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Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door was released in Japan on September 1st, 2001. Shinichiro Watanabe stayed on as director, and it was produced this time by not only Sunrise, but also Bandai Visual (famous for their work on the .hack series and Dennou Coil), and Bones (famous for their work on Fullmetal Alchemist and Ouran High School Host Club). It was released Stateside by Bandai on August 11th, 2002.

It's just a few days before Halloween on Ganymede, a major national holiday, and a terrorist has blown up a tanker filled with a biochemical weapon. The government posts a 300 million Wulong ... bounty for the terrorist, and the Bebop crew just decides to go after it. But the more they investigate, the deeper the rabbit hole seems to go...

Yes, to answer any questions ahead of time, this is not a sequel; it takes place between episodes twenty-two and twenty-three. It's not quite what I was expecting, admittedly, but it's still a pretty good plot. It could've been fit in the series as a two or three part episode, and apparently Wantanabe had wanted to originally, but he couldn't have gotten away with it on TV.

The visuals for this are absolutely beautiful; the animation got an update in the three years since the show had aired, and things are definitely smoother than they were in the show. There's an even more unprecedented amount of detail in this, and it's absolutely beautiful.

Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts came back to do work on the music again, and it's just as awesome and catchy as it was in the series. I found myself humming a few of the songs after it was done.

All the seiyuu and the voice actors were able to return for the movie, which just adds t o the awesomeness of the movie in general. And the dub for this was actually fairly accurate, which surprises me, as this was released Stateside a little over a year after 9/11, and a few days before the 9/11 attacks over in Japan.

All in all, a pretty good movie, with a good plot and unprecedented detail and smoother animation, if not what I was expecting.

Warning: Epically long review ahead, mainly because I love this series so much.

Title: Revolutionary Girl Utena

Manga, Anime: Revolutionary Girl Utena was originally a manga with story by Be-Papas and art by Chiho Saito that ran in Shogakugan's Ciao magazine from 1996 to 1997. It has been licensed Stateside by Viz Media, and the final volume, which covers the movie, was released on December 3rd, 2007.

Revolutionary Girl Utena has two anime incarnations. One is the original TV show, which is made of 39 total episodes, and was produced by JC Staff (famous for their work on Honey and Clover and Potemayo), and directed by ... Kunihiko Ikuhara (famous for becoming the director Sailor Moon after the second half of the R season up until the SuperS season). It ran on Japanese TV from April 2nd, 1997 till December 24th, 1997. The second is a movie adaptation, which will be covered later in this review. Both have been licensed Stateside by Central Park Media, which is now defunct. Let's just say it's been out for a long time Stateside.

Story: "Once upon a time, years and years ago, there was a little princess, and she was very sad, for her father and mother had died. Before the princess appeared a traveling prince riding upon a white horse. He had a regal bearing and a kind smile. The prince wrapped the princess in a rose-scented embrace and gently wiped the tears from her eyes. 'Little one,' he said, 'who bears up alone in such deep sorrow, never lose that strength and nobility, even when you grow up. I give you this to remember this day. We will meet again. This ring will lead you to me one day.' Perhaps the ring the prince gave her was an engagement ring. This was all well and good, but she was so impressed by him that the princess vowed to become a prince one day. But was that really such a good idea?" This is the story that a younger Utena Tenjou tells us as her older self, still aspiring to be a prince and dressing like a boy, goes to the prestigious Ohtori Academy. After her close friend Wakaba is cruelly treated by a member of the Student Council, Saionji and she sees him slapping Anthy, his supposed girfriend, she challenges him to a duel. The ring she wears unknowingly admits her to a secret duelling arena in the forest where Saionji meets her with Anthy, who is apparently the Rose Bride. Saionji then pulls a sword out of Anthy's chest, and things only get odder from there on out...

Utena is an absolutely amazing series.

On the surface, Utena is just a duelist of the week series, with recurring duelists. However, what makes this show so much more than that is the depth of character development that you get with the duelists, and even with the recurring minor characters. Each duel shows another side to them, and, in addition, reveals even more reasons why these people should go to a psychiatrist. Seriously, you could probably do a good case study on every one of the main characters, and a good deal of the minor recurring characters. Hell, even the girl who's mainly used as comedic relief gets excellent development and light shed on her psychological problems!

