Review for Paniponi Dash: Volume 4 - Iron Teacher (Review)
Introduction Comedy is a subjective beast, and zany, surreal, out-there comedy is the most subjective-est. I prefer to have some character to a comedy to warm to, some narrative hook to it, no matter how small. It's why it took me a good while to get into Paniponi Dash. simply because of the utterly random and quick-fire nature of the gags that left little room for anything else. That changed...

Review for Death Note Relight: L's Successors (Review)
Introduction That's it, no more Death Note. With this second Relight movie, we can draw a line under the franchise, as all the variants of anime, the live action movies and the manga have now been released in the UK, and we no longer have to suffer/enjoy/be indifferent to (delete as appropriate) this all conquering franchise that has taken the world by storm in recent years. Of course if at...

Review for Rozen Maiden: Volume 1 (Review)
Introduction The rate that things are going, Britain doesn't look like it will see an absence of anime any time soon, at least not in the way that jitters are shaking the US industry at the moment. That's because we still have an extensive US back catalogue to plunder, and we'll still be getting titles from companies that have been defunct for years when the next boom cycle starts. Rozen...

Review for Romeo X Juliet: Volume 2 (Review)
Introduction Romeo X Juliet turned out to be quite the pleasant surprise last month, when the first volume came to UK shores. The Gonzo adaptation of the Shakespeare play takes an infinite number of liberties with the plot and the characters, but stays true and honest to the fundamental themes of the play. It's an all-new story, but charmingly familiar with it. It's also one of those rare...

Review for Street Hawk: The Complete Series (Review)
Introduction They cancel all my favourite shows! Well, most shows wind up cancelled anyway, so perhaps I should have added ‘prematurely’ as well. Most recently, I’ve had to say goodbye to the rebooted Knight Rider, Dollhouse, and a show that was right up my street, Defying Gravity. But it’s a pattern that has repeated all of my life now, with shows like Matt Houston, the original Battlestar...

Kill Zone (Review)
Introduction Hong Kong Legends is back! Well… not exactly. Until a few years ago, Hong Kong Legends and its sister label Premier Asia were the foremost purveyors of Far Eastern cinema, bringing the more mainstream and audience friendly titles to the UK, as well as plenty of kung fu classics, while Tartan handled the more arthouse and eclectic stuff. Hong Kong Legends pretty much ran out of...

Paniponi Dash: Volume 3 - Class of Death (Review)
Introduction As sure as night follows day, so volume 3 follows volume 2, and more Paniponi Dash visits my DVD player hoping for my approval. Approval isn’t readily forthcoming though, or if it is, only reluctantly. Paniponi Dash is one of those zany, surreal high school comedies, with a greater focus on weirdness, and less of one on story or character development. It’s all well and good if you...

Fate/Stay Night: Volume 3 (Review)
Introduction Ten years previously, a secret war over the possession of the Holy Grail raged between mages and the powerful servants they had summoned. It was a conflict that laid waste to Fuyuki City, and the sole survivor, Shirou was rescued by a mage and adopted as a son. Shirou Emiya has an instinctive rapport with machines, and can sense how things are supposed to fit together, but before...

X: Volume 5 (Review)
Introduction We’re already at the penultimate volume of X. With this monthly release schedule, it feels as if we’ve barely begun to know this story, and already we have to face the final curtain. Actually, that is something of an issue with this show. Its pace has been quite slow, and it’s really taken its time to impart all that it has to impart. It’s been meticulous in the way it has...

Sinking Of Japan (Review)
Introduction I never expected to see a disaster movie made in Japan. Let me rephrase that. I never expected to see a disaster movie made in Japan that didn’t have a whopping great lizard in it. I always thought that was the province of Hollywood, incinerate an effects budget so that you could show all manner of havoc on screen, whether they be earthquakes, volcanoes, meteors, aliens, tidal waves...

Review for Paniponi Dash: Volume 2 - Girls 'n' Roses (Review)
Introduction It’s onwards and upwards to the second volume of Paniponi Dash. They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I don’t know who they are, nor what beauty they behold to say such a thing, but it’s nothing compared to comedy, which truly is in the eyes, and ears of the beholder. What you laugh at depends solely on you, which makes reviewing comedy DVDs an even more subjective...

Bleach: Series 4 Part 2 (Review)
Introduction Bleach isn’t exactly getting a release of Naruto swiftness from Manga Entertainment, although given the height of my anime review pile, I ought to be thankful for small mercies. But the fact of the matter is that it’s been 4 months since the last instalment of Bleach, long enough for me to forget completely what has been going on. It’s a good thing I write these reviews, so that...

