Vision Of Escaflowne:

Few fans that are into fansubs at all haven't heard of Vision of Escaflowne. One of the top TV shows of 1996 (incidentally, the same year that brought us Neon Genesis Evangelion), this was one of the most popular shows in any fansub-lovers' arsenal... and it's not hard to see why.

A brain child of, in part, Shoji Kawamori (every single Macross series, Kenji's Spring), Vision of Escaflowne is kind of a cross between Never Ending Story, Super Dimension Century Orguss 02, and Record of Loduss War. The story involves one Hitomi Kanzaki, a typical high school girl who's into tarot cards and fortune telling, running track, and gazing at the object of her distant affections (and track team captain), Amano Susumu.

The animation, a seamless mix of computer-generated special effects and traditional cel animation, is groundbreaking for a TV show (and still good for a movie), and the music, from legendary duo Yoko Kanno (Macross Plus) and Hajime Mizoguchi (Please Save My Earth), is worth importing the CD's of.

While the plot may be nothing special, what is special is the execution. While we have seen almost all of these story elements before, we have never seen them together. Using all of these elements together, and flawlessly, is the real attraction of Escaflowne.

Technically, I was as impressed with Escaflowne as I was with AnimeVillage.com's subtitling job. In a world where the post-production abilities of budget-less fansubbers often outshine those of commercial companies, AnimeVillage has taken great care to maintain the top quality in production, even outdoing all existing fansubs of the series (despite using the now-infamous Captions, Inc. for the production). The timing is perfect, as are the translations. The credits are entirely translated, and replace the Japanese ones. The tape itself comes in a nice soft plastic clamshell case (in either white or black) and a high-quality printed sleeve.

Overall, my only gripe with this release is the tape shell: flimsy cheap reels are used, the kind that can actually burst on high-speed rewind modes on some VCR's and tape rewinders. (I already transplanted the ones on my copy with better ones.) Replace those reels, and Escaflowne quite makes for a perfect purchase. (The boxed set makes for an especially good deal.)

SaiKano:

With Saikano coming from Viz later this month, many have wondered how Viz would treat the show. One of the more anticipated new anime to come to North America in 2004, Viz must have known that they would have to treat the Saikano dub with the utmost care. It comes then as a bit of a surprise that Viz would choose to go with a group of relatively inexperienced voice actors to provide the dub. Voice One is in fact, a school for voice acting with an in-house recording studio that casts the school's students in professional projects. It's therefore unsurprising that the Saikano dub could have been better, but to be fair, it could have been far, far worse. In fact, given the circumstances, the Saikano dub is better than expected.

With Mark Atherlay as Shuji and Melissa Hutchinson as Chise, the lead voices are extremely well cast, as their voices match the characters to a T. Unfortunately, Mr. Atherlay's delivery of his lines is rather wooden, particularly in the slow, reflective dialogue that makes up most of the first epsisode. Later in the episode, when the action picks up, Atherlay gets a different opportunity to show his ability, and the stiffness in his voice disappears. Regrettably, he still seems to have a problem getting the right emotion across at the right time. Chise's Melissa Hutchinson is the only other voice with more than a cursory line or two in the first episode, and while she doesn't feature nearly as predominantly in this episode as Shuji, she does get the chance to show off more of her acting ability with a broader range of emotions, all without any of the woodenness that plagues Shuji's actor.

Visually, Saikano is a bit of a treat. While none of the characters are particularly original in their designs, they are all distinctive from one another. It's nice to see an anime set in contemporary Japan that manages to create unique characters without resorting to giving them blond, purple and blue hair. The animation is crisp and the colors rich. Each character is drawn with a bit of color to them, be it a bright blue blazer, or a red hair piece. Combined with backgrounds and props of all sorts of rich, yet appropriate colors, it makes for a show that is a delight for the eyes.

What stands out the most about Saikano is the plot. Regardless of any failings in the English or Japanese voice acting, by the end of episode one, the viewer will be entranced by the story. The first three quarters of the first episode are a slow-moving introduction to the characters and their relationships, but all this is turned upside down during the last 4 minutes when Saikano shifts into high gear. The characters that we've been introduced to, and have come to know in their native environment, are thrust into the most unnatural of situations. Chise is transformed from a quiet and weak high school girl into a weapon of mass-destruction that protects Japan from invading forces. This could have easily devolved into a typical sci-fi-shounen-action series, but instead it remains focused on the characters' relations with one another and does not shy away from showing the pain and brutality of war.

If the first episode of Saikano is anything to go by, this thirteen episode series will undoubtedly become many people's favorite. If you like character-driven stories taking place in abnormal circumstances, this is a show that you must check out.

Beserk: Scores a 9.0 total, with 2 10's

Gatts is an espiring warrior in a world where the ability to wield a sword is necessary to survive. He get's recruited into the Hawks, a band of mercenaries led by an enigma of a man called Griffith, after losing to a match against him. Griffith has a dream, and that is to rule over a piece of land. People get drawn to him and his, rags-to-riches dream like a magnet. But Griffith's dream isn't all fantasy.. there's a real dark power behind it as well.

Gatts beomes Griffith's right hand, weilding his broadsword the size of a normal man, for Griffith's cause. The relationship between Gatts and Griffith is very strong, for both are willing to die for each other. Gatts has also been put into a fix, he has been told that Griffith's dream has the power to change the world for the worse and he is the only person that can break it. But can he?

In the Hawks is the female liutenant Caska, who loves Griffith and wants nothing but to help Griffith realise his dream. Slowly as the story progresses, she's torn to who she loves more, Gatts or Griffith, as winning battle after battle, Gatts starts to wonder what his own dreams are and where his loyaties lie.

But everything's not what it seems and the show has a very big twist at the end.

Berserk is created by Miura Kentaro and was screened in Japan starting Oct 1997. The manga is still currently a best seller which the anime only encompassing the first part of it. Berserk is a very 'dark' anime with lots of violence. The world of Berserk is similar to medievil europe. Urban Vision is currently trying to get the license. The plot is very compelling and is very well told. There are many hidden clues within the series and many deep themes. There are many unanswered questions in the anime which has driven many a viewer to search the manga for answers. This is one series where you are driven to watch from start to finish as the true story unravels bit by bit.

Kino's Journey:

Based on a series of popular novels and helmed by Serial Experiments Lain director Ryutaro Nakamura, Kino's Journey has a great deal of Lain's detached, hypnotic air without its cyberpunk edge or surreal quality. Kino is a subdued, consciously measured character, and the series has a similar tone. That comes across most clearly in the second episode, when Kino meets three men stranded and starving in a blizzard, and hunts and cooks and cares for them without quite committing to caring about them. As they recover, Kino spends more time thinking about the rabbits that die to nourish the men than thinking about the men themselves. That moral egalitarianism and refusal to weigh any one aspect of a situation as more important than another extend to other episodes, as Kino evaluates each new country in turn without mocking or judging, but also without undue enthusiasm or emotional involvement.

The result is a hushed, thoughtful series with few highs or lows and little action. The first disc's episodes proceed placidly without climax or denouement, though each one has its own plot twist. Nakamura intersperses story segments with symbols and text swimming against an abstract background, echoing the characters' questions ("Have you ever felt jealous of birds?") or commentary. ("The world is not beautiful, and that, in a way, lends it a sort of beauty.") These tend to be more distracting than anything else, and given that Nakamura used the exact same device in Lain, they come across as more imitative than unique.

Like most deeply idiosyncratic series, Kino's Journey is a specialized taste, and likely to be an acquired one as well. The slow pace will put some viewers off, and the extremely simple character design may distract others. The backgrounds of Kino's Journey are typically lush, but the rounded, big-eyed characters look like something from a young children's series, a look that's strongly at odds with the stories' adult tone. But strange mysteries, odd artistic choices, and repetitive concepts aside, Kino's Journey is involving and touching, and it's crafted around thoughtful moral dilemmas and speculative societies in the best science-fiction tradition.

Card captor sakura: Anyone who thinks this doesn't deserve a spot is an idiot. 10/10 as reviews.

Presentation

CardCaptor Sakura will keep you locked in your seat and wanting to see the next episode or read the next book. It has everything that you can dream of.

It has comedy like when tomoyo makes sakura put a costume on every times she goes into battle or when syaoran was sleeping beauty and sakura was the prince.

It has action like all the times she has to capture the cards or fight yue in the final judgement days.

It has romance like with Rika and the teacher or Syaoran and Meling or Sakura and Syaoran. Everytime you see someone blush or cry it makes you said or go Kawaii.

CCS has everyhting that you can think of and more. Clamp made it so you would enjoy it and want to rewatch it over and over again. Or just pick up the book and read it from the beginning. I love CCS because it never is boring it always has something that happens. It always has twist and turns that you wouldn\'t expect to happen.

Clamp did a awesome job and i hope the next mangas that come out turn out like this one. Because so far i think this is one of the best that they have had.

I say read it once and see what it is like and then you will know what i mean.

Sound

The OSTs are awesome. I listen to them all the time. The songs in the anime are something that you can\'t hate you will want to listen to them over and over again. The voicing goes perfect with all the characters. They sound the way the should sound in the characters personality. The music goes with what is happening in the anime. If something is sad then a sad sound will play and if something is happy then cheerful music will play. On the first movie the ending song goes great with when u see the last image of sakura looking outside of the train. Or when she jumps into syaoran arms of the ending of the movie. The last episode of the anime when they touch each others hand and the song plays it goes with what is happening.

Art

Clamp is always know for there great mangas and images. In this manga the artwork is the best i think so far. I love how sharp the detail is and how you can see in there expression of what they are thinking. Everyone has there one personalties and you can see it. You can see sakura as this fun, free and innocent girl. Tomoyo is this calm and quiet girl. Syaoran is strong, brave and courages. Kero can be smart if he wants to but around food he changes. Yue is quiet and when he says something he means it. In the artwork you can tell how different they are and how they are not. Every image that you see is clear and sharp so you know what happens. You can tell when someone is sad or when someone is happy.

Story & Characters

This is by far the best story that i have read and watched. It is about a 10 year old girl named Sakura Kinomoto going down in the basement and opening a book setting the clow cards free thus starting her adventure. She then sets out to bring the clow cards back. Along the way her best friend tomoyo is taping all the scenes where she captures them. Also she meets her new rival and the close friend Syaoran. As the story goes she then has to turn them all into sakura cards so they won\'t turn into ordinary cards. There is in all 12 books, 70 episodes, and 2 movies. The show is awesome and the manga is even better. This story is for kids of all ages. If you read it or watch it you will love it. It has action, adventure, comedy, and romance all in it. It never makes you bored when u are reading or watching it. It always keeps you interested. The story has so many twist and turns that you will never know what happens next.

Fantastic Children:

Somewhere between the story of Wolf's Rain and the tone and simple animation of Now and Then, Here and There lies the very serious fantasy of Fantastic Children. The character animation is very simple, with blobby, rounded characters and beaky-faced, spiky-haired characters in a contrast that recalls Osamu Tezuka. By contrast, the story is immensely complicated, with frequent chronological leaps and a backstory that comes together only a small fragment at a time.

It seems from what's been revealed so far that the children of Béfort are reborn each century as normal children, but around age 5, their hair turns white, they remember their pasts, and they seek each other out to continue their as-yet-obscure mission. They sadly reference the fact that by the time they're 12, they'll lose their memories and sense of self, though in at least one case, that seems to happen earlier. They also store their memories in crystalline tubes magically hidden in walls from age to age, though that entire segment of the show is particularly confusing. It certainly doesn't explain the shadows that attack them, teleport them to a new location, and then turn to stone and fall apart when struck. The entire sequence is particularly beautifully animated, and it whets appetites for more explanation, but by the end of this initial disc, most things about the children are still mysteries.

It's good that Thoma, his down-to-earth family and his new friends are there as an antidote to all the weird goings-on. Their segments are lively, colorful and refreshingly normal, though they still take place in a recognizably fantasy-oriented world. They emphasize the weirdness of the Béfort children's storyline and give viewers something solid to hold onto, and someone to root for. But they also promise significant events to come. Fantastic Children is a slow, mysterious series with a very slowly unfolding, mysterious story, and none of the action shown in the opening titles crops up in this disc, so it certainly isn't for impatient viewers. But mystery fans will find all they can handle here.



I'll keep going, But hey, those of you who haven't seen these anime's... WATCH THEM.

Irresponsible Captain Tylor:

The Irresponsible Captain Tylor is a hard series to pin down; you can tell it's going to be funny, there's going to be some space battles, and the ongoing question will be whether Tylor's a genius, an incredibly lucky idiot, or some of both. That pretty much sums it up, yet as it progresses it adds a layer of meaning and depth to the likable characters, amusing situations, and flat-out fun of a good anime comedy to become something unique.

