Who The Hell Do You Think We Are?!

God, I've heard of this anime SO long ago. Seventh grade to be exact. When I became friends with my BFFL Kelly, she loved and still loves this anime. She even has two plushies of one of the main characters. So here's Gurren Lagann.

In a fictional future, the Earth is ruled by the Spiral King, Lordgenome, and huge robots called Gunmen who're piloted by Beastmen, who're a part of Lordgenome's army. As a result, humans are forced to live in underground villages without contact to the surface world or other villages without being killed by the Gunmen.

The story begins in Giha villages and focuses around two orphaned boys named Simon and Kamina. Simon is a digger who helps his village expand underground because of frequent earthquakes, one of which that took the lives of his parents. Simon sees Kamina as his "older brother" who's an ecstatic delinquent who dreams of seeing the surface as he did when he was younger. Kamina lets Simon join in his gang, Team Gurren, to achieve his vision.

One day, Simon digs up a drill-shaped key and later finds the face of what looks like a Gunman. Not too long afterwards, a Gunman crashes down into the village and begins to attack who's followed by a beautiful young girl named Yoko who attempts to fight against the Gunman. Simon uses the drill-shaped key called a Core Drill to turn on the Gunman that Kamina names Lagann to destroy the other Gunman and break through to the surface world.

Upon coming up to the surface, Kamina and Simon learn from Yoko that the Gunmen attack the humans living there every day. Eventually Kamina hijacks another Gunman naming it Gurren, combining it with Lagann, creating Gurren Lagann. Their actions inspire the rest of the humans to take a stand and fight back against Lordgenome and his army.

Yes, this is an anime with big giant fighting robots... And girls with big boobs. I already love the story line and all the characters are just awesome. The only thing you have to worry about probably is the female in this anime with huge breasts. But another great anime to see. Watch it now.

~Liz~

Apples!

So with my day off from school due to coughs and sneezes, I've chosen to finally catch up on some anime. Today I watched and finished an anime called Spice and Wolf.

Set in a historical European setting, Spice and Wolf revolves around main character, Kraft Lawrence. Lawrence is a 25 year old merchant who travels to different villages selling various goods so he'll get enough money to one day own a shop of his own. One night while he's in the town of Pasloe, he finds a young girl in his wagon named Holo who has the ears and tail of a wolf. Holo is a 600 plus years old pagan wolf-deity who is the town's goddess of harvest and has kept it blessed with good harvests of wheat for many years. Although she has a responsibility to this town, she really wishes to go back to her homeland in the north called Yoitsu because she believes everyone's forgotten about her, and she wants to see how the world outside of Pasloe has change in the past centuries. She manages to make a deal with Lawrence and ends up traveling with him. As they travel, Holo helps Lawrence increase his profits as a merchant, but also attracts negative attention from the Church because of her real nature.

Another great anime that made some friends of mine happy for watching. I looked online and saw that there's a second series so I may check that out as well. But anyway this is a great fantasy anime with a nice hint of romance between Holo and Lawrence. There's some slight nudity but it really isn't that bad. Another great anime to see.

~Liz~

Jan Ken Pon!

So some time ago my friend Travis told me to watch this anime called Nichijou. He gave me some hard drives with all the episodes available. And now that my brain is slowly settling so I actually have time to watch anime, I've taken an interest in Nichijou.

This anime is a slice of life anime where it follows the lives of high school students. It mainly follows three girls named Yukko, Mio, and Mai, three friends who have bizarre events happen to them every day at school, and an 8 year old Professor with her robot, Nano.

Yukko, Mio and Mai go to high school and have strange things happen to them that's oddly normal such as one of their classmates pulling guns out of thin air and the richest boy coming to school on a goat with his butler. Depsite these bizarre characters and situations that happen daily, they live life "normally" as they go through their lives as high schoolers.

Meanwhile, an eight year old scientist, known as Professor, lives at home without going to school living with her robot Nano and a stray cat she picked up she named Sakamoto who wears a red handkerchief that allows him to talk. Despite her intelligence, Professor still acts like the child she is which even includes adding bizarre functions to Nano without her noticing such as having missiles shoot out and having openings in her arms that pop out log cakes much to Nano's dislike when she wishes to be able to go to school normally especially without the wind-up key on her back.

This is by far one of the most random animes I've seen since Fooly Cooly, and THAT was random beyond belief. But it's a really really good anime to watch and is really funny with awesome characters to love. It's only available in Japanese with subs so if you like dubs better you'll just have to wait, but the original Japanese is really good and I still recommend it.

~Liz~

I put a jet pack engine at the bottom of your chair

So this is my first anime review since.. well since I started school. With my hetic schedule and amount of homework I get, by the time I get home I can't think straight. So I've been lagging on my anime watching for a while. But thanks to my three day weekend, I've been finally able to catch up on D. Gray-man, start two new animes, and finish Higurashi Kai. One of the new animes I got hooked on and am almost finished with is an anime called Angel Beats! (Exclamation mark included in title)

This anime is set in a high school that acts as a Purgatory (A state in the afterlife before going to Heaven. Look it up because it's too complicated to talk about.), where the students who've died and come here learn to give up on worldly attachments they had when they were alive before passing on to the next after life or reincarnation. The injury or cause of death is gone, but in this world, people can still feel pain and other feelings they had when they were alive, including death, but since they're already in the afterlife, they'll just wake up again some time later with their injuries gone.

