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Akira
This is a really cool flick about these biker punks in Neo-Tokyo. Basically one of the biker guys, Tetsuo, gets picked up by the government and is infused with the power of Akira. Tetsuo develops all kids of psychic abilities, breaks free from the hospital and starts destroying the city. The animation is great (as usually is in full length films) and the action is intense. The only thing I don't like is the confusing story. I think I have a little better idea of what everything is supposed to mean after watching the movie a few times. If you're just looking for lots of action and explosions and stuff this is a great movie but you might end up confused in the end. Actually I watched this movie the other day again and it's not real hard to understand.
Content: This movie has lots of violence and swearing as well as a little nudity. I would give this movie an "R" rating.
| Animation | 5 |
| Story | 3 |
| Action | 5 |
| Mecha Stuff | 3 |
| Cute Stuff | 1 |
| Overall | 4.5 |
Armitage the Third
This movie falls into about the same area as Akira (and Ghost in the Shell). Not that the stories are all identical or anything but all three are heavy on violence and action and all three are hard to understand the first time through (This movie isn't too bad but I always thing of these three together). Armitage it a robot cop chick on Mars. She and her partner Ross are investigating the deaths of the Thirds, a series of robots, and Armitage learns about her past and where she came from. The animation is pretty good. Elizabeth Berkley (Saved by the Bell, Showgirls) is the voice of Armitage and Keifer Sutherland (I've heard of him but I don't know from what) is the voice of Ross. If you like Akira or Ghost in the Shell you'll probably like this movie.
Content: Some violence, swearing, blood & guts, nudity, your basic "R" movie.
| Animation | 4 |
| Story | 3 |
| Action | 3 |
| Mecha Stuff | 3 |
| Cute Stuff | 1 |
| Overall | 3 |
Dominion Tank Police and New Dominion Tank Police
This series is a close second to Gunsmith Cats in my liking order. The whole series consists of Dominion, four episodes on two tapes (I only have tape one but I rented tape two once), and New Dominion which is six episodes on three tapes. The whole series follows the exploits of the Newport City Tank Police as they use excessive force, extreme violence, and unorthodox tactics to track down, capture, and interrogate criminals. Dominion starts out when new recruit (and main character) Leona Ozaki joins the force. At the same time Buwaku and the puma (maybe puna) sisters Ana and Uni are robbing a hospital of urine samples. During their getaway the crash into Lieutenant Brittan's Tiger special tank while he's out on a training patrol with Leona and Al. Leona takes off after Buwaku and in the end wrecks the Lieutenant's tank. He threatens to transfer her to child welfare because of this. Leona then build's her own mini tank named Bonapart from the wreckage of Brittan's tank. Does Leona get transferred? Do the Tank Police manage to thwart Buwaku? Watch and find out! New Dominion follows the Tank Police as the fight a new villain armed with super fast spider-like tanks. Both are highly recommended if you like comedy action and police action.
(Note the first rating is for Dominion, the second for New Dominion)
| Animation | 3 4 |
| Story | 3 3 |
| Action | 3 4 |
| Mecha Stuff | 4 4 |
| Cute Stuff | 2 2 |
| Overall | 4 4.5 |
Dragon Knight
I purchased this movie because I recognized the title from one of my favorite computer games Knights of Xentar (which is Dragon Knight 3 or 4). The game is a role playing fantasy game that was hilarious with it's sexual humor and overall humor. The movie reminded me heavily of the game. Lot.'s of sex and comedy. Basically take you're serious story where the hero has to save the women only make every male character an idiot and pervert and all the chicks good looking. This movie was very funny.
