Although based on the summary of Kuragehime (princess jellyfish) one may seem skittish to watch this show, but once watching it you will wish there was more.  This show starts out by introducing you to Tsukimi a girl who is what could be assumed a stereotypical otaku, although as an otaku myself knows this is untrue, and has horrible social skills.  She lives in an apartment where all the women hate men and also cannot behave normally in social settings.  Although as an avid otaku I would love to hate the fact that they portray all of the women as socially unacceptable you can’t help but to feel yourself pulled into their stories and humor.

Tsukimi meets Kuranosuke thinking that he is a female “stylish” but soon finds him to be a cross-dresser, and in order to save herself she has him continue this masquerade with her roomates.  This leads of course to the several almost run ins with her friends finding out the truth.  Kuranosuke slowly get Tsukimi to come out of her shell introducing her to the “stylish” culture (more…)

Natsu vs Gildarts!

Ah yes, I just woke up and besides feeling a bit groggy I’m feeling extremely lazy but I can’t stop thinking that I need to write this so here I go. Remember some time ago I mentioned that my ISP hated me, well ive finally found a way around that so I had pretty much my fill of updates yesterday since I had to catch up for almost 3 weeks of episodes. In this post I’m going to quickly describe the awesomeness that is Fairy Tail episode 99. I initially planned on compiling episodes 99 -101 into one huge post but episode 99 itself was so epic it deserved its own post.

Initially in the episode, remember we were at that point in the S class exam where everyone took their own route with one safe, 3 S-class fights and 3 team vs team fights. Unfortunately for Juvia and her partner Lisanna, they met up with Erza who as we all know, knows nothing about holding back so they pretty much lost, miserably. Of course after a little fanservice by our busty team of Cana and Lucy (and they decide to wash to wash their swimwear of course), we move on to the main focus of the episode, Natsu vs Gildarts. Natsu actually started off pretty well, okay not really but we did have a great show of moves on Natsu side of which impressed Gildarts himself. (more…)

I was sitting on a step today and I began thinking, how did i start watching anime? What was it that glued me to this type of TV shows?Would I have hated it if i watched the series i’ve seen in a different order? After brainstorming for quite a while I came up with the conclusion that while there is no ‘wrong’ way to watch anime, when just being introduced to it, its better to view a few select staple shows first (shows that practically everyone loves) then slowly vary the genre till you find your own personal preference and  by then you’ll be able to stand on your own two feet in the world of anime.

Okay, so as i have stated in a previous post the anime Death Note is a must watch, not only that but it’s a great introduction to anime plus i guarantee bu the time your done you will be 1.5x smarter. If you disagree 🙂 please leave your compelling argument here . Death Note is awesomely complimented by Code Geass so as a second its a great choice. Now, these two are pretty popular and almost anyone can recommend them to you, but the mistake that many make from this point is that they’ve had ther fill of psychological want to flip the script and move onto something ‘funny’ and ‘light’, unfortunately there are quite a few shows out there where instead of being just that they, well… they … ‘Incur the loss of brain cells’ for lack of another way of putting it, for example, (more…)

In European bestiaries and legends, a basilisk is a legendary reptile, reputed to be the King of Serpents and said to have the power to cause death with a single glance. According to the Naturalis Historia of Pliny the Elder, the basilisk of Cyrene is a small snake, “being not more than twelve fingers in length,” that is so poisonous, it leaves a wide trail of deadly venom in its wake, and its gaze is likewise lethal.

Initially, you may not understand the reason for this title, but it will be made clear as the series goes on. This is also what I call AUHD (Alternate Universe Historical Drama). Very few of the shows based in the history ofJapanare ever historical or accurate. Most of them implant modern sensibilities on olden days, so you end up with shows like “Samurai Champloo”, “Gengoku Basara”, “Moeyo Ken” and “Oh!EdoRocket!” to name a few.

This doesn’t mean that the show is bad because it is not accurate, but, because we are in an alternative universe, we have hip-hop samurais or monsters freely walking the streets of Edoor a king whose horse looks like a motorcycle. It’s just a different take on things and “Basilisk” is another entry into this genre.

Shorthand says this is The Hatfields and McCoy Feud meets Romeo and Juliet. We are in the Azuchi-Momoyama period of Japan, and two rival ninja clans, the Kouga and the Iga have come to a cessation of hostilities after centuries of conflict (although there is still very bad blood between them). They forge a no hostilities pact that each grudgingly accepts, bound together by Tokugawa Ieyasu, who became the Shogun. (more…)

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not like I whine on about every little thing in anime that bothers and annoys me. Sure, there IS a lot out there that almost seems to be intentionally placed there to make viewing difficult, whether it is some kind of anime trope or convention, up to the new trends that seem to be moving away as to what anime is all about.

But one thing that has always set my teeth on edge is what I refer to as the Bob Dylan Syndrome (No Direction Home).

There are three aspects to this rather unsettling condition.

The first is the Mid-Course Correction. You are watching your anime and it seems pretty straight-forward. You think you have a handle on it; then, it completely shifts the focus and now you are headed in another direction and that is not always for the best.

I really noticed this during the show “Burst Angel”.

