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| I like anime, but only when it's got some degree of plot. The same holds true for
books, movies and video games. These are some of the anime that I've seen thus far, including OAV, movies, and TV series. I lie like a rug. I don't always only like plot. It helps a great deal,
but I like my fair share of stupid things...
This is a spoiler alert. Many of these tell things about the series, which people consider spoilers. I myself never used to care if I was reading spoilers or not, thinking that I'd like to know a little about the series (or game), before I took the time to watch (or to play) it. That was, until I was innocently reading an article in the local paper, being about anime clubs in Ottawa. It was an atrocious article anyway, and in the middle, they commented on an event that takes place in the middle of Fushigi Yuugi. I hadn't known about that event, as I had stopped watching Fushigi Yuugi, but it definitely spoiled some of the silly little series for me. I decided to add a spoiler alert, so don't read about a series, if you don't want it spoiled for you, for I sometimes go into detail about some of the episodes.
Now with a mention of the characters I like from each series. This section will be in this color, at the beginning of each entry. List in order that I added the articles, newer articles at top :
-- Pitaten --I'm not sure if I like any of the characters. The character design for the demongirl is nice, but all the characters are a bit overly cute. My brother lent me this series to watch... it can be summed up in one word; Cute. At times it's so cute as to be sickening. There is a young angel girl, who's been sent down to earth to train as a guardian angel, and because she's incompetant. She hooks up with a young boy, who seems lonely. His dad is always at work, and his mom was killed trying to get him out of the way of a car, but was struck herself, when he was a toddler. He detests the angel's attempts to act as a sort of mother, especially since she is so bad at everything that she only makes his life worse. She follows him around everywhere, seeming to people to be a stupid human teenager. Thus, she irritates the girl who is secretly in love with the boy (and who has cat ears for some reason that no one comments on). Soon, a demon makes an appearance. She is trying to train to be a demon, as the angel is in angel training. She too is incompetant. She has a cat familiar, who is trying to train her to curse people and cause havok, but she's clueless and likes to help people more, to the cat's aggrivation. She ends up being friends with the main characters, and helping to run a tea shop for a boy's uncle, because she's so sweet and cute. She can also cook and clean extrodinarily well, something the angel is bad at, leading that boy to think for a while that perhaps the demon is the angel, and the angel is the demon. Together, the boy, the boy with the uncle, the girl with the crush, and the angel and demon duo, deal with day to day life at school, and with things like the mother's death, her brother's unemployment and near-death, the coffee shop accidentally going into business when the uncle is out at a meeting, a school festival... All with big blinking eyes and tons of "Huh?" expressions. Exceedingly cute. This is about as cute as you can get without a rota of puffy, fluffy animals shouting out their names as battlecries.
-- Hellsing --Blah. The leader of the Hellsing institute is okay I guess. It's sometime in the near future... vampires and monsters grow in number. The only organization that can stop them? The Hellsing Institute or something. The leader is descended from the Knights of the Round Table, but she has to deal with people who think maybe these killer vampires aren't so bad really after all and maybe she should stop all this silliness, etc etc. The story begins with a random police force called in to quell what turns out to be a zombie-vampire invasion in some village. The only survivor is (cue stock stereotype #31) the cutesy busty blonde innocent girl member of the police force, who just wanted to prove she's not just everyone's darling. She survives only to fall victim to the leader of the zombies, who used to be the village priest. Just before dying, who should show up but Vash the Stampede. No wait, it's D. No wait, it's the elite member of the Hellsing Institute, an ancient vampire (cough Count Dracula cough) who is bound by the Hellsing Institute's leader, and must request the various seals to be lifted to use his seemingly endless vampiric powers. He also uses a magical silver pistol. He saves the girl by making her his vampire-child. She must now work for the Hellsing Institute's police force, and change her outfit from overalls to a tight shirt and short skirt with thigh socks. Here starts the standard "oh, I don't want to drink blood, but I must".
Blondie is sent in to quell the baddy of the week, loosing her comrades and marvelling at her vampiric power, but ultimately having to be rescued by her Master and end the night sitting in her castle room in front of a blood bag, which is her dinner, fighting with herself if she should drink it or not. There's a subplot where all these new vampires are being created with a sort of microchip, and Vash, er, the Count, comments on how he is a true vampire, and all these made vampires are trash compared to real vampires. Or something. The show is another one that tries to go for Dark and Gritty, but misses the mark and hits Forcedly Mysterious.
-- Noir --Pffft. This series looks like it could almost be interesting from previews, but I've seen some of the episodes, and it's pretty empty. There's two women (cue token Mysterious Women) who are thrown together because they can both mysteriously fight well, and are both mysteriously being chased by a mysterious secret organization. Notice a trend? They also mysteriously each have a mysterious gun, and an affinity for a mysterious pocket watch that plays a, you guessed it, mysterious melody. Interestingly, they also seem to only be able to wear non-mysterious short skirts while leaping around fighting. There's the tough international killer with a heart of gold, and the schoolgirl who doesn't remember her past and could easily switch places with Rei Ayanami from Evangelion. The plot belongs in a standard video game, the dialogue is trite, and the characters are boring. It looks pretty, but the only types of scenes in every episode I've seen, are as follows - girls ballet-battle the nameless pawn soldiers of the secret organization, the girls angst about what's going on, the secret organization wonders what's going on with the girls and try to badly lay out the stock plot, the girls try to work out the stock plot while dancing around pseudo-lesbian overtones. "Oh, I only want you to kill me when this is over". Watch if there's literally nothing else and you're terribly bored, and only want pretty fight scenes. The overdone attempts to be dark and mysterious will get to you, otherwise.
-- Ranma 1/2 --Hmm... characters I like... well, Ryouga is amusing, most of the time. Particularly in his intense 'shoujo-manga' expressions. A long-running series from Rumiko Takahashi's manga of the same name. It's a romantic comedy with the extra twist that some of the characters are literally cursed, in that they change shape when hit with cold or warm water. Don't bother with logistics, though. The rules seem to be very loose, depending on what is needed for the plot. Suffice it to say that random kettles of water, puddles, sudden rainstorms, and baths feature promenantly. Especially since the main male character turns into a female with cold water. And gets naked a lot, while doing so. The main character, Ranma, was taken to China to train by his father, where they trained at Juusenkyo. The springs in Juusenkyo are the source of everyone's curses. If you fall into one of the springs, you are cursed to change into whatever died there, when you touch cold water. Ranma changes into a girl, his father changes into a panda bear. They return to Japan, because Ranma was promised to a daughter of the Tendo family (and probably because they were poor, and wanted to live somewhere). The youngest daughter, Akane, and Ranma fall for eachother eventually, but never really admit it to each other, and spend most of the time being mean to each other. Makes you want to beat them severely. Or be sick all over the place, whichever comes first. Ranma's dad was always doing things like promising his son to people, in exchange for food. So various contenders for Ranma's hand appear, each with their own quirk. Ukyo was mostly raised as a boy, and was supposed to be living with Ranma and his dad, but they left her behind. She shows up, wielding a large spatula, to claim him as her fiancee. Shampoo is some sort of Chinese amazon, who was defeated by Ranma, and by the rules of her tribe, he must marry her. She later goes to train in Juusenkyo, and ends up changing into a cat. Ranma has a great fear of cats, coincidentally. Oh, the craziness. There are also many contenders for the hand of Akane Tendo (Ranma's fiancee), and one of them, Kuno, also falls for girl-Ranma, being too stupid to know that they're the same person. Kuno's sister Kodachi falls for boy-Ranma, resulting in Ranma being beaten up by both of them. Other fiancees of Shampoo and Ukyo show up to challange Ranma occasionally. Also, Ranma's main rival Ryouga shows up, and falls for Akane, vowing to take her away from Ranma. But, he is also cursed, turning into a cute black pot-bellied pig. In his pig-form, he becomes an occasional pet of Akane, who never notices that the pig and Ryouga are the same person. Apparently everyone has brain damage, or deliberate lack of observational skills. There are many random contenders to the hand of either Akane, or female-Ranma, who appear only briefly. My head hurts now. There are also far too many episodes which take place in a bathhouse or hot-spring resort. For the sake of ratings, you know. The whole show is sort of hit-and-miss. Some of the episodes are amusing, but then there are episodes which are not only painful to watch, but leave you wondering, 'why did I watch that?'. Don't watch the show for intellectual content, because I have yet to see any. But, do watch it if you're bored, and want to be amused by silly strangeness.
-- Vision of Escaflowne --... hey, isn't Van's brother David Bowie...? And, no, I don't really like whats-his-face, the Prince guy.. blond hair, you know. Whatever. How shocking, you say, that CP doesn't like the long-haired prince! To you I say again, "Whatever." I saw the dubbed and subtitled tapes of this show before it came to US television, and yes, it was cut somewhat severely in places, but the general flow of the episodes remained the same. However, the parts that were cut were often the parts with all the character development, so the characters remain flat and lifeless, and some of the events are stripped of their meaning. Our heroine, Hitomi, comes from a line of 'sensitive' people. Her grandmother and herself seem to be able to tell the future, and see visions. Still, she lives a regular life, liking a guy who will soon leave for some other country, and not realizing that her best friend secretly likes the same guy (Amano). Hitomi herself is not sure she likes Amano, or if he likes her, etc etc, until the day before Amano must leave, when in a private running competition, she suddenly sees a vision of a boy on a dragon, reaching out to her. She collapses, and later, she, Amano, and her friend encounter the same boy, while he is fighting a large dragon. He defeats it, and is lifted into a beam of light. Hitomi is also caught in the light. Hitomi and the boy, who is called Vahn or Van, appear in a strange world, but Van knows the place. It's where he comes from, and he calls Hitomi's world the Mystic Moon. Indeed, the earth can be seen in the sky as a moon. This is where the US television series starts. Hitomi and Van go back to his kingdom, and from there to the rest of the story. There are people, called the Zaibach kingdom, who are trying to take over all of the kingdoms through secret attacks and force. This kingdom is run by a very old man, who supposedly comes from the Mystic Moon as well. The attacks are orchestrated by Van's estranged brother (who looks like David Bowie), and lead by the crazed Dilandau. Along the way, Van collects other strong allies, including a powerful knight (that blond guy), a merchant of some sort, a princess/medical student, and their lackies. And a mole guy. And that irritating brainless cat-girl. The knight looks just like Amano, so has Hitomi's interest, but he's lusted after by many other girls. In fact, all the princesses in one family like him. The oldest was his first one-true-love, but she was married to a king. Still, mysteriously enough, the king's first and only son had blond hair... then, that princess died. The youngest princess is with them mostly because she likes the knight
-- Black Heaven --I can't tell if I like or dislike the main character. He fell into the trap of ennui and dullness of his own accord, but he does show signs of not wanting to stay there.
-- Mahou Tsukai Tai! OAV --Of course, the character I like the best from this series is Aburatsubo (the guy with red hair). I liked him so much, I 'adopted' him! The premise for this series is that there is a magic-using club at a high school. There are about five members of the club, but they are still considered to be in direct conflict with the manga club. The leader tries hard to keep the club going, with his co-leader (Aburatsubo!) hitting on him, one dizzy girl who goes on dates rather than to the club, one girl that tries hard, and her friend who wants them both to quit. The thing is, they actually can sometimes do magic. The scenario is this -- a strange alien craft has come to earth. After destroying all the defences of earth, it parked itself, and send out little scouter robots, who observe. People have gotten used to the presence of these things, but there are still daily news reports on the status of the craft and it's scouts. The magic club want to get rid of this craft. But when the scouts find evidence of magic in use, the craft focuses it's interest on them. Fending off the scouts, defending the club from the manga club's leader, trying to get the dizzy girl to attend the club, and dealing with feared inability to work magic, the characters eventually must use their various feelings for eachother to stop the craft (?). A cute little series, and I recommend it. There was a TV series made of it later, but I have never watched any of that yet. I'm not sure if the OAV series was ever released domestically, but you can find all six episodes from most fansub distributers.
-- Gestalt --I don't really have a favorite here... All the characters have their good points and bad points. I really like the premise (of course) of Ouri, but in the anime, I don't like or dislike the character of Ouri. It's hard to get a good feel for any of these characters in just two episodes... But Oliver is sort of cute.. There was only one tape of this domestically released, that I know of. Which is bad, because the show just.. ends. It says something about being continued, but nothing else came of it. (I did, however, manage through great searching and struggling, to get most of the manga). This is another series from one of my favorite manga artists, Yun Kouga (who also did Earthian). It takes place in a sort of RPG world, and the characters are given as RPG characters. The main characters are Ouri and Father Oliver. Oliver is a priest of the most important religious order, but he has doubts. There is rumor of a dark god, who was sealed in the south, called Gestalt. Gestalt is so feared that he is simply refered to as 'G'. Oliver feels that his doubts can only be answered by going to see Gestalt, so he has left his order, and travels south. Near the beginning of the series (both manga and anime), he is given a girl by an innkeeper, as tribute for the honour of having a priest of that order in the Inn. This girl is Ouri, who has been Silenced. Unable to speak, her words appear in RPG style dialogue boxes. Oliver protests the gift of the girl, saying that a holy priest cannot accept a human life as tribute, but he's tricked into accepting Ouri anyway. The leader of the order, Father Messiah, fears for Oliver's safety, and sends the dark elf Suzu to bring Oliver back to the order, by any means necessary. When Suzu attacks Oliver and Ouri, part of Ouri's secret is revealed. She convinces Oliver to dispell her silence, allowing her to cast spells. She is a powerful sorceress. So powerful, in fact, that the spells cast on her are there as handicaps to her power. She is playing a Game with her brothers and sisters, to determine who is the best. In fact, 'she' isn't a she, but a he. (In the anime, they allude to the fact that being a buxom female was one of the handicaps put on Ouri, but in the manga, it seems to be the case that he was turned female by either one of his sisters, or some other female). They are later joined by a wandering man called Shazaan, who can see Ouri's true self, and who has a secret of his own. The two episodes feature brief RPG-type plots, also introducing two adversaries, Soushi (Ouri's younger brother) and Carmine (the dark elf who loves Soushi). I watched the subtitled version, and as there are several of the top-name voice actors doing this series, I suggest watching the sub. It was not a bad series, though the fact that it was somewhat cut off (the things that happen in these two episodes take place in the first book of the manga series) leaves you waiting for more tapes that may never show up. I suggest it to people who want to see a good RPG-style anime, with some comedic scenes thrown in. If you can find the manga, (and can read Japanese!), then I strongly suggest you get it. (And tell me where you got it, because I'm still missing vol.4 and anything after vol.6 ^_^ ). It has the rest of the plot, all the character development, and Yun Kouga drawing it!.