Content: Heavy nudity and sex jokes, no real blood no real swearing. Most definitely not intended for children.
| Animation | 5 |
| Story | 3 |
| Action | 2 |
| Mecha Stuff | 0 |
| Cute Stuff | 3 |
| Overall | 3 |
Fire Emblem
I bought this movie because every time we went to Suncoast and I was looking at the Anime movies my brother and friend would both tell me to get it because it looked cool. So finally I bought it and I was actually fairly pleased. The animation was better than average and the story was pretty good. The only thing I didn't like (that I didn't realize until the movie was over) is that the story was pretty much a set up for the game (of the same name I believe). Even though from one perspective this movie is just an advertisement for a video game, I still enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who likes anime featuring knights and swords and stuff.
| Animation | 4 |
| Story | 3 |
| Action | 3 |
| Mecha Stuff | 0 |
| Cute Stuff | 2 |
| Overall | 3 |
Ghost in the Shell
This Movie seems to be one of the most well known of all anime. I guess it's supposed to be a classic or something, but I thought it was kind of boring and even harder to understand than Akira. The beginning has a lot of cool action and the end had a lot but in the middle is a bunch of bland philosophical talk and a lot of times only the characters mouths move. When the action picks up it really kicks ass though. The majors cloaking suit rocks (yes she has on a suit though she looks naked). After I watched it and figured out the story I usually end up fast forwarding to the action parts when I watch it. If you're a hardcore anime fan and like Akira or Armitage this is a good movie to buy otherwise maybe just rent it.
Content: Violence, maybe (probably) swearing lots of nudity (not sexual, half is major Kusuganaga's suit and the other half is part of a cyborg body). Definitely and "R".
| Animation | 5 |
| Story | 3 |
| Action | 3 |
| Mecha Stuff | 4 |
| Cute Stuff | 2 |
| Overall | 3.5 |
Gunsmith Cats
This movie is most definitely my favorite of all my Anime movies (probably all my movies). Apparently the copy I have, Gunsmith Cats: Bulletproof, is a collection of three separate episodes that were once sold individually. Anyway, Gunsmith Cats follows Rally Vincent, a hotshot bounty hunter, and her partner "Minnie" May Hopkins, an explosives nut, as they do their work throughout Chicago. In the first episode Rally and May are blackmailed into taking a job for the ATF to catch a gun smuggler named Jonathan Washington. In the second tape a Russian assassin, Natalya Radinov, is hired by and unknown person to kill Washington along with Rally and May. In the third tape the unknown mastermind of the whole plan is revealed and the final showdown between Rally and Radinov takes place. I hope that's a good enough plot summary to make you interested yet not give anything away. Also, if you enjoy this movie the Manga from Dark Horse Comics is even better, and is a good way to learn more about the characters. Tons of guns, explosions, action, car chases (more in the Manga), and of course Rally's 1967 Shelby Cobra GT-500, the kickinest assinest car I can think of!!!! This movie is highly recommended if you like any of the above.
| Animation | 4 |
| Story | 4 |
| Action | 5 |
| Mecha Stuff | 2 |
| Cute Stuff | 2 |
| Overall | 5 |
IRIA: Zeiram the Animation
This was the first set of movies I bought. There are three movies in the set. I really like this one because it's got action, a relatively simple story, and good solid animation. The story is about this apprentice bounty hunter chick named Iria. In the first tape he and her brother, Grinn, go out on a mission to recover the crew and cargo of a lost space ship. They find out that the cargo was Zeiram, an invincible super alien. Grinn sacrifices himself to save the crew and Iria, and to destroy Zeiram. Iria crash lands on a planet only to discover that Zeiram is still alive and has landed on the same planet. Iria manages to beat Zeiram and transport the creature in to space. The other two tapes follow Iria's quest to discover what really happened aboard the space cruiser and what happened to her brother and eventually it leads to the final confrontation with Zeiram.
Content: No swearing, some fighting and guns and stuff but not too much blood or anything. There are a few scenes of Iria taking a shower but it's not too long and not real detailed. I give this a "PG.-13" rating.
