s-CRY-ed

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

s-CRY-ed Volume 6

By Joseph (Joe) Wood
17th Feb 06

So after five volumes of action, thrills, comedy and drama s-Cry-ed comes to an end. Unfortunately the final volume is a bit hit and miss.

Episode twenty-three sees our heroes fight it out against Kyoji Mujo’s forces in order to rescue Kanami and stop Mujo’s plans. However every one of them has to over come a difficult trial both physically and emotionally, this is especially true of Ryûhô who goes up against the mysterious alter that killed his mother. Episode twenty-four is the final battle between our heroes and Mujo, safe to say the good guys come through in the end but the cost of victory might be too expensive for some. Episode twenty-five sees the Lost Land changing and as the main land try to control it Kazuma and Ryûhô stand up to this new threat. Knowing that the future holds a great deal of effort from our two main heroes in order to protect the Lost Land and those in it, Kazuma and Ryûhô chose to walk different paths. Before they can do that they must find out for themselves which one is the strongest.

If s-Cry-ed had ended at episode twenty-four with the defeat of Mujo, this would have been a far better ending than what was ultimately presented. Course s-Cry-ed’s show has revolved around the rivalry between Kazuma and Ryûhô and it’s understandable to see why the program makers decide to end on this. Yet the last two episodes are riddled with problems, in episode twenty-five were are shown a council of figures from the main land discussing the Lost Land, yet this leaves the idea in the mind that there is more to come, which towards the end of a series isn’t necessary.

As for the final fight between Kazuma and Ryûhô it doesn’t feel the same as the previous battles. Neither is it the most impressive fight sequence of the series. At one point Kazuma and Ryûhô exchange blows without their Alters and this two-minute segment is quite disturbing, there seems to be more blood in this small sequence than there has been in the entire series up to this point. I’m not certain wither I’d want to show this sequence to a young kid, yet pretty the rest of the series has been child friendly.

Course that’s not to say that episodes twenty-three and four are without their own problems

Still despite these problems in the last two episodes the final four episodes are bound to tug on a number of emotional heartstrings. s-Cry-ed certainly doesn’t try to hold back the punches in the final volume.

As a whole the series is enjoyable but will be obscured by other more hyped/popular series.

R2 DVD Notes

Features: Clean Openings, Cast Interviews, Trailers

Release information: Publisher: Beez Released: February 27th 2006 Classification: 12 Running Time: 100mins

Notes: The clean openings have been featured on pretty much all the s-CRY-ed dvds so far. The Cast interviews are pretty intresting however.

-- Joseph (Joe) Wood 17th Feb 06