Bounty Hunter
2006

Recommend age 13+ due to mild cartoon action. I’d say this one falls under the bounty hunter category even if bounties aren’t really focused on so much as the character development and fighting forces of evil. This one starts out with Train the main protagonist an eraser involved in an organization (chronos) who’s mission is one of world peace…through the assignation of powerful targets. on the other hand there are the sweepers which is just another word for bounty hunters. Lets get this strait Train is a bad ass and so is his gun but Train doesn’t have the kind of life people would kill for. Fortunately Train meets up with Saiya and she shows him the side of life that he’s never had the chance to live. Long story short Train quits chronos prompting them to send his colleges after him. However he is taken in by a sweeper and a nano-machine ai from then on he leads the life of a care free bounty hunter until his ex-friend makes things difficult for him once more. The only thing really dragging this one down is the sound. Else the animation is good, the plot is good and so are the character qualities. “Bread crusts again?”

Downloaded Episodes: 23

Blade:
Action Adventure
2011
Let’s go with 14+ on this one for violence and profanity but honestly if you’re 14 you’ve probably already become comfortable with all the words spoken in this one. Anyone who’s been interested in vampires will know about Blade. Marvel has been kind enough to give Wesley Snipes 3 movies to showcase vampires as Stan Lee sees them. That is to say vampires are highly organized in a ridged class system ranging from noble vampires, those of pure blood having lived for centuries, and those who were turned from humans. Blade is different in that his mother was turned while giving birth to him, resulting in a genetic mutation that allows him to be a day walker. Aside from being able to tan at will Blade is different in that he curses his vampire nature and controls it with medicine. Further, Blade is driven to get revenge on the vampire who attacked his mother (Decon Frost) who is himself a rogue in the vampire social hierarchy. During the course of this show Frost sends different types of vampire to provoke Blade into releasing his vampire powers to the max and thusly provide Frost with blood samples he can use to make vampires immune to daylight. Blade seeking only revenge follows Frost everywhere he goes.
This show isn’t worth watching to be honest so forgive me if I don’t bestow a whole lot of praise on it. Animation wise this show is a shining example of American comic meddling/ mixing with Japanese animation styles. The result isn’t terrible but is a style that is completely uncharacteristic for both contributors and honestly just lacks a sense of originality that I enjoy from both respective media types. It’s like the unwanted offspring of a squid and a shark (squark or a shid?), both are seafaring but it’s just one out of place baby. Character qualities are lifted from Marvel but their dimensions leave you feeling flat. No real character development and very predictable reactions which is why I don’t watch American TV in the first place…predictability. Music was a big miss for this show, in fact the version I got didn’t bring in an opening or ending till late in the series. Combine that with situational music you lose a great deal of emotional depth. Plot and story are already mentioned above and aside from a quick jog into his past the story is very linear and actually pisses you off at the end when the boss fight takes like 2 seconds. Finally, did I enjoy this show…the first half yes, the last half no. Not having read the comic books I don’t know if Blade really had a sword master teach him but it was a nice twist and makes sense for a product of Japanese backing but then Blade doesn’t really show much for variety in technique and it comes out bland. 6.2/10.0. It’s another case where you combine two separately good ingredients only to get nasty crap.

Animation Style: 7pts
Character qualities: 6.5pts
Music: 5pts
Plot and story: 6.5pts
Enjoyment: 6pts

