Catching Up On Anime - Reviews Galore

Okay, I don't have time to go into in depth reviews of each shows I have viewed (or re-viewed) so I'm sort of crunching them up into one brief entry.

Neon Genesis Evangelion - This series is fantastic. With weird-looking monsters, pseudo-religious tones and images, giant robots that live on blood, and a very controversial ending this show has just about something for everyone. This show is stark and at times very depressing. There is very little fan service in terms of cleavage, but there fight scenes between the robots and the "angels" are normally very good. You can tell that the budget was being cut in the end because scenes got a bit too long and the last two episodes were probably made on a shoe-string budget. I believe the final episodes work, but it won't leave you feeling like you got the ending you wanted. In fact, the creators of the show thought the same and created The End of Evangelion just to soothe their fans and themselves. But the final two episodes aren't really bad; they are just very different.

Blue Gender - This sci-fi/horror show is comprised of 26 episodes like many other anime shows. The English voice talents include many folks from Dragonball Z, but this show is quite a bit more graphic and it's a bit of an adjustment to hear voices from my childhood in a more adult show. There are sex scenes and nudity and plenty of gore. Some say the final third of the show is when it falls apart, but I beg to differ. This show stays solid throughout and the ending is really good, if not slightly head-scratching. The series also comes with the movie, but the movie is essentially an inferior re-telling of the series.

Samurai Champloo - Cowboy Bebop took the space western and film noir genres and combined 'em with a jazz soundtrack with amazing results. Samurai Champloo combines hip hop with samurai action and pseudo-historical references. You can tell the same guy is the mastermind of both shows, but they are vastly different. Steve Blum voices the main character in both English versions of the shows and that can be a bit jarring because there's just no way you cannot think about Cowboy Bebop as you watch this show, but this show really does stand-up. Personally, I can't stand the opening song because I am not a fan of hip-hop, but the show itself is quite good.

School Days - This show is only twelve episodes long and you will hate every single character. Yup, every single one. This show begins as a light romantic comedy, but gradually turns into something much more disturbing. By the end you will wonder just what you fucking watched. This show will make Fatal Attraction look like The Wizard of Oz. This show is only available in Japanese as far as I know, but I'd be willing to watch an English dub. 

Just a word of warning... the last episode is violent. So violent that when a young girl in Japan killed her own father with a machete the last episode's showing date was pushed back. Again, things don't stay light and fluffy for long on this show.

Higurashi- When They Cry - This show is fucked up. There's just no other way to put it. You ever see The Powerpuff Girls on Cartoon Network? Well, imagine a Powerpuff Girl carrying a bloody machete and swinging it at you. Yeah, the characters may look cute and some parts of this show are downright funny, but other parts are downright depressing and fucking disturbing. This show is 26 episodes and it is sort of like Groundhog Day in that the events play over and over again but with very different results depending on what choices are made and by what characters. I think there are a total of six or seven segments and each one tells you just a bit more even though events are different. By the end you'll know why everything is happening , but not just how or when. It is head-scratching and the violence is extreme, but it is a good time to be had if you have the stomach for it. There are sequel seasons to this show, but none of them are in English. The collection I ordered was from the UK because the US version on Amazon is fucking expensive. I'd love for the sequels to this series to become more readily available in the US because I want to figure out all the unanswered questions.

And... F.Y.I. - This show actually gave me nightmares. 

**Consider Samurai Champloo and Neon Genesis Evangelion in the Blog House Catalog of Greatness.