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Jonah is a a child soldier who hates guns and arms dealer who he hates because he blames the for selling the guns who killed his family. However, he ends up working as a body guard for the enigmatic illegal arms dealer Koko Hekmatyar.

With Jormungand we delve into the murky world of illegal arms dealing and the contradictions that go with. We follow Koko and her band of mercenaries as she makes arms deal with anyone who can make her money, rival arms dealers whilst dodging assassins and the CIA. One thing is for sure, where Koko goes death surely follows.

One thing Jormungand does too ... well is glamourising the world of illegal arms dealing. One thing you have to remember none of the characters are nice people. On the surface the characters are very likable but this is a facade. Koko is fiercely loyal to those who follow her and that loyalty is returned but this loyalty has a price. She is extremely cunning, expertly hides her thoughts and will ruthlessly kill anyone who crosses her. Her mercenary bodyguards are really more like well armed killers. This contradiction is probably the point of Jormungand.

Moving on from the morality of Jormungand. The art isn't the best but the story is good. The key to the whole anime is Koko Hekmatyar as you never know how she will handle any situation and it is this unpredictability that makes Jormungand enjoyable to watch and give the anime depth where it could have been just mired in gratuitous violence.

A violent but well worked and very enjoyable anime but it could never be a classic.

Samurai 7 is a futuristic version of Kurosawa Akira's classic film Seven Samurai. For those who do not know the film the story is set at the end of a civil where frightened villagers are terrorised by Samurai who have become a band of bandits. In desperation a handful of villages go to the city to hire Samurai with the only thing they have to offer, rice.

There search is less than successful as they are often conned by poor Samurai who just want a free meal or dismissed wealthier Samurai. Eventually they manage to hire a less than inspiring group of 7 Samurai, Kambei the ... leader who has never won a battle, Kikuchiyo a wanna be samurai, Katsushiro a novice who hasn't experienced battle, Shichiroji Kambei's cowardly friend, Gorobei a samurai who has become a showman to survive, wood chopping Heihachi, and the mysterious Kyuzo. Not a group you would want to defend your village.

These are, except for Kikuchiyo and Katsushoro, men of violence struggling to come to adapt an age of peace. Why they accept the villages offer is mainly for redemption

Apart from the futuristic setting and the mecha bandits where Samurai 7 deviates from Kurosawa Akira's film is the introduction of Ukyo, the anime's best character. He is introduced as a spoilt brat but he soon becomes an opportunistic and ultimately ruthless character looking to benefit from controlling the bandits as a way to repress and control the villages.

However, the Samurai 7 keeps the spirit of the film and includes Kikuchiyo's key speech about who is to blame for the villages fear and distrust of the 7 Samurai when they have come to help them.

Ultimately though Samurai 7 is a what it could have been. It could have been great but the less than inspiring characters let it down. It was difficult to feel much for the characters. This meant what should have been emotional scenes leaving me cold.

Good anime but could have been great.

Sometimes when I write a review I find myself being too negative focusing on the flaws too much all the while the subject good scores. For Full Metal Panic I will start on the main flaw of the show as it has a major impact on its enjoyment.

What may it be? Full Metal Panic has something for everyone, mecha, romance, action. A good story with a real bad ass, I love to hate him bad guy, great characters, animation that is standing the test of time and a great sound track. Well the problem is the presentation. It is clear from the start that the ... key to the show is the relationship between Sousuke and Chidori yet we don't see it develop and that just drove me mad. The Full Metal Panic story really needed to merge with Full Metal Panic Fumoffu and the Second Raid so their relationship could develop in between missions and not affect the plot.

The story pits Sousuke Sagara on his toughest mission yet, protecting Kaname Chidori one of the whispered who have the key to black technology. And this means infiltrating Chidori's school. Unfortunately Sousuke, a former child soldier, isn't a natural for the mission as he as somewhat difficulty adapting to high school life and is unable to differentiate between high school, the beach and normal life and the battlefield and to make things more confusing Chidori is not the kind of damsel in distress that constantly needs rescueing from the dangers of normal life providing many a comedy moment.

Full Metal Panic is has an enjoyable and gripping story, great characters with with great chemistry including a bad guy who you can really love to hate, good and colourful animation, I especially liked the lines under Sousuke and Chidori's for some reason, a well written script with great comedy, the voice actors did a great job and an enjoyable sound track

If the series merged with Full Metal Panic Fumoffu and the Second Raid in to a 50+ series allowing Sousuke and Chidori's relationship to develop then Full Metal Panic would have been a potential classic instead it is an anime which is great but........

I don't think there is a better animator around at the moment than Shinkai Makato. It is a little hard to believe that this visually stunning short animation was made for a trade exposition.

Due to the shortness of the animation it is difficult to write a detailed review. Shinkai Makato once again delivers with the animation and once again Shinkai Makato produces an animation where the story revolves around the sense of loss.

