Month: July 2007

Sola: Moderately intriguing anime which starts with a boy, obsessed with photographing the sky, who meets a strange girl, and buys a doll. He makes a hospital visit and presents the doll to a sick girl (his sister?) only for it to be lobbed into a bin on top of a lot of others.

The episode ends leaving the naive viewer wondering what’s going on. Actually I cheated a bit and Googled for this title, whereupon I found quite a lot of information. Seems several characters are a kind of demon and Sola is really about demon hunting.

I wasn’t inspired to get any more of it but others may differ.

Fushigiboshi no Futagohime (Twin Princesses of the Mysterious Star) An anime set in an improbable “stellar” world and having as its twin heroines two badly behaved and un-regal princesses. Sunny, funny and as sweet as candy-floss, this is a perfect anime to show to little girls, who will enjoy its bright toy-box designs and simple plotting. I suspect some more mature viewers will have fun with it too, though some old farts may find it’s a bit young for them.

Sisters of Wellber

Sisters of Wellber is a medaeval-style fantasy romp in which a thief girl tries to rob the royal palace and gets involved with a murder. The king’s daughter has just knifed a prince from a none too friendly neighbouring kingdom because she didn’t like his rough bedroom manners. They escape together, pursued by the royal forces who want to execute Princess Rita in order to avoid a devastating war, and one of the prince’s friends who just wants to kill her. Fast-moving and entertaining, worth a look.

El Cazador de la Bruja (Witch Hunter). Fantasy drama set in Mexico. Bounty hunters search for a naïve girl who soon demonstrates her supernatural powers. Given the choice of bringing in the girl dead or alive, most of the hunters opt for the former, except for one female bounty hunter who soon becomes more of a companion and would-be protector. Not bad, well scripted, worth a look.

Murder Princess: Swords-and sorcery fantasy romp in which a royal palace is overrun by a defecting scientist and his small but deadly helpers – two cute-looking girl puppets. The royal princes has to flee for her life, but soon runs into a bounty hunter. They both fall off a cliff, and during the fall they exchange personalities, so now we have a princess with an extremely aggressive personality and two ugly and capable assistants, and a bewildered girl. The ‘princess’ soon gets her palace back, and that’s only episode 1. This is really a lot of fun, that is, if you enjoy cartoon violence.

Claymore: A world in which youmas in human disguise eat people, and are hunted by ‘claymores’ – half-human, half youma girls with silver eyes and carrying large swords. The principal character, the ‘claymore’ Claire, befriends a young boy who has lost his family to youmas.
The story isn’t bad, and some of the artwork looks good, but I marked it down for having a stupid title (a ‘claymore’ is actually a large sword formerly used by Scottish clansmen), and the treatment seems rather overheated.

Tales of Symphonia: Nonsensical farcial stuff, apparently about a magical school, that left me completely unimpressed.