It is no secret that I love Chi, and it certainly ranks up there as one of my all time favorite series. I already own most of the comics in Japanese, and the anime earned the #2 position on my Top Anime of 2009 list last year. So I am expecting a lot out of this title when Vertical releases it later this month. In fact, I have never anticipated a comic’s English release more than I have with Chi’s Sweet Home.

And so I am thrilled to report that Vertical’s release is very, very well done.

So first, let’s talk about the magic behind the series itself.

The most obvious thing that one can say about Chi is that it is cute. And by cute, I mean that it is absolutely freaking adorable. The wide-eye kitty and the simplistic look of her human family is optimized to produce the most DPS (D’awws Per Second) possible within the manga medium.

But the secret to Chi’s success is not just about being cute. The story itself is very well done and told in a very smart way. Chi’s antics are typical of any cat, and any feline owner will easily recognize all the things she does and relate them back to their own real life kitty. But the magic in Kanata’s storytelling is the level of detail she pays to every little action, and her pacing and use of static panel shots ultimately pay off in some pretty hilarious moments.

We see in one panel that Mama has put the kitten in a little tub in order to be washed. As cat owners ourselves, we already know that cats and water do not mix, so something bad is about to go down. But unfortunately , Chi is unaware of this. Instead, we spend an entire page watching the innocent kitty look in wonderment at the showerhead. “Huh? What the-? What’s going on?” she asks ignorantly, eyes widened with the most adorable expression on her face. And then all of the sudden… “GYA!!!” Pure liquid terror strikes, and we know that the cat will never be the same again.

Chi stands out among manga conventions by being released with each page fully colored. Each chapter is done in black-in-white when it is serialized in Morning Magazine, but a layer of gentle watercolors in added for the comic’s graphic novel releases. The coloring make a huge difference in the look and feel of the comic. It is about as warm and welcoming as… well… a kitten.

The gentle colors, simplistic dialogue, and adorable images give off the impression of a children’s picture book. However, this comic is actually made for an adult male market in Japan. But it just goes to show that Chi has an appeal far wider then whatever limited demographic it can be assigned to in Japan, which is exactly the type of scope that Vertical is going for in America.

It should be noted that in order to make the book more marketable to that mainstream American audience, the pages have been “flipped” to read from left-to-right, and all of the sound effects have been replaced by English translation. There is not a single lick of Japanese left within the pages of this adaptation. This will indubitably annoy and outrage a lot of manga fans, but honestly, I think it is the best decision that Vertical could make with this title. If there is ever a manga that could appeal so broadly to a market outside of typical American otaku, it would be Chi.

But even with these alterations to make the comic more accessible to Americans, it should also be noted the amazing amount of effort Vertical put into making their version of Chi as identical to the Japanese release as possible. Vertical actually enlisted Kodansha and their in-house Toyokuni Printing Co. to have the English version of Chi to be printed using the same equipment that the Japanese version is.

The result is an English version that is a near duplicate to the Japanese version in terms of physical appearance. Both books are the same height and width, and both covers feature the exact same layout, only swapping the Japanese with the English.

But there is one aspect of the coloring that any hardcore Chi fan notice, and that is the background color. The Japanese edition adds an off-white egg shell coloring to the background, which gives each page the appearance of a soft and creamy texture. However, Kodansha neglected to add the artificial color to their printing of the English version, so we end up seeing pure white background. This takes away much of the “soft” feel of the Japanese version.

Again, that’s something that only hardcore Chi fans will notice, but it is noticeable. The sharp white background is a bit distracting at first, but I eventually got over it.

The English adaptation itself is both a bit of a blessing and a curse. As the LOLcat internet meme has taught us, cats do not have the best grasp of the human language. Chi had a very particular way of speaking in the Japanese version, and Vertical makes an honest effort of translating this to English. The result is that Chi says words like, “fwightening,” “mulk,” and, “kiwling,” which occasionally become quite difficult to understand. But at the same time, Chi’s language is also a source of absolute charm. I particularly enjoyed a scene in which a frightened Chi screams out, “Oh Nos!”

When it comes down to it, Chi has the potential to be that manga series that stands out among all the others in the US market. Random folks in Borders will see on the book shelf, open it out of curiosity, and instantly fall in love with it after skimming through the pages. Adults will buy it with the excuse that they’re only getting it for their kids, but will secretly be reading it with more enjoyment than any child would. The franchise has the kind of merchandising potential that would make Hello Kitty sweat a little.

* * * * *

The Good: Artist captures all the idiosyncrasies of feline behavior and delivers with perfect comedic timing. Adorable character designs and soft coloring looks warm and welcoming.

The Bad: Chi’s language is a little difficult to understand at times. Manga is flipped from Japanese. “Creamy” page texture missing.

Final Verdict: Cute, hilarious, and oozing with charm, Chi’s Sweet Home is pure delight for cat lovers of all ages and genders. Read it!