| Animation | 4 |
| Story | 4 |
| Action | 4 |
| Mecha Stuff | 4 |
| Cute Stuff | 2 |
| Overall | 5 |
Legend of the Crystals: Final Fantasy
These two tapes were OK. If you buy this movie don't expect to see Final Fantasy VII. This is apparently based on the game Final Fantasy V for the Super Famicom, that was released only in Japan. I have recently been playing Final Fantasy V (I'm stuck on the fire crystal) and I would have to say this movie is VERY loosely based on the game. Of maybe I haven't gotten far enough in the game to be at the part from the movie. The characters are pretty different from the movie. So far I don't have a guy with machine guns. I have a girl named Leena which is close to the name of the girl in the movie, whose name is Linaley, and a pirate whose name I forget but she doesn't fly an airship with a crew of all women. The movie is pretty good for animation and all that, nothing real spectacular. I still feel as if the story was missing something though, and this movie could have been spread out over more than four episodes on two tapes and been much better. I bought it because it's Final Fantasy. I've played every Final Fantasy game except Tactics and beat most of them. It's one of the best RPG series available, if not the best. The movie doesn't quite live up to the video game's reputation though. It's still good if you like Fantasy anime or Final Fantasy.
| Animation | 3 |
| Story | 3 |
| Action | 3 |
| Mecha Stuff | 1 |
| Cute Stuff | 2 |
| Overall | 3 |
Neon Genesis: Evangelion
I only have about half of this series so far but so far it's one of the best I've ever seen. Incredible animation, very deep and complex story, entertaining and cool characters, huge mecha, lots of action. The story revolves around Shinji Ikari, pilot of Eva unit 01. He struggles with emotional conflicts revolving around such things as his father and why he fights. The Evas are huge bio-engineered robots that can only be piloted by certain children born six months after the second impact. The Evas were designed to fight the Angels, huge creatures of unknown origin and purpose. Joining Shinji are Rei Ayanami <SP?> in unit 00 and Asuka Langly <SP?> in unit 02. I have through tape six so far and plan to buy the rest of the thirteen tape set once I get the money. Only hints of what is to come have been given so far. I would highly recommend this series to any Anime fan. Or even non anime fans that like cool Sci-Fi.
| Animation | 5 |
| Story | 5 |
| Action | 5 |
| Mecha Stuff | 5 |
| Cute Stuff | 3 |
| Overall | 5 |
Project A-Ko
Project A-Ko is most definitely one of the weirdest anime series I've seen. I've heard some people call it the stupidest and at times I wonder why I bought all four tapes of the regular series and still hunt for the two Vs. tapes. Then I watch one of the tapes and remember why. If you can get over the somewhat lesbian under theme (not that there's anything wrong with that), this is one of the funniest anime series I've ever seen. It's full of off the wall humor and tons of martial arts action. Each tape in the series has it's own story that makes up part of a complete story on all four tapes. I've heard there are spoofs on some other older anime riddle throughout this series but I haven't picked up many (any) yet. Basically the story follows the adventures of A-Ko, B-Ko, and (you guessed it) C-Ko. A-Ko and C-Ko are best friends and just transferred to a new school where they run into B-Ko. B-Ko is sore at A-Ko from an event many years in the past, when C-Ko chose to be friends with A-Ko instead of B-Ko, and will do anything to get A-Ko out of the picture and to become friends with C-Ko. On top of this aliens are out to kidnap C-Ko (one of the aliens is named Agent 'D', too bad it's not D-Ko :) ). Everybody seems to want to get their hands on poor C-Ko who is pretty ditzy and oblivious to the world and has the most annoying habit of crying a lot, loudly. I really like this series even though it gets dumb at times. I would recommend it to hard core anime fans to buy and to rent to and anime fan (hey, if you don't like it you're only out a couple of bucks.) Also something to look for, there's an interesting sequence of stuff at the end of the fourth tape.
In addition to the regular four tapes there was a second to tape Vs. series (the movies were Project A-Ko vs. Battle One: Gray Side and Project A-Ko vs. Battle Two: Blue Side). I have only seen these movies on the Sci-Fi channel and have been looking for them to buy. I'm thinking of just ordering them once I complete my Evangelion set. The Vs. series is much better than the regular series. It takes place in an alternate reality in a future time. A-Ko and B-Ko are two (Bounty Hunters? Mercenaries?) living on a desert world making their living hunting giant sand creatures (who knows what they really do they catch a giant turtle thing in the beggining of the movie). They come across C-Ko who was dropped by some *REAL* bounty hunters. The two hunters attack A-Ko and B-Ko's house and destroy it and retrieve C-Ko. A-Ko and B-Ko head out after the two bad guys to get revenge and save C-Ko. The pair get wrapped up in a plot to destroy the universe using C-Ko and are joined by a little alien named Maruten so they can save the day. One plus of this series over the first is that there isn't and lesbian stuff (not that there's anything wrong with that). But once again C-Ko is wanted by everyone and she cries a lot, loudly. I would actually recommend this series to anyone who likes fast paced action with a little comedy wrapped in.
