Finished watching Space Guardian Angel Links

Finished watching Space Guardian Angel Links (1999, Sunrise, 13 epi.) on 10/5/2017.

Li Meifon is the captain of a beautiful, white spaceship appropriately named Angel Links. Her and her crew run a free space escort service, providing protection from space-pirates and other threats to those traveling or transporting their goods through space. 

7/10 - Hmm... this one's tough. I feel like it deserves a better score. It was an entertaining series for sure, but the final episode didn't do the story much justice and is probably the biggest reason for the score it got from me. Up until then I was always intrigued to watch the next episode. The characters were pretty cool, Meifon's backstory seemed pretty interesting, the pacing was good and so I was really getting excited to see what the final episode was going to be like. Well, maybe the show had to end prematurely, I'm not sure. Maybe I'll try to read the manga that it's based on one day to see how it compares.

Finished watching Crusher Joe

Finished watching Crusher Joe (1983, Sunrise, 2h 11m) on 04/18/2017.

Joe, Talos, Alfin and Ricky are a team of Crushers - folks who take up any job that pays them well. And their newest gig might be the strangest yet as they have to transport a royal woman in a cryogenic capsule to a different planet to be medically thawed. Easy enough, right? It would've been if midway through the trip the goods hadn't mysteriously disappeared and Joe's team blamed for the mishap. They must now uncover the mystery behind their mission and recover their cargo.

7.5/10 - This is a good movie. I think what I enjoyed the most out of it was the character designs. The space suits are really cool and vibrant, it was kind of inspiring for me. But the animation quality was just as good with lots of movement and light effects. Heck, there's even a disco place that gets destroyed by too much partying. Well, there was a whole fight that started out anyways. The dialogue and the characters are fun too, and the plot of the movie is really interesting. I just think the movie dragged on for a bit though. It's a two hour movie and I might've drowsed for a little bit. Maybe I'm just gettin old, hahahah! I bet I would've watched this over and over if I had a tape back in the 90's.

Finished watching Tsubasa: Tokyo Revelations

Finished watching Tsubasa: Tokyo Revelations (2007, Production I.G., 3 OVAs) on 4/13/2016.

With the services of a dimensional witch named Yuko, a boy named Syaoran and his childhood friend Sakura continue their journey together with a warrior named Kurogane and a magician named Fai in search for Sakura's memories which turned into feathers and scattered throughout various parallel universes. Far into their travels, they reach a dismal land known as Tokyo Country where factions fight eachother for survival and resources while acid rain constantly pours from the sky. Our heroes are taken in by a faction and reluctantly fight bloody battles as secrets are revealed changing their lives forever.

8.5/10 – Wow! Holy Mokona! Y'see what happens when you hand this show over to Production I.G.? Seriously! In just three episodes this OVA mini-series revealed so much more content, and did so much more than two whole seasons of RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE ever did. I honestly don't know what Bee Train was thinking. I mean, this show really kicked it up to 11. There's so much bloody violence, really not for the weak hearted. And then there's Sakura. Wow. She had to pull her own weight this time around, all on her own nonetheless and boy, did she take it like a champ! You really don't need me to keep going here. This show is amazing! I just wish it continued with a few more episodes. But, anyways, go watch it, you won't regret it.

Finished watching Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle's Second Season

Finished watching Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle's Second Season (2006, Bee Train, 26 episodes) on 4/7/2016.

With the services of a dimensional witch named Yuko, a boy named Syaoran and his childhood friend Sakura continue their journey together with a warrior named Kurogane and a magician named Fai in search for Sakura's memories which turned into feathers and scattered throughout various parallel universes.

5/10 – After this season I find myself really disappointed with this show. Like, really disappointed. While the animation and art quality remain mediocre at best, the story leaves much to be desired. Since I haven't read the manga yet, I can't say how it compares, but from other reviews I've read apparently it disgraces the manga. I really wish I had simply read the manga instead of wasting my time on this poor excuse of an adaptation. I'm being way too polite here considering how I'm feeling about it. I mean, I even was able to skip an episode and perfectly predict its outcome. That's how sad it is. One of the things that bothered me the most is how little exposition was shown throughout the series, on the exception of perhaps Kurogane. But what really got on my nerves was the ending. It made no sense, the production value was beyond par and the fact that *SPOILER START* the main characters just sit tight as they watch hundreds of feathers just slowly fly off into other dimensions instead of using their superhuman powers to collect them all. Heck, even Mokona could've sucked a good chunk in if not all of them. Like... seriously! *SPOILER END* The only exciting thing was seeing familiar faces from Chobits. I honestly think Production I.G. would've taken much better care of this series. Bee Train can suck it.

