Anime Review: Queen's Blade

If you are after a good story, you are probably looking at the wrong anime. If you are looking for fan service however... this anime is full of it.

Queen's Blade is a major tournament, which decides who will be the next queen. The main character of the story is Leina, who is the middle daughter of Count Vance. She is supposed to be the heir, but she doesn't want to take the position and runs off to enter the Queen's Blade tournament. As far as the story is concerned... it is pretty ordinary, and quite typical/predictable, but thats not really what you would watch this anime for =P

The other characters include;

Listy - self-claimed "chivalrous thief of the wasteland". Her primary goal is money, but it is in order to feed an orphanage. She is the first person Leina meets, and Leina looks up to her like an older sister and idol.

Tomoe - a warrior priestess from the East. After her fellow priestesses were slaughtered by an assassin clan, she vowed to win the Queen's Blade tournament in order to protect her homeland, which is in turmoil.

Shizuka - a compansion of Tomoe. She was the head of an assassin clan, but she left in order to serve Tomoe after having being defeated by her.

Echidna - an elven mercenary, who is extremely experienced in combat. She is the favourite to win the tournament. She has a very strong, but strange interest in Leina. She frequently makes comments suggesting that they should sleep together. The most bizarre thing about her, is that she has a pet snake that wraps around her groin area to serve as underwear (although it attacks her enemies as well).

Claudette - she is known as the 'Lightning General', and is Leina's adoptive older sister. She is very strong, and as her name suggests... she uses lightning-based attacks. She seems very cold towards Leina, and one of her primary aims is to bring Leina back to the castle so she can resume her duties as the heir.

Elina - the youngest daughter of the Vance family. She is the captain of the imperial guard, and has a major sister-complex towards Leina. I find her to be one of the more amusing characters, as she frequently tries to do anything intimate with Leina when given the chance, much to Leina's dismay.

Nanael - an angel from the heavens. The angels serve as 'broadcasters' of the Queen's Blade tournament, which everyone can view from the sky. She is very selfish and ambitious, so she's very amusing to watch.


There is a huge cast of characters, but these are the most prominent characters. I would say this anime is very borderline hentai. There are no actual sex scenes or anything, so it can't really be classified as hentai, but the maker of the anime/manga certainly pushes the boundaries as far as he could. I find it very unlikely that any girls would like to watch it (unless u enjoy watching these kinds of anime), but it's definitely made for the guys. I'd give it a 5/10 for storyline, and 10/10 for fan service... so an overall rating of 7.5/10.

I'll leave u with a nice fan-service pic of my favourite character, Airi. She is 1 of the 3 'demons' who serve the Swamp Witch. As suggested by the pic, she is a scythe-wielding maid, and she is also a ghost. In order to maintain her energy, she must suck the life-force out of people, which she does by kissing them (which seems pretty awesome to me =P).

Anime Review: Fairy Tail

Fairy Tail is an ongoing anime, and relatively new. It is about a world where magic is common practice, and many guilds for mages have been created. Fairy Tail is one of those guilds, and there are many others including 'dark guilds' for evil mages. So far the episodes have been mostly introductory, explaining the main characters' pasts and a few adventures take place. It is mostly a comedy, but it adds a lot of fighting elements into it... making it quite similar to the Soul Eater anime. The story seems to have begun to pick up, with the more recent episodes based on a rival guild attacking Fairy Tail.

There are a few main characters;

Lucy Heartfilia - A cute, busty, blonde haired girl. She is a Celestial Mage, who summons spirits from Celestial Keys. The most powerful keys are the Zodiac Keys (based on the star signs). She is the newest member of Fairy Tail, after joining early in the anime. She is very cheerful, but tends to suffer a lot for comedic purposes (usually due to something Natsu, Gray or Happy does).

Natsu Dragneel - He is a Fire Mage, although he uses it as mostly an enhancement to his fighting (such as making his fists burn with fire), and some projectile moves. He was raised by a dragon named Igneel, who he learnt his fire magic from before he joined the guild. He is constantly at odds with Gray, and he also desires to beat Erza in a fight. He suffers from an extreme weakness of travelling, where he gets completely sick when riding any form of transportation.

Gray Fullbuster - He is an Ice Mage that is always at odds with Natsu ever since they were young. He has an interesting habit of taking off his clothes, which even surprises himself when someone points it out. You find out a lot more about his past and why he takes his clothes off later in the anime.

Erza Scarlet - She is an Armour Mage, with an assortment of different armour and weapons that she can switch to using her 'ex-quip' ability. Among the main characters she is the strongest, and one of the top mages of the guild. She seems to have a huge amount of authority in the guild, and is quite close to the guild master. She is the one who is consistently breaking up the fights between Natsu and Gray through sheer fear, as she is quite hot-tempered and fierce. The entire guild treads carefully around her because of this.

Happy - He is a blue cat with the ability to use magic, which so far is to create wings on his back and fly. His flying ability is the only form of transportation that doesn't make Natsu sick. He is very close with Natsu, as you find out that Natsu had raised Happy since he was a baby. He is very childish, makes a lot of random comments (some of which are stupid, but all in good humour), loves eating fish and also tends to say "aye" a lot.

There are a lot of other characters, but they are not as prominent as these 5. The show is absolutely hilarious, and I really enjoy the magic fights. The story so far has been pretty decent, but I think it will get more interesting now that things are beginning to unravel. I'd give the show a rating of 10/10, as I can not find any flaws in the show at all. If you like good comedy, you should definitely check Fairy Tail out.

Below is a pick of the main characters from left to right; Natsu, Erza, Happy, Lucy and Gray

Movie Review: The Swordsman Trilogy

This series of movies are actually Chinese movies, which I had seen a long time ago when I was young. Clearly the best of the series, and also the most popular is Swordsman II which stars Jet Li. You could probably potentially just watch Swordsman II by itself, however it would make a whole lot more sense if you watch Swordsman I (although I didn't enjoy the first as much). The series is now considered a classic, and it renewed the popularity of old-style martial arts films. The fighting is the typical unrealistic type, with people able to jump many meters and also flying through the air while being able to keep yourself afloat by merely lightly stepping on thin tree branches. People also use supernatural powers, which I gather that the idea is they expel their 'chi', and it seems like the person gets hit by an invisible force.

The first film stars Sam Hui as Linghu Chong, who is a senior member of Mount Hua Sect. He is an easy-going guy, who loves alcohol but is also a very skilled swordsman. He is accompanied by Yue Lingshan, who is also a member of the Mount Hua Sect. She is the master's daughter, and has a crush on Linghu Chong. However, her tomboy ways cause Linghu Chong to think of her as just 1 of the other junior members and he calls her 'kiddo', although in Chinese it is also referring her to be a male. They get involved in a struggle to find the Sunflower Manual. The other parties involved include a Eunach General, and also the Sun Moon Sect. Linghu Chong at some point in the movie gets saved by the Sun Moon Sect, and the current leader Ren Yingying falls in love with him, although she tries not to show it much to the amusement of Lan Fenghuang (aka Blue Phoenix) who is her deputy. Whoever learns the secrets of the Sunflower Manual will apparently become the most powerful martial artist in the world, and this is important to understanding the second movie. The first movie also explains a lot of the character backgrounds to help understand the second movie. For example; it shows the significance of a particular song that is song very often and you find out why Linghu Chong cares so much about Ren Yingying.

The second film jumps forward a bit in the timeline (to my understanding). Also the cast for a lot of the characters has changed, which is obviously evident by Jet Li replacing Sam Hui and other changes. In this movie, a character named Dongfang Bubai (aka Asia the Invincible) has taken over the Sun Moon Sect and is conspiring with Japanese pirates. He has also mastered the secrets of the Sunflower Manual, however, in order to learn the secrets of the Sunflower Manual, he had to castrate himself, and his appearance became more feminine (eventually completely becoming a woman). This is why he is played by Brigitte Lin. Dongfang Bubai has imprisoned the previous leader of the Sun Moon Sect, and Linghu Chong attempts to find him.

The third film is kind of ordinary. It is based on Dongfang Bubai after the events of the second film, yet doesn't actually continue of the storyline of what happened at the end of the movie properly. I found the movie to be pretty dodgy and not very interesting, so I would recommend simply not watching it.

I would give the first movie a rating of 6/10, second movie 8.5/10, third movie 2/10. I recommend watching the first movie purely for the story background simply because it will make viewing the second movie a lot better. To be honest, I find the ending of the second movie to be a bit vague and wished the third movie continued on from where it left off. However, the movie itself was quite good and I tend to appreciate the classic movies a lot.

TV Review: Cougar Town

Been a while since I posted, so gonna try to start doing more. I had recently finished watching Cougar Town (first season), so I thought I'd share that first.

When Cougar Town was initially released, it brought back the popularity of 'cougars' in general... with radio shows doing special cougar-related segments and also being a fairly hot topic in the news. Cougar Town is a new comedy show starring Courtney Cox, who most people will know as Monica Gellar from Friends. She plays Jules Cobb, who is in her late 30s and recently divorced. She has a son named Travis, who she raised when she was very young and had to give up her college degree in the process. She is now a real estate agent and running a successful small business, and also trying to get back on the dating scene as well as trying to make up for the time lost in her 20s that were devoted to raising Travis. The first guy that Jules dates is a younger guy named Josh, which, hence the cougar story plot.

