Seikon no Qwaser OP ED Opening Ending OST Character song Lyric

Needless Chapter 91 Read online

2011-05-09T06:18:00.000-07:00

Tenchi Muyo returns after a nearly decade hiatus. Protaganist Tenchi Masaki begins to learn the real truth and depth of his heritage. Meanwhile, powerful and influential forces make moves against Tenchi and his friends in order to take control of the unique situation developing on Earth. New villians and new friends are introduced, while secrets unravel to reveal new mysteries. The stage is set for another epic saga in the Tenchi Muyo series.

Sasuke has returned, and the final battle of the Chunin Exams – Sasuke vs. Gaara – is now at hand. The greater plan of the Sand Village is also at hand, and during a key point in the Sasuke/Gaara battle they strike, commencing various aspects of an all-out attack on the Hidden Leaf Village.

Needless Chapter 95 Read online

2011-05-09T06:17:00.003-07:00

For Tenchi fans, this is good stuff. The story picks up just where it left off at the end of OVA 2. If it's been a while since your last Tenchi viewing, a dark opening followed by ships exploding might be a bit of a confusing start. Thankfully, the pace quickly slows to allow for more of what the Tenchi creators can't seem to stop themselves from doing: introducing new characters.

It extends face-downs under the illusion of creating tension, wastes time on needlessly thorough and detailed flashbacks, has most key characters descend into internal and/or external exposition about motivations, gives full development even to fights not central to the storyline, and drags the Third Hokage/Orochimaru fight on interminably by only showing a couple of repetitive minutes of it in every episode beyond a certain point – in other words, all of the series' standard tricks.

Needless Chapter 94 Read online

2011-05-09T06:17:00.002-07:00

For those worried that this new OVA couldn't live up to the original, rest easy. Tenchi Muyo! Ryo Ohki delivers the same unique blend of drama, mystery and sci-fi harem hijinks that made the previous series so great. Fans of the Tenchi OVA will find that the story left behind years ago is still intact and just as interesting as it was back then.

Naruto is a series best watched in big chunks, and these releases allow you to do that. The downside to going rigidly with 13-episode blocks is that the releases savagely cut across plot lines; this one, for instance, starts in the midst of the Chunin Exam final rounds and ends in the midst of Naruto's climatic battle with Gaara. (Admittedly, though, the final scene of episode 78 does offer one hell of an incentive to continue watching into the next set.)

Needless Chapter 93 Read online

2011-05-09T06:17:00.001-07:00

Tenchi Muyo! has always been about a very precise formula: girls, humor, sexual innuendo, drama and temporary exposition. Long-time fans will be happy to know that this formula is pretty much completely untouched in this third OVA. Tenchi is still his indecesive self, Ryoko is the violent space pirate with strong feelings for Tenchi. Aeka is the sometimes loud and boorish but oftentimes refined princess, etc, etc. The list continues the same way it always has.

After being released irregularly during 2006 and 2007, Viz Media's uncut boxed set releases of Naruto now seem to be settling into a regular 9-10 week release pattern. Sub fans will naturally delight in finally having the broadcast episodes available in official subtitle form with the original openers and closers intact, and getting 13 episodes for less than the price of two normal anime DVDs is a bit of a bargain, but the biggest advantage to this release format is that it helps offset the series' Dragon Ball Z-like tendency to drag things out

Needless Chapter 92 Read online

2011-05-09T06:17:00.000-07:00

It's been a long wait for fans of the Tenchi Muyo! OAV. For a while, it seemed like the questions surrounding Washu, Tokimi, the gems, the sword and a host of other questions - never mind telling viewers who Tenchi is going to choose, were never going to be answered. The original Tenchi Muyo! OAV was released starting in 1992. Now, over ten years later, we get to see a continuation to the story that a lot of people would claim to have gotten them their start in anime.

While Gai and Kakashi battle enemy forces in the arena, the instructors lead the children to safety, other security forces try to delay/thwart the attackers, and the Third Hokage confronts Orochimaru, the true mastermind of the attack, in a ninja-style rooftop cage match to the death. Meanwhile, Kakashi dispatches Naruto, Sakura, and Shikimaru to pursue Sasuke, who has gone after the wounded Gaara, a key component of the assault who has been carried away until he can recover.

Aku no Hana Chapter 22 read online

2011-05-09T06:03:00.004-07:00

Also, Mia Bradly doesn't always capture Ren's simpering tone of voice, often sounding self-conscious rather than submissive. Geneon's dub script sticks fairly close to the original translation, but that may have been the wrong way to go this time; the freewheeling, adlib-crazy script on the similarly themed Girls Bravo is a lot more fun.

Stylish artwork is another big selling point for Hakase's works, and this one is no different. High fashion and glamour come to the spirit world with slim, impeccably dressed bishounen and dreamlike young women. The only problem: swishy linework and sparse details make it hard to tell some of the characters apart.

Aku no Hana Chapter 21 read online

2011-05-09T06:03:00.003-07:00

T. Axelrod continues to be the driving force on the English dub with his delightfully cynical performance as Takeya. Karen Thompson follows close behind as Neneko, the sardonic voice of reason who doesn't get nearly enough screen time. There's some good acting going on here when the cast gets into pure comedy mode, but Miu and Natsuki's long streams of anger start to grate on the ears after a while—in any language.

(At least Mephisto wears a very distinctive outfit.) On the other hand, the one thing that most often leads to confusion in other "stylish" manga—page layout—actually works very well, thanks to a strong use of blank spaces and wide paneling. There's no feeling of crowding or unevenness here; every scene flows effortlessly into the next, and the plain backgrounds, which would probably be criticized anywhere else, give the stories a surreal effect.

Aku no Hana Chapter 20 read online

2011-05-09T06:03:00.002-07:00

The soundtrack remains as unexciting as it ever was, with synthesized pop instrumentals providing the musical base for Ren and Miu's antics. Sadly, the unintentionally hilarious soft-porn track shows up only once, when Ren tries to put the moves on Takeya. The theme songs are cute but barely worth humming; the lyrics to "Love Slave" are enough to make you wish that they hadn't subtitled that part.

Through it all, Hakase's technique brims with emotional expressiveness: the look in a character's eyes, the tilt of a mouth, or even just the curl of a line can say all that needs to be said—anger, sadness, peace, and everything in between.

It's a good thing that a picture says a thousand words, because these stories are pretty light on dialogue, and what dialogue there is doesn't say a whole lot. Most of it is just there to set up the premise or advance the story, with splashes of internal thought to set the mood.

Aku no Hana Chapter 19 read online

2011-05-09T06:03:00.001-07:00

The angular look might not be pleasing to all eyes, however, and the designs are so homogeneous that hair color is the only thing keeping Ren and Miu from looking exactly alike. Natsuki adds some variety to the cast, if only by being younger and short-haired. On the animation side, director Iku Suzuki's comic timing still shines—just watch that pause on Takeya's face after Ren and Miu renovate the apartment—but the monotonous plot leads to fewer opportunities for that unique sense of humor.

The translation is fairly straightforward, getting the feelings and situations across, although it trips up a little in one scene where a character speaking archaic dialect shows up. Sound effects are sparse—this is kind of a "quiet" title, save for some action scenes—so leaving them untranslated isn't too much of a big deal here. Also, don't expect any bonus content in this volume, not even an author's note.

Aku no Hana Chapter 18 read online

2011-05-09T06:03:00.000-07:00

Aku no Hana 17.5

Tasteless and derivative as it may be, DearS still does better than most of its peers in the art department, with sharp colors and varied lighting techniques adding some visual flash. Ren and Miu's shapely bodies also provide eye candy in its purest form; the stylized linework is a major departure from the manga but distinctive in its own way.

The stories in Baku can be poignant, even tragic at times, but somehow they always finish with a calming effect, a sense of equilibrium. Perhaps that equilibrium comes from spirits coexisting with the human world, or more simply, a balance of happiness and sadness. There's plenty of both in this short collection, along with themes of love, loyalty, and the struggle for peace with one's self. The paths that the stories follow may be ordinary, but the feelings within them are not, often reaching an expressiveness that only the artwork can bring out. What a surprise to learn that otherworldly creatures can also experience life on a very human level.

Fantasista Chapter 103 read online

2011-05-09T05:41:00.001-07:00

There are flaws, naturally—an over-reliance on flashbacks, a lack of character variety, old-time genre gimmicks put to use—but they don't stop the stories from being enjoyable. Careful pacing and an understated approach take these mystical tales to a sophisticated level.

The title story clocks in at just about 120 pages, giving it enough room to develop a fairly substantial plot. Takeshi's day-to-day life is quickly established, with subtle hints of what his special powers are, and the emotional trials of his mother also provide a compelling hook.

Next, on an exciting installment of DearS... nothing really happens! That's right, this excuse for a romantic comedy is in a holding pattern until the story gets far enough to reveal some major plot points. (What, there's a plot?) In these filler episodes, Miu yells at Ren nonstop, and Takeya's little sister vies for the title of Most Annoying Character. Does that really qualify as 75 minutes' worth of material—or, for those tracking the episode count, one-quarter of the entire series? Maybe it's the pantyshots, cleavage, and random acts of nudity that make 75 minutes of filler worth it. Then again, if your personal tastes run counter to that, maybe not.

Fantasista Chapter 102 read online

2011-05-09T05:41:00.000-07:00

Fantasista Chapter 104 read online

2011-05-09T05:39:00.000-07:00

However, "Baku" sags in the middle chapter as it tries to go through all manner of flashbacks to establish Takeshi's background, jumping to his origins in the spirit world, and how he was brought to earth, and what role his mother played in all this. With all this backtracking, it can be hard to tell whether a scene is taking place in the past or present—but by the final act, the storyline tightens up again with a redemptive message about familial love.

It's no secret that the premise of DearS is as derivative as they come—substitute Ren with a goddess, android, or childhood friend and you've just written the plot summary of several other popular series. But the copycatting doesn't stop there: this show keeps regurgitating well-known comedy setups like it's trying to win an unoriginality contest. Episode 5 is about Ren learning how to clean up after school… with zany results. In Episode 6, she tries her hand at housekeeping, with—you guessed it—zany results. To make matters worse, Miu tags along and turns the learning process into a tedious one-note gag where Ren does something wrong and Miu yells at her for it.

Fantasista Chapter 106 read online

2011-05-09T05:38:00.001-07:00

With its more compact plotting, "Mephisto" manages to avoid the flashback awkwardness of "Baku," while still being just as emotionally touching. Certainly, the themes of this story are universal enough that they don't require heavy character development—the vengeful regrets of a young woman, or the poignancy of growing up and leaving cherished things behind. Sure, it's the kind of stuff we've all seen before, but again, there's nothing wrong with seeing familiar themes done well.

Natsuki's pushy, talkative attitude also makes her the new contender for most annoying character in the series, edging out the oversexed English teacher (who still shows up at times to flaunt her fetish outfits). With no room for character development among the existing cast, introducing a new personality seems like an easy gimmick; however, it's just another stalling ploy until certain ominous scenes are allowed to become a fully-grown story arc.

Fantasista Chapter 105 read online

2011-05-09T05:38:00.000-07:00

A trite message, perhaps, with its reliance on a damsel-in-distress situation and past childhood trauma, but still a satisfying one.

The other story in this volume, "Mephisto," is more conventional in its execution, following a typical "supernatural solver of mystery cases" format. The prologue does tie in to the second chapter, though, providing some continuity, and once again we see family ties giving the main character a little more depth than the average spirit-hunting protagonist.

Imagine this for two straight episodes and that's the kind of torture you're in for. But in case you're wondering where the fanservice went, don't worry. Ren also tries to seduce Takeya in the middle of the night, all the while spouting lines like "I've never executed it, but the process is programmed inside me." How's that for a mood-killer?

If that seems embarrassing, just wait until Episode 7 where Takeya's little sister comes on to him. While not as indecent as Ren's behavior, the joke violates both the incest and pedophilia barriers, ending up being neither cute nor funny.

Kampfer Chapter 27 read online

2011-05-09T05:23:00.003-07:00

The dub is inconsistent, but it manages to stay on track, mostly thanks to a solid and affecting performance from Crispin Freeman as Hideki. Hideki is a rare shounen hero, a milquetoast who winds up asserting himself and becoming a respectable person by the time the series ends, and Freeman's textured performance gives the character's transformation credibility.

The overall page layouts lack finesse as well, often looking like a chaotic collage of images rather than visuals moving in a particular direction. Then again, that seems to match the situation that the story is in at this point.

