Overall Rating:
Publisher: Studio Ghibli
Type of Anime: Movie
Watched Subbed/Dubbed: Subbed

Based on Diana Wynne Jones’ novel, Howl’s Moving Castle is the latest Hayao Miyazaki masterpiece to be released in the US. I’ve never read the novel, so this review is solely based on the Japanese sub playing at my local theater.

Our main character Sophie, a young hat maker, is one of the most delightful girls in anime. She’s a happy-go-lucky girl who looks for the good in people and adapts to changes far quicker than most. In her world, the glass is always half-full.

One day, Howl comes into town, and with him, his moving castle. Howl’s castle looks like a mad scientist built it and slapped 4 mechanical legs, which is how the castle walks, to its base. It is a monstrous contraption with wheels and chimneys and balconies extending from all directions and even a mouth that doubles as a landing dock. One look at the castle and you are quite sure that only thing keeping this baby on its feet is magic and lots of it.

Sophie and Howl’s fates cross when Sophie takes a back road to her sister’s and is harassed by two soldiers. Out of nowhere, Howl appears and offers to escort her to her destination. Of course, things aren’t so rosy, and several black blobs close in behind the pair, but Howl effortlessly dodges them, walking on air and rooftops to escape, and delivers Sophie safely. And because we all know that in anime, all it takes is a pretty face and a random act of kindness for a girl to fall for a guy, Sophie is quite in love with her mystery beau by the end of their encounter.

The drama continues when Sophie returns to her hat shop to find an extremely large and unpleasant woman as followed her inside. When Sophie asks her to leave, the Witch of the Waste curses her with old age before arrogantly strolling, as much as a woman of that size could stroll, out the door. Sophie panics, and the next day, sets off to find a cure. Fate again plays its part when Sophie is led to Howl’s castle, where she befriends its inhabitants and becomes the much needed housekeeper to the wretchedly dirty, dusty, and disgusting place. Yes, only boys live there and they couldn’t be messier.

The characters are what make this animation a delight to watch. They may look cute and simplistic, but their movements, reactions, and facial expressions bring them to life. This movie is Sophie’s story, and throughout, her character morphs from a young girl to an elderly woman. In every scene, she’s portrayed somewhere in between. She never quite breaks the curse, but she tends to take the appearance of how she feels in the moment – becoming slimmer with longer hair and no wrinkles when she’s feeling like a young girl in love and growing plumper with shorter hair and lots of wrinkles when she’s playing the wise grand-mom.

The accompanying cast is an eclectic bunch, with Turnip the mute scarecrow who bounces happily around the castle, Calcifer, the demonic flame who moves the castle, and Markl, the little boy who acts as Howl’s clerk and runs his day-to-day business of delivering books and potions to various townspeople. And of course, there’s Howl, the powerful wizard who remains, literally, a child at heart.

While there’s a lot to like in Howl’s Moving Castle, there are also some confusing bits. We never really understand Howl’s motivations or why Sophie is so in love with him. He seems like a lost puppy trapped in his own world and carrying a heavy burden. At some point in his childhood, he made a deal (presumably for his powers?) in exchange for something valuable to him. Now, Howl is caught in a war between 2 nations that is never fully explained, but portrayed as pointless in Miyazaki’s classic anti-war stance. Howl works himself to the brink of death night after night, but is afraid to refuse the king’s orders and abstain from fighting.

He is also rather superficial. At one point he mentions something to the effect of what is the point of living if one isn’t beautiful? This really gets under Sophie’s skin. While incredibly warm-hearted and cheerful, Sophie has never seen herself as beautiful in her life, so she takes it personally.

Finally, I had a number of questions concerning the film’s concept of magic – what is it, where does it come from, why can some people use it, why do demons make pacts with humans, how do curses work, etc – that were never answered.

Still, this movie is well worth your time, especially if you can see it in theaters. Watch it for the characters and gorgeous animation, not for the under-developed plot. It’s not really a deep movie that sparks philosophical discussion later on, but it is pretty darn ‘feel good.’

Animation:

My Rating:
Miyazaki creates a lush world combining the industrial era with fairy tale magic. The colors are rich and brimming with details while the characters are some of the most lifelike you’ll find in any animation.

Music:

My Rating:
Joe Hisaishi has put together a lovely score for the film, adding to the already magical mood of the animation. The songs range from slower, piano numbers to playful, full orchestral pieces.

