The shoujo manga, Special A, was created by Maki Minami and was originally released in 2003. The book ran for nearly twenty volumes and wrapped up last year. In 2008 GONZO, AIC released a 24 episode animated series based on the manga. For release here in the States the license fell into the hands of Sentai Filmworks.

Never heard of Special A? Don't worry, you're not alone. The series is rather obscure in America, but the first collection most likely got the attention of anime fans. In case you missed it though, you're probably wondering what it's all about.

Special A is about rivalry and love at its core. Basically it follows the exploits of two main characters, Hikari and Kei. Their relationship dates back to when they were younger and their fathers, who are good friends, introduced them to each other. There was something of a competition b...Read the entire review

The Series:

Yozakura Quartet, a 12-episode anime series based on a shonen (boys') manga by Suzuhito Yasuda, is an unmistakably Japanese creation. Most of its characters are youkai, the "demons" or monsters of Japanese folklore, but here they are (mostly) cute teenage girls rather than monsters. At the same time, the series assumes familiarity with modern otaku fetishes like tsundere (a girl with a cold exterior who is really soft and sweet inside), meganneko (a girl with glasses) and nekomimi (cat ears). Each of these stock character types appears in Yozakura Quartet, and while the show winks at us, it certainly has a particular target audience in mind.

Don't get the wrong idea - this series doesn't contain sex or nudity and it would be fine for teenagers. The animators actually show a remarkable amount of restraint here. Despite...Read the entire review

You're Under Arrest: Full Throttle Collection 1 is my first experience with the You're Under Arrest franchise. This set collects the first 12 episodes of the third season. I was a little concerned about jumping in during the third season, but those fears were alleviated a few minutes into the first episode. You're Under Arrest is an episodic, slice-of-life series designed for viewers to pick it up at any point and quickly become familiar with the characters.

You're Under Arrest is based on the manga created by Kosuke Fujishima, the man behind the Oh My Goddess! series. The story takes place in the Bokuto Police Station traffic division and tends to focus on the adventures of the intelligent Miyuki and the ridiculously strong Natsumi. Full Throttle begins with a nice two-episode ar...Read the entire review

A young lesbian looking for love transfers to an all-girls high school to help find more fish that are in the sea. What could go wrong!? No. Seriously. As an anime lover and admirer of fanservice in general, could there be anything wrong with that scenario? I don't think so!

Minari Endo's original manga from 2006 is still going strong, and a few short years after its premier Maria Holic finally made its way onto the animated scene. The show was directed by Akiyuki Shinbo (Hidamari Sketch) and produced by Shaft (also Hidamari Sketch). To say the show's premise is out in left field and a little peculiar would be an understatement. Yes it's about a lesbian teenager trying to find another girl in an all-girl's school, but you know what the catch is? She winds up finding a boy! It should go without saying that you're not going to find a series show ...Read the entire review

The Show:

When you get a title like Zombie Self-Defense Force in the mail, there is a certain amount of tongue that you have to put in your cheek. Hell, take a look at the zombie Toshiro Mifune on the DVD cover (on the right), that should give you an idea of what you'll experience. With that said, I did not expect that the title would be as literal as it was.

The basic story is easy to follow; a UFO crashes into the Japanese wilderness, its radiation turning any corpse into a flesh-eating zombie. The movie follows a variety of people, including a man, who, while at his home with his mistress, finds out that she's pregnant, a pop star (and her entourage) in a photo shoot and members of a military or other self-defense force who are attempting some sort of land navigation exercise. Oh, I almost forgot about the yakuza who is about to whack a guy. So when some of the people in th...Read the entire review

The Movies:
Switchblade Pictures' double feature disc of Slit Mouth Woman and Zombie Dead includes two short Japanese horror movies that ought to have been either much shorter, or much longer. Both are slight treatments of horror themes, that still seem overlong and padded.

