Opinions and Rewiews

Hello!! This page is basically for opinions, reviews of anime, and whatever else. If anybody has anything they'd like to say publically about the site, about us, about anime, it can go up here. I don't expect a lot, but I'll start it out myself. ^_^ Big spoilers in some cases, I'm sure, so you have been warned.

Review: I My Me! Strawberry Eggs

The title of this one had me going, "Whaaaaaat?" I still don't think I understand it. In a nutshell, this anime is about a crosdressing teacher. Not as simple as that, of course, but I suppose that's the basic core of the plot. Amawa Hibiki has just moved into the Gochisou, an apartment complex owned by a dangerous little old lady he calls Ba-chan (granny). Hibiki owes rent and has no job, so he decides to get a job at the local middle school. Unfortunately, as he finds out, this school only hires female teachers.

So, Hibiki, with the help of Ba-chan (who's really kickass) transforms himself into a woman! Luckily, Ba-chan has a voice-changer she puts into a choker, so that Hibiki's real voice (which sounds startlingly like Koyasu Takehito, although his seiyuu is Kishi Yuuji) is changed into a woman's (Masuda Yumi, who is Sakoshita Yanagi in Recca no Honoo). Now Hibiki-chan is hired by the school! Everyone think's he a chick!

Of course this creates complications. The nominal heroine of the saga is Kazuha Fuuko, a klutzy do-gooder. She has a small group of riends--Himejima Fujio, the violent tomboy, Kasuganomichi Seiko, the prude, and Umeda Miho, the overdeveloped one. Kuzuha really didn't impress me much as a character. She's kind of wishy-washy, and although she likes to help people she seems like a pest a lot of the time.

For some reason, there's a boy in their homeroom class who likes her. His name is Fukai Akira; he's the silent, surly rebellious type--voiced by Ueda Yuuji, who's good at that type of guy. He's like a modern Sano. Anyway, Fukai and his friends, Shouji and Aoki, are the main boys we run across at the school. The principal, whose grandmother founded the school and is very old-fashioned and rather a man-hater, wants to make it an all-girls' school. In this she is fervently assisted by her vice principal Kyoko. The vice principal is also suspicious of Hibiki-chan's gender, as well as being rabid about the problems with boys.

There's also a problem with the other two tenants of the Gochisou...Kochi-san and Mori-san. They're slightly older and extremely ecchi, but in a rather harmless way, since Ba-chan constantly foils their plots. Kochi, the balding one, has an obsession with Fuuko, which includes psying on her at night. Himejime finds out that someone from the Gochisou was watching Fuuko's window, and is convinced that the men living there are all perverts. To make it worse, Fuuko sees our hapless male Hibiki wearing a bra, thus dubbing him "Bra-man" so that they all think he's a crossdressing weirdo.

Things get complicated when Fuuko starts to like Hibiki-chan. C'mon, you knew it was coming! No one knows Hibiki-chan is really a man, so some of the guys, including Aoki-kun, are lusting after her. Fuuko is also totally clueless that Fukai likes her. When he cuts himself peeling potatoes, she loans him a pink handkercheif to stem the bleeding, which he says he'll take to the cleaners for her. How come anime characters can never see each other blush?

To further complicate matters, Himejima begins to like Fukai. While on a camping trip, tey go for a walk...which ends up being a boat ride, and for some reason SHE'S the one rowing...anyway, they are stranded by a rainstorm in a small hut on the pier. Himejima's all wet, too, and Fukai can even see her bra. Gasp! the vice principal has a field day with this incident, sing it to separate the boys and girls to teach them sex ed in the most unfortunate way. Of course we know nothing happens...good lord, they're 14... but Fukai loaned Himejima his jacket while she was soaked so she went to get it dry cleaned for him.

Anyway, with prompting by Miho, Himejime manages to get an assignation with Fukai for the rooftop. Fukai, when he sees Miho (and she says "Don't hurt my precious friend"), thinks that it's Fuuko. But it's Himejima. She tells him she likes him and asks him to go out with her, if it's okay with him. This scene wasn't as painful as I was afraid it would be, although Fukai tells her that he likes someone else. What is painful is when He runs into Fuuko downstairs and asks her out, full within Himejima's hearing (he's not as big a bastard as this makes him sound, because he doesn't know she's listening). Ouch. Himejima runs outside. Miho's there, anticipating victory, but Himejima just cries.

