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Red Garden Anime Review of Disc 1
2007-10-18 22:28:00
Overall Rating: B+Synopsis: Red Garden is a supernatural/horror/drama/mystery anime by Gonzo studio. The plot follows Kate, Rachel, Rose, and Claire, who all go to the same private school in New York. All four wake up one morning with no memory of the last night. The following night, they are all visited by red butterflies that lead them to a woman named Lula who tells them they are dead. For obvious reasons, this only confuses them more. She also reveals that the four girls must fight strange creatures for them to stay alive. However, they soon realize she's telling the truth, as one of the creatures attacks them. I'll be the first to admit I have a soft spot for supernatural manga and anime. So, when I heard about Red Garden I knew I had to check it out. I haven't gotten that far into it yet, but I'm already glad I got the first disc from Netflix. The plot shows a lot of promise, and I want to know the whole story behind the four girls and how they're alive. I will say there ...
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Tokyo Godfathers - Anime Review
2007-10-17 23:28:00
Rating: ASynopsis: Three homeless people, Miyuki (the runaway girl), Hana (the ex drag queen) and Gin (the drunk) discover a baby abandoned in the trash on Christmas Eve. They baby becomes a catalyst for a journey that time after time serves up some crazy coincidences.Tokyo Godfathers is a ridiculously heartwarming and wacky movie, while simultaneously having a lot of serious content - the main characters are homeless, people get beat up, etc.. Satoshi Kon directed/wrote/lots of stuff for this movie, and his ability to combine wackiness and true human feelings in an animated setting really shows. One of the elements of his style that show up a lot are ridiculously detailed and realistic backdrops, with slightly overly-cartoony characters set against them.I don't want to give away any of the major plot points of the movie, it has a lot of twists and turns, and despite the darker components of the plot, it is lighthearted overall. Many elements of the Christian Christmas story co...
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Zombie Loan Volume 1
2007-10-15 22:49:00
Overall Rating: BSynopsis: Michiru Kita is a mousy girl, who runs errands for her friends, and has Shinigami Eyes, which allow her to see a ring around a person's neck. This ring symbolizes the person's impending death; once they are marked to die, a gray ring, which is invisible to normal people, appears around their neck. Over time, the ring gets darker, and once the ring turns completely black, the person dies. Chika Akatsuki and Shito Tachibana, two boys in her class, both have black rings around their necks, but to her surprise, they are not yet dead. Who are these boys, and what do they have to do with the strange loan office called Zombie Loan ?I picked up the first volume of this one because of the title. It doesn't hurt that I like things with zombies in them. Then I checked out the description and it drew me in. I was sure I would be rating this one with an A+. Unfortunately, the first volume didn't blow me away. It's actually a little slow paced, but I really liked t...
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Scott Pilgrim Volumes 1-3
2007-10-12 18:19:00
Overall Rating: A³ Synopsis: Created by Bryan Lee O'Malley, Scott Pilgrim is an action/comedy/romance comic/graphic novel/manga depending on how snobby you want to be about those sorts of things. At the beginning of volume 1, Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life, Scott is 23 and dating Knives Chau (a 17-year-old). He's in between jobs and in a band called Sex Bob-omb. He is awesome (if a little sketch for dating a 17-year-old. The story is set in Canada, and Scott is living with his gay roomate, Wallace Wells. All pretty normal, right? Then Scott meets and falls in love with Ramona Flowers, she's a delivery person for Amazon.ca, can travel through sub-space, and has seven evil boyfriends. In order to date Ramona, Scott has to defeat her ex-boyfriends. Somehow, this isn't that weird. I can't remember when I first heard about Scott Pilgrim or why I ended up picking up the first volume, but I wish I could travel back in time and high-five whomever or whatever caused me to do...
