With the release of the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight, I decided to take it upon myself to watch the Gotham Knight series in anticipation to my trip to the cinema.

For those of you who are unaware, Gotham Knight is a 75 minute collection of animations, that are seperated into six chapters that are intended to be viewed as a whole, that explore Bruce Wayne’s transition from his beginning as a tormented vigilantee to The Dark Knight of a crumbling metropolis.

Now, in truth, I should inform you that I am not a huge Batman fan. I have in fact watched all of them since the days of Michael Keaton, however, the Val Kilmer series of Batman movies left me feeling slightly dead inside, with the poor Arnie puns (”Ice to see you”) and poor choice of characters.  And it was this series of film that made me lose all hope in the series, despite thoroughly enjoying the Michael Keaton series of movies.

However, with the recent release of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, my faith was restored in the series, and I decided to lower my defenses and actually watch the anime/cartoon of the Batman Saga.  And even though I did lose faith in the series in the past, my faith has been restored, and I found myself even impressed by this anime movie/series.

Initial impressions of the Gotham Knight made me remember the Animatrix series, the style was very similar.  Each chapter uses a different art form and style, however, please don’t think that this movie is as poorly made as the Animatrix.  In fact, I found the story compelling and unique.  The art style pretty in places and unique in style.  This is one of the few movie follow-ups that I hav found myself truly enjoying.

Gotham Knight is full of action and plot, and in one story in particular, it shows how people can interpret Batman in different ways, allowing their imagination to go wild.  It’s a nice breath of fresh air for a dying industry in Hollywood.

Though, as always I do have my issues with the series.  For example, as much as I like to see new tools and gadgets, some of the chapters do seem to lack in the action scenes.  Sometimes, all I wanted to see was Batman foiling evil plots, and disposing of the bad guys one by one, however, a lot of the time the fight scenes were short, if not absent.

But this is a nice change from the usual drivvel that comes from the movie industry and I really enjoyed watching this.  I think it was also more enjoyable as I had yet to see The Dark Knight (which by the way is AWESOME!!!!) and it all added to the anticipation of the film.

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I have finally gotten round to uploading the first volume of the Naruto manga.  This is definitely something that shouldn’t be missed.  All manga’s are free for you to view, and I hope you enjoy reading them.

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Light Yagami is at the head of his class, and he is bored with nothing to do. However, that all changes when he finds the Death Note notebook, that allows him to control the rogue Death God Ryuk; simply by writing down the name of the person he wants dead. Light can kill anyone with the swift movement of a pen, and without getting caught. He starts his killing spree by killing off all the world’s most dangerous criminals. However the police do not take kindly to this, after all, murder is murder, and try to hunt him out. When detective ‘L’ goes after Light, the result is a battle of wits!

Death note is possibly the most interesting and intriguing manga’s that I have read in recent years. Death Note is a surprisingly gripping and original tale that brings around a philosophical view about morality. Is it still classed as evil to kill, if those you are killing are dangerous criminals.

Death Note’s first volume sets up the complicated storyline with ease and immediately gets to work developing the lead character, Light. Light’s character is clearly developed to be the general ‘average above-average’ Japanese student; listless, bored, cynical and smug, which are hardly the qualities of a hero, and I suppose to call him a ‘hero’ would be disingenuous.

Light’s immediate goal is to use the Death Note to kill the world’s most violent criminals. This series of events triggers a massive police investigation and a global fascination with who’s killing the criminals, as it is deemed impossible for over 50 criminals to simply keel over and die from a heart attack. Being an egotistical kid already, it’s not long before all the mentions in the new go straight to Light’s head and he starts talking about building a world where everyone lives in peace, away from the dangers of criminal behaviour. While almost anyone would at least think to use the Death Note in the same way as Light, the thing is that Light do not take a sympathetic approach to his new found power, in fact, it could be said that the notebook instantly corrupts his ideals. However, such behaviour is also very believable. It’s this kind of realistic character development that’s a big part of what makes the manga, Death Note, so compelling.

