Been a While

Its been a while… Not my fault I assure you all, however many of you that may be. I recently started Uni again and that involved moving into a house with a few friends. This house was not connected to the net at the time, and thus the search for a provider began because we wanted one that would suit our needs and not those of the government. Unfortunately, our ADSL max speed is 4Megs which is alright but we are 3 computer geeks, and therefor a faster connection was needed. So we had to go with the only fibre-optic provider in this nation. So now we have 20Megs (still to be confirmed) and are constantly looking over our shoulders(metaphorically speaking of course).

So, in any case the weekly updates page has been updated once again, and I will continue updating it on a weekly basis, unless there is nothing to update.

Due to the nature of my course, and the fact that I have to cook and clean as well, anime reviews will become even more irregular then they already were, if that is at all possible of course. I will continue to search for good animes but I will not stop watching an anime unless, like air master, it is too unbearable to watch.

Lex Out.

Gantz

Anime: Gantz

View Status: Complete

Number of Episodes: 26

Main Character: Kei Kurono

The Story: Kei Kurono, how to describe him before anything happens. He doesn’t much care for other people, even though, as a kid, he used to, and he didn’t fear anything. So one day he is standing in a subway station minding his own business when someone from his past appears next to him. When a homeless man falls onto the tracks of the subway, his old friend decides to try and save him. So it is no surprise when Masaru sees Kei standing on the platform, that he asks him to help him. Reluctantly Kei jumps down to help his childhood friend and the homeless man. As soon as they heave the man out of danger the train is seen emerging from the tunnel. Running for their lives they both get hit by the train. It gets pretty gruesome, from here on in. Suddenly reappearing in a room with several other people that all think they are dead. Everyone is sitting or standing around a black sphere. If this is not crazy enough for you the sphere begins to sing and weapon compartments open. After this lettering appears on the sphere that tells the people to hunt the alien whose picture is displayed on screen. Kill them or send them to the skies above, those are the choices one has.

The Review: This was one violent show. Every time someone dies my head was screaming ‘what the f***?!’. Gruesome is probably the best description of what happens. Even with all of the violence and death this anime is quite ‘deep’. The characters all carry an inner conflict, this conflict involves either death, violence or intimacy, and they try to overcome it. Early on this anime brings up some very good points on how we see other people’s lives, and their values. If you do not like blood and guts in your animes then this is not an anime for you. That is the main reason for the fact that the highest rating I can give this anime is Watch if you like the Genre. For the type of anime it was it was quite well made. If I was the one writing this anime I would have altered the story somewhat and explained more about what is going on and why. The sound track of the show was quite nice to listen to, and I am currently trying to find the opening and ending themes as I listened to them every time.

On a somewhat more personal note, I must express that I did not like this anime. I am fine with blood in animes, I am fine with nudity( Yes there is nudity. Uncensored nudity.), but what I am not fin with is people’s heads flying off or them being ripped apart, and I don’t like seeing their guts. I think it is only fair that I warn you that all of these are contained in this anime. So if you do watch it. You have been warned.

Side Note: Remember this. Put on the suit.

Lex Out

Samurai Champloo

Anime: Samurai Champloo

View Status: Complete

Number of Episodes: 26

Main Character: Fuu, Mugen, Jin

The Story: The first episode begins rather strangely, an execution is underway and right before the swords make contact, we see modern day Japan, then time is rewound to the Edo era. This Is where the story truly begins, in a Teahouse, where Fuu is working as a waitress. The other main characters are presented to us right after this and placed in different situations that allow them to show their skills. We are switched back and forth between Mugen and Fuu, and Jin. No, the other episodes are not like this they remain constant most of the time. Jin finishes his fight and comes to the Teahouse were Mugen is waiting for some skilled samurai to arrive. A fight between Mugen and Jin erupts because Mugen want to face someone skilled. While they are busy fighting a man burns down the Teahouse with Mugen and Jin still inside. They are consequently captured. In light of her place of employment burning down Fuu decides to find “The samurai that smells of sunflowers,” but she cannot do this alone and her flying squirrel Momo wouldn’t be of much use either. So in exchange for her helping free Mugen and Jin, they will help her find the samurai that smells of sunflowers. This is the deal. During their travels they are confronted with both Mugen’s and Jin’s past. There are also a few crazy episodes which contain no relevance to the main story but are quite amusing.