Character Design:

My Rating:
As mentioned above, this movie is all about Sophie, and her character is quite fun to watch as she changes from a young to an elderly woman and how she deals. Never one to harbor bitterness or dwell on the negative, she maintains a positive outlook no matter what obstacles are thrown in her path. The rest of the cast seemed to be side characters, never really changing, but adding to the magic of Sophie’s journey.

In one scene, for instance, the elderly Sophie must climb several flights of stairs to visit the King on Howl’s behalf. The Witch of the Waste, a much heftier lady, has also been invited and climbs beside her. For whatever reason, there’s a silly rule in place where no guards can help their guests climb these stairs, so the two older women struggle up the stairs. To make matters worse, a pooch which Sophic believes to be Howl in disguise, has been tagging along beside her but is too small to climb the stairs itself. True to character, Sophie can’t just leave the poor dog behind, so she carries it up the stairs with her.

During the scene, Sophie is torn between taunting the old hag who cursed her with old age and compassion for the woman, who looks like she’s about to keel over at any moment. By the time Sophie reaches the top, she becomes the Witch’s cheerleader.

The painstaking effort these two women put into climbing this mountainous set of stairs comes through incredibly well in how it’s animated, from how they move to the looks they give each other. You feel that this has been one of the more challenging events in their lives and through it, you grow fonder of both. Rarely in animation is the baddie portrayed in such a sympathetic light – she’s not the arrogant bastard we so want to hate but a human with all her weaknesses laid out for all to see. And Sophie’s reaction to this made you like her even more.

Overall Rating:
Publisher: Media Blasters
Type of Anime: TV
Watched Subbed/Dubbed: Dubbed

I’m not usually into Shonen-ai, but there’s just something about Loveless that I adore. Based on the manga by Yun Kouga, which is still being released, Loveless follows Ritsuka Aoyagi, a sixth grade boy who feels lost and alone in the world.

Two years ago, Ritsuka’s older brother Seimei was murdered. Seimei’s body was found charred and sitting in Ritsuka’s seat at his elementary school. No one knows exactly what happened, but Ritsuka is determined to find the person responsible for his brother’s death as Seimei was the only person Ritsuka ever felt he could trust.

It was also around that time that Ritsuka suffered a bout of amnesia and his personality completely changed. He went from being extremely popular and getting mediocre grades to an introvert that got the highest grades in school. Unfortunately, Ritsuka’s abusive mother also noticed the change and for the last two years has punished him for not being the kid he used to be.

On Ritsuka’s first day at his new school, he meets 20 year-old Soubi, who claims he was an old friend of Seimei’s. Intrigued, Ritsuka asks him to hang out and the two snap pictures of one another – pictures are important to Ritsuka because they serve as the only proof he has that his memories are real. As they are enjoying themselves, a fighter team interjects and Ritsuka soon finds himself in the middle of a spell battle between he and Soubi and another team named Breathless.

Loveless tackles a number of heavy themes in its twelve episode run. First, there’s Ritsuka, whose real name is Loveless. True to his name, Ritsuka avoids establishing a meaningful connection with others. Instead, he focuses his attention on the past, hoping that one day he’ll rediscover the boy he was two years ago and win back his mother’s love. He spends his days depressed that he can’t be the person he’s supposed to be but bitter that he should mold himself to meet other people’s expectations.

Second, there’s the issue of sexuality. In Ritsuka’s world, sexuality is a visible feature. Children retain cat ears and tail until they have sex for the first time. When Ritsuka first meets Soubi, one of the first things he notices is that Soubi is a grown up who no longer has ears. The anime contrasts Soubi with Ritsuka’s teacher, Hitomi Shinonome, who is 23 yet still has her ears.

Finally, there’s the battle system. Fighting occurs between couples made up of a Sentouki (a fighter) and a Sacrifice (the one who takes damage). The couples each share one name and there is a special, often romantic, bond between the pairings. In the mythology, there is only one Sentouki and one Sacrifice that share the same name and when the two fight together, they increase one another’s powers.

Soubi was formerly Seimei’s Sentouki and the two were called Beloved. When Seimei died, he asked in his will that Soubi find his younger brother and become Ritsuki’s Sentouki. Because of that, other fighting groups ridicule Soubi for going against protocol and allowing his Sacrifice to die while he continued living. Soubi complied with Seimei’s wishes, but because he and Ritsuka don’t share the same name, their bond isn’t as strong as other couples. Soubi often gains power by touching or caressing Ritsuki.