Slit Mouth Woman
Slit Mouth Woman is less about the eponymous villainess than the two high school students, Ayakawa (Aya Kato) and Akimoto (Masaki Kanemura), who make it their business to discover who it is that is stabbing to death random men on the street. Ayakawa gets a tip from a homeless man who heard the killer singing an old pop song while she murdered the latest victim. She and Akimoto discover that this song was the lone hit of pop singer Mika Shiratori (Ayumi Onodera), who has since disappeared from public view. The two students manage to track down Mika's former manager Yanemura ...Read the entire review

Talk about obscure titles that never really made their way to the States. Angelique has been a massively popular video game series in Japan, but in all honesty I never heard of it before checking out the animated series. Apparently the games have been running since the days of the Super Famicon and there seem to be more titles than you could shake a stick at. With that in mind thankfully Neo Angelique ~ Abyss ~ has basically nothing to do with the dauntingly large game franchise. It's a complete reboot which is good for someone as clueless as I am. Fans may want to keep that in mind when checking this release out.

Neo Angelique ~ Abyss ~ falls under the direction of Shin Katagai and was produced by Yumeta Company. The show consists of two seasons that span 13 episodes apiece and here in the States the license has fallen into the hands of Senta...Read the entire review

Suzue Miuchi, ever heard of her? If not I wouldn't be too surprised. She's a manga-ka whose works have solely been in Japan up until now. She's been active for quite some time and has had many successful works overseas, but for the first time anime lovers in Region 1 will get a chance to see what her stuff is all about. Glass Mask has been a manga in circulation for over 30 years and features a whopping 40+ volumes. It's no surprise that a show with such tenure was eventually turned into an animation. The most recent effort was released in 2005 and was produced with 51 episodes before wrapping up in 2006. Now, thanks to Sentai Filmworks, we're able to see just what Glass Mask is all about.

Miuchi's Glass Mask is really quite unique and in all honesty chances are good you've never seen a show quite like this one before. Don't believe me? Think ...Read the entire review

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? If that's the case then Hidamari Sketch just smacked Azumanga Daioh and Lucky Star right upside the head with a baseball bat that had "flattery" written all over it! At least that was my first impression. This slice of life comedy that features four girls going to school and having a good time feels painfully unoriginal out of the gate. As you watch it, however, it begins to reveal itself as something maybe just a little different than the two aforementioned shows and eventually stands out on its own merits.

Originally a four-panel manga from the mind of Ume Aoki Hidamari Sketch (also known as Sunshine Sketch) was released in 2004 and continues today. The book was turned into an animation by Shaft in 2007 and found itself directed by Akiyuki Shinbo. The first series went on to b...Read the entire review

Some shows are just better because of fan-service. It doesn't happen that often, and quite frankly this kind of attention ruins more shows than it helps, but it takes a certain something to make a series click. When I saw To Love-Ru a little while back I was thoroughly pleased. The particular brand of humor for this series was light and bubbly and the show was chockfull of everything fan-service fanatics crave. Despite being over-the-top at almost every instant To Love-Ru used charm and personality to impress.

Sure this show is packed with panty shots, cleavage, nudity, and nearly every other exploitation of the female form, but it also doles out the laughs with a great sense of humor. It's almost like having your cake and eating it too, except here the cake is a boob and eating it would just be...well...just wrong somehow, but I digress.

The seri...Read the entire review

When it first landed on my doorstep I must admit I didn't really think much of Tears to Tiara. Like so many other anime titles this one originated as a PC ero-game and featured a rather rudimentary fantasy theme. At first the show at first felt a tad on the dry, unoriginal side, but it slowly got better as the episodes went on. Ultimately the first half proved to be a success and I actually left the thirteenth episode looking forward to the next collection. To say I was pleasantly surprised would be an understatement. After all this was a very unassuming show at the outset. But what about it stood out in a way that defied expectations?

