Especially when he looks like this.

Finish what you started...

Holiday shopping season is here, and this week the ladies of ESH share their purchase recommendations for the geeks/nerds/gamers nearest and dearest to you.

Finish what you started...

As anime likes to do from time to time, this is a period in the Rouroni Kenshin TV timeline, just retold from a different perspective. The Rurouni Kenshin: Shin Kyoto-Hen OAV will be screened in Japan in December.

There's nothing there. I don't get the censorship.

Girls with guns. School girls in short skirts. Bras. These elements in an anime that give me pause, that make me fearful of trying a new series. I am glad, then, that I gave Aria: The Scarlet Ammo a chance.

There are indeed lots of those typical anime tropes. We have all these girls who want to get close to our main guy, Kinji. Then we have the girl who expresses her attraction to Kinji the least: Aria.

Aria is a loli-looking girl who has fantastic skills in unarmed and armed combat. Kinji, then, is a great partner for her. They meet as Kinji is about to become a victim of the mysterious Butei Killer. When they come together to disarm the killer's automated weapons, we learn what makes Kinji so special. First, he has Hysteria Mode; in simple terms, he goes moe for girls if he gets too close to them. Um, nothing special about that. Secondly, Kinji also has good detective skills, so combining that with his need to protect women, he is the perfect guy to have around in a female dominated anime.

So far, Aria is like Speed if it became a television series. Add a dash of moe and a sprinkle of tsundere, and that is what Aria brings to the table. Even though there is a goofy reveal about Aria during the first arc, at least the show made a nice early impression. Not one for the history books, but maybe an anime that''s fun for the moment.