It didn't work

Okay, I thought I had lots of visitors, but the application I was using was broken. Big time.

Anyhow, I'll be going off on winter vacation for a week, so I'll be holding back on posting for a while.

But before that, here's a short review on "Blue Dragon."

From what I saw, I was slightly impressed with Akira Toriyama's characters. However, the English dub is horrible.

Honestly, I thought that VIZ Media would at least keep the original Japanese audio track, but they didn't. They thought only kids would watch it.

But this isn't a good kids dub. This is completely censored and completely awful. If anything, watch this series online. This series is a waste to release on DVD without good audio.

I know this was a pretty sad review, but hey, I wrote what I saw. And what I saw wasn't impressive.

With that said, happy holidays!

I got visitors!

Visitors may have noticed that I put in a cool little stat box on the bottom which shows how many people have visited my blog.

It's the coolest addition, because it proves that I actually have visitors! Yay! Now I should figure out how to keep people here.

So for next year's redesign, expect to definitely see a slide show on my blog, with plenty of sweet pictures.

DVD Review - Twin sister goes on a killing spree

Mion adds spectacular excitement to the anime "When They Cry" with her maniacal killing spree in the second volume.

As we recall from previous episodes, "When They Cry" focuses on Keiichi, a new transfer student in Hinamizawa who likes to hang out with four girls, Rena, Satoko, Rika and Shion. Shion was the tall girl with the green hair.

But who is Mion? Well, Mion is actually Shion's twin sister. And to add confusion in the second story arc, she looks almost exactly like Shion.

Without giving too much away, Mion takes the male lead character, Keiichi, to an ancient shrine during the Watanagashi (Cotton-drifting) festival. They meet up with a photographer named Jiro Tomitake and a nurse named Miyo Takano, who break into the shrine to see the statue of Oyashiro. Oyashiro is the ogre god who could be spiritually killing off people each year after the Watanagashi festival.

In the second story arc, we are introduced to the photographer Tomitake, who also appeared int the previous story arc, before he stabbed his throat with his fingernails. In this story arc, Tomitake once again dies after the festival, and Miyo is missing. Soon Keiichi's elementary school friends wind up missing. After investigating the scene, Keiichi and his friend, Rena, suspect that Shion murdered them all.

Keiichi also discovers that Shion imprisoned her sister, Mion, in a dungeon and was ready to kill her with state-of-the-art torture tools. Shion almost kills Keiichi through a nasty execution procedure, but after some negotiation, Shion turns herself over to the police and Mion is saved. All is well, until the police officer says that Mion is the real killer.

This is a brilliant chapter with some of the most perplexing character twists. Now we know that Shion has an identical twin sister, and we may never know whether Shion is actually Mion, or Mion is actually Shion! This is one of the most shocking plot twists in the series.

And just when things couldn't get worse in Hinamizawa, the third story arc of "When They Cry" features child abuse. Satoko, the elementary school girl, comes with her friend, Rika, to cook for Keiichi. We learn that Satoko used to cook for her brother, Satoshi, who mysteriously disappeared.

But we also learn that Satoko suffers from child abuse. After her parents died, she and her brother lived with her evil uncle, Teppei Hojo. Teppei bosses Satoko around and beats her all the time. Keiichi hears from her doctor, Irie, that Satoko believes that her brother will come back if she goes through this suffering.

Poor Satoko. I wouldn't have even thought that she was as messed up in the head as Rena or Mion. At this point of the series, the blue-haired elementary school girl, Rika, might actually be the only sane character in this series.

Admittedly, this is a brutal anime to watch. However, it plays out like a strange soap opera. In every scenario, lots of people die. However, each story arc is even more fascinating, revealing the tortured past of the girls of Hinamizawa. And I never thought I would say this, but it's entertaining to see how insane all of the children get. This anime features the most unforgettable characters in anime history. Hopefully these kids get a hug after they're finished with this, because they could use some emotional relief.

Image courtesy of radda.wordpress.com

DVD Review - Bodyguard superstar

Sometimes I miss out on some of the best anime around, and Anime Insider magazine gave a good recommendation for this sleeper hit.

"Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit" may be set in ancient Japan, but the action and drama make this one of the coolest samurai anime of this decade.

Morobito begins with Balsa, a tough female warrior with a big spear, returning to Yogo to meet one of her friends. Along the way, Prince Chagum travel on a nearby bridge in a norimono (palanquin carried by four men). However, when the palanquin tips over and Chagum falls into the river, Balsa saves him.

As Balsa continues into the city of Yogo, four samurai encounter her. After fighting with them for a while, the samurai ask for her forgiveness. The samurai actually work for Prince Chagum. Chagum's mother wanted to thank Balsa properly.

Chagum doesn't just give Balsa a good meal and a place to sleep for the night, though. She asks if she could act as the bodyguard for Prince Chagum. The prince was sick, and nothing could cure him, so his mother called on a stargazer to help him. However, Chagum's mother suspects that the stargazer is also hiring other samurai to assassinate Chagum. Long story short, Balsa agrees to protect him.

However, there is more to this drama than it appears. The stargazer has found a water spirit within Chagum. The stargazer predicts that the water spirit could destroy Chagum's father's kingdom. Ironically, according to the legend, only Chagum's father, Emperor Mikado, can kill him. But is the spirit as dangerous as the legend proclaims?

This samurai drama is one of the coolest anime that I have seen this year. At the same time, too many people may pass this up as just another samurai drama. However, the epic scale of the animation, produced by Gonzo, is filled with easily the fastest and most intense samurai battle I have ever seen. The intensity literally rivals that of another samurai series, "Rurouni Kenshin."

Balsa almost dies after her first encounter with assassins, but she manages to rest up at the house of one of her doctor friends. The doctor also lives with a cool-headed priest, who shows off his own warrior skills in the beginning of episode four. The priest is shocked at finding the prince at his home.

The big question is where the story will go next. With an anime as exciting as this, I'm looking forward to watching how this series unfolds.

Image courtesy of haibra.wordpress.com

Slight delay

My anime blog was on vacation temporarily, but don't worry, I'm still watching anime.

Soon I'll review "Morobito: Guardian of the Spirit" and "Higurashi" volume two. So don't worry, I'm still blogging.

...I'm just really stressed out right now.

Christmas shopping guide

Lots of anime DVDs have been released this year, but how do you separate the anime gems from the anime crap? Never fear, for Jonathan Oyama is here to help. Here's some of my personal recommendations for the anime fans for 2008.


Best all-around:
Code Geass

Any giant robot fan will love "Code Geass," the anime which combines the intense action of robot anime with the sinister anti-hero, Lelouch Lamperouge. The series features a compelling plot, in which Lelouch wants to demolish the nation of Brittanica. He wants to put Japan back into power, with himself as the new monarch. And he's bound to cause trouble with his eye, which he can use to control people at will. The series is intriguing, heart-wrenching and bound to stir plenty of controversy for its anti-imperialist message, but it's probably the best anime to be released this year.

For anime movie fans:
5 Centimeters Per Second

While this was one of the only anime films released this year, it is one of the best anime films ever made by Makoto Shinkai. The warm colorful backgrounds are some of the most beautiful ones that I've ever seen in a movie, and they accentuate the soft, gentle tone of this anime about lost love. And although the ending is bound to make some anime fans upset, they cannot deny that the love stories expressed in this anime are some of the most wonderful ones in anime history.
Don't even bother with the live-action Death Note film--"5 Centimeters Per Second" is one of those films that will be remembered for years to come.






















For action anime fans:
Gurren Lagann

Gurren Lagann may have the wackiest art style and the most straightforward plot, but it has some of the coolest robot battles that I've ever seen. The two main characters, Simon and Kamina, are two guys stuck in an underground town, who rise to the surface after discovering a buried robot. Now, with the help of a sniper, Yoko, Simon and Kamina are taking down the evil Gunmen robots to free the world from control of the Spirals. There may be some crude humor, but no one can deny how cool these robot battles are.

For shojo anime fans:
Ouran High School Host Club

Unfortunately, not much shojo anime was released this year. However, Ouran High School Host Club is an absolute gem of a romance. The main character, Haruhi, is probably the coolest anime girl, who can dress up as a guy too. Her guy friends in the Ouran Host Club are just as memorable, with members such as the passionate, overprotective leader Tamaki, the money-grubbing vice president Kyoya, the gay(?) Hitatchiin twins, the cute Honey-senpai and the quiet Takashi Mori.
Sure, it's not the most serious shojo anime I've ever seen, but it is the funniest.






