A lack of subtlety is also the guiding principle for the dialogue; the script holds nothing back when it comes to off-color language and sexual content. Things get even wilder with the variety of fonts used to emphasize the characters' lines, but don't expect anything profound here—it's mostly the shock value and inappropriate subject matter that make the dialogue entertaining. Meanwhile, the sound effects reach their own levels of outrageousness: this translation replaces all Japanese characters with English text, resulting in gems like "SHLO-LO-LONG" when one of the characters reveals his goods.

Kampfer Chapter 26 read online

2011-05-09T05:23:00.002-07:00

There's nary an awkward moment in the animation. The music is also appropriate and catchy; the new ending theme is a welcome variation from the last one, which was a little dull and didn't adequately reflect the more melancholy and serious tone of the end of the series.

Unlike many other recent anime series, Chobits comes to a highly satisfying and reasonable conclusion. It's true that they don't tie up every single last plot point, but screaming and whining for absolute finality to any anime series is a fool's errand; anyone who's been watching anime long enough know that the Japanese have a penchant for ambiguity when it comes to concluding a story and you should take what you can get when they are actually willing to close things off.

Kampfer Chapter 25 read online

2011-05-09T05:23:00.001-07:00

The animation is produced by MADHOUSE, a studio with a reputation for quality that has a tendency to drop the ball about halfway through any given series. A viewing of their wildly popular TV effort Trigun shows that their animation quality goes up and down inconsistently. Chobits, animated digitally, is a fluid and beautiful affair that only cuts corners at opportune and appropriate moments.

Chi is, well, Chi, and there wasn't a lot the English cast could have done to spice up the character. Sumomo is suitably annoying; the Japanese voice was ridiculously cutesy and the English voice follows suit, albeit with less successful results. A lot of the background characters and female voices are disappointingly generic and don't add much in terms of quality to an already-struggling dub.

Kampfer Chapter 24 read online

2011-05-09T05:23:00.000-07:00

Fortunately, Chi spends most of the end of the series suffering with an identity crisis, and comes to the conclusion that there's only one person for her and that that person must love her completely and, subsequently, must treat her right in order to deserve her love in return. The show still presents the insulting ‘perfect woman’ archetype (why anyone would love someone who's as blank and personality-free as Chi is, I'll never know), they sidestep the really offensive things the character type suggests by making the story more about romance and mutual love than gender politics. It isn't perfect, but it's a big step forward for this genre, and that should be appreciated.

Factor in the often sloppy artwork, and it's hard to imagine sticking with this series for the humor (which keeps falling flat) or for the visuals (unless one enjoys checking out overdressed rockers and tubby middle-aged men). Yet there are still signs of hope, signs that Kiminori Wakasugi has some crazy ideas up his sleeve that will remind us why we fell in love with Detroit Metal City in the first place. If Johannes Krauser II ever needed a comeback, it's now.

Kampfer Chapter 23 read online

2011-05-09T05:22:00.000-07:00

Usually shows about dedicated robot maid characters wind up being disgustingly sexist manifestos that unwittingly espouse a message about subservient women being superior. Chobits started out this way, and could have become another casualty a'la Mahoromatic, but with these final episodes (and, indeed, the last 3 discs or so of the series), the show redeems itself and takes another route. Chi is still shown as being ‘superior’ not only to other persocoms but to human women as well, which is a dangerous thing to suggest.

here aren't many cultural notes to be found in this volume, but then again, the madness of popular music culture speaks for itself.

At this point in the series, Detroit Metal City seems to have turned into one of those albums that one comes to dislike after having listened to it for too long. There are still some tracks that withstand repeated listening, but the amount of filler has become too much to bear—often resulting in the urge to skip. Volume 5 is just too full of chapters that go nowhere, jokes that stopped being funny two volumes ago, or jokes that don't come off as jokes as all.

Reimei no Arcana Chapter 22 read online

2011-05-09T05:18:00.004-07:00

It's the end of the line for Chi and Hideki, as Hideki struggles to uncover the secrets behind Chi's true identity. An unscrupulous and obsessive collector continues to investigate Chi's connection to the legendary Chobits Persocom series. Just as they're about to find out, a mysterious duo bent on halting Chi's developmental progress shows up, and their decisions control the fate of every Persocom in the world!

As usual, the awkward and sloppy artwork could use a kick in the pants as well—but it still has its moments, usually in depictions of grotesquerie. The Capitalist Pig chapter, for example, reaches a strange sort of beauty towards the end as it grows ever more shocking. And no one can deny that Krauser's many faces of terror and hatred are a gallery unto themselves. However, the clumsy linework and poor command of anatomy keep the artwork from reaching its full potential; sometimes it looks as if the characters have just figured out how to hold a guitar for the first time. It is only in gross exaggeration that the art succeeds—because it's incapable of subtlety.

Reimei no Arcana Chapter 21 read online

2011-05-09T05:18:00.003-07:00

The lack of extras is the biggest disappointment...one would expect more from what's one of the most popular films in anime history, but in the end it's really beside the point. It's time to throw out your faded VHS fansub. Finally.

What began as a fairly run-of-the-mill shounen romance series has become, in typical CLAMP fashion, a genre-bending, thought-provoking story that unfortunately has already turned away high-minded anime fans thanks to a bunch of early episodes that focused more on panties than on substance.

Reimei no Arcana Chapter 20 read online

2011-05-09T05:18:00.002-07:00

The End of Evangelion was a long time in coming, and now that it's here it proves to be a decidedly mixed bag. Fans of the old ADV cast can rejoice as Shinji, Misato, Asuka, and Rei return to give the performance of their careers. Nobody's going to be completely satisfied with the script translation, but that was pretty much a given from the outset.

Once the series hit its stride around episode 15, the show started getting somewhat philosophical and began exploring the nature of a man who loved a synthetic being more than a real one. Hideki winds up choosing Chi, who he dearly loves, over another flesh-and-blood woman. It's an interesting question that hasn't been explored in any other anime series thus far, and Chobits does an admirable job of examining every angle.

Reimei no Arcana Chapter 19 read online

2011-05-09T05:18:00.001-07:00

Reimei no Arcana 19

The film's unrelentingly dour and pretentious nature could understandably have made it difficult for the translators to take it all so seriously, but the movie takes itself very seriously, and the sometimes over-the-top dialogue undermines the mood of the film. Then of course there is Asuka's highly-subjective final line which closes the movie....no matter how it was translated it was destined not to please everyone.

Fans who have stuck it out through all 24 episodes of the series will be richly rewarded here. While the ending isn't totally ‘complete’ (there are still a few unanswered questions at the end of the series), what we see is the apex of the relationship between Chi and Hideki, which in itself is a metaphor for man's relationship to technology.

Reimei no Arcana Chapter 18 read online

2011-05-09T05:18:00.000-07:00

Evangelion's near-mythic status among fandom no doubt made the job of translating the script into English a harrowing task, especially given the extraorindarily interpretive nature of the movie. It has to be said that in places the English dialogue is a little hokey and overly-melodramatic ("Sweet Jesus! An Anti-AT Field!").

The end of Chobits winds up being something that would appeal to a huge range of anime fans; anyone who appreciates touching romance and understated drama punctuated by beautiful animation and high production values will love this. It's too bad a metric ton of panties sent discriminating anime fans away screaming about 15 episodes ago.

Amagami: Precious Diary - Kaoru Chapter 16 read online

2011-05-09T05:02:00.003-07:00

The last two chapters show promise as well, with rival bands from the Satanic Emperor festival making a comeback appearance and hints of a mysterious individual from the record label's "dark past." If this turns out to be an extended story arc that pushes Krauser and his shock-rock to its limits, then it might just be the kick in the pants that the story needs.

In the months leading up to the release there had been much talk about the wealth of extra material that would be included. It has unfortunately come to naught, as End of Evangelion's sole extras consist of an audio commentary, Eva trailers, and the standard Manga Entertainment previews.

Amagami: Precious Diary - Kaoru Chapter 15 read online

2011-05-09T05:02:00.002-07:00

Luckily, this volume has a couple of glimmers of hope: the first is the two-part tale of Negishi's sister's wedding, which gets back to the roots of the series' humor. It's not just about Krauser being a sicko, or Negishi being a loser, but about the uproarious way in which those two worlds collide—and how polite society reacts to the collision. Negishi's metal-obsessed brother, as well as the unsuspecting bridegroom, make a great supporting cast as witnesses to this chaos.

The few voices that had to be replaced are a different story. Professor Fuyutski and the NERV techs were comparatively minor characters in the series but assume a more central role in the movie, and with the exception of Jason Lee's Aioba none of them are here performed by the original actors.

Amagami: Precious Diary - Kaoru Chapter 14 read online

2011-05-09T05:02:00.001-07:00

Does the logic of these episodes make sense to anyone? Due to this lack of focus, the humor has become diluted as well, relying on the same old gimmicks over and over: the exaggerated depravity of the metal scene and Negishi's wimpiness in his everyday persona. Look, it was pretty funny the first volume ... or two ... or three. But past a certain point, the gags lose their freshness and need some kind of spark.

Tiffany Grant is her old fiery self as Asuka, and Tristan MacAvery does a great job of performing a side of Gendo that was never seen in the television show. In early episodes of the series Allison Keith struggled with Misato's more serious moments, but here she is right on the mark in capturing Major Katsuragi's determined nature, and Spike Spencer brings a subtle nuance to Shinji's depression that he tended to caricature in the past; their final scene together is one of the most emotional and beautiful vocal performances to ever grace an anime.

Amagami: Precious Diary - Kaoru Chapter 13 read online

2011-05-09T05:02:00.000-07:00

The stand-alone chapters in this volume are symptomatic of the mess that DMC has become, ping-ponging between bizarre Krauser incidents and bizarre Negishi incidents—and falling flat either way. In no particular order, we have: a retelling of Aesop's fable about the wind and the sun, Negishi proving his incompetence as a photographer, the Capitalist Pig from DMC's stage act having a crisis of identity, Negishi desperately clamoring for the attention of a female singer-songwriter, and an entire chapter that isn't even about Krauser or the band but disgraced rapper Kiva.

It is indeed fortunate that Manga took care to reassemble most of ADV's vocal cast for the dub. Evangelion's greatest strength is its fully-realized characters, and by the end of the series viewers have gotten to know them so well no substitutes would do. Each of the returning actors has only improved in the interim, the result being the same-old-Evangelion, but with a new level of vocal sophistication and excellence.

Amagami: Precious Diary - Kaoru Chapter 12 read online

2011-05-09T03:05:00.000-07:00

And as the subject matter grows more disconnected, it also grows more desperate, sometimes reaching to the furthest edges of the DMC universe in hopes that there may be some jokes left. For a series that once started out with such a clear, hilarious premise, it seems to have lost its way—and is trying anything to get back on track.

In particular there had been mention of including Dub Outtakes...supposedly there were some hilarious "alternate versions" of Spike Spencer's performance during the infamous opening sequence... but they are nowhere to be found on the disc unless they are a very cleverly disguised easter egg. The commentary by English-language director (and voice of Rei) Amanda Winn Lee, producer Jason Lee (Aioba), and "anime enthusiast" Taliesan Jaffe is a lot of fun, however, and provides tremendous insight into the myriad hidden meanings and endless interpretations behind the film.

Shinryaku! Ika Musume Specials 2 download

2011-04-28T19:26:00.003-07:00

In the distant future, in a distant corner of Siberia, people live in domed cities called Domepolises. These are the primary human living spaces on Earth, which became uninhabitable years ago from environmental destruction. Now, parts of the Earth are becoming habitable again. Large portions of the Domepolises are breaking off to escape the powers that control the domes and trade.

Gainer Sanga, video game champ on his 200th victory, becomes an unwilling helper in his hometown's Exodus when he is wrongfully arrested by the Siberian Railway. He pilots a giant mecha which he dubs 'King Gainer' after his own video game handle. He is challenged to fight other Overmen as Yapan tries to escape across Siberia.

Inyouchuu Etsu ova 2 download

2011-04-28T19:26:00.002-07:00

As with all other volumes in the series, Tokyopop leaves the sound effects untranslated, which is a minor problem in a couple of places. Wrapping up the volume are the traditional behind-the-scenes four-panel strips and a less traditional four page “20 years later” installment which fleshes out the series' final scenes just a little more. Following both is a 20 page preview of the upcoming Deadman Wonderland manga series.

