AniManga: Bleach

Bleach is an anime series that started out as a manga by artist Noriaki "Tite" Kubo. I started watching the anime long before I checked out the manga which is unusual for me. Normally I read a few episodes of the manga and see if its worth looking into the anime since most companies change parts of the story of the manga. With Bleach the anime closely followed the manga story minus a couple of filler story arcs that happened when the anime caught up to the comic which is still in publication.

Bleach follows the adventures of a teenager named Ichigo Kurosaki who obtains the powers of a Soul Reaper also known as a Shinigami which literally means "Death God" from another soul reaper who had been injured. Once he acquired the powers he took on the duties of protecting the innocent from corrupted spirits called  Hollows, and guiding lost souls safely to the afterlife. 

The main protagonist is a powerful and manipulative soul reaper named Aizen Sōsuke who betrays the other Soul Reapers and allies himself with the strongest of the Hollows, the Espadas. His main goal was domination over the Soul Society, the Physical world and everything in between. A war between the Soul Society and Aizen raged and at the end only one was left standing.

There's allot of controversy now that the Aizen saga is over because Tite Kubo planned on ending the manga there. But due to the popularity of the comic as well as the anime he continued with a story-line. This has some people in an uproar and others excited on what direction the comic is going to go. Me personally I find the new story arc a little weak but since its just starting I'm giving it a chance. The anime is still dope and if you're not a fan you should check it out! I posted a few clips of the Soul Reapers battling Espada in the final war below.

Awesome Anime

All work and no play makes Vinum a cranky artist. So to combat the stresses of daily living I've been playing sports and watching some awesome anime. The series Freezing I spoke about in an earlier post just ended and to be honest the manga is better than the anime. 

I've got sucked into watching Hellsing Ultimate OVA cuz I liked the first Hellsing series and wanted to see if there was a difference. The new Hellsing closely follows the original manga. It's aggressive, violent, gory (guro style) and damn good action. Hellsing (The Holy Order of Protestant Knights) is an organization that investigates paranormal activity in England. They deal with Vampires, Ghouls and any other unnatural threat to the crown. 

The organization is led by Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing, a tough masculine woman with a sharp sword. Their secret weapon is the first and most powerful of all vampires, the vampire king named Alucard. He joined the Hellsing organization after being defeated by Integra's ancestor Arthur Van Helsing over 100 years before the series takes place.

The Hellsing organization finds out the remnants of a Nazi group called Millennium still exists and are intent on reviving the Third Reich by creating a legion of vampires. Millennium, Hellsing, and the Vatican section XIII (section 13) Iscariot clash in an apocalyptic three-sided war that encompasses the globe. 

There are ten episode of the series but only the first seven are released. What makes it interesting to watch (aside from the big guns and monsters) is the dialog and real historical tidbits about  World War II, the Vatican and the Nazi's they use in the story-line.

The only downer in the series is how they throw in juvenile humor at points to lighten the mood and make the complex subject matter and gratuitous violence more digestible. In my humble opinion the story doesn't need the comedy cuz its a poor distraction from the plot. I posted the trailer and a compilation clip of the first 7 episodes combined below.

AniManga: Trigun, Freezing and Basilisk

This post is for my anime addicted, otakus looking for the next anime series to keep you entertained. I recently returned from a conference in France where my hotel room had no cable. So at night I would watch a variety of shows and movies. Some of the series are still ongoing and some were remakes of older series and others are new. Trigun, Freezing (ongoing), and Basilisk are all series worth watching depending on your taste in anime.

Trigun - is a comedy action series about a gunslinger named Vash the Stampede who is known to leave a trail of destruction in his path. Really he’s just a goofy kid with amazing reflexes, who believes in peace over violence and making the world a safer place. He's followed by two Bernardelli Insurance Society employees who chase Vash around in order to minimize the damages caused by his appearance. Most of the damage attributed to Vash is actually caused by bounty hunters in pursuit of the "$$60,000,000,000" (sixty billion "double dollars") bounty on Vash's head. He is occasionally joined by a priest, Nicholas D. Wolfwood, who, like Vash, is a superb gunfighter with a mysterious past. The show started as a manga and was adapted into a 26 episode television series in 1998. In 2010 they released a film titled Trigun: Badlands Rumble.

Freezing - is a SERIOUS, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Action Ecchi series that is ongoing. Set in a slightly futuristic world, Earth was invaded and is at war with aliens from another dimension called the Nova. In order to counter them, Pandoras and Limiters, genetically modified girls with super fighting skills and their male partners who use special "freezing" powers to limit their opponent's mobility, are made to fight against the Nova. The series focuses on Kazuya Aoi, a Limiter whose late sister was a Pandora, and Satellizer el Bridget, a powerful Pandora nicknamed "The Untouchable Queen," both who are enrolled at the West Genetics Academy. The story follows Kazuya's friendship with Satellizer, the students of the Academy and Earth's war against the Nova. The show is violent, sexual and fast-paced like High School of the Dead on steroids. It only has 3 episodes released but if you like action the rest is worth the wait. The clip below doesn't do the battle scenes justice.