Jules' best friend is Ellie Torres, who is also her neighbour. She is a gossip queen and loves to witness drama. She is married to Andy Torres, and they have a baby boy named Stan. She is often at odds with Jules' assistant Laurie, who has very opposing views on how Jules should spend her time. While Laurie is more of a crazy party girl, Ellie is over that type of life and prefers a quiet night at home.

Andy is the stereotypical 'whipped' husband. He is also best friends with Bobby Cobb, who is Jules' ex-husband. Again, he is the stereotypical 'sheep' who follows Bobby around doing strange things. He also has a habit of spilling any gossip he knows to his wife Ellie, and the longer he keeps things a secret... the more he suffers trying to fight off the urge to tell Ellie about it.

Laurie works with Jules as her assistant, and is the main person getting Jules back on the dating scene. She is a fun-loving party girl and tries to influence Jules into her way of life.

Travis Cobb is Jules' 18 year-old son. He is often embarassed by Jules when she does strange things quite shamelessly. They however have quite a good relationship, which is often more like friends than mother and son.

Bobby Cobb is Jules' ex-husband. He is unemployed and lives on a boat. During his marriage with Jules, he was touring as a golfer although he wasn't successful. He is very easy-going and mostly just mucks around doing random stuff.

Finally, Grayson Ellis is another of Jules' neighbours and lives across the street. He is newly divorced, which Jules pointed out when she first meets him and tries to befriend him. However, he begins to date younger women which infuriates Jules because it is so easy for a divorced man to move on, while she has to struggle to try to find a new relationship.

In a way, the show has similarities to Desperate Housewives except with a smaller cast. There wasn't much of a story development in the first season, but it seemed to be a good introduction to all the characters and provides a lot of background. My favourite aspect of the show is the character named Barb Coman, who is a man-hungry cougar. She is very lascivious and quite shameless in showing it, and pretty much hits on any attractive looking guy she sees even if they are actually taken e.g. Jules' boyfriend Josh. The show has some good comedy, so I'm looking forward to seeing the next season, but I hope there is more plot in it. Overall I'd give the show a 7.5/10, and recommend it for anyone looking for a new comedy to watch.

Anime Review: Bleach

Bleach is one of the most popular animes/mangas out at the moment, although the anime is probably losing its popularity now. The reason is because there are so many fillers, because the manga is being written too slowly. However, the manga has no fillers so its still very popular.

Bleach is a story about a teenager named Kurosaki Ichigo (Kurosaki being the last name... since in Japanese you saw last name first, but it sounds retarded if you convert it to a proper English way of saying a name), who is able to see spirits. One day an evil spirit called a hollow, attacks his family. A shinigami (death god) named Rukia, comes to save Ichigo and exterminate the hollow. However, the course of the battle forces Rukia to transfer almost all of her powers to Ichigo, who then becomes a shinigami himself.

The shinigami dwell in a place called Soul Society, and they are trained to exterminate hollow and also to help lost spirits move on to Soul Society (so in a sense, its like heaven). The hollow live in a separate plane of existence called Hueco Mundo, and they are created when a soul has died for too long without having gone to soul society. Hollow consume spirits or each other in order to live and evolve. Thus they enter the human world when possible to hunt for food.

The story is set up into major arcs. The first is the Soul Society arc, which starts off with a major intro to the story background, and also to show some of the history behind the major characters. It also introduces an incredibly large cast of characters both from the human world, and Soul Society. There are far too many characters to explain, so I'll just focus in the primary ones from the human world:

Kurosaki Ichigo - as explained earlier, he gained shinigami powers from Rukia. He is an extremely stubborn person, who does everything in his power to protect his comrades (so typical of every anime... I get tired of those sorts of characters to be honest). He is the type that is hard to approach, and early on you find out that it's because his mother died when he was very young, and he blames himself for it (you'll see why). After the death os his mother, he changed from a bright young kid, to a bit of a lone wolf. This changes once he gets his shinigami powers and gets closer to the other characters.

Hollow Ichigo - I don't think theres actually an official name for this personality, but that's what I refer to him as. Hollow Ichigo is the hollow version of Ichigo that resides inside Ichigo's soul. He occasionally tries to take over Ichigo, to fight his enemies. He is far superior to Ichigo in terms of fighting ability, but is also a bit crazy... especially in battle where he'll become quite bloodthirsty.

Kuchiki Rukia - she is part of the Kuchiki family, which is a noble house in Soul Society. She likes to draw a lot for whenever she explains something (abysmally) much to the dismay of Ichigo. She teaches Ichigo the ways of a shinigami early on in the show. As a shinigami, she is very gifted at 'kidou' which is a shinigami's magic powers, and she usually uses a spell that fires a blue fireball.

Inoue Orihime - she is a classmate of Ichigo, and appears to have a crush on him but is too shy to admit it to him. She has inhumanly large breasts, which prompts some jokes like 'the nutrients that were supposed to go to her brain, went to her breasts instead' being the most common one, because she's pretty dumb a lot of the time. However, she is a very caring person and wants to do whatever she can to help. She manifests special powers that are unique to her, that gives her the ability to heal, create a magic shield, and also to attack (though she seldom uses her attack).

Yasutora Sado - sometimes known as 'Chad' because Ichigo calls him that. He is another classmate of Ichigo's. He is part mexican, so sometimes you will hear him refer to his grandfather in mexican, rather than in Japanese. He is very tall and well built, yet he is a very gentle person and dislikes resorting to violence. Like Orihime, he also gains unique powers, where his arm will transform into a strange armour, and it enables him to punch much harder than normal, and he can also fire off some sort of spirit blast.

Ishida Uryu - he is a descent of the Quincy clan, who were a group of humans that were able to manipulate spirit particles to form bow weapons. They used their powers to fight off hollow, but were annihilated by the shinigami. For this reason, Ishida bears a grudge against Ichigo, yet he still ends up helping him and seeming to become friends.


Rating - 8/10. The actual storyline is fantastic, especially when you get to the end of the Soul Society arc, however the fillers have ruined it for me generally speaking. The first filler wasn't too bad, because it began after the Soul Society arc and seemed to fit into the timeline reasonably ok... and it had some nice fight scenes. But the more recent ones which have been occurring during the Hueco Mundo arc, make absolutely no sense because the filler will begin right in the middle of the storyline. So it will be like... at the end of the episode, they're still fighting someone in Hueco Mundo... and then the next ep will start a random filler back in the human world. So it loses points for that... but I really enjoy the main storyline. If it wasn't for the fillers, I probably would've rated it a 10.

Below is a pic of Orihime. I didn't really have time to find a better one, so this will have to do.

TV Review: Lost

Lost has just returned for its final season (6). It has been a very long and epic story, and a lot has changed since it first began. It is the kind of story that creates questions, then answers it but only to create more questions. I like the way Lost reveals its story... it seems like they film whole sections, and then chop it up so that an episode will only reveal part of it... then a later episode will reveal the rest, and suddenly things make sense or you see things from a different perspective. It's a little hard to explain, but I think you will understand when you see it for yourself.

Lost begins with the main character Jack Shephard waking up in the middle of a jungle completely dazed. He finds that he has an open wound on his back, but can't stitch it up. As he makes his way through the jungle, he comes across a girl running past him. He gets her to stich him up, and then they hear screams for help. They follow the sounds to the beach, where the front half of a plane has crash landed and the survivors are struggling to get away to safety.

It turns out that the people on the beach are survivors of the Oceanic 815 plane crash, which was flying from Australia to L.A. The first season is mostly an introductory season, which tells the background stories of the main survivors. It also shows the basic survival stuff... like setting up a proper camp, salvaging things from the plane, hunting for food and water, etc. However, it's not as simple as just survive till rescue comes... there are no signs of any boats or rescue craft on the way, as normally they are able to track plane crashes. Also, on the first night... they encounter a mysterious 'monster' in the jungle, which make huge mechanical-like sounds. The monster makes an appearance throughout the seasons, but it's not until the later seasons that it becomes more prominent. The survivors also find out that they are not alone on the island, and they refer to them as 'the others'. Who the others are... is not certain until later on in the story, but it seems that they are kidnapping people for unknown reasons.

I'm going to briefly explain the backgrounds of the main characters. If you don't want anything spoilt at all, then feel free to skip it... but I don't think it really spoils anything, as you see all of this early on in season 1;

Jack Shephard - A gifted neurosurgeon, who becomes the leader and doctor of the survivors. He tends to everyone's health, and is quite a stubborn but caring person. He has issues with his father, who he felt pushed him very hard and never really acknowledged his abilities. His father had died prior to the flight, and he had gone to Australia to pick up his body to take it back to L.A for the funeral.

Kate Austen - She is a criminal, who was being escorted by a federal marshal back to L.A. She had killed her abusive stepfather and had been on the run. She is attracted to both Jack and Sawyer, which adds a love triangle into the story (what a naughty girl!)