With this volume one of the most unusual and distinctive of all manga vampire stories draws to a close. Rarely before has such a fresh take on vampire lore been done, and that will certainly be missed. Teen romances – even ones heavily tinged with the supernatural – seldom have too long a life expectancy before they start dragging, and this one wisely wraps up before that can happen. As teen human/vampire romances go it will probably always be overshadowed by Twilight and the Angel-focused seasons of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, but it makes a nice alternative.

Pokemon Best Wishes! the Movie: Victini to Kuroki Eiyuu download

2011-04-28T19:26:00.001-07:00

This being the final volume, the big issue, of course, is its handling of the conclusion. Kagesaki may be conveniently overlooking a detail or two concerning her established unique vampire lore, but that does not lessen the impact of Kenta and Karin reuniting or the final decision the Markers make concerning their long-term relationship. Although the latter is, in many ways, terribly sad, it is the decision which had to be made and the only one that makes any real sense. Its consequences, and the final disposition of Sophia, linger into the What Happens After part. Kagesaki handles that content with suitable aplomb, resulting in some of the best writing in the entire series.

Kagesaki's artistry, while not bad and certainly visually distinct, has never been her strongest point, and that does not change here. A couple of key action scenes are hard to follow, especially ones involving the bats, and character designs are not always as sharp as they could be. Nicely-colored cover art partly makes up for that, though, and Kagesaki can certainly not be accused of mimicking anyone else's style.

Kunoichi Sakuya ova 2 download

2011-04-28T19:26:00.000-07:00

In the end notes, manga-ka Yuna Kagesaki comments that she had the conclusion and basic story for the series planned out from the beginning, and that shows in this final volume. This is not a hastily tacked-on resolution or a stretch job to fill up space; it paces out exactly right, with about half of this extra-long volume being used to bring the major conflict to a climax and most of the rest used to fully resolve the Kenta/Karin relationship and deal with its consequences. It even wraps up with a few pages showing What Happens After. Along the way it throws in enough meatiness to give a full depth of emotion to the final relationship developments, resulting in a conclusion that should be highly satisfying to long-time fans even though one heartbreaking final twist also gives it a somewhat melancholy feel.

The final few chapters do offer a few twists and surprises, although in each case the twists are logical results of long-established circumstances and character behavior patterns. The true identity of the image of Karin whom only Kenta can see is revealed, and it more or less is what readers might anticipate it to be given what was revealed in volume 13, although its full nature is a little more complicated and its origin is the volume's weakest point. The additional requirement made of Karin should not be too surprising, given the nature of the Font of Psyche, but that could probably also count as a twist. Ren's ultimate role in the attack on the Brownlicks takes an amusingly unexpected but still fully in-character direction (and with appropriate consequences!), as does one matter involving Anju's stuffed animals. Other regular characters undertake generally typical behaviors, too, although Maki only has a minimal appearance.

Eiga Precure All Stars DX3: Mirai ni Todoke! Sekai wo Tsunagu Niji-iro no Hana

2011-04-28T19:25:00.003-07:00

Rental Magica is one of those shows that it hurts to criticize. It's earnest, well-intentioned, and pitched at a slightly more sophisticated audience than your average magical-action harem romance. You can tell by the voluminously researched systems of magic it uses. Neither does it have hateful or irritating characters. It's never unpleasant or painful or reprehensible. It's impeccably good-natured and harmless. So it pains one to have to say things like: "Its effect on your memory would make a meal of Rohypnol and vodka look benign." Or to suggest that it should change its name from Rental Magica to The Further Adventures of Bland-Boy in Magical Mash-up Land. But honesty demands that we must, because for all its apparently good qualities, it just isn't a good show.

It wasn't when its first half had us counting clichés to stay awake, and it isn't now, even as it nears something like a climax. Aside from the disposable one-offs about mermaid-infested beach vacations and training in the mountains, these are the series' big stories, the kind that put major characters in major pinches and lead to major developments. There's no reason why they shouldn't hit hard; there are a lot of emotions in play when Honami is fooled by a duplicitous friend into endangering the city, or when adorable little Mikan is practically hand-fed by her own grandmother to a ravenous magical beast. And yet somehow they don't. By some evil alchemy of uninvolving characters, lax execution, and narrative spinelessness (who really believes that the show will let an ogre eat Mikan?), the scenes are rendered entirely inert.

Tiger & Bunny ova 1 download

2011-04-28T19:25:00.002-07:00

While Calera and Anju do some further research into the Psyche using James's journal, Henry, Ren, and Kenta (and independently Elda) speed in the direction of Brownlick Mansion, where they believe Karin to be held. Along the way Kenta continues to be guided by an image of Karin that only he can see, one who calls herself Sophia, can touch him, and appears differently to one other who does see her at one point. Meanwhile, Karin discovers that yet another requirement (beyond just dying and having her blood drained for the sake of vampirekind) is being foisted upon her, one which helps make Yuriya realize that, no matter how she may feel about her uncle or Karin and Kenta's relationship, the situation is just too unfair. Climactic conflicts abound as Karin gets rescued, but that alone will not free her from her fate as the Font of Psyche. Ultimately that is something that only Kenta can do, but what will that mean for his future with Karin and how will that affect the rest of the Marker clan?

Hayate no Gotoku! Movie download

2011-04-28T19:25:00.001-07:00

Viewers can also look forward to Right Stuf's presentation of the series. If between this and Junjou Romantica the quality of Right Stuf's catalogue has decreased, the quality of their releases hasn't. This is another of their solidly constructed box sets, with four thinpak DVDs in a hardy box decorated with art so gorgeous that it makes one lament the simplifications used in the actual animation. The discs themselves have the usual collection of trailers and promos and character profiles and also present the series in both broadcast and chronological order. Included in the usual (though massive, at 150 pages) booklet are in-depth character profiles, voice-actor interviews (predictably Rie Kugiyama's is the best) and a handy reference translating and explaining the written parts of the series' strange next-episode previews. The bulk of the book, however, is given over to exhaustive, and exhausting, explanations of the onmyoudou, Shingon Vajrayana, and Shinto magical systems, as well as mermaids, wedding ceremonies and glam sight. If only half as much effort went into writing the characters.

If you are already a fan of the series and not likely to be deterred by its failure to provide any form of viable entertainment, you could hardly ask for a better release. If you're not already a fan, don't bother. Relentlessly mediocre and frighteningly forgettable (it's worrisome when you have to use Wikipedia to remember events you watched just hours previous), Rental Magica is the definition of a waste of time. And, yes, that did pain me to say.

Wana: Hakudaku Mamire no Houkago ova 2 download

2011-04-28T19:25:00.000-07:00

And it isn't just the dramatic sequences that end up that way. Rental Magica tries its hand at many things, and like King Midas in reverse everything it touches turns to dust. Its action scenes don't excite thanks to their forgone conclusions and endless, incomprehensible spellcasting. A complete lack of subtlety and convincing psychology renders the romantic interludes more embarrassing than touching. Its sense of humor only goes as far as assigning silly quirks to characters (Nekoyashiki likes cats! Sekiren is idiotically honest!) and throwing in the occasional harem-comedy gag, every one of which fails because...well, because they're harem-comedy gags. It can't even get fan-service right. Clunky animation and a staid eye for the female form bludgeon the beach episode's titillation factor to death, even before the show abandons surfside hijinks for magical mermaid mayhem. It has some minor success with atmospherics, thanks to superior background art and the judicious use of CG magical effects, but even that is undercut by the spotty animation and uninspired scoring.

So what does a potential viewer have to look forward to when choking down all of that dust? The character designs are fairly attractive: kid-Honami and kid-Adelicia in particular are pretty darned cute. And the realistic color palette is a nice change from the kandy-colored nightmares of your average harem(ish) series. Plus its episodes aren't in chronological order. Crazy risky. The episode order, though, isn't as much a factor here as it was in the first set. The arcs all stand more or less by themselves, and events within each play out more or less chronologically, so even if they're jumbled about a bit it doesn't make a whole lot of difference.

Gakuen Alice Chapter 150 manga scan

2011-04-28T19:22:00.000-07:00

Astral may be a business, but you wouldn't know it by looking at their work. Most of Astral's jobs, it seems, involve bailing Astral employees out of personal crises. Goetia honcho and Astral stockholder Adelicia has her demons stolen by an underling, so Itsuki rushes to the rescue. Mikan is kidnapped by her own family for use as an oni-sacrifice, so Itsuki and Honami head to the mountains for some oni-hunting. Honami's quest to cure Itsuki's eye leads her to break a very dangerous taboo, so the entire company flies to her side to set her right. Even when they get an outside request, it turns out to be an ex-comrade of Nekoyashiki's out to revenge himself on the onmyoudou mystic. That isn't a profitable business model, and the beach trips, martial arts training and same-sex weddings aren't helping fill any coffers either. They've got a high employee retention rate, though.

Gakuen Alice Chapter 149 manga scan

2011-04-28T19:21:00.003-07:00

Utilizing light entertainment to build audiences' relationships with characters before putting them through the wringer is a fairly common tactic in anime (used with varying degrees of success in shows as disparate as Planetes and Mahoromatic). The brilliance of My-HiME is that the HiMEs' many-faceted descent into an emotional hell of unavoidable battles is deeply rooted in the many tiny yet momentous moments of earlier, fluffier episodes. Each episode, each development grants viewers new eyes with which to view earlier episodes, making rewatching this series a must—regardless of any reservations one might have about its potential conclusion.

Gakuen Alice Chapter 148 manga scan

2011-04-28T19:21:00.002-07:00

The more intense things get, the more the limitations of the English version become apparent. The dub's good points—naturally pitched female voices, the decision to preserve Shizuru's accent via a light southern drawl—are lost amidst the mediocre acting and flubbed emotional content. Many of the actors have moments of surprising effectiveness (Yukino, it turns out is better at being angry than being timid) but the impressions that last are the bad ones. Natsuki's incidental noises (gasps, sighs, etc.) are painfully unconvincing, Reito loses his mildly insinuating tone, and Haruka only intermittently projects her crucial combination of iron willpower and genuine affection. The faithful script means that no plot points are lost, but the emotional content, which covers the bulk of this volume, is severely dampened.

Expecting extras? Too bad. This is another in the growing number of Bandai releases to be literally extras-free (unless you count trailers). The episode-end omake are still included, tacked onto the end of each episode where they belong.

Gakuen Alice Chapter 147 manga scan

2011-04-28T19:21:00.001-07:00

The dark settings of the expertly staged HiME battles and the bleak landscapes of ravaged buildings and forests mirror the emotional and physical trauma of the central cast. The color palette has been drained of the comparatively festive colors that brightened earlier episodes, reflecting the predominant mood of dark despair. The cast looks as great as ever; even without Kagutsuchi's impressive flame effects the fights are still fluid, sharply edited visual treats; and facial expressions are detailed to heart-breaking effect.

Yuki Kajiura's haunting score grows ever more effective, with greater use of her patented vocals underlining the story's dark turn. If you have watched anything scored by Yuki Kajiura, then you'll know what to expect here, minus the continuous repetition and bombastic musical overkill that marred the .hack series and Madlax. The opening and ending themes remain unchanged.

Gakuen Alice Chapter 146 manga scan

2011-04-28T19:21:00.000-07:00

Oddly enough, given the strength of the central cast, the series' secret weapon is the supporting cast. As the cover attests, this volume focuses heavily on Natsuki and Shizuru. Yet, at the emotional peak of their story, the entire scene is stolen outright by belligerent student council officer Haruka who, in one of the series' most powerful scenes to date, proves once and for all that her love of justice and Yukino run very deep indeed. It's a moment that demonstrates exactly the subtle disruption of common narrative practice that sets My-HiME apart from its more mundane peers.

The series does flirt with melodrama throughout this volume, but it cuts between the endeavors of its varied cast with lightning precision, cutting scenes short before their emotional manipulations can become oppressive, simultaneously limiting melodrama and maximizing tension. Melodrama aside, the only truly damaging charges that can be leveled against this volume are the continued dullness of the male lead (Tate) and a persistent lurking suspicion (fuelled by comments about "remaking the world") that the series may be building up to an Evangelion-style "reset" cop-out.

Bloody Monday 2 Chapter 66 read online

2011-04-28T19:17:00.004-07:00

In a decade when tired formula comedies and lazily drawn sci-fi shows are the prevalent fare, this series stands out as a true gem.

