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R2 DVD Reviews
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Written by maehara
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Monday, 21 January 2008 16:00 |
 Kurau and Christmas settle into the reality of life on the run, and reluctantly have to accept help to keep one step ahead of the GPO – Kurau may have superhuman abilities, but they seem to come at the expense of her common sense. The GPO also have some new Rynax-targetted toys that they seem keen to try out on her
5 - Lost Child
Having taken a beaten from an armour pod and seen two balls of light – possibly Rynax – come out of her body, Kurau hauls herself away from the battle scene before the police arrive & tries to figure out what just happened to her. Back at the flat, she begins dreaming - initially the same dream she used to have before Christmas appeared, but it soon turns different, more threatening, and Kurau begins to worry that she may be on the verge of losing Christmas again. She's also feeling seriously weakened, to the point of near collapse. Christmas does her best to look after her counterpart, but her naivety soon leads her into trouble, and Kurau's forced into action to save her. Meanwhile, on of the Rynax that escaped through Kurau is trying to find its Pair, while Kurau's father seems to have thrown his lot in with the GPO...
6 - Glowing Rain
When Kurau's broker Carradine invites her and Christmas to dinner - something he's never been known to do for anyone - you know he's after something, and sure enough once the meal is over, he asks Kurau to carry out what he claims should be a simple enough job: deliver a briefcase for him. Kurau is happy enough to take on the errand, and sends Christmas on home ahead of her, but on her way Christmas is approached by Doug, who claims to be willing to help them - he'd seen Kurau absorb the other Rynax last episode, and is more than a little curious about what he's discovered. Kurau, meanwhile, is about to discover she's been set up by Carradine - as the test subject for the GPO's latest anti-Rynax device...
7 - A New Life
GPO operative Inspector Wong and his subordinate Ayeka Steiger have a problem: they know there's a Rynax on the lose (Kurau), but with their usual capture techniques seemingly ineffective against her, they need to find out what's different about her - and quickly. Doug, meanwhile, has taken Kurau and Christmas under his wing and given them safe lodgings, but with Kurau aware he was responsible for bugging their first flat, she's more than a little wary about accepting his help - especially when part of the payback involves wearing a maid uniform. The island they're staying on also has its own Battle Pod league, and Kurau soon finds herself being roped into becoming a pilot, while also having to deal with her new boss's temperamental young son...
8 - Another Christmas
Normal life is agreeing with Kurau and Christmas - even if Kurau's developed an awful habit of standing around the restaurant where they're both employed and letting Christmas do all the work. That plan backfires when Christmas accidentally serves alcohol to a Battle Pod pilot - and with him left too drunk to pilot, Kurau has to step in to fill his spot. Meanwhile, Wong and Ayeka are back on their trail, and their brief stint of normal life is about to come to an end...
After watching these episodes, I’m torn about Kurau, as it really doesn’t seem to know what it’s about. Early episodes pointed towards a long search for Kurau’s Pair, and maybe a focus on her exploits as an Agent, but both those ideas are now out of consideration, with Christmas on the scene and the GPO’s pursuit knocking Kurau’s Agent career on the head. We’re now left with a stated desire to track down her father again – but that idea has been pretty much ignored in these episodes – and the girl’s efforts to stay one step ahead of Ayeka and Wong. That’s all very well, and you’d think that with her experience as an Agent and the abilities her Rynax part give her, Kurau would have no problem keeping herself safe – but for some reason, she makes elementary mistakes that keep bringing her to the attention of the authorities. Travelling under her own name, for example, or being a little too quick to unleash her Rynax abilities when it would have perhaps been wiser to keep a low profile, and those failings of judgment make the whole idea a little bit harder to swallow.
I’m also not much of a fan of Christmas, who seems to have “plot device” and “cute fanservice” written all over her – her sole contribution to the story so far has been to be the cue for Kurau to have to go into action, when her naivety lands her in trouble, and to act and speak in ways that make her as cute & appealing to the audience as possible. I like to think I’m above such manipulation – I like the idea of the Rynax pairs, but I’m not seeing anything from Christmas that shows me why the Pair is so necessary, and that leaves me feeling cheated.
This volume also introduces Ayeka and Wong as the villains of the piece, as Wong leads the efforts to catch Kurau, with Ayeka acting as his able assistant. Ayeka in particular is given some decent development, with a look at her past going some way to explain why she’s so driven in her work (although not necessarily why she’s so interested in the Rynax), but their capture efforts aren’t particularly creative and don’t do them any favours.
On the plus side, the visual presentation of the series is good, with lots of detail in the animation that helps keep the attention when the lead characters fail to do so. Doug’s transformation from possible bad guy to someone who wants to help the girls is interesting, especially with one or two facial expressions hinting towards him maybe having an ulterior motive for doing so, while as mentioned Ayeka benefits from having a decent introduction and comes across as someone who’s worth paying attention to, even if her efforts to catch the girls so far haven’t met with much success.
I want to like Kurau, I really do – the initial setup was of a show that was right up my alley, but the way it’s being done is wasting most of the potential that the idea and setting has and ends up being less than the sum of its parts – something I’ve been seeing in a lot of shows lately. It’s still early days for the series, though, and there’s time for it to come around and become something far more interesting. This volume isn’t there yet, and for now Kurau is a try-before-you-buy series.
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