It’s been a while since I’ve seen an anime this good and if you haven’t heard or seen of this then the pun in my tittle is perfect for this series. At only 13 eps I watched it in one setting which was easy to do as it was so engaging. It’s like a really messed up psychotic version of Alice in Wonderland but completely twisting the classic fairy tale to a violent and dangerous nightmare version.
The plot for Deadman is that a massive earthquake ravaged Japan’s mainland and destroyed most of Tokyo, sinking three-quarters of it into the ocean. Ten years later, the story shifts to Igarashi Ganta, a seemingly ordinary student attending Nagano Prefecture’s middle school. An escapee, a survivor of the great earthquake, Ganta has no memories of the tragedy and has lived a normal life. This all changes when a strange person covered in blood and crimson armour floats through his classroom windows. Grinning madly, the Red Man massacres Ganta’s entire class but instead of killing him, embeds a red crystal shard in Ganta’s chest. Within days of the massacre, Ganta is declared the sole suspect and, following a quick trial, is sentenced to life imprisonment in Deadman Wonderland, a massive theme park like prison. Arriving at the prison, Ganta is fitted with a special collar which monitors his location and life signs. Due to the heinous nature of Ganta’s ‘crime’, he has to live out his imprisonment under Deadman Wonderland’s ‘Death Sentence’. A lethal poison is constantly injected into his bloodstream through the collar, but it can be neutralized by consuming a peculiar candy-like medicine every three days. Additional candy can be earned through hard work or by purchasing it. In order to gather Cast Points, the prison’s currency, an inmate has to perform in the facility’s lethal games and survive. Fortunately for Ganta, he is aided by a mysterious girl named Shiro, who apparently knows Ganta, and is known by other prisoners as well. While trying to survive as an inmate on death row, Ganta becomes increasingly obsessed with the ‘Red Man’ and tries to find him so he could clear his name. In a bizarre twist, Ganta begins to develop the ability to manipulate his own blood, to the point of turning it into a weapon. Unbeknownst to him, Ganta has become one of the prison’s ‘Deadmen’, a segregated group of prisoners possessing the Branches of Sin which makes them capable of controlling their blood. After his ability is discovered, Ganta is forced to participate in brutal gladiatorial death matches, known as Carnival Corpse, whose anonymous spectators pay large amounts of money to watch. In his struggle he manages to befriend some of those he fought off in the arena, and with their help Ganta continues his quest to uncover the identity of the Red Man, why he turned into a Deadman and the dark secrets the prison authorities are hiding.

What I love about this series is that it’s defiantly for adults it’s a very harsh and violent world a true “ultraviolent” anime and there haven’t been that many recently. It is the very definition of aesthetic violence of the glamorization of chaos and exploitation of humanities darker side. It’s so many of the things I love in my escapist television, not a safe world of family values but a world where people are put through the most horrific extremes and how they can breakdown. I love the total breakdown of a characters world how they crumble emotionally and physically as well as spiritually. Seeing characters worlds turn and twist until they themselves have evolved into the terrifying products of their extreme situations. Deadman has this in abundance, no character is safe they are all messed up and grey area fighters, surviving by changing their very nature or allowing their true nature to shrine through. This prison is so harsh, I have a soft spot for shows based in prisons, and one of my fav TV shows of all time is Oz. But this is so much more than a prison, after all where else do you have a prison where the inmates also have to provide the entertainment for a theme park. It’s crazy they work the attractions, conveniences, maintenance and are the attractions. For example one episode features an extreme race but the kicker is that all the hazards and obstacles are in fact deadly and there a 99% chance you’ll die or be seriously injured by the end of the race. I mean some of the contestants are shot with arrows, sliced and diced or even doused in acid all for the entertainment of the crowd. It shows that as an audience people love watching people fail and get injured and we have a morbid fascination with death and violence. There’s a little bit of the social commentary and the idea people get pleasure from watching the fall of others but the public are not entirely aware that the shows they are watching do have a high fatality rate and you wonder what they would think of how much excitement and pleasure they got from watching people get tortured and killed.

The people in charge of this prison are also a mixed bag of corruption, insanity and way to into their job as prison guards. The warden, who is a one of those terrifying beauties, a real harsh kind of sexy and carries that attitude with her, she knows she is attractive but it’s a dangerous and mean sexy where she is not afraid to use the power she has to put people down. She loves her role as peace keeper and takes her job seriously not afraid to lash out and physically punish someone she thinks deserves a lashing. She doesn’t deal out sympathy as far as she’s concerned these people are prisoners and therefor property and has the respect and fear of those around her, never cross her she is vicious in her sense of justice. The prison owner has some social and psychological problems; he exists in his own childlike fantasy world and is happy to use the prisoners as his own playthings to experiment with and control. As if things weren’t dark and cruel enough there’s a whole other underground to this prison beyond the exploitation of human suffering for others entertainment and that’s the exploitation of people stuck in the system and their usefulness as guinea pigs in a world of experimentation. Under the prison is a world centred around the “branch of sin” a strange ability to control one’s own blood and use it as a weapon.

I have a huge passion for what I call blood magic’s and the idea you can manipulate your blood to be more than its intended purpose. I’ve always wanted that as a super power to expel your blood and then let it form a sword or a scythe. Think Abel’s power in Trinity Blood and give it to a bunch of crazed captive prisoners that are all either borderline psychotic or sociopathic or just plan crazy. Each blood sin is great, from forming blades to shooting projectiles this blood manipulation is original and beautiful as well as extremely deadly. I mean the blood swirls dramatically it flows and forms, its liquid sin to physical deadly sin. I love it from the majestic aesthetic to the deadly precision of these weapon users. Apart from a group most of these “branch of sin” characters embrace their power with fervour, they relish in using it and are so on the edge of sanity its terrifying to seeing how they switch and change through the personalities they’ve created for themselves to survive. But it gets worse these people are then forced to take part in a terrible game where they are pitted against each other in brutal fights for the entertainment of an anonymous audience. Unlike the audience in the theme park they are fully aware they are watching people kill and maim each other for their entertainment. These battles are pretty epic with some great shows of violence and lack of mercy with some keen killers who embrace this role they found.

But there’s a flip side for those who don’t embrace their powers or the fearful battle royal they have to take part in. They have formed a freedom group uncovering the conspiracy that placed them in Wonderland and now they are trying to find a way to escape and break free back to the world they know and love. It’s not easy this resistance group has to face the full wraith of their owners in a fight for survival and freedom and extra added danger from another group that work for the prison owner who have the unique ability to defuse the effect of the “branch of sin”. These people are even crazier than some of the more extreme sin users. Most notable the psycho monk who kills without discrimination and is madly in love with the leader of the resistance after he witnesses him lose his mind after watching his pregnant wife be slaughtered in the sin fights. Oh boy did he lose the plot and just went on a relentless killing spree with no sense of mercy or distinguishing between people so strong was his grief. He truly is psychotic but he had since reformed keeping the violent killer under wrap and not allowing this brutal nature to be released. Unfortunately crazy monk was so turned on by this show of violence he breaks down the walls to release the crazy killer so he can have the ultimate and most terrifying lover. It would be easy to think of this monk as a murdering sociopath but his problems are so deep rooted in the trauma of his youth you realise that even he is a victim of a cruel and punishing world.

