This is the one show that people always bring up when someone speaks about Pokemon, so why don’t we make a piece on it for nostalgia’s sake? Today won’t be much different from the article we had yesterday. The only major difference is perhaps the show we speak of and the way we do it.

This show was great

Sure, at first glance it appears to be a simple Pokemon rip off with the whole monsters part of the title and the fact that the premise sounded the same. But the fact is that this show was better than Pokemon in several ways (not to mention that it came out at about the same time, so not a rip off, I guess). The biggest one of them being the fact that it was bit more mature and included several topics on Pokemon’s “No no” list such as death and the frailty of life. Not to mention enough angst to fuel all of its future incarnations.

Other things that made it different were pretty apparent from the get go, such as the character design, the way the story played out (so the premise sounding the same is actually bull) and one big thing….

It actually grew with us!

Or it at least tried to. See the first two incarnations of Digimon were probably the best due to the fact that it dealt with the same groups of kids and the way their adventures within the digital world affected them. It had an overarching plot that was better and way more clever than what a “kid’s show” had any right to be.

The overall plot of the first season was that a group of kids in Japan found themselves dragged into a new weird world, a world that seems to have a certain degree of connection to their own and yet is completely alien and populated with creatures known as Digimons. And here is where it became awesome. At first it was “Yay, adventure with cool new pets that we found!” and then their anxiety starts to prey on them. Things like being away from home and their parents’ support, care and love. These were kids and as much as they tried to keep calm at times they found themselves scared and alone in a weird new world where they had to face new challenges and come out as unlikely heroes.

All the main leads were well rounded characters and behaved accordingly, even their Digimon were great. See, they worked differently than Pokemon as they pretty much were sentient beings being raised and cared for by their “tamers” and they each had different set of traits that made them stand out, even though most of the time they were mere projections of the human character they followed.

So, we had a smart show that dared to be different and present a more adult world filled with fantastic creatures and it even had a Matrix-like twist, granted it could be seen from the first episode, but the characters still had to figure it out and it was awesome. So what went wrong?

They tried to go Pokemon on us

The show added so many Digivolving forms to the characters that even the big baddies started to seem substantially more insignificant. The last good season was the third one, where they took the idea of Digimons and humans coming together into a single being and turned it into an interesting premise. One that got subsequently shot to hell by Season 4, the one which counts a butterfly-based Digimon in lingerie as its only highlight (a fact made kinda disturbing by the thought of it being a 14 year old girl).

The show simply started to die after this, as they focused more about sending the new characters on a somewhat generic journey to meet new Digimons, fight them, maybe even acquire new powers and undermine the mythology of the older show rather than expanding it.

Digimon was always about exploring a new world and the way it linked to our own, but then it sold out and changed. The show distorted its formula so badly that it simply became little less than a brand name with new iterations, one more disjointed from the original as the last.

Should I watch it?

Yes, watch up to the third season and enjoy what could very well have been one of the best titles of its time simply due to the fact that it could handle tone, phasing and atmosphere well. Plus, there are some interesting characters and a plot that’s equal parts cheesy and fun.

Just remember NOTHING and I MEAN NOTHING ever happens after the third season. It simply didn’t continue afterwards and all those other seasons are parallel universes, or bad acid trips.

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We’ll start off today with a review of Claymore, a title that I could have sworn to have reviewed already but that seems to be missing from the site entirely. What better way to fix that than making a shiny new review cycle for both the anime and manga?

Big swords all around

Claymore is the brain child of Norihiro Yagi and it might just be his best work to date. The manga premiered in 2001 and moved around several manga publications which kinda makes it a pain in the ass if you wish to compile the original prints, but other than that it serves as a testament to a quality of its work to see it survive three different publications. Not to mention that it also got an anime adaptation, which is what we are reviewing right now!

The nuts and bolts of the story are rather simple; it stars a female lead by the name of Clare who works as a Claymore, a special agent of a shadowy organization with the task of exterminating monsters known as Yoma who infest villages and take on the shape on men to feed on the unsuspecting villagers. This may sound a bit clichéd to some, but the story manages to twist it around by doing something that seems impossible. It makes the “child character” likeable.

You read that right. Clare stumbles upon the survivor of Yoma attack by the name of Raki, who has been driving off from his village and has no other choice but to follow Clare. At first this is no different than the usual “little kid acts like a pet” interaction, but he eventually becomes a vehicle for Clare to start regaining her humanity and is actually helpful when it comes to a couple of battles.

The plot is nice

It’s more than just a road trip too, see the main point is that Claymores operate on a jurisdiction and are sent to exterminate Yomas in their areas, but the story does a great job of mixing flashbacks and the occasional narrative to build up a good set of characters and give them an excuse to travel around a mildly generic high-fantasy world.

There are a couple of twists in the story that get revealed casually by the emotionless Clare, which is fine since her companion reacts to it and compliments it nicely. But overall it’s a story about Clare and her life as a Claymore, plus the one she lost.

The only downside to the story is that it gets a bit cluttered at the end and it seems to lose some steam, perhaps as a consequence of trying to catch up with the manga’s twists and turns and still manage to give us some form of closure.

It looks pretty

Some scenes are a bit too heavy on the dark tones, to the point where you may feel that you need to adjust your screen’s contrast. Other than that the show has a pleasing aesthetic that serves to give it an appealing look that makes it stand out.

Watch it

It may not be as deep and developed as the manga, but it has some really nice things going on for it. It’s far from perfect but it’s a solid enough title to carry itself in a simple, yet intriguing premise that could give fans a taste of what the whole manga experience offers.

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Let’s hop on to a manga that I came across with during a lazy browsing session, shall we? This title has an anime adaptation on its way this month, one that I won’t be bothering much with because of a simple reason.

It’s lame

It had a very interesting plot, one that was even “mildly relevant” as it dealt with a natural disaster causing a nuclear plant in Tokyo to malfunction, which I guess led people to googling it because “Hey, this thing totally predicted it man.” In a way it shares some similarities with the disaster, but that’s not really important, what matters is that it’s filled with enough hot air to carry you around the world in eighty days.

The manga follows the titular “Coppelion” a group of genetically engineered girls made to resist radiation and to showcase some Deus Ex Machina (not Human Revolution, unfortunately) abilities whenever the plot calls for it to be convenient to reveal that one of the girls just happens to be able to deal with something. Maybe this one nitpick is a bit unfair since I only saw it happen with the animal girl, so I could be very well be talking out of my ass here.

So anyways, they are sent in to the heavily irradiated area to search for survivors, survey the ruins and…some other stuff. It’s just so painfully dull I couldn’t bother with reading the whole thing.

Suspension of disbelief be damned

The manga has this habit of stopping the plot (if it can be called that) to give way to some heavy exposition; characters will begin explaining how their suits or other pieces of technology function, or how the survivors have been trapped in a radioactive waste for 20 years without dying, etc. And that sucks, sure the last item was worthy of explaining, but they stop to explain everything which is made worse by the fact that these moments are the only breaks in flow we have, either that or the three girls deciding to go for a damn picnic and act cute when that makes no sense.

See, I would rather let some magical device that cures radiation slide without explanation than having to endure some sort of “Radioactive warrior rescue unit” going for a picnic, and being all bubbly. The characters just feel so out of place that it really makes little to no sense to have them at the center of the story when the tragedy and backdrop are so exploitable.

Some necessary info

The manga came to the world by the hand of Tomonori Inoue, who isn’t necessarily psychic even though he came up with this idea in 2008 for Weekly Young Magazine.

I might be missing the point of the story, maybe something great happens later that makes it all make sense or be suddenly awesome but I can only give it merits for its art direction. I guess there’s no more left to say other than it “looks pretty” I guess that isn’t much of a compliment….Hell, I would give it a pass if I were you.

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Hey there folks, there are some good things coming our way in the next few months (like a whole new year of anime and manga) but I would love to take this chance and do a quick review of a title I followed closely for a while. I say for a while because I pretty much forgot it existed until today.

Wait, what?

I know that ain’t a stellar way to start a review, but bear with me for a second. I am one of the many anime fans who depend of fansubs and translations. I know, shame on me, etc. So I have to sit idly by while some other guy does a lot of non-profitable work and uploads a scansub, or fansub of my current title of choice to one of the many places to watch anime online or to read manga online.

The title’s volumes come by sporadically at times and then take a bit to be subbed, so sometimes it was like jumping into a new story mid way going over the characters and setting until something clicked. I read up to its latest chapter and called it a day for a while, at least until I decided to browse the PSN and saw the huge add for Call of Duty’s Rezurrection Map Pack, which made me go “Ah, zombies again” then it hit me….

And here we are

I once made a brief summary of this title for an article about a manga and DVD/Blu-ray bundle I wrote. I never made a review, though, so it’s about time we get that done and add it to our humble, yet reliable review database.

The title can be summed up briefly, it’s got zombies, gratuitous fan service, bad ass teenagers with guns and so many clichés that it at sometimes feels like it embodies everything the zombie genre was about near the 80’s. At least until it starts trying to take itself seriously and give off a mysterious and heavy atmosphere, and that’s when it kind of sucks.

Cutting to the chase

I don’t really feel like getting technical with character names, not because I am too lazy for that, but simply because I feel that the characters are a perfect mix of card-board cuttery and clichés. They are the typical ensemble of anime and manga tropes you’ll get to recognize almost immediately.

There’s the unresolved romantic interest. The buxom airhead that never dies even though she’s the only adult and their only help in case of injury (which comes to little to no use as a zombie bite means you are gone). The buxom know it all nerd with a crush on the main lead and mixed feelings towards the otaku gun-nut, said gun nut being the fat geeky guy who cries in stupid situations. The buxom romantic interest that happens to be a childhood friend and barely ever dares to express herself. The buxom samurai girl who crushes on the main character and has the “edgy personality.” The little girl that chases them around like a pet and gravitates towards the one guy who doesn’t have much of an active romance plot going. The actual pet. And finally, the average Joe lead everyone loves and tends to follow unquestionably. Notice a trend so far?

The setting is kinda cheesy too, an average day and then bam, zombies. But they are the good kind of zombie, the Romero kind, shambling undead horrors that feast on flesh and aren’t particularly smart. The title actually does some references to George Romero’s work and that truly is when it’s at its best.

The over the top and ridiculous nature of some of the action sequences would feel at home at any action movie, which would make this a pretty straight shooter for anyone interested in a down to earth action manga with zombies and flailing breasts. If it could only stay that way rather than suddenly switch to the emotional issues, unresolved romantic plots and fairly chatty and dull chapters we would have a winner here folks.

And no, I’m not a brainless moron who can’t take the depth of the story. It’s just that when you have a bunch of highschoolers gunning down zombies by the dozen or fighting with skills that would shame Bruce Lee himself, I just don’t expect the story to suddenly try to be touchy feely or have some sort of ham-fisted romance jammed into it.

My suggestion?

Go read it, there are worse things out there and it’s pretty solid for the most part save for the times when they suddenly settle down and get chatty. And as always, you are more than welcomed to our forums, you might like to have a chat with us or tell us why we suck.

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Fate/Stay Night is kind of a big deal around here and most of the internet. It’s one of those licenses that stand out with original characters, plots and ideas that are wild enough to workm and show the world that anime goes a step beyond. This movie was a part of that, and yet…

And yet what?!

Let me give you a bit of a background here, also note that I’m writing this differently than my other articles. I guess you could say that’s how you can tell whether or not I cared for the source material, so here we go!

This movie came out last year one day before my (that’s Samshel, as in the guy who writes these) birthday. It should have been a gift from God seeing how I have a burning passion for all things Fate/Stay Night. I had to hunt down a copy online and wait a bit for a properly ripped and subbed one, yeah I know, can’t speak Japanese and an import would bankrupt my broken ass at the time so sue me (don’t).

I waited this long to review it simply because this was how long it took me to get around to watch it in all its glory. That being with a buddy who also loved FSN in an obsessive manner, that way we had two different opinions on the matter and we could work around a general idea.

At least we could have, if his time watching the movie wouldn’t have been spent going “Huh? Who…why….WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?”

This is for fans only

My buddy watched the anime so much of the stuff on the movie was completely new to him. I had the benefit of playing with the Visual Novel (which is also available in a kid-friendly version if the sight of mild hentai disgusts you) so I was familiar with all the scenarios, characters and plot twists. Yet the movie was still a mess.

Unlimited Blade Works deserved a show of its own, hell the franchise should reboot the anime and dedicate each season to events in the three arcs (And that’s how you milk a show, folks!). Why did it deserve a fully fledged anime of its own? Because it had some great twists that were amazing once you got to them, not to mention that the extremely awesome story made sense.

Saying that the movie was short would be cutting it too short. Characters and plot elements drop in and out through the entire thing, the third act is a mess that’s barely held together if you knew the story beforehand and the main twist of the story is painfully shoed in.

It fails as a movie

I am well aware that this film was for fans, but there’s a problem. It was for fans of the game and extended works, not just the anime. God help you if you only ever saw the anime (and I bet that’s the case for most western fans) because characters and their motivations are as alien to the viewer as it gets.

Having a, “You must be this well versed to enjoy this,” requirement ruins this. You can’t walk up to a friend who’s into Anime but not into FSN and hope he enjoys it, this is a shitty movie. The plot goes back and forth and ends so abruptly that there’s no time to build a link with characters, or even create a foreboding atmosphere that transmits the same vibe as the original material.

That’s why it ultimately fails, not only is it terrible at being a good way to introduce newcomers to the FSN mythos, but it also fails to please the fans! It says a lot about an action packed movie when reading a bunch of letters on a screen with soft music and a still frame of artwork is more thrilling.

It also fails for fans

Some frames and scenes are reconstructions of what was present in the visual novel, but they fail to impress you since at times the characters’ reactions, lines and even the way the scene plays out were different enough from the original to bother you and take away from the film.

It goes by too fast for its own good and requires that you call back to the novel to fill in the MASSIVE gaps it leaves. I could only make the experience better by thinking, “These are animated cutscenes from the game that some strung together on youtube,” and that ain’t right.
Another thing that bothered me greatly was that they spent little energy in the story itself, it was as if they broke down the bits and pieces from the game that were awesome and strung them together without the in-between.

Also (SPOILER WARNING) they included the sex scene between Tohsaka and Shirou, yet it wasn’t a sex scene or behaved in any way similar to it…it kinda just looked like it, and as much as I thought the sex scenes kind of ruined the game, this struck me as “Why bother with reconstructing this scene without at least going the whole way’”

TL;DR

Watch it if you like FSN, have low standards and lots of time to spare. It wasn’t a horrible movie, but it was bad enough to kinda bum a fan out. It was still fun, though…I guess.

Join me in the forum if you feel like ranting on this for a bit, whether you are a fellow fan who was underwhelmed by it or you disagreed with me.

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Some may take issue with the fact that we barely seem to stick to a theme, or even bother reviewing current titles. There’s a reason for that, namely that if we were to review the offerings to be had in the current selection of mainstream anime we would be forced to waddle through a swamp of fan service and disappointment, not to mention cliché.