Death Note’s biggest draw are the morality questions it raises about what “murder” actually is. If you’re given the power to kill anyone, anywhere, anytime and nobody would know that it was you, who would you take down? Would you be able to kill anyone in the first place? What if you’re killing criminals, is it still murder? Whose life is worth saving, and whose isn’t? While it doesn’t answer any of these questions, the fact that it raises them at all is fairly uncommon for a Shonen Jump manga and should fascinate anyone looking for something a little deeper than the average young adult title.

The only problem that I feel that this series may face is that it doesn’t seem like they can really stretch this story out forever. By the end of the first volume it’s become a deadly game of cat-and-mouse between Light and mysterious super-detective L who’s hot on his trail, and the two spend most of the last half of the volume second-guessing and outsmarting one another. If this pattern continues, it’s easy to see how the entire premise would get tiresome pretty quick. For now, though, Death Note remains a solid, gripping and extremely likable title.

All of these manga’s will be available for you to download from the ‘Manga’ page on this site, so please go and check it out. They can also be viewed from here as well.

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I have uploaded the second issue in the first volume of the awesome manga, Death Note. I hope you enjoy it. I certainly am enjoying re-reading these manga’s.

Tags: Anime, Anime, death note, free anime, free death note, free download, free manga, japanese anime, Manga

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I have just finished uploading volume 1 of the Death Note manga, part 1.  I have the full collection of these so I am hoping to be able to upload more of them later in the week.

These manga’s are completely free.  If there is any series you would like specifically, then please email or comment me and I will see what I can do.

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After a little bit of site maintenance which required me to take down my manga uploads, they have no been re-uploaded, and are bigger and better than ever before.

Go ahead and take a look at our free manga’s, which, suprisingly enough can be found on the Manga page of this site. Currently there is only one up, but I am hoping to upload another tomorrow, for the world to see.

Please also note, that some of the manga’s available contain adult material and should not be viewed by minors.

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Yesterday I wrote about my serious disliking of the Dragonball GT series, and I mentioned how I actually like the original Dragonball series written by Akira Toriyama.

Well I have decided to discuss that today, and go into the story a bit for those who are unaware of this series. Dragonball follows the story of Goku, a young boy with a tail (from the legend of the Monkey King) who encounters friends, foes and unusual beings along his journey.

The Dragonball interested me because I got to see how it all began, how everyone met, became friends, rivals and even lovers in some cases. It was nice to have a bit of back history to the characters I had spent so much of my life watching.

I found that the adult humour in the Dragonball series was just right - the kind where children jsut think it’s funny without truly understanding the joke. And the personalities were perfect, Goku did actually act and have the mannerisms of a child, as well as the lack of knowledge that a child has…I suppose that innocence that we all lose as we grow.

Also, I can’t even name a saga with which I was disappointed. I loved the Red Ribbon saga, and it was brilliant because I had seen the Cell Saga in Dragonball Z and it provided me with the history of hatred between the characters…just truly awesome.

To me, the fact that this series was such a hit with me, simply emphasises how much GT lost by not having the input of the original creator. It is a shame as the GT series did have much potential, but failed to deliver…such a pity.

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I have been a fan of the Dragonball series for many years, in fact, I believe I was probably about 13 when first watched the Dragonball Z Saiyan Saga, and that’s going backI nearly ten years ago now. It had only just aired in the UK when I started watching it, and for years to come, I was in awe of this awesome cartoon.

I remember having to wait months for a new saga to either begin, or for the saga to continue (I think the Freiza saga lasted about a year and a half 0_0). I also remember when they announced that Dragonball and GT would finally be coming to the UK screens. It was an amazing time for me.

Now, I will leave the subject of Dragonball for another day, and I am going to focus on the ‘travesty’ that was Dragonball GT. Now I know that my statement may make others hate me, but please, allow me to continue.

You see, I loved the fact that everyone had grown up, it was a new chapter in the Dragonball universe. However, as the series progressed, I became more and more withdrawn from the series. Mainly, this was because the characters had actually changed. And this is no simple matter of character development, it actually stems from the lack of interaction in the creation progress of Akira Toriyama, and his input was seriously missed.