John Locke - Normally referred to as 'Locke', he had previously been paralysed from the waist down, but miraculously healed when arriving on the island, and was able to walk again. He seems to be a man of faith, which was reinforced by the 'healing' of his paralysis. This causes him to clash with Jack, who is a man of science and is a bit of a realist. Locke had dreamed of being a hunter, but was unable to fulfill that due to his paralysis. On the island he is able to fulfill this dream, when he captured a wild pig.

Hugo Reyes - Commonly referred to as 'Hurley'. Prior to the flight, he was a lottery winner. He used a set of numbers that a man at a mental institution was constantly repeating. These are referred to as a special set of "numbers" which continues to be part of the storyline's mythology. After winning the lottery, Hurley started having constant bad luck, which started giving him paranoia. I guess crashing landing on a mysterious island didn't help him on that note either.

Jin-Soo Kwon - A Korean man, who doesn't speak English. He was from a family of fisherman, but he had ambitions to become more than that. He moves to the city and falls in love with Sun-Hwa, and they get married. However Sun's father allowed the marriage on the condition that Jin worked for him, and Jin soon finds out that the line of work Sun's father wanted him to do was that of a mob enforcer. On the island, his fisherman background comes into play and he becomes the primary fisherman for the survivors.

Sun-Hwa Kwon - Sun is the rich daughter of a hotel owner/automobile manufacturer. She had an affair prior to the flight, because Jin was growing distant due to the work that her father made him do. She had learnt English because she had planned to leave Jin by escaping to America. On the island, she pretends to not understand English because she is scared of Jin. They soon reconcile their marriage while on the island.

Sayid Jarrah - A former military communications office, and an interrogator for the Iraqi Republican Guard. He is haunted by his dark past and wants to get away from it. Despite doing so many terrible things, he is actually a good person, and he is filled with regret. He is very gifted with electronics, and he tries to establish radio communication to get rescue.

James "Sawyer" Ford - Usually just referred to as Sawyer. He was a confidance man (con-artist) prior to the crash. He was orphaned as a child, when his father killed his mother, and then committed suicide. The reason was because another man named Sawyer had conned his mother into giving him all his money after having an affair with him. James' father found out, which resulted in the killings. James then took on the name Sawyer, and goes on to con women into giving him their money. The routine is he will have an affair with them, then arrange for the women to run away with him. After the women withdraw all the money ready to run away, he takes it and promises to meet them somewhere, but obviously never does. He had travelled to Australia to kill the original Sawyer and avenge his parents. He kills a man that he thought was Sawyer, but it turns out that it was just an innocent man. On the island, he is a bit of a lone wolf, as he appears to be self-centred and antisocial, but he is actually a good person on the inside despite his rough behaviour.


There is a ridiculously huge cast, but these are probably the most prominent characters throughout the show. While it may seem that the descriptions might spoil their storylines... it actually doesn't. It is just the beginning of the storyline, and it keeps developing further as the seasons go on, so don't feel like anything is ruined.

A lot of people don't like Lost because they think the story is too long, but I prefer long series... as I hate it when shows end. Also I think the storyline is really well thought out, and shown in such a way that there's always suspense, and keeps you wanting to know what the full story is. For this reason, I give the show a 9/10, and I recommend it for those who love epic storylines like I do. It's really quite amazing to see huge storylines come together bit by bit.

Anime/Manga Review: Soul Eater

The Soul Eater manga is still ongoing, though only released once a month... so it's a bit slow. The anime on the other hand, has finished... and since it ended while the manga was still going on, it means that the anime story diverted at the end. I actually didn't know this until I decided to look into the manga, and I do find it frustrating when animes do that, especially because the stuff that's in the manga but not in the anime... is actually quite good.

The story revolves around 'Shibusen' which is an academy started by 'Shinigami' (direct translation is Death God... which is what he is, but his actual name is just Shinigami). Shibusen is basically a school for 'technicians' and 'weapons'. Each student is either one of these, and work together in pairs, i.e each technician wields a weapon. The weapons have both a human form and a weapon form, which they can switch between. The final aim for each technician is to turn their weapon into a 'Death Scythe'. To do this, the weapon must consume 99 evil souls, and 1 soul of a witch. A Death Scythe is the ultimate form of a weapon, and have a very high status in Shibusen.

The main enemy in the story is known as 'Kishin', and he is a demon god that spreads insanity. He has been imprisoned in the past by Shinigami, but there is a witch named Medusa, who is trying to revive the demon god.

The main characters are;

Maka Albarn - The main character of the story. She is a scythe technician, and her partner is Soul. She is a very dedicated student, and is consistently at the top of her class. She specialises in 'soul perception', which is an ability that allows her to see the souls of others, and to detect the presence of them. She has a bad relationship with her father, because he keeps flirting with women, which was the cause of his divorce with Maka's mother. This is one of the ongoing jokes throughout the anime, as Maka's father is very obsessive with Maka.

Soul Eater - Maka's weapon partner. He is a scythe weapon. He is very laid back, and has a strange obsession with the word 'cool', and seems to apply it to a lot of stuff... although thats mainly just in the beginning, he doesn't seem to talk about it as much later on. He is very protective of Maka, and is willing to sacrifice his life for her.

Black Star - A descendent from a ninja clan. His partner is Tsubaki, who is a shadow weapon. Tsubaki can change into an assortment of weapons, making Black Star a very versatile fighter. Black Star is a very arrogant person, although he is still the strongest technician (aside from Death the Kid, since he's a death god). He is obsessed with being 'big', which coincides with his arrogant quality. Out of all the characters, he undergoes the most character development, so he's one of my favoured characters in the aspect.

Tsubaki - Black Star's weapon partner. She is a very quiet, kind and patient person. She seems to be the only person able to put up with Black Star's behaviour.

Death the Kid (normally referred to as Kid) - He is Shinigami's son. He insists on becoming a Shibusen student, despite his father telling him he doesn't need to. He is a dual-wield gun technician, and his partners are Liz and Patty Thompson. He has a major obsession with 'symmetry' (very far beyond Black Star's 'big' obsession), and is his major weakness. He needs everything to be in symmetry, or he'll become extremely depressed, or he will go out of his way to fix it. Sometimes he will forget whether he left something in his room perfectly aligned, and he will head back just to check on it, despite being in the middle of a mission. Along with Shinigami, they are my favourite characters in terms of humour.

Thompson Sisters - Kid's weapons. They are sisters of course, with Liz being the older one. Liz is a bit of a coward and finds Kid's obsession very annoying. Patty is very childlike, and finds just about everything amusing. Patty also has larger breasts than Liz, which Liz finds annoying when Kid points it out (because of symmetry reasons).

Dr Franken Stein - He is a teacher at Shibusen, and is also considered the best technician to ever graduate at Shibusen. He is very obsessive with disecting things, and wants to experience on basically everything. He has a great understanding of soul wavelengths, and can adapt his soul wavelength accordingly, in order to nullify someone's attack against him, or to be able to wield any weapon.

Spirit aka Death Scythe - Maka's father, and is sometimes known as Death Scythe, since he is a Death Scythe, but mainly because he is a scythe weapon. He is Shinigami's main Death Scythe, and he resides in Shibusen. He is obsessed with his daughter, and tries everything to get her to like him again. Yet he is a womaniser, and is commonly seen in seedy places.

Shinigami - Probably my favourite character, although Kid is very close as well. He is the headmaster of Shibusen. He has a very comical voice, and generally talks quite funnily. My favourite parts are when he uses his 'Shinigami Chop' to silence people, or to punish them.

Blair - a cat with exceptionally strong magic powers. She is not actually a witch, but she can transform into a human-form. In her human form, she is a very busty young woman. She is very shameless, and likes to flirt with Soul, which angers Maka. I actually like her a lot better in the manga, because I think she's a lot better drawn in the manga, than in the anime. The way she's drawn in the manga suits her personality a lot more... in that she looks a lot more seductive.


Rating - 10/10. Soul Eater has a good combination of both humour and action (leans more on humour though), and the storyline is pretty reasonable, though not on par to other animes like Code Geass. But despite that, I think it's still well deserving of a 10 because of the comedy in it. It is suitable to all audiences, and I'd probably recommend watching the anime first, since the manga is still ongoing (there will be more manga chapters waiting for you by the time you finish watching the anime).

Below is a picture of Maka Albarn, wielding Soul in his weapon form.

Anime Review: Full Metal Alchemist

If you were a writer, and you started off writing a story, but only complete 2 chapters and then give it to a few people and see how they would continue on with it... they are obviously going to come up with different storylines, but hopefully with a good interpretation of how you intended the story to go. This is sort of what happened with Full Metal Alchemist (FMA). There are actually 2 versions of FMA in anime form. The first is simply Full Metal Alchemist, and the second is Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood.

Basically what happened was... the manga for FMA was being written, and the anime was started shortly after. The anime only followed the manga's storyline briefly (probably about a couple of chapters worth), and then it diverted to the anime director's interpretation of how the story would turn out. FMA Brotherhood was then later developed a couple of years later, and it followed the manga's storyline. FMA Brotherhood is still ongoing, while the first FMA was finished a while ago now, with a movie tying up loose ends. It's quite interesting that although the first anime's adaptation had a completely different storyline and explanation for why certain things happened... it still made a lot of sense, despite being so different to how it is to the manga's intention.