Review copy provided by Vertical Publishing.

But of course, just like any utopian society, something goes horribly, horribly wrong. A terrorist organization wipes out the facilities needed to keep the clones alive, and the only thing that can save them is the Appleseed, a bit of data created by Knute’s late mother. But as Knute dives deeper into the search of the this critical piece of information, she uncovers that the conspiracy runs far deeper than anyone had anticipated. Many powerful enemies stand between her and the survival of the artificial species.

Fans may have remember that the movie was originally released in the US by Geneon Entertainment in 2005. However, the company did not last much longer after that and the film’s sequel, Appleseed Ex Machina, was later released by Warner Brothers with a completely new dub cast.

Well now Sentai / Section 23 has rescued the original movie, and they redubbed it with the Ex Machina cast for better consistency between the two films. And for the first time ever, they’re releasing the computer generated anime film on Blu-ray disc.

And oh god, does it look freaking sweet!

The most defining aspect of this movie is in its visual style. The movie is rendered entirely in 3D computer generated animation, but all of the characters are “cell shaded”, the process of making a 3D image look flat like a traditional cartoon. The mesh between the realistic backgrounds and the flattened anime characters provides a very interesting contrast that is quite pleasing to the eye.

And it looks even more gorgeous in HD thanks to this Blu-ray release. Absolutely gorgeous.

I believe we first encounter the power of the HD visuals in a scene where Knute and her artificial comrade Hitomi are driving down a highway in broad daylight. The glass skyscrapers in the background reflect the bright colors of the blue sky, and the smooth futuristic highway roads reflect those buildings. It all looks sharp and clean, and the colors brilliantly popped on my HDTV screen. With bright scenes like this rendering this beautifully on this Blu-ray release, it becomes a real shame that so much of the film takes place in the dark.

The other aspect of this film that really stuck out to me was its soundtrack. Starting off with a technobeat background music reminiscent of the Matrix, we quickly jump into the opening credits sporting a Cowboy Bebop style soulful R&B theme song. From that point on, the film just continues to deliver one memorable song after another, particularly during the action sequences.

But even beyond the enhancements offered from the computer generated environment, the movie just looks good from a pure anime perceptive. The character designs are quite appealing, especially with the character of Hitomi. The cybernetic city backdrop is quite interesting and satisfies that sci-fi bug in all of us. And the action sequences are quite intense, often diving into the bullet time camera angles that have been the foundation of Hollywood films for the past decade.

But there is a major drawback to the style of the film that is almost impossible to shake off while watching it. The animation often comes off as stiff as a video game cut scene, which I found to be completely distracting and often disrupted my suspension of disbelief for the film. It felt like a video game, just one that you are not playing.

And once you get past all the eye candy Appleseed has to offer, there’s really not much there to provide for an interesting plot. In fact, I remember specifically falling asleep in the middle of watching this film back in 2005. So it did not surprise me to find myself losing interest in the movie once again in 2010 for this re-release. They really should have just cut the final 20 minutes of this flick, because you really just want it to end at a certain point.

* * * * *

The Good: Fantastic visual style of CG animation renders stunningly in HD. Good action sequences and character designs. Exceptional soundtrack.

The Bad: Animation is very choppy and stiff. Boring ending.

Final Verdict: Once you get past the fact that it looks like a long video game cut scene, Appleseed offers enough eye candy to make it worth checking out on Blu-ray. Watch it!

Review copy provided by Sentai / Section23 Films.

In a fictionalized World War II era world, Earth is being attacked by a mysterious alien race known as the Neuroi. When traditional military forces come up short in combating the threat, the world turns to the girls of the 501th Joint Fighter Wing, the Strike Witches, as their last hope for humanity.

The Witches are an ensemble team of young women from around the world with magical abilities, which periodically manifests itself in the form of animal ears and tails. By attaching the special machinery known as Striker Units to their legs, the girls’ magical powers are enhanced and they also gain the ability to fly. With the Striker Units in place, the girls take to the sky to do battle with the Neuroi in high altitudes.

The first season of the Strike Witches TV series centers around Japanese school girl Yoshika Miyafuji. Because of her magical healing ability, she is recruited by Mio Sakamoto to join the girls of the 501st. The pacifist Miyafuji is reluctant to become a fighter in the war, but when she discovers that her missing father is the inventor of the Striker Units, she goes along with Sakamoto in search of him.

It is no secret that I love Strike Witches. For the past few months, I have been heavily promoting the series on my twitter and blog as FUNimation has been embarking in their tongue-in-cheek “War on Pants” campaign. But my love for the show has been there since it first debuted in Japan nearly two years ago. I named it my #1 anime release of 2008 because it was the first commercially successful anime to be legally available online for a global audience.

However, there is a reason why this became such a big seller in Japan. In a market that has been overflowing with moé titles for years, Strike Witches manages to take the science of fan pandering and make a goddamn masterpiece out of it.

