Released by: Madman Entertainment.
Region: Four.
Aspect Ratio: 16:9 (anamorphic)
Disc 1:
The ride into some form of hell begins to pick up speed. Ichise, having escaped from the Doctor, wanders the city encountering Ran. Ran seems to take an interest in Ichise and aids him even as the Organo sent to find him prove less than helpful. Yoshi shows more of what he is about by forcing the already tense city into an increasingly tense state. Tensions are building and Lukuss will suffer and change as a result.
Losing none of its dark and grungy charm Texhnolyze begins to reveal some of its secrets this volume. We learn a lot about what Yoshi has journeyed to this strange city for as he manipulates and connives his way towards his goal. While we now know roughly what that goal is we still don't know why he wants to achieve it or why he is prepared to destroy the lives of so many to make it happen. Despite Ran and Onishi's best efforts a spectacle is about to start that will rip the city apart and determine a new order. Consistant with the twisting perspective of the first volume our conception of who Yoshi is and his essential character shifts from regarding him as an amiable curious tourist to someone who has a definite agenda.
One that isn't to many people's benefit.
Of course in doing so it raises a whole heap of questions. Why is this so important to Yoshi that he is prepared to go to some lengths to achieve it? How does he know so much about the structure of Lukuss including a lot of backhistory about the doctor? Yet his information is curiously out of date and requiring correction - old photographs of Onishi and his ignorance of boundaries between groups despite knowing of their existance & leadership.
There are even hints that Yoshi and the trouble he is stiring up isn't an entirely new experience in Lukuss - that similar trouble has occured before. It all points to the experimental city Lukuss being less an experiment in location and more an experiment in social structure, an experiment on its inhabitants.
All in all Texhnolyze doesn't let up in being an intriguing and dark tale. One that those who have a taste for more cerebral plotlines would be well advised to sample. The one disappointment is the lack of extras with the release. This is a series crying out for interviews and analysis. While we did get an interview on the first disc it is just a little disappointing we didn't get something this disc.
Thanks to volume two finally begining to provide some context for decrypting the series I've placed some theories and speculation online. I am curious to see if I have correctly understood the series' intent.