Winter 2011 and 2012 Anime Lineup

Click here so you can actually see what's on the list.

It goes without saying that Rurouni Kenshin and Berserk are definitely the ones that I'm most looking forward to.

And there's Gyo too. I liked Gyo. Just hoping that they include the other stories found in the manga -- like the DRRRR DRRRR DRRRRRR one.

That's it. Just 3 titles I'm sure to watch. I find anime nowadays a drag to watch: all cutesy and sexy and full of fan service. I'm more content at re-watching the series that made me spend hours in front of the TV. Too bad they're quite hard to find these days XD

The sweet-faced assassin

Title: Kite
Episodes: 2
Studio: Green Bunny
Genre: Psychological, Film Noir

I think I started too early on Kite. It was a good thing that my copy of Kite was the edited one so a lot of the heavy graphic scenes and such were cut out. Buuut, curiosity always gets the best of me, so I looked for the director's cut. It left me quite speechless after. It's definitely not for kids with all the excessive violence, sexual scenes, more violence and a whole lot of sexual scenes. The morals reflected throughout the movie isn't also something that should be taken lightly. It's twisted, sadistic and just wrong.

Aside from a bit of spoilers from here on, the summary contains things not suitable for humans 18 below. Okay, maybe 16 below.

Kite is about a young girl named Sawa. Her parents were murdered when she was still a kid and she was taken in by a police officer named Akai and his assistant, Kanie. Akai then trains Sawa to become the perfect assassin while he forces her to become his sex slave despite Sawa being in her early teens. Sawa kills whomever Akai tells her to kill and she becomes famous especially because of the special bullets that she uses.

Sawa then meets another young assassin named Oburi with whom she starts hanging out with and makes plans to run away with. Of course, Akai and Kanie won't easily let their best assassin escape just like that. Akai threatens to kill Oburi if Sawa doesn't come back to him. What follows is a series of revelations, violence, rape, et cetera, et cetera.

Disregarding the really gross sex scenes between Akai and Sawa, I found Kite quite enjoyable. I mean, sure it was twisted and all but there's a deeper meaning to everything that's been happening in Sawa's life. Or maybe I'm just thinking about it too much, and Kite is basically just some lolicon pornography of sorts.

Well I think that the story of Kite just revolves around a girl who wakes up one day, realizing that the things she thought to be right were actually wrong. Knowing this, she wants to correct her life and move on, forgetting everything bad that has happened to her. Putting it this simply, I guess anyone can relate to it. So if you're after the story itself, get the general release version of Kite. If you're after the story and how it was "supposedly" animated in actuality, get the director's cut. If you're after the porn (seeing how pretty Sawa is), get the special edition.

And no, you didn't just read the three different releases here. Okay? ^0^

The anti-climactic end of Hitokiri Battousai

Title: Rurouni Kenshin: Seisouhen
Episodes: 2
Studio: Studio Deen
Genre: Seinen

Rurouni Kenshin (Samurai X) is the first samurai-themed anime that I've watched and loved. I watched the whole series more than five times so when I learned that an ending was made, I wanted to watch it as soon as I could. I was excited and I kept imagining what kind of fight Kenshin would perish in and who will kill him. As a fan of Saito, I kept hoping that the former Shinsengumi captain will bring Kenshin's end.

I finally had a copy of the OVA - Rurouni Kenshin: Seisouhen, seisouhen loosely translates to reflection. So I watched and eagerly waited for that final duel that will end Kenshin's life. I waited without blinking. Waited until I had to change to disc 2. Waited some more. Then the credits finally rolled. Flabbergasted, I rewound the whole OVA inside my head but found no ultimate fight. Instead, I realized that Kenshin, the greatest swordsman in all of Japan, died in the hands of.... SPOILERS FROM HERE ON!!!

...some uncurable disease. Yep. I was really disappointed.

How did that happen? Well after the storyline of the series, Kenshin got married to Kaoru but still thought that he didn't deserve the right to be happy with all the crimes that he committed as a hitokiri. So he goes off to aid in the First Sino-Japanese War - not as part of the troops, but as part of the medical team...something like that. Before he goes off, he contracts some sort of disease and Kaoru makes Kenshin give it to her by means of sexual intercourse. So they both have that disease, Kenji (their son) is with Hiko training, Yahiko is training too and Sano is a fugitive. That pretty much describes the whole setting.

Anyway, Kenshin becomes to weak to go home so Sano finds him and helps him go back to Kaoru. Skip the drama, Kenshin and Kaoru die in the arms of each other, under sakura trees. I was expecting a really cool fight, more awesome that Kenshin's fights with Saito, Shishio, Shogo and Enishi. But noooo. Kenshin had to die because he was too weak to fight off this weird disease.

In hindsight, and now that I'm a bit more level-headed when it comes to these things, I guess that Seisouhen's purpose was to remind people that Kenshin is still human. That no matter how invincible he may seem, he still succumbs to one of the weaknesses of being human: diseases. I guess it also shows that even if he already has a family, his inner demons are still strong and he still thinks that he carries the burden of his past. He couldn't let go of his sins and it drove him away from his home and life. Really human, right?

I'll end this entry with a bit of information about Seisouhen: Rurouni Kenshin: Seisouhen wasn't done by RK's creator, Watsuki Nobuhiro. He just checked the script and said that Kenshin deserved a happy ending with all that he's been through.