At first, I thought it was a show regarding Kyohei Tachibana, a student at a culinary arts school with dreams of someday becoming a pastry chef. He runs afoul of these mercenaries while on the streets ofTokyoand ends up working for them as a cook. The tales would be how he tries to follow his dreams while getting mixed up with this crop of crazy ladies in their running gun battles (and they have a gundam as well.) (more…)

You can talk about all the dramatic shows you wish. You can watch “Blue Gender” or Shigurui: Death Frenzy” or “When They Cry”, but you need a break from all that gore and destruction. You have to have a silly show to mix things up and get that change of pace, which is why I would like to suggest “Ninja Nonsense”.

It is a mere 12 episodes, but it is filled with self-deprecating humor, ecchi, beautiful artwork, girls in bikinis, hopeless perverts, overheated fantasy sequences and general insanity.

It is about Shinobu, a female ninja-in-training (OK, the actual term would be kunoichi, but we know ninja immediately). She is skulking about the neighborhood, charged with an assignment by her sensei, Onsokumaru, which she must complete without fail.

We see her breaking into the house of Kaeda, Shinobu using her special skills to sneak inside, invisible to all…where she is immediately seen by Kaeda. Some stealth technique. And what is this task she must perform? She needs to go from house to house, eventually to gather up 30 pairs of panties. Huh? (more…)

It seems that recently my ISP has taken a sudden dislike in me because they decided to be all slow and buggy and i am at the point where i can no longer stream my anime updates but i must download (via torrent or whatnot), sigh i need to remember to go to the main office and go all “Gear Second” on them (once piece fans know what im talking about ><. Well for now i’m taking this opportunity to watch various anime movies 😎 .  Ah yes, so a few days ago I had the pleasure of watching the anime ‘Sword of the Stranger‘ and what a show that was, being a single standalone movie (as in no, there isn’t a series) i honestly didn’t expect that much from it (as they tend to often lack character development and seem rushed) but i was never happier to be wrong. In fact i can that was the best full length anime movie ive seen since Princess Mononoke.

Okay, so when i initially pressed that Play Button the first thing i noticed was that the animation quality was remarkable, i actually stopped watching and looked up the year it was created, 2007 Awesome! It itself being one of the best years for anime (more…)

I was having a discussion with one of my anime friends, complaining that shows don’t end anymore, they merely stop. He really didn’t understand what I was getting at, and the more I tried to explain, the less he grasped it, so we decided to have a beer and watch some of “B Kei”. (Lovely fan service, but more on that later.)

Still, it is a major concern for me, as I feel it cheats the viewer. Well, I feel cheated.

What is the difference between the two?

“Mahoromatic” is a show that ends. We reach a real conclusion. OK, one could argue that we could follow adult Suguru and maid Mahoro into their new life together, but not really. The show has ended with a happy (of sorts) ending and that is that. (more…)

One aspect of coming late to animes is that I can see trends, and one that I am noticing is Women Who Save the World. Now, this is nothing new. I mean, one could say that is the basic plot of Sailor Moon, but it seems that there are more and more shows like this.

“Strike Witches”, “My HiME/My Otome”, “Bubblegum Crisis 2040”, “Burst Angel”, “Shattered Angels”, Sekirei”, and I know I am just scratching the surface. The one in question currently is “Freezing”.

It tells the story of girls (known as Pandoras) who have this ability to freeze an opponent and do damage to them in this frozen state. The world is under attack by Nova Space Beings, who are capable of exacting enormous damage. The West Genetics Academy trains them to be the best fighters that they can, the top of the top being Satellizer el Bridget.

She has everything going for her. She’s pretty, she’s vicious, she’s talented, she’s adored, she’s off limits, she’s busty, busty and busty. Called the “Untouchable Queen” (the last person who touched her, a Limiter, ended up in the hospital, really messed up); she is vying for the top honors in the school, when her climb is disrupted by a nerdy new student, Kazuya Aoi.

Satellizer loses the fight and is relegated to second best, and Kazuya earns her severe enmity. We then learn the complex relationship that Pandora and Limiter have, as well as the involved history of Satellizer and Kazuya and the dark secret he carries with him, which, as it turns out, may force the Untouchable Queen to take him on as her Limiter.

The thing is the plot is nothing new or spectacular, as I mentioned other shows like it. The only aspect is has going for it is some intense fan service. LOTS of up skirt shots and clothing shredding and trying on outfits to see that the boobies are not really covered or protected. (Please note the picture; that is rather tame as to what you get.) (more…)

Certainly one of the more daring and vicious animes to come out in recent times is “High School of the Dead”. Now, this is certainly not a genre which appeals to me. I mean, it’s:

1)      Violent
2)      Zombie
3)      Horror

OK, it’s not as bad as giant fighting robots, but I normally do not seek it out. There is something about gore that turns me away, and horror gore is along the lines of the more the gore, the show will flow. But there was a lot of buzz about it, so I thought that I should at least know what’s going on so I don’t sound like a total clot head.

It tells the story of Takashi Komuro atFujimiHigh School. A bit of a slacker, he is standing on a stairwell landing, looking at the closed gates of the school when some man staggers up to the gates and demands entry. The school administrators try to deal with the man, but he bites the administrator and becomes infected.

This is where it gets weird for me. I mean, the infection spreads through the school in a matter of minutes and we have all kinds of bloodshed and death and unpleasantness. You thought fighting for the last curry bread at lunch was a battle, this is even worse.

A few students manage to escape the attack and flee the school, but they soon discover that the streets are overrun with these creatures. The decision is to try and get home to see how the parents are all doing, but it is a difficult task, made worse by blind panic and dissention within the group. Adding to that is everyone in the group represents a faction. (more…)