Adult Siblings Versus...Episode 89: Project A-ko

Alright, I will try to catch up to the actual podcast, as we are quite behind.

In this episode of Adult Siblings Versus...we looked at Project A-ko, which in a way was the patient zero of our anime obsession when we were kids.

If you're only ever going to watch one sci-fi, lesbian school girl anime
Make it this one!

More details after the jump.

Adult Siblings Versus...Epsiode 83: Trigun

Unfortunately, I'm a little late with this one, but Adult Siblings Versus...recently dropped an episode on the classic anime Trigun, a show so imbedded in my own history as an anime fan that I never dared review it on this blog.

Until now!

Well, kind of. It  snot really here, it's on the podcast. But you can listen to it here!

Classic cartoon or overrated nostalgia bait?
You decide!

More details after the jump.

Beta's Top Ten Favorite Gundams (Part 2)

It took them 43 years to have a female protagonist in the main series

And we’re back. This is Part II of my Top Ten Favorite Gundam list. Before you take a look at today’s blog I highly suggest that you look at the previous entry. If you’re too lazy for that, here’s some important text:

For the purposes of this list, the primary factors taken into consideration when judging Gundam were 1) Functionality, 2) Aesthetics, and 3) Cool Factor. Only Gundams were considered for this list, but not the SD Gundam part of the franchise. The Gundams from the Gundam Build series will be counted even though they are technically plastic models rather than actual giant robots. 

List so Far:

 #10: Gundam Aerial/Gundam Aerial Rebuild

#9: A-Z Gundam

#8: Gundam Heavyarms

#7 Tequila Gundam Daniel Custom

#6: ∀ Gundam

 Okay, we caught up? 

Honorable Mention #2: RX-78-2 Gundam. No Top Ten Gundam list would be complete without the original Gundam. Except this list. It’s not on this list. Look, I appreciate this thing as a classic, but frankly it’s the blueprint that is the basis of all other Gundam, almost all of which could be described as “Gundam + ___ = Cool.” It just feels like even by Zeta Gundam it felt like we had moved on. Sorry if this bugs you.

Part II after the jump.

[WARNING: This page contains unavoidable spoilers for various Gundam anime, in particular Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans, so read at your own risk.]

Beta's Top Ten Favorite Gundams (Part 1)

"It's a Gundam!"

As I continue dig back into my blog per the suggestion from my therapist, I find myself leaning towards a post I can been wanting to write for a number of years, and even started at some point, but never got around to posting; a Top Ten list of my favorite Gundams. [Note: Part 2 is Here]

For those of you who may not be aware, Gundam is a metaseries of anime, manga, novels, video games, and tons and tons of plastic model kits that have been a mainstay in Japan since 1979. It’s best to think of it as their answer to Star Trek, a space opera franchise with a variety of different shows, spin-offs, and sequels. While each show has some differences, the basic premise usually centers around giant robots as tools of war (as opposed to superheroes, as they were portrayed in Japan before Gundam), some sort of conflict between the people of Earth and the humans living in space, a specialized giant robot (usually called a “Gundam”) that is significantly more powerful than the standard units, and that war is hell and the realities of it are not heroic but ultimately tragic.

Also it’s a giant commercial to move plastic model kits based on all the robots in the various media. GOTTA SELL THEM TOYS!!!

(Some of) My Gunpla pile of shame

I am a fan of giant robots and Gundam in particular always resonated with me since I was a kid. Like any Gundam fan I have my favorite units across the franchise. When making this list I focused on three aspects:

1)     Functionality: What does the Gundam do, do well, and do better than all other Mobile Suits?

2)     Aesthetics: How interesting or visually appealing is the Gundam?

3)     Cool Factor: A combination of intangibles, personal biases, and the Rule of Cool.

A few guidelines before we start: 

·        To streamline the list, we’re only looking at Gundams, not other mobile suits from various shows. Otherwise machines like the Tallgeese, Qubeley, and The O would dominate the list.

·        I have decided that the Gundams from the Gundam Build side of the franchise will be considered, even though technically they are basically in-universe toys and video games rather than giant robots. For the purposes of this list, they’re close enough.

·        I will NOT be counting anything form the various SD Gundam franchise, as from what I understand those things are proper characters instead of pilotable robots.

Honorable Mention: Barbatos Lupus/Barbatos Lupus Rex. I struggled over this for months (yes, that’s how long I’ve been tinkering with this list). I think the issue is that these two versions of the main Gundam from Iron-Blooded Orphans are just different enough that I feel they don’t count as one suit, but neither one is able to make the list in its own. If I could get a version of this with the look of Lupus and the weaponry and performance of Lupus Rex it would have beaten out #10 or more.

Full list after the jump.

Anime Review: One-Punch Man

One-Punch Man had been on my radar for a couple of years now. It has one of the weirder journeys from original material to anime adaptation, as well as being one of the more curious success stories that I’ve heard. It was originally a web comic created by an amateur manga artist going by the handle “ONE” in 2009. Though not exactly the prettiest comic ever created (ONE was literally just messing around with manga software for fun when making this comic) it ended up striking a chord with fans and soon went viral. It eventually came to the attention of professional manga artist Yusuke Murata, probably most famous to Americans as the artist for Eyeshield 21. Murata offered to redraw the web comic and publish it on Young Jump Web Comics in 2012. Since then the popularity of One-Punch Man has skyrocketed and millions of copies of the collected volumes have sold in Japan. As someone who has seen the original web comic believe me when I say how flipping crazy it is that One-Punch Man has gotten so big.

In 2015 an anime seemingly based more on the remake by Murata began airing. Produced by big time studio Madhouse and licensed by Viz Media in America One-Punch Man was actually simulcast in the US as it was debuting in Japan, which is something that has become more and more common in the last three years. I accidentally came across it on Hulu last Fall and nearly lost my mind, as I had no idea watching this show legally in this country was an option.

I’ll get more into this in the review itself but it’s important to note that One-Punch Man is a parody and there’s a lot of jokes and puns involved. But since I’m a dumb American (as are a lot of you, according to this blog’s stats) a lot of these go right over my head. One outstanding example we should all be aware of is that the name “One-Punch Man” is itself a pun based off the long running children’s picture book series Anpanman. This is apparently hilarious. If nothing else it automatically tells you exactly what tone you should expect when going into this one.

Anpanman's head is filled with bean paste or something?
I'm not sure because I'm not a Japanese child

Full review after the jump.

Anime Review: Kill la Kill

The last year or two there have been a handful of anime that have been so successful in Japan that their popularity has bled over to the United Sates. There have been enough titles that have done this lately that I am legitimately wondering if we’re on the verge of a new anime boom. I’m talking about shows like Attack on Titan, Puella Magi Madoka Magica and, of course, Sword Art Online which as you know I was very fond of. Even the new Sailor Moon anime, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal, has generated a tremendous amount of buzz. But of all these surprising hits I’m willing to bet that Kill la Kill is the goddamn strangest.

Kill la Kill was directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi and written by Kazuki Nakashima, the same team responsible for Gurren Lagann, one of the most popular anime of the last decade. This show was the first full length show to be produced by Trigger, a brand new studio. Debuting in 2013 it only wrapped up a few months ago and the turnaround of it showing up on various streaming services was pretty fast. Licensed by Aniplex of America as of this writing Kill la Kill has not yet been released on home video in the USA but is has been shown on Hulu and Netflix.

The internet has been abuzz about Kill la Kill for months now and I was seeing references and debates about it for quite some time before I bothered to give it a shot. And really I only did it so I could see what all the fuss was about. Well I have and I’ve got an opinion on it.

Full review after the jump.

Anime Review: Gundam Build Fighters

Last time I talked about the anime metaseries Gundam. Today we’re looking at the most recent addition to that series, Gundam Build Fighters. Like pretty much all Gundam series in recent memory it was produced by Sunrise and made its debut in 2013, making it the timeliest anime I’ve ever reviewed. As of this writing it has yet to be selected for import but there is some legal streaming of it around the web.

