Anime

Asatte No Houkou starts out with a young lady in her twenties named Shōko Nogami returning to Japan from America. She first runs into Karada and Hiro Iokawa near a wishing shrine, where Shōko bends down next to Karada and makes a wish on a stone. Karada, a young girl about twelve years old, invites Shōko, a stranger to her, to join her brother and her to the beach. While at the beach Shōko unknowingly insults Karada by saying, she looked childish in the barrettes her brother bought. Karada, thinking she was a burden, wished to become an adult faster to release Hiro from having to take care of a little kid. When Shōko met back up with Karada at the wishing shrine, they both look at each other, wide eyed and realize that they have both changed ages.

Asatte No Houkou
3 & 1/2 Stars

Join some interesting characters in a story of friendship, love and supernatural happenings.

Asatte No Houkou starts out with a young lady in her twenties named Shōko Nogami returning to Japan from America. She first runs into Karada and Hiro Iokawa near a wishing shrine, where Shōko bends down next to Karada and makes a wish on a stone. Karada, a young girl about twelve years old, invites Shōko, a stranger to her, to join her brother and her to the beach.  While at the beach Shōko unknowingly insults Karada by saying, she looked childish in the barrettes her brother bought. Karada, thinking she was a burden, wished to become an adult faster to release Hiro from having to take care of a little kid. When Shōko met back up with Karada at the wishing shrine, they both look at each other, wide eyed and realize that they have both changed ages.

Shōko once a twenty something adult is now a twelve-year-old girl. Karada went from a childish twelve year old to a young adult. Realizing what had happened Karada and Shōko decide to try to get things straightened out before they told anyone, leading Hiro to search all day and night for his little sister, who now has become an adult. What he does not know is that Shōko and Karada are right under his nose. The stone that the two wished on disappears and there is no way to change them back to their original states.

Jumping back to understand more of the story, Hiro was studying abroad when his parents passed away. He told his lover, Shōko, that he had to come back to Japan to attend their funeral and would return shortly. Unfortunately, for Shōko, Hiro stayed in Japan to watch over his little sister. When he did not return Shōko was distraught, she began to hate him for everything, mainly his cowardly nature. Naturally, anyone would get that way if someone were to disappear like that. Shōko never understood why Hiro had left, but she finally decided to pick up her life and get a new start. Coincidentally she moves to a small town in Japan the place where Hiro and Karada call home.

Hiro and Karada invite Shōko, the now young girl, to come live with them and as the story progresses you see the relationship between the three altering. Hiro tells Shōko that Karada is not his real sister, but explaining they are still siblings. Before Karada brought Shōko into their lives with her young careless nature, Shōko and Hiro were an ocean apart. Although, Karada realized she brought the couple closer together too late and runs away in hopes of relieving them of the burden of taking care of her.

It seems Tetsumasa Amino, Karada’s friend, goes on a series long search to find her. He drives himself crazy before running away with his friend Kotomi Shionzaki in search of her, vowing that he would never give up. They find Karada, only she is going by the name Satou, and do not recognize her. Karada struggles with herself still not wanting to tell anyone who she really is, but finally breaks down to Tetsumasa. Tetsumasa does not believe her initially and the news only aggravates him.

Without leaving much for an ending, the entire gang goes home. Shōko goes to the train station to see Kotomi safely onto the train as she heads back to her parents and just before she leaves, she slips the wishing stone into Shōko’s pocket. At last, the girls can finally go back to their original states!

I was looking around on the Internet for new content when I stumbled on a year old post on Anime News Network. Granted these are 2006’s animes but they are different from the current ones on AdultSwim. In the post, they listed off 25 of the year’s animes, so I picked at random and ended up with this one.

This anime is only half of the others I have reviewed lately, and by half I do not mean it is not as good as the others. It seems like every anime includes love and certainly despair, along side the usual fight for your life drama or quest for something. Asatte No Houkou may lack the battles with monsters, robots and villains, but it does not lack in story.  The plot is plain, but each episode shows a little more of the past, making it random and hard to follow if you have not seen the beginning. When you first start out the series, you have no prior knowledge of the characters, which is why I jumped back with a history update. For me I usually like to know what the characters are about prior to getting into the story, it makes the story a little easier to explain. With that aside, I would have to say that this anime is enjoyable still. This is the first series I have watched that is the romance/drama only. The ending was a little bit of a drop off, but you do get to see Hiro and Shōko are finally back together like before, even though Karada is there!

Legend has it that only wolves have knowledge of how to enter Paradise allowing them to escape destruction of the world. Enter a pre-apocalyptic world where the entire population of wolves appears to be extinct. Signs of the apocalypse appear and people begin to regret destroying the wolf population.

