A caliber of post-apocalyptic, much of what we learn about the new world order is done in retrospect. All you need to know is that our story takes places about 1000 years after the collapse of society, when people with ‘special abilities’ tried to take over the world.

In this utopian society, everyone is born with special abilities and they learn how to use their ‘cantus’ (their term for it), to best help people. The village, Kamisu’s 66th District, (which looks a bit silly to have on a t-shirt), is the kind of place we all dream of. But dreams can always go sour. We follow the five people in Group One, who are:

Shun Aonuma, Satoru Asahina, Saki Watanabe, Maria Akizuki and Mamoru Ito. They go to these schools and academies to learn how to channel and focus their telekinetic powers and learn about the world they live in. (more…)

One of the hardest things is to find a good entrance anime, to get people interested in the genre, without scaring them off. I mean, you don’t open with “Elfin Lied” or “Baccano!” or “Gantz” and then be surprised when they run screaming into the sunset (or sunrise, depending on the time of day).

“Squid Girl” (or also known as “Invade! Squid Girl”) tells the story of Squid Girl (Whew! What a relief. If she had some other name…..) who is the forward force of an invasion. She is bound and determined to conquer humanity, who have polluted her waters and made life miserable for her and her kind. To this end, she comes ashore in some part of Tokyo, (I assume, no name is ever given, so I have to make a guess it is) and decides to take over the Lemon House, a yakisoba snack bar at the beach, to use as her base of operation. (more…)

OK, I’ll be honest: I had ZERO intention of reviewing “Rosario + Vampire Capu 2”, as I did not feel it warranted a review. I still feel it doesn’t, but I have not seen a show go so overboard from one season to the next as badly as this one. But when your daughter nips at your heels like a demented Chihuahua, demanding to see it with you for some ‘bonding time’, you get trapped.

All I can tell you for certain is something happened over class break. By the time the whole gang gets back to school, Yokai Academy has changed its name to “Upskirt U”. If the dresses were any shorter, they might as well be a long shirt. It got so bad, I starting counting the number of panty shots. Even “Colorful” (the TV series, not the movie) wasn’t this bad and it was strictly about panty shots.

Is there a plot? Much like Lindsay Lohan’s career, it has completely evaporated. The cast of characters (and for those who don’t remember, we’ll run them down for you) are from left to right: (more…)

This is another long-form anime. We are at 52 episodes and there is apparently no end on the horizon, but this is not a “Houston, we have a problem” kind of issue. This is a story that takes a long time to tell and needs practically every episode to do it. Much like preparing to go into space, you can’t slap it together and hope for the best.

The Space Brothers in question are Mutta (to the left) and Hibito Nanba (to the right; the dog is Apo). They have always been interested in space and its exploration, but feel that their circumstances at birth set their fates in motion for the life they now lead.

Mutta was born on the day that Japan lost in the World Cup preliminaries (for those keeping score, October 28, 1993). Hibito was born when Hideo Nomo became the first Japanese pitcher to throw a no-hitter in US Major League Baseball (September 17, 2006, for the record).

Despite being the older brother, Mutta has always trailed his younger brother, especially when he got into space first. Mutta became a car designer instead. We now flash ahead to 2025. At his career, while on the job, Mutta’s boss makes an injudicious comment about Hibito, so Mutta head-butts him (a la Zidane) and gets fired. Unable to live as he had, he has to move in with Mom and Dad, who needle him endlessly about his job status. (more…)