(2) I'd rather watch Pokemon
(3) Ok to borrow, but dont bother buying it
(4) Pretty good! I might buy the whole series
(5) I have all future episodes pre-ordered
11-8-00
Battle Angel
Serial Experiments Lain
Bastard!
1-23-01
Pet Shop of Horrors
Magic Knights Rayearth
Shamanic Princess
Master of Mosquiton (submitted by Thea Sinclaire)
Those Who Hunt Elves
Martian Successor Nadesico
Revolutionary Girl Utena
A shrill and greedy redhead revives a hapless vampire with a drop of blood, binding the poor yutz until she breaks the bond or dies. Guess which one you will root for? Inaho revives Mo-chan to help her find the O-part, a mystical object said to give immortality to whoever finds it. Mosquiton and his servents Hono, a fire demon, and Yuki, an ice demon are forced into a life of unpaid servitude until a mysterious pyramid appears in London and she drags them off to retrieve the O-part. Unfortunately, the O-part is also being hunted by Count St. Germain, a bitter rival of Mosquiton who does creepy thing with his body.
St. Germain works for a crippled old man named Rasputin who claims to be saving the earth from the Start Lords, who show up periodically to drain the lifeforce of teh planet via the O-part. Fortunately, Mosquiton has a hidden ace. When he drinks Inaho's blood he is infused with vampiric power. Luckily, (for the audience) Inaho becomes unconcious when he does this. Mosquiton also becomes quite sadistic and tries to "become one with her," but fails after being repeatedly staked. Don't worry, he can be revived with ehr blood.
Joining the cast in tape 2 is Camille Inaho Carmilla, Mosquiton's rather bitter wife who has been looking for him for three hundred years. She is rather jealous of Inaho, as well as immodest. Who will win Mo-chan's heart? Will Inaho gain immortality? Will the audience care by the third and final tape? Ignoring our ":heroine," Mosquiton is worth wathcing just to hear Mo-chan's sarcastic asides and see his slapstick antics. he seems undeserving of being saddled with a spoiled rich girl, but maybe Inaho isn't all bad. Hono and Yuki, also supply running commentary. Worth renting, but don't buy it unless you really like comedic vampires. Also, avoid the dub. English Inaho's voice may cause deafness. Thea gives this series a rating of 3.
This has got to be about the worst anime I have ever seen. The premise sounded ok when I read the preview on the right stuf international website, but watching this was painful. I think I would rather have gone have gone swimming in a pool filled with razor blades and rubbing alchohol. Basically, three humans are transplanted into another universe. Don't ask me how they got their because the show never explained. Anyway, Celia, the High Priestess of the Elves tried to help them go home, but botched the spell. In short, it ended up on the bodies of 5 different elves. The three need to locate these elves and get the spell, before they can go home. See, the basic plot seems like it wouldn't be THAT bad. However, poor character design, bad dialogue, and the worst animation kill even parts that might have been funny.
The three characters are just what you would expect. There is a beautiful, intelligent actress, a dopey martial arts expert, and a schoolgirl uniform wearing weapons expert. Ugh, I beg you, if you value your intelligence, DO NOT watch this series. I felt as if I had been made less intelligent just by watching the first tape. This series doesn't even deserve a rating of 1.
Created by the makers of Sailor Moon, I was sure what to expect from this series, but I must say that what I saw I enjoyed. As a little girl, the main character (Utena) met a handsome, dashing prince (Is there any other kind?). He saved her and gave her a ring with the crest of a rose on it, so that when she grew up they would be able to locate each other. Sounds typical right? Well, most impressionable, young girls would have fallen head-over-heals for the good looking stranger, and cultivated their princess image to snare him when they grew up. However, Utena is so impressed by this man she decides she wants to BE the handsome prince who helps people. Strange, huh? Anyway, the real story begins with Utena as an admired, cross dressing high school freshman. She even has a girl who claims Utena's her boyfriend. Thankfully, (although I have nothing against gays) Utena likes men, and considers the girl to be only a friend. One day the two see another classmate getting smacked around by her boyfriend. Later, Utena's friend (hey, she's not a pivotal character so I don't remember her name!) sends a love letter to the guy, and he cruelly posts it on a school message board. Infuriated, Utena challenges him to a duel, and surprise! she wins. This brings forth a whole set of consequences. Seems the person who is the best duelist is obliged to marry the Rose Bride. By the orders of the student council (and guess what? they all have those rose crest rings.) Utena and Anthy are assigned to a dorm room together in an untenented hall. I recommend this series. If your interested, I suggest buying it now, because The Right Stuff International is selling each tape in this four tape series for $6 a piece right now. Can't get a better deal than that. I give Utena a 4.
