Time of Eve (イヴの時間) ONA

Time of Eve consists of 6 short 15 minute episodes. It started way back last year in 2008 and finished just recently. You can imagine how frustrated I (and many other people) were having to wait for the next episode because you never knew just when the next episode would get done.

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Summary: In the not too distant future androids have come into common usage. Taking the androids for granted, humans treat them as if they were common everyday tools, while on the other hand, some people empathize with androids due to their human-like appearance (save for a digital ring floating above their heads). This has become a social problem and these people are frowned upon as a result. Rikuo, one who has taken androids for granted for his entire life, one day discovers that Sammy, his home android, has been acting strangely and finds a strange phrase recorded in her activity log. He, along with his friend Masaki, traces Sammy's footsteps and come upon an unusual cafe. This cafe's main rule is to not discriminate between humans and androids.

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If you did not know already, I love sci-fi shows and anything about robots and this show with such deep social concepts and AI and robot love.. Aaaah just what I like.
Each episode pretty much had its own story so each episode was different. Its mostly about a boy, Rikou and his friend Masaki who stumbles into a cafe where robots can become humans. They meet many other characters there, some androids and some not, and Rikou begins to change his view on his android Sammy, and robots/androids in general.
Because this is an ONA, the production quality was amazing. The directing was nice and felt like a drama, or a full movie. Actually it pretty much was a movie, just cut up into episodes.

This is one of those rare series where I could watch it a second time or a third time and because the quality is so good I would buy DVDs of this and watch it.
The exciting thing is, they might make a sequel. Probably depends on popularity but they did put a question mark at the end of the credits. The End?

My rating: 4.9/5
Tear rating: 4.9/5 (the last episode...I'm a huge sucker for "A boy and his robot" stories)

I. Tao

07-Ghost (セブンゴースト)

Another show ended, this time with 25 episodes. Personally I thought it was extremely inconclusive but the manga is ongoing and the anime felt like a starter of some sorts so a second season could be made easily.

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Summary: Set in a gothic fantasy world, this is the story of Teito Klein, an orphaned slave who became the top military academy student. However, an unexpected turn of events left him pursued by the forces of the Barsburg Empire. Now an escaping convict, Teito's sheltered by the church and it’s law of sanctuary. Here, he discovered many mysteries surrounding himself, the church, and the Empire itself. The fact that he might be connected to a dethroned king and the mystical stone of god, 'The Eye of Mikhael' made him the target of the empire more than ever. Fortunately the church is under the mythical 7 Ghost protection. But who are the Ghosts really. Will Teito be free from the military's clutch, And what of his said mission to uncover the history. And who is the military's Chief-of-Staff Ayanami exactly. Teito's future seems to have spiraled into an unexpectedly perilous path.

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I think they could have made this show shorter because I kind of dropped the show about 7 episodes in due to slow plot progression and everything being kind of generic. Then a friend told me what happens later and I decided to catch up. Things get much more interesting later. Its not a terribly good show since its full of "bishounen" and targeted towards girls but the bromance made me cry and of course, my personal rule, anything that makes me cry is a pretty decent watch for me. And I'm a dirty pedo so I like watching little boys cry and suffer...

My rating: 3.8/5
Tear rating: 4.9/5 (bromance, super friendship etc etc)

I. Tao

Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 (東京マグニチュード8.0)

This is another one of the summer season's better shows in my opinion. Its an another short 11 episode long series about two siblings and a lady trying to get home after an earthquake.

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Summary: The premise of the project is the 70% or higher possibility that a magnitude 7.0 earthquake will occur in Tokyo in the next 30 years. The anime will depict what would happen if an 8.0 earthquake took place. The story will center on Mirai, a middle school freshman girl who goes to Tokyo’s artificial Odaiba Island for a robot exhibition with her brother Yutaka at the start of summer vacation. A powerful tremor emanates from an ocean trench, the famed Tokyo Tower and Rainbow Bridge crumble and fall, and the landscape of Tokyo changes in an instant. With the help of a motorcycle delivery woman named Mari who they meet on Odaiba, Mirai and Yutaka strive to head back to their Setagaya home in western Tokyo.

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I originally wanted to watch this because of the earthquake premise. They fascinate me. I keep wanting to compare this to this TV miniseries (movie) called 10.5 I had watched several years ago. It was basically the same thing although in this anime series, we have this middle school girl and her elementary school brother. I thought the first couple of episodes were really cool because of the earthquake scenes and buildings falling down and things like that. But soon it turned into almost a regular drama and I wasn't sure what to think. I kept watching it but I guess it didn't make me like it as much. Everything was nicely directed however and the character growth was amazing but it somehow didn't suit my tastes I guess. Maybe because I was hoping to watch more about earthquakes but the later half of the series turned into a strange psychological drug trip. (not really)
But despite the shift from the 'what if' earthquake scenario to just character growth, it truely was a great show.