In the last couple of years Gundam hadn’t been doing super great and had not lived up to the runaway success of 2002’s Mobile Suit Gundam SEED. The most recent TV show, Mobile Suit Gundam AGE, ended up being a huge flop. Perhaps that’s why the creators decided to go in a different direction for Build Fighters. Like with Mobile Fighter G Gundam this anime threw out all tropes associated with the franchise but unlike G Gundam that included the space opera narrative. This series takes the concept first introduced in the OVA series Model Suit Gunpla Builders Beginning G, an anime that is basically about fans of Gundam playing with the model kits associated with the show (which are nicknamed “Gunpla”), and takes it to its logical conclusion: have a whole TV show about young kids battling each other. To put it simply this show is basically a cross between Gundam and Yu-Gi-Oh! If reading that last sentence made you want to shake your head and close this window I don’t blame you as I had a similar reaction when I first discovered this show. Here’s the thing; it’s wrong to judge something before you check it out so let’s take a look at this crazy anime and then verbally rip it to shreds.

Full review after the jump.

Beta vs. Gundam

"Fly, Gundam!"

Today I was going to do a review of Gundam Build Fighters, the latest Gundam TV series which just finished up its run in Japan a few months ago. However it occurred to me that the Gundam metaseries is a pretty big deal but that a lot of people who read this blog might not know much about the franchise. So really I had two choices: either I write the review and have an intro that may be as long as, or longer than, the review itself OR dedicate a blog to talking about Gundam and get it out of my system. Since that’s something I’ve wanted to do for years anyway it seemed like a pretty good time to do so.

For those of you who have absolutely no idea what the hell I’m talking about Gundam is a large franchise, primarily an anime, that’s extremely popular in Japan and pretty darn popular in America as well with the right people. Although it’s a bit more complicated than that the most important thing to know about it that is it features giant robots (or “mecha” as they’re often called) fighting each other with beam rifles and laser swords….and usually in space. If that sentence doesn’t at least peak your interest than I’m unsure if you and I will get along.

So today I’ll be looking at the Gundam TV series. It’s important to understand though that there is a lot more to this franchise than just the cartoons. As a giant money maker for its parent company Bandai this series has taken just about as many forms as you can think of. However for the purposes of this article I won’t be going over every little thing. In fact I’ll likely be skipping or skimming over many of the spin-off movies or OVAs, of which there are a lot, so if I don’t mention a comic or a light novel series here or there just note that I likely am aware it exists and you don’t need to tell me how dumb I am for forgetting to mention it. And if I do skip your favorite Gundam related thing and it really bugs you feel free talk about it in the comment section (just don’t ramble; that’s my job and I’ll delete anything that tries to touch my Kool-Aid).

We all dig giant robots after the jump.

Anime Review: Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040

I probably don’t talk enough about classic anime on this blog. Let’s rectify that today with Bubblegum Crisis.

Bubblegum Crisis was an eight episode OVA (original video animation; a "straight to video" sort of deal with more prestige) released in Japan starting in 1987. Set in and futuristic cyberpunk setting the series focused on a group of women who used mechanical suits, to battle against rogue robots called “boomers” and the evil mega corporation Genom. Heavily influenced by Blade Runner this series is considered to be both a groundbreaking and classic anime series. Despite this it’s initial run was cut short from thirteen episodes to eight leaving it unfinished. This was due, it would seem, to in-fighting within the studios producing it, budgetary problems and supposed a lack of initial popularity in Japan. Since then there has been a (less critically revered) sequel to try to tie the loose ends up, called Bubblegum Crash, as well as numerous spin-offs, prequels and adaptations. Furthermore Bubblegum Crisis was a pretty important anime for American audiences as it was from the same era of cartoons brought over cartoons like Akira and Project A-ko. It was one of the late 80s/ 90s anime exports that gained a cult-like fandom from collage age Generation X-ers (because there was once a time where Gen-X-ers were young and hip, apparently) that directly led to the anime boom of the early 2000s. The show is still popular today, having recently been the subject of a successful Kickstarter campaign to bring it to Blu-Ray. With so much pedigree and historical significance it’s a no-brainer that I review it now.

But instead I’m going to review its 1998 remake. Hooray.