Wolf’s Rain
3 Stars

The story line is set in a desolate world torn apart by a war of the Nobles. The people eagerly wait for the legendary Paradise to take over. However, they do not realize that the near extinct species, wolves, are the ones that will show the way. Wolves still exist in the world, but they can disguise themselves as humans and live normal lives. Many of them are spread thinly throughout the world and live in secrecy in fear of their lives.

The show starts with a wolf disguised as a human named Tsume and this rag-tag group of bandits stealing food from the Nobles supply lines. At the beginning, Tsume seems to be a normal human. However, he has some mysterious superhuman powers. His team stumbles upon a nearly dead wolf inside a tree and they are shocked. They are stunned because wolves are said to be extinct. The nearly dead wolf is named Kiba, the one that will open the gates to Paradise. Kiba needs to find a flower girl that was hidden deep within the city. Tsume and Kiba get separated when the city’s Pet Control captures Kiba and sticks him in a cage to run experiments. Another wolf in disguise named Hige seeks out Kiba after smelling him with his superior nose. Hige rescues Kiba and they go on a search for the Flower Girl that is hidden in the city.

Meanwhile, Tsume runs into a younger wolf named Hoboe and saves him from an old wolf hunter. Hoboe follows him around like a little kid, which gets on Tsume’s nerves. Finally Tsume gets fed up with him and his childish ways, and chases him off.

Kiba and Hige locate the hidden Flower Girl deep within the city’s castle, but they were too late. They came in the middle of her being kidnapped by a unknown villain with a golden eye. Hige and Kiba try to save the Flower Girl named Cheza from his clutches, but they fail and are forced to retreat and try to find where he took her. uring their retreat they run into Hoboe and Tsume and they join them in the search for Paradise and the Flower girl Cheza They travel from town to town searching for where Cheva’s kidnapper, Lord Darcia the Third. They go to great lengths to obtain Cheza and protect her from Lord Darcia’s troops as she leads them on the path to Paradise.

The plot was really confusing. I had a hard time following the story line and the subplots that some of the characters had. The story line was great if you sat down and tried to figure it out. Reminded me of the Dark Tower series by Stephen King.

The main characters of this anime are cleverly named after different wolf parts in Japanese. Each of them have a short background story that is revealed at the very end of the series, making it a little useless. The main wolves breakdown as such:

Hoboe seemed like a girl. He was a little too caring towards Tsume and annoyingly followed him around.

Tsume was too over dramatic and tried to be a badass lone wolf (lawl pun). His past was explained in the very last episode that was an (go die) “ah hah!” moment. Tsume’s past should of been explained prior to the end of the series. It really explains why he tried to distance himself from the make-shift pack.

Hige was actually semi-normal. He had a nonchalant attitude towards everything, except for his feelings for Blue towards the end.

Kiba was just flat out dead set on getting to Paradise. He was the selected one to open the door to Paradise.

This series was a show that you really have to get into to enjoy it. Paying attention to minuet details is the key to watching this show. The show starts out really slow and gets rather confusing, and it doesn’t really explain anyone’s past or any history. They throw you head first in to the storyline and take you along. Overall, this show was very emotionally straining with very heart breaking events that will leave a hole in your heart for this series.

In a medieval world, the human race is threatened to extinction by horrid demons known as Yoma. Clare, a member of the Claymores, seeks out her mentor’s slayer, Priscilla, in attempts to kill her. This story filled with heart pounding battles and struggles for survival will surely fulfill your viewing needs.

Claymore
3 & 1/2 Stars

Yoma are demons who disguise themselves as humans. These demons change shape to live among the humans and harvest their organs for food. A group of warriors stood together to fight these beasts and named themselves Claymores. These Claymores are in fact half Yoma, and half human, giving them all the strength and powers of the Yoma. The Claymores retain their human side, only they have silver eyes; people refer to them as Silver Eyed Witches because of this. The organization is made of all females. Males are excluded because they gain sexual pleasure from using their powers and they abuse it. If a Claymore uses too much of his/her power, they become an “Awakened One”, a more powerful form of a Yoma and lose all human conscience.

The show starts out with Clare, the main heroine of the show, doing her normal duties that come with being a Claymore, coming into a small town and ridding it of a Yoma. People try to distance themselves from the Claymores because they have the blood of the Yoma, so they give her a distasteful welcome and treat her like a beast. Claymores are very cold hearted, so she disregards the villagers and goes out to find the Yoma. Although shunned by most of the village, a boy named Raki takes interest in Clare and begins to follow her around. She tolerates it for a bit then dismisses him for her duties, only to find out, Raki’s family were the Yoma. Clare eliminates them and then continues to the next town, leaving Raki to the mercy of the village. Since his family where the Yoma, the villagers beat him and banish him from the town. They falsely claim he is a Yoma too and they leave him to die out in the wild. Raki desperately walks on, hoping to find someone to help him when he runs into Clare again. Clare shows some empathy and lets him tag along, being her personal cook. They both travel from town to town destroying the Yoma at every turn.

