Angel's Anime Rating Guide

I saw Sailor Moon on broadcast TV years ago... TV Series Season 1 Volume 1 Usagi Tsukino is a cheerful 14-year-old schoolgirl who often finds herself in unwanted trouble. One day, she saves a talking cat named Luna from some mean kids, and her life is changed forever. Luna gives Usagi a magic brooch that transforms her into Sailor Moon, defender of love and justice! Now Usagi must work with Luna to find the other Sailor Guardians and the Moon Princess, whose Legendary Silver Crystal is Earth's only hope against the dark forces of the evil Queen Beryl! Volume 2 Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury, and Sailor Mars continue their quest for the Legendary Silver Crystal as two new powerful allies join the fight. Sailor Jupiter is the tall and tough Guardian of Thunder, and Sailor Venus is the Guardian of Love and the most experienced member. Sailor Moon herself gets an impressive new power and learns more about the mysterious Tuxedo Mask. Could their distant past be intertwined, and

Over the weekend, I picked up A Letter To Momo ... The last time Momo saw her father, they had a fight. Now all she has left to remember him by is an incomplete letter penned with the words "Dear Momo," but nothing more. Moving with her mother to the remote Japanese island of Shio, Momo soon discovers three Yokai living in her attic, a trio of mischievous spirit creatures that only she can see and who create mayhem in the tiny seaside community as she tries desperately to keep them hidden. But these funny monsters have a serious side and may hold the key to helping Momo discover what her father had been trying to tell her. A Letter To Momo seemed like something I might like and as it sat on the shelf at my local video store, it whispered "buy me", so I did... According to Wikipedia ... It was announced that the director, Hiroyuki Okiura will be in charge of this film. His previous work as a director includes the 2000 film Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade. The film,

Within the last few days, I picked up  Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet ... In the distant future, Ledo, a young soldier from space, wakes up and finds himself marooned on an ocean planet. Growing up in space and knowing nothing but battle, he is a stranger in a strange land, full of odd customs and a foreign language, but he's not alone. Starting a new journey on this verdurous planet, Ledo must find a way to survive and reconcile the fact that he may never be able to return home! As a general rule, I'm not a fan of the giant robot genre of anime. There are exceptions, of course, but, as a general rule, if I see giant robots, I tend to stay away. So, Imagine my surprise, when Gargantia came home with me... According to Wikipedia ... [Writer,] Gen Urobuchi explained on the official website that the message of the story is aimed towards those in their teens and 20s, who are either about to enter into society or recently have, and is meant to cheer them on and to encourag

I stopped by AnimeNation  today and found the following note from Gene Field : After 20 years, we've decided to get out of the retail game. A heartfelt thanks to all our great customers over the years, and all of the terrific employees that made AnimeNation a fun & dynamic place to work. At times it's been a dream come true. We've been doing this a long time though, and it's just time to move on to new and different challenges. If you have an existing order with us, you will receive an email with details specific to your order. If not, you can still contact [us] with questions about cancellations, refunds, shipment tracking, etc... To all in the anime community who have supported us over the years, again, thank you. It's been quite a while (almost seven years) since I last ordered anything from AnimeNation , preferring instead to support another, much larger anime e-tailer. I suppose that might have been one of the issues that plagued the AnimeNation bus

A couple years ago, I picked up Princess Jellyfish ... Plain, timid and obsessed with jellyfish, Tsukimi is a far cry from her idea of a princess. Her tepid life as a jobless illustrator comes complete with roommates who harbor diehard hobbies that solidify their status as hopeless social rejects. These wallflowers run a tight nun-like ship, but their no-men-allowed-not-no-one-not-no-how bubble is unwittingly burst after Tsukimi brings home a rescued sea jelly and a beauty queen - who's actually a guy. When threat of losing their cozy convent inspires this glamour boy to turn the neurotic entourage into a portrait of success, will Tsukimi take her chance to bloom or will she end up a hot mess? It took a while, but, I've finally gotten around to watching Princess Jellyfish . Coming right on the heels of Squid Girl , I decided to set Princess Jellyfish aside for a while. Recently, I came across a preview for Princess Jellyfish . Apparently, the series is being re-released i

