While the TV series wasn't quite perfect, it was a great proof of concept for Kamiyama as an original storyteller, and I was excited to see how he would finish the epic story that the series started. Unfortunately, the first Eden of the East movie, subtitled The King of Eden, stands as proof that getting an original story right takes a lot more than some slick directorial work and clever scripting.

It's been six months since the events of Eden of the East. The "Noblesse Oblige" game, in which 12 unwitting victims (called Seleção) have been burdened with ten billion yen, a concierge that uses that money to carry out their every whim, and an obligation to "save Japan," is still in progress. The remaining Seleção, those who were not killed or otherwised removed from the game during the series, are still trying to track down the "Supporter," the one player among them who supposedly kills each Seleção when their funds run out. Takizawa, the quirky young man who served as our protagonist for the TV series, has gone missing, and his records show that he gave an order to his concierge to turn him into the "King of Japan," an order that apparently involved wiping his memory and giving him a new name (again).

Our story opens with Saki, a recent college graduate whose budding romance with Takizawa flung her into danger during the Eden TV series, trying to track him down in New York City. From the get-go, I was stunned by Kamiyama's attention to detail. New York looks spot-on, from the EZ-Pass toll booths to the NYC Taxi logos to the diffused lights in the windows of apartment buildings. Yusuke Takeda's (Giant Robo, Ghost in the Shell: Stand-Alone Complex, Gankutsuou) art direction strikes a delicate balance, creating scenes that are believable, but not so photorealistic that they're distracting.

It's that sort of delicacy that characterized Kamiyama's work on the TV series as well, and it follows through to the film. Takeda's backgrounds mesh perfectly with Kamiyama's screenplay and Satoru Nakamura's (Ghost in the Shell: Stand-Alone Complex) animation direction, which focus on a sort of slightly cartoonish realism. City streets look like real city streets, characters talk about taxes and politics like real people, and technology works the way real technology works (with some exceptions). There is comedy to be had among the drama, however, and this adds that splash of silliness that keeps the film from going too deep down the rabbit hole.

He may have the execution perfectly mastered, but a flawless genius Kenji Kamiyama is not. While each piece of the story is compelling in its own right, they never really mesh into a cohesive whole. Furthermore, the central conflict is never clear, since the most threatening villains are either off doing things unrelated to the main characters, are shown to be harmless fools, or are turned into good guys! In the end, there's not much to actually be worried about, since the protagonists are never in any real danger.

Look at this! I've gotten six paragraphs into this review without mentioning that amnesia is the most lazy way to start a follow-up to a popular TV series. Once they meet back up, Saki and Takizawa's relationship ends up being essentially the same as it was at the end of the show, so amnesia doesn't even seem to be a way out of some inescapable plot cul-de-sac. Building on the existing character relationships and simply moving ahead with new challenges would have made for a much more interesting film, and I don't really understand why Kamiyama didn't go down that route.

FUNimation's dub is a little overacted at times, as was the case for the original Eden of the East, but some of the more subdued roles, like Saki (Leah Clark), Takizawa (Jason Liebrecht), Hirasawa (J. Michael Tatum), and the sultry concierge Juiz (Stephanie Young) convey the tone of the story quite well. Unfortunately, the occasional odd deliveries mean it's going to be tough for non-anime fan types to take this seriously, despite the very Hollywood-style premise of the series.

The true finale comes in the second movie, so I will reserve my judgment on the entire series until I see it. However, The King of Eden is a weak follow-up to the already somewhat unsatisfying TV series ending. While it continues to prove that Kenji Kamiyama is a competent director who can construct beautiful ambiance and believable character relationships, the movie also seems to pull away the curtain on his seeming inability to tie up a complex, original narrative. Unless you're someone who really loved the TV series, this film's not for you.

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.

The story is simple enough. Balsa, an experienced spear-wielding bodyguard, is charged to protect the second prince of a feudal empire, Chagum, who holds inside of him the egg of a water spirit that could summon either rain or drought. As Balsa hides the prince from pursuers from the palace, he is instituted in the school of simple peasant life, becoming his own man. On the way we learn the vast details of this world, a mélange of nearly every Asian culture, from ancient Chinese Dynasties to Shinto/Taoism fusion. It’s a pleasing aesthetic, achieving a sort of visual zen in background art. These details flesh out the world, its countries, landscapes and cultures with magnificent detail, giving the World of Warcraft writers a serious run for their money.

