The re-imagination of old shows is a tricky mistress especially in the world of anime. Back in the 1970's a series called Tekkaman the Space Knight came out and was an interesting science fiction endeavor. I personally have only seen bits and pieces of the original so I am by no means an authority on it. When the revitalization known as Tekkaman Blade came out in the 90's it was something worth looking at though the English version left something to be desired.

In many ways the first Tekkaman was an anime pioneer when it originally came out. Unfortunately time has not been fare to the science fiction genre and most of the old shows we know and love have become watered down thanks to over-saturation in the genre. How many times do we have to see huge robots fight even bigger aliens? To take that further, how many times have we seen humans trans...Read the entire review

Though entertaining as schlock, Rica (Konketsuji Rika, or "Half-Caste Rika," 1972) is a fairly routine "pinky violence" thriller of little aesthetic interest save for the novelty of its Amerasian lead, this despite some surprising talent behind the scenes. The film was directed by Ko Nakahira, best known for his directorial debut, the seminal "Sun Tribe" film Crazed Fruit (Kurutta kajitsu, 1956), and it was written by director Kaneto Shindo (Onibaba, 1965), from Taro Bonten's story. Both are seriously slumming here.

Rica Aoki (Rika Aoki)** is a mixed-race juvenile delinquent whose Japanese mother (Sotomi Kotake in flashbacks, Kazuko Imai in present-day scenes) was raped by Ame...Read the entire review

I have seen many things in my days but I don't believe that a cross-dressing anime is one of them. Sure I've seen cross-cosplay at anime conventions (the man-Yuna at this year's Anime Boston was particularly frightening) but a show that revolved around the concept? Not so much.

Princess Princess is a twelve episode animation that was originally a manga and aired in 2006. Created by Mikiyo Tsuda the show features a trio of guys who attend an all-boys school where the student body has a longstanding, and odd, tradition. It would seem that due to the lack of females the prettiest boys are picked to become princesses. Basically they are dressed up like dolls and paid to trot around school looking nice and making the boys fall in love.

With a dose of yaoi thrown into the mix it's safe to say that Princess Princess isn't for everyone. Watching boys make ...Read the entire review

Background: Last year, I was fortunate enough to get a look at the special edition re-release of Zeiram by director Keita Amemiya. The guy took what could have been a crappy little science fiction flick and turned it into something of a cult classic that many have followed to this day. The story of a female intergalactic bounty hunter fighting an impossibly resilient biological weapon took bits and pieces of other stories but weaved them into a cohesive thread that fans liked for the cheese factor as much as anything else; resulting in a number of similar copycat efforts over the years. Well, after that one had some success, the creator was approached for a follow up project in another media format, this time anime in the form of a prequel OVA series called Iria: Zeiram The Animation: Complete where the characters were expanded ...Read the entire review

Background: Getting to review anime of all sorts is a treat to me, a treat that allows me access to a host of different types of shows that I might never take a chance on given the limitless shills out there acting like they are on the company payroll (you know the types; everything they watch is swell!) or the marketing hyperbole that gives me the shivers at how the companies will downplay the weaknesses in favor of pushing their newest project down our collective throats. As a hobby, reviewing allows me the freedom to help others as well as get a heads up about titles I wouldn't have ever heard about so I try to give fair warning when it is due. That is something that the subject of today's review of Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl 2: Triangles Hurt brings to mind. The show is about a guy turned into a girl by alien technology, giving the aliens the opportunity to study human mating ritual...Read the entire review

When it was announced that Voltron would be released on DVD I have to admit that I did a little jump for joy. Well, ok, it was more of a hop but the point is I was pretty excited about this classic series finally being available. Scratch that, Voltron goes beyond classic. This was a staple of adolescent males growing up in the 80's no matter if you lived in Japan or America.

Originally known as GoLion in Japan, Voltron was the revision that kids here in the United States received. It doesn't really matter if the version we got in the States was edited because for better or worse the show was damn popular. A toy line, comic books, sequel series, and a rumored movie (upcoming) are all an example of the show's success.

The only problem with revisiting shows as nostalgic as Voltron comes from just that; a fond memory. Sometimes wh...Read the entire review

ID (2005) is director Kei Fujiwara's second feature. Her first, 1995's Organ, set the stage for her style, that of the surreal, the grotesque, the kind of film you'd expect from the co-star and cinematographer of Tetsuo: The Iron Man.

The film, which is divided into chapters, follows a man (Kimihiko Hasegawa) only identified twice, once as Harmonica (because he plays one) and the other time as The Master of Murder (because he gruesomely killed his wife). He works at a slaughterhouse and observes his eccentric and downright crazy co-workers and shanty town neighbors as they all spiral into a kind of tangible, metaphorical hell. The working class characters become not only mentally unhinged but physically transformed by their negative emotional baggage. Basically, you've got to go through hell in order to get to a state of grace.

