Anime Fantasma

Zombie Loan

2007-08-09T00:16:00.000-04:00

Hmmmm...Zombie Loan...could it be about....Zombies? Or something equally supernatural? Hmmm....this is a toughie....

Not so much. It's an action anime. Reminds me a bit of Tokko, which I happen to like. Especially the opener. There's a girl lying in a puddle of blood being told she's going to die. Nice huh? A few seconds later they introduce NA NA NA!! the Bishonen main characters. The show gets weird pretty quickly. What would you do if someone handed you a hand? Literally? I definately wouldn't connect it to my wrist and then argue about dropping it, but that's what happens. And that's when you're only 5 minutes in! Kita-san, our geeky leading lady, passes out around the same time, screaming. She sees things when she's not wearing her glasses, but the mystery builds. Around 7 minutes in, you get a clue but not a very helpful one. A little later, the guys strade hands, again literally, and start fighting evil...after threatening to kill Kita-san. Nice guys. Kita is a screamer. She's already screamed around 5 times and we're not through the episode yet! Things get more an more interesting, and we're finally introduced to the Z-Loan company- they're into general loans and Zombie Loans- loans for the dead. Now there's an Idea!

The intro is awesome, at least until the lyrics kick in. I want to give the lead singer a lozenge. But the opener overall is very eye catching and draws you in.

It's a new show, so the art is very clean and clear, the way I like it.

Overall, I'd say this show is a must see!

Romeo x Juliet

2007-04-23T01:30:00.000-04:00

Let's start with the obvious. It's based, loosely..VERY loosely, off the Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet. (wow, the title didn't give that away at all). It's more fantasy than Shakey's version, flying horses being involved in the first 3 minutes. It seems like there's more fighting in this one. It also seems like they both have a personality, I'm HOPING Juliet's not a complete loser (not a fan of her very much, weak woman thing and all). They got the period garb right, which is a plus. Love story and STRONG SUPPORTING characters hopefully to ensue.

HERE'S WHAT THE 1st EPISODE GIVES YOU:
In the first five minutes, you get some background on the Capulets (no spoilers here!). Pretty interesting twist on the tale. I just want to say something, FUZZY FLYING HORSES ARE AWESOME!!! I want one. Back to the review. Hehehe, Othello poster....allusion much? Introduce some very cool characters. Think Zorro in red with a kid as a sidekick. My drunken boyfriend and I had an argument over who it really was. That was amusing. I told him right off "Girl." He spent five minutes THINKING he was telling me it was a girl.....hmmmmm.....still don't really know if we're right. Female voice....short hair...names Odin...well damn it. Heh, Shakey's in this. But he's blond..so I have a problem with this. And a complete pansy. *growls at Japan* BUT he's harboring people, so I give him some props. We also get to see some of the noble court.

The theme song's pretty great. I like it. It's very "wind beneath my wings" but it's in Japanese so I like it better and it fits the story well.

Overall, I think I like it. It's like Shakey's plays all mixed up and thrown into a fantasy world!

I'm just not sure I can bear to watch it if they are just going to end it the way the story does. After all, the Japanese have no problem with calling a tragedy a happy ending!

Murder Princess

2007-04-19T15:32:00.000-04:00

This is one of those animes where the animators weren't afraid of using blood. It's fairly bloody, but not gorey (meaning no guts, just blood). In the first episodes...lessee...we see 8 some demons get killed, maybe more, and about I'd argue 4/5 humans die. It's fantasy, being set in an entirely different world, full of demons, but also mechanical people. Nice combo. There's also a strong, kick ass female lead, which is nice. There's some paranormal tossed in there too in the form of a soul/body switch. So..it's like the anime's anime. They wanted to see what they could put in one anime. There's magic, and demony things, and also some ghost rider-esque transportation.

The first episode begins by introducing the female lead and her companions. They are kicking some ass for a bounty. Translation: they are bounty hunters. Check. We then go over to the Florian castle, where soldiers have been loosing their asses. The king tell the princess to escape, then bites the dust. She escapes and is replaced by one of her attendants. Then we see these two villiany characters, one in armor, and one an evil chic, who seems pretty cool. They are talking about where the princess is....split scene. Princess in the woods. her guards get killed, ripped in half by a demon. She runs for her life and runs into the bounty hunter. When the demon attacks, they both fall off a cliff and while falling they switch bodies (which is explained later, like usual).....and then.....