You see, the main issue I had was the fact that Vegeta had changed so much (and undoubtedly this made emphasised even more in the poorly dubbed American version) and he was no longer the anti-hero that I had grown up with and loved. Instead, he was just old, and flat…as in his whole character was just two dimensional, lacking in any personality.

There was also the issues with the Saga’s that were very hit or miss, and many of which (Babidi) suffered for the length of the saga being too long, and some, (Super 17 Saga) suffered for being too short. I mean, they could have done so much more with the 17 Saga and the re-introduction of a key character that had been missing in action since the Cell Saga in Dragonball Z.

Overall I was a little disheartened from the whole Dragonball GT series, the awful “Let’s keep Goku as a kid” theme which added nothing to the plot, story or entertainment, as well as the poor choice of saga’s such as the black star dragonball’s etc. It was like watching someone flog a dead horse, and in the end I simply stopped watching. And that’s me, the person who spent all her pocket money on DBZ merchandise from the age of thirteen. I was so down heartened that I even contemplated boycotting watching the Dragonball saga.

Now, don’t get me wrong as there are some good points to the Dragonball GT series, such as the really cool new super Saiyan levels, which I am sure many will agree are awesome, and the fact that we are shown how much stronger Goku really is than any of the other Z heroes (many of which are absent from the series), and the fact that Vegeta only manages to increase his Saiyan power through the use of technology.

But this is a series that should only be watching in small doses, as over exposure to such drivel that exists in the majority of this series may cause internal damage to the individual. I am currently re-watching the series to see if it does have any truly redeeming features…I must add, I am at the Super 17 Saga, and so far…it does not. But don’t let me put you off; if you love Dragonball and Dragonball GT, it’s definitely worth completing the series.

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I have been working all day on this, and have finally uploaded the first volume of the popular hentai manga, Bondage Fairies. This is a graphic manga, and should not be viewed by minors. To find this, please visit the new Manga page of my site. This is where I will be uploading all the manga that I have purchase over the years for you to have a look at.

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Sometimes, it is impossible to review a show and not compare it to something else you’ve just seen. Perhaps this is bad form, but television programs are not islands unto themselves; what we think of one is often based on what we’ve thought of something else. My faithful readers know that I just completed watching 2nd Gig, the second season of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Although the series featured great technical aspects in terms of animation and music and a strong, intricately woven plot, I gave it a B+. Why? Because, quite simply, I felt nothing.

The characters weren’t nearly as well developed as they were the first season, and I just found myself less drawn in, though I appreciated all the skill on display. In almost every way, Bleach is almost the polar opposite in terms of a TV show. The animation is sometimes haphazard, and the character designs are nothing special…even verging on ugly at times. The opening theme is very catchy, but the music beyond that isn’t memorable. The show at times is painfully slow and follows far too many clichéd conventions of the shonen genre, and some plot holes are achingly obviously.

And yet…while this is not a great show by any means, it is a good one, and it’s precisely because it has heart. I can’t describe any better why I got wrapped up into seeing this tale of a demon hunter, but it has a resonance that 2nd Gig just didn’t have. Ichigo is a relatively normal (if morose) teen who started seeing spirits a few years back. Most of the time, it wasn’t an issue…just an annoyance, really. But when he and his family are attacked, through a series of circumstances he is granted the power of a soul reaper. Soul reapers, it turns out, are a sort of gatekeeper to the netherworld, and they fulfill a few roles.

One of their tasks is to help souls who have, due to personal attachments to this world, stuck around rather than passing over into the “Soul Society.” Most of the time, these spirits are harmless, and they may wander around for a long time since soul reapers are usually busy with a far worse problem: hollows. Hollows are nasty creatures that like to eat souls, and their bone-white masks often conceal the spirits of those whom they’ve overtaken to become more powerful. Soul reapers have the thankless task of defeating them and sending them (and their intended victims) over to the “other side.” So Ichigo now has more problems than he ever thought possible. For one, hollows recognize his incredibly strong spiritual energy and think he’d make a tasty snack, so they show up often. Second is Rukia, the soul reaper from whom he received his powers.

