joelherro

Some would say, if that's the case, what's the point in a remake? Of that, I can understand, and having seen and loved the original, I was skeptical about a remake. However, I feel rather than make a lame remake, they have opted to make a new horror movie, based on similar concepts, but hoping to stand on its own merits. Thinking in those terms, I'd say it succeeds.

I'm not going to bother outlining the plot, if you're reading this, you're sufficiently interested already. Where the original basks in garish colour, this movie is almost entirely filmed in washed out sepia tones. One beef I do have is that a lot of modern horror movies go for the video clip style scares, where they show rapid cuts of nightmarish horror and scary/crazy images, reminiscent of video clips by death metal bands like Cradle of Filth and Behemoth, instead of subtle and/or real scares. This movies abounds in that kind of stuff. The ending is an interesting twist I won't give away.

My advice is, if you love the original movie, then keep an open mind and try and think of this as something altogether different, and if you haven't seen the original, then watch this, take from it what you will and then try getting the original movie to compare against.

First off, I must say, I'm a huge fan of Luc Besson. I have loved virtually everything he's ever done and even named my first-born son Leon. Having said that, this movie seems to lack the style his other movies do. Yes, there's plenty of action and yes, the main actress is hot, but where his other movies seem to shine (apart from the action sequences, awesome musical scores and outrageous costume department) is the dialogue and chemistry between the characters. Another reviewer wrote that this movie seems to be directed by more than one person. I totally agree. While there's flashes of Luc Besson's touch here and there, the majority of the movie seems disjointed, as if the directed didn't know where he was going with this movie and decided to let an understudy have the reins for half of it. It's not a bad movie, just doesn't reach the heights of any of his other movies in the last...well forever.

How can anyone believe this drivel? Both of these guys testified under oath multiple times that MJ was nothing but nice to them their whole lives, then after the statute of limitations is over for defamation (and the poor guy is dead) they come out with this rubbish and say that all those times they said nothing happened were lies but this time we're telling the truth, you have to believe us. Bad acting coupled with strong 'details' (and noticeably dry eyes) doesn't just make rational people believe anything you say fools. And what's wrong with their parents? Who lets their young children sleep with a stranger anyway? This looks like a badly made video for the prosecution, but where's the defense? Everybody deserves to have their side of the story heard. Why aren't these guys being prosecuted for perjury? Such a horrible character assassination from a couple of greedy punks. They also supposedly said they weren't after MJ's money, they just wanted the truth out there, yet there's no mention of Wade Robson's civil suite against MJ's estate for $1B...all lies.

I really liked this anime, but the only thing that stopped me from rating it higher was the week-to-week feel of the show. (FYI, I haven't read the manga, if there is one, and I'm no expert on Japanese military history, I'm just reviewing this series for what it is.) The story revolves around the creation of 'D-Agency', a spy school set up pre-WWII in Japan, that recruits and trains highly-skilled civilians to move overseas and live under cover spying for Japan. Their motto is 'never kill and never die' (or at least never suicide, as it's a pointless waste). Which appeared to be the exact opposite MO of the Japanese Imperial Army.

The first couple of episodes set up a really good plot and I was expecting big things. From then on however, each week was just a seemingly disconnected series of stories about the men who graduated from this spy school and their under cover espionage activities. While that wasn't entirely a bad thing, I was hoping a running story or continuity or something. Anyway, it's still really good, check it out!

Don't get me wrong, I liked this anime, but it's nothing original. If you have watched many animes, then this will feel like 'been there, done that' kinda stuff. If you're new to anime, then you may really enjoy this one...

Ikki Kurogane is 'the worst' magical knight ranked F in a school of magical knights. All his peers have better magical abilities than he does and even his father has always treated him with contempt due to his lack of magical aptitude and he only got into his school by having some strings pulled for him. There he meets Stella Vermilion, a foreign princess ranked A at their school. He ends up dueling her and wins and people begin to realise his F ranking is not necessarily justified...

The story is interesting enough, the characters likable and the animation is great. However, it just seems generic to me but maybe that's because it's probably aimed at a mid-teen audience and I prefer more adult anime. Anyway, worth a watch if you're into magical anime.

I don't have much experience with role playing games, so a lot of the references to moves, energy, strength, skill, etc. In this anime were lost on me. Although I have seen plenty of shows where someone gets trapped inside a game, TV show or movie, so it was still enjoyable.

