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Ah, the Legend of Zelda series. When people typically hear that particular name being said in any conversation, usually the first few thoughts that enters one's mind are Link, Zelda, Nintendo, epic and Ocarina of Time. For those of you unfamiliar with the game, the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was released in 1998 for the N64 system and was quickly hailed as one of the best games in video game history. It received many perfect and near-perfect scores on gaming sites and was known for its well told plot and the use of time travel, where you were able to ... play as young and adult Link.

For all the Zelda fans out there, this information is pretty much as standard as knowing your own name. It comes hand in hand. That's why when I first saw that the game was going to be ported over to manga format, I will admit that I was one of the skeptics out there. For starters, Link does not talk. How would they incorporate Link's muteness in a manga that would inevitably be centralized around him? As I will explain, as far as manga adapted video games go, they did a fine job with it.

Since the story is pretty much the same as from the game, there was no way that I could give it any less than a nine. Because of a few changes within the storyline that they presented in the manga (some changes for better and some for worse), I avoided giving it that perfect score in that department. For example, some negative changes that they incorporated were some of the events in the manga occur a tad bit out of order than what you would have encountered in the game. However, a positive change was that they adapted a history behind Link's earing. We are given a legitimate reason as to why he wears them on his ears, and suffice to say, its a pretty neat thing to read up on.

The art is very well done. All of the characters look like themselves and are pretty close to what the official game art drew them as. However, there are at times throughout the chapters that some of the characters will look a tad bit odd and make you wonder what kind of body proportions did the mangaka use. A lot of the environments are well detailed while others are plain as rice. So it varies and I scored it as such.

The big question mark revolving around the manga is how they were able to pin down the characters and their personalities, especially with the case of Link. Let me say that the mangaka did a wonderful job on Link's personality. He is portrayed as a young, innocent and curious youth who gets flustered easily but holds an enviable about of courage for a ten-year old lad. In his adult self, long gone are the days of his cute youth, replaced by a hardened, steel-faced hero of time, yet still remain are the innocence and curiosity that defined him as a young child. Zelda and Link are shown to have a close bond of friendship when they meet each other while in their childhood and still hold onto that bond as adults, but clearly, there is something more between them that's hinted on but never clearly expressed. All the sages are well done as well and stick to their personalities of what was portrayed in the game, so you never have the sense of "what the hell - that's not what they were in the game" feeling. And that is something that is needed when making this kind of transition.

If you enjoyed playing the game Ocarina of Time and are one of the supporters out there that would love to see Link talk in an upcoming Zelda game, there is almost an inevitable chance that you'll love this manga to pieces. A close resemblance of the storyline in the game and a great personality of Link, Zelda and the sages will almost make you breathe a sigh of relief that they did not mess this up completely, which could have easily been done (i.e., the Legend of Zelda cartoon).

However, a big part of what the game is all about is the epic story-telling of the plot and as you read this manga, you get a different feel of it from when you played the game. For me, the story felt much more epic in the game than in the manga. In addition, the puzzle-ridden dungeons that Link traverses are really overlooked and not included as much in the manga.

It is these above criteria that hold the manga from receiving that perfect ten-point-zero score, but then again, if there was anything that could emulate the feeling of playing through Ocarina of Time, we wouldn't still be talking about the game to this very day, eh?

When I first started watching this anime, I really didn't expect anything special. I was simply looking for a sports anime that I could watch in my free time and also was relatively long (52 episodes) that hopefully enjoyable. Hungry Heart Wild Striker brings nothing new to the table. It's not a revolutionary anime by any means, and its relatively unknown compared to some of the other mainstream sports anime like Prince of Tennis, Eyeshield 21 Major, Shoot!, etc. However, after watching this anime, you cannot help but feel a special bond to it after following the journey and life's ups ... and downs of Kanou Kyosuke. Oh, by the way, this is a soccer (football) anime, for your information.

