Diamond Daydreams 7/10

I'm not sure if this show is meant for guys or girls. The game on which DDD is based is meant for guys but the show doesn't seem not to be. Whatever.

Diamond Daydreams aired in 2004 and ran 12 episodes though there is a 13th episode that should have aired as episode 8 but wasn't. This is probably because the 7-8 arc for Suomi isn't much of a romantic story considering the feel of the rest of the series. This show had really nice animation and character designs and the whole thing is very well animated. I liked the OP though the 2 ED's didn't really jump out at me. I also liked the score but some of the pieces were WAY over used. The pan flute sad song was used in episode 12 about 10 times. Mix it up a little, this ain't Babel II! Considering that this show has 6 leads and an all unique cast every 2 episodes the VA's were great. Why ADV changed the title to Diamond Daydreams I don't know, it was a dumb move unless there's some REALLY good reason.

In the vein of Sentimental Journey and Seraphim Call, Diamond Daydreams cranks up the overall quality and boosts the episode count from 1 to 2 for each mini arc. Every 2 episodes we're introduced to a new girl who's got some romantic dilemma and things are dealt with by the end of the 2nd episode. There's no real finality to any of the stories, each girl simply makes a life decision and no real new romance really starts though a few times a romance ends.

The diamond dust drops from the title refer to the sparkling frozen water in the air when it gets really cold in the north of Japan (where all these stories take place). The idea is that the diamond dust drops have some magic power to grant true love to those who see it or other such nonsense. I don't but the girls in the show get off on it.

Our cast of leads are as follows:

Atsuko - Lives and works at a fish shop with her mom. In order to escape bankruptcy she's agreed to marry a local rich boy but falls in love with another older guy. She of course ends up dumping the rich boy's ass for the quiet artiste.

Karin - A sickly girl too frightened to get an operation to save her life. She can't stand her new doctor at first but falls for him after thinking he's secretly posting comments on her blog (I won't fall for anyone who posts comments here, you can rest assured). It turns out not only it isn't the doctor but it's his nurse girlfriend that Karin considers a rival. She gets the operation and lives rather than dying a scared coward (Thank you Mike Tyson).

Kyoko - A college student in the film club who after winning a national prize has become too obsessed with winning the next one. With the other film club members starting to resent her perfectionist and bossy ways it's not long before her relationship with her boyfriend she lives with starts to suffer. She learns the hard way that a man will only take so much abuse.

Suomi - A Finnish figure skater who always considered the fun of skating with her friend Hanna more important than personal success until she was hurt when Hanna crashes into her before a competition. After quitting skating, Suomi meets a boy who inspires her to get back into skating and make up with her friend.

Shoko - The host of a write-in romance advice radio show who's having an affair with a married man. She's upset because he won't see her often enough or take her calls and a concerned listener gives her the confidence to dump his ass.

Akari - A high school girl who's father spends more time drunk and panning for gold than working. When he's diagnosed with terminal brain cancer she must resolve her feelings towards her father before he dies.

I liked this show more than Sentimental Journey and Seraphim Call since it gives each arc 2 episodes to flesh out the story and characters rather than the one the other shows do. I also liked the fact that the creators decided to include a couple of older than average characters in a show like this. It's a nice change to see a mature character once in awhile as opposed to the constant barrage of high school girls. This also allows some more mature relationships rather than the "I can't even hold your hand" type in most shows. I'll recommend this show.

Angelic Layer 7/10

In most anime the parents of the typically young characters are nowhere to be seen. In Angelic Layer the main character has a mother I wish HAD died of whatever it is most anime parents die of. TB or mech attack or whatever.

Angelic Layer ran 26 episodes way back in 2001. Being a CLAMP show, it obviously had a huge budget (why CLAMP gets so much money to make anime I'll never know) and it shines in all the usual technical areas. The character designs and backgrounds are great and well animated throughout the series. The music is orchestral and very good and I even consider the OP better than average. The VA's are also well cast and while I hated Misaki's voice at first it grew on me. She has the funny way of yelling in surprise that cracks me up.