The other thing about this series is that nothing, nothing is what it seems to be at first. There are layers and layers to every single character and aspect of this show, and as the show goes on, you realize exactly what is going on at Ohtori Academy. There's some very heavy symbolism that uses some fairly mundane objects and allegories that foreshadow what's going to happen long before it ever does, and you'll only catch this on another watchthrough of the series.

Which, by the way, would probably be best after you've watched this the first time through. There's a lot of things that you only get in subsequent watchthroughs, and you'll realize just how much there is to this series when you do. I am convinced that someone could probably write a master's thesis on this show.

Warning: There are some fairly blatant innuendos and sexual images in this, along with hints of incest and major age differences and definite abuse. Oh, and there's lots of girls and boys feeling up/kissing their respective genders. So, if you don't like that, you should stay away from this series.

Art: The art takes a bit of getting used to, admittedly, with blank eyes, sharp edges, and heavy lines. In general, Utena is heavily stylized, but when compared to other shows airing around that time (Neon Genesis Evangelion, Beserk), the quality is fairly high. A lot of work goes into the background art and all the symbolism as well, all of which figure heavily into the show.

There's a lot of stock footage in this show, but luckily it's animated well enough that it doesn't bother you, and every time it plays, you can catch some new little detail about it.

Music: The background music for Utena is done by Shinkinchi Mitsumune, who also did work on Rozen Maiden's background music. From what I've heard from him, this is probably his best work, and I wonder what happened that he put so little effort forth with Rozen Maiden, compared to the effort that had to have gone into this. Every theme is memorable, and is probably some of my favorite music from a series ever.

And then there are the vocal songs that play while the duels happen, done by J.A Seazer. When you're looking at a translation of the songs, you're going to realize that they make absolutely no sense and just seem like random words thrown together. And, at first glance, they do. However, as you're watching the show through again, you realize just how much effort went into those random words, and that yes, they actually do mean something.

The OP, which never changes, is one of my favorites. It's not anything out of the normal standard for OPs out there, upbeat female JPop number, like with Ouran, but for whatever reason, I really like it. It's the same thing with the three EDs; all upbeat female JPop numbers that I normally wouldn't like, but really work for the series.

Seiyuu: Takehito Koyasu (known for his roles as Hotohori in Fushigi Yuugi and Haruhi's dad in Ouran High School Host Club) appears as the voice of Touga, one of the more interesting male characters in here and one of my favorites, and Kotono Mitsuishi (known for her role as Sailor Moon in the show of the same name and Misato Katsuragi in Neon Genesis Evangelion) appears as the voice of Juri Arisugawa, probably the most interesting female character after Utena and Anthy. Akio's seiyuu, juurouta Kosugi, was also Fernand d'Morcerf's seiyuu in Gankutsuou, and sounds like sex and malice incarnate. And Anthy's seiyuu, Yuriko Fuchizaki, brings an amazing amount of depth to her character, just barely hinting at what's going on beneath the surface and letting hints slip as to what she really is throughout the series.

All in all, an amazing cast.

Length: Thirty-nine episodes may seem a bit lengthy at first glance. And admittedly, there are elements that get a bit repetitive. But I'm fine with the length, as it allows you to see a lot of detail that you might not necessarily see in a shorter series, which works to the benefit of Utena.

Overall: An absolutely amazingly written and acted series with lots of depth, heavy character development, stylization, symbolism and allegories, and people with lots of issues, that has a lot of details you'll notice on subsequent watchthroughs.

Tied for my all-time favorite series. Watch this. You will not regret it.

Story: 10/10
Art: 9/10
Music: 10/10
Seiyuu: 10/10
Length: 9/10

Overall: 48/50; 96% (A)

Adolescence of Utena is a feature-length movie that was produced and directed by the same persons who were responsible for the TV series. It premiered in 1999, and has been licensed Stateside by Central Park Media, which is now defunct. Let's just say it's been out for a long time Stateside.

