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Synopsis
Claus’s father was a unique nobleman, coming down to the land of Norikia, longing for the free sky. Soon after Claus’s family moved next door, he became close friends with Lavi’s father. They soon formed a vanship team of pilot and navi. From age one, Claus and Lavi spent their childhood together learning from their fathers the trade of vanship flying. However, this story ends in tragedy. The last time Lavi and Claus saw of their fathers was departing through the Grand Stream delivering a treaty of peace. The document never reacted its destination, and the war between the country of Dusis and Anatore continues to this day…

Review
Directed by Chiaki Koichi (Magic Knight Rayearth), Last Exile first aired April 6, 2003 and ended with episode 26 on September 29, 2003. Do not let the title fool you. Last Exile is not tied to any religious movement and is not a banishment of any kind (unless you count the expelling of the Guild from the world of Prestale). The Exile, the final weapon, refers to an ancient migration ship hidden in the Grand Stream. It is said that it was used by the beings that created the world. Now it is the last hope the people of Prestale have to change the world.

The Breakdown
An all-star cast of characters: Claus, Lavi, Sophia, Tatiana, Alex, Moran, Al, Alistia, Dio, and the crazy crew of mechanics.

Synopsis
The year is 2046. A mysterious alien force has attacked a Mars base and is escaping from the solar system. Earth drastically sets up an attack mission to chase the aliens and a girl is chosen to be a part of the crew. She leaves to go fight the aliens, leaving her boyfriend Noboru alone. The only connection they have between each other is through cell-phone text messages, which first takes days, then months, and then years to reach each of them. Can their love survive the years of loneliness?

Review
Voices of a Distant Star is the hard laborious journey of it’s creator Makoto Shinkai. He, alone on one iMac, made this 30 minute anime film and is one of the most impressive works of an independent filmmaker I’ve ever seen. It’s powerful and sad, uplifting yet depressing, and in the small time of 30 minutes the film will draw upon every ounce of your emotions to send you through one of the most memorable animes ever. I kid you not. The two main characters are interesting, you feel for their plight, the action is actually fairly cool with these ethereal alien designs and very gundam-esque designs for the Earth’s mechs and the story is gut-wrenching. I haven’t felt so depressed in such a short amount of time.

Mikako’s journey through the stars is a long, arduos journey of longing for the one thing she really wants, but cannot have. It’s made all the worse when the ages between Noboru and Mikako start to spread out because of Mikako’s space travel outside of our solar system. At one point in the film, a text message is sent to Noboru from Mikako saying, ‘Happy 24th birthday from your 15 year old girlfriend.’ It was an emotional strain for me just to hear it, and that’s when you know you are watching something so powerful, so visceral that it might just be something stunning.

The Breakdown
I really have said everything I wanted to say. There are only so many ways one can say: ‘buy this good sh** [editted for the kiddies, just to show you we care] now.’

Synopsis
Twenty-two years ago, a cataclysmic earthquake destroyed the Kanegawa region of Japan and threw the country into choas. The damagaed region was abandoned and labeled the ‘Muraji Special Economic District,’ more commonly known as the Lost Ground. After the earthquake, the Lost Ground became home to a rising number of Alter Users, those with the psychic ability to change matter and create Alters (think summons, like from Final Fantasy) with unique powers. Two percent of anyone born on the Lost Ground obtain these powers for some unknown reason. To keep the Lost Ground under control, the special police force HOLD was created. Within it is an anti-Alter unit, HOLY, which was formed to combate the renegade Native Alters in the Lost Ground.

None of this really matters to Kazuma, a Native Alter who uses his powerful alter, Shell Bullet, in his search for money and thrills. But when Kazuma runs into the oppressive HOLY, he is forced into fighting for the freedom and safety of those he cares about. Unfortunately, a powerful Alter user in HOLY’s group, Ryuho, is just to much for Kazuma to handle…

Review
And with that very long synopsis, the review! Right. Anyway, I’d been anticipating this show for quite a long time, since it had finished airing in Japan, in fact. It sounded like a new era DBZ-style show but shortened with to 26 episodes and does not spend it’s time on useless power levels and long stares. And that does hold true. So far, the show has almost no filler and is filled with stylish fights aplenty including some interesting alter powers. Kazuma is an interesting hero, trying to act tough but merely coming off as a helpful guy. It’s Ryuho who is more interesting. He has a dark, messed up past, he’s changed in the 7 years he’s been seperated from his love interest (oh, who by the way, has come back to the Lost Ground), and doesn’t really want to do anything with anybody. He’s got a big chip on his shoulder. The characters, despite what other reviews may tell you, do in fact get a good bit of character development, in these 5 episodes anyway. You learn quite a bit about each characters past and idiosyncrasies, and I have to tell you, some of these Alter users are funny.