They find out that Priscilla is building an army of Yoma and “Awakened Ones” to sweep down from the north and eliminate all humans. Clare is sent to go kill them with 26 other Claymores, in a hopeless battle to bide time. Clare and her comrades nearly defeated the head “Awakened One” when the overlord of the Northern Yoma Army takes her and flees, leaving a lot of questions unanswered and opening for more episodes or another season.

Over all I really enjoyed this anime. You’re guaranteed a amazing battle in every episode (some even being 2-3 episodes) and the story line is very fulfilling. What is also unique about this show is the development of Clare’s character. She starts out being cold and inhumane to others, to being a very loving woman. Being a Claymore means you live with death and destruction at every turn. Relationships with humans and even other Claymores are impossible to maintain. Raki helped her gain a more human aspect with the ability to love and cherish life. She shares her human teachings with the other Claymores and they form an even stronger bond and fighting force than before. They used to rely on individual skill and strength, but with Clare’s teachings and understanding of teamwork and the importance of it, the Claymores found a new strength to fight off the Yoma.

With such a intricate story line of teamwork and love, Claymore is a very good show. Being lesser known than some of newer and bigger hits, it still has its charm that makes it definitely worthwhile to watch.

I got started on watching InuYasha from the television series and have just started watching the movies. The first of the four InuYasha movies was released in 2001, so it is a little older than most of the currently popular animes such as Bleach, Naruto and Death Note.

Inuyasha the Movie: Affections Touching Across Time
4 Stars

I got started on watching InuYasha from the television series and have just started watching the movies. The first of the four InuYasha movies was released in 2001, so it is a little older than most of the popular animes such as Bleach, Naruto and Death Note.
This movie does not require previous knowledge of the television series, but does deal with a lot of the same things the television series covers. All you really need to know is that the movie and the series for that matter are set in the feudal era, in ancient Japan where demons roam and are constantly trying to dominate everything in their world.  Everyone is in search of Shikon Jewel shards.  The Shikon Jewel is also known as the Sacred Jewel or the Jewel of Four Souls. The Shikon Jewel is extremely powerful and can easily make any demon the most powerful being. To know why the Jewel is split up you will have to watch the series, which I highly recommend.

 

The story starts out with an oversized scorpion demon and the gang defeats it easy. Soon after Sango’s faithful companion, Kirara begins to react from the scorpion’s poison that she was injured by. Kirara runs away underMenoumaru’s minions, Huri and Ruri’s spell. Kirara begins to fight against Sango. Sango continues to struggle throughout the entire movie with trying to save Kirara.
Miroku has problems of his own; Ruri uses her power to copy Miroku’s Wind Tunnel. She uses it against him until she is sucked into her own Wind Tunnel. Allowing Miroku to see what is in the future for him.
Menoumaru is a moth demon, and the son of Lord Hyoga. Lord Hyoga was defeated over 200 years ago by InuYasha’s father. Menoumaru’s moth minions bring souls of the near by villagers, increasing his strength, power and size. With the combination of absorbing the souls and Lord Hyoga’s powers, Menoumaru becomes strong enough to deflect InuYasha’s Wind Scar. InuYasha alone cannot defeat Menoumaru, but with Kagome and him working together, they stand a chance. Kagome and InuYasha team upand attempt to attack Menoumaru, but nothing seems to work since he is so strong. Eventually Kagome and InuYasha discover how to defeat him, with Kagome’s sacred arrows and InuYasha’s Back Lash their attack pierces through Menoumaru’s barrier.
A little background information to better understand the six main characters.
InuYasha is a half demon, which allows him to wield the Tessaiga. He has a short temper and a lack of common sense when it comes to dealing with Kagome’s feelings. He cares for Kagome, much like how he felt for Kikyou. His lack of patience and his hot head nature gets him
Kagome, a japanese junior high school girl who has the ability to travel back and forth between our time and the feudal era. Kagome is the reincarnation of Kikyou, a priestess, who also inherited Kikyou’s exceptional archery skills.
Miroku is a monk who is cursed with the Wind Tunnel, a hole in his hand that sucks everything in its path into a void, which he inherited from his father.
Sango is a demon slayer who uses a Hikaikotsu made out of the bones of demons [it looks like a giant boomerang].
Shippou is a child fox demon who was orphaned and the others took him in. He tries to help, and sometimes succeeds but he really is too young to make much of a difference.
Kirara is a nekomata demon, a small two tailed cat that can transform into a large flying fire cat. When under the control of Huri Kirara breaks the spell and returns to Sango’s side.
This movie has three main antagonists, Menoumaru, Huri and Ruri.
Menoumaru is a moth demon, son of Lord Hyoga, he attemps to take revenge on InuYasha for his father’s downfall over 200 years ago.
Huri is one of Menoumaru’s minions, she uses her power of mind control to take Kirara from Sango.
Ruri is another one of Menoumaru’s minions, she has the ability to copy others powers. She uses her power to have a Wind Tunnel like Miroku’s.