That last bit may have made us sound like hipsters. Truth be told, what we want to give you is a catalog of good titles to pick up during a dry anime season or when you are bored. Sure, we have reviewed some big names and even gave a few bad reviews here and there, but we simply want you to get an opinion and maybe avoid wasting your time.

We are here to help, you can find many reviews that will allow you to experience different genres, stories and varying quality if you give those titles a chance.

If you want a change of style or see a couple of your favorites get reviewed just go ahead and hop into the comment section, or you know, the forum we have ‘round the back for this sort of thing. This site is a pop and mom operation, so your opinions will be heard and duly noted!

Speaking of Opinions

We like to write opinion articles, it’s been a while since we did one, though. See, the writing staff (our one writer) was told to go for news and so he did, now we are back on review cycles but we are itching to get our voice out there. So you’ll see a couple of articles talking about some stuff, or other kind of stuff and we could use your take on them.

Let us know what you thought was okay and what was lame, tell us a bit about why the article was a hit or a miss. But know that we are going to roll with those even if we get no responses, because….

We are here for you

We’ll keep bringing you reviews, opinions and the occasional news. Remember that we are an indy site and that means we care, we will respond to any comments or posts so up and at ‘em!

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The major differences become clear from the get-go on both works, since the protagonists have different traits and personalities:

The manga’s Kaneda is more of a selfish jerk, who’s driven by lust and vengeance rather than an honest desire to save his friend. He’s shown to be rather corrupt and amoral and only becomes a “better” person as the events in the story unfold. He starts off as a simple teen minding his own business, delving in drugs, having sex with his girlfriend and hitting the streets with his gang is what life is all about. The manga’s Kaneda is crude and spiteful but he grows into a more mature person with the death of his friends and the destruction of Tokyo, not to mention his growing concern for Kei.

Kaneda is a more stalwart and somewhat stable character in the anime. He still goofs around and loses his temper but he’s bit more centered. Whereas in the manga he still has a big mouth in spite of showing great character growth, but which one is the better Kaneda?

The manga one goes deeper into the character’s motifs, but it feels rather vague at points since the plot jumps back and forth with his goals and then takes him out completely out of the picture for a bit. The anime is a bit more focused on a single facet of his personality (due to its short length) but it still tries to jam in his quirky personality and heroic demeanor towards the end. The film’s Kaneda is a bland lifeless board next to his manga counterpart, and he’s an amazing character on his own right, which is to say the Manga takes it up to eleven.

As for Tetsuo, he shares similar traits in both works. And by that we mean that he’s a sociopath with an inferiority complex that lets loose once he gains an advantage. In the manga it’s clear that Tetsuo has always seen himself as weak and was willing to put others in his position to empower himself. He was a rotten person who was corrupted further by the power and drugs, the last of which becoming a basic form of sustenance for him once the pain from his power began to take a toll.

He’s more of a victim of circumstance in the manga than he is in the anime. Even after bringing about the full potential of his powers, he was corrupted beyond redemption. He ruled over an empire born of his lust for power and had every vice available to him, only after freeing his mind of the drugs he gains a bit of control but it’s too little too late. He turned down what little a chance for redemption he had and ended up messing himself up.

However, the Anime counterpart is a bit more simple and straight forward. He craves power and is more than ready to abuse it once he gets it. He plays the first stages of his awakening similarly but rather than taking out entire gangs he escapes to wreak havoc in the street and head towards Akira…for rather unclear reasons. His motivation to release Akira is never too clear, he simply feels called towards him and wishes to obtain some of his power. But we’ll have more on that later.

In the film, Tetsuo comes off as a petty ass. He simply wishes to be at the top and do better than the rest (especially Kaneda) so when he gets power he cherishes it and immediately abuses it. It becomes less of a clever and formulaic plot device and goes to be the essence of Tetsuo’s true personality. He comes off as a bit more evil in the manga due to the length and extension of his actions, but you can’t shake off the feeling that he’s just a victim. The film’s version is a bit better, he’s not as complex and his motivations are rather clear; he’s a petty man-child and an asshole.

The Plot

The Plot is vastly different. The manga version goes beyond the destruction brought by Akira’s release and includes him amongst the cast of characters. He becomes the Emperor of “The Great Tokyo Empire,” a group of survivors from the disaster that flocked towards Tetsuo and crew under promises of undeterred freedom and of course, power. Akira’s little more than a symbol for Tetsuo’s new kingdom, but the differences go beyond that simple fact.

The film tries to conclude in a similar note, but the last half hour is comprised by a series of messy sequences put together to close out the storyline while trying to keep some elements of the manga. In the end the anime leaves the viewer with a jumbled group comprised of symbolism and hastily finished plot. It’s still enjoyable but it suffers once you see all what the manga had in store.

Two entirely different beasts

The manga showcases many characters, some of which appear in the film under a different light, so the differences are not merely on the surface. Characters such as Chiyoko and Miyako who play a pivotal role in the events of the Manga are left out, or in the case of the later given a mere cameo appearance.

The list of missing characters could go on through a different article, as well as the different details between the plots. Hell, we could make an entire site out of it! But we won’t, so we have to wrap it up and leave you, our dear reader (our one and only), with the following:

Akira is such a rich and powerful work of fiction that you would miss out by not checking it out. It may have a rather messy plot from time to time, it may get a bit over its head with some ideas and plot lines but man, does it deliver or what? It’s a classic most deserving of being referred to as having epic proportions. Do yourself a favor and check it out in any of its forms.

I don’t have the time or motivation for both things!

Fine, then ask yourself “Do I like reading or watching stuff?” and pick one. If you don’t care about any in particular then I suggest the manga since its better when it comes to plot and characters.

It’s up to you, but whatever you do try and check it out.

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Bokurano tells the story of a group of kids (too old to be called children for the most part) who go on a field trip to the beach for the summer. There they find a strange man by the name of Kokopelli who tells the group of kids that he’s a videogame designer and needs new volunteers to try out his game. Kokopelli enthralls them with promises of trying out a unique game in which they will become heroes, and all they have to do is enter a mysterious contract by touching a metallic plate and they’ll be allowed to pilot a gigantic mech to fight against Earth’s enemies.
They later wake up in the beach thinking it was all a weird collective dream…which is not a good thing after being approached in a secluded cave by a creepy man. Their doubts are cleared after two giant robots appear motionless by the coast later that evening, giving the children a glimpse of their future.

After a lot of hype and amazement, they find themselves inside their own robot which they promptly nickname “Zearth.” The battle begins as Kokopelli takes the reins and teaches children how to pilot the robot only to disappear moments later and leave them in the care of Dung Beetle (the Japanese character is Koyemshi), who then proceeds to teleport the kids away and explain to them what will happen next. They are required to board the robot and fight against the “invaders” in order to save the Earth.

This of course paints the title as little nothing than a classic shonen; ‘bunch of kids meet mysterious stranger, get super powers, and save the world! That is until you learn the truth of Zearth’s nature, the one that Kokopelli kept from the children…It’s a robot that runs on life force. And as the first eager pilot finds out, each battle means one of them dies at the end whether they win or lose.

It’s not what it seems

The story is amazingly dark as it delves into the issues faced by these kids, each one knowing full well that one of them will die in order to preserve their planet until none of them are left. One of the best elements of this plot device shows itself greatly in the manga. Once a pilot dies, the next one hears a little ring and is given a few days to live the rest of his/her life on Earth. They can choose to keep it a secret or to let everyone know, but it comes to an end as soon as
Zearth shows up and the 24 hour counter for the battle begins.

The anime version is different. The pilots get a tattoo which represents their next enemy and the episodes are a bit rushed, so you never get the building tension between the cast of characters and the rest of their world. It’s an amazing story in the manga as they all know they will die no matter what, since not entering Zearth means their planet will be destroyed.

See, another catch of the game is that the pilots must win in order to save their planet as losing means that it will be destroyed, alongside every single living thing on it. The details behind the game are quickly explained in the anime, but the manga does a great work of delving deep into it and provides a series of twists as the true nature behind Zearth’s origin comes to light, which is something we don’t plan on spoiling for you. So go read or watch it, and for your sake avoid reading anything else on it as other reviews tend to jump straight into spoilers.

Anime or Manga?

The anime version is very fast paced when it comes down to the story, having a rather brief 24 episodes that do their best to convey the action, drama, and general plot. This comes with a problem for people who are making the jump from the manga into the anime, as some things just don’t fit quite as well as the characters’ reasons and past are very briefly glimpsed over in their respective episodes, creating a somewhat convulsed chain of events that seems to push everything in order to fit the most of the manga’s material into the anime. And you know what? It works. It really manages to make the best of the manga’s long story and misses out on the minor details, though these details become important when put together and that’s where the manga does it best.

When you go to read the manga you’ll find a rather bulky story that moves rather slow at points, but manages to convey all the dread that comes for the group of kids who know find themselves with the weight of their world resting on their shoulders. All of them being fully aware that they will fight to the dead not for themselves but for others, so you then indulge in their last moments with more depth and truly get to understand what they were all about, as their personalities were fleshed out better in the original incarnation.

Remember when we said there was something lost in translation? There certainly is, and it’s as simple as saying that the story is more of a parallel to the manga than a direct adaptation. Some elements that added grit and darkness to the general tone of the title were watered down; so many fans complain that the anime dropped some of the strongest parts of its predecessor. On top of that is the fact that the manga’s creator pretty much told his fans to avoid the Anime entirely.

It isn’t bad, just different to the point that at the end of its run it felt as if the characters were different people at parts, but you could still find much to enjoy and have some motivation to read the manga and fill in the blanks. It’s a good story that you’ll love in all of its presentations, but whether one is superior to the other is up to you.

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[wordbay]Bokurano[/wordbay]

It’s been a while since we reviewed a manga (or anything for that matter), so we have a special review for you! This manga is rather famous around the internet, has an interesting premise, and it happens to be a mixed bag of both good and bad. So, let us spice things up and skip right into this review!

Dear Diary…

Mirai Nikki follows Yukiteru Amano, a shut in loner who lives his day to day life writing away at his cell phone while trying to be nothing but a by-stander. The only breaks in his routine come from his visits to a world he created in his mind, a world where a God and his assistant live as Yuki’s only friends. This all changes once the God in his mind, Deus, reveals that he is in fact real and has decided to give Yuki a special gift. This gift comes through Yuki’s phone, once a mere tool to store his diary and now a device that predicts the future.

It all comes at a cost, however. He is only the first of twelve others who have gotten this ability. It’s all part of game of survival that will decide who becomes the new God, giving them the ability to make any wish come true and to create a world to their own liking.

Yuki’s pitted against murderers, terrorists and people with a high influence over the world. But all is not hopeless as he is joined by Yuno Gasai, a lovely girl with a dark side to her bubbly personality. Their unlikely alliance could very well be each other’s undoing but they have no choice but to cooperate, especially since Yuno seems to be more than just a little infatuated by Yuki…

Quite a mixed experience

This manga title has a lot going on for it, quite literally too. At points it’s a well written plot with lots of potential and at other times it just fumbles around aimlessly, falling into so many clichés that it feel as if its author tried to do too much with too little.

The manga handles its main plot device rather well, that being that the cell phones have unique ways of predicting their bearer’s future. The one thing is does not accomplish well is, sadly, the cast. Some characters are rather memorable and well put together, but for the most part they all wander aimlessly over the plot.

Some characters will outright try to kill one another (sometimes killing many a by-stander in the process) and then a couple chapters later it seems to have been forgotten, no one really holds a grudge for too long it seems. It runs into usual anime/manga problem, where a group of teens suddenly become bad ass action heroes with little explanation or where some characters will act weirdly because…who knows really?

The plot had some promise but it suffers because of the awful main character, who goes from being a wimpy bastard to being heroic, then psychotic and back to wimpy. The support cast is okay for the most part; they do get in the way from time to time and stall plot. They’ll also seem to act randomly, talking friendly and nicely even when they were trying to murder each other a few pages ago.

Is it good?

Yes, for the most part. Many will hate this just because of that line, but it really isn’t THAT good. It had an interesting premise and lots of potential but it fell flat due to the characters, and the fact that plot twists around so much that it’s jumbled mess near the end. The fact that the “God” is named “Deus Ex Machina” and messes around with probability feels less of a clever hint by the author and more like a sign of how the plot goes. Characters will pop in an out to do something and be forgotten for a bit or performing actions that can really stretch your suspension of disbelief, which is really something considering the fantastic qualities of the setting.

The overall plot is ridden with holes that are patched out in a hurry near the end after a bunch of chapters that feel like glorified filler and awkward pacing, giving us the crappiest compromise ever. Some fans love the ending, but it’s not to be loved. It’s a simple compromise in which the story tries to have its cake and eat it.

My recommendation is to go read it, sure it’s got a lot of suck wrapped around what should be an otherwise perfect story. Sure, the major plot twists can be seen from space…But yet, it has enough clever moments and wit to blow your mind and keep you hooked, even if it’s just to see what happens at the end of the rocky road the story begins to take in its mid point.

Love it or hate

We could use some feedback on it, these title has a lot to be talked about and it would nice to know what some readers think.

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You probably heard of this one before, but have you seen it? If not, then shame on you! This is easily one of the greatest anime titles ever made, and we say that without much hype. See, this title wasn’t a “niche” kind of anime; it could be seen by anyone who had a taste for action, drama and the noir genre. It appealed to a great target audience that went beyond anime, so prepare to read a bit and watch much more, because you’ll HAVE to watch this someday.

Space Cowboy

Cowboy Bebop takes places in the year 2071 a time when humanity has colonized most of the solar system, linking planets through hyperspace gates that make it possible to travel from one planet to the next. Strangely enough, though, this is merely the backdrop for the show not its main premise.

Cowboy Bebop follows the day to day lives of a group of bounty hunters that live on the Bebop, a ship that travels the solar system tracking down several bounties. And this is where the word “cowboy” fits in; bounty hunters are known by this name and enact justice upon several criminals, as long as it pays well. The hunt for richest and escaping the past are some of the various elements that drive this unique plot onwards into being an amazing piece of work, one you’ll be hard pressed to dislike.

Sorta Fanboyish rant in…

This show is so hip that it can hardly see over its own pelvis! We’ve used the term “genre defying” to describe certain titles, but this one takes the cake. It goes from what some would call a space opera to an action packed thriller, having enough fancy gunplay and explosions to humble Michael Bay. It also goes without saying that it has a very nice plot.

The characters are all charismatic and have well developed personalities, adding to this is the fact they are very well designed. Each member of the cast stands out from the rest, from the main leads to the extras in the background, all look amazing and pop out as individuals. This makes for a really strong show, seeing how it has good characterization, good writing, good animation and an AMAZING soundtrack…Well, just replace “good” with great. We can’t understate how much there is to enjoy in this title.

As a matter of fact, this review feels somewhat insulting. The title is so rich and well put together that a short review like this won’t do, these is one of those titles you actually HAVE to watch. There are two outcomes, you either love it from the start or it slowly builds up until it blows your mind.

