Anime Reviews- Other Anime Reviews

Other Anime Reviews

This page has reviews of anime movies I have seen that I don't own and that aren't on the SCI-Fi channel. These include movies I have rented, one movie I watched in my Japanese class at school, any live action movies that are anime related, series on TV, and any movies I may have watched at someone else's house. Some of the rented movies I rented a while ago so the reviews may not be that great. Also I don't have category ratings for these movies yet.

Dragon Ball Z

This series comes on Fox on Saturday mornings around here (Fox 59 if you live near Indianapolis). It wasn't real great. Martial arts action. This probably would have been better if I had watched from the beginning instead of starting halfway through. Plus I've heard the TV version is toned down incredibly with people being 'dent to another dimension' instead of being killed and all the blood being cut out.

My Neighbor Totoro

I watched this movie in my Japanese class at school. I think the story was pretty much about this little girl and her family that move into this old house. The meets this huge fuzzy creature called a Totoro. That's about all I can recall of the story. Maybe I'll rent it someday and watch it again. The animation was great and was done by the same man who made the current release Kiki's Delivery Service. This is one of the few subtitled movies I've seen. I think it was subtitled, it may have been pure Japanese since it was in Japanese class and my teacher had been to Japan before.

Ninja Scroll

This movie is one of the more well know anime movies. It's probably the ultimate in karate, ninja action. The story follows our hero as he faces these twelve evil guys on his was to fight the evil leader dude. (Obviously is you've been reading all these reviews I'm not real good at remembering the names of character in movies I don't own.) The hero is accompanied by a ninja assassin chick and this old karate guy. The animation in this movie kicks ass, the action is great, the story is great, the whole movie rocks. I would buy this movie but I already have it recorded, unedited. This movie is also heavily for adult audiences. Lots of blood, quite a bit of graphic sex, from anal to rape. This movie probably shouldn't be viewed by people under 17.

Patlabor: The Mobile Police

Another of the few subtitled movies I've seen. I actually didn't realize it was subtitled till after I rented it. The tape I rented was the first episodes of the TV series. There were four episodes on the tape I believe. This first introduced the main characters as they reported to the police base. The base was waiting for their new police Patrol Labors (Patlabor) to come. Labor is the name of the mecha in this movie. In the end they had to pick up the labors on the freeway so they could stop an evil run away labor. Another of the episodes had a bomb in a big trailer in a park, and a third had a huge monster in the lake of the city. I can remember the other episode if there was one. This movie was pretty cool. A lot of cool mecha action. This movie would be a 5 in the mecha category.

Pokèmon

Pokèmon is short for Pocket Monsters. This series is based on a game for the Game Boy that has become a phenomenon in Japan. The game and show were both released recently in the US. The story follows the adventures of Ash, Brock, and Misty as they adventure across the land in search of Pokèmon. The three also have to deal with Jesse and James of Team Rocket every episode. The whole show is pretty funny and features some excellent animation, especially for a TV series. Plus the Pokèmon are super cute so anyone will love them, especially the ultra cute Pikachu. This show is probably geared more for younger viewers but if you like series like Tenchi or Ranma or aren't strictly into serious anime like Akira or Ghost in the Shell then you'll probably love this series. There are plans to release it on video soon. The game is also great too. I have also been thinking of making a comprehensive Pokèmon guide on this web site. Keep watching for more details on this.

Ranma 1/2

This is a great comedy story about poor Ranma Saotome who turns into a girl when he gets splashed with cold water and back to a boy when doused in hot water. To make matters worse, Ranma is engaged to marry almost every female in the series and most of the guys like his female form. Ranma is supposed to marry Akane Tendo really, and in the end she's the only one he really cares about despite that they usually act like they hate each other. I rented the first two tapes of the TV series and the first tape of the OAV. The Ranma manga is also one of the three manga I regularly buy (the others being No Need for Tenchi and Dragon Ball Z.) This series is pretty funny and I am planning on buying some Ranma tapes once I finish the Evangelion series (and out local half price boos store had many Ranma tapes for twelve dollars for a while but I waited too long and they are long gone :( ) Oh well, anyway, I will probably buy some of the movies instead of the OAV of TV series because the two series are both many tapes long and this could get expensive.