Loveless dwells on the concept of love, loneliness and sexuality through a variety of relationships. As Soubi learns more about Ritsuka, he becomes more of a protector and older brother and while there are a fair number of sexual innuendoes, Soubi repeatedly mentions he’s not a pervert and you get the idea he doesn’t want to sleep with Ritsuka (well, at least not while Ritsuka’s only in 6th grade). He does, however, tell Ritsuka he loves him, which makes Ritsuka extremely uncomfortable.

To lighten up the anime, there is also a love triangle between Ritsuka and two of his classmates. Pink haired Yuiko is in love with Ritsuka and tries her best to befriend him. Meanwhile, Yayoi is in love with Yuiko. He’s already asked her out once, only to be rejected, but he refuses to give up. In addition, Ritsuka must also deal with his classmates, who can deliberately be mean, so while Soubi is a main character, the focus of the anime is really how Ritsuka deals with overcoming his loneliness and connecting with others.

The Loveless anime was originally created in 2005 and it’s obvious that they had a tight production budget. There are a number of pan shots and still scenes throughout the anime, but the high quality artwork captures the moody feel of the anime extremely well. The color palette is primarily softer, cooler colors that, coupled with the artwork, give the anime a dreamlike feel – as if you’re in Ritsuka’s head at times.

Loveless tackles a lot in twelve episodes and can be confusing at points. I found myself so curious to know what happened that I picked up the manga, which is now, thankfully, much further along than when the anime was originally made. The ending is bizarre, and a complete deviation from the manga, but it does manage to wrap up many of the loose ends. I strongly recommend that if you like the anime, you move on to the manga, which makes a lot more sense. That said, I loved the anime and am hoping (though I’m not holding my breath) that they’ll do a second season now that more material has been published.

Overall Rating:
Publisher: GONZO , FUNimation
Type of Anime: TV
Watched Subbed/Dubbed: Subbed

Set in the future where several galaxy colonies exist, Kiddy Grade follows the inner workings of the Galactic Organization of Trade and Tariffs (GOTT). GOTT was formed about 160 years ago to oversee universal economic imbalance, arbitrate disputes, and negotiate contracts and treaties between planets. Clients pay GOTT for various services ranging from scoping out illegal materials to escorting a high profile person or document to its designated location. On the job are 2 ES members, Éclair and Lumiere, who stand ready and willing to do what’s necessary to complete their tasks.

Éclair is one of the most powerful cyborgs created, although her data has been erased and rewritten so many times, that she has an innocent, childlike presence to her. Lumiere is a hacker cyborg and can get into and control a number of systems through merely touching the control panel. Together, they follow the orders of GOTT Commander Eclipse as best as they can, although sometimes they get help from a variety of other GOTT members.

GOTT, itself, appears to be sketchy at times and riddled with conspiracy. Like Lumiere and Éclair, several other members work independently as teams of two and occasionally end up on the same mission for no apparent reason. Some teams, like Dvergr and Alv, are less friendly than others. There is a broader sense of position status as higher ups sometimes tend to look down on and keep information from their lower counterparts.

This series started out painfully slow for me, but has been picking up in later episodes. I’m still not in love with the series, but it definitely has become far more complex and interesting in the later episodes I’ve seen.

Animation:

My Rating:
I do like the drawing style and the animation, done by the people that made Real Bout High School and Gatekeepers, so I am hoping it gets better.

Music:

My Rating:
Opening theme is J-pop and not something that I would listen to in my spare time. The ending theme hasn’t captured my love either…

Character Design:

My Rating:
For the first couple episodes, the characters seemed to lack that spark of personality that makes them interesting. As I watch more of the series, Eclair and Lumiere are growing on me and have the potential to develop into interesting characters…

Overall Rating:
Publisher: Media Blasters
Type of Anime: OAV and TV
Watched Subbed/Dubbed: Subbed

Magic User’s Club (Maho Tsukai Tai) is the story of the five members of a high school magic club who practice magic spells and crush on one another. The story begins in the 6-part OAV series produced by Bandai Visual in 1996 and continues later in the 13-episode anime TV series. The box set includes both the complete OVA series and the TV series.

In the OAV, the alien race, the Tsuringe, invade Earth and easily defeat Earth’s military with their superior technology. Rather than wiping mankind from the face of the planet or taking control of the world, the alien invaders decide to live peacefully with their opposing forces and travel the world in their large, blimp-like mothership called The Bell. All is well until Magic User’s Club president Takeo Takakura declares war against the aliens, simply because he wants to impress the female members of his club.