Adolescence of Utena is best described as the TV series retold in two hours or less with different plot elements bought up or discarded, with some characters absent, and lots and lots of symbolism and, some would argue, a heavy dose of crack.

I would highly suggest watching the series going into ... this. I watched this first, then watched the series, and then watched this, and I found that the series helped me understand it more, which is what the creators intended with this. And then the movie, in turn, helped me understand elements of the series that I didn't before, which in turn helped me understand the movie more, which helped me understand the series... it's a cycle of positive feedback. And it's amazing.

The art for this is a lot smoother than it was in the series, though it is still heavily stylized. A definite improvement.

The music has a lot of the same themes, subtly reworked for the movie, which gives it a whole new feel. There are also some new vocal pieces that don't have to do with the duelling songs, and they're quite addictive.

Most of the vocal cast was able to return for this, except for Akio's seiyuu, which just adds a nice touch to this.

An amazing movie, and one of my favorite anime movies to date.

Title: Jigoku Shoujo

Manga, Live-Action Drama, Anime: Jigoku Shoujo was adapted into a manga after it finished its original TV run, with art and story done by Miyuki Eto. It began running in Kodansha's Nakayoshi magazine in the October 2005 issue, is still running, and has, for the most part, had an original story line and plot changes, though some episodes from the anime do get their own manga chapters. Del Rey has licensed it Stateside, and the third volume is due on August 5th, while it stand at six collected volumes in Japan currently.

A live-action spinoff consisting of twelve half-hour episodes began running ... on TV on November 4th, 2006, and finished its run on January 27th, 2007. There's not a lot about it, so I don't know how similar or dissimilar it is to the original anime. It will also not be covered in this review.

Speaking of which, Jigoku Shoujo was originally a twenty-six episode anime, and ran on Japanese TV from October 4th, 2005 to April 4th, 2006. It was produced by Studio Deen (famous for their work on Fruits Basket and Fate/Stay Night) and directed by Takahiro Omori (famous for his work on Baccano! and Gakuen Alice). It has been licensed Stateside by Funimation, and the sixth and final volume was released on May 20th.

Story: There is a rumor that if there's someone giving you absolute hell and you want to get revenge on them, there's a website that you can access only at midnight, known as Hell Correspondence. Once the name is submitted, Ai Enma (aka Jigoku Shoujo/Hell Girl) will appear to the client and give them a straw doll with a red string wrapped around its neck. If the client wishes to take revenge, then all they have to do is pull the string and Ai and her helpers will ferry the person to hell. However, there is a small catch to all this: Once the compact is made with Ai, the person who took revenge will go to hell once they've died as well.

Jigoku Shoujo is, at it's heart, a Revenge of the Week episode. Once you've seen two or three episodes, you have the basic outline of every episode: Introduction to person being tormented and torment, tormented accesses Hell Correspondence, Ai and tormented meet up and she tells them the conditions and such, tormented ends up debating/angsting over whether or not the deal is worth it, things are escalated in some way, and the tormented pulls the string, sending the tormentor to hell. Rinse and repeat for twenty-three or so episodes.

I'm really kind of disappointed, because there's almost no background about Ai until the last three or so episodes of the show, and even that is minimal, not to mention that the background of her helpers doesn't even get mentioned.

The fact that the set up doesn't change one bit throughout the entire show, even when the show introduces two people who try and thwart Ai (the reporter Hajime and his daughter, Tsugumi, who has a psychic connection to Ai) does not help the show at all. Hajime and Tsugumi were only really vital to the plot of five episodes total; with the others, they could've not been around, and the same thing still would have happened, which makes their existence kind of useless. Also, the fact that Hajime has a tendency to come off as an incredible bastard at times, not to mention a bit of a hypocrite, doesn't help things. I understand what the creators might've been trying to do, here, but they missed the mark with these two.

The quality for the Revenge of the Week stories average out to about half and half; half are excellent and have incredible writing and twists, and the other half are kind of... eh. The characters are always memorable, though.

Admittedly, there is a second season, Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori, that can hopefully rectify these mistakes.