Finished watching Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle the Movie: The Princess in the Birdcage Kingdom

Finished watching Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle the Movie: The Princess in the Birdcage Kingdom (2005, Production I.G., 35mins) on 2/23/2016.

Sakura and Syaoran crash land into yet another alternate universe where they must help princess Tomoyo foil her uncle's evil plans to cover his kingdom in darkness, all the while recovering one of Sakura's memory feathers from him.

7/10 – Although it's a movie, it's pretty short. But I think it's because this movie double-features with a longer movie, xxxHolic: A Midsummer Night's Dream. The two are also directly connected. I have to point out that the studio that worked on this movie is not the same that worked on the Tsubasa series and so you can definitely tell the difference in visuals. Specially with Syaoran's David Bowie-like eyes. In the show they don't draw them like they did in the movie so you can't tell that they're actually different. But the show, at least for the first season don't really explain very well this fact. Just that there's something wrong with his eyes. But whatever. This movie was good. Animation quality is good. It uses the same soundtrack as the series. But I wouldn't recommend watching it without being familiar with the plot of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle.

Finished watching Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle First Season

Finished watching Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle First Season (2005, Bee Train, 26 episodes) on 2/22/2016.

With the services of a dimensional witch named Yuko, a boy named Syaoran and his childhood friend Sakura travel together with a warrior named Kurogane and a magician named Fai in search for Sakura's memories which turned into feathers and scattered throughout various alternate universes.

6.5/10 - This show's alright. While the first episode has a lot of things going on, the plot seems to advance at a slowish pace for the rest of the season. It's interesting to see all the different worlds they go to, but sometimes they stay a bit too long in some. Sometimes there are even worlds that don't have any feathers to be found. The very last world they went to I think had the most episodes. But it was actually a bit interesting as they were in an MMORPG without realizing it. The soundtrack doesn't seem very varied with two or three of the tracks being used way too often. The animation quality gets a bit poor at times throughout the middle of the season with even some character's faces looking a bit strange. But I guess that's a common thing with shows with lots of episodes. They leave the quality for the more important episodes, usually the first and last few ones.

Finished playing Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D

Finished playing Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D (2011, Grezzo, Nintendo EAD, Nintendo 3DS) on 2/10/2016.
Gameplay Hours: ~50

The Deku Tree senses a disturbance upon the land of Hyrule and summons a fairy named Navi to join a young Kokiri Village boy named Link in his mission to stop the impending evil. When Zelda, the land's princess flees her castle from the evil clutches of Ganondorf, she slings her magical ocarina to Link, entrusting him with the power to travel to the future and join forces with the six sages to stop Ganondorf's reign over the land.

8.5/10 – First of all. I have a lot of questions about all the time traveling in this game. But I'm just gonna take it all for granted and review this game as it is. And what a game! I'm really happy with the graphical improvements of this remake. Like, they're really good! And being able to look around and aim using the gyroscopic feature of the 3DS is just amazing. The touch screen of course adds a nice level of item accessibility that the console version could not provide. My only disappointment is that the soundtrack was kept the same. If it had been improved upon I would've given this game a higher rating.

Finished playing Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Finished playing Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2006, Nintendo EAD, Nintendo Wii) on 2/9/2016.
Gameplay Hours: 54

Link's blissful country life is suddenly interrupted when the village children get kidnapped. In his attempt to chase after them he also gets kidnapped by strange, dark creatures that bring him into their parallel world of darkness that suddenly turns Link into a wolf. To his rescue comes a small imp named Midna who teams up with him in order to save the kidnapped children, but in return Link must aid Midna with her own agenda.

9/10 – I actually played the Gamecube version of this game quite a few years ago, thankfully with time I forgot about some of it. I say thankfully because this made the game sort of a new experience for me, and also because the mirrored aspect of the Wii version didn't bother me as much this way if at all. I should also point out that this is one of the first three games I've played in 2016 and that the timing of me playing this game has nothing to do with the announcement of the Wii U HD one coming out soon. I simply got to the game in my long video game bucket list... Along with Ocarina of Time 3D. This coincidence might've been a blessing to me from the Goddesses, but it provided me with an interesting experience. Since I started playing these two games at the same time and kept playing them at relatively the same pace, I began noticing the similarities or references that TP took from OoT. The temples, the locations, the music and even Skull Kid! I had completely forgotten that Skull Kid was in this game, and that was pretty exciting for me! But let's get to the point. This game, in my opinion is like an immensely improved version of OoT with lots of extra stuff and, of course, a different storyline. The visuals of the game are stunning, and the character design is amazing. Even the NPCs look interesting! I often found myself staring at a character's model for minutes, studying each and every detail *coughtelmacough*. Same goes for the stunning environments in the game. Namely the Temple of Time. One time I spent like ten minutes in there sneakin' up on birds as wolf Link as Midna yawned countless times beggin' me to move on. Oh, and don't get me started on the kitties and their toys. And doggies. The soundtrack is beautiful as well. Not one track I didn't hate. Let me do a little plug-in here for ZREO's Twilight Princess soundtrack. You can download it for free on their website. They did an amazing job at reorchestrating the vast majority of the tracks in this game. But truly, this game is everything a Zelda game should be and more. My only complain is Midna's impatience. She nagged me way too much, specially at times when I need to just sit there and carefully study a puzzle.

