doyouloveanime

a href=’http://doyouloveanime.today.com/files/2009/02/180px-steve_blum_at_the_code_gaess_premiere2.jpg’ title=’In my opinion this guy’s the most prolific voice actor in anime bar none- Dave Lucas aka Steve Blum’>

For starters I thought you guys and gals might like to see what a prolific voice actor looks like. Meet Dave Lucas aka Steve Blum who although most widely known as Spike Steigel the ‘Cowboy’ (Bounty Hunter) on Cowboy Bebop he has also voiced Ekich Onizuka on GTO, Ken on Street Fighter Alpha, Roger Smith on Big O and a host of others.

Read about this amazing dude at www.wikipedia.org/Steven Blum and at www.imdb.com/Dave Lucas

Dave’s been around anime so long I thought sure h was older than me (I’m 59 years young) but was I amazed to learn he’s only 43.

Most prolific voice actress? That’s gotta be a tie betwixt Wendee Lee (Faye Valentine on Bebop, GTO’s Azuza Fujitsuki, Twilight Suzuka on Outlaw Star, Karen Kasumi the stripper/warrior in ‘X’ and a host of others) and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, Daran Norriss’s wife (Major Makoto Kucinagi of Ghost in the Shell is her best known role but she has done Kanoe the dark dream weaver in ‘X’, Kurenai Yuhi, Hinata’s sensei in Naruto, Julia, Spike’s old flame on Bebop, Lady Cornelia Li Brittania on Code Geass and Helba in .hack//SIGN as well as many more).

Both of these fine ladies can be found at wiki and imdb.com

Sorry about that but no I have no ‘beef’ against the voice actors of anime. My beef is with the scarcity of anime programming on TV! Here is my typical week’s schedule for anime viewing on Comcast cable tv. ComcastOnDemand has some more but I’ll get to that in a minute. I resid in SE Pennsylvania in the States in the East so all tims are ET:

Sunday- No anime programming at all.

Monday- 11 PM to 1 AM- Sci Fi Channel’s AniMonday which is either a few episodes of anime series or like this week’s offering a two hour anime movie. This week we saw Street Fighter Alpha and of course the films of SF being based on video games bear no resemblance whatsoever to the SF series.

Tuesday- 3 AM- Hell Girl (Repeats Frday at 11:30 PM)
Tuesday- 3:30 AM- Witchblade (Sometimes repeats at 2 AM Thursdays or Fridays)

Wednesday- No anime programming at all.
Thursday (See Tuesday)

Friday (See Tuesday)

Saturday - Treasure trove night. Yay!

8 PM to 10 PM features an anime or cartoon film. Sometimes followed by a Naruto episode.

10 PM to 1 AM is filled with ridiculous comedic cartoon rubbish!

1 AM- Bleach
1:30 AM- Code Geass (Morabito was axed weeks ago)
2 AM- Shin Chan
2:30 AM- Fullmetal Alchemist
3 AM- Death Note
3:30 AM- Ghost in the Shell
4 AM- Cowboy Bebop
4:30 AM- Big O
5 AM to 6 AM- Two episodes of InuYasha

That’s my week and now here is a sampling of ComcastOnDemand mostly from Cutting Edge:

CE/AdultSwim/Death Note, Code Geass, Ghost in the Shell, Big O, InuYasha
CE/AnimeSelects/WickedAnime- Angel Aquarion, Burst Angel, DN Angel and nope none of ‘em are anything like my Lovely Angels!
CE/AnimeSelects/Sci Fi- Escaflowne, Black Cat, Tsubasa Chronicles
CE/AnimeSelects/Drama- GTO, Beck, Sozuka
CE/TheAnimeNetwork- Valkyrie, Wedding Peach, King of Bandits Jing
CE/IFC/Anime- Just one- Witchblade
Premium Channels and Movie and TV etc. also have anime
Kids/CartoonNetwork- Naruto and DragonBall and Pokemon

Sorry but I cannot locae a COD List online anymore so I emailed Comcast for help. Maybe I’ll have an answer by the next post. In either case I can always copy them down from the tv screen and then post them here for you. Maybe I’ll do just that eh?

Us anime fanatics (like yours truly) collect anime and in my case by the bushel basketful. I have about 200 VHS videos, a hundred or so DVDs and maybe 50+ music Cs many of them burnt from the web which is about the only way to collect Angels’ music in he States. There is only one Angels CD (The LA On Stage) available here. The rest well try Amazon, cdpacific.com, cdjapan.com for starters. They average $40 US apiece. Mine is from rightstuf.com and the rest (about 200 Waves or whatever the Hell ya call music files) are from the net.

Sorry to report this tomos but it does not look to be any rosie for tv anime anytime soon! And yet- next month will see the theatrical release of DragonBall the live action movie! Max Payne, Hellboy, Death Note, Transformers, Cowboy Bebop (now filming), Ghost in the Shell (now filming), Dead Space Downfall, Street Fighter, Bleach (soon to be filmed) and a host of other motion pix ALL have their roots in ‘anime’!