I'm very undecided about this anime. It's interesting, but it's not really that engaging. I have to watch more of it before I decide.

Goldfish Warning

2007-02-04T01:37:00.000-05:00

this anime is totally for kids.

The main character is a pink haired middle schooler. In the first episode, a new girl transfers to the school, it’s actually closing soon. She was raised in a rich family, and it a flop head, she “gets dizzy whenever she sees something shabby.” She ends up getting forcibly befriended by the pink haired girl. Later, they chase a former teacher who is trying to steal the cool pink goldfish. The goldfish stealer also had a key to a safe deposit box which made the rich girl rich again. She decides to rebuild the school! WOO! But she wants to run EVERYTHING and have everything her way and ruins the fun of the school for everyone else.

The animation is very 80’s. It’s also very chibi-esque. The music is very peppy and annoying. Like bubble gum Pop almost.

Needless to say, NOT going to watch this.

Pet Shop Of horrors

2007-02-04T01:36:00.000-05:00

This is a kind of horror anime involving the bad results of breaking contracts. Each tale has a moral.

The first episode begins with this guy calling the pet shop to complain about the tiger hw got. He tried to show it to people, against the contract, and it didn’t work. The pet shop guy basically says, you’re screwed I can’t help you. Then, the tiger comes out of the wall scroll and kills him. Next, we see a guy, a detective, going into the pet shop to confront the guy. He totally (the pet shop guy) looks like a transvestite with HUGE black nails, lipstick, and very feminine features. He goes it to accuse the guy of a list of crimes. He denies them, and the detective leaves. Later, a couple comes in to buy a pet because their daughter died and they are lonely. They get a rabbit that looks just like their daughter. They get three rules, don’t show it, don’t let the incense go out, and don’t feed it anything but veggies and water. Not hard right? SO they take it home follow the rules, until they give it a cookie, then all hell breaks loose. The human looking rabbit explodes from the inside and babies spring fourth, if you turn the light on they are rabbits. It’s creepy. Anyway, so the detective guy had been camping out to see if anything happened and ended up learning about the daughter and her drug addiction. He later goes into the house when the pet shop guy shows up to collect the rabbit. The house is FULL of rabbits. They killed the dad, and the mom is surrounded by them upstairs. They (the detective and poet shop guy) go upstairs. The woman ends up telling them about her daughter, and how when she was lying in a hospital bed, on a IV from a partial drug over dose, the mom gave her more drugs because it would make her happy. Moral of the story, don’t spoil your kids.

The animation is 80’s early 90’s. There’s not a lot to say about the music, there’s no theme.

Overall, I’m going to watch the show because it perks my interest, but I don’t want to get it.

Soul Hunter

2007-02-04T01:34:00.000-05:00

This is pretty bad. I didn’t watch most of it because the animation was reeaelly old and gritty and painful. The gist is, there’s this bumbling oaf guy who’s given an important mission because no one else wants it. He has to go to earth. They know he’s gonna mess it up. The whole thing is being watched by this weird jester like guy on a flying anime of some sort. It’s just odd and the animation made me cringe, sorry I can’t give you anything better.

Shrine of the Morning Mist

2007-02-04T01:33:00.000-05:00

This is one of those animes where a group of priestesses can save the world, with a twist, a boy with two different eyes, one normal and one that can see the spirit world.

In the first episode, we get to know the characters. The oldest sister is a hard ass and the leader. The middle sister is in love with the different eyes guy, and the little sister is just a sister. They have to go pick up this guy from the train station. He’s going to be attacked by their enemies, and loan behold it happens. They want his eye for it’s power. Nice huh? SO the girls have to go save him. The middle sister arrives last and ends up saving the day by hitting the bad guy with her bike. The three sisters then call upon a series of spells which allows them to bind the creature thing the bad guy created and kill it. They do that, then go home for dinner.

The animation is very good, very clean and smooth just the way I like it. The music is also cool. Very catchy.

Overall, the show’s not bad, it just isn’t’ GREAT.

Iria: Zeiriam the Animation OVA

2007-02-04T01:30:00.000-05:00

This show had great potential. It’s about a brother and sister bounty hunter, well, actually about Iria, the sister.

