Chrono Crusade Volume 3

Review Date: 2005 July 21 11:28

Reviewed by: Azure

Released by: ADV Films UK

Age Rating: 12

Region: 2 - UK

Volume 3 of 7

Length: 100 minutes

Subtitles: English

Audio: English 5.1 Surround
Japanese 2.0 Stereo

Summary

Nun Rosette and demon Chrono share a mysterious bond; together they fight the forces of evil. This usually involves blowing lots of things up, and a bit of fan service (even Rosette’s religious status doesn’t help there). This is all set to the background of 1920’s America. In the third volume it looks like the calm before the storm, as the battle between good and evil is about to heat up.

Review

Volume three of Chrono Crusade is certainly a mixed bag, there’s a two part flash back-story, and a freak-of-the week monster hunting episode and a heat warming feel good Christmas special in for good measure. The flash back story actually provides quite a good jump in point as we learn more about Rosette and Chrono, how they met and came to form the bond alluded to in previous episodes. Particularly touching are the scenes that explain the full implications of the clock that Rosette carries with her. There’s also some genuinely haunting imagery as Rosette and Chrono wander around Rosette’s frozen child hood home. It’s also interesting to see Rosette as a child before she became a nun, and to learn more about her part her motivations and her child hood dreams.

The third episode on the disk though is nothing new, and looks to be part of a breather before the next major plot arc begins. Rosette and Chrono are sent to investigate a hound of the Baskervilles style monster, which has been chasing down and killing members of the Mafia. A few questions are asked this episode whether the monster should be stopped if it’s only killing New York’s villains. With the limited time however the show doesn’t really have time to comment, there are a few really nice action scenes though which serve to keep things interesting.

The Christmas episode is surprisingly touching as this time the past of the super cute Azmaria, as well as her reactions to Christmas are explored. Unsurprisingly there’s lots of sentimental and highly nostalgic Christmas imagery, and a fairly generic plot but I actually came away feeling Christmassy an excellent feat considering this review is being written during July.

The animation remains excellent quality all the way through, as does the music and performances by both dub and sub cast. ADV have done a superb job with the release, which is packed with extras which include a series of shorts narrated by the dub Azmaria about various aspects of the Chrono Crusade world as well as a gallery of production sketches and the usual episode commentary and clean openings/endings.

Rating: 8/10