After seeing and being enthralled with its uniquely music-themed, action-packed, and with an awesome story to boot series of Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo, I found myself craving and sought for more of Shinichiro Watanabe's work. In doing so, I've come across a couple of great and memorable shows he's had a hand in producing (e.g. Eureka Seven, Ergo Proxy and Escaflowne). Although he only has a handful of shows in which he directed and a bunch of others where mostly he is in charge of storyboard, the two aforementioned shows totally stand out from the rest which sets the bar really high for his work for me. Then I stumbled upon a certain anime image of  Michiko to Hatchin with a gun-toting, brown hottie of a woman with a teasing look, riding a scooter with a seemingly timid blondie kid. What an ironic pair. Seeing the show is produced by Manglobe, the same guys who produced Ergo Proxy and Samurai Champloo and with Mr. Watanabe in charge of the music. For sure I knew, I was in for a treat and boy did Michiko to Hatchin blew me away.

   
Ninjas (otherwise known as shinobi) are very well-known as the Japanese historical (and sometimes legendary) stealth assassin. They have made their mark in history since (I guess) around 15th century as warriors and spies of great prowess in the field of tactical espionage, stealth and assassination. During the Sengoku Era/Period in ancient Japan, ninjas are specially trained assassins-for-hire, rented by warring clans to go past legions of armed samurai and lay defeat on the enemy by taking down the enemy's daimyo (general/governor) like a sitting duck behind enemy lines. To do this perilous yet tremendous feat, ninjas are trained from their childhood with the different specializations of ninjutsu and the art of assassination. Having such dangerous skills, ninjas live well hidden in secret villages deep in jungles or mountainous regions. But like the samurai, they have lost their cause since the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate, a time of peace where feudal Japan ended.


In this story, Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, gathered the two warring Kouga Manjidani and Iga Tsubagakure ninja clans in his castle to showcase their dangerous expertise in killing. Seeing how they easily handled the castle guards, the government then decided since its a time for peace, skills like theirs are no longer needed and would only bring further danger to the upcoming peace. Tokugawa, issued an order to the warring Iga and Kouga ninja clans, to choose five of their best warriors to engage in a fight to the death for the sake of survival of the stronger of the two clans in order to bring about an era of peace and ending the clans' 400-year feud. In the midst of this conflict, two star-crossed lovers are caught and one must kill the other in order for their clan to come through.




And of course, the best part for me: the unique kick-ass chosen five of each clan! Introducing first, Kouga Manjidani's elite five:





Iga clan's elite five:

     
This movie in particular was recommended to me by my brother most likely because of my personal interests are very evident in this awesome live-action graphic novel adaptation. Music, specifically playing the bass guitar (there are band battles and Scott Pilgrim is in a band and plays bass), Games (the movie runs like a video game with video game SFX, and enemies turning into coins when stamped out) and a lot of Game-based awesome action scenes. To be exact, the Universal Studios intro playing on 8-bit music and the short Zelda track at the beginning of the movie instantly got my "gamer blood" raging. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. What really kept my eyeballs glued to the screen was the movie's lead female, Ramona Flowers... ahhh.. <3

     
Female knights galore! Well, my fetish for ladies clad in knight's armor got the best of me the instant I saw some images and background description on this anime series. True enough, the numerous blonde babes in medieval armor, wielding large swords, each with her own unique identity and awesomeness really gets me excited. Though I make it sound like a harem, its totally different and way deeper than that. Claymore is a classic tale of revenge mixed with a bit of romance and tons of bloody action. Somewhat along the lines of the popular movie series Kill Bill but in a medieval setting where demons, called Yoma, abound, terrorizing humans and an organization of exterminators-for-hire comprising of blonde, silver-eyed female warriors wielding huge swords, called Claymores exist to protect humans from Yoma.



The story revolves around Clare, a Claymore and Raki, a boy whom Clare took under her wing -which is unusual for Claymores who are usually cold towards humans- as a cook after being abandoned and thrown out of his village because his brother turned into a Yoma. Unlike normal Claymores, who are half-human and half-Yoma, Clare had another Claymore's flesh and blood infused in her body thus making her quite an incomplete fusion of Yoma and human.




When Clare was still a young girl, she had requested the organization to turn her into a Claymore using the severed head of a fallen Claymore. The head of the  previous number one and the strongest Claymore in the organization's history, Teresa of the Faint Smile. Teresa saved the life and took care of Clare and even went against the organization just to do so but was slain in battle by the current number two, Priscilla who in the heat of the battle became an "Awakened Being", a Claymore turned Yoma with powers far greater than a normal Yoma. Clare travels along with Raki from town-to-town on her Yoma hunting jobs all the while, waiting for the time to come when she'll finally be able to meet face to face Priscilla and avenge Teresa's death.



I should say, this is one of those titles that kept me glued on my seat until I've finished watching every arc. The story is very commendable and really gripping especially the character development on Clare and the story's progress on each arc. I really hope a second season would be made as the ending feels open-ended, not to mention, the series isn't even half the story on its manga.

     
I remember watching this television series from ANIMAX years back when we still had cable TV. Being one such action-packed show with the heroines' amazing power to control paper and use it as weapons, shields and summoned creatures really astounded me. But what really made me remember this awesome anime is its cool opening theme. Really funky basslines, jazz horns and that cool guitar vibe (combination of tremolo-delay-wah effect for those who have technical know-how on guitars) gives you that super-agent, James Bond-esque kind of feel. Not to mention, its similarly cool ending theme with its relaxing, feel-good reggae beat and that smooth sultry singing voice which is Kazami, one of my favorite singers in anime music.



ROD The TV is a sequel to its three-episode OVA, Read Or Die. The TV series' story revolves around three sisters who are, like Yomiko Readman from the OVA, are papermasters (not to mention bookworms with an exception to the youngest sister) - wielding the power to manipulate and control paper and turn it into weapons and tools of sorts - and Nenene Sumiregawa, a prodigy writer and novelist and is a close friend of Yomiko Readman. She has been unable to produce new material for some time due to Yomiko's sudden disappearance which happened after the destruction of the British Library (where Yomiko worked as a secret agent) 5 years prior to this series.

Having a keen and extraordinary talent, the three paper sisters have formed an agency called the "Three Sisters Detective Agency" and have been doing odd jobs requiring their unusual skills and have been working as super agents for Dokusensha, a company similar to the British Library (from the OVA) with underlying shady businesses regarding collecting books which are said to contain unimaginable powers.



Eventually, the Three Sisters Detective Agency was hired out to protect Nenene Sumiregawa during her trip to Hong Kong where her latest novel was to be made into a movie. During an autograph signing, as expected by Nenene's managers, an attack threatening Nenene's life was executed by a local novelist who was extremely envious of Nenene's achievement. Lucky enough, Nenene escaped certain death having hired the paper masters as bodyguards. With her life under constant threat, her paper master bodyguards, had to stay in her apartment as part of their job of protecting her. Although it was a bit too much trouble for Nenene having to put up with the sisters' eccentricity - especially with the spitfire, hot-blooded Anita - eventually, they formed a bond of friendship.