Both subbed and dubbed versions of this four episode 1995 ADR work on it himself), so it being licensed-rescued by Maiden Japan is hardly a surprise. At the very least it represents a prime bit of nostalgia for those whose anime fandom dates back that far, and the elements that made it entertaining back in the mid-to-late '90s have aged well. That this new rerelease might garner it some new fans, especially amongst the tabletop fantasy RPG-playing crowd, is hardly inconceivable.

The manga on which the anime is based originally appeared in RPG Magazine, which was published by the same Ruin Explorers fully captures the spirit of heroic fantasy without giving too much of a “dice rolling behind the screen” kind of feel. It does not constrain itself by casting its characters neatly into “classes;” Ihrie can use magic but mostly uses a sword and wears armor, for instance, and pretty much anyone who uses magic can apparently use healing spells. It also does not engage in self-aware metagaming. As a result, it can tell a breezy, free-wheeling story about adventurers who explore trapped dungeons, fight monsters and villains, deal with rascally merchants, and go on quests, and if along the way it should happen to engage in a bit of actual character and story development, where's the harm in that?

In many respects the series has a look, attitude, and feel similar to the original Slayers TV series, which came out at about the same time but has no significant commonalities in production companies or staff. All of the first episode and most of the second and third are dominated by silly fun as Fam and Ihrie get into one awkward situation or another or squabble with their rivals Migel and Rasha; although Fam's veritable war with Rasha over the dashing prince Lyle can get a bit irritating after a while, these parts are usually quite entertaining, especially the running gag about falling through floors. It has some amusing little twists on a regular basis, too, such as how Rasha is unreasonably frightened of a certain thing or why Ihrie is so circumspect ing her magic even though it is shown to be rather powerful. Lyle's story taking over inevitably forces the tone in a more serious direction whenever it happens, but prior to episode four those story elements do not predominate. Episode four, however, is a radical change, as it plays seriously and rather grimly from the beginning and only lightens up after the climax. Along the way we get a good feel for where Fam, Ihrie, and Lyle are all coming from and a convincing (if not especially well-developed) sense of female bonding between Fam and Ihrie that carries not the slightest hint of lesbianism. We also, surprisingly, get a bit more depth out of the main villain Rugudorull than one would initially expect, as he turns out to be more a case of good intentions gone horribly, horribly wrong than just a pure “evil for the sake of evil” kind of villain, and that his backstory casts Lyle and his father as guilty of obliviousness is an interesting tarnishing of their otherwise-perfect images.

On the technical front the series is far from a masterpiece. Director and scripter fan service and bloodletting, so the TV-PG rating assigned to it is only a bit of a stretch.

The soundtrack is a little stronger. Opener “Magical Beat,” which is also used for the episode 4 closer, is an adequately enthusiastic and dramatic but also fairly generic opener, but closer “Dear Myself” has a gentler, more cutesy sound that somehow fits the series well. In between the fully orchestrated score occasionally goes a little over-the-top in a hammy way, but this series has a lot of ham in it so that hardly is a detriment.

Maiden Japan's release retains the original 1998 English Jessica Calvello's high-pitched, flighty Fam.

In rereleasing the title Maiden Japan has retooled a few things, including restoring the original title screens and Japanese credits and adding the “Fam and Ihrie” (which is in the original Japanese title) back into the title. They also add in Japanese voice credits, which were conspicuously absent on ADV's 2000 DVD release; (thankfully!) update the subtitle font; and give the case a new and much sharper cover. The original DVD only had a collection of screen shots for Extras, which is replaced here with clean opener and closer and an audio commentary for episode 2 by Brett Weaver (Migel and the dog Gil), which was apparently done a few years after the dub was recorded. The one error is that the case lists the run time as 100 minutes when the episodes actually average 29 minutes in length (not counting the separate English credits scrolls), so a run time of 120 minutes would have been more accurate.

If you always thought about picking this one up but never got around to it then this is the version that you want, as it has a better set of Extras, has numerous small tweaks that improve things, and is cheaper (MSRP of $19.98 compared to the original's $29.98). Newcomers will find a fun couple of fantasy adventure hours that will consistently entertain without straining your brain.