Dual - Trouble Adventure - Artifacts (Vol. 3)
The adventures of nerdy Kazuki Yotsuga and temperamental Mitsuki Sanada in a parallel world continue in three episodes marked by odd shifts in tone. Injured in one of the stagy battles fought against General Rara, Kazuki is found and cared for by his daughter, Mitsuki--the counterpart of the abrasive girl from Earth. She arranges for Kazuki to escape; after he beats her in a high-stakes battle, she defects to the opposing side. Although she was a leader of the enemy forces, Mitsuki Rara moves into the house of the head of the Defense Forces with Kazuki, Mitsuki Sanada, the semicatatonic Dee, and battle instructor Yayoi. Without her, Rara's squadrons repeatedly lose to the Defense Forces, as Kazuki's new Core Robot crushes everything in its path. Rara's steely wife Ayuko, who is really waging the war, takes matters into her own hands, and Kazuki literally goes down in flames at the end of "Repatriate," although mecha pilots are notoriously difficult to kill. Reluctant warriors have become a feature of many mecha series, but Kazuki lacks both the complex motivations of the melancholy Shinji inNeon Genesis Evangelionand the self-deprecating humor of Akito inMartian Successor Nadesico. Rated 13 and up for mild profanity and robot vs. robot violence.--Charles Solomon