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Aishiteruze Baby ★★
2007-10-11 16:20:00
Overall Rating: C+Synopsis: Kippei Katakura is a 17-year-old playboy who spends his time chasing girls, careless of their feelings. But when his 5-year-old cousin Yuzuyu comes to live with his family after her mother's sudden disappearance, Kippei is put in charge of taking care of her.I wasn't sure what to think when I started reading Aishiteruze Baby ★★ in an issue of Shojo Beat, and I'm still not sure. Kippei, the main character, is a horny 17-year-old (no surprise there), and has no idea how to take care of a 5-year-old. At one point, he forgets she needs a lunch and gets her some onigiri from the store instead. I've only read the first volume, but already I can tell that Kippei is going to learn a lot from taking care of Yuzuyu, become more responsible, and will probably have only one girlfriend. I'm also sure wacky hijinks will ensue. The only real question is how soon that will happen, and what pitfalls stand in his way. Unfortunately, the first volume didn't grab m...
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Q-Ko Chan Volume 1
2007-10-08 22:30:00
Overall Rating: C+Synopsis: Q-Ko Chan is written by Ueda Hajime, who also adapted FLCL into manga form. The story follows Kirio Muji, who doesn't care about anything, not even his sister. As he is walking home one day, an air raid begins (apparently a common occurrance in the world of Q-Ko Chan) but Kirio seems unfazed and continues home. Outside his home, he finds a robot girl who protects him from a barrage of bullets and then flies into a forest. From there Q-Ko Chan becomes stranger and stranger.I love FLCL, so when I saw that the person that adapted it for manga was doing an original manga, I was excited. Q-Ko Chan's art and style are fun and different from most manga, but the plot is hard to follow, and the characters are difficult to relate to. That being said, the art really is neat, and extremely cute. I recommend flipping through it and seeing if it's to your tastes. You can check out a 30 page preview by clicking the title of this post.
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Cutie Honey
2007-10-04 22:57:00
Overall Rating: A+Synopsis: The live action Cutey Honey is based on the long running media franchise of the same name. Created by Go Nagai and is considered the prototype for the transforming magical girl. Honey Kisaragi is a regular Catholic schoolgirl, until the day her father is murdered by the "Panther Claw" Organization. After his death, she learns she is actually an android created by him and within her is the Fixed System of Air Elements. By saying "Honey Flash!" she can transform into the sword-wielding red-haired superhero, Cutie Honey. Also, according to the theme song, she has the tiniest butt. Cutey Honey is ridiculous. Ridiculously awesome. Cutey Honey gets her energy from eating...a lot, and she loves onigiri. The movie is basically campy fun, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a good laugh and a great time. Just don't expect to take it seriously.

The Gentleman's Alliance Volume 1 Manga Review
2007-10-02 16:50:00
Overall Rating: BSynopsis: Written and drawn by Arina Tanemura, Gentle man's Alliance follows 15-year old Haine Otomiya as she starts high school at the exclusive Imperial Academy. Haine has been in love with Shizumasa Togu since she read the fairy tale he wrote as a child. However, he is now the Emperor (top student) at the Academy, and almost impossible to see if you aren't a Silver (second tier student) or on the student council. Haine is only a bronze, and rumor has it the Emperor already has a lover...a man.I wasn't sure whether to love or hate Gentleman's Alliance when, in one of the earliest scenes in Volume 1, the school's delinquents released snakes into the assembly room (I am terrified of snakes). Fortunately, the snakes didn't look remotely real, and Haine captures all of them (apparently she can do so easily because she was born in the year of the snake). So, I kept reading and enjoyed the rest of volume 1.Haine was a yanki in middle school, but has since reformed....
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CLUBBING
2007-09-28 17:07:00
Overall Rating: BSynopsis: CLUBBING is an original graphic novel written by Andi Watson (Geisha, Paris, Skeleton Key) and illustrated by Josh Howard (Dead @ 17) and done in the manga format (size, style, etc.). The story follows Charlotte "Lottie" Brook, a rich kid who lives in London, is into goth music, and platform shoes who lives a life of luxury. Then she gets caught with a fake i.d. and is "exiled" to her grandparents country club in the middle of the English countryside, which is to say, the middle of nowhere as far as Lottie is concerned. However, everything is not as it seems, as murder is afoot at the country club. Will Lottie save the day? Will she fall in love with the groundskeeper?Murder mysteries involving golf courses would normally not interest me, but the cover of the book drew me in. I'm a sucker for goth girls, and I love Andi Watson's writing. CLUBBING is also the third book from DC's female-friendly Minx> line of comics, and I was interested in seeing what ...