Anyway, the story is interesting, the characters fun, and there are no useless filler episodes. Another plus is the rather nicely choreographed fights and the dialogue doesn’t grate on the nerves. Good stuff.

The Breakdown
Let’s see. The story, characters, animation, and so forth are in excellent shape. On the other hand, the music isn’t great, there are one to many characters (and some are rather bland and useless) and the story moves a bit to fast in this first volume. With that in mind, you make the choice. What do I recommend? If you have some spare cash lying around, use it to buy this and give it a try, but it’s not an absolute must-own.

Synopsis
Continuing the adventures of Daisuke Aurora and his android partner ‘J,’ volume 2 of the series has Daisuke and J fighting off Claire Leonelli’s continued attacks on their very lives as well as the duo having to go to the mysterious ‘underground’ to retrive a lost heirloom of Daisuke’s, and finally, to solve the very tragic past of a certain guitarist.

Review
The show is getting better and better. While I was enthralled with the first volume, this one is better because of the very fact that each self-contained story is more interesting and plot driven. While the show still has no overall story connecting each episode, much like the last volume, it’s much like Cowboy Bebop in its episodic style: each story isn’t really related, but each episode is so good you just want more. The same holds true for Heat Guy J. Each episode is a wonderfully visceral style of art, animation, music, and characters to create an overall package that really meshes well. At times, the show does walk a fine line of pretension, but it never falls off and stays steady to keep itself riveting and cool.

The Breakdown
Just about everything in this show is good. I’m having problems saying anything bad about this show, and I’m very jaded. Just buy this now already and stop wasting time.

Synopsis
Produced by GAINAX (Neon Genesis Evangelion) and animated by Production I.G. (Ghost in the Shell), FLCL takes animation to yet another level. Get ready for this shocking, funny, and right out freaky show about adolescence, expectations and alien intrigue. Naota wants to be normal. But with a talented brother leaving Japan for the US to play baseball, everyone now looks at him a bit differently. His brother’s girlfriend is acting strange and now there’s an even stranger girl hitting on him.
Literally.
With a bass guitar.
Oh, did I mention the robots that keep springing from his head?

Review
Let us take a moment and ask ourselves, “What in the hell is FLCL (Fooly Cooly, Furi Kuri)?” This zany yet hilarious Anime is by far a one of a kind. Just after watching the first episode got me attached to FLCL. Where could you find someone using seaweed as fake eyebrows? Where could you find a kid with strange stuff growing from his head? and where could you find a lady bashing things (preferably people) with her guitar as she is speeding on a moped? You sure as heck cannot find it anywhere else than in FLCL. When I first heard about the title I was curious of what GAINAX was going to put on the table. So I searched around the Internet and immediately found a picture of Haruhara Haruko within a picture, picking her nose as This has got to be on my all time favorites list. Short and sweet are two adjectives that could be used to describe FLCL.

Now, I know a lot of fans would disagree with me on the short part. I assume they would have liked more. But life is not perfect, so you really cannot expect Anime to be perfect. A good example of how FLCL is not perfect is how it is distributed in the United States. Check out the strategy that was used by Synch-Point into distributing FLCL. A six episodes series, divided into three DVDs, hence creating two episodes per DVD. As if that was not bad enough, each DVD has a MSRP (Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price) of $29.95. Still do not think it is bad enough? Check out the release dates: Volume 1 – August 25, 2002 | Volume 2 – February 25 2003 | Volume 3 – July 22, 2003. Oh wow, thank god I had other series to watch other than FLCL during its’ release period. Heck I did not even invest in FLCL until a few months ago, after everything came out. I understand that Synch-Point is an up and coming distributing company, but dang, those are some huge gaps between releases. Most I ever encountered was a two month gap and that was for GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka), which is a longer series, with more episodes in the DVD and for the most part, more entertaining than FLCL. But oh wells, good thing everything has past now, and fans could enjoy FLCL without experiencing the release gaps anymore.

