Angel's Anime Rating Guide

Recently, I picked up Comic Book Confidential ... As Kevin Smith observes in his 2002 introduction to the DVD, Ron Mann's 1989 documentary Comic Book Confidential hasn't lost a bit of its relevance. It emerged as comics were enjoying a popular renaissance, when Frank Miller was redefining the Batman mythos in the mainstream, and scores of independent artists found their unique voices in the burgeoning aftermath of the underground comics explosion of the '60s and early '70s. Mann's irreverent sensibilities are perfectly suited to this graphically kinetic history of comic books from the early '30s to the late '80s, itself presented as a graphic hybrid of comic art, archival footage, and lively interviews. All of the major players are included from each era, and Mann's masterstroke--having latter-day comics innovators read from their work--makes for some delicious storytelling straight from the source. Comic Book Confidential is a documentary that touche

I saw Avatar on the big screen twice. I've seen the movie with and without 3-D -- the 3-D version didn't work very well for me, but, what little I did manage to see looked AWESOME. Even though the 3-D version didn't really work for me, I was still very impressed. Unlike a lot of CG-rich movies that I've seen in the past, Avatar doesn't feel as artificial. The story is very reminiscent of "Dances With Wolves", where a soldier heads out to the frontier and meets the natives -- hence the term "Dances With Smurfs". But, Mom and I came to be entertained and James Cameron's Avatar didn't disappoint. There's a lot of action -- a bit too much for the youngest viewers -- and at two and a half hours, it's a bit long... A paraplegic ex-marine finds a new life on the distant planet of Pandora, only to find himself battling humankind alongside the planet's indigenous Na'vi race in this ambitious digital 3D sci-fi epic from Academy A

I picked up the remastered version of Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings ... Although it was ultimately overshadowed by Peter Jackson's live-action Lord of the Rings trilogy, Ralph Bakshi's animated adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy classic is not without charms of its own. A target of derision from intolerant fans, this ambitious production is nevertheless a respectably loyal attempt to animate the first half of Tolkien's trilogy, beginning with the hobbit Frodo's inheritance of "the One Ring" of power from Bilbo Baggins, and ending with the wizard Gandalf's triumph over the evil army of orcs. While the dialogue is literate and superbly voiced by a prestigious cast (including John Hurt as Aragorn), Leonard Rosenman's accomplished score effectively matches the ominous atmosphere that Bakshi's animation creates and sustains. Bakshi combined traditional cel animation with "rotoscoped" (i.e., meticulously traced) live-action

I got And Now for Something Completely Different recently... Monty Python's first feature is essentially a reworking of their best skits from the first two seasons of their cult TV series Monty Python's Flying Circus, shot on film outside the usual studio sets (Nudge Nudge, for example, is set in a tavern filled with passersby). As the TV series was as yet unseen in the U.S. at the time of this feature, And Now for Something Completely Different became for many Americans their first taste of the Pythons' brand of surreal, silly humor and remains a fond favorite. The writing and performances are fine and the film is packed with some of their best bits: How to Avoid Being Seen, Hell's Grannies, Blackmail, The Lumberjack Song, The Parrot Sketch, and The Upper Class Twit of the Year, among others. I wanted And Now for Something Completely Different primarily for the Parrot Sketch and it wasn't half bad, but, many of the sketches have been shortened and, at times,

I picked up Strike Witches recently... The year is 1944 and the world lives in fear of unidentified flying objects called Neuroi. With the old-boy old guard unable to thwart this deadly menace, humanity turns its desperate eyes to an aerial attack force with much nicer legs. Meet the girls of the 501st Joint Fighter Wing, better known as the Strike Witches. These darlings of the great blue yonder may not have standard issue uniforms, but they do have all the right stuff. Where the average flyboy falters, these dolls blast aliens to bits in the bat of an eyelash. With a little magic and a whole lot of leg, the girls of the 501st are winning the war on pants, and aliens! On it's face the concept of the series, is amazingly implausible -- young ladies wear special boots that resemble a combination of airplane wings and a helicopter on each leg and fly around like airplanes. But, I've seen the first few episodes and I've found the series to be remarkably entertaining. The

According to Anime News Network ... The Tokyo Metropolitan Government's " Welcome to Tokyo " tourism promotion website has launched. The site features a map of Tokyo tourist spots, a quiz game about Tokyo sightseeing spots, and an original short anime titled " Honey Tokyo ." The streaming anime short film is viewable in high and standard quality in Japanese language with subtitles in English, Chinese, Korean, German, Italian, Spanish, and French. Yasuhiro Aoki, director of the "Kung-Fu Love" segment of Studio 4℃'s Amazing Nuts! music video collection and select episode director on 4℃'s Tweeny Witches and Kimagure Robot anime series, drafted the Honey Tokyo character designs, drew the film's storyboards, and directed the short at Studio 4℃. Reportedly the short was produced at a cost of around 50 million yen ($550,000 USD) funded by the Japanese government. I've been a bit leery of downloading anime on the web for two reasons. First