“Eureka Seven AO: Astral Ocean”, takes place about 14 or so years after the conclusion of the first part of it. Ao Fukai (our hero, dead center) is a 13-year-old boy living in the year 2025 in Okinawa, on the island of Iwato Jima with Dr. Toshio Fukai, ever since Ao’s mother disappeared 10 years ago. When a mysterious organization attacks the local Scub Coral, Ao somehow gets mixed up in the battle and manages to activate an enigmatic robot called the Nirvash while it is being transported by the Self-Defense Forces. Later, Ao finds out that the Nirvash belonged to Eureka, his mother, and embarks on a journey to find his mother and learn the truth about his origins.

Or so we hoped.

Because he is able to pilot this ship, he is conscripted by Generation Bleu, an organization dedicated to fighting Secrets, and joins Pied Piper. OK, let me explain. Every time there is a Scub Burst, these transforming robots/ships called ‘secrets’ come down to destroy the Scub. But they also take out the surrounding area, so there is a huge amount of collateral damage by them. Ao joins Bleu to get to the bottom of it all, but runs into more misconceptions and deceptions than ever before. A lifelong friend, Naru (the lovely lady in the upper right) suffers from a condition caused by the Scub but eventually has to turn against Ao. (more…)

I had a friend tell me that “Eureka Seven” (or, as it’s pronounced in the show, “Erika Seven”) is a really good sci-fi anime. I mean, even the Sci-Fi Channel (now known as Syfy) showed it, and it was really worth watching.

I decided to watch it with him and, quite frankly, I was disappointed with the effort.

The series focuses on Renton Thurston (that rather grumpy one dead center), the fourteen-year-old son of Adrock Thurston, a military researcher who died saving the world. He lives what he considers a boring life with his grandfather in a boring town. He loves lifting, a sport similar to surfing but with trapars, a substance abundant throughout the air, as the medium. He dreams of joining the renegade group Gekkostate. It is led by his idol Holland Novak (the jerk just off his left shoulder), a legendary lifter.

An opportunity to do so literally falls into his lap when a large mecha, called the Nirvash typeZERO, and Eureka (the smiling one off his right shoulder), its pilot and a member of Gekkostate, crash into Renton’s room. Renton’s grandfather orders him to deliver a special part to the Nirvash called the “Amita Drive”, which releases the immense power dormant within the typeZERO called the “Seven Swell Phenomenon”. Afterwards, Renton is invited to join Gekkostate, where he quickly discovers that the behind-the-scenes life of Gekkostate is hardly as glamorous or as interesting as printed in the glossy pages of their magazine, ray=out. Only one thing makes it all worthwhile for him: the presence of Eureka, the mysterious pilot of the Nirvash. Renton, Eureka, and the Gekkostate embark on an adventure that will shape their future as well as the world. (more…)

Let’s get something straight- I hate Valentine’s Day.

I’ve decided to make this short little post a sort of “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade” and, in celebration of a truly evil day, I’ve compiled a list of my top 5 anime couples. Because a) I like lists and b) what’s sweeter than when two anime characters fall hopelessly in love with each other? *Sigh* Of course if you’ve read my other posts you may know by now that I’m still pretty new to anime so I don’t have a lot of shows to choose from, but here are the 5 couples who have caught my eye thus far.

(Um, spoilers I guess. Sort of.)

Number 5: Taiga and Ryuuji from Toradora!
They say opposites attract and if any couple was proof of that, it’d be this one. Ryuuji meets Taiga, the takes-no-crap girl whose small stature but hotheaded personality earned her the nickname palmtop tiger. At the start of the anime the two of them, not even friends at this point, are struggling desperately to confess their feelings to their school crushes. When Taiga accidentally reveals to Ryuuji who she loves (she gives him the love letter she’d written), they agree to help each other. Of course they form a closer bond than either of them had thought possible. Taiga’s sharp, cruel remarks mixed with Ryuuji’s patience and compassion makes for a hysterical dynamic, and although Ryuuji may have feelings for another girl, even he can see that she may be just a little too vanilla and he needs a sprinkling of salt. (more…)

A brief description of this show could be “Japan’s answer to ‘South Park’”.

“Crayon Shin-Chan” (or just “Shin-Chan”) follows the adventures of the five-year-old Shinnosuke “Shin” Nohara (the guy getting his cheek pulled) and his parents, Hiroito (Hiro), Misae (Mitsi), baby Himawari (Hima) and Whitey the dog, their neighbors, and friends and is set in Kasukabe. Not that it matters. It might as well be in “South Park”.

Shin is the kind of boy that you would fling into a pile of poodle doo…except that he might like it. He is rude, brash, crude, disgusting and perverted and lives in the realm of his tiny world, oblivious to those around him.

The art work is intentionally bad. If you tried ‘traditional’ animation with the writing that is presented (and it is some of the best writing I have heard for a show, as they have dropped all pretenses that this is a ‘cute’ show), it would not work. The art work needs to be as crude as the topics and their presentation.

This is a show where you can give a review, even if you haven’t seen the end, as it is a series of vignettes about their life together, such as it is. The arc where they have to live in a crummy apartment complex while their house is being rebuilt is pretty funny, as all their neighbors are at least as crazy as they are, if not more so. (more…)

There are two kinds of space aliens out there. The first one will rip out your lungs, Jim, as they are mean, cruel, vicious, ugly, primal and oozy. The second are cute, cuddly and busty. Talk about the moons of Mars!

“UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie” follows the story of Kazuto Tokino (the guy in the brown outfit; I hope you can find him between all this femininity) and the alien Princess, Valkyrie (the blonde on both the left and the right). Yes, both of them are her. It seems that while trying to escape a forced marriage, Valkyrie accidentally crashed her spaceship into Kazuto’s family owned public bath house and killed him. In order to save him, she gave up half her soul. The splitting up of her soul turned her into a child, but whenever she kisses Kazuto, Valkyrie returns to her adult form for a limited time, and regains the use of her special powers.

OK, please note the key word up there: bath house. You are guaranteed a tremendous amount of fan service, and right from the get-go. I did not even know if I was a fan before acres of skin were presented to me, plus a stunning transformation sequence (more on that later).

Anyway, a rival of Valkyrie, Hydra (the blue-haired mop up there), followed her to Earth, because she knew that if Valkyrie ran away, she would have to take her place at the wedding, which was not something she wanted to do. However, since cute space aliens cannot pilot their ships, she crashed into a temple. The shrine maiden there, Akina Nanamura, (to Hydra’s left) placed a barrier on her and sealed away HER powers, so she is also eight as well. (more…)

So as usual I’ve been watching naruto shippuden and recently I’ve noticed that I’m no longer simply bearing with each episode.  In fact I’ve found that I have actually been looking forward to each one.

I remember some time back complaining about the filler that started in the middle of the great ninja war arc, while the interruption was indeed annoying the filler was actually pretty good. It could’ve made more money as a movie though, but hey,  I’m not complaining.

As every fan knows, we are back in the ninja war arc and Naruto, along with killer bee are heading towards the front lines. To be more specific, last week was the encounter between Naruto + Killer Bee vs Itachi + Nagato. While it was a pretty cool episode I kinda dislike how soft Itachi is being portrayed at this point. He was kinda better when we all thought he was a cold, unfeeling, yet badass bastard. Sigh, but seeing as his intentions were always good (as we recently found out), I guess seeing this side of him was inevitable. (more…)