Category: Anime

Saber Marionette J to X Episode 1 – Phase 01: Civilization All Over the Place

Wow! It’s been so long since I’ve seen the original series: Saber Marionette J. This goes all the way back to 7th or 8th grade when I first got into anime. I remember watching Rurouni Kenshin and SMJ simultaneously and SMJ has always ranked within the top 5 animes I’ve ever watched. Now I remember why. I even got my sister to like this anime so much, her online alias derived from one of the main female characters Lime. Ah…. Lime, Cherry, Bloodberry. These names bring up so many good memories of the series. I can still clearly remember the 1st episode (or maybe it was the 2nd) where Lime was awaken inside the capsule and how just by touching her, Otaru started to make her heart (maiden chip) start to beat. Lime was the coolest one outta all the 3 in my opinion. She was impulsive and just fun. I can still remember when Hanagata (the guy apparently in love with Otaru) was cruising around in his new car and Lime just kicked it and his new car got crushed. I still remember having tears flow out at the end of the story because it was so sad…

Saber Marionette J to X actually came out a long time ago. 1998 to be exact. I had always wanted to watch it, but I never did get the entire series, so it was put off. I just watched the 1st episode of J to X and it’s awesome!

Spoliers:

So the story continues after the J and J OVA. The 1st human female has been saved and they are finding ways to start the mass cloning. Let me give you some background history. DO NOT READ THIS IS YOU WANT TO WATCH THE 1ST SERIES. Like Trigun, Earth no longer became sustainable, so several scientists set off on a journey to find a new planet to live on. However, for some reason, they only brought one female. During the journey, the computer on the space ship fell in love with the female scientist and shot out all the male scientists onto this new planet which seems hospitable. However, it would not let the female go. With only a couple men, how were they going to reproduce? They ended up cloning over and over again and later learnt how to alter DNA to get different looking humans. However, how many what they did, they were only able to create males. So they created marionettes (basically female looking robots) to do all the chores and house work. Skipping the major storyline, at the end, they managed to save the female from the spaceship. So back to this episode, Otaru is in charge of some festival. He has 3 marionettes that can express emotions because of the maiden chip. As you may have guessed, the 3 marionettes are named Lime, Cherry, and Bloodberry. In this episode, you learnt that Otaru is against adding foreign elements into their festival, but the others convinced him because due to changing times, we have to have new and improved stuff. Everything went well until Lime saw a notice that they were stopping the production of marionettes starting next month, because real human females were coming and they didn’t feel that marionettes were going to be needed much anymore. Personally, I thought it was a bit chauvinistic because they were expecting the females to continue to do all the robot chores, but what the heck, it’s an anime. Anyway, with all the changing talk floating around and now a notice that says marionettes are no longer needed, Lime felt really insecure about her place in Otaru’s heart. Is Otaru going to forget her? The story continues onward…

I was recommended this Black Cat series by maxxius. It’s turning out pretty good. All characters seem to have 2 faces, a serious one and a cute one. To put it in simpler terms, there’s these assassins and there’s these sweepers (bounty hunters) and when their paths cross, some interesting things happens.

Black Cat Episode 1 – Lonely Cat

Black Cat Episode 2 – Confused Cat

Black Cat Episode 3 – Cat In The Dark

Spoilers:

Only 4 episodes are out so far, and I’ve only watched 3. It starts off with a boy named Train. He has a scar on his neck that shows XIII (13). Rumor is he’s the best assassin Chronos has and has never failed a single mission. There seems to be another man that follows Train around and finishes up the dirty work that Train won’t do, such as finishing people off. Then we meet Sven, an ex-secret agent of some sort. He’s a “gentleman” and can’t stand seeing people getting bullied, especially women. A gangster runs for governor and wins. Sven wants to arrest him, but Train kills him before he can make a move. In the next episode, they introduce a new girl that’s also a sweeper like Sven. Train believes that guns were only meant for killing, this girl thinks otherwise. We don’t know much about this girl yet, but we know that she loves milk, leading me to think she’s the white cat that we see every so often around Train. Then we learn of Eve, a little girl with nanotechnology in her body that allows her to transform. Into what, I’m not too sure yet, but Eve’s boss wants to sell her as a biological weapon. Eve is still a little girl and doesn’t know much. Rin, a theif, meets up with Sven under a false name of Elena and asks Sven to help her rescue her sister, Eve. But Rin’s identity gets blown when Sven sees Train about to kill Eve. Train hesistates since she’s still such a small girl and the assassin attempt fails when the boss comes in. However, everyone escapes successfully. To test Eve, the boss instructs her to play tag, leading her to leave the building’s premises. Sven meets her at the park and was shocked. However, he learns that Eve is really innocent and she’s still learning. She hasn’t ever had the chance to even taste ice cream and falls in love with ice cream immediately. However, the boss’s men come and pick her up. Train gets questioned on what’s causing the delay for the assassin. Guess we’ll have to wait for the next episode to know what’s going will happen.

