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Now, word of mouth is oftentimes a good way to get a good idea of how good or bad something is, whether that may be a series, movie, game, or product.  Raves are showered upon pros, and boos or casual mentions are rained onto the cons.  When a series gets near universal praise, I oftentimes have curiosity set in, but sometimes curiosity brings in doubt and skepticism as houseguests.



Now, in a romance series, the characters and their chemistry with each other are the bread and butter to the series' enjoyability.  Unfortunately, below the surface of the characters' personalities, the complex nature that is necessary to build up the depth of the series is rather disappointing.  An attempt is made to portray Taiga as an unfortunate result of a happily negligent father, which does work to an extent.  Unfortunately, the emotional detachment that she displays towards her father lacks depth- it's not hatred, it's not anger (Taiga reserves that feeling towards her mother), but it's portrayed more of a supervisor-employee disconnect rather than a parent-child disconnect.  On a day-to-day basis, Taiga is oftentimes unbearably textbook tsundere.  One minute she can get into a tantrum that makes toddlers wince, the next minute she's huddled in the kitchen in anticipation of an F5 tornado.  The transition is extraordinarily quick, and both sides attempt to portray depth, but come off as lackluster due to the speed in which she transitions.  Finally, her attitude and voice towards any subject comes off more middle school than high school.

Ryuuji fares a bit better, complete with a good heart, good cooking and cleaning skills, and an attempt at trying to get past his looks, which say "I'm a gang member."  But don't expect a clone of Ichigo Kurosaki here.  Instead, his development, along with the development of many other secondary characters, is stagnated due to simplistic dialogue, as if the scriptwriters only had a middle-school vocabulary and sentence structure.  Even the family bird (a green parakeet named Inko-chan) has better vocabulary.  If only he didn't look like he was choking on something all the time.  Ryuuji's introverted nature, which makes him seem flat and dull, isn't doing him any favors, either, and attempts at coming out, while not all utter failures, merely amount to nothing higher than a C+, and this weakness is only slightly improved upon by the end of the series.


I attempted to try and find a liking in the secondary characters, specifically Kushieda Minorin (Ryuuji's crush and Taiga's best friend) and Kitamura Yuusaku (Taiga's crush and Ryuuji's best friend).  Unfortunately, I was disappointed yet again.  Minorin's eccentricities do provide some entertainment, such as working multiple jobs and a happy-go-lucky personality that can come off as air-headedness, but again, depth, dialogue, and a lack of complexities conspire against her.  The same applies for Kitamura, whose comes off as a cardboard cutout of an academic overachiever with socialization issues.  The characters become less likable as I branched out further from the two wishful relationships.  A later addition to the quartet is Kawashima Ami, a model with an absolutely rotten personality.  An individual who is afraid of expressing her true thoughts and feelings, she nonetheless manages to come across as a condescendingly rich snob with absolutely no backbone when she opens her mouth.  Another dislikeable character is Yasuko Ryuuji, Takasu's young mother, who oftentimes would rather be fed by her son, drunk, and asleep rather than helping her son succeed.  While this gives character kudos to Ryuuji for being self-sufficient, it really drives down the likeability of Yasuko.  Her constant whining makes her feel like Takasu's toddler sister or daughter, and her ditzy smiling makes her look like she's high on LSD.  She does display a caring side, but this side plays a secondary rather than primary role in Ryuuji's life, and does little to offset how she is the other 80% of the time.

Aside from the below-par character development, the plot and day-to-day events make the series have an episodic rather than linear feel, with the romance and attempted proposals occurring in the background.  While the development is there, the romance and interactions amongst characters is vague and you have to feel and search for it.  This weakens the theme and is disappointing considering that the romance should play a front-and-center role here.  The events that further each relationship stepping stone push it forward jerkily, leading to an expression of applause or disappointment when the event is reached, but the path towards it is lined with jagged conversations that drag and expressions of frustrations asking for events that are long overdue to occur.  The effects of the events also seem to be short -lived, and oftentimes the characters themselves are forced back to square one and the entire dreadful cycle starts over again.


Thus, I found myself riding on a rollercoaster of emotions getting through this anime, from hatred to apathy to approval.  There were characters who deserve nothing less than a punch in the face, while others whom I would seriously recommend go and spend several hours at a therapist's office.  But none of the characters in Toradora rise above middle-of-the road for me, which is a disappointment since this is a romance anime first and foremost.  Not even the humor could sway me from the lackluster plot and character development.  I'll give the producers credit for trying, but the series is nothing to gush over.  It's not a complete bore, but its inconsistency in terms of thought put into the story lead to some high moments offset by plenty of mediocre and low points.  The boxset has just been released, but to me, the series is only worthy of consideration either borrowed from a friend, rented from Netflix, or at most bought secondhand.

For me, anime is more about just swinging swords, dueling mechs, high school humor and angsty drama.  Sometimes you watch a series to loosen up, to feel at ease.  Now, to cool off, it's not the best to watch Ichigo fighting Hollows and activating Bankai every half hour, and laughing your head off at the antics of someone like Ouran High School Host Club's Tamaki isn't going to help either.  It helps when there's a way to really feel a character's emotions and relax so you can think clearly, a moment for meditation.

Natsume Yuujinchou and its sequel Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou fit the bill for this quite nicely.  It doesn't take much to understand the simple premise- a young boy named Natsume Takashi is grappling with the fact he can see spirits.  Upon being chased by one, he ends up at a temple and accidentally releases a cat spirit he quickly names Nyanko-Sensei.  The cat spirit quickly tells Takashi of his grandmother, Natsume Reiko, who could also see spirits, and kept a "Yuujinchou", a book of all the Ayakashi spirits that she was able to conquer and thus surrender their name and free will.  Unlike his grandmother, Takashi seeks instead to give the names back to the Ayakashi, and Nyanko-sensei becomes his bodyguard, despite actually wanting to gain the Yuujinchou for himself.  Natsume's promise is that Nyanko-Sensei will inherit the Yuujinchou upon his death.


Natsume Takashi amuses Nyanko-Sensei

One quickly becomes enamored with the main characters, especially Natsume and Nyanko-Sensei.  Natsume is born with a special gift, one that he is trying to come to terms with.  At first, Natsume sees his gift as a curse, since his family and friends often made fun of him when he was younger and saw him as "strange."  Do you admit to all your friends this strange ability, or do you just avoid the topic entirely and run away from the issue?  Do you ostracize yourself from others to protect them or find strength by partnering up with others?  Is this ability merely a curse, or a gift?  These are all issues that Natsume learns to face throughout both 13-episode series, and are issues subtly hidden beneath the plot surface that manages to add complexity to him as a main protagonist.