Last week I saw the first tape of this two tape set, and I was fairly impressed. The show begins with "the Count", a blantantly homosexual pet shop owner, talking on the phone with one of his customers. It seems the man had bought a rare tiger from the Count, but had failed to stick to the provisions made in the sale agreement of the animal. The next thing you know the man is killed by something large and viscous and the Count is on the way to get the animal the dead man no longer can care for. One clever, homicide cop begins to notice a common thread in the crimes he is investigating. All the victims recently purchased an animal from the pet shop. He begins to stake out the pet shop, and comes to the realizaiton that something simply is not right with these rare and even mythical creatures the Count is selling to people. The show is really awesome because it shows how most people never learn from their mistakes even when they get a second chance, and how we bring most of our problems on ourselves. I highly reccomend this series. I give it a 4.5.
Sailor Moon meets Lodoss War. I know this is supposed to be a really good series, but I thought the plot kinda sucked. I mean, 3 junoir high students get transported to a magical kingdom to fight an evil priest and save the world. The three girls are on field trips with their schools and all of a sudden a blinding light appears. The next thing you know the teens are riding a magical, flying fish in a land called Cephiro. They encounter (what looks like a child) the Master Mage Clef who attempts to awaken their magic. However, the group is attacked, and while the girls escape Clef is turned to stone. Blah, Blah, Blah, journey, Blah, Blah, Blah, monsters attack, Blah, Blah, Blah, magic, friendship, love. Sounds familiar doesn't it? The only redeeming characteristic of this series is again, the wonderful animation done by Clamp. I wouldn't waste any money on this one; who knows, maybe cartoon network will pick it up. I'll be nice and give it a 3.
Saw the first 3 tapes awhile ago (don't think there are any more yet), and I love this series. The animation is really good, the characters are interesting, and the plot does not suck. This series is about a girl named Tiara who has some pretty specail magical attacks. She is sent to Earth to locate her theiving ex? boyfriend who has stolen a painting called the Throne of Yord. The Throne is important because it is the source of all the magic that sustains citizens of Tiara's world. So here she is tracking down her man, with her partner (Japolo) who resembles a ferret. Tiara runs into her old nemesis, Lina with her partner Leon and they do battle. Lina is trying to help Tiara's boyfriend (whose name I happen to forget) against the wishes of the damn shamanic world. Anyway, we can all say cat fight. The fight scenes in this series were pretty damn good. Tiara has a really cool change and doesn't hesitate to fight the old-fashioned way either (with her fists). Finally, I know a lot of people don't like dubs (but who the hell really wants to read when they are watching tv) but the voice actors in this series were great. Both Crispin Freeman and Tara Jayne from Slayers are among the VA's. 4.5 rating.
Battle Angel is a two part movie about a young, cybernetically engineered girl named Gally. Found as basically a head and spine in a garbage dump, Gally was created by a young scientist who is also something of a bounty hunter. He tries to stop thugs and theives from killing people for their brains and spines, the only parts of the body that can not be created. Gally, an highly powerful robot decides to join him in his nightly rounds. However, these leads to startling secrets about the boy she loves and herself. This is anime at it's best. Deep, beautifully animated, and a classic science-fiction story in and of itself, Battle Angel is a must see for every anime fan. I give it a 4.5..
I have only one thing to say about Lain, and that is "How Bizarre." I viewed the first two tapes in the series and let me just say it was kinda weird. Like Neon Genesis Evangelion weird if you know what I mean. The plot was strange but even stranger was the animation. I don't know if that's a Pioneer thing (the anime in Tenchi has it's moments too), but I'm not quite sure if I like it. Stylistically, it is certainly different. As for the story line. I liked that. Basically, the series begins with a young, shy, diffident girl named (you guessed it) Lain, who along with several of her classmates begins receiving e-mail from a dead girl. The girl, who had committed suicide, informs Lain that she is not really dead; she has traded in her real body for an etheral one that romes the "wired," or the internet.. I don't want to give away too much of this awesome story-line, but I will say the Lain emplores the issue of how people spend so much time on the internet that they begin to lose touch with reality This life on the computer becomes over layed with the real world and the lines dividing the two begin to blur. If you liked Evangelion you will love Lain. I give it a 4.
I know a lot of people who had mixed feelings about this series but I rather liked it. There are only 6 episodes to the whole series, but I think that is one of the best things about it. The story-line is fairly predictable, and with more episodes it would probably have been way too long. Bastard!'s saving grace is the humor and rock-star attitude of the main character, Dark Shneider. (I know, dumb name.) Anyway, the story starts of with a girl named Yoko and a child called Rushe. They live in the kingdom of Meta-Rikana, and it is under attack by a evil sorcerer sent by the four Lord of Havoc. The only way to save the city is for Yoko to break the seal on Rushe's young body. This seal holds in the prescence of the Lord's evil Boss, Dark Shneider. When the seal is broken, and the priests inform Dark that he has to help them because they freed him he replies with "I think not." He does proceed to help them because of Rushe's feelings for Yoko and the adventure begins. The thing I like most about this series is the fact that D. S. , an evil magician is the biggest smart ass ever. Also, he has this alarming tendency to fight and cast spell completely nude! Although it may be just a bit generous, I give this series a 4.