Each viewer will take something different away from Tylor; it will be no more than a comedy to some, others will see it as a little more than that, and I'll bet for a few it'll practically be a religious experience. When I sat down, I didn't particularly like the sound of the "genius/idiot" conundrum of Tylor, so I was expecting to be annoyed by it despite all the "it's funny yet it's deep" raves I'd heard. As I watched, I could feel myself becoming a convert, but I committed to watching the whole thing before making up my mind. Having done just that, I'm still not sure quite what to make of it, but I do know two things: One, it is something far more than a simple comedy. Two, when it was over there were parts I'd enjoyed immensely and parts I didn't care for, but my gut gave me that feeling I only get from anime that had some kind of deeper effect on me.

Like Trigun, another series with a similar blend of light and dark, the first half of the series pretty much sticks to the stock formula of wacky characters, wacky situations, a bit of wondering whether Tylor's a genius or a lucky idiot, and not a whole lot else. The plots are sequential, and there's a sense it's headed somewhere, but missing a few wouldn't throw you off. It does do a remarkably good job of keeping the formula interesting by weaving around in unexpected ways; the twists are gradual, and you know each story will resolve itself happily, but the how is never obvious and plenty of times I really didn't see things coming.

Initially Tylor is just a catalyst for the story, never instigating much himself, but in the second half he begins to play a more active role and starts to fill out as a character. As the story builds momentum we see more of the internal functioning of the Raalgon (which is important--they are not faceless "bad guys"), the romance moves beyond the superficial, and an increasingly high-stakes string of events eventually carries the story to its climax. The humor slowly fades, but the rest gets a lot more involving than I expected it to. It also doesn't lay everything out clearly, provoking more thought than you'd think this sort of anime would.

In a way, the final episodes are where the irresponsible series has a run-in with responsibility--not an easy thing to accomplish successfully from a storytelling standpoint, but quite interesting. The message that had been hiding in there since the beginning ("live your life the way you want to," if you're wondering) is eventually stated explicitly, but even then I was never quite sure if that's what I should be taking away from it, and it's certainly not the only thing in there. (If all this sounds like an unfortunate way to end a comedy, I'll note that the finale definitely doesn't wrap it up on a downer.)

Perhaps the most unusual thing about Tylor is the way it superimposes a wacky ship on a serious setting. The war swirling around the story has no clear bad guys on either side, both intelligent and incompetent commanders, and two very large military forces that take the situation seriously and act more or less like classic, honorable Japanese military forces should. When the Soyokaze and its crew is jammed in the middle of this, the rest of the characters in the universe (and even some on board) don't seem to get the joke, a contrast that is both hilarious and thought provoking.

If it had just been a drama illustrating the folly of the military mentality, you could get sucked into the rhetoric or turned off by the heavy themes, and if it had just been a farce, you could have fun and ignore the message. Instead, the backhanded satire shows both a serious war and an unserious group of people involved in it, forcing one to think about both the legitimacy of the fight and whether these people should be having so much fun in the middle of it. It successfully pokes fun at the why of both sides of an age-old argument.

This superposition of themes also gives the series an unexpected air of realism--having "normal" people interacting with the wackiness aboard the Soyokaze makes it (almost) seem like something that could actually happen, part of the reason the story is effective. This isn't to say the war is realistic; while the battles are not played for laughs, many of the situations are far from the realm of the plausible. Tylor's extreme luck aside, several parts sacrifice realism for either humor (early on), making a point (throughout), or moving the story along (toward the end). There's also a brief bout with the supernatural in an early ghost ship episode that, while very funny, breaks up the reality that becomes important later.

The later part of the series is marred somewhat by this heavy handed manipulation, with moving the story along several times taking precedence over any sort of logic or common sense (putting Tylor in charge of the entire fleet being the most egregious offense). Some particularly metaphorical imagery around the same point, while a legitimate artistic choice, also seemed unnecessary. Worst of all, however, some of the characters are seriously shortchanged or manipulated for the sake of the story. Not even Tylor is safe, but Yamamoto in particular is a slave to the plot--he repeatedly does an about-face on his changes of heart so that he can play the holdout and have another dramatic change of heart.

Even so, the series is full of the sort of characters that make any anime comedy worth its salt fun to watch, mixing quirky personality traits, fun interplay, a touch of romance, and some depth hidden below the surface. Some are just there for laughs, of course, and others just to be serious (either as a counterpoint to Tylor or to represent the unfunny nature of the war), but a few (Tylor, Yuriko, and the Empress, mostly) are a more complex mix. The real standout is (no surprise) Tylor--the whole genius/idiot thing is part of it, but while I found him annoying at times he's more than just the ultimate slacker hero. There's a lot of talk about "realizing what kind of man Tylor really is," and while it's obvious by the end he's more than his class-clown facade belies, the series makes a point of leaving the exact why of Tylor open to interpretation.

The character animation adds tremendously to Tylor's character; he has a sort of off-balance way of carrying himself and a perpetual slouch that manifest his nonchalant attitude. The Empress has a similarly distinctive comportment. Elsewhere the visuals rank as a more average but solid TV series in terms of art, character design, animation, and unspectacular space battle sequences. However, in addition to ships that reference other sci-fi series, the shiny, classic space opera look of the Earth forces and the dingy, organic Raalgon ships provide an interesting contrast between two sides that, in terms of thought process, are nearly identical. The Raalgon fleet looks so alien one assumes they're the bad guys... or are they?

The Japanese acting (I won't comment on the dub) has a variety of distinctive voices to go with the assortment of personalities, but there are only a few standout performances. Characters like Yamamoto and the doctor are fun and well cast, but there isn't much room for impressive acting. Of the noteworthy performances, Azalyn captures a believable mix of strict Empress and little girl inside, and Yuriko occasionally has an effective dramatic moment, but yet again Tylor is the standout. Koji Tsujitani is Tylor--his performance perfectly embodies Tylor's slacker demeanor, low-key confidence, and charisma. I can't imagine anyone doing a better job of carrying that through the entire series and even mixing a bit of serious behavior in at the end.

The intro theme is particularly catchy, but the songs aren't what rank the unassuming score as another success by master Kenji Kawai. Kawai makes effective use of character themes throughout the series, an appealing operatic technique and perhaps a nod to John William's character-based score for the Star Wars series. Yamamoto's stilted, intentionally artificial-sounding Japanese military theme is the most distinctive, but a variety of other characters have their own little tune accompanying them. The music re-use rate is sadly high, in particular one dramatic-then-heroic piece that makes an appearance at the end of almost every episode.

The most notable music, though, comes during a two long sequences near the end of the series, where the William Tell Overture and a couple of other pieces are used in their entirety. The final showdown between the Raalgon and Earth fleets is the pièce de résistance, encompassing half an episode with a Fantasia-esque ballet in space. I'm sure it will disappoint some viewers, but it is one of the most meaningful showdowns I've ever seen and I was glad someone had the guts to let it play out as it did.

The Irresponsible Captain Tylor is a series not quite like any other. Another silly anime comedy on the surface, it is more satire than farce, taking a long, hard, amusing look at war, the military mindset, and just how seriously we should take life. It's not a philosophical masterpiece, nor is it the funniest comedy you're ever going to see, but it is punctuated by moments of brilliance and in the end, it's both fun and thought-provoking, and well worth the time it takes to finish.

Giant Roo - The Animation: 10/10

I was first introduced to Giant Robo via a preview from Manga, Inc. I paid it little mind, actually. When I started to download a couple of clips (dubbed version) from the series a little later, it piqued my interest. After I began to read some reviews and visited a few sites, I came to one conclusion: I need this anime. About a year later I ordered it.

Nothing could've prepared me for what I saw.

Story-wise we're thrown into a typical good versus evil story with seemingly corny characters. However, Giant Robo wastes no time in reaching out, guiding your full attention to the screen and holding it there until the final credits are all done. The characters turn out to be three dimensional to the point of making you think there's a fourth dimension out there. The plot is written masterfully and told in one of the most epic presentations I have ever seen. Don't let any synopsis fool you, this one has enough betrayal and plot twists to make your head spin for five days once you're done with even one episode.

On the technical end of things, it doesn't get much better. The animation is superb in every aspect including character animation, background, special effects, etc. The character designs, and the entire design of the series, is a rip-roaring retro-fest that'll make your eyes sparkle, even if you're not a real retro fan. The characters and mecha are a blast from the past, and I don't think I'd want it any other way. In fact, I think the character designs are my favorite to date. Some people may recognize them from Ninja Resurrection, or both Lunar complete games. In my opinion, this is the best of the three (or at least the only three I know of). The first episode was made in '92 and the seventh episode (not yet released here) was completed in April of '98. Obviously some episodes took a year to make so you can tell that a lot of work was put into this series... I don't even wanna think about how much it cost.

Aside from the clips and previews, I've only seen the subtitled version and the acting is probably the best I've ever heard. The casting is excellent and surprisingly unique. I've heard that to feel the full drama of Giant Robo, you should get the subtitled version. I have no comment, since I've not seen enough of the dub. Speaking of the dub, however, I've heard it wasn't too shabby on the whole, if a bit on the inconsistent side. If you prefer your anime dubbed, you probably won't be disappointed. The reason I'm going to recommend the subtitled version is because the Japanese acting is topnotch and it's extremely hard for a dub to top that. Also it's the better deal, believe it or not. The dubbed version is seven episodes on six tapes and the subtitled is seven episodes on three tapes. This is the main reason why I'm recommending the subtitled version, but if dub's the way you wanna go, more power to you. The subtitling itself is pretty solid, except for the last two episodes where the spelling and grammar are kind of poor and even the timing needed work.

The music is composed and conducted by the Poland Warsaw Symphonic Orchestra and this is probably their finest work. The music in Giant Robo is so good it's probably the only anime that I will spend the ridiculously high price to get the soundtracks. The music is powerful and overall fits the mood perfectly. J-Pop can be kind of fun, but every now and then you really need to hear some real instrumental music (preferably in surround sound).

Overall, Giant Robo is an absolutely amazing series with everything going for it in every aspect. I know it seems I'm being an easy reviewer but I seriously cannot find anything wrong with this series.

Twelve Kingdoms:

Very few television programs have any artistic merit, but Tsuneo Kobayashi's The Twelve Kingdoms is one of the few that does.

Throughout much of its duration, the series is both visually stunning and filled with a variety of wonderfully executed narrative elements. The makers of the program have brought to life a number of engaging, fascinating characters, placed them in a nearly perfectly realized imaginary world, and involved them in a succession of deeply affecting and exciting adventures. The series is, as a consequence, despite its occasional misstep, a truly wonderful work of art.

The animation used in most of The Twelve Kingdoms is especially lovely and of a remarkably high quality for a television program. Backgrounds are rendered in lush detail, and the main characters are beautifully drawn. The colors used for skin tones are luminous and work well against the more subdued colors of the scenery. The beauty of the series is, however, somewhat diminished by a number of static crowd scenes. Figures in the foreground of such scenes move while those behind them remain completely still. The series' animation is, nonetheless, generally impressive and frequently gorgeous.

What is more, most of the program's central characters are well crafted and greatly contribute to its enjoyableness. Youko and Yuka, in particular, are appealing, sympathetic, and complex persons. At the beginning of the series, Youko tries to please those around her at the expense of her own personal fulfillment, but, over time, though full of self doubt, she changes. From allowing the expectations others have of her to guide her actions, she moves to anger and distrust, aroused by her being repeatedly mistreated, to real moral worth. The changes she undergoes progress naturally and enable the viewer to engage with her inner conflicts. The subsequent narrative arcs create further moral and personal challenges for Youko so that she continues to grow and develop throughout the series in ways consistent with what we have previously been shown of her personality. The viewer is consequently able to identify with her and remain emotionally involved in her experiences.

Yuka too is intriguing. When first introduced, she is sad and isolated and finds escape from her life in fantastic novels. She sees being transported to the world of the Twelve Kingdoms as an opportunity to live in the world of her fantasies and resents, and refuses to accept, the fact that it is Youko, not her, who belongs to that world. Her anger and resentment lead her to perform a number of immoral acts, but we see that she is not a wicked person and understand her behavior. Like Youko's, Yuka's moral growth is natural and engaging.

While few of the other characters introduced in the first narrative arc are as captivating as are Youko and Yuka, most are to some degree interesting or appealing. Asano, for example, is never made as complicated an individual as are either of his two schoolmates, but he does play an important role in the two girls' relationship and does, in a subsequent narrative arc, develop into a surprisingly tragic character. Rakushun, a giant mouse capable of transforming into a human being, is perhaps the most sympathetic of the series' supporting characters. He is given some complexity and is such an endearing, gentle individual that the viewer is certain to be charmed by him.

