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Can we say, Bish-OH-nen!! Tra-la-la-la! Vampire Knight is a bishounen lover's most lurid dream come true, to date. This is an irrefutable fact, however the question begs asking; does this show does have more to offer than beautiful people filled with angst? It's hard to judge these types of shows fairly because more often than not they are based on mangas [a lot of which I don't read]. Most of the time the smart thing to do is to just score based on the merits of the anime itself [which I intend to do here] but by doing so, the anime scores terribly because the story score will suck because without the foundation of reading the manga the story seems like it's “lacking” or that the exposition is too slow and drawn out. Personally, I liked this show a lot this show [obviously] however objectively speaking, it does lack a certain universal appeal.

~ Art
The art style for this show definitely complies with my sense of aesthetics for anime. Bright, crisp colors for day scenes and a darker but similar color scheme for the night scenes. Lines are a bit thicker and noticeable but still neat and clean and the shading is smooth. There is also a good level of attention given to the small details as well as great representation of a number of textures and surfaces, like trees, broken glass, some of the walls in various scenes.
The animation ranges from average to really good with some very subtle use of CGI. This is a shoujo series so there isn't much by way of fighting and action scenes but there are some weapons and special F/X used, most of which involve some sort of glow effect.

~ Sound
I don't think there was much music beyond the OP and ED...and if there was, the fact that I didn't notice, speaks volumes. The OP was OK enough. What I liked best about it was the flow and repetition of the words “Aka-ku, Aka-ku, Aka-ku/Yume-wo, Yume-wo Hate-e”. But it's the ED that's the better of the two, IMHO. It's very original, and I'm more impressed by unique things and so i really like this deranged Gothic lullaby with it's unique melody and off-kilter waltzing rhythm.

~ Story
Vampire Knight is not a complex story. It's actually somewhat predictable and clichéd And the story is far from solid. Since this is another manga adaptation [I don't plan on reading the manga] to me, it's very noticeable how very “lacking” the story seems and so “light”. Vampire Knight fits squarely in the fantasy-drama category there's the fantasy element [vampires] and of course there is drama [angst]. There are some comedic elements punctuated throughout the series that offsets the overall angsty tone of the show...tho some times the comedy seemed ill-timed not to mention superfluous.
One thing about this show that kept nagging at me is how it reminded me of two completely different shows. The first one is LOVELESS with all the bandages [bandage-fetish?] plus that whole sadomasochism thing [and let's not act like there was none in this show, OK?] The second show VK reminds me of it Ouran High School Host Club with the elite school aspect, the comedy and the reverse-harem. I'm still not completely sure what a MOE anime is [if someone can give me a SIMPLE definition, hit me up] some say that it's an anime that caters to fetishes. If that's the case then, yes, Vampire Knight fits the bill because it seems to cater to all manner of fetishes from Gothic to twins to bandages to uniforms even a little suggestive Yaoi/Yuri action...and of course bishounen.

~ Characters
Without a doubt, it's the extensive cast of characters of Vampire Knight that made this show so appealing to many people. I can only speak for myself [and perhaps those of a similar inclination] that this show most definitely became a “top pick” as it presented a visually stunning cast of grade A, bona-fide bishounen. This seems to be what carries the weight of the purpose of this show. Extremely pretty boys all tormented and angst-ridden over some vague, mysterious issue. We have beautiful boys posing with each other [for those of us that like things risqué and slash-able] as well as beautiful boys all fawning over the female lead, Yuki [reverse-harem].
Which brings me back to what I said about this show reminding me of Ouran...doesn't Yuki and Haruhi look similar? I know that a lot of anime heroines tend to have that vulnerable, waif-ish look with the big eyes and mousy brown hair but these two look similar [of course barring the fact that Yuuki is drawn more Gothic-looking.] and then combine that with the twins, the stoic tall guy, the hype, cute little blond guy along with the reverse-harem and the a private elite school and you can see why I find both shows similar.

~ The Verdict
Gorgeous characters, beautiful set/scenes, decent animation however I would not say this show is for everyone. For example boys [or those who like “boyish” things] may not go for a show like this where beautiful boys lay on couches and fret over some seemingly banal issue.... this might be too EMO or whatever the new word is nowadays. ha-ha! Also from a continuity stand point the show may wind up incomplete. Most manga adaptations end up that way, which bugs me because I only like to watch completed anime....I like having closure.
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Noir is a fairly decent anime to watch, but nothing stellar, and therefore should be taken as the superficial “girls with guns” anime that it is. The story is centered around two young women with mysterious pasts tied to some secret mafia-type organization known as the Soldats. There is a great deal of violence in this series, expect lots of shootings, stabbings and poisonings but for all that,the action and scenes are surprisingly not gory and practically bloodless. This is but one of the many things I found peculiar with the series apart from the generic vanilla plot and the emotionally static characters.

~ Art
The art and animation is good but considered standard, as is the color palette for this show. This appears to be a regular 2D anime series with no CGI that I could notice. However, there are some minor [but cool] animation f/x like when there is a face-off between assassin [i.e. Mireille and X] the camera gets kind of jerky, which adds to the “panic” of that moment. The action scenes are decent, nothing flashy, but still suspenseful and well-executed.

~ Sound
Ten points. And I'll tell ya why! 3 things:
1. ALI Project
2. Shelley Calene-Black
3. Hilary Haag.