The Breakdown
So there you have it, FLCL is a great piece; that is the best I could conclude this review at 4:32 in the morning.

Synopsis
I’m dreaming a dream from long ago, the same days over and over again. Within this endless dream, I wished for a morning that wouldn’t come. It’s red, white, cold, warm, sad, and happy, and the same days are repeated. I knew from a long time ago, from years ago, wandering in this dream I wished for a dawn that wouldn’t come. I’m always in the same spot. A ruckus with no voices, and a faceless person walks before me. No one cares about just one little child. I’m waiting for a person, a person I know who won’t come, and someone I know I won’t meet again. For years and years…within this repeating dream, I was always waiting for a dawn that won’t come.

Review
Not to be mistaken as a misspelling of Conan (Detective Conan), Kanon is a 13 episode (14 if you include Kazahana) retelling of the same events that took place in the NON-hentai dating simulation game for the PC, which also won PC Game of the Year in 1999. The Kanon PC game was ported to the Dreamcast and Playstation 2. Similar to the series To Heart, the main character Yuuichi was given a voice in the anime but was silent in the game. The story begins with Yuuichi who after seven years returns to the town where he spent his childhood days. The reason being is his parents got posted overseas in Swahili due to work. Instead of being left alone in Japan, it was decided for him to live with his cousin Nayuki and aunt Akiko-san. They are both good people (It’s a wonder how Nayuki didn’t grow up spoiled by her mother. Can’t imagine Akiko-san being the strict disciplinarian, lol). Mysteriously, Yuuichi doesn’t remember anything from when he was there seven years ago. Now, the minute hand of memories starts to tick again…

The Breakdown
Kanon is the anime of dreams and miracles. You will begin saying uguu~ to all your friends and crave Taiyaki everyday as a result, lol.

Synopsis
The final, shocking conclusion! Utena is about to discover the truth behind the secrets, the duels, and her own forgotten past. To do this, she must confront the prince who once saved her life, and face her most terrifying nightmare. For the last time, Utena must draw her word and fight her own inner demons. Will there be a happy ending?

Review
As an anime viewer that is not an Utena fan and did not have any exposure to Utena until just recently, I will have to say that this show is certainly interesting, in that for some scenes there are songs in which it is describing the mood of the scene. I rarely see anime with songs that is solely for the anime at that specific scene. Those songs, although are weird, but was creative in a way, so I very much appreciate them rather than the standard stuff we are so used to being exposed to. First of all I would like to make this clear to you guys; I have never tried watching a series from only the end and writing a review about it so pardon me if I sound too vague. Now that that is off my chest, we can go through what this finale is about.

Revolutionary Girl Utena: Finale could be described with one word… wow. I say wow, because I was dragged into this compelling story right from the end of episode thirty seven. The climax of this finale achieves an even higher altitude than the summit of Mount Everest. Well… maybe not, but hey that was a good metaphor. Anyways, the more you think something is going to happen the more it does not. As I was viewing I said to myself, ‘Oh my god, this and that is going to happen, just like all them other series that I have watched throughout the years.’ But no no, none of what I thought happened. Just as when Utena was going to face her so called destiny, which is to meet the prince and live happily ever after… well that was the message I received, but good thing this series was not something like that. I was getting tired of anime without twists, and just as expected, a big twist comes and surprisingly it was quite adequate to satisfy my needs. Let me give you a hint for where I was startled. Pick up the Finale DVD and on the back take a look at the lowest screenshot, the one with Utena in front of Himemiya and Himemiya looks scared and innocent. Have an idea yet? No, oh wells, watch it and you will see what I am talking about.

Well the synopsis was a hundred percent correct on the shocking conclusion. That is what made this great, a person like me, who did not follow the entire show, watches the few final episodes and is suddenly attached to it emotionally with the emotional scenes. That gave me a sense that this show is a work of art. I mean, comon, I was not even familiar with the characters. Utena? The pink hair girl? Himemiya? The girl that looks like another character from another anime I cannot recall? I did not know the whole background of the characters, but still they were able to touch me. Especially at the end, where Utena opens the rose coffin; the whole process was great in every way possible to me, because it showed what friendship was about. I definitely recommend Revolutionary Girl Utena to all who enjoy anime, this coming from a developing Utena fan in the making!!!