-- Neon (or 'Neo') Genesis Evangelion --Kaworu is my favorite character from this show. I think he makes a great impact, and is important to the story, even though he comes in late, and doesn't last long. This show apparently was not very popular when it was first played. After the years went by, more people discovered that they liked it, and no one can doubt that it influenced almost all anime and manga plots made since Neon Genesis Evangelion came about. For better or for worse. Long ago, when I was looking for things to watch, I was handed this series. I sat through maybe ten minutes of the first episode, before I shut it off. All I saw was a whiny kid and a big mech battle. "Oh, boring mech-fighty show" I said, and shut it off for about a year. After that time, I was looking again for something to watch. I visited the friend who had been lending me anime. On his wall was a poster I had seen many times. There was a bunch of young people on it, in tight suits, in front of some mech-thing. At the front was a girl with white-blue hair and red eyes. "So" I said, "What's this series again?" He told me that the series was one I had tried before, but didn't like. I decided I would give it another try, and this time, watched the entire series. I liked it. A lot. There are many things that one can find fault with in this series. The fact that the budget gets very tight in places results in enemies that are triangles or rings, lots of reused animation, and much use of the 'still' shot. And you will either really like or really hate the main characters. Shinji whines constantly, and just wants to be loved and acknowledged by his father. "I don't want to pilot the Eva! I don't want to pilot the Eva", for the whole show. Asuka is the standard loud, brash, popular girl, who wants everyone to do what she says. Rei keeps to herself, and as she is sort of the Kenny of the show (in that she dies a few times, not allowing a great deal of personality to develop). But I liked her more than the other two, because she was quiet and kept to herself. However, the plot turns out to be deeper than simply some mech battles with evil invading forces from outside. Underlying is a stream of betrayal, need, love, loss, Kabbalistic transcendence, and the nature of one's self and humankind. And Kaworu Nagisa.. mmm. But, there are many stupid, stupid things. Like the penguin. And the flakey character interaction. Blah. About the tape version you should watch the series in, I strongly suggest that you never watch the the dubbed version. Some of the voices are fitting, in the dubbed version, but the ones that don't sound good, really don't sound good. In fact, the badness culminates in Kaworu's truly awful voice. His role is fairly important near the end of the series, and I think the English voice they gave him undermines his role, and trivializes the entire plot at the end. So, if you can't get any of the rest of the series subtitled, at least try and get the last couple of tapes in subbed format. I also suggest finding the movie "END OF EVANGELION" as well (only available bootlegged/fansubbed, until it comes out in theaters here, but that will take years, and that will most likely be dubbed), since many people are confused or dissatisfied with the end of the TV series. This movie takes a slightly different approach to the ending, that many people find more satisfying.
-- Shamanic Princess --Hmm... I like the 'helper' of the girl with long dark hair. The dark-haired girl herself has a pretty character design, but I find her annoying. The Sara girl also has a good design, but is too boring. I watched this a long time ago (it was a fansub, then), so if I make a mistake on the plot, that's my excuse.. I'm given to understand that it's a commercial release now. I've only seen the subtitled version, so I can't comment on how bad (or good) the voices may be. The plot seems to be this: There exists a magical world parallel to a normal world. People from the magic world train to become skilled users of a type of magic, which seems to pertain to specific 'elements' - the main girl uses intricate designs to form spells, while her rival uses twists of smoke which emerge from her flute. Each magician is given a helper. There are also powerful artifacts. The story starts with the main girl (who looks like a cross between Cutey Honey and Sailor Moon, but who is impatient and unfriendly), who must act as a sort of detective, to find a missing artifact. The first detective sent to find it never returned. She goes with her partner to the normal world, and finds the first detective - her dark-haired rival, who fights with her to convince her to stop looking for the artifact. Also missing is their old friend, Sara, and it is believed Sara's brother was the one who stole the artifact, which is a reality-controlling painting. The two rivals are not only fighting each other over the search for the painting, but over the attention of Sara's brother. The brother is the main girl's ex-boyfriend, whom she felt betrayed her over the theft of the painting, while her rival always loved the brother, yet was never noticed herself. They must join forces to help the brother, when they discover the link between the missing Sara and the painting. Sara is inside the painting, and must stay there to satisfy the painting's selfish desire for company, so that the painting may power the magic world. But Sara may have been the one to betray the main girl... I enjoyed this one a great deal. There are 6 OAV episodes, which were divided into three tapes in the fansubs, but which may be divided into two tapes (3 per tape) or some such thing, in the commercial release. In any case, there are only a total of 6 episodes in the OAV series. I recommend this one, if you are looking for something dramatic and 'mysterious'. I don't recall it having a very deep plot - they make it seem mysterious by not telling you much about anything. When I first saw Shamanic Princess, I thought "This must be a CLAMP production". It looks very much like it could come from CLAMP. Pretty people doing dramatic things with no real substance to any of them. It's fun to watch. I'd actually watch it again.