InuYasha has been one of my favorite television series for a few years now, that might have something to do with it being aired on Cartoon Network’s AdultSwim over the past few years.  The movie is equally as good as the series.  I enjoyed the focus on one main antagonist.  In the series InuYasha and the others are trying to rid their world of a character called Naraku.  I was surprised to see that they did not even include Naraku in the movie, but glad none the less to see a different demon try to take on the team.  The love triangle between InuYasha, Kagome and the dead Kikyou is one that is entertaining.  Not to mention the love interest between Miroku and Sango, Miroku the lecher constantly flirts with any woman he meets while Sango punishes him with her jealousy.  This movie is one to check out, and hopefully it will turn you into a fan of InuYasha.

Here is another adventure into the world of Full Metal Panic! Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid is the true sequel to FMP!

This series takes you back to the military life of Sousuke.

Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid
5 Stars

Here is another adventure into the world of Full Metal Panic! Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid is the true sequel to FMP!

This series takes you back to the military life of Sousuke.

In the first mission of the series, the person giving them aid in the tunnel betrays Sousuke and his team. Captain Vincent Blueno, who goes by Ogma-1, was responsible for the communications maintenance in the Yangtze River Tunnel hostage rescue operation in Nanjing. Captain Blueno betrayed his comrades by leaking all of the radio transmissions to Gates, allowing Gates to know every move they made before they made them.

Sousuke is constantly battling with enemies, but his biggest battle is trying to fit in with normal society. He is told in the end that he disrupted the life of Chidori and ultimately put her into more danger than she normally would have encountered.

Although Sousuke could not adapt to Tokyo and city life, Chidori adapted to Sousuke’s military way of life. After Sousuke is taken off the mission of protecting Chidori, she starts to notice things are wrong and begins to think like Sousuke. She becomes suspicious of everything and comes up with a plan to save her life. The events that take place after Sousuke leaves make Chidori realize that she needs Sousuke and actually admits to liking him.

Chidori is attacked by the younger of the twins while the other twin runs a rampage in Hong Kong. Chidori saved herself, and many of her techniques came from Sousuke’s methods.

After Sousuke leaves, he encounters several antagonists including some new and some old. Gates, even crazier than Gauron, is the major antagonist. Gates is a general leader to an organization called Amalgam; this organization’s one desire is to bring down Mithril. Gates has in his possession several Venom Arm Slaves and he and his followers attempt to take out Mithril. Gates only answers to one person inside the organization Amalgam, Mithril’s Captain Testarossa’s brother, Leonard Testarossa.

Leonard’s one weakness is Chidori; he confesses at the end that he loves her. Where Leonard lacks there he makes up with strength brought on by his human-sized Arm Slaves who obey his every command.

Leonard is also a Whispered, along with his sister Captain Tessa Testarossa of the Tuatha de Danaan and Chidori Kaname. Sousuke thought Gauron had died when he set his Arm Slave to self-destruct in FMP! I was even shocked to see Gauron had survived and as the infamous sensei of the twins.

When Gauron reappears in this story, he brings followers Xia Yu Lan and Xia Yu Fan. Gauron stays in hiding until he sends out the message saying, “To the son of Bdakshon’s Tiger. Meet Hamidra at Tsim Sha Tsui.” Gauron only expected one person to be able to decipher the message and expected Kashim, or better known as Sousuke, to find him. The plan was to lure Sousuke to Gauron’s bedside, where he lay crippled from the self-destruction of his Arm Slave in the final episode of FMP!

Gauron finally dies for good when Sousuke learns that Chidori was to be killed on his orders.  In attempts to kill Chidori, Gauron’s trained assistant, Xia Yu Lan died in battle by the hands of Leonard Testarossa. Her twin sister, Xia Yu Fan’s mission was to create commotion in the city of Hong Kong with her Arm Slave, which eventually lead her to death moments after hearing of Xia Yu Lan’s death.

After seeing all three of the series linked to Sousuke and Chidori, I really am saddened to be done with it all. I really enjoyed watching these characters and as many have said, I felt connected with them. The characters’ lines seemed well thought out and made the viewer connect with each character. The story line in the thirteen-episode show was exciting and shocking; I never would have guessed Gauron would survive from the explosion. I enjoyed the dark comical relief from Gates; he often would revert to his less sane side by hauling off and shooting his followers for no reason. Overall, each of the Full Metal Panic series are good to look into for those who like action, battle scenes, explosions, drama and love stories. Try not to be discouraged by the love story and drama part, not all battle/action animes can survive without a little drama.