But in all seriousness, the whole English cast was great. Monica Rial and Tiffany Grant are also pretty big names in the anime industry. As far as music is concerned..., well like I said AIL Project is at the top of my list. Coppelia's Casket, like all their music, is fresh and unique with it's quirky lyrical flow and addictive beat. But this is one of the few series I've seen where I can say that all the music throughout the show was great, even the music for the pocket-watch [and the remixed version] were cool sounding. I would say the soundtrack is worth getting.

~ Story
If you like shows that fall into the “Girls/Babes with guns” category then you will like this show. I'm reluctant to say Noir has a strong plot because it's the “Girls with guns” gimmick that will tempt you to pick up this title and it's the action scenes with all the shooting that keeps you watching. But the plot isn't weak either. Maybe a good word to describe the story style would be formulaic or generic which is to say that Noir uses the somewhat tried and true, paint by numbers method of narration. They start out slow, giving you glimpses of the underlying theme through flashbacks and other such tactics, and then they [unnecessarily] stretch this out across 20 or so episodes then drop the supposed bombshell....that most people probably had figured out long before then. On the whole I don't have too much to say about the story because it's kind of simple and straightforward even for a mystery. I take greater issue with the characters and how credible they are.

~ Characters
I think that if they had done the “big reveal” a little earlier then it probably would have helped the show a little better because in this way that particular “big revelation” element could have been used for character building purposes [which I think they kinda needed....desperately] Both Mireille and Kirika seem only half developed, let's see:

First, we have Mireille is this beautiful, leggy assassin right? But her beauty seems purely incidental [OK there was that ONE salon scene....and even that was to gather intel for an operation.] She never once uses her looks or sex-appeal to her advantage for anything and even if you say, “OK she's a hitman” you still never see her enjoy her femininity on her downtime. The only thing that seems to preoccupy her mind is figuring out who killed her parents and why. And while this is completely understandable on the one hand, you then have her gunning down her own uncle [and only remaining family member] with little or no remorse, with the other hand. And what do we get? Just a slumped shoulder [when she killed him....which was really to trick the viewer] and a paltry flashback. She [the character...NOT the actress] needed more emotions so we can connect with her on that human level. That said, she is still the best character of the series.
OK so the other emotionally deficient character of the hour is Ms. Kirika.....and I mean severely so! With Kirika, we are to take into consideration the fact that she has no memory and I'm not a brain surgeon so I'm not sure if and how that ties to a person's emotions. I guess that it could be possible so we more or less just have to tolerate her silence and her inability to fully express herself emotionally as part and parcel to whatever mysteries she keeps locked inside. Personally I can't accept it though. It's like a stretch in character for there to be such a person to not have any memories and yet be so cool and calm about it. There are no questions about parents or siblings, school or even about favorite foods or color...Not to mention the glaringly obvious fact that she's Asian with a supposed Japanese school uniform and ID card in the middle of France! Nope, she just seems kind of complacent about it all and is equally complacent about being a killer.

The rest of the characters...forgeddaboutit, they are all under-cooked and underdeveloped, strictly 2-dimensional.

The one last thing I have an issue with is the fact the fact that Kirika [and Chloe] APPEARS a whole lot younger than Mireille, They seem to be mid-teens [Kirika even has a HS uniform] and Mireille seems to be early twenties so I would say roughly a 5 – 6 year gap right? So explain to me how during the flash back, they are all the same age not to mention the whole toddler-assassin thing? Is that what they teach in preschool these days?

~ The Verdict
Like I said...a decent show overall. It could probably have been cut to a 13 episode series and still have the same value. There is lots of action and therefore you won't be bored however if you are looking for sympathetic characters you might be disappointed read more

Suzuka is the perfect choice for those who want to break from the action-packed for a while and have a little taste of mellow. This series is both Sports and Romance [odd thing is this is classified as shonen, because the manga was published in a shonen weekly] but it's really like a shoujo anime.
The animation and art style is average but this does not mean that it's unappealing. Actually the characters are cute looking [which kinda reminds me of Gravitation for some reason] Good choice of colors...tho I did have to zap it up a notch with some color saturation.
Both OP and ED are sung in English which was an interesting change of pace for me [which asks the question: is J-POP considered J-POP if sung in English?] but the music was not quite there. I'd almost would like to say I might have liked it if it were sung in Japanese. Because sometimes when you actually hear and understand the words of a song then things like the meaning, significance and sentimentality are received differently. The English Voice actors were top notch, no complaints there.
With the story I have to say...there is one GLARINGLY unique characteristic this anime has above most other anime of this genre and that is the fact that this is a love story told from the perspective of a boy.....a HETEROSEXUAL boy! I have to admit I have never come across an anime quite like this. Love stories are traditionally shoujo and thusly told from a girls point of view with a female lead. I've also seen sensitive boys but only in the realm of BL stories. Harem, Ecchi and Hentai are not quite love stories [so I'm not going to accept Love Hina or Mahoromatic] I might accept Boys Be tho. But this is the first genuine love story I've seen where it's the guy who sits in the main seat of emotional angst. If there are other anime like this, by all means feel free to message me or comment on my page. Overall I liked this story and how it was told. I also liked the drama between the characters as well as the tension.
The two main characters seem to be the most developed: Suzuka and Yamato. Also some of the secondary characters like Honoka, are believable. Of course there was a love triangle Suzuka-Yamato-Honoka [I'm not going to say who won] but I was rooting for Honoka. Because Honoka was nice, pretty and a very sympathetic character. That's why she gets the Best Character award for this series.

