Anime Avenue

Golden Time Review
Sword of the Stranger Review
Fall Anime 2014
New Anime for Summer 2014
Happy 4th of July
Anime North 2014 Teaser
The Friendly Winter (Web-Manhwa)
Anime North 2013 Coverage
There Is No Such Thing As HD: Final Fantasy X & X-2, Final Fantasy XIV and Beyond
DAISUKI – New Anime Streaming Service

Posted: 17 Nov 2014 11:46 AM PST

Golden Time Anime Review

By Miki

This series deals with a college student who has amnesia. Tada Banri has forgotten everything from high school and earlier. In Shizuoka he confesses to Linda his best friend after graduation. She tells him she will give her answer tomorrow and he awaits her on the bridge. Unfortunately he is run over and loses his memories before she gets there. He runs to Tokyo to escape the feelings of expectation from those who knew him before the accident. We find this is due to an incident when he snuck out of the hospital and ran into a girl (Linda) who said she was attending a university in Tokyo. He did not remember that Linda was his childhood best friend. He then makes new friends: Kaga Koko , Mitsuo Yanagisawa , Chinami Oka, Nana, and Takaya Satō aka 2D-kun. He joins the festival club with Koko and renews friendship with Linda.

He meets Yana first when they are following girls to find the college. Both looking very suspicious they end up buying popsicles and losing the girls. They start their friendship there and once they get to the college he meets Koko as she slaps Yana with a bunch of roses. Banri is instantly captivated by her confidence and beauty. Yana keeps trying to run from Koko but she pursues him wildly and eventually they come to terms with Yana making it expressly clear he won't be anything but a friend to her. Koko and Banri get taken to cult club and meet 2D-kun. Banri creates distraction by telling part of his story so others can leave. They end up running into Linda and the festival club practicing as they fled the cult. Koko and Banri become good friends by her using him to get to Yana. Banri stays by Koko's side and finally tells her he likes her and wishes she'd give up on Yana. Yana in turn confesses to Oka and is hurt at a party. Koko and Banri start dating.

They all have lots of adventures together. Yana decides to go after Linda not understanding Banri's close relationship to her. He has hidden his past from all of his new friends but it slowly starts to unravel as his memories slowly fluctuate and sometimes return in small bursts causing current memories to vanish momentarily. This scares Banri and Nana helps with Linda to keep him from losing it. Will Koko and Banri stay together? Will he forget all his current life for the past? Can Banri share his fears? Will the others figure out whats happening to Banri? Find out by watching this twisting and emotional anime. It really was worth the wait to find out the ending. 8 out of 10 stars.

Sword of the Stranger Review

Posted: 09 Nov 2014 09:19 PM PST

Sword of the Stranger poster featuring Luo Lang and Nanashi.

Well nuts. My first review, for Mass Effect: Paragon Lost, got lost in cyberspace a while back, so this one will be, officially, my first review for this site. But that’s okay, because I’m reviewing a top-notch film for you.

It’ll be a little gushy and maybe even a little mushy at times, but that’s only because this film is that good. A traditional samurai plot is upheld by stunning animation, impeccable voice selection, and a sound track worth listening to on its own. The story is that of Kotaro, a young boy fleeing from a group of Ming warriors following their Emperor’s orders. Their goal is to make a medicine from the boy’s blood that grants immortality, as prophesied by trusted member of the Emperor’s court. A child sacrifice is only chosen every hundred years, and must be sacrificed at a specific time and day, and Kotaro is that child.

He is first sent on the run by his monk protector, who bids him to find his way to a specific temple that will protect him. Along the way, he takes shelter in an abandoned building and encounters a nameless ronin. After demanding that the ronin leave, he makes dinner for himself and his dog, Tobimaru, who offers the ronin a fish despite Kotaro’s protests. The ronin sticks around long enough to witness a Ming warrior and his escorts attack the boy; despite his previous disinterest in Kotaro, he becomes protective of the boy and defeats the attackers. Tobimaru is injured and poisoned in the attack. Kotaro subtly begs the ronin to help him save the dog, offering up a gem the monk gave him and boasting about it’s value. The ronin, Nanashi – “No Name” – accepts the boy’s terms to save Tobimaru and escort the two to Mangaku temple after much hesitation.

Tobimaru and Kotaro early in the film.

They immediately set off for the nearest town with a medicine man. Tobimaru is treated and recovers while Nanashi locates a saddle for them. On his way back to their rented shack, he is attacked without reason by Luo Lang and holds his own until the fight is interrupted with the news that two of Luo Lang’s companions are dead. The Ming leave, and Nanashi returns to the shack. They argue briefly before Tobimaru wakes. Due to the dog’s recovery, Kotaro’s attitude towards Nanashi improves, allowing the ronin to teach the boy how to ride a horse. Once Tobimaru is able to travel, they continue their journey.

Upon reaching the temple, Kotaro happily gives Nanashi the gem while telling the truth about its value. The two have a laugh, and Nanashi quietly slips away when Shouan, Kotaro’s monk friend, appears from the temple. The monks tie up Tobimaru and escort the boy to the center of the complex, where the head monk greets him, then hands him over to the Ming. Lord Akaike’s men attack the Ming in an attempt to capture the boy for ransom. The Lord’s men fall easily, but one takes off on a horse to gather reinforcements, which alerts Nanashi to the commotion. He arrives at the battle scene after the Ming leave with Kotaro, and demands information from Shouan. The monk proclaims that he had no choice, and that if Nanashi were in his position, he too would have given up the boy. Deeply disturbed by the monk’s justification, the ronin deems Shouan unworthy of being a monk and races off on foot with Tobimaru to the Shishine fortress, where the Ming have constructed a gigantic altar.

