At a Glance

I've seen a bit of this, and I want to see more. However I don't yet feel I can make a valuable comment on the material. This may be because I haven't seen enough (the most common reason) or because i'm still uncertain about the material.

• Dirty Pair (1 of 10 OAV Episdoes)
  Apparently the initial 26 episode TV season of the dirty pair was relatively unsuccessful. However their fame grew and inspired the release of a series of OAV's. Sadly DP isn't common and these are even rarer. The one episode I saw had a richer animation style and an increased focus on `silly action' but lost some of the charm of the TV series. Still, one episode is not enough to say anything useful.
• Galaxy Express 999 TV (1st episode)
  The quite famous Leiji Matsumoto series. It still wins my award for the most shocking opening to a series as a young boy is orphaned but rescued by a strange woman. She gives him a pass to the galaxy express, which will eventually take him to a planet where he can get cyborg parts. Along the way there's lots of adventure in this (I believe) long TV series, which can be suprisingly intense at times. I doubt i'll get to see more of this.
• Ge Ge Ge No Kitaro (1 Episode)
  Strange stuff indeed, perhaps an early Leiji Matsumoto Series? In any case it follows a normal young boy who's got a gang of goblins, his father's spirit walks around using his eye for a body and is loaded down with all sorts of ghost-busting weapons such as hair darts and anti-ghost sandals. He basically chases after other ghosts and goblins and out-freaks them. It's got some elements of horror but it's mostly action/comedy entertainment. It's also full of interesting and ultra weird monsters from Japanese folklore. Don't really expect to find more of it though.
• Happy Lesson (1 Episode)
  Gah, I hate it...It's such an artificial foundation and really cliche characters. And the whole `harem' thing of a guy being surrounded by cute and unreasonably affectionate women has been done to death. But...sob...I liked it. Even with such a horribly tired basis the energy, comedy (with an element of parody to make fun of itself) and cute visuals make me want more. But I won't review it till I can see if the energy dies off quickly. Great theme song though.
• Key the Metal Idol (14 of 15 Episodes)
  This is really interesting stuff. Set in the current time (or near future) it chronicals the robot key who is `orphaned' when her creator dies. She has a limited time before her systems fail. Her only hope involves the final words of her creator, who stated that if she could get 15,000 friends she would become human. A tall order for anyone, and doubly so for someone still learning how to be human. This is good quality writing and animation, but the final two episodes are movies and they combine with the fact that most of the meaning is still mysterious. The way in which the series concludes will probably determine whether or not the trip was worthwhile.
• Melty Lancer : The Animation (2 Episodes)
  Clearly derived from some video game, but it must be a very strange game indeed. A once famous team of super-powered females are brought back as an active unit. Between their competent and deadly opponents, the conspiracies within the police and their ex-convict boss there's lots happening. Add in a lot of energetic combat action and you've got the expected high-energy, cleanly animated but fairly mysterious and confusing product these often become. Still, seems watchable enough. After all, it has a cat-girl in it...
• Puni Puni Poemi (1 Episode)
  A follow on from Excell Saga that is even faster and sillier than its parent. The foundation might be magical girl, but the real essence is on how much parody, humor and visual comedy can be crammed into an episode. Not high on the taste or subtlety index though, and I don't know i'd want to watch more than one episode at a time.
• Samurai Spirit (1 Episode)
  Possibly actually Samurai Spirits 2? This is obviously derived from a computer game, and has the weirdly costumed exotic characters and attractive animation expected of such a thing. The power level looks to be high, the dialog and complexity low. The action was ok, but not enough to make up for the lack of substance. Still, how much can be certain from one episode? On the other hand i've got a serious suspicion there only is one...
• Steel Angel Kurumi 2 (2 Episodes)
  Clearly the fans wanted more. Kurumi, and the other steel angels return as cute as ever. It seems she's been in storage and now there's a whole new generation to have fun with. Although the surprise this time is that Kurumi's new master is a quite mousey girl. Seemed reasonably cute and fun, but certainly nothing terribly special so far.
• Wild Arms (2 Episodes)
  Looks a lot like a video game conversion in that it's full of strongly personalised characters and action. Watchable enough but didn't seem terribly special. The environment is a wild west environment but full of strange technology suggesting an odd history. The lead is (or was) a legendary gun slinger but seems to have been reborn as a really annoyed child.

