Psyquis Anime Review

Samurai Champloo

Premise: Two samurais bump into a strange girl who tricks them into helping her search for a samurai that smells of sunflowers. The two samurais are as different as night and day and are constantly looking for an oppurtunity to have a duel to the death.

It's entertaining, but a little unnecessary at times. I wouldn't know how to put it. The show is popular and I'd be lying if I didn't say I liked it, but I wouldn't put it on my list of shows to own. I've seen it all the way through. That's enough for me.

3 out of 5. Still fun.

Let me take a second to explain the way I review things.

Bad = 1
Not really worth your time = 2
Okay = 3
Good = 4
Very Good = 5

That's how it works for me.

Also I refuse to review a anime until I've seen every episode. So you won't see me review Bleach or Naruto anytime soon.

Full Metal Alchemist

Edward Elric and his younger brother Alphonse were living quite happily with their mother... until she died. So Edward and Alphonse decided to try to raise her from the dead. The resurrection failed, leaving Edward without an arm and a leg and Alphonse's soul attached to a suit of armor. Now they roam around the country trying to find a way to restore their bodies.

I don't know why anybody would not like this show. It's got everything!
Great action, hilarious comedy, suprising twists, and every once in a while something that is genuinely heartwarming.

I give this show a 5 out of 5.

Cowboy Bebop the Movie

A tanker truck is blown to smithereens in the middle of a busy street, and a deadly viral infection is released with the explosion. The Bebop crew - Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye Valentine, and Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV - are instantly after the culprit when the gargantuan reward of 300,000,000 woolongs is announced. But the case gets stranger and stranger as the cold-blooded Vincent Volaju, who supposedly has been dead for ten years, seems to be the prime suspect. Meanwhile, Spike encounters the dangerous Electra, who too seeks the madman. Conspiracies and secrets better left alone are uncovered, and Vincent's reign or terror is nowhere near over yet...

I've never been a fan of the Cowboy Bebop series but I'm a big fan of this movie. The villain is great and the fight scenes just rock.

4 out of 5. I highly recommend this movie but that doesn't mean it's the best.

Final Fantasy Legend of the Crystals

The premise goes something like this: An unknown entity is stealing the four crystals of the elements so that he can make himself immortal. One girl and her friend Pretz seek to gather the crystals beforehand to stop him and collect some unusual characters along the way.

This is what Final Fantasy should be. Big monsters, wicked swords, and chocobos. I'm not going to say anything bad about the other two FF movies but I feel this one better represents the FF series overall.

3 out of 5...it's also the most poorly made movie out of the 3 but it's still entertaining and funny as all get out.

Hellsing

Vampires and ghouls stalk modern-day England, hunting the oblivious populace. Only the Hellsing foundation stands between the evil undead and the innocent humans who would be their prey. But there's something new out there - chips that give humans vampiric ability and bloodlust are being sold as the latest designer drug. With a new wave of evil creatures rising, Hellsing must rely on its two most unlikely recruits - ancient master vampire Alucard and the newly turned Celes Victoria - but can even they stand in the face of such overwhelming odds?

I'm probably the worst person to write a review for this show. It has an extremely large fanbase and for very good reasons. The show has some of the most excellent music and art that I've seen in anime. It also has an incredible ambiance that resonates throughout the series.
HOWEVER...(that's a big however) it's not that good.
I actually said it. The fact is that it falls short of greatness.
There was something missing from the show that it never quite grasped. I couldn't tell you what that is but it feels incomplete somehow.

4 out of 5 Still a good show but not a great one.

The soundtrack gets a 5 out of 5

Street Fighter Alpha

Ryu struggles to overcome the dark hadou when a strange boy shows up saying he's Ryu's brother. As characters roll in and out of the movie a darkness begins to unfold as Shadowloo scientists attempt to gather fighter data to create the greatest fighter in the world.

The art can be a little odd at times...like what the Oogedy-boogedy is up with Ryu's feet. They're the size of watermelons for crying out loud.
The action is awsome though. I only wish it allowed more fights from actual SF characters. Still, it's a good story.

