Angel's Anime Rating Guide

I've just seen the relaunch effort of  Neon Genesis Evangelion ... Tokyo-3 still stands after most of civilization was decimated in the Second Impact. Now the city endures the ceaseless onslaught of the deadly Angels, bizarre creatures bent on eradicating the human race. To combat this strange and ruthless enemy, the government agency NERV constructs a fleet of towering humanoid machines - the Evas - and Shinji Ikari is called into action, reluctantly taking his place at the controls of Eva Unit 01. Living a life of loneliness and questioning his existence, Shinji struggles to accept responsibility for mankind's battle for survival. Shinji will fight the Angels alongside the only person who might understand his plight - Rei Ayanami, the elusive and frail pilot of Eva Unit 00. Based on the 1995 anime Neon Genesis Evangelion , Evangelion 1.01: You Are (Not) Alone features a similar and somewhat condensed storyline of the first three volumes of the original with up

Recently, I've been rewatching the Transformers animated movie (circa 1987) and I've noticed some differences between the 10th anniversary edition that I had on VHS and the 20th anniversary edition that I have on DVD. More Than Meets The Eye! The year is 2005, and the Decepticons have retaken Cybertron from Optimus Prime and his Autobot warriors. Both sides are seething with anger, and that has blinded them to a hideous menace headed their way. That menace is Unicron, a monster so powerful he devours planets. Unicron has chosen to take control of the Autobot Matrix for his own evil purposes, and to accomplish this he has created a force of super robots. By gathering the remains of fallen Decepticons, including Megatron, and infusing them with life, he forms the Unicrons. With Decepticons on one side, Unicron on the other, and Optimus Prime lost in battle, Earth and Autobot survival depends on The Chosen One who must rise up to open the matrix and use its full power. Who that

While watching Kannagi, I came across previews for Lucky Star . So, I picked up the first volume of Lucky Star ... Meet Konata, an athletic and intelligent girl too dedicated to her favorite primetime anime shows to excel in anything but otaku culture; Miyuki, the cute, bespectacled living example of moe with an encyclopedic knowledge of all subjects; Kagami, the bitter-sweet, tough but shy straight-man to Konata's constant teasing and pranks; and her younger fraternal twin sister, Tsukasa, a kind but air-headed klutz. Witness this study in the human condition as our heroines explore the unexplored in questioning the ordinary! Lucky Star seems like an interesting anime that I might like. I'm not sure yet, if I'll like it enough to buy six volumes worth, but, I'll give it a try...

I picked up Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens recently... The goddess Nagi has arrived and wants you to worship her! Nagi is the local deity spirit of the town of Kannagi and she was able to take a physical form when Jin Mikuriya carved a wooden statue of her out of a block of wood from the sacred tree of his family shrine. Nagi's mission is to cleanse the impurities that plague the land, but since her sacred tree has been cut down, she can only do this with Jin's help. While pursuing an impurity, Nagi is reunited with her sister, Zange, who happens to have converted to Catholicism. Zange's power is greater than Nagi's due to her scared tree still being in tact and becoming a local celebrity taking confessions on the street at night. The only way for Nagi to regain her power is to gather her own followers and gain popularity. It seems like an interesting show... Which makes the distributor's actions somewhat puzzling. Most anime distributors are very happy to pr

With a name like " Bludgeoning Angel ", I couldn't resist bringing this title home with me today... Imagine a world where the secret to immortality has been discovered, causing women to stop aging by the time they turn twelve. Sounds like it might be a perfect playground for a discoverer with less-than-wholesome interests, doesn't it? That's exactly why the Big Man Upstairs sends Dokuro-chan, one of his angelic assassins, into the past to "deal" with the sicko who messed with nature! But Dokuro-chan decides instead to move in with her target, Sakura Kusakabe, and keep him too occupied to find eternal life. Funnily enough, the path of nonviolence leads to a fountain of blood, as Dokuro-chan accidentally kills Sakura on an almost-daily basis only to resurrect him with a magical chant moments later. From the summary, Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-Chan seems like it might be something along the lines of Excel Saga -- certainly when I read that one of the m