Fuuko, of course, really likes Hibiki-chan, even though she thinks he's a woman. So right after telling Himejima that he liked someone else, he has to hear the same from Fuuko. Kind of ironic. Maybe it's karma. I think Fukai's feelings for Fuuko kind of bother me, because there is never a basis shown for them. When everyone finds out about Hibiki-chan being a man, some guys make fun of Fuuko, and Fukai starts to beat them up, saying how can they understand her feelings? And how can they know what he efeels like whe someone he loves is hurt? Honestly, I don't think there's enough to say that he loves Fuuko. Frankly, I'd think she'd be the kind of girl to annoy him. But then I'm biased, because I like Himejima-chan and I wanted him to realize she's cool and go out with her instead. She tries to be cool about the rejection thing, too, even being able to say "ohayoo" to Fukai with a smile.

My biggest complaints with this series are about Fuuko being so annoyingly wishy-washy and Fukai and Himejima not getting together. At the end, Amawa Hibiki leaves town after promising to come back. I mean, Fuuko IS only 14, even if they have feelings for each other. But although that has promise for later, I wanted to see something between Himejima and Fukai. Even just a hint. I was really disappointed that there was just kind of...nothing. Sigh.

Ratings

Animation: 9/10

Characters: 7/10 (Sorry, but I don't like Fuuko!)

Story: 8/10

Ending: 3/10 (hell, Esca gets a low rating here too)

Overall: 7/10

Review: Nightwalker, Midnight Detective

Okay, before I start this review I will admit that I have a thing for vampires. Always have, probably always will. So vampires combined with anime, one of my other obsessions, is dangerous. ^_^''

Anyway, Nightwalker is about Shido Tatsuhiko, a vampire who works as a private detective. Only during the night, obviously. Mainly, he helps the N.O.S. seek out night breeds, demons that attack, kill, and possess people. His human partner, Matsunaga Yayoi, is his sponsor. As a vampire, he needs to feed, but he doesn't want to kill people. So Yayoi offers him her blood when he needs it. She either has some immunity to the bite, or he has enough control not to turn her into a vampire as well, because she stays human. She's really cool, I like her. She's abrasive, witty, and dangerous.

Shido also has a small, green Urban Fairy named Guni, voiced by the excellent Okani Ikue (for those of you who don't recognize the name, some of her most notable roles include Merle from Escaflowne and PIKACHUUUUUUUU!). She's around mostly for comic value, I think. She and Yayoi get into small verbal skirmishes. I like Guni, too--she provides a kind of outside view of things.

Then there's the requisite high school girl, Yamakazi Riho. Her parents were killed by a breed before the start of the series. She works as an office assistant, making coffee for Yayoi and Shido and being insanely jealous of Yayoi. I don't blame her. Yayoi is very cool, and she knows a LOT about Shido. And, of course, Shido has trouble sometimes resisting the urge to slip in some sexual innuendo. One of my favorite parts is when Yayoi is telling him to be quiet or she'll thrust a cross into his chest, and he calmly replies that he prefers to be the one doing the thrusting. ^_^ Besides which, Shido is über cool. When he and Yayoi are out cruising for breed in the first episode, he says he's hungry and wants to stop for a bite to eat--pun intended--so he leans Yayoi back while she's driving, and proceeds to suck on her neck. He manages to avoid crashing the car, too. One gets the feeling he's practiced that move.

Shido's past, however, is a mystery. He has no memory of who he was before he became a vampire, several hundred years before. Or at least, I would guess it's been several hundred years from the clothes he's still wearing. Old-fashioned, but kawaii anyway. He was bitten by a vampire named Cain, who holds the only key to Shido's past. Cain makes a pest of himself showing up and freaking Shido out. He also is instrumental in the change of Riho. He kidnaps her and slits her down the sternum, giving Shido the chance to watch her die. She begs Shido to turn her into a vampire, mostly because she thinks she's in love with him, and Shido, in a moment of weakness, does so. he constantly feels guilty about that--taking away her chance to be normal, to live a life in the sunshine.

