Fullmetal Alchemist

Overview
Somehow this show has a lot of 'coolness' and I liked it a lot. I am not very sure why it is so cool, but I think first that it has something to do with it's length, I have rarely seen anime that stayed interesting 51 episodes and a movie long. Of course there are side stories, and of course there are dull moments, but somehow most of the episodes actually added something to the show, may it be character development or story development. Isn't that cool? My second coolness-factor for the show is the well-shaped world they live in. Despite it being impossible :P, there are very well though out laws for the alchemy in the world and it's not just presented as magic-that-you-don't-understand-anyway-so-we-won't-bother-explaining- about-it. Then for the third coolness-factor: it's variety, it has humor, story, nice characters, mystery, blood, 'magic', drama, action and least but not last: philosophy. And I must say, it is combined rather well. Even if you don't like blood and action then you might still have this show on your top anime list because of it's story and characters.

Summary
Equivalent trade, this is the law that says that to gain something in a process, something else of equal value must be sacrificed. It is basis of using alchemy in the world were Edward en Alphonse Elric live in. Their father went away not long after the brothers where born, so they grew up with only their mother. They knew that their father was an alchemist, so they learned to use alchemy to become just like him. But then their mother died from an illness. They started living with Winry and her grandmother and trained to become better at alchemy. When they found some notes from their father that where left behind, they decided to cross a forbidden line in the alchemy. The notes contained information about the transmutation of living things. They wanted to resurrect their mother with alchemy. But they failed to do so and on top of that, Ed lost his leg and Al his entire body. To save his brothers soul, Ed sacrificed his arm to bind Al's soul to an armor standing around. After Ed's arm and leg were replaced with automail, they set out on a journey to find the philosophers stone. An item that will let you do alchemy without the cost of something of equal value, to get Al's body and Ed's limbs back.

Zero no Tsukaima

Overview
A simplified mix of Harry Potter and The Vision of Escaflowne, that's what it looks like at first. A magic school with a student who gets picked on and is bad at magic (Harry Potter). One day she summons a very strange familiar, a human! From this humans point of view it seems as if he has just fallen into a complete strange world, with strange people and he is somehow very special (The Vision of Escaflowne). The creators just switched the genders, Harry Potter is a boy and the main character of Escaflowne is a girl. The show had some other stereotype characters and there are a lot of jokes and fanservice. I was thinking about dropping the show, but it was only 13 episodes so I watched a little more. I was surprised that the show changed. The stereotype characters where not so stereotype after all and their relations with the main characters developed during the show. I also though that the show would play mainly at the magic school, but it didn't, the characters go around and have adventures like in Escaflowne. I liked that the show got more serious even if it still had a rather simple drawing style and maintained its jokes, but I find it around average in general.

Summary
Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière is a terrible student at the Tristian Magic Academy for nobles. Every time she pulls out her wand people duck in fear of the coming explosion. She gets picked on and always becomes angry. Then one day all the second year students have to summon a familiar to aid them and to stay with them for the rest of their lives. This is of course an important day, because everyone is unsure about what kind of familiar they will summon. Afraid for the result, Louise goes last and summons to everyone's surprise a human from the planet Earth. A familiar is usually some kind of creature, so summoning a human is pretty weird, and on top of that, there appears a strange inscription on the hand of Louise's familiar after the forming of the contract. But this familiar called Saito Hiraga looks like a commoner. Commoners are considered inferior beings because they can’t use magic like nobles can. And because Louise has summoned such a lowly human everyone laughs at her again. She doesn't want to treat Saito as a human and makes him sleep on the floor, eat leftovers and sit with the other familiars while she attends class. But Saito has, on top of being human, some other special traits that other familiars don't have. Actually, he can do things that nobody else in world he landed in can do.

Appleseed (movie)

Overview
Nice story, post-humans and their rights compared to that of normal humans is a very interesting issue, because it could be be something that we have to deal with in real life in the future. Also the views of the characters of the matter are of great importance and really added to the movie. But what me really bothered was the animation, the whole movie is not drawn, but made with the computer. Although it has all sorts of layers to make it anime-styled, I really missed something. If I were to compare it with a live-action movie, it's like they hired actors that just suck. They looked like dolls. Dolls can, with the right choreography, make really good action moves and look awesome at fighting. But when there is a significant amount of talking and some drama, you definitely need more. I think the movie would've looked a lot better if they made everything with the PC, except for the characters.