Misaki Suzuhara has just moved to Tokyo to attend middle school and is going to live with her aunt. Her mother, who she hasn't seen in 7 years, is in Tokyo as well but Misaki has had no contact with her since the day she left and for some unknown reason they aren't even capable of picking up a damn phone. This is the stupidest part of this series. How on EARTH do you live with your grandparents and have NO contact with your mom. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Misaki is also a rather small girl who has issues with her diminutive stature and is somewhat timid.

When she arrives in Tokyo she sees an Angelic Layer match on a big screen outside the station and meets Icchan, the crazy scientist who takes Misaki to buy her own angel and is actually the one who invented the toy, unbeknownst to Misaki of course. Misaki then begins a meteoric rise through the ranks of Angelic Layer as she makes friends at school and among her opponents including all the characters in the opening credits. How odd. One little girl named Hatoko, who kicks ass at Angelic Layer even though she's in kindergarten, becomes Misaki's good friend and features at first as a rival, then as her one-girl support team as Misaki battles through to the national finals.

It turns out that Misaki's mom, Shuko, has been helping Icchan with his Angelic Layer research in order to develop some artificial legs. Shuko is sick and has been confined to a wheelchair so she's too embarrassed to tell Misaki the truth. The show has many near misses but they don't meet until Misaki ends up battling her mom in the championship. Shuko's been the champion for the past 2 years and this is GROSSLY unfair having one of the developers dominate the Angelic Layer league. How retarded. Of course the tearful reunion is pretty good but doesn't quite make up for how a 30 year old woman is dominating a sport played by young girls.

I liked this show since it really deals with the insecurities Misaki feels. She has a tough time being a girl in a boys world, being small, not having a mom, and falling for her first guy. Rather than make excuses she overcomes her problems with some pretty good story telling. Even her opponents have problems that are well presented and we even get to see the other side of the "being small" issue when Misaki battles a girl unpopular with boys because she's tall.

The Angel battles are also quite good though you KNOW Misaki isn't going to lose and there isn't too much crying for a show where the cast is mainly female. Recommended.

Galaxy Railways, The 3/10

I really tried to like this show. I overlooked the freaky old lady and cat character designs. I tolerated retarded time travel. I forgave a sub-plot about not carrying a sidearm that only lasted a handful of episodes. I put up with a mysterious woman who ran the Galaxy Railways but never DID anything. I rolled my eyes at the idea of trains that fly through space. But I CANNOT FORGIVE EPISODE 13. I just couldn't get past that one.

OK. The 26 episodes of The Galaxy Railways aired between 2003 and 2004. I liked the music but HATED the OP and ED. It's like they're sung by the Japanese Pat Boone or something. I liked the backgrounds, CG and animation and I really liked most of the character designs but I HATED the freaky ones that don't match the rest of the show.

Why must Matsumoto insist on having a couple of freaky looking characters in every series? What have we done to deserve it? To wrap the technical side up, I liked the VA's. Any small quibbles I have with the technical aspects of this show are VASTLY outweighed by the HORRIFIC plot problems.

This series starts out introducing Manabu Yuuki, the son of a famous Galaxy Railways (GR) captain who dies ramming his space train into an invading spaceship from another dimension. Fast forward ten years or so and Manabu is off to join the Galaxy Railways to make a name for himself. He gets assigned to Sirius platoon and they operate the same space train his father once captained, the Big One.

Manabu starts off as a whiner that won't carry a gun and he manages to piss me off very quickly along with most of his teammates. The show pretty much meanders along giving each of the crew members an episode in which to get to know them and dedicating the others to Manabu's various issues with gunplay, his dead brother, and other annoying character traits.

The series only hints at the overall plot of the aliens from another dimension until about episode 18 or so and in the meantime we're forced to endure Manabu discovering his inner strength and overcoming obstacles. Again and again. Some of the dialogue in these episodes made me want to scream. If fact episode 13 DID make me scream. YOU CAN'T HAVE AN EPISODE THAT BAD SO FAR INTO THE SERIES. AIEEEEEEEEEEEE!

As the show gets past episode 18 the ending starts up and it's actually pretty good though they practically kill all the guys but Manabu (whom I wish they HAD killed) and not a single girl dies. It's a little odd.

This show has so many stupid little things about it that really bugged me. An example is the head of the Galaxy Railways (I can't remember her name). All they do is show her in the same pose and shedding a single tear while she laments the fates of the people in the current episode. We get no explanation as to who she is or what freaky powers she has. THEN right near the end of the series she falls over. It's pretty dumb.