The Breakdown
I am currently running late!!! Thanks to CPM for sending me this screener and uhh… for those who have anything against Utena without actually checking out what it is really about, shame on you! Ja ne.

Synopsis
Space age technology transforms girl-phobic Junta into the infamous Mega-Playboy! (He hasn’t got any special powers, but the force of his charm is superhuman.) All the prettiest girls in school fall madly in love with him, and with so many in pursuit, mayhem is sure to follow!

Review
If you thought puking when experiencing something sexually stimulating was bad, think again. How about farting when you are nervous? Do not laugh; I am sure there are people in this world that propel methane gas when they are nervous, in this case, Kotomi Takanashi. But let us not get too ahead of volume two; Kotomi plays a role in the later episodes in this volume. So things are starting to get real interesting, Junta’s mega playboy DNA goes on and off at any given moment. He already has Tomoko, Ami and Karin in his grasp; well Ami is different from the other girls in a way, because she loves Junta for Junta, not the mega playboy.

The thing about Junta is that he likes Karin, not Ami or the other girls. So in episode three he goes and shops for a gift to show her his love for her. A simple task right? Well, not when you are limited by your life savings, which is five thousand yen. After much struggle with what he should get, Junta makes his purchase and bumps into Tomoko (Saeki). Tomoko who is one of the girls on mega playboy’s hit list quickly thinks that the necklace Junta had bought was for her. This causes the fun for us and the hell for him as he is forced to go shopping with Tomoko (Comon guys, we all know how it is when shopping with females :P). Anyways after some scenes Tomoko invites herself into Junta’s home and the necklace problem is solved… or is it? Now that the necklace is passed onto Ami, Junta is now in an even deeper problem than he was before. Since Ami is his childhood friend, he has to consider her feelings more. It would hurt her if he had just requested the necklace back from her. Ahhh! What to do now? As if this was not troublesome, a new girl gets on the mega playboy hit list!

You heard that right. Kotomi, who is Ami’s best friend, falls in love with Junta when she sees him in the mega playboy form on one sunny morning. Quite a twist we have here, because Kotomi at first had no feelings for Junta and Ami was on the verge of confessing her love to Junta, but now Ami knows about Kotomi’s feelings and they both are best friends… Ami would leave the triangle (well, not really a triangle considering the other girls involved with Junta). The main focus of volume two finally comes in as the story merges Kotomi into all of the fuss. As I have pointed out earlier, Kotomi has a gassing problem when she gets nervous. Funny and sad at the same time; funny in that she passed gas at the right and wrong time (right time, because Ami was confessing her love to Junta and this prevented it, wrong time, because Ami was in the act of confessing to Junta!!) Sad, in that she went out and change her whole image because her mind set was that, “It is the exterior that counts, not the interior.” (Basically, low self-esteem) Pretty typical mind set for some girls nowadays. Girls, trust me, guys prefer personality than a pretty face. What kind of stupid relationship will it be if you only loved someone for their looks? Humans do age; a pretty face will not last forever. If a guy loves you only for your looks, then you should move on, as that kind of guy will always pursue looks, not love. So anyways moving back to DNA2, I do not think you would be too proud of yourself if you dropped a bomb in front of the person you love or like. As a result, Kotomi changes herself and whew, she is a completely different person than she was before. I am sure Kotomi will give a lot of problems to Karin as the volume comes to an end with Kotomi wearing a leotard for Junta at the school gymnasium.

The Breakdown
DNA2 is moving smoothly and as I continue to watch the series, I become more eager to watch what is coming up next. My views on this series have changed dramatically and for the good due to volume two. It might be the same for you, so if you doubted to continue the series after watching volume one, consider again as it might grab your attention later on.

Synopsis
Little Snow Fairy Sugar is a happy anime about a group of young Season Fairies. The job of the Season Fairies is to play their instruments and create all of the world’s weather. The story centers around a human girl named Saga who for some reason can see the fairies. One of them is, you guessed it, a little snow fairy named Sugar, who ends up living with Saga.

Review
Sugar and her friends are apprentice Season Fairies, doing their best to pass the requirements to become fully fledged Season Fairies. The problem is, they don’t know exactly how to go about doing that, which is the anime’s primary conflict, and also possibly its greatest flaw. The conflict is, let’s face it, not incredibly threatening. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying all anime needs to be filled with disastrous events that shape the fate of the world, but in this anime, the conflict is almost forgotten throughout all the filler episodes. Conflict is often what drives along a story, so this problem actually led to me feeling bored as I watched. I was constantly waiting for something exciting to happen that never came. Of course, that may appeal to a certain audience, but it isn’t me, so as a whole I found the story disappointing. It was also very predictable. Foreshadowing was never subtle, and every major plot twist could be predicted literally several episodes in advance.