So where do I begin?

I think the most obvious thing that everyone will immediately notice about this show is the fan service. With the exception of maybe a see-through stocking or two, none of the female characters wear pants, skirts, or anything else to cover up their underwear. It is such a simple costume choice, yet it ends up being unbelievably sexy in execution.

The brilliant thing about these costumes is that as obviously embarrassing as walking around in just your panties is to the audience, the girls are completely oblivious to it. No one ever makes any references to pants of any kind, yet the camera is frequently being placed in close up crotch shots to show that this is what you are supposed to be looking at. I think this is best shown in a scene where a strong gust of wind suddenly blows through as the girls are working outside. The girls scream in embarrassment and go through all the motions as if they are keeping their skirts from flying up, however, they are not wearing any skirts in the first place!

And that is how this series succeeds in being original in its approach to fan service. It is absolutely fan pandering and completely paint-by-numbers, yet somehow puts enough spin to the formula as to never come off as being cliche. A filler episode in this genre would typically involve sending the girls to a beach or hot springs in order to showcase their bodies. However, there is never a need to do this because the girls are always showcasing their bodies. So instead, we get a filler episode that is a cute “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” skit about the girls stealing each others underwear.

Yet no matter how original and creative the fan service is, the overarching plot involving the girls fighting the Neuroi is absolutely weak. If you are looking for any good military action or deep symbolism with the WWII setting,  you are not going to find it. You can probably sum up every twist and turn within these 12 episodes in a single paragraph.

But the military aspect is not the point of the show. This is a moé title, so the primary focus of every episode is on the girls, their unique personalities, and their relationships to each other. And once again, Witches succeeds in creating absolutely lovable characters. With a cast of around a dozen girls, each one gets their chance to shine for at least one episode, which gives you more than enough time to pick your favorite from the group.

Strike Witches also manages to be visually pleasing even beyond its fan service. With their petite figures and childish faces, the bishop girls look adorable. They are exactly the type of characters needed in a show of this genre. A lot of the designs appear to have come out of a Ken Akamatsu manga title, which as an Akamatsu fanboy, I was completely fine with.

And I do have to give a lot of credit to the large female cast put together for this English dub. In the ever debate over “subs vs. dubs”, the only reason why I would ever chose Japanese over English is that Japanese language is able to pull off “cute” better than English can. Yet the English cast somehow manages to make these girls just as pleasing to the ear as they are to the eyes. Cherami Leigh holds her own in the lead role as the timid Miyafuji, and she is able to be cute without ever becoming annoying.

* * *

The Good: Originality, lovable characters, cute designs, decent voice acting and oh yeah, THE FAN SERVICE!

The Bad: Overarching militaristic plot is thinner than paper.

Final Verdict: In a market that has been flooded by moé, Strike Witches stands out as a masterpiece of fanboy pandering. If you are not into the genre, then you already hate it. But if you are into this type of stuff, then it is required that you watch it!

Review copy provided by FUNimation Entertainment.

There’s a reason why all the girls had dropped out of this tech school. The boys are very tough and fights often break out between the different classes. But amid all this chaos, there is one unwritten law that all the boys abide by, and that is the role of the bancho, or gang leader. Simply put, there is one bancho who rules over the entire student body, and in order to dethrone the leader and take his place at the top of this pecking order, you must knock the crap out of him in a fight.

Needless to say, the poor innocent Souka wants nothing to do with the feuding between the classes or power struggle of the bancho. However, because she is the only girl in school, all of the boys go out of their way to make her feel warm and welcomed. So she decides to stick around the school and eventually becomes friends with the cool Katou-kun. But one day, she accidentally knocks out the school’s current bancho, which means that she takes over as the new gang leader. Can the sweet girl actually rule over this student body of thugs and riffraffs?

My Darling, Miss Bancho is the first (and so far only) comic by shojo artist Mayu Fujikata. While her inexperience is evident on every page of this volume, it ultimately ends up being her greatest strength as CMX Manga releases another winner in this shojo title.

First of all, I am not sure exactly how much prior experience Miss Fujikata had before this series began its serialization in Lala magazine, but she obviously had not mastered her art skills quite yet. This comic looks hideous, and it is most obvious in the way she draws faces. Eyes and noses are drawn either too big or too small, and are often slightly off from where they are supposed to be. This leads to a very inconsistent look to the comic that does not settle down until the final chapters.

But while her art still needs some refinement, Fujikata’s inexperience totally pays off with her fresh and original sense of humor. Rather than filling the plot with melodrama, complex love triangles, flowery backgrounds, or anything else that defines the shojo genre, she simply allows herself to tell a funny story. A really freaking funny story.

She gets her inspiration from the “tough guy” shonen action genre and totally parodies it. Kind of like Cromartie High School, except without any of the really wacky surreal elements. She understands how to keep her humor subtle rather than screaming it out to the reader.