In the first episode, we come into in when Iria is trying to collect a bounty. She comes in and kicks some butt, but another bounty hunter steals the bad guy from her. Then she goes back home. He brother is preparing to leave on a job. He leaves, but meets up with some robot kind of guys trying to stop him. Iria hears the shots, and basically hitches a ride on the top of the other (the one her took her bounty) bounty hunter’s craft. She helps her brother and hinders the bounty stealer. She ends up hitching a ride with her brother to help with the job. They are supposed to help the crew and get the cargo. When they get there, the place is a bloody mess. Most of the crew is dead, because of the cargo. They had though it was being held up, but that’s not the case. Turns out, the cargo is this creepy immortal monster that they created. It killed off a bunch of the crew. Iria’s brother fights it, and wins, then their friend bob fights it, and loses, but Iria sends him off in the escape pod with the others. Iria and her bro need to get off the ship, but end up having to fight the Zeriam. Iria gets out, and her brother says he;s going to take the last escape pod and meet him. I’m not going to spoil the ending.

The animation is 80’s, but the concept art is really cool. I like what they did with the world they created, but the story falls a little short. The music is pretty cool kind of surreal and 80’s which is quite the combo.

Overall, the plot doesn’t impress me, but I wouldn’t completely balk at seeing more of it.

Gokujou Seitokai/Best Student Council

2007-02-04T01:28:00.000-05:00

This anime is about a group of girls, the Gokujou Setokai student council, that basically watch the backs of the school and kick butt.

In the first episode, we meet this girl who is being sent to a new high school by a Pen pal she’s never met. She has this “friend” named Puuchan who is a puppet on her right hand. He’s weird looking. You get the sense that it’s actually one of her dead parents souls. So, when she gets off the train where she’s going to be going to school, she discovers that her apartment burned down, and she has no place to live. She ends up sleeping in front of her school. In the process of going to the school, she gets in the way of the Gokujou Setokai trying to catch a criminal. She spends the rest of the episode making new friends amid the Gokujou Setokai and being admitted to their ranks. These girls are crazy. They have great skills, but can also become completely silly.

The animation ok, It’s new, it just doesn’t impress me. The theme is pretty good, very upbeat.

Overall, the show COULD have been good sans the puppet, but the puppet ruins everything.

Kurogane Communication

2007-02-04T01:26:00.000-05:00

There’s not a lot to say about this anime. It’s center’s around the one human left on earth and her robot companions.

In the first episode, we’re introduced to all the characters, the human, Spike the robot, a gun happy robot, a smart robot that can cook and looks like the terminator, a super smart robot that sounds British, and a angsty robot named Angela that hates humans. The episode involves them eating dinner, and Angela does show, so the human goes to bring her food, but to no avail. The human ends up having a bit of a mental breakdown because she doesn’t know why her family left. The robot Angela watches this and perhaps takes something out of it. That may not seem like a lot, and it’s not, but it’s more interesting than some things I’ve watched, mainly because Angela is SWEET.

The animation’s not bad, it’s not great either about early/Mid 90’s animation. The theme song is pretty neat, for the message and also a bit for the rhythm. The meaning is just cool and romantic, which is why I like it.

Overall, I want to watch the anime to see how things end up, but I’m not super excited about it.

Shamanic Princess

2007-02-04T01:24:00.000-05:00

This anime seems to be one of those where there’s good guys gone bad, lots of traitorism, and people coming to earth to get something back that belongs to another world.

The episode begins with some guy saying “the wind is about to blow” then his shadow disappears. Our lead girl appears, and her pet/friend creature fights a magic thing. Cue intro. This first episode is entitled “The Throne of Yord”. Our lead girl arrives at her room, and sits down, while her ferret friend reams her for relaxing. Then they sleep. Tiara (we find out) has a dream about capturing this girl Sarah. They are just chatting about it. She wakes up. The next day, Tiara starts school- college. She makes some friends, one of them named Lena, whom she actually knows from what every place they come from, but they play it off as new acquaintances. She also meets Leon, Lena’s “partner” I assume in finding what they are looking for. That night, Tiara and her ferret guy look for the Throne of Yord. We see a random shot of that Sarah girl and someone she calls her brother. Back to our lead two. They meet up with Lena again, not a happy meeting. So they have this wicked awesome magic duel with their, idk magical entities I suppose. Lena loses round one, then Leon interferes. Tiara’s going to go totally kick ass but the bad guy is around and messing things up. we come to find out that Lena’s with the bad guys. Oooh, what will happen?

The animation is pretty 80’s. But the character’s are very clearly drawn, which is nice, and the backgrounds are fairly artsy. It also seems to be made at the beginning of the CG craze because there’s a little CG in it. Not big on the music.