It was decided to commission a re-telling of the original OVA, almost certainly because that anime was never properly finished. However in this new version the character designs were greatly altered, as were the personalities of most of the cast, and the story ended up going in a completely new direction with different themes. As far as I can tell Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 (as it was called) is not considered to be as good as it’s predecessor. In fact it would seem that BGC fans kind of think of it as an afterthought. Hell, it doesn’t even have its own TV Tropes page, which I found to be really odd as those guys make pages about everything! (By the way, I wouldn’t mind a Beta is Dead TV Tropes page. I’m just saying…)

Anyway it was produced by Anime International Company and licensed for America by ADV Films in 2001. Since ADV Films’ mid-2000s bubblegum financial crisis FUNimation has picked up the license and re-released the show on DVD in 2010. I have never seen a single episode of the original Bubblegum Crisis so, unlike a lot of classic anime fans, I will be reviewing this on its own merit rather than comparing to the beloved series. Is it unfairly judged or does it have its own crisis of content?

Full review after the jump.

[WARNING: The review contains a few spoilers for a cartoon that came out in the 90s so read at your own risk if you managed to remain spoiler free this whole time]

Anime Review: Tears to Tiara

I recently watched, then re-watched a show called Tears to Tiara. Now I’ve reviewed a few anime based on video games in the past but this case is a little different. As far as I can tell Tears to Tiara was originally a tactical role playing game…an adult tactical role playing game. What do I mean by “adult”? Well as far as I can tell by “adult” I mean “porn”. It was a JRPG that was porn.

Huh. Well that exists, apparently.

Remember that I try to keep myself from doing any  major research about an anime I’ve never seen before until I finish watching it so believe me when I say the cartoon had nothing to make me think that its source material was pornographic in nature. I would assume the main reason for this is that technically the show is based on the non-porn Playstation 3 remake that came out a few years later. Still to go through the whole show only to find out that it has ties to a game where cartoon girls, several of whom must be underage, are getting sexed up by the main character was shocking. And not the good type of shocking like “Oh man, that was awesome” but more like the “F**k, now I need a goddamn drink” type of shock.

Getting back on track Tears to Tiara premiered in 2009 and was produced by a fairly new studio White Fox (this seems to be their first series). Sentai Filmworks licensed it in North America very soon afterwards. At twenty-six episodes long it’s a pretty full series. Ignoring the porn that it’s associated with does this cartoon manage to stand on its own, or is it just a gimmicky premise that’s not allowed actually use it’s gimmick on Television (It’s gimmick is sex).

Full review after the jump.

 [WARNING: There are some spoilers in this review, fairly minor in the grand scheme of things, but still spoilers.]

Anime Review: Sword Art Online

So I was working on a review of the anime Tears to Tiara but then I ended up watching and finishing Sword Art Online on Crunchyroll.com and I felt a deep desire to talk about it while it was still fresh in my head.

Sword Art Online is a 25-episode anime based on a still ongoing (as of this writing) Light Novel series by Reki Kawahara first premiering in 2012, making the most recent anime I’ve ever reviewed. Produced by the studio A-1 Pictures it was licensed by Aniplex of America and is scheduled for DVD/Blu-ray release on August 13th. It’s also currently in it’s first run on Americans television on Adult Swim’s Toonami block but it can currently be legally streamed on Crunchyroll, like I said.

Now this is base do a light novel series so that spells trouble right off the bat, especially since it’s still ongoing. I’ve reviewed several anime based on that medium and while they’ve ranged in quality (some awesome, others not so much) the mostly seem to have unsatisfying endings in common to leave off on either cliffhangers or otherwise imply further adventures that never seem to happen. Even Baccano!, one of the best anime of all time, did this. Seeing as of this weekend there will be thirteen books in the series and this cartoon only covers the first four I foresee history repeating itself.

Full review after the jump.

[WARNING: There may be some minor spoilers in this review]

Anime Review: Princess Tutu

I’ve finally got around to this anime, which is probably the single most suggested series I’ve gotten in over a year. I hadn’t gotten to it sooner partly because it’s been on my list but fairly low, partly because I was somewhat hesitating because it aims at a young demographic, and partly because I tried watching it on Netflix but was turned off by the English voice acting for the main character and instead waited for the DVD to creep up my queue. But I’ve finally watched it so I’m happy to review it.

