ADV Films presents

Power Stone #3: Dangerous Journeys (2001)

"Have I mastered the Power Stones? Nahh...I'm just O.K."- Falcon (Robert Tinkler)

Stars: Robert Tinkler, William Colgate, Stephanie Morgenstern
Other Stars: Robert Smith, Damon D'Oliveira, Maurice Dean Wint
Director: Takamiro Oomori

MPAA Rating: Not Rated for (mild violence)
Run Time: 01h:33m:00s
Release Date: 2002-02-26
Genre: anime

Style Grade	Substance Grade	Image Transfer Grade	Audio Transfer Grade	Extras Grade
B-	C+	A-	B-	D-

 

DVD Review

Power Stone: Volume 3 sees more adventures in store for Falcon as he strives toobtain all of the Power Stones in the world. On the last disc, Falcon learned how to usethe stones to enable him to transform into a super-fighter, thus opening up a new aspect tohis quest. As the disc begins, everyone seems to be off on their own little quests, but thestories eventually merge. Of all the elements here, the one that becomes the mostimportant is a strange vision that Rouge (the fortune teller girl) has in her crystal ball. She's receiving omens that something bad will happen, but she's not sure of how tointerpret such news.As has been one of the major subplots since the very beginning, Falcon is still searchingfor his father. Admittedly, this is starting to get old, but the progression is speeding upnow. Another new character is introduced in this volume; the warrior Gunrock. Likemany of the characters, he is a character taken directly from the original PowerStone video game, although that means very little in the long run here. Wang-Tang(introduced in the last disc) still wants to get even with Falcon by challenging him to aduel. In typical fashion, though, Falcon avoids the issue constantly and Wang-Tang isalways duped into doing something that will delay the duel even longer.The pace of the show speeds up a bit more here, but this also leads to some unusual flaws;primarily the fact that too many storylines are going on without much connecting them. When two plots do actually converge, they do so in a rather hurried and clumsy fashion. This made it a little hard for me to keep track of why Falcon and his friends were oftenseparated, then suddenly back together again. The locations switch quite often as well,with Falcon often winding up in some mysterious locale without much explanation as towhy or when. Still, even with the flaws, Power Stone remains moderatelyentertaining. That may not sound like much of a compliment, but then, for a series withsuch a flimsy relationship to it's theme source, it actually is a compliment.It struck me, as I was watching this volume, that after 14 episodes, very little progressionhas been made in the core storylines. When I watched the first disc, I was disappointedwith how derivative the show seemed when compared to other popular anime, but to behonest, the simple elements of those early elements (despite being really weak) seemed toprogress better. I didn't see it then, but I see it now. As the show does improve overtime, despite improving, the eariler episodes were superior. That sounds like a huge,confusing, self-contradicting statement, and that's what makes Power Stone suchan unusual series because, often, it makes you re-think what's good and bad about it.

Rating for Style: B-
Rating for Substance: C+

 

Image Transfer

	One
Aspect Ratio	1.33:1 - Full Frame
Original Aspect Ratio	yes
Anamorphic	no

Image Transfer Review: As usual, an impressive transfer allows the animation to come across as clean, crisp, anduneffected by compression problems. The source material is a little simplistic (theanimation is a bit below par for most anime shows), but it doesn't create any problems forthe disc, which is rock solid with not a whit of grain or artifacting. Very impressive andallows you to enjoy the show without even the most minor distraction.

Image Transfer Grade: A-
 

Audio Transfer

	Language	Remote Access
DS 2.0	English	yes

Audio Transfer Review: Power Stone uses a basic stereo mix that is perfectly clear and well-produced, butnothing amazing. All the sound information (effects, dialogue etc.) can be easily heardand discerned, even at lower volumes, and when the action gets a little heavier, the mixmanages to be exciting and expansive without any "frills."

Audio Transfer Grade: B- 

Disc Extras

Static menu
Scene Access with 16 cues and remote access
5 Other Trailer(s) featuring Sakura Wars, Dirty Pair Flash,Dai Guard, Gasaraki, Blue Seed, Monster Rancher
Packaging: Scanavo
Picture Disc
1 Disc
1-Sided disc(s)
Layers: single

Extras Review: There are no additional features other than some ADV previews. Presentation is verybasic, but functional. There are decent chapter stops (3 per episode), but no direct menuaccess to them.

Extras Grade: D-
 

Final Comments

Power Stone is getting better, but is still below average. In this third volume,nothing much has happened yet other than obligatory introductions of characters and fillerplotlines. Hopefully, volume 4 will clean this up.

Dan Lopez 2002-04-08