Finished playing Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded Final Mix HD Remix

Finished "playing" Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded Final Mix HD Remix (2014, Square Enix, PlayStation 3)

Hours: ~3

King Mickey and his trusty subordinates try to figure out a strange, new message in Jiminy's first journal by digitizing it into the datascape, or as Maleficent calls it "date escape".

But they can't travel the datascape so they create data-Sora to explore the worlds within the journal, which are now suddenly filled with computer bugs and glitches, including the Heartless which data-Sora must fight.

6/10 – The story for this game is confusing and only half of it is necessary in my opinion. Heck, even the characters themselves are confused about the whole thing. But you can tell the game knows that and tries really hard to simplify it for you, albeit not a so simple and clean task to be honest. I still don't understand if all the stories that Jiminy wrote were actually restored as words on his journal. However, watching this without having to play the game helped me understand it a little better. I now know what the "hurt" is and where it's coming from. It all makes perfect sense. There's a reason why this "game" was bundled with KH2, and especially KHBbS. Still, I might have to review the story again. Maybe by playing the game again in the future I'll pay closer attention. I actually enjoyed the Nintendo DS game, it's just the story that's hard to grasp.

Finished playing Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix HD Remix

Finished playing Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix HD Remix (2014, Square Enix, PlayStation 3) on 12/12/2015.

Hours: ~65

Three keyblade wielder apprentices see their friendship split up in the dawn of a new era of darkness. In trying to find each other again they travel to different worlds where they meet new friends and eventually learn of a most foul betrayal that might separate their hearts for eternity.

100/10 – This is my favorite video game in the world. It’s story directly prequels that of Kingdom Hearts. And it’s quite the emotional one. And this Final Mix version only makes it even more so. I really love the battle pace of this game. It’s faster compared to the first Kingdom Hearts installment. The soundtrack is extraordinarily beautiful… naturally. I think something that’s been really heavy in Kingdom Hearts is item synthesis. In this game you also have that aspect in form of ability synthesis. By leveling up and combining them, you end up with sweeter ones.

Finished watching Be Forever Yamato

Finished watching Be Forever Yamato (1980, Academy Productions, Group TAC, 1hr 25mins.) on 10/3/2015.

Be Forever Yamato picks up from the first encounter with the Black Nebula Empire. Having been defeated by the Yamato last, the Empire sends to Earth a massive fortress that doubles as a bomb capable of destroying half the planet. From the fortress an army of robots and Black Nebula aliens came out to completely devastate the city they landed on. The Yamato comes to find that the only way to stop the bomb is to destroy its remote control from its place of origin.

7/10 – First thing I noticed was the dramatic art and animation quality improvement from the previous Yamato movies I've been watching. Looked great. The only thing that bothered me the most was this new character, Sasha. Daughter of Starsha and Mamoru, Sasha is half-Iscandarian and half-Japanese, apparently allowing her to grow from a baby into an adult within the span of one year. I felt like she didn’t contribute anything to the story. Like she was just a temporary replacement for Yuki's job in the ship. Also, the fact that she falls in love with Kodai was very… strange for me. Both because she's his niece and she's technically still one year old. Weird, man. Other than that, the movie was pretty decent.

Finished watching Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann the Movie Childhood's End

Finished watching Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann the Movie - Childhood's End (2008, Gainax, 1hr 52min) on 5/19/2015.

Simon and Kamina are two of the many children who live their lives digging underground tunnels looking for resources for their underground village. But one day Simon stumbles upon an object that turns out to be the key to an ancient machine of war. The two friends name it Lagann and use it to fend off a surprise attack on their village by a giant creature from the surface. They also meet Yoko, a massive-gun wielding wanderer also from the surface. The three join forces to explore and face the many challenges of the world outside and meet new friends along the way, as well as forging lasting relationships.

8.5/10 – It's been long since I watched the series, so halfway through the movie I was almost convinced I was just watching a series recap in movie form made entirely of recycled footage and a long montage. That might've been half-true for most of that first half of the movie (I say half-true because upon closer inspection, the animation is all new). The second half of the movie threw those concepts out the window and I found myself really enjoying it! Specially when they combined three different battles in the series into one giant brawl in the movie. And when I say combine, I mean they literally combined! Like, holy fuxx!