Princess Tutu, which was suggested by a fan named LaTonya as far back as early last year, is an original anime series created by Hal Film Maker in 2002. A twenty-six episodes, evenly split into two seasons, it was licensed by now-defunct ADV Films. It currently is being licensed by AEsir Holdings but the DVD I watched was the ADV Films copy (this will be important later). This show is clearly in the magical girl genre, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like; young girls given powers from some magical source. Sailor Moon is probably the most well known in the west but it’s a pretty varied genre with all sorts of shows under its umbrella.

So anyway with all the time it took for me to actually watch this show I have to ask: does it live up to all the hype?

Full review after the jump.

Anime Review: Needless

So funny story (but not so much funny “haha”): I was watching an anime called Chrome Shelled Regios on Netflix a few months back that I was fully intending to review for the blog so I can get more of that sweet, sweet anime fandom traffic on the blog. It wasn’t exactly a great show, and I had a hell of a lot of stuff to say about it, but it was pretty decent. Then out of nowhere Neflix removed something like thirty-five anime titles off their online streaming service. Why? I have no goddamn clue, but as a result I suddenly didn’t have access to the show I was watching despite being in the last five episodes of the series. To make matters worse I tried to rent the DVD from Netflix’s mail service but they didn’t have the last DVD of the series, the only DVD I needed, in stock (they had the rest of the series though). You f**ked me, Netflix.

So Chrome Shelled Regios was off the table, as was the vast majority of the shows I was planning on getting around to at some point. But as luck would have it I came across Needless. In fact I actually started watching Chrome Shelled Regios on accident because I thought I was watching Needless (I got their cover art mixed up). So maybe I got f**ked but, at the time, I figured it would all work out the way it was meant to.

We’ll get to how well that worked out in just a minute.

In any event Needless is based on a manga by Kami Imai. It was adapted into an anime by Madhouse in 2009 and licensed for North America in 2011 by our pals at Sentai Filmworks. Like most of the anime I review I knew pretty much nothing about this show going into it. It’s been referred to as “s-CRY-ed meets Gurren Lagann” and those are two of my favorite anime ever. That’s a good sign, right? Right? Hello?

Full review after the jump.

[WARNING: There are some spoilers in this review so read at your own risk]

Anime Review: True Tears

Another anime review? So soon? What is this, 2010? I ended up going through this show really quickly and it left me very, err, let’s say “talkative”. Longtime fans of the blog may remember that I sometimes get a bit flustered and annoyed with how much science fiction/fantasy based anime I watch and somewhat yearned for something based in reality for a change. Well True Tears is my reward.

True Tears is a 2008 anime that is based on a Visual Novel of the same name. I can’t recall if I’ve talked about visual novels before but basically they’re video game-like digital literature. They’re not actually video games (mostly) but they tend to be “Choose Your Own Adventure” type of narratives with vastly different branching scenarios. Many, many of them are labeled as dating sims. A lot of those are also pornography. Yep. The closet example I can think of off-hand is the BlazBlue fighting game series as its story mode is in the visual novel style (but itself wouldn’t be considered one). The most infamous visual novel may be School Days which featured a bunch of endings that involved crazy-ass murders and soul crushing despair before getting an anime adaption that ran with that theme with horrific results. Visual novels are very popular in Japan, and a lot of anime are based on them, but they don’t really appear too much in America.

Weirdly True Tears apparently doesn’t have anything to do with the original visual novel except for the name; not the setting, not the plot, not the characters, not even the artwork. I’m not sure why this is but if I were to guess I’d say it might be because the anime studio didn’t want to make an show where fans essentially already know all the possible endings or perhaps the studio came up with its own original show but decided it would sell better if it had the same name of a popular visual novel. Regardless the show was produced by P.A. Works, Lantis, and Bandai Visual in 2008. Bandai Entertainment licensed and released it in North America later that year. A mundane, romance anime set in the real world with no fantastical elements? What could possibly go wrong?