Art: The art that has to do with the world that Ai occupies when she's not working, the revenges that they take on the tormentors, and to do with her helpers' and her own character design are absolutely stunning. The colors for these are incredibly rich, and the designs in general are beautifully done.

As for the part that has to do with our world... eh. The backgrounds are done well, and the character designs for the people of the week start to blur together after a certain point and become incredibly generic, but they manage to remain slightly distinct.

There is some stock footage, but it isn't all that bad.

Music: The music for this is absolutely amazing, in my opinion, and one of the first things I really noticed about the series. There are several recurring themes throughout the show, and they are extremely memorable. The music is a mix of Western orchestration, rock numbers, and traditional Japanese instruments that always seems to catch my ear.

The OP's a pretty standard J-Pop female upbeat number, but is still pretty catchy, all things considered. The ED is absolutely amazing, though; a typical J-Pop female ballad that uses cello and traditional Japanese instruments for instrumentation, and has lyrics that very directly relate to the show.

Seiyuu: The seiyuu for this show did a good job, as always; no voices that seemed out of place or painful. Though I do kind of pity the seiyuu who had to play Ai, as her lines were mostly the same throughout all twenty-six episodes; hopefully, they'll vary up the dialogue for her next season.

Length: If they cut out the crappy half of the show, we have a show that could easily have fit within thirteen-ish episodes, and still been a pretty good show. That cut probably should have been made, as most of the good part of the show doesn't really start to happen until the halfway or so mark.

Overall: A really good concept that ended up lacking a bit in its execution, and in the long run, would've benefited from cutting the actual amount of episodes in half, so that the best parts of the show stayed intact, with beautiful art and music, and seiyuu that could have used more varied lines, really. But maybe its issues can be rectified in the second season, Futakomori.

Story: 7
Art: 9
Music: 9
Seiyuu: 8
Length: 7

Overall: 40/50; 80% (B )

WARNING: This is going to be a very long review, as there's a lot of content to cover. Bear with me, please. Also, note that I watched the remastered version of the series, and the Revival of Evangelion (which contained only the Death segment of Death and Rebirth, combined with the End of Evangelion). Also, this review may contain some SPOILERS.

Title: Neon Genesis Evangelion

Manga, Anime: Neon Genesis Evangelion has, at this point, three manga incarnations. The first, which shares the same title as the anime, was released to drum up interest for the anime TV series, though originally publishers thought that ... it was too out-of-date to actually earn money. It was authored by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (famous for his character designs for the .hack series and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time), and began serialization in Kadokawa Shoten's Shonen Ace in the February 1995 issue (actually released on December 26th, 1994), and is still running at this point in time. Viz has licensed it Stateside, and it stands at 10 volumes of the 11 currently published volumes, with a total of 12 volumes planned. The second, Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days, is an alternate retelling of Evangelion, using the high school romantic comedy scenario shown briefly in Episode 25 and expanded upon in the video game Neon Genesis Evangelion: Girlfriend of Steel 2. It was authored by Fumino Hayashi (who is also working on a Terra E spinoff called Aoki Kobo no Kiss for Square Enix), and was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Monthly Asuka from the November 2003 issue to the November 2005 issue. It has been licensed Stateside by ADV Manga, and ran in Newtype USA from the August 2005 issue to the January 2006 issue, and the sixth and final volume was released on August 31st of 2007. The newest incarnation, Neon Genesis Evangelion: Gakuen Datenroku, focuses on Shinji's attending NERV Academy, and being roped into helping the Samash Guardians (Rei, Kaoru, and Asuka) find and protect Cores, which are gems that, if they fall into the hands of Angels (which are only consciousnesses, not actual physical beings) will end up in humanity's destruction. It's authored by Min Min, and began serialization in Kadokawa Shoten's Monthly Asuka in the October 2007 issue, and is still ongoing. It also has yet to be licensed Stateside.

At this point in time, Neon Genesis Evangelion has four anime incarnations, three of which are movies and will be covered later in this review. Neon Genesis Evangelion's original anime incarnation was a twenty-six episode series that ran on Japanese TV from October 4th, 1995 to March 27th, 1996. It was produced by Gainax (famous for their work on His and Her Circumstances and FLCL), and directed by Hideaki Anno (famous for his work on the original Gunbuster OVA and His and Her Circumstances). It has been licensed Stateside by ADV films, and the latest remastered box set was released on November 22nd, 2005.