Overall- I say no for me, but I know a lot of people who would like it!

Magical Pokkan

2007-02-04T01:22:00.000-05:00

This show is ridiculous. It’s ecchi, the women’s breasts bounce in a way that makes me sigh in aggravation. Men should love this show. There’s not a lot of content. It was even kind of promising in the beginning. It’s about 4 girls from the netherworld, an android, a vampire, a werewolf, and a witch. They have built their own houses randomly in a tree. And silly things happen to them…

In the first episode, we first see the vamp girl looking for a snack. She’s flying through the air, and meets up for a few shots with a pervert with a telescope. He’s all about the panties. Then, flying along she she’s this very hot bishouen and decides to munch on him, but turns out he’s not a real person. (damn. He was sexy.) He’s filled with “holy water” aka water from a church garden hose. This crazy scientist lady with HUGE breasts is trying to prove the existence of the occult, namely the female occult, so she’s trying to capture them. Someone, word gets to the other girls, and one by one they go after her. First the werewolf goes and falls into another trap. Then the android goes and gets into a trap involving electric shocking. Then, quite randomly, the witch girl shows up. She has the best costume of all, I want it! The scientists is like, there’s no scientific explanation for magic and the witch is like, I’ll show you! She’s pulls so tricks, fails a little, then does something that causes a breeze to push up her shirt showing the fact that I think she’s going commando. Nice. So the lady scientist’s henchman’s is literally rocketed off by his own nose bleed (for those that don’t know, a nose bleed is the symbol more or less for sexual arousal in anime). And he rockets around the room for awhile. Ah, men. So witch girl saves the day and wears the android girl’s panties. ooookay.
The next scene has the girl’s taking naps in the tree, except for the android girl, she’s doing dishes. The witch girl watches a mail delivery, and it so excited that she has to tell everyone else about it. About ½ of the girls didn’t know what it was, but the vamp was like, you’re talking about mail? But they decide they want to get mail, so they make a mailbox. So they make them and set them out, but obviously don’t get mail because that’s not entirely how it works. You need and address and people sending you mail.so they are all sad, meaning the android girl, and the witch. They assume he didn’t see their boxes, and make new ones. So they come up with new ideas, much of which fail. Turns out, the werewolf girl was getting mail all the time.

The animation is really good. It’s the kind of animation I usually really like in my anime. The music is also really cool. It’s that kind of theme song that starts out slow, but then turns into a rock kind of song. I like it.

Overall, the plot sucks on many levels, but there are some interesting things about it. I’m not gonna watch it, but that doesn’t mean you can’t! But I warn you, it can be somewhat mind dulling.

Matanei Loki Ragnarok

2006-12-08T06:28:00.000-05:00

This show is part mystery, part magic, but it definitely plays with the supernatural. It focuses on a boy that I think is more than he seems. He runs a detective agency, but goes after strange mystical thing.

The first episode begins with a girl finding a creepy talking, flying doll in an old clock tower. She takes it back with her to her house, where it randomly gets stolen by a CAT. She follows it, and ends up walking by Loki's agency. She doesn't go in that until a bit later though. When she does go in, Loki ends up denying her request to look for the doll, but ends up helping her anyway. He senses and evil force she picked up. So him and his buddy go off to find it. The girl is till looking for her doll. She's finds it and ends up climbing the clock tower. The doll goes haywire and tried to basically kill her. Meanwhile, Loki's buddy found water with his "Ghost finding sticks", and Loki chats with a woman that used to work in the mansion. It is in this way that Loki finds out about the girl that owned the doll and is able to save the say and releases the evil spirit from the doll. The girl decides to hang out with Loki more so she can see more "strange mysteries"

The animation is fairly interesting. The eyes are really striking. It's interesting. Also, there are several parts in which the animators added a slight blurring effect, like static to the scene to illustrate like magical things. Overall, the animation is pretty good. The anime seems like it has some rather dark undertones though. I don't have anything to say about the music. It's a little creepy.

Overall, I want to watch the show, but I don't think I want to buy it.

Ningyo no Mori/ Mermaid Forest

2006-12-08T06:12:00.000-05:00

This is either a movie or an OVA. It doesn't give THAT much back story, which is why I say that. This is a very original anime. It concerns a legend that eating the flesh of a mermaid, you'll be immortal.

