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).

(more…)

Yeah, OK. I usually try to lull you in to reading my review, kind of disguising until the end as to whether I liked it or not. For this one, I’ll save you the time: I no longer like “Fairy Tail”. I have abandoned the show.

Now, I gave it a good damn run: 60 shows (“Case Closed” has taken me for longer at 130 and I still watch that. I would have watched “Inuyasha” and “Ranma ½” more, but foul circumstances took them away from me. And I am still working through “Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood” but that ends at 51). But I felt it treated me badly, like other long-format shows.

So, what got to me? It’s just that it took me that long to see the repetitive nature of the overall show. I had read the first five manga and really liked what I read (since I check them out of the library, someone borrowed Books Six through Eleven forever, so I had to give up. And I don’t read manga on the internet). When I heard they had done the show, I watched it with eager anticipation, but I started to notice a trend.

The Evil Folks show up. The Good Guys arrive on the scene, but are soon put to flight. The Good Guys regroup and through some personal effort, defeat the Bad Guys and send them packing. Then, we have beers all around for a Job Well Done. The next day, (more…)

Many years ago, I started compiling what I called “The First Rules”. This was a series of guidelines to cover a variety of issues in life and, as the first rule for whatever, is the most important to consider. For example, the First Rule of Coffee is “If you don’t drink it, don’t make it.” How many people have you seen try to make coffee that have zero experience with it? You end up with something that legally could not be called ‘coffee’.

The First Rule of Sex is “Don’t have sex with someone crazier than you.” (“Fatal Attraction” should have REALLY taught you that!)

I had a standing rule for anime. The First Rule? “At least see the first episode.” A lot of people complain that they do not like anime, but then you discover they have never really seen it, or caught it in a glancing manner. They need to sit down and what whatever show from the first episode and THEN they can make their pronouncement.  This brings us to the Second Rule: “Watch the series from Episode One”. There are really extremely few shows that you can pop in on late, even at Episode Two and you need to know the set-up or you are puzzled beyond belief. You can’t always hope that there will be a recap episode (and should it occur, is somewhere around 13 or 14 in a 26-run show) and playing catch-up never really works. I tried to watch “Boogiepop Phantom” at Episode Three and was completely at sea for it, so I walked away. Which is a nice segue to Rule Three.

“If you feel the show is not going to get better, leave it. It is NOT going to get better.” I violated this rule twice: “Peach Girl” and “Gundam Seed Destiny”. For “Peach”, I knew by Episode Three that it wasn’t working, but I did not leave. “GSD” took a bit longer, as they had a big Mid-Course Correction around Episode Six or so. I watched “Peach” to the end, but when “GSD” was removed from my TV line-up, I let it drift into space. (more…)

There are several music animes out there (with “Nana” and “Beck” coming to mind first), but what about a musical anime, where the characters burst into song for no apparent reason. It may be that “Nerima Daikon Brothers” could be that first one. For your information:

Nerima – a ward inTokyo.
Daikon – the famous ‘white radish’.
Brothers – Well, brothers in arms.

It tells the story of Hideki (the big guy in the middle). Sure, he’s merely a daikon farmer, but he has dreams, big dreams and they do not involve farming implements. One day, he’ll build the world-famous Daikon Dome and his little entourage will play to packed houses of screaming, frenzied fans every night, rockin’ the house with some rockin’ music. But, until that time, he farms and rehearses every chance he gets, as they have a makeshift stage in the field. The neighbors do not take kindly to those musical intrusions, and hurl both bottles and epithets to get them to shut up.

The band consists of Hideki, his brother Ichiro and cousin Mako (plus some random pandas; don’t ask). Any resemblance to the “Blues Brothers” is strictly intentional. Alas and alackaday, big dreams cost big bucks and our little singing trio are badly skint in that area. In fact, Ichiro has a real job working at a host club, where not only is he a most popular draw, he also comes across a lot of help and information. Too bad they are spending most of their time fending off rapacious agents, devious psychics, duplicitous nurses and questionable auditions.