A majority of her jokes come out of random events occurring at the worst possible time for the characters, and Fujikata has just the right sense of comedic timing to pull this off. This is a refreshing change from the traditional tsukkomi-boké (straight-man, idiot) formula we see all too often in Japanese comedy. In fact, she even riffs on that traditional formula by instructing the readers to play the part of the straight-man themselves because none of her characters will play it for them.

She won me over with her unconventional writing style, so I was totally hooked on her story about this crazy high school full of boys and one female. However, as wonderful as it was to read, I had to take issue with the English adaptation and the way it handled one of the hardest concepts to translate between Japan and American high school systems.

You see, in America, we have four years of high school: freshmen, sophomore, junior, and senior. Beside for just establishing seniority within a student body, these titles hold very specific cultural meanings. Being called a freshmen has a certain significance because you are considered new, naive, and inexperienced with life within the school. Likewise, being a senior implies that a person is at the very end of their education, and so has limited time remaining at the school.

The Japanese school system is different in that they only go to high school for three years. Rather than giving them titles, they are simply called first year, second year, and third year students. So in theory, their first year students would be just like our high school freshmen, and their third year students would be equal to our seniors. But then what does that make second year students, sophomores or juniors?

This was not clearly established in this translation as our hero of the story is simply called a sophomore while her class was feuding with the juniors. Does that make Souka a first year or second year student? That is a key bit of information missing. Being a sophomore implies a higher level of experience that you do not have in your first year of high school. I felt that this detail was critical in a story about hierarchy and power struggles within a school.

I believe that American manga readers are experienced enough with Japanese culture that you do not need to translate high school classes into American standards like that. If you just simply say first or second year, we will understand.

* * * * *

The Good: Fresh and original comedy.

The Bad: Poor artwork and an awkward translation.

Final Verdict: My Darling, Miss Bancho breaks from typical shojo conventions to tell a story that is really freaking funny. Read it!

Review copy provided by CMX Manga.

So after a huge mix-up  regarding my coverage of the NYICFF this year, I was finally able to catch a screening of the highly anticipated new film from Mamoru Hosoda, Summer Wars, last weekend. Well, pretty much everyone and  their mother has seen the film and have written a review of it, and for the most part, the film has been unanimously praised by everyone.

However, I wasn’t quite as wooed over by the film as everyone else was, and when I tweeted this out, I got some peeps asking me to do a review on it. Well, I wasn’t really planning on doing this, so here’s my brief review of Summer Wars using as little spoilers as possible.

Summer Wars is a good movie, it might even be a great movie. But is it as amazing as the hype makes it out to be?

Far from it.

But first, let me just say that there is a lot to really like about this film.

I felt that it was the perfect snapshot of modern society, and by “modern,” I literally mean right now, as in March of 2010. Whether is was paid product placement or not, you felt a real sense of authenticity in the setting because all of the characters were using actual products we use today, such as the iPhone and the Nintendo DSi. Not some generic electronics or obvious brand parodies, they were actually the iPhone and DSi.

I believe the message Hosoda was conveying in doing this was that even though this anime film is a pure sci-fi action flick, we are actually living in a world that is filled with this amazing technology. The characters are constantly whipping out their cell phones to check their messages and log into the virtual community, which shows this incredible connection everyone had to each other over this  kind of network. And sure enough, as soon as the movie ended and the house lights went on, I looked around the theater to see almost everyone around me checking their cell phones. This film was a true reflection of the world we’re living in right now.

I also really liked the way Hosoda paused the movie several times for moments of awkward silences. In a medium where a new action is happening every few seconds, Summer War essentially stops dead in its tracks and waits an excruciating number of beat before anyone moves or says anything. This is such an unconventional move in anime, and I don’t think I’ve seen it pulled off since the latter episodes of Evangelion. So much respect to the man for trying out a stunt like that.

But ultimately, my problem with the film is that the main plot felt very uneven. There is essentially two faces to Summer Wars, the real world involving a huge family gathering and the virtual world being overtaking by a hacker. The problem is that 99% of the film takes place in the real world and focuses on the family and their relationships, but all of the major conflicts in the plot arise from the hacker story.

Because we spend so little time dealing with the virtual world, it becomes more of an after thought that never really gets fleshed out or becomes a huge consern for the audience. But then a very tragic event within the family in the real world is blame on the problems in the virtual world, and suddenly all attention and focus is switched to this side story that has just been stewing idly in the background this whole time.

This all leads to the climax of the film where suddenly every character jumps in with a brand new role to fulfill that hardly matches the part they’ve played up to that point. And one of the biggest heroes of this epic cyber battle ends up being a character that has had the smallest interactions to the online world up until that point.

Again, trying not to give away any spoilers here, but I just felt the final act of the film did not match the story leading up to it. It felt really rushed and sloppy, and that most certainly took away the momentum that had been building up in this story about a family reunion.

