Short of vampire movies, it feels like “The Count of Monte Cristo” is one of those stories that has been made (and remade) a huge amount of times. I mean, it is a pretty resilient story of betrayal, revenge and redemption and this anime version is no different at the core than any other version. But how they approach it is very intriguing. Now, the official title is “Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo” and that part of the title is made clear as the series progresses. But what we have here is what I call Future Past. It feels like 19th Century France in architecture and dress and those phony airs of tact, but we have a lot of the conveniences of the modern age: space travel, computers and hover vehicles, to name a few. It does help that this takes place in the year 5053.
Although we keep a lot of the story, we also tinker a lot with the story and that is not a bad thing. We focus in on Viscount Albert de Morcerf. A rather naïve 15-year-old lad, he and his friend, Baron Franz d’Epinay, are attending some grand and glorious festival on Luna (yes, we are on the moon; remember, this is the 51st Century), where they are having a ripping good time. However, Albert falls afoul of some cutpurses and is kidnapped, only to be rescued by Le Compte-de Monte Cristo, a mysterious man of enormous wealth and magnificent charisma. (If you know the plot, this will not come as a great surprise as to the reason for the kidnapping, OK?)
Still, it is a good retelling of the story, in tandem with the surroundings, but the huge selling point is the look of the show. (more…)
I’ve always wondered why they give this show its name (Eng: ‘Waiting in the Summer”) but as it progresses I think i’m starting to get a general idea of why…. unfortunately that ‘general idea’ is nowhere near concrete enough for me to be able to put in into words and so ill be taking a raincheque on explaining that one :). Anyways in this episode we simply have the resolution of a misunderstanding and i suppose some slight progression in terms of the relationships between pretty much all the characters confirming what one could call a love tri… well.. pentagon… (Kitahara > Tetsuro > Kanna > Kaito > Ichika) of which all is one sided.
Now after Kaito’s very vague and uncompleted confession to Ichika during the last episode we had this result; Kaito believed that she knew he was going to confess but rejected him because he was not nearly good enough for her,whereas Ichika believed Kaito was going to tell her that he knew she was an alien and therefore she was afraid that he would be calling the ‘MIB’ (men in black) to arrest her.
Psssh, who said aliens weren't afraid of anything?
Hmmm so we continue off from episode 3, Louise is kidnapped and the Gallia army is heading towards Aqulieia with quite a bit of ships. Now I must admit, this episode was way too fast paced and regardless of the fact that there was quite a bit of action it left me feeling unfulfilled.
Heres everything in a nutshell, Saito rushes to save Louise with Tabitha, meanwhile on the Gallia’s army ship Joseph (Mister King of ignorance) uses the Founders Mirror to copy Louise’s power to himself, enabling him to use the explosion spell. Upon having the spell he begins using amplification ball-like objects to exponentially augment the explosive power. After setting off two, and destroying quite bit of his and the Aqulieia’s army in the process, he begins planning to send the final down to the heart of the city (i presume) to destroy it.
Why is he suddenly doing this? Here is where it got a bit ridiculous;
“I want to know how much damage I must inflict before i feel regret…… No matter how much land i gained or people i exceuted, I was never appeased….. This heart might finally be moved after seeing a city demolished” (more…)
Now, I know that this particular series veered over into a sub-genre I am tired of…vampires. It’s not that there aren’t good or interesting vampire animes out there, like “Black Blood Brothers” or “Hellsing”, but it is the sheer amount of them that gets overwhelming to the point where I run away. The other genre I am tired of is Giant Fighting Robots, so if they have a Giant Vampire Fighting Robot show, I can avoid it. (And if it is voiced by Chris Ayres, it’s everything I hate in one spot!)
The one under the microscope is “Rosario + Vampire”, which got a lot of positive spin in things I saw. Many girls liked it, as it was sooooooooooo romantic. Well, I was between shows and it came up, so I gave it a test run. I didn’t crash and burn, but it got really old really fast.
This is a shame, as it started out so good. Our hero, Tsukune Aono, is a ronin. This is a term used for a student who has left one school, but is not attached to another one. (It is a samurai term for a swordsman who has no master, but roams the countryside). He is a bit of a brick and is having a most difficult time getting accepted anywhere. His father magically finds an errant admission packet (dropped in an alley, after dark, by a strange hooded figure. Man, things have got to be rather weird and desperate if you are willing to grab an admission packet, dropped in an alley, after dark, by a strange hooded figure) and gloms it, scampering away. Hooray! Their son is not a total dweeb dork dingleberry dognice! Now, get to school! (more…)
Upon waking up this morning i decided to add a new series to my list of shows to review, after careful deliberation so I decided upon Ano Natsu de Matteru and took a look at episodes 1 and 2. As far as first impressions go i suppose i can give it an A, maybe its just because i had just woken up and the light comical nature of it suit my mood perfectly, or it really was that good, im really not sure, all I know is that I liked it. What else is that it didn’t take much out of me, there were no intricate plot twists that i had to wrap my mind over or super actiony scenes which got me pumped up, it left me with a sort of mushishi afterfeel.