Recently, I picked up Yuyushiki ... Everyone knows you can learn a lot on the internet, and some of it is even true. But if you want to know what's REALLY going on and important, then there's just one place to go: the computer club! Okay, so maybe it's not the club itself, but the three girls you're most likely to find there. And maybe they do spend more time chatting about their social lives and debating things like the virtues of ketchup versus mayonnaise than they do learning about the ins and outs of a keyboard, but whatever they're up to, it's sure to put a smile on your face. So come learn what the mysterious YuiYukari Formula is all about and join serious Yui, hyperactive Yuzuko and lovable but not quite in touch with reality Yukari as they experience life's ups, downs, surprises, and occasionally, the internet! According to Wikipedia ... Yuyushiki is a Japanese 4-panel manga series written and illustrated by Komata Mikami, which began serial

I picked up Servant x Service ... Lucy (abbrev.) Yamagami is a newly-hired civil servant who has been assigned to work in a certain government ward office in a certain city in Hokkaido Prefecture. Not only does Lucy have so many things to learn at her new job, she needs to do all of that in the company of her colleagues, who are all more than a little eccentric. If you thought a job as a government employee was dull, you better think again! Lucy and her colleagues, actively and covertly (?!) serve their community every day! *This story has no connection to actual public officials. Given the unusual subject matter, it comes as no surprise that my local brick and mortar video store doesn't love me enough to stock this specialty item on its shelves, but, I quickly got over my disappointment and ordered this item from my favorite anime e-tailer. Servant x Service is a nice little slice-of-life situation-comedy about what it might be like to be a civil servant in a fictional Jap

I picked up Appleseed Alpha ... Left to survive in a post-World War society, two mercenary soldiers - Deunan and her cyborg partner Briareos – are sent on a mission on the outskirts of their war-torn city. During the operation, they run into Iris and Olson, two citizens from the utopian city of Olympus, who might have a way to save the world but the ruthless Talos and the scheming warlord Two Horns have their own plans. It's up to Deunan and Briareos to safeguard their newfound contacts and help save humanity's last hope. Appleseed Alpha takes place before Deunan and Briareos make their way to Olympus. The character of Two Horns seemed to come out of nowhere, since my experience with Appleseed has been confined to the anime. But, after doing a bit of research, I learned that Two Horns is actually a character from the manga side of the Appleseed franchise. According to an interview of Masamune Shirow with IGN : The last two Appleseed films were made using a toonshade st

Over the weekend, I picked up Karneval ... Circus is a super-powered security force of entertainers who keep villains off the streets by serving up justice with a side of razzle-dazzle. Despite their best efforts, a sinister organization named Kafka is gaining power throughout the world using grotesque monsters to carry out their plots. When Circus saves a mysterious boy from Kafka's grasp, the kid gets swept up in the crime-fighting spectacle - but why was Kafka after him in the first place? Karneval was high up on the list of titles that I wanted to have. I had seen previews for Karneval and it looked really, really good. I guess that's what previews are supposed to do... I've finished watching Karneval . While Karneval , started out very well, the series seemed to lose a bit of momentum about two-thirds of the way through and I lost interest just before the climactic finish. While there is a decent amount of action in the series, the overall pace of the series is a

This weekend, I went to the Wizard World Comic Con in Philadelphia. It's been a while since I was last at Comic Con. This year, instead of travelling alone, I decided to take my nephew along. Also, since there was more publicity in advance of the event, I decided to order tickets online. Last week, I picked up an American Express gift card for slightly more than the amount I would need for two tickets. I knew from previous experience, that the gift card needed to be registered in order to use it online, so, I dialed the number on the back of the card and navigated through the maze of options until I found the one that would put me in touch with an actual person. The registration process took longer than expected because it wasn't immediately obvious that I had to select something I didn't really want in order to get to another menu in the navigation system that would give me the option to speak with a person. I don't know why American Express needs to make the process

Not too long ago, Dog & Scissors came home with me... Harumi Kazuhito was the ultimate bookworm, spending days at a time with his head buried in his beloved books, and little could make him happier than perusing the pages of his favorite author, Kirihime Natsuno. Unfortunately, Harumi's life goes to the dogs - literally - when he gets himself killed while trying to stop a robber! Thanks to the power of a true bookworm, however, Harumi inexplicably finds himself reincarnated as a dog... which might not be so bad if dogs could read. Or if the woman who adopts him didn't have twin predilections for playing with scissors and tormenting her new pet! But what truly makes this strange reincarnation the worst of all possible worlds is that she's also his favorite author! The horror! Can Harumi find a way to live with this tantrum-throwing typist, or will her crazed clippings prove to be his undoing? Can he escape her constant hounding via the doggy door, or is he barking u

