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Synopsis
A secret war brews in the night - a war where humanity is only a pawn. The Hellsing Organization deploys in the shadows to protect the mortal world. But now, artificially spawned vampires have appeared, forcing Hellsing to call in their ultimate weapon - the rogue vampire, Arucard! After he transforms the dying Seras Victoria into a vampire, they join forces to combat the undead army - as well as her own newfound hunger…

Review
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The Breakdown
Hellsing is good to turn to when you need something a little dark. A vampire based anime other than Vampire Hunter D, Blood, etc.

Synopsis
Arucard and the Hellsing Organization face a twofold challenge! A traitor within begins leaking classified information about the Organization - and a TV journalist is out to expose Hellsing’s secret mission! Then, the ruthless Valentine Brothers lead their undead army on a deadly raid against the Hellsing headquarters, interrupting the secret Round Table meeting…

Review
Welcome back to another review of Hellsing. In volume two, a lot of things happen, but to me they all seem unimportant. The only part where I was stunned was when Arucard finally showed what he could really be and do.

Seras also was a looker (nothing naughty). In Episode 6, Seras was cooking; she was decapitating the ghouls that were slaves of the Valentine Brothers. Walter on the other hand had a few tricks up his sleeve, not only can he make killer weapons, but he also is a silent killer. Anyways, this volume didn’t have that spark like volume one did. Visuals are of course amazing, but the story just wasn’t enough. One episode, about a traitor who nobody (us) really care about and two episodes dedicated to the Valentine Brothers who were just there to show us what Arucard, Seras, Walter and Integral Hellsing was about. Also this volume displays the coward ness of the Hellsing world, after the dialogues given by the members of the Round Table.

The Breakdown
Hellsing Vol.2 is cool, if you get the limited edition with the Hellsing patch that’s awesome, but the three episodes in volume two, isn’t all that good though.

Synopsis
Hikaru no Go is one of those anime that make people assume its for kids (just like people assuming Gamecube is for kids) Talking about assuming let me educate you on one thing about the word “assume.” Take your time and separate the word. As I was taught assuming anything isn’t good and assume makes up a sentence, which roughly breaks up to “You’re making an ASS out of U and ME!” Now I got that off my chest…

Review
HnG is about an elementary school student named Hikaru. One day he finds a Go board in the basement of his grandfather’s house. This is when a spirit possesses Hikaru’s head. And soon Hikaru was taught how to play Go (an ancient time Chinese board game, which kind of or is what Othello is now). Don’t start thinking that this is a boring series. HnG isn’t all about Go, it also is about friendship between Hikaru and Sai (the spirit), rivalry, and competition. HnG has the concept of present life style, which makes it unique!

The Breakdown
The idea of HnG is cool, it teaches people an ancient game that was played to pass time back in the Ming dynasty (or more back). If you have no other anime titles to watch, you might want to check HnG out in the mean time.

Synopsis
Pressure is high for Yukino Miyazawa to succeed, to be loved by all, and to be simply… the best. After working so hard to become the top student at her school, a new competitor has arrived to tumble her from her self made pedestal: Souichirou Arima. The instant she met him, she hated him. He topped her every effort without even trying. Now Yukino is putting her hard work into plotting her revenge, but was love part of the plan?
Alpha adds: Please note Kare Kano is the name of His and Her Circumstances in Japan.

Review
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The Breakdown
This is a great series! As it was stated in the Director’s Notes, Kare Kano is *unexpected*. I agree with the director, because I didn’t hear about Kare Kano until Stikz mentioned it in one of those polls he made on the boards. Hey I guess this can be another series that I can have fun watching as I wait for GTO and as I watch GTO I won’t be bored out of my mind waiting for Kare Kano J.

Synopsis
Initial D 1st Stage, 2nd Stage, and 3rd Stage: Lets start off by knowing what INITIAL D stands for shall we? Initial D - Initial Drive: Initial is the beginning of a word or something so when it all comes together, Initial D stands for the beginning to drive. Exactly what the series is about. This anime shows you how technology is used in anime and as newer technology is produced the better the quality is. OK…, You’re probably confused right now, but if you have seen the series you’ll know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t see the series then I’ll explain what I’m talking about in the review.

Review
1st Stage - First off, any Import cars fan will love this anime and if you’re not an import cars fan then you’ll not enjoy this anime as much as the people that are. The story starts off with this dude named Takumi Fujiwara. He’s a high school student and a part time worker at a gas station. At first Takumi, didn’t like to race or should I say he had no idea what was the point of racing. After his first race with his father’s customized Toyota AE86 Trueno (Thunder in Spanish) he was being hooked to racing little by little. As the story goes on its about his racing to find himself. Personally I loved the last race the RX-7 FC against the AE86, because its the last race for the 1st season (stage)

2nd Stage - A continuation of the 1st Stage, still Takumi has a 0 loss record, but now a new racing team has formed known as EMPEROR, of course they want to beat Takumi and … (can’t spoil the races). Any way that’s almost it for 2nd Stage.

