Angel's Anime Rating Guide

Several years ago, I thought I was going to get a Laser Disc Player, so, naturally I had to have some Laser Discs. Sometimes I'll see a nice cover and I'll just have to have it. That was the case with Tenchi Muyo . Ryoko was standing there on the cover of the laser disc jacket giving me the finger. Well, actually it wasn't *that* finger, but, it was close enough to grab my attention... OVAs Episode 1 Ryoko Resurrected According to legend, a demon is imprisoned in a cave inside the ancient Masaki Shrine in Kurashiki, Japan. When Tenchi Masaki, a student in the local high school and grandson of the shrine master, accidentally breaks the shrine's seal, he discovers that it is not just legend! Awakened from a deep sleep, Ryoko, the demon, in the form of a beautiful young girl, furious to discover she has been imprisoned for over 700 years, launches an all-out attack on Tenchi. Using her amazing powers, including flying through the air, moving through walls, and h...

Originally created as a comic strip by female artist/writer Moto Hagio,  They Were 11  trades on Japanese folklore for its inspiration, Kenji Miyazawa, considered by many the Jules Verne of Japan, once wrote a famous ghost story about eleven children who learned a monster was among them... In the distant future, ten cadets of the prestigious COSMO ACADEMY prepare for their rigorous final exam: an ultimate survival test that sets them adrift in a derelict spaceship for 53 days. During the journey, however, the group of students--composed both of humans and aliens--discover they are actually a group of eleven. One of them does not belong on board! From that moment, the cadets are plunged into mystery. They are unprepared for the anomaly in their mission, and see their lives hanging in the balance. Accusations run rampant as they scrutinize one another for just the right-- or wrong--move. It is a tense situation ripe for bursting and in an explosive climax, it does just ...

When a spell goes awry,  Those Who Hunt Elves  must find five elves with pieces of that spell tattooed on their skin... Original Series Volume 1 Fishy Beginnings (aka Ready, Set, Strip!) When a spell to return them goes awry, three travelers must find five elves with pieces of that spell tattooed on their skin. Junpei, the fighter, has vowed to strip every elf in the land to find the spell, which doesn't please Celcia, the elven leader and priestess who lost the spell in the first place. Junpei, Airi the clever actress, and the deadly young Ritsuko battle fishy pirates, challenge local legends and eventually con Celcia into helping them find the spell that will send them home. Hop aboard their T-74 tank and join Those Who Hunt Elves on the wildest scavenger hunt ever!

Years ago, I picked up Tokyo Private Police ... Volume 1 Japan AD 2034. Crime and violence have reached record highs all around new Tokyo City. Every citizen in Tokyo is involved with some kind of crime every minute. The police have become so inept, that they depend on private security companies to maintain the city's safety. Because of the increase of slums and lower taxes, the police force has been severely downsized. As a result, the crime rate continues to climb at an accelerated pace. This is why among the upper middle class it has become common to hire private security companies to protect themselves. One such company is the Tokio Private Police.

Demons run amok in Tokyo in  Tokyo Revelation ... A satanic program is activated aboard a crowded commercial flight headed for Tokyo. It releases a swarm of invisible demons that send the aircraft plunging to a fiery doom. Everyone aboard is killed instantly - except Akita Kobayashi - owner of the devilish program and sworn ally of hell itself!

Sometime ago, when anime was available on your choice of VHS tape or Laser Disc, I picked up the VHS version of the Toward the Terra movie (circa 1980) released by Right Stuf ... On this world light-years from Earth, if you are Psychic you are also dead. The MU (as these unfortunates are called) are hunted tirelessly by the great computers that control every facet of life. The MU are evil, the people are told, creatures who could destroy everything that their civilization is based on. For centuries, the Mu have been content to exist in an underground society, helping smuggle other MU out from under the Government's watchful eyes. From the MU perspective, there had been no thought of an act of open rebellion. That is, until now. The prophesies now revealed show that there will be a profound change in the MU society, that one will lead them to a new life. This new existence will be free from oppression... and if that means they must leave their own planet to find it, so be it. Per...

Years ago, when all manner of wonderful things were available on video tape, I picked up the VHS version of  Twilight of the Cockroaches ... The story of an impending roach Holocaust in a Tokyo apartment complex, as told from the insects' point of view, wherein the animated insects are the hereos and the live-action humans are the villains. Whether viewed as a diverting action film or as an allegory of genocide, TWILIGHT OF THE COCKROACHES is the most original picture of the year. With its subtle allusions to Hiroshima and Dachau, this comedy has unexpected resonance. You will think twice before getting out that can of Blockade.

I recently added Usavich to the archive... Putin and Kirenenko are two odd inmates stuck in a bizarre Russian prison. Being confined to their small cell does not prevent them from causing a lot of trouble. Within a Soviet prison, lived two rabbit inmates. Both have odd behaviors and spend their everyday life in their cell with something unusual happening. Whether it's meal time from the door obsessed prison guards or a golden opportunity to escape from the slammer.

A while ago, Urban Vision attempted to distinguish itself in the anime marketplace by releasing a handful of horror-themed anime including Twilight Of The Dark Master ... From the beginning of time, Earth has been enslaved by the powerful and grotesque Ogres. The dominance these arrogant immortals hold over their helpless victims is challenged only by the noble Guardians. Eons later, in the year 2089, few Ogres or Guardians remain in Neo-Shinjuku. Humans rule the Earth; yet, deep within the dark underworld of the city, the supreme Ogre is still alive and is preparing, once again, to enslave the Human race. TWILIGHT OF THE DARK MASTER's elaborate story will transport you to a world full of ornate imagery and exotic characters.

Twin Dolls bears some similarity to  La Blue Girl , in that they are both examples of the demons-run-amok genre of adult-oriented anime... Volume 1 They may look like a typical pair of young ladies, but sisters Mai and Ai are anything but normal... extraordinarily beautiful, masters of a dozen martial arts and trained since infancy to become professional demon hunters, they are the Twin Dolls! Being warriors for the force of good, however, can get you into more trouble than being bad, and when a jealous classmate makes an oath to beat the Twin Dolls, she is literally possessed by a green-eyed monster!

Scientific zeal and an ill-timed sneeze leads to  Twin Signal ... Robotics expert Dr. Otoi built Signal to be a powerful companion for his young grandson, Nobuhiko. However, a mishap during Signal's programming led to an unexpected glitch. Every time Nobuhiko sneezes, Signal transforms from a temperamental adult robot into an adorable, chocolate-loving little baby.

In the early days of U.S. anime industry that we all know and love, Urotsukidoji was the first of the erotic horror anime genre to be afforded a wide mainstream release in the U.S. and as it happened, at the time, some mainstream retailers, not realizing that not all cartoons are for kids, mistakenly thought that this was something that could be sold to children... Oops... Chapter 1 Legend of the Overfiend According to legend, the world consists of three dimensions - the Human World, the World of Man-Beasts and the World of Monster Demons. Every 3,000 years, the Overfiend is brought to life through the body of a human to destroy the existing world and unite these three dimensions into a new world of peace and happiness. However, the new world that the Overfiend is supposed to create may be a sickening place of horrendous violence, uncontrollable lusts and supernatural forces beyond comprehension. Is there any hope for humanity? Will The Legend Of The Overfiend become reality?

At first glance, you might think that  Ushio and Tora  is a cross between  Tenchi Muyo  and  Zenki ... Volume 1 Once, long ago, a small village was terrorized by demon, a horrible monster who gobbled up peasants like rice cakes. (This was, obviously, not a good time to be a peasant.) Then, one day, a mysterious stranger appeared and, with a magic spear, pinned the creature's shoulder to a boulder, trapping it forever! In the village there was much rejoicing and all was at peace with the world. That is, until 500 years later, when the stranger's descendent, Ushio Aotsuki, discovers a very alive and extremely irritated demon still pinned in the family basement! Although Ushio doesn't release the fiend, the awakened monster's aura acts like a beacon to other, equally nasty creatures and soon the whole neighborhood is crawling with demons. Lacking any practical demon-banishing experience (and desperate to handle the problem before his father gets home) Ushio deci...

I've always had a fascination with vampires, so, of course, Vampire Princess Miyu  had to come home with me... Volume 1 Vampire Princess Miyu. Is she friend, or fiend? As the demonic forces of the Shinma strive to obtain a foothold upon the mortal plane, Spiritualist Himiko seeks the truth. Join us now for two elegantly chilling journeys into the occult - Japanese style!

Six years ago, I began a three-year subscription to Heavy Metal magazine. When my subscription was due, I promptly renewed my subscription for another three-year period and received a subscription confirmation from Wine magazine. Later, I got another renewal notice from Heavy Metal . I continued to receive subscriptions for another year. Then, around May 2010, my last issue arrived. I wasn't expecting it to be the last issue, it just turned out that way. To be honest, I should have picked up the phone or wrote a letter, but, at first, I just didn't bother. Then, even more shockingly, I allowed myself to forget about the remaining portion of my subscription. I was resigned to just not even think about  Heavy Metal  magazine for the foreseeable future. Then, more than two years later, a mysterious postcard arrived. Dear Heavy Metal Subscriber,

I picked up the VHS version of  Venus Wars ... In the 21st century, mankind lives on two planets - Earth and the now terraformed Venus. People from Earth have colonized the formerly hostile world and have thrived for four generations. But along with those humans came their failings and the dark sides. Now Venus is about to become hostile again. Hiro Seno, a popular hotshot motorcycle racer, caught up in a war he would rather avoid, witnesses the first strike on his country Aphrodia from the malevolent nation of Ishtar. Before his very eyes, he sees the Ishtarian war machines lay waste to his city, and despite his opposition to war, Hiro soon finds himself fighting for his life on the front lines! Meanwhile, Susan Somers, a spunky journalist from Earth, gets caught up in the whirlwind of Venutian political intrigue and espionage that brings her face to face with the deadly leader of the Ishtar himself.

Long ago, when VCRs still stalked the Earth, I picked up  Video Girl Ai ... Volume 1 I'm Here For You Yota Moteuchi is a reasonably happy teenage boy living a reasonably comfortable life in Tokyo. In some ways, he's got the ideal situation. But Yota is lonely. Because he's so shy, Yota (his nickname is "dateless") can't be around normal girls, never mind the love of his life, Moemi. Thrown together during the long course of a date-like day, things had just been looking promising when a tearful Moemi told a stricken Yota her own secret: "There's someone at school that I like, but he doesn't like me back." Out wandering the streets alone, Yota looks up to see a video store he'd never noticed before: Gokuraku ("paradise"). More than a little nervous that someone will catch him in the "adult" section, he chooses one that looks promising, "Video Girl Ai." This is a tale of love lost... and then maybe found aga...

Wanna Be's  is a rare example of wrestling in anime from a time when VCRs still stalked the Earth... In the zany futuristic world of professional ladies' wrestling, the Foxy Ladies reign supreme. To defeat these treacherous and very unfeminine beasts, it seems, would require superhuman strength. The last team you'd ever expect to face these brutes in the ring is the Wanna-be's, a delicate duo, made up of the slight and dainty Eri and Miki. Somehow, the Wanna-be's find themselves scheduled to face the Foxy Ladies in the ring, with only two months of training standing between them and certain cremation. Meanwhile, immediately following the death of his father, Tetsuma Kidou has seized control of the Kidou Corporation. Bio-scientists at the firm have developed a revolutionary strength augmenting drug which has a tremendous efficacy, but is not quite perfected yet. Kidou, nevertheless, has immediate plans for the drug. When he makes the Wanna-be's coach an offer h...

Way back in the misty dawn of time, Critical Mass, Right Stuf's fledgling adult media distributor, released  Weather Report Girl ... Part 1 In For Nasty Weather Things were due to change at ATV. Their television ratings were the worst in the business, and they were about to start losing their advertisers... until she came. Keiko was only supposed to fill in for one night's 9 o'clock weather cast. No one at the station knew that their ratings would skyrocket if Keiko just showed a little skin on the air. No one, that is, but Keiko. The ratings soar. The fan mail arrives in droves. The board is happy. Everything becomes right with the world. Well, maybe...

Sometime ago, I picked up the VHS version of  Shinesman ... The Special Duty Combat Unit Shinesman. Hiroya Matsumoto, hoping to become a great employee like his late father, has just been hired at Right Corporation, a top trading company. Little does he know that he's been recruited for a very mysterious department within the company - the Special Duty Combat Unit: SHINESMAN... which must face a terrible alien menace unbeknownst to Earth. Like most corporate employees, Hiroya still has meetings to attend and deadlines to meet, but when the SHINESMAN team wage war against the alien race from the Planet Voice, Hiroya and his co-workers don their office-colored combat unit suits: sepia, gray, moss green red and salmon pink.