Aquarion: Volume 4 (Review)
Introduction We reach the final volume of Aquarion, and this should be where things get dark, ominous, and altogether more serious. I know I said that last time, and was utterly mistaken, but in a show about the confrontation between good and evil, it would be a poor confrontation if things didn’t get dark and serious at some point, and quite frankly, we’re running out of episodes in which to...

Shinjuku Incident, The (Review)
Introduction Once in a while, I get the impression that Jackie Chan is getting too old for kung-fu movies. Not that he actually is too old for kung-fu movies, rather it seems incongruous watching a man in his sixth decade punching out moves that put actors a third his age to shame. It’s a little like watching your dad on the dance floor, with the proviso that your dad can actually dance....

Casshern: Special Edition (Review)
Introduction Casshern may not mean too much to the average man in the street, especially in the UK, but he’s definitely an item of pop culture in Japan, up there with any of the Marvel Comic characters. The creator, Tatsuo Yoshida isn’t a name that will ring too many bells here either, but he’s the man who also created Speed Racer, and Gatchaman, better known in the West as Battle of the...

Paniponi Dash: Volume 1 - Lethal Lesson (Review)
Introduction What is it with anime pricing in the UK? Even when you think you have a bargain, you have to check twice. Take ADV for instance. Poor ADV went belly-up about eighteen months ago, although for a while Lace Distribution kept things on life support by repackaging single volumes into boxsets. But, for the last year, all extant ADV stock has effectively been in a clearance sale. Basically...

Romeo X Juliet: Volume 1 (Review)
Introduction The bane of my youth was Shakespeare’s Animated Tales. Somewhere, my brain got the idea that if I enjoyed animation so much, maybe I could partake of the bard in that medium, and take a short cut to appreciating the depth and grandeur of his work. Nothing could be further from the truth. Shakespeare’s Animated Tales weren’t all that animated and the stories were delivered with...

Kamikaze Girls: Special Edition (Review)
Introduction Last January, when Third Window Films first came to my attention, I found myself enchanted by their appreciation of eclectic cinema from the Far East, but disappointed by the quality of those initial releases. Perhaps the most disappointing of all was the release of Kamikaze Girls, a title that I had approached with unseemly anticipation for its Yoko Kanno soundtrack, but when it...

Fate/Stay Night: Volume 2 (Review)
Introduction Ten years previously, a secret war over the possession of the Holy Grail raged between mages and the powerful servants they had summoned. It was a conflict that laid waste to Fuyuki City, and the sole survivor, Shirou was rescued by a mage and adopted as a son. Shirou Emiya has an instinctive rapport with machines, and can sense how things are supposed to fit together, but before...

Lala Pipo (Review)
Introduction February is Tetsuya Nakashima month at Third Window Films, with the re-release of Kamikaze Girls in Special Edition and Blu-ray form, and this, Lala Pipo. At least the blurb has Tetsuya Nakashima prominent in its text, but a closer look indicates that Nakashima wrote Lala Pipo; he didn’t direct it. That duty fell to debut director Masayuki Miyano. Lala Pipo is what one of the...

Naruto Unleashed: Series 8 Part 2 (Review)
Introduction I get earache when I’m working at my laptop, but not when I’m working at my desktop. In fact, the only place I get an earache is at my laptop. Maybe it has something to do with my posture, the chair I use, and an oddly located draught… Hmm? The boxset? Oh yes, it’s Naruto’s 16th instalment. You just imagine I said something meaningful and interesting about a series that I...

Love Exposure (Review)
Introduction Those of you who have been following Third Window Films’ releases over the past year may have noticed that they have a tendency to release their films in twos, the hope being that if one film doesn’t appeal, there will be an alternate to sate the palate. This January saw a departure from that routine, with the release of just one new film from them, Love Exposure. Still, it is a...

X: Volume 4 (Review)
Introduction After the momentous developments at the end of volume 3, things were all poised, cliff-hangery and juicy with anticipation for the next instalment. Which is when MVM decided to stick in a whole month’s hiatus between volumes. Given that not too long ago, a bi-monthly release schedule was de rigueur for serialised anime, you’d expect a mere month extra of waiting to be easily...

Sherlock Hound: The Complete Series (Review)
Introduction Before you start window-shopping and price comparisoning, let’s get this clear first, Sherlock Hound will be an HMV exclusive when it is released, so now you know where to go. It’s that curious thing about selling anime in the West; it helps to have a point of reference. And there is just one point of reference that Joe Public will be aware of, Hayao Miyazaki. The sole time...

