Five years after production on the original Jubei Chan series ended a sequel was made and is finally going to be seeing the light of day here in the States. Sitting in the director's chair again is Akitaro Daichi whose artistic touch helped mold the beginning adventures of young Jiyu Nanohana and the Lovely Eye-patch. Daichi had gone on to direct Now and Then, Here and There as well as Fruit Basket after his work on the original Jubei Chan, but it seems only fitting for him to come back to the series.

If you are familiar with the original you will be delighted to know that this follow up essentially picks up where the thirteenth episode of the last left off. Much of the same art techniques are used and even the zany humor we've come to expect makes its return. Some new characters are introduced and more familiar ones will make their appearances, even ...Read the entire review

Trigun is one of the most popular anime shows in recent memory, and for good reason: it's fun, exciting, dramatic, and highly entertaining. Premiering in 1998, it gradually grew in popularity, eventually mounting an cult following in both Japan and the United States. Unlike most TV shows that run until the gas tank is empty, the story of Trigun was planned to run for just 26 episodes (roughly one season). Any respectable fan of anime is probably familiar with this show in one form or another, and anyone unfamiliar with the story should pay attention! This is easily one of the finest, most accessible cartoons of the last decade, and deserves every ounce of praise and adoration.

In short, Trigun is the simple tale of Vash the Stampede, a legendary outlaw with a $$60,000,000,000 bounty on his head. Feared and r...Read the entire review

Movie: Anime dealing with cute young ladies that are actually androids in disguise is pretty common these days. Some of it has to do with the male fantasy about attractive women, particularly in French Maid outfits, and some of it has to do with the idea of high tech androids that could serve in a multitude of capacities. In the last volume of the series, Mahoromatic: Automatic Maiden: Something More Beautiful (vol. 3), the series wrapped up its two season run with some definitive conclusions, tying up all the threads.

I saw the first DVD of the first season about a year ago and in terms of the six volumes, it set the stage quite well. The premise is that Mahoro, a combat android, served her country well and was allowed to retire. Due to a technical limitation (ala: Blade Runner), she has a limited time to exist before she terminates. If she lives her remaining days as a combat android...Read the entire review

Movie: To some people, anime is nothing more than childish cartoons, intended for children and of little artistic merit. To those who have opened their eyes however, anime is far more than that, addressing themes far more adult than simply sexual in nature, running the gamut of life and death, growing up, persevering against all odds, and a host of others. Interestingly enough, anime often addresses these themes far better than more mainstream movies, a fact celebrated in Japanese culture where the genre is more respected (keeping in mind that their culture is far older and more mature than that of the West, perhaps it's safe to assume they know something about the above themes). While much of anime is indeed targeted at a more youthful, and vibrant, audience, some of it is artistic in nature. Such is the case with a series released by Geneon, Haibane Renmei:Free Bird.

Not having see...Read the entire review

Movie: Anime is not just for kids but that doesn't mean there isn't a thriving sub-genre directed at those kids too. Children's anime is much like those Saturday morning cartoons we all grew up with except that the anime tends to have themes that are also adult in nature, allowing parents to enjoy shows with their kids (rather than act like a babysitter like the domestic shows seem to be used for). My experience with such anime is limited but leads me to believe that they are usually colorful, loud, happy in tone, and silly by nature. Such is the case with the latest release by Geneon (formerly known as Pioneer), Mao-Chan 2: Go! Unified Defense Force.

The show centers on a group of three eight year old girls in Japan that possess the ability to control some sort of energy through batons, using the resulting beams to fight off alien invaders and save the world on a routine basis. They g...Read the entire review

Note: This is an import title in NTSC format from Japan. Though available online and at many specialty shops throughout America, a region-free or Region 2/NTSC player is required when viewing this title.

Few movies provide as much unintended pleasure as Dino De Laurentiis's belated King Kong Lives (1986). This reviewer fondly remembers seeing the film at a Saturday matinee at the Campus Theater in Ann Arbor, Michigan. There were just two other people in the theater -- a young couple on a date -- and when the movie ended and the lights came up, the three of us staggered out, dumbfounded by what we had just seen. They had sat in the back of the theater and were out on the street before me, and as I walked through the door, I heard a loud click behind me. An usher had locked the door and was posting a sign reading "closed forever" in the window. King Kong Lives had put the 35-year-o...Read the entire review

When most people think of anime they picture giant robots fighting,spaceship battles and martial arts series aimed at young boys. Butanime is much more than that. There are many shows and movies thatare aimed at females, shows that are slower paced and more thoughtful. Someday's Dreamers is one of them.