The Review: Yes I know this anime is from a while back, so I would like you to know that this is not the first time I watch this. I saw this a few years back, while I was still new to anime, or at least watching it in Japanese. Now the review.

I have yet to find an anime that was as well executed as Samurai Champloo. This anime is different to others, the drawings fit perfectly to the story, as does the music. The only negative thing I can say about Samurai Champloo is that occasionally it all gets a bit too random. Seriously, people zombies are overkill in the random department when it comes to a samurai anime. The personalities of Jin and Mugen Balance each other out so perfectly throughout the anime. Fuu keeps everyone focused on their one true goal, because until then, Mugen and Jin are not allowed to see which of them is stronger. The story is told in separate segments but with each episode it seems they come a little closer to finding the Fuu’s samurai. The fights are amazing and the exchanges between Mugen and Jin a nothing less than hilarious. Their styles although completely different sync up perfectly when fighting a common enemy. All in all this anime can be given only one rating, as it is the closest thing to perfect I have seen, and for this Higher Plane is the least I can give.

Side Note: M:“What’s going on here?” J:”Don’t you remember?”

M:”Wasn’t that a dream? All of a sudden, the place started burning, and…”

J:”No it wasn’t.” M:”Oh yeah, you were in a tub butt-naked.”

J:”That was a dream”

Lex Out

Angel Tales

Anime: Angel Tales

View Status: Completed

Number of Episodes: 13

Main Character: Goro Mutsumi

The Story: I seem to keep attracting these weird animes. I mean I kind of guessed that it would be a weird one but… I should probably explain. Mutsumi Goro is really unlucky. You know the guy that gets splashed with water when a car drives by the sidewalk? Well that would be him. Anyway back to the story. He meets a fortune teller on the street who predicts that his luck will change. She leaves him with this statement, and he walks home takes a bath and when he comes out, there are three girls sitting in his living room. Slightly freaked out by all of this, obviously, and not quite understanding what’s going on, who would right? As it turns out these three are his guardian angels and former pets. Every episode more are added on until episode five when the final four are summoned by the previous eight. Yes all of them are girls, ranging from I assume ages 5 to 18, actually the snake seems a bit older now that I think about it, although I can’t really be sure. In the first few episodes some strange people try to kill him, you later find out who these ‘people’ are and why they are trying to kill him.

The Review: Not entirely sure what audience they were aiming this anime at. There are several parts of this anime I would consider to be good, but the story is just too strange, and I am not exactly sure what the moral or message were supposed to be… Actually, I think it’s, ‘be kind to animals’. The drawings are nothing extraordinary, but they are not bad, quite ‘standard’ I guess. For me the weirdest part of all was hearing them call him ‘Master’ the entire time, one more word of Japanese that I will never forget. There is always a half romance going on which is slightly weird, like the cross between how you love and want to protect your siblings and well ‘true love’. This combination confuses the hell out of me, both in anime and in real life. The main story ends at about episode 11 so I assume they only made the final few episodes to make it into a proper half season. The problem with reviewing this anime is that I have no idea what it was trying to achieve, I’m not even sure if the creators themselves knew what they were doing. In any case this anime is not what I can consider bad, seeing as I was able to watch it without injuring myself, yet the terms good or at least interesting cannot be used either. It was mediocre at best, due mostly to the confusing storyline and the incredibly large number of main characters, of which, yes, only one has been listed. The one thing this has affected is my rating system as I am forced to add a new rating which I am calling ‘Meh’.

Side Note: Greetings new rating, you were unexpected, yet you are refreshingly welcome.

Lex Out

Rockman.EXE

Anime: Rockman.EXE (aka Megaman NT Warrior without the censorship)
View Status: Complete
Number of Episodes: 56
Main Character: Netto Hikari, Meiru Sakurai, Enzan Ijuin
Net Navi: Rockman Roll Blues

The Story: Netto is a good net battler, he has the skills but his Net Navi lacks the power of a customized Navi. He receives a letter from his father containing a disk which he loads into his PET (Personal Terminal, formerly Personal Exploration Terminal), and after a good night’s sleep he finds Rockman has appeared on his PET. Slightly disappointed, for his new Navi’s lack in size and warriorness(not a word I know), but still happy Netto makes his way to school, challenging his friend Dekao to a battle after school. During this fight Netto realizes that Rockman is a lot more than he seems as he doesn’t even break a sweat while fighting Gutsman. After all of this the real story emerges as the enemy WWW, World Three, appears. The second enemy that appears in the second half is Gospel, which is an organization much more dangerous than World Three. As Rockman and Netto fight their enemies they make new friends and allies, and learn important skills such as the Program Advance and Style Change. These abilities and the strong bond they have with one another and their friends allow them to master event the greatest of challenges.

