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July 30 2012, 9:49 PM

Looks like someone's having a case of the Mondays...

Yikes!

Aiden starts us off with the entertainingly outlandish Future Diary which receives high marks in his book.

Diane comes back from retirement to give us a look at the movie Mardock Scramble: First Combustion, comparing it very unfavorably to Ghost in the Shell in skill and content.

Nick is patently unimpressed by 90s video-game one shot Panzer Dragoon, which somehow just barely misses the bottom of the barrel by being more mediocre than truly horrible.

Dallas brings the weekly average back up to dead-even by giving us a second opinion on the "modern classic" Read or Die.

However, I again record the Zonk of the Week, chronicling the complete failure of Japanese animation that is Sleeping with Hinako. Truth in advertising has rarely been so disappointing ... or creepy!

See you next week!

- Carlos

 
July 23 2012, 10:47 PM

Emergency Editor Time

Tim's putting the finishing touches on his scheduled review for this week, so while he takes care of that, I'll tackle the rest of the update.

Nick starts us off with the manically crass Dead Leaves which manages to offend about as much as it entertains.

Dallas has a slightly more positive take on High School of the Dead than Nick - at the end of the day, he still calls it "trash anime at its best", so if you like boobs more than plot, there you go.

Carlos continues his slog through Happy Science's film library, tackling the second of their religious films, The Laws of the Sun. Magellanic Cloud space elves joyriding around the Cretaceous popping caps in dinosaurs? HECK YEAH.

Allen takes on the dark, nihilistic The Skull Man, a series with a surprising amount of pedigree (being originally by Shotaro Ishinomori of Cyborg 009 and Kamen Rider fame), but landing well shy of either.

Tim should have his review ready soon, so check back in a bit!

Cheers!

-- Carlos Ross

Edit: And I finished it! Sorry for the lateness, everyone!

Life's been hectic for me recently, but here at last is my review of THE iDOLMASTER. And be sure to thank Carlos for doing the review schedule for me! - Tim Jones

 
July 16 2012, 11:34 PM

Four Corners of Anime Reviews

On the North side, we got Nick with his review of the documentary/drama First Squad: The Moment of Truth.

On the East side, we have Carlos with his review of the moe gun comedy (yep) Upotte!!.

On the South side, we have Dallas and his Ringing Bell review, an anime from times long ago.

And finally, on the West side, we have Aiden with his review of the shoujo comedy Inu x Boku SS.

Next Monday we'll be back with some more reviews. Now spread!

- Tim Jones

 
July 9 2012, 2:00 PM

Summertime, and the writing is easy...

Okay, not really, but we've got some reviews in!

Our first line of business is to introduce our newest reviewer: Dallas Marshall, a veteran anime commentator from the West Coast who we are glad to have on our team. His inaugural review is our first look at the long-awaited reboot Berserk - The Golden Arc: Egg of the King - does it live up to the hype? Well, most rhetorical questions around here end with a "no", but Dallas gives a fair look at what could easily have been a great film.

I take what is perhaps the unwisest choice ever made by a THEM Editor in the history of this site and go poke a cult in the eye with a stick by reviewing the unintentionally hilarious religious propaganda film Hermes - The Winds of Love. If you enjoy this review, there's a bunch more films where that came from (to be reviewed at progressively dire risk to my life and limb, or at the very least, my sanity).

Aiden has marginally more luck with the surprisingly sweet but ultimately trite Listen to Me, Girls, I'm Your Father!, which isn't bad, but has plenty of elements done before in better shows.

And for our last review, Allen tackles Kimi ni Todoke (From Me to You) Season 2. Waiiiiit, sound like deja vu? Well it turns out Allen's reviews were for the first and second half of Season 1 (25 episodes), while Season 2 only has 12 episodes. The episode count and packaging fooled him into thinking they were actually three separate seasons! (Would've fooled me too!)

And that's it until next week!

- Carlos Ross

 
July 2 2012, 1:39 PM

Parasites, Cephalopods, and Plenty of OAVs

Today, our assortment consists of one quasi-obscure title that's pretty good and one very obscure title that's pretty darn bad.

On the positive side of things, I bring you Parasite Dolls, a 2003 spinoff of the Bubblegum Crisis universe (and the last title in the franchise to be released). It's good cyberpunk, and while I've seen both the genre and writer Chiaki J. Konaka do a bit better, that shouldn't deter one from checking it out.

On the other hand, Carlos finds that the poor reputation of Skelter+Heaven is very well deserved, with this strange and incoherent story (courtesy of those who brought us the equally terrible Mars of Destruction) proving to be good for mockery if nothing else.

We return next week with more reviews, as usual, but with the addition of a small surprise. Stay tuned for that.

-Nick Browne

 
 
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