Bruce Von Stiers

The third volume of the Orphen saga is called Ruins & Relics. This collection is from ADV Films. Ruins & Relics is on a DVD disc and contains three episodes of the Orphen series.

Each of the episodes is about 20 minutes long with a couple of second intermission in the middle of each one. Each episode has opening and closing credits, along with a quick preview of the next episode in the series.

The first episode in this volume is called The Ruins of Baltanders. Orphen, Cleao and Majic go to the Island of the Baltanders to seek out another way to free Azalie from her dragon body. They discover a bracelet that Orphen had hidden in a temple there several years ago. He thinks that it can be used to bring Azalie back. Only he finds out that something is missing.

The second episode is Azalie. It is in this episode that we find out about the female sorcerer Azalie and how she was transformed into a dragon. We find out that she and Orphen had come to the Tower of Fang as young children and taken in. They learned how to become sorcerers. Some unknown drive for power drove Azalie to experiment with a magic sword and she become The Bloody August, a terrible dragon.

The third episode is called The Relic Part I. Why ADV Films didn’t include the second part of this episode on this disc, I don’t know. Unless it was to guarantee that you would buy the next volume with the second part struck in it.

The Relic Part I has Orphen getting together with one of his old partner’s Stephanie. She might be able to help them in their quest. But she has a hidden agenda. And she also has a secret agreement with some being named The Killing Doll.

As this is a DVD disc, there should be a few extras thrown in. And there is. There are trailers of other ADV Films titles like Getter Robo, Blue Seed and Ruin Explorers. A Clean Opening and Clean Closing scene is also included. And there are Production Sketches that show character movements and things like binoculars in a series of line drawings.

If you haven’t seen episodes from the earlier volumes in the Orphen saga, you won’t understand everything that is going on. But if you have been following the series, this volume is a much needed part of your collection.

The animation for this volume follows the pattern from the other episodes in the previous volumes. The music is pretty good and the sound effects are well done.

Ruins & Relics is available at your local video retailer. You can also buy it online at www.advfilms.com.