I’ve saved the best (or at least, the most important to me personally) for last. This week is the crown jewel of this season of Xbolt’s Anime Reviews. A Touhou anime. Granted, it’s not an official anime done by a professional studio, but honestly, who cares? The fans who put this together did a superberiffic […]
In the near future, the Internet has grown into a huge virtual world called the World of OZ. In OZ, users create avatars to represent themselves, and do stuff. Shop, game, etc. Companies and governments have also set up shop in OZ, so it is connected to much of the […]
If you could travel through time, what would you do? That is the question facing Makoto Kanno, a high school girl who is granted the ability to travel through time. Of course she doesn’t use it for malicious purposes, just little things like avoiding embarrassing situations, hanging out with friends longer, and things of that […]
An Anime Review by Xbolt. Rozen Maiden. A show that came highly recommended from the venerable Loremaster of the Chex Quest Fan Forums. He talked about Rozen Maiden even before I watched Sugar, but I never got around to watching it – until now. The Rozen Maidens are a collection of dolls created by the […]
Bamboo Blade is a show about a high school kendo club. Hence the name “Bamboo Blade.” Toraji Ishida is the club’s instructor. He makes a bet with a friend of his, who is the kendo teacher at another school. They would each get five girls and have a match with each other. And if Toraji […]
Haibane Renmei came highly recommended from the same person as one of the two guys through which I found out about Sugar, all those years ago. (Does two and a half years entitle me to use that phrase?) And I do see similarities between the two. Neither one is a grand tale of heroes and […]
If you appreciate beautiful music and art, you will like these… Air For New Year’s, I stayed up watching Air until midnight. Air was the last of the “Key Three,” three animes based on visual novels by Key Visual Arts. Kanon and Clannad were the other two. The story is about Yukito Kunisaki, who […]
Hayao Miyazaki. If you know anything about the Japanese film industry, you almost certainly know the name Hayao Miyazaki. He is widely hailed as one of the greatest animators living today. Spirited Away is his most famous work. Since it was released in 2001, it became not just the highest grossing animated film in Japanese […]
Are y’all excited about Christmas? It’s almost winter now. And with winter, comes winter break. And with winter break, comes more time for me to watch anime! So a new season of Xbolt’s Anime Reviews starts today. And the first will be… Last Exile. Last Exile is a very interesting show. The art is very, […]
This was the first anime I ever watched, and it still holds the place closest to my heart. The basic premise is that the world’s weather is controlled by Season Fairies; tiny creatures who use magical instruments to do their thing. Normally, humans cannot see Season Fairies, but very rarely, there comes along someone who […]
It is clear that the creators of Death Note know how to develop characters and tell a good story. In this anime, Light Yagami is a brilliant high school student who places first on every exam he takes. One day, he finds a mysterious notebook: the Death Note. According to the instructions inside the cover, […]
An Anime Review by Xbolt. The word “Clannad” is derived from “clan,” the Irish word for family. And that’s really what is at the heart of the anime; the building of families. Not just actual relatives, but a close circle of friends who are like family. Tomoya Okazaki is a high school delinquent, who is […]
Azumanga Daioh is yet another school life comedy featuring a group of high school girls. The series has been praised for its off-beat humor driven by eccentric characters. Chiyo Mihama is a genius in every sense of the word. She skipped five grades, entering high school at age 10. Despite the huge age gap, she […]
One more semester of college is over, and summer is here. Which means I now have time to devote to watching anime, and then writing about it. To kick off the Summer 2010 season of Xbolt’s Anime Reviews, I selected Ghost in the Shell. Ghost in the Shell came out in 1995, and was a […]
An Anime Review by Xbolt WOOHOOO!! Cowbooooys…Innn….SPAAACE!!! First aired in 1998, Cowboy Bebop is another oldie with high ratings. But this time, I feel the praise is more justly deserved than that of Neon Genesis Evangelion, which I reviewed in the March issue. Set in the year 2071, Cowboy Bebop tells the story of some […]
Strawberry Marshmallow (Ichigo Mashimaro) is another school life comedy, all about comedic situations rather than an overall storyline. However, instead of high school girls, this time we have elementary school girls. And one college girl. Nobue Ito is the eldest of the group. (By far. She is twenty.) She is Chika’s older sister, but all […]
College Bound Reading List Manga Messiah “We’re thrilled to offer the greatest story ever told, about the most controversial man who ever lived, in the most popular graphic novel format on earth.” ~Kevin O’Brien, Director of Bibles and Bible Reference at Tyndale House Publishers I was pleased to see that Tyndale House is publishing a […]
Neon Genesis Evangelion. NGE. A BIG name in anime. It began airing in 1995, so it is an older show. It went on to win several animation awards, and was highly influential to later animes. NGE is also famous for being a highly controversial show. You either love it, or you hate it. Personally, I […]
The title ‘K-On!’ is derived from the Japanese word for light music, keiongaku. The story revolves around four girls who form a light music club upon entering high school. They dream of performing at the Budokan, a very famous concert hall in Tokyo. Yui Hirasawa is a very shy girl, who is not very athletic, […]
An Anime Review by Xbolt. WOOHOOO!! Garbagemennnn…Innn….SPAAACE!!! And there you have the basic setting for Planetes. The year is 2075. It has been over a century since mankind first ventured out into space, and in that time, we have established permanent bases on the Moon, and we have set foot on Mars. Unfortunately, we have […]
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is… different than I was expecting. At first glance, I thought it was going to be some high school drama kind of thing. But what do I find upon watching it? A quasi-science fiction story! I totally did not expect that. The story follows Haruhi Suzumiya, a first-year high school […]
Webcomix A column by Peter (age 19) The last comic from RH Junior. FINALLY. Quentyn Quinn, Space Ranger is about a descendant of the other Quentyn Quinn, Questor of Freeman Downs. The Racconans have ventured out into space, and Quentyn is a Space Ranger. Space Rangers are: Brave warriors, explorers, frontier lawmen who push the […]