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June 2003 - August 2003 Cinderella
Boy | D.C. ~Da Capo~ | Full Metal
Panic? Fumoffu | Ikkitousen | Narutaru
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Alt. Title: None Premiere Date: 21st June 2003 TV Station: AT-X US Distribution rights: None
Review: This is the newest anime from Monkey Punch, the people that made the Lupin shows. And like Lupin, it's very stylish, has cabaret/blues/jazz-type music and involves the main characters getting into more danger than they think. Even the main characters, Ranma and Rella, look like Lupin and Fujiko, respectively. Despite the fact that Cinderella Boy is not incredibly original, it is still a lot of fun and there are some unusual elements in the show.
The series starts off with private detectives Ranma and Rella sneaking into a room in a casino in order to investigate a loan. But while they are doing that, they stumble onto something bigger. They are soon pursued by many men with guns and they take off in their car. However, they crash off a cliff and when Ranma awakens, Rella is nowhere to be found. He discovers that he has been unconscious for a week and a man nearby tells him that there is no way someone could survive the accident. Ranma sadly contemplates the fact that Rella may be dead. However, before he can think about it too much, he is captured by more men with guns who try to kill him by setting him on fire. He manages to escape and jumps out the window, just as the clock strikes midnight. Suddenly his body starts to transform...into Rella, who screams "what's going on?!"
From that, it's pretty obvious where the show gets it title from, and the theme sets it up for some very amusing and creative situations. I have a soft spot for stylish shows, and Cinderella Boy really hits the spot, especially with a number of my favorite seiyuu playing the main characters. Koyasu Takehito's role as Ranma reminds of how well he can play idiots, and Touma Yumi plays the sexy Rella incredibly well. Inoue Kikuko is fantastic as always. ^_^ Cinderella Boy is a great, light, stylish show done in the same fashion as Lupin and Bebop. I recommend it for some fun.
Episode count: 13 Rating: 7.5 out of 10 Screenshots/Images:
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Alt. Title: None Premiere Date: 6th July 2003 TV Station: Kanagawa TV US Distribution rights: None
Review: A hentai game to anime conversion, but without too much fanservice.
Episode count: 26 Rating: out of 10 Screenshots/Images:
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Alt. Title: Full Metal Panic 2 Premiere Date: 25th August 2003 TV Station: Fuji TV US Distribution rights: None
Review: Let me just first say that I watched this series without watching a single episode of Full Metal Panic. However, I was vaguely aware of the story and characters. Not that it really mattered, because Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu has no story whatsoever. It's just a bunch of random fun with the characters. The good thing about it is that it's actually very funny. There is something odd going on with the episode lengths, though, which resulted in a number of episodes being broadcast together in Japan. For example, episode 1 and 2 are 15 minute length episodes, so they aired back to back. However episode 3 was a full length episode by itself. There seems to be no real pattern to it, so I'm not sure why they did it that way. Maybe they didn't want to pad an episode about filler with filler?
Anyway, I am happy to say that this was animated by Kyoto Animation as opposed to GONZO. Yay! I really quite enjoyed this series, it was a lot of fun and Bonta-kun is great. As I said before, there is no story to this series, so I guess this was made to just have a bit of fun with the characters. Fortunately, because of the great seiyuu work, it accomplishes its goal instead of being a waste of time.
Episode count: 15 Rating: 7 out of 10 Screenshots/Images:
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Alt. Title: Battle Vixens Premiere Date: 30th July 2003 TV Station: AT-X US Distribution rights: Geneon USA
Review:
Ikkitousen is a fighting anime aimed primarily at a male audience. It is about legendary fighters being reincarnated into high school students. In the area of Japan where the series is set, the students from different schools have fights in order to rank themselves against each other. To story follows Sonsaku, a girl who has just transferred to this area and is immediately caught up in the fights.
Episode count: 13 Rating: 6.5 out of 10 Screenshots/Images:
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Alt. Title: None Premiere Date: 7th July 2003 TV Station: Kids Station US Distribution rights: None
Review:
Episode Count: 13 Rating: out of 10 Screenshots/Images:
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Alt. Title: Please Twins Premiere Date: 15th July 2003 TV Station: WOWOW US Distribution rights: Bandai Ent.
Review: Being a huge Onegai Teacher fan, I was eagerly anticipating this series for months. Thankfully, I wasn't disappointed. The Please! team are geniuises, I love the way they explore taboo relationships with such depth and humour. This series is set a year after the UFO sighting in Onegai Teacher. As you can probably guess, this series deals with 3 people who think they are twins. Because of the UFO sighting, the small town is on TV. Three people recognize the background in the news report as the place where they grew up. So they go back to that town to find out more about their past. From then on, the lives of Kamishiro Maiku, Miyafuji Miina, and Onodera Karen become incredibly intertwined, as feelings develop between them and two of them may be twins.