In the TV series, club members must face themselves when mysterious new student Jurika Jinno joins and starts playing head games by confronting members about their crushes and desires.

Much of MUC involves club members practicing magic spells, which then go horribly wrong. In this world, magic works by changing spells and using a wand to focus your will. It’s your will that can alter reality, so by having a single point of focus you can channel your energy into, spell casting becomes easier. When the MUC isn’t trying to fight off aliens, their top rivals are Manga Club, with whom they share a room. President Mizuha Miyama, drawn as a busty fantasy high school girl, never misses an opportunity to berate Takakura and the MUC.

The group itself is a basket case of hormones and potty humor. Takakura frequently fantasizes about females disrobing and seducing him. Vice President Ayanojou, an effeminate guy, is hot for Takakura. And club member Akane Aikawa would rather go on dates than practice magic. The OVA does a nice job of introducing the characters, but most of the development comes in the TV series, where the writers play on the characters’ fears, insecurities and dreams. That said, the anime tends to favor raunchier humor and silliness to anything serious. In most cases, the humor works.

Overall, MUC is an enjoyable series if you are looking for something light with mild ecchi & potty humor thrown in.

Overall Rating:
Publisher: Bandai Entertainment
Type of Anime: TV

When Keitaro was five, he made a promise to a neighborhood girl that when they grew up, they would meet at Tokyo University and live happily ever after. The girl then moved away and Keitaro forgot her name, but not the promise they made. Fifteen years later, Keitaro has tried and failed to pass the entrance exams into Tokyo University several times. His parents are ready to kick him out of the house, and he has all but given up hope of getting in.

One day, Keitaro’s grandmother, who owns an all girls dormitory, decides she no longer wants to manage it. The job is dropped in Keitaro’s lap and he becomes the new manager, to the dismay of the girls living there. The anime follows Keitaro in his quest to fulfill the promise he made to the girl fifteen years ago as well as to be accepted (and not killed by) by the five girls living in the dorm – yes, you know the routine… five women, one man…

While Love Hina is a tad formulaic and follows the typical “harem”-style anime, it is rather enjoyable. There’s plenty of violent Ranma-style comedy, with Keitaro getting slugged or kicked if he accidently does something perverted. Creator Akamatsu Ken handles the mix of seriousness and over-the-top humor nicely, but the violence does get old.

Animation:

My Rating:
The animation is pretty decent – very well drawn with a mix of highly detailed scenes and crazy, exaggerated deformation style whenever something violent happens.

Music:

My Rating:
The theme song is pretty catchy. I like the music… although I’m not sure I’m ready to buy the cds yet

Character Design:

My Rating:
The character development is interesting, although a bit predictable given the storyline. I like most of the characters – they each have something to add to the story to round things out.

Overall Rating:
Publisher: Media Blasters, Inc
Type of Anime: TV
Watched Subbed/Dubbed: Subbed

Based on four of the seven light novels by Ono Fuyumi, The Twelve Kingdoms is a 45-episode mythological fantasy complete with powerful monsters, epic battles and plenty of backstory.

The series involves two parallel universes: modern Japan and the Twelve Kingdoms. During violent storms, people can cross between worlds, but the journey is often problematic. At the series’ start, Kingdom of Kei’s Kirin (Co-Ruler) visits modern Japan to search for a new king. He confronts insecure Japanese student Youko Nakajima, and returns with her to the alternate universe of the Twelve Kingdoms. Along the way, the two are separated and Youko begins her life in the new world alone.

Youko doesn’t take her new fate well. Throughout much of the first few episodes, she wallows in self-pity, whines, and is one of the most unlikable main characters I’ve seen in an anime. As a “kaikyaku” (a stranger from the Japanese world), she is regarded with mistrust from the natives. Fortunately, she has a few things going for her. She can understand the native language. She was given a mystical sword that allows her to see glimpses into the past, present, and future. And she is granted a spirit (a Hinman) that inhabits her body and fights for her during battles.

Throughout much of the series, Youko’s main quest is to return home, a near-impossible task. As she discovers more about herself, she gradually accepts her new destiny to become the next monarch of the Kingdom of Kei.

