Hrm, well, that meandered a bit for the first third or so in presenting us with some back story on our lead. Sure, it helped flesh things out and clarified other parts as well, but in doing so it brought the extra-insane action of the first disc to a full stop (and really, we’re not here for the story with this one). Thankfully things pick up quite a bit with the remainder of the disc as the big bad puts his plan into action, an obvious revelation is made, and our hero must need be reborn before he can take on and defeat the big bad. In the end, the day is saved, the city has a new champion, a path for future villainy is preserved (thanks to a post-credits scene), and most everyone makes it out in one piece (with a couple exceptions).

Surprisingly, the second half seemed to look much better than the first, which was certainly a welcome surprise (though the males still retain extremely effeminate faces to go along with their rather square jaws). Which leads me to taking a quick look at the staff involved and finding a few surprising revelations. Throughout the show, the thought that I should really rewatch Soul Taker (now that I have my own copy) kept popping up, and here I go and discover that the Director, Character Designer, and a couple other key people were involved in both productions. On top of Soul Taker, a number of the staff also had a big part in the design of The Big O, and I can see some bits of design coming from one to the other. Lastly, the chief Script Writer, whose involvement in anime production consists almost entirely of scripting, has one Key Animation credit for Nodame Cantabile, which struck me as being a rather odd switch in roles (or perhaps not, Nodame has an absurd number of Key Animators listed for some reason, possibly something most other titles just don’t show)