Monster

I've heard some fairly good things about this anime. I do know that it's slightly horror like, supposedly having something to do with a serial killer. It's a very dark anime or so I've heard.

The first episode begins with a group of surgeons coming out of a successful brain surgery. Then, just down the hall we see a weeping woman who has lost her husband. Cue opener. After the opener we go to Germany in 1986. Tenma, our lead man, is woken up by a women. He turns over and we end up watching some news. This scene ends with some possibilities of sex for Tenma. Then we're in another surgery. And out of it just as fast. He walks down the hall and a co-wroker talks with him. Then he sees the crying woman and her son, the woman glares at him for some reason as he walks by. He asks her, and she yells at him to giver her back her husband and attacks him. Tenma thinks back on it, and just stands there in shock over how he was used. Then we go to a restaurant with Tenma and his girlfriend. She's talking about clothes. He can't get ocer the case with that woman's husband. FYI- His girlfriend is a heartless B*tch. She says "not all human lives are of equal importance." Yeah, like yours. He goes all glassy eyed and flashes back to the event of the day. The next scene is police arriving on a call. There were shots heard, and this is the home of a foreign polotician seeking asylym. They come in on the politician and wife dead on the floor. We then see in another room the boy twin shot, and the girl, stock still, looking out in horror. Tenma gets called in to operate on the boy. cue break. As tenma drives to the hospital, he flashes back on the evening with hi FIANCEE not just GF and her father. We come to realize that Dad is also a jerk, and not a doctor who believes in saving lives. As tenma comes out of his flashback, he almost hits a semi! He arrives at the hospital and directly starts in with stuff about the patient. He goes into surgery not long afterward. The director tries to pull him out of this surgery in favor of the mayor. ooooh...what does he chose?

The art of this anime is interesting. It's slightly different than normal art in a way that kind of makes me not like it. The faces are drawn very oddly. Not so much a fan of this. I heart the theme song. It's kind of etheral and rock-y. It's a good combo.

I don't like this anime much. It doesn't hold my attention. I've heard fairly good things about it, but it hasn't gotten me into it at ALL. Better luck next time.

Mein Liebe (German for “My Love”)

Let’s begin with the title. My Love is full of bishouens. I sense homo erotic tendencies. The show is much like an alternate history. It’s set on a nation called Kutchen, on the west side of Europe. That obviously doesn’t exist. They still have a kingship here, even though I think it’s in the works of removal around them. It follows the Strahl candidates in their race to get to the position of King’s aid kind of thing.

The first episode begins with young man’s sister, soon to be married, is leaving on a couch for town.A few seconds later by anime time, a rider comes to his house to tell him that his sister crashed and is dead. Then he wakes up and wonders if that was a dream. Great. No solid facts have been established. a blink or so later, we see him touching the locket he got from the site where he carriage went down. SO yes, she did die. Turns out our boy is at the big academy in the area. Orphe is our main guy at the moment. He’s walking around campus, and meets up with a friend. He ends up discussing his sisters death and his goals for the future with his friend Ed. They go to class and end up getting into and argument about government stuff. It turns out this purple haired guy named Ludwig is essentially Orphe's rival in life. Soon after, we see a new character, a somewhat seedy reporter kind of guy. All we know is that he's looking for something. Cue mid ep break. Then we're back at school with several teachers talking. There's some more scenes, but my interest wanes too much to record the,

The theme song is good, fairly catchy. It has a good beat, and kind of seems to offset the show itself. The animation is okay, not a big fan.

Overall, I'm not impressed with this anime.

Maria-sama ga Miteru/ Mary is Watching You.

this anime has a verrry religious tone to it, one I’m not sure I can take. It takes place in an all girl’s school. I also think there will end up being some lesbian overtones to the whole thing. So that's an interesting mix to be sure.

The opening of the first episode resembles something you might find in a sorority rush function. One girl is choosing another to be her little sister. Then we go to flashback. we see the girl that was chosen earlier, being told to tie her scarf by the girl that chose her. then we see her at school, and see one of the other women that were chosen as a little sister. Bring in a photographer friend. She has a picture of the incident this morning and our lead girl wants it. She ends up having to go see Sachiko (her soon to be big sister) and get her permission. she goes to the house where the rose chicks have their meeting and all craziness breaks loose! Things are explained, things are confused, things just go everywhere. Bets are made, things go crazy, it’s weird. So, you’ll just have to watch it.

the songs are mellow and have a kind of cathedral feel to them. Like a choir of angels kind of thing. But it’s not bad. The art is nice. it has water color backgrounds in some scenes which is very well done. The art isn’t really impressive, but it’s still good.

I don’t like it very much. It’s just kind of ehh. Has it’s goo parts and bad parts but I’m not interested in it enough to keep watching it.

Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne

This is one of those awesome magical girl kind of shows. What’s interesting about it, is that it’s kind of the female version of DN angel. By day, our lead girl is a normal high schooler, by night, she’s a bad ass thief (the reincarnation of Joan D'Arc aka Joan of Arc) that steals objects that demons are using to get to humans. It’s a really interesting concept.

The first episode begins with a shout of “Checkmate-o!” and spot lights lighting. Jean has stuck again! The chase after her begins. She jumps along rooves to get away. We leave the scene on a girl basically swearing out kaitou Jean. Cue intro. The next thing we see is a school scene. Jean, as a normal girl, is at school. She’s with her best friend while she bitches about how Jeanne got away (she was the girl in the end of the last scene!) So we get a couple of scenes about our lead girl's life. Come to find out, there's another demon she has to take care of. Jeanne (it's easier to call her that) has a tiny angel that works with her and send her cards out that say she's going to steal something. So Jeanne has a inner debate over it, because he friend is going to set a trap for her and she doesn't want to get into it. She ends up doing it to save her friend because if the demons take over, the earth is doomed. SO she goes and "steals" the painting, she actually just pins the demon into the painting and it turns into a chess piece, thus the Checkmate reference from the beginning. She saves the day and escapes as usual. There's an interesting religious aspect to this anime which makes me fairly leery. Jeanne has to do her job or the demons take over earth and God dies. Kinda makes me less liking the show.

The theme song is pretty cool. Good to sing along to. The animation isn’t entirely new, But it’s still very good. I like it.

Overall, the show is fairly good. You should check it out.

Aria the Animation

This anime is fairly odd. It’s set on a terra-formed mars. They call Earth “Man-Home”. It’s like Venice, b/c everything is water. It focuses on a group of people that want to be Undines or gondolier people.

