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Ah Ninja Scroll, the epitome of everything a ninja anime needs and tries...and fails to be. My friend and I saw this at our local Blockbuster and he had heard of it from a coworker who said "WATCH THIS MOVIE!" Now generally when I get recommendations from my friends I don't enjoy them all too much but Ninja Scroll was and is possibly one of my favourite films.

Story: Ninja Scroll in a very realistic sense is an anime B-movie. So the story was pretty heinous. Essentially the entire plot can be seen as a device to switch setting and to move to the next fight scene. However the story itself (if you're actually paying attention) isn't all too bad. There were some interesting little character developments and a couple neat twists and turns. It gets slightly weird towards the end and the actual ending itself was a little lacking. But the forte of the anime is the action scenes. Almost all of them were brilliant, I say almost all because frankly I wanted to see a couple stretched out a little longer. Each enemy that Jubei faces is different and even though it's pretty clear that he can't be beaten it's interesting to see him face some of the tougher opponenets.

Art: The art completely and perfectly suits the feel of the anime. The art isn't good, it isn't bright or colourful....it's mediocre. But the movie wouldn't feel right without the style of art that's used. Granted there were 2-3 moments where I was forced to turn on the lights because I felt like I was going to have a seizure. Most of the screen flashed red and black really quickly and I quickly averted my eyes. But that's my only qualm about the art.

Sound: Cheesy, oldschool....perfect for the movie.

Character: Jubeii is....the best and most powerful swordsman ever. Well, maybe not ever, but he's still pretty amazing and he has a good heart. All the characters are pretty one dimensional are never developed. You get a couple "reveal" moments, but they're a little bit boring as well. About the only noteworthy character is Kagero. I felt really sorry for her during pretty much the entire movie. However the interactions and "development" of characters is meaningless to the film. The film is about action and fighting so, for me at least, it's understandable that the characters are pretty flat.

Enjoyment: I love Ninja Scroll. It's a seriously fun ride. There's nothing deep about it, there's no meaning to it....the film is about action and that's exactly what it delivers. The movie is also quite gory and has a lot of nudity in it. There's also a really hilarious sex-scene...well...it was at least funny to me. There's also rape...so if you're offended by that you probably should steer clear.

If you enjoy Ninja Scroll, which I can only hope you do, you should definitely check out Wicked City, which is from the same director and in many respects is practically the same film. read more

After watching the anime there was no way that I would pass up the chance to read the manga. The result was something that was great but was completely different from anything that I expected.

Story: The story has several components. The first and main story follows Kuro and Shiro (Black and White) as they struggle to defend their territory and adapt to a changing city. Another follows the Rat as he also tries to fit in with adapting times. There's Kimura, who tries to find his own way and make his own path. Add in a few cops who realize that the city is going to hell and alien assassins and those are the storylines. Events force the characters into their situations and they struggle to adapt to them. The manga, however, is not structured around the plot, it's based on the characters and how they react, so the story doesn't really have to be amazing.

Art: This is the biggest shock of the manga. I was really expecting a Japanese drawing style that was different from the other stuff I've read. However what I got was something that I didn't expect at all. Instead of getting something in the Japanese style Tekkon Kinkreet is done in the style of western independent comics. The art pays no attention to structure, the buildings are completely all over the place, distorted and wobbly. The characters are....interesting. I want to say that they're drawn really loosely...but that's not the word for it. The whole art-style is very loose and it really works well with the manga. There is little to no shading and there's almost no detail to anything. This is in contrast to the anime where everything is incredibly and painstakingly detailed. However the art really works and it's quite refreshing to look at.

Character: How the characters change and interact with each other is the best thing about this manga. Black's relationship with White is deep and complex, it's hard to figure out who's helping who. Most of the character's have positive relationships with each other even though they're on opposite sides of the law. It's a wonderful thing to view and it gives the manga a very familiar, cosy feel. Every character changes as the city changes and there's never a static moment between them.

Enjoyment: Even though it was something I didn't expect it to be, I still really enjoyed this manga. It's definitely something that a lot of people should read. It's different, it's well-written and drawn....there's no downside to it. Maybe the one thing about it that's hard to define is it's genre. It's not a light manga, there's no real comedic relief...so it's pretty heavy. But it's not.....really dark, there are definitely dark moments, but it's not....depressingly dark. Anway, it's an amazing manga that you should definitely check out. read more

Champion Road, the amazing conclusion to a very long and amazing anime.