Recently, I picked up  Rocket Girls ... School is finally out for the summer and Yukari Morita has big plans this season. It's off to the Solomon Islands for her, in search of her long-lost father. Unfortunately, the archipelago stretches over 28,000 square kilometers and boasts a population of about 500,000 people. With odds like that, what's a girl to do? Luckily for Yukari, the local Solomon Space Agency is in desperate need of a new astronaut. With their promise to help find her father, Yukari begins her part-time job as an astronaut! I've seen the entire series and it's actually surprisingly good. I had my doubts when I first saw this item on the store shelf. It was calling to me, but, I still had my doubts. The animation is crisp and bright. It appears to be mostly traditional animation with a handful of CG elements thrown in here and there -- nothing too spectacular. The CG effects are not blended very well with the traditional animation and, at times, app

Today, I picked up  Sky Crawlers ... In a world very similar to ours, there are children who do not age. They're known as "Kildren," and they're fighting a war. Against whom, and to what end is not important. One such boy, a young fighter pilot named Yuichi Kannami, arrives at his base out in the country, assigned to a small battalion. He's never met these people before, but soon finds himself in an alarmingly familiar routine, acting out relationships that seem predestined. Of course, this has all happened before. Sky Crawlers seemed intriguing, so, it came home with me. A major selling point was that the feature was directed by Mamoru Oshii, the famed director behind the Patlabor and Ghost In The Shell movies. So, my expectations for Sky Crawlers were pretty high. Sky Crawlers is beautifully rendered using a mix of traditional and CG animation, but, overall I was a bit disappointed with the Sky Crawlers . I gave Sky Crawlers a 2 out of 5.

AnimEigo is one of the pioneers of the American anime industry and is responsible for bringing such gems as Urusei Yatsura and Bubblegum Crisis to the U.S. I stopped by the AnimEigo site recently and got such a tickle out of their latest sale announcement, that I thought I'd share with you... Would you believe it, 2009 marks our 20th year of operation. Ah, the good old days, when 45-minute OVAs on VHS tape sold for $40, and the fans were damn glad to be able to get them. Now you want them on DVD, you want liner notes, you want dubs as well as subtitles. Want, want, want... that's all we ever hear from you! What about our needs? What about the boats and sports cars all our employees deserve so very much? What about finally getting that corporate jet for Natsumi -- she'd settle for a small one, and they're cheap right now! But Nooooooo! You keep insisting that we provide better products for lower prices! You keep insisting we "celebrate" our 20th year by

A couple weeks ago, I put together a DVD of several episodes of the Mighty B TV series. Fresh off my adventures in authoring a two and a half minute DVD , I decided to try my hand at remastering the episodes of the Mighty B, I had on hand. By the way, for those who don't know the Mighty B ... The Mighty B! is a Nickelodeon show created by Erik Wiese, Cynthia True and Amy Poehler. Poehler also provides the voice of the title character, Bessie Higgenbottom. Its first episode premiered on April 26, 2008. The series was developed under the working title of "Super Scout" before adopting its current name... Bessie Higgenbottom is a Honeybee scout (this series' portrayal of the Girl Scouts of the USA) who is determined to collect every single badge in Honeybee history. Honeybee folklore implies that in doing so, she’ll become a superhero called the Mighty B. Bessie often enlists the help of her dog Happy, her brother Ben, and her best friend Penny. My new and improve

Recent discussions concerning the future of the anime industry and the industry's evolution into an online-only distribution model have prompted me to look into converting various file formats into a DVD format. I cobbled together some software and hardware in an effort to conduct an experiment to test the viability of transferring movie files on my computer to a DVD that will play in my older-model DVD player. The first candidate for my first foray into DVD authoring was a 2-minute-23-second teaser trailer for something titled: Babylon 5: Conflicts of Loyalty . Sometime in 2006, I happened to come across a teaser trailer for Babylon 5: Conflicts of Loyalty  (really more of a music video) for a game modification package for Nexus: The Jupiter Incident . The teaser trailer features scenes from in-game play set to a suitably melancholy soundtrack from the Babylon 5 TV series. A very talented team of artists and programmers recreated 3D models of the various ships featured in th

I watched  Gunslinger Girl ... In Gunslinger Girl, the Social Welfare Agency is a government sponsored corporation that's on the fringe of technology. They give terminal patients another shot at life using cybernetic implants, shaping the patients into efficient machines for handling the government's dirty work. Having survived the brutal slaughter of her family, Henrietta awakens to her new life at the Agency with a re-built body and no memory of the past. We've got girls, guns and violence. The series starts out with a bang when Henrietta almost single-handedly takes out a room full of bad guys. Unfortunately, she wasn't actually supposed to, or, at least not without instructions. The series has a clean, well-polished appearance. The action sequences are very well executed. Sometimes, the callousness with which the characters commit violence can be a bit disturbing. There is, of course, some gore in the series. There are no naughty bits to speak of. Overall, I was

