Now, I know that this particular series veered over into a sub-genre I am tired of…vampires. It’s not that there aren’t good or interesting vampire animes out there, like “Black Blood Brothers” or “Hellsing”, but it is the sheer amount of them that gets overwhelming to the point where I run away. The other genre I am tired of is Giant Fighting Robots, so if they have a Giant Vampire Fighting Robot show, I can avoid it. (And if it is voiced by Chris Ayres, it’s everything I hate in one spot!)

The one under the microscope is “Rosario + Vampire”, which got a lot of positive spin in things I saw. Many girls liked it, as it was sooooooooooo romantic. Well, I was between shows and it came up, so I gave it a test run. I didn’t crash and burn, but it got really old really fast.

This is a shame, as it started out so good. Our hero, Tsukune Aono, is a ronin. This is a term used for a student who has left one school, but is not attached to another one. (It is a samurai term for a swordsman who has no master, but roams the countryside). He is a bit of a brick and is having a most difficult time getting accepted anywhere. His father magically finds an errant admission packet (dropped in an alley, after dark, by a strange hooded figure. Man, things have got to be rather weird and desperate if you are willing to grab an admission packet, dropped in an alley, after dark, by a strange hooded figure) and gloms it, scampering away. Hooray! Their son is not a total dweeb dork dingleberry dognice! Now, get to school! (more…)

Upon waking up this morning i decided to add a new series to my list of shows to review, after careful deliberation so I  decided upon Ano Natsu de Matteru and took a look at episodes 1 and 2. As far as first impressions go i suppose i can give it an A, maybe its just because i had just woken up and the light comical nature of it suit my mood perfectly, or it really was that good, im really not sure, all I know is that I liked it. What else is that it didn’t take much out of me, there were no intricate plot twists that i had to wrap my mind over or super actiony scenes which got me pumped up, it left me with a sort of mushishi afterfeel.

Over the two episodes this is what i got from it, the story more or less revolves around Kaito Kirishima  a first year at high school and Ichika Takatsuki an alien whose spaceship crash landed on earth injuring him in the process, As she is not used to life on earth she often seems to act weird and is continuously correcting herself. Due to her having nowhere to stay Kaito invites her to stay at his house and she meets his sister who agrees to let her to stay as long as she wishes.

Unfortunately, due to the injury caused by the crashlanding Kaito suffers from some sort of skin mutation (top image) which supposedly can only be cured/reversed by being embraced by Ichika (cant say we didn’t see that coming). (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…)