[C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control

Type: Anime

Status: Ongoing

Premise: In mythology there are stories of demons offering to gamble with humans in exchange for years of their life; if you win you receive money or years of your life in return, if you lose you age faster and faster until you die. As time passed and economies become more and more complex this system must also evolve, in "The Financial District" competitors randomly selected from the population compete in matches along with their "Assets" (a familiar of sorts meant for combat between competitors) to gain money and power in exchange for their future.

Thoughts: Different, I have never seen an anime that has taken such a radical take on a classic myth but they do so with flair I must admit. This anime uses some interesting visual effects (2 different animation styles) and nice music to draw you into a vary interesting scenario, then sports it with iron clad rules of engagement; an extremely rich anime with much potential.

Prose: Rich world, iron clad rules, and well thought out. This anime is vary good at trying to get you to think on how the world works. Each group that you meet has slightly different interpretations of the rules and we watch as the main character evolves his own set of morals, quite fascinating actually.

Cons: The dub can be annoying because the Assets speak in a jumbled mess of a language with subtitle translation, this becomes problematic when they decided to make the font for this translation tiny and almost eligible in low quality video.

-Notes: This anime has only 5 episodes at the time I write this but it is on the fast track for more so be patient and enjoy the ride. I am quite enjoying this story actually, highly recommended.

8/10    (If you sell your soul to the devil why couldn't a company or a country?)

Ao No Exorcist (The Blue Exorcist)

Type: Anime & Manga

Status: Anime - Complete (23 episodes)     Manga - Ongoing

Premise: My father killed the only man that I ever cared about. He was more of a father than that bastard ever was and my father murdered him leaving him in a pool of his own blood, burning from the inside out with blue fire. Satan killed my father. Now I will kill him.

Thoughts: This story has a compelling plot line at its core; along with its highly structured system for powers and magic, and interesting characters each with their own motivations it allows the plot to progress steadily without you feeling rushed. I really enjoy the feel of this story because there is enough dark elements to offset the comedy making a multi dimensional feeling plot that is compelling.

Prose: Driven plot, good comedy, well established "power base".

Cons: Another exorcist story? (There are allot now that I think about it, I must like these kinds of stories.)

-Notes: There is a piece of information that they throw out there a while into the plot that could have been useful much earlier on; They don't fear Rin because he is a demon, demons working as exorcists are relatively common, they fear that he is the son of Satan. It makes a lot more sense if you are told this now so heads up.

8.5/10          (No demon is impervious to proper application of bullets.)

Tokyo ESP

Type: Manga

Status: Ongoing

Premise: She thought she was hallucinating but there was someone their with her, after seeing a weird school of glowing fish flying through the sky Rinka fell through her second floor apartment. She doesn't quite understand it but she went straight through the floor (and her clothes) and ended up in the middle of her neighbors dinning room table. This strange person who saw the fish as well tels her that he had a similar experience but his power leaned towards teleportation, and by the way does she want to join forces and fight crime? The thing is not everyone who sees the fish are quite as altruistic as these two and that spells trouble for everyone.

Thoughts: This manga is by the same people who wrote Ga-Rei (see my review for more details) and you can really see it. This series is a strong power based adventure series with well defined rules, giving you a nice framework to work from and allowing for intelligent plot progression. 

Prose: Strong setting, nice action and well defined powers system.

Cons: For those who have read Ga-Rei you will recognize allot of familiar faces, they aren't the same people they just look identical!

-Notes: Give it some time to full out befor starting.

8/10          (Why is a spartan running a Yakuza gang?)

Mushibugyo

Type: Manga

Status: Ongoing

Premise: HUGE FREAKING BUGS. Completely the same as normal bugs except that they are the size of buildings, and that due to their size they have begun eating people as part of their diet. Now the government initiates a program of recruitment in order to protect its people,the strongest fighters from around the country are gathered together into a special unit devoted to killing these insanely dangerous pests; Murderers, Nobles, Ninja, Priests, Samurai, anyone able to fight the bugs are given bountiful employment if they join and kill the insects. Jinbee is an excitable young boy with prodigious skill as a swordsman, he is selected to join the Edo defense forces and fight along with other skilled worrier after the last 15 candidates were well .... eaten.