Aquarion: Volume 3 (Review)
Introduction We’ve had a month’s respite between volumes, yet it doesn’t feel as if Aquarion has been away. I guess that 7 episodes on the previous disc is more fulfilling than the old 3 and 4 episode discs of yore. Aquarion is my personal oxymoronic anime. It’s the one mecha show that I like, the one Power Rangers clone that I can watch without significant eye-roll. The first half of the...

Baccano: The Complete Series (Review)
Introduction I’m torn on the issue of fansubs and illegal downloads when it comes to anime. Yes, they are wrong, illegal, immoral, and somewhere a puppy is kicked whenever you watch one. And there’s no denying that somewhere a poor animator is made a tad poorer because of someone watching for free what they should have paid for. But I don’t think there would be an anime industry as we know it...

D. Gray-Man: Series 1 Part 1 (Review)
Introduction With the quite frankly astounding Darker Than Black and Claymore in 2009, Manga have got to kick off 2010 with something special indeed if they want to live up to the standards they have set themselves. They certainly seem to be getting off on the right foot with D. Gray-Man, a gothic horror series set in an alternate 19th Century, offering a little supernatural steampunk. It...

Death Note Relight: Visions Of A God (Review)
Introduction Milk it! Milk that franchise! Milk it until there’s nothing but bloody pus left oozing from those bruised and abused nipples of anime creativity! It’s the fate of all successful creative endeavours to be repeated, recycled, sequelised and remade into incoherence, and that’s no less true for anime. Death Note has been a veritable phenomenon since the first manga was released, and...

Please Twins: Complete Collection (Review)
Introduction This time last year, I was sampling the dubious delights of Please Teacher. The premise was a prurient, if far-fetched one. An eighteen-year-old boy, trapped in the body of a fifteen-year-old, winds up somehow married to his alien schoolteacher, and then they fall in love. The words ‘only in Japan’ will probably spring to most minds, but Please Teacher, despite what it said on...

Fate/Stay Night: Volume 1 (Review)
Introduction With the New Year comes the advent of new anime in the UK, and to make room MVM have been busy polishing off some of their titles in January. We have the first volume of Rozen Maiden to look forward to in March, while in February, MVM will start off Romeo X Juliet. But the sole new title being released in January is the 24-episode supernatural comedy action gestalt, Fate/Stay...

Solty Rei: Volume 6 (Review)
Introduction Other than the first volume of Fate/Stay Night, MVM seem to have put all their ongoing series on hold for January, opting instead to have a month of final volumes. I’ve already reviewed the conclusion of Samurai Deeper Kyo, and Slayers Try, and now it is time to polish off Solty Rei. This was something of an unknown quantity for me when I started watching it, a Gonzo action show...

The Beast Stalker: Ultimate Collector's Edition (Review)
Introduction It’s nice to have a speciality. Hong Kong cinema’s speciality once upon a time, used to be the kung fu movie. An unlikely student would join a school of kung fu, and somehow find the wherewithal to excel at his chosen discipline. Then a rival school would appear, villainous and materialistic, as opposed to the pious and virtuous school of our hero. The villains would in some way...

Ergo Proxy: Complete Collection (Review)
Introduction I’m a sucker for dark dystopian, gritty future stories, which is why I followed Matthew Smart’s reviews of the individual Ergo Proxy volumes on this site so closely. There was a hint of green in my complexion as well; I wanted to review that series! But, as soon as I read his review for the first volume, it went straight on my want list. Of course, Ergo Proxy being such a cool...

Slayers: Try - Volume 4 (Review)
Introduction MVM have really zipped through the Slayers universe this past year, delivering twelve volumes in twelve months, three full-length series. Too much of a good thing can be problematic. Too much of a mediocre thing is Naruto filler, and Slayers is variable at the best of times. At least it’s made it interesting to review, but with the penultimate volume of Slayers Try, I was...

Samurai Deeper Kyo: Volume 4 (Review)
Introduction Combination relief and dread accompany me as I approach this final volume of Samurai Deeper Kyo. It’s a series that I have rapidly grown to loathe as I have been subjected to 3 volumes of utter bombastic tedium, and the sheer relief that this fourth volume brings with the knowledge that it is the last, is tempered by the dread with which I’m reminded that I still have to review...

Naruto The Movie 3: Guardians Of The Crescent Moon Kingdom (Review)
Introduction Another year, another Naruto movie, and this one sounds like George Lucas named it. I mean, seriously, Indiana Jones and the Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom. It would work as a title. Probably not as a movie, but then again, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was another long-arsed title and it didn’t necessarily drag the movie down too much. But this isn’t Indy, it’s Naruto the...