Bleach Episode 55

Yet another amazing episode of Bleach. Too much happened in this episode. Many war fronts started which means what will usually happen is the next dozen episodes will be jumping back and forth between these fights and it’ll take an age before this whole thing wraps up.

Spoilers:

So while Renji is running away with Rukia explaining to her why everyone is trying to help and that she needs to learn how to rely on others when she needs help, the fight between Ichigo and Byakuya has started to heat up. Ichigo seems to have also learnt flash step. Sui Fong, the 2nd captain, starts taking out the rebel lieutenants. The 13th captain (Rukia’ captain) wants to protect his subordinates, but the 1st captain (the old man) stops him in his tracks. The 8th captain (Nanao’s captain) instead takes the 13th captain and runs away. The 1st captain chases after them. So the 2nd captain continues trying to crush the lieutenants when suddenly Yoruichi (the cat woman) comes and drags the 2nd captain with her over the cliff. They seem to know each other. How? That’ll probably be explained later. The 4th captain (medicine lady) takes all the wounded back to the base hospital and treats them. We meat her bankai which seems to be this floating alien ray like creature which can heal people in it’s mouth/stomach. Then we jump back to the 1st, 8th, and 13th captain battle. The 1st captain apparently hid his fire soul slayer in his cane. The 8th and 13th captains were both his favorite students back in the academy, but he feels that they have both betrayed him beyond the point of return.

Can’t wait for episode 56!!!

Bleach Episode 54

What a great episode of Bleach! Makes me want to download 55 from a group I don’t support just to watch it. The story is only getting better and many times I’ve wanted to jump over to the manga, but I’ve been able to have good self control. Haha. Last we heard, Ichigo was still trying to master his Bankai…

Spoilers:

Right off the bat in this episode, Rukia is just about to be executed. When Soukyoku, the execution sword, was released, it became a flaming phoenix. What’s even great about this episode was there wasn’t much wasted time on reflection and flashback. There was a bit, but not much. Suddenly someone comes in and blocks the sword from cutting through Rukia. Who was this? I know who it is, but you’ll have to watch it to figure out. Rukia’s captain seems to have unsealed something which I’m not too sure and it was powerful enough to take down Soukyoku, or at least disintegrate it for the mean time. Ichigo comes out, which I’m guessing he has already mastered his Bankai. Though how, it hasn’t been explained yet. You also find out another character is good and well and Ichigo sends Rukia off with him while he holds back the enemy.

So I was reading /. today an came across an interesting reply:

See, the alchemists have SEARCHED for the Philosopher’s stone for centuries.

FINDING, on the other hand… is a very different business!

For those that watch Full Metal Alchemist, you’ll recall that the Philosopher’s Stone was those red shards of stones that the homunculus had to eat to continue living. They also gave alchemists a great deal of power when used in conjucntion to their alchemy. The quote above did not seem to bee referencing FMA at all. So I did a search on alchemist and philsopher’s stone and it turns out the philosopher’s stone is considered the holy grail of western alchemy. There’s also a wikipedia article on it. It’s quite shocking to realize that they actually did their homework and made references to real things. Real in the sense that these things were “believed” to have existed and would’ve helped alchemists achieve their goal.

Speaking of /., there was this awesome quote:

The first game I had for Nintendo was two murderous games in one:

One where you leave a trail of death behind as you fight to rescue the human oppressor that subjugates the indiginous fungo-sapien population.

And the other where you blow the crap out of ducks and, after missing a few times, attempt to blast the smartass dog.

I don’t even want to think about the mass genocide in Metroid…

Gun X Sword Episode 9 – Carmen Returns to her Hometown

This episode was a bit disappointing. In fact, this series has slowly turned out to be more and more disappointing. I guess if you’re into mechs, it’s cool. But their logic and reasoning for getting revenge is pretty stupid, especially with the main character you’re suppose to associate with. This episode, the mechs didn’t even appear, unless you count the opening sequence.