The sense of loss comes from being apart for the first time and nothing appears to be going right yet a sense of loss brings the Father and daughter back together again bringing ... happiness back in to their lives.

The story is a heavily narrated story about the relationship between a father and daughter who have grown apart as the daughter has matured and left home. Most of the film shows the daughter growing up and as she does so she becomes less and less close to her father but ironically her growing independence makes her father proud but lonely.

The mother appears, we assume, to have moved overseas for work leaving the father and daughter a lone and it is possibly the mother doing the narration all the while a soft melodic piano score is played over the top.

A beautiful short animation and well worth 6 minutes of your life.

In anime there are some intense stories such as Elfen Lied, some challenge you intellectually like Aoi Bungaku but sometimes you just want to be entertained and not think very hard about it.

Zero no Tsukaima is a show just for that. You can put your mind in neutral and just enjoy.

There is a lot wrong with Zero no Tsukaima. The animation is not very good, The story feels like its of secondary importance, you can see the plot twists a mile away and it has just about every harem cliche in the book but somehow it works.

The main reason it works is that it ... knows its own limitations. It sticks to what it is good at. And that is the relationship between Saito and Louise. From the moment Saito falls from the sky after being summoned by Louise we have a nice romantic comedy and like all the best harem comedies Saito sticks with Louise rather than work his way around all the girls. Also Saito discovering bit by bit of previous connections between his world and Louise's.

Most of the comedy is between Saito and Louise which is mainly Saito's wandering eye getting him in to trouble with Louise yet he manages to do it in so many different ways that it never gets old.

This is all very good but what is Zero no Tsukaima about. Well it is about Louise the worst student at a Magic Academy in a world where only aristocrats have magic ability. As part of her studies she must summon a familiar. Seeing her classmates summon some pretty cool familiars Louise summons Saito a boy from from Japan.

Louise at first treats Saito as a normal familiar, making him sleep on a pile of straw and feeding him scraps and getting frustrated at his refusal to obey her but slowly comes to realise that Saito is a human being. However, her pride stops her from not treating him like a servant and punishing him when he does wrong yet gets insanely jealous, becoming completely tsundere, when Saito talks or looks at other girls. Unfortunately for Saito is all the time.

Together they embark a number of adventures and despite Saito's wandering eye he ways is there to protect Louise when she is in danger. A fact that Louise comes to appreciate and slowly accepts her romantic feelings for Saito showing her venerability like all good tsundere characters.

There is also a plot against the Queen, a war and a fantasy host bar run a muscly transvestite.

A nice simple romantic comedy, nothing more nothing less but the all better for it.

Roanapur is in a state of panic. There are rumours that Roberta, the killer maid from season 1, is back, mentally unstable and out for revenge. To make it worse hot on her heels is the US Army and FARC who are hell bent on putting the Bloodhound down for good. Who can stop her and stop the US Army putting Roanapur's criminal enterprises out of business, Hotel Moscow, the Triad, Colombians or Mafia?

The rumours are true and begins a brutal blood path in which even Roanapur's finest killers are unable survive in.

Roberta's Blood Trail feels like the Black Lagoon the producers wanted to make ... before they had to tone it down for TV. To be honest some of the violence and Roberta's madness is over the top and some of the humour is sacrificed for more violence. However, there is enough left to make Roberta's Blood Trail enjoyable for most Black Lagoon Fans.

For an OAV Roberta is the perfect subject. With her there is enough back story to create something special and give what the public want. There also are several interesting moments in the OAV. For instance, we're able to see what made Revy the way she is, giving Black Lagoon a fitting send off.

Unfortunately the ending doesn't live up to the promise of the beginning. Seeing the whole of Roanapur in turmoil is one of the best part of the Black Lagoon franchise. Seeing Roberta's Blood Trail end in over the top violence is not.

As great as Roberta's Blood Trail is, if more work was done to the story rather than the violence it could have been a masterpiece rather falling short at the end.

Okajima Rokuro, a young and put upon Japanese businessman, is given his big break and sent to the East China sea to delivery a disk. However, his boat is hijacked by a "delivery company" for the criminal world called Black Lagoon and Rokuro is kidnapped with the disk for his potential ransom value. Unfortunately for Rokuro he is told by his superiors to throw himself in to the sea to cover up his company's shady and illegal business deal. With nowhere else to go Rokuro is invited to join Black Lagoon by its sympathetic employees and nicknamed Rock.

Black Lagoon is an extremely violent and wild ... ride. The story is fairly episodic and basically involves Black Lagoon dealing with complications caused by Nazis, gun toting, drug smuggling Nuns, a killer maid and terrorists when on a job. It could have been just a violent bloodfest if it wasn't for the great characters and script backed a great sound track.

