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When people talk about the 80s Japanese economic bubble that produced some of the weirdest anime out there, they’re often talking about stuff that’s weird mostly in execution. Sometimes the reason that an anime gets made is the reason that it’s so weird. One of those anime is “Ziggy: Soreyuke! R&R Band”. It was made entirely to advertise the band ‘Ziggy’. While using a product in one medium to sell a product in another medium isn’t that weird, having it completely dictate the plot is the the reason a lot of movies and TV shows end up being weird, which is... See full review

Surprisingly, Kite managed to get a sequel.

I know that Kite holds some relative importance in the world of anime since Quinten Tarintino was inspired enough by it to give to actress Chiaki Kuriyama in preparation for her role as Gogo Uubari in Kill Bill Vol. 1, along with having a few scenes from the anime being recreated for the music video for "Ex-Girlfriend" by 'No Doubt', and even having a live action movie adaptation starring Samuel L. Jackson, but it still had a small cult following and it's not really really well known enough to inspire a sequel.

While it isn't as explicit as... See full review

Surprisingly, eX-Driver managed to get a movie, with the uncreatively titled “eX-Driver: The Movie”. And I use the word ‘movie’ in the loosest sense possible, since it’s more like an hour long direct-to-DVD special that managed to get a bump in animation quality.

The movie follows the three leads from the series as they enter and win a domestic preliminary round and advance to the eX-Driver world race competition held in Los Angeles as a representative team from Japan. Not long after arriving in LA, an AI car goes haywire, setting off a chain of events that leads out... See full review

When I saw that this series was written by Kosuke Fujishima, author of the "Oh My Goddess!" and "You're Under Arrest", being a fan of "You're Under Arrest" and hearing good things about "Oh My Goddess!", I became interested in checking it out. After seeing that it wasn't as popular as his other works, I went into eX-Driver with moderately set expectations that I would get at least some entertainment out of the six episodes. And after watching it, I can easily see why this wasn't as popular or well remembered as his other works.

Set at some point in the 22nd... See full review

You know what's a rarity in anime and manga. The western, as in the genre. Sure, you get a lot of anime inspired by westerns, like "Cowboy Bebop", "Trigun", "Gun X Sword", "El Cazador de la Bruja", "Outlaw Star", and "Coyote Ragtime Show", but nothing that's just a straight up western. Sure, there are a few manga that are westerns, such as "Gun Blaze West", "Green Blood", "Miriam", and "Angel Gunfighter", but since there is a lot more manga, you're bound to get more variety in manga, but the genre is still... See full review

The Persona Century Corporation has purchased nearly every inch of land on earth available. Dissension is not tolerated within the corporation's borders and those who oppose Persona are dealt with swiftly. Of those few places not yet under Persona's control is the free town of Kabuki-cho, also known as "The Dark Side of Tokyo". Within the town, under the leadership of a woman named Mai, is a small resistance group called Messiah. Into this world steps a man who takes the sobriquet of Kabuki-cho: Darkside. Sealed up in another dimension eighteen years ago by Persona Century, Darkside now returns to... See full review

Sometimes I want to watch something that just gets right to it and know exactly what it wants to be. And one of the best examples of something like this is Cyber City Oedo 808

In the year 2808, crime rates are at an all time high. To help try and lower the crime rates, the Cyber Police unit decided to employ hardened criminals with talents suited to certain jobs by promising to reduce their sentences if they comply. This 3 episode OVA follows three such criminals, Sengoku, Gogol, and Benten, who happen to be serving more than 300 years each in an orbital penitentiary. And to keep the criminals in... See full review

It's really easy to pitch this series as "The X-Files meets Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex", but that makes it sound way more awesome than it is. Not to say that Witch Hunter Robin is bad by any stretch, it isn't, but the series needs to be with moderate expectations to be fully enjoyed. Set in a world where people with paranormal powers called Witches, or "craft users", who have been around for millennia, hiding from the rest of the world. For years, an organization called SOLOMON, run by priests set in Italy, has dedicated their time and effort into hunting down and killing... See full review

The story follows Juna, who was just an ordinary high-school girl, right up until the day she died in a motorcycle accident. But in the twilight of death, she saw a vision of the future, of the barren earth destroyed by something call the Raaja, and was offered a second chance at life if she would help stop them. Now she must learn to cast aside her thoughtlessly destructive ways and face her destiny as the Avatar of Time, the one being who can decide the fate of the planet.

