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The final movie, Mystical Adventure dates to roughly the same period, but is a mixed bag that, while containing more of Dragon Ball's signature humor (check out the training montage during the opening credits), falls victim to the same over-density of plot that ham-strung Path to Power. The inclusion of a tournament, a Dragon Ball hunt, and a planned coup d'état in a single fifty-minute movie leaves precious little time for the leisurely adventuring that marked the previous movie and the series at large.

Like Kashimashi, the other prominent “Yuri Fan” title to date from Media Blasters' AnimeWorks label, this one gets the subtitled-only treatment. The main disappointment here comes from not getting to hear how an American studio might have handled the male roles in the series, as in Japanese they are all still voiced by female seiyuu trying to speak in their huskiest possible tones. Obviously this was done to imply the originally-female origin of all the male characters, but it still sounds very weird. Some of the Japanese voices also seem like unusual matches for their character designs, as rarely are shorter, slightly-designed female characters in anime given deeper (by Japanese standards) voices.

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One point needs to be brought up first: the blurb on the case lists the “peaceful theocracy” with the Simoun as Simulacrum, while throughout the subtitles the name “Kyuukoku” is consistently used instead. Argentum, the name used for the industrialized attacking nation in advertisements, gets replaced by “Shoukoku” in the subtitles. In both cases the subtitle name is the one consistent with the original spoken Japanese, so apparently Media Blasters' advertising and production people are not on the same page on translating (or not) the names. Hopefully this will get straightened out with future volumes.

Monkey-tailed freak of nature Son Goku lives a carefree life of gluttony in his mountain home until the day that Bulma, a young female adventurer, stumbles (or runs) over him while searching for the magical Dragon Balls. Realizing the young lad's potential as a bodyguard—and coveting the Dragon Ball in his possession—Bulma takes Goku along with her. In their quest to bring together the balls, and thus gain the wish the balls can grant, the two join forces with a perverted shape-shifting pig, a mildly perverted desert bandit, and a seriously perverted hermit to take on the cruel Red Ribbon Army, a military force with its eyes on the Dragon Balls.

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The sybillae (i.e. priestesses) who pilot the Simoun operate in Pairs, but Sybilla Aurea Neviril, first among sybillae and leader of the elite Chor Tempest (i.e. flight squadron), gets thrown into a funk when she loses her beloved Pair in combat against invading Shoukoku aircraft. As Chor Tempest crumbles while Neviril is unwilling to fly, it picks up three important new members to fill out the ranks: the brash Aer, the young genius Rimone, and the assertive Dominura.

Later Goku goes to train under the hermit, Master Roshi, only to be assigned the task of retrieving a fresh young gal for the perverted old geezer. Accompanying him on his quest is Kuririn, a treacherous but good-hearted little weasel who also covets Master Roshi's tutelage. Their training quest leads them straight into the stronghold of Lucifer, a powerful vampire, and will later send them to their first martial-arts tournament, a contest that soon gets tied up in a conspiracy by the powerful Crane Hermit to usurp the throne of the Mifan Empire. Goku soon straightens them all out. With his fists.

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On the world of Daituuriku, everyone is born female. To maintain a stable population, countries like the highly industrialized Shoukoku medically alter some of their population at birth to become male, while in Kyuukoku each person must decide during a special ceremony at age 17 what gender to assume as an adult. Kyuukoku also holds a technological advantage which makes them the envy of others: they have Simoun, extremely mobile two-person aircraft which can only be piloted by those who have yet to choose a gender but can be used to generate Ri Mājon, patterns made in the sky with light from the wake of the Simoun, which are intended to honor Tempus Spatium but can also generate awesomely powerful energy attacks.

The three features included in this box set, in order of their placement in the series' chronology are: The Path to Power, Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle, and Mystical Adventure. Though it takes place first—covering Goku's introduction to Bulma and the fight with the Red Ribbon Army—Path to Power is the newest of the three, having been animated to celebrate the franchise's tenth anniversary. Twice as long as the other two and with twice the budget, it also has half the charm.

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Whether Träumend will drown while attempting to navigate the waters of high drama in its creaky ship of clichés the way its predecessor did remains to be seen; in the meantime its lighter moments and stylish visuals, along with its improved lead character, are bailing water just fast enough to keep it afloat. So long as its uncritical acceptance of human/doll romance doesn't sink things for you, that is.

In spite of its running panty-gags and Goku's inherently silly personality, it's closer in tone to the more serious Dragon Ball Z than the light fun of Dragon Ball's opening episodes, and it suffers from the cramped, overcrowded feel that plagues feature-film adaptations of long-running shounen story-arcs. The attempt to wring tragedy from the film's light adventure falls flat at the end, and unless you're already familiar with the cast, their introductions will feel truncated and inadequate. The film has the advantage of fluid animation and flashy effects, but Goku isn't as incongruously chubby or cute as he originally was, and the lack of the original series' bouncy, catchy theme music is sorely felt.

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Most Yen Press titles are priced at $10.99, but Love Quest, in spite of its slightly lower than average page count and typical trim size, is priced at $12.99. One might call the cost differential the “BL Premium,” but in this case there is absolutely nothing “premium” about it—and the good effort that went into the translation/adaptation and retouch just feels wasted on this piece of dreck. Even hardcore BL fans would be well-advised to save their hard-earned money for something that, by any measure, is a modicum more worthy.

The second movie in the box, Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle, on the other hand, obviously dates to the era when the series was still in the midst of its run, and retains all of the fun and silly energy that the television series had. Its animation is far more primitive, occasionally clunky, and more prone to stills and jerky movements, but it also has a warmth that the previous feature lacked, and has Kuririn and Goku in all their pudgy, infantile glory. It's also a single, self-contained story told in fifty minutes with a minimum of plot and a leisurely sense of fun that makes Path to Power look like the overstuffed remake that it is.

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As you may have guessed from the above description of Marion, Hoshino's artwork is definitely unique, especially given that commercial BL is a sea of near-identical art styles, and for this her penchant for soft lines and delicately airbrushed color has been featured in numerous how to draw manga books. Unfortunately, it cannot truly be called attractive. Even those who enjoy it will readily admit that it is in acquired taste at best: There is something almost mousy to the facial expressions of her characters, and their bodies are invariably of the boneless, bendy, latter-day CLAMP-like sort. The relative lack of backgrounds only further underscores the strangeness of her character designs.

The random inclusion of Goku's transformation into a rampaging ape is the only hiccup in this goofy bit of fluff, and one that can be easily forgiven in exchange for the scene in which Bulma naively believes a vampire's promise of a "dinner" party, even with his assistant right behind them wielding a man-sized syringe.

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Träumend's dub isn't strong enough to be a dub/sub cross-over phenomenon: its faithfulness to the subtitle script keeps it from being as smooth and natural as it could and the acting has occasional glitches. Nevertheless the cast is thoroughly professional, there are no glaring mistakes in the casting choices, and the potential for good performances is there, enough so that the cast sometimes feels wasted on the material (particularly Mela Lee as Shinku). Unfortunately Träumend is one of several series whose future is as uncertain as that of their licensor Geneon, making it—and its quality dub—something of a risky investment.

High school student Kazunori Akabane has a grudge against a guy named Moriya because the girl he's got a crush on prefers Moriya to himself. Unfortunately, Akabane's passionate feelings of resentment toward Moriya get him into deep trouble—a close encounter with his rival ends up with them both magically transported to another world chock full of magicians and monsters. A princess of this land has summoned them there, and she has a job for them: Swapping bodily fluids in order to power up her spell casting! Who would have thought that french kisses would become a matter of life or death? Certainly not Akabane. But oddly enough, Moriya seems strangely, unexpectedly enthusiastic about their new “working” relationship…

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It even manages to coax out a smile here and there—most often at Shinku's amusingly uncharacteristic love of Detective Kun-kun and his really lame puppet show. The occasional doll skirmishes serve a similar purpose, piling on the eye-candy with spectacular displays of magic and surprisingly fluid animation until one almost forgets how inconclusive and ultimately pointless they are. And even when plodding along dreary, well-trod narrative paths, the series' slick gothic style provides plenty for the eyes to feed on: more elaborate dream worlds, dolls whose eerie porcelain beauty is appropriately doll-like, and loli-goth outfits with frills and folds lovingly animated. Even the score has a nice gothic quality when it isn't wasting composer Shinkichi Mitsumune's talents on fluff compositions.

Lily Hoshino (Alone in my King's Harem) is a popular boy's love (BL) mangaka who has published numerous titles over the past decade or so. Love Quest is the first of a number of her works that Yen Press has licensed for English-language release. It is also that publisher's inaugural BL title, and one wonders why. Do they think that the object of the endeavor is a race to the bottom of the BL pile? This one is a serious stinker, and the only quest involved in Love Quest is the quest you will angrily embark upon after reading it, in pursuit of better BL.

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Luckily this second season has yet to dwell at length on tedious dramatics. The resolution of Jun's social maladies eliminates most of the original's oppressive preachiness (and raises his likability meter a degree or two), and sequences like Shinku's apathy-inspiring moral agonizing are inter-cut with other things better suited to the series' depth and strength (or lack thereof). Like humor. Though repetitive, and sometimes irritatingly so, the series' silly-antics-centered humor divides up the bits that drag.

The story centers on high school student Kazunori Akabane, who has just been rejected by the girl he has a crush on. She is only interested in another student, somebody named Moriya. So of course the very next person that he runs into is Moriya, and he is a second away from airing his grievances when the pair are transported to another world! Turns out a princess hailing from a high fantasy world needs them to power up her magic spells. By them exchanging bodily fluids. Uhh, okay… Talk about moronic, forced plot premises. Needless to say, Moriya is oddly enthusiastic about such a prospect, and what ensues is a lot of gratuitous kissing—and just kissing—while taking out big beasties video game RPG style.

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New season? Cue the new villain who is stronger than everyone combined and cook up an excuse to keep your trump card (Shinku) out of the fray until the last moment. The resulting predictability bores rather than reassures (the way the similarly predictable UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie does). Character growth is substituted by the showcasing of shallow quirks (everyone has their own speech affectation, awesome!), and the new additions do nothing to add to the tenuous charm of the existing character interactions.

The distressed princess of power in question is Marion, a little waif with big hair, impossibly tiny, toothpick-shaped limbs, and impossibly minimalist, chicks'n chainmail-esque halter and thong. Despite her physical assets—or lack thereof, depending upon your perspective—she is without question the most memorable character in this manga, merely on the strength of her bizarreness quotient. Too bad that ain't sayin' much. Save for the fact that she is a damsel in distress who is first determined to save herself and later on determined to save Moriya, Marion's story is for all intents and purposes over before it even starts.

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There isn't anything wrong with dramatic ambitions of course, but you need strong qualities (character, truth, conviction, focus—anything really, so long as it's strong enough) to succeed at those ambitions, and outside of its technical prowess Rozen Maiden simply hasn't any strong qualities. That remains unchanged. There isn't a thing—a conversation, event, or character—in the show that wasn't borrowed from the vast stores of stock anime elements.

But, lest you be put off by the dearth of gratuitous intercourse of the sexual kind in the title story, there is the twenty four page one-shot “Pheromone,” to compensate. The plot, as befits a piece whose primary purpose is to titillate, is suitably thin: Two high school students are staying after school to wrap up some vaguely specified classroom chores. One declares that he finds the other irresistible (“I'm not gay; I just think you're pretty!” Wow, what an efficient way to be both miserably shallow and needlessly homophobic in the same sentence.)

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What really puts Gregory Horror Show in the "experimental" category is the raw visual style that looks like nothing in mainstream anime. Given adequate CGI software but lacking the talent or budget of a full-blown studio, the animators have devised a 3-D style that lends more eeriness to the series than any of the story elements. The blocky-headed residents of Gregory House have an air of evil cuteness about them—like someone translated Sanrio characters into CGI and then warped them beyond recognition (of course, simplified blocky characters are also easier to animate than rounded, realistic ones). The mathematically directed motions of computer animation also cause the characters to glide and amble around in a way that accentuates their detachment from reality.

There's a serial killer terrorizing the streets of Los Angeles, and the mysterious clues he has been leaving in his murderous wake seem to be taunting authorities. Onto the scene comes the L, the best crime solver in the world, to untangle the case. He recruits Naomi Misora, an FBI agent on a leave of absence from the bureau, to be his eyes on the ground, and soon enough she finds herself working alongside the decidedly creepy Ryuuzaki, who claims to be a private detective hired by the families of the victims. But as the mysteries start to unfold around the two of them, it becomes clear that L and the killer, whose name is Beyond Birthday, have a mutual past—something that has to do with Wammy House…

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On an ominous night, a nameless, faceless stranger loses his way in the woods and stumbles upon a decrepit old hotel called the Gregory House. Having nowhere else to go, he decides to check in for the night—and unwittingly becomes the newest lodger in a boarding house for freaks. The rodent proprietor of the hotel, Gregory, is the least of the stranger's problems as he encounters all sorts of bizarre creatures: a cat whose orifices have been sewn shut, a reptilian nurse with a sexual fetish for drawing blood, the conscience-weighing Judgement Boy, and even Gregory's domineering mother. This nameless man's early attempts to escape all fail, but just as he begins to accept his fate, the secrets of the Gregory House begin to crumble, revealing a way out that may be even more nightmarish than permanent residence at the hotel.

Most notably, names like “Believe Bridesmaid,” “Quarter Queen,” and a handful of others are too bizarre to be believable. There is no good reason for them and no precedent in the manga.

In final analysis, Death Note: Another Note, the Los Angeles BB Murder Cases takes an innovative approach to the characters and the franchise that fans should find both refreshing and rewarding. While still a niche release that will not be fully appreciated by newcomers, it is, without question, the best Shounen Jump-spinoff novel to hit American shelves thus far.

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It's hard to evaluate Gregory Horror Show as an anime production when it completely defies all preconceptions about what anime is. If defined strictly as "animation from Japan," then it certainly falls into that category, but with its blocky, all-CGI look, a principal character that's never seen or named, and English-only audio in this release, it could very well be an entrant to the Spike and Mike Animation Festival. If your idea of anime is shiny hair, vibrantly colored worlds and epic storylines, then prepare to have those ideas assaulted when you watch this show.

Not that the reader is going to be able to figure any of this out until NISIOISIN is good and ready to let the cat out of the bag. The logic chain is simply too obscure; this whodunit is not, alas, well-written enough to invite active reader participation. And then there is the final twist, about how Misora solves the crime, which is exactly the opposite those already familiar with the franchise now reading the novel have been led to expect. I won't spoil it, but suffice it to say that it raises some interesting questions about the origins of some of L's aliases. By contrast, the origins of L's capoeira-like fighting style are definitively revealed. Other oddities of the novel go blithely unexplained.

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Surprisingly, the premise of Gregory Horror Show isn't too bizarre—the guest-turned-prisoner idea has been around since at least the original Dracula novel, and here it's played up to the point of being campy. What makes this anime an oddity in the story department is its structure: divided into 25 two- to three-minute "nights," the show intentionally constrains itself to brief bursts of plot. Even so, it falls into the usual trap of developing a continuing storyline about halfway through. For this reason it's best viewed in one sitting, and after a while even the short but repetitive opening sequence gets interesting as the main character's introductory narrations move the plot forward.

The protagonist is Naomi Misora, a character who first appeared in the Death Note manga proper (killed by Light when she got a bit too close to the truth). This story, however, is best understood as a prequel to the manga since it takes place in July and August of 2002, shortly before the events surrounding the Death Note begin. No shinigami or other supernatural elements are present. The antagonist is B, or “Beyond Birthday,” a wannabe L from Wammy House determined to “defeat” L by staging a series of crimes that the super-sleuth is unable to solve.

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Although it's billed as a horror/comedy, the early episodes of Gregory Horror Show are just character vignettes that aren't particularly scary or funny, and for those familiar with horror clichés, they're predictable too. However, this is one series that's worth defending with the "it gets better" clause. As the main character gets caught up in trying to escape from the hotel and uncover its secrets, the series develops something that's worth more than gore or cheesy laughs: suspense. The later episodes become a gripping quest in finding the way out of Gregory House, and the conclusion—while not the most innovative—is a chilling reminder of why the scariest nightmares are the ones we create ourselves.

As for the prose of the novel itself, written by the youthful novelist NISIOISIN and smoothly translated by Andrew Cunningham, it is not half bad. The story is narrated by Mello, ostensibly based upon his recollections of things L once told him about past cases. This conceit is not strictly necessary for the novel's purposes. Mello does not participate in the specificities of the plot's action in any way, and his presence makes things a bit too breathless in places and a bit too self-conscious in others. Still, using a narrator like Mello is, after all, a classic detective novel device with a long, pedigreed history in Western examples of the genre, so it is easy to understand why NISIOISIN chose to frame the story in this way. (Other detective novel conventions also appear, such as allusions to cases that, in this case, do not actually exist in any published form.)

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So, who is this mysterious nameless-and-faceless character who must claw his way out of Gregory House? Judging by the creators' intentions, it's YOU. Almost the entire story is told from first-person perspective, placing the viewer inside the main character's head. This is an ambitious attempt to make the story hit closer to home, but for the most part it comes off as contrived—and with the all-CGI look, it feels like being stuck in a first-person shooter video game. "Interacting" with the other characters is more fun, however: Gregory the mouse starts out as a flat stereotype of a creepy hotel owner but develops into an amusing adversary, and his supporting cast turns out to be more multi-dimensional than their early appearances suggest.

Shuueisha has been publishing light novel spinoffs of its most popular Shounen Jump manga titles for quite a few years now, but Viz Media's handsome American edition of Death Note: Another Note, the Los Angeles BB Murder Cases—near-identical in presentation to the original Japanese one—is anything but lightweight. The book, which actually weighs quite a bit for its size, has been printed in lavish hardcover, foil-stamped and bound in black cloth. Interior pages are thick and creamy. A lovely full-color pin-up drawn by series artist Takeshi Obata and a black ribbon bookmark are also included. Each chapter, moreover, begins with even more amazing Obata art—H. R. Giger-esque illustrations in sinister monochrome.

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Aside from proving that the series can entertain when it loosens up, this is basically more of what volume one offered: science-fiction intrigue with some surprisingly bloody action and a bit of a mean streak. The contractors, with their idiosyncratic power-prices and gaping gaps in back-story, continue to provide a hook despite their lack of personality, and as before the whole thing looks like a million bucks (okay, what with the waning detail levels and the increasing use of fancy cutting over actual animation, it's more like seven hundred fifty thousand and some change, but it's still darned good).

Get ready for the world's most RADICAL superhero! Joe, a totally in-your-face kickin' rad dude, loves action flicks and chillin' with his totally bangin' girlfriend Silvia. One day, when scopin' a totally gnarly radical to the max action movie, Joe's personal hero, the mad phat Captain Blue, is defeated for the first time ever and the villains literally jump out of the screen and steal Silvia! HEINOUS! So it's up to our hero to take up the mantle of Viewtiful Joe, a superhero with incredible powers thanks to his awesome V-Watch, and save Silvia from the forces of evil.

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The series' suite of extras is quickly becoming standard for Funimation: production art, clean opening and closing, and a commentary track (for episode nine). The commentary track, featuring Chris Sabat (Saito) and Kate Oxley (Kirihara), is a laid-back affair that, while pleasant enough, will be of real interest only to hard-core fans. The spoiler-averse may want to avoid the production art, which includes character profiles and episode comments that give away parts of this and the next volume.

Viewtiful Joe, at least the English dub (we'll never know about the Japanese version since Geneon decided not to include it on this disc), is probably as close as we're going to get. Wall-to-wall obnoxious slang, terrible voice acting, poorly-animated candy-colored characters and what could possibly be the most annoying main character in the history of the form make Viewtiful Joe basically unwatchable.

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Funimation's dub crew is also affected, though in a different manner. Rather than coast, they make a valiant attempt to dress up the dialogue. Unfortunately their success is spotty. The rewrite brings Havoc's emotional undertones directly to the surface and then beats us over the head with them, giving her dialogue an awkward confessional feel. But it also puts some priceless faux-noir dialogue in Gai's mouth (“It's a city with no one to trust and no one to love, where cigarette butts are the only ass you get.”), balancing itself such that it is neither superior nor particularly inferior to the original. As is par for Funimation dubs, the acting is fine (Brandon Potter's Kurasawa is an absolute blast) and the casting faithful without being scrupulously so.

There's something depressing about watching an anime series that's been reworked to pander to American children. Sure, it was just a toy commercial in Japan; the original version simply panders to a different audience, but when an American licensee, desperate to rake in the cash TV exposure can bring them, tries to make an anime series “hip”, the results are usually laughably bad. Viewtiful Joe is one of these series; the localization is so labored and so over-the-top, even the kids they're trying to pander to will see right through it.

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Even the formidable Yoko Kanno seems to be affected by the humdrum writing, turning out perhaps her most undistinguished score. Tellingly, the music only really comes to life during Gai's episodes (serving up some deliciously hammy noir-music pastiches) and the occasional bout of emotional intensity (e.g. the sawing guitars during Hei's final confrontation with November 11). Without Kanno's usual flair for simultaneous cool and beauty, Okamura's musical intrusions—and they are intrusive—are simply odd, and oddly unappealing (“every scene kinda seems a little bit like a porn” points out Chris Sabat when talking about the music in the audio commentary). Not even the rocking opener and Rie Fu's typically fine closer quite compensate for that. Though they do come darned close.

Based on the Gamecube game of the same name (which, in America, primarily appealed to high school and college kids due to the difficulty of the game), Viewtiful Joe attempts to transplant the game's bizarre design and hyperkinetic sentai style into the anime form, and it doesn't work. Sure, the character designs and backgrounds are all faithfully recreated, but apparently zero effort was put into animating them. Everyone moves as little as possible, the animation is overwhelmingly digital-looking, there are countless cheap shortcuts taken and when the characters do move, it's amazingly awkward. Nothing really moves right; perspectives are off most of the time, characters don't quite look the same from frame to frame, and when he's transformed, Joe's muscles defy all basic laws of movement and anatomy.

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Not that the rest of the disc is without its occasional charms, most of them visual. Bones' animation is, as usual, a cut above the norm (they're still the kings of swirling clouds), even if only one cut, and the series' sickly green urban malaise is memorable even when the series itself isn't. And let's not forget the occasional fan-service—the sight of Kirihara in a slinky China dress alone makes episodes nine and ten worth sitting through. But no matter the little pleasures it affords, the fact remains that the majority of this disc leaves so little impression that the modest impression made by a creampuff stands out in comparison.

Really, the most egregious thing about Viewtiful Joe is the absolutely atrocious dub, which is where the show really stumbles. Rife with forced, outdated hip-hop slang, the English dialogue is jam-packed with gems like “What's the dilly-o, Silvia?” “I scored us some feed!” and “Whoa, check that out, it's the bomb-diggity!”. It's like someone took the principle behind the awkward, laughable rap song from 4Kids' infamous One Piece dub and applied it to an entire show. The villains all have over-the-top voices and basically serve no purpose other than to sling around painfully lame jokes; Joe's voice is the epitome of “raspy spunky dude with a seriously gnarly attitude!”. The whole thing tries way, way, way too hard to be “cool” and completely misses the mark.

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2011-06-18T03:15:00.000-07:00

Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Episodes I-VI) [Blu-ray]

Luci Christian achieves a unique timbre for Makina by speaking through what sounds like a clenched lower jaw most of the time. It's hard to describe, but this really does wonders for her character when she wavers, however subtly, and you can practically hear her lips tremble while she feigns being tough. It's unusually good for such run-of-the-mill material and this is true of all the actors in the dub. Even Aaron Dismuke does the best he can with nondescript Ouri. If nothing else, he sounds authentic, despite playing a character bland as the paper he's printed on. The Japanese seiyuu for many of these characters, particularly Ouri…well, if you can't say anything nice…the dub is recommended here.

In fact, Gai Kurasawa's two episode stint as lead character is probably the best—and certainly the most entertaining—the series has been yet. The two-episode short story structure allows the series to switch up the leads every couple of episodes and experiment with different tones, and for Gai's story Tensai Okamura hearkens back to the winking love of Old Hollywood that he displayed in his silly, fun Project Blue Earth. The result is, predictably, silly and fun; packed with hilarious dialogue (best appreciated in the wild back-and-forth of the loosely interpreted English dub) and knowing twists on noir conventions. Gai's cosplaying assistant Kiko's very un-noirish disruptions of his noir posturing are also a kick, and the plot weaves two separate but loosely interconnected schemes—one deadly, the other most emphatically not—into something just confusing enough for Gai, and occasionally the audience, to draw some entirely erroneous conclusions.