Spoilers:

In the previous episode, you remember Van and the other guy battled the dragon mech and found a encoded computer chip. Van took that computer chip hoping a scientist in a particular city could help them crack it. The 1st thing wrong with this episode is that the fact Van decided to ask for a ride. This a first time when he wasn’t really in a hurry. In fact at the end, he didn’t have a ride anymore and was fine. He actually catches a ride with Carmen, Agent 99 and you find out the city they want to go to is actually her hometown. Back there Carmen meets her best friend Haeta which she hasn’t seen in 6 years. The scientist is actually the Haeta’s father. The scientist decides to help them. Haeta is specialized in breeding flowers, but somewhere down the road, you learn the flowers have a secret behind them…

Detective Academy Q Episode 27 – Disappeared Dragon

Detective Academy Q is also called Tantei Gakuen Q. I usually wait for Soldats fansubs for this series for 2 reasons. 1. Soldats maintains high quality releases. 2. They’re probably the only group still fansubbing this series. But it’s been a very long time since they released an episode. Plus where’s my MONSTER!!! Shinsen suddenly and randomly fansubbed episode 27, probably hoping to continue the series where Soldats has left off. We learnt of the Pluto’s Shadow a few episodes earlier. In this episode they introduce a new character and a mystery that has our main characters trapped.

Spoilers:

In this episode, they introduce a new character: Hongou Tatsumi, a new DDS teacher. DDS, for those that don’t know, stands for Dan’s Detective School, a highly renowned detective school where any student who waves his or her badge will immediately gain police help and support. During this episode, Kyu and Meg got assigned to do some cleaning and they find this mysterious door hidden behind shelf. There was a riddle to be solved before they could open the door and inside they found an mysterious room. What happens afterwards is something you’ll have to watch to find out…

Blood+ Episode 3 – The Place It All Began

This episode was mostly the history/background and begins the explanation of who Saya really is. Not much gore in this one until near the end, but still not that wasn’t much compared to what was shown in episode 1 and 2. You do get to meet mouse #2, but as I predicted in the previous episode, you’ve already met mouse #2.

Spoilers:

You learn that Saya was found during the Vietnam war. I’m still fuzzy between what happens between the Vietnam war and when Saya finally gets adopted. Apparently she was either sleeping or had amnesia since they were waiting for her to be ‘awaken’. They were planning to let Saya naturally remember the past on her own, but with the introduction of American soldiers occupying Japanese ground without permission, they need to use their trump card: Saya. You also find out that Saya’s foster father lost both his wife and daughter before adopting Saya and that both Kai and Rick are adoptees. Saya’s foster father was given till sunset one day to explain and say his goodbyes and would need to return Saya back to the Japanese government. However, the situation changes when Forest, a friend of his shows up and well… something happens.

So I get a call this afternoon from my apartment complex. I was in the middle of work, so I didn’t pick up the call, but the manager left me a message saying I had several packages here, 2 which have been here for quite some time and that I needed to pick it up or else they’ll be shipping it back. What’s funny was I’ve been to the office multiple times already to pick up packages (usually UPS or FedEx leaves me a note), and they’ve never mentioned that I had extra packages. I called back and ask if it would be okay for me to drop by around 3-4 to pick up theses mysterious packages. I really had no idea what they were.

Turns out that I’ve forgotten all about these orders.
1. PQI 512MB SD Card (got this for my uncle who only has a 16MB card for his canon SD300. i think it was like $20 shipped or something @ outpost.com)
2. Philips MMS430 2.1 Speakers (I don’t even remember ordering these. haha!)
3. ADV Films Anime DVDs

I had actually believed my ADV Films order was returned because FedEx told me the package was damaged and they returned it to the sender and I was to contact ADV Films to resolve this. What ended up happening was my emails never got returned and I ended up disputing the charges and either they refunded the money or the dispute went through. I never heard from them again, so I assumed they didn’t bother reshipping the DVDs to me.

So I was surprised to actually see this package today. However, now with the tracking # and reference #, which ADV Films never bother telling me, I see that one of the package was delivered on 10/5/2005 and the other was returned to sender on 10/6/2005. The 2nd package I believe were wall scrolls, which I couldn’t find in this box. Do note, this was ordered way back on Labor Day weekend and with no response from ADV Films, I had no choice but to dispute the charges. Anyway, let’s see what’ll happen.

Anyway, now with the goodies:

Noir DVD 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 + Box + T-Shirt – Noir is a very dark anime about an underground society which runs the world called Soldats. An analogous group would be the Free Masonry with all this Da Vinci Code hype recently. Among this group, they have 2 elite assassins called Noir. Both have somewhat of a hazy memory of their past, but they excel at what they do: killing. Story line was great, but what made this series even better was the soundtrack. It had one amazing soundtrack which I just can’t describe in words about how great it is. If you want to check out one of my favorite songs from Noir, check out Canta Per Me. If you like it, you might want to check out the rest of the 1st soundtrack of Noir.

