The Anime Review

Berserk

2007-09-09T03:41:00.002-07:00

Synopsis

Guts (or Gatsu if you prefer) is a huge, burly guy with a remarkably large sword who joins a mercenary group known as the Band of the Hawk. His exploits with this group mirror their meteoric rise into the ranks of the Midland Army during the endless battles of the war between the Kingdom of Midland and the Chuda Empire. The Band of the Hawk's charismatic leader, Griffith, seems destined for greatness, and over the years, he seems to attract the attention of those who would see him either honored or dead.

Perhaps it may very well be that something is about to go very, very wrong.

Review

(original 1998 review with slight editions)

Dark, brooding, violent. I'd heard that Berserk was a pretty good series, but after the first couple of episodes, I was pretty well turned off. I guess I wasn't in the mood to see people getting slashed by swords, or maybe I was saving up all my daily fantasy angst for Valkyrie Profile. I dunno. But so far, the animation is dark (oh, Darkside Blues dark), the atmosphere thick and heavy even during daylight scenes, and though the fights look rather interesting (I didn't know you could balance on a sword like that!), most of the time, everyone just seems to be sitting around waiting to get killed.

"Yawn, I think I'll just sit here and - Aargh! Avenge me, Gatsu!" Berserk!

That's what was going through my mind when I was watching this. Really.

The dreary, depressing tone of this series just doesn't mesh well with this reviewer, and though I'm quite certain that Berserk actually gets pretty decent later on, I was just unimpressed with what I saw. The dialogue didn't seem to be very important, and the music wasn't particularly memorable. I don't even think the medieval setting seemed quite right. And though the characters seemed rather well developed, seeing as the episodes I saw were all flashback, I had the distinctive feeling that everyone was already dead.

Oh, and the bad guys are so obvious, they make Boris and Natasha look subtle. "Haha, I'm going to kill this innocent bystander!" Berserk!

I guess one has to be in a certain mindset to enjoy this, but I just couldn't get into it. (At least Valkyrie Profile has a hilariously deadpan Valkyrie as a lead) This hardly means that no one should watch this - in fact, I know a few people who would really like it (though none of them live with me). Maybe unless you enjoy feeling Berserk, or don't mind watching X for breakfast, it would probably be a good idea to pass this anime by. Or on second thought, it just might be that the first few episodes just plain suck, and the rest of this series is a magnum opus of anime just waiting to be discovered.

Well, I haven't seen them yet, so I can't exactly figure them into the review.

ADDENDUM
And oh my, what a difference a few episodes make.

Berserk has the same problem that many other anime have - a lousy beginning that camouflages an exceptionally well-done middle sequence. Once you get past the murky and muddled exposition, you get to actually meet the cast as more than just the standard fantasy archetypes.

Guts (Gatsu), for example, is more than just the stoic, battle-hardened fighter he seems to be at first. He is a truly interesting head case, a product of years of systematic abuse and ill fortune. He is constantly battling demons, both metaphorical and real, and often wonders aloud about his lot in life. Griffith, on the other hand, is a surprisingly gentle soul, with a mind and wit as sharp as his blade. His beauty seems eerily unfitting for a field of death, and yet when Guts and Griffith fight side by side, covered in the blood of their enemies, it is like they are gods of war, kindred spirits with little else to define their lives.

The rest of the Band of the Hawk is made up of very real people, and it's almost a shame to realize that these are men (and in the case of Caska, women) joined together in the cause of bringing death to their enemies. They are killers, takers of lives, even as they pretend to live "normal" lives as mercenaries.

Even the antagonists, the men of Chuda, are portrayed as very human. Guards wonder aloud when they get to go home, or comment on the weather, in the moments before the Band takes their lives. The incompetent, egotistical Sir Adon struts and pontificates on his family's eternally expanding "tradition", while his troops pay the consequences of his folly when the Band of the Hawk takes advantage of it.

It's a good thing that the plot and writing for this series are excellent, because much of the rest of it is not. The opening and ending themes are two of the least appropriate songs I have ever heard for an anime series. Whiny subpar J-rock in less-than-fluent English simply does not cut it for dark fantasy, or any other sort of anime for that matter. They're terrible! On the other hand, Hirasawa Susumu's (Millennium Actress) background tracks are rather memorable, especially the battle song, "Forces", which seems to be an object lesson in how to use a synthesizer and reverb completely wrong, and yet still come up with something interesting and fresh anyway. Hirasawa's music is an acquired taste, to be sure - people either love it or hate it.

Technically, the animation is just this side of serviceable, but it doesn't need to be great. After all, war is ugly. The directorial staff makes judicious use of dramatic pauses and speed lines for effect, often using cinematographic shots in place of animation that would otherwise be substandard. There is a staggering amount of violence, with blood gouting and spraying everywhere like a classic Kurosawa film.

And much like most Kurosawa films, the lesson here is that, beneath all that metal armor, these soldiers are people.

Berserk, at its core, is a tragedy of immense proportions. Eventually, the Band's fortune will run out - even the best soldiers can only last so long in a war that never seems destined to end.

There is a lot more than can probably be said about this title, and certainly as the series continues to progress, I'll get to writing it down. However, let this be known - Berserk is not an easy series to fall in love with, and perhaps it may not be the sort of series that will sit well with many viewers - but it is extremely well-done and deserves to be looked at by those people who want a fantasy that's more realistic than the idealized questing of Lodoss or the antics of Rune Soldier and Dragon Half.

If you want fantasy that really makes you think, then don't let the name fool you. Berserk is not about turning your brain off. Not one bit.

Battle Skipper: The Movie

2007-09-09T03:41:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

When a wicked and power hungry young debutante plots hatches a plot to take over the world, the only people seemingly standing between her and her plan are the mysterious vigilantes known as the Exstars who used modified versions of mecha called battle skippers. A coincidence and a childish crush will bring two young innocent girls straight into this battle between the Exstars and their nemesis who seeks their battle skippers for herself.

Review

Well, I've seen a lot worse, which is a bit sad when I think about it.

The first strike against this production is the incoherent plot. I've seen enough anime that I don't always expect plots to be, and this is being charitable, 100 percent logical but I do, at minimum, expect them to have some sort of internal consistency. Battle Skipper features a number of odd plot twists and directions that honestly made me wonder if different people were writing the different scenes and not paying any attention to what happened previously. Key plot points in one episode would seemingly be absent or ignored in the following episode with no explanation. Even the main basis of the plot, the apparent desire of the villain to acquire the Exstars' battle skippers makes increasingly little sense (despite a very lame attempt to justify it with one special feature of the aforementioned battle skippers) as you see the type of resources and military hardware that she has available. If the show took itself a bit less seriously, perhaps it could have gotten away with a lot of this but given how seriously the plot takes itself at times, the poor writing stands out all that much more. A final scene that offers some brief explanation for certain glaring plot questions didn't do much to mollify me.

The battle skippers represent one of the single lamest mecha designs I have ever seen in an anime title. It honestly would have made for better scenes if the characters were using some sort of hovertank or anything else instead of the clumsy and unpractical pieces of metal that the were supposed to be impressing the viewer. I actually laughed aloud during the first scene in which a battle skipper appeared. They offered a lame attempt to anthropomorphize the mecha by giving them AI that spoke in the Kansai dialect. This was supposed to be rather amusing comedy gold, "Oh, look at these silly mecha talking like Osakans!" but it ended up seeming very forced and pointless.

These unappealing designs did not stem from a sadistic mecha artists but rather the show's true origin: a series of TOMY wire-controlled fighting robot toys . Through the help of several helpful DVD extras, I had a chance to view the Japanese commercials for the original battle skipper toys. Honestly, I think they look a bit silly even as toy but I'm not a Japanese child, so it isn't as if TOMY had to appeal to me. Interestingly enough, the original toy commercials have short anime sequences that feature characters and settings that have absolutely nothing to do with the actual OAV series. I'm not going to dismiss Battle Skipper out of hand for being a glorified advertisement for a goofy toy but I only wish they would have put some more effort into making it a higher quality production. A ninety minute fully animated OAV series costs quite a bit of yen to produce.

While the show's animation wasn't awful, it was far from the spectacular and the action sequences, for the most part, were rather uninspired. Given how much plot emphasis was made on the special abilities of the Exstars' battle skippers, I was a bit surprised to see those abilities almost never used. The series also treats us to several hand-to-hand fights between the ExstarsEand their foes. All these scenes occur after a stock transformation sequence which, I'm guessing, was supposed to imply that that the transformation enhanced their combat abilities but it was never particularly clear to me. I also was rather unimpressed that they had to use a stock transformation sequence for an OAV series that was only three episodes long.

The character work was barely decent. At times, it just seemed like they had too many characters and that they were more concerned about making sure certain standard character types were present (tough girl, smart girl, cute girl, elegant girl, et cetera) than in actually developing the characters. The characters, I suppose, were likable enough when I watched the title but their lack of depth also made them quickly forgettable. The AIs in the battle skippers received so little screen time, it almost seemed pointless to present them as sentient. They simply ended up being more characters in an already crowded and undeveloped cast. The music, for that matter, was equally forgettable.

Battle Programmer Shirase

2007-09-09T03:40:00.002-07:00

Synopsis

Shirase Satoshi is a computer programmer (and slight pervert) who lives in a house taken care of by his relatives. Frequently, Amano Misao (who Shirase is an uncle of, even though Misao considers him to be like an older borther) comes by to give him food and keep him company, but she is unaware that Shirase is the well-known hacker Battle Programmer Shirase (BPS). He doesn't work for money, but usually is paid for his work by other methods. To put it in a better way, he does odd jobs for odd payment (usually a very rare piece of computer equipment). These are his tales.

Review

I'll admit that I am not a big fan of ecchi anime. In fact, it is one of my least favorite genres. Even knowing that BPS is an ecchi comedy which also features fan service by underage girls, it is hard, if not impossible, for me to hate this series. In other words, it is like Love Love, only this has more substance than the aforementioned horror story, with less fan service.

First, I might want to mention that BPS is a massive commercial. Subliminal advertising has never reached a point like this in a program. I think I counted Intel, Jolt Cola, DHL, Sony, and Pioneer (which was parodied) among many others. Of those, it seems DHL is the most used.

Another odd point is the way this program shatters the fourth wall in the last episode (Episode 5, Part 3). In said episode, the producers are thanking its loyal viewers as well as, according to them, "Those outside the broadcast area who took special measures to watch the show on their PC monitors." This sentence is referring to the fansubbers as well as those who view the fansubs, making BPS one of the first few programs to acknowledge fansubs. It also mentions "and to everybody who watched it subtitled overseas without permission: The head director, Hayashi Hiroki, representing the entire staff, would like to say 'I'm really sorry'."

Now that the references have been handed out, it's time for the review to start, and I will like to single out the music first. This show has a few catchy tunes, including the "In the last episode" tune (which sounds like an electronic/hip-hop crossover), the OP "Suddenly" (a very catchy electronic-style song with a rather interesting vocalist), and the ED "Pure Enough" is a fun little ditty with a laughter-inducing intro. These are actually quite good songs and can be sung along to.

For an ecchi anime, this anime has some rather decent characters. Shirase is your lazy man with the skills and popular name as well as an impressive collection of CPU hardware as well as a somewhat perverted persona. Misao is the girl who is rather shy except to her "onii-chan" (Shirase) and a few others. In the later episodes, a girl named Yon-chan (I forget her actual name) comes in. She is the new student visiting Japan who is really a hacker in the service of the US Navy, despite being about the same age as Misao. Akizuki is a man who is part of both the plot and a common gag involving Misao and Shirase (more on that later) and is in every episode episode, but in a different profession each time (like Alexei Sayle in The Young Ones). On the opposite side of the good guy/bad guy spectrum is Ose Rintarou, the "America King". He fills in the part of the foil of Shirase in the first four episodes, then abruptly stops after episode 4 (though the show provides a good enough reason for this). Most of the other characters are mostly in there for filler.

Plotwise, this show has a rather strange habit of using running gags and a separate plot for each episode, but stringing a backstory together, even though the backstory is very vague. One of the common running gags involves Misao, Shirase, and Akizuki (though in one case involves Yon-chan instead of Misao). Usually, Akizuki barges into the scene and just prior the his entrance, something happens (like an earthquake) that throws Misao and Shirase into a rather intimate position that was not intended. Akizuki then starts a sequence involving self-grief in seeing this (even though he is misunderstanding the scene), but midway through the sequence, Misao ends the so called "intimate position" while Akizuki continues the grief, ending with him abruptly stopping and acting like he never saw anything (which cues laughter from nowhere in particular. I'm serious!). This scene always plays out the same way. At first, the scene made me confused, but afterward started making me barely laugh each time. Another gag is the showing off of Shirase's "attacks", but without the lengthly intro or colorful lighting usually used in shows like Sailor Moon. The plot also spoons out a ton of computer jargon, so good luck recognizing everything.

As for the artwork, it is, to put it simply, quite impressive. The colors mix well in the scenes and casts a look that is both mundane as well as animated, which had me in awe at it. Even the worst scenes artwise were still nice and colorful. The neighborhood was full of life. The school was nice looking. There was very little that was not impressive (which is rare since in a show like this, the fanservice is what gets the better treatment). The animation is just like the artwork in that it works out the scenes in grand ways. There is room for improvement with the animation quality, but the way the show flows made me forget that fact.

To end the main part of the review, I will do the voices. The way this anime handles the vocals is very neat, but not exactly perfect. The characters and voices match up rather well (Misao=cute girl. Shirase=lazy.) and left me with little regret of having watched this.

Probably my only problems with this show are the small episode count (15 episodes was a rather small time limit and didn't get too far into Shirase's backstory as well as Rintarou's, but giving a small bit of info behind Misao, probably trying to prove that this Misao won't be having a blonde-haired evil alter-ego) and the fact that the last episode seemed to have a rather stupid ending. Other than that, this program is certainly worth a bright star in my book, even with the underage fan service (since it, unlike Love Love, didn't spoon it into your mouth all at one time, but had very little actual fan service) and the innuendo.

Battle Athletes Victory

2007-09-09T03:40:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

It is the year 4998 and humanity is again focused on its main event - the Cosmo Beauty title. Only three students from each training school (in this case, the one in a very tropical Antarctica) may advance to the Orbital University Satellite to compete in the pageant/extreme sports meet, thus there's a lot of rivalry, a lot of sneakiness, and, naturally, a LOT of cute girls. (Whee!)

Among the contestants is the hapless Kanzaki Akari, a cute, unassuming, and incredibly underachieving young girl who would like nothing some much as to hide beneath her "house" (ahem) and never be noticed except by her friends, if even that. Unfortunately, she is also the daughter of the most famous Cosmo Beauty of them all, Mido Tomoe; and she must use her latent abilities to succeed, whether she wants to or not.

Commence the silliness.

Review

This is a bit different from the OAV series of Battle Athletes, with a largely different cast of characters and a much more lighthearted feel to it to begin with. However, the OAV characters do show up later in the series.

That being said, this is one of the sillier Pioneer titles I've seen in quite a while. Akari has quite possibly the lowest self-esteem I've ever seen in an anime character to date, and yet, she's actually a sweet, cute character, despite being a bit of a crybaby. It may be said she's just one of the countless stereotypes portrayed in this series - just about every generalization of nationality or race is portrayed here, from robotic Russian (Ayla), to savage African (Tanya), to roughneck Osaka girl (Icchan), to perfectionist American (Jessie), to conniving Chinese (Lingpha). It would be borderline offensive if the characters weren't so darn cute, but it's still off-putting that Lingpha just *has* to be good at bicycling, and Ayla *has* to be good at swimming. (Or that Tanya is practically a wild animal, wears war paint, and worships totem gods.)

Still the characterizations, though hopelessly pigeonholed, offer a lot of humor, like when Jessie, the American, is confronted with the Japanese "oneesama" phenomenon (a girl having a crush on her female superior), with rather embarrassing results. And they do become less and less stereotypical the further along you go in the series. What's fun is that various scenes are punctuated by an Osaka-based news reporter, who's a total hick, but still great commentary.

Bonus points for "Akari's house", worth a laugh every time you see it. (If not rolling on the floor and embarrassing your houseguests.)

The animation itself is beautiful, as this is obviously a Pioneer title. Though not to the level of Cowboy Bebop, it's certainly on the high end as far as TV series are concerned. The music's fine, though the end song is a bit on the weird side. Then again, the whole show is a bit weird, when you think about it. The initial race (er, midterm) has the contestants racing through cliffs, canyons, and minefields while lugging around several-ton concrete rollers. Excessive? Perhaps, but this series isn't about being realistic.

I must mention that the DVD release of this series doesn't properly separate out the episodes - i.e. no eye catch sequences, no openings/endings except at the beginning and ending of the volume. It's a bit jarring, and for the DVD fan, seems a bit of a waste of the DVD capabilities. Besides, I would've wanted to see the eye catches on this show, as funny as it is.

Battle Athletes Victory has plenty of wacky sports contests, weird hairstyles, offbeat characters, and a lead desperately in need of counseling. As such, it's certainly worth watching, if you're in the mood for something light and fluffy. However, if you want something serious, you may want to try to OAV series, or something else entirely.

As for myself, I'll definitely be picking up more of this. I can see this becoming a favorite.

Lots of cute girl characters, and a seemingly inconsequential storyline, but that's fine. Somehow, it reminds me of Gunbuster, so it has the potential to get really good by the end.

Battle Athletes

2007-09-09T03:39:00.002-07:00

Synopsis

In the year 4999, the biggest sports event around is the famous "University Satellite" in space, where girls from around the world compete for the title "Cosmic Beauty". 16 year-old Kanzaki Akari, daughter of Mido Tomoe, the highest ranking Cosmic Beauty ever, hopes to do well aboard the University Satellite. Along with her friends Kris and Anna, she faces any competitors who come her way. But will she able to keep up when the other girls, even her friends, are doing better in sports than her? And what about the violent upperclassman, Mylandah, who seems to have a grudge against Akari...?

Review

Yet another anime where another girl faces impossible odds and ends up succeeding in the end? Please.

That was my first impression of this series. When I first saw it a year ago, I thought to myself, "there's nothing mind-blowing or interesting about this anime here. All it has going for it is cute characters. I think I'll pass on the rest of the series". It's a good thing I decided to see the rest of this series when I had the chance recently, or else I'd still feel the same way about Battle Athletes I did a year ago.

The first thing that will come into your mind upon watching Battle Athletes is how recycled everything feels, right down to its character designs recycled from other AiC productions such as Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki and El Hazard. Determined underdog (TM), who has a famous mother who was good in something (in this case, sports), attempts to duplicate her parent's abilities and live out her dreams at the same time (TM). And of course, the parent she looks up to, in this case her mother, is dead (TM). So she tries her hardest, gets harassed by upperclassmen (TM), and then shows them just how good she really is (TM). We've seen all this before in shows like Captain Tsubasa and Aim for the Ace, and it's no different here. Well, aside from being in space and containing lots of fan service (not like I'm complaining about that or anything).

This would be a waste if it wasn't for Battle Athlete's cute, likable characters, even if they all are archetypes. Akari is a cute, sweet girl, and although not as humorous as her TV counterpart, is still a likable enough lead. She might come off as a little annoying to some, but not often. Her best friends, Kris and Anna, aren't as developed of characters as she is (and no, I don't mean THAT way, you pervert =D). Kris is the obligatory best friend who tells Akari never to give up, and Anna is the obligatory crybaby. Secondary characters, like African cat-girl Tanya, and two-time Cosmic Beauty champion Lahrri (whose dialogue consists of almost nothing but the words "I want to set a beautiful record"), seem there for the sake of completion for archetypes, and not much else. Even Akari's "rival", Mylandah, seems to be little more than an obligatory ruiner of things for Akari and her friends. However, we do find her later why she does what she does, making her slightly more developed than other characters around her, but I'm not spoiling for you right now. Let's just say that Mylandah is...insane. Yes. Let's go with that. The only secondary character tha really stood for me was Headmaster Grant, the sole male on the Univeristy Satellite. He cares for his characters, even if he has a bit perverted (especially around 14 year-old Tanya, whom he trains to use her body to distract guys in one episode).

Being only 6 episodes, the action moves fairly quickly, with no filler in sight. However, character development is still rushed, with Akari suddenly becoming better in athletics, and her best friend Kris suddenly becoming her rival and no longer on friendly terms with Akari. But unlike with AiC's previous OAV series, Magical Girl Pretty Sammy, Battle Athletes does indeed have a beginning, middle, and end. It's just that it goes by so fast that before you know it, the beginning suddenly become the end. Fortunately, little plot twists and revelations keep you from being bored in case you were to marathon this series, which is the best way to go with this series, in my opinion.

Animation wise, the art and animation are well done for an OAV series, the girls are very cute, and the music sounds like something you'd expect in an anime revolved around sports. Japanese voice acting is adequate as well, though I should warn you to stay FAR AWAY from the dub. It's really, really bad, with unnecessary swearing and dialogue changes everywhere. Watch Battle Athletes in English only at your own risk.

While hardly revolutionary, Battle Athletes is a fun little anime if you're looking for something short, sweet, to the point, and riddled with eye candy.

Nowhere near as good as the TV series (thus supporting my made-up rule of AIC's 'TV series later follows OVA then surpasses it in every way' syndrome, along with Magical Girl Pretty Sammy), but still a fun, if unoriginal, ride. Those who like cute girls, fan service, or both in their anime can add one star. Those expecting the same experience in the video games and TV series, or those who just don't like sports anime in general, can take off one star.

Battle Arena Toshinden

2007-09-09T03:39:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

Battle Arena Toshinden is based on the "smash hit" one-on-one 3-D fighting game of that same name.

Okay, there's this guy named Eiji, see, and he's good at fighting with his sword. Anyway, every once in a while there's this really big and really secret martial arts tournament called the Battle Arena Toshinden (surprise). Last year, Eiji entered to win and hopefully encounter his long lost brother Sho. Unfortunately (?), the tournament never got to be finished due to the interference by an organization known only as "The Organization" (they really busted their brains coming up with _that_ one).

So now, one year later, a mysterious person begins to track down the warriors of the tournament, using their own special attacks against them. Thing is, this person looks a whole lot like Sho. It'll take the combined might of all the Arena fighters to find out the truth behind this new evil thingie...yeah.

Review

Holy cow.

Whenever I make a statement that "so-and-so" is the worst anime I have ever seen, along comes something that blows it completely out of the water in terms of badness. First, it was Babel II. Then, it was Art of Fighting. Then, Final Fantasy Legend of the Crystals. And now, we have Battle Arena Toshinden. I'm almost afraid to say how bad this is, because I dread the possibility of somehow seeing something worse. Battle Arena Toshinden is so bad, it's not even funny anymore.

There isn't a single thing about this anime that's good, period. While some bad anime are at least fun to watch for their camp value, or at least to rag on, Battle Arena Toshinden isn't even fun to make fun of. Insulting this anime seems rather pointless, because it already does such a good job of doing it for you. From the clichéd, ennui-inducing character design, to the crude art and animation, to the utter and complete lack of plot (even the crummy Art of Fighting had some semblance of a plot), to everything else, you'll be kicking yourself for paying the $1 it cost to rent this thing.

The plot is so inane you actually feel guilty for watching, as if this travesty were somehow your fault. Characters will appear for no reason in the beginning, get killed off, and reappear again at the end (oh, I'm sorry; did I just spoil that for you?) for no darned good reason at all. The anime seems to assume that you are already fully familiar with all the characters in this title before the opening credits roll; their idea of character development is to flash pictures of the different fighters with their names under them. AniPLOT comes up with plots that are more engaging, and believable, too. The martial arts sequences are even more pathetic than Art of Fighting; when everyone isn't firing off Dragon Ball-sized chi-blasts, they're frantically spinning around using techniques from the Anything-Goes Tasmanian School of Martial Arts ("Super Big Fighting Attack!" Whirrwhirrwhirrwhirrwhirr...).

To top off this exquisite viewing experience, BAT features (dare I say it) the worst dubbing I have heard to date. It's like the producers went to a lot of trouble to find the worst voice actors they could find, and rounded them up for this job. Ellis (the irritatingly cute knife thrower) has won the distinct honor of being the first anime character to make my personal list of "Anime Characters I Would Love To Inflict Twisted And Depraved Physical Violence Upon", thanks to her voice that would make even demons wince.

I wouldn't give this anime to my worst enemy.

Battle Angel

2007-09-09T03:38:00.004-07:00

Synopsis

The time is the future, and the place -- Scrap Iron City, a wretched hive of scum and villainy (sorry). In a time where cybernetic replacement organs are as easy to come by as a screwdriver, organ-thefts are a common occurrence. The only thing keeping these criminals in check are the Hunter-Warriors, bounty hunters after the heads of organ-snatchers to trade for cash rewards.

Gally is an amnesiac cyborg girl who is rescued from the scrap heap of the city by a cybernetic surgeon. Who she once was, what she once did -- all of it is a blank in Gally's mind, the only possible hint of her past being the formidable fighting skills she possesses. Although most of her body is artificial, her soul and mind are fully human in their childlike innocence, and have never before experienced tragedy or loss. And there's plenty of tragedy and loss to be had when you're in Scrap Iron...

Review

Battle Angel is probably the best "cyborg-angst"-themed anime title I have seen so far. While nothing in the title really stands out as spectacular, the elements of Battle Angel are all of good quality, resulting in an overall solid viewing experience.

The animation and art are well drawn and executed, with Scrap Iron depicted as the dirty, crime-filled city marked with a few struggling vestiges of humanity here and there. The battle sequences are slick, above average, and a treat to watch as Gally methodically takes her adversaries apart.

The story, what there is of it, is well thought out and interesting, exploring the ideas of love, dreams, and what can happen when dreams go sour. A particularly nice aspect of this title is how the cybernetics and technology of Gally and her surroundings are taken as part of the overall setting, not as the focus of the plot itself. In essence, the story is still about being human and the pains one must suffer to remain so.

The only big problem with this title is that by itself, it lacks the punch to really move or impress the viewer. One gets the feeling that the video is only part one of a much larger series (which it is). Unfortunately, this one volume is all we're going to get (unless you decide to buy the manga series from Viz), making the ending too open-ended and inconclusive to really satisfy. Does Gally ever find out who she is? What is Zalem, really? Well...

Still, Battle Angel is still a good watch, and a worthy pick for an evening's rental, or perhaps even purchase.

Bastard!!

2007-09-09T03:38:00.003-07:00

Synopsis

In a setting straight out of Dungeons & Dragons, an evil, lecherous mage named Dark Schneider (yes, Dark Schneider) tries to destroy the world with his four generals. He doesn't succeed, and he is sealed into the body of a baby named Rushe Renren. Now Rushe is a teenage boy, and all is not well in the kingdom of Meta-Rikana (well, actually Metallicana, but we'll get there in a moment). You see, Dark Schneider's generals now serve the cause of resurrecting the Great Demon Ansla-Sax (well, actually Anthrasax), and, so, to combat the evil demon and save the world, the priests of Meta-Rikana unleash Dark Schneider upon the world again. Really. Fortunately for them, instead of revenging himself upon his captors, DS decides that having a world to be in is better after all, and starts to re-recruit his generals to fight against the demonic forces by using spells named after heavy metal bands and songs. Exodus!!! I *did* mention that DS is an evil, lecherous sorcerer, right?

Review

Once upon a time, back in my role-playing days, my best friend thought the idea of a bastard sword named "Bastard" would be really fun. Unfortunately for him, Hagiwara Kazushi already had made an entire manga series named precisely for that reason. And that manga was made into an anime, rife with references to heavy metal and D&D, which back in the late 80s and early 90s, went together like milk and cookies.

Unfortunately, Pioneer Japan, in a fit of paranoia, decided to change the Anglicized names of the spells and landforms slightly to avoid copyright infringement, so a lot of those heavy metal bands aren't as apparent anymore. (Granted, Metallica's recent rash of litigious behavior has probably vindicated that paranoia.) That's only the start of the problems with this series.

Bastard!! is a title with a lot of potential that doesn't quite get as good as it should. It does have a wonderful, if at times distracting sense of humor (again, those spells!) and a real (dare I say it?) Bastard!! of a main character. Dark Schneider eventually comes off as the strongest personality in the show, and he's one of those guys who can cut loose and have a good time, or sacrifice himself if need be. He's egotistical, perverted, very foul-mouthed (though it's been, unsurprisingly, toned down drastically for US release), and torn between the innocent love for Yoko, the fourteen-year-old virgin priestess in charge of sealing and releasing him from Rushe Renren, or his not-so-innocent love for Arshes Nei, the gorgeous half-elf he adopted as his daughter and lover. (No kidding.) I can't terribly blame him, for Arshes Nei is another very strong character, and a total babe, to boot. And Yoko, well, she knows him to manipulate him, I'll give her that.

The one-liners zoom almost as fast as the spells in this series, but that's about where the coolness ends. Though the art and animation are quite well-done, colorful and smooth, with some awesome fight scenes (usually dealing with those heavy metal spells), the plot is a little too simple to hold up well. The villains - well, since when has there even been a well-developed, charismatic demon personality in an anime? It's just too obvious that it's just a standard plot. Most other characters beside the leads are pretty unmemorable, too. (A hulking dark priest named Abigail? Abigail?)

Of course, as an anime, it's a lot tamer than the original manga, in which Dark Schneider often fights without a stitch of clothing on, and sometimes visibly aroused. That would've been disconcerting to watch, especially considering that the manga artist was a protégé of Matsumoto Izumi, creator of Kimagure Orange Road. There's still nekkid Darshu in there, but not so much that it's distracting.

I would've liked to have seen more of this anime made, as I think it could've developed a lot better, and quite frankly, even at six OAVs, it still feels too short. But if you like a lot of mass destruction by way of heavy metal, and not of the mecha kind, Bastard!! fits the bill. It's fun, it's more than a bit mindless, and can appeal to both male and female fans. But it should've been a classic.

Barefoot Gen

2007-09-09T03:38:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

World War II is just nearing its close, and life is already pretty rough for young Gen and his family. With not enough ration stamps to last them through the month, the family is scrimping and pinching wherever possible just to make ends meet, not to mention that Gen's mother is expecting to give birth any day now.

And then, one fine afternoon, the Enola Gay makes its way across the Hiroshima sky, letting loose on its citizens the most devastating force ever conceived by man: the atomic bomb. After the initial destructive blast, which instantly wipes out most of the population in an all-consuming flash, the survivors find themselves struggling just to exist in a city now reduced to a gruesome, radioactive landscape. Gen and his family must somehow find a way to find sustenance and survive in this nightmare of a city where death is as abundant as the ashes. A semi-autobiographical retelling of history by creator Keiji Nakazawa.

Review

Whenever encountering an anime of this sort, a comparison to the masterpiece of war recounting -- Grave of the Fireflies -- is almost inevitable. From the subject matter alone, Barefoot Gen has the undeniable potential to deliver a greater impact than Grave. I mean, we're talking about the gruesome and agonizing deaths of a couple hundred thousand people via nuclear irradiation, not just two kids who simply starve to death. So, if given the choice, Barefoot Gen, right?

Well, not quite. This is another case where the story isn't enough: it's how you tell it. And Barefoot Gen in all of its grandiose horror does a considerably inferior job of storytelling than Grave of the Fireflies does in its quiet simplicity.

Where Grave is meticulously crafted, Barefoot seems thrown together. Many elements seem mismatched, resulting in a final product that seems more piecemeal than unified. The art and animation are of a crude, comical style that detracts from the reality of the history (imagine a really bad imitation of Ghibli's style). One feels inclined not to take the film too seriously when it literally looks like a Saturday morning Warner Brothers cartoon, and choosing this style for this sort of film is a decision that still baffles me. The dubbing job is barely adequate, with two really annoying voices being used for Gen and his brother (why does his younger brother sound older than him?).

The overall story suffers similar maladies. For the first third of the film, the viewer is treated to an extensive background on Gen and his family's poverty along with numerous scenes of him and his bratty brother not getting along. It's too much, and it's not relevant enough to hold the viewer's interest. Barefoot blithely takes its sweet time getting to the real story, and when the bomb is dropped, it actually comes as a relief. However, even the second half of the story, while noticeably more focused, still fails to pull itself together to deliver that emotional "punch" the director must have had in mind. The characters all seem too comical, too unreal to lend any sense of sympathy or realism.

There are many moments, though, when Barefoot comes very close to what it tries to accomplish. Although the art may be crude, it still manages to graphically portray the victims of the bombing in stomach-churning detail. Several scenes in the latter portion of the film could probably hold their own against anything Grave has to offer. Just when the film starts to shape up, though, the director usually cops out and resorts to (ugh) preaching, as if the visual evidence wasn't enough. The overall impression is one of getting browbeaten, and it greatly lessens the emotional impact of the production. Add on top of this numerous (and completely inappropriate) attempts at slapstick humor scattered throughout both halves of the film, and you get something that definitely doesn't seem like the eye-opener it's supposed to be.

In short, Barefoot Gen, while not terrible, disappoints many of the exact places it shouldn't. A lot of times it comes painfully close to what it should be, but there are still too many flaws to consider this a true classic. One thing I do have to say, though: I will never read about the bombing of Hiroshima (or Nagasaki, for that matter) with the same dispassionate air I used to. I guess in that regard, Barefoot Gen wasn't that far off the mark. It does seem like kind of a shame, though.

Baoh: The Visitor

2007-09-09T03:36:00.002-07:00

Synopsis

A "pharmaceutical" company dabbling in genetic research and psychic phenomena finds (or creates, we're not sure which) a worm that parasitizes on a host's brain and turns the host into a tool of carnage, called Baoh, the visitor (named after the creator's mother-in-law, I suppose). The newest host, a 17-year-old boy named Ikuro, manages to escape with the help of a 9-year-old psychic girl named Sumire, and proceeds to defend himself from some of the lamest assassination attempts ever conceived in anime. You know where the rest of THIS story is going.

Baoh. It lives in your brain... and it won't let you die!

Review

Let me die! Oh PLEASE, let me die!

That was the assessment after watching the simply horrendous English dub of this certified turkey. With confused, halfhearted voice acting, aged animation, and mind-bogglingly stupid action sequences, Baoh fails on so many levels that it's downright laughable.

The really pathetic thing is that a lot of this seemed to be done with a sense of style and panache that, while probably apparent on the drawing board, was accidentally dropped somewhere along the way towards execution and replaced with Folger's crystals. Even the opening music and title just screamed, "Bad 80s movie! Run!"

The plot and storyline in this one, while evidently there, are so jumbled up and chopped to bits that the director resorts to having Sumire *tell* us what's going on. The characters' motivations (particularly those of the villains) and the "fights" themselves become contrived to such an extreme point that halfway through the film Eric and I began singing "Deus Ex Machina" as a Gregorian chant.

It was about this point that Christi uttered the most telling comment of the night: "Scoot over. I can still see the screen."

Still, we shouldn't expect much more than action sequences in a title like this, right? Well, to put it bluntly, the action sequences weren't too tight even back in 1989, and they only get worse with age. Apparently, the true "magic" power of Baoh is to turn the host into a half-blind blue superhero (unfortunately, NOT The Tick), and give him "fighting techniques" so spurious in concept that they have subtitles stating dubious lines such as "BAOH LISKINI HARDEN SABER PHENOMENON" (itty-bitty vorpal blades on his arms) or "BAOH SHOOTING-BEES STINGER PHENOMENON" (killer dandruff) or "BAOH KICK-VERY-HARD-IN-THE-CROTCH PHENOMENON" (just kidding on the last one, but only just).

It doesn't help that this OAV's idea of "gore and violence" was to have everything (that is, walls, door, people, small woodland animals) melt into puddles, leaving eyeballs hanging out. A piffle-poor example of forensics, to say the least. (Either that, or this alternate world version of Homo sapiens is an amazing boneless wonder. It must be an alternate world, what with the Nausicaa-reject critter on Sumire's shoulder.)

(Spoiler warning!)

More minus points for one of the worst depictions of Native Americans in film media - Walken, the big-ass "shaman" psychic in this flick, was so stupidly portrayed that my wife's Cherokee grandmother must surely be rolling in her grave. Not that the main villain gets any better treatment, giving a seven-minute death-scene soliloquy directly at the camera about "his art" while impaled on a stalactite. Come on!

(End spoilers.)

Woefully bad synthesizer and clunky, slapdash animation complete the picture. The voice acting produces true gems of dialogue, like, "He will find her by following the scent of her distress". Not to mention the truly squicky romance angle (umm, she's nine?!?) which thankfully isn't really too much of a plot hook.

Unless you wish to see lots of red paint, mute blue supermen who have laser cannons and the like just fall into their hands by chance, and endless subtitles of PHENOMENON (doot-dooooo-doodoodoot!), then just pass this title by.

The moral of the story: just because it's cheap to license doesn't mean you should.

Banner of the Stars II

2007-09-09T03:36:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

With the success of Operation Phantom Flame, the Humankind Empire Abh has now turned its eye to recapturing all previously lost territories and has launched Operation Hunter for this purpose. At the vanguard of the Imperial forces, Admiral Bebaus’ Fourth Fleet has been making such a steady and quick advance that one of the primary concerns has become simply finding enough personnel to serve as territorial ambassadors to the newly conquered territories particularly given his concern over appointing nobility to the position.

Jinto and Lafiel find themselves appointed ambassadors to the planet of Lobnas. What should be a simple, yet boring, diplomatic duty turns into something much more complicated and dangerous when they discover the Lobnas isn’t a normal colony of the United Mankind but instead a massive prison colony.

Review

Let me note that though it is possible to watch and enjoy Banner of the Stars II without having seen Crest of the Stars or Banner of the Stars, without the previous two series’ world, plot, and character development much of the impact of events in this title would be lost on a viewer. This review will approach the title in context of all three series and I encourage the viewer to seek out the other series first if they have yet to see them.