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2011-06-18T03:07:00.000-07:00

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No, the problem here is that Corpse Princess never really starts. The episode where the otaku with superpowers runs around taking vengeance? It's here. So is the ladykiller who takes his fetish too literally, and so on deep into the show. What isn't here is any direction to it all, or even any dialogue prompted by logic or direction. (Some of the lines…most of the lines?...are painfully bad in and out of context.) It wouldn't be difficult to cut out the characters' names and place any given episode into other demonic adventures like Devil May Cry or Tokyo Majin. (All three series have episodes where rock/pop stars come back from the dead to pursue fame anew…this is actually a cliché now.) Wasn't there some kind of conspiracy surrounding the monks or a personal vendetta Makina had weighing on her conscience? The series betrays its own unique ideas by dumping them in a grave.

Say dark and you think black. Say black and you think noir. Well, if you're a student of French or film you do. Maybe. At any rate, there is definitely something a little noirish about Darker than BLACK. Mostly in its style, in its reliance on dark back alleys and decaying urban settings, but also in the murky conspiracies and amorality that surround its protagonists. As such it's a little odd that its first explicit nod to film noir should come in the form of a parody. And odder still that it should be so good.

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2011-06-18T03:06:00.002-07:00

The Settlers of Catan

Most importantly of all, the story chose its main character poorly. Neither Makina nor her companion monk Keisei are the focus here, despite the fact they are solid foils for each other and compelling in their own right. No, the mantle of protagonist is carried insufficiently by the tween brother, Ouri, and a ghost-cat of unknown nature that follows him around and speaks in riddles. Even as the so-called lead, Ouri is edged out by a plethora of one-note characters that hog half an episode before awkwardly inching aside as if to apologize for taking up space…and they are still more interesting than him. Really, the cat is more useful than Ouri, because unlike his feline friend, it's not clear at all what Ouri's role is here until the end of the season, in an episode where he barely appears.

But when he notices Hei lurking suspiciously about and ties the widow (albeit tenuously) to a series of terribly suspicious suicides, Gai begins to suspect that a sinister conspiracy is lurking beneath the innocuous surface of his cat-hunt. Luckily he's just dim enough to miss the real conspiracies nearby, a fact that might just save his wannabe gumshoe life. In the meantime real gumshoe Misaki Kirihara allows herself to be hustled into attending the birthday party of a high-school friend. The catch? There's a blood-simple contractor loose in the building blowing the innards out of mafia bigwigs. A police inspector's work is never done.

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2011-06-18T03:06:00.001-07:00

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It is also the best episode of Corpse Princess by miles and almost makes the long journey there worth every minute…almost. Episode 12 here is visually staggering, emotionally raw, and a game-changer in every way for a show that can be stagnant more often than stimulating. It's not a stretch to say it doesn't even feel like it's from the same anime in its exhilarating presentation.

Hei has spirited imprisoned ex-contractor Havoc away, leaving not only the police and MI-6's contractors in the lurch, but also his own partners. With all three organizations focusing their considerable energies on tracking him down and putting him under, Hei squeezes Havoc for information on his sister, even as he begins to form a decidedly un-contractor-ish bond with her. Elsewhere in the city, private dick not-so-extraordinaire Gai Kurasawa is feeling the squeeze of the cable company, who are threatening to cut off his cable and thus his hold on his assistant, who only sticks around for the free anime. So, when a delectable widow comes to him asking about her missing cat, he takes the job, despite his rampant feline-phobia.

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2011-06-18T03:06:00.000-07:00

The Neverending Story [Blu-ray]

The music isn't really the problem either. It's barely noticeable, slanting quiet when the story is all whispers and shadows, but ramping into choral hysterics when the gunfire is there to drown it out. It serves its purpose well. The voice acting is glaringly better in English than it is in Japanese, not because the Japanese is poor, (well…it mostly isn't,) but because the dub has no business sounding this good considering the dialogue here.

Like most parodies (affectionate or not) Gai's story does suffer from a dearth of substance. There's a smidge of actual weight in Gai's desperate, almost pathetic attempt to transform himself from bungler into hard-boiled hero, but this is definitely creampuff territory. Still, creampuff though it is, it's the best the disc has to offer. Which highlights Darker than BLACK's most serious problem: for all of its teasing mysteries and contractor action, it just isn't a very compelling watch. It's difficult to get behind Hei, who as a contractor is actually defined as a person without human emotions, and the characters that each stand-alone tale is formed around never really grow on you.

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2011-06-18T02:54:00.003-07:00

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The packaging is nice, but I still don't understand the point of having all of the liner notes on the inside of the insert. It's impossible to access, you run the risk of ruining the cover, and the chapter names are not easy to get at. (They don't help much anyway, as the chapters are kind of unevenly distributed.) The Japanese cast is not noted anywhere in English -- not on the video or the packaging, which I found a bit annoying, especially since they make that information available on the VHS subtitled release.

It used to be so rare for the dead to come back to life and hunt the living, but unfortunately for the Kogun Sect, these superpowered zombies, known as shikabane, are on the rise again. When a person dies with strong regrets, otherworldly powers can seize their troubled corpses and bring them back to life as twisted, rotting immortals who despise and hunt the living. Thankfully, the Kogun Sect has a weapon against the shikabane: other shikabane who have made pacts with their monks and become “shikabane-hime” who will be forgiven their spite in both lives and accepted into heaven if they destroy 108 walking corpses in the name of the order, for only the living dead can kill their own kind.

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2011-06-18T02:54:00.002-07:00

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The subtitles are standard for anime DVD's... meaning white with almost no border. It looks all right here, since the film is very dark overall, but many titles are mis-timed, resulting in up to three seconds of dialogue at a strech with no titles at all. No translations are omitted, but to those that don't know Japanese, it can be disconcerting. The translations themselves are very good -- typical Neil Nadelman fare. The dubbed version is one of the older Manga Video dub jobs, with good post-production values, but only fair quality. It's unfortunate that the English cast seems too preoccupied with sounding like good voice talent, but not in expressing the innocence of the characters.

One corpse princess, Makina Hoshimura, couldn't care less about getting into heaven, but holds a personal grudge against the gang of shikabane that resigned her to her fate: the Seven Stars. Her contracted monk, Keisei, assists her in her revenge for his own reasons, while his younger brother Ouri becomes fascinated with Makina and haunted by the world she is bound to by death.

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2011-06-18T02:54:00.001-07:00

The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains

Now the DVD presentation: First off, let it be known that Crush Digital Video menus really really blow--they're unusably slow and not PC mouse-supported. The video itself is adequate in quality, with a little bit of a halo effect left over from the analog post-production. It's a fact of life. The transfer is fair, with the colors looking a bit washed out in places and some clipping of the top left corner. The MPEG-2 compression is actually very nice, with pixellation only becoming apparent in scenes of almost total black.

On the one hand, Makina is every bit the corpse-killing warrior princess her stern image projects, not just another pretty face with unnatural combat skills flashing her underwear in all her close-ups. (Okay, the underwear part is still true.) She's a complex, conflicted and likable ice queen despite, and maybe because of, her faults. When she enters the fray, the results are always mesmerizing rather than cringe-inducing, though no less brutal for it. The undead, it seems, come in all shapes, sizes and gruesome demises. There are corpse nerds, corpse babies, and an SUV that eats people. It's bloody good fun from tooth-and-claw struggles to the blowouts that end with thousands of rounds emptied on the floor. The organization protecting these shikabane-hime is unique, dark and carnal. It's a recipe for a spooky, sexy time.

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2011-06-18T02:54:00.000-07:00

Black Swan [Blu-ray]

There's not too much story here, but that's OK -- this isn't about a story, this is about people, and what really motivates them. While the ending seems a bit taylored to fit in a quick sex scene (which seems TOTALLY inappropriate here), where the film leaves off is satisfying. It's not one of those films you watch and forget about. You ponder what happens for days afterward.

On the other hand, this show is frightfully boring despite these elements…so something must have gone seriously wrong somewhere. When there's a fight on, the show is alive, from the episodic brawls with rotting bodies to Makina's tortured flashbacks that hint at a far more one-sided battle. Almost the moment the fight stops, the series is at a standstill, a big shambling dead body moaning a lot of inane space-filling lines from its noise-hole. (The fact that Makina explains everything about shikabane apropos of nothing is bad enough. The fact that she does this over and over makes it nigh-unbearable.)

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2011-06-18T02:53:00.000-07:00

Obsessed [Blu-ray]

I normally regard Yoshiaki Kawajiri as being generally overhyped when it comes to anime directors. I wasn't overly enamored with Ninja Scroll. Demon City Shinjuku and Cyber City Oedo 808 were entertaining, but ultimately mind candy. Birdy the Mighty was pretty fun, and Wicked City was too, in an entirely different way. We shall not mention the "Satanica" pilot. And then there's A Wind Named Amnesia: a total gem from a director with a very spotty record.

The animation for the series is a little under Gainax standard. Much like the duality of the story's execution, it's either fantastic, on fire, rapid, rounded and magnificent or…a few less complimentary adjectives. The budget doesn't devolve into chicken-scratch the further it goes like some other anime, but begins looking awful in episode one and may not look awful again until episode five or six, depending on its mood, perhaps. All in all: attractive more often than not, but it has its noticeable speedbumps that throw it into off-model chaos, even in the fight scenes.

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2011-06-16T04:35:00.002-07:00

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And these episodes offer a lot to appreciate. Rarely are protagonist queens or princesses shown being so thoroughly despised as what Mashiro is in My-Otome, which makes episode 18, which focuses on Mashiro's exposure to how much her subjects hate her, so remarkable. She may have looked liked an annoyingly immature throwaway character early on, but recent developments have shaped her more into a very flawed individual clearly too young and inexperienced to be a proper leader, too spoiled and self-centered to realize how poorly she was behaving, and weighted by the gnawing insecurity that she was never the proper heir. In other words, she has actually become an interesting main character rather than just a tedious distraction.

While waiting for those battle scenes to die down, though, one can still admire the intensity of the art—if there's ever a shortage of black ink in the manga industry, just blame Yoshinori Natsume, because he's the one employing all those shadows and black fills. The Shonen Sunday imprint might be best known for the soft lines and tones of Rumiko Takahashi and Mitsuru Adachi, but here we see the opposite: sharp spikes and jags, thick-lined penstrokes, and intense contrasts of black and white. This robust artistic style comes with a price, though: the character designs lack subtlety and sometimes even look anatomically stiff. The panel layouts are stiff in a different way, with almost every scene framed by straight 90-degree angles. This might work for a seinen slice-of-life, but when the fight scenes come up, trying to box them in like that doesn't work—better to just let the flow of battle guide how each panel is shaped on the page.

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2011-06-16T04:35:00.001-07:00

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Actually a viewer might hope for some improvements in the artistry, but the series established early on that, while it might have its moments, a consistently refined look and top-caliber animation were not going to be among its strengths. The Aswald cyborgs utterly fail to impress and, in some cases, look rather dorky, and designs for minor supporting characters continue to have a basic, ill-developed roughness to them. Even main characters sometimes look a bit rough, but background art is still solid and key scenes still impress. Regrettably the series is rarely at is best visually, but that should not detract much from appreciating the story content.

As expected for an action series, the hardest translation job is actually that of retouching the sound effects—every pounding of fists and clash of metal must be accompanied by the right text in the right place. Generally, the replacement of Japanese characters with English sounds works all right, with lettering that's bold enough to fit the Kurozakuro aesthetic, although there are occasional hiccups where the same fonts seem to appear over and over. Meanwhile, the dialogue goes down pretty smoothly—there's one colloquialism that sounds a tad goofy ("Goster" as the informal for "Gogyo"?), but otherwise the script is a clear, straightforward adaptation.

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2011-06-16T04:35:00.000-07:00

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Although its earliest episodes were of questionable quality, My-Otome always remained at least moderately entertaining. Somewhere along the line its story started to get good, with its merits truly starting to show in volume 4. With volume 5, which spans episodes 17-20 of 26, the series hits full stride. Major developments abound as the core of the overall plot comes to the surface, providing four full episodes of entertainment goodness. Action, betrayal, tragedy, scheming, dark revelations, hard-learned lessons, and just a touch of comedy - what more could you ask for?