After the screening, I was asked which recent anime film did I like better, Oblivion Island or Summer Wars. The difference is that I went into Oblivion Island expecting it to be bad, and its climax absolutely blew me away. I went into Summer Wars expecting it to blow me away, and I walked out with an, “well, that was nice,” impression.

Summer Wars is a step up from The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, which was also a really good film. However, Hosoda still has a bit to go before he can be rank among Miyazaki, Kon, or even Shinkai when it comes to great anime directors.

* * *

I also read the first volume of Bunny Drop over the weekend, and this time, I can agree with the critics. I loved this comic, it’s fantastic.

I can’t help but to compare it to the shojo comic Aishiteruze Baby, where a teenage boy is left in charge of his little female cousin and ends up becoming a surrogate father to her. Even though the comic was shojo, it ended up being the work where I based my “longing for fatherhood” definition of moé off of.

Bunny Drop is a very similar premise, however, the difference this time is that this bachelor is a working professional 30-year-old. So rather than having the novelty of a teenage boy raising a little girl, it’s actually a man who is of proper age for fatherhood. This leads to a far more serious and realistic take on parenting, but its still just as sweet and adorable.

As I was reading the manga, I thought to myself, “so, is this seinen or josei?” and I even came close to tweeting out the question online. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this had to have been a josei comic.

And that’s just a damn shame considering that I, a professionally working 20-something bachelor, was feeling such a strong connection to this protagonist. If I was a Japanese manga reader, would I have even been able to read this or would it be too embarrassing to pick up a woman’s magazine?

And again, I think that if you’re looking for a source on the moé phenomena, this is it. The “longing for fatherhood” goes against so many traditional gender roles, and comics touting the notion of men taking on maternal duties can only exists in comics for women. So we had to adapt the concept to be able to put this kind of stuff in our own magazines, and thus, we have moé.

* * *

I also caught the Irish animated movie The Secret of Kells over the weekend.

… yeah, I guess I was pretty busy over the past few days, wasn’t I? (>_<)

If you’re unfamiliar with Kells, it was the only nominee for this year’s Best Animated Film oscar that you have never heard of before. It has been touted for its unique visual style, and indeed, that alone is worth the price of admission.

Is it an anime style? Not at all. In fact, it’s about as western as a cartoon can get.

I had described it as a mashup of Kim Possible character designs with the creativeness of The Thief and the Cobbler. The latter title is probably a little too obscure for me to use for comparison, so I highly recommend checking out Wikipedia for full info on that film. But the influence is very obvious, and I was very happy to hear director Tomm Moore confirm this connection in his interview with Samurai Beat Radio last week.

Story wise, it’s a children’s film, so don’t expect anything that deep or complex. But I think the pretty visuals more than makes up for that to the eye of an adult viewer.

The first season of Kenichi: the Mightiest Disciple completely flew under my radar last year because it did not really look all that interesting with a plot like that. However, it ended up becoming a sleeper hit for FUNimation. In fact, the company has said that the reason why they are releasing this second season is because the fan support has been so huge for this series alone.

So I decided to finally give this series a shot with its second season to see what all this hype could be about. But needless to say, I did not find it all that appealing. If Soul Eater was a throwback of all the awesome anime series I remember watching while growing up, then Kenichi is certainly a throwback to all the mediocre ones.

What stood out for me first and foremost was just how poorly this show is animated. Even though the “still frame” shot is quite a staple in anime, Kenichi manages to absolutely abuse the power. There is the good old fashion static still frame. There is the pan across a wide still frame. And then there is a still frame where only the mouth is moving, which looks really awkward because they did not even bother moving the chin up and down.

It is amazing to watch how much movement is not happening in each episode. It is as if their goal was to create an entire show using as little work as possible.

So in lieu of action, Kenichi has to rely on massive amounts of dialogue to drive its minimalist shonen action story. The Japanese cast is way too over-the-top in their delivery in order to heighten the comedy. This gets really annoying after a while and it is difficult to continue listening to this for an entire episode. The English cast brings it down a few notches to make the audio much more tolerable and enjoyable at some points.

Kenichi is an action-comedy, however, the animation is far too lazy to allow a lot of action sequences. So that means it is mostly comedy, and because it is simplistic Japanese comedy, it does not really translate so well into English. The dub team really attempts to adapt this to be entertaining, and they manage to make it amusing, albeit in a cheesy and corny way. I probably encountered about 5 true “laugh out loud” moments within this 12-episode set, which is a better track record than most anime comedies.

I also really liked the fanservice. The series features a handful of sexy female characters with wide curves and huge (but not too huge) breasts. And they are not afraid of putting these buxom babes in plenty of shirt skirts and highly revealing outfits. In fact, the first episode of this set starts off with the introduction of a female character in a tight Chinese cheongsam. However, this dress just so happens to have a wide opening on top that manages to showcase as much cleavage as the girl could possibly have to offer.

