Created by celebrated manga-ka Yoshitoshi ABe, Serial Experiments Lain (or simply Lain) opens up a world of science-based philosophy and history of both the real and alternate sort.
Story Intro
The show follows a shy junior-high-school girl as her world is shocked after receiving an email from a recently-deceased friend. Intrigued by the timing, and part of the message itself, Lain gets a new “Navi” online computer and begins upgrading it for better access to the “Wired”, the world of the Internet. She then comes to be often confused with another Lain, an extroverted, take-no-pity girl who looks, but certainly doesn’t act, just like her.
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While the blog is on auto-pilot for a while, as we convention staff are in the mad-dash final week before Sakura-Con, I’m also playing catch-up for older review/recommendation entries here porting them to the blog.
In the meantime, here’s a brief glimpse into such a final-prep week: stuffing the Bags-O-Swag that members receive when they pick up their pre-registered badges or register at the door.
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The story of a girl who loved her robot…
A classic, yet realistic, giant-robot anime, Patlabor Mobile Police (or simply the titular robot model, Patlabor), uses no special powers to tell it’s story. This is good-old “cops and robbers”, with both sides using large robots as their vehicles of choice.
Story Intro
Labors are large robots that have been created to do heavy construction tasks in the wake of overpopulation. However, human nature what it is, a criminal element had started to use Labors for crime as well. The police stepped up their equipment and created their own editions, Patrol Labors, known by the common Japanese word-meshing version, “Patlabors”.
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If you’re into playing tennis, that’s fine. But if you like to watch anime, you’re weird. Why?!
~ Kubo
Meet Kubo and Tanaka, two fans of anime (one translation of the slang term otaku is ‘obsessed fan’) that set out on a mission to “Otakunize” the world by starting their own anime company in Gainax studio’s Otaku no Video.
Meet the Gainax studio, started by fans of anime and went on to become one of the greats themselves , with works such as The Wings of Honneamise, Nadia: Secret of the Blue Water, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and others among my favorites as well. It also features designs from a favorite character designer of mine, Kenichi Sonoda, who also designed characters and mecha in the original Bubblegum Crisis, and created both Riding Bean and Gunsmith Cats.
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A classic romantic comedy with plenty of innuendo and hijinks, Urusei Yatsura (US title often listed as Those Obnoxious Aliens or simply Lum) is a fun romp through insanity lasting nearly 200 television episodes, six movies, and an OVA series. It’s probably the best known of the creations by Rumiko Takahashi, who also created other favorites of mine, including Ranma 1/2 and Maison Ikkoku.
(Updated from a 2003 post with more anime titles.)
Story Intro
An unlucky high-school lecher named Ataru is chosen at random to participate in a race to save Earth from invasion by a group of alien Oni (demons). Initially he refuses, but when he sees the opponent, a bikini-clad curvaceous oni-girl named Lum, he accepts. After all, the game is tag, and in order to win Earth’s safety he needs to grab her small horns — figuring he’d need to grab her body first. Unfortunately, no-one happened to mention that Lum could fly.
On the last day of the race, nearing sure defeat, Ataru’s girlfriend Shinobu promises to marry him if he can win the game. Spurred on by this (after all, we all know how marriage is consummated), he resolves to win by any means necessary, including a trick only a lecher would try. When that trick works, and Ataru wins the game, he declares that he can finally be married. Unfortunately, Lum misunderstands the declaration as a proposal and accepts; and she has a shocking method of retribution if her new fiancé even looks at another woman.
What’s a high-school lecher to do?
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