The movie begins by introducing the main male, Yuta. It shows him getting shot, being pronounced dead, and then being alive. We also meet the woman who ends up being a kind of villain character. She was dying, and her sister brought her mermaid's blood to heal her. It instead turned her forearm into a beastly claw that tried to turn her entire self evil. The dog also drank some and became evil and huge. Next, we see Yuta and his companion (who's new as far as I know). They are both immortal. She's new at it it seems. They are in the city where this claw woman lives. The girl accidentally falls off a cliff (how you can ACCIDENTALLY do that when you're standing on a cliff is beyond me) and falls to her 'death'. A man picks her up and brings her body up to the mansion where the claw woman is. Every three years, she needs to replace her forearm or it will transform her entire body. So doc, who loves the claw woman, begins to cut Yuta's girlfriend's arm off, and she wakes up. SO everyone freaks out. Yuta goes looking for the girl, and ends up at the mansion. Claw woman makes her dog attack him, and they ditch his body in the sea, not knowing he's like the girl. Claw woman tries to make the girl stay with her, but in the end decides that she wants her body, so she strangles her to allow the doctor to exchange their heads. The girl wakes up before it's done. Also, Yuta came back and claw woman forced the dog to fight him again. So, the sister of the law woman finally decides that she will show her where the mermaid's tomb is. They go there, and claw woman forces the girl to get some mermaid flesh. She gets attacked by the beast in the hole, who is their grandfather who was transformed by the flesh into a monster, the OTHER outcome of eating the flesh. Then Yuta shows up and saves the girl. The claw woman confronts her sister about the blood, and how she gave it to her as a tester. The sister ends up dying of cardiac arrest. They burn the tomb, and the claw woman and her lover run into the flames to end it all while the immortal pair watch.

The music is fairly mediocre. Nothing to get really excited about. The animation is fairly old, 80's at least. The story is kind of blah.

Overall, It was fairly interesting to watch, but I don't want to keep it.

Megami Tensei OVA

2006-12-06T06:43:00.000-05:00

I'm not going to pretend I really watched this. It was too horrible. The animation is practically ancient and it's blurry. The sound is crappy. The anime itself is waaaay out there. There's scenes in which pools of blood swallow people. Then you'll see a scene at school where everything is normal. It seems like the crazy stuff is in the guy's dreams. Either way, it's really graphic. No holds barred on the blood in the show. It's full of crazy stuff like people being sucked into cimputer screens, death up the wazoo, demons, evil, battles with a magic sword. It's just bad all around and no one deserves that kind of torture. So just say NO to Megami Tensei. JUST...SAY...NO!

Mars of Destruction OVA

2006-12-06T06:05:00.000-05:00

This anime is one of those alternate reality kind of things where it's set on earth, but something happens that changes things from what we know as normal. There's weird alien things involved. It's also casted by almost entirely women.

The first episode begins in space. A crew of people carrying the Mars explorer explode in space before they can break the atmostphere. Then we see a note about strange things happening in Tokyo since them. Cue the next scene in which three kick butt girls are going to duke it out with some creepy looking weird things they call ancients. They are about human shaped but look WEIRD, with like red lights built into their faces. Lasers come out of their faces a blow one girl's head off!! The other two just shrug it off like nothing happened where as I'm like OMG HER FUCKING HEAD! IT'S JUST GONE! They go into action. One of the girl's gets knocked down and we think she's gonna get killed, but they stop when this big glowing possibly another ancient, shows up. He whips out a sword and starts attacking the anchients. He's on our side, good to know. He kicks some ass, but gets kicked in return, and ends up critical. We get inside his head, learn that that thing he's in is called the MARS and that he has EVA-like daddy issues. In the next scene, we're told they're taking some of the wreckage to the US for study. They need MARS to protect things. We also find out these girls are from the AAST, which fights the Ancients to keep the people safe. Now we're watching them transport it, and it looks like some Ancients are going to ambush it. A lot of them. And that happens, there's lots of blood, our MARS guy suits up, and the city is in flames. They sure don't skimp in the dramtics. There's some classical playing in the background while MARS fights a type of ancient the girl's have never seen before. He's tough. He beats him once, then the girls try to stop him and fail. Then MARS gets a big gun to play with. That kills him. Our next scene is a nice calm scene with some chatting in the US where the parts are going to go. Back in Japan, everyone's alive including that thing and we learn that they are the real Eathlings, and that the Human's are the invaders. OOOOH.... Must connect up to the game the exists...