Sadly, the second narrative arc focuses primarily on a number of largely uninteresting and overly saccharine characters who are not particularly well realized. As a consequence, although the story told does give some insight into Youko's troubles, it is far less affecting than is that which preceded it. In the third narrative arc, however, Suzu and Shokei, two girls the same age as Youko, are introduced, and both are beautifully crafted, complex individuals who contribute significantly to the series. The development of each girl's personality is handled with as much care and sophistication as is the development of Youko's personality. The viewer is, consequently, able to become as deeply involved in Suzu and Shokei's conflicts, troubles, and concerns as he is in Youko's.

The fourth narrative arc is, for the most part, concerned with characters who have already been introduced, but they are given further depth in the course of the telling of this final tale. Even the new supporting characters with whom they interact are intriguing enough to keep the viewer's interest. While the brevity of the series' concluding story precludes the sort of development of their personalities that the director was able to achieve in the first and third arcs, he is able to involve the viewer with these persons. By doing so, and by raising a number of moral questions, he is, even in this short tale, able to arouse a real and affecting sense of tragedy.

Although not as fully realized as the protagonists, even a few of the series' villains are interesting individuals. The King of Kou, for example, who is Youko's enemy in the first narrative arc of The Twelve Kingdoms, is not a wholly evil figure, and, while his actions are unethical, his motives are understandable. He makes the story far more compelling than it would have been had Youko and her friends been opposed by a mere caricature.

Despite the series' attention to its wonderfully realized characters and intricate, enthralling world, The Twelve Kingdoms is also filled with rousing adventures and wondrous, magical beings. The protagonists face various dangers, fight battles, and endure terrible hardships so that the viewer remains constantly exhilarated by their heroism, fearful because of the threats they face, or commiserative from witnessing their sufferings. Kobayashi skillfully adds to these emotions a sense of wonder elicited with his depictions of the terrible powers and fearsome magic of some of the denizens of his fictional world. By arousing such feelings of awe, he further intoxicates the already enraptured viewer and makes The Twelve Kingdoms a truly engaging experience.

Unfortunately, The Twelve Kingdoms does have a few flaws, as those mentioned above. Some of the characters, especially several introduced in the second narrative arc, are entirely too adorable, and Kobayashi does spend too much time reiterating information about the world of the series and retelling previously narrated events. The program is complex, but there is really no reason why an attentive viewer should have difficulty remembering the story and the details of the imaginary world in which it is set.

The series' first narrative arc is wonderfully done. The second is less engaging. The third is as good as the first. It was able to rekindle the interest that had been waning for me during the second. The final arc, while not as well crafted as the first and the third, is genuinely touching and does leave the viewer with a sense of pleasant melancholy. Taken as a whole, The Twelve Kingdoms is brilliantly realized and deeply affecting. The program's faults are truly minor when compared with the impressive, emotionally evocative beauty of its lovingly crafted, exquisitely detailed world and its fascinating, delightful characters.

Azumanga Daioh: 9.5/10

Azumanga Daioh is one of the most unique anime/manga I have ever come across. Instead of having a plotline, the story is entirely character-driven. We see the lives of six high school girls as they venture through the three years of high school (Japanese schools go all year with one month summer vacation - you do the math). Because it’s a slice of life situation, we see how the girls develop; going through things such as sports festivals, cultural festivals, summer vacation, and their schoolwork.

Some of the things Azumanga Daioh lacks of the typical shojo genre include mystical powers, talking animals (with the exception of Chiyo-chan’s “Dad”), giant robots, time traveling, swords, gun-toting lunatics, and just everything else you have seen in other series. While the show is technically considered a shojo series, it doesn’t have things like love relationships, going through a terrible ordeal (except, maybe, when Yukari losses her wallet), or fighting off evil forces that want to take over the universe. Nope, prepare to be cleansed – this is Azumanga Daioh.

The characters are extremely unique, refreshing, and are total opposites of each other. They also typify the meaning of stereotypes. There’s Chiyo-chan, a child prodigy; Tomo, a loud and obnoxious idiot; Osaka, a spacey and “unique” thinker; Sakaki, the tall and quiet athlete with a love for animals; Yomi, the typical smart one and the crazed dieter; and Kagura, an extreme athlete who belongs to every single sports club the school offers. However, we cannot forget the teachers – from crazed Yukari to trusty and kind Minamo, even the perverted Classical Literature teacher Kimura – they’ve got some interesting instructors. The character designs are pretty simple – the most complicated outfit I’ve ever seen in the anime is probably Yukari’s sweater. They seem to match the characters and their personalities quite well.

Compared to most anime and manga, Azumanga Daioh has very simplistic artwork. It’s not bad artwork; I mean, think about it. Azumanga Daioh isn’t a complex series, so complex art just wouldn’t match. It has the typical Japanese animation traits – big eyes, sweatdrops, agitation marks, diluted pupils, and everything else. One thing that was new to me was the whole “turn the character ghost-white”. This happens to Chiyo-chan a lot, and occurs to Yukari in the beginning of the first episode.

The colors are good, but some of them bug me. I can’t quite say, but sometimes, the colors just sorta blend together and can wreck your eyes if you're not careful.

Ah...music...well, uh...don’t say anything, but this anime lacks music in crucial spots! To me, most of the music doesn’t really match the series at all. Sure, “Sora Mimi Cake” sounds Azumanga Daioh-y, but if you read the translations – ho boy, that’s completely different! With lines like “Don’t cry anymore Good-bye sadness”, “A girl awakens to the apple of memories and bestows a kiss”, and (the ultimate), “Everyday, the fluffy temptation of wheat”, one begins to wonder if Oranges and Lemons even took a glimpse at the series.

The music isn’t an entire loss, though. The march tune that plays between where commercial breaks, “Kaze no Iro March” is catchy and fitting. Some of the music is really great, and others are just…blah.

However, I don’t think music is supposed to be a big part of the Azu series. Other animes, such as Inuyasha and Cowboy Bebop, rely heavily on the background music to set the mood. Azumanga Daioh, however, relies mainly on the characters. Yet, there are some bare spots where some sort of music could’ve been inserted.

Overall, I adore Azumanga Daioh and its creator, Kiyohiko Azuma. The series is excellent, and my only wish is for it to be longer! Unfortunately, this isn't the case - the typical 26, 30-minute episodes is what we get.

However, there is a movie entitled, "Azumanga Daioh: The Very Short Movie". It was created as tie-in with the Sakura Wars flick. There is also a short movie simple called, "Azumanga Daioh Web", which uses a completely different voice cast and is made in a much bolder, thicker animation.


More to come

Urusei Yatsura: 10/10 btw

Urusei Yatsura isn't just another wacky anime love comedy. It's not even a great wacky anime love comedy. Urusei Yatsura is THE wacky anime love comedy, the prototype to which almost every anime comedy, parody, and girls-from-space love story owes a debt. More impressive still, the work that put Rumiko Takahashi on the map doesn't just hold it's own over 20 years after it first aired, it's still one of the best, if not the best. Wow.

Categorizing Urusei Yatsura is easy enough--it's the original more-the-merrier comedy (and harem show), featuring a variety of lively, attractive, and usually nutty girls (mostly from outer space) falling for one luckless guy. But that doesn't do this series justice, because Urusei Yatsura is so much more than its formula should allow. There's a little of everything: wacky, wild, raunchy, cute, sweet, hilarious, surreal, bizarre, clever, scary, romantic, and even dramatic--if there is a theme, Urusei Yatsura has it in at least one episode.

The initial episodes establish the cast of characters, and feature a wide variety of attractive women from outer space congregating around Ataru and company. These follow a classic formula of piling trouble onto trouble until there's only one way to get things back to normal... and then having that way backfire severely as the coup de grace. Though it breaks up the continuity when the situation resets at the beginning of the next episode, it's funny. Then, just about when that starts to get repetitive, the show suddenly moves into a surrealist phase. And that's only the beginning of the perpetually-morphing nature of this show.

What I'm getting at, and perhaps the most impressive thing about Urusei Yatsura, is that despite it's tremendous length, episodic construction, and apparent simplicity, it never lets itself get boring. Lum electrocuting Ataru after he chases a random girl is funny, but gets stale quickly, and with nearly 200 episodes, there's a lot of room for stale. But every time you think the series is getting into a rut of variations on the same plot device (an issue some of Takahashi's later series have fallen victim to), it veers off into something entirely different. Eventually, it gets to the point where you really don't know what to expect in the next episode. I'm serious when I say it covers so much ground it's almost scary--one minute it's a juvenile slapstick comedy, the next it's an art film.

If you stick with it long enough, you'll find everything from insane Technicolor nightmares based on classic Japanese tales to intrigue-fraught thrillers to a psychedelic Alice in Wonderland to a hotsprings episode that, rather than the usual bevy of naked female fanservice, involves a downright creepy journey through a haunted village.

This isn't to imply that the series ever loses its comedic edge, but despite the seemingly irredeemable silliness of the opening episodes and the fact that it is an almost entirely episodic show without a single ongoing plotline past the premise, it somehow manages to deliver episodes that not only aren't always all that funny, but border on straight-faced drama. I was surprised at how effectively serious or just downright strange the occasional episode managed to be--you just have to sit back and accept what it gives you after the opening credits roll. Whether you'll walk away scratching your head or gasping for breath is anybody's guess.

Let me step aside and make something clear here: when I say Urusei Yatsura gets weird, I mean really weird. Not random and funny weird, not just anime weird, but seriously, artistically, surrealistically, "What on earth was that episode even about?" weird. There will be episodes that leave you wondering what just happened, but don't expect to ever have it explained--the series just rolls on, never to look back.

I suspect some of these more cerebral episodes were experiments by then-rookie director Mamoru Oshii, now far better known for his introspective, brooding films like Ghost in the Shell and Jin Roh. Yes, as hard as it is to imagine that the man responsible for Jin Roh (and the art-house noir surrealism of Talking Head) could've directed the seminal wacky love comedy, that might give you an idea of just how out-there Urusei Yatsura can get.

Now that I've hammered the point of it's variety home, I'll go back and say there is one thing that Urusei Yatsura is very consistent about: pop-culture references. Like a Japanese Simpsons of its era, it parodies, sends up, pays homage to, or otherwise references everything. Everything. Ok, being twenty-some years old there's only so much ground it could've covered without resorting to time travel (which wouldn't have been that surprising), but everything from Japanese legends both obscure and popular to Darth Vader makes an appearance here, and you could write a book about the then-current-events tie-ins and parodies both subtle and not.

In fact, AnimEigo essentially did--thanks to their obsessive liner notes every episode has an extensive list of what exactly is referenced, in particular the volumes of obscure anime and pop-culture nods that few but a native Japanese would ever have even heard of. Don't take that to mean that there's nothing to enjoy for the non-Japanophile; it's more than weird and wild enough on its own, and there's plenty of original and universally understandable (or baffling) hijinks for anyone to enjoy.

Yet another impressive (that's today's word, by the way) thing about Urusei Yatsura is it's originality. Many of its plot devices (gender bending, multiple girls after the same worthless guy, weirdoes from outer space, recast versions of Rocky) have become anime staples, but you might remind yourself as you're watching it that in many cases they're classic because of Urusei Yatsura. It's the originator of so many anime cliches that I have to wonder what anime today would've looked like without it for inspiration. That alone makes it a seminal work the likes of which few things outside of Tezuka's little robot can boast of.

More amazing still, even being the originator of as many beaten-to-death plot devices as it is, Urusei Yatsura somehow manages to make them all seem fresh and fun again. I guess there's just something about the original.

I suppose I'd be lax if I didn't spend a bit of time on the characters here. Ataru is the prototype lecherous loser, never letting his girl-radar slide for more than a second, and fleeing the one and only girl who actually has any interest in him. But he does have just a bit of a soft side in there somewhere, making a few of the later episodes just a bit romantic.

Lum is the classic uber-babe with a massive crush on a totally worthless guy. What makes her interesting is that, like Takahashi's later heroines, she's not a ditz or an idiot--she's actually sharp and rather practical. She just really likes Ataru for some inexplicable reason, even though she's quite aware he's pathetic and worthless. You're willing to believe it because she seems to hold out hope that he'll come around someday, or that maybe she can electrocute him into shape.

There are a huge variety of interesting characters elsewhere in the series (everything from moping dolphins to a hotheaded girl raised to be a man among men), but the two others who are most prominent are ultra-stud Mendou (heir to the richest family in Japan), and Mendou's sort-of-girlfriend Shinobu, ever beleaguered but with a will of steel. I absolutely love Mendou in particular, since he's annoyingly smooth and studly, but under his perfect facade he's almost as sleazy as Ataru, and has a number of very amusing character flaws. Seeing the cool guy repeatedly crack or show his humanity in the most embarrassing of ways is just too much fun.

