Another Every Other Month Review of Anime DVDs (and manga) I have seen…
Robert Maxwell
Another Monthly (Quarterly?) Review of Anime DVDs (and manga) I have seen…
Angelic Layer Collection [Strip/Thin]
Happy Lesson Teacher's Pet Collection [Strip/Thin]
Mezzo TV [Strip/Thin]
Plus rental reviews...
Arcade Gamer Fubuki [OVA - 1 of 1]
Excel Saga
Elfen Lied Vol. 1
Gundam Seed Destiny Vol. 1
Saint Tail
Stratos 4
And English Manga...
Gacha Gacha
Genshiken
Love Hina
Tsukuyomi ~ Moon Phase ~
Pastel
Yotsuba&!
Reviews will include content, service, packaging, music, and extras using a
three *** system. One * equals poor quality/design. Two ** equals average to
good. Three *** equals something that I especially enjoyed. Be aware that
most everything was watched with the English dub. Also noted was how I got
to see it. Lastly, a new acronym – BDN for "Barbie Doll Nudity", i.e., no
nipples, no pubes, and no "equipment".
Although, voice actors typically don't matter to me, I do have a few
favorites that will be mentioned.
English:
Hilary Haag - Current Favorite
Rachel Lillis - Second Favorite - famous as Misty from Pokémon.
Tiffany Grant - the German speaking Asuka from Eva.
Japanese:
Tange Sakura - Kinomoto Sakura from Cardcaptor Sakura.
Iwao Junko - Tomoyo when she is excited or singing. Not so much when she is
just talking.
+ Angelic Layer Collection [Strip/Thin]
I had earlier reviewed this a single rental DVD.
Had CLAMP not done Cardcaptor Sakura, Angel Layer would have been CLAMP's
legendary young girls' anime and Misaki would be a candidate for Loli Queen.
Sadly, Sakura-chan casts a long shadow over this very enjoyable series that
had the dual misfortune of being both the next CLAMP series after CCS and
following it so soon afterwards. If CCS is a 10, Angelic Layer is a solid
8+. This is definitely a show for the young daughters (and parents).
Got -- $91 ADV Sale
Story ***
Service -- No service. It's a CLAMP kids show after all.
Pack -- Thin Pack cases in box.
Music **
Extras -- Menu consists of Episode # and Languages and nothing else.
+ Happy Lesson Teacher's Pet Collection [Strip/Thin]
A somewhat run of the mill harem show with mostly adult women. There is a
female class president in the mix and one of the women looks loli. Most of
the characters are annoying people but the series is tolerable nonetheless.
The collection only includes the original OVA and the TV series and does not
include the second OVA that wraps everything up. There is also an infamous
"reset" at the end of the TV series (to allow the second OVA to finish
things). However, the reset is not complete as she gains a new boldness she
previously lacked, almost as she remembers deep down the response, such as
it was, to her confession.
Got -- $91 ADV Sale
Story **
Service -- No service.
Pack -- Thin Pack cases in box.
Music **
Extras -- Menu consists of Episode # and Languages and nothing else.
+ Mezzo TV [Strip/Thin]
It is a merely tolerable action adventure series that pales in comparison
to what the anime producers made prior to it. The new featured loli co-star
does nothing for most of the series. And all of the fan service is limited
to the OP which also served as the trailer so, if you saw the trailer, you
also saw all of the fan service.
Got -- $91 ADV Sale
Story **
Service -- *
Pack -- Thin Pack cases in box.
Music **
Extras -- Menu consists of Episode # and Languages and nothing else.
Arcade Gamer Fubuki [OVA - 1 of 1]
A mahou panti show that revolves around a world video game tournament.
Pretty lame although, the panty service art is pretty good and she does have
a rival to double up the service.
Got -- Rental
Story **
Service -- **
Pack -- N/A
Music **
Extras -- **
+ Excel Saga
I am underwhelmed. It is a nice comfortable show. If you got some extra
money and you find a box or collection of it at a really good price, get it,
but, I would not rush out to buy it even at 30-40% off. It is like they had
a Mad Libs fill in the blank script for every episode. It should be noted
that I much prefer an ongoing story with a beginning, a middle, and an end
over episodic comedy.
Got -- Rental
Story **
Service -- *
Pack -- N/A
Music **
Extras -- **
+ Elfen Lied Vol. 1
The first episode is ultra violent and contains extreme nudity including
exposed labia and nipples. Definitely a TV-MA and NC-17 episode. The other
episodes are tamer by comparison but still R-rated. It's a romantic
comedy/harem show crossbred with the Terminator movies.
Got -- Rental
Story **
Service -- ***
Pack -- N/A
Music *** The OP gives new meaning to Latin pop music and the ED is sung by
Osaka Naru. :)
Extras -- **
+ Gundam Seed Destiny Vol. 1
In the first episode, a space colony is attacked by spies who steal three
of four top secret Gundam prototypes and engage in a fight with the best of
the four mobile suits, which has an Orb pilot, before making their escape.