Well, for starters the series relies heavily on the mysterious history of the world and some of its characters. In Tears to Tiara the world has gone through different ages where elves, dragons, and dwarves have all ris...Read the entire review

THE MOVIE:

What...The...Fish?! Nu-Meri is a truly bewildering film. It paints itself as a fishy horror movie but seems to forget this fact for more than half of its incredibly short running time. By the time we do get a few scares, they are delivered by laughably cheap special effects of a variety of sea creatures attacking the helpless heroine. Something smells a bit rotten and I'm pretty sure it's this movie.

Mari leads a very 'fish-centric' life. As the daughter of a fish-monger, she's used to being up to her elbows in fish guts. Everyday after she gets her fill of the family business, she prays to fish statues before she's off to Capital Marine College where she attends lectures on, you guessed it, fish. All this of course is merely a setup to explain why she would be interested in taking an internship at the Pacific Fisheries Lab where cutting edge research is being c...Read the entire review

Every once in a while you come across a show so full of fan-service that it borders excessive. In some cases it works, and in others it fails miserably. I dare say that To Loveru utilizes these elements with great success. Sure, nearly every scene is full of panty shots, cleavage, naked boobs, and what have you, but the outlandish, slapstick sense of humor makes the reaction to each of these hilarious.

Originally this show began as a manga back in 2006. It was written by Saki Hasemi and featured artwork by Kentaro Yabuki, who worked on Black Cat. The franchise was later turned into an anime in 2008 and since then it has received a couple video games and even an OVA release in Japan. I think that speaks to the popularity of the title overseas, so it stands to reason that it should be just as successful here, right? After checking out the first 13 epis...Read the entire review

Tears to Tiara certainly doesn't have a unique background or story about how it came to be. Like so many other shows this one evolved from a PC ero-game, which happened to have caught on enough to warrant an animated version. We've seen it several times before and I'm sure anime publishers aren't going to stop looking to PC games for releases any time soon. Generally speaking that's a fine thing, but I must admit that not every endeavor of this sort is met with success. Quality is often hit or miss. Thankfully, in the case of Tears to Tiara, the good definitely outweighs the bad.

For all intents and purposes Tears to Tiara is a very straightforward, and one might argue generic, entry in the fantasy genre. All the staples are here from an ancient land with rich history that involves elves, dwarves, and what have you to magic users, sword wielde...Read the entire review

Clannad is one hell of a show. It took me completely by surprise when I started watching it and now that I just finished the second season, After Story, I can honestly say there has never been a series quite like it. From the very beginning Clannad demonstrates that it's a different kind of show. It's an emotional rollercoaster that's also funny and smart. The characters also feel so real it's uncanny and everyone is memorable in their own way. Needless to say this show is a hit and it's one that should appeal to a wide array of viewers.

In case you're unfamiliar with the franchise you should know that Clannad comes from PC game developer Key, who also created Air and Kanon. Both of those shows are regarded highly by anime fans and for good reason. Key has shown time and time again that they have a real knack for creating ...Read the entire review

Clannad took me completely by surprise when I watched it a short while ago. The show had been out for some time and I just happened to pick it up one day. Imagine how pleased I was when the series quickly became one of my favorite shows. Needless to say when the second season, After Story, became available I jumped at the chance to check it out!

In case you're unfamiliar with the franchise you should know that Clannad comes from PC game developer Key, who also created Air and Kanon. Both of those shows are regarded highly by anime fans and for good reason. Key has shown time and time again that they have a real knack for creating fascinating characters, rich worlds, and heartfelt stories. Clannad carries the torch passed on to it by the other two Key shows and the first season exemplified everything the developer has become...Read the entire review

Rika is your average Japanese schoolgirl. At least average for Jpn DTV films, which means she is about three to five years too old and has collagen implanted lips. As a matter of fact, I think every girl in Zombie Hunter Rika had artificially puffed lips. Its that kind of film.

