DVD Review - Tweeny Witches delivers twice the anime fun

"Tweeny Witches" is one of the most original anime ever--delivering two episodes in each 30-minute show. Although this means that each show runs very quickly, the series' blend of fast broom-flying action and magic is more than enough to dazzle viewers.

As stated before, each 30-minute show features two 10-minute episodes. This is a fast series, covering more ground per episode than any anime before. The dialogue is brief, the action is fast and the series is a little hard to keep up with. However, the series is so visually stunning that is more than any shoujo (girl) anime fan could ask for.

The protagonist in "Tweeny", Arusu, is a young teenager who loved magic ever since she was a kid. Her high school friends steal her book one day. Arusu chases them up to the rooftop to get her book. She grabs it, but she also falls off the multi-story building. Thankfully, the magic of the book sends her to a world ruled by witches.

Arusu has always believed that witches use their magic for good, but these witches are just evil. They imprisoned her after she took a fairy from the land. To Arusu's dismay, the witches are capturing fairies for their powers. And the two young witches taking care of her don't like her too much, especially Sheila, the discipline officer. She wants to keep Arusu in a cage forever. Geez, talk about strict.

Fortunately, Arusu manages to convince the other witch, Eva, to set her free. Arusu learns to fly on a broomstick, and quickly sets free all the fairies. However, the Grand Master of the witches isn't pleased, and she punishes Eva and Sheila with eternal youth. Any girl would love eternal youth, unless they are 8-year-olds, like Eva and Sheila.

Eva and Sheila obey the Grand Master's orders to capture all 100 fairies again, but Arusu knows that something isn't right. After all, this empire of witches doesn't act anything like the ones in the sitcom "Bewitched". Arusu decides to make it her mission to set the fairies free from the witch empire.

Although this series moves very quickly, and some of the camera shots don't focus on the important action, the series has some of the best dialogue I've ever heard. The kids are incredibly detailed, and the speedy animation is dazzling. And at the same time, the series had enough drama to keep me glued to the edge of my seat.

Honestly, after the usual junk anime I've seen in the past, I never expected this anime to be so excellent. The theme of freedom from oppression is a common in anime, but "Tweeny Witches" tells each segment of the tale in a compact 10-minute segment to watch during a coffee break. Never before has an anime been so epic and brief at the same time. This is a one of the most original anime series that I have ever seen.

I'm really looking forward to watching more episodes of "Tweeny Witches". This is a release you won't want to miss.

Images courtesy of adorablerockets.com and hirvine.com.

DVD Review - Don't panic with "Strawberry Panic"

I must have a bad habit for watching yuri series. I chose "Strawberry Panic" this weekend thinking that it was "Strawberry Marshmallow", an anime about young girls trying to survive on little cash to spare. Instead, I ended up renting a series about a girl and girl romance.

Just to let you know beforehand--I don't intentionally focus on these yuri series. I've just happened to run into them in my search for romance anime.

Still, for a yuri series, "Strawberry Panic" certainly doesn't get excessively awkward at all. This series tells a heartwarming tale of a Japanese girl who tries to fit in at a monastic high school in the woods.

Nagisa Aoi, a fourth-year transfer to Astraea Dormitory, had no idea that her school was so far away from Tokyo. And her first memories are not picture-perfect. She falls down a hillside into a meadow, where she meets the Etoile, the highest ranking student representative of the dormitory. And she is very attracted to Nagisa. In fact, when the Etoile stares at her, she can't even move. And right when the Etoile kisses Nagisa, she blacks out.

She wakes up in the school nurse's office and meets her new roommate, Tamao, who instantly takes a liking to her. In fact, Tamao even takes measurments of Nagisa for her new school uniform. Of course, Nagisa is pretty spooked by all this girl-on-girl action. Even worse, she gets locked out of the school gates on her first day, and is given a strict whipping by the headmaster.

Still, she meets plenty of friends at the dorm. However, her biggest fan right now is Shizuma, the Etoile. Shizuma has a bad habit of staring at Nagisa and trying to kiss her. Thankfully, Nagisa resists Shizuma's creepy powers and manages to convince Etoile to attend the school meetings between the three schools of the dormitory, St. Spica's academy, St. Le Rim's academy and St. Miatre Girls academy. Still, Nagisa still wonders why Shizuma has stopped attending the meetings.