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East Coast Rising Volume 1
2007-09-25 21:14:00
Overall Rating: ASynopsis: Becky Cloonan writes and draws East Coast Rising, a story about punk rock pirates in a world where New Jersey is submerged in water.East Coast Rising is one of those books I have been meaning to pick up for awhile, but for one reason or another, I haven't gotten around to it. Fortunately, I finally picked up the first volume, and am glad I did. Becky Cloonan has created an alternate universe full of punk rock pirates (my favorite kind). The series follows Archer, a young pirate whose ship is destroyed at the beginning of the first volume. He's rescued by Cannonball Joe, the Captain of La Revancha, and Archer soon joins the ship as a cabin boy. Along with Joe, the La Revancha is home to Deathsnake, a man who loves trouble, Deathsnake's adorable niece El, and Abby (she's crazy good at fishing). The crew is in search of a legendary treasure, but they have a number of obstacles to overcome. Not least of which is Lee, the reckless and vicious captain of the...
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Lolita Shopping Online
2007-09-25 05:03:00
A lot of us in the States are now into the lolita style that has been spreading like a cute and dastardly climbing rose. In my case, I have a hard time finding any of the clothes locally, and must rely entirely on online shops to feed the cuteness. I haven't found a good list of lolita shopping bookmarks online, so I compiled my own. And now I'm going to share.Lolita Shops Online (All shops located in the U.S. unless otherwise indicated)Pegasus Maiden - $70 - $90 for a dress, All loli-styles, original designs (also accepts custom orders)Stocking Shock (U.K.) - All loli-styles, original designs (also accepts custom orders), will send price quotes on requestRakuen Fashion - $120 - $150 for a dress (usually includes petticoat and headress), all loli-styles, tons of dresses to select from, original designs (also takes custom orders)Candy Violet - $140 - $170 for a dress, all loli-styles, small selection, original designsBlasphemina's Closet - $125 - $180 for a dress, mostly sweet ...
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Poison Candy Volume 1
2007-09-21 19:35:00
Overall Rating: B+Synopsis: Written by David Hine and with art by Hans Steinbach, Poison Candy is a science fiction manga. The South Korean Adolescent Virus is the newest plague humanity has to face. Sam Chance, a wanna be rockstar becomes infected with the virus, and wakes up a century later to find out that his girlfriend killed herself, and everything has changed.I heard a little about this manga at Comic Con, and it sounded interesting, so I thought I would check it out. After reading the first volume, I like the plot (even if the full name of the virus sounds a bit ridiculous), and the characters are interesting. I especially like Yusuf, Sam's friend, who is a 1950s-obsessed, video game playing, Indian. David Hine is traditionally a comic book writer, who is trying his hand at manga. His attempts to write in a manga-style stumble at times, but overall it works. This is a good one for anyone trying to make the transition from comics to manga. What happens next is completely up ...
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Battle Royale Volume 1
2007-09-20 20:47:00
Overall Rating: ASynopsis: Battle Royale began life as a novel by Koushun Takami, which was then turned into a movie and most recently, a manga. The series has become infamous in Japan and throughout the world. In it, Japan is a police state, and every two years fifty 3rd year junior high (grade 9) classes are chosen to forcibly fight against one another until only one student remains alive. The results of the battles are then aired on television. The series follows Shuuya Nanahara and six other characters as the try to stay alive and find a way out of the "Program".I first saw the movie version of Battle Royale a few years ago, and was blown away by it. It has a unique plot, is brutally violent, funny, and shows just how far humans will go to survive. I picked up the first volume of the manga recently, and it was just as good as the movie. The manga version is a little more explicit than the movie, so be forewarned, but it's an interesting read. If you can take some graffic scenes...
