Heat Guy J Review - ForYourAnime.com

I think Heat Guy J can be considered a sleeper. I had never even heard of it before until a friend forced me to watch it. She tricked me with promises of a different anime series, got me over to her apartment, and inflicted this series upon me instead. I knew I wasn’t going to like it. I mean, the name sounds ridiculous. And it’s another futuristic, boy-and-his-robot story? No thank you! Obviously I was totally in love with it after the first episode. Sigh.

Heat Guy J was a wonderful surprise. It reminds me a lot of Cowboy Bebop without all of the underlying darkness. It does have its dark moments, but it never manages to sucker punch the audience with the emotional surprises Bebop did. All of the characters are wonderful and eccentric. We have wolf-headed assassins, explosive-loving mafia prince-lings, a robot cop with his own bagpipe theme song; what more does a show need really?!

The plot is about a small, experimental branch of the police department whose job it is to stop crimes before they happen. The department only consists of Daisuke, the Miami Vice-esque young detective, and his partner J, an experimental cyborg. There is also their overworked, underpaid secretary who turns out to be the most normal of the pair and the crazy crew they attract, much to her shame.

It flows a lot like Cowboy Bebop, too. The majority of episodes are stand-alones with the plot-laden ones clumped together at the end. All of the cases were amusing and fun. It was really neat how the writers subtly explained the facets of this futuristic world without breaking the flow of events by launching into lecture mode.

I was really upset that there is only one season of this. I thought it was a great show and needed to be hyped a bit more than it was. I think the animators thought it might be picked up for more episodes too, judging by the ending. The only thing I quasi-disliked about the series was the rushed feeling of the last episode. They tried to cram in the last three minutes the denouement of every character and the entire story. The entire epilogue left me unsatisfied. They did do a good job of foreshadowing what would happen to everyone, but I wanted to SEE it happen. I can forgive it though because the rest of the episode was action packed and the series as an overall whole rocked.

Fans of futuristic detective/western series will definitely not be disappointed in this. Cowboy Bebop and Coyote Ragtime fans, I’m looking at you!

...all your anime news and reviews... http://ping.fm/dmVwU foryouranime.com

Blade Of The Immortal Review

When I heard that Blade of the Immortal was going to be made into an anime TV series, I was excited. Insanely so. I have been a fan of the manga since it was first released in America waaay back when. I was also a bit surprised because the manga writer had been saying for years that he never wanted it turned into an anime.

To sum up the plot of Blade of the Immortal: a disgraced samurai is granted immortality by an eccentric, 800 year old nun. Disgraced samurai, Manji, decides to make up for the wrongs he’s done in life by killing 1000 “bad” men for the 100 men he killed while he was mortal. When he does this, he can finally die. Rin is a 16 year old girl whose family was massacred by an up-and-coming dojo. The new dojo’s aim is to take out or enfold all other dojos in Japan and create the ultimate anything-goes-style of fighting school. Rin wants revenge, but needs a bodyguard, and a certain nun has a predictable suggestion for her.

The opening credits are amazing. When they released it on the show’s website, I was impressed with the animation quality and how beautiful the opening song was. Sadly, the show didn’t really deliver what the opening credits promised.

The animation is still beautiful and stays so throughout the series. I know it is unrealistic to have an anime carry over the art style of the manga completely. They did try their best to make the fight scenes as artistic as the manga’s by inserting kabuki-esque patterns and ribbons during them, but the overall art quality left me unsatisfied. I know it’s slightly petty to complain that something is too beautiful!

I was also displeased with some of the changes in characterizations. I won’t say I’m upset with the plot changes. I understand that some things have to be cut or inserted to improve the flow of the story and have it fit into thirteen episodes. However, some of the changes made changed the whole of the character and their relationships with the other characters. For example, a certain character changes from being avuncular to being a pervert when he asks Rin to strip down so he can paint pornographic wall scrolls. The manga doesn’t shy away from sexuality but the anime seems to force it on us with none of the purpose the manga has when it shows such scenes.

It was a nice watch. I’m glad it didn’t get picked up for a second season though. If you like samurai action stories and aren’t a rabid fan of the manga, or have never read the manga at all, you’d probably like this. I think I would have liked it better if I wasn’t so in love with the manga.

http://ping.fm/EqyNa ForYourAnime.com