Set in the present day, Someday's Dreamers is the story of YumeKikuchi, a young girl who travels to Tokyo from her home in the country. Being unused to the crowded city, she has trouble crossing a street withher suitcase. A young boy offers to help her and carries her bagacross. Unfortunately Yume trips and falls just as a speeding carrounds the bend. The bystanders can only gasp as the car races towardthe girl, but suddenly the speeding car, and half a dozen others, are flungup 100 feet into the air. The cars hover...Read the entire review

Movie: Anime series are known to spawn feature-length movies on a regular basis. The cynic in me tells me that the reason is to cash in on a popular franchise without the long term commitment required by a full season series while the idealist in me tells me it's to wrap up loose threads a series may leave to do justice for the fans. Whether or not either portrayal is accurate (or fair), the bottom line is that such movies represent an opportunity for companies to provide something extra to fans. In the case of the latest such release, Cardcaptor Sakura The Movie 2: The Sealed Card, I think fans will appreciate the result.

The Cardcaptor Sakura series centered on a young girl, Sakura, and her friends who, after making a mistake, unleash a horde of monsters upon an unsuspecting world. Sakura must retrieve all the spirits, doing battle using her mystical cards. As the series progressed, ...Read the entire review

Movie: Pioneer is one of my favorite providers of anime. I wish I got to see more of it but they do provide a diverse set of series and for that, I applaud their efforts to bring over the good stuff. Last month, the company changed its name to Geneon but they still release a host of titles that are a bit different from that of their competitors. One title that is just about to come out is L/R: Licensed By Royalty 1: Deceptions.

I knew nothing at all about the title going into it and found a bit of originality that is not typical for the current anime market (which is largely driven by very young demographics). It's a series about a couple of private agents that are not officially linked to the government but act on its behalf whenever the royal family needs protection (usually protection from scandal more than anything else but in the high stakes world of the protection business. The tea...Read the entire review

Movie: In my continuing quest to see a lot of varied anime in order to better serve readers, I often try out series that I haven't seen the earlier seasons of. That sometimes means I don't quite understand where all of the characters are coming from in terms of how they interact and what their motivations are. This can be a good thing for a reviewer since I don't have as much baggage, both good and bad, with the content of the earlier, often better, series. This halo effect is much noted in literary criticism but it applies elsewhere too. Thankfully, a show like Banner Of The Stars 2, Volume 2 is good enough to stand on its own merits.

The show details the end of the war that occupied the previous season, with the Empire performing clean up duties on remaining enemy forces that have scattered about the galaxy. While the other seasons took a look at the big picture, this one takes a loo...Read the entire review

The Movie:

Last Exile is the newest show from Gonzo studios. Creators of Blue Submarine No. 6 and Full Metal Panic, Gonzo has a reputation for putting out action packed shows that have a lot of flair. They are also masters at meshing traditional two-dimensional animation with 3D CGI. This series continues with that tradition.

I was really blown away watching this DVD. It is a wonderful show, with lots going for it. The designs of the various ships, weapons and equipment are beautiful. The imagery is just gorgeous. The music used in the series just enhances nearly every scene, and the actions and flying scenes are absolutely breathtaking. But all of this wouldn't amount to much if the plot was weak and the characters weren't engaging. Luckily, that is not the case. After seeing the first two episodes that Pioneer sent out on the...Read the entire review

Rock and Roll 'rockumentaries' can be an excellent way to enjoy a favorite group, but very often the trimmings - interviews, docu background - can get in the way of what we go to see and hear, the music and performances. Some of the most frustrating times can be had with compilation docus about 'The British Invasion' that for brevity's sake bring their star groups on in chopped-up excerpts. There are a couple of Who performing videos from the 90s that are fine in their way, but they're not the same as shows from the 60s and 70, when Pete Townshend had his hearing, Keith Moon was still alive, and the group's attitude was at its caustic best.