When I say that Wild Striker doesn't bring anything new, the one exemption from that can be with the story. Although you still have your typical sports anime story with following a protagonist (Kyosuke, in this case) and his will to win the national championship. The catch here is that his brother, Kanou Seisuke, is already a superstar that plays for AC Milan, and both of them are polar opposites in every way, shape and form. So Kyosuke is always being compared to his older brother and is expected to follow in his footsteps (well, sort of anyway). That's the overall main theme that the anime always goes back too. However, let me say that there is a lot of plot twists that Wild Striker brings in that really catches you off-guard. It keeps you on your toes and keeps the story very interesting. The matches are also very unpredictable, as Kyosuke's teams suffers plenty of losses throughout the show. There's a bit of romance in here as well, which is actually very interesting to watch.

The animation and art is really brings this anime down a notch. Everyone knows that sports anime has a ton of repeated frames, but Wild Striker really pushes that to the limit as each match, it feels like you're watching the same exact match from an earlier episode, just with a different opponent. A very focal point of sports anime is how the animation during matches is done and because of the poor quality in Wild Striker, sometimes its not that fun to watch. The same thing can be said of the character design. Seriously. It makes me wonder what the budget was for this anime. A bunch of the characters, if you look closely, have the same exactly facial structure, but simply different color eyes and a different hair style. Swap hairs and you'll swap the character. But Wild Striker does provide enough different character designs to keep it interesting.

Before I get too deep into my sound explanation, let me just start off by saying the the first season OP was the best piece of music in the entire anime. It's really nice piece of music that fits in perfectly with the anime and very uplifting as well. The rest of the music ranges from so-so to not all that great. The voice actors bring a lot of emotion into the characters they act for, which really brings a lot of the matches to life.

The characters themselves, I was very conflicted on. At first, I was going to write how they were pretty much unoriginal, but when I sat and thought about it for a few minutes, the characters are actually pretty decent. The anime brings just enough different types of characters to compliment the main protagonists in the show, but as I mentioned earlier, save for a few, they all look relatively the same. My biggest qualm about the characters is that there aren't many opponents that the show heavily concentrates on. Sure, there are teams, but not single opponents. In other words, they'll introduce a rival, concentrate on him for about 4-5 episodes tops, and then after the teams play their match, moves on forward. But I guess that's also a good thing, in order to bring in new people into the show.

Even with all of the negative aspects I mentioned about this show, you simply cannot help but to watch episode after episode because the story is pretty unpredictable. When you think a team is going to win, they end up losing. When you think they're going to lose, they end up winning. Even the storyline itself has a few nice plot twists that you won't see coming. Though the matches do tend to repeat themselves with the animation, they still have some mystifying quality that makes you watch in anticipation. Bottom line, Wild Striker is enjoyable to the max.

When I rank sports anime, I typically think of placing them in one of three tier groups: top tier, middle tier and bottom tier. I would place Wild Striker in the middle tier. It's definitely not the worst thing about there, as its very entertaining to watch. However, the ending may leave you with an unsatisfied taste in your mouth and wanting more. In addition, the lack of detail in character design and variability in animation prevent it from the top tier of sports anime. Nevertheless, its something that's worth your time to check out for yourself.

This anime had all the right elements in order for it to become something great. However, as many anime shows based of video games (like Prism Ark, Devil May Cry comes to mind as another one), as far as an anime goes, Prism Ark falls short of using its elements that it has and incorporating them into something that could have shined brightly above others of its kind. However, its shortcomings do not take away from this series as being something really adorable, cute and flashy, and Prism Ark is definitely an enjoyable watch from start to finish, even though you may not ... know what's going on half the time.

I'd give an overall synopsis of the story, but everything in this show is so loosely connected to each other, there really isn't an overall plot besides the main focus of the budding romance between the two main characters, Precia and Hyaweh. There seems to be some evil organization out there that wants power to become like a God and most probably, rule the galaxy or something of the sort. But because all of the episodes focus mainly on the romance between the two characters instead of the plot mentioned briefly, it doesn't amount to much, besides in the last episode, really.

I feel the saving grace of this show has to be the art and animation. The overall design on the anime and characters is something new and will shine to you once you start watching. Heavy detail is given to each of the characters and they are all colored well. Speaking of which, the use of color is really portrayed nicely in this anime. Animation is also pretty good, as many of the battle scene, even though rather quick, are nicely animated. And just to throw it out there and something of totally my opinion, I absolutely loved the weapon design that this show presented.

Overall sound was pretty good. Music was upbeat and fit nicely with all of the scenes. Some of the character voices I did not particularly like (i.e. Precia, one of them), but its doesn't take away too much from the show.

Like I've mentioned above, the character design is amazing and the detail given to each is strikingly clear as you compare characters to one another. Prism Ark, being an ero-game, more detail is obviously given to the women characters than the males. As far as personality and such, you have your typical main protagonists, each with their own twist (stuck up, stubborn princess and a shy, courageous lad, both of whom just so happen to have dark secrets). What brings the show out of the dirt is the side characters, all of whom compliment the main ones quite nicely and have different personalities, leading to personal favorites.

Though Prism Ark has some interesting battles and the anime revolves around students in a knight academy, training to become Royal Guards, a huge factor of how much you may enjoy this show can be based on the fact how much you can put up with the romance factor. It also gets a bit frustrating too as the romance between Hyaweh and Precia, although so painfully obvious, doesn't really develop till the second half of the anime.

In the end, I feel that if they stretched this out to be a 24 or 26 episode series, the potentially interesting plot that was introduced but not really brought out till the last few episodes, could have been developed much more. Ultimately, I feel that the anime is more of a fan-service to the audience who have played and are familiar with the Prism Ark games.

Note: This review encompasses the entire series, rather than just the first season. Keep that in mind while reading. Thanks!!

When anime fans start talking about shows that began their interest in japanese animation, many people point to the fact that their first experience with anime (whether they knew it or not at the time) is Sailor Moon. It's one of those anime shows that people fondly remember as the basis of "how to do anime right" for future shows of its kind. Even when comparing it with today's new trends, plots, characters and animation, it is easy to notice why Sailor ... Moon is fondly accepted into the hearts of anime fans around the world.

In my eyes, you could not have picked a better anime to become immersed into the anime world than with Sailor Moon. And a big reason for that is the intricate and well-developed plot, arguably the strongest feature Sailor Moon presents. At the surface, you can say that it's your typical "children rising up to save the world" theme. However, this magic girl anime show presented unbelievable twists to the plot that included five different main story arcs with amazing depth to each of them and somehow, it always able to weave itself flawlessly back to the central theme that encompassed Sailor Moon. To top it all of, when you watched Sailor Moon, it was able to emotionally draw you into the show with ease, where you undoubtedly had your favorite sailor scouts and actually cared about each and every character and what happened to them. Very few anime shows back in the day (early 90's) were able to do that, and though we see it more often nowadays, its still a special skill that is needed.

Again, because of its 1992 creation, the art obviiously seems old-fashioned and not as crisp as what you watch nowadays. But if you really think about, each character was drawn well, each given different physical characteristics that separated each one from another and the backdrops used were well detailed to an extent. Sure, there were a ton of repeated frames (namely during transformation), but what anime nowadays doesn't have them? In all, it still holds up very well, even in today's times.

Depending on what version (English or Japanese) you are most familiar with and most vividly remember, the sound preference of the show could go either way. While I personally did not have a problem with the English cast, the Japanese cast also voiced each character pretty well. The voices of each character gave of enough feeling and emotion, which helped draw the viewer into the show even further. The music was so good that there have been hundreds of performances, many musicals and an ample amount of released soundtracks that have been much appreciated by the public.

Again, one can also argue that the strongest point in Sailor Moon was the plethora of characters they introduced, each one of them having a significant part in the grand scheme of things. As I stated before, everyone picks their favorite sailor scout, and to me, each scout's character personality seemed to fit their represented planet quite well. They took their time with introductions of characters and the development was amazing, with new powers, techniques and relationships acquired throughout the entire series. The one downside people may bring up is that they may have been *too* many characters and with that, the focus is turned away from the main ones. On rare occasions did that occur in Sailor Moon.

Weaving all of this together, Sailor Moon is easily one of the more enjoyable "old-school" anime shows out there. Almost every episode had some kind of meaning towards the overall plot and a lot of the battles can't be called anything short of epic. However, a big question mark on whether or not people enjoyed Sailor Moon was their views towards romance. Love was one of the bigger themes of this show, seen strongly epitomized between the characters of Usagi (Serena) and Mamoru (Damien). If that was something you loved, chances are you favored this series more so than people who didn't find that factor appealing.

