One Piece: The Desert Princess and the Pirates - Adventures in Alabasta

Totally Awesome
How my ratings work:
5 - I really liked/loved it
4 - I liked it
3 - Could've been better/worth a look
2 - Just didn't live up to the potential
1 - Simply awful

I just saw this movie today with my friends. I've been a fan of One Piece for a good while. I've yet to read the manga, but I plant to read it some day. This movie has everything you could want: action, comedy, drama, intense battles. I don't need to go into the plot since it's mentioned above. The voice cast is outstanding, and it's cool to see it all uncut (I've mainly seen it on tv). If you love One Piece, you'll love this. If you're a fan of anime, movies, and pirates, you should love it in general.

The wacky and delightful adventures of superhero pirates on a quest to save a desert kingdom
I don't know anything about the Manga upon which this is based and have never had the chance to see any of the episodes of the popular television series featuring the characters from One Piece -- but all that really isn't necessary to enjoy the eye-poppingly enthusiastic animation and delightful story of how a mismatched group of super-powered pirates rally behind a desert princess to save her kingdom from the dangerous fiend Crocodile.

I suppose this ought to be classed under the heading of guilty pleasure (for me) since its target audience seems to be teenage boys and girls -- though I understand that manga and anime have a much larger adult audience in Japan than comics and animation have in the US. The animated women are all voluptuous and not afraid to use their feminine charms to disarm an enemy, and there is lots of blood and violence -- though it is certainly not to the point of being gory or pornographic, the film does "earn" its PG-13 rating. Still, the film...

Thank you Funimation and Toei! Can't wait for the rest of the series!
After buying several of the Fox 4 Kids DVD versions of the "One Piece" series, I was close to giving up on ever seeing a U.S. release of the show, with both the Japanese AND English soundtracks, and without the EDITED video (where they added 'water guns' and changed parts of some storylines). It had reached a point were I ended up purchasing DVDs with only the Japanese soundtrack, with really bad English translations. However, now Funimation have STARTED to release "One Piece" with BOTH Japanese and English soundtracks (Sanji no longer sounds like he has a stuffed nose!), and with the ORIGINAL video/story intact!!! (I say 'started' because the DVD says that the TV series will be released UNCUT starting MAY 2008!!!) I've waited so long for this. While some people may look at this series as just a 'kid's show,' it isn't. It's entertainment for ADULTS as well as children! It's funny. It's heartwarming. It's inspirational. Now, hopefully, people will understand why it's celebrating it's...

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Black Blood Brothers: Starter Set

Black bloods and red bloods
There's really not a lot of original, un-cliched vampire television and/or movies out there. Your best bet is anime.

One good example of this is "Black Blood Brothers: Bad Tidings," the first volume of a very short anime. Gorgeous art, a likable lead vampire, and a very unique mythology -- and while the first couple episodes are decent but not outstanding, the story starts to really bloom when the bad-guy vampires enter the scene.

Two vampires -- powerful Jiro and his little brother Kotaro -- are stowing away on a Chinese ship on their way to Japan. Their destination: the Safe Zone, where vampires and humans are allowed to coexist.

But then a firefight breaks out on board between some immigrant vampires and an anti-vampire military squad, and Jiro has no choice but to get involved. Once they stagger ashore, they are helped by a Company worker named Mimiko -- but things get nasty when the military shows up again, separating the brothers and capturing...





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xxxHOLiC: Starter Set

xxxHolic Starter Set - Anime Set for DVD Versions of Clamp Series
xxxHOLiC: Starter Set.

I love the xxxHolic book series, which can best be described as philosophical anime with a dash of high school angst and the supernatural. I think most people who are drawn to this TV version will be fans of the books xxxHOLiC, Volume 1.

This Starter Set includes the First Collection which is also sold separately xxxHOLiC: First Collection. I think the starter set is a better value than the first collection, because at least you get a box to hold the disks. No doubt, if you're a hard-core fan of Holic, you will be buying all the coming collections anyway. The second collection xxxHOLiC: Second Collection is soon to be released in May and the third...

The price of wishes
I have to admit, "xxxHOLIC" sounds like a series about a porn addict, if it sounds like anything at all.

But it's actually the name of a rather quirky, dark little anime series. "xxxHOLiC: First Collection" smoothly introduces the eccentric characters and main plotline of this series, and its story is filled with malevolent specters, magical rings, and lushly drawn animation.

Watanuki can see spirits -- and as the story opens, he is chased and pummeled to the ground by a huge cloud of them. Naturally, this looks rather odd to other people.

But those spirits magically vanish outside a strange house, and Watanuki is drawn inside against his will. The owner of this shop is Yuko, a strange woman who says she can grant wishes... at a price. She predict that Watanuki sees spirits and has been haunted by them all his life, and that his wish is that he would no longer be troubled by them.

Before Watanuki is sure what's happening, Yuko has tricked...

Enigmatic and Enchanting!
Yuko is the owner of a special "shop." This shop will grant any wish you have -- but for a price. And only those who have the need to have a wish granted that is beyond their own powers to fulfill can see and enter. Watanuki is a bright high school student with a serious difficulty. . . he can see spirits and be affected by them. Because of this "ability" spirits both good and evil flock to him, oppressing and overwhelming him, and sometimes even putting his life in danger. After Watanuki stumbles into Yuko's shop, she agrees to grant his wish to rid him of the unwanted spirits that haunt him, as is her destiny to do, but only if he works as a practical slave for her until his debt is paid in full. Thus begins one of Clamp's most delightful and mysterious series to date.

Colleen Clinkenbeard perfectly captures Yuko's eclectic demeanor and quirky sense of humor in her vocal performance. She truly makes you believe that, with Yuko, the impossible is an every day...

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