It can’t be that good

It really is. Some bits and pieces play out like some of the best action movies you have ever seen, while others manage to tug your heartstrings to a point where you could feel this is Clannad with guns IN SPACE. Which brings me to another point, the way they treat the entire “space opera” aspect of the show is executed nicely, due to how the characters treat all this amazing technology as a part of day to day life that they are used to.

In fact, you can venture that some aspects of Cowboy Bebop’s technology aren’t that far ahead from ours. Sure, they have some amazing things here and there but they feel real, almost feasible.

You like martial arts? Check, this title has them. It goes beyond the silly and unrealistic expectations most otaku have about hand to hand combat in anime, it all looks gritty and realistic, giving your suspension of disbelief some room to allow a few seemingly impossible moves or feat of strength.

I guess I should go check it out then…

Indeed you should! It has action, drama, occasional comedy relief and some very solid story telling. Few animes are seen as “good” by people who never bothered to watch “cartoons” especially the ones from that side of the world. Cowboy Bebop is an amazing title, earning the right to be known as an influential anime.

In closing, if you don’t check this anime out then it’s up to you to miss out on one of the greatest out there. But if you do check it out then watch out, the internet is FULL of spoilers for this one, better tread lightly.

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Today’s review can be considered as a means of apology for our recent lack of activity. We hope you enjoy one of the most popular animes from the 90’s, and strangely enough, a favorite of mine. Read on and find out if you would be suited to the charming and engaging world of Cardcaptor Sakura!

Mandatory Introduction

Cardcaptor Sakura is the brainchild of the all-female mangaka group Clamp. It started its life as a shoujo manga released in the year 1996 and it turned to be a raging success. The manga shattered a lot of barriers associated with the shoujo genre, going as far as becoming a hit with men, easily becoming one of the biggest (if not indeed the biggest) successes by Clamp. The manga went on to become an anime by Madhouse in the year 1998.
MAGIC!

The story follows Sakura Kinomoto, a young girl who stumbles across a mystical tome that unleashes the sealed “Clow Cards,” a set of magical cards created by a powerful magician named Clow Reed that have unique abilities and were bound within the tome. This causes the 52 different cards to split across the land and forces the appearance of their guardian Cerberus, who becomes Sakura’s ally and guide. Sakura now is now tasked to put the card backs into order, sealing their powers and becoming their new master.

The Cardcaptor Sakura franchise went on to become a seminal work for shoujo manga, as well as an example of how to do things right. It kept its appeal for girls and boys alike, ensuring that it would go on to become a classic. Truth be told, it’s pretty enjoyable…That is if you get the right version.

Localization can be a…

Those of you old enough to remember this show may be more familiar with its licensed name “Cardcaptors.” The show was taken over by Nelvana and switched around heavily to be aired in Kids WB and Cartoon Network. This version was made to cater mostly to boys and it became a more action-based show. The length of this version is also shorter, seeing how many episodes were left out as were some “controversial moments” or topics.

See, Sakura Card Captors, as it was known to me in Latin America, was a very unique show. You could tell it had a lot of childish wonder and magic but also a lot of deeper, darker meanings running in the back. An example of this is the fact that the show actually contains homosexuality, and it wasn’t all that subtle.

It was kid-friendly, though. Just putting that out there in case you are a bit too prude around the subject. Sakura’s cousin and best friend Tomoyo Daidouji was as subtle as a man shouting “I’LL KICK YOUR FACE!” before actually kicking you. She would follow Sakura around with a camera to film her battles “in order to learn from them and improve her technique” and a full wardrobe of costumes she would tailor for her. Tomoyo would always have this yearning look on her face and sigh lovingly around Sakura, but it didn’t feel all that dirty.

It was innocent enough that you wouldn’t pick out too much out of it, unless you were a hormone crazed teen like most of the people that grew up alongside me watching this. It never leads to anything serious as the main focus of the show is the actual card hunting, but romance takes a big chunk of the full Nelvana-free version. It was always kept in the background but it sometimes served as a strong driving force for episodes centered on character development.

And well, it’s worth noting that Tomoyo wasn’t the only odd one out…There’s a name that most male otakus of my generation will recognize and either shudder awkwardly or say “Oh, that guy…” Yukito Tsukishiro, Sakura’s initial crush and her brother’s best friend. He was androgynous and had a bromantic fixation on Sakura’s brother, Toya Kinomoto. Again, this leads to little more than an awkward series of revelations that I will not spoil, as well as a moment between the show’s characters that switches things around in a twist that makes most romance-based animes ashamed of themselves. This one was romantic and magical, dealing in a subtle way with simple relationships and even those considered a taboo by most shows.

A bit of everything

There’s enough romance to make a stand-alone show and satisfy the fans of the genres, but there’s also action. The main focus (outside of the characters) lays in Sakura’s quest to find and seal the 52 cards that have gone rogue. Each card is armed with different skills and must be tackled in a different way, providing a fresh set of challenges for the show to keep you interested.

Sakura’s also joined by a fellow Cardcaptor, Syaoran Li, a Chinese-born descendant of Clow who has come to claim the cards for himself. This sparks an early rivalry that leads to a romantic triangle of sorts that is actually interesting.

The show is a true gem in the sense it tackles a series of controversial topics while keeping them justified within the plot, all without alienating their audience. It’s what you would call a “Teen show” but it’s very mature at its core, showing a side of innovation that helped it secure a place in the annals of anime history and a classic.

I would also like to give props to Cartoon Network’s Latin American branch, it takes cojones to dub a full show like that and air it at four in the afternoon. Thanks a lot for giving us a great show. One that we as aging otaku are starting to realize makes us look a bit creepy when we ask for it at the store, especially when sporting a full-on pedophile beard.

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Today we bring you a quiet, refined, and moderately action-y anime for your consideration. This show isn’t really that old since it ran from October 8, 2003, to February 19, 2004, yet many would be inclined to call it “a classic.” Fans of drama, intrigue, and semi-realism will be in for an interesting combination.

The title says it all

Gunslinger girl has a bit of everything for anime fans; it has a somewhat slow paced storyline filled with elements of drama, romance, and action. The Anime follows the lives of a group of girls that are more than meets the eye. Each of them was built into an assassin by the Special Ops branch of the Social Welfare Agency, a counter-terrorism and espionage Agency run by the Italian government on a front based around charity. It’s through this Agency that the girls are brought into the fold, turning their bodies into near-cyborgs by way of implants and severe brainwashing.

Each girl’s kept under check by their frattelo (Italian for brother), a handler who has the utmost loyalty of their assigned girl, who follows them into missions to provide basic support and instructions.

The main element guiding the plot is the chemistry between the girls and their respective handlers, providing a tint of emotion and drama to an overtly dry and somewhat cynical story.

Is it worth a shot?

Gunslinger Girl was licensed by FUNIMATION and it should be readily available on DVD. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s worth picking up unless you can consider yourself a part of its target audience.

If you have a thing for drama, mild (almost barely there) romance, police dramas, semi-realistic action and casts full of little girls acting well beyond their age, then you are half-way there. See, the anime hasn’t exactly aged very well, the animation is not up to par with today’s standards and the plot itself is rather bland. It has a very interesting setting that ultimately fails to deliver due to an awkward and slow pacing.

The main plot line is kind of scattered as it tries to pay a bit of attention to all the girls and their handlers which is quite a stretch for a 13 episode anime.

It’s mostly a rental for a rainy day that may lead up to a surprise. I found it to be rather enjoyable but just as forgettable, due to the fact that it leaves a series of unresolved issues and it sadly trips over itself a couple of times.

It’s good and stylish so it’s definitely worth taking a look just don’t go in expecting a world shattering masterpiece. Some will love it and some others will think it’s nice, but not good enough to watch through.

It also has a second season, but it never happened as far as I’m concerned. The plot was slightly better but everything else just fell to pieces.

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Here at AnimeMB we have a silent rule, “keep it family friendly.” Today, we give that rule a run for its money as we jump into a review for the one of the most offensive and obscene anime of the last decade, all while keeping it classy of course.

A word of warning

Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt is very high on adult-themed content. Every episode is laden with swear words, sexual innuendo, and crass humor that would feel at home in the deepest, most uncivilized corners of the net. In short, this anime goes out of its way to be offensive, outrageously immature, and flat out wrong.

If you can’t tolerate copious amounts of toilet humor, swear words, and insanity, then steer clear of this anime.

Why bother review it then?

Because it was the best 2010 came up with in terms of anime, and that’s a completely serious statement. Panty & Stocking came out at the tail end of a year riddled to the brim with derivative anime, it all felt and looked like something that had come before. Sure, there were a few great titles, but the balance between the overtly-repetitive, bland anime series and the original series was rather sad.

Panty & Stocking takes themes we are already up to our necks in, puts a pair of brightly colored undergarments on its head and then jumps into the deep end of things. It was weird and insane for the sake of being original and fun. This is something it nailed completely, and it knows it.

This anime doesn’t want you to think or analyze things, it doesn’t want you to stop and try to take your suspension of disbelief out for a walk while you make sense of a contrived and senseless plot. No, what this anime does is make you laugh. It wants you to think it’s stereotypical. It wants you to ask, “Did they really do that?” And boy, it succeeds at that well beyond the simple gag anime you could think it is.

And hey, it was made by GAINAX, so why not?

The story

Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt follows the eponymous sister Panty & Stocking (also referred to as Anarchy sisters), two angels who have been kicked out of Heaven due to their bad behavior, and are now tasked with defending humanity from evil Ghosts in order to collect enough Heavens (a sort of coin) in order to gain their entry into Heaven. The duo is guided along by a priest named Garterbelt who serves as their tutor and link between Heaven and Earth.

Several characters join the main cast and all of them share a common trend, they are all named after lingerie. This is just another item on Panty & Stocking’s long list of insanity, and now it’s very likely that you may be wondering about the significance of their names. The answer is rather simple, they use said pieces of clothing as their main weapons in their battles against ghosts.

So, it’s just wacky and funny?

No, it’s also very well animated. Some scenes make such good use of their (rather awesome) art style that they look better than some stand alone anime films. And the soundtrack is sweet as it can get for this kind of thing.

Not to mention that you get a lot for your money. Each episode counts with two stories that don’t fall into any kind of linear or over-arching plot line (at least not until the last few episodes). The episodes are all different in their styling and plot, going from a zombie-themed one to another containing a parody of transformers.

The “plot” is also so insane that you HAVE to think it was made that way on purpose. The ending is sure to baffle you and make you laugh REALLY hard.

There you have it folks, remember you can discuss this article on the forums or right below in the comment section!

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Well it certainly has been a long while since our last article and we apologize for that. Our one (and only) writer caught a bad case of Chickenpox and that “kiddie” illness sure beats the crap out of adults. So as a means to apologize to you all and jump back on track we are giving you a review of Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance, now available in theatres!

Let’s get straight to it

We mentioned a long while ago this movie would hit theatres in the US and it just did. It’s not a wide release, though, but some lucky otaku will have a chance to be within walking distance of one of the showings and…. well, this being the era of the internet you can now hope to grab a dubbed or subbed copy and be happy with. There’s one big question, though….

Is it worth it?

When it comes down to it I would say kind of, and that’s not a good sign. I have thrown so much of my time and money at Neon Genesis Evangelion since it first came out in the 90’s I’m pretty sure I could call it “my new religion” and no one would mind. So saying the movie is “kind of worth watching” should be nearly impossible for me.

The truth is that the movie takes some wild liberties with what fans know and like, it pays off during a couple of scenes but it sometimes seems to impact the rest of the film rather negatively. Besides, if you are a fan of the show and saw the first one then you HAVE to see this one because then you’ll miss out on the new shiny stuff, but if you are a newcomer to the show (which should be impossible at this point in the game) then it’s all based off the first movie, did you like it enough to watch the sequel? And trust me, you should watch the first one first.

Mandatory background info

The plot to Evangelion is rather well known to the point of being infamous, so you can skip the following bit of background info if you feel we are insulting your intelligence as an Otaku by telling you about it:

The Evangelion universe revolves around the ongoing battle between humanity and the Angels, otherworldly creatures responsible for a near-mass extinction event known as “The Second Impact,” that caused the dead of most of humanity and scarred the earth forever. Humanity’s only hope for survival comes from NERV an organization based on the fortress-city of Tokyo-3 that uses the Evangelions (Also known as Evas), which are living mechanical weapons that resemble giant robots, to defend the remnants of humanity from the Angel menace.

Evangelion 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance picks up after the first movie, further down the line in the battle against Angels and it comes with a few surprises, including the appearance of popular characters and even new ones.

Well, that should do for a shamelessly simplistic summary of the basics. Feel free to ask any questions you may have in the forums and enjoy the review.

The review itself

The movie is based on that plot-line with major changes coming basically as “twists,” so discussing the entirety of it would ruin the experience, both for fans and new comers. We’ll stick simply to what you should expect from it.

A little note before we get things going: there are mild spoilers ahead, so be warned.

The movie itself starts off with one of its biggest problems: the introduction of Mari Illustrious Makinami, a new female character who spends most of the movie fumbling awkwardly between the established leads and steals a few scenes away from them. The entire way in which her character is presented will get on many a fan’s nerves. Rather than feeling fresh and adding up to a tired formula, it feels confusing and obstructive.

The basic plot continues to be there with the greatest changes happening halfway through the movie, especially in the personalities of the cast and the way they interact with each other.

Sadly, this leaves any rugged Evangelion fan with the feeling this movie was a simple bridge between the first movie’s fairly loyal take on the story and the third movie’s radical changes. Newcomers that saw the first one as their very-first interaction with Evangelion will be suitably confused. There are many moments where your suspension of disbelief will be strained beyond hope (which is saying a lot for this anime) and you will find yourself asking, “What the hell just happened?”

The movie is a clear tribute to the original show, teasing fans with symbolisms that were common throughout the series and it goes as far as to imply that this is in fact a sequel. It’s a really good movie to tickle the discerning otaku’s brain cells when it comes down to it. The plot has lots of little wink and nudges to the previous works related to the franchise and it’s there to please fans. And that’s why I had to say “it’s kinda worth it”.

This was clearly engineered with fans in mind

If you strip it down to the core, this film is great. It has enough action and is violent enough to get your blood pumping and it’s so well animated and full of color it makes the original show look like indie art that came from Eastern Europe. The film interesting enough to keep your ass on the seat through its entire length and it actually gets your mind going with little theories that keep you entertained for a while after watching it.

And yet it feels incomplete. Fans of Evangelion are used to this feeling even though the show has been changed, ret-coned and twisted around so much that the only consistency comes from the cast, which is in a way, the moving force behind the entire story-line. That’s my biggest problem with this movie. It was a chance to right wrongs and set the good things in stone as to lean the franchise towards perfection but it only managed to make the same awkward mistakes, switching the main storyline to accommodate a character that has no reason to be there.

There’s a long running-joke between fans that the crew behind the anime hates Asuka, and boy does this movie lend credit to that idea.