Summary
The story concentrates on Deunan Knute, a soldier who fought in the Third World War. In the movie she comes to live in the city Olympos, where she joins ESWAT, a military organization that protects the city. In this city there live two species next to each other, normal humans and bioroids. Bioroids are genetically engineered and are just like humans. But they live shorter than humans and don't have reproduction capabilities. Although the city looks like a paradise at first sight, there are a lot of 'not-so-fitting-in-paradise' things going on that have to do with the question: What is the future of mankind? Because some see the boiroids as a threat to normal humans, while others think that the original humans themselves are the threat. And right in the middle of the city and in the middle of these opposite points of view is Appleseed, which has something that makes this question even more important. spoiler: Appleseed is capable of restoring the reproduction abilities and the longer lifespan of the bioroids!

Shinigami no Ballad

Overview
This show wants to become very emotional, but it's depts couldn't grasp me. It's like they tried to force too much dept in only twenty minutes. Like there should be a lot of development, but we just speed it up to fit in the episode. No, it didn't work for me. Not that it was totally boring, it was nicely drawn and the stories had some originality. I just couldn't identify with the characters, I wanna be part of show and feel like I'm there (not that's it's really possible, but I do want to). Not just watch a nice story. But hej, you could be touched by it, so it's ok to try if you like the genre.

Summary
Momo is a shinigami (god of death) who has the job to take people's souls when they die. But despite of what you would expect from someone who works in this kind of branch, she is still sad when people die. And she always tries to help the people who are left behind. The six episodes contain separate stories, with just a few links between them.

Welcome to the NHK!

Overview
It is... interesting. This show had me hooked on after the first few minutes, some find it annoying, but I like it when a show starts of with something weird. You have no idea whats going on at first. What I liked the most about this show is that everybody can recognize weak points of his- or herself in the characters. I'm sure everybody knows laziness and depression and the bad things they can do with you. That is why this show was also a bit frightening. It shows that it can become really bad if you fall into the ways of hikikimoriness. I had mixed feelings of uneasiness and irony watching Satou-kun playing an rpg in the middle of the night while it was also very very dark in my own room. Anyways, worth your time. That is, if you are prepared to face yourself! (for some :P)


Summary
Tatsuhiro Satou is a hikikomori, because he lives in his apartment and does nothing but going to the park at night and being in his room. He gets allowance from his parents and lives his lonely hikikomori life. He believes that he is the victim of an organization called NHK, the Nihon Hikikomori Kyokai. They are responsible for all that has gone wrong in his life. And to avoid playing in whatever plan they have, he stays in his room, getting more and more isolated from the rest of the world. At least, untill he meets Misaki Nakahara at his door, who accompanies her aunt for some religious organization. And then the story really begins.

Kekkaishi (ongoing)

Overview
Just your average school-boy-who-can-see-ghosts-and-has-special-powers -to-extinguish-them show. It's not totally boring, but it's a little predictable and not very original, except for the powers that they use: all they can do is make blocks (and a few minor other things). But they use these blocks in a lot of different ways to make them useful: creative with blocks ~_~

Summary
Yoshimori Sumimura is a regular school boy who extinguishes evil from the school grounds at night. This is because it is the duty of his family to protect this place that somehow makes spirits that come there stronger. But the thing is that Yoshimori’s family is not the only family that claims to have the task of protecting the holy school grounds. Their neighbors, the Yukimura family also protects the school when evil spirits seek to become stronger. This usually means that Yoshimori from Sumimura family and Tokine from the Yukimura family are send out and compete with each other to beat evil first. Of course there is also the school part of their lives and Tokine is two grades higher than Yoshimori. They try to hide the fact that they see each other almost every night, but do not always succeed.