All in all, Sailor Moon is one of the shows that started the anime trend outside of Japan and they could not have picked a better show to showcase than the Sailor Moon franchise. With a great cast of characters, a lengthy, emotional series involving epic clashes between good vs. evil and a highly well-developed plot, Sailor Moon is a show that if any younger anime fans out there haven't seen, or if the older ones thought was too "mushy," you should give it another try. Who knows, it just may be right up your alley.

You are a person who loves fighting anime and is looking for something with epic battles and intense rivalries. Or you are someone who is looking for a good laugh and an entertaining anime that will last you for awhile. Or, you are somebody who is simply looking for an amazing anime that has all the right pieces that make it extraordinary. If any of those above scenarios fit you, simply put, Shijou Saikyou No Deshi Kenichi (History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi) is a must-watch anime for you to pick up on.

The story, although simple at heart, becomes more complex at the surface ... as the anime progresses through the episodes. Kenichi is your run-of-the mill weakling kid who is always getting picked on by everyone and has no confidence in his abilities whatsoever. But that doesn't stop him from doing the right thing and stepping into some pretty hairy situations despite his shortcomings. The story begins with Kenichi wanting to get stronger because of his will to protect his friends. As a result, he joins the Ryōzanpaku dojo and from there on out, every episode has meaning, and will have you wanting for more. The story ends with Kenichi in an final showdown verses the leader of the most intense gang in Japan - Ragnorak. Just from that, it gives you the sense that the plot development is spectacular in this show.

The art for Kenichi is well done. All of the characters are drawn very well and have distinguishing characteristics that cosplay members will love to create. Animation is also done very well, as you have great battles and very few repetition of frames.

Arguably, the sound is probably the weakest point of the anime, and its not even that weak. Opening/ending songs are pretty good and the scores used throughout the anime fit quite well with the current scene you are watching. However, it is the voices to each character that really brings all the characters alive, as you can feel the emotion from all of the characters.

The character design in HSD Kenichi is so original and great, that you'll wonder why nobody has ever came up with this before. Kenichi is trained by six masters, who all specialize in a different form of martial arts. All of their personalities are so different and unique, you'll also wonder how each of them get along in the first place. Hence, the many comedic moments and episodes that you'll inevitably witness as they all fight amongst themselves to be the one who trains Kenichi. Ah, and let's not forget the beautiful Miu Furinji, Kenichi's love interest, who, unlike other female protagonists of similar plots, is one hell of a fighter and the reason Kenichi joins the dojo. As the anime progresses deeper in the story, you'll be unveiled to a plethora of unique characters who have different fighting styles and unique personalities, which will all amaze and have you laughing at the same time. For the sake of keeping this section as short as possible, I'm simply going to say character development is flawless in this anime.

Even with all of this that I have written about, this anime would be nothing without its comedy, and that is what makes Kenichi so much fun and enjoyable to watch. You will be literally laughing out loud at some of the hellish training that Kenichi is forcibly put through and will wonder why he hasn't died yet. (Yes, the training is that hellish). Even with 50 episodes, the comedy of Kenichi never gets old and you'll find that to be the case right up to the very last episode. Hell, sometimes you'll wish that they had more comedy than serious fights, because its that good.

All in all, Kenichi is one of those rare anime shows out there that is able to blend in comedy with the overall serious plot extremely well. One of the few qualms that I did have with this show was that the ending occurred a little to quick and you'll also wish that they gave more information about the history of each of the masters, as they provide you with relatively very little on each one of them. In the end, once you watch the final episode of this anime, it will take you five seconds or so to wish that there would be a second season to it.

So, take one part Neon Genesis Evangelion, one part Mobile Suit Gundam and one part of extremely boring political intrigue, mix thoroughly and boil for 26 episodes, and you will receive a product that equals Heroic Age. Even though the first few episodes held so much promise for this anime series, the repetition of battles and the boring political talk between plain looking characters is what takes the heroic out of the anime, Heroic Age.

