DVD Review: Maria Watches Over Us Season One

"Maria Watches Over Us" is quite an impressive series. Season one is filled with plenty of juicy romance stories of girls dating girls. This review covers discs 3 and 4 of the series.

While we've all seen the "schoolgirls all caught up love triangles" story before, "Maria Watches Over Us" featured plenty of engaging surprises. Right from the get-go, a student makes one heck of a proposal at the Yamayuri council. She wants to hold a Valentine's Day scavenger hunt, in which the person who finds a card wins a date with one of the grande soeurs.

Yumi Fukuzawa has worried about what to give her "big sister," Sachiko Ogasawara, for Valentine's Day. However, Yumi hasn't talked to Sachiko for a long time now. Yumi's crossing her fingers that she can find the card and give Sachiko a great Valentine's Day present.

In the meantime, Rei Hasekura of the Foetida family has been worrying about her petite soeur, Yoshino Shimazu. After all, someone else found Yoshino's card. Hopefully Yoshino doesn't get too worried about Rei's date with someone else.

Meanwhile, Sei Sato of the Gigantea family stayed out of the spotlight until episodes 10 and 11, when a mystery person named Sei Suga wrote a romance book. There's rumors floating around that Sei Suga is just a pen name for Sei Sato. Even though the rumor is false, the story reveals Sei Sato's dark past, when she was in love with Kubo Shiori.

Overall, the last set of episodes really wrapped up "Maria Watches Over Us" nicely. Although most of the best episodes are covered at the beginning and the end of the series, the stories are fantasic. Probably the best storyline featured Sei Sato's past romance with Kuro Shiori, a girl who works at a church. Perhaps it was a romance that could never come true, but Sei Sato's voice actor goes through a complete sea change from cheerful to completely depressed. And Sei is surprisingly genuine in her emotions.

Too bad Sachiko and Yumi's romance never went through as many intense emotions as Sei Sato's romance. Then again, people would find it hard not to love Yumi, for doing everything she can for her big sister. They'll probably also love watching Sachiko wear jeans instead of fancy dresses for a change.

With such a colorful cast of female characters who love (ahem) female characters, no one can go wrong with "Maria Watches Over Us" season one. Although the price of the box rose to $44, it's still one hell of a bargain, for all the emotion conveyed in this series.

Image courtesy of 100yen.wordpress.com

My heart is in Pieces

Unfortunately, I need to change part of my review on the One Piece anime. The dub is average at best.

Believe me, Funimation really tried. However, their miserable dub over the original Japanese opening theme is awful.

Thankfully, the rest of the dub is pretty solid. There is the occasional awful dub, such as the part in the first episode when a guy is trying to retrieve a barrel in the ocean. When he misses, his mates says loudly, "Ha! Ha! You suck!"

Sometimes the characters say some stupid lines where there shouldn't be any talking. For example, Koby looks in the cabin and sees a bunch of barrels in one corner of the room. Then he just says, "Wow! That's one big barrel. I wonder what's inside of it?" I guess it's a very, very interesting barrel.

Despite these problems, the One Piece dub is still decent. And overall, I like the voice actor who plays Monkey D. Luffy. But if anyone is listening to the dub, they should do themselves a favor and skip the opening song. Really.

DVD Review: The Virgin Mary's Girls

It's been awhile since I first reviewed "Maria Watches Over Us." The second DVD of the first season is a little disappointing, but the storyline on the Gigantea family is very intriguing.

As shown in the first DVD, Yumi Fukuzawa became Sachiko Ogasawara's petite seour, or little sister. The student council, also known as the Yamayuri Council, is ogling over this new induction. However, they are especially interested in Noriko Nijo and Shimako Toudo, who were declared the best seour pair by the student newspaper.

But in a little twist, Shimako and Noriko engaged in a verbal argument, in which Noriko gave Shimako back the rosary necklace. Thus, Noriko stopped living as Shimako's petite seour. But Noriko has her own reasons for leaving. Her heart surgery is coming up.

The last episode in this DVD involves the mysterious Rosa Canina, also known as Kanina Shizuka. Shizuka is a junior in high school, who is in the running to be elected as one of the Yamayuri Council officers. However, she's also interested in Sei Suto, one of the members of the Gigantea family. Why is Rosa Canina running in the election when no one in the Yamayuri council knows who she is.

Compared to the first DVD, these episodes are rather tame, in terms of romance and drama. The episodes on Shimako and Noriko are especially intriguing, because I never expected Noriko as a person who has heart problems. But Shimako and Noriko have a very moving moment together in the end. As for Rosa Canina, she shared a short romantic kiss with Sei Sato.