The Twelve Kingdoms is told in four separate story arcs – two of which involve Youko and two are told to her. The first arc is Youko’s adventures in the Twelve Kingdoms. In arc two, we learn the story of Taiki, kirin of the Kingdom of Tai, though this arc feels unfinished we never learn the fate of the Kingdom of Tai. In the third, which involves Youko, we follow three girls who become friends. And finally, the shorter fourth arc involves the King of En’s past. Youko draws upon these stories and experiences during her quest. And while some of the characters aren’t likable, all are complex and multi-dimensional, growing and changing in believable ways.

The animation is beautiful, with elaborate backgrounds, strong colors and fluid animation. The characters are fairly realistically drawn and the monsters are detailed, taken from Japanese and Chinese folklore. I did prefer the Japanese audio with English subtitles, as Youko’s voice seems more expressive than her English dub counterpart, but the English dub isn’t bad.

Overall, The Twelve Kingdoms is great epic fantasy series with complex storylines and well-developed characters.

Overall Rating:
Publisher: Gainax
Type of Anime: TV
Watched Subbed/Dubbed: Dubbed

Imagine an anime that makes a serious attempt at portraying and articulating a high school relationship as it begins and develops. No, this isn’t Love Hina or Ranma, so be warned. The striking difference is the level of self awareness in each of the characters. It’s like we hear the chatter that goes on in their heads throughout the entire series, and it switches from “her” or Yukino Miyazawa’s perspective to “his” or Arima Soujiro’s perspective as it follows the two.

Yukino and Arima are numbers 1 and 2 in their class and both strive to be perfect. When the two meet, it first is because of their class competitiveness, but soon it develops into much more. Along the way, we get a dramatic and exaggerated view of the relationship from a fairly realistic perspective. Now, you’re probably thinking that I’ve just contradicted myself there, but the anime has a manga feel to it. When something seems particularly dramatic to a character, the character and/or situation is drawn chibi/distorted and the animation follows a manga like, frame by frame approach. The only other anime that’s similar in terms of drawing style that I’ve seen is FLCL (the story is completely different, however). For example, when Yukino thinks she’s done something particularly stupid, we hear her inner dialog about how she is completely stressed that she made a fool of herself, and the animation follows the drama of her inner dialog. The drawing style may resort to black and white pencil drawings or part may be overly exaggerated or the entire scene may be fairly realistic looking.

Once Yukino and Arima become comfortable in their relationship, the story looks out around them to how they interact with others in their environment. This encompasses how different each of their family lives is to how their classmates interact with them. Because this is high school and Arima is so perfect and popular in the eyes of all the school girls, Yukino sometimes finds herself in catty battles where she must effectively deal with her “rivals” or the entire school ignoring her. There is also the issue that because the two spend so much time together, their grades drop and teachers start intervening in their relationship. And of course, there’s the physical aspect – how to show affection and how far to go.

Overall, this is quite an interesting anime in terms of portraying how two people meet, start looking outside themselves to accept others into their world view, how they change in the process, and how that relationship blossoms in the face of outside forces. It’s well worth watching as a character focused and driven exercise that few anime have taken.

Animation:

My Rating:
I think the animation style of His and Her Circumstance can best be described as a manga that is now an anime. There are scenes that are just stills drawn in exaggerated manga style that progress frame by frame as if you were reading a manga, and then there are the more realistic parts of how the characters interact with one another. The two styles are used to portray how others are scene and how actions are seen in the minds of the characters. If something seems completely crazy, the animation follows in chibi, exaggerated format. If something is particularly serious, the characters may be shown more realistic or even sketched out in line art.

Music:

My Rating:
The theme songs are kind of catchy. I really like the ending theme, although I’m not a huge fan of the opening theme. I do really like the piano music during the dvd menus.

Character Design:

My Rating:
This is definitely where His and Her Circumstances shines. The level of detail and self-awareness that each of the characters possess is striking. It’s almost as if the story is presenting people of a much greater age going back and doing high school all over again. There are very few high school students with the ability to recognize not only that they are doing each behavior, but they know themselves well enough to articulate why they are doing it. The characters each can accept responsibility and make their own decisions independently of their environment, which demonstrates maturity far greater than most high school students have. The animation style in each scene represents when a character knows they are doing something ridiculous or embarrassing or stressful and adds to the greater self-awareness of the character. The character normally will then reflect on the situation and try to come up with an appropriate solution to their current problem.

Overall Rating:
Publisher: Pioneer Video
Type of Anime: TV
Watched Subbed/Dubbed: Subbed

Gate Keepers is a sci-fi comedy anime about a group of teens who possess the power to channel energy from other dimensions. So the year is 1969, and Japan is entering its economic boom. Unfortunately, aliens have decided this is prime time to take over the world. Luckily, the Earth has a Defense Force in place, known as AEGIS.

Shun Ukiya is in the neighborhood as a battle between Earth and invaders is taking place. His powers are inadvertently unleashed and AEGIS discovers that there are others like their star, Ruriko, who can channel energy from another dimension to fight aliens.

The anime captures the feel of 1969, but after 3 episodes, the story hasn’t completely engrossed me yet. I’m not a huge fan of sci-fi animes (with Nadesico being the exception to that) and the characters haven’t grown on me completely, but the story does have it’s entertaining points. The aliens are these weird people dressed in black with sunglasses. Their leader is dressed in red. They fight in things that look like for example, a large iron ball or stereo system, and some have apparently lived interspersed with humans for a while. Most of them are the mean people you meet – those that don’t have a sense of humor or hate to be bothered for anything. When they get the signal, their eyes go zombie-like and they parade down the street side by side in army-like fashion to their target destination.

The more I watch this anime, the more I like it, though it still isn’t one of my favorites.

Animation:

My Rating:
The animation isn’t bad. The story is set in 1969, so the backgrounds do a nice job to give you that feel.

Music:

My Rating:
The theme songs are standard. The opening is upbeat j-pop, with the closing being a bit slower.

Character Design:

My Rating:
The characters don’t seem to have much depth to them from what I’ve seen thus far. Shun is the most developed, with past issues of becoming like his father. Ruriko apparently has taken her failure in kindergarten very seriously and works pretty hard to be differet. Megane seems like a bright girl, maybe the highlight of the cast. Reiko has that ditzier than Mihoshi (from Tenchi) feel to her.

Overall Rating:
Publisher: A.D. Vision
Type of Anime: TV
Watched Subbed/Dubbed: Dubbed

Full Metal Panic was one of 2002′s biggest hits in Japan and it’s easy to see why. The anime mixes beautiful animation with an engaging plot and likeable characters. The story follows Kaname Chidori, one of the most popular girls at school, who lives the life of the normal high school girl until a strange boy named Sousuke Sagara shows up in her class. She soon learns – and admittedly has a difficult time accepting – that Sousuke’s part of an elite anti-terrorist organization and his latest mission is to protect Kaname from anyone that might want to kidnap her.

As it turns out, Kaname is one of the “Whispered,” which means she has hidden knowledge of advanced technology. Several terrorist organizations are looking to get their hands on her because if they can probe her brain, they’ll learn how to make weapons more advanced than nukes. The anime doesn’t really go into much detail on who the Whispered are, where they came from, how many of them exist, or how they came to possess such knowledge – perhaps they’ll expand on this in 3rd season, just announced. Regardless, this is all revealed in episode 5 and the anime doesn’t come back to this theme until eps 20+ where clarification is scanty at best.

Sousuke grew up in Afghanistan and joined a guerilla movement at age 8. He’s been with some type of military unit or organization ever since. So, you can imagine that he doesn’t deal real well with the perils of high school life. Still, he’s “undercover” and must protect Kaname from any potential threats or suspicious activity. His backups include Sgt Melissa Mao, his spunky supervisor who’s not afraid to speak her mind, and lady’s man/ expert shooter, Kurz Weber.

The anime works really well as a combination of action/adventure mixed with romantic comedy. Several of the episodes are mission driven military crusades involving intense mech battles while others are light-hearted slap-stick school scenes where Sousuke must learn proper high school etiquette. Some of the more humorous scenes include him attempting to understand the dating scene by failing miserably at a dating sim, and him giving Kaname a lovely set of earrings and a bracelet, only to inform her that the earrings are really flash grenades and the bracelet is a tracking device. Despite Sousuke’s good intentions, he gets smacked by Kaname quite a bit.

I was surprised by the excellent pacing of the storyline. Most animes lag somewhere along the way, but FMP worked really well to contrast Sousuke’s life as a military mercenary with Kaname’s life as a popular high school girl and still maintain flow.

That being said, there were a couple of times when Sousuke had ample opportunity to kill the anime’s big bad along the way before things ballooned to the last several episodes, but I’ll give the anime the benefit of the doubt. You can’t have a mech anime without the last episodes being the grand finale, I suppose. And I do wish there had been a bit more background information on the Whispered, Mithril, and some of the characters. Still, given that I’m not a big mech fan, I was amazed that I enjoyed this one so much.