The story is your pretty standard inter-galactic war plot, with a few new wrinkles added in to create something original. The Golden Tribe used to rule over the universe ... a long time ago, but with its sudden disappearance, the Silver Tribe has been the dominant one throughout the universe. However, with the rebellion of the humans, a war breaks out. The Silver Tribe (superior beings), the Bronze Tribe (humans) and the Iron Tribe (an insect race) are the participants in this war. What makes the war interesting is the battles fought between Nodos. The Nodos - a powerful being that looks oddly similar to an Eva - are monsters that are hidden within the soul of people that are from the once-thought extinct Heroic Tribe. Each Nodos has been sworn to oath set by the Golden Tribe that he/she must fulfill.

The character art is boring, enough said. All of the characters look relatively plain and uninteresting. And as a result, will not spark much interest in you, as the viewer, and will unfortunately, at times, make you become bored with the anime. The animation, on the other hand, is pretty good. A bunch of repeated frames for sure, but compared to the art, it's not so bad.

The sound, although nothing remarkable as well, is pretty decent. There are a few scores which you might start playing in your head a few times. The voices to all the characters fit them well, but you can sense an apparent lack of emotion in all of them.

You'll find your average set of protagonists and antagonists in this anime. You have your basic good-willed princess, a commander who will fight for her, and even a big-breasted female general. Even Age, the main character, is nothing special, as his appearance will undoubtedly look familiar and you'll wish he never got that haircut after the first episode. Probably the most annoying characters you'll find in this anime is the princess' brothers, who are your typical hungry-power people willing to sacrifice everyone for their gain. They are a waste of space, in my opinion.

Heroic Age would have garnered a bit of a higher score from me if it were not for the extremely uneventful and boring episodes that occur right in the middle of the anime. The first nine or so shows are interesting, but then after that, there's another nine or ten in which the same thing seems to happen over and over again. In addition, the constant unemotional speeches from everyone will have you yawning in no time.

From the review I have written above, it seems that I made it out so that Heroic Age has no good points whatsoever, which is definitely not true and hence why I haven't given it a 1/10. The Nodos battles are really epic and its interesting to see what kind of powers and attacks they develop. You'll also be interested in the hint of love between Princess Deianeira and Age, which is rather amusing to watch. You'll also see many reference to the Greek Mythology version of the Heroic Age and its always fun to see them and point them out to yourself.

In the end, Heroic Age is an anime to be seen if there is nothing else out there that you are interested in and want to pass your time.

The Prince of Tennis - a sports-driven anime that debuted back in 2001, depicts the story of Echizen Ryoma and his experiences in the world of tennis. Along with Hajime no Ippo, the Prince of Tennis helped start the rave with sports-driven anime craze, and its not really a wonder why a lot of those anime use many of the elements from the Prince of Tennis - its so good that its still being animated (in OVA form) this very day.

Normally, with sports anime, you see the rise of a certain young star from not being a very good player to being the ace ... of their sport. The Prince of Tennis pulled something out of the ordinary and made Echizen an amazing tennis player right from the start. Now you're probably thinking, "Well, where's the fun in that?" Well, Echizen is always going up against top-notch opponents and throughout the show, you'll witness him going from a cocky, immature kid to one who actually respects his opponents (well, sort of anyway) and development of new, exciting skills. Echizen join the Seigaku high school tennis team and participates in tournaments with them. And of course, the overall theme is to aim for the top of the tennis world.

The art is pretty good. It starts off so-so, but before you know it, it gets to that level where you're impressed by it. As for the animation, you'll see a lot of repeated frames throughout the show (as usual with sports anime), but the way they animate all of the new skills and tennis matches is just so amazing, that after some of the matches, you just stare in awe at its magnificence.

The sound, I would say, is probably the weakest point of the show. Although the music presented in the Prince of Tennis does suit the mood and is pretty upbeat at times, there really isn't a score that will stand out to you, where you'll be saying, "Ah!! I need that on my computer/ipod." Nevertheless, its relatively enjoyable

Since the stories are pretty much the same throughout all sport anime (overall), in order for an anime to be amazing - especially the case with sport ones - characters and unique personalities need to be there. And Prince of Tennis does not disappoint in that category. This show unveils so many different memorable characters, that you'll undoubtedly have trouble picking your all-time favorite one from the lot because they are so unique. And the best part about it is that the creators were able to somehow give each character a unique way of playing tennis. With the amount of characters and opponents they present, you'd think that they would have to repeat somewhere. But that's definitely not the case.