True, this wasn't the best set of yuri romance stories in the series, but it provides a more in-depth look at the seour system in the Yamayuri Council.

Image courtesy of insideanime.wordpress.com

DVD Review: Piece out!

Like I said, I wish Netflix had the DVDs of the "First Voyage" of One Piece. Fortunately, through the power of the internet, I watched episodes 1-13 of One Piece.

I'll have to say that One Piece is one of the best shonen anime series out there, with plenty of unique twists to the typical formula.

First of all, the main character, Monkey D. Luffy, is a teenage guy with the power to stretch and bend his own body at will. He is literally a rubber man, who received his powers from eating the devil's Gum Gum fruit. However, as a consequence, he cannot swim.

He's also far more outspoken than most anime shonen. He literally speaks up whenever somebody is in trouble, sometimes completely blowing the element of surprise. Then again, he's such a versatile and powerful character that one could call him "flexible."

Luffy is planning a voyage on the Grand Line, to search for treasure and become the pirate king. Of course, we still have no idea how he's going to do that, until he knocks out other pirates to get their ships. He also befriends a number of friends to help him.

He first helps Koby, a purple-haired boy, escape from his slave work on the ship of the Pirate Queen, Lady Alvida. Then he starts looking for a crew. The first member he finds is Roronoa Zolo, a swordsman who handles three swords to kill his enemies. He wants to become the master of swordfighting.That's one big ambition.

After Luffy rescues Zolo from his execution, kills the evil Captain Morgan and saves the town, Luffy sails his ship to search for the map to the Grand Line. After launching himself in the air with his arms, Luffy runs into Nami, a pirate thief. She's very sneaky at stealing loot from pirates, and she tricked Luffy into getting captured by other pirates, so that she could get the map from Buggy the clown...er...clown pirate.

While the plot of this part of the series is certainly standard shonen action, in which Luffy kicks Buggy's butt, the characters are so multifaceted that one could hardly call it typical. Luffy is wearing the straw hat of his childhood friend, Captain Shanks, who saved him a long time ago. Luffy is hoping to return the hat. Zolo is getting better at swordfighting so that he can once again duel his childhood girlfriend.

Most of all, the female character, Nami, is one of the most complex characters. Nami hates pirates, especially after they killed one of her best friends. Although at first she despises Luffy's ambition to become the Pirate King, she become more and more impressed with Luffy's passion for fighting other pirates. To say the least, Nami identifies Luffy as an anti-pirate, who fights pirates who attack innocent villages.

While there are times when Nami gets hurt, she is far more independent than Kamiya Kaoru in Rurouni Kenshin. And Nami is very smart, and often identifies the pirates' special abilities sooner than Luffy or the other guys recognize them. This is one of the few anime series in which all the characters work as a team, each contributing their own talents.

Although this first DVD set consists of only the stories with villains Lady Alvida, Captain Morgan and Buggy the Clown, the story remains very solid. Most of all, the characters are very admirable. And while the fighting mostly consists of the villains pulling off special moves before Luffy and Zolo kill them, they are visually stunning fights with lion tamers, acrobats and a clown who can freely move his arms and legs off his body at will.

Even if this is a rather typical shonen, it is far more optimistic and epic than most shonen anime out there. In my opinion, it looks a lot cooler than Dragon Ball Z. It is an anime essential, especially for anyone who really hated the previous release of One Piece by the dreaded 4Kids company, with awful English dubs. The Funimation version features a decent dub and the original Japanese voice track as well (with optional subtitles). This is one set that I highly recommend.

Image courtesy of animecubed.com

DVD Review: When they cry vol. 3

At this point of "When They Cry," I'm a little tired of more kids going insane and killing people. Volume three adds a slight twist--Keiichi becomes the murderer.

In the Tatari Goroushi (Curse killing) chapter, Keiichi's friend, Satoko, was abused and beaten by her uncle. Keiichi finally had enough, and now he wants to save Satoko by killing her uncle.

I hope no college kid in their right mind decides out of the blue, "Hey, let's kill my uncle!" Anyhow, Satoko is sick, so Keiichi decides to attack her uncle, who is picking her up. After smacking him with a baseball bat (ow), he buries him.

But Satoko is still in shock. Her friends say that Satoko's uncle is still alive, and that Keiichi was at the cotton-drifting festival at the same time that he killed Satoko's uncle. To say the least, Keiichi gets very, very confused. And the tone of the plot goes from wicked to horrific.

This is a more disappointing volume of the series. I'm starting to get a little tired of hearing Keiichi go emo and scream out in confusion and terror. I wish he would express some different emotions for once.