-- Pet Shop of Horrors --The Count... One gold eye, one purple eye, mysterious, suave, quiet... What more could one want? I recently watched the first tape (episodes 1 and 2). Overall, I really enjoyed the series, even though it was a dub. They got an excellent voice for the shopkeeper. The story borrows a lot from the 'Gremlins' theme. There is a Mysterious Pet Shop in Chinatown of the city, staffed by a mysteriously wise man, called the Count. He sells strange pets to people, with instructions which they must follow, or destruction will befall them. However, the owner is conspicuously absent, the Count being his 'grandson, a beautiful young man. The 'pets' are sold to people who are drawn to the shop by some means, and each pet is of a type which will suit what the customer most wants. Of course, the customers meet with bad ends. Our link to the story is through a cop, who is initially investigating the shop with the idea that it's a drug front. He investigates the customers, either in connection to the shop, or before they go to the shop, and we are told, through him, about each of the people, and the special 'pet' they have come to own. He soon learns that the Count has a sweet tooth, so brings him sweets to get information about the cases. The first case is of parents, who have lost their daughter. The Count sells them what looks to be their daughter, but is a strange type of rabbit. He also sells them insence to burn constantly. That is one of the rules. The other is to never show her to anyone. The last rule is to only feed her vegetables and water, nothing else, even if she begs. The parents take her home and try to get her to 'remember' who she is. Soon, she begs for a cookie, and who are they to say no. After all, one cookie won't hurt... The second case begins with a scene of a bride falling into the water from a boat, with the groom and a maid of honour looking on, shocked. The cop is trying to investigate this a week later. The woman jumping was a famous singer, who had just married the man. The cop felt that the man pushed her from the boat to get her money. The man shows up at the petshop, having been told that his wife's pet that she ordered before she died, had arrived. The pet was in a large water-filled urn, which was taller than two men, standing on eachother's shoulders. It was a mermaid. The man remarked that it looked just like the dead woman. The Count said that he had found her on the beach a week earlier. The man noticed what looked to be a ring on the mermaid's finger... The instructions to him were that he keep her in sea water, which was to be cleaned eavery so often. The second was that he was never to show her to anyone. The third was that she should never be allowed to go hungry. The man wondered if she had come back as a mermaid. The Count told him a legend that mermaids would occasionally come on land in the form of women, to seduce men. He later told the cop that it was also a legend that if you eat mermaid's entrails, you would become immortal, but that you also become addicted to it. He also said that you could get addicted to eating human flesh... I really enjoyed this one, and can't wait for the next tape to come out. It wasn't too stupid, and it wasn't too flashy. It didn't try to get to fancy with the scripts, or to dumb them down and over-explain things. Rare to see these days, and definately appreciated.
-- Trigun --Vash is almost as amusing as Kintaro from Goldenboy. Plus, I really want his coat and gloves... But that hairstyle must go... Update, I have now seen up to, and including, volume 5, and I can safely add Legato to this list. Woo! Deranged, I'll say. But besides that, what a great voice! And you can't beat the purple hair and golden eyes combo... Yup, he's a looker. Except that his coat makes him look like he's got a huge butt... This is an amusing series. I've seen only the first 4 episodes so far. The premise is that people live in a sort of western/cowboy world, and in fear of an almost mythical character called Vash the Stampede. Supposedly, Vash the Stampede has caused huge damage to every town he passed through, but no one was ever killed. There are two women who work for an insurance company, who are on the lookout for Vash. However, the rumors are sketchy on just who Vash is. Some say he's 8 feet tall with a red coat. Some says he's 12 feet tall with a mohawk. Some say he's a blond with a big gun. The women keep following the trail of rumors, bringing donuts to give to Vash. They keep running across a man (the main guy) who fits the description of Vash, but he seems too... stupid and hapless... to be Vash. But it is he, and he seems to be trying to bring peace everywhere he goes... A good mix of serious and silly. I will definately try and see some more of this series. Update. Well, now that I've seen more of the series, it seems to have turned away from being a funny, amusing series, and gone more the way of the "where the hell have these powerful people been living all this time, that they suddenly show up and attack, when no one seems to have ever heard of them before, and you'd think someone would have at least heard rumors of these people if they've become so powerful, unless... perhaps they were just... MADE UP TO SHOW HOW GREAT VASH IS" sort of show. Lots of violence, and showing how wretched the world is, what a struggle it is to survive etc etc. Vash who keeps going because of the magical image of some girl in his head, and Legato, who shows up with psychic superpowers, out of the blue. And what was with that sickening 'familys are great' monstrousity of an episode in the beginning of the fifth volume. Blech. Half an hour of togetherness beating me over the head. To say I am not anxiously awaiting the next volume is an understatement. At this point, I'm only watching it to hear Legato's voice. I mean, I've already read how it ends... I'm getting the manga, though. I'm given to understand it's much better.
-- Urusei Yatsura/Lum --Oyuki - the smart one of Lum's friends. Doesn't show up often, and doesn't say much while she's there, but she's obviously the brains of the bunch. This is an older series, but a long-lived one, by the same manga artist who does Ranma 1/2, Inu Yasha, etc. This one came before them all. There is no real long-running plot goals, per se, so you can more or less watch episodes from any part of the series and enjoy them, if you know something about the characters. You don't feel that you're missing something. The plot that is running through it is this: The main character, Ataru, is a womanizer. He is originally engaged to a character called Shinobu, and she tolerates his behaviour to some degree. Then aliens come to earth. They will destroy the entire planet, unless someone from earth wins a game of tag with them, in a certain time period. They have chosen with their computer a person from earth, who is to be the earth's representative. The alien's representative is the daughter of the alien's leader. The earth's representative is Ataru. He chases her, cheered on by the entire earth. However, she can fly and shoot lightning. He just manages to catch her on the last day, by grabbing her bikini top, pulling it off. She stays still long enough for him to grab her horns (yes, she has horns), winning the race. However, now he is considered to be engaged to this alien girl, and she won't leave him alone. She is Lum. More of her alien friends eventually, one by one, show up to make Ataru's life a little harder. Lum won't tolerate Ataru's behaviour as much as Shinobu did, electrocuting him frequently. This is a very comedic series. I recommend it highly to anyone who wants a fun series. There are a lot of episodes, too... the series is still being brought out here by Animego.
-- Song of the Wind and Trees (Kaze to Ki no Uta) --I like both of the main characters, and to and extent, the student representative Carl. The dean of the school, Rosemarine (the White Prince) is also fun. The is one of the first 'shounen ai' anime to be produced. For those who might not know, 'shounen ai' means 'boy love', and involves situations of love or romantic interest between young men. This anime (sort of a one-part OAV) was based on a manga series, and assumes that the watcher has already read the manga. It takes place in France, in the 1800's or so, and is mainly about two boys in a boarding school. The school seems to be a high school level, but I have heard people claim that the boys are supposed to be 12 or something. The story in the anime is told through the eyes of one of the boys, who is of the noble class, the son of a duke or something, and a gypsy, who are now both dead. The other boy is his roommate, who has been raised by a sadistic uncle, who is also one of the sponsers of the school. The uncle wants to make sure that the boy is subjected to harshness and pain, because he feels that that is the only way to create a sensitivity and artisticness in him, and keep it there. The boy thinks that he is in live with his uncle, and idolizes him. He can't be kicked out of the school, because of the uncle, so he slacks off, dallying with older boys for the answers to tests, and trying to manipulate those around him. The half-gypsy boy is the noble and just good boy, who has taken it upon himself to protect and 'fix' the uncle's boy. He finally realizes that he loves the other boy, as well, but in the end, can do nothing for him. It is implied that the uncle's boy lept in front of a carriage in his anguish and pain, but having never seen the manga, I can only extrapolate. A very beautiful piece, and touching. I wouldn't recommend it to people who are uncomfortable with the idea of boys loving eachother, or who don't like emotional, romantic pieces. To anyone else, this is a must-see. Unfortunately, it was never released here, but it's probably not too hard to find a decent fansub of it. The group called Techno Girls fansubbed it, complete with notes on the series before and after the show, and did an excellent job, even if they are considered evil incarnate by some...