This series has a lot of spunk for a yuri series. The anime has plenty of hilarious embarassing moments, where Nagisa is hit on by Shizuma and Tamao. Nagisa has been resisting these approaches pretty well so far. I guess homosexual romance tends to be a little more rampant at all-girl academies. I'm glad that the series hasn't been too seriously intimate so far. After all, I don't think too many people would want to go into a relationship too quickly. And thankfully, this isn't as dangerously pornographic as "Moonlight Mile". At least not yet...

Also, Nagisa has a way of cheering up Shizuma as well. In episode six, Nagisa warms up to Shizuma as she helps her water the plants in the greenhouse. However, Shizuma obviously has a dark past, because she keeps staring out the window with a depressing demeanor.

So far, this series is a winner. It doesn't bring anything new to the yuri genre, but it is a wonderful start to a romance anime. The pacing is steady and graceful--the homosexual romance hasn't made me too uncomfortable at all, and the setting is realistic enough for a yuri series. I'm crossing my fingers, because this could be a candidate for best yuri series of the year.

Oh yeah, this has the best opening song I've heard in awhile. And it sounds awfully similar to the Angelic Layer first ending theme, although none of the Strawberry Panic song composers or singers worked on that Angelic Layer song.

DVD - Welcome to the great depression

Although this is really volume three of the series which I am reviewing, "Welcome to the NHK!" is worthy of plenty of praise. Shown in the CSULB anime club, it is one of the most dramatic and hilarious series about the otaku culture of Japan, the anime and manga lovers of contemporary Japan.

In particular, "Welcome to the NHK!" focuses on the hikikomori culture, the disturbing trend of young unemployed people in Japan who are disillusioned by the working world. Japanese workers tends to frown on these depressed individuals. Based on this anime, the new otaku culture only breeds more of these secluded individuals who are afraid of the outside world.

In a short summary of the past two DVDs, the anime focuses on Satou, a twenty-something-year-old hikikomori who is convinced by a young teenage girl named Misaki to take her hikikomori rehabilitation course. On the side, Satou has been working with his friend to produce an ero-game, a dating simulation which rewards the male character with sexual scenes and pictures. He is hoping to prove that he will escape his hikikomori life with this new occupation.

In this DVD, Misaki takes Satou out to see a fireworks show. She's been getting closer to Satou lately, but Satou is getting awfully nervous about the sexual tension. He leaves Misaki to drive with his high school friend, Kashiwa, on an off-site trip with friends she made online. However, this isn't an ordinary trip--this is a trip where everyone will kill themselves on a deserted island.

So far, the series has gone pretty steady, but volume three is the start of the suicide club string of episodes, an incredible haunting section of the anime. Although Satou and Misaki's relationship has become closer, by the next DVD, their love will almost completely fall apart in a heavily emotional scene. I like the series. However, the next DVD may become a little overdone and a little too long for its own good. After all, the original novel didn't even include this off-site suicide meeting.

However, I'd have to admit that all the characters are still drawn pretty well. Satou may be the most psychologically distressed lead character in all the anime I've ever seen (aside from Shinji in "Evangelion"). And Misaki is still one of the anime gals I desperately want to marry. I still have to decide between Misaki or Yomiko Readman from "Read or Die".

Stay tuned. I still haven't seen the end of "Welcome to the NHK!", so I'll be looking forward to the ending.

Images courtesy of parttimeotaku.files.wordpress.com, concretebadger.net and animeshows.org

DVD Review - Moonlight Mile: First astronaut anime sex-fest

I don't mind watching space films most of the time. Although most of them feature only men, the characters perform acts of courage and goodwill that few people could do themselves.

But this anime really shows off the masochism of space movies in its worst form. The series is so degrading for women that it's downright ridiculous.

First of all, this anime covers two daredevil mountain climbers, Saruwatari Garou and Lostman, who work hard to become astronauts in space. It sounds like a great dream. What isn't so inspiring is their ritual of having sex with women as a token of "good luck" before every mountain climb. It's true--just watch the "preparatory" sex scene in episode one before they climb a mountain.

Although I'd have to say that those guys are sure lucky to do such things while I'm still a virgin, it gets downright disturbing when these guys make an effort to have sex at the most illogical times. For example, while a secretary is taking a tour of a construction site, Garou is having sex with a waitress against the window of his heavy-duty crane. And before Lostman flies on a deadly mission in the Middle East, he has to get laid for good luck before his mission.

Good grief, these guys sure get a lot of sex. Also, how do they manage to convince their ladies to get it on? They must be really, really convincing, or disturbingly seductive.

