Bruce Von Stiers

The fifth volume of the Gasaraki saga is full of deceit, treachery and mechanical warriors. The title of this volume is Fires of War and is contained on a DVD disc from ADV Films.

This being a DVD, there are a few extras tucked into the creases here and there. First of all there is a written interview with Shujou Murase, who is was a Character Designer for the Gasaraki series. Unfortunately, it is only a partial interview. For the whole interview, you have to go to the ADV Films web site and read it there.

Then there are Production Sketches, which are line drawings and descriptions of characters, equipment and weapons in the series. A Glossary of Terms is also on the disc. The people responsible for bringing this series to a non Japanese audience are listed in the DVD Credits. A Behind the Scenes segment shows people check out the guest characters from episodes 17 through 19. Trailers for Arc the Lad, Legend of Crystania, Gunsmith Cats, Blood Reign and Samurai X are in the Preview area of the DVD.

Your language choices are English and Japanese. You can have the English sub titles turned on or off.
You can also choose which scene to watch with Scene Selection.

This volume has three episodes in it. They make for over an hour’s worth of entertainment. The episodes are Chaos, Rear Window and Wails.

In the first episode, Chaos, there is a gang war going on and a man named Lee is almost killed. Yushiro and Miharu help save Lee and are gladly thanked by a guy called Won. Our two refugees end up throwing in with Won and his friends, who seem to be a bunch of criminals. In the mean time, there are more tests going on with the mechs called TA’s.

Won’s gang and another one are trying to take advantage of the rioting going on among the citizenry. Then someone is hired to seek our Yushiro and Miharu and turn them over. But the agent ends up being Won who owes a dept of gratitude to the hunted.

The second episode is Rear Window. Somehow the Gawa’s and others have learned about the grain futures estimates coming from the U.S. There will be a grain shortage that will affect the global marketplace, specifically Japan. Won hacks into the databases and finds information about the crops.

The Gawa’s use this bad news to get their TA’s out into the population for crowd control and martial law capabilities.

It is in this episode we get some idea of the full vision of members of the Gawa to take over Japan.

The third episode, Wails, finds Yushiri and Miharu on the run again, this time with Won’s help. But their luck runs out on a ship making its way back to Tokyo. The grain restrictions start and there is intense rioting in Japanese streets.

These episodes were directed by Ryosuke Takashi and produced by Eji Kanaoka, Kazunari Takagi, Fumikuni Furusawa and Tsunetashi Kaike. The production companies involved were TV Osaka, Yomiko, Sunshine and Bandai Visual.

If you haven’t watched previous episodes of the Gasaraki saga, you probably get a little lost watching the ones here. But if you already have seen the other episodes, then the storyline is a much needed infusion of the crazy lives of the spiritual Kai, Miharu and Yushiro, and the parts they play in this tale of mysticism and world conquest.

Fires of War doesn’t answer all of the questions, nor does it wrap up the Gasaraki saga. There are two other volumes to come in this series. Watching the show is interesting in that there are some ancient powers at the heart of a current world domination struggle. These ancients are transcending time to be a part of this new struggle.

Gasaraki Volume 6: Fires of War can be purchased as a single unit or as part of the whole eight episode boxed set. This set was recently listed in a Best Buy ad for $ 99.

For more information about this title or others by ADV films, check out their web site. It can be found at www.advfilms.com.