The Review: The reason this took so long is that I wasn’t sure whether or not I should include Rockman.EXE Axess as part of the same show. I decided not to do so as the storyline and events differ far too much to consider them the same anime.
I know this seems like a kids show, and it is, the English version more so then the Japanese. For me though, it contains one of the coolest concepts ever thought up. Advanced artificial intelligence and graphical interfaces in every electronic device on the planet. In addition to this your own personal handheld device with A.I. character customized to your needs and imagination. Ever since I saw this I have wanted one. Aside for this the anime is pretty standard though, a main character that learns with every fight, friends he gathers on his ‘journey’, a romance that is always there but never truly develops, am I missing anything? Oh right! The rival that becomes a friend of the main character. The drawings do get better with each season, and new abilities are discovered so the show doesn’t get too old too fast. For showing me a world where my dreams are reality I would give this anime Higher Plane but as this would be the only reason I am going to have to settle with Fun to Watch.

The Style: I am dropping the style section, not fully though, if a really interesting style comes up I will, of course, mention it.

Side Note: Who would I take? I would have to say a cross between Rockman and Blues.

Lex Out

Back from the Break

I just came back yesterday from the states but I was too exhausted to do anything but watch some shows and change the weekly updates page. I am back though and throughout the trip I was watching Rockman.EXE to pass the time on the road to the national parks and monuments. It was all very interesting to say the least, and seeing all those animals up close was pretty cool as well.

So business has resumed as normal or rather will in the next few days and the review of Rockman.EXE should be up soon.

Lex Out.

Midori no Hibi

Anime: Midori no Hibi

View Status: Complete

Number of Episodes: 13

Main Character: Seiji Sawamura, Midori Kasugano

The Story: Seiji Sawamura is a ‘delinquent’, their word not mine, he gets into fights on a regular basis and his classmates fear him because of this. As a result of everyone fearing him, getting a girlfriend has not been easy, or rather impossible. He, as he says, has been rejected 20 times. He has one follower who seems to be quite weak and constantly spouts off how great Seiji is at fighting. One morning Seiji wakes up and finds that a girl has become his right hand… Yes the body part.

This is where the real adventure begins. The girl’s name is Midori and she has had a crush on Seiji for quite some time. Both of them have no idea why they have become this way or how they will become separate again. The story continues that Seiji and Midori have to find a way to live together as they are until they find a way to get everything back to normal. In the mean time Midori tries the fend off the advances of one of Seiji’s classmates.

The Review: I didn’t know what I was watching until about three episodes in. The main reason for this was probably the partial nudity, as soon as I saw I thought I had started watching an ‘H’ series. When the story continued without getting more intense in that department I figured I was in the clear. I thought that the love story of N.H.K ni Youkoso was the strangest ever. I don’t think that I actually wrote it but I was thinking it at the time. Well story leaves N.H.K ni Youkoso in the dust, it is by far the weirdest love story that I have ever seen. I did like this better than N.H.K though. Yes, it brings a whole different category of weird to the table but I liked at least the kitchen appliances didn’t talk and the world wasn’t shroud in a fake conspiracy constantly. They also managed to get quite a bit of fighting into the story which looked cool. Even though, as I have stated, romance animes aren’t my favorite, I didn’t mind watching this one to the end. I wanted to know how it was going to turn out, how she returns to her own body, what happens next? I wanted these questions answered and therefore I could continue watching. As a result of this being the reason I cannot give it a higher than, watch if you like the genre.

The Style: Happy all the way with a bit of evil coming in occasionally. The sister seemed to bring the mood down most of the time, real evil that one.

Side Note: If a girl appears as your right hand… She is probably your soul mate.