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Shakugan No Shana Volume 1
2007-09-18 18:59:00
Overall Rating: C-Synopsis: A manga series by Ayato Sasakura based on the light novels by Yashichiro Takahashi. The series follows the stereotypical protagonist, a seemingly normal high school boy named Yuji Sakai as he learns about the existence of demons (called Denizons of the Crimson Realm), Demon Hunters (Flame Hazes), and Torches (this one's hard to explain, but basically spirits that temporarily replace humans that have been killed). When Yuji meets Shana, a Flame Haze who wields a sword and dresses in black, he has his first encounter with this strange world, and learns that he is a special kind of Torch called a Mystes. He contains within him a "treasure", a device that gives the bearer special abilities, but they do not get in to what that is in the first volume. Shana then decides she must protect him from the Denizens.When I originally heard about this series, I thought it sounded promising. Then I read it. It still sounds promising, if a little stereotypical, but the f...
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People in Manga to Know About: Osamu Tezuka
2007-09-18 04:18:00
Osamu Tezuka(also called "The Father of Anime")1928 - 1989Manga Career Started 1946Famous works include:Astro BoyBuddhaPhoenixBlack JackQuick Bio:(Look at that, he had a stamp! More than one!)Writer/artist Tezuka literally invented the "large eyed" character style typical in Japanese animation. In his lifetime, he drew over 150,000 pages of manga (80,000 of those being for published work), started the animation studio Mushi Pro (which pioneered TV animation in Japan) and had his medical degree (which lent him expertise in his series Black jack).Style/Forte:Osamu Tezuka's style is very similar to what we would refer to as "traditional Disney". He loved to do stylized Japanese adaptations of western literature, but his stories covered nearly every type of genre. Some of his work that includes Africans and Vietnamese has been criticized as racist, with exaggerated manners and underdeveloped homes.Effect on Hobotaku:It's interesting, but Hobotaku (and other Western otaku) are hav...
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My Dead Girlfriend Volume 1
2007-09-14 22:08:00
Overall Rating: B+Synopsis: A series by Eric Wight, which follows Phineas "Finney" Bleak, whose family has an interesting legacy. They all die in extremely odd ways. At the beginning of the story, Finny is recovering from a recent breakup and weighing the pros and cons of breathing. His parents are ghosts, and his pet is a gargoyle named Mookie. He attends Mephisto Prep, a school for monsters. His life may not be normal, but his problems are definitely typical of a middle schooler. During the first volume, Finney meets Jenny Wraith, whom he falls in love with. Unfortunately, Death gets jealous and kills her, and she becomes a ghost. Okay, maybe not all of his problems are typical for middle schoolers.I'll be honest, I picked this one up because Joss Whedon reviewed it and said he liked it. Flipping through it in the store, it didn't draw me in, but I figured it couldn't be that bad if Joss liked it. I was right, it wasn't bad, in fact, it was pretty good. It has a fun spin on te...
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King City Manga Volume 1
2007-09-11 15:16:00
Overall Rating: ASynopsis: King City , by Brandon Graham, follows Joe, a man with little going for him aside from his cat. Fortunately for Joe, his cat is a super cat. With an injection of cat juice, he can be anything from a weapon, to a tool, to a snuggly companion. Joe carries the cat everywhere in a bucket. He's a sweetie like that. I kept picking King City up in Chapel Hill Comics, but wasn't sure whether to buy it or not. It had an interesting concept, the art looked awesome, and it seemed like a fun read, but I would end up putting it down for the next volume of one of the series I read regularly. Then, I saw Brandon Graham at Comic Con and heard him talk about the book. I immediately went out and bought a copy. What originally seemed like a joke that would get old fast (A cat that can do anything with an injection of cat juice? Really?) was actually just one aspect of the story, and I quickly fell in love with King City. There is an insidous drug called Chalk, that turns us...