**Bishounen Hunter's hottie alert!**
Yamato and Yasunobu. Yamato has a very simple look with spiky black hair and large, expressive black/gray eyes. That combined with his simple Asian boy-next-door good looks and his can-do attitude makes him a bishounen hottie. Yasunobu is just a hottie physically, he has the J-POP idol look down pat: the bleached hair, the clothes, the tan. He also has nice eyes. His personality is a bit on the obnoxious side but he is a devoted friend to Yamato.

This is a lite show that easy to digest. It doesn't get weighted down with cumbersome characters and convoluted plot twists. The story is nicely paced for a “slice of life” anime and I especially love the fact it's a love story told from the viewpoint of a boy. read more

When I heard that ADV had released G-Force/Battle of the Planets in it's entirety of all original 105 episodes completely unedited and under the original name, Gatchaman, I was overjoyed! Battle of the Planets [BOTP] was certainly all that and a bag of chips back in the day. Funny thing is, a couple of years back I attempted to revisit my childhood memories by watching Battle of the Planets again for old times sake and to my abject horror and dismay, I saw now with my adult eyes how absolutely putrid BOTP was....feel free to read my review of BOTP. Now that it's fully restored I am going to give it another shot and see if this show is really good or not and just how much of it was butchered by Sandy Frank and the other American production companies.

~ The Art
Pretty darn old looking! There's no mistaking that this show was 100% hand-drawn! Lot's of errors and glitches in movement, little foreign objects and dust specs on the film [or art cells] Also the people looking all sorts of deformed due to disproportionate body ratios and incorrect angling. Tons and tons of looped and reused scenes. All of which I would find forgivable considering the show was made in 1972. It's still a pretty decent show visually and compared to many 80's show like Voltron, ThunderCats or Saber Riders, Gatchaman can still hold it's own. Also considering it's date once again it was still superior to it's US equivalent of show from that same era such as Scooby-Doo, Magilla Gorilla and Hong Kong Phooey [although I did think Super-Friends was the shit]

~The Sound
Thank Zeus, they re-did the voice cast! The biggest reason I decided to watch this show again. Listening to Casey Kasem's voice [on BOTP really got on my nerves, he sounds like he gargles with broken glass everyday....and in no way shape or form does he posses the voice of a teenager. He was the main reason I dropped the show.
The new English voices are OK, it's nothing I would normally go raving about but it's a drastic improvement from the original cast. Although this re-dubbing must have occurred fairly recently after 2000, the actors do playfully interject a lot of Groovy-Speak and Jive Talk which I thought was very funny.
What I also found funny were some of the voices of the bad guys....Like that one German villainous pilot that scene when he said “Auf Weidersehen” and disappeared into his mecha was a laugh riot. And forget about Berg Katse, I live for Berg Katse [He acts and talks like a villain from Batman [60's Adam West version] which was also pure camp.
Stright up tho, the songs for the OP and ED blow some serious chunks. The guy singing the Gatchaman Theme song sound like he's amped up on too much Mountain Dew....he's all like “YUKEEE!!! Yuke yuke GATCHAMAN!” it's so terrible it's kinda funny, check it out on youtube, you'll see what I mean and laugh too.

~The Story
OK so this being an old ass anime from the Paleolithic Era, you can expect things to be rather simplistic, repetitive and somewhat hokey. I no longer look at this show with the wonder and amazement as I did as a kid, but the show is still fun to watch [in small doses...as a marathon it fails] The basic premise for this show is that the Gatchaman team are these 5 teens who go around trying to stop the pollution of the Earth, which consequently and repeatedly they end up foiling the plans of the Galactor who are these aliens intent on screwing up the planet for some odd reason. I find this funny because the tremendous irony that apparently goes unnoticed is that the whole time Gatchaman fights and blows up these giant enemy mecha they become equally culpable for the destruction and pollution of whichever the site they are trying to defend [Edit: Actually in ep. 96 someone FINALLY tells them they are equally guilty in taking part in the destruction]. So I'm a little lost on the eco-friendly thing. Also they're not too animal friendly either because in one particular episode one of the good-guys Joe, blasts a whale straight in the mouth, just like that....I know it's not funny, but I had to laugh.
The downside to all of this is that Gatchaman is a whopping 105 episodes. By episode 25 I was getting a little tired and bored because it's all basically the same story with different monsters and different members of Gatchaman being the focus for that episode....after a while it just ran in the background while I did other stuff. The last few episodes at the end of the series, like maybe after episode 90, become a bit more interesting again.

~ The Characters
You know something, when it comes to the latest controversial debate about whether anime characters look more Anglo rather than Asian....I kinda have to agree, because these guys are as Anglo-American looking as it gets. Not that I'm trying to say much about that on here so controversial topic aside, it must also be said that their overall designs were fantastic, each character was unique looking and easily distinguishable. You could easily tell who were the good guys and who were the bad guys. I also love the wardrobe and costumes of the characters. I especially like how the 5 main characters look when they are not dressed up in “Bird Mode” I love the long hair, wide belts and striped bell-bottom pants; it's a good look.
My best character award goes to two characters this time: Jinpei, the youngest member of the Gatchaman team and of course to Berg Katse the commander of the evil Galactor force. I really like Jinpei the Swallow, I think he's adorable with his little match-stick body and giant round head. He's young but he's got guts and will take on adults twice his size. He does a lot of things he's not supposed to and gets in too deep many times but once he gets that determined look on his face you know he means business and most of the time he can hold his own and doesn't need to be bailed out. Jinpei also has the coolest [IMHO] and most versatile vehicle in the group. He has a fully armored mini-tank/submarine that has robotic arms and can fly but also dig underground.
The other award goes to Berg Katse [like I said] this guy is hilarious! The words that comes out of his mouth are a trip [I really should give credit to the VA]. Also he's very clever and disguises himself as anything and anyone. The funniest things about him are the fact that he always abandons his subordinates whenever the battle goes south and they are facing oblivion also I love when he gets abusive and smacks people but he's also funny when he's groveling to his superior....which is that floating demonic head-thing [X, I think he's called]
Bishounen Hunter hottie alert: Ken the Eagle and Joe the Condor [sometimes, when the angle is right] they have that vintage 70s look with the sideburns and long hair. Ken's eyes are cute but Joe's eyes are kinda feral looking.

