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:

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

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.

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):

Dubbing

This video is the reason I HATE DUBS! Enjoy!


This crappy dubbing extends to many anime (not just Yu-Gi-Oh) and must be stopped! DOWN WITH 4KIDS! (there are actually some good dubs of which I'll post a list. If you find any, please tell me because I continually hope for a good dub to redeem the dubbing community)

xxxHolic

Quick note before I begin on this one. No, xxxHolic is not porn or porn related. I say this because every time I recommend this anime, people always ask if it's porn and I'm sick of it. Thank you for taking the time to read this.



Genre: Supernatural, Comedy

Summary: Kimihiro Watanuki, a teenager cursed with the ability to see evil spirits (and also tends to attract them), one day meets a mysterious woman named Yuuko. She claims to have the means to end his torment (specifically, she grants wishes), but she never works for free, and she wouldn't help him until he works for her enough to pay for her services. Therefore, he starts to work in her shop and discovers that in it, nothing is quite what it seems.

The Good and the Bad: This anime doesn't have very many flaws in my opinion. However, I must find something. Therefore, I would like to point out that I don't like indestructible characters (most characters in this anime are). This, as some people might point out, may be an unfair judgment seeing as
a) It's a comedy, so nobody who anyone has a connection to dies and
b) It is rather hard for an anime to carry on with its main characters dead.
Now then, for the good parts (in top 3 list form, these are my favorite things about the anime in no particular order).
1) I love the attention to detail, especially in Yuuko's shop (I like Yuuko's shop in general)
2) It's funny (and doesn't keep recycling the same jokes)
3) When a (named) character appears, they usually stay and have some sort of back story which is not revealed in a flashback (I hate flashbacks).

My rating: 8.5/10

Death Note

Yay, today is my first actual anime post. Well, seeing as it is probably one of my favorite animes I
have seen up to this point, I shall talk about Death Note.

Genre: Mystery, Psychological Thriller, Supernatural

Summary: Yagami Light is an ace student with great prospects, who's bored out of his mind. One day he finds the "Death Note": a notebook from the realm of the Shinigami (Death Gods), with the power to kill people in any way he desires while only requiring a name and a face. With the Death Note in hand, Light decides to create his perfect world inwhich he is god, without crime or criminals. However, when criminals start dropping dead one by one, the authorities send the legendary detective L to track down the killer, and a battle of wits, deception, and logic ensues...

The Good and The Bad: Death Note is a terrific anime with a plot that doesn't go for awhile before whithering and eventually going to whereever animes go to die. Not only is the plot great, but the characters are also amazing, both well drawn and having distinct personalities. The final good thing (without giving anything away) is that there are not any filler episodes. As far as I can tell, there are only two things that could potentially be considered bad things about Death Note and they directly relate to each other. They are the high level of darkness throughout the anime and manga as well as the lack of humor to provide some comic releif. I think that Death Note qualifies as one of the best animes of all time.

My Rating: 10/10