Regular Vs.
| Animation | 4 4 |
| Story | 3 4 |
| Action | 4 4 |
| Mecha Stuff | 4 3 |
| Cute Stuff | 3 3 |
| Overall | 3 4 |
Riding Bean
See Gunsmith Cats also. Riding Bean is about Bean Bandit, a driver for hire who will transport anything for a price, and his partner Rally Vincent. Gunsmith Cats was sort of a spin off of this story and therefore they are relatively similar in content. Riding Bean has a lot more on car chases and less shootouts than Gunsmith Cats (which makes since because Bean is a driver). One thing that I found annoying was the different Rally in this series. They are basically the same person in terms of personality but Rally in Bean has blond hair and light skin while Rally in Gunsmith Cats has Dark hair and dark skin. If you enjoy Gunsmith Cats this movie is recommended.
| Animation | 4 |
| Story | 4 |
| Action | 5 |
| Mecha Stuff | 3 |
| Cute Stuff | 2 |
| Overall | 3.5 |
Slayers
This is one of my favorite series (serieses?, Serieii?) because it's so funny and Lina and Gourry (Gow-ree)are so cool. This is an eight tape series with twenty-six episodes. It follows the adventures of the sorceress Lina Inverse, who is feared throughout the land as a bandit killer and dragon spooker (meaning dragons run away after being repulsed by the sight of her), and the swordsman Gourry Gabriel, who is a descendant of some great knights (and he's dumb as a doornail). They are later joined by Zelgadis, a sorcerer and swordsman with stone skin, and Amelia, the always cheerful champion of justice. I would highly recommend this movie if you like off the wall comedy, lots of magic and lots of sword swinging action. The one bad thing is the animation is a bit choppy at times.
Content: No swearing, light violence, little blood and guts, the worst sexuality is Lina always being insulted for her small breasts. This is probably a "PG.", don't let that sound wussy, I think a lot of movies are rated too high just so they'll sell better.
| Animation | 3 |
| Story | 4 |
| Action | 4 |
| Mecha Stuff | 0 |
| Cute Stuff | 3 |
| Overall | 5 |
Slayers: The Motion Picture
I was overjoyed when I saw this movie for sale one day. Now I could continue enjoying one of my favorite series. This movie is not related to the story line of the TV series and adds another character, Naga, a sorceress, to the bunch. The animation of this movie is much higher quality than that of the TV series. The story is good and just as funny as the TV series. One thin I didn't like was there was a different voice actor for Lina than in the TV series (though it wasn't all bad, Lina in the TV series got really annoying after a while). This is one to pick up if you like Slayers or if you don't want to shell out the $160 dollars for eight $20 tapes. I have yet to figure out if this falls before or after the TV series, I suspect before due to the lack of Gourry.
Content: Nothing bad, sword fighting and magic action. Naga has a pretty skimpy outfit, for someone as uh.. blessed as she is, that some people might object to. Probably a "PG." also.
| Animation | 4 |
| Story | 3 |
| Action | 4 |
| Mecha Stuff | 0 |
| Cute Stuff | 2 |
| Overall | 4 |
Tenchi Muyo! Collection
This series of tapes is the Tenchi OAV series. Apparently there's another series that tells a similar story with the same characters that was a TV series. I haven't seen the TV series. I read descriptions of each episode of the TV series in a magazine once. This isn't about the TV series though. The OAV is funny in many respects. Ryoko and Ayeka are always fighting over Tenchi. Washu is always performing "experiments" on Tenchi. Ryo-Oki is always doing silly, cute things. Mihoshi is an airhead and always gets into trouble. The whole thing is funny. It's also got a good ever-changing story. The first four tapes are the first story which basically tells how Tenchi came to have five alien chicks living in his house. The rest of the tapes pretty much expand on each of the character's backgrounds some. I have heard a third series is supposed to be coming out or is in the works. This series is great and is highly recommended to and real anime fan.
