A review of Akira:
I'm gonna be brutal here. I HATED Akira. And you know what? I think Akira is largely responsible for the bad rep anime has in the west, as well as for atrocious anime like Dragonball Z and other fighting focused hormone driven anime and the fanatacism that surrounds them.
How can I possibly say this? Akira was one of the first anime movies to make it big in the west. Enough so that it became well known, even outside the video community. Schoolkids talked about it, parents wondered what it was and movie critics praised/damned it. It's such a damn shame that anime's first ambassador was such a load of crap!
Akira is violent, pointless, violent, gory, violent, confusing, violent and downrignt weird! How many other movies do you know where the 'hero' of the story is haunted by a teddybear and a tonka car, is obsessed with finding a brain in a jar and finally ends up becoming a gigantic mountain of flesh, goo, tentacles and god knows what else! Not to mention killing his girlfriend by surrounding and squiching her in his own bulk with a distastefull spurt of blood...
Gang violence, heavy weapons abuse, psychic geriatric 8 year olds, a stereotypical mad scientist (complete with white hair, crazy look and a lab coat)... The list of absurdities goes on and on. The plot is vapor thin, the characters are more two dimentional than a daytime soap, the action carries the violence, not the story.
Does this movie have ANY redeeming features? Ummmmm.... Well the artwork's pretty good in some places, especially the city scapes. But if that's all you want, go get Ghost in the Shell!
This movie is nothing more than a gore fest wraped up in a thin plot of teen angst and paranormal forces. Pure formula designed to excite the hormone overdosed teen male, and horrify his parents.
Yes, if not for Akira we would be seeing much more anime in the west, and parents wouldn't think that it's all violence and gore. Well maybe that's an exaggeration, but I don't think the damage that the abomination that is Akira has caused can be underestimated.
29 April 2004
A review of Card Captor Sakura:
This is a simply wonderful series and every fan of "cute" owes it to themselves to see it.
The basic story is about a cute but independent 10 year old school girl, Sakura. One day she finds a mysterious magical book in her basement among her dad's archiological books. When she opens it she finds a whole bunch of cards. Unwittingly she reads one of the cards and causes the rest of them to fly out of the room and become scattered all around the city. It is only then the cute guardian of the cards reveals himself and charges Sakura with the duty of captuing all the cards and returning them to the book.
Aimed at a younger audience, and with obvious marketing potential, this series is nonetheless enchanting watching and of interest to all ages. It is being dubbed into english to cash in on the Pokemon craze, but it has been completely butchered as a result. Whatever you do, you MUST see the original Japanese. The english version skips the fist six episodes completely!!
Magnificent artwork, wonderful music and exciting stories topped off with a very cute cast make Card Captor Sakura a MUST SEE for every anime fan.
This is a simply wonderful series and every fan of "cute" owes it to themselves to see it.
The basic story is about a cute but independent 10 year old school girl, Sakura. One day she finds a mysterious magical book in her basement among her dad's archiological books. When she opens it she finds a whole bunch of cards. Unwittingly she reads one of the cards and causes the rest of them to fly out of the room and become scattered all around the city. It is only then the cute guardian of the cards reveals himself and charges Sakura with the duty of captuing all the cards and returning them to the book.
Aimed at a younger audience, and with obvious marketing potential, this series is nonetheless enchanting watching and of interest to all ages. It is being dubbed into english to cash in on the Pokemon craze, but it has been completely butchered as a result. Whatever you do, you MUST see the original Japanese. The english version skips the fist six episodes completely!!
Magnificent artwork, wonderful music and exciting stories topped off with a very cute cast make Card Captor Sakura a MUST SEE for every anime fan.
A review of one of my other favourite Anime series, Battle Athletes:
Battle Athletes is a uniquely charming anime series with memorable characters, uplifiting stories, a strong sense of virtue and nobility, and the central message of "if you believe in yourself you can achieve your dreams".
Unusual for being a sports themes anime, Battle Athletes is nonetheless also a comedy-action-adventure series. The story centres around Akari, a talented sportswoman who graduated at the top of her class and gained entry into the prestigious "University Satelite", where she entered into training to compete for the sought-after title of "Cosmic Beauty". The story is about how Akari makes friends, faces personal struggles, comes to terms with the loss of her mother and seeking her own inner strength. It shows that friends can help bring out the best in you by seeing what you may not, and sharing in a common goal for success and happiness.
Battle Athletes is not without its shocks and revilations, some of which may make more conservative viwers uncomfortable, but I nonethless whole-heartedly reccommend this as a family anime, and a good introduction to the anime in general.
Battle Athletes is a uniquely charming anime series with memorable characters, uplifiting stories, a strong sense of virtue and nobility, and the central message of "if you believe in yourself you can achieve your dreams".
Unusual for being a sports themes anime, Battle Athletes is nonetheless also a comedy-action-adventure series. The story centres around Akari, a talented sportswoman who graduated at the top of her class and gained entry into the prestigious "University Satelite", where she entered into training to compete for the sought-after title of "Cosmic Beauty". The story is about how Akari makes friends, faces personal struggles, comes to terms with the loss of her mother and seeking her own inner strength. It shows that friends can help bring out the best in you by seeing what you may not, and sharing in a common goal for success and happiness.
Battle Athletes is not without its shocks and revilations, some of which may make more conservative viwers uncomfortable, but I nonethless whole-heartedly reccommend this as a family anime, and a good introduction to the anime in general.
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