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