Kenta FUKASAKU

The X Button - Battle Mania
A new Super Robot Wars game is announced, a Super Robot Wars spin-off is reviewed, another Naruto brawler heads to North America, and Todd talks about a shooter marginally related to anime, all in this week's X Button! 2009-06-17

Anime News Nina! - 2009-06-17
Miaka throws a curveball. 2009-06-17

Shelf Life - My Dog Skip
Indestructible girls who are fueled by kisses, and junior high boys who are carbon offset machines? Wow!
- Law of Ueki boxset
- Shattered Angels boxset
- Skip Beat
- Utawarerumono boxset
2009-06-16

Astro Toy with Rob Bricken - Sonic Diver Rei-Jin
Rob copes with a mecha and its pilot from Sky Girls. 2009-06-14

Murder Princess DVD
Yes, it's fun, but it's ephemerally so, and you can't help but get pissed at the irreplaceable slice of your life that it eats away.

Rasetsu GN 1
Relatively few manga characters are interesting and memorable enough to carry the weight of a series title on their (typically) ectomorphic shoulders…and Rasetsu of the mediocre disappointment Rasetsu, alas, is no exception.

Baccano! DVD 3
Lively characters, a mix of action, comedy, and intense violence, and a complicated story coming together piece by piece, all backed by great music and good artistry – not much more you could ask for in an anime series. With this volume, there's hardly ever a dull moment.

Silver Diamond GN 4
It's really hard to justify Silver Diamond at all on the basis of this particular installment…so it's a good thing that this epic series as a whole is considerably stronger than the sum of some of its less inspiring parts.

Black Jack GN 5
... even the greatest comic artist of all time just didn't feel like it on certain weeks and decided to mail in 20 pages of slush for his next chapter.

Detroit Metal City GN 1
Each scene is more patently and deliberately ridiculous than the last, and you will not be able to remember the last time the “f-word” (repeated over and over and over again) in a seinen manga made you laugh so hard.

Air Master Episodes 13-27 Streaming
Think of Air Master as a huge anime blender filled with whacked humor and action, set to liquefy. It looks and feels like chaos, and entertains like the love child of Mohammed Ali and Jerry Lewis.

Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei GN 1
Manga fans familiar with Japanese culture and society might be excused for thinking that they have committed ritual double suicide with Zetsubou-sensei himself and gone to a darkly yet deliciously funny heaven.

Death Note DVD
The second half of the series, spanning episodes 21-37, comes complete with a bonus disk of Extras. The story it tells, from the midst of the Yotsuba arc to the series' final confrontations, may be full of overblown melodrama but can still drag a viewer along for the ride.

Gunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino- Episodes 1-13 Streaming
That many of Gunslinger Girl's considerable charms escape the deadening influence of its new animators is certainly reason to celebrate. That that they have to is a shame.

Harlequin Violet: Response (manga)
If all the words were removed with an eraser, it would be a beautiful story. The characters are so romantic and wonderfully drawn that it's like being sucked into a beautiful margarine commercial, with hazy lens effects and hunky men.