s-CRY-ed

Publisher
Beez
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
26 episodes
Year
2001

s-CRY-ed Volume 4

By Joseph (Joe) Wood
2nd Nov 05

s-CRY-ed volume three was a rather disappointing instalment of what has been an extremely enjoyable series.

The story focused on two young men Kazuma and Ryûhô who are both Alter users. Kazuma just wants to protect his way of life, where Ryûhô wants everyone to live in the same “stable” society as him. The previous volumes ran this story home offering us the views of both the main characters, as well as several others, a form of storytelling used in many other series (such as Gundam). You could very easily expect that this conflict would continue until the last volumes of the series, but then things might get a little dull. Volume four turns the story on its head.

With an extra episode to make five (rather than the usual four), volume four is the longest volume in terms of episodes yet. Episode thirteen “The Lost Ground”, Ryûhô and Kazuma go up against each other again, but this time Kazuma has his improved Alter. When both use their full powers, however something unexpected happens and they are both transported to the “Other Side”. Episode fourteen is set a staggering eight months later. Kanami is working under the rule of an “invincible” Alter user, wondering why she has stopped having her dreams. When Ryûhô appears on the scene, with no memory, he is sickened by the treatment he sees, and after defeating the Alter user he offers to protect the village, though only Kanami knows he’s an Alter user. Meanwhile the mysterious Mujo appears at HOLY HQ. Episode fifteen sees Mimori and Tachibana find Kazuma, who has seemingly lost his spirit and is fighting in illegal underground Alter fights. Also, HOLD find the enclave where Ryûhô now lives, when he won’t leave peacefully they have no choice but to leave. Episode sixteen sees the return of Unkei and his “Mad Sprict” power (which I thought was going to be a one time one trick pony) as they try to get him to return to HOLY, but when he finds out he was tricked he attacks the HOLY members that were his friends. This leads to the village finding out Ryûhô is an Alter user and they ask him to leave, but Ryûhô says he will still watch over them as he promised to protect them. Kazuma having left the underground battle’s behind runs into Ayase Terada (one of the Alters who were taken to the mainland about ten episodes ago). Having under gone several, experiments to improve her Alter powers she must fight Kazuma in order to make sure her younger brother can keep receiving medical treatment, however it is abundantly clear she does not wish to fight her former friend.

The change in plot was a not entirely unexpected one but a welcome one nonetheless. It does bring up far more questions than answers in this volume; we still aren’t told what the true objective of HOLY is, despite Mimori having found out several episodes ago. It was annoying in the last volume when the subject was brought up several times but never answered, yet in this volume it’s brought up once and then totally forgotten about it.

Either way this is a better volume than volume three, yet it feels rushed and confused. Some of the new characters just seem to appear from nowhere and it’s not explained what happened during the missing eight months in the story. Hopefully s-CRY-ed will present us with some answers soon.

Still with the extra episode and all the extras on the disc (see further down for details) s-CRY-ed volume, four is certainly going to please fans of the series. The series still has a lot of potential to live up to in its last two volumes, if it wants to become a fan favourite. However, with everything seen so far I don’t think we’ll be in for a disappointing conclusion.

R2 DVD Notes

Features: English/French/Japanese Audio, English/French/Netherlands Subtitles, Beez Trailers, Beez Catelouge (leaflet, Art Gallery/Audio Drama, Charcter Profiles, Transaltion notes, Audio comics, clean opening titles for episodes 13-17.

Release information: Publisher: BEEZ Classification: PG Released: September 26th 2005 Running time: 130 min

Notes: Again this DVD contains a great deal off extras, translation notes and charcter profiles are ok, but the things that stand out are the audio drama/art gallery and the audio comics. The only problem with the audio comics however is they are likely to spolie the manga, and could possibly spoil the series its self.

-- Joseph (Joe) Wood 2nd Nov 05