APRIL PETTY

Useful anime terms (that may appear in some reviews):

Biseinin: older pretty boy (a bishounen who grew up)

Bishounen: pretty boy (traditionally, a young pretty boy)

Bishoujo: pretty girl

Chibi: small stylized form of an anime character (sometimes also called “super-deformed”)

Hentai: an adult anime containing sexually perverse material (sometimes also called Lemons or Limes depending on how strong the content is)

Kawaii: cute

Manga: Japanese comic book (graphic novel)

Mecha: giant robot

Otaku: an obsessive anime fan.  For the record, American anime fans take pride in using this term while that actual Japanese word has a very negative connotation.

Seiyuu: Japanese voice actor

VA: “Voice Actor,” the American ones

Yaoi: containing male homosexual relationships and/or situations

Yuri: containing female homosexual relationships and/or situations

All Purpose Cat Girl Nuku-Nuku

Description: Rudosuke is a special boy: he has a robot with the personality of his deceased pet cat for an older sister.  His father is a on the run from the secret research and technology center that is owned by his grandfather and as a result, he, his father, and their robot are being hunted by his mother.

Review: Basically what you’ve got here is your average butt-kicking super bishoujo robot mixed with a healthy dose of required anime cat girl in desperate need of a series.  The show is only 5 episodes that rip through the longer manga storyline at warp speed.  The characters, story, and animation are all pretty average and fairly bland: nothing flashy, nothing catchy, and nothing that stands out from the crowd. If you took all the most common elements of anime comedy and put them together, you’d get this show.  It’s kind of like Twin Signal, but with a female robot.

Angel Sanctuary


Description: Setsuna is a punk kid who has enough to worry about considering his rebellious personality and his constant attempts to hide his immense passion for his sister. Matters only get worse when he discovers he’s actually the reincarnation of an exiled angel (who was female, no less), different warring  celestial forces want her back, and his best friend is not at all who he seems to be.

Review: I’m so confused!!!  (And so are all the characters.)  What did he…who was…why are they…um, what the…?  Did we miss something here?  Yes.  Yes, we did.  This is what happens when you take a really, really complex story and try to launch it in just 3 episodes.  I get the sense that maybe it wasn’t meant to end there since a whole new storyline begins in the last 30 seconds of the series. Perhaps the series was intended to continue, but for whatever reason, it didn’t.  What ever the case, by the end of this rollercoaster you’re left with a lot of puzzle pieces and no clear picture.  Also, let it be known from the offset that this is a TWISTED story!  Angel Sanctuary is even more playful with the gender identities and sexual orientations of characters than most anime or manga.  It boards on hentai, for the record.  There are multiple relationships and connections between characters, as well, so it takes more than 3 episodes just to set up WHO everyone is compared to everyone else.  Ok, so if you like twisted, and if you watch anime, there is a good chance that you do, then read the manga.  IF you have read the manga, then you can actually follow the story in the anime, but it will still annoy you because it will be so condensed and end in such a bad place.

Boogiepop Phantom

Description: Five years ago, a series of murders shook the city and then mysteriously ended.  Could a power surge, a light in the sky, and a mysterious aurora that hangs over the city be linked to a series of recent disappearances?  Did the Angel of Death (known in urban legends as Boogiepop) come to take them away?  What’s really going on at the Prefectural Hospital?

Review: Think of this as X-files meets anime, sort of.  This show is definitely not for the faint of heart.  Boogiepop Phantom is creepy with a capital CREEP!  It’s also pretty graphic at times.  It’s a short, very compact, and very complete series.  In fact, it may have the tightest plot I’ve seen in an anime series.  You’ll need to watch it more than once to fully appreciate how well all the pieces fit together.  If you were left wondering about anything at the end, watch it again.  The answer was there.  There are no missing pieces.  There are also no bishounen or bishoujo running around in this show, but the story is fascinating.  The artwork is done in a very dark sepia-tone style that is quite unlike anything else.  The music perfectly matches the flow of the action.  If you enjoy a great supernatural mystery with a healthy dose of justice fighter in the shadows thrown in for good measure, you’ll love Boogiepop Phantom.