Animation:

My Rating:
The animation is from 2001/2002, but still very top notch for tv anime. Everything is vibrant and crisp, though I thought the 3D water animation was a bit outdated. Still, it blended well with the rest of the anime’s look and feel.

Music:

My Rating:
Both the opening and ending themes were by Mikuni Shimokawa. I liked both and thought they fit well with the anime.

Character Design:

My Rating:

With so much going on, you got a decent amount of character development in a short 24 episode series. Yes, they could have dug deeper into many of the characters’ pasts – for instance we learn that Kaname traveled abroad. We know Sousuke was part of a guerrilla movement in Afghanistan but the anime only skimmed the surface of his bio , and we know very little about Tessa and how she became captain of the multi-billion dollar Danaan.

However, given the number of characters and the scenarios in which they interacted, Gonzo deserves credit for trying to give the characters real personalities rather than your typical caricature/stereotype. I thought they did a great job contrasting say, Melissa’s on the job die hard integrity vs. her desire to make Tessa squirm/inferiority complex phase to how she picked Sousuke and Kurz as her subordinates. Tessa was also cute, ranging from playing flirtatious to proper to deadpan serious with a huge weight of responsibility on her shoulders It’s a shame this wasn’t fleshed out a bit more, but we can hope in season 3. Kaname was quite outspoken, and at times, you wish she’d just calm down and stop overreacting. And then she does and even feels sorry for losing her temper occasionally. It’s kind of refreshing. And Kurz is portrayed as the ultimate lady’s man, yet ends up being the one to give out the serious love advice. You can feel the characters have depth that we don’t quite get to explore.

Overall Rating:
Publisher: A.D. Vision
Type of Anime: TV
Watched Subbed/Dubbed: Subbed

Hibari Hanakogenei has just received a Pata-Pi, the latest techno-pet, from the Prince of her dreams, whom she’s never met. Not long after receiving this gift of love, some baddies appear and try to confiscate her now beloved Densuke. Why? Because Densuke is special – he has the ability to transform into an older looking version of Hibari dressed in a Bubblegum Crisis outfit and with wings and beat the crap out of hell’s minions.

The first episodes of CyberTeam are a mixture of just about every magical shojo cliché you can think of. You have Hibari, the overly dramatic why can’t everyone just get along girl, her best friend Suzume, a spoiled brat who must be number one and have only the best, and sporty-spice Tsugumi, a wannabe pop idol with a bare handed fighting style.

And yes, each have transforming Pata-Pi’s that the baddies want to get their hands on. It seems there might be some mythological significance to why this might be, but that premise is buried under the episodic: baddie villainess appears and demands one of the girls’ Pata-Pi’s. The girls refuse and get so emotional that their Pata-Pis are called to action, transform into powerful Divas and make short work of the Dark Prince’s minions.

Along the way, there is a dirty old man who constantly looks up their skirts and then tells them some random bit of knowledge that’s crucial to moving the story forward, lots of screaming, tons of sugary j-pop, and of course, bickering among the friend group over such important things like who will be the leader and what their group will be called.

So, will the CyberTeam save the world from the Dark Prince? Will Hibari ever meet the Prince from her dreams? What’s a Diva and how can those little Mr. Potato Head caramels transform into older, super-powerful versions of their owners? Will Dark Prince succeed in breaking up the CyberTeam? Can the girls ever just get along? Are you holding your breath in anticipation yet?

There may be hope. The anime makes a number of biblical references to Metatron, Genesis, and various others, though there’s nothing that ties any of the references together. Perhaps the story is more complex than the first 5 episodes appear.

Right now, however, I’d have to say that there’s nothing special about the characters, storyline, or animation. If you like magical shojo, this anime might be worth renting.

Animation:

My Rating:
This anime was made in 1998, so the animation has that older cell animation look to it. All the girls are super-cute with big eyes, heads, and hair and the colors are extremely vivid. The animation isn’t as fluid as the modern stuff being released with much of the stuff being pan shots, frames with just the character’s mouth moving or lip motion not in tune with the wording, and a bunch of reused footage.

Music:

My Rating:
All the songs are sugary j-pop. Not my taste, particularly when they repeat the same songs over and over.

Character Design:

My Rating:
Character development? Not here.