Angel's Anime Rating Guide

I've seen most of Fullmetal Alchemist on Cartoon Network ... Volume 1 The Alchemist's Curse As children, brothers Edward and Alphonse used the clandestine science of Alchemy to try the unthinkable - resurrect their dead mother. They failed, unleashing an alchemic reaction that ripped their bodies apart. Four years later, Ed and Al are combing the country for a rumored stone that could amplify their alchemy and bring their bodies back to normal. And it appears they may have found it - in a strangely prosperous desert village. Volume 2 The Scarred Man of the East A serial killer stalks the streets of Central, searching for his State-sponsored prey. He is a refugee, a loner from a land scarred from the wounds of war, tortured by memories of a happier time. His mandate is from the heavens: exterminate all State Alchemists. This assassin believes it his duty alone to purge the world of the cursed Alchemists defying the natural order of his Master's almighty creation.

A while back, when video tapes still stalked the Earth, my interest in  Ghost In The Shel l started with Manga's VHS release of the the first  Ghost In The Shell animated movie... Movies Movie 1 The blockbuster Anime release is now on video! One of the smash hits of the summer, this Shirow Masamune story deals with the line between machine and person, and how this becomes blurred in the distant future. The Puppetmaster is loose in this society, destroying people's living essence and replacing their memories with implanted ones. It falls to a small government group to stop it ... and a group of heavily augmented agents! In the year 2029, the world is made borderless by the net; augmented humans live in virtual environments, watched over by law enforcement that is able to download themselves into super-powered, crime busting mecha. The ultimate secret agent of the future is not human, has no physical body and can freely travel the information highways of the world, hac

Way back in the misty dawn of time, I picked up the VHS version of  Girl From Phantasia ... When is a rug not a rug? When it's the gateway to another dimension of course! Unfortunately, magic carpets don't always come with labels, so when young Akihiro discovers the floor covering in question, all he can think about is how impressed his girlfriend Michiko will be by his new "necking pad". Akihiro's amorous intentions are abruptly shagged when, while fondling the deep plush pile, the cute, cuddly and very female sprite Malon pops into his hands! While this might seem like the ultimate in adolescent wish fulfillment, the question quickly becomes not whether Akihiro is deserving of such "good fortune" but whether he will even survive the attention of The Girl From Phantasia! In Girl From Phantasia , a boy meets a strange girl who appears from a magical realm hidden in a carpet. Her friends and enemies show up to complicate the boy's life and everybod

Godmars  was one of Right Stuf's early releases... The destruction of Earth is at hand! A pity that only one person knows it at the moment. Zule has announced his intention to take over Earth, and to demonstrate his resolve he's destroying interplanetary traffic. The warning is clear: stop expanding into space and prepare to be subjugated. Earth sends out their most competent troubleshooters... the Crusher Squad! Renowned for their skills at keeping the peace, they find their abilities are lacking against an opponent who can swallow whole star systems... and has. Not that Earth represents anything more than a casual desire, but Zule has not gotten where he is by allowing the weaker species to flourish. Now, Earth's fate will be decided by Takeru Myojin, who is in the midst of discovering that his entire existence is a lie and his actual position is far more important than anyone would have believed. But he is only one, and Zule's armies are many. Even with the awe

Goshogun: The Time Etranger  seems to be more infamous for having an extra E in its title than for anything that actually occurs in the feature... Forty years ago, the GoShogun Team saved the world. Now, decades after they went their separate ways, they find themselves reunited in the hospital room of former teammate Remy Shimada, who lies on the brink of death. She was always somewhat distant, even among her closest friends. And now, totally alone, she battles a relentless evil that deftly maneuvers her towards oblivion. A fight for survival which rages across her past and outside of time itself... Buried alive at age ten, caught in a nightmare at age twenty, ravaged by disease at age seventy, she faces a darkness which whispers the same prophecy over and over: You have no chance. You will die. Give up. But Remy has beaten the odds before. And, with the team at her side, she battles the dark strangers who drive her to the edge of despair. But can she possibly triumph...?

Sometime ago, I picked up the VHS version of Grave of the Fireflies ... It is post-war Japan, just weeks before American troops arrive for occupation. In the city of Kobe, a boy lies dying in a train station. By his body lies a small metal candy container. A janitor, not sure what to make of its ashy contents, pitches it into the night. As fireflies float softly around it, the ghostly figures of the boy and his little sister emerge... Flashback to a short time earlier. Orphaned and homeless from a fire-bomb attack on their city, 14-year-old Seita and his 4-year-old sister Setsuko set out to survive on their own in the face of a society no longer able to help them. Forced into living in an abandoned bomb shelter in the Japanese countryside, they slowly come to realize that they cannot escape the hardships of war or even find enough food on which to survive... Based on an original story by Akiyuki Nosaka, Grave of the Fireflies takes over your emotions in a way that few films (live-act