Byousoku 5 Centimeter

Or watch at better quality (recommended)

Overview
Pure Art, I really had no idea what I came across. Of course there is more anime out there that has nice scenery and a beautiful story, but this was different. What impressed me the most where the details. I really felt kind of sorry for not having time to see every little thing in the backgrounds. There where not just a few nice shots, but almost every shot was so incredibly detailed that it really made me wonder how much time it must have cost to make. The second thing that struck me was the simplicity of the story. So simple, yet so touching. It is pretty good to get so much dept in only 25 minutes. Just go see it!

xxxHolic

Overview
What i really liked most about this show is it's dept. The characters don't really seem to be developing, but they do on the inside, and with them the person watching the show. The episodes, that are mostly single stories, are all moral lessons. With some you may agree and with others not. But regardless of that, these 'lessons' are told in a somewhat cool way. Maybe because the main character is skeptic about them too :P. The style the characters are drawn did annoy me a bit at first, the limbs and bodies of the characters are extremely unrealistic long, but i got used to it. On the other hand, I did liked the details that the show is filled with. For example, everywhere there are hints to other series that Clamp (the producers) made. And I liked the wonderfully drawn surroundings and symbols. There are a lot of symbols in the show that come from religions, traditions, superstitions or other beliefs in Japan. Anyways, I enjoyed the show a lot and i recommend to try it out.

Summary
Kimihiro Watanuki can see spirits and it's annoying him like hell. One day he is being haunted by one of them again and he ends up stumbling into the shop of a mysterious woman, named Yuuko Ichihara. Yuuko grants wishes, but at a price. And to lose his powers Watanuki sort of agrees to work at Yuuko's shop until he has earned enough to pay the price. But working at Yuuko's shop is not really like any other normal job. First of all is Yuuko very demanding, Watanuki is more like a slave than an employee. Second, and a little more important, to help someone who grants wishes is pretty strange. People and other creatures end and up at Yuuko's shop with all sorts of strange requests. Watanuki discovers a lot of new things that are not always pleasant to know about. Luckily his classmate Shizuka Doumeki is usually around somehow to help him out. This is not really appreciated by Watanuki, because Doumeki is exactly the opposite of Watanuki, so his actions always irritate Watanuki. Especially when the girl Himawari Kunogi is involved. Watanuki is hopelessly in love with her.

Naruto (ongoing)

Overview
This show always gives me mixed feelings when i think about it, first I feel very nice. I loved how this show started with the introduction of the characters and when they go on a mission to the land of waves. Then I feel boredom when it went on and on with the chuunin exams, like there was no end. It was not bad at all to see all the story development, but i found that the matches between the genins had... *how shall I put it*... nice fighting, but little meaning. After that, I feel like tehre is something big in motion in the show. There is very nice development and some unexpected turns of events (which I like). spoiler: Like when Sasuke leaves! And then the endless fillers begin and the show lost it's excitement. Lots of people complain about this last part of the naruto show, and I can't blame them. Although some fillers where nice/funny to watch, the original feeling of the anime and the chills down my spine during Naruto's fight in the country of Mist that got me hooked on were gone. So just watch the parts of this show that you like, you could look them up if you want spoiler: naruto arcs

Bleach (ongoing)

Summary
Kurosaki Ichigo is a pretty normal high school student, except that he can see ghosts. It's been like this ever since he can remember and his life isn't that strange at all. But one day a huge monster appears in town that can only be seen by Ichigo. It turns out that it is looking for him. Then a death god named Kuchiki Rukia appears and in order to defeat the monster Ichigo has to become a (substitute) death god. Now he can step out of his body and slay monsters with a cool new suit and a huge ass sword. But with this new power that Rukia gives him, she also gives him a responsibility, that is to protect the town with her against future attacks. And that is something Ichigo hadn't expected.

One Piece (ongoing)

Summary
Monkey D. Luffy has only one dream: to become the next pirate king and be like Gol D. Roger. This person was the best pirate captain alive and had the biggest treasure. But he was eventually caught, and just before he was executed, he told the people he had hid his treasure, One Piece, at 'that' place, meaning somewhere on the Grand Line, the most mysterious ocean in the world. Since then, the so-called Pirate era began and many people started searching for One Piece. In order to achieve his dream, Luffy wants to go to the Grand Line, but he doesn't have a ship and a crew, and on top of that, he has eaten the Devil's fruit, which gives him a certain ability, but makes him weak in the sea. He will sink like a hammer. But this won't stop him from trying: "I rather die trying to achieve my dream than not to try at all!" And so his journey starts.

