Story
Containing five episodes instead of the usual four, the fourth volume of Kenshin isn't anything to run to the stores for. Though entertaining, the episodes contained and the recycled layouts don't give this DVD much to be excited over. The episodes begin with a sumo-wrestler in need when his entire school is out to get him. 

This is followed by an episode focusing on Megumi. When a new healer comes to Tokyo claiming to have the ability to heal using magic, the town turns on Megumi and her abilities as a doctor for this con-man.

The highlight of this DVD are the following two episodes pitting Kenshin against the Jinpu Squad, a group of assassins who slaughter corrupt Imperialists. In order to strengthen their group, the Jinpu Squad seek a former teacher of Toma, the leader of the Squad. However, the former teacher of Toma is now a simple school teacher who wishes to never hold a sword again.

The final episode on this disc focuses again on Yahiko and his attempt at scoring a girlfriend. This time around, she is a human bullet in a circus who's father is in debt to a rival circus of which he used to work for. (Much like the first girl Yahiko had a thing for, except this time there is a parental figure and the gang hides behind being a circus. How does this kid keep getting himself into these situations?) 

Packaging
The same genre of cover is again used. This is not however a bad thing. The cover contains all of the main characters with the exception of Sanosuke. The background is orange and gets darker as the colors near the center of the packaging. The main focus of the character images is Yahiko. The back contains episode summaries, screen captures, a daizenshyu quality image, production notes, and the special features emblem once again. Within the casing is a chapter list complete with screen captures and other titles available from Media Blasters' Anime Works.

Menu
By the fourth DVD I had hoped a new layout would be created for the menus, but we are once again subjected to Kenshin and flower art with the Kenshin Battousai theme playing. This menu was fine the first three times I saw it, but I would really like to see more effort put into these DVDs. 

English
Much of the same can be said about the English version of volume four that was said about the preceding three. Voices are well chosen and talented actors. No one character was really important enough to the storyline so my review of a particular VA's performance will not appear in this review.

Japanese
Not much changes about the Japanese version either on this disc. The voices, dialogue, music, everything is still just as good. The subtitles are again white with a black border making the words easy to read.

Extras
The real quality section of this DVD is the extras. Though only three appear on this DVD, they are great. The first is once again "Liner Notes" which is as informative as ever. This is followed by "Fan Art" which are the winners of the fan art contest discussed in Kenshin Volume 3: The Shadow Elite. For the most part, the artwork is alright, but there are a few amazingly well drawn pieces included. The final extra is "Outakes" which weren't as funny as the ones on Volume 3, but entertaining nonetheless. 

Final Thoughts
I bought this DVD expecting the episodes to be really good after what I saw in Volume 3. I was sorely disappointed however as I was given episodes that were completely unimportant to the future of the series (At least they seem to be). For five episodes, they all seemed like fillers and if Volume 5 is anything like this volume, I may give up on the series. Later minna!

© Eric.