Azure Flame

A while ago, I reviewed Bee Train’s works and managed to create a minor backlash when I placed Madlax in the ‘miss’ category. If I had any sense, I would probably have left it at that, but having brought up the topic of Madlax, I came to feel as if I needed to say more on just where Madlax went wrong for me.

Back when Madlax was first being released on DVD, I let myself get caught up in a wave of enthusiasm for the series, even going so far as to buy it with no more knowledge than “it’s Noir II”. Continue reading Madlax: Fanning the flames that little bit more…

Claire, Rose, Rachel and Kate may attend the same school on New York’s Roosevelt Island, but apart from sharing a friendship with a recently deceased girl named Lise, they are all very different people. Nonetheless, this unlikely quartet is thrown together when a mysterious woman named Lula enters their life with some shocking news- all four of them are already dead. Now, they are living on borrowed time, and it is time that will run out unless they follow Lula’s orders and dedicate their nights to fighting a succession of zombie-like men. Confused and afraid, but nonetheless desperate to uncover the truth behind their demise and resurrection, the four girls must now work together if they wish to balance their everyday lives with this strange new world that they have been thrust into…

Continue reading Final Thoughts: Red Garden…

Some months ago, I reviewed the second season of School Rumble, and the verdict was not a positive one- much as I may have loved the series in its first season, these new episodes just failed to shine. Nonetheless, unwilling to completely give up on the franchise, I convinced myself that my dissatisfaction was due to the filler elements introduced in Nigakki, and vowed that reading the manga would make everything better. Unfortunately, if not unpredictably, this was not to be the case.

Continue reading Revisiting School Rumble: this time in manga form…

Back in the days when I was a mere novice at writing rants, one of the series that met the wrath of my keyboard was none other than Jyu-oh-sei. At the time, I had only seen four episodes of the series, but my opinion was clear- four episodes were more than enough. Nonetheless, almost half a year later, I was to return to Jyu-oh-sei- not because I suddenly became convinced that it had hidden worth, but purely for the purposes of parodying it.

Indeed, as far as parody goes, Jyu-oh-sei is a veritable goldmine of material, but unfortunately, the very aspects that make it easy to make fun of also prevent it from having much in the way of entertainment value. The tale of twin cyclewear models brothers ripped from their sterile and futuristic life on the Juno colony and sent to prison planet Chimera somehow covers the entire spectrum of awfulness- from the laughably ridiculous to the downright dire, no type of mediocrity is neglected. Continue reading Jyu-oh-sei: The ending made the rest of the series look like Mushishi…

136 chapters ago, orphaned high school student Tohru Honda came to live with the Sohmas, a family with a bizarre secret; when hugged by a member of the opposite sex, they turned into the animals of the Chinese Zodiac. Now, the series has finally concluded- all the tears have been shed, the confessions have been made, and we can at last get on with our lives. But what should the final verdict on Furuba be- was it the best manga ever, or did it simply outstay its welcome?

Continue reading Fruits Basket: From heady highs to angsty lows…

These days, it’s rare for a series not to get subbed- even the likes of Haruka 8 and the twenty year old Ginga Nagareboshi Gin are slowly but surely being released. With that in mind, it seemed only logical to expect the Angelique TV series to be picked up by someone sooner or later, but unfortunately, as the final episode aired, it became clear that such was not to be the case- if I wanted to watch it, my only recourse would be the raws. Driven onwards by a strange need to watch the series, I decided that I would have to rely on my basic grasp of Japanese to carry me through, but as I realised by the end, it hadn’t really been worth the effort.

Continue reading Koi Suru Tenshi Angelique…

It’s funny how things go back and forth. Back in the olden days when anime was a fresh and exciting product from a distant land, Love Hina was one of the staples that you just had to see- a combination of slapstick humour and slow-burning romance that embodied one of the early entries in the harem genre. You couldn’t call yourself an anime fan if you didn’t have a working knowledge of the antics of Keitaro, Naru and the rest. Continue reading Love Hina, or how I lost a good chunk of vital brain cells…

Recommendations are tricky things. Sometimes, someone will alert you to a worthy series that had completely passed you by, and you’ll understandably be thankful that they did (although if you end up forking out for DVDs, your bank balance may not be as appreciative). Unfortunately, for every good series that you manage to uncover in this way, there seem to be three times as many awful series that ‘random contact A’ enjoyed but which otherwise seem to have no merit whatsoever. Since this is clearly marked as a rant, it doesn’t take too much effort to deduce that Burst Angel falls into the latter category. Continue reading Burst Angel: Plenty of nipples but not much plot…

A few years ago, I happened to stumble across FUNimation’s trailer for the recently released Kiddy Grade. It was a trailer that immediately captivated me, promising a futuristic tale of secret agents with special abilities, not to mention a tragic past that haunted the main character. Upon seeing it, I knew I had to watch the series for myself, and therein began the trouble- because everything that these few minutes of advertisement promised, the series itself would be completely unable to deliver. Continue reading Kiddy Grade: Possibly the most misleading trailer I’ve ever watched…

Watanuki Kimihiro has always been able to see spirits, and to be honest, it’s an ability he’d be happier off without. As it turns out, the space-time witch, Yuuko Ichihara, might just be able to help him with that, but her assistance comes at a price- before she can grant Watanuki’s wish, he must first spend an unspecified amount of hours working part-time at her shop. Open to all who need it, Yuuko’s shop grants wishes at a fair price, and as part of his new routine, Watanuki will come to meet the many and varied people who come looking for solutions to their problems.

Continue reading xxxHOLiC: How to turn a good manga into a dull anime…