FEATURE: Anime Releases for the week of 6/14/2004

The Lemon Game is in full swing and the Spearhead Dream Team is ready to go; minus one reluctant Pseudo. When he finally comes around to seeing the view of the team Captain, Moderato, Pseudo learns just how deadly the Lemon Game can be. The mystery begins to deepen as the founder of the city begins to confront ghosts from the past. While the animation and action continue to be bright, the story begins to take on a slightly darker and more menacing tone.

Keeping up with it all are some solid performances from the entire cast. Jason Douglas, handling the role of Pseudo takes on a few changes, even if for ego, steps up to take on the mysterious Lemon players. Cynthia Martinez, as Mint, continues to play the spoiled princess, but manages to soften up against Chris Patton's Bebefau. Illich Guardiola really stands out as the ever manic Moderato, who seems to be in control, but is in the dark along with everyone else. And not to be left out, Greg Ayres as Bomb and Kira Vincent-Davis as Pudding round out the cast providing the right amount of comedy relief and often filling in some of the back story for the show.

In the final volume of this quirky, yet fun series, Goemon and friends face their toughest challenges. Mudanashi continues his quest to bring his master into the world of humans and pulls some strange tricks to try and accomplish his goals. The final challenge comes when Mudanashi hijacks a space shuttle and takes over an orbiting space station. Tsukasa also faces some major challenges as he continues to try and win the heart of Asuka and proves that he has what it takes to be an astronaut. To the end, The Legend of the Mystical Ninja remains a fun romp with a light hearted story and colorful characters.

Bringing those characters to life is a cast that in every interview they've done can't say enough about the amount of fun they had while recording. Like previous releases, the final volume contains an episode commentary, this time with director Scott McClennen, actress Tiffany Grant and actor Vic Mignogna. Just to keep things really interesting is a set of interviews with the majority of the voice cast. Again, it's quite clear they had a lot of fun with this show which is reflected in their performances as well as the commentaries and interviews. These extras definitely make this a fitting final release in this fun series.