Riho's actually not as annoying as most teenage anime girls (just wait till I start on Kuzuha Fuuko from I My Me! Strawberry Eggs, because she's really annoying). She has some character, but I really am kind of uncomfortable in the younger-woman-REALLY-older-man thing. Shido looks on her like a daughter in some ways, because as a vampire he is her sire. I don't really think he loves her the way she's in love with him. I'd like to think she'll get used to that, and be willing to be his close friend, but who knows.

Of course, if we're going to talk about love...Cain keeps trying to persuade Shido to join him again. Shido left him because Cain views humanity as food for vampires. He sees vampires as God's chosen, and that it is their right to feed on humans. Reminds me of Shishio's rant on the weak being food for the strong. Anyway, besides that, Cain is in love with Shido too. Probably a kind of twisted, dominating love, but love nonetheless.

I have to also add in my opinion on the music in nightwalker. Some of it's kind of cheesy, like the background music you'd expect in a bad 20's detective show, but I really LOVE the opening theme, Gessekai. It's performed by BUCK-TICK, and is a beautiful, sensual opening. The lyrics are somewhat dreamy, and the singer's voice is moody and seductive. It has lines like, "Nami ni tadayou tsuki no hikari/Konsui no naka suki no hikari" (Drifting on the waves, moonlight/In the perfume, moonlight). Especially at the very end of the song, where the last line (nami ni tadayou) is drawn out in a single ending note....man, I love it. Can you tell? ^_^ I think good music is a very big part of good anime. Sometimes it's opening or ending themes, sometimes it's the music within the anime, and sometimes both.

Ratings:

Animation: 8/10

Characters: 9/10

Story: 8/10

Music: 9/10, mostly because of Gessekai

Overall: 9/10

Review: Mahou Tsukai Tai! (Let's Do Magic, or Magic User's Club) ~ 4.14.03

For you fans of Koyasu Takehito, YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS ONE! I have the six-episode OVA, and it is the damn funniest thing I've seen in a long time. The story is about Sawanoguchi Sae, an incompetent but determined magician. She is a sophomore in high school, and is a new member of the Magic Club. She falls down a lot, has no self confidence in her magic ability, and when she gets spells to work they sort of...um...either go to extremes, or just putter.

The other members of the Magic Club include Aikawa Akane, a busty freshman who's constantly skipping meetings to go on dates and had probably the strongest innate ability (her magic always makes things spin for some reason); Nakatomi Nanaka, Sae's best friend and the usual voice of reason for her; Takakura Takeo, the club president, a senior, Sae's crush, and a man who's probably anemic from the amount of explosive nosebleeds he gets--he has quite an active fantasy imagination; and, last but not least, Aburatsubo Ayanajou, the vice president, a skilled magician and tennis player, beautiful boy with a great voice (Koyasu Takehito), and the object of Nanaka's affections.

Of course, the biggest thing about Aburatsubo is that he is the most flaming, aggresively homosexual character I've seen in a long time. He constantly glomps Takeo, hits on him, touches him, tries to keep Sae away, etc.etc....he even wears fuck-me-boots and rides his broom side-saddle. Koyasu-san pulls off the gay act so incredibly well!! It's just so funny to hear.

Anyway, on to the plot. Takeo, while showing off in front of the girls, said they should attack the Bell--a huge interstellar thing that came to Earth one day. It is an alien presence, and magic seems to be its one weak point. Sae shows up to help, and the first thing she does is crash her bicycle (she's a bit of a klutz) and somehow land on top of Takeo...around his groin region...also managing to give him a view down her outfit. Both of them naturally turn red. ^_^

Nanaka shows up to remind Sae, forcefully, that they had decided to quit the Magic Club the night before. Sae is confused. ^.^'' However, Sae, Aburatsubo, and Takeo head toward the Bell to see what they can do about it. Nanaka reluctantly follows on a broom borrowed from Takeo...and can't stop. So that she's not obliterated by the disintegrating green beam of the Bell, Takeo tells her to let go of the broom...so she does...and starts falling toward the ocean.

