One such mission, T35 or "Center River," uses the Fog of War mechanic, which obscures enemies a certain distance away from the player, thus making it difficult to react to the opponent's moves. Like, really difficult.

Case in point: I deployed some footsoldiers, captured a few cities, and set up a tank or two. BOOM, out of nowhere the enemy started bombarding me with rockets and artillery shells from ... somewhere in the Fog of War. Then giant "war tanks" (the most powerful land units in the game) emerged from the fog, barrelling down upon my base and supporting the infantry units that would eventually overtake my headquarters.

Every permutation of moves I tried, every strategy, met with defeat. The most frustrating times were the ones when I felt like I was about to win, only to be struck down by a surprise volley of long-range rockets and anti-tank attacks that drove me back to my base! I simply turned the game off in anger quite a few times.

I searched online for ways to beat the mission, to drive into the heart of the blue team's side of the river and take their HQ. Forum posts provided some nice tips, but my lack of Advance Wars experience made it difficult to fully implement a lot of their strategies. The parade of failures continued.

One more time. One more time. I sent troops across the river and tried to take the island in the center. I set up rockets in major cities. I pushed across the southern bridge with a tank. After dozens of attempts these sorts of things had become second nature. The enemy came at me on the island, and then I made the one important change to my strategy: I sent some decoy troops along the northern bridge, as someone had suggested in a forum post. Instantly the CPU redirected its troops to fight in the north, and my campaign to take the island in earnest had begun.

After over an hour of plugging away at this slow fight, producing units constantly to keep up with the enemy's barrage of attacks, I finally made it across the southern bridge. By redirecting the blue team back and forth with false threats of capturing cities, I managed to sneak an infantry unit into the headquarters and capture it once and for all. A week of frustration and anger and failure ended in glorious victory, and I was reminded of why I dedicated so much of my time to something so frustrating.

Winning is awesome.

Snapshots is a monthly column here at Ani-Gamers in which one of our writers describes and analyzes a particular moment from a piece of media. To read previous entries, click here.

Golden Boy is pure fun to watch. Fanservice everywhere. No, no, I mean it this time. Put your mouse down and lean just a little closer to the screen: FANSERVICE EVERYWHERE. You think Colorful is about sex? If I were still fifteen this would be the greatest thing since Sailor Moon. Golden Boy has girls in swimsuits, kimonos, high school outfits, and just about everything else in between. Kentaro’s aggressive lust puts him in the most awkward situations; although to be honest, it could be avoided if he wasn’t almost molesting empty toilets, like he does in half of the episodes.

What I like most about Kentaro is his absolute moral integrity, honesty, and bottom-line desire to get his job done. The series’ final episode illuminates these virtues as he saves an animation studio from bankruptcy by calling in favors from nearly every woman in the series and proving that selfless teamwork and a little volunteering can pull off miracles. With the sun rising before him, Kentaro hits the road again. He may not have gotten the girl, but he changed all of their lives for the better.

Considering its age, (released in 1995) Golden Boy still looks and moves great. This is a series made by otaku in tribute to those big-haired action series like Fist of the North Star, where challenges were met with lighting-streaked backgrounds, and teeth were unnecessarily sharp for the fun of it. Whenever Kentaro begs for a job, he enters a shōnen parody animation style that is played purely for laughs.

What hasn’t aged well is the dubbing, which tried to copy the over-the-top (even for anime) voice performance of the original Japanese actors. I watched the entire run in English the first time because of my convention interaction with artist and voice actor Doug Smith, who plays Kentaro in the English translation, and I found his goofball voice too close to Barney the Dinosaur to enjoy. Most of the women portrayed are breathy or soft-voiced stereotypes you’d expect from a strict male fantasy, but most of the actresses still leave room for pathos and the good old-fashioned flashback monologue.

If I haven’t said it yet, Golden Boy is for any guy who wants a great sense of the anime fandom tradition: this is a boob-tastic series with plenty of laughs and odes to older series with just enough of a vague moral lesson to preserve and endure.

[Recommended]

This review is based on DVD purchased by the reviewer.

Luckily, it looks like Section23 is off on the right foot, with fall releases already planned for Blue Drop, Polyphonica, Special A, Tears to Tiara, and You're Under Arrest Season 2. With ADV's significantly shrunken catalog, I'm happy to see that Section23 has been left with something to release while Aesir (hopefully) works on acquiring new licenses from Japan.

But Section23, Aesir, and the other pieces of this puzzle still face some looming, long-term problems: namely that the split between licensing and distribution that has occurred thanks to the nature of ADV's breakdown is the kind of thing that is bound to backfire years down the line if anything ever comes up between Aesir (licensing) and Section23 (distribution). The last thing we want is Evangelion or some other big former ADV show to be caught in a licensing black hole for the next couple of decades.

