Category: Anime Reviews

Reviews of various anime that I’ve seen.

Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad North American Release!

I got my hands on a copy of Beck today! I’m so excited I can’t tell you! I couldn’t wait to grab my pocket knife and carefully slice open the plastic covering the disc. Inside is a black guitar pick with the Beck logo inscribed on the front, on the back it says “Music is life!” Which, as any fan of this series knows is the key premise of the show.

The big worry I had was that the opening and closing credits would not be in tact. I checked those out real fast, then sat down to watch a little bit before dinner. So just so everyone knows, I have NOT spent much time with this DVD. What I can tell you is as follows:

The opening credits are in tact! I am very pleased that the music for Beck is still “Hit in America”. I hadn’t seen confirmation of this in any articles on the release of this series so far, so for any readers who’ve happened upon this and were wondering… yes, the Beat Crusaders are still a part of the show.… [Read More]

Trigun Remix Volume 2

Geneon’s releases of Trigun Remix are coming out so fast that I can scarcely keep up with them. I purchased this volume at the end of September and volume 3 of this series is already out!

This will be a short review because I think I covered this release fairly well in my original review of the first volume. If you’re buying this release, it’s because you’ve already seen Trigun and loved it. The 5.1 dub track is nice, but this series really could have benefitted from some video clean up. The only news about this volume really was that there was a slight hiccup with the release that didn’t cause any delays because several shipments that were sent out early had the wrong cover art in the packaging.… [Read More]

Trinity Blood Volume 1

Funimation has finally issued the first DVD of a series that I caught when it was being fansubbed and I am so glad! Trinity Blood is a post-apocalyptic story that follows Father Abel Nightroad as he tries to save the world from an invasion of vampires.

Visuals: This is a Gonzo title, I have nothing but wonderful things to say about Gonzo’s visuals and I tend to buy anime simply because they were produced by Gonzo. The only real exception to that has been Speed Grapher. I’m only avoiding Speed Grapher because it’s not a series that I can sit down and watch with the kids. Trinity Blood is a bit graphic in the violence category so I wouldn’t recommend that you let young children watch this series, but it’s great fun with older kids because the violence is just graphic enough for you to realize that something really bad has happened without going over the top.… [Read More]

X Remix Box Set

X (TV) is based on a manga written by CLAMP. X tells the story of the end of the world and the fight to save the Earth from apocalypse between the Dragons of Heaven and the Dragons of Earth. It primarily follows young Kamui as he tries to find his way through his destiny to become a dragon of heaven or a dragon of earth and the conflict that ensues after he makes his choice.

Visuals: Absolutely gorgeous. The artwork for this series stays very true to CLAMP’s characteristic style and flows beautifully. If there is use of CG in this series, it does not stick out like a sore thumb as it tends to do in other anime.

Sound: I tend to skip the English dub for most releases, but I gave the English dub a listen for an episode and found that I wasn’t too disturbed by it. The voice casting fits with the characters well enough that it was enjoyable to watch in English, but I do prefer the Japanese voice work.… [Read More]

Samurai Champloo Vol. 6.

For those who have not seen Samurai Champloo, this series is to anime now, what Cowboy Bebop was to anime of the 90’s. It is, simply put, the sh*t.

As always, everything with this series is amazing, including the English Dub, which features a favorite voice actor of mine, Steve Blum (Spike, from Cowboy Bebop) as Mugen. The music is great, the story is amazing, but I have one minor beef.

Is it just me, or is the artistic quality of this show diminishing as time goes on? Mugen and Jin just don’t seem as well drawn in these later episodes as they did in the earlier ones.… [Read More]