Paranoia Agent

Paranoia Agent is an anime produced by Satoshi Kon about various problems of the Japanese society mixed together in a story through Lil' Slugger (A.K.A. Shōnen Bat). The stories that made Paranoia Agent were created by Satoshi during the time he made his movies Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, and Tokyo Godfathers. Satoshi Kon took all the stories he had thought of and created Paranoia Agent.

Plot

Lil' Slugger is a middleschooler who at nights, wanders around in roller skates with a golden baseball bat. He knocks people with it in order to "release" them from their problems. The anime is highly influenced by the movies of David Lynch. The series was premiered in Japan in 2004. It has 13 episodes.

Metalocalypse

Metalocalypse is an animated series aired on Adult Swim. It was created by Brendan Small and Tommy Blacha. It is described as a mixture between “Spinal Tap with Scooby Doo and Norway”. Metalocalypse follows the adventures of a Metal band called “Dethklok”. Although the name of the band is usually written as "Dethklok",most of their band logos are written as "Dethkløk". Their popularity is incredible. They are known as the “twelfth largest economy in the World”. So popular are they that their fans would do anything their songs said, even if it means death. For example, if they support a commercial brand, that means that it becomes the most popular in the market. Their supernatural popularity has drawn the attention of a group known as “The Tribunal”. Each episode shows an attempt of this group to destroy the band. Deathklok’s concerts are notoriously violent. Most of the time their fans end up hurt or dead. Even their charity deeds end up with lots of deaths like when a laser beam show killed the entire London Philarmonic Orchestra. Frequently, the series has various famous musicians sharing their voice for the show such as James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett of Metallica, Jeff Loomis, Steve Smyth, and Warrel Dane of Nevermore, Arch Enemy’s guitarist Michael Amott, Canibal Corpse’s singer George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher. Besides, each episode shows various references to other metal bands in the real world. Being these references shown as places, names or the characters’ behaviour.

Welcome to the NHK

Welcome to the NHK revolves around the lives of some young adults living in the city of Tokyo. Many of the different "life styles" shown in this story are about Hikikomori, Anime, Otaku ,as well as the different and intense experiences that the main characters face, such as depression and solitude. Welcome to the NHK has Tatsuhiro Sato as its main protagonist. He is a college drop-out who has been unemployed for four years. He lives a totally reclusive life as a Hikikomori. He has even come to the bizarre conclusion that everything that happens to him is a conspiracy. On a day that seemed like nothing in his routine would change, Sato meets Misaki Nakahara a mysterious girl who will try to cure Sato's reclusiveness problem. Misaki has Sato sign a contract by which they agree to meet every night at a nearby park and have lessons on how to give up being a hikikomori. There are many topics going on in these sessions, ranging from psychology to psychoanalysis. From this point on, the plots starts to unfold. In spite of the fact that these sessions are intended to help Sato, frequently, both characters tend to lie to each other. Although Misaki is sure that with her help Sato will integrate again into society, Sato prefers to go with his neighbor and former schoolmate Kaoru Yamazaki whenever he needs support.

Welcome to the NHK started as a light novel created by japanese novelist Tatsuhiko Takimoto , illustrated by Yoshitoshi Abe (Serial Experiments Lain) and published by Kadokawa Shoten. Its release in Japan was on January 28,2002. Later, the story was adapted to manga written by the same person but Kendi Oiwa was in charge of the drawings. The anime series aired from July 9 until december 17 in 2006. It has 24 episodes.

Beck

The story revolves around a boy called Yukio Tanaka (Nicknamed “Koyuki” because when he was a child there were two “Yukios” in his class and he was the shorter, so the prefix “Ko” was added). The series starts when he was a fourteen year old middle schooler, (currently in the manga he is nineteen) and tells about the adventures of his music band called BECK (also Known as Mongolian Chop Squad in the USA because they thought that the name BECK wasn´t commercial enough). An important factor as the story progresses is the relationship between Koyuki and Ryusuke´s sister, Maho Minami. Whenever Maho attends the concerts, Koyuki gains more confidence to perform. Other important characters in the story are the rest of the band: Saku, the drummer and Koyuki´s best friend, Chiba, the singer and Taira, the bassist.

Beck Manga contains references and tributes to classic rock and pop culture in general. Sometimes well known rock stars appeared drawn in manga style. This happens in a dream that the protagonists have about one of their concerts.

In this dream various rock legends such as Eric Clapton, Kurt Cobain, Sid Vicious, John Lennon and Freddie Mercury cry when they see all the garbage left after a concert. Lots of times references to a famous musicians are made, for example when Ryusuke plays “Machine Gun” a song of Jimi Hendrix that saves his life when a hooligan shoots atsomeone near him. Ryusuke´s guitar “Lucille” and its story is based on the guitar of B.B. King.

