a whole world of anime

Chrono Crusade #3: The World, the Flesh and the Devil PDF Print E-mail
User Rating: / 0
R1 DVD Reviews
Tuesday, 21 February 2006 00:00
Chrono Crusade - Volume Three (Cover Art)Chrono Crusade skips back to the past to explain some more of the history of Chrono & Joshua's turn to Aion's side, before coming back to the present for the obligatory Christmas episode and another excuse for Rosette to let rip with the heavy firepower.  All the bases are covered, but one side of the show is definitely better than the other...

9 - Joshua
Aion's been keeping a low profile since his Central Park appearance, but the demons in the city are beginning to grow bolder, sensing that the time of his return is drawing nearer.  Meanwhile, Rosette and Chrono return to the site of Aion's last appearance - four years previously, at the Seventh Bell Orphanage where Rosette and Joshua grew up.  On the day that Remington came to the orphanage to arrange Joshua's to the Magdalene Order (having spotted that he was an Apostle), Aion intervened, and the rest is history...

Chrono Crusade - Just as mean when she was youngerChrono Crusade - Joshua agrees to go with Remington

10 - Horn
Aion appears before Chrono and Rosette, and tries to persuade Chrono to join him again - if he'll agree, he'll return his horns, the source of his power.  Tempting, but the time he's spent in the human world with Rosette has taught him there are more important things in life.  Not that Aion was making a serious offer anyway - he has a better plan for making use of Chrono's horns.  Giving them to a human with the power of an Apostle, perhaps - someone like Joshua.  By the time Rosette and Chrono reach Joshua, it's too late - he's already accepted Aion's "gift", and his powers have been unleashed...

Chrono Crusade - Chrono's original formChrono Crusade - Joshua turns to the darkside

11 - Gabriel Hound / Beast
Two Mafia families have been erased in recent days - eyewitness accounts are sketchy, but they all agree that the culprit was a dog-like creature with glowing blue eyes.  The police have turned to the Magdalene Order for help - they're able to determine that the "dog" is an Astral form, summoned by a young woman seeking revenge against the Mafia - and the more people it kills, the stronger it will become.  While Rosette is assigned to deal with the problem, Satella's been hired as bodyguard by the head of one of the families being targetted.  With both Satella and Rosette working for the same goal, you just know mayhem is going to ensue...

Chrono Crusade - Victim of the beastChrono Crusade - Nun with gun & Harley...

12 - Holy Night
Three of the Order's investigators have gone missing in San Francisco, and since they were all investigating Aion he's the prime suspect in their disappearance.  It's another job for Rosette, Chrono and Azmaria - but while Rosette's keen to get on the road as soon as possible (any lead on Aion is a lead on Joshua, after all), Remington persuades her to at least stay for Christmas.  It's just a few days away, after all, and Azmaria's meant to be playing Mary in the convent's Nativity play.  While Christmas is meant to be a joyful time of year, for Azmaria it's a time of bad memories, but this year she's determined to make to best of it...

Chrono Crusade - Ready to go after Joshua...Chrono Crusade - ...but not until Christmas is done.

There are some good revelations here about Chrono's "natural state", if you like - he killed over 100,000,000 of his fellow devils in Pandemonium before Aion removed his horns & stripped him of his power.  That's what I call impressive, but it doesn't answer the question of why Aion stripped him of his horns if he was such a valuable ally, or what turned him into a peace-loving little critter.  I don't quite buy that Rosette's charm and good looks could tame that particular beast.  At any rate, the power of his horns is now in the hands of Joshua, who seems to have no idea on how to control it.  In the meantime, Aion is still hunting down the other Apostles, and plotting how to get his hands on Rosette and Azmaria.

The second half of the disc returns to the more standalone, comic episodes.  I have to admit that they were a bit of a letdown after the two episodes dealing with Joshua - this is the series' main story, and it felt like it had been dropped rather quickly.  They're still good episodes, though, and it's always worthwhile watching Rosette let loose with the heavy weaponry.  Put her on a modified Harley Davidson with rocket boost, and it's almost fanservice heaven.

Overall, then, half good stuff, and half really good stuff.  The structure of the episodes needs to be worked on a bit so that things don't feel quite so disjointed, but otherwise watching this volume of Chrono Crusade was time well used.

Rating - ****

blog comments powered by Disqus