I'm not a fan of sports anime/manga in general, but when I see something that catches my eye, I'll watch it whatever it is. Originally I was searching for Ashita no Joe, but then Hajime no Ippo caught my eye.

Story: Essentially Ippo is fighting a medical student. Everything else is.....secondary. The romance bit was tacked on, but it kind of felt alright if not a little bit out of place. But in the 90 minute movie about an hour of that is fighting. So for me, the story doesn't really matter, what mattered was the fighting. And the fighting is amazing. Since Ippo is fighting a medical student the guy knows exactly where to hit to hurt someone.....and he does. The way the fight unfolds kept me completely interested in it for the entire hour-long duration of the film. This isn't Naruto where a fight can get boring and you sort of skip through scenes, the fighting in this is intense and got my adrenaline pumping at certain moments. However there were a couple times that just bugged me a little bit, such as when Ippo just gets beaten SO hard and he's ABOUT to fall down...but doesn't. This happens two or three times in really quick succession and it's the only bad thing about the fighting.

Art: A HUGE improvement from the beginning of the anime series. The characters look a lot smoother and look more human, less squished. However, the art is still....ugly. The faces are very square, bruises are represented by lots of lines....just small little things that add up to art that doesn't really impress. The art is shown in it's worst light when it comes to females. Ippo's love interest is very....ugly. Well...not ugly so much as plain, predictable, and very boring and awkward to look at. However, I'm completely missing the point. The anime is about fighting...nothing else should really matter. The fighting is AMAZING. I don't think they reused any of their frames. They change angles constantly and watching the fighting was simply amazing.

Sound: It sounded like a fight, like a hard gritty fight....and that's all that should matter. Ever sound effect was greatly placed, everything sounded perfect. Some of the music they used was a little corny, but what can you expect from a sports anime?

Character: I don't really know what to put for character. I want to say that the character's were great, but I honestly don't know if they were. I really rooted for Ippo, he's just a really nice guy who wants to know what it is to be strong. He's really easy to emphasize with, but it also seems....too easy to emphasize with him. I mean, he's the champion of Japan......and yet he's still shy and humble and the same sort of kid that he was at the start of the anime series. I mean there's no chance of him going through all of that and still being the same kind of person that he was however many years ago. The other characters were either the love interest (who isn't really even worth mentioning, she blushes when he talks to her and secretly loves him...predictable) the coach (who does coachy things like telling him to keep fighting) or his boxing buddies (who don't really do too much).

Enjoyment: Honestly, I loved it. The parts were Ippo was not fighting kind of bored me a little bit and I didn't pay too much attention during them. But the anime is about boxing.....not about having a great storyline. And the fighting is so amazing. I've seen a lot of action scenes in anime before, but this one was so completely different from anything else I've seen. I've never rooted for anyone more, I've never really cared more about anyone winning more than Ippo. I was so drawn into this anime, and I never expected that I would.

I honestly think this anime is good for everyone. Even if you don't really enjoy action or sports themed anime this is worth checking out. If you enjoy it that's great, and if you don't enjoy it, at least you've seen something good. This has been the first sports anime I've watched, the others haven't interested me too much, but Ippo is definitely worth watching. read more

Arashi no Yuru Ni. Please do not watch this unless you realize straight away that this is a Japanese Disney movie. The art, the message, the entire feel of this "anime" is that of a Disney cartoon, but in a good way.

Story: the moral of this story is "don't judge a book by it's cover" or something to that effect. Learning how to get along, no matter who you are is deeply conveyed in this. It's nicely done. The goat and wolf meet each other at night, they can't see each other but they end up having a really nice talk and agree to meet the next day. When they meet the next day the one thing that was going through my head was "HE'S GOING TO EAT THE SHEEP!" but that didn't happen. Their freindship ends up deepening quite a bit and the rest of the anime follows their experiences. Prepare yourself to see all the morals that Disney movies have in them. It's done...subtly...but not as well as I've seen in other films. But it is a kid's movie so that's really to be expected.