The bottom-line

It does many things well and many more wrong, yet it’s worth taking a look at it if you enjoyed the first one or if you are a long time fan. The big issue with this movie is that it lingers and will leave you feeling incomplete and with a thirst for answers.

It attempts to switch the story enough to make it fresh but it comes too short of that and puts a lot of weight on its upcoming sequel, making this movie nothing but a stepping stone between the known Evangelion mythos and the new uncharted lands of crazy that are sure to lay ahead.

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[wordbay]Evangelion[/wordbay]

Are you tired by the modern vampire archetype? Do you miss the days when vampires were creatures of the night that preyed on human blood and displayed supernatural powers? Well, odds are you already know of this title if you happen to be in that crowd, but there’s no reason not to go back to Alucard’s violent and stylish take on vampirism.

Vampires Go Well With Blood

You should know Hellsing is rather violent and gory, like any good vampire story should be. The title has seen the light of day in three forms up to this moment: a manga, a T.V. anime that differs greatly from the manga and a series of OVA’s that took the manga and pretty much put life into its pages.

This review will focus on the TV Anime, because in all fairness I tried to do something different and review Hellsing in a video that no one watched. But back to the topic at hand, Hellsing is a violent and gory anime that makes a spectacle out of combat. The guns are big and loud, the characters are all unique and flashy (save for the cannon fodder, which you are ought to recognize as the faceless soldiers), but above all when it gets into a confrontation, it plays out well. Watching Alucard fight his way through enemies conveys the feeling he doesn’t give a crap, and that’s basically true. He’s a skilled and perfectly engineered killing machine with enough attitudes to hold many of the anime’s faults.

You could safely say Hellsing is character based. The plot gets introduced early on and it’s built upon nicely. It does sort of pull what I have gotten to know as “an Evangelion.” You know, when a new character gets introduced with a sudden twist to the story and everything gets a bit insane for a bit? This is rather obvious near the end of the show when several characters find themselves trapped in either dreams, or visions, or when the show introduces a lot of new elements out of nowhere.

Yes, the show is good. But you can painfully see the moment where the manga’s original plot left the building and took with it most of the better aspects of the plot.

See, Hellsing is so great when it comes to its characterization of the main cast and the way they each react to the individual twists that you can’t help but to like it. Sure, it fell short in some parts, but they did a lot with what little they had.

This is what you can call a classic…

Now, more than ever, the old TV anime certainly shows its age thanks to the infinitely gorier and tightly knit Hellsing Ultimate. The manga’s plot is a bit richer as it goes on for longer than the original TV anime, and Hellsing Ultimate has pretty much made the older adaptation seem obsolete. It’s not, thrust me on that one.

Hellsing has a different plot that can very well serve newcomers to the series as an introduction to the character’s basic traits. It also has an appropriate length, which means you can watch it over a lazy weekend rather than dedicate half of your life to it like many monstrously large animes would require to watch.

Hellsing tells the story of the eponymous Hellsing organization lead by (this is a mouthful) Sir Integral Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing, a descendant of the great vampire hunter Doctor Van Hellsing. She is now tasked with the defense of protestant England against the supernatural. And by supernatural we mean vampires and more often than not the ghouls they spawn.

The organization counts with several members but at its core you can find: Alucard, whose origins should be obvious but yet are presented as a fun twist at the end of the T.V. series. Walter, the seemingly old butler who’s packing enough surprises to deliver his own show. Seras Victoria, a young police officer who finds herself as the newest recruit of Hellsing. And of course the leader, Sir Integral Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing, a woman of character who has to show the world that she’s on top of a game no one else can play, which is none other than vampire hunting.

The main vein of the plot starts off from the manga’s core and then goes into a conspiracy involving an organization that seeks to harness vampires as weapons. This is done with the implementation of a chip which alters a person into an “artificial vampire” of sorts. The first few episodes are basically there to deal with the few prototypes the organization let out into the wild.

Things get out of hand sooner than later and Hellsing finds itself in need of performing some major damage control. This happens in the midst of a conflict with the government and another agency in charge of taking care of the paranormal, and who may that be? The Vatican of course! This is part of the manga’s roots, religious conflicts, conspiracies, and mysteries but everything becomes different near the end.

In short, I would recommend you watch this before picking up Hellsing ultimate as it’ll make for a sweet stand-alone story and serve as an introduction. Take a good look at it, enjoy it for what it is and if you want more just hop on to Hellsing Ultimate, just hold on to your pants for some mayor changes around the second OVA.

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Here at AnimeMB we are still coming down from the holiday craze. So instead of giving you a rather bland set of news (nothing really interesting has happened) we have decided to let you speak up. What are your favorite titles and why? What makes anime really good for you? We want to know, so just jump ahead to the forums and tell us!

My Take

I mentioned on the forum topic discussing my last list that I would probably try and make a “Best of the decade” one, but decided not to after thinking for a bit. See, rather than make a personal “best of” list, I’ll simply name my favorite and let you do the same so the forums get some life into them by way of an interesting conversation.

I understand that critics are needed, as they are there to tell us the qualities of any given thing and whether or not it’s worth our time. But people tend to disagree with critics, so rather than narrow down the “Best of the decade” I’ll go ahead and mention my favorite off the top of my head.

You are welcome to do the same in the forums, so go on and let’s have some fun. So here you have it, my favorite anime of the decade and a contender for the” my personal best ever” title.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

I never wrote a proper review for this one because I couldn’t find a better way to describe it than by typing obscenities. It’s simply awesome and probably the only anime deserving the hype it gets (as well as the thousands of memes). Why? Because it’s a one way ticket to getting punched in the face by a testosterone fueled spiral of never ending awesome.

The anime is brutally simple at its core but has several elements that allow those who like “deep stuff” to over-analyze relentlessly. It has a dramatic plot that doesn’t feel ham-fisted, mature characters that grow and develop amazingly well (some would bleed charisma if stabbed), intense action, and some, if not the best, giant mechas to ever be drawn into an anime, not to mention the biggest.

I recommend this show to everyone, even if they hate anime and see it as “weird Chinese cartoons.” It’s one of the few shows that you can watch in one sitting without feeling the need to stop. You’ll watch it to the end even if you dislike it because you simply want to know how it’ll escalate next.

I strongly recommend you watch it in its original Japanese with subtitles (even if you don’t understand a bit) only because of what an awesome, nay, epic job the voice actors make out of delivering their lines.

Animes like this one are rare and very far apart. I don’t tend to be one of those who have a grading for which one you like most but Tengen Toppa Gurren
Lagann is certainly high up there, alongside Elfen Lied and Neon Genesis Evangelion (those have already been reviewed on the site).

You really are missing out if you don’t watch it because “it looks juvenile” or because “mechas aren’t my thing.” Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann will shatter your expectations because it’s not a cookie cutter anime that fills neatly with others, and if anything I would say it doesn’t fit into the standard definitions of a genre.

So, really…a mecha anime?

Don’t get me wrong, the past decade was also responsible for Clannad, School Days and Elfen Lied, which were some of the best in their own regard and are pretty high up there by my definition. I will watch anything, really. An anime that can manage to convey emotion is something else, Clannad made you bawl like a baby, Elfen Lied and School Days were good at putting human nature into perspective as well as providing some insight into the relative value of human life.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann made you want to scream and punch your best friend in the face, not out of anger, but out of how awesome it would be.

So there you have it folks, now go into the forums and type your fingers off.

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The year is coming to a close and so we have decided to present to you a, “Decade List,” allowing us to break away from the tedium of reporting news that garner three or so comments in hopes of striking an interesting conversation. Be warned this list is highly biased as it comes straight out of my personal opinion, both as a writer and an otaku.

And so it begins…

The following article contains a short list of what I consider to be, “The most highly over-rated pieces of crap of the decade.” This, of course, refers entirely to anime as it should be clear from the site’s name. I’ll go ahead and repeat myself; this is based entirely on my own opinion and yes, I know I’m not an “anime expert,” so feel free to go ahead and register in the forums to tell me how wrong I am. You could also use the comment section below the main article but the forums are honestly a better choice.

The titles here all came into existence within the past decade, meaning that you are bound to have seen or heard of them before.

So, let’s cut to the chase and start this in no particular order, save for the very last one:

Naruto and Bleach

Well, that sounds kind of unfair since it’s actually, “Naruto, Bleach, and many, manyyy more.” I once hinted in the article about consistency that I hated these kinds of shows. I guess no one really picked it up, which was kind of a lucky break as it didn’t move away from the original topic. Truth be told, I do, but I don’t hate the entirety of the rather bland and repetitive shonen genre. There‘s a place in my heart for the few sparkling gems of originality and genius that shine through the murky waters of a cesspool consisting of tired clichés.

The big shonens are basically THE SAME STORY. Do not lie to yourself here. Some nobody turns out to have a random skill that seems irrelevant at the beginning of the story. Then said nobody comes across a mystical plot-moving mcguffin that urges him on, alongside a band of friends, to battle evil with the power of friendship, self-esteem, and in some cases, love.

All the shows go through two main plots: They introduce a bad guy who’s the ultimate something or other that must be dealt with, or a stupid goal for the main character that comes down to, “catch ‘em all,” winning a tournament, getting a title, finding a treasure, saving the world, etc. It comes down to the same tired formula with different dressings for the main characters, too. The lead will more than likely be a wimp/social outcast that displays amazing talent, has an attractive female friend that he/she is clearly into (but never leads to anything), and a somewhat cocky male friend that either used to be a rival or will end up being one. It is also a general rule of thumb that one of the main lead’s friends (more often than not the cocky one) will be some sort of genius.

In short, I guess you could tag anything in the same vein as One Piece (I’m fully aware this one came out in the late 90’s, but it still only got big in the past decade), Naruto, and Bleach as being cyclical, never-ending, and unoriginal crap that will linger on repeating the same stories, introducing boring and generic villains, or just plain never getting to the main ones EVER.

Seriously, they often hit the 500 episode mark and their mangas have more dialogue than what a new unpublished writer could ever hope to see on paper!

Lucky Star:

This one will be shorter. Why? Because I could only sit through six episodes of this before forgetting everything I had just seen and throwing it into the, “meh, I’ll get to it when I have exhausted all forms of pleasure and entertainment known to man,” pile. I was led into it by a friend and half of the internet, and what really got me was that someone said, “It’s like Seinfeld but in an Anime with girls!” That was a vile, filthy lie.

That anime was dull and awful. It was so bland I can safely say a plate of cold oat meal got me more excited. Nothing happened, ever. Most people I told my opinion on the show said, “You just don’t get it because it’s geared towards true otakus!” or something amongst those lines. I thought that was ridiculous and quite frankly I just never bothered to give the show another chance.

I have seen plenty of “slice of life” or school themed animes and my opinion of Lucky Star was it could barely hope to be a poor man’s Azumanga Daioh.

Also, somebody told me it got better later and I just couldn’t care enough to watch after the sixth episode. My memories are scattered and barely there, but the most “interesting” thing that happened was when they discussed how to eat a pastry only because it made me sigh away the flies that had begun to gather over my interest-deprived and nearly comatose body.

Code Geass

This may be opening a HUGE can of worms, but I thought the show and the general feel that came off the characters and the plot was amazingly pretentious and generic. Everything I saw reminded me of something else; character designs as well as plot elements and, well, I just couldn’t buy into it after a few episodes (I even tried reading the manga).

It takes itself far too seriously for its own good and comes off as a douchey set of characters in a douchey universe. This came to bite it in the ass when I got to a mayor plot point later on and said to myself, “I’ve been watching insane anime for years with a straight face and this is just too stupid for even me,” and turned it off. It’s okay when you present me with a massively insane anime that tries to weave a plot out of crazy, but one that simply pulls crazy out of nowhere in the middle of a believable setting and then tries to play it to the point of making a regular deux ex machina part of the plot is not my cup of tea.

Everything was a bit derivative and generic with a twist of crazy. The main characters all got on my bad side and the entire show just came up with goofy stuff I couldn’t buy into. Not because it was too far out or because I lacked an imagination, I just didn’t think it fit with anything else on the setting.

Death Note

Oh boy, this might be the last nail on the coffin for some readers but I gotta lay it straight here, I HATE Death Note, I really do. Now, just do me a favor before you go into the forums and start flaming the crap out of the site (and me), take a seat and read up on why.

I watched every single episode at least twice. I tried to like it since everyone else seemed to be in love with the freaking thing and I ended up hating all of it. The characters were annoying and I got to understand the main appeal of the show was geared towards three kinds of people: people that think themselves to be clever and smart but really aren’t, social outcasts that wished they could take revenge on people without consequences, and finally, people that can’t find anything else to watch.

The plot was boring. You have a magical people-killing book that you can use to bring a horrible death to anyone and rather than, say, write, “Pounded to death by a massive gorilla that escaped from the zoo,” people get killed off by a series of heart attacks. Besides, most of the plot is delivered through exposition, characters blabbing on and off to explain things that had been barely hinted at and had no real way to be picked out or understood by the audience.

There are two ways most animes handle their plots: the subtle over-arching one that leads to a big surprise or twist where all the pieces fall together, or the slow paced narrative that takes place from a single character’s point of view and allows the viewer to essentially “become” the character. Death Note does neither. In fact, it actually tries to pull off a mix of the two that ends with many episodes consisting of long monologues, awkward “action” scenes, and massive unexplored plot holes.

Death Note thinks itself too smart for its audience, so it tries to explain everything to us. But in doing so it really ends up taking away from what the viewer could have gathered out of the rather flimsy bits of the story we had seen so far. On top of that lays the fact that most of the main characters were unlikable. Hell, most of the police officers were great until the detective work gets brushed off as “Magic!”

There you have it folks. Keep in mind that you were warned of the content within the article and now go ahead and express yourselves (not in the form of pitch forks and torches, though).

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We’ll tell you right now that this week hasn’t been “big” so far, but that’s no reason to stop reporting at all. We hereby bring you little news-worthy announcement and a bit of commentary that’s sure to interest more than just one of you (out of our, like, three readers.)

Gintama ain’t Dead Yet

The 53rd edition of Weekly Shonen Jump brings news of Gintama’s second wind. The anime had ended back in March, but it seems it still has a way to go and will come back soon enough. This was said by Shinji Takamatsu, one of the main staff members behind the show’s original run. He was very enthusiastic about the show returning to the air and went as far as to say there’s plenty left to go for it.

There’s no information available on when it will return, though, so we can expect more news on this matter to come next year.

Adaptations Galore

It says a lot about the current state of the anime world when you see mangas being adapted into anime faster than they can be published. It’s a good thing until we all sit down to think about it for a second; out of a thousand animes to see daylight only a hundred will feel fresh and new.

We are not saying that the anime industry should stop producing any new titles. It’s just that seeing how it has fallen on hard times and seems to be stagnating a little bit, it just sounds like a bad idea to have so many new releases at the same time.

Innovation is good, that’s a fact. The problem is that many new anime titles lack the edginess and innovation of the past; it all has come down to companies that make safe bets with clichéd and stereotypical titles. Companies have to make money and it’s understandable that they copy each other, but it all has come down to a basic palette swap.

Modern Otakus find themselves stuck at a crossroad, the vast majority seem to like the excessively fan service-laden shows of today while some yearn for the old ones. Sure, fan service has always been there but it used to mean something. It wasn’t delivered to us 24/7 and on a dozen different shows.

The anime industry is heading down the same slippery slope as the video game market back in the 80’s. We are up to our ears in bland repetition with a few outstanding titles that serve to say “It ain’t over yet,” but the bubble burst and now it seems that more and more companies fall into the bandwagon of bland stereotypes in the quest for more money.

I might be talking out of my ass here, just keep in mind that anime is still good and fun and it’s varied enough to have a gem of unexploited greatness lying buried in mount panties and school drama.

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Those of you with nothing better to do this summer should go now in search for a newspaper because Ghibli’s Earthsea hit theatres this Friday, and so far it’s going strong. Read on for a list of theatres in case you feel like catching it yourself, and a short review for those who feel like getting the DVD and checking it out.

C’mon, It’s Ghibli!

Studio Ghibli is pretty much like the Pixar of anime (more like Pixar being the Ghibli of CGI) they never screw up and all of their films are memorable blockbusters. They somehow manage to integrate everything that makes an animated film great, art, good story-telling, direction, a strong plot and an amazing cast, all without ever coming short with one of these elements. The final product of studio Ghibli’s films is always great and you don’t even have to be into anime to appreciate it, just as Earthsea has proven with its opening weekend.

Earthsea opened Friday the 13th (yeah, we know) on a very limited release of five theatres located in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Honolulu and San Francisco. The film managed to draw in around $20,500 on its opening weekend, which may seem a little disappointing considering that the rest of studio Ghibli’s films have raked in truck-full’s of cash even with a limited release. Truth be told, this one may seem like the financial black-sheep. But it’s not bad, oh boy, it’s completely far from that.

The film’s relatively weak (by Ghibli’s standards) opening weekend can be easily attributed to several factors such as having been released deep in the digital era and being available on the internet (not a matter of piracy folks, some very “official” sites have it up) as well as having a widely released DVD. Earthsea comes to us by the hands Goro Miyazaki, the son of Hayao Myizaki, the man responsible for many of studio Ghibli’s greatest films. The question here is, does the apple fall far from the tree? The answer is a simple: no, it doesn’t.

Tales of Earthsea, or Gedo Senki as it’s known in Japanese, is an adaptation of a series of fantasy novels by Ursula K. Le Guin. So you can be sure that the film is in line with the likes of Princess Mononoke, having huge mythological creatures and some violence here and there for good measure (the film is the first animated film distributed by Disney to receive a PG-13 rating.)

Those of you living in the cities mentioned above should check the following theaters:

New York (Angelika/Manhattan)

Honolulu (Victoria Ward)

San Francisco (The Kabuki)

Seattle (Harvard Exit)

Los Angeles (The Landmark)

The rest of you should think of going to the DVD store to pick it up and here’s the reason why you should spend your money; Earthsea is from studio Ghibli, so you know it at least deserves a rental but it can be taken as a good movie in its own right as it presents to you an unique yet familiar story. The parallels with Princess Mononoke are plentiful, the styling and feel of Earthsea makes it seem like it would be at home in the same world where the events of Princess Mononoke take place. The visuals are warm and colorful, even when showing off such sights as a stormy sky or a slave market.

The film takes us to a land where pestilence and disease are wreaking havoc amongst the populace, and where bad crops are forcing farmers away from their homes and slavers are running rampant, but there’s more to it than that. The balance of life in the land seems to be breaking as a consequence of direct human interference, so we join Ged, an Archmage traveling the land to find the reason behind it and Arren, a young prince who fled his homeland and wanders alongside Ged to escape from his past, as well as a dark presence that lurks within him.

The plot itself is very basic but it still manages to draw the viewer in, save for a couple of moments where everything comes to a halt and we are taken into some plot exposition. There’s a peculiar point where the main characters become awkward and seem to get out of place with what was previously established about their personalities. But this gets integrated later on in a way that makes sense. In a way, this movie is one of those were you can’t stop watching it halfway through or it’ll seem bland and boring, but once you watch the whole thing and the little bits and pieces come together you can be sure to say “Wow” just as the credits roll.

The English dub manages to be far from cringe-worthy. I would even dare say it’s good, since there are times when it seems like Earthsea was made in English instead of simply dubbed. The voice actors really put some work into it this time around and if you look at the back and see the voice cast you’ll understand why.

Earthsea is good. It may not be the greatest from Ghibli (not that you can judge a film in such a view, since all preferences are subjective) but it sure stands out on its own two legs. The movie has some unresolved plot points that kind of sit there picking at the back of your head, some simply linger too long through the film to be treated quickly and taken out of the story in an awkward fashion, but others just remain sitting there. But at the end of the day this is a decent movie, not exactly action-packed but not too slow, perfect for a date or a calm, lazy day.

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Here we present a review that no true anime site can be without: Rurouni Kenshin, also known as Samurai X, was one of the greatest shows of its time and went to become a timeless classic. Yet there’s a dark side to all of this, a dark side many didn’t get to know…

A Trip Down Memory Lane

Those of you who read the “Manga and Anime A Broken Link” articles saw a reference to this title on the second part of the series. This review will be different because we will forsake the historical background and go straight to the root of the show. If you want some background info then you should check out the article where it was referenced because here you’ll find nothing but the truth about this show.

Samurai X was big. So big, in fact, that it made its way to Cartoon Network and many other channels down in Latin America. The show had a decent Spanish dubbing and the episodes aired with consistency day after day. And if you were between the ages of 12-25 in Latin America during the show’s run and never cared to take a look at it, then you sucked and everyone hated you.

The anime did so many things right that it just came as a surprise to all of its fans to see it fall on its ass and catch on fire. You see, the problem with the anime is that unlike the North American version of Cartoon Network and many other channels, the local ones decided to air its full run and so we saw it crumble and end without much of a real ending.

The Beginning Of Something Great

Samurai X told the tale of Himura Kenshin, a samurai that became a vagabond and a wanderer after the Bakumatsu during which he built up fame as “Hitokiri Battōsai” (referenced all through the anime as “Battōsai the man slayer”) becoming a ruthless killer who murdered hundreds who now haunt his memories. He began traveling the roads of rural Japan during the early Meiji era and served as a metaphor on how the old ways were dying and the way of the samurai came to an end.

Along his journey, he comes in touch with Kamiya Kaoru, a woman and owner of a dojo, who helps Kenshin leave his life as a wanderer behind and serves as an unifying character for the rest of the cast. He also finds Sagara Sanosuke, a brawler and former rebel with a burning hatred of the government, Myōjin Yahiko, a brat who wants to prove himself as a swordsman in Kenshin’s eyes and Takani Megumi, a female doctor rescued from the mafia and brought into the fold of the main characters. There were several more but just naming them would take an entire article in itself.

That was the greatness of Samurai X, it went on to include amazing characters, both heroes and villains that shone with originality and were presented in such a way as to allow all characters to be unique, even most villains had a sympathetic side to them as their personas stood firmly on morally ambiguous grounds, performing acts of pure evil that could easily be justified.

The show followed Kenshin as the ghost from his past came to haunt him, never letting him have a regular life as he fought on with optimism to prove that he could still be redeemed for his sins. This served to open the story to new villains, they would either come to kill Kenshin due to his fame as the manslayer or because he was the only one skilled enough to face them.

The anime was action packed, but it paced things nicely with episodes focusing on characters other that the main cast and it always built up to something epic. It sure had its fair share of crappy filler but it wasn’t enough to kill the show. Then comes the best part: Makoto Shishio, a man who became Kenshin’s replacement as a killer after he ceased fighting. He was the perfect villain in a gallery of villains that included the great Oniwabanshu, he was simply superb.

The entire season where they dealt with Shishio was epic. The battles were massive, thrilling, and brutal. Secrets were revealed and the season concluded in such a high note that to this day whenever you mention Samurai X (at least down here) you’ll get someone to say “Oh dude, remember Shishio!?” and as great as that is it’s soon followed by “Remember all the Christian crap that ruined it?”.

It Hits The Fan

Shishio’s arc was so epic that the people behind the show got ahead of the manga and were forced to meet their production schedule with filler, tons and tons of filler. It got so bad that the stories felt completely forgetful and characters were reintroduced then taken off the show so fast it was as if they were trying to ruin it with weak storylines and crappy humor.

We all thought it couldn’t get worse, until Shogo comes along; a freaking super Christian Samurai and a never before mentioned disciple of Kenshin’s master, a man who completely demolished the entire cast coming out of nowhere with a crappy background and character development tagging all his superb abilities on being a super Christian of sorts.

He came out of nowhere in a response to the show’s decline in good villains and ruined it. They made him so badass that it made Kenshin look like a complete tool but of course he ends up getting his ass whooped and gets taken out of the show. So much for that. Fans were so let down at this point that talking to my friends, with whom I grew up watching every episode, and bringing up the name “Shogo” resulted in a collective flashback of awful, as if we all witnessed a murder and the memories traumatized us.

Enter the Black Knights, a group of villains that seemed to come out of a G.I Joe rejects list, with crappy costumes and even crappier backgrounds…God it was just terrible, like watching a train wreck catch on fire and then have the survivors attacked by bears, which are also on fire.

It may be odd to read a review from a personal stand point, but I went through all of this show just like every other teenager in Latin America and we can all agree on this, avoid the third season like the plague but watch the movies. Seriously…the third season will have you gouging your eyes out in anger.

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Not doing a retrospective of this classic would be a bad mistake! Even if these days it seems pointless due to the show’s most recent “reboot” in the form of the films. Neon Genesis Evangelion is as influential as it is popular and some would even go and call it over rated; others would call it a masterwork….there’s no middle ground here, folks. Hate it or love it.

The Second Impact:

Neon Genesis Evangelion (otherwise known as Evangelion) came during a time when many saw anime as an obscure form of entertainment clawing its way out of clichés and bad dubbing. It was the year 1995 when a giant purple monstrosity took the anime viewing world by storm. A year when the SNES wasn’t retro, and the internet was not the never ending fountain of fan dubbing it is now a days.

Evangelion was regarded as ground breaking and imaginative due to its presentation of philosophy and how it managed to give us scenes of bloody carnage that could be analyzed as food for thought as they were presented in the same frame of interpersonal conflict and emotional issues that the main cast was.

The concept of the anime can be discussed long enough to dedicate several websites to it, but keeping it simple was an idea born from its creator, Hideaki Anno’s, struggle to deal with depression that turned into solid gold at the hands of Gainax (a studio many anime fans probably wouldn’t know much about if it wasn’t for Evangelion.)

Evangelion was different and wild, mixing in Judeo-Christian imagery along with action and a cast plagued by a series of mental diseases and issues. It was simply unexpected to see something like this at the time; it catered to teenagers that liked action, young adults who loved either drama or deep thoughtful analysis, but most of all it had the key elements to become memorable.

Welcome To The World Of Tomorrow! (As Seen From The 90′s)

The back setting for the story takes us to a post apocalyptic earth in the future and the ‘far away’ year 2000 (that’s right kids, there was once a time when you could call that the future, now get off my lawn) where the appearance of beings identified as “Angels” triggered a cataclysmic event known as the “Second Impact” which caused the northern polar ice cap to be obliterated. That led to major flooding as well as changing the global climate and nearly causing the extinction of the human race.

The world has changed and so has Japan (being a part of the world and all) which is now a land that is almost completely underwater and home to the location where the bulk of the show takes place; Tokyo 3, a fortress city built as a defense against the Angels and NERVs headquarters, but what good is a defense without the ability to strike back? That is where the EVAS jump in the mechas of the show that were created to stop the Angels that (as per an ancient prophesy) will come individually with the objective of starting off the third impact and finally whipping out humanity…or so it seems.

More Than Meets The Eye

Evangelion is a hate it or love it show for various reasons. Chiefly amongst them is the fact that the dysfunctional cast seems to be strongly developed and filled with colorful characters and yet we get stuck with a whiny uncomfortable and somewhat weak lead, Shinji Ikari, who in retrospect serves as a nice contrast to the strong willed Azuka Langley Soryu (we are well aware of the name change, but this wasn’t the case in the show) and the deadpan Rei Ayanami.

The one problem with Shinji is that when compared to many a male lead or even the rest of the cast he seems to get in the way too much. Perhaps it’s as simple as saying that he was designed to be hated (a point he is sure you get by the end of the show) but in spite of this, the rest of the characters, EVAS, and Angels included are nothing less than excellent.

Evangelion can get confusing sometimes, as the episodes went from being a simple mecha show to move deeper into the philosophical issues that linger in the back of the main character’s mind. This is not necessarily bad, seeing how there was never a straight mecha show to begin with; the EVAS are an element of the plot that fall into the “gets increasingly confusing” bunch, but they are detailed and they were exceptionally great for their time. Bio-mechanical mechas that…well, let’s not spoil it too much for those three people that haven’t seen it yet, shall we?

Evangelion is a good show. Some may say the anime is over rated but in reality it is just because it hit the mainstream culture really hard and jumped into the spotlight and allowed us clear view of its flaws. Yes, flaws. The show was flawed because of many budget cuts and production hiccups and these flaws become increasingly painfully clear as the show reaches its ending. This may seem a bit nit-picky nowadays because of how there’s a “true” ending, about three different editions of the show and even a reboot, but back when Evangelion was brand-spanking new there were no such thing, and so this was really infuriating to some viewers.

Evangelion is an anime that may have gone a bit over its head. The many editions and the reboot show how it’s creator could never convey the story he saw in his head properly. But nothing that has been said so far points out to it being “bad”…it’s just that once you take off your nostalgia glasses you can really appreciate its flaws. The anime may seem overly elaborate and sometimes drawn out, but the story hits some key notes and many of its characters have gone to become anime legends. Simply put, Neon Genesis Evangelion is an anime that you will either hate or love with a passion.

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Are you bored with what conventional anime has to offer? Perhaps it is time to die…or at least to check out the offerings of the gloomy Ai Enma in “Hell Girl” otherwise known as “Jigoku Shōjo: Girl from Hell”. Prepare to see what death is like.

A One Way Ride

Hell Girl is a somewhat unconventional anime for modern times. Its first season was released during the late half of 2005 and ran until early 2006 in Japan. Produced by Aniplex and Studio Deen and licensed by “FUNimation”, this anime proved itself to be enough of a hit on its homeland to bring forth a manga and a short live action adaptation.

Hell Girl follows an episodic formula, in which every episode is a self contained story that links with the overall plot through the actions of the show’s main cast of recurring characters. The eponymous Hell Girl, Ai Enma, is a gloomy and dark girl with a tragic past that now serves as harbinger of vengeance with the aid of her servants; Wanyudo, an old man with a near permanent smile, Hone Onna, a sultry woman with a cynical outlook and a knack for style and Ren Ichimoku, a young looking man who dresses in modern clothing unlike the rest of the gang who dress in classic Japanese garbs (save for when they go “undercover” on the human world, but more on that later). Hell Girl could be said to follow the story of an anti-hero; until we get to know the Shibatas, the single parent and journalist Hajime and his bright young daughter Tsugumi who become the recurring human characters in the show.

Hell Girl consists of three seasons: the first of which has been already released in the west whereas the second is halfway through and should be done by the end of July, while the third season won’t see a DVD release until well later this year.

As I said, the show follows an episodic formula with only the cast to push it forward, but sadly (to some) the human part of the cast is not a constant. You could say that it’s the biggest change in the formula up to the third season where things got a little…different. But, it’s not an unwelcomed change of pace, that’s for sure.

Death Is Unfair

Each episode of Hell Girl starts by introducing us to a character that is in trouble or consumed by a deep grudge. Then, after getting a little look into that character’s life and knowing the story behind the current circumstances we get to see Ai Enma’s modus operandi, a mysterious website that can only be accessed at midnight. There, Ai’s “customers” will write the name of the person they seek her to deliver vengeance upon and she will soon appear in their room and offer them a straw doll, which for those that pay attention to detail will seem oddly familiar.

Once the contract’s conditions have been stated all the person has to do is pull a red string around the doll’s neck, prompting Ai to leave her hellish home and with the aid of her servants, punish the victim and send them off to hell. Of course, this comes with a price, namely that of the other party’s soul but only once they die. Until then, they will bear a dark mark on their chest as part of their contract.

Some people complain that the anime takes the means through which Ai delivers souls onto hell a little lightly, with the motif behind some contracts being petty. But as an episode of the first season showed us, people can be psychotic and having an easy way out will sometimes be their only choice, no matter the cost.

What You Can Expect

The general plot is based around Ai’s past and how she came to be in her position, you could arguably say that the first season is dedicated to the Shibatas and how Hajime’s investigation came to awaken parts of Ai’s past. While the second season deals with how humanity adopts the easiest way out of their problems and how this amounts to nothing…all the while showing us the past of Ai’s servants.

The third season is a bit…different, but not bad by any means. Hell Girl is a very solid work with a nice overarching plot that will cater to those that like to put the pieces together rather than have everything explained to them upfront. The truth is, that most of the time the situations in a given episode will seem unfair, but that’s part of the point. Life can be a b-…ehm, mean lady, and death is the great equalizer. Ai is simply the bridge in between using humanity’s tools to reap from their own hatred (it’s shown how she has worked in the past through such methods as an old mailbox).

The only real complaint about the show is that watching episode after episode gets a bit tiring, seeing how the same formula applies to all of them. There are, however, enough fresh moments that deal with the story and heart of the show to cover this up. So it’s a really good watch if you like your mystery and horror to be blended in with a bit of tragedy and drama.

Hell Girl is, simply put, one hell of a show (Hiyooo!)

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It’s a trap! It really is! School Days is an anime that at first seems to be family friendly and light hearted only to grow darker and come to a conclusion that will bring many fans that were misguided into thinking it was “cute” to tears. In fact, School Days may indeed feel at home on a shelf next to Elfen Lied.

The “Cute” Side of Things

I’ll mention right off the bat that School Days is based off of an erotic light novel by the same name, but if any of you feel this is the sole selling point behind it don’t bother pick it up because there’s no real use of gratuitous nudity and most of the scenes are handled with great taste and restraint. It still deals with mild sexual content but you never get to see a full view of it as it’s mostly suggestive.

School Days comes from an eponymous “eroge” made by 0verflow. The game contained a variety of scenarios and routes that could lead to a potential 21 endings (which were expanded to 25 for the PS2 port) some of them being great, some completely disastrous. Again, those that aren’t fans of the most perverted parts of anime won’t have to look away in disgust (well eventually they might have, but for another reason) since most of the hot and heavy scenes take place behind fade to blacks or awkward camera angles.

The show starts off us with Makoto Ito, an average guy who has a crush on Kotonoha Katsura who is a cute girl he sees on the train on his way to school. Sadly for him, he’s a spineless coward and lacks the nerve to really do something about it until his childhood friend Sekai Saionji edges him forward to man up and take a stand, all while harboring a secret crush on him (you see where this is going). After a while Sekai manages to get the two lovebirds together. They share awkward yet relaxed afternoons of idle chatter and promises of love until the very force that drew them together gets in between.

Sekai starts abusing her position as a “counselor” and exploits Makoto’s backed up lust by enthralling him with “practice exercises” meant to help him with Kotonoha. Naturally, this serves to confuse his feelings towards the girls even further and all hell breaks loose as he realizes his popularity with the girls and becomes a raging…well, somewhat unreasonable and crazed horn dog.

School Days has a somewhat simple romantic plot which introduces us to the first half of the show where the characters are so overtly adorable and friendly that you would expect rainbows to shoot out if they got cut (you’ll be saying “WHY COULDN’T IT BE RAINBOWS!?” later on) but this is only a charade. A build up towards the crude reality of the show and what lead many to see it in a light of infamy and add it up as one of the most disturbing and dark animes they have ever seen.

Spoilers are ahead so beware.

School’s Out Forever!

Once you pick up the show and get used to the amazingly ironic intro, the quirky comedy relief and cute characters, you’ll be more than ready to get surprised. As it turns out, a girl who has been a socially awkward shut in, a guy who has just discovered he can get a cute girl to treat him nicely and another one to treat him nicer, and a girl with conflicted feelings and a disposition to do anything for the guy she loves, are all a bad mix.

Makoto turns into a mayor playboy, realizing that Kotonoha isn’t the only girl and that he can have all he wanted. He turns cold and cynical, abandoning the love struck Kotonoha who has to cope with the rest of the school bullying her for no longer having a boyfriend and losing what little happiness she had found. Sekai, on the other hand, doesn’t do too well, becoming an slave of Makoto’s body and wishes but not his heart; she slowly starts to break down. In a way, the whole cast slowly degenerates into a twisted version of their former selves, showing how fragile or horrible their real personality was.

Sekai goes from a strong willed and happy girl to become a sad wretch that attempts to win Makoto’s affection with lust but ends up as another notch on his bed post. Kotonoha is left completely alone, betrayed by who she thought her best friend and abandoned by her “one true love” and so she turns to denial in a way that turns her from a shy awkward girl into what could be best described as a doll.

School Days is infamous for its ending sequence. I won’t spoil it and those who read this far more than likely now feel the urge to go take a look at the ending shouldn’t do that either. The ending of School Days serves as a climax to a play full of emotion and despair that delivers is shock not from the visuals but from the actions that take place. The anime, however, deserves praise for its visuals as well. Those that like to call themselves observant will notice that the colors and the lighting used in the show will grow darker as the plot reaches its end. The design of the cast is nothing out of the ordinary but they manage to become individuals that would feel at home inside a newspaper story.

School Days takes the simple formula of the romance anime and adds an element of such psychological and emotional horror that it could be best achieved by throwing Elfen Lied and Clannad in a blender.

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Here is the first part of our new cycle of dark anime reviews, a title which many would call a “Master Piece” without getting weird looks. Elfen Lied is built on a great set of characters and has enough action to keep things interesting, especially for those fans who love the bloody bits and pieces of anime.

Not for The Faint of Heart

Elfen Lied doesn’t beat around the bush when it says it’s loaded with adult themes. There is some nudity in the opening sequence and the first episode starts off with a violent gore-fest carried out by a naked woman, so many people with gentler sensitivities will be turned off by the first few minutes of the show even if the nudity is amazingly tasteful by many an anime’s standards. However, those who were looking for pure gore by the end of this first episode will also be let down. The thing with Elfen Lied is that it doesn’t try to be edgy or controversial; the general feel of the use of gore and nudity comes through as almost a way for its creator to make an artistic statement while keeping things interesting.

At the end of the day, Elfen Lied deals with something as basic as human nature and how much of a horrible thing it can be. The themes in the anime do not dawdle too deeply into philosophy and evolution as they did in the original manga and yet they manage to convey a series of ideas about humanity as a species. In a way, you could say that Elfen Lied appeals to the primal nature of its viewers; using violence, death and in a lesser form sex to guide them through the story. The anime is classified as mature not just because of the strong visual content, but the way it is engineered to draw on emotion and thoughts from the viewer’s mind.

Twisted Beauty

The show is based off of a manga by the same name created by Lynn Okamotto in 2002 and was later adapted into the 13 episode show in 2004. Even though they are related, by the end of the anime you’ll find that the two greatly differ. The anime came around half-way through the manga’s plot, so it was left to an ambiguous end that, to this day, leaves fans demanding for closure.

On the bright side, though, the manga’s artwork is vastly improved in the anime which gives the characters and visuals a more polished look that flows nicely. The animation work is provided by AMRS, a somewhat obscure studio that has produced shows on the pervier side of the scale, which some fans would take as indication that they paid close attention to the female character’s form. Hiyoo!!

The first episode of Elfen Lied serves as great way to sum up the general tone of the show. The anime starts off with an amazingly gory and somewhat cruel sequence that once it is put into perspective will lead to a better understanding of one of the main characters’ personal traits. The sequence itself leads on to a calmer half where the innocent aspect of the show takes form.

In a nutshell, the first episode serves as contrast between the female lead’s character. She is a “Diclonious”, a mutant human born from an unnatural step in evolution whose sole role seems to be the extermination of the human race as the dominant species, that loses her memory due to the events that took place during her bloody escape from a facility where she was being held. As a product of this memory loss, a second half is created. What many would go on to call her “human” half features a child like personality that resembles a new born baby that the main human characters decide to take in and name after a sound she constantly makes: “Nyu”.

The first episode of Elfen Lied is what hooks many fans to the show as it begins to unravel the plot piece by piece by presenting a series of foreboding events and the introduction of the main cast, including both sides of the show’s “cover girl” Lucy, the seemingly evil and sadistic girl with a mysterious past.

All in all, Elfen Lied is an absolutely terrific show that doesn’t hold back until the end which is sadly a huge let down. Not because of what happens after the credits roll but because a certain scene involving a wig that will leave those who didn’t read the manga scratching their heads. The anime and manga differ greatly around this point, but both are strong enough in their own regards to be taken as examples of how adult themes can be used to convey a wonderful story without being senselessly violent or overly sexual.

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This review will be the last geared towards the lighter side of anime for a bit so let’s make it count shall we? Someday’s Dreamers appears to be a snooze fest at first; the show seems a bit too cutesy and childish and makes those that picked it up think of it as anything but a typical shonen. Some may look at the back cover with perplexity and think “They must have mislabeled shoujo to shonen!” In reality, the overall tone of the show seems geared towards the shoujo genre more than to its manly counterpart but the art style and character design will be set in the uncanny valley between the two and prove itself to be rather good over time.

Someday’s Dreamers is based off of a manga by the same name that had its original run from mid 2002 to the early half of 2003. The anime is a loose adaptation in the sense that it takes some basic plots from the manga and twists them around so they fit in nicely within the 12 episodes of the show (of which there’s a sequel that should see the light dubbed in English in the west soon enough). Those that followed the manga and then switched over to the anime will find a slight change of tone. Not in the overall story itself but in the representation of some minor characters and the way they interact with the main cast.

The story revolves around a young mage in training by the name of Yume Kikuche. She is in her second year of high school and has moved from her home in Tono (rural Japan) to go train under the supervision of her mentor in Tokyo: Masami Oyamada, a man that she had mistakenly thought of as a woman on account of his name. We are introduced to a relatively small yet lively cast of characters as we witness the young Yume struggle to become a fully licensed mage.

A warm summer’s breeze

The plot is centered around a set of small stories dealing with Yume’s apprenticeship, for in this world, which is in itself a mirrowed version of modern Japan, mages are openly regulated by a goverment association. The bureucratic aspect, which will seem amusing to anyone ever stuck in a similar office, keeps check on the mages’ powers and abilities and ensures that they can only be used to fulfill request brought upon the mage by normal people. It’s the basic nature of a mage to make people happy and to help them however they can. This, at least in Yume’s case, is done by channeling the person’s feelings and projecting them in the form of a spell.

Someday’s Dreamers encompasses elements of romance that will get the hopes of romantic anime fans up, only to come up short around the show’s finale. The characters are simple and easy to understand and the general air around the cast is gentle and easy going. There will rarely be an overly dramatic and drastic switch in the tempo, so those that like a calm story to relax with will find this anime to be as comforting as a soft pillow. Those who like actiony anime or drama containing more twists than a rollercoaster designed by M. Night Shyamalan will find the pillow metaphor to be fitting. Not in the sense that it will be comforting, but in the way it will make them feel drowsy.

This anime isn’t for everybody. Some will find it to be their perfect cup of tea whereas others will find it to be a cup of something that’s unlike tea at all. Don’t be discouraged by this though, because it’s as sweet as sunshine in its own sense, and manages to serve as an easy entry point into anime for many a potential viewer. It may seem a little dull to a seasoned Otaku, but it’s wonderful for its simplicity and serves as a good way to pass an idle afternoon. Some romantic couples may even get a kick out of it, as will the fans of shoujo and shonen due to the fact that this anime covers up the middle ground quite nicely.

If you find that the story and general state of affairs in the development of the plot seem unremarkable, it’s necessary to take into account that not everything needs a thick plot behind it to be enjoyable. Think of this anime like a butterfly fluttering pass your window during a slow summer day because that’s what it ultimately becomes; a moment of respite and a nice sample of how beauty lays within even the most simple of things. Don’t go in to it expecting anything great or that will more than certainly shatter your perceptions on anime. Rather, expect to see something light and nice enough to get you through an otherwise dismal day.

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The anime is divided into two separate seasons, each taking place in its own period of time while still following the same over-arching plot. Clannad is a more recent show than the ones I’ve reviewed so far. It was officially released back in 2004 as a visual novel, where you follow a linear story that branches off into small side-plots. Each plot is based around five female protagonists with whom you’ll try to establish a relationship, each leading to different endings and presenting a departure from the adult themed games made by the company (Key, the makers of “Kanon” and “Air”).

Clannad was met with enough acclaim as to warrant the creation of a short animated film made by Toei, which is disappointing and lacking when compared to the anime that would soon follow in 2007, helmed by Kyoto Animation.

Welcome to the beginning of your life

The show starts us off in the same vein as the game in the shoes of Tomoya Okazaki, a seemingly unlikable guy who acts coldly and indifferent around people due to events that took place in his past which left him scarred. He seems to be your average high school punk, at least until he has a chance meeting with the beautiful and frail looking Nagisa Furukawa.

These two characters are like yin and yang. Tomoya is strong willed and straight forward whereas Nagisa is a very sweet and gentle person. Together, they set out to start their lives in high school and meet a varied cast of friends along the way. The anime stays above water and shines as an example of quality animation, coloring, storytelling and adding elements such as comedy in the way of the characters’ varied personalities clashing.