I can't recommend this. It's just got too many dumb parts and Manabu is way too annoying a main character. Make a girl the lead next time maybe. Like Yuki.

Did I mention 2 people in the Sirius platoon are addressed as Yuki? Manabu Yuuki and Yuki the nurse girl. WHAT THE HELL!? MINUS ONE MORE POINT YOU STUPID SHOW!!! NOT RECOMMENDED!!!!!

Starship Operators 6/10

Y'know, I figure this show has about the dumbest name ever. Starship Operators. Thanks for nothing guys.

Starship Operators aired in 2005 and runs 13 episodes. This series looks amazing most of the time, the CG spaceships and computer screens are great. It seems everything has a computer screen and they're all so detailed I wonder how the hell anyone managed to survive what must have been months of screen designing.

I also didn't mind the music, it's rather good but the OP and ED sucked royally. I've hated that particular brand of caterwauling since Please! Teacher. Blech! The animation is good but I really don't care for the odd look of the eyes in some of the the character designs. There are no reflections most of the time and some characters look different than others in the same shot. Teenage girls shouldn't look like androids.

The good ship Amaterasu is out for a three hour tour when it's home planet gets it's ass conquered by the Kingdom of Henrietta. The crew is ordered to abandon ship and surrender but after all the real crew leave the cadets that remain buy the ship from the company that built it, cut a deal with a TV network to fund them, and set off to free their home world. While this ill-advised move is pretty unbelievable even for an anime, the story quickly moves into some pretty entertaining ship battles.

We get to meet a bunch of the main crew and the story focuses on Shinon, the first officer and budding master tactician who's the reason the Amaterasu wins battle after battle. During the story the crew are attacked again and again and we get to see the political motivations behind the various nations and that's only mildly interesting until the final couple of episodes. A big part of the show was supposed to be the fact that the TV network is airing their battles but it doesn't really amount to much.

Other than the ship battles, some of the crew have little stories, some of the crew are killed, and poor Shinon falls in love, only to have her new beau blown up by a missile in the proceeding episode.

While I liked this show, the crew got pushed to the back burner after episode 8 or so and that's a shame as they were pretty entertaining. Also, Shinon falls in love and loses her new man in one and a half episodes and it feels a little rushed so it loses a lot of it's impact. The last couple of episodes are good but it's almost like the first 11 episodes didn't really matter. Kinda recommended.

Munto 7/10

A rarity these days in the anime world is an original OAV offering. Munto isn't based on anything as far as I know, I miss these.

Munto was released in 2003 and runs a brisk 50 minutes or so. First off, this show has some really nice backgrounds and lighting effects. The animation is really good but the designs are a little simplistic for an OAV even though I liked them. There are also some brutal CG models in here. Watch for the yellow car Yumemi's mom drives near the end. It's pretty bad. The music for this little OAV is fantastic throughout with some nice guitar pieces. If I notice the music 4-5 times over 50 minutes someone is doing something right. The major problem with this show is the voice acting. While I like the VA's, some of them really sound like amateurs. Yumemi's friend Ichiko sounds terrible, I could do a better job.

Yumemi is 13 and unhappy. She can see islands floating in the sky that no one else can and has been given a hard time about it over the years. She's friends with the childish Suzume and the mature and serious Ichiko who believe her and have stuck by her since kindergarten. She's recently been seeing a change in the sky and it's got her unsettled.

In the sky, is the home of Munto, the king of the Magical Kingdom. His kingdom is under attack by the other peoples of the heavens because the Akuto, the energy source of the heavens, is running out and they blame Munto and his people for using it recklessly and wasting it.

Munto travels to Earth as his kingdom is being attacked and starts accosting Yumemi with strange visions and a lot of attitude, demanding that she give him her power of which she knows nothing. Meanwhile her little friend Suzume, who's kinda dim, says she's getting married to her delinquent boyfriend and they end up swimming across a river (while everyone else thinks they're committing suicide).

Their bravery gives Yumemi the courage to help Munto and in a crackle of lightning the world is saved. Whoopee!

I liked this show alright and it's a pretty good effort for a one shot 50 minute OAV. I'll recommend it. Wait! Isn't there a sequel...?