Additionally, let me note that the dub is this title isn’t particularly strong. Though I’ll admit I normally tend to lean against dubs anyway, I feel that the dub is this title, particularly given how dialog intensive it is, could actively detract from a viewer’s enjoyment of the title. While it isn’t as much of an issue as it was say in Crest of the Stars, it still was noticeable and I recommend watching the title with the Japanese audio track.

Now on to the review proper.

In an unusual move, the opening scene of Banner of the Stars II is completely in Abh without either English or Japanese subtitles. Besides simply being an interesting exercise in creative linguistics, this is critical to setting up a sense of foreboding and drama that will hang over the show in regards to one of the main characters as the Abh language scene apparently shows the aftermath of certain events later in the show. We don’t see the actual end of the events until later, so despite anticipating that they are coming up due to what we see in the opening scene, a sense of effective dramatic tension is still maintained.

Of course, the use of such elements as the Abh language (in most Abh scenes the language is subtitled for our Lander convenience), brief historical overviews, and the like help show the extreme level of detail present in this title. Like in the two previous Stars titles, this helps bring to life a complex and plausible future. Banner of the Stars II not only makes good use of what has come before it but still manages to give the viewer even more insight into the universe, the Abh, and for a bit more insight into certain aspects of the United Mankind (one of my few complaints about these shows is the lack of detail about United Mankind). I was struck by how effectively the show let us understand the Abh approach to various fundamental social and governmental functions while all the while never depicting the Abh’s positions as necessarily or innately superior or inferior to those of the United Mankind but instead rather just a different way of approaching life. The interaction between Jinto, Lafiel, and the planetary representatives of Lobnas helped to effectively communicate and reinforce the nature of the relationship between the Abh and their conquered worlds without necessitating too much exposition.

The character work in Banner of the Stars II was uniformly excellent as I’ve come to expect from this particular franchise. It isn’t only Jinto and Lafiel who get attention but a wide variety of major and minor characters ranging from some of the prisoners on the planet to the engaging and redoubtable Admiral Spoor. The attention and humanity focused on all the characters that appear makes for highly engaging drama. In a lesser show, the sheer number of people getting screen time would have likely resulted in people seeming underdeveloped but this title’s solid writing helps even some of the characters getting only a handful of scenes come off as fully realized people. Of course, the main characters, Jinto and Lafiel, get the most focus and I continued to be impressed about how such previously well-developed characters had even more texture and depth added to them. The show gives a lot more insight into Lafiel, in particular, and how the way she has been raised and her destiny has affected her.

Plot progression and pacing was well handled especially considering the complexity of weaving in the various threads from so many different individual narratives into something that is engaging overall. As with the two previous shows, the opening pacing is a bit deliberate and slow but not too plodding. Banner of the Stars II is a very dialogue intensive series and depending on your tastes you might find that off-putting, however the strong writing and interesting characters help draw the viewer into these scenes rather than making them a chore.

When compared to the two previous titles, there perhaps isn’t as much overall action but there are still several well-done space battles including a particularly brutal one toward the end involving Admiral Spoor’s fleet which helps set up some good character development scenes for Admiral Spoor, her chief of staff, and Lafiel. We also have the opportunity to see some brief ground combat. All the action scenes are well integrated into the plot and generally are integrated with, as in the above example, good character work or thematic exploration.

Artwork and animation is actually improved a bit over the two previous titles (this is particularly obvious in a flashback to certain scenes from Crest of the Stars). There is more use of CGI for certain space scenes but it was handled and integrated well and only serves to enhance the scenes in which it is present. As I noted earlier, there are fewer battles overall in this title since it is focusing more on the planet Lobnas the actions of fleet.

Though I enjoyed the classically styled music of Banner of the Stars II, I must admit that it seems like they haven’t produced that many new background pieces that are particularly different than what was present in the last few series. This recycling of music didn’t bother me too much, given that I liked the music to begin with but I wished they could have done just a bit more with making the final chapter a bit more distinctive in such aspects. It is one of my few complaints about an otherwise excellent title.

As the show ended, I found myself wanting more. This isn’t to say that they don’t do a good job of closing it out and also bringing the over all narrative full circle from the very beginning scenes of Crest of the Stars. In fact I was rather pleased with the ending (make sure you watch through the entire end credits of the final episode by the way) but the fictional universe and characters that have been brought to life in Crest of the Stars, Banner of the Stars, and Banner of the Stars II were so fascinating and engaging that I am just eager to see more. As this apparently wasn't intended as the true closing chapter of the Stars storyline, fans of the series and quality science fiction drama may have something to look forward to in the future.

With its excellent character work and engaging plot, Banner of the Stars II is a nice continuation (or perhaps ending) to the grand Crest of the Stars and Banner of the Stars storyline. It can get a bit dialogue intensive at times at the expense of actual action, so if that bugs you, you might want to subtract a star and perhaps another if you don’t like science fiction at all though I should note this a series where the characters come first and the science comes second.

Banner of the Stars

2007-09-09T03:35:00.003-07:00

Synopsis

The United Mankind's war against the Humankind Empire Abh has raged for three years and now the Empire has prepared a bold plan to reconnect their territories split by the initial enemy offensive: Operation Phantom Flame. Jinto and Lafiel, after being separated for during those years and having grown somewhat distant, find themselves serving together again on a small craft that is part of the Imperial fleet that is about to engage in one of the most costly and important battles of the war. A battle where the Imperial forces are outnumbered fifteen to one.

Review

Banner Of The Stars' plot concerns the logistical build-up, planning, and execution of a major battle revolving around a key strategic point from the point of view of several different levels of personnel involved in the operation. While at first that might sound like it would only involve just episode after episode of battles, the show's tight emphasis on character work keeps the central most important focus on the developing relationship between Lafiel and Jinto while also fleshing out the world of the Abh a bit more in detail by introducing new characters and developing some of the characters already introduced in Crest Of The Stars in more detail. While lacking the scope of a show like Legend Of The Galactic Heroes, Banner Of The Stars still does a superb job of depicting the different concerns and actions of people involved in a major galactic battle.

Solid dialog and strong character interaction are one of the core strengths of Stars franchise, and this title generally is generally not disappointing in this area. Though the show is a bit Abh-centric (though that is like saying All Quiet On The Western Front is too German-centric), it develops the society in much greater detail such as by giving more insight into the relationship between the Abh/Lander world relationship and introducing non-Abh human characters who serve in the Imperial Navy. The expository segments are actually integrated and reinforced by events in the individual episodes a bit more effectively than in Crest Of The Stars giving them a sense of much more immediate relevance to the immediate plot rather than simply serving as historical background as they previously did.

While the viewer doesn't quite get as much of a United Mankind view of the events or perspective as you see in parts of Crest Of The Stars and Banner Of The Stars II, this doesn't hurt the title much given the tight character focus on a few individuals. However, this does contribute to making this chapter of the story not quite as engaging overall. It was also interesting to be get to know several more rank-and-file Abh as opposed to the mainly high nobles that had been focused on in Crest. The title does a fairly good job, in a brief period, of introducing a number of characters whose fates' genuinely concerned me. In any story dealing with war, the cost of war needs to be addressed. While not doing quite a solid a job at that as Banner Of The Stars II, it isn't shied away from either. Lafiel and Jinto, having new responsbilities, have to deal with a number of new challenges all the while reacquainting themselves with one each other.

The relationship between Lafiel and Jinto, however, was also one of the elements of Banner Of The Stars that I felt was handled more poorly than it could have been. A large amount of the character development time spent between the two in Banner comes off as a slight rehash of what we've already seen in Crest Of The Stars. In context of their separation, this does make sense logically but I felt just a bit too much time was spent in this title going over ground that had already been covered in the previous title. The interaction between the two and the other new characters helps offset that particular weakness but Jinto and Lafiel are the heart of the Stars stories and since their character development and personal plots weren't as strong, it helped make Banner Of The Stars the weakest of the currently available Stars anime . This entire storyline, after all, isn't about making some sort of grandiose point about the nature of war or the factions involved but instead exploring how the lives of two young people are being affected by being swept up in these galactic events.

The artwork and animation in this title is a bit better than what was presented in Crest. There are a number of ship battles but many involve such a massive scale that there isn't as much gritty personal ship-to-ship action as one might expect. However, through the experiences of Lafiel and her ship's crew, the viewer is shown what a battle seems like from the perspective of the individual vessels involved in this massive altercation. If you have recently watched Crest it might seem somewhat frustrating to have so many flashbacks to scenes from the earlier anime. However, if you haven't watched it in quite some while, you will undoubtedly find the flashbacks scenes useful for helping place a lot of the characters and events in better context. Like the first series, this show can get quite dialog intensive at times. Even in the context of the galactic war, this is a show about character interaction first and foremost. Action junkies should consider themselves warned.

The music, for the most part, is mostly the same as in Crest Of The Stars. I enjoyed the music in the first title, so I enjoyed it here but I do think it would have been more effective for them to have produced more unique and original tracks for the second series. They do enhance a few tracks here and there but viewers should not particularly expect any surprises from the soundtrack.

Bagi: The Monster of Mighty Nature

2007-09-09T03:35:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

Deep in the South American jungle, a Japanese hunter named Ishigami Ryosuke is hired to hunt a ferocious monster that has been terrorizing the villagers. The truth is that he is very familiar with Baghi ... for she is a bioengineered cat-woman, and Ryosuke remembers when she was just a kitten who started showing human traits. But over the course of years, things go horribly awry, and now Ryosuke must steel himself to end Baghi's journey once and for all.

Review

It's sometimes a bit hard watching Tezuka Osamu's movies. You feel compelled to respect the work, as Tezuka is generally a skilled storyteller, but his work is often hampered by archaic art direction and heavy-handed moralism.

Bagi suffers from enough of each to be a frustrating watch. Like Barefoot Gen, the character designs are simply too simplistic and cartoony for us to really accept what's happening onscreen or take it seriously. Which is odd because Bagi is a movie that deals quite directly with the issue of cloning and genetic manipulation, like The Island of Dr. Moreau, or Jurassic Park (complete with bizarre DNA explanation mini-cartoon, though it should be said that in this instance, Bagi came first).

Of course, when they reveal the "great horrible experiment", it turns out to be Bagi, a badass pink catgirl. (Actually, she's not half housecat, she's half mountain lion. Which doesn't explain why she can snap things in half with her tail, but hey, that's genetic manipulation for you.) We also find out that the person responsible for a lot of this is Ryosuke's own mother, herself a geneticist. Eventually, Ryosuke ends up proclaiming his desire to "take her home and have her act like a real mother". This is, of course, about the time you realize this will all end horribly tragically.

Still, before we get there, we still have to muddle through misadventures involving a motorcycle gang, a South American jungle half-ripped straight out of the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark and half mixed up with a desert from an old western film, and not one, but two genetics labs filled with mad scientists and the evil industrialists who fund them, one of them named (and I am not making this up) the Cucaracha Research Lab. There's also the hilarious assertion that cacti have supernatural powers, something that really amuses us back here in Arizona.

The art and animation are somewhat frustrating to discuss. This is definitely older material, but unlike Nausicaa, the art and animation in Bagi has not aged well. Part of the problem is in the character design work itself -- Tezuka's work is already "old school" by the time this film was made, being a product of the 1950s and 1960s. We never understand why Ryosuke has this squiggly on his left cheek (it's not a scar, it's not hair, what IS the squiggly), and the "villains" are so obvious as to look stupid. It really distracts from the fact that this is intended to be a serious film, and the only character that has decent character design and animation is Bagi.

And as for Bagi herself ... she's a furry's dream. For a Tezuka film, there really is an inordinate and simply disturbing degree of fanservice (think Minerva Mink here). She spends half the movie naked (granted, she's half animal so this is never explicit) and the other half in tight red clothes. Ironically, it only feels like fanservice when she's clothed.

To their credit, the creators of this film actually treat Bagi with some degree of seriousness, as a victim of science and circumstance, and Shimazu Saeko (ironically, mad scientist and anti-catgirl antagonist Natsume Akiko in Cat Girl Nuku Nuku) really sells the role, any but hints at a romantic relationship between Ryosuke and Bagi feel misguided and awkward -- less because she's a catgirl, more because Ryo partially raised her.

In fact, the whole film often feels awkward and ham-handed, as if it's trying to tell a serious story, but is held back by archaic norms of early 1980s cartoon storytelling, like one-dimensional bad guys, and even the inclusion of a child sidekick named Chico. Bagi is actually Tezuka's direct critique of the Japanese government's approval of recombinant DNA research, but unfortunately, the whole issue clearly is painted as an issue of black and white, and not given a nuanced, balanced treatment, as opposed to, say, Bagi herself, who clearly deserves a better movie, or even a television series.

Yet for something that is a movie, Bagi is about twenty-five minutes too long. Much of the film is told as a flashback, as in the "present time" Ryosuke is in fact hunting Bagi -- the section where they arrive in South America and Bagi changes from ally to adversary is just really badly handled, which, I guess, is what happens when you create a movie as reactionary propaganda rather than as a story on its own right. (Like, say, Nausicaa.)

There are elements of a good film in here, and at times, Bagi is a sad, but beautiful film about one trapped between the natural and human worlds. I almost wonder how this would fare if rewritten and redesigned for sophisticated modern audiences, because this topic really does deserve serious treatment, and we really should give this movie for at least making the attempt to treat anthropomorphic characters as more than just cartoons. This movie also seems to have inspired the initial upsurge in popularity of catgirls as a concept in anime, so take from that what you will. Either way, Bagi is interesting, but ultimately unspectacular and a bit disappointing.

I'll bet it was pretty cool in 1984, though.

Baby Love

2007-09-09T03:34:00.003-07:00

Synopsis

Arisugawa Seara is an ordinary 6th grader. She has loved Seto Shuuhei ever since she met him when she was younger. However, Shuuhei is three years older than Seara, so he tells her that she has to grow up first. Years later, Seara is now living in the same house as Shuuhei, in order to win his heart. She has also drastically made over herself and grown taller, all to make Shuuhei love her.

However, it seems that the person Shuuhei really loves is his classmate, Ayano. Will Shuuhei ever acknowledge Seara's love?

Review

I honestly don't know much about the original Baby Love manga which this OAV was based on. I read the first couple of chapters a year ago, and while they weren't doinky, they certainly gave off a generic, bland feel, and I could already predict the ending even though I had only read three chapters. Amazingly, though, this manga managed to run in Ribon for four years (1995 to 1999), so it was probably a hit with the little girls that Ribon is targeted to. Based off this response, in 1997 Shueisha made this OAV and offered it as a special mail-order present in the December 1997 issue.

When I saw this OAV offered for download, I decided to watch it and review it. I thought that maybe it would improve upon the manga. But it turned out that it had much the same qualities as the original manga did. This OAV goes through the motions of the typical shoujo romantic comedy plot, and introduces nothing new to the mix. Girl loves boy, boy doesn't love girl, girl tries to catch boy's eye, girl finds out that boy may be in love with classmate...this has all been done before, and at this point, it's just become extremely cliched and tired. As for the characters...well, they are just as bland as the plot. Seara is the Stock Romantic Comedy Heroine, Shuuhei is the Stock Romantic Comedy Hero, Ayano is the Stock Classmate, and there were other characters, but they were so inconsequential that I cannot remember any of their names or features. That really speaks volumes of the amount of character development present in this anime (which is about...one or two). There isn't a lot of suspense in the plot either, as you probably just KNOW that Seara will end up with Shuuhei by the end as they are the main characters.

The art and animation quality are good for a mid-90s OAV, although the colors have aged a little and you can spot some doinky-looking footage in spots. The music, however, definitely comes from Amalgamated Generico or wherever Shueisha gets stock music to use in these OAVs. The ending song is also extremely generic and the singer doesn't even have a decent voice (amazingly, Pioneer / Geneon released this as a single (!) ). The seiyuu are mostly B-list seiyuu, who some may recognize, but their performances in this anime are just as inoffensively bland as the rest of it.

In short, this is just a very, very average OAV. It is not as bad as some other Ribon OAVs (I'm looking at you, Full Moon o Sagashite Special and Time Stranger Kyoko!), but it's not extremely excellent, either. At least it flies by fast, being only 30 minutes. The open-ended ending indicates that Shueisha was probably hoping that a TV series would result from this OAV. But from watching it, I can certainly see why no one was interested in making one.

Babel II

2007-09-09T03:34:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

Our hero thought he was just another ordinary high school student until he started to get strange dreams that kept referring to him as "Babel the Second." He gets contacted by a mysterious psychic woman, and finds out that he's a psychic, like so many others who have to hide due to their strange powers. Of course, the underground organization of psychics isn't exactly what it seems, and soon our hero fights for his life, using powers he never knew he had to escape.

Eventually, our hero finds out that he has been chosen to succeed the alien who centuries ago landed on Earth and built the Tower of Babel (yeah). Newly christened Babel the Second must now fight the nefarious movement of psychics who would destroy all of humanity to clear room for themselves. Fight, fight, fight, fight some more, and then fight again! Um, yeah!

Review

Wait! Before you read this review, you might want to go back and read the review for The Dagger of Kamui.

This Streamline Hall-of-Shamer was like Dagger of Kamui in many aspects. Like DoK, Babel II had a very promising beginning. THEM found ourselves drawn into the storyline of a boy who had to suddenly deal with a power he never knew he had. After fifteen minutes, we were almost certain we had a winner on our hands.

Boy, were we mistaken. Babel II gives me the impression that the writer sat down at his desk, scripted the first fifteen minutes, found out the script was due in five minutes, and turned the thing in as is, after which the producers created a two-hour anime out of it. The difference between Babel II and Dagger of Kamui, of course, was that Dagger of Kamui actually had a coherent, involving plot that ran through the entire anime. All semblances of plot, storyline, and overall effort in Babel II utterly vanished after the first fifteen minutes were over.

The hour and forty-five minutes that followed (it seemed more like three hours at the time) quickly dissolved into ceaseless, uninspired, and pointless action sequences (whottawhottawhottawhotta) one after another, lightly sprinkled with laughable attempts at drama and tension. Plot holes the size of the national debt abounded, and there were enough deus ex machina in this thing to make Mt. Olympus jealous. It got to be so that the entire anime was just one giant, overextended action scene with Babel the Second close-proximity-electrocuting countless brainless evil psychic extras. Whottawhottawhotta, indeed.

Strangely enough, the art and animation were actually pretty decent. The art was fairly crisp and clean, and animation was, for the most part, pretty good except near the end where even the producers gave up on this thing. The soundtrack was completely unmemorable, and the dubbing was adequate.

As for the characters... like the Dagger of Kamui, THEM really didn't give a rat's patootie about what happened to anybody by midway through the anime. Well, that's not quite true. We wanted the main baddie to die. We wanted the stupid femme fatale to die. We wanted the side characters to die. We wanted Babel the Second to die. Heck, we wanted everybody to die, so long as it would ensure the anime would finish soon. Never before had credits been so welcomed as in this thing.

So, if you hadn't figured it out, this thing really, really sucks. Don't get it, and if you do, watch only the first fifteen minutes.

B'tX

2007-09-09T03:33:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

Capitalizing on the popularity of shows such as Samurai Troopers (Ronin Warriors in North America) and Saint Seiya with female audiences, B'tX is a story where pretty boys beat each other up while riding mecha shaped like various animals.

No, seriously, there's this guy named Teppei ... and ... um ...

Oh, bother.

Review

Okay. What is the point of this show? From the beginning, you're treated to various random scenes of character interaction that are supposed to lead into the plot, but really don't make any sense. And then, suddenly, the hero, out of the blue, is astride this shiny metal mecha that looks nothing so much as one of the emaciated steeds from a Hieronymus Bosch painting. Ooh. Fight equally decrepit-looking animal mecha with villain on it. Ooh. Watch your brave heroes beaten up for the sake of some chick or other. Ooh.

Was I supposed to be impressed by this at all? The action scenes are boring, the characters are boring, and the mecha designs are boring. And the music, well, it was okay, if hopelessly cheesy ("I am now setting sail for my dream!"), but it doesn't keep the show from being absolutely, well, boring. In fact, the only remotely interesting thing about this show was the weird title!

Also, I must state that the animation on this TV series has to be some of the most mediocre I'd ever seen. Speed Racer looks better. And the over-the-top "I CAN YELL LOUDER THAN YOU!" voice acting doesn't excite me one bit. Let's face it. Posing and bleeding does not a good battle make.

The designs may be similar to your favorite bishounen shows, but don't expect to be impressed by -any- aspect of B'tX. Samurai Troopers, while just as over the top and hokey (and maybe more so) has vastly more interesting characters, and the TV series even pretends to have a coherent plot half the time! If you insist on seeing pretty boys being beat up for any reason, watch that, or Saint Seiya, or something else. You'll probably enjoy your anime a lot more that way.

Ayane's High Kick

2007-09-04T12:41:00.000-07:00

Synopsis

Mitsui Ayane is a rambunctious, hyperactive teenager that loves Pro Wrestling. She loves it so much, in fact, that her life-long goal is to become a wrestler herself and fight her idol, Toyoda, for the title belt. The only problem is she stinks at wrestling. After watching her latest failed audition, a coach for an independent kickboxing camp decides to recruit her and turn her powerful legs towards a sport they are better suited for. Unfortunately he has to fool Ayane to do this, since she is single-mindedly in pursuit of her dream. Will Ayane be the next up-and-coming kickboxing star? Or just another wrestler wanna-be?

Review

Ayane's High Kick is a fun, charming, double episode pilot that like many others of its era, never managed to take off and become a full series. Fun characters and an interesting premise are marginalized by its short length and obnoxious cliches, but for what it's worth, it's a fun ride.

The main character, Ayane, is your typical red-haired spaz tomboy, who is probably a little bit thicker in the head than most others of her ilk. That she's actually fooled by her coach, Kunimitsu, into thinking kickboxing training is for pro wrestling borders on absurd, but her enthusiasm and determination are infectious, and I still found myself rooting for her in the end. Her friends from school, bookworm Mayu and combat-sports otaku Kappei are fun side characters that adequately complement Ayane without becoming distracting. Her "rival", however, the blond and obnoxious Migiyama, is a little over-the-top. Watching her prance around and proclaim how awesome she is when she's only fought five matches herself is somewhat irritating, but I guess that's the point. The vice principal of Ayane's high school is likewise a walking cliche, and further proof of the anime law that states all vice principals are pure unadulterated evil.

The animation is somewhat dated, but remarkably good for the time this was made. Still, fans of newer shows will probably be disappointed in the fight scenes, which have the typical sports-anime speed lines and still shots in abundance. The characters fall squarely into the "big eyes, small mouths" school of design, which can be somewhat jarring considering the subject matter of the show, but are fairly attractive none the less.

In all, Ayane's High Kick is a fun ride, but nothing to write home about. Like "The Adventure's of Kotetsu" and "Dragon Half" it really deserved more episodes. As an advertisement for the manga, however, it's not bad. I hope that someone picks up this title in print soon, since the rest of the story might be fun to read.

Azumanga Daioh

2007-09-04T12:39:00.004-07:00

Synopsis

A handful of schoolgirls, three of their teachers, and assorted animals have various misadventures in everyday life in modern Japan. That's it.

Review

And yet that's not it.

Interestingly, Azumanga Daioh really doesn't have all that much of a plot. It's even more episodic than Urusei Yatsura, and there's no big overarching storyline or pressing matter to save Tokyo or anything like that. It's not even a soap opera - there's almost no male cast, and only an inkling of romance (but only as a one-sided crush played for laughs).

Azumanga Daioh is not about conflict - it's about mood. The director, Nishikiori Hiroshi, and the creator, Azuma Kiyohiko, intended this show to bring the viewers back to a period in their lives when everything revolved around hanging out with friends: the transition between childhood and adulthood. They also intended the show to depict high school girls as they really are. Not magical super heroines, not romance-obsessed angst bunnies, and not violence-magnet gangster girls. They're just everyday girls with everyday problems.

Instead of being an escapist fantasy like most another anime, Azumanga Daioh thrives on nostalgia and a stellar cast of quirky, but very true-to-life characters played by the best ensemble ever assembled in anime, period. This is a character showcase, and each character gets her time in the sun.

If anyone can be considered the star of the show, it's Mihama Chiyo, Child Genius. Most characters like her are cloying, precocious, and too perfect for their own good. What makes Chiyo-chan so cool is that, while she's incredibly intelligent, she's also downtrodden, a bit obsessive-compulsive, and terrible at athletics (even worse than most girls her age). She is an optimist to a fault, but often foiled by the antics of her teacher and her classmates. She also has mysterious ponytails and purposely messes with people's reality using the Power of Cute. She can be snide, but by and large, she is genuinely likable, and believably her age without being the slightest bit bratty.

On the other side of the spectrum is Sakaki. Tall, athletic, beautiful, and insanely well proportioned, she is the idol of the school. Everybody assumes she's a lone wolf bad-girl who gets into gang fights. Well, no. She might be quiet and withdrawn, but that's just because she's painfully shy; and the bandages on her hands aren't from gang fights, but the result of trying to pet the neighborhood cat. Sakaki can't resist cute things - even ones with lots of sharp, pointy teeth - and her personality is actually close to what people would expect of Chiyo. But it's hard to be cutesy when you're six feet tall, even if you're hallucinating about cute cat creatures.

Then there's Sakaki's athletic rival, Kagura, who is heavily involved in the swim team (which explains those tan lines rather conveniently). She at first assumes Sakaki is wild about athletics just like her, but grows to realize Sakaki has her interests elsewhere. Despite seeming like a total jock, Kagura is actually the sweetest out of the group, trying to help total strangers whenever possible. She's a Girl Scout who just happens to talk like a tomboy.

There are the two childhood friends, polar opposites Takino Tomo and Mizuhara Koyomi (Yomi). Tomo is "uselessly energetic" and incredibly obnoxious, and Yomi is the put-upon voice of reason who secretly obsesses over her weight. Tomo generally instigates all sorts of wacky hijinks, and Yomi is always there to control the damage. While they bicker constantly, there is no question that these two are spiritually sisters and more alike than they'd ever admit.

To round out the main cast … there's the oddest character in the entire lot. Her name's Kasuga Ayumu, but no one ever calls her that. To the other girls, she's "Osaka". Yeah, that's where she's from, and she does speak in that distinct Osaka accent. But instead of being brash, brassy, and obnoxious (no, that's Tomo's job!), Osaka is quiet, demure, air-headed, and psychotic. (And probably autistic.) If her huge, hypnotically vapid eyes do not suck you in, then her slow, tranquilizing drawl will definitely send you into another dimension. She steals every scene in the show by being her weird self - she doesn't see things quite the same way everyone else does, and she's a real punster.

There are a host of other characters, too, like the teachers Yukari-chan and Nyamo-chan (note the suffixes!), who have not let go of their youth, reveling in immaturity and silliness; and the crazed Kimura-sensei, who chases schoolgirls with reckless abandon in the name of comedy. Then there's Kaorin, who has an ill-fated crush on the oblivious Sakaki, which plays out like a parody of the oneesama complex.

All of these characters interact so naturally, it really is like going to back to your own high school and remembering spending time with your friends and teachers. Azumanga Daioh is pure fun. This series is incredibly popular in Japan, but many in America's younger fan base may simply not care about this show. We've heard younger fans here in the States ask, "What's the big deal?" Since Azumanga Daioh is about everyday high school life (no big soap opera situations at all), everyday high schoolers aren't going to care. They can't appreciate this show just yet.

Azumanga Daioh is really for those of us who are a few years out of high school and wanting to reminisce about days when we didn't have to worry about bills, insurance, and the daily grind of work. No, high school wasn't perfect. But when you watch the episodes about school festivals and field trips, you remember the mood of specific events in your own high school life.

For many guys, this series is a bit of an eye-opener, because this shows how high school girls are in their most private of times: when they with their friends. Life as a high school girl is not always about fashion or dating or (God forbid) sex - especially when your friends are a bunch of geeks who don't fit into any of the clubs or cliques.

The animation for Azumanga Daioh is beautifully rendered, yet very simple. The character designs are adorable, and the girls dress in very fashionable, but practical and current clothes that make sense for everyday teens. The music is unique, with unconventional instrumentation (was that really a recorder, a tuba, an accordion, and a mouth-harp playing bouncy ska just now?), but instead of just being weird, it highlights the mood of every scene, and it is easily one of the most memorable soundtracks in the last decade. Each episode is prefaced by what is probably the catchiest and most innovative opening sequence ever made. The visuals look like complete nonsense, but they're actually a minute-and-a-half summary of the entire series! The song ("Sora Mimi Cake") sounds like nonsense, too, but you start to wonder after a while. The ending ("Raspberry Heaven") is suitably trippy.

The shorts (Azumanga Daioh: The Very Short Movie and Azumanga Daioh Web Special) are mini-episodes. The first is a brief retelling of the first episode, albeit very well animated. The second is sort of a video memorial, with Chiyo bringing in a camcorder to record a day at school. Predictably, it goes horribly wrong. Each short contains a fully fleshed story, rather than random vignettes like most promotional specials (like Time Stranger Kyoko).

But all this characterization, animation, and musical work would be all for nothing if the actual story wasn't told well. We did mention earlier that Azumanga Daioh has no plot. The last time we said this about a slice-of-life schoolgirl anime, we ended up with To Heart, and if you read that review, you'll see how we felt about that.

Azumanga Daioh does what To Heart couldn't have possibly hoped to do. It captures your attention and holds it. It's very fast-paced, telling three or four short stories in the course of an episode that are integrated seamlessly with each other - and have bearing on future stories. There is a definite sense of continuity, but only in the sense of time passing and a few instances of cause-and-effect. Unlike many American series that deal with this subject matter (comic strips like Luann and Peanuts come to mind), Azumanga Daioh is not melodramatic, and the characters grow in both personality and age.

We're having a hard time writing down the words to give this show the credit it deserves. Azumanga Daioh is like nothing in anime that has come before it. While it is based on a four-panel gag manga, it tells an extensive, seamless, and very realistic story with engaging, lovable characters. It also doesn't wear out its welcome - it tells everything it wants to during the span of a 26-episode season.

Unfortunately, most younger anime fans really can't appreciate just how entertaining this series is - because they would rather not see their everyday lives repeated for them on the television. Really, if you're eighteen and under, and don't like this series the first time around, put it away and come back to it in about five years. Those of you who have already been out of high school for a while, though, may just fall in love with it.

Azumanga Daioh is all about mood. THEM will always be in the mood to watch it.

Ayakashi ~Japanese Classic Horror~

2007-09-04T12:39:00.003-07:00

Synopsis

This short series is separated into three different stories, all of them equally terrifying. This series is actually based on the book Toukaidou Yotsuya Kaidan by Tsuruya Nanboku. The book is a collection of ghost stories which was first published in 1826. Apparently the book tells the tales of one of the most famous ghost stories in Japan.

The first tale is titled Yotsuya Kaidan, which is about two men that conspire with each other to murder the men standing in the way of the women they wish to take as their wives. Once successfully slaying their obstacles, it turns out their rewards were not enough to satisfy. Tamiya Iemon, who killed his father-in-law in order to marry the family's daughter, later on poisons her because she stands in the way of a very profitable remarriage. The poison disfigures her hideously, and she commits suicide swearing revenge on her estranged lover.

Following this vignette is Tenshu Monogatari, which is about Tomihime, owner of the divine Shirasagi Castle, who falls in love with a falconer named Zushonosuke while he was travelling along the enchanted castle gates. The two try to deny their fates as human and goddess, and together must face their damnation.

Bakeneko is the final chapter of this series, which also takes place in the Edo Era. The untimely death of a young samurai bride sends the entire family up in a panic, and the village druggist swears it is the work of a bakeneko, or cat monster--which continues to kill off family member after family member before finally appearing before horrified villagers, revealing a long-forgotten scandal that tainted the family for generations to come ...

Review

Living in Japan has provided me with an entirely new way of looking at the anime which I review -- to the point it had spoiled me because everything I watched was met with indifference. I didn't have to wait with bated breath for things anymore ... it was right there, at my fingertips, every week.

With the hours I kept, though, the only time I managed to watch anime was after 10pm, and the Noitamina block every Thursday night at 12:35am was really the only thing I could follow regularly. And a good thing too, because the block was aimed mainly for college students and young adults. So with the titles that preceded it, and this title included, there were no boobs, no fanservice, no panties, no [insert offense here] to be found within a 100-meter radius.

Finally, an anime you can take seriously. Finally, an anime series that makes you feel smart for watching it. Don't let the Samurai Champloo-esque theme song throw you, there is nothing modern about the content of this series once you start watching. The art style looks like it came to life and walked straight out of the novels from which these stories originate. The voices are all fitting and not one sticks out from the other, which results in a seamless storytelling effort. As far as the animation goes--each story takes on a different animation and art style, and the expressions of the supernatural border on the breathtaking. Each of the different stories can be viewed seperately, and almost seem to be completely different productions.

Coming from someone who has never liked horror movies, and has never found ghost stories or anything of the sort intriguing in any sense, what I have seen of the series has been downright chilling. You don't need the gore and sensationalism to strike into the hearts of man. The simple gestures demonstrated in this series are equally as cruel--if not moreso.

This is not a mindless series to watch while falling asleep. Not only is this series too rich with history and content, but--come to think of it, you'd best watch this series with the lights on.

AWOL: Absent Without Leave

2007-09-04T12:39:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

(From the Vol. 1 box cover)
Cyress is a peaceful place. People are going about their lives. Two lovers embrace, a family throws a birthday party for their child, a group of people party at a local restaurant. But suddenly, their surroundings explode into smoke and flame. A group of terrorists has snuck through the planetary defenses and has begun an assault. Defenseless, there is little the people of Cyress can do. AS the military scrambles to discover what happened, the terrorists manage to hijack seven PDP missiles, which are capable of destroying an entire planet. These terrorists, who call themselves “Solomon” can now hold entire planets hostage! They must not be stopped.

Review

For any work of storytelling art, be it a novel, movie, or television show (anime or otherwise), there is a basic prerequisite for its success: connection. Before a story can entertain its audience, it must establish some sort of connection with the audience. Most stories, even mediocre ones, have no problem doing this at all, as anything that excites, shocks, humors, or in any way intrigues its audience establishes connection. Nevertheless, this simple task appears to be the fatal flaw of AWOL, a series that quietly came and went about 10 years ago.

From the get go, the show is slow as molasses. Though the basic (if wholly unimpressive) sci-fi plot seems simple enough to be easily taken in, nothing in the tedious presentation compels me to do so. The events play out through a series of conveniently used still frames and sluggish pans, until the entire episode has simply glazed over my eyes. When the creators actually do have to animate the show, they do so poorly and negligently, with every design and background being completely prosaic. The “characters” seem more like pawns than real humans in this chronically bored saga, simply spouting dry lines and technical drivel in no particular direction as an equally blasé score drones on and on. A hopelessly lackluster English voice cast that makes DMV workers seem like enthusiastic employees doesn’t help matters.

The sci-fi world of the series is no more imaginative or interesting, as neither it nor its technology or machines appear to have been designed with any more care than the rest of the show. At the end of the first two episodes, AWOL fails to take me anywhere, as there is simply nothing that's worth connecting to. No matter how seriously it might take itself, AWOL doesn't put in the effort needed for anyone else to give a rip. I don’t care what happens to the characters, to the extent there are even characters to care about, and the show doesn’t look or sound nice in the least. When you think about it, what’s the point?

Avenger

2007-09-04T12:38:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

In the future, the struggling citizens of a colonized Mars decide the rulers of their dome cities and, ultimately of the planet, through one on one melees between chosen representative fighters. While they avert chaos and war with this system, a much more sinister threat to their future has arisen in the recent past: an ability to have children. Now the people of Mars depend on child-like robots called dolls to remind them of what they once had.

Into this dying society steps the barbarian fighter Layla Ashley who is obsessed with vengeance against Volk, the leader of all of Mars. When she befriends an unusual doll, Nei, who seems to be a target of Volk, her quest for vengeance will involve her in a mystery that may change the future of the planet.

Review

There were three things that I rather liked about this show: the opening/ending themes (I'm an ALI Project fan), the basic background of the world, and the supporting character of Speedy (a doll mechanic). Unfortunately the rest of it wasn't quite as enjoyable.

Perhaps the biggest problems with Avenger are ones of overall plot execution and pacing. I certainly do not mind slow shows or that those that have deliberate pacing to heighten drama but in the case of this particular title they were not doing enough to really keep the viewer engaged while they slowly revealed bits and mystery of Layla's past and Nei's secrets. I cannot even say the show is saved by a particularly good ending. The finale was painfully anti-climatic and rushed through so many events that it ended up raising a lot more questions than it answered. After I finished this I found myself thinking an entire another show about the rulers of Mars and their early actions probably would have been far more interesting than the thirteen episodes focused primarily on Layla and Nei. Most of what was even remotely interesting about this show had to do more with the background than the actual events in the show itself.

Though the individual aspects of the plot were interesting they weren't handled well by the show overall and many of the key r elevations end up seeming very forced or arbitrary. There were several times as I viewed the show that I found myself wondering why a certain character was acting a particular way or why they didn't seemingly pick up on certain things other than to fill in a few plot holes or a particular niche required by the overall plot ideas. Whether or not such occurrences at all seemed natural or all that realistic, in the context of the show, were, apparently, a secondary concern to the writers.

The vast majority of characters in the show were so lifeless and flat that I had a hard time particularly being engaged by them or even caring what they did or what happened to them. Layla and Nei, ostensibly the two leads of the show, are so uninteresting that I found myself caring more about side characters such as the doll mechanic who travels along with them. Her quest for vengeance didn't really draw me in as we don't even understand the reasons until nearly the end of the series and since we didn't get to see much of Layla before or much of her personality now, it is difficult to really care. While I understand that her new cold and terse persona is a logical result of the events that happened to her, it still made it difficult to care about her as a character. Also some of Layla's later actions deviate inexplicably from what her apparent motivations were earlier on. Volk though given to grand pronouncements about "doing what he needs to save Mars" is equally uninteresting. Given his position in the show and some of the revelations later on, I think they could have salvaged him a bit more by showing more of his past.