Speaking of the characters, I have mentioned how many an anime tends to be character centric. Clannad is a shining example of that and every single character will be fleshed out to the point where each one becomes an individual. The plot integrates elements of the slice of life genre, but it adds a subtle sub plot with paranormal elements that won’t be all over your face (this be magic ya’ll!) but instead will build up to an amazing twist that will make you slap yourself in the face with astonishment (it’s that good).

The characters are the heart of the show and we see them grow and develop beyond the usual archetypes presented to us in anime. Their day to day lives are full of seemingly simple trials that they overcome together with team work and determination (somehow without falling into the fruity side of things), contrasting the innocence of our inner child to the bitterness and resentment that takes hold of many a teen as they journey into the adult world.

This leads us to the second part of our review, which hopefully is not wordy enough to deter anyone skimming through it. Be warned though, this is where the dramatic part of the show really sets in and as much as the first season contained plenty of funny and light hearted moments this one might make some viewers end in tears, not of rage nor joy but simply sadness.

Always look on the bright side of life

To put it simply, Clannad is a drama. It has a lot of funny and heartwarming moments, but they serve as build up for a dramatic set up that will tug at your heart strings some way or another. It will never be needlessly silly or clichéd so you can count out most of the usual plots that show up in these kinds of shows. Clannad takes its time to present the characters as people that go through life together.

The second season kicks off by showing us the characters’ last years as students and their development into young adults including getting a job, romance and even parenthood. The second season centers itself more on Tomoya and his day to day life with Nagisa and her family, going from how they became a couple into their first year as newlyweds and finally parents.

But fans of the other characters that formed this magnificent cast shouldn’t feel let down because they all get a chance to be under the spotlight and we get to see plenty of their adult lives. Be sure to remember, though, that Clannad becomes even more of a drama here. The plots start to foreshadow a set of events that will give the latter half of the show a dark tone while still hitting close to home.

The paranormal events that have been foreshadowed and spread throughout the show take form in the last few episodes and provide a welcomed twist to the plot but it’s up to you to find out how this plays out. The plot comes together beautifully by the end and many questions are answered. It is also worth noting that many (of the few) retractors of the show point out that it ends on too much of a happy high note but trust me, that’s pretty much the point of it.

Clannad deals with family (the word Clannad is actually derived from an old Irish word for family), friends and the general themes that go alongside growing up, but it does so by adding humor, magic and changing over the course of both seasons into a mature and somewhat darker tone.

In the end, Clannad is really worth giving a try. The art style is captivating (I don’t remember any other anime where the eyes looked so lively) and so are the characters. I wasn’t so big on drama (and still kinda am not) before watching this but you won’t regret it. Be warned though, those weak of heart should pack a tissue or two for this journey.

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As it turns out, there is a widely available and relatively good DVD version of this show doing the rounds on the net. So if you can’t wait for the Blu-ray to be released (which at the moment seems unlikely) or you want the cheap easy way, you can always grab the DVD. Look at this article as a sort of retro-review as well as a regular one just in case you feel like picking it up.

As I said before, this anime came out in the mid 90’s (around 1996, to be more specific) so its style might be off putting to some, but it’ll quickly grow on you like mold on an unattended sink. The plot paints itself as a futuristic space adventure with elements of romance and comedy and not to mention self-referential humor at the expense of Otakus. The show introduces us to a future in which Earth has been at war with an alien enemy, a war which we are seemingly losing until the introduction of the advanced battleship “Nadesico” and its crew, a colorful ensemble of characters.

But that’s not all

Amongst the crew is our protagonist Akito Tenkawa, an average, mildly cowardly teen who finds himself wrapped up with the crew when he accidentally bumps into an old childhood friend, and the Nadesico’s captain, Yurika Misumaru who he decides to chase after by becoming the ship’s cook. But things go a bit out of control for him when the ship actively engages in combat with Earth’s alien enemies the “Jovian Lizards”.

Of course, like it happens to be the case in this situation, one of the Nadesico’s pilots is injured and our protagonist is set to jump into the fray and take control of one of the ship’s “Aestevalis” units (one of the big mean machines that make this mecha anime great) because as much as he really doesn’t want to, he happens to have what it takes to ride it. This sets off the start of a great show and one that manages to make you laugh without being childish.

Get yourself a copy

Many mecha anime fans will notice similarities with other titles. Akito in particular will remind them of a certain pilot who wasn’t so keen on fighting, but thats simply because this show is a parody at its core. Unlike many parodies, however, it still manages to create an unique story that is so well done and pieced together that it manages to include themes like politics, war, death and romance without looking forced or having a ham-fisted one dimensional approach. The show will elicit a few laughs from those who decide to pick up (one way or another) as well as leave behind a feeling that can only be obtained from reaching the conclusion of an epic story.

In short, this is easily one the finest shows to ever grace my TV screen, and I’m quite sure that those whose interest I picked will go to it for the mecha, watch it for the laughs and stick to it for more than just that.

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At a glance

Azumanga Daioh is a manga and an anime that at first glimpse seems boring and almost not worthy of note (even though the intro is nothing short of awesome), due to its simple artwork and character design as well as the pastel colored backgrounds and a plain selection of colors for the general look of the show. In knowing and acknowledging this, it’s a rather pleasant surprise finding that this anime will grab you by your balls! (Your eyeballs that is what else could it grab you by, huh?) It’ll grab won’t let go, it’s simply captivating in a different but refreshing way.

Azumanga Daioh deals with the day to day life of a group of not-so ordinary high school girls. As much as this may seem like a common genre nowadays, it’s necessary to keep in mind that the original manga came out around 1999 and its anime adaptation followed in 2002, whereas modern examples of this kind of show didn’t rocket to wide-spread popularity until around the 2004-2007 period (the time when Lucky Star made its debut).

So, “What in the heck!?”

The thing with Azumanga Daioh is that it gets wacky pretty fast, but still manages to keep a hold on reality. Many of the crazy situations that seem to break the norm of the show are a product of the characters’ imagination running wild. The plots generally revolve around a seemingly usual day for the cast of girls, who are joined by some of their teachers and come together to create a series of funny moments that will make you laugh and even feel nostalgic, because it’s in many cases possible to point and say “Wow, I remember when that happened to me once!”

Part of the beauty of the show is how enjoyable it is to watch with someone else. The characters are quirky, fun and relatable to anyone who went through (or is going through) high school. The seemingly childish and simple designs compliment the happy and care free tone of the anime, making it obvious that you are in for something funny. It takes simple situations such as riding in a car with a horrible driver and turns them into gags that can fuel an entire episode.

Luckily enough the writing stays fresh and rich throughout the episodes, going from the first year of high school and our cast’s first interactions to the moment of their graduation. You could say that Azumanga Daioh is an anime where nothing really happens and you would be wrong. The characters grow; and the plots, while being somewhat grounded in reality and having only a general idea at their core (like a day at the beach), manage to create situations for the cast to exploit to its greatest potential.

Why you should watch

It’s worth noting that unlike a lot of anime, the English dub is actually very good and accurate which makes it worth while. The actors add a certain vibe to the characters that compliment their personality and most of the lines are properly delivered.

So if you want to introduce your significant other or a friend to anime and are unsure of what to pick, then this could be it. Azumanga Daioh is simple without being generic and is easy on the eyes. It has common and relatable topics that still manage to amuse and deliver humor effortlessly, as well as a rich writing that deserves praise for the way it manages to take something that could be as bland as oatmeal and create something so cheery and colorful.

So in short, schoolgirl anime fans needn’t look twice at this anime to decide whether or not to watch it, and those who need something to get them into the lighter tone of the medium might just find a friend in the characters, each unique in their own way and worthy of an introduction. However, it’s in your best interest to simply pick it up knowing the “why’s” and the “how’s” and find the “who’s” out for yourself. You won’t regret the pleasant surprises they bear.

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In my personal opinion, it comes down to the fact that most anime, more often than not, have long drawn out plots that tend to be character centric; Whereas Hollywood movies tend to take the idea of a character and add it to a plot for an easy cash in. When it comes down to these adaptations, they don’t seem to care much for the source material. They probably write it off as “wacky Chinese cartoons” and that’s wrong.

It just doesn’t work

Hollywood can pull off some amazing adaptations from time to time because the people working on them seemed to care. Someone had a lot of love towards the original source of the adaptation, whether it was the general media or production staff. Whatever the case, none of this applies to anime adaptations. The art style and narrative of many an anime seem to be well fitted for a movie, at least in the fans’ minds. Then, everything seems to have been lost in translation once you come out of the theater.

Most OVA’s are either spin-offs, side stories, prequels, sequels or a re-telling of the original story. What they attempt to do is take a long plot where several things come together to string a strong story. This is nigh impossible in a period of two hours. Most anime tend to develop slowly and unravel themselves to us through colorful characters and delicate metaphors. The characters are the essence of the show and not a vehicle to drive a plot forward (in most cases that is).

There’s always a chance, though

As I mentioned earlier, Hollywood sees anime as a quick cash in. Most titles picked for an adaptation are well known and have a core set of followers that will serve to feed the grinder of publicity. A lot of the people that get a hold of the titles are in to grab as much cash as possible before word of mouth beats their movie’s earnings into the ground. Anime in itself is represented as a visual medium through which its creator tries to convey a message or just show us his vision, so it’s perfectly logical that most of the time the many adaptations that come out fail to impress. They are not inspired works that try to be a reinterpretation of the original; they are simply thrown out for the fans and the mass to indulge them with some mindless entertainment.

We can only hope that one day someone will care enough to sit down and work hard to make an anime adaptation into something more than a crappy movie that takes a similar trend to that of the original. Someone who will be inspired, and won’t only make an entirely different set of characters trapped inside a convulsed (and generally awful) plot onto which to plaster a brand name for the sake of money.

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The premise of the tale is that Detective Naru, after losing the girlfriend he loved, tries to drown his sorrows with alcohol and wakes up in his partner’s bed the next day, completely unaware of anything that may have happened between the two. It seemed like the sort of story that would have plenty of romance and drama and worth the thirteen dollars, but it really, really wasn’t.

There were so many loose ends, introduced characters that were completely unnecessary to the story, locations and situations that had no progress on the ‘drama’ that the way the story is told in an extremely broken and haphazard manner makes me almost want to bet money on the fact the manga was originally supposed to be several volumes and due to whatever reason, was cut to one. It’s that incomprehensible.

For example, since Naru and his partner, Kita, are detectives, the two obviously deal with bad guys and one who was introduced was a real creepy, sleazy murderer who was being interrogated by the two. Kita mutters absently about how deadly accurate Naru is with a weapon and how the killer had been bewildered by his ability when the detective pulled a gun on him while being arrested, but the reader never saw that scene. Even worse, this potential villain or at least, obstacle, for Naru and Kita to work through was completely discarded in a matter of a few pages and never mentioned again.

Why did I read that scene? Nothing useful came from it.

Even worse, there was an adorable flashback to Kita as a little boy and how he couldn’t figure out if his parents loved him. He had a butler growing up and was insecure even at a young age about his own inability to understand love and passion, but this again was never mentioned. Why? He works like a slave as a detective when he apparently had a rich childhood? Couldn’t there be some story to that? Shouldn’t the writer have expanded more on Kita’s inability to show affection towards Naru in a more normal manner?

Several times I was so at a loss as to what I was reading, I had to turn back just to make sure I didn’t accidently skip a page or something. The beginning had such potential, everything was lined up to be quirky, uncomfortable at moments, adorable, but then a whole heap of nothing happened. It was a very unfortunate conclusion for that manga and unless you have nothing better to do with your time, I’d recommend passing on this one.

Demon Detective

Maijin Tentei Nogami Neuro is exactly as the title suggests, a demon, named Neuro, comes to the human world and disguises himself as a detective. A on bit more explanative note, Neuro has come to Earth because he feeds on mysteries and puzzles and after sating himself in the demon realm, goes after the unanswerable that humans have to offer. He is portrayed as an extremely tall and slender man, acting as an assistant to a genius girl detective named, Yako. In reality, she’s his assistant, but Neuro does not like to make a scene and draw attention to himself when it is not necessary.

First Thoughts

Never judge a book by its cover. The saying should go for anime shows too. I watched the opening to this and laughed, thinking, oh this just looks a bit goofy, but the intriguing character design for Neuro kept me watching just a few minutes more and luckily, I didn’t let such a wicked story pass me by. Neuro is an amazing protagonist! He is essentially a cruel individual, seeing humans as lesser beings and often picks on Yako and Godai, another assistant. He calls them his slaves and when telling Godai where the food was for him while Neuro and Yako left for work, he points to a bag of dog kibble. Despite his treatment of the two humans, he is still a compelling and passionate character, being rewarded with the audience’s sympathy quite easily, I believe.

A Slow Start

The anime starts off a bit slow, where each episode portrays a typical mystery, which Yako and Neuro solve and then he eats the essence of, but frankly, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Sure, it was repetitive, but moments were absolutely hilarious, my favorite early episode being, Dog, which has a bathroom scene I laughed out loud at for an unreasonable amount of time. The mundane mysteries that the opening serves helps make the turning point in the story more intense and dramatic, so they are certainly with just cause.

Neuro Needs a Chance

The manga, written by Yusei Matsui, was released in 2005 and ended in 2009 with a total of twenty-three volumes. The anime is only twenty-five episodes, but I believe the changes they made were successful for a lesser amount of time in which to tell a compelling story and the essence of the original work is still there in volumes.

I certainly would recommend this show to anyone who has an interest in the supernatural detective stories that Japan has a unique talent for. Please, feel free to also share your opinion.

The animation in the film was absolutely gorgeous, featured interesting and beautiful mech designs and impressive battles taking place in the sky. The movie also had a battle soundtrack that fit quite well with the overall tone and speed. The English voice acting was also one of the better dubs I’ve heard throughout my anime fandom, as Tony Oliver is a very good director who understands the need to keep the characters as close to their original Japanese counterparts as possible to appease the audience, but also creates a bit of room for the actors to experiment and grow as professionals, a tricky road to walk which I think he did very well. The movie also featured veteran anime voice actor, Crispin Freeman (Slayers, Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Movie, Hellsing, and Cowboy Bebop: The Movie) who has a wide range of vocal abilities and takes the time to understand his characters and shows. I am usually very against watching anime in English, as the dubbing is often absolutely horrendous, but every show that has Freeman as a cast member, I find I don’t mind and actually enjoy, a testament to his talent and respect for anime. In comparison to the awful Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone dubbing, this movie was genius.

What director, Kyoda wanted with this film was a retelling of Eureka Seven, featuring the same characters but set in an alternate time, different situations arising and causing characters to have to react and grow in different ways from the series. Kyoda said in his interview he hoped fans would appreciate his choice to make a movie that you didn’t need prior knowledge of the show to watch and enjoy and that they would realize, walking into the screening, this wasn’t going to be Eureka the series packed into two hours. It was Kyoda’s ability to change the story, again, unlike Evangelion: 1.0, that made me enjoy the movie and respect it. The audience seemed simply unable to accept the differences and many walked out frustrated or indifferent.