Lately, I decided to revisit Serial Experiments Lain ... Volume 1 Navi We're all Connected... There is a world around us, a world of people, tactile sensation and culture. There is a wired world, inside the computer, of images, personalities, virtual experiences, and a culture all of its own. The day after a classmate commits suicide, lain, a thirteen year-old girl, discovers how closely the two worlds are linked when she receives an e-mail from the dead girl: I just abandoned my body. I still live here... Has the line between the real world and the wired world begun to blur?

Related Posts Confessions of a Pascal Programmer A History Of The Anime Ratings Guide Ultimate Otaku Fall Cleanup Years ago, the Anime Rating Guide was hosted elsewhere and the navigation system that I devised for the site would allow visitors to explore all of the titles in the site in alphabetical order. The process I came up with, used a system of meta tags that would indicate what the next and previous titles where in the navigation. There was a certain amount of overhead involved in setting up the meta tags, but, once established, it was very easy to maintain.

A while ago, AnimEigo released Baoh ... A secret organization called "Doress" has funded the development of a genetically engineered parasite code-named "Baoh". Organisms infected by Baoh become living survival machines, virtually indestructible, able to mutate their body structure to meet any threat. Properly controlled, the Baoh parasite could allow Doress to control the World.

I first discovered a fansub version of  Bastard!  at a comic book convention a year or so before its official US release... Volume 1 Resurrection A lone warlock freed from years of imprisonment, stands against an army of destruction bent on world conquest and the resurrection of an ancient evil, Ansla-Sax. But Dark Schneider is not protecting the desperate people of Meta-Rikana out of the goodness of his heart. After all, they were the ones who imprisoned him for leading this same army against their city for the first time. However, he's not about to let his old army show him up. Besides, his new girlfriend is counting on him and it's been awhile since he had some fun.

Battle Angel  was one of those titles that showed up without much fan fare, but, really made a lasting impression on the early anime community... Gally... a cool and efficient bounty hunter, armed with knife, fists and a lethal metal body. She is the Battle Angel; a Hunter-Warrior paid by "The Factory" to eliminate Scrap Iron City's most wanted and dangerous criminals. Raised by Cyber-Doctor Ido, who found her broken cyborg body in the rubble beneath the Sky city of Zalem, she has no memory of the past and an even more uncertain future. A pawn in a game played with living pieces, Gally finds herself set into motion against such foes as brutal spine thieves, the brain-eating gladiator Greweicia, the sinister Mr. Vector and the beautiful but ruthless Dr. Chiren. The greatest threat of all, however, comes from Gally's own employers. When the mysterious Factory orders the execution of her best friend, Gally must make a terrible choice between her own code of honor and t...

In Birdy the Mighty , we are treated to the rather small sub-genre of anime featuring a half-girl-alien-half-guy buddy cop adventure... OVA Volume 1 Double Trouble Meet Tsutomu and Birdy - a boy and a girl from opposite ends of the galaxy with absolutely nothing in common. Tsutomu was an ordinary high school student. Birdy's a maverick Space Federation Officer armed with superhuman strength and - as Tsutomu soon discovers - a devastating energy blast.

Cat Planet Cuties  was one of a handful of releases that I just HAD to have... She's as frisky as she is curvy - and kitty wants to play! The flirty fun begins when nice guy Kio has a close encounter with a sexy, alien cat-girl named Eris. She's every nerd's fantasy come true, and she and her fellow intergalactic felines are setting up base in Kio's house. Unfortunately, Kio doesn't have a lot of time for heavy petting. Secret agencies and enemy dog-aliens are sniffing around, hoping to get their paws on his pussycat pal's tail! The guy's definitely got his hands full - but with Eris jumping in his lap to purr in his ear, it's likely Kio will land on his feet!

Many years ago, I used to watch Battle of the Planets  on broadcast TV... Planet Spectra's evil leaders have targeted Earth along with all of the members of the Federation of Peaceful Planets. Their goal? Nothing short of enslaving these planets and capturing all of their natural resources for their own dying world! The Luminous One and Zoltar will stop at nothing to cause as much fear and destruction as possible. Fortunately for the galaxy, G-Force is ready for them - Mark, Jason, Princess, Keyop, and Tiny are on duty to protect everyone from hostile enemy invasion attempts. This team of five powerful youngsters is the primary force on-hand to stop Spectra and its allies.