Story: After not seeing or hearing from his father for several years, Shinji Ikari is summoned to Tokyo-3, Japan's new capital after the original capital was nuked in the chaos after the Second Impact, which was caused by a meteorite slamming into Antartica, killing off about half of the world's population, submerging a good deal of the continents, and tilting the Earth's axis, which caused major climate change. He is then ordered by his father to reluctantly pilot a robot known as the Evangelion Unit 01 in order to defeat a strange invaders known as Angels.

So, yeah. Sounds fairly generic, right? And for about the first half of the show, Evangelion is not really anything new in the post-apocalyptic mecha genre. Episodes are, for the most part, either Shinji angsting about piloting the Eva or a monster of the week episode, and you can start to predict what's going to happen after a few rinse and repeats. The characters that are introduced are all fairly messed up, and you might form attachments to them, but it's not enough to really keep you interested. I was seriously considering dropping it at about the halfway point.

And then the second half of the show hit, and it hit hard.

The second half starts to focus more on the psychological aspects of the characters, and the truth behind NERV and its goals. You knew before that these characters were messed up, but now you get to find out just how messed up they are. And the unfolding mysteries behind NERV and the Evas are nothing short of amazing. It also gets a lot more violent and sexual.

The reason that this change happened was partially because it was already in mind, but had to do a lot with what was going on behind the scenes. At this point in time, Anno was suffering from severe depression, and you can see it reflected in the show and its characters. Also, right around this time, funding for the show was starting to run out, and they were failing to meet deadlines.

And, then, of course, there's the infamous Episodes 25 and 26.

Oddly enough, the original ending, while it didn't address any of the issues and mysteries that had built up over the last half of the show, was actually kind of satisfying to me. It shows the actual process of Instrumentality, even though it doesn't really explain what it is, and it ends up being a kind of cracked-out therapy session for the major characters of the show as they take part in Instrumentality.

Also, know going into this that there's a lot of psychology and philosophy and religious symbolism in here, that, if you know it, will definitely help with your understanding of the show. On the other hand, if you don't, be sure to keep Google up, or see if you can find a version of the show with the equivalent of footnotes.

Overall, the story's a bit dense, a bit generic for the first half or so, and doesn't really resolve its issues, but, once it gets to the second half, it kicks into high gear and doesn't look back.

WARNING: As you get into the second half of the show, there's a lot of graphic violence and gore, and offscreen sexual happenings. Be aware of this going in.

Art: Compared to other shows that were airing roughly around this time (Fushigi Yuugi and Sailor Moon SuperS and StarS), the animation, for most of the show, is pretty good. The designs for the Evas and Angels are amazingly varied and just amazing to look at in general, as are the character designs and the way the battles are done.

There's a fairly obvious dip in quality towards the end of the show, but, again, that has to do with the fact that they were unable to meet deadlines and were running out of funding for the project in general. Though I have to admit that they did come up with fairly creative ways to work around the lack of budget, even if some of them could probably cause seizures.

Music: The music for Evangelion is done by Shiro Sagisu and is one of those soundtracks that sticks in your head and one that you actively notice throughout the show, like I did with Gankutsuou, Bokurano, and Code Geass. I'd say some of these themes are probably some of the most recognizable from any anime. And there are some classical themes that end up being used for background music in some of the more EPIC moments of the show, which only helps the moment.

The OP, "Cruel Angel's Thesis", is amazingly catchy. And the ED, a cover of "Fly Me To The Moon", has several different variations that are used, depending on which episode it is.

All in all, awesome music.

Seiyuu: There are some fairly well-known seiyuu in here. Misato's seiyuu, Kotono Mitsuishi (aka the voice of Sailor Moon and Juri Arisugawa in Revolutionary Girl Utena), Shinji's seiyuu, Megumi Ogata (aka the voice of Sailor Uranus), Rei's seiyuu, Megumi Hayashibara (aka the voice of Atsuko Chiba and the title character in Paprika and Lina Inverse in the Slayers series), and Aoba's seiyuu, Takehito Koyasu (aka the voice of Touga in Revolutionary Girl Utena and Hotohori in Fushigi Yuugi) all do excellent jobs for thier characters, and it's nice to see them in this production.