3 out of 5

Street Fighter II the animated movie

Bison, the ruthless leader of the international terrorist organization Shadowlaw, has been desperately searching for the greatest fighter on the planet for years. He finds it in Ryu, a young wanderer who never stays in one place long enough for Bison to find him. He does, however, get a fix on Ken Masters, an American martial arts champion who studied with Ryu as a child under the same master. Meanwhile, Major Guile of the United States Army is forced to team up with Chun Li from China in hopes of apprehending Bison and putting a stop his international ring of crime.

The soundtrack rocks! You've got a lot of great rock bands on there, including one of my all-time favorites: Alice in Chains.
The action rocks! The plot...is...well it's a freaking SF movie! What do you expect? A lot of cameos and quite a few decent fights. Also - and this is important to note - VEGA IS FREAKY!!!

4 out of 5 - Not exactly spectacular but definately good.

Street Fighter Alpha Generations

Ryu, Ken, Gouki and Sakura return in this thrilling prequel to Street Fighter™ Alpha. When Ryu returns to pay homage to his deceased mentor, Gouken, he is tormented by disturbing memories of his master s killer. In a quest to become a true martial arts master, Ryu sets out to hone his street fighting skills and to deliver himself from the haunting legacy of the Dark Hadou. But the ultimate test of his new power can only be accomplished through one last fateful confrontation with his arch-nemesis, Gouki.

One question:

Why?

I mean could there possibly be a valid reason for this? I don't think so.
But hey! It's not all bad. I mean there's at least ONE fight in it....but it's not very good.

1 out of 5. Read a dictionary or something. Unless you're a hardcore SF fan (and I am) then there's no reason whatsoever to watch this.

Steamboy

Rei is a young inventor living in the U.K. in the middle of the 19th century. Shortly before the first ever World Expo, a marvelous invention called the "Steam Ball", behind which a menacing power is hidden, arrives at his door from his grandfather Roid in the U.S. Meanwhile the nefarious Ohara Foundation has sent men to acquire theSteam Ball so that they can use its power towards their own illicit ends.

Okay...you remember that guy that did Akira and Metropolis? Well, he's back and he's better than ever. This movie was great. I enjoyed it thoroughly, but I want to know if we should expect a series or another movie or something because it kind of left you hanging.

4 out of 5 - It could be better but it's not easy.

Ghost in the Shell

The year is 2029. The world has become intensively information oriented and humans are well-connected to the network. Crime has developed into a sophisticated stage by hacking into the interactive network. To prevent this, Section 9 is formed. These are cyborgs with incredible strengths and abilities that can access any network on Earth.

Fascinating. I can't seem to come up with a better word to describe it than that.

4 out of 5 Very good.

Ghost in the Shell 2 Innocence

Batô is a living cyborg. His whole body, even his arms and legs, are entirely man-made. What only remains are traces of his brain and the memories of a woman. In an era when the boundary between humans and machines has become infinitely vague, Humans have forgotten that they are humans. This is the debauchery of the lonesome ghost of a man, who nevertheless seeks to retain humanity. Innocence... Is what life is.

I believe this one to be more intelligent than the previous but what it gains in intellectual stimulation it lacks in other stimuli. Meaning that the action is odd, the plot is odd and the whole thing lags slightly.

3 out of 5.

The Castle of Cagliostro

Reknowned international thief Lupin III (known as "Wolf" in the English dub) comes to the small European duchy of Cagliostro to investigate some excellently-forged money and stumbles across a national conspiracy going back some hundreds of years. Lupin and his friends must rescue the beautiful Clarice from the hands of the evil Count Cagliostro and solve the mystery of a hidden treasure dating back to the 15th century.

If you like your Lupin (and I do) then...you'll be slightly confused by this movie. It's too serious. I was expecting more Lupinish humor but they didn't do it quite right. Still good but not very Lupin.

3 out of 5 Smart movie but not Smart enough.

The Cat Returns

A young girl rescues a mysterious cat from traffic and soon finds herself the unwelcome recipient of gifts and favors from the King of the Cats, who also wants her to marry his son, Prince Lune. With the assistance of a fat, grouchy real cat and a an elegant cat statuette come to life (both characters featured in Studio Ghibli's earlier anime "Whisper of the Heart"😉, the girl visits the Cat Kingdom and narrowly escapes again

Well, the cats are funny.