Fruits Basket

Description: Through a series of unusual circumstances, Tohru Honda finders herself living with Yuki Sohma, the “prince” of her high school, and his two charming if eccentric cousins.  What more could a girl wish for?  But Tohru soon learns that the Sohma family is cursed!  Any time one of the cursed family members is embraced by someone of the opposite sex, he or she turns into one of the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac!  Tohru vows never to disclose their closely guarded curse, but there are many secrets at Sohma house.  Can Tohru’s friendships survive the Sohma curse?

Review: Fruits Basket is a romantic comedy and is abound with bishounen.  I was sort of prepared for it to be another Fushigi Yuugi, but I was pleasantly surprised!!  The characters in Fruits Basket are all very interesting and multi-dimensional.  The character interactions are always meaningful whether funny, desperate, angry, sad, exasperated, happy, or heartbreaking.   The series started out very light and by the end had become very deep and very heavy.  I was on the edge of my seat!!  I found it amazing how often the actions or dialogue of these characters sounded just like people I know or things I had thought myself.  I think anyone could find someone to relate to in this series, and that certainly helps to make a show worth watching.  If you enjoy romances, your life is not complete until you watch this, and if you don’t like romances, give it a shot anyway.  There is a lot more going on in Fruits Basket than appears on the surface.

Full Metal Panic

Description: Sosuke Sagara, a soldier from the mysterious Mithril anti-terrorist organization, is assigned to protect Kaname Chidori.  Kaname is believed to be one of the Whispered, a person with inherent knowledge of black technology, but Kaname is just an ordinary high school girl.  Or so she thinks!

Review: I have mixed feelings about Full Metal Panic.  Some episodes are off the wall comedy and others are intense drama, however the two do not manage to mix well.  It often makes the show a bit jarring to watch.  There’s a very high focus on the bishoujo in this show, even when they are only fulfilling a secondary place in the plot or action, as well as extensive focus on the destructive elements of Mecha action, which tends to make me think any teenaged boy would LOVE this series.  The dialogue is also pretty cliché, especially when Kaname and Sosuke are having a moment together.  I will give Kaname points for being a bishoujo who can take care of herself!  The anime does seem to follow the manga relatively well, but somehow the humor I got out of the manga didn’t fully translate into the anime.  There are parts of the anime that I love and others that just make me cringe.  So I can’t really say it’s a good show or a bad show.  Some of it is on the mark and some of it is way off, but the characters are very likable.  If you like big robots that make things go boom and honorable soldier boys that defend the perky and ever resilient bishoujo no matter how tough the going gets, this is the series for you.

Fushigi Yuugi

Description: An ordinary middle school girl and her best friend discover a magical book in a secret room of the library.  The book transports them into mythical China, where they are transformed into priestesses.  The priestesses must then gather their 12 celestial warriors in order to revive their respective gods, who are bitter enemies.

Review: Sounds pretty interesting, doesn’t it?  Don’t be fooled.  There’s no meat in this story.  The dialogue is trite and resembles anything you’d get out of daytime soaps.  The artwork and animation are bland.  The music is annoying.  The plot and many of the characters lack substance, but the worst thing is by far the main character, Miaka, who is so obnoxious she makes the show completely unwatchable.  She’s childish, only moderately cute as far as bishoujo go, clumsy, whiney, demanding, unreasonable, foolish, often cowardly, always needing to be saved, incompetent, and totally unlikable.  You can’t even begin to imagine why fairly interesting, intelligent guys like Tamahome and Hotohori are so head over heels for her.  Which brings us to the only real thing Fushigi Yuugi has going for it: the bishounen. There are more bishounen in this series than Miaka can flutter her eyes at or shed copious tears upon.  That’s pretty much it.  If you just want to look at bishounen, check out Fushigi Yuugi.  You’ll get them in spades.  In my opinion, however, bishounen alone do not a series make!

Description: Something is wrong in The World: Tsucasa can’t log out.  And as if that is not curious enough, he also seems to no longer be subject to the regular player rules of The World.  Is he controlling the strange monsters that have begun attacking players, and what does all this have to do with the mysterious Key of the Twilight?