On to the plot... FMA is set in a world that would be of similar time to World War 1 and 2. Also, there is a common practice known as alchemy, which involves the transmutation of one thing into another. The fundamental law of alchemy was that you can not create anything out of nothing, and thus why human transmutation is forbidden. The main characters, Edward and Alphonse Elric did not know about this when they were little, and they attempted to perform human transmutation on their mother who had recently died. Since you can not create live through alchemy, the transmutation failed and it resulted in Edward losing an arm and a leg, while Alphonse lost his whole body. Some quick thinking allowed Edward to use alchemy to attach Alphonse's soul to a suit of armour. Thus the general storyline is based on these 2 brothers trying to find a way to restore their bodies, and this is consistent in both versions of FMA. It's just the later parts which differ a lot.

Aside from the differences in storyline, the main thing I noticed was that the first FMA is of a much darker and more serious atmosphere, whilst FMA Brotherhood is more cartoonish and puts more emphasis on the comedy aspect of it (i.e Edward's personal hate of people calling him short). I'm not really sure which one I favour more, but theres definitely a clear difference in the way the animes are shown.

There are a heap of characters throughout the anime, but I'll just discuss a few of the main staples:

Edward Elric - Obviously the main character. He has an 'auto-mail' arm and leg, to replace the limbs that were taken during the failed human transmutation. It's essentially a fake limb made of metal, but it connects to the person's nervous system allowing him/her to control it as it if was an actual limb. A lot of people make comments about him being short, which he really hates, especially when they think Alphonse is the older brother due to his armour being much larger than Edward. He becomes a state alchemist in order to obtain more information about how to get their bodies back.

Alphonse Elric - The younger brother of Edward. He is superior to Edward in hand to hand fighting, although not as gifted in alchemy. While Edward is the hot-head, Alphonse is the calmer, thinking type. Both Alphonse and Edward are really soft hearted, but Alphonse shows it more... while Edward is more of the 'put on a hard face' type of person.

Winry Rockbell - The childhood friend of Edward and Alphonse. She is an auto-mail mechanic, and she maintains Edward's auto-mail. She is very enthusiastic about her work, and she gets extremely excited about anything related to auto-mail. Apart from that, she's a very typical kind of girl that you expect the lead female to be.


Rating - 9/10. I almost gave it 9.5, but it's not quite up to the standards of some of the other animes I've seen, although it has a great storyline. If you are going to watch FMA, I'd recommend watching the earlier version first, before you watch FMA Brotherhood. Main reason is that FMA Brotherhood is still on-going, but I think it's better to watch the more serious one first, before watching the one that focuses more on comedy. Also, it means you can see how the anime director interprets it, as opposed to how the manga writers intended it to be. However, if you're not a fan of dark kind of anime with a lot of gore, then maybe just watch FMA Brotherhood. I do admit that there are some pretty upsetting scenes in the first FMA, and some that made me cringe.

Below is a picture of 2 main characters; Edward Elric (left) and Winry Rockbell (right).

Movie Review: Avatar

Last night I went to see Avatar finally. The 3D glasses have taken a pretty big upgrade since I last saw a 3D film back in primary school.

So the film is about the humans discovering a planet called Pandora, where a mineral called unobtanium is found. 1 kg of this mineral is worth millions of dollars, and of course... being the greedy race that we are... the humans are trying to extract it. However, the area is inhabited by an indigenous race of humanoids called the Na'vi. The Na'vi resist the humans, as they are obviously going to protect their lands from alien invaders. Thus, the humans developed the Avatar project, where they grow Na'vi bodies modified with human DNA. When the body is complete, the person who's DNA was put in the body, will then be put into something which resembled a coffin to me... but is actually a machine which allows the person to mentally link to the avatar and control it.

So the main character, Jake Sully, replaces his dead twin brother as an avatar operator, since only he will be able to control his brother's avatar. He is sent to the Na'vi to learn their ways, so that they will accept him as their own and trust him. After that, he is meant to persuade them to allow the humans to come and mine the minerals. However, when you live with people for a long time and get to know them that closely... your perception about it begins to change, which is what happens with Jake and puts him in a dilemma of doing his job, or doing what he feels is right.

In my opinion, the story is rather plain and generally just uninteresting... but for this type of movie, you probably won't be going to watch it for its story. The visual effects were quite stunning, with great colours enhanced by the 3D technology. In particular, my favourite was when you see the cockpit of the helicopters with full computer interfaces, which really stood out with the 3D glasses... looked pretty amazing.

Just a couple of things to note. The flying mounts that the Na'vi use reminded me of the drakes in World of Warcraft.... at least the head portion of them... kind of bizarre. Also, I noticed one of the battlecries of the female Na'vi sounded very much like Xena's battlecry... wonder if they just copied it =P

If you haven't already seen the movie, it's definitely good to experience the visual effects of the movie. If you're after a good story... you'll probably need to look elsewhere (perhaps check my older reviews =P). It has been labelled as the stepping stone of 3D technology, so if nothing else... it's good to experience that, before it becomes a staple in movies... i.e every future movie ends up being shown in 3D. My rating for the movie is 7/10... it lost a lot for having a poor storyline, but it made up for it with the visual effects and the action.

TV Show Review: V

V is a relatively new show that has only aired 4 episodes so far, with the 5th episode continuing in March 2010. It is based off a mini-series from 1983, and of course remade into a modern version of it.

The plot is based on aliens who arrive on earth in high-tech spaceships, and each ship hovers over each of the main cities of the world. The ship hovering over the U.S is the flagship in which the leader of the aliens; Anna, resides. The base of the ships overturn to reveal lights which project an image of Anna who then addresses the country. Each ship across the world also does the same, showing Anna's face, but she talks in the language of whichever country she's hovering over. She is of human appearance, and she states that they come in peace and are looking for materials only found on Earth, and in exchange they will share their technology with the humans.

They establish 'health centres' around the world, which are able to cure just about anything. For instance, there is a minor character who had been in a wheelchair, but he was able to walk again after going to a health centre. Also interestingly enough, it caused a lot more people to begin attending church, as they seek answers to why the 'visitors' (as they call themselves) exist and whether they are trustworthy.

However, the pilot episode (the first episode) quickly reveals that the aliens actually have an ulterior motive, and are not actually human. There is a traitorous faction among the aliens who have been living amongst humans, as well as normal aliens who have been amongst humans, possibly causing many of the catastrophes that the world has seen throughout history. Thus the story is about trying to expose the aliens for their true purpose, although very few people are aware of this.

Some people may also recognise a couple of actors from other shows, mainly Juliette from Lost, and Alpha from Dollhouse. The main characters are;

Erica Evans - an FBI agent, who is also a single mum, with a teenage son. She discovers that the deception of the visitors, and is one of the people who are involved in trying to form a resistance.

Ryan Nichols - he is a traitor V that's posing as a human and is also trying to form a resistance

Father Jack Landry - a priest who also finds out about the visitors' true intentions, and is helping with the resistance. He is also a war veteran, hence why he has good fighting abilities despite being a priest.

Tyler Evans - the son of Erica Evans. He falls in love with a visitor named Lisa and joins up with the visitors in an ambassador program, but mainly so he can get closer to Lisa.

Valerie Stevens - she is the fiancee of Ryan Nichols, and she is unaware of his true nature

Lisa - a beautiful visitor who becomes the love interest of Tyler Evans. Not really sure if she truely has feelings for Tyler, but she's at least acting on Tyler's infatuation of her to her advantage.

Anna - the leader of the visitors. She is also very attractive, which prompts a journalist named Chad Decker to ask her whether there are any ugly visitors.

Chad Decker - the journalist that was chosen by Anna to conduct interviews with her, in order to help with showing the world that the visitors are trustworthy. His career takes a big leap once this happens, and he seems to be pretty ambitious, yet still wary of Anna, so he is kind of caught between reporting what Anna wants him to report, or doing his job by asking her the hard questions, which she has specifically told him not to ask.


Although there is only a few episodes out, it definitely looks like a promising show. I won't rate it as of this moment, since I would need to see more before I can make a better judgment, but it's worth checking out. In particular, the pilot episode is very good, and received good ratings from critics from what I have read, and I agree with that because it gets to the point, and gives a very good introduction to all the main characters and to the plot itself. The next episode won't air till March, so it's probably a good idea to check it out mid February so you don't have to wait so long for it.

Movie Review: Sherlock Holmes

Happy new year everyone. I've been off enjoying my break, so haven't been posting anything since then. Wish my break was longer, but alas... all good things must come to an end.

During the break, I watched Sherlock Holmes with a couple of friends. As we all probably know, Sherlock Holmes is a famous English detective novel. Holmes is famous for his intellectual prowess, and his uncanny ability to solve the most difficult cases, and this has been made into a modernised movie format.

The plot is based around 'dark magic' supposedly being practiced by a characted named Lord Blackwood. At the very beginning of the movie, Holmes and Dr Watson (Holmes' sidekick and best friend) stop a dark ritual, which was going to involve a human sacrifice. The ritual was being commited by Lord Blackwood, and he is arrested. Blackwood is executed 3 months later, but apparently arises from the dead. Afterwards, many murders are commited and its up to Holmes to find out what really happened.

