If tisn't here, chances are . . . tis in the Manga section!! Or it doesn't exist?
*Palumu no ki (A Tree of Palme) = In order to care for his sick wife, an artisan creates a puppet named Palme. But after the woman's inevitable death, Palme is inconsolable � until a woman crosses paths with the puppet and his creator and asks them to deliver a precious object to a sacred place called Tama. Palme, mistaking the woman for his master's late wife, accepts the request and takes his first step to becoming more human. Think of the film as an indie rift on Pinocchio.
*Panzer World Galient = has mecha
*Parallel Dual = Plagued by visions of giant robots that no one else can see, Kazuki doesn't know that all the years of ridicule are about to pay off. It all starts when the most beautiful girl in school takes an interest in him. Before he quite knows what has happened, he is whisked off to a parallel world filled with robots and aliens.
*Paranoia Agent = The weirdness begins from the very outset; the show’s opening credits show a number of the series’ protagonists standing still in oddly incongruous environments, laughing. The backgrounds move behind them frantically as if viewed through time-lapse; in some instances there is a vague menacing tone, as in one which displays a tall communications tower behind which rises an ominous mushroom cloud. The theme song (by P-Model lead singer Susumu Hirasawa) is an oddly twisted pop tune cranked to manic levels which only serves to raise the hair on the back of your neck. The effect is an air of surreal uneasiness.
Each episode of the series features a different storyline and protagonist, but they are tied together by a central plotline; a series of assaults being carried out in Tokyo by a mysterious rollerblading felon known as ‘Lil’ Slugger’ because of his penchant for a bent baseball bat. Who Lil’ Slugger is and why he is carrying out his violent spree is not fully explained, at least not in the three episodes contained in the first volume. To be honest, I’m not certain we’ll ever know these answers. Paranoia Agent doesn’t seem designed to provide answers, much in the way David Lynch’s own Eraserhead doesn’t answer anything.
The first episode introduces us to Tsukiko Sagi, a very successful designer of plushie characters. Tsukiko is struggling under the weight of her own success; her last character, a comically saccharine-cute pink creature named Marumi, has risen to Hello Kitty-level popularity. (The ubiquity of Marumi’s popularity is reinforced throughout the series as the character is seen staring from posters and hanging from rear view mirrors.) Called upon to top Marumi’s success, and victimized by her own co-worker’s jealousy, Tsukiko descends into a paralyzing depression.
Things change, however, as she is assaulted on her way home from work by Lil’ Slugger. Hospitalized by the attack, Tsukiko is only able to give the police a very rough description of her attacker. Gold rollerblades…a crooked baseball bat…a baseball cap. The media is horrified by the notion of what seems like a grade-school child with homicidal tendencies, yet they seize upon the attack with typical sensationalized glee.
Unfortunately for Tsukiko, the attack is only the beginning. Not only does she attract the attention of the police, who don’t seem to take her story at face value, but a lecherous writer desperate for material also begins hounding her…with near-fatal results.
While most conventional anime would pick up where this episode leaves off, Paranoia Agent takes a different approach. Though Tsukiko figures tangentially into the second episode, she’s been replaced as protagonist by an overconfident youth named ‘Ichi’ (Number One). Ichi is exactly the kind of brat you probably hated in school; loved by everyone, self-centered, and cocky. Unfortunately for Ichi, someone has begun to spread rumors that he is Lil’ Slugger. Soon he finds that girls no longer return his charming gaze (set off visually with a trademarked sparkling grin) and he finds notes in his locker accusing him of the Lil’ Slugger assaults. While Ichi is initially puzzled, he finally sets his sights on an overweight classmate who happens to be his only serious challenger in the upcoming Class President election. While his contender is in truth a well-meaning misfit (which only serves to endear him to his classmates), Ichi is propelled down an ever-increasing spiral of paranoia…eventually resulting in his own violent outburst which mirrors, at least superficially, the terrorism being perpetrated by Lil’ Slugger. Ichi’s increasing dementia is portrayed through the animation itself, which vacillates between reality and Ichi’s internal dreamscape. Sometimes it’s not entirely apparent when the animation depicts reality and when it veers into paranoia; when Ichi’s entire class receives images of Ichi’s violent behavior on their cellphones, we’re left to wonder if it really happens, or if it’s a figment of Ichi’s fragmented mind. Eventually, Ichi gains release, ironically through another attack by Lil’ Slugger that leaves him free and clear of suspicion.