Review: If you’ve played the .hack games, been watching other .hack anime, or reading .hack books, then I don’t even need to tell you that you need to watch .hack//SIGN if you want the whole story.  That said, if you are not a gamer, watching .hack//SIGN might leave you feeling a bit lost.  On the positive side, however, it is possible to watch, follow, and enjoy .hack//SIGN even if you aren’t into all the other .hack stuff.  It’s a very straightforward story, and it gives you an entire, encapsulated piece of the .hack saga without needing to draw you into the .hack gestalt.  The artwork is nice, and the music is some of the best out there.  If you’ve spent any time at all in chat rooms on the net, you know these characters—you’ve met people like them online.  But be forewarned, if you’re into .hack//SIGN, you’re in it for the atmosphere and the concept of the place or being part of the RPG world.  Be prepared for lots of discussion and very little action.

Description: In the city of Judoh androids are illegal, that is, all except for one: J.  J and his partner, Daisuke Aurora, work for the City Safety Management to help stop illegal activity before it starts.  And in a city full of crime lords, genetically enhanced prisoners, and amazingly diverse groups of people from all walks of life, that proves to be quite a task!

Review: Wow!  Just wow!  Heat Guy J is awesome!!  Truly awesome!!  The artwork is wonderful, the music is inspiring, and the story is riveting.  The characters have so much depth, and the plot works its way between them so masterfully.  I have heard Heat Guy J called “The New Cowboy Bebop,” and I think that is a very accurate description.  If you feel Cowboy Bebop set the bar for truly good anime, then Heat Guy J won’t disappoint you.  Definitely a cut above the average anime!  It blew me away.

Description: The Hellsing organization has been committed to hunting down vampires for centuries.  And they have a secret weapon.  Their greatest vampire hunter, Arucard, is a very old and very powerful vampire himself.  But is the Hellsing organization ready for a new breed of computer chip enhanced vampires, especially with someone working to undermine their efforts from the inside?

Review: Let there be no doubt that Arucard is by far THE COOLEST anime character ever to glare out through the TV screen!!  Yes, cooler than D (of Vampire Hunter D), and that’s saying something!  Forget the guns, the fangs, the red cape and hat, and all the biting one-liners that flow so effortlessly out of his mouth (Arucard definitely has some fabulous, priceless lines).  Arucard will take out any foe by coolness alone and leave a lasting impression on you even if Hellsing doesn’t (though I expect it probably will, for better or worse.)  As far as the show goes, it’s too short, topping out at 13 episodes that raise far more questions than they answer.  The artwork is highly stylized, though effective, and the animation is minimal at best, even for an anime.  The content is very mature, gory, and vulgar, without exception.  The music is a perfect funky jazz-rock fusion.  I’d have liked to see more development of Serras, though I do appreciate her predicament, and kudos to Integra Hellsing for her unshakeable fearlessness and her amazing control over Arucard.  Blood, carnage, vampires, curses, religious turf wars, big guns, more blood, dark magic and lots of violence…you get the idea.  Basically, if you don’t like vampires, you’ve picked up the wrong series; if you like vampires, you’re deprived until you’ve seen Hellsing.

King of Bandit Jing

Description: He may look like just a kid, but he’s really the legendary Bandit King who is rumored to have stolen stars out of the sky!  Follow Jing and his feathered accomplice, Kir, as they look for the next challenge over the horizon.

Review: King of Bandit Jing is sadly, very short, though it leaves you with this feeling that it could have or should have been longer.  You have enough time to get really hooked and then, without warning, it ends.  There isn’t really a beginning to end plot, like most anime, rather, the episodes (or groups of episodes) tend to be self-contained stories.  Jing goes from place to place in search of unusual, valuable things—things he always seems to have a lot of prior knowledge about—and along the way he often tends to help out a bishoujo or two and liberate the repressed.  You might think of this show as Robin Hood in Wonderland where Jing doubles as both Robin Hood and the White Rabbit.  The music is very catchy rock, the animation is computer enhanced, and as a result, pretty good.  Most of the characters appear to have been conceived in a bar with names like Stir, Vodka, and Sherry, just to name a few.  Jing is not an intense show, but it is humorous, up lifting, and compelling in its rich fancifulness.  It is definitely an adventure, and one that I thoroughly enjoyed!