-- Haunted Junction --I like the female member of the student council, and the boys she chases. The ghost Red Mantle is also amusing. This was the best series I had seen, as far as comedy series go. The series is about three kids at high school, who are on the Spiritual Student Council. Their school is not only haunted, but is the most haunted school ever. The principal is one of the school's Seven Ghostly Wonders, and something haunts every thing, nook and cranny inside and outside the school. There are even Seven Wonders of the school pool. There is the son of a catholic priest, and who wants nothing more than to escape the student council and lead a normal life. There is the son of a Buddist monk. He likes to chase girls, and is very suseptable to being possessed by spirits. And there is the daughter of a Shinto priest. She is very brash, and has a 'shouta' complex (the opposite of a 'lolita' complex.. so she chases pretty boys, but only those under the age of 12...). The school is so haunted because it lies in the middle of the triangle formed by the catholic church, the buddist monestary, and the shinto shrine. One of the things that makes this show amusing, is that the view of the catholic religion is a little... skewed. The catholic kid uses stars of David for his invokations, and the seven holy badges that call up the Seven School Wonders, which only he can call, are inscribed with the star of David as well (if I remember correctly)... The show is conatined in about 6 tapes, with two episodes to a tape, and was actually released here (get the subtitled, if you can find it..). The first tape is very amusing, but sadly, some of the other tapes contain some weaker episodes. The last tape was terrible. They tried to make it serious at the end, bringing in a seemingly unbeatable 'bad guy' exorcist, who methodically goes through and wipes out the ghosts and spirits. It culminates in an obnoxious 'everybody who ever appeared in any of the episodes gathers together, their differences settled, to help defeat the bigger evil which has been unleashed by the bad guy, who has realized how wrong he was, and is now repepentant, and helping to defeat this big evil'. They do this sickening 'we all combine our powers', and defeat the evil. At the end of every single episode, the catholic guy says 'oh my god!', and at the end of this final episode, everyone says happily together 'oh my god!'. I almost retched. However, some of the other episodes are very amusing, like the one where one of the seven wonders, Red Mantle (a bishounen sort of Tuxedo Mask guy), is being plotted against by his sister, Blue Mantle. She wants to take off his mask, because even she's never seen him with it off before. I highly recommend this series, but never bother to watch that last tape, unless you like being induced to vomit...
-- Girl's Revolution/Revolutionary Girl Utena --Utena herself is not too bad. I would have liked the main (red-haired) student council guy, but he's far too much of a scheming jerk in the anime... I was drawn to this anime at first, because it was about a girl who wanted to be a prince. Not a princess, but a prince. The anime starts out with the story that the young princess (who we know to be Utena, the heroine of the story), was so sad when her parents died, and she was left all alone. She wanted to die, we find out later. Then, a young prince came to her, and told her to never loose her strength or nobility. He gave her a rose ring to remember him, and told her that it would someday lead her to him. Then he left. She was so impressed by him, that she wanted to be just like him. She set out to become a valiant prince, who protects princesses. She wears a modified boy's uniform in the private boarding school she goes to, and speaks in a boy's language. We start with Utena entering middle school. She witnesses a girl being abused by one of the special student council, and wants ot put a stop to it, but the head student council member steps in before she can act. Still, she ends up agreeing to fight a duel with the abuser. She is led to a dueling ground in a forest behind the school, which can only be opened with rings like the rose ring she wears. There is a castle floating upside down above the area, which houses the sleeping power of Dios, connected to the Rose Bride, who is the girl who was being abused earlier. She, and the power she holds sleeping inside her, are the property of the winner of the duels. When this power awakens, the owner will have the ability to revolutionize the world. Utena initially wants no part of this power struggle, as the student council members all wear the rings, and all act as duelists, contesting Utena as the engaged of the Rose Bride. Each of the duels Utena fights is supposed to mean something in the way of her spiritual growth towards being the ideal person to revolutionize the world. She looses one battle that I know of, and it is a battle for who she is, for what she stands for to herself. After loosing, she reverts to a female, slashing her old outfit, and wearing a regular girl's uniform. She is convinced again to not give up, and once again, the mysterious power of Dios comes to her aid, and she wins. The only tapes which were released in North America were the four I have briefly outlined... I may have a line on more of them, but we'll see. I have the manga adaption of the movie, which is very similar, but deals mainly with a variation on the relationships between Utena, the leader of the student council, the Rose Bride, and the Rose Bride's brother. They don't make it very clear in either one, but Utena's prince is either the student council leader, or the brother of the Rose Bride. I liked this series, even though most of the characters are annoying. Perhaps it's because I'm a romantic. Perhaps it's because of the soul-builing that Utena is supposedly doing, and that it reminds me that it's what I should be doing. It's certainly not the 'bishounen', as they have horrible personalities (but are really cute as kids, in a flashback they have...). And don't be scared by the music for the duel area. It will not harm you, but will grow on you a little, if you turn your back on it...
