Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Darker and more serious., July 9, 2004
After the attack on her apartment Robin is taken to headquarters, where everybody figures she will be safe. They're wrong. Robin is no longer the Witch Hunter, but a witch that now must be hunted. Or, at least, that's how it looks like to her. As she learns to live on her own, the rest of the STNJ, minus Amon who is now missing, are finding it harder and harder to do their job. Everybody in these episodes seem to be questioning the very facts behind witch hunting and the STNJ team seems to be splitting apart. Trust, is after all, at an all time low. Is Robin on the wrong side and who does Amon really work for? How many sides are there? Are her powers out of her control or are they just becoming stronger?
I love the fight at the end of "In My Pocket". Robin kicks butt and the music for the scene really fits the mood. Everything is dark and dirty, the underside of the city, as Robin tries to survive. She doesn't look good as a messenger (but somehow she's still dressed in black).
These episodes are some of the best and they are all linked together (no stand alones in this DVD). The extras include the normal notes, trailers and two voice actor interviews.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"All many traces of loneliness...", June 4, 2004
The violent attack at Robin's apartment at the end of the previous DVD signals a change in her relationship with the STNJ. She is no longer a hunter, but the hunted. How this has happened it not completely clear, but Solomon now perceives that her powers have become too great and the attacks continue, escalating at the beginning of this DVD to a direct attack on STNJ headquarters. Amon engineers Robin's escape but he is compromised, and disappears.Robin goes undercover, working as an assistant for Nagira, an attorney who has a connection with Amon and with the underground community of witches who lurk in Tokyo. Despite her own desire to remain hidden, a string of coincidences keep renewing her Robin's contacts with the STNJ team, who are now too short-handed to be effective. Robin must step in several times to prevent disaster. Surprisingly, adversity has changed Robin from a fifteen-year-old girl with only tentative self-confidence to a young woman who can make her own decisions and fend for herself. In addition something is affecting her powers, making them an order of magnitude stronger, and harder to control. Robin is being drawn into the politics of the magic user's subculture, and she is on the way to being a force to be reckoned with. It's hard to pinpoint why, but the artwork on these DVD's also seems to have improved. A variety of new angles and framing are being tried, and conceptual design of the 'walled city' is superb, providing the perfect modern gothic, noir background for a story that has become more ambivalent and complicated as Robin realizes that witches are not necessarily evil and have the right to live their own lives. If you have been undecided whether to jump into this series I think it's clear now that this is exceptional work, possible one of the best serious anime of 2004.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great stuff, January 10, 2005
Witch Hunter Robin, Volume Four: Fugitive, reflects that Robin is now a fugitive from STN-J. Her place of refuge at the office with her co-workers and friends did not last long. She was soon escaping again as all her co-workers seem to be shot dead by a secret S.W.A.T. Team. She is aided in her escape by an unlikely helper - Amon. I am not spoiling anything, as all I have just described happens in the first ten minutes of the first episode.
There is a moment in the first episode of this DVD that deserves its own paragraph. We viewers of the first three volumes suspect Robin has fallen in love with Amon. Yet his treatment of Robin up until now has been distant at best, cruel at worst. There is a moment in episode fifteen when he catches her face in his hands like he is going to kiss her. My breath caught in my throat at that. We actually hear emotion, even passion, in Amon's voice in his parting words to Robin. I cannot WAIT for the two to reunite. HEART HEART HEART!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is shaping up to be one of the greatest anime romances of all time.
Solomon, STN-J, and others are after the mysterious "Splinter of Knowledge," said to be left behind when the "Immortal" old lady whom Robin met in the previous volume died. We are not told how or when she died, just that she is dead. Robin is assisted by a gangster-type "lawyer" named Nagira. Nagira's curiousity about this alleged relic is going to get him in big trouble.
In Fugitive, there is more character development. We see for the first time how much Robin's co-workers at STN-J care for her as they worry when she is missing. We see the little shy Robin from the nunnery become strong, independent, and resourceful. Harry makes an appearance. Although he offers wisdom, kind words, and good food, I still feel there is a lot more to Harry than meets the eye. This character is being wasted.
This DVD contains episodes 15 through 18: Time to Say Goodbye, Heal the Pain, Dilemma, and In My Pocket. Extras include previews for other anime DVD's, two interviews with Japanese voice actors (Robin and Ms. Karatsuma), and a very brief Malifica Compendium.
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