Art: There were times that I really liked the art, and there were times I was going "meh" But overall it had a really nice feel. But again I was really, really getting the Disney vibe from it, which threw me off a lot because I was hoping for anime...not a cartoon. But Disney has always had very....colourful pictures and Arashi is like that too.

Sound: It's a kids movie....so the score wasn't epic or depressing. It was sort of generic to enhance the feeling of the movie. Sad music played when something was sad, exciting music was played when something was exciting. Whatever the filmmakers wanted you to feel was the music they chose to play.

Character: The characters are predictable, stereotypical, but nonetheless they are quite cute. Don't except to be floored by any of them, because you won't be. Again, it's a kid's movie so they don't throw in anyone who doesn't fit the mold of the kid's movie characters.

Enjoyment: Honestly I outgrew this movie 8-9 years ago. Mind you I wouldn't know what anime was, i thought that Pokemon was a cartoon. The fact that I outgrew this really did affect how much I enjoyed it, which is...unfortunate. But like, I don't go out to see stuff like Chicken Little or Veggie Tales (which....I did see) when I want to see a movie. So it's a little unfortunate that I've outgrown this.

If you have a kid and you want to introduce anime to them, then this movie is totally for you. There are some big kids out there too, and this will be fine for them. Just because I've outgrown this and think that it's a Disney movie masquerading as an anime doesn't mean that people won't enjoy it, it just means that I didn't like it as much as I could have. read more

When I talk about Miyazaki, I usually speak about how he tends to just narrowly miss the mark of making an amazing film. Nausicaa is a perfect example of how Miyazaki narrowly misses the mark of creating a truly magnificent film. However, Nausicaa shows perfectly Miyazaki's attitudes towards living with nature instead of trying to exploit it.

Story: The story isn't interesting, well, the basic storyline isn't all that much to really care about. There are a bunch of Deus ex Machina (god from the machine) that just really, really bugged me. Nausicaa herself is a basic Miyazaki protagonist, she doesn't understand why the evil technologically advanced people are doing what they're doing, but she knows that she has to stop them. But again, the magnificence of the story is brought out by how Miyazaki shows how technology can, and shouldn't, be used to defeat nature. He shows it incredibly well, however it's never shown in a subtle way, sometimes it feels really forced.

Art: Ghibli. Almost every character is a archetype. The same stupid beards and the same faces for every female and every male character. It gets REALLY boring. There are some interesting creatures, but they're nothing to really make this anime's art any more impressive.

Sound: I honestly didn't enjoy the music a lot of the time, especially now it feels incredibly boring and dated. You kind of get used to it, but it really ages this already old anime.

Character: I felt that all the characters in Nausicaa were stereotypes. Unlike in Mononoke, the characters in this anime felt one-sided and boring. I didn't believe that they stood for anything and they certainly never grew or changed. I found their interactions predictable and I found myself getting bored quite a lot of the time. But it was interesting to see the stock characters that Miyazaki has created. If you watch all of his films it's very interesting to see the same characters in all of his different films. Another thing that makes Nausicaa subpar to Mononoke or Spirited Away (Miyazaki's Masterpieces) is that there is a VERY clear distinction of good and evil. This was the greatest flaw for me, the fact that there was a good and evil really kind of bugged me because it really detracted from the man vs nature theme.

Enjoyment: I both like and dislike this anime. For me it reaffirms my belief that Miyazaki is not a perfect filmmaker. But I like how he grows, and Nausicaa is perfect for showing his growth as a director. I found myself bored for a lot of this anime, but I enjoyed certain scenes.

Many people I know claim that this anime is a "classic" but I'm not sure if I agree with them. It is certainly not an amazing anime, but it shows the attitudes of Miyazaki in the most straightforward way. However I do believe that it's something that people should watch. read more

Believe the hype. If you see "ZOMG TEKKON KINKREET IS LIKE THE COOLEST THING EVAR!" Believe them. I had heard the hype about this anime for a long time, and I know to never take what people say about stuff like this seriously. However, I decided to go ahead and watch it, it couldn't be boring right? And I had seen a recommendation from Mind Game (another terrific anime) and so...I watched it. At first I was a little sceptical, the director is Michael Arias. This is the first thing he has directed. He produced the Animatrix, which for me made this film just a little sketchy, but believe me, it is definitely amazing. Arias is not Japanese, but he believes very heavily in quality.

