Ring ni Kakero 1: Shadow: Toei Finally Takes This Series Seriously

This anime has since been re-reviewed in a more comprehensive & detailed manner, alongside the other seasons, via Retrospect in Retrograde, which you can read at this link.

Now I wasn't quite sure of what review to do today, especially since I didn't really have anything Christmas-y on my list of shows to review. Luckily, my CDJapan order of Ring ni Kakero 1: Shadow Volume 3 arrived much faster than I had planned on it arriving, so I decided to re-watch those first two DVDs I bought back in the late-summer/early-fall as well as watch this last DVD. And with that comes my holiday gift to all of you: A review of an anime that no one seemed to give a damn about this year!

Now when I say that no one gave a damn about this show this year, I mean ABSOLUTELY NO ONE! The idea of a third season of the Ring ni Kakero 1 anime was hinted at back in early 2009 when Masami Kurumada posted an image on his blog that showed a new song he was writing for something called "Ring ni Kakero 1: Sekai-hen". Nothing else would come from this until that December when Toei announced Ring ni Kakero 1: Shadow at Jump Festa 2010. The big change from that announcement would be that the anime would air on Animax's PPV service rather than TV Asahi, where the past two seasons originally aired. It would also debut in April 2010, about 4 years after Season 2 aired, and have two episodes made available for a limited time in April, May, and June, totaling 6 episodes, half the length of the previous seasons.