With the story unfolding in this manner, perhaps the best response to "Is Kurozakuro getting good yet?" is another question: "Which part of Kurozakuro?" Some will look at the middle chapters of Volume 4 and say that the deepening intrigue about ogre-hunters, ogre-eaters, and just plain ogres (namely, Mikito) not only opens up new story paths but adds new layers to what's already there. Others may see the fight scenes that begin and end this volume and say that, while they may be visually and emotionally intense, they're also more showy than they need to be. And some may simply be cheering on the new characters (even if they are typical made-to-order action-adventure types). With so many points to focus on, the story is now fulfilling Yoshinori Natsume's wish: he's got everyone guessing what will come next. But it'd be nice if quality didn't have to be part of that guessing game too.

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2011-06-16T04:34:00.001-07:00

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Forced into hiding in the wake of the take-over of Windbloom, Mashiro comes to appreciate for the first time just how much her citizens hate her and gets a lesson in what it really means to be a good leader, while Arika finds some unlikely new allies and discovers more of the unsettling truth behind the Otome. Meanwhile Natsuki makes a personal appeal for foreign aid, Miyu reappears, and Nina entrusts her loyalty to Grand Duke Nagi by becoming his Meister Otome, the wielder of the Ultimate Black Diamond - for better or worse.

Ran Kotobuki has decided that the best way to celebrate her brother and Miyu's first date is to have them treat her to a day at the pool. While Ran and the gang head to the pool, it's left to Ran's little sister to defend the streets of Shibuya! Then, just as Miyu feels as if she has put her past behind her, a string of emails and phone messages show that someone is aware of her past and wants revenge. And poor Yuya, just when he thinks he has the guts to ask Ran out, a rival appears to make things even harder. It's just another day in Shibuya for Ran and the gang!

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2011-06-16T04:34:00.000-07:00

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As the Schwartz attack Windbloom City in earnest, Headmistress Natsuki activates all of the Otome and personally leads the defense of Garderobe, while Arika defends Queen Mashiro. The forces of Aswald also make their move and one of the Otome reveals her long-planned betrayal, but the arrival of Artai's military and Duke Nagi's revelation that he is behind it all, accompanied by a great tragedy, is the final blow.

The star of SuperGALS!, Ran Kotobuki would probably have one thing to say to you about this volume: "Never break a girl's heart." With a title like that, viewers may be a bit confused about what this series has to offer, and the pretty pink box included with volume one of the series probably leaves most males wondering what they're getting into. What they'll get when they pick up this series is a fun show about three girls shopping in the streets of Shibuya. To be more precise, what they get is a wild slice of life series filled with gal-speak, fashionable outfits and a outrageous comedy. SuperGALS! is much more than an average shoujo story: there's a fun script, out of this world characters and even a bit of drama mixed in to entertain all comers.

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2011-06-16T04:21:00.002-07:00

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The only letdown about the new arrivals is that they're very much stock characters—the fighter, the ninja, the pair of goth-loli girls—and by the time they run into some opposition, Natsume seems to be straining to come up with powers and weapons for everyone. While it's fun to discover the skills of the White Claw's combatants, as well as the sinister abilities of the rival Black Thorn faction, there's also this feeling of "Come on, let's just get through this fight so we can reveal the dark secret that relates to Mikito." Thus, the volume ends the way it began, with loud battle scenes that are impressive in their bloodiness but mere ornaments to the storyline.

It's the third of the four Robotech Masters (aka Southern Cross) Robotech DVDs. And with this disc, the series continues riding on its momentum, building up to what very well may be a climatic ending next disc.

Once again, the video quality on this disc is absolute crap. While ADV and Harmony Gold really can't help that the source material is in such poor condition, it doesn't change the fact that the overall viewing experience suffers. There are great amounts of grain and the picture looks completely washed out.

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2011-06-16T04:21:00.001-07:00

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Fortunately, once Mikito and friends settle down to plan their next move, the plot returns to Natsume's original intention of keeping everyone on their toes. The arrival of the White Claw faction adds a new twist to the ogre-hunter network, showing that not only are there hunters (Kugai) and hunters of hunters (Gogyo), but that they don't always listen to what headquarters tells them (the White Claw). Even more unexpectedly, their decision to take Mikito to a proving ground is not just some punch-rocks-as-hard-as-possible training session, but a unique puzzle designed to test the protagonist's mental faculties (answers to be revealed in Volume 5).

Robotech volume 9 beings with the introduction of a new character named Zor, previously brainwashed and fighting for the enemy. Though a clone, his looks and traits match those of the humans and since he no longer remembers working for the enemy, he's going through quite a lot of personal troubles as well. Due to his supreme skills, he begins working for the Robotech defense force. With this, Robotech spends a large amount of time this volume focusing on the inner personal traits of its characters. Zor finds difficulty understanding who he is and the rest of the Earth team has their questions and doubts about him too.

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2011-06-16T04:21:00.000-07:00

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The noisy firecracker approach is how this volume begins, finishing up the second half of a fight between Mikito and the "ogre-eater" Suguri. Its main value to the storyline is in showing what horrors Mikito is capable of when the little imp inside his head takes over and crosses into the real world. But that chilling revelation is overshadowed by the sheer bombast of the fight—the intense bruality might be fun for getting one's pulse racing, but it's also a distraction from watching the story develop.

Robotech delves its deepest into the love connections of the cast during one of the episodes here as well. It shows that even during the midst of war where the future of the Earth remains uncertain, people can't help but to still show signs of loneliness and a desire for love. Strictly speaking, this doesn't make them very good soldiers but it does make it easier for viewers to relate to them.

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2011-06-16T04:20:00.001-07:00

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In a previous installment of Kurozakuro, Yoshinori Natsume wrote that he envisioned the storyline as one that would keep readers guessing from one chapter to the next. So far, the series has stayed true to that vision, unfolding in unexpected ways (Mikito's never going to see his high school pals again, is he?) and treating us to an ever-expanding universe. But this has also resulted in a hit-or-miss adventure, and Volume 4 is no different in that respect. While some chapters build up the plot and thicken the intrigue about the burgeoning ogre war, others are simply action-packed firecrackers that generate a lot of noise and burn out too soon. And so the quality of Kurozakuro fluctuates along with these changing moods.

The ongoing battle between the Earth and the Robotech Masters gets much fiercer as the series moves on. Whether or not either side is successful with each battle becomes more and more important to the final outcome of the war. Things start to become much more serious as the series nears its end with only six more episodes remaining after this disc.
Although it's not the best thing in existence by far, Robotech's “The Masters” saga continues to satisfy. If you've found the series to be entertaining so far, you'll surely want to pick up this disc as well.

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2011-06-16T04:20:00.000-07:00

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Mikito Sakurai is a high school weakling who just wants to be stronger. When an impish creature named Zakuro appears in Mikito's subconscious and offers him an "ogre seed," the boy not only gains the strength he's looking for—but also the monstrous appetite of an ogre. Fearful of his new powers, Mikito leaves his hometown, joining up with an ogre hunter named Kugai and hoping he can learn to control his bloodlust. Unfortunately, that bloodlust is unleashed when Mikito has to fight a powerful creature that feasts on ogres. Zakuro comes to help at the last minute, but now Kugai and Gogyo—another fellow ogre-hunter—have witnessed his destructive potential. Together, they team up with a band of fighters called the White Claw and seek out some answers about Mikito's unusual ability to wield ogre powers while remaining human. But do the higher authorities have something planned as well?

The animation quality, once again, is not very spectacular. With the large battles taking place towards the end of this disc, Robotech Masters shows its budget weakness. After being spoiled with today's great animation feats, in comparison, the fighting here looks exceedingly boring.

Thankfully, this disc focuses a lot more on the secondary characters. We get to learn a little bit more about the supporting cast and the interesting relationships they have with each other. This also means less attention is given to the main character, Dana, who is still as fickle and annoying as ever.

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2011-06-16T04:10:00.001-07:00

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Although this volume references events from earlier in the series, it still stands on its own as a quick-paced, gag-a-minute adventure. After all, the quest format is one of the easiest story patterns to work with—just introduce the heroes, set up the dilemma they're facing, and send them on the way to victory (yet so many amateurs insist on creating impossibly huge and pointless back-stories). Van Von Hunter, however, is all about poking fun at impossibly huge back-stories, along with other genre conventions: the old man with sordid tales of the past ("And everybody died!" "So why are we still alive?"), the questionable villain-turned-do-gooder, and of course, the out-of-date shaman who doesn't quite realize that evil has reached new depths in the past 10,000 years. Silly puns and non-sequiturs also add another dimension of humor to the more typical slapstick and self-deprecation.

Even the truths it speaks, about the spaces that separate people and the terrors and delights of bridging them, are components in a vicarious web of emotion rather than sterile observations to be appreciated for their intellectual acuity. The honest internal discussions, the silences pregnant with meaning, the germs of truth, the meticulously interwoven plots, the raggedly real characters, the powerful yet terrifyingly delicate central relationship, the deliberate spurning of distaff fantasies—everything that separates NANA from its peers is there, not for intellectuals to mind-wank to, but to fill us all so full of sadness, joy, regret and, yes, love that it leaks from our tear ducts. Surrender yourself to it; you won't regret it.

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Despite the good comedic intentions, however, it just doesn't reach laugh-out-loud levels. The gags are well-staged, and the principles of comic timing are followed to a T, but it all feels too mannered, like someone doing a spoof of a spoof. If you know your Leslie Nielsen or Mel Brooks movies, then it's all too easy to see the jokes coming, from the kooky setup to the incongruous, ego-deflating finish. Yes, it's funny how so much of the fantasy genre is inherently pompous, but making fun of the pomposity gets tired after a while. Even the characters fall flat, descending into the stereotypes they're supposed to be parodying. And the anime references are so forced that they end up as cheap gimmicks more than anything else—okay, so now that we know who would win in a fight between Edward Elric and Goku, what does it accomplish?

There is a certain danger in championing NANA's artistic merit. Doing so can give the false impression that the show is best appreciated by cinematic eggheads. While the eggheads will find much to appreciate, particularly on multiple viewings, it isn't so high-minded that it forgets its primary purpose as entertainment. It takes refuge from the punishing strength of its emotions in rueful humor, and the thrilling, kinetic concert set-pieces bespeak a series thoroughly versed in the appeal of pure spectacle.

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Also feeling flat is the artwork, which—while more accomplished than some of Tokyopop's other original series—goes all the way to the opposite end and comes out overly polished and mechanical. Technology has helped take out any raggedness (Van Von Hunter was a test bed for early releases of Manga Studio software), but the clinically precise lines and tones have also sucked out the heart that goes into hand-drawn work. To its credit, though, the underlying principles are fundamentally sound: character designs are attractive and memorable, drawing from today's mainstream fantasy look, and the rectangular paneling puts clarity above all else. In the rapid-fire world of screwball comedy, getting the joke across is a much higher priority than fancy layouts and visual showmanship.

Most viewers will probably want to watch NANA subbed. That isn't to say that Viz's dub is sub-par, or that it hasn't been improving. It isn't the former and certainly has been the latter. As their roles have grown, most of the supporting cast has risen to the task, delivering consistently good and consistently faithful performances while the leads all stay strong. The dub even dodges a potentially hairy bullet with its solid, toned-down (and irritatingly uncredited) take on BLAST's flamboyantly gay manager. But again, the English actors are faced with a monster Japanese cast that includes a goodly proportion of the cream of the seiyuu crop, and no matter how you cut it they haven't the same emotional range. Think of it as the Polish mounted cavalry facing down the Blitzkrieg: valiant, commendable, and doomed. Which lends the already likeable cast an additional underdog charm. So, not a total loss.

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Straightforward dialogue is the other key factor in the comedy equation. A contemporary tone of voice among all the characters adds a casual irreverence to the story, where even summoning a demon turns out to be a bureaucratic, corporate-world kind of deal. Sometimes even sound effects get into the wordplay: when a dying solider says "Tell my wife I love ... UGH," Van takes it maybe a little too literally. Unfortunately, some characters rely on repetitive catchphrases to get their comic shtick across ("If I were a villain ... but I'm not!"), which waters down the dialogue and keeps it from being snappy as it could be.