For horror lovers:
When They Cry

Nothing's scarier than the town of Hinamizawa, where "When They Cry" takes place. One girl is a mental headcase who turns insane, another girl tries to kill her sister, and another girl is suffering from physical abuse. With such a crazy, disturbed cast, no wonder someone always dies in the Watanagushi festival in Hinamizawa every year. Don't worry--one of the girls is trying to stop the killings, but it might be a little difficult to change the fate of a town which may go through a fatal genocide very soon.

For box set lovers:
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

This series literally blew me away in 2007 with its hilarious cast. Haruhi is the bossy teenage girl, completely oblivious to the fact that her mood swings affect the fate of the entire world. Her club, the S.O.S. brigade does everything it can to find extraterrestrial life and have fun with them. Although it has only 12 episodes, the entire series is a blast from start to finish. And now you can get all four DVDs in one box set for only $45.

The bang for your buck award:
Gurren Lagann Part One

This series is a sweet deal. This pack contains the first two Gurren Lagann volumes, which contain 15 episodes of one of the coolest action anime in one box for only $36. There's plenty of other packs with great deals, but I have to give kudos to Bandai for packing the first half of the series in this value set. And anyone who wants the end of the series can just save up another $36 for the second half.

Image courtesy of teenbibliotecaria.blogspot.com, animewriter.wordpress.com, kairu 90.wordpress.com, animeafterglow.wordpress.com, arina1992-lierlied.blogspot.com and freewebs.com

DVD Review: Ouran romance picks up with Tamaki

It's not typical for a girl to be the center of attention with a bunch of guys in a romantic comedy without sparks flying. Thankfully, "Ouran High School Host Club" manages to make the girl the most likable ordinary girl I've ever seen in an anime.

As the female protagonist in "Ouran," Haruhi is the coolest ordinary girl, who helps all her guys out in unexpected ways in volume two.

The second DVD of "Ouran High School Host Club" picks up where the series left off, in the beach trip which followed their trip to the tropical resort. As usual, the men are entertaining the women. However, something changes the entire tone of the series in episode nine.

Two men try to sexually assault the Host Club's girls. Haruhi tries to stand up to them, but she gets thrown into the ocean. Thankfully, Tamaki saves her from drowning.

Still Tamaki is clearly worried about Haruhi's safety and argues that she shouldn't have stood up. He wants her to act more like a woman, but Haruhi is refuses, leading to an awkward dinner scene. Eventually, Haruhi starts to acknowledge that she really is a shy girl who could use her guy friends. And sure enough, Haruhi admits that she does have feelings for Tamaki.

I don't always like romantic comedies, because they're a little more conservative in tone. The female characters are a little excessively subservient to their boyfriends, to the point where I wish they would look for more fishies in the sea. But "Ouran High School Host Club" succeeds with a different message--that it's okay to be an ordinary girl. And even though the upper-class guys of Ouran Host Club are rich ladykillers, it helps to have an ordinary girl to distract them from their lavish lifestyle.

And there are lots of hilarious jokes about the rich folk. As in episode one, the Ouran Host Club is still extremely fascinated with the taste of powdered coffee. The Loubella Girls Academy also comes in a great episode, in which they try to attract Haruhi into their club with their hilarious dancing sequences and flashing neon signs. They also pull off some hilarious yuri (female homosexual love) sequences, in which one of them sports a fake moustache.

"Ouran High School Host Club" may be a ridiculous romantic comedy, but it surprised me with an ordinary female character supported by her rich boyfriends. Even though I still have a few misgivings about Haruhi's flat chest, she's definitely one of the best anime characters of recent years, making this one of the best anime romantic comedies of all time.

By the way, there's a great extra on this DVD. Funimation managed to squeeze in the English voice actors' outtakes in recording for Ouran High School Host Club. These are hilarious outtakes for every episode on this DVD.

Image courtesy of randomc.animeblogger.net

DVD Review - Romancing at Ouran High School

I shouldn't like "Ouran High School Host Club" that much. I doesn't have a serious overarching plot, and it is almost too whimsical for its own good. However, those are the same reasons why I like Ouran so much.

The anime features so many silly parodies of male love and bisexual gender-bending anime, making it one of my absolute favorites.

The plot is very simple. Haruhi Fujioka, a poor student at the rich upper-class Ouran High School, is really anti-social. One day, he wanders aimlessly into Music Room B-3, home of the Ouran High School Host Club. In this club, the male members entertain female guests with all the romantic flirting and tea they could possibly get.

How does Haruhi get into this club? Well, on his first meeting with them, he just happens to accidentally break an expensive vase which costs 50,000 yen, or about $500. To pay back his debts, he has to become a member and entertain the female guests.

It doesn't seem like much of a concept at first, until we learn that each member has his own method of flirtation. Tamaki Suou, the president of the club, is the most attractive and passionate of the members. Kyoya, the vice president, is the cool and collected businessman of the club, always finding merchandise to sell to the female guests. Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin are the two twins who attract women through their yaoi (male homosexual) romantic relationship with each other. Mitsukani Haninozuka, or Honey-senpai, is the cute boy who attracts them with...um...his cuteness. And Takashi Morinozuka always tags along with Honey as the quiet but protective cousin of Honey.

But Haruhi is pretty much the star of the show. He is labelled the natural rookie, for his androgynous gender attributes. Actually, Haruhi is not exactly a male, as revealed in episode one. However, she can dress up as a male and possess the best qualities of male and female characters. Haruhi is the one who helps her fellow members out the most, whenever they're feeling down. She's also the most emotionally sensitive member, she can tell the difference between the Hitachiin twins and she has a love for tuna.

Perhaps this is the least serious shojo anime I have ever seen, but because of this, "Ouran High School Host Club" is one of the best. Even when the plot is serious, Haruhi and the gang are so fun. In episode four, the Hitachiin twins argue against each other, over which one is the better one. Whenever they fight, they throw nearly everything in the room at each other in a comical sequence, even throwing Honey-senpai and Takashi across the room.

This series also has a laugh-out-loud episode, in which Haruhi has to go through a physical examination at the high school. Tamaki is most concerned, because if the school finds out Haruhi is a girl, then she cannot remain in the club. He's a little protective of her, and evens goes to such great lengths as to disguise himself as Haruhi for the exam.

This is the most fun I've had watching an anime in a while. It's great to watch an anime which doesn't involve serious social issues and violent battles. Who knows--it might be the best of the year.

Image courtesy of beconfused.com

Things are getting a little too bloody here...

I'd have to say--whenever I watch "Hellsing Ultimate," all sanity goes out the door. It's probably the bloodiest anime I've ever seen.

With all that said though, I wanted to watch some lighter anime with less killing. That's why I'm happy to announce that I have received the first disc of Ouran High School Host Club, the ultimate feel-good shojo anime. I will probably review the first disc pretty soon.

I'm also thinking about looking for Kashimari, a series in which a guy is captured by aliens and returned to the Earth as...a girl. Other candidates for reviews include "One Piece" and "Code Geass," which is still really popular. Oh yeah, there's also "Darker than Black."

Hopefully things won't get too flowery before I watch the fourth volume of "Hellsing Ultimate."

DVD Review - No Turning Back from this Bloodbath

In case you haven’t read my previous posts about “Hellsing Ultimate,” here’s a simple warning. If you’re the type of person who would faint at the sight of blood, definitely do not watch this series.

Now then, let’s move on.

“Hellsing Ultimate” continues its goofy plot with a storyline where the Catholics are creating violent forces to help the Nazis.

Yes, it is admittedly a silly plot, when you actually think about it. I’m guessing that the Catholics supported the Nazis for money, to pay for retirement plans for their vampire-hunting paladins.

After a heated discussion with a papal official which almost ended in a bloodbath, Integra von Hellsing discovers that the Millenials are the Nazis, who escaped to Germany after World War II. They’ve apparently got plenty of violent ghouls ready to kill people around the world

Thankfully, the Hellsing organization recruited Wild Goose, a band of the best mercenaries around. They needed them after that bloodbath in the previous episode. Alucard was given a pretty simple mission in Brazil—search and destroy.