It is a hard film to describe. Perhaps the foll...Read the entire review

Background: Every once in awhile, I ponder the vast variety of anime shows that never make it over here for fans to enjoy. I know that some of you obtain these by various means anyway but I'm talking about extras laden, decently subtitled anime that simply doesn't have a company willing to champion it since it involves some small niche that the creators don't think will translate or sell very well in the USA. Considering how much more diversified our culture is than theirs, I always find this a weak argument; especially given the recent popularity of Gender Bending anime of high quality so shows like the subject of today's review of Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl: Role Reversal. Given the apparent majority of the current anime fanbase is demographically far more difficult to pin down than it was when companies like ADV Films starte...Read the entire review

The Movie

It's worth remembering that Takashi Miike's Ichi the Killer has its roots in the world of comic books. While Miike's revered 2001 film has its share of advocates and detractors (DVD Talk's own Stuart Galbraith IV doesn't care for it), its cartoonish tone, unrelenting gore and unmitigated masochism can be too much to stomach. It's certainly not a movie to throw on casually; Ichi the Killer, by the nature of its gruesomely elaborate violence, demands your attention -- and has no difficulty holding it for the duration. It's a film that easily stands aside Robert Rodriguez's Sin City as one of the most effective comic-to-film translations ever attempted.

Yet for all of its showy, bloody setpieces -- Ichi (Nao Omori) splitting a brutal pimp in two; the film's iconic villain Kakihara (Tadanobu Asano) dousing a gangster in searing hot oil; myriad arterial s...Read the entire review

Anime Works has released the second volume of their shonen-ai (boy'slove) series Gakuen Heaven. Containing only a mere three episodes,the show has a rather slow pace and isn't very remarkable. Asidefrom the homosexual undertones, there isn't much to separate this fromany other school based anime.

Series recap:

Bell Liberty School, know as BL Academy to the students there (that'sa joke...this is sh?nen-ai, or boy's love, anime which is often abbreviatedBL), is the most exclusive and prestigious high schools in Japan. Their standards for admission are extremely tough; each student has a specialskill or talent that sets them apart from their peers, and students whograduate are almost guaranteed a good high paying job when they leave. Since it is such an elite institution, Ito Keita is astoun...Read the entire review

At a certain point in the sixties Toho's monster group in Japan took a left turn away from their own best interests. Noted exceptions aside, Toho decided that their monster romps were strictly kiddie fare and began to cut corners on their budgets. The once-threatening Godzilla became a clownish good-guy, sort of a 500 foot rubber suited Jerry Lewis. 1965 was the pivot year, when Toho's last original science fiction film Dogora made its appearance.

The nuttiest Toho so far was the horror-kaiju hybrid Frankenstein vs. Baragon, first announced in Famous Monsters as Frankenstein and the Giant Devilfish. American Henry G. Saperstein was the genius behind the simply terrible Dick Tracy TV cartoons. He partnered with the Japanese on a tale that st...Read the entire review

Black Kiss (2004) was directed by Macoto Tezuka, the son of anime/manga legend Osamu Tezuka, the man behind such landmarks as Kimba The White Lion and Astro Boy. The apple has apparently fallen quite far from the tree and this live action horror-thriller feels more like it was directed by some unknown son of Mario Bava, Brian DePalma, or Dario Argento. The film also makes some direct references to Hitchcock, further setting the bar high for its prospects as a worthy suspense tale.

The film opens following a young model who is being wined and dined by a slickster agent named Isamu. We can tell that Isamu is a lothario, but he manages to charm the young girl into going to a hotel (The ‟Bats Motel‟- get it?). After the two do the deed, Isamu wakes up to find the girl missing, is knocked out, and wakes up tied to the bed with a creepy, black-lipped mystery woman...Read the entire review

The re-imagination of old shows is a tricky mistress especially in the world of anime. Back in the 1970's a series called Tekkaman the Space Knight came out and was an interesting science fiction endeavor. I personally have only seen bits and pieces of the original so I am by no means an authority on it. When the revitalization known as Tekkaman Blade came out in the 90's it was something worth looking at though the English version left something to be desired.

In many ways the first Tekkaman was an anime pioneer when it originally came out. Unfortunately time has not been fare to the science fiction genre and most of the old shows we know and love have become watered down thanks to over-saturation in the genre. How many times do we have to see huge robots fight even bigger aliens? To take that further, how many times have we seen humans trans...Read the entire review

The Film:

Even though I have always been curious to see how bad Cesare Canevari's notorious L'Ultima orgia del III Reich a.k.a Gestapo's Last Orgy (1977) truly is I never made this film a viewing priority. Amongst my friends however those who knew my affection for Italian cinema insisted that without knowing the picture one could never truly understand how poor Italian filmmakers can be!

I believe it was the early 90s when I finally gave up and sat through a dubbed version of the film which came to me from a dealer in the Czech Republic. What I remember: the cover art for the VHS was...different.