Harold Sakuichi admits that the band is inspired on the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The author admits that it is his favorite band and their song “Under the Bridge” helped him in a bad moment in his life. Sakuishi wrote a one chapter manga called “Under the Bridge”. It tells the story about how he met the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Beck Anime accurately follows the manga story until chapter thirty (Volumen 10 of the manga). After that, we must read the manga to know the rest of the story.

Voices of a distant star

This story takes place in 2046, when the ruins of an extraterrestrial civilization are discovered in Mars. There have been great technological advances and humans are thinking about sending an interstellar expedition next year. Mikako Nagamine y Noboru Terao are students. But while Noboru will enroll in Highschool, Mikako will take part in the Interstellar expedition. Hoshi no Koe (Voices of a Distant Star) is the story of a long distant love relationship in which the protagonists keep their relationship alive through text messages.

Voicesofadistantstar Anime

Hell Girl

There is a rumor going on at Japanese Schools. It's said that at midnight one can access a webpage called Jigoku Tsushi (Hell mail). On this webpage, if the name of a person who you want to take revenge on is written, Jigoku Shojo appears and sends this person to hell. However, the person who writes other´s name on Jigoku Tsushi will be sent to hell when he/she dies too. Basically, the anime series is a collection of independent stories. Each one tells a story of the suffering of an individual or group of individuals, the covenant with Jigoku Shojo and the aggressor´s punishment by her. Each story is told from the beggining of the harassment, passing through the unbearable anguish suffered by the victims, then finishing up with the protagonist requiering the help from the Hell Girl.

School Rumble

School Rumble tells about the daily lives of the students of a fictious Highschool called Yagami. The series is a romatic comedy with some very exaggerated scenes. Tenma Tsukamoto, a sophomore, is the female main character. She has a crush on an eccentric guy called Ooji Karasuma. Tenma doesn’t know how to confess her love to him. She will try the most surrealistic and absurd ideas in order to confess her love to Karasuma. The story gets even more complex with Kenji Harima, the male main character. Harima is a delinquent who is in love with Tenma, but he, as Tenma does, has the same problems to confess his love to her. The attempts of the two main character to try to confess their love to the people they have a crush on, create really hilarious situations.

As the story progresses, Harima and Tenma become very good friends. Eri Sawachika, one of Tenma’s best friends, developes an attraction to Harima.This is as a result of many embarassing situations in which they get involved. Also, Harima develops an affectionate relation with Tenma’s younger sister,Yakumo Tsukamoto, who along the story helps him draw his manga. As the story carries on, Harima helps Tenma improve her relationship with Karasuma but also, Harima’s relationships with Yakumo and Eri get more serious. This story contain lots of humor, pretty girls, romance, fanservice ...In short, it is a must-see to everyone out there who enjoys good anime.

Johnny the Homicidal Maniac

Created by Jhonen Vasquez (Invader Zim) this comic book tells the story of a serial killer called Johnny "Nny" C., who elaborately slaughters everyone who pisses him off. After that, Johnny drains the blood of his victims and uses it to paint over a wall in his house to prevent a monster from escaping. That sounds damn crazy, doesn't it??; and, that is exactly what you will find in this comic, pure insanity. The way it mixes comedy, violence and twisted-psychological stuff, makes it a unique piece of dark comedy.

Giant Gundam comes to life

The giant statue marked the 30th anniversary of the anime series Gundam

School Days

Makoto Itou, a highschool student, is in love with a girl who he always meets on the train on his way to school, Kotonoha Katsura. He also secretly takes with his cellphone a picture of her. Due to a seat-changing arrangement in Makoto´s classroom, he ends up sitting beside Seika Saionji. While Seika was playing with Makoto's cellphone, she finds Kotonoha's picture. So, Seika realizes that Makoto is in love with Kotonoha. Then, Seika offers to help Makoto confess his feelings to Kotonoha. Thanks to Seika´s help, Makoto confesses to Kotonoha and she agrees to start dating him. Later, While Makoto was waiting for Kotonoha at the train station, Seika shows up. Makoto thanks Seika for helping him with Kotonoha and tell her that he owes her a favor. Suddenly, Seika kisses Makoto and tells him that 'that is enough for her' .Due to Makoto´s indecision about his feelings towards Seika and Kotonoha, the School Days' story of Drama and Romance gets started.

Detroit Metal City

Detroit Metal City is a manga published by the magazine Young Animal since 2005. In 2008 ,13 animated episodes that were about 13 minutes long each were produced. DMC also has a 104 minute long movie in which Gene Simmons participates.

The anime is about Shoiji Negishi, a timid singer who came to Tokyo from the countryside wishing to become a pop singer. But for several reasons, he ends up playing in a Death Metal Band that becomes a huge success.On scene, Shoiji wears an outlandish outfit so that his identity remains unknown. His artistic name is Johannes Krauser II according to the rumors (made up by fans) he is a demon from hell who killed his parents and after that, committed several other crimes.