There’s really not much to this series—it’s a big, wild bloodbath. At least for part of the episode. At the end of the episode, Alucard drinks the blood of the assassin hired to kill him. Through the blood, he discovers that the Nazis want to engage the world in a never-ending war. And Alucard's even more determined to kill the Nazis.

But even if this is a bloodbath, “Hellsing Ultimate” has the strongest anti-war visuals ever. Blood gushes over in an ugly mess. Bodies are left as empty skeletons. Bodies are torn apart. Nothing is glamorized.

And war is ugly, but then again, nobody should even be fighting Alucard, the ultimate soldier, in the first place. All armed forces undergo the risk of their lives if they ever face him. Alucard is an invincible bloodthirsty monster. He wants to exterminate the Nazis, even if humans get in his way.

Admittedly, “Hellsing Ultimate” is almost way too nihilistic for its own good. But that’s the point—-the violence is splattered in a grotesque mess that no one wants to see. Alucard would almost be a complete anti-hero, if Integra didn't give him the guidance to take down the Nazis.

And even though Seras, the former policegirl turned vampire, doesn’t like blood, she still joins Alucard in his killing spree. After all, she has been sexually mistreated in awful ways, especially in the beginning of the series. Perhaps she wants her revenge against the masculine forces that hurt her.

Sure, “Hellsing Ultimate” is a revenge anime with the most sinister hero in anime history, but the characters are taking their sweet revenge against the violent masculine power of the Nazis. Despite how absolutely mindless this anime is, “Hellsing Ultimate” is a grotesquely beautiful romp to destroy all the extreme hatred and violence in the world. Just keep in mind that the Catholics are not really secretly supporting the Nazis as they are in this DVD. Believe me--they’re not.

Image courtesy of mysite.verizon.net

DVD Review: Claymore tops the best anime list

Claymore is one of the best anime of 2008, if not the best.

Not very many action anime are as complex as "Claymore." The female warriors are extraordinarily strong, but are emotionally fragile. This is one of the few series in which the gender roles in an anime are reversed, where the main female heroine is strong, but represses intense emotional anguish.

The plot is simple. Yoma are violent monsters who terrorize towns and cities in the world. The only way in which humans have dealt with these monsters is through the Claymore warriors, hired superhuman warriors who are half-Yoma, half-human.

Raki, a human boy, takes interest in the first Claymore who comes into his town. Her name is Clare, and at first she remains cold and unemotional. But Raki tells her that he wants her to kill the Yoma who murdered his parents.

While Clare says that she doesn't care for his revenge plot, Raki is saved by Clare when his older brother reveals himself as a Yoma. Clare slices the Yoma in half. However, because Raki had lived with a Yoma, the villagers exile him. They are frightened that he could turn into a Yoma.

Raki passes out in a desert, but is saved by Clare. Raki befriends Clare and travels with her, learning more and more about Clare's life as a Claymore.

The Claymores undergo some heart-wrenching moments. In episode two, Clare's best friend Teresa sends her a black card, indicating that she is about to turn into a full Yoma. Whenever a Claymore is sent a black card, it is a request indicating that they want their best friend to kill them, so that they won't terrorize other humans as a Yoma. Although they follow their chivalry code loyally, they clearly have a difficult time controlling themselves.

It's almost unbelievable how much the Claymores repress their emotions, even in near-death situations. Even though Clare is extremely powerful, if she harnesses too much of her Yoma power, she suffers the potential to lose control and kill other people. Thankfully, Raki is her best friend, and acts as her emotional support, even after devastating battles. Clare's emotional journey makes for one of the best stories I've ever seen in an action anime.

Very few anime are as excellent as "Claymore." This is definitely one of the best anime of 2008 so far. It's hard to find more drama and more emotion than this anime series.

Image courtesy of boontan.net

DVD Review: Robot action at its best

There's not enough cool robot anime these days. Sure, we saw "Aquarion" this year, but "Aquarion" so wrapped up in partnership themes that it got corny very quickly.

Thankfully, "Gurren Lagann" brings "coolness" back in robot anime, with robots with sunglasses, duking it out to a hot distorted guitar soundtrack.

Although the CSULB anime club has previewed this series, it's worthwhile to remember how the story began. Simon is a digger, who spends his lonely life digging deeper into the earth to escape from the constant earthquakes. His parents died in one earthquake, leaving him as an orphan digger. He lives in Giha village, deep under the earth.

Simon befriends Kamina, a fellow orphan, who claims that he once lived on the surface world with his father. Unfortunately, he was too weak to survive there, so his father returned him to Giha Village.

One day, Simon finds a drill piece and a big face robot with a brain. He fetches Kamina to take a look, but the village leader catches them. However, just when the leader is about to punish Kamina, a humongous robot falls through the ceiling and attacks. A woman with a bikini-top, named Yoko, tries to stop it with her sniper rifle, but her shots are useless. Fortunately, Simon is able to plug his drill bit into a keyhold in the brain robot to activate it and destroy the enemy robot.

After a couple of near-death experiences with enemy robots, Yoko's surface-dwelling friends save them. They are all in a war against the enemy Gunman robots. Appropriately enough, Kamina is willing to lend them a hand with their robot, named Lagann.

The series is hilarious in the beginning. Kamina eventually decides to take over an enemy Gunman and name it Gurren. In some more funny scenes, Kamina decides to defeat their arch-enemy, Viral, by slamming the head right into the top of the Gurren robot. Hence, it combines to form...Gurren Lagann! The robot even has Kamina's trademark shades.

While the series is admittedly goofy, it features some of the most entertaining and laugh-out-loud robot transformation sequences in anime history. For example, Gurren Lagann's transformation sequence wasn't cool enough, so Kamina spends much of episode four making their combination look as sexy as possible, with flashing lights and everything.

But aside from the goofiness, the series is also astounding for the huge plot twist in episode 8. One of the characters unexpectedly dies, leaving many viewers to wonder how on earth Simon is going to rally his army to save mankind from the Beastman's Gunman army.

Even if this series is nowhere near as emotionally dramatic as "Neon Genesis Evangelion," it has lots of spirit. Most of all, it's the best feel-good series about a character who has to believe in himself in order to kick some major ass.

And by the way, this has the coolest music I've ever heard in an anime series. The soundtrack is filled with hot, awesome distorted guitar music and DJ scratches. There's no doubt that there's no cooler robot series than "Gurren Lagann." Best of all, volume 1 of the series features a whopping 9 episodes on two discs for only $27.

For all anime fans who love feel-good anime action, this series is definitely for you.

Image courtesy of kairu90.wordpress.com

Warning to blog viewers!

I'm pretty pissed at the genius who produced a daily49eranime porn web site. It's god-awful...they have the same web domain name, but with blogspoit instead of blogspot. There's pictures of naked women on that website.

It's heresy, I tell you. I'm really considering changing the domain name of my blog site, so that nobody accidentally arrives at daily49eranime.blogspoit.com.

So you have been warned--if you want to reach this website, type in daily49eranime.blogspot.com, not daily49er.blogspoit.com.

If any has any good advice on getting rid of these idiots, feel free to help me out.

DVD Review: Lesbian romance in the name of Saint Maria

After the slightly disappointing ending to "Simoun," I was looking for a new yuri series to catch my interest. And then along came Mary.

"Maria Watches Over Us" is a charming romance between two school girls caught in difficult circumstances.

To say the least, "Maria Watches Over Us" is gentler and far less lewd than most yuri lesbian romances. For starters, this romance story is set in the Lillian Girls Academy, a school with elegant architecture. The school has a unique petite de seours nobility system, in which the grande seours (big sisters) are the most respected, presigious students.

The story begins with Yumi Fukuzawa, a first-year student, meeting Sachiko in front of the statue of the Virgin Mary. Yumi likes Sachiko, and Sachiko surprisingly ties Yumi's scarf for her. However, photographer Tsutako Takeshita shot a picture of Sachiko tying her scarf, and wants to publish it in the yearbook. Embarassed by the photo, Yumi asks to have it back, but Tsutako agrees only if Yumi lets her display it at the school festival.

Tsutako also wants Sachiko's permission to use the photo as well, so she asks Yumi to come along. Right when they arrive, however, Sachiko bumps into Yumi again. Sachiko graciously wants Yumi to become her petite seour, or little sister.

