Soul Eater Not!

Soul Eater is a personal favorite of mine. I've watched it several times over and each time is as entertaining as the first! It's based in a school called the DWMA (Death Weapon and Meister Academy) for human-weapons and meisters to train together to be able to defeat evil souls. It's an action packed comedy full of jokes and awesome fight scenes. The characters are inventive and the art is beautiful. But enough about Soul Eater, I'm here to tell you about Soul Eater Not!, the spin-off show.

Diamond no Ace

After my review of Yowamushi Pedal I attracted the attention of an anon with a penchant for sports anime. I was then pointed in the direction of 'Diamond no Ace'. It's been a while since then, but I finally got  review for you, I hope you enjoy it anon!
Diamond no Ace is an anime about baseball. That immediately causes problems for me because not only do I not like baseball, but I can't understand the rules! I persevered through it nonetheless! Anyway, it's not just about baseball, it's about Eijun who fell in love with baseball in middle school and made all his classmates play with him then, in his final middle school game a teacher from Seido high school school see him pitching and offers him a scholarship!

My Love From Another Star

With a title featuring the word 'Love' I believed this was a romance story and just like a majority of romance dramas, there's a love triangle! But you shouldn't judge too quickly, this is no conventional romance. In fact, it's no conventional anything! It's a pastiche of every genre you could think of: romance, drama, detective, sci-fi, thriller, comedy and it's even a bit historical!
To set the ball rolling on this mix-match of themes, this drama is about an alien. That's right, an alien who crashed on earth and quite conveniently looks like a very attractive young man. Also, he has magic powers.

Dog Star

Man is this film depressing! It's like Macbeth or something!It's all about Shiro, a dog for the blind, who is caring for a veteran boxer. Within the first 10 minutes of the film the ex-boxer drinks too much and gets hit by a car. That's just a start to the deaths in this film! So apparently this blind boxer wasn't a very nice man because he is sent back to earth as a ghost who needs to perform a good deed or two to be allowed into heaven. Hence he visits Shiro like some kind of Genie and offers to grant Shiro one wish. Shiro wishes to be a human (he can't talk mind you, so this scene was quite amusing) and naturally Shiro's ex-master uses his celestial and gives Shiro the body of a man who had just killed himself (yes, that's another dead person).
Shiro choose this wish out of a desire to find the family who raised him as a puppy. Although most the family died in a plane crash (that's another 2 or 3 dead bodies) he manages to sniff out Haruka's scent and begins to stalk her. A few more deaths later and Shiro finds out that he's old for a dog and that it'll soon be his time to die so he tries to distance himself from Haruka. But there's a chemistry between the two which makes it impossible for the two to part. Alas, it's a love that can never be, and Shiro has to return to his doggy form.
Through out the film, Shiro's former owner appears to offer guidance or consolation (usually quite bad). Sounds quite sweet but in reality he's just an invisible old man who just gets in the way. True, it would be weird if he didn't hang around but his presence really doesn't add anything to the film.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

This is an anime I was told to watch aaaages ago for it's utter madness and it definitely matches to that. In the distant future humans are forced to live underground and must constantly drill deeper to avoid the slowly decending ceiling. But Kamina isn't like every one else, he's been to the surface with his dad and now he's determined to get back, with Simon's help. However after their plan fails another means to get to the surface arrives and Simon and Kamina are free to roam the surface with Yoko, the sharp shooter who enables their escape. Now their on a mission, to stop the mechas called Ganmen at the very root to save the underground villagers from the earth quakes they cause. Simon controls the head of a Ganmen named Lagann while Kamina controls a body called Gurren. To fight off the Ganmen Simon and Kamina must combine to form Gurren Lagann with their fighting spirit to produce any number of drills. It's all one big joke really. But it has the boobs and the mecha to interest a large number of males even with the ridiculous speeches, pointless transformation scenes and inconsistent plot.