The Wanted

Being an anime fan has its disadvantages. The channels by which tapes arrive at my hot little hands are mysterious, erratic and wholly outside of my control. This is true for many anime fans, but even more acute for an Australian. It is multiplied because for many tapes I only want to watch it in order to generate a review (perhaps even to warn people off!) thus I am not willing to pay large amounts of money to acquire all of the tapes I would like to see. Thus this category includes all the material that is not available to me, despite my wishes. There are several sub-categories however.

If the entry is in red it means I really want to see it but don't believe it exists in anything but the native Japanese. And for some of the historical stuff perhaps not even that. Thus no matter how much money, time or access I have this material will remain only a desire. I welcome corrections, whether factual or because the material has become available in some form.

If the entry is in dull red then it means that I believe the material exists but I have never seen it. This might include material released by a company that has gone bankrupt, stuff that has been fansubbed but has no distributors or even stuff that has been fansubbed but I don't care enough to pay simply for the opportunity to review it. I welcome e-mail giving fansub distributors for these titles, and any other Australians willing to consider splitting the cost of bringing the titles to Australia.

The remainder of the material, ie. entries without colored font, are not available to me but I don't care so much. Thus they may be non-existant, or simply not available, but I am unwilling to invest too much energy to find out for sure. In any case they are not easily available to me, and I have no particular reason to mind that fact. I welcome e-mail informing me of a title in the sub-category that i must see so I can consider putting more effort into the search.

• Brother, Dear Brother (Oniisama E) (Episode 8+)
  The Electric girls have completed a lot more of this dark, poisonous shoujo series. However the first 8 episodes seem to have scared people off. I've heard it degrades in quality, but i'd love to confirm that for myself.
• Doreamon TV
  There is still so much merchandise sold from this series, but finding tapes of the anime appears to be impossible. Mind you it is ancient, and is a kids series, so perhaps only historians still care.
• Hime-Chan's Ribbon (Episode 12+)
  I have a review for this title, and I know the fan-sub has been completed. However I seem to be about the only Australian Hime-Chan fan, and even then not enough so to put down all the money required to get this from America.
• Minky Momo TV (2 Seasons)
  A magical girl series that a lot of mahou shoujo afficianadoes still talk about. Sadly it appears that no fan-subber was ambitious enough to take on the task of two 62 episode TV series. The two OAV's have been fansubbed, and supposedly a movie has been commerically dubbed(?) but they are also quite rare. I also believe this was shown on (spanish?) tv as Magical Princess Gigi but I have never heard of those tapes being in circulation.
• Nuku Nuku Dash! (Episode 5+)
  This is such a disappointing sequel to the original OAV's that even the fansubbers seemed to lose interest after four episodes. Still, i'd like to see more, if only to confirm that it doesn't get better.
• Yawara (Episode 16+)
  Yawara is a pretty long series, and it appears that the fan-subbers were not quite up to the challenge. Sadly it is also a really enjoyable story, so it is sort of shame that it is only beginning when the experience ends. Even with this limitation the 16 episodes, which I have reviewed, are worth watching. I was recently informed by musbachgj that Kodocha anime has subbed 1-37 and the ending special.

The Waiting

The Un-Wanted

These are some videos i've got my hands on, but could easily have managed without. They're not reviews because I don't care enough about the title and / or only watched it partially (or in fast forward). Don't get me wrong, I don't mind fairly strong content in anime, it's an all ages medium after all, but i've little tolerance for low quality. And sadly a lot of hentai seems to sell so well that quality is not a required component.