Downloaded Episodes: 12

Saiyuki
Fantasy Adventure
2001
Lets go with a 14+ on this one due mostly to sexual references and a little bit of animated violence (most of the killing ends in the victim just dissolving). This show takes the classic Chinese story “Journey to the West” and adds a modern twist and attitude to it, probably to its own detriment. I haven’t read “Journey to the West” yet but in this version Goku, the legendary monkey king, is in the custody of Priest Sanzo, a guardian of one of the five sacred scriptures of creation. Also along for the ride is a half breed demon and a human turned demon. Sanzo is commanded by the heavens to put a stop to the reanimation of Gyumaoh and what ever is causing the normally peaceful demons of Shangri-La to run wild. Along the way the group runs into its fair share of miss-adventures and demons. Some 500 year old back story is thrown in and the Goddess of Mercy turns into your favorite character because of her biting wit.
Alright the technical aspects of this show are sadly lacking. This show has a good idea but it feels half assed in the wrong places, mainly the combat and animation. Speaking of the animation it felt amateurish, the character designs all sucked other than the goddess and the son of Gyumaoh. Also, the battle scenes were terrible, if you got to see anything at all, most often it was a quick cut to the bad guy disintegrating and you never really saw anything drawn out. Plot started off alright and then all of a sudden in 50 episodes you don’t solve the original problem and take a sharp turn toward plot that is a product of the time you get to spend in Heaven and gets annoying really fast. Character development…what development? The only people who develop are Goku and the son of Gyumaoh. Musically, this show is really bad and the opening and endings aren’t that great either. Enjoyment wise the only thing that kept this going were the cleaver quips and the back story was much more interesting and Sanzo is a giant kill-joy. 5.9/10.0…If they would have stuck to the original story it would probably have been better, also mind those sharp turns, they tend to flip a four wheeled story.

Animation Style: 6
Character qualities: 6
Music: 5
Plot and story: 6.5
Enjoyment: 6

Downloaded Episodes: 50

Action
1993

Not for children, contains nudity, and much violence. If you like naruto then this is totaly different. No chakra no ninja specialities asside from the bad guys. If any thing this is more like Rurouni Kenshin. Our main character Jubei is a kick ass mercenary but he's a lazy one so he'd rather be napping than fighting. Anyway he stumbles into action after killing a member of a special group of ninja and must finish it in order to get back to his life. If it were that simple this wouldn't be worth it, he's working with a Kunoichi and a govt spy with motives of their own.
Downloaded Episodes: 1

Action
2003

17+. Contains sexual scenes a little nudity and it has a moderate amount of gore. Story line is strait forward, help the damsel achieve her destiny. Our main character is charged with the protection of a certain stone and all that goes along with it which means that he must help the princess the stone goes with. Unfortunately he while skilled would rather be napping than fighting. While he tries to carry out his duty two groups of very skilled ninja are after him the girl and the stone. The characters start off as interesting but none of them are deeper than the kitchen sink aside from the old man so character development is a “meh” point. Action is kind of repetitive. The animation is pretty standard stuff nothing to impressive, has a little CG mixed in and the sound is only really good during the opening and ending sequences.
Downloaded Episodes: 13

Kiba
Fantasy Adventure
2007
10+ because of animated violence but I wouldn’t worry too much about it, the gore is kept to a minimum. This is an alternate dimension anime which features a relatively peaceful and modern world where the two main characters (Zed and Noah) live. Zed is very hyper and is almost the personification of dissatisfaction with stillness. Noah on the other hand is level headed but was born with a body capable of walking only with mechanical support. Zed’s mom for most of his life has been stuck in a mental ward but no one from his world can figure out why. An opportunity soon presents itself for Zed to not only express his over flowing energy but learn some of the secrets of his birth and his mom’s condition. This opportunity is in the form of a portal to another world; a world of spirits, swords, magic, and warring nation-states. From there it’s all drama, plot twists, fighting, and predictable outcomes.
Lets start with the plot and story. The plot is interesting even though I can easily name a few good anime which use the dual world method. The story starts out ok but Zed’s attitude quickly begins to become annoying and the authors refusal to reveal anything relevant about the significance of Zed and his spirit (Amir Gaul) is honestly stupid. Zed is immediately forced to participate in a scuffle against a rival nation and any leads are quickly quashed. Honestly, the authors make a serious error by not developing Zeds training and shard skills. Drawing style wise this anime is distinctly unremarkable, in fact it’s about as half assed as the story writing. Colors are solid and not really dynamic much like the character design. I thought I was watching the American style of anime. Character qualities are bland, static, and novelties fade quickly. Sound is generic and situational only, no effort is made to distinguish here. I did not enjoy this one, it got boring and when Noah is brought into the world you all ready know the end of the series. So yeah…lets call this a ramped up Pokémon only with cooler creatures and crappier storyboarding. 6.1/10.0 Half assed efforts show when your viewers have watched a lot of anime.