It turns out that Sachiko is requesting this, so that she can get out of playing Cinderella in the school play. Sachiko doesn't like guys, but her grande seour friends want to force her to play Cinderella, so that she can get more comfortable with men. Shy Yumi refuses reluctantly, leading Sachiko to find ways to convince Yumi to be her little sister.

This difficult beginning almost turned me off too much, but all the schoolgirls have a certain gentleness to them. Even though there is plenty of drama and bickering, the girls are surprisingly polite throughout the first three episodes. Despite the lesbian overtones, the romance is kept low-key, making for a much stronger and more engaging relationship between the two main characters. The art is gorgeous as well, with beautiful light shades of pink and blue throughout the background of Lillian Girls Academy.

Eventually, once anime watchers reach episode three, they'll find that "Maria Watches Over Us" delves deep into difficult issues, such as arranged marriages in Japan. To say the least, the man who is playing Cinderella's bride is not only engaged to Sachiko, but he's also related to her in some way. Fortunately, Yumi gives Sachiko emotional support she needs, and becomes Sachiko’s petite seour.

It's really hard to find a better yuri series out there. "Maria Watches Over Us" is a fantastic series that puts brains over violence and romance over hatred. I liked this series--it has a very solid plot, and unlike "Simoun," it doesn't waste time with goofy science fiction gizmos. I'll definitely be looking forward to watching the rest of the season one box set.

By the way, there's an awesome bonus feature in this DVD, called "Don't Tell Maria!" In each episode of the special feature, the characters pull off cute, hilarious bloopers. This anime has probably the best special features this year for an anime series.

Image courtesy of honya.ch.com

DVD Review: Great horror anime, horrible dub

"When They Cry" (Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni) is probably the best horror anime I've ever seen, with a complex plot in so many levels.

Just keep in mind that while the Japanese voices in "When They Cry" is great, this has one of the worst English dubs I've ever heard.

For the uninitiated, "When They Cry" is based on an older interactive novel game, also named "Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni." The plot is simple. Keiichi and his friends live in a rural town named Hinamizawa. Every year, the village has a festival known as the Watanagashi (Cotton drifting) festival. In the festival, villagers float cotton on a river to release the evil from their bodies.

However, this village has a dirty secret: for the last five years, someone has died after every Watanagashi festival. And this particular year is special, because in every short four- or five-episode part of the anime, the village has a string of genocidal murders.

In the beginning of the series, Keiichi kills Rena and Mion, and then kills himself by stabbing his throat with his fingernails. Don't worry--we don't actually get to see him kill himself. However, after each string of murders, the scenario replays again with the same characters, but a completely different plot.

This makes for some extremely brilliant twists in every rendition of the "When They Cry" story. For example, I didn't even expect that Mion actually had a twin sister named Shion. All the main characters also have a dark personal past as well. For example, Rena went berzerk after she left Hinamizawa, and broke the windows of her school with a baseball bat. She transferred back to Hinamizawa, hoping that she would leave these accidents behind.

While volume one has the most depressing storyline of the series, the Onikakushi-hen chapter, it also starts anew with the Watanagushi chapter. We also get introduced to Shion, Mion's twin sister. And ironically enough, she has a crush on Keiichi for all the wrong reasons, which have yet to be explained in later chapters.

I was afraid that this series would never see the light of day again, after Geneon shut down its American publishing branch. However, now that Funimation has picked up where the series left off at volume four, we can definitely look forward to seeing more chapters to the series. After all, there is nothing more fun than watching these characters die horrible, miserable deaths, only to live to die another day.

Oh don't worry, there is a happy ending. But happiness is pretty far away in Hinamizawa, at least for now...

By the way, do not watch this series with the English dub. The voices are so horribly generic. And they also replaced the cool Japanese ending song with a god-awful American pop song. Blech.

Image courtesy of emmyriceball.wordpress.com

Upcoming reviews

I'm receiving my Netflix movies today, so viewers can look forward to reviews of "When They Cry" and "Gurren Lagann."

In the meantime, check out this picture of Floe at the end of "Simoun." Whenever a syballae, or Simoun pilot, enters a spring, she changes to whatever gender she chooses. Floe decided that she became a man at the end of the series, making for some crazy gender-bending scenes. Her manly voice is still pretty high-pitched, too.

Here's a look at Floe before she entered the spring and a picture of him 15 years later. The differences are stunning.

Before the spring:

After the spring:

Images courtesy of kurogane.animeblogger.net and moe.imouto.org

DVD Review - Fighting for Freedom from Patriarchy

"Simoun" has turned out to be one of the most surprisingly thoughtful yuri series I've ever seen, involving freedom from an oppressive patriarchy.

Honestly, I never thought this series would ever show its true colors until I saw the last episodes of volume five. Keep in mind that there are a few spoilers in this review.

Dominura and Rimone disappeared after performing the Emerald Ri Majon at the end of volume three. But they're not exactly dead. The Simoun aircraft really are special machines that can travel across the dimensions of space and time. So Dominura and Rimone are in the past.

As for the rest of the syballae (Simoun pilots), they are still defending Simulacrum from Argentum. They try attacking the Argentum airbase, but their forces are too powerful. After Mamina and Neviril crash land onto the base, the pilots of the enemy Simoun move in to attack. However, the pilots are really Plumbum priests who came to help. In a shocking twist, Mamina pilots the Simoun away, but jumps from the ship to the Argentum base.

Mamina soon gets shot by the Argentum soldiers. The rest of the war doesn't go well at first, but soon Simulacrum's attacks force Argentum to manage a peace treaty. Their negotiation terms, however, lead to the breakup of the Chor Tempest. If that isn't enough, they are finding every opportunity to keep the pilots from traveling to the other world with the Simoun.

The Argentum are mostly men, leading to the most precarious conflict against patriarchal domination. Aeru and Neviril are probably the only pair who can change the past, in order to change the future. It's a fantastic plot that really takes the power of shojo characters to a completely higher level. They are two women in love, fighting for freedom from male imperialism. In a new world where homosexuality is restricted, perhaps Aeru and Neviril are the last remaining hope for a change in society. And while the ending is somewhat ambiguous, it is a hopeful message for a brighter future.

Although most conservative people might bash this series for its message, this is one of the most liberating anime series I have ever seen. It's hard to defy the sexual imperialism represented by Argentum. The creators even made Argentum people speak a completely foreign language, to exemplify their cultural differences. But "Simoun" may be one of the best anime series, asserting the great power of the shojo hero. It's undoubtably one of the best anime series of the year.

Image courtesy of kurogane.animeblogger.net

DVD Review - Hellish rampage

It's an understatement to say that the second volume of "Hellsing Ultimate" is a gorefest. If an anime fan gets squeamish at the first sign of blood, then they really, really, really don't want to watch "Hellsing Ultimate."

Volume two of "Hellsing Ultimate" is filled with soldier decapitations, hundreds of chopped limbs and buckets of blood. It's not pretty, and the plot is somewhat stale, but the action and drama will keep anime fans on the edge of their seat.

The volume starts at the Hellsing Organization building, where Integra discusses with some executives about the recent increase in ghouls around Romania. But then two tough ghoul brothers decide to invade Hellsing by turning the entire army into ghouls.

Fortunately, Integra's professional killers are ready to take them all down. Seras Victoria has her powerful sniper rifle and Walter C. Dornez (codenamed the "Angel of Death") has invisible strings that can slice through bodies. And Alucard is, well, the most indestructable vampire I've ever seen.

To make a long story short, the Hellsing vampires make mince meat out of the ghouls. The last ghoul revealed that they are controlled by microchips to follow orders from a group called Millenium. And Millenium is somehow related to Hitler and the Holocaust. Yeah. It's really implausable, but considering how many people died in this volume, I'm willing to believe anything.

So far, "Hellsing Ultimate" doesn't really have much of a plot, even though it involves some creative storylines involving conspiracy theories and German Nazis. For the most part, "Hellsing Ultimate" volume is a big bloodbath, with body parts flying everywhere. One scene in particular almost turns into a rape scene, until Seras breaks out in a bloodthirsty vampire rage. Oddly enough, only Integra is able to calm her down by embracing her and telling her that everything's alright.

But "Hellsing Ultimate" is also confronting the serious issue of chaotic violence, rape and fear. Certainly violence and sexual violation is something worth fighting against. This makes Seras a rare character that possesses the dual-personalities that Nausicaa had in "Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind." She is compassionate, but she has the potential to turn into a violent monster when she needs to.