Hellsing

So this'll be the last post before Christmas!! So in advance, Merr Christmas!! I hope you all enjoy your holidays!! :)

The Hellsing Organisation. Supported by the British Government and run by the Hellsing family, this organization's mission is to put a stop to non-human activity. I always have a natural affinity to anime based in England, I'm not entirely sure why because other than a government and queen, there is no reference to the fact that they're in England! So anyway, this Hellsing Organisation is essentially a vampire extermination group and as a new breed of vampire begins to reign havoc Hellsing has to fight hard. These vampires are a bit weird as they have like microchips in their necks, so they're like cyborg vampires or something! The anime follows two particular members of Hellsing: Alucard and Victoria. Alucard is the strongest vampire in existence, he's like crazy strong. I know he's a vampire but there is a reason he's working for Hellsing, I just don't know it yet.... Then there's Hellsing's vampire no.2, Victoria. She was a Police Girl until Vampires attacked her unit and Alucard changed her rather than killing her. She's really cool, she uses really big guns and has super cute fangs! wait, I'm not talking about the plot any more, am I? Well, I suppose I don't really know the plot, it was more like, bang bang kill the vampire. Hmm, well it is entertaining! But I do want to see more plot.
It's a 2001 anime and it really shows it's age. The animation is a bit stiff and the colours are so drained. What is this not-HD? But the art style is nice! I already mentioned Victoria's cute fangs, but there is also alucard's face shaper and all the exciting settings which are the result of a good art style despite it's age.

Playful Kiss

I did say I'd review this. Remember? When I reviewed the Taiwanese version "It started with a kiss..."! Well, now I have watched it and really, I can't see why this one's more popular... Obviously the plot is basically the same but things happen a lot quicker. Oh Ha Ni leaves a note in Baek Seung Jo's locker but is publicly humiliated when he returns the letter with corrections marked on. Her troubles only get worse when her new house falls down in a minor earthquake so her and her father are forced to stay under the protection of her father's friend who, as fate would have it, is Seung Jo's dad. But unlike It started with a kiss, the plot quickly progresses to when they enter University and we see a lot of Seung Jo's caring side (read It started with a kiss review for a more detailed summary). The nature of this drama is very believable, ignoring the scene when Oh Ha Ni's house falls down. It's a bit too believable really and decisively neutral. Where's the drama? The exaggerated reactions? The too sad/happy moments that make you scream at the computer? I'll tell you where, in the longer plot. They've made everything happen too fast so there's no tension, which is a shame because this show has so much to offer. Namely the acting.

Personal Preference

This is my third drama with homosexuality in it, but this time it's very different because there is no cross-dressing people, just some big misunderstandings. Jeon Jin Ho is a budding architect who wants to enter the Dam Art Gallery Project. This project is supposed to be based on the Sanggojae but this makes it very difficult for every one as the Sanggojae has always been locked to outsiders. The owner of said house is Park Gae In and after being betrayed by those closest to her she has no choice but to sublet one of her rooms. Of course, a lady living on her own couldn't rent the room  out to a man. But what if the man was gay? Then there wouldn't been a problem, so after several misunderstandings Jin Ho has to pretend to be gay to stay with Gae In. But with Gae In being such a careless loud mouth Jin Ho is constantly forced into awkward situations. Thus, start the chaos! There is also the addition of Chang Ryul and In Hee who cancelled their wedding because they both had other lovers. Trying to work out the true intentions of theese two is difficult because although Chang Ryul refuses to let go of In Hee he keeps returning to Gae In, his other lover. I'm not even going to get into the criss-crossed love square that's formed!

Kaze no Stigma

'Kaze no Stigma', or 'Stigma of the wind', is a really wierd anime that reminds me way too much of 11 eyes. It's set in a Japan from this kind of era where certain people have 'magic' powers. The Kannagi family are the elite Enjutsu, fire users. Kazuma was born into the head family and automatically the heir to the Kannagi family. However after being easily beaten by a 12year old girl his father disowned him. After some years training Kazuma returns to Japan as a Fuujutsu, someone who can control the wind. He proves himself by beating his father and the Kannagi heir, Ayano. However, when Kazuma's brother, Ren, gets involved in a family feud Kazuma's skills are hired to save him. From then on we basically see Kazuma get more and more jobs from the Kannagi family and watch Ayano get more and more annoyed at his involvement.

