DVD Review: Gungrave, the Complete Set
Gungrave: The Complete Set covers the adult years of Brandon Heat and Harry McDowel and their climb up (and down) the ranks of the Millennion Mafia group.
Highlights
DVD Review: Claymore, Chapter 6 The Awakening
The secret of Clare comes out in this the final Chapter of the story. Clare is pushed to the point of no return and is in danger of fully awakening. The foes are stronger and more deadly than ever and the past has come back to haunt Clare. This beautifully rendered series closes it's doors to us, but hopefully not forever.
Highlights
DVD Review: Samurai Champloo: The Complete Series
1850s Samurai culture meets 1995 New York Hip Hop culture. Well, almost. This unique series brought a typical story line and made it into a slick contemporary production. This period piece is placed near the end of the Edo Period when Japan was ruled by the Tokugama shogunate. This period is also seen as the beginning of the modern era for Japan. The world began to open to them with the arrival of the Black Ships and the influx of the western culture. Samurai Champloo takes the blending of these two cultures literal at times, but the blending is also from different time periods. The raw approach that was taken by Shinichhiro Watanabe, the creator and director, is gratifying in its beauty and also unnerving in it's raw punch at times.
DVD Review: One Piece Season 2 First Voyage
When you ask most people about One Piece, they will probably shudder and ask about something else. Well this isn't the One Piece we try to forget about. The dubbing in this one is good, and the edits are minimal. The story is the same in this one as well as the prior english version: Some time before the start of the story a pirate with the name of Gold Roger acquired much wealth and infamy that he was called the Pirate King, upon his execution he mentions that all his treasure is being kept in "one piece" in a dangerous part of the ocean called the Grand Line. A golden age of piracy emerges and a young boy named Monkey D. Luffy is encouraged to become the Pirate King. To achieve his goal he brings along Zoro: a swordsman, Nami: a navigator, Usopp: a sniper, and Sanji: a cook. Each of them has their own goals.
Highlights
Blu-ray Review: Burn Notice: Season Two
Burn Notice is one of those shows that creeps up on you and eventually sends you scrambling to get the prior seasons so you can watch more. It's not because you need to have watched season one and two to enjoy any given episode, really all you need to know is given in each show's opener. Sure, there are some plot arcs that cover two episodes or even the whole season or series, but really, it's not that complicated. To me when I first watched it, I thought that it was yet another Stu Segall (Renegade, Silk Stalkings, Veronica Mars) production, as it very much has that same feel, but while this very much echoes other USA Network past offerings, this is from Fox.
DVD Reviews: Disney Animation Collection: Classic Short Films
The Walt Disney Animation Collection: Classic Short Films consists of six DVDs all sold separately, but altogether they add up to 33 short films covering six and a half hours of stories that we all grew up with from the black & white 1930s shorts through more modern classic shorts like Lambert the Sheepish Lion, Goliath II and Paul Bunyan. None of these are contemporary films by any means, but you'll no doubt recognize the vast majority of them, even if you only now realize how awful some of them are as an adult. Not worry however, those in that category are a bare few, and there are some gems that are every bit as marvelous today as they were when we first saw them as kids. There are only three real problems with this collection:
DVD Review: Darker Than Black Volume 5
FUNimation releases the fifth volume of Darker Than Black for America!