And Alucard is a veteran vampire warrior, who wants to die with honor. Some might call him insane, because of his immense power. However, he also has the psychotic desire to die from a worthy opponent. He's an insane undead man, tired of living through numerous wounds, who just wants peace of mind.

"Hellsing Ultimate" is a fascinating character study of masculine and feminine personalities. While the series' plot is a little too simplistic, the characters are so amazingly complex. "Hellsing Ultimate" is a series about violent wars against ghouls, and the vampire warriors who are traumatized by the wars. "Hellsing Ultimate" may be one of the surprise series this year. My only complaint is that each volume is only about 45 minutes long.

Image courtesy of bignanime.files.wordpress.com

The sagas continue...

I usually try to mix things up, but I didn't change my Netflix DVDs soon enough. I'm going to end up continuing my reviews of "Hellsing Ultimate" with volume two.

I'm almost done with "Simoun." I'll finish that up a couple days later. Depending on how everything else turns out, I may either finish the month with either "When They Cry" volume 1 or "Gurren Lagann" volume 1.

I'm probably going to make an early recommendation for "Gurren Lagann." No one can go wrong with 26 episodes on only three DVDs. That's a great bargain.

DVD Review - More yuri action and romance!

For a while, I swore that I would never review another yuri (girls loving girls) anime. However, "Anime Insider" magazine informed me that "Simoun" has one of the best conclusions so far this year, so I couldn't resist.

In the second DVD, "Simoun" increases the tension even more, with a religious faction hell-bent on destroying Simoun aircraft and causing mayhem. While "Simoun" still has unconventional Simoun dogfights, their dialogue is better than ever.

As in the previous volume, "Simoun" continues following the adventures of the Chor Tempest, a famous all-girl air squadron. The Chor's mission is to protect Simulacrum from Argentum, who wishes to steal the circular motors of the Simoun for their imperialist ambitions.

However, episodes five and six introduced a new enemy--the Plumbum Highlands. Although they propose to negotiate peace, their peace negotiations are not exactly peaceful. In fact, some of them killed themselves after shooting numerous guards with pistols. Others suicide bombed themselves to destroy Simoun aircraft.

Romantic tensions reached a boiling point on volume three, episode 12, which covered a controversial side romance in the past between sisters Alty and Kaim. The story leaves no stone unturned--Kaim is furious at her sister, Alty. There's no doubt that this episode of "Simoun" will strike a nerve with many anime watchers, but the emotional performances given by the voice actors is incredible. "Simoun" covers the difficult subject of incest incredibly well.

And there is also tragedy. To my dismay, two of the coolest characters of the Chor Tempest disappear at the end of volume three. In some strange way, they both knew they were not coming out of this intact. I am not going to mention who disappears, but I wish that the creators of the series let those two stay for the end of the series.

The series is exciting to watch. It's definitely not as epic as "Last Exile," and the spacecraft still look a little goofy to me. However, this series is not about amazing air battles--it is a series about controversial romances that no one in America would dare to talk about. It is also a series that looks seriously at our elimination of cultural minority groups through warfare. "Simoun" is one of the most charming yuri series of the year so far.

Photo courtesy of xanga.com

The bloody (but cute) horror show returns

In a surprising move, the anime company Funimation snatched up a number of great anime titles from the now defunct Geneon company. And one of the titles was the awesome horror anime, "When They Cry."

I wrote my very first anime blog entry on "When They Cry" in December of 2007. It is one of the most unusual horror anime series, mixing cute elementary school characters in a cursed town named Hinamizawa. Every year for the past four years, someone was murdered in the Watanagashi Festival, held for their town’s god, Oyashiro-sama.

However, when Keiichi learns about these crimes from the local police officer, his friends get suspicious of him. And some of them are holding secrets about the murders. But they couldn’t possibly be the murderers, could they?

That’s not the only mystery in the town. The series is based on a murder mystery game, and there are numerous retellings of the same story. Everyone dies in nearly all the stories, which might leave one to wonder whether there is a bright future for Hinamizawa.

Regardless of the grim, murderous nature of the series, each scenario is brilliant. In fact, the series was so brilliant that it ran for two seasons in Japan. Now Funimation is finally continuing the series from volume 4 onward. And now everyone will be able to watch more inconceivably scary stories. This is a must-see series that is coming out this September.

Image courtesy of psgels.blogsome.com

DVD Review - What the hellsing?

"Hellsing" is one of the deadliest vampire action series ever released. This review is about "Hellsing Ultimate," supposedly the ultimate version of this bloodfest.

However, it reflects so many changes to the original TV series so much that previous fans might not appreciate the so-called ultimate version.

For the uninitiated, "Hellsing" is a series about the Hellsing organization, bent on keeping the bloodthirsty vampires from sinking their teeth into the citizens of Romania. The organization, led by Integra Hellsing, sends a special vampire to slice the chests of these other vampires. His name is Alucard, and as far as I know, even if someone chops off his head, he can come back to life.

The first volume of "Hellsing Ultimate" covers the first three episodes of the "Hellsing" television show. In a short summary of this disc, Alucard recruits Seras Victoria, a policewoman, as his apprentice vampire. Alucard and Seras also fight Alexander Anderson, a Catholic paladin. Yes, there is actually a clash between the Protestant Hellsing Organization and the paladins of the Vatican.

There are many changes that could keep old fans of "Hellsing" from watching the new ultimate version. For starters, the first DVD is a near-perfect adaptation of the original manga. Because of this, the ultimate version is missing the cool, collected style of the priest vampire, who seduced Seras Victoria in the TV version. Now the priest is a blatant pervert who grabs her crotch and declares that he intends to rape her.

Of course, the ultimate version of "Hellsing" is close to the manga, but the director sacrificed his own original take, which was admittedly much cooler. The original TV show had an awesome mix of honky-tonk pianos and funk music in the background. It felt like a dark version of "Shaft," with Alucard saying in Japanese "Keep your hands off her," and yelling "PUNK!" in English. And Alucard even had cool dialogue about his custom-made silver bullet pistol.

Then again, "Hellsing Ultimate" was made with a much more horrific mood in mind. The series has plenty of bloody action sequences where thousands of zombies riddle Alucard with a million bulletholes, and yet Alucard manages to come back to life. Of course, with a nearly invincible vampire, I wonder how dramatic this series can possibly get if Alucard cannot die.

Still, this is a solid second rendition of a good vampire series. Some people may want to steer away from this super-violent series, but if anyone is in the mood for violent anime, "Hellsing Ultimate" is a must-see.

DVD - Gotham Knight's hits and misses

The short films on the "Batman: Gotham Knight" DVD provide a wide variety of anime styles that either hit or miss.

The "Batman: Gotham Knight" DVD was released at the same time that "The Dark Knight" played in theatres. It consists of seven anime shorts by various anime directors. Unfortunately, the film doesn't give enough credit to the actual Japanese directors, or the previous films they directed.

Most of the stories are fairly basic. The first short anime, "Have I Got a Story To Tell You," was directed by Shijirou Nishimi, who drew character designs for "Tekkonkinkreet." The film consists of four skater kids retelling the time in which they saw Batman. Each kid sees Batman as a different creature. For example, one sees him as a shape-shifting reptile and another sees him as a flying bat.

The second short, "Crossfire," follows two detectives transporting a criminal to Arkham Asylum. One detective sees Batman as a hero, while the other sees him as a vigilante. Of course, their perceptions quickly change after Batman saves the detectives when their car is caught in a crossfire between the Russian and Italian mob. Although the animation is a little stilted, Batman looks truly menacing in this anime episode, in the directorial debut of Futoshi Hagashide,who did in-between animation for "Air."

The third anime, "Field Test," was directed by Hiroshi Morioka, who directed the animation for "IGPX" (Immortal Grand Prix) on the Cartoon Network. It was one of my favorites in the collection, because it was well-scripted, and Bruce Wayne literally looks cool as a shonen pretty boy. In the film, Bruce Wayne's inventor, Lucius Fox, shows off a new technological device that deflects bullets. Bruce Wayne has some fun with the device at first, using it to his advantage at the local golf tournament. However, in one of Batman's confrontations with the Russian and Italian mobsters, the device deflects a bullet into a gangster's chest, and Bruce ends up taking the guy to the hospital. After this encounter, Bruce gave the device back to Lucius, so that he won't endanger other people with the device.