The first thing you see when the episode begins is a sign saying “aria company” and a weird, but cute creature looking out a window. ‘Parently, it speaks. And is President Aria. the chick that was sleeping in the bed bows to it and says good morning. Then we see this same girl and another preparing breakfast. Apparently they’re like gondoliers. Interesting. They live in Neo-Venizia (aka New Venice). We learn that this is on Mars, called aqua in the show, b/c it’s entirely water. Yay terra forming. We see a very interesting scene of our lead girl leaving earth and landing on mars, in which she’s obviously in an air craft, but it looks like there’s nothing there. Weird. We’re told that she wants to be a professional Undine. (ooh, Greek myths. Mixin’ it up) Which means she wants to be a gondolier. Weiiiiirrrrd. Her company gets a call, it’s little girl, but there are not more time slots available in Alica (the best gondolier)’s schedule. SO the girl hangs up. Arika, our lead girl, goes to practice her gondoliering and finds the same girl in her boat. She ends up being initially forced to take this girl with her, then they kind of sort of become friends. They’re riding around, and meet another gondolier, whoms gondola they get on to go see Alicia. They all stop for a buttered potatoes, and President ends up falling in the…water. So they have to rescue him. Akira practiced rowing backwards, so she gets to row to save him. Alicia showed up and ended up saving him.

The art is very good. Clear and very well done. the music is very slow and soothing, and it’s kind of one of those solve great moral issues kind of shows.

I kind of like it. ( I know, lots of indecision, but it can’t be helped.) Check it out anyway for a taste of something completely out of the ordinary, even for an anime, and that’s SAYING something!

Angelic Layer/ Battle Doll Angelic Layer

This anime is based on a very interesting concept. It’s one of those battling animes where you send people into battle after having raised them and such. But it’s a very person like angel instead of any kind of creature. They are about the size of a Barbie. It’s a toy, you choose the kind of features you want it to have and create it. then you can battle with it. It’s pretty neat. All the angels look different. I really like their costumes.

The first episode starts out very oddly. I got the dub, but it says “It was an egg with a dream…” Odd right? And we slowly see a clear almost watery egg with a person inside it. And a label that says “angel egg”. Go fig. Oh, and the egg has wings. Then cue intro. The next scene introduces the main character. She’s lost in a Tokyo trains station. When she gets out, she sees a fight going on on a big screen on a sky scraper. It’s an Angelic Layer battle. Randomly, this fairly creepy scientist shows up and gets her interested in playing. Apparently, it’s a build your own doll thing. Kind of Barbie-esque except cool. You can create your own. So basically throws all this stuff at here that she should buy, and she gets it, while mr.scientist is dragged off by security. Good riddance I say. So our lead girl ends up walking to her aunt’s house and not getting there till dark. There, she talks with her aunt. She wants to go to sleepo, but she has to take a bath first (what IS IT with japan and BATHS!!! Does no one SHOWER!) She’ brings the angle thing in the tub b/c it says you’re supposed to. Weird. Flash to a scene at the angelic layer headquarters with a random guy and the head of AL, creepy scientist. he…umm…he put an octopus in minion boys pants…..I was sooo right about this guy being creepy. Back to the girl. She’s staying with her aunt b/c her mom works a lot, turns out that her mom’s hiding a secret, So after her bath, our lead girl works on making her doll.

The animation is very good. Crystal clear. I like it a lot, very aesthetically pleasing. The music is okay, nothing really spectacular. It’ not bad over all though, which is nice, because let’s face it, bad music just sucks and can ruin the anime. Ok, lied. As you get further into the anime, there’s better music, the theme song’s just kind of mediocre. But the end theme is SWEET!!

I totally recommend this to everybody!

Fushigi Yuugi

This is a shoujo anime. There’s the classicpremise of a school girl getting powers. There’s plenty of bishounens in this.

The show starts out my explaining the book, and what the book does for the main character. When we meet the main character, she’s having a dream.. Big shock. She’d fallen asleep at school, and when she wakes up, she ends up hitting her teacher with her desk. She has to go out into the hall and hold the pose with the desk until class ends. After school, she goes to the National Library with her best friend. When she’s at the library, there’s a random shot of her surrounded bu a pinkish background and there’s a phoenix behind her. The bird disappears up a flight of steps. Yuugi (her last name) follows. She ends up in a reference room, where her friend finds her. A book drops off a shelf and her friend reads it aloud and they get sucked into the story, literally. Then up in a desert, where they get attacked by slave traders, then saved by a blue haired bishouenen. a few minutes later the girl’s friend gets sucked back into the real world, while yuugi stays here. Her friend is reading the book as yuugi’s in it. Yuugi things the dude kidnapped her friends so she hops on a wagon to find him. She finds him in a city. While looking for the guy, she gets tricked by some bad guys into following them, and the are going to sell her! She fights them with some wrestling moves, by the bishi ends up having to save her again.

The theme song is very 80’s Maddona-esque, which isn’t a bad thing. The animation is pretty good, fairly clear. The color is good, as are the character designs. There are sections of straight up drawings with dialog, where some of the characters move in the background and when I say move, I mean the placement of the drawings change. Some of the voices in the dub are highly annoying. Most notably, the main characters. The main girl is actually really annoying on several accounts.

Overall, give this a shot. I kinda dig it, but I need to keep watching it to really know.

Vampire Princess Miyu

This is a supernatural anime. It involves demons, vampires, and magic. The hero is Miyu. She sends the demon people back to where the came from. I think It’s set in Japan somewhere, not sure where.

The first episode beings with shots of a dead girl on a school ground. Some that knows her finds her. He glimpse the vampire and follows her until she disappears in smoke. The net scene involves everyone at school talking about the killing. Then they get a new student who just happens to be the daytime version of Miyu. Of lead guy’s on the case to expose her. There’s something going on with the teacher and these 3 girls. She gets a note from them that’s strange. Then they get killed. our lead guy finds one of the bodies and sees Miyu again and follows her, but then we see Miyu, and realize that he's following a diversion. we also meet Miyu’s gang of strange people. Next, we see our guy following Miyu after school, and then talking to Miss Maiko, his teacher, about the fact that she’s in danger. The teacher is weird. Very odd, I’m suspicious of her like woah. Anyway, she doesn’t believe him and he leaves. A few scenes later, we learn the truth of the matter. Maiko’s pet chameleon is really a chameleon demon. It’s him who’s been killing the girls, for Miss Maiko’s sake. So miyu and crew kill the demon, and more shocking things happen and the ep ends.

The arts pretty good. Like mind 90’s art. Good details, colors can be a little strange. Music is ok, not great.

Overall, I’m kinda eh about the series but I’ll prolly watch it some more. I’m interested in finding out what happened to that kid.

Blue Gender

Yes, I know. I’m behind since this is such a well known older series, so shoot me. Anyway, this is one of those alternate reality shows, where everything’s different. There’s a lot of advanced weaponry and some pretty cool creatures. It’s pretty mind trippy, not like Akira or anything, but still mind trippy.