Story: Black and White, Kuro and Shiro are orphans, and they're the "Cats." In a word they're street thugs and it's mainly Kuro (Black) who does the fighting. Shiro (White) is missing something in his head and he constantly "phones" outer space to let them know how he's doing. The main relationship is between these two and it's expertly crafted. There are two police officers who really do a great job of balancing the anime. Their presence really keeps the movie level. The antagonist is Snake, he's trying to milk Treasure Town for all it's worth, to do this his plan is to create an amusement park. Kuro doesn't want that to happen. I'm finding it very difficult to explain the story and I really don't think that I can do it any justice at all. The story is multifaceted and multilayered. There are no scrap characters and every conversation is important. There are absolutely no wasted scenes in this anime. I was getting a huge Steinbeck vibe, I was feeling that this anime was doing a great job of channeling his "Of Mice and Men." White's dream of going to the ocean is a lot like Lennie's dream of owning a farm and tending rabbits.

Art: The art is amazing. Every scene is breathtakingly beautiful. The backgrounds are detailed so well that I occasionally paused the screen just to admire their beauty. The art is probably the best I've seen in an anime and the details are beautifully rendered. The characters style is slightly minimalistic. Compared to the backgrounds the characters are very bare, but this suits the feel perfectly. The characters fit in so well with the backgrounds and interact with the world so well. The art is absolutely beautiful. Every scene of animation is beautiful. There are so many sequences that took my breath away, there is never a choppy scene, no scene feels clunky. The animation is so perfectly fluid and I cannot express how amazing it is, it has to be seen to be believed. The one thing that I thought was perfectly done was how the art and the mood of the anime clash wonderfully. The colours are very bright and vivid, and if you really weren't paying attention you'd think that this is a very bright and happy anime. But the anime is dark, it's quite dark and the art only shows that darkness at certain intervals, but for the most part the anime is bright and colourful, whereas the mood is dark.

Sound: This is one of the first anime that I've seen where I was activally paying attention to the background music. It was all perfect, it was all fast and just amazing. I'm a firm believer in that music in anime does not make or break it, it either makes a good anime better, or worse; or a bad anime better or worse. In Tekkon Kinkreet, the music makes an already excellent anime even better.

Character: Every character is incredibly, and sometimes painfully, human. With the exception of the alien assassins of course. The relationships between the characters, especially between Black and White are so beliveable and so incredibly real. I found myself caring so much about all of these characters, which is not something that I regularly do. It's amazing because every character changes and every relationship changes as well, it's rare to see how realistically each character's change is portrayed.

Enjoyment: If you haven't noticed already, I love this anime, it's completely and utterly perfect. There is not a boring or meaningless scene. There are no pointless characters, every character is unique and human. Kinkreet is very original and it really does an amazing job of everything that it does. I cannot express how enjoyable this anime is, you really need to watch it for yourself.

If this isn't at the top of your list, put it there. I believe that in order to appreciate anime you have to see both terrible and amazing anime. To me there are very, very few perfect anime, I would have a hard time listing them on my hands. However, this anime is so close to perfection that I would myself, call it perfect. Watching this anime reconfirms the reasons why I started watching anime in the first place. read more

Let me start by saying that I am not a Miyazaki-disciple. I do not view him as the "grandmaster of everything anime." When I say "yeah...Miyazaki is ok" I say it not out of ignorance (I've almost every one of his films) but because I personally find him to be incredibly overrated. However I find that when he has all of his stuff together, Miyazaki can destroy practically any other director out there, the man is incredibly talented, but his problem is consistency.

When I say that Princess Mononoke is his masterpiece, I mean it. It was the first film where he finally got everything together and made a perfect anime film. Some will say that Spirited Away is better, but Mononoke is so much more powerful than that.