Shogun Itadori arrives at the temple after Nanashi leaves, finding Shouan’s body hanging from one of the trees. While Itadori is gone from the daimyo’s mansion, Luo Lang, Lord Byakuran, and the other Ming kidnap Lord Akaike and take him to Shishine. Itadori is alerted to this and makes his way on horseback with his lieutenant, meeting up with a platoon of soldiers on the way to the fortress. They reach the fortress before Nanashi. The Ming use the daimyo in an attempt to stall for time, but Itadori has his own agenda and his lieutenant kills the lord before they storm the fortress gates.

The battle is well under way when Nanashi arrives, and is caught in a blast that destroys part of the fortress and kills most of Itadori’s men, but survives unscathed. While trapped in the debris, he relives the moment that caused him to put down his blade: he obeyed an order to kill the children of the lord he helped depose, despite his own moral code. He comes back to reality with new resolve to save Kotaro and escapes the debris, working his way to the boy. One of the surviving Ming attacks him, but the ronin breaks the binding preventing him from drawing his blade and kills the Ming with ease. Tobimaru, having gone up the altar while Nanashi was buried beneath the debris, delays the sacrifice long enough for the ronin to reach the altar, but not enough for Nanashi to get to the top. Knowing he can’t make it, he throws his sword, and it kills the large Ming assigned to kill Kotaro.

Nanashi makes his way to the top and reunites with the boy. However, the Ming still want Kotaro, and two attack the ronin. He kills one Ming fighter, but is blinded by a spray of blood, though he manages to send himself and the remaining attacker off the platform to the one below. Only he survives the fall, and while Kotaro pulls him from the edge of the platform, Lord Byakuran fires at him. Luo Lang has different plans for the ronin, however, and slices through the gun and the elderly man’s left arm, causing the bullet to miss its target. Luo Lang reveals his true nature: he cares not about the Emperor’s medicine, nor about the boy, only about finding a warrior who can defeat him. Thus, they fight, and Nanashi ultimately wins.

A still from the final fight scene that showcases the film’s exceptional art.

And now I can talk about how much I liked it. There are very few animes that I don’t end up nitpicking to death, whether it’s over bad writing, bad animation, or bad editing. Sword of the Stranger is an exceptional film in pretty much every way. The animation is beautiful, the plot is strong, the characters are genuine, and the dialogue is real.

To start with the animation, it is supreme when it counts, and was sloppy in all the right ways. The level of detail and care put into this film is palpable, most notably during the final fight scene. Not to mention the beautifully painted backgrounds that give it an even more authentic feel.

Now on to the plot, which is your basic samurai epic; this is not a bad thing. Traditional samurai epics are fantastic things to behold, and this film brings only glory to its genre. It is complex without being confusing, and each majour character is well-defined in the context of the plot. The ‘invasion’ of the Ming adds an interesting element to the film, as it brings extra-cultural influences as well as a hint of the supernatural.

As for the characters, none of them feel out of place or forced, with their traits displayed naturally and effectively. Luo Lang and Nanashi are an intriguing duo in opposition due to both their similarities and differences. Both are foreigners, are exceptional fighters, and are driven by their own motives. In contrast, Luo Lang seems to have little use for morals, where Nanashi adheres to them strictly. Nanashi’s agreement to escort Kotaro and Tobimaru to Mangaku temple, and ultimately saving the boy from a sacrificial death, is a way for the ronin to clear his guilty conscience, to repent for the killing of innocents he had done in the past, while Luo Lang’s only desire is to find an opponent worthy of killing him. I could go on about the characters for hours, so I won’t, and will move onto my final topic, the dialogue.

I’m a writer myself, and one of the few things about writing that always gave me trouble was dialogue. Having recently taken up screenwriting, I have learned to appreciate the dialogue in films much more than I used to; but it also means I’m much more critical of it. A good film can end up being cringeworthy if the dialogue is badly written, and good dialogue is memorable, even if the film isn’t so great. So when I say that the dialogue in this film is real, I mean that the writer knew exactly what they were doing. This can be surprisingly uncommon. Unfortunately, I was not able to get a translation for the spoken Chinese, so I only have a faint idea of what was said, but all the English was spot-on.

In closing, I’ll reiterate: this is a great film. I would recommend this to everyone mature enough to watch it, including those who don’t usually enjoy anime.

Fall Anime 2014

Posted: 07 Nov 2014 11:50 AM PST

New Anime for Summer 2014

Posted: 29 Jul 2014 02:32 PM PDT

Been wanting to post this before it is too late. Check out some of the new anime airing in Japan, and let us know what you would like to see reviews of.

Happy 4th of July

Posted: 04 Jul 2014 02:21 PM PDT

Happy 4th of July to all our readers. We are currently in the works of redoing the site some. So stay tuned to a new AnimeSalvation.

Anime North 2014 Teaser

Posted: 30 May 2014 10:32 PM PDT

Hey there everyone, we’re working on the coverage for Anime North 2014, but in the mean time here’s a small teaser of what we got to see there.

The Friendly Winter (Web-Manhwa)

Posted: 14 Oct 2013 01:39 PM PDT

Name: The Friendly Winter, Author: Lee Jun, Scanlators: SCS, Vintage: 2012-2013, Type: Manhwa, Genre: Psychological-Drama, Age-Rating: 13+, Rating: 10/10.

This manga revolves around a girl named Da-Jeong. She is 19 years old and longs to be a normal girl. But what’s so different about her? In-fact, due to a defect from when she was little her body has not matured since the age of about 7 and thