the possibility for the series to go in surprising directions later on, and seeing those possibilities and how they’re maybe being set up now brings another angle to the show that did help me enjoy it a little more.
“What aspects are those, then?”, I hear you ask. Well, first up there’s some exploration of whether Arc Aile’s Edel Raid Complete Protection Agency is really acting in the best interests of the people they’re meant to be protecting. Cisqua’s initially convinced that it is, but when Edel Hunter Wolx has a few words with her about how they’re really not that different, you can almost see the gears beginning to grind in her head. Selena’s story of her experience in Arc Aile before she went on the run backs that idea up – it’s an intriguing line that could take the story away from the strictly kid-friendly fare that we’ve been mostly getting so far, but I’m still a bit dubious about how likely the series is to get into that sort of territory. Time will tell.
Also worthwhile is the running plot around Cou’s efforts to learn how to control the amount of power he’s taking from Ren, helped by a handy device of Rowen’s that inflicts an electric shock on the user – and his Edel Raid – should they overstep their limits. The idea there is that Cou’s more likely to learn control if he realises that using Ren’s power with abandon will hurt her too, and as well as being another piece of the puzzle in their relationship with each other, it helps him to grow a bit as a character.
Only a bit, though, as it’s still the characters that are Elemental Gelade’s weakest aspect. Ren remains two-dimensional – a few kind words to Cou here and there, but otherwise she’s just a fighting tool. Likewise Rowen and Kuea, although they at least add a little comedy to the mix as well. If it weren’t for Cisqua, I’d be thoroughly depressed at the lack of decent characters on show. That said, there are some interesting flashback scenes dotted throughout the disc that are beginning to fill in some backstory for Rowen and Kuea, so again there’s some hope that they’ll soon get to the point where you can think of them as people rather than pawns. We’re not there yet, though.
Little flashes aside, though, for the most part the episodes are as formulaic as they were on volume one – nothing too spectacular, nothing too daring, nothing too far out of the niche that the show has carved for itself. There’s nothing objectionable here, but nothing that cries out “watch me!” either.
Elemental Gelade carries on as it started with another 4 episodes that won’t upset or annoy but won’t leave you inspired either. There are a few little nuggets of promise buried deep within the story that I genuinely hope get properly exploited later, but for now the middle-of-the-road mediocrity continues. Enjoyable enough as far as it goes, but sadly it doesn’t go nearly far enough to be worth recommending.
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