Monthly Archives: July 2008

Special A – Episode 15

It’s Special A Episode 15, and it’s time for Kei and Hikari’s date. Unfortunately, Kei doesn’t get his day alone with Hikari like he wanted.

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Anime DVD and Manga Releases for July 22 – August 4

Sorry for skipping last week.

Anime DVDs

July 22, 2008
Bleach – Volume 11
Case Closed – Season 1 Box Set
Divergence Eve/Misaki Chronicles – Box Set
Haruka – Volume 4 (sub)
Transformers: Cybertron – Box Set
Tweeny Witches – Volume 3 

July 29, 2008
BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad – Box Set
Inu-Yasha – Season 5 Box Set
Maria Watches Over Us – Season 1 Collection (sub)
Naruto – Volume 26 (dub)
Naruto – Legend of the Stone of Gelel
Pokemon Battle Frontier – Box Set 1 (dub)
Ranma 1/2 – Season 7 Box Set
Samurai Gun – Box Set
Shuffle! – Volume 5
xxxHOLiC – Volume 4
YuGiOh – Season 3 box Set (dub)

Manga

July 22, 2008
Ghost Talker’s Daydream – Volume 1
Knights – Volume 1
Shiki Tsukai – Volume 3
Wallflower, The – Volume 16

July 23, 2008
Berserk – Volume 24
Gon – Volume 5

July 25, 2008
Dark Edge – Volume 8

July 29, 2008
Air Gear – Volume 9
Kujibiki Unbalance – Volume 1
Me and the Devil Blues – Volume 1
Parasyte – Volume 4
Puri Puri – Volume 6

July 30, 2008
Tenjho Tenge – Volume 17

July 31, 2008
A.I. Revolution – Volume 4
Alice on Deadlines – Volume 3
A Wise Man Sleeps – Volume 2
Bogle – Volume 1
Honoka Level Up! – Volume 1
Kurogane Communication – Volume 1
Nephilim – Volume 2
Spiral: Bonds of Reasoning – Volume 4
Suzunari! – Volume 1
Tetragrammaton Labyrinth – Volume 3
Ultimate Venus – Volume 1
Yggdrasil – Volume 1

Anime Review – Minami-ke: 85.8%

The Essentials

Name: Miname-ke
Genre: Comedy
Episodes: 26 (13 episodes in both seasons 1 and 2)
Released: October 7, 2007 – March 30, 2008
Based On: Miname-ke manga by Coharu Sakuraba
Director: Masahiko Ohta (season 1), Naoto Hosoda (season 2)
Produced By: Starchild (both seasons), Doumu (season 1), asread (season 2)
US Distribution By: N/A

Major Japanese Cast

Haruka Minami: Rina Satou
Chiaki Minami: Minori Chihara
Kana Minami: Marina Inoue
Makoto: Rika Morinaga
Toma Minami: Nana Mizuki
Fujioka: Tetsuya Kakihara
Yoshino: Aki Toyosaki
Yuka Uchida: Eri Kitamura
Keiko: Saori Goto
Maki: Reiko Takagi
Atsuko: Ryoko Ono
Hosaka: Daisuke Ono
Hayami: Saeko Chiba

Major English Cast

N/A

Scores

Animation: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Story: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Music: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Coherence/Story Arc: 7/10 (x 2 = 14 pts)
English Dubs: N/A
Gut Score: 9/10 (x 5 = 45 pts)

Total: 163/190 (85.8%)

Review

Minami-ke is show about the lives of the three Minami sisters: Haruka, who attends high school and is the caretaker of the other two sisters; Kana, who attends middle school and who is rather clueless, lazy, and impulsive; and Chiaki who attends elementary school and who is intelligent and precocious, but rather rude as well.

There’s not much else I can say to describe the series since it basically is about the random things that the three girls and their friends do in life. However, one thing this series does to exceptionally well, especially in the first season, is be absolutely hilarious. The fact that the three girl’s personalities don’t mesh at all – especially Kana’s and Chikai’s – just adds to how great this series is. Add into the fix each of the girls’ friends and their own quirks, and you have a show with a rather consistent supply of hilarity.

The one thing I should note is that the first season, which consists of the first 13 episodes, is a bit funnier than the 2nd season, and that is really the only thing keeping the score down for this series, as the story and gut scores are largely an average between the first and second seasons (with the first season getting an easy 10 while the second season kind of splits between a 7/8). Even so, the second season is still a respectable watch, but may pale somewhat in comparison to the first season.