Finally we have the issue of the “red man” himself and who he is, where is he hiding and how is Ganta going to take his revenge. Complicate this with his relationship with Shiro a friend from his past that is somehow connected to everything without really seeming to understand the seriousness of the world she lives in. Shiro seems like a complete innocent blind to all the cruelty and violence and only wants to stay friends with Ganta, protect him and look out for him. She seems to have a free range of the prison, is unknown to the prisoners and guards but somehow related to the “branch of sin” and this is shown in the fact she seems to have unlimited strength and regenerative powers. She goes from ditzy innocent to a precise killer with deadly power and an unforgiving nature. The worse part of falling for a greatly crafted series like this with so many questions, conflicts and conspiracies is that when it only has an incomplete ending and you don’t know what happens in the end. I hate no ending endings where you’re like but what happens next, you haven’t answered all the questions there’s so much more to tell and I’m only just starting. I hope to god there will be another series or they start translating the manga because this world is rich and dark and beautifully twisted that I want more.

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Arad Senki isn’t the most inspirational anime out there but for a bit of light hearted fun it’s worth a watch. It follows many anime that is RPG based and has a group of adventurers thrown together in a fantasy world that set off on a quest and have to battle an ancient evil at the end. We’ve seen the formula many a time in anime’s such as Ragnarok, Lodoss War and Star Ocean to name a few. And it’s a formula that always entertains because you know what you’re expecting therefore can’t really be disappointed. With Arad Senki there is defiantly more a focus on comedy than the more gritty tales like Lodoss War and Crystannia so it makes it just a very amusing and fun romp, imagine more Bakuretsu hunters where characters end up in stupid situations for a vast majority of the show before any real threat develops.

It’s not until the last part of the series that we really get a real sense of danger and a darker plot line that leads to our finale battle with the villain of the piece. While Arad Senki doesn’t have the heart or perfect balance of comedy, action, magic and dark villainy of the greats like Slayers it’s still has good points in the fact that its light fun and doesn’t take itself too seriously and it’s an interesting idea. The idea of a disease spreading demon possession through the inhabitants was interesting; the idea that part of your body is possessed by demon blood making you a stronger warrior but also the risk of turning fully into a demon was a good angle. In fact it’s a shame they didn’t explore this angle more but the series wanted to stay a little more light and fluffy than fully going with the demonic versus your humanity angle and therefore played it down a lot.

The series itself is based on a Korean game called Dungeon Fighter (which explains why so much of the cast and crew for this anime are Korean) that was renamed Arad Senki in Japan. The series based on an original web comic and has a very basic plot of Swordsman Baron travels the world of Arad to find a way to heal his demonic left arm. Accompanying him is Roxy, the ghost of a woman who unwillingly unleashed the evil that also caused Barons transformation. On their travel they get to know other fighters who accompany them and soon they call their group the “Party”.

The frustrating thing about this series for me is I like the darkness and a harsher storyline that really brings out the angst in the protagonists and this series just isn’t like that. I found I could skip scenes and not really pay attention because it just wouldn’t get dark enough for me. I don’t like too much comedy in anime unless it really is the surreal crazy of a series like Kemeko DX or a more situational comedy like Maria Holic. I love Slayers but they have a better balance of amusing situations and bizarre characters Arad is a bit of a poor copy really. Arad does rely a lot more on prate falls and slap stick, which I should have guessed from the “Slap up Party” part of the title.

There was one really good character that I really liked, Carpenshisu (many different places spell his name differently including various subbing groups) he looked cool and was the genius gunman of the series from another outer world of Arad. Unfortunately he was also the character that lost his entire cool in front of women and was reduced to an embarrassing failure of a Casanova and he was always falling over, rolling down hills and getting squashed, beat up and overlooked. He would do something amazing and cool and he really was awesome with his guns but they just kept ruining this cool façade and turning him into a pathetic idiot. That was very annoying to watch because I kept hoping they would make him less stupid and also expand on his storyline, he originally came to Arad from an outer world and when they returned to this amazing place he explained its history but not his own. We never found out why he left or what he left behind making him rather bland when he could have been so much more.

The other characters were not as well fleshed out, our main demon knight Baron was very laid back and didn’t seem to mind having a demon arm and it didn’t really cause him much trouble or lend him any really awesome powers, plus it never explained why only he could see Roxy’s ghost (who lived in his sword) and why none of the characters noticed him talking to the invisible friend. The girl fighter Ryunmei was cool but we never really got to see her have a proper brutal fight where she could go all out, the bad magician girl Ixia was just that, cute and mouthy but rather pants and then there was the warrior priest Jeda that may have been bisexual but we never really got to know his story he just turned up healed people, glowed, flexed muscles and then skipped off again. The villains were more interesting but then they always were with the usual handsome, talented and conflicted bishonen knight Irbek. He had some good angst and trying to do good but in the wrong way, clearly being manipulated while feeling guilty until he realised his mistakes and joined the good guys against the real enemy. He was one of the many clichés I feel were going on, I mean the angst bishie trying to protect his little sister from a demon virus is always going to go all self sacraficy and atone for his mistakes plus get the girl in the form of the trouble misunderstood daughter of a corrupted king, along with cherished side kick with blind loyalty because bishie knight is the only person not to overlook him and to understand that he is worth more than his appearance dictates.

In all the more I think about it the more clichéd I realise this series is, it doesn’t really hold any real emotional weight, the characters aren’t really that developed, the comedy is too slap stick for my liking and fights uninspiring and un-dramatic. The last few episodes at least pick up the pace and give us a creepy and evil villain bent on destroying the world but they don’t use all the characters well and some get left by the wayside in the final battle. In the end it’s a bit anti climatic and just goes back to the beginning as if nothing that traumatic happened and everyone is together, happy and on their little adventures again.

I liked the character designs for a bit but after a while they were just a mash up of costumes and character types I’d seen many a time and normally destroyed by all the stupid faces they pulled. I can’t say anything inspiring about the music apart from every now and again when something dramatic of scary was happening some of the scoring sounded like a tune I liked from the Casshern film. I can’t remember the opening themes they did nothing for me and the only song I really remember was the first ending theme because I like the old school computer game graphics they had on, little pixel people like in Final Fantasy 1 and 2 wandering around dungeons. The animation style was crisp and clear but nothing amazing, pretty run of the mill which I don’t mind unless there is nothing else to inspire me so by the fact that I was being uninspired by most of it means there wasn’t much I did like about the look and sound of the series.
Really if you just want a simple no brain watch of a series with a little plot to keep you entertained than this is good background viewing. If slap stick is your thing or you like RPG anime’s and just enjoying watching some adventurers travel about than it’s worth a little look but there is much better stuff out there like Bakuretsu Hunters (for comedy) and Crystannia (for excellent fantasy adventure fair). But alas sometimes the brain wants a simple show so it’s good to have some on back up.