There are two narrative-schemes the genre to which L'Ultima orgia del III Reich is attached to favors: the first one has to do with beautiful women spying on Nazi officials hoping to obtain valuable informatio...Read the entire review

The Movie

When those in the know in the name Takashi Miike, what comes to mind? Weird? Different? Something unusual that you wouldn't see from another filmmaker? Those are just a few things that those familiar with the maverick Japanese director would think of. But, how about pedestrian and somewhat boring? Would it surprise you to hear those words linked to a Miike film? If so, then you may not want to read on about Family 2.

(Author's Note: Family 2 is a continuation of Miike's Family, which I haven't seen. I could find little information on the web about either film. Also, Media Blasters' DVD offers no cast listing in English, so I'm at a loss to identify some of the actors.)

Family 2 continues the story which began in Family and picks up where that story ended, with a battle between two rival Yakuza gangs which ends when...Read the entire review

I have seen many things in my days but I don't believe that a cross-dressing anime is one of them. Sure I've seen cross-cosplay at anime conventions (the man-Yuna at this year's Anime Boston was particularly frightening) but a show that revolved around the concept? Not so much.

Princess Princess is a twelve episode animation that was originally a manga and aired in 2006. Created by Mikiyo Tsuda the show features a trio of guys who attend an all-boys school where the student body has a longstanding, and odd, tradition. It would seem that due to the lack of females the prettiest boys are picked to become princesses. Basically they are dressed up like dolls and paid to trot around school looking nice and making the boys fall in love.

With a dose of yaoi thrown into the mix it's safe to say that Princess Princess isn't for everyone. Watching boys make ...Read the entire review

Otaku, fans of anime, manga and video games, are often ridiculed inJapanese (and American) culture. These geeky guys get no respectjust because they have a deep affection for things that are often consideredchildish. Now there is an anime series that accurately portrays otaku,without making them into heroes or ridiculing them: Genshiken. Thisshow is a lot of fun for anime fans. It contains a good amount ofin-jokes, some hilarious moments, and it's easy to relate to the membersof this small club. Media Blasters has released the entire 12 episodeseries (previously available in individual volumes and in an expensive set) in attractive affordably priced boxed set that includes as a bonus the three episodeOVA series Kujibiki Unbalance which is equally enjoyable.

Read the entire review

The Product:
They say success breeds contempt. Perhaps it's closer to the truth, especially in the film business, to say success breeds...sequels. But let's say you're not interested in rehashing your premise. Instead, you want to go back and polish the problems inherent in your original box office smash. What, pray tell, do you do? Well, if you're Japanese director Ryuhei Kitamura, and the movie you're talking about is the geek gore fanboy action epic Versus, you take your newfound fame, the financial windfall that comes along with such a status, and you create the ultimate edition of your film. Then you present it in a three DVD set, call it definitive – or in this case, the "Ultimate" presentation – and wait for the genre obsessives to lay on the anarchic accolades. But outside the nerdy and the knowing, the devotees completely in touch with Kitamura's efforts and the people who...Read the entire review

Mecha fans are some of the most diehard among the anime crowd. If it doesn't have gears, lasers, and a three story sword then it's just not worth a damn. Well, ok, so maybe that's a little extreme but with so many shows out there the genre is oversaturated with one run of the mill entry after another. New shows are fine and dandy but every once in a while it's nice to travel back in time and check out a show from Japan's past.

GaoGaiGar is one of those series that came out roughly ten years ago in the glory days of anime. Big bad monsters, dashing heroes, huge suits of armor, and lots of explosions and yelling cover this show like green on grass. The story behind GaoGaiGar begins eight years ago on a cold winter night. The Amami's are visited by a giant robotic lion (Galeorea) during a snowstorm commute and have a baby dropped at their feet. They nam...Read the entire review

The Product:
He published his first works while still in high school. Before the age of 30, he had become one of Japan's most respected writers of genre fiction. Under the unusual pen name of "Otsu-ichi" (based on a symbol taken from a favorite handheld device), Hirotaka Adachi has created a fictional canon – everything from novels to manga – that utilize the standard elements of horror to explore personal, social and even political issues. Zoo represents the first time that Otsu-ichi's works have been adapted for film, and after watching the five fascinating films collected here, it's clear that the future is very bright for this novel new voice in Asian macabre.

The DVD:
Like one of the old Amicus anthologies from the '60s/'70s, Zoo takes the popular short story collection by Otsu-ichi and turns five of its installments into very interesting mini-motion pictur...Read the entire review

Mecha fans are some of the most diehard among the anime crowd. If it doesn't have gears, lasers, and a three story sword then it's just not worth a damn. Well, ok, so maybe that's a little extreme but with so many shows out there the genre is oversaturated with one run of the mill entry after another. New shows are fine and dandy but every once in a while it's nice to travel back in time and check out a show from Japan's past.

GaoGaiGar is one of those series that came out roughly ten years ago in the glory days of anime. Big bad monsters, dashing heroes, huge suits of armor, and lots of explosions and yelling cover this show like green on grass. The story behind GaoGaiGar begins eight years ago on a cold winter night. The Amami's are visited by a giant robotic lion (Galeorea) during a snowstorm commute and have a baby dropped at their feet. They nam...Read the entire review