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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
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
Going into Kite I had know idea of what to expect. I didn’t hear anything about it. After viewing it, I can’t understand how this title managed to stay so low-key. A young girl by the name of Sawa, is witness to the brutal murder of her parents. She was taken in by the detective assigned to her case. She was then trained to become a lethal assassin, taking justice into her own hands. There, that’s simple to follow right? Yes! But that’s not all! There’s soooo much more I just can’t talk about without fear of ruining this action packed roller coaster ride.

Review
Kite features some of the most entertaining gun fights this side of a John Woo film. It’s simply amazing! If you’ve seen the colorful No Doubt video, ‘Ex-Girlfriend’ and you remember that bathroom fight, then know that that scene came from this movie. OK, we know the action is top-notch, but what about the rest? The characters were pretty drab and depressing (sorta like anti-social walking dead) I guess crazy assassins may have a valid reason for there anti-sociality so I’ll let that one slide this time. (plus we only have to wade through about 15 minutes of boring conversation before another superb action scene hits) You’ve got to see this if not only for the shocking conclusion. (No really…you will be shocked)

The Breakdown
It’s official! The term go fly a kite can mean something cool now.

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
At the Yokota Base in Japan, a nervous American military is on the brink of the Vietnam War. But a greater threat exists within the walls of the heavily-guarded compound: Vampires.
A team of top-secret undercover agents learn of these blood-sucking fiends, and dispatch the mysterious Saya to hunt down and destroy them. This beautiful yet dangerous girl must use her extraordinary abilities and lethal Japanese sword to save the humans from these sinister creatures of the night..

Review
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The Breakdown
Saya, pretty but deadly hehe. What’s with this!? A female vampire slayer in a school uniform? Blood is a good watch, and its not confusing at all, just straight forward throughout the show.

Synopsis
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Review
BS#6 is based on the hit manga Blue Submarine No. 6 in 1960 by Ozawa-san. The scientist Zorndyke has seemingly turned his back on humanity, creating a race of beast/ people to challenge the humans for global supremacy. Now it’s up to Mayumi Kino, a young female pilot, Tetsu Hayumi, a jaded veteran soldier and the flagship, the Blue Submarine No. 6. to stop him. About 90% of the show was done in 3D, the action, water, and the mechs. As I was watching BS#6, I was wondering if this series will be the same hit if it was done all in 2D. Turns out that without the 3D effects, BS#6 overall, would be dull.

The Breakdown
BS#6 is good when there isn’t anything else to watch, of course this series had the most 3D effects I’ve seen that actually made a difference in the overall product.

Synopsis
Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 is bubblelicious! I love this series. It’s a remake of the very successful classic… guess what it’s named? Bubblegum Crisis, silly! It’s about this underground group of girls know as the Knight Sabers, who fight these robots called ‘Boomers’ when they malfunction and go on a rampage like Godzilla looking for his next movie sequel. The Knight Sabers do this incognito, so they try and get things done before the police get there.

Review
The ‘Boomers’ have taken the place of the workers who do routine jobs and are basically everywhere in Tokyo. Priss (the main character) has heard about this underground organization on the web and will do anything to find out how to join them. I couldn’t believe that this series is so entertaining. Everything about it is great. The music (Neo Techno stuff) is excellent and fits the scenes perfectly. The voice acting is superb (except for Leon’s, It’s a little to gruff for me). The character design is great (but you can definitely see El- Hazard inspired designs in this series too. Boy, I didn’t think that series had such an impact on characters. It’s everywhere now).
The new designs for the exo-suits the Knight Sabers wear are extremely cool too. The effects used in BC 2040 are revolutionary. It’s one of the first times I’ve seen computer graphics seamlessly integrated into hand-drawn animation done right (the other time is in Serial Experiment’s Lain). On a down note, the series really losses it’s budget near the final chapters and the animation drops dramatically. What happened? The story started losing steam in the latter half of the series also. Even though BGC 2040’s bubble popped near it’s finale, I still recommend it.

The Breakdown
If you’ve seen the original BGC or not, this updated version is worth a viewing. One question though…Why is it called Bubblegum Crisis? Is it because they are in a sticky situation?

Synopsis
Team Warrior is Back! Ready, aim, and fire up for animated adventure with Team Warrior! Join rowdy Rio and her friends – the machine-gun maniac Maya, the lovely Lilica, tech talent Nanvel, guy Friday Yuji, and their boss Maki – as they take on four of their hottest cases ever!
Mechanical insects, firefighting jewel robbers, panty thieves, sexy shieks, and fawning fathers – there’s never a dull moment when the babes of Burn-Up Excess are on the job!

Review
After all that waiting ADV made us do. Finally the sequel to Burn-Up W is released. Boasting the one and only ADV jiggle counter for the perverts out there :P.

Burn-Up eXcess, takes off right where the OVA left off, after the hotel incident in the OVA, Team Warrior is back to deal with a tower incident in episode one. A terrorist group has taken control of the Neo Tokyo tower and demands their requests be made or else their little insect friends wouldn’t be too happy.

Now, who else to turn to other than Team W? Not much has yet to be revealed about the bad lady who’s in three episodes causing havoc out of four. Only that she is working for a group of unknowns.

Anyways, I liked Burn-Up from the first day so I enjoyed the ecchi humor and crazy action scenes that are really just crazy. Rio and the gang are back and are going to be waiting your local video store.

The Breakdown
It’s nice to see Team Warrior back for action, I’m surely glad they did!

Synopsis
If you were an anime fan in 1999 or 2000 then you’ve had to have heard of Cowboy Bebop. To some, this is considered to be the best animated series ever….Who am I to argue. I have to admit though, the first time I saw the main character, Spike, I though he was pretty goofy looking. But after a few minutes of viewing he was the coolest character I’ve ever seen. Enough about that. On to the DVD. For $29.99 (or maybe less in some places) you get five crystal clear episodes. What a deal! The VHS tapes only had two episodes apiece at $24.99.

Review
Session #1, ‘Asteroid Blues’, is a good introduction to Spike and his partner, Jet. They’re bounty hunters in the year 2071, where humans have moved to other planets and venture though space often. The ship they reside on is called Bebop. They deal with a drug called Red Eye. It’s pretty action packed and there’s a scene with a slow-mo effect that has to be seen to be believed.

Session #2, ‘Stray Dog Strut’, is a fun chase, after a dog!? What could they possibility want with a tiny little canine. It’s a much lighter story than the first but manages to how us how these characters interact with humorous stories and more serious tales.

Session #3, ‘Honky Tonk Women’, introduces us to ultra vixen, Faye Valentine. The only chick that can be cool and hot at the same time.

Session #4, ‘Gateway Shuffle’ We get more of Ms. Valentine and a family who’s value are…well, turning people into monkeys.

Session #5, ‘Ballard of Angels’ We meet Spikes rival, arch villain, Vicious. And that he is. But although he is Mr. Bad guy, he’s still soooo cool. As the conclusion of this disk, it couldn’t end better. All in all, the first disk is truly enjoyable viewing.

The Breakdown
If you haven’t seen Cowboy Bebop yet, what are you waiting for? It’s like taking a vacation…much needed.