Story: Miyazaki does not like civilization. He stated once that he would prefer it if we went back to living in the fields, he wants to get rid of all technology. In Mononoke we see the evils of industralization and how humans are killing the earth. Humans can coexist. But many purposefully try to make themselves better and stronger. Miyazaki does an absolutely amazing job of showing that industralization, if handled the wrong way, is an incredible evil, but that it is in the hands of humans..of real people. I didn't really care all too much for the story, but I found his use of spirits to be incredible. I wasn't a huge fan of the story itself, it was a country boy goes to the city vibe...but I was a huge fan of all the political jabbings that Miyazaki was throwing. I will admit that I didn't notice it the first time around, I was told this as I watched it the second or third time, by my friend who is a Miyazaki acolyte. The beauty of the story really comes after you watch it the second or third time, as the whole movie experience is very overwhelming.

Art: I give it a 7. I am not a fan at all of Ghibli. I absolutely cannot stand their use of recycling their characters. I hate how all the women look exactly the same, and the men have the same annoying mustaches and beard combos that obscure almost their entire face. I find it lazy and incredibly detracting. I found that Ashitaka was.....boring, his design was so lacklustre that I have now just googled him to figure out exactly what he looked like. Where the art shines in this is in the spirits (gods), the creatures, and San. The designs of those characters alone redeemed the art for me. Also worth noting that in the beginning all those "snakes" were done digitally, which was, for me, impressive.

Sound: Eh....what can I say. Miyazaki films ALWAYS have great music and soundtracks. I have never found an instance in watching any of his films where I've gone "hey, the music doesn't really feel right." The music in his films are absolutely superb.

Character: I felt that the characters weren't really people so much as symbols. I felt that Ashitaka, in a certain way, was innocence. When his arm is cursed he is given a power that he cannot wield and he struggles to find a way to cure it, to get rid of the curse that now stains his arm and will kill him. Eboshi was industralization, but she was also compassion. I felt that she was the most human of all the characters, even though many people view her as an antagonist or slap her with the label of "oh..she's the evil lady." The thing I appreciate about this film is that there are only a handful of truly bad people. Everyone else is human. San is humans living with nature, but at the same time she is a beast herself. She lives in harmony with nature and has absolutely no qualms about killing to defend her land. Every character is multifaced, however if you only view the movie once you might not see the different characteristics of each character.

Enjoyment: The perfect Miyazaki film. It is deep for people who are looking at it closely, but it is also just a fun film for people who are only looking for something fun to watch. The first time I watched this (the first Miyazaki film I'd ever seen) I wasn't impressed at all. Mind you, I was probably 10 at the time, this was the first exposure to REAL anime I'd ever had. But as I watched it again recently I realized just how great of a film it really is.

However it really is accessible. You talk to almost anyone about anime and they'll probably (99% likely) know about Princess Mononoke. I know that this turns a lot of people off. Personally when someone comes up to me and says "hey, I saw Samurai Champloo and it was great, can you recommend me anything else kind of like it?" It makes my skin crawl a little bit. However, Mononoke is a staple, and is really something that you should watch, if you haven't watched it, I would definitely put it at the top of your to-watch list. read more

"Imagine a Neon Genesis Evangelion where dating the right girl is more important than saving the world." As soon as I saw this one, very simple, sentence, I knew (thought) that this would be my all time favourite manga....ever. However, three volumes in I realized that this is possibly the worst manga I've ever read...worse than even Kingdom Hearts.

Story: Wow....where exactly to begin? Asuka likes Shinji, but she won't admit it. Rei likes Shinji...and will admit it...after a while. Touji and Hikari ARE together and provide a sort of...parallel relationship. Kensuke likes Asuka but Asuka cannot stand him at all. Shinji, of course, completely indecisive and has to spend an incredible amount of time being annoying before deciding exactly which girl he has his heart on. That's it...the entire story. Oh, wait. Sorry. Kaoru is in....love with Shinji? Yes....yes he is. That is is. The entire storyline is completely one layer deep. They try to throw in the Angels and the Eva's...but the attempt is terribly conceived and the "battle" is quite poorly drawn. All the complexities that made the original Evangelion are gone...and the only thing that's left is a terribly flimsy premise for a manga. The ending is terrible as well. How many of you saw the ending of the show and went "What...just...happened?" Well...this is kind of like that, only there wasn't a great beginning or middle part. And as for which Shinji picks....take a giant guess....95% of you will be right. I'll give you a hint...if you're hoping for the same person I hoped for...you're wrong.

