Anime recommendation

[Hiki]

I wish I had SciFi

[Tomoyo]

Me too

[oldwrench]

I was asked to give a review of the book I just finished:

Blood the Last Vampire: Night of the Beasts

Yawn.... poke me with a pin and see if I'm still alive....... did I actually spend all that time reading that? Lord, I haven't read anything that boring since I read Moby Dick, when I was in college. I just can't believe I suffered through this thing. (Do I sound a bit disappointed?) This thing is 300 pages, 285 of them read like a very boring text book, absolutely no action there. You see Saya, three times, about three swings of her sword, maybe five pages worth, or less. The action scenes probably cover about eight or ten pages. The rest is mostly sit down dialog.

Synopsis: Vietnam war era, about 1969. School boy, Rei, is part of a small protest group. (Dialog about protest groups.) A protest gets broken up, he runs and in an alley comes across Saya, and a bloody dead chiropteran. He gets knocked out, arrested, suspended from school, meets a detective, Goutuda, who enlists him and his group to help investigate the murders of several protesters, they were all drained of blood. (Long dialog with Detective and protest boys in a restraunt, mostly about why we fear the dead and what we do about it.) Rei gets a message to meet one of the protest boys, the boy is a possible target for the killer, the boy takes him to a militant faction's headquarters where Rei meets the leader, who happens to be a chiropteran. Rei almost gets his blood sucked, but Saya attacks the group. (About two pages and the chiropteran gets away.) Rei and Goutuda are forced into a car and taken to fancy mansion where they meet an old man. (Extremely long dialog mostly about strange theories of evolution and why humans like to hunt and anthropology. Basicly a very long winded explanation of how chiropterans may have evolved and how they can hide among us. Very different than the anime series it seems to me.Finds out the old man is working for the Rothschild's, and the detective is working for the Vatican.) Back home (finely) Rei gets another message to meet one of the others. He figures it's a set up, it is. Goutuda's there, three chiropterans attack, Goutuda shoots and kills one, Rei shoots one, it's not dead, Saya kills two, end of story. Epilogue: Many years later, a middle aged Rei sees a schoolgirl, Saya, on a subway. That's all.

If anyone really wants to bore themselves, let me know, I'll send you this turkey.

[oldwrench]

We finished the series Zipang at the shop. It's a very good series that ends nowhere. I'm sure they figured on a second season, but there hasn't been one. The manga is still going I guess.

Zipang is a scifi historical drama. The premise is similar to the movie Final Countdown, but has much more depth. One of the Japanese self defense forces newest Aegis class missile ships is transported through time to the night before the battle of midway in WWII. They rescue an Imperial Navy officer from a wrecked plane, after the battle. The captain and officers agonize over the problem, should they use their advanced technology to alter history, or not. And, is there any way they can avoid altering history. Is there some way they can prevent the terrible loss of life the war caused? As they try to save lives, the Japanese officer works in the background on his own agenda. Can the ship survive being hunted by both sides?

There is some very good action in this series, very good character development, and some excellent moral angst. The animation is very good, it is in wide screen.

Any of you who are interested in military history, and scifi, this is a good title, even if it doesn't really end. I just wish they would finish the series, but with geneon gone, I don't think it will happen.

[Dinky]

I finished all of Kodocha/Child's Toy!! The last three dvds are not as funny or exciting as the first 8, but they're still good, and the series ends at a decent spot, even though I REALLY REALLY wish they'd come out with a few more discs. I highly recommend all of Kodocha for anyone who likes a high-energy laugh!

[Tomoyo]

i started watching that. it was really weird but well i chouldn't find any of the episodes in any laguege except for spanish and well my spanish really isn't that good

[agito_0291]

there are plenty of places to find it online. The easiest is torrents but there are websites that work well enough.

[Zeratul2k]

Followed oldwrench's advice and watched Zipang. It was good and as he said, the ending is just a cliffhanger for a second season. What I didn't like? Some military mistakes and that it was too slow paced at times.

[Tomoyo]

i hate it when anime's are slow paced i really really hate it. i think what's the piuont of all this. that's why i like anime's that only ahve about 20 episodes

[oldwrench]

Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad.............. What can I say, how do I describe this. It isn't like any anime that I've seen....... Well, it is the story of a boy, growing up....... it has a bit of young romance........ teen angst, striving to reach a goal, good guys, bad guys, ya, it has all that stuff.......... But it has some great rock music, the music wraps around your emotions and draws you along with the story.

14 year old Koyuki is a loner, a bit of a social misfit, he feels disconnected with life. Koyuki saves a strange looking dog from some mean kids, and meets his owner, Ryuusuke, a very good guitar player. Music draws Koyuki, and he begins to learn to play guitar, getting lessons from his swimming coach, another interesting character. In time Ryuusuke forms a band, named after his dog, Beck, and brings Koyuki in to play and sing with them. The series follows the ups and downs of the band, their reach for fame, and Koyuki's growth as a musician and as a man, which is complicated by three girls, his old friend Izumi, Ryuusuke's free spirit sister, Maho, and later a girl from his school. Ryuusuke has a few old skeletons in the closet that come to haunt the band. It all comes to a powerful climax at the Greatful Sound Concert. Can the band survive or will it all fall apart. What will become of Koyuki's dream.

Six dvd's, 26 episodes. This series has some great sound. If you want something different, and you like to rock, this one is for you. Funimation did a good job on this one.