With amazing tennis matches, a plethora of unique and lovable characters, and a cocky main protagonist that will get on your nerves at times but you'll respect out of necessity because of his skills, the Prince of Tennis is an amazing sport anime. The best part of this anime is that you will have a hard time knowing who will win matches. Surprisingly enough, all the main characters experience losses matches at times, which makes it interesting to see how each one responds to the agony of defeat.

If you are looking for a sport-driven anime and are in for the long haul - meaning 170+ episodes, the Prince of Tennis is exactly what you're looking for.

Ok, so for the sake of creating the ultimate database for MAL on anime reviews, I have decided to create a review on an anime show that almost everyone in this community is familiar with - Pokemon. Have YOU caught them all?

As many people probably already know, Pokemon is the story of our young hero Ash (Satoshi) Ketchum and his dream of one day becoming a Pokemon Master. Of course, if that is your dream, one must defeat gym leaders, participate in the regional Pokemon tournaments and of course, must catch them all, as per the famous catch-phrase of the show. On ... Ash's journey, he meets up with many different friends who all have different dreams as well, but coincide with Ash's dream of being a Pokemon Master. While the story nowadays seems pretty cliche and straightforward, keep in mind that this show debuted in 1997, so let's give it that much.

The animation for Pokemon is something that gets better as the show goes on. In the first many episodes, the animation is not the greatest thing in the world, and many of the frames are repeated several times throughout the entire anime. But because of the huge improvement, I will give credit to the animators in keeping up with the times.

The one thing I really like about this show when I first watched it was the music. I totally fell in love with many of the scores used whenever Ash participated in a big battle against gym leaders or tough rivals. Many of these scores can be seen in the many games that have been created for it as well. Besides that however, a lot of the other music heard sounds kind of boring, which ironically, fits well with the pace of the story, which I'm sure we all are familiar with.

I feel that the characters in Pokemon are simply too perfect. I suppose that since this show was geared towards the younger age group, that may be the reason why, but each main characters we are presented with have either one or two obvious faults that the show always seems to dwell upon whenever there is a problem. Whether it be Ash's rash and stubborn nature or Brock's obvious love of Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny, it just becomes waaay too repetitive for it to be enjoyable anymore. Team Rocket anyone?

Which leads to the category of enjoyment. If Pokemon simply aired the important episodes (i.e. gym battles, Ash catching Pokemon, etc.), the show would be scores more enjoyable than what we are presented it. The insane amount of pointless episodes are so utterly boring, that calling them fillers would be an insult to the word "fillers." Whenever I turn on the television and find Pokemon airing, I would stay on that channel for however long it took me to deduce whether or not a gym battle was occurring. If not, the channel was flipped instantly.

Pokemon has tried to keep things fresh with introducing a whole new set of pocket monsters, but at this point, there are so many that its hard to keep track of them all.

Pokemon is the anime show which introduced many of us to the world of japanese animation. I believe that a lot of us grew up watching this show at some point in our lives and will always hold it in a special place in our hearts. However, now that we have become older and can compare this to other anime out there, we can see how Pokemon horribly fails as being an enjoyable show to watch. The fact that Ash almost never wins a regional tournament and relinquishes all of his Pokemon that he has worked so hard to evolve and train (cough* Pidgeot* cough) also gets on the nerves of many people as well. For argument's sake, I rated it a 4 (decent) because of the "used-to be" interesting gym battles. Even now, whenever I see Ash competing at the Orange Island final battle, its something I'll gladly stay tuned and watch again.

Katekyo Hitman Reborn, commonly referred to simply as Hitman Reborn, is the comedic story of Sawada Tsunayoshi (Tsuna) and his training in fulfilling his duty as the 10th generation leader of the famous Vongola Mafia Family. Though this is a story about mafia families and such, by no means is it all dead serious as you expect mafia-themed plots to be (i.e. Gungrave). Quite the contrary, this is a comedy anime and is a very hilarious show.

