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Afro
Samurai The violent five-part
adventure Afro Samurai marks both the increasing confluence of
American and Japanese pop culture and the shift in Japanese depictions of
African-Americans. The popularity of hip-hop in Japan has led to more
positive images of blacks, including Takashi Okazaki's original manga. The
"Director's Cut" contains an additional 15 minutes of footage,
and is even gorier than the broadcast version on Spike TV. As a boy, Afro
Samurai saw his father beheaded by the maniacal Justice. The murderer
sought an ancient headband that marks the wearer as the #1 warrior in the
world. As an adult, Afro seeks only revenge, cutting down anyone who
blocks his path to Justice. Afro Samurai depicts a oddly
anachronistic world that infuses cell phones, cigarette lighters, and
cyber technology into traditional Japanese culture. The elongated
character designs recall Peter Chung's Aeon Flux, and much of the
series is rendered in moody grays, accented by gobbets of scarlet blood.
Afro is such a taciturn figure, most of the dialogue goes to his
motor-mouth comrade Ninja Ninja. This big budget production features an
eclectic score by Wu-Tang Clan co-founder RZA and an A-list vocal cast
that includes Samuel L. Jackson and Ron Perlman. But for all its elaborate
production values and over-the-top fights, Afro Samurai suffers
from a weakness at its core: Afro is so monosyllabic and cold-blooded,
he's not very interesting. His inevitable duel-to-the-death with Justice
lacks the emotional punch of Spike's face-off against Vicious in Cowboy
Bebop or Kenshin's one-on-one with Shishio in Rurouni Kenshin.
This extremely violent series is not for the faint of stomach. (Rated TV
MA, suitable for ages 17 and older: graphic violence, profanity, sexual
activity, grotesque imagery, nudity, risqué humor, alcohol and tobacco
use)
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Ah!
My Goddess Kosuke Fujishima's
classic story of a hapless college boy and his one true goddess comes to
life. Keiichi Morisato is an engineering student and the top driver of the
campus racing club. While calling for take out, a wrong number puts him in
contact with the Goddess Hotline. One misplaced wish later, Keiichi finds
himself blessed with Belldandy, the perfect girlfriend and a bonafide
goddess. Unfortunately, she doesn't have any idea of how act in the human
world, and her presence quickly gets Keiichi kicked out of the dorms.
Keiichi's troubles have just begun.
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Ai
Yori Aoshi One day, a
beautiful kimono-clad young woman suddenly appears in front of college
student Kaoru Hanabishi. She is Aoi Sakuraba who has been arranged to
marry him since they were children. The agreement is one forged between
their families. Kaoru has cut ties to his family and its corporate group
and cannot accept Aoi, but as he gets to know her, he is won over by her
sense of devotion and kind heart. Aoi sympathizes with Kaoru's plight and
resolves to stay and live with him. So the young couple - both born with
silver spoons in their mouths - start their new life together in Kaoru's
cramped apartment.
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Air
Gear Based on the manga by
"Oh! great" (Ito Oogure), Air Gear (2006) elevates
in-line skating to a high-tech extreme sport, much the way Eureka Seven
pushes snowboarding. Minami "Ikki" Isuki is a tough-talking high
school student who freeloads at the home of the four Noyamano sisters.
After getting the wasabi beaten out of him by a gang of Storm Riders, Ikki
discovers the world of air treks: motorized in-line skates that go
at extraordinary speeds. Not surprisingly, he turns out to be a natural
rider, quickly picking up skills and catching a brief vision of "the
Road in the Sky." But Ikki has to face rival gangs, beginners' races,
and getting a job to pay for his skates before he can aspire to the
mystical aspects of the sport. Although the misfit hero, athletic
challenges, and other elements in the series are standard-issue shonen
(boys') anime, the computer-animated racing shots, skillful cutting and
winning voice performances make Air Gear a lot of fun. (Rated TV MA
SL, suitable for ages 13 and older: violence, profanity, nudity toilet and
risqué humor)
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Air
Master The title character of
the broadcast series Airmaster (2003) is ex-gymnastics
"queen" Maki Aikawa, who has reinvented herself as a champion
street fighter. At her new high school, Maki is adopted by a group of
girls that includes diminutive loudmouth Renge and super-stacked Mina.
Maki lives to fight, and coolly pounds every street fighter she meets into
mochiwhile her new friends cheer her on. Her gravity-defying leaps
and spins win the admiration of everyone she pummels, and the affection of
martial artist Shinnosuke. As Maki wears a plaid micro-skirt, the show
offers lots of fan-service panty shots, and numerous jokes about how
Mina's enormous breasts attract hordes of guys. Although the filmmakers
hint that Maki conceals a tragic past, the characters in Airmaster
feel flatter than the 2-D artwork. (Rated 13 and older, more appropriate
for 16 and older: violence, violence against women, brief nudity, risqué
humor, profanity, alcohol use)
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Air
TV Yukito, the hero of the shojo
(girl's) fantasy Air (2004), is an itinerant puppeteer, seeking The
Girl in the Sky, the heroine of a story his mother told him. His quest
takes him to a seaside town, where he meets four local misfits. Bouncy
blonde Misuzo acts like a case of arrested development; Kano suffers from
the aftereffects of a magical encounter; astronomy club president Tohno
seems to conceal secrets, including why she tolerates obnoxious Michiru.
Yukito moves in with Misuzo and her drunken mother, and starts doing odd
jobs for Kano's older sister, the town doctor. Each of the young women
seems linked to The Girl in the Sky, but Yukito can't figure out the
hidden connections. Neither can the audience. Director Tatsuya Ishihara
tries to blend mystery and comedy, but the mysterious elements lack the
requisite sense of urgency, and the comic moments feel forced. (Rated TV
14 V: alcohol use, comic violence, risqué humor)
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Aishiteruze
Baby Aishiteruze Baby is one of those anime that is a lot better than it may seem at first glance. Seeing the title and the fact that the two main characters are a teenage boy and a little girl, you'd think that it's a lolicon anime. But fortunately, it isn't. Instead, it's a touching and heartfelt shoujo drama. When I heard that Aishiteruze Baby was going to be made into an anime, I immediately wanted to see it, and I was not disappointed. The characters and plot make this anime shine. Although Kippei appears to be a lazy bum, he does care for Yuzuyu and looks out for her, and tries to take his job seriously. Of course, since he's had no experience in raising children before, he gets into some sticky situations (such as what I can only call "The Onigiri of Doom"). Yuzuyu herself is that rarest of movie and TV children: a kid who actually acts like a kid and not like a little adult. She's cute, but not sugary sweet, and watching her bond with Kippei and the rest of the family is a joy to watch. The other characters are just as good, especially Kokoro, Kippei's classmate who at first seems to be the stock EEEEEVIL character, but soon proves to be much more than that, and Shouta-kun, one of Yuzuyu's friends in kindergarten who is introduced in the later episodes.
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Akagi
Mahjong Legend Akagi: The Genius Who Descended into Darkness is about
Akagi Shigeru, and his rise to become a legend in the underground world of
gambling with his amazing abilities and god-like boldness. It all begins
when he stumbles on a Yakuza run mahjong match while getting out of the
rain. He gives some good advice to Nangou, the losing player in the match,
even though Akagi doesn’t even know how to play the game. On a whim,
Nangou lets Akagi play for him, and Akagi stuns everyone by winning big
and outsmarting his opponent, even though he’s cheating. Here begins the
legend of Akagi, as he goes on to win big against the greatest players in
the underground world. The show climaxes with Akagi facing Washizu Iwao,
the Monster of the Showa Era and shadow emperor of Japan, where Akagi has
to bet his own blood as points.
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Amaenaideyo
So here's a twist: the harem-keeper is an apprentice Buddhist priest surrounded by a bunch of schoolgirl nuns. It's the Japanese archetypal equivalent of putting a corrupt parish priest in a Boy Scout camp.
That's right. Just as in Christian societies, Japan has the derogatory stereotype of the hopelessly lecherous priest, based, sadly, on countless instances of wayward priests who are less than diligent in letting go of the human world. Usually, however, they're "dirty old men", like the grandpa in Sailor Moon.
Now that we have established the "creative twist" that is supposed to make this show funny, what we have in Amaenaide Yo!! is the main character being treated like an errand boy, with a bunch of nuns who alternately tease him, support him, and beat the living crap out of him. It's kinda like if Urashima Keitarou wanted to be a priest instead of a Tokyo University student, which only works on a very superficial level.
Imagine then, if Urashima Keitarou actually became a better student by not studying at all, but by doing the exact opposite of studying ... well, that's Ikko in a nutshell. Flash him some panty, and he becomes Super Priest.
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Aria
Life continues for Akari Mizunashi and her friends and mentors on planet
Aqua, with new meetings and discoveries happening fairly frequently as
Akari notices new aspects of Neo Venezia. The second season of Aria was planned and created so fast, I hardly had the time to finish the first season and start looking forward to the second before I had the episode at hand, ready for viewing. And while I'm certainly not complaining -- rather the opposite, in fact -- it still strikes me as a bit odd. It will, however, make the review harder to write for me without possibly repeating myself. Given the rather... seamless jump to the second season, I ask you to bear with me here.
In fact, like I mentioned in the first review, Aria made one heck of an impression on me when I first read the manga. An impression which only deepened later as I got a hold of the first season and got to know the characters a lot better.
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Ayakashi
This short series is separated into three different stories, all of them equally terrifying. This series is actually based on the book Toukaidou Yotsuya Kaidan by Tsuruya Nanboku. The book is a collection of ghost stories which was first published in 1826. Apparently the book tells the tales of one of the most famous ghost stories in Japan.
The first tale is titled Yotsuya Kaidan, which is about two men that conspire with each other to murder the men standing in the way of the women they wish to take as their wives. Once successfully slaying their obstacles, it turns out their rewards were not enough to satisfy. Tamiya Iemon, who killed his father-in-law in order to marry the family's daughter, later on poisons her because she stands in the way of a very profitable remarriage. The poison disfigures her hideously, and she commits suicide swearing revenge on her estranged lover.
Following this vignette is Tenshu Monogatari, which is about Tomihime, owner of the divine Shirasagi Castle, who falls in love with a falconer named Zushonosuke while he was travelling along the enchanted castle gates. The two try to deny their fates as human and goddess, and together must face their damnation.
Bakeneko is the final chapter of this series, which also takes place in the Edo Era. The untimely death of a young samurai bride sends the entire family up in a panic, and the village druggist swears it is the work of a bakeneko, or cat monster--which continues to kill off family member after family member before finally appearing before horrified villagers, revealing a long-forgotten scandal that tainted the family for generations to come ...
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Ayashi
No Ceres Aya and Aki Mikage are twin siblings who've finally reached their sixteenth birthday. As the twins excitedly go off to their grandpa's house for a celebration, something else greets them -- a longstanding family curse that would change their lives forever. In every generation of the Mikage family, a female member awakens as a powerful tennyo (celestial maiden) called Ceres when she turns sixteen. Ceres has a score to settle with the Mikage patriarch, and so she does everything in her power to wreak havoc for the family. As a result, the Mikages have been killing all their female descendants who've turned into Ceres. This time, Aya is Ceres. Aya escapes... but she'll have to get to the bottom of things and make things right if she wants to get her life back.
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Azumanga
Daioh A handful of schoolgirls, three of their teachers, and assorted animals have various misadventures in everyday life in modern Japan. That's it.
And yet that's not it. Interestingly, Azumanga Daioh really doesn't have all that much of a plot. It's even more episodic than Urusei Yatsura, and there's no big overarching storyline or pressing matter to save Tokyo or anything like that. It's not even a soap opera - there's almost no male cast, and only an inkling of romance (but only as a one-sided crush played for laughs).
Azumanga Daioh is not about conflict - it's about mood. The director, Nishikiori Hiroshi, and the creator, Azuma Kiyohiko, intended this show to bring the viewers back to a period in their lives when everything revolved around hanging out with friends: the transition between childhood and adulthood. They also intended the show to depict high school girls as they really are. Not magical super heroines, not romance-obsessed angst bunnies, and not violence-magnet gangster girls. They're just everyday girls with everyday problems.
Instead of being an escapist fantasy like most another anime, Azumanga Daioh thrives on nostalgia and a stellar cast of quirky, but very true-to-life characters played by the best ensemble ever assembled in anime, period. This is a character showcase, and each character gets her time in the sun.
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