Besides the plot and characterization, the other elements of the show were definitely sub par. The design work was average to poor, the in show music exceedingly generic, and the actual animation quality itself quite poor for a relatively new show with so many action scenes. The poor quality animation combined with use of stock footage in action scenes made the battle encounters rather uninteresting even during some of the more important battles of the show. Given that the show was only thirteen episodes long, they could have put a bit more effort into making the action scenes more impressive. This problem is a particular weakness as this show rather heavily leans on battles between Layla and various other opponents whether they be random thugs or Volk's scouting dolls. The only real praise I can give to the visual elements of this show was the use of creative camera angles to heighten the mood and emotional impact of several scenes.

The final disappointment I had with this show had to do with their general failure to truly explore some of the philosophical ideas they raised. They have a few throw away scenes concerning how people feel about dolls, a few speeches from Volk outlining his brutally utilitarian philosophy on governance, and the like, however for the most part they just don't seem to care to really explore the philosophical ramifications of the background of the world. In a sense, I was a bit annoyed since they would put on the pretense of that sort of thing with the occasional speech by Volk but, for the most part, seemed to content to lean more on just Layla's vengeance. Even Nei's secrets and their implications seem almost an after thought to Layla's quest. Perhaps if Layla's quest had actually been interesting I wouldn't care as much.

Assemble Insert

2007-09-04T12:37:00.002-07:00

Synopsis

Employing advanced powered battle armor, the criminal gang Demon Seed is seemingly unstoppable. While all conventional efforts to stop the gang have failed, the special Counter-Demon Seed Task Force has a secret weapon: the cute but inexplicably strong Namikaze Maron. Not only do they have a weapon against the Demon Seed, but a potential super idol!

Review

This title is a broad brush parody of a number of eighties anime elements, Japanese entertainment culture, media culture, and several minor additional aspects of Japanese life from that general period. You cannot begin to even remotely take it seriously or try to judge it with the conventional concepts of plausible plots, deep characters, and the like. Most of the characterization is fairly shallow, as the characters exist to fill niches and archetypes to mock.

Not all parody titles work, this one did, for me at least. While not as gutwrenchingly hilarious as some I have seen, I did laugh aloud during several scenes. There were a lot of nice touches added to make it a bit more amusing such as the use of a live action commercial parody and some great direct references to other popular series of the period. Yawara fans in particular need to make sure they watch through the entire end credits of the second episode for an amusing homage.

While certain parts of this OAV series' humor are easy for anyone to relate to (such as the shallowness of the media in building up future stars) a lot of the elements being parodied are based on other rather old shows or just somewhat obscure material. Newer fans of anime or those with only minimal knowledge of many aspects of Japanese culture may find some of the humor more baffling than amusing.

On the technical side, this is not a particularly stunning title. Even adjusting for the age of the show, the animation is particularly average and at times substandard. The character designs are unusually simplistic as well. The music doesn't really stand out at all and Maron's main idol theme is fairly forgettable.

Ask Dr. Rin!

2007-09-04T12:37:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

Blessed with supernatural feng shui powers at the age of three, junior high school student Kanzaki Meirin is considered more superstitious than your average student--she insists on carrying a "lucky item" wherever she goes depending upon what her horoscope says for the day, and imposes her views on all of her classmates. This gets a little annoying for some, especially her long time crush (who she claims to be her "fated lover") Yuuki Asuka, who loudly protests any sentiments of fate or fortunetelling.

Little does anyone know that Meirin is actually "Dr. Rin," the famous feng shui master who maintains one of the most popular websites to date! Several of Meirin's classmates praise Dr. Rin for her practical advice, giving them success in their otherwise unlucky love lives. So why is it that Meirin's--or Dr. Rin's--advice works so well for everyone around her, but nothing seems to go well in her life?

Things get even more difficult for Meirin as a mysterious stalker begins sending Dr. Rin threatening e-mails, claiming to be her true "fated lover". She must follow his commands in order to prevent disaster from befalling Asuka and all of her friends!

Review

Yay! Another magical girl show that gets it right! After plugging through some pretty bad stinkers of magical girl shows (Wedding Peach, Pretty Cure, et al), it is so nice to watch a modern-day magical girl show that doesn't fall into all of the normal cliches, and the ones it does use, they use correctly.

Where to begin? Starting with the animation, it is a television show, so I am not expecting miracles. There is a fair amount of CG animation, even at the title screen of the opening. It doesn't blend in as well as it could have, but the offense is minor in comparison to some of the other titles that have done the same. The colors and character designs are bright and cute, but nothing really inspiring. Outside of Meirin (who, looks-wise, looks like a mix between Usagi and Miaka--but only in looks, I swear!) the character designs are fairly uninspiring, Asuka looking like a mix between Aoyama from Tokyo Mewmew and Kyosuke from Wedding Peach. At least his voice and character is more interesting, but we'll go into that later. Overall, it looks a lot like the character designs were done by the same people who did Akazukin Chacha, so I can't complain there, since I am a fan of nearly all anime of that "vintage".

The characterization of the cast, though, is one that has me currently hooked on this series (a pity, too, the releases are ridiculously slow). Meirin is silly, yes, but not in a whiny crybaby way. She is ditzy, and definitely determined that Asuka is "the one". The best thing about her though is her enthusiasm for her hobby, feng shui. You can't help but take part in the fun. My only complaint is that she is still a little dense (but aren't all shoujo heroines at some point?), not figuring out that her stalker is--ta-DAH!--the new transfer student (ah, the cliches...) Tokiwa-kun. Her friends are equally engaging--definitely not the space-fillers that some other supporting cast members fall into being. Yue-chan is the cool, popular one (who teases that she is really Meirin's "fated one") and Shuuko is the boy-crazy (or maybe boy-band crazy?) awkward girl who really relies on Dr. Rin's fortunes. According to the theme song, there should be at least two other key characters yet to be introduced, but seeing as I have only been able to review what has been released on fansub, we will all have to wait and see how they play into the overall story.

As mentioned before, while there are several cliches you can name within the first few episodes, they are all executed well so as not to be offending to the viewer. For example, the cute mascot in this series is Tenshin, a mischevious pet monkey that never really takes up so much screen time to be annoying, but appears just enough to scatter some cuteness all around. There is a bit of stock animation for whenever Meirin reads feng shui fortunes, and the music does sound rather Sailor Moon-ish. (I only wish they had similar music for later on, a lot of the BGM sounds a lot like it could be my cell phone ringer.) Another cliche is of course the villainous love triangle between Meirin, Asuka, and Tokiwa that is established very early on in the series. But is there an ulterior motive behind Tokiwa's interest...?

Dr. Rin really has what it takes to be a five-star series, especially if the rumors are true and it develops a deeper storyline further into the season. However, there is one thing that really took away from the experience for me, and that was the music. The opening theme song lacks the energy that I have come to expect from opening theme songs, and the ending theme (both sung by Maeda Ai of Digimon fame) is unforgivingly forgettable. Add that to MIDI-sounding BGM (with the exception of the feng shui sequence in every episode), and you have got what probably makes one of the lowest-budget sounding soundtracks to ever grace my eardrums. A pity really, everything else was going so well ...

The offense is enough of one for me to overlook though, and I still give this title high marks. For those of you looking for another cute anime that doesn't make your head hurt (or doesn't make you cringe at the cardboard cut-out characters ... Da Capo, here's looking at you!), Dr. Rin is a fine choice from what seems to be a shrinking selection of good girls' anime. I can only hope that more will be made available in the near future.

Asatte no Houkou

2007-09-04T12:36:00.002-07:00

Synopsis

Twelve-year old Iokawa Karada hates being treated like a child and wants to grow up so she can take care of her older brother, Hiro. One day, while out with her brother, she tries on some ribbons in her hair. She is told by a green-haired woman (Shoko) that she looks childish, much to Karada’s discontent. Things don’t get any better when Hiro, Karada, and Shoko are at the beach with Tetsu. Now night time, Karada runs away from everyone and winds up at a shrine. She starts praying at the shrine, wishing to become an adult soon, when Shoko shows up and joins her in the prayer. Suddenly, under the moonlight, the two switch ages: Karada is now an adult, and Shoko a child.

It’s going to be one long summer break for the two of them.

Review

Asatte no Houkou initially had me worried with its age changing premise: not because I don’t like age swapping in animation, but because I feared that it would be used simply for the sake of comedic hijinx. Fortunately, it’s not the case here. If anything, it reminded me of the more serious parts of Big more so than Freaky Friday. That’s not to say the show isn’t humorous: there’s still humor in this series (the younger Shoko is quite sarcastic and funny at times, not unlike Ruri from Martian Successor Nadiesco), and there are the obligatory moments where Karada has to get used to having an adult body. But really, it’s the story and characters (not the humor) that makes this series great.

Anyway, back to the story. It’s a very powerful one about growing up, and how scary it can be to have your wish come true. Who wouldn’t be worried and upset if they were in the same shoes as Karada? I know I would break down and cry if something like that happened to me. I, too, would be too afraid to speak to anyone about something this odd (and I wouldn’t be surprised if no one stomached the cause of the reversed ages in the first place). It’s a wonderful story about family, togetherness, acceptance, and learning to move on. It’s a feel-good story with an ongoing plot (as opposed to series like Aria, which are mostly standalone episodes).

The characters are also all very real. Karada is not just simply a doting younger sister like the Sister Princess girls: she has real concerns for her older brother, and feels that she may be a burden to his happiness at times. Contrary to his bland character design, Hiro is not simply a male character there to initiate the plot in the series: he has his own concerns and worries about the future and of Karada. Shoko, despite her initial appearance, is not a cold, unlikable woman who you wish would go away or chill out, but a believable, sympathetic character. I had as much concern about what would happen to Shoko as I did for Karada throughout the series' run, and kudos to the writers for not glorifying one’s situation and shafting the other. Tetsu is kind of whiny at times, but then again, so was I when I was 12. So are most kids, for that manner. I’m glad he wasn’t simply pigeon-holed into a rough-and-tough delinquent role like so many other series do to males his age.

However, there are some bumps along this anime's path. My biggest complaint with the anime is one I have with other series like Maison Ikkoku and Love Hina: thriving on misinterpretation as a plot device. To me, this is the kind of thing writers do when they can’t think of a way to continue a story. They simply stall for time by throwing in something that simply makes the story longer without adding anything significant to it. I suppose it builds up suspense for further events (and boy are they doozies), but it gets a little annoying at times, considering some things aren’t wrapped up until the final episode.

Another problem I had was with the character of Kotomi, the slightly older girl that hung around with Tetsu. I know it’s common to add a new character in when you turn a manga into an anime: I found the addition of Meilin Li in the CardCaptor Sakura anime to be one of the things that made the anime more enjoyable (as well as added character for Shaoran). But in Asatte no Houkou, I found it very hard for me to care about Kotomi. Sure, we find out she’s very important in the final episode, but anyone who’s watched all 12 episodes could surely think of a much better way to end that series than with what she brings. If she were at least an interesting character this would be okay, but compared to the central three (Hiro, Kana, and Shoko) and Tetsu, she feels completely out of place in the series. Speaking of Tetsu, I don’t care much for his older sister, who, like all older sister archetypes in anime, is a violent, sarcastic bitch. The anime is infinitely more entertaining when she and Kotomi aren’t on the screen.

One thing I rather enjoyed in Asatte no Houkou was the art. In this day of digital animation making anything glow like a fluorescent light show, this series has a style of digital coloring that resembles more along the lines of 90’s anime, but in a good way. The almost watercolor look to the scenery is wonderful and works very well for a series with such a peaceful setting. The character designs are clean and very nice, and unlike some anime out there, the characters look like they fit in with the backgrounds. And there’s no blatantly obvious CG or anything of the type around.

In fact, the only thing bad I have to say art-wise is that the character designs make certain characters look way younger or older than they really are. Honestly, I didn’t believe that Karada was 12 until the show told me she was. She barely looks 8, much less a girl around junior high school age. Amino, a boy in her class, supposedly is also 12, but looks old enough to be in high school. Hiro is around 27, but looks older than that (to me, at least). It’s not a big deal: the show is relatively clean of fan service of any kind, but I still found even after the final episode a bit difficult to believe Karada’s real age.

The music is pretty laid back compared to the typical anime soundtrack: even the opening and ending themes are peaceful, sounding more like something off of the radio than in an anime. The background music is good, but none that I remember all too well upon watching and re-watching. The voice acting is well done, which is essential for a show of this kind: hokey kids actors wouldn’t do for something that can get really dramatic or sad at times.

The Art of Fighting

2007-09-04T12:36:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

Sometimes it just isn't your day.

Take Ryo and Robert, two average, run-of-the-mill karate experts. Ryo and Robert didn't mean to witness a mob murder concerning the Sirius Diamond -- they were just trying to retrieve a runaway cat for Ryo's cat-sitting job. But witness it they did, and after a heated battle and escape, Ryo and Robert figured they had seen the last of Mr. Big's (yes, that's his name) thugs.

Of course, Mr. Big had other plans, thinking that Ryo and Robert were in possession of the priceless Sirius. Mr. Big kidnaps Ryo's sister, offering her in exchange for the diamond. Are Ryo and Robert going to take this lying down? Does a dubbed martial artist's lips ever match his dialogue?

Review

Art of Fighting is a truly amazing piece of Japanese Animation. We could not believe our eyes and ears when we viewed this title. Such an utter lack of anything resembling quality, we had thought, existed only in the theoretical world. However, Art of Fighting will make even the most ardent skeptic believe. There is absolutely nothing to redeem this title. Art, animation, scripting, plot -- you name it -- it wasn't there.

Let's start from the bottom and work our way up (if there is one). The technical aspects of this title were _worse_ than anything you could find on Saturday morning. Choppy animation, illogical perspectives, uninspired art, badly choreographed fight scenes, and most of all HORRIBLE voice acting pervaded the entire 46 minutes of this turkey. If there was anything that could be done wrong, Art of Fighting did it. The action was laughable -- I've seen more sophisticated martial arts watching 3rd graders imitate Power Rangers. If you've rented this thing (and I hope to goodness that you _rented_ this thing) in hopes of some eye-popping martial arts action, you're going to be in for a heck of a disappointment.

Incomprehensibly, the technical depravity of this title is only the tip of the iceberg. All of this title's technical shortcomings are dwarfed by the title's pitiful excuse for a script and story. The plot is about as original as sliced bread, peppered throughout with lines that threaten to suck your intelligence away just by listening to them. The viewer's sense of credibility will be mercilessly insulted throughout the show, from thugs who won't shoot a guy who's charging at them from a mile away to the amazing helicopter that can explode not once, not twice, but four times while sitting in a swimming pool. If you've rented this thing in hopes of an interesting story with some surprising developments, you're going to be in for a heck of a disappointment.

However, I would be dishonest if I said that I didn't enjoy watching Art of Fighting one bit. The truth is, we all had a great time seeing this bomb, but only because we were able to completely trash it the whole time. Go ahead and rent it, but only to make fun of it in a group setting. If you rent it in hopes of seeing something even kind of good, though, you're going to be in for a heck of a disappointment.

Armored Trooper Votoms

2007-09-04T12:35:00.002-07:00

Synopsis

For centuries the galaxy has been plagued by the huge war between the Gilgamesh and Balarant governments. Now after an uneasy peace has settled on the galaxy, armored trooper special forces pilot Chirico Cuvie is recruited for a secretive mission. During the mission, he realizes that his unit seems to be attacking troops from his own government and after seeing something he was not meant to see, he finds himself on the run from his own government and in the center of a conspiracy that might shake the galaxy to its very core.

Review

Clocking in at fifty-two episodes and divided into four distinct arcs covering Chirico's adventures on (or near) four different planets, this show is about twice as long as the average anime show that comes out today. Though I would like to say it makes good use of that length, it really doesn't. I have a feeling Armored Trooper Votoms would have been better overall if it was about half its current length.

The principle draw of this show, the conspiracy that Chirico encounters in the first episode, is what kept me primarily engaged. There are a number of factions and a number of manipulations that don't become readily apparent until the very end of the series. In general, I felt they did a good job of dropping just enough hints as to keep the plot progressing logically forward without raising too much frustrating questions. However, almost every forward movement of plot in this show is punctuated by a large series of Armored Trooper (AT) battles.

You get to see these mecha battling in cities, deserts, rivers, jungles, space, caverns, and a number of other environments. I think this show provided some of the most varied battle grounds for mecha that I've seen, but ultimately I think a lot of this was a bit excessive. I'm certainly not anti-action and like seeing mecha blowing each other away as much as the next guy, but it honestly seems like they could not go a single episode without having at least one battle of some sort. After a while it gets a bit redundant, and I found myself wishing they would minimize these mecha battles so the actually interesting plot could move forward.

I will give the creators credit though, for their attention to detail. As I had so many opportunities to see various mecha, starships, and star fighters blown to bits, I had time to appreciate the diversity of designs present in the show. Various factions employ a variety of different types of Armored Troopers for different environments. It was such attention to technical design detail that helped offset some of my impatience with the excessive number of battles that were occurring.

You would think that having the main character being a tight-lipped mecha pilot loner might work against attempts at doing decent character work. They were rather smart though and decided to work somewhat around this by giving Chirico plenty of voice over parts, so we could gain more insight into his thought processes. Even without this, we do see a slow and steady change in him and he ends up seeing a bit more three-dimensional. He is a man who wants honestly just wants peace and to be left alone but has known nothing but battle and at times is troubled by some of his past actions. As the result of his unusual encounter in the first episode, he has his previously empty life changed. I cannot discuss it in detail without spoiling the plot development, but it is an interesting change of focus.

There are a number of secondary characters, though most of them don't get nearly the development Chirico does. It was interesting, though, to see various characters slowly grow closer together and I was also pleased to see that many of the main antagonists were much more than they appeared at first. The primary female character of the show is a bit flat in terms of development. It is fitting her background but considering that Chirico got to grow a bit, I was honestly expecting more from her as well.

This title is over twenty years old and I can't say that it doesn't show that age. The character design and color work is very definitively early 80s and the synth heavy soundtrack is average at best. It doesn't help that they really only seem to have like six tracks to for the entire 52 episode run. I can stand a bit of reptition from say Yoko Kanno or Yuki Kajiura, but this music got pretty old fast. The animation itself is an interesting case. While it obviously doesn't
stand up to the action shows of today, it actually is still fairly decent and in terms of quality a notch or two above most television animation of that period.

I will admit there are certain elements of this that seem a bit cliched in points, but that is only taking into account that huge volume of anime (and science fiction) titles in general that I've seen in my life. If I were seeing Votoms when it originally came out, it probably would seem considerably more original. Even with all that though, I still found the plot interesting. I'll also give them credit as certain elements that I thought were just plot holes or contrivances at first were actually explained and important aspects of the plot later on. I felt they could have tightened the writing a bit so it didn't just seem like they were overlooking things though. The final arc was particularly interesting and brought together all the loose ends for an ending I didn't really suspect when I first started watching this show. I suppose that my inability to easily predict where the conspiracy would end up is perhaps one of the best praises one can give to a show of this type.

Overall, Votoms was an interesting title that did get more interesting as I delved deeper into it. It is a title for the patient though for the reasons I outlined above. Interestingly enough, director/creator Takahashi Ryousuke apparently did not learn his lessons from producing this show, as 16 years later, he would produce Gasaraki. Surprisingly similar in many ways to this title, it also suffers the same problem as Votoms, in that it has an intriguing plot stretched a bit thin over just a bit too long of a run time.

Armitage III: Polymatrix

2007-09-04T12:35:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

Armitage III: Polymatrix is a movie condensed from the Armitage III OAV series and released domestically in the US for fairly mainstream audiences, featuring the voices of Kiefer Sutherland as Ross Sylibus and Elizabeth Berkley as Naomi Armitage. Ross Sylibus is a police officer who transfers to far-future Mars to begin a new life, leaving the memories of Earth behind him. His cybernetic limbs belie his fear that he is losing his humanity, becoming one of the robots he despises. Naomi Armitage is his brash, sexy, and deadly partner who has a secret of her own - she is a Third, an android so lifelike, physically and emotionally, that very few suspect she isn't even human. But Thirds are now being hunted down by the mysterious and brutal Rene d'Anclaude...and Ross and Naomi must reconcile their differences to solve the crimes...and just survive, when they stumble unto a plot far more sinister than they could have imagined.

Review

Armitage III, at first glance, looks like yet another sci-fi actioner, without too much meat to it. But to my surprise, I was quite entertained by this movie, even if it suffers from the typical OAV-to-movie syndrome, in which there's not -quite- enough plot and character development to excel.

The dub, given the checkered history of the leads in live action, is rather decent. In fact, Berkley as Armitage actually gives a stronger performance than Kiefer Sutherland's rather tired-sounding, if acceptable, Sylibus. The action is well done, with crisp animation and cool mecha and weapons. (These two pack serious artillery near the end.) And though the story isn't really that realistic, the concept of an android with the ability to fall in love and reproduce is an interesting one indeed. (And unlike other Elizabeth Berkley roles *ahem* sex is treated off-screen and discreetly.)

The music soundtrack, by and large, is quite excellent except for the final climactic battle between the two renegade cops and the forces that would annihilate the Thirds...the battle is quite impressive, but the music during that scene is simply too ethereal to work.

Still, it's not really quite as good as having a four-tape long OAV series, but it's a worthy watch, even if we've seen some of this material before in Ghost in the Shell, Akira, etc. etc. (especially with the Blade Runner influences). If anything, Armitage III is a better-than-average actioner with enough meat and suspense to it to be generally entertaining, and some of the scenes are masterful works of animation. However, despite the novelty of the big-name American voice actors, I'd watch the four-tape OAV series instead, given the chance. But if you don't have the OAVs available, rent this. It's a lot of fun.

Arjuna

2007-09-04T12:34:00.004-07:00

Synopsis

Juna is a normal sixteen-year-old girl, coping with everyday problems, like studies and trying to excel in her archery club. Pollution is not a priority on her problems-to-solve list. Fate chooses to deal her a different hand when she dies in an accident. She's offered a second chance at life by a mysterious character, Chris, in turn for taking up the job as the new Avatar of Time. Bestowed with magical powers, she has to help a secret organization known as SEED to fight against the Rahja that threatens the planet. Juna will begin on a journey of self-discovery and learn about the plight of the planet. Will she be able to save the Earth in time?

Review

Truth be told, being a big Sakamoto Maaya fan, I got wind of the music first. I knew that Kanno Yoko was on board and decided that I absolutely had to see this anime.

First warning: This anime is very pro-environmentalism. You can only go two ways with it; you are going to hate it or you are going to love it. There is no in-between.

Second warning: This is a magical girl anime. Make no mistake about it. I mean, where else can you find a being with a luminous pink body, flaming hair and a blob of blue flame floating in front of her forehead?

But deep in its core, Arjuna is really a love story, where the heroine has to come to terms about her new responsibilities and her other half has to support or ditch her. It is a very realistic anime that deals with problems close to our hearts. It is also an anime that is very easy to get into. You relate instantly to Juna and her environment, her struggles, her feelings, her dilemma. True, she has enormous powers but at the end of the day, she is but one individual and there's only so much she can do.

And the Rahja are the result of our pollution. Is it right to destroy them? You feel as if you are learning right along beside her. I like the way the show actually implies that we are conformists and that as we break away from the norms (as Juna did), we will be increasingly view as freaks, as outcasts. While depressing issues are dealt with, the anime itself takes on a hopeful message. Like the opened Pandora's box, Hope lies at the bottom.

There are no fancy magical wands and (God forbid!) make-up lockets that follow Juna's transformation. In fact, there are only two detailed transformation sequences. The rest of it are dependent on the mood the particular episode follows. Each of the scenes is unique and even the colors she assumes have a deeper meaning.

The only gripe I have with this anime is that they never get around to explaining the origin of the Avatar of Time. Although the ending is quite satisfying as befits such anime, it is still very open-ended. And all the time, there's the not-so-subtle Hindu reference going on (Arjuna, Ashura, Gandiva bow). Must be the cool factor!

While the anime itself preaches moderation, the graphics department of this anime is anything but moderate. The scenes are so detailed and realistic that at certain points of time, I wonder whether I'm looking at animation or live action footage. Fans of eye candy will not be disappointed. CG is used often to portray the Rahja giving them a surreal and menacing feel. The quality remains consistent.

From the music department, you can expect nothing but the best from Kanno. New age, tense melodies mark battle sequences, which are fast and furious. Beautiful melodies convey the mood of the series. And with Maaya performing some of the vocal tracks, nothing can go wrong! Oh, and make sure you stay when the end credits role after each episodes since each sequence is unique and the ending themes will sometimes change. In fact, I counted at least five different ending themes!

And… are you still reading this? Get off your chair and buy/beg/borrow Arjuna immediately! While you are at it, might as well grab the two excellent OSTs.

Arion

2007-09-04T12:34:00.003-07:00

Synopsis

Based loosely on Greek mythology, this is the story of a youth, Arion, who gets entangled in the machinations of the pantheon of Mount Olympus as the world he knows is caught in the throes a cataclysmic war. He falls in love with a maiden, Lesphina, and to save her from the wrath of the gods, he must challenge everything he knows.

Review

With beautiful art and intriguing characters, Arion is a literally classical tale that puts an anime spin on a genre that many Westerners are quite familiar with. While the Greek mythology portrayed isn't exact, it is used as the basis of a powerful fantasy epic that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Unlike Yoshikazu's rather messy sci-fi opus Venus Wars (which is available Stateside), Arion has a very coherent, if sprawling storytelling style, taking us from Arion's kidnapping by Hades to be trained as a super-warrior, through the nasty civil wars between Poseidon and the children of Zeus, up through the end. Arion is epic in every way, with magical battles, fearsome monsters, and gargantuan armies, but it never loses sight of its core themes of love and war. You really get a feel of the dissipation of the Titans, and unlike what we think of the Greek gods, the Titans are powerful, but mortal, and just like their mythological counterparts, extremely morally flawed. Arion himself is the eternal underdog, and his background isn't as straightforward as you would think, but it's fairly easy to root for him, even when he is confused and railing at the world. The movie is a classic hero's journey of finding self-identity and worth in the face of relentless and deadly opposition - and it's telling that some of the enemies Arion must face eventually become his most powerful allies.

The animation and art are twenty years old, but still quite effective and skilled, with plenty of exciting action sequences and appealing designs. While it's tempting to wonder what this would look like remade with modern animation techniques, it's almost best to just leave that aside and enjoy it for the classic it is.

With music by Joe Hisaishi (famed for his work in many Studio Ghibli films, from Castle in the Sky to Spirited Away), it's hard to see where this movie can go wrong aurally. Honestly, the only real misstep is the ending, a mid-80s J-pop ballad that seems out of place with the film, but admittedly, probably fits perfectly with the tastes of mid-80s Japanese movie audiences. Everything else is excellent and appropriate for the tone of the film.

Arion is a real treat, and it's a shame that it's been passed up by so many for so long. It just makes no sense that a ripoff like the cult-derived and patently ridiculous Hermes: Winds of Love gets North American release while this languishes in relative obscurity. I'm glad I finally got to finish this review after so long -- exciting, stirring fantasy epics are hard to find, and if you enjoy Greek mythology and fantasy in general, Arion is an absolute must-see.

Ariel

2007-09-04T12:34:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

The Earth is being invaded (again)! The alien forces bent on conquering Earth, possess frightening, destructive bioweapons (wake me up when the alien invaders possess non-confrontational, fuzzy animals), and keep careful record of their accounting expenses. Fortunately, the genius Dr. Kishida has built ARIEL, the ultimate in ferocious feminine fighting fury. Unfortunately, the pilots he has chosen are his granddaughters -- and are unwilling to pilot the giant mecha. Kazumi would rather be a normal, tennis-playing high schooler. Aya would rather be studying for her college entrance exams. And Miya is still ticked off at her grandfather for always interfering in her personal life. Is Earth doomed? Do I care?

Review

The biggest problem with ARIEL, I think, is that it really has no freaking clue what it's trying to do. Is it trying to be a mecha drama? A war epic? Comedy? Good? Only the producers know, and they're apparently not telling, not if ARIEL is any indication of their intentions.

Everything about this title is sub-par. The average, yawn-inducing animation is nothing to write home about, or to even mention to your roommate over breakfast. The simplistic art features some of the worst mecha designs this side of MAPS. The enemy machines have a campy Godzilla feel to them (I kept expecting Ultraman to show up), and ARIEL itself does little more than elicit giggles from the viewer (suited-up it looks like a transvestite Valkyrie, unarmored it looks like a 50-foot tall Barbie doll, complete with facial expressions and brushable hair). All the while, the viewer gets subjected to a bad 70's soundtrack sure to get on your nerves after the first couple of repetitions (and there's plenty more where that came from).

I wish I could say that the plot helps save the title from its inferior technical base, but it doesn't. The title initially introduces a slew of different characters, both good and bad, and then tries to develop every single one of them as if they were each the main character. As a result, no one really gets developed satisfactorily at all, and the story ends up resembling a badly run round-robin writing exercise than a coherent story. There is no sense of completion at the end, only a vague disquiet in the viewer's intestines.

There are worse anime titles out there than ARIEL, but that's like saying that there are worse things than losing a finger in a wood shop accident. Let the buyer (or renter, hopefully) beware.

Aria the Natural

2007-09-04T12:33:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

Life continues for Akari Mizunashi and her friends and mentors on planet Aqua, with new meetings and discoveries happening fairly frequently as Akari notices new aspects of Neo Venezia.

Review

The second season of Aria was planned and created so fast, I hardly had the time to finish the first season and start looking forward to the second before I had the episode at hand, ready for viewing. And while I'm certainly not complaining -- rather the opposite, in fact -- it still strikes me as a bit odd. It will, however, make the review harder to write for me without possibly repeating myself. Given the rather... seamless jump to the second season, I ask you to bear with me here.

In fact, like I mentioned in the first review, Aria made one heck of an impression on me when I first read the manga. An impression which only deepened later as I got a hold of the first season and got to know the characters a lot better.

The show itself -- through the voice of Akari -- practically welcomes the viewers back, again setting the mood of the show rather handily. Granted, all the episodes features Akari doing a little monologue, mostly reading out loud from her correspondance with Ai, the little girl she met in the very first episode of the very first season.

"If it's not broke, don't fix it" seems to be a fairly suitable idiom for this show. In a sense, it's not really offering anything but more episodes with the girls discovering new sides to themselves or their friends and surroundings, draped with the same kind of lightheartedness and cheer that made the first season a generous helping of delight. Each episode has something new to offer because each episode features a new day. (Or several days in some cases.) Days must pass quickly too, because where the first season went from summer to winter, the second season has gone back to summer, marking the full turn of the year on planet Aqua.

The budget seems to have gotten a bit of a stretch. Sadly, the artwork isn't necessarily Aria's strong suit. Art and animation is mostly decent, even good at times. Seeing as the show itself is paced rather sedately, it doesn't really NEED fantastic animation, though it could certainly have been a bit better.

Aurally, on the other hand, Aria is just fantastic. If or when (and I'm certainly hoping for a "when") this show is liscensed, the dubbing team will be faced with one heck of a challenge in reproducing the utterly pleasant voice acting in this show. Adding to that is the welcome return of Choro Club, who once again provides the soundtrack to Aria the Natural. While some of the tracks from the first season are reused in the second, there is still enough new compositions for a new CD soundtrack, which is another must-have in itself.

Ultimately, though, your enjoyment of this show will -- much as with the first season -- depend on how you feel about the characters, as they are the main focus of the show. Akari is.... well, still being Akari; cheerful and optimistic to a fault, eagerly taking in everything her enviroment has to offer. Aika is also pretty much herself, though in the course of the show, she seems to have gotten at odds with Akatsuki, at least if the namecalling sessions that always seem to start every time they're within hearing range of each other. On another note; the anime never really went with the manga story arch where the girls (sans Alice) met up with Al the gnome. And while Aika didn't seem to harbor anything but a budding friendship with him at that point, the anime seems to indicate something.... more. A little disturbing, perhaps, seeing as Al looks like a twelve year old despite his actual age of 19. (He's a gnome, see? He won't be getting any taller than that.) Or rather, it might have been disturbing had Aria not been a totally clean show.

Speaking of Al, the show finally gives us an introduction of the character. Al is, in fact, a sensible character. And much to Aika's consternation, his personality tends to waver between somewhat childish and... well, the attitude and mannerisms of an "old guy", as Aika puts it. Come to think of it, I'm a bit curious about how the gnomes came into being, seeing as Aria is a portrayal of Earth's (potential) future. Of course, even the CATS have their own hidden dimension in this anime, but hey.....

Much like in the first season, our last trainee, Alice, does occationally get her own episode. Being the youngest of the undines -- of ALL of the undines, even -- her episodes usually touches on the topics of her fights against loneliness and her relationship with the other undines in Orange Planet, but most importantly against herself. It's within these episodes that Aria tends to drop to rather melancholy levels, which only serves to make the resolutions all the sweeter when they happen, mostly through the help of Akari and Aika, but also Athena.

Contentwise, Aria the Natural is speaking to the same exact audience as the first season. Naturally, hardened cynics and pessimists are going to wonder what all the fuss is about. Being neither deep or shallow, it might also disinterest people who like to ponder the deeper meanings of life and the universe as well as come across as somewhat slow for those with shorter attention spans. And, naturally, people expecting a show about young girls to feature bucketloads of fanservice will walk away disappointed.

To put it this way; Aria isn't the sexiest show around, and neither is it the most energetic and crazy. But there's a friendly openness to it that begs to be experienced. Despite the seemingly simple framework and the limited audience to which it speaks, what it does, it does with no reservations or misgivings whatsoever. Such an effort deserves to be recognized. And so I shall, with all the stars at my disposal.

Aria the Animation

2007-09-04T12:29:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

In the near future, Mars has been terraformed into a paradise, where the city of Neo-Venezia rests. Though due to a bit of an accident, around 90% of the planet now consists of a watery surface.

It is here that we find Akari Mizunashi, an Undine single. Travelling by gondola through the watery streets of Neo-Venezia, she and her two close friends -- Aika and Alice -- are following their dream to be great primas some day.

Review

Aria is, for me, a show I've been wanting to see for a long (well, ok, not THAT long) time, ever since I finally gave in to curiosity and bought the manga. The manga didn't quite manage to ignite any sparks when I browsed through it quickly in stores. It was only later, as I put my faith in it and purchased the three current volumes released by ADV's manga lineup, that I pretty much fell in love with what it offered.

Aria IS a bit of a hard sell. Girls rowing gondolas in what appears to be a replica of Venice, right down to the name? Doesn't sound like anything quite worth your time, does it? It might take a little bit of effort to get into the show, but as the show will eventually show you, a little bit of effort can go a long way.

To get the complaints about this show out of the way as soon as possible, I'd like to talk about the visuals for a while. Because as far as failings go, this is where Aria falters a little. You see, Aria has chosen to blend cel animation with rather obvious CG, namely the oceans and waterbeds of Neo-Venezia. At the beginning, they don't really blend all that well, which often lends to spartan backgrounds with some coarse waterlines.

Also, animation tend to suffer occasionally in the mid-to-late episodes. (Well, the later ones of the ten I've seen so far, that is.) On the other hand, I really like Aria's character designs. (Though, admittedly, I do wish there would be less use of pastel colors, but I'll live.) Oddly enough, the jucidious use of SD modes never really gets old or out of hand.

The music, on the other hand, is excellent. Aria has chosen a rather interesting way of integrating the intro theme as a manner of introducing each episode's particular theme, which makes each and every intro unique for the show and saves you the trouble of having to skip the intro theme each time you watch an episode. That the intro theme is a very pleasant song is just a very pleasant bonus. And in the show itself, we are treated to various instrumental pieces of great quality, mostly soft jazz, but with the occational piano piece and even some Italian folk music-like ditties. Much like the way I love Haibane Renmei's music, Aria's music has also found its way into my heart, not to mention my CD collection.

What's more, the Japanese actors really do a good job on this show, in particular the VAs for Akari and Akira. Akira's stern and strong voice carries all the warmth of the character she carries underneath the tough exterior without losing any of her personality no matter what mood she's in. And Akari's actually managing to play a somewhat ditzy character without it becoming majorly annoying, which is a pretty hard task to succeed in. Her perpetually cheerful personality is a lot like Honda Tohru's, and it's just all I can do to keep the grin off my face every time she goes "EEEEEEEH?"

The show itself is mainly character driven, as we're taken through various days in the lives of Akari and her friends and mentors. As such, the show tends to be rather episodic, the passing of time only shown through the changing of seasons. As of yet, there has been no double episodes with cliffhanger endings (though the heaven knows the previews make me hunger for the following episode.) Aria IS mainly very lighthearted stuff, though calling it contentless is most certainly highly inaccurate. Sentimental at times? Sure. Moralistic? Not really. Sweet? Oh, definitely. Fast paced? I'd have to say...... no.

In fact, the first five minutes of the first episode pretty much sets the mood of the entire show right then and there. Akari wakes up in the Aria company building, full of wonder over her new home and all the sights and sounds there. As the episode continues, she meets up with Ai, a rather desolute and quiet girl who is lying in Akari's training gondola demanding a ride. The curious and relentlessly optimistic Akari, after giving in to her demands, gives it her best to try and cheer the somber girl up. Things go rather bad at first, but after meeting up with Aika and going on a few unplanned side trips, things seems to turn for the better. A baked potato in the park and a frantic row after the self inflicted castaway of President Aria (who's a cat, just so you know) where they nearly get run over by an incoming spacecraft landing in the sea (I guess Aria DOES have some action scenes after all), she finally comes to love the town and its inconvenient, old-fashioned ways.