My rating: 4.4/5
Tear rating: 5/5 (predictable ending but I'm a sucker for family drama anyway)

I. Tao

Sweet Blue Flowers (青い花)

Hello. I am back for now since most of the summer shows has ended. There have not been many good shows lately but I am bored at the moment and blogging passes time!

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This would be one of the more smooth and laid back shows that you can just relax to. The watercolor scenery and music and soft dialogues fit together extremely well. This is actually a "shoujo-ai" show. I have never watched one before but I decided that I needed to watch more shoujo series and decided to try this out.

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Summary: Fumi Manjoume, an introverted, bookish teenage girl, is beginning her first year of high school at Matsuoka Girls' High School. She enters the school year with her heart broken by a previous relationship. At about the same time, she reconnects with her best friend from ten years ago, Akira Okudaira, who is now attending Fujigatani Girls' Academy as a first-year high school student. As they reconnect, they both deal with their own respective romantic problems, and help each other get through them.

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To be completely honest, this show was as boring as it could be but I liked it anyway. Actually, I enjoyed watching the pacing and how the relationships turned out. And there were A LOT of complicated relationships. I thought the last episode ended too abruptly but that was alright because the manga is still ongoing and you can read on about Fumi's and Akira's relationship because they didn't really start in the series.

I would have enjoyed this more if Fumi wasn't such a crybaby and I hated her personality in general but since she is the main character, you can't help but want her to be happy.

My rating: 3.9/5
Tear rating: 3.5/5

I. Tao

Summer's Over...

Sorry guys, I haven't made an anime review in ages. And neither has my friend. She's busy with work and soon college. And I'm going to be busy with school. But it's not that we don't want to make reviews for you but it's just that their hasn't been much new anime very appealing to our tastes. However, hopefully we can get a new review on here as soon as possible. Maybe an upcoming one that I might do is going to be Vampire Knight.

-E. Chung

Happy New Year Anime Viewers!

I hope you guys enjoy our reviews so far. So far, as for myself, I have not seen much anime lately so I haven't been blogging much. So the thanks for the reviews lately goes to our other reviewer, Idy. So the new year, 2009 is finally here. Hopefully, I can get time to watch and finish anime so I can review for you again. I am currently watching Hokuto no Ken and am also trying to finish it. Please hang in there while I try to finish it. It is a lot and I do not have as much time. All I can say is that the anime is very interesting and very good. It is an old anime. However, I will review more on that later...when I have finished it. Haha! So, I cannot watch and find out about newer or older animes nor can I watch them because my main anime site is taking down user-uploaded videos for the creator versions...or something like that. Well, you might know what site I am talking about and that site is CrunchyRoll. Yes, the place where we get our summary from. If I need to I, Edmond, might have to change to more reliable sources for the summary but for now, I think we might just stick with CrunchyRoll summaries. But, that is not the case I wanted to talk to you about. I just wanted to wish everyone of our readers a happy new year and to make 2009 a great one. Please continue to check our reviews. Thank you.

Happy New Year!!!

E. Chung

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (Double O) (機動戦士ガンダム00 <ダブルオー>)

Best show for 2008 in my opinion but I suppose I'm a bit biased. I've always been a Gundam fan and I did not watch Code Geass or Macross Frontier, both probably just as good. Unfortunately, I could not get into Code Geass. I tried. I really did but I just couldn't take it seriously. I haven't given a chance to Macross yet and I want to watch it some day. Its ironic how my friend introduced me to Geass and also watches Macross but not Gundam. I watch Gundam but not Geass or Macross. Heh.

Gundam 00 dub currently airs on the Sci-Fi channel but I don't recommend it because the commercials are as annoying as they are long and frequent and they cut out some small but important scenes. I'm just watching it to refresh my memory and for laughs.

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CrunchyRoll Summary:
It is the year A.D. 2307. Fossil fuels on Earth have been depleted entirely, with mankind turning to the next available power source: solar energy. During this time, 3 orbital elevators with solar power generation systems are built, each under control by the Union of Solar Energy and Free Nations (formerly United States of America), the Human Reform League (Russia, China and India) and the Advanced European Union. However, not all countries are able to enjoy the benefits of this system, leading to widespread resentment and war. Arising out of the conflict, a mysterious military organization known as Celestial Being appears, dedicated to end all warfare using Mobile Suits called Gundam. This begins the stories of Gundam Meisters (pilots) Setsuna F. Seiei, Lockon Stratos, Allelujah Haptism and Tiera Erde as they are thrown into conflict between the 3 superpowers and the other various factions.

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Now when it all comes down to it, every Gundam series is just a really really intricate and beautiful advertisement to get you to buy their figures. It works though because everytime I watch it it makes me want to own those figures. But they make a nice war story to go along with it.