Adding to their woes, whatever money they are able to obtain is quickly siphoned off to repair for damages incurred during their latest escapades or balance off a massive debt imposed on them so they at least pull even. No one said being an overnight star was easy. (more…)

There are some show titles that are going to draw your interest immediately.
“Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt”. Yeah, I gotta check that one out.
“My Sensitive Pornograph”. Whoops! I backed the wrong pony on this one!
“Chu-Bra!!”. I wonder if it is about undergarments……

Well, yes, it is. It tells the story of Nayu Hayama (the bespectacled one), a middle school student who is having some problems with her undergarments to the point of it being a wardrobe malfunction. Since the underwear in question is rather adult in nature, two curious students, Yako Jingūji (the brunette) and Haruka Shiraishi (the pink one) wonder if there is ‘something more’ going on, especially when a much older man comes up to Nayu to ask her questions.

We come to learn that she is a caliber of ‘beta tester’ for underwear. In fact, she is so enamored with underwear, she has made it her life’s ambition to be the greatest undergarment designer in the world, following in the footsteps of her famous (but dead) grandmother. Her aim is to make undergarments that are both pretty and designed to do what they are meant to do. (more…)

Seldom does one see a show that is this perverted without really showing anything that perverted. Other shows that claim to be less perverted show a whole lot more than these folks. Now, I will admit that when I heard the title “Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt”, I had no real idea what it was all about, but it has genuinely NOTHING to do with underwear and garments as you might think they should.

Our two heroines are Panty (the blonde) and Stockings (the brunette), the Anarchy Sisters. They are fallen angels, kicked out of heaven for their very bad behaviors. They have been sent toDatenCity(and here is a joke; datenshi is Japanese for ‘fallen angel’) and they have to do battle with monsters (or ‘ghosts’) whom torment this city.

Depending on how hard or involved the fight with the ghosts is, this manifests itself in the amount of coins they get. They are literally trying to buy their way back into heaven. (more…)

Admittedly, I am a late arrival to anime, despite my background. I was just a wee sprite when I first saw Astro Boy on NBC in 1964 and I was not impressed. It took me another 40 years before I finally decided that I liked anime. Do keep in mind that I had numerous runs-in with it in the ensuing years, and treated badly most of the time.

Since 2004, I have been rather keen on it, watching almost everything I could lay my hands and eyes on. There have been some notable failures (“Fantastic Children”), total mistakes (“Gundam Seed Destiny”) and wonderful surprises (“Mahoromatic”), but with the latest crop of shows out there, I find myself playing the Frankenstein Game.

Two that really get to me are “C3” and “Maken-ki! Battling Venus”. On the surface, there is nothing wrong with the show, but I find myself seeing other shows in them. (more…)

Recently, (as in today) I started watching Angel Beats and by the end of episode 1, I had an intense urge to write up a first impressions review on it. Now firstly I have been hearing about this show for quite some time now and I guess I somewhat kept putting it off (no idea why), but hey, I’m glad I finally got around to it. Now, it starts with a middle school aged boy whom we shall call Otonashi who wakes and finds himself in the middle of the school grounds a few meters behind a girl, who so happens to be crouched, aiming an awesomely customized  M16 at the head of another seemingly harmless school girl. At this point of the show I sat back and thought ‘interesting, let’s see how this progresses’.

The girl (the one holding the gun called Yuri) starts to explain that this world was one that you go to after you die, and that you must fight this ‘angel’ person/being in order to remain here, and also that while you were here, it was impossible for you to die, seeing as you are already dead. The only thing was that if you decided to not go against Angel then you would ‘disappear’ and well, no one is sure what happens when you disappear, but it is assumed you may reincarnate as a random animal such as a flea or tadpole. (more…)

The original title of this show is “B Gata H Kei”, which translates out to “B-Cup Slut”, but since Americans are possessed of delicate sensibilities and should not be offended, it was appended with “Yamada’s First Time”, so now we can all enjoy this with no fear of revulsion.

The plot is fairly straightforward: The above maiden, 15-year old Yamada, has but a single goal: to sleep with 100 different men before she graduates. She is best described as oversexed, flirtatious and lustful, and is a very popular figure on campus. But she is a virgin, and this puts a bit of a crimp in her dreams as her standards has her turning down boys right and left who would jump at the chance to jump on her.

She decides that for her very first time, she needs to find the Golden Cherry (an inexperienced, virginal boy) and ends up setting her sights on Kosuda Takashi, a member of the photo club. However, Yamada’s insecurities have her pushing hard when she should take it easier and backing off when she should be moving forward. This creates all kinds of comedies of errors and loads of misunderstandings.

If the pursuit of Takashi was not hard enough, a pair of new rivals manifest themselves. The first comes forward as a childhood friend of Takashi, Mayu Miyano. (more…)