Full Metal Panic DVD 1, 6 + Box – Full Metal Panic is a really short but fast pace and fun anime. It mixes up robots with high school girls, a plus for most anime geeks. It’s about a boy, who knows nothing besides fighting and war because he was a soldier since a very young age. Now he tries to adapt to a regular society to protect someone as a mission and as you can imagine, he’s having a hell of a problem trying to cope with regular life. If you enjoy Full Metal Panic, you MUST check out Full Metal Panic Fumoffu (a bunch of short stories which are hilarious) and Full Metal Panic – The Second Raid (the 2nd season of FMP).

Neon Genesis Evangelion DVD 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, Resurrection, Genesis Reborn – NGE has always been one of those controversial animes. It had a great beginning. Aliens were attacking earth and the only way to stop them were these robots. However, these robots requires special pilots that could somehow link/connect with it spiritually. However, as the series went out, it got really weird and the ending was just disastrous with you staring at the screen asking yourself… what happend?

Azumanga Diaoh DVD 1,3 + Box – I’ve just started watching Azumanga Diaoh, though I’ve been recommended to watch it a billion times. Some of my friends are shocked I haven’t watched it yet. I’m shocked myself after watching the 1st few episodes on how I was able to let this slip by for so long. Azumanga Diaoh is about a bunch of high school girls and their daily lifes. However, it’s so funny and so cute at the same time. There’s this girl that’s obsessed with kittens (not sure why) and stuff animals (all her stuff animals are SOOOOO cute). I’d admit the kittens drawn on this anime are super cute. Then there’s another girl who’s like a super genius, entering high school at the age of something like 10. She has these bouncy pony tails and some are trying to figure out why they keep bouncing. Then there’s another girl who transferred from Osaka. Not exactly sure why she transferred but she’s a dud. She tries to concentrate but the only thing she can do is concentrate on trying to concentrate. It’s a hilarious series and I’m trying to watch it along with the new stuff that’s coming out. Sorta like Detective Conan, it’s all going to be watched some day.

Rurouni Kenshin DVD Trust, Betrayal, Reflection – If you know me, I’m a big Kenshin nut. That’s where my (^_^x) smiely comes from. I actually own the Trust and Betrayal DVD already, but the Reflection DVD by itself was like $7 and for $8 more, I could get 2 more DVDs + the box, so I thought it was a better deal. For those that own the Kenshin OVAs, did you know if you don’t like the Samurai X DVD covers, you can take them out and invert them and it’ll become the Japanese cover showing Rurouni Kenshin (るろうに剣心). Kenshin is still my favorite anime of all time. I still remember waiting in IRC channels waiting for the next episode to be released. This was so far back, they only had VHS rips and the quality was pretty bad and was encoded in .rm format. Each file was about 50megs and I had to d/l them on 36.6kbps and later on 56k. It was like crack. I was totally addicted to it. It’s pretty hard to find an anime series that has that effect on me nowadays. Not even Naruto.

So they were giving away free gifts during the labor day sale and apparently I got a Gawl DVD and Noir lunch box. Pretty neat, but I’ve never heard of Gawl. The Noir lunch box is pretty nice though.

What Grinds My Gears: DVD Pakaging. I’ve always liked opening new packages, but when opening a new package becomes work, that’s past the line. I like the fresh new smell of DVD, but besides the outside plastic layer, they have an additional 3 tapes on each side of the case which I have to rip off before I can get to the DVD itself. And these tapes aren’t just some wimpy tape, these are some strong security tape. Takes me like 3 minutes before I can actually rip them all off. Plus they don’t always rip off nicely. Sometimes they leave the sticky gooey stuff on the cover. grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I’ve been wanting to see Hayao Miyazaki’s newest animation film: Howl’s Moving Castle (ハウルの動く城). You can watch the trailer here. After rewatching the trailer, I just warn you, it does somewhat reveal the ending… There’s also some interesting media you can download from Online Ghibli.

This animation was amazing. It was very light weight and not too dark like his other pieces of work (i.e. Spirited Away). There is a an underlying moral statement, but I’d let you figure it out yourself.

Spoilers:

It was a world full of wizards and witches. A young lady somehow gets involved between the dispute of Howl and Witch of the Waste, and the Witch of the Waste puts a curse on her. The curse turns her into an old lady and forbids her to reveal the curse to anyone. So she enters the land of wizards and witches in seek for someone to help her remove the curse. On her journey, she meets a magical scarecrow which leads her to Howl’s moving castle. There she meets Calcifer, a talking flame. He’s so cute!!! She also meets Mark, a young apprentice of Howl’s and he’s so cute too!!! Everything in this movies is so cute!!! Meanwhile, the country is calling in all wizards and witches to aid them in the war, and Howl was also requested. The story moves on from there. I won’t reveal anything more, besides the fact you get to meet a cute puppy named Heen.

I do have to say, the old lady quite resembles the old lady from Spirited Away.