Momonga is playing Yggdrasil (an online RPG I assume) and the game is shut down. Instead of logging out, he decides to stay and then realises he's trapped in this online fantasy world. Since his character was a Supreme Being (practically a God), things aren't so bad for him, as he has a handful of powerful guardians to protect him. Of course, being god-like, he doesn't really need them, since he's nearly invincible anyway. He then decides to conceal his true form (a skeleton-type dude) and go on the lookout for his previous friends (who were all Supreme Beings) by becoming a low-level adventurer who wants to spread his name (now changed to Ains Ool Gown?) by defeating as many powerful enemies as possible.

At first I wasn't into this show, but after a few episodes I was hooked. Watching Lord Ains defeat even the most powerful enemies thrown at him with ease was pretty cool, and they didn't shy away from the violence either. A bit rough for little kiddies though. Check it out.

Ergastulum is a place filled with gangsters loyal to four main families. A violent city filled with hookers, thugs, drugs and Twilights. Twilights are humans born with extraordinary strength and speed, but who live short lives and generally have a handicap to 'compensate' for their abilities. The Twilights are ranked according to their skill level and wear dog tags, and are often referred to as 'tags'.

Nicholas is a high level tag and life-long friend of Worick (a 'normal') and together they're the Handymen. They do odd jobs around town (kill people, act as gigolos, etc) and are not loyal to any of the main families. Occasionally they help the cops solve particularly nasty crimes. The story mainly revolves around Worick and Nicholas as they try to keep the streets safe for their friends in an increasing violent turf war and as anti-Twilight factions try to kill off all the remaining Twilights.

This show was definitely my kinda thing. The character development was good (for only a 12 episode series), the animation was good and the violence factor was high. Not a show for kids though or anyone looking for light-hearted entertainment. As for why I only gave it a 7/10, well without spoiling the ending, I'm thinking they already have a second season planned, or otherwise just dropped it due to budget constraints or a lack of interest, because it seemed very abrupt. Well worth a watch anyway.

part ecchi, part romance, part existential drama, this show seems enigmatic...but while this may sound appealing to some, overall, it was only OK at best.

Maria is a virgin witch (compared to the other witches, who take human lovers all the time) who despises war and conflict. Living in France during the time of the 100 years war, she sees a lot of war, and every day goes out of her way to break up the battles using her magic. In her spare time, she concocts potions and herbal remedies for the ailing villagers who live nearby. She is a benign witch, but eventually the church has enough of her meddling in war, since they either instigate the war or profit by it, so they plan to deal with her the way humans usually deal with benign creatures, that is to say, harshly.

The characters are all likable enough and the story is interesting, but there just wasn't enough of anything for me. There was action, but not much, same for romance and philosophising about human nature and the nature of war and conflict. There was also plenty of sexual innuendos, yet no overt sexuality or nudity. It all seemed a bit vanilla to me. Having said that, the show wasn't bad, and is worth a watch...if you have the time and nothing better to watch.

In a mythical world where God's live among men, adventurers choose a God to follow and join their Familia. Then they explore this huge, multi-levelled dungeon and kill the monsters inside to gain crystals (in exchange for money) and to help build their skills. Bell Cranel is the sole member of the Goddess Hestia's Familia and he's an adventurer of modest skill. He does have a lot of courage, heart and potential though and learns fast. He meets a woman of immense beauty and strength and vows to become stronger so he could be considered worthy of a woman like her.

There's a lot to like about this show. It has humour, action, a good plot, interesting characters and great animation. I only scored it a 7 because it's a bit 'young' for my taste (I'd have liked a darker, more serious tone) and at one season, it does seem a little pointless. I'd like to see a 2nd season to flesh things out more. Worth a watch.

I don't know a lot about Japanese history, but I sure have seen a few animes about it! Seems like it was a pretty chaotic period, but then again, which country can say theirs wasn't? Yukimura and Nobuyuki Sanada are brothers and vassals of the Toyotomi clan under the shogun who has finally united Japan in peace. Upon his imminent death, and with a son too young to become the next shogun, his chief vassal, and head of the Tokugawa clan, assumes the mantle of shogun and immediately begins plotting to destroy the Toyotomi clan. We follow the actions of the Sanada brothers, each of whom choose opposing sides.