And holding all this together—unflinching emotional realism, high-gloss rock 'n roll living, localized Tokyo milieu—is Morio Asaka. Asaka isn't an auteur in the individualistic, fiercely artistic sense that directors like Hideaki Anno or Satoshi Kon are. But neither is he some studio hack. You don't turn out series like Cardcaptor Sakura by being a nepotistic parasite. What Asaka is, is an expert and flexible craftsman. One need only listen to him evoke a previous episode's climax with a few strums of an acoustic guitar, or watch how his transitions link scenes even as they comment—sometimes wryly, sometimes sadly, sometimes forcefully—on the events they conjoin, to appreciate the power and nuance he brings to the tale he tells.

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For those who have grown tired of the fantasy genre's ridiculous self-importance and constantly recycled clichés, Van Von Hunter is the antidote, attacking these clichés with irreverent fervor. However, in doing so it becomes something of a cliché itself, relying on a predictable comedic approach and putting its characters in overused situations—not to mention that the whole adventure-comedy thing has been done plenty of times before. Come for some quick laughs and a little sword-and-sorcery comfort food, but don't expect much else. After Van has saved the world and all, you can't help but wonder if the adventure couldn't have been more swashbuckling, the humor more acerbic. Then it would have been a truly heroic conquest.

You don't need to be susceptible to the rock mythos to enjoy the behind-the-music turn the series takes, but it helps. Particularly in appreciating the glamorous, dangerous sheen the musical myth-making adds to the series' last leg. It also pays to be up on your rock history. Knowing who the Sex Pistols and Sid Vicious are is a necessity, and knowing what Yasu's ownership of Incesticide says about his musical influences or what Reira's fondness for "Layla" says about hers is nice, if not imperative.

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2011-06-14T23:17:00.002-07:00

Ikki Tousen: The Complete Series Box Set

Discerning connoisseurs of comedy will probably find this volume of Hayate the Combat Butler to be rather plain in flavor—some of the chapters are content to toss out random gags at will, while the main block of story is basically a road trip dotted with as many screwball moments as possible. Yet this easily accessible sense of humor, which rotates between slapstick and parody and the characters behaving in exaggerated ways, is what helps to keep the series entertaining.

After being plucked from the streets and shotgun wed to selfish aristocrat Soichiro, Sumi has resigned herself to being his wife in exchange for the financial stability of her ever-growing family back home with the one stipulation that she can't fall in love with Soichiro. However, her obligatory-dedication to her new hubby is already wavering as she continues to catch eyes with the kind and handsome, Nozomu – childhood friend of Soichiro, a wealthy bachelor in his own right and a man who Sumi has had on her mind since the day they first met on the streets.

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It may not break the mold in terms of artistry, and it certainly doesn't possess the razor wit of the best comedy titles out there, but unpredictable gags and a nonstop supply of energy are still a good thing. Out of all the hot springs excursions that have ever existed, how many of them have involved Russian ramen proprietors and maniacal assassins and an impossible jump from a moving train? In that sense, maybe Hayate isn't so cookie-cutter after all.

After sitting through the uncharacteristically flawed English adaptation, it's hard not to be annoyed by the exuberance (and relative dearth of information) of the disc's audio commentary. While it's certainly fine to enjoy yourself, both when recording and when discussing it after the fact, it perhaps isn't such a good idea to draw attention to the fact that you had more fun recording than we did listening. The Japanese side of the production is spotlighted in a stolid talking-head interview with sound director Yasunori Honda.

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Bleak, bloody and intensely action oriented, Claymore is something of a throwback—a serious-minded action-adventure in an era of self-referential, otakucentric animation. But you don't have to be a crusty old-timer yearning for the days before moe took the market hostage to lose yourself in it. You just have to be a fan looking for some meaty entertainment.

You have to give credit to a series that serves up an unexpected twist, especially when it's so early in the series that it actually ends up turning what you thought the plot was back on itself. Granted, though Stepping On Roses had an entertaining first volume, it didn't seem like it had the most engaging of long-term prospects based on its plot thus far.

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2011-06-14T23:16:00.001-07:00

Bridging the Gap

In a world with a technology base similar to 1930s Earth, a mountain range and wide river split one continent north-south, forming the opposing nations of Roxcheanuk Confederation (aka Roxche) in the east and Bezel Iltoa (aka Sou Beil) in the west, each composed of numerous smaller countries. Roxche and Sou Beil have been staging their equivalent of the Hundred Years War, an ages-long series of on-again, off-again conflicts, but have been in a cease fire period for ten years as the story begins.

Soichiro continues to order her around with uncaring abandon and the difficulties of living up to aristocratic expectations isn't lost on the concerned Nozomu as he sees Sumi struggling while still being unaware of her more humble of origins. While learning more about Soichiro's family, Sumi also finally gets a chance to go home and visit hers but while her young ‘siblings’ are thrilled at her momentary return, the concern of her brother is as ill-placed as ever.

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Fledgling Roxche air force pilot Allison and friend Will, who grew up together in an orphanage, reunite for a summer which turns out to be anything but dull when a kidnapping and impromptu treasure hunt lead them on a dangerous journey into enemy territory, an adventure which earns them a long-term ally in the form of Sou Beil soldier Benedict Carr and uncovers a secret that could ultimately end the long Roxche-Sou Beil struggle. Later, an emergency detour during a snowstorm unwittingly throws the trio into the midst of another great secret, this one involving the royal family of one of Roxche's component countries. In a third adventure months later, the gang surreptitiously reunites for a luxury train ride into Sou Beil, only to find themselves in the midst of a complex plot which may (or may not) involve an attempt on the life of an industrial magnate.

Slowly getting used to her fate as the wife of the wealthy, Soichiro Ashida, Sumi Kitamura is trying to be a dedicated wife to the husband she was forced to wed while also battling her own true feelings for Soichiro's best friend, Nozomu. No matter where she goes, Nozomu seems to be there and each time their eyes meet it just spells more problems for her wavering heart.

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Working from a script that discards rigorous faithfulness in favor of curiously limp rewrites, the English cast consistently blunts the hard edges of the various Claymores, often sounding more like coffee house buddies than hardened killers. The result demonstrates clearly just how crucial the finely honed work of the original cast was in maintaining the series' intensity. While not butchery—Funimation is far too professional for that—it is a distinct step down

This volume wastes no time delving into the parodical, opening with a Very Special Chapter to commemorate Shonen Sunday's 30th anniversary. As a tribute to the magazine's flagship title Case Closed, this step-by-step lampooning of the whodunit genre is dead-on, but adds nothing new to the series. The same can be said of the popularity contest chapter, which is either a stunning display of Kenjiro Hata's talents (it takes sincere effort to convert a table of poll results into a 20-page chapter) or his mediocrity (well, that's 20 pages wasted). In between is Hayate's run-in with Isumi's foggy-brained family, which is somewhat more satisfying as it introduces new characters while also capitalizing on the lights-are-on-but-no-one's-home archetype.

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Zeitoun

Such a treat for the eyes is it that it's easy to overlook the contributions of the score and cast. The score—a solid but nearly invisible affair by professional understater Masanori Takumi—is careful to consign itself to a supporting role, so it's tempting to view the voice work in the same light. Until one watches the English version that is. Though effective in a meat and potatoes kind of way, Funimation's English adaptation is more a lesson in the subtle difficulties faced by the veteran Japanese cast than a separate-but-equal alternative to their work.

Things don't really hit their stride until the trip to Izu, though, which is one of the more enjoyable arcs in the series—after all, a road trip is one of the classic comedy scenarios. As usual, it's the willingness to bend things to the extreme that makes the trip so much fun: Nagi getting lost in the woods, discovering a Russian ramen stand, and getting chased by assassins all add up to nonstop amusement. (The real highlight, though, may be the hilariously ironic accident that befalls Hayate when he tries to jump off a moving train.)

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The eerie beauty of Takahiro Umehara's whipcord Claymore designs hides their monstrous potential for violence behind masks of porcelain calm, while MADHOUSE's typically active animation gives visceral life to the manifestations of that violence in bloody, plentiful and sometimes balletic action sequences.

And the physical comedy doesn't stop there: a heated ping-pong match at the hot springs resort keeps the energy going long after the journey is over. By comparison, the romantic side with the Hayate/Hinagiku/Nagi/Nishizawa polygon isn't nearly as funny, although this volume does pull out at least one charming bike scene. And yet, despite all these gags being pretty funny, the story gets from Point A to Point B without ever really daring to stray from a well-worn path.

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Lush backgrounds rendered in washed-out grays and greens weave an atmosphere of medieval alienation from stunning, empty natural vistas and equally empty architecture. Clare's even, determined stride can distill her entire character into one economical movement, just as the stark contrast between the clean masonry of the holy city in volume one and the worn mundanity of the mountain villages can communicate without a word the social divides that the script hasn't the time to describe.

The series' quest for perfectly average humor is complemented by its perfectly average artwork, which settles for "just enough to get the job done" (and perhaps to accommodate the artist's limited skills). Certainly, there are a couple of eye-catching scenes in this volume—Hayate's chase to save Nagi, the bike ride on the final leg to Izu—but these are the exception rather than the rule. And the rule of Hayate the Combat Butler is this: lots of character headshots, flat or minimal screentones, keep the linework as homogeneous as possible, and lay things out in standard rectangular patterns that don't lead the eye in any particular direction.

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2011-06-14T23:00:00.000-07:00

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Comparisons to masterpieces of medieval fantasy like Berserk are, however, still premature. Claymore, with its graded superpowers and well-worn narrative progression, is at heart too conventional to compete with the genre's true luminaries. The epic scope and character nuance are lacking, and while more than competent, director Hiroyuki Tanaka hasn't the cutting insight that allowed Naohito Takahashi to tease devastating truths from his cast. But what Tanaka lacks in raw skill, and the script lacks in inspiration, the series makes up for in sheer faith in its visuals. Faith which is not misplaced. Filmmaking is, after all, a primarily visual art form. Gorgeous art can take a series far, and Claymore's art is exceptionally beautiful.

If the visuals seem boring, those are probably the reasons why. Then there's the ho-hum sense of character design as well: there may be enough distinguishing features to identify Hayate and friends (and, say, a carful of assassins), but no one really stands out, as everyone's drawn from the same general face template.

Since the loopy characters are such a key element of this series, one would expect the dialogue and interaction between them to sparkle—but more often than not, the reader gets stuck with long blocks of text that go nowhere. The conversation between Maria and Hinagiku on the train exemplifies this perfectly: they're trying to have an amusingly awkward discussion about Hinagiku's romantic issues with Hayate, but the "amusing" part never really emerges. Maybe something's lost in translation, but a lot of the dialogue comes out as dry and forced. Fortunately, the sound effects are handled more smoothly, with English words and phrases replacing the Japanese effects but fitting themselves neatly into the artwork.

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2011-06-14T22:47:00.001-07:00

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The English dub – provided on this otherwise extras-free package from Sentai Filmworks (save clean opening and ending animations) is a point of contention. It's the work of Steven Foster (who seems to be responsible for around 90 percent of Sentai's dubs these days) and it's heavily rewritten, to the point of changing the lead character's attitude and personality.

Throw in a few chapters of absurd, self-referential parody and it becomes a fairly accurate cross-section of Hayate. But for all its variety, the series is content to settle for comedic adequacy rather than excellence, delivering a few good laughs but never pushing the limits. What remains is an effort that's lighthearted but also lightweight.

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A wacky road trip leads to one of the more balanced installments of Hayate the Combat Butler, where dialogue-rich character humor meshes with the more visceral joys of slapstick. On one hand we have awkward relationship conversations and a mind-boggling encounter with Isumi's perpetually confused family; on the other hand we have crazed killers driving through the woods and extreme games of ping-pong.

The aftermath of Clare's first battle with an Awakened Being reveals to her, and her three comrades-in-arms, some shocking truths about the organization she works for. Bonded by their shared experience and precarious circumstances, they return, disillusioned and wary, to their duties. Though warned to avoid contact with the top five Claymores, who might detect her partially Awakened powers, Clare immediately finds herself paired with Number Four, Ophelia.

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After a childhood spent trying to pay off his parents' debts, Hayate Ayasaki has finally found his place in life as a butler to demanding heiress Nagi Sanzenin. Hayate's gone on all sorts of adventures, but none quite so stressing as trying to solve a closed-room murder. Here's the real mystery, though: why are they paying tribute to the famous Detective Conan? Also, who is the most popular character in the series? There's little time to dwell on the answers, though, as Nagi's latest whim involves trekking to the hot springs in Izu where a meteorite crash has supposedly boosted the water's healing powers.