The fourth anime, "In Darkness Dwells," was a simple story about Batman fighting Killer Croc and Scarecrow. While it didn't offer many thrills, it was somewhat frightening to see one of Batman's bones crushed. But apparently Batman didn't mind. After all, he saved the archdeacon without a sweat. This lavishly animated action episode was directed by Yasuhiro Aoki, who directed the pilot episode of "Tweeny Witches."

The fifth anime, "Working Through Pain," was directed by Toshiyuki Kubouka, who was the animation director for "Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket" and "Gunbuster." It follows a series of unconnected events at first. Bruce Wayne gets shot in the sewers, and is headed to the surface. Suddenly it switched to a graphic scene in which Wayne is performing surgery on guys in Africa. Gross. However, soon we discover that Wayne is simply searching the world to find ways to relieve his pain. And Wayne comes across an Indian guru, who teaches him to...work through the pain. Although that surgery scene was too graphic for me, I enjoyed watching the last action sequence, where Bruce Wayne takes a board of wood to the head without flinching.

The sixth anime is a cool piece by Madhouse studio, the Korean group who directed "Gunslinger Girl" and "Boogiepop Phantom." Bruce Wayne is collecting guns to do research on Deadshot, the deadliest sniper in Gotham City. He's bent on assassinating lieutenant Gordon from a nearby train. And, somehow, Batman comes just in time to deflect the bullet in slow-motion with his metal wrist guard. Even if it's a show-off animation sequence, it does set the scene for an awesome fight between Batman and the gunslinger, who's also packing a chain gun on his arm.

While these are all completely different episodes, most of them look fantastic, except for the somewhat silly first anime, "Have I Got a Story To Tell You." Overall, this is a great combination of some good anime directors and one great anime studio. Honestly, I loved the third anime the best. There's nothing more hilarious than the pretty-boy depiction of Bruce Wayne.

Photo courtesy of thegeekrevolution.blogspot.com

DVD - Tweeny Witches teaches true magic

The third volume of "Tweeny Witches" closes the heroic tale with Arusu saving the witch's world from total destruction.

Of course, this isn't news from the start. In the first two volumes, everyone predicted that the end of the magic world was coming. However, I never expected such a remarkable display of apocalyptic imagery. But there are many, many spoilers in this review. You have been warned!

First of all, Arusu discovers who her real mom is. Lennon spills the beans in front of Arusu's witch brigade when he threatens to kill Triela, the sage of the witch town. Triela reveals that she is Arusu and Lennon's mother. So that's why Lennon kept saying that he was Arusu's mirror.

Second, Arusu returns the deadly magic book to Grande, the head of the warlocks. Grande wants nothing but destruction. He has no love for the magic world at all, and based on the flashback where a warlock was swallowed by Grande, he must be a demon too.

Third, one of the witches in Arusu's brigade becomes Grande's lynchpin for using dark magic to destroy the world. Here's a hint: it's not Sheila. I never expected that Eva would get entangled within the demonic monster that Grande transformed into. But Arusu soothed the savage beast with her motherly love. In other words, she feeds Eva her favorite food.

The ferocious monster is very reminiscent of the forest gods in the Hayao Miyazaki film "Princess Mononoke." The ending also involves pleasing a savage beast. However, "Tweeny Witches" somehow manages the daunting task of displaying grotesque monster imagery and keeping the material appropriate for children.

This is also a wonderful series that criticizes the apocalyptic genre of anime for the recent trend of disturbing psychological dramas and extreme violence. For example, the dark wizard in the series is Eva, which is already a reference to another apocalyptic series, "Neon Genesis Evangelion." Eva always had a desire to use magic, even though she couldn't use it for most of her life. That desire manifested in her role in destroying the magic world. And the series turned that destruction into a disastrous form of genocide, rather than a rebirth of mankind.

Lately, anime directors have lightened up on their apocalyptic tendencies with more optimistic anime. And "Tweeny Witches" is of these positive anime series that proves that it's okay to be young and a little uncertain about the future. After all, everyone can use magic. Although magic in the human world is more invisible, it is the magic of love, nonetheless.

Image courtesy of hirvine.com

Back to business

I haven't posted very many series reviews, but I'm getting back in the hang of things.

This fall on the anime blog, look forward to a review of season one of One Piece! I'm so happy that Netflix put the series up for rental release on Sept 23. Now I get to watch pirates with elastic arms and other goofy superpowers.

Other series reviews to look forward to are "Tweeny Witches," "Batman: Gotham Knight," "Hellsing Ultimate," "When They Cry," "Code Geass" and "Welcome to the N.H.K." I'm especially happy that "When They Cry," one of my absolute favorites, was picked up for release in September by Funimation. Be prepared for some of the best anime reviews to date.

DVD Classics: Get Your Boogiepop On

"Boogiepop Phantom" is easily one of the scariest anime series ever made, with violent ghosts, scientific drugs and exploding kitties (I kid you not).

The series starts off with a beam of light stretching through the sky. Without giving too much away, a hunter vanquishes a demon in an electric beam to save a city. But remnants of the demon still haunt the unknown city in Japan, where the story takes place.

Rumors are abuzz at Shinyo Academy about a man known as the Boogiepop Phantom, who kills students at night. Although it appears to be only a rumor, more and more schoolkids are either killed, killing each other, or killing themselves.

All these murders circle around a drug at a prefectural hospital administered to students, causing them to see and hear phantoms. And these ghosts are definitely not as friendly as Casper.

Although many of the mysteries remain unanswered in the series, the cinematography of "Boogiepop Phantom" is incredible. The entire series is shown through a grainy camera effect and the color is faded to a pale green. And this series is oh so dark. Viewers will undoubtedly jump at the screams, intense loud noises out of nowhere and the bloody deaths of students.

And while nobody may ever figure out the entire mystery of the Boogiepop Phantom, they will be fascinated with the scary transformations caused by pharmaceutical drugs, the secret organization fighting these phantoms and the shocking scares.

But everyone will be shocked in episode nine, "Until Ure In My Arms," where a boy appears to use his mind to maim and explode students' body parts. Or is someone else killing them?

Image courtesy of espvisuals.blogspot.com

DVD Review: Black Blooded Vampire Fun

"Black Blood Brothers" is an adrenaline-filled romp that makes up for its uneven storytelling with superhero vampire action and heartbreaking romance.

Each episodes opens with flashbacks, revealing that the main vampire hero, Jiro, failed to protect his girlfriend from being assassinated. He is a Kowloon child, but Jiro is on a mission to eliminate the members of his vampire clan. The Kowloon are bloodthirsty murderers who only live to suck to kill humans or convert them into more Kowloon.

The series lacks much needed direction, especially through the first episode. In that part alone, Jiro is forced to defend his brother Kotaro from the Suppression team of the Special Zone, which eliminates vampires. The fight gets interrupted when Kotaro falls into the sea and Jiro dives to rescue him. Jiro emerges with Kotaro at a nearby beach in episode 2, meeting with his tour guide, Mimiko Katsuragi. Katsuragi is set to welcome Jiro to the city, if she and Jiro can avoid run-ins with the Suppression team. In future episodes, Jiro's enemy, Cassandra Jill Warlock, is willing to do everything she can to enter the Special Zone.

As one can see, this is a confusing plot that leaves more questions than answers. "The Organization" has to be the lamest name for a city council that I've ever heard. However, this is one of the more impressive action series, with plenty of heated sword and gun battles.

Most of all, however, the love story between Jiro and Katsuragi is strong and heartbreaking. Katsuragi clearly likes Jiro, who is handsome and likes to keep other people out of trouble. But it's going to be a struggle for her to get Jiro away from his violent assassin life, especially when the Kowloons are ready to take over the Special Zone.

By the way, I really want to date Katsuragi. Her face is so lovely...












Images courtesy of animecafe247.com and black-blood-brothers.com

Emma: A Victorian Flop

The anime "Emma: A Victorian Romance" is a real-life maid series, that counteracts the current trend in Japan of the oversexualized maid cafes. However, from what I saw in the first DVD, the series just isn't exciting enough to catch my interest.

The plot is very simple. Set in 19th century England, Emma is a maid for her mistress, Kelly Stowner. Kelly used to be a governess to William Jones, a gentleman who works with his father to trade with India. William falls in love with Emma and buys her flowers and lace gloves.

