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

Naruto

Anime: Naruto

View Status: Complete

Number of Episodes: 220

Main Character: Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi

The Story: 12 years before the story begins, the nine tailed fox demon or Kyubi was sealed inside the newborn child Naruto by the Forth Hokage(Leader of the Village), during this deed he gave up his own life. His hope was that Naruto would be seen as the child who saved the village from further Kyubi destruction. Instead he was treated as an outcast.

Naruto wants to become the Hokage so that he is finally acknowledged by everyone in the village, as they see him not as their savior but as their possible destroyer. The Third Hokage sought to rectify this in making it forbidden to even mention the demon fox. This however did not stop the parents from treating him like an outcast and the children picked up on this and did the same.

The first person that truly acknowledges him is his teacher when Naruto saves his life. In doing this he graduates from the academy and becomes a Genin(lowest rank ninja). The new Genin in the village are split up into teams and placed with a Jonin(high rank ninja) as their new teacher and leader.

During every mission and story arc Naruto gains the acknowledgement and friendship of more of his fellow Genin, and occasionally his enemies. It follows the character and skill development of all the members of team seven in Naruto’s quest to become Hokage and Sasuke’s quest to kill his brother and also it seems Sakura’s quest to be loved by Sasuke.

The Review: Now, I really liked this anime as it brought a whole new view into what I viewed as ninjas. Yes, it is a kids show and at times is therefore quite childish, but this anime is all about trust in your friends and receiving the acknowledgement of others. Also some pretty good ideas on how not to act in from of your crush. Back to why you should watch it though. This is like a prequel to a good story, the story being Naruto Shippuuden, which is now out. About 210 episodes, I am not counting fillers because they are useless, which give one a better idea of what is going on in Shippuuden. This may seem excessive and it probably, but the show itself, the fight scenes, the different techniques, it all comes together to bring you an anime that is truly addictive. Once you have seen the first 10 episodes you will not want to stop until you have seen them all. I like to compare this show to Dragonball Z, not because they are similar in story, but because you can’t stop wanting to know what happens next, and occasionally there are the long staring contest like scenes, oh and of course the calling out your attack before you do it. In my eyes it is the better, drawn, storyline and plot having, plot-twisting, version of Dragonball Z. Fun to watch is the verdict.

The Style: The style is not entirely up to the standards of today’s animes but it is a lot better than the older of the pack. Most of the time the colors are bright and cheerful, but during the fights and more sad or dark scenes the color scheme changes to darker almost evil. There are a few moments in the show were the style goes into the ridiculous as it does with most children’s animes, but these are forgiven when the fight begins.

Side Note: Naruto Shippuuden is like an improved version of Naruto. The thing is that Shippuuden rest on the facts of Naruto and without the knowledge about the world, skills and ninjas gained from watching the original you won’t have a clue about what’s going on.

Lex Out

One Piece

Anime: One Piece

View Status: Incomplete

Number of Episodes: 356 Currently

Main Character: Monkey D Luffy, Roronoa(I like Loreno better) Zoro, Sanji, Nami, Usopp, Tony Tony Chopper, Nico Robin, Franky and Probably Brook

The Story: Gold D Roger was the most feared and famous pirate the world ever saw. He accumulated the largest treasure which includes items from many parts of the Grand Line, large cubes of solid stone(maybe marble) with historic texts and weapon instructions inscribed into them. He was eventually captured by the world government and sent to be executed. Before he was executed, he shouted into the crowd, “You want my treasure? Search for it! Somewhere out there I have hidden the greatest treasure there is!” This treasure is called, the One Piece, and every pirate in the world is now looking for it. It is said that the treasure is hidden somewhere on the Grand Line, and the person who finds this treasure will be crowned the Pirate King. The world is currently in the golden age of the pirates.

That was the background to the main story, which is that Monkey D Luffy has set out to become the Pirate King. Along his journey he encounters many foes, and gains members to his crew. Each member of his crew has their own personal reason/s for joining him but he must prove to all of them that he is worthy of being their captain at some point in time. Their individual quests as well as the final goal take them to the most amazing and dangerous places in the world and the sky. With each Arc the characters are further developed and their resolve is challenged. The strength of the opponents increase and the past is revealed.

