Angel's Anime Rating Guide

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...