Kitaro And The Millennium Curse (Review)
Introduction It’s only been a couple of months since the first Kitaro film came to the UK, and already we have the second one to enjoy, just in time for Christmas. Actually it’s a little late for Christmas, coming out along with the Kitaro movie twin pack on the 28th of December. But it’s the thought that counts. I wasn’t too enamoured of the first Kitaro movie, a family film that played to...

Darker Than Black: Volumes 5 & 6 (Review)
Introduction It all looked so bleak two days ago. There I was, in the middle of Naruto filler, attempting to come up with a semblance of a review, and slowly teetering towards the position that all this anime stuff is a bit of a nonsense really. Surely a grown man can find something more constructive, and indeed appropriate to do with his time. Then the final instalment of Darker Than Black...

Gankutsuou - The Count of Monte Cristo Boxset (Review)
Introduction There are anime shows aplenty that never make it to the UK. They’re too niche, or would never get past the BBFC, or sometimes they just slip under the radar. Then there are the shows that are just too damned expensive to licence. They are the flavour of the month, the next big thing, and while some US companies can afford to shell out megabucks for the latest Japanese animated...

Naruto Unleashed: Series 8 Part 1 (Review)
Introduction When I was a kid, I had to do chores around the house to ‘earn’ my supper. Raking leaves, cutting the grass, vacuuming the carpets and various other menial and tedious activities that my family deemed useful in promoting hard work and responsibility. Now I have to review Naruto filler. And I don’t even get supper for it! Just a few more volumes of this, and then we can get to...

Desert Punk: Volume 6 (Review)
Introduction Post-apocalyptic wastelands are a penny a dozen in fiction, and the one in Desert Punk is truly a classic of the genre. A devastating war has wiped out most of civilisation, and the dregs and descendants of the survivors now eke out a living in an endless desert where Japan used to be. People being people, many of them survive by preying on the weak, and this is truly a society...

Aquarion: Volume 2 (Review)
Introduction Last month, the unexpected happened. I liked a mecha show. It’s a genre I can hardly bear; whiny teens piloting giant robots into battle (without once referring to an instruction manual), battling alien menaces, and winning the day through superior willpower. It gets even worse when they go all power rangers, and have to combine their vehicles to make the ultimate robot. There’s...

X: Volume 3 (Review)
Introduction Since I was eleven and started secondary school maths, followed by GCSEs and A’Levels, and then later on when I did my degree, I was always, in some form or another, trying to figure out what x was. Here I am, several years later, and I’m still trying to do the same thing. That’s my lame attempt at a witty intro, and is probably where the peak of erudition occurs in this review....

Gunparade March: Volume 3 (Review)
Introduction Like a lot of anime series, Gunparade March suffered from something of a mid-season slump. The problem is that with only 12 episodes in the run, the mid-season slump turned out to be one third of the story, the whole of the second volume. Gunparade March does have an intriguing premise, but not a lot of space to develop it in. With four episodes that seemed to waste that premise...

Ip Man (Review)
Introduction It’s been a while since I last saw a kung fu movie, and ever since Hong Kong Legends faded away, there hasn’t been a surfeit of titles being released here. It’s been even longer since kung fu movies in the purest sense have been made in Hong Kong. Ever since Jackie Chan’s Police Story, Hong Kong cinema blossomed into a variety of genres, styles and stories, and even the purest of...

Speed Grapher: Vol. 6 (Review)
Introduction Tatsumi Saiga was an acclaimed war photographer back in the Economic Bubble War. It was a war that further deepened the divide between the haves and have nots, the rich got richer, and the poor became doormats. Tokyo is the city where the rich walk over the poor with impunity, and it’s Tokyo where Saiga now practices his trade, no longer able to leave the country. But he’s suited...

Michael McIntyre: Hello Wembley! (Review)
Introduction Last year, Michael McIntyre was the wunderkind of the comedy circuit. He was the breath of fresh air that blew through the stand up scene, a bright young, fresh-faced, likeable young chap, slightly upper class, verging on camp, with a razor sharp wit, keen observational comedy skills, and impeccable timing. He did the talk shows, the panel game shows, and when his first DVD, Live and...

Ross Noble: Nobleism (Review)
Introduction Ross Noble isn’t ubiquitous, which is an odd statement to begin a review of his latest Christmas DVD offering with. The thing is that most modern stand ups also have a strong presence on the talk show and panel game show circuit, so much so that they become part of the landscape. Shows like Mock the Week, QI and Buzzcocks are almost trailers for their stand up, where little snippets...