If you can't tell by the description, you'll know it within the first couple of episodes of the show, but the series makes it... See full review

“Yes. No. Maybe. I Don’t Know. Could you repeat the question?” – “Boss of Me” by They Might Be Giants

Jikuu Tenshou Nazca is a bit of an infamous anime, but not for anything the anime itself did. No, it’s infamous for being featured in the opening credits of Malcolm in the Middle along with several other lesser known media (such as One Million Years BC, Clash of the Titans, Creature from the Haunted Sea, Thrill Seekers, and clips from a WCW Mayhem PPV just to mention a few). So I had absolutely no idea what to expect when going into this series. To use an... See full review

When I was looking for a series to watch, I came across Coyote Ragtime Show. All of the promotional material showed something that hearkened back to classic sci-fi action adventure series such as Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, and Outlaw Star, and a lot of people who had seen it seemed to be making the same comparisons. With all that going for it, this series definitely drew in my interest. Our story starts in the future, there are space outlaws called Coyotes who commit crimes but share a strong bond of friendship that a true Coyote wouldn’t betray. One of the most infamous Coyotes is Mister, who goes by... See full review

I went into Shamanic Princess knowing very little about it other than it had a short non-canonical crossover episode with Magic User’s Club, so I had no real expectations going into this. I’m not going to say that I’m disappointed, but more just underwhelmed with it. That’s not saying that it’s bad by any stretch, but the series overall could have been much better with a few minor changes. This 6 episode OVA follows Tiara, a special agent from the Guardian World, the home of mages, who has been sent to earth disguised as an ordinary high school student to recover the stolen... See full review

Our story follows Princess Arete, who is confined in the castle tower under the instruction of her her father, the king. He demands that Arete should never have contact with the outside world until she meets a potential suitor for her to marry, and uses these suitors to bring him jewels and powerful magical items from a race of long-dead sorcerers in an attempt to win his admiration and the permission to betroth his daughter. Because of this Princess Arete spends her days watching the world outside of her window. Arete sneaks outside to watch the common people live out their normal lives. One day, a... See full review

Every now and again, there is an anime project done in conjunction with a country outside of Japan. With First Squad, the project was done in conjunction with Japanese animation studio Studio 4C and a Russian company Molot Entertainment. Molot Entertainment doesn’t seem to have done much else besides First Squad besides another animated film called Ivan about a post-apocalyptic world filled with magical creatures such as dragons From what I can find, the company seems to be focused on helping promote independent projects. First Squad itself seems to have an interesting history by itself. Starting out... See full review

Steam Detectives seems to be largely forgotten by the anime viewing fanbase. Not because it’s bad by any stretch, since it seems to have a relatively small fanbase that enjoy it, but rather because it just never really stood out among the other anime coming out at the time. Especially considering that a lot of classic anime were coming out at the time, such as Cowboy Bebop and Serial Experiments Lain, along with popular cultural juggernauts such as Dragon Ball Z, Pokemon, and Sailor Moon. Steam City is a city where the only fuel source is coal, and the only way to produce energy is a steam engine... See full review

Sometimes you just want to watch something relaxing to unwind from the stress of the day or to just spend some time watching something nice that isn't too complicated or hard to follow. Something comfy. If that sounds nice, then this anime might just be for you. Shirokuma Cafe, or Polar Bear Cafe in English. It's a slice of life, but instead of the characters being human, most of them are animals.

The show follows the daily life of a young and incredibly lazy panda named Panda. He is constantly told by his mother to get a job. One day, Panda wanders outside after his mother constantly telling his to... See full review

One could describe Dead Leaves in so many words. Crazy, over the top, wacky, crude, insane, bizarre, crazy, energetic, confusing, relentless, manic, vulgar, mindless, and loud. All of these words describe Dead Leaves perfectly. But it would leave little to be desired if that was the only way I described it. So let's jump into it.

The plot follows two people awaken naked on Earth, a man with a TV for a head called Retro and a woman called Pandy, named for her panda patched eyes, with no recollection their past. Not even having the clothes on their backs, out two main characters embark on a crime spree... See full review

WRITER’S NOTE: *SPOILERS* This review assumes that you’ve seen Ghost In the Shell(1995), as it simply focuses on the changes between the original film and this version.

Ghost in the Shell 2.0 is to Ghost in the Shell what the Special Editions are to Star Wars, and while GitS 2.0 is nowhere nearly as egregious as the Special Editions, it still feels like a pointless exercise in updating a previous work.

GitS 2.0 was released in 2008 in celebration for the release of The Sky Crawlers in theatres that same year, as a way for it’s director, Memoru Oshii, and studio Production... See full review

It’s hard to find a good Christmas themed anime, let alone Christmas anime all together. Often, if there is something set around Christmas time, it’s is a special episode or OVA of an already established series that takes place at or around Christmas, but rarely is there something original that is focused on Christmas from the get go. So it’s refreshing to get something like Tokyo Marble Chocolate that focuses on Christmas.

Based on a manga written and drawn by Fumiko Tanikawa, the anime follows two people who’ve had trouble dating in the past as their current relationship... See full review

Back in 2009, when Redline was released, it got a lot of praise and attention for it’s fantastic animation and artstyle as well as it’s great fast paced action and colorful characters. But there was another similar highly stylized and fast paced racing anime that was released around the same time. That went relatively unnoticed due to the attention that Redline was getting. That anime was Tailenders, released only two months after Redline.