Tsuna is trained by Reborn, a very well-known hitman throughout the mafia world, but the catch here is that Tsuna is your everyday klutz who ... has no good qualities about him, hence his nickname, "No good Tsuna," and also not to mention, he wants nothing to do with the mafia. While he meets many new friends throughout his journey who eventually join ranks with him to become his "mafia family," there are of course people who want to see him dead so they can take his place.

The story, while very unique as you don\'t see too many mafia-based anime shows out there, definitely had more potential than what the final product has showed us so far. The big reason that I state this is that there is a bunch of episodes, while not fillers, can be seen as stand-alone comedic episodes that don\'t really have too much of a plot line to them. The episodes that do have a plot, while they are extremely interesting, are unfortunately, go by rather quickly. However, don\'t let that be the reason to stop you from checking this out.

The artwork of Hitman Reborn isn\'t all that bad, but isn\'t anything special or spectacular. Sometimes the animation just seems kind of plain, and many times during a few scenes you\'ll undoubtedly notice how bland it is, but its bearable.

The sound is also on the same degree as the artwork, nothing special, but not disappointing.

I believe what separates Hitman Reborn and makes it special from other shows is its characters. They creators have done an excellent job in creating fresh, very unique and hilarious characters that will have you laughing at their antics in every episode (especially Lambo, who is just too cute). The biggest, and probably the most surprising thing about the characters is how some of them are literally, baby-sized characters. Reborn himself is no bigger than Tsuna\'s head and while this fact may make you stray away from this anime, let me advise that it only helps in the comedy department, because the creators were able to use this aspect so creatively well.

If you\'re looking for a hilarious anime with very unique characters and some interesting fighting, look no further than Hitman Reborn. This anime contains its fair shares of battles, action and romance to go along with the many laughs you\'ll inevitably have.

Busou Renkin is a story that takes many of its elements from other anime. You'll see elements of Fullmetal Alchemist, Ruroui Kenshin, Shakugan no Shana, Fate/Stay Night, and probably a bunch more. Though Busou Renkin was developed by the creator of Rurouni Kenshin, Nobuhiro Watsuki, it is not as epic as the story of Kenshin was. However, despite some of the obvious points of this series, Busou Renkin manages to uphold fairly well and be a relatively enjoying series.

Busou Renkin means Arms Alchemy. In this story, there are homunculi that are running about the land and its up to alchemic warriors, ... using these Arms Alchemy devices (which spring forth a weapon based on the users personality) to vanquish the homunculi. This does sound a little bit familiar but Busou Renkin does manage to throw in its own elements and enough plot twists to keep it original. Deep down, however, its still your run of the mill "regular kid rising up out of nowhere to save the world" theme.

The animation is up to par with todays standards, but in some episodes however, you'll see it lacking. Or rather, in some places and characters. Otherwise, there isn't too much to complain of about the art.

The music and such in Busou Renkin isn't all that bad, but its also nothing spectacular. The opening theme song is pretty catchy and the music scores during battles do raise your tension a bit, but what I found missing from this particular anime was that one, catchy song, piece of music that reels you in no matter what was happening in the anime. And thus, at some points, I found myself losing concentration a different points in the show.

Nobuhiro Watsuki must have some kind of fetish with scars, because as with Kenshin, the main female protagonist here has a defining scar too (though the scar is not as important to the plotline as Kenshin's was). Anyway, back to the characters. Kazuki, the main male lead, is your typical hero who I found to be a little too perfect. Without giving too much away, you can say it was hard to go against him in battles. However, Kazuki was your only typical character. Nobuhiro Watsuki has created a plethora of unique (and some rather a little *too* unique if you ask me) characters which is a nice change of pace from the norm.

All in all, a lot of Busou Renkin is pretty cliche and obvious as to what may happen. The ending, in my taste, was a little too premature, in other words, it seemed as if it was put together forcefully to have that particular ending. The pace of the story starts off rather quickly, immersing you immediately without giving all the details, but soon starts to slow back down to a reasonable pace.

If you're looking for a series that's 26 episodes long that's rather enjoyable to watch, but nothing "eye-popping," as well as something with romance, Busou Renkin is something you definitely should check out.