After 30 or 40 episodes (I'm not kidding), we've gotten good and comfortable with the characters and their bizarre lives, so the stories begin to focus more on the two main couples--Lum and Ataru, and Shinobu and Mendou. This is where the series gets into its groove, taking on an everyday air that other anime rarely has the length and depth to make work as effectively. The small group of high school friends are involved in sufficiently wacky escapades, but they really do feel like a group of friends despite their bizarre backgrounds, and you've spent enough time with them that you can not only buy it, but it feels more like you're just part of the gang along for the ride.

Ok, that's enough of that (hey, it's long and varied, I'm entitled to go into some detail). Visually, Urusei Yatsura is definitely old, but also quite good. The colors are typically garish for a '70s-era TV show, but after the first few episodes the quality of the art and animation improves somewhat, and there is a variety of very nice character animation. The art is rather inconsistent (it's been said that extremist fans can differentiate between the different art directors' various takes on Lum), but never enough to bother me.

Of particular visual note is the everydayness of Lum; although she can and almost always does fly or hover around, it's portrayed in a natural-seeming way that makes it feel sort of normal. Lum also makes for a bit of an ongoing fashion show, with all manner of interesting outfits appropriate to the setting. When you put the two together, you pretty much get what makes the whole series so much fun: a green-haired girl with horns, dressed in hiking gear or a school uniform, hovering around her boyfriend... and it just seems entirely natural. I just love stuff like that.

The music is... you know what's coming... impressive. There are a whole bunch of end themes (they change about every dozen episodes or so), most of which are quite catchy, and each is accompanied by its own funky animated sequence. The peppy and insanely catchy opening themes change much less frequently, but the accompanying animation features some hilarious Saturday Night Fever-style dance moves and lots of funked-out visuals, and they're still just as much fun to try and sing along to a couple of decades later. Much of the background music is unimpressive sounding synthesizer work, but it's also lots of fun--many musical flourishes to go with the wacky visuals, and the occasional nice musical number.

The voice cast in Japanese is flat out spectacular. Realistic, no. Fun, in spades. They're good enough that you basically couldn't imagine any other voices behind the characters, which may explain why AnimEigo's attempt to dub the series a few years back was an utter failure, resulting in only a handful of episodes ever being finished. Lum's voice is incredibly cute (with some amusing vocal tics), Ataru screams and sleazes like nobody else can, Mendou can go from smooth-as-glass to panicking crybaby in two seconds flat, and although Shinobu has the least comedic range of the lot, she's still quite distinctive. Plus, there is a huge variety of distinctive minor or one-shot characters. And the all-important comedic timing, in a credit to both the actors' and director's skill, is dead on in every single episode.

There, now I've said just about everything I can think of about this series, and it's worthy of all that and more. It simply has everything and then some, and has been the watermark, in my opinion essentially unchallenged, of anime comedy for almost a quarter of a century and still counting. If you don't like wacky and weird, nothing will ever make you like this series. But if any of the anime comedy standbys ever tickle your fancy, or you want to give a unique and at times absolutely surreal series a try, get yourself some Urusei Yatsura. Just one thing to remember: If you ever think it's getting in a rut (and you will), just wait--it never gets stuck.

Astro boy: Requires no review...

Vampire Hunter D: Another 10/10

Fans of the original 1985 Vampire Hunter D movie describe it as the ultimate vampire action movie, and though it was not, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust is actually worthy of that sort of praise. With ultra-slick visuals, high-budget animation, style galore, and a surprisingly engaging plot, this is everything a Vampire Hunter D movie could hope to be. Although it involves the same title character and world as the popular original, Bloodlust also isn't a sequel in that the stories are not related, and you certainly don't need to have seen one to appreciate the other.

Let me state outright that I don't generally like vampire movies; all that angst, power, passion, and sexuality wrapped up in the attractive package of the bloodsucking undead tends to get on my nerves. So, although I can enjoy vampire action movies, I really wasn't expecting to like Bloodlust all that much.

Boy, was I wrong.

Above all else, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust isn't just cool, it isn't just stylish, it is gorgeous--and I do not throw terms like that around lightly. The action set-pieces are exciting, full of creative powers and locations, positively dripping with style, and fluidly animated. The settings range from sweeping vistas to fabulous, ornate castles, to dark, densely-packed 18th century-style towns, with each background rendered in a combination of barely-noticeable (but very effective) CG work and beautifully detailed art. Even many of the non-violent scenes featured an abundance of style and masterfully produced animation.

Most importantly for the feel of the movie, just about everything (with the possible exception of one slightly-too-traditional Old West-style town) is infused with some level of artistic flair, be it a subtly rich backdrop in a forest glen, a sunset showdown bathed in amber tones, or a variety of creatively surreal illusions and magical powers. The only thing that I might complain about is the fact that (other than D), the character designs seem to have little to do with Yoshitaka Amano's style, but they are still distinctive, relatively realistic, hard-edged, generally attractive, and so well drawn that this is hardly a problem. More than just stylish gothic darkness (though there's plenty of that too) Bloodlust is beautiful, slick, and expensive-looking--visually speaking, vampire movies don't get any better than this.

The visuals were more than enough to carry the film, but what surprised me the most was the story. Superficially it looks more or less like the first Vampire Hunter D movie (or a post-apocalyptic Blade, another vampire-hunting series probably inspired by this one); half-vampire angst, a damsel in distress, an evil vampire with a horde of scary monsters to cut up, plus a team of vampire hunters to spice things up. However, under the surface, Bloodlust has far more depth than its predecessor, and on the whole struck a remarkably effective balance between plot and action. More impressive still, although there was an appropriate volume of cold, aloof heroes, dark tragedy, angst, and internal conflict of vampire hunger versus human emotion, all of them were in measured amounts, and not only did the story never bog down but the romantic aspects were remarkably sentimental (in a good way).

Although there were a number of relatively formulaic situations and it took a little while to grab me, as the characters began to flesh out I found myself getting surprisingly caught up in their exploits. D and Leila, the two main characters, had a coldly antagonistic relationship; both had a reasonable amount of depth to their motives and emotional character, and Leila also had a distinctive, angry edge. More impressively, even the villain, Meier Link, turned out to be more interesting than he first appeared. The rest of the cast didn't feel as fleshed out, but there were still a variety of distinctive personalities (particularly among the hunters), and on the whole they fit together and kept things interesting.

Although Bloodlust is a top-notch vampire movie all around, there was one thing that stood out as being really different: D's left hand. Comic relief isn't unheard of, but a wisecracking parasite attached to the ultra-cold hero in a film this unrelentingly stylish was a break from formula, at the least. I'm a bit undecided on how well it worked, but even though the hand's whining bordered on annoying, that was just enough to keep things from getting too dark, and the generally inappropriate comments showed confidence that the movie was strong enough to break its own mood on occasion (which it was). In any case, the hand didn't talk all that much, so it wasn't a big deal either way.

Actually, there's one more somewhat unconventional thing about Bloodlust: The English dialogue. Specifically, I'm sure some hardcore sub fans (like myself) were enraged at the lack of a Japanese-language version, even on the DVD. Don't be. The truth is, if you really don't like dubs, then you shouldn't be complaining--the English version isn't one. Although a quality Japanese-language dub was also made, English is the "first" language of Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust. The director intended it to be in English from the start of production and was involved in the English dialogue recording. Even the original theatrical release--in Japan, mind you--was English only, with Japanese subtitles, as was the Japanese DVD. Bottom line: you are certainly allowed to not like the English dialogue, but there's no legitimate reason to hate it on principle, and it most certainly is not a dub.

Setting that little hornet's nest aside, I thought the English dialogue was quite good--top notch, in fact. Although it wavered dangerously close to cheesy a couple of times, the dialogue was solidly written for the most part, and there were a few bits of natural-sounding color--the minor members of the hunter team in particular felt "normal" enough to bring a touch of realism to even that rather caricatured group. The casting and acting were quite good all around, with Andrew Philpot's impressively smooth voice backing up D's few lines, and an appropriately dry, harsh Leila; even though the harsh characters didn't allow for much dramatic range, the occasional chink in the armor was played fairly well. The closest thing I have to complaints would be that a couple of the generally colorful minor characters were a little cheesy, and Borgoff was a bit broad in comparison to the rest of the cast, though even his character worked well enough. All around, I was quite satisfied with the dialogue--it worked well, and probably seemed more natural than Japanese would have, particularly in the case of the hunter team.

The last thing to mention is the music: dark, well written, and appropriately grand in scale, it was a perfect compliment to the visuals. I particularly liked some of the creepy, chaotic choral themes, but all of it was very good.

There is a lot to say about Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, but the bottom line is quite simple: it is the ultimate vampire action anime, period. As Ninja Scroll is to it's genre, Bloodlust takes tried-and-true theme and does everything right--everything--with just enough creative touches to keep it fresh. I have trouble calling it anything but a must-see for any fan of vampires, action, or fine-looking animation in general.

Fruits Basket:

Tohru Honda’s mother has died, leaving her alone in the world without a place to call home. But she’s not the type to give in easily: instead, she pitches a tent in a forest and continues to go to school to fulfill her mother’s wishes. That particular forest, however, is also the backyard of the Sohma house, and she soon meets Kyo, Shigure, and Yuki Sohma. When the three boys learn of her state, they offer her a home with them, to be repaid only by some light housework and cooking.

Tohru accepts gladly, and begins walking to school each day with Yuki, who happens to be the “prince” of her school—the most desired boy because of his good looks. Soon, however, she discovers the Sohma family secret: they’re cursed. As a result, whenever a Sohma is embraced by someone of the opposite gender, they turn into an animal of the Chinese zodiac! Although this seems harmless and amusing, the curse lies deeper, subtly affecting each Sohma family member’s heart. Tohru, thrust suddenly into the middle of it all, can only hope her good sense, kind heart, and memories of her mother will help her love the Sohmas as much as they deserve.

Fruits Basket would be my top pick for a "relaxing" anime. There’s no melodrama, gigantic robots, or even explosions, just a light-hearted viewing of characters and their relationships. But that’s enough to propel this series through its twenty-four episodes. Although the series is character driven rather than plot-driven, it still maintains an overall sense of direction while keeping a constant lightness.

The great thing about this anime is that it has a message, but it doesn’t ever sacrifice its comedy. It begins with mostly humorous episodes, as the Sohma curse causes many comedic encounters between Tohru and her male housemates. But the series also goes deeper, and you’ll see a poignant growth in relationships, and continuously enjoyable character development. The humorous touches continue throughout, all of which combines for a wonderful effect.

What’s even better is that the animation also stays high-quality throughout. It is crisp, clean, and bright, adding to the overall innocent feel. The music also adds a good touch, although there’s not too much variety.

The characters themselves are extremely lovable, which is vital in a character-driven series like this one. There’s constant conflict between Kyo and Yuki, which always adds a little excitement, since they live in such close quarters. Tohru is the constant peacemaker, with an appealing inherent naivete and kindness. And there are many others, each of whom is completely unique and intriguing.

One small fault of this anime is that it seems to need to cover every animal of the Chinese zodiac. Eventually, there are just too many characters to really keep track of. A few of the characters are only introduced briefly and then disappear, which is disappointing. But this is just about the only bad point of the anime that I can think of.

Fruits Basket accomplishes something not many other series can: it goes deep, yet remains light. The characters encounter difficult situations, sometimes even dark ones, which keep it interesting. But the overall tone usually stays relaxed and light, so that it’s enjoyable throughout. It sort of has a My Neighbor Totoro feeling without being too happy. The series is well-written, hilarious, and just plain fun to watch.

Night On The Galactic Railroad: One of those Hate it or LOVE IT! anime's, I loved it.

Somewhere between Fantasia, the Chronicles of Narnia, and watching grass grow, this movie is defined by two words: Slow and surreal. The galactic railroad is definitely not the express.

The film begins a bit on the sad side--with Camponella's troubles at school, his absent father, and his ill mother. It then progresses through what could have been a fantastic journey, but feels more like a ghost story in slow motion, and finally ends with vaguely religious (Christian, not Eastern) philosophizing. Perhaps I was in the wrong frame of mind when I watched it, but it seemed like it should have been about a third the length; it could have been interesting and possibly educational children's story, but the glacial pace would make it hard for most young'uns to sit through, and the surrealist story is hard to follow and generally creepy.