~ The Verdict
Compared to BOTP, Gatchaman is not too bad of a show to watch, I just think 105 episodes is a bit too much for a series that does not have a continuous story like most anime shows nowadays. The fact that the stories are rather simplistic and repetitive with most of everything being resolved at the end of an episode makes having to endure 105 episodes kinda tedious.
This is a show I would maybe recommend viewing in an episode-a-day format, but it's definitely not something to watch as a marathon, because it's too long of a series and some of the stories [and scenes] repeat frequently. But the new voice cast makes this show a hell of a lot better to watch. read more

More than anything it pains me to no end to say that this show was horrible. Eventho it was among the first animes I have ever watched, along with Speed Racer and later....Robotech [which does hold the #1 spot in my heart]. The thing is. I really don't remember this show sucking so badly. Even if you gave it some leeway, based on the fact that it came from the 70/80s, there is just no excuse for such poor editing. It's one thing to 'dumb it down' for kids, it's another thing to hack a show into bits and make it into utter nonsensical rubbish. The voices of some the characters were just so bad I thought my ears would bleed if I watched any more of this show. I'm very disappointed to say the least! Here it is, what I thought would be a lovely visit down memory lane when in all actuality what I've got in my hot little hands, to my startling realization and astonishing dismay, is a nightmare set in 85 episodes.

~ Animation
Animation/Movement was really really bad, choppy...with a lot of scene looping, but hey, it's the 70's where it's all about bad acting and bad editing. Right?

~ Sound
The theme song was actually OK, considering the age of the show, also the background music was appropriate and befitting. I had no issues with the English voice actors, save the guy who played 7-Zark-7 and the guy who played Mark.

OK so, I know that Casey Kasem was this renowned voice actor back in the day, if I remember correctly he was either Batman or Robin in the Superfriends and most notably he was Shaggy from Scooby-Doo. But his voice for Mark was just plain bad casting. His voice was just too grown-up and too gravelly. Mark sounded like he was 50, which was probably the age of Mr. Kasem at that time. I mean even the mustachioed “Professor” guy sounded younger. Kasem's voice was one of the chief reasons why I couldn't finish the show.

~ Story
I have never watched the complete story, not as a kid and not now. I don't know what the story is besides what I learned from this site [AnimeNFO] and WIKI. That's it! So I tried to revisit this childhood memory as well as gain some first hand knowledge of this experience, but I can't because the editing is that horrible.

You can CLEARLY see that some of these images and scenes are just randomly juxtaposed out of sequence for filler or by trying to force the original direction of the anime to the American script. Supposedly the original story has strong themes of environmentalism....from what I have seen, this does seem to be the case. However with BOTP it's about planet hopping [and all the planets look like Earth] and saving the universe.

~ Character
Of the all characters, 7-Zark-7 got my nerves! Mark's voice was bad...but the character Mark was OK. 7-Zark-7 was not OK by me, for one, he keeps emphasizing how he's a robot and how he has no emotions yet he's constantly 'worried' about G-Force.....not to mention how he was basically the vehicle for all this hetero humor pumping thru the show with him getting all 'erect' of over the voice of Susan--some far off female robot who communicates to him thru some intercom and he gets all stiff for Princess too. It's like “OK kids, now lets all grow up to be good heterosexual boys and girls”

I had no other issues with any of the other characters. I thought they were drawn pretty well considering it was done in the 70's...though at times it was looking pretty primitive. I also thought that their torsos all looked a little blockish, waists and hips were the same width with chests and shoulders perhaps a bit wider. Meanwhile their arms and legs were twigs by comparison. But this mostly happened when they were in uniform. In plain clothes they looked fine...thanks to the bell-bottoms I guess.

~ Verdict
Nostalgia, distrust and disappointment are what's on order for this show. I am one of the few that will admit to seeing this show back in 1980/81 as Battle of the Planets. I distrust most animes from the 70s/80s era because of what was done to the US adaptations of Robotech and Captain Harlock and I became disappointed as soon as I saw 7-ZARK-7 [tho he is ingrained in my memory as 'originally' there]. Nevertheless, I decided to give it another whirl and watch BOTP for old times sake....but it was all for naught, in the end because I just couldn't finish it. Each time I watched a new episode, I got annoyed by the voices [Mark's voice] and all the shoddy editing and thought to myself...'I have 85 episodes of this to go through' which made the task of watching it all too daunting to complete. Reasonably I completely understand how it is that Battle of the Planets was a formidable contender, now established pillar, among the halls of historic animes thru the ages. But, I guess, unless you have had complete exposure and was fully immersed into the series back in the day....there's no way you can look at this show with 'modern' eyes and enjoy it or even find it remotely entertaining. The only way you could ever see it that way is through the veil of nostalgia. I only partially saw the show as a kid [my parents split and I had to move] so I can kind of remember things like the theme song and the character's names etc. but I guess that doesn't count, I guess I don't have enough nostalgia stored to use as a filter and prevent myself from truly seeing this show for the complete atrocity it really is. It is most certainly a collectible series considering the history and the mark it's left as an anime pioneer and all that.....but it's hardly watchable much less RE-watchable . Tho it has inspired within me to go on a quest to get/buy/collect the original unedited version of the series. read more