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I was told to watch this by a friend and my god am I glad I did. This series is from the people who bought us Dexter’s Laboratory, Powerpuff Girls and Samurai Jack so already it has a big draw as both those shows were great. And just like these shows they are clearly influenced by anime but also reference modern culture with appeal for both children and adult viewers. Its creator is Genndy Tartakovsky and it was produced for Cartoon Network.
The series follows the lives of Ilana, Lance, and Octus, two alien teens and a robot in the form of humanoids who arrive on Earth, an “identical” planet to Galaluna, while fleeing an evil general who has taken over their home planet with the help of monstrous creatures called Mutraddi. The three main characters include Ilana, princess of the royal family; Lance, a rebellious but capable soldier; and Octus, a bio-cybernetic robot, all of whom must now blend into everyday life in Sherman, Illinois. Posing as high school students, Lance and Octus work to conceal Princess Ilana from General Modula and his hideous space mutants sent to kill the sole heir of Galaluna. When called into battle, the Galalunans are outfitted with individual armour that provides more than ample protection. It is when the gravest of danger appears that Octus activates the Sym-bionic defence program and he, Ilana, and Lance unite “Heart, Body and Mind” and come together to form the spectacular cyber-giant Sym-Bionic Titan.
What’s great about this series is that while the anime influences are obvious it still looks and feels like an American cartoon. It’s a great fusion of styles from East and West that homages Anime motifs, styles, genres and themes while also very much being American. It is funny and exciting, mixing great action sequences, amusing side stories and a little bit of family drama. With anything that is set in a High School you get to explore the world of social clicks, the inevitable story line of people from another world trying to act like American teenagers trying to fit into their lifestyle. It has all the genre stereotypes and motifs of a High School drama, the jocks, nerds, cheerleaders, outsiders, unhealthy school meals, homecoming dance and trying to fit in. This is all made worse by the fact that not only are our heroes from another world but are being continuously (much like an episode of Powerpuff Girls) attacked by monsters and therefore have to disappear to form Titan and fight these monsters. Trying to hide a hidden life is always fun to watch especially when the characters don’t have all the human mannerisms and social behaviour acceptable to their peers, therefore they always state they need “toilets breaks” at the same time. There’s also a nice bit of romance that by all means should never have happened and yet somehow still works and is kinda realistic in its portrayal. You know that a lot of the stories are going to have clichéd plots, trying to go to the dance but a monster turning up, trying to join the Cheerleaders but them being vapid, populist and egocentric and then monsters turning up, going to school when you feel you have so much more you can be doing with your hidden abilities and fighting to introduce healthy food into the school only for it to be sabotaged by aliens.
There’s also lots of other great plots, as well as the more clichéd Military being heavy handed, arrogant and ignorant you also get the more interesting grey area secret organisation G3 that want to find out who is behind Titan and where they came from as much as the military do while investigating the alien attacks. Also this series is a little harsher than the average American cartoon, some of the aliens are truly freaky, like a weird squid insect that crawls down your throat and takes you over.

Characters also bleed when hit, clothes get torn and faces bruise giving it a more realistic feel of what would happen if you were in a fight. One of the great things about the show is that while it’s episodic it does continue story lines introduced in earlier episodes, characters appear in more than one episode and are given development so it’s not all about our heroes and villains. Plots are allowed to play out and episodes link together more than previous series. There are also nice flashback episodes to give us more insight into the lives of the characters and how they became who they are, in particular Lance is a great character to explore, the difficult life he has experience and how he become the person he is now. The series defiantly has a darker side to it than the average cartoon and this is something that I really respect and it’s less clean and simple and has a little more grit to it. Lance is def my fav character but brooding difficult guy that isn’t very social but also kicks ass and is a skilled fighter and just really cool is always going to be a great character. The robot Octus is also a great character that is given a lot of thought and development and doesn’t just act as the regular robot sidekick but given real personality and a chance to grow just as much as the other characters.
Now for what truly makes this series brilliant especially if you’re as geeky as me and have watched a lot of Anime and Asian movies. The first obvious thing is that the creators are obviously Osamu Tezuka fans. This is very apparent in the character designs, the hair styles and facial characteristic are a dead giveaway as well as the costumes. In particular the military outfits of the Galalunians are dead ringers for the uniforms from Cyborg 009.

Also with the more anime style is the scarfs and the movement of these scarfs and characters hair not something normally done in American cartoons. Aside from the Tezuka influence other obvious references have been episodes that clearly homage a particular series or movie, such as Initial D (this episode is great for D fans, or fans of racing games and movies such as Tokyo drift).

Now you couldn’t right about a series that features characters combining to create a robot without noting the Mecha influences. For one thing Symbiotic Titan’s transformation is actually more original than some Mecha’s I’ve seen over the years and it uses the idea of combing the will of the pilots nicely as well, there’s more to piloting this robot than just each controlling a part. But you could reference all kinds of shows from Gundam (the weapons), Gravion (the combination) and Aquarion Mecha’s the Cherubim Soldiers (more than one pilot working together physically and mentally).

All in all this series is fun, fresh and entertaining particularly if you want to play guess the reference!!!!
Now here’s the sad part cartoon Network decided to cancel this great series after 1 series and Genndy Tartakovsky is trying to get it revived by Sony Entertainment so please watch it and help the cause by going on Facebook to Save Sym-Bionic Titan and signing petition!!!!

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If you love Zombies as much as I do then you will love this great series that follows in the footsteps of the great Romero films and yet has all the quirks of a Japanese anime. This is like an anime version of Walking Dead only the protagonists are High School students. High school of the Dead is set in the present day, beginning as the world is struck by a deadly pandemic that turns humans into zombies, euphemistically referred to by the main characters as “Them” .The story follows a group of high school students, the high school’s nurse, and a young girl as they fight their way to safety through the deadly streets of Japan during a worldwide catastrophic event known as the “Outbreak”. The group sees Takashi Komuro as their leader, in the Anime and the Manga. The local group of survivors consists of six others and a small dog named Zeke, creating a team with one common goal: to survive, to survive by themselves. The authors used role-playing terminology to categorize the specific attributes each character brings to the group. Takashi Komuro serves mainly as the team leader. Rei Miyamoto, Saeko Busujima, and Kohta Hirano are considered fighters because of their exceptional skills with weapons; Saya Takagi described as the wizard due to her intelligence and deduction skills; Shizuka Marikawa assigned the role of priest as she is a licensed physician. The plot is initially concerned with survival and escape from the titular high school and zombies, but as the series proceeds it introduces the additional threats including: societal collapse, in the form of dangerous fellow survivors, technological attacks, using an Electromagnetic pulse bomb, and the possible decay of the characters’ own moral codes.

Now this isn’t a show for the young as the Zombie action is up there with the best violent, brutal and very gory. There’s all the Zombie action you could ever want, people being eaten alive right, left and centre. The Zombies themselves are great they look and act the part, the writers got all the lore in there, the way they react to sound, lack of pain and insatiable hunger. Of course once your bitten you turn into a Zombie there’s no exception to the rules which means some harsh decision right from the start for these characters. Everything you expect from the Zombie genre is here, swarming undead, very tense moments, suspense, zombie munching, bitten colleges, the breakdown of modern society, social concern being thrown away as well as the blurring of moral codes as basic survival takes centre. This is a series of at first escape, then doing anything to survive and then seeing the bigger picture of continued survival in a new world of madness and death. The series builds up very well to the final conclusion. The initial escape and bringing together of these characters, their need to survive no matter what and what they are going to do in this new world. As with most endings in the Zombie genre the end is really only the beginning as the series concludes on the characters setting out on their own mission into a new world now that they know who they are and what they’ll do to survive. Each episode is exciting and fun the resident evil movies could look to this series to see how old school zombie story telling still is great. I mean all the clichés are here; you know to expect head shots, the “he’s behind you” moment, daring rescues, sense of false security and blood blood blood.
What also makes this series so much fun is the evolution of weapons, at first these are just high school students fighting with wooden kendo swords, baseball bats and a broken mop. But as the series goes on they find weapons of increasingly destructive power so you get some amazing zombie kills. To steal a bit of Zombieland, “Zombie kill of the week goes to Kota from Japan for expertly turning a nail gun into a sniper rifle and consecutively getting head shouts”. Zombies are run over by various vehicles, beaten and shot at. Weapons range from a nail gun to sniper rifles, shot gun and of course swords (it wouldn’t be Japanese if there wasn’t a sword expert in the group. The series is also very well made its smooth and wonderfully edited with great scoring. It feels fresh and fast but sudden and shocking as well. Beautiful and brutal compare with the crisp and fluid style it’s got. Scenes of violence and be sharp and brutal but they also seem to flow with very good sweeping shots and great cinematography. This is shown during the escape from school as the animation acts like a camera speeding towards and away for our characters, chasing up to the zombies and in a fluid motion delivering our characters into the scene of violence and into battle. Even in battle like so much anime it’s very sleek and looks brilliant. There is nothing like watching an expert swiftly cut down and kill a group of zombies with grace and ease.

