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Every season there is always for me this one great anime, for those who remember season before last, it was none other than Ano Natsu de Matteru. For this season that was none other than Sankarea, and I know this review is a bit late but.. oh look! a smileyface!  😉

The story revolves around Chihiro Furuya who has an obsession with zombies and dreams of having a zombie bride (to each own I suppose). He then has an encounter with the ever so popular Rea Sanka (see what they did there?… innovative right?). Whose life turns out to have its own fair share of problems. They begin talking and over time grew closer until her dad steps in, tradegy strikes and by a series of events she turns into a zombie. Aided by her new-found friend, Rea now struggles to live the life of an ordinary girl while battling her quickly rotting body.

The overall artwork was great and consistent throughout the show, there was hardly any spectacular scenery but I doubt that is going to bother anyone in the slightest. A point to note though, was that while there was quite a bit of fan service involved it was so meticulously intertwined into the plot that half the time you don’t even notice that you’re seeing a naked girl on your screen.Continue reading

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Do you like long walks on the beaches? Perhaps you relish the days when you can go skipping through town holding your partners hand?  Or possibly enjoying a fine evening while watching the sunset slowly descend across the horizon? Well, neither does professional assassin for hire Duke Togo a.k.a. Golgo 13.

A Living Weapon
What does the Mafia, FBI, CIA, MI6, British Intelligence, War Vets, Snipers, Paparazzi, and Professional Assassins all have in common with each other?  They ALL learned the hard way not to piss off Duke Togo.  If you have 3 million dollars and a problem that seems impossible to solve, then you’re in luck. Golgo 13 will take any job; from shooting out the violin strings on your arch nemesis during a solo ensemble, to snuffing out a human organ harvesting tycoon that lives in an impenetrable fortress.

Over The Top
Golgo 13 was created in 1969, with multiple movies (including two live-action films), Manga, OVA’s and series being produced over the decades.  In fact, Golgo 13 is the longest running Manga in publication to date.  The veteran’s anime club on the MAL website recommended this anime for me to watch.  I can’t say I’m disappointed either.  While this series isn’t recommended for younger audiences, adults may find it a bit more to their standards.  Golgo 13 is a world renowned assassin that is feared above all others due to the fact he has completed every single mission ever given to him.  Each episode is its own unique story that plays out like a 1980’s style TV series.  It almost reminds me of a more graphic and sinister version of the A-Team.  While some episodes of the series may seem a bit over the top to certain viewers; including one where Golgo has to break out of an island prison with a specific prisoner.  Other episodes have been described as “alarmingly accurate” by some of my fellow former military brethren.

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There is often a complaint that anime is broken into two camps of female characters: the  shrinking violet girl and the tough as nails woman. The problem I have with the Toughie is that there is nothing ever soft about them. They are cold and hard and angular, although, for this show, it is a requirement.

“Murder Princess” is about Princess Alita. Her father, the king of Forland, is killed in a coup, foisted by the country’s former leading scientist, Dr. Akamashi and his two robotic minions, Ana and Yuna. As dad dies, he sends out Alita to find her brother, Prince Kaito, who is leading a diplomatic excursion to another land.

As she tries to complete her mission, she falls off a cliff, pursued by evil forces, with the nortorious female bounty hunter, Falis, joining her in their descent into demise. This near-death experience causes them to switch bodies and Falis is able to dispatch some of the local nasties, along with HER two minions, Dominikov and Pete Armstrong, (the former is a kind of shikigami, the latter a strongman).

Alita begs of Falis to return to the castle and defeat the forces that have taken it, but Falis has more important things to do. There are castles to rob and noblemen to hold up and all kinds of treasures to plunder. However, in return for the services, Alita offers Falis her body and soul (now, whether you want to take this as a caliber of yaoi or mere servitude, that is up to you).Continue reading

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Spoilers for Code Geass and R2 throughout.

I’m going to be predictable and blog about my ever high hopes for the upcoming installment for Code Geass ;). There is much talk about Lelouch still being alive, and it gets confusing. I’m pretty sure the director himself has declared Lelouch is indeed dead, but don’t quote me on that. However, the fact that Lelouch is stabbed by his best friend, would pretty much be enough proof that Lelouch is dead. Then again, every fan of the show knows the very last scene leaves us with room for speculation. It also makes people like me crazy because I like all the ends to be tied up into a nice little package.