Now I definitely don't mean to discourage the efforts of Section23, who could turn out to be a great anime distribution company – to be honest, I wish them nothing but the best! I only fear that their existence represents not a new force in the anime industry, but a headless ADV zombie, an entity that exists only as a last-ditch effort to save what is left of a broken company. As this zombie lumbers on, we can only hope that all of the pieces of what was once A.D. Vision can work together to bring themselves back from the brink. We cannot afford the cost of them slowly decomposing as ADV did, holding onto stagnant licenses and sapping the optimism from a market already steeped with pessimism.

On the topic of GDH (Gonzo Digital Holdings, the studio behind Origin), FUNimation has finally solidified a new deal with the struggling studio, which cut its anime production in half just a few months ago in response to economic and industry pressures. The company has been attempting to reap a profit from streaming its shows for free on websites like CrunchyRoll, but most reports are saying that the endeavor has not brought in much money for Gonzo. Oddly enough, the move to CrunchyRoll was seen by many as a betrayal of FUNimation, which has so often handled the American distribution of Gonzo's properties, but was now out of the loop as the studio dealt directly with video distributors.

In response, the apparently forgiving (or just smart) folks at FUNimation have agreed to pair up with GDH and take over North American distribution for all of its properties. That includes video streaming sites, presumaly meaning that FUNi would regain its place as the middleman between GDH and CrunchyRoll, which Hulu would probably also see an increase in Gonzo titles hosted on its service. The first titles to be taken over by FUNimation are The Tower of Druaga and Blassreiter, the first series that GDH ever broadcast simultaneously.

I think that it is simply amazing that Gonzo took such a risk in moving to a simultaneous broadcast, streaming video model, and despite their losses, were able to hold out until this new development. Now FUNimation has followed in GDH's footsteps and even supported the studio, and the entire anime industry (FUNi pretty much controls the whole thing) is finally participating heavily in the video distribution market – the true future of the industry in this blogger's opinion.

Finally, AD Vision, once the most preeminent anime distributor in the country, now nearly license-less and struggling to maintain relevance, has put some of its Anime Network titles on the iTunes store. While I don't think that this will have a big effect on the company's fortunes, it should be able to provide some income from their anime properties, since the sales through the iTunes Store are almost pure profit. The titles now available for download are Angelic Layer, Mahoromatic, Pet Shop of Horrors, Saiyuki, and Tsukihime.

And with that, I think that I can confidently say that the anime industry is finally moving in the right direction, with video streaming, simultaneous broadcasts, and direct downloads all options for those who want to watch their anime for free or cheap online (and without fansubs). Now that's change we can believe in. (I couldn't help it!)

"Gold or Platinum status is based on the number of Coins earned in a Club Nintendo year. Each Club Nintendo year begins on July 1 and ends on June 30. If you earn 300 Coins during a Club Nintendo year you will reach Gold status. Earn 600 Coins during a Club Nintendo year and reach Platinum status!"

It doesn't seem too difficult to earn a lot of coin if you're an avid Wii or DS gamer, as the breakdown of earning coins offers a decent amount per product:

• Wii games = 50 Coins
• Nintendo DS games = 30 Coins
• Wii Shop Channel games and Wii Channels = 10 Coins

You can also earn additional cash for indicating your intent for buying a game or registering the product within a month of its release.

So if you're interested in grabbing some grab-bags, check it out at Club Nintendo. The Ani-Gamers staff will surely be suckered in to this marketing gimmick in order to earn rad free goodies as well, and we'll be back with reports on product quality for those who are curious.

Roughly based on the true escapades of Charles-Geneviève-Louis-Auguste-André-Timothée Ãon de Beaumont, often known simply as the Chevalier d'Eon, Le Chevalier d'Eon is a rich fantasy tale of deceit, loyalty, betrayal, friendship, and, uh... androgyny. d'Eon de Beaumont begins as a member of the French secret police, but when his sister Lia's body is found in a coffin floating down the River Seine, he joins the national spy organization known as "Le Secret du Roi," or "The King's Secret." Helping him are fellow spies Durand, a veteran of the King's Secret, Teillagory, a battle-hardened French knight, and Robin, the young aide to the Queen.