The characters all represent the normal clichés of girly and emotional, confident and smart, poised and deadly, the reluctant leader, ditzy and bouncy, weapon savvy and just plain cute. They aren’t too bad as stereotypes though, even being girly doesn’t mean your weak and being the ugly one doesn’t mean you are a loser. All the characters have their strength and they have their convictions, these are a confident and determined bunch and that is how they have survived. There’s also the romance aspect and the Japanese love of having one guy at the centre of all the female attention and which girl is he going to end up with. Now I can’t really talk about this series without mentioning the gratuitous amounts of fan service it has. In true anime fashion they have gone super crazy on the size of the girl’s breast and the amount of panty shots. I mean there’s a panty shot every few minutes and boobs are bouncing all over the place, I wouldn’t be surprized if you could actually take out a zombie with the swing on these breasts, I have no idea how these girls run, its plain insane. I mean the boobs are so big that the recoil from their guns makes there boobs bounce and jiggle like jelly. But it is rather amusing as you get all this amazing zombie action but you still have the girls wearing so very little as if it’s normal, I mean who fights zombies wearing nothing but a black thong and a white kitchen pinnie!!! And of course there’s very indulgent shots of these girls sleeping and prancing about in their underwear as well as group shower scenes and much fondling. I mean the school nurse wonders around naked and has boobs so big I haven’t worked out how she reaches the steering wheel of their jeep. If fan service really offends you then don’t watch it but if you can see the funny side and like me love zombies so much the fact that the girls leave nothing to the imagination and I now know the colour of each characters panties then go ahead treat yourself to this very indulgent and entertaining anime.

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I ended up watching this anime in one sitting so intrigued by how it was going to play out. I had seen the character designs and opening sequence and it was nothing I was interested, not my thing at all looked like a high school love drama. It looked all sweet and innocent and it was a romance so of no interest at all, just a big no no in terms of everything I normally like in a drama. Turns out this is a great example of never judge a book by its cover. The basic plot follows Makoto Ito rides the train to and from school every day. However, at the beginning of his second term, he falls in love with a beautiful girl that also rides the train. Unfortunately, she barely knows of his existence. Her name is Kotonoha Katsura, and though they attend the same school, they are not in the same class. In an attempt to catch her eye, Makoto enlists the aid of a close female friend of his: Sekai Saionji. She helps him, despite the fact that she–unbeknownst to Makoto–is in love with him. Thus the three are bound in a love triangle of life changing proportions. Yep it sounds like a boring love school drama but don’t be fooled there’s something underneath this little school life story.

It starts out all innocent and sweet you find out Makoto has a crush on a girl, Katsura, and his friend (Sekai) helps him get his girl. You soon learn that Sekai has feelings for Makoto too and she tries not to act on them instead offering special training to Makoto on how to seduce his new girlfriend. This is never a good idea playing couple and getting carried away is never going to end well and as things heat up between Makoto and Sekai their training session become something more and Makoto starts having feeling for Sekai preferring her to Katsura who is too shy and reserved to do anything more than a kiss on the cheek. It could have stayed this way but the anime is very good at slowly making things get more complicated and before you know it things have got out of hand and you wonder where the sweet little love triangle has gone. You feel bad for Katsura but Sekai is a nice girl so you’re pleased when Makoto chooses her but instead of doing the right thing he still continues to string Katsura along. This not only confuses the other characters who don’t know who Makoto is really dating but you start getting the feeling that Makoto isn’t as innocent as you first thought. Turns out he’s a real pig but he does it so subtly it’s not until towards the end you realise that he’s actually not as nice as everyone thinks he is and he is in fact a pervert. Once he’s had a taste of sex he seems to just go with where ever he can get it, his feeling for Sekai are based on the fact that he could sleep with her and once he works out that other girls like him he can have sex with anyone he wants.
It doesn’t help that this school has some right bitchy and slutty girls in it and by the last 3 eps you can rest assured that no one is looking innocent and this isn’t a nice little love story. Makoto isn’t all lost and confused he’s just playing all these girls and using their feelings and insecurities to sleep with them with no remorse or consideration for anyone’s feelings. It no wonder things get out of hand by the end he’s juggling about 5 girls, got one pregnant and broken Katsura’s heart and turned her into a zombie wondering around talking to herself as if she’s still dating Makoto. I’m not entirely sure if this series is aimed at girls or boys, there’s a lot of fan service and panty shots galore but I would be a bit disturbed being a guy watching this as it makes a very good tale of caution to all men who cheat. Be careful of breaking girl’s hearts they may turn out to be far scarier than you initially thought. I couldn’t wait to see Makoto get what he deserved from being such a two timing letch and was hooked on every ep slowly watching this drama get more adult and that feeling of something sinister lurking beneath the surface. It came in the last 10 mins of the last episode. It’s only a 12 episode series so it doesn’t get slow and you do get sucked in and then you witness a rather disturbing last ep. I wasn’t entirely sure what was going to happen but not quite the ending I saw. I thought maybe suicide not the bloodshed and rather deranged behaviour of girls who have been used. It was a little shocking but defiantly worth the wait as it leaves a rather bad taste in your mouth at the end. It’s not the most disturbing thing I’ve seen in anime but compared to the rest of the series it defiantly counts are a rather horrific ending. So yes this anime is great well worth a look as it prove two rules:
1: Never judge a book (or in this case a series) by its cover.
2:Don’t cheat you have no idea how someone will react till it’s too late and there’s no going back!!

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1 – Getbackers - this has to one of the best action anime’s out there, you soon work out that my fav shonen anime’s are all based on people with powers and weird weapons fighting each other. There’s normally no explanation to why these people have super powers and weird abilities or strange weapons but boy is it fun to watch them fight each other. Getbackers get the prize for the best because I love the character designs. I mean there are loads of interesting characters with wonderful abilities Dr jackal is one of my fav’s, he’s neither good nor bad but more on the dark side I mean he seems to manipulate knives that live in his blood and has no problem for violence.

The series tells the story of Ginji Amano and Ban Mido, a pair of super powered individuals known as the “GetBackers”. The duo operates a freelance repossession service out of one of the seedier areas of Shinjuku, Tokyo. For a fee, they will recover any lost or stolen item for a client with “a 100% success rate”. The GetBackers’ job often leads them into bizarre and dangerous situations in order to “get back what shouldn’t be gone”. Their targets range from lost video games to misplaced components of an atomic bomb. The plot mostly revolves around their adventures, often complicated by the pair’s convoluted, individual pasts and a mysterious place known as the Infinity Fortress. Through their misadventures they encounter old friends, new rivals, enemies and new allies. Soon discovering a great conspiracy within the fortress. It’s worth noting that while I love this anime it has one of those stupid none ending endings so you have to read the manga to see how the story ends. But even so it has some truly brilliant battles and while it starts of silly you soon discover just how messed up some of these characters are, all with hidden pasts and buckets of angst and I do love an angsting bishie. And yes these are both men!!!

