OK, you should pronounce this show “Vivid Red Operation” and not run it all together to be “Vividred”, (despite how it is presented in the credits).

It is the future and this future works. On the island of Izu Oshima, Kenjiro Isshiki has invented the Manifestation Engine. This structure (which I cannot determine how big it is, but think of Three Mile Island in its design) is a power plant that powers THE WORLD! It pulls energy from the sky (shades of Tesla!) and distributes it around the planet. However, even in paradise, there are always snakes.

In this world, they are these strange creatures called The Alone (and why must they have such odd names? Have you noticed that? The Noise. Them. Harvest Beasts. Sheesh!) Anyway, it appears that the defense force of this island cannot fight against these creatures. Ahh, but Kenjiro, the classic mad scientist, has come up with the Vivid System, which allows people, who have the key and can get into the system, to fight these Alone (I mean, they are fighting the creatures, but they are not fighting alone. Well, initially she is fighting alone, but gets help so she is fighting Alone together. I mean, that is, what I want to say…….ah, forget it!) (more…)

OK, I will admit that this was an experiment. I wanted to know if I could watch “Neon Genesis Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone” with little to no knowledge of it, as I have not seen the TV series and know only what I have picked up over the years. Sure, I would be the first to admit that it makes little to no sense for me to watch a giant fighting robot movie, as most of the people who read my reviews are fully aware of my dislike of giant fighting robot shows (and having ripped a few of them apart here), but, I was at Anime Expo 2013 and the opportunity presented itself, so I was not going to let this slide past.

Since I had seen practically every other movie or show that was considered a landmark or major player in the anime game (“Akira”, “One Piece”, “Bleach”, “DBZ”, “Naruto”) and people were losing their minds over this particular offering, I felt that I should, at the very least, make a visit to see what all the noise was about. For me, it was much ado about nothing.

For those nine other people in the world who have never seen or heard of the show, it is the year 2015. Tokyo 3 stands, but most of the world’s population was destroyed after the Second Impact. Strange space beings, called Angels (and how ironic is that. Why not call them Devils? Anyone? Nope? I guess they all got destroyed in the Second Impact) are bent on the total, complete and thorough annihilation of the human race. The only thing that stands in their way is EVAs, the world’s answer to these alien invaders. (more…)

This was a movie that was shown at Anime Expo 2013, but I got shut out of the viewing for it. Part of the interest in the film was that Sentai Filmworks had a convention contest going on and this was one of the locations to get a “Words” sticker. Get the six stickers and you would win a prize (of a black t-shirt. Not too good in the blazing summer sun of Los Angeles).

As it turned out, I had an opportunity to catch “Garden of Words” in a different location. Not as good as the big screen, but I did get an idea as to what it is all about.

The first thing it is all about is less than an hour. That’s right; this film clocks in around 46 minutes, which really gives the feeling of incompleteness. And since it came from the same people who brought us “Children Who Chase Voices from Deep Below”, it also embraces the same problems as with that film, in that things are set up but are not really carried through to a conclusion. Perhaps they are making a statement that things are never really done, but life moves on, but this isn’t life. This is a film and we expect, nay, demand closure to some extent. (more…)

This is a very black or white series. You will either love it or hate it, but you will never be uncertain about it.

“Flowers of Evil” (or, as they call it, “Aku No Hana”) is doing things I rarely see in animation and I have never seen in anime. First, it is rotoscoped. For those who do not know what that is, you film live action, then animate it. “Through a Glass Darkly” was the last time you may have seen it (or not; it was a stinky film). What this means is that you have a more natural look, but the movements may come off as stiff or stilted, as you are not employing squash-and-stretch techniques of normal animation.

Second, because of the more natural look, standard anime tropes are gone. With the exception of one fantasy sequence, there is no turning to stone and crumbling away or sliding into chibi style or anger bars flashing at one’s forehead when things go wrong.

Third, the more natural look means the world is dirty and grimy and depressing, so there are chipped concrete blocks and cracked roads and torn posters and rusting signs and stained walls and weed growth. Certainly not crisp and clean, no caffeine, as you see in even the most action-adventure animes. (more…)

This is a strange show, in the fact that it openly embraces the strangeness and makes no apologies for it. Whether you wish to buy into it is wholly on you.

“Tsuritama” is more than a show about fishing, although that what it may look like initially. But the fishing is more of a means to an end, as we draw these four very different people together.

Yuki Sanada (red hair) has moved to the island of Enoshima to be with his grandmother. She requires frequent relocating, which prevents Yuki from establishing any real friendships, much less the social skills necessary to initiate them. Whenever he becomes anxious, he freezes in place, unable to breathe, and he feels like he is drowning. Donning a markedly demonic expression, his anxiety becomes so pronounced that others become wary of him at his appearance. I mean, this guy looks like the absolute stinkiest smell has been presented to him. Even Freddy Kruger would recoil in fear. (more…)

This is a classic fake-out show, in that you think you are going in one direction, and then get yanked into another, oblique, area.

“The Devil is a Part-Timer” tells the tale of Dark Lord Satan, ruler of Enta Isla. It is not enough that he rules with an iron fist and a steel will; he must have it all, so he basically shoves in all the chips and does a massive four-front war on the neighbouring lands for total and complete world domination! (Enter dramatic music here.)