The only real weak aspect was that some of the translations were a bit strange, so when lines in a serious moment were said, we laughed, not because it was poorly acted, but because it was such an odd thing to say. For example, a very emotional and heavy moment featured a doctor saying, “I’m not a real medical doctor, but it is in my opinion…” The actors in the special after the movie even made fun of the translation, because of the English-speaking gag, “I’m not a real medical doctor, but I play one on tv.”

Overall, I think this is a film you should watch. If you didn’t enjoy the series, I say give it a chance and if you are worried about the movie ruining the show for you, remember, it’s simply a different telling of Eureka Seven, not some sort of continuation.

The film is a revamp of the anime show, working with a much larger budget that does show, as the animation value is absolutely beautiful and the Eva mechs, Tokyo-3 and my favorite, the Third Angel, are all something to be desired by any mech fan and creator, but watching a movie that is pretty can’t make up for one that lacked any sort of sympathetic characters or deviation from the original work. The movie really offered no growth or new concepts in regards to the cast, it spent too much time following Shinji, who did nothing but complain and whine, exactly like in the show, which I was hoping from the bottom of my heart would change. What I suppose, from a character creating point of view, frustrated me the most was that Shinji kept crying that he was no good at being an Eva pilot, but took out three Angels in a row and did so without any severe bodily harm or devastating mechanical destruction, so he had no reason to keep singing that same tune, which came to be nearly unbearable by the end.

The story suffered terribly from the telling and not showing, notion, where Misato and Ritsuko would just narrate large chunks of the film, filling in the viewer with information they don’t need, which I feel if they had cut back on and actually shown the characters doing, would have been much more interesting. Their monologues became white noise by the debut of the Sixth Angel.

Besides those weaknesses in the plot itself, the English dub was absolutely terrible. I’ve been told it was regarded highly by the audience at Anime Expo, but no matter how I tilt my head, I can’t see how the English cast ever deserved the praise it received. The dubbing sounded like it had no direction, more like some various people were just put in front of microphones and read lines with absolutely no feeling, emotion or interest in the project itself. From the moment Shinji spoke his first line, I knew it couldn’t go anywhere but down and boy did it. Misato was flat, boring, Ritsuko was worse, as was Gendo Ikari. Frankly, the only actress that got away with sounding empty was Brina Palencia as Rei, because Rei is an emotionless girl at her introduction.

My New York City audience was quite small but dedicated and as the credits rolled, we all seemed equally disappointed. As a side note, here’s a funny story about my personal viewing experience, which has no negativity directed at the film itself, but the actual theatre. They played the entire movie with the wrong color tint, so skin was blue, blood was purple, Rei’s hair was orange, Angel cores were blue, and classmates all had a green tone to them. If that couldn’t be more of a kick in the face to the audience who paid over twelve dollars per ticket, in the middle of one of battles, the projector shut off and remained off for several minutes. Finally, after one of the viewers had complained and got them to turn it back on, they didn’t even rewind so we could find out what was missed! Luckily, all of us were given free movie passes to make up for their huge fault.

Has anyone else seen the film? Consensus?

For those who have yet to see Akira, I suggest you should, even if post-apocalypse, sci-fi isn’t your cup of tea. It’s the same as watching Citizen Kane. You don’t have to like it, but you should understand what an achievement the movie was and still is considered to be. Akira is a landmark film, making anime a popular form of entertainment outside of Japan and it also broke the habit of static facial expressions while characters speak. The movie was created under the Akira Committee, several companies brought together to bring Katsuhiro Otomo’s story to life on screen and have it live up to the grandeur and epic feel that resonated in his manga. Akira had no corners cut in production for the sake of its budget, creating a very fluid and beautiful style and offered constant and expressive faces for the cast, detailed backgrounds and scenes and wonderfully lip-synched dialogue, something today we take for granted but in 1988, was groundbreaking in anime work.

The film is very graphic in violence and disturbing imagery, especially near the climax, but again, remembering this was made over twenty years ago, it steals your breath while watching. The movie’s soundtrack is also quite famous, very dynamic, chilling and effective for the themes in Akira, which include social unrest, nuclear holocaust and delinquency, all touched with a hint of cyberpunk.

Akira is the story of a bike gang in Neo-Tokyo, thirty years after World War III. Kaneda’s childhood friend, Tetsuo goes missing after a run-in with a rival gang and it turns out he now has something to do with the government and a secret project involving children with mental abilities akin to Akira, a god-like figure responsible for so much destruction in the past. Kaneda, an unlikely and very human protagonist, goes in search to rescue Tetsuo, with the help of a young revolutionary named, Kei and one of his gang members, Kai.

I personally find the movie to be a slow and strange buildup, other critics complaining it was unable to get all of the manga into its allotted two hours, but overall, the film has received very high ratings. Please feel free to share your opinions on Akira.

I must say, when I started the film, I was wary. I am not a huge fan of either Astro Boy or Akira, although the respect I have for each of these storytellers is what ultimately led to the choice of watching the movie. The artwork is very interesting, the style not overly anime, in fact, characters like, Duke Red and Shunsaku Ban made me briefly think of certain French cartoons. However, in characters like Rock and Kenichi, the main villain and protagonist, you can definitely see the touch of Tezuka’s Astro Boy style.

The movie revolves around a young boy, Kenichi, and his private detective uncle, Shunsaku Ban, coming to Metropolis from Japan, looking for a wanted man. Instead, the two get caught in the middle of a revolution, with the president trying to arrest Duke Red for treason and the Duke trying to use the city’s robots as weapons. When the nephew and uncle become separated, Kenichi stumbles upon a super robot named Tima, and the two are aided from danger by a cast of characters including my favorite, a worker robot in the sewers named, Fifi, while Shunsaku Ban tries to find his nephew with the help of a robot detective named, Pero.

Overall, the film is quite sad and frustrating, as the level of violence and hostility against robots by humans is sickening, especially when they brutally fight and kill robots who have only innocent and good intentions which would further better the lives of the humans, should they be given the chance to perform their duties. Katsuhiro Otomo is a good storyteller in this way, as I did not only dislike Rock for the evil he did, as well as Duke Red, but I utterly despised them. My one problem with the human characters is that, because of the atrocious things they did, the only one I ever felt a connection to was the detective, Shunsaku Ban. He didn’t treat the robots differently, in fact, he went out of his way to give one a name when he learned they were not allowed to be given one, then he continued to be brave in the presence of danger for the wellbeing of those like Tima. I leaned heavily on him as the character to right the wrongs Rock had done.

This film certainly won’t be a hit with everyone, but I think it should definitely be looked at. It’s an incredibly gorgeous movie with an impressive opening and quirky soundtrack.

Unfortunately, Angel Sanctuary was given the same poor deal that my beloved Fake was given, in terms of becoming an anime show.  This drama was only given OVA status, producing just three episodes and a teaser preview to the fourth episode, that was never made.  The show skips the side stories and build up, going right for the meat of the conflict, which even with three episodes, had just started to touch the depth of the story.

Angel Sanctuary follows the life of Setsuna Mudo, a teenage boy who is in love with his blood sister, Sara.  He tries to distance himself from her, but is unable and in the process, discovers Sara feels the same way about him.  While Setsuna is confronted with the decision of whether or not to pursue an incestuous relation with her, he is followed by two people claiming to be demons from hell, as well as Rosiel, an insane angel determined to awaken the angel, Alexiel, whom Rosiel claims Setsuna is.

The show has a powerful and beautiful climax with fantastic closing lines, but the ending is one that is opening a door to the rest of the story’s world, leaving the viewer almost unsettled, as there are so many unanswered questions and possibilities that are left behind without the continuation of episodes.  Like many shows, I’m sure Angel Sanctuary’s brief life on television had to do with licensing, money and a large array of other business reasons the show wasn’t developed completely, but I think, had the studios followed through with an adapted version of the manga, they would have had a real big seller.  The show is so risky with some of its content that I feel the older audience that its aimed for wouldn’t be able to help wanting to watch it all, just to see how wonderfully Kaori Yuki’s characters deal with concepts like incest and unrequited feelings towards best friends.  These are very powerful tools for an anime, should they be handled with class, which, from the direction the three episodes were going, I feel they would have.

I recommend this show to fans who are looking for something deep and dark.  The manga should be read if you enjoyed the anime and its popularity makes the books readily available in, Japanese, English, German, Italian, Spanish, French, and Polish.

Vash the Stampede is a mysterious man in a red coat that causes havoc and chaos to every town and city he visits.  He has an enormous sum of money on his head for whoever captures him, but most are too afraid to try and when they do meet this notorious outlaw, they are often puzzled by his innocent and naive nature.  Vash is followed throughout the show by two girls from an insurance agency, whose job is to evaluate claims of destruction by the Humanoid Typhoon, as Vash is also known by.  Meryl Strife and Milly Thompson, along with other characters such as Nicholas D. Wolfwood, soon come to realize that there is much more to Vash the Stampede, a heartbroken and vulnerable side, determined to live until his ‘goal’ is complete.

Trigun is an anime that deals with deep conflict that can be overlooked by the cover of the show, the main characters wielding different types of firearms.  The series delves into a world overrun with violence and how a pacifist goes about trying to right wrongs without turning to killing as an answer, even when it may seem like the only or easiest way to obtaining what is desired.  The show, by all means, is full of action and great fight sequences, but it all fuels the emotional core of the characters, especially Vash, and each battle in the show helps him grow more and more interesting to the viewer.

What I also applaud the show for is its use of subtleness and never letting out too many secrets regarding characters, too soon.  Right up until the last minute of the show, I was unsure how it would end.  Would someone die, would they live?  Do morals and beliefs have to be broken, will friends have perished in vain?  The only other immediate anime I can think of that had a similar concept, someone unwilling to shed blood while suffocating in a world of death and how they will manage to live through it, is Rurouni Kenshin.  My feelings towards Trigun’s climax paralleled moments from Kenshin and I think it is a brave and difficult concept for any show to approach.  Trigun pulled it off with flying colors.

Now I’ll be waiting in anxious excitement for Trigun the Movie, since I can’t get this dusty western out of my head!

The anime is good, very dark and gruesome, something made especially for adult viewers, but when I had first seen it, I had not read the manga and thought it was based off an entire series.  I thought this because the concept of the show was so massive, with so many possible side stories and further insight to the characters introduced that I was actually shocked the manga was just one volume as well.  It seems a bit of a shame that such a large scale plot was put into motion and all the deep, dark crevices that would have had plenty amounts of drama and story were not used to its greatest extent.

Tsunami Shijo is a very cool main character, powerful and regal, mysterious and beautiful.  Although again, I do chalk up a bit of his mystery in the anime to the fact that I was under the impression there would be more content if I read the manga.  There are obvious holes in his character development, but Tsunami still remains fascinating throughout the show when his ancient powers begin to be tapped into and he raises havoc across the skies.  Angelic-like creatures setting supernatural fire to things can amuse anyone, I think.

The show features the famous voice acting talents of Toshihiko Seki as Tsunami Shijo (Yami no Matsuei, Naruto, Trigun, and Paranoia Agent) and Emi Shinohara as Shizuka Tachibana (Sailor Moon, Tokyo Babylon, Cardcaptor Sakura, and Magic Knight Rayearth.)  The show came out in 1997 and while the animation is nice, it can easily be dated.

I feel, if you know someone with a copy of this anime, sit down and watch it, but you certainly won’t be missing anything if you haven’t seen it.

Paranoia Agent is an absolutely fascinating show, for its characters, art and its mind-blowing story.  The concept is, a shy design artist named, Tsukiko is under pressure to create a new cartoon character that is as famous as her pink dog, Maromi.  While walking home from work one night, Tsukiko is attacked by Lil Slugger, or Shonen Bat (literally, Bat Boy in Japanese) and the only details recalled from the incident are his golden, inline skates, baseball cap and bent bat.  Tsukiko is thought to be lying by the detectives on her case until other attacks begin to be reported all over Tokyo.

This idea I find so compelling because it does not stick on Tsukiko as these terrible events occur, instead each episode becomes centered around the victim, revealing tragic events and secrets in their lives.  Each member of this considerably large cast can be linked to one another through several ties, some sharing the same grief and pain, and it is this oppressing weight of negativity that seems to tie Lil Slugger to the attacks when no other physical evidence can be found.

The show uses characters of all ages, classes and gender, a risky choice when anime is usually aimed at a particular demographic.  Paranoia Agent touches the lives of schoolboys, a homeless woman, secretary, an old detective, struggling father, and of course, the socially awkward Tsukiko.  Regardless, each of the people in this series are incredibly flawed and human, allowing any viewer to feel sympathy for them, even if they cannot consciously relate to their particular problem being presented.

The artwork of this show is absolutely breathtaking, vivid and on par with Miyazaki animation, in my opinion.  Paranoia Agent is only thirteen episodes, not delving into the horror that is the filler episode, and staying on track and on story minute after minute, creating a bigger than life climax that I never saw coming.

The movie, no doubt, will be huge with children, as it is very much like an innocent and sweet fairytale, but the adults there, those of us who have grown up on Miyazaki’s older films like, Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke and my personal favorite, Spirited Away, were honestly surprised by the ending of the film, and not in a good way.

The story is about Ponyo, a goldfish, who is rescued by a little boy named, Sosuke and then wishes to become a human.  Her father, Fujimoto, absolutely forbids Ponyo to go up to the surface and mingle with humans, as he hates them for destroying the ocean, but Ponyo uses magic and turns herself into a girl.  After a tsunami, Ponyo continues to cast spells of wonder as she and Sosuke must go in search of the boy’s missing mother, Lisa.

The movie, like all of Miyazaki’s films I’ve come to notice, had a very talented and well directed cast for the English dub, Liam Neeson as Fujimoto and Tina Fey as Lisa stood out the most for me.  I’m even giving props to Frankie Jonas as Sosuke- he was wonderful.

The problem with the film was the last half hour or so.  The story up until this point was coherent, steady and due to the protagonists being so young, the film was exceptionally cute.  However, after the buildup with Fujimoto’s character, the desire to rid the world of humans, the need to get Ponyo away from Sosuke and back into the ocean, all of this really heavy, emotional turmoil suddenly just dissolved for almost no reason and the story just ended.

Fujimoto initially had gone to find Ponyo’s mother to get help with his human problem, but upon her introduction, his decision changed like the drop of a hat, for reasons not really explained.  I felt she was a completely unnecessary character to the film and only frustrated the ending by having me leave the screening without one of Miyazaki’s messages rolling around in my head.

I did like being able to leave feeling cheerful and happy and so did the few children at the movie, but after watching such intense pieces of work from Miyazaki in the past, I felt sort of empty, even if the film was beautiful and as sweet as honey.

I’m a graduate of film school and for four years, had it drilled into me to be able to pick up on story inconsistencies and weak points and while I hate to admit it, Ponyo definitely isn’t Miyazaki’s strongest film.  However, it is great for children and families and honestly, if you just want to enjoy breathtaking art and feel good about life, it’s a movie you’ll want to watch.  I was able to completely ignore the weak ending until after I seriously sat down to write about it because I was just so taken the rest of the film.