The show, unlike the manga, doesn't waste any time introducing the main cast. Aside from the optimistic-to-a-fault Akari and the slightly cynical Aika, who tends to make a habit of telling Akari that "tacky/embarrassing lines are prohibited", we also have another quiet and, at the beginning, out of touch with herself girl in Alice, who despite professing amazing rowing skills is still a trainee wearing two gloves. The three girls also have each their respective teachers (sempai) in each of the three members of the "three water fairies", Alicia, Akira and Athena. (Does everyone here have names starting with an 'A'?) Rounding off the main cast is the somewhat eccentric Akatsuki, who works as a Salamander -- a weather station overseer and controller of sorts, working on a special space station going in orbit around the planet Aqua, formerly known as Mars.

I could probably ramble on forever about this show, but I've probably made my point by now. I'll have to admit that Aria is a show made for a certain audience. Hardened cynics will probably hate it for what it is, while the restless ones out there might find it a bit slow and boring for their tastes. And those who like to give their minds something heavy to chew on might want to look elsewhere as well. Aria is a show about life, about friends, about everyday situations and challenges and about all the small things we sometimes take for granted. And for that, I love this show. Just so you're warned, I'm going to put my personal bias into my rating of this show, and if you belong to any of the groups mentioned above, deduct the amount of stars that you feel is right.

Argento Soma

2007-09-04T12:28:00.002-07:00

Synopsis

In the mid-21st century, mysterious alien invaders appeared without warning throwing the world into chaos. Though a brutal and short war against the first wave of invaders stopped their initial progress, aliens continue to appear and threaten the Earth. Every alien seems to have the same goal: converging on the mysterious so-called "Pilgrimage Point" in the Western part of North America.

In a strange twist of events, the anti-alien UN task force codenamed FUNERAL finds itself with a new weapon: a reanimated alien patchwork that can seemingly be controlled by a young girl. However, a new FUNERAL pilot, Soma Ryu, is secretly dedicated to destroying this "Extra One" as he blames it for the death of his beloved girlfriend. For Soma Ryu is actually Kaneshiro Takuto, one of the scientists who helped bring the Extra One or "Frank" to life.

Review

It would be easy, after watching the first few episodes of Argento Soma, to dismiss this show. Oddly angular and slightly strange character designs, sudden tone and style shifts, and the abrupt introduction of many characters and plot lines make the introductory volume of this show a bit underwhelming. It doesn't help that certain elements of the show make it easy for a Westerner to mock such as persistent spelling errors (weapons in this show aren't "locked on": they are "rocked on") or some obvious ignorance of North American geography causing the occasional continuity error (Pilgrimage Point seems to slightly move a few times on the map from what I saw).

Despite all those flaws though, I found something intriguing in Argento Soma and decided to give it a chance. After all, the opening episodes, while not stunningly good, were not wretchedly bad either. They were dangling just enough interesting plot threads to convince me that there would be something interesting if I kept with it. In the final analysis, I$BCN(B glad I did. Argento Soma has turned out to be a pleasant surprise.

Although the initial entry of various plot lines was, as I indicated above, a bit muddled, the flow of events becomes smoother as the show progresses. Though the first half of the show often seems to center around blowing away an alien of the day, they don't neglect development of other threads particularly subtly probing some of the mystery of the aliens, Pilgrimage Point, and also of "Soma Ryu" plus his benefactor the mysterious Shakespeare quoting, Mr. X, a man who may be real or may be simply an imaginary figment of a broken and revenge filled mind. I must give them special credit for maintaining the ambiguity around Mr. X up until the closing episodes of the series. There is plenty of evidence for both cases presented.

This show has an unusual attention to detail (well excluding English spelling I suppose) in regards to a lot of their setting. They weren't content to simply have the FUNERAL team but instead demonstrate a realistic and multi-tier defensive structure for repelling the aliens. Several aspects of the reality of a global defensive war were explored including often neglected elements such as the political and governmental maneuvering that influence such an effort.

The real strength of this show, though, is more its psychological focus than the overall plot. Both Ryu and the young girl, Harriet (nicknamed Hattie), have suffered emotionally scarring losses because of the aliens. While Ryu has attempted to do with this through focused vengeance and hate, the young girl has withdrawn into a fantasy of her own creation where a giant alien robot amalgamation is a "fairy" from the "land of the fairies." The interplay between Ryu and Harriet was well done as both are obviously quite damaged but at the same time the key to regaining the complete sanity that both have loss as a result of their trauma. Ryu, in particular, struggles between the new callous persona he has adopted for his vengeance and his previous personality. Though we only see one episode of him as "Takuto" initially, the show does a good job of showing us what he used to be like and the nature of his relationship with the dead Maki through a series of well paced and positioned flashbacks throughout the show. For a character that died in the first episode, Maki actually gets brought to life fairly well.

The rest of the FUNERAL team for the most part, while not getting nearly as much character work as Hattie or Ryu, still get fairly well developed over the course of the series. However, one of the characters, the pilot Sue, didn't really seem to get much development in the main series. Besides the fact that she is cute and spunky, we didn't get much insight into her character until the special "extra" twenty-sixth episode, which focused a lot on her background. It would have been nice if she would have had an episode like that earlier in the series as the insight into her background made her seem a much more interesting character than the somewhat spunky ditz that she initially appears to be.

Though while not perhaps as philosophically engaging as some titles, as the plot fully comes into fruition, Argento Soma does rise above simply being a show about alien invaders and makes some interesting statements about what motivates people and society itself. In fact, in not overreaching thematically, I think Argento Soma managed to avoid the common problem of promising much more than it could deliver. Some of the themes it deals with, I suppose on reflection, on somewhat pedestrian in and of themselves, but this title still did a good job of exploring them in an engaging manner.

The nature of the aliens and their motivations I found both interesting and unusual. I had some vague suspicions about that it was related to certain plot elements but they still managed to surprise me and still have it logically flow from the plot and background elements previously introduced. Argento Soma also had the nice touch of having its main plot line conclude in episode 24 which allowed episode 25 to serve as an epilogue. This was a nice touch given that many anime titles tend toward unsatisfying endings without any sort of decent epilogue even when it might be appropriate. As noted above, the twenty-sixth episode actually fits in with earlier plot events rather than taking place later. I almost would recommend watching the twenty-sixth episode shortly after the introduction of Ryu to the FUNERAL team (which is in the third or fourth episode if I remember correctly).

The action scenes aren't as stunning as some other titles but the SARGs (the transformable mecha used by FUNERAL) do get in some good moves here and there. The lumbering nature of most of the aliens and EX-1/Frank when he battles them is a bit less interesting though the varying nature of the aliens$B!&(Bcapabilities help to keep the encounters interesting. Though this series does have these definite action elements, they function primarily as connective devices to help flesh out the plot elements and the psychological exploration of the main leads rather than as the heart of the show itself.

Area 88

2007-09-04T12:28:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

Shin Kazama had just graduated from the piloting academy with flying colors (no pun intended). His girlfriend, Ryoko, was the daughter of the president of Yamato Airlines, and Shin was in line for a high-paying pilot position at Yamato. Shin seemed to have it all. Until, of course, his ambitious friend got him drunk one night and tricked him into signing his life to the Asran Mercenary Air Force at Area 88.

Now, Shin flies for his life, fighting for a country he never lived in, and becoming an expert in killing. There are three ways to escape from Area 88 outside of getting killed in combat: spend three years in service, earn 1.5 million dollars, or desert. Shin swears that he'll never spend three years killing people he bears no grudge against, and "setbacks" continually keep him just outside of the 1.5 million dollars he needs to go back to Ryoko and Japan. Meanwhile, his ambitious friend continues to make moves to create a world of his own -- and make moves towards Ryoko.

Review

Fans of the Capcom shooter "U.N. Squadron" will be familiar with the main characters in Area 88. The game actually bears little resemblance to the anime, except for the fact that Shin Kazama, Mick Simon, McCoy, and all the others are all there.

This anime is considerably older than the others reviewed here. This, however, doesn't keep it from being a darned good anime with an interesting story. Shin's character is very nicely rounded out and fully realized, and his struggle with the stain of killing is always present in this serious, Top Gun-esque story. You won't be bored, though, as subtle changes in Shin's character will keep you guessing until the end, and beyond. Unfortunately, though, Area 88 was adapted from a much longer manga series, and it shows at times. Certain story arcs are sometimes only partially resolved, making you wonder if a more complete, satisfying resolution to some of the conflicts could have been done.

Art is fairly decent, if a bit faded from age, and the animation is surprisingly good, especially in the air combat scenes. Some remarkable canyon effects are to be had in this flick. The soundtrack is pretty good and nicely represents the tension felt in the heat of battle, as well as the anguish and despair of the mercenaries bound to serve at Area 88.

All in all, a really good view. If you don't mind the older art and lack of glitz, Area 88 won't disappoint you. I'd like to see the original manga to this, though.

Arcadia Of My Youth

2007-09-04T12:27:00.002-07:00

Synopsis

Just after World War I, a lone pilot, Phantom F. Harlock II, is flying his biplane Arcadia through the treacherous skies of New Guinea, trying to find a way to cross the Owen Stanley Mountains. With ten minutes worth of fuel left, he must find a way to conquer the Stanley Witch, but as he races up the side of the mountain, he hears someone laughing...the voice of the mountain, perhaps...as he struggles to survive in the thin, frosty air and make it across...

1000 years later, his distant descendant, having been defeated by the alien Illumidus Empire, must decide whether to be content as a subordinate of the aliens, or to find his own freedom, no matter what the cost in the lives of his friends and the pain he must endure. The beginnings of the epic saga of the space pirate Captain Harlock are told in this melodramatic 1982 movie, how he meets his friends- including Ooyama Tochiro, the master engineer who is the very soul of his ship, the intrepid Queen Emeraldas, and his love, Maya, who sacrifices herself for the freedom that Earth doesn't seem to want anymore- and how his code of honor and his way of sailing the Sea of Stars comes to pass.

Review

Do you remember seeing Captain Harlock on TV back when you were a kid? Okay, maybe you're like me, and rediscovering the anime classics after joining in on anime fandom at a later date. But that doesn't mean we should ignore the anime of the 70s and 80s, with its now-dated animation and now-oft-copied storylines. Arcadia of My Youth is definitely a good watch, in a genre that no longer purely exists, that of the melodramatic space opera.

Yes, it's *very* melodramatic, with plenty of self-sacrifice and "manly tears", the ones shed when good friends are lost in battle, yada yada yada. You really have to be in the mood for this kind of thing to enjoy it to its full potential. Don't expect sudden bits of humor to jump in out of the blue (or black, as it may be). You won't find them. However, Harlock and company put on a good show. Never mind the rather strange ties to generations past (genetic memory?!?) and the numerous references to the Stanley Witch. (For that matter, what's a glacier doing in New Guinea anyway?) If you've watched or read any of Leiji Matsumoto's work, you know what to expect: heavy war drama, with great space battleships taking the place of armored samurai on the field. The sense of pure Honor is the spirit that imbues this film - you get to admire even the Illumidus Commander Zeda, despite his being obviously one of the "bad guys". It's something you just don't find whenever you think of today's utterly impersonal wars, waged by madmen and technocrats. It's all utter fantasy. But it's still interesting to watch, with all the angst on the screen running like tears down the faces of Harlock and his men.

The animation itself is pretty dated by today's standards, but it's still on par with the features of its time. The sweeping orchestral melodies only enhance the sense of pure melodrama this movie exudes, swelling at all the high moments, just like the space opera it truly is.

It's a cry for a sense of justice, a yearning for freedom, and it's a good show to boot. Arcadia of My Youth is escapist fantasy, to a place beyond the corrupt little world we live in. And as such, it succeeds, if only for a while, before we return to our relatively boring lives. For just a moment, by the end of the movie, you can just imagine sailing through the Sea of Stars, living a life of a pirate... Sure, it's impractical, but sometimes, we just can't be practical all of the time. Right?

Arcade Gamer Fubuki

2007-09-04T12:27:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

Fubuki is a teenage girl with polychromatic hair and a talent for arcade games. But she's not just an ordinary arcade gamer - for she has the ultimate accessory for arcade gamers: the Passion Panties! With these, she is able to be the best Arcade Gamer ever!

Review

Leave it to Central Park Media to pick up yet another stupid, lowbrow anime on the cheap. Way to go CPM!

Arcade Gamer Fubuki is every bit as stupid as it sounds. Really. Start with a rail-thin plot that would make a supermodel jealous, add a heroine so vacuous she serves as a veritable black hole of intellect, and sprinkle in numerous attempts at humor by way of pseudo-lesbian slapstick. Clearly, this is a show aimed at the lowest common denominator of fandom. Of course, this means that basement-boy otaku are going to LOVE this thing, but the rest of us can safely file this one in the ignore pile. Still, this show *has* to have some merits and saving graces ... right?

Not really. Far, far too often in this series, I was too busy gawking in disbelief to laugh. Less "haha" than "huh?" Or "EHHH?"

The character designs, while outlandish and highly cartoony, are admittedly rather cute, at least to begin with. Dopey Fubuki looks a whole lot like an Alien Nine dropout. Mr. Mystery (irritating as all-get-out) reminds me of the male superhero version of Moldiver, or Strike-Man from the You're Under Arrest TV series, incidentally two of my least favorite characters of all time. And then there's that "American" in the cowgirl outfit with her humongous breasts almost spilling out of strategically placed holes in her shirt. Yep, facepalm time.

Even worse is the story. Apparently, Fubuki is given these "great arcade gaming powers" as consolation for the loss of her virtual pet. That's right, she is gaming to redeem the loss of her Tamagotchi. Even dumber is the whole Passion Panties aspect (aka "show off that Lolita ass, Fubuki!"), an obvious ploy to get pedophile basement-boys to buy Arcade Gamer Fubuki goods and draw lurid Arcade Gamer Fubuki doujinshi. (Even bad publicity is good publicity, right?) Scarily enough, there's a stalker character named Sanpeita who shows up throughout ... let's just call him an audience insert and be done with it.

Did I mention that the Passion Panties are activated by being exposed by Fubuki's ever-helpful and eerily overaffectionate best friend Hanako billowing a fan under her skirt? Oh yeah.

The actual gaming seems to take place in an alternate Japan where arcade games are virtually Dragon Ball Z style ki combat sequences. These has to stand among one of the most outlandishly stupid scenes I have ever seen in an animated feature, right alongside the laser-spitting genitalia of Urotsukidoji. There are times that Fubuki is levitating, upside-down (to expose her panties as much as possible), hanging on to the arcade joysticks in the middle of a freakin' tornado of ki.

It doesn't help that the villains are hellbent on using arcade gaming to dominate the world. Exactly how they propose to do this is never fully explained, which is no surprise considering that this screenplay was obviously written by junior high schoolboys.

Technically, the animation isn't half-bad, actually quite clean and attractive. I've completely forgotten about the music in this thing, apart from it being generically video-gamey. At least it doesn't feel like the animators needed to waste too much effort on this -- I couldn't imagine a series like this meriting Ghibli level quality. In fact, I feel kinda guilty even mentioning that studio in this sort of review.

The only reason I am refraining from giving this thing my stamp of ultimate disapproval is that it really doesn't take itself seriously at all. Fubuki herself, while dopey, is at least likable, and the overblown arcade antics occasionally get amusing enough to be watchable. It's less like a train wreck, and more like watching a clown crash a unicycle. You aren't so horrified at the end result that you can't indulge in a little bit of schadenfreude, especially when you realize people actually spent more than five minutes of their lives to produce this thing.

So if you can get past the whole "classic-gamers-are-Lolita-complex-perverts" angle of this show, you *might* find something to enjoy here with the silly characters and sillier action. The rest of us can feel free to dismiss it entirely ... or mock it at will.

Come to think of it, mocking Arcade Gamer Fubuki is undoubtedly the best way to enjoy this show.

Arc the Lad

2007-09-04T12:26:00.004-07:00

Synopsis

When he was a young child, apprentice Hunter's Guild member Elk's village was razed, his parents murdered before his eyes, and their village's sacred statue stolen. Besides having to witness those horrors, he was kidnapped and taken a mysterious scientific research facility, White House, where children were experimented on to produce artificial monsters called chimera. Years after his escape from White House, a chance encounter during a mission may provide the clues he needs to carry out his long held desire for vengeance against White House. Soon he will find himself entangled in a conspiracy that may threaten the entire world.

Review

If you have played any number of Japanese console role-playing games, then you are probably already generally familiar with the general type of world that is the basis of the setting for Arc the Lad. It is quasi-modern, though filled with somewhat retro airship designs, just a touch of magic, and of course some dark and ancient battle that occurred far in the past. Now since I happen to find those types of settings somewhat interesting, I didn't really hold it against the show, but at the same time from the very beginning it seemed like nothing about the plot or setting was going to really make this show stand out.

That being said the plot, overall, is generally well paced. Arc the Lad avoids the folly of some other recent Sony RPG adaptations (such as Wild Arms) of wasting too much time with opening filler and instead goes a bit more directly into the plot. However, the show still does manage a few somewhat unnecessary story arcs (no pun intended) that perhaps didn't seem as intrusive in the original video game versions. Some of these are used to try and allude to epic events and civilizations in the distant past of the world, but they never significantly developed that aspect of the storyline. Even as the show closed in toward its conclusion, I was a bit dissapointed that they didn't reveal a bit more about the ancient battles that they were alluding to earlier in the show.

In terms of character development, this title is a mixed bag. A good job was done of developing Elk. They flesh out his background, gradually but not too slowly to let us have greater insight into his motivations and his rather haunted past. In particularly, he is at the center of the show's emotional climax around episode 13 and at the center of several scenes that I felt generated rather solid (if sometimes depressing) dramatic intensity. I cannot say that the "young man with a special power haunted by his dark past"is exactly a particularly unusual type of character in anime, but they did a good job of keeping him from being too flat.

Most of the other characters were a bit more flat. They all seemed to mainly exist to fill various archetypical roles for this type of adventure. I suppose most of the characters are fairly likable but I thought they could have done a better job with most of them. Most of the villains of this show were extremely generic and a bit disappointing with the notable exception of the frighteningly polite and mysterious Clive. There were a few elements toward the end of this show that I felt could have used a bit of expansion in regards to him, especially since he ends up being an important element of the plot. I think it would have only strengthened the show to show a bit more of his background and clarify why he ended up the way he did.

Despite being the character the show is named after, Arc himself is rather uninteresting. One problem is that they make him so ridiculously overpowered that there is very little dramatic tension involved in any scene where he shows up. Though there are certain themes of "tragic destiny"that they toy with in relation to his character, whenever the show moves its focus off of Elk to focus on Arc, it begins to drag a bit. I suppose I just found it more interesting to follow Elk's journey from being an apprentice Hunter who is somewhat unsure of himself to a confident champion. Arc is a much more static and unfortunately somewhat less interesting character.

This is one of the issues I had with the show. The dramatic and emotional climax occurred a bit too early and was focused solidly on Elk. Though the events in the second half of the show are more important in terms of scope, they just don't seem to generate the dramatic impact of the first half and almost seemingly to justify the change of focus, a number of plot elements more related to Arc's role in events beginning popping up a bit too quickly and without the explanation they should have. I thought I had a pretty good handle on what was going on and what the world was like in the second half, but as I entered the second half, it just felt the plots points were just being brought up and not significantly explained. A bit tighter plot integration could have helped things flow a bit better.

On the technical side the show again is competent but not outstanding. I had no particular qualms with the design work or the animation in and of itself. Though for a show where there are so many battles most of these end up being rather sterile affairs that seemed to suggest more than they actually show. Various animation short cuts (flashing backgrounds, a blackened background and sword $BEG(Blash$B!&(Binstead of actually animating it) were used. Some of the battles involving airships and vehicles later on in the show were done a bit better done, but I thought the personal battles were, for the most part, a bit disappointing. In addition, the music is for the most part rather average. A lot of it even sounded like old console music at times. There are a few notable exceptions and I suppose it did a decent enough job of setting mood for certain scenes.

Aquarian Age: Sign for Evolution

2007-09-04T12:26:00.003-07:00

Synopsis

Kyota is a fairly typical high school student with a dream of breaking into the music business. Lately he and his band have been developing a bit of a cult following and encouraged by his old friend Yoriko, it seems as if he is finally going to have the opportunity to seize his dream. Unfortunately, both Kyota and Yoriko have destinies that go far beyond the mere music industry. Soon they will found themselves swept up in an ancient struggle between several mysterious factions.

Review

When I saw the first scene of this show, the first thought that entered my mind was, "I hope this guy isn't as much of a jerk as the lead from Kaikan Phrase." I had gone into this show with absolutely no knowledge of what to expect. I ended up watching it initially just because I liked the title. Though the music aspect was obviously the first impression, it was right about the time the mysterious girls in columns of colored light began showing up and fighting each other that I realized this wasn't just going to be Kaikan Phrase with a lower percentage of bishonen. It ends up being a kind of fusion between Kaikan Phrase and X.

Ancient struggles between various supernatural factions are hardly unique in anime, but Aquarian Age has an unusually large number of active factions. There are at least five main groups and a number of individuals with their own private agendas. Each of the factions seems to get at least a few characters with screen time, so there soon is a large number of characters showing up and competing for screen time.

I must comment that this show does a rather good job of integrating Kyota's new music career with all the supernatural conspiratorial wackiness that is going on around him. I was a bit dubious if they would be able to pull it off and have it make sense.

Another large component of the show concerns the relationship between Kyota and Yoriko. Obviously they feel a lot more strongly for each other than they initially realize, but the various exceedingly troublesome baggage that comes with being caught in the middle of a supernatural war complicates matters. I can't say that their relationship was as interesting or as moving as many others but they still are both fairly likable.

Characterization for most of the leads is fairly decent and I was particularly pleased that Kyota actually was a nice fellow as opposed to some overly arrogant rock star stereotype (though they do have a character like that even he is a bit more than he seems). Unfortunately, the characterization for a lot of the other characters isn't as deep. A lot of this stems from the overcrowded nature of this show. With only thirteen episodes and all those factions, there are just too many people and not enough time.

The primary reason for this overcrowding concerns the lineage of this show, as Aquarian Age was adapted from a collectible card game. While I have never played the game, it is a bit obvious that in attempting to make sure that everybody's favorite faction didn't get left out, they put too much into the anime itself.

The CCG heritage also leads to a bit of annoyance in that they do not do a very good job of explaining what the real differences in the abilities and motivations of the various factions. The main explanation of even who all the factions were was summed up in one scene. While I don't normally desire a lot of unnecessary expository dialogue (show not tell is a vital principle of drama after all), in a short series like this with so many competing factions, it is easy to get confused about who exactly is doing what to whom and why. There are cryptic messages at the beginning of the show about the dawning of the new age and all that, but as far as I remember (it has been over a year or so since I saw this show), that wasn't really explained.

In the end, the series is just really too short to make proper of the potentially rather interesting universe with a number of interesting factions. The ending is a bit rushed and had they had more episodes to work with, say 26 or 39, Aquarian Age could have potentially produced a truly epic and engrossing story line. A bishonen variant of the card game apparently inspired a manga that is not particularly related to the anime to the best of my knowledge.

Moving away from the plot and story development, the character design and artwork is fairly good. I liked the diverse number of character designs most of which were rather appealing. The animation, though, is kind of a mixed bag. A lot of the action scenes, for example, are shown as far away battles between colored light columns and even when they show close ups of the action, you often just see a lot of scenes were one combatant is in their colored background and the other is in their own. While a certain amount of this can be attributed to stylistic choices, I can¡¯t help but wonder if it wasn't a cost cutting measure.

Musically this show is superb. While the songs of Kyota's band, TL Signal (which is an actual Japanese J-Rock band), are pretty good, the background music, much of it done by the talented Kajiura Yuki is quite excellent and wonderfully evocative.

Appleseed

2007-09-04T12:26:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

After WW3, the world gathered under the leadership of a newly appointed government of scientifically created bioroids residing in the new main capital, Olympus.

Of course, there are human beings that won't accept this kind of life, being controlled and monitored close to 24/7. This terrorist group plans to destroy Gaia, the main computer system in control of the city.

Review

I really, really don't like this anime. And here's why: I love the manga. And I'm gonna tell you right now; this is one hell of a slapdash adaptation of said manga, barely touching a few of the many issues raised in the manga itself and smearing together those who are into a messy smudge.

I won't blame the art and animation for this, because those are both decent, if not great. The characters look somewhat like their manga selves. The animation, like I said, is decent enough to make me enjoy some of the sequences where the action takes precedence over the story, like the giant battle-robot testing ground and the run-and-cover-shoot sequence near the end.

No, my main beef lies with the sloppily written and transcripted story. It's like they took the deep stories of the manga and tossed them out the window, replacing them with your typical action fare. Woman throws herself to the death in the beginning. Husband, who is also in the forces, plots his semi-revenge in a "I've had enough of this" manner. No soliloquies, almost no personal interaction -- even from our beloved main couple Deunan Knute and Briareos Hecatonchires. And speaking of their names....

Who the hell came up with the idea of rewriting their names like that? I mean... Dunan Nats? Or even worse; Buliaros Hekatonecles? BULIAROS?! People should NOT rewrite and translate scripts while in a drunken stupor, I tell you. He sounds like a rough habitual drinker or a food product. I mean, for the love of..... he's part human, part sophisticated machinery, you nitwits!

I guess my conclusion is that if you like Masamune Shirow's work, go buy the manga. Don't waste your time on this far too short and sloppily transcribed anime with poor characterizations and a plot that would be dismissed by the most ardent Schwarzenegger fan (of which I'm one).

Bleh!

The Animatrix

2007-09-04T12:25:00.003-07:00

Synopsis

This OAV contains nine animated shorts done by some of the best in the animation industry. Most in one way, shape, or form take place in the same universe as the Matrix or follow a theme very similar to that of the Matrix.

Review

The Wachowski Brothers are anime fans with connections, and they have used those connections to bring some of the best modern directors and animators that exist in the animation industry in the world.

I have never really been a fan of the compilation of shorts that I have seen in the past. I have felt that they do not have enough time to create a decent story with interesting characters. I feel that they are rushed and at times they become monotonous.

The Animatrix has completely changed that viewpoint. It has not only proven that Americans can become members of anime industry, but it has proven that Americans can create great anime as well.

Final Flight of the Osiris is the first short on this DVD. Directed by Andy Jones, it is an action-packed short, which contains high-quality computer graphics created by Square USA. Unfortunately, due to the time constraints and the extensive fighting in the early portion of the short, any form of characterization in the plot is lost.

On the other hand, The Second Renaissance Parts I and II are my favorite shorts out of the entire DVD. The shorts tell the story of the fight between man and machine. Over time, machines have been gaining more control over the world in general and are forcing many humans out of work. Soon, people begin to question if robots should be deemed as possessions or separate entities. The animation is absolutely amazing as the battles between man and machine increase while Maeda narrates how the Matrix came into existence.

Kid's Story isn't as plot heavy, but it proves that Studio 4C was not afraid to experiment with the fast, fluid animation, unconventional artwork, and unusual (but creative) camera angles. The style itself allows for a fast paced, physics-defying (Tony Hawk couldn't skate like that if his depended on it) short that is entertaining, yet jaw-dropping at the same time.

While Program is impressive in some ways, it is definitely not the best of Kawajiri's work. While it does tie in to the Matrix, the short is really nothing more than a duel between two characters that are arguing over whether or not to go back into the Matrix. Granted, it is well animated, but the plot and characters are non-existent throughout the short.

Another short that I enjoyed is Beyond, which was directed by Morimoto Koji. Beyond is a true feast for the eyes of anyone to enjoy. Children stumble upon a large and abandoned home that is practically cut into an alternate dimension. Realistic physics become non-existent as the children enjoy pulling off awesome looking stunts. This is further proof that Studio 4C is not afraid to use a new animation style. The character designs are extremely unique during this entertaining short.

World Record, directed by newcomer Koike Takeshi is a story of one man attempting to run away from the Matrix. This anime is great, as it provides for some monstrously ugly (but cool looking) character designs. On top of that, it takes a different view of running. Instead of showing the entire race at its normal speed, Koike decides to put the race into slow motion and focus on one man instead. The bulging and tearing of his muscles show not only the effort he is putting into the race, but the effort to get away from the Matrix.

Detective Story is like Kid's Story. Not very heavy on plot but are more focused on the action. A detective is hired by agents to track down Trinity.

Matriculated is just about okay. While the premise of this short is decent, the artwork is terrible. While this and Program are worst of the Matrix, they would alone receive at least a three star rating.

While there are very mild inconsistencies in the quality of the shorts, they are overshadowed by how ground breaking this anthology is. The Animatrix proves that American influence on Japanese animation is not a bad thing. It's worth more as a whole than it is in parts. It is a work of experimentation and innovation. Just about everyone can find at least one short that they can enjoy, and most will enjoy far more than that. You owe it to yourself to see this at least once.

Animation Runner Kuromi

2007-09-04T12:25:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

Recent college graduate Oguro Mikiko has landed her first job, helping with production at a small animation company. Shortly after giving her the tour of the offices, the producer collapses from stress and now it seems it seems that Mikiko (dubbed "Kuromi" by the employees) must take over his duties and ensure that the studio makes their deadline. If she fails, their anime "Time Journeys" will never make it to their audience!

Review

Once I learned that this OAV was directed by the talented Daichi Akitarou, I knew I was probably in for a good time or at the minimum at least I would be viewing something worth my time. Daichi's name has been attached to more than a few quality anime productions that have come out of Japan in recent years both in the comedy and more dramatic realm.

As they only have forty minutes or so to work with the show and plot are tight in focus. It is a show about a small anime studio producing an episode of a small low-budget (and from the looks of it somewhat lame) retro action show. It seems that most of the people involved in the production process have some sort of quirk or personality issues that are affecting their work and slowing down the production process. Most of the OAV focuses around the hard-working and earnest Kuromi rushing about trying to cajole, persuade, and organize the various people involved in the production into finishing their tasks. In a sense, one could even say this show is vaguely educational. While not necessarily the world's most entirely accurate representation of the world of low-budget anime production, they do tend to cover most of the major parts of the process and the variety and types of people involved.

While in this forty minutes, no particular character gets a particularly great amount of time to develop, they do fill their comedic niches and roles well, resulting in a lot of amusing scenes. One comes to sympathize with poor Kuromi as she desperately just wants to make sure the production is finished but has to deal with a wide assortment of problems from shy perfectionist artists to tracking down mechanical design specialists who do nothing but hang out at the beach all day. Most of these encounters are highly amusing, especially as Kuromi attempts various different tactics to work with each person.

This show is more fun than deep, though they do manage to sneak in a few moments of warmth particularly with the motivations of why Mikiko wanted to work in an anime studio to begin with. Some might find some of the sentiment involved toward the end a bit much considering this is ultimately just about some anime studio producing an episode of an action show, but I liked it.

On the technical side, this is perhaps not the greatest visual treat ever to come to Japan, but the color work and general design work is still quite good. Also everything from the character designs to the general pacing of scenes works well in reinforcing the fun comedic aspects of this OAV. Interestingly enough, some of the character designs used in various scenes are an homage to various other influential anime and or anime periods. I think the alert viewer will be pleased with such small attention to detail.

Angelic Layer

2007-09-04T12:24:00.002-07:00

Synopsis

Suzuhara Misaki has just moved to Tokyo from Wakayama Prefecture to attend junior high school. As she is leaving the train station, she sees a fight being broadcast on a large public screen between two women. A strange man in a lab coat explains to her that the two "women" aren't actually human at all, but small dolls being controlled by human players in a game called "Angelic Layer". Enthralled by the game, Misaki buys her own doll, called an "Angel", and begins to learn how to play. Through Angelic Layer, she meets many interesting people and makes several new friends, but does she have the skill to become strong enough to face her idol, Shuu, and her Angel, Athena? Will she finally get to meet her mother again after so many years apart? What *is* Angelic Layer anyway?

Review

This is one of CLAMP's very best. For starters, no one dies! The angst level and/or general fluff content is kept to a reasonable minimum, and story is all at once exciting, funny, and touching.

Some of the T.H.E.M. members who have seen this refer to it as "Rock'em Sock'em Barbie Dolls", which for all its sarcastic intent, isn't really too far from the truth. The central story revolves around the young girls (and boys) who play Angelic Layer, which is something of a cross between Dress-up Sally and Battlebots. The kids buy pre-made robot dolls called "angels" and customize and dress them to their tastes...then beat each others' dolls up with them by way of a magnetic table (called the "Layer") and an advanced control system that reads the user's thoughts to give the angel commands. Most of the action in the show focuses around these bouts on the Layer and the different techniques the players use to defeat their opponents.

Comic relief from the somewhat serious sport of Angelic Layer is provided by Icchan and his assistant Ogata, who torment each other with their psychotic "Punishment Game" whenever one of them screws something up (admittedly, poor Ogata gets the short end of the stick most often in this regard). Situational comedy abounds, from Tamayo's slapstick relationship with her childhood sweetheart, Koutarou, to the kindergartener Hatoko's precocious comments about her older brother's love life. And finally, some of the characters are just plain goofy (like Ringo, the idol singer who plays Angelic Layer).

The artwork is colorful and the character designs, while typically CLAMPish, are very well done. Especially fun are the different Angels themselves, who, since they are created and controlled directly by their "Deus" (The term used for a person who moves the angel), are nearly perfect reflections of their players' personalities (Hatoko is going to be a scary woman when she grows up). Little personality quirks (such as Misaki's nervous habit of saying "Naa" whenever she's surprised by something, or Icchan's spastic usage of the Osaka dialect) make the characters even more memorable and enjoyable to watch.

But what really pulls Angelic Layer together and makes it so great is the story of the game itself. Angelic Layer is not just the game that the children play, nor is it just about mecha and fighting and slapstick gags. It's a story of friendship, and how through their common interest, even very different people can be friends. It's about courage and love and all the other things that make films about the triumph of the human spirit over adversity so enjoyable to watch. Angelic Layer is a must see for any serious anime fan, no matter what genre you may prefer. Highly recommended.

Angel's Egg

2007-09-04T12:24:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

Angel's Egg is the story of a young girl and the egg she protects from her world. She meets a soldier who would change her entire existence. The rest of the story is left to the viewer to interpret.

Review

How does one review a movie like this? Angel's Egg is by far the single most confusing movie I have ever seen ... and yet I am compelled to like it. But why? Certainly you couldn't accuse this movie of being talky - it doesn't even clear ten lines of dialogue before the credits roll. But between the lines, what is this movie trying to say? Truly it is the most artsy anime I have ever seen - this movie makes Night on the Galactic Railroad and Tale of Genji look crass by comparison. But why?

The art and animation are simply beautiful, which is to be expected when you figure that it is the work of Amano Yoshitaka, known for Vampire Hunter D and Final Fantasy, as well as many others. Though this title is now fairly old, it's to the benefit of the *feel* of this movie. These characters dwell a world where it always rains, where the only elements seem to be wind, water, and stone - a world that seems to be dying - and it's frighteningly beautiful to behold. A world where apparitions dance across the stone walls of empty houses ... a world of eerie shadows and reflections. A world of pure surrealism.

And surreal is the perfect word to describe this movie. From the opening shots, which seem to evoke Salvador Dali, to the equally obtuse ending, this movie is an animated surrealistic work. To those familiar with the other works of Oshii Mamoru (Urusei Yatsura, Patlabor, Ghost in the Shell), the surreal is a familiar topic. But this goes way beyond any other movie or series he has had a hand in. No two people will see the same movie - it's so much up to the interpretation of the viewer. And you will probably end up asking more questions about the state of humanity than have them answered. This is a film that asks "Why?" without even coming close to an answer. But as an introspective piece of art, Angel's Egg is a true masterpiece.

Angel Tales

2007-09-04T12:23:00.004-07:00

Synopsis

Enter our protagonist. Luckless in love, he scoffs when told by a fortuneteller that his luck is about to change. But when he gets home, he is surprised to find a girl waiting for him. And then another shows up. And yet another. But these girls are not exactly the "girl next door" that you'd expect.

You see, the one thing our hero was even more luckless in than love is pet rearing. That's right, these twelve girls are his guardian angels - the spirits of his lost pets. They have returned to care for him and give him eternal happiness.

Commence silliness.

Review

Hyuh.

I couldn't possibly make up a more farcical-seeming set-up for a dating simulation harem show, but here it is. We have a guy who takes the reincarnations of his dead pets (all female, natch!) on dates. This has got to be a joke. Right?

Well, it isn't. But first, let me give you some back-story.

The only reason I even bothered to watch this title was because my sister-in-law (a cosplayer of some notoriety) swears by it. I take that as a challenge, since my sister-in-law's tastes seem to consistently run counter to mine. If she likes it, then I think it's utter crap, and vice versa. What's Michael, Those Who Hunt Elves, Eat-Man, Mouse ... the list goes on.

So it was with extreme trepidation that I queued up that first episode of Angel's Tail (now licensed by Bandai as Angel Tales) onto WinAmp. The first three or so episodes seemed to confirm my worst fears ... from the so-cute-as-to-be-annoying opening song to the obvious hair designs alluding to the girls' former lives as animals, to the whole dippy-ass concept ... it was bad. So that's it, end of story, right? Nope. For some bizarre reason, I found myself enjoying the show more than mocking it, and by the time I'd gotten halfway through, Angel Tales started to look salvageable. Not the greatest thing since sliced bread (or even Love Hina), but definitely this side of watchable.

