Watching Dragon, Growler's Hidden Anime!

(Volume One)

Tenjho Tenge is the adaptation of an original manga created by Oh Great (whose real name is Ito Oogure).

It's produced by Studio Madhaouse who also brought to the small screen Trigun and Vampire Hunter D.

Tenjho Tenge is basically an action comedy set in a school where learning kung fu skills is an essential part of the curriculum.

The story revolves around Souichiro Nagi and his best friend Bob Makihara who both pride themselves on their superior fighting skills.

After mastering many previous schools the pair find themselves at the Todo Academy which holds many unusual characters such as Aya.

Aya is one of the Natsume sisters and is a member of the Juuken Club.

Aya develops a crush on Souichiro and much fun develops from this.

This fantastic warrior epic is based on Akira Kurosawa's classic film Seven Samurai. The key difference is the sci-fi futuristic twist given to it by producers Studio Gonzo.

Picture a futuristic world where a war has just ended. Scores of samurai warriors - effectively warriors for hire - have nothing to do and so become bandits.

The Nobuseri, as they are known, loot and pillage helpless villages across the countryside.

One village, Kanna, decide to hire their own samurai to protect them.

Three volunteers from the village lead the search for these good samurai.

The heart broken, hot blooded Rikichi, Kirara the village's beautiful Water Priestess and Komachi who is Kirara's stubborn little sister.

Packed with action galore, it tells the tale of a small group of heroes who band together to defend a small farming village against an army of giant flying warrior robots amongst other foes.

Imagine a shy schoolgirl who is rebuilt into the world's greatest weapon. That's the premise of this amazing anime series which will hit you hard.

The portrayl of Chise as an awkward and clumsy teenager really pulls at the heartstrings.

It's all based on the best-selling manga by Shin Takahashi and produced with love by Studio Gonzo.

Set the not too distant future you are plunged into the world of students Chise and Shuji who go to school in the Japanese city of Hokkaido.

Chise asks Shuji to be her boyfriend and the two of them embark on a romance that is surprisingly well written.

Of course, Chise's secret causes her to leave at the most unexpected moments to perform tasks for the military. The country is at war after all.

The drama arises from whether Shuji will find out about Chise's other life and how will it affect them. Believe me, it works and is a powerful story.

The character, a young ninja, has a best selling manga comic in Japan and was created by Masahi Kishimoto.

The anime series has become a worldwide smash!

Don't you want to know what you're missing out on?

The basic background is this. Many moons ago, the powerful Demon Fox appeared in the peaceful village of Konoha, the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

The whole of this village was threatened by this evil force so the guardians, Shinobis (or ninjas) tried to protect them but Demon Fox was too strong.

Finally one Shinobi (also known as the Fourth Hokage) made a horrific sacrifice and sealed the spirit of the demon in the body of a newborn baby.

This baby was known as Naruto Uzumaki.

It expertly blends sci-fi with westerns to produce a quality, action packed show.

The series centres around a man known as Vash the Stampede. His gunslinging is so dangerous that there is a bounty of 60 billion dollars placed on his head.

He's also known as the Humanoid Typhoon and is a man of great mystery.

Though his deeds show he is a peace-loving guy with an urge to help people, an organisation known as the Bernadelli Insurance Agency have dispatched two investigators on his trail, Meryl Strife and Milly Thompson.

Their aim is to prevent Vash from causing any more damage.

Vash also has another objective. To settle the score with the man who murdered many of his loved ones...

Chobits is created by the all-female Manga team at CLAMP and can be described as the adventures of a boy and his amazing life like computer android.

Hideki is the boy in question and his story begins when he leaves his family's country farm to go to the big city of Tokyo.

When he gets there he's astounded to find and abundance of Persocoms - personal computer androids designed to look and act like people and animals.

A lack of money means Hideko can just about afford the rent so there's no way he can buy a Persocom.

But, in a quirky twist of fate, he finds a discarded Persocom piled up in some rubbish in a local alleyway.

It's designed to look like a cute teenage girl and Hideko adopts it as his own. He names it Chi discovers that though it has a missing Operating System, it still functions.

Lots of anime series are based on best selling manga series and this is no different.The manga was written by Sachi Oshimizu and has been adapted into three amazing 30-minute episodes!

Dr Otoi a robotics expert builds a powerful android fighting machine called Signal to act as a guardian to his young grandson Nobuhiko.

Unfortunately, during the building process, a chance sneeze by Nobuhiko causes a glitch in the androids programming.

Basically, everytime Nobuhiko sneezes, Signal is transformed from an efficient battle machine to a child-like ineffective but strangely lovable wreck.

The situation is complicated however by the introduction of Pulse.

This is the prototype android built by Dr Otoi as the forerunner to Signal.

Pulse has been reprogrammed by a rival of Dr Otoi in a bid to steal his innovative robot technology and eliminate all and sundry who get in his way.

And so it begins...

It never fails to amaze me when I witness the sheer ingenuity of anime and the storylines contained within.

None more so than Full Metal Alchemist. This is the story of two brothers Ed and Al and is set in Europe in the early 20th Century in a semi-mythical world.

