11 Episodes

GENRE: Japanese Drama-Comedy Anime

SUMMARY: Saki, a Japanese student, is visiting America when she runs into a naked Akira waving a gun in front of the white house with no clothes or memories. Now the two must work to discover who he is and how his unique phone is connected to the bombings in Japan. 

REVIEW: It was alright. I felt like the art and characters were good and they did a good job of keeping the audience guessing in the dark, but the reveal wasn't as good as I wanted. Most of the questions they raise don't even get answered leaving you feeling like you just finished the X-Files movie or the Lost finale (wait, what? THAT DIDN'T ANSWER SHIT!!!). There's a movie that goes along with it, but I haven't watched it yet and I am told that it is also good but does an even worse job of answering questions. The characters are interesting because they are very normal and mediocre humans which makes them fun to watch scramble in a epic plot. Overall, good but easily missed. 

ART: 8/10
STORYTELLING & PLOT:6/10
CHARACTERS: 7/10
OVERALL: 7/10

BONUS ROUND! Movie was more of the same. It felt like a giant episode instead of a movie. Some answers but more questions and nothing resolved.

GENRE: Foreign Martial Arts Movie

SUMMARY: 12 samurai warriors (and hunter) are tasked with the top secret mission of killing the cruel and psychopathic Shogun's brother who is in line to inherit the "throne".

REVIEW: It was a fun movie. Not great, but pretty good. It's essentially an entire movie leading up to one hour long fight scene. It borrows from the 7 Samurai and doesn't have vision of Kurosawa, but it was surprisingly well directed. The story telling is pretty decent and the camerawork quality enough to be impressive at times. Very violent, but still had a plot that moved forward. I would recommend it as a good quality samurai movie for those looking for more after working their way through Kurosawa's films (but don't expect the same quality). It is definitely geared as an action/martial arts movie so keep that in mind when forming your expectations.

DIRECTING & CAMERAWORK: 7/10
PLOT: 6/10
ACTING: 7/10
OVERALL: 7/10

27 Episodes

GENRE: Japanese Adventure-Comedy Anime

SUMMARY: In a far distant future where humanity lives underground, Simon and Kamina, friends so close they consider each other brothers, break through to the surface to claim their fate and humanity's destiny.

REVIEW: I freaking loved it. It's so cool to discover little gems like this that are anime's I personally haven't heard of (Baccano! was one of these finds). If you are looking for technical sci fi of the future this show is not for you (see the amazing "Ghost in the Shell" franchise). Don't expect a intricate plot or fascinating technology from this show or you'll be disappointed. It's not plot driven at all. It's really MUCH more storytelling and character driven (Ben would love it). Gurren Lagann is all about will and the entire world revolves around that. For example, there are times when their are a few mechs in the show, but the mechs are powered by fighting spirit. Consequently whenever someone goes into a heroic surge, they gain powers as well. This whole central theme and concept could have fallen flat on its face (as it did in Burst Angel with its poor mix of technology and emotions), but I felt it was well carried off awesomely with a determined and unapologetic effort. About half way through the whole tone of the show changes, but they are even capable of pulling that off as well which is why it's so cool.

It's hard to describe the art. A single still frame may get a 6/10 to 8/10, but to watch the animation in motion is amazing. it's so expressive and furious reminding me of FLCL with it's fast perspective changes and shifting forms to suit the imagery the creators were going for. Where as Baccano! was so technically beautiful, Gurren Lagann is just bad ass. It's like ACDC in drawing form. Epic doesn't even begin to describe this show. The central theme seems to be squeezing out every ounce of epic they can get. It feels like an adult version of a children's cartoon; just plain fun. 

ART: 10/10
STORYTELLING & PLOT: 9/10
CHARACTERS: 10/10
OVERALL: 10/10

GENRE: Animated Movie

SUMMARY: A Celtic princess finds herself feeling trapped by her role in life and seeks out to find a different fate.

REVIEW: Not going to give away much, but like all Pixar movies I really liked it. The only thing was that it didn't seem to really stand out in my mind the same way that Finding Nemo or Monster's Inc. Good and solid, butt not a game changer. The subject matter is of course appealing to every aspect of my Murray and role-playing nerd genetics. The art is cool too. Something about the expressions of the main character and the bounce of her giant mass of hair was so spot on. Really enjoyed it. I also liked that the Disney "princess" was much more go getter and self-empowered. The only real drawback to the movie that may have hurt it (and why it didn't stand out) was how short it was. I felt that if they had added another 30 minutes they could have made me more drawn into the story, but as it was I felt I had just started to pull in when they started to resolve the story line. Still good though. Made for the whole family as always. 

ART: 9/10
STORYTELLING & PLOT: 8/10
CHARACTERS: 8/10
OVERALL: 8/10

24 Episodes

GENRE: Japanese Sci-Fi Action Anime

SUMMARY: In a future Tokyo, four women (and their cook) battle against a military police organization and terrorists. 

REVIEW: This started off with a decent amount of potential. The art seemed good and the women were scantily clad, but the plot soon gave way to anime cliche after anime cliche. The main characters are Meg (a more humorous child-like woman) and Jo (a grey-haired red-eyed battle beserker). The pair reminds me a lot of the Canaan main characters (battle-hardened stoic maiden protecting a childish woman who gives her a sense of humanity) only they don't carry it off anywhere near as well. The combat isn't clever, but frustratingly stupid like a John Woo movie gone even more wrong. Jo constantly uses akimbo desert eagles to shot at everything (along with her mech) and when it doesn't seem to have any effect how does she resolve the situation? Shoot more until it is at a significant plot point that the strategy magically works. There are also gaping plot holes such as when Jo and here enemy fit so hard facing each other that they open up a portal to another dimension set in feudal Japan (wtf? not a good episode). It just feel they tried to take on way to much than the creators could handle.