I spent about three hours today putting together a DVD of episodes of the Mighty B . Although, the world Bessie lives in can be a bit strange, I do like to visit from time to time. The show is funny, irreverent and quirky, but, at its core, the show is very sweet. My favorite episode is "Bee Patient" where we discover that Bessie, like many young people, has a fear of needles. I also like the rapport between Bessie and her dog, Happy and the fact that Bessie isn't afraid to pick her nose. As I was finalizing the DVD, I discovered, to my pleasant surprise, that there's going to be an official DVD release. According to TV Shows on DVD , there should be an official release on February 24, 2009... Nickelodeon and Paramount Home Entertainment will release The Mighty B! - We Got the Bee on February 24th. Besides getting an hour and a half of cartoon episodes on this disc, you'll also get a "Behind The Mighty B!" Featurette where you can meet the Creators a

I took the opportunity to watch  Big O ... Paradigm City. A City of Amnesia. Forty years ago everyone lost their memory, but humanity continues to survive. They've learned to operate machinery, produce electricity, and go on living each day at a time. Still, there's something missing in a town with no past and no history of what has come before. Roger Smith is a Negotiator, hired to negotiate disputes between parties, and Roger enjoys a reputation for being the best at his job. But he has an ace up his sleeve... a rather big ace. He controls a Megadeus called the Big O, a wondrous piece of technology from before the age of Amnesia. Occasionally, fragments of memories appear, and with them often comes trouble. The Big O comes in handy for subduing such dangers, but does it serve some greater purpose? Together with the unusual R. Dorothy Wayneright and his loyal butler Norman, Roger Smith keeps Paradigm City safe from the nightmare of memories. According to Wikipedia ... T

I picked up  Darker Than Black . The series spoke to me and said "buy me", so, I did. The story seemed like something I might like, so, I'll give it a try and see what happens... Season 1 Volume 1 A new and deadly breed of covert agent walks the streets. Known as Contractors, these assassins and spies wield bizarre supernatural powers to carry out the dirty work of others. They thrive in the underworld, between rumor and reality, their loyalties always in question. One among these operatives is more mysterious than the rest: the masked killer BK201, the Black Reaper. His true identity and intentions remain unknown, but as his path weaves through the shadows and alleys of Tokyo, blood is spilled on both sides of the law. It's a new age of confusion, and the rules of engagement have changed. Volume 2 A new and deadly breed of covert agent walks the streets. Known as Contractors, these assassins and spies wield bizarre supernatural powers to carry out the dirty w

I picked up the second volume of Claymore yesterday... A brutal scourge stalks the land. Yoma, monsters driven by a hunger satisfied by only one quarry: Humanity. The dark breed knows but a singular foe: Claymore. Human-Yoma hybrids of extraordinary strength and cunning, the Claymores roam from skirmish to skirmish delivering salvation by the edge of a blade... Volume 1 The Burden Of The Blade Thus begins the twisting tale of Clare, one such sister of the sword driven by pain in both victory and defeat. A child silent and suffering hidden in her past, Clare's march toward vengeance unfolds along a path marked by violence, solitude and scorn. In a land where even the predator is prey, the haunted hearts of hunter and hunted alike wear the scars of the age. Volume 2 Point Of No Return Thus continues the twisting tale of Clare, one such sister of the sword driven by pain in both victory and defeat. A disturbing glance into the past reveals the forces which molded an orphan

Recently, I had revisited an HBO documentary on Red Sox fandom and the so called " Curse of the Bambino ". Since the Red Sox have actually won the world series, the themes discussed in the documentary are no longer relevant. HBO's wry, enlightening account of 80-plus years of the Boston Red Sox's travails is a fusion of wit and history. "Everything's going fine," says one of this documentary's talking heads, speaking of the Red Sox's legacy of 11th-hour screw-ups. The problem is that Boston's doomstruck organization, fans say, has been in karmic payback since 1920 for then-owner Harry Frazee's sale of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. Historians dismiss claims that Frazee used the money to finance Broadway's No, No, Nanette, and there's evidence the self-destructive Ruth had actually become a liability for the team. In any case, the symbiotic fortunes of the Yankees and Red Sox is entertainingly summarized here. Even though th