Length: Overall, pretty good. It doesn't feel like it drags in any places, though, realistically, they could've cut out some of the filler at the beginning. They didn't really address all of the mysteries of the show, but, then again, that's what the three movies are for. Still, twenty-six episodes is pretty solid.

Overall: An excellently scored and seiyuued show that starts out generic, but, with budget cuts, deadline issues, and the depression of the director in the second half, takes the story into new, violent, symbolic places, even if the quality of the art goes down a bit and the ending doesn't quite resolve things.

All in all? A fairly solid series.

Story: 8/10
Art: 7/10
Music: 9/10
Seiyuu: 9/10
Length: 8/10

Overall: 41/50; 82% (B)

Rebuild of Evangelion 1.01: You Are (Not) Alone is the first movie in the Rebuild of Evangelion tetralogy, which aims at remaking the movies the way Anno wanted to make them originally and make it more accessible than previous versions. It was released in theatres on September 1st, 2007, and has yet to be licensed Stateside. It was produced by Studio Khara (the Rebuild series is their first major work), and directed by Hideaki Anno (famous for his work on the original Gunbuster OVA and His and Her Circumstances), Kazuya Tsurumaki (famous for his work on FLCL and the original Gunbuster OVA) and ... Masayuki (famous for his work on the Death segment of Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth).

Rebuild of Evangelion 1.01: You Are (Not) Alone is essentially a recap of episodes 1 through 5 and a retelling of episode 6 in the original TV series. The reason I say that it's a recap of the first five episodes is that there are very little to no differences in the events of these episodes in the original TV continuity and the corresponding events in the movie. The most that is changed here is the location/timing of certain dialogues, and maybe a few changes in relatively minor events. This really kind of irritated me, as this was billed as a complete rebuild of the series, not a recap. The major changes to the story start coming around the point where they get to episode six, which corresponds to just over an hour into the movie.

And I have to say that I'm a bit ambiguous on the three big changes. Discussing them requires some SPOILERS, so read ahead at your own risk. The one that's probably going to end up altering the plot most, which is Misato showing Lilith to Shinji, doesn't make sense introduced at this point in the show, though it'll definitely have some interesting ramifications for the plot. The second most important plot change is very welcomed by me, as Kaoru was one of my favorite characters from the original series, and the fact that they chose to introduce him earlier will also do some very interesting things to the plot. The last change is mostly a change in how Operation Yashima plays out, and it frankly makes that entire event amazingly epic.

The animation for this, overall, is a lot more intricate, smoother, and, in general, fancier than Gainax's original animations. And I have to say that I really like it, even if there are a few extraneous shots which were more or less put in to say, "Look at us! We actually have a budget now! Look what we can do!". There's a lot of more emphasis on the Judeo-Christian symbolism we saw in the series, and more blood, hints about the true nature of the Evas and fanservice.

I have to call them on some continuities. Be sure you take a look at the NERV symbol when it first appears, and then compare it to scenes later on in the movie. Also, take a look at the mask on Lilith when she's first introduced and in the last few scenes in the movie. I don't know if this is on purpose or if it just slipped past the animators, but I'll wait till the next movie to make my decisions on that.

The music for this in general is quite awesome. It's, in general, very subtle reworkings of the original tracks from the series that give the series a whole new feel. Utada Hikaru also does the new ED theme, "Beautiful World", which I'm a bit ambiguous on at this point. It's a good song, but I kind of preferred "Fly Me to the Moon".

They also got all the seiyuu from the series back for the movie, so that just adds to the general quality.

All in all, the movie's not half bad. I am irritated that most of it was just a recap, and that there were some slight art continuity issues, but overall, it's a better animated piece of work and, in the cases where it's changed, better plotted than it's predecessor. Let's hope they can keep this up.

