Chrono Crusade Vol. 1: A Plague Of Demons Review

Originally published on otakureview.net

Intro

One of the newer series to be released lately, ADV gets their hands on a release that is definitely one of the more interesting ones that I’ve seen lately.

The Story

This anime takes place in the roaring 1920’s of New York where we are following Sister Rosette and her trusty sidekick Chrono. Sister Rosette is a member of the Order of Magdelane where she is an exorcist, her job is simple… go out onto mission and destroy devils and those who summon devils. What makes her job even more interesting is that her partner Chrono is a devil himself.

Four episodes are shown on this volume and all of them are something that really brought me into the story. The first two episodes did a really great job of setting up the characters and the overall story by taking us along on two typical missions for Rosette.

The third episode is when things get really interesting though as Rosette is sent on a mission in Europe where she and Chrono are to infiltrate a hotel/casino and rescue a young girl who is being held captive. What makes this mission interesting is the secret that the girls holds in that she is one of the seven modern apostles, young people who have been blessed with powers straight from God. In this case, the girl’s name is Azmaria and she is the apostle of Charity.

While the first two episodes were great, I have to admit that these episodes had me the most entertained. The action was fierce and the scenes in the casino where Rosette was trying to tempt Chrono into letting her gamble a little more by using her feminine charms on him were absolutely hilarious.

The Good And The Bad

This was a great volume to get things started. I didn’t know too much about this series before I started watching it but after I started the first episode, I knew that I would be absolutely hooked. Like most series released within the last couple of years, the animation in this series is a very fluid mix of computer and traditional animation and it flows absolutely seamlessly. The mix of the two make the series look very real and dark when it needs to be.

The story thus far has also been great. I love the innovation of not only placing the series in the United States but also using something obscure like the Order of Magdelane for the main characters. I had never heard of this order before but as soon as I did I knew that I was going to want to learn more about them.

Music

The music in this volume is really something special. The opening and closing themes were wonderful but I think the music that stands out the most is the very beautiful background music that they use. While the fight scenes have some great music, the traditional music that is used in the church scenes were easily the best for me. I’ve always enjoyed very soft church music. It always has a very tranquil effect on me and in this case, it was no exception.

In particular the song that Azmaria sings in episode three was absolutely gorgeous.

Dub vs. Sub

Both tracks were great. After listening to both I have to say that neither track is better or worse than the other. I enjoyed both tracks very much but I have to say that some jokes were much more enjoyable in English, most especially the casino scenes in episode three.

Standout performance goes to Hilary Haag as Sister Rosette.

Extras

ADV really piled on the extras in this volume. Besides the usual clean opening and closing animations and production sketches, there were also some of the original opening animations (which really aren’t that different than the final product that we see on this volume), a commentary track with Hilary (Rosette) and Greg Ayers (Chrono) and finally a very short two part segment done by Jessica Boone (as Azmaria) that talks about not only the history of the Order of Magdelane but also about what the country was like in the 20’s. While the history about the Order was very interesting, the history about the country in the 20’s was all stuff that I already knew from my high school U.S. History class.

The final extra that is really interesting is a very short four part ‘newspaper’ of sorts. Within the four parts it talks about not only about a couple of the main characters but also about some of the weaponry that Rosette uses within the volume. Very informative.

Overall

This was a great volume and I am openly admitting right now that I am absolutely hooked. The animation and story are enough to pull most people in I think and I’m willing to place a bet right now that as the series progresses, we’re going to see some very interesting things get pulled out.


Final Grade: 90% - A