Now, I haven’t been actively watching anime for too long (at a mere 10 years, I am a youngling compared to others), but I have to say that 2013 has been a very exciting year. Sure, there have been a few duds, but the standout shows really stand out, like this one, “Psycho-Pass”.

It is the real future, as it is now 2116 (most ‘future’ shows are like 2040 or 2051, years that I have an outside chance of getting to see, only to discover there are STILL no flying cars). Don’t let the open throw you. Aside from it trying to look like “Blade Runner”, the opening fight is something that will occur about two-thirds into the series run, so just let it wash over you until you get into the actual story.

Tokyo is a utopia of harmony and understanding, sympathy and trust abounding; the dawning of the Age of Aquarius. Crime is almost non-existent, owing to this Sibyl System. You can kind of think of this world as ‘Minority Report’, but without Tom Cruise. People’s emotional state is measured by their Hue. Stress certainly plays into this assessment, done by the multiplicity of tracking cameras and Drones that patrol the streets. (more…)

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 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…)

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 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…)

The other half of the brother-and-sister series is this one, “A Certain Scientific Railgun”. We are still in Academy City, where people who want to get the best education (and have esper powers) go to. Our missy to the right, Mikoto Misaka, is a Level 5 Esper, of which there are only seven in the entire city, and, of this septet, is the most powerful, or at least, the most feared. She can conduct electricity and what she does is flip a 100-yen coin into the air. When it comes back down and it about to pass the ecliptic, she uses it to shoot her electric bolt out and cause some serious damage.

She attends Tokiwadai High School (an elite among elites) and people have heard of her. Her roommate Kuroki Shirai (the purple one in back) has a SERIOUS fetish for Mikoto and is constantly looking for ways or opportunities to be physically intimate with her (which never works; this is a big running gag) . She also works for Judgment, a public service group that maintains peace and order in the City. She is a Level 4 Telekineticist and uses nails to pin her perpetrators to the wall, as well as teleport in and out of situations.

Kazari Uiharu (flower headband, far left) attends Sakugawa Middle School, a rather ‘normal’ school. She works in Judgment with Shirai, but more as logistics. She is a Level 1 Heater, having the ability to keep things warm at a constant temperature. Our last lady is Ruiko Saten, who attends school with Uiharu. She is a Level 0, but annoys the stuffing out of Uiharu, as she will flip up her skirt to see her underwear and comment about the pattern of the day. (more…)

This is half of what could be best called a brother-and-sister series. They are related in the fact they occur in the same town (Academy City) at about the same time and the characters do cross over and slightly interact, but that’s about it. They are independent of each other in what they wish to accomplish.

This one is “A Certain Magical Index”. Now, Academy City, a technologically advanced academic city located towards western Tokyo, which studies scientifically advanced superhuman students with powers, is also set in a world where magic is real. Our hero up there is Tōma Kamijō, a fairly average student but a flop when it comes to esper talents and abilities. In this town, your esper abilities determine much in your life and he is at the bottom, possessed with the worst luck ever.

The only thing he has going for him is his right hand, which he calls the Imagine Breaker, which has the amazing ability to negate magical and psychic powers. But since it is only considered an ability, he gets a Psychic Level of…..zero. He might as well be selling hot dogs from a street vendor wagon. (more…)

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…)

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…)