End of Evangelion is a two-hour movie that consists of two hour-long episodes (Episodes 25 and 26) that was released on July 19th, 1997, has been licensed Stateside by Manga Entertainment, and was originally released over here on September 24th, 2002. Episode 25 incorporates and expands upon footage from the Rebirth segment from the Death and Rebirth movie (released on March 15th of that same year), and is based off the original script for Episode 25. It was produced by Production IG (famous for their work on the Ghost in the Shell series and xxxHOLIC) and Gainax (famous for their work on His ... and Her Circumstances and FLCL), and directed by Hideaki Anno (famous for his work on the original Gunbuster OVA and His and Her Circumstances). It won the Animage Grand Prix prize in 1997, and also won a Japanese Academy Award.

So. End of Evangelion.

This movie is billed as Episodes 25 and 26, and honestly, I can believe that this is the way that Hideaki Anno MEANT for Evangelion to go out, but was originally unable to do because of production funding falling out, Anno's mental breakdown, and not being able to meet the schedule. It is, at the same time, a broader view of what was actually going ON in the original Episodes 25 and 26, I think, as this focuses on both the psychological and physical action around what was happening.

There are some fairly epic fight scenes in here, a full explanation behind all the mysteries that the show left untouched, along with a fair amount of Shinji's cracky therapy session of Episodes 25 and 26. This feels a lot more satisfying than the original ending for the series, though the original ending was fairly passable in my mind.

WARNING: There are fairly graphic sexual images, violence, and gore in here. Those who are squeamish should probably not watch this.

The art definitely takes a step up from the series as a whole, especially the end of the series. It's a lot smoother, and the pastiche between animation and live-action that takes place at one point, though it will leave you feeling like it's made of crack, is absolutely amazing. The Judeo-Christian symbolism is back with a vengeance as well.

The music's fairly neat, too, as it uses a lot of fairly famous classical music, and a pop update of another fairly famous classical song, and it usually ties in with some of the most amazing moments in the film.

All the VAs return as well, which helps with continuity with the series.

Overall? Definitely worth the watch, and probably the best part of the Evangelion canon that's been released thus far.

Death and Rebirth is a two-hour long movie that consists of two halves -- Death and Rebirth, each about an hour long. Rebirth will not be covered in this review, as its footage was expanded on and included in The End of Evangelion. It was produced by Production IG (famous for their work on the Ghost in the Shell series and xxxHOLIC) and Gainax (famous for their work on His and Her Circumstances and FLCL), and directed by Hideaki Anno (famous for his work on the original Gunbuster OVA and His and Her Circumstances). It was released on March 15th, 1997, and ... has been licensed Stateside by Manga Entertainment, and was originally released on July 30th, 2002.

So, what we're left with is Death -- which is more or less the entire series in an hour-long recap with minimal new footage, and lots of flashing text, like we saw more in the second half of Evangelion.

Do I think this was worth it? Having just finished the series and gone onto this, I found that I didn't really need a complete recap of the series, as Death covered the most important events from the series, most of which were pretty memorable anyways.

There's not really a lot to say about anything besides that, as you've pretty much seen it before this if you've watched the series.

All in all, if you don't have the time to watch the entire series, then yes, this is worth a watch. But if you have seen the series, it's a waste of your time.

Can be summed up as a one-shot sidestory with a healthy dosage of CRACK. You'd have to have some background from the first half or so of the series in order to know what was going on, but most of the events in this episode end up being absolutely useless to the continuum, as they're all forgotten because of a plot device at the end of the episode. Plus, it takes an amusing look at fandom.

Aside from the Story, nothing else has really changed from the series, so I won't be covering Length, Music, Art, or Seiyuu.

I'm not happy that it didn't resolve several ... of the issues of the series. But, overall, it's a nice amusing diversion.

Title: Ouran High School Host Club

Manga, Anime: Ouran High School Host Club was originally a manga created by Bisco Hatori that began running in Hakusensha's LaLa magazine on August 5th, 2003, and is still ongoing. It has been licensed Stateside by Viz Media, and the releases are up to the 10th volume Stateside as of February 5th, 2008, while it currently stands at 12 collected volumes in Japan.