Samurai Showdown

This was a pretty cool movie for martial arts action. It probably would have been better had I actually played the game before. The story mostly revolves around this Samurai guy with huge hair. These five (six? I forget) other characters ware trying to get him to remember about his past so they can fight this evil goddess or something. I'm guessing the seven heroes are characters from the game along with the three (I think) human general guys and the four (I think, again) main bad guys. It was still a good movie even though I haven't played the game.

Sailor Moon

Somehow it seems appropriate that one of the most well know, worst translated, biggest and baddest, anime series ever gets nothing more than a short nothing on this page. If you don't know what Sailor Moon is, you probably don't know what anime is and probably aren't reading this. Sailor moon is OK and is the second anime I have ever seen. That's it. Sailor Moon is too big for me to try to explain.

Super Deformed Double Feature

In anime, especially comedies, you'll often see the characters transform into short fat cute versions of themselves. This movie had all the charters in super deformed mode. Plus it was a double feature, two movies in one!, but each movie was only a half hour :(. It was still cool. It is also another of the few subtitled movies I've seen. The first thing on the tape was a goofy behind the scenes spoof of Gall Force (see Saturday anime reviews) done by the creator of Gall Force (It says on the box he did the spoof on his own movie because they didn't want anyone else to spoof it). This is all animated, it's not a *REAL* behind the scenes movie. The characters all show up for work on the studio. The director tells them what to do. Some of the funny stuff I can remember: The part of Eternal Story when the android chick grabs the electric wires, supposedly the director wanted more realism so he used REAL live wires ten he wanted several takes so the chick got fired a whole bunch. Then they made like it was real life and talked about how they made a model of the actress to use as the skin burned away; another was in Eternal Story when the little blond chick (I can't remember any of their names) walks out of the water and sees the male clone of Patty, then latter the girls are all talking about his parts and he overhears. He then goes into the girls dressing room while their all naked and takes a bunch of pictures then runs off. All the girls think it was just Patty and wonder why she was acting so weird when the real Patty walks in and they realize what happened. I think it was Patty.

The second thing was a race between all these different characters from various anime. The only characters I recognizes were the ones from Gall Force who got lost and ran into themselves after they tried to cheat using a hyperspace jump. The only other racers that stand out in my memory were a pair or people riding a large mechanical ostrich that were in last most of the race, there were some chicks in a police cruiser I think that I think was in the lead most of the race (or near it), also near the lead was some bird looking dude with a fancy car, and the biker guy that (never mind don't want to spoil the movie).

The whole tape was pretty funny and was worth the dollar and a half to rent it. It was also made by Kenchi Senoda creator of Gunsmith Cats.

Voltron

This is an older anime series. It's about these five pilots of these five robot lions. The loins form together to become Voltron. This anime has the typical monster of the day plot. It's still cool. This is the first anime I ever saw, except I didn't know it was anime then, it was just Voltron then. This is a heavy Mecha movie as well. I don't think episodes of this are on sale anywhere but the Cartoon Network shows reruns still I think. I wish I had the Cartoon network.

Zeram

I first heard about this movie on the internet while looking up IRIA. It's pretty much a live action version of IRIA. The story is different. The bounty hunter Iria and her computer sidekick Bob come to Japan here on Earth (probably near Tokyo, almost all Japanese movies are in Tokyo) to trap the super creature Zeram. These two delivery guys get mixed up in the whole thing and end up trapped in an alternate reality made by Iria to trick Zeram. The two humans have to hold of Zeram until Iria can repair her transembler and come to their aid. This movie is pretty cheesy sometimes but it's still cool, it's something like Godzilla that way. It's obviously harder to dub for a real person than an animated character. There's a bunch of martial arts action. One thing weird I notice was the different spelling for Zeram. In the anime it's spelled Zeiram. Zeram is cool in both and he looks exactly like his animated counterpart in this live action movie. Iria also looks the same from her red cape to her cool armor. The only real difference in Iria is her hair color. This movie is a good rent if you like live action Japanese movies or Iria. I have been thinking of buying it since I like the Iria movies so much.