There's good character development and animation, but since we already know the outcome, I guess it seemed a foregone conclusion. I would have liked to see them recreate history, as this is just escapism, right? Anyway, it's pretty good if you like strategy and war stories.

I've been a fantasy fan for ages, so I knew was going to like this show. I think there's a second season coming too, so I'll be looking forward to that.

Leon Luis and his father, German (pronounced Herman), are Makai knights who travel around looking to kill horrors (demons) that take over people's bodies and turn them into bloodthirsty monsters. Leon's mother was burned at the stake as a witch when he was born in the city of Valiente, and Leon and his father arrive there when Leon is a young man, determined to kill the one who murdered his mother, Mendoza.

This is only a brief precis, and with 24 episodes, this is a long and engaging watch. There is a lot to like about this anime, but its tone is quite dark. There's lots of bloody violence, so little kiddies shouldn't watch it, but anyone over 15 should go watch it ASAP!

Initially I was going to rate this lower, because I couldn't work out whether it was meant to be serious or not. It's too dark to be a comedy, yet not dark enough to be a horror. There's some action, but not enough to call it an action anime. So I was a but lost and frustrated trying to work out if I liked it, but it wraps up nicely and I think it's more of a thinking kind of anime than anything else...

Decim is the bartender in a bar called Quindecim. He is an Arbiter, a humanoid, emotionless puppet who judges human souls in the afterlife. Dead people arrive in his bar, not knowing they're dead (yet), and he provokes their memories of their life and death, then judges their souls either to reincarnation or to be cast into the void. One day, a girl is sent to help him, and she invokes feelings in him he has never experienced.

There's a whole host of characters, and at only twelve episodes, you don't get to know much about any of them because the show focuses on the new girl and Decim, but it's interesting enough and worth a look if you're into this kind of thing.

...although, unfortunately, it's not as good as Madoka.

Ruuko starts playing a new card game called Wixoss that's all the rage at her school. Then she meets a girl named Yuzuki who tells her she's a Selector, and that she wants to battle her. Selectors can actually interact with the character on their main card. Ruuko's card has a character named Tama, while Yuzuki's card character is called Hanayo. They then go round finding other Selectors to battle. Each time you win a battle, you get closer to becoming an Eternal girl, who has her deepest wish or desire granted. If you lose three times however, you lose your ability as a Selector, and worse, which I won't spoil.

I initially thought this show would be something like Yu-gi-oh, which sounded way too kiddy-ish for me, but it's actually a lot darker than that. There's definitely similarities to Madoka as well, but I prefer Madoka to this. The animation is decent and the characters are all good, and while it was dark, I thought something was lacking, although I can't quite put my finger on what. It was certainly better than Black Rock Shooter, which I hated and was worried this would be similar to. Worth a watch if you have the time and like predominately female, special power stuff.

I liked this show, but somehow it just fell a bit flat for me. Not sure why, because I usually enjoy fantasy/battle shows in general (GoT is the bomb!).

Tigre is a young nobleman from the fictional province of Alsace in Brune. He is a highly skilled bowman, but he gets captured by a cute and busty War Maiden of Zchted named Elenora during a skirmish. She takes him prisoner but treats him very well, eventually lending him her army to defeat some unpleasant Dukes in his own kingdom with designs on the throne. Cue lots of battles and bouncing bosoms.

The animation is quality and the characters are all likable. The story is interesting enough to hold your attention, but maybe I might have liked it more if it wasn't so tame. Overall, it wasn't bad, but just not great either.

I don't know who censors these shows, but it gets so bad it's almost unwatchable. Pity too, because this is a good show.

Interestingly, there's no real central character, as in most animes. There's an ensemble of characters from different parts of the world, who have banded together to fly to Mars and colonise the planet. They have to battle giant, mutated, humanoid, super intelligent cockroaches (yes, really), who kill humans with the same indifference we have to killing cockroaches. The humans need to bring back some cockroaches to aid in developing a vaccine for some disease that's killing people on earth. That's the general premise of the show, and I thought it was interesting.

The problem is the execution. While the storyline is interesting, there isn't enough depth into it. A few more episodes and a better resolution and it could have been a great show. Without revealing spoilers, the ending only makes sense if a second season is planned. There's plenty of violence, but the censoring takes care of that. Worth a watch.