I personally really enjoyed the mystery involved in the film, which of course is very well explained later on, and all these little things that you see throughout the film suddenly make sense. I always like these kinds of movies/tv shows/animes that make use of things that stimulate the mind, and are just generally very clever. I did find it a little odd that Dr Watson was a very capable fighter. I could understand that Holmes, being a detective... would be a good fighter, but I was definitely not expecting Watson to be one as well. However, I read into it a bit more, and Watson is supposed to be a war veteran, so in hindsight it wasn't so bad. It did amuse me when Watson would have people in a headlock and he'll say "don't worry, I'm a doctor."

Despite it being based on the Shelock Holmes novels, there is an obvious absence of the cliche "elementary, my dear Watson." My friend also commented that it would've been awesome if they had added "no shit Sherlock" to the script as well. But alas... maybe in a sequel =P

The main characters of the movie are;

Sherlock Holmes - obviously. He is a genius, and has exceptional deductive capabilities. He takes into account everything, even the littlest of things, and work out things about a person, or deduce what happened at a particular scene. He is also a very skilled fighter, and its quite awesome to see him combine the 2 skills. Basically what he'll do is mentally visualise his plan of attack, and list them step by step. Then he'll execute it perfectly in exactly how he previously described. I find it a clever way of explaining what is actually going on in a fight.

Dr Watson - supposed to be a sidekick for Holmes, but in the movie they seem more like colleagues and good friends. He is of course a doctor, and was present at Blackhorn's execution to confirm his death. While Holmes is quite laid back, Watson is more of a serious character.

Irene Adler - Holmes' past love interest, who is the only person to have outwitted Holmes. She herself is quite intelligent and cunning. She's played by Rachel McAdams, who some people will remember as Regina George in Mean Girls. When I first saw her, I felt like I know who she was but couldn't put a name to her face. I didn't realise till later, that it was Rachel McAdams (I didn't look at the cast before I watched the movie)... she looks quite different without the blonde hair.

Lord Blackwood - as previously mentioned, he is involved in the practice of black magic, and he is using that to take over Britain.


Rating - 8.5/10. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, and I think its definitely worth checking out, if you haven't already. It has good humour, and some of the fight scenes are quite interesting. The best thing is the element of mystery and then hearing the explanation of what everything meant at the end. I also really liked the background music and I think its quite fitting to the setting of the movie. The movie is suitable for all audiences, but be prepared to keep up with the movie, as Holmes can speak quite fast sometimes.

TV Review: Dexter

Dexter is a crime/mystery series, based on the Dexter novels. The show is not exactly the same as the novels, but it has the same general storyline. It is about a serial killer called Dexter Morgan. He works for the Miami police as a forensics expert specialising in blood spatter. Basically he can tell how a situation played out based on things like the direction of the blood spatter.

Dexter was psychologically scarred as a child, because he witnessed the killing of his mother. Due to this, he is emotionally detached and has urges to kill from a voice in his head that he calls 'the dark passenger'. When he kills someone, the dark passenger is satisfied and goes away for a while... but will eventually come back. After his mother was killed, he was adopted by Harry Morgan. Harry realises Dexter's problem, and tried to change him so that he was no longer a potential killer. However, he understood that it wasn't a problem that would just go away, so he taught Dexter to use his urges in a more positive and accepting way, which is to only kill people that are actually guilty of a crime. Dexter refers to these teachings by Harry as 'the code' which he mentions fairly often. So in Dexter's spare time, he will research criminals who have escaped the justice system, and prove that they were guilty... then he will capture them, wrap them up in plastic, cut their cheek to draw blood which he then keeps as a sort of trophy/memento, then he will kill them and cut up the body. The body parts are then wrapped up in plastic bags, which he then dumps in the ocean.

So the series is based off Dexter and his way of life filled with killing and keeping his true identity hidden. The first series is a bit introductory, but the main plot is based on another serial killer that was given the name of 'the ice truck killer', who's killing methods have fascinated Dexter... and he tries to find the identity of him. In the meantime, he is also killing various criminals.

The main characters include;

Dexter Morgan - The main character, who also serves as the narrator. Pretty much described him already... but he also has a girlfriend named Rita, and through her... he begins to establish what feelings are meant to be.

Debra Morgan - Biological daughter of Harry Morgan, and Dexter's sister via adoption. She works for the Miami Police and is aspiring to become a detective. She is quite foul-mouthed, and has a tendency to speak her mind no matter what it is. But she is a smart girl, and she's very close with her brother Dexter.

Rita Bennett - Dexter's girlfriend. She has 2 kids; Cody and Astor, from a failed marriage. Her ex-husband was abusive and ended up in jail. She was untrusting of men due to that abuse, but she discovers that she truely loves Dexter and her relationship with him helps her to overcome the trauma of the abuse.

Harry Morgan - Dexter's foster father, who is deceased at the present time of the show. But he is commonly seen in flashbacks. He was a legendary detective working for Miami police before his death, and Debra aspires to become a detective because of Harry.

Maria LaGuerta - The lieutenant in charge of Miami police. She is a strong woman who seems to enjoy having the authority. She clearly dislikes Debra, and tends to take the stab at her a lot.

Angel Batista - A detective working for Miami police, who works quite closely with Dexter. He is a good-natured person, and very honest.

James Doakes - His character is quite amusing, in a hard-ass kind of way. He is a sergeant, and also works fairly closely with Dexter. He is suspicious of Dexter, but he also makes some funny wise-cracks at Dexter, for example he'll describe some horrific crime scene as being Dexter's wet dream.

Vince Masuka - Usually people just call him Masuka. He is the comedy relief of the show, although he's a bit of a minor character. He is a forensics investigator who works alongside Dexter. He is very intelligent, but also likes to make a lot of perverted comments, and a lot of these are directed at Debra (who finds him repulsive).


Rating - 9/10. One of my favourite shows at the moment. It has a lot of great suspense, such that I only watch each season in 1 go... instead of having to wait each week for a new episode. Theres quite a bit of nudity in season 2, if you're into that. The killing scenes aren't actually gorey or anything, so the show is suitable even if you normally don't like gorey stuff. You will know that he's slicing the body up and stuff... but you won't actually see him doing it. So far I'd rate the first season as being the best... it's strange that for most shows its the first season thats always the best. But the following seasons are still quite good and worth watching.

Movie/Book Review: New Moon (Twilight)

On the weekend I saw New Moon with a couple of girl friends. We were in gold class, and it was just us and 2 other random guys. We found it really strange because its either; they're there together to watch New Moon... or they've come by themselves to watch New Moon. Either way... it seems pretty weird to me lol.

Anyway, the Twilight books has been the latest big seller since Harry Potter. It is a love story between a vampire (Edward Cullen) and a high school girl (Bella Swan). I have actually read the books, which some guys might find surprising... but I usually look into stories that are supposed to be good, as I love a good storyline. The first book (Twilight) really enticed me into the series... but the second book (New Moon) was really disappointing. So I wasn't actually expecting much from the movie... but I wanted to see it anyway, because I wanted to see how it would turn out in a movie format.

Surprisingly, this is probably the first time I've actually thought the movie was better than the book... but this is mainly because I found the second book to be the worst out of the series. The main thing about the book that I hated was that it is told from Bella's point of view... and her thoughts are both really emo and also overly lovey dovey. So the good thing about the movie, is that you don't really have to hear all that kind of stuff. I also enjoyed the fight scenes between the vampires as I think it's pretty cool when they fight with their insanely high speed and strength.

The main problem I have with the movie though, is some of the acting. Some of the acting was pretty appauling, and I'm generally quite lenient. But some of the acting just gave me the shits... for example when Bella is supposed to be in a state of shock or utter disbelief, she has this weird expression and stutters a lot while seeming to have some sort of attitude. That's probably the best way I can describe it... you'll have to see for yourself to know what I mean.

The basic plot of this movie is that firstly, Bella becomes afraid of aging... as we mortals do. So she fears that one day she'll become an old grandma, and that Edward will no longer want her. Thus she wants to become a vampire a live among the Cullens. After a particular incident, it becomes apparent to the Cullens that they are a danger to Bella, so they leave town and erase traces that they had been there so that hopefully Bella would move on. When this happens, Bella becomes really depressed and emo... and the rest takes off from there.

Rating - 5/10. The Twilight series in general is more suited for girls than guys, but there are some good fighting scenes in there as well... just maybe not enough to offset having to go through all the lovey dovey stuff. The next movie should actually have a lot more fighting... as it's probably the book that has the potential to provide the most action scenes for the movie version. So if you do watch the movie for the fight scenes, then you should watch New Moon so you know what's going on... as whats revealed is pretty important to the storyline. If you have absolutely no interest in the books or if you didn't like the first movie... then you probably won't enjoy this movie.


Below is a picture of Christian Serratos, who plays Angela Weber. Angela Weber is a high school girl, and a friend of Bella. She has a very minor role in the movies, but she's a bit more prominent in the book (but not by that much more). I posted her pic because I think she's pretty good looking... this pic doesn't do her justice imo, but it's the only one I could find of her in New Moon.

