Anime Review Roundup

It's Not A Transformer, OK!

The world may be riding a wave of Transformers hype at the moment courtesy of the latest 2 and half hour waste of celluloid, but Transformers hype is nothing compared to Gundam hype in Japan. Michael Bay will only get credibility if he builds a life size Optimus Prime in Washington DC. You may have seen this video already around the Interweb. Just in case you missed it, I bring it to you here, after reading about it at UKAnime.net. That my friends, is a life size Gundam, in Tokyo, and it moves. I got a little Charlton Heston at the end of Planet of the Apes when I saw that.



The Funimation Web Portal Is Still Down

Maintenance continues on one of the few convenient sources of legal online anime accessible in the UK. I mention this because last week I said it had been restored, at which point it went down again. If the world continues to spite me, by reporting that it is down now, it should be up again in a few minutes. That's my evening's viewing sorted then… (Slow news week.)

Bleach the Movie: Memories of Nobody Competition Winners

The competition for three copies of the forthcoming Bleach feature film closed recently, and apologies for being tardy with the results. The answer to the question, "Ichigo Kurasaki is a Soul Reaper. What is this profession called in Japanese?" was Shinigami. Thanks to all who entered, and congratulations are due to

Kevin Stubbs, Warrington

Mr L. Rowland, Wiltshire

Carolynn Woodland, Herts

Stay tuned for more competitions in the future, and a review of the Bleach movie on this site in a few days.



Reviews over the last week commenced with Stuart McLean's investigation of Blue Dragon, Volumes 1 & 2. A maxim that has maintained my sanity as a reviewer over the years is, 'For every moment of pleasure, there is a commensurate measure of pain', something that Stuart must have been reminded of recently. Having just reviewed the sublime Mushi-shi, he now has to look at Blue Dragon, which comes straight from the Dragonball school of anime, aimed at preteen males, adapted from an Xbox 360 videogame, and full of all the 'do your best', 'willpower will prevail' clichés that shows like this can't do without. My pleasure at not having to review this title surely means I'm due some serious reviewing pain. Read Stuart's take on it to see if my prejudices are justified.

















I had another anime review sandwich last week, with two retro slices of bread in the form of NieA under 7: Volume 2, and Niea under 7: Volume 3. It's practically criminal that there are still unsold copies of this show out there to be bought. It's a Yoshitoshi ABe series for one, it was released in 2001, and has been deleted for years. It's also a quality, slice of life, piece of whimsy, an utterly relaxing, surrealist helping of comedy, which means it's a golden opportunity for people to seek out those unsold volumes and add them to their collections. Read the reviews to see just why.














I told you I was due some reviewing pain. The meat in the sandwich turned out to be Naruto Unleashed 6:2. I've been enjoying Naruto thus far, but this is where the filler begins in earnest, thirteen episodes of watching a show spinning its wheels, waiting for the manga creator to come up with more story, thirteen episodes of declining animation standards, tacky characterisations, cheap gags, and zero development. And this is still the good filler. Click on my review and share my pain.

















Blue Dragon's first instalment is already in shops courtesy of Manga Entertainment, and can be bought by judicious application of cash, or egregious use of a credit card. Manga Entertainment also release Naruto's 12th instalment, taking us up to episode 156, on June 29th. NieA under 7 will have to be imported from the US (it's a Pioneer a.k.a. Geneon disc), and you really ought to consider it.