Buso Renkin is a fun show to watch. It does have a lot of the typical shonen elements that's to be expected: like the main character wanting to fight fight fight all so he can fulfill the glorious role as the noble “protector” also there are those battles where they spend most of the time explaining how great each other's powers are and then of course pull that one “miracle move” out of their ass. I never understood the point of all that fighting and explaining. Either way Buso Renkin has a lot of this and yet nonetheless I found it enjoyable perhaps mainly because it could all be interpreted as making fun of itself as well as the entire Battle/Adventure genre. At times it is so damn tacky it's magnificent!

~ Art
A little above standard as far as post millennial anime goes and as with most of these type of multi-fighter battle adventure anime you will see plenty of weapons and super-powers that provide some incredible special f/x. With this show in particular the fights seem to be on a much larger scale with powers being a little too grand. That's why personally I prefer fighting shows where they have swords or use martial arts because the movements are smaller and more intricate and when animated properly, they can be ten times more amazing than this shit...i.e., Cowboy Bebop, Kenshin and Samurai Champloo just to name a few. But some of the f/x in this show I was pretty impressed with, like most of the pyro f/x and also that one scene where like a million missiles were launched at the same time.

~ Sound
Honestly? Not impressed. Right off the bat I'll tell you I had an issue with the English voice cast on this one. While they sound cool they do not emotionally match up with the character's expressions. You can pick up on this instantly from episode 1, the dude gets stabbed thru the heart and yet he sounds like he's surfing on a boogie board? Dude! you just got stabbed thru the [effin] heart by a giant [bleeeeep] tentacle! you should be SCREAMING like bloody murder and sputtering and choking on blood, guts and shit...not go "whooooooaaaaa" like you're Keanu Reeves! And she, the heroine Tokiko, at this point calmly and coolly says “This wasn't supposed to happen...” WTF reacts that way, seriously? Don't get me wrong the VA for Tokiko has a nice smooth voice but it's a total miscast for her to play this role. Though sophisticated it is a little too mature for a teenage voice....and I just think her emotional range is rather limited. Same for most of the other casting, they're good but they lack a certain amount of that genuineness or intensity as a particular scene may have required.
The OP song is this totally sped up rubbish pop-wannabe-rock music stereotypical of shonen anime; couple this with the visuals of seeing that guy, whatshisface Kazuki, running around all amped up like some crack-head doofus with all this pseudo-aggression on his face was enough for me to skip the intro altogether. Both ED songs were decent but not enough to make you want to get the soundtrack or anything.

~ Story
Buso Renkin has a pretty straightforward story: guy gets imbued with super-powers, guy meets nemesis, fights nemesis, of course saves the world [which is always in peril these days] and finally [...inevitably] gets the girl, the end. Typical fare for shonen-type anime which is usually a thinly veiled excuse to get all violent and fight and demonstrate superpowers. And of course there are the beach scenes and the fan-service, but the show is also very funny...I'll give it that.

~ Characters
This show has a pretty large cast of characters, and they are drawn in standard anime fashion. My favorite character hands-down is the Butterfly Dude [Papillon] he is a freak! But there are many many more for you to choose from.

~ The Verdict
It's cute, and it has it's funny moments. Nothing epic but a great way to pass the time if you have nothing better to do. I would only buy this if it were on sale, otherwise Youtube or Crunchyroll. read more

I really have no idea about how I feel about this show. Therefore this review might wind up ambiguous....you decide. See, I was never too crazy about Big O, even from back in the day when it was on C/N. Even after re-watching it again now I still feel the same way. There are too many things about it that I either found irksome or just failed to impress me altogether but there were parts that I did like about the show too. What I disliked: for one, I've never been too fond of Mecha anime shows especially of the giant robot variety because they always seem too quick to jump into them and try to solve everything in them then they end up fighting and smashing up things of course Big O is no different when it comes to this. But I did like the show for the mystery element as well as for the love-triangle.

~ Art
The art [and animation] of this show I found bothersome. Watching this show you can almost immediately tell that they had the means to really go all out with the animation if they wanted to...but they chose not to! Which is a letdown. Of course there is a lot of attention and detail given to the big robots; lots of unique and impressive designs with some looking humanoid others like dragons or giant sea-serpents, and such. Also some moderate attention was given to architecture, some places more than others, I mostly can only envision Roger's home which was fantastic with the great view from the city from the terrazzo. But again I must state that I don't think the art was quite there...just not quite 100%. There was no oomph, no dazzle, maybe it was they way they used the color or shading that made it seem all somewhat similar to our shit. Yeah, I guess what I'm trying to say is actually felt more like I was watching a US cartoon than an anime. Also the battle scenes were somewhat lackluster.