The first episode opens with our guys preparing for battle, IE getting in the right places. It also starts out with some Eva like weirdness. This guy is being transported in a case on a gurney, then the guys that are pulling him get killed and his case flips and breaks. He sits up, looks in front of him, and sees a flippin' mech! …and it’s fighting something else, some messed up cross between and rhino and a spider. A capsule dude gets to watch as on the guys pushing the gurney (his body anyway) gets folder into a neat little ball. Needless to say he flips out. The thing turns to attack him and hi pisses himself. Literally. But get saved when the big bug is shot a lot. Turns out the mechs are the good guys, and one of them was sent to retrieve him “the sample”. Ooh. Interesting. He runs away, like any normal person would when confronted with a mecha. Cue a series of flashbacks that give capsule boys background. He’s been asleep for a looooong time. He had an incurable disease, so it was put on cryostasis till they woke him up. It must've been a while ‘cause Tokyo is now inhabited by huge carnivorous bugs. SO with some help from the outside and a few more battles, the kid gets saved.

the animation for this series is SWEET! Totally rocking. There’s mechs, flying ships, awesome armored soldiers, and they are very detailed. Totally cool.

I want to keep watching it, but I’m not gonna get it I don’t think. Worth checking out tho.

Angel Links

Angel links is an older anime, I’d say maybe mid-90’s by the art. It’s one of those animes set mostly in outer space like Gundam and Outlaw star. There’s also some very interesting mystical aspects to the show, much like in Sousei no Aquarion. It’s definitely an action anime. There’s fighting and battles. There’s also some pretty sweet spaceships in it. The main one can transform. We’re not talking like transformers here, from robot to car, it stays a spaceship the whole time. It’s just morphs for different purposes. There’s also some alien species in the show (one in particular looks like a large walking dino, that dresses himself. He’s cool)

The episode opens us with a cargo ship being attacked by pirates (all in space mind you, so there’s multiple plains to fight on : ) Then, one by one, the pirates ships get destroyed (which is interesting considering the fact that the cargo ship totally didn’t bring an escort!) It’s the three pronged ship of our heroes- it’s called Angel Links (ooh, title) Then the ship, that appears to be led mostly by women, whips out it’s cannon and vaporizes (literally) the rest of them. It’s pretty sweet. Turns out, the 16 year old girl runs the whole show, a free escort service for cargo haulers. Next there’s a reception where all this chicks clients coddle to her. Go Mei! Cue more ships to get attacked. The passengers are kidnapped, and ransomed. Angel Links takes the job of saving them from the bad guys. They give them they ransom and are taken with the bad guys until they get safely away. (learned something, the chic hides a small blue cat with wings on it’s head between her massive breasts. Yeah. I made the same face.) During a battle with the bad guys, Meifon has a flashback. She then makes her cat attack the guy, then, it turns into a sword. aahhhh, the wonders of anime. She proceeds to stab the bad guy and save the day. There’s more…but you’ll just have to watch it! I’ll just say that this ends on a veeeerrrry interesting note.

The theme song for this anime is very upbeat and cool. It’s catchy. The animation isn’t so bad that I can’t watch it. It’s a bit fuzzy, like old animation is, but the style of the characters and such is really good. I like the designs that they have in the show.

Overall- I dig this show…especially after seeing the ending. I’m totally needing to see more!

Bakuretsu Hunters/Sorcer Hunters

This anime is one of those where there's a group of heroes out to stop the bad guys of the world, in this case, the evil sorcerers of the world.

The first episode is entitled "Float Bridge of Love. I'll give s very short summery of the episode, which is pretty rare for me. So there's this evil guy that's been taking all of the women in this one city and feeding them to his pet evil thing. He's a handsome count, who just happens to be evil. So, the SH/BH are called in to save this one girl's sister, she's been taken by the count. So the main guy in the group, who's cool but kind of a dolt sometimes, goes head first into the situation and falls into a pit. wow, nice move. The BH have to come save him as well as the girl. They stay at the sister's house. We soon find out that the girl is actually in league with the count to get rid of her sister because she's into the count and the count chose her sister. So jealousy got between them. She was actually going to drop her own sister into the pit, but the gang stop her, using partly strength and partly discussion. The kill the bad guy and Save everybody.

Both the music and the animation are very 80's which isn't that bad. It's not horrible, but it's not very good either. I can stand to watch it, but not enough to be totally into it.

Overall, not really into this anime.

Bakuretsu Tenshi/Burst Angel

This is one of those animes that are starting to become fairly mainstream where the most kick ass characters are women. In the case of this anime, they are assassins/bounty hunters. The most baddass of them all if Joe. She's the backbone of the whole gang. They live in this huge trailer that is most likely bullet proof. Onto the episode.

The first episode begins by introducing the main male, who's name I forgot. He is taking a shortcut through an alley to get out of traffic. At the same time, we see a fight going on. It switches back and fourth. Turns out, our lead man took the wrong alley and ended up in the middle of this fight. He sees the girl that's fighting fairly clearly, but he is getting shot at and his bike gets shot literally to pieces. Moving on to later. He's telling a friend about this while he looks for a job. A teacher of his comes up to him and offers him a flier asking for a personal chef. He's in school to become a pastry chef (go fig) so he looks into the job. He ends up meeting the ladies of the bounty hunter squad since, lo and coincidence, he will be their chef. He doesn't know at the time what they do. So they approve of him as their chef, and he leaves until the next day. It doesn't take long before he's kidnapped. Great luck kid. Around the same time, the girls get a job. They have to break up an exchange. So they go to do that, and it turns out these are the guys that took their friend, battle ensues and doesn't end when the episode does, forcing you to watch more to know the ending.

I just love the art. It's awesome. Very clear, and very pretty. The music's pretty kick ass too. I like it.

Overall- I'm fairly sure that I like the show, but not entirely. It's definitely up my alley and I recommend everyone to at least check it out.

King of Bandit Jing

I'm not sure what the point of this anime is. It seems so far to be fairly episodic. But that's okay, because it's not bad that way. It seems to involve some action (it's totally a shounen), some comedy, and definitely some fantasy/mystery. But it's not as childish as you'd think. It takes itself fairly seriously which works for the series.

The opening scene of the first episode was enough to make me interested. It shows a parade of different people on weird animals heading towards this towering city. The creatures and other forms of transportation look so awesome. I was totally intrigued. Now onto the story. The ep follows our main main, Jing (who we don't know is Jing at first), as he wonders around this thief city. The head honcho of the city is the worst. He steals all the loot from anyone that tries to steal his great treasure. That's the goal of any one in the city, they want to get this awesome treasure. Through a series of events, including meeting a old woman who gives him clues, and agitating a dragon like creature, Jing makes it to this treasure. He duels with our bad guy, and gets the treasure, or rather releases it. And no, I'm not going to elaborate. Oh, i forgot to mention that there has been posters warranting the arrest of the King of Bandits, who is still faceless. As you can tell from the title of the anime, it's Jing. And the head honcho guy learns this at the end of the anime.

The art is fairly reminiscent of Yugioh, but not in a bad way. It's not as oh-wow as that is. But the relation between the two lies in the kind of hair some people have, and other elements of the world. But it's much clearer and more detailed. (I hate the art of yugioh, if that helps) The music is good, it's not distracting but ads some to the show.

