One of the recurrent flaws in anime TV series is that they tend to place the rising action of a story too early in the season to sustain its pace until the climax. Witch Hunter Robin falls into this trap in the fourth volume, though not as badly as some other shows have. The result is four arguably enjoyable episodes, but only about one and a half of which actually relate to the buildup of the previous volume.

The fourth volume begins with an attack on the STN-J, ordered by the higher-ups. It seems at first like Robin is the target, but after she is helped to escape and Amon disappears, the spotlight shines on the Orbo (the green liquid that the Japanese hunters use to protect themselves). Meanwhile, STN-J is having a heck of a time getting by without their two best hunters, and things start to heat up in the underworld when word gets out about a certain artifact that an old witch left behind.

Looks like Amon likes 'em young.	Robin makes with the flashies.

The show is fairly exciting in this volume, but there is a lull in the middle that really disrupts the pace set by the first episode in the volume (the attack). The middle two episodes are "business as usual" types, and unfortunately contain very little material to help with story continuity. Aside from being in a bad spot in the storyline, they are enjoyable enough in their own right. In the first, Robin has a chance encounter with Dojima, who is relieved to see that Robin is alive and well. In the second, Robin babysits a little girl who has witch powers, and Dojima begs her to help with hunts again. The last episode of the volume gets the story back on track, and Robin finds herself with a new problem. Problem is, we don't get to find out the implications of her problem until the next volume, so this one was effectively fluff.

Not so on the product front, however. Bandai kept up the good work with stylish menus and packaging, and meaningful extras. The cover features Robin, who is scared of something. The extras contain interviews of Robin's and Miho Kurasuma's actors, plus another edition of the always interesting "Maelifica Compendium" liner notes. Finally, the insert has a blurb about Kurasuma.

Since you can't really cut the DVD in half to trim the fat, the fourth voulume is worth having in its entirety. Somewhat like the second volume, I would say wait on the fourth until you can pick up the fifth along with it. Despite the writers' failure to avoid one pitfall, the show is still strong in style, music, and acting at this point. I'm surely going to keep watching.

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