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Synopsis
Another excellent sequel from an excellent series. Saber Marionette J Again is ‘Program 26′ with six parts. This is an OVA so the animation is very well done. Everyone has his or her own opinions and my opinion to SMJA is that this OVA sequel is really funny. I’ve never laughed so much while watching an anime since Slam Dunk.

Review
In SMJA you’ll meet another marionette (Marine) built with another maiden circuit (this circuit is somewhat different, you’ll see when you watch it J). The NSM-X1 codenamed Marine has an anti-plasma shield not only that, she even have the ability to control plasma and absorb it as energy to fire energy attacks. Marine has everything Otaru’s three marionettes have. From cooking to fighting, Marine is on top. The whole story of SMJA is stopping a plasma storm big enough to destroy all of Terra II. (Can you guess who can stop the storm?) Although SMJA is good, but its not enough to tame my craze for Saber Marionette J. So now I have to wait till April for Saber Marionette J to X to be released!!!

The Breakdown
You just can’t go wrong with SMJA, because its just that damn good that even I can’t come up with a overall statement to end this review (LOL)

Synopsis
It’s not over yet! Return to Japoness for a visit with everyone’s favorite marionettes! Everyone’s enjoying the peace and quiet - except for Lime. The winds of change are in the air, and the old ways are being swept aside.
With Lorelei back, TerraII is going to halt production on marionettes. Even the Sanja Festival, the high point of Japoness culture, is undergoing radical change. Will everyone forget about Lime and the others? Amidst all this turmoil is a visit from Hanagata’s father, a high-tech float race, a thief, a letter from Faust, and the rise of the Shiritaki Alliance!

Review
My all time favorite series is finally back for a third run! Terra II is still in the process of having females. In the meantime other countries want to steal the female clones, so that they can have control over all of Terra II. Also development of the Marionettes has been ceased, because of the revival of the females.

SMJ to X is pretty funny, and that’s what you can expect from all the SMJ series.

The Breakdown
It is sad to say SMJ to X is the last of the J series. If you want more Saber Marionette, you’ll have to watch Saber Marionette R, a retelling of J only…different ^_^

Synopsis
Shinjuro may be little young to be the master of a swordsmanship school, but fate didn’t give him any choice. Now, his position and martial skills land him right in the middle of serious trouble when the rogue samurai Mikage faces off against the Tokugawa government. Mikage has his eyes on the legendary sword known as Mizuchi, and is willing to destroy all of Edo to get it.
Caught in the middle, Shinjuro and the band of beautiful swordswomen who train at his school must protect the town from harm. However, they won’t really be challenged until the Tokugawa house calls in a favor, and the young swordsman is forced to duel Mikage himself! His opponent will be using the most powerful weapon Japan has ever seen, but if the swordswomen can stop fighting over Shinjuro long enough to cheer him on, then the boy samurai is sure to win.

Review
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The Breakdown
In my opinion the overall score should be 7, but the Animation kept Samurai Hunt for the Sword up by 1 point

Synopsis
It’s been quite a few year since Ninja Scroll was released. Since then I’ve been wondering if be a show that can take down such a dominating reigning champ. The year was 2000, enter the DVDs Samurai X: Trust/Betrayal (Known as the Rurouni Kenshin OAVs in Japan, taking place before the Rurouni Kenshin TV series). Unlike the more light hearted TV series Samurai X is much darker.

Review
This epic tale takes place in 19th century Japan. A time when warfare and rebellion were common place. Though there are brutal slayings and death throughout, they actually have meaning as Kenshin realizes the emptiness of his actions. Samurai X is ultimately a very deep love story and a warriors search to become a real man. The DVDs themselves each have two episodes on them. Now for $30 dollars apiece, that’s just not right. Both DVDs are 60 minutes. They could’ve but both together to make one perfect set instead of splitting them up. (Greedy, greedy, greedy) Seeing as how both stories must be seen together to be appreciated, I’ll rate both DVDs, Trust & Betrayal, as one.

The Breakdown
As the cat woman would say, ‘Perrrrrrrfect!’ nearly. I’d go with both, Trust and Betrayal seperately over the directors cut version. You get better image quality and no edits to the story.