The Adult Swimmers out there are probably thinking I am accidentally
reviewing the original but, no, these are ZAFT Coordinator Gundam prototypes
that are stolen while Cagalli, the new Orb Union representative, and her
assistant (Athrun Zala) are making an official state visit to a PLANT colony
and the new Coordinator leader during the formal launch of the Minerva, a
ZAFT mobile suit carrier.
The new star is Shin Asuka. Two years ago, during the Earth Alliance/Blue
Cosmos assault on the Orb Union, Shin, his parents and his sister were
running towards an evacuation vessel when his younger sister dropped her
"precious" cellphone and it fell down a hillside. Reluctantly, they stopped,
and Shin climbed down the hill to fetch the cellphone. When he bent down to
pick up the cellphone, a stray shot from the battle destroyed the hillside
killing his family. This tragedy unleashed an intense hatred for both the
Earth Alliance (for the invasion) and the Orb Union (for failing to protect
his family with its futile desire for peace).
Of course, Athrun gets caught up in the thief attempt and ends up on the
Minerva with Cagalli and denies that he is the legendary Athrun Zala but,
his father's replacement easily recognizes his predecessor's son and it
seems Athrun will be helping the Zaft to reclaim the stolen Gundams in order
to prevent a re-start of the Natural-Coordinator war.
There are two interesting events with Shin: he is the one who has the
"NewType" reaction with "helmet boy", who this time is an Earth Alliance
commander (Neo Roanoke). Secondly, in a surprising fan service moment, while
the three spies are moving through the colony towards the Gundam hangers,
the girl spy/pilot, Stella, collides into Shin, falls downward and is caught
by Shin and is saved by him after he grabs hold of her breasts as she falls,
in classic shonen romantic comedy moment.
Got -- Rental
Story **
Service -- * Except for the Shin/Stella moment, there is, as usual, no fan
service.
Pack -- N/A
Music **
Extras -- **
+ Saint Tail
This series is just so much fun and a true delight with brilliant pastel
colors. This is by far my favorite series of the year.
Got -- Rental
Story ***
Service -- No fan service.
Pack -- N/A
Music **
Extras -- **
+ Stratos 4
Previously reviewed as a single rental DVD.
This series about a group of 4 girls who serve as part of a world-wide
team of second line defenders who clean up any big chunks of debris after
the orbital main line defense destroys oncoming dinosaur-killer class
asteroids is surprisingly good. It seems like a run of the mill fan service
friendly loser-girl-becomes-the greatest-whatever series but, every disc has
a different underlying theme to it and in truth, there is a conspiracy a
foot. Although this series comes from the famous panty service factory
Studio Fantasia, they actually manage to restrain themselves quite well
until the final two episodes. In other words, this series is ultimately much
more about the story than the fan service.
Got -- Rental
Story ***
Service -- ** Service levels vary greatly from disc to disc with a solid ***
panty-thon on the fourth disc.
Pack -- N/A
Music **
Extras -- ** On the fifth disc (OVA X-1 and X-2) there is a short Stratos
4.1 parody hidden in Scene Select.
And English Manga...
+ Gacha Gacha
A boy and girl (Kurara) grow up as childhood best friends and neighbors
until puberty turns her into the beautiful, well-endowed "queen of cool" and
him into "dork boy" leading to them drifting apart. During summer vacation,
she goes off to Hawaii, which causes him to realize that he loves her, now
that she is gone. When she comes back, she has developed a split
personality, with her other persona (Arisa) is something of a slut that is
hot for the boy. The queen of cool is obviously embarrassed by this
development but, is glad that he was too shocked, and well a dweeb, to take
advantage of her other persona. She decides to entrust him with the task of
protecting her and her reputation by keeping the other her under control and
out of sight. Of course, clothes start coming off and comprising positions
occur only to have the real girl snap back to reality at the last second.
In the second volume, we discover two new personas, Alice -- a 14 year
old with an immense curiosity about other people's sexual equipment to the
point of willing stripping and showing off her own to get to see what she
wants to see, and Rin -- An ass-kicking Street Fighter girl with a
devastating (and of course highly embarrassing) weak spot. More importantly,
we discover that while Kurara was in Hawaii, she was helping her mother test
a new virtual reality ecchi game machine prototype and accidentally gets
over 100 characters embedded into her brain and they are starting to
surface, and they are all bi-sexual, as the new girl (and third corner of
the love triangle), who arrives in the current (3rd) volume, finds out.
Story **
Service -- *** Plenty of bra and panty fan service with some discreet
nudity. (Think Love Hina nudity.).
+ Genshiken
It is hard to explain but, its an interesting story of a collection of
otakus with various specialties that exposes the various aspects of otaku
culture.