Overall- I totally dig this show and highly recommend it to everyone. Did I mention I'm 20 and I like this stuff? Some people might find that demeaning. I just shrug:)

Comic Party

This anime is part comedy, part otaku fan-service, and part manga drawing anime (as subject manner). It's actually pretty cool.

In the first episode, the main male and his female friend a convinced (through amusing means) into going to a convention. It's seems to be a manga convention. They wander around and, inevitably, get separated. Our lead male ends up meetings a manga artist and helping her sell her manga. They become fast friends and our lead boy's interest in drawing manga gets sparked. At the end of the con, the 3 friends meet up, the guys had a good time, but the girl was miserable. She got ran over several times in the ep by con-goers. The episode ends when the trio are at school, and our new artist friend appears in the class!

The art is good. Somewhat manga-ish for comedic affect, but not in a bad way. It's fairly normal. The music...I don't remember. But it wasn't insulting, that much I know.

Overall- I pretty much love this anime. There's a lot to like about it and it's really amusing. I recommend it highly!

Welcome to NHK

this anime is pretty random, not gonna lie. The first scene will have you going WTF! Had me doing it. It's definitely one of those alternative kind of animes that don't really have a genre.

The first episode begins with this crazy gun wielding fellow in a suit yelling about how there's a conspiracy all around him. Insert random inserted images of a shoujo chibi character and there's that. Then he sees the girl with the umbrella- she accompanies the dundundundundun of an accordion. Cue big, black-ish spectral giant being. Suit man runs at it and bites the hat of some crazy little animal (which turns into a bomb) and runs at the creature. Then wakes up. He shuts his clock off, then mentally discusses his life for awhile. Next door, someone is constantly playing a shoujo anime theme song and it's driving our main guy crazy. Turns out, he's basically a agoraphobic, who one day on the way to class at a university, just turns back to his house in terror and has been there for a year. A scene later, he decides he's part of this conspiracy, and that the NHK (Nihon Hikikomori Kyokai- translated to mean something like"The Social Outcast Association of Japan" all hail google.) is trying to make more NEETs (Not in education, employment or training) by using anime to make otakus. He realizes he is a NEET but not an otaku, and thus part of the conspiracy. The next scene has a knock on his door. He thinks it might be the electric company come to collect. SO he answers it and it's a religious woman with a pamphlet about the NHK and NEETs that she thinks can help him. She also brings this girl along, the one from his dream. Our guy claims he's not a NEET and basically scares them off, or rather the woman off, not the girl. So he decides that he needs to get a part time job. SO in the morning he gets dressed, and goes to a Manga Cafe to see if he can get a job. The girl's there and he makes an ass of himself and runs away. The girl shows up at his house later, dropping off his resume with a note on the back saying to meet her in the park at 9 PM. He goes, and she's like, I want to help you stop being a NEET. The episode leaves you hanging a bit.

The opening art for this is kind of odd. Not gonna lie. It's almost like an ipod ad without any color. It's kind of pop arty, so I can't entirely resent it. There is one shot of an umbrella with holes in it that makes me wonder... There's also a whole puzzle thing I don't entirely understand. Some of the animation in the show itself is odd, furniture comes to life a few times, and that's WEIRD looking, but other than that, the animation is pretty good. The music is great. I like the theme a lot. It's very peppy, but not too pop like. It's good times.

Overall, I pretty much heart this anime. It's bizarre and random but utterly intriguing. Check it out.

Airmaster

This anime is pretty cool. The main character is a hugely tall red headed high school girl. She's a fighter. She can literally fly when she fights, leaping up into the air several FEET and do acrobatics. She can bounce off buildings and walls ect. There's an undergorund fighting ring in the city she's in, and she's undefeated so far. I think she's also involved in gymnastics, and that's one of the reasons why she's so good.

The first ep begins by zooming into a scene of a fight she gets involved in. She shootes into the air and twists inot a fighting pose, then the opener begins. The ep shoots over to a video arcade where a freakingly small highschooler is wailing over loosing a game where you use a claw to get the prizes. He friends won't help her, but the red-headed chick helps her, and basically gets stuff for all four girls, taking everything out of the machine. She befriends them and they wander off together. Some guys hit on one her friends, and red-head ends up kicking their butts. Then another guy shows up, and she goes to an alley to battle him. She wins. Her new friends had watched the whole thing, but they thought she was just the coolest person ever!

The animimation is fairly interesting. It's mostly normal, but there are some odd bits on animation every so often. Some expressions and some other elements are sometimes pretty odd. But overall, I like the series and recommend it.

Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge

This OVA was created off of the Darkstalker games created by Capcom. You'd think that would make it horrible, and it definately makes it CRAZY, but it's not as bad as it could be. It's set in two worlds. The first is earth, which is being run by this jerky Vamp/Demon and then there the Demon world. The characters are so cool. There's all this cool demon stuff in, with skulls and the like everywhere, and people have horns and wings and super powers like it's nothing. It's pretty cool. The OVA has four parts.

The first part introduces the main character, Morgan, this kick ass demon chick. It also introduces the vamp/demon guy that's currently chillin' on earth wating to take back the demon world. He's fairly angsty. But not all is well in the human world. Demetri (vamp boy), took away the sun somehow, and the human's are starting to want to revolt. They've decided to kill Demitri (good plan I think) and also get rid of all the other Darkstalkers. It basically turns into an all out war between the two(so it seems).

The art is veyr nineties, it kind of reminds me of Gargoyles. The show itself is kind of hard to look away from. It's pretty addictive. You can totally see the influence of the game on it and it's really cool. You can totally pick out the differerent moves from the game in it. Overall, I recommend you check it out. It's pretty amusing

BONUS MATERIAL!

Great quotes from the show:
"So we've been sitting around here with out thumbs in our butts for nothing?"
"It's that succusbus broad!"
"you want me to save you a few souls?" "No thanks, I've never been a fan of" organized religion"
"Bezulbub's Box! Where did those things come from!"

St.Luminous Mission High School

This show has a bit of mystery, a bit of romance, and evena bit of crossdressing (after all, if you want to go to a girl's school, and you're a boy, you gotta play the part right?)

The first episode begins in a way most men would enjoy. It begins in the shower with a girl (well, technically, it follows the flow of the pipes, THEN goes to the girl). So the girl is showering and her friend is in the next shower over. She asks if she can borrow some shampoo, but no one answers. She goes to check on her friend and she's just GONE. Shoot to the next scene. we meet our lead male and his friend. Our lead guy is going to become that Chairman at St.Luminous. His grandfather died and willed it to him. When he arrives by train in the city, he was going to wait two hours for the bus, but he sees a girl, who magically dissapears, and follows her. He follows her around for awhile, then she dissapears again. Then he meets up with his friend and they head off to St. Luminous. A sister meets them at the gate, the introduces them to the school via a broadcast system. We come to find out from this same woman, that the girl he saw is the same one they dissapears. So our lead male goes off in search of her. He doesn't find anything, but the rest of the episode is him and a few others trying to solve the mystery.

The art is ok, nothing to be really excited about. Fairly modern art style. The music is also fairly basic. I'm not really interested in this anime, not enough pull for me to watch it.