Takeo, however, catches her. All would be well if he had not caught her by the shirt, thereby exposing her bra, giving him a nosebleed and causing her to cover herself forecfully enough that she yanks the shirt out of Takeo's grip and starts to fall again. Lukcily, Aburatsubo catches her this time. She's sure enjoying that. However, the Bell sends out the whirlygigs, a somewhat goofy name for the helicopter-bladed automatons that fnction as the hands of the Bell.

The whirlygigs have "eyes," optical sensors on extended extremities that they use to inspect things....naturally they use these on our friends, sticking them into certain private places, causing Takeo to have fantasies about what kind of indecent things will happen when he is indecently clad and saving the indecently clad girls. When one of the eyes tries to take Sae's totem plush toy, a small bear with a big blue bow named Jeff-kun, she is upset. When the eyes grab her magic wand as well, she tries to stop them and ends up getting rid of one of the whirlygigs. Before they can escape, Takeo and Sae's brooms are disintegrated. Aburatsubo manages to catch Takeo, but not Sae. Takeo saves Sae by gently floating her down to the sea, where she lands in...a boat.

In this boat are the two other main characters in the series, a journalist named Minowa Minoru and his camera-toting assistant Yoshimoto Yoshito. Minowa wants to figure out what the Bell is up to. Yoshimoto is just there to take the pictures. The others come to pick Sae up, and as the ending theme begins she wonders if she has lost her magic totally.

Seriously, I love this series. I laugh every time I watch it...from Takeo's nosebleeds to Aburatsubo's attempts to glomp him, to Sae's klutziness and Akane's dates...it makes me laugh. I could probably write a synopsis of the whole OVA series, but that'd take quite some time. Suffice to say, it is totally worth it to watch. In addition to Koyasu-san, it features the talents of Ohtsuka Akio (Minowa), Iizuka Mayumi (Nanaka), Onosaka Masaya (Takeo), and Iwao Junko (Akane).

Ratings:

Animation: 9/10

Characters: 10/10 ^_^

Story: 9/10

Overall: 9+/10

Review: Mahou Tsukai Tai! TV Series ~ by Anzu

Just thought I'd interject here about the TV series following the OVA. Just a warning: in my babble I'm probably going to be spoiling things too. Read at your own risk ^_^.

At the end of the OVA, the magic club finally defeats that Bell thing. (As if you couldn't see that coming, I know.) Sae saved her friends, who were being held captive, by turning the Bell into a giant sakura tree. What she doesn't realize is that a GIGANTIC sakura tree in the middle of a bustling metropolis is going to cause a lot of problems this is where the TV series begins.

The TV series is not so much focused on fighting a specific 'evil' as it is about the students living their lives as high school students who are trying to develop their magic. Of course their magic goes horribly wrong and they spend the rest of the time fixing it. Sae has the biggest problem of them all, because she has an enormous magic power but doesn't know of it or how to control it.

One problem being the giant sakura tree in the city. The magic club tried fixing the problem, but Sae screwed it up and the tree started stomping through the city. And they thought Godzila was bad...Later on they tried to do a spell that would connect one door to another (think a la Narnia), but that went wrong too. When Takeo opened his fridge door, he found that on the other side was Sae in the bathtub. Still very confused and trying to control his perverted imagination, he was startled when Aburatsubo popped out of his oven. Aburatsubo wasn't actually in Takeo's oven, but standing in his attic. Suddenly, the attic door opened and Nanaka was asking what Aburatsubo was doing in her closet. This might not make any sense, but it's hilarious to see.

As far as romance goes, the story definitely progresses. Akane's still popular with the boys, Aburatsubo's still chasing Takeo, and all the girls in the school are chasing Aburatsubo. Mizuha's still secretly in love with Takeo, and I think Sae is finally admitting to herself that she's in love with Takeo. What she sees in him, I'm not too sure... Takeo still has very explosive nosebleeds, and Aburatsubo seems as agressive as ever. This time, however, we get to see how big his fan club actually is. Okay, I'm getting off topic.