Many people, including myself, were concerned that the characters from the first series would be neglected. Well, fear not! Many of the characters from Onegai Teacher cameo in Onegai Twins, especially Mizuho-sensei who appears in every episode. And the subtle little references to the first series are cute and well done. All in all, Onegai Twins takes all the elements we've all come to love from Onegai Teacher but applies it to a different kind of relationship with different characters. The story is sweet and touching, the fanservice is tasteful and the funky music by I've is all there. I can definitely see this as being one of the best of 2003.
Episode count: 12 + 1 OVA Rating: 8 out of 10 Screenshots/Images:
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Alt. Title: None Premiere Date: 17th July 2003 TV Station: BS-i Satellite US Distribution rights: None
Review: I knew this series was based on a hentai game, so I was expecting a lot of fanservice and some semi-nudity. However, what I did not expect was the main male character to be sandwiched between a pair of naked breasts within the first 5 minutes of the show. After that, I sort of tuned out. It's quite disturbing when the characters look like children's anime characters and you see that sort of thing. Not only that, the female character whose breasts the main male character (who was a schoolboy) was sandwiched in didn't seem to mind at all. In fact, she seemed to like it. I'm assuming the rest of the series is like this, so I'm keeping my distance. I don't think I paid enough attention to the episode to rate it, so I'm just going to leave it blank.
Episode count: Rating: -- Screenshots/Images: None
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SUMEBA MIYAKO no COSMOS-SOU - Suttoko Taisen Dokkoida Alt. Title: Dokkoida Premiere Date: 5th July 2003 TV Station: US Distribution rights: None
Review: A really cheesy sentai parody anime which is completely random and crazy. Yet, its quite likeable. Basically it's about a bunch of people who live in the same apartment (Cosmos Apartments) and all of them have superhero-type alter egos. Except, even none of them know of each other's alter egos even though it's so blatantly obvious. But their obliviousness is what makes this series so funny and corny at the same time. In their "superhero" form they fight each other (very stupidly, I might add) as their "suits" are made by rival toy companies. At the same time, in their "normal" form they all hang out together. When a crisis occurs all of them excuse themselves, yet it doesn't occur to a single one of them what exactly is going on. It's ridiculous and hilarious, in a good way.
My advice to anyone watching this is to not even try to make sense of this series. It's completely random and is not meant to taken seriously. Except for maybe episode 7, in which it's seriousness shocked me. One huge highlight of this series, which is also the main reason I originally wanted to see it, is Mitsuishi Kotono. Dokkoida seems to be her only 2003 anime role. (Not counting Gundam Seed and Spiral which carried on from 2002). She's plays Sayuri, whose alter ego is "Queen of the Zoo" Hyacinth. (See middle screenshot and my Mitsuishi Kotono page). I don't usually go for these sort of series, but Dokkoida works quite well, as long as you remember that it is intentionally trying to be cheesy and stupid.
Episode count: 12 Rating: 7 out of 10 Screenshots/Images:
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Triangle Heart ~Sweet Songs Forever~ (OVA) Alt. Title: None Premiere Date: 24th July 2003 TV Station: N/A US Distribution rights: None
Review: This little-known OVA has wonderful opening and ending themes by one of my favorite bands, I've whom I believe also did the music for the hentai game on which this OVA is based. The animation is slick and clean and there a lot of girls in this cast. From watching this first 3 OVAs, I've gathered that it's about a singer called Fiasse whom somebody is trying to murder. A number of the best bodyguards, including two called Kyoya and Miyuki, are assigned to protect her. Fiasse is a rather innocent, sweet girl and seems to be old friends with Kyoya and Miyuki. However, her current bodyguard (whose name escapes at the moment) is not very happy about two other bodyguards helping her with protecting Fiasse. She seems to have a past with Kyoya. Anyway, the bodyguards follow Fiasse around and stand guard during her performances and foil an assassin attack.
That was what I got so far, but I was a little confused with the significance of a number of scenes especially ones involving the cafe with a bunch of girls working there. I was also quite distracted when watching this so I may have missed a few details. But in general this OVA shows some promise and I can't get over how nice the songs I've did for this show are. ^^ If you want more details and can read Japanese, you can go to the official site at www.th-rstage.com.
Episode count: 4 OVAs out so far Rating: 7.5 out of 10 Screenshots/Images:
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