3rd Stage - Is known as ‘The Movie’. This is the best out of all the Initial D’s. It’s the final chapter to Takumi’s quest to find himself through racing. The main race in 3rd Stage is the MR2 and the AE86. After that race Takumi finally showed his love for Natsuki Mogi (the main female character in Initial D). The quality of the 3D CGs are the best (after all its the last chapter for Takumi) Also Ryousuke Takahashi (driver of the RX-7 FC) has made a new racing team formed by the best of the best racers and he asked Takumi if he wanted to join…(hehe, getting annoyed?). OK, 3rd Stage is the best out of the 3 Stages, I know you’ll say, ‘What happened to Extra Stage?’ Well I didn’t see it because its about the girls that drove the Sil 80. I’ll see it once I have a chance to get it and write a review for it too. Until then here are the scores for all the Initial D’s.

The Breakdown
I can’t make you watch any thing, but it’s good to try out new things once in a while.

Synopsis
Serial Experiments Lain, what is it you ask? It is a very complicated thing. A series that takes everything that the mind cannot fully understand and somehow weaves itself into a story is what best describes it. You see the story begins as a young girl discovers that she is no longer needed in the real word so she doesn’t need her body. She commits suicide and her spirit journeys into the wired (an area of the Internet). Let’s take a trip on Lain’s (the main character) Navi (her computer) through the wired and try to figure what exactly is real and what is fake.

Review
As the wired starts merging with the real world, you will find out just how confused you can get. The animation is top of the line and the character design reminds me a little of El-Hazard (have you seen that yet?). I would categorize this series with Ghost in a Shell and Akira just for the amount a confusion it’s brings. If you like those titles you’ll like Lain. What ‘SEL’ lacks in the action department (if your looking for gratuitous violence, it’s here, but just not because of a fight), it makes up for in compelling story telling.

The Breakdown
I do recommend Serial Experiments Lain to anyone who likes to think. Lain will tease your brain and make you insane.

Synopsis
Love Hina, is about Keitaro, some dude who made a promise with this girl way back when they where still little kids. The story continues from the flash back. The promise is that they both will get into Tokyo University and attend it together, no matter what. Keitaro, fails the acceptance test and with little hope left. His Grandma sent him a letter telling him to take care of Hinata-sou (ed. - hence the sites name: anime-sou) for her when she goes away for vacation.

Review
Now the story really gets started… Keitaro meets all the other characters: Naru, Kitsune, Shinobu, Kaolla and Motoko Anyways, the whole series is about a love relationship which evolved to a triangle love relationship. All this drama starts and blah blah blah (to keep the spoiler to a minimum).

The Breakdown
Quality, Sound and Story for Love Hina is a state of the art. Even if you hate love type anime, Love Hina will change your mind!!

Synopsis
This anime is about a world in another dimension dying off, because of something (spoiler). In order to prevent the so-called destruction of this world named Cephiro. The Princess (Princess Emeraude) has summoned the Magic Knights of another world (Tokyo). And then here comes Hikaru (Fire), Umi (Water) and Fuu (Wind). They didn’t know each other till they got to Cephiro and started to become friends.

Review
For the first season of this anime it goes on with saving the Princess from the EVIL Lord Zagato!!!!! (Spoiler alarm going off). The Magic Knights must accomplish several tasks in order for them to save the princess. Such as, learning magic, evolving their armors, weapons and finally awakening the slumbering Rune-Gods (Rayearth, Windam, and Selece). There is comedy in MKR, but it wasn’t really funny where I’d had to hold my stomach or comedy that caused me to almost died laughing.

After the first season is over, we go to second season, which is basically the same. The Magic Knights are summoned once again to save Cephiro the thing is that nobody knows who summoned them. Since this thing happened back in first season… Anyways, they go through all the fights and drama. The creators have put a lot of time in the story as it never left me lost. Also there are love affairs going on with the Magic Knights. Therefore making it more interesting. In second season Cephiro is just horded by invaders that want Cephiro for their own countries (Autozam, Fahren and Chizeta).

We all know who stops them to achieve the goal. In the end, this is quite an enjoyable series as it boasts 50+ episodes with story development in each. Unlike some anime series out there that go nowhere with 2 - 3 eps.

The Breakdown
MKR was worth my time, it took me two days just to finish the whole thing. Sometimes things go slow, which makes you anxious to see what comes next. One thing is that MKR is predictable, probably an aspect the creators created on purpose or it was just too predictable… One last thing, get it when you have a chance!!!

Synopsis
Satome Kazuya is both a college student and an electrical engineer. Despite his numerous failures, he is persistent on completing the design for a Doraemon, a robotic squid with its own artificial intelligence. By accident, he electronically orders May, a 12-inch Cyberdine Corp. maid type robot hence the name of the series Hand Maid May.

Review
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The Breakdown
Excellent anime. Very entertaining. Not as deep as Evangelion but the ending does pose a question to reflect on.

Synopsis
‘Do you know? When two people in love can both get into Tokyo University, they’ll live happily forever. So when we grow up, let’s go to Todai together…Bye-bye Kei-kun. We must meet again in Todai. Promise me ok~’

‘My name is Urashima Keitaro. I’m 20 years old. The only girl I liked I can’t even remember her name. Because of that promise I failed the entrance exams twice already…’

The Breakdown
Love Hina is amusing similar to the enjoyment of watching those Saturday morning cartoons when you were little. You will not go without laughing with this one.