A giggling psychopath of frightening power, Ophelia's idea of fun involves lopping allies' legs off and using innocent lives as bartering chips. When she discovers that Clare has Awakened, she gets really nasty. Wounded, separated from Raki and fighting a battle she knows she cannot win, Clare is forced to turn to her past for help.

Read The Design of Everyday Things [Paperback] Donald A. Norman (Author)

2011-06-14T22:45:00.001-07:00

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High School of the Dead is absolutely wallowing in an adolescent obsession with tits and gore and more tits and more gore, but it is very confidently sticking to exactly what it set out to be, with surprisingly decent production values and competent pacing that at the least keep the story moving along. Frankly, you can tell whether or not this show is for you simply by looking at the cover – zombie hands reaching for a giant pair of breasts being thrust outward. If that's what you're looking for, this show delivers it and delivers it well. If it's good taste, fresh ideas, or restraint you're looking for, you'd do best to stay far, far away.

The events of volume two continue to echo through Claymore's third installment. And how could they not? The second volume was powered by one of the nastiest twists in recent memory, demonstrating previously untapped reserves of narrative ruthlessness. Though this volume begins to weave a slew of more typically shonen-styled elements into the plot, that ruthlessness lingers, and with it a brutal edge that keeps Claymore perched firmly atop of the action anime heap.

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In fact, English-language Komuro says “f*ckin’ A!” so often it's as if they were trying to make it his catchphrase. It's shrill and obnoxious and somehow – although this should've been impossible – makes the show even more of a monument to slobbering immaturity than it already is. It could be argued that something like this doesn't really need a faithful dub, but it doesn't take long until all the cursing starts feeling strained and unnecessary. Just wait until they crack a Sarah Palin joke (sorry, “Sarah f*ckin’ Palin”). Yep, that happens.

A training episode, ranked enemies to battle, and even a newly formed alliance of like-minded comrades—it's impossible to miss the encroaching shonen tropes. Clare's progress as a warrior is beginning to resemble the miracle rookie trajectory beloved by Shonen Jump fans the world over, and her back-story—for all its shock value—is a familiar one. But they are tropes wrapped in action so brutally extreme that the battles can't help but be tense.

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In any case, this is the most impressive Fanfare / Ponent Mon co-production I have seen thus far, and I would heartily recommend it to anyone interested in mainstream manga publishing or the lives of Japanese mangaka. The author's candor is refreshing, not to mention a perhaps cautionary tale to any and all who might want the sort of life he's had. Manga creation ain't just a bed of roses! It's too bad that hardly anyone in the English-speaking world even knows who Azuma Hideo is or what he is otherwise famous for (though prior knowledge is not a prerequisite for thorough enjoyment of this manga). Fortunately, after reading Disappearance Diary, they will.

“Trashy” is sort of a key word to describe High School of the Dead. Episode 6 in particular is when the creative team responsible for this series apparently decided to crank up the fanservice engine past its breaking point; nearly an entire episode is spent on a bath sequence involving the show's four ridiculously-endowed heroines all slapping and squeezing eachother's cartoon bombshell bodies. Some of them even try to bang the hero, and they spend the entirety of the next few episodes either nude, in tiny pajamas or maid aprons. They never really tone it down after, this either; it's as if the director saw the first half of the show and said “MORE BOOBS!

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After all, what's dealing with three editors at the same time when compared to living on the streets or in a psychiatric ward? Interestingly, the panel layouts and stylized artwork of each chapter resemble long-running American newspaper strips such as Garfield and Beetle Bailey more than they do contemporary mainstream manga such as Naruto. As such, readers who do not ordinarily enjoy manga should find Disappearance Diary to be quite accessible.

I SAID MORE GIANT BOOBS!” while cracking a whip over the animation team, a crazed look in his eye. Some of the fanservice moments that happen during combat sequences after episode 6 are destined to make it in to “look at this crazy nonsense” reels in anime convention panels across the globe; if you've ever wondered what a slow-motion bullet looked like passing beneath someone's taint and then through a pair of massive wobbling breasts, here's your chance. It never lets up, not even for a moment. It's hard not to admire their dedication to it, really, even if it is tiresome and feels like it was written by a 13-year old.

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The manga is divided into four discrete sections, each several chapters long. The first details Azuma's first stint as a hobo, the second his employment with a gas pipe sub-contractor, the third his early productive career as a mangaka, and the last his descent into alcoholism and subsequent rehabilitation. The chapter about his career as a mangaka is, unsurprisingly, the least compelling of the lot.

Naturally – because this is a 12-episode series based on an ongoing manga – the whole thing starts coming apart at the seams in the last few episodes, and the show simply “stops” rather than “concluding”. We waste some time with an overly-complicated, totally uninteresting backstory between Creepy Sex Cult Teacher and Komuro's sorta-girlfriend Rei that feels tacked on, there's the looming threat of nuclear armageddon that isn't explained very well and then that's it. The final moments may as well say “The adventure continues…?” That they left so much of the story – individual character arcs and basic questions raised by the plot – totally unresolved means perhaps they're confident a second season will be greenlit. Regardless, don't go in expecting a satisfying conclusion.

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I was a bit disappointed by the quality of the translation; certain cultural points are left unexplained and, more egregiously, certain comedic punch lines suffer from lackluster adaptation. (See, for example, the way the editor's letter to Azuma has been translated on page 6. Had it been up to me, I would have glossed it more liberally.) But guess what? Translating comedy is also harder than translating tragedy!

In the end, High School of the Dead is utterly unpretentious in its execution, which goes a long way toward making the show forgivable – at no point does it feel like this series is trying to be anything other than bombastic, derivative zombie survival action larded up with fanservice so over-the-top it borders on grotesque. It's apparent right from the very first episode exactly what this show is and what it's going to spend 12 episodes doing, so you're going to know right away if this is something your id is desperately craving. After a while a few members of the show's cast start to evolve a little and become interesting; Komuro's personality shifts from sullen teenager to zombie-killing hero, and there's some decent – if eventually totally undermined – character development with the sword-wielding Busujima, whose cool exterior hides a craven bloodlust that she secretly shares with Komuro.

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The Fanfare edition is attractively produced with original art flipped to read left to right. An extensive and informative interview with is included at the end of the book. Creamy paper and French flaps that unfold to uncover an additional “special confidential” interview with Azuma are welcome bonuses. Sound effects have been replaced with English, but those panels that have Japanese text in the artwork (street signs, etc.) appear not to have been reversed.

For some reason rather than developing an original otaku gun-nut character they just inserted a teenage version of Hellsing mangaka (and noted otaku gun-nut) Kota Hirano, who is admittedly fun to watch while he comes into his own as an expert marksman. The production values are pretty good, too – the animation is generally of above-average quality with a few dips and awkward CG here and there. It looks gorgeous on bluray, as well – sharp as a tack, with a bright and shiny color palette that pops off the screen. The dub is in booming 5.1 DTS-HD, and probably couldn't sound any better than it does.

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It's the end of the world: a virus that turns people into the walking dead who feast on the flesh of the living has been unleashed and things are rapidly going to hell. The plague strikes Fujimi High School, where unlikely hero Komuro, genius Saya, estranged love interest Rei, sword-wielding Busujima, Hirano the gun otaku and a school nurse of below-average intelligence need to escape the school and head for the city, where their parents might still be alive.

His sense of comic timing is impeccable, and the way he draws himself as a caricatured lump of a chain-smoking man who loses more of his hair with each successive chapter is endearing. The extent of the abjection depicted here is extreme, yet I actually found myself laughing till I cried. Best of all, I didn't have to feel guilty about taking pleasure in another's pain because Azuma makes it abundantly clear, right from the very first text box, that he wants this manga to be funny.

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2011-06-14T21:19:00.001-07:00

The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century

At this point, in 2011, the zombie apocalypse is pretty much played out. There've been a sizable mountain of undead crisis movies, TV shows, books, comics, videogames and more flooding the entertainment market in the last 10 years, all of them generally drawing from the same set of basic influences, following similar sets of character archetypes and plot scenarios; a ragtag team of unlikely antiheroes deal with the onslaught of the undead and somewhere along the line it's suggested that the real monster is man's inhumanity to man or some mild variation on that.

I don't know how we got it into our heads that tragedies are better than comedies or that misery is a more noble literary endeavor than mischief...we're just kidding ourselves. Humor is hard—indeed, one the most underrated of creative skills—and those writers of quality who truly have the knack for it are few and far between. Azuma Hideo, so-called “father of lolicon” who has had a long career churning out all manner of manga from shoujo to seinen, is clearly one of them.

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It's all been done before, and better elsewhere, but the pacing is pretty tight and it's never boring. The show slows down once it hits episode 6, when the team finds their first safehouse (notably, almost every zombie movie ever slows down to a crawl when the heroes aren't out in the streets, on the run from the horde). Thankfully they're on the move again shortly and the show gets back to what it does well for at least a couple more episodes afterward. For the first two thirds or so of this series, it's at the very least entertaining. Trashy and cynical, but entertaining.

Don't let anyone tell you that a life drawing manga is interesting! It's what mangaka do when they're not drawing manga, rather, that makes for the really dishy material. In the award-winning Disappearance Diary, veteran mangaka Hideo Azuma presents a series of autobiographical episodes detailing various—often humiliating—periods of his life. Azuma's checkered past includes stints as a bum dumpster diving for discarded scraps of food and cigarette butts and as a gas pipe layer. Though inordinately attached to his drink for many years, he eventually became an alcoholic suffering from hallucinations and was forced by his family into rehab. Despite the genuinely horrific nature of many of these tales, all are recounted in a light-hearted, cartoony style.

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Turns out this show has decided that the one thing the zombie genre was missing were anime boobs. Monstrously gigantic anime boobs, in various states of undress and a never-ending array of fetish outfits, endlessly undulating like heaping mounds of flesh-colored Jello placed in a paint shaker, filling the frame whenever there's even a hint that one of the female characters is going to move. This is what High School of the Dead has to offer alongside its predictable, formulaic zombie epidemic storyline, and that's it.

And indeed, what is most remarkable about Disappearance Diary by far is the way in which the author has reached a point in his life where he can distance himself from the most trying times he's ever faced to arrive at that transcendent place where even attempted suicides and near death from hypothermia can become a resource with which to delight and entertain his readers. For despite the assured narrative and draftsmanship, writing this manga could not have been easy for him.

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2011-06-14T21:18:00.000-07:00

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To the show's credit, the zombie apocalypse storyline is mostly competent in its execution, and, the first 5 or so episodes zip right along. The hastily-assembled team of misfits, bimbos and badasses that make up the cast escape the zombie-infested high school and travel to the city, hoping to find their parents. Along the way they manage to survive a number of encounters, still-living humans gone mad from the chaos, firefight after firefight, and a sadistic teacher on a bus who's trying to turn his cadre of rescued students into some kind of weird sex cult.

In some ways, it's like a therapeutic exercise…especially since Azuma's wife, the one who actually had to deal directly with the consequences of all this bad behavior, also works as his assistant and drew this story right along with him. Or perhaps I should say “over” him instead, since she supposedly inked all of the pages. Either way, I greatly admire their bravery.

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2011-06-14T04:38:00.002-07:00

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The artistic quality of Naruto has always fluctuated a bit and does so sharply through this run. In some places the artistry seems to be trading off refinement and quality control for more elaborate and fluid action, and indeed some of the combat scenes have brief spurts of complicated action, including a greatly improved version of the “flurry of blows” effect so commonly seen in Dragon Ball and its successors. The battles and “moving through terrain” scenes also make a more concerted effort than in most shonen series to give a 3D feels to the setting and animation, although the character/background integration in such scenes is sometimes too loose. To compensate for the animation focus on feature scenes, the series heavily recycles previous footage, thus allowing it to avoid extensive use of panning shots.

Needless is a giddy celebration of anime tropes, it just happens to be celebrating the tropes that I don't enjoy. I do appreciate the fact that parodies are done best when they are done with love. For example, compare Kappa Mikey with Megas XLR; one show was an anime parody done by people who didn't know much about anime (as I heard from a staff member), and one was made by people who love anime but also wanted to poke fun at it. Needless parodies fighting shows with videogame logic and cartoonish villains, all-girl schools and underage panty shots (as the show says, "there's always room for more panty shots"), but since the parody is done with love, I can respect it.

