Review of Elemental Gelade: Vol. 6

Introduction

The beauty of a reviewing gig, as I quickly came to appreciate, is that you find yourself presented with an opportunity to tackle material you ordinarily wouldn`t touch. Stuff that would ordinarily require that old purchaser`s punt, taking a gamble on whether you`re wasting your money or not. Despite being an anime buff since the days of my friend and I raiding his older brother`s Manga VHS collection and discovering the then indecipherable delights of `Akira`, I wouldn`t have gambled on `Elemental Gelade` with my cold, hard cash. It`s got that look that you come across while channel-surfing on a Saturday morning and landing on Sky One just before the wrestling. It looks like `Yu-Gi-Oh`. It looks like `Cardcaptors`. And so it should, as it technically belongs to the same sort of genre and, in Japan at least, would be marketed to an audience not too dissimilar to that of the aforementioned `kiddie` shows. But after taking what can only be described as a reviewer`s punt, I quickly discovered there was more to it than that.

And now we come to the end. The final disc houses the final five episodes, and so for the wallet-bursting RRP you`re getting almost two-hours of deliciously vibrant anime action. Volume six, aptly titled `Resolutions`, brings the series to a close, but begins with Cou and Ren hurt badly after their confrontation with Chaos Choir from volume five.

Episodes:

22. The Buried Legend
23. Promise
24. Edel Garden
25. Chaos Choir
26. The Song of the Heavens and Tomorrow

Video

Full-frame 4:3, and you`ll be hard-pressed to find any major technical flaws with the transfer. The show itself is bright and colourful, with some fairly energetic animation and the quaint, semi-cutesy visual style that seems to go down well among the broad-appeal anime fans. There are a few evident artifacts during some fast-motion scenes and a few instances where the visuals notably soften or dull, but you really have to be looking for these to pick them up.

Audio

English dub or native Japanese with subtitles, but disappointingly only in Dolby Digital 2.0; a strange choice for such an action and set-piece orientated show. Still, the tracks are both clear with solid mixing. The voice cast on the Japanese track is notably more mature-sounding and versatile compared to the rather dull and samey Americanised dub, which when combined with the manga-faithful artistic choices in terms of character design, does tend to make it feel like you`re simply watching a Saturday morning `toon for kids, doing the show an injustice in the process. Also worth mentioning is that the score is full of pop-ish tunes if that`s your cup of tea, and the theme tune which opens the show is truly a bubblegum J-pop fan`s wet dream.

Features

The only extras on the disc are a couple of Japanese trailers for the (unreleased in the UK) `Elemental Gelade` video games for PS2 and GBA. However, the PS2 trailer is given a VO by a hilariously in-character and over-excitable Cisqua and is worth watching for that alone.

Conclusion

And so endeth `Elemental Gelade`. It must be two for one on proverbs day, as here comes another one; "you don`t know what you`ve got til it`s gone". Despite being aimed squarely at a market that isn`t prescribed to by this cynical, plot-heavy anime loving twenty-something, I`ve always had a soft spot for the adventures of Ren, Cou and the Arc Aile gang. Its conceit isn`t deep, its plot isn`t clever, but it`s got bundles of charm and some great character interaction. So much so in fact that I hope Father Time gives me the opportunity to revisit it without a notepad and pen in hand, and without a duty to pull apart its virtues from its foibles and critique it. Despite being a typical merchandise-generating shonen anime, it`s created with a touch more class than some of its peers and I`ve found it to be thoroughly enjoyable throughout.

This final batch of episodes does the series its deserved justice with a typically high-energy send-off. The true nature of Chaos Choir was revealed in the penultimate volume, with one or two surprises thrown in for good measure. I still think they`ve been one of the weaker anime antagonists, their behind-the-scenes actus reus having little impact on the path of the characters` journey throughout the series - until of course - they`re forced to confront them. Familiar characters from the beginning of the series show up, reminding us how far the protagonists have come. As a `journey` anime, a loosely applied term to describe a show which attempts to attain a level of epicness, it`s worked fairly well. Continents haven`t shifted and decades haven`t passed, but you do feel as if you`ve been on a journey with the cast, especially if you`ve followed `Elemental Gelade` over a year or so. The art of resolving conflict through battles, something stalwart of the sub-genre, has always been done with something of a `battling-companion` ethos and has never really caught on with me, it probably the weakest link in the chain that makes up the show. Of course, as a final volume, these five episodes have plenty of Edel Raid bonding and climactic battling, but finally with a clearly defined goal in mind that takes the edge off.

And of course, there`s the relationship between Cou and Ren. Occasionally taking its cues from harem anime in its comedy, but perpetually touching to a degree rarely attained by anime of its ilk - showing a deft maturity for relationship development, it`s consistently been the best part of the show. This final volume wraps things up satisfactorily without getting overly sentimental or twee. I`ve said in the past that I`ve enjoyed `Elemental Gelade` despite myself, but in hindsight, that`s doing the show a disservice. It`s not for everyone; its surface value and true-to-the-source visual style alone will be enough to put off many - and maybe rightfully so. But look a little deeper and you`ll find an anime series that`s just as enjoyable for the more mature audience as some of what`s on the TV anime market today aimed at them. And for that, this final volume gets a nice, healthy `8`.