While a Sensei most times will serve as a mentor or a teacher, Nyanko does so in a rather indirect way.  While he does drop hints to Natsume on how to cope with his ability and release the Ayakashi, he doesn't attempt to force his student to follow a strict routine, despite his constant complaints about Natsume's altruism, which he sees as naiveity.  Instead, Nyanko is one who prefers letting his student learn "hands-on", letting Natsume struggle and get hurt somewhat in the process, but always fulfills his role as a bodyguard faithfully.  This is despite the fact that letting Natsume die will lead him to inheriting the Yuujinchou, and thus this feline chooses to let his student develop more as a character.  Nyanko-sensei's character is finished off with an extremely cute form and a very intricate mixture of sarcasm and pride.  His addiction to buns, sake, and cat toys is frosting on the cake.

In true fashion to its relaxed demeanor, the plot is extremely easy to jump into, whether you watch an episode of the original series or the sequel, as most episodes stand alone and don't require much explanation.  When this was shown to the anime club at school, I accidentally swapped the order and didn't notice until my friend (who introduced me to the series) asked.  The plot doesn't build or burst into fruition with dramatic events being realized, but instead stays steady and never gets boring, partly because of Nyanko-Sensei being a source of comic relief.  It's soothing, but never stagnant, as evident in the opening themes and ample uses of piano, flute and clarinet in the flowing background music.


The art isn't vibrantly saturated like in say, the Revolutionary Girl Utena movie, but instead mingles with the relaxed demeanor by using lightly shaded colors whenever possible, and giving the impression of a faded piece of museum artwork.  The shading is a bit too light at times for my taste in the first season, with light colors oftentimes looking like an overexposed photograph and coloring that could use more saturation. More vibrant use of coloring in Zoku improves it, all while keeping the excellent designs and very smooth animation.  New character introductions strike a good middle-ground between a dramatic shonen-esque fashion and a sparkly shojo-esque manner.  Though there could have been more emphasis on secondary character development, their concepts and integration fit nicely and don't seem run-of-the mill.


Natsume Yuujinchou isn't about powering yourself up to defeat your opponents, nor is it about laughing your socks off with an endless stream of jokes.  It's instead one with a subtle message about learning to live with the ability you have and accept who you are.  You watch it to cool down, to let off some steam and to just calm yourself.  Thankfully, you don't have to stress yourself out to find it either, as both series are available to watch on Crunchyroll.  I eagerly await the release of a DVD boxset or two in the United States.

Sunday night marked the end of another successful year of Fox's Animation Domination comedy block. Unlike the myriad of network TV shows either being cancelled or simply ending (see Numb3rs, Law and Order, 24, Lost, etc.), Fox's Animation Domination is still going strong-- albeit without King of the Hill. Although I've fallen out of the loop with watching The Simpsons I'm still following Seth MacFarlane's various comedies. This year Family Guy ended its eighth season, American Dad successfully finished a fifth season, and the first season of The Cleveland Show made waves. While I'm convinced that Family Guy gets a little worse with each season since its revival, The Cleveland Show was a pleasant surprise and American Dad continues to be strangely awesome.




Upon learning about The Cleveland Show spin off I was apprehensive. Out all the characters on Family Guy I found Cleveland Brown to be the least interesting. To me he was just the token black guy. Being a longtime fan of Seth MacFarlane's work (all the way back to his days at Hanna Barbera), I decided to give the series a try. I was happy to discover how logical the premise of the show was and how much continuity it actually shared with Family Guy. Cleveland never got much air time because of Peter Griffin's over-the-top shenanigans. Cleveland is finally fed up and forced to leave Quahog after losing his house to his ex-wife in their divorce settlement. He and his son eventually end up in his hometown of Stoolbend, Virginia. There he marries his old high school sweetheart Donna, and moves in with her two children. Between his son, Cleveland Jr. and Donna's children, Roberta and Rallo the pieces for a typical sitcom neatly fell into place.

The first few episodes of the first season lacked some of the wacky humor found in both Family Guy and American Dad but the show was solidly amusing. From the start, the show established that it would not take itself seriously, even including a funny in-show TV promo about white people who attempt to make shows for black people in the second episode. In fact, the writers always seemed aware of potential skepticism and broke the forth wall as much as possible. Halfway through the season the show began to use more of the signature humor that marks Family Guy, while adding a unique twist. The continuity between The Cleveland Show and Family Guy also aided the show greatly, as opposed to completely ignoring the seven seasons of Cleveland's history with Peter and friends. Unfortunately there was a bit of history rewriting and odd moments in the show that didn't quite match up with the said history. Cleveland Jr. is one such example. He first appeared on the early seasons of Family Guy as a thin, hyper, young boy with a clear cut case of attention deficit disorder. Suddenly he's back, calmer, smarter, several years older (while no one else has aged), and considerably fatter. No official explanation for his radical change is ever offered. Also, Cleveland claims Stoolbend as his hometown but episodes of Family Guy clearly have him spending his teenage years in Quahog as Peter's best friend. Again, no explanation is offered. Considering the show's continuity these questions are worth asking and do present an annoying lack of detail.


Cleveland rants on about why he's leaving and asks for a special favor from Lois and Bonnie. I'll file this one under les yay.


Still, the overall continuity works well. Like the show it was spun off from, this show makes liberal use of cutaways and the writers seem to enjoy poking fun at celebrities, especially black celebrities. Unlike Family Guy, Cleveland is refreshingly less of a jerk and the show captures much of the lighthearted nature that was lost with its parent show years ago. In fact, The Cleveland Show is closest fans will ever get to Family Guy returning to its pre-cancellation roots. In short, I'm glad I gave this newest series a chance and I'm looking forward to season two.  

Season eight of Family Guy kicked off with the said continuity related to Cleveland's departure. At first it was a little strange not to have Cleveland around, but after the first few episodes it felt normal. His absence could either be due to the relatively minor role he's come to play in recent years, or that his spin off show fills the gap nicely.  But in a nice surprise one of the last episodes of season eight did feature Peter and friends taking a trip to Stoolbend and inviting Cleveland along on a wacky adventure. Cleveland or not, Family has been something of a mixed bag in recent years and season eight continues the trend. Which is a shame considering how funny season started off with episodes like "Road to the Multiverse" and "Jerome is the New Black." Longtime fans of the series will note the pre-cancellation episodes of Family Guy have a very different vibe from the post-cancellation episodes. Once the series was revived it noticeably took a more mean spirited approach and seemed to dare the executives at Fox to cancel it for a third time.




