▪	RELEASED BY:		MVM
		▪	ASPECT RATIO:		16:9 ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN
		▪	AUDIO:		ENGLISH DD 2.0 AND JAPANESE DD 2.0
		▪	RUNNING TIME:		100 MIN
		▪	RATING:		15
		▪	RELEASE DATE:		10/01/2007
		▪	REVIEW DATE:		10/11/2007
		▪	REVIEWED BY:		SANDRA SCHOLES

While Kagura cowers, weeping over Shinzen's body, Choji Suitengu informs Kagura that she is to be his bride, even against her will. When one of his henchmen say he will not get away with

Choji announces his marriage to Kagura Tennosu, but confirms it is only for business reasons that he will also have full control of the Tennosu group and its assets when she dies. The board do not agree with what Choji is doing, but he tells them Shinzen left everything she owned in a will to Kagura and for him to get the assets he must marry her or the board cannot take an equal share in the money. He assures them it is only for business reasons, and she will remain the goddess.

A lady is found by Ron Yurigiyama by the roadside, her car unable to start, he grants her a ride in his car to where she wants to go. She accepts realising who he is and what he does. He offers her a free trial of his massage techniques, but she does not expect what she receives.

Speed Grapher is one of those anime that grips the viewer from the beginning using the right amount of intrigue, storyline and use of characters within it.This particular volume looks at the lengths Suitengu will go to in order to get what he wants, leaving him established as the bad one in the series. While there is someone else that hangs in the shadows waiting to be noticed.

There is the impression of tension and the capturing of the necessity of the characters to get to where they are going, and that propels the viewer along who will want the same thing – answers to all the questions about the characters and the twists in the story too.

The story captures the viewer from the start and begins to move at a fast pace, keeping in mind that there are more characters to focus on than before and that they have all got their stories to tell in this volume of episodes.

The animation is fluid and the colour has all the nuances of creating a chilling  atmosphere in places throughout the anime with a certain character. The character animation has enough depth, the faces are well drawn and animated showing the varying facial expressions in depth.

For those that have started from the beginning of the story, they will be met with an interesting turn of events, some highly surprising main characters, and the despair evident in the anime itself for the character of Kagura.

The storyboarding is excellent, and the character animation is certainly one of the best seen in a long time.

EXTRAS:
Saito documentary part 1, character profiles, character cast auditions, image gallery, text-less songs and trailers.

IN SUMMARY:
Tense, psychological and intriguing.