Basilisk - Was a manga turned to 24 episode anime series packed with action. The story takes place in the year 1614. Two ninja clans, Tsubagakure of the Iga and Manjidani of Kouga, battle each other to determine which grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu will become the next shogun. The deadly competition between 10 elite ninja from each clan unleashes a centuries-old hatred that threatens to destroy all hope for peace between them. Its a cross between Ninja Scrolls and Romeo and Juliet because the grandchildren of the rival clan leaders are in Love and soon may have to face each other in combat. Take a peek.

AniManga: Darker Than Black

This post is for my Otaku's and Anime addicts. I just finished this series Darker than Black and if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. 

An uncharted area called Hell's gate appears in Tokyo and all the stars disappear and are replaced by artificial stars.  During this time people started gaining superhuman abilities. These humans are known as Contractors. They are cold blooded murderers, smothering unnecessary emotions with logic and rationale.

Contractors are given the name because of an involuntary compulsion to "pay the price" each time their power is used, which can range from eating particular foods and completing meaningless tasks, to self-harm and having their bodies change in peculiar ways. Various nations and organizations around the world train and utilize Contractors as spies and assassins, resulting in violent battles for valuable objects and information.

The story revolves around a Chinese contractor codenamed Hei who has the ability to use electricity. He undertakes various espionage and assassination missions in Tokyo under the direction of a secret organization known as the Syndicate. 

The show is fast paced and has enough action and betrayals to make you wanna watch the sequel. I posted a clip below of Hei fighting another powerful contractor named Wei. Check it out and if you like it, tell a friend to tell a friend.

AniManga: Monster

This is for all my anime addicts. I’ve been watching this series “Monster” that’s amazing! Monster is a warped and twisted, psychological, suspense, drama that follows the life of a doctor who accused of murder. He saved the life of a nine year old boy who he finds out later was being groomed by the government to be the next Hitler or Anti-Christ. 

Similar to the movie “The Fugitive,” the doctor is constantly being chased by the police and secret government agencies. The boy is trying to find his twin and the doctor is trying to stop the boy. The show has numerous sub-plots and is a cross between Die Hard, The Fugitive, and Alfred Hitchcock all mixed together. I posted a short clip below check it out.

AniManga: Dragon Ball Z

Dragon Ball Z was the first anime I saw when I went to Japan, this was back in 1993. I lived there for over a year and DBZ had already been running for almost four years when I started watching. DBZ started out as a manga (like most anime) and became a T.V. show around 1989. The series follows the adventures of Son Goku and his children from his childhood through adulthood as they train in martial arts and explore the world in search of the seven mystical objects known as the Dragon Balls, which can summon the mystical dragon Shinron who could grant 3 wishes. The wishes could be used for anything like bringing back the dead, to granting immortality. Due to their incredible power the dragon balls attracted a wide variety of villains, both alien and human which Goku and his group of warriors had to defeat.

The show was broken into three seperate series first was Dragon Ball which chronicled Goku's childhood. Then Dragon Ball Z the most popular which dealt with his adulthood and growing martial arts expertise, and finally Dragon Ball GT which dealt more with his children and descendant than Goku. He makes appearances throughout the show, but due to a curse he was reverted to the child form he had in Dragon Ball. Recently DBZ has been re-mastered and released as Dragon Ball Kai, which changes the original footage and story.

Since its release, Dragon Ball has become one of the most popular manga series of its time in both Japan and North America. It enjoys a high readership, with over 150 million volumes of the series, has 17 feature films and was ranking number 12 among the best anime series of all time in 2006. Below I posted a small clip of one of the best fights in the series Goku vs. the Galactic warrior Freeza. Peep the part where he bitch slaps the taste out of Freeza's mouth...if that doesn't get you hooked on the series then the fight with Goku vs. Perfect Cell will.

2 OLD 4 ANIME

I was in this conversation recently with a friend about animation. His son is 13 and loves the show FMA ( Full Metal Alchemist), I also watch the show which surprised my friend cuz he thought I was too old for anime. His understanding of anime was that most animation was for children like Saturday morning cartoons. Over the next two hours Isaac and I gave his father an education in animation. After watching the Ninja Scrolls and Fist of the Northstar my friend joined the fan club. You never get to old to enjoy the things you love in life. There are countless amounts of awesome anime to watch but I only like a select few. The three shows I'm watching right now are Full Metal Alchemist, Naruto Shippuuden and Ichiban Ushiro no Diamao of the three F.M.A. is the best.

Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood - Their world is styled after the European Industrial Revolution. Set in a fictional universe in which alchemy is one of the most advanced scientific techniques known to man, the story follows the brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric, who want to restore their bodies after a disastrous failed attempt to bring their mother back to life through alchemy. Check out the clip below.