 Full review after the jump.

[WARNING: The review contains MASSIVE spoilers as I apparently didn't give a crap if I spoiled every detail of the show's ending. Read at your own risk.] 

Anime Review: Rideback

Do you remember way back in my reviews for Demonic Devil Emperor Satan King Daimao and Ga-Rei Zero when I said I watched three anime series back to back in one sitting and it basically drove me insane? Well the third anime I viewed that day was Rideback. I didn’t review it back then because I actually didn’t finish the last two episodes. By the time I got around to doing so I had pretty much forgotten the plot so I decided to re-watch the whole thing. It turns out that going through it a second time was something of a horrible mistake and it took me FOREVER to finally watch it. It’s done now so let’s review it and move on to some other anime series.

Rideback is a 2009 anime based on a manga of the same name. The show was produced by Madhouse, one of the most well-known anime production companies, who also responsible for Princess Resurrection and Highschool of the Dead (among many, many others). FUNimation licensed and released it in 2011. At twelve episodes it’s another fairly short series but believe me, it felt a lot longer.

Full review after the jump.

[WARNING: There's at least one outstanding spoiler in this review, so proceed at your own risk.]

Anime Review: Sengoku Basara - Samurai Kings

It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed an anime. It’s not that I haven’t been watching any, it’s that the anime I have been watching took me forever to finish despite the fact it was only thirteen episodes. I’ve finally, finally, watched the last episode of what was easily the most exhausting series I’ve watched to date.

  

Sengoku Basara is a series of action video games developed by Capcom that is widely considered a “rip-off” of Samurai Warriors, which has an identical setting (Feudal Japan’s Warring States Period) and is itself a spin-off of the popular Dynasty Warriors games. Now I’m a pretty big Dynasty Warriors fan but I haven’t played much Samurai Warriors. What little I’ve played leads me to believe that Capcom saw the game and said “That’s not nearly insane enough. I say we remake the game and make at least 50 times crazier and 50 times less historically accurate.” And thus Sengoku Basara was born. And wouldn’t you know it; it turns out Capcom was on to something because the game became very popular, beating out its rival. Like many popular properties in Japan it was just a matter of time before it was turned into an anime, which brings us to today.

Tilted Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings in the translation the show was produced by Production I.G (Who also did Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, and Eden of the East) in 2009 and licensed by FUNimation Entertainment. Interestingly this show kind of bumped itself to the top of my list; originally I was supposed to be watching Princess Tutu (Which actually might have an English dub so bad that I may be unable to watch it on Netflix) but the first episode of this show got me so excited that I decided to go through this instead. That was a mistake.

Full review after the jump.

5 Unpopular Opinions About Dragon Ball

[By the way, the poll on the left is finally closed. According to it I have...four fans total, and two people who visit periodically. Clearly I'm on my way to internet celebrity] 

No "Z" Necessary

If you were to say that Dragon Ball and/or Dragon ball Z is the best manga/anime of all time it’d be hard to argue with you. It’s been almost thirty years since its debut and it still has a ton of fans all over the world and continues to do pretty darn well as far as merchandise goes, seeing as video games featuring Goku and his friends are still pretty good sellers. My friend Iron Eagle, who is a teacher, tells me that kids are still fully aware of the franchise. When you think about it too closely it’s pretty crazy. But just because it’s popular and long lived doesn’t mean it’s perfect.

Many of you know damn well that it’s hard for me to say I’m not a fan of franchise without looking like a big liar. The truth is I love the manga; it’s a fun comic that doesn’t require a whole lot of thinking on my part to thoroughly enjoy it. I have always been pretty annoyed with the anime though. However my biggest problems with the franchise aren’t limited to its cartoon. Much like with Star Wars about a year ago I decided to express some of my issues with the DB franchise.

Now I need to remind you all that these are just my opinions. I’m just saying how I’ve interpreted things and you can very easily disagree. Feel free to do so in the comment section, or better yet come up with your own lists.

Click below for unbelievably nerdy rambling.

