Sexy Voice and Robo (manga)

Sexy Voice is quite the interesting read. It's the story of a girl, Nico Hayashi, a telephone actress (pretends to be a girl in a dating service to make guys's phone bills go up), with an attraction to adventure. She ends up getting involved with a mysterious employer, getting hired to go on cases as a detective, self-named Sexy Voice. She usualy ends up involving her most recent telephone-acting victem, Sudo (forget other name), who she, for no apparant reason, nicknames Robo. Sexy Voice is a great introduction to less-mainstream manga, as well as a title mostly anybody could enjoy. It has elements of comedy, romance, adventure, drama, and mystery; probably something for everybody in there. Nico's adventures are usualy pretty fun to read, although the stories start getting a bit darker near the end. It's only two volumes, and with its very wide appeal, I would say it's definately worth the buy. Of course, I'm not reviewing how good the buy is, but the manga it's self. Sexy Voice and Robo both are quite enjoyable characters, who get into quite enjoyable adventures; the only thing is, theres nothing that makes this manga extremely unique. Also, it doesn't really end. It's last chapter just ends like any other chapter. This manga has gotten pretty darn good reviews in other places, but as I said, I didn't see anything that really made this manga unique, just a really well done average(ish) story. Highly reccomended due to appeal, rated lower for genere.

Rating: 9.0/10
Link Of The Day

Haibane Renmei (Anime)

Haibane Renmei is truly a masterpieceful anime. Before watching it, I had only seen media of that caliber in manga, but Haibane Renmei is a great example of a great unconventional anime. It's the story of a girl who gets named Rakka, who wakes up in this new world where she becomes one of the Haibane, angel like creatures with wings (that they can't use to fly) and halos, which are prevented in a very realistic manner for something that could never exist. She lives in Old Home, a house of Haibane in a city of normal humans with walls outside that make sure Haibane can't leave. This is the basic plot layout, but you learn of many more things in this city, as well as ending up having to interpret certain important aspects of the series, sort of like Paranoia Agent. What makes this different than Paranoia Agent though, is it uses no symbolism; just a straightforeward (and very well done) plot that ends up making you think about it a lot anyways. It's first half is very light hearted; just Rakka's experiance getting used to this town with very nice people. Then, halfway through the series, the mood takes a very dramatic shift, where in my opinion, the series gets great. As mentioned before, one thing I like is how nice everybody is to eachother. More so than cheesy yugioh friendship preachers, minus the preaching. This is a series I can say so much about yet give such a little idea of what it's really about, as I don't want to spoil any of the immense things you can spoil in it. While Haruhi in my opinion is better, due to it's well crafted characters and wide appeal. This series has good characters, not as good as Haurhi or River's Edge, and slow pacing, the slow pacing being a big turn off to some people. To quote the anime news network review, "If you’re an adult (or perhaps a mature teenager [like me]) with discerning taste, you’re going to like Haibane Renmei. This show has class and style, and is one of the most unique releases of the year."


Rating: 9.5/10
Link Of The Day

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (anime movie)

Most of you have probably seen this, but for those of you who havn't, here's a review (since I just saw it). Nausicaa is about a girl, Nausicaa (big surprise) who lives in the future, after the downfall of machinery, in a world where humans are the inferior race to giant insects and poisonous spores exist that kill them (although they have ways of dealing with them). Then theres the bad guys, who don't like this "swamp of sorrow" with invincible bugs and poisen, and want to destroy it. Nausicaa sees the necesity of keeping the swamp alive and wants to obviously. One thing I love about Nausicaa (the movie) is the well drawn world. You really get a feel for what their living is like, instead of just what they do there. It's pretty much just like any other Miyazaki movie; a cliche'-ish movie that's still great. I can't say much more about it (I assume most anime fans have seen at least one Miyazaki movie). One thing I loved was the music. It has these extremely cheesy disco songs that I just loved. As I said before, it's somewhat cliche'd but still really fun. It has a great ending as well. If you havn't seen it, see it.


Rating: 9.0/10
Link Of The Day

Escaflowne (anime)

I just finished Escaflowne today (after maybe two years) so I thought I would give it a review. It's sort of like Evangelion; its a shojo mecha series that's definately better than average of both of those generes. It's the story of Hitomi, a girl from Earth, who gets teleported to a planet where Earth, or as they call it "The Mystic Moon" is in space, called Gaea. There she is aquainted with Van, a king with the mysterious mecha (or Melef as theyre called) Escaflowne, and eventualy plenty more characters with some relevence to the plot. Rivaling our heroes, is the evilish Zaibach empire, lead by a old guy obsessed with fate. It actualy has quite a bit of somewhat important characters. I don't think the character's are anything special, but the amount of them (theres more than are pictured) give it a cool atmosphere. Also, I think the setting is pretty cool; you get a good feel for a country with it's nations and such. It still cannot escape the fate of shojoness tho; predictability, love triangles and strong themes on love's power. Still worth seeing tho, because of it's elements that, in my opinion, put it a few steps above other shojo or mecha serieses.