After watching SEED and the screw up that was Destiny, I was ready for a new Gundam series. It was automatically more awesome for me when the characters were designed by Kouga Yun. The mangaka of the ever so popular Loveless. _{(Or at least popular in America I think.. I don't know, I don't read Loveless anymore)}But I'm in love with her artwork and I just knew that her characters are going to appease many fangirls. Also, the show in in magnificent HD. Its pretty awesome. Especially the first episode and last episode and the fight scenes in general. UNFORTUNATELY, every anime will have their low budget moments and Gundam doesn't escape from sheer QUALITY. The HD format just makes the badly animated parts all the more noticeable.

So..season one Gundam 00 turned out pretty different compared to other Gundam series. Its actually not taken place in a made up time era, there are real countries involved and there is a lot more political talk going on. To be real honest, it was utterly boring. The characters had wacky names and I couldn't tell who was male or female until I heard their voices. There was a lot of talk (plot) going on and it was pretty confusing. Celestial Being carried out their missions and they showed off how awesome the Gundams were and they were always successful. But then 2008 came and around halfway through the season, things started to pick up. The build up was still pretty slow but stuff started happening and things started to blow up. After episode 20 did things really start happening. It was pretty amazing. Usually, in a action series, you expect the good guys to win but this time, there is a thin line between the good guys and bad guys and Celestial Being just gets crushed. Utterly deafeated by the end of the season with half the cast dead. And it ends just like that. Sort of on a cliffhanger where everyone appears to be dead. And then comes the epilogue where its a timeskip to 4 years later. It was all very frustrating having to wait for 6 months for the second season just when things started to get good. 'Oh hey that totally random side character turns out to be the main villian? What?!' Darn those marketing ploys. It felt rushed but still felt like it was planned that way. They did probably ruin Graham's character since they realized they had no 'blonde-haired-guy-with-mask' Gundam trope and put a mask on him right in the epilogue. It probably didn't matter to most people because Code Geass R2 aired next but I don't watch Code Geass so I had wait agonizingly for 6 months.

Gundam always has a huge cast of characters so its hard to get some balanced character development but I think Gundam 00 does a very nice job of character development however odd the pacing might be. Its a nice break from SEED where EVERY pilot was like a 16 year old but there are more adult pilots in 00.

Short summary of the main pilots:
-Setsuna F. Seiei: Pilots Gundam Exia.
He's from the Middle East! That makes him automatically cool. He's quiet, morbid, lacks social skills, stoic, was raised as a terrorist, wants to be Gundam. Probably the most boring main character ever. _{(But I like him)}
-Lockon Stratos: Pilots Gundam Dynames.
The big brother figure, watches over the other 3, snarky, nice, but also full of spite and revengeful thoughts and a lot of hate.
-Allelujah Haptism: Pilots Gundam Kyrios.
Multiple personality disorder. Hallelujah is his alter ego and is a psychotic murderer. Allelujah is shy, nice, and cannot read the atmosphere. He also needs more interaction with the other 3 in my opinion.
-Tieria Erde: Pilots Gundam Virtue/Nadleeh
The pretty one. A total ice queen. Not human. Does not care about humans nor understands them. Arrogant, cocky, totally-strict-by-the-rules guy. In love with a computer.

And since we have a war story, there has got to be romance as well but they're not terribly important. SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

There isn't much romance in the first season really.
-The main guy and girl do not get together. She is older and looks like pedo-ing anyway.
-We have a main couple. Saji and Louise who are the regular civilians of the story.
-Then there is Feldt, who develops a teenage crush on Lockon even though he's 10 years older than her.
-Patrick, the comic relief guy, entertains us with his antics in trying to win the heart of his commander! Such as bringing her flowers and taking her out to dinner.
-We have some small subplot with a Union guy, Billy, who is still in love with Sumeragi but she is in Celestial Being. _{(Adult drama is great)}
The rest of the romance happened right at the end so it was kind of weird pacing.
-Christina was into hunky guys but completely ignores Lichty, the poor boy who is trying to win her. They don't end up together until they both die in eachother's arms. It was pretty strange but sad nevertheless.
-And right at the end do we finally see Allelujah recognizing the enemy soldier as his childhood girlfriend.
-Tieria. Oh man Tieria. His personality almost does a 360 after he gets Lockon injured. To me, the two of them was like a crack pairing but Sunrise can really get you to ship something FAST. I could have sworn they didn't like eachother since Lockon probably wanted to punch his face in that one episode but after just like.. 5 minutes in the events of 1 episode, he suddenly develops strong feelings towards Lockon. (But he did get dumped by the computer so...) I hate Sunrise for always being able to make the most heartwrenching relationship stories in any of their shows.

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After all that, season one just felt like one giant prequel. It really didn't have many of the traditional Gundam themes or even much fanservice. It just felt like a giant prequel to something bigger. Marketing ploys again!!

My rating: 4.5 out of 5
(I don't really know about this because I would rather reserve judgment after the second season is finished so I could compare them.)
Tear rating: 4.2 out of 5
(Still crying over episode 23+)

I. Tao