Where does this sort of modest success, this victory from the jaws of defeat come from? First off, a few of the characters are actually really cool, particularly the hamster girl and the bunny girl. Thankfully, they are reincarnated as humans (despite the wonky hair, these girls are not furries, and thank goodness!) The character designs are reasonably cute, after all, and the nice thing here is that all these girls are so convinced they're not in a sucky anime, that you want to believe them! The voice actresses' enthusiasm is infectious, much more like the chipper Hand Maid May than the ennui-ridden Sister Princess. And while the lead is hopelessly stereotypical, it's easy to manage to look the other way when he says something stupendously obvious.

Inasmuch as the animation is concerned ... you can't ask too much from the animators, since this isn't an action show, so it's about average for the genre. Not bad, but not great. The music is bouncy, perky, and barely tolerable to most Western ears, but after a while, I was able to sit through it without gagging, which I guess is a good thing. (I even caught myself humming the opening, which probably isn't a good thing.)

What surprised me was the transformation of one of the show's weaknesses (its horrible concept) into one of its strengths. While all of the "pets" died tragic deaths, our protagonist helps their current incarnations get over those traumas in a way that is actually very sweet and sensitive. It's not always slapstick and cheap jokes (granted, there's a bit of that, too), and there's more than just the "I want to date the protagonist" impetus here.

I was fully prepared to grab the pan for what I thought would be a true turkey, but Angel's Tail surprised me by being more enjoyable than mockable. Despite its woefully stupid premise, this show manages to elicit more smiles than groans thanks to its judicious use of the Power of Cute. I wouldn't call it great or even good, but Angel Tales deserves a look, as long as you follow this genre and are willing to overlook the glaring strangeness of the setup.

Angel Sanctuary

2007-09-04T12:23:00.003-07:00

Synopsis

According to the cover this is supposed to be a story about an angel, Alexiel, that battles against God and loses, separating her body and spirit. Her spirit is then reborn on Earth in the body of Setsuna, a pretty boy with a very sticky problem.

What the cover doesn't say is that Setsuna has a thing for his sister, and yes, it is one of those things. Much to my dismay, this is what the Angel Sanctuary anime is really about.

Review

To explain how I even got conned into watching Angel Sanctuary, I must say that the artwork lured me in, and the supposed plot on the cover did not seem all that bad either. Unfortunately, in the end, there are not even words to describe what I think of this series. Heavens, I do not think there should be words to describe it. My best advice would be to stay away.

The first and most obvious reason would be the weird relations between the characters. Because all three episodes focus on the brother-in-love-with-sister dilemma, there is almost no room for any other type of character development, and there isn't just one sibling set that has this problem. Rosiel, the brother of Alexiel, who is also an "inorganic angel", is another odd character that is in love with his sister. Not something I really want to go into, but suffice it to say that at least in this case Alexiel has not been interested in him. The only character actually worthy of mention in this series is Kira. He surprised me by not only having an almost cool personality, but by also having a semi-interesting past, while the others only masquerade as being interesting.

The plot is very tangled, so I'll take great care not to get caught while trying to explain it. The real plot is supposedly about how after Alexiel's spirit was reborn in the body of Setsuna, her brother Rosiel was released as well, allowing him to set out on a quest to reawaken his sister's spirit. Two cross-dressing demons are also trying to wake the dormant Alexiel for some reason or another. (Luckily, not for the same reasons as Rosiel who is sure he can win his sister's love this time ... *gag*.) Anyway, during all this Setsuna is blissfully unaware of the trouble brewing around him since he is focusing all his attention on seducing his sister ... way more than enough said. Kira, Setsuna's acting guardian, is only involved in the respectable portions of the plot, for which I am very grateful, and that is what the title should have been about. Don't mistake, me all of this is actually in the episodes somewhere, but good luck trying to find it because this part of the plot is heavily bogged down by the "real" plot.

The "real" plot centers entirely around Setsuna and his romantic interest in his sister, Sara. Alexiel's rebirth / reawakening is used only as a cover to give this title a semblance of respectability. A cover that, either fortunately or unfortunately, fails miserably. What is really horrifying is that that Setsuna and Sara are not the only two embroiled in a terrifying relationship. I cannot possibly overlook the fact that Rosiel has vowed to win Alexiel's heart in one way or another when she wakes. So even the respectable portion points back to the "real" plot. As I said there are no words appropriate for describing what I really think of this series so this is as far as I can take the plot. My advice would be to treat this series like the Black Plague. Avoid it, and burn any items that could possibly have been contaminated.

On that note, let me say something nice about the title. The reason I actually bought it, the artwork, is amazing. I mean beautiful. Perhaps just a little too beautiful as I mistook Rosiel for a girl, but considering his name it really isn't my fault. At any rate, it is pretty, and the music is all right, I guess. Not really anything special. To tell the truth my mind was so shocked by the theme of the title that I didn't notice the music all that much, and I absolutely refuse to watch it again to find out if it was any good or not. What I do remember was that the English ib was absolutely horrid. The Japanese voice cast is rather generic, but much better than the English.

Finally, I come to the end of my rant. I just have a few things left to say. First, that this title, for the health, safety ,and sanity of all anime-watchers ought to be reported to the Centers for Disease Control and quarantined immediately. It is tragic that Setsuna's situation is even mentioned in this title. It was completely unnecessary, and it totally ruined what could otherwise have been a solid and, I dare say, good story. Therefore, despite the fact that I absolutely despise Angel Sanctuary I will, reluctantly, give it two stars: one for the artwork, and another for Kira's character.

Oops, seems I've misplaced one of the stars in the biohazard-waste bin. Oh well.

Angel Links

2007-09-04T12:23:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

Sixteen year old Li Meifon is the head of an interplanetary conglomerate, the Links Group, in the business of protecting free trade by escorting merchant vessels and eradicating pirates...for free! Set in the same universe as Outlaw Star, Angel Links follows the adventures of Meifon Li and her stalwart (if slightly odd) crew as they mercilessly stomp just about everything that gets in their way.

Review

As a spin-off of Outlaw Star, there is not really very much that connects these two series other than the consistencies that appear relating to their shared universe (Tao magic, grappler ships, sub-ether drives, etc). In fact, there is little to no mention of the Outlaws at all, so if you are expecting the continued adventures of Gene Starwind and company, then you will be disappointed. However, taken by itself, Angel Links is an action-packed, fun-filled anime. At times it is slightly clichéd as anime goes, as it draws on themes of honor and revenge that have been played out time and time again since the olden days of kabuki. However, the colorful characters, nicely rendered CG, and awesome space battles and sword fights more than make up for any trite material in the plot.

The series kicks off with a bang. The first few episodes do little more than give all the various heroes a chance to pose and flex as various pirate scum get their tails firmly kicked. Numerous bad guys get vaporized by the "Links Cannon" and everyone gets to look cool as you learn a little about each of the main members of Meifon's bridge crew. Then, the main villain is introduced (and if you can't tell he's going to be the villain after the first episode he appears in, you haven't watched enough anime!) and things begin to get more interesting. The story itself in a way reminds me of a Hong Kong gangster film. Betrayals, lies, revenge, and an ending that leaves you with a sense that justice has been served and good has triumphed, but is slightly melancholy at the same time.

And I would be remiss if I didn't make mention of the main characters themselves. My personal favorite was Duuz, the big lizard that was in command of Boarding Operations (Platoon Commander). In fact, Duuz and the Tactical Officer, Valeria, make cameo appearances in Outlaw Star (the episode with the captured cruise ship). The other two characters worthy of note are Kosei, the public relations lackey (and professional tea server), and of course, Meifon herself, who is, to put it mildly, quite bouncy. Rejoice fan service fanboys, for great detail has been paid to this bouncy-ness. Honestly, I often found myself wondering exactly *what* kind of weird science held the front of her outfit up. And then, there is Taffe. Meifon's "pet" cat-demon-Kero-chan thing that is both incredibly cute and turns into a sword upon command. (Oh, and did I mention it spends most of its time hiding in her cleavage?)

The spaceship CG and CG effects scattered throughout the series are very nicely done. The giant halo left by the "Halo Cannon" is especially neat. The Angel Links launch sequence is cool the first couple of times, but gets kind of old. Thankfully it stops being a once an episode thing around episode 4. And finally, the intro song, performed by Naw Naw and written by DJ-Cool, is very cool for those that enjoy J-pop.

In all, Angel Links rates well with other anime in its genre. With lots of fast paced action, bouncy anime heroines, and smooth colorful animation it's worth a rental at the very least, especially if you enjoyed Outlaw Star or similar space-action anime.

Angel (Hana no Ko LunLun)

2007-09-04T12:22:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

Angel is a tomboyish preteen girl living in a small European village. Her fourteenth birthday, however, is a time of revelation for her. For it is on this day that she meets the strange, talking dog Wendell, and his sassy partner, Katy the cat. It turns out they have searched the world far and wide for her, as she is the last of the Flower Children, fairy spirits who were born as humans. Angel is needed, as the King of the Fairies is dying, and Angel is the only one who can find the Seven-Colored Flower, a magical flower that only blooms once in a lifetime.

This flower can restore the king's health, but Angel isn't the only one who wants the flower. There are other who wish to use the flower's magic for their own nefarious purposes, including taking over the Fairy Kingdom itself. So Angel travels the world along with Katy and Wendell, and along with the help of a mysterious, yet handsome man who always seems to be one step behind her, she spreads the word of truth and kindness towards all and comes to discover a far greater destiny than she could ever imagine.

Review

Before Card Captor Sakura, before Sailor Moon ... before even Minky Momo, there was Angel. I was five years old when this series aired, and it was my first ever introduction to anime (but of course, back then I had no idea what anime was). To me, Angel was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. Back then, all Saturday morning/after school cartoon fare were either just for boys or so gender-neutral you couldn't identify with any of them, whereas Angel was a lead character in her own show. She traveled on her own and did all sorts of wonderful things with her magical brooch, which turned her into whatever she wanted. She was a princess, a gypsy, a firefighter...yet never compromised the fact she was very much indeed a girl. She solved problems by talking things out and working with others, not by trying to 'be manly' and fight them out. She was independent and strong-willed, and she was like no character, male or female, that I had ever seen in a cartoon. And I *loved* her for it!

Angel is no ditz. She is genuinely kind and graceful. She doesn't always act rationally, but she never acts out of ignorance or selfishness. She is earnest and determined to do what is needed, and will go to any length to achieve her goal. She really is a anime rarity, even by today's standards: An heroine who is strong but not violent, not hung up on dating or bemoaning her fate ... she is the most accurate, purest portrayal of a female heroine I have ever seen in an animated show.

Her companions, Katy and Wendell, are also a lot of fun. They provide most of the comic relief, and are just as capable as Angel herself. Sure, Wendell likes to sleep too much, and Katy can be mouthy when she shouldn't be. (After all, it's perfectly normal for a cat to talk! It's not her fault all the silly humans freak out over it! ^_^) They are more Angel's best friends than they are pets or even familiars.

The story is also very intriguing. Each and every one of her adventures has a flower theme to it (hence the title), and at the end of each episode, the people she has helped are given seeds of the flower that embodies the message or spirit of the show. There's none of the typical heavy-handed morality that is seen nowadays in most children's shows. Angel is almost literally sowing the seeds of love as she goes from one new adventure to another, but it's not as much to teach a moral, but it is also the main point of the show. The people of Angel's world have lost their innocence and their consideration to others. Angel's mission is not so much to find the Seven-Colored Flower, but to touch every life she comes in contact with and teach them to remember to be good to each other. That Angel teaches this lesson in such a gentle, realistic way is very much a credit to her and to this series.

Angel is the kind of children's entertainment I miss seeing nowadays. For a brief period in the early to mid 80's, shows could be for girls or boys only, and appeal to them on the levels they crave. Boys had Thundercats and He-man, while girls had She-Ra and My Little Pony, and one could like the other and not be (too) ashamed of it. Nowadays, it seems all shows are back to being gender-neutral, all in the name of 'equality'. To make it worse, it must be 'educational' too; hence we have current drivel such as Histeria and Captain Planet. Even Sailor Moon couldn't make it over to the States without having the god awful "Sailor Says" segments tacked on. I shudder to think what would have become of Angel had she been put on air today. At least 4Kids left Pokemon pretty much alone, yet that too is gender-neutral.

Sadly, the old dub of Angel is very dated, with 70s disco music as BGM, and the animation quality is downright bad compared to today's ultra-glossy style. Angel is also very much a shoujo series, but the style is more curvy and elegant than outright cutesy. The voice acting in it, however, was surprisingly well-done for the time.

Angel is a beautiful gem of anime past that deserves to be recognized as one of the best ever. Cute without inducing sugar-shock, nowadays Angel would really be relegated to children under eleven, but that's ok. Angel was not meant as anything more...or less. If you happen to find a very old copy of it in the back of the children's section at Blockbuster or (preferably) any older video store nearby, I strongly suggest checking it out. Share it with a younger member of the family, or simply relive the days when all you ever needed to know about anime was that it came on after school.

Android Announcer Maico 2010

2007-09-04T12:21:00.002-07:00

Synopsis

It's the year 2010, and tons of radio stations are competing for the attention of the millions of prospective listeners that tune in daily. A new breakthrough in radio technology, namely an android announcer who is capable of delivering nonstop excitement to listeners (androids require no bathroom breaks, sleep, food, et cetera - just plug them in and they're set to go) seems to be the last hope for a failing radio station. But what happens when you give the project to six failed employees that haven't yet delivered a single real successful program in all their careers? And all of them have their own ideas on how to create and manage such a show? Wait and see!!!

Review

If there is anything at all that I prize more than quality plotline and eye-popping animation, it's originality, and Android Announcer Maico 2010 is chock-full of this virtue! Yeah, you might love your dragons and fantasy and mecha and so on, but these ideas have been exploited, milked, and all but burnt out...I for one am delighted to see fresh material such as this.

The characters all have their flaws, which gives them personality!!! They are all too human! You've got Densuke, the hapless troubleshooter; Matsuan, the over-the-hill, balding, failed talk show host; Izumi-chan, the non-punctual, non-caring BGM professional (she has a heart, though it doesn't shine through a lot!); Suga-chan, the semi-inspired writer for the show who's yet to achieve his full potential; Ume-san (my favorite), the silent but very expressive sound-effects man (wooden signs? we don't need no stinkin' wooden signs!!); Katchin, the relations manager and everybody's gofer; and Matsudama, the cold, calculating president of the station.. Add the android and you have some real fun stuff happening!

The beauty of this anime is that they concentrate on developing each and every one of these characters, not just Maico. This anime could have been called "Suga-chan, Radio Program Writer 2010" and retain the substance and credibility it's got. Maico herself is the only *perfect* thing here, but give a perfect device to imperfect humans (and that we are) and you can expect the device to malfunction. Brilliant!

It's got beautiful animation, too - the cels fit into one another like a glove. And a catchy soundtrack - six out of eight people I showed this to ended up asking me to rewind the tape to hear the opening theme song again and/or ended up humming it after the show was over! Trust me, you'll learn the opening theme song by the second episode! (Even the song was original! Wait 'til you hear it!) The plot is solid; you won't be lost at all. It's simple yet diverse, and it contains those lovely cliffhangers after every episode that make you watch the next one just to see what happens next.

The only bad thing I can say about this show is that I haven't seen more of it because its rather hard to come by. It's as obscure as Goldfish Warning and that's too bad.

As a bonus, the creators of this show were very sensitive in the way it was to be carried out. Allow me to explain: this show has NO cheap fan service or sex of any kind! They respect the viewer and broaden their audience by not including it. I applaud the creators for their self-restraint (and overall genius!) You can show this one to anybody and proudly state that you are an Otaku! Thank you anime gods for blessing our collections! If you have access to this anime, don't hesitate to watch it. You will not be disappointed; that is, unless all you care about is violence and sex and fireballs in your anime ... in which case the point of this anime is lost on you ... blaaaah.

Amon Saga

2007-09-04T12:21:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

Amon's parents have been murdered by an evil overlord who's kidnapped the princess of a benevolent king because he wants some treasure somewhere. And that's why Amon wants revenge, so he infiltrates the evil guy's fortress in an effort to exact said revenge.

Review

And that's all you really need to know to see this one, or, more likely, to dismiss it. As you probably can guess, I wasn't impressed with this title at all. I know it's old, but that's not really an excuse. Hell, the Galaxy Express 999 movies are old, but that doesn't stop them from being some of the most beautiful movies I know of.

Fantasy Rule No. 1: The hero's parents are ALWAYS murdered by the movie's bad guy. And revenge is ALWAYS the path of choice.

The biggest problem this title had is that it seemed to play itself out STRICTLY by "The Big Fantasy Scriptwriting Rulebook™." And it would also have been the most predictable movie in the world if not for the fact that it's so unevenly paced. Plus, this movie is all about SCENES. Not plot, but scenes. Plot is ... unnecessary, because it answers questions you might have. Questions like: What's the treasure, and why is it hidden? Who was Amon's mentor and why didn't he like Amon's agenda? And last but not least; Who gives a crap anyway? Turn that thing off and put something INTERESTING on.

Fantasy Rule No. 2: The princess, who ALWAYS gets kidnapped, is VERY beautiful, and the hero WILL fall in love with her.

The artwork and design was done by a certain well-known Yoshitaka Amano, and it's not like it's bad or anything, but did it manage to save this movie? No, not really. At least it's somewhat pleasant to look at.

Fantasy Rule No. 3: Apparently, no castles have any internal bathing areas, so even the princess has to bathe in a nearby lake. And when you're taking the princess bathing, it's important to parade her through the areas where the lowest-ranking soldiers are housed, so they can appreciate her beauty, often with loud and obnoxious signs of approval.

The music itself was nothing to write home about. In fact, I can't really remember if there was any music, so that should speak volumes. The voice actors were at least doing a decent, if not great, job. This being Manga Entertainment, there might very well be different dubs in Europe and the US. Mine is based on the European version.

Fantasy Rule No. 4: When the princess IS bathing, she will always be attacked by either bandits or a monster. But the hero is always nearby to rescue her and get a glimpse of her naked body.

Can you tell by now that I'm finding the plot (if you can call it that) to be rather stereotypical and preposterous? That would be because this fantasy feature has it all. The dashing hero, the beautiful and very kidnapped princess, the evil overlord with face-concealing mask, the bar brawls, the benevolent king ... the works. Just add one evil overlord's fortress on a giant turtle, and you have the entire thing. I swear, it's almost a carbon copy of Ralph Bakshi's Fire and Ice, except that I find Fire and Ice entertaining in a campy, Heavy Metal Magazine sort of a way. And I do not find Amon Saga to be likewise. It's just a mishmash of typical fantasy scenes that looks like they're taken from various fantasy movies and then had Amon's face painted over it.

Fantasy Rule No. 5: The hero always comes upon a wandering mentor-type character who teaches him how to fight.

Well, actually, that rule is just halfway true, and marks the only part of Amon Saga that I liked. The mentor taught him to fight, true, but didn't really approve of his little journey of revenge. He was also the source of the tiny bit of mystery this movie had, so it was a shame that his scenes were short and non-consequential. That was wasted potential right there.

Fantasy Rule No. 6: The hero and the evil overlord WILL duke it out at the end. Who wins? Take a wild, stinkin' guess!

And there you have it. Seventy-five minutes of wasted time you can ill afford to lose. I suggest you give this one a wide berth.

Amazing Nurse Nanako

2007-09-04T12:20:00.000-07:00

Synopsis

Nanako is working as a nurse and housekeeper at the house of a Dr. Ogami Kyoji, apparently the world's greatest surgeon, scientist and bioengineer. Ah, but behind all the crazy antics in the house where Nanako and Ogami live with the rest of the decidedly oddball characters of this show, there are government conspiracies afoot. And exactly who, or what, is Nanako anyway?

Review

And so I'm supposed to find the words to describe the experience that is Amazing Nurse Nanako. It wasn't easy, I tell you. Mostly because I'm not sure whether I like this yet.

The animation is actually very good on this. Fast, frantic and ... well, bouncy. (More on the latter later.) And colorful, too.

The sub seemed decent. I'm no expert in Japanese, although, as mentioned, I write this review based on the fansub (since as of this writing this show is unavailable in my region). At least we can trust Pioneer to give us a good translation, even a good dub, right? The Japanese voice cast was at least good, though Nanako herself grated a little bit on my ears, especially when singing.

Which brings me, finally, to the characters and the plot. The characters ... well, they seem to carry this series somewhat decently, even though the only ones I remember are, Nanako and Ogami aside, the elderly couple that spends all their time fighting and the young boy, the somewhat stereotypical kid of the house. If you've seen Cat Girl Nuku Nuku, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Nanako herself leans more towards ditzy and clueless, more like Mihoshi of Tenchi Muyo than the cheerful optimism of Nuku herself, or May in Hand Maid May. And Ogami ... (Shudder) ...may be the head of the house, but his treatment of Nanako is questionable in the clearest sense. He pulls no punches in scaring the poor girl spitless, more often than not following up on his threats.

And the plot... Well, the last two episodes do have a plot, some of it linked to Nanako's past and some of it to the military. That leaves the first four episodes to run amok with Krazy Komedy galore. With fan service.

Oh my, is there fan service. Nanako's chest bounces all over the place, and it's a substantial chest at that. There are even some nude scenes of her, though nothing earth shattering and certainly nothing that hasn't even been done to the same extent on other non-hentai shows before.

So how did I like it? Just fine, I suppose. It's neither intelligent nor mind numbingly dumb. A thought-provoking film? Not really. Funny? At times, yes. Sweet? Certainly not!

I'm not sure I would buy this, though it would be worth a rental at least.

Amaenaide Yo!

2007-09-04T12:19:00.002-07:00

Synopsis

Satonaka Ikko is training to be a Buddhist priest at Saien Temple. Unfortunately for him, his bid to cut his ties with the worldly are somewhat blunted by his constant contact with his fellow trainees: six cute nuns, all about his age. He must work with them to purify and exorcise ghosts from the world of the living, and while on the surface Ikko is just a weak trainee, he is found to be capable of extreme powers as an exorcist ...

Review

So here's a twist: the harem-keeper is an apprentice Buddhist priest surrounded by a bunch of schoolgirl nuns. It's the Japanese archetypal equivalent of putting a corrupt parish priest in a Boy Scout camp.

That's right. Just as in Christian societies, Japan has the derogatory stereotype of the hopelessly lecherous priest, based, sadly, on countless instances of wayward priests who are less than diligent in letting go of the human world. Usually, however, they're "dirty old men", like the grandpa in Sailor Moon.

Now that we have established the "creative twist" that is supposed to make this show funny, what we have in Amaenaide Yo!! is the main character being treated like an errand boy, with a bunch of nuns who alternately tease him, support him, and beat the living crap out of him. It's kinda like if Urashima Keitarou wanted to be a priest instead of a Tokyo University student, which only works on a very superficial level.

Imagine then, if Urashima Keitarou actually became a better student by not studying at all, but by doing the exact opposite of studying ... well, that's Ikko in a nutshell. Flash him some panty, and he becomes Super Priest.

I may not be the most religious guy in the world, but ... come on.

To give Amaenaide Yo! its proper due, the girls are very cute, and the art is quite well-executed. But the premise is barely more clever than anything else in this genre, and in the end, it's simply another lame excuse for a "harem" to exist.

And to me, that's just not enough of a reason to sell a show, but hey, a million screaming fanboys can't be wrong, can they?

All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku TV

2007-09-04T12:19:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

Nuku Nuku and family continue their misadventures as the cat-brained android tries to be a high school student.

Review

Hmm. Well, we loved the original Nuku Nuku OAV series, but this continuation seems to be milking a franchise for all it's worth. The plot and characters are dumbed down for kids, especially Akiko, Arisa, and Kyouko with their daily antics fighting Nuku Nuku with various destructible machinery - all in the name of being normal. Seriously.

Not to mention the mecha get sillier with each episode. What is this, Pretty Sammy? When Mishima Corporation builds mecha shaped like cacti and worms and other, inane, uninteresting items... You start to ask, why?

Still, Nuku Nuku is her peppy, cute, usual self, as her overall catness shines through, and her interactions with her peers at the high school are actually quite funny. If anything, this is the real reason to watch the show.

Otherwise, though, with average animation, average music, and nothing really new to introduce besides the high school aspect (which isn't all that new, either), the TV series is far short of what it could have been. Still, it isn't DASH...at least the characters are still recognizable.

All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku DASH

2007-09-04T12:18:00.002-07:00

Synopsis

This is a story set in an alternate universe from the original OAV series. In this version, Higuchi Atsuko ("Nuku-Nuku") is a Mishima Corporation military "androbot" (note I didn't say anything about cats ... read on!) who is reprogrammed by persons unknown to protect living things. Undercover as a nineteen-year-old accident victim with amnesia, she comes to stay with the (mostly) unsuspecting Natsume family - Kyuusaku, a slightly mad scientist; Akiko, a research supervisor for the Mishima Corporation (and also a slightly mad scientist); and Ryunosuke, their hormonal fourteen-year-old son. Ryunosuke immediately falls head-over-heels for the beautiful "Nuku-Nuku-san" ... but what can you do when even your own mother is caught up in events that threaten your budding "relationship"?

Review

And here, kiddies, is the latest installment of the Anime Generic Sequel! Remember your formula - take a famous anime heroine, remove her personality, give her a fan service transform sequence, and put her in stock fighting scenes. Don't forget to make your villains as stupid as possible. Enjoy!

As you can see, we're feeling let down by this series. I loved the original, and DASH has little of what made it work - when it comes to the been-there, done-that, so-last-century action sequences. What cheapens them even further is that this series has so much potential.

How so? Note that I wrote romantic comedy as the first half of this anime's genre. That wasn't a typo. Our little Ryunosuke's grown into a 14-year-old Golden Boy, and he's fallen hard for the now not-quite-sisterly Nuku Nuku, and it's actually very cute to watch as he tries to act his very best around the slightly oblivious "Atsuko". Not to mention the very in-love squabbling parents, the street-smart kindergarten Dear Abby, Noriko (Non-chan) ... this is where the series actually shines. It's inventive, entertaining, and fun ... unlike the second half of each episode, where random villains (including Arisa and Kyouko) self-destruct their own machines in the name of humor. Is this supposed to be slapstick? Really.

It doesn't help that this series looks way too much like Burn Up W and Debutante Detective Corps in style. No Nuku Nuku series should ever have this much fan service ... or bounce. Yes, you expect maybe a little with the title character ... but there's loads of near-naked to naked shots of Nuku Nuku, Akiko, Arisa and Kyouko, the next-door neighbor, panty shot background extras ... heck, a spread of the eight-year-old android flower girl (what the heck?!?!). It's tiring, stupid, and offensive, and detracts heavily from the quality of the series. You expect this stuff from Iczelion or Golden Boy, but that's where it should stay - in cheese fests.

And this *isn't* a cheese fest, flower girl and her priest-scientist father notwithstanding. It's a sweet, sincere romantic comedy that has forced bits of stock footage "action sequences" that are absurd and mind numbing. The sequences of Ryunosuke trying not to fall all over Nuku Nuku are far more fun than anything that follows her "Yes, Master, I will protect all living things" spiel, or anything at all dealing with Genom- I mean, Mishima. They should have left all the "Dashing" to Nuku Nuku's previous incarnations. Hopefully, later on the series, they abandon the action sequences and focus on the romance aspect, because that has so much more potential than anything else this series has to offer.

One final, and MAJOR quibble - the only thing catlike that is even hinted at in regards to Nuku Nuku is her slightly catlike behavior that is attributed to Miya-chan, the kitty she saves multiple times from missiles, gunfire, et cetera. Maybe later on, they can tie this in, but as of the first four episodes, Nuku Nuku DASH has very little to do with the original Nuku Nuku concept. Even Megumi seems forced ... it seems more Ayanami Rei than our usual cutesy cat girl, and I didn't particularly like that role on her either. In fact, all the characters seem pigeonholed into roles they really don't belong in. Why?

Still, this may be a series worth seeing more of ... if we can just fast forward to the next episode during the lame action bits. I doubt it, though.

All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku

2007-09-04T12:18:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

A genius inventor, Natsume Kyuusaku, and his son, Ryunosuke, are trying to escape from a major military contractor, and in the process, a stray cat the son had befriended is mortally wounded. Kyuusaku looks at the android body in the back of his vehicle...and at the cat...and has an interesting idea. Before long, the Natsume family has a new member: Android NK-1124, Natsume Atsuko, or, as everyone calls her, Nuku Nuku. (Or, basically, in Japanese, "Snuggles".) Powerful as she is, she'll need all of her incredible strength to counter the forces of Kyuusaku's estranged wife (!), and all her feline brains to try and understand what it means to live in the human world.

Review

Silly title, silly premise...great execution. Nuku Nuku is funny, exciting, and charming, without being vulgar or utterly lame brained. Nuku Nuku, as the android with the mind of a cat, is super-cute and pure-hearted, and truly an enjoyable character to watch, whether she's bicycling through traffic at supersonic speeds or chasing mice in a restaurant. Not to mention her voice actress is Hayashibara Megumi, who, it seems, can do no wrong in her comedic roles.

It seems hard to believe that an acrimonious divorce can be a setting for a comedy anime, but in this case, it works, because it's less a disagreement between people, but their ideals. Kyuusaku and Akiko, deep down inside, love each other, and though they use rather extreme means to retain control of their son, they are less the product of a society gone wrong, but rather comedic victims of circumstance. Really, the whole scenario is utter fantasy, but it's entertaining and endearing in its own right.

As far as the action, it's all played for laughs. The Mishima Industries heavy weapons are simply cat toys for Nuku Nuku...and when a cat's toys are -that- big, some collateral damage is likely to result. (Scratch that- LOTS of collateral damage.) The hapless banzai office ladies, Arisa and Kyouko, are funny in their own right, going into impossible situations at the whim of their boss, Akiko.

The animation itself is very good, considering it was one of the earlier series in the 90s. Colors are bright and cheery, character designs are cute, and action sequences are fairly well thought-out. And the music (especially the hyper-cute "Happy Birthday to Me") is J-Pop at its best, with Hayashibara Megumi lending her voice and pure frenetic energy to a truly fun soundtrack.

Really, Nuku Nuku is one of those mind-candy OAV series that won't raise you to a new plane of consciousness or anything like that. That's not what it's made to be - it's anime as sheer entertainment, and as such, it succeeds wildly.

Alien Nine

2007-09-04T12:17:00.002-07:00

Synopsis

In the early 21st century, contact with alien life forms has become so common that everyone takes it for granted. Unfortunately it seems many of the aliens are out of control and might pose a threat to people, particularly at schools. To combat this, various schools have formed "Alien Parties" to send out after rampaging aliens and capture them. 6th grader Ohtani Yuri has just been elected to the Alien Party and is more than a little disturbed. After all, not only does she has to risk injury trying to capture aliens, she has to wear a disgusting symbiotic alien on her head at the same time.

Review

I've watched a lot of anime and I found this show to be one of the more bizarre titles I've ever seen. This is not because it is trying particularly hard to be surreal or even very deep, but rather the extreme difference in what you are expecting from it with the initial tone of the show and what you actually get. Everything from the character design to the opening happy theme makes it seem like this is going to be some sort of light hearted goofy romp involving grade school kids and aliens. I had read a little bit of the manga before viewing this title, but seeing it in actual animated form caused many elements of it to end up seeing a bit more severe and just downright bizarre.

Despite all the cute rounded character designs (even the adults look adorable), when the aliens begin showing up, they aren't cute at all. In fact they look like something you would expect out of a show like Blue Gender. Most are bizarre, disgusting, and somewhat violent, including the Borg symbiotic aliens that the girls wear to help assist them during their missions and patrols.

One of the aspects of this show that can take a person off guard even when they know what to expect is the constant sudden shifting in general tone. You'll have light happy music playing maybe a little bit of cuteness, and then the girls go out on a capture mission. Early on in the show many of these missions go awry, as even though the girls are supposed to capture the aliens alive, Yuri's inability to control her fear often causes her Borg to go berserk and skewer aliens. Though such scenes are short they often involve brutal scenes of violence and the alien victims often get pulled apart, blown apart, sliced up and suffer various other means of graphic death. The fact that a lot of these aliens tend to splatter a lot of fluid and green alien blood around does kind of kill any illusions of cheerfulness as well.

Besides the strange and innately surreal nature of grade school girls dealing with bizarre aliens, there are a lot of other elements that are just down right odd about this. The Borg are sentient and so often get in strange insights. They also happen to feed off human sweat (mostly from peoples' backs), so you have a few weird scenes of them feeding. I could empathize with the poor girls being freaked out by having to go through something like that.

There are three main girls that are involved in the capture of the aliens, but the show primarily focuses on Yuri, the reluctant member of the party. She spends a lot of time scared and crying. Quite frankly, I don't blame her. She is a sixth grade girl who is forced to wear a creepy violent symbiotic alien and hunt down aggressive aliens and she has to do her best to ensure that the aliens aren’t even harmed. Heck, I'm in my twenties and a military man and I think I would cry too if my commander made me do something like that!

If anything I found the blasé reactions of the other girls odd at first. Yuri is forced into this against her will and given all the gore and danger she experiences, I would be surprised if she doesn't end up totally traumatized. Yuri also has a number of bizarre dreams throughout the show that are linked to her character development and psychology. Even though it is short four episodes, all the main characters are given enough screen time and development that they seem like distinct young people with distinct motivations. I really felt for poor Yuri in particular.

There is a lot of interesting thematic subtext that pervades this show ranging from the discomfort at the transition between childhood and adulthood, to certain implications about adults and their reasoning behind forcing certain experiences. There are several scenes with out of control alien controlled boys that I found unusually creepy, if only for the reaction of the boys once the alien control was removed from them.

Plot wise this title isn't incoherent at all contrary to my initial expectations. Shows with unusual background employ a variety of methods to explain the background but I was glad that Alien Nine did not lean on exposition but rather let us get to know the world a bit at a time. One of the first questions that crossed my mind concerned the use of young girls instead of say the Self-Defense Force for alien point defense. Early on it becomes rather obvious that there something perhaps rather sinister going on with some of the school officials and their relationship to both the aliens and the Alien Party. That aspect ends up being a bit chilling considering the utter terror that Yuri is going through. The staff advisor in particular seems to have a rather personal agenda that seems to have little concern for the idea that you might be mentally scarring the poor girl.

The general pacing of the story was rather good. In fact I found that I was surprised that each episode was only 25 minutes as they seem longer. This isn't to say that I found this show slow, but rather that it just seemed like they managed to get in a several good scenes in each episodes that flowed together rather well. Even a "beach trip" half of one episode, wasn't filler as it was used to advance the character development of several characters along with demonstrating a few unexpected side effects of the human/Borg symbiosis. While badly done pacing can make something drag on forever, good pacing and good storytelling can make a short episode, as in this OAV series, seem to communicate a lot in a small amount of a time. Incidentally, to those of you who like to skip credit sequences, the final episode's credit sequences include additional plot developments.

The technical aspects were all fairly good. The character designs take a bit of getting used given the general context of the story, but all the artwork is still fairly good. The Borgs have various abilities to produce drill-like appendages, wings, and certain other elements many of which were done through good and controlled use of CGI. The in-show music was fine. Though I didn't care for the opening theme as I found its soft J-pop sound vaguely annoying and it just did not seem to fit the general feeling of the show. The end theme was nothing spectacular but it didn't annoy me either.

Overall, this was a very intriguing and highly unusual title. My main complaint concering Alien Nine is that though the four episodes complete a major story arc, they don't readily explain the entire mystery of what is and who are truly behind the Alien Parties and why the school officials are acting the way they are. I suppose that aspect is covered more in the manga. As I noted I was highly intrigued by this title and found it a different sort of experience from many anime titles I have viewed. I appreciated the pacing, the characterization, the general style, and the plot. I think if they had made another few episodes to resolve the plot, this could have reached truly excellent status, though as it currently stands it still was quite good and enjoyable, even if it was a bit disturbing at times.

Akira

2007-09-04T12:17:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

In the year 1988, a nuclear bomb of unknown origin detonated in Tokyo. World War III broke out shortly after, and soon civilization as we knew it made a radical transformation. Thirty-one years later in 2039, a governmental project doing research on a paranormal psychic power known as "Akira" has begun to make a major breakthrough (the project began in 1988, too, if you get my drift). A young delinquent biker is infused with the power, and, well... things get pretty complicated from then on. Needless to say, all of human life lies in the balance as several forces with different agendas race to intercept Tetsuo the biker before he can do...what?

Review

There is a rather substantial community of anime fans who consider Akira to be the greatest anime of all time. People who have never seen anime before will be blown away by the amazing animation and complex (I do mean COMPLEX) storyline found within this extravaganza. Even though this movie is one of the older anime, it easily blows away its contemporaries with astounding special effects and clean, crisp animation. The art is moody, gritty, and unapologetic, probably one of the few anime where none of the main characters would win "Mr. or Miss Congeniality" anytime soon. Wanna see some cute animated characters? Go watch Sailor Moon.

The storyline is very complex. So complex, in fact, that most people don't understand what the heck is going on after the first viewing. Or after the second viewing. Or the third, or fourth. If you're looking for an easy, relaxing escape from having to think so much, you'd better look elsewhere.

The characters are all portrayed realistically with no idealization. Even though most of the characters in this movie are scumbags, I found myself interested in what happened to them because they seemed so...real. Good...bad... it all gets blurred when everyone is after Akira.

Dubbing wasn't terrible, either. The voice talent did a pretty good job sounding natural, although my watching experience was spoiled a bit since the guy who did Kaneda's voice happened to be the same guy who did Leonardo's voice on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV series. ("Tetsuo! Come back here! You'll pay for this, Shredder!") Nevertheless, it was one of the better dubs I had seen.

This is considered one of THE anime out there, for good reason, too. If you haven't seen it yet, go see this one for sure. At the least, you can sound informed when all the other anime-fans you know start talking about it (and they will). Technically, it's probably the best anime there is.