Our main character, Balsa, is unlike any protagonist I’ve ever encountered. For starters, she’s in her thirties. I KNOW, RIGHT?! Second of all, she has no sword. IS THIS ANIME?! And the series goes without flashbacks until five episodes from the end. THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE! The fight scenes (all five of them) are fluid, kinetic, and framed in real-time, making them visceral, gritty and real. They are so brilliantly choreographed and stunning to watch that it’s almost a letdown when they end, like eating the cherry off the sundae before the ice cream gets to melt.

Seieri’s supporting cast is diverse, though distant and dry. Shaman Torogai is old, vulgar yet wise. Her apprentice Tanda is reserved and...that’s about it. He makes herbs. The palace’s master astrologist, Shuga, spends much of the series in research, as we never quite understand every detail to the egg inside Chagum nor what to do with it. The eight assassins sent after Balsa are the most well-coordinated criminal-investigator ninja ever. (Law & Order meets Ninja Scroll). However, the mood of the series and monotonous voice directing take away a lot of the passion and interest from the characters.

With twenty-six episodes to develop this year-long tale, the show spreads itself pretty thin in order to properly cultivate the world and the handful of essential characters, which can be enough for some, but a turn-off for many viewers.

The pacing of Seirei no Moribito is the most prominent element of this series, and it has to be properly addressed. Sluggish at times, comatose at others, it’s hard to watch this series one episode at a time. Many chapters revolve around a single dialogue that will have little or no consequence, or if it does, the subtlety is so intense that you lose track of what you’re watching. Sometimes the pacing simply embellishes the lavish and meticulously-detailed backgrounds, which is needed in order to show off just how beautiful they are. However, there are several stretches of episodes where NOTHING happens; maybe Shuga researches or Chagum delivers a public lecture on game theory, but these episodes are a battle against your eyelids.

Pacing problems set aside, this is a simple tale beautifully animated, and when it decides to be an action series, it’s on par with the fights of Cowboy Bebop and the boss fight from Grenadier. Solid story-telling with a memorable cast.

good.

Eden comes from visionary director Kenji Kamiyama, who writes, directs, and creates the project, and who has had a very impressive career even before Eden. He directed the hit action show Serei no Moribito, is responsible for direction, composition, and script for every non-Oshii Ghost in the Shell production, and worked on script and planning on Blood: The Last Vampire. The relatively young Kamiyama has created a powerful cautionary tale about the tragedy of uncompassionate ambition. Keep an eye on this capable and talented story-teller.

Eden’s narrative keeps you in the dark between two central characters, one who is helpless in the world, and one who can save it. Saki is a young computer science student who discovers Takizawa in front of the White House, and her cheerful innocence becomes our view until the Selecao mystery picks up and she is pushed to the side. We follow both Saki’s coming-to-terms with her generation’s mistreatment and Takizawa’s desire to change that mistreatment.

It is typically rather difficult for a series to create amusing supporting characters who do not subtract from the efforts of the main protagonist. Few characters, save for Saki, are outwardly expressive, which is fine since it doesn’t detract from the excellent dialog. Truthfully, Takizawa’s confidence is addictive if not mesmerizing, though his persistent casualness leaves something to be desired. The character design is smooth, though the single-lined mouths seem to widen the faces almost like frogs.

Aesthetically, this is a beautiful series, layered in its lighting and spacious in its complex panoramic view of Tokyo’s metropolis. The shopping malls lie empty and tomb-like, highways are split apart and abandoned, and somewhere twenty-thousand Japanese nerds are without clothing or cell phones. The narrative glides from decadent hotel rooms to missile craters to amusement parks to backstreet slums, creating a concrete unbalance between scenes backed by power and money... and the rest of society. In short, Kamiyama’s scenery itself is crying out for national salvation, for someone to bring about compromise between the young and the old, the haves and the have-nothings.

The opening animation is sharp and dynamic, emphasizing a dichotomy of masculine teal and feminine hot pink splashes of colorful shapes atop the ruins of Tokyo after the missile attacks of "Careless Monday." It bursts and hard-cuts from scenes of destruction to scenes of Takizawa and Saki, the series’ secondary protagonist, with brilliant control. The visuals only enhance the hopeless and yearning opening theme by Oasis, “Falling Down,” which calls for a savior to rise up, a hero to arms, and for the seed of hope to blossom.

A lot of self-righteous idealism about the value of hope in a nation’s youth combine with a fascinating conspiracy theory, great visuals and an entertaining mystery. All these strengths are going to make Eden of the East a huge hit. Especially since two sequel movies are being released this November, and the cliff-hanger ending left us drooling for more, this journey to save Japan may just be starting its road to greatness. And if that’s the case, then hallelujah! The messiah of anime has come.

excellent.

