Manga Review: Yotsuba&! volume 3
Yotsuba&! is a comedic slice of life series by manga-ka Kiyohiko Azuma, also known for her famous 4-koma series Azumanga Daioh. It follows the trials and tribulations of one Yotsuba Koiwai, an oddball of a five-year-old girl who lives with her equally weird adoptive father, Mr. Koiwai (usually referred to as "Dad"), who translates things for a living. Every chapter follows Yotsuba as she embarks on a different adventure, usually bumping into the other characters that make up her town, from the loud but romantically awkward Jumbo to the Ayase family that lives next door.
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Blu-ray Review: Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs Diamond Edition
In 1934, when Marge Champion was 14, she was approached by the Hyperion Studios to dress in a mock-up Snow White costume and become the live-action model for animators to study and draw inspiration for their upcoming release, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Over the next year, she posed and danced, creating not only the Snow White character, but also what would ultimately become the signature style of every Disney Princess to follow. With her famous red, blue, and yellow dress with the tall white collar, jet black hair and pale white skin, Snow White has become a highly recognizable symbol of the Walt Disney Company alongside the castle image and of course, Mickey Mouse.
DVD Review: Tokyo Majin: The Complete Series
Tokyo Majin
It's Zombie TIME! Zombies are being controlled and forced to attack the diverse and dark city of Tokyo. Oh, did I mention there are demons and ogres? Well, I am mentioning it now, and who do you think will challenge these threats? That's easy, five high school students will!
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DVD Review: One Piece Season 2 Third Voyage
I have been waiting for this volume of One Piece for some time now. Not only because we are back to what had been aired on television, but because I really wanted to see how well the voices of the characters introduced would be done. I was happy with the change.
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DVD Review: The Stepfather
Who am I here? Did I copy this quote wrong? Possibly its meaning is part of a cryptic puzzle? Or could it be the ramblings of an unstable mind? By the end of The Stepfather you will understand the implications of this question.
Manga Review: Battle Angel Alita: Last Order volume 12
Battle Angel Alita: Last Order is the alternative path to the ending of the Battle Angel Alita series. Alita has regenerated herself into the world of combat. In Volume 12, with her companions, she changes the Z.O.T.T. and exposes some of the Government's dark secrets.
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Manga Review: What a Wonderful World! 1
What a Wonderful World! is a compilation of 9 tracks or short stories that chronicle a turning point in the life of young adults. All of these tracks deal with characters that live on the fringe of society. They range from middle school outcast, to college dropout musician, to struggling manga artist. Inio Asano takes us through a series of events that cover the depressing to humorous times in life all captured in the urban setting that shows the oppressive tendencies that come with inner city life.
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Manga Review: The Prince of Tennis – Volume 34
The Prince of Tennis is a shōnen sports action-comedy manga. The story centers around Ryoma Echizen, a prodigal tennis player at Seishun Academy whose ultimate goal is winning the National Middle School Tennis Championship. While the series focuses on Ryoma, it also chronicles the path of his club, especially those that play pairs, as Ryoma tends to play singles.
Manga Review: Rin-ne Vol 1
Rin-ne is the newest manga by Rumiko Takahashi, the creator of Ranma ½ and Inuyasha. In the series, Sakura Mamiya is a young high school student with an unusual ability; she can see ghosts. When one of her classmates is revealed to be a “sort of” Shinigami, she starts to have all sorts of strange supernatural adventures… and it all seems to be related to the time she got lost as a child and saw something very unusual.
First Annual D23 Expo
To a Disney enthusiast, the idea of a convention organized by the Mouse himself is major excitement overload. The D23 Expo premiered for the first time last month and was exactly what you’d expect from a first year convention. Despite taking place right next door to Disneyland at the Anaheim Convention Center, it was surprisingly un-crowded. In March 2009, the first official online, members-only Disney fan club was launched, D23 (Walt Disney founded what would become the Disney Studios in 1923). The D23 Expo was then organized to serve as an annual meeting place for not only members of D23, but any Disney-loving member of the general public.
DVD Review: The Story of Saiunkoku – The Complete Season One
The Story of Saiunkoku is a shōjo supernatural romance-comedy anime set in the titular mythical/historical realm. Saiunkoku is heavily influenced by Chinese mythology. While there is no exact year, the setting seems to be based very loosely on one of the more stable periods between the late Han Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty as the bureaucratic system established during the Han period is well entrenched while the development of gunpowder has yet to be discovered; however, the series is clearly not historical fiction.
Blu-ray Review: Van Helsing
Since the dawn of film, there have been many many attempts to bring the story of Dracula to life on the silver screen from Nosferatu, to the more well known films such as Universal's Dracula starring Bela Lugosi and Bram Stoker's Dracula (Many of which, including this reviewer, think is the most accurate adaptation done in film thus far). Once again Hollywood has decided to try its hand at redoing the ol' Dracula mythos with Van Helsing, only this time hot off the heels of movies like Underworld, this version of the tale takes a more gothic action popcorn flick approach to the timeless story.