Review: X-men Evolution

One of the most prominent comics of all time is the X-Men. Alongside other superhero comics like Batman, Spiderman, etc, X-men is based on a large number of superheroes instead of just one. I think many people will remember the original X-Men animated series from back in the 90's. X-Men evolution is based on mostly the same characters, except the setting is when they were younger, i.e. still at school. I guess this was to make the show target the high school audience, who could relate more to the characters... but also to show what happened pretty much at the beginning of when the Xavier Institute was starting up.

I think the background of the X-Men is quite widely known since theres so many things based on them, i.e. movies, tv shows, figurines, games etc... but basically the plot is that there are people who have the 'x gene' which gives people supernatural powers. These people are termed 'mutants', and the powers vary greatly, although there are some powers which multiple people possess the same of... the most common being psychic related powers, and superhuman strength.

Now to the main story... a man named Charles Xavier has started an institute for mutants, where they can be themselves and avoid public knowledge. This is because people do not know of the existence of mutants yet... so it's the pretty typical "don't reveal your identity" kind of thing that is quite common in superhero stories, except in this case it's to not reveal your powers. Within the institute, there are teachers who train the younger generation of mutants to develop their powers and to teach them to use it for the good of mankind. In the background, a mutant named Magneto is scheming plans for his own purposes. He believes that as a mutant, he is a superior being and separate to humans.... and that mutants should be ruling the world.

There are 4 seasons in total. The first season is pretty much an introductory season, where the beginning X-Men are recruiting the first members such as Shadowcat, Spyke (a new character that's not in the comics), Rogue and Nightcrawler. You'll basically get a fair bit of background on each of the main characters throughout season 1. Season 2 comes with the addition of even more mutants, especially from a younger generation. It also further develops some of the 'villains' like Magneto. To be honest, I don't think characters like Magneto and Mystique are really villains as such, since they're not really evil... but I'd say it's probably the best way to describe them. Season 3 is when the serious note takes off, and season 4 finishes off the primary storyline.

There is a huge cast in this series, so I'll just emphasise the main characters and keep the less important ones brief;

Charles Xavier - As mentioned, he started the institute for the X-Men. He is extremely intelligent, as he use to be a doctor... and he is arguably one of the most powerful psychics in the X-Men universe. He is a seemingly influential person even without his powers, as he is able to bail out the younger X-Men in many situations.

Storm - One of the teachers at the institute. I like her a lot more in this version as her cape makes her look pretty cool... and she's just generally better looking in this series than in the original animated series. As her name implies, her power is weather manipulation, as well as the ability to fly.

Wolverine - I'm sure people know about him now, since theres a movie based on him. In this series, he's kind of like Xavier's right hand man. He is also a teacher at the institute, and normally does a lot of rigorous training sessions for the students. As you'll probably know... his ability is his healing factor combined with an adamantium skeleton and claws.

Scott Summers (Cyclops) - He is the unofficial leader of the X-Men. He does most of the leading when theres a combat situation. He has a crush on Jean, but he's reluctant to confess his feelings to her. His ability is to produce energy blasts with his eyes. Due to brain damage, he is unable to control it, so he has to wear a viser or special sunglasses. This is not actually explained in the series... but it's the reason why you see that Rogue can absorb Scott's powers yet can control when she fires it.

Jean Grey - The good looking and popular high school girl. She is extremely intelligent, athletic and well-liked. She's very jealous when she sees Cyclops with other girls, even though she already has a boyfriend. She has psychic and telekinetic abilities, and she frequently uses it to give herself the ability to fly.

Kurt Wagner (Nightcrawler) - He is a blue furred person with abnormal hands, feet and a tail. He receives an image inducer which allows him to appear to be a normal boy. He likes to goof around a lot, and has a very close friendship with Cyclops. His power is of teleportation, although he can't teleport long distances, and he has to know where he's teleporting too.

Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat) - She is a pretty smart girl, but really loves to party as well. She's also quite good looking. She has a phasing ability, which means she can pass through solid objects, and she can also make things that she's touching phase through too.

Rogue - Very different to the original. In the original, she's a pretty open fun-loving girl. In this series, shes an emo goth who keeps to herself a lot... which is why it took her so long to join the X-Men. Her ability is to drain a person's power and absorb their memories. For this reason, she makes sure that her body is covered as much as possible, and she always wears gloves.

Evan Daniels (Spyke) - a new character to the X-Men scene. He is the nephew of Storm, and he cares a lot about his Aunt. He's the type who prefers to slack off and do other things like skate-boarding instead of studying. His ability is to produce wooden stakes from his body, which he figures or throws at people.

Magneto - my favourite character of all time. His intelligence is of a genius level, especially in genetics. He is an old friend of Charles Xavier, who he worked alongside in their younger days. Due to their differences in opinion of mutants, they parted ways. Unlike most of the other mutants, he is an advanced mutant who has complete mastery of his powers. His power is of magnetism, which also allows him to fly as well. His level of control of his powers far exceeds any other mutant except maybe Xavier, as he can manipulate many metal objects over vast distances. He is also highly resilient to psychic attacks, although it's not explained why he has such strong mental defences.

There tonnes more mutants, but I won't go into detail about their backgrounds... but I'll give a brief list of their mutant names so that the X-Men fans know who to expect to see in the series; Iceman, Cannonball, Magma, Jubilee, Wolfsbane, Multiple, Berzerker, Sunspot, Mystique, Avalanche, Toad, The Blob, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Gambit, Sabretooth, Colossus, Pyro, Mastermind, Boom-Boom, the Morloks, X-23, Angel, Forge, Havok, Destiny, Leach, Juggernaut and Apocolypse.

Rating - 9/10. I'm a big fan of the X-Men, as it was one of the animations I grew up with. I also like the storyline and I think the idea of mutant powers is very interesting... so I really enjoyed watching this, as it's much better made than the original series. If you like the comics, or any of the movies/tv series based on it... then I'm pretty sure you'll like this one.

Anime/Manga Review: Hunter X Hunter

Hunter X Hunter is centered around a young boy named Gon Freaks (last name has various spellings... but I'll go with Freaks since its used in the subs that I saw). He was raised by his aunt Mito, who told him that his parents had died in an accident. It is revealed early on that his father is in fact still alive, and that he is a famous hunter. Gon is a very special kid, and the first sign of this was when he was able to catch a gigantic fish that no one else was able to catch. He leaves home in order to take the hunter exam and follow in the footsteps of his father Jin Freaks. He also wants to find his father, so finding clues about his father is another of his primary objectives. Along the way and through the hunter exam, Gon becomes best friends with Killua, Kurapika and Leorio.

A hunter in this story is a special title only given to very special people. In order to become a hunter, you have to pass the hunter's exam, which involves many various skills expected of someone with such a prestigous title. If you have a hunter's license, you are basically set for life... as even the license itself is extremely valuable. One of the main things that you need to know as a hunter is an ability called nen. It actually isn't shown until a bit later in the anime and manga, but its actually a pretty important to the storyline plot.

Nen is kind of like your inner aura, which has various applications based on your personal traits. Each person will generally have a different kind of usage for their nen than others. The types include:

Reinforcement - which enhances your physical attack and defensive strength. Also enhances your healing rate.

Emission - the ability to project your aura in some kind of form. Example, theres a character who has the ability to shoot nen bullets from his fingers.

Manipulation - pretty self explanatory... you can control an object with your aura

Transmutation - ability to transform your aura to mimic the properties of something else. For example, there is a character who transforms his aura into 'bungee gum' which has the properties of rubber and gum

Materialisation - can conjure and dispel an object at will

Specialisation - this is a pretty vague ability... and is quite hard to describe. It is anything that doesn't fall in the other 5 categories pretty much, but its also pretty unique. An example is there is a character who can write poems that predict the future.


The anime doesn't actually cover everything in the manga. So in terms of storyline, its probably better to read the manga, as there is a story arc thats not yet covered in the anime or any of the OVAs. However, the majority of it so far is in anime form, which is what I personally prefer. Anyway the main characters include;

Gon Freaks - main character. He is a very stubborn person, but also very loyal to his friends and would do anything for them. He is not very bright academically, but when it comes to fighting he's extremely intuitive and is very good at thinking up strategies on the fly. Not much else to say that hasn't already been said without spoiling anything.

Killua Zoldyck - he is from a family of the most powerful assassins in the world. Despite being so young (12, same age as Gon), he has already mastered many arts in killing and is 1 of the most dangerous people in the hunter exam. He becomes friends with Gon very quickly. Unlike Gon, Killua is quite intelligent as would be expected from an assassin, both academically and in combat. He joined the hunter's exam because he wanted a bit of a challenge.

Kurapika - the last member of the Kurta clan (I forgot what spelling was used in the subs, so I used the wikipedia spelling for it). His eyes turn scarlet red when he becomes angry, which is the reason his clan was killed, as their eyes were extremely valuable. His goal is to find the Ryodan, who are the ones responsible for massacring his clan. For this reason, he joins the hunter exam, because having access to the hunter database is the best chance of finding information on the Ryodan.

Leorio - he is an aspiring doctor, and he joins the hunter exam in order to get the money to enter medical school. In the past, one of his friends died of an uncurable illness... so his goal is to become a doctor who can cure anything. He is a bit of a comedy relief for this series, but at the same time he is a very loyal friend.