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Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean (GameCube) - Videogame revie
2007-09-10 21:29:00
Rating: A-Synopsis: Baten Kaitos is an RPG for the Nintendo GameCube distributed by Namco. It's the first in the Baten Kaitos series. the world of Baten Kaitos is a series of islands in the sky, and there is a myth about the "Lost Ocean " that existed once upon a time. The main character is Kalas, a young, brash man who is missing half of his wings (everyone from all but one island have "wings of the heart", a physical wing manifestation of their emotions). Kalas is initially on a revenge quest for his brother and grandfather, but as more people join his group, and more information comes to light about the world he lives in, it becomes obvious he will be instrumental in saving the world (of course, this is an RPG).Baten Kaitos is one of the few GameCube games to take up two discs. The game itself took a little less than 70 hours for me to complete, but that included almost every single side quest. I really loved the amount of detail that went into this game, with the characte...
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Shutterbox Manga Volume 1
2007-09-07 19:06:00
Overall Rating: FSynopsis: Shutterbox follows Megan Amano, as she begins to have strange and troubling dreams the night she watches a handsome stranger drown himself. She begins dreaming of the man she watched die. As her dreams progress, she begins to attend the afterlife's most famous school, M.U.S.E. as a living exchange student. In theory, hijinks and plot then ensue. I got maybe 20 pages into this manga before I put it down. I got it for free at Comic Con after buying a bunch of other manga, and it sounded interesting, so I hoped I had found a fun, new series. NOPE! The art and plot are horribly cliched, and even worse are extremely boring. Maybe the series gets better further on (or even later in the first volume), but I couldn't bring myself to care. Maybe it's just me, but in my never humble opinion, unless you like stories involving inane girls arguing over their prom dresses (and I like a good dress argument) or plot that feels tacked on, I don't recommend this one.
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Hayate: the Combat Butler (by Kenjiro Hata) volume one - Manga Review
2007-09-06 16:29:00
Rating: B-Synopsis: Hayate Ayasaki has spent his entire life in part-time jobs because his unemployed parents spend all their money on drinking and gambling. The story opens with Hayate experiencing the worst Christmas ever - he loses his job, his parents have picked up his last paycheck (and gambled it away) AND his parents owe the Yakuza so much money they've sold him off to them for blackmarket organ parts. Hayate is ridiculously fast and tough (from constantly having to do work) so he escapes the Yakuza and decides he's "going to be bad" - and decides to kidnap the next person he sees. He picks a girl, but unfortunately some other guys try to hit on her, and he ends up rescuing her and giving her his coat. THEN she actually does get kidnapped by some other guys, and he risks his life to save her again. The girl ends up being the daughter of a ridiculously wealthy family, who offers him a job as her bodyguard/butler in exchange for saving her life. So Hayate's crazy day...
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Battle Angel Alita Manga Volumes 1-9
2007-09-04 15:08:00
Overall Rating: ASynopsis: Battle Angel Alita tells the story of an amnesiac female cyborg named Alita. Alita's head and upper torso are found in a state of suspended animation by cybermedic/bounty hunter Daisuke Ido while he is searching for useful scrap. After giving her a new body, Alita begins to learn how to live in the Scrapyard, the home of the poor and out-of-luck, who live in the shadow of the floating city of Tiphares, where the rich live. Although she has no memory, Alita soon realizes she knows the legendary Martian martial art, Panzer Kunst. The series follows Alita as she recovers her past and uncovers the secrets of Tiphares. My only complaint about Battle Angel Alita is that the story can get a little slow over the 9 volumes. Aside from that, there is a lot to love. For a series that was written in 1991, Battle Angel Alita holds up surprisingly well as a science fiction story. Set in a futuristic dystopian society, Alita shares the stage with some excellent supporti...
