Animesou.com

Synopsis
Fumoffu fumoffu, ‘Fumo fumomo? Fumoffu’ fumomomoffu! (The new anime series, ‘Full Metal Panic? Fumoffo’ is an exciting new comedy!)

Review
Full Metal Panic? Fummofu is exactly what fans of Full Metal Panic! wanted. More time to spend with all of their favorite characters. Gone are the dramatic conflicts of the original series. Instead, the fans are treated to a series of self-contained short stories that are creatively written, and downright hysterical. Could this be the funniest comedy of 2003?

The Breakdown
This is the perfect anime if you’re in the mood for a laugh. Fumoffu! (Watch it!)

It’s too short, by the way…

Synopsis
Ai Yori Aoshi is a romantic story about Kaoru Hanabishi, a college student who, after having cut all ties to his family, lives a very lonely life. That’s going to change however, as a friend from his past will soon come back into his life, and completely change the way he lives. Aoi Sakuraba spent her entire life working hard to become a wife worthy of Kaoru. Even though he left his family (thus ending their betrothal) Kaoru is still the only man Aoi can think of. Ai Yori Aoshi is their story.

Review
At first Ai Yori Aoshi appears as though it is going to be something truly unique. The story development in the first few episodes is strong and very well written. An episode or two later however, it becomes apparent that those episodes were just an intro to a much more filler-based anime, and that Ai Yori Aoshi actually has a lot in common with other anime. Love Hina and Happy Lesson come to mind, because they are both examples of anime in which one male character and several female characters live under one roof. Once the rest of the cast shows up, Ai Yori Aoshi goes through all the cliche plotlines. The ‘I’ll make a boxed lunch so that he’ll fall in love with me,’ episode, the ‘Let’s all go to the beach and show off our new sexy swimsuits,’ episode, and of course the prerequisite ‘I ended up naked in a hot spring with a guy,’ episode. The list goes on.

It really isn’t anything you haven’t seen before, but regardless, it is still quite enjoyable. I attribute this to Ai Yori Aoshi’s entertaining cast. Each of the girls is given several episodes to develop their personalities, and they are all quite unique. They are also very cute in design, as is most of the artwork in this series.

Towards the end of the series the filler episodes cease and all of the conflict that was mentioned in the intro episodes returns to the spotlight for an emotional conclusion. Cliche or not, by the time it all ends you will be left with a smile and probably recommend Ai Yori Aoshi to all your friends.

The Breakdown
Ai Yori Aoshi succeeds in being a romantic journey for Aoi and Kaoru that will probably manage to bring out the sap in you. It’s great for a date and also funny enough to watch with a bunch of friends. It’s a safe buy.

Synopsis
Ai Yori Aoshi ~Enishi~ takes place two years after Aoi and Kaoru were first reunited in the original Ai Yori Aoshi. While there is no overall main story, there are several small plots that take place over the course of the series. Special attention is given to Chika, who appeared late in the original series, and to Tina, the American who can barely speak English because she is so Japanese.

Review
I hate to start a review on such a negative note, but the fact of the matter is, Ai Yori Aoshi ~Enishi~ does absolutely nothing to advance the plot of the original, nor does it answer any questions you may have had about it. It exists purely as an extra set of filler episodes for fans of the original series. In fact, the main storyline (the love story between Aoi and Kaoru) while present is hardly of any importance with the exception of one episode, and that failed to satisfy my hopes for the series.

Putting all that aside however, it is still an enjoyable series that contains many happy moments to remember. The last few episodes are the most emotional, but at a cost. There is very little comedy in these episodes, and the change of pace is somewhat out of place. Still, there is some payoff for getting to the end.

By the time its over, nothing of Ai Yori Aoshi’s story is resolved, so it looks like another sequel is inevitable. Despite my opinion that ~Enishi~ does not live up to the original, I still love the characters and hope that another sequel is in the works.

The Breakdown
6.5 looks like a low score, but it really isn’t that bad. If you enjoyed the first series then I suggest you give this one a try as well.

Synopsis
Kujaku, the young martial arts mystic-in-training, must rescue his supernaturally powered sister from an evil sorcerer. The warlock plans to use her abilities to unleash eternal darkness upon the Earth. But Kujaku shares a psychic link to his sister, and nothing, not even evil hordes of warrior minions, will stand in his way!