Mahou no Star Magical Emi

This is an old shoujo anime. There's a young girl and a fairy. Seems like it will be a magical girl kind of show, but just a really bad version.

In the first episode, we come into a family moving into a house. They are also preparing for what looks like a circus show. It appears to be a fairly large affair. We get to see the various members of the family. We see grandparents, mother, father, our main girl, and her little....sibling. When moving into the house, she sees a glowing dot in the air. There's this weird moment where it flies through her, and everything goes still, and she can talk to it. It's kind of jarring. Anyway, it tells her to follow it, and she does. It's a fairy of the mirror, and gives her a bracelet that will grant her a wish if she puts this spell on it. That's as far as I got in the Episode before I had to stop. It was bad.

This anime is very, very 80's. The art shows it. The music also does, but it's good music, so I can let it go. The plot was odd, and kind of boring. I was very not impressed, I didn't even make it 8 minutes into the show. But I usually can't take old anime, it just gets to me on an artistic level. So, I would say don't waste you time.

Hi no Tori

This anime focuses on the events that happen when people try to catpure and kill the Pheonix that flies around this one nation's volcano. There are many arcs, separate stories about contact with the pheonix. The first set of episodes are in medival-ish times.It focuses mainly on the life of Niga, a boy in the village who was taken by the people who destoyed his village. He was adopted by a soldier and trained by him to be strong and avenge his family.

The first episode occurs before the village is destroyed. Niga's sister is horribly sick. A man washes to shore that night, and he's a doctor. He heals her in exchange for his own life. He stays with them and acts as their doctor. He eventually becomes part of the village and marries the girl he saves. That night, the village is attacked. It turns out the doctor was a traitor, but not in the way it happened. Soldiers came from another village and killed the entire village when they were just supposed to kill the pheonix. It's blood brings eternal life. And the story continues, following Niga.

The art is weird in this anime. It's fairly new anime, but the art style is reminicent of the 1980's. The plot is pretty good, but I never managed to get past the art style. I watched a few episodes until I got bored. I didn't have the patience for it. But overall, it's not entirely horrible.

La Cordo D'Oro: Primo Passo

D'Oro is a shoujo anime. The characters are very beautiful and sophisitcated. The setting is a music school, no, I take that back. SOME of it, is a music school. Those are the super stuffy people. What's amusing, is that you can tell what year someone is by the color of their necktie.

This episode starts much like the first day at any school. We see some of the students, and the main character is late. But what's odd, is that there's a voice talking that no one seems to notice. Our herione soon discovers it's a fairy, one that only she can see! She freaks out naturally, and goes to class. Later, she has to take some supplies over to a music classroom (how I discovered the music people were jerks) and on the way their trips, and is saved from injury by a handsom guy of her same year. At lunch that day, the names of the students who will be in the music contest are called, and our girl is on it! Talk about shocked. EVERYONE was shocked. She tries to explain, but everyone's like, you're in, so...just do it. Then Lili- the fairy (a guy, mind you) gives her a magic violin and she FREAKS OUT AGAIN. *sigh* She really needs to relax. Anyway, she tries to refuse and can't. So she takes the violin and leaves. She sees some girls picking on the first year that got into the competion and sticks up for her. She gets challenged by the girls, and right before she begins to play the magical violin...the split to the intro. So, I'm hooked, and they left me hanging. Typical.

The art in the intro, before the actual opening, is cool. It's almost like it was done in pastels. It's a narrative, that gives the waaay backstory of the anime. It's pretty neat, there's a fairy involved. I like the rest of the art. It's a lot like Ouran. The guys are very pretty. The music in the show is very well done, and beautiful. Overall, I recommend this anime to all comers. It should have some very interesting twists in it along the way!

Lovely Idol

This anime is super shoujo. You'd think that would make me like it, but that's not a guarentee. The anime involves, as you would expect, an idol group. There's so far 2 sets of 6 girls in this group. A lot no? And the first episode begins when they are planning to bring in the next group, but of only four girls. The group itself is called the Lovedols.

The first 8 minutes of the ep are in the intro and the first two groups of idols coming out and presenting themselves with a song. Then, just when they were going to bring out the new idols, they delay it. Their manager freaks out and goes to the president. She says they are not ready, and until they are, they won't make their debut. The girls of course are heartbroken. But it is a delay and NOT a cancelation. They just have to work harder. So the manager spends the next 10 minutes trying to figure out what's missing. While walking home, he sees a singer, and there's that magical slowing of time effect that anime loves so much, which signifies to us, that she's the missing part. So he goes and listens to her sing (her song, btw, is so much better than the songs of the 'pro-idols'). He follows her and tries to get her to join up with the group (he follows her for like 10 minutes in real time so like 20 secs in the show). She declines, and says she hates singing. She does it "for revenge" DUHNDUDHN DUNH!!! Cut to the ending. That scene is the clincher. It pulled me in (you can tell by my changing tone that I started to like it).

The songs were fairly low key. They sounded the same and they had the same subject, being in love. I'm pro-love, but the songs just sucked. They were boring, execept for 'revenge' girl's song. Her's was really good. The art is fairly normal. The art while the idols on stage is interesting due to how they did the lights on the stage. It's not bad, but not special either. Just your usual cast of bright haired girls in short skirts. The plot seemed pretty boring, but it took a wicked turn in the last 10 seconds before the end. I say that you should give this anime a try!

Sousei no Aquarion/ Holy Genesis Aquarion

Let's first begin by stating that this anime is in fact crazy weird. There's stuff about reincarnations, winged people, and there's mechas. The main character is almost like Tarzan in his wildness. It's very interesting. This one character dresses like a soccer player and has a flaming foot when he kicks at you. Another character, a girl, has tele kenisis. Tee reincarnated souls of the people who are the lead characters make appearences in the anime too.

The episode begins with an intro about the people that pilot the mechas. It leads into a scene with a factory, in which several homelss kids are stealing food to eat. The police show up, and two kids battle them as a distraction so the little kids can escape. They succeed in kicking some cop butt. Then, we see some of these mecha pilots hiding under the street, strudying one of the boys that fought. They think that he is someone who can join thier team so they were sent out to find him. They fight with him, and while doing that, the aliens their fighting attack. They hypnotize the people around them, and the people get sucked into a building, become trapped. The guy that they think will be able to join their group, tries to save his friends and gets half sucked into the building. Then some more of these mech guys come and try to save the day. They try to, but fail at first and then....telling you what happens ruins it.

The art is very cool, clear, and very pretty. The concepts behind it are very cool. The mechs are seriously awesome. They are like transformers, made of 3 ships that merge together. They, through various combinations, can gain differerent powers. For some reason, regardless of the crazyness, I loved it. So I'd recomment just trying to get through the frist ep to see what you think.

Shaman King

This is a fairly old anime, and what I mean by that is that is came out in the 90's. It's fairly interesting. It brings a new term in that I hadn't heard in this context. A Shaman- someone who connects the living and the dead worlds. Our lead guy can combine himself with other spirits and use their power and knowledge. It's pretty cool. I just started watching it, but I'm behind on some things.