The art in this series is sweet. There's some really cool designs in it. The suits, especially the MARS rock. The music is good. Not great, there's also no theme song as an OVA.

Overall, while the art is good and the plot amusing, the whole things just too ridiculous. It's not well planned, the scenes are too short, and there's not back story. So uck.

Mamotte Shugogetten

2006-12-06T05:26:00.000-05:00

It's one of those random animes in which the guy gets a girl that basically protects him and takes care of him because he's her master. It's not new at all, but it's not super old either.

In the first episode of this series, we see our lead guy going about life. His dad is an archaeologist and is off doing stuff in other countries so our boy is living alone. One day, his dad sends him this trinket, it's like a mirrored oval thing. It has a Shugogetten in it. While he's making food, the angel like chick comes out of it, and he flips out. He ends up leaning up against a hot pot on the stove, which the girl grabs and dump it away to get him off of it. He's sad because his food is gone. She declares that she is there to protect him. She goes about fortifying his "fortress". Then the tv behind him turns on, so she summons some more people from her realm to kill it so it can't hurt her master. She doesn't know anything about this time. So the next day, his house is already in shambles, and she follows him to school. She ends up destroying said school. *sigh* The show will continue like this I'm sure, so I don't feel like I need to go into it more. She'll end up hurting him more and breaking more of his things than helping him. Basically being a total pain in the butt.

The animation is very 80s. Not bad 80's, just 80's. I don't have a lot to say about the music, it's not that impressive. I don't even remember it!

Overall, the show is not that bad, it's just not something I would want to watch that much.

Trouble Chocolate

2006-12-05T04:19:00.000-05:00

I have no idea how to describe this anime other that ODD. Very, very Odd.

The first episode begins with Cacao, Our lead man, waking up with a girl in his bed and freaking out. He has not idea how she got there. He decides it all a dream and goes back to sleep. Cut scene to two ninja looking women running behind a cat-alien driving a bike. Yeah no idea. And there's this awesomely cute alien cleaning a porch. Then our guy's alarm goes off. He goes into the bathroom, where there's singing, starts singing along then realizes there's someone in the bathroom. He sees her in the tub and freaks out and runs away. The two ninja chicks are out front and he stops short in front of them. He's in his PJs so they call him a pervert and kick him across the room. Our girl comes out, and seeing him down, confronts the two women. The admit to having done it and the girl goes DBZ on them l(Ie surrounded in flame like mist)and explodes them away. She mourns Cacao, who's not dead btw, and then he walks out onto the porch and she hugs him. He's like...your made of wood. She makes him breakfast after dressing, and he tries to remember what happened the night before. Then there's some stuff with a card in which the girl wants it, but the kid won't give it to her. The kid them dumps it and it flies into an alley where the monater on the card comes to life. Isn't that always how it happens? Then we see Cacao at school- He's tracking down what happened- on route, he encounters a melodramatic softball pitcher, her crazy boyfriend, a vampire professor, a huge ogre cross=dressing professor, ending with the Magic prof. So the Monster's easting up the city, and the girl wants to see Cacao- so she ends up going to school and is being followed by the monster. Go figure. What will happen now...

The music's pretty great. I like it. Nice rhythms. The animation is fairly new, It's well done.

Overall, the show is wacky, I probably don't want to watch it but everyone should at least watch and episode.

Da Capo

2006-12-04T21:18:00.000-05:00

I'm not entirely sure what kind of anime this is. It's one set in high school with slightly magical things in it. Normal anime for the most part. There's some silliness, some lewdness, some general relationship confusion, the usual.