Review
Spirit Warrior is one of those typical light versus darkness, good versus evil anime, but what anime today is not about good versus evil? The idea is overdone; newer and fresher ideas must be developed! And what better to do than to add history into the mix? I am talking about adding the Nazis. So now we have characters with mystical powers and at the same time around the period where the Nazis still existed. Is not that cool? Where are the story planners? They really got away with this one. The story is lacking; it moves with quick speed and pretty much lacks depth also.

Check out the flow of the story. Introduce main characters, one main character (the good character) goes to try and save the other main character (the soon to be evil character). Things happen and the soon to be evil character becomes the evil character. When the good character first fights with the evil character, he fails, builds up, fights again and wins… simple? Not really, throw in the fact that the evil character is the good character’s older sister; also throw in another fact that both these characters are fighting the same way their guardians were fighting many years ago, so it was kind of like fate or destiny.

What did not appeal to me was how the fantasy theme was mixed with present time theme and was mixed with a little bit of futuristic theme. Fantasy theme, with all the mystical powers, present time theme, with the Nazis (not really present time 2004, but bear with me please :P), and futuristic theme, with cyborg (the Nazi soldiers are cyborgs in this movie).

By the time you are reading this paragraph, I am assuming you are saying in your head, “Gee dude, your writing tone, sounds quick and lacks depth.” If you say that in your head, then I have accomplished what I wanted, which is to show you how it feels when watching Spirit Warrior. I will not bash Spirit Warrior any further, but as an honest reviewer, skip this title for your sake.

The Breakdown
This review was suppose to be up somewhere at the end of December, but due to my trip to Hong Kong it was postponed. Spirit Warrior: Regent of Darkness, should only be a rent title in my view. Making a purchase means either you have a lot of money to waste or you are in love with the title, both are cool with me, but for us who are poor, we shall resort to renting :P.

Synopsis
Utena has it all. Beauty. Passion. Faith. A sense of justice. She is the idol of her classmates at the exclusive Ohtori Academy. And yet, she is driven by a childhood memory of a prince on a white horse who comforted her when she was grieving over her parents’ death. He gave her an enigmatic signet ring emblazoned with a rose crest, and this memory drives Utena to do the impossible: To become a prince, herself, as she duels the members of the Student Council to protect the mysterious ‘Rose Bride.’

Review
A princess who wants to become a prince, that is Tenjou Utena. When the show began, it caught my eye how most of the girls in Ohtori Academy admired Utena. They blush when they see her, yell out her name, and some even fall in love with her. The show also started out uninteresting, but it gradually attracted me into the story. There is a lot of fun stuff in the story, like the way Chu Chu acts, but when there is a good, there is always a bad. The bad is why does the Rose Bride, Himemiya Anthy always gets smacked around? Her life is of a servant. Who ever duels and wins is engaged to her, and she must do whatever that person wants. What kind of life is that? Not a very happy one that is.

Anyways, the action of Revolutionary Girl: Utena are exciting. The duels are quite interesting, as the main rule of the duel is that if the rose in the duelists’ chest pocket falls or is destroyed, the duelist loses and if you win, you are then engaged to Himemiya Anthy, which then allows the person to control the Sword of Dios which appears from Anthy’s body when she summons it. To wield the Sword of Dios is to gain the power to revolutionize the world, hence the reason for why the student council duel each other for the power. The right to duel however is only reserved to those who are of the student council, but Utena is able to avoid that rule, as she has the rose crest ring that the prince gave her when she was a child.

Overall, Revolutionary Girl: Utena is a very fun shoujo series. There is comedy, a beautiful soundtrack, an entertaining story and a crew of great voice actors/actresses, what is not to like about Utena? When I started the series with the Finale, I was not sure of what Utena was all about, who the characters were and what was their history in the story. Now that I am starting from the beginning, it certainly has been a real treat. This series that I once thought sucked, actually captivated me and now I can say that I am a fan of Revolutionary Girl: Utena.

The Breakdown
Revolutionary Girl Utena possesses all the essential elements necessary to create a great anime.