However, at a ball, a 19-year-old named Elanor Campbell falls in love with William in episode 2. Although there's some confusion when Emma spots him shopping for a gift with Elanor nearby, William showed up at Emma's house later to give her the gift, a lace umbrella.

The story throws a curve ball in the third episode when William's friend in India, Hakim, arrives with his lady friends and his elephants. And William rides with Hakim on an elephant to Emma's, Hakim falls in love too. Hakim immediately tells her that he loves her, and buys her an expensive gift. However, Emma is not really fond of expensive attire.

While all this Japanese gift-giving etiquette in 19th century England is fine for a few episodes, it almost consumes what could have been a great Jane Austen-style romance. The characters spend so much time thinking about what gifts are best that they forget to develop strong, emotional relationships. The anime integrates visuals very well, with crazy elephant rides and beautiful outfits. However, Emma lacks the memorable dialogue to back it up. Supposedly, there's a conflict in which Emma cannot marry William because she's a common maid, but I haven't seen it yet.

See Anime News Network's review of the "Emma" box set.

Image courtesy of anime.mikomi.org and batrock.net

Let's Get English

Next blog, I'll review "Emma: A Victorian Romance." Yes, this is an anime series set in Victorian England. The box set came out this month, so stay tuned for a review on it.

Time sure slows down a lot during the summer, but I'm still reviewing.

DVD Review - Vexille brings technological apocalypse to Japan

Although one computer-generated robot film was already released this year, "Vexille" is more thoughtful and exciting than "Appleseed: Ex Machina." Despite the slow pace of the film, I loved watching this new prediction of an apocalyptic future of Japan.

At first, the film seems to go in the same direction as "Appleseed: Ex Machina," with intense robot battles and fast action. However, this movie decides to take a much different approach--this time, the robot force is investigating the use of cyborg technology in Japan.

According to the film, Japan isolated itself from the world in the year 2067. The entire island was secluded, and no foreigners could come in or out of the area. In fact, the movie shows that there is a flashing electronic security network called R.A.C.E. between Japan and the rest of the world.

The film centers around Vexille, a member of S.W.O.R.D., which is a military group that specializes in fighting in robot suits. Ten years later, her husband, Leon, found a messenger in San Pedro, California, who said that Maria needed him, and that Daiwa Industries is meeting at Mt. Fila on Christmas Day to discuss admission of their cyborg technology. Saito of Daiwa Industries escaped on an airplane. Although Vexille hung on to his leg, Saito chopped the leg off!

Later, some scientists explained that this was actually a cyborg leg, which is illegal under the United Nations restrictions. Eventually, the head of S.W.O.R.D. operations decides to act without United States authorization to investigate the nation of Japan.

Unfortunately, the mission doesn't go well. Leon's robot suit gets hit by a rocket, and Vexille's other members are killed. Vexille wakes up in a shocking new world of Japan. Tokyo has turned into a shantytown.

Vexille also meets Maria, who was Leon's ex-girlfriend in Japan. Maria was a U.N. investigator in Japan, but after regulations by Daiwa, Maria could not move out of Japan. Leon left for the United States, but Maria explains that Daiwa also did something else to Japan--they turned all the people into cyborgs.

According to Maria, after Daiwa Industries took governmental control over Japan, they gave all the people vaccinations. Unfortunately, these vaccinations were special chemicals that turned all their genes into robotic parts. While they are all human, when their eyes turn black, they will all turn into empty cyborgs who are forced to work for Daiwa.

And Japan is a wasteland. That's right, after Daiwa took over, they used up its natural resources. Now it has no mountains or rivers or greenery--it is all flat. This is sure one heck of a message to convert to environment-friendly energy sources, but it works very well. The depiction is incredible--I really loved the desolate world of Japan, with desert expanses and huge robotic worms made of scrap metal.

Vexille is a brilliant film from start to finish. The Japanese voices are incredibly compelling, and the computer-generated graphics are just as awesome. I saw many complaints that the graphics are not as good as, say, "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within." However, the director chose a style that used more cell-shaded graphics, to make it somewhat more cartoony. The images were probably rendered in this way to offer a sense of comic relief from the dark apocalyptic story.

But it's clear that "Vexille" offers excellent images and a brilliant story that paints a desolate future for Japan. Let's just hope that Japan doesn't get this messed up 60 or 70 years from now.

Images courtesy of seaslugteam.com

DVD Review - Pumpkin Scissors continues investigating conspiracies

Pumpkin Scissors is a very good anime series, even if the story spends too much time away from the main storyline. The characters' dialogue is fantastic, raising the tension through episodes five to 12.

As mentioned previously, Pumpkin Scissors, the third section of the Imperial Army State of the Royal Empire, is devoted to war relief. The first volume focused on Pumpkin Scissors' new recruit, the tall, unstoppable Randel Oland. While the Pumpkin Scissors is investigating the Invisible 9, the anti-tank regiment which Oland fought in, they are also fighting in side missions. The second and third volumes of the series follow these side stories.

After Oland recovered in the hospital, he found a baby dropped off by the Imperial Army's headquarters. Oland brings the baby to Pumpkin Scissors' office, and they spent the episode searching for the mother. The group also searched for missing supplies while Alice went out with her fiancee. Warrant Officer Oreldo also helped a prostitute who is still longing for her husband, who died in battle.

The last two episodes of volume three were devoted to Pumpkin Scissors continuing investigation into the Invisible 9. The Pumpkin Scissors leader, Second Lieutenant Alice, was kidnapped by a woman, who claimed that her brother was killed for writing a report revealing that the army was experimenting on the Invisible 9 soldiers, who destroyed her hometown. Unfortunately, her two comrades knocked her out to sell her report to a journalist. Assassins soon shot the journalist and the woman's two comrades, and the newspaper publishers lost the report. Oddly enough, the man who invented tanks was also killed. The episode ends with Alice's fiancee, Lionel Taylor, secretly talking with a stranger in a dark room about the recent events, as if they were plotting something.

Although the series spent lots of time with side stories, the dialogue is very good in this series. Unlike the war anime series "Fullmetal Alchemist," this series is heavily reliant on dialogue and hilarious mishaps. For example, in episode eight, the regiment was stuck in an abandoned lodge after their truck was attacked by snowboarding bandits. In a freezing lodge in the winter, a fire in the lodge would attract the bandits' attention, so Oreldo made the embarassing suggestion to Oland that one of them could sleep in the same blanket as Alice to stay warm.

However, the last two episodes revealed that the military is really doing a lot to hide their secrets. In the middle of searching for the report on Invisible 9, Alice and Oland are attacked by an assassin with two swords. Although it's really weird to have an assassin dressed like an Englishman who fights like a ninja, it really proves how much the Imperial State Army wants to hide their scientific experimentation on soldiers.

"Pumpkin Scissors" has a very good story going for it right now. Although the series gets a little sidetracked from the main story, the dialogue for the series is excellent. Hopefully, the series will continue with more revelations to come.

Image courtesy of randomc.animeblogger.net

Crayon Shin Chan - An American Travesty

I like Shin Chan. Even though some of the jokes are a little inappropriate for an American audience, it had a cute sense of humor.

However, I will not forgive Funimation for turning Shin Chan into total crap. I hate to say it, but the English dub is such a false and misleading translation that it turns the entire series into a travesty.

Let me give some examples. The first episode, "Pee Strike," was supposed to be a cute show about a kid who went on a pee strike, because his mom wouldn't give him a bigger allowance. Simple and cute episode. The dub turns Shin Chan into some stupid whiny jerk. Even worse, his upright, strict mother starts talking about syphillis in front of this kid! Syphillis!

Everyone knows that no Japanese mother would ever talk about this type of subject in front of their kids.

It gets worse and worse. The school principal (who looks Okinawan) becomes a Latino guy, Action Man becomes Action Bastard and the Action Man theme song includes the words "Honor and a penis." I kid you not.

How the hell could a simple kid show dub go completely wrong? Well, Funimation wanted to gear this release for adults. I read in "Anime Insider" magazine that Crayon Shin-Chan was similar to Bart Simpson in the United States. But why on Earth did the English dubbers add so much crap in this dub? I mean, there are clear cultural differences between Shin Chan and Bart Simpson. But why are the kids talking about European schools and Britney Spears?

The dub is hideous. Awful. Inexcusable. The animation is still the same, but that's besides the point. The Texas dubbers involved with Shin Chan really screwed up with this. And they're working on the second season as well. Let's just hope that they don't mess up other Japanese shows.