There's also something just wrong about making almost all the men astronauts and all the women as cashiers or secretary. Although I figured that two thousand years in the future women would have the civil rights to become astronauts, apparently most of the astronauts (and most of the characters) are men, as portrayed in "Moonlight Mile".

Still, I had to admit that the animators thought of some ingenius Apollo 13-style situations. The third episode is especially engaging. Steve O'Brien, an African American who is transporting a crane in space, mysteriously loses the thrust in the rockets for his ship. To make matters worse, a meteorite hits his ship, causing him to spin slowly downward into the Earth's atmosphere. Garou saves him with a clever spaceship propelling trick--first O'brien boards the ball-shaped command module. Then the command module is released so that the spinning long end of the ship hits the command module like a bat, propelling it away from the atmosphere. My dad would probably say that this isn't physically possible, but still, I have to admit that the scene looked impressive from a visual standpoint.

Yet, I still can't help but think that this anime is pushing the limits of masochism a little too far. Although "Moonlight Mile" is visually impressive and suspenseful, it is also an unbelievable story. I was looking forward to a brave story about astronauts performing courageous feats. I wasn't expecting a sex-fest, which really became downright ridiculous. When compared to the awesome space anime series "Planetes", "Moonlight Mile" falls flat.

Image from doanimation.wordpress.com

Huzzah for "5 centimeters per second"

Good news! Netflix decided to put "5 centimeters per second" on reserve.

Hopefully this means that I will get to review this awesome movie. I can hardly wait. Makoto Shinkai has some of the best artwork in any anime movie I've ever seen. No one can match his superb lighting effects and shading. Oh man...I'm getting so emotional over this.

I've heard comments that my blog has too much summary of the anime and not enough opinion. I will work on that and try to give a very brief summary in one or two paragraphs to meet with demands.

I've also heard that I should try to find some new things to review. Of course, someone from the CSULB anime club is really into this stuff and he's always one step ahead of me. I'm probably not going to be as up-to-date as him, but I will try to review things as soon as possible. Oh, I will also take a look at cool anime toys and goodies. Yeehee!

Gosh, I'm getting too excited for one blog. Okay, I'll stop. Next review is "Moonlight Mile". And in the first scene of the first episode, there are two guys having sex. It's a strange way to open an anime covering two guys trying to qualify for a mission to the moon. It should be entertaining.

A look at the past - "Blood: The Last Vampire"

While "Blood+" is indeed one of the best anime series of recent years to be released, the series actually a sequel to a classic one-hour anime film, "Blood: The Last Vampire". It goes without saying that this is a beast of a film, one that demands even more attention than the sequel.

"Blood: The Last Vampire" stars Saya as a monster-hunter, one who appears to kill innocent human beings without a thought in the world. In a haunting first scene, Saya slashes someone in an empty subway car. One military witness wasn't happy about it afterwards, but Saya's military commander, David, tells the man that Saya is the only one able to find and kill humans who will turn into demons.

In another turn of events, Saya gets transferred to a local school in the area, where she kills one of the demons in the school nurse's office. The nurse tries to run away from Saya, but she keeps getting attacked by more and more of these demons. Saya takes her to a military base for safety, informing the nurse that anyone who sees a demon's dead body isn't supposed to live. Yet, Saya still takes pity on the Japanese nurse.

After a series of violent scenes, the nurse survives, but the military denies any existence of Saya or David. This is a haunting film about war brutality in Japan, in which anyone who sees this violence will turn into a monster. Yet, the military is hardly willing to talk about it, in reference to the U.S. censorship of all discussion about the bombing of Japan in World War II. And even as Japan headed off to fight with the U.S. in the Vietnam War, the nurse still wonders how long censorship will really last, if more and more people turn into monsters.

It's hard to imagine that such a great storyline can fit into one hour, but "Blood: the Last Vampire" does this effortlessly. Although "Blood+" seems to go into further detail about the origin of chiropterans, "Blood: The Last Vampire" is a straight-to-the-point look at the reasons why frightened people can turn into monsters in Japan.

If anything, anime fans should at least check out "Blood: The Last Vampire" before watching "Blood+". Both are great, but "Blood: The Last Vampire" is an anime legend that is like no other. Keep in mind that not all the voices are Japanese, either. This is an incredible film with both American and Japanese voices, with each representing the language of their respective country. This is one of the few films that is truly bilingual, and very thought-provoking at the same time. This is a classic anime horror film that no one can resist, as long as they are willing to stomach some gut-wrenching violence.