~ Sound
I'm not even going to lie about the music...it's terrible. The OP song is a total rip from the Flash Gordon theme by the legendary rock group Queen. Yes I'm showing my age here, but I definitely do NOT like the Big O song! Whether they were authorized or it's a complete rip they are trying to pose as their own, it sucks. Queen/Freddy Mercury was a once in a lifetime thing, forgeddaboudit! it's like buying a deliberate Prada knock-off over in Chinatown and then trying to have it pass for realness...why? The ED theme sounds like it came from the score of some Off-Broadway musical. And I dislike Broadway musicals....feel free to connect the dots. The good thing was that the English voice cast were same actors from Cowboy Bebop!

~ Story
Here is where I had the biggest issue with Big O, to me at least the story seemed sometimes vague or muddy and somewhat nonsensical but at the same time not completely illogical. The narrative was kind of choppy and the continuity was rough, it's like having someone talk to you but with every third or fourth word omitted from each sentence, you can still understand what they are saying however the message is not received clearly. This is precisely the issue with Big O and therefore why it barely held my interest. Apart from being a big robot anime, Big O is also a mystery yet it does not possess enough of a hook to hold your attention. Like I said, I found myself not really understanding the point of the anime at times which lead to me not really caring about what was going on with the story and characters. At some point there was some maniac in bandages running around and laughing and jumping into various evil giant robots for a number of episodes...which to me there was no real point for it. Also at some stages I felt like I was truly only just watching this series to satisfy this compulsory sense of duty I have to finish what I have started. Luckily, it did seem to get a little more interesting somewhat closer to the end of the series, maybe around episode 18 or so.

~ Characters
The characters do not look like regular anime characters, they are somewhat oddly and annoyingly shaped with a lot of severe angles jutting outward, even their fingers were pointy!! And overall they looked more like American cartoon characters made to look like anime characters......I dunno, I hate being vague like that but it all just looked like America had a hand in the artwork and character design and so they people look like the people from Justice League or the New Teen-Titans than they do anything from the world of Japanese animation. Except for that one blonde chic, Angel, who was a dead ringer for Queen Esmeraldas from Captain Harlock or Maetel from Galaxy Express 999 from way back in the day which is why she gets my pick for the best character in this series.

~ The Verdict
Big O is not really a show I could confidently recommend to other people because it gave me no zest and left me seriously lacking, story-wise. but clearly if you are a mecha-lover then by all means watch it for yourself.
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~Main | Overall
Full Moon wo Sagashite, for me, is the quintessential shoujo anime. It has all the elements a shoujo addict like myself craves; it's funny, dramatic, emotional, has nice looking characters and great music. There is not much to be said about this series that has not been said already, I would truly love to give this series all PERFECT 10s because it does deserve it, but there are some minor stuff I gotta take points off for. Still hands down Full Moon excels as a shoujo series as most reviews you come across have demonstrated by giving this show nothing but 9s and 10s.

~Art | Animation
The art could be considered “old school-inspired” since it does have that 90's anime look. it kinda reminds me of Sailor Moon a little bit but you can tell it's fairly recent because the movements are a lot smoother and there aren't as many irregularities that you'd normally see in anime from the 80s – 90s.....but there are some [minor] errors and also quite a few scene looping and reuse.

~Music | Voices | F/X
This show has some of the best music anime has to offer.....eventho it's only like, 3 songs. No seriously, I think Full Moon, NANA and lets not forget Lacus Clyne [Gundam SEED] have some of the best songs in anime, if you are into ballads/slow songs and J-POP then you know what I mean. However, the 3 or 4 songs in this series, which in reality is a tad insufficient for a 52 episode series, gets played over and over and over again. This might annoy some viewers, I was OK with it though.
The OPs were not sung by Full Moon but by another group The Scanty. I only liked the first OP “I Love You” because it is very cheerful, playful and makes you want to sing along [I also like the little Mitsuki dance.] However I'm not too crazy about the second OP [Rock n Roll Princess] I do think that song is a little bit on the kiddie side. The title gets on my nerves words like Rock n Roll and Princess clash, I know they [The Scanty] were trying to perhaps be edgy or ironic but it's really lame sounding. Also I know little girls like to dream of being princesses...but the notion is all too very cliché to me.
I watched it in Japanese and the cast was just great, as usual.

~Story | Plot
What a great story! If it weren't 52 episodes long I'd watch it a lot more frequently. Like everyone else, when I first read the synopsis of this show I thought...cancer...CANCER??? How they make a show about cancer and think it's going to be entertaining? But it's really not as dramatic as all that, thank goodness! Full Moon is actually a very light and nice feeling show, which is very similar to Card Captor Sakura [as far as emotional tone goes, not plot-wise] but it can also be very profound at times.
There are a few things you should know though, like I said Full Moon is a 52 episode series, aside from the first couple of introductory episodes everything else seem to be filler. At least to me they seem to be filler, this does not mean that they are not funny or fun to watch. To me they are still somewhat vital since they allow you to see the characters in various situations and settings which allows you to understand and appreciate the characters as well as become attached to them. Now the last 12 or so episodes is when things are on and popping, this is where the story peaks and the biggest dramatic turning point is revealed!!! This is where you aren't going to be able to stop watching the series....I know I was hooked!