When Ichigo gained his powers, Rukia lost most of hers, so for now she’s stuck living in his closet, explaining just what the heck is going on to Ichigo and trying to keep him from getting himself killed. Add in two sisters and a wacky dad, a girl with a crush on him and a gaggle of friends who start catching on to his spirit-fighting abilities, a wacko substitute soul that resides in a stuffed tiger, and a guy whose business acts as an arms dealer for soul reapers, and Ichigo’s got far more than what he can handle. As I was saying before, Bleach does not have a great deal on which to recommend it, at least on the surface. Quite frankly, what would be the first DVD’s worth of material is just plain junk, full of formulaic pap that was so easy to predict that I almost gave up.

The opening has Rukia acting as an omniscient narrator, explaining every last strange thing that Ichigo experiences. It’s unnecessary, and it lessens the mystery of the moment when this kid gets himself into this strange, fantastical, and scary world. For a while, even past the first few episodes, Bleach seems too interested in defining terms rather than creating a world. There’s also the problem that none of the hollows that Ichigo faces are interesting villains. They have their own peccadilloes, but there is no sense that the hollows are anything but self-interested stomachs. They certainly don’t work together, and they do not pose that great of a threat as stand-alone baddies. For too much of this first season, hollows exist to fulfill the shonen need to have at least one or two fight scenes every single episode.

On top of all this, Ichigo is a rather bland character. Yes, he has parental issues stemming from his mother’s death, but what shonen character doesn’t have something similar in his past? He doesn’t seem to have any interests or character qualities other than being sullen and dismissive, yet that appeals to many of the girls who find him a mystery. In many ways, though, he’s a blank slate. I also have to say from a personal perspective that the show’s viewpoint on the afterlife is really disturbing and depressing. It is very Japanese, to be certain, but if this show was an accurate picture of what happened after death, I’d prefer just to stay dead, thank you very much. I admit that as a future pastor, it may be something I notice more than others; nevertheless, this show did somehow bother me more than many other supernaturalistic anime.

So why can I still give a basic recommendation to Bleach? It’s because the show is watchable, for one. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and winds up, despite its repetitive nature, being a lot of fun. I found myself coming back morning after morning to catch another episode, and I believe it’s due to the strength of the ensemble cast and their support of Ichigo. From obvious girlfriend interest Orihime to Japanese/Mexican gentle giant Chad, the supporting members of Bleach are really what make this show interesting. They are the ones that I really wanted to learn more about, and thankfully that happens. About midway through the first season, we get some episodes that barely involve Ichigo, but for me they really established the larger network of characters. Now that isn’t to say that they always handle these characters correctly.

For example, the constant jokes about Orihime’s large bustline are really out of place, especially considering that she is a sweet, kind character who would probably be embarrassed and burst into tears if anyone made those comments to her face. But again, this is a shonen program meant to appeal to 13-year-old boys, and sometimes that audience wins out. That said, though, I found that almost all the expanded cast did get good moments to shine, and at least a couple of them who appear to be one-dimensional get the chance to improve over time. One thing is certain: not every character is what he or she appears at first glance, and I like that a lot. In fact, it’s Bleach’s radical turns in its final episodes of the season that made me interested in continuing. The hollows almost fall out of the picture entirely as events surrounding Rukia lead us somewhere entirely different and unexpected, and it leads to a variety of characters stepping up to their destinies.

I had no expectations of this from the first half of the season, and I was pleasantly surprised to say the least. It’s been said that all shonen shows need time to “get better.” It’s almost a cliché in and of itself that long-running epics sometimes take longer to get off the ground, and that’s true here. If I were to judge the show off the first several episodes, I wouldn’t be sure whether or not I’d skip it. But if you can get through the twenty episode mark that ends season one, my guess is you’ll be hooked. I can’t say that I’m going to run out and find season two soon; other shows have captured my interest more that I still need to finish. However, I’ve given recommendations to other shonen shows (like The Prince of Tennis) that aren’t nearly as interesting and don’t show nearly as much promise. And that, friends, is probably why I think the first season of Bleach is worth watching — the show is slowgoing at first, but it looks ready to take us all sorts of interesting places in future seasons.

Thanks to The Anime Review for this brilliant post.

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