No movie rentals for a while...again

Well, I thought I was going to sign up for a movie rental service, until the Rhapsody music service charged me a hidden fee of $144. I really thought I was signed off of the service, but the stupid company reminded me that I wasn't.

I had to call up customer service. For some reason, they kept asking if I wanted to stay signed up. I hope they know how dissatisfied I am with their evil hidden charges.

And hopefully Netflix can think of something cheaper for me to deal with, because I hate these extra payments.

My movie-renting dilemma

These days I'm fed up with a lot of things that are beyond my control. I haven't found a job with a steady payroll. I still own a lame Wii machine.

I'm most concerned about my movie-watching habits, though. I loved receiving Netflix movies in the mail, because I enjoyed watching subtitled anime shows. I decided to cut spending on my Netflix rentals about two months ago, because I wanted to save money for some of the video games I wanted.

Overall, the video games are great. However, I haven't been cranking out as many video game reviews and features as I would have liked. It's nice to play these games, but games don't include all the deep analytical themes of anime that I love. You know, in video games, you see the images of cyberpunk, but you don't get to see how cyberpunk represents the disconnect of the human body to become something less than human. You don't get to see the literal references to stories such as "Catch-22" or "The Snows of Kilamanjaro."

In short, I miss all the visual representations of themes that are larger than life. So I'm going to try out a two-DVD-a-month routine, to get me back into the DVD reviewing mood. However, I think I might try out some of the rental services that specialize in anime rentals. The two mail services I'm looking at are:

rentanime.com
It looks pretty legit for a website, owned by Anime Nation in Florida. The $20-a-month price is a little hefty, but you can't go wrong with unlimited rentals of three DVDs at once. The website even includes the "Patlabor" movies and the entire "Urusei Yatsura" television series. You can never go wrong with that kind of deal.





animetakeout.com
It's another good stockpiler of anime shows and manga, headquartered in Pasadena, California. However, the monthly price is a whopping $26 for unlimited rentals of two manga/DVDs at one time. Not only that, but the site's database is a little clunky.

Of course, there's always Netflix, which offers the widest range of options. However, it doesn't have the most complete collection of anime anymore. It doesn't update their selections as regularly as the other rental sites, either.

If anyone finds a better rental service, please be sure to leave a recommendation in the comments section. I will gladly consider it.

Images courtesy of Netflix and animenation.com

Anime streaming review: Fighting demons and living dangerously

Most of the supernatural anime shows focus on the same characters and the same stories of destroying unwanted undead creatures and spirits. A new show on crunchyroll.com throws some clever twists to the tried-and-true formula.

"Occult Academy" is not just an anime comedy that pokes fun at Hollywood horror--it turns into an adrenaline-pumping show about the frightening dangers of paranormal phenomena.

The show opens as a parody of the horror anime, involving a school which specializes in teaching students about occult spirits and unexplainable spectacles such as UFOs. In a freakish scene that could have been taken out of an old horror film, the school superintendent rises from the dead during a school funeral.

Despite the initial shock, the superintendent's daughter, Maya Kumashiro, insists that all these spiritual beings do not exist. Kumashiro is a ghost hunter who has a fascination for occult spirits, even though she was neglected by her father as a child. She is an unusually violent protagonist, on a mission to kill the zombies and ghouls who are haunting the Occult Academy.

The show manages to present a wide range of slapstick comedy. In fact, the first episode is a jovial parody of ghost mystery shows. Kumashiro's friends assemble the classic team of "expert" spiritual mediums, consisting of a fat "dowser" medium with flimsy metal prongs and a janitor who was just invited because he knows how to kick peoples' asses.

Yet, this show is not a comedy at all. It is a dark series where characters almost die, where the deadly secrets of Kumashiro's father come to life. When Kumashiro was a child, her father became obsessed with his occult studies. He became so obsessed that he refused to speak to his family. Episode two reveals that her father was actually researching an artifact with incredible power, known as the key of Nostradamus. The key is the one thing that will save the world from destruction in 2012.

Despite the looming devastation of the future apocalypse, the show manages to pull off a pretty humorous sex comedy routine involving a time traveler named Fumiaki Uchida. He was apparently sent to find the key of Nostradamus. However, he doesn't win any points with Kumashiro when he first appears in front of her, bare naked.

This anime series is an incredible mind trip, involving invisible ghost murderers, doppledangers and the end of the world. It works amazingly well as a blood-curdling thriller and a humorous, romantic school comedy. There's something for everyone in this hair-raising comedy that pokes fun at the flaws of the horror anime and uncovers the most intriguing, hidden secrets of the undead.

Watch the series for free at crunchyroll.com.

Image courtesy of photobucket.com

DVD Classic: Koi Kaze

"Koi Kaze" is an incestuous romance series viewers will either love or hate, but regardless, the cinematography is incredibly beautiful.

The story follows Koshiro Saeki, a Japanese businessman working for a wedding catering company. Brooding over getting dumped by his girlfriend, he catches the glimpse of a beautiful high school girl. She drops her wallet on the way out of the train, so Saeki returns it.

He hardly expects to run into the schoolgirl on the way from work to an amusement park. With the reserved tickets he receives from his boss, he takes the girl out for a date and falls in love with her. However, he doesn't even expect that she is his little sister, and that she will be living with him at home with his father. Saeki now has to agonize over suppresses his feelings for his sister, Nanoka Koshinata.

Although the manga tends to keep the incestuous drama to a minimum, the anime plays out the drama to a disturbing climax near the end. It's one of the most difficult anime to watch, and opinions of the series will likely remain sharply divided.

However, the real draw of this series is the cinematography. Everything from the gentle cherry blossoms in the opening to the light pastel colors is beautiful. The music also manages to carry the tone of the series incredibly well, transitioning from moody synth crescendos to cute, childish piano passages.

Probably the most appealing character is the businessman's little sister Nanoka Koshinata. Her voice actor, Yuuki Nakamura, plays her with lovely innocence and never overextends the drama. In fact, she plays her so well that viewers will agonize over the illicit relationship at the end.

Image courtesy of stochasticmanga.wordpress.com