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2011-06-14T04:38:00.001-07:00

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On the downside, the transition from fighting out single battles to their conclusion before moving on to alternating between multiple simultaneous battles, which happens after the second battle of the chase sequence, waters down the timing and tension of the individual battles. Don't expect much for kunoichi action, either, as Lady Tsunade only appears in healer and leadership roles, Sakura only appears in new footage at the beginning and end of the set (albeit in functions of major importance), and none of the other female Gennin have more than tiny bits of screen time; some don't appear at all except in flashbacks. The only one who actually gets any action is one of the unexpected reinforcements.

I can also respect that Needless is a shockingly well animated show for such low-brow fare. The fights in the first half of part two are done with flourish. No joke, some of them look like they were handed to Gurren Lagann staff. Particularly in episodes 12 and 13, a few of the scenes appear to have been given to some famous animator who completed them in a radically different, scribble-y style. (And I liked those bits.)

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2011-06-14T04:38:00.000-07:00

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The plot structure is also unfailingly formulaic and wholly predictable: when a team of five ninjas is sent out to pursue a team of four ninjas plus a “guest,” naturally the pursuit will eventually devolve into a series of one-on-one battles lasting 2-3 episodes each which are carried out as stalling actions to allow the remainder to continue (“you go on, I've got this” may be the most overused line both in these episodes and the series in general), and naturally the final battle will come down to the title character and his biggest rival. The one spark of inspiration here is the addition of the unexpected reinforcements, who certainly make things interesting on their arrival and reaffirm that yes, people can change, giving the good guys a badly-needed break in battles that looked too harrowing for their health.

Now that I've got my compliments out of the way… Good grief, this show had some serious pacing problems. It clearly should've been about 17 to 19 episodes instead of 24. A fight scene from the end of the previous collection gets stretched out over about six episodes, with a lot of very repetitive dialog and unnecessary recaps. To make matters worse, the 'needlessly' expanded fight takes place in an arena shaped like a giant version of a girl's bedroom. I could swallow that kind of silliness for an episode or two, but it made for a surreal fight arc.

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Some of these flashbacks are just flat-out tedious and even the most dedicated fans are likely to groan upon seeing nearly half of a ten episode block chewed up by these flashbacks at one point. The series has shown signs of trying much, much too hard to make its non-star characters sympathetic ever since about the midpoint of the Chunin exams, and this may be the worst run of episodes in that respect. Even Sasuke's absolutely crucial background scenes beat certain points into the ground.

This isn't the kind of fighting I like in anime, either. I prefer punches with physics behind a fist over moves with funny names and energy beams (like the Tien Shinhan saga in Dragon Ball, or Birdy the Mighty: Decode). Although, yes, they are occasionally funny, the fighting move names were continually distracting. The "Little Boy" move made me cringe a little every time, and the "Fourth Wave" move just made me think of the different waves of the feminism movement. Coincidentally, the word "bitch" gets used more in this show than in any non-hentai anime series I've ever seen.

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2011-06-14T04:37:00.000-07:00

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Unfortunately, this run also suffers from most of the major flaws of the franchise, too. Most evident here is the gross overuse of lengthy flashbacks, both to earlier scenes in this set and to new background scenes. Granted, some of these are necessary to establish firm character motivations for key characters, but not every character needs a full episode (or more) of background-building, and certainly not in the middle of a battle every single time and with the same sappy recorder tune every single time.

Auughhh! There aren't enough episodes in this set! The voice actors mention in the one commentary track that this "G-8 arc" is short, so why not include the entire arc in this set? I think it's just one more episode… and clearly this is designed to make me buy the next set, but c'mon guys. At this point in One Piece, there is no danger that I will stop buying it. A while ago, I rated a couple of One Piece sets "Rental Shelf" and I even gave away my screeners, but now I'm thinking of re-buying it so my collection will be complete. I'm even looking forward to Funimation's Collection One box that comes out later this summer, because One Piece is no longer something I merely want in my collection, it's something I need. If I have kids someday (or even grandkids), I plan to force them to watch this show with me.

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I reviewed Needless Collection 1 a couple weeks ago. A self-identifying Needless fan popped up in the forums, saying that there are, in fact, fans of this show, but they probably feel no need to defend Needless from the likes of reviewers like me who panned it. I totally could see where someone who is not me might like Needless. (Unlike some shows, where I wonder if the creator's mother could even be proud…)

Frustrated by his recent inability to deal with his brother and fearful that Naruto may be passing him by, Sasuke challenges Naruto to a “serious” one-on-one duel. When he can gain no satisfaction from that, the lure of Orochimaru, and the promise of power he sends through the quartet of personal bodyguards he sends to fetch Sasuke, proves too great a temptation, even if it means leaving a heartbroken Sakura behind.

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The end credits for Ponyo are scrolled vertically over pleasant sketches of the ocean, the words “we made this movie” scrawled in crayon up top, with a little crude hand-drawn cartoon image set next to the names of everyone involved in the production – nobody is given a title aside from the principal cast, director, writer and composer, and each name is a first initial with the surname listed after. It's highly reminiscent of a kindergarten class roster, as produced by the class itself. That pretty much tells you what you need to know about Ponyo.

Lady Tsunade orders the recently-promoted Shikamaru to assemble a team of Gennin to track Sasuke down and retrieve him, a team that quickly includes Naruto, Neji, Choji, and Kiba. They wind up needing all of their cunning and fighting power, for the quartet of Sound Ninja escorting Sasuke are none to be trifled with; all of them have their own strength-enhancing curse marks, after all. Worse yet is the reinforcement Orochimaru dispatches to help them, but Lady Tsunade has her own back-up planned and dispatched, too, as well as an assistor who wasn't planned. Ultimately, though, Naruto is the only one with a chance to stop Sasuke, and in an epic battle in Final Valley the two former friends have their ultimate showdown.

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2011-06-14T03:34:00.000-07:00

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Special mention must be made of Tina Fey, who voices Lisa. It is a marvelous performance and not at all what many might have expected from the comic actress, most famous for 30 Rock and her days on Saturday Night Live. It feels flawless; probably the best vocal performance I've ever heard in a Ghibli dub (or any other dub, for that matter). It eschews completely Fey's comic persona and instead brings the character to life as a wholly realistic and at times remarkable parent.

What Viz Media calls Season 3 Box Set vol. 1 is actually just Box Sets 9 and 10 from their 2008 releases repackaged into a single box set; even the Extras, minus the booklet but including the Sneak Previews for the next volumes, remain intact. Thus, if you own the box sets from the last round of releases then you will find no value in picking up this one beyond possibly condensed shelf space. For those just getting around to collecting the series, though, this is the best deal to date on this content.

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The English dub is excellent, and although the folks at Disney have no more need to prove they can provide wonderful dubs, this one feels a bit stronger than some of their previous work. The performances are very natural; it doesn't “feel” like a dub at all. Fans worried about gimmicky Disney Channel casting – namely the youngest Jonas brother, Frankie, as the lead, and Miley Cyrus' little sister, Noah, as Ponyo – can rest easy, because they do an excellent job sounding like kids without getting irritating, keeping the big dramatic emotions properly in check while still exuding childlike enthusiasm. Their performances are expertly tailored to the characters. Other venerable regulars, like Liam Neeson as the wizard Fujimoto and Cate Blanchett as the sea goddess, are great, in a shock to no one.

The first Naruto series hit its peak with the Gaara/Naruto fight and the resolution of the Assault in the Hidden Leaf Village arc in episodes 78-80, but this stretch of episodes, spanning 107-135, may be the second-best period in the series despite its flaws. Nowhere in the series is the drama heavier or stronger than in the scenes leading up to and involving Sasuke's departure from the Hidden Leaf Village at the front of this run, the Naruto/Sasuke battle which dominates the end of the run is one of the series' most intense fights (albeit an overblown one), and the aftermath in episode 135 has some of the series' most poignant and genuinely emotional content.

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The production is, as expected, lush and vibrant. The “fairytale” theme bleeds from every frame, from the sketchy, color-pencil-and-pastels background art (a departure from the hyper-detailed environments his characters populated before) to the blisteringly bright color palette, this film was designed from the ground up to be a storybook come to life. The underwater sequences in particular are often breathtaking, and the action scenes – of which there are many – are uniformly thrilling. Spectacular animation and artistry are what people expect from Studio Ghibli, and here, they've done it again. Joe Hisaishi similarly turns in his usual excellent score, with the catchy (but extremely simple) ending song being best described as a "ditty".

This run also fills in all of the gaps in Sasuke's long-absent backstory and includes some nicely strategic battles, such as Neji's battle with the six-armed Kidomaru and Shikamaru's duel with the demon flute player Tayuya; it is always neat to see shonen battles depend on brainpower at least as much as brawn. The writing also does a nice job of setting up well-matched opponents, such as giving the Kiba/Akamaru team a rival team to fight and setting up the brute force battle between Choji and Jiboro.

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And I'm pretty sure all the character designs were scrapped together from some middle schooler's doodle book, because they lack any kind of defining characteristics. And, while we're at it, let's just assume this project wasn't too high on the priority list when it came to budget allocation. But despite all that, if you give this show a begrudging chance, you will find that it is a good time.

Tokyopop is dead, and a lot more manga is going to get canceled. Everyone hates it when this happens, except possibly for the accountants at the American publishers, who are usually relieved to pull the plug on anything unprofitable. Since manga publishing contracts often require the American publisher to license three or four volumes worth of manga at a time, publishers can even get locked in to publishing low-selling titles for several volumes even after the sales figures for volume 1 come in; bad for publishers, great for fans. But cancellations hurt the most when the manga is obscure.

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It's easy to dismiss Hero Tales instantly because of its goofy character designs and its simplistic animation. I rolled my eyes at least twice in the first five minutes just because of how generic the meat-headed characters looked. I mean, the characters' biceps actually spray blood when they power up. It is truly ludicrous. The human body is not an old garden hose. It doesn't just leak when there's too much pressure.

I mean, even if Viz exploded tomorrow, Americans would still be able to get the latest Bleach at Kinokuniya (or, you know, somewhere), but where am I going to get to read the rest of Raika or Enmusu without going all the way to Tokyo and searching a dozen BookOffs? Why are there massive online fan bases for Arina Tanemura but not for Kazuo Umezu's Fourteen? I really want to read the endings of some weird, forgotten translated manga that no one even cares enough to write a Wikipedia entry about. It doesn't even have to be good.

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2011-06-12T03:54:00.001-07:00

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To be honest, as much as I couldn't put down Hero Tales, and as much as I'm looking forward to the second part, I don't know that I would ever watch it again. It's fun and engaging, but it's the kind of disposable entertainment that's only interesting once. It's kind of like a puzzle—you obsess over it until you solve it, but once it's done, it's done. And that's the way I feel about Hero Tales. I just want to see what happens next. On that same token, I do urge everyone to give it a chance, especially if you're looking for a popcorn action flick that'll whittle away a lazy Sunday.

Baron Gong Battle is one of many incredibly strange manga published by Media Blasters, a company that, from 2004 to 2009 while they were still publishing manga, seemed to have a taste for the horrific and grotesque. From Pilgrim Jäger to Apocalypse Zero, they published ultraviolent, crazy seinen manga, the kinds of things you'd expect to see published by a company whose DVD imprints include Shriek Show and Tokyo Shock. Ex-managing editor Frank Pannone described it as 'adult shonen manga,' and that's a pretty accurate description.

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2011-06-12T03:54:00.000-07:00

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Even though this story is not new, it's told in such a way that's incredibly captivating. It follows some of the standard tropes—the hero trains every day and learns how to control his powers—but refreshingly, the supporting characters aren't just there to back him up. They each have their own side stories that make them veer off the expected path. One of them has to deal with the pain of watching a loved one die before his eyes, while another one must come to grips with the harsh realities of choosing to side with either the Alkaid or the Dubhe. Even that clash is not black and white; unlike many other shonen shows in this vein, the Dubhe is eventually developed as more than just a one-sided, demonized villain.

Baron Gong Battle has the basic plot of a Shonen Jump manga, but the level of nudity, violence and gross-out is so high that it makes Shonen Jump look like the Disney Channel. A sense of demented irony runs through the whole thing, making you wonder, am I reading a shonen manga or a parody of a shonen manga? Or is it actually a parody of every American action movie ever made?

