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CLAMP. WOWOW. Madhouse. Yoshiaki Kawajiri.

You know, I’m not sure why I’ve not seen this. Particularly as I was apparently one of the few people who seemed happy with the film version (great, possibly Violence Jack inspired, decapitation ending! SPOILERS!).

Another show that got double releases in the US in singles and boxsets - increasingly a ( Read more... )

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Anime version of Ayumi Uno’s shojo manga about an escaped ermine living in an apartment building. This looks jolly and fun.

Originally published at AWESOME ENGINE. You can comment here or there.

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Unlike Tsukikage Ran, this is a more typical show about women getting into fights from the 00s. And there’ll be a fair few of them down the line. Keiji Gotoh shows up again here contributing his distinctive character designs and the OP animation. Apart from that, it strikes me as just another show.

Originally published at AWESOME ENGINE. You can ( Read more... )

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Another Akitaro Daichi show I really need to finish watching (think I saw the first 4 eps years back). Obviously a massive success in the US, especially the manga. But the anime has done really well too. In the US it has gone through 3 different box sets, and even seen the single discs released twice (second release fueled by the manga’s ( Read more... )

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Following in the schedule right after S-CRY-ed was the second JoJo’s influenced show, Shaman King. Based on Hiroyuki Takei’s manga, this I have seen a lot of. Some (me) would say too much. It deals with a shaman, Yoh Asakura and his attempt to become the Shaman King, with the help his Stand Over Soul, Amidamaru.

It starts off fine, for the first ( Read more... )

These aired as part of WOWOW’s “Anime Complex” at the same time. And were created by the same animation studio. And were both about maids…

2001 was obviously the peak of the maid fetish.

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Steel Angel Kurumi Type 2 is the sequel to 1999’s fetish whammy of MAID + ROBOT GIRLFRIEND + ALTERNATE HISTORY. Here the Alternate History was replaced by ( Read more... )

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OK. Totally off the radar now. Put this down as another show I’d love to see at least one episode of.

Directed by Hero Hero-Kun, Cyborg Kuro-chan director Nobuhiro Takamoto. A man with a nice line in colourful kids comedies now slumming it with Ghost 07. And written by veteran Yu Yamamoto (Urusei Yatsura, Braiger/Baxinger/Sasuraiger, Kuro-chan). ( Read more... )

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Another utter blind spot in my knowledge. Not only have I never heard of this, it’s even been out on DVD in English, and the manga has too. It appears to be an Alice In Wonderland themed shonen story about a boy whose arm turns into a weapon. It strikes me there’s a thread of manga/anime about characters whose arms turn into weapons through the ( Read more... )

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Kosuke Fujishima is no where near as good a writer as he is an artist. That being said, this light fluff about two policewomen is infinitely preferable to Ah! My Goddess.

I’ve only caught some of the third season, so I don’t know if this second season was any good or if the freefall of quality Studio Deen seemed to experience this decade had ( Read more... )

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As I go through these, I’m increasingly of the mind there’s definitely something to be written about the trends in magical girl shows of the decade. While there wasn’t a noticable boom, there’s some success stories in there, and interesting ideas floating around.

Created by Junichi Sato (Sailor Moon, Sgt. Frog), like Magic User’s Club and Princess ( Read more... )