Dspite this influx to Hollywood cinema and its rising popularity (YahooGroups has at least a thousand anime web clubs) amongst viewers anime still remains harder to get on tv and in stores than the original Kurosawa film ‘Seven Samurai’ and even that fine film which spawned the Magnificent 7 movies, tv shows and what have you has had an anime spinoff- ‘Samurai 7′ and Kurosawa’s masterpiece has its roots in actual history.

These seven Samurai ‘ronin’ (Rogue Samurai warriors without a sensei or lord) were featured as the ‘Risen 7′ in InuYasha sereies where all 7 rogues were raised from the dead by Naraku to fulfill his nefarious schemes. Incidentally two of these 7 (Ginkotsu and Kyukotsu) were voiced by Brian Drummond who also does Ryuuk in Death Note and several othe IY voices. However, to film goers h is ‘Rusty Nail’ the psychopathic seial killer trucker in the ‘Joyride’ movies.

Paul, Michael and Brian Dobson are brother voice actors. Paul (who does the evil Naraku which itself means place of evil or Hell) is probably the most well known of the trio But Mike and Brian are pretty decent voice guys too. I dunno why it is but I love to play match the voices whenever I watch an anime or even (dare I say it?) cartoons. While I write this I am listening to the singing of David Kaye who’s best known as Sesshomaru, InuYasha’s elder demon brother. David is not doing an anime voice although he did do Professor Xavier’s voice in the X-Men anime series. No, he is doing Noddy the cartoon ‘Pinocchio’ type toy from Make Way For Noddy a BBC imported cartoon series from Wales. Dave was the voice of the really horrible Deceptacon leader Megatron who later became Galvatron in another Transformers series.

Hugo Weaving (V for Vengeance) was chosen to voice Megatron in the 2007 Transformers film after Dave Kaye politely declined repeating his role as the Deceptacon creep. His reason was simple. He hated the way Hollywood would butcher (like they usually do) the movie version of the timeless classic anime series and who can blame him for that?

OK here is the Mystery Pix of the Post. Hints: She tried to outshoot and oudrink Boss Kei in Angel Wings. Her weapons of choice are Beretta ‘Cutlasses’ which she fires simultaneously with deadly accuracy. She teaches at Takachiho Academy. Her Terran HQ is Roanispur. That’s all the clues you should need. Good luck tomos all.

SFN/SYS/JM/KBYA/KYSOTI/TTFN/Toodles-K&KI

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Greetings tomos (friends) and fellow anime fans,

Wanna become as confused as Hell? Then by all means get X- the movie, X-the OVA or X- the tv series. Which one? Take your pick. Mostly all the same except unless you’ve watched the preceding groundwork animes Tokyo Babylon and a few others or at least have read the magnas (Japanese comic books) you won’t have a clue as to the plot, storyline, theme, characterizations or even the premise. The year is constant- 1999. Why? Because of the fear of the Y2K syndrome of course.

In X’s case it is Armageddon or the end of the world unless the forces of the two ‘ryuu’ or dragons decide otherwise. Two dragons of which one is the Dragon of the Earth and seeks to renew the planet thus restoring Terra or Gaia to her former glory. Unfortunately that would mean the end of Mankind. There would follow a moratorium before the next stage of evolution would begin.

The othe the Dragon of Heaven seeks to preserve Mankind and yet still save the planet. To these ends the two Dragons each must have a champion of their cause. Enter Kamui who adores his love Kotori. She and her brother Fumo are fast tomos (friends) with Kamui and exist happily together in the Shinto shrine maintained by Kotori and Fumo. In Shintoism mikos (preistesses) and preists or monks are usually family and these titles are passed down from father to son and more importantly from mother to daughter and mother to son as is the case with Kamui.

Several years have passed since Kamui left the shrine to be with his mother. Before he left he swore to always protect Kotori. As Fumo could not accompany his tomo he swore to always protect Kamui like a brother and to keep his (Fumo’s) sister Kotori safe until Kamui’s return. Kamui is told by Mama that the fate of the Earth rests with him and that he must choose to become one of the two ‘ryuu’ or dragons.

What he does not know is that Fumo and he are really ’star twins’ having both been born under the same ‘Subaru’ (Nai (No) not the auto makers. A ’subaru’ is a grouping of seven stars such as the ‘Pleiades’ the 7 Sisters or as in this case the ’subaru’ of the ‘Big Dipper’ which features prominently in the anime ‘Fist of the North Star’ where Kinshiro has been marked by the ‘7 Scars’ shaped like the star group) and as such they are almost identical even if their appearances are very different.

Then Mommy drops the bombshell on the kid. Whatever ‘dragon’ Kamui chooses to champion Fumo will be compelled to champion the other. That meant of course a final bro vs bro battle for Earth. Then she gives him the lowdown and tells him to trust Hinoto the light dream weaver but not her sister Kanoe the dark dream weaver.

This duet’s a real trip, man! Both advise Tokyo’s government officials and leaders on political strategy! And we thought that Ronnie Reagan’s wife Nancy using psychics to determine our government policies was weird! How and why do these sisters hold so much influence? Simple really. They can both enter your dreams and although not able to ‘predict’ true future events they can show ya all the ‘possible’ future scenarios. Sounds a lot like old Freddy Kreuger to me. Hinoto becomes Kamui’s adviser while Fumo takes his cues from Kanoe.

Each ‘dragon’ has a team of six or seven ’shinobi’ or warriors ranging in age from 14 year old schoolgirls to 30-something yuppies! And they all have fantastic powers like Ninjas, Samurai, mikos, preists, Kami (God) the only thing they don’t have is Light Yagami’s ‘Death Note’ books!

Each of the Heaven gang has been charged with protecting a certain portion of Tokyo like the Kabuu Kichuu or red light district, Tokyo Train Station’s area, the Sony skyscrapers sector which is where the giant super computer a la Metropolis is another Dragon team member, the Okachoa residential district, the Mt Fuji religious hills and of course the final battleground for Kamui and Fumo- the Tokyo Tower!

Each Heaven member and Kamui have the ability to activate a ‘power shield’ in the shape of a cylinder, triangle, pyramid, square, rectangle, etc. which they ‘call down’ from the BD ’subaru’. What this does is contain the entire district and instantly transport that area and the combatant to another dimension! If the Heavener prevails and defeats or kills his/her Earther opponent the status quo is maintained and any damges to the city are negated. However, should the H-guy or H-gal fail and/or die then all bets are off and the damages and killings are for real! The Earthers have no shields because they plan on annihilating Mankind and rebirthing the world. TYhey could care less about damages and deaths!

The two ‘teams’ resemble somthing out of YuYu Hakusho’s Spirit Files with two of them being just kids! One girl has an ‘inu yuyu’ or spirit dog to defend her. She’s the youngest having just turned 14. The other schoolgirl carries a katana (sword) inside her own body and uses it with devastating force. Both schoolgirls are Heaveners as is the hooker/stripper and her tomo who looks like a geeky Kikuchi from GTO.

The Earthers are masters of the natural elements and in the East there are five not four: Earth, Wind, Fire, Water and Metal. Each one has an element under his/her control while the sixth is magical. To make things even more confusing Fumo and Kamui are sent in and out of dream sequences by Hinato and Kanoe almost constantly. In addition Fumo seems to become Kamui in appearance so much that the gangs think there are two Kamuis!

Koteri is kidnapped by Kanoe because of the sword she carries within her for Kamui! Of ourse for ’sword’ read ‘child’ eh? Told you this was deep folks, did I not? Kamui keeps seeing himself killing and decapitating his love Koteri and almost quits the fight several times. The tide of these battles is pretty much one-sided to say the least and like Code Gess all of this crap has been mystically ‘pre-ordained’ meaning it’s already been done before and well they already know the outcome! Such is fate- most things cannot be changed and as Hinoto told Kamui ‘Tokyo Tower will be the final battle for civilization’.

X reads like a very poorly written play of one of the Bard’s tragedies. Remember the old Shakespeare school joke? What’s the difference betwixt a comedy and a tragedy in Shakespeare? In a comedy somebody’s still alive at the end and in a tragedy everybody dies. Be warned- X ain’t for the squeamish orthe faint of heart. Blood, guts, gore, not much profanity if any, violence, beheadings, killings, destruction, mania, sounds like a Johnny Carpenter horror movie!

In this case X does not mean the unknown entirely. Instead X denotes the choice that must be made by Kamui. Choose Heaven and Kotori and Fumo must die but hey! the Earth and her peoples are saved! Choose Earth and well everybody dies!

At the end of the OVA, movie, series there is a different albeit definite ending. Having never seen X the series nor X the OVA (made for video) I dunno how the endings differ from the film and I ain’t gonna tell ya how the film ends either. The manga remains unfinished so who knows how X’s creators envision the end?

That is Kamui, Fuma and Hinoto in the top pix of this post. Most of the pix I have are from wikipedia.org/X(Manga) and they hae a superbly written synopsis of the main plot and characters with correlations drawn between the anime, manga, film and reality. For instance Kamui is clearly wrestling with his inner Kamui (Fumo) as to whether or not he made the right choice.

Animenewsnetwork.com/X(Movie), X(Anime) have good voice casts and so does crystalacids.com/database/X and voicechasers.com/productions/X. TV.com is not too good this time. Will CLAMP decide to follow in Death Note’s footsteps and cast a live action X movie? Maybe.

Incidentally the ‘Dragons’ and ‘Armageddon’ are mentioned in the Christian Bible under Revelations. The quotes are in wikipedia.org/X(Manga). Here are the Dragons sigils or symbols for the 7 Dragons of Heaven.

a href=’http://doyouloveanime.today.com/files/2009/02/x-the-subaru-or-7-stars-of-the-dragons-of-heaven.jpg’ title=’Subaru of the 7 Dragons of Heaven’><img src=’http://doyouloveanime.today.com/files/2009/02/x-the-subaru-or-7-stars-of-the-dragons-of-heaven.thumbnail.jpg’ alt=’Subaru of the 7 Dragons of Heaven’ /

And nowthe Earth Dragon sigil.

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So try and catch X if you dare. Just don’t let the kids see it. And now a mystery pix for all to guess.

That’s about it for me folks but if ya have IFC and you’re a real night owl tonight is Hell Girl at 3:15 AM ET followed by Witchblade at 3:45 AM ET. HG is ‘The Kind Neighbor’ and ‘WB’ is Episode 10. That’s right after Tozawa makes his deal with Masane.

SFN/SYS/JM/KBYA/KYSOTI/TTFN/Toodles-K&K

I almost forgot. I just posted up to Chapter 33 of Angel Wings here:

www.fanfiction.net/anime/dirtypair/angelwings
www.animeonline.net/forums/fanfics/dirtypairfanfiction
http://animeforfanatics.blogspot.com

I have blogs at animefofantics as well as at opensalon.com (Keiman’s Anime Blog) and eons.com/groups/group/anime-a-holics
Check out my Yahoo Groups’ Animeaholics1 and my posts there at animeontv. Until next blog time-K&K

Before I begin here’s the adorable Zuna the LandMate operator/cop from Appleseed Ex Machina. She’s been in all the Appleseed anime movies. Her boyfriend’s a cyborg thing robotoid like Robocop only he ain’t roshii (dead).

Hey hazu (gang)- Last night Sci Fi Channel didn’t show Earthshock. Instead they showed the pilot film for Serenity. It’s about a devil may care adventurer/merc/bounty hunter and his spaceship crew of misfits. They battle the Allince and then try to rescue a ‘Super Soldier’ type of neogene test tube warrior lass named River Tam.

Malcolm or Mal is the ex-soldier turned arms dealer/smuggler/merc/bounty hunter/gun for hire captain of the ‘Firefly’ and when he finally wrecks that ship he steals one, paints it red and re-christens it ‘Serenity’. Rive is his first new crewmate most of the rest of his crew dead or captured by the Alliance.

Seems the Alliance was trying to prevent war by conditioning people to be at peace. It worked so well that the experimentees stopped fighting, killing, quarrelling and finally- existing and breathing! Of course the ’supersoldiers’ wiped them out. The Alliance tried to cover it up and Mal and tomos (friends) made certain the universe found out about it.

Then it was off to new fun ad adventures for Mal and River. Sound familiar? It should since they ‘borrowed’ liberally from at least half a dozen animes!

First the ‘red ship’ is a dead giveaway for the crew heded up by Gene Starwind and Jim Hawking- the ‘Outlaw Star’.

Next the perfect Utopian world is like the perfect city in the ‘Appleseed’ movie trilogy.

The ’super soldier warriors’ are reminiscent of several animes like Bison’s ‘perfect warriors’ in ‘Street Fighter’ and Hallelujah Kurio and his female nemesis the kawaii (lovely) lieutenant pilot in ‘Gundam 00′ aka ‘Mobile Suit Gundam 000′ and don’t forget the ‘neogenes’ bred to wield the ‘Witchblade’ like Maria.

Space going bounty hunters? How about Spike Steigel (To be portrayed by Keanu Reeves in the upcoming film), Jett Black, Faye Valentine, ‘Ed’ the towheaded redhead tomboy computer hacker whiz kid and Ein the data dog on ‘Cowboy Bebop’?

A ship full of ex-patriates and malcontents? Can anyone remember ‘Blake’s 7′ the old chestnut from the BBC which ran for 52 episodes on PBS many many years ago?

‘Firefly’ and ‘Serenity’ are subtle hints at how the Japanese view the after life. In the ‘CB’ anime film the villain as he lies dying sees fireflies which are usually sent to convey the ‘tama’ or soul to ‘Otherworld’ or the ‘Netherworld’. On ‘Bleach’ soul reapers receive messages from black ‘Hell butterflies’ and a reaper is sent to bring a tortured soul ’serenit and peace’ before it becomes a ‘hollow’ or evil soul. In ‘InuYasha’ the evil villainous hanyou (half demon/half human) mastermind Naraku (Naraku means place of evil or Hell) protects himself from IY’s and Miroku’s ‘air void’ or ‘wind tunnel’ attacks with poisonous wasps known as ‘Saimyosho’ and have strayed a bit eh?

Funny how different governmental groups mean different things in different series, is it not? In ‘Firefly’ and ‘Serenity’ the ‘Alliance’ are the baddies while in ‘Star Wars’ the ‘Rebel Alliance’ are the heroes who defeat the evil ‘Empire’ and re-establish the ‘New Republic’ at ‘Coruscant’.

In ‘Star Trek’ the ‘Federation’ are the heroes so I made the 3WA (Kei and Yuri’s galactic police organization) part of the ‘United Galactica Federation of Galaxies’ or ‘UG’ for short. Yet in ‘Blake’s 7′ the ‘Federation’ is more akin to George Lucas’s ‘Empire’ in ‘SW’. Wonder if GL named his boy hero Luke Skywalker after himself? The ‘Earth Alliance’ in ‘Gundam Seed’ are the good guys too but the ‘Earth Federation’, the ‘Union’ and the ‘Human Defense League’ of ‘Gundam’ fme are questionable. After all Vega’s ‘Celestial Beings’ pilots or ‘Gundam meisters’ (Masters of Gundams) are trying to end war, aren’t they?

A question I will now pose to you to ponder if you will as Rod Serling used to say on both ‘Night Gallery’ and ‘Twilight Zone’ series.

What exactly does ‘Gundam’ mean? Gun for weapon is OK but what is dam (dom)? In anime as we all pretty much know almost everything has meaning or meanings. Names, places, weapons, things, terms, you name it and chances are it means something.

For instance Inu Yasha means literally dog (inu is dog while neko is cat) ghost or demon (a yasha is a spirit, a ghost, a demonic being or presence. IY is a ‘hanyou’ or half dog demon/half human boy as opposed to a ‘youkai’ like the young kitsune Shippou who is a full fledged fox (kitsune means small fox) demon (youkai means full or whole demon) even if his skills are limited to magical illusions)

His female schoolgirl companion from our era is Kagome. She travels back and forth through the well in her family’s shrine in Tokyo. From her own time in modern day Japan to the 16th Century Warring States Era in ancient Japan. Her name is from anancient Japanse children’s game called ‘Kagome, Kagome’ which is sort of like a circular form of Tag you’re it over here. This game is even featured in both Demon Eyed Kou and Hell Girl.

Sango means ‘coral’ and ‘Kouga’ means ‘wolf’ just to name a few. I have found several websites which research name meanings and if you like I’ll be happy to PM them to you. Just drop me a line at keiman0@yahoo.com because being previously published material I cannot repost it here. Gomen er sorry about that folks.

Oh yeah just remembered that there was a climactic scene toward the end of the ‘Appleseed’ film that aired Monday on AniMonday on Sci Fi Channel. There are 3 or 4 ‘Appleseed’ films and the first three are all called ‘Appleseed’ while the last is called ‘Appleseed Ex Machina’ and they all feature Zuna and her cyborg thing boyfriend.

Anyway if you saw it you’ll recall that in order to shut down ‘Gaia’s control over the villain’s cannons Athena and Zuna had to knock out the control box at ‘Gaia’s apex. ‘Gaia’ (Old Latin for Earth from the Earth goddess Galatea aka Terra) was a supercomputer like the ‘Magi’ of ‘Neon Genesis Evangelian’ and ran the city. That meant one of them had to shoot the damned thing. Zuna’s right arm was injured and Athena couldn’t hit the broad ass side of a barn. Athena insists that Zuna use her left hand and do it while she guided her and lined up the target. Zuna got it with her last round.

This was quite similar to an earlier ‘Original Dirty Pair’ adventure (Episod 7 ‘Revenge of the Muscle Lady’) where Sandra Guts (Goots) was trying to make her getaway aboard her drugstore space ship and the only way to stop her was as usual blow up the ship. Yuri had planted a bomb but forgot to set the timer on it before she came don from the craft. Kei was the better shot but her right arm had been broken by ‘Scary Sandra’ in a fight and Kei is not ambidextrous like Zuna. To make matters worse Yuri had been temporarily blinded by a flash of light when another bomb had gone off prematurely. So Kei became Yuri’s eyes like Athena did for Zuna and guided Yuri’s arm. Yuri hit the bomb with her second plasmatic ion energy bolt from Kei’s Mark XIII ion cannon and the blast knocked them both unconscious while Sandra’s ship and drugs went up like napalm! Later Yuri discovered the concussion had broke her arm as well as Kei’s leg but it brought back Yuri’s sight! By the way Yuri means ‘lily’ and Kei means ‘leader’ or ‘level’ as in staircase levels.

Fitting since Kei is clearly the team’s leader and Yuri is the more demure and cultured of the ‘Deadly Dynamic Duo’! However, they both send their chiefs making a beeline for the ‘Galusol’, ‘Hydroxylein’, booze and tobacco! Lest I forget later let us wish an early happy birthday to both Yuris- the Classic and the Flash (March 3 and 18). Classic Kei’s is 27 November and her Flash counterpart’s is 1 January.

The Classic duo are 19, the Flash duo are 17, the Original original’s from the subbed never dubbed first tv series of 26 episodes are 21 or 23 and their ages vary between 22 and 30-somethingish in the three films ‘Affair at Nolandia’, ‘Conspiracy on Flight 009′ and ‘Project EDEN’. In their 15 second debut in ‘Crusher Joe the Movie’ their ages are unclear but they look to be more mature than in any of their other appearances. Mid thirties maybe? Wonder if Haruka knows? Haruka Takachiho created the Angels. His inspiration was the ‘Beauty Pair’- a female tag team wrestling duo! Kei and Yuri may have been taken from his two kawaii (lovely) co-worker companions at the matches that day. One was a blonde and the other a brunette while Classic Kei’s a stunning redhead and Classic Yuri has ankle length bluish black tresses. Flash Kei’s a tomboy with a punk rocker hairdo. It’s multi-coloured in yellow, orange, black, red and white! Flash Yuri’s mane is still super long but now it’s colour ranges from light lilac to deep violet with the darker shade being more prevalent.

The debut dueo and the movies’ Angels’ hair directly mimics the Classic pair. Redheaded Amazon firebrand Hellcat and bluish black elfin vixen. Is it any wonder I nicknamed them the ‘Demon of Dublin’ and the ‘Rose of Tralee’ in my fanfictions where Kei is O’Halloran and Yuri is Donovan.

Now for the pix:

Here are the Flash Angels with a co-worker tomo (friend).

This is Rankuku Matsumoto the kawaii (lovely) babe lieutenant soul reaper of Squad 10 in Bleach. I used her as my avatar on adultswim.com because she reminded me of the very first Lovely Angel- Iris. Later she became an assassin but redeemed herself before dying in Chief Garner’s arms after successfully defeating Waldess and Project SIREN. She saved Garner, Kei, Yuri and the known Universe in DP Flash/Act 1/Episode 6.

Two from ‘Serenity’. First the cast photo of Cptain Mlcolm, Rive Tam and the crew.

Next River Tam the ’super soldier neogene warrior’ herself.

This is Gene Starwind’s ‘Outlaw Star’. Note its similarity to ‘Firefly’ and ‘Serenity’.

OK here’s a pix of that trio of poilice officers from New Tokyo Polic Force called the Burn Up Warriors. They are the Terran version of the Lovely Angels ‘Dirty Pair’- the Angels blow things up and the Warriors burn ‘em up! It’s here because I used the dipstick blond warrior in my fanfictions. There she is Subby or Sub-Ensign (like a junior warrant officer) Rio Delcroix. Her uncle is head of something or other in the 3WA or the ‘UG’. She’s a trouble consultant or tro-con in training. She’s definitely still a trainee and a first year cadet at Takachiho Academy where Kei and Yuri are running the place.

This is InuYasha and fair Kagome who has Kikyo’s soul which makes her a miko or preistess (Shintoism) in her own right. She was chosen as a vessel to carry the ’shikon no tama’ (the jewel of the four souls) within her body. Shortly after arriving in ancient Japan she allowed a death crow demon to steal it and then fire an arrow at it. Bad move because it shattered the jewel and now just like the elf hunters Ari, Junpei and Ryosko (’Those Who Hunt Elves’) who must hunt for spell fragments (on the bodies of female elves in Elfland) throughout the land InuYasha, Kaggie and tomos (friends) must search the lnd for the shikon fragments. Each shard of the sacred jewel is powerful and the more it is tainted by evil the more horribly powerful it becomes. The plan was to have Kikyo the miko purify the whole thing when it is whole once more but Naraku killed her. Don’t despair because the ‘bruja’ (brew-ha) or witch Urasue raised her from the dead only now she has to live on souls of the newly dead. A bit vampirish to say the least. And worse yet she thinks IY killed her and now has a new GF- Kagome! The one thing they must not do ever is allow Naraku to possess the entire jewel because he’ll well we dunno what the Hell he wants it for do we? Something naughty of course! This is hard to accomplish what with Naraku on the go, in cahoots with everyone who has a dark shard and with Kaggie coming and going to and from Feudal Japan and school in the modern day! If I could reach Feudal Japan I’d stay there! It’d be an o’oni’ (devil) of a lot safer than here! OK the pix:

Finally the Mystery Pix of the Post. It’s from Fuilmetal Alchemist but oro (what) is it? Good luck!

SFN/SYS/JM/KBYA/KYSOTI/Toodles-K&K

Alas my tomos (friends, very good friends) but if you have ComcastOnDemand and go to Cutting Edge/Anime Selects/Wicked Anime you will find Episodes 11 and 12 of the hilarious anime ‘Ninja Nonsense- the Legend of Shinobu’ which recounts the tales of a young Shinobi or Ninja warrior maiden named Shinobu. I say alas because they are the final episodes of this wonderfully delightful anime.

Shinobu is itself a pun or a play on words. In Japnese ’shi’ is the number four (4) while ‘ni’ or ‘no’ is the number two (2) hence Shinobu literally translates as ‘4=2+2′ or in reverse as equations are written here in the West ‘2+2=4′ and then the laughs really begin.

Shinobu is out one day (away from the ‘dojo’ or Ninja training hall where she resides aong with a dozen other young male Ninja shinobi warriors. One of them is her elder brother Sasuke (Soss-Kay). Living there as well is Shinobu’s younger sister Miyabi. Their ’sensei’ or teacher, mentor and overall father figure is a shape shifting ‘thing’ named Onsakamaru who is always trying to see the girl ‘au natural’. He’s just a dirty old man!

Ages? Shinobu is between 14 and 17 while her sister is around 10 or 12 but not much older. Sasuke is in his early 20’s. Shinobu’s tomo o very good friend is Kaede and she’s definitely older than Shinobu and Miyabi but a few years Sasuke’s junior. She’s still in school so at a guess I’d say she was Kagome Higurashi’s age- either 15 or 16.

In the very first episode Shinobu is sent on a secret ‘training’ mission by Onsakamaru. She i to sneak into some schoolgirl’s house and steal a pair of her unmentionables! I told you he was just a dirty old man, didn’t I? Of course she picks Kaede’s house and gets caught red-handed despite her firm belief that she has become invisible like Onsakamaru told her she was. The two kids become fast tomos and Shinobu brings her new pal back to the dojo. You can imagine the greeting she got! Besides Shinobu and Miyabi this gal was the first female they’d ever seen!

A WORD OF WARNING NOW–

This anime is a bit ‘yaoh’ (the ‘L’ word as in girl and girl) so although it’s funny it is also sexy and promiscuous and is definitely not for the kiddies. This time the ‘yaoh’ starts out pretty much one-sided on Shinobu’s side but as the episodes advance Kaede does come over a little.

OK if you are already champing at the bit and fuming with rage, cool it. If you search the web ‘Ninja Nonsense’ is still pretty eay to find. I recommend Amazon for starters and go from there. Reply to this blog and I’ll list a few URLs you can try.

Unless of course you are a ‘Moribito, Guardian of the Spirit’ devotee and are still angry at CN’s Adult Swim for cancelling it out a few weeks ago. Sure you can get Volumes 1-2 on DVD but that consists of the first seven episodes only! Volume 3 hits the sales market on 10 February 2009 and will sell for around $30 US. However, this one merely covers Episodes 8, 9 and 10. So far no word when or evn if more are on their way.

Whoa! Let’s back up a mite, shall we? I am referring to DVDs which are subtitled in English with bot Japanese and English voice override soundtracks. If you truly are an anime fanatic then breathe a sigh of relief. That is, if you have really deep pockets. The subtitled only version with English subs and Japanese audio is readily available for around $60-$80 US and it’s available all the way up to olume 8 or 9 although I am not entirely sure how many volumes comprise the first two seasons (In anime a season is either 12 or 13 episodes or sessions and most anime series run for 26 episodes) and Moribito does have several seasons under its belt by now.

Still Moribito is a whole lot easier to find than the very hard to find 26 episode seriesof my fave anime series the ‘Lovely Angels’ (OK the producers did name it the ‘Dirty Pair’ but ‘Lovely Angels’ is the gals’ code name in the 3WA. Haruka Takachiho the Angels’ creator got the DP moniker from a female wrestling tag team duo. Rumour persist that the ladies’ names were Kei and Yuri although othe sources say that Haruka’s two female companion that day who were both secretaries from the Shonen film studios were named Kei and Yuri. We do know tat both wrestlers were brunettes but the secretaries were a redhead and the oher one’s hair was aoishi (blue) streaked with black or vice versa.

However, I digress and gomen (sorry) and onegai (please) accept my apologies. The very first Original Original DP series as we afficionados of old anime call it is no longer available. Well, not on this side of the Pacific anyway. There are still a few sources where you can find this very rare video on DVD or VHS even. Here’s the rub- they are all in Japan and hai (yeah, yes) anata (you) guessed it. They are extremely expensive. A clue in reading Japanese prices. A yen is equal to almost a whole dime in US currency s don’t be dismayed at the really exorbitant sounding prices. A little like the Italian lira is the yen.

Anyhow, try Amazon and the other usual URLs and anime shops (forget about Wal-Mart though at least in this case). Then go to cdjapan.com which is like the Mecca URL when starting a search for anime products from Japan. The Angels have cut dozens of CDs with some really cool music from the animes but do you know how many are available over here? Try one, yup, one. ‘The Lovely Angels On Stage’ is it although for the most part these are songs from the last series the DP were in- the DP Flash series! At the end of this blog (if I can find it that is) I will post their album’s cover pix. I’ll also post the DVD cover art from ‘Ninja Nonsense’ showing Shinobu, Kaede and their tomos from the dojo.

This is running a bit longer than I intended it to especially tonight! Around this neck of the SE Pennsylvania woods Saturday is ‘the’ night for anime viewing. Here’s tonight’s lineup (all times ET):

8 PM to 10 PM- ‘Naruto Movie- Crescent Moon Kingdom’

10 PM to 10:30 PM- ‘King of theHill’ (Not anime but pretty cool)

11 PM to 11:30 PM- ‘American Dad’ (Cartoon nonsense about ‘Family Guy’ type mixed with Federal CIA agent guy)

11:30 PM to Midnight- ‘Robot Chicken’ (An animated show which pokes fun at anything and everything. Their 2008 ‘Star Wars- Episode 2′ spoof took home several ‘Annie’ awards recently including best writing team)

Midnight to 12:30 AM- “The PJ’s’ (A cartoon about a (Gomen. It also means excuse me) black apartment building superintendent)

12:30 AM to 1 AM- ‘Boondocks’ (Another sitcom cartoon set in the nation’s capitol and dripping with racial, ethnic and political overtones)

And no the anime such as it be folks:

1 AM- ‘Bleach’ (A cool anime about a teenaged male Japanese schoolkid who moonlights as a ’soul reaper’ or collector of souls)