Night Walker

Description: Shido is a vampire who moonlights as a private detective hunting the Night Breed who plague humanity.  But for all his good intentions, can Shido escape his own dark past?

Review: This is a tough one for me to review because, technically, it has a lot of problems.  The big one would be the major character design changes that happened mid-series!  Are you sure that’s the same guy? Uh, Continuity Director, where are you?  And did the story line just jump about 6 months forward?  What color IS Shido’s hair?  Any shade of pink or lavender will do, huh?  There are many things that are not consistent.  The back-story is also very condensed because the series is so short.  The dialogue is often cliché and the stories are very typical vampire-hunter, creature of the night stories that you’ve probably already seen time and time again.  Ok, all that said, I really enjoyed Night Walker.  Usually so many technical flaws would send me running, but I got so interested in the characters and wanting to know what had happened and would happen to them, that I got sucked in and totally hooked.  Granted, I like vampire stories, and Shido is a very likable vampire.  In fact, the relationship between Shido and his maker, Cain, run almost parallel to the relationship between Louis and Lestat from Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles.  But Shido has more spine that Louis did.  So, if you like vampires, chances are you’ll devour Night Walker and wonder why there isn’t more.  If the technical stuff gets to you, then you’ll be better off sticking with Vampire Hunter D.

Rahxephon

Description: When an unknown enemy attacks Tokyo, Ayato is separated from his friends and meets up with a strange girl who is actually the subject of one of his paintings.  Ayato unwittingly awakens a mecha called Rahxephon and soon learns that everything he has believed about himself, his family, and the world he lives in are lies.  Ayato must now find the truth and decide how he plans to use what he learns, as well as discovering how he is linked to the mysterious and powerful Rahxephon.

Review: You might think of Rahxephon as a story kind of like Evangelion but with an atmosphere more like Escaflowne.  And like Eva and Escaflowne, there’s more than just mechas going on here.  Rahxephon has beautiful artwork and lovely, haunting music that is integrally linked to the story.  While the story is quite reminiscent of Evangelion in places, it’s much easier to follow and quite a bit more straightforward.  The characters are highly dimensional and as a whole, the series is very enchanting.  Definitely worth checking out, even if you aren’t into mechas.

Ranma ½

Description: Ranma and Akane have been betrothed to each other by their well-meaning but meddlesome fathers so that they can carry on the Anything-goes School of Martial Arts.  Unfortunately, not only do Ranma and Akane fight like cats and dogs, Ranma also has a unique problem.  He fell into a cursed spring, and since then every time he’s splashed with cold water, he turns into a girl!

Review: Ranma ½ is one of the most popular anime series that I know of, and no, it’s not all hype. This is by far the funniest series I’ve ever seen!!  I absolutely adore Ranma ½..  No, the animation and art work are nothing to write home about, and the music will probably bore into your brain and play there until it drives you insane, but the characters are so wonderful and the stories are just so hilarious that the series is sure to win you over in just a few episodes and keep you hooked to the very end.  Even people who aren’t into anime get hooked on Ranma.  I never thought the same cold water gag would be humorous for 7 seasons, but believe me, it happens in so many ways to so many people, in such perfect situations that it never stops being fresh and funny.  Plus the cast of unbelievably interesting and humorous characters just keeps growing.  Trust me on this.  You NEED to check out this series!!  It’s anime comedy at its finest!

Rurouni Kenshin

Description: Kenshin Himura is a wandering samurai.  Ten years ago, he was one of the most feared assassins working for the imperial government.  Now he has taken an oath never to kill again, but the ghosts from his past will not be laid to rest so easily.  Will Kenshin be able to maintain his life as a peaceful wanderer, protecting his newfound friends with only his reverse-blade sword, or will he be forced to resume the life of a cold-blooded killer?

Review: Rurouni Kenshin is a great series!  The characters and their stories are captivating.  There’s an excellent mix of humor and drama, history and fiction, mystery and reality.  All of the pieces blend effortlessly.  I have only one bit of caution to offer.  The first 2 seasons are almost identical to the manga and they’re amazing.  The 3^rd season deviates from the manga, and as I understand it, was created as network filler.  You can tell.  It loses its depth after season two.  The characters and their interactions with each other deviate and deteriorate from the beginning of the 3^rd season on.  So if I were you, I’d watch seasons 1 and 2, love every wonderful moment of them, and then pick up the rest of the story from the manga.  For what it’s worth, season 2 has a very satisfying ending.  You can live with it as a finale.

