Review | Movie | Panda Go Panda

PANDA! GO PANDA! : When her grandmother and primary caregiver
goes out of town, 7-year-old Mimiko lives alone in her small town and gets two
unlikely visitors to her little house: A huge panda and his tiny son. Mimiko
befriends the two and they become Mama, Papa and Son, and have adventures big and small, from circuses to picnics.

One of the only animes I've seen with no objectionable material for young children, Panda! Go Panda! is yet another fantastic creation by the renowned Hayao Miyazaki, known best for his stunning storyboards and hit films which bring in awards like moths to a flame. One of his earliest works is "Panda Kopanda", which is definitely one to bring homes to the kids.

The only thing there is to worry about from Panda! Go Panda! is the lovable Papa Panda's pipe which he later coats with his signature use of "nice" and commenting on how "tobacco is nice, too." He is never, however, shown to be under any influence by it. Papa Panda commonly calls things he enjoys or approves of nice. Children will adore this huge panda and his tiny son, and should get a great treat out of his large, toothy grins, reminiscent of the large rabbit-like tree spirit from Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro.

The films is put into two different parts, Panda! Go Panda! Family and Panda! Go Panda! Rainy Day Circus. Rainy Day Circus is the continuation of the first film (not so much a sequel as it is a second half), and in this film we meet a small runaway baby tiger who has fled the circus and is discovered in Baby Panda's bed. The young tiger is immediately befriended with open arms by the family, which because if its inclusion of a gigantic, over-eating panda accidentally scares away two circus staff members who come to Mimiko's house looking for "Tiny the Tiger". This somewhat disappoints Mimiko, who wanted to invite "her first burglars" to join them for dinner.

Mimiko and her animal companions are always smiling, even after heavy rain floods their house and drives them to the second level of Mimiko's house. Papa Panda's only comment on the sheeted rain is the fact that "rain is very good for bamboo." And bamboo is nice!

Panda! Go Panda is a charming and adorable watch that will thrill children, and even adults, looking for a heavy dose of something warm and fuzzy, so don't miss Miyazaki's clever sugar-coated panda family that will leave you shouting "Go Panda!"

Overall Rating:
/ 5

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Review | Anime | Yu-Gi-Oh!

YU-GI-OH! : The popular card game Duel Monsters dominates Yugi Mutou's world, and with
the powerful cards given to him by his grandfather who owns a shop that sells
the cards, he is able to defeat various opponents. One day, a mysterious man
known as Pegasus sends Yugi a package inviting him to an island where he'll duel
with other Duel Monsters masters for the grand prize. However, Pegasus raises
the stakes by capturing his grandfather's soul to pursuade Yugi to come to the
island. Yugi also harnesses an ancient power that enables him to become a more
matured version of himself, carrying the soul of an Egyptian Pharoah.

If you're looking to bring yourself into the Yu-Gi-Oh world, definitely start with the original. None of this Yu-Gi-Oh! GX stupidity they've half-baked and slapped on TV. They're doing exactly what Pokemon did that lost them both their fame; they've attempted to milk the show for more than its worth and no one cares anymore. At one time, Yu-Gi-Oh was a major hype. Every kid wanted a deck of Yu-Gi-Oh cards, it was all it took to please them. Halloween costumes went out, toys, action figures, kids started buying the mangas. Kids were all over Yu-Gi-Oh until the originals went off TV and the producers attempted to compensate for it by introducing Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. The original characters, including the show's protagonist Yugi Mutou (pronounced 'Moto' in the English dub), are not featured in the new show, and new characters and hundreds of new monsters were introduced. At first, it was an interesting take on a popular show, but the new show itself was too dry to possibly keep the spirit of Yu-Gi-Oh alive any longer.

Though you don't see it in its former glory, Yu-Gi-Oh's flame still burns somewhere in the anime world. The characters are always distinguishable from not only the other characters in the show, but the rest of the anime world, due to their extravagant and unusual hair-dos (particularly the one found on Yugi) which any knowledgeable anime fan will have no problem identifying.

