Continuing on his adventure to protect and learn more about Ren (a Shichiko-Hoju, a powerful Edel Raid capable of becoming a weapon when she fuses with another person's soul), Cou and the misfits who follow him persistently try to find a way to the Edel Gardens, where Ren asked Cou to take her in the first volume.

Unfortunately, Cou is not up to the job yet, despite Ren's choosing him as her Pleasure (wielder), or at least so believes Cisqua, his loud, money-conscious friend and new personal trainer. When Cou is with Ren, he doesn't just risk her life and his when in combat, but also whenever he is at fault or unable to protect her, lacking the strength and ability to safeguard Ren on her potentially dangerous journey. Moved by this reasoning, Cou agrees to put himself on a rigorous training regime, but is still a young boy - and struggles to meet its demands.

It isn't long, however, until Cou actually needs to protect Ren from those who would use her power, including other Pleasures - making the point abundantly clear. Surviving this encounter forces Cou to unleash a blast that destroys not only their enemies, but the gangs current lodgings - which wouldn't be a problem, given their movement toward the Edel Gardens, if it weren't for the fact that they have to pay for the damages.

Broke, hundreds of miles from their destination and unsure where their next enemy or meal will come from, all Cou can do is wish that a plane will fall out of the sky and carry him to his destination. It's only opportune that one actually does, and even though it barely survives the crash in working order, Cou uses his experience on the pirate ship (and his almost perfect friend Rowen) to fix the damages. Of course, it isn't long until the plane is broke again, but it helps them travel a little further down the road either way.

The majority of the action in Elemental Gelade is concerned with the relationship between Cou and Ren, the Pleasure and the Edel-Raid, their burgeoning romance and movement toward the Edel Gardens. The series is essentially a coming of age story, with Ren and Cou meeting a number of other Pleasures and Edel-Raids who display a variety of more and less ideal relationships with one another. So the real heart of the series isn't the journey to the Edel Gardens (or at least not yet), but is rather the way in which it explores the ethical and personal treatment of the Edel Raids, who are at once a romantic partner, and weapons of great power. In particular, the morality of Arc Aile (The Complete Edel Raid Protection Agency ) is called into question this volume - which Cisqua, Rowen and Kuea of Cou and Ren's party are all members of.

The animation is notably quaint, lacking any obvious computer rendering, and instead opting for a traditional hand-drawn style, which compliments the simple and also rather orthodox fantasy storyline and character types (battles do suffer however, and look unimpressive). The comedy that took centre stage in the first volume is taken down a notch, with far less chibi to go around, but there's still enough for most fans I would assume. The major problem with the series is that it just happens to be so average - the animation is average, the characters are average, the music is average, the world is generic, even average.

In Summary

If you can get over the ten year old Japanese role-playing game feel, then Elemental Gelade should entertain you, but is no tour-de-force, so don't get your hopes up, and you shouldn't be too disappointed.