Regardless of the pace, it's a strange film; the locations that the two visit are somewhat abstract at best, and many times downright surreal and quite creepy. For example, at one point the two boys descend a long staircase through space to reach an empty town square. They continue on to a riverbed surrounded by immense skeletons being excavated by a chubby cat-fellow with a pith helmet. When they head back through the town, it has, for no apparent reason, turned to stone; there was no explanation for this, but I found it unnerving. To the film's credit, it maintains a consistent and very carefully constructed feel throughout, and paints a clear picture of its vision. If you're into the sort of cerebral imagery and extremely relaxed mood of this movie, it might be worth the time, and the philosophical aspect will appeal to others (though in both cases, I would have preferred it without the anthropomorphic characters, which belie the fact that it seems too complicated for a children's movie).

To sum up, if you don't mind anthropomorphic characters, the frustration of watching a movie that keeps threatening to become Fantasia but really isn't, and very, very relaxed pacing, and you enjoy semi abstract locations and somewhat cerebral imagery, you might find this movie interesting. It was just too slow and cerebral for me, though.

Ordinarily I don't note this, but I feel obligated to point out that my opinion is in the minority for this film; most people like it considerably more than I did.

Excel Saga: No need review

Trigun: Meh, no need review

Read or Die: If anyone says this doesn't deserve top 50... Wow... your retarded

Princess Mononoke: No review required at all.

Gunbuster: Aim For The Top: 9/10, It basically is one of those mecha anime's... but it helped to define the genre

At first glance, Gunbuster looks like just another giant-robot war story--a bunch of good-looking kids piloting fancy mechs, fighting aliens, and coming of age, all against the backdrop of a huge-scale war for the survival of mankind. In fact, it is almost exactly that, but as the story progresses it moves from a semi-parody of girls' sports anime to an increasingly introspective war drama, becoming something more in the process. By putting an affecting shoujo-esque spin on the genre and adding several creative twists, Gunbuster rises above its formula roots to become an often forgotten anime classic.

production by Gainax, of particular interest since it in some ways served as the prototype for the famed studio's other series that re-envisions the kids-piloting-giant-robots genre, Evangelion. While Evangelion is far more cerebral and experimental on the whole, Gunbuster also muses briefly on dissociation and, among other things, features an entire black-and-white episode. They both share a basic premise featuring a desperate battle with monstrous, ill-understood alien invaders, as well as a sense of frightening scale in the huge mecha and vast man-made constructs. Gunbuster is most definitely not Evangelion in the aggregate, but it is an interesting series entirely on its own.

Among Gunbuster's oddest features, and probably one reason it's not better known, is how hugely inconsistent it is. The first two episodes are something of a bounce-heavy parody (Gunbuster may actually deserve credit for the premiere of the "Gainax Bounce") of the classic tennis drama "Aim for the Ace!" with robot war replacing tennis. Though amusing and scattered with hints at something more involved, they have "babes-in-space epic" written all over them, and if you stopped then, you'd walk away thinking that's all there was to the series.

I have heard that Gunbuster was originally intended as a simple parody and switched gears mid-production. Whatever the reason, it changes dramatically as the story progresses, taking on a melancholy, artistic tone near the end. Unlike some mood-switching series, something about Gunbuster makes this swing welcome, so long as you're willing to roll with it. In a way, the first couple of relatively silly episodes actually heighten the impact of the later ones--you've adjusted to fun and childish humor, accentuating the loss of innocence. The questionable start (or dramatic conclusion) may be more difficult for others to forgive, but the series as a whole manages to come together surprisingly well.Screenshot from Gunbuster

The most obvious of the things differentiating Gunbuster from its robot war kin is its shoujo-like flavor, perhaps due in part to the style of the series it initially references. The emphasis is on characterization, relationships, and personal drama (and trauma) instead of battles and big, shiny robots. Though this largely works to its advantage, it does tend to get overdramatic (read: soap operatic) at times, and the early part is particularly sappy.

Gunbuster does have plenty of action for the mecha fan, but the high-school-age soldiers spend more time waiting and worrying than fighting, and the focus is on the lives of the pilots between battles and the effects the war has on them. In spite of the unnecessary emphasis on the heroics of the main character and occasional flashy mecha battle, the picture of war painted is not an overly sanitized one. The fight feels desperate more than heroic, difficult choices are made, and when tragedy strikes, it often does so without fanfare. Among the best moments is a subtly powerful scene that exchanges the theatrics that usually accompany the death of a character for nothing more than sudden radio silence, leaving the heroine alone and helpless in space.

One of Gunbuster's most unique twists is that the young people out fighting the war spend a lot of time at near-light speeds, causing them to return to Earth years younger than their non-combat peers. This increasing alienation serves as an unusual allegory of the distance that develops between those who fight and those who stay home, as well as creating some intriguing situations of its own.Screenshot from Gunbuster

The relativistic time dilation effect is one of the many realistic touches that make Gunbuster more believable than it otherwise would be, moving it from simple space opera into actual science fiction. It goes so far as to put little SD-style "science lessons" at the end of several episodes explaining everything from warp gates to the scale of the enemy aliens. This is not to say that the science is flawless, but it is generally sound (or does a good job of pretending to be), and is definitely a step above most anime.

Gunbuster rounds out its thematic trifecta of emotion and science by addressing some interesting philosophical issues late in the series. In contrast to the blunt style of Evangelion, questions about the cost of survival and human evolution are raised subtly, without bogging down the story or mucking up the plot to get there. It also doesn't answer any of the questions it asks--the plot continues on and the viewer is left to decide whether the choices made are right or wrong, leaving propaganda and moralizing out of the picture.

As you might expect from Gainax, technically Gunbuster holds up with the best of them. The chubby, classic character designs by Haruhiko Mikimoto (of Macross fame) are attractive if almost too cute for the subject matter at times, and the animation is very smooth. The mechanical design is topnotch: The Gunbuster itself is a decent-looking old-fashioned mech, and the attention to scientific detail is carried through into the design of almost all the hardware--cool and believably functional. I love the Gunbuster's cockpit in particular--it's about the only mech cockpit design I've ever seen that would actually work.Screenshot from Gunbuster

As you might also expect from Gainax, Gunbuster hits some more creative (and experimental) notes late in the series. Most are successful: The letterboxed, black-and-white final episode has a stark beauty to it, and I found the climactic battle--stills set to classical music--visually and aurally impressive rather than seeming like a budget-induced cop-out. The most obvious failure is some wincingly bad silliness in the Gunbuster's abilities right in the middle of otherwise serious battles--I honestly wonder who came up with the ridiculous idea of a giant laser-reflective cape.

In addition to the orchestral climax, many of the series' themes are reminiscent of well-known classical works. The opening and end themes are classic anime cuteness more fitting of the lighter initial episodes, but both are catchy and the end theme is especially infectiously peppy. The Japanese acting is a little broad, but effective--the powerfully emotional scenes, in particular, are forceful and affecting.

Gunbuster is an unusual but impressive piece of anime. It starts out generic and silly, but develops into so much more that it is worth seeing through to the end. If you look past the unevenness, melodrama, and occasional experimental failure, the characters are emotionally involving, the story is exciting and substantial, the attention to sci-fi detail is commendable, and the whole thing just works. Those who can't stomach shoujo-like style should probably stay away, but it is a must-see for both mecha anime fans and anyone who can appreciate a creative twist on a classic genre.

Samurai X: Trust And Betrayal: Review not required

The Place Promised In Our Early Days: Another hate or love anime.

In America, at least, the first studio project of a successful, sought-after young indie director is always a major gamble for viewers: So many idealistic visionaries get sucked into the system and promptly lose everything that made them unique or interesting. In Shinkai's case, at least, fans can breathe a sigh of relief: His first feature retains all the idiosyncrasies of his debut, to the extent that it doesn't even necessarily show its studio roots. The same deep, welling emotion and clarity of tone pervade the whole piece, as does the sense that Shinkai is shooting as much for mood as for a standalone story. Early Days is sad and sensitive, from its evocative score to its touching focus on lost memory. There's very little action; much of the film could be considered an extended flashback, as characters reminisce about how they got where they are.

Even the animation style is much like Shinkai's solo feature: It's rich and extremely colorful and complicated, like a less cartoony Hayao Miyazaki movie, but Shinkai keeps the shots short and the motion minimal. His characters are smoothly animated, but they don't provide a lot of excess motion; often, they're dwarfed by the settings, which adds to the sense of wistful detachment. Still, the slow pans across Shinkai's gorgeous tableaux provide a strong sense of movement, and the animation is more dynamic than it was in Voices, though Shinkai is again putting the focus on depth of field and layers of color rather than on quick, eye-catching action.

Fans of the similarly thoughtful, low-key Wings of Honneamise, or of early Studio Ghibli films like Only Yesterday and Whisper of the Heart, will find a rare treasure in The Place Promised in Our Early Days, a film as much about the hope of youth and the bitter disappointments of adulthood as about warring nations and experimental weaponry. With Miyazaki repeatedly threatening to retire, it's good to know that there's someone new on the scene who's just as capable of producing serious, thoughtful, powerful anime that's as beautifully animated as it is written.

Planets: GODLY ANIME recommend to anyone who hasn't seen.

When most people associate Sci-Fi with anime they conjure up images of giant humanoid mechas, psychic aliens, gun totting cyborgs, galaxy roaming bounty hunters, or massive fleets of war space cruisers engulfing each other in plasma hell. Rarely does it include what is basically collecting space trash. Welcome to the world of Hard Sci-Fi, where the top speed limit is still well below light speed and constant thrust doesn't mean constant speed. It's quite rare to see a hard SciFi anime, let alone a Hard Sci-Fi drama anime. But then again Planetes is a very special anime.

While the backdrop is still fairly futuristic, its is still quite realistic. There is no sound in space (space ships don't go FSHHHHHHH when they fire their engines), the impact of low gravity and inertia on movement is an important plot element, and so on. If Arthur C Clarke were to make an anime, it would be something very much like this. Yet with all this focus on making Planetes feel realistic the focus of the series is actually on the humans themselves. The main theme of Planetes is Man's relationship with space. His love/hate for the endless vacuum of outer space, the overwhelming (bordering on illogical) need to explore it, and the politics of sharing its resources. Interjected with this are stories of very human issues. Dreams, hope, love, hate. The drama elements in Planetes go hand in hand with the Sci-Fi ones, complementing each other.

The episodes are extremely well written. The bane of TV series length storytelling is pace. Very few manage to maintain good pace through out the whole series. With only very few snags, Planetes manages to do this with flying colors. The first episode, which by tradition is usually slowed down by introductions, is fast paced and gives you a good feel for the series. Definitely one of the best "first episodes" I have ever watched. The rest of the episodes flow in more or less the same pace. The episodes for at least the first half of the series are "slice of life" stories. Episodic affairs shedding light on the status of the world in the late 21st century, exploring the wonderfully built characters, posing moral dilemmas, injecting humor here and there (least you think its too serious), and gradually building up the main plot. What at first seems to be a series of tangential stories figure into a single encompassing plotline culminating into a very satisfying ending. Now that's writing!

Visually, Planetes doesn't fail either. The animation is beautiful with relatively realistic (but still quite pleasing) character design that fits the series's somewhat sober mood. No gravity defying hair or mammary glands here thank you very much. The mechanical design as stated before is realistic and highly detailed. Everything from space ships and space stations to space suits and air filtering smoking rooms look like NASA concept sketches. The music is a nice mix of sweeping orchestral pieces and mellow jazzy interludes, all working beautifully towards the image of "life as usual" that pervades Planetes.

So to wrap it up, Planetes is definitely one of the best animes I've seen in a long long time. It's definitely one of the best Hard Sci-Fi stories (anime or otherwise) that I've had the pleasure of viewing. A realistic and well-written series dealing with serious issues but thankfully never preachy or over-philosophic, and most importantly fun!

Samurai Champloo: Doesn't require review

Moblie Suit Gundum 0080:War In The Pocket : everyone has seen, no review required.

Princess Tutu: Don't let the name fool you, this is amazing, frankly I found myself watching this 2-3 times an episode.

Duck's your average, clumsy school girl who's fallen in love with an older classmate named Mytho at her ballet academy. Or rather, Duck's really a plain, ordinary duck transformed into a school girl to save her beloved prince from his emotionless existence.

From Ikuko Itoh, the creator of the Magic Users Club series, Princess Tutu tells the story of a deceased writer named Drosselmeyer who penned a fairy tale about a prince's struggles with a raven long ago. Unfortunately, Drosselmeyer died before completing the story, and his characters escaped the book to become real world entities. The prince was able to seal away his arch nemesis, but not before his own heart was sealed. Now the prince roams the earth emotionless while pieces of his heart (his heart shards) cling to and torment needy characters that happen to find their way back to the prince.

