The Rune Soldier DVD box set contains all twenty-four episodes of the series. Each disc contains four episodes and extras. On the main menu, you select “Scenes” to choose which episode to watch, and where in the episode you want to watch. However, instead of a “Play All” feature, each episode is listed on the main menu. If you want to watch all of the episodes, you select the first episode in the main menu, and the disc will play through all of the episodes. The “Languages” option allows you to see the episodes in English, in English with subtitles for the songs, or in Japanese with English subtitles. The “Extras” option allows you to access the menu with the special features.
The extras are on the disappointing side. You can see the “clean” opening and “clean” ending on all six discs in the set; these are versions of the opening and ending that do not have text on them. The fourth disc in the set also includes the “Gunning for the Guardian” game. The game takes a story from one of the episodes on the disc, where the characters are trying to catch a sea monster. The interface for the game is rather clunky. You basically choose from one of three different locations on the lake, and it appears to randomly choose what video footage from the English dub version of the episode to use. Personally, I thought this game was rather lame, and not much of an improvement over the clean opening and closing. To me, it felt like that ADV Films just took six discs that had originally been issued separately and packaged them together into one box, and not taking any time or effort to make any changes to the content of the actual discs.
As a final “special feature,” all six discs also include previews of other properties that ADV Films has released on DVD. Over the course of the six discs, you can see previews for: Angelic Layer, Aura Battler Dunbine, The Devil Lady, Eden’s Bowy, Final Fantasy Unlimited, Full Metal Panic!, Neo Ranga, Noir, The Original Dirty Pair, Rahxephon, Saint Seiya, Saiyuki, Sakura Wars, The Samurai, Spectral Force, Steam Detectives, Wild Arms, You’re Under Arrest, and Zone of the Enders.
The actual episodes in the series are decent. While there are some flaws with the series, the episodes are enjoyable to watch, especially after you make it past the first couple of episodes.
This set is rated at TV 14, but I would personally recommend this series for anime viewers fifteen or sixteen years of age and older. If you’re a fan of Rune Soldier, you will want to acquire this DVD set in order to have all of the episodes. However, be prepared to be disappointed by the lack of special features and extras in the set.