Anyway, Rika and her friend hop the train to visit her long lost grandpa, a surgical genius and swordsman, who has been incommunicado for a few years. They step off the train to find that the prefecture is overrun with zombies. Aided by a scheming lothario, they make it to gramps house only to find that grandpa has become catatonic and married a black widow, who coincidentally is scheming with the lothario to poison the old man for his life insurance. This is immaterial, just an excuse to put two unsympathetic characters in the film to get eaten by zombies, and that is fine by me.

Eventually, a ragtag group is fo...Read the entire review

While it used to be under the Geneon brand, Popotan has been picked up by Sentai Filmworks for redistribution. It's been a couple of years since the show has seen the light of day, so anyone who missed it the first time around can grab this collection with all 12 episodes on two DVDs. Is it really worth checking out though? The short answer to that question is yes, but there is some slight reservations about that recommendation.

Popotan was originally an adult PC game with sex scenes and plenty of naughty bits prominently featured. We've seen shows with origins like this before and they almost always lead to gratuitous amounts of fan-service. This show is no different. In so many ways this anime embraces its hentai roots. Ok, yes, there is no hardcore sex. However, with plenty of nudity mixed in with irreverent plotlines, quirky horny characters, and...Read the entire review

The latest series released by Sentai Filmworks, Clannad, is something to treasure. When I saw the first installment I instantly fell in love with the show and couldn't wait to dig into the second collection. If you haven't seen it yet, then you're missing out on one of the most charming series to come along in the past decade.

Originally a PC game by famous Japanese developer Key, it wasn't long until Clannad found a home on other mediums as well. If you're familiar with Key, then you already know some of their other successful franchises such as Kanon and Air. Naturally with the quality displayed in those two shows, you just knew going in that Clannad was going to be something special. And you know what? It was.

What's so great about this show? Well, it's basically the package as a whole. There's no individual characteristic ...Read the entire review

The Movie:
Attack Girls' Swim Team vs. the Undead sounds like it is a zany, off kilter Japanese zombie movie. Hiding under this inviting exterior, though, is a soft core porn film with a limp zombie framework thrown up around it.

The film centers around Aki (Sasa Handa), new girl at a Japanese high school, and her new friend Sayaka (Yuria Hidaka), who is on the swim team. There is a strange new virus running through the school, making lots of folks sick (though mostly not the swim team members) and everyone is required to go to the nurse's office and receive an inoculation. Aki and Sayaka elect to hang out on the roof and take a shower instead of getting their shots. During the shower (the film never misses a chance to show a bared breast) they find that they both have the same bruise-like birthmark on their chest, and mole on the back of their neck. This strange coincidence convince...Read the entire review

In all honesty, Clannad was a treat that I totally wasn't expecting. Prior to its appearance in America I heard good things about the series, but didn't really jump at the chance to check it out upon release here. Man, do I wish I did! This show turned out to be a real charmer and it quickly became one of the best series I've seen in a long time!

Clannad originated as a PC game by developer Key, who also worked on Air and Kanon (two other successful franchises). Since I haven't played the game I cannot compare the anime version to that title, though I must say that when stacked up against the other aforementioned animated works by Key, Clannad is every bit as good. It would seem that the developer has a real knack for creating characters and drawing you into their worlds. As you watch you come to truly care for the kids here and t...Read the entire review

The Product:
In the decade before he became the God Almighty of the Lord of the Rings franchise, Peter Jackson was a glorified horror geek. He loved monsters and mayhem, the gorier and goofier the better. His first film, the loony labor of love Bad Taste, was a clever combination of alien invasion and living dead spectacle and in between all the skin snacking and arterial spray, a new level of fright flick funny business was created. But it was Braindead (released in the US as Dead Alive) that really proved his zany zombie mantle. To this day, the story of Lionel Cosgrove, his domineering, demonic mother, and the Sumerian rat monkey that turns a tranquil New Zealand weekend into a corpse strewn splatter rampage remains a post-modern classic. What this has to do with the jaunty Japanese scary movie Zombie Self Defense Force is not really obvious at first. Bu...Read the entire review