Duck holds the key to helping the prince regain his emotions. As a school boy at the ballet academy, Mytho is one of the best dancers around. Yet he seems to exist in a state of ennui. At first, Duck does the typical school girl drooling over her beloved, but soon, she realizes there's more to Mytho than meets the eye - and even he doesn't realize what's been stolen from him. To make matters worse, Mytho's overprotective roommate, Fakir, is quite intent not to let anyone get too close, or even worse, restore Mytho's emotions to him, so he keeps tight control over what Mytho does and where he goes.

Duck doesn't play by Fakir's rules and tries her best to set things right. Luckily for her, whenever Mytho finds himself in hot water, she's able to transform into the graceful Princess Tutu to dance away the darkness and make things right in the world. There's no violence in this anime - just ballet, and Princess Tutu reveals Mytho's missing heart shards by dancing a piece from a classical ballet to lead the heart shard to its owner.

Duck also has another problem. While in human form, if she accidentally quacks or acts like a duck in any fashion, she transforms back into her true nature. A splash of water returns her to human form - completely naked - so if she has the misfortune of turning into her duck self, she must pack up her clothes and lug them with her to water.

Overall, I was highly impressed with this anime. While initially, I wasn't all that excited about a ballet anime, the anime spins an engaging story that foreshadows darker elements just around the corner. In the first episodes, they've alluded to Hanzel and Gretel and had a spirit try to lead Mytho to the world of the dead. They've also shown that Mytho's two closest friends know about his secret and sternly warn Duck not to go the route of restoring Mytho's heart shards or bad things will happen. From the first several episodes, the show can go a number of different ways, perhaps not leading to the classic happy ending you get in most fairy tales.

Serial Experiments Lain: Requires no review

Galaxy Express 999:

'm rather uninitiated into the universe of Leiji Matsumoto, having not experienced any of his works first hand. Therefore, I thought it fitting I discover his work through his one of his oldest and probably best-known theatrical releases, Galaxy Express 999.

Set in the distant future, Galaxy Express 999 begins with the introduction of young Tetsuro Hoshino. Tetsuro's story is a sad one, for he was orphaned while a mere child, his mother brutally murdered by a trophy-hunter, Count Mecha. Tetsuro has vowed revenge on the Count, and for this task he believes he needs to acquire a machine body. In order to accomplish this, he must first obtain passage on the Galaxy Express 999, so he can travel to Andromeda where machine bodies are given freely. Orphaned and without any money, Tetsuro nabs a ticket for the Galaxy Express, an act which draws the wrath of local authorities. While escaping the mechanized police officers, he encounters a woman named Maetel. She pities Tetsuro and gives him the pass he seeks provided she can accompany him. Tetsuro agrees to the request, and the two set off on a journey across the solar system.

Tetsuro's quest leads him into many interesting encounters with all manner of characters, both human and machine. Maetel, the first, is a sophisticated and mature woman, though her reasons for assisting Tetsuro are shrouded in mystery. The mechanized characters in the story are quite varied. Count Mecha is traditionally machine-like and appropriately menacing, while Shadow, a faceless woman who guards the former bodies of humans, is almost ethereal in appearence and manner. I personally liked the crew of the Galaxy Express, comprised of a stumpy conductor and Claire, a woman made entirely of a transparent glass-like substance. Other characters pop up, including Caption Harlock and Emeraldas, though their presence in the story seems token at best.

Galaxy Express 999 is for the most part, a fairly enjoyable coming of age tale disguised as a science fiction adventure. The themes explored in this film are familiar ones for the science fiction crowd, as there is much discussion about humanity and the effects of giving up one's humanity for eternal life as a machine. Tetsuro's single-minded quest for a machine-body begins to wane as he encounters others like Shadow and Claire who have given up their human selves. As he views the effects on those who have forsaken their own humanity, he comes to realize the value of his own mortality.

Standing out in this production are the unique classical designs of the various craft employed by the characters. Blending futuristic sci-fi with traditional historical designs, space travel in Galaxy Express 999 is certainly a unique experience. From the pre-modern locomotive that is the Galaxy Express to the dirigible-like appearance of Emeraldas' ship, I never tired of admiring Matsumoto's creations. Even the settings range from the medieval-era castle of Count Mecha to a barroom set that looks like it was ripped out straight out of the old West.

Unfortunately, Galaxy Express 999 does suffer a couple of problems. A certain amount of knowledge of Matsumoto's universe is required to fully appreciate the nuances in the film. There were scenes, such as Tetsuro's encounter with Tochiro, obviously intended only for fans familiar with Matsumoto's works. While this didn't wholly prevent me from enjoying Galaxy Express 999 , it certainly detracted from the experience as a whole. Another element which I felt could use some improvement was the pacing. A good portion of the movie plods along as Tetsuro journeys on his quest for a machine-body and revenge against Count Mecca, only to lead up to a decidedly underwhelming encounter with the Count. Furthermore, the movie's climax itself had a hollow ring to it, mostly because of an under-developed antagonist and a hastened conclusion.

While a somewhat older production, Galaxy Express 999 sports pretty decent visuals. Animation is fairly minimalist, but the artwork is of good quality, with characters being rendered in Matsumoto's distinct style. The music is a mixture of upbeat J-pop and some beautiful orchestral scores, which lend themselves well to this production.

As an initiation into the world populated by Matsumoto's characters, I felt I would've enjoyed Galaxy Express 999 more with some prior viewing of Harlock Saga. Even so, this film succeeds quite well in the telling of Tetsuro's fantastic journey across the galaxy.

Patlabor The Movie 2 : Shouldn't require a review, hopefully all of you have seen.

Tokyo Godfathers: Same deal, shouldn't need a review

Gankutsuou: My Favorite anime of all time, that says alot... I've seen alot... So... just watch it

Art

The art for this show is most unique. I say that in a good way - no series before has ever looked like this, and it sets the scenery apart from other shows. Unlike typical cel-style shading, or even smoother 3d-style shading a few shows are picking up, <i>Gankutsuou</i> is bedecked (to the teeth!) in frilly patterns. The patterns don't move the same way character motions are. At first this is rather disconcerting and quite distracting. However, after a while you become used to the odd stylings and they're less dramatic.
The color palette for this series is bright, bold, and oversaturated - almost psychedelic in its use. I've already mentioned the patterns, but even things like buildings become embossed in the richest of golds and silvers.
The series relies a lot of 3d CG as well. Since this is a sci-fi setting, luxurious spaceships and giant mecha share the space with expansive opera halls and horse-drawn carriages. The 2d and 3d isn't very well integrated, but this generally isn't a problem because there are few scenes where 2d and 3d are present at the same instance. However, the 3d CG could use some work - it's overly smooth, although perhaps this was intentional.
The quality of the animation is mostly uniform, although production quality drops off slightly during some of the middle episodes. All those patterns must have gotten expensive.

Sound

I would really, really want to see this series dubbed in French, even though I don't know a lick of the language. It's strange to hear the term "Monte Cristo Hakushaku" for "le comte du Monte Cristo." Despite the language barriers, the Japanese voice actors do a good job filling their roles, although there aren't really any superstar performances that I can laud. The roles are solid, but not exceptional.
Music-wise, Gonzo took an interesting route in enlisting Jean-Jaques Burnel, previously of The Stranglers, to pen the opening and ending themes, resulting in a sweet piano love ballad for the opening (that basically tells the story that the series skipped in order to begin with Albert's story) and a rockish song for the ending that describes the Count. The songs within the show itself are a mixture of techno (fitting in again with the psychadelic leanings of the series), piano ballads, and dark orchestral pieces for dramatic moments. This makes the OST a bit jarring as it switches back and forth between the styles - I like individual pieces, but as a whole I'm not sure I'd buy the disc.

Presentation

<i>Gankutsuou</i> is whirlwind of a series. A solid basis on a classic story of love, betrayal and revenge, combined with an imaginative new setting in space and a different sense of art, this series tries to appeal to all the senses a tv show can reach. It's not afraid to be different, and in fact seems to revel in it. Sure it's outlandish - and the patterns alone have turned off many a potential viewer. However, if you're willing to stick with the little oddities the series evidences, you're in for a treat. This is not your typical anime series - despite several mecha fighting scenes, the focus is not on action but on the story and the people and the lies they weave amongst themselves and within themselves. However, rewatchability is not that high - due to its tightly interwoven plot, it tends to leave you breathless as the events unfold at breakneck speed. I'd also recommmend not starting the series until you have the entire set of episodes on hand - most episodes end on some sort of cliffhanger, which are never pleasant to squirm through.
If nothing else, this show has motivated me to go find a copy of The Count and read the original.

My Neighbor Toturo: Personally haven't seen, not gonna put a vouch on this one >>

My Neighbor Totoro has got to be one of the best-beloved movies of all time. It tells of the story of two sisters (Mei and Satsuki) as they move into a house in the country side, adjust to life, and meet several wonderful forest spirits. It's creative and fun, and simply a joy to watch.

The animation is still beautiful over ten years after the film was released, with exquisite watercolor backgrounds and loving attention to detail. The film is seen through the eyes of a child--with attention to the wonderful little things that make childhood so enchanting. Who but a child could be positively thrilled with the discovery of an acorn? Or study a snail on the stem of a plant on a sunny day?

The characters are realistic and lovable--Kanta and Satsuki's rivalry/ flirting is funny and apt, and to those of us with close sisters, Mei and Satsuki's relationship is almost frighteningly familar. The relationships between the characters, too, are wonderful and comforting. There is no evil here--no conflict between the girls and their parents. The father is calm and friendly, interested in his daughters' lives. When they tell him of their magical adventures, he listens and accepts them. There's no doubt, no skeptical looks or gentle admonishings to be serious.

While the girls' mother is ill, she is still very much alive (in contrast to many Western fairy tales and stories.) She, too, loves her daughters, and is delighted when they visit her in the hospital. Satsuki writes her letters detailing her adventures with Mei and the spirits, and the mother smiles while reading them.

The Totoro themselves are equally wonderful characters. The King of the Forest (the large, grey Totoro), while never speaking, manages to be one of the most expressive characters in any movie I have seen. Large and gentle, he is kind, playful, and benevolent, taking the girls for a midnight flight, playing music on his ocarina, giving them presents, and helping them when they are in need.

There is really nothing to dislike about this movie--it is fun, lighthearted, adventurous, and sweet. There is no villain, simply two girls with a loving family and big imaginations.

I can't possibly express how much I adore My Neighbor Totoro. I have never been quite as in-love with a film as I am with this one. I'm sure I can't count the number of times I have seen it, and I know each line and scene by heart. When I watch it, I can't help but smile. It's a wonderful movie, and if you didn't have the opportunity to watch it when you were small, I wish you all the childlike wonder you can muster for when you do see it for the first time.

Boogiepop Phantom: ... need I say anything?

Paranoia Agent: Love or hate anime, everyone has seen, no review for you guys

Grave Of The Fireflies: Arguable top 5 best anime movies ever. No review

Haibane Renmai: Some people dislike this anime, other adore it

Haibane Renmei is a tough series to peg down, even after seven episodes. That's hardly surprising, since it's from the mind of Yoshitoshi Abe, best known for the Lain series. There's a whimsical, down-to-earth feeling to the show which I liked and the characters are simple and realistic. Toward the end of the second volume, an event happens which greatly effects the cast and I ended up feeling their emotions--not an easy thing to do in any entertainment medium. They only reveal a little story every couple of episodes and I found the concepts they presented pretty interesting. I also found the interaction between the Haibane and the humans refreshing. There's some conflict between a couple Haibane groups but on the whole they all get along and the humans in the town accept them with open arms. It's nice to see compassion, acceptance and other decent human traits instead of the negative ones.

My only real concern is where the show is going. It's completely up in the air. As nice as the whimsical feeling to the show is (for me, others may find it tedious) they can't keep it up and expect to come to some sort of decent conclusion. Having been burned by anime endings (or non-endings, as the case may be) in the past, I can't help but feel a little nervous about what the latter half of the series will be like. However, my instincts tell me the project won't end up collapsing on itself.

Regardless of where the story goes, the show is wonderful to look at. While a few scenes go a little overboard with the digital look, causing some of the designs and animation to look flat and artificial, the majority of the art is lush and detailed. The character animation is quite serviceable and the backgrounds look wonderful- particularly since the show is shot in widescreen. Even better than the art is the music, which is orchestral and very nice sounding. It perfectly suits the scenes in question: whimsical, emotional, happy, etc. The lyric-less opening best showcases how wonderful Haibane Renmei's soundtrack is. I can only speak for the English acting, which was also serviceable. I liked the casting, particularly Reki, who I thought hit the role just about right from the start. Carrie Savage grows into the title role Rakka well after a few episodes, as do the rest of the actors. For the first few episodes the acting was kind of flat but the cast was up to the task during the above-mentioned emotional scenes in the second volume.

