The Heian arc of this series is one of the best I've seen. If only it had been produced in the era of widescreen HD. Maybe one day we'll see a feature version, a la Evangelion, but in the meantime this is the anime series to see. It really looks great and has a powerful story and memorable characters. I didn't like the modern era portion as well, but it's interesting to see how the two sets of characters are paralleled. I give the Heian arc five stars and the Tokyo arc three.BTW, this set DOES include 12 discs as stated in the Amazon description. Half the discs have extras, including somewhat academic discussions of the material. I found them interesting and well worth watching.