Search - Phoenix - Vol. 2 - Eternal Recurrence on DVD

Mixed bag

M | I wait behind the wall, gnawing away at your reali | 10/20/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"With only 13 episodes, this animated version of Phoenix doesn't reach its full potential, especially in this particular DVD. The story of Leona and Chihiro was hastily done. It started off good, but is contained within only two episodes (first one in the first DVD, second one in this one) and does not do the story justice. The most vital part of the Leona/Chihiro story was utterly ignored. In the manga, Leona is taken prisoner by a crew of 'pirates' headed by a woman who is dying and falls in love with Leona. To extend her life, she wants to merge the healthy parts of her body with him, so they could remain together (almost like the Greek myth of Hermaphroditus and the nymph who snagged him)



Leona decides to not fight, but tells Saruta to place his brain in a robot body, and to place Chihiro's mind in that same robotic body as well, thus the Robtas were born. (the Robtas are even referred to as the descendants of Leona and Chihiro) However, none of this is in the animated version. In the animated version, Leona just tells Saruta to place his brain in a robot. Chihiro's fate is not revealed. I don't know why this wasn't included. An extra episode could have had this part. Without this vital information, the animated version of this story merely falls flat. There's no real significance to the creation of the Robtas in the animated version, causing the entire story to essentially have no meaning. It would also have been nice to also use the part of the Phoenix series where the Robtas start a revolt.



I didn't much care for the next story featured in this (Strange Beings) It was interesting, but I would have preferred to see the addition of the missing Leona/Chihiro story to this. The next story is 'Sun', of which two eps are here, and the next two are on the next DVD. Overall, Sun is done decently and is the best story on this DVD. Overall a nice DVD, just don't expect anything from the Leona/Chihiro story, the animated version is useless."