Over the two episodes this is what i got from it, the story more or less revolves around Kaito Kirishima a first year at high school and Ichika Takatsuki an alien whose spaceship crash landed on earth injuring him in the process, As she is not used to life on earth she often seems to act weird and is continuously correcting herself. Due to her having nowhere to stay Kaito invites her to stay at his house and she meets his sister who agrees to let her to stay as long as she wishes.
Unfortunately, due to the injury caused by the crashlanding Kaito suffers from some sort of skin mutation (top image) which supposedly can only be cured/reversed by being embraced by Ichika (cant say we didn’t see that coming). (more…)
Clocking in at a mere four episodes and an OVA, “Magical Play” is another in a long line of Magic Girl shows (like “Sasami” and “The Familiar of Zero”), but we have dual stories going on (actually, we have several story lines, but they are all kept nicely apart), although, as with much in life, they cross and intersect.
The main story involves Padudu (that’s the one wearing the fish. It is not a fish costume, it is a fish, Uokichi, kind of like her familiar). She wants to become a real Magical Girl on Earth (she comes from the land Sea Heaven) and to this end, she needs to gather 20 Flower Stars. These are earned by doing tournament battles with other magical girls. When you get the 20 stars (and have filled up your card), you may then proceed to the next level.
Sadly, when you wear a fish, you are subject to all kind of problems, such as being grabbed by a large hungry eagle who wishes to dine on you, which is how the show opens. Padudu manages to break free, but then plummets to the town below.
In the town, a tournament is being held and Pipin (that is the one on the far left) has just defeated another magical girl. However, before she can claim her prize, Padudu crashes upon her, knocks her out and Padudu gets awarded the Flower Star. Pipin spends the rest of her time trying to wrest the star back from Padudu. (more…)
Okay so to be honest nothing much happened in this episode, i mean if it was skipped i don’t think anyone would even notice that a chunk of the series is missing. Lets see what were the highlights of this episode, ah yes, we got to see the priestess getup (image above) and we found out Saito has.. some very weird perversions. I mean comeon… lemon-chan?
Ah yes, another show i decided to see this season would be Amagami SS+ (Plus), now as far as first impressions go, the first 10 or so seconds got me thinking… AWESOME! I knew it was gonna be a continuation with each of the characters from the last season but i like how they are taking this XD. Sadly, soon enough that bubble is popped as he was only just dreaming (don’t you hate when that happens?).
Anyways the last season revolved around the founders festival or something like that right? so i was wondering if this one would be the same, outlining the possible developments with each possible pair in a set amount of time, hmmmm that format kinda leaves the possibility of Amagami SS++ and Amagami SS+++ until we have at the end the couples being old on a wheelchairs as Amagami SS(59+). Later on in episode 1 i realized i was right yup yup, i believe this one is going to revolve around the student council elections.
Okay, now is where this is starting to get really good, up for student council elections are (more…)
So one of the anime i decided to cover this season is Zero no Tsukamia F, from the start of episode one (ref. image above).. I would see this was going to be interesting to say the least (no comment on the fact Louise doesn’t seem to mind she isn’t the only one on that bed with Saito).
Now they pretty much went straight to the point here, Louise and Tiffania are summoned by the Pope who tells them that they are the Three Void Users and that the fate of Romalia is up to them, cool. Just like the previous seasons we have quite a bit of fighting for Saito with Louise being excessively headstrong, Tiffany insecure and Siesta well… being Siesta (clearly the better match here but she keeps helping out the Saito x Louise pair).
Well, if you loved the last 3 seasons you’ll like this one, pretty much the same feel just different adventure. But hey, its supposed to be the final season so lets hope we have some sort of a progression and a definite choice from Saito about whom he chooses (I so deteste open ended anime). Well, i suppose its worth a watch, njoy! (more…)
I got in a bit of a tiff over this one. It bills itself as six episodes, but the episodes are about 45 minutes long, so, technically, it is a 12-run show. But there is no intermission and it’s not a movie, so it goes down as six parts, making it short run. (I get into odd arguments.)
This is a very good looking show for an alternate universe approach. It is a 2005 idea of a 1930s approach to the future (in this case, the year 2000), but you have funny little quirks. We have hover cars, but radio is still king. It’s futuristic, but with an Art Deco feel. The maiden voyage of a new train brings out all the media, but none of them have video cameras. And, most importantly, science can overcome any and all of man’s ills.
The world is under attack by a strange alien race, bent on world domination (stop me if you’ve heard this before, OK?) But the human race is confused and perplexed, not knowing what any of this is all about or what it ultimately means.
From out of the mists of confusion steps Billy Kimura. Boy genius and heir to the Kimura Industries conglomerate, he thinks he has a grip on what is going down. But he has a rival. The equally smart, equally annoying, equally arrogant Penny Carter. He graduated from MIT at age 11 but is nowhere near as financially well off as Billy.
Aside from them playing a version of “Can You Top This?” all the time as to who is smarter, they are both in love with Lotta Brest (I am NOT kidding; that is her name. Too bad Emely, Lotta’s tutor, isn’t named that. Emely certain has what Lotta wants.)
Together, these three have to piece together the puzzle that will allow them to defeat the space aliens, who will stop at nothing to achieve their dreams at the demise of humans! (Insert organ sting here).