Sae and Takeo admit that they love each other. FINALLY! Before that Aburatsubo finally admits that he loves Nanaka, who of course is still in love with him. Okay...but I thought he was gay? However, in the end no one gets together. Shock and surprise.

I LOVED this series just as much as I loved the OVA. I know the series sounds kind of girly (hell, the characters' eyes are HUGE), but is really one of the funniest things I've seen. I highly recommend both OVA and TV Series ^_^

Review: X ~ 2.9.03

CLAMP's 1999 millenial treat, X the movie is nominally about the struggle between the Dragon of Earth and the Dragon of Heaven. These two opposing entities are supposed to destroy and/or save the earth, by destroying and saving mankind, respectively. initially we see two of the Dragons, Sakurazuka Seishirou (Earth) and Sumeragi Subaru (Heaven) fighting in a star-shaped shield created by Subaru. They kill each other, and the damage they did inside the shield is transferred to reality, destroying the nearby buildings.

We meet the hero Shirou Kamui and his mother, who pulls a sword out of her stomach to give Kamui, then dies. Gruesome, if you ask me. But Kamui is determined to return to Tokyo to protect his childhood friends, Monou Fuuma and his sister Kotori. Kotori, naturally, loves Kamui. His mother told him to use the power he has to protect those he loves, and when he left he promised Fuuma he would protect Kotori. Fuuma, in return, promised to protect Kamui.

So when Kamui returns to the shrine where Fuuma and Kotori are, he is followed and threated by Nataku and Shouga, two Dragons of Earth working for the Dreamwatcher Kanoe. However, the Dragons of Heaven who follow the blind, deaf, dumb, and telepathic Dreamwatcher Hinoto arrive just in time to have a little fight. While Shouga, who controls water, and Nataku distract the Dragons of Heaven--Arisugawa Sorata (who controls lightning), Aoki Seichiirou (wind), Kasumi Karen (fire), Kishyuu Arashi (who later pulls a sword out of her palm, which is very cool), and Nekoi Yuzuriha (who has a wolf-like familiar spirit named Inuki), Kanoe sneaks up in her dreamworld and kidnaps Kotori, accidentally getting Fuuma along for the ride.

Fuuma turns out to be Kamui's "twin star." Kamui's name means "the power of God" and Fuuma as his twin has the same power and is destined to oppose Kamui. Kanoe shows an image to Fuuma of Kamui killing a crucified Kotori. So Fuuma wants to protect his sister, and will become the Dragon opposite to whatever Kamui chooses. The Dragons of Earth want to destroy the shields in Tokyo--several famous spots in the city that protect the energy and well being of the city. Fuuma is shown th eother Dragons of Earth--some of them , at least: Satsuki, who controls the supercomputer Beast, which is jealous of her attention, and Yuuto, who apparently enjoys weapons.

Kamui, meanwhile, sees Hinoto, who shows him the same image--himself stabbing Kotori, with the added twist of her being beheaded. Kamui, in the dream, clutches Kotori's head to his cheek. That's pretty gross. At any rate, Kamui is not happy, and leaves the building to head back to the shrine where the Monou family was until so recently.

Karen, Aoki, and Yuzuriha head to the Tokyo station, where one of the shields is. Leaving Yuzuriha (who's only fourteen) behind, Karen and Aoki enter the station. Karen creates a shield and they engage the Dragons of Earth Shouga and Nataku again. Karen uses her fire against Shouga's water, and the two of them die as Shouga crashes a train into Karen, who sets everything on fire. The shield dissolves and Aoki and Nataku head to the next place to fight. Aoki has been stabbed through the side and is determined, for the sake of his wife and daughter, to stop the Dragons of Earth, so he throws himself off a tall building with Nataku in his grip, thus killing them both.