Taking place in the distant future, Cowboy Bebop is about the adventures of interstellar bounty hunters Spike Spiegel and Jet Black, whose relationship is reminiscent of a 70's cop show. They travel space in their ship The Bebop and receive bounty information from a televised game show.

Anime Village is releasing two episodes per volume of the of the twenty-five episode series. In the first episode of volume one entitled Asteroid Blues, Spike encounters Asimov, an outlaw who stole a large supply of Red Eye, a reflex-enhancing drug ingested through the eyes, from his drug syndicate employers. Learning of the relatively low bounty on Asimov, Spike and Jet decide to pursue him for the quick cash. With the help of an indian mystic named Bull, Spike comes close to capturing Asimov and his pregnant girlfriend alive for the bounty after a botched drug deal. However, the extremely well-armed syndicate and the police have other ideas...

Bloody Monday 2 Chapter 65 read online

2011-04-28T19:17:00.003-07:00

The second episode, Stray Dog Strut, sends the hunters after Abdul Hakeem, a bearded man with an afro who stole a suitcase from some scientists in order to sell it on the black market. When Spike and Jet see the high-priced bounty info on Hakeem, whose picture shows a clean shaven blonde man, the three way chase between Hakeem, the scientists, and the Bebop bounty hunters is on for the suitcase which contains...a Welsh Corgi canine who is considerably more escape happy and intelligent than they or anyone suspected. The three have to deal with many misunderstandings and obstacles along the way including a pet shop worker who steals the suitcase and an all too effective dog whistle....

There has been much comparison between this show and Outllaw Star, which is also about intergalactic bounty hunters. However, that's about where the similarity ends. Outlaw Star has a building story arc (at least from initial episodes) whereas Cowboy Bebop is more episodic. Also, Bebop has a more laid-back feel than the frequently active Outlaw, and the episodes tend to play out like Lupin III films.

Bloody Monday 2 Chapter 64 read online

2011-04-28T19:17:00.002-07:00

Some of the described atmosphere is due to the quick, deft direction of Shinichiro Watanabe who mixes well-drawn cels and amazingly hi-end computer animation to create some incredible action sequences, especially the ones from first-person perspectives. The music of Yoko Kanno (Macross Plus) which ranges from 60's styled fast paced jazz ensembles to simple guitar pieces also contributes to the atmosphere that the colorfully varied characters of Toshiro Kawamoto (Gundam 0083) live in. Also, the script provided by ZRO Limit Productions is very easy for American viewers to follow.

As anime television shows go this could easily be considered for one of the best efforts of the decade. For fast paced fun which starts ammost immdiately the moment the Mannix-styled opening is over, I highly recommend this series.

Bloody Monday 2 Chapter 63 read online

2011-04-28T19:17:00.001-07:00

The Obsidian Prince, the true enemy of the HiME, has awakened, but the HiME battle royale has gained unstoppable momentum. Mikoto's break with Mai causes her to join forces with her brother, in the process putting herself at odds with the other HiME. Nao is hell-bent on revenging herself against Natsuki, and Mai, convinced that gaining the power promised upon defeating all other HiME is the only way to bring back Takumi, makes an apparent decision to oppose all former allies. Meanwhile, deadly anti-HiME android Miyu reappears on the scene, the Obsidian Prince and Nagi hatch their nefarious plans in spite of Fumi and the Headmaster's opposition, and Natsuki, emotionally crippled by a devastating revelation, recuperates under the ministrations of Shizuru, whose overprotective impulses may well do more harm than good.

Bloody Monday 2 Chapter 62 read online

2011-04-28T19:17:00.000-07:00

Bloody Monday Season 2 - Chapter 62

Coming off of the emotional and action highs of the last volume, this penultimate volume hits the ground running and wastes no time in squeezing the cast until they bleed pure drama. There may be only three episodes on this disc, but there isn't a single wasted moment; it's an hour and a quarter of pure (melo)drama heaven.

Like the last volume, this volume has dispensed entirely with first half's light humor. This stretch of episodes is heavy (and occasionally heavy-handed) straight through, as the fragile alliances formed among the HiME during the Searrs Foundation's attack continue to unravel. As do the HiME themselves. The time has come for every sideways glance, cryptic hint, and scrap of back-story seeded in the series' more lighthearted beginnings to pay dividends. The large cast is fleshed out with deep, yet only partially exposed personal histories that simultaneously tantalize and evoke sympathy. As a result, the emotional pain of the entire cast cuts deep, even while Nagi's HiME death match strips them down to their rawest, ugliest emotional cores: Natsuki has succumbed to soul-destroying despair, Nao is consumed by revenge, Shizuru surrenders herself to single-minded devotion, Mikoto drowns her confusion in subordination, and Mai is a mess of conflicting emotions and deep-rooted denial.

Vinland Saga Chapter 77 read online

2011-04-28T19:13:00.004-07:00

The computer animation for the driving scenes deserves special mention, too. Despite having a personal bias against mixing CGI with 2-D animation--it almost always looks artificial-- this reviewer found the slick, geometric shapes of the cars in eX-Driver to be well-suited to the technique. Yes, it still looks artificial in the production, but if you've already bought into a world where people can't drive their own cars, artificial-looking animation is the least of your worries. The freedom of being able to render the vehicles from any angle allows animators to frame each scene for maximum effect. The CGI cars of eX-Driver can zip past at speeds that just wouldn't have looked the same in 2-D.

The dub cast for the eX-Driver movie is quite plain, like the story and characters. Geneon must have known that they wouldn't be able to inject much personality into Lorna, Lisa and Souichi, so they sent in Typical Anime Girls #1 and #2 along with Typical Anime Boy. At least the use of plug-and-play voices sounds good as an ensemble regardless of how it's put together. The voice actor for Rico Gambino steals the show, bringing an Italian brogue to his role. By downplaying the accent and sounding more like a Godfather character than Super Mario, he adds humor to what would have been an otherwise dry stereotype.

Vinland Saga Chapter 76 read online

2011-04-28T19:13:00.003-07:00

The characters of eX-Driver are... well, the real star characters might be the cars. Rendered with the draftsmanship that is Kosuke Fujishima's trademark, racers like Souichi's scrappy Super Seven, Lorna's no-nonsense Lotus and Lisa's sleek Lancia reflect more personality than the drivers themselves. Lorna and Lisa are, of course, the customary good girl/bad girl pair, and the fact that Fujishima had a hand in this show will probably elicit plenty of comparisons to Miyuki and Natsumi from You're Under Arrest. Sadly, Miyuki and Natsumi are a lot more fun than these two. Souichi, meanwhile, is the kid prodigy with shades of Skuld from Oh My Goddess!. Despite an attempt to give them character, these three are no more than warm bodies designed to occupy the driver's seats of their respective vehicles. In fact, the supporting role of Rico Gambino provides the only breath of life among the human characters in the show.

What lifts the eX-Driver movie above other mediocre works is the first-rate artwork and animation. Kosuke Fujishima has always been revered in the anime and manga world for doing two things really well: pretty girls and awesome cars. He gets to indulge himself here, designing and drawing cars so detailed that it would give the Initial D folks a good scare. Lorna and Lisa aren't so bad looking either, proving that drop-dead gorgeous female characters can exist without constantly losing their clothes. (Are you paying attention, Ken Akamatsu?!)

Vinland Saga Chapter 75 read online

2011-04-28T19:13:00.002-07:00

eX-Driver:The Movie opens with an exhilarating car chase sequence that ought to go into every animator's notebook. With the camera sweeping through city streets and evoking a true sense of speed, it's one of those moments in anime that is genuinely theatrical. What a shame, then, that everything else after that falls a bit short.

eX-Driver's biggest fault is the paper-thin story. All you need to know is that someone was dumb enough to invent cars that drive themselves, but forgot to put in emergency measures, so now they have talented drivers who use their amazing skills to save the day on a regular basis. Any pretenses of plot beyond that are simply to keep you engaged until the next big car chase. While this may annoy viewers looking for deeper content, the story itself isn't intolerable. It's a simple crime/mystery premise set against the backdrop of high-powered car racing, no different from what you might expect in any blockbuster action flick. Most people can digest these storylines as long as they don't set their standards too high. While it isn't terribly original or exciting, the plot is plain enough that you can sit through it while waiting for the eye candy.

Vinland Saga Chapter 74 read online

2011-04-28T19:13:00.001-07:00

Vinland Saga 74

Well-mannered Lorna, impetuous Lisa and young prodigy Souichi are teenagers living in a future where AI-driven cars have made the act of driving obsolete. That's why their ability to drive souped-up, gasoline-powered cars gives them the elite status of eX-Drivers, whose job it is to stop AI-driven cars when their programming gets out of control. In this hour-long feature, the three of them travel to America to represent Japan in the World eX-Driver Championships. However, all is not well as Team USA sponsor Rico Gambino appears to be doing more with his money than simply financing the team. Between Gambino's shady dealings and the antics of his rebellious daughter Angela, Japan's eX-Drivers may be playing for higher stakes than just a championship trophy.

Vinland Saga Chapter 73 read online

2011-04-28T19:13:00.000-07:00

Vinland Saga 73

Those who have come to associate Eurobeat music with car racing will be pleasantly surprised by the musical richness of eX-Driver:The Movie. Using a style that can be best described as "orchestral pop," composer Hikaru Nanase combines traditional film scoring with subtle but urgent beats that accentuate the thrill of driving. It's most noticeable in the excellent opening sequence, but comes up again and again as a stylish (if somewhat formulaic) accompaniment to the equally stylish visuals.

Also included on the DVD is a half-hour feature, "Nina and Rei: Danger Zone," set a few years before Lorna and Lisa's time. Very much in the spirit of the movie, this short story opens with eX-Drivers Nina and Rei going after a miniature AI car, and culminates in a highly improbable chase between an airplane and a car down a runway. Somewhere amidst all this is a plot that could threaten the very foundation of the eX-Driver organization, but don't let that interfere with your enjoyment of the usual eye-popping car chases.

Those who want a car-and-driver anime full of character development and story will be happier watching Initial D. On the other hand, those looking for an hour's worth of casual entertainment--just a feast for the eyes without having to think too hard--will find it in eX-Driver:The Movie. Try to look past the flimsy premise and story and you might just find out why Kosuke Fujishima is still the master artist of pretty girls and awesome cars.

Maken-Ki! Chapter 39 read online

2011-04-28T19:09:00.003-07:00

Unless you count the marathon feature—which, really, you should—there are no extras of great interest to be had here.

There are a few episodes later in the set where the series briefly resurrects Penguin Village, the setting of Akira Toriyama's truly unhinged gag manga Dr. Slump, into which it temporarily introduces one of the Red Ribbon army's nastier villains. The resultant combination of insane weirdness and classic ruthless villainy says more about the path Toriyama's art—and, subsequently, the shows based off of it—have taken than any words could. While tougher than before, at this point that path has yet to take Dragon Ball down the darker and less interesting byways it will eventually explore (and then wear out). Here it is in balance: an action-packed tale told with rare humor and something even rarer—a genuine sense of adventure.

Maken-Ki! Chapter 38 read online

2011-04-28T19:09:00.002-07:00

Funimation has a reputation for freewheeling English adaptations. This is why. Funimation's dub isn't a translation of the original so much as it is, to borrow their own terminology, a complete reversioning. The liberties taken with the original script are quite amazing. Sections of dialogue are removed and added, jokes are inserted and excised, and entire conversations are warped until they bear little resemblance to the originals. It's enough to send sub purists running for the hills. Which is their loss. For while it may be loose, Funimation's dub is also great fun; full of clever banter and off-the-cuff jokes. And it isn't as unfaithful as a description of its wildly divergent script would lead you to believe. The casting and performances, for instance, are largely dead-on, and while it may tinker with the meaning, it never violates the purpose of the dialogue. When it does make substantial artistic alterations, they are often beneficial. Stephanie Nadolny's terminally naive and good-humored Goku, for one, clearly outclasses her temperamental Japanese counterpart. And the addition of a slew of hammy accents complements Toriyama's heterogeneous fantasy world such that it feels incomplete without them (plus they're hilarious). The dub does fall down on occasion; particularly when trying to defuse some of Toriyama's more ribald humor. Kuririn, when asked why he's suspiciously sniffing the diamond that Bulma hid in her crotch, says that he's checking to see if it's glass. Um, yeah. Nevertheless, it's an exemplary—if less than reverent—work.