I'm definitely looking forward to taking the rest of Haibane Renmei's journey. I'm all for experimental stuff, be it in anime, independent films, TV shows or what have you. I've seen enough of them to know some turn out fantastic, but I've also seen enough to know they can be an exercise in frustration. I hope Haibane Renmei is part of the former category. From what I've seen it looks like it will be worth watching.

Ghost In The Shell/Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Question this... you deserve to be shot.

Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind: Love...Love...Love...

Now And Then, Here And There: OMG I REMEMBER THE TITLE NOW... sorry I've been trying to remember the name of this piece of art... it's absolutely amazing... awesome... ><

Now and Then, Here and There is definitely the sleeper hit of 2002 in the United States. With Akitaroh Daichi at the helm as director for Japanese animation studio AIC, one would naturally think Now and Then would almost have to be some sort of lighthearted comedy romp. Afterall, Daichi's most famous past works include fan-favorites Child's Toy and Jubei-chan, while AIC is well known for recreating the same series over and over again with series such as Tenchi, El Hazard, and Dual. However, AIC has pulled a strong 180; Now and Then, Here and There is dark, serious and grim. Much in the same light of Green Legend Ran, except even more extreme.

Now and Then's utmost dark tone makes it a real oddball among the rest of the top tier titles which have come out recently. You won't find any Cowboy Bebop or Trigun comedy elements mixed in here. With the exception of occasional short yet optimistic speeches by Shu, Now and Then is serious and depressing. Brutal beatings, torture, twisted characters, feelings of hopelessness, rape, murder; it's all here. Episodes, more often than not, end in a negative light, which could leave viewers on a bit a sad note. While there will surely be fans of Now and Then who will hold the show in their most highest regard, it is not a happy-fun series.

Despite Now and Then being as mature and dark as it is, the series' main target audience seems to be much lower than one would normally expect. With its twisted characters and mass killings, Now and Then would seem as if it'd be adult only with no exceptions. Most often, series of this nature seem to feature hard-to-follow story lines and have very little to please the younger crowd. But that's definitely not the case here. It's like Future Boy Conan on acid; the plot is easy to follow, not too complex, and is much like an adventure story. The only difference is the characters constantly get the tar beat out of each other and there are rarely any happy moments.

Not having a complex plot does not necessarily mean that the plot is bad. In fact, Now and Then, Here and There's plot is very involving and will definitely hit home with a number of the sci-fi people out there. After main character Shu stumbles across a strange yet mysterious girl, he gets pulled from his carefree life and is thrown into a futuristic world where most of the Earth's population is dead. He's forced to live in a large mechanical structure of a town, where everybody is part of the military with kidnapped children making up the bulk of it. Not very many people like him, either. Shu's main goal is saving the girl he once came across and getting the hell out of where ever he is. Each episode continues his desperate adventure of trying to do so.

When you're not watching to embrace some weird political commentary and you don't want to just salivate over ninjas chopping each other up, likable and real characters are a must. They must be well developed and interesting or else the series becomes nothing but a waste. Thankfully, Now and Then, Here and There excels exceptionally well in this area as well. However screwed up they are, the main characters have real personalities and do grow a bit or get more extreme as the series moves on. They are each intriguing and are sure to keep the interested viewer absorbed throughout each episode.

As it must be mentioned, Now and Then, Here and There is very atmospheric as well. The camera occasionally pans across scenery and characters just enough to create a vibe for the show but never long enough to become annoying. Akitaroh Daichi did a very fine job despite normally working with comedy series. The soundtrack matches the mood and helps to absorb viewers as well. Occasional fight scenes are dramatic and will keep you on the edge of your seat. Now and Then is an all around very fine anime.

Comedy fans will definitely want to stay far away from this show but if you like your anime dark with a bit of adventure and a bit of style, Now and Then may be the title for you. It's one of the best newer shows I've seen in a while. Despite not having an overly complex plotline, it remains very involving. The exact target audience this show reaches to is a little hard to pinpoint but some people will certainly to love this one. Fans of Green Legend Ran must definitely check Now and Then out. Galaxy Express 999, Battle Angel, and 3x3 Eyes are somewhat similar shows as well. If you think you can handle it, go ahead and view it.

Full Metal Alchemist: heh... I didn't like it as much as others, no review.

Macross Plus: Classic

Akira: Doubt anyone questioned this

The Castle of Cagliostro:
Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro is a marvelous film with enough whimsical action, playful adventure, and satisfying plot to appeal to viewers of almost any age, so long as they've got a little of that youthful rogue in spirit.

That said, there are three entirely different (and somewhat contradictory) lenses through which you can look at it: As a Miyazaki film; as part of the decades-long Lupin III franchise; or entirely on its own, as a standalone all-ages action-adventure. It's hard to argue that the film isn't memorable, but exactly how successful it is depends a great deal on what you're comparing it to. I happen to be fond of each of these categories of anime independently, so I'll go ahead and try looking at the movie through three different pairs of fan-glasses.

Castle of Cagliostro certainly has everything you could ask for in a Miyazaki film: Lush European scenery, fanciful action, a hint of pure-hearted romance, and a solidly-constructed plot that skips along at a brisk pace but also takes the time to slow down for an occasional touching moment. And, true to form, when he tugs at the heartstrings, he does it almost effortlessly--there are no orchestral swells or tearful close-ups, just small, heartfelt moments that stand on their own. If there's anything to complain about, it's the Miyazaki-stock characters: The Count is his consummate confident evildoer, and the naive--but still strong-willed--Clarise bears a remarkable physical resemblance to Clara (from Heidi, Girl of the Alps) among others.

In all, while the established conventions of the characters restrain Miyazaki a bit from the wonder of his fanciful-yet-earthy stories like Porco Rosso, or the intrinsic moral messages of some of his deeper films, his sense of action and lighthearted danger is loosed in full force to wonderful effect.

I find it somewhat ironic, then, that much of what makes the film a fine Miyazaki movie makes it rather out-of-place as a Lupin III film. It's almost at odds with itself, as if Miyazaki just couldn't bring himself to make a movie as randy as the character requires. Lupin III has, after all, built a reputation as good, somewhat dirty fun for kids at heart.

This is probably why, as a Lupin III film, The Castle of Cagliostro seems to be missing something. It certainly has the wild action, gadgets, and skin-of-the-teeth escapes that Lupin III fans know and love, but it's just a little too clean. Miyazaki's Lupin be a womanizer by reputation, but he's too much the dashing rogue--he just doesn't have the lust in his eyes, or that touch of smarmy greed in his heart. Fujiko, likewise, may be as competent as ever, but that sense of competition is missing. Plus, to put it as bluntly as I can, she's wearing too much; sexuality-as-a-tool has always been an integral part of her character, and it's nowhere to be found here. Jigen and particularly Goemon get left out of much of the plot, but that's not unusual.

That said, part of what's given the Lupin III franchise its staying power is that every animated interpretation of the characters is a little different, and every film has a different feel and focus. So long as you accept that this is a particularly clean and rather nostalgic Lupin III film, it's certainly not a bad one.

If I pretend I know nothing about Miyazaki or Lupin III (not difficult, as I first saw the Streamline dub of the film long before I had even heard of either), the analysis is much easier: A positively fantastic light-hearted adventure that grabs you with the opening scene and doesn't let go until the credits roll. The action is, perhaps, a tad "childish" for my taste--for all the swordplay and gunfire, there's barely a drop of blood, and it's not clear if any of the legions of henchmen are even seriously injured. There are, similarly, a couple of sight gags that didn't do anything for me. But that's a nitpick, and I was largely too busy cheering for the heroes to care.

The film also serves up a handful of surprisingly touching moments between the dashing rogue Lupin and the consummate innocent Clarise--a few quiet bits of largely unspoken nostalgia. Clarise, though not a very substantive character, is at least a damsel in distress who does her best to rescue herself.

The visual thrill is perhaps the best of it, though--gorgeous background art of stately castles, lush pastoral scenery, and a centerpiece action scene in and around a giant clock tower. The action may lack a hard edge, but the sense of relentless motion is truly impressive. Once an action scene gets underway--be it spectacular car chase, cat-burglary, or castle-spanning melee--there is never a moment to catch your breath, as one death-defying feat after another is strung together in a fluid dance. Acrophobics beware: Miyazaki's films are known for their sense of vertigo, and this one is no exception. There are several scenes involving rooftop sneaking and a famed showdown on the face of a clock that feature a dizzying sense of height.

The Japanese dialogue of course features the same colorful cast as dozens of other Lupin III films. They are all in top form, though Fujiko gets somewhat short-changed, not having a single scene to flex her sultry vocals. The three notable additions, the Count, his head henchman, and Clarise, are solid if unimpressive in the roles.

In my mind, the Japanese voices of Lupin, Zenigata, Fujiko, Jigen, and Goemon are simply too much a part of the characters for any dubbed version to work, however good it is, so I'll be generous and not say too much about the dub. Manga's cast is mostly solid--Jigen and the count are both good matches--but Lupin sounds too young and chipper to fit the part. Streamline's old dub, now hard to find, was decent as well. I have to say I slightly prefer Michael McConnohie's Count to Kirk Thornton, who voices him in the Manga dub.

Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro may not be the best Lupin III movie in the franchise, but it's the best known and with good reason--if you look past what it does with the established characters and take it as a standalone film, it is a wonderful, action-packed adventure with enough substance and characterization to appeal to both the young and the young at heart.

Jin-Roh:The Wolf Brigade: Classic

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Meh.... Disliked it compared to others in it's genre

Revolutionary Girl Utena: S Class anime... Just watch it

FLCL: Woot, In your face joe! IN YOUR FUCKINF FACE!!!!

Millenium Actress: Award winning piece of buttsekz

Millennium Actress is the long awaited second movie by Perfect Blue director Satoshi Kon (who also collaborated with Katsuhiro Otomo in Memories: Magnetic Rose) and the pedigree shows. Like Perfect Blue, Satoshi Kon takes us on a wild ride where he mixes reality with fantasy. Being a romance movie rather than a suspense thriller it's not as confusing as Perfect Blue, and is more reminiscent of Magnetic Rose where memories take hold of the narrative. We start seeing Chikyoko's life, traditionally enough, through her eyes. Then things get interesting as the modern day Chiyoko and her interviewers are dragged into the memory stream as well. And to make it even more fun, the story gets intertwined with the many roles that Chiyoko has played throughout her career, and the movie takes us through everything from samurai flicks to science fiction and even a giant monster movie!

Basically, we follow Chiyoko while she searches for the man she loves. The mysterious painter, hunted by the world war 2 era government, who gave her the equally mysterious key and a promise of reunion. The story takes us through Chiyoko's career and how her seemingly futile search shapes it. The storytelling can be a bit disjointed since Chiyoko and the others change roles as the story progresses. In one instance she can be the classic lovelorn romance heroine, chasing a train. Then she becomes a ninja princess out to rescue her lover. Jump to a lunar landscape as she prepares to launch one more effort to find her dream man. It can get a bit confusing at first, when you're not sure what to expect, but everything flows logically and you'll soon find yourself following the narrative without much trouble.

Unlike many romance anime, Millennium Actress' romance is very low key. While there are a few dramatic moments, the movie doesn't dwell on them. And just when you think the movie is getting a bit too serious, in comes Tachibana and his camera man with a little bit of humor, as Tachibana plays Chiyoko's brave saviour and the camera man plays the confused link to reality with a one liner here and there. No giant mecha, no villain threatening the galaxy, no ten thousand girls chasing after one hapless guy. Just a nice romantic drama with a very unique presentation. Quite a breath of fresh air in today's cliche-filled anime market.

The animation style is, as expected, quite similar to Prefect Blue, which is a great compliment in itself. But where the movie shines is in the artistic direction. Very unique scenes abound as we switch between eras, color schemes, and movies. A sequence that stood out for me was Chiyoko running towards the last place her lover was seen. The sequence becomes a montage of running scenes from her earlier life and movie roles, seamlessly blended into one. The music fits the chase motif perfectly with an upbeat score that goes into a mellow lull as the story dictates, mixing traditional Japanese music with techno elements as time progresses.

Although it won many awards (including Grand Prize Award winner of the Japan Agency of Cultural Affairs Media Arts Festival) Millennium Actress didn't get nearly as much attention as it should, since DreamWorks (the US distributer) was too busy marketing Sinbad, which is a great shame since this is definitely one of the best anime movies to ever grace the silver screen.