I've also discovered from this that I am not a fan of most mechs in anime. I only really like them if they are uniquely designed (a la steam punk) or they seem to be more suggestive of a plausible future (a la Patlabor or Ghost in the Shell). Jo's mech just moves around with way to much agility. The art also goes in and out between an 8 out of 10 down to a 5 or 6 out of 10. Took me awhile to finish this series because I enjoyed it less and less. 

Overall, if you're interested in this go watch Canaan instead. It's better in every aspect.

ART: 7/10
PLOT & STORYTELLING: 3/10
CHARACTERS: 5/10
OVERALL: 4/10

12 Episodes

GENRE: Japanese Action Anime

SUMMARY: To the horror of Japan and the rest humanity, vampires are real and the child princess of the vampires Mina Tepes plans on building a community only for vampires. When teenager Akira gets caught up in her plans, they find themselves facing rogue vampires and other vermin.

REVIEW: The director has issues. The art is pretty good, but Princess Mina is annoying. Because she's thousands of years old, the director uses it as an excuse to get her naked and in provocative clothes, but here's the catch...SHE'S IN AN 8 YEAR OLD'S BODY! Yeah, that killed it for me. Couldn't get past it. The plot was alright, but with how obsessed the writer is apparently with naked little children, the whole show became tainted for me. There were so many more interesting characters. Take for example the princesses guard which only come up in one episode, there is like 8 of them and they all look like the come from a fighting game each with a different weapon. I want to learn about those guys, but no. Instead lets get a little girl naked and have her try to seduce a teenager. Sweet! 

ART: 8/10
PLOT & STORYTELLING: 6/10
CHARACTERS: 5/10 (not into kiddy porn)
OVERALL: 5/10 (the kiddy porn aspect just got me pissed off that I invested time into it)

26 Episodes

GENRE: Japanese Comedy Anime

SUMMARY: After failing to get into any other Japanese high school, Tsukune finds himself attending a mysterious school that turns out to be for monsters. He must keep his identity secret or risk death. This gets more complicated as the powerful vampire Moka and other students find themselves falling in love with Tsukune and vice versa.

REVIEW: You would think that the massive amount of panty shots they attempt to cram into every scene would make it worth watching. Not so. I found myself wanting either the sexuality of the show or the plot to move forward. Neither seemed to happen. Tsukune is a weakling nice guy character who submissive Japanese cartoon girls could love. It's got a few good meta-humor moments, and the plot gets less formulaic as the story moves on, but still not as much as I'd have liked. Overall, average and not worth watching.

ART: 6/10
PLOT & STORYTELLING: 5/10
CHARACTERS: 4/10
OVERALL: 5/10

12 Episodes

GENRE: Japanese Action-Horror Anime

SUMMARY:After a virus turns the teachers and pupils of Fujimi High School into zombies, a group of surviving students arm themselves with an arsenal of homemade weapons in a bid to survive the undead menace that soon sweeps across the globe.

REVIEW: This series is kinda like Ben's nerd version of softcore porn. The art is pretty impressive. Characters can be stereotypical, but well portrayed when they are set through the lens of survivor crazy "the walking dead" psychology. Lots of fairly likable characters, 75% of which are attractive barely clad ladies chopping and blasting zombies. Pretty much 75% of show is zombie survival in a less well written "the walking dead" and last 25% is anime lingerie show. I wish I could act like I was more noble and was disgusted. I enjoyed it quite a lot over all in the end.

ART: 9/10
PLOT & STORY TELLING: 8/10 (Like the walking dead approach)
CHARACTERS: 7/10 or 8/10 (Liked the heroes and their psychology)
OVERALL: 9/10 (It's zombie apocalypse and you didnt expect me to rate it high? WHAT ARE YOU NUTS?!)

24 Episodes

GENRE: Japanese Action Anime

SUMMARY: People are vanishing all over Tokyo as whispers of strange happenings increase. Students from a local high school team up to investigate only to realize they've gained strange powers themselves

REVIEW: The art is wickedly awesome in this show, but unfortunately that's about it. With how good the art is I thought they'd eventually put some funding into directing. Thought plot seemed interesting and possibly well written, the way it's presented is horrible. It's so broken and rushed that you feel like you're watching a review of upcoming or past episodes. Some side plots are presented without any previous indication and resolved within ten minutes making them seem utterly pointless. The action scenes kick ass though. If you just want mindless fight scenes in the background while you do something else then have at it, but don't expect more than that. I've just never seen a show with such broken story telling before so I had trouble figuring out what the issue was until the whole show was over.

ART: 9/10
PLOT & STORYTELLING: 4/10
CHARACTERS: 6/10
OVERALL: 6/10

16 Episodes

GENRE: Japanese Comedy-Adventure Anime

SUMMARY: Immortals from the 1700s clash with gangsters and each other in the prohibition era. We follow three separate events happening over a three year period.

REVIEW: Amazing! The art is probably some of the best art I've seen with technically advanced perspective shots and movements, but with just a hint of old school anime flair (a la Lupin the III). But the awesomeness doesn't stop there. Probably the one of my favorite aspects of good film is the storytelling and tone. The storytelling is incredible and creative as we follow a mix up of three events occurring in three consecutive years with each episode adding a little more clarification on these three events and how they interact. The characters are incredibly lovable and varied. They are extremes and well thought out. It makes it fascinating to see them clash with one another and how the plot is played out. Probably one of my favorite animes of all time (tied with Bebop and Champloo). Thumbs way up!

ART: 10/10
PLOT & STORYTELLING: 10/10
CHARACTERS: 9/10
OVERALL: 10/10