Aquarion: Volume 1 (Review)
Introduction Someone has finally noticed the dearth of mecha anime in my collection, and has apparently decided to remedy that fact. MVM are releasing 2005’s Aquarion to the UK, and guess who’s the lucky fellow who gets to review it? You see, mecha anime rub me the wrong way. There’s something about giant robots being piloted by teenagers into battle that just seems, well fanwanky. It’s...

Bill Bailey's Remarkable Guide To The Orchestra (Review)
Introduction The sudden influx of comedy DVDs come Christmas often give me an excuse to have a mini-rant at the start of these reviews, but I have to admit that there is a certain delight that comes with the announcement of a Bill Bailey DVD. I’ve long been a fan of Bill Bailey’s whimsical observations, and his inventive stage shows elevate him beyond the usual stand-up comic armed only with an...

Dylan Moran: What It Is - Live (Review)
Introduction Market research has indicated that I am a miserable, misanthropic sod the whole year round. That is except for Christmas, which is when I decide to wet myself with laughter, making up for the other 11 months of innate grumpiness and antisocial tendencies. That’s why all stand up comedy DVDs are released at the same moment each year. This year I will be wearing adult diapers to watch...

Speed Grapher: Vol. 5 (Review)
Introduction Tatsumi Saiga was an acclaimed war photographer back in the Economic Bubble War. It was a war that further deepened the divide between the haves and have nots, the rich got richer, and the poor became doormats. Tokyo is the city where the rich walk over the poor with impunity, and it’s Tokyo where Saiga now practices his trade, no longer able to leave the country. But he’s suited...

X: Volume 2 (Review)
Introduction I began my review for the first volume of X The TV Series, with a rant about the movie. It was a bit of a misplaced whinge, as it turns out that the TV series bears little resemblance to the film, as it actually has the space for a story, and trivialities like character development. That means that I at least approach this volume in a state of equanimity, as opposed to lowered...

Solty Rei: Volume 5 (Review)
Introduction Solty Rei has been getting progressively darker over the previous two volumes, and given the domestic bliss and minor angst of the first two, it’s a welcome change. With this penultimate instalment, things promise to get dark indeed, as the series begins its gradual crescendo towards what will hopefully be a gripping climax. It’s an understatement to say that I have been looking...

Slayers: Try - Volume 3 (Review)
Introduction It’s Slayers time again, although this time there will finally be a delay until the next and final volume of Slayers Try. After this, I’ll finally get a month to take a breather from all things Lina Inverse related. It’s a respite that has to be balanced with the news from the most recent Expo that MVM will be releasing the Slayers Evolution-R follow-up in addition to the new...

Samurai Deeper Kyo: Volume 3 (Review)
Introduction Where’s a postal strike when you need one? I have not been looking forward to this third volume of Samurai Deeper Kyo, and its arrival, delayed only by a measly two weeks was greeted by groans of dismay. It does prove though that time is indeed relative. Do something you enjoy, and the time simply flies past. Watch an episode of Samurai Deeper Kyo, and you’re there for days on...

Speed Grapher: Vol. 4 (Review)
Introduction Tatsumi Saiga was an acclaimed war photographer back in the Economic Bubble War. It was a war that further deepened the divide between the haves and have nots, the rich got richer, and the poor became doormats. Tokyo is the city where the rich walk over the poor with impunity, and it’s Tokyo where Saiga now practices his trade, no longer able to leave the country. But he’s suited...

Samurai Princess (Review)
Introduction I must be a glutton for punishment. There I am, always whinging on about the quality of the check discs we receive, lamenting those DVD-Rs, those hastily burnt off discs with something resembling a movie on them, but bearing no resemblance to the final release product, and quite often just breaking down in the DVD player as the heat gets to them. And then Samurai Princess turns up...

Darker Than Black: Volumes 3 & 4 (Review)
Introduction There’s nothing so infuriating as a delay. I exaggerate of course, as there are plenty of things more infuriating, injustice, losing a bet, noisy neighbours. But when it’s Darker Than Black’s second instalment, pushed back from September all the way to November, then perhaps a little hyperbole is justified. Volumes 1 & 2 almost, but didn’t quite click with me, and I was...

Speed Grapher: Vol. 3 (Review)
Introduction Tatsumi Saiga was an acclaimed war photographer back in the Economic Bubble War. It was a war that further deepened the divide between the haves and have nots, the rich got richer, and the poor became doormats. Tokyo is the city where the rich walk over the poor with impunity, and it’s Tokyo where Saiga now practices his trade, no longer able to leave the country. But he’s suited...

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