Hisoka - in a way, he can be seen as the main 'enemy' in the series, although he's not actually evil as such... however I would describe him as kind of insane, as the only thing he cares about is fighting and killing. He takes a liking to Gon and Killua (especially Gon) and often describes them as 'fruit' waiting to ripen. Basically meaning he wants to fight them when they become powerful. He uses playing cards to fight a lot of the time, however he is just generally ridiculously strong... and he would be the most dangerous person in the hunter exam. The thing I find funniest about Hisoka is that it is implied that he gets sexual gratification from fighting. This can be seen especially in a particular scene in the manga, where there is text and a large whitened out area covering his crotch area, which seems to emphasise that (you will see what I mean if you read the manga).

There are of course lots of other characters who come and go, but these are the main ones you'll see throughout the anime.

Rating - 9/10. A very good anime and manga with a good concept for fighting, and a pretty decent storyline. It also has some good childish humour to it. Its suitable for all audiences, and if you haven't seen it already then its a good time to watch or read it... as apparently the writer is going to continue on with the manga in 2010. Although I'm not certain if they'll continue making more OVAs for the anime for the missing story arc, or for the new ones.

TV Review: Dollhouse

Dollhouse is based on a secret organisation called.... you guess it, 'Dollhouse'. Basically the organisation has numerous 'dolls' who are of course actual people, but their personalities have been downloaded and stored elsewhere, thus leaving an empty shell. The organisation's computer wizz; Topher, is the person responsible for 'imprinting' a new personality into the doll, depending on what the doll needs to do. Very wealthy clients will purchase the services for various reasons, for example assassinations, thievery, sexual services, espionage, and a wide range of other things. So the personality imprinted will excel in the area that the job requires. To the FBI... the Dollhouse is a myth, except for Agent Paul Ballard... who is obsessed with trying to find the Dollhouse and shut it down because he believes its practices to be immoral. Also in the background is a rogue doll codenamed Alpha, who is a genius and a superior being... and is trying to bring down the dollhouse too.

The main characters;

Echo - played by Eliza Dushku, who some may remember played Faith in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She is the main doll that is seen throughout the show. Before becoming a doll, she was a college student and a political activist.

Boyd Langton - he is Echo's handler, which means he watches over her and ensure she carries out her mission, and she gets back to the dollhouse safely. He use to be a cop, before he joined the dollhouse.

Topher Brink - a scientist who is in charge of the memory wipes and imprints. He is a genius, but is also extremely arrogant and egotistic.

Paul Ballard - an FBI agent who is obsessed with finding the dollhouse. One of his main reasons is because of Caroline (Echo's real name), but its a bit vague as to exactly why shes so important to him.

Sierra - another doll and she is the newest one.

Adelle Dewitt - she is the manager of the dollhouse, and is the person who converses with the clients. She makes most of the decisions for the organisation, but she does answer to higher officials.

Dr Claire Saunders - one of the doctors inside the dollhouse who look after the dolls to make sure they are physically fine.


Rating -7/10. Dollhouse has a pretty interesting plot, but it does not have the level of suspense that other shows have. I'd say its still worth having a look at... its good, but not outstanding.

Below is a picture of Amy Acker who plays Doctor Claire Saunders. She is very hot, and she looks a lot younger than she actually is.

TV Show Review: House M.D

Season 6 of House began recently in the U.S, and its one of the shows that I follow regularly. It is based on a diagnostics division of a hospital, with Dr Greggory House being the head of the division. House is an extremely gifted diagnostician, who can solve cases that most doctors could not. It is a comedy-drama based on the medical field. There is not actually a whole lot of a storyline to the series, as usually each episode is based around a stand-alone case. However there are plotlines which develop, except its quite subtle and it only develops bit by bit. I'd compare it to shows like CSI in that sense... so if you've watched CSI before, you'll probably know what I mean.

The main characters are;

Doctor Greggory House - As mentioned, he is extremely intelligent. However, he is also sarcastic, arrogant, antisocial... and most of the other characters just think hes a jerk. Although sometimes he does show a sense of caring and compassion, so hes both a very interesting yet weird character at the same time. He has to walk around with a cane due to a heavy loss of muscle in his right thigh, which causes him a lot of pain... and is a reason why hes an ass to a lot of people. He gets through the pain using a prescription pain killer called Vicodin, however it is a very addictive drug, and is another major subject to the storyline later on. He likes to make a lot of snide comments, especially towards Doctor Cuddy... and the comments in my opinion are both flirtatious and usually insulting at the same time. He is also a very logical kind of person, which causes him to get into arguments with anyone who is religious.

Doctor Lisa Cuddy - She is the administrator of the hospital. Despite being a qualified doctor, she doesn't actually do any medical examinations. She is able to put up with House's behaviour, but at the same time she respects his abilities as a doctor.

Doctor James Wilson - He is House's best friend... and arguably House's only friend. He is an oncologist, and is well-respected in the hospital.

Doctor Eric Foreman - He is a qualified neurologist working under House. Out of the diagnostics team, he is the one who challenges House the most on House's seemingly strange methods, as he is the type of person who does things by the book. He is a very ambitious person, and strives to reach the top.

Doctor Allison Cameron - She is the female member of the diagnostics team. She is a very sincere and emotional person, which has an effect on the kinds of decisions that she makes medically. She is very intelligent, and like the others in the team... shes overqualified to be working as an underling.

Doctor Robert Chase - He is a member of the diagnostics team, who specialises in surgery (which he often performs or assists in performing). He is Australian... which is pretty clear when he speaks. He is seen to be the kind of person who will do anything to protect his job. He is actually quite loyal to House, because he respects House's brilliant medical abilities, but like the others... doesn't think too much of his personality.


Rating - 8/10. Generally I'm the type who likes to watch things with a good storyline, which develops a bit slowly in House... which is why it loses rating for me personally. However, I really enjoy watching it for the medical aspect of the show... as its actually pretty informative, and I've learnt a lot of various diseases and illnesses that I'd never heard of before. It also has great comedy, and I like House's sarcastic and obnoxious behaviour. Plus... Allison Cameron is pretty hot. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone, if you haven't already been following the show already.

Below are pictures of Doctor Remy Hadley (nicknamed Thirteen) and Doctor Allison Cameron. You won't actually see Thirteen until later on... but she's played by Olivia Wilde, who is ridiculously hot. Another reason why I'm mentioning her, is because Megan Fox expressed an interest in Olivia Wilde in an interview... and they're both bisexual, so if they ever got together... I could die a happy man just on the thought of them.

The picture of Dr Cameron doesn't do her justice in my opinion... but I couldn't be bothered spending more time looking for a better one of her as her actual character... but you'll see how nice she looks when you watch the show.

Anime Review: One Piece

One piece is an ongoing manga and anime and is currently one of the longest ones that is still going. Some people are deterred from such long animes/mangas, but personally I think its well worth watching. Worse comes to worse... you'll at least know you always have something readily available to watch.


One piece is a comedy and fighting anime, based around pirates. It has a historical background, which is based on the "Pirate King: Gol D. Roger". Most people just refer to him as Roger... and he was the pirate who found "One Piece", which is a legendary treasure and gave him the status of the Pirate King. He was eventually captured and executed, but upon his death he announced to the world that he had hid it "there" and if anyone wants it they can go get it. After this, he was killed... and the age of pirates began, with many pirates trying to find One Piece. One such pirate is the main character, Monkey D. Luffy, who aspires to become the Pirate King. Thus the anime is based on Luffy's adventures with his pirate crew, which changes over time, and his journey into the Grand Lane, which is deemed to be where One Piece is hidden.


One important aspect of the story are the 'devil fruits', which is obviously something that someone will consume. Each devil fruit will give its user a particular power, depending on which fruit was eaten. Most of the fruits give very powerful abilities, or abilities that will eventually develop into something powerful. The downside of them, is that if the person falls into the ocean, they will lose all of their strength and simply drown... no matter how powerful they normally are.


Another important aspect is the use of bounties, which is a clever way to indicate how powerful people are... and I think its better than stuff like 'battle power' that you would see in Dragonball.


Luffy's pirate crew changes over time with new additions, but the main ones that you see during the early part of the anime are;


Monkey D. Luffy - Captain of the Straw Hat Pirates. He has an iconic straw hat, given to him by a pirate named Shanks, when he was just a kid. Shanks had also saved Luffy's life when he was young, and Luffy looks up to him as a role model. When Luffy grew up, he decided he was going to become a pirate and look for One Piece to become the Pirate King. He has eaten the Gomu Gomu devil fruit, which has made him a rubber man. So he is able to stretch his body out, and he can not be harmed by bullets, which just bounce off him. Like many people in the anime, he has a name that most people refer to him as... which is 'Mugiwara', which simply means 'Straw Hat'. He has a very laid back personality, and is very childish at times. He's not a very bright person, although when it comes to fights... hes quite innovative... and when it comes to sentimental times, hes also very thoughtful and compassionate. He is also quite stubborn, and if any of his crew are in danger, he will do anything to save them. He is the most powerful pirate of the Straw Hat Crew.