Synopsis
All year round the sakura trees mysteriously blossom on the island of Hatsune. A couple converse and run through the pink flowers in the distance. A girl makes a wish from the side of her window. Another year of grade school has begun. A transfer student from America blissfully says hello to a friend she hasn’t seen for years to fulfill a long kept promise…

Review
Da Capo is a 26 episode series produced by studio Circus. Like Kanon and To Heart, it’s another anime based off of a PC hentai dating simulation game and released child friendly for the Playstation 2. Dictionary.com translates Da Capo in this fashion: adv. Music Abbreviation DC. From the beginning. Used as a direction to repeat a passage. In the last episode Junnichi explains: People say that you can’t reset life, like a game. But is that really true? If you stumble you can always start over, like a da capo. That’s what I would like to believe. Because that is not a start from zero.

The Breakdown
Kanon, Taiyaki. Onegai Sensei, the red box of pocky sticks. Da Capo, Miharu’s bananas!!! Or a pot of nabe. ^_^

Synopsis
Long ago, the Egyptian Pharaohs played a game of great and terrible power. This ‘Yami no Game’ (Dark Game) altered the fate of the entire world. That was until a brave pharaoh sealed this evil force away in seven magical items. Now, a young boy solved the millennium puzzle that was once left hidden for thousands of years. This boy, with both light and darkness in his heart, is known as Yugi, the King of Games…

Review
This review is for season 1 of Duel Monsters, Episodes 1-40, Pegasus’s Duelist Kingdom Tournament, and the following episodes 41-49, the duels against Rebecca and Otogi (english name is Duke Devlin). Miho-chan from the original Yugioh series is missing. Everyone knows or at least has heard about Duelist Kingdom just like everyone has a slight idea as to what Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z are. Jounouchi uses the Time Wizard to acquire the Red Eyes, Mokuba duels for the only time, Kaiba summons his Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon, and Pegasus possesses the dreaded Toon World card.

The Breakdown
Come on, it’s Yugioh for crying out loud! This is what started it all, in America at least.

Synopsis
Episode 5: “Diamond Child”
Meet Tatsunosuke, a young thief with a special gift and nothing to lose. Matched against Tsubute, which thief will come out with the Dragon Stone in his pocket? Faced with the opportunity to join the Kimon, will Tatsunosuke take the chance, and pay for it with his life?

Episode 6: “Shelter From the Rain”
Apart from the others, Jubei finds himself poisoned in battle with Nenmu, a ninja who can use the bodies of people. Caught in a rainstorm, with the help of a woman and her young son, Jubei slowly recuperates from the poison. But with Nenmu’s ability to manipulate anybody, who can tell a friend from the enemy? Will Jubei’s newfound allies turn against him?

Episode 7: “Blossom”
Azami is back, and after the half of Dragon Stone she could not get the first time, determined not to lose it to the Kimon clan. Meanwhile, Jubei learns the truth about the Dragon Stone and the treasure of the Lost Dynasty, and he’s slowly figuring out just how precarious of a position they are all in.

Episode 8: “The Fate of Rengoku”
Rengoku has her mission ? to get the other half of the Dragon Stone from Jubei. This is also her chance to avenge the death of her beloved brother, but at what cost? With revenge on her mind, what will Rengoku sacrifice for the ability to kill Jubei?

Review
First off, haters and doubters please shut up about how the Ninja Scroll TV series does not appeal to you. I mean, comon, you have only seen volume one, the first four episodes! Unless you downloaded it and have viewed the whole thing; you should be a real fan and wait it out to see what the show is about. You cannot judge something just by how it starts. There were instances where I disliked an anime for how it began; later on, loving it as the story develops and I am sure I am not the only person that has had those instances. I hear many people say that the Ninja Scroll TV series is not good, because it is not like the movie… now are you stupid or are you brain dead? Do you know the difficulty to top something that is already on the top of the charts? It is a hard fact that sequels usually cannot and will not top the original. Check out The Matrix: Reloaded for an example, did Revolutions top Reloaded? Hells no, all you see is the same exact stunts pulled on and off the screen. Now if this Ninja Scroll was exactly like the movie, then I bet you guys would be complaining how it is just a cheap copy of an old ideal. Complaining, complaining, that is all you guys do, not realizing that a series did not have to be created at all. But because of the tremendous amount of fans demanding a sequel, Urban Vision helped brought it to us. Appreciate that. Do not hate this series, or any series in that matter because of another person’s views, and you do not have to like this series either, just because I am telling you that I like it. Just simply appreciate it, that is all, appreciate what you can, and shut up.