-- Dragonball/Dragonball Z --There are several characters I like here. Future Trunks (he's such a lonely boy), Vegeta (such an angry guy), Zarbon (the quick, the pretty, the short-lived), Piccolo (he's such a sociopath "must train, then fight, train fight train fight"), and child Trunks (smart, sassy, Vegeta's kid). This one is lengthy... Ah, Dragonball Z. Much watched, by a variety of people. On TV in several languages, even today. Over 300 episodes, if my sources are correct. This show is, of course, based on the manga 'Dragonball'. The name of the show was changed from 'Dragonball' to 'Dragonball Z' partway through it's run, for reasons unknown to me. The earlier episodes were released here as 'Dragonball', but only 13 episodes worth were shown. Of these, I've seen one (the episode where Yamcha first encounters Goku), mostly because at the time that it was on, I had no real access to TV, or desire to watch TV. I'd like to see it, however. I started watching the parts called 'Dragonball Z' for an odd reason... I had a great interest in a character called 'Hiei' from Yu Yu Hakusho. I was bothering a friend of for more anime to watch (he has a huge collection). Now, this friend knows which characters I like, and suggested anime with other characters I might like. I had run out of anime I felt like watching, so I started asking him about series that I normally wouldn't feel like watching. For some reason, I kept asking him about Dragonball Z. He disliked Dragonball Z, but had a couple of fansubbed movies and an episode or two. However, he kept telling me that I wouldn't like it, because it takes forever for anything to happen, and when it does, it's a pointless fight. I kept asking, though. Now, I also took an interest in Kisakae (also known as KiSS files - not a band, but a dress-up doll platform). I found a large site, (OtakuWorld) with a large selection of these dolls, and there was a Dragonball Z section. Now, I can't remember if my friend told me that there was a character like Hiei in Dragonball Z before or after I found this site, but the outcome was that I had acquired a Future Trunks Kisakae doll from the site, and had been informed that this was the Hiei-type character. I wanted to know more, so I started looking through Dragonball Z and Future Trunks sites. I found out that his name was simply 'Trunks', but that there was an attempt to distinguish between this form of the character, and a younger form of the character, who appeared later in the show (he traveled backwards in time, for those who don't know). I started watching the TV episodes, but although I saw him in the opening sequence, I was to discover that he hadn't actually shown up yet. I did, however, find other characters to like, in the meantime. Trunk's father is a character called Vegeta, who starts as a villain, and later becomes less of a villain. Now, Vegeta and Hiei look quite similar, and acts more like Hiei than Trunks does. However, after having acquired a fansub of dubious quality of the Trunks Special, I think there may still be some elements of similarity... if you mix Vegeta and Trunks, you basically get Hiei. Now, this show is long, and full of filler. Long periods of time where people yell and prepare to fight, but don't get around to it for several episodes. I've been renting the uncut versions from a local comic store, and just saw the last volume of the Freeza Saga (and the last tape of the Garlic Jr. Saga... talk about filler..) today. Flashbacks, long meandering repeated scenes of the planet Namek preparing to explode, people saying "ah" for five minutes at a stretch, far too many repetitions of "That's impossible! He's just a monkey!", "We/he/you can't defeat Freeza; he's too powerful!", and the infamous 'Bulma is lost' scenes. I particularly like the way they make 'the planet is gonna blow up in five minutes!' last five tapes. But, all in all, I liked the show, despite the plotholes, the filler, the redundancy, the slowness, and other things you can read about on other people's pages. I know I'm going to be camping outside the comic store's door the day the Trunks videos are released. --Oct.4/00 -- I didn't camp outside the door. In fact, my interest has trailed off, as it tends to do. I began looking forward more to the Android Saga's release, but even that became a very small part of my interest. Especially after I got the tapes in fansub format ^_^. I haven't included Dragonball GT for a few reasons. One, of course, is that I've seen exactly none of it. My relationship with Dragonball GT can best be described as the path of a parabola. I heard of Dragonball GT, and quickly became interested as I heard hints that Trunks was the main character. I approached Dragonball GT quickly, and almost bought a sourcebook in the original Japanese, which gave information about it. But I didn't. The approach slowed as I realized how difficult, expensive and annoying it would be to get fansubs of it. I started to draw away as I kept running across the term 'romantic comedy' in conjunction with this part of the series, and that the creator, Akira Toriyama, didn't have anything to do with Dragonball GT. I saw what Trunks was wearing in it, said 'Safari Trunks', shuddered, and drew quickly away from Dragonball GT. All I had to see was the annoying, perky Pan, and I vowed never to watch it. Vileness and disgust. Dragonball yes, Dragonball Z yes, Dragonball GT no.
-- Rurouni Kenshin --I liked Kenshin himself originally. Then he turned into an obnoxious, not-very-bright flashback-bringer... Thus far in the series (I haven't seen all the episodes, nor am I likely to), we have a main character called Kenshin. He's a killer-samurai-turned-wandering-help-giver. He found a girl in a doujou, and stayed with her a year. An ex-street thug, a lady doctor and a young boy soon joined them. He and the girl were training the boy to be his successor. He started having nasty flashbacks to his old life, between never-ending bad-guys being flung at him. The government then informed him that he was needed to save the land from a big bad guy. Off he went, leaving everyone behind. Of course, everyone follows to help, except the doctor, who is needed to stay there. On the way to the evil one's place, he meets a ninja girl, and a once-enemy who is now a secret police officer, who is also sent by the government to stop the evil one. In the last episode I had access to, Kenton defeated the evil one's pointy-headed underling, and was going to have to fight this kid. I adored this series. Note the past tense. As the series progressed, I started to loathe it. Nothing but constant 'flashbacks', and most of them to one fight scene, which happened in one of the movies. Tired, contrived and boring. Far too many cookie-cutter personalities being introduced. Too many episodes with too little in them. Makes Dragonball Z look fast-paced, and I like Dragonball Z...
-- Child's Toy --Akito is the best. There was a rival to Akito being introduced, but I didn't get to see enough of him to say for certain if I wouldn't hate the character. This is one of the better series I've seen, despite the fact that it's supposedly aimed at kids. We have a hyperactive girl named Sana, who is a famous TV actress, her mother, who is a famous author, Sana's manager (whom she calls her 'pimp', until someone points out what the word means), a boy named Akito, who is at first the head of all the troublesome boys, but later is Sana's friend, even if she's too stupid to realize it. The plot that I've seen so far (and I've missing four of the earlier episodes) is that Sana's class was being constantly disrupted by the boys in the class, because the teacher is a crybaby. She couldn't stop them, because Akito had a picture of her and a male teacher kissing, and was using it to blackmail her. Sana comes up with elaborate plots to gain power over Akito, and finally, one works. However, she finds out about his bad home life, and befriends him. What she doesn't know is that he's actually quite intelligent, and is in love with her. She is devastated when he kisses her, because she thinks she's impure, and she has many childish delusions that Akito helps dispel. The last episode I saw was about Akito's shattering of Sana's facade of confidence, because he sees that she's just being hyper and happy all the time to cover up an inner sadness. She reveals that her mother is about to release some sort of write-up of her memoirs, and that this may somehow affect her relationship with her mother, and her entire life. I want to see what happens next, but apparently the fansubbers had temporarily stopped translating this series at that point... There are more tapes, but I can't seem to get ahold of them.
