Angel's Anime Rating Guide

Not long ago, I had the opportunity to watch Angel's Egg aka Tenshi no Tamago ... A mysterious young girl wanders a desolate, otherworldly landscape, carrying a large egg. The young girl is the sole protector of a very precious, large egg. Her lair is near a large, abandoned, decaying gothic city inhabited by restless shadows. A mysterious young man arrives one day, and eventually wins her trust. I had heard about this rather enigmatic title a while ago, but, not long ago, I decided to venture out into the depths of YouTube to track it down. According to the  Anime Encyclopedia by Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy (page 14). ISBN# 1-880656-64-7... Plotless and highly symbolic with hardly any dialogue, reputedly a stream-of-consciousness exercise by [Mamoru] Oshii, the film features his trademark Christian imagery and an inexplicable passage through the town of soldiers with motorized artillery. Surreal elements recall Oshii's work on URUSEI YATSURA, including spaces...

A few days ago, I stumbled into Hazbin Hotel ... Hazbin Hotel is the story of Charlie, the princess of Hell, as she pursues her seemingly impossible goal of rehabilitating demons to peacefully reduce overpopulation in her kingdom. She opens a hotel in hopes that patients will be "checking out" into Heaven. While most of Hell mocks her goal, her devoted partner Vaggie, and their first test subject, adult film-star Angel Dust, stick by her side. When a powerful entity known as the "Radio Demon" reaches out to Charlie to assist in her endeavors, her crazy dream is given a chance to become a reality. Hazbin Hotel is a pilot episode for a yet-to-be-produced animated series and is the brain child of visionary animator, Vivienne Medrano . Vivienne aka Vivziepop on YouTube has produced a handful of pilots for prospective series like Hazbin Hotel as well as animated shorts, a number of discussions about animation and of course, speed drawing sessions. While there are ...

While researching a handful of Dr. Seuss titles in my collection, I came across a live action trailer for Dr. Seuss' Butter Battle Book . I had to share... The Butter Battle Book, Dr. Seuss's classic cautionary tale, introduces us to the important lesson of respecting differences. The Yooks and Zooks share a love of buttered bread, but animosity brews between the two groups because they prefer to enjoy the tasty treat differently. According to Ben Reyes of Capital Arts Productions , the production company behind the short: [This is] a short trailer created for the Ottawa Public Library. It's a live action rendition of Dr Seuss' allegory to the Cold War: The Butter Battle Book. It also pays homage to Dr Strangelove. A huge thank you goes out the Diefenbunker for letting us film in their facility! ...The wall is part of a picture that I photoshopped into a bigger wall, and then using motion tracking software I was able to composite it into the shot. In the a...

Sometime ago, I noticed a post on the AnimeNation forum regarding an animated commercial --  Xi Avant ... Xi Avant, director Kenji Kamiyama’s (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society) three-and-a-half-minute short film is set in Spain and other locales in the near future, and features the NTT Docomo mobile phone network's next-generation Xi service. Xi Avant is a commercial for a data network, which in the short anime, is being used to do things like automatic scheduling and reservations, interacting with other systems like the computer in a car to automatically setup the vehicle for a given user's preferences and advanced tasks such as lip reading from a video with simultaneous translations and facial recognition using multiple video inputs. The story concerns a young man looking for someone somewhere in the world. Eventually, thanks to technology, the young man successfully completes his search. Xi Avant was originally released in four parts with...

I've been a fan of Thundercats since the series premiered in Philly in the mid-1980s. So, imagine my surprise when I heard that there was going to be a new Thundercats reboot with a comedy twist, not unlike Teen Titans Go . It looks interesting, but, I can't say with a straight face, that I'm really excited about this new incarnation of the classic series. I'll keep an open mind, but, I do have some doubts. While the angel on my shoulder would like this incarnation of Thundercats to succeed, the devil on the opposite shoulder doesn't like seeing Thundercats as a comedy and has whispered in my ear that the series should crash and burn. By the way, I can't say that I'm a fan of Lion-O's weird ears. They're not quite elf ears or cat ears... Some people have described them as cow ears. Moving on. The rebooted series is expected to air on  Cartoon Network  sometime in 2019.