From the introduction of this review, you should be able to tell that I am delighted how this series is turning out. The action scenes were astonishing, the soundtrack gets you right into the mood of things and although the story did not advance much in volume two it was still pretty entertaining and kept my mind awake to all the action (killing) that the haters said there were not enough of in this series. Now unless you have viewed the entire series, there is no possibility that you could come up with a conclusion that the series is “soft” or whack if you want to put it in a casual term. So where do people get these crazy views that the entire thing sucks, when the whole series is not even out on the streets yet?… oh wait, let me add, legally. I would not even be discussing the legal and illegal issue, so I will just leave it at that.

Now back to the series. What I liked the most, of course is the action. The way people get killed, the powers or abilities characters have and the exaggerating blood shed that is shown after someone gets beheaded, stabbed, sliced, or split in two, you get the idea. I wonder why are there people questioning where the blood was in Ninja Scroll the series. Either they are utterly blind or just completely did not pay any attention to the anime. Because of this, you get people who follow these blind fools and reject a show that is good, without even taking a peek at the show. Sigh… what has the anime community developed into?

Okay really, back to the series :). This volume focused more on fighting rather than progressing the story line. The Dragon Stone gets bounced around from Shigure to Tsubute to a character who I believe would probably play a significant role later on in the show to Jubei and it keeps going on and on and on. So that is pretty much the whole story development. Do not get turned off though, the attractive part is the way it goes upon running that loop and that is why I am looking forward to volume three, more violence, and hopefully a twist in the story or a climax would be pleasurable.

The Breakdown
I hate haters and doubters. Punks who want everything their way or no way, and while they are at it, bringing others who have no knowledge of that anime with them to the hate side. Well, good luck finding an appropriate anime for your little organ beneath that thick skull of yours.

Visit the contest page if you are interested in a fan art contest for a chance to win a DVD copy of Ninja Scroll Vol. 2: Dangerous Path.

Synopsis
What comes and goes within that innocent pair of eyes? He is Shirase Akira, a rouge, freelance computer programmer, who possesses a brilliant intellect. While he is well known as a legendary hacker, very few people understand the true side of him. What does he want, what has he gained, and what has he seen in the infinite outskirts of the internet? What has he witnessed within the virtual and real images of his code? That story will now be told.

Review
Battle Programmer Shirase, or BPS for short, first aired in October 2003 through January 2004. BPS is directed by Hayashi Hiroki, who also managed Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040, and produced by Anime International Company, which has an english site available at http://www.aicanime.com/ The official BPS website can be found at http://www.anime-int.com/works/bps/index.html

For six screen shots and a mini preview hop on over to http://www.jascii.net/newanime/jascii.php?jascii_view=108

The Breakdown
It is amazing to conceptualize a person hacking to access a satellite then overloading the power infrastructure of a 100-story building, igniting gas lines until it abruptly explodes. It took a supercomputer to do so but even a cell phone now can be the medium. Anything electronic is no longer safe.

Synopsis
Sister Princess is the story of a young man and his twelve sisters. After failing his high school entrance exams, Minakami Wataru gets accepted into a special high school that is located on Promise Island which happens to be where his twelve sisters live. Sister Princess is quite simply an anime about twelve girls that really really love their older brother and the time they spend together.

Review
I am not going to sugarcoat this one. Sister Princess is a terrible anime. The best thing about it is that it is not as bad as its sequel (see my review for Sister Princess ~Re Pure~) because it at least has a story that has some direction. Unfortunately that story is weak and uninteresting. All this anime has going for it is decent animation and music. Aside from that, there is no substance.

The majority of Sister Princess is an endless circle of conflict and resolution. Normally that would be a good thing, but the conflicts are not all that conflicting. I mean, if the main plot of an episode is ‘Uh oh, I don’t know which skirt to buy. Won’t my big brother help me?’ then there is a problem. Basically in every episode one of the girls comes up with some sort of problem and perfect Minakami Wataru solves it without being asked thus proving to all the sisters that he is deserving of their undying love.

Speaking of undying love, it doesn’t take long for that love to become a bit unsettling. In fact, every one of Minakami Wataru’s twelve sisters wants to marry him. That just can’t be right. Thankfully it never gets too romantic, but that is because by default nothing interesting ever really happens.

The Breakdown
What more can I say? Maybe ADV will have the sense to cancel the localization of Sister Princess.