It went from being a lowbrow comedy with weird but amusing situations to an outright offensive series at times. Just about every character has taken a turn for the worst and Peter who was once a likable dumb-ass is just an outright jackass. Even the family itself became more dysfunctional as everyone's personality simply devolved. The lighthearted humor and lessons learned from said sitcom situations from the first three seasons are long gone. Additionally, the show has taken more of a political position in recent years. At times Family Guy feels less like a comedy and more like a super liberal, decidedly anti-religious platform for the writers. Those particular episodes (especially when they're devoid of any real humor) can be almost painful to watch. Still the overall entertainment value can occasionally trend toward "so wrong but kinda funny," depending on your personal tastes.




Despite my complaints and the complaints of many other fans, Family Guy manages to remain a solid series for more forgiving fans. Unlike The Simpsons, the show is in a downward spiral but the series has not yet crashed and burned. Sure, much of the magic left when Seth MacFarlane stopped doing much of the writing himself, but this series still has quite a bit of admittedly offensive humor left. Going back to series' hit or miss syndrome, I found myself completely unimpressed with the 150th episode simply titled "Brian and Stewie." Watching Brian and Stewie for nearly an hour trapped in a bank vault with an episode that consisted entirely of dialogue was not a particularly interesting fit for Family Guy. It was definitely a case of your mileage may vary. Still, the hour long season finale "Something Something, Something Dark Side" a parody of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back was actually pretty decent and made up for "Brian and Stewie" many times over. While the episode was more of a movie than anything else, it reminded me of how much I still enjoy Family Guy when the series hits its mark. That said I wouldn't be surprised if the upcoming season nine continued the downward slide of the series.

My favorite Seth MacFarlane show in recent years is American Dad. I relate it to what Matt Groening did with Futurama and how it became more interesting than The Simpsons. I've enjoyed American Dad more than I've enjoyed Family Guy in recent years. When I think about it, I initially hated the first half of season one but the series became likable when the writers ditched the overly offensive political and social humor. The series started out as biting satirical response to the George W. Bush presidency and the Far Right but tried way too hard to offend everyone. Despite being from the same studio as Family Guy, it didn't bother with any of the signature cutaways or clever lowbrow humor that marks MacFarlane's work.  Instead it relied heavily on smart political humor and to fully enjoy the show viewers had to be aware of recent politics. At the end of season one, it became clear that taking a very different approach to comedy than Family Guy was the right decision. The show took a turn for the ridiculous, and has not strayed from that territory since. Amazingly, the show is all the better for it.


I totally forgot the set up for this episode, but crack AND guns are easily the solution to life's drug gang problems.


In subsequent seasons American Dad has become more of a strange family adventure sitcom, with the occasional nod to politics. Instead of lowbrow humor, the writers have opted for something more subtle and off-the-wall. The show isn't immune to mean spirited humor, but such humor is often well placed and not done for the sake of simply being mean. Surprisingly, the characters have also grown into their own over the last five seasons. Even Stan Smith, who unlike Peter Griffin has become (slightly) less of a jerk as the seasons stretch on. Nevertheless, this show is at its best when it goes for outright weird and over-the-top situations.



Thankfully, season five was no exception. Between Steve becoming a Vietnam War reenactment veteran to Stan being left behind during the rapture (and Stan becoming a badass bounty hunter as a result) to Roger's attempt to kill the entire family after a being insulted on his birthday, this newest season was a blast. The only thing that dampened season five was the actual airing schedule, unlike Family Guy and The Cleveland Show, American Dad went long stretches without being aired on Fox at all, including reruns. Scheduling gripes aimed at Fox aside, I'm ready for season six.

Now, at the end of Gundam 00 Season 1, which is reviewed here,  it's pretty clear the series was opening up plotlines to delve into for the next season rather than wrapping things up nicely in a bowtie.  Having only seen Gundam series that consisted of around 50 episodes and being impressed by 00's excellent characters, action, and complex plot, I was expecting Season 2 to answer some of the main questions that lingered from season 1 while retaining the aspects that made the first season so enjoyable.

First impressions are positive, and the series started out with a lot of potential.  The main characters, especially the 4 Meisters, were reintroduced very well, preserving the characteristics they were known for and offering a slightly different side of their personality.  A good move, since a Gundam series with lousy protagonists is simply not worth watching.  The reintroduction is a natural evolution occurring in the 5 years which separate the two seasons.  Setsuna has become much more mature and assertive, while Tieria has shed much more of his previously condescending nature.  Some characters, among them Louise Harvey and Wang Liu Ming, did evolve for the worse, but this is necessary to create the strife needed for the story to build.

All images are mine except for the third one, which is courtesy of Wikipedia

At this point, I'm not sure what kind of anime this is trying to be.  It's like a mashup of many anime genres at once.  At first, it starts out like it's going to be an ecchi, then it turns into a battle anime, then it goes back to being an ecchi before it suddenly veers towards being a (lame attempt at a) comedy.  The last two episodes turn into an action anime, and it's at that point that I began to wonder if the writers were trying to write the next Excel Saga, considering the Excel Saga anime also ended with a sequence of action episodes.

Akikan! starts out with a sixteen year old failure in life who happens to collect empty drink cans.  I guess he thinks they'll be worth something someday.  They're probably worth more than his worthless life, right now.  Anyway, he buys a soda can on his way home from school and before drinking it, he goes to take a shower.  As soon as he's out, he strikes a dramatic pose, bemoans his fate as a sixteen year old male who has never been on a date, and brings the can to his lips.  All while wearing nothing but a towel.  Next thing he knows, he's kissing a girl instead of drinking a soda, and it's apparently a dream come true.  If your dream is to meet a pretty girl while nearly naked, who thinks of you as her owner.


After being beat up many times by the suddenly human soda can, Kakeru (the sixteen year old failure) gets a visit from a mysterious man who seems a little too fond of him.  There's a pointless scene where he shows interest in the can and then for no real reason, he and his assistant vacate the premises and Kakeru is once again alone with his can.

I wish I could say the anime gets better.  Fortunately, my wish is granted... for a little while.  Despite the rampant sexual antics of Kakeru in the first episode, his behaviour is toned down somewhat in the next few episodes, which focus on an on-going plot arc where Melon (Kakeru's unimaginatively named soda can girl) is supposed to fight other cans whom happen to be made of a different material in order to prove which is better, aluminum cans or steel cans.  This is the idea behind the Akikan Elect, to see which of the two is the best for holding drinks in, based on the battle prowess of the girls.  Although the plot advances quickly in the first half of the series and at one point you're certain there'll be an epic battle which will determine once and for all which type of can is the better one, the three main soda can girls are suddenly forced into an uneasy truce and the plot finds itself derailed and completely forgotten by episode seven.  The episode brings back Kakeru's obsession with sex and features a scene where he is called upon by the teacher (who just happens to be the assistant to the man who visited him in the first episode) to solve a trigonometry problem.  Instead of solving the problem, he takes over the classroom and proceeds to sexually harass the teacher making lewd comment after lewd comment with the full support of his classmates until class is over.  The next few episodes also fail to advance the plot, and it gets to the point where two of the cans become somewhat civil to each other and spy on their owners.