Initially, he gains the upper hand, as no one was fully prepared for such an onslaught. However, the tides of war turn against him and not only are his armies driven back, his own land gets invaded by all four of the lands he hoped to subdue. Rather than suffer the ignominy of defeat and the humiliation of capture, he takes his trusted general Alciel and jump through a dimensional portal. But be assured, he will return to exact his terrible vengeance and terrible it will be. However, they land in Sazazuka, Japan, to discover that this is a land of little magic and the once towering figure of Dark Lord Satan (massive biceps, eight-pack abs, thighs that could crush your skull) is now a twenty-something guy who looks a bit of a wiener. He is just another citizen of Japan and has to live as a mortal. (more…)

“Hyakka Ryōran: Samurai Bride” is actually the second season of this show, but it really didn’t matter to the telling of things. Sure, I probably should have watched season one, but I thought THIS was season one. Besides, they explain the characters well enough that I didn’t think it was necessary to watch “Samurai Girls” to get up to speed.

The series takes place in an alternate version of Japan called Great Japan, in an alternate timeline where an alternate Tokugawa shogunate remained active and has remained isolated from the rest of the world. The male lead, Muneakira Yagyu, has come back from training to find that the dojo is in such a bad financial state that the only way to save it is to turn it into a maid café. The crew of trainees/maids consists of, from left to right:

Hanzo Hattori, the one who already looks like a maid,
Yukimura Sanada, the one with the fan in her hand,
Mitsuyoshi Jubei Yagyu, red-head with the pan,
Matabei Goto, nearly pantsless,
Sen Tokugawa, brown hair at the end.
One who is missing from this line-up is Kanetsugu Naoe. (more…)

Life in Japan must be tough, as all kinds of weirdness happen to the point where the odd is the norm. We are in the future (same as it ever was) and for the past 30 years, there have been these ‘spacequakes’. The original one claimed the lives of at least 150 million people. Since then, smaller spacequakes plague the world on an irregular basis.

Shido Itsuka, a seemingly ordinary high schooler (the guy with the tie) comes across a mysterious girl at Ground Zero of a spacequake, Tohka Yatogami (purple at the far right) and learns she is one of the “Spirits” who are the real cause of these spacequakes that occur whenever they manifest themselves into the world. He also learns that his sister Kotori (the red demon at the left end) is the captain of the airship Fraxinus, crewed by the organization Ratatoskr, and is recruited to make use of his mysterious ability to seal the Spirits’ powers, thus stopping them from being a threat to mankind. However, there is a catch: to seal a Spirit, he must make her fall in love with him and kiss her. Not just any kiss, but the Kiss of True Love, Ariel….I mean….never mind. (more…)

This show certainly has the longest title I have encountered in a while: “Mondaiji-tachi Ga Isekai Kara Kuru Sou Desu Yo?” (“Problem Children are Coming from Another World, Aren’t They?”) and is also a short-run series, as it clocks in at 10 episodes, but, but, but…I get ahead of myself.

This is another of those alternate dimension tales, where people are taken from their world and plunked into another world and have to survive. Ahh, but there is a twist. Three ‘children’, (for wont of a better term, as they seem old to be mere children) Sakamaki Izayoi (the guy in the middle), Kudō Asuka (red at the far right), and Kasukabe Yō (the lady to Izayoi’s left), live dull lives because they possess unmatched psychic powers (which are hinted at but not initially explored). One day, they receive a mysterious envelope that transports them to Little Garden, a place of supernatural powers called “Gifts.”

There, they meet Black Rabbit (can you find her? It’s not Easter, but this hunt shouldn’t take too long) who explains things for them. Everyone here has these ‘gifts’ and they are used to play “Gift Games” for power and prestige. But don’t lose; for you not only lose prestige and power, you lose your identity. They are to come to the aid of Jun Russel (that monk-looking guy at the far left), who is the leader of the “No Names”, a group which now has nothing, not even a name, and has to strive to restore this group to former glory and honor. Jin is aided by Riri, that fox-like girl just above him, but lurking in the shadows is Shiroyasha (that loli-type) who is …take a deep breath…a senior official at Thousand Eyes, Floor Master on the East Side, Demon Lord of the White Night, Spirit of the Sun and White Night. (try getting all that on a business card). (more…)

This is part of what I call the ‘Semi-Colon Series”, as there are three shows with the same caliber of title and the same grammatically annoying way of presenting it. They are “Chaos;Head”, “Stein’s;Gate” and “Robotic;Notes”. Of the three series, the last one is the most accessible. The other two are beset with shifting realities and uncertainty as to what is truly going on. Now, they are fine shows and I would suggest you do check them out, but they do require more in the way of attention and commitment than a lot of people are willing and able to give, especially when they play the ‘What is Reality?” card.

“Robotic;Notes” is not as demanding, but you has best pay attention, especially since it has the jump-back. The Jump-Back (another of my annoying made-up terms), is when a particular episode ends on a cliff hanger. The next episode begins in beyond the point where the last stopped, setting up something, and THEN we jump back to see the cliff hanger and the results. It can get a bit aggravating when you want things to be a bit more linear.

Let’s start at the beginning: we are in the future (oh, really? Again with the ‘in the future’?) It is 2019 and we are on the island of Tanegashima. The school here has a robotics club with fitful membership. Yashio Kaito spends most of his time playing an on-line game called Kill-Ballad, where it is giant fighting robots (they have some marvelous tablet-pads to do this on). The other club member is Senomiya Akiho. Her older sister was in the club and left behind a giant robot that could not be finished in time, so it sits and sits and sits. And technology has so changed, it might be better to scrap it, get some cash for the metal and try again. (more…)