Samurai 7

Summary
Somewhere in the future, some time after a big war, a small village in Japan tries to stay alive under the reign of the so-called 'bandits'. Those bandits confiscate lots of the rice the people produce, and in return the village will not be destroyed. But after yet another load of their rice gone, the villagers cant take it anymore and they decide to sent a few people to the city to find some samurai. Samurai are became useless since the war ended and merchants took over the controls, and their numbers are reducing too. But not only do the villagers need honorable samurai who are willing to fight for their village against the fearsome bandits, they also have to accept a payment of just rice, because that is all the village can offer them...

Death Note (ongoing)

Overview
one word: brilliant :D

Summary
Yagami Light is in the last year of high school. He gets the highest grades and is the perfect student. But he feels living in a rut, on television the news always tells about criminals who are murdering, raping and stealing and this happens every day again, everywhere. The world seems rotten. But at the same time, somewhere in the death god realm, Ryuk (a death god) feels the same. The realm is bored and meaningless, they have nothing to do and they only sleep and gamble. So Ryuk decides to do something amusing, he drops his death note in the human world. Light happens to pick it up and he discovers that it no ordinary note, if he writes the name of a person in the note, that person will die.

Animation
Everything is dark, not like it's night, but like there's evil lurking in normal day life. I like that a lot about this show, because it fits so good with the story. The thing that surprised me with this 'dark' stuff is that there is usually a lot of fighting and/or blood coming with this style, like Hellsing. But in Death note is almost no fighting, and although there are a lot of people killed, there is hardly any blood. But I still feel the tension at certain points very strong, just as strong as with fights in other anime, but here the characters can 'simply' be walking across the street. spoiler: I'm talking about episode 7, I could really feel some sort of battle going on in Light's head, trying to kill Misora Naomi. Here is the screenshot of when Light finishes her off in cold blood. The moment itself was very tense, but the screenshot doesn't look exciting at all. What I also really like about the animation is that when Light or L. become tense, especially when they confront each other in some sort of way, their hair suddenly gets coloured. It is pretty cool to see red and blue hair light up suddenly when they feeeel the confrontation. I made a little gif-animation from Light when he turns from his dark inner self to his innocent outer self (and back).

Kage kara Mamoru

Overview
A nice little story about a ninja and his duty. I liked how the creators didn't take themselves too serious. There are a lot of implicit jokes concerning the impossibilities that you see all the time in anime where ninja's appear. Like how they they can move instantly from one place to another. In this show they like do overdo this in such a way that it's not obvious, but that you get the strange feeling that something is made fun of. You are just not sure if that's meant to be. I also liked that in this show, the harem of school girls is after a nerdy guy with confusing glasses who only becomes handsome as a ninja. It's only 12 episodes, so you can watch it even if you don't have much time.

Summary
Kagemori Mamoru and Konnyaku Yuna are neighbours since childhood and they are in the same class in high school. But this is not coincidence, Mamoru looks like a geek, but is really a ninja in secret who carries on the 400 year old code to protect Yuna's family. His task is to protect Yuna. This seems simple in modern society, but there are actually enough problems to overcome. On top of that, the girl who he has to protect is born to attract trouble and not everybody likes it how close he is with Yuna, so Mamoru has his hands full. But he stands not alone, his parents make sure that he does his duty right, and he can 'always' count on the help of his loyal ninjadog Bluemaru.

Kyou Kara Maoh

Overview

It's kinda sweet, young boy with incredibly large eyes comes in strange land where he is worshipped. There are handsome males and more handsome males that serve him till their death. There are a lot of shōnen-ai jokes throughout the show which where pretty funny. The show is 78 episodes long and I didn't even think about dropping it, so it isn't all that bad. It has an average story with magic and such and some world threatening events, hidden powers and mystery, betrayal. It suits the world the story takes place in well, a dark age-like kingdom. Anyways, lots of things you have seen before, but still interesting somehow.

