The "other side" awaits everyone, yet the world is still quite afraid to look at it. Everything seems to take a different focus as the world itself seems to expand, moving away from the pure adrenaline fueling that viewers have become accustomed to. Fierce battles and fond farewells await viewers in this volume of s-CRY-ed.

Volume three managed to present a very strong look at the larger picture of the story, through a few intriguing twists. While the first episode is merely a recap to bring new viewers up to speed, the rest of the disc hits a lightning pace rather quickly. There are fewer shifts between perspectives as both the Kazuma and Mimori storylines reach a convergence. Before viewers can become too comfortable with the pacing that has been set, the story manages to launch on a completely different tangent. After a climactic showdown between Kazuma and Ryuho, everything manages to go awry. The story picks up several months after the battle, focusing around Kanami (Kazuma's "sister"), who has taken residence in a refugee camp. The story's overall tone has begun to take a much darker feel to it over the course of the volume. However, this darkness is not caused by angst, nor is it caused by an overall increase in death or destruction. Instead, an air of oppression and despair influences the mood. While the overall humor has been grealy toned down, the story itself finally seems to be coming into the limelight.

HOLD escorts Kanami and an oddly stoic Kimishima to meet their fates.	The ever-detached Ryuho finally learns to connect with the world at a large cost.

Technically, this volume holds the same high standards as the previous disc. The video remains clean, with no cases of grain, artifacting, or aliasing. Cross-coloration, rainbows, and macroblocking are also not present. The sound is of high quality, with no dropouts or distortions on either track.

Bandai never ceases to amaze me with the extras they have managed to pack into this series. This volume sees yet another fine addition to the ever-expanding extras lineup that s-CRY-ed offers. The textless openings make a return, as do the character videos and design gallery. The Sound Comic makes a second appearance on this volume, covering the thirtieth chapter of the manga this time. As unique as the Sound Comic may be, Bandai has come up with an extra that manages to unseat it. Enter the Music Collection. Bandai has set fourteen tracks (for a total of around 17 minutes of music) to various stills for each track. Furthermore, the pieces are all separated by chapter stops, which makes for a wonderful convenience when looking for that one special song.

The packaging takes the overall focus back onto Kazuma, who shares the majority of the front cover with Kunihiko Kimishima. The back of the package contains several shots from the volume, as well as a description of the disc's contents, and a description of the extras contained on the disc. The insert features a return of the cover art on the front, and a collection of designs from Kimishima's stash of gadgets.

This third volume has managed to throw almost everything that the first two volumes have built up out the window in favor of a new direction. This new, darker feeling to the series is actually quite welcome, and seems to already have a strange sense of urgency lying beneath. One can only hope that the fourth volume continues to develop on this new direction that the plot has taken and bring it even further.

Video Quality: A-
Audio Quality: A-
Presentation: A+
Content: A-
Overall: A-