Bruce Von Stiers

The saga of Yushiro Gawa continues in a fourth volume of Gasaraki. This one carries the title of From the Ashes. This animated program comes from ADV Films.

There are three episodes of the saga in this volume. The names of those episodes are Lies, Unravel and Disembark.

This is a DVD volume so there are a few extras that ADV Films has added in. The first is the Language selection. You can have the audio be in Japanese with or without English sub-titles or dubbed in English. The second extra is a short written interview with Katsutoshi Sugai, the Special Effects Production Supervisor for the Gasaraki series. This interview goes on for a few screens and then refers you to the ADV Films web site to read the rest of it. There are Episode Production Sheets, which are line art drawing of vehicles, weapons and characters in Gasaraki. There is a Behind the Scenes look at one of the graphic artists checking out the line drawings from the show. The DVD Credits are listed on a screen as well. And you get to choose a particular scene to watch from the Scene Selection menu. There are five scenes to choose from in each episode.

This program was produced by Bandai Visual in coordination with Emotion. It was produced by Eiji Kamaoka, Kazunari Takagi, Fumikuni Furusawa and Tsunetoshi Koike. The Chief Director was Ryosuke Takahashi. The screenplay was written by Toru Nozaki based on the original story by Hijime Yarate and Ryosuke Takahashi.

The first episode on this disc is Lies. Here we find that there are mechs known as TA’s out in the field, running some sort of test. One of the TA’s starts going a little crazy and attacking the others. What is wrong with the pilot inside the TA?

In the meantime, Yushiro Gawa and Miharu are trying to hide out. Yushiro has discovered that he is a being called a kai. We find out that Miharu is one as well. The two of them are trying to find out what is really going on and why the kai are so important to the military.

The episode becomes a race by the military to both capture the two young people and stop the rogue TA and get to the pilot before he destroys something or is killed. The rogue TA takes on another TA in a battle that doesn’t stop by the end of the episode.

The second episode is Unravel. The two TA’s are still battling it out Yushiro has a meeting with some of the heads of the military faction. He is trying to find out what they are after. The people monitoring the TA fight are desperately trying to do something to stop the rogue TA, Sat4. It is trying to reach the edge of the training grounds.Sat4 must be stopped before it can reach the civilian population.

We find out what set the pilot off and why he’s acting all weird. There is a lot of double dealing going on between a member of the Gawa family and the military. The military folks send Yushiro out in a TA to stop
Sat4.

Disembark is the third episode in this volume. It seems that the data from Sat4 has been transferred to Gawa Industries. What could they want with it? Does it have something to do with the secret deals that members of the Gawa family were working with the military?

There is an intense rivalry between Gawa and Symbol, another conglomerate. Are these two industrial giants starting a war just to enhance their bottom lines?

Gasaraki 4: From the Ashes is nice continuation of the Gasaraki saga. We begin to see more of what is really going on and why the Gasaraki is so important to the Gawa family. We all know that some military entities are corrupt and this show does nothing to dispel that sense.

The animation is well done and you have none of the typical yelling and big eyed faces you will find in an anime production. This one was done with tight scripting and animation more in line with a live action film than an animated production.

You can find Gasaraki 4: From the Ashes as an individual tile or as part of a boxed set. This past Sunday, my local Best Buy store had the 8 episode Gasaraki Box Set for $ 99.95.

For more information about Gasaraki, visit the ADV Films web site. It can be found at www.advfilms.com.