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Companies - V

Dragon Ball Z - Dragon Box 01
If you have the spare time and the desire to see folks getting slammed into rocky pillars, strap on your nostalgia goggles, switch off your brain, and your wish will be granted.

Summer Wars
Decades from now, Summer Wars will be seen as the official arrival of Mamoru Hosoda. It's a near-perfect blend of social satire and science fiction, at once timely and timeless, sardonic and optimistic. It is a triumph.

Sasameki Koto Episodes 1-6 Streaming
There's plenty to enjoy here: likeable characters, laugh-aloud jokes, and over it all a faint pall of heartbreak to temper its rampant lightheartedness.

Sugar: A Little Snow Fairy DVD 1
... what it does have is a quality that seems to have gone missing from the industry as of late. It's honest. One of the last few honest anime shows.

Evangelion: 2.0 You Can [Not] Advance
Evangelion 2.0 feels as though the project has been put on mood stabilizers: it's not any happier, but it's more stable and certainly more focused. And in the end, it's a vast improvement. It hurts so good.

S.A Sub.DVD
Despite a flimsy premise and lackluster male lead, this story about a girl doomed to perpetually finish second to a chief rival who has secretly fallen in love with her (mostly) succeeds for two simple reasons: it is often quite funny and occasionally endearingly sweet.

Claymore GN 15
The Whole Truth comes out, but other parts are actually more interesting, as Norihiro Yagi answers many long-standing questions and orients the series for its next climactic run. Although certain parts may be a letdown, there is still a lot to like.

Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee Episodes 1-6 streaming
This is an anime for those of us whose inner child does not dream of conquering the world, but simply making it a better place ... one delivery at a time.

Comic Party: Revolution DVD
Another in the growing field of otaku-life comedies. Although perhaps comedy is the wrong word. Aren't comedies supposed to be funny?

Tower of Druaga: the Aegis of Uruk DVD
Forget that it was based on a game only two generations removed from Pong; this is unexpectedly involving popcorn fare with a wickedly circular sense of humor. Good stuff all around.

From Impressionism to Anime
To an anime fan, not much of what she finds is going to be particularly novel, although it may certainly be interesting to realize that just as you the fan wonder about the reasons fandom exists as it does, scholars at universities around the U.S. are asking the same exact question.