It's definitely a show to bring home to the boys. Since it was brought to American TV for young audiences, you can look into an English dub, but I am unaware that there is any overly questionable material in the Japanese dub. Despite being a good show it does require some patience. The characters love to talk. The show consists of a combination of fantasy and technology which can themselves be found either separately or harmoniously within the monsters the Duelists will activate, which are projected life-sized on the battlefield. Characters are continuously introduced which makes it difficult to keep up with them, but unlike Pokemon where characters are constantly added and replaced for the main band of characters, Yugi's group of closest friends remain the same.

Overall Rating:
/ 5

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Review | Anime | InuYasha

INUYASHA : Kagome Higurashi's family owns an ancient shrine that dates back thousands of years, and as much as her grandfather boasts its history, she never pays it any mind. One day, while going to retrieve her cat in an old shed, she falls down a dried up well, and wakes up in feudal Japan. While still trying to recollect herself, she stumbles across a strange boy pinned to a tree by an arrow. When Kagome is attacked by a demon monster that bites a mysterious "Sacred Jewel" from out of her body, the boy awakens and tells Kagome to pull the arrow from his chest. The boy, a half-demon named InuYasha, quickly kills the demon, but now he wants this "Sacred Jewel" for himself. No sooner is the Jewel removed from Kagome does another demon steal it, and in an attempt to get the Jewel back, she shoots the creature with an arrow and accidentally shatters the Jewel into shards. Now Kagome and InuYasha must join forces to find every shard of the Jewel before other demons find them and use them to become all-powerful. But can the stubborn duo set aside their differences long enough?

After the response our dog demon friend InuYasha has gotten, who wouldn't want to check it out? I watched the first episode on YouTube to try it out, and upon becoming very interested in the story, to Netflix I did go.

I was finally able to catch up with this series, which had already ended (abruptly) before I began the series. Eventually I did find out that the episodes ceased production on a cliffhanger. I attended a guest panel with one of the producers of InuYasha at an anime cosplay convention. When asked if they would ever continue the series, they were left with merely a "maybe" (which, for producers, is just a polite version of "no".) So alas we may never find out if the Jewel Shards are all collected, and Naraku may never come out of hiding.

I had been hearing so much about InuYasha it was mind-boggling. It took me a while before I decided to give it a try. I really like this show a great deal, even though some of the drawing could use improvement. Different villagers Kagome and InuYasha encounter along the way are just bizzare-looking, like the animators wanted to hurry up and get them over with.

On occasion the episodes can be a little slow and stretched too far, but other than that I'm happy with them. I don't think I'd show this to a child right away, as there is profanity and frequent violence, and a few perverted moments, courtesy of a character that appears later in the show. There are also monsters in the show's episodes that are really not that scary, but a child might find them a little scary. Again, there is a lot of blood involved in this show, but not so much that you would get queazy, it doesn't look much like real blood.

This would be a good show to watch if you're trying to catch up on the popular animes. Just don't get too close to Miroku! You've been warned.

Overall Rating:
/ 5

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First Season Opening Theme : Change The World

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Review | Anime | Naruto

NARUTO : Years ago in the village of Konoha, a nine-tailed demon fox terrorized the village and killed hundreds of ninjas, until the leader of the village sealed the demon away in the body of a newborn child that had been orphaned. Now, twelve-year-old Naruto has been mistreated all his life by his fellow villagers for something he was completely unaware of until the day a rogue ninja attacked him. Naruto's dream is to become the Hokage of Konoha so the villagers will look up to him rather than disrespect him. With his friends Sakura and Sasuke, Naruto will learn to be the best ninja he can be, while fighting other rogue ninjas that intend to destroy his village.

Naruto hasn't struck souls quite like Pokemon did when it was first introduced, but people are definitely responding to Naruto in a big way. I was hearing so much about it nonstop all over the Internet, I hated it already. Only when it came on TV one day did I really decide to sit down and take it in, and I must say I'm impressed.

