This can be properly categorized as a ‘witch show’, but this is no ‘magical girl’ show. It might be closer aligned with “Black Rock Shooter” in the caliber of despair that it generates, but I get ahead of myself. This is an unhappy show. Not a sad show. A sad show is like “Air the Series” or “5 Centimeters per Second”. This one is unhappy is that everyone…it looks like I’m taking the chute back to Square One, as I’m getting ahead of myself.

“Brynhildr in the Darkness” (“Gokukoku no Buryunhirude” “Extreme-Black Brynhildr”) is an odd cat of a story, mainly because it doesn’t know what it wants to be.

Ryouta Murakami is head of the astronomy club. They even have this far out observatory to use. (No, I mean far out; he has to take a couple of bus lines to get to the thing) Too bad there isn’t a single other person in the club. I mean, what gives? I know if there was an astronomy club at my high school, I’d be there (we had a chess club. If I had joined, I’d be called ‘Carpet’, as I’d have been laid out the entire time.)

He comes across this girl, who tells him not to go to the observatory or, if he does, miss the last bus down from it. He does neither (he’s a guy; like he’s going to listen to some odd girl he just met?) As it happens, a sudden rain storm causes a massive rock slide and he is killed…or would have been if Neko hadn’t shown up to use these bizarre powers to hold the rock back. Neko Kuroha is that black-tressed number at the far right. She looks similar to a friend that Ryouta had many years ago, but died in a tragic fall. Still, there is something about her that piques his interest. (more…)

The only thing tougher than being smart as a whip is being the descendant of someone who was the smartest whip in history. Try filling those shoes!

“Galilei Donna” tells the tale of the Ferrari sisters, Hazuki (20), Kazuki (17) and Hozuki (13), who are direct descendants of the great Galileo. It is now the year 2061 and the world is in an energy crisis. For some odd reason, the world has declared war on the Ferrari sisters, accusing them of terrorism against a corporation (and we all know how badly mistreated and misunderstood corporations are) and are actively hunting them down to find them guilty and bring them to trial for energy theft. It’s like “Alice in Wonderland”: ‘No, no!’ said the Queen. ‘Sentence first — verdict afterwards.’

However, the girls have a task, a very special and important task set before them: they are to find the seven sketches that Galileo made of the moon through his first telescope, as there are clues within these sketches to something referred to as the Galileo Tesoro. Well, the evil misunderstood corporation Adnimoon, who are trying to make certain that the world has enough energy, are doing what they can to corral these wild women. The girls are aided by Anna Hendrix, who, right from the get-go, you feel oddly about, and not just because of those jelly-roll curls she sports. (more…)

So, we are in the second season of “Infinite Stratos”. For those who may have forgotten, in this future world, there are these power suits (not really giant fighting robots; more like body enhancement armor). The trick is, only girls can use them…..until Ichika Orimura shows up as the only male who has ever been able to make it work. However, his training and understanding of the suit is well behind the curve and he is in catch-up mode for such a long time, he should change his name to “Heinz 57”.

The second season carries on with both his training to defeat the evil forces out there and his romantic encounters with the evil forces down here (the rest of the squad). They are beset by an anti-IS group called Phantom Task, whose main goal is to destroy all the IS units, but to also take Ichika into custody. I mean, a guy who can pilot this equipment is really rare, and he just needs to be taken out of the mix, so our plans of world domination can be fully employed.

Oh, I guess I should introduce the rest of the players, following behind Ichika:

Houki Shinonono
Cecilia Alcott
Huang Lingyin
Charlotte Dunois
Laura Bodewig (more…)

Again, another long-format show, this one has managed to keep the interest high, as there is just so much that goes on behind the scenes that we do not know of.

Now, they are calling it Season Four, as each ‘season’ is 25 episodes, but I call it Year Two, as we are at 100 episodes.

The year opens up with two flashback/recap episodes, one for Mutta and one for Hibito and then we proceed. The two massive arcs are Hibito’s Panic Attacks (which take up right to the end of the year) and how Mutta overcomes all the obstacles placed before him in order to discourage him from being an astronaut. The stories were told with a great deal of involvement and there was hardly an off-note for the year, although the Olga side-story for Hibito went on a bit long. (more…)

This could broadly be described as another of those “Girls Who Save the World” shows, but it is handled in a slightly different fashion, in that there are no transformation sequences, but their goal is not much different than “Sailor Moon” or Symphonia”.

“Coppelion” tells the story of (left to right) Taeko Nomura, Ibara Naruse and Aoi Fukasaku, who are not what they appear to be. Are they high school girls, on a class trip to Kyoto so they can look at the temples and take advantage of the cuisine there? Not hardly likely.

In 2016, a ‘incident’ at the Odaiba energy plant contaminates all of Tokyo and everyone has to leave (and they never say that it was a nuclear meltdown, although all the Hazmat suits, Geiger counters and radiation symbols plastered everywhere are enough to make it so). But not everyone leaves, for whatever reason. Twenty years later, a distress call is heard from Old Capitol and these girls are dispatched to answer the call.