Lex Out

The States Break

Hurray the 100 visitors mark has been breached… And even though I’m not sure if I have regular viewers or not, I am still happy. So thank you all for visiting.

Now on to more pressing matters.

I will probably not be posting anything for the next month as my access to computers will be limited in the US. This also means I will not be able to finish watching the anime I have started, as I really should start packing. I I will however be carrying a portable DVD player with me. So I will probably be buying some animes in the states.

All right that’s really all I have at the moment. So all that’s left to say is…

Lex Out, for one month.

Heat Guy J

Anime: Heat Guy J

View Status: Complete

Number of Episodes: 26

Main Character: Daisuke Aurora, J

The Story: The story follows, Daisuke an officer of the Special Services Division, or Special Unit, and his partner, only referred to as ‘J’. Most of the events take place in the oceanic City-Nation of Judoh, where Daisuke and J fight to prevent crimes before they happen. This is the job of the Special Unit. The Unit although underfunded and understaffed works very well to prevent, large amounts of destruction and loss of life, although some damage seems to be inevitable. One of the more amusing bits of the show is that he must ask for a gun and bullets every time he goes on a mission that requires him to do so, but I won’t go into further details as it is best to find out. Then there is J, who always has a statement on what a ‘real man’ is or would do. The main plot although mentioned right at the beginning only actually makes a fully fledged appearance around half way through the series. This plot has to do with events surrounding Daisuke’s father’s death and event s that took place four years prior to the events in the series.

The Review: I really liked this anime. It might have been my obsession for oceanic cities, androids or just my general love for sci-fi in animes. Not mechas though… I don’t like mechas, I don’t know why either. Anyway, I don’t think it was just the above mentioned bits that made me enjoy the show as much as I did. The story was quite well thought out I found, and almost all loose ends were tied up in the end. This anime never got boring, and even when it was slightly confusing, the confusion only added to the story and excitement. This anime had everything from plasma swords to semi-supreme beings, and therefore I think it was good enough to be Higher Plane. I suppose watching this on a large screened TV did increase the viewing experience somewhat.

The Style: The best way I can think of to describe the style is smooth. These drawings were so smooth that it looks like CG images at certain points in the anime. The futuristic images were drawn with much attention to detail. The best example of this is probably the vehicle, I guess you could call it a motorcycle, that Daisuke drives, or the high level system that keeps the city running. The fight scenes were quite nice as well. The color schemes varied by location instead of mood, but for the most part the colors that were appropriate for the location fit the mood as well.

Side Note: All you need are blue tabs, and red tabs for when things get rough.

Thank you Bernd and Chris for this great gift.

Lex Out

N.H.K ni Youkoso

Anime: N.H.K ni Youkoso (Welcome to the N.H.K.)
View Status: Complete
Number of Episodes: 24
Main Character: Satou Tachihiro

The Story: Satou Tachihiro is a Hikikomori, a person who spends the entire time in their own house because they are afraid of human contact. He has been living in his apartment for four years when music starts playing from the apartment next to his. It is the same song 24/7, the main theme to a popular anime, as a result of all of the above he begins to go slightly, well quite, crazy. I will leave out exactly how this manifests as this is one of the funny parts of the anime.

He meets someone that is willing to try and help him overcome his ways to improve his quality of life. There are also some encounters with people from his past and you see the demons they are currently fighting. With some he becomes close with others distant, it all depends on the effect they have on his situation.

The Review: I have to say, I’m not all that big a fan of pure romance animes or of weirdness in animes, and this was… well, it had the weirdness. I’m not exactly sure what this anime was supposed to be about. I’m guessing either, the Hikikomori and Otaku conditions, being needed in this world, making a point about conspiracies or semi-platonic love. I really can’t tell which of these it was meant to be, meh. All in all this anime was alright and I guess if you like a bit of romance and a lot of confusion and weirdness then this is an anime for you, therefore the verdict is: Watch if you like the genre.

The Style: Hahaha… Oh crap. The best I can do for this section is say that the tone of the episode and the situation determines the color scheme. The drawing style stays the same throughout, although it goes crazy when he does, but I assume that is to be expected. I guess you could consider the style average, as there is nothing that really sticks out except when the main character is going crazy(having an episode).

Side Note: The little green men are little blue men in this. Ponder on that.

Lex Out