3 out of 5

Spirited Away

Chihiro and her family are on their way to their new house in the suburbs when her father decides to take a shortcut along a lonely-looking dirt road. After getting out of the car and walking along a path for a while, they discover an open-air restaurant filled with food but with no workers or customers present. Mom and Dad don't hesitate to sit down and dig in, but Chihiro senses danger and refuses. As night falls, she is terrified to see the area fill with faceless spirits, but when she runs to find her parents, she discovers that they have been turned into pigs. She is found by a mysterious boy named Haku, who promises to help her. He gets her a job working in a nearby building, which turns out to be a bathhouse for the thousands of Japan's gods and spirits. Though the work is hard and the people strange, she does as well as she can. Her parents, however, are still waiting in the hotel's stockyard, and Chihiro must find a way to break the spell on them before they end up as the main course of some guest's dinner.

A little twisted but damned good. I'd put this in the top 5 best animes I've ever seen.

5 out of 5 Must see.

Princess Mononoke

A prince is infected with an incurable disease by a possessed boar/god. He is to die unless he can find a cure to rid the curse from his body. It seems that his only hope is to travel to the far east. When he arrives to get help from the deer god, he finds himself in the middle of a battle between the animal inhabitants of the forest and an iron mining town that is exploiting and killing the forest. Leading the forest animals in the battle is a human raised by wolves, Princess Mononoke

I'd recommend this movie to anyone. Also in my top 5.

5 out of 5. Must see.

Castle in the Sky

A young boy stumbles into a mysterious girl who floats down from the sky. The girl, Sheet, was chased by pirates, army and government secret agents. In saving her life, they begin a high flying adventure that goes through all sorts of flying machine, eventually searching for Sheet's identity in a floating castle of a lost civilization.

I'm getting exhausted here. All these Miyazaki movies. It's ridiculous and I'm still not very close to finished with them all.

It's a good movie...just like all the damned Miyazaki movies but that doesn't mean you should watch it.

3 out of 5

My Neighbor Totorro

Two young girls, Satsuke and her younger sister Mei, move into a house in the country with their father to be closer to their hospitalized mother. Satsuke and Mei discover that the nearby forest is inhabited by magical creatures called Totoros (pronounced toe-toe-ro). They soon befriend these Totoros, and have several magical adventures.

Aaaaarrrrggghhh!!! How is a giant demon cat supposed to be cute? It scares the living crap out of me! It would also scare the crap out of anyone with any common sense.

3 out of 5 - still good...it is Miyazaki after all. Hmph.

Porco Rosso

Take flight with "Porco Rosso," a valiant World War I flying ace! From tropical Adriatic settings to dazzling aerial maneuvers, this action-adventure from world-renowned animator Hayao Miyazaki is full of humor, courage, and chivalry. When "Porco" -- whose face has been transformed into that of a pig by a mysterious spell -- infuriates a band of sky pirates with his aerial heroics, the pirates hire Curtis, a rival pilot, to "get rid" of him. On the ground, the two pilots compete for the affections of the beautiful Gina. But it is in the air where the true battles are waged. Will our hero be victorious?

The American dub was voiced by Michael Keaton. Michael Keaton rocks! I didn't think this movie was going to be any good...but it was. It could have done with a little more dogfighting but it was still a good movie.

3 out of 5 I liked it but I still have to rate objectively.

Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust

It is many thousand years in the future. Vampires once ruled the night but have seen their numbers reduced by fearless bounty hunters. One such hunter is D, the halfbreed son of a human mother and vampire father. When a girl from a rich family is taken from her home by the vampire Meier Link, her father contracts both D and the Markus brothers (a rival group of hunters) to race to retrieve her. As the heroes fight their way through Meier's hired guards, they begin to suspect that the girl may have gone with him willingly.

I shouldn't have to say anything about this movie.
I probably wouldn't even be interested in animes today if it weren't for this movie.
The MOST stunning art I've ever seen. Period.

5 out of 5 MUST SEEE!!!!!