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ME2 Manga Volume 1
2007-08-31 15:16:00
Overall Rating: A-Synopsis: ME2 is a shojo/josei manga series by creator Sho Murase. The story follows Aki, a shy high schooler whose older brother, Ken, recently died. Aki sports a nasty scar on her cheek, and is bullied at school, so when the most popular boy in school starts talking to her, she isn't sure what to do. To add to her problems, Aki has been suffering from blackouts, and she wakes up in unexpected places and finds strange clothes in her closet. Aki struggles with her school life, and trying to figure out what's causing her blackouts.First of all, the art in ME2 is fantastic. It's striking and unique from other shojo/josei series. Unfortunately, the storytelling falters a little. The plot ges overly confusing at some points, and a little too vague in others, but that may be resolved in later volumes. Overall, I like the concepts in ME2, but I'm a philosophy nerd, so questions about what's real, and whether someone's insane or there's something deeper going on, f...
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The Push Man and other stories by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
2007-08-29 17:12:00
Rating: ASynopsis: Originally published in 1969, this manga is a surprising departure into a gritty realistic world. This is a collection of short stories that give us a glimpse into the more private and horrible details of the character's every day lives. Though there are not recurring characters in every story, there is a theme of isolation, lustfulness, and violence that runs throughout each one.I picked up The Push Man and other stories in the library and I was completely amazed by the great drawing style, and by the fact that this gritty noir-style manga was published over 35 years ago. The collection was picked up and re-published in English by Drawn & Quarterly (the link in the title of this entry will show you a preview). As I mentioned, there are no recurring characters, but several have similar character designs, and there's usually one average joe and one bar hostess in each vignette.Piranha (a story sample):A man intentionally smashes his hand in the machinery at ...
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Manga Review - Dramacon Volumes 1 & 2
2007-06-21 22:59:00
Overall Rating: CSynopsis from Tokyopop: Dram acon is a romantic dramedy about a romance that blooms over the course of several years at an anime convention.Christie is a budding writer who is attending an anime convention for the first time in her life. She and her artist boyfriend, Derek, get a table in the artist alley to promote a self-published ashcan comic that she wrote and he drew.Derek is a little too taken with the attention all the female cosplayers are paying him, which upsets Christie and forces her to deal with the player side of Derek that she had ignored up until now. Things quickly become more complicated, especially after she bumps into Matt, a handsome -- but shy -- cosplayer.Svetlana Chmakova's Dramacon plumbs the depths of the emotional attachments that spring up in the superheated world of fan conventions - topics near and dear to the hearts of all true otaku ...Normally, I try to write my own synopsis, but for Svetlana Chmakova's "Dramacon", I used Tokyopop'...
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Bleach Manga Review Volumes 1-19
2007-06-20 03:23:00
Overall Rating: A+Synopsis: Ichigo Kurosaki sees ghosts, and fights...a lot. All of this is pretty normal for Ichigo, but then he meets Rukia Kuchiki, a Shinigami (Death God) and member of the mysterious Soul Society. When a Hollow, an evil spirit, attacks Ichigo and his family, Rukia attempts to defeat the Hollow, but is wounded. To help him save his family, she lends Ichigo some of her powers, but something goes wrong, and Ichigo absorbs every last drop of her energy. Ichigo becomes a temporary Shinigami, and works with Rukia to handle the hunting of hollows until Rukia can recover. At least, that was the plan...Before I picked up the manga, I saw the first four episodes of the anime at Stellarcon '06. It was a fansub (this was before it was airing on Adult Swim), so the translation wasn't great, but I fell in love with the characters and mythology of the series. I immediately started picking up the manga and planning a costume for Ichigo. A few months later, I cosplayed Ichig...
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BLAME! - Manga Review
2007-06-17 17:00:00
Rating: C-/DSynopsis: Killy is a man in a neo-futuristic world populated with humans, and humanoid like creatures living in huge mechanical towers. Killy is in search of humans who have Net Terminal Genes, and he has a mysteriously badass gun that he has no idea how he got it. Also, in this world, there is an entity/force called The Authority, which controls robots and is feared by humans.BLAME! is classified as science fiction, but it could be almost any genre because the reader is given little to grasp. Most of this manga consists of action shots. Plot progression, character development, and even spoken words take a second seat to constant barrages of confusing scenes of violence and meandering views of the giant towers. The premise is confusing enough, but the added element of leaving most things a mystery (even by the end of the second book) gets wearisome after you've gone through so many pages of fighting, with no clear reason to care about the fight.There are several ele...
