Review for Kurau: Phantom Memory - Volume 3: The Binary Complex

Introduction

Things got a little slow in the previous volume of Kurau Phantom Memory, as what started off as a fast paced, futuristic, sci-fi tech thriller took a rather domestic diversion as the protagonists took jobs as waitresses at a seaside restaurant. Character development is all well and good, but not when it puts the brakes on a plotline. Things look to swing the other way with the third volume of the series, at least according to the blurb on the back of the case. As I said in the previous review, it's easy to give a show a bit of leeway when it looks as good as this one. Once again, I'm reviewing the Region 1 release of the show, as the UK Region 2 release hit a dead end when ADV went down the drain.

In the year 2100, Kurau Amami is a young girl living alone with her father on the moon, where he is an energy researcher. The day of her 12th birthday elicits plenty of sulks and airs as her father has a test scheduled when he should be spending time with her. That's a problem solved when he invites her along on the test, but it's a terrible mistake. For the test goes strangely awry, a bolt of energy is emitted from the apparatus, and it hits Kurau, who is promptly disintegrated… And then she reintegrates in a flash of golden light, only she doesn't come back exactly the same. She's fused with a binary alien life form known as a Rynax, and the joining has gifted her with amazing abilities. But the Rynax is a binary life form, and while half of it lies dormant, Kurau is left to wait. Ten years later, Kurau has put her powers to work as an Agent, working as a mercenary to accomplish the most difficult, challenging and dangerous jobs her clients can offer. But those in power have learned her secret, and soon the ultimate agent becomes the ultimate target, especially when her pair, Christmas finally arrives.


The next four episodes of Kurau Phantom Memory are presented on this ADV disc. Previously, Kurau and Christmas' brief escape came to an end, when the GPO found their island hideaway. Ditching their saviour Doug the Agent, they went on the run again, but the GPO are hot on their trail.

9. The City Where the Angels Disappeared
Kurau and Christmas arrive in California, where no one knows them, and they are quick to adopt new identities to keep it that way. But, their escape will be short lived as they have left an obvious trail. Not only is Doug, the Agent who previously helped them following straight behind them, but also the GPO led by Ayaka Steiger are following the same breadcrumbs. But there is something odd about California, an installation teeming with Rynax that keeps calling to Kurau, and it isn't long before Christmas hears the call as well. It's coming from the ominously named Rynax Energy Plant, and Kurau is determined to sneak in and answer the call. Before she can do that though, the GPO pounce.


10. Sleeping Beauty
Kurau wakes up in a coffin being transported by the GPO in the back of a van. It's an electronically shielded coffin, one designed to contain Rynax energy lifeforms. But once again, the GPO have underestimated Kurau's abilities. But Kurau just has enough ability to escape and fall to Earth. It's down to Doug to find and rescue her as the GPO search for her intensifies. Their escape coincides with a power failure, innocuous on the face of it, but one that has ominous meaning for Kurau and the installation that she wanted to break into. Also, the GPO still have Christmas, and have transported her to the moon. Being away from her pair is intolerable, and Kurau wants to follow and rescue her. Besides, her father Hajime Amami is still working on the moon, and everything points to his research being behind the Rynax energy project, and the GPO pursuit of Kurau and Christmas.

11. The Voice That Calls You.
With Christmas in GPO custody, Kurau arrives on the moon, itching to rescue her. Of course the GPO is anticipating this, and is using Christmas as bait. It's why Doug tells Kurau to wait until he can catch up to them. Which is why Kurau breaks into the GPO installation anyway. Of course she walks straight into a trap, but it's not just Christmas that needs rescuing. But oddly enough, for a man holding all the cards, and holding Kurau and Christmas prisoner, GPO Inspector Wong is surprisingly pleading and conciliatory when he asks Kurau to surrender.


12. Here Right Now
Kurau's father takes her and Christmas to a clinic to hide from the GPO, and hopefully Kurau can find out more about what is going on, and what part her father has to play in the GPO's witch-hunt of people affected by Rynax. The clinic is full of people who have fallen victim to Dr Amami's role in all this, the Rynax energy research that went tragically wrong. Two years previously after another accident, Rynax energy escaped, leaving countless people infected with the energy and crippled, and Kurau's father has been trying to help them, and atone ever since. Yet the GPO insist on hunting those affected by the Rynax energy as criminals, and is even perverting his research into a cure, to create weapons to use against them. Yet not everyone in the clinic is grateful to Dr Amami. Maybe Kurau and Christmas can help. But the GPO haven't stopped hunting for them yet.

Picture

Kurau Phantom Memory gets a 4:3 transfer, which given that it's a region 1 disc, is an NTSC transfer at that. While the limited aspect ratio is disappointing given that grand scale of the story, you can't fault Studio Bones' animation, which is stupendous. The world design is gorgeous, a futuristic vision of humanity that is well-considered and effectively realised, with just the right amount of flying cars, holographic displays, and moving newspapers to make it feel like a lived in future reality. The character designs are very appealing, with a more realistic design ethic than anything too stylised. The animation too is vibrant, fluid and very lively.