So these aren’t even real girls. They are clones who have been biologically engineered to be able to withstand massive levels of radiation that would turn the rest of us into instant goo. They are to render immediate first aid and then get those people out of there. The story details their efforts, but it is more than a “Who can we save this week” approach, as that would get boring really fast. (more…)

How many of you folks know what an ‘arpeggio’ is? Sure, most of you could identify it immediately as something related to music, but the real definition is a musical technique where notes in a chord are played or sung in sequence, one after the other, rather than ringing out simultaneously. This word comes from the Italian word “arpeggiare”, which means “to play on a harp.” An alternative translation of this term is “broken chord.”

Arpeggios allow monophonic instruments to play chords and harmony and help create rhythmic interest. The title is most supportive of “Arpeggio of Blue Steel (“Aoki Hagane no Arupejio”), which looks like a mere submarine anime, but it’s more than that.

In the year 2039, it’s a mess. Humanity, via global warming, has reduced a lot of their land mass. In that year, a strange alien force came down. Known as the Fog, they manifest themselves as naval vessels and successfully blockaded the oceans, so humanity was cut off from one another. 17 years after the blockade (that’s now 2056, if you are trying to do quick math), Gunzō Chihaya, a former student of the Japanese National Marine Academy, is captaining a Fog submarine that defected and joined humanity’s plight. Technically referred to as I-401, Iona is the Mental Model for the Blue Steel submarine. Chihaya and crew are pirates or renegades, or, more to the point, blockade runners. They can deal some major hurt to the Fog fleet. (more…)

Opportunity is a strange thing, as it just manifests itself and you have to decide to open the door or hide near the torchiere and peer through the curtain, to make certain they have gone away.

I had a marvelous chance to see “Neon Genesis Evangelion 2.22: You Shall (Not) Advance” with the family in tow. Now, I initially argued against seeing it, as I did not really enjoy “1.11” and since they were so behind the curve on things, I was afraid I would be spending huge amount of movie time explaining things. If you thought I was bad coming into this film, they were even worse, but they said they would take the chance.

They lost.

I had to explain about the Second Impact and what these angels were and trying to do and what the EVA units were and trying to do. Now, not a lot of time has passed between the films, so we still have Shinji Ikari, who is more determined than ever to stop being a pilot, partially aided by the fact that Rei Ayanami is back to some degree of health and can reshoulder the burden.They also are given the ‘present’ of a new pilot, Asuka Langley Soryu. Despite her heritage, she is considered American, which means she is brash and rash. Oh, and also has boobs. She takes care of EVA unit 2 and we see all three of them work together to attempt to take out an angel, trying to fight as a cohesive unit. (more…)

OK, how many people remember what happened at the end of “Senki Zesshō Symphogear”? Did anyone do the homework assignments over the break? Anyone? Fine, I want two scrolls on my desk by tomorrow morning. To recap, the Noise was defeated, but we blew a crater in the moon the size of Texas, which now makes the moon look like Saturn.

“Senki Zesshō Symphogear G” starts up about three months after that climatic battle. The good guys (or gals, in this grouping) are, from right to left:

Tsubasa Kazanari. Half of the group Zwei Wing, her partner, Kanade, died but passed her relic on.
Chris Yukine. A bit of a loose cannon, she was an enemy who became an ally.
Hibiki Tachibana. She is trying her best to be a good fighter, but she has merely a shard in her, not a full relic.

They are supposed to protect Dr. Ver (a mad scientist type) and (more…)

When is a movie not a movie? When is a series not a series? Why can’t you ever get a good answer to questions? Did you remember to turn off the iron?

I bring this up, as I am uncertain how to approach “Mardock Scramble”. If it is a movie, why isn’t it presented as such? At three hours, it is a bit long for a movie (especially an anime one), but it could have easily been broken up to be a first season of a show (a 12-episode run). I am going to call this a ‘special’, as it works best in that configuration. So, let’s get to the story, eh?

It could be the future, but it is certainly an alternate universe of Tokyo….I mean, Kamina City, Rune Balot is a 15-year old prostitute, who goes on a ‘date’ with the notorious Shell Septinous. Shell has a bit of a problem, in that he is a psychotic killer. He has sex with these underage ladies, and then murders them. Rune is no exception, as she is left to die in a burning car which explodes. However, she is rescued and transformed into a cyborg by the rather mysterious Dr. Easter. An Artificial Intelligence life form (more…)

This is not your father’s Gatchaman. I wasn’t even aware there was a caliber of precursor to this series, but that is not necessary to view at all for this one.

“Gatchaman Crowds” takes place kind of now (summer of 2015). For those who may not know, Gatchaman were originally a five-member superhero ninja team, assembled to combat the forces of an international terrorist organization of technologically advanced villains, known as Galactor, from trying to take control of the Earth’s natural resources. (And if this smells like “Captain Planet”, you can be forgiven).

However, almost nothing has been taken over from that series to this one. In our brave new world, the gatchaman are people with abilities who are assigned to protect this planet, initially from these odd creatures called MESS, who look like an assembly of squares and can change their shape within the squares. A new gatchaman is recruited, Hajime Ichinose (dead center), who lives in Tachikawa City, where these G-Men are based. (more…)