Maken-Ki! Chapter 37 read online

2011-04-28T19:09:00.001-07:00

Maken-ki - Chapter 37

Throughout it all the series' look leaks retro charm. The traditional animation looks great. Even its freeze-frame stills and looped sequences have a certain nostalgic appeal. It's no great shakes technically speaking, but the very fact that it doesn't care if it looks cheap frees it up to lively and active. Toriyama's wonderfully humorous art is in full evidence (no one looks anything less than entirely ridiculous at any given time), and he has a knack for inventive and often hilarious action that translates well into animation. It simply looks and acts like it's a lot of fun, and, consequently, is.

It sounds like it's having fun too. No attempt is made to disguise the series' intent to provide slightly goofy entertainment for kids. The score is silly and the sound design pointedly cartoony: collisions and explosions don't just sound unrealistic, they're also overlaid with Batman-style Bam!s and Boom!s, and Shunsuke Kikuchi's score would be right at home in a (non-opera-oriented) Chuck Jones short.

Maken-Ki! Chapter 36 read online

2011-04-28T19:09:00.000-07:00

Maken-ki - Chapter 36

Never fear, though. Akira Toriyama isn't about to abandon his beloved gags, and increasing and occasionally incongruous seriousness aside, Dragon Ball remains a very funny series. This is the kind of show that has no qualms about sticking a power pole up a ninja's butt and then having him jump around on all fours yelping as Goku points and laughs "Now you've got a tail too!" Vulgar, yes, but hilarious too. The whole ninja fight in general is an exercise in Looney Tunes insanity, and the show has a grand old time yukking it up with Master Roshi's perversion (his adventures with Bulma's human-shrinking device being a highlight) and the further antics of its expansive cast. Even the Red Ribbon army comes in for its share of comic drubbing. It is, after all, led by a red-headed, cigar-chomping midget.

Luckily neither raised stakes nor gags are given free enough rein to interfere with the series' straightforward sense of adventure. There is plenty of exploring to be had, dangers to be overcome, and discoveries to be made, and as always there's a deceptively simple pleasure to watching Goku doing it all. Dragon Ball's world, with its mushroom-shaped mountains and bubble-houses, is weird, but a lot of fun both to look at and to explore. Goku, and by proxy we, take in plenty of odd wildlife and bizarre geology as he zips about on his nimbus cloud, and there're an abundance of strange new places to explore and Indiana Jones booby traps to avoid wherever he goes. Not to mention fights. Lots of fights. Against Red Ribbon army lackeys and high mucky-mucks of course, but also against terminator rip-offs, gelatinous monsters, and giant octopi (which he subsequently roasts and eats).

Maken-Ki! Chapter 35 read online

2011-04-28T19:08:00.000-07:00

The Red Ribbon army arc finds Dragon Ball at its peak, at a pleasant mean between the frivolity of early Dragon Ball and the ponderous solemnity of Dragon Ball Z. Here the series is light and funny, yet serious enough that it doesn't feel insubstantial. It may be little more than a diversion, but it's an eminently enjoyable one.

The seriousness comes from the Red Ribbon army itself. While composed of incompetent dogs and equally incompetent people (and tigers, and walruses, and...), they're a genuinely nasty bunch. Nasty enough that they sometimes feel distinctly out of place in Dragon Ball's dippy fantasy world. They enslave, beat and kill locals unfortunate enough to live near a dragon ball, and their tactics for dealing with Goku grow increasingly ugly and extreme as his threat to their organization grows. It's the first time Goku has faced real bad guys—as opposed to Team Rocket-esque wannabes like Emperor Pilaf—and the tone of the series reflects it. Naturally, this being children's anime (and don't fool yourself, it is), the Red Ribbon meanies always get their just desserts, but unlike previous villains, their just desserts sometimes include outright death, an extremity of punishment that once again feels out of place.

Yomeiro Choice Chapter 38 read online

2011-04-28T19:05:00.004-07:00

Tournaments and training temporarily behind him, intrepid young monkey boy Goku sets his one-track mind to finding his grandfather's four-star dragon ball. Balls that grant wishes attract an unsavory element, so Goku has his work cut out for him. Primary among his competitors is the Red Ribbon army, an organization that, despite its arts-and-craftsy name, is thoroughly ruthless in its pursuit of the glassy little orbs. As Goku chews his way through the organization he faces generals, robots, master thieves, booby-trapped pirate caves, and ultimately one mean mother of a mercenary. If that sounds like a lot for one pint-sized nature boy to deal with, fear not, Goku has reliable (and not-so-reliable) allies in the likes of Bulma, Kuririn, and Turtle Hermit Roshi, plus he can be a pretty mean mother himself when the situation calls.

Yomeiro Choice Chapter 37 read online

2011-04-28T19:05:00.003-07:00

Media Blasters delivers the DVD versions of the opener and closer intact on each episode, with the English translations and (incomplete) English credits only following at the end of the volume. Included in the Extras are clean renditions of both the tame on-air version and nudity-laced DVD version of the closer, as well as episodes 5 and 6 of the Gynos Academy omake episodes; this time around they feature Cattleya's seemingly sexual late-night kitchen adventure and the “election” to replace all-powerful Student Council President Aldra, respectively. Also present is a public recording of “Radio Queen's Blade” recorded at the 2009 Tokyo Anime Fair (i.e. only a few days before the first episode was broadcasted) which features the seiyuu for Leina and Tomoe and lasts about 24 minutes. Boxed set DVD and Blu-Ray versions of the entire series are also supposed to be available.

While fan service and fantasy action are still the core emphases of the series, the final volume reaffirms that there is at least a bit of a story worth caring about here, too. Some lax fight choreography and story execution at the end prevents the series from hitting its full potential, but this content still has enough going for it to succeed even without the nudity. This last volume also affirms that the entire first season is just a set-up for the serious Queen's Blade action, which will be portrayed in the second season scheduled to start American release in late spring.

Yomeiro Choice Chapter 36 read online

2011-04-28T19:05:00.002-07:00

As good as the series otherwise looks, the fight choreography in the big fight in episode 12 is a weak point. Director Kinji Yoshimoto, who has very limited experience with action-heavy titles beyond this franchise, seems uncertain exactly how he wants to set up and execute a complicated battle involving nearly the entire cast, resulting in an awkward-looking affair which allows all of the fighters to show off their moves but not in a smoothly-flowing manner. The excellent musical score, which continues to be the series' greatest strength, does what it can but still has to have material worthy of being backed by its gracefully-soaring numbers.

The dub, unfortunately, reverts to being fully hit-or-miss. Eva Christensen (the rarely-used voice of Giant Robo's Gin Rei) is a good fit and performance for Cattleya, as is the uncredited casting for Melpha, but the uncredited choices for Ymir and especially Queen Aldra are much more questionable; the latter, in fact, fails to generate any sense of royal authority. Amongst recurring roles, Trina Hilbe's sultry-voiced take on Echidna continues to be the stand-out performance. The dub script remains tight throughout.

Yomeiro Choice Chapter 35 read online

2011-04-28T19:05:00.001-07:00

Leina is the principle protagonist of the series, though, and she does get the lion's share of attention in this volume even though episode 9 mostly focuses on Cattleya and Ymir. Though she still has some difficult fights, Leina gets abused much less here and, by the end of this volume, is actually capable of defending herself and even developing her own signature move. The credibility of her progression is hampered some by the hyper-concentrated training regimen gimmick the series pulls, but at least Leina is, thankfully, no longer pathetic by the end.

The fan service and humor continue to be all one could reasonably ask for, too. Ditzy Nanael provides the volume its requisite quota of panty shots, while her efforts to find replacement divine milk, including her encounters with assorted varieties of fruit-flavored goat milk, and slovenly sleeping posture provide solid running jokes. Other characters get regular opportunities to flash their breasts and the continuing high caliber of the artistry assures that such service gets rendered in loving detail. All of the new female characters get cosplay-worthy costumes, too.

Yomeiro Choice Chapter 34 read online

2011-04-28T19:05:00.000-07:00

Though one could cynically (and not necessarily inaccurately) view Queen's Blade as a whole as merely a fan service-intensive romp involving sexy women fighting fantasy battles against one another, its first season has, in general, served two specific purposes: assembling a broad and varied cast of female fighters and showing the progression of Leina from being a wimp unable to protect herself to a toughened-up combatant who can actually hold her own in a Queen's Blade-caliber fight. Despite some cheesy design and execution to some of the action scenes, the final four episodes accomplish all of the above purposes satisfyingly well.

Although a couple more new combatants will show up in the second season, most of the rest of the key characters debut here. The practical blacksmith Cattleya is possibly the most notorious of the QB fighters because of her ponderously huge breasts and a sword that could match that of Berserk's Guts, although she also gets to be the character wearing glasses and the mother. Ymir, who looks nothing like a traditional fantasy dwarf beyond her height, fills out the position of the series' requisite ultra-petite character and has some neat gauntlets to boot. Über-chested Melpha, who appears only in the last episode, is the priestess who uses some rather unconventional “Holy Poses” to activate her powers, while the petite Queen Aldra, with a mask that covers one eye, also makes a formal appearance at that point. All of the other fighters who have appeared previously also make appearances to one degree or another and the angel Nanael is still around making a nuisance of herself, too.

Yuyukana download ユユカナnanawind

2011-04-25T00:36:00.003-07:00

『ユユカナ』応援中！http://nanawind.jp/

That's okay really, because while MADHOUSE's art is striking, Gunslinger Girl is really more of an aural adventure than a visual one. The music is flat-out gorgeous and consistently memorable, orchestrated with several lovely themes for different characters, and throwing in a few familiar tunes or Italian opera pieces for good measure. Vocally, both languages walk a fine line with the sweet, piping little girls' voices and a hushed, wise-beyond-their-years delivery they must adopt. In both cases, the Henrietta/Guise pairing stands out most, pure trembly sweetness toting a semi-automatic behind what sounds like the kindest, most exhausted person in the world, who teaches her how to use it to kill a man in one shot before taking her antique shopping or something. That might best sum up what makes this anime so uniquely unsettling.

Really, the most unsettling thing about Gunslinger Girl is not that it justifies the exploitation of children, because it never does. Neither, however, does it condemn the idea. People may talk, a few may question, but there are no answers. It's strictly business for a much larger government with larger concerns. The real point of tension here is that the series, and the characters that compose it, simply carry out their missions without a word one way or the other.

Walkure Romanze download ワルキューレロマンツェ

2011-04-25T00:36:00.002-07:00

『ワルキューレロマンツェ』応援中です！

http://www.ricotta-soft.jp/

However, the sad fact remains that he doesn't. Given that there is a second season to the anime, it should come as no surprise that despite the moral questions, political turmoil, and various dangers inside the agency and out, the government is a rock of stability for these little girls and their handlers and no one will (successfully) rise up to shake the box. Many psychological thrillers set out to “make you think,” but in turn secretly tell you what to think. Not even more morally apathetic titles like Death Note stay unbiased for very long, and sometimes become the most persuasive because of their false impartiality. Gunslinger Girl truly is the exception to the rule as it constantly jabs at your mind and heart from all sides without taking one. To some people this is a rare gem, truly rich entertainment, to others, a nauseating nightmare with no reason to exist.

For Funimation's blu-ray release of the series, all of the extras from the DVD releases: galleries, clean themes, commentaries, interviews, model sheets, have been transferred over onto much more attractive menus. The DVD menu usually isn't worth commenting on, but this set has some menus pretty enough to get lost in for a minute or so before the show, playing different clips from the series layed in with slick ammunition graphics and varied gun click effects for all the options. On the issue of video quality, that's a less pretty story. The transfer is not remotely close to HD quality and depending on your flatscreen's resolution, can appear a bit “buzzy,” for lack of a better description, in the dark outlines and oversaturated in brighter areas like the hotel in episode 2. Is the video superior to the DVD set of the series? Absolutely, especially considering this was an early Funimation release, but it's not HD-quality and the more fabulous plasma sets are actually going to make it look worse. It's just enough to recommend over the DVD, but not quite worth a double dip.

Kimi o Aogi Otome wa Hime ni download 君を仰ぎ乙女は姫に

2011-04-25T00:36:00.001-07:00

君を仰ぎ乙女は姫に　オフィシャルサイト

http://www.peassoft.com/game8/

Far from being overwrought with exploitation and melodrama, Gunslinger Girl is restrained and terse, keeping its contents under pressure to maintain the idea's freshness. The emotional depth of each agent and the intricacy of the relationships they share doesn't hurt either. In fact, the understated development of the premise is Gunslinger Girl's greatest strength. This is not angst-filled, suggestive girls-with-guns lolicon despite the suggestive nature of the box art or character designs. The maturity and restraint in the writing is remarkable. Actually, that's an understatement. Gunslinger Girl is more rife with cold subtlety than a healthy number of seinen titles.

Due to the sordid nature of their work, all the handlers speak in veiled words with double meanings, half-truths and, every so often, hint at misgivings or worse, mental instability. The girls range all over from domesticated killing machines simply happy to be alive, (Rico,) to fragile dolls starving for love and normalcy while striving to excel in their duties, (Henrietta,) and even a few who seem to have made peace with their place in life enough to make decisions on their own (Triela.) They are entirely molded by their handlers' treatment, which in itself becomes an interesting study in personal duties battling personal ethics. Treating the girls as weapons dehumanizes them as well as the handler, but showing them compassion can lead to confusion for the little soldiers and endangerment for everyone in the agency. Guise more than anyone struggles with this, and on numerous occasions, his slide across the scale brings him dangerously close to adopting a shift in paradigm.

Nemureru Hana wa Haru o Matsu. download 眠れる花は春をまつ。

2011-04-25T00:36:00.000-07:00

「眠れる花は春をまつ。」応援キャンペーン開催中！

http://130cm.jp/

A new rating needs to be created for material like this, both unforgettable and alienating, heartwarming and horrific. It isn't foul or explicit by nature, in fact it is consistently delicate, clever, and beautiful, but it seems to have greater power to offend than the most shameless, tacky ecchi or gorefests on the market. This is a series about the slow dehumanization of little girls who are rescued from abusive environments by the government only to be brainwashed as assassins with a slavish devotion to a superior who may or may not choose to show them love in return. This is a situation made all the more unsettling by the constant reminders in each episode that the girls are aware of the cruel hand they've been dealt and fear the day they will “die empty and alone,” (a direct quote.) The content here is fairly tame, particularly for a political thriller, but it's the spirit of the premise itself that makes viewers squirm in discomfort. In Hellsing, hailing bullets, hordes of zombies feasting on entrails and demonic blood rituals are a thrill met with laughter and applause. In Gunslinger Girl, the sight of a nine year old girl with a blank expression cracking off perfect headshots by the second on firing range targets is all it takes to send some viewers turning their heads in disgust. What this show really needs is a bright yellow sticker across the front labeled “NOT FOR EVERYONE.”

Obviously that would be a terrible idea in terms of marketing, but it's not meant to be an insult. In most cases the moniker “not for everyone” denotes high quality that only certain people will appreciate, and Gunslinger Girl fits this description perfectly.

HYPER→Highspeed→Genius download windmill

2011-04-25T00:35:00.003-07:00

http://windmill.suki.gr.jp/

Italy's economic and political instabilities have led to an increase in terrorism, and the authorization of a new government agency to quell the threats. Known as the Social Welfare Agency, they maintain a cover as a charity institution to hide a much darker reality. The Special Ops division at the heart of this institution has been creating some very unique weapons of counter-terrorism that must never be made public: cyborgs. It's not the cybernetic transformations and conditioning of the subjects that the government is so desperate to hide, but the nature of the subjects themselves. The cyborg soldiers are little girls, found to be the only vessels capable of adapting to the strain of the implants and taking the psychological conditioning in stride. Even so, their lives are short. Girls like Henrietta, Rico, Triela, Claes and Angelica are assigned to adult agents known as handlers who treat the girls however they see fit, some with the compassion of an older brother and some as ruthless snipers adopting a gun only to abandon it when it rusts or jams. Regardless of how the girls see their fate or how long they live, they adore their handlers and will do anything, from take life to sacrifice their own, to make their fratello proud of them.

Tenshi no Hane o Fumanaide download 天使の羽根を踏まないでっ

2011-04-25T00:35:00.002-07:00

天使の羽根を踏まないでっ

http://www.mephisto-game.com/

But for immutable proof of the endurance of Vampire Knight's classic strengths in the face of their newfangled action competition, nothing can beat the volume's last pages, which tie up the physical conflict even as they leave the series on the cusp of a personal one that promises emotional pain on a magnificent scale.

Viz reproduces Hino's sharp lines and seas of screen tones as well as one could expect in a conventionally-sized book, and while the book itself isn't as well-constructed as the best are it's well worth the asking price. Viz's habit of completely replacing its Japanese sound effects is irksome but hardly a reason to balk at a purchase.

It's no Hellsing (what is?), but the ninth installment of Vampire Knight is certainly easier to admit to a fondness for than the non-action oriented installments of the series. Yeah, it's still the ripest kind of gothic melodrama, and yeah it's still knee-deep in half-naked vampire flesh, but it is also viscerally satisfying and pretty darned exciting. Not bad as far as fig leaves go.

Rewrite key visualarts download game studio

2011-04-25T00:35:00.001-07:00

http://key.visualarts.gr.jp/rewrite/index.html

But that's exactly what it does. Zero's arrival on the battlefield in particular is action-film showboating of the sort that wouldn't be out of place in a (good) Shonen Jump manga, and the displays of power are plentiful, spectacular, and occasionally rather disturbing. Even more surprising is Yuki, who dons the mantle of action lead with eye-opening aplomb. The switch isn't perfect of course—Hino fails to properly establish space in several scenes, leading to some murky choreography, and her fragmentary panel structure doesn't adapt particularly well to pure action—but the nearly eighty-page fight that concludes this volume is positively brimming with little jolts of satisfying violence and nuggets of neat vampire action. Who'd have thought it?

That said, aside from providing a fig leaf for the series' male fans (it has violence!) and supplying some excitement to complement its brooding romance, the manga's turn to action doesn't really change it much. Even in the midst of pitched battle, Vampire Knight is very much driven by its dramatic content. As pleasant as the extension of Hino's stylistic palette is, the impact of Zero, Yuki and Rido's three-way battle comes less from its execution than from the emotions that play out over its course: the despair that fuels Zero's rage, Yuki's shock at discovering the source of Zero's new powers, the twisted affection that informs Rido's actions. More attention to the physical—including, naturally, oodles of teen vampire fan-service—doesn't detract from Hino's skill with the emotional. The cast remains as painfully expressive as ever and her ability to ambush with unexpected emotions is undiminished. And neither does vampire fightin' elbow out the political dramas that have driven the last handful of volumes. The vampire Senate and Ichijo's devious father get their due here, as does the Hunter Society in one brief but telling scene with Yuki's father.

Pochi to Goshujinsama Download

2011-04-25T00:35:00.000-07:00

SkyFish　pocoが贈る　第一弾！最新作『ポチとご主人様』を応援しています！！
http://www.sky-fish.jp/

With Kaname's political games reaching their end-game it's no surprise that Matsuri Hino's humor has long since fled for more hospitable climes, nor that life-changing developments wrack her cast. But for her to branch out from gothic melodrama and flowery vampire romance into...action? The horror!

For all the emotional content of her manga, Hino hasn't displayed any particular aptitude for the cinematic. Her artistic approach has been largely static: cute, expressive, and forever relegating movement to a few blurry and entirely inadequate transitional panels. Her ability to communicate the geography of actions has never been good, and her focus has always been on mental states to the detriment of physical motion. In short, Vampire Knight isn't a series that you'd expect to push itself to cinematic heights or to deliver violent, thrilling climaxes.

Anime Gamble Fish Chapter 63

2011-04-19T17:49:00.006-07:00

There may have been some doubts about the hackneyed premise that began the second season of The World God Only Knows—tough martial arts girl secretly likes cute things!—but with Episode 2, all those doubts are swept away. The excellent conclusion to the Kusunoki Kasuga arc sees our hard-nosed heroine going on the World's Most Awkward Date with smug, game-obsessed protagonist Keima Katsuragi. Granted, this charade is simply an attempt to make Kusunoki confront her "weak" side and force out the "loose soul" that's bothering her, but the laughs just keep coming: Keima's unabashed selfishness at the game store, an overly physical round of whack-a-mole (or rather, lobster), even a hilariously uncomfortable moment in the purikura booth. The genius is in seeing all these dating-sim clichés subverted by two completely unwilling participants.

http://www.mangafox.com/manga/gamble_fish/

Anime 1/2 Prince Chapter 50

2011-04-19T17:49:00.005-07:00

http://www.mangafox.com/manga/1_2_prince/

As for the rest of Right Stuf's treatment of the series, it's pretty much what has become standard now that they've moved to box sets: thirteen episodes across four thinpak-ed discs in a solid box with a sizable booklet snugged in next to them. The booklet is laid out like a guidebook, and thus avoids feeling like an episode-by-episode recap, despite the fact that it is largely regurgitating (in disappointing monochrome) information presented in the series. The discs themselves are heavy with extra material, some of it disposable (trailers, promos, etc) but most of it excellent, including a series of lively if standardized interviews with the six lead actresses, and a six-part travelogue called “Satojun's 'Venice, I'm Sorry'”, in which Junichi Sato narrates his research trip to Venice. Sato's travelogue is notable not only for the insight it gives into his methodology and the making of the series (check out the side-by-side comparisons in the final episode), but also for the unusual charm he displays (to see just how unusual, compare this to just about any interview with Mamoru Oshii).

Slow, deliberate, and anti-dramatic, Aria isn't a traditionally entertaining series. It dabbles in humor and pathos, but more than anything it is a soft but magnetic invitation to submerge oneself in a world where kindness reigns supreme and life is overflowing with subtle beauty. And unlike many of its brethren, it's all too easy to surrender to the call and to emerge each episode refreshed and, ultimately, entranced.

Special Ao no Exorcist Chapter 24

2011-04-19T17:49:00.004-07:00

http://www.mangafox.com/manga/ao_no_exorcist/

It's a confluence of visual and storytelling art that is only possible in the hands of a master. Sato makes the wind and the water live, synchronizing their natural rhythms with that of each episode's plot and those of the delicate score (featuring the crystalline arias of the late, great Eri Kawai), creating a relaxing narrative flow that one can't help but be swept up in, to float effortlessly until the end credits roll. It's a fantasy of course—no where in the real world does as idyllic a city as Neo-Venezia or as indefatigably positive a person as Akari exist—but it's a gorgeous, seductive fantasy. In Sato's world of clean natural beauty and lazy Mediterranean living, even Akari's “sappy lines” (as Aika calls them) fall from her lips like wholly appropriate poetry (helped, of course, by a sweetly convincing performance from Erino Hazuki).

It's also a fantasy that won't be to all tastes. Just as a series that is unrealistically grim will alienate some, so too will a series that is unrealistically optimistic. Even fans of the series might find it advisable to break the whimsy into manageable chunks. It's one of the few times when Right Stuf's often irksome habit of tacking English credits onto the end of every episode is actually an advantage, dividing each disc up as if it were a collection of short-form films on a single theme.

OVA GTO: Shonan 14 Days Chapter 44

2011-04-19T17:49:00.002-07:00

http://www.mangafox.com/manga/gto_shonan_14_days/

Aqua is a planet of water. Ninety percent of its surface is water, and its citizens live simply, eschewing the mechanized excess of humanity's home planet. In the beautiful, watery city of Neo-Venezia—patterned after the extinct city of Venice—the waterways are ruled by gondola-rowing tour guides known as undines. Akari, an immigrant from Manhome, is an apprentice gondolier at the tiny but well-respected water guide company Aria. She works under Alicia, one of the top guides in the city, and along with fellow apprentices Alice and Aika, practices hard, explores fearlessly, and absorbs the simple wonders of her new home with the unfeigned enthusiasm of a child.

movie Hajime no Ippo Ch 933

2011-04-19T17:49:00.001-07:00

http://www.mangafox.com/manga/hajime_no_ippo/

Aria is unquestionably the nicest anime Junichi Sato has made in his long and storied career as a director of nice anime. It's a nearly perfect pairing of source material and animator—the man behind relentlessly optimistic gems like Kaleido Star, and Kozue Amano's “futuristic healing comic” were made for each other—and the collaboration yields a pointedly reassuring series whose poetic sensibilities elevate it to something sublime.

Each episode is a finely fashioned tone poem steeped in a love of the slow rhythms of everyday life and told with an elegant self-possession that places it light-years beyond the vulgar moralizing of most “uplifting” stories. The sweet simplicity of the characters complements that of the stories woven around them, the warmth of their interplay a mirror of that inspired by the series' quiet celebration of the magic of normalcy. And cradling it all is Neo-Venezia, alive with wind and water, its lived-in architecture and golden, benevolent mysteries creating a world of such gentle beauty that neither the impossibly nice cast, nor their embarrassingly uplifting adventures, feels the least bit out of place.

