Review of Spiral: Volume 2

Introduction

The second volume of Spiral is upon us, with its odd blend of light comedy and dark mystery. The stakes are raised, as while the investigation into the Blade Children continues, the Blade Children themselves take an active interest in prodigal detective Ayumu Narumi.

Ayumu Narumi`s older brother Kiyotaka vanished two years previously while investigating the mysterious Blade Children. On the second anniversary of his disappearance, the mystery of the Blade Children comes looking for Ayumu, drawing him into a series of strange occurrences. Ayumu, like his brother before him is a prodigy, and he revels in mysteries. Soon the high school student is working at cross-purposes to his sister-in-law Madoka who happens to be a detective in the local police force. Fortunately, Ayumu isn`t alone in his endeavours, as aiding him is the school newspaper`s intrepid and gutsy reporter Hiyono Yuizaki.

This second disc in the series contains 4 episodes.

06. Blind Spot In The Web
Still investigating the death of teacher Mr Imazato, Ayumu learns that the Blade Children share one distinguishing feature; they are all missing the same rib. It narrows down the list of suspects, and Ayumu is ready to set a trap for the killer. The Blade Children know that their secrecy is being threatened, but to stop Ayumu, they`ll target his partner Hiyono instead. Ayumu has anticipated this, and decides to use Hiyono as bait. Now if he can just explain it to Hiyono…

07. The Choice Of The Non-believer
Ayumu`s figured out the identity of the killer, the young girl named Rio. He goes to the hospital to confront her, and walks straight into another mind game, a game in which there can only be one survivor. Meanwhile, Madoka is being cut out of her own investigation into the Blade Children, including the missing persons case concerning her own husband.

08. Day Of The Defeated
Worried about Hiyono, Ayumu is suffering from a sudden lack of confidence. Sister-in-law Madoka is the only one who can help him now. Meanwhile Hiyono is proving a handful for her captors, especially as she is putting her news reporter instincts to work, asking a load of awkward questions.

09. All Things That Are Possible To You
Ayumu turns up for a rematch with Rio, and this time he is the one making the rules. He`s prepared a convoluted race against time to rescue Hiyono and retrieve a vital piece of evidence, but at the last minute, Rio adds an explosive twist of her own.

Video

Spiral gets a typical transfer for anime nowadays. The picture is presented in a 4:3 ratio, it`s clear and sharp and there is little prevalence of NTSC - PAL signs. Only the most frenetic moment during the opening sequence falls prey to compression artefacts, the rest of the animation is pristine.

The animation itself isn`t going to set any new standards. It`s very much a no-frills, budget production, which does what it needs to and little more. The backgrounds are non-descript, there are plenty of primary colours, and on occasion the animation seems just one step above a slideshow. This need not be a problem, as Tenjho Tenge is one such anime that saves its animation calories for where they are most needed. The problem is that Spiral lacks flair, and as such the minimalist animation seems more a product of budget rather than style. The character designs are distinctive and well thought out though, and do much to keep the attention.

Audio

You have a choice between DD 2.0 English and Japanese, as well as a DD 5.1 English mix. As per my usual preference, I went with the original Japanese dialogue. There were no problems to report, the dialogue was clear throughout and the music seems well suited to the story, fun where necessary, and atmospheric and moody at the appropriate moments. I gave half an episode a try in English, and the 5.1 treatment does give added vibrancy and ambience to the effects. I`m not too fond of the dub though, as it`s one where the voice artists overplay the goofy moments.

Volume 1 offered a signs track, a translated subtitle track, and a hard of hearing English track that corresponds to the dub. As so often happens with volume 2s, one of the tracks is left out, usually the dubtitle track. Unfortunately, my suspicions were raised when the first two lines of dialogue weren`t captioned. Spiral Volume 2 only has the dubtitle track and a signs track. The dubtitle captions are timed for the English dialogue, and don`t exactly match the Japanese actors when they speak. While the translation may be looser and more colloquial, the gist of the dialogue still gets across. It`s more annoying than anything else. Given the precedent of Revelation`s other releases, this seems to be a mistake, and hopefully it will be rectified for Volume 3. Another slight mistake in the disc coding is that when changing audio tracks on the fly, my player read the DD 2.0 English track as Japanese, and vice versa. Selecting from the disc menu gives the correct track.

Features

There is a decent selection of extras for an anime disc, and you get the usual jacket picture, multi-angle credit sequences and animated menus to start things off.

On the disc you`ll find the textless credit sequences and trailers for Negima and Fruits Basket. Of more interest is the series prologue, which comes in at just under a minute, and sets the stage for the story.

Most substantial are the Outtakes. Lasting just over 4 minutes, it`s an opportunity to hear several English language actors screw up their lines.

Conclusion

The first volume of Spiral showed a fair bit of promise, with its somewhat haphazard blend of dark and light, enigmatic villains and sinister pasts contrasting with slapstick and zany comedy. That promise was tempered with more than a few flaws. Clichés abound, and realism takes a flying leap. With this second volume, while some things change for the better, a couple of things get worse, and some stay relentlessly unaltered. I can feel my already tenuous interest in the show begin to ebb.

The good thing is that the mystery of the week format takes an early shower, and the Blade Children take centre stage for this volume. We`re getting to the heart of the characters and seeing what makes them tick, and with the earlier episodes just used to establish how much of a boy genius Ayumu us, there is no need to repeat that here. We also get an idea of just how involved with the Blade Children Kiyotaka was, and that portends ominous consequences for his brother. There is a fair bit of character growth, but as it is mostly Ayumu sulking from a lack of self-confidence, it`s hardly engrossing stuff.

What I find most annoying, is actually the heart of the show, the revelling in puzzles. The story is all about the challenges that Ayumu faces, the various quandaries set by the Blade Children. But as Ayumu and his current opponent try to outdo each other in a battle of wits, it heralds a torrent of tedious dialogue as they try to choplogic at each other. It practically halts the pace of the story, and I find myself waiting for something interesting to happen. The puzzles are the whole point of the show, but the protracted verbiage doesn`t do it any favours. Another letdown is that we still know next to nothing about the Blade Children, other than trivialities. We really need to get some idea of who they are, and why they act the way they do. There is obviously some unseen pressure working against them, but as long as there are no clear motives, they just come across as very naughty children.

Things that haven`t changed are the Smallville aspects of the show. These are schoolchildren who will save the world without help from the appropriate authorities come what may, and they make absolutely illogical decisions. There is a point in the second episode that Hiyono actually trumps them all, and gets the evidence that will put a murderer behind bars. It`s an excellent moment in the episode that actually had me cheering the character. The next minute, I was swearing at her. She doesn`t go to the police, she doesn`t do her civic duty, and instead she offers up the evidence in exchange for a puzzle rematch between Ayumu and one of the Blade Children just so that he can get his confidence back.

Spiral is annoying me. The characters are uninspiring but occasionally burst into life, and the story is utterly contrived and unrealistic. I was beginning to find it a little wearisome, but then this disc goes and changes the format by concentrating directly on the villains for these four episodes instead of beating around the bush. Just when I feel a yawn coming on, it manages to enliven me with a bit of quirky comedy, and worst (or best) of all, it goes and makes the next volume essential by ending on a cliff-hanger. In fact it`s the final episode on this disc that revives my flagging interest, as the characters are playing for higher stakes, the challenge that they face is dynamic and fast paced, it almost feels like another show. Spiral may not be the be all and end all of anime in the UK, but it keeps ticking over like a sputtering engine, occasionally bursting into life with a quick press on the accelerator. I`m compelled to give it the benefit of the doubt for another volume.