Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Review: Kids on the Slope (Sakamichi no Apollon)



I wrote a preview for this series earlier. You can read it here.

Kids on the Slope is a much antecipated anime because it's the first time Yoko Kanno and Shinichiro Watanabe work together since the famous Cowboy Bebop. Let's start with the synopsis from wikipedia:

The beginning of summer, 1966. Because of his father's job situation, freshman high school student Kaoru Nishimi moves by himself from Yokosuka to Kyushu to live with relatives. Until then, Kaoru was an honor roll student who tended to keep to himself, but meeting notorious bad boy Sentaro Kawabuchi starts to change him. Through his devil-may-care classmate, Kaoru learns the attractions of jazz and finds the first person he can call a “friend.” He also discovers how much fun it is to play music with a pal. Other characters include Sentaro's kind childhood chum, Ritsuko, who is the daughter of a record shop owner; the mysterious upperclassman, Yurika; and Brother Jun, the much-admired leader among their peers.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Review: Hikounin Sentai Akibaranger



I wrote a preview for this series. Check it out here


Unofficial Sentai Akibaranger is Toei's official Super Sentai Parody. It's written, directed and produced by people that actually work in Super Sentai series. And it's aimed at adults, so, as they say at the end, good kids shouldn't watch it. Synopsis from The Morphing Grid:


Akibaranger tells the story of three people being part of an otaku club and living in the new "Electric-Town" Akihabara. They have to fight a mysterious malevolent entity that swore to conquer Earth with cool gadgets created by a brilliant genius. However, the Akibarangers' ultimate goal is to become an "official" sentai team. The Akibaranger's secret base/hideout is a "Sentai Cafe," a Super Sentai version of the popular maid cafe in Japan.