Plot and story: 6.0
Animation Style: 6.5
Character qualities: 6.0
Music: 6.5
Enjoyment: 5.5

Downloaded Episodes: 51

Nurarihyon no Mago Sennen:
Adventure, Fantasy, Supernatural
2011
I think restricting this to 12+ is a good idea, some of the concepts just require a better understanding than the little ones can muster. This anime relates the story of a modern child (Rikuo Nura) born and raised by a demon family with a proud tradition. But Rikuo only has ¼ demon blood though leaving his future leadership of the family in the air. In the modern era though humanity has forgotten completely about their ancestral dealings with demons and all are painted with stereotypes. This is hard on Rikuo because demon kind has been out of the limelight and nearly forgotten making friends hard to come by. What’s more there exists a faction of demon fighters, one of whom is a friend of Rikuo, which wish to kill the Nura family off. If this isn’t enough a dark presence has returned to earth with plans of dominance and destruction.
Technically this show is sound but lacking. The story line is confusing in the very beginning. References are made to actions that Rikuo perform but we never get to see and there are time skips until Rikuo is in middle school. Personally I thought the idea of watching Rikuo master his demon transformation would be great for story continuity but the authors through that away. After these continuity issues some episodes are devoted to growth but so few that the training doesn’t even seem to matter. As to the Animation style chosen I found it was good on the whole but the characters didn’t blend with their environments well. It was as if they exist outside of their world rather than as part of it.
Character qualities were also rushed like the story line. Though there were some well-defined personalities, making the characters easy to identify, this show lacked character depth. This is such a shame because many of the characters are hundreds of years old. Surly in that time they’d be more complex than they are here. Again this is another issue might have been solved with time. Musically this show was rather typical. It had its opening and ending as well as unique situational music. Finally, did I enjoy this show? Not enough to keep it around. The characters were lacking in depth, the story wasn’t solid enough, and any show in which the bad guy is a better character than the main has serious flaws; hell, the grandfather was a better character than the main. All in all this show ranks as a 6.7 / 10.0. If I can out awesome this show in my mind the writers and animators just aren’t trying hard enough.

Animation Style: 7.5
Plot and story: 6
Character qualities: 6.5
Music: 7
Enjoyment: 6.5

Downloaded Episodes: 24

Action, Adventure, Mecha, Fantasy
2004
Ok for children 14+ Action violence with minimal blood. This is a play on the original Samurai 7 by Akira Kurosawa where seven samurai band together to save a village from bandit attack. Problem is some one thought that wasn’t good enough for a series and added a bunch more to package and sell this thing. The anime is set in a fantasy future where the merchants rule the country and use mech’s implanted with souls as an army/ means of stealing rice from the peasants. The peasants don’t know this of course but shhh…that’s a secret. The rice is then bartered for energy cells, created by a third group, to keep the big cities afloat. Of course Kurosawa’s picture had nothing to do with the mechs, or the action after the raid on the village, or even the political ramifications the writers thought would add some weight to the show. In reality the only things that remain the same are the number of samurai and the over all plot to save the village. This is why I deny Samurai 7 as an animated adaptation of the movie.
Ok so you already know the setting but the plot is your standard samurai save the village from the bad guys. After that the writers spun the wheel and landed on political intrigue to set the tone of the rest of the show. Young man sets up his foster father (head of a merchant city) as the murderer of an imperial official. This allows him to usurp the throne and eventually draw the attention of the merchant emperor as a possible successor. The samurai are involved because…well they don’t like the kid and I really don’t blame them (oversimplification). In the end only 3 of the 7 survive and they aren’t even the interesting ones damn it. Then to further my disappointment the only real tale involving romance leads nowhere.
Animation styles is where this show tries to show off, I think I saw four or five completely different animation styles. Most times it was your typical animation flat and no real depth, only there to carry the story forth. In artistic scenes, for example, involving dancing of sort the characters were lanky and fluid. Character development really focused on two of the main characters who were still amateurs in the first place, but one of them dies in the end and doesn’t develop any further whilst the other doesn’t learn his lesson from the battles and seeks more conflict. Music is relegated to the background and only given thought when it comes to the opening and ending pieces. The pace was chaotic, started extremely slow at first then got busy then became slow as the tension built for the bandit attack and peaked during it. Then slowed way down as the story tried to develop the new threat.===6.6/10. I just wasn’t all that impressed by the show, claims that this is a masterpiece are from those on crack.