The Product:
Just like every other genre of film, anime has its clichés. It's unavoidable, especially when you consider the wealth of product put out over the years. From big bustlines and New Romantic-era hairdos to man/machine mash ups and the inevitable power mad villain, these tired truisms require a level of advanced artistry to work and work well. Sure, thirty years ago, a filmmaker could get away with androgynous heroines with as much cleavage as butt kicking acumen, fey warriors who resemble combat ready Blitz kids, mechanical men marred by emotion, and endless end of the world/post-apocalyptic scenarios (including the occasional influx of supernatural monsters and their minions). But today, you've got to offer more for the standard manga translation buck. Enter Appleseed, long considered a classic by those who make the cinematic category their passion. Oddly enough, it's not...Read the entire review

The Movie:
In the tradition of such films as Versus and Wild Zero, Japan has put out yet another insane zombie move with Zombie Hunter Rika. The film is very low budget with low quality make up effects and laughable CG, but is infused with a spirit of outrageous fun which makes up for a lot of the technical failures.

The plot is something of a mishmash, but focuses mostly on Rika, a young schoolgirl playing hooky who decides, along with her friend Nami, to go visit her grandfather Ryuhei. When they arrive in the small town in which he lives, they are quickly surrounded by zombies, and saved by a young man with a pompadour, who takes them to grandfather's house. To Rika's surprise, her grandfather has married a much younger woman Sayaka, who may or may not be the sister of the pompadoured savior. Granddad has gone senile, doesn't recognize his granddaughter, and sp...Read the entire review

Dozens of Japanese women have given birth to mutated baby girls over the past eighteen years. Marked by nubby horns and red or pink hair, these mutants, labeled Diclonius, develop "vectors", extraordinarily-focused telekinetic power allowing them to defensively deflect objects such as bullets and to offensively affect objects at a distance as though by an invisible hand or sword. With some variation, most of the Diclonius are able to project two vectors up to a range of three meters that are powerful enough to instantly decapitate an opponent or burst a chest cavity. After a couple of instances of Diclonius slaughtering their parents or others they have perceived as threatening, a secret military-industrial research facility was established to confine and study the Diclonius.

Originally released in 1988, Grave of the Fireflies is a tough anime film to sit through. I don't say that as a slight against the quality of the picture, but rather as a way to express that the movie is simply too effective at what it aims to do. This tale of the often unseen atrocities of war, the innocence of youth, and just how fragile life really is will stick with you long after the disc has stopped spinning. It's a haunting, memorable piece that stands out from the crowd and I dare say that few animated films are this dark, yet so fascinating all at the same time. You'll want to look away, but be unable to even when you become fully aware of the events that are spiraling frustratingly out of control. In short, Grave of the Fireflies is a masterpiece.

The thing about watching Grave of the Fireflies that I would take away is the fact that...Read the entire review

With the restructuring of the American anime industry, the future remains relatively uncertain for some of its publishers. Companies like ADV have consolidated some of their titles and have passed off some licenses to FUNimation. Whether this is a good thing or not remains to be seen, but in the meantime you can bet the farm that ADV is going to continue its barrage of re-releases in the form of thinpak boxed sets. It's something that the company has been doing for years and it's a trend that shows no sign of slowing down. After all, who doesn't like getting a whole collection of anime for a lower price?

One of the latest such endeavors is for the series D.N.Angel, which originally aired on TV in Japan during 2003 and landed on DVD here in the States in 2005. The show met a modicum of popularity and critical praise, but for the most part it never quite beca...Read the entire review

Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok may have only been in the States for a short while but it has actually been around in Japan for quite some time. The original manga started coming out in 1999 and since then it has enjoyed twelve volumes and a 26 episode animated series. Created by Sakura Kinoshita, who actually worked on Tactics, this anime is probably the weakest of her efforts in my opinion. The concept may be interesting and the characters are quirky enough to provide the fundamentals for a successful show but the execution of the program and plot simply fall short.