Early review - Blood+ offers both compelling storyline and plenty of blood

There are many impressive anime out now, but "Blood+" could possibly be the most impressive and dramatic series to date this year.

The animation studio behind the production, Production I.G., really pushed the limits of anime with "Blood+". The story involves a high-school girl, Saya, an anemic who has no memory of her own past. She lives with her father and her two adopted siblings. However, things turn for the worse on a night when Saya runs back to the school at night to get her athletics uniform. A humongous monster grabs his teacher and kills him. Trapped in a science laboratory, Saya is saved by Hagi, who feeds her some of his blood through a kiss. When Saya's brother goes out to tell her that her uniform is still a home, the beast attacks Riku and is about to kill him when Saya goes berzerk. Cutting her finger to release her blood on her sword, she chops the monster in half.

To make matters worse, the U.S. army and organization known as Cinq de Fleches sends an army regiment to their position. Haji manages to carry them to safety to the top of another building. Soon enough, Saya's foster father explains that she is actually a warrior who was laid to rest in a cave after the Vietnam War, when she fell into a hibernation cycle. George was ordered after the war to guard Saya and kill her if she went into a killing rage as she did in the war. After she awoke, George adopted her, seeing that she was no longer a threat. She also adopted two other boys, Kai and Riku.

After another battle with a chiropteran, where Hagi saves her again, George is wounded and is taken to an army hospital. Meanwhile, George's friend in the army, David, also reveals that she is the only one capable of killing the monsters with her blood. Whenever a monster is hurt with blood from Saya sword, it becomes paralyzed. As a member of the Red Shield, David asks her to join their fight to save the world against the monsters. Things turn bad after George is kidnapped by Cinq de Fleches, and Saya has no choice but to join her guardian, Kai, and David to find George in a secret U.S. army base.

And when you think things can't get any worse, Cinq de Fleches injects George with Delta 67, the drug that turns people into chiropterans. In a brutal scene, George, wounded and kneeling in a pool of his own blood, begins to transform into a chiropteran. Saya cannot bear to kill him with her sword, but George told her that there was no other way. In a heartbreaking scene, Saya cuts herself and lets her blood flow down into George's wounds to paralyze him for good. Although her father died, Saya decides to join the Red Shield in their epic battle against Cinq de Felches.

Even though I've only seen about two volumes of this box set, it is clear that "Blood+" is one of the best anime I have ever seen this year. Technically, the series is a sequel to the 30-minute film "Blood: The Last Vampire", but this series certainly stands alone as an incredible piece of work. The music is also composed by Hans Zimmer, best known for his music in the epic film "Gladiator." Despite the bloody violence in this series, there are tender moments as well, as Saya and her brothers struggle to spend time together as a family.

The box set of the first 25 episodes of this series is not cheap--it costs more than $100. However, the story, action and drama conveyed in this series is worth every penny. On an unfortunate note, from what I've seen on the first two discs, there are no extras, and I really didn't like the English dub. Still, based on the subtitled version, this is one of the best series of 2008, and I cannot wait until the part two box set is released.

New anime, please

I have to give an apology. I was hoping that Netflix would release Makoto Shinkai's film "5 centimeters per second" or "Gurren Lagann", so that I could watch it. However, neither of these have happened yet, so I'm really disappointed in Netflix.

However, I have received the first few DVDs of "Blood+", which is now my favorite release for this year. The series was released as a box set, so it may take me awhile to finish my review, as I have to watch all six DVDs! Whew.

My next review should be "Welcome to the NHK!" I'm really happy that Netflix released disc 3 it for rental just recently. Other series that I'm set to watch are "Moonlight Mile", which has something to do with astronauts.

I'm also crossing my fingers, hoping that Netflix will come through and release "XXXholic" for rental. Stay tuned...

DVD Review - The best homosexual anime you've never seen

Homosexuality is still a risque topic in America as well as Japan. Thus, the anime publishing company Media Blasters took a big risk in releasing "Simoun", a anime featuring homosexual girls, in America.

However, "Simoun" may very well be the best homosexual anime that you've never seen. No doubt, this is the sleeper hit of 2008. The anime looks so incredible and the scenes are so thought-provoking that anyone in the proper mindset will want to buy the rest of the series.