Thoughts: This anime is hilarious mostly due to the antics of Jinbee, he is so uptight and focused that he is ridiculous and ends up causing ludicrous amounts of chaos. This anime is all about the fight scenes and the slapstick comedy, it is light and fun and doesn't take itself seriously.

Prose: Funny, action packed and ridiculous thats what your watching for.

Cons: The plot is slow to develop if its there at all so come for the laughs not the serious heartrending plot.

-Notes: This anime just started so let is steep.

8/10          (Of coarse the pommel is the most deadly part of the sword!)

Knights

Type: Manga

Status: Ongoing

Premise: The witch hunts are a lie; the church has been using them as a way of instilling fear in the masses and increasing their influence by torturing and burning innocent women at the stake. Among the highest orders of the church priests have been endowed with "god's blessing" for their actions and are empowered by the spirits of ancient apostol in their crusade against the impure, but not everyone is fooled by these "servants of god" they see the corruption and smell the scent of death and decay. Mistletien (Mist) is a squire and not yet a full knight but he takes it upon himself to rid the earth of those who perpetuate the witch hunts and save as many people as he can. He is called the Black Knight; a Hammer of Justice.

Thoughts: This manga is interesting because it is a completely fictional world using real world events as a staple plot device. We have a group of characters who are extraordinary but plausible and they are fighting an enemy who is just as mundane as they are (excluding the "servants of god") in a situation that did indeed happen in real world events making this manga read more akin to fiction than fantasie. The plot winds in and around the atrocities that were committed during the witch hunts with only minor fantastical elements coming into play later on in the narrative (these elements provided a direction for the story, but were not entirely mandatory; the plot could have progressed without them with only minor changes). I enjoyed this radical departure from the classic manga story line for its different setting and great interaction in bet between party members.

Prose: Good story line that is a refreshing deviation from the norm, interesting and quirky characters that have depth to them and well done action scenes makes this a good manga to get away from more standard manga plot lines.

Cons: There are some disturbing aspects to this manga due to its plot being based around the witch hunts; it is cruel and graphic at times and pulls no punches when immersing you in the desperation of those times, be warned.

-Notes: Euphemia is an ..... interesting character; she makes vary little sense near the beginning of the series but eventually we come to learn why she is the way she is, so suspend disbelief at the beginning and you will be able to understand and reflect afterwards.

8/10          (Wow, "Black Knight" in the most literal sense of the word...)

Macross Frontier

Type: Anime

Status: Complete (25 episodes)

Premise: Earth has sent out numerous space fleets in order to find a new habitable planet to colonize, Macross Frontier consisting of civilians, military, even its own system of government to direct the entire fleet. Saotome Alto is inducted into the S.M.S. mercenary group after demonstrating his skills during an attack by a mysterious hostile enemy and continues to protect his friends as the crisis worsens.

Thoughts: This anime is styled to be a space opera of sorts, it has an amazing soundtrack that is used as a plot device on several occasions and along with some of the best and most fluid animations I have ever seen comes together to be quite a treat to watch. The plot is interesting if not its best feature, but it is solid non the less allowing for some good characters to develop over the coarse of the series.

Prose: Amazing soundtrack, wonderful animation with fluid movement and vary little stock footage makes this a pleasure to watch.

Cons: The plot is somewhat outlandish at times but for the most part it performs admirably, a weakness to the anime but not a crippling one. This anime is heavily influenced by the music that is played during the scenes, they are in Japanese so they are subbed BUT the conversations are also subbed and do often overlap with the music resulting in alot of reading and not enough time to do it in.

-Notes: Subbed only, and th viewing experience would be greatly helped by a dubbed version (I am not even sure that is in the works though).This anime is the 3rd set in the Macross universe, while the story does not specifically require previous knowledge of the other series I can't help but think that the experience would have been greatly aided by having seen the other series which would have provided a much better depth the story. 

8/10          (Ranka's cell phone is amazing IMO.)