The "four musketeers" have come together in order to help the French Crown discover and reclaim the secret of the "Psalm of the King," a magical Bible psalm that chooses which King will rise to the throne. Incidentally, d'Eon finds that his sister's soul has been trapped inside of his body, and that when she uses him to recite the Psalm of the King, she takes over his body and attacks his enemies with a fearsome rage. As the four search Europe for evidence the secret of the psalm, and try to bring Lia's torubled soul to rest, they meet various "Poets," or those who have mastered the recitation of the psalms, and use them both to manipulate others and to fight. In addition, their enemies often use their psalms to turn innocent people into zombies full of mercury blood, using these creatures to fight off the musketeers.

Of course, much of this story is completely made-up, but many parts of it are based in reality. The characters meet up with real historical figures such as King Louis XV of France , Empress Elizabeth of Russia, and French revolutionary Maximilien Robespierre. In addition, d'Eon's sister and her soul's imprisonment in his body are based on the real d'Eon's real-life crossdressing, in which he claimed for much of his life that he was actually a woman named Lia de Beaumont. (He even used this for spying while under the King's Secret)

Production I.G, known for their huge portfolio of quality work on a large variety of series, did a great job with animating Le Chevalier d'Eon. The backgrounds, colors, and costumes are beautiful, and they often seem like they came out of an authentic European painting rather than an anime. As usual, I.G handles the animation brilliantly, providing consistently smooth movement. This is most evident during the action-packed swordfights that occur throughout the series, when the characters move with incredibly exciting and realistic energy.

The character designs are varied and very interesting looking, though they occasionally dip into lower quality. This change is jarring, and noticeable to even the least perceptive of viewers. In one scene, you will see a character's face beautifully lit and shadowed, and their face will wear a totally believable expression. The next, the art will seem strangely out of proportion, and the lighting will be cheap or nonexistant. Generally, though, the designs remain good enough for the occasional dips to be excusable.

Plot is the most important part of a series like Chevalier, and that is of course where it really makes an impact. Starting off with an internal plot to overthrow King Louis XV, the King's Secret soon find a conspiracy that spans across all of Europe. Screenwriter (and author of the original novel upon which the anime is based) Tow Ubukata rachets up the suspense in every episode, making Chevalier a joy to experience on the first go-through. Characters and development are often overlooked in epics like Le Chevalier d'Eon, but here we can find a huge and fascinating variety of characters. As each of them battles with the true meaning of their loyalty to France, we see the complex (and ever-changing) personal stories of the characters. D'Eon's story is quite interesting, as he at once battles and embraces the ever-growing presence of his sister inside of him However, in the stories of such characters as Empress Elizabeth, the disloyal Russian Voronzoff, the naive Robin, who faces various points of disillusionment with the glory of being a knight, and of course the two knights Durand and Teillagory, both of whom are torn apart inside by a conflict between political and personal loyalties.

In addition, the highly fantasy-based plot manages to cleverly weave in real historical figures and events to achieve a strange sense of historical accuracy in a world of possesive spirits, zombies, and magical psalms. For example, the real Chevalier d'Eon dressed up as a woman named Lia de Beaumont, and using this guise, became a valued advisor to Empress Elizabth of Russia. (as well as a French spy and ambassador) In the anime, Elizabeth often mentions her close bond with d'Eon's sister Lia. It's those sorts of clever references, along with a suspenseful plot and some amazing twists at the end, that make Le Chevalier d'Eon so enjoyable.

Near the end, however, the only problem with the plot arises. With all of its intricate plotting and interesting elements, Chevalier cannot escape its inevitable flaw: overcomplication. At the end of the series, when all of the plotlines come together, director Kazuhiro Furuhashi takes his viewers on a strange, often surreal journey in which little makes sense. While the animation might be great and the understandable parts fascinating, all of the talk of psalms and kings and souls becomes a tad too convoluted.

The Japanese dub is fairly good, with everyone giving a fairly dramatic and interesting performance. Robin and Robespierre's VAs are particularly good, exuding immature naivety and creepiness, respectively.

The music is another great facet of this series. The score for Le Chevalier d'Eon is beautiful, and its violins and other classical instruments help to hold up the time period that the entire series tries to reproduce. Of course, the score is also used for raising the suspense, to great effect.

Le Chevalier d'Eon is one of the best anime released in America in 2007. Its brilliant mix of historical fiction, horror, action, and suspense create a compelling tale that is both superficially entertaining in its action scenes, and intellectually stimulating in its intrigue. It suffers from some unever character designs, and the ending is slightly convoluted, but viewers will still find an entertaining experience in it. Chevalier is a highly underrated modern anime classic, mostly due to its odd choice of setting. Those looking for intelligent storytelling and beautiful animation need look no further than the gem that is Le Chevalier d'Eon.

Animation:		3.5		Average: (3.4 stars)
Plot:		3.5
Voice Acting:		3.0
Sound:		3.5
Overall:		3.5