Thankfully, the Himatsubushi (Time Wasting) chapter is a change of pace. This chapter follows Akasaka Mamoru, an investigator for the Tokyo police. He is looking to see how the mob families, the Sonozaki family and the Furude family, are connected with the kidnapping of the prime minister's son.

However, the priest's daughter, Rika Furude, is keeping an eye on him. In fact, she even gets possessed by a demon and tells him never to come back. Is this just a coincidence?

While volume three only covers the first chapter of this story arc, it is one of the more interesting storylines, covering the mystery of Hinamizawa from the policemen point of view. Unfortunately, Funimation couldn't separate each of the complete story arcs onto individual discs, because they still want to sell all the volumes of the series.

Still, this is a solid anime. Just don't expect anything to deviate at this point. At least not yet.

Image courtesy of yarukizero.wordpress.com

Anime Classics: Vision of Escaflowne

Escaflowne is certainly one of the most memorable anime around, for its emotional characters and its epic story with robots and warfare.

While the TV series, "Vision of Escaflowne," can tend to go overboard with emotional angst, there's a pretty good reason for this. The main character, Hitomi, is a girl with a pendant that can change the fate of an entire world, depending on her mood.

Of course, we can't possibly know how this pendant could work from the beginning. After all, in the beginning Hitomi is an ordinary high school girl who runs on the track team, likes to use tarot cards and has a crush on some guy named Amano.

Then some teenage guy appears out of an interdimensional portal, swordfighting a dragon. After a short chase sequence, Hitomi discovers that her pendant allows her to read the future. Hitomi ends up saving the guy, whose name is Van.

They then transport from Earth to Gaea, Van's home planet. He's given a warm greeting, for Van is now the new king of Fanelia, Van's hometown. However, the visit is cut short when the evil Zaibach army of Guymelef robots destroys the city. Van vows for revenge against the Zaibach.

To say the least, Hitomi's powers are the key to the fate of Gaea. Her pendant allows her to read the future, but whenever Hitomi is afraid, something awful is bound to happen. Of course, with powers like that, Hitomi ends up expressing a high range of emotions, resulting for some chaotic changes in the storyline itself.

However, no matter what, I can always sympathize with Hitomi, who has trouble expressing all her emotions in the first place. She would like to figure out the future, but when the future is altered by all the emotions she conceals inside her, she has to confess her feelings. She wants to love someone, but she's so afraid that someone else is going to get hurt in the process.

And while no one can really know what happens in the future, they have to learn to express their feelings honestly and truthfully. Ironically, this makes Escaflowne one of the best romance shonen anime. If anyone thinks that a romance film and an action film cannot possibly mix together, Escaflowne easily proves them wrong.

Image courtesy of http://www.theroseking.net/

No Piece

Well, I requested One Piece from Netflix. I ended up getting the second season. Unfortunately, the first season is NOT available from Netflix, which would make no sense. I mean, why the hell would they have discs of the second season uncut and not the FIRST season uncut.

Geez, this stinks. I might just watch the first season on youTube and then review that. Phooey.

DVD Review - My-Hime offers compelling drama

Shojo anime doesn't usually hit American shores, and whenever it does, people don't usually buy them. However, "Mai-Hime" is a must-have series.

"Mai-Hime" may be the best new shojo action series, with intense fight sequences and some humorous jokes too.

It opens with a cruise trip gone totally wrong. Mai Tokiha and her brother, Takumi, are taking a boat ride to their school, Fuka Academy. They then discover a girl's body floating in the ocean. Mai resuscitates the girl.

Later at night, a person with a motorcycle helmet takes Mai hostage. Mai is forced to take the person to the room of the girl Mai saved. But when Natsuki enters the room and takes out her magical revolvers, the girl attacks with a giant sword. After an epic battle sequence, Mai saves the girl with the powers she didn't know she had.

Turns out that Mai is a HiME, a girl with the ability to summon Highly Advanced Materializing Equipment. In other words, she can summon fire rings around her hands and feet as weapons. Like other HiMEs, Mai also attains a Child, a robot animal with even more powerful weapons. And they were sent to destroy Orphans, monsters from outer space.

Yes, it sounds awfully typical for an anime series character to kill other monsters to save the world. However, the plot takes a complete U-turn when the girls learn what really happens when their Child dies--someone else dies.

Even though it's not an original series to say the least, "My-Hime" turns into a fatal tragedy. It resembles "Battle Royale," only the people closest to the HiMEs die in nerve-wracking succession. By the time one HiME is left, she is emotional scarred for life.

And even though the ending is almost way too optimistic for its own good, it is an excellent series with some of the best anime battles I've ever seen. Certainly My-HiME is not original, but it is entertaining and well-produced. Best of all, the entire series only costs $40 now.

Image courtesy of animewallpapers.net