Then, just when you think the series is going to end on a low note, the writers seemed to realize that they had a plot going and so they bring in an enemy for the cans to fight.  All three of the main cans work together to defeat the newcomer and it makes you wonder why the Akikan Elect subplot even existed in the first place, since the writers abandoned it as soon as they could, then tried to weakly tie it into the newcomer's story.

Fortunately for the last couple episodes, the animation improved quite a bit compared to what was presented earlier in the series, and it was clear that they were trying to end on a high note.  But there's a cheesy scene in the final episode where the power of love saves the three can girls from the evil can girl, who was absorbing all the cans she could find.  Then the three girls choose to fight together even though they'd not done so at all in the series, and proceed to invent a Triple Tech that manages to defeat the evil can girl, despite having already said to her that mixing drinks makes them undrinkable.  Apparently it's drinkable if you're a protagonist drink.

There is a lot of potential to Akikan!.  It could be a magical girl anime if they let it be one.  Melon would have to come up with more varied attacks, though.  Her cry of "Melo-Melo-Melon!" would get annoying if you had to hear it week after week after week.  Budoko seems to have many powers, although most of them aren't very effective and can easily be blocked or deflected.  And Yell's Isometric Sword seems to be all she needs, for it has many varied usages.  It can slice open enemies just as easily as it slices vegetables and clips stamps from snack bags.  And when the evil can girl reveals her collection of powers, she shows that she has dozens of cans and their powers in her possession.  There is the potential for a much wider cast with more varied powers if the show gets renewed for another series.


I can't tell whether the series is trying to poke fun at anything or not.  Najimi, for instance, gets drunk from soda.  At first glance, she seems like a victim of the Frothy Mugs Of Water trope until it's realized that she's drunk from soda in the original Japanese version.  Either this is a character quirk that only the Japanese could come up with, or they're poking fun at the censorship that many anime shows and video games were subjected to in order to make them family friendly.

Another thing the show does is remix the ending theme with each episode.  I don't know if this is done for comedic effect or not.

This show has polarized anime fans in the same way that Final Fantasy XIII polarized video gamers.  You'll either like Akikan! a lot or you'll hate it with a vengeance.  Thing is, it's not a bad series.  It's not a very good one either, though I can't say it's the definite worst.  I can't really recommend this to anyone unless you're willing to lose a few brain cells while watching it.  Even then, watch the first six episodes, then skip ahead to the last two.  There's a reason that many fan subbing teams dropped the show after episode seven was aired and refused to work on the rest.

Sword of the Stranger, at a glance, is kind of a tough sell. The average person who's interested in anime could easily look at its synopsis, and jump to the semi-logical conclusion that it's not worth their time because of how generic it could possibly be. It's one of the reasons - but not one of the biggest reasons - why anime isn't as popular nowadays, especially outside of Japan. But to pass on this movie for this reason would be a big mistake: It's actually quite different from the usual samurai-themed anime.

And that's precisely what stands out about the movie; it's a successful attempt at taking a predictable concept and making it nearly unpredictable through the actions of its characters and diversifying the happenings in the setting. It also has necessities like character development and a well-developed plot to keep anyone who isn't in for the ride for the inevitable samurai battles that ensue over the course of the movie. And for anyone interested in those, it has them too; it has a nice mixture of every element it needs.

Sword of the Stranger takes place during the Sengoku period in Japan (aka the era of the Warring States), and shows us the story of a boy named Kotaro and his dog. For some reason, a mysterious group of men are chasing after him, and they've been tracking his route of escape throughout Japan. Given the state that Japan, its citizens, and its warriors were under at the time, it probably isn't an ideal environment for a boy running around, especially when there's a bounty on his head.


As Kotaro is wandering through a village, some of the soldiers pursuing him manage to catch up because of some innocent and frightened pedestrians who felt they had no choice but to reveal their location; regular people who did it for either money or their life. How lucky for Kotaro that a nameless, mysterious warrior arises from the house they run into, and the man defeats the soldiers with minimal effort.  The guy may be homeless and he takes random jobs for money, but he sure fights well; something which suggests to the viewer that he's more than what the lets on.

And it's the bonding between Kotaro and the nameless warrior that emotionally charges the film. (He's referred to as "Nanashi," which means "nameless" in Japanese.) A good portion of the first half of the film is dedicated to developing the two characters, but throughout that you'll also get a glimpse of the nameless swordsman's past, and the politics occurring around Japan. It's not too much that you won't be able to follow it, but its inherent happenings are something you'll want to pay attention to.


A shame the film could lose a bunch of viewers during its character development time, because they might feel that it gets a little long in the tooth with its penchant for all character development and minimal action. That would be a shame, because the creators of Sword of the Stranger not only wanted to craft a stylish samurai epic, but also a piece of work where you could care deeply for the characters it presents through tragic back-stories. It takes all of the time it needs to, and doesn't take any more time than it needs to.

In fact, the time it takes to tell its entire tale is a blessing in disguise, especially for the story it's aiming for. It actually manages to cover quite a bit within its 101 minute run time. A problem with too many movies these days is that they run way too long without justifying the necessity of that length, as far too many people associate value with length.

With this being a 2007 movie produced in HD, unsurprisingly the animation is beautiful and the picture quality is top notch. These qualities are usually tertiary concerns compared to more important aspects like the story and sound, but just because it's less important doesn't mean it doesn't need to be there. This movie isn't just some brainless samurai flick, so don't expect swordfights every few minutes with minimal justification. They only happen when the need arises, and when they do, they're a sight to behold. You can tell a lot of money was put into this, because it doesn't cut any corners with the animation.


The English dub is pretty acceptable for what it is, with some pretty quality acting from The Ocean Group. The thing is, English dubs tend to be pretty difficult to produce for movies that are well steeped in Japanese history, and it kind of makes the Japanese version feel more authentic. But there's another angle presented here that makes dubbing it even more tricky than usual. Sword of the Stranger presents a story that involves both Japanese and Chinese at war with each other, and each perspective is provided in their respective languages. In a dub that replaces any lines that aren't English in English, that sense of authenticity is lost on the viewer.  Thus, I highly recommend that you watch it in Japanese (featuring Japanese and Chinese) with subtitles.

