Recently in AnimeLove Category

So I fell in love with yet another anime, following three main characters, Shiki, Mikiya and Tōko. Shiki has a paranormal ability called ‘Mystic Eyes of Death Perception’ which allows her to see the point of origin on any form (living or non-living). Being able to see the lines and point of origin it allows her to kill it with any form of object, she normally uses a dagger in combat, and irregardless of how powerful, once she destroys the point of origin within the target, it dies. Not to say all her battles are easy because they aren’t. There is so much I could tell you about Shiki but it’s so much better if you watch it yourself.

Mikiya is a friend of Shiki’s and works regularly for Tōko as a secretary. He also does a lot of information gathering and has been told that he’d make an excellent detective. Tōko took him on as an employee because of the fact that he was able to find her shop, which is hidden to everyone except those who wish to find it. He fell in love with her skill of puppet making. Mikiya is kindhearted and patient, especially with Shiki.

Tōko is a sorceress and puppet maker. She has distanced herself from the magical community she was once apart of but still helps out with paranormal disturbances from time to time. Shiki takes care of combat and Tōko rarely has to step in. When she does, it’s exciting and shocking.

There’s a lot of violence in these movies and they are supposedly rated NC-17. I’d have rated them R but I do understand the higher rating as you get further on into the series. The last one I watched, number 5, Paradox Spiral is (admittingly) slightly confusing until you get to the end. It keeps you entranced and on your toes. The ending is absolutely thrilling and worth waiting for. I enjoyed all of the movies so far and I can’t wait for number 6 and the others to come out. You have to pay attention to the timeline as well, they show month and year and sometimes the day, too. If you like anime, you’ll love these movies, but only if you can handle the violence. Otherwise, don’t bother. Laters.

I recently finished watching the 25 episodes of Darker than Black. Since it’s been licensed by Funimation it’s awfully hard to find it anywhere to watch but if you look deep enough you can find it. I’m surprised that they haven’t put it up on Hulu or Veoh like they have done with other series they’ve done. Hopefully they will so you can watch and enjoy it, and be confused by it, as well.

The series starts out introducing you to Contractors, Dolls and Hell’s Gate. A contractor is killing another contractor, but they don’t tell you why, not really. At least not at first, it’s in there somewhere and you have to determine what’s going on. Not all of the episodes are strung along in a straight story but you get to go on missions and learn little details. Such as there’s no more moon and all the stars have vanished and been replaced with fake stars. These stars resonate with the contractors and when they are off doing bad things (like killing people or each other) their stars vibrate or otherwise show the astronomers that they are on the move. Contractors are also human but they have lost all emotion. They can pretend to be happy, but they don’t truly feel it.

So there are all these changes to the world. No moon, no real stars and everything sent up into space vanishes. The general populace doesn’t know about contractors unless they experience something firsthand and when that happens their memeory gets wiped. No one knows how the Gates (there were two - One called Heaven, the other called Hell) appeared or why. Anyone who enters the area goes mad or dies. Rarely do they return though.

The story is pretty darn good and it kept me captivated to no end. There still weren’t any answers regarding details as to what the gates were, why they appeared or what contractors really are. It had a pretty good ending though and was definitely worth watching for the excitment of the action. Enjoy!

Wow, two reviews in a row? I know, amazing!

With two episodes of Shikibane Hime: Kuro needing sub-titled I decided to look for another anime to watch while I waited (they still haven’t been and now I’m reading again). I remembered seeing trailers a few years back for KiddyGrade and it looked light yet interesting. It’s not as light as I thought. There’s quite a bit of exciting drama involved with the story line and that kicks in around episode 10.

KiddyGrade is about an organization called GOTT (Goverment Office of Trades and Tariffs) and their secret ES agents that police the galaxy. The first 10 episodes give you an insight to every day missions and activities with the characters and how things operate. They are Eclair and Lumiere and have special abilities along with looking cute and innocent. Would you really think that some cute little girl who looks like she could be your niece would be able to take over and command every electronic device and turn them against you? Only if you were evil and breaking the law, of course. Lumiere has the specialty of speaking with any form of electronics, although if she does too much it can tire her out.

Eclair is more of a hands-on type and will happily beat your evil butt into the ground with a smile on her face. The thing that really made me laugh was her always using the phrase “Ta-Da!” even when she had been de-matieralized and thought to be truly dead, she had been re-materialized and did her signature move. There’s a lot more to Eclair than she even knows when you start watching though. She doesn’t remember much of her past and has started running into people who tell her that they know her, that she has the same hair style even. There are many secrets that the GOTT is keeping from her as well. For good reasons that you’ll have to find out by watching it yourself. Run over to Hulu.com and check out the Animation and Cartoon section.

Yeah I know I said I wasn’t interested in finishing Death Note but I needed something to keep myself occupied between episodes of Bleach and Naruto Shippuden. I finished all 37 episodes over at Hulu over a couple of weeks. I did like the detailed backgrounds on the characters and the storyline ended up being a little more interesting than I thought it would be.

Honestly though I wanted to hurt Light. Not hurt him as in shooting or torturing him, but smacking him upside the head and telling him the many forms of idiot he had become. Genius? Bookwise, perhaps, but he had no common sense whatsover.

Continue reading this post if you wish, but I’m going to go into more detail that contains information from the series.