CariChan

I guess what fascinated me about Super Sonico, was her...guitar. Seriously, me being a musician and guitar player myself. I like characters that play instruments especially guitars. I love seeing shows featuring characters, more specifically female character that play guitar or are in a rock band. That's why I looked forward to Soni Ani, a series that's looks good, but is pretty simple in it's execution. You may know Sonico was originally a mascot for a software company, and used to promote music festivals. It became popular so she became a multimedia franchise with games, figures, music, manga and now an... See full review

May contain some spoilers Continuing with my childhood flashback. Watching the first season of Yamato/Star Blazers, I get to the ending one time, and probably thought they would start from the beginning again the next morning. Surprised one morning that we get new opening animation and the same theme song but with different words. And thus the 2nd season began. I wondered how they could top the first season which was so strong and memorable. Well they didn't quite equal it, but got real close, with an amazing story of twists and turns and surprises. The story picks up about a year after the events of the... See full review

I've visited video stores like Suncoast back in the day, and always came across an interesting VHS section with eye popping anime artwork on it. One that was vivid my memory is the one of a green haired girl in a tiger striped bikini with long weird title next to her....! Flash forward a few years later, and after starting to learn about anime, I did research on Rumiko Takahashi, and saw she did several manga that became popular anime. At the time VHS were on their way out and the advent of DVDs was approaching. Ranma 1/2 had not come out yet on DVD, but something else did...Urusei Yatsura got released by... See full review

May contain mild spoilers This was a new hyped up show from a Shonen Jump series. I don't read a lot of manga, but love anime of course so I will watch a show based off a manga I have not read with not knowing much about it. The positive side of that, I usually get wonderfully surprised with the anime I'm watching. and My Hero Academia did wonderfully surprise me. We've seen comics and shows about heroes: x-men, One Punch Man etc. but MHA is refreshing as we get to see new young heroes in their salad days, their training days and their trials and tribulations. It's set in a world where some people are... See full review

Japan is not afraid to tackle any subject matter in an anime, or attempt to make a taboo subject seem okay and play it for laughs more less. This is the case with Why the Hell are You Here, Teacher?, a series that LOOKS good. This could have been an out right interesting idea if maybe they came up with more interesting storylines for these character.  The basic premise is high school guys hooking up with one of their teachers, but of course not doing anything until after they graduate. And while we do learn a little about each student and teacher's background, with little story to work with and short... See full review

This micro series of 5 minute episodes, was a nice little surprise of a mixture of romance and comedy. Douki-chan is a typical office worker who has a crush on her male co-worker, and these episodes are her adventures in trying to win his heart, which of course is never easy in this type of anime! It's a simple story and despite its short running time, there is a decent amount of character development, just minimal time to do so. Douki wants to go for it with her male friend but of course needs the guts to do so, of course trying to beat around the bush to get to the point, which takes so long it never... See full review

Imagine being 9 or 10 years old, when all you've been exposed to is cartoons like Hanna Barbera, harvey toons. popeye, looney tunes and such. Then one morning before school you see this outer space cartoon full of battles, violence and drama that you've never seen before. That's how it was for me circa 1980 or 81. I knew there was something different about this cartoon, but couldn't figure it out, though I did see in the credits some of the names were Japanese. Only years later did I come to realize this was an "anime" from Japan... Space Battleship Yamato was already considered a classic anime... See full review

May contain mild spoilers. As simple and fanservicy as it is, Amazing Nurse Nanako aka Nanako's Anatomy Report (actual Japanese title) is a guilty pleasure of mine. I remember it being advertised in anime mags back in the day, coming out on DVD, so I decided to get it. I was also a fan of Hiroshi Negishi and Toshinari YAMASHITA's work. The series is a 6 part OAV, whose main character is a ditzy klutz who acts as servant and assistant to Dr. Ogami, a grumpy yet talented scientist, inventor of robotic devices and such. In Nanako's spare time Ogami makes her work out non stop, trying to keep her in... See full review

I discovered this show at a convention, showing on the cctv anime "channels" the con was running, so you could watch all kinds of anime in your own hotel room. I think it was around 2 am too. I was immediately hooked, and was happily surprised the director was Akitaroh Daichi, who became my favorite anime director not too long after. I eventually got my own copy and had Daichi sign a Kuromi poster when he was a guest in 2005. This is a one shot OAV that runs about 50 minutes, so about 2 episodes worth. You'd think you couldn't complete a story in that time, but Daichi's genius pacing and... See full review

I found this series on Netflix by chance and checked it out. I found it entertaining right away, and curious to check out some Korean anime for once. I don't know much about Korean folklore, legends or superstitions, so that peaked my interest. Also I'm sort of interested to learn the language. The story and idea are similar to Yokai watch, where the kids in the show have a special device on their wrist, a Ghost Ball,  to take a captured creature out of storage and summon it to help them. The haunted house of the title refers to the apartment complex where the two main characters live, Hari and... See full review

Now I've heard a bit about this series, but mainly from the notorious English dub. I saw a little bit of it a long time ago and I thought it was trash. I never bothered to look at it again. Thanks to Crunchyroll, it got a new lease on life. I thought to myself, what about the original Japanese version? So I decided to give it A go. Now while the story telling isn't fantastic per se, the ghosts behind each episode and the means to get rid of them are pretty interesting to me. So I definitely liked the concept and ideas behind this show. With the addition of the scary music, it provided me with a few... See full review

May contain mild spoilers. I came across this title several years ago on an online store that doesn't exist anymore. It was cheap and didn't have a story synopsis but I like the art on the box so just gave it a try. It's basically a romantic drama with touches of humor and yes sex. A reunion of school friends: quiet demure all round nice girl, girl with glasses, girl who's famous now and stuck up, a rocker chick, a rocker dude, a jock, cute petite girl, and the main male character and his childhood lady friend. There's a few dramatic and touching scenes in this 4 part oav, and it kept me interested the... See full review

This is the 1996 edited movie version of the Armitage OAV episodes that were released in 1995. It was only released in English, and in a sort of an experiment they hired somewhat big name actors to play the leads, Kiefer Sutherland (24) and Elizabeth Berkley (Saved by the Bell). The result is hit and miss, but a lot of fans will remember this anime movie as one of their gateways into the fandom. After watching the OAVs in their entirety, looking back at the movie version a lot of important scenes were cut out for it, most notably a lot of background on Naomi's brother, also a third. Not to mention... See full review