Then Kamui and Yuzuriha head out into the city, as do Arashi and Sorata. Arashi and Sorata encounter Fuuma-gone-evil-Kamui. Well, not really evil. As Kamui's twin star he has forgotten Fuuma, and has all the power and only a desire to kill and destroy. This is when Arashi pulls the sword out of her hand and takes out the giant cable mass Satsuki was controlling. Then Sorata gets wounded, and he and Arashi go back to Hinoto. Yuzuriha and Kamui run into Shiyuu Kusanagi, a Dragon of Heaven, and of course everyone begins fighting some more. Kusanagi is accompanied by Yuuto. As they fight, Kamui is distracted by a dream-calling from Fuuma fighting Arashi and Sorata. Yuuto tries to strike him down, but Yuzuriha throws herself in front of Kamui and is killed instead.

Then Fuuma shows up, kills Kusanagi and is about to kill Kamui when Hinoto teleports him back. After this, Fuuma goes to Kanoe and demands to be let into the dream where his sister is. Once inside, he intends to take the sword out of Kotori that is made for love of Kamui, as was Kamui's (in his mother, you recall). The dream blurs as Kotori runs away from her brother towards Kamui. Just as she reaches the edge of the dream and materializes in the basement where HInoto and the Dragons of Heaven are, Fuuma catches her, and right in fornt of Kamui, pulls the sword from her stomach, killing her...then he disappears.

Arashi and Sorata head to fight Fuuma, even thought it's fairly obvious at this point that it's futile, since everyone else has died and all. Sorata knows he's going to die, and takes a blow meant for Arashi. When she asks him why, he says that she's his type and he wanted to die protecting a beautiful woman. As Arashi cries, Fuuma stabs her in the back. Surprise, surprise. Fuuma also kills his own allies--he stabs Yuuto, and the Beast, when Satsuki commands it to help, ends up stabbing her instead, with possessive words scrolling across its screen. A little freaky, like if 2001's Hal had a girlfriend.

Fuuma also kills Kanoe with his sword. It is revealed that Kanoe's motive for gathering the Dragons of Earth was to release her sister Hinoto from service to the government. Hinoto's precognitive abilities made her valuable, and Kanoe just wanted her to be free. So Hinoto, cradling her dying sister in her arms, sends Kamui to fight Fuuma just as the building collapses on top of them all.

The actual fight between Fuuma and Kamui is relatively short and anti-climactic. There's some exchnage about the inevitability of destiny as Fuuma believes and the ability of man to change his future as Kamui believes. Of course, Kamui kills Fuuma--by cutting off his head very efficiently. Afterwards he cradles Fuuma's head to his cheek, crying, and asks why it must be so...

I got to the end of the series and went kind of, "Okay, that was interesting, what was the point?" The conflict between the destruction and the preserving of mankind is really not well played. It's the nominal conflict in the movie but is poorly used as a plot device. Even Kanoe's ulterior motive is barely touched on. In fact, although we know she is Hinoto's younger sister, and that she really doesn't care one way or the other about the Earth particularly, she is kind of a standard, voluptuous evil woman. Her wanting to free Hinoto is a confession as she dies.

That's the major problem I had with the series--the characters are barely sketched, in most cases, before they die. You learn that Aoki has a wife and a daughter and that Karen works in bars and clubs, and then they die. You learn that Sorata likes Arashi and then they die. Yuzuhira dies moments after you learn she is so young she'd never been in love. Kotori is basically used to generate the sword and lure Kamui. Fairly typical in anime, but even for a helpless piece of bait she has no personality. Fuuma has promise, but he just kind of goes bonkers and starts killing people.

Now, I haven't seen Tokyo Babylon (a kind of prequel--as far as I know, it focuses more on Sumeragi Subaru and Sakurazuka Seichiirou) or read the manga for it, but I certainly hope they make more sense. I mean, I have nothing against weird anime...in fact, I like most of it...but X just really made no sense. Maybe I just have an aversion to people cradling disembodied heads.

Ratings:

Animation: 9/10

Story: 7/10

Characters: 3/10

Overall: 6/10

Old Reviews:

Majutsushi Orphen

Bastard!!

Master of Mosquiton

Jikuu Tenshou Nazca

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