Solty Rei: Volume Two
Hawkeye
Warning this review may contain spoilers! If you haven’t read the review for Solty Rei Volume 1 click here! It’ll give you a better idea of what the series is all about. (I’ll put in a link to the 1st review)
The blast fall took the lives of many several years ago and turned civilization upside down. Things were rebuilt on the surface, but unregistered citizens still live underground. They are treated poorly, they have no medicine, they can’t get hired, and they live without many of the conveniences of modern day living. The police even ignore crimes that happen between unregistered citizens. Underground really is a no man’s land.
Rose, the modern day Robin Hood for the underground, is determined to make Solty become a Thief. After her hide out is raided, she’s decided that there’s no better time than the present to try and persuade Solty, and invites herself to live on Roys apartment with the two of them. However, Roy is not a welcoming host, and Rose has nothing but trouble in keeping her place to live and even more problems with the kind hearted Solty in persuading her to join her band of thieves. This volume’s jam packed with robbing the rich for medical supplies, Rose’s dark past, hints of Roy’s missing daughter and even an exploration of collapsed mall.
The story is still good, though this series has a trend of doing one shots. There’s a bit of a grander plot peeking here and there, with clues to the whereabouts of Roy’s missing daughter, but for the most part it’s all individual stories that don’t really tie in besides consistent characters. I’m hoping that they start getting into a deeper plot soon.
Animation is still as good as the last, with good crisp lines and excellent action scenes. With each volume, I’m more impressed with their ability to portray motion and character interaction with backgrounds. For example, in one of the episodes, Solty is asked to run as fast as she can down the street. Being a super engineered machine, that’s really fast. So, she takes off down the street, and not only do they do an excellent job of showing her super speed, but they also show the street being torn up as she goes and cars being blown over. It was spectacularly done.
The sound was as good as volume one, there were no changes in voice actors or anything like that. The music in this volume was fine, but there was nothing about it that made a real lasting impression, as well as the sound effects, but they were certainly a good quality, just no extraordinary. There really weren’t any extras on this disc, and it looks like that’s going to be a trend for this series considering that the first volume only had one real extra. I’m a little disappointed by not getting and goodies, because I love interviews and commentaries.
This was another great addition to the series, however, it does feel like a bit of filler. Hardcore fans looking for deep plot lines may be turned off by the lack of a greater plot in the series yet. Hopefully people will stick with it, as I have a feeling some great storylines will be introduced in the next couple of volumes.
Entertainment: 7
I’m hoping the next volume starts looking at the larger picture.
Technical: 8
No extras at all, but good sound and excellent animation.
Total: 7.5
DVD Features: Episodes 7-10, English, Japanese with English Subtitles
DVD Extras: Textless Songs, Trailers