It also has the very feminine male character that I love, the type of guy that can pass as a female yet is truly deadly and not to underestimate based on looks. Kazuki is my fav character ultimate girly bishie that has a sworn protected/best friend in Jubei which makes a lovely yaoi pairing. It is the great action and intense battle that drive this series and it looks brilliant, I have so much fun watching it!!!

2 – HunterxHunter – ah the series that naruto clearly ripped off since its older and in my opinion so much better. Twelve years prior to the start of the story, Ging Freecss left his infant son, Gon, with Gon’s aunt Mito on Whale Island. Gon, raised believing both his parents were dead, finds out from Ging’s apprentice, Kite, that his father is still alive and has since become an accomplished “Hunter”. Hunters are licensed, elite members of humanity who are capable of tracking down secret treasure, rare beasts, or even other individuals. Gon leaves his home to follow in his father’s footsteps as a Hunter by taking the “Hunter Examination”, a series of brutal tests involving skill, survival, and teamwork. Prior to and during the exam, Gon meets and befriends three of the other applicants: Kurapika, the last remaining member of the Kurta clan who wishes to become a Hunter in order to avenge his slain people; Leorio, a prospective physician who claims to desire to become rich; and Killua Zoldyck, who fled his life as a member of a notorious assassin family. These 4 enter the hunter exams together and the story follows their trials to become hunters and then their duties as hunters. The series is great because like so many battle based series they don’t spend 3 eps on one fight they get down to it in one ep making battles intense and harsh. The series doesn’t waste too much time on fillers and works to tell the story as we learn more about the past of these characters. The anime finished before the manga so again you have to read the manga to know what happens next but it does complete each story arc bringing you closer to the characters and the past and futures they face.

My fav character is of course our angsting pretty bishonen Kurapika. I love him he is all beauty and grace and hidden power drowning in so much angst. He truly has an awful past and I’m so sure it’s much of his storyline that got ripped off by naruto. I mean his whole clan gets slaughters so he’s the last survivor now out for revenge, when he get agitated or powers up his eyes glow red and he unlocks his true power. He really does give himself so much crap and just lets revenge and guilt torture him and has a hard time truly opening up. Like all good bishies he can pass as a girl and I do enjoy slashing him with Leorio. The other great character is the violent psycho clown that I’m sure is a bit of a paedophile, he makes a great villain. The battles are great with an interesting array of abilities and weapons and I love the pacing of this series it just gets down to it!!!!

3 – Bleach – God I love this show so much so that I have hollow ichigo’s mask tattooed on my back. Ichigo Kurosaki is a teenager gifted with the ability to see spirits. His life is drastically changed by the sudden appearance of a Soul Reaper —one who governs the flow of souls between the human world and the afterlife—named Rukia Kuchiki, who arrives in search of a Hollow, a dangerous lost soul. When Rukia is severely wounded defending Ichigo from the Hollow, she attempts to transfer half of her reiatsuenergy to Ichigo so that he can defeat the Hollow. However, Ichigo takes almost all of her energy, transforming into a Soul Reaper and allowing him to defeat the Hollow with ease. With her powers diminished, Rukia is left stranded in the human world until she can recover her strength. In the meantime, Ichigo must take over Rukia’s role as a Soul Reaper, battling Hollows and guiding souls to the afterlife realm known as the Soul Society. The story follows Ichigo as well as his human friends that develop strange powers and their battles. Also thrown into the mix are the other members of soul society other shinigamis and all their conflicts, conspiracies, ambitions and corruption. I love shinigami lore so anything based on this is a must for me but this series is also just brilliant all the powers and weapons you could ever wish for plus some of the best battles I have ever seen in anime history. I really don’t know where to begin there are great character designs and from a series that’s now over 200 eps you know there’s gonna be loads of great characters, wonderful back stories, complications and contradictions, fights to the death and omg how brilliant are these fights. Every time I think they can’t get better a character levels up, unlocks a new ability, evolves their weapon or just loses the plot. Ichigo is a great protagonist and I don’t normally like the leads as they are a bit too honest and pure but he has such a great stubborn and arrogant streak. I love how flawed these characters are and how grey some of the show is not so black and white in terms of who is good or bad or what is best for humanity and the spirit world. It is very epic as you would guess from a 200 plus series but it’s very addictive watching.

Among my fav things is the very sexy Aburai Renji a shinigami with long red hair and tattoos who is as stubborn and arrogant as Ichigo and Ishida uryu the Last Quincy our angsting bishie with an interesting past and back story who is arrogant in a different way generally thinking he is better but not so violent and outwardly hostile. If you’re not watching this series THEN WHY NOT!!!!!! It is one of the best action series ever and really hasn’t put a foot wrong.

4 – Flame of Recca – Another great old school battle series, basically I have a thing for any series that has a tournament in it and FoR is another great example. It was one of the first anime’s I watched 15 years ago before I really knew the difference in genres and style all I knew is that I loved the fighting and the arrogant I’m better than the protagonist bishie in FoR its one Tokiya Mikagami.

Flame of Recca follows the story of a teenage boy named Recca Hanabishi, who is interested in ninja and claims to be one himself. He often gets into fights because he made it publicly known that the person who manages to defeat him will earn his services as a loyal ninja. Despite this, he eventually pledges his loyalty and services as a ninja to Yanagi Sakoshita, a girl with the innate ability to heal any wound/injury, because of her kindness and compassion. Recca soon discovers that he possesses the innate ability to control/manipulate flames, and eventually learns that he is actually the son of the sixth generation leader of the Hokage, a ninja clan that was wiped out by Oda Nobunaga in 1576, roughly 400 years before the series’ present day. The Hokage ninjas wielded mystical objects called madōgu which are referred to as “psychic devices” or “elemental weapons” in the English versions of the series. Madōgu grant their users special abilities, such as allowing their users to manipulate certain elements (as in the case of the Fūjin, which allows its wielder to manipulate the element of wind) and enhancing their user’s strength/skills (as in the case of the Dosei no Wa, which increases its user’s physical strength and the Idaten, which increases its user’s running speed). Oda Nobunaga had invaded the Hokage in 1576 for the purpose of acquiring these weapons, and the series’ main antagonist, Kōran Mori, is searching for a madōgu that will grant him eternal life. Recca and his friends become entangled in Mori’s quest for eternal life as he initially attempts to kidnap Yanagi, believing that her healing powers will help him achieve immortality. This leads them to join the Ura Butō Satsujin, a tournament wherein the warriors that wield madōgu gather to battle each other. After successfully winning the tournament, Recca and his teammates discover that Mori was on his way to acquire the Tendō Jigoku, a madōgu said to grant its user eternal life, and once again attempt to stop him. I know the series is old school but it doesn’t change the fact that as a childhood fav it will always be in the top selection for me.

Also its great I mean ninja superpowers, cool characters, amazing weapons, great battles, a hot bishonen and a great storyline sometimes classics really are more awesome then some of the new series (cough naruto cough).

