BAST oF Syndrome Volume 5: Past Echoes -
- Otaking
- 11/16/04
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BASToF Syndrome Vol. 5-'Past Echoes'
Score: 7/10
As Said by ADV Films:
One player has been hospitalized, two robots have been destroyed and now Moderato has turned his back on his own creation. But the Mayor needs the game to bypass Pluto's locks, and Riddle has her own reasons to unearth the PX-1 file. As the stakes become higher, memories begin to resurface and the possibility of all out war looms on the horizon. The city hovers on the brink of destruction in the latest stunning volume of BASToF Syndrome!
Being the penultimate volume in the series, this volume has the job of beginning the ending arc of the storyline, and for what its worth, this volume actually does a good job of setting up a storyline, in comparison to the other volumes that is. BASToF Syndrome hasn?t been the best series to come out recently, and probably isn?t the best show to introduce Korean animation to the US with, but this volume does redeem a bit of this series? credibility, as its probably the best of the bunch so far.
BASToF Syndrome (which means Be a Stranger to Fear Syndrome) was produced in 2001, and looks pretty good for the most part. There are a lot of vibrant colors found in this transfer, but there is a bit of aliasing here and there. The one big problem I have is that I just don't like the animation itself all that much. It's well drawn, but it just looks bad if you ask me. As for the audio, I went with the Korean track, and for the most part it sounded quite nice. There were a few good moments of directionality on this track, but most of the track came from the center channel. I listened to the English track for a while as well and found that it was just mediocre at best as I just wasn't too fond of the voices for any of the characters.
This volume starts out in the Xenon City Hospital where Mint has gone to visit Bebefau, who is recovering from the injuries he received in his last bout in the Lemon Game. Oddly enough though, just as Mint makes her way to Bebefau?s room, Mayor Hadim is leaving his Bebefau?s room. Things begin to get a little complicated here, or so I thought, as things didn?t seem to add up as to why Hadim was there, but then we get a scene that doesn?t explain why either, as we go into a more flashback type sequence that reveals Hadim and Pluto?s past together, as told by Hadim?s memories. We learn that the two of them worked together on a myriad of projects, but things ultimately went wrong and Pluto ended up dying before Hadim was able to get the PX-1 file from him.
After all of these flashbacks involving Pluto, things get even more interesting when Bebefau comes across Cora, Pluto?s daughter, as she roams the halls of the hospital. Meanwhile, while at the Xenon Temple, Hadim runs into Tiel and notices a holographic tattoo of sorts on her neck that looks exactly like one Pluto had. Also, while all of this is going on, Mint and Pseudo go up against a rather powerful Lemon in the Lemon Game, which ends up leading to new revelations about the PX-1 project, Cora and Pluto. Moderato is the focus of the next revelation in this volume as he finally learns that the hacker Riddle is Sister Hestia. She reveals more about the relationship Pluto and Hadim shared in the past; uncovering the fact that Pluto developed biochip technology, all the while Pseudo is trying to save Tiel from Hadim?s goons. The two of them end up at Pluto?s home and Tiel takes time out to reveal her involvement with Pluto works as well as her involvement with his daughter Cora.
After this revelation (there are so many in this volume), Pseudo takes Tiel back to Moderato?s headquarters and Moderato has brought Riddle there as well, and it just so happens to be time to slip back into the Lemon Game for another round. Pseudo has to take this one by himself, and while he?s taking on what looks like a virtual construct of bone, Tiel begins to have strange reactions to the Lemon Game?s functions, and all throughout Xenon biochips begin to malfunction en masse, causing a panic throughout the city. Pseudo does manage to take down the Lemon, but it all ends with Tiel being taken away by Hadim?s men.
It?s about damn time that this show finally got into gear and started putting things together, making for a more complex storyline that is actually easy to get into and isn?t half bad either. This volume is pretty much as good as this show is going to get I think, I really don?t see this show getting any better from here on out, but hopefully the ending volume won?t take a step back and will continue to pump out material that is on par with what we get to see in this volume.
Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2004 (Archive on Thursday, December 16, 2004)