Anime Iris Zero Chapter 19

2011-04-19T17:49:00.000-07:00

Iris Zero 19

Well, surprise: Kotetsu is not much worse than your average Ranma ½ episode. Okay, so there's a lot of panty-shots and a female-female bath scene that gets a LITTLE too interesting for younger viewers, but overall, there's nothing too objectionable here.

For an anime with a plot that bears quite a bit of resemblance to other anime, Kotetsu has quite a bit of originality going for it. First of all, there's a pretty unique look that characters get when their eyes bulge or they look confused. Second of all, there's a pretty unique sense of humor going for it throughout. Those who liked Project A-Ko will almost certainly love Kotetsu, as Moriyama's storytelling spark always shows through.

The dub is surprisingly well-done. Giving Linn a British accent is a good parallel for a Kyoto accent, but voice actress Kay Hest just isn't up to it, and comes off a bit irritating. Shawn Sides is excellent as Miho. While not in the same league as the second volume of Sorcerer Hunters, the dub is still very good.

Anime Wolf Guy - Ookami no Monshou Ch 86

2011-04-19T17:48:00.001-07:00

http://www.mangafox.com/manga/wolf_guy_ookami_no_monshou/

An extremely odd opening sequence that combines olden Japanese instruments, chanting, and imagery with the perverse female silhouettes of the Cool Devices opening is a good start to this unique two-part OAV, one of the latest works of Project A-Ko director Yuji Moriyama.

There's a lot here to suggest something extremely raunchy: First, Moriyama got his start directing a few episodes of the infamous softcore porn series "Cream Lemon" (one idea for this series was actually cleaned up and later became Project A-Ko). Second, the OAV was distributed originally by Daiei Video, a company commonly associated with titles like La Blue Girl and Venus Five. Third, it's an ADV Films release, the same company that once marketed the original Burn Up! with the slogan, "Big guns. Big busts." (Kotetsu has a pretty fun slogan too: "Sugar and spice... and itchin' to slice!")

Movie Sekirei Ch 113

2011-04-19T17:48:00.000-07:00

http://www.mangafox.com/manga/sekirei/

Linn Suzuki, a young warrior that recently escaped the brutality of her sensei in Kyoto, flees to Tokyo and, by pure chance, meets femme fatale detective Miho Kuon. Impressed with the little girl's abilities (after she defeated a bunch of possessed street punks), Miho grugingly offers her a place to stay, despite her sob-story that somewhat stretches the limits of believability. It seems that she came to Tokyo in order to find her brother Tetsujin, who worked as an assistant to Miho.

What Linn doesn't expect is that Miho has lots of enemies in high places. One nerdly magician Tatsuya Mikado has been hired by a corrupt construction company executive to assassinate her (he isn't exactly strong-willed, however), and female assassin Kagari is sent to bump HIM off as soon as he's done. Linn, as you can imagine, gets caught up in the middle. But once Tatsuya gives up the idea of killing Miho, Linn finds him strangely attractive.

Nagasarete Airantou Chapter 107 OVA

2011-04-12T13:53:00.005-07:00

http://www.mangareader.net/351/nagasarete-airantou.html

A rural setting, some minor amusement and a handful of directorial tricks imported from SHAFT are about all that this good-natured but empty sports comedy has going for it. It takes place at a rural middle-school, where farm-girl Asuna Harukaze is a member of the soft tennis club. She's enthusiastic about it, but not very good. And her tendency to skimp on training isn't making her any better. Chitose, the club's thoroughly inept captain, is even worse, but the rest of the club clearly a class above Asuna. Kotone, the club's disciplinarian, is a solid journeyman, and Kurusu, the club's star player, is a soft-tennis machine. Together they are preparing for the local tournament, though between squabbling, milking cows, wrestling giant salamanders, and rounding up their members, they get very little actual practice done.

xxxHolic Chapter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Movie

2011-04-12T13:53:00.004-07:00

Tsutomu Mizushima has been directing feel-good anime like Shinryaku! Ika Musume and Big Windup! for long enough now that it's easy to forget that he once made his mark directing vicious black comedies like Magical Witch Punie-chan. And while his direction may have grown glossier and smoother in the intervening years, he hasn't lost the wicked bite that made shows like Punie-chan mean-spirited kicks. Azazel-san is as nasty a slice of blood-squirting, casually raunchy comedy as Mizushima has ever produced. A keen eye for mean sight gags and an aptitude for squeezing hard laughs from malicious behavior keep it hilarious, while Rinko provides just enough of a moral anchor to keep it from becoming genuinely vile. It isn't deep, terribly smart, or even that original, and it certainly isn't wholesome or uplifting, but it is loads of fun. Perfect for washing away the sticky-sweet taste of things like A Channel.

http://www.mangareader.net/160/xxxholic.html

Anime Do You Want to Try! Chapter 19

2011-04-12T13:53:00.002-07:00

http://www.mangareader.net/956/do-you-want-to-try.html

Take a lust demon, an evil private eye, and a hemophiliac assistant and what do you get? Something you don't want your church group to catch you watching. PI Akutabe will take any job, no matter how dirty. Following cheating husbands? No problem! Taking compromising pictures of said husband? Why not? Devising a cruel revenge at the behest of the betrayed wife? With pleasure. It is when tasked with the latter that Akutabe takes Rinko, his assistant of two months, behind the agency's locked back door for the first time. Behind it is a fully-stocked studio for the practice of the black arts, which Akutabe uses to summon demons to do his dirtiest work. Specifically a lust demon named Azazel. Azazel is a horny, sexually harassing teddy-bear-thing whose powers and interests are strictly carnal. He's also a total incompetent, as Rinko soon learns when his plans for getting the cheating husband back in line start going horribly awry.

Initial D Chapter 584 ova

2011-04-12T13:53:00.001-07:00

It's a great moment. Iroha's one overriding problem prior to this episode was its thoroughly unlikable cast. Ohana's grandmother was intolerable, co-workers Minko and Nako were a sullen witch and a timid mouse respectively, Minko's boss the cook was an asshole, and even Ohana was an insensitive, self-pitying whiner. The moment Ohana decides to stand up and take control of her situation that begins to change. Ohana immediately sheds her poor-me attitude and determines to work on her deeper personality flaws, in the process forcing Minko to finally re-examine her hostility and Nako to show a bit of spine. Even the cook reveals an unexpected streak of understanding. Ohana's grandmother, despite what might or might not be signs of softening, remains as hateful as ever, but it's still a vast improvement over the first episode. Now it's possible to anticipate rather than dread future developments, to look forward to finding out what Ohana's hatred of the term "go die" means and what it is that drives Minko, safe in the knowledge that the characters (and thus we) are in good hands.

http://www.mangareader.net/208/initial-d.html

Watashi ni xx Shinasai! Chapter 22 Anime

2011-04-12T13:53:00.000-07:00

Watashi ni xx Shinasai! 22

Ohana makes a concerted effort to learn the ins and outs of her new job, getting up early to weed the yard and putting everything she has into cleaning rooms. But nothing seems good enough for her grandmother, and it's only a matter of time before she screws up again. Which can make this episode rather difficult to watch. Despite appearances, Ohana is a vulnerable girl, so waiting for her inevitable mistake and the equally inevitable humiliation she'll suffer at the hands of the inn's unpleasant staff is not a pleasant experience for us. And sure enough, she slips up—twice. Once while cleaning a customer's room and again when she takes the initiative and cooks for the staff. But then something unexpected happens: Ohana reaches deep inside and finds the strength to change her circumstances, to change herself, and perhaps even change her co-workers.

07 Ghost Chapter 63 ova

2011-04-12T13:50:00.003-07:00

07 Ghost http://www.mangareader.net/212/07-ghost.html

The idea of establishing a harem as kind of a farm for, er, "life-seed" is actually pretty amusing, particularly in how it reverses the usual direction of sexual exploitation. But it belongs in a thinking-man's hentai (if there is such a thing), not in a silly romance starring a prepubescent girl. Still, through a combination of Astarotte's genuine childishness and a level of (relative) restraint, it manages to come down on the innocent side of hair-raisingly creepy. For now the princess's feelings for her all-female entourage are just as important as her pending need for, er, "life-seed," and there is reason to believe that her relationship with Naoya, the man Judit brings back with her, will be less icky than it could be (for one, he has a daughter her age). There's still plenty of time, of course, for the series to go in for full-blown lolicon romance, and much will depend on what exactly sucking, er, "life-seed" entails. If it's exactly what it sounds like, then it's best not to think too hard about what Judit means when she says that Astarotte's mother was already "sucking men of their life-seed" at Astarotte's age, and probably best not to keep watching either.

Hareluya II Boy Chapter 296 anime

2011-04-12T13:50:00.001-07:00

Combining young (very young) girls with an explicitly sexual premise means walking a very fine line. So far Astarotte's Toy falls on the right (or more accurately, the less-wrong) side of it. Whether it can continue to do so will be the largest factor in determining its ultimate value. The premise is rooted in the nature of succubi. Ten-year-old Astarotte is their princess, and she has just found out that she'll have to suck the, er, "life-seed" from men to survive. That means establishing a large harem to ensure that she's never without sustenance. One problem: Astarotte hates men. As a deal with her tutor, Judit, she agrees that she'll establish a harem if it's populated by human men—knowing full well that one hasn't been seen in a thousand years. Judit is a sore loser, so she goes to open a portal to the human realm and, to Astarotte's dismay, succeeds.

http://www.mangareader.net/747/hareluya-ii-boy.html

Durarara Chapter 14 ova

2011-04-12T13:50:00.000-07:00

http://www.mangareader.net/1318/durarara.html

Battle Girls firmly establishes itself here as an action-comedy of the lightest, slightest sort. Hideyoshi's total idiocy keeps the tone airy and silly, ensuring that even the uglier aspects of medieval society don't drag the mood down. A tiny whiff of shojo-ai keeps her relationship with Oda amusing, despite the potential seriousness of its repercussions (its effect on Mitsuhide doesn't bode well given Mitsuhide's historical role in Oda's death). The episode's solitary action scene—a duel with staves between Hideyoshi and Mitsuhide—stalwartly refuses to be taken seriously. (It's also more lucidly staged than last episode's action scenes, which is a relief.) Even the show's "revelations" are that's-just-the-way-it-is narrative shrugs tossed out by a talking dog. Why is everyone female? It's an alternate world, duh. How do they reproduce? Storks leave babies on doorsteps; how else? Entertainment doesn't get much more brainless or effort-free. The aftermath of episode one's village-burning does darken the mood enough to ensure that the series doesn't fluff itself into nonexistence, but hardly enough to justify watching the series for its realism. Keep watching for the irrepressibly likable Hideyoshi, and for the shock you just know she's going to get whenever she gets around to reading the rest of that history book she totes around.

Okane ga Nai Chapter 38 anime

2011-04-12T13:49:00.000-07:00

Okane ga Nai

http://www.mangareader.net/660/okane-ga-nai.html

Some answers—if they can really be called that—and more light fun are in the offing as Battle Girls makes it through its second episode without self-destructing. Considering its origins, that's quite an achievement. Hideyoshi awakes to find that, yes, she's still a guest of Nobunaga Oda in some strange all-female version of the Warring States period. She accompanies Oda on her rounds as the warlord visits the devastated village the Hideyoshi first arrived in. Distressed by what she sees, Hideyoshi pitches in to help and Oda is impressed by the ease with which she captures the hearts of the peasants. In appreciation, Oda gives Hideyoshi her own room, which she promptly redecorates, pissing Mitsuhide off and leading to a martial-arts competition that Hideyoshi is very much doomed to lose.

Needless Chapter 32 book

2011-04-10T07:17:00.004-07:00

http://www.mangareader.net/375/needless.html

Maybe this would all be more clear at the outset of the backstory if the show wasn't told in a Star Wars-style vertical scroll during the show's opening song. Not to mention how easy it is to miss. All the time it's scrolling by, Gainer and a company of ferrets do a dance in the screen's foreground.

Heck, the whole opening is by far one of the most entertaining anime openings in a long while. It has dancing, space ice skating and a theme with hilarious lyrics like "FULL... METAL... COAT!". It sounds dumb now, but it's kind of entrancing. You could pass it off as the stupidest thing ever, but you'd still be tempted to go back and watch it again later. It's just that memorable.