The anime starts out with a voice describing how he can see into other people's dreams, and it's boring. He's in someone's dream and the girl in the dream can't see that he's there, but can feel him, and they talk. He wakes up to his sister's random bell necklace and a pile of books on his chest. The sister goes to leave and our lead guy is like "we have to do your morning routine." She comes back rather abashedly, and the do a scene where it looks like they are going to kiss, but the brother just puts his head on her forehead to see if she still has a fever. Phew. Then he makes almost a sexual pass at her when he descibes the other option of taking her temperature in her armpit. She freaks out a runs off. Turns out, they aren't related by blood, so that makes it better. Then we see them walking to school through the always blossoming cherry trees. Then the scene pans to a window where a girl is looking out. she seems like she's a shut in. The bro and sis end up having to run to school, but they aren't actually late, everyone else is literally early. When they get to school, Nemu (aha! I got her name), the sister gets attacked by a friend who has one of those oh-so-close-yet-ok-in-Japanese-society relationships with her. Always interesting. The brother (Asakura) gets ignored. Until one of the guys in his class shows up and makes some bad puns. When they get in the school building, they find out they have a new transfer student. Asakura gets almost attacked by some girl, but Nemu deflects her (and gets complimented on it). Sakuranbo calls him Brother, but they are just cousins. Cue break. The next scene is lunch. Asakura and Nemu are chatting. He tries to hide from sakuranbo, but she finds his and the chase ensues. He tries to hide on the roof, but there's two sisters making a lunch on the roof. So he leaves. After school, Asakura escapes, and Nemu and her friend from earlier walk home with Sakuranbo. and learn some things are her. In the next scene we see Nemu and Asakura at home, they get in a little tiff, it's fairly amusing. He goes to his room and Sakura chan's just chillin' on his bed. She climbed in through the window. They chat, and Asakura does a magic trick, then Nemu comes in and Sakuranbo kisses Asakura before she leaves. Weird relationships abound. Nemu gets jealous. ooh, what will happen next!

The animation in this anime is good. Fairly new, but nothing spectacular. The music is the same, nothing really special.

I had this anime on my 50/50 list and overall I'm just bored with it. It's not horribly, it's just not GREAT.

Monster

2006-11-28T01:33:00.000-05:00

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”)

2006-11-27T21:03:00.000-05:00

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.

2006-11-27T21:00:00.001-05:00

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

2006-11-27T21:00:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-27T20:57:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-27T20:54:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-27T20:50:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-27T20:48:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-27T20:46:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-27T20:45:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-18T01:47:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-18T01:24:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-18T01:03:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-17T23:27:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-17T00:45:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-11T22:55:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-10T03:13:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-10T01:19:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-09T04:21:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-09T04:10:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-07T06:11:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-07T05:43:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-06T13:24:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-06T03:58:00.000-05:00

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!)

2006-11-05T07:04:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-05T06:10:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-05T04:40:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-05T04:31:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-04T23:51:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-04T21:43:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-04T19:13:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-03T22:46:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-03T22:24:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-03T22:03:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-03T03:56:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-03T03:15:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-03T00:06:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-02T21:46:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-02T02:47:00.000-05:00

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!

Najica Blitz Tactics

2006-11-02T02:12:00.000-05:00

Najica is interesting to say the least. As I started into the episode, I was convinced that I would hate it, but that's not how it ended up. There is, be warned, a great focus on the lead female's panties though (the reason I thought I would hate it).

In the first episode, we encounter the lead female, Najica. She is a secret agent, and she gets assigned missions by the appearance of a red rose. The ep starts out with her training (and kicking butt at it) then the rose appears. She has to sneak into a castle and save this chick, but they actually refer to it as retrival. She goes into the castle-house where she fights off a legion of gun wielding maids, a sexed up villian, and saves the girl. Then she hands her over to the good guys and flies back to her office the next day. And telling more would ruin the story.

So the plot seems kind of lacking and generally rediculous, which to a point it is, but I still happen to like it. The panty shots, of which there are many, are fairly obnoxious, but if you can block them out, you might be able to appreciate the awesomeness that is NBT.

Paradise Kiss

2006-11-02T01:37:00.000-05:00

First off, I completely fell in love with this anime about halfway through the first episode. Isabella and Miwako and George are my heroes. I highly recommend this anime to anyone, but that doesn't mean it's perfect. Now to the summeries.

The story revolves around the lead girl Yukari. She's essentially a brat. She's a goody-too-shoes who thinks she's all that. No, no, don't let that discourage you. The ParaKiss gang ground her. Anyway, Arashi- a guy with safety pins pierced into his face- basically accosts Yukari because he thinks she the perfect model for their clothing brand, Paradise Kiss, or ParaKiss for short. She essentially runs away from him (I would have too : ) and runs into Isabelle, whom for some reason makes her faint. She wakes up in the Atelier, their studio. It used to be a bar....and not it's not. To make a long story short, she meets the whole gang (Isabelle, Arashi, George (short haired bishounen like-woah), and Miwako) and they ask her to be their model. That goes over like a lead balloon. For some reason, Miwako ends up calling Yukari 'Caroline' and it sticks for the rest of the ep. But it works. I like it. I won't spoil the ending, but let's say that's not the last time Yukari ends up in the Atelier, especially when George has a hand in it!

