Although this reviewer came into the anime TV series a little late (and subsequently had to backtrack through previous episodes to catch up), Fullmetal Alchemist was a hoot. With a compelling and fascinating story as well as a fully-realized universe that intelligently incorporated alchemy into the reality the characters inhabit, FMA was the highlight of Saturday Night's Adult Swim lineup on Cartoon Network, and easily ranks as one of the best anime series of all time. Every episode left me hanging by the edge of my seat, and the plot's twists and turns kept me guessing as to what would happen next. Read More...
The bad news is Armageddon has come and gone. Europe was spared the brunt of the atomic blow. Biological weapons mainly hit it. We now have genetic mutations all over the place. The good news is that the church is finally doing something about the growing vampire problem. Using the latest in science and technology, they've come up with an elite team of vampire hunters. Behold! The Inquisition! Amongst their weaponry are such diverse elements as androids, mutant and vampire human hybrids. Read More...
Vampires. I just love them. Whether you are old school and go with Dracula or new school with your flamboyant Lestat, cool Blade, or hot Selene, vampires are just intriguing and sexy. Immortality for the price of killing your own kind is sinfully tantalizing. It's like eating a slice (OK, maybe a pie) of double chocolate mousse cake with a glass of regular milk (none of that fat-free, 2%, or skim please) when you know you need to lose those love tires, I mean handles.
Vampires are what attracted me to Tsukihime but what made me stay with it was the real main character of this story, Shiki Tohna. A high school student with a past he can't remember but still keeps haunting him. Thought of as a frail and sickly child, everyone looks out for him, not knowing that they are protecting a killer. He is such an efficient killer that even a vampire needs him to protect her and help her kill her enemies. Read More...
Requiem is a moving comic book, not one of those nice sugary X-Men or Superman kind either. We are talking about the underground ones that are very dark, gruesome, and bloody. Requiem is an anime that you do not want to watch in the dark by yourself. Between the visuals, the stories, and your own fears, it is your nightmares coming to life.
It feels like you're stuck in one of those dreams where you are running from something, you don't know what, and you're running around in circles even though you aren't. Every city, every forest, and every normal everyday citizen has this one look. If it's not eerie enough, the normal everyday citizens even sound the same. The forest looks like any forest and you hear normal forest sounds like the wind rustling the leaves, but when you look, nothing is moving. The city looks like it's bustling with life and bright with colors; when you get into it, everyone is trudging lifelessly about in dreary drab streets looking suspiciously at newcomers. There is this particularly spooky shot that summarizes everything: it was an owl sitting on a tree branch. It doesn't seem like anyone spent much time on that tree branch; it almost looks like someone took a brush and just haphazardly drew a line that resembles a tree branch but the owl... It was drawn in such life-like detail and animated with that lazy eye that most owls' have; when you zoom in, you truly believe you are in a dream and that owl is going to fly out of the screen at you. Read More...
Nintendo Wii
Game System Review by Brian Cirulnick
While Microsoft and Sony are busy trying to kill one another, Nintendo has quietly created a revolution in next-gen gaming with the Wii (pronounced "We") -- this really is the ultimate piece of gaming hardware and is guaranteed to please even the most die-hard videogamer.
For starters, it is completely backwards compatible to all previous Nintendo game systems, even the original NES of the 1980's -- this means being able to play Mario Paint (my personal fav) from the Super NES, or Super Mario 64, universally hailed as one of the greatest videogames ever made. The built-in CD drive is compatible with GameCube discs and, as if that weren't enough, the Virtual Console will also make available a few titles from SNES console contemporaries, Sega Genesis and TurboGrafx 16 (which had some great anime games). Read More...
You know, just doing a search for "anime" on Amazon now yields the first result as Hentai, so, it's high time we recognized that sex sells. And in Japan (as in the rest of the world) sex is *for sale* as well. But Japan, with it's outward victorian-ish prim and proper hides a seedy underbelly of really strange perverseness and this book introduces the steamier side of Japan's Fetish Clubs that cater to the bizarre (and sometimes hilarious) sexual tastes of the otherwise stoic Japanese. Read More...
Tarou Hanaukyo is a school student who finds that his life has changed more than he expected after his mother passes away. Following her final wish, he journeys to Tokyo to live with his grandfather, but he gets the biggest surprise when he discovers that his grandfather's home is a huge mansion filled with hundreds of beautiful maids ready to "serve" him.The all-female staff of the mansion is dedicated to the care, well-being, and happiness of the remaining Hanaukyo family. They're also armed to the teeth, ready to battle other affluent families like the Jihoh clan. Read More...
Lots of people wonder what ever happened to Cibo Matto, the NYC band with the Italian name and core duo of two Japanese women who even wound up appearing in an episode of "Buffy". It turns out Cibo Matto parted ways at the end of 2001 and since then lead singer Miho Hattori released and toured with Smokey Hormel as the retro- Brazillian flavored duo of Smokey and Miho. Also a certain animated member of the Gorillaz happens to sound suspiciously similar when singing. Read More...
Below: The music video for Barracuda by Miho Hatori
Lots of people wonder what ever happened to Cibo Matto, the NYC band with the Italian name and core duo of two Japanese women who even wound up appearing in an episode of "Buffy". It turns out Cibo Matto parted ways at the end of 2001 and since then lead singer Miho Hattori released and toured with Smokey Hormel as the retro- Brazillian flavored duo of Smokey and Miho. Also a certain animated member of the Gorillaz happens to sound suspiciously similar when singing.
