Angel's Anime Rating Guide

Recently, I picked up  Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya ... I thought that when I entered high school, my days of believing in aliens, time travelers and ESPers were over. That was, until she introduced herself. Claiming to be interested in only aliens, time travelers, and ESPers, Haruhi Suzumiya was the strangest girl I'd met in a long time... Before I knew what was going on, I'd been dragged into her weird club, and it looks like I'm not the only one who has been drafted into this 'SOS Brigade' of hers, because there are three other students here who don't seem to be so ordinary themselves. Either way, we've all found ourselves caught up in Haruhi's quest to search for all things extraordinary. I've had a chance to look at Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya . The story centers around Haruhi, an energetic and rather eccentric teenage girl who wishes that aliens, people from the future and ESPers really existed. The story is told from the point of view of

Recently, I took the opportunity to watch  Master of Mosquiton ... Life in the 1920's was a great adventure. And for Mosquiton, so was death. Once a terrifying vampire, Mosquiton ends up blood-bound to a seventeen-year-old treasure hunter, Inaho, who's obsessed with the secret of immortality. Inaho decides to drag Mosquiton around the world on a quest for the O-Parts, magic artifacts that can grant immortal life without the unpleasant side effects of vampirism. However, an army of ancient monsters stands in their way, along with Mosquiton's perpetually naked ex-wife of 300 years! I have a soft spot for vampires. So, way back in the misty dawn of time, when AD Vision had the distribution rights (circa 1999) to Master of Mosquiton , I picked up the first of three volumes on VHS right away. But, it sat on my pile of unwatched anime for a good long while. Long enough for distribution rights to change hands. When Master of Mosquiton was re-released on DVD, it was released in

I picked up  Parasite Dolls ... In a world where perfect androids called Boomers have infiltrated every aspect of society, it's the job of Branch to maintain peace between the people and the plastic. Unfortunately, not all boomers are created perfect, and when boomers go bad, people die... The thin blue line that separates man from machine is about to meet its most horrifying test in Parasite Dolls. I immediately recognized Parasite Dolls as being part of the Bubblegum Crisis franchise and I had to have it. Unlike the previous incarnations of the franchise, Bubblegum Crisis 2040 and the remake of A.D. Police Files , which had completely changed the look and feel of the original series, this new installment retains much of the look and feel of the original productions. The story centers around a special unit in the A.D. Police organization called "The Branch". The feature is divided into three stories that take place over a period of six years. There is quite a bit

I took the opportunity to watch Paniponi Dash ... Volume 1 Lethal Lesson The good news? She's an MIT grad. The bad news? She's an 11-year-old MIT grad. So while Becky Miyamoto may be intellectually able, this MIT prodigy is painfully ill-equipped to deal with a group of temperamental teens - especially THIS group. There's the bitchy heather, the spazz, the angry nerd, the identical twins, the invisible girl, the freaky class president, the drama geek, the Nancy Drew, the gamer, the princess... Whew! Add to that her pathetically abused stuffed bunny buddy and idiotic aliens watching her every move and it's no wonder that Becky's prone to crying fits, tirades, and flipping the class the bird. Volume 2 Girls N Roses While most classes take excursions to museums or zoos, if your teacher is an 11-year-old genius with a penchant for trouble - and your class is filled with high-wired teenage girls - your field trips are definitely trippier. You do things like inv

Recently, I took the opportunity to watch  Gantz ... Volume 1 Game of Death The last thing Kei remembers is the train running over his body, crushing him. Now he finds himself in a room filled with strangers, all recently deceased, all resurrected by the strange black sphere known only as Gantz. Their reprieve from death may only be temporary, however. Unless they complete the brutal missions that Gantz assigns, none of them will live long enough to leave the room. Is this strange "afterlife" real, or just a dream? All Kei and the others know is that if they fail the mission, they will all die again. Volume 2 Kill or Be Killed In a digital realm between life and the hereafter, there lies an empty room, a black sphere, and the trapped souls of the unfortunate. Here, the only meaning left is in the brutal game. Volume 3 Aftershocks The first game is over, but will the horrors committed be forever burned into the souls of those who remain? As new shocking develo