Oh… I almost forgot an important detail about this world. There are these rare strange looking fruits called ‘Devil’s Fruit’. A person that eats one of these will gain a power. Now this power depends on the type of fruit that was consumed. Monkey D Luffy ate the Gum Gum Fruit, and he can now stretch any part of his body, also bullets no longer affect him as he can just launch them back. There are two side effect that comes with eating one of these fruits. You lose the ability to swim and you become weak when you come in contact with a special type of sea stone, which negates the ‘Devil’s Fruit’ powers.

The Review: I would like to start off by saying that this review will be bias. That is all.

I love this anime for many different reasons. The first is that it’s about pirates and there aren’t very many animes out there that have pirates as a main theme(well I have yet to find any others). The main message of this anime is friendship and trust in your friends is the most important thing there is. This is shown in every arc of the series, and ,yes, it does get old occasionally, but that is when you start to tune it out and watch it for the fights. As they travel the characters must adapt themselves and their techniques to the environment and their opponents, who seem to have the upper hand in this environment. I like this anime because it not only shows the history of the characters but also of the world. Each arc brings something new and exciting to the table and develops all the characters along with the show. Since I am a such for new technologies I found it weird to be sucked-in to this anime as I was. I have seen every episode that has come out so far, most of them in German, everything after the Water Seven episodes I have watched in Japanese. This is one of the few Infinite animes that I do recommend, although it is quite childish at times, that is one of the reasons I like it. It reconnects me with my inner child and has me cheering on the main character in every fight. For me this is a Higher Plane material, but I guess from a neutral perspective it would be a Fun to Watch.

The Style: The drawings and animation have evolved throughout the 350-something episodes that have been released so far. The drawings have become smoother and the animation more fluid. The colors used are vibrant which brings everything to life. The fight scenes move quite quickly and the same scenes are sometimes used twice. I think that occasionally the artist just go crazy on a character because many of them just look ridiculous, but that one side of the show that makes it so interesting to watch as you never know what you’re going to see next. On a slightly style related note the songs used in this anime do not only fit well but have also gotten be to download them and listen whenever I need cheering up. Cause even if you can’t understand them they just have this type of cheery quality about them, just like the main character.

Side Note: While it may not seem appealing to start watching this show as it is so far in at the moment, and catching out 356 episodes is not to easy. I can suggest some alternatives, which for me is slightly out of character, watching the show from the Sky Island arc, watching the show from the Thriller Bark arc, starting from where ever the story is on television in your country. Although I seriously recommend watching the show from the start as you will understand much more. Also the movies although funny and not bad are no help to the story line and thus not really important, but if you don’t mind killing some time then go right ahead.

Lex Out

Air Gear

Anime: Air Gear

View Status: Completed

Number of Episodes: 25

Main Character: Itsuki “Ikki” Minami

The Story: The main character angry with the girls he is living with breaks into one of their rooms and steals a pair of ATs (Air Trecks). Air Trecks are like roller-blades except that they only have two wheels and contain a small but very powerful motor. The motor is controlled by shifting one’s own weight onto different sections of the Air Trecks.

The main plot is that Itsuki “Ikki” Minami is apparently supposed to become the next sky king, and thus revolves around his journey in getting to that position.

The Review: I liked the story, the characters and even the rather strange premise. I loved the idea of the Air Trecks, the teams and the battle to reach the top. One of my disagreements with this anime or rather with the story was that the battles revolved too much around fighting instead of racing or doing tricks. I found this to be disappointing as the episodes where the idea was present were my favorites. I believe that a mistake was made when it was decided to end the show when they did. Although the ending was a good one it was not one that I particularly appreciated as there was just too much left open. There were too many questions unanswered. Many people may call me out on this and say, “Well just read the manga then.” The fact of the matter is that if I wanted to read the manga I could and would have. The manga always explains more, contains more detail, but I chose to watch the anime because I wanted to watch an anime not read a manga.

Overall I am not disappointed in this anime, far from it in fact. I was very amused while watching this show and very pleased with the story. Yes it is quite childish, but any teen or adult should be able to find some humor hidden from the eyes of children using tricks. This anime is a definite watch.

The Style: The word ‘haste’ springs to mind. The anime is quite fast paced for the most part, except when it comes to the relationship between characters, and therefore the colors and style are quite vibrant and fast. The drawings are quite beautiful and my favorite part, the Air Treck, had nice detail. Another thing that sprang forth was the schematic diagrams in the show looked amazing, but that is just another one of my obsessions.

Side Note: Privates are covered using a Crow. There is some sexual content in this show.

Lex Out