Recently, I picked up Koe de Oshigoto ... When 16-year-old high school student Kanna Aoyagi's older sister encourages her to become an adult video game voice actress, Kanna is hesitant. After thinking about all the things her sister has done for her, and how much she owes her, Kanna finally agrees. But can a high school student who knows nothing about adult video games really do the job? According to Anime News Network : North American anime distributor Media Blasters reported on Friday that the second batch of its Koe de Oshigoto! DVD release has an error where the DVD would go back to the menu at the end of each chapter. Media Blasters is offering to replace affected DVDs if customers send their DVDs back to the company. The first batch of the DVDs has no reported problems. Guess what? Lucky me. I'm in the second batch... I've actually seen both episodes. Even with the annoying glitch, I'm quite pleased with the show. By the way, to watch the show with the glitc

Recently, in the aftermath of the Attack Of The Mushroom People , and in the tradition of the Ultimate Otaku Fall Cleanup , I came to the realization that I had to reorganize the DVD collection. In all, I have about 4100 DVDs. It took several hours to unload the shelves in the center, shift everything over about a foot and reload the shelves. After the initial phase of reorganization, I ended up losing space in the corner, where two banks of shelves intersect. I'm not entirely sure how to make use of that dead space in the corner, but, for the time being, I have some old magazines hidden in that space that are doing double duty as book ends. Some of the DVDs (mostly anime) are hiding under the bed. Also, the bank of shelves in the center and on the right have two rows of DVDs. The center bank is where a good sized chunk of my anime is hidden (the important thing is that I know it's there) and the bank on the right conceals many of my DVD box sets. To conserve addition

Psycho-Pass  said "buy me", so I did... Season 1 Volume 1 Welcome to a world where just thinking about a crime is enough to enough to make you guilty. Bad intentions can no longer be hidden, and the police know exactly which tainted minds are about to cross over to the wrong side of the law. The great equalizer in the war on thugs is the Dominator, a futuristic weapon that can read minds and assess the risk that a citizen will turn criminal. Cops work in teams made up of Enforcers and Inspectors. Enforcers take out the bad guys, Inspectors stop their partners from going rogue, and the all-powerful Sibyl System keeps a watchful eye on us all. Society is paralyzed by its deepest, darkest desires, and trial by jury has been replaced by the wrath of the Dominator. Welcome to the future. How guilty are you? Volume 2 The Sibyl System was meant to grind all criminal activity to a permanent halt, but something's gone horribly wrong. A deranged genius known as Makishima ha

Within the last few days, I picked up Jormungand ... Jonah is a child soldier and the newest bodyguard for Koko, an international arms dealer with an entourage of hired guns. The cold-blooded kid hates Koko's line of work, but following her into the darkest corners of the black market might be the only way he can find those responsible for his family's slaughter. Besides, his employer isn't like most merchants of death. She uses guile and cutthroat tactics to keep her clients armed to the teeth - all while cultivating her own warped plan for the future of world peace. With the CIA desperate for her capture, assassins eager to collect her head, and the potential for every contract to end in ultra-violence, Koko and her comrades in arms bring the boom to every corner of the world. At first glance, Jormungand reminded me of Black Lagoon . I enjoyed Black Lagoon , so, I thought it might be nice to have a look at Jormungand ... While John , a contributor to the AnimeN

Recently, I ordered  So, I Can't Play H ... Never make a deal with a wet goddess you've only just met. That's a lesson Ryosuke Kaga learns the hard way when he foolishly agrees to let Lisara Restole use some of his "essence" to stay in this world. Despite her smoking-hot appearance, Lisara's actually a Shinigami, a Goddess of Death. However, she doesn't steal years off his life like any decent Shinigami would do. Oh no, instead she sucks off his lecherous spirit, draining his ability to enjoy... well, the things that teenage boys normally spend most of their time thinking about! Now the poor degenerate's only hope of getting his licentiousness renewed is to join the Lisara on her quest, since when she leaves our mortal plane he regains his normal immorality! But Shinigami can be really harsh mistresses, and it's going to be anything but easy to go back to being sleazy! My local video store didn't carry it, so, I had to order it from my fav