A while back, I picked up Gundress ... In 2100, the newly built Bayside City serves as Japan's premier international port. The Angel Arms Company is established by a former policewoman named Takako, to help wage war on terrorism with armed security suits. When the mayor is assassinated, the women of Angel Arms end up protecting the evil crime-lord Hassan, in hopes that his information will help bring down a global terror ring. Takako's back is to the wall as a band of criminals plot to kill Hassan, and the organization's leader is revealed to be the former lover of Angel Arms' own Alisa. A classic cyberpunk story with character designs by the legendary Masamune Shirow, known as the creator of Ghost in the Shell and Dominion Tank Police. Gundress is not one of the better titles to associate itself with Masamune Shirow. There is some violence, no naughty bits and some very nice designs by Masamune Shirow, but, the story is not executed as well as I would like. I

Years ago, I picked up the VHS version of Gunsmith Cats ... Volume 1 From the golden pen of Kenichi Sonada (Bubblegum Crisis, Riding Bean) and hot from the pages of the best-selling comic book from Dark Horse comes the wildest action heroine to ever stalk the streets of Chicago! She's tall, she's dark, she's Rally Vincent, the professional bounty hunter and gun expert extraordinaire who brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "pistol-packin' mama"! Rally doesn't just pack her own teflon-coated, armor piercing cartridges, she's packed her dynamic debut video as well, with the highest velocity, high-caliber animation entertainment spectacular of 1996, Gunsmith Cats, and it's comin' at ya in February from A.D. Vision! Together with her street-wise, grenade-happy partner, the luscious Minnie-May, Rally's going to clean the scum from the streets of the Windy City with a few quick flicks on the trigger of her trusty pump-action sidearm... for

In the early days of the U.S. anime industry, AD Vision wanted to experiment with releasing more overtly adult titles, so, along came the VHS version of Guy ... Guy 1 Awakening of the Devil Guy's big, he's bad, and when he's aroused he's nearly eighteen feet... tall! His partner, Raina, is a red-headed homicidal sex bomb. A simple salvage operation turns into a nightmare journey to Prison Planet Geo, where sadistic warden Helga has built an illegal Empire based upon white slavery and the illegal exploitation of convicts. But the worst is yet to come, for Dr. Vail, also a resident of this forgotten penal colony, has discovered a horrifying new process that turns hapless inmates into inhuman monsters! The voracious appetites of Vail's creations and Helga's own bizarre tastes transform Geo into a literal hell... but Guy and Raina know what it's like to dare the devil. Guy 2 Second Target After destroying an entire gambling casino (along with the entire

Many years ago, I picked up the VHS version of Guyver ... Guyver Sho Fukamachi, a young school boy, discovers a mysterious metal object. A blinding flash, and Sho finds that he has accidentally fused with the Guyver, an alien bio-armor of unlimited power. To save the life of his girlfriend, Mizuky Segawa, Sho must battle the Chronos Corporation and their biomorphic creatures, the Zoanoids. Only the power of the Guyver can stop Chronos plan's to rule the world. Episode One Genesis of the Guyver The 3 Guyver units are stolen from the enigmatic Chronos corporation in Japan. A high school student named Sho Fukamachi accidentally discovers Guyver Unit 1 and triggers the control metal. He becomes the Guyver and battles biomorphic Zoanoids controlled by Chronos. Episode Two The Battle of the Two Guyvers Risker, an agent of Chronos headquarters, unwittingly joins with the Guyver Unit 2. He abducts Sho and his friend Tetsuro in an attempt to locate the other missing units. Sho s

Sometime before its initial U.S. release, I had heard whispers of  La Blue Girl ... Volume 1 It began centuries ago, when a ninja clan made a deal with the forces of the underworld which led to centuries of struggle between rival clans. And now, after more than 600 years of peace, the denizens of the underworld are about to get a new boss. Miko Mido, a ninja-in-training, is suddenly entrusted with the family business: making sure the sex-starved Shikima stay out of humanity's way. But when the rival Suzuka clan steals the signet case that symbolizes this demonic deal, Miko and her sister Miyu become targets of the most dangerous race of perverts to ever walk the earth. What's a girl to do? Fight back, with every bit of battle skill and sexual sorcery she can muster. But is she strong enough to save Miyu from the clutches of the Shikima in the bowels of the underworld itself? Volume 2 The struggle for power over the world of the Shikima boils over, as Miko, the Suzu