-- Tenchi! Muyo --Washu and Ryoko are my favorites here. If you pick up this series, be sure you have the OAVs, and not the Tenchi! Universe TV series. There are major differences in plot, and storyline... the TV series is horrible. In the OAVs, the series starts with a shrine boy, Tenchi, who goes into a cave. The cave was said to hold a demon, which had plagued the area several hundred years ago. (It starts much like Ushio & Tora). He, of course, releases the demon from it's slumber (what good shrine boy doesn't?). The demon turns out to be a powerful creature called Ryoko, who has watched Tenchi and been in love with him since he was a small child. She follows him everywhere, trying to get him to love her. Then a princess arrives on the scene. Two princesses, actually; Aika and her little sister Sasame. Aika is searching for her lost cousin, whom she was to marry, but who had left to hunt down Ryoko, and never returned. They have a ship run by tree-power, and Ryoko has a crystal ship, which later becomes a sugary-cute cabbit-thing. The two parties fight each other, and crash, stranding the princesses and Ryoko on earth. Aika discovers that Tenchi is descended from her cousin, and is heartbroken, but decides that Tenchi must become her husband in her cousin's place. They later discover that the cousin is Tenchi's grandfather, who disguises himself as an old man to fool humans. Sasame is also in love with Tenchi, but get away with things like hugging him, because she is seen as a child. She actually contains the soul of a goddess who was hiding in the tree of the ship. Tenchi starts to discover his innate powers as a member of the noble bloodline, and then goes on a mission to destroy Bad Guy, when a stupid cop-girl crashes to earth, after having tried to fight said Bad Guy. She, of course, also falls in love with Tenchi. On the guy's ship, they discover an alternate world, where a young-looking genius girl is being held. This is Washu (or Little Washu, as she prefers). They free her, and she goes to earth with them. She sets up her lab in an alternate dimension, with a door to their hallway. They find out that she is the one who created Ryoko, and her cat-ship thing. She was the best scientist in the world, but took on child form, so that she would never forget what it was to be carefree and imaginative. She also ..(wait for it...).. falls in love (well, lust, actually) with Tenchi. She is interested in how his body works. Apparently, it is also discovered that she is one of three goddesses, the only one who came to the physical world. She is the sister of the tree-girl who is in Sasame, and of another goddess who sends people to get Washu back. Although the series sounds like it could be horribly silly, it was actually one of the better ones I've seen. The storyline unfolds nicely, and there is enough depth and detail to make it watchable. The TV series, on the other hand, changed the storyline, took out all that 'bulky detail', and not only enhanced the more stupid things, but made the characters shallow and stereotyped. And there's more focus on 'popularity' elements, like the Sailor-Moon-like Sammy (now with her own ridiculous spin-off show), and the horribly cute cabbit and it's insane love for carrots. Watch the Tenchi OAV series, it's good for you. Avoid the TV series like the plague.
-- Vampire Princess Miyu --Miyu and Larva. The wise ancient child and the lonely bishounen... Ranka (the cherry-blossum Shinma) is good too. There are four OAVs, two episodes on two tapes, and this wondrous, wondrous anime can be rented even at such innocuous places as Blockbuster. The series centers on a spiritualist, as she hunts down unusual happenings, and finds a vampire girl after the same perpetrators. The vampire is the last of her kind, a guardian of the Dark, who must round up all the Shinma (demon-like creatures that live in the Dark), and return them to their home. She is aided by a western Shinma, called Larva, who was sent to kill her, but became her servant and friend. The spiritualist slowly works out the past of Miyu (which seems to be her only real point in being there). This is one of the best mood pieces ever. It's not only beautifully animated, but there is superb character development for the Miyu character. She's a person who has lived through many lives, but is always in a child's body, with a child's brain. Her destiny was thrust upon her, and she must live up to it. You must see this series for yourself, as words cannot describe the nuances of each episode.
-- Ushio & Tora --The mage, the water-wheel spirit, the weasel family, and Ushio's long hair form. These are a few of the things I like in this show...) Like most series, I was skeptical when I began to watch it. It might have turned out to be a boring action-type series. I was happy to find that it was enjoyable. As an added bonus, there's a sort of Omake Theater at the end of the series; so cute! Here we have a shrine boy, who runs across the demon that was defeated and enshrined hundreds of years ago. The demon is held in place with a mystical spear, and the boy is the descendant of the samurai who wielded the spear. The demon demands to be let free, but the boy is actually smart enough to leave him there. Not a whining soppy main character, he. But by opening the seal, the boy let the demon's evil aura free, and other demons are being attracted by it. The boy lets the demon out, on the condition that he gets rid of the demons. The demon must obey him, because the boy now has the spear. The boy himself, for all his toughness, cannot keep the demon at bay, but the spear confers upon it's true wielder, great power (and kickass hair!!), when the wielder merges his soul with the spear. When he stops 'using' the spear, he can no longer jump or fight as well, and his hair falls away. The demon, of course, rids the shrine of the other demons. He can't kill the boy, while he has the spear, so he decides to haunt the boy. He's waiting for him to forget the spear, so that he can eat him. The boy, Ushio, names the demon Tora. Tora respects Ushio, in a way, and always helps him defeat whatever comes their way, under the pretense that it will further his goal of getting revenge on Ushio, or to make Ushio owe him. Ushio is actually a relief from all those other shrine boys who whine and don't know what to do about all the princesses around them. Also, three of the things they run across are very cute and gothic-looking. One is a wheel-spirit, who has been searching for Ushio's friend (and the one who will obviously be his wife) since their childhood. Ushio and his friend had been at her grandfather's house, and she wanted to turn a waterwheel. He helped her, and they got it turning. She sung a song, and juggled. Then they left. The spirit had been in the wheel, and had fallen instantly in love with her, because he loves being spun. He finds her in highschool, and tells her he will kill anyone that tries to stop them from being together, that he wants her to live with him at the waterwheel, and turn him. She knows he loves her, so to avoid her friend's deaths, she agrees to go with him, even though she loves Ushio. Ushio thinks he's going to cause the girl harm, so fights him. She calls the spirit off before anyone is hurt badly, and Ushio realizes what's going on. He still can't allow her to live with the wheel spirit forever, so goes after the spirit, and convinces him to give the girl back. Ushio won't kill him, because he knows that the girl would never forgive him. There's a tragic bit where the spirit goes off dejectedly and sadly sings the song the girl sung years ago. Ushio tells him that he helped turn the wheel too, so the spirit feels a bit better (I guess), and leaves. But he's so cute and so tragic... watch for him in the Omake Theater. The other two are a mage/priest guy, who thinks Tora is the one who killed his family, and a weasel spirit, of three, who goes mad because humans keep taking his sibling's homes, that he starts killing all humans. I really enjoyed this series, as I said, and the Omake nearly made me split open.
-- GoldenBoy --Kintaro is hilarious. Also, look for the animator in the last episode, who doesn't like it when Kintaro cleans up his desk... I was warned that I would either like this series, or hate it, and I'll pass on the same warning. I liked it. I can tell the animators had a great time with it, drawing all those females with scanty clothing, and enormous breasts. But it turned out to be more than that. The main character is silly and embarrasses himself a lot, but he is a student of life, learning from everything, and taking various jobs wherever he travels. He learns quickly, and the women he works for hate him just as he leaves, but find out soon after what a genius he is, and that he's made their lives easier by being there. The ending episode is what makes this series special. Unlike most other series, which have episodes that have little or nothing to do with each other, save featuring the same characters, this series ties everything together in the end, drawing on the characters from the other episodes to help his current employers. If you can get past the fact that there are many busty women and embarrassing scenes for the guy, and accept that they are comic elements, then you'll enjoy the series. In other words, not for the easily offended.
