While I’m far from being one of the biggest “otaku” geeks out there (or whatever the hell they call themselves to separate their collective nerdiness from the rest of the D&D playing, Lord Of The Rings watching dorks) I still loves me some anime. Truth is though, that even after years of saying this, a huge wealth of material remains unseen by me. Sure, I’ve seen Ghost In The Shell, Ninja Scroll, most of Miyazaki’s catalogue and can prove how “old school” I am by my comic book store purchased bootleg Bubblegum Crisis VHS tapes, but the fact remains that I am mostly inexperienced outside of the popular titles, and any others that I have seen were recommendations of friends. I simply don’t follow the scene that closely.

So when the first volume of Tactics arrived in my mailbox, I didn’t know a thing about it. Last night, with a free half-hour to spare, I decided to watch the first episode before nodding off to sleep.

I watched the whole disc in one sitting.

The story goes something like this: There is this boy named Kantaro who has some sort of psychic connection with the world of monsters. But most of these monsters aren’t bad; they are more or less familiars or spirits to everyday things. Seeing as how most children don’t believe in monsters, this puts Kantaro at a bit of a challenge when it comes to making friendships. After explaining to his monster friends that Kantaro wants to prove that monsters exist, they advise him to make friends with the demon-eating goblin and he spends the rest of his adolescence trying to do just that.

That’s the foundation of the series. The Tactics: Volume 1 DVD includes the first five episodes of the series.

Episode 1: The Black Goblin Awakens
In this first episode we meet the principle characters. Kantaro is now a teenager and folklore researcher who writes to earn a living. He is looked after by his friend, the fox monster Yoko, who can disguise herself as a normal girl but her ears pop out whenever she gets excited. While investigating an odd occurrence that may or may not be a demonic possession, Kantaro stumbles upon where the demon-eating goblin is entombed. Freeing him and naming him Haruka, he joins with Kantaro and Yoko to fight the good fight against evil demons and they do so first in this episode against the Icicle Woman.

Episode 2: Bizarre Love at Yoshiwara’s
Suzu Edogawa, the little sister of the woman possessed in the first episode travels to Kantaro’s home as she has developed a bit of a crush on Haruka. We also learn that Haruka doesn’t understand why he was unable to kill the Icicle Woman demon outright and explains that he doesn’t remember the circumstances surrounding his own entombment. Reiko, Kantaro’s publisher, stops by to tell them about a brothel that is apparently haunted. Together, Haruka and Kantaro set out to unburden a courtesan named Kosome of the trouble that is haunting her.

Episode 3: Mountain Fairy Tale
In a remote village, children start disappearing, seemingly at random. Certainly the circumstances are supernatural, but know one knows the whys and hows. Perhaps the God of the Mountain might be able to assist them. Or perhaps it is he who is behind it all. What part does Sugino, an old accomplice of Haruka have in all of this? More and more questions are revealed as the story arc continues.

Episode 4: The Forbidden Portrait
Kantaro is visited by a man concerned about his girlfriend Fumi. Apparently, while walking through the forest, a photographer asked if he could take her picture. As time passes, the picture looks more and more beautiful, but the live subject of the photo starts fading out of existence. All leads turn up nothing, except that the same mysterious photographer took a photograph of Reiko. Now it’s up to the trio to solve the mystery, save both Fumi and Reiko, and meet their deadline.

Episode 5: Dancer in the Darkness
Kantaro’s latest client is a childhood friend of his. Yumeyakko, now a geisha, has been summoned repeatedly to visit a famous Japanese doll maker named Aoyagi. All that she has been asked to do for him is dance, during which all he does is stare at her. Feeling an ever increasing sense of discomfort, Yumeyakko asks the gang to come along to escort her on her next appointment. It appears as though Aoyagi is trying to create a masterpiece of a doll that can dance just like Yumeyakko, but what’s so terrible about that?

Basically, over the course of these episodes, I’ve deducted that the series is essentially part The X-Files, and part Buffy The Vampire Slayer. I can’t say I have any problems with that either. There is a nice bit of mythology brewing and the characters and their personality quirks are fun. I especially like Haruka and his learning to have fun seducing women to get what he wants. There is such innocence in his discovery of these talents that you can’t help but laugh. Yoko is a great supporting character, providing some pleasant comic relief and it’s adorable watching her ears pop out when she reacts to something. The program makes for an excellent balance between macabre themes, local spirituality and lighthearted fun.

Now this is just the first release in a five volume series, so I can’t rightly admit that I know everything that’s going on, and I have no idea how it will end. I have no idea if the quality of the program will hold up, but I do like what I’ve seen so far. It’s obvious that there are lots of secrets yet to be revealed in the Tactics universe, and I look forward to watching them unfold.

The DVD Presentation
Tactics is a powerhouse of incredible visuals. The color pallet that is used throughout the episodes here are nothing short of amazing, particularly in the fifth episode “Dancer in the Darkness” and the anamorphic transfer looks absolutely stunning. I would go so far as to say it’s one of the best looking hand-drawn animation DVDs that I have had the privilege of looking at. It’s near reference quality. The audio is no slouch either. Included are 5.1 surround mixes in both Japanese and English. I watched the first episode with the Japanese track and the second with the English one. Both are extremely well recorded which is quite surprising as usually English voice actors are quite annoying. The surround usage is strong, but usually correlates to the amount of action on screen. Still, the balance between audio and video presentation is phenomenal. English subtitles are included.

And the Extras Are?
Textless Opening/Ending – (3:06)
As the title implies, this is the opening and closing sequences in their “clean” versions. In other words there are no credits to interfere with the gorgeous art.

Original Japanese TV Commercial – (0:34)
The debut trailer for Japanese TV to promote Tactics before the first episode aired.

Original Japanese Merchandise Ads – (0:36)
Japanese ad cards for Tactics DVDs, Manga volumes and CDs.

Player Cards –
This is somewhat interesting. By pressing the “next” and “previous” buttons on your remote you can cycle through seven different “player cards” which resemble non-sports cards in that it has an image of the character, a quote of dialog and their first appearance. Although I noticed an inaccuracy right away since Reiko first appears in the second episode, not the fourth.

Image Gallery –
Twenty stills. Nothing to write home about.

Interview with Japanese Voice Actors – (10:00)
The Japanese releases for Tactics must have been set up differently, because this feature starts out with Kohki Miyata (voice actor for Kantaro) and Takahiro Sakurai (voice actor for Haruka) welcoming us to the bonus material for Tactics: Volume 2. Anyway, after a brief discussion of the second episode the actors start discussing memories of chocolate in their past and how they feel about different sweets. You know… the Japanese are fucking weird.

Merchandise Information – (0:39)
Okay, this is like the SAME FUCKING THING AS BEFORE!! What the…? Why is it here twice?

Trailers –
A small trailer gallery is here for other Manga Video releases including Karas (1:33), Street Fighter Alpha (1:15), Street Fighter Alpha Generations (1:47) and Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig (1:31). Of these, the only two that interested me are Karas for its interesting blend of CGI and hand-drawn animation and Ghost In The Shell, even though I still haven’t finished the first season.

The Bottom Line
Tactics: Volume 1 really surprised the hell out of me. If the rest of the series manages to hold the same level of quality as the first five episodes included here, than count me in for the ride. I love all the characters, I’m hooked on the gorgeous art style, the self-contained stories are great, and the show has left me dying to see what comes next. If you’re an anime fan, you owe it to yourself to at least give Tactics a shot.