5 Days Of Christmas Animes!!! Pt. 3

Pt. 3!!!

Chrono Crusade!

Air Date: February 16, 2004

Episode: Season 1, Eps. 12 “Holy Night”

Genre: Romance, Action, Adventure, Drama, Steampunk, Supernatural

My Rating: **** (4:5 stars)

The anime starts off with Sister Rosette saving little Azmaria  from an embarrassing Christmas pageant rehearsal with the other Sisters to head off to a meeting with Sister Kate and Father Ewan. There with Chrono they learn of news that 3 agents have died in SFO from investigations into Aion which leads them to believe something important is going to happen on the west coast or it has already started.

This of course leads Sister Rosette to beg that they send her to SFO in the hope of finding a lead to her brother Joshua. After a heated debate with Sister Kate, she is finally allowed to go to SFO. She is in such a hurry to leave that she doesn’t realize that everyone is actually sad about her going and on top of it she is leaving before Christmas. Father Ewan asks her to stay for at least Christmas and after seeing the teary eyes of the other Sisters and the ok from Chrono, she decides to stay for Christmas which makes everyone happy. Except for Azmaria who reflects on her past Christmas memories all of which are not happy ones.

Chrono, Rosette and Azmaria are sent into the city to try and get Christmas donations which of course leads to Rosette making an ass of herself like usual and embarrassing everyone else lol. She actually ends up cornering people and in a polite way forcing them to cough up cash. There she runs into Satella who turns out to be filthy rich and donates a wad of cash!

Azmaria  shortly after springs on the group that she does/doesn’t believe in Santa and that he never visited because she was told she was bad. This shocks everyone and they tell her there is no way she is or was bad. Azmaria realizes at that moment that she has people that care about her she needs to buy gifts for this year! Never having had people to get gifts for she is clueless on where to start. She asks the Sisters for assistance and they get her, well, nowhere! She finally decides to go window shopping in the city to find her gifts.

In the process of her buying a present she had being eyeing for some time for Rosette, she ends up preforming a good deed much to the surprise of the shop owner. Afterwards she runs into Rosette and Chrono who are out delivering toys to the kids in town. During this she starts to realize what Christmas really means.

The best part of this episode is the end where everyone throws Azmaria  a surprise Christmas party with a huge banquet to show they care. Awww! So cute! :c)

via my personal anime list on MyAnimeList.net

Baldr Force EXE OVA

Air Dates: October 11, 2006 – April 4, 2007

Episodes: 4

Genre: Action, Mech, Science Fiction

My Rating: **** (4:5 stars)

Baldr Force EXE was another great find on Netlix that I just watched. It’s a VERY short OVA with only 4 episodes. Even though there was a lot cram packed into the 4 it was actually really good! There were a few things that irked me a bit though  like the fact that while watching it I kept feeling like I was watching the love child of Hackers the movie and Ghost in the shell with a mix of The Matrix. Also on a side note this anime was actually created based off the video game Baldr Force.

The main arc of the story revolves around Tōru Sōma who is a member of one of the best hacker groups called Steppenwolf. The group consisted of 5 characters Tsukina Sasagiri, Yūya Nonomura, Akira Nikaidō, Tōru Sōma and a member that you don’t see until the end, Bachera. The reason that I say this seemed like the love child of Ghost in the Shell was because not only is the story set in a future time were computer are more integrated into everyday life but, people have chips/hookups in their brain to literally hook up to the net. Just like Ghost in the Shell . They sit in a computer system chair and have a cord that goes into the base of their skull and they are ‘wired’ into the net. The net is actually called ‘the wire’ and is separate world where everyone can live and interact together. Just like The Matrix. Also Just like the matrix you have to log out to leave and if you are killed in the wire you are killed in real life.