Unfortunately, this dress might have been the best part of this completely mediocre series.

Coming off of the heals of FUNi’s Soul Eater release, I believe that Kenichi is suffering from the same thing that Kaze no Stigma suffered on the heals of Romeo x Juliet last summer. It is not an awful series per se, and it might actually be good for you if you just want some mind-numbing entertainment. I would have enjoyed seeing this kind of show after school on Toonami back in the day among all the other so-so action series.

However, given all the options we have available today, you really should be spending your time and money on great anime series. Skip the mediocre ones like this for the Right Stuf bargain bin sales.

* * * * *

The Good: Great fanservice, decent english voice cast, and some of the jokes are kind of funny.

The Bad: Awful animation, annoying Japanese voices, generic plot.

Final Verdict: Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple is not really that bad, but it just does not have enough going for it to make it really recommendable. Skip it!

Review copy provided by FUNimation Entertainment.

Review originally posted on November 6, 2009.

What ever happened to all those old toys and doodads you had when you were a kid? Doesn’t it feel like they have just simply vanished off of the face of the Earth?

That is the premise behind the latest anime movie from Production I.G., Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror. As a child, Haruka heard an old Japanese fable of how all the items that have gone unnoticed and forgotten by people eventually get picked up and taken away by nature’s most sneaky creatures, foxes.

Now your typical rebellious teenager, Haruka wonders what ever happened to a mirror given to her by her late mother. She happens upon a Shinto shrine and makes an offering to the gods to return the mirror to her. There she encounters a tiny fox-looking creature named Teo carrying an abandoned toy plane.

While following him, she is suddenly swept away to Oblivion Island, a secret world inhabited by Teo’s people and built entirely out of the objects that humans have long forgotten about. So now she teams up with Teo to explore the island and find her long lost mirror.

The movie is making its official debut this weekend at the New York International Children’s Film Festival, but Fuji Television was generous enough to invite me to an exclusive screening of the film last October. What I saw was an absolutely delightful children’s film filled with more imagination, heart, and wonderment than the last two Miyazaki films combined.

Oblivion Island is the first full length film from Production I.G. done completely in 3D computer generated animation. The film’s animation director, Naoyoshi Shiotani, was on hand at the private screening last fall to offer his take on the making of the studio’s landmark title.

“I was moved to finally see the finished cut,” he tells a sold out theater audience. “There were 200 people involved in this movie and I spent 4 years working with them on it. I put a lot of my thoughts and feelings into this movie.”

While almost every animated film in America is done in 3DCG these days, we very rarely see it done in Japanese anime. However, the difference between Hollywood and Japanese cinema is still evident in this particular medium.

The character designs have that unique “anime” style to them, and the look and feel of the animation resembles more like a video game cut scene than a Pixar or Dreamworks film. This is a little difficult to get used to as a viewer. Human characters like Haruka and her parents give off the look of plastic, lifeless dolls, and their body movements are stiff and unnatural.

But the awkwardness of the CG animation completely fades away the moment that Haruka and Teo go to Oblivion Island. The fictional world is so beautifully rendered with vivid bright colors, and incredible detail has been paid to the buildings comprised completely of old signs and cardboard boxes.

“I wanted this movie colorful,” explains Mr. Shiotani, “because the island is created with things people leave behind. I think there must be a variety of things like that, so that is why I wanted to make the island as colorful as possible.”

But even more impressive than the visuals is the emotional story of how teenage Haruka reconnects with her own childhood by wondering around the island. The turning point comes when she stumbles upon Cotton, her adorable long-forgotten stuffed animal.

“Stuffed animals are usually loved and hugged by people, which means they should be cute or lovable. Cotton was once loved by Haruka. So, I wanted something very cute and pretty that the audience would fall in love with instantly.”

And we do. Cotton’s reunion with Haruka brings about the same kind of emotional identification and response we had to the “When She Loved Me” flashback montage in Toy Story 2. But unlike Toy Story, Haruka and her cherished doll are able to speak to each other in this magical island, thereby putting into words the type of love that is otherwise implied between a child and their toys.

When I gave Miyazaki’s Ponyo a negative review last summer, the biggest reaction I heard back from the community was, “well, that’s because it’s made for kids, so of course you wouldn’t like it.” But being a children’s film doesn’t mean it has to be a bad film. With its childish blend of fantasy and Japanese traditions, Oblivion Island has shown me just what Miyazaki has been missing since Spirited Away.

This movie is too good to be kept hidden in Japan forever, so I am thrilled to see the NYIFCC selecting it as part of their program this year. Oblivion Island is the best anime film I’ve seen in a long time, and I hope more American fans have the chance to see this heartwarming and delightful 3D story too.

