Starry Sky Episode 21 Starry Sky Starry Sky

The musical score maintains the same opener and closer while supporting and reinforcing the action and drama nearly as well as it did in the first volume. The English voice acting also continues to do a good job of bringing its characters to life with the right personalities and attitudes, while the English script rewrites as necessary for a smoother flow, including some slight rephrasing of the Biblical phrases. Pronunciations for names are strictly European; no attempt is made to duplicate the Japanese interpretations. The one downside is the subtitles, which contain multiple typos, especially in episode 11.

As with the first two volumes, ADV has also given this one the deluxe treatment. An elaborate slipcover, styled to look like the book containing the Royal Psalms, covers a case which includes another extensive liner booklet. Among the inclusions this time are staff and cast credits, character profiles, blurbs about certain concepts which have come up in the first half of the series, a Gallery focused on the ending animation, and a script serialization for a background story that has not yet appeared in the animation. On-disk Extras include clean opener and closer, audio commentary for each episode which feature English voice actors and ADR director Stephen Foster, and another round of Historical Notes. This time the latter includes details on Elizaveta I, Aleksy Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Pyotr III, Ekaterina II, Saint Petersburg, and the Little Ice Age, which was taking place at the time of the story. Much of this is copied wholesale from Wikipedia, but its inclusion is nonetheless quite helpful for those who don't want to do outside research.

The plot is as complex as ever as the story wraps up its Russian arc. Still a great choice for anyone seeking some variety from typical anime fare.