Anime Review: Ga-Rei Zero

Ga-Rei Zero is a 2008 anime prequel (As opposed to an adaptation) to the popular manga series Ga-Rei by Hajima Segawa. The cartoon was produced by AIC, the studio responsible for such classic anime as Green Legend Ran, Amitage III (Both among the first first anime I ever watched), Bastard!!, the Bubblegum Crisis series, the Burn-Up series and the Tenchi Muyo! series. It was dubbed by FUNimation Entertainment who brought it to North America in 2011. In the original broadcast it was advertised that this show would be a completely different story from the manga and featuring an all-new cast but that turned out to be a red-herring as the second episode firmly establishes it as a prequel story focusing on (From what I understand) the comic's secondary main character and initial villain before they were enemies. Or something. It's really hard to know for sure because Ga-Rei was never licensed in America. That's right; the anime spin-off has been brought to America but not the original source material manga. So, in a very real way, this anime is kind of pointless for us; it was almost certainly created to help bring more attention to the manga, or at least give readers better insight to certain key characters. However us Western viewers don't have any (legal) access to the comic so we don't get any of that. Thanks for nothing anime industry.

If you recall with our last anime review I mentioned I ended up watching three entire anime series back-to-back (Roughly eighteen hours) in one sitting, nearly driving myself insane in the process. This was the second of the three. As you may know I didn't exactly care for Demon King Daimao, so the question is did Ga-Rei Zero do anything to ease the pain.

Full review after the jump.

[WARNING: There are some spoilers here from very early on in the series (First two episodes).  If you would like to watch Ga-Rai Zero blind to capitalize on that fact do not read this article.  However I do not spoil the lot of the show so if you're cool with that full steam ahead]

Anime Review: Demon King Daimao

Very recently I ended up watching three anime series back to back, which by the way is one of the worst things a human being can do to themselves. There’s nothing wrong with watching anime, of course, but watching that much in one sitting is hard on the brain. I’m not 100% sure I escaped with me sanity intact.

Still the bright side is that I can do a few anime reviews now for all you anime minded fans who visit the blog (Which judging by the page view counts is most of you…somehow). I’ll start with Demon King Daimaoh. This is the “translated” title for Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Mao. The English title actually means “Demon King Great Demon King” which is redundant as hell. The original title actually means “The Great Demon King in the Back Row”…which admittedly is also an awful title, but hey, at least it doesn’t repeat itself. [Editor’s Note: Starting next week Beta is Dead will be renamed “Dead Beta is Dead (Featuring Beta)”]

Whatever this show is called it’s based on a Light Novel series that as of this writing is still ongoing. It was produced by the studio Artland in 2010 and licensed and dubbed by Sentai Filmworks the summer of 2011. Sentai Filmworks, you may recall, were responsible for dubbing Highschool of the Dead, a show that I heavily criticized for its fan service. Keep this in mind.

Actually I saw the first episode of this show a while back on Crunchyroll.com but I didn’t keep up with it. As I couldn’t remember the exact reason I assumed it was because I just didn’t get around to it. Well…maybe that will learn me.

Full review after the jump.

Anime Review: Sands of Destruction

It's been a while since I've reviewed an anime and picking this out of a group of shows I never heard of was bit difficult but I ended up selecting an interesting one. Sands of Destruction is the American release title for a video game based anime originally known as World Destruction: Sekai Bokumetsu no Rokunin (“The Six People That Will Destroy the World”). The Nintendo DS game came out in 2008 (2010 in North America) and was produced by Sega. The anime adaptation, which also came out in 2008, was produced by Production I.G (Who also did Eden of the East). It was release stateside by FUNimation Entertainment in 2010.

I haven't made it through a lot of anime based on video games before. One of the closest I ever got was Star Ocean EX, which is based on one of my all-time favorites JRPGs (“Japanese Role Playing Games”, for you non-nerds), but the lesson I learned there is that trying to make the translation between the two mediums is likely to completely rape the source material. Star Ocean EX was awful but technically that doesn't mean Sands of Destruction is as well. Plus since I haven’t ever played the game I may not care so much that it might not be true to the original story. It seems that a lot of people prefer the anime for various reasons, so why not take a look?

Full review after the jump.