If you're interested in knowing how someone can take a generic setting and story and make it feel original, Sword of the Stranger is what you've been waiting for. Heck, even if you don't, you should at least check it out. The most appealing aspect of the movie is that it offers something for everyone. You want a good story? It has that. You want stylish and admittedly improbable action sequences? Well, it has plenty of those too (though hopefully you don't find character development too obtrusive). It basically raises the standard for what we should expect from a samurai anime.

Screen captures courtesy of Hundland.org. Because unfortunately I lack the ability to take screen caps from a Blu-Ray disc.

Everything I know about life I learned from Disney movies.

-When you're a princess, you always have your head in the clouds.  That's all you need, for your prince will always come for you, you don't need to lift a finger and go to them.

-As long as such characters aren't evil, everyone always gets along with the secondary characters, and it's all sunshine and happiness.

-Princes are daring, handsome, and will fall for you at first sight.  They've always been bored with other women; all it took was to find the right one.

-Snakes are always evil, no exceptions.

-No protagonist, not even a supporting protagonist, will die.  If a protagonist must die, no protagonist will die if they survive the first half of the movie.

-The main villain in any modern plot will always be rail thin and sinister, with few exceptions.

-And whenever you wish upon a star, your wish will always, always magically come true.

I don't know about you, but I think it's time for a new lesson.  Keep in mind, there are spoilers ahead, so here's the spoiler-free, tl;dr version: I liked this movie a lot, found that it was sufficiently different from past material that Disney has put out, and feel that they're going in the right direction by throwing out the usual formula and shaking things up a lot.  Anyway, spoilers, you have been warned.

You know, Disney was promoting Tiana as the first African American princess, but she spent about half the movie as a frog and not as a person.  It's hard to claim that you've made a main character black, when she's green for a substantial part of the story.  Still, I doubt that the prince could've made the kinds of leaps in character that he did as a person, so it's acceptable.  And you don't have to be black to be African American anyway.

Tiana is not your ordinary Disney princess.  Instead of being born into royalty, like Ariel or Jasmine or Snow White, she's more like Cinderella (and Snow White) in that she's a hard-working girl.  Unlike Cinderella (or Snow White), Tiana has a goal she's working towards, and is very down to earth.  She knows better than to rely solely on magic to get what she wants.  Instead, she relies on her hard earned savings to help her achieve her dreams.  She works two jobs, has been saving all her tips, and has grand dreams that are still realistic enough to come true.  She is pretty overworked, but is so full of energy that it makes me wonder whether or not she's sneaking a Red Bull in between scenes.  For someone who is graceful on her feet and moves around the restaurant with ease, it makes me wonder why she says she can't dance.  Probably just shy.

Right when Tiana is about to achieve her dreams, her African American background bites her in the ass.  It's still early in the movie, so she should've known it wouldn't be quite so easy.  It's actually pretty daring of Disney, after making movies for years and pretending racism didn't exist (which is pretty easy when you tend to draw nothing but white characters and change the subject whenever Song of the South is brought up), to see them openly acknowledging that during the time of the movie's setting, black people were at a disadvantage because of their skin colour.  I suspect that Tiana's father didn't have a choice when it came to serving in the Great War, but we never see enough of him to judge if he did want to serve the country in such a way or not.

Prince Naveen comes to town near the beginning of the movie, and he is definitely not Prince Charming, Prince Phillip, or even Prince Eric.  Naveen has an eye for the ladies and openly flirts with anyone that does not have a Y chromosome.  Even after becoming a frog, he seems to look upon other females with a favourable eye, as he did during one musical number, where he was surrounded by a redhead, brunette and some blondes, and mentioned so in the lyrics.  He's more willing to play around all day than to do any sort of actual work, which is part of what causes him to be drawn in by the villain in the first place and changed into a frog.  This doesn't change his personality at all, since all that seems to be on his mind are kisses, for he is far too happy to take advantage of old fairy tales if it means he gets attention from the ladies.  He might've been a cliche if not for the fact that this is the 49th full length theatrical animated feature from Disney, but only their first to include a prince who only cares that the ladies are breathing and have a steady heartbeat.  If I recall, it's usually characters like Gaston who possess such a character flaw (and even Gaston favoured one lady above the rest).  Modern princes like Simba and Aladdin have only ever had their eyes on one girl.  In creating such a character as Prince Naveen, Disney shows a willingness to throw out their playbook and change the rules.

Depending on the movie, Disney protagonists tend to be very durable.  Mufasa was able to endure a stampede of wildebeest in The Lion King, and he probably would've survived being flung from the cliff as well if not for being trampled to death by the very same herd of wildebeest.  Exactly zero characters died in prison in Robin Hood, even though food was scarcely provided and the cells didn't look too clean.  In fact, no characters died at all during that movie, despite at least one madcap fight scene, and the scene at the end where the villains ran crazily into the burning castle).  And Captain John Smith's musket wound in Pocahontas wasn't even animated (also, he didn't die from it, and the fight scene that was imminent late in the movie was averted).  Likewise, Prince Naveen survives being whacked by two books, and Mama Odie herself has lived 197 years.  She is rough with her snake, who seems not to mind such treatment and endures it well.  Tiana's father does die off screen fighting in the Great War, but his durability was never shown on screen and so it's not known how much effort it took to kill him.  He was also a supporting protagonist, and as the movie 2012 recently indicated, extreme peril will kill exactly one secondary character per scene.  This rule isn't followed in The Princess and the Frog, but Disney does one up every single animated film they've done to date by first alluding to the father's death early on in the movie, and then showing the villain murder one of the main characters late in the movie.  Because of the Walt Disney Company's past attitude towards character death, when said character was dying, all I could think was, "If you don't want the ending to completely suck, this character had better stay dead."  The character was well written and extremely likable, and I wouldn't have minded if he survived the movie, but the moment he was mortally wounded, I felt that a death bed miracle would've weakened the movie and shown that Disney was still a company full of cowards.  I think that's just sad.

The villain... okay, so Dr. Facilier is the most rail thin villain (physically, I mean) Disney ever came up with, so he still fits the stereotype that's existed since Jafar from Aladdin.  When Jafar came along, it was clear that Disney had tossed their overweight villains away.  Somehow.  They probably needed Hercules's help.  But anyway, Disney had tossed their overweight villains away and chose to use a new breed of slender, anorexic villains.  Ratcliffe was a heavy exception, but still, most modern Disney villains look like they could desperately use a sandwich.  I think the best villain they've had to date has been Gaston.  Handsome, muscular, popular, and if not for his nasty jealous streak and pompous attitude, he could've easily been a prince.  Dr. Facilier, though, isn't that strong a villain.  He's more of a tempter than a true villain, kind of like Satan in the Bible, and is very limited in his power.  If anything, Prince Naveen's valet, Lawrence, could've been the main villain, but his purpose in the movie was to illustrate that there are consequences when you take a title you didn't earn, consequences that Aladdin never faced when he used similar means to become Prince Ali.