Summary
Yuri is a normal student until he helps an old classmate escape from a couple of bullies. But he can't get away in time himself so the bullies take him to a toilet and push his face in the water. But when they flush it, Yuri gets flushed away in whole somehow and tumbles into another world. In this strange world people live like in the dark ages, magic still exists and great kings and nations have conflicts. Yuri turns out to play a key role in this world and is loved and hated because of that by all sorts of people from then. The problem is: he doesn't know a damn thing about where he is and everything, while everybody expects a lot from him.

Trigun

Overview
You just gotta love Vash, he's funny, he's passionate, he seems a little ignorant, he's funny, he gets blamed all the time, he's nice to everyone, he's funny, spoiler: , he has awesome fighting skills and he doesn't care about himself as long as he can make the world a better place and help people and he's funny. The other characters are okay, but are not as interesting as Vash. The old-western-like style in the show is really nice, although it is a little different from real western we know. By the way, besides it's humor, the show also has great dept. I didn't really expect it when I started watching the show, but there is a lot of development in Vash throughout the show in my opinion spoiler: , for example when he turns his life upside down and quits his revolver hero job (temporary). A great show for everybody who loves Vashes.

Summary
Vash 'The Stampede' is a wanted criminal. The rumors about him are everywhere, but there's is one thing everybody knows for sure: everywhere he goes, only ravage remains. The insurance company FIA gets way to many claims from these demolished cities and sends out 2 inspectors: Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson, they have to stop Vash from demolishing more. But they are not the only ones who are after him, a lot of bounty hunters want him for the money. It's not really easy for him, but luckily nobody really knows what he looks like ^_^.

Mai-Otome

Summary
Arika Yumemiya wants to attend at the academy 'Garderobe'. This is a school were they teach girls to become 'Otome'. They have nano-machines in their bodies that give them immense strength. These nano-machines can be activated by the Otome's master. This shows the other side of being an Otome, you have tremendous strength, greater than any army, but you also have to be loyal to the lord or master you are appointed to. In international relationships, the amount of Otome's that serve in your kingdom is equivalent to your military power and thus your influence in the world. Being an Otome is a great responsibility that not everyone can bear. A lot of students in the academy will not make it to become 'Meister' Otome.
But back to Arika, who seems to come out of nowhere and makes her flashy entrance into the academy. She really wants to become an Otome and even more after she sees one of most important Meister Otome's in action. She turns out to be promising and makes new friends, but how did she get the necklace she has? And who is that strange female with cape and hat she seems to know?

Mai-Hime

Summary
Mai and her brother Takumi don't have any parents and go to their new school, but on the boat trip to there some weird things happen and Mai finds out that she has some special power, just like the other two girls she meets on the boat. At her new school it turns out that she was summoned to that school because of her power. Mai doesn't like this at all because she has enough problems as a normal high school girl and on top of that her brother has a weak heart so that she has to work hard to earn enough money for their living. But of course :P she can't ignore her power when tah monsters are coming. She wants to protect her school, brother and her new friends, but she doesn't want to fight. She is not the only one with powers on her school, but is this a good or a bad thing?

Akira (movie)

Overview
This movie is really getting old, despite it's great influence on later produced anime. I don't think this movie is timeless, but if you like classics or all-out sci-fi, you should have seen this. The movie has a hard time keeping up with the high modern standards and in my opinion it keeps way too many things unrevealed, while we want to know everything these days. I also don't like it when they have a huge opening shot in the beginning and there is a motorway where they forgot two junctions! Sorry, I just can't stand that kind of things.

