Saturday, 28 April 2012

Fairy Tail, Naruto & Angel Beats


Fairy Tale is an anime set in the magical kingdom of Fiore and in many ways is an old school shone anime from it's slapstick comedy, silliness, dungeons and dragons style fantasies around a group of wizards in an elite unit The Fairy Tail Guild to earn a crust or two. Think Slayers and you won't be far off.

We have topless male wizards, blondes, happy the talking cat and hot headed fire users such as Natsu who we learn was raised as a baby by a fire breathing dragon!

The main character focus is Lucy who forms bonds creating a group of reliable friends to assist her in her missions so there is a Naruto style Teamwork ethic running through the episodes.

So far in there's over 100 episodes made,  we have part 1 (episodes 1 thru 12) now with part 2 to follow on May 27th and I'd expect them all to trickle out over the next few years.

I've been following the Naruto Shippuden anime series for a good while now and here's an update:
Volume 8
The starting off point for this editon is the end of volume 7 where having defeated the Akatsuki member Kakuzu with his new jutsu, the Rasen Shuriken, Naruto discovers the moves worrying side effects. 

In order to learn a less dangerous technique Naruto trains with Jiraiya to perform a move combining his abilities with one of his summoned frogs. 

Whilst all this is taking place, Orochimaru is beginning to move once more and Kakashi is assigned to lead a team to discover his hideout but come up against a ninja with a powerful and unique technique.

Bonds: Bonds is the latest release to date of the full length movie tie in releases this time centring around the Invasion of the Sky Ninja.

A group of mysterious flying ninja have arrived from overseas to launch a sudden attack against the Hidden Leaf Village, leaving behind a wake of destruction. 

The group is revealed to be the "Sky Ninja" from the Land of Sky, a nation thought to have been destroyed by the Hidden Leaf Village long ago. 

To save their village, Naruto and his friends set out to stop this new threat. During the course of the mission, Naruto crosses paths with Sasuke, his friend who has parted ways from the Leaf Village not realizing he is only wanted for his body parts.

The end of the movie sees Narutu and Sasuke reunite, it seems some bonds may be unbreakable.


I had this about a month back as it came out in the States earlier which is why the cover is slightly different to the one shown on some sites which is listed to come out UK June 25th, I thought I'd write about it.

Produced by Clamp that brought us such series as Clannad, Diamond Daydreams, Lucky Star and a host of much loved fan favourites, the series embodies the same high production values.

We kick off with Otonashi appearing on the school grounds confused, without any memory of where and how he got there, he encounters a girl called Yuri who's gun aimed at 'Angel' he immediately springs into action not realizing he's dead, and in limbo.

In a quick attempt to deal with the situation he has found himself in, he joins a group of students who are fighting against God and 'Angel' called 'Afterlife Battlefront'.

Otonashi's school is populated by what fellow students describe as NPCs, that's to say students created to populate the school but don't possess a soul or anything.

When you break it down this anime is more a slice of life centred one, but it is also very tragic in that each and every character in this series has a story to tell about how they died, and why they are there. 

All the characters have issues to deal with and this is where this anime really scores.

While initially you notice all the comedy and action scenes, there is also a 'rock' band called Girls Dead Monster, who perform extremely well too adding interest to this anime.

Although some of the stories in Angels Beats! are quite sad I really enjoyed watching it.

No comments: