doyouloveanime

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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