They are both alchemists, people with the special power to manipulate and transform objects from one form to another.

The story begins when Ed and Al use the forbidden science of alchemy in an attempt to bring their deceased mother back to life.

The plan backfires horribly resulting in a huge explosion.

The accident causes Ed to lose an arm and Al's entire body was destroyed save for his soul that was left hanging in limbo.

She's aided by her brother's loyal retainer, Watanabe no Tsuna, a master samurai swordsman.

And there you have the crux of the story in a nutshell of this impressive anime series.

Visually striking and immediately capturing my eye, this is a period piece with a difference.

Set in Japan 972 AD in the middle of the Heian Period the action revolves around Kyoto, the capital city of ancient Japan.

When it comes the action is graceful and the animation is sleek beyond belief. It dazzles everytime you see it.

Director Mizuho Nishikubo has certainly crafted a gem of a series with plenty of character depth and drama.

I have to also mention Kazuchika Kise who doubled up on character design and was also the supervising animation director.

Creatures and demons run rampant, turning the local population into crazed zombies.

The gateway was situated outside an apartment block. Most of those residents did not survive the ensuing onslaught...

Imagine a government agency being created to battle these creatures whenever they appeared.

Oh, and normal weapons can't hurt them, they can only be destroyed by swords.

This is the world of Tokko, the name of that government agency. Known as the Special Public Safety Task Force.

Only thing though, this agency and the invasion is top secret. No one is supposed to know they exist.

Our main lead character, Ranmaru Shindou, is a police officer, as is his younger sister, Saya.

They share a flat together and they were among the few survivors of that apartment incident.

Director Goro Taniguchi launches us into an adventure featuring the lead character Van of the Dawn, who is a tuzedo wearing, sword wielding stranger on a mission of revenge.

A mysterious clawed killer murdered his wife on his wedding day and Van won't rest until he is found.

Encountering numerous villians during his search, Van also has access to a giant Mecha armour which looks as cool as hell when you see it on screen.

Very handy in certain situations.

On his travels, Van meets Wendy Garrett, a girl whose brother was kidnapped by the clawed killer.

She becomes his companion during his adventures.

This action drama series has a very cool feel to it and I like the way the characters are fleshed out giving a satisfying depth to the whole show.

I love this show with a passion. From the opening to closing theme tunes this is a great introduction to why anime is a great storytelling medium.

Featuring two contrasting samurai's, Mugen and Jin and their female companion, Fuu, the series follows their adventures.

Directed by the superbly talented Shinichiro Watanabe and jointly designed by Kazuto Nakazawa and Mahiro Maeda, action and drama feature heavily.

The word Champloo comes from the local dialect of Okinawa, Japan meaning mixing or blending and that's exactly what we get here with a fusion of ancient, feudal Japanese warrior culture with a hip-hop sensibility.

Cutting edge animation features throughout making this quality viewing.

Produced and performed by Nujabes with lyrics by Shing02, here's a taste of the first verse and chorus of the opening hip-hop theme song called Battlecry;

This is one of the best Anime series around and a great action laced drama.

It has elements of The Godfather and Robocop with a very subtle sci-fi action flavour that is just addictively watchable.

Based on the original works of Kazuki Akane and Satelight, Akane also directs the series.

It also showcases the work of character designer Nobuteru Yuuki.

Often acting on tip-offs the team consists of detective Daisuke Aurora (known as Dice), Kyoko the long-suffering administration officer, Antonia Belluci the lady responsible for developing technology used to build androids.

She now oversees the related maintenance and repairs of the final team member, the main man himself, Heat Guy J.

Built as Android J he partners Dice in the field and acts as his backup.

I like the fact that all episodes are stand alone stories so you don't feel you've come in late to the party.

The episodes themselves are split into four sections.

The intro often leads with a voice over featuring everyday conversation with Heat Guy J and Dice on a mission.

This brings us to the opening credits and opening theme tune.

You’ve just arrived at my first ever anime review.

Special thanks to Julian Martin and Farhana Shaikh for recommendations and introductions into the world of Anime!

Right, this is a sequel to the massively successful Ghost in the Shell (1995), which was one of my all time favourite anime productions.

The original was a great 9 out of 10 film.

The original was the film that inspired The Matrix trilogy.

The main protagonist, lead character, is Batou. He’s a cyborg detective for the government’s covert anti-terrorist unit Public Security Section 9.

Batou and his partner, the human Togusa, are charged with investigating the peculiar case of a malfunctioning doll that has murdered its owner.

The further and further the detectives venture into this investigation they uncover a barrel of worms in the form of violent Yakuza thugs, devious hackers, corrupt influential government bureaucrats and powerful corporate criminals.

We are treated to an up close and personal view of Batou’s everyday life and it’s a very warming, emotional experience.

He lives alone with his dog and you just forget he's a cyborg the way he carries himself.

For me the whole thing was let down by some of the narration in the dubbed version of the movie. There’s just too much exposition, explaining the story, and it really overpowers everything.