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Gacha Gacha (Capsule) - Manga Review
2007-06-14 17:41:00
Rating: DSynopsis: Kurara and Kouhei have been classmates forever. Kurara returns from summer vacation in Hawaii as school begins. Apparently, whilst in Hawaii, Kurara has developed multiple personality disorder, and one of her stronger other personalities, Arisa, is an incredibly promiscuous hedonist (as opposed to Kurara herself, who is slightly prudish). Kurara keeps her MPD a secret, but Arisa begins to attempt to seduce Kouhei everytime she appears. When Arisa turns back into Kurara, she has no memory of what's going on, and finds herself in compromising positions with Kouhei (who she blames). Kouhei has a crush on Kurara, and getting close to her means he is severely confused and abused throughout the story.Note: This is a review of the manga Gacha Gacha (Capsule), not the following manga (Secret).I attempted to read more than one or two of this manga, but initially I had a hard time following what was going on. Each one of Kurara's personalities are drawn as different...
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Vampire Knight Volume 1
2007-06-14 00:46:00
Overall Rating: B+ Synopsis: Cross Academy is a prestigious private school with a secret. The student body is divided into two classes: the Day Class, which is made up of mortals, and the Night Class, which consists of vampires. Most of the students and staff at the school have no idea this is going on, and apparently think it's normal for a bunch of bishounen to hang out only at night. Despite this, the manga is pulled off well. It focuses on Yuki Cross, adopted daughter of the headmaster, and one of the only mortals to know about the vampires. She acts as one of the school's guardians, and makes sure that the Day Class students never learn the secret of the Night ClassWhen I picked up Vampire Knight , by Matsuri Hino, I wasn't expecting much. The premise seemed fun, but a little cheesy, and the outfits were gothalicious (yes, it's a word, I just made it up, so leave me alone). This one surprised me though. Sure, the story is a little cheesy in parts, like the fact that both of ...
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Paprika - Anime / Movie Review
2007-06-11 22:00:00
Rating: A+++Synopsis: Dr. Tokita has created the DC Mini, an unstable device still in testing that allows psychological researchers, such as Dr. Achiba, to look into the dreams of patients. Paprika is Dr. Achiba's younger, sassy alter-ego, who appears in dreams to assist neurosis diagnoses. An unknown villain steals three DC Mini's and begin wreaking havoc on the researchers by invading people's minds and dissolving all dreams into one. The mystery of the missing DC Mini's gets deeper as the world gets more surreal.Quick History of Paprika:Paprika is based on a science fiction novel of the same name by Yasutaka Tsutsui. It's a futuristic science fiction story he began in the late 80's/early 90's, and began serialization in the Japanese woman’s magazine Marie Claire in 1991. Tsutsui had many offers from other directors and producers, but chose Satoshi Kon to create an animated film of the Paprika story. The two bartenders in Paprika are voiced by TsuTsui and Kon.Paprika...
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Anime Review - The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
2007-06-08 20:45:00
Overall Rating: A++Synopsis: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya follows Haruhi, as she searches for aliens, time travelers, and espers. Kyon - the narrator of the series - is an ordinary high school boy who she manages to rope into her schemes. Wacky times are ahead. Haruhi soon forms the SOS Brigade, a club at their high school to get things started. She then bullies Yuki, the quiet one, Mikaru, the shy but attractive junior, and Itsuki, the mysterious transfer student to join, and the club's anime stereotypes are complete. Soon after, Kyon learns that Yuki is an alien, Mikaru is a time traveler, and Itsuki is an esper. What the fuck is going on?!? Apparently, Haruhi is God?!? It sounds like insanity, but it's a great show. Check it out, now!The first episode of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is a little disorienting. After watching the end of the episode, and the second one, it becomes obvious that the first episode is a movie made for a high school project. Some people I've ...
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