Again, by the third episode, a new character takes center stage, a prostitute named Maria. As the episode opens, Maria is having sex with a fairly repellent otaku (in fact, the same otaku who is seen in episode one being questioned about the first Lil' Slugger attack). After a very businesslike climax, the otaku leans over and congratulates the panoply of vinyl female figurines which line his bedroom walls. Maria leaves, and it's soon apparent that she leads a double life...during the day she's Harumi Chono. While the whole 'office slave by day, prostitute by night' plotline has been done before, here the scenario is played to the hilt. Harumi it seems suffers from split personality disorder. Not only is she unable to control her nocturnal wanderings, she's also begun to stalk herself. Harumi's efforts to take control of her Maria persona, which eventually includes throwing out all of Maria's streetwalker garb and makeup, only serves to infuriate her darker self more. Harumi is forced to deal with threatening phone messages...left for her by herself while in 'Maria-mode'.
When Harumi's boyfriend proposes to her, Harumi is sent into a tailspin. Obviously her dual-personality would present a significant challenge to any prospective spouse. Harumi becomes desperate, and like Ichi before her, Harumi's mind begins to fracture under the strain.The episode's chilling conclusion once again brings forth Lil' Slugger, who appears at an opportune moment in the midst of Harumi's psychosis.
*Peace Maker Kurogane = shonen anime similar to Rurouni Kenshin, only in this, the police are the good guys. It takes place *before* the Revoultion. A 15 year old boy wants to join the Shinsengumi with his older brother. He is turned away at first, because of his small size, but he keeps persisting until he gets in, because he is determined to avenge his dead parents.
*Phantom Quest Corp = four episode long anime about Ayaka Kisaragi's job to get rid of paranormal pests with her lipstick that turns into a saber.
*Photon = violent comedy; Keyne Aqua crashed on the desert world of
Sandy Planet; she aqakens to find herself "married" to a shy little boy
named Photon Earth. Keyne travels with both Photon and his childhood
friend, Aun, a spoiled girl with a possessive attitude. Keyne is being
pursued by Lord Papcha, a ruthless, clueless womanizer bent on her
capture. Princess Lashara is sincerely in love with Papacha. Aun and
Keyne always try to one-up each other.
*Photon: The Idiot Adventures = from the creators of Tenchi Muyo; is it a sequal to the Photon above, or are they the same thing??
*Planet Telex = I didn't see it from the beginning; I saw this odd episode making fun of otakus dressed up as ninjas and attacking Japanese people. O_o I think the main storyline for the series is that the main characters pick up waste in space. (It takes place in the future.)
*Please Save My Earth = tis only six episodes, so some call it an OAV; it had a manga
though, that was 21 books long; the anime/oav is only six episodes because of lack of
funding. Tis ~ a group of people (with different ages) find out
~ one of their past lives. I think the girl is the main character. Well, she's a
freshman I think, and she's babysitting this seven year old boy. The girl
gets her first kiss from that boy. She is somehow connected to these two
boys around her age, and she overhears them talking, and thinks they're
gay. They explain to her that they were talking about a dream they both
had about living on the moon. The girl starts to have a dream like that
too. In the dream, she's a girl that lives on the moon that longs to be on
Earth. This might be confusing so read carefully -- In this girl's dream of
living on the moon, as her moon-self, she tells her boyfriend (I think) that
she had just had a dream about living on Earth. "If only it were true," she
said. So maybe she really does live on the moon? And her Earth life is
the dream? I don't know. The girl (in her earth life) has a tellepathic
connection with nature and animals. Animals gather around her and
make her happy. The trees and plants feel what she feels. One day
while babysitting that boy, she slapped him and he fell off the balcony and
ended up in the hospital. The girl was very sorry and prayed for him to
be allright. He imidiatly got better. The next day when she was coming to
visit him, he was sitting up and telling his mom that the girl was coming up
the stairs, and how silly she was that she wasn't taking the elevator. He
knew the exact time that she would come in the door. The boy also has
the power to levitate or something, cuz he made this guy run off a cliff on
his motorcycle, and the little boy was telling him (they were both floating in
the air) that he would be allright if he attacked the tower straight ahead.
That was the first episode. There are only six total episodes to the whole
series. Each episode is exactly thirty minutes long with no commercials.