1979's The Kids are Alright was an attempt by a fan/insider to gather all the existing footage of the Who performing, just so that when they stopped touring, the impact of their great stage presence w...Read the entire review

Movie: The story details a future where mankind has reclaimed it's place after almost dying out. After years of world conflict and strife, the citizens of Earth decided to start playing God and change the genetic code of people, in effect erasing the most problematic personality characteristics and greatly improving the human race's genetic possibilities. The series takes place in the middle of the 23rd century and women are the dominant gender (9:1 ratio to men). Certain emotions have been both bred out or otherwise socially discouraged and the human race is finally stable, making tremendous advances in science. People are assigned a genetic type by color and each color represents specific traits. As people hit puberty, their gene type manifests itself from the blank slate of "white" to a fixed color that remains with them for the rest of your life.

The background of the series is that as E...Read the entire review

Movie: As much as I like anime, I'm not always impressed with a series after watching the first dvd. Sometimes, it takes awhile for me to appreciate a series. One series I'm slowly warming to is S-CRY-ed.The series deals with a group of young people who gain superpowers due to a naturally occurring earthquake that happened 22 years ago on an island off the coast of Japan. About 1% of everyone born there can use their power to either summon a weapon or enhance themselves in some way. As with all things, some of these people abuse their power and the rest of the world imposes order upon them in the fashion of an organization known as HOLD with a special division of enhanced humans known as HOLY. Here's what the first box said about the whole thing: "22 years ago, a cataclysmic earthquake destroyed the capital of Japan and threw the ...Read the entire review

Movie: Bandai releases a lot of anime these days and much of it is simply great. Sometimes, I really like the series they pick up that combine two or more genre's such as comedy and science fiction. One of their better efforts to do this would have to be the Please Teacher series. In the latest volume, Please Teacher 3: The Honeymoon's Over, the lead characters continue to progress towards their destiny.

The show centers on a young couple that are thrown together by circumstances out of their control. He's an 18-year-old student with a rare medical condition that causes him to fall asleep at the drop of a hat and she's an intergalactic observer for the Galaxy Police that he stumbled upon at an inopportune moment. He's forced to marry her or he'll disappear. The quirk is that she's his teacher, they must keep the marriage a secret, and they aren't sharing marital bliss (i...Read the entire review

Movie: With the growth of the internet and it's complexity, an increasingly larger number of people are playing online role playing games. In such games, people log on and assume the role of a character with special abilities. As they accomplish various tasks, they gain points that enhance the strength and powers of the character. The last few years have seen the expansion of such virtual reality worlds and the big draw is that you can interact with a lot of like-minded people. In days of old, people interacted in real life but such worlds open up a whole new set of possibilities. This brings us to my review on hack//sign 4: Omnipotence, an anime series that looks at one such virtual reality world.

In this highly evolved virtual universe, people log in and play various characters. Some use swords, others use magic, and if you die, you can log back in with some restrictions. All...Read the entire review

Movie: With the growth of the internet and it's complexity, an increasingly larger number of people are playing online role playing games. In such games, people log on and assume the role of a character with special abilities. As they accomplish various tasks, they gain points that enhance the strength and powers of the character. The last few years have seen the expansion of such virtual reality worlds and the big draw is that you can interact with a lot of like-minded people. In days of old, people interacted in real life but such worlds open up a whole new set of possibilities. This brings us to my review on hack//sign 3: Gestault, an anime series that looks at one such virtual reality world.

In this highly evolved virtual universe, people log in and play various characters. Some use swords, others use magic, and if you die, you can log back in with some restrictions. All thi...Read the entire review

Movie: Anime has a number of well-worn genres with varying levels of quality and creativity. Whether you prefer the romantic-comedy of Ai Yiri Aoshi, the spy type adventure of NOIR, or the Mech-robot type action, adventure of RahXephon, there is something for almost everyone to enjoy. One recent stand-alone anime movie I ran into this week was Sakura Wars: The Movie.