As well as Rock Black Lagoon is a tight knit motley crew of individuals. Dutch a muscle bound Vietnam veteran, Benny an electronics expert and Revy a merciless and sadistic killer. Although the show follows Rock, it is Revy who takes centre stage and is played with relish by Toyoguchi Megumi. It is Revy whose character is developed the most. She is very short tempered who sometimes has to be held back from needlessly killing people and is overly keen to use her guns, however, at unguarded moments is shown to be some what insecure and unhappy at the hand life has dealt her and puts this in to expression with "the world won't stop turning just because theirs no justice" a view as a consequence of childhood spent growing up in the gutter surrounded by violence.

I have to give a special mention to some of the badass oneliners which include:

I'm going to weld your ass shut and open a new one in your head!

Remember to pray so you know what god to go to!

Do you want me to show you how to smoke through your head!

Unfortunately the animation which, although competent, doesn't live up to the high standards of the show.

Badass is a common description for Black Lagoon. 'Nuff said.

In Kotonoha no Niwa Shinkai Makato has gone back to his strengths. A small cast with the focus on just two characters with a story that makes you feel like you are blissfully flowing down river on a calm day which dramatically ends when you reach the sea.

Once again, from an animation perspective, Shinkai Makato has produced a visual masterpiece. It could be said it is his best work. The mixing of animation style, the mood creating colour and the attention to detail. Kotonoha no Niwa is simply just stunningly beautiful to watch.

The story follows Takao a high school boy dreaming of being a shoe ... maker and Yukari a woman 10 years older than him meet in a park during a rain shower. Through the rain season they meet in the same place more and more at the same time creating a bond between them so strong that it makes them wish for rain so they can meet once again.

Once again Shinkai Makato makes you wonder if the bond is a romance or just friendship. As always there is a melancholy with the characters. Yukari's boyfriend leaves her for another woman and problems with her job causes her to skip work, to drink in the morning and some psychological problems. Takao is slowing abandoned by his family as one by one they leave the family home, first his mother, then his sister and finally his brother. It is this melancholy which creates the basis of their bond and allows them to find happiness together when they meet in the rain.

Despite all his good work I feel Shinkai Makato is a victim of his own success. To fund Kotonoha no Niwa Shinkai Makato Shinkai Makato got corporate sponsorship which was obvious with the blatant product placement. I suppose I shouldn't complain too much has Hollywood has been doing it for years. However, I feel because of it Kotonoha no Niwa has been watered down some what losing its potential intensity and there is an insistence of a happy ending in attempt to appeal to a more of mass market which if done more to Shinkai Makato's style would have been more bitter sweet giving more of an impact and creating a film to stay with long after watching it instead of leaving you slightly disappointed.

Shinkai Makato fans will find little to fault in Kotonoha no Niwa. I wonder if its beauty is enough for casual viewer to enjoy Kotonoha no Niwa.

If there is one thing anime can get away with compared to other forms of entertainment is outlandish stories. Mirai Nikki is no exception and it has to be said the story is the weakest part of the series. The first half of the series is actually quite good but the second becomes a little ridiculous.

However, I'm not going to write much of a review. I'm just talk about the situation Amano Yukiteru finds himself in. Yukiteru is one of those annoying cry-baby characters who is a bit of an outcast and find themselves in a situation where their always in extreme danger.

Luckily for ... him a girl called Yuno is always there to protect him, even better she is in love with him. The price he pays for this though is that Yuno is an over protective to the point of being psychotic, killing anyone who gets close to him.

I thought the best characters were the female characters. As well as the psychotic Yuno there is the equally unhinged head of an evil cult Sixth and my favourite the terrorist Ninth. Why is it all the best girl characters in anime are bad.

To be honest without Yuno and Ninth Mirai Nikki may have sunk quite quickly after episode 13. Sadly Sixth wasn't in Mirai Nikki long enough.

As I have written this I have come to realise that it has not come out as well as it was in my head, a little like the second half of Mirai Nikki. For that I can only apologise.

A Japanese tourist witnesses a murder while on holiday and is chased, cornered by the assassin, Phantom, and given a choice become an assassin or die.

From this point on he has one purpose, become the new Phantom the most feared figure in the underworld bringing destruction to the most powerful criminals in America. Brainwashed, controlled by Inferno, a criminal organisation aiming to take control of the underworld, no more than its tool and no recollection of his past he begins to live in a world full of violence and betrayal.

And violence and betrayal is what Phantom is about. Names matter only in the sense ... of identity. But to give names would be to give the plot away.

The pace is slow with intense action and violence with a soundtrack that enhances the mood. The characters aren't likable but that is not to say they are not good. Our Japanese tourist rises to the top of the underworld using and betraying those around him as he is used and betrayed himself. But it is also about relationships as he tries to free and protect himself and those he allows near him to escape the world they are living in.

An intense and violent show which does drag in places but the complex story and characters keeps you gripped to the end.