I'm not sure that a stronger villain was needed, though.  The Princess and the Frog is a down to earth movie, one which presents a main character who doesn't rely on magic or wishes or other people to help her meet her goal.  She is strongly independent, and so when other characters are blindly wishing on a star and waiting for their princes to come, Naveen works hard, and even when she's a frog, she still works towards her goals and doesn't let something as silly as an amphibious transformation get in the way.  Apparently it is easy being green after all.

I really liked that Tiana was taught at an early age that wishing isn't enough.  A few years ago, Rhonda Byrne wrote a book called The Secret, and a movie was made to further promote the ideas within the book.  When I watched it, it seemed to me like they were promoting the idea that if you just sat around and thought happy thoughts, those thoughts would magically come true, and if they didn't, it was entirely your fault for not believing hard enough.  The Secret is nothing more than a modern day When You Wish Upon A Star, and helps to show how shallow those early Disney movies truly are.  Cinderella thought real hard about her dreams as she scrubbed the floor and her fairy godmother suddenly appeared one day.  Snow White thought real hard about the prince that would some day come and as she lay in a kind of magical death, her prince did come.  Although Princess Aurora was asleep for a good portion of Sleeping Beauty, I bet she dreamed about her prince during her long sleep.  In contrast, The Princess and the Frog shows that wishing is only the first step.  After wishing comes doing, although a little bit of stargazing never hurt anyone.

A few things I'm just going to touch upon: the supporting cast was wonderful, since it consisted of characters that weren't one-dimensional or just thrown in to advance the plot.  The music was decent enough to work, and the songs seemed like they were intended to be a celebration of early 20th century jazz rather than an attempt to be the next Be My Guest or Under The Sea.  Plus, although Disney chose a popular R&B singer to perform their end song, they did not choose one of their Radio Disney stars like they did for The Lion King 1 1/2 and for that I am truly grateful.  None of the cast members chewed the scenery, not even John Goodman.  Keith David did a great job as the villain, a role he seems well suited for and has been indulging in a lot lately (he was not exactly a protagonist in the Numb3rs episode he guest starred in, and he lent his voice to the final boss of Dissidia: Final Fantasy, among other projects he's done).  Somehow, the animation quality was even better in this movie than it was in Brother Bear, which leads me to believe that there are still places that Disney can take hand-drawn art.  And the payoff at the end of the movie was kinda predictable, but for the target audience it was perfect.  When I watched it, many people in the audience at the theatre were surprised when it happened, whereas I could see it coming from a mile away.  It wasn't predictable in a cliche way, though.  It felt more like the feeling of figuring out a mystery novel and then reading the end and being satisfied that I was right.

Lastly, this movie features a lot of subtle (and not so subtle) references to Disney's past animated movies.  One scene looked like it was lifted from Sleeping Beauty, right down to the camera angle, and I couldn't help but wish that the dress in the scene started changing colours.  In the same scene, you could see a mermaid costume, and in another scene, one of the jazz musicians was wearing a lion costume.  There are many other interesting touches and references that can be picked up by ardent Disney fans, but aren't obvious enough to ruin the movie for casual fans.

In the end, The Princess and the Frog did nearly everything right and was a very enjoyable film to watch.  I would definitely watch it again in the theatre.  Disney showed that they're willing to do things they'd been too afraid to do in an animated feature, and if this continues, they may enjoy another golden age like they had in the early 90's.  They might even be able to re-release The Black Cauldron in a few years, possibly with its deleted scenes restored to the film, but I suppose that's idle wishing.

I wonder if Tiana's Palace survived Katrina.

This article/review was previously posted to the animation site Keyframe Online, and more of my reviews can be read here.

Two years ago I found myself excited to see BLEACH The Movie: Memories of Nobody, but after watching the film several times over I found myself underwhelmed by the story. Since then I've come to expect very little from BLEACH movies and shonen anime movie adaptations in general. I found myself so uninterested that it took exactly a year to actually watch BLEACH: The DiamondDust Rebellion after I downloaded the fan subs. It wasn't until the current domestic release of The DiamondDust Rebellion on DVD that I found the motivation to watch the movie. I wouldn't call it a great movie but compared to Memories of Nobody the plot, characters and in some cases, the animation, are an excellent improvement. Now I find myself rather disappointed that I didn't take the time to see and perhaps review it a year ago, because the second BLEACH movie is quite good despite some shortcomings. 

In the overall BLEACH anime storyline The DiamondDust Rebellion takes place between seasons seven and nine. In the World of the Living members of the Soul Society's royal family are transporting an important artifact known as the King's Seal. Tenth Squad captain Toushiro Hitsugaya, along with his lieutenant, Rangiku Matsumoto, and various squad members are charged with making sure the procession arrives at its destination safely. Unfortunately, the procession never arrives with the King's Seal as they are attacked and nearly wiped out by two female arrancar. Hitsugaya personally takes part in the fight against the powerful women until he's stabbed by another foe wearing a Hollow mask. He clashes swords with the masked man and manages to get a glimpse of his face before the fight ends. Suddenly, the 10th Squad captain goes silent and turns to give Matsumoto a pained look of sadness before pursuing the masked man and the stolen King's Seal.



The next day Ichigo Kurosaki happens upon the scene of the massacre and artifact theft while out making his rounds as a Substitute Soul Reaper. He meets up with the captain of the 2nd Squad, Soi Fong, who begrudgingly fills him in on some of the details. After the 2nd Squad leaves Ichigo is joined by his Quincy rival and friend, Uryuu Ishida. As Ichigo tells Uryuu of what he learned an injured and barely conscious Hitsugaya stumbles in front of them and collapses. Meanwhile in the Soul Society, the 10th Squad is put under house arrest as their captain did not return after the fight and has gone missing. Matsumoto feels as if Hitsugaya had some kind of connection with the masked man and implores Renji Abarai, and Rukia Kuchiki to look into the matter for her.

Meanwhile, an unconscious Hitsugaya dreams about his past when he was still a student learning to become a Soul Reaper. There he meets and becomes fast friends with a slightly older boy. The dream ends on a disturbing note as the boy is executed by the Soul Society right in front of his eyes. In the World of the Living, Hitsugaya regains consciousness in Ichigo's room. Without saying much to Ichigo, Hitsugaya returns to sleep and sneaks out the next morning, leaving his captain's haori behind.



Ichigo isn't easily fooled and attempts to stop Hitsugaya from leaving. It's then that Ichigo utters the name "Kusaka," and demands to know if it has any connection to the stolen King's Seal. Hitsugaya then attacks Ichigo without warning and sends the Substitute Soul Reaper reeling. (At this point the name "Kusuka" was never actually mentioned by anyone. How did Ichigo learn of it? The audience is simply left to assume Hitsugaya uttered it while unconscious. This is a minor plot hole but it is an annoying one.) Before Ichigo can recover he's attacked by the same two arrancar women responsible for stealing the King's Seal. During the attack he blacks out and when he wakes up Hitsugaya is gone. Instead he finds Renji and Rukia, and they inform him of the situation with the now rogue 10th Squad captain. Ichigo mentions the name Kusaka and returns Hitsugaya's discarded haori to Renji and Rukia. Renji then returns to the Soul Society to find out about Kusaka.

In the World of the Living Hitsugaya continues to wander the streets alone, even as Ichigo and friends search for him. In the Soul Society, Renji passes on the name Kusaka, and with help begins to research the name. A few Soul Reapers discover the importance of Kusaka's name when all information pertaining to him is altered or missing. In the meantime, a group of Soul Reapers track down Hitsugaya and order him to return to the Soul Society. Instead the boy captain resists and attacks the squad, escaping with further injuries in the process. This act labels him a traitor and a swift order for his execution is given. At the same time Ichigo figures out why Hitsugaya has gone rogue and vows to find him before he's killed by the Soul Society.



All in all, The DiamondDust Rebellion is satisfying to watch. The plot is much more enjoyable and less predictable than Memories of Nobody. With that said, I did have a number of objections with the story largely centered on unresolved plot points. The biggest part of the story was poorly explained, or just outright unexplained. When Hitsugaya and Kusaka originally formed their zanpaktou (or swords) from their souls, they both ended up wielding Hyourinmaru. Was it implied their friendship was so close they ended up with the same powers? Was it just an amazing coincidence? Or a little bit of both? Did Hyourinmaru serve as one entity for two Soul Reapers or was he born twice from Hitsugaya and Kusaka's souls? Furthermore, why is such a thing frowned upon in the Soul Society? There was never any real evidence to suggest that two Soul Reapers having the same exact abilities was a problem. Since these little facts are a major driving force behind the movie I would have expected them to be better explained. Instead everything is largely left to audience speculation.

The rest of the movie is handled well, as battles are fast-paced and always fun to watch. A majority of the Soul Reaper cast makes an appearance in this film. Just like the first movie much of it is fan service, but because the story is better developed having multiple characters around no longer feels like simple pandering. Some fans may be disappointed by how slowly the first half of the movie unfolds versus the action-packed second half. I had no problems with the slower dialogue focused pacing, but your enjoyment may vary.



Character development was limited in this movie but at the very least everyone was in character. In a movie based on a popular action series it's rare to see any kind of character development at all. The movie did a nice job of exploring some of Hitsugaya's past while simultaneously revealing the lengths the young Soul Reaper will go in order to pursue his beliefs. At the same time Ichigo's received some development as he found himself most able to understand and relate to a forlorn Hitsugaya.



For the most part the animation was fluid and generally looked better than the anime series. Some scenes looked a bit strange with an animation quality on par with the regular series. Generally the animation started off very strong and then became weaker toward the end of the movie before regaining its quality. It wasn't a huge issue, but at times I found myself wondering if I'd really just sat through a movie that originally had a theatrical release. Shiro Sagisu returned to work on The DiamondDust Rebellion's musical score and as expected the instrumental songs are excellent. Orchestrated violin pieces help set the movie's more somber moods while action-themed guitar pieces highlighted the movie's numerous battle scenes. Of the music, the orchestrated violin score remained unique to the film. The rest of The DiamondDust Rebellion's score was incorporated into the anime starting with episode 168.

Because this review only covers the subtitled version of the movie I'm not able to comment on the dub-- as I was unable to a year ago with Memories of Nobody. All of the dub's voice actors reprise their roles for this film. So if you enjoy hearing the BLEACH anime in English the DiamondDust Rebellion is more of the same. If you dislike the dub, then you'll want to stick to the subtitled version of this film.



Film adaptations of popular anime series are rarely epic, and are often little more than an interesting side story or adventure. The DiamondDust Rebellion is certainly a little better than the average Shonen anime movie adaption, but it's far from being a masterpiece. If you hated the fairly predictable plot of Memories of Nobody the second BLEACH movie is a refreshing change of pace that occasionally keeps you guessing. The story and character development aren't completely focused on Toushiro Hitsugaya, making it a decent watch for anyone who's not a huge fan of the silver-haired Soul Reaper boy. But if you absolutely hate Hitsugaya as a character this movie may not be for you. For anyone else who follows BLEACH in some form on a regular or moderate basis The DiamondDust Rebellion is worth watching at least once. A major plot issue aside, this film rises beyond the typically low expectations of a Shonen anime film.

It is easier for me to criticize something than for me to praise it.  I think I prefer watching something with flaws and playing something with glitches or obviously poor choices in design, because at the end of my experience, I can rip it a new one, even if I intend to play it again.  Granted, some things I don't ever want to see again, but others are good enough despite their flaws.

I find myself in a difficult position, then.  I wish to write a credible review for this series, but I think I had only one observation about the show that I can make any kind of comment about.  In fact, I thought that it was one of the best shows ever made in Japan, and I wish more anime could be like this.


Sometimes I like to start with telling what didn't work, then go into what did work when I'm writing about video games.  But Clannad had so many good things going for it that I don't think I'd have enough room to mention it all.

The one thing I noticed that seemed to happen in Clannad more often than in other anime was that the characters would get emotional and cry a lot.  It happened with such frequency that you could practically set your watch to it.  It's something I've hardly seen in an anime show, but most of the anime I've seen involves battles and/or wolf girls.  I suppose this might happen more often in drama shows.

The characters probably cried a lot because they could break the fourth wall and read the script.  And for someone like me, I have a small list of things I watch when I need a good cry.  The Lion King.  The second season finale of Numb3rs.  And this series.  Never before have I seen a show where the music swells so emotionally and the characters go through such a rough time that you can't help but feel for them.  Sure, I shed a single tear or two when watching other shows, but Clannad has almost had me fully crying on more than one occasion.  The second series is where they really turn on the pathos, but this series certainly has enough of it to go around.


The first series is made up of a few major arcs relating to the main characters of the show (the ones that appear in the opening credits), and my favourite out of all of them was the very first one, Fuko's story arc.  It wasn't until she started disappearing from everyone's hearts that I realized that the series had supernatural elements, but from the realization came a greater respect for the writers of the show, because the various supernatural elements didn't overwhelm the story, nor did they take over.  And the best thing about them was that they were introduced as a way to bring about the conclusion of the second series without rushing things or adding a hasty explanation at the end.

Throughout it all, various scenes occur in a Hidden World, one that was hinted at in various points of the story, but never fully explained, owing to the fact that a second series was planned.  In my Spice And Wolf review, I complained that writing a Japanese series this way might not work out, but I think in Clannad's case, since it was very popular, they didn't have to worry.  Plus, the story found its natural breaking point at the end of the first series, so if there wasn't a second, then it wouldn't have mattered whether everyone understood the nature of the Hidden World or not.  And if they did find out that they weren't going to do a second series, then they could just as easily have done an OVA to explain it all, afterward.

The theme of the series is family, of course.  The female lead, Nagisa, is fond of the Dango Daikazoku (the Big Dango Family) and the anime itself is named after a Gaelic word which has its own interesting origin.  The music group of the same name had to come up with a name for themselves on the fly, and so they came up with "the family from Dore", or "Clann As Dobhar" in Gaelic, which they abbreviated to Clannad.  Since then, the name Clannad has adopted a more general meaning of "family", rather than being the name of a family from a certain place.  It is this general meaning that the creators of Clannad had in mind when they first came up with it.

The original form of Clannad was a visual novel developed by Japanese video game company Key, and was arranged in two parts, School Life (which would become the first anime series) and After Story (which would become the second anime series).  Depending on how you play and what choices you made, you would either find yourself confronted with a bad ending, or if you've collected what you're supposed to collect, you can receive the good ending.


The first series of the anime, as it focuses on School Life, only tangentially explores the overarching concepts that the second series would focus on, that of the hidden world and of the destiny of Nagisa and the main character, Tomoya.  All the while, little seeds were planted, seeds that would fully mature in the second series and serve as a means to bring about the conclusion.

Throughout the series, and with all the tribulations and triumphs of the group, it's amazing to watch how the characters grow and change, becoming closer to each other.  Especially Tomoya, who started out as a loner and delinquent, and Nagisa, who started out weak and shy.  You never know where life will take you, and certainly, if Tomoya and Nagisa hadn't met that day, under such a silly circumstance (she suddenly stopped walking and declared "Sweet bean bread!" and it would've been so easy for Tomoya to just shrug such an event off and continue on his own merry way), things might've turned out very different for everyone.

I have but gently touched upon the music and not even mentioned the visuals for the series, both of which are top notch; instead I've spent quite a bit of time just talking about the series in general.  I haven't even mentioned the humour, or the charming ending song, or the way poor Sunohara gets treated (kinda like the omega wolf in a pack).  I guess the previous thousand words I've wasted amount to one long way of saying, watch the show if you like drama, it's one of the best I've ever seen.  I imagine I'll have more substantial things to say in my After Story review.

To be continued...

It is a staple of modern fantasy to focus on the warrior caste.  People can't get enough of strong adventurers who arm themselves with swords and staves and go out on a sacred quest to slay dragons, rescue top-heavy princesses, and get nagged incessantly until you agree to take them with you before you go off to explore new lands.  Or something like that.  But how does a  world such as that turn?  Who handles all the comings and goings of people and their property?  How does any nation survive in these worlds, other than by conquering other nations and defending their own borders?

Spice and Wolf chooses to explore the economics of a fantasy world, while telling an entertaining story about a wolf goddess who lives near a small town.  Her worshipers suddenly decide to convert to a new religion and no longer need her, and so the goddess, Horo the Wise, gets homesick and chooses to travel with a merchant named Lawrence, on the one condition that he takes her to her homeland in the north.  All the while, she is eager to see how the world has changed since last she traveled.

Horo is quite the sexy, yet somehow cute character, especially with the way she handles her tail.  As a  wolf goddess, she keeps her ears and tail, even in human form.  And unlike some characters who sport animal features, Horo's ears and tail aren't treated as a couple extra lines to draw.  The best animal girls in anime are the ones that actually move their body naturally, and that includes their extra appendages.  Horo flicks and swivels her ears in reaction to her environment, and her tail often betrays her mood.

Lawrence is quite a clever merchant, and the two of them make for an interesting odd couple, with Horo's haughty nature clashing with Lawrence's maturity and calm, rational manner (except with things go bad, which happens rather often).  Then again, if both characters were cut from the same cloth, it would weaken the story.  The story itself consists of two arcs, with Horo meeting Lawrence acting as the beginning of the first arc.  There is also an OVA episode that takes place between the two arcs, available only on DVD.


One of my favourite things about the series is that, despite Horo being a goddess, she still used proper crop science to fulfill her agricultural duties for the small town she lived at.  She understood how to keep the land fertile, even if the village didn't.

The anime may be a little too complicated for some, because Lawrence's dealings can get quite intricate at times, to the point where you'd have to rewatch the anime to try to see all the ins and outs of his more involved schemes.  And I found the second half to be weaker than the first half, due to a side plot involving wolves that seemed to come out of nowhere, then return to that nowhere once they were defeated.  It's clear that there's something antagonistic going on between  Horo and the other wolves, but it wasn't explored as well as it could've in the series.

It's for this reason that I'm glad there's a second series.  The thing about Japanese shows, especially anime, is that a series generally only gets one season, so when writing the story, everything needs to fall into place at the end, all dangling plot threads should be handled, and a suitable ending found.  Whether this ending is final or not is up to the writers, but sometimes, just riding off into the sunset is a good enough ending, because there's a possibility of more adventure.  After all, if a series gets to continue for a second season, the writers can then come up with a new story.  There have been some exceptions (most notably, Clannad got a second series so that they could finish the story they started, and nearly everything that Shonen Jump has started literally has no end), but if an anime ends in the middle of a story, that's usually it, there isn't any more, and any opportunity to explain what's happening is gone forever.


It will be interesting to see what Funimation will do with the series when it finally brings it over to North American audiences in December.  It will also be interesting to see how closely the anime resembles the novels when they start being published in English at around the same time, with the manga being translated and then published the April after the first novel debuts.  It may explain why the wolves appeared during the second anime arc, if they appeared in some of the novels.

The new anime series makes its debut very, very, very soon (it might've aired by now, depending on what time it is in Japan right now), and an OVA has already been released as sort of a reintroduction to the characters and as a way to lead into the new series.  Horo is as cute and spicy as ever and I, for one, can't wait.