Roronora Zoro - The second member of the Straw Hat Pirates, and has the nickname of 'Pirate Hunter'. He is a swordsman, who developed his own style called 'Santoryu', which is a style that uses 3 swords (1 in each hand, and 1 in his mouth). Despite not having a devil fruit power, he is extremely strong and skilled with the sword. He aspires to become the strongest swordsman in the world, thus he wants to defeat the current number 1 swordsman called 'Hawkeyes' Mihawk. He has the worst sense of direction imaginable... and always gets lost whenever he has to navigate on his own. He is the second strongest of the Straw Hat Pirate crew.


Nami - The female member of the Straw Hat Pirates and its navigator. She is quite intelligent, and she normally uses her intellect to fight battles, since she is physically quite weak. She later obtains a weapon thanks to Usopp, which allows her to have minor control over weather, thus allowing her to use that to fight on more even grounds. She has a strong lust for money, and she considers it the most important thing in the world. Her dream is to draw a map of the world.


Usopp - He is mostly the comedy relief of the crew. Physically he is as weak as Nami, but he has an arsenal of random stuff that he makes to use in his fights. He likes to boast and claim that hes the captain of the Straw Hat Pirates, but when someone powerful comes along.... he will cower in fear. He is however quite gifted at tinkering things, and tends to invent a lot of random little gadgets, for example the weapon that Nami uses. He is also a gifted marksman, which can be seen when he fires a cannon with great precision.


Sanji - He is a passionate and highly skilled cook, but he also is a very strong fighter whose style is based around kicking. He is usually a pretty serious and hard faced character, but whenever a hot young female is nearby... he becomes really giddy and tries hard to flirt and court them. He is also very chivalrous, and will never harm a pretty lady or let them get hurt. His dream is to fine 'All Blue' which is an ocean with every ingredient imaginable, and he wants to cook using those ingredients. He is the 3rd strongest member of the Straw Hats Pirate crew, until maybe later when other people join, as I think its a pretty close call with some of the other people who join.


Chopper - He is the last to join for a pretty long time, but the crew attaining storylines end once they get chopper... and then a lot of the main story arcs begin. He is a reindeer who has eaten a zoan-type devil fruit, which gives him humanoid properties. He is a gifted doctor, and his dream is to be able to cure any illness. He is a bit cowardly like Usopp, however he can fight reasonably when he transforms, although I'd say he's a fair bit weaker than Sanji. Like Luffy, he is quite childish and is easily impressed by everything. He is also very gullible and will believe anything that hes told. Another thing is that he is flattered very easily, which he tries to hide often although he fails at doing so. Also, he has a funny habit where he tries to hide when hes scared... except hes hiding the wrong way, with his body out in the open whilst hes holding onto the wall.




There are also numerous powerful characters that are talked about throughout the anime. Probably the most prominent is a character named Whitebeard, who is known to be the strongest man in the world... with the power to destroy it. Luffy's role model; Shanks, is also a well known pirate, with some kind of special status in the pirate world. In addition, there are the 7 'Shichibukai', which translates to the Seven Warlords of the Sea. You will see more of them later on in the anime.


Rating - 9.5/10. Its one of my favourite animes, and I always look forward to it every week when it comes out. Even the fillers are actually pretty decent, especially compared to fillers of other animes. One thing that might deter people, is that the initial obtaining of the full pirate crew up to Chopper, takes up a lot of episodes... but this is because whenever a character is added... a large number of episodes are dedicated to the character development. I personally think this is fine, as I enjoy learning about a character's background... but I know theres a lot of impatient people out there who don't appreciate this kind of stuff. So I guess it depends... I definitely think people should at least give it a go. If nothing else... its a very humourous anime.

Below is a picture of Nami's future wanted poster. Although you might argue that its a bit of a spoiler... I personally don't think it is. I chose this pic, because its my favourite of Nami's poses, as I think its quite sexy.

Movie and Book Review: Angels and Demons

Back again... was sick last week, so didn't have the energy to write anything here. But during that time I was able to find some time to watch the Angels and Demons movie. I liked the Da Vinci Code book (same main character, and written by Dan Brown), and the movie was ok. So it was interesting to see how Angels and Demons would be converted to a movie.

The Angels and Demons book was a great read. I don't know how accurate the historical stuff that the book mentions is... but it made for a good storyline, and its good to get some background information about various pieces of art. Normally I'm not a fan of these type of things... but various pieces of art sparked some interest in me, so I looked them up to get a better idea of them.

Anyway as for the storyline... the main character is Robert Langdon. He is professor of religious iconography and symbiology, and he teaches at a university. He is contacted by CERN, which is a real organisation based in Switzerland that researches particle physics. A researcher at CERN was murdered and branded with the Illuminati symbol. The Illuminati are an ancient cult, comprising of 'enlightened' beings. They are an anti-Christian secret society... and judging by the branding of the researcher (who was a devout Catholic), are plotting something to bring down the Vatican. They had stolen 'anti-matter', which threatens to cause a massive explosion on the scale of an atomic bomb, which could wipe out Vatican city, and possibly all of Rome. I researched anti-matter after reading the book, and apparently anti-matter can not explode on that scale, especially with such a small specimen. However... it does make for a good storyline, but having said that... I wasn't so sure on the validity of the historical references that the book makes.

The movie for me... was actually quite disappointing. It leaves out important characters, and even the actual storyline deviates greatly to the book. An example is the character known as the 'Hassassin'. As you might guess... hes an assassin (gasp), and he is meant to be of middle eastern origin. He is also very sadistic, and his thirst for killing is only equalled by his lust for women... and he tends to like combining his interests. Anyway, he's one of the most important characters in the book... yet he is completely different in the movie, and has absolutely no character development whatsoever. Another thing which is more for me personally... is that the female lead playing Vittoria Vetra wasn't as good looking as I had imagined... she's too old. The actress is 40 years old... and Vittoria is meant to be in her 20's.

I'd give the book a 8/10 rating, and the movie I'd give 4/10. The movie's rating is mainly bad because I read the book first. If I had watched the movie by itself, then it would be closer to a 7. Personally I'd recommend reading the book first. If you don't watch the movie... you're not really missing out that much, but the book is definitely well worth the read.

TV Show Review: Heroes

New season of heroes started in America about a month or so ago. Its currently up to season 5... so a lot has changed and developed since then... so I'll keep the explanation to mainly season 1.

Heroes has a similar concept to x-men... where certain people have developed a supernatural power. Season 1 is pretty introductory... giving a brief storyline about each of the characters and slowing unfolding different things which end up entwining together to reveal a well written story which all makes sense later on. If anyone watches Lost... the way they develop the story is fairly similar to how they do it in Lost (I plan on talking about Lost on another day as well).

The main plot of the season, is based around a character called Sylar. Sylar is a serial killer with powers, and he is hunting other people who have powers. It is an obvious kill by Sylar, because his victims have their heads cut open, and their brains are missing. At the same time, Peter Petrelli is visited by a time traveller, who warns him that there is going to be a disaster occuring in the future... and that he must 'save the cheerleader.' So another of the main things going on, is the prevention of this future disaster. Another thing occuring is the presence of 'The Company' who are 'bagging and tagging' people with special powers.

The main characters and their special powers are;

Peter Petrelli - Arguably will be the most powerful person next to Sylar. The show doesn't really give him a special name for his ability, but I would call it 'power mimicry'. Basically when he is in close proximity of another person who has a power, his body will automatically copy that power and allow him to use it. So Peter will acquire powers off basically everyone in the series. The powers that are most prominently used include; flight, time manipulation/teleportation, regeneration, telepathy/mind manipulation, invisibility, precognition through art, telekinesis, and a few others that he gains throughout the series. Imagine if you had all of these powers... practically invincible. Peter is a very empathic person. He has a very pure soul, and can be seen by his desire to help and save people.

Sylar - As previously stated, he is the main villain, and a serial killer. There are a couple of episodes dedicated to Sylar's past, so I won't go into too much detail about him. The actual nature of his powers is discussed in season 2, so I'll keep it brief and describe what you'll see in season 1. Similar to Peter, his power allows him to acquire other powers. The main powers that he uses are; telekinesis, photographic memory, precognition through art, enhanced hearing, and a power that allows him to cut... not sure what its called, but he uses it to cut open heads.

Claire Bennet - A young schoolgirl. She has the power of regeneration, so she is virtually unkillable. She is part of the cheerleader squad at her school.

Nathan Petrelli - Older brother to Peter. He is an ambitious politician following in the footsteps of his late father. He has the power of flight, but he denies his ability because of what it did to him in the past.

Matt Parkman - He is an aspiring detective. He has the power of telepathy. He has problems with his marriage, because he found out that his wife was having affair... and only because of his telepathic ability.

Hiro Nakamura - Everyone's favourite character... he is the comic relief for the show. He has the power of time manipulation and teleportation... which he uses to go back and forward in time, and to generally get around. He is very childish and quite geeky. He believes himself to be a superhero, and his child-like attitude causes him to be very immature about it and he aspires to save the world.


There are actually a huge amount of characters, but these are the main ones that you'll be following... and I didn't wanna have to list too many of them.

Rating - I'll give the first season 10/10, as it was the best season out of all the ones that are out right now, and it was just fantastic. The rest of the seasons i'd give 9/10, because they weren't as good as the first season... but still great to watch. The show is suitable for all audiences, and I'd recommend checking it out if you haven't already been a fan of it all along.