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Anime Reviews
Sailor Moon Series:
A detailed manga and anime series witch is part of the magical girl genre of Japan's anime history. Created by Naoko Takeuchi, it is one of the most popular anime series. The original manga, Bishojo Senshi Sailormoon, was introduced in February of 1992 in Japan in a publication entitled Nakayoshi (a monthly Shojo manga collection). The anime version soon followed, airing on television just one month later. Sailormoon is a combination of the magical girl genre that was popular among girls, and the sentai (team fighter) genre that was popular among boys. The series ran for a total of five years, displaying 200 television episodes, 3 movies, and several live-action musical plays. Focusing on maturing characters and their relationships, Sailor Moon is a deep story that can hardly be summed up with just a few words. Overall, it includes an encompassing past/present/future destiny romance, as well as action, and comedy. It is the story of a female heroine and her senshi companions fighting evil in addition to dealing with every day situations when they encounter them.
Tenchi Series:
An awesome manga and anime series created by Hitoshi Okuda. The series consists of 2 OVA series (13 episodes in the original OVA titled Tenchi Muyo), 3 movies, and 2 seasons of television aired anime episodes with 26 episodes each, as well as an extensive manga collection. Tenchi intertwines action, space battles, fantasy, comedy, and love in it's story. The story reinvents itself with each season, which makes for an interesting twist.
Ah My Goddess Series:
A short anime series created by Fujishima Kousuke, consisting of 5 OVA episodes, a few super-deformed character episodes, and some manga. Possessing a comical and romantic plot, Ah My Goddess is refreshing comedy about a boy who calls for some take-out, and ends up with a goddess as a girlfriend instead. The title was later changed to Oh My Goddess for the English version of the anime.
Fushigi Yuugi Series:
It's name meaning 'The mysterious play', Fushigi Yuugi seems almost to be just that. The series was created by Yuu Watase. It consists of 2 anime seasons, 3 OVA series, and 18 volumes of manga. The story is one of action and romance, exploring a wide range of human emotion. Two girls (best friends) get pulled into a book and end up in ancient China. There, each is made the priestess of a kingdom, however, through circumstances, they end up enemies. One of them falls in love, while the other is consumed by hate and jealousy.
The Vision of Escaflowne
The story line, while not the best I've seen, is still a good piece of fantasy fiction. Hitomi is just your average high-school student, trying to excel on the track team. However, one night while she is practicing running the 100-meter dash, a mysterious portal opens, and young knight named Van appears before her. Hitomi is then taken with Van into the mysterious world of Gaea, which is only the beginning of her epic adventure. There's a good balance between plot and action, with some episodes focusing on developing the characters, and others simply depicting epic battles. A lot of mystery regarding Gaea and the evil forces of Zaibach is developed early on, and there are quite a few plot elements which don't get fully resolved until the end. This certainly helped in holding my interest throughout the entire series. And I must say, the ending was one of the better and more fulfilling endings I've seen in an anime.
While the story is good, the characters really make this series come alive. Hitomi is so incredibly unlike anyone else in the series that she truly feels like she was plucked from Earth and placed in the magical world of Gaea. Van, the young king of Fanelia, is driven by anger and revenge, and he makes a truly fearsome pilot of Escaflowne. Allen is a more typical medieval fantasy character, fulfilling the role of the gallant knight. Merle is the utterly adorable cat-girl, who provides the comic relief. If I had a list of cutest anime characters, she'd easily make the top five. The villains are truly excellent, as well. Dilandau and Folken are the two main adversaries, and both are as different as night and day. Dilandau is a bloodthirsty psycho with a hidden past, while Folken is quite somber, cold and calculating. Of course, there are many other characters as well, and all are fully developed and believable.
Bubblegum Crisis
In 21st century Tokyo, technology has advanced enough for androids or "Boomers" to be developed. However, not all Boomers are law-abiding, and some are downright deadly. Since the regular police seem unable to control this menace to society, four women make it their goal to wipe out Boomer crime. Sporting nifty battle armor and calling themselves the Knight Sabers, these women fight to preserve order.
The center of this series is violent mecha action. The four Knight Sabers, dressed in their nifty body armor, do battle with various types of Boomers and other assorted weapons of mass destruction. The action sequences are quite good, with some neat chase scenes thrown in. Sequences featuring Priss on her motorcycle were particularly memorable.
While this series does have its share of mecha, explosions, and general mayhem, the characters also have a fair amount of depth to them. Comprising the four Knight Sabers are Sylia, the team's leader, Priss, a rock star, Nene, who provides the "cute", and Linna, a fitness trainer who is probably the most normal of the bunch. We get a good insight into the characters personal lives and the difficulties they have dealing with their secret identities.
However, the stories are this series weak point. Essentially they're in place merely to set up violent clashes between the Knight Sabers and various foes. I was especially unimpressed with the first three episodes, but things do get somewhat better, particularly in the final two episodes which were more character-driven.
Notes:
>>Other infos will be posted until the next time I'll update this site. Thank You!
>>I'm still working on other animes [Viewing and reading them]. And until I finished working on them, bare with me for tha lack of reviews...hehe... Thank you!
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