Synopsis
In the future, Tokyo is a desolate place. After a massive earthquake, the city struggles to survive. The old city is in ruins. Acid rain falls from the sky. And worst of all, evil beings called Lucifer Hawk have invaded Earth to destroy humanity. Earth’s last line of defense is a secret branch of the Police, the AMP. Its members include the psychic Yuki, the cyborg Kiddy, the Shinto priestess Nami, the visionaire Lebia, and their chief, the mysterious Rally Cheyenne. But they’re about to get a new and powerful member. Kasumi Liqueur, a woman with strange powers and a dark past, is about to join the fight. Can her presence tip the scales in Earth’s favor?

Review
Silent Mobius is a Kia Asamiya work. Most people know him by the series Martian Successor Nadesico, which was the Anime that got me into the Anime world.

My first impression upon hearing that Silent Mobius is Kia Asamiya’s work, I immediately said, I must get it! Then of course, I got it and here I write about Silent Mobius V.1: Earth Under Attack.

Kasumi Liqueur, who was a secretary in Hawaii, came back to Tokyo as a request made by Rally Cheyenne, only telling her that she had information about the death of Kasumi’s mother. When the plane was landing Kasumi was attacked and the plane was brought down to the ground. When she regains consciousness, a Category 2 Lucifer Hawk addresses Kasumi by the Key and tried to take her with him. Then comes a story period and Kasumi is “awakened” to destroy the Lucifer Hawk…

Through out volume one, character’s backgrounds are revealed, and there was light stuff. Such as, running from the Ghouls (a gang in Heaven’s Hall) and parties. There were only three to four episodes that AMP was fighting a Lucifer Hawk. Of course I’d expect a total twist in the story later on, because I’ve watched Nadesico before.

The Breakdown
Silent Mobius is an anime in its class, I haven’t seen any magic mixed with sci-fi before, maybe except X, but Silent Mobius came first. One more thing, Kia Asamiya is the man!

Synopsis
The fight against the Lucifer Hawk rages on, and the women of AMP seem no closer to victory. Meanwhile, Roy and Katsumi begin to get closer. The arrival of Rally’s sister Rosa, however, brings startling secrets about Rally, and deals a crippling blow to one of the members of AMP. Meanwhile, as the team copes with the Lucifer Hawk menace as best they can, a new player enters the game and begins manipulating them. But a new member joins the AMP just when they need her most, the fiery, youthful, obnoxious Lum Cheng. But is she worse than the Lucifer Hawk?

Review
Right off the bat in Silent Mobius volume 2, the show goes over two more character’s stories, and then as expected from Kia Asamiya in the following episodes. A BIG twist over the story (related to title name?) happens. The truth is finally revealed not only to Katsumi, but to all of AMP too. Katsumi struggles between who she can trust and who she can’t, after some thinking. She decides to return to AMP and help fight the Lucifer Hawks despite knowing the truth that she is *ahem*. As for the character Lum Cheng, from Neo Hong Kong. She is an elementor, who of course uses elemental magic to fight. Lum is very skilled in combat as she has beaten Katsumi in shooting practice. Lum also uses a staff type weapon to fight. She definitely has helped AMP in their increase in power to fight the Lucifer Hawks.

As the story progresses, you’ll be able to finally know the purpose of why Gigelf Liqueur opened the gate to Nemesis. I’m just itching to see what happens in volume three. Which will be released on October 22, 2002.

The Breakdown
Silent Mobius is an anime in its class, I haven’t seen any magic mixed with sci-fi before, maybe except X, but Silent Mobius came first. One more thing, Kia Asamiya is the man! ^_^;;

Synopsis
Quoting from title, ‘Sister Princess: If you’ve suddenly begun to have twelve sisters, what do you think? More over, they are so, sweet, charming… and loving you so much!’ To me, I’ll love it! Why? Because it’ll be so cool! My favorite sister out of the twelve will be Rin Rin, the sister that can build robots and other cool devices.

Review
The story is about Wataru, a high school student that doesn’t make it to that particular high school he was applying for, but his friends did. After a moment of depression, he goes home to find out that a school in ‘Promised Island’ is looking forward for Wataru to be a part of the student body there. Story continues from there as he meets up with his twelve or thirteen sisters in episode two (you’ll see why the title quote says twelve later on). In Sister Princess, every sister if given a star moment episode where she hangs out with her brother, either from swimming to shopping. This series all seem like a party. The climax of the story is pretty dull, but then again Sister Princess is a new twist. I’m sure a lot of brothers out there dislike their sisters in some way if they have. I personally don’t like my sisters much, but if they were any of the sisters in this series hehe, I’d love that life!

