Originally published on otakureview.net

NOTE: This review is a continuation of my reviews of this series. If you have not seen any of the volumes or my previous reviews, you risk spoilers by continuing.

Intro

And yet another series is brought to a close.

The Story

Picking up where the series left off, Naoe has taken a job as a bodyguard and personal assistant for a top businessman who is in possession of an ancient mandala which contains vengeful spirits within the hairs woven into it. Takaya is still working on fighting spirits between classes.

When information about a newly reincarnated being is reported in Kyoto, Takaya and Haruie rush to the scene to investigate. Visiting Kyoto brings up some painful memories for Haruie though while two former allies are forced to face each other again and come to terms with their pasts so that they can fight side by side once again.

Good and the Bad

Starting where the series left off, this OVA is told in three 30 minute episodes that take us into new adventures for the heroes that we remember from the series with a few characters playing small roles that amount to less than a minute of screen time which surprised me at first.

Starting with the story, I really found this one hard to follow. Perhaps it was all of the names and six syllable long historic references, but I really had a hard time following the story in this release and constantly I found myself confused trying to remember who was who in this life as well as their former life, plus trying to remember who was fighting for which side so I knew who to be cheering for in the fight scenes.

The one thing about this release in terms of its story that I do give high praise for is the very strong development of Haruie. Haruie received a criminally small amount of screen time in the TV series and so I was really pleased to see that she was getting her own little subplot within this release that revealed more of her past as well as new facets to her current life.

While I’m sure that a certain cross section of anime fans out there will disagree with me but I really found the other aspects of the story to be rather boring, most notably the story between Naoe and Takaya trying to patch up their relationship. The hotel room scene confused me further and I knew at that point that the two of them weren’t going to win me over with this release. As much as I enjoy the dark, brooding Naoe; I just couldn’t get behind him on this release.

Besides that, the writing in this release wasn’t really bad. Even though all of the plot lines were rather confusing, the character interactions were all very believable and the scene at the end which Haruie gets all to herself was one of the best scenes of the entire franchise let alone just this OVA.

The animation managed to stand up well on this release with no real flaws that I could see. There were some scenes where the brightness was a little overwhelming and the constant flashing of lights during some of the battle scenes (the final one in particular) were a little hard on my eyes but it was nothing overly intense and I was still able to tell who each character was.

As I was watching this release, it hadn’t occurred to me but looking back in hindsight I do have to mention that this is a release for the fans. As confusing as the story was for me, I can’t even being to image how confusing this release would be for someone who had absolutely zero knowledge of what the main stories and characters were before hand. With almost no explanation of who people are and why they hate/love each other, I can imagine that more than a few people will find themselves scratching their heads trying to figure things out if they don’t turn it off in frustration first.

Music

It was a little surprising to me to hear music from the TV series being used as background music in the OVA but it took almost no time at all before I was able to detect the faint strings of the TV series ending theme during some of the sadder moments of this release. I thought this was a nice tie in from the series to the OVA and I’m sure that fans of the TV series will get a sense of familiarity from hearing the song being played again.

Dub vs. Sub

I hadn’t bothered to look at the cast list for this release before I hit play and so it was really a nice surprise for me to hear all of the cast members returning to reprise their roles for the OVA.

That being said, I really enjoyed hearing Lex Lang giving his typical arrogant voice for Chiaki and Julie Ann Taylor once again turned in a great performance as Haruhi.

Extras

Besides the standard clean animations, there are three interview clips with Japanese cast members. One is with Show Hayami (Naoe), one is with Seki Toshihiko (Takaya) and the last one is with Show Hayami, Seki Toshihiko and Sakiko Tamagawa (Haruhi).

Overall

Definitely something for the fans. If you were a fan of the TV series, you are going to be all over this release. All of the characters that fans loved from the series (with an extra Bishie or two thrown in) are back. If you weren’t a fan of the TV series or you’re new to the franchise entirely than you are going to be flying completely out of luck. Definitely a take it or leave it release that will be happily viewed by those who already love it and happily ignored by everyone else. For my money though, it was a decent way to close out the series.

Final Grade: 81% - B

Related Reviews

Mirage Of Blaze Vol. 1: The Summoning
Mirage Of Blaze Vol. 2: Ancient Rivals
Mirage Of Blaze Vol. 3: Darkness Descends
Mirage Of Blaze Vol. 4: Tragic Love



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older