There are more thrills, spills and dangerous missions for the three members of the DSA as they run into old flames, thuggish squatters, virtual reality nightmares and serial killers. Asami is becoming a more integral member of the group now and we start to see a little more background to them all.

Shell of Memories is an interesting episode in which a chance meeting with a former schoolmate gives some flashbacks into Harada’s past and explores the show’s sci-fi aspect; Shell of Sorrow adds a supernatural theme with a chilling twist towards the end; Shell of Thoughts is a strange departure from the ‘mission of the week’ format and Shell of Dreams turns into an interesting murder-mystery.

There is some attention aimed at exploring the characters this time around: Harada’s recollections of days gone by is quite touching and Asami is showing some signs of growing out of her ‘scared little girl’ persona and becoming more self-assured. Kurokawa’s connections to the police force are also reinforced and give some tantalising hints as to the DSA’s origins.

Mezzo DSA can be congratulated for taking on this number of different genres and incorporating them into an action-adventure series format since it gives the show some degree of variety and individuality in addition to the healthy doses of gunplay and humour. Despite all of this though, the series at this point doesn’t seem to gel somehow. The problem could be that each of these story arcs is completely self-contained and crammed into one episode each: there is plenty of potential in what is on offer here but they are all caught up in the show’s frantic pacing and are wrapped up rather hurriedly. For instance the intriguing revelations about Harada are pretty much forgotten about in the episode that follows - I can only hope the series returns to this at a later date.

The other three episodes in this instalment also have great premises; it is quite frustrating to have (to me at least) their most interesting and well written aspects taking a back seat to predictable action scenes. Of course, this show is primarily about a gun-toting, butt-kicking heroine and her fellow mercenaries-for-hire but the details are what make it stand out from the crowd; the creators could have done themselves a favour and placed more emphasis on them. Hopefully the series will provide a longer-lasting story arc later on.

In Summary

During these four episodes we are presented with some varied and enjoyable episodes that nevertheless don’t quite fulfil their potential. More inventive than some other action fare available, this part of the Mezzo DSA series still falls very much into filler territory with little in the way of the bigger picture emerging.