region2 DVD: pub: Revelation Films. FUN72003. 1 DVD 95 minutes 4 episodes plus extras. Price: £15.99 (UK).

check out website: www.revfilms.com and www.spiral.tv

!!From now on, reviews of each volume of this series may make reference to previous volumes, so if you haven't watched said previous volumes and don't want spoilers, DON'T read any further.!!

'I'm going to pursue the mystery of the Blade Children.' With these words Kiyotaka Narumi vanished without trace.
Two years later, Kiyotaka's disappearance still haunts his younger brother Ayumu...'
From the first DVD back cover.

At the end of the previous DVD we left Ayumu, Hiyono, Rio and Kousuke engaged in a deadly game. Ayumu with Rio's timer-controlled explosive collar around his neck racing Kousuke to retrieve the blackmail tape made by Hiyono, who was being held captive but who Kousuke freed so that she could join the game. Ayumu must keep the tape from falling into the Blade Children's hands while at the same time arranging some way of meeting Hiyono, who has the key to the collar, without her being caught by any of their opponents.



If that sounds a bit complicated, well, it is. Of course, if Ayumu was to have his head blown off at this stage, there wouldn't be much story left to tell, so he does survive the whole affair and without submitting to the Blade Children's mind-games. In fact, he is proving to be adept at defeating them in such matters, which both infuriates and fascinates them and almost guarantees him his life (for the foreseeable future anyway) as they don't like to be beaten at their own games. It's all a series of challenges and instead of simply disposing of the irritant, they continue on into ever more convoluted contests.

Episode 12 sees a new protagonist enter the story or rather, a group of them, the Hunters, who quite simply are tasked to hunt down and kill the Blade Children or so the latter claim. We learn that the people Rio, Eyes and Kousuke have killed previously belong to this group or so they claim. One of the Hunters contacts Eyes, taunting and telling him he will be assassinated at the open-air charity concert he is to give on Christmas Eve.

So we know that that much is true, the Hunters are after the Blade Children. Unless it's all some big hoax. Which seems unlikely. But you can never tell. The whole plot of the series revolves around cross and double-cross, betrayal, determination and notions of fate...

Ayumu and Kousuke join forces to foil the threat and are not helped by Eyes, who does the exact opposite of what would be expected in an intriguing scene which I'm not going to spoil for anyone who hasn't yet watched the DVD.

It's also revealed that Ayumu is somehow of great importance to the Blade Children, although we don't yet know in what way. I'm beginning to wonder if Ayumu might himself be one of them, although basing such a theory partly on the fact that he wears exactly the same earrings as Kousuke seems a little flimsy. No doubt all will be revealed in due time.

I have to confess at this point that I'm finding the physical action or rather lack of it a little dragging. It makes for cheaper production costs, of course, but intriguing as the dialogue is I keep wanting the characters to do something a little more exciting than simply talk. 'Spiral' won't appeal to anime action fans!

Joules Taylor
http://www.wavewrights.com