However, there are several episodes that in and of themselves are very good and quite emotional, containing strong themes of friendship and determination, and despite the overall poor pacing, the ending is powerful. If you’re looking for a change of pace, this anime might be perfect for you. Furthermore, the characters are very cute.

One thing that makes Little Snow Fairy Sugar unique is its use of music. The Season Fairies create their respective elements using instruments. Also, much of Saga’s character development is rooted in her mother’s piano, which she cherishes deeply. Many memorable melodies are played on these instruments, though they are repeated far too frequently. Still, it adds some creative flavor to the storyline.

The Breakdown
This anime was recommended to me by several people, mainly close friends of mine, and they all seemed to find something here that I simply could not see. Personally, if I had seen it first, I would not have recommended it to them, which makes me wonder if I did indeed miss something. There were quite a few things about the anime that I enjoyed, particularly its more emotional moments, so don’t let my review stop you from checking out the first DVD. Every anime has its die-hard fans, and for Little Snow Fairy Sugar, you just might be one of them.

Synopsis
Beautiful but bungling time traveler Karin Aoi accidentally transforms a high school loser into the super-charming Mega-Playboy, with disastrous results. The Mega-Playboy wreaks havoc throughout the school, wooing every female in his path. Worse, Karin finds herself falling for her own flirtatious creation. If she cures him, she’ll lose the only man she’s ever loved, but if she doesn’t, the Mega-Playboy will break the heart of every girl on Earth!

Review
So here we are, DNA2: Mutation, volume three of a five volume series. The show starts off strong as we begin where we left off… somewhere along the summit of Mount Everest is the analogy I like to use lately ^_^. Anyhow Junta is one lucky dude because Kotomi is dressed in a leotard solely just to get his attention. This strategy worked as Junta puked all over the place in front of Kotomi. After some dialogue, he tells Kotomi that he also has a condition that is more embarrassing than hers. At the end of this scene they both agree to help cure each other’s condition, yeah sure, here comes the fun.

Things get really hot and spicy as each episode in this volume portrayed a relationship that mega playboy has with the girls, Kotomi, Ami and then Tomoko. But that is not the most important point that this volume brings up. The most important point this volume brings up is that, “Is the mega playboy really a bad person who got a hundred women pregnant?” From the looks of what happened to Kotomi, the answer is, “No.” The mega playboy did not take advantage of her when she was willing to give in to him, and his words were not the cheesy lines that guys use to pick up girls from the streets. This led me to think that Junta has some idea of what is going on when the mega playboy DNA takes over his body. You guys do remember that Junta promised Karin that nothing was going to happen between Kotomi and him, and it turned out that there really was not anything between them, as Junta helped cured Kotomi’s condition by… check it out, you will see :P.

With all this commotion due to Kotomi, Ami begins to avoid Junta, Karin begins to realize her love for Junta bit by bit and Tomoko makes out with Junta (mega playboy) in front of Ryuji (ex-boyfriend who will not let go). Is not that the only love square? I can tell you this though, by the end of this volume, the square will turn into a triangle. Anyways, I mentioned that Mega Playboy was making out with Tomoko on the roof with Ryuji watching up close and personal, and Ami watching behind the roof door. There is also another guest that does not appear on the same roof as them, but on the roof of the building across from them. As soon as Mega Playboy and Tomoko plug lips, Karin fires a DCM bullet, this time, the correct bullet at Mega Playboy, problem is that, her aim was off due to her emotional reaction with what was happening, thus, causing Ryuji to be accidentally shot by a DCM bullet. The volume comes to an end as Ryuji changes to Tomoko; basically, the DCM bullet that he was shot with gave him the ability to shape shift. Hence, you can feel the havoc that is about to be unleashed in the upcoming episodes Stay tuned!

The Breakdown
I am pretty much used to surprises, and Ryuji being shot with a DCM bullet was sure surprsing but I adjusted to it quickly. Although at first I did not like the fact that he was shot, but I do not know how it will turn out yet, so it might be for the better of the series. Look forward to the volume four review!