I picked up Blame on DVD... 3,000 years have passed since the future was buried. Countless armies of machines are all that remain of human civilization. Without orders, they rebuild and build, swallowing up the Earth, Moon, and the entire solar system within the intricate steel and concrete levels of the Megastructure. Within the environment the silicon creatures have come to exist. All that has been known about them until now is their goal: Invade the Netsphere; eradicate all organics! Our only weapon is a salvaged data disc from the engineer Cibo containing information that might allow humans to restore order to the world. According to the Blame Glossary ... Cibo : A brilliant net engineer. She was the lead scientist in the attempt to gain access to the Netsphere without the aid of Net Genes. With the failure of the project, she was punished and left to die in a hidden corner of the Megastructure. Fate brings her together with Killy and she joins him in his efforts. Her kno

I took the opportunity to watch  Riding Bean ... Got a problem? Call in the professional: Bean Bandit. For a price, he'll risk life and limb to deliver the goods. Seems such a pity that his latest charge isn't quite what it appears to be! In Chicago, ace courier Bean Bandit rules the road, and operates on both sides of the Law. "When it absolutely, positively, has to be there NOW," Bean Bandit is your man -- if you can afford his rates. "Worried about the getaway from your next heist?" Leave the driving to Bean! Unfortunately for Bean, and even more unfortunately for the Chicago P.D.'s insurance company, he's about to have to demonstrate why he's so expensive. The plot begins to thicken when Bean drives getaway from a robbery (score: 6 police cruisers and 1 18-wheeler). The crooks are a little ticked off to find out that Bean's flat rate fee accounts for almost all of the proceeds, but business is business. Curiously, as soon

I took the opportunity to watch Steel Angel Kurumi ... Series One Volume 1 Angel on My Shoulder Steel Angel Kurumi was the most powerful creation ever invented. Designed by a brilliant mind, using otherworldly technology, bred for military use, the Steel Angel's intent was as revolutionary as it was mysterious. But when a young boy accidentally awakens the Steel Angel Kurumi, he becomes her Master and science and strategy are thrown a curve. Now this multi-million dollar soldier is taking orders from a boy - and other forces are not happy about it. So Kurumi and her young master must seek out a secret lab and discover dangerous answers. Namely, why was Kurumi created in the first place? What is her true purpose? And why is a mysterious organization activating other beautiful, seductive, and powerful Steel Angels to destroy her? Steel Angel Kurumi features breathtaking animation from acclaimed studio O.L.M. Volume 2 The Trouble with Angels She's beautiful, powerful, p

I watched  Sin Sorority ... A plucky coed dreams of new friends and college glory days. Her dream becomes a raunchy reality when she's inducted into an erotic sorority. To become a member, she performs outrageous acts of debauchery as her sexy sisters instruct her in the arts of lust! Getting this DVD to play was an adventure in itself. The DVD is encoded to play only on the NC-17 setting. My DVD player was set to NR and changing the setting required a password. It had been a number of years since I had purchased my DVD player and I had never set a password. So, I hoped that the password was set by the manufacturer and that the DVD manual might have the password or at least instruct me on how to clear the password. After several hours of sifting through boxes and boxes of papers, I found the DVD manual. Sure enough, the password had been set by the manufacturer and was noted in the manual. Getting the password entered didn't actually solve the problem. The password only te

Recently, I picked up  Black Lagoon ... Series One Volume 1 Rokuro Okajima is a meek, mundane and metropolitan man on a business trip to South East Asia. But things quickly go from pleasure cruise to festival of pain when modern day pirates board the ship and take him hostage! Revy, Dutch and Benny are merciless, maniacal and mean and together, they make up the crew of the Black Lagoon. A mercenary group has hired them to steal a data disc Rokuro was carrying and with it, classified information that threatens the peace and security of the entire world! Volume 2 The Black Lagoon Company gets into a brutal head-to-head battle with a bunch of neo-nazi freaks after the same sunken booty. Revy and Dutch blaze a trail full of blood and bullets in an attempt to get back their bounty and make an exit in style. The tension between Rock and Revy builds up to such extreme levels that an easy day of running errands has almost fatal consequences! Will they kiss and make up or will Rock get a