The third volume of Chrono Crusade begins with a dark and intriguing journey into the pasts of Rosette and Chrono, showing how their lives became intertwined and how the disappearance of Joshua was instigated by the devil Aion. After these two very serious and dramatic episodes the series makes a short departure from the main story arc and we are treated to a more light and action-packed second half in which a strange creature is stalking the Mafia families of New York and also experience the Christmas season, Magdalene Order-style.

The main driving force behind Chrono Crusade is the overwhelming energy of Rosette’s character and her search for Joshua. The first half of this disc (‘Joshua’ and ‘Horn’) takes us back to their initial meeting with Chrono and day that Joshua disappeared; the humour that has been so prominent in this series is less evident here but conveys the touching devotion that the younger Rosette has towards her younger brother very well. The scene in which he is ‘lost’ to his beloved sister and friends is especially painful and terrifying to behold, highlighting how powerful and dangerous an enemy Aion really is.

By comparison, ‘Beast’ and ‘Holy Night’ seem at first glance to be filler episodes that cannot match the dramatic impact of the previous two. Nevertheless, they are a good opportunity for character development and flesh out the personalities of some of the cast a little. ‘Beast’ is a return to the fast-paced action/comedy aspect to the series (including a chase scene against a demonic black dog, with Rosette on a motorcycle!) but the heated confrontation between Rosette and freelance exorcist Satella reveals more about both of their personalities. ‘Holy Night’ is more of a heartwarming ‘feel good’ episode, in which new recruit Azmaria experiences an enjoyable Christmas for the first time in her life.

The DVD extras are once more of a very high standard, with the usual production sketches, trailers, opening/closing animation sequences, commentary with Matt Greenfield and Chris Patton and a couple more of the delightful ‘Azmaria’s Extra Classes’, the latter being highly recommended because they give so much useful background information. A list of ‘Chrono Crusade Slang’ is an added bonus, giving a list of 1920s words and phrases that are not only helpful in catching subtleties in the dialogue but are pretty interesting in their own right.

The episodes themselves however leave the series at a fork in the road: it could keep with the darker atmosphere of ‘Joshua’ and ‘Horn’, or it could include more episodes like ‘Beast’ and ‘Holy Night’ and suffer from a slowdown in pace during the middle section of the series. You can however rest assured that even the most trivial Chrono Crusade episodes still make for entertaining viewing.

In Summary

The third volume of Chrono Crusade is pretty much divided down the middle: the first half is a brilliantly dark and dramatic portrayal of how some of the main characters came to be in their present situations, while the second half is more like the ‘nuns-with-guns’ action-adventure that it started out as with a little characterisation thrown in. The signs however point towards the series going much more serious later on, and these four episodes are not only enjoyable but suggest that it is going to get even better in future.