| Animation | 4 |
| Story | 4 |
| Action | 3 |
| Mecha Stuff | 3 |
| Cute Stuff | 3 |
| Overall | 5 |
Tenchi the Movie: Tenchi Muyo! in Love
I have heard conflicting reports of whether this movie follows the TV series story of the OAV story. I haven't seen the TV series but I would have to say it probably doesn't really matter because all the characters interact the same way and there aren't a lot of flashbacks or anything that don't make sense. The only real puzzle may be in where Kiyone came from. I've heard this movie as being described as Back to the Future without the incest parts. The A-1 class criminal Kain breaks out of the Galaxy police prison. Kain then proceeds to Earth to thirty years in the past to destroy the descendants of the Juraiian ruler that captured him the first time. Tenchi and crew must travel back in time to protect Tenchi's mother, Achika, from Kain while being careful not to upset the timeline themselves. Ryoko and Ayeka take roles as Achika's classmates to keep an eye on her. Mihoshi takes over as teacher of their class. It seems though that the plot involving Kain is second to the plot behind revealing the past of Tenchi's parents and how they got to know each other. An interesting thing I noticed was in the beginning we see parts of an old film of Tenchi's mother and later we see the film being made from different angles and realize that Ryoko and Ayeka were right there in the film just never on camera. I hope that makes sense. If you pay attention when watching you'll know what I'm talking about. This movie is good for Tenchi fans or for someone who likes the Tenchi series but doesn't want to shell out a lot of money for a half a dozen tapes. The manga is good as well. It's one of the four series of manga I regularly buy.
| Animation | 5 |
| Story | 4 |
| Action | 3 |
| Mecha Stuff | 2 |
| Cute Stuff | 3 |
| Overall | 5 |
Tenchi the Movie 2: Daughter of Darkness
Unlike the first movie I have heard this story follows the OAV more than the TV series. Once again though we have the mysterious appearance of Kiyone (who has only appeared in the OAV Mihoshi Special episode), however someone once suggested that maybe this movie happens after a third OAV series that introduces Kiyone as a main character. This starts with a mystery girl appearing at Tenchi's house (would it be Tenchi if this didn't happen?) who claims to be his daughter (despite that she's the same age as Tenchi). Some sort of time travel is assumed to be involved. The girls all wonder which one of them is the mother, except Ryoko who becomes extremely suspicious and jealous of the newcomer. Personally the girl seems to get too, uh.. , 'friendly' with Tenchi considering she IS his daughter. What are the real origins of the new mysterious girl? Who is the mother? To find out watch this movie. Unlike the first movie this movie would not stand alone well on it's own. It's written more like a long episode of the OAV than as a movie. It's not a recommended buy unless you are familiar with the Tenchi universe.
| Animation | 5 |
| Story | 3 |
| Action | 3 |
| Mecha Stuff | 2 |
| Cute Stuff | 4 |
| Overall | 4.5 |
Twilight of the Dark Master
I haven't watched this movie in a while so I can't really review it. It's kind of a vampire, demon, horror flick. I think it might be the sequel to Demon City Shinjuku, but I'm not sure so don't take my word on it. I didn't buy this movie, I won it in a contest in the magazine Animerica. They had a Christmas givaway with hundreds of winners so I figured what the hell, go ahead and enter. I sent in my picture with my prize as they asked but they have yet to print it. I can't say much about the movie. I only watched it once. I don't really care for horror movies. I recall the animation was good and the story was pretty cool. It was about this demon hunter with these cool psychic powers or something like that. Some time I'll watch it again and update this review but until then the numbers below are a general maybe. I do believe it was pretty bloody too, plus it had some nudity I think.
| Animation | 4 |
| Story | 3 |
| Action | 4 |
| Mecha Stuff | 2 |
| Cute Stuff | 1 |
| Overall | 3 |