Director: Fumihiko Sori
Genre: Japan, action, action, sci-fi
Release Date: May 27, 2008
As interested as I was in watching Baldr Force EXE, I was completely ambivalent about Vexille. I’d seen the ads on all the geek sites, but its comparisons to Appleseed weren’t winning me over. You see, to be completely honest, I’m not that big a fan of CG animation. I’ve not bothered to see either of the Appleseed CG movies, and while I have checked out the Final Fantasy CG films, they didn’t grab me in anything more than a …

Dragonball is perhaps one of the most popular anime series in the US, if not the most popular. Originally aired in 1989 in Japan, it was the TV adaptation of famed manga creator Akira Toriyama’s Dragonball. Toriyama created nearly 200 chapters for his manga that were finally collected into 42 volumes. The franchise has spurned an immense fan-base and consists of three separate anime series.
Drazon Ball Z is the second anime series broadcast in the franchise and was first aired in 1989. The series followed the last 30 volumes …

So the anime reviews seem to be popular, not just with readers, but with guest reviewers as well! The latest guest review comes from longtime friend and literati Jeremy Walker. Read on for his review.
Disclaimer #1:
I have never played, nor have I even watched someone else play, the Ragnarok Online M.M.O.R.P.G. (massively multiplayer online role-playing game). Therefore, I’m almost certainly missing out on many references in the anime Ragnarok (which is set in the same world as, and heavily inspired by, the game).
Disclaimer #2:
I wasn’t able to get the first …

Clocking in at just seventy-five minutes, Tokyo Loop provides a collection of avant-garde animated shorts from Japan. Now, it’s important to note up front that the animation exhibited here is not anime. In fact, there’s nothing really stereotypically Japanese about any of them, save for the slightest hints at their Tokyo setting and one mildly disturbing segment taking place in a restroom with Japanese toilets. Brought to life through a variety of animation mediums, from traditional cell animation to paintings to CG, these short are actually more in line with …

Paying major tribute to Jans Svankmajer, the Leiser brothers’ Imagination tells the tale of two twin sisters, one a sufferer of Asberger’s Syndrome, the other legally blind, who share a tendency toward retreating into imaginary realms, their visions and schemes border on the prophetic. While certainly intriguing to an outsider, all this slightly disturbs their mother, who seeks their return to the agreed-upon normal world through psychiatric treatment. As the film starts, we find that treatment has not gone as expected, and the two twins have met a rather mysterious …

So, I’m a little late on this, but who cares? December 5th was Day of the Ninja, an effort to spread Ninja appreciation given the Pirates vs. Ninja net phenomenon. Now, I find the Pirates vs. Ninja thing to be a bit lame (I mean, c’mon. Stealthy assassins against legions of unwashed thieves and rapists? No contest there), but the whole thing allows me to put out a nice list of recommended Ninja media.
So, without further ado, my Ninja Favorites list:
Film

Shinobi no Mono — The first Ninja film, and still …

The Professional: Golgo 13 was one of the very first anime films I ever saw, way back in the days of Streamline and Orion Pictures (see: Akira, Crying Freeman, Fist of the North Star). In fact it was so far back, when the Luc Besson Leon: The Professional came out, I figured it was a live action adaptation. Still, Golgo 13 was never one that really grabbed me, despite its ultra violent displays and abundance of flesh, but I did manage to see it a couple of times over the …

Long ago, dragons and humans lived in harmony. Then the desire for material wealth led the humans to inhabit the earth and sea, and the dragons stuck with fire and air. This is the backdrop for the newest feature from Studio Ghibli (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Grave of the Fireflies), Tales From Earthsea, a sword and sorcery epic that despite its flaws, burns with a quiet and resonant power.
As with Howl’s Moving Castle and many other recent Ghibli movies, Tales From Earthsea is based on non-Japanese source …

I’ve been meaning to write this for quite some time, but it took an article from Twitch (and my being way too busy to see any new films this week) to spur me to actually put this list down on paper.
Now, whatever your opinions are on anime, there’s no doubt you harbor a few reservations toward it. Even if you like anime, you have to worry about the “animation is for children” stigma from the uninitiated, or the dreaded badge of the Otaku from those who potentially are (Rachel Bigler …

…and a little more catch up. Reviews for Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Solid State Society, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, and, in preparing for the upcoming San Francisco screening of Postal, Uwe Boll’s BloodRayne. Enjoy.
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Solid State Society . How’s that for the longest title of the year? GitS:SAC:SSS is the third Ghost in the Shell film, and the first involving the world of the Stand Alone Complex series. For those of you not in the know Stand …

Arguably HoleHead’s biggest draw, Dennis Nyback’s Bad Bugs Bunny commanded packed houses and sold out showings. A collection of banned Warner Bros. cartoons, shelved for the most part due to their overtly racist, sexist, and violent material (some since 1967), are rarely, if ever screened publicly. In fact, for fear of litigation, audience members are forbidden to reveal exactly which films they viewed at the screening. A once in a lifetime chance to see banned films? Exciting to say the least.
So, with vows of silence, how is one to …

This review is so long overdue that a serendipitous run-in with the writer/director prompted a strict reminder. M Dot Strange (aka: Michael Belmont) is so completely casual and San Jose-centric that he frequents a local boba tea place, even today as he types out an article for Wired Magazine (August issue — be sure to get it!), sketches upcoming plans for a national mobile movie multiple moviemaker tour, and ruminates over two future screenplays (one is a crazy comedy highlighting hyphy, one a samurai satire). M Dot …

Paprika
Note: If you’re already a fan of anime and familiar with Satoshi Kon, skip to the third paragraph.
HE SAID
Truth be told, anime is no different than any other storytelling medium. The rabid otaku would like you to believe otherwise, but really, it’s just like everything else. There’s a vast wasteland of uninspired, tedious dreck, above which rises a small mountain of notable works. The majority of the forget-ables are children’s shows, much like what plays on the Cartoon Network or Saturday morning; endless serialized battles, or tales of consumerist …

Aachi & Ssipak has no shame. The Korean animation touches upon almost every taboo subject and exaggerates it, which can make it comical for some, perturbing for others. They got yer violence, drugs, bondage, and something you don’t see too often in cartoons: poo. In fact, the entire plot revolves around the smelly brown stuff. In the somewhat near future, when humans have depleted all of Earth’s resources, excrement will be the new fuel. Through anal ring microchip implants, the government monitors defecation, and rewards …

It takes a special kind of weird to make me crack up. It’s the type of comedy that is so out of left field, so unpredictably off the wall it challenges viewers to even describe its humor. Shows like Aqua Teen and early South Park pull this off wonderfully. You either get these shows, or you’re left hopelessly in the dark. Joining these esteemed ranks (for myself at least) is Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, the manga turned anime featuring a golden-afro’d hero with 6’ long nose hairs of steel, and a crazed …

SHE-SAID
The story of Cinderella has got to be one of the most replicated and remade romantic fairytales. I actually never saw the Disney classic, but I had the read aloud/along storybook/recording. Like most girls, I thought her dress was keen (the animals made it for her!). Unlike most girls, I thought the notion of waiting for someone to rescue you was absurd. Happily N’ever After attempts to skim that route, allowing a tough-talking bobbed brunette named Ella (voiced by Sarah Michelle Gellar) to grasp the reins.
I …

The main motley crew consists of an oversized “Happy Meal”: whiny egotistical Master Shake, levitating sleeve of french fries and voice of reason Frylock, and a naïve little raw meatball named Meatwad.

Anime adaptations of video games are not unlike their American film counterparts. There are the occasional ones that provide worthwhile experiences that actually compliment and further the enjoyment of their pixelated progenitors (See: Gungrave, Final Fantasy Legend of the Crystals) but more often than not such adaptations prove half-baked cash-ins on quality properties (see: Tekken, Fatal Fury, Battle Arena Toshinden, etc). If this first disc of Disgaea is any indication, it seems that the Disgaea anime is thankfully more the former than the latter.
The basic story of …