The story revolves around the main protagonist Otonashi, a boy who lost his memories of his life before dying. Upon waking up in the afterlife, he meets a girl named Yuri and is invited to join the Afterlife Battlefront, an organization founded by Yuri where a group of students fight against God because of their cruel experiences when they were alive. Their only enemy is the student council president named Angel, a girl who possesses supernatural powers and fights against the SSS. It is believed that if one follows Angel and behave like a normal student, you'll eventually pass on. But if you're able to fulfill your dreams in the afterlife, you'll be able to pass on as well.

This is a really great anime to watch, and if you like Clannad and Air TV, you'll definitely love Angel Beats! Beautiful animation, great fight scenes, fun characters, tons of comic relief and of course character back stories that'll jerk tears out of your eyes. Recommend everyone to watch it now!

~Liz~

By Any Other Name Would Smell As Sweet

If no one has gotten the title, this next anime is related to Shakespeare. This anime is called Romeo x Juliet. Obviously it's based off the famous Shakespearean play, but trust me when I say that it's really great.

The story follows young Juliet, a citizen of Neo Verona who masquerades as a boy called Odin for an unknown reason and fights against nobles abusing their power by becoming a masked Robin Hood character known as "The Red Whirlwind". While attending a ball with a friend, she meets Romeo who she falls in love with at first sight. Her sixteenth birthday approaches, and it is revealed that Juliet is really Juliet Fiammatta Ars De Capulet, the last surviving member of the Capulet family that was massacred in a bloody coup d'état led by the house of Montague, which makes Juliet remember the night 14 years ago when she saw her parents murdered in front of her eyes. This only makes it worse when she finds out that the boy she fell in love with is Romeo Candore De Montague. While trying to lead a rebellion against Leontes Montague, head of the Montague family and prince of Neo Verona, Juliet faces challenges of her identity as The Red Whirlwind, keeping her real identity as a Capulet a secret, and trying to manage her love for her Romeo. What will become of these star-crossed lovers?

I haven't watched the entire series and I feel like I should have before making a review, but I like the series enough to do so. This anime version of the famous play is by far the best version out of all the versions of Romeo and Juliet I have seen. It even includes references to other Shakespearean plays and other characters from his plays. Even William Shakespeare is a character for a little comic relief as he's a procrastinating playwright. With a great combination of drama, fantasy and romance, this anime is by far one of the best ones I've seen so far.

~Liz~

Language of Flowers

My sister was told to watch this anime some time back and I got myself hooked on it as well. Its name is Shuffle! (The exclamation mark is part of the title).

This story is set in a fictional universe in which humans live in peace with gods(have slightly pointed ears) and demons(very pointed ears). Both races are equally kind and for ten years, people have been immigrating between worlds.

The series focuses around seventeen year old high school student, Rin Tsuchimi who attends the multi-racial high school National Verbena Academy. Eight years ago he lost his parents to a car accident that also took the mother of his friend, Kaede Fuyou. Around the same time after he began living with Kaede, he met two mysterious girls at different times by the names of Lisianthus (Sia for short) and Nerine who accompanied their fathers during business meetings. After becoming lost in the human world, Rin befriended them and made them happy.

Eight years later, Sia and Nerine transfer to his school, and Rin becomes a marriage candidate for both of them while other girls he knows seek him as well for a potential boyfriend. Who will Rin choose: Sia, the princess of the Realm of the Gods, Nerine, the princess of the Realm of the Demons, Kaede, Rin's childhood friend, or even Asa, the energetic "Shocking Shigure"?

Watch and find out!

I used the title because there are a lot of allusions to flowers in this anime. Anyway...

This anime is kinda for more mature audiences cause there is some nudity. But if you're able to get past that, the story's really good. Another good recommendation.

~Liz~

Chiiiiiii

I added another anime to Netflix that I thought would be good, and I got completely hooked on it. Name of anime: Chobits.

Centered around the life of Hideki Motosuwa, he is a held back student trying to qualify to be in a university by studying at a prep school in Tokyo. He dreams of having a persecom: a computer in the form of a person (hence name). He didn't think his dream would be granted when he finds a persecom in the form of a beautiful girl with long blonde hair lying with a pile of garbage bags. After carrying her home and turning her on, she instantly adores Hideki and can only say the word "chi" which becomes her name. After trying to have her analyzed twice and having six persecoms crash in the attempt, it is confirmed that Chi is a custom-built persecom. It was even suggested that Chi could be one of the Chobits: a type of persecom that is able to have its own free will and possess emotions. Though it's a possibility, it's only a rumor.

As the series progresses, Hideki teaches Chi many words, concepts, and different behaviors. As this happens, Chi slowly begins having mysterious functions come out and even starts developing feelings for Hideki that she's not supposed to have. Even Hideki slowly starts having feeling for Chi as well despite the experiences his friends had with persecoms. Could Chi be one of the Chobits?

This anime is a very cute romantic comedy and of course very hilarious. Really want anyone who has read this to definitely watch this anime.

~Liz~