The story starts with Steppenwolf deciding that they had a good ride but it was time to disband since things were getting too hot and their last couple of jobs got them almost caught if not killed. Tōru belives this is because of Bachera who only recently joined their group and has been getting them into tougher and more dangerous jobs. The thing about Bachera though is that no one has seen him. Tsukina, Yūya, Akira and Tōru decide to do one last job before they close the doors on Steppenwolf. You know the whole one last score thing that you always see in movies or you hear about criminals doing. You know how those always work out… Steppenwolf decided that they were going to go big or go home on their last hack and try to hack into FLAK. FLAK is the military police of the internet and out to catch hackers and terrorist. Just as the group breaks through their firewalls they realize they fell into a trap set by FLAK to capture terrorist. Just as Akira was able to get out but just as Tōru and Yūya go to logoff they are ambushed and Yūya ends up dying. Tōru was unable to help him since he was in the middle of logging off. When he woke up back in the real world their hideout was under siege by the local police, the rest of the team was being arrested along with him and Yūya was dead.

While all of this is going on there is a threat in the wire that can be summed up as a virus that was devouring all of the wire. FLAK was sending in their best assault teams and they were getting wiped out left and right as they were trying to locate and kill/capture the virus. The leaders of FLAK are at a loss on how to control this new virus that they had never seen before. With that there is a separate group that is also interested in the virus called VSS who are the main creators of chips/hardware/programs for getting onto the wire.

While Tōru was being questions by the local police one of the officers from FLAK comes in and makes him an offer. Help us at FLAK and avoid going to jail. Tōru agrees with this grudgingly with the intent that if he works for FLAK he can seek out whoever killed Yūya and make them pay. He also make a deal that he will work for FLAK if the rest of his team can be set free which they agree to. He starts working for FLAK right away and is sent into the wire to stop hackers from getting into a system. There is where he meets the last main group in the anime the Fei Dao. They are a group of rebel hackers that are out to cause trouble and bring truth to what is really going on in the wire.

As the story progresses he discovers who Yūya’s killer is and it is a surprise that they were right under his nose the whole time he was at FLAK. But he also finds out more about his past then he wants to that ends up dealing with the virus itself while fighting with the virus and Fei Dao. The last 2 episodes have twist and turns left and right and leaves you with this huge revel of his past that is kinda like wtf where did all this come from. Again this is a really short anime that they crammed a lot of stuff into less than 2 hrs of run time. Overall it is really good and I wish that they had expanded more on Tōru’s past and what happens past the end.

Sorry trying not to make this too much of a spoiler and with only 4 episodes its kinda hard not to on some parts!

via my personal anime list on MyAnimeList.net

Count Down To New Years W Anime (#4)!!!

 #4:

Gintama

Season 5 Eps 3  “Use a Calligraphy Pen for New Year’s Cards” “The Heart Comes Before Chocolate”

Air Date: April 18, 2011

Episode: 24min

Genre: Comedy, Craziness, Science Fiction, Action

My Rating: **** (4:5 stars)

Its time to write the New Years cards and Yorozuya is having fun while he finds out what everyone did over the holiday. Gintoki on the other hand bitches and moans about writing New Years and points out that the cards are really just total BS from their ‘friends’ that want to shove in your face that they have gotten married or had a baby. He doesn’t understand why the cards need to be fluffy like ‘we have brought in a new bundle of happiness to our lives’. Gintoki thinks they should just be honest and say we popped out a baby after humping like rabbits lmao! The group continues to go through the cards to find out that even their enemies sent cards and people that wanted more screen time sent some too lol. Even Ana sent a card (well more like a buddle of the same card) saying that Gintoki and her had gotten married which lead them to finding congratulation cards from people!

Hasegawa also sent them a New Year’s card from far off island where he claims to have lost his memory and only knows his name and oldsocks (which Gintoki says is really orthodox). The episode does a flip then from New Years to Valentines and chocolate. It runs the same way as the first but with Gintoki bitching and moaning that no one got him chocolate while acting like they are playing Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Kagura wants to give the boys chocolate from her but is too shy feeling that she is not girly enough to do something like that. She enlists the help of Otae, Sachan and Tsukuyo. After numerous disastrous attempts, it ends with all of them being embarrassed to give the guys chocolate and sitting in a tub of chocolate to hide from them. All the girls give Kagura their chocolates and in way, run away. Kagura is fed up with all of it,  returns home and tosses the chocolate on the table then leaves. The boys fight over who gets what and upon opening each box find out that they all were from ‘Kagura’ with a little help from the girls unknown to Kagura. Awwww…

via my personal anime list on MyAnimeList.net