1:30 AM- ‘Code Geass’ (A weirdo if ever there was one but it’s stupendous! It’s a little later in Earth’s future and the Britannian Empire has cnquered the planet and assigned numbers to captured countries so as to dehumanize the populace. Japan is ‘11′ and their champion with his power of ‘Geass’ is ‘Zero’ who is in reality- who? Oh nai (no)- if you want t find out who Zero is and oro (what0 a ‘geass’ is you’ll either have to watch the show or go to adultswim.com for the answers. Anyway they use gundam-like weapons called ‘Lancelots’ and Zero’s army who are mostly schoolkids are the ‘Black Knights’)

2 AM to 2:30 AM- ‘Shin Chan’ (A cute and spicy and racy and sexy and profane comedy anime about a precocious little five year old lad in Japan. He only a kindergartener but think of Caillou, Dennis Mitchell, Peck’s bad boy, Problem Child and Kevin McAllister all rolled into one! His best pal is an American kid named Georgie Bush VI. Political rhetoric abounds even in the theme song sung by the gal who voices Georgie- Brina Palencia. It’s called ‘Party’ and one recurring line in it is ‘— and what a grand old party it is—’ Wow! Don’t miss Shin’s ‘elephant’ and ‘a–’ dances)

2:30 AM to 3 AM- ‘Fullmetal Alchemist’ (Forget old Merlinesque dudes trying to convert base metals into gold! This thing rocks the house man! Ed and Al Elric do the unthinkable on ‘Amestris’ the alchemy world. They do an Urusue number on their late Mama Trish and all ‘jigoku’ (It ain’t Heaven so it’s–?) breaks loose. Hai (Yes) there is a ‘philosopher’s stone’ of sorts and this one grants your fondest wishes too! Why Fullmetal? Transmutation is your clue- I hate spoilers, don’t you?)

3 AM to 3:30 AM- ‘Death Note’ (Wow and double wow! Wait until you get a load of Rem and Ryuuk! And you thought Alucard was ugly in Hellsing! This is one I will not discuss in detail as that would spoil the show. Riddle me this? Suppose yu discovered you could kill anyon you wanted to and all you needed to do it were two things and it was foolproof- you would never be caught and there was no blood, DNA and the like to worry about. Oro (What) would you do? Hmmn. Well, you are not Light Yagami, are you? A splendid Japanese film version of DN will be here in theatres soon. My EONS’ anime-a-holics site has a superb blog about it complete with pix as well as video so mosey on over there if you wanna)

4 AM to 4:30 AM- ‘Ghost in the Shell’ (Cyborgs in 2040 AD who enforce the law. Especially Major Makoto Kucinagi! A ‘kucinagi’ is a protector and that dscribes the leader of Section 9 perfectly. And she’s a foxy lass)

4:30 AM to 5 AM- ‘Cowboy Bebop’ (Probably the most well known and most broadcast anime in history CB tells the stories of a group of ‘cowboys’ who wander through deep space in a rattletrap spaceship called the ‘Bebop’. Spike Steigel, Jett Black, Faye Valentine and Edward will soon be coming to the silver screen with Keanu Reeves as tall rangy ‘jeet kun do’ master and ‘cowboy’ Spike Steigel. What are ‘cowboys’ and ‘cowgirls’? Well in the ‘ISSP’ (Inter Solar System Police) parlance- bounty hunters. Not like Josh Randall (Steve McQueen) in ‘Wanted- Dead or Alive’ though- the mark’s still gotta be breathing if you want your ‘woolongs’ that is)

5 AM to 5:30 AM- ‘Big O’ (Big giant robot protects future city from other big giant robots! At this time it is unknown whether or not AS will fill this time slot with an additional InuYasha episode. They have done just that in the not too recent past)

5:30 AM to 6 AM- ‘InuYasha’ (He’s a 15 year old inu hanyou (half human/half dog demon) and he’s been stuck to a tree for with a magic arrow in his chest- for 50 years! Then Kagome Higurashi shows up and– insert ‘to be continued’ here)

That’s all the anime we get until Monday night’s AniMonday’s two hour excursion on Sci Fi channel. At 11 PM we get the final twosome of ‘Gundam 00′ aka ‘Mobile Suit Gundam 000′ (I know you’ve seen Gundams. Transformers is a Gundam spinoff. Anyway- how do you force an entire world to have peace? Simple. Give ‘em a common enemy to fight against. Enter ‘Vega’ and the ‘Gundams’).

At Midnight we get ‘AppleSeed’ and I hardly know how to describe this masterpiece of anime. This one’s not the original. It’s the remake but some say it’s superior to the first. A female warrior on future Earth? (we aren’t told if this is Terra) meets up with her old flame who’s now a cyborg/robot/android/human something like Peter Weller’s ‘Robotcop’ only this guy is vey much still amongst the living! They have to battle against a horde determined to overthrow the Utopian-like government and for that they need- ‘AppleSeed’ and you’ll never guess oro (what) it is either)

To quote Shin Chan Nohara- ‘It’s time to go’ so sayonara for now and see ya soon. Ja mata (See you later) and Kami (God) bless you all. Keep your stick on the ice. Toodles-K&K

Here is ‘Ninja Nonsense’:

Here we have the Angels on Stage:

And now the mystery pix of the post:

Good luck hazu (group, team or gang)-K&K

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Anime are not cartoons tomos all!-K&K