High school students with magical abilities are a dime a dozen in anime these days, but this show made you care about the characters, and their magic was unique and interesting.

Tatsuya and Miyuki Shiba are new students at 'First High School', a school of top level magicians, set a few hundred years in the future. Miyuki is a 'Bloom', a top level magician (in the best magician school), while her older brother, Tatsuya, is a 'weed', a lower class of magician. Initially, Tatsuya, and most other 'weeds' are ostracised due to their limited ability to wield magic. However, it quickly becomes apparent that Tatsuya's magic wielding ability is anything but limited...

I really liked this show, but think it might be best to view multiple episodes at a time, as I watched it each week and seemed to forget what happened last week and was surprised by each episode. The characters all have distinct personalities and looks, but I did get confused occasionally, especially towards the end. Plus, the show seemed accessible to all ages, yet the last few episodes were very violent and maybe too much for young kids. Anyway, it's pretty cool...check it out

OK, so it's not often an anime this dark comes around, and so I just had to check it out. I haven't read the manga (if there is one), so I'm not sure if this follows closely or not. And without dropping any spoilers, it would appear a second season may be coming. Hopefully it will wrap things up.

Tokyo has two types of inhabitants, humans and ghouls. Ghouls look like humans, but can transform into monsters, have special blood-type weapons and other powers and have to feed on human flesh. All other food is repulsive to them. One day, Kaneki, a normal high school boy, has an accident and is given an organ transplant from a ghoul and becomes a half-human, half-ghoul hybrid. He learns that not all ghouls are horrible, man-eating monsters and some just want to live normal lives. He also learns that isn't easy for his kind.

This show had great character depth and animation and was pretty hectic with the violence and despair. But it was also censored to pieces and the ending was vague. The second season may clarify some things. Watch it...without your kids haha.

I am a sucker for these kinds of anime. They're fun, with enough action and innuendos to keep it funny and entertaining, without being overly long and doing the whole mindf**k thing.

Raishin is a 'puppeteer' who manipulates his 'doll' Yaya to fight battles for him using magic. Yaya is super cute and, of course, in love with Raishin and doesn't care that human/doll relationships are not cool. They are enrolled at a magic school and their fighting ability has them ranked (and called by everyone) '2nd last', despite being more powerful than half the school. Raishin has an agenda for being there - he is looking to exact revenge on the man who killed his family, who is 'number 1' at this school.

The animation is great and the characters are all interesting. Raishin has a whole harem of girls after him, but he doesn't seem the least bit interested in any of them. Without spoiling the ending, I can say, I think they may be planning a second series, which is cool. Watch this show if you're looking for escapism that isn't mentally taxing.

Maybe I'm just getting old, because I really liked this show, yet couldn't put it in the category of favourites like Elfen Lied or Claymore.

It revolves around Rentaro, a civil service officer in the Tokyo area of the near future. For the past 10 years Gastrea, man-eating monsters, have been constantly attacking humanity and are being just held at bay by huge monolith fortifications around the city made of Varanium, the only material that is impervious to their attacks. Rentaro is aided by Enju, one of the Cursed Children. These are all female girls with red eyes and extraordinary abilities, brought about by having part Gastrea in their blood. Eventually, the Gastrea find a way around or through the monoliths and someone needs to save Tokyo...

This show has great animation and characters with plenty of bloody violence, which I dig. Yet, I felt something was lacking, because I couldn't put it up there with my old favourites. Maybe I'm just getting too old for this stuff haha. Anyway, for you younger guys, check this out, it's fun!

I liked this show, but it could have been so much better.

It starts with Ryouta Murakami, a high school student who misses his long lost (girl) friend who he thought died in a freak accident when they were kids. Then one day a girl who looks just like his old friend, and even has a similar name, transfers to his class. He confronts her and she says she isn't his old friend, but he finds out she is a witch. He then goes on to meet other friends of hers who are witches too. They are being hunted down and murdered by the secret organisation that made them witches and Murakami helps them escape.

This show is kind of dark, with plenty of grisly deaths (most of which were censored in the copy I saw), but it also has some light-hearted moments, either to keep it from being too serious or just for the sake of being weird (is there such a thing as too weird in anime?). I personally would have preferred it to have taken the serious route, but it still works this way as the light-hearted stuff was mostly ecchi anyway, which isn't so bad. The story line was interesting and the characters were well developed (for only a 13 episode show) and the animation was great. So overall, I say, enjoy!