The movie is a follow-up to the series and OVA that won over a number of fans with its quirky nature. The setting is in the 1920's Tokyo. The world had been at war with a horde of demons from parts unknown and conventional weapons weren't doing any good. In the television series, it was established that a new form of weapon, steam-powered mec...Read the entire review

Movie: Bandai is one of my current favorite anime companies due to the high quality of many of their releases. They have some great series but they also release some very superior stand alone movies. Their latest such release is a compilation of sorts called, appropriately enough, Spirit Of Wonder. While it's quirky, it's also quite original and creatively made, reminding me of Read Or Die, a story with a female lead that is clever, cunning and still manages to be nice.

The movie is a combination of two short films and two very short films using one of the lead characters as the focus. The main story here is about The Scientific Boys Club (volumes 1 & 2). Set in the recent past, initially at least, the story began with a scientific convention centering on the Viking spacecraft mission to Mars. It then flashes ...Read the entire review

Movie: Anime fans have long been thought of as suckers by most anime companies, both foreign and domestic. Often enough, they used to release an episode or two as charged top dollar for it, not including any extras or even a properly subtitles version (preferring to sell more copies with a dub). Feature anime used to be viewed as a way to soak the fan even more, using old footage and threading it together as all an all new show and editing for reasons unknown (with no labels). These days, fans are far less tolerant of such shenanigans. In a movie that has seen more than it's share of past abuse, Lupin The 3rd: The Secret Of Mamo, the crazy thief finally gets the treatment he deserves.

Lupin is a master thief who roams the world looking for two things, sex and treasure. He's not exactly a noble guy since he steals, is a letch, and isn't really a great role model for kids. The mov...Read the entire review

The Movie

Onmyoji has pretty much everything going for it. Set during the medieval Heian period of Japanese history (roughly between 800 and 1200 A.D.), Onmyoji has all the trappings of a great Asian fantasy movie. The film depicts a world inhabited by demons and angry spirits, where magic is commonplace, mythical creatures run freely, and eating the flesh of a merman will give you immortality. These supernatural beings are real and tangible, taunting and tormenting those in the world of the living. Ghosts appear and disappear, terrifying the populace. Demonic hands appear out of nowhere, jutting out from gates as if beckoning the living to join them in the Netherworld. Curses, possessions, exorcisms, and transfigurations exist as freely and as naturally a...Read the entire review

Movie: Cop buddy shows are a staple form of entertainment in movies and television series (they have been for decades) so it should come as no surprise that Pioneer would take a promising anime series from Japan, Heat Guy J, and bring it to the American market. I haven't seen nearly enough of Pioneer's releases lately so I was hoping this would live up to the marketing hype.

The series is set in the future, a future where gasoline powered vehicles have been outlawed, along with a great many other things, for environmental reasons. The concept of countries is now obsolete and the setting here is a city-state of Judoh. Times are tough and the local police operate with a great many constraints, including budgetary limitations that make recent money crunches pale in comparison. The series concentrates on a specialized group of police, a three officer unit at that, which handles futur...Read the entire review

Movie: Argentosoma, is set about 55 years into the future where an alienmenace in the form of a series of increasingly powerful large robots attacks Earth from an unknown point of origin outside of our solar system. In the initial volume, a scientist is working with a bunch of pieces from destroyed robots and creates the EX-1 (called Frankenstein or Frank by one of his colleagues). Something goes wrong and the robot destroys the lab, killing everyone else. The scientist changes his name to Ryu and becomes a fighter pilot to seek revenge on the aliens that ended the lives of all his closest friends, his fianc , and what appears to have been his humanity. By a stroke of luck, a small girl, Hattie, can telepathically communicate with Frank and control his motivations, if not specific courses of action. Frank (The EX-1) becomes a valuable addition to a top secret military organization called...Read the entire review

Movie: Pioneer Entertainment releases some of the best anime series from Japan. I state this as a fact because I've seen much of it (although not nearly enough). Whether you prefer romantic comedies, science fiction, or even some fairly twisted mixes of both, there's a lot of great stuff coming from the company these days. That said, they aren't perfect by a long shot. One such example of this would be a little series known as Beyblade.