5 – Yu Yu Hakashu – last but not least another great tournament based battle anime from the same team that brought me HunterxHunter, both manga’s are by the same person so of course both are brilliant. YuYu Hakusho follows Yusuke Urameshi, a street-brawling delinquent who, in an uncharacteristic act of altruism, is hit by a car and killed in an attempt to save a young boy by pushing him out of the way. His ghost is greeted by Botan, a woman who introduces herself as the pilot of the River Styx, who ferries souls to the “Underworld” where they may be judged for the afterlife. Botan informs Yusuke that his act had caught even the Underworld by surprise and that there was not yet a place made for him in either heaven or hell. Thus Koenma, son of the Underworld’s ruler King Enma, offers Yusuke a chance to return to his body through a series of tests. Yusuke succeeds with the help of his friend Keiko. After returning to life, Koenma grants Yusuke the title of “Underworld Detective”, charging him with investigating supernatural activity within the human world. Soon Yusuke is off on his first case, retrieving three treasures stolen from the Underworld by a gang of demons: Hiei, Kurama and Goki. Yusuke collects the three treasures with the aid of his new technique, the “Rei Gun”, a shot of aura energy fired mentally from his index finger.[2][4] He then travels to the mountains in search of the aged, female martial artist Genkai. Together with his rival Kazuma Kuwabara, Yusuke fights through a tournament organized by Genkai to find her successor. Yusuke uses the competition as a cover to search for Rando, a demon who steals the techniques of martial arts masters and kills them. Yusuke defeats Rando in the final round of the tournament and trains with Genkai for several months, gaining more mastery over his aura. Yusuke is then sent to Maze Castle in the Underworld where Kuwabara and the newly reformed Kurama and Hiei assist him in defeating the Four Beasts, a quartet of demons attempting to blackmail Koenma into removing the barrier keeping them out of the human world. After this the series follows the various arcs of the manga and our team ends up involved in the dark and dangerous Tournament. The series itself is based around 3 huge tournament themed arcs and is very focused on the battles. It can take a few episodes for each fight and does have the very clichéd fight battle. Hero starts winning a bit, gets cocky, badie shows true strength, hero gets knocked back, badie reveals why he is in this fight and a bit of back story before trying to beat hero, hero finds new hidden strength and makes a comeback defeating bad guy. Every character gets their fair share of wins and losses and it’s always exciting to see what happens. I love the intense battles the interrelationships between the competitors and the fact that sometimes things aren’t black and white and friends and enemies aren’t set in stone or easy to judge too quickly.

My fav character is unsurprisingly our beautiful bishie Kurama with his past coming back to haunt him and his beauty and skill not one to be underestimated. He generally is the strongest in the group and while soft spoken and well-mannered he is level headed, kind and deadly. Kurama is one of the few characters that can set aside is humanity and use the demon inside to get things done that none of the other characters would ever have the guts and ability to do. Did I mention he was beautiful to he use a rose whip and demon plants adding to the feminine appearance but when he transform to his true demon form you get a very sexy 7ft silver haired Kitsuna compete with tail and ears and a violent rather sadistic streak which is brilliant. Plus he and Hiei clearly have a very close relationship so there’s my lovely yaoi fan girl all satisfied. I love that even in the most violent brutal anime’s filled with fights, death, blood and battle I still find a way to slash them nothing like violent bishies to make a happy fan girl of me.

Of course I could have made this list a top 10 easily as a fan of the old school as well a new battle/tournament/arena style amine’s so other great recommendations if you want powers, abilities, weapons, fights and action are: Saint Seiya, Mar, DBZ, Law of Ueki, Black cat, Tokyo Underground and Hitman reborn!!!

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I have just finished watching the new series of FMA and what can I say truly amazing I loved it I really didn’t want it to end. Now I loved the original series I thought it was great and was in love with the character Roy Mustang. The basic plot is that of 2 brothers whose mother dies so they break the biggest taboo in their world, Human transmutation. Basically set in a world that is a cross between early 20th century Europe mixed with Alchemy, this is not magic this is the more scientific and practical implication of magic the true art know as Alchemy, there are some that know Alchemy. These two brothers after the loss of their mother decide to use Alchemy to bring her back from the dead. Alchemy works by equivalent exchange you need to give something of equal value to get something back, i.e. turning a lump of mud into a rock statue. So the brothers collect all the things that make up a human body and try to transmute it back into their mother. Unfortunately human transmutation isn’t as cut and dry as normal alchemy and in the process of trying to recreate their mother Al loses his body and Ed loses his arm. Making it worse the thing that is created is such a twisted and unrecognizable thing that it soon dies and is nothing like their mother. Ed in a fit of desperation affixes his brother soul to a suit of armour as to not lose him altogether and in the process sacrifices his leg as toll for the alchemy to save his brothers soul. After this event they are visited by Colonel Roy Mustang hearing about two very young but talented alchemists that he wants to recruit them. After what he sees of them he gives them a choice, wallow in the horrific fate they have dealt to themselves or move forward. Ed decided to take up the colonel’s words he becomes a State Alchemist working for the military. State Alchemists see themselves as the dogs of the military being bound to be used as human weapons whenever their skills are required but in exchange they are highly paid and have high positions meaning access to research and policies above the regular army. Ed becomes a state alchemist in order to find a way to get his and Al’s body back. Ed has auto mails, a mechanical limp, to replace his missing arm and leg and thus is named the Full Metal Alchemist. All state alchemists are given a name according to their ability; Roy is the Flame alchemist because of his expert and deadly use of flame alchemy.

There is so much more plot to the series as the brothers get involved in a conspiracy that runs so deep and is so very twisted in the very history of the military and the country’s history. While Ed and Al try to get their bodies Roy is trying to rise throughout the ranks to become the highest ranked person in this country and change it from within. Both discover more than they would ever have imagined hiding in the undercurrents of their society and work to achieve their goals as well as saving this country from its terrible fate. The series has a lot of characters all very important, they represent different races and cultures different sides of this war and conspiracy, enemies, heroes, outsiders drawn into the chaos, individuals on their own missions caught up in the bigger picture and those that just want to stay out of it even if fate has other plans. This is one of the great things about this series all the character have their parts to play big and small but they all get given the time and investment to complete their journeys. All characters get equal screen time, story focus and character development, they all get the chance to tell their story and how it impacts the bigger picture. All these characters are brought together, inspired and changed by meeting Ed and seeing his determination and conviction. Ed in turn is also inspired by seeing these same qualities in Roy Mustang and while he is on his own journey very much wants to see the country Roy will build at the end of his journey. I was so happy to see that each story line was given equal respect and that all characters were given the time to develop. The original had a lot more focus on just Ed and Al and since I was such a Roy fan was really interested in his journey especially considering how important he is. This series is helped very much by the fact that Roy is in fact a very important part not just because he is trying to change and save the country and has eyes on the future but he is also an essential part of the bigger conspiracy and the behind the scenes darkness that threatens to destroy the country, the big bad also has plans for him.

For a 64 episode series it amazed me how quickly all the events were set in motion. Ed is already a state alchemist, he and Al working together to finish a job given to him by the Colonel. Ed is already a strong a focused person who cares deeply for people, Al is also very much a strong and caring person both brother sharing a strong bond, a deep fondness showing they are not just tied by fate and blood but also genuinely care and respect each other. There are no standalone episodes, no story so far eps and no filler eps its pure storyline start to finish. This makes the series very epic and very hard to stop watching if you need to go to work. It’s very intense and has a much darker tone than the original. I for one prefer the darker more gritty feel of this series, how much harsher they play it. Not just the fact that they really show you how much hell these characters have been through and go through but also the inner turmoil and pain they are going through. The series is more violent and doesn’t hold back on the horrific nature of war, human experimentation, revenge, mutation and sacrifice. But it’s not just visually harsher and more violent the mental strain and despair within the human soul is also very apparent. And it’s not just the human characters that get this harsher tone but the villains the homunculus have a far more tortured existence and representation. The Homunculus are made, they were created by their “father” to help him achieve his ultimate goal. Each one is named after a seven deadly sin and represent an emotion “father” threw away in order to gain perfection and rise above humanity. Homunculi believe they are far superior to humans and have their own set of morals and way of living. They are also far more the monsters in the series, not just physically but also in terms of the crimes they commit. A good example is Envy and his true form, a giant green almost lizard that has all the humans he consume twisting in agony over his skin making him every bit the monster on the outside as he is on the inside. But what truly tortures these homunculus is the fact that they are also jealous of humanity that think they are above us and yet part of them yearns to like us and that hurts them in ways that physical pain can’t.