The Breakdown
Please don’t buy the R0 version of Sister Princess, even if you don’t understand Japanese, don’t waste your money like I did. Although I wouldn’t say that I totally wasted it. The only errors were in timing, names (used Chinese translation for names), and at some points I think the people who did the subs used some online translator to translate some words. In the end, I had a good time watching this series, will you?

Synopsis
I should say the beginning of this anime is more confusing than my entire home theatre’s wiring. I was at times impressed with the animation and at times I despised it. Some scenes with the church theme had the stained glass effect but there was color change also, which caused me to get dizzy and sick. Blaaaah! ^_^ Now, to the anime.

Review
This anime is set in the future. The main character, Kyosuke Date, has the power to mutate and become a powerful mutant. He sets out to find his long lost sister, at the same time, there are ‘Flickers’ that he is destined to save. The ‘Flickers’ are soul fragments of his sister. If he finds them all, they will lead him to his sister (Runa Date). Episode one is really cruel, I felt really bad for the first ‘Flicker’ (Maya). You’ll see why when you watch.
Animation on the other hand is very nice. The mutant codenamed ‘The SoulTaker’ has one of the best designs I’ve seen. (After all he is the main character ^_^) The action scenes featured a lot of guns and explosions, via satellite bomb or what ever that was, and some other advanced technologies.

The series got better as it progressed to episode three. I will continue investing in this series, simply because I don’t leave my series uncompleted.

The Breakdown
Hmm… I think Pioneer knew that volume one will confusing the hell out of us so they released the limited edition encyclopedia with volume one just to clear things up. While you may be impressed with animation and sound, you will not like how the story develops.

Synopsis
Street Fighter is a name I hold dear to my heart. It single handedly started the one on one fighting frenzy that revitalized the arcade industry in the early 90’s. It also revolutionized the way video games were made. A game with such commercial success it spawned toys, a Hollywood movie (that stared Jean Claude Van Damme and sucked big time.), two animated movies, an anime TV series, and an American cartoon (I think it went by the name of ‘G. I. Joe’… oh wait, that was something else). They’ve all had a sort of hit or miss success rate which brings me to the animated OAV, Street Fighter Alpha.

Review
The character design stays true to the video game series it’s based on. Complete with big hands, feet and all. The story is about everyone’s favorite lone wanderer, Ryu and his long time friend Ken Masters. Their reunion is interrupted by the arrival of Shun, a boy who says he is Ryu’s long lost brother whom he’s never met. As of late, Ryu has been battling himself from within to overcome the power of the Dark Hadou threatening to take him over. (Dark Hadou is the dark side of the dangerous technique he and Ken learned) Shun has this power also. Before Ryu even has the chance to consider that the boy may actually be his brother. Shun is kidnapped by the evil organization of Shadowlaw. So not only does Ryu have to overcome the power of the Dark Hadou, he must rescue Shun. That’s not all! Will Ryu still have what it takes to confront the Master of the Dark Hadou himself, Akuma? Well I can’t tell you. Find out yourself.

The Breakdown
Not my favorite Street Fighter show but what can I say, if you like
Dragonball Z then this is for you.

Synopsis
In fifteen hours and ten minutes of this world’s time, the moons of earth and the demon plane will align. A hole will be torn in the fabric between both worlds, bringing forth a time of endless night. It’s up to Yohko to stop the demons from shrouding the world in darkness and stop the black queen from holding dominion over all. She just doesn’t know it yet. Will the 108th Devil Hunter have what it takes to prevail against the demons? Find out in the next exciting episode!!!

Review
It’s me again, Stikz, with yet another old school review. ADV, celebrate their ten year anniversary (1992-2002) with the DVD release of their first localized anime, Devil Hunter Yohko.

This two disc set features vol.’s 1, 2, & 3 of the devil hunter saga and an extended version of episode 1. There’s a very insightful commentary about the beginning of AD Vision and their aquisition of Devil Hunter Yohko. I don’t know if this will catch on with those new to the anime scene, but if you were a fan from way back, you’ll find this enjoyable. While the first episode is substantially better than both 2 and 3, that ep. and the historical commentary alone are worth the purchase. A great DVD upgrade for those of us old enough to enjoy the VHS release and who have seen AD Vision grow from it’s infancy to where ADV Films stands now.

The Breakdown
Another reason for old school anime fans to rejoice. Pick it up if you want to reminisce or if your a new fan who wants to see some of the roots of titles done today. This is what it used to be like.