The boy's name is Rin (sp?) and the girl's name is Alice on Earth and
Mokurin/Mokuran on Moon. There was a virus on the Moon, and
Mokuran's friends were trying to find a cure. Rin (I forget his Moon name)
was the only person to take the cure thing for the virus, so he lived there
for a while while everyone else died and were reincarnated (sp?) on
Earth. When Rin finally died on Moon, he went to Earth too. He became
a wandering boy
that had the name of his Moon name. (He got the name, Rin, in his third
life.) He didn't have any family, he was homeless, and hungry. One time
when he was taking some food from this shed place, some men came and
shot at him. He was surprised they would shoot at him even though he
was just a boy. He stopped their bullets and killed them, both with
tellepathy. A kind man came and adopted him or something. The man let
Rin live with him, and this big walking cat, Kiya (sp?). There, there were
some other kids without homes too I think. Rin played with them. Then
one day, that guy died, and Kiya did too. Rin thought of it as the guy
breaking his promise to Rin, so he was sad and angry. Forgot what
happened, but he somehow got into another life, and now he got the
name, Rin. He had a mom and dad. And all that stuff with Alice
happened. When Alice pushed him off the balcony, Rin remembered his
past lives. As a debt, he asked Alice to marry him. She was guilty for
almost killing him so she said yes even though she didn't love him. I'm
not gonna explain the whole six episodes cuz too much went on. But the
main jist is that Rin wants Alice to really love him again, like she did on the
Moon, so he blackmailed this guy who used to live on the Moon too. (I
think his name is Han.) Rin wanted him to seduce Alice, so somehow she
would love Rin. Dunno how that works, but whatever. Han never ended
up doing that. He wrote a letter to Mr. Tomura (sp?), his only friend,
about his troubles. Earlier, Mr. Tomura was beaten up by Rin; Rin broke
his ribs tellepathicly. Mr. Tomura tries to get away from Rin, but wherever
he goes, Rin's always there. (Like when Tomura's on a train, Rin's
happily waving goodbye.) Rin told Han not to tell anyone about what was
going on between them, or else Rin would kill Tomura. So actually, Han
tried to stop the letter from being sent, but it was too late. Tomura read it,
and Rin wanted revenge. He was gonna kill Tomura. This other psychic
guy showed up. He wasn't from the moon, he just got brought into all of
it, cuz he was a strong psychic, almost as strong as Rin. He fought Rin to
protect Tomura, but he didn't suceed in the end. Han learned to use
his telleporting power, and he telleported there, and blocked Rin's big
attack to kill both Tomura and the psychic human. I forget what happens
from there, mostly just flashbacks of the truth, cuz you don't really find out
the truth of what Rin's up to or who he is until the last episode. But in the
end, he and Alice are happy together, on the beach. It seems like he lost
his memory of the moon, but I'm not sure. Maybe he just acted like that to
start over. Alice didn't mind; she really didn't want any part of the Moon
stuff; she only had one Moon dream, so she tried to convince everyone
(including herself) that she wasn't Mokuran. She wanted to live for the
future, not the past. That's basicly the end. :-T
*Pocket Monsters = one guy and a group that changes once in a while
travel around their country or something to be domesticators of these
animals from another planet.
*Pretear = Himeno is like the anime version of Cinderella. She is a tomboy whose father marries a rich woman; the rich woman has two snooty daughters who aren't nice to Himeno at all. At school, Himeno's classmates all don't like her because her father married into riches. Himeno feels like giving up when she is found by the Leafe Knights, who tell her that she is the Pretear who is able to save the land from the Princess of Disaster, who is unleashing evil larvae. It may not sound like it, but this anime is a comedy!
*Prince of Tennis = Ryoma is the shining tennis star at Seigaku, a school known for its shining tennis stars. But fitting in at the school is tough for freshman Ryoma, who eliminated the senior competition in his first week. Fortunately, a few friends admire his skill, and together, they form the strongest team Seigaku has ever seen. The anime series is based on the popular manga by Takeshi Konomi.
*Project G.A. = One hundred years have passed since the Galactic
Network died out, and an empire called Transval has risen to become the
new center of human civilization. But bits and pieces of technology from
the Galactic Network still exist. "Lost Technology," these are considered
leftover from the gods, and priestesses called Moon Maidens ar
eassigned to be the care-takers of this Lost Technology. But now the
empire is weakening, as a banished prince named Eonia organizes an
uprising from the fringes of Transval's territory, and purges the royal
family from power. Eonia's goal is to use the Lost Technology to create
an ideal nation. The story centers around five loyalist girls calle dthe
Angel Troopers who have obtained control of a space battleship, and a
young man who is a commander in a small local defense force. Direction
is by Asaka Morio; animation production is by Madhouse.
*Pure Love = ?
*Psycho-Armor Govarian = aired in 1983; a Super Robot goes against an army of evil Real Robots.
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