Ouran High School Host Club is a twenty-six episode series that was produced by Studio Bones (famous for their work on Darker than BLACK and Fullmetal Alchemist) and directed by Takuya Igarashi (famous for his ... work on random episodes of Sailor Moon and Darker than Black). It ran on Japanese television from April 4th to September 26th, 2006. It has been licensed Stateside by Funimation, though it has yet to actually give a release date.

Story: Haruhi Fujioka is a scholarship student attending the ultra-wealthy Ouran Academy, so poor that she can't even afford the uniform. One day, as she's trying to find a quiet place to study, she comes across the Third Music Room and the Ouran High School Host Club (if you don't know what a host club is, it's basically a bunch of guys flirting with women for profit). As she's trying to leave, she breaks a vase worth about $80,000, and is soon employed doing menial tasks to pay off her debt. Unfortunately, her short hair cut, outfit, and large glasses make her look like a guy, and they soon promote her to host after they figure out she has a lot of potential. She's a big hit, and even after they finally figure out that she's a girl, they have her stay on and conceal her gender, as she's such a hit, and she can repay her debt faster that way. Most of the series focuses on the customers and the members of the Host Club.

Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that this were a screwball romantic comedy, this would be a fairly standard customer/problem of the week series. However, it's because the series does not hesitate to turn its fairly sarcastic sense of humor back on itself that it succeeds so well. Ouran openly makes fun of several genre tropes of shoujo, and by openly having characters point them out, and breaking the fourth wall while they're at it, manages to create amazing moments of meta (self-referential moments, for those of you not famliar with fandom terms). It also has several good running gags that manage not to get old.

Add to this the fact that every character in the Club gets some kind of development and background (though I do have issue with where this falls, but see Length for more about that), as do minor recurring characters, and you've got a fairly solid show. It's not anything that's ZOMG SPEKTAKULAR, but it's still a pretty good show.

Art: I really like how Bones did this series. The lines that are used in the show are a bit thicker than the lines in most anime, which just makes the characters stand out that much more, and are especially effective when they use SD for humor moments. You can barely tell when CG's used, and the 2D animation itself is very fluid. The colors in general are very vibrant, and I actually found myself wondering how they got some of the exact colors that they did (especially Eclair's eyes), because they were absolutely beautiful.

Also, a fact that particularly endears this series to my heart is that they had the guy who did the series composition and scripts for Revolutionary Girl Utena doing the same for this (Yoji Enokido), which means that we got a lot of Utena-esque imagery, in how there's lots and lots of symbolism using mundane objects. (The only reason I really noticed this was because I'm watching Utena with my school's anime club at the moment, and I saw a lot of similarities.)

Music: The background music for this series is extremely exaggerated and over the top, which isn't that much different from how the entire series is. I don't know how it would stand on its own, but in context with the scenes that it's used in, it's a perfect combination.

The OP and the ED are a special case. They're the stereotypical female JPop upbeat number and a rousing rock number, respectively, and, in any other series, would not impress me that much. They do here, though. And I don't know WHY.

Seiyuu: Maaya Sakamoto (famous for her roles as Aeris Gainsborough in FFVII: Advent Children and Hitomi in Escaflowne) plays Haurhi, and Takehito Koyasu (famous for his roles as Touga in Revolutionary Girl Utena and Hotohori in Fushigi Yuugi) makes an appearance here and there as her father. Otherwise, all the seiyuu managed to capture their characters' qualities perfectly.

Length: The only problem I have with this series is where they placed background information and character development. The former came after the latter, and, overall, it probably would have made a lot more sense to reverse the order, and maybe place it more towards the earlier end of the series more than the latter half.

Overall, though, twenty-six episodes was a solid decision. I think they could've trimmed a few episodes off, but overall, the length was pretty solid.

Overall: A screwball romantic comedy that's not afraid to have moments of meta and make fun of itself and its tropes, with excellent seiyuu, art and imagery, and music that fits the moments perfectly. Could have lost a few episodes and rearranged the order a bit, but hey, it's still pretty good.

Story: 9/10
Art: 9/10
Music: 8/10
Seiyuu: 9/10
Length: 8/10

Overall: 43/50; 86% (B )