The animation and music for both seasons are pretty good, even though both seasons were handled by different production companies.

If you’re looking for a series with a lot of random laughs, and don’t care much about a central story line, then definitely check out Minami-ke.

First Watched: October 2007 – April 2008
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: Yes

Anime Review – Baccano!: 85.3%

The Essentials

Name: Baccano
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Episodes: 13 + 3 OVAs
Released: July 26, 2007 – November 1, 2007
Based On: Baccano light novels by Ryohgo Narita
Director: Takahiro Omori
Produced By: Brains Base, MediaWorks
US Distribution By: Funimation

Major Japanese Cast

Isaac Dian: Masaya Onosaka
Miria Harvent: Sayaka Aoki
Firo Prochainezo: Hiroyuki Yoshino
Szilard Quates: Kinryuu Arimoto
Ennis: Sanae Kobayashi
Maiza Avaro: Mitsuru Miyamoto
Ladd Russo: Keiji Fujiwara
Lua Klein: Eri Yasui
Jacuzzi Splot: Daisuke Sakaguchi
Nice Holystone: Yu Kobayashi
Claire Stanfield: Masakazu Morita
Dallas Genoard: Atsushi Imaruoka
Eve Genoard: Marina Inoue
Chane Laforet: Ryou Hirohashi
Czeslaw Meyer: Akemi Kanda
Carol: Chiwa Saito

Major English Cast

N/A

Scores

Animation: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Story: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Music: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Coherence/Story Arc: 9/10 (x 2 = 18 pts)
English Dubs: N/A
Gut Score: 8/10 (x 5 = 40 pts)

Total: 162/190 (85.3%)

Review

Baccano, at it’s simplest, boiled down form, is about the exploits and adventures of a set of alchemists in 1930s America who were able to summon a demon in the 18th century so that they could become immortal.

The story is largely told between two story lines taking place at two different times. The most visible storyline is about how, in late 1930, three different groups – the Russo group, the Lumeres, and Jacuzzi’s gang – all have different plans for the trans-continental train the Flying Pussyfoot in it’s run from Chicago to New York.

The Russo group, led by Ladd Russo, decides to kill many of the passengers on the train while holding the rest ransom in order to get a large ransom payment from the railroad company. The Lumeres decide to take the train passengers ransom so that they can demand the release of their group’s leader, Huey Laforet, from jail. Meanwhile, Jazuzzi and his gang plan on trying to rob some important cargo off of the train. The melee that ensues results in a lot of blood and a lot of fighting between the three groups, as well as the arrival of the Rail Tracer – a mythical monster which causes trains and the people on them to disappear.

The other story being told at the same time occurs earlier in 1930, and deals with the quest of one of the original immortals, Szilard Quates, to discover the formula for the elixir which allows immortality. However, while his researcher, Barnes, discovers the secret, his lab is destroyed in a fire, and he is able to salvage two bottles of the elixir. However, the elixir is soon stolen by a gang and starts rapidly changing hands.

Baccano certainly has an interesting and well written story, and it’s rare to see a story which has a good balance of action and story elements to it. However, my main problem with this story is how much it jumps around between the two stories, and to and from even other smaller sub-stories. While it is an interesting story-telling device, I think all the switching sometimes makes it unclear what is happening when and where and what is happening first and last and in between.

Despite this, I think it is still a pretty good watch, though I should note that it has a considerable amount of violence, and especially blood.

The animation quality is pretty good for this show, as is the music as they appear to do a pretty good representation of 1930s America, at least for one who doesn’t know any better like myself.

Overall, while how the story is told may be confusing, it’s still a good enough show to take a look at, if you don’t mind some blood.

First Watched: August 2007 – July 2008
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: Yes, if you don’t mind blood and violence

Evangelion on ABC! OK, not really, but still marginally cool

I’m surprised I didn’t spot this earlier, but there is a brief shot of an Evangelion poster in the 2nd episode of I Survived A Japanese Game Show:

And if you’re blind as a bat and can’t see it:

As I said, I’m surprised I didn’t spot it before since I’ve been trying to keep an eye out for anything like that.  I wouldn’t be shocked if I missed something else too.

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