Beyblade is a little known release from Japan that was designed with one thing in mind, selling a toy line. There was a toy where you pulled a plastic cord and it let loose a spinning top. When I was a kid, I played with a gyroscope toy so maybe the idea isn't as lame as it sounds. On second thought, it really is pretty lame. The series followed the adventures (Ha!) of a kid and his pals who fight in a tournament against other Beyblader's with monster's that c...Read the entire review

Beyblade is yet another of the long line of anime imports, the kiddie merchandising kind, roping in children with some kind of product/game tie-in like, Pokemon, Yugi-oh, Digimon and Cardcaptors.

The basic plot (or should I say selling point since its all about selling the game) is a wisecracking kid named Tyson who plays beyblade, a game involving spinning tops (available at local toy stores everywhere!). He's got a goofy kendo teaching grandpa, a nerdy sidekick, Kenny, and of course a rival in beyblader, Kai, and his gang The Blade Sharks.

This volume presents the series first six episodes they are- THE BLADE RAIDER: Basic set-up episode, establishing the characters and the game. We meet Tyson, Kenny, grandpa, the bully Andrew, and the blade Shark gang including Carlos and Kai...DAY OF THE DRAGON: Tyson faces Kai and loses, so he tries to regroup himself and lea...Read the entire review

Movie:
Mahoromatic: Automatic Maiden: Combat Maid Volume 1 is the story of a defense android who is semi-retired and a young orphan who needs a maid. She happens to be really cute looking which adds lots of potential for the laughs and he is dorky. Okay, if this weren't anime, that would be a pretty stupid sounding premise but I've seen much, much worst in my years. In episode 1, the two main characters get acquainted. In episode 2, a nymphomaniac teacher tries to seduce the orphan. In episode 3, we find out the circumstances behind his father's death. In episode 4, the entire cast goes to the beach and ends up being targeted by an enemy robot. The story had plenty of side plots where the jealous classmates show their true colors and the growing romance between the two leads was cuter than I could describe in under 1000 words. This was fun to watch several times and I only wish future dvds c...Read the entire review

Movie:
Ai Yori Aoshi: Faithfully Yours 1 is an anime focusing on a young couple destined to be together since their shared childhood. The dvd cover says: "Kaoru Hanabishi just wanted to help. Aoi Sakuraba just wanted to find her first love. They never realized they were looking for each other. Ever since their arranged marriage 18 years ago, Aoi had been in love with Kaoru, but she traveled to Tokyo to meet him when she learned the marriage had been called off. While Kaoru's impressed by Aoi's loyalty, innocence and beauty, to accept her affection, he might have to return to the Hanabishi Clan and the emotional and physical pain he suffered during his childhood... Their self-control and their love will be put to the test when she moves in and he tries to stay a gentleman!"

The five episodes here are Fate, Supper, Separation, Living Together, and Old Friend and each is very descriptive of w...Read the entire review

This collection presents five episodes from Monkey Punch's (aka. Kazuhiko Kato) classic anime crime-caper, action-comedy series. For those that don't know, the adventure series is about Lupin, the worlds greatest thief and his pals recklessly going from one adventure (usually a crime of some sort) to the other while their pursuer, Detective Zenigata is close behind trying to catch them in the act. His cohorts in crime are the samurai Goemon Ishikawa, cool gunman and ex-gangster Daisuke Jigen, and the bewitching, buxom Fujiko Mine.

The episodes are:

The Return of Lupin the 3rd- The gang has a five year reunion on the worlds largest ocean liner. However, it seems that the entire ship is one big booby trap and they soon find out that their old nemesis, Mr. X, has returned and transformed himself into a superhuman man of steel.

Buns, Guns, & Fun in the Sun- Rio. Th...Read the entire review

The Movie
Not to be confused with "Armitage III - Poly-Matrix" (1997), the chopped-to-90-minute version, "Armitage III - The Complete OVA" (2002) is the full 2 hour and 20 minute compilation of the original 1995 4-part series of this graphic and intense anime from Pioneer Entertainment.

The year is 2179. Mars is in the middle of a terra-forming phase by Earthlings who have colonized it. With them, they brought robots known as "Seconds" to do menial labor. Also present are illegal humanoid robots called "Thirds", mirror images of humans designed by an opposing force to infiltrate the population. Rene D'anclaude, a human, vows to destroy all the "Thirds" and sets out to do just that. Ross Sylibus, also human, is recruited to find Rene and bring him to justice. Having recently lost his partner at the hands of a renegade C...Read the entire review