My opinion? I’m so glad you asked! Lelouch is dead.

I’m not exactly a gold mine of information when it comes to supporting this theory. C.C. is shown to be looking up at the sky and talking. Yes, she is happy so that leads some viewers to believe that is proof Lelouch has survived, but some time has passed since his death when that scene is shown. So because it acts like a sort of epilogue, we can say C.C. has moved on. As an immortal she is used to being alone. Some people believe that Lelouch is the man riding the carriage in the last scene and there are videos that show the man having a similar facial structure to Lelouch as well as Lelouch’s black hair. At first I thought they were hoax videos but according to this one, that was the original Japanese ending and not just a hoax.
After some research I’m starting to understand the people who assume Lelouch is alive. The code and the Geass elements to the series leave me admittedly confused at times. I’m watching season 1 for the third time and there are still parts that I am only just catching this time around. With all the different theories out there I still like to stick to my original belief. I like that Lelouch is dead because I think it gives the ending a much more profound impact and him still being alive is like a cop-out. Also, I’m a sadistic nut when it comes to stories. I’ve always liked dark, sad story lines better.

Another guess? The writers watched V for Vendetta one too many times.

I’ve heard more than one person say that this is a sequel to R2 and that they hope to see Lelouch in it. This is not the case. The new Code Geass installment is to air August 4th. It’s a 4 episode long OVA. According to the summaryContinue reading

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fooly-cooly-review

This is one wild and crazy show that needs multiple viewings to make certain that you can figure out what it all means. You may fail, but this is a show that keeps you on your toes.

The basic plot is about Naota Nandaba (he’s the one in blue at the bottom). He lives in Mabase, a suburb ofTokyo. The city scenery is dominated by the Medical Mechanica building, which looks like a giant flatiron and I mean GIANT. While standing on a bridge, talking with Mamimi Samejima (ex-girl friend of Naota’s older brother, the smoker at the far left), Haruko Haruhara bursts onto the scene,  running Naota over with her Vespa scooter, then giving him CPR and finally hitting him on the head with a blue vintage Rickenbacher 4001 left-handed electric bass guitar (that dead-center maniac).

This creates a horn on his head, from which later on, a robot emerges from it. Now, if that wasn’t bad enough, Haruhara turns up to be a live-in maid at his house, making an already bad situation even worse for him. And from there, things get progressively stranger. Yes, it DOES get progressively stranger.

Can one really codify the show and not give away huge chunks of the plotting?  I mean, it is only six episodes and it a show that requires a real intensity of watching, because if you miss something, you really miss something. And since it moves at this breakneck pacing, playing catch-up is something you really don’t want to do.Continue reading

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Taking a play from an old ad campaign that use to run here in the states to discourage parents drug habits from having a transitioning influence on their kids; I can only start off by saying that I can imagine some unsuspecting adolescent quietly watching Kingdom in the comforts of his own room until his father busts in on him:

Dad: What are you doing!?
Son: *Startled* jumps up to hide the screen.
Dad: ANIME!  Who taught you to watch ANIME!?  TELL ME!
Son: YOU DID! DAD! I LEARNED IT FROM YOU!
Dad:     

Kingdom Synopsis:

In the Warring States Period of ancient China (475-221 BCE), Shin and Hyou are war-orphans in the kingdom of Qin. They dream of one day proving themselves on the battlefield. One day, however, Hyou is taken to the palace by a minister. Winding up on the losing side of a power-struggle, Hyou manages to return to the village, barely alive. Shin then meets a boy who closely resembles Hyou, Ei Sei. For now he is the king of Qin; later he will become the emperor Shi Huangdi.Continue reading

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More Than Meets The Eye

Like a lot of people Ninja Scroll was one of the first anime movies I had the luxury of watching.  After observing how unique it was compared to other ‘cartoons’ I had seen over the previous years I began to do research to find similar productions.  Of course, back in the 90’s I didn’t realize a lot of shows I was currently watching were actually imported from Japan.  After learning the difference I understood the first genuine anime show I actually watched was the Original Transformers.