What disappoints about this series is the fact that it feels so familiar in many ways. For starters the characters fall into preset routines and feature stereotypical personalities. To be fair some do break the mold but there are some very one-dimensional characters in this anime and t...Read the entire review

The Movie:
When my sons were a bit younger and caught up in the frenzy of various passing fads, I used to half-jokingly state that phenomena like "Pokemon" and "Yu-Gi-Oh" were Japan's revenge for World War Two. I mean, what better havoc could be wreaked than inventing a multi-media onslaught consisting of television shows, feature films, video games, and, most importantly, card games featuring literally hundreds of characters where each and every character must be purchased separately? Talk about the dissemination of capitalism! Of course, I slightly exaggerate (but not by much, as any parent faced with hysterical screams of "Exodia, I must have all the parts of Exodia!" will attest). That same far eastern penchant for total world domination may also be at play for a franchise probably aimed at those a bit older, Final Fantasy, which (so far, anyway) may not have a multi-charactere...Read the entire review

The Movie:
You might be forgiven if as you watch Noir you think you've stumbled onto an animated and pluralized Luc Besson creation, "Les Femmes Nikita," or perhaps a feminized Robert Ludlum cartoon, "The Bournette Identity." Or, to completely date myself and elevate myself into all-time flop-tv geekdom, the short-lived Frank Converse mystery Coronet Blue. All three of these pieces have curious similarities to this very enjoyable 26 episode anime series, one which combines a nicely spun mystery about its central characters, while also engaging in some splendidly creative action set pieces courtesy of these characters' penchant for assassinating people.

Noir follows the exploits of two young female killers-for-hire, Mireille Bouquet and Kirika Yumura. The opening episode sets up the intriguing premise that Kirika, who has lost her memory, and Mireille, who becomes her...Read the entire review

Not long ago I had the opportunity to check out FUNimation's re-release of Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid. The series proved to be a blast and it was nice to visit Sagara and the gang in a setting that was very similar to the original show. In case you're not familiar with the franchise The Second Raid was actually the third Full Metal Panic release but it turned out to be an appropriate sequel. The one between the bookends, Fumoffu, just wasn't what fans were looking for thanks to its focus on humor as opposed to substance.

If you haven't seen or heard of the original Full Metal Panic (FMP) which is actually released by ADV then welcome to the world outside of your bubble (or rock if you prefer). FMP stands as one of the most popular mecha anime produced in the past decade and it's arguably one of the better shows of i...Read the entire review

Some anime licenses withstand the test of time and these properties make their way into cult status. 1996's Martian Successor Nadesico shines as a perfect example of a revered anime license. This series straddles the line of parody, comedy, and drama in such a way that the mixture is almost seamless. It pulls off so many elements at once that it becomes a perfect hybrid of many genres and it withstands the test of time as a fun, witty science fiction piece that isn't to be missed. As such it's not surprising that ADV has visited the show numerous times for DVD releases. Other than the individual volume releases we have seen an Essential's collection, a complete collection, and ADV has decided to revisit the series one more time with a Perfect Collection.

With so many releases under its belt it's safe to say that most of you have seen or at least heard about ...Read the entire review

Originally released over 10 volumes in 2004-05, The Get Backersis a fun and light buddy show that has a good amount of action and fightingwith just the right dash of humor.  For Otaku who haven't picked upthe series yet, this complete series set, containing both seasons of theshow, is the way to go.  With a very reasonable price point and nicepackaging this is a set worth picking up.

The Get Backers are a pair of young guys, Ban and Ginji, who run a businessretrieving stolen or lost objects.  Business isn't very good rightnow however.  They live in their car, and have run up a huge tab ata local restaurant.  Even giving their lowly standing, they are quitegood at their job.  Once they take on a job, these goofy guys alwaysrecover the object they are sent after.