Le Portrait de Petit Cossette

This is a short review for a short manga about the beautiful Victorian girl Cossette. Eiri stumbles upon Cossette's half finished portrait while working in an antique shop and from that moment onwards he can see her and communicate with her. He becomes infatuated with her perfect looks and long to help her. Cossette's possessions hold evil intentions and she wishes to recover them all with Eiri's assitance.
The art is really pretty! Cossette is portrayed as ideally as she's supposed to be and her eyes, absolutely stunning. Such a variety of subtle expression, all as beautiful as each other. Of course, to match her Victorian charm she has the most spectacular dresses! All the other people are to boring to mention.
There's a lot of non-natrulistic art as well, for the various illusions and bits, and they are so pretty. Creepy though! The drooping sad shapes and the angry bold lines, it's all very expressive.

Zatoichi

Zatoichi is a classic in Japan. Starting as a minor character in a book he was soon brought a live in 1962. After that Zatoichi had a total of 26 films and a T.V. series with 100 episodes! This particular Zatoichi film is a remake from 2003.
Zatoichi is a blind old man who makes his living from giving massages and gambling. His pronounced sense of hearing helps him win all the gambles by being able to hear whether the dice landed even or odd. But underneath his old guy cover, Zatoichi is an amazingly skilled swords men. Using his uncanny sense of smell and hearing he defeats the oppressive Yakuza gangs.
The plot of this Zatoichi is made up of three main components. The first: On his journey, Zatoichi stumbles upon a village run by an abusive Yakuza gang. As Zatoichi takes up residence with an lonely lady he soon decides to demolish the gang and set the village free. The second part of the story resolves around a skilled Samurai whoses wife is very ill and needs money to cure her. Despite his wives hatred of killing, he takes up work as a body guard for the Yakuza. But whose the more skilled swordsman: Zatoichi or the Samurai?

Akira

The six giant Akira books my dad left for me in my room did originally appear rather intimidating, but I got through them in just a few days so I am now writing a review of it just as my dad requested! But I must warn you, it''s NOT getting the six pie that my dad said it should!

The start is rather uninteresting. Biker gangs and gang rivalry don't really entertain me, I found myself skim reading the boring parts where they're just taking drugs and racing about. But then the crippled children come along and things get really weird. It was all a bit misty, things just happened because they did. Nothing was really explained! Even after six giant books, I didn't really gt why any of it happened!! But maybe that's just me.... Maybe I'm just slow.
For one thing, why did Kaneda get so heavily involved with Kei and all the other strange things? It just didn't make sense to me!
But the action scenes with the bikes and the guns and the lasers were pretty impressive!!
Who cares if the plot made no sense to me and I kept forgetting the characters names? Half of them died in impressive looking fight scenes or some psychic brain crushing! I never really grew attached to any of the characters because I was expecting them to die as soon as I turned the page! Not that that's necessarily a bad thing!
I was impressed with the art! Not for cute eyes and delicate clothing though. In fact, not for the people at all. The people all looked rather average to me with their short black hair and casual clothing! But it was their back grounds and panels that I liked!

Gilgamesh

This anime's been sitting around my room for a while now, It's about time I watched and reviewed it!

Gilgamesh is set in the strange world where the sky is a mirror and and computers don't work. It's all a bit weird and hard to explain, so bear with me.   The art.... is very odd. It's rather angular, and sometimes appears a bit warped. The noses are done a bit oddly and the eyes are a bit too wide in my opinion. But the eyes are very good for expressing emotion! And the animation is very nice, I'm quite impressed with their random fight scenes.                                           The characters are quite sweet. A brother and sister pair, orphaned and in massive debt. The girl's a snob at music and the boy pee's blood. Neither of them speak much, they look plain and rarely express emotion.  The other characters are more interesting, but there's so much mystery about them that I'm unsure of what to say about them.