Akazukin Chacha

2007-09-04T12:16:00.002-07:00

Synopsis

The red-hooded young girl Chacha is an apprentice to the great and wise sorcerer Seravi (sort of a pretty-boy Merlin with an amusingly sarcastic doll on his shoulder). She proves herself worthy to attend magic school, and goes off on various misadventures with her friends, including the loyal were-puppy Riiya, the chivalrous and clueless mageling Shiine (who is apprentice to Seravi's rival, Dorothy), and a motley cast of other kiddified fairy-tale characters. But Chacha has a secret that not even she knows - she has the power to become the Magical Princess, and can use this power to defeat the forces of Darkness! (If only she can get all those spells right first.)

Review

There are anime that get aired on Saturday morning. And then there are anime that NEED to be aired on Saturday morning. If there was ever an anime cartoon that seriously needs to be distributed outside of Japan, Akazukin Chacha is it. Super-cute, often hilarious, and heavily referencing folktales both Eastern and Western, Chacha is all that is good and wonderful about anime as children's entertainment, and proves that children's shows don't need to be just glorified toy advertisements at all.

The jokes start flying from the first frame. It's obvious that anyone with even an elementary-school knowledge of Japanese that puns are rampant in this series - Chacha for example attempts to summon a bouquet of flowers (hana), but comes up with a bouquet of noses (hana) instead. Most of Chacha's magical goofs end up being silly little things like this, and sometimes they're even translatable.

Easier to translate are the parade of allusions to numerous folktales from across the globe, ranging from quirky irony (like "the wolf", Riiya being "Red Riding Hood" Chacha's semi-boyfriend, or the school bus, which is a giant witch's broom) to direct parody (the three little pigs in one episode using straw, wood, and bricks in an attempt to defeat Chacha) and even throwaway cameos (watch for Momotaro and Hiawatha as Chacha's classmates).

Visually, Akazukin Chacha is one of the cartooniest anime in existence, with backgrounds that often seem like crayon drawings, characters who go into exaggeration expressions (even for anime), and a general aura of cute strangeness that will induce rashes in the super-serious. The school principal, Urara, is especially strange - her eyes have to be seen to be believed.

But beyond the whimsy lies a very heartwarming and intensely cute story of a girl and her friends just being kids, while defeating darkness with the powers of courage, friendship, and love (and I don't just mean the phrase they use to transform Chacha into the Magical Princess, either). Intimidating teachers turn out to be kindly protectors, enemies become allies, and rivals band together. It's all warm and fuzzy and wonderful because it entirely manages to avoid being cheesy. It's all in good fun, and the only thoroughly derivative part of it (the Magical Princess transformation) can be easily forgotten as the afterthought Sailor Moon reference that it is. (The manga actually precedes Sailor Moon and does not include that subplot at all.)

If anything, only the purposely simplistic animation and the whole Magical Princess thing have the potential to bring this down - but for a children's show, the characters and plot are light years beyond the glossier, but more artificial series that are now being offered. And as anime series go, Beyblade and Yu-Gi-Oh don't hold a candle to this series in pure entertainment value. (But don't tell the toy merchants that.)

Akazukin Chacha has been pleasing children and parents alike at our conventions for years, and I am only happy to continue recommending this series as long as there are parents who want to show anime to their children. Now, if only they would license this series locally already.

It's just so much fun!

Aishiteruze Baby

2007-09-04T12:16:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

Katakura Kippei is a high school playboy, always flirting, always lazy, and always getting into trouble. Sakashita Yuzuyu is his 5-year-old cousin, whose mother, Miyako, abandoned her. Yuzuyu is taken in by the Katakuras, and Kippei's older sister decides that until Miyako returns, Kippei will take care of Yuzuyu.
But can he take care of her responsibly?

Review

Aishiteruze Baby is one of those anime that is a lot better than it may seem at first glance. Seeing the title and the fact that the two main characters are a teenage boy and a little girl, you'd think that it's a lolicon anime. But fortunately, it isn't. Instead, it's a touching and heartfelt shoujo drama. When I heard that Aishiteruze Baby was going to be made into an anime, I immediately wanted to see it, and I was not disappointed.

The characters and plot make this anime shine. Although Kippei appears to be a lazy bum, he does care for Yuzuyu and looks out for her, and tries to take his job seriously. Of course, since he's had no experience in raising children before, he gets into some sticky situations (such as what I can only call "The Onigiri of Doom"). Yuzuyu herself is that rarest of movie and TV children: a kid who actually acts like a kid and not like a little adult. She's cute, but not sugary sweet, and watching her bond with Kippei and the rest of the family is a joy to watch. The other characters are just as good, especially Kokoro, Kippei's classmate who at first seems to be the stock EEEEEVIL character, but soon proves to be much more than that, and Shouta-kun, one of Yuzuyu's friends in kindergarten who is introduced in the later episodes.

The plot might seem to be rather "kiddy" at first, but it does have its serious moments. Yuzuyu is harassed at kindergarten because she is motherless, Kippei has to prove that he can be a responsible person, and in several heartbreaking scenes in episode 16, it is revealed that Shouta-kun's mother often beats him when she gets drunk. Fortunately, Aishiteruze Baby does not wallow in angst and has many funny scenes, too.

The art is mostly good, with lots of pastels, although the character designs only have some resemblances to Maki Youko's distinctive character designs for the original manga. The animation is somewhat low-budget, but at least it's not as creaky as, say, the second season of Tokyo Underground or any other Studio Pierrot work. The opening and ending songs are soft ballads and the rest of the music follows in this vein. It somewhat suits the anime, although sometimes the music score made me want to fall asleep.

In short, I really like this anime, and I look forward to seeing more of it. A lot of anime nowadays that have "cute" stuff in them usually push stupid bratty characters on you and expect you to think they're cute. Either that, or they pander to the toddlers. Aishiteruze Baby does neither, and that is why I recommend it.

Air TV

2007-09-04T12:13:00.000-07:00

Synopsis

Kunisaki Yukito is searching for a girl. A girl with wings.

On his travels, he ends up in a town where he meets Kamio Misuzu, a girl who experiences strange dreams. And the town itself seems to be quite the melting pot for strange events.

Review

The fact that AIR is a game-based anime was the main reason for us to choose this title for THEM's own brand of MST-ing, the synchro sessions. To be honest, I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this series, though I was sure it wouldn't be pretty.

Speaking of "not pretty", the character designs took some time getting used to. While not being downright ugly, I don't think I've ever seen anime characters where their facial features have been so oddly placed, the girls' eyes in particular. In fact, the girls' eyes were so far apart, I immediately started wondering what kind of alien species this was. The backgrounds were notably atmospheric and beautiful, though.

It was only after the first episode was done that we noticed that something was missing. For one thing, we couldn't come up with a single reason why we didn't like the show. Sure, it was silly and weird, with lots of oddness to point out and comment on, but given the fact that we were devouring and ripping apart crap like W Wish and Final Approach at the time, I was wondering just what it was about this show that didn't set off any warning bells with us, despite the cast making up a single adult male in a town full of dating game subjects; young girls.

First and foremost we have Misuzu. She was almost unbearable silly and rather unrealistically clumsy. The girl could hardly walk ten steps without falling flat on her face, and she was also prone to cutesy talk at times. ("Gao~~~~~~") Unsurprisingly, she attended school in the same town, but seemed strangely short on friends.

Yukito, our travelling puppet master and entertainer, presented us with one of the very, very few males in this title. Upon entering the town, he quickly meets up with Misuzu, who promptly takes him home with her. Much to my surprise (you're gonna see me say this a lot, so bear with me here) there was no romantic pressure to be had from this -- which seems to be the staple of a lot of game based or dating based anime shows. And while Misuzu, as noted, may very well be the clumsiest girl to ever appear in any anime title, there was no accidental panty shots, breast grabs or ANYTHING of naughtier nature. Even the introduction of a few more characters in this show changed little of the general dating game impact we expected, and by the time the first episode finished, we noticed that -- much to our surprise -- we found the show rather intriguing. The show had broken too many standard dating game/hentai anime rules. Hell, even the dog was downright hilarious during every second of its screen time.

As the episodes flew by, the plot thickened. Even now, I'm at a loss for how to explain AIR in suitable terms. The show seemed to go for more of a mystical angle, with just about every of the main characters having issues of some sort loosely based on the element of supernatural divinity hanging over the seaside town itself, which occationally returned the topic of conversation to the angel rumored to be flying above the clouds in a constant state of sadness. (Or so the legend went.) New angles were presented via the various women around the city. The token "brat" of the show even had a bit of a surprise in store for me in the episode centering around her, and by that time, I was really getting into the show. Dating games, hentai games or whatever be damned, I was enjoying this. By the forces above, I was damn well GONNA enjoy this. Even when the flashback episodes came by, introducing us to a new set of characters for a couple of episodes, I was adamant towards liking this show. And I did.

Sadly, as soon as the plot moved back to the present, that's when AIR started putting too much on its plate. The... er... transformation I could deal with, but later on, the show started putting odd twists to the story. Right out of nowhere, we get amnesia with some added parental issues thrown in for what I felt was no good reason -- no reason at all, in fact. Also, things got so metaphorically out of hand towards the end, I couldn't help but feel cheated about the whole thing. Not because I couldn't catch what was going on, but it was more because of the roundabout way they were ending the show. It's hard to put to words, but the ending ruined a lot of the impact of the show itself.

And that's a crying shame too. I really, really enjoyed the show up until the last few episodes. It broke a lot of rules usually pertaining to shows like these, and the show just.... worked on a visceral level. NONE of the characters were annoying or wore out their welcome in any way, but actually played their parts for the benefit of the story. The show is absolutely worth your time, and I actually hope it gets liscensed and released. It's just.... ARGH! That ending!

Air the Movie

2007-09-04T12:12:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

Yukito and Misuzu both have trouble being with people. Yukito cannot stand people in a crowd, and is afraid to let himself go emotionally, while Misuzu is plagued by strange physical ailments every time she falls for someone. However, as fate would have it, they are each other's exception to their rule when they are brought together in a small town by the sea one Summer.

However, are they cursed to fall into the roles of the tragic star-crossed lovers in the town legend?

Review

So here we have the black sheep of the Air franchise, which began with Key's hugely successful ren'ai game, and grew into two parallel anime adaptations: a television series (also hugely successful), and this movie. While fans of the game or similar shows gravitate immediately to the relatively traditional dating-sim television series, the movie has seemed always seemed somewhat left in the shadows by fans.

But perhaps the reason why fans do not like the movie as much is precisely the reason I DID enjoy it so much.

The Air movie is no more of a dating-sim than is a Miyazaki film. Instead, it is a moving, tragic story of star-crossed lovers, at times almost nearing Shakespearean levels, with the enchantment and simple charm of a story like Beauty and the Beast. This is of course not to insult the other incarnations of the story, which are both considered top-notch for the dating sim genre; but there was definitely something special in this little movie that I would be hard-pressed to find in any dating-sim.

There are only three main characters, an immediate surprise considering the plethora of girls surely found in the original game. However, with the time constraints of a movie’s running time, this was definitely a wise decision, and one that paid off. Although all three appeared to be cookie-cutter dating-sim archetypes at the beginning of the film, they quickly skyrocketed out of such narrow boxes and become real, dynamic characters. By the end of the movie, I was completely attached to Yukito, Misuzu, and Haruko. I cared about them, laughed with them, and cried with them (almost literally, in fact, at the film's emotional crest).

The impressive characterization in Air was all that was needed to make the plot take off full-throttle, but this was helped even more by the presentation. The film was directed quite ingeniously, with great use of visual effects and camera angles to increase the emotion of the scenes. The animation was wonderful, and CG was flawlessly integrated into the lush 2D presentation. Although much music was taken from the television series soundtrack, this is not necessarily bad, as said soundtrack is quite impressive. And the movie does have an original song, the hauntingly beautiful ballad "If Dreams Came True", which becomes the main background music for the latter third of the film.

One bone of contention about the film's direction, however, was the rather clumsy integration of the ancient legend in the film alongside the parallel situation of Yukito and Misuzu. Although I eventually embraced the legend, and think that it was probably overall a positive addition to an already viable love story, the constant switching from past to present in the beginning of the film was a bit disconcerting, and seemed to get in the way of the present-day characters. The entire thing about the legend also required some suspension of disbelief, and one could make the claim that it was unnecessary to the tragic story presented in the film. However, on the flip-side, the legend is ends up being largely responsible for the magical aura that surrounds the entire story and encompasses it in the end.

Although probably quite removed from both the Air game and series, the movie offers a sweet, simple, different sort of love story nearly flawlessly. While not particularly groundbreaking or huge in any way, this little film might just take you on a wonderful journey. It's definitely one worth going on.

Air Master

2007-09-04T12:09:00.002-07:00

Synopsis

On the streets of Tokyo, various types of fighters test themselves in street fights to determine who is the strongest of all. A new fighter has appeared who is rumored to be undefeated. Many have yet to even seen this new fighter, the Air Master, who is in reality a high school girl and former gymnast by the name of Maki.

Review

I'll admit that I tend to have a slight bias against most fighting shows. The genre in general isn't particularly appealing to me when it placed in a television series context. Now if you combine a typical fighting show with various forms of pointless fan service, I tend to be even more disinterested. Every once in a while though, I seem to run into one of these shows that I honestly enjoy simply for being a good fighting show. Air Master happens to be one of those.

The plot, at least as revealed thus far, is not particularly deep. The main character, Maki, a former competitive gymnast seems to be seeking to recapture some of the same excitement she felt in her younger days and is using street fighting as the method. Though there are a few stories that take a few episodes to cover, there is no real continuing plot arc as of yet. For the most part we are introduced to a series of diverse fighters employing different styles and at some point they and the Air Master go at it.

The animation and fight scene design are extremely well done in this show and its main strength. Though the characters obviously go a bit outside the realm of realism (the idea of BMXjutsu is amusing though), they are still much more grounded in basic physics than you see with a lot of similarly themed action shows and most importantly they actually fight. No one is flying around tossing out boring ki/energy/psychic blasts. Maki's style is a kick intensive martial art that uses elements of her own gymnastics background, and unlike, say, in the movie Gymkata, it actually comes off fairly well.

None of the character designs in this show are particularly attractive. Even most of the female characters look rather manly and plain. It didn't particularly bother me, since in a show about brutal street fights it would make sense that it wouldn't be all the beautiful people fighting, but certain anime patterns might cause people to be a bit disappointed that there aren't more bishonen or that the females aren't a bit more conventionally beautiful.

The overall tone and feeling of the show alternates between a lot of somewhat silly and somewhat puerile comedy and deadly serious fights. There are no clean fights in this show. Most of the fights tend to be very close and rather brutal. I was a bit surprised to even see them kick around a few poor "civilian" types in a few scenes.

While this show isn't exactly a stunning example of deep characterization, there is a rich cast of side characters including Maki's high school friends. Maki herself is fairly likable and given a faint aura of naivete that provides an interesting contrast with her brutal and near sociopathic Air Master persona. Her past relationship with her family and her past as a gymnast plays a heavy role in her motivation, and that is slowly explored via flashbacks and some later encounters with her family members.

The friends mostly seem to be there to provide the occasional bit of wackiness or plot hook. Besides the high school girls, most of the fighters who fight Maki seem to be woven back into the narrative as time passes including the somewhat amusing and somewhat psychotic "self-professed supermodel" Kaori Sakiyama who is obsessed with defeating the Air Master. Though she is, in a sense, simply fulfilling the fighting show's required archetype of "bitter obsessed slightly weaker rival" the strong-willed Kaori is actually a fairly intriguing character that I am growing to slowly like.

There is one additional character that could potentially drastically affect how much people enjoy this show, Maki's friend Renge. This pint-sized high school student comes off basically as a loud-mouthed brat. Obviously meant for comedy, she gets a lot of screen time, but her antics and voice are likely to annoy a large number of people. She does add a touch of cuteness later on in the show via her adoption of a pet, but I suppose people really aren't watching a show like this for cuteness anyway.

Ai Yori Aoshi ~ Enishi ~

2007-09-04T12:09:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

Two years have passed since Kaoru and Aoi first met. Life at the mansion has settled down, and Kaoru and Tina look forward to completing their college education. But while Kaoru and Aoi are finally ready to take the next step in their relationship, Tina seems to be almost dreading her graduation day. As she comes to terms with her feelings for Kaoru, she will make one of the most important decisions of her life ...

Review

Note that in the genre listing, things are slightly different than in my review of Ai Yori Aoshi. That is because in the second series, the animators learned from their mistakes in the first one and focused more on the strengths inherent in AYA. This series achieves something that is quite rare in sequels: it's better than the first.

However, because it is a sequel, it jumps right into the story, and given its brief length, it wastes no time in wrapping up plot threads that were left dangling from the first series. Unless you have seen all of the first series, you will be majorly lost throuout most of this show.

While there are a couple of filler comedy episodes, the slapstick in ~Enishi~ is all but non-existent. The point of the show is to resolve things between Kaoru, Aoi, and Tina. The Tina of ~Enishi~ has grown up and finally matured, so her AYA antics of groping breasts and guzzling beer are forced here. She is finally bored of living up to her party girl persona.

In fact, Tina is by far the most developed charater in ~Enishi~. Where she was merely annoying in AYA, she finally comes into her own, and you really feel sympathetic towards her. She discovers where Kaoru's heart truly lies, and makes a major decision about her future late in the show, and you can't help but respect her for it.

The music and animation are right on par with the original series. The ending theme "I Do!", by The Indigo, is a catchy, perky song that has become one of my all-time favorites.

Ai Yori Aoshi ~Enishi~ is everything that I hoped the original series would be, a touching, bittersweet drama with just enough comedy to keep the mood light. Now this is how a romantic comedy should be!

Ai Yori Aoshi

2007-09-04T12:05:00.003-07:00

Synopsis

(from box copy) Kaoru Hanabishi just wanted to help. Aoi Sakuraba just wanted to find her first love. They never realized that they were looking for each other. Ever since their arranged marriage 18 years ago, Aoi had been in love with Kaoru. She traveled to Tokyo to meet him when she learned that the marriage had been called off. While Kaoru's impressed by Aoi's loyalty, innocence, and beauty, to accept her affection he might have to return to the Hanabishi clan and the emotional and physical pain he suffered during his childhood. Their self-control and their love will be put to the test when she moves in and he tries to stay a gentleman!

Review

Ai Yori Aoshi has a split personality. Half of it wants to be a serious, dramatic romance with a dash of comedy like Maison Ikkoku. The other half wants to be a One Guy/Lots of Girls slapstick harem show like Love Hina. Had it decided to stick with one or the other, it would have worked beautifully. Sadly, it is unable to meld the two sides together to form a seamless show, and that is really to bad because Ai Yori Aoshi could have been really something special.

The first four episodes on DVD 1 *are* special. Kaoru and Aoi are wonderful characters. At first you think Aoi is too perfect, and that she'd be the kind of character most people mock. After all, she cleans house, cooks dinner, is very attentive and obedient of her husband and does everything with a smile. The second coming of Iwaki Rizel, right? Nope. She could have been robotic, but Aoi is a far more complex character than she lets on. She was bred to be the perfect wife for a man who will one day run her family's conglomerate. All she knows is how to be a trophy wife. Somewhere along the way, she stopped focusing on being a good wife and focused instead on how she can be a good wife for Kaoru. (Yes, there IS a difference) That she is willing to live in poverty and abandon her family for him just so she can get to know him may be a bit extreme, but soon enough you discover that Aoi's family is not a picture perfect family. They will do anything for their daughter, but there is a price to pay to be worthy of her, as Kaoru learns in episode 4.

Kaoru's family ... is a mess. The Hanabishis almost make the Soumas in Fruits Basket look like the Brady Bunch. There is a REASON he fled his family, and why he misunderstands Aoi's intentions at first. Kaoru is scarred, both mentally and physically, but he desperately needs someone in his life to be the support he never had growing up. He really does need Aoi in his life, probably more than she needs him. Their relationship is bittersweet, awkward, emotional, and not an easy one to define. It’s wonderful to see the two of them not only come into their own as a couple, but as individuals as well. They are two people who have been through a lot of hurt in their lives, and seek their salvation and redemption in each other. Very few couples in anime are as real as this one.

Unfortunately, this is not enough for the creators. In episode five, they change the series from a drama to a slapstick comedy with little transition. It’s *very* jarring for the viewer. It's almost as if the fifth episode takes place in another series altogether. Where time should be spent on Kaoru and Aoi getting to know each other more, and working out their issues with their respective families, instead Aoi becomes the landlord of a mansion, and Kaoru has to pretend he is her tenant. We are then treated to a parade of outrageously weird characters. There is Miyabi, Aoi's trusted retainer who daylights as the mansion's manager. She is also a stark raving bitch most of the time, except when the plot calls for her to have a convenient change of heart.

Then Kaoru’s college buddies start showing up, and of course his female friends, Tina and Taeko, become fellow tenants at the mansion. Tina is a very loud, very obnoxious, very dumb American who acts like a cat and whose favorite pastime is getting drunk and fondling other women's breasts, namely Taeko’s. (Apparently it’s customary in America for women to fondle each other’s breasts as a sign of friendship ... riiiiiiiight.) Taeko isn’t much better than Tina as far as brains goes. She’s very clumsy and always being suckered into situations where her voluptuous assets are exploited, usually in Kaoru’s face. It doesn’t help that Taeko is also the part time maid of the mansion. They have no idea of Kaoru's and Aoi's relationship, and thanks to a very convoluted and convenient plot point, they won't know, which leaves them free to run around, bring in more roomies as the series goes on, like Mayu, a childhood friend of Kaoru’s, and Chika, Taeko’s underage cousin who has the hots big time for Kaoru, instigate wacky hijinks in the name of making things complicated for Kaoru and Aoi.

And yet, just as the viewer gets fed up with all the sidetracking, it throws you for a loop and goes right back to being all about Kaoru and Aoi again, like the wackiness didn’t really happen. This is really disappointing, since obviously they spent a lot of time and care on this show. Even when things settle down, the show is really at it’s best when it just focuses on the main couple. Not to say that the rest of the cast is irredeemable, in fact, all the supporting cast, including Tina, get better as the series goes along, but ultimately, they aren’t the ones you want to know about. You already know from the outset that Kaoru and Aoi are going to be together, so it’s just frustrating to see all the distractions, and not the least bit funny even though it’s trying so hard to be. Forced comedy does not belong in a series like this.

The artwork and animation for Ai Yori Aoshi is stunning. The opening song by Ishida Yoko is beautiful and fits perfectly ... had the show remained a dramatic romance. I was happy that they included a music video of her singing the opening. Seeing as she’s being pushed as a crossover hit here in the US, it’s a nice bonus. The rest of the soundtrack is beautiful as well, very understated but not so much that it disappears into the background or is forgettable. The DVD boxes are beautiful as well, with reversible covers and bonus postcards. The only real gripe I have with the US release is the dub. I don't like the English track as much as the Japanese track, yet, it’s not fault of the English voice actors. This is a very Japanese series, and while though no fault of the voice actors, a lot IS lost in translation. Later on, especially when Mayu comes along, it becomes apparent that this series just doesn’t work so well dubbed, not because of the quality of voice acting, which is actually very good, but there are a lot of puns involving the English language that just don’t translate. Also, Aoi speaks in a very archaic, formal tone, and she lacks the presence that Kawasumi Ayako brings to the character. I have to give points for the effort though.

Thankfully, by the end of the third DVD, things seem to have finally settled down, and the story back on track. When it’s a drama, Ai Yori Aoshi shines, with a gripping plot, sympathetic characters, and wonderful pacing. When it’s a comedy, Ai Yori Aoshi is limp and stale, with one too many ‘been there seen that’ clichés that suck away what momentum it has. Thankfully, it has more of the former than the latter. If you can pick through the comedic gristle to get to the meaty drama that is Ai Yori Aoshi, then I definitely recommend this series. It’s not an all time classic, but there is a lot here to enjoy, and you WILL fall in love with Kaoru and Aoi.

They just deserved a far better supporting cast and storywriters, that’s all ...

Ah! My Goddess TV season 2

2007-09-04T12:05:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

Life continues for Keiichi and the goddesses after the ruckus with the Lord of Terror, and things are starting to settle down again....

...for a little while. Of course, things are never easy in the Morisato household, and both Keiichi and Belldandy will learn that they still have some ways to go in their relationship.

Review

It's been quite some time (more than two years, in fact) since I professed my love for the first season of this show, which in itself is something I had waited a long time for. After all, I had been wanting something like this for a fairly long time, and when the TV series eventually was created, it certainly didn't let me down.

And so, Ah! My Goddess: Flights of fancy is here to pick up where the first show left off, which means more animated shenanigans based fairly accurately on the manga events (with a few cosmetic changes.) At the time of writing, two volumes of this show has been released on DVD (though I have long since completed it by way of fansub.) The reason I waited with the review until I got my hands on the DVDs are mainly because I was curious whether they'd keep the original voice cast, given that ADV picked up the license in lieu of Media Blasters. And, much to my relief, they did.

Most of that relief stems from the fact that, despite my initial concerns about the Ah/Oh! My Goddess continuum gaining another group of voice actors to represent the different characters, the cast in the TV series did an admirable job in playing their respective roles in the show. (On a curious note, it would seem Peorth's VA in this show once did Belldandy in the OAV.) In other words, while I didn't really get my wish (pun/reference not intended) in regard to the voice actors, I'm not the least bit disappointed by it.

The show easily keeps up the looks from the first season -- that is, the art and animation is decent -- even good -- for the most part, with some clever use of CG to keep things smooth and flowing. Ok, so the quality may vary a little, but it never really reaches the echelon of badness, and quite frankly, I prefer the character designs of the TV series as compared to the OAV.

But even despite the importance of how it looks, where my heart truly lies is in the show itself. At the risk of running the fanboy ratio a bit too close into the red, it's still giving me exactly what I want to see; more manga stories. While one might argue that Belldandy and Keiichi's relationship doesn't seem to have progressed a whole lot, the two of them have certainly changed a lot individually. Even Urd and Skuld show great dynamic in how they interact both among themselves and towards the main couple. Ok, so yes, they still bicker and argue, and yes, they each push and pull at Keiichi and Belldandy in their own respective attempts at influencing their relationship. Still, if I may be allowed one tiny spoilerish hint, then I just have to say that I'm delighted that they chose to include the part from the manga where Skuld learns, grows and even experiences her first crush. That is... not counting the one in the last episode of the first season, of course, which was an anime only deal (albeit a very well thought out one.) Even so, Urd seems to have settled down a lot since her first appearance in the first season, and Skuld herself have calmed down and actually grown up to no small extent.

And character growth is basically where it's at. I said that the anime follows the manga pretty close, but after having seen two season's worth, I'll also have to make a note that the anime story order seems to have been shuffled quite a lot compared to the manga. Not that it's really hurting the anime any -- or the manga for that matter -- but I just thought you should know anyway. Of course, there was also a few manga story arcs I wanted to see that weren't included, but... oh well!

I guess if you were a fan of the first season, I probably don't need to tell you to go get this show -- or if you didn't like it, not to bother, then. Much like with Aria the Animation and Aria the Natural, this show is the natural follow-up to the first season of Ah! My Goddess TV. Nothing more and certainly nothing less.

Now, if someone would just grant my other wish and start the production of the third season....

Ah! My Goddess TV season 1

2007-09-04T12:03:00.002-07:00

Synopsis

After a long and tiresome day, Morisato Keiichi plops down in his student dorm, wanting nothing more than to relax with a nice takeout dinner. What he receives, however, is a goddess popping out of his mirror telling him he has been granted a wish. ANY wish.

So, what does Keiichi do when a gorgeous woman pops into his apartment? He wishes for her to stay with him forever, which is then approved, with all the benefits and problems that entails.

Review

My first encounter with the Ah! My Goddess universe actually happened when I purchased the European VHS releases of the OAV around eight years ago. I'm pretty sure most of you know that show as the rather excessively compressed version of a rather extensive manga that is, to my knowledge, even being worked on and released to this day. The OAV, while having its share of faults, was a welcome break for me at the time, since my anime diet consisted mostly of sci-fi shows or horror shows -- mainly the type of shows European distributors thought their audience wanted. And those faults aside, it's still an enjoyable show, lack of proper characterization notwithstanding.

Still, after reading large amounts of the simply magnificent manga, I knew what I wanted. I wanted a show that provided me with, if not all, then most of the stories, episodes and characterizations of the manga. And from the looks of it, Ah! My Goddess TV delivers just that. Sure, there are changes being made, but despite that, it's actually strangely close to the manga. The entire first episode is dedicated to presenting us with the character that makes up Morisato Keiichi. Unlike in the OAV, he's more cynical, more self-assured (though, compared to the OAV, that's not really saying much), and seems to deal with his companions' absurdities with a resignated "why me" expression plastered on his face. He's still a total gearhead, though, and he freaks out all the same when women start floating out of his mirror.

Belldandy, on her part, seems to be a lot more clueless about human behavior and traditions than in the OAV. While she is every bit as kind and benevolent as her OAV self, she puzzles rather easily over what anyone would think of as common sense, and it takes her quite a few episodes before she figures out that proclaiming herself to be a goddess to everyone might not be such a good idea. She's optimistic to a fault, though, and she deals with any supernatural elements crossing their paths quickly and efficiently. While she wasn't my favorite character in the OAV, I grew fond of her rather quickly in the manga, and this carries over quite well to the TV series. She grows and learns as a person in the duration of the show -- even just the twelve episodes I've watched -- and the budding relationship between her and Keiichi is therefore a lot more believable than its OAV counterpart, and certainly no less endearing.

Up to this point, Skuld has yet to make her appearance in the TV series. Urd, however, is every bit as hilarious as she was in the manga AND the OAV. So, between Keiichi and the goddesses, the show quickly settles into the rhythm of madness I had wanted to see ever since I read the manga. One tiny complaint would be that Urd seems a lot meaner than she was portrayed in the manga, though thankfully, that settles once her introductory episode was over. This IS a relief, because I was honestly worried that once Skuld made her entrance, the writers would make her brattier than normal just because.

The art from the TV series seems to follow the later chapters of the manga, which is great, except ... well, I feel the art quality falters when, for instance, characters are seen from a distance. Also, the animation quality seems to fluctuate a lot between great to passable. What's more, the CG used when the characters are out driving is rather noticeable and artificial-looking. On the other hand, when the art style is at its peak, it's GREAT. Plus, a lot of attention has been put on various vehicles, making them look not only good, but downright realistic. All right, so the racing episode looks a bit ... videogame-like, but it's a good example of computer graphics being put to good use. And when one of the characters in the show is a total gearhead, that's quite an important detail.

As for the music, it's quite an improvement from the downright tacky music in the OAV. The show opens with a soft-rock piece with rather obvious celtic folk elements which suits the show to a tee, despite it being about Japanese guys and Scandinavian women. The inshow music is no worse for wear. Not even the enka ballads, which are hilariously presented as Urd's very own brand of sleeping medicine. For the voice actors, it looks like most of the cast from the earlier animated shows have returned to do their respective roles ... which I'm pretty sure the fans are going to appreciate. As for the dub, I can only hope that Media Blasters elects to keep the actors from either the OAV or the movie. (Given the choice, I'd go with the movie cast, but that's just me.)

I've been wanting this show for a long, long time -- ever since I read the manga. I'm very grateful for its quick licensing and (hopefully impending) release. Like I noted above, I have no idea for how many episodes it'll last, but I certainly wish it a long life. There are many, many manga story arcs I want to see -- that I HOPE to see animated. And now I probably will.

I'm a happy man.

Ah! My Goddess The Movie

2007-09-04T12:03:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

It's been two and a half years since the events occurring in the OAV series. The three sister goddesses, Belldandy, Urd, and Skuld are still living with mortal Morisato Keiichi, and Keiichi continues to attend Nekomi Tech. Belldandy has decided to also attend Nekomi Tech, and participates in the Motor Club with Keiichi. Today is the day of the Club Fair, and while Keiichi reminisces about his own first experiences at Nekomi (and gets the unwanted attention of his drunken female underclassmen), Belldandy has a chance encounter with a fellow deity - one who she regards as a teacher and mentor. But he has his own agenda, as does the mysterious newcomer Morgan, and Belldandy is hit with amnesia, setting off a chain of events that may topple the very pillar of life itself: the great tree Yggdrasil.

Review

I'll try to keep the spoilers at a minimum. This movie certainly deserves that much.

Ah My Goddess The Movie is set quite a bit later than the OAV series, and though some of the characters (Chihiro, Peorth) have only appeared in manga since then and are assumed to be common knowledge, the movie is still able to stand alone without having read the manga, much like the first Tenchi Muyo movie.

That having been said, there is no longer any excuse for any TV or OAV series-based movie to suck. This movie has proven that, yes, you can do a series-based movie without it seeming like an overlong episode, or relying on the alternate universe deus ex machina. It's canon, and it's really, really good.

"How good?" For starters, the animation and music are absolutely beautiful. It's been joked that the OAV series was cut to five episodes because they couldn't afford to animate the goddesses' hair, but that's not really the truth. There wasn't enough budget to completely render the universe that Fujishima Kousuke has created, and now that CG has become a seamless part of anime, Fujishima decided it was time to make a feature that incorporated that, as well as having more of the backstory set in Heaven. It helps that the music chosen for the movie (performed by the Warsaw Philharmonic), while usually subtle, creates just the right background for each and every scene. Bonus points for Belldandy's song (easily one of the most soulrending beautiful pieces ever to grace an anime - each and every time).

The character designs are even truer to the Oh My Goddess manga than the original OAV series is. Though a slight (and perceptible) change for fans of the OAV series, it's not really an issue for fans of the manga (like myself).

However, it's the characterization and plot that really make this movie shine. The complaint I had with the OAV was that the characters were oversimplified and weak. Belldandy, in particular, comes off as a complete doormat in the OAV series. After watching the movie, you will never think of Belldandy as a doormat ever again. All the characters do a lot of soulsearching, and reveal aspects of themselves that hadn't been apparent before in the OAVs. And thankfully, no one's perfect. Better yet, Keiichi isn't just a lovable loser anymore, and he's a stronger character for it.

In fact, after watching the movie, I fell in love with this series all over again. While the OAV series was a wonderful rendition of the Fujishima art style, this movie is a perfect translation of his universe, and it's incredibly beautiful. And the plotline, while largely dependent on the fantasy-turned-technology Yggdrasil system and Keiichi's obsession with anything with a motor, is never dull or uninteresting, and that one hour and forty minutes delivers a lot of it. (And Peorth's pretty cool, too!) There are even some incredibly rendered action sequences involving the goddesses and their angels (yes, these finally show up in anime form!). Though the climax is slightly beyond the bounds of reality (as if the whole thing isn't!) it'll leave many fans breathless.

Oddly enough, this movie was originally planned to run an entire three hours. One wonders just how much more they could have packed into a movie like this. The movie never seemed clipped while I was watching it, and if it was, I was too interested in the plot to care.

No superlative gives justice to this anime movie. If only other series-based movies were more like this.

Now, if only they'd get off their duff and make this incredible story into a real TV series. Please?

Agent Aika

2007-09-04T12:02:00.004-07:00

Synopsis

From the cover blurb of the R1 DVD, which I had to include, because I think it tells you more about this title than any review can:

"Now on DVD from U.S. Manga Corps! From the creator of Project A-Ko! She's sexy, suave, and sophisticated, but she's no bimbo. She's a martial arts expert and a jet fighter pilot with the body of a supermodel. She's Aika, and she's one of the best secret agents in the business. Armed with her trusty, semi-sentient super-battle bustier, no risk is too great!"

Review

Well, I've only got myself to blame, I suppose, since I at least partly knew what I was getting myself into.

The worst part is that the very framework this OAV series is built on is actually pretty good. It borrows a LITTLE bit from Waterworld, what with the ocean levels having risen significantly, now covering ever so much more of this world (though not to the extent as in the aforementioned movie.)

Take that, throw in some action scenes, the creepiest set of villains I have ever seen, and heaps upon heaps of panty-clad ass, and you have Agent Aika. It SHOULD probably have been a guilty pleasure, but becomes more of an overdose. EVERY action scene seems to end up with unconscious females lying with their butts poking up into the air. And, of course, the future has miniskirts being the only female-approved attire. This OAV series has more panties than I've ever seen in any anime before, and I've seen only half of it.

The art and animation is actually pretty decent, if nothing else. The VAs do a good job too, though the music was pretty much forgettable. Or perhaps I was just distracted. I dunno. How the dub is, I'm afraid I'll never find out.

Of the four episodes I watched, the plot actually had a concrete ending, meaning that this OAV actually has two story arcs. The plot of the one I've seen was decent enough, even though it featured your creepy evil brother-and-sister team that is a little bit closer than most. >_<>

My money's on the latter.

In either case, I really can't recommend you watching this unless you do have a panty or ass fetish. For everyone else, this just becomes too much.

The Adventures of the Mini-Goddess

2007-09-04T12:02:00.003-07:00

Synopsis

This collection of shorts features Urd, Skuld, Belldandy, and Gan-chan, the Morisato household rat, in a series of comedic misadventures (usually the fault of Urd and Skuld).

Review

If you haven't seen Oh My Goddess, or really didn't care for it if you did watch it, don't bother watching this.

Similarly, if your idea of humor does not include the "gag panel" style of comedy manga, where your favorite character is placed in various slapstick situations, then don't bother watching this.

However, if you don't mind shutting your brain off for a little while and thinking, gee, what havoc could Urd and Skuld wreak on an unsuspecting rodent, then Adventures of the Mini-Goddess is for you.