The first ep begins with this extraordinarily small high school student named Manta. I mean, he's like 2 feet tall. He's walking home from school when he first meets the Shaman (he has a name, I just forgot it). He was surrounded by ghosts. Turns out, he just transfered to Manta's school! Shaman-kid pretends not to know Manta, afterall, he doesn't want any trouble. For the nest few days, this Manta is obsessed with the ghosts and decides to get a picture of the kid with the ghosts. He goes back to the cemetary that night and ends up being beaten up! (by some thugs, not Shaman-kid) He goes to school the next day, and shaman-kid befriends him and decides to help him. They go back to the cemetary that nigh to avenge Manta, and that's when shaman-kid reveals his awesome powers.

The art's average, nothing really special about most of the characters. The samurai however, is very detailed and well done in comparsion. The anime is kinda silly, but filled with the supernatural. It's something I'd watch if it's on, but I'm not real draw to it. Seems very interesting though!

Words You Should Know (and how to say them!)

Anime- (AH-ni-mei)- That's how you say it in Japanese. Just wanted to put that out there. The art of Japanese animation, based on manga.

Manga- (MA-n-ga)- Japanese comics. A specific style of drawing featuing large eyes. Yes, there's more to it than that.

Bishounen- (bee-show-nen)- Pretty boys. Common in anime, often have long hair and femimine features.

Shojou - (show-joe)- Being aimed at girls, namely young girls. It features romantice themes, cuteness, bishounens, ect. Examples- the entire Magical Girl genre of anime.

Shonen- (show-nen) - being aimed at young boys. Action packed, adventure stories, often with mechas, ninjas, samurari, ect.

Shounen-Ai- (Show-nen Eye) - Boys love- meaning it contains homoerotic themes and gay characters. Yaoi (yow-ee) is similar but is more sexual, like animated gay pornography, manga term.

Shoujo-Ai- (show-joe Eye) - Girls love- meaning it comtains lesbian themes and characters. Yuri (yur-ree) is similar, but more sexual, like animated lesbian porngraphy, Manga term.

Hentai- (hen-tie)- being very sexual in nature, animated pornography. If an anime is rated H, it is a hentai anime.

Ecchi- (ee-chi)- Pervert. This refers to any thing that has perverted characters in it, men that peek up women's dresses, stare at their breasts, make crude comments ect. It can also refer to the use to panty shots and extremely large breasts as important to the anime.

Harem- (hair-umm)- in anime, this refers to (usually) a man that lives with, is surrounded with, or affiliated with a large group of women that like him and try to hit on him. Example- Love Hina is a harem anime.

Mecha- (mech-a)- referring to the use of large robots in battle. Mainly used in Shonen anime.

Tokyo Mew Mew

The intro to this anime is amusing, in an enviromental sense, becuase it's very pro-wildlife. It talks about how all these animals are on the brink of extintion and how bad it is. I was worried at first, but I needent have been. This is an anime that involves magic, various races, and transformations...and oh yeah, cat girls. It's very cutesy, and I'm sure it's some form of shojou. SO if you apsolutely hate shojou, you might only watch it for the catgirls : )

The main charachter is a highschool/middle school girl. She's very cute and spunky. She asks this guy she likes on a date to an exhibit about endangered animals. While there, she gets targeted for Project Mew. She gets zapped by a cat ray essentially and becomes on with a wild cat. She soon begins to take on cat like quialities, like reflexes and washing herself (that's fairly amusing), but the best part is that she starts to meow after she speaks (which is acutally Nyao and not Meow) and starts meowing uncontrollably. Heh. It turns out that she can esentially turn into a super cat girl, and defeat monsters! She becomes MEW ICHIGO! (her name is Ichigo and in Japanese it means strawberry, so she has a pink costume and her moves are 'strawberry this' ect.) Overall, she's very cool.

The animation is very new, and very bright and pretty. Reminiscent of Pretty Cure. There are some arsty moments, ala Sailor Moon transformations. The men in the show are bishonens (go fig) and there's two guys that run this Mew group. The show is great. I've completely fallen in love with it, but I am in general a shoujo fan. Check it out!

Digimon

Yes, yes, I know. It's a childish kids anime that everyone should have watched when they were growing up. Yes, I know most people don't think it's that great, but I still happen to like it. It's got the evolving stuff from pokemon, but they talk, which is a plus. There are several versions of the series, including the orignal, the 2nd set of kids, and Digi-savers. There's also a movie.

I'd tell you about the first episode, but it's been very much so too long since I saw it. So I'll just discuss the the series itself. The series involves a group of middle school students. They end up getting transported to a digital world where they meet digital monsters. Each of the seven-ish kids get their own monster and their own digi-vices, which allows their digimon to grown up or digivolve into a more powerful monster. With each evolution, the Digimon get news names. The kids spend the series fighting evil digimon and trying to save the digital world.

The art in the series is usually pretty basic, but in some scenes they combine regular art with digital imaging (CG). This usually occurs with the digi-evolutions. The music is very good in the series, I love the theme song. There's also some artsy backgrounds in the series that look like they were created by water colors. Overall, though the series seems childish, I feel that makes in timeless and that everyone should watch it!

Legend of Condor Hero

This anime is one of those classic 'train the kid to be a warrior' animes.

The main character's uncle brings him to a temple to learn how to fight (mainly because his aunt wants him out of the house). When the get to the foot of the steps to the temple, the encounter temple guards, that assume they are enemies. The try to fight them off. The kid and his uncle take another way to get in. They get caught, or rather the nephew does. The uncle goes up to the temple and learns that it's under attack. He helps defend the temple (as he was trained there) and the kid ends up fooling his captor and escaping, to join the fight, at least a little. They win (0f course) and the temple takes the nephew on. A romance develops towards the end of the ep, but I don't want to ruin the awesomeness that is of it.

The animation is good. Fairly new. The music is okay.

Overall, I happen to like this anime a lot. There's some action, some myth, some romances, and some humor.

NieA 7/ Niea under 7

This anime is odd, I'm not gonna lie. But it's fairly interesting. There doesn't really seem to be a plot though. But there are some very interesting characters.

The show revolves around a woman named Chugaski that has an alien named Nia living in her apartment. She (Niea) has a ship made of trash and lives in the Chugaski. The story is about the woman's life with this alien, who she takes care of. The alien is named Nia- she's a low class alien (a lot of aliens live on earth now) called an under seven. The first ep is very random. Nia just follows Chugaski around, complaining about how hungry she is. She gets Chugaski into all kinds of trouble. The duo also meets a crazy alien-fanatic. When Niea shows this girl her her spaceship, she ends up blowing up Chugaski apartment. And that seems to be all that really happens in this episode.

There's something horribly intriging about this anime that I can't put my finger on. I'm definately thinking about watching it on youtube or something. It is something that I'm interested in. It might be the animation.

