Search - Texhnolyze - Lies & Despair (Vol. 5) on DVD

The second-last volume is the best yet!

Sean Soderman | Toronto, Ontario, Canada | 01/15/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This, the second-last of the Texhnolyze series, is the best yet! As this series reaches what is undoubtedly to be a tragic ending, the characters and events become infinetely more fascinating! This volume sets alot of things up for the final volume, which I am very eager for. People die in this episode, ideologies are crushed and others take precedence, and great revelations are made.
I like the contrasting philosphies and ideologies in this series. Which I believe is largely what this series is all about. The Rakkan are liberals; Yoshii is an anarchist; the Organo are power mongers; the Union are conservatives; Gabe is spiritualist; and the Class introduces a new, fearful ideology which I won't comment on in case you haven't seen the series. If you are not a member of one of these groups, then you are nothing and essentially do not exert your existence.
If you've been following the series so far, you'll be interested to know that we see the above world for the first time, and it is strange indeed.
If you are looking for an intelligent, adult-oriented anime then look no further. I've been following this series since it began and I can't tell you how much I've fallen in love with it! The animation is vastly superior to many things out there, and the plot is epic, personal, moody, with lots of political and philosophical intrigue. I would rate this as one of the best animes ever! Sincerely, if any of the above interests you then you will like this anime series."

Just want to disagree with Mr. Soderman.

Nonexistant | New York, NY | 02/15/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Erm, looks more like an allegory involving the Japanese underworld.

Organ is obviously Yakuza, Union are the cults that propagate in Japan, Rakan are young punks... Hmmm. Actually I can't quite disagree with you. You do get a theme of duality here. Above lux is the public Japanese world, with blue skies and real government, and corporations(yoshii and the train guy). They seem to be suggesting that above ground is sterile and dying, and below ground is burning with an excessive life force that erupts in blood and carnage.

The characters are all archetypes also, they are not really people but forces. Ichise is Will or Life, Ran is Vision, Doc is Science(which is really great, with the sterile metal scenes and her particular preference for steel over flesh), I can't interpret Onishi, Kimata I think was translated as Charisma Kimata somewhere, and so on."

Oooooh it's getting good.

roderyck | 01/30/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a series that you have to pay attention to follow. It is complex, serious, and doesn't follow traditional Hollywoodish storytelling. That will be the main draw for some (like me) and the drawback for others. If you are used to mindless violence (this is very violent, just not mindless), bubbly humor, or linear easy to see plots, then this isn't probably for you. And the viewers that made it this far know this and accept it.

For this volume itself, the story is getting really, really good. most anime episodes take so long to get through, that i don't really care about the end by the time that i get to it, but this one really just keeps the story building and i wait for the last volume to come out. i can't really say much about what happens in the episodes but that is the whole point of watching.

if you are new to this series, start at volume 1, and look up plot summaries for the episodes online afterward to really get the most out of it. there are alot of things that happened that breezed by me because i thought they were random images for mood, and a lot of things that weren't explained easily.

the only bad things about the dvd are the lack of extras, and that there are only 3 episodes on the disc. 22 episodes fit on 4 dvds easily, and if they feel the need to milk for extra money by spreading them out to 6, then they should at least put some extra goodies in there.

(on a general note about anime)
i'm pretty sure that it costs more because it is an import but i really feel that if anime wasn't so expensive, it'd sell more. i know that i'll never buy 30 volumes of inuyasha (although they did finally release season 1 in an affordable format). the only good thing about buying anime volume by volume, is if it stinks, you are only out $20-30 versus AT LEAST $50 if they released it like american series box sets are released.

so all in all, it's pretty damn good."