Movie screening and animation director comments courtesy of Fujisankei Communications International and IACE Travel. All images ©2009 FUJI TELEVISION NETWORK/ Production I.G. / DENTSU / PONY CANYON

The series centers around three pairs of student “meisters” and their humanoid weapons. Our main heroine is the spunky Maka Albarn with her cool-as-a-cucumber scythe, Soul Eater. They are joined by their classmate, the self-centered and egotistical Black Star, and his chain scythe weapon, the sweet and motherly Tsubaki. And finally, the Grim Reaper’s own son, the comically OCD Death the Kid, eventually joins the team with his twin pistols, Liz and Patty.

There has been a lot of hype about this anime series from the anime community since it debuted two years ago. I have seen a huge number of Soul Eater cosplay at anime conventions, so I feel like I was already familiar with a lot of the characters even without ever watching a single episode. And at last year’s New York Anime Festival, both FUNimation and Yen Press teamed up to make a major push for the series to become the main event of the convention that weekend.

But like all very popular mainstream anime series, I was very skeptical as to just how amazing this series could possibly be. So I popped in these first 13 episodes preparing myself to be very disappointed.

So did I find Soul Eater to live up to all the hype?

Oh, hell yeah, I did!

In fact, I loved every minute of this kick ass anime series.

The first thing you will notice about this series is its very unconventional and extravagant style and attitude. To call it “gothic” would be misleading, it is more like a cartoony vision of all things Halloween. The setting appears to be in a stoney London back alley inhabited by monsters, witches, and the occasional black cat. There is either an ominous grinning sun snickering in the sky during the day, or an equally disturbing crescent moon in the night with blood dripping from his mouth. All of these spooky images are rendered with vibrant colors and many contrasting angles to provide plenty of interesting eye candy for the viewer.

Along with that art style, you also have a story that seems to draw inspiration from the most random and obscure reaches of Western civilization. One of the first villains the kids encounter is a cartoony caricature of mobster Al Capone. There is the stitched up professor Dr. Franken Stein who sports a huge screw going through his brain. And of course, there is the twin pistol packing gothic cowboy who goes by the name of Death the Kid. Figuring out all the literary and historical references really adds to the fun of this story.

Another area where Soul Eater excels at is in its action sequences. While most shonen series tend to skimp out on the battles with many close up shots and still frames, Soul Eater wonderfully renders each fight with vivid details on every swing, punch, and strike that occurs. The choreography of the meisters utilizing their weapons further adds to the excitement, almost guaranteeing to keep you on the edge of your seat the whole time.

It is really hard to figure out where the series needs some improvement, but if I had to nitpick at it, I would have to say that Soul Eater is kind of lacking in the lulz. Now that is not to say that it doesn’t try to be funny, in fact, it frequently tries to be funny. It is just that all of the jokes tend to completely fall flat on their face. The fast-flying bits rely way too much on the tsukkomi-boké formula between all of the characters, which very rarely translates well into American humor. Though there is one hilarious episode involving the legendary sword Excalibur that won me over because of the pure ridiculousness of it all, but sadly, that humor did not continue past that one episode.

But where the series lacks in humor, it surprisingly makes up for in fan service. All of the female characters sport a cute and sexy look about them that is enhanced by their unique costumes. Maka pulls off the pigtailed Catholic schoolgirl, Tsubaki exposes a lot of cleavage in her female ninja outfit, and the twins do sexy cowgirl with tight blue jeans and bare midriff tank tops. And of course, there are plenty of moments of semi-nudity with these female characters, rendered with the same level of high quality art and detail that I talked about earlier in this review.

And then there’s the amazing voice acting. Switching back and forth between both audio tracks, you notice just how much the English dub captures the essence of the original Japanese audio. When I first heard Micah Solusod’s English voice for Soul, I thought, “there’s no way that this short lead character sounds that masculine in the Japanese version.”

But sure enough, when I flipped to the Japanese track, he did sound that masculine! In fact, all the English characters match their Japanese counterparts perfectly, yet the dub still manages to feel totally natural and fluid. FUNimation pulled out all the stops with this series, and it would be hard for even the most hardcore sub fan to justify hating on this dub.

When it comes down to it, I really believe that you can place Soul Eater on the list of “Great Gateway Anime Series” alongside such staples as Sailor Moon, Pokémon, and Dragon Ball Z. You know, the kind of series you remember watching on TV when you were first introduced to the wonderful world of anime. Soul Eater is the kind of cartoony comfort that calls for a big bowl of cereal on a Saturday morning.

* * * * *

The Good: Wickedly awesome style and attitude, finely animated action sequences with exciting choreography, exceptional voice acting from both Japanese and English cast, and some damn sexy fan service.

The Bad: Practically all of the humor falls flat.

Final Verdict: Soul Eater is the embodiment of all the kick ass action series you remember from the time when you first got into anime. It doesn’t get more fun than this. Watch it!

Review copy provided by FUNimation Entertainment.

But rather than beating the life out of the girl, Miharu demands that Shinobu works off her debt to him by taking up a part time job at his grandmother’s kimono shop. And as the two work together passing out flyers for the shop, Shinobu begins to realize that Miharu isn’t actually as mean and intimidating as he looks. In fact, he’s actually quite a sweetheart.