Inuyasha

I hope most people have seen Inuyasha, but that doesn't mean that I don't need to have a review of it on the site : ) This is an anime that involves magic, action, curses, multiple worlds, demons, ex-lovers, and of course, a Japanese school girl.

The very first episode brings in the 3 main characters. It begins with Kagome, the Japanese school girl. She lives with her brother, Grandfather, and Mother, near and ancient well. One day, her cat goes into the building where the well is, and then she gets grabbed by a demon and pulled into the well. She leaves modern Japan and is taken back in time to the Warring States. There, she finds Inuyasha trapped against a tree with a sacred arrow that was fired by the Priestess Kikyo. Local villagers see her, and capture her, assuming she was going to release Inuyasha. Kikyo's younger sister (now old) recognizes Kagome as Kikyo reincarnation of her sister becuase she had the Sacred Jewel inside her. Later, when the village is attacked by the same demon that pulled Kagome into the well, Kagome is forced to release Inuyasha in order to save the village. After Inuyasha beats the demon, he begins to chase after Kagome becuase she has sacred jewel. Kikyo's sister says a spell that puts a necklace around Inuyasha's neck that forces him to listen to the command word choosen by Kagome (heh. SIT!!)

This series is epically long, around 167 episodes, so that of course means that it has some filler episodes, and a few arcs, but that doesn't make it bad. The arcs are very well deveopled. and the filler episodes are still cool. I highly recommend this series. It's fun, cool, and addictive!

Tokyo Underground

This is your pretty basic anime in overall concepts. There's some sillyness, there's some action, there's some magic, there's some fighting, and there's some romance. But, it's done it a pretty cool way. There's characters that fight with magic, characters that fight with sheer trength, mysterious characters, and of course, your classic side charcters that are the voice of reason. Here's the episode.

In the first epsiode, we are shown the two female main characters in the first few minutes. They are a womand named Chealsea and the girl she's protecting, Ruri, the Maiden of Life (don't ask, I don't know yet, and It would ruin something if I told you anyway). They are fleeing for the Underground (which is, go figure, under Tokyo). They are running away from the villian and his clawed Mecha henchman. These things are seriously cool. They are people sized robots with claws (ala the Japanese character Gloomy) and red eyes. They are bad-ass enough to be the reason I watch the show. So, through magical means, the two girls escape from the Underground.

Switch into the life of main mail charachter. He's dreaming about getting a girlfriend. He wakes up and realizes it was a dream, and it sad like all guys are in anime about realizing those are dreams : ) Then, rather randomly, spikes fall down from the ceiling and attempt to crush him. Turns out, as you watch his go through test after test, that it's his training. Traininf for what, I don't know, but I would assume for kicking-butt. Then his friend picks him up, he goes to school, gets in a fight, and comes home after school. He then meets the lead females which have come up through a hole in his backyard. Chealsea is injured, so she asks our lead guy to protect them. And the story leaves off there, with a few details I didn't mention and some sillyness.

I like the anime thus far. It's intrugued me to keep watching, but I'm not so in love with it that if I couldn't get anymore, my life would just end. It has some good plot points, some intrigue to make me intersted, and some of Japan's usual pervy humor. So far, I recommend it, but it's definately a viewer's decision.

Kyou Kara Maou

This anime is an action comedy. It flips back and fourth. The cast is almost entirely made of bishounens. It's slightly homo-erotic in nature (the lead ends up proposing to a guy because he doesn't know the customs). Also, a lot of side characters appear to be gay men. But don't let that fool you into hating the anime. You'll learn to love them.

Here's the story. One day, the main character Yuuri, a middle school student, gets bullied after trying to stand up for a guyhe knew. He is taken to a bathroom and given a swirly. Instead of just getting some weird hair, he actually gets sucked into the toilet and into a parallel world. Yes, yes, i know what you're thinking. That's the stupidest way for anything to happen, I know. But as it turns out, water is just his medium to get to and from this world. Anyway, when he arrives in this world, he meets up with the villian, then is saved by the people who end up being his closest compatriots. They tell him he is the new Maou (Demon King) of this world (New Makoku). Naturally he freaks out. Turns out that he is basically the human body containing the Demon soul of the new Maou- making him the Maou. The Maou's soul was sent to earth to grow up becuase the Maou at the time didn't think it was safe in their world. So, through a series of mis-deeds and adventures, Yuuri becomes the Maou and tries to help his new people.

I often post about the songs in each anime as habit, but I have to say that I absolutely love this opening theme song. It's really cool. The animation is very good, since this is a new seires. I belive it may still be airing in Japan, but don't quote me. It is, however, not yet licensed in the US yet. The anime is very quotable, and very funny, but not in a bad way. It's sometimes silly, sometimes serius, but always good. It's a perfect balance of drama, action, and comedy. I recommend it highly to anyone.

Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni

The first thing to say about this anime is that it is a horror anime, and it acts the part. My anime club is in the process of watching it right now. We watched it at our yearly Halloween party and the club got completely addicted. It seems like a Hero or Roshomon kind of anime, where it tells the same story several ways. The first arc ended bloodily in the 4th episode. I think that this anime is still airing is Japan right now, so we have to get it per episode via awesome American fansubbers.

The main characters in the anime are a boy name Keiichi and a group of four girls. They are part of a club of sorts, where they hang out after school and play games. The arc of the story follows these people and an event that happened in town concerning a dam that was going to flood the entire town. It was stopped, depending on which arc you watch, by an accident or a murder or the government. There's also a connection of that with a festival, the Wanatagashi festival that happens every year in this city. At the festival, there's supposed to be a curse, Oyashiro's curse, that gets someone killed or 'demoned away' (again, depending on arc) every year. So all of this is connected to blood and death.

This anime seems tame at first but don't let that fool you. It's very creepy and everything goes totally crazy the farther into the series you go. Little blonde girls weild machetes, a guy beats people to death with a bat, and another guy rips his own throat out with his finger nails. Parts of the anime becomes very graphic and bloody towards the ends of many of the arcs. As a horro anime goes, this one is great. It doesn't rely entirely upon blood and gore to make it scary. It mostly relies on complete personality reversals, where peoople just go CRAZY. And get really creepy, really quickly. If you're into horror movies, you would dig this anime, if not, I'd say let it pass on by.

Gun X Sword

This anime is very awesome. The main characters, Van and Wendy, rock. Van is a very Spike (ala Cowboy Bebop) kind of character. He moves a lot like him, and he's a thin cowboy looking hero. He's also good with his weapon of choice, a sword that become a belt and vice versa. Wendy is just cool. She has her brother's gun that she uses, red (natural red) braids similar to Pippy Longstockings, and a necklace that is actually a pet turtle. Totally kawaii!