"Simoun" is a yuri series, a series which focuses on female homosexual romance. Believe it or not, many gay love anime series become really popular in Japan. However, I still somewhat grimace at watching girls kiss each other, as they do in this series.

However, "Simoun" is challenging in many other ways. Its world focuses on the planet Daikuriku, inhabited by humonoids who are born only as girls. In the most powerful colony, Simulacrum, the humanoids can choose their own gender when they reach the age of 17. And even the girls who choose to change their gender still retain their feminine voice. Although this may seem like a disturbing violation of ethics involving faulty industrial genetic mutation, the process is actually connected to Simulacrom's religion. The girls can choose the gender they want, by entering a spring and praying. After a few years, their breasts flatten out, but they still retain their feminine voice. And the new guys created from the process don't seem to mind either.

"Simoun" also presents a world where the nation of women happened to discover the most advanced technology in the world, with clean burning fuel, advanced spaceships called Simouns, and, of course, genetic altering without problems. However, the other nearby country, Argentum, is fighting Simulacrum for this technology with their propeller-powered aircraft with machine guns. Argentum also suffers over extreme pollution and don't have the technology to change their own gender.

It sounds extremely far out, but "Simoun" provides a vision of what the world could be like if women ran the most powerful country in the world. I almost forgot the most risque part of the series--two female pilots of an aircraft have to kiss each other and then kiss a big jewel in-between their cockpits in order to activate the ship, known as a Simoun. This is probably as racy as the series ever gets, aside from a scene where one of the girls flirts with her senior. However, it also shows that this nation of Simulacrum permits homosexuality freely, without restrictions. The nature of the nation contrasts sharply with Argentum, which restricts people with industrial pollution and predestined gender roles.

As strange and far-out as the plot is, it leads to some excellent scenes. The first episode begins with top pilots Amuria and Neveril fighting with their fleet, the Chor Tempest, against an enormous Argentum fleet of airships. One Simulacrum ship is destroyed in the battle. Amuria and Neveril attempt to kill off all the Argentum by flying their ship through the air to create a huge Ri Majon, a laser trail shape in the sky that explodes. However, Neveril gets distracted when she sees the human eyes of an Argentum pilot. Because of the distraction, the Ri Majon explodes, killing her partner, Amuria. For much of the rest of the DVD, Neveril can't bear to pilot a Simoun ever again, because of the fatal battle.

Thus, Paraietta, the second leader-in-command, picks up three new recruits to replace the fallen fighters. Aeru, one of the newcomers, is the main heroine of the series. Young, brash and aggressive, she takes a liking to Neveril immediately, but Paraietta isn't so pleased. The other two recruits, Floe and Rimone, join the other Chor Tempest members, Alti, Floe, Kaimu, Mamiina, Morinas, Rodoreiamann and Yun.

The story centers mostly with Aeru, who constantly knocks on Neveril's door, because Neveril remains secluded in her room. Because Neveril isn't flying, the Chor Tempest hasn't been able to fly any really challenging missions. In episode 4, Aeru almost destroys her ship and gets reprimanded. In order to regain her stature in the Chor Tempest, she convinces Rimone to fly with her to find Argentum soldiers to destroy. They find one aircraft and plan on capturing the pilot after landing. Unfortunately, the pilot surprises them and they get captured. The pilot reveals that his country is heavily polluted and that his only choice is to capture a Simulacrum ship for his country to use. However, he cannot find another person to help him pilot it, his lungs were not able to handle the clean air of Simulacrum, and he turned to stone in the cockpit. In a bloody scene, Aeru shoos the young Rimone away so that she can cut his frozen hands off the joystick.

In the fifth episode, Rimone recovers from the shock of her bloody cockpit and learns to fight again with the help of Dominura, a veteran pilot transferred to the Chor Tempest. The sixth episode focuses on Paraietta and Neveril's former relationship. They were in love, until Neveril fell in love with Amuria. Paraietta sees herself as selfish for restricting Aeru from pairing with Neveril, and after a fencing match with Aeru, she lets Aeru become Neveril's new flying partner.

Although this series is a little risque, it is one of the most complex anime series featuring an all female vocal cast. As long as people are willing to accept the homosexual relationships, this series is one of the best anime series of 2008. The dogfights are stunningly amazing to watch and the plot was very well thought out. This series probably won't be the most popular series in America due to its content, but it is still a series to keep.

Images courtesy of stevegilham.blogspot.com and pinkubentobox.com