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It's not that you've never seen this kind of story before—you have—and not just because it's based on folklore. The series introduces us to a boy named Taito whose city is pillaged one day by an a-hole of a general who's there to steal a sacred sword. Inexplicably, the two end up fighting and even though Taito is no match for the seasoned warrior, he unlocks a hidden power within himself and discovers that only he is able to unsheathe the sword. Explained later, there is a divine warrior to correspond with each of the seven stars of the Big Dipper, but two of them—the Alkaid and the Dubhe, are destined to clash with each other. As fate would mandate it, Taito is the Alkaid. He vows to travel to the capital to defeat the general (whom you might infer by now is the Dubhe), and along the way meets up with the other Divine Warriors.

Let's start with the main character. Baron Gong (sadly, his last name is not 'battle') is an incredibly buff American guy about seven feet tall. He's in his early thirties, but his hair has so many spikes and polygonal shapes, it looks like it belongs on a much younger manga character. (ign.com described him as the love child of Yu-Gi-Oh! and Wolverine.) He has five symmetrical facial scars. He is a quick draw and a good shot with a gun, and his physical strength is insane. He runs a bar in Chicago named "Gorilla Kick," staffed by women in stripper outfits, and he proudly tells his clientele "My bar doesn't serve liquor to losers trying to get drunk. We serve liquor as a way to unwind and get ready for tomorrow!" Baron Gong is a badass with HEART.

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2011-06-12T03:23:00.000-07:00

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That only 26 episodes are summarized here is also noteworthy, as the movie version of what happened on Earth trails off with Light gloating over a certain person's grave – and yes, that is one of the few entirely new scenes in this version beyond the framing pieces involving Ryuk, although it does mix in elements of the scene at the end of episode 26 where Light makes a certain promise to Ryuk atop a skyscraper.

In this chunk of episodes, our lovable heroes are fighting against the giant lizard-looking, lipstick-wearing menace that is Frieza. They thought he was tough before, but oh ho!, now he's leveling up! That's alright, Vegeta has devised a plan. Because Saiyans are stronger every time they come back from the brink of death, he has Gohan blast him “half to death,” so that when he gets healed, he'll be stronger. I was almost disappointed when Piccolo didn't grunt, “No pain, no gain.” This goes on for a few episodes, but not unexpectedly, eventually Goku tag-teams in.

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2011-06-12T03:22:00.000-07:00

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None of the episodes following the five-year time jump involving Near and Mello are included in this 130-minute production, though the revised ending with Ryuk in the Shinigami realm does give the impression that the way the series ultimately ended still eventually happens. Also, a second condensed movie subtitled “L's Successor” is scheduled, so it seems probable that the Near/Mello content will be in that.

Let me take a quick detour and mention something that the immature part of me couldn't stop giggling at. There are quite a few subtitles that are unintentionally hilarious. Like when Vegeta (or maybe it was Piccolo?) looks at Frieza in horror and says, “He's going to blow the entire planet of Namek!” Or later when Goku emerges from his healing tank and says, “Forgive me… I'm coming soon.” Yeah, yeah, I have the mind of a 12-year-old, but that stuff's funny as hell. Especially with Frieza's sassy red lips.

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Since most of these scenes are just lifted straight from the TV series, the technical merits remain the same, and the few minutes of new scenes just maintain the established standards. Whether or not the aforementioned alterations to the musical score are an improvement is strictly subject to personal preference, as both the TV and movie versions are equally effective. The English dubs for the new scenes also maintain the quality levels seen in the TV series so well that their insertion is technically seamless.

Of all the Dragon Ball Z villains, I do think that Frieza is one of the more interesting because he provides valuable insight into Vegeta's character. Without Frieza's endless planet-destroying shenanigans, a lot of exposition is lost regarding Vegeta and Goku, and how they relate to each other. It's sometimes hard to remember that buried deep within all the rubble of fighting, there is actual backstory.

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2011-06-12T03:18:00.000-07:00

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Amongst the Extras included in this release are original Japanese promos, promos for the English dubbed versions of the three live-action movies being released by Viz Media, and an 11 minute segment titled, “Death Note Rewritten” which features interviews with the director, producer, and key voice actors about the franchise in general and the effort on Relight in particular. None of it is especially insightful. The movie ends with the original Japanese credits, with an English translation entirely absent.

Z was never my favorite iteration of Dragon Ball. I found it too long, and I thought it took itself a little too seriously. And I thought the rules that it was constantly re-inventing for itself as to how characters are always able to power-up and/or come back to life were a bit much. Luckily, Kai really speeds things along. It's still just as ridiculous, but it distills the series down to what people like the most—endless fighting. It's still not my cup of tea, but if you're looking for a good way to get the Z experience without spending 145 hours of your life, then Kai is the way to go.

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Fans put off by the Near/Mello content in the TV series' last third may find this version a bit more to their liking, as the new ending firmly establishes a triumphant Light while still giving the impression that his triumph didn't last. Those who have never bothered to check out the franchise may find this version to be a compact sampler of the series as a whole, a taste sufficient to interest them in seeing the details filled in by the full episode run. Looked at this way, the movie should be a success. Those familiar with the series who are expecting a completely fresh perspective will be disappointed, however.

Hero Tales has the rollicking feel of a Saturday morning cartoon. The characters are rambunctious, the pacing is fast, and if there wasn't so much blood, it'd be the perfect electronic babysitter for a tween. Even for an adult, it's the kind of show that, once you start watching, it's incredibly hard to stop—and not necessarily because it's good. Case in point, as I was watching the first episode, I thought to myself, “This show is kind of dumb and trite.” But by the time I got to the end credits, I was hooked.

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2011-06-12T02:33:00.000-07:00

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Shinigami Ryuk, when approached by one of his fellows about stories concerning the human world, tells a tale of a young man he once knew who obtained Ryuk's spare Death Note and used it in such an interesting way that Ryuk will never forget him. (A Death Note is a special notebook which kills any human whose name is written in it while the human's face is picture in the writer's mind.) The young man, named Light Yagami, quickly discovered how to exploit the mechanics of the Death Note and started using it to kill off criminals towards an ultimate goal of cleaning up the world, though along the way he gradually became corrupted by its power and began to see himself as the god of the new world he planned to create.

It's no mystery that high-definition… removes all the mystery. If there's a flaw, people will see it. If there's even one tiny ink stroke out of place, people will see it. That's what's kind of interesting about Dragon Ball Z Kai. When they remastered the original series, they ended up recoloring over a good number of the preexisting stills to mitigate most of the damage. But even so, HD hides nothing. Even though I was enjoying all the punching and energy blasting, I kept glaring at all the imperfections on the screen. Places where the shading was patchy, ink splotches that strayed into the whites of Frieza's eyes… It's not a bad thing. It's just noticeable. Personally, I don't know that it's worth plunking down the extra money on the BD for a series like Kai.

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2011-06-12T02:32:00.002-07:00

My Horizontal Life by Chelsea Handler

Despite some real strengths, Gainer just keeps coming up as mediocre. Every episode has its moments that stand out, but it's quickly outweighed by another moment of confusion or cliche. Regardless, KingGainer's energetic opening is enough to get anyone to
take a closer look. If the plot can just catch up with the groundwork placed in this volume, there's a real gem here.

Any who opposed his alternate identity Kira died, though one particular individual stood firm in his efforts: L, the world's secretive premiere detective, and a special police task force who gathered around him. Thus ensued an intricate battle of wits as each tried to out-think and outmaneuver the other, a battle complicated further when a second Kira with a second Death Note appeared on the scene. When Light temporarily loses his memory of being Kira as part of another scheme, he combines efforts with L to catch a third party who has become Kira in his stead – though, as it turns out, it was all part of Light's ultimate plan. Against such a formidable power and a fierce (if in some senses immature) intellect, can even L hope to prevail?

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2011-06-12T02:32:00.001-07:00

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

At least Gainer looks and sounds very pretty. The animation is definitely above average almost all of the time. There's a few scrolling images, but for the most part, few shortcuts were taken. The sound effects and music were somewhat subtle, but not completely unforgettable. If nothing else, you'll at least be humming the opening song when you're done watching.

Both the packaging for the DVD and the director's comments in the included “Death Note Rewritten” featurette advertise this movie as a retooling of the Death Note TV series skewed more from Ryuk's point of view, and indeed, the entire movie is structured as if it were a long flashback story being told by Ryuk to a fellow Shinigami. Beyond that and a follow-up scene at the end, however, the veracity of this advertising claim is, at best, a stretch. Though the dialogue and original Japanese performances may have been retooled a little bit in places, in no way does the content in between give Ryuk a meaningfully greater role than he had before, nor does it offer any different perspective on the events which unfold.

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2011-06-12T02:32:00.000-07:00

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The princess that Gain and Gainer picked up in episode one exists only to add her cute ferrets to the screen so far. Sure, she's a "hostage," but her involvement in the plot so far is about as exciting as her capture was. Gain Bijou is, at this point, the only character with any interesting backstory to flesh out. Everyone else is still nearly flat. Gainer is about as interesting as a post, and to some degree suffers from Shinji syndrome with some of his "I hate fighting and Exodus" whine fests.

No, despite any claims to the contrary, Relight is actually just one of those “series summarized into a movie” productions, one which combines carefully-selected scenes from the TV episodes with just enough new animation to make fans care about checking it out. About 95% of the scenes in the movie were lifted so directly from the TV series episodes that changes, if any, are hard to notice; in fact, the only obvious one is replacing the original musical score in the scenes where Higuchi (the third Kira) gets chased down with a full-length version of the second TV closer “Billy in Despair” by Maximum The Hormone.

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2011-06-12T02:31:00.000-07:00

Bodum 1548-01US Brazil 8-Cup (34-Ounce) Coffee Press by Bodum

On the flipside, despite the strong plot and scenario design, King Gainer is falling absolutely flat on character relationships. Gainer's crush on Sara feels very pathetic to the viewer, if not entirely forced. Almost like it was really an afterthought, or they thought the show wouldn't sell if the main character couldn't find a love interest among the crew he works with. While this could change in later volumes, right now it's dragging the pace of the show down.

As is typical with these endeavors, editing 26 episodes of content down into roughly two hours of movie required wholesale trimming and careful scene selection to insure that that movie version told an intact story which can at least generally be understood by those who have not seen the anime. As a result, this version is lighter on character development and delves less into the specifics of what's going on than the series did; the scenes involving Misa trying to identify Light as Kira are reduced merely to a brief flashback, for instance, as are early scenes of Light figuring out that the Death Note actually works.

kindle A Little Death In Dixie by Lisa Turner

2011-06-12T02:25:00.001-07:00

A Little Death In Dixie by Lisa Turner

It's a great performance, though it's definitely more an English-styled take on such a character than a Japanese-styled characterization. Other roles are closer matches for the original performances, except in the case of the songs sung by the Elder in episode 2; in Japanese the songs embody the essence of classic early '70s anime theme songs, while in English the songs have more of a mock Broadway flavor. The English dub also muffles the voices of masked characters somewhat, giving the impression of talking though a mask, an effect completely absent in the original Japanese vocals. In typical FUNi style, both the opening and closing songs (the latter of which has lyrics describing how to draw the title character!) are dubbed when the English dub is playing. The English versions of these songs are remarkably close matches for the originals in style if not lyrics.

Anyone who's familiar with the quality of music that Square Enix includes in their games should know what to expect from Fullmetal Alchemist. Much of the background music is fully orchestrated, often relying on the use of woodwinds and percussions that are pleasing to the ear and in no way distract from any talking taking place.

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2011-06-12T02:25:00.000-07:00

Watchband Link Remover Tool by Tech Swiss

Since this is a GONZO production, one would expect nothing less than top-notch technical merit, and GONZO mostly delivers on that. It is a sharp-looking piece with well-detailed backgrounds and distinctive “desert gear” outfit designs. Some might complain that not being able to see the face of the protagonist most of the time makes it harder to relate to him, but considering how unattractive the face under the mask is it may be a blessing. Most characters whose faces can be seen look like they were borrowed from other series, while Junko's design is so unbelievably hot that she could have stepped out of a top-notch hentai title.

Equally as impressive is the music. So far we've had opening and ending themes by such popular artists as Porno Graffitti, L'Arc en Ciel, YeLLOW Generation, and Crystal Kay to name a few. As of this writing there are still two more top names being added to the soundtrack, bringing the total to eight for this series' fifty-episode run. Thanks not only to the variety of artists, but also the different styles that each one brings to the table, the music is never boring and worth taking the couple of minutes to listen to every time.