Since then I’ve watched everything from Princess Mononoke, Gungrave, Black Blood Brothers, to more recent stuff such as Kingdom.  I may take a little bit more of an old school approach to stuff I see today in large part due to the fact I believe Xenogears is the best game of all time in my opinion.  I previously played games along with watching anime prior to Xenogears, but it helped facilitate the foundation for my enthusiasm in all things anime/game related when ID tossed the Yggdrasil on Bart. (The graphics are cheesy compared to today’s standards I know.)Continue reading

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Hello world! Whilest I could start with an apology for my unplanned hiatus due to exams, my new-found python obsession and dealing with Kamikaze monkeys from hell, this review takes precedence. I’ll do the world a favor and get straight to the point.. Zetman sucks. I remember in a previous post I said:

“So the spring season has started and I must say that there are quite a few shows that caught my attention. Zetman for instance 🙂 I love how we have an initial episode giving us some background then in episode 2 we jump 5 years straight into the action.”

Although at episode 2 I felt I was barely keeping up, there seemed to be so much potential in this show that it had to be good right? Wrong. By episode 4 I realized that hey, things were not right. By 8 I confirmed that theory and today, episode 13 I was scratching at the screen screaming ‘MAKE IT STOPP!! DEAR GOD!! MAKE IT STOPPP!!!!!’

The root of the problem is that the original Zetman is basically the cross between a western (Marvel) comic and Japanese manga and while that sounds like a pretty awesome mix, they completely failed at the adaptation into an anime. The main character Jin is…. sigh…Continue reading

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Pretty 🙂

Air: An Overview

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Air, it’s the story of a homeless man, Yukito, and his journey as he stops in a quaint little town by the beach. He is searching for the Winged Maiden (sounds so pretty, doesn’t it?), a woman his mother would tell him about as a child who was cursed and bound to the sky. He meets a young girl named Misuzu when stopping in this town, and suddenly everything changes for him. So that’s the basic plot line. Now you don’t have to quickly google it before reading this article.

The Air Anime

Story: The anime first appealed to me because it was short at only 13 episodes and because the artwork is stunning. Where the story is concerned, it’s sloppy and all over the place. The Winged Goddess story line is choppy and poorly explained…well maybe it isn’t but I was just bored by the time they got down to specifics. A huge reason for this is the large and pointless cast of secondary characters who are tolerable at their best and horribly annoying at their worst.

Characters: Misuzu, Haruko (Misuzu’s foster mother), and Yukito are all fairly well-developed characters. The problem is the obnoxious bunch of secondary characters who are supposed to make this a more dramatic show but make it slow and all over the place. Misuzu goes beyond your typical cute girl. Continue reading

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Maturity... yea it matters

After my last post ‘Appearances can be Deceiving‘, I realized that what I called a ‘deceiving start’ was not the only thing that could make one drop a show. While it is the most common reason, one’s Level of Maturity also plays a pretty huge part in how much one is able to understand and appreciate an anime.

A lot of the time viewers find themselves more able to relate to certain shows (especially those with a ‘deeper’ sense to them) when they are older and have a better understanding of the world (usually brought about by both good and bad life experiences). A perfect example can be found on Canne’s Anime Review Blog when she expressed that ‘watching anime at the right time is as important as watching the right anime’.

The thing is. I wasn’t ready for Princess Mononoke when I first saw it. I was too young, too ignorant and inexperienced to truly appreciate it. I could feel that this was a great anime but I didn’t understand why. Now I do and I am grateful to myself for giving the anime another chance.

Shows such as Princess Mononoke, Akira and Grave of the Fireflies are examples of anime that while can be enjoyable by all, takes a certain level of Maturity to fully appreciate.

Like Canne I remember a few years back watching Akira for the first time and to be honest it didn’t hit me, it felt old, boring. I actually felt somewhat confused for the greater part of the show. After a re-watch a few months ago by the slightly more mature me, or at least the slightly older me. I found myself thinking thatContinue reading