Peter Pan references set aside, this movie drags at the pace of a coma. Harold Pinter himself would admit the film's minimalistic approach is a bit too slow. Even the dog-fight scenes between the fighter planes seems to lack immediacy and drive. On top of that, Tetsuya Nishio's (Naruto, Jin-Roh) symmetric and almost flat character design gives little complexity to the film's aesthetic. The coloration is bland, holding an almost salt-worn quality, which only drives Oshii's point home about how dull a Kildren's life is. Without the aerial combat, this film could have been made live-action in the 1960's and no one would have known the difference.

On the big screen, the fighter plane sequences are dazzling. The sharpness of the 3D is so well done, it's easy to forget you're watching an anime. Every bullet shot tears across the screen, and for the first time, bullet-time meets air planes: Max Payne would be pleased.

Yet, pacing set aside, Oshii has created a fascinating proposal: a world that uses a never-ending war as a means of keeping the peace. The lackluster nature of the immortal Kildren only smooths out their passion and personal drives, keeping them willing to fight. As the story progresses, Yuichi becomes close with his mysterious captain, Kusanagi, and the two develop a strange cat-and-mouse/friendly fire relationship as they delve into the others' past secrets. All of their questions and searching lead back to their mission: to fly until shot down, until confronted by the mysterious and untouchable Teacher.

Subtext and subtlety are more important to this film than the amazing plane fights. The bare minimum script leaves small clues in an almost "Memento" style, that does not need to be pieced together in order to follow the film. What matters in the symbolism. The children cannot surpass the Teacher, the "father" figure who taunts them silently from above. The Kildren's lack of drive for life causes them to shut down their hearts, blur their memories, and live half-consciously just to stave off their immortal boredom. If only they'd take the cues from every vampire story every written: IMMORTALITY IS BORING.

This film could only be made by Mamoru Oshii: cryptic, distant and profound. Once again, he has crafted a piece that provokes serious analysis and discussion rather than cosplaying fangirls.

good.

Story-wise, Gotham Knight is vaguely slapped together as a whole, and the story thread gets thinner and thinner as it goes along. Visually it’s like a gothic jaw-breaker, each background getting better and better. It’s a double-edged bat-a-rang choice between style and substance, and we can clearly see which one came out on top. By the end, Gotham City becomes its own ominous character, engulfing every shot and looming like the ghost of a filthy Post-Depression slum.

Six writers in America gave six directors in Japan the option to show the Dark Knight and his mysterious, dark environment from every conceivable angle, like staring at a carved diamond from every cut. The result is six heavily stylized takes on Batman that fail to tell a solid story. It is not directly anime, nor is it directly Batman: Dark Knight; it’s a hybrid that runs the risk of injuring Batman fans against anime.

Our first story, directed by Shoujirou Nishimi (of Tekkon Kinkreet), is a tribute to the animated series episode "Legends of the Dark Knight," in which four skate-boarding Gotham teens share their stories and views of Batman as he chases down a tech-driven thug. Mecha-bat, Man-bat and vampire-Batman all come together in this mélange. The characters, with their Nishimi trade-marked shifty faces and tiny eyes, almost clash completely with the background.

Secondly there is “Cross-fire,” in which two detectives (fan boys hush) are brought to trust Batman after they are caught in the midst of a gang war cross-fire. Style-wise, Futoshi Higashide presents a world that would work beautifully for Hellboy or Hellsing, but it makes Batman a tad satanic. He walks through fire! The burning kind! That defines badass!

Thirdly the director of the .hack// series (Horioshi Morioka) gives us a nearly shojo-style pretty-boy of Bruce Wayne as he prepares to test a new bullet-deflection system on some thugs. For me, this was the first redeeming chapter of the story as we not only see Bruce Wayne’s side of Batman, but also the driving sympathy and unexpected compassion that defines the Dark Knight.

Part four was written by Batman: Beyond and Dark Knight writer David S Goyer. Visually, we travel with Batman into the underground hollows beneath Gotham City to fight Killer Croc and the Scarecrow. If this were expanded into the whole movie, I would be one pleased little otaku. Batman becomes something fantastic here as his tech and classic vanishing act take the cake and overshadow the Scarecrow’s new, Gothic Frankenstein costume. If anything, it blends horror with urban mythology into a great visual piece.

