Full Metal Panic

Full Metal Panic is one of my first anime (and one of my early favorites). Basically, FMP is about Sousuke Sagara, an Arm Slave (giant robot)) pilot in the mercenary group, Mithril, who is assigned to the task of protecting Chidori Kaname. The highlights of FMP are the rather good character development and the nice balance between fight scenes and non-filler interludes. Between the first and second seasons, which mainly focus on Mithril and are very battle heavy, there is a transitional season called Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu, which focuses more on the romantic comedy high school life of Chidori and Sousuke.

My rating: 8/10

Hellsing

Hellsing is by far one of my favorite (non-comedy) anime next to Death Note. Part of this is the simple fact that the vampires in Hellsing provide a nice contrast to the modern romantic vampire, which is nice, especially when Eclipse (the third film made out of the romantic, glitter ridden Twilight Saga) is about to come out. In a nutshell, Hellsing is about Seras Victoria, a young police officer who is turned into a vampire (sired?) by Alucard, a servant of the Hellsing Organization. Victoria then joins Hellsing in its quest for peace through destruction of evil vampires (and the occasional non-vampire). In Hellsing Ultimate (Hellsing's more grusome OVA), the story starts pretty much the same, but by the second episode or so, the story line has completely changed and there are neo-Nazis trying to take over the world. I personally like both Hellsing and Hellsing Ultimate equally, although Hellsing is a bit easier to watch due to its shorter episodes.

Sorry about my excessive use of MegaVideo, it will be replaced when I can get the videos on a better player.

Hellsing episode one:


Hellsing Ultimate episode one:

Twilight

In preparation for Eclipse (the movie), I decided to post this video of Crispin Freeman (mainly for the Twilight, but I also love the rest of the video).

K-ON!

K-ON! (and the second season K-ON!!) is the story of Yui Hirasawa who, despite having no actual musical experience, joins the Light Music Club at her school as a guitarist. Throughout the anime, Yui becomes a more accomplished musician and bonds with her fellow club members.
Despite the rather basic and linear plot of K-ON!, I rather enjoyed it as a short anime between longer ones.

My rating: 7/10

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (左様なら絶望先生)

Sayo(u)nara Zetsubou Sensei is a comedy about a teacher (Nozomu Itoshiki) who hates all aspects of life. Throughout the series, Nozomu tries various methods to escape from his dreaded life. Each episode revolves around a particular aspect of life, culture, etc. These aspects are usually explored by using an extreme or hyper-literal interpretation or by using random humor (like in Azumanga Daioh). Not much more to say really besides that it's the funniest anime I've ever seen about a suicidal teacher (although suicidal teacher anime are hard to come by).

Search story

I made one of those google search story things. Yes, I was bored.

Full Metal Alchemist (鋼の錬金術師)

Full Metal Alchemist is the tale of two brothers (Alphonse and Edward Elric) who try to restore the life of their dead mother using alchemy. However, their attempt goes horribly wrong and the brothers end up losing their bodies (well, only Alphonse loses his body and is sealed in a suit of armor,Edward only loses an arm and a leg, which are replaced by artificial ones). From here their quest turns to finding the philosopher's stone to restore their original bodies (but give up on their mother?). Full Metal Alchemist and Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood both stick to the same basic story, but Brotherhood sticks more closely to the manga. I, personally, like them both so I will post both.

Pants on the Ground

Everyone who watches "American Idol" (or at least the auditions) knows Larry Platt, the 62 year old who performed his original song "Pants on the Ground" for the judges. The song became an instant hit and now crowds YouTube and many peoples' MP3 players. However, The Green Brothers are trying to take credit for Platt's song, saying that it is a ripoff of their song "Back Pockets on the Floor". I'll let you be the judge.

Here is Larry Platt's "Pants on the Ground"



Here is The Green Brother's "Back Pockets on the Floor"




Finally, here is an interpretation by Jimmy Fallon impersonating Neil Young (for the lulz, not for comparison).

More fun with dubbing

The following are two versions of the same scene from Azumanga Daioh. The first of these is in the original Japanese (with English subtitles) and the second is in English (with the subtitles from the Japanese version). This can be somewhat disturbing (even if it is one of my favorite Azumanga scenes, that just makes the dub more awful). You have been warned.

First, the original:



Now the dub of the same scene (with the same subtitles):

Japanese word (finally)

It's food time as it relates to foods ending in -don (どん)!

First word:
Tendon
Hiragana: てんどん
Kanji: 天丼
English: Tempura served over a bowl of rice

Second word:
Gyuudon
Hiragana: ぎゅうどん
Kanji: 牛丼
English: Beef on a bowl of rice

Third word:
Tamagodonburi
Hiragana: たまごどんぶり
Kanji: 玉子丼
English: boiled eggs on rice

Final word:
Don
Hiragana: どん
Kanji: 丼
English: bowl of rice topped with food

Azumanga Daioh

For this one, I don't really know what to say assuming that "random comedy" is still not a valid genre. However, Azumanga Daioh is rather funny and is great for stress relief or if you need to alternate something with a depressing anime.