Sound

You have a choice between DD 5.1 English and DD 2.0 Japanese. I was perfectly happy as always with the original language track, and the action and excitement was conveyed adequately enough with the stereo. The dialogue is clear throughout, and the subtitles are free of errors and timed accurately. The theme tunes have grown on me more, but still aren't that remarkable. However, the incidental music is a cut above the average, driving the action and emotion well, while having a rather distinctive signature of its own. The surround track is preferable when it comes to audio placement and the action sequences, and what I sampled of the English dub was pleasant enough. As usual you get the translated English subtitles, and a signs only track.

Extras

The DVD autoplays with skippable trailers for the Anime Network and Newtype Magazine, and loads up some menus with understated but effective animation.

On the disc you'll find the clean credits, there is a 4 minute Production Artwork slideshow, a preview for volume 4, and a minute of Japanese DVD Spots.

There is a Key Words glossary that provides a little insight into the world of 2110, and the jargon used in the show.

There are trailers on the disc for Innocent Venus, Madlax, Air TV, Xenosaga, Godannar, and Kaleido Star: New Wings.

But the good stuff once more is in the six-page folded insert that comes in the Amaray case. The Investigation Report - Brief 3 contains interviews with art director Takashi Ichikura, Dr Amami's voice actor Mitsuru Ogata, a couple of pages of original cover art, more of the regular column from Aya Yoshinaga, and little doodles and thoughts from the director Yasuhiro Irie.

Conclusion

The third volume of Kurau Phantom Memory is entertaining, exciting, and continues to spin a very agreeable yarn. And it's another volume that fails to live up to the show's initial promise. If you like good animation, and if you like action and excitement, then this will keep you happily engaged for the better part of 100 minutes. However, in terms of the overall story, it is getting a bit repetitive in style and tone, some of the character development is a little wanting, and there are moments where you wonder if the writers are playing by the rules of the universe they have created. I get a sinking feeling whenever the writing fails to match up to the production values, and it happens on more than one occasion in this volume.


The thing is that Kurau Phantom Memory has slipped into something of a routine, an episodic chase movie with Kurau and Christmas trying to constantly keep ahead of the GPO, and either evading them by a hairsbreadth, or with one of them being captured and then subsequently escaping. Around that we get some character development, and some plot revelations, we learn more about the Rynax and how the various characters fit into the story, but this formula of exposition on the move is something of a constant, especially in this volume. The third episode even sees Kurau trapped on more than one occasion by the GPO, which seems careless at best.


While Kurau and Christmas get the most of the character moments, the same can't be said for the rest of the cast. Kurau's father Dr Amami is little more than a pathetic figure in constant mourning and guilt at this point, Doug feels like a deus ex machina, a little impetus to keep the story ticking over, and more needs to be made of his interactions with Kurau and Christmas. At one point in the volume, where he was exhorting Kurau to pick herself up, I had to skip back to take in the full banality of his dialogue. Similar writing is doled out to Ayaka Steiger, who has been painted as the hardnosed bogeyman of the show, doggedly pursuing Kurau with an utterly irrational hatred of her. It's irrational because while the story took the time out in the previous volume to introduce Ayaka's tragic past, it hasn't yet explained why she hates Kurau and Christmas so passionately, or indeed why the GPO is in such terror of the Ryna-sapiens. It's only around the end of the volume, with the episode set in the clinic, that the balance begin to shift between the apparent persecution of the Ryna-sapiens and the effect that the Rynax experiments have had on people. With the introduction of the afflicted in the clinic, it begins to dawn that there may be a negative, and even malicious side to the Rynax, and maybe the GPO is justified in their reaction to it, if not in the severity of their response.


But too often in this volume, the writing left me scratching my head, whether it be the dialogue or the plot. At the end of the disc, I was rolling my eyes as Kurau escaped yet another GPO trap. The GPO scientists work to a schedule, attaining scientific breakthroughs and implementing upgrades to their anti-Rynax technology at the orders of Ayaka Steiger. Yet with each upgrade applied, the plot requires that Kurau break free anyway, necessitating another step up the ladder of progress by the technicians. If only the real world worked like that.


Kurau Phantom Memory's third volume threatens to establish this sci-fi show as something very pretty but mundane. It's a fun show to watch, with a couple of very engaging central characters, but it needs to shake things up a bit with the plot, get away from the routine, make better use of the other characters, and fill in some of the background blanks as it leaves too many questions unanswered at this point. Fortunately the preview for volume 4 seems to indicate just that. In my review for volume 2, I mentioned that this would be a series that is best appreciated in its entirety. This is like trying to review a novel by just reading the third chapter. This would be the chapter where the detective is going around the mansion, questioning the residents and the help, gathering clues. It's all pretty random. It's only after you know that the butler did it, that you will know whether the journey to that point has been worthwhile.