"Working Through Pain" shows Bruce Wayne training in India (that’s right, India: deal with it) through a series of flashbacks. In this part, a wounded Batman performs self-surgery on himself as he tries to navigate his way out Gotham’s deadly sewers. As a stand-alone piece, this is magnificent. The writing combined with relatively unknown director Toshiyuki Kubooka creates great film transitions and symbolism. Bravo. Pain and rejection are the guiding forces in this story, the spiritual side of Wayne’s journey in becoming Batman. Huge parallels are drawn between Bruce’s personal rejection and his lady trainer’s social rejection. The scene where Batman wades through garbage and finds a pile of guns is shocking and full of pathos. It’s simple, but "Working Through Pain" is both human and compelling.

Finally, "Deadshot" is about Batman taking down a villainous assassin who (for this very anti-gun piece) is the perfect villain. Arrogant, merciless, and more pro-gun than Charlton Heston, Deadshot’s story is far too short for this fifteen minute visual masterpiece. Sadly, story-wise, it is simply Golgo 13 getting sucker-punched by Batman.

In the end, we see every side of Batman. World’s greatest detective, billionaire playboy, tech wizard, dark angel of mercy, self-driven philanthropist, and vigilante – they all come through in this piece. I fail to see this as an over-budgeted failure on Warner Bros. part, even considering the severe downplay on the Japanese directors. (Show some love, WB!) I guess you could say that too many cooks over-spiced the soup and abandoned the chance to tell one solid story. Instead we leap through time and places in Batman’s career.

The voice acting is top-notch, and you'd have my permission to go full-out Itachi on me for not mentioning the great work (as always) by veteran voice-actor, Kevin Conroy. He syncs up well with the Japanese lip-action and delivers yet another spine-tingling performance as the Dark Knight.

Animation:		4.0		Average: (3.0 stars)
Plot:		1.5
Voice Acting:		4.0
Sound:		3.0
Overall:		2.5

The boys' abstract forms look like malformed transparent blue-tinted Lava lamp babies, but who am I to judge?

Taro, our undisputed main character, is fifteen-years-old and dabbles in lucid dreaming. When he was a child, he and his sister were kidnapped, and only he survived. Now, by unlocking the gate of his memory through hypnotherapy, Taro uses astral projections to find his sister's spirit. His cousin Makoto is a reserved, sharp-eyed punk who walked in on his father hanging himself. Now his ancient grandmother, a previously influential cult leader, is demanding he inherit the family legacy. Finally, Masayuki, the smirking transfer student from Tokyo, developed acrophobia once a student he tormented jumped from the roof of his school.

Eat your heart out, Shinji! You've got nothing on these punks.

Fans of Satoshi Kon will definitely get the most from Ghost Hound: it tosses around complex psychological terminology like a harem anime tosses panty shots. Series director Ryutaro Nakamura ambitiously blends the series' themes of psychology and Shinto mysticism to create a coherent aesthetic. Memories and flashbacks are drowned out by both static and an underwater blurring effect for both their audio and video: you feel as though you are floating in and out of a dream you cannot control. There are also many elements of horror and suspense, so expect a ton of extreme-close-ups.

Ghost Hound blends complimentary styles including supernatural, psychology, horror, and mystery into one genre that aims to literally blow your mind apart. However, despite all the smart-people talk, the story is chronological and easy to follow: you are never totally lost.

That said, the series has much that could have been improved. Because it deals with childhood trauma, expect a lot of flashbacks to the same scenes over and over and then over again. Script-writer Chiaki Konaka (Hellsing, The Big O, Lain) juggles many mysteries at once, and while he develops them all evenly, much of Ghost Hound's sharp intelligence becomes a double-edge sword resulting in some pretty dull episodes. There are mountains of dense psychological theory cluttering the dialog, and the series could easily have been Freud's Ph.D. thesis. The intense dialog is contrasted by dream sequences and frequent trips to the Unseen World, which may look cool, but remain disappointingly bland.

Nevertheless, By the end of the ride, you do feel as though you have grown with these boys. Makoto has gained a heart despite his overt hatred for his family. Masayuki has gained courage in confronting the scientist who sexually possesses both him and his father. And Taro gains the brain he so desperately needs. While Ghost Hound definitely runs on anime rules (trauma, Shinto shrine maidens, family, blaming the past for our present inadequacies) it is difficult to imagine an audience for this show. It is for young adults, and while it has great cliff-hangers, it lacks energy and pizzazz. But, just as with the human brain and our dreams, there are far deeper themes and meanings in Ghost Hound than can be fit into a simple blog-styled review.