Y'know, I really think this whole show’s theme is about sex drive. They’re just sort of subtle about it.

Finished watching Space Battleship Yamato 2199

Finished watching Space Battleship Yamato 2199 (2013, Xebec, 26 episodes) on 5/14/2015.

The year is 2199. Earth is faced with a major crisis. After being bombarded by the extraterrestrial Gamilas Empire with radio active meteors for years, Earth has started looking more like Mars, forcing humans to live underground. But they won’t give up without a fight as they revive battleship Yamato as a space battleship to fight against the threat and make their way to planet Iscandar where a technology was promised to cleanse planet Earth of the radiation.

10/10 – I have no words. I really don’t. If you were thinking of watching this, do yourself a favor and just watch it.

Finished watching Darker than Black

Finished watching Darker than Black (2007, Bones, 25 epi.), Darker than Black: Gaiden (2010, Bones, 4 epi.) and Darker than Black: Gemini of the Meteor (2009, Bones, 12 epi.).

Ever since the the two Gates showed up in North America and Japan, the people that live in the spaces they encase have not seen the true night sky for ten years. That wasn’t the only change that took place. A select few became Contractors, people who’ve exchanged their humanity for supernatural powers. But the real question is, what exactly is outside of the Gates?

8/10 – I liked this show. I think the art and animation quality is its strongest point. The first season's plot though was a bit sluggish and more political than anything. After that I watched the surprisingly gory, 4-episode Gaiden which focused on a growing relationship between Hei and Yin and a hidden power in Yin as a "doll". Gemini of the Meteor carried on after that and was more character driven, more emotional, which kept me very engrossed. The plot twist was also good but the ending, like the first season, still left me with plenty of questions. Specially about the whole Gate thing. I still don't understand it well. I decided to review these three altogether because I gave them all the same rating.

Finished watching Space Dandy

Finished watching Space Dandy (2014, Bones, 26 epi.) on 12/2/2014.

Space Dandy is the dandiest guy in space! But her's not alone! Together with his smart-vacuum, IQ and Meow, a cat-like alien being, the three travel the cosmos to all sort of planets and locations in space bounty hunting for aliens of all sorts. And in the downtime they chill out at BooBies, Dandy's favorite restaurant where scantily-clad waitresses are the main attraction and entertainment.

8/10 – Interesting. Very interesting... Gosh, where should I start. Throughout the series you'll notice Dandy explore various differently themed locations with the two most constant being the Alien Registration Center and BooBies, a high-spirited, space counterpart of Hooters. Each episode's plot however seems to be self-contained giving you the impression that there isn't much of a continuity with the story. However, as you keep watching you begin to notice a subtle strange cliffhanger phenomenon at the end of episodes that leaves you puzzled as to what really happened. The show's art style tends to change a lot on occasion too, almost feeling like a new studio came in and did the episode. I'm guessing this is the show trying to be a little abstract, or as a wise man once put it - artsy-fartsy. This is perhaps to make the show visually interesting. Not that it isn't interesting already, by like, a long shot, due to its art quality already being quite excellent, but seeing those odd episodes give it a different taste which can be either welcomed or disliked... in a good, intriguing kind of way. Perhaps... a dandy kind of way? Ultimately the show can get a little dull and repetitive with its story, but just a little. The nice animation and visuals can really help keep you going. But I really would've welcomed more exposition.

Finished watching Space Pirate Captain Harlock Movie

Finished watching Space Pirate Captain Harlock Movie (2013, Toei Animation, 1h 55m) on 9/28/2014.

Mankind is at its wit's end as life outside of a devastated Earth proves to be nearly impossible. But Earth is governed by a greedy alliance known as the Gaia Coalition. Space Pirate Captain Harlock commands the fearsome Arcadia battleship as he plunders the alliance's spaceships to fight for the freedom of Earth, but can we really be saved by a man himself shrouded in mystery?

8.5/10 – This movie was, in my opinion, a great reboot of the original story. As I've mentioned many times before, it's not like Leiji's Harlock works are consistent with each other to begin with but this was a pretty cool re-imagining compared to the rest. Most of the original characters were there with some new ones as well. Some of the character's names were changed to something else and even the official translation had names different from the new ones too, which was a little weird for me but I didn't really care because I knew who these characters really were in essence. Now, let's talk about the graphics. Wow. It's an improvement on movies like Advent Children if you've ever watched it. It is so visually stunning it hurts. And of course, they have to show off how good it is with some pointless scene where this chick does an air flip in the shower for no reason whatsoever. I was so lost. But the story was awesome. Actually it was a bit dull towards the first third of the movie but then there's a plot twist that really got me! This movie is decently long and I loved the way it ended even though I saw it coming. Awesome. Awesome stuff.