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.