Porco Rosso: Talk about an anime that go so little credit for it's greatness, watch please. I'll give this endless vouches

Hayao Miyazaki returns to the sky he last visited in his famous Laputa: Castle in the Sky in a rollicking adventure of pirates and romance in 1930s Europe. Porco Rosso is one of his lesser known and underrated works which has never seen video release outside of Japan but has appeared on TV on occasion. As usual, this is excellent work.

For starters, the technical details. The animation is very clean and detailed--Porco Rosso was an early nineties film and as a result the animation is superior to any other Miyazaki film save Princess Mononoke (obviously). The flight scenes exceed those of Laputa and the character designs are original and clean, although a few faces seem somewhat familiar (especially among the sky gangs). The scenery is very nice, especially the sunsets, and the settings look exactly like the period they're meant to.

On the sound mix side the voice acting is, as a whole, extremely good. None of the voices are irritating and there are several standouts, including Curtis, Gina and Marco himself. The music isn't the best ever to appear in a Miyazaki film but is still very good, fun and best of all, appropriate. Gina's singing especially is lovely.

Now we come to the story. Porco Rosso is an excellent mix of adventure, humour and romance which, although slow at times, keeps your attention for the entire length of the film. The characters are all fully fleshed out, as always, and Marco is a heck of a character. One of the surprising things I found about the film was that I could take Marco completely seriously as a character even though he is a man with the face of a pig. He is, in fact, a Character with a capital C, and is one of Miyazaki's most enduring creations, along with Totoro and Nausicaa. His past is intriguing but is not the centre of the film adds to the story rather than detracting from it. Watching the characters interact--Marco with Gina, Fio with Marco, Curtis with Gina--is the strength of the film and is really lovely. There are no good or bad guys, just the hero, his friends and his enemies.

The story as a whole may not seem too original when you step back and look at is as a whole, but is really a wonderful tale, with plenty of twists. The climax and ending, although not as powerful as those in Miyazaki's more fantastic films (such as Nausicaa and Princess Mononoke) is engaging and fun. The political aspects of the story are interesting, but like Marco's background, which it is tied with, does not take over the story as in some movies. The cinema scene is the most of it and is well crafted to give you the gist of what's going on without boring you.

There is plenty of humour in the film, mostly revolving around the Mama Aiuto sky gang but also about Marco and Piccolo's rebuilding of Marco's plane. The most obvious in-joke is when Piccolo installs a 'Ghibli' engine into Marco's plane. Watching a full team of Piccolo's female family working n the plane is highly amusing as it overturns Marco's semi-sexist attitudes about women in men's job. Surprisingly, the film features no "chauvinist pig" jokes. The flash lamp argument between the sky gangs before the attack on the liner is hilarious, as are the actions of the Mama Aiutos, especially their captain at the carnival preceding the fight. Watching Fio, a girl of seventeen, talk down an entire gang of pirates is worth your time on its own.

The end of the film is yet another interesting twist, and the final narrative makes for a very strange ending, but not necessarily a bad one. Overall, Porco Rosso is a wonderful film which will appeal to all. This film leaves me with two enduring images: the silent place above the clouds where the pilots go, and Marco, in the middle of the night, selecting his bullets by lamp light.

Cowboy Bebop:

Cowboy Bebop is one of those series that takes a relatively tired concept and manages to breathe new life into it. In this case, the formula is a small band of bounty hunters, tooling around in their quirky space ship, headed up by a slick gunslinger with a mysterious past--I think just about every anime fan has seen at least something like that. But through some stylish directing, not-quite-formula characters, an interesting setting, a mix of offbeat humor and drama, and a whole lot of very cool music, Cowboy Bebop manages to be both good classic space-adventure and refreshingly original.

To start with, though there is a bit of ongoing plot, most of the episodes are essentially self-contained stories tied together loosely by the motley crew of characters. But the mood(s) of the series are one of the things that set it apart; there is a roughly even mix of dark, serious episodes full of grim situations and stylish set-pieces, and of generally light (though never to the point of being truly silly) ones, with a relatively subtle, quirky sense of humor. The two moods were almost never mixed within an episode, and interestingly enough, I thought that blend worked very well; the fun episodes were very much so, but never so silly that you couldn't take the other half of the stories seriously, and the serious half were executed well enough to easily stand with the best of that genre. And, by clearly segregating the two types of stories, the series avoided almost all of the emotional tug-of-war that you (or at least I) get with some series that try to be both funny and dramatic at the same time. This is one of the only truly multi-genre series I can think of, and the mix of stories has something to satisfy almost anybody.

Actually, the range of this series is even more impressive than just dark and light: although most of the humor in the series is of the low-key, offhanded, quirky sort, there were even a couple of parody-heavy episodes that were straight comedy. Those not only didn't seem out of place, but were downright hilarious--in one case (Mushroom Samba) a semi-parody of exactly the sort of too-cool hero the series is about (it even has several Shaft references), and Toys in the Attic, a direct parody of the original Alien movie. The latter is pretty darned funny in and of itself, but it builds to a 2001-inspired crescendo of music and visuals that has to be one of the most oddly appealing pieces of filmmaking I can think of. I'll freely admit that I have a weird sense of humor, but I thought it was sheer brilliance.

Well, that's the broad picture, but this series has so many other things worth mentioning that it's hard to know where to start, so I'll go with the one thing that the series is pretty much built on: style. Cowboy Bebop has style all over the place--from the visuals, to the music (I'll be getting to that later), to the settings, to the stories, this series was as slick as you could ask for in even the most serious of sci-fi. And actually, that is the only significant problem I personally had with the series--there was style to spare, but substance was sacrificed to make room for it. All the plots (the serious ones in particular) may have been cool and slick, but they were also entirely predictable. There were a few ongoing questions surrounding Spike's past, and about three minor points at which you weren't quite sure how something would turn out, but for the most part the dramatic stories were about as formula and obvious as they come.

Now, don't get me wrong--I'm not saying the stories weren't good. Quite the contrary, they were usually quite interesting, exciting, and the classic plotlines (particularly the dark, moody ones) were executed so well that they were a pleasure to watch anyway, but don't come expecting anything unpredictable or many original stories. If you just can't stand obvious plots or the occasional sacrificing of realism (or even making much sense) for the sake of style, you might get annoyed once in a while, as I was, but on the other hand, those who prefer style over substance should be drooling over what Cowboy Bebop has to offer.

That said, Cowboy Bebop easily made up for the lack of story originality elsewhere. For one thing, there was the world (or rather worlds--the characters are always hopping around the solar system) it is set in. Each had a very distinct feel to it, and none of them were generic sci-fi--the whole series had an international feel to it, with each location having the flavor of some particular period or nationality. Building on that was the fact that the locales weren't one shot deals--the characters did return to familiar areas once in a while.

Adding to the variety of the settings is the detail that went into them and almost everything else. It isn't as good as a few series I've seen, but the towns and cities of Cowboy Bebop have a level of crowded detail and a sense of being lived in (and of being functional enough to live in) that isn't too common, particularly in sci-fi. Beyond that, there were a collection of little touches surrounding the main characters that gave the series a sense of realism that it could have easily been lacking. For one thing, they do stuff like cook food and eat, look up information on a variant of the Internet, and lay around on a beat-up couch... in their spaceship.

That brings up what was probably the best part about the setting of the series: it was sci-fi, but it didn't feel futuristic. There were spaceships and warp gates, sure, but that sort of thing wasn't prevalent at all, and almost all the technology had a down-to-earth, almost retro feel--the spaceships run out of gas, the computer links crash, the TV gets poor reception on backwater planets, and there is a grand total of one laser gun in the series--Spike's fighter has one that is used very infrequently, and everything else just shoots regular bullets (I thought the shell casings in space concept was really cool, as a matter of fact). Heck, there were even space truckers. In a few cases, it was so low tech that the realism was perhaps questionable (in fact, they actually made an effort to patch a few tech holes in the dubbed dialogue), but in all it gave me the feeling that these were normal people living in a slightly different place and time, and made it very easy to get a grasp on the setting (it also contributed a bit to the wild west feel, though that theme was usually surprisingly subtle considering the title).

Moving on, no discussion of a good anime series would be complete without bringing up the characters, and Cowboy Bebop had plenty of good ones. None of the characters are terribly original--we have the grumpy old bounty hunter with a mysterious past, the slick young bounty hunter with an even more mysterious past that keeps coming back to haunt him, a self-serving gambler on the run with a mysterious past, and a slightly mentally unstable hacker punk (with--big surprise--a mysterious past). Oh, and there's a genetically modified Welsh Corgi (with a mysterious past), too, but it never does anything as impressive as you'd expect--it has unusually high intelligence, but only by dog standards. The characters each have a good chunk of personality on their own, and they all develop a sort of semi-antagonistic dynamic that, by being neither too over the top nor too vicious, is not only fun, but gives the series its foundation. Their relationships also provided plenty of banter, which I enjoyed.

This dynamic is fueled by the acting, and this is one series where both languages are topnotch. The casting is dead-on and the match-up between the originals and the dubbed versions is impressive. And, in both cases, all the characters have an effective emotional range all the way from silly to serious. Of particular note is the quality of the writing in the dub--almost shockingly good. Plus, the dialogue, in addition to being well written, manages to be quite colorful--lots of accents, unusual voices, and odd expressions (particularly Jet's)--without seeming at all out of place. The Japanese has its own appeal and is equally well done (though a bit less colorful) so it's just plain enjoyable to listen to in either language--take your pick. It's hard to choose any particular standouts in a cast this good (even most of the minor characters are solid), but I'd single out Hayashibara Megumi's Fay in Japanese for her perpetually annoyed tone and Ed in the dub for some really bizarre (and very funny) speech patterns that fit the character to a T.

As for the visuals, they live up to the rest of the production. The character designs are distinctive and varied, the character art is very sharp, and the backgrounds are pretty, appropriately creative for a good sci-fi series, and usually quite detailed. The animation is also of very high quality--from the well done character animation to the fast and slickly produced action sequences (they are rare, but there are some great arial dogfights), everything is well toward the top end of the OAV scale... and this is a TV series. Plus, there is lots of neat zero-gravity stuff (all executed marvelously, unless you get really picky). And, all that style I talked about before is carried though in the art--dark, moody scenes and John Woo-esque action set pieces (there's a classic church shootout, for example) abound.

I haven't mentioned the music yet--the series is called Cowboy Bebop, after all--because I was saving the best for last. The score is downright amazing, and I don't throw terms like that around lightly. The primary musical style is blues or jazz, but the range of musical genres represented is a thing to behold--almost every episode has a different musical motif. From heavy metal (for the space trucker episode), to the perfect musical accompaniment to the funky '70s-style opening sequence, to "The Real Folk Blues" (the jazz end theme for most of the series), to the very cool worldbeat end theme used for "Jupiter Jazz," this series at one point or another hits just about every musical genre you can think of. And, even more surprisingly, they all sound authentic and are written very well. As if that weren't impressive enough, the bulk of the music was written by a single person, Yoko Kanno (of Macross Plus fame among other things). Considering her previous work, it shouldn't be a surprise that she can cover such a wide range of styles, but all of it sounds so authentic, and so good, that my hat goes off to her. I can't think of anywhere else you can find this sort of musical variety, but I can say that the music alone could carry the series (not that it has to), and it gives Cowboy Bebop a flavor all its own.

That is pretty much everything I can think of to mention about this series; in one episode it may be dark, stylized, and serious, and in another light and filled with offbeat humor and antagonistic banter, but in every case it's done right. Back that up with a great cast and writing (in dub and Japanese, no less), fine visuals, cool retro-high-technology, and some of the most varied and well written music I've ever heard in a series, and you've got good anime. Cowboy Bebop isn't deep, but it has style and little bits of creativity everywhere to make up for what it lacks in substance, and from start to finish it's a marvelously well-built production. Worth at least a chance from almost any anime fan, and is almost guaranteed to be loved by fans of stylish action and sci-fi, as well those into not-too-serious space adventure and way-too-serious space adventure.

Alright, so adhere to my superior ability to watch and comprehend anime. :C

anyone who watched anime can do this, imo its just alot of reviews in one but its good. Not saying that it wasn't impressive but u didnt have to do this jus cuz one guy bitched at u

though if he sees this hes gonna be shocked

reading some of these titles now I remember watching some of them, even when I didnt know / remember the name lol

edit: I take that back I can probably do something similar but not something like this

my english sucks

This post was edited by Seoreen on Nov 11 2007 01:04pm

Meh, I only did it to shut the know nothing twits up... People think because they have seen 100 anime's that they are anime-cool...
try watching 500-1000... or at least anything from the golden years.