The characters are very easy to identify since they are each given unique physical traits. However it's not very easy to attempt to warm up to every single character in the show, since new characters are constantly added.

According to my sister, who has gotten a little too into the series since I suggested she watch it (me and my big mouth), the original Japanese version has pretty much no limits to the kind of language they use, but the American dub of course is a lot cleaner since they're aiming it at a young audience. From the mangas of Naruto I've read, the language is almost as bad as the original undubbed anime. Any parent that is deciding whether or not to introduce Naruto (either the anime or the manga) to their child may like to be warned of prankster Naruto's biggest gags towards males that he addresses as his "Sexy Jutsu", in which Naruto shape shifts into a nude woman barely covered by puffs of smoke. The anime version of this technique is a lot more modest than the manga's version where the anatomy is a lot more detailed and the puffs of smoke are a lot less thick. Another warning for parents is Jiraiya, who appears much later in the series. Jiraiya, a middle-aged male ninja, writes a popular string of of books that are implied loosely to be pornographic (an adult main character in the show is seen frequently reading a volume though the contents of the books are never shown.) Jiraiya is also a shameless womanizer that attempts on a regular basis to peek at naked or barely-clothed women for what he calls "research" for his books. There is also a large amount of violence for parent that would prefer their child not watch violent shows.

My biggest complaint against the series is that it is mind-numbingly slow. The writers will dedicate 2-3 episodes on one certain subject that they attempt to stretch way too far by making the characters monologue more than necessary, and eventually any suspense that might have been there dwindles almost as quickly as the viewer's interest. The monologues are extremely dull and useless to the show, the characters pretty much include everything in their monologues except cooking recipes. If you suspect that stretching will occur in any of the episodes, I would say it's safe to skip the next episode.

Despite the slowness in the series, I highly recommend the show to teenage audiences and older, but a parent may want to investigate further on the show first before letting a younger child watch it.

Overall Rating:
/ 5

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Sasuke's Theme
Naruto's Theme

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Review | Movie | Death Note Movies

DEATH NOTE THE MOVIE/DEATH NOTE THE MOVIE: THE LAST NAME : The live-action version of the anime/manga series. Light Yagami, a successful high school , finds a mysterious notebook on the ground entitled "Death Note". Curious, he takes the notebook home and reads it. The book's instructions state that anyone whose name is written in the book will die within 40 seconds of a heart attack, or if the owner wishes a different death upon the victim, the details of the death must be wirtten within 6 minutes and 40 seconds. Light tests the Death Note by writing the name of a gangster who boasts his name right before attacking a woman. The gangster dies soon after. Realizing the book's power, Light concludes to use the Death Note to rid the world of evil by killing every criminal he can. The police begin to string the series of heart attacks together and soon find that a detective known as "L", who has completed every single investigation he's ever taken, is soon on the case. Light, nicknamed "Kira" by the public, is soon L's suspect, and Light is determined to finish L before L finishes him.

Usually live-action films annoy me because all I keep thinking about is, "That doesn't look like them!" or "That never happened!" It's a filthy habit of mine. But I liked these films a lot. It was a little odd to have English songs for the first film though, such as "Dani California" by The Red Hot Chili Peppers. They could have easily found an equally good Japanese song which wouldn't have made it perplexing. (personally, i find most japanese music better than any english song.)

These movies stay true to the anime and manga, but there are also some parts that serve themselves rather than what happens in the others. I'm happy with the actors they got for the roles, they serve the movies quite well.

I'm definitely happy with these, I'd probably watch them again and I might buy the movies if they're around. I'd recommend it to any Death Note fan that hasn't gotten to see them yet. they've still got Death Note films coming out and I'll definitely be one of the ones seeing them.

What I like about these films is that even though they stay true to the anime and manga, they still put their own twists on things and mix it around a bit so it'll be a new experience to those familiar with the anime. This includes a gender change for Misa's shinigami Rem, who is implied to be female in the series but is male in the films. Their talented ensemle has no problem conveying the same suspense and interest that held fans of the series.


Overall Rating:
/ 5

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