Monday, April 12, 2010

Anime Maki has moved!!!!!

Thanks for stopping in to say hi, but I've moved to a new domain! Anime Maki is now located at:

www.animemaki.net

Yup! No more free hosting for me! I'm moving up in the world and all that jazz. Please join me in my new home!

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Manga Review: Mikansei No. 1 Volume 2

Clocking in at only two volumes Tokyopop's Mikansei No. 1 won't demand much from your shelf space. The first installment was released here in the latter part of 2009 and today we're looking at the second volume, which hit stores a little over a week ago. In case you're unfamiliar with this particular series, all you really need to know is that it's a shoujo romantic comedy. The book follows most of the genre stereotypes with regards to characters and plotlines, but the setting is more on the unique side.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Manga Review: Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning Volume 11

The mystery manga series, Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning, has been out for quite some time now. Originally the book by Kyo Shirodaira and Eita Mizuno ran for 15 volumes between 2000 and 2005 in Japan. In the States the manga's history is a little confounding considering Tokyopop had the license, but let it slide and Yen Press picked it up a couple years later. Along those lines Yen Press is releasing the eleventh volume of the book later this month.

DVD Review: The 14 Amazons

FUNimation's the Hong Kong Connection is their latest lineup. This particular diversion is a cooperation with Celestial Pictures and sees their live-action department focus on the kung fu cinema of yore. That means you can generally expect each of these films to be chockfull of action, cheesy dialogue, and bad English dubs. Then again considering these dubs are new, FUNimation obviously knows its audience (which it certainly seemed they did when they talked about the HKC at Anime Boston 2010). One of their first releases, The 14 Amazons, has made its way into my hands and I have just finished watching it.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

DVD Review: Shaolin Hand Lock

Who doesn't love cheesy kung fu flicks?

Apparently that's the reasoning behind FUNimation's latest lineup of films, the Hong Kong Connection. At this past weekend's Anime Boston convention I sat in on the FUNimation panel where they talked about, made fun of, and previewed their latest line. Wouldn't you know? I happen to have one of their first releases, Shaolin Hand Lock, sitting right here.

Shaolin Hand Lock was originally released in 1978 and was directed by Ho Meng Hua. This particular film was one of those Shaw Brothers flicks you could randomly catch late at night while channel surfing. In other words, it's basically the stuff that kung fu films are made off; overblown sound effects, cheesy dialogue, and all.

DVD Review: Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne - The Complete Series

Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne is freaking awesome. Buy it.

That's it. That's my review.

Okay, it's really not, but in all honesty I just saved you the trouble of reading through what I'm about to type. This latest anime release from FUNimation is without a doubt and hands down one of the best shows to come along in the past decade. It is uniquely mature, entirely captivating, and engrossing from start to finish. To put it bluntly, you've never seen a show like this before and everything about it stands out in a huge way.