What do you get when you cross Gainax from car manufacturer Subaru? A Magical Girl show, apparently!
Houkago no Pleiades (Wish Upon Pleiades) is the tale of a girl named Subaru (of course) who gets caught up in a battle between good and evil. This being a collaboration with Subaru, the team of magical girls all ride on staffs that make car noises. Why would they sound like cars? ::SHRUGS SHOULDERS::
Get ready for more squid puns and tentacle humor, because one of last year's most adorably funny anime series is set to return!
The subject of transgenderism does not come up too often in the anime realm. For the most part when it comes to male characters wanting to dress like women (or vice versa) it tends to stay in a safe bubble where that is just as far as they'll go with their transformation. Not only does Wandering Son (or Hourou Musuko, as it's known in Japan) step away from this bubble, but also takes the issue and brings it to light via a middle school setting. As shocking as that might be, there is a tad bit of realism in putting a GLBT-based plot in an environment like this.
Oh my, Wandering Son. This is quite the show! Wandering Son (Hourou Musuko) is a show about traps but it's not an LOL silly comedy. In fact, this show is a bit serious. It's totally keeping it real when it comes to transgender issues.
Besides being about boys dressing as girls, another thing you will notice is the "marble head" design. All of the people in this show have a shiny, polished look to a part of their head, so this show stands out visually in addition to having a novel premise.
Basically, a young boy moves to a new school and meets a kindred spirit, a girl who also has issues with her gender.
OK, what should we talk about next? Oh, I know dragons that turn into girls!
Dragon Crisis focuses on Ryuji, just an average high student- wait, haven't we seen all of this before? Blah, blah, blah, you get it. An average person is thrust into a world of supernatural beings. Still, this show looks worthwhile. A buxom young woman named Erik (also Ryuji's cousin) snatches him up and enlists him in her organization, Seven Tails. It appears as if she just came up with the name of the organization just a few minutes prior, but her organization deals with very real issues.
It's Winter 2011! For some of us, that means freezing half to death and shoveling snow. It's also time to take a look at the new Anime offerings of the season. You can't watch every show that's out, so ESH is doing the dirty work for you. What's worth your time?
I remember seeing a trailer for Gosick, but I couldn't figure out what it's all about.
I didn't expect it to be quite so silly, nor did I expect it to be a show about crime solving. By crime solving, I don't mean actual deducing by a young detective like Jimmy Kudo from Detective Conan. I mean mystical, magical crime solving which requires no hard work at all.
I shouldn't be surprised that a show that calls itself Gosick (which is the broken English pronunciation of Gothic) to not play by normal rules. Gosick is all about this cute little girl (yes, ANOTHER anime with a cute little girl) who can solve crimes like nobody's business. She is locked up in this estate, barred from the outside world, until a young man comes into her life.
I will tell you that I think having magical powers to solve crimes doesn't sit well with me. I think it's cheating! I do like how Gosick looks, and I appreciate its silliness. I was under the impression that this show was going to be about beautiful European architecture and super-serious subject matter. NOPE! It's about a little girl who rolls on the floor, a kid who has to walk up the stairs instead of taking the elevator, and a dude with a phallic hairdo.
Who is the ideal audience? People who say they'd like to travel, but haven't yet.
Watch more? MAYBE
One of the best-written manga and funniest anime series of all-time is getting its dues, this time in the form of a full-length movie.
Sea creatures!? Why, at about the same time, do we have two anime involving sea creatures? Maybe you have seen either Kuragehime (Jellyfish Princess) or Ika Musume (Squid Girl) mentioned this season, but which aquatic life-based show is more worth your precious viewing time. Let's put these two ladies under a microscope, shall we?
First we have the Noitamina' blocks latest it-girl, Tsukimi. Tsukimi loves jellyfish- perhaps a bit too much.
In the opposite corner is anime's answer to Aquaman (or is Namor more accurate?), Squid Girl. She loves her home (the ocean) so much that she will do anything to protect it- even if it means enslaving the human race.
Enough squawking! It's time to pit these two against one another in deadly anime combat!
Some of you out there may know of the site called That Guy With The Glasses, which is currently a site full of entertainment-loving reviewers who do vidcasts.
Of these, one of my favorites is JesuOtaku, a female anime fan who likes to dissect anime's past and present.
So here she is giving her top 20 favorite opening themes of 2010- even though she hasn't watched some of them (neither have I). After you watch the top 20, I'll share my top 5 opening themes of this year
With the otaku generation taking over at least the male demographic, it would've been no time at all for the light novel and anime industry to pamper over to the female population. This fall the folks at AIC have adapted Tsukasa Fushimi's light novel series Ore no Imōto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai (or Oreimo for short), which is translated as "My little sister can't be this cute." What could've been a funny series has instead transformed itself into kind of a bore-fest.