Gag-panel style manga isn't meant to be intelligent; it's meant to poke fun at the series in question and certain aspects of Japanese pop culture. So when Gan is mutated by mold into the beast Gabira (there's even a fake Toho logo in the beginning of the short), watch for all the cliches of the monster films from the 50s right down to the last Gamera flick. Baseball movies, the Aliens series, and the history of flight and space exploration are also treated likewise. Yes, it's improbable. Yes, it's stupid. But it's worth a chuckle or two if you're in the right mood. (Or even rolling on the floor if it's *really* silly.) And it's actually a riot to see Urd acting like Belldandy for ten minutes. (Don't ask me how it happens, just watch the darn series.)

For a series of shorts, the animation is surprisingly good, almost up to the level of the original OAV series. Characterization and plot are totally unnecessary - if you're expecting that out of an SD feature, then you've already missed the point. (Super-deformed anime never makes sense in context to the original series. It's not supposed to.) And the music is appropriately silly, with a surprisingly beautiful end song (which I actually like better than a lot of the Goddess Family Club songs, much to my surprise).

Again, if you don't like to suspend your sense of disbelief for an obviously silly parody series, then pass this up. However, if you do have a sense of humor that can forgive obvious stupidity in the face of cuteness ... well, then SD Oh My Goddess is just fine.

And Belldandy is still a doormat. Well, two out of three ain't bad ...

The Adventures of Kotetsu

2007-09-04T12:02:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

Lost in Tokyo, Suzuki Linn, a young teenager from Kyoto, quite accidentally bumps into trouble and is "rescued" by private detective Miho Kuon. Linn tells Miho that she came to Tokyo to get away from her evil witch of a mistress and find her older brother. As it turns out, her brother used to work for Miho, so until she can get in touch with him, she invites Linn (also known as "Kotetsu") to stay with her. Unfortunately, Miho has enemies in the Syndicate, and before long, Linn is swept up in the intrigue and weirdness of the Tokyo underground as she fights assassins, rogue dryads, and Taoist magicians with the ancient sword stolen from her mistress.

Review

Now when I say intrigue in the synopsis above, I mean it in the very loosest of terms. Kotetsu is, sadly, one of the many anime released in the mid-to-late 90s that simply never took off, and so was never continued. The short story told in the OAVs plays out to its conclusion but never adequately builds up the main characters. Because of its extreme brevity, the rather large amounts of cheesecake, which might have otherwise become a funny sidetrack to a longer series, instead become the main focus of the show, to the detriment of the plot and characterization.

What's most frustrating about this anime is that it really could have been good. You have a cute female lead, sword-fights, magic, and lots of naked girls. A fanboy's dream show, ne? Unfortunately it just doesn't pan out. The biggest fault: it's too short. The anime was based off the manga The Adventures of Kotetsu by MEE, which from what I understand was rather long. The anime, however, barely covers the first story arc. None of the supporting characters get any attention at all and become window dressing used for one-shot gags. The main characters, Linn, Miho, and the nerdy sorcerer that Linn fights aren't as two-dimensional, but still lack a lot of background. The action scenes are reasonably well done, but seem to be used more as an excuse for Linn to prance about half-naked than to advance anything in the plot. I expect (nay, demand) a certain level of cheese from a blatantly shounen title such as this, but I'd also like to see the story go somewhere in the meantime. After the credits for the second episode rolled, I was left wondering where episode three went. It just needed more.

The animation is decent, but the soundtrack is forgettable. The intro "music" is rather annoying, as it reminds me vaguely of chihuahuas trying to do kabuki. As for audience appropriateness, this is a show definitely targeted at a young male audience. The levels of violence and nudity mark it clearly in the teens and up category (many retailers, like Suncoast, have this marked as an 18 and up title). Anime neophytes may enjoy it, but will quickly forget it.

Ad Police TV

2007-09-04T12:01:00.004-07:00

Synopsis

Something strange is happening in Genom City, and it's up to the high-tech crime specialists of the AD Police to get to the bottom of the mystery. The traditional police squad-room drama popularized by television's NYPD Blue and Hill Street Blues is given a futuristic anime overhaul in AD Police. In a five-hour story arc, we are introduced to Genom City's elite squad of specialists and watch as they encounter tragedy after tragedy in their quest to solve a mystery which threatens to destroy the infrastructure of a once-powerful city under reconstruction following a massive natural disaster.

Review

Laws of Anime:
#16 - Law of Inverse Accuracy:
The accuracy of a "Good Guy" when operating any form of firearm increases as the difficulty of the shot increases. The accuracy of the "Bad Guys" when operating firearms decreases when the difficulty of the shot decreases. (Also known as the Storm Trooper Effect) Example: A "Good Guy" in a drunken stupor being held upside down from a moving vehicle will always hit, and several battalions of "Bad Guys" firing on a "Good Guy" standing alone in the middle of an open field will always miss.

Now take the aforementioned example literally and tell me why this shouldn't be in a cop drama. You have five seconds.

Okay, pencils down please. Hand your answers to the front slowly, that way all implanted bombs will go off before they reach me.

The answer to that question, and basically my problem with this whole series? When a creator is attempting to pull an anime NYPD Blue, they simply can not expect me to believe that the two perfect, sexy cops can take down 20+ raging military-grade Boomers with nothing other than pistols. (Hello! What about armor? Who would want tin cans that can't protect themselves from even small-arms fire?). Talk about your "specialist policemen." If this title had decided to go totally one way or the other, either fantastical with drama, or just complete "average-policeman rising to the situation" cop drama (like the reverse cover leads us to believe) it may have been passable, but the creators decided to try to do both, and accomplished neither.

It also doesn't help that the two main leads come off flatter than the proverbial pancake. It almost seems as if they really aren't characters at all, but mechanical constructs of past characters. Heck, even calling them "stereotypes" would probably be stretching it. Everything about the heros seems blatantly contrived: a Japanese "punk" specialist paired with a foreign (in this case German) pretty boy? You know, that partnership doesn't sound too bad, until you realize that they are going to go through and milk it for all it's worth without even trying to add anything even slightly original or even interesting, all to leave me with a very "meh" reaction to what should have been a really dynamic partnership (if it were done right).

And don't even get me started on the artwork. For those of us who remember the fully-detailed exquisiteness of the Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040 Voomers, there should be a moment of silence, as this series contains none that even resemble those voomers. The voomers in this series, one in particular that I'm thinking of, could pass for a blurry action shot of a vacuum cleaner with eight hoses waving around, sound and all, not to mention the various appropriate "suckage" puns that could be applied there. The only aspects that look like they had a larger animation budget than South Park are when the two main characters are doing "cool things (TM)" and some scenes near the end, where everything seems to inexplicably get better animated.

Out of all of this title's attributes, however, the plot was the lone above-average point in a vast sea of putrid-smelling dung, as it starts out pretty weak for the first six episodes in order to introduce the flat characters, but then, like the animation, gets markedly better by the end. When the story is told by such irritatingly shallow characters and presented in such an unattractive package, however, the unanimous response of my test audience of myself and three other people was the same, "who cares?" Even the VHS release of this series could be indicated as enough evidence of these shortcomings, after all, ADV actually stopped releasing it after only the second tape, waiting more than a year to release the "To Protect and To Serve" set on DVD!

The Abashiri Family

2007-09-04T12:01:00.003-07:00

Synopsis

The Abashiri criminal family is about to reveal its greatest secret: the youngest "son" of the family is really the first female born to the family in centuries! (Why her brothers didn't notice this before is beyond me.) But between the senseless violence of their world and the whims of a few arch-criminals who would silence their opposition, does Abashiri Kikunosuke stand a chance of becoming the daughter her father wants her to be, or will she die trying?

Review

What happens when the yakuza go insane? You get the Abashiri family - a family of criminal goons that is simply beyond belief. How Kikunosuke (the lone female of the family) manages to keep a semblance of sanity in that background is beyond me. Amid very unsettling violence, she goes to school to attempt to be a normal girl (only God knows why), only to find out she's entered the school from Hell. (Literally.) Fight, kill, live. (Did Go Nagai have THAT bad of a childhood or something?)

The Abashiri Family is a truly absurd, yet somehow amusing piece of animation that is akin to Cutey Honey meets the yakuza meets Itchy and Scratchy. The superhuman powers of the family itself tend toward the hilarious side, with one of the sons, for example, almost literally a rubber man as far as flexibility (practiced in his pursuit of ladies' undergarments a la Happosai).

The body count in this show is staggering, bloody, and bared to the screen. The story includes double-crosses, traps, and all manner of devices designed to make an end of the Abashiri criminal empire, which inevitably fail due to their inhuman powers and capabilities of killing. For all it's worth, very few characters in this show are portrayed as being truly good. (Don't attach yourself too much to the one that is...hint, hint.) The Abashiri clan might be the protagonists, but they are just as loaded with faults as the villains in the cast, though by no means as mean-spirited or nefarious. They want to rule, not destroy, and that makes them far more "noble" than those who would kill and rape to keep control. So it seems, anyway.

I'd really recommend this only for those with the strongest constitutions. Lots o' bloody death a la Go Nagai, slightly dated animation and art, and really bizarre character designs make this one a truly strange trip indeed. Again, being hopped up on caffeine at six in the morning also helps with this one. Just don't bother making too much sense of it; there's just not a lot of sense to be found here.

Ad Police

2007-09-04T12:01:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

AD Police Files is a prequel to the series Bubblegum Crisis and Bubblegum Crash. There is also a new AD Police TV series, which has a completely different cast and characters.

The year is 2027 in Mega Tokyo, six years before the Knight Sabers will make their debut. Boomers (artificial humans) are still a relatively new advancement, and the implementation and integration of boomers into society is still a bit buggy -- sometimes fatally so. Whenever a boomer incident occurs, though, there is the ADvanced Police, a special force trained to deal with boomer crimes.

Leon McNichol is a rookie in the AD Police, and is just starting to become exposed to the horrors and tragedies one finds every day in Mega Tokyo. He and his veteran partner, Gina Marceau, slowly learn about the ever-fading line that separates man from machine.

Review

If these are the best files the AD Police could come up with, I think I'll go to a different filing cabinet.

Okay -- AD Police Files isn't that bad, but it certainly isn't that good, either, and it definitely doesn't live up to the hype it creates for itself.

Let's take the art and animation, for starters. The art isn't that bad, but there's really nothing there to separate it from the scads of mecha-type titles out there already. The animation is simply average (when an opening sequence fails to spark my interest, it's lost half the battle already), which is below par for a title of this genre. The music is all right, though, and in true Bubblegum Crisis style, each tape ends with two or three music videos featuring (violent) clips from each episode.

The plots themselves, though, are pretty interesting, with plenty of menace and malice to make you shift uncomfortably in your seat. You will not see Nene Romanova cutely complaining about her weight, if you get my drift. Twisted souls and demented homunculi grace the screen nicely, and actually steal the show much more than the generic AD Police ever do. Leon's all right and all (thank goodness Daley Wong doesn't show), but the show really belongs to the Boomers, who are, in truth, the most developed of characters.

Not too bad, if you don't have too much else to do. If you're a BGC junkie, you'll definitely enjoy this one. Other people might want to save this one until they run out of other things to watch.

801 TTS Airbats

2007-09-04T11:59:00.003-07:00

Synopsis

The Japanese Self Defense Force has a place for those aviators who just can't seem to get out of trouble - Iruma Air Base's all-female 801st Tactical Training Squadron, where both pilots and planes go to pieces on a regular basis. The 801st consists of four cute pilots: Haneda Miyuki, who slapped her previous commander for being telling her she couldn't be a pilot; Mitaka Arisa, a tough-girl who beat up someone in her old squadron; Shimorenjaku Yoko, who'd rather let her pet bat, Chii-chan, fly around than get into a plane herself; and Saginomiya Sakura, an otherwise upstanding sergeant with a gambling problem. Into the fray comes the hapless Isurugi Takuya, the lucky guy who's been assigned as their mechanic. His sin: being an otaku, naturally. And of course, he's there to cheer on the girls of the 801st as they try to beat the odds to become the pilots of Japan's aerobatic team: Blue Impulse. But of course, they have to make sure their egos don't tear the squadron apart first.

Review

Well, seeing as this is based off a manga by Shimizu Toshimitsu, who also did such (ahem) classics as Rei Rei: The Missionary of Love, one can be forgiven for mistaking this for ecchi fluff.

The first few minutes will definitely lead you in that direction, since there's a shower scene and an "oops-I-walked-into-a-naked-woman-dressing" scene. But apart from a bit of fan service in successive episodes, that's it. No sex. And God forbid, no tentacles. 801 TTS Airbats has none of that stuff.

What it does have are cute, cute pilots, a genuinely fun daydreamer of a male lead in Takuya, and an average plot that manages to stay charming enough to be enjoyable. Though each one of the pilots is a bit stereotyped, the seiyuu pull it off well enough to make them reasonably believable - well, there is Yoko, who -shouldn't- be piloting, but her choice of a pet alone is enough to make her funny. (There's a reason they're called the "Airbats", ya know.) Of course, the main rivalry is between Arisa and Miyuki - the two of them start to develop feelings for Takuya (which isn't surprising considering how few males will associate with the 801st, much less males their own age), and sparks fly. And, naturally, Takuya always gets the worst of it. Especially when the planes get involved.

Speaking of the planes, they are invariably heavily detailed and quite recognizable. Most of the time, at least in the first tape, they're flying Mitsubishi F-1 trainers. More than once did I say, "Oh, that's an -insert plane type here-" about three seconds before Takuya says it. Okay, so maybe I'm a bit of an airplane otaku myself, but it says a bit for a series if it at least stays technically accurate. The one drawback, of course, is that with so much detail, you just can't get the budget on an OAV series to animate a plane like that smoothly, but the flight sequences were passable, even if quite a few of the stunts they pull in Airbats would get anyone court-martialed in a heartbeat in real life. (As if Top Gun didn't pull that either!)

The one drawback is that the writing isn't particularly good. The plot goes here and there without fully resolving some scenes, but by and large it isn't terribly out of the norm for an anime. 801 TTS Airbats is like, say, watching one of those 80s movies like Feds and Stripes, nothing more than lightweight military fantasy. It's not supposed to be impressive - it's made to be cute and funny and more than a bit silly. By and large, it works, too.

8 Man After

2007-09-04T11:59:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

8 Man After is the sequel to the first 8 Man series, which I have not seen.

A new breed of cybernetic gangsters are starting to populate the streets of the big city (Tokyo, I presume), with cannons, gatling guns, and rocket launchers implanted in their arms, torsos, and various other sundry places. These junkies are dependent on a type of narcotic to keep them from becoming raging psychopaths (which they do anyway).

When a private eye investigates the disappearance of a scientist responsible for the cybernetic phenomenon, he gets brutally attacked by the opposition. The only way to save him is to implant him with cybernetic parts to make him into the new 8 Man (the first had lost control and had run off into the wilderness somewhere in self-exile), a super crime-fighting cyborg with the power to defeat his adversaries by running past them really really quickly. Complications, of course, show up as the new 8 Man struggles with his identity while trying to retain self-control and fight crime at the same time.

Review

Well... maybe the flick might mean more to someone who's actually seen the original 8 Man series. As a stand-alone, it's pretty sub-standard. It starts out promising enough, with a few characters I can kind of tolerate, but quickly degenerates into another "Who am I? Where am I going? And why is my skin all metal all of a sudden" type of story. Which wouldn't be bad all by itself if it was done convincingly. Unfortunately, it's not.

The characters are all pretty much flat and unbelievable (except for the kid, who I could tolerate more than most), and I found myself not really caring what happened to any of them. Animation is decent enough so that I didn't notice any glaring inconsistencies except for the incredibly irritating stock-footage they used to show the 8 Man running really quickly to defeat his foes. I hate stock footage on general principle, and uninteresting stock footage is even worse. Soundtrack was adequate, and dubbing was as good as I could expect in a flick like this.

All in all, a bitter disappointment. The plot fails to build to any sort of climax, and the ending is more of a relief than a resolution. If you want android/mecha sci-fi, turn elsewhere.

6 Angels

2007-09-04T11:58:00.003-07:00

Synopsis

In the near future, the death penalty has been revoked worldwide. Therefore, criminals are sent to an underground prison set in the impact crater of a nuclear site somewhere in the United States, known as Neo Purgatory. (Hold on, this gets better.) A group of women, known as the Guard of Rose, is caught in the crossfire when the mysterious villain Donn Canyon launches his mission to "purify the world" with radiation, or something like that.

Can Maki, Naomi, Doris, Marilyn, and Katherine save the human race from utter annihilation? Will the Canyon family succeed in browbeating the world's superpowers to accept their fate? Will the President of the United States ever find a decent spell-check program?

Review

6 Angels is what happens when you get some mecha designer schmuck to conceive and direct a full feature-length film. Sure, director Kobayashi Makoto of Z Gundam and Giant Robo design fame knows how to draw large hunks of metal. Unfortunately when it comes to actually choosing to base an entire story around them, Kobayashi and equally untalented creator and scriptwriter Akimoto Yasushi fail in a way very few have deigned to fail before.

No, this is not the *same* Kobayashi Makoto who created the charming comics What's Michael and Club Nine. We swear. Granted, Kobayashi was not actually supposed to be the director in the first place: the original director for this project was Kouson Akira, who was involved in Macross, but also had a hand in the disastrous Yamato 2520. Smelling another disaster in the making, Kouson bolted after producing the trailer of what would've been a much better film (conveniently included as one of the many extras on the questionably legal DVD we acquired of this movie). Kobayashi Makoto (whose sole previous directing credit was for the obscure OAV Dragon's Heaven back in 1988) proved a loyal second-stringer, and therefore delivered this stunning failure of a movie.

Just imagine MD Geist as acted by the cutesy cast of I'm Gonna Be An Angel (incidentally, one of Kato Hiromi's previous character design jobs), with a cutesy, last minute tag-along mecha that looks suspiciously like Meroko, the bunny angel from Full Moon o Sagashite.

Can't wrap your mind around those comparisons? Here, I'll make it simpler for you.

6 Angels features cute, cute girls with bizarre hair colors and odd eye highlights, ugly, lantern-jawed villains with scissors randomly stapled to their outfits, intrigue involving the cabinets of both the United States and the inexplicably resurrected Soviet Union, heavy-handed anti-nuclear environmentalist preaching, heavy-handed promotion of domestic violence awareness, buckets of blood, and pointless bare-booby shots. Anything you could ever want in an anime is slapped together in this single movie, which, for ninety excruciating minutes, vainly tries to tie all of these hopelessly disparate subjects together into a single coherent message.

If there was ever a film in which we, as viewers, had NO FREAKING CLUE WHAT THE CREATORS ARE TRYING TO DO, 6 Angels is it. Bounty Dog made more sense. Baoh had better, more believable villains. And MD Geist ... well, it's still crap, but 6 Angels only surpasses it by virtue of having spiffy (if utterly wasted) CG sequences.

So where do we even begin to dissect this beast of a film? For starters, we can tackle the film's soundtrack, produced by Amano Masamichi (Battle Royale), who really, really ought to know better. The BGM sounds eerily similar to the background of the Care Bears Movie, ethereal and fluffy and jarring and likely the result of a five-year-old banging on a synthesizer. A theatrical release should not have music this crappy. I don't even remember there being an opening or ending theme ... I guess the creators couldn't really have given a crap about whether we had the speakers on during this film.

Okay, maybe that's not true. The creators want you to listen to the irritating Mamiya Kurumi (Hamtaro, Hamtaro). She plays the annoying and incredibly pointless mecha mascot, Link, who goes from alarm clock to tactical battlefield war machine during the course of this film. It's Jar-Jar all over again, but with a squeaky Japanese woman's voice: sheer hell. Thanks to the DVD extras we screened, we learn that this entire character was a last minute addition by our second-string director Kobayashi Makoto, who has to be incredibly stupid to think that inserting a character like this into a war film would be a really good idea. Coincidentally, Yasushi Akimoto is also incredibly stupid, which is the only way to explain him giving Link a major role in his hastily rewritten screenplay.

That's right, kids. The creators COMPLETELY rewrote the film around Link. This is NOT a good thing.

The voice actresses who play the Guard of Rose girls are uniformly mediocre and less interesting than the girls of the Gall Force, which is especially dismaying considering the talent among them. These aren't total nobodies here: we have Neya Michiko (Rally Vincent, Gunsmith Cats), Shiratori Yuri (Cherry, Saber Marionette J), Okamura Akemi (Myao, Carried by the Wind: Tsukikage Ran), and Asano Mayumi (Hisoka, Descendants of Darkness). The worst of the lot is the lead, Orikasa Tomiko (Meia Gisborn, Vandread), who is reduced to voicing a character who chases off men by insinuating that her breasts are actually bombs.

Obviously, these ladies are not given much of anything to work with, especially considering that character development was the last thing on director Kobayashi's mind, a fact we also learn from the handy-dandy DVD extras.

The incredibly sad thing about this movie is that, while the character animation isn't great, there are gobs and gobs of well-executed CG that seems like an utter waste of this studio's resources. You see CG pans of Neo Purgatory, CG pans of the American space nuclear missile platform, CG pans of the Deus ex Machina "angel" who shows up for no good reason halfway through the flick (remember this), and even a CG pan of the office of the Guard of Rose. You get CG pans of everything short of the Rose Guards' underwear closet.

Unfortunately, for all the money they spent on animation computers, they didn't spend a dime on an English language spell-checker. Even Windows Word could have caught the gross spelling errors in this film. Neo Purgatory is consistently misspelled as "Neo Pagatory" ... no, not in the dodgy (possibly Chinese) subtitles, but in the actual movie screen text. Dead people are "decased". And stunningly, "nucrear missiles" are "exprosioned". The kicker? All of these are displayed on screens that are supposed to be the computer system for the President of the United States! It's mass Engrish of a magnitude greater in scope than any single feature ever made. Even Bubblegum Crisis did English better ... and 6 Angels is actually supposed to be set in America?

Whatever.

Yeah, back to that character animation. Whoever thought it would be cute to have a character with blonde hair and purple highlights named Marilyn Moreau has been watching way too much Tank Girl. All of the girls have eye highlights that neither match their eye colors nor ambient light conditions. Sure, there are wild and wacky hair color designs in good anime (even in The Animatrix) but these "Guard of Rose" girls look like they belong in a circus, not a mercenary outfit.

What the hell kind of name is "Guard of Rose", anyway?

As if the character designs weren't bad enough, the characterization is even worse, especially the "lead character", the inexplicably Japanese Aoba Maki, who goes around blowing stuff up in the name of curing domestic violence. Of course, there's the obligatory stowaway / catalyst character, Katherine Hawke (misspelled all variety of ways), who is really there is kill off one of the "sub-bosses" by cutely plugging him between the eyes with a pistol while whining. Oh yeah. Classic cinema.

Strangely enough, this movie is broken up into chapters, as if it's really supposed to be a six episode series of ten-to-fifteen minute Internet shorts. As it stands, even converting this movie to an OAV series wouldn't help this anime a damn bit. Kobayashi Makoto's sense of pacing is about as good as his sense of characterization - this thing wouldn't be well-paced in any viewing format.

The convoluted, confused plot simply defies comparison with other anime; it's just really, really bad. An actual scene from this movie has the Neo Purgatory baddies hacking the United States orbital nuclear missile platform by way of Soviet satellites. That's one of the least nonsensical moments of the film, and I'm not exaggerating. Less than halfway through the film, the entire audience of three THEMers had long since given up trying to make heads or tails of this damn thing. So will you.

How about those villains who want to "purify the Earth with radiation"? They're a singularly Evil (TM) lot of nutcases drawn from the dregs of the MD Geist-era stock set of characters - their insistence on polluting the Earth to destroy the human race makes them sound a whole lot like those villains on Captain Planet, and about as hilarious in their obvious, ridiculous amounts of Theatrical Evil.

There's the Evil Donn Canyon (isn't that a porn star name?), who is big and imposing, with hair stolen from Street Fighter II's Guile, a left eye snagged from Midnight Eye Goku, and an outfit accessorized with barber's shears. (Eh?) Note that the creators couldn't even get his name right, misspelling it "Cannione" on various occasions.

There's the Evil Ed Canyon, his second-in-command and eldest son, who randomly has veins bulging in his temples while looking like an Evil Salaryman, or a reject from X.

There's the Evil Sam and Terry Canyon, who look like Evil Twin Metallica Roadies, chasing girls around with giant bots, while prancing around half-naked in bondage gear, and listening to second-rate music that wouldn't cut it at Zia Records. For no good reason halfway through the film, the dastardly duo try to sexually abuse one of the Rose Guards in a scene lifted from every other post-apocalyptic movie ever made.

And there's the Evil Akira Canyon (what is it again with these random Japanese names?), the boyish-looking and transparently psychotic computer hacker who manages to get himself capped by Ed. For no good reason halfway through the film.

Oh yeah, and there's two random guys (JC and Mike) whose entire purpose in this film is to run in fear from Maki's naked breasts. Because, like, they're bombs, you know! They carry the Rose Guard's luggage, act as inept spies against the bad guys, and randomly grow wings. For no good reason halfway through the film.

Screw it. Here's the rest of the plot.

Through this entire crisis, the Russian, oops, Soviet Air Force inexplicably shows up in the form of mutant mecha variants of Beriev jet flying boat bombers (with Mazinger lifting arms) that drop off carbon copies of Jung-Freud's mech suit from Gunbuster (lawsuit! lawsuit!) complete with hammer-and-sickle emblems emblazoned on the front. These armor suits, in turn, promptly battle an army of random police robots in a singularly pointless show of well-animated metallic carnage that goes to show that Kobayashi Makoto really, really doesn't have any talent outside of drawing mecha designs.

Unsurprisingly, one of the Russian girls (of course they're girls!) named Tereshkova (anyone who knows Russian history may groan at the reference now) turns out to be the psychic twin of Maki, and urges her to finish the fight when she has her obligatory Crisis of Faith after blowing up large chunks of the moon with the aforementioned "nucrear missiles" (hey, let's save Tokyo and Sydney by altering our planet's tidal patterns!).

Finally, in an anticlimactic, unbelievably stupid ending that steals liberally from The EYES of Mars, Nadia Secret of Blue Water, Gundam Char's Counterattack, and Castle in the Sky, the entire Neo Purgatory complex rises into the air and into space, as the Rose Guard team arrives at the enemy lair just in time to blow up Donn Canyon's scissors outfit, then watch the inexplicably crucified Angel (which, as I stated earlier, showed up for no good reason halfway through the film, like everything else in 6 Angels -- and yes, this movie is really paced like this) casually flick aside Donn Canyon's spiritual flame wannabe-Pyro-from-Darkstalkers body (hahaha I'm invincible- NOOOO!), and then Angel makes a five-minute long speech about how the Canyon Clan wasn't really Evil, and that we all just need to get along and love each other, and then Neo Purgatory blows up, and everything is metaphysical for thirty seconds, and then all the good guys go home safe and sound to their computer-generated domiciles, and that should be the end of everything ...

... except that the very last scene of this anime features flighty, stubborn, cutesy Maki Aoba entering the Oval Office as the first Japanese cosplay President of the United States.

There. I spoiled it for you. You will now never have to watch this movie. Feel free to thank me monetarily if you wish. I've got PayPal.

Do you get the point, folks? 6 Angels is crap! Festering, steaming, pulsating crap! I can't believe big-budget anime movies can be created in this day and age and suck so bad. But they can, and here's the proof.

Who can we thank, err, blame for this? Well, we've got mecha-nut Kobayashi Makoto and his complete and utter lack of directorial talent, the idiotic Akimoto Yasushi for coming up with the stunningly dodgy concept and original story, the creatively bankrupt Jpec System Co. for being suckered into bankrolling this thing, the obscure studio Ark Trues for actually wasting time animating it, and Groove Corporation for actually bothering to disseminate this massive waste of digital media to the outside world.

Here's the ultimate culmination of three and a half pages of review: If you see this thing on the shelf anywhere, run the hell away as fast as you can.

Unless you've got a pair of trash-talking robots to back you up, and you're trapped in a satellite orbiting a planet in deep space with nothing better to do, you should never, ever watch 6 Angels.

As a postscript, I tried rewatching this with a larger audience to see if I was merely overreacting.

I take back what I said earlier. This really IS the worst anime I've ever seen.

3x3 Eyes 2

2007-09-04T11:58:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

Several years have passed since the conclusion of the first series. Fujii Yakumo has been searching for Pai ... and it seems he has finally found her, living as a normal schoolgirl in Japan. But her past comes back to haunt her - not just the events of the recent past, with Yakumo, but the events of centuries ago. Finally, she must face her destiny and her true identity, and to do so, she must return to where she first met Yakumo's father and confront the demons who would use her to create a new reign of terror upon the world.

Review

As if things weren't confusing enough in the first volume, 3x3 Eyes 2 takes everything you know and spins it a few cycles more, until characters you thought you knew turn out to be completely something else. Pai in the original series was already a split personality, but now at the beginning of the sequel she's back to square one with an obviously uncomprehending Yakumo (and an equally confused audience). Then the series introduce some more characters, heads off to Xanadu (or some other Central Asian fantasyland), and really messes up your head by retelling the story of who and what the Sanjiyan *really* are.

Which would've been great if any of it made a whit of sense, but it doesn't. It's almost as if the events of the first series (which are integral to the plot) managed not to ever happen in the first place. Meanwhile, the bad guys are still demons, Yakumo is still terribly confused, and Pai is even more of a schoolgirl than before, except she's suddenly claiming to be really Japanese and human. Is she? Or is she still the Pai we know and love, just confused or stripped of her memories? Or is she not even Pai at all? (Whaaaat?)

Due to a shorter timeframe and a smaller scale of plot, this series manages to be more coherent than the first series, but simultaneously more confusing due to the added twists and turns to the continuity and the characters themselves. Identity crises can be interesting, but they've never been as messy as the ones in this series. After a while, I was so frustrated I was ready to give up, but thankfully, the series ended before the animators could screw everything up.

Granted, the animation was fine, though the backgrounds were pretty sparse and the colors on the harsh side. Voice acting is as before, with Yakumo and Pai done well, and the rest competently. I did watch the dub for this as well, and unfortunately, Pai doesn't come off nearly so well in English than in the original Japanese. But Hayashibara Megumi is pretty hard to match, much less top.

So the final verdict? Not as good as the first series, not nearly as good as the manga, but still not a bad anime. The confusion of the plot and characters, however, might make this a limited watch for any but the most dedicated 3x3 Eyes fans.

3x3 Eyes

2007-09-04T11:57:00.001-07:00

Synopsis

Pai may look like a cute little girl, but she's actually the last of a powerful, long-lived race known as the Sanjiyan, whose powers manifest when they reveal the third eye located in their foreheads. Her greatest wish, however, is to become human. Unfortunately, this isn't so easy, as many seek to use her powers to their advantage. In the crossfire: Fujii Yakumo, a normal high school student who dies, and is turned into a "Wu", an immortal servant whose life is linked inextricably to the person who creates him.

Review

It seems like a good idea. Cute girl with strange powers. An immortal servant who protects her. Demons and fighting and lots and lots of action. Even a bit of comedy. This should be a classic, right?

Well, not really. You see, the 3x3 Eyes anime suffers from this nasty ailment I call "Greenwood syndrome". It tries to retell a story that has already been told as a manga (which I've only read bits and pieces of), and the animators obviously did not have enough time to tell you the entire plot. So therefore, they animated what they thought were the best parts of the manga (or manipulated them to fit an OAV timeframe), and then compressed it together to form a short series. It didn't work for Greenwood, it didn't work for Akira, and it doesn't work for 3x3 Eyes. The plot often jumps (without adequate transitions) from point to point, and while there was some attempt at narrative exposition, I still felt like I had no idea what was going on by the end of the series. I guess if you really want to know what's happening, I'd recommend reading the manga first.

That being said, this is STILL good anime we have here. While the original episodes of this title are over a decade old (and starting to show some age in the character design style), the animation is still fluid and competent, with very gory and detailed fight scenes, and rather exceptional amounts of suspense and atmosphere. While Yakumo is immortal, he still has a human body. So he "dies" spectacularly, often, and in full bloody detail on the screen. I'm not sure how many times I squirmed at the thought of having to reabsorb my guts after being bloodily disemboweled by a demon, but it happens. The squeamish need not apply, obviously. (Now we know for sure where Detatoko Princess pillaged the idea for Kohaku, the Shield of Meat.)

Thankfully, the leads aren't just gimmicks, but well-developed and well-acted characters. Yakumo is persistent, spunky, and quite likable, and Pai's dual-natured character (a great role, or pair of them, for Hayashibara Megumi) is wonderfully rich, going from cutesy to creepy at the drop of a hat. The side characters are capable, though the villains (with one major exception) are pretty much there to get toasted. Extra points for Pai's "pet" beasties.

Again, the main disappointment of 3x3 Eyes was the disjunctive nature of the plot, but the ending was anti-climactic and very disappointing (but a good excuse for a second OAV series to occur), and it was often hard to tell where events were actually happening at times. (Am I in Japan? Hong Kong? Whaaaat?) Plus the predictable "I'm-a-human-sacrifice-watch-me-wriggle-in-skimpy-clothes" scene, which made me laugh much more than it had any right to.

While not a bad series, 3x3 Eyes would probably have been better served as a television series. Perhaps with more time and context, the comedic bits wouldn't have seeming as jarring as they did alongside scenes of Yakumo getting literally ripped to pieces by bad guys. As it is, it's a good taster for the manga, and still enjoyable in its own right as an action fantasy anime. Just be sure to wipe the blood off your screen when you're done.

.hack//SIGN

2007-09-04T11:56:00.000-07:00

Synopsis

The World is about to change. In the present day, real-world people are spending their time playing a role-playing game in which their personas travel and interact within a fantasy world. But one of the characters, a cipher named Tsukasa, is suddenly locked within the game, and those around him aren't sure why ... or how. While any player should be able to just disconnect or shut off the computer he or she is on, Tsukasa doesn't even see a computer. He is IN The World. And a mysterious cat-like character hovers around the fringes, bending the programming - indeed the very "existence" of The World to his will. And a group of player characters must figure out the truth behind Tsukasa ... while a rash of mysterious game-related incidents in the real world begins to draw the attention of even the most powerful players within the game.

Review

Ever since watching Lain, we at THEM wondered when the next series would come that tackled the virtual world. And though several series have touched upon cyberspace, they have been mostly children's series like Digimon and Mega Man NT, which, while interesting and entertaining, aren't always the most serious of titles. Even Perfect Blue only touched on the effects of the Internet for the briefest of moments, and it seemed that anime in general was destined to be only as Internet-savvy as the average middle-aged salaryman.

And then .hack//SIGN came along. The game world concept is hardly original to those heavily involved in video games. Like EverQuest and Phantasy Star Online, "dot-Hack" is seemingly set as a massive multi-player online role-playing game, where literally thousands of people congregate on servers to play a game. However, unlike EQ and PSO, "dot-Hack" is really an ambitious multimedia project, with the simultaneous release of the video game, manga, and television and video anime. Not only that, but the reality of "The World" itself is literally a game-within-a-game - in "dot-Hack" the game, the console player must solve the mystery of "The World", much like the player characters in the TV series, while still building the strength of the virtual reality role-playing character to move forward. Very complex and intriguing - though for our purposes here, we will only be discussing this first anime incarnation of this new universe.

With excellent art, a sumptuously rich soundtrack, an intriguing plot, and a concept that is half Lain, half Dungeon Master, this series is a feast for the eyes and ears that skillfully melds fantasy and science fiction. In a world where no one is who they seem to be, mysteries abound just beyond the realm of sight. Real-life wallflowers, party-girls, and middle-aged professionals become shifty rogues, wise sorcerers, or brave warriors. And the show sometimes ponders where the line lies between reality and fantasy, and indeed between diversion and obsession.

The one thing about the early part of this series that may put off potential viewers is its pace. dot-Hack takes its time introducing characters and setting up the backdrop that is The World. And much of the perspective comes from the point of view of Tsukasa, a perpetually confused and bewildered spell-casting teenager who seems to be Yet Another Shinji (tm), vaguely nihilistic and aimless. At times, Tsukasa is frustrating and annoying to watch, as a lot of the action seems to merely happen around him (or is it a her?). But as the story goes on and he learns more about his amnesiac self and the world around him, Tsukasa does reveal more of his murky past and his (or her) real-life personality.

Many audience members, especially veterans of games like this, are more likely to relate to the other main characters, including the rather brash and somewhat scatter-brained (if perfectionist) young swordswoman, Mimiru, and the grizzled, pensive veteran warrior, Bear (a favorite of several THEMers). These characters act like anyone you'd actually meet on a game like this. Even the sinister player-killer, Sora, has his own motivations and interests, as do the actual players themselves.

As stated before, the animation is simply gorgeous, with a well-realized, fanciful world of arched cities and floating islands, magical portals and whimsical creatures. If I was let loose in a virtual reality role-playing world like this, I'd probably spend more time there than actually writing anime reviews! And with character designs by Sadamoto Yoshiyuki (Neon Genesis Evangelion), it's safe to say you'd be in good-looking company, too. But the real surprise here is the music. From the intriguing techno opening (with its esoteric trance sound and its almost unrecognizable English) to the sweeping orchestral motifs throughout the episode, the audio is simply incredible. It does cry out, "I am a cool soundtrack!", but without ever being obtrusive or out-of-place.

But after completing the full run of this series, I can confirm a few things for our loyal readers. .hack//SIGN is a very competent series indeed, but while the mystery of Tsukasa is finally revealed, there are still a few nagging problems here and there that keep this from garnering that final star ... and even knock it down a bit.

One of the biggest problems that this series faces is that it's a "talking head" anime -- there's a lot of dialogue, and not much action to speak of. This would suit it fine if it were a more fully-fleshed mystery series, but many of the middle episodes pack a surprising amount of filler. It really shouldn't take fifteen episodes for the plot to finally get going, but that's the way it goes - many viewers will get bored very quickly. It also seems that this is done largely as an animation shortcut, something that which seems to plague virtually every Bee Train production.