Summary
Tokyo is destroyed in the year 1988. 31 years later, in 2019, Neo-Tokyo is build, but big parts of the city are slowly decaying. The inhabitants live in a harsh society and the joy to build up the city is long forgotten. There are riots going on and the army tries to keeps everything nicely together.
During a biker gang fight there is a strange boy (really really ugly) on the middle of the road. One of the main characters, Tetsuo, tries to stop and crashes. Suddenly the army is there and the biker gang is taken in. Except for Tetsuo, because he is taken to some kind of laboratory, without his friends knowing about him. He turns out to have something special and they start experimenting with him. Then the trouble starts... (woo, scary)

Animation
I have some mixed feelings about the animation. First of all I really liked the decors, the way neo-Tokyo is presented: there is a thin wealthy upper layer of people and a large layer of poor people who live in the streets and go to stinky bars. This is well presented by the nice buildings and offices that stand high and glorious above the streets that have cracks and rubbish and bums on them.
Second are the characters, they seem to be drawn in a quite 'normal' style (without pink hair or large eyes or stuff), but I think they are ugly. spoiler: When they are going to rescue Tetsuo and are fighting in the dark sewer-like shaft, I have a hard time keeping the characters apart (they also wear the same clothing) and if it serves no purpose it is rather annoying.
Third is the 'womg' destruction of everything. It makes me think that series like Neon Genesis Evangelion used this movie as a big example. The sphere-explosions at huge scale look a bit outdated (no wonder: 1988). But that doesn't make then less impressive. And the floating pieces of rock are also there (famous from Dragon Ball Z :P). spoiler: The strange shapes Tetsuo gets at the end are also really gruesome and I really really wonder just: how and why?!?? (oh wait, I should save that for 'story')

Story
The story starts not too strange with a possible future and things going on there. It becomes interesting when the strangeness comes, which is very fast. spoiler: The concept about a government that is researching something strange and this gets out of control is well known. But here it's bad ass catastrophic, I really didn't expect this. Yeah, how it all turned out surprised me. But what surprised me even more is that there are a whole lot mysteries in the movie, and only a few are explained. I wanted to know what happened to those tree children, at least more than what that little flashback showed. I still don't know what akira really was, or how he 'came back to life?' out of several tubes. And I had liked to know what this special power is that everybody seems to have. Of course, not everything has to be explained, but just blowing everything up doesn't really satisfy me.
What I did like about the story is the way it is build up. It's like a curve going up: 'normal world', something strange, the main characters getting involved, troubles, emotions heating up, frustration and action, things getting a little out of hand, things getting totally out of hand and the climax^^. This is also what makes it interesting to watch, a lot of stories (usually action) are almost directly 'out of control' and keep this up all the time: very tiresome to watch. Others are getting nowhere at all: booooring. So I find the way it is build up one of the main strong points in the movie.

Characters
I liked Tetsuo very much, spoiler: how he seems okay, but turns out to be totally not okay when he has the power to do everything he wants. His anger and illusions (the tree little dolls walking on his bed!! @_@) are really well done. And i love the scene of him sitting in the chair in the stadium. The bad thing is that everybody around him is also angry or confused. Kaneda, the few people that are left of the gang and the general are just angry and yell all the time, on the other hand, the tree children and the girls are just scared all the time. The scene with the scientist and the general somewhere at the end was very nice: the great contrast between science and society.

Last Exile

Overview
I am usually not so fond of 2D and 3D mixing in anime, I don't find it really necessary, but during the first episode of Last Exile I found it really suiting this show. Just like the past and the future is mixed up in the story, the 2D and 3D was mixed up too. It makes me think about Appleseed, and I'm glad the characters are still good ol' 2D. I also like the pilot-suits they are wearing, it's really baggy-style ~_~. Somehow this show is different than normal. It's like they forgot to add all the fanciness to get a big audience. spoiler: like during the 'eight cave race': usually at the end of a race the enemy comes up with all sorts of tricks to win the race after all, and the main characters are still able to win by playing fair. But this time the enemy just lost without fanciness, and it still was great to look! :D

Summary
Two great nations are in war, the Anatoray and the Disith, the Disith come from the other side of the 'Grand Stream' and try to settle in the lands of Anatoray. The battles are mostly up in the skies, where they fight each other with great battleships.
But Claus and Lavie don't know much about all these great things and live their happy life as couriers in town. They love to fly the skies with their little 'vanship' to do their work, but one day, they receive the unusual mission to deliver a girl as cargo to the famous battleship 'the Silvana'. This mission has a very high ranking, 7 stars! But Claus still wants to go on this dangerous trip. And with this they get involved in something big, something even bigger than the war between the two kingdoms.