Stolen Hearts is the American debut of shojo artist Miku Sakamoto, whose Nadeshiko Club will also be coming out later this year from CMX. While the art might seem like a bit of a turn off, Sakamoto fully redeems herself with one of the sweetest and most heartwarming romantic comedies I’ve ever read in manga form.

The heart of this comic is in the depiction of the budding teen romance between the two leads. The artist does not overwhelm you with mush, ultra-flowery backgrounds, or corny dialogue. Instead, she makes you subtly fall in love with each protagonist with just a fleeting look or a simple kind word. You will go for pages just reading a goofy comedy about school kids working a part time job, and then bam! Sakamoto hits you with a panel that will make you coo out, “Aww!” and smile.

And you actually do end up falling in love with the characters because they are awkward but caring teenagers. Shinobu is your average ordinary girl with nothing really that interesting about her, and Miharu very rarely shows any signs of being a “leading man” by any definition. But they both easily look past each other’s quirks and simply find a cute and kind partner in front of them, and I found this to just perfectly capture the essence of teen love into comic book form.

If I had to say anything bad about this comic, it would have to be in the visual department. The character designs are just plane ugly. The girl’s face is far too round and always seems to have a bewildered look going on. The lead man is even worst by being far too angular and skinny. The artist fails to make him come off as mean or intimidating when he’s supposed to be, nor kind and cute during the sentimental moments.

But besides for that, the one thing that really surprised me about Stolen Hearts was just how funny it ended up being. I think that CMX Manga’s translator on this book, Sheldon Drzka, is owed a lot a credit for this. Humor is the hardest thing to translate between Japanese and English, and most manga adaptations fail to do it. But Drzka’s natural sounding dialogue makes the text flow more smoothly for the English reader to take in all of the humor. His knack for arranging great comedic timing within the established word bubbles will ensure that you’ll be chuckling through out this entire volume.

* * * * *

The Good: A sweet and heartwarming love story that wonderfully captures the joy of teen romance. Very funny comedy back by a great English adaptation.

The Bad: Ugly character designs, especially with the male lead.

Final Verdict: Stolen Hearts is a romantic comedy and fully delivers on the romance and the comedy. Read it!

Review copy provided by CMX Manga.

Well, since the entire world has been abuzz over the recent announcement of Apple’s new iPad yesterday (which, by the way, I am totally buying as soon as it comes out). I decided to finally sit down with the latest official anime iPhone app and put it through its paces. After all, this app will also be available on the iPad in a few months.

The Fullmetal Alchemist State Alchemy Exam (iTunes link) is the second anime franchise coming to the iPhone from Japanese developer Appliya. A year ago, they released a series of novelty Evangelion apps, such as a clock and sticker app I was able reviewed on this blog last February. Now Appliya has partnered with FUNimation Entertainment to bring a number of the company’s top properties to the interactive small screen, and the first one up to bat is the very popular FMA franchise.

The State Alchemy Exam is essentially a trivia game that combines questions about the first FMA anime series (“What is the last name of Edward and Alphonse?”) with questions about Physics (“What is the process of changing a liquid into a gas?”) and Chemistry (“The bubbles in soda are caused by what gas?”). You begin at the easy level and when you can answer all 10 out of 10 questions correctly, you can move on to a more difficult level.

I have to admit that the geek in me actually had fun combining my knowledge of the fictional FMA universe with my knowledge of real world science. It adds a much needed hook to the generic trivia game formula, and it sort of made my year of 10th grade Chemistry not feel completely worthless in the long run.

The problem with the trivia questions is that you cannot move on to the next level unless you score 100% on the exam. One slip up and you are forced to go back and try again. This meant that I had to retry the same level again and again, and the questions began repeating themselves far too often, which quickly took away the fun and spontaneity of the game.

I did like Appliya’s integration of the OpenFeint score-keeping system. By signing up with the third-party service, you are able to participate in the world leaderboard and compare your stats with that of your friends. The set up was plainness and I was able to login using my Facebook account. Could not have been any easier to utilize this fantastic service.

But like I did with the Eva apps last year, I seriously have to question Appliya’s choice of pricing the app at $1.99, breaking that 99 cent threshold held by a majority of programs in the app store. The State Alchemy Exam is a novelty app and nothing more. You will play it for a round or two and have fun doing it, and then you will probably never touch it again after beating the hard level.

Is that worth 99 cents? Absolutely.

Is it worth twice that price? Well, that’s pushing it.

If you are a hardcore FMA fan, than you have probably already downloaded this app, and by all means, you should. This game is perfect for that kind of fan. But if you are just a casual fan of the series, then use a little digression before forking over the two dollars. The State Alchemy Exam is fun, but it is not particularly that amazing.

Review copy provided by Appliya.