The ending is extremely ambiguous and anticlimactic as well. Essentially, to get the true ending of the anime, one must play through the games, which damages this series immensely as a stand-alone project. Also, the English dub fails to be expressive in all the wrong places -- people who only see this series off Cartoon Network will be sorely disappointed, and so far, Bandai's track record on English dialogue has tended towards the horrible. Since this series is so dialogue-driven, a substandard dub (or the constant barrage of amateurish translation work in the prerelease fansubs) serve as a killing blow for any potential audience. If ever there were a solid argument for waiting for the licensed work to be released before reviewing, .hack//SIGN is it.

For those familiar with online gaming (or the now released .hack//INFECTION game and its successors), this series will definitely ring true with the depictions of the characters, from Tsukasa right on down to the guest newbie A-20. The World itself continues to be well realized, though near the end there are distinct "blank spots" that you're supposed to fill in with knowledge from the game. However, if you could care less about online gaming, or find yourself being too nitpicky about the details of that genre, you just may want to give this character piece a skip, and let me hog the PS2 some more.

.hack//Legend of the Twilight

2007-09-04T11:52:00.000-07:00

Synopsis

Four years have elapsed since the events of .hack//SIGN, .hack//LIMINALITY, and the .hack games.

Fourteen year old twins Shugo and Rena win a contest that enables them to use the avatars of Kite and Black Rose. Since they live apart in real life thanks to family issues, "The World" is their way of spending time together. However, they are soon caught up in events that have not been seen in "The World" since the time of the legendary dot-hackers. Soon, Shugo must battle viruses with the power of a strange bracelet, just as Kite before him.

Who set up the contest in the first place? Why are high-level monsters appearing in newbie areas? Who nerfed Balmung? And why are they all chibi?

Review

Many of the complaints about the original series revolved around it taking itself too seriously and being too dialogue-oriented. These concerns have been addressed in .hack//Legend of the Twilight (.hack//LEGEND for short), which is a good deal lighter and much less talky. Sadly, it is also quite inferior.

You see, this show was mediocre the first time around, when it was called Final Fantasy: Unlimited.

The trouble begins from the opening song, which is a piece from the same people who bring you the Chobits opening. While it's somewhat catchy, it pretty much heralds the image .hack//LEGEND is going to be somewhat fun and not the least bit impressive.

And well, what do you know.

You have Shugo and Rena as chibi versions of Kite and Black Rose and being clingier and more over-affectionate than any real-life siblings should be. There are a whole lot of scenes in here that scream "Unresolved Sexual Tension", which makes you squirm because they're twins. It's no wonder that a great deal of fans have dubbed this series .hack//INCEST.

The other characters really aren't much better. Mireille, for example (NOT the Mireille from Noir, but a cutesy little girl with the same character model as Mistral from the .hack games) is apparently there to look cute and make things explode at inopportune times. Even the cameo character from the games, Balmung (or Balmunk if you are completely ignorant of classical mythology references like many translators ostensibly are) comes off as rather hapless -- it's like they roped the character into this series, and made sure to ply him with lots of alcohol to make sure he stays.

The almost too light-hearted tone of the comedy simply doesn't mesh well at all with the serious bits. Yes, there are serious bits, mostly involving the reappearance of the viruses in "The World" and Shugo basically having to continue the roles of Tsukasa and Kite, because, well, that's apparently the sort of thing his character model does. Frankly, I wish they'd just ditched the half-hearted mystery angle and left this as an all-out chibi comedy.

As for the visuals and music -- it's just not up to the same level as the other series in the franchise. Kajiura Yuki's work in the original is sorely missed here -- the BGM seems phoned in, and the animation itself is competent but never truly spectacular.

I like .hack, but I found myself relieved when the fansubs were discontinued in light of the license. While it's not bad, ~~.hack//INCEST~~ ... oops. .hack//LEGEND simply doesn't live up to the reputation of its predecessors.

Zone of the Enders: Idolo

2007-08-20T22:54:00.002-07:00

There's usually very little good to say about an anime that is created as an offshoot of a video game. The genre is littered with misfires like Street Fighter and Tekken. It's not a real surprise, either, since usually the primary purpose is for one to serve as an advertisement for the other. Strangely enough, Zone of the Enders is actually based on a video game that has gotten mediocre reviews, yet the DVD isn't bad. Though it rips off Gundam at every opportunity and leaves a bit too much for the game to explain, the OVA tells a clear story that works because it focuses on characters rather than all action.

In the world of Zone of the Enders circa 2167, there's an ongoing conflict between humans from Earth and those from Mars. The Earthlings have the upper hand as IDOLO starts, and they use their conquering status to make life miserable for the Martians under their control. Because of various gravity issues, humans from Earth are far stronger and can beat up Martians with ease. This dichotomy is felt throughout the show as the Martians constantly feel oppressed.

Enter Radium, a test pilot with a knack for handling bad situations, even though he's cocky and arrogant (apparently a prerequisite for all pilots in anime). He's reassigned to a special unit in the middle of nowhere with his girlfriend Dolores and his colleague Viola. Radium starts testing the Orbital Frame called Idolo, a new mecha build from a secret ore called metatron that gives the robotic suit enormous strength and powers. Although the first attempt nearly kills him, Radium is able to get the Idolo under control. However, due to the metatron design, eventually Idolo will respond only to Radium...and he starts going slightly bonkers as he becomes one with this war machine.

Unfortunately, Zone of the Enders: Idolo is not a superb piece of animation. The designs lack any sort of appropriate detailing, and though the action is done with a reasonable frame rate, I just didn't care for the look of the piece. The mech designs also look to be taking a page from Evangelion mixed with Gundam. Creativity would have gone a long way here.

There are also some basic problems from the story coming out of a history we know little about. We get just enough for us to understand the framework of what's going on, but not enough to feel comfortable in knowing this world and its situation. Why are the Earthlings and Martians fighting in the first place? When did humans arrive on Mars--or were they always there? What's happened in the 165 years from now until the starting date? I dunno, and I should have a better idea.

Zone of the Enders: Idolo is still quite watchable, though, because the main characters are personable, and we get to know all three well enough for an hour-long show. By the time we hit an emotional payoff near the end, we actually have grown attached enough to care a little bit. Despite the various homage and imitation, the story stands up well enough. I didn't expect everything that happened, so I wasn't bored, either.

There is a television series called Zone of the Enders: Dolores that has just started being released on DVD, and Idolo is the prequel to it. I'm not hyped enough about this OVA to make any bets about the quality of the TV show, but it may provide the bits and pieces that were missing from this program and made it frustrating at times. Zone of the Enders: Idolo is far than perfect, but far better than a lot of the videogame inspired dreck out there.

Yukikaze Vol. 1

2007-08-20T22:54:00.001-07:00

We're almost caught up.

After seeing most anime titles released in the West years, if not decades, after their entry dates in Japan, Bandai Entertainment is taking a bold leap with Yukikaze, a new aerial combat title. The series is slated for 5 episodes, with the first two being released in the U.S. in late February 2004. However, only the first three OVAs are complete as of this writing in January 2004. Will the ending make the show a hit or a bomb? I can't tell you. What I can tell you is that Bandai is going all-out to promote this dark blend of CGI and gorgeous animation. And though it's sometimes a confusing bag of never-seen aliens, sentient fighter jets, and human angst, the elements mostly work, and those with the home theatre systems to fully enjoy it will want to make it a top priority.

Yukikaze takes us to an alternate history where the JAM, a bizarre alien race from a planet called Fairy, created a portal from which to attack Earth 33 years ago. An international coalition of forces pushed the aliens back and traveled through the portal to continue the war back on alien turf. Those forces are now in a precarious position, since the aliens have all but disappeared from the scene. Is the war over? Obviously not, since sorties are regularly shot down, but there are many questions to be answered.

Enter Rei, a fantastic fighter pilot with a severe lack of social skills. He's the pilot of the Yukikaze, a top of the line plane designed to become one with its user. In combat, a fighter that looks for all the world to be a friendly is declared an enemy by Yukikaze, and Rei shoots it down. He's grounded for the incident and Jack, his senior officer, chastises him. Jack is Rei's best friend, but Rei is so withdrawn it makes any relationship near impossible. On Rei's next flight, Yukikaze is shot down, but he survives only to have visions about strange people who want him to reveal the secrets of the Earth forces. Is Yukikaze actually a sentient being that can talk to Rei, or is Rei out of his mind? Have the JAM infiltrated the Air Force and somehow become an insidious part of their own organization? And will the dreams Rei has about an imprisoned fairy ever come to fruition? Volume 1 leaves us tantalized with these questions.

Yukikaze is made for big screens and big sound systems. Sometimes, I'll watch anime away from home on a smaller screen (about 20") with lackluster stereo. For some shows, it works. But when I watched Yukikaze, it just didn't feel quite right. So I took it home for a test drive on a 27" TV and full Dolby Digital sound. What a difference! Because the show has discrete 5.1 sound in both Japanese and English available, I was able to watch it in the original language and still get the immersive experience.

And an experience it is indeed. Most of the aerial combat sequences are all done with CGI, and it's done well. If you hate CGI, don't bother watching it and don't complain to me about it. I thought it looked stunning. In particular, there's a canyon run sequence that's nothing short of incredible. Combined with the "did something just fly over my head?" soundtrack, the dogfights are as exciting as anything Hollywood has produced in 2003. The artwork in quieter sections is also gorgeous. The score, audibly absent from the battle sequences, superbly underscores the slower sections.

All of this is meaningless without a plot, however. Yukikaze does have one, though it's along the lines of "what the heck just happened" titles like Gasaraki and Boogiepop Phantom. I'm getting tired of shows that pretend to be mysteries because the audience isn't given enough information to figure out what's going on, and Yukikaze suffers from this. From the origins of Yukikaze to Rei's twisted dreams, we aren't privy to anything, even tidbits the characters already know. I shouldn't have to read the copious liner notes to understand what's going on, and even those don't explain everything. In fact, the main reason I'm giving this a cautionary B+ rating is because there's no way to know if we're going to eventually be let in on the joke or not. Clean storytelling this is not.

But all is not lost, particularly because the relationship between Jack and Rei is intriguing. After reading blurbs comparing the show to Top Gun, I expected something a bit brash and flippant. Instead, the heart of the show is not the combat but the complicated and dark relationships on the ground. Jack and Rei are already intriguing characters in just 75 minutes, which is hard to accomplish. It will be their story, not the airborne warfare, which will determine whether the rest of the show will be worth keeping.

All in all, I am captivated, frustrated, and absorbed by the world of Yukikaze. The creators should have worked in a bit more storyline and explanations for their world. However, what they've concocted is still an interesting brew that I'll savor further when the rest of the series is released.

Wonderful Days (aka Sky Blue)

2007-08-20T22:53:00.002-07:00

Many of us old-timers in the anime hobby got involved due to good science fiction. Whether Robotech or Gundam, Akira or Neon Genesis Evangelion, anime has offered some of the most creative material in the genre. However, when I look back at all the shows that are now popular, only a few really fall in that category. Is it because the ideas are drying up, or is because the Western companies want to license harem shows with lots of fan service that drive sales? Good question.

Frankly, one of the reasons is that a lot of the new stuff like Appleseed (2004) and Steamboy have been good but not great. Though sci-fi fans are rallying around some titles like PlanetES, it's just a soft time. Off the radar to all but the hardcore fans, however, is Wonderful Days (now officially known as Sky Blue by its American distributor, Maxmedia). A Korean project, it has the 2D/3D look of Appleseed but with, amazingly enough, even better graphics. It still has some plot issues, but I'm amazed that the US licensor hasn't gotten this onto DVD yet...it should sell like hotcakes. Unless, of course, they can pull off a theatrical run, which frankly this film deserves.

The Earth is a shambles. The only safe place to live in AD 2142 is a utopia called Ecoban, which powers itself off the destructive pollution found in the rest of the world. However, there are countless millions living outside Ecoban in squalor. Over the whole globe, however, is an impenetrable cloud that blocks out the sun on all but the rarest occasions. There is an uncomfortable truce between the refugees who work the systems that power Ecoban and the elite who run the city. But as the Ecoban hierarchy decides on a course that will eliminate the outsiders entirely, some of the refugees become determined to free their world from the oppression that blesses the few while the masses perish under the darkened sky.

Into this mix is thrown Jay, a young woman who is part of Ecoban's security force. She rarely questioned her life until she saw the cruelty of her superiors as they allowed a huge workforce to be killed in an industrial accident. Soon after, a rebel named Shua breaks into Ecoban. Jay briefly captures him but finds herself at his mercy. As he escapes, memories start flowing...for the bond between Shua and herself is stronger than captor and prisoner. As loyalties shift, Jay must choose between her comfortable life in Ecoban or existence with the resistance determined to bring Ecoban down.

Wonderful Days is pure eye candy. Seriously, I haven't watched an anime that was more visually engaging since The Place Promised In Our Early Days. The 3D computer work on display is nothing less than spectacular. Sadly, the first few minutes show possibly the least impressive melding of 2D and 3D work in the whole film. At first, the characters look to be on top of the environment rather than naturally blending into it, and it's unfortunate that this is most noticeable at the very start of the film. However, as the movie continues, we are treated to a truly wonderful visual display. Unlike Appleseed, where the character animation always felt one step short of perfect, in its better moments Wonderful Days gets it just right.

If you really love Japanese character design, you may find Wonderful Days a little stiff. The characters look nice, but they still have a slight angularity reminiscent of Aeon Flux, except for the visuals of children (who tend to be a little too rounded). These are personal preferences, but the discerning viewer will notice that things are slightly different than your typical Japanese production...but so what? The Korean animators prove themselves worthy on this project, and the minor differences could be seen as a highlight rather than a distraction.

The music within Wonderful Days is also unique. There's a lot of action in the film, but it feels far more serious than the typical movie that has these many guns a-blazing. Part of that is because most American (and Japanese) action films would ratchet up the soundtrack during the battle sequences. Here, the music is understated, and the firefights feel more realistic as a result. The only time the soundtrack really pulls out the stops is during the ending, and the musical choice is surprising but very effective. Once more, it's a reminder that we're watching something just a bit different. I have a feeling that the average viewer might at first dismiss Wonderful Days as a lesser work for these changes, but I think that it will play really well on repeat viewings once typical expectations are no longer in place.

The one area that Wonderful Days has a weakness is in its character development. Now for a film that barely lasts 90 minutes, you might expect that, but my complaints are different than what you'd expect. The minor characters act with the weight of backgrounds; though we get few back stories, a lot of the supporting cast seems well rounded. The characters who suffer are our leads. There's a love triangle at the heart of the film, but Jay and Shua don't have all that much personality. There's enough to power us to a conclusion, but not enough to feel a real connection between them. It's not a fatal flaw for a film like this, but it does suffer from having weak protagonists.

Otherwise, though, Wonderful Days is an immersive trip into a visually gorgeous world. Though not an action film in the regular sense -- it's too slow for that -- this is a nice merger of drama and science fiction with action incorporated. Although the plot is stereotypical, the movie is more interested in mood and emotion than in plot. Does it always succeed? Yes and no. I was disappointed that we didn't get to see more of Ecoban; we wind up spending most of our time in the fringes of the world, rather than in this supposed paradise, which would have helped us see the contrast between the two. And honestly, with maybe ten more minutes of exposition, the love story could have been first rate. The ending would have been more powerful had they just expanded the edges. But despite these problems, boy, did I like Wonderful Days! For the lack of exposition, I still felt really connected to these characters through the visuals. The expressiveness of the artwork tied me far more to the characters than plot or dialogue did. In some ways, the film could have been silent and been as effective. It was just that visually entrancing to me.

I can honestly say that I wish Wonderful Days was going to be available on Region 1 DVD for this Christmas season -- I'd be requesting it. I could watch it again right now. My rating is going to be a little lower than I actually feel towards it because of its admitted flaws which may be bigger to some viewers. It's got a B-movie plot, to be certain, but I feel much more passion towards this film than most of the anime I've seen this year. So keep your eyes open...whether it's known as Wonderful Days or Sky Blue, it's a film worth seeing.

A Wind Named Amnesia

2007-08-20T22:53:00.001-07:00

Few films come with a better pedigree than A Wind Named Amnesia. With an original story by Hideyuki Kikuchi, author of the Vampire Hunter D novels, and a screenplay by Ninja Scroll director Yoshiaki Kawajiri, you'd expect something great. In many ways, they succeed in creating a thought-provoking journey for the audience. However, the film's director Kazuo Yamazaki doesn't have what it takes to put this work on the map, despite his earlier work on Urusei Yatsura and Maison Ikkoku. It's often said that a film is more than the sum of its parts--unfortunately, in the case of A Wind Named Amnesia, the parts just don't add up.

An incredible force brought mass destruction through one powerful weapon--a wind that caused total amnesia. Humans, circa 199X, have forgotten every vital memory connected to modern society; except for a few spared by certain extraordinary circumstances, mankind has been reduced to the level of apes. Wataru, our hero, had become a savage just like the rest, but a special kind young man named Johnny was unaffected by the Wind. He takes Wataru under his wing and helps him relearn what the rest of humanity had lost. Eventually, Wataru is off on his own, and he meets up with a mysterious woman called Sophia. They wander the country looking for other signs of intelligent life, Wataru optimistic that somebody will join them, Sophia ever reticent. The machines have become a great threat, and a pre-programmed Guardian robot winds up hot on their tails. Wataru must stop this terror machine and learn the truth about what has happened to his world.

In many ways, A Wind Named Amnesia is a journeyman show not dissimilar from Fist of the North Star or EatMan '98. However, A Wind Named Amnesia is essentially a series of vignettes about life after the grand catastrophe with Wataru and Sophia as observers and occasional participants. A couple of these are actually quite effective, particular the first, which relates the story of Wataru's awakening under Johnny's tutelage. I must also admit to liking the character designs a lot.

However, the steam starts to leak from the engine around two-thirds of the way through the show. The continuing story about the Guardian in pursuit is a Terminator riff that plays poorly, and it gets staler the longer it continues, particularly when this huge machine can stalk its prey without being noticed even through huge deserts. It just doesn't make sense. There's also the character of Sophia, who for being a primary player is woefully uninteresting. We can't connect to her at any level, and we don't understand why Wataru does.

But nothing compares to the ending. Although the forces behind the Wind are explained, there's no attempt to explain how it occurred. The finale feels disjointed and unnecessary, particularly because it's so trite in comparison to the thoughtful material that precedes it. On top of all that, the conclusion really cops out, leaving us with yet another ambiguous walk into the sunset.

To be fair, the authors here have to take credit for letting their story fall apart at the end, and I can't let them off the hook. However, the direction is why the film leaves us feeling incomplete. If Yamazaki had kept the energy level consistent, perhaps the ending would have worked better. But he doesn't, and certain sequences that should have been poignant come off silly because the animation doesn't do justice to the emotion. There's also the matter of two gratuitous nude scenes that really call into question the logic within the film; when analyzed, they don't make sense in the world as it is presented. Sad to say, but they spoil a good deal of the work that was obviously done to try and elevate the film's concept.

If the ending is excused, the film might be worth a higher ranking, but the climax irritates me greatly. It's too bad that there's so much dross in with some truly contemplative concepts. For about 40 minutes, A Wind Named Amnesia tries to be original and largely succeeds. Too bad it's 80 minutes long.

Votoms

2007-08-20T22:52:00.002-07:00

As a reviewer, there are some shows that you are more than happy to see finally come to an end. There are simply too many television series that look and sound great, yet have no heart or soul to keep you interested. I expected that with Votoms, a series dating back to 1983 that has some of the worst animation to be found in an anime release in the US. When I first bought it, I only bought three DVDS, not even the whole of the first story arc. However, as I started watching the first season of Votoms, otherwise known as Stage One: Uoodo City, I placed an order to get the fourth DVD in time for the review. By the time the story arc was done, I was combing the Internet to find a good price on the rest of this series. It's that good, friends. It may only be for those who can live on story without great artwork, but very few shows have been nearly as compelling as the start of Votoms.

The series begins with a foul betrayal. Chirico is a young pilot in a galactic war that's lasted nearly a hundred years and is finally looking to end. He is sent on a secret mission to assail a hidden base, but once there finds that he is actually attacking allied forces. He manages to find the cause of this strange mission: a unique woman in a lifepod who he believes must be the military's new secret weapon. As he discovers her, he is attacked in space by his comrades and is left for dead. He survives and gets as far as Uoodo City, now almost insatiably drawn to find out who the mysterious woman is and why she is so important. But Uoodo is an evil, violent town filled with a corrupt police force and bikers who rule the streets. Chirico manages to make some friends along the way, an odd threesome who are wholly selfish but find a strange affection towards him, despite his unwavering personal mission to discover the truth behind the mysterious lady that haunts him. Can they survive the onslaught that Chirico will bring from those who want to keep him silent?

I expected from the start not to appreciate Votoms, and from the opening screens of the DVD onward you expect a 70s-style cheesefest. There is no doubt that the series takes some getting used to. The music is certainly an old style, and it becomes very repetitive. The animation is crude, for the most part, with character designs that are essentially unattractive. Even the explosions look cartoonish and silly. There is no outer beauty here whatsoever.

It shows just how strong Votoms is, then, that I found myself compelled to watch more and more. The repetitive music starts setting a motif for each episode, and you wait for the themes to guide the action. The closing theme, which I skipped the first two episodes, is now one I unconsciously hum in the hallways at work. There is no room for a plot to hide in the animation, and the show's creators wisely don't try to do so--they've created a captivating story worthy of attention. Although there are certain logical gaps (such as the deserted feel that the city almost always has), the overall plotting and concept is executed admirably. What's also nice is that we have a group of people who are selfish, egotistical, yet capable of great kindness and compassion...in other words, real people. The show gets your attention because it feels right. There's no other way to describe it.

Many might find it interesting to compare this show to another that was popular at the same time, Fist of the North Star. Both shows center around young men (who share a similar look) wandering after a woman they cannot help but follow. Both of them are steadfast in their pursuits, putting all emotion and carelessness aside, and both get comic relief from their counterparts. Where Votoms succeeds and Fist of the North Star does not, however, is in the plotting of each episode. Fist became a "villain of the week" show, whereas Votoms has a long-term story in mind.

This brings me to my final point--if you expect to get into Votoms, expect that you will get into a serious time and money investment. Unlike some other shows, the story arcs in Votoms do not in any way signify the closing of any of the plot strands. In fact, Stage One: Uoodo City ends in such a manner that it is virtually impossible not to continue to the next stage. Absolutely nothing is resolved, and there are cliffhangers that may not be resolved in the near future. (I found this out the hard way, and there was much weeping and gnashing of teeth.) The show is 52 episodes long, and to buy the whole series on DVD will run you $200 wholesale on Ebay. (Because of this, you might get a deal on the VHS run that's left, but who knows...) If you start this series and enjoy it, you will want to finish it without question.

Votoms: Uoodo City gets a strong recommendation from me. If you really aren't sure if you're up for the weak animation and old-school delivery, at least try the first DVD. My guess is you'll find the trek inexplicably addictive.

Venus Wars

2007-08-20T22:52:00.001-07:00

"This ain't no party, this ain't no disco...this ain't no fooling around..." -- Talking Heads, "Life During Wartime"

War from the perspective of civilians is not a new topic to anime. Films like Grave of the Fireflies and Who's Left Behind? cover the topic in grand tragic fashion. However, there's precious little anime that talks about war from the side of adult bystanders who get caught up in harm's way. Certainly, Macross starts this way when a civilian town gets transported through space and is recreated inside a war fortress. However, the characters all wind up becoming military anyway, so the perspective isn't maintained. In Venus Wars, we enter the midst of a civil war, and we witness a variety of folks trying to make sense of their role in it all. Although burdened by an epic manga source that has too many elements to translate into just one film, Venus Wars is an intelligent, impressively animated saga.

In the near future, an asteroid collision dramatically affects the planet Venus, making parts of it inhabitable by humans. Settlers have been on the planet for nearly 80 years when civil war breaks out between the two nations on the reddish world, Ishtar and Aphrodia. Ishtar wants to unite Venus under one banner, while Aphrodia strives to remain free and independent. It's in the middle of this conflict that our story takes place.

Hiro, his girlfriend Maggie, and his team of battle bikers race monocycles in dangerous but thrilling competitions in Aprhodia's capital city, Io. They have little to do with the political ramblings until Io comes under direct attack. The Aprhodian forces withdraw, leaving the metropolis under enemy control. At first, Hiro and company do their best to make it as the police state draws in. But eventually the corruption and fear become too much, and their fate takes a drastic turn when they decide to end the occupation of their biking arena by blowing up the tank that guards the track. Kids that once had no better thought in their heads than lapping their next opponent find themselves on the front lines of a war they'd rather not fight.

Venus Wars was a small step forward in anime filmmaking for its release in 1989. Although it doesn't contain the jaw-dropping graphics of Akira, the hit from the previous year, it has some innovating techniques. The entire film is washed in a reddish hue, not unlike the effect of the color bleaching seen recently in Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan and Minority Report. This really sets a mood for the picture, giving us a "you are there" feel hard to capture in sci-fi pictures. Then there's the design work. Most of the vehicles have an otherworldly feel, more than minor variations on military creations seen today. The monobikes are awesome in their invention, and many of the other mechanical designs are a sight just to figure out. The animation itself isn't perfect, but it's forgivable with all the other unique eye candy keeping us busy.

Venus Wars gets a bit shakier when we start dealing with its plot and characters. Although we have Hiro as our lead, we've also got a substantial secondary character in Susan Sommers, the gutsy Earth reporter looking to get her big break covering the war in Io. There's also a large assorted cast to keep track of, and it becomes distracting. Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, the author of the original manga, also co-wrote the screenplay and directed the feature, and he's too personally attached to the story to trim it wisely.

A prime example of this is a sequence in the later half of the film when Hiro has some dealings with an openly gay cohort who tries to give Hiro advice about who to trust in his new position. There are several short flashbacks presented that make it appear that this character has been important to Hiro. A better screenplay would have just cut him out. He serves no purpose. Perhaps Yasuhiko thought that fans would be clamoring if this strange minor player were left out of the film; maybe he just liked the character. But it brings into focus the biggest hole...Venus Wars would have worked best either trimmed down and made tight into an eighty-five minute film, or expanded into a real two and a half hour epic.

The last two paragraphs make it sound like I don't like the film, which isn't fair. It's actually a personal favorite! Despite the problems, I thoroughly enjoy much of it. The battles, though not constant, are nicely choreographed and exciting. The story between Hiro and Maggie is touching as little details bring out their characters despite their limited screen time together. The music is by Joe Hisaishi, responsible for the soundtracks to almost all of Hayao Miyazaki's films, and though not his best work, it suits the movie fine. I also like the character growth. We may not know them as well as we should, but the couple of characters that do get arcs make the most of them.

From reports I've read, Venus Wars did mediocre box office business, and so nothing has happened with the property since. I would love to see the story told in detail over a thirteen episode television series, but that likely won't come to pass. For now, I'll be satisfied with the movie, a slightly flawed but compelling science fiction war picture that's been neglected too long.

Towards the Terra

2007-08-20T22:51:00.002-07:00

How does the passage of time affect a movie? Some films are glaring examples of a particular period, whereas others seem to stand still. Even the best of these, though, tend to have a few nitpick points. 2001 and Star Wars, for instance, take us to faraway worlds, but they still have just enough of the era in which they were produced to occasionally distract us now. Such is the case with Towards The Terra, a 1980 production that has a strong story and plot, along with good characterization, that is weakened only by those elements that harken back to 70s animation.

Mankind has poisoned Earth with pollution, and the human race has fled for distant parts in the galaxy to wait for Terra to heal itself. 500 years have elapsed, and society is rigidly controlled by computers that dictate virtually everything about a person's life. Although most humans simply come to accept this as a way of life, there are others that don't. One is Jomy Shin, a young boy on the eve of his fourteenth birthday. He is about to go through Waking Day, where the young have all of their unimportant memories erased and start following the computer's destiny for them. Jomy is a free spirit, though, and he balks at having to grow up. Before his birthday is out, however, he discovers a terrible secret that will make him an outcast from the human race and guide him for the next 20 years...until he can reach home.

I hate to go into too much detail about this film, simply because discovery is part of the whole story. Although it starts with a basis in Orwellian philosophy, it is not all-consuming, and it's a jumping point for the story itself. The characters are interesting, and the story is focused enough that you get to know them rather well for a two hour movie. Although action sequences exist in the movie, they only serve to move the plot itself--it's a talkie drama, not standard action sci-fi.

Now for the drawbacks...they are slight to me, but they could possibly affect other viewers seriously. The film looks like a 70s film. The characters look like they were designed in that era, not all that different from the style seen in Harlock or GoShogun. They lack the exaggeration of the current style seen in anime. There is also a thankfully short breach into 70s music (but only for maybe 40 seconds). A couple of scenes also seem vaguely out of place, especially those that attempt to visualize psychic powers. Those who can't stand older anime should take this as a warning--stay away.

I enjoyed Towards The Terra far more than I expected. It is slow, yet fascinating, and it quickly grew on me. If you like science fiction drama, don't mind somewhat downbeat endings, and can look past older art styles, you're in for a nice surprise.

Time Stranger

2007-08-20T22:51:00.001-07:00

In America, the movie industry has a clockwork system for releasing its films. January through March is the dumping ground. April through August sees the release of the big-budget tentpoles. September and October are mediocre months where films not quite up to snuff but that aren't terrible get released; then November and December hit, and there's a slew of artsy Oscar contenders. I don't know when exactly blockbusters are released in Japan, but it's clear that Time Stranger was made to be one of them. An action-packed movie stuffed with plot and motion but void of character development, this 1986 release produced by Madhouse and the infamous Rin Taro is never boring and often fascinating. At times a bit empty due to the unrealistic character reactions, Time Stranger is still a film I like better on each repeat viewing.

Modern day Japan. Nobucho's a rugby player who wants to confess his love to the sweetly beautiful Teko, but he isn't sure how. He talks it over with his tech geek friend Shinichi, who encourages him. The threesome wind up meeting together when Teko's brother stops by with his van and offers them a lift. Their sensei (brilliantly named Sensei, apparently) happens to be passing by and hops on board for the ride as well. However, a guy from the far future named Jiro carjacks them, quickly installs a special device, and Voila!...The van is now a time machine headed into the past.

Although Jiro's passengers are at first shocked by the revelation, they soon compose themselves. They make a couple of unplanned stops before the van makes a fiery exit on re-entry in May of 1582, just days away from a penultimate moment in Japanese history. As Jiro explains to his new friends why he's a fugitive from his own present, it becomes clear that the hunter, Toshito, who's after Jiro has some plans of his own. Knowing that changing the past could affect the disastrous future they know, Jiro and Toshito battle over the outcome of Japan's feudal era, realizing it could literally rip the fabric of time as they know it apart.

Richly animated and strongly plotted, Time Stranger is striking when viewed at the surface level. The twists and such are unexpected and obviously well-designed; The Anime Encyclopedia reports that it's based on a popular sci-fi novel, and the intelligence of that pedigree shows. Although the character designs are completely out of date now, they resemble yet surpass the looks of Harmagedon and The Dagger of Kamui. Even with passé designs, the animation is superb; it's telling that the quality comes through even on my virtually unwatchable VHS copy. Excellent pacing keeps us moving through the convolutions of the plot, too. Every time I watch it, I really do get sucked in.

But ultimately, it's not a great film: there's a lack of reality among the characters that weighs upon the show. Not ten minutes after their first time slip, the modern characters are making the best of things, dealing with every new and deadly situation with aplomb. If I were one of them and learned, as is revealed in the first few minutes, that Jiro couldn't take me back to my own time, I'd be freaking out! If we had some reason to expect these characters to be fearless explorers, we could make allowances.

But that's the truly difficult thing: Teko, Nobucho, Shinichi, and Sensei are all ciphers. There's actually no reason for all of them to be along, save for the plot. They have no history, as least that we're aware of. The only piece of their past we know about is Nobucho's crush on Teko, and that plotline is never developed properly. Instead, there's a lame subplot about Teko finding her real soulmate reincarnated in these various eras they visit. Nobucho never sacrifices himself for Teko or even mentions his feelings, so it winds up as only a gimmick to get the movie started. We do finally get a reasonable feel for Jiro by the end, but the rest of these folks are worthless; they don't even have individual personalities. My guess is that the novel expanded upon their personas and stories, but that the movie threw them out to give us an epic story in an hour and a half.

Of course, not every movie has to have great characterization to be a fun summer hit. Who remembers the characters from Spriggan or Pearl Harbor? And Time Stranger certainly has more intelligence than those two films put together. Though its age will probably doom it to obscurity, Time Stranger is an enjoyably flawed epic that I wish would be released on Region 1 DVD.

Take the X Train

2007-08-20T22:50:00.002-07:00

How many anime are dedicated to Duke Ellington, the great jazz experimenter? Taking its name from one of his best known songs, albeit with a change from "A" to "X," Take The X Train is itself a bizarre experiment by director Rin Taro. Though I'd seen listings for this 50 minute OVA, it was only until the title was linked on a Bit Torrent site that I had the opportunity to watch it. Seeing that most folks don't recognize Rin Taro in the US, finding a copy on the Internet is likely the only way you'll ever see this title. I think many will find it just a little too old and weird. But I'm getting old and weird too, and for me, it was an enjoyable find of a nearly lost anime.

Toru is a loser. Now he's possibly the best kind of loser because he knows how pathetic he is. His boss won't listen to him, so he winds up refilling drinks for gathered executives. His girlfriend dumps him after a rendezvous, but he's not upset about it; in fact, he'd been expecting it. He's really more interested in the off-road jammer that passes by their hotel anyway. But Toru is hardly expecting to become mentally connected with an invisible train that rides the rails of Tokyo, leaving only electrical spikes along its trail. Although he's finally important, Toru just wants to get back to his own life, such as it is. The X Train seems certain to throw a wrench into that plan.

Take The X Train is a strange looking beast. Though the animation quality isn't bad at all, the character designs are from the school of the intentionally ugly. Everybody in the production is just this side of grotesque. It's sort of a hyper realistic style where no one looks pretty. It's off putting, but Take The X Train doesn't appear to have been made to please anybody. The music is an amalgam of jazz influences, some more recognizable than others, and all of it just a little different. Whether or not you like the music, it completely compliments the visuals.

It's clear from the show's direction that it's intended to be an improvisational riff rather than a classically told story. And just like jazz, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. There are times when things seem too intentionally artsy. Other bits are slow. And yet, I really like what Rin Taro is doing here. It's more along the lines of Spring and Chaos, a show where art is important in and of itself. And to his credit, Rin Taro actually has a decent plot to hang his riffs on, so I wasn't bored. In fact, at times I was surprised that the man responsible for X/1999 and Harmagedon could do something this concise...but then again, he made the brilliant Metropolis, too, so I have to give him credit. He still isn't a great editor, but the man's got talent.

Toru also makes for a good protagonist. He's not a kid any more, though far from old. He fits the average salaryman description in many ways. He's relatable to the audience. I can tire of sprightly young things conquering the universe with angst, but this? This is different. Toru is a little scheming and yet not corrupt. He contemplates the possibilities. And somehow, his fate (which I won't reveal) is shocking yet strangely appropriate. There are still some stumbles in the characterizations of those around him -- no wonder he's paranoid -- but over all, the experiment works.

If you have the opportunity to download Take The X Train, it's not a bad watch. It's different. It won't appeal to many people because it's just a bit too bizarre and a little too content to follow its tunes where they want to go. But what's life for but a little jazz odyssey now and then?

Super Atragon: The Movie

2007-08-20T22:50:00.001-07:00

There are plenty of movies out there worthy of one's time--some just happen to be more worthy than others. Super Atragon falls near the bottom of the "worthy" category...it's not shabby, but it's not compelling enough to move it to the top of your "to do" list.

Super Atragon starts just as the bomb is dropped on Hiroshima. A Japanese submarine and an American battleship meet, and the Japanese sub commander is determined not to start a fight...but there is no such luck, and battle commences. But neither of the warships is exactly World War II issue, and as they fight it becomes apparent that this is no minor conflict. Two young women, Annette and Avitar, are the center of the conflict and the crews' destiny.

Cut to present day. Strange monoliths have appeared at the North and South Pole, and these seemingly indestructable creations start destroying the ice caps. At the same time, we are introduced to Go, a young naval officer with a lot of background. His grandfather commanded the Japanese sub in the beginning of the movie, and his father was lost at sea on an Antarctic expedition. As he and his girlfriend Ann become involved in the events around the monoliths and discover the secrets of the lost battleship Ra, secrets that will forever change the human race are revealed.

And so it goes. Super Atragon is better than your run-of-the-mill Saturday matinee science fiction movie, but it is never so compelling that it rises to the level of a Star Wars or Star Trek film. Not that it doesn't try, though; there's plenty of melodrama and attempts at character interaction. What we've really got, though, is a plot-driven vehicle for lots of things blowing up. Which is fine, I suppose, and the pace is helped along by a fantastic (if somewhat bombastic) score that is better than the movie it supports. Honestly, there's almost too much plot going on here and not enough importance placed on individual characters--or maybe it's just that the characters aren't all that interesting in and of themselves. There's also some glaring problems. Why don't we ever get to see more of the subterranian race that wants to destroy all of the surface-side humans? Does no one fly the monoliths that the subterranians have created? And what is this mysterious energy source that everyone keeps talking about? These and many other questions are left unanswered. But it's OK, as long as you just sit along for the ride. In many spots, I was reminded of Stargate, and I would place it at the same level of entertainment. Those who want some entertaining action without a braindrain will like it, but those who like anything cerebral should stay away.