~Cast | Character
Not one character I didn't like! My favorite character award goes to both Meroko and Tanaka-san [yes Tanaka-san]. Meroko at first comes off as this ditsy, love-obsessed, brat but deep down she has a heart. This is important because a lot of anime females are like this and they do not have the opportunity to express it or have things turn out the way things did for Meroko [or even Madoka for that matter] and people just write them off as “air-head bitches” when truly that's only a superficial layer for who they truly are. Meroko was the emotional to Takuto's rationale and a person [in this case, Mitsuki] cannot be whole without either. And then there's Tanaka, I loved her she was so funny. Just they way they drew her face always smiling, mischievous...and she's always sneaking around spying, eavesdropping and listening to her music, eventho it's banned in the house where she works. Not since Alice from the Brady Bunch has a maid been this cool.
OK here comes the Bishounen Hunter section: Eichi-kun, what's not to love about this guy? He's smart, sensitive, polite and soft-spoken. He's also somewhat of a classy dresser....I love that white trench-coat! His style is simple yet understated and classy. Eichi wears a lot of white which supposedly is the color of purity and in his case this would be true, Eichi is my favorite bishounen of the series. Takuto comes in a close second, he is one-half of the Negi Ramen Shinigami team with Meroko. Takuto is almost the opposite of Eichi, he wears outlandish costumey,rocker-type clothes and is kinda brash and outspoken. His face is stern-looking most of the time while Eichi's face was always gentle and smiling. But Takuto is very principled and can be self-sacrificing.

~Worth It?
What can I say. I really like this series. Some people may hate the art, some people may hate the fact that it's too long, others may hate [Eternal Snow] and [Myself] being played over and over again. It was all worth it, the best way I can describe this show is that it's like one of those dishes you have to cook slowly for hours [maybe even overnight?] for it to come out fantastic and once you take a bite you realize all the labor was worth it. read more

For a lot of people when they think “shoujo” they think of Full Moon wo Sagashite, Boys Over Flowers, Fruits Basket and of course, Marmalade Boy. That's why I picked the title.....Buuuuuuuuut while I DO love shoujo but I could barely tolerate Marmalade Boy mainly there is too much unnecessary angst and most of the drama is self-inflicted. This show did not touch me neither on an emotional nor intellectual level.
It has a very dated look, very 80's with flat coloring as well as stiff unnatural movements that's predictably associated with anime from that era.
Out of the whole series I the song I loved most was MOMENT, even though it's completely overused in the series. I dunno, something about the xylophone and that 80's base beat really worked for me. I include it on every anime playlist I make for my iPOD. The SAYONARA song was a little too melodramatic for me, sorry.
The whole series is melodramatic, with all the terrible music and dramatic lighting, exaggerated posings, let's not forget the constant crying and running down endless flights of stairs....EGAD! For me this show is too much like a daytime soap opera they could call it “As Miki Turns” seriously someone give that girl some Klonopin or Lexapro because she is just too anxious it's kind of annoying. The story has no real plot just people falling in love with each other, over and over again and thenmore people show up to form love triangles, love squares and love polygons...after a while it all becomes a bit tedious. The only really interesting story would be Mako and Nao-Chan, the student-teacher relationship.
The character design is terrible, the faces are OK but body-wise they're a hot mess....A HOT MESS!!! It's like they took silhouettes intended for high fashion design and tried to make it work for anime. Um, can we say FAIL boys and girls? Everyone's hips were too narrow and combined with those matchstick-like legs that moved awkwardly a lot of the time they walked and posed like their thighs were fused together. The girls' torsos seemed fine and acceptable by anime standards but the boys' shoulders and torsos on the other hand were very broad [sometimes the width of about 3 heads] and yet there is no muscle mass or even any kind of definition they are just abnormally larger “skeletally” than the girls. Things get worse when you look at an actual adult male in the series, they look even more freakishly larger and disproportionate in relation to the school kids.
I own it but I can't re-watch it. Miki brings too much unnecessary anxiety upon herself, every minute the guy is gone she thinks he's cheating on her or forgotten about her or dead....it's annoying. She's the kind of person that could potentially become a stalker. Personally, I would recommend Boys over Flowers or Full Moon wo Sagashite over Marmalade Boy any day. read more

Three cheers for existentialist anime! Hip-hip....um, well you get what I mean. Following in the footsteps of it's predecessors such as Rahxephon and the monumental hit Neon Genesis Evangelion, Zegapain is a mecha-oriented anime that attempts to break the traditional shonen guidelines of being just another “shoot-em-up, blow-em-up” type action series and explore deeper philosophical themes. But while these concepts are sufficient enough to create a compelling story, I can't help but question; what makes Zegapain unique, what sets it apart from the other anime shows that have already gone down this path? Shows like Rahxephon, NGE and even the Matrix trilogies have already told this story and each one have had great success to the point of reaching legendary and even cult-hit status. So did Zegapain [and by “Zegapain” obviously I mean the creative force behind it] choose this path because it's a proven formula for success or do they bring something new to the table?

~ Art/Animation
If nothing else the animation was FIERCE! Yes, I said “FIERCE” that's how good it was. There's a well worn-out saying that advises against judging a book by it's cover, and though fundamentally true, the art sequences of the OP and ED themes were just heart-stoppingly stunning! I loved how they deconstructed the images of each character into swimming schools of fish or this fantastic explosion of feathers and birds in mid-flight. This is a post-millennial, mecha oriented anime so naturally you can expect A LOT of CG use...this is par for the course nowadays. If you have read any of my other reviews then you will know that I am not particularly moved by machine art, schematics, diagrams, holographic LEDs and such....impressive as they are, this show contains all of that and much more so if that's what you're into then you will not be disappointed. However, I prefer shows that focus on people and more “organic” themes as well as show off a little of the scenery or environment; I love seeing trees and deserts and meadows and swamps, flowers and bamboo forests, etc. There might be a little more of that in the final episode but in general, it's all about the mecha. So I can't fault the show for that.

