As I warned you last week, this week ushers in the beginning of the "by-volume" review format. This "shorter" format has been introduced so that we can keep you up to date on new series as new volumes are released, instead of waiting until near the end of a series. There are some newer categories introduced in rating individual volumes, of a more technical flavor, to allow reviewers to avoid repeating general trends for successor volumes, among other things.

Anyhow, the primary change which will affect readers is the change to the Reviews page. By-volume reviews are linked via bracketed numbers occuring after the series title. So, basically, if you see a link on the title itself, expect it to be a full-series, normal review. If you see the link on a number, it will be leading into one of the by-volume reviews. Easy enough, right?

So, on to the reviews themselves. I'm afraid they're all ElfShadow reviews this week, but, you can't win them all. First up is a full-series review of Jubei-chan: Secret of the Lovely Eyepatch. Click here to find out what I thought about this samurai comedy series. Next up are three by-volume reviews, to give you a taste of the new format in action. The first series to be hit by this review-a-volume saga is ADV's recently released Arc the Lad series. This anime series based on a console RPG series which will be released in the future by Working Designs. You can see my thoughts on the first and second volumes, to help you decide whether it is worth checking out the anime before buying the game. The second series to get bubble-wrapped by-volume style is Angel Links, a new series being released by Bandai, set in the Outlaw Star universe. Click here to find out how the first volume of Angel Links measures up against its predecessor.