The main arc is that both of them are after the same man, this nameless villian with a claw. He took Wendy'd brother, and I think he killed someone Van loved, so he's out for revenge and she's just trying to get her brother back. Thus they are chasing the clawed man. They meet up with some other characters along the way, and add people to their traveling group. Oh, but the coolest part of this anime is that it combines genres. It's like a cowboy-mecha anime. It's very cool. Van pilots a mecha called Dann. Van turns his hat to one side and it calls it down from Outerspace. It looks just like his sword til' it lands and morphs into this kick butt Mecha. Very cool.

The music is very cool. As is the art. The art is very modern, but not in a bad way. It's just very clean and well constructed. I recommend it. It has a good plot, has good character developement, and awesome action scenes. Check it out!

Magic Night Rayearth

To begin this review, I should say that I've perused some of the Manga in a Borders and find it intrigueing. That's where I first learned of it. I haven't read a lot of it, but I have read the first volume, so I know the backstory. It's on of those the main characters are taken to a mysterious other world and are bestowed with powers that turned them into essetially magic girls with swords. Similar to things like Twelve Kigdoms, El Hazard, Escaflowne, and Kyou Kara Maou.

The epsideo begins with the princes looking woman calling fourth the Magic Knights, which turns out to be 3 girls on a field trip in Tokyo tower from 3 different schools. After they are summoned, they land on the back of a HUGE flying fish. They're dropped pn the ground. A few minutes later, a fish is 'recalled' into the wand of a very, very small man. He's bishouen, so that's amusing, but he's like 3 feet tall and his clothes don't seem to have been made for him. He's a mage though, so he can fight the bad guys. He essentially becomes their guide and helps them learn the ropes. The villian is also introduced and his henchmen are women very much like those you'd find in Sailor Moon. Shoot back to the girls. The Mage bestows powers on each of the girls and they get some new additions to their wardrobe. The end up having to flee from villians, leaving Clef (the Mage) behind to fight them). So begins their quest to become the Mahic Knights.


The animation is very 80's/90's. Think the original Sailor Moon which was 80's Japan so 90's America. But that just means that the design is very close to the manga, which works. It's very detailed, so it seems a little overwhelming. The anime combines both some action and that classic middle school girl attitude. There's also magic, adventure, and a bit of idiocy. I'm still on the wall about the Anime, but I recommend the manga.

Madlax

The main character of the anime is very cool. She's totally kick butt and is like 007 but better. Bt I sense that there is some psychological trauma going on here.

The very first moments of the actual anime are weird. Just weird. But that's like 30 seconds. Madlax comes on screen a minute later. She's awesome. She is one of the best agents this one organization has. She jumps out of a plane without opening her parachute (so shw doesn;t draw attention to herself) but opens it just right that it catches on the trees and she hangs a few feet off the ground. We also get to watch the people that she's obviously after as they go through a checkpoint. It continues to flash back and fourth between her and them for the duration of the episode.

There's a moment of trippy psychodelicness in which the guy that joined up with her turns into this other, it seems kinda like a flashback. I think it has something to do with the fact that she knows this guy is going to die but I don't really know.She has this weird thing about pasta- she's going to eat it afet her mission (i approve, yay pasta) but she says it several times, including after the trippy flash back moment.

The Opening theme is good. I also like some stuff about the animation. I'm not quite sure how to differntiate what I like from what I don't but there's some 80's animation and some more modern animation. It's an odd combo. I'm not sure I like this one. It's fairly odd for a first ep but I am willing to DL the next ep and just see.

Ouran High School Host Club

This show is amazing. It's super shojou in and full of shjou-ey glory. There's a cast of bishonen men (the smart one, the cutesy one, the intense one, the ridiculous one, and the insestsous twins) and a crossdressing girl who fools the entire school. There are several stand alone episodes in the series, but the main arc is more of a following Haruhi'S (the girl) life with the Host Club. It also follows the various romances between Haruhi and members of the Host Club.

Ouran is a prestigeious school for the rich, and Haruhi is so not rich. She is middle class, but the students at Ouran are SUPER rich. The first episode sets up the story very well. The school is introduced, the characters, the lead, and the arc. It flows really well. The characters are very cool and very lovable. Everyone that likes the series has their favorite. The first ep explains why Haruhi became the dog of the host club, then how she got into the group, and finally how the group realized that SHE was a SHE and not a He. : )

The opening song is absoultely great, as are all the songs in the series. The opening art is very cool, essentially anime with dark outlines. Don't let this foo you however, the series is normal. There are a few interesting touches though. Some scenes, mostly when the Host Club first appears in wach episode are surrounded by a border of roses. There are also boxes that will appear randomly that include an amusing notes that goes with the scene. Luckily, this doesn't take away from the shows, it's not that distracting.

The Work of Hayao Miyazaki

There is almost no anime fan that doesn't know and worship the work of Hayao Miyazaki. He's been animating for about 40 years, since the late 60's. He co-founded Studio Ghibli with friend snd producer Isao Takahata. Disney made a deal with Studio Ghibli for several of their movies including Spirirted Away, Howl's Moving Castle, and My Neighbor Totoro.

He's an amazing animator. His anime always focuses on some larger issue but it won't interfere with your enjoyment of the movie. His a total enviormentalist, as can be seen in several of his movies. His movies are often somewhat romantic, but also action packed. I recommend them to everyone!

Here's some of Miyazaki's more well known movies:

The Castle of Cagliostro (1979)

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)

Castle in the Sky (1986)

My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)

Porco Rosso (1992)

Princess Mononoke (1997)

Spirited Away (2001)

Howl's Moving Castle (2004- but it didn't hit the states til 2005)

Dragon Drive

This anime scores several points of multiple anime scales. The dragon ranks high on both the cuteness scale and the Badassness scale, which for some reason is very do-able in anime. I like the series, because it ends up pulling you in. It's also somewhat amusing, which is good. Here's the ep!

In the first episode, we meet our main character. He is a Japanese highschooler named Reiji. He's a slacker. He's usually late for school, and never stays involved in any club he joins. He also gets into trouble at school and is getting horrible grades. One day, his friend invites (well...tells him he's going more like) to play this game. They walk into what looks like someone's home and up to this high tech steel elevator. It takes them down to the game room. It's a very cool place. He gets involved in the game and then some extrodinary things start to occur in his life after this.

The anime revolves around this underground vitural game (which is supposedly very real looking to the anime characters) called Dragon Drive in which a digital Dragon is given to each person in the game. It's one that's based on the DNA and their personality and is made to match them. They then train and fight with their dragon in the game. They will always have the same dragon. What's weird about the main character and his dragon, is that he essentially linked up with his dragon so him and his dragon are doing the same things, movement wise. It's never been done before, so everyone (that noticed) is awed by it. This is the hook of the story. No one tells you why it's odd, no one says why it's important, and that's where it gets you. You want to find out so you'll probably end up watching more of it.

The theme to this anime rocks. I want to download it. The art is pretty normal. Some of the dragons remind me of something you might see in Digimon, but I watched Digimon, so I'm kind of okay with it. The only drawback is that it DOES kind of have that pokemon/digimon kind of feel to it, but it's also much different. There's more pull to watch it and more mystery. There's also a better script. So don't give up on it!