What is amusing about it is that Shoiji doesn´t like Death Metal at all nor did he like its philosophy (songs that incite crimes to be commited, death, diabolic rites, etc). He still wishes to become a pop artist and sings happy and romantic songs. Unfortunately, he performs his role as Johannes Krauser II so well that he can’t quit DMC.

Sundome

The “Roman Club,” a school group interested in the occult, to which he’s practically enslaved, has become boring for one Hideo Aiba. Until a girl named Kurumi Sahana shows up and wants to join up. But Sahana is no ordinary girl… When the two are left alone in the club classroom, Kurumi makes a special “request” of Hideo… From that moment on, Hideo’s dull life gets far more…frustrating. Sundome literally means "stopping the moment before," and considering the content of the story, it refers to being stopped just before cumming or ejaculating.

Galaxy Express 999

After his mother was killed by the evil robot ,Count Mecha, Tetsuro becomes a delinquent who only thinks of vengeance. Tetsuro lives in a futuristic distant world in which Humas can travel to another planet to change their bodies and become immortals. They can also get mechanical limbs. Tetsuro’s objective is to get enough money to board The Galaxy Express 999 so that he can get to the Robot Planet.Galaxy Express 999 is a train capable of travelling throughout space.

Once, after escaping from the police, Tetsuro meets Maetel, a beatiful woman who resembles his mother. She offers to take him in The Galaxy express 999, so he can get his robotic body and take his revenge on Count Mecha. Along their journey, they will meet lots of people and Tetsuo will learn what being a human means.

Plamoo animations and Marvel vs. DC

While Surfing on the internet, I bumped into two outstanding works of stop motion animation. One of which is made by a Japanese company? group? guy or girl??(I really don't know) called Plamoo. They use figures of popular anime characters in their animations.

The other one is maybe not as impressive as plamoo animations but it sure is hilarious. I'm talking about Marvel versus DC stop motion animation. As its name says, they use Marvel and DC action figures to create their comedy sketches.

You can watch more Plamoo and Marvel versus DC animations in this video section of this blog.

K-ON!

This story revolves around four freshmen highschool girls. Yui Hirasawa , a cheerful, easy going and carefree girl, is impatient to find a club in which she can participate. Meanwhile, Ritsu Tanaka (drummer) asks her best friend Mio Akiyama (Bassist) to enroll in their high school's light music club. Unfortunately, they realize that the club is about to be disbanded because all of its members have already graduated from highschool. If they want the light music club to live on, they will have to recruit four members. Therefore, Ritsu and Mio desperately try to find two members so the club will not be disbanded. Ritsuo and Mio get to recruit Tsumugi Kotobuki who tells them that she only knows how to play the keyboard. So, this means that they only have to find one more member in order to save the light music club from disbanding. Finally, the cheerful Yui decides to join the light music club. Unfortunately, the club needs the most important part in a band: the guitarist, and Yui Hirasawa has no experience at all playing any musical instrument.

Hikikomori

The hikikomori are teenagers and young adults who are overwhelmed by the pressure that Japanese society places upon them. Therefore, these individuals withdraw themselves from society, sometimes spending several months and even years without leaving their houses. This is a short documentary directed by Francesco Jodice and Kal Karman that explores in depth the hikikomori phenomenon in Japan.

Serial Experiments Lain

After the suicide of a student called Chisa Yamada, her classmates started receiving strange posthumous e-mails sent by Chisa from a place known as The Wired. Among them is Lain Iwakura, a withdrawn fourteen-year old girl. Withouth knowing how to use a computer very well, Lain reads the e-mail sent by the dead girl. Out of curiosity, she tries to find out more about it. She asks her father for a new Navi (computer) so that she can get to know more about the Wired (a computer navigation system similiar to the Internert).

Little by little, Lain’s life starts to revolve around the Wired only. Her only friend Alice is worried about her so, she invites Lain to hang aroung with her and her friends. Thus, Lain gets to know about the existence of a mysterious Psico chip. Later, It grants her free access to the Wired. Steadily, Lain becomes a sort of omnipotent being in the Wired, like a god. As the story progresses, She starts discovering more about the functioning of the Wired. Then, Lain notices that a mysterious group of men in black are watching over her house and so do the Knights (some kind of hackers in the Wired).

So famous and powerful Lain becomes in the Wired that she losses her interest in the real world. As she is finding new things out , her girlfriends start receiving rumors about Lain’s alter-ego which is completely different from her normal personality in the real world. As Lain becomes more independent in the Wired she starts questioning herself about what her real personality is and Who is the "real" Lain?

Despera

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Despera is the new project that will mark the long-awaited return of the team responsible for the epic cyberpunk anime Serial Experiments Lain. This story takes place in the Taisho Era in 1922, a year before Kanto's great earthquake struck Tokyo. Ain a 14 year-old girl and a mysterious man live in the basement of the famous "Ryounkaku", a twelve storey building located in Asakusa District. Ain spends all her time making strange scientific inventions. Among these inventions are some cathode ray screens. Ain's friend claims that he can see the future through them