Rating: 8.4/10

River's Edge (manga)

River's Edge being by the author of Helter Skelter, I made sure to check it out. It's pretty much just the story of three people (well mainly one but two of her friends are major characters): The person mentioned in the parentheses who'se pretty much just a normal high school (I think...) girl, a kid who gets bullied with quite a few secrets and a model. Our main character, like I said, is just a normal person, and she's dealing with these other two unique people's insecurities and different ways of life. We also just have a normalish (and well portrayed) high school story of love and life and such. I dont think the characters are quite as well drawn as Ririko from Helter Skelter, but this story does have some memorable characters, not to mention a story you can relate to more than that of a declining model. Like Helter Skelter, we get a very dark outlook on how people are capable of acting, just this time with more familiar characters. I really don't think this should be missed; it's a bit more accesible to the majority in my opinion than Helter Skelter, and extremely enjoyable though. Just don't read it while you're in a good mood if you want to keep it. I'm on a pretty good reading/watching streak right now :D

Rating: 9.5/10

Maus (american comic)

Yet again, a holocaust story. Except this time, it's an American graphic novel, and a pretty good one at that. I actualy read this before watching Schindler's List, and it's information on the holocaust and concentration camps really helped me understand the movie. While Schindler's List gives you insight to the holocaust by showing it, Maus is the story of a kid who'se learning about his dad's story of surviving the holocaust, so the dad is explaining things that happened to him, so it's a bit more direct in it's info. Along with our main character (Art Speigelman, the author)'s dad's story, we get the story of Art and his dad's failing relationship, which is a good story it's self. The comic being told with animals is one of the things that makes it interesting, because, I'm not sure if it actualy happened, but Art is making a comic about his dad's holocaust experiance in the story, so what you're reading is the result. One thing I noticed, was that the dad got luckyish at some points, then realized you had to be lucky to survive the holocaust. It has components like that, that make it seem all the more realistic. Read this, and see Schindler's List, and you will probably get a good holocaust fix (and you could always throw Life is Beautiful in there was well for a comedic break). For a very informative graphic novel that also has a good plot, this is great.


Rating: 9.4/10

Schindler's List (movie)

Ah, the classic holocaust movie, Schindler's List. We follow the true story of Oskar Schindler, a nazi who openened a factory and hired jews, saving them from the holocaust. This ends up taking up three hours though, by giving the story of just how bad the holocaust was (a somewhat overused story, but this movie pulls it off very well). If you want more info on the holocaust or are into it at all, see this movie for sure. While the movies mostly in black and white, theres some interesting uses of color in the movie (it was made in '93). Schindler though, isnt the most interesting character, but he has good relationships and plot events that involve him, which makes up for the bland characters. It's a pretty touching story that I think pretty much anybody should see for it's insight to the holocaust you can't really find done so well anywhere else. Of course, that's not what makes the movie; it's worth seeing for the rest of the movie alone. If you havn't already, see this movie.


Rating: 9.5/10

Blood: The Last Vampire (anime "movie")

(I'm glad it's the last one)

We'll start off with a sort of cool concept; one remaining vampire in the world (Saya) who fights off these vapmire-like creatures with a katana in a school girl uniform. It also has pretty damn good animation. Another cool feature is it's use of English and Japanese in different parts (A Japanese person in America) so we get the original Japanese version, just with subtitles in different parts. Where does this movie go wrong? Everywhere else. First of all, we have plot events that just don't even have any relevance. Saya's katana breaks and so she walks by a store that has one in the window and looks at it like she wants to steal it. Guess what? That katana's never seen again. Also theres cheesy poorly drawn relationships, like that of Saya and this nurse person she's trying to protect. It just doesn't have anything behind it. Also at the end (I'll put the following in italics to show a spoiler) when Saya almost kills of the last not-vampire, she feels a really un-necesary pity for it and it becomes good or something cheesy like that. Just don't waste you're time with Blood like I did. At least it's only fourty-five minutes... On a somewhat related note, the reason I end up giving stuff high ratings is because I usualy only read/watch stuff that gets reccomended to me that I think I would like. But when I read/see something like Blood, ill be make sure to get you to not watch it.


Rating: 4/10

Sophie's Choice (movie)

From hearing about Maryl Streep's amazing performance in this movie, I thought it would be worth watching. The movie starts Sophie Zawitsowski (Maryl Streep) and Nathan Landau (Kevin Kline) as two lovers and Stingo (Peter MacNicol), a person who just moved into their building, and their life as well as Sophie's dark past in a concentration camp as a catholic. While I think Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire (didn't like the movie that much) was a better performance, Maryl Streep's acting in this was superb. Can you think of anybody who, just for one movie part, learn english with a polish accent, perfect polish, and perfect german? Thats what I thought. The present-day story is somewhat fun and lighthearted, until Nathan, normaly a kind person, starts getting into violent outbursts that just make life fun for nobody. Of course Sophie's past in the concentration camps arn't lighthearted at all, so overall this movie has a pretty dark mood, but some good lighter moments as well (like Sophie calling Stingo's seersucker jacket a cocksucker). Kevin Kline is superb in this as well, playing a character unlike his normal ones. A worthwhile movie, with Streep's acting aside, but I think this movie is necesary for the good acting in it.

Rating: 9.0/10

Animal House (movie)

Just finished watching the classic comedy Animal House, and decided to give it a review. Animal House follows the story of Kent Dorfrman (Stephen Furst) and Larry Kroger (Tom Hulce) , two not so popular colledge students and their joining of the Delta frat house, the worst frat on campus. Of course, these Delta boys arn't all that bad. Loveable leaders who don't let anything get in their way, and Jon Belushi (pictured) playing the crazy drunk guy fabulously. Now we have a fun story of "the worst frat on campus" and their fun adventures. Tons of classic lines like Belushi's "Did we stop when the Germans bombed pearl harbor?" A very fun movie to watch, and the king/first of all movies like Old School. Theres plenty of memorable characters and lines, and it has an overall fun feel to it.


Rating: 8.9/10