Over the weekend, I saw the animated short, Scavengers on Cartoon Network ... According to Creator's Vice ... Stranded on an strange planet, two surviving crew members of a colonial starship perform a series of bizarre rituals using alien flora and fauna in Joseph Bennett and Charles Huettner's short film, Scavengers. Each step in the mysterious ritual prompts more questions than the last, from... What are they doing?... to... How did they learn all this stuff?... and ending with... Will I ever understand this crazy world? Scavengers tells the story of two colonists stranded on a remote planet as they perform a complicated series of interconnected tasks to achieve their goal. At the outset, the viewer does not know what the colonists are trying to do, but, by the end, there is a sense of accomplishment. At about eight minutes, the feature is fairly short, but, manages to tell a story in its own way, and does so, without any spoken dialogue. I enjoyed the feature en...

A few years ago, I picked up the broadcast (TV 14) version of  Sankarea , then sometime later, I picked up the uncut (TV MA) version of Sankarea . Recently, I was inspired to perform a side-by-side comparison of the two versions. Why? It seemed like a good idea at the time... Zombie-obsessed Furuya is making a potion to reanimate his dead cat when he meets Rea. She's about as miserable as a girl can get, thanks to her creepy, domineering father. When the pain becomes too much, she tries to commit suicide with a sip of Furuya's weird elixir. The potion doesn't kill her but it does turn her into a zombie after she falls from a cliff. Now that Rea's undead and ready to finally live, she hides out with Furuya, who's always dreamed of having a zombie girlfriend. Their one-of-a-kind relationship comes with some challenges, like the fact that Rea is decomposing. Even worse, her freak-show dad is dangerously determined to get her back under his control. As Furuya fights...

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, the 20th anniversary edition that I have on DVD and the newest re-release of the 30th anniversary edition 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 mu...

Sometime ago, I heard of a fan effort to produce a feature film set in the Star Trek universe. I let the thought drift away for a while. Then, recently, the project came back to the forefront after a lawsuit against the fan production came to light. Recently, I had a look at Prelude To Axanar ... According to IMDB ... Prelude to Axanar is an independent Star Trek project that tells the story of Captain Kirk's hero, Garth of Izar, during the war between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. It is shot as a documentary and is the back story for the forthcoming feature 'Axanar'. Prelude to Axanar received $ 101,000 in a successful Kickstarter campaign and the finished film helped the Axanar team raise $ 638,000 in their second Kickstarter for the upcoming feature film. I've seen  Prelude To Axanar  and it is really quite impressive. Most of the film is in the form of a documentary with interviews from some of the survivors of the Battle of Axanar. Between th...

I was trawling the bargain bin at my favorite online anime e-tailer and look what came home with me -- Akihabara Geeks ... Akihabara is a neighborhood of Tokyo, Japan known as "Electric Town" for its rows of one-meter wide discount computer and electronics stores. In more recent years, Akihabara has evolved into a full-blown mecca for computer enthusiasts, anime and manga fans, doll or "figure" collectors, video gamers and "Otaku" of all kinds. Because Akihabara caters to interests outside of mainstream Japanese society, it captivates an entire subculture of devotees. Join us as we peruse the shops, streets and Maid Cafes to present an engrossing day in the life view of Akihabara, and focus on the unique people who are passionately plugged into this town. Akihabara Geeks  bares some similarity to Otaku No Video in that they are both related to fans and fanatics of certain aspects of Japanese culture.  Akihabara Geeks has less of a focus on anime tha...

Sometime ago, when VCRs still stalked the Earth, I saw a preview for the live-action Zeiram movie... Live Action Zeiram 1 What's Zeiram? Zeiram is a giant renegade space alien who is lured to Earth for capture by beings from the planet Mays. What do you need to catch Zeiram? The standard issue warp machine, space bazooka, electric shield, and a computer named Bob. A breakthrough in futuristic space adventure, ZEIRAM is fresh and intensely visual sci-fi about a single night's battle between a female bounty hunter and a monstrous space alien. Fueled by action, drama, and comedy, ZEIRAM is a movie that rockets you into the next dimension! Zeiram 2 Finishing up an important case, the beautiful bounty hunter Iria returns to Earth. Along with her computer, Bob, and her assistant, Fujicrow, she is also assigned an android trainee. Unfortunately, the research team charged with building the android decided to implant the android with the most cunning combat lifeform in the un...

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. The postcard bore the following image and made the following bizarre assertions: Dear Heavy Metal Subscriber, Your subscription is current and all of your iss...

