You May Get Ready!

(WARNING! Spoilers Ahead! Go to the Conclusion to avoid them.)

With this third volume, Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure: Artifacts, the characters and plotline of the series undergo a series of shocking events and revelations.  This time around, the  three episodes are "Mitsuki," "Escape," and "Repatriate."

"Mitsuki" resolves the cliff hanger from the last volume. It seems that Kazuki was injured badly in battle and taken into custody by RaRa forces, who don't know he is a pilot at first. Kazuki is nursed back to health by Mitsuki RaRa, who is Mitsuki Sanada's counterpart in the parallel world and also known as the infamous Ms. Rah. Naturally, the two develop feelings for each other, and Mitsuki R. (along with three female RaRa pilots and the chief RaRa scientist) help Kazuki escape when it is revealed that he was the pilot of Core Robot 1.  Before that discovery was made, it is also revealed that Mr. RaRa is basically a puppet for his wife, Ayuko, and the reason the war is being fought is that RaRa wants to dominate the war so that no one will fight over the power of the alien artifact.

"Escape" shows the fall-out between Kazuki, Yayoi, and Mitsuki S. when they find out about Kazuki's dalliance with Mitsuki R. Naturally, Yayoi and Mitsuki S. fight back with a full barrage of their best cooking! This episode shows Ayuko  taking power from Mr. RaRa and demoting him to a janitor. She also prepares a new super weapon, a robot known as Himic, and she forces Mitsuki R. to pilot it directly against Kazuki and the base of the Earth Defense Force. Mitsuki R. has been hypnotized by her mother so that she will fight Kazuki, and with her powerful robot she initially gains the upper hand. However, Kazuki's desire to save Mitsuki R. is so strong, he manages to summon a powerful robot known as Zinv from the artifact stored on the Earth Defense Force base. Using Zinv, Kazuki is able to easily overpower the RaRa invasion and rescue Mitsuki R.

"Repatriation" begins with a scene that demonstrates Zinv is much more powerful than the other Core robots. However, it soon shifts focus to show how Mitsuki R. manages to work herself into the Earth Defense Force. Working in the cafeteria, she soon wins many fans with her cooking. Problems arise when Commander Sanada moves Mitsuki R. into Mitsuki S's room, but in time this helps Mitsuki S. recognize the other Mitsuki for the good person she is. Still, she is mighty steamed when Kazuki actually asks Mitsuki R. on a date! This date is called off when Ms. Akane strikes a deal with Ayuko to return Mitsuki R. Surprisingly, Mitsuki S. lets Kazuki know about the plan, and he is able to convince Akane to not go through with returning Mitsuki R. The episode ends in yet another RaRa attack. This time, however, a powerful weapon is deployed that causes both Kazuki and Mitsuki to disappear in a beam of light. And, you guessed, that is the end of the episode.

Well, here we go with another suspenseful cliff-hanger. These three episodes maintain the series' breakneck pace, featuring a lot of action and a whole lot of plot development. There are a whole slew of new characters introduced on the RaRa side of things, while even the ones we were familiar with before get fleshed out. The addition of a second Mitsuki is a definite complication for Kazuki and company (not to mention in keeping the two straight while writing this review!), while the usurpation of control over the RaRa Army by Ayuko RaRa definitely has some sinister implications. The fact that Ayuko seems to be getting counsel from some sort of entity from the artifact itself is a little unsettling. Never the less, watching Mr. RaRa reduced to a janitor is pretty funny to watch...

The audio and visual aspects of this disc continue to uphold a very high production value. The dub of this series continues to be especially good-not only do all the voices for the characters work well, the lip-synching and English script doesn't fall flat often with "thens" or "nows" or other such fillers used to take up extra mouth flap. Extras continue in the exact same format as before, with a few character profiles (including one for the Zinv and Himic robots, which I found neat) and some production line drawings. There is some good information here, but given that there are only three episodes on this disc I think the extras should have been expanded somewhat.

Conclusion (Spoiler Free!)

Once again, Dual! comes through with a very engaging set of three episodes. As is usual with many anime series, this is the later part of the middle act, which means a lot of plot revelations are made and some new characters are introduced. Consequently, these episodes are just as dense and fast paced as any in the series thus far. Artifacts easily matches the first two volumes of this series in entertainment value!

By Andy Rucker