The plot takes place on planet Terulus, long after terraformers were used to try and repair the environment, only for them to go haywire and ravage the... See full review

The Vampire Holmes anime is a pretty obvious advertisement, and it's not even that good of an advertisement. Made to promote a mystery smartphone game developed by Cucuri for iOS and Android devices, the plot follows Detective Holmes, and his assistant Hudson, as both of them solve a case given to them by the Metropolitan Police of London.

While the plot is basic, it is enough to get a mystery mobile game rolling. And you'd think that a short anime used to advertise said mobile game, it could lead into the games plot as some sort of prelude, or maybe be an adaptation of a small part of the plot... See full review

Hanoka might not have reached the infamy of other terrible anime such as Skelter+Heaven, Abunai Sisters, or Mars of Destruction, but that’s because this isn’t quite as bad as those other anime. It’s still not good, it’s just not as bad, which is the best compliment that I can give it.

What little story there is takes place in an indeterminate year far off into the future on planet called Tokinea, where human beings only known as “Inhabitants of the Stars” are attacking Humans on a planet called Tokinea, accusing them of polluting the planet with their technology... See full review

Iblard Jikan (Iblard Time in English), is an interesting experience. The best way to describe Iblard Jikan is that it's like looking through a window into another world, and getting a brief glimpse of the potential beauty that the world your looking at offers.

There isn't much to talk about in Iblard Jikan, as there is no real plot or characters to speak of, and there isn't really a need for one. The entire short exists just to show a slice of the world it created. What few characters we see are brief cameos by characters from other Ghibli projects that are added into the paintings, as a way of... See full review

When I reviewed Abunai Sisters, I called it the worst anime that I'd seen at that point. While it still might have been the worst anime that I've personally watched, it has some stiff competition with Tenkuu Danzai Skelter+Heaven. At least this is 10 minutes shorter, so there is that. The plot of Skelter+Heaven is set in the far off future, where a mysterious floating object suddenly appears in the center on an unnamed city. The top secret unit "Alta Mira Agency", or AA for short, is commissioned by the defense agency to deal with this mysterious invader. In charge of the robot training is Otsuya... See full review

Surprisingly, whoever approved of Tenkuu Danzai Skelter+Heaven thought that it was a great idea, and decided to do it again with Mars of Destruction. And it was only released a mere seven months after Tenkuu Danzai Skelter+Heaven. And after doing some reading into how this was made, it seems both Skelter+Heaven and Mars of Destruction seem to overlap in how they came to be. The plot, what little there is, starts soon after a space shuttle returns from a mission to Mars in the far off year of 2010 ends up being destroyed in the Earth's atmosphere. Soon afterwards, strange monsters called... See full review

Christmas is a time for being with friends and family, giving gifts, and all around good feelings. And one of the ways of getting into the Christmas spirit is a good Christmas special. Its a good way to get the family (and friends) together to enjoy something with each other. Besides the gifts and food of course. And one of the things that you can enjoy is Santa Company.

Santa Company is an anime short film from 2014. The short started out as a crowdsourcing campaign on the Japanese site Anipipo by Kenji Studio, a company started by the director of the short, Kenji Itoso. It's original goal was 1... See full review

Back in the "good old days", when MTV was actually Music Television and not a channel for "Reality TV", Kazaa and Napster made piracy popular, and you had to go out of your way to record your favorite music off the radio just so you could have a tape of your favorite music in one place, music videos were awesome. And they were so huge that they would draw in huge ratings to channels with music programming, and studios would sell music videos on VHS so people could have them along with their vinyl, cassettes, and/or CD collection Studios would invest a ton of money into them because they... See full review

When it comes to a bad piece of media, whether it be a movie, TV show, music, or even anime, the worst thing to have to sit through is a bad comedy. When it comes to every other genre, there is at least something to enjoy or appreciate, like it's atmosphere, technical quality, soundtrack, maybe a great or fun performance or two, or just the potential of it's premise. But with a comedy, it relies entirely on it's jokes, and when it's jokes aren't funny, it has literally nothing else to go on. You're not going to watch a comedy got it's plot or special effects, the jokes are the entire reason that you're... See full review

Sometimes, you just want to watch some turn-off your brain fun. When plot isn't the main focus and it's just there to be the driving force for all of the cool action set pieces and fun characters. And Redline is one of the best all killer no filler anime movies out there.

Released in 2009 at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival before being theatrically released in 2010, Redline has quite the history, taking several years to develop. A short 4 episode OVA was released way back in 2003 and was supposed to be released alongside Redline to promote is, but clearly things clearly didn't go as... See full review

Japan can come up with some weird and wonderful things. This is a country where people can pre-order their Christmas dinner months in advance from KFC, have hotels with rooms that are slightly larger than coffins, and have mascots for literally everything, such as bottled water, train lines, and even prisons. And it's not like the west doesn't have it's fair share of weirdness either, just take a look at wrestling. Throughout the history of wrestling, there have been wrestlers such as Doink the Clown, Xanta Claus, who is an evil Santa Claus, and Perry Saturn, a man who fell in love with a mop that had a... See full review