-- Yu Yu Hakusho --Hiei is my favorite, by far. Kurama is good, but sometimes I find him to be a little too perfect... I also like Yukina, but sometimes she's a little too 'sad victim'. An interesting series. The main character is much like Ushio from Ushio & Tora in personality, but held a position like that of Akiko from Child's Toy in school. He was hit by a car and killed, while trying to save a boy. The representative of Death who comes to him explains that he wasn't supposed to die, because even they never suspected him of trying to save a kid. The kid was going to miraculously survive anyway. So they allow him the chance to resurrect. He is given an egg, which will measure the good and bad of his soul. If he is bad, the egg will hatch into a monster and take him to hell. If he's good, the egg will hatch into an angel, and he'll resurrect. His body is being looked after by his drunken mother, and his childhood friend, who will likely be his wife (I sense a pattern). His house is lit on fire by an arsonist, and his friend runs in to save his body. She is struggling with his body, and he can tell she won't make it out. He is told that the only way he can save her is to throw the egg into the flames, releasing all the magic inside it. However, then he'd also loose his chance to resurrect. He throws the egg, and a path is opened in the inferno. His rival, who is like Tora in that he claims to only help because he wants to be the one to kill the main character, runs in at that moment and helps her carry the body to a safe area. The egg is gone, but the guy is told that it would have been a monster, anyway. But his sacrificial act is also unexpected, and they give him another chance. If he can get a human to breathe life-force into his body on a certain day, then he'll be resurrected. The only people he can try to convince from the spirit world, to breathe life-force into him are his friend, his mother, and the rival, who is spiritually attuned. The girl is the one, and she just manages to breathe into him at the last second. He returns to school, where the teachers that hated him all along try to cause trouble. He foils them, but soon discovers he can see into the spiritual world now. He is informed that the price for his resurrection is that he works to solve spirit-related crimes in the human world. He also gets powers, like being able to shoot his spiritual energy out of his hand, like a gun. One of his first assignments is to get back three powerful artifacts that were stolen from the devil-lord's vaults. These items can control the human world. One is a sword that controls people, one is a mirror that can grant any wish, and one is a ball that steals people's souls. He defeats the large demon that has the ball, but the other two people leave. The first of the two approaches him later, and tells him he can have the mirror, if he comes to a certain place on a certain day. This guy is a reincarnated fox-spirit (or kitsune), who came to love his human parents. His mother is dying, and he wants to use the mirror to save her. The mirror takes the life-force of a being, in exchange for the wish. The fox guy is willing to sacrifice himself to save his mother. The main guy feels that the fox guy is very kindhearted and noble, so gives the mirror half of his own life-force, in order that the mirror only take half of the fox's life. The fox is grateful, and allows himself to be turned in for the small reprimand he'll get. The fox guy becomes a supporting character later on, with a rose-thorn whip as a weapon. His name is Kurama. The last guy is difficult for the guy to defeat, but has also caused a third eye to grow on the girl. She'll become like this last guy (who is called Hiei), when the third eye is fully open.. He joins the show as a supporting (if independent) character later on as well. Of course, the main guy defeats him, temporarily blinding the third eye of Hiei, and bouncing his force gun off of the mirror, to hit Hiei from behind (as Hiei is too fast to be hit if he knows it's coming). The girl is saved. Hiei is my favorite character in this series, and is pretty much my favorite character from any series. This entry was long, but so is the series, at about 112 episodes. I despair of ever seeing them all, as not many people seem to like this series... It has not been picked up domestically, and the fansubs I've seen have been scattered episodes near the beginning. The movie was picked released here, and it's OK, but never ever subject yourself to the dub, if you can help it... Update! Animego is thinking of picking up the series! Subtitled Yu Yu Hakusho may be brought out, but they're taking sort of a vote on it. They need to have a certain number of votes before they actually start subtitling the series. If you want to see this series, go to the Animego website and vote for what format you'd like to see it in.
-- Iria --Iria is my favorite here. Her brother is good, but somewhat of a non-character... Very good series. A female main character who can actually do something, and doesn't whine. She's reasonably intelligent, too, which seems to be a difficult thing for most female characters. They didn't seem to know exactly how they were going to develop her character at first, because she wavers between two stereotypes for a few episodes. But you do get a feel of what she's like by the end. And she still doesn't whine! There's another Sephiroth-like character in this, briefly. Her brother, who is a bounty hunter, is what I think Sephiroth would have been if he'd had a sister he cared about, and who looked up to him; if he hadn't been treated like an experiment and forced to be cold. The girl, Iria, her brother and his partner, go to a spaceship, ostensibly to save the people trapped there. There, they find an 'unkillable' creature. They send the crew off in a pod, and are about to leave when the creature kills the partner, Bob. Iria sends his dying body off in a pod with the head of the ship's corporation. Her brother stays behind on the ship, and Iria leaves on their little ship. Her brother blows up the station, to kill the creature. Iria wakes on a planet, and finds out that the station's existence is being covered up. She also finds that the creature has gotten on the planet. With the help of a slum child, she manages to harm the creature enough to draw it into a transporter in the posh area of the city. She is aided by her brother's voice. She manages to transport the creature into space. She returns to her planet, to find that the cover-up is continuing, and that the corporation is trying to kill her. She joins up with the other partner, who has been mysteriously sent to protect her. She finds the head of the corporation, with the help of a voice being broadcast through the corporate building. She discovers what has been going on, and threatens the guy, who tries to pay her off to not say anything. She frightens him for all the people he caused harm to, and is lead by the voice to the upper part of the building. There, she finds her friend Bob, who is now a sort of artificial intelligence. She takes his component and flees through a transporter. He makes her a full-fledged Hunter, and she builds a piece into her armor, so he can appear, and help her. The creature appears again, and is making clones. Some of them resemble Iria's brother. The slum kid joins her, and they take on the creature. She defeats it in the end, but had to kill her brother to do so. Like that was a surprise. I enjoyed this series immensely. It's quite good work, for such a short series. It seems difficult to do good character development in such a short time, and they had trouble near the beginning, but it was nicely done by the end. I don't know if I'd watch it again, because there are some series that are good, but not a second time, and I don't want to ruin it for myself. However, I simply must hear the beginning song again someday. There's something truly catchy about it. There are CDs for this series, and if I could find one here, I'd buy it. Apparently, you can get copies of on MP3, in such places as, oh, I don't know... Napster.... -cough-. |