Years ago, I picked up the VHS version of Cosplay Encyclopedia ... Find out everything that you've always wanted to know about costume play! Akemi Matsuzawa, former anchorwoman of the popular nightly television program Tonight II, presents the ultimate video guide to costume play. Lavishly dressed players gather one after another to let you in on their costume design secrets! STOP! 'What the heck is CosPlay?' you might be thinking. Take a crowded convention center; fill it with raving fans; dress those fans in the elaborate costumes of their favorite anime characters; and... BAM! You've got yourself CosPlay. This encyclopedia gives Western anime fans a detailed view of the Japanese CosPlay phenomenon. Featuring characters from some of today's most popular anime series such as Magic Knight Rayearth, Sailor Moon, Sorcerer Hunters and Evangelion... and characters from video game favorites like Soul Blade, Battle Arena Toshinden and Fighting Vipers. In Cosplay En...

I picked up the live-action movie, Ichi: The Killer and the corresponding anime, Ichi: Episode Zero ... Movie - Live Action Welcome to a world where violence is virtue and depravity a way of life. It is the underside of Shinjuku, and the home of Kakihara, a sadistic yakuza killer. The mastermind Jijii is an ex-cop bent on turning the gangsters of Japan against each other. His trump card is a physically powerful lunatic always on the verge of snapping. This madman is Ichi the Killer, and between him and Kakihara, the streets will bleed. Episode Zero - Anime The mind-shattering prequel to the hit cult thriller, Ichi the Killer! A masochistic mobster meets his match in the dark streets of Tokyo. His nemesis, Ichi, is a psychopathic killer with an unrelenting thirst for bloodshed. A horrifying secret burns in his mind, and his hands deal death without mercy. At last, the shrouds of mystery are parted to reveal the origin of the monster. The city will know its greatest fear at th...

Leave it to AnimEigo to have released one of the rare gems in anime,  Otaku no Video ... A true treat for true fans of any genre, Otaku no Video ("Fan's Video") is an outrageous mockumentary that combines the superb animation' that made Gainax one of Japan's best-loved animation studios with truly strange interviews with "real fans." The result is a thinly fictionalized history of Gainax that segues into a truly strange SF adventure. Sit back and enjoy as a small band of Otaku (fans) set out to "Otakunize" the human race! AnimEigo's special presentation of Otaku no Video contains both episodes: Otaku no Video 1982 and More Otaku no Video 1985. According to the liner notes for Otaku no Video ... "Otaku no Video" (lit. "Your video") is a phrase that was overused among videophiles. Since they overused the word "otaku" (a very formal, unusual way of saying "you," or "your house," norm...

Sometime in the late-90s, I picked up the Satanika promotional music video on VHS... The popular Verotik comic character Satanika comes to life in full Japanese animation. Produced by Mad House Studios. ("X". Ninja Scroll, Wicked City) this beautiful anime pilot features story boards by the renowned Rintaro and character designs by Yoshiaki Kawajiri. Also included are interviews with the series creator Glenn Danzig and Mad House staff Rintaro, Takuji Endoh and Mad House producer Masao Maruyarna. Plus a tour inside Mad House Studios. Japanese anime fans and Satanika fans alike will all want to own this fantastic and powerful video. ----- Essentially, Satanika is a promotional music video (about 2-3 minutes) featuring the talents of Mad House Studios (Ninja Scroll and Wicked City) and about 25 minutes worth of interviews. According to John , a contributor to the AnimeNation new blog... Satanika was an original character created by Danzig lead singer Glenn Danzig’s com...

When browsing the blog with my keyboard Kindle, I noticed that the user experience was not really all that inviting. The blog has a mobile template, but, apparently, the Kindle isn't considered a mobile device, so, the standard template appeared instead. The navigation menu on the right side of the page was causing my page to appear in the less-than-appealing zoom-browsing-mode on the Kindle. So, I decided to move the navigation menu to the bottom of the page. Now, the blog entries fit very nicely within the bounds of the Kindle's margins without triggering the dreaded zoom-browsing-mode. December 22, 2011 Update Recently, I realized that the tabs at the top of the page don't work very well when pointing to external links. So, I had to remove the offending tab for the time being. There is a work-around that involves creating a blank page and adding a meta refresh tag to the page's html, but, that seems a bit inelegant and will probably fail in browsers that do n...

Over the weekend, I saw L5: First City in Space ... Set 100 years in the future, L5: FIRST CITY IN SPACE is a story told in flashback by the first child born in space. The film combines incredible computer-generated imagery, actual footage taken of space expeditions and scientific data to create a compelling vision of how humans may live and travel in our solar system in the next century. I was poking around the dial and came across L5 on the Documentary Channel and decided to add it to the archive. At just under 35 minutes, L5 is fairly short. The story-telling is a bit dry, but, is still reasonably entertaining. The special effects are actually quite good -- it would probably be even better on the big screen. Overall, although L5 exhibits some shortcomings, I was still very pleased with the feature.

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 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,...