Sunmin Image Pictures, which produced animation for Batman - The Animated Series and Gargoyles , were tapped to animate Lady Death ... A powerful story of innocence lost, savage betrayal and glorious rebirth, Lady Death begins in 15th Century Sweden, where Hope, the beautiful daughter of Matthias - a skilled mercenary who is in actuality Lucifer, the Lord of Lies - is accused of being the devil's consort following a hellish incident witnessed by local villagers. Sentenced by the town priest to be burned at the stake, Hope is visited by the malevolent Pagan as she writhes in pain. Unable to think clearly, she accepts Lucifer's offer of life in Hell over a hideously painful death... only to discover that there are far worse fates than dying. Lucifer's grand plan to corrupt a soul of pure innocence meets unanticipated resistance, as Hope rejects Lucifer's scheme and eventually finds herself transformed into the powerful warrior Lady Death, who challenges the

One of Right Stuf's early releases was  Leda: Fantastic Adventures Of Yohko ... Yohko Asagiri's an ordinary high school student, and she's in love with a boy who doesn't know it. To help things along, she's written a song to explain how she feels... but that song has quite a bit more then a couple of good bridges and a strong middle-eight. Yohko learns this when she's listening to it and is magically transported to Earth's other-dimensional sister world "Ashanti". It turns out that her song is quite popular with the locals... one might say they're breaking down the doors to get the only copy and a stereo to play it. It would also seem that this song has the potential to open a dimensional gateway between Earth (called "Noah" by the locals) and Ashanti wide enough for a conquering force to invade and take over. This is exactly what someone wants to do. And, it's exactly why it was forbidden eons ago by the legendary warrior Led

Years ago, I picked up the VHS version of  Legend Of Lemnear ... An ancient world living under the shadow of evil. It is an age of darkness, of sorcery -and of heroes. As the monstrous legions of the Dark Lord spread across the land, the sole surviving warrior of the devastated village searches for vengeance -Lemnear, the fabled Champion of Silver. As beautiful as she is deadly, she hunts the wizard Gardein and has vowed to kill him and his evil master to avenge the slaughter of her people. But as Lemnear soon discovers, a greater destiny lies ahead than simply being the messenger of revenge. Within her lies an almost invincible power. A power which could change the course of history and free all mankind. A power which the Dark Lord will do anything to possess. And now, from the slave pits of the Dark Lord's servants, to the horror of his impregnable flying fortress, Lemnear must journey to confront the face of pure evil. Can she live up to her role in the prophecy, or will a

An early release from Streamline was the VHS version of Lily Cat ... 2064 A.D.: The star ship Saldes is sent into deep space to explore a newly discovered planet (L.A.O. 3). The journey will take twenty years. The Saldes' crew of thirteen, mixing experienced space jockeys with eager but naive scientists, are prepared for anything - except an unseen alien invader with an insatiable appetite. Plus an ominous force which takes over the ship's controls. And two members of the crew turn out to be mysterious impostors. The voyage becomes a grim struggle for survival in a vessel which has become a coffin orbiting the paradise world which was to be its destination. Lily Cat is essentially an homage to Alien with shades of the John Carpenter version of The Thing . There are some nice effects with mutating creatures, but, it's not all that gory. Some of you, who haven't seen Alien or The Thing , might think that I'm spoiling the ending, but, you should know without hav

Sometime ago, I picked up the VHS version of  Lunatic Night ... An orgy of fun! Contains orgies, a cat-woman, a huge amazon woman, a Sailor Moon look alike and plenty of laughs. This is the tale of the lost king of Atlantis and the magical sex servants who love him! When an erotic nymph discovers her missing master, her one mission is to seduce him back to the exotic lost continent. There, he must pass a series of erotic trials to prove his virility and rise to power once more. With a bevy of adoring subjects, how could he possibly fail? In Lunatic Night , we've got sex kittens (presumably 18 or older) and one lucky guy. It's a H title, so, you know which direction the story will take. On the whole, as an H title, Lunatic Night is average. Given the subject matter, expectations are not high. I used to have the subtitled VHS version. In the aftermath of the  Ultimate Otaku Fall Cleanup , I decided not to keep Lunatic Night  in my archive. I gave Lunatic Night  a 2 out of 5.

I was introduced to the Lupin III franchise when I picked up the VHS version of Castle Of Cagliostro ... The Castle of Cagliostro Whether it's robbing casinos in Monte Carlo or stealing the hearts of beautiful women, nobody does it better than Wolf (alias Lupin III) - gentleman, thief, ladies man and master of disguise. He's a modern-day Robin Hood with more gadgets than James Bond, and no fortune, no matter how well guarded, is safe... When their latest carload of stolen cash turns out to be counterfeit, Wolf and his sharp-shooting sidekick Jingen trace the forgers to the tiny country of Cagliostro, and the forbidding castle of Count Cagliostro himself. Behind the stone walls and the laser defenses, the Count has imprisoned the beautiful princess Clarisse: the girl who holds the secret to the legendary hidden treasure. With the help of lovely gun-toting Fujiko and the unstoppable samurai Goemon, Wolf decides to go after the money, the girl, and the bad guy after all, apart