News

Haruka Sub.DVD 1
This mishmash of elements borrowed from other fantasy and period pieces certainly looks pretty, but its merits are otherwise not enough to recommend it if reverse harem series are not normally your thing.

Hotel Africa GN 1
A unique work that successfully blends short story, memoir and personal drama ... the writing and characters are so well-developed that it reads more like an illustrated version of a modern literary novel.

Monkey High GN 1
This being a shojo romance, the heroine is surely going to be won over by the tall, lanky prince of the school, right? Not this time. The short, goofy monkey boy charms the girl instead, giving this otherwise-conventional title enough separation to distinguish itself in a crowded field.

The Third: The Girl with the Blue Eye DVD 5
An old enemy accompanies Honoka on a mission to rescue one of The Third as the final plot arc begins. Although these episodes do most things well, they fail to generate much of a sense of urgency about the series' impending end.

Red Garden DVD 3
List the qualifications the series had to pass to improve on its rocky opening—lose the embarrassing theatrics, focus on the mysteries, beef up the characterization—and you'll find that this volume does them all.

Death Note DVD 3
Builds suspense with masterful skill, seizing the attention at the beginning of each episode, and holding it with twisty plot developments and clever mind games until there are simply no more episodes left to watch.

Pumpkin Scissors GN 2
Even without the glamour and spectacle of other military-themed titles, the second volume of the manga is still good entertainment, especially as it starts to reveal new layers of plot.

Witchblade DVD 5
Even those who got into the series originally for the action and sexiness may still find that all of the relationship and story development in this volume makes it the best one yet.

Kite Liberator DVD
Many will hate Kite Liberator. Its story is nonsense. It chops and splices genres in the silliest way possible. But taken as a gentle, self-reflective Tarantino-style satire, it works. And lord, if it isn't a whole lot of fun...

Yozakura Quartet GN 1
It has all the ingredients of greatness: distinctive characters ... action-adventure potential ... But processing those ingredients into something successful is obviously going to take more work.

Steam Detectives DVD 1
If you dig the Detective genre run to the store and buy Steam Detectives right now.