Art: The only reason why the characters are recognizable is because they are referred to by name so often. I don't understand at all why someone chose this guy to do this manga. He completely, completely butchers EVERYTHING in this. I kept looking at Shinji and Rei (especially Rei) going "who the HELL are they?" There are almost no backgrounds at all, except when there's a scene change or when the artist decided to draw a window or tree. I don't mind having pages mainly blank, but the art that's in here is almost insulting. I could rant almost forever about how terrible the art in this is...but it would be a lot easier for you to download a chapter, preferably in volume 3-6 (that's when the art REALLY crumbles apart) and view it for yourself.

Character: During this entire manga I spent my time reimagining what it would be like if this manga was more like Evangelion....and honestly, the version in my head was a LOT more entertaing (at least to me) than what was on the page. Every character in here is practically stencilled from every harem manga ever made. Shinji is, of course, completely indecisive. He gives the illusion that he's debating between the two, Rei and Asuka, but he knows which one he goes with. The characters have absolutely no depth at all. Even Kaoru, who people STILL debate about, is so shallow and weakly developed that even I was feeling so bad for him.

Enjoyment: I finished this manga....I barely read the last 3 volumes, by the end of the second volume I had stopped hoping that it would improve. It never did improve....In the hands of almost anyone else, this manga would have been incredibly amazing. I was so suprised by how terribly handled this manga was. It'll stand on my bookshelf as the worst manga I have ever purchased and read....and that includes Kingdom Hearts (I've mentioned that before)

Don't read this, unless you're really curious. If you hate it in the first volume and think that it might improve, I am telling you right now that it won't. This has nothing to do with evangelion except for the name and the characters. There is absolutely no appeal in this anime. Don't get me wrong, I was HOPING so badly that was going to be amazing. I thought that this was going to be my favourite manga...my favourite series. Sadly, it vastly underperforms. So...read it, or don't read it. Just please, don't be like me and expect it to be amazing because it has the name "Neon Genesis Evangelion" attached to it. read more

I first bought this after reading a bunch of critiques for Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill. I bought it and read it out of anger and spite, to be able to say "I saw what Tarantino ripped off from and it was a MILLION times better than that terrible excuse for a film." Well.....It is a lot better than Kill Bill, but not for the reasons I expected.

Story: A woman, a very beautiful woman, is given the task of vengeance given to her by her mother who died giving birth to her. She must kill 4 people. One is already dead, so Oyuki (Lady Snowblood) must kill the 3 other people. That is the initial basis of the story. However the 4 volumes contain many seperate chapters that have absolutely nothing to do with the main storyline. These alternative storylines always seem to take the main seat and the actual storyline is pushed to the side. I was confused for a large portion of the story, there didn't seem to be a clear, definitive drive for most of the story. This was a little dissapointing, but many of the side-stories are awesome. Many of these storylines involve Oyuki stripping nude or to almost no clothes. While this might be taken as a certain form of fanservice the way she uses it doesn't seem to be a "fanservice" tactic.

Art: This was drawn in 1972. Over thirty years later.....and some might think that the art is outdated or bad. I can't find any other link to the artist of this series, but he is quite talented. The art really stands apart from more modern manga, but the feeling isn't diminished. The art isn't dated, it's still quite detailed and is quite a nice feeling if you're tired of viewing more modern manga art. I don't want to say that the artists' forte is drawing Oyuki nude....but she certainly gets naked enough times that I wouldn't be suprised if it really was.

Character: Here is where the manga feels old and quite corny. Oyuki's is not the problem. She's a female assassin. Very cold, deadly, but also quite compassionate. She shows it in a certain storyarc, one of the more...raunchy storyarcs, but the feeling comes off quite well. All the antagonists are quite nicely done. The female antagonist, Okono, was my absolute favourite of these, as she's dealt with in the most fun way. The bad subordinates are pretty much all the same scummy yakuza, but that's not a bad thing. The problem is really with the supporting characters. Some are introduced out of absolutely nowhere. Oyuki's aunt for instance, really bugged me, I just never really saw her point except for one instance for a storyarc and another for the main storyline. She's an unnecessary character that really doesn't move the manga forward, in my opinion at least. There is a writer, Miyanara. He is, by far, the most pointless of all the supporting characters. He's used to lure out the final antagonist from hiding. I enjoyed it at first, but after reading it a second time I kept asking myself "what did he contribute to the storyline asides from adding pages to the story?"

