Forum: Anime, Manga and Video Game Reviews

Hisone Amakasu is a young woman; well, more girl than woman; seeking a career in the military. She has a lot of growing up to do. A bit too honest, Hisone has a habit of thinking out loud and saying things she knows she should not say. She doesn’t mean to be abrupt. She does have a good heart,...

Do you think your parents expected too much from you? You have nothing on 14-year-old Amamiku. Her parents put her in stasis for 90 years, and then instructed her to plant the seeds of DNA which will revive life on Earth. Only she is stuck underwater. But soon she meets up with some of the few...

Checking up on this film, I was surprised to learn Only Yesterday was originally released in 1991. The lifelike animation is so ahead of other anime I have seen from that era. But again, I would expect no less from Studio Ghibli. Only Yesterday was not released in the US, however, until...

You think your family parties are weird? Well, twins Aya and Aki Mikage have you beat. For their 16th birthday, everyone is going to grandpa’s house for a big surprise! They are going to kill Aya! What fun! OK, a bit of background. Ceres Celestial Legend is a fantasy about a young girl...

Dee and Ryo are two New York detectives on vacation in England, where everyone speaks Japanese -- at least in the original dub. They stumble upon a murder, but soon the story turns and becomes a comic, gay love story. Eventually we get back to the murder, but not before we the audience yell at...

If you look below, you will see my review of Godzilla: Planet of Monsters. Now it’s time for part two of the trilogy, Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle. Haruo and the survivors of the battle with Godzilla find themselves the not too willing guests of a race of primitive humanoids called the...

Looking ahead for a few months, I expect someone will start a thread, for the third straight year, asking for suggestions on a good Halloween anime. Assuming one would want an anime which could be watched by all in one evening, I would stay away from a series and stick to a movie. The one which...

When we last left Gai, he was a Chrysalis trying to keep from becoming a Busoma. The Busoma are the bad guys, trying to destroy mankind. As season two of Sword Gai gets started, things are not going any better. So Gai commits suicide as Sayaka, the girl who loves him, watches. Yeah, right. ...

OK, so what exactly was I watching? Interstella 5555 begins on a planet of blue people where a band is giving a concert which everyone enjoys. This is sort of strange in that the music really sucks. Anyway, a group of soldiers invades, kidnaps the band, wipes their memories, paints three of...

With the latest Holy Grail War to end all Holy Grail Wars coming to an end, mankind can now reach for other goals – such as journeying into space. But guess what? That old Holy Grail just won’t go away. So we now have Fate/Extra: The Last Encore. Just watching season one, only ten episodes, the...

I have to make this quick. Then again, this is a pretty quick anime. I thought Angel Sanctuary was an anime movie, but it is a three part OVA. Unlike most OVA’s, the plot is fairly well developed in that it does not glance over details leaving holes for the viewer to fill. Then again, the plot...

Saint Seiyai: The Lost Canvas is an anime series with almost non-stop action. That is not necessarily a good thing. When every fight seems not too different than the last, and when the action does nothing to advance the plot, just like the periods of endless dialog, things can get pretty boring....

So you have this guy named Jin who is traveling to the moon with his family, when the shuttle explodes. Only Jin survives since when he fell he hit the ocean. At least that is the official story, and they are sticking to it. The truth comes later. OK, so Dragonaut: The Resonance gets off to a...

I just watched the sixth and final episode of FLCL Progressive. I had mixed feelings going into the series. On the one hand, sure I was looking forward to it. On the other, I had my doubts if the FLCL magic could be recreated. My final conclusion? FLCL Progressive has everything FLCL had –...

And now for a bit of a tearjerker. In This Corner of the World is the story of Suzu. We meet her as a little girl growing up in the Japan of the 1930’s, who has a love and talent for drawing. Time passes quickly, and soon Suzu is 18 and entering into an arraigned marriage. She must now adjust...

Retsuko is an adorable little bear. Or maybe a dog. Or a cat? I’m really not sure. But Aggretsuko may initially have the look of a kiddie show, this is really an adult satire. There are ten episodes, each a bit more than 15 minutes. So it’s an easy watch to fit in. Retsuko is in her...

And now a story of paradise lost and found. Children of the Whales is the story of a people who live an idyllic existence – almost. There are the Marked who possess kinetic mental powers known a thymia. But with these powers comes a short life span. The Unmarked, normal people, live a normal...

I was really interested in seeing Mary and the Witch’s Flower when it was in the theaters. This is the premier film of Studio Ponoc, founded by former members of Studio Ghibli. Well, make that interested and curious. Red-haired Mary is sent to live with her Great-Aunt Charlotte, and though she...

Violet Evergarden looks like an average 14-year-old girl. Well, actually the way she is drawn she looks more like late teens to early 20’s. But that’s beside the point. For the sake of the story, it begins when she is 14. So Violet is actually a highly trained combat specialist who lives only...

OK, so there are these demon swords scattered throughout the world, and if you possess one, it possesses you. You become a Chrysalis, which makes you a pretty strong warrior. But eventually you will turn into a killing demon called a Busoma. So naturally, no one wants to touch one of those demon...

I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this one. I thought Netflix was sending me a movie, but Twilight of the Dark Master is a 50 minute OVA. I had some time tonight, so I thought I would just get it out of the way. So one guy turns into a demon. This other guy tries to stop him. There is...

It is the best of times; it is the worst of times for schoolgirl Aiko. First she regains use of her legs recovering from a traffic accident which took the life of her father; then she learns her body is not real. She learns that her mother and brother, thought dead, are still alive; but she has...

I often wonder why I bother with OVA's, as little as I watch them. They are usually ultra-short on plot. You figure that Urda: Third Reich even more so since it runs for only 30 minutes. But what is a quick look at a five episode anime, the plot for Urda does not suffer. Plus you still get all...

The Astonishing Work of Tezuka Osamu, or Osamu Tezuka for us English speakers, is a DVD I got via Netflix. It is a collection of Tezuka’s short films, ranging in length from about 3 to 25 minutes each. Tezuka, creator of Astro Boy, is called the “Father of Anime,” though none of these short...

I was going to go out to a movie tonight, but I wasn’t feeling that well. So instead I stayed home and watched this DVD just received from Netflix. King of Thorn finds the world in a precarious state. People keep dying of an epidemic which turns them to dust. A Russian oligarch heading a...

It is an unusual structure. There is no continuous story. Each episode is made up of four or five smaller stories, often unrelated but sometimes connected. This would normally make The Disastrous Live of Saiki K an interesting series. OK, I was interested. The question is could this series...

This is an analysis that explores the characterization of Tomie and attempts to piece together a narrative from the perspective of Tomie. I reference and talk about many chapters from the manga series, so if your trying to avoid spoilers, you may wanna hold off on watching this.

Cremora is a small, picturesque European kingdom with an old world flavor, but still firmly 21st Century. This would make Cremora the perfect spot for a family vacation – if it wasn’t for all that blood. But such is such in the world of B: The Beginning. There’s a serial killer on the loose...

One planet. Two worlds, at least. Opposite gravity. I guess this could be all the ingredients for a madcap comedy. Instead it is a youthful adventure titled Patema Inverted. Looking it up after watching, it seems this is the second of two anime films about Patema and her adventures. Not...