The series is just brilliant never slowing down, showing the true strength of the bonds between people and how strong humans can really be. It also expose how corrupt and dangerous we are as a race. We are both easily manipulated and heroic and this series shows the best and worst of humanity. The action is amazing both fight scenes and the way alchemy is used. For such a large and intricately woven story it is very interesting and follows well never getting too complicated or trying to be too intelligent. It is so worth watching truly one of the best series that has come out in recent years.

When I found out they had made an anime to Togainu no chi I was over the moon, couldn’t wait to watch it, bouncing off the walls. It’s based on a BL game and while I haven’t played the game because I have no idea how to get an English patch for a Japanese game I do have all the SG’s (screen grabs). This means I know all the characters and all the possible pairings and endings. It’s one violent and explicit yaoi game so I was very looking forward to watching it play out in anime. While the characters still look great and have good voice actors for them the rest of the anime was a bit of a let-down. The basic story is that Akira, the number one street fighter, is framed for a murder he didn’t commit. While his sentencing is being completed he is visited by a mysterious woman who gives him the option of rooting in prison or taking up a tag going to a district called Toshima and participating in the Igra game. Toshima is a violent and deadly district sealed off from the normal world that has its own set of rules. Igra is a game in which you collect tags from opponents, the tags are similar to cards and you have to try and get a royal flush so that you can challenge ll Re and gain the position of drug lord. Everyone is given 5 random tags and you basically have to fight people for them in the hope you opponent has a tag that will get you closer to making it to a royal flush. This leads to violent battles and a lot of bloodshed and death. Add to the mix a drug called Line that gives you super strength while turning you mad you get a great gritty and harsh environment. So far so good was nice knowing the plot behind the game and images I’d collected from it and it was a world and plot that appeals to my violent aesthetic.

But things start going wrong, for a BL game that has a lot of sex scenes between the bishonen the anime is barely recognisable as even a shonen ai show. There’s only 2 openly gay scenes in it, one is a guy escaping with love bits on his chest while a naked guy gets out of bed screaming bastard and dripping blood, obviously he literally got screwed so the escaping guy could steal his tags and the other is from the only openly gay character as he enters a room full of naked boys and starts stripping. The only gay character is a creep a really freaky pervert that while being the ruler of Toshima also has a large BDSM fetish and even has his own pretty boy gimp that acts like a dog following him about. Now while I love my yaoi and especially the dark side not so into creepy rapist BDSM perverts. As for the rest of the bishonen you have Akira who is our main protagonist and from the SG’s has about 8 pairing options so I was interested to see how they were going to show all his possible romances and see who he was going to get together with during the series. Unfortunately they play down the BL element there’s only really 2 options for a romance but mostly just strong friendships and then definite hate based relationships. I was so upset about the playing down of the BL elements, I mean you can slash the series but it’s based on a Yaoi game so come on at least let the guys have a hug maybe a kiss or at least put the possibility of a relationship into it.

The majority of the series concentrates on the drug Line and its affects and this is where the yaoi fan girl gets a bit happier because the relationship between Akira and his best friend Keisuke really intensifies. Poor Keisuke he worries so much about Akira he follows him into this crazy mess even joining the Igra even though by nature he is a timid, shy and genuinely nice guy. His gentleness and caring nature though cause him to get into trouble and Akira snaps at him saying he’s useless and in the way so Keisuke runs off. Its here when Akira realises how much he’s taken their friendship for granted and realises he wants to stay together with Keisuke, protect him and escape together. Unfortunately misguided Keisuke decided that he needs to be stronger if he wants to stay with Akira so takes Line and becomes a brutal monster convinced Akira hates him. So Keisuke tries to kill Akira and poor Akira has to fight his best friend. Thrown into the mix is the next important plot line of something weird about Akira’s blood and if a Line user tastes it they react violently resulting in poisoning. So yes you get it, as Akira is trying to convince Keisuke’s how important he is to him and how he truly wants to be with the man he was before the Line and that he wants to escape together and all other romantic and slash friendly conversations Keisuke accidently get some of Akira’s blood in him. Akira pretty much gets the fright of his life thinking he’s lost the most important person to him but luckily their strong bond is enough to help Keisuke resist death and come out alive and well. But do they hug no, this is where they were supposed to hug or kiss but instead they just smile at each other. So fan girl was happy then she was sad again and to make matters worse the last 5 eps start to make no sense at all.
You get the feeling that there was a lot more back story to the characters that we never really find out so things get confusing. If this had stayed a street fight with drug abuse storyline things would have been fine but no it had to get weird. There’s a military experiment, superpowers, perfect soldiers and mind wipes that all get revealed and dealt with so quickly there’s no time to work out what the hell happened. Just as I was getting used to another plot line about a brother seeking revenge on his older brother for killing his mates it all goes tits up in plot, why the hell did they have to bring in secrete government weapons made human. We get a cryptic guy that flies about talking about his blood and saying how to overcome your fear. Rin was an interesting character small cute boy deadly in a fight but bounced about happily, turns out he has a grudge to settle with his older hot sword wielding badass of a brother Shiki. But do we get to know the details no, why did Shiki kill their friends, how did Rin get to Toshima, why is Shiki working for pervert man delivering drugs and killing everyone in his path, what is the fear born within him he is trying to control, why did he turn into a super soldier after biting Nichole the floating weapon man, why why why. So many questions no answers and a mess really. What’s with Nichole I get he doesn’t have emotions he’s a living weapon so why is he hiding out in Toshima, it turns out his blood is the base of Line so why is he supplying it to pervert. At the end Nichole ended up in a big fight with Shiki, but why was he giving Shiki briefcases of Line, then he asks him to bite him and take his blood to pass a trial, what bloody trial and only for him to go you failed now let’s fight aahhhh!!!!! Not making sense anymore just making me confused. It’s hard to perv on all you pretty boys when nothing is making sense. In the end military, some other secret company no one thought to mention earlier and they guys who framed Akira and got him into this mess all turn up and a war breaks out, WTF!!! Why are planes bombing perverts castle, who the hell are the secret company that want the super weapon why are a load of people with guns shooting everyone, where is the plot!!
So yeah to make matters worse as our main guys plan to leave Toshima and get out of the mess when Shiki turns up all super powered and decided he wants to kill Akira and just to kick the yaoi fan girl in me he bloody well kills Keisuke. Keisuke who has gotten over his addiction to Line, survived madness and had Akira pretty much confess to him tries to save Akira and gets chopped down. I was not happy what was the point in killing the love interest, it was a very loving and beautiful farewell, and these two guys really did love each other and finally got to admit it in their own way but still No!!!!!! Akira goes a little mental luckily Rin turns up to tell him Keisuke wouldn’t want him to die but rather live on and they all escape. I’m sorry but this whole Keisuke would want you to live on, no thanks I’d rather have Akira get his revenge on Shik,i dying and then at least he wouldn’t have to live without the man he loves and instead be reunited with Keisuke in their next life (I’m a reincarnation fan). No even though Toshima is a war zone and their seems to be a battle between super human weapons Akira makes it out back to normal society and gets a job. It’s very anticlimactic, we hear that back in Toshima a new version of line is being sold on the streets, so does that mean pervert and his goons lived and his place wasn’t destroyed by all those bombs, what happened to Nichole the human weapon or poor Keisuke’s body come on people a bit more answers rather than this wet boring ending. At least after the credits we get a bit more though by this point I was all upset and mad and therefore not really paying that much attention to Akira’s speech on the meaning of life, what it means to live, what Keisuke taught him and all that jazz but he somehow as gained a sword and he makes his way back to Toshima to fight Shiki so maybe he still does get his revenge and reunites with Keisuke but we won’t know. So any way if you’re expecting a shonen ai series like Loveless, Yami No Matsuei or Sukisyo then be disappointed and then very confused. But if you don’t mind watching pretty boys kill each over than knock yourself out but this won’t be going down as a favourite and it had so much potential to do so!!!!

