Blood+

(airing now on Cartoon Network is the dubbed version. Originally aired in Japan 2005-2006.)

Blood+ is the fleshing out and continuation of Blood: the Last Vampire (short test animation for Studio Plus I.G. & Aniplex). It focuses on fleshing out Saya’s history and explaining her battle against the Chiropetra. I love how the anime takes its time with the story and sub plots bring out more pieces to the puzzle. The amount of details/ personality given to the characters and story make this one of the better horror animes. Unfortunately, it’s a struggle to find the full subtitled episodes online since YouTube began deleting the popular animes either in full or partial chunks. Studio I.G. is working on a second series for Blood+ but there hasn’t been a release date on series 1 yet.

Copied from: Production I.G.

INTRODUCTION

The war never stops: in a different time, on a different battlefield, hiding deeply into the folds of History... They are called Chiropterans. They can change their form and disguise as human beings, but they are not. They are immortal creatures that feed off blood.

An organization, named Red Shield, has being fighting to exterminate this pestilence, and the struggle has now evolved into something of a much bigger scale.

Okinawa, Japan. Year 2005. Now.

Saya Otonashi is a high-school girl living peacefully with her family... with one exception: she has no memory of her life except for the past year. One day, a startling event causes her happy life to shatter into pieces.

An enemy to destroy, a mission to accomplish... the vortex of an ancient struggle is dragging Saya back to her destiny. A young and handsome cello player in dark clothes appears... his name is Hagi. The moment he hands Saya a Japanese sword, History starts a new course.

Will Saya be able to restore her memory, and find her own identity?

For a broader view of story with spoilers[i]: Wikipedia Blood+

I was lucky to be able to watch this series in whole, subbed on YouTube. A lot of the episodes are still there. Search for Blood+, Blood + or Blood Plus but remember, some parts of the episodes may be missing between 1-16. Jack had to settle for watching some of the episodes dubbed or subbed in Spanish. I reccomend jumping on the series now because unlike the others I’ve seen, I wasn’t able to suggest a place to watch the series in whole.

Ghost Hunt

(originally aired in Japan October 2006)

Ghost Hunt follows a group of exorcists/ psychics that, well, hunt ghosts… Traditional Japanese tales set in modern day make this series worth watching. The characters are fleshed out well and I can’t wait to see the next season! Good news is this series is available on YouTube (although I noticed recently some of it is being deleted. GRRRR!) and CrunchyRoll! Woot!

*+*+*+*+*+*+*

For those who haven’t heard of CrunchyRoll.com its a pimp site that streams anime that hasn’t been picked up by American distributors yet. As soon as the anime is optioned, CrunchyRoll deletes the series and asks the viewers to support the series by purchasing the dvds. CrunchyRoll is a site that runs off donations. A viewer/ member does not have to donate, but personally, I got frustrated with being kicked off and not being able to watch all these wonderful animes full-screen. $15 paid for 3 months of unlimited watching of countless animes!

*+*+*+*+*+*+*

Back to Ghost Hunt!

Spoiler heavy, in-depth look: Wikipedia GhostHunt

Simple, no-spoiler synopsis taken from: AnimeNewsNetwork

Telling ghost stories is a favorite past time of Mai Taniyama and her friends--that is, until she meets 17 year-old Kazuya Shibuya, the man sent by Shibuya Psychic Research Center to investigate paranormal activity at a supposedly haunted school. When Mai gets caught in a dangerous situation, she is rescued by Kazuya's assistant. Saving her lands the assistant incapacitated, and Kazuya demands that Mai become his assistant, instead...

I was hooked on Ghost Hunt immediately. This series is only 25 episodes and I love it.

 XXXHoLic

XXXHoLic are beautiful, creepy stories done by the wonderful minds of CLAMP and Studio I.G. (See Blood+ above) Originally aired in Japan April-September 2006.

Simply put, Boy is weighed down by spirits following him; Boy wishes for spirits to stop and happens upon a wish shop; Boy becomes employed by witch to pay for bill and steps into a wonderful world… while keeping one foot firmly in his own. I love how the characters are elongated and the immense detail in Yukko’s clothing, home, world, etc. My favorite episodes are 5 & 18 and the good news is that you don’t have to watch all the episodes before hand to understand episode 5. This series can be viewed in full at CrunchyRoll.com or partially at YouTube.

Spoiler heavy, in-depth look: Wikipedia-XXXHolic

Simple, no-spoiler synopsis from: AnimeNewsNetwork

Kimihiro Watanuki is a young boy with a cursed gift. He has the ability to see evil spirits, and somehow they seem attracted to himself. One day he meets a mysterious woman who names herself Yuuko. She claims to have the means to end his torment, but she never works for free, and she wouldn't help him until he works for her enough to pay for her services. Thus he starts to work in her shop and discovers that in that place, nothing is what it seems.

Death Note

…is amazing! The descriptions of it on various websites DO NOT do this anime justice! I haven’t finished this series yet—tonight while I was watching it on crunchyroll.com Death Note was deleted. YouTube deleted it over a week ago and the only things I found tonight on YouTube were fan tributes. Jack and I are trying to decide if we want to pay and download it or wait to see if it will be out on DVD soon. There are 2 live-action Death Note movies still on crunchyroll.com in the drama section. I’m going to watch and review those tonight. The live-action movies came out before the anime.

*+*+*+*+*+*+*

Taken from: Anime News 

"Light Yagami (Or Raito) is an ace student with great aspects who's bored out of his mind. One day he finds the Death Note a notebook held by a shinigami (Death God). with the Death Note in hand, Light decides to create a perfect world. A world without crime or criminals. However when criminals start dropping dead one by one, the authorities send the legendary detective L to track down the killer."

Here is the press release by VIZ & IGN: Death Note press release

Here is where you can buy and watch it now: http://www.direct2drive.com/buy-anime-download

Ayatsuri Sakon aka Puppet Master Sakon

 (originally aired 1999-2000)

This one falls more into murder mystery with an unexplained (WHY???), possible(?) supernatural linking between Sakon and his puppet Ukon. Lots of death. Lots of bad luck. A ton of wonderful history on Japanese dolls, puppets and theatre throughout the series.

Honestly, I clicked on this series because Ukon, the Mejii era puppet looked like Rurouni Kenshin. I’m glad I did- this series isn’t half bad. Sakon and Ukon solving murders is a bit creepy. Sakon does talk with Ukon like he’s another person. Sometimes the stories are predictable and similar, but the development of the characters quirks and the detail to the stories are fun to watch.

More info: AnimeInfo

Yume Tsukai aka Dream Masters

(originally aired April- June 2006)

Yume Tsukai is a short 12 episode series. I was surprised at how short it was due to it taking up until episode 9 to start accelerating into an actual story. As in, it DRAGGED and I felt as though I was watching a longer series. Episodes 10-12 flew by and that was it. The end.

The art is cute, the weapons/ toys are great and the characters are likable… even the nightmares they face are well done. For me, the shallowness of the plot and characters made this one a sleeper for me. For most of the series it’s the Dream Masters fighting and turning nightmares back into regular dreams. No plot twists, no surprises, no new attacks to surpass attacks that were previously shown. A few of the stories borderline on creepiness- I actually like the nightmare sequences the best because after a few episodes the pattern emerges on how the show goes.

For a more indepth account of the story & character profiles: Wiki Yume Tsukai

From reading the wikipedia article it looks like this anime made a much better manga series- seems to be a good portion was cut from the anime. That’s a shame. This one had the potential of being an interesting lite- horror, nightmare battling magical girl/ boy series.