Solty Rei Volume 4   Starring (voice): Jouji Nakata, Momoko Saito, Hiro Shimono and Mamiko Noto MVM RRP: £15.99 MVD2258 Certificate: 15 Available 07 September 2009

Following a tragedy known as Blast Fall, the city below is a place of melancholy. Resembles, injured people rebuilt with prosthetic limbs, walk under the all pervading Aurora, a shimmering field which prevents aerial travel. Through this metropolis stalks Roy Revant, bounty hunter, a man with no family and no ties. This all changes when Solty falls from the sky. Outwardly she resembles a small child, but this is a child with great power and a beginning shrouded in mystery...

Solty Rei: Volume 4 continues the story of our favourite android girl with another four episodes. When we last left our characters Solty was missing, Roy's daughter was presumed dead and there was little to smile about. This disc kicks off with episode fifteen Safe Haven. Solty is now alone, wandering alone in the desert. In her travels she happens upon a cabin where a young boy Will is living with an old man who may have had a hand in the tragedy which has been visited upon the land. Solty forms a friendship with Will, who is trying to build a flying machine. Things are not as they seem as Will is hiding a secret.

This is a good departure from the previous episodes, giving us a chance to get to know Solty, away from Roy’s obsession with finding his lost daughter, although tentatively, for the present with this episode, the show is starting to explore the back story, enriching the overall story.

Episode sixteen, Half Kidding, starts to bring the various threads of the story together. Roy snaps out of his depression and determines to go look for Solty, who is having her own problems following the death of Will from damaged implants he received. Meanwhile the girls of the R.U.C's PROCEED Team are wary of Ashley's behaviour which is becoming more dictatorial. Well with only twenty-four episodes in the season, the story has started to set up the end game for its characters. From an uncertain start Solty is starting to find its own voice and is the better for this.

Episode Seventeen, Lady, concentrates the action on the R.U.C's PROCEED Team, with the revelation that not only is Rose alive, but that she has joined the team. This causes internal strife, until Ashley resolves the matter by murdering Sylvia in front of her team mates.

Episode eighteen, Welcome Home, and having searched for Solty, Roy finally returns home to discover that she is already there; meanwhile Ashley has covered his tracks by accusing Accela and Celica of murdering Sylvia. Undeterred, the girls set themselves on a path for revenge.

Extras are limited to textless opening and closing sequences, as well as a couple of trailers for other shows. Audio options remain the same with an English 5.1 track as well as the original Japanese 2.0 track with or without subtitles.

So, another disc where the show appears to be kicking up its game. Only time will tell if the pay off is worth it.

7

Charles Packer