Animation:		4.0		Average: (3.5 stars)
Plot:		3.0
Voice Acting:		NR
Sound:		4.0
Overall:		3.0

Roughly based on the true escapades of Charles-Geneviève-Louis-Auguste-André-Timothée Éon 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

When you watch Shinesman, do not expect a deep plot, complex characters, or heart-pounding action. Shinesman is a straight-up comedy, and has been (not wrongfully) declared by some to be the funniest anime ever made. With tongue held firmly in cheek, let's take a look at this classic anime.

While many will dismiss Shinesman outright for its low-quality art and animation, that's not really where the focus is here. The anime was released in 1996, and so has predictably low-quality animation. The art is also of an old, forgettable style that doesn't particularly stand out.

The writing in Shinesman, however, is where it absolutely shines. Not only are the lines well-written, they are gut-bustingly funny. With hilarious stabs at power rangers and anime culture at every turn, and weapons like "Business Card Cutters" and "Tie Clip Bombs," Shinesman gets more laughs in two episodes than many comedies get in a whole series. The jokes are translated so well into English that reading them in subtitles just wouldn't get the humor across, one of the reasons why the dub is preferrable.

And what a dub it is! Vaunted by many among the lists of the best dubs ever, Shinesman delivers with solid performances from every English voice actor. Their lines are delivered perfectly, and many times this makes all the difference when it comes to the fast-paced jokes. And when they need to act parodically serious, that too is done well, especially the work done for Matsumoto's conversations with his little brother, and for Kyoko Sakakibara, the team's commander. All in all, I did not find a single fault with the dub, except perhaps that the sound quality is not as high as in more recent anime. But still, I'm just grasping for anything to criticize in a perfect dubbing job.

As for music and sound, it's nothing special. The background music is typical sentai stuff, while I will say that I enjoyed the OST. It is a parody of anime openers, and has some ridiculously overglorious lines in it about the Shinesmen and saving the world.

While Shinesman is far from technically perfect, the 2-episode OVA is an overlooked anime classic. What it lacks in technical quality it makes up tenfold with a brilliantly funny concept, translated and dubbed perfectly. Among the huge genre of anime parodies and action-comedies, Special Duty Combat Unit Shinesman shines above all the others as a must-see for all otaku. (Oh, come on. I'm reviewing a ridiculous show. Let me make some ridiculous puns)

Animation:		2.5		Average: (3.4 stars)
Plot:		4.0
Voice Acting:		4.0
Sound:		3.0
Overall:		3.5

Animation is instantly noticeable in Ghost in the Shell. Everything from the characters to the weapons to the machinery to the buildings is crafted with amazing attention to detail. Every piece of machinery and building is so realistic and detailed that one can often forget that they are even watching a "cartoon." One of the most stunning scenes of this type comes in the opening credits, as we watch the creation of Motoko as her metal parts are assembled and activated. It is obvious that Oshii made sure to pay close attention to the accuracy of the creation of a "Shell." Even so, the character designs can sometimes be a little undetailed and awkward, particularly when people's eyes get unnaturally wide.

Even though Ghost in the Shell establishes itself as an action thriller, it still manages to infuse philosophical musings with the explosions. At times, these complicated conversations can really confuse the viewer, especially if they are watching it subbed. However, when you stop and think about what is being said, GitS really has a lot of interesting points to make. This is the film that inspired works like Serial Experiments Lain, The Matrix, and other science fiction plots based on the ambiguity of autonomous thought. Luckily, the philosophy and action are balanced well, so that they very rarely feel contrived or tacked-on.

The English dub is listenable, but still has some problems. Most notable is Motoko's mostly emotionless voice actress, Mimi Woods. While I understand the desire to make Motoko seem like a doll, her lack of emotional acting does not help the film. Togusa as well, played by Christopher Joyce, is not very believable. The music takes the same path as Akira, attempting to combine choral chants and African drums to stress humanity in a sea of inhumanity. In one of the most powerful scenes in the film, we simply watch the city go about its ways, staring at buildings, boats, and people. All the while, drums beat in a background beneath the sound of overlapping tribal singing.

Ghost in the Shell is an anime that can truly be seen as art. From the unusual opening credits to the simple background musical scenes all the way to the film's action-packed and thought-provoking conclusion, Ghost in the Shell is unforgettable. While it may suffer from dub problems, Mamoru Oshii's exquisite attention to detail, both artistically and story-wise, definitely shows. The shell may seem shallow and action-based, but the ghost gives us so many different things to think about.

Animation:		3.5		Average: (3.5 stars)
Plot:		3.5
Voice Acting:		3.0
Sound:		4.0
Overall:		3.5