It's been a long week waiting for Part 2 of 'The Long Way Home' in motion comic form, and I must say, the excitement has waned slightly upon seeing the second episode. I'd love to say that the episode lived up to my expectations, but unfortunately a few negative aspects I highlighted in my last review are weighing heavily upon the series. But hey, lets start with the positives, shall we?

The episode itself focuses upon the training of the Slayers activated in the events of the Season 7 finale, 'Chosen'. We see their struggle to co-operate with one another, and learn how much of an uphill struggle their activation actually presents with regards to making any progress in the battle with evil. Dawn's growth is also dealt with, with Xander suggesting that perhaps her struggles with herself and her new family of Slayers are manifesting in the form of her new gigantic stature. The meat of the story, however, comes in the form of a curse put upon Buffy in her sleep, trapping her within her own dreamworld until she receives the kiss of true love. Cliche, sure, but the reintroduction of Amy as an antagonist is an interesting start to the season.

Once again, the animation is hard to fault - sure, the characters shuffle rather than walk, but the primitive animation serves its purpose in bringing the characters to life. I felt it was put to less use in this episode than the pilot, which disappointed me slightly - however, this may just be me.  We also see an improvement in certain areas of the voice acting in this episode - Buffy's voice in particular seems much more emotive, and her speech with the Slayers genuinely reminded me of Sarah Michelle Gellar's speeches throughout the series. Amy too was acceptably similar to her TV counterpart, with the new voice actor fitting the character well enough not to distract me from the episode.

However. And this is a big however. I sat down this morning ready to watch the episode, thinking great, theme tune time. It struck up - and then it stopped. Where is my theme tune?! There are only two ways I can take this - either each arc is indeed going to be combined to make a fully fledged episode for the DVDs, or FOX are trying to break my heart. On another subject, while I complimented aspects of voice acting earlier on, I just cannot gloss over how terrible Giles, introduced at the beginning of this episode,  sounded. Thinking stereotypical, gruff-sounding British gentleman, and you've got it. Stereotypical is simply the only word I can think of to describe it, and it just sounds completely wrong, not fitting Giles at all. The voice is simply too harsh - instead of Gile's friendly voice, the acting re-characterizes, attributing an air of superiority. It's difficult to receive his lines in the same way, with the harsh twangs automatically reinterpreting Anthony Stewart Head's portrayal of Giles. Willow, only present for a few seconds, also sounds very different to Alyson Hannigan - reassuringly, the actress speaks softly, and though she doesn't sound particularly like Willow, her voice is mild enough not to distort the character.

I must stress, this isn't a negative review. I'm really enjoying the motion comics so far, and am really enjoying having Buffy on the closest thing to television she's been in years. However, the voice acting simply lets the episode down, which must be improved over the course of these 19 episodes if they wish to stay loyal to the characters they are animating. Because seriously, Giles cannot get any worse.