Now, there are some things that some people might not like about it. The art style is pretty different. I love it, but it's very different from most anime. Yukari and Miwako's faces for instance are fairly realistic and that makes them look kind of strange. The outfits and the Atelier are very artsy (go fig, artsy art students) almost punk, but with a touch of sophistication. There sre some themes that some people might not be able to handle, like sexuality. George, for instance, is bi-sexual. and there's more on that vein. But if you can be liberal and trust in Parakiss, I think you'll find it's just as amazing as I did.

Kare Kano / His and Her Circumstances

2006-11-02T01:15:00.000-05:00

This is an anime I'm still undecided about. It's based off the manga, which is now published in the USA by Tokyo Pop. I have a feeling that it would be better as a manga, and that I would love it as a manga, but until I have money, it's only a theory.

But here's what I know. The anime is about a girl whom everyone adores. She's sweet, smart, athletic, ect. At least on the outside. She's really the complete opposite. She's lazy, means, and selfish. She's been putting on this act since kindergarten. That's how much she loves and needs to be adored by other people. One day, her first day of Freshman year actually, she gets a rival. He's an attractive guy that is everything she pretends to be and he steals, unintentionally, the limelight. Now the main girl is RAGING. She is doing everything in her power to show this guy up and still not getting any where. She essentially wages war and swears to get revenge!

Now, the characters are great in this, but becuase it so closely follows manga art (including the distortions and such) it is almost difficult to watch. There's also several scenes in which someone is speaking while mulitiple people are talking in the background, and all the translation appears on the screen at once. Granted, I'm a fast reader, but I can only read on line at a time. It's this reason that I think I'd like it as a manga, but that doesn't mean I'm giving up on the anime, just putting it aside. Overall, the show has good characters, a good plot, and (so far) no ecchi. So I approve.

Grenadier

2006-11-02T00:37:00.000-05:00

This anime is pretty amusing. It has an interesting combination of elements. There are two differnt kind of people in this anime: those that use guns and are good with them (senshi) or those who use swords- and I'm refering to Katanas, not Medieval swords. Two main characters were espablished: one of each of these, a female senshi with massive breasts and a mercenary with a sword.

The show is one of those that has both a serious side and a slightly ecchi(meaning pervert) side. This, is course, is exihibited most in the main female who has big breasts. She has a serious ass kicking side in battle, but always out of battle and before battle has a naive cheery side that gets annoying. The action in the ep was great. There was a huge battle between the gun guys and the sword guys in which the sword wielding samurai guys inevitably...get shot. But this little blonde chick can shot men with her pistol from...well....very far away. The best part about her, aside from her being very awesome, is that she reloads her six shot pistol by basically launching 6 bullets out of her non-existant bra and forcibly (by her great skill) loading them into her gun without touching them. She them proceeds to wound, but not kill, some....oooh...20 men? The episode ends in glory, the main characters and their morals are revealed, and the story is set up to continue.

Now as much as it amuses me that she can load her gun with her breasts and a spin, this particular anime lets me down. I rarely like it when the heroine is both ditzy and kick butt. It conflicts too much on my character personality meter, so I think the first episode is where I'll leave it. But it's not so horrible that I would never watch another episode, i just won't go out of my way to do so!

Mahou Sensei Negima

2006-11-01T22:19:00.000-05:00

This anime begins on a fairly amusing note. As is very often the case, the main character has a crush on her teacher, Mr.Takahata. But what's amusing, is she is doing a ritual involving wearing a fish suit, diving for fried tofu, and doing a wacky dance. As far as first impressions go, I'll take it.

Then there is you average run to school with her best friend, where upon we first encoutner Negima-Sensei, who is 10 years old and a certified teacher. He also knows magic, as the episode soon reveveals. So through a series of events, mostly involving the fact that Takahata is not the lead girls teacher, her and 'Negi-Kun' as takahata calls him become a bit at ends. Toss in the fact that the lead girl sees Negima-Sensei doing mahou (ie magic) and it's fairly obvious no one's suppose to know...well then...then the episode ends. Yay for cliff hangers, they always leave you begging for more, or at least wondering enough to continue.

Overall- the first episode has me into the series, but I'm not in love with it yet, but I can see myself loving it. So we'll see.