Image courtesy of myhaven.wordpress.com

Jet Lagann

Remember two months ago, when I said that I would review Gurren Lagann? Turns out the American publisher, ADV, lost the rights to the series. Now Bandai is releasing "Gurren Lagann" next month.

Talk about weird. I was so ready two months ago to watch goofy robots with drills duke it out. Ah well, at least I can look forward to "Gurren" next month.

I'm not looking forward to reviewing "Shin Chan." I have the DVDs, but they all have bad American dub voices. There are other problems too, but I'll jot those down in my review.

Image courtesy of iamotaku.wordpress.com

DVD Review - xxxHolic continues wish-giving spree

The second DVD of xxxHolic is the best anime to arrive in my mailbox so far. Even though the characters are still unbelievably tall, the mystical beauty of the series still stands strong.

If you don't know the storyline, high schooler Kimihiro Watanuki is a part-time worker at Yuko Ichihara's house. Yuko is a professional fortune-teller and wish-giver. She often assigns Watanuki to difficult chores, such as purging the school of ghosts and offering comforting words to people tormented by demons. He's hoping that Yuko will grant his wish to stop seeing demons.

The second DVD continues Watanuki's life as a part-time worker. This time, Watanuki returns two birds to a fox and his kid, helps Yuko purge a woman of her addiction to the Internet and saves a cursed hydrangea. The chore for the fox in episode five is the lighter of the four episodes. On Watanuki's walk back to Yuko's, he discovers a food cart owned by a fox and his kid. They serve Watanuki the best oden (a Japanese stew) he's ever tasted, and Watanuki brings Yuko some oden. In return, Yuko asks Watanuki to bring back the fox's two ghost-birds the next night. Of course, since there was a full moon that night, demons attacked Watanuki, so Yuko gives Mokona to Watanuki. And while he's chased by demons, Mokona plays a game with Watanuki called shiritori, in order to repel the demons. Mokona says a word aloud and Watanuki has to say a word with starting with the last syllable of Mokona's word. I loved watching Watanuki struggle to think of words to say aloud.

The next three episodes are grim, to say the least. In episode six, "Indulgence," Watanuki and Yuko returns to the woman with the ring, who cheated on her husband. Yuko and the woman are now friends on the Internet who post on the magical girls bulletin board (I guess there's something for everyone in the Internet). This time, she has another addiction--an addiction to using the Internet obsessively as a diversion. Yuko and Watanuki solve her problems by fixing her computer. And Yuko bought a baseball bat for just this occasion.

In the seventh episode, Watanuki helps out a water sprite with an unspecified chore. Watanuki and Doumeki ask for Himawari's hair ribbons. The water sprite asks Watanuki and Doumeki to go to a humongous hydrangea. However, the hydrangea wraps up Watanuki and pulls him into the plant. He wakes up in a grey world to find a girl who wants to get out of the void they are in. Thankfully, Doumeki saves him again. Unfortunately, the girl wasn't saved--the girl was already dead.

The eighth episode is the most disturbing one yet. In this episode, a practicing teacher at Watanuki finds a pencil-shaped metal container at Yuko's yard sale. Yuko lets her have the container, but warns her not to open it. However, when she does open it, she finds an artifact called the monkey's paw. Whenever she makes a wish, one of the monkey's fingers break. But as the episode continues, the teacher discovers that not all wishes come true. In fact, her college professor calls her on the phone to tell her that her thesis was a work of plagiarism. She accidentally makes a wish for a subway train accident, and a person next to her dies in it at the subway. Eventually, she dies an awful death by monkey paw.

xxxHolic continues its spiritual theme of contentfulness. Yuko continues to remind us that its better for people not to wish for so much, because we are fine the way we are. Of course, some people wish for more, and Yuko continues to grant them their wishes for things in return. This is a difficult business for Yuko, but in Japan, someone has to teach people to tame their inner beast. Yuko is just the person to do the job.

This is starting to become a dark and grim anime series, but it still remains very insightful. This is one of the best anime series this year. I'm looking forward to watching more.

Image courtesy of anime.mikomi.org

Small scare, the blog continues onward

I'm having problems paying my credit card bills, but at least my parents like my anime blog. I have been able to keep subscribing to Netflix.

Still, I really need a job now. After half a year of keeping this anime blog, I'm actually running low on money. If I don't get a job, I won't be able to keep blogging, or remain working. Period.

At least Netflix isn't as money-draining as my subscription to the New York Times. God, I'm going to stop my subscription because it's so expensive.

I'm holding my breath in hopes of a decent job. Wish me luck.

DVD Review - Oh my "Lucky Star"!

If "Neon Genesis Evangelion" showed all the problems of Japan, "Lucky Star" shows everything that is good about Japan. Most Americans may gloss over this cheeky series about otaku and Japanese culture, but people who love Japanese culture will undoubtably love "Lucky Star."

"Lucky Star" is, like "Azumanga Daioh," a series about high school girls in Japan. However, while "Azumanga" dealt with high school girls and their everyday life, "Lucky Star" deals with high school girls and their fascination with otaku culture. Otaku, if you haven't heard of them, refers primarily to video game and anime addicts in Japan. The choice of characters and the topic is fascinating in itself, because the older generation of Japanese people refer to otaku as children who just won't grow up.

On the contrary, "Lucky Star" promotes the message that anime is not bad at all. In fact, the main character, Konata Izumi, liberates herself from her humdrum everyday life with online games, shonen (boys) manga and dating simulation games. Every day, she likes to imagine her friends as anime characters, and reimagines scenes in everyday life as scenes from "Cromartie High School" and "Street Fighter II." While her friends initially believe that Konata is slacking off and cramming at the last minute, she certainly succeeds well, based on her test grades and her gleeful expression when her friends ask how well she did on her entrance exams.

Konata's friends are just as interesting. Kagami Hiragi, the genius of the group of friends, often tries to convince Konata to stop slacking off (good job). However, no matter how hard Konata tries, she can't help slipping into her habits of reading manga and watching episodes of "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya." Kagami's twin sister, Tsukasa, is a clumsy airhead who actually makes an effort to study, but gets so carried away with planning everything that she forgets about studying. Miyuki Tahara is from a wealthy family and always talks politely. And she can give encyclopedia definitions for everything that her friends talk about.

This is a series that is whimsical and fun for its simple, but unique characters. I could never imagine that an elementary school girl in Japan would love dating simulation games, which mostly focus on male characters who can choose from a variety of girls to date, kiss and even have sex with. However, Konata is just that type of person, because her mother died and her father loves playing those dating video games. This alone allows the kids to bring up interesting discussions about whether an addiction to dating games is a healthy habit.

The most interesting part of the series is the "Lucky Channel" segment at the end of every episode, hosted by the cute Akira Kogami and her male assistant, Minoru Shiraishi. The two look at letters to the director and discuss character profiles. However, in the middle of the segment, Akira usually sulks about how much she hates her job, her parents who withhold her allowance and her directors who force her to play cute characters. Akira's character makes for hilarious conversations between Shiraishi and Kogami.

But the series is nowhere near as exciting as the wacky opening theme song, "Motteke Serafuku." The characters sing about three-piece uniforms, getting cherry pies and their pride for wearing sailor shirts as schoolgirl uniforms. Don't ask about the lyrics, because I'm clueless as to what some of them really mean. However, the subtitle writers did a good job translating them as best as they could. And a whole bunch of schoolgirls are in cheerleader uniforms, dancing to the bass-thumping dance music. It's quite a spectacle, and it's probably the best opening sequence I've seen in awhile.

Certainly "Lucky Star" has its flaws--anime fans who love subtitles will have a tough time catching up with the long dialogue of these kids, and they may miss out on references to the dating game "To Heart." However, for people who love Japanese culture, this is a must-have series. I'm definitely picking up this series for its unique look at Japanese mannerisms.

Some of the extras are great as well. There is a karaoke video of the opening sequence of the series and a special segment called "The Adventures of Minoru Shiraishi." This is the real-life Minoru Shiraishi, the music director for "Lucky Star." In this episode, he heads to a rocky beach in Kyushu (I think) to sing anime songs, such as the "Miracle Minarun-run" from "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya." The segment a hilarious look at how far Japanese directors will go to entertain people.

Image courtesy of kurotiger.blogspot.com