Downloaded Episodes: 26

Fantasy Adventure Comedy
1995

Fine for 10+ for animated violence. Good hardy anime with great characters, easy end of the world must save the day plot. There isn't much in the way of blood and deaths are pretty ambiguous. This is the kind of easy to digest anime you watch when you really don't want something heavy on the stomach. Characters are funny and well developed. The animation is pretty basic for the time but does get better, however, don't expect anything flashy. Lena Inverse is the main character who happens to be a sorceress with mad power, she travels around beating up bandits and searching for money that will help her buy the enormous amount of food that her tiny body is somehow able to consume. In her travels she meets a flaky swordsmen, a justice wielding daddy’s princess, and a chimera human who is seeking a cure. As with any traveling story Lena’s group just kinda falls into everything dangerous, be it the rise of some ancient monster or some kind of royal assassination plot. Speaking of plot this takes place during castle periods on a psudoearth. Also I really like the character dynamics even if the voice acting sounds terrible. Random Destruction is ok sometimes right?

Downloaded Episodes: 26

Fantasy Adventure Comedy
1996

Ages 10+ is what I would suggest for this 2nd season of Slayers. Once again Lena Inverse and Co. are off adventuring across the land. This time two new characters are introduced Zellos a “priest” the other Martina a comic relief “princess”. The whole story starts out with Zelgodess searching for a means to reverse his chimera affliction and with the introduction of Zellos we get our bearings on the road ahead. Unfortunately for Lena that road is filled with monsters and dark lords, all who want a piece of her, or, her in pieces. This second season improves on the drawing style adding a little flare and some crispness to the animation in a DBZ sort of way. Further the sound qualities and voice acting are improved somewhat and the opening of this season is my favorite of them all especially if you turn up the base. The plot in this one is far more concentrated since there is a single main issue and flows better than the first season. Characters aren’t really developed all that much in this season as the focus is turned more towards outward challenges, but they don’t lose their comical touch and are as entertaining as ever. This is deffinatly a good addition to the Slayers name

Downloaded Episodes: 26

Downloaded Episodes: 26

Martial Arts Fantasy
1995

Recommend age 13+. Contains much action violence, a few adult situations. Yu Yu Hakusho is an oldie but a goodie. 90's animation styling and music. This is a fighting anime about human non-interaction with demons. Or rather its about keeping the demon world in its place while keeping humans from taking note of the true reality. There is considerable gore but it's done in a way that a 14 year old could handle I think. This show runs long but in a good way giving time for good character development. It also has enough humor to go along with its violence so as not to bore the average watcher. The plot when focused on individual cases is good but its big picture view is only ok. I say this because this doesn't read like a story but rather one major event after the other. I'd even compare the plot to DBZ in its similarity. Unlike DBZ though, the creators of this one knew when to stop. So with kick assery abound, witty humor as a chaser, and likeable characters, it bacame my favorite show...I can kill you all with my finger you know!!!

Downloaded Episodes: 112