DVD of the Month - October 2006

Ergo Proxy

Volume 1

It’s tough to pre-judge an anime show based on the names and companies listed in the credits. The larger anime outfits, after all, are kind of like Hollywood studios—they can be working on half a dozen shows at once, so just because they put out one series you like doesn’t automatically mean you’ll think their entire opus of work is brilliant. Still, when the first info on Ergo Proxy came out late last year, you couldn’t help but be at least a little excited.

DVD of the Month - October 2006

Fullmetal Alchemist The Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa

Your patience for sitting through the 51 episodes of Fullmetal Alchemist just to be left hanging as to whether or not the Elric brothers would ever be reunited is about to be rewarded. It comes in the form of Conqueror of Shamballa, a full-length movie finale that ties up the loose ends from the TV series and brings the story to a rousing, action-packed and heartrending close.

Book of the Month - September 2006

Welcome to the NHK

Volume 1

Some stories are pretty, but they’re not real. A bizarre premise notwithstanding, Welcome to the NHK feels real, and sometimes that’s not pretty. A vicious combination of comedy and character study, it’s not remarkably coherent, but it might still leave a mark.

DVD of the Month - September 2006

Comic Party Revolution

Volume 1

Have you ever been to an anime convention? They’re always in cramped hotels full of weird people, and it’s always 98 degrees and the air conditioner just broke. (Oh my, I can hear the mail streaming in responding to that last sentence. Sorry.) Now imagine that you’re in Japan, attending a similar sort of gathering—except there’s almost half a million people attending. That, in a nutshell, is the biannual Comic Market in Tokyo, and Comic Party Revolution is a romantic comedy (emphasis on “comedy”) about the bold college students who draw manga to sell at Comic Market-style shows.

Game of the Month - September 2006

Yakuza

Japanese gangster Kazuma Kiryu curses in front of small children. He has no qualms about beating a man to death with a baseball bat, an expensive umbrella, a sofa, a bicycle, an advertising standee, a gold club, a flowerpot or a decorative column. Yet he’ll spend quality time hunting the streets of Tokyo for dog food to save an injured puppy, or he’ll help the less fortunate by giving them what they need (mostly liquor). He is—not to sound like a tenth-grade English report or anything—a study in contrasts.

DVD of the Month - August 2006

Negima

Volume 1

In the real world, if a ten-year-old reported for teacher duty at a prestigious academy like Mahora, it would raise a lot of eyebrows. Not only would it be tough for the students to accept such a situation (how could they be expected to listen to or respect a professor who’s younger than themselves?), but the tabloids would be all over it. In the world of Negima, the students are quick to accept Negi, and the Weekly World News never comes knocking. In fact, the only one who’s suspicious of the bratty Brit is Asuna Kagurazaka, who’s only opposed to his presence because he replaced the teacher she had a huge crush on.