...just don't be expecting anything too special.

Aruka (becomes 'Alka' by episode 2) is a female assassin from 'the clan of the sword'. She is extremely skilled and hunted relentlessly by the Emperor (Empire haha) and his formidable henchwoman, Jin Varrel, for vague reasons (threat?). Along her travels, she meets an array of mostly female characters, all of which are warriors.

That's pretty much all I can say without spoilers, but there really isn't much else to it anyway. The animation is quality, with some CGI thrown in, and there's plenty of action, a lot of which is pointless fighting. All the strong characters are scantily clad women, while the men play stupid, servile roles. There's not much room for character depth or epic story scope and the final episode is a complete waste of time. That being said, overall, it's still a decent action/fantasy anime, worth watching if you're bored.

Don't know why this anime was split into parts 1 and 2. I just watched episodes 1-26, so I'm going to review it as one show.

It starts with a rich family (the Joestars) adopting a poor boy named Dio. Dio is the same age as the Joestar's son, Jonathan, and they become fierce rivals at everything trying to get the attention of Jonathan's father. Initially, Dio is better at everything, but as they grow up, Jonathan catches up to Dio, making him bitter and twisted. One day, he finds a stone mask, that when attached to his face, transforms him into an evil vampire...

The shows stretches over 3 generations of Joestars and each son is nicknamed Jojo. They spend their lives fighting vampires and other, stronger immortals.

What I really liked about this show was the humour. The characters were all great and the animation and action scenes were awesome, but the humour turned what could have been a dark, horror type story into something really fun. Normally, I'd prefer them to have left out the humour and gone down the dark path, but in this case, it really works well. Definitely worth a watch!

I usually prefer anime series to movies, but since I'd seen the series Blood-C, which this follows, and it has an unsatisfying ending, I thought there might be a resolution here. I think you could see this as a stand alone movie, but it would make much more sense of you have seen the series first.

Saya, the unfortunate 'girl' from the series is now in Tokyo hunting the monsters from her old town. They like to eat people, brutually. She is actually chasing her mortal enemy Fumito. When she hooks up with a bunch of conspiracy theorist youths who are also after Fumito, she figures they will help her get him. Her new friends are honest and nice, but they don't know what they're mixed up in, or who or what Saya really is.

Suffice to say, this show is dark, gory and not for kids. The animation is awesome, which only intensifies the gruesome scenes. If you haven't seen the series, check it out, its even more hectic than this, unless you get the stupid censored version like I did, which chops out so much of the bloody violence, it almost makes the show redundant.

This show was pretty weird, and considering most animes are weird by default, that's saying something. I did like it, but it was kinda slow.

It's set 1000 yrs in the future and mankind has evolved psychic and telekinetic powers called 'cantus'. Saki and her friends are adolescents who are just learning about their cantus powers. They live in a seemingly peaceful and idyllic society. Yet children from their school occasionally go missing, and everyone forgets about them really quickly. Saki and her friends go on an excursion and meet an interesting creature that reveals secrets about mankind's past. From then on, Saki and friends become targetted as troublemakers since they now know things that were meant to stay secret.

While this show is long and can be slow, it's not boring, and has a constant sense of menace, where you don't know what's going to happen next, but you get a feeling it's going to be something bad. The animation is different to most of the shows I've seen lately, maybe lower budget, yet it's still decent. The characters are well developed and you really care about their predicaments.

I say watch it if you're looking for something dark and different.

At 38 episodes, this one takes a while to get going...and there is season 2 planned (don't know how many episodes this time), but if you can handle this many, then you must be into it and more will just be welcome...

The story starts with 2 young orphans, Xin and Piao (pronounced 'Hou'), who live in China in the state of Qin during the warring states period and who fight each other every day with practice swords and dream of becoming great generals...one day a nobleman sees something in one of these orphans and decides to offer him a brighter future...the 2 orphans go their separate ways and adventures await them...

I could go into a lot more depth here, as this is a long and detailed story, but I'll leave it at that...the animation is good, the characters are well developed and the action is balanced with an interesting story. As for how accurate it is, I'm not super knowledgeable about feudal Chinese history, so I can't say either way, but it makes for fun to watch! Just be prepared to sacrifice a lot of time on this one...