Story **
Service -- ** There is some loli-fetish but, it's more in words than art.
+ Love Hina
Well, I finally got around to reading this after seeing the anime five
years ago. Do I really have to review this? (This is more of a case of "What
I am reading now" than an actual review, obviously.)
+ Tsukuyomi ~ Moon Phase ~
A captivating story about a young man with powerful supernatural skills
that he is mostly oblivious about and a 14 year old vampire girl who is
permanently stuck in a developing 12 year old body. The boy has an (annoying
to him) exceptional talent for photographing ghosts. (He would rather just
be a run of the mill news photographer but these ghosts keep "messing up"
his photos.) Because of this, he is sent on assignment to check reports of a
haunted castle in Germany and discovers a young Japanese girl there. He
walks right through an "impenetrable" barrier, finds her, and gets bit by
her. She tries to enslave him but, he is immune to that. Anyways, he helps
her escape the castle she has been trapped in for 2 years and then heads
home where he finds his little "master" waiting for him. He ends up getting
stuck helping her out.
Warning, unlike the forthcoming anime, the manga contains loli nudity.
This girl has no shame or modesty, at least not in front of her "slave". The
baring of her ass and nipples is excused by Japanese society because she is
a vampire and not a real human so, it does not count.
Story ***
Service -- *** This is the birthplace of the legendary "Nekomimi mode"
service.
+ Pastel
The story is extremely improbable but the panty service art is
exceptional.
Story *
Service -- ***
+ Yotsuba&!
The often enjoyable adventures of a pre-school girl (Yotsuba) who has
moved to the "big city" from a country farm. She often interacts with the
three sisters next door. The sisters are Fuka, a fairly attractive
well-endowed high school girl who is "cursed" by having an even more
beautiful older sister (Asagi) and a cute younger sister (Ena). Mind you,
there are probably a lot of girls who would like to be as "ugly" as Fuka
but, amongst her sisters, she comes in third on the looks department to most
of the characters.
Story **
Service - None.
-Rob
Rob Kelk
<robu...@excite.com> wrote:
<snip>
>+ Happy Lesson Teacher's Pet Collection [Strip/Thin]
>
> A somewhat run of the mill harem show with mostly adult women. There is a
>female class president in the mix and one of the women looks loli.
Just one? (I counted three - the art teacher, the mad scientist, and
the little sister...)
> Most of
>the characters are annoying people but the series is tolerable nonetheless.
>The collection only includes the original OVA and the TV series and does not
>include the second OVA that wraps everything up. There is also an infamous
>"reset" at the end of the TV series (to allow the second OVA to finish
>things). However, the reset is not complete as she gains a new boldness she
>previously lacked, almost as she remembers deep down the response, such as
>it was, to her confession.
>
>Got -- $91 ADV Sale
>Story **
>Service -- No service.
No service? Did they drop the hot springs episode and edit out the
iincho's "little devil" outfit from the thinpack?
>Pack -- Thin Pack cases in box.
>Music **
>Extras -- Menu consists of Episode # and Languages and nothing else.
<snip>
--
Rob Kelk <http://robkelk.ottawa-anime.org/> e-mail: s/deadspam/gmail/
"I'm *not* a kid! Nyyyeaaah!" - Skuld (in "Oh My Goddess!" OAV #3)
"When I became a man, I put away childish things, including the fear of
childishness and the desire to be very grown-up." - C.S. Lewis, 1947
Robert Maxwell
"Rob Kelk" <rob...@deadspam.com> wrote in message
news:44405129...@news.individual.net...
> On Fri, 14 Apr 2006 03:02:44 -0400, "Robert Maxwell"
> <robu...@excite.com> wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
>>+ Happy Lesson Teacher's Pet Collection [Strip/Thin]
>>
>> A somewhat run of the mill harem show with mostly adult women. There is
>> a
>>female class president in the mix and one of the women looks loli.
>
> Just one? (I counted three - the art teacher, the mad scientist, and
> the little sister...)
I just counted the cosplaying art teacher. The two mad scientists are
roughly the same age and I count the second one as just a little short. As
for the little sister, she not yet a women. So, one.
>
>> Most of
>>the characters are annoying people but the series is tolerable
>>nonetheless.
>>The collection only includes the original OVA and the TV series and does
>>not
>>include the second OVA that wraps everything up. There is also an infamous
>>"reset" at the end of the TV series (to allow the second OVA to finish
>>things). However, the reset is not complete as she gains a new boldness
>>she
>>previously lacked, almost as she remembers deep down the response, such as
>>it was, to her confession.
>>
>>Got -- $91 ADV Sale
>>Story **
>>Service -- No service.
>
> No service? Did they drop the hot springs episode and edit out the
> iincho's "little devil" outfit from the thinpack?
The hot springs was there but essentially service-free unless you count
naked-but-you-cannot-see-a-damn-thing-not-even-a-bare-butt as a service.