Saiyuki

Description:  The heavens call upon four reluctant heroes to travel to the west and stop the revival of the demon Gyumaio.  But the true purposes of the gods are not always clear, and the fate that ties these four men together is deeper than they realize.

Review: Saiyuki is a road trip, plain and simple.  Four guys in a jeep (that’s really a dragon) smashing their way across the countryside while the heavens foot the bill.  The artwork is interesting and kind of avant-guard.  These are definitely not your typical bunch of bishounen.   The music is usually fun in a rock and roll style, and the story can pretty much be described as “get in the car and drive” or “Hey, look, bad-guy-demons!  Kill ‘em,” though I will say, season 2 throws a little wrench in the works that actually deepens the plot a bit. There is more going on there than it seems at first as the pieces begin to work themselves back together.  But the plot isn’t the main draw for this show; the truly interesting thing about Saiyuki is its characters.  This series is worth every moment just for the banter and the backstory on all the remarkable characters.  These are guys you hung out with in college.  If you’re looking for some good laughs, a party on wheels, and a few beers with friends, then it’s time to pop in Saiyuki.

Twelve Kingdoms

Description: Youko is doing her best to be the most ordinary, obedient, and unremarkable high school girl she can be, but when a mysterious man named Keiki shows up in her classroom, followed by a horde of terrifying creatures, and whisks Youko and her friends off to a magical land, her life becomes anything but ordinary.  Youko is dropped into situations she never imagined and pushed headlong toward her true destiny.

Review: Twelve Kingdoms is beautiful in every aspect.  The characters are well rounded and very realistic, no matter how mystical they are.   The music is poignant and charming.  The illustrations and animation are well above average.  The story is intricate, but complete.  This series is a work of art.  The vast array of magical beasts and varying character interactions are fascinating.  You’ll want to watch each section a few times before moving on to the next part just to be sure you’ve caught all the pieces.  Every little thing matters, and each element that is introduced pays off.  I highly recommend this series.

Twin Signal

Description: Dr. Otoi makes robots, and his greatest creation is Signal, a robot made from the amazing, self regenerating mira technology.  Life at the Otoi residence may be cheerful and relatively peaceful, but it’s anything but typical.  Signal acts as an older brother to Otoi’s grandson, Nobuhiko, but when Signal’s prototype, Pulse gets reprogrammed to destroy Signal and steal the mira technology, everything changes!

Review: Twin Signal is a curious mixture of all out comedy and action.  It’s only 3 episodes long, and obviously was intended to be a much longer show, but it does tell a compete story in those 3 episodes with no pieces missing or huge jumps ahead in the storyline.  However you can tell things are set up to tell a bigger story because it only tells the first story in the manga.  The artwork is pretty basic, even for a comedy show, but the main characters have enough depth of personality to keep your interest.  It reminds me a little of All Purpose Cat Girl Nuku-Nuku, but with bishounen robots…and Twin Signal entertained me, where as Nuku-Nuku inspired me to sit down and balance my checkbook.

X

Description: Kamui Shiro is the key to the Earth’s complete salvation or total destruction.  On the opposing sides of this epic battle are the Dragons of Heaven, who wish to save Earth, and the Dragons of Earth, who wish to destroy it.  Kamui must decide which group he will lead, and even then, victory is not assured.

Review: Let me open this by saying that there is a HUGE difference between the X/1999 movie and the X TV series…I mean oceans of difference!!  The movie was, well, disturbing, and disturbing toward no apparent end or purpose.  The music in the movie was equally disturbing and that left you with some gorgeous animation and a story that made no sense.  Well, you can flush that and forget it was ever made.  Watch the series!!  The X TV series is definitely in my top 5 anime ever of all time.  It’s also relatively true to the manga in story and characterization (at least in the beginning).  The story is very deep and moving, the characters are complex and interesting, the music is exquisite, and the artwork is captivating.  It is dark and emotionally draining, but beautiful.  The action and the drama blend exceptionally well.  There are no wrong steps in the X TV series.