~ Sound
OK back to the OP and ED once again [maybe I enjoyed them more than the show?] Beautiful music! I usually dislike techno with digitized voices and things of that nature however, I LOVED the music of this series! I don't know if the soundtrack is worth getting, since I very much like the sound of words and singing voices and most OSTs are just BGM tracks. I'm sure this is no different but the songs from the OP and ED were very well done and at least getting the singles. I did watch this show in English, no one's voice particularly jumped out at me. What I recall from this show was that there was some profanity and when Kyo blew up about the “effing” flowers, well that was classic.

~ Story
This is where it gets dicey...for me anyways. I liked it but I didn't love it, I didn't have any of that "OMG I MUST see what's going to happen in the next episode" feeling. I wasn't hooked but I did want to see how it all unfolded and I did like that it make you think. I'm a thinker by nature and over-analysis is one of my main tendencies, not to mention I've studied philosophy both formally as well as leisurely so this topic in particular is one of my favorite. There is no question that Zegapain wanted to align itself with the other anime giants like Neon Genesis Evangelion [NGE] and Raxephon, but while those two received a lot of critical acclaim and recognition, this show did not. It may be because this show cannot bring something new to one of philosophy's most rudimentary question that has no truly defining answer. Aside from the “cogito ergo sum” defense, you can't really prove existence beyond personal experience since all facet of the human experience is subjective from which you cannot perform objective analysis.

Zegapain tells you not to believe what you see, like in the Matrix it says “the world as you know it is not the real world” and to step beyond the looking glass and to truly "wake up.” But how does one truly "wake up?" Where this show departs from the others [I think] is that it clearly and boldly states that it's the experience that should be the main focus, that it's not just merely a by-product or consequence to being alive but rather by engaging in the human experience you not only define existence but become existence. In other words, instead of trying to prove you are alive....simply be alive. And that a life is a life worth living wherever the heart lies, this is reality and that is the splendor that is Zegapain! But in order to really lock that idea in place, Zegapain had to also counter-weigh the idea of human frailty with that of immortality, since the core meaning of the human experience is to both have a beginning and an end, as well as the ability to repeat that cycle.

So I ask the question again, what makes Zegapain unique and does it bring something new to the table? My own answer is yes and no. Both the question and answer that Zegapain proposes are not new, they just applied a more “Eastern” answer to what people consider “Western” philosophy...Oriental Philosophy generally does not possess the same kind of dualism that the Western [as well as the cultural identities born from Western ideology] does, Asians are more about “don't think it, be it” especially in Buddhist thinking. What I do think is unique to this series is the fact that this point is delivered more clearly than it's predecessors. NGE—though it was a magnificent and powerful story—was actually very nihilistic and if anyone really wanted to be honest with themselves it was kind of depressing, it offered very little hope or understanding to the human condition. Rahxephon to me was even worse when it came to clarity, to me it's all fine and good to wax existential from time to time...if you have a point to prove, but if you lack a cohesive argument what was your point? I may have to eventually revisit Rahxephon in order to fully understand it. And the Matrix, even though not an anime, was the one to truly establish the landmark precedent of introducing existential thought to the masses and setting the bar in modern pop-culture with it's jaw-dropping special F/X and iconic imagery.

CLEARLY Zegapain was influenced by the Matrix, but that being said, I might dare to say it attempted to challenge the Matrix, perhaps to provide a counter-argument or alternate viewpoint. Meaning, the Matrix dallies with religious and messianic ideas attributing true control and power away from mankind and to an external source...with salvation ultimately coming through Neo. While Zegapain on the other hand, tells us that true power is NOT found without but from within the heart of man [mankind], that we ourselves have the potential to become the masters of our own domain and harness the power of gods within the “spheres" of our own existences.

~ Characters
The design for the characters are great except for the faces, it's hard to put my finger on it except to say that sometimes their faces seemed simple compared to the weight and detail given to their bodies. Maybe it's because I study men more than women [*OH HUSH* it's already a known fact anime females get way much more critical attention and a larger appreciative fan-base than their male counterparts] but one can easily see that the men in this series are more muscular and beefy looking body-wise and yet still possess that traditional anime [somewhat fem-looking] face. It could also be their noses or eyes or eyelashes. Sunrise is very good at mecha but not humans or rather, the tiny nuances of human facial expressions. Either way something prevented me from bonding with the characters right up until the very last episodes. It could be that they were too preoccupied with keeping the integrity of the story intact that they did want to distract the audience by focusing too deeply on the characters.

Lu-Shen definitely stole the show in my opinion, he's beautiful, mellow and level-headed. I also appreciate Kyo as the lead character since it's rather apparent the Japanese have this tendency to glorify fairer skin tones, Kyo's red hair and tanned skin is not unique to anime [actually a lot of shonen anime offers this archetypal image as their lead] but it's still nice to watch. And even though Lu-Shen was the one on the pedestal [once again, gracious beautiful and fair-skinned] they did give a lot of appreciation and grace to Kyo's form as well.

~ Worth it?
This good anime to watch, it isn't as emotional or ground-breaking as NGE or Rahxephon however it's themes are more precise and there is greater clarity than the other two. I also like the fact that this show is considerably more optimistic. Even though this show is newer than the other two, I would recommend watching this show first since it's not as complex and does not get entangled with trying to define life's deeper meaning. read more