Please dont forget to check out Let Zoe Spoil You on facebook, i have images from all revied show’s as well as my screen grabs from the Togainu no chi game as well!!!

So readers it’s a New Year and a new start now that the craziness of the last few months have calmed I’m hoping to spend some more time here on LZSY. Lots of movies and shows that I’ve collected that need watching and reviewing me thinks. Also hoping to add a few more details to the site try and get a bit more fancy I hope. So far the only thing I’ve managed to do is add a picture to the about page, I know wow so exciting but it’s a start. I also have started giving myself challenges for no other reason that I like to outdo myself. The December challenge was to watch all 5 seasons of How I Met Your Mother in that month. Obviously I passed that and have to say I am very pleased with myself that took some dedication since I had to fit it around work, the gym and the crazy busy Xmas season so yay go team me for dedication to television. This month I’m going for all three seasons of Leverage, which happens to be awesome. It’s like a strange mix of Oceans 11, Hustle and Robin Hood and basically you have a team of super thief’s that now help those that can’t. You know the theme evil corporation has all the money in the world to get corrupt lawyers and cover up any bad thing they do so the little guy doesn’t stand a chance when they find out about the corruption or that the company has destroyed a family member. The legal system doesn’t work for them or will take so long that the company can just get away with it. Well in come the leverage team taking law into their own hands and dishing out justice to the little man. The winning thing about this show are the characters, you have the Hitter, the Hacker, the Grifter, the thief and the Mastermind. They all have such interesting and great personalities you really do love them all and their so witty and a little mad each on. There’s lots of twists and turns, double plays and cons on top of cons that you’re never board and it make for very fun watching, plus the Hitter is played by Christian Kane who is buff and one sexy man!!!!

Any way so yeah my challenge is to take a series I haven’t seen that’s at least been going for 3 seasons and binge watch it in a month so if any of you have ideas on good TV let me know. I’m still watching movies and Asian drama’s but I go through fazes and at the mo its American drama’s. Of course I’m still watching anime I think I would shrivel up and die if I wasn’t watching anime. I need to get my butt together and review some of the series I watch last year I got through a fair few. Let’s see what did I watch: Eyeshield 21, Tale of Genji, Gundam 00, When the seagulls cry i.e. Umineko (please avoid this one unless you like being completely unsatisfied and slightly confused!!!), Working!! (This was great fun), Hipira, Kobato ( I hate to say it but for the first time ever there’s a Clamp anime that just didn’t work for me), Macross F movie( what was the point!!!!), Needless, Mouryo no Hakko, after many years of watching it the final series of Prince of tennis (god I love this show fan girl heaven), Hakuouki 1, Tokyo Majin Gakuen Kenpucho Tou: Dainimaku and I am still working my way through Bleach and Hitman reborn!!!
Wow you’d think I do nothing but watch TV but I also somehow manage to fit a social life, my gym schedule and Xbox time into my week as well. Also if you have an xbox and you havent played Lost Odessy then you must its a very addictive RPG that has been eating up alot of my time and it has been so worth it!!! Any way here’s wishing you a great new year and hopefully some fun reviews and great ideas for new shows and movies to watch. And lastly I have now set up a facebook page for LZSY under the name Let Zoe Spoil You!!

I absolutely love this series it was just so much fun. I do love a good mecha series but have found many that become a little too serious and pretentious. Mecha has a tendency to go a little too deep and while I love series such as Evangelion and Fafner sometimes I would like a mecha series which is a little more fun. A series where you still have amazing robot designs which wonderful movements and battle with all the destructive force you expect of a giant robot but a little less politics. Sometimes I’d like there not to be huge government conspiracies, strange spiritual and religious undertones, emotional backwards pilots and plots that are so complicated that you can’t just enjoy the beauty of a Mecha. Basquash has so much to offer, it has big, loud battling Mecha’s, but instead of an all-out global war they are the tools in a new sport. Mecha’s are used to play a hyped up version of basketball. And like all good sports shows we have intense games and driven and courageous characters. The story takes place in the world of “Earth Dash”, an alternate, futuristic version of Earth where human society split between the far more advanced lunar society and that of the planet’s surface. A popular sport is BFB (Big Foot Basketball), where players ride mecha called “Big Foot” and play basketball in a giant arena. In the city of Rolling Town, Dan JD and his companions take the sport to the streets, rename it “Basquash”, and then embark on a journey to overcome their past hardships and make their dreams come true.

After BFB took to the streets to create Basquash another company tried to monopolize this new sport creating a new league but Dan JD and his team realised this still wasn’t the Basquash they created and therefore went out to play their own true underground form of the sport. We learn much about our characters, Dan JD, who was originally banned from BFB because of the destruction he causes at their championship. He has spent a year in prison and amounted enormous debt but still he wants to play the game. He wants to make up for the fact that his sister (who was a better player than him) had her legs destroyed by a Big Foot. Now he plays because she can’t and is ever growing in strength and skill. Like all good protagonists he is stubborn, proud and brave, he doesn’t back down and he gives everything for his game with passion and enthusiasm. Joining him in his team are Sela d Miranda and Iceman Hottie. Now Iceman Hottie is a character that lives up to his name which is always good and definitely supplies us girls with eye candy, with his angsty past, his slightly split personality, his amazing game play he is near unbeatably and makes for one extremely strong Basquash player. Basquash has a great collection of characters and yes there are plenty of big breasted girls, lots of fan service but it never distracts from the series and is less obvious and in your face than an anime such as Line barrels.

The world they live in is also a good mix of future scapes and industrialization. You see the contrast between the moon world and the earth world and the different way the two civilizations live. People on the surface are trying to get to the moon, the chance of a better life. But it turns out there is more connecting these two civilisations. A great tragedy is prophesized to engulf both worlds and it’s not long before our team of Basquash players find themselves in the middle of it. There’s a bigger picture to the series than just the game they play, winning matches and proving yourself the best Basquash player. All that helps you grow and realize your full potential and that comes into play for the final battle to save the planets. The series is also well paced, a great mixture of drama, comedy, fighting spirit and real threat. It also has great music I just love the opening and ending themes for this series they fit perfectly. “nO limiT” by Eclipse is a fun song performed by our idol group characters; many a great anime has an idol or group where would Macross be without its songs. While Eclipse isn’t quite there compared to the songs of Gundam Seed or Macross there’s still that element of a song bringing hope and strength to the battle which is a theme I’ve always like. Inspiration and power through something peaceful and artistic like music. And of course where’s there’s a female singer involved there’s a romance and like many a good series a nice love triangle. In fact Basquash shares a few similarities with the Macross franchise but without the epic war aspect. The smaller aspects are similar, music, relationships, reluctant hero’s, ace pilots and just an energy and vibrancy that goes with a great made series.