Yukarism Chapter 5 relerase eng

2011-04-10T07:17:00.002-07:00

http://www.mangareader.net/yukarism

But what's an Exodus, you're probably asking? In Gainer's world, an Exodus means moving large portions of an existing human settlement to a free and environmentally recovered area. You see, on this version of Earth, people moved to these Domepolises after destroying most of Earth's habitable land. Years later, it's possible to move back, but now power structures are set up in the Domes, including royalty and massive trade empires. These entrenched people don't want to give up power, so an Exodus is very illegal.

Naturally, when part of Gainer's hometown escapes under the direction of Exodus Specialist Gain Bijou, the trade empire known as the Siberian Railway begins pursuing the Exodus wherever it goes. The railway crew manage to be some of the more cliche, but fun villains in recent whows. Jin Yassaba, the megalomanic and womanizing Overman pilot of the Siberian Railway makes for an entertaining villain in these episodes, though he was starting to feel overused by the end of the disc. He just wouldn't stay down.

Butsu Zone Chapter 4 5 manga 1 volume

2011-04-10T07:17:00.001-07:00

http://www.mangareader.net/butsu-zone

King Gainer's outlandish first episode is probably one of the best demonstrations of how random the show can be at times. It's a torrent of explosions, scantily-clad female henchmen, arrests, prison breaks, fights, Sharon Apple rip-offs, discoveries of hidden giant mecha, kidnappings of royalty, politics and worldwide environmental collapse. You might think the show would have a hard time fitting this all into 25 minutes, and it does. The show doesn't really slow down for another two or three episodes.

The show's pacing at the outset is an absolute mess. If anyone could watch this and not feel at least a little bit lost, it would be a real surprise. Within the first couple minutes, we are introduced to Gainer, video game champ on his 200th straight victory. He's arrested at school on suspicion of exodus. Exodus? Surely that can't be winning a lot of video games. The viewer can only be left wondering what the heck Exodus is. What follows this is a lot like a roller coaster ride that is nothing but loop after loop for 25 minutes. It can only leave the person experiencing it dazed and confused.

Smash Bomber Chapter 4 5 new novel

2011-04-10T07:17:00.000-07:00

King Gainer is a show that harkens back to anime's classic era... One where mecha designs featured seemingly bizarre details like capes and laser-shooting horns. An era where details of weapons feel like they were thought up after the design was already done (think breast missles). One where every attack name needs to be yelled at least once during battle, or else it won't work.

If only it were possible to say that King Gainer is also nostalgic. It just isn't. Like a modern Hollywood remake, King Gainer seems to be trying to capture the magic that made its predecessors great. It meets with some success, but the end product is a half-baked leftover. Gainer is about as old school as Martian Successor Nadesico - high in cliche and homage, low in the aura that made old giant robot anime seem so cool.

http://www.mangareader.net/smash-bomber

Toujuushi Chapter 3 Comic new

2011-04-10T07:16:00.004-07:00

The Tea Garden Chapter 2 new manga

2011-04-10T07:16:00.003-07:00

It deserves better than this sub-par DVD release, however. The opening theme is completely removed from each episode, as are all the eye-catch sequences. But the biggest travesty is the omission of the original Japanese language track. In a horrific sleight to fandom, Scooby-Doo Meets Batman is only presented in its English and Spanish dubbed versions. While the American voice actors do a fair job of recreating the sound of the original cast, Toshio Furukawa's Shaggy is sorely missed. Perhaps in a feeble attempt to compensate for this crime, Warner Bros. has packed this release with many extra features. There is a challenging "Find the Supervillain" game in which players use their remote control to try and locate the Joker, who has hidden somewhere on the disc. Players are given twenty minutes to find the Clown Prince of Crime before he releases a computer virus into the DVD player which destroys the lens and renders the unit inoperable (hint: click on the giant helicopter in the center of the screen). Also included are several groovy Scooby-Doo music videos as well as a mini-documentary. If only the titles and the Japanese vocal track had been included, this would be a first-rate release.

Simply put, any real anime fan has no choice but to add Scooby-Doo Meets Batman to their DVD collection. Everyone young or old will find something to cherish in this heartwarming tale of love and triumph over adversity. This remarkable film will forever stand as a reminder of the glory and power of Japanese animation.

http://www.mangareader.net/the-tea-garden

The Teddy Bear Murder Case Chapter 2 new manga

2011-04-10T07:16:00.001-07:00

http://www.mangareader.net/the-teddy-bear-murder-case

These episodes date from the "New Scooby-Doo Mysteries" era, the season in which much of the Scooby style was perfected. Whereas earlier episodes ran at a mere half-hour, each of these installments run at an impressive forty minutes, allowing more time to develop to complex, detailed mysteries Scooby-Doo is known for. The greatest achievement, however, is the addition of the hilarious laughtrack. The exact same tinny, canned laughter erupts every five seconds, regardless if there is a joke or not. This makes the show doubly entertaining, and I found myself joyously laughing along every time Shaggy utters a terrified "Zoinks!", Velma loses her glasses, or Fred stands motionless and blinks his eyes. The only thing missing is Scrappy-Doo, Scooby's lovably irascible nephew and quite possibly the greatest, most fully-developed anime character of the past thirty years.

The quality level of artwork present is light years ahead of most other anime productions. Miyazaki could learn a thing or two from Scooby's gorgeously-realized fantasy world, which comes to life in glorious hues of brown, green, green, green and brown. The lifelike animation remains unmatched to this day, and the multiple scenes in which Scooby and the gang run from their enemies have a tremendous energy. Capping off the technical accomplishments is a groovy psychedelic score that puts Yoko Kanno's work on Cowboy Bebop to shame. It all blends into a triumphant fusion of sight and sound, one you will never forget. No matter how hard you try.

Sketchbook Chapter 88 kids life

2011-04-10T07:16:00.000-07:00

http://www.mangareader.net/392/sketchbook.html

Once in a great while an anime comes along that redefines the boundaries of the medium. Just as Akira stretches the limits of anime's visual brilliance and the works of Hayao Miyazaki soar to unprecedented emotional heights, so too does Scooby-Doo Meets Batman represent one of the crowning achievements in anime history. A unique collaboration of two of the best-loved characters the art form has ever known, these two extraordinary episodes are presented together for the first time in this special edition DVD release.

Not just your typical Scooby-Doo mystery, the addition of the Batman characters brings an incredible amount of depth to the Scooby universe. In an astoundingly original plot twist, the identities of the villains are known to viewers from the start, as classic Bat-villains the Joker and the Penguin show up to bedevil the Mysteries Inc. gang. The tightly-woven suspense comes not from wondering who is lurking under the monster mask, but whether the Joker dressed up as the Tree Ghoul, or the Electric Ghost? And the addition of Batman and Robin to the Scooby team cannot be undervalued. Their serious crime-fighting methods are the perfect foil for Shaggy and Scooby's hilarious antics, and the combination makes for a perfect blend of hard-boiled detective drama and playful whimsy. The Dynamic Duo also bring a new level of sexual tension to the show, and shonen ai fans should be pleased. The only slipup is the Joker and the Penguin's terrified reaction to a disguised Scooby and Shaggy. Would two of the greatest supervillains in Gotham City really be afraid of a talking dog with a sheet over his head? But it's a minor complaint, and Scooby-Doo Meets Batman still makes for a thoroughly entertaining anime experience.

Mahou Sensei Negima! Ch 323 read free

2011-04-05T02:21:00.000-07:00

Mahou Sensei Negima

Manga (Read Right to Left)
Action, Comedy, Ecchi, Fantasy, Harem, Magic, Shounen, Supernatural

http://www.mangareader.net/209/mahou-sensei-negima.html

Studio Pierrot makes this show visually pleasing with a bold, mainstream style that most eyes will appreciate. Like the story itself, the animation doesn't pick up until the later episodes, where the budget increase becomes apparent: the second opening sequence is a flurry of high frame rate showboating, and the fight scenes become increasingly elaborate and dynamic. Through it all, the storytelling is always clear—if someone swings a sword, you know exactly who swung it and where it's headed. There are still plenty of shounen clichés like speedlines, special effects and time-dilated multi-episode fights, but the look of the show is one that isn't easily reproduced. Chalk that up to manga-ka Kubotite, whose artistic style still shines through despite being watered down for the sake of animation. Who can forget the funny logos on Ichigo's t-shirts, Rukia's single bang hanging over her face, Ishida's rectangular glasses, Orihime's hair clips, Chad's scraggly features, Urahara's green-and-white striped hat, Renji's visor that looks like a sleep mask... well, this could go on for a while. Although the staff does try to match some of the manga's style in the angularity of the artwork, their true strength is capturing the sheer energy of the series through animation technique.

The soundtrack also has its own distinctive style, employing electronic instruments and modern genres in a way that's easily as effective as a symphonic, full-orchestra track. Even if it's just waveforms out of a synthesizer, the music of Bleach is diverse enough to support the many moods of battle: tension to confrontation to all-out attack. The oft-changing theme songs also make for a fine primer on the world of J-pop; many fans can attest to discovering mellow-voiced singer/songwriter Rie Fu through the first ending theme.

Gamaran Chapter 91 scanlations

2011-04-05T02:19:00.005-07:00

Manga (Read Right to Left)
Action, Historical, Martial Arts, Shounen

http://www.mangareader.net/408/gamaran.html

But wait, isn't there plenty of fight-centric adventure anime already? Yes, but Bleach sets itself apart with a cast of characters that couldn't exist anywhere else. Imagine the usual stereotypes, but skew them with odd traits, and give their personalities an extra edge of attitude: that's what makes these characters special. Ichigo isn't just an excitable, sword-swinging hero—he's a hero with a smart mouth and a chip on his shoulder. Rukia's equally strong personality is the perfect complement to that; together the two of them exchange some of the snappiest dialogue in the show. Ichigo's allies are just as interesting: pretty boy Ishida is cool in every way, from his attacks to his demeanor; girly-girl Orihime discovers her power through fashion accessories; strong and silent Chad proves that the only thing bigger than his frame is his compassion. Call them two-dimensional if you must, but these are some very unique dimensions. And that's not even bringing up all the entertaining side characters and opponents, like stuffed-toy sidekick K-ON!, eccentric shopkeeper Urahara, the thirteen battle squads of Soul Society (learning them all is easier than you think), and that shining example of modern-day parenting, Ichigo's father.

GE - Good Ending Ch 76 read

2011-04-05T02:19:00.003-07:00

Manga (Read Right to Left)
Comedy, Romance, School Life, Shounen, Sports

http://www.mangareader.net/738/ge-good-ending.html

The story starts out like most others of its kind: take a boy in his mid-teens, bestow unique abilities upon him (a cool sword helps, too), and send him out to fight some nasty monsters. For the first several episodes Bleach goes through this methodical hack-and-slash, with sprinklings of comedy for good measure. Things start to pick up when Ichigo meets fellow classmates with Hollow-killing capabilities, adding some firepower and variety to their battles. Generic and boring so far? Good. That's when the real challenge kicks in, and boy does it kick: Soul Society infiltrates the human world, stirs things up, and suddenly Ichigo's on a mission to save Rukia. If you want to know where the series gets really good, it's right here. Ichigo isn't fighting souped-up spirits a few blocks away from his house anymore; now he's in the underworld with only a few friends as allies, facing trained warriors who could damn well kill him. With all of Soul Society as a battleground and no limitations on fighting style or attacks, it takes the familiar tournament formula to the height of creativity. This isn't just training and fighting anymore. This is adventure.

Bakuman Ch 127 read online

2011-04-05T02:19:00.002-07:00

http://www.mangadaddy.com/bakuman

Ichigo Kurosaki is a 15-year-old boy with the ability to see spirits, something that he considers more of a bother than a gift. One day he meets a Shinigami (Death God) named Rukia, who's on the run from a Hollow—a destructive spirit with unfinished business on Earth. As a last-minute measure, Rukia transfers her powers to Ichigo, whose abundant supply of spirit energy makes him a far more potent Shinigami than she ever was! Soon Ichigo is vanquishing Hollows left and right, and meeting other friends at school with similar abilities. However, Rukia's transfer of power is forbidden by the Soul Society (the official name of the spirit world), and when their agents come to Earth to dish out the consequences, Ichigo finds that he might have to challenge the entire world of the dead to save her.