Enjoyment: I really enjoyed it, I really...really did. As much as I bought and read it just for the Kill Bill reference, I still greatly enjoyed it. I'm not saying that it has a lot to do with Kill Bill, or that if you liked Kill Bill you'll like this. They have certain storylines and certain artistic choices in common. The female protagonist is very similar as well, although I MUCH preferred Oyuki to The Bride. But I found myself really enjoying it. And even if you don't enjoy it all that much, just remember that it's only 4 volumes...so it's a relatively short read.

There is A LOT of nudity and violence in this. It's explicit violence but it's not drawn as if to gross the audience out. This manga is definitely worth reading, especially if you enjoy anything with action. If you can push the storyline to the side and just let the action guide you, this manga can be incredibly enjoyable. read more

There are teacher fans, and there are Twins fans, and personally I'm more of a Twins fan than a Teacher fan. I find this anime to be superior in many ways to it's predecessor. First it has a smaller cast of characters so there's no real confusion or wondering what's going on with each character as in Teacher. Also the romance that is developed is more...clear. Teacher is quite confusing because you never really know what level their relationship is at.

Story: Maiku (Michael) lives on his own, he's an orphan, but he has a nice job that he worked really hard for so that he can remain independent. His only family is a girl, that he doesn't know, he just has a baby picture of the two of them playing in an inflatable pool. He's living in the house in the picture that he saw in a UFO special on tv (from Teacher). His life is pretty good until one day a girl shows up claiming she's his sister. And she decides that she's going to live with him because she doesn't have anywhere else to go, and hey, they're siblings right? Maybe not, because another girl shows up claiming again to be Maiku's sister. So...which one is it? The way the characters are set up, and according to their reactions and introductions I knew by the first episode which one was his sister and which one is the one that he was going to fall in love with....but I still enjoyed watching it. It's not an amazing story, it's more just ideas that were thrown together for each episode and it works quite nicely, and it makes the show really cute.

Art: Everything is colourful. There are a lot of bright happy colours. It's not a bad thing, but it made me feel like the anime was a little too fake. They never really add too much detail to anything, and the characters seem really flat. I couldn't stand the eyes they used in this anime, they just didn't hold any depth to them at all. However the art does suit the mood of the piece, as it is a relatively happy anime.

Sound: Eugh, They use the same opening as Teacher, and if you've seen it through teacher you'd probabably had enough of it. Seeing it again through Twins is absurdly annoying. The rest of the music is kind of bland and never really stood out in my mind.

Character: Stereotypes. It really makes this a typical anime. Again, based on the characters in the first episode I was able to figure out who was his sister and who was his lover....and I was right too. I would have liked if they had fleshed out the characters better, instead of having the outgoing one and the shy one who faints when she gets nervous. If they had really fleshed out the two female protagonists, made them a little more similar but at the same time making them unique the anime would have been thousands of times better. There's not much to say about Maiku, other than that he's pretty much mostly annoyed at their presence but still cares enough about them to not throw them out of his house. There's also a gay guy....who, as it turns out, isn't really gay...if you watch the episode you'll be incredibly confused. He provides more than half of the humor in the anime. Oh and all of the characters from Teacher are seen again. Ichigo is made into a main character, and she spends all of her time tormenting Maiku....again, she knew the sister right away as well.

Enjoyment: The anime isn't great, it's not superb in any way, shape, or form. But it's still enjoyable. It's very happy, upbeat, something you watch when you've just finished watching something that didn't make you feel all that great.

I would say to watch Teacher first. If you see Teacher before you see Twins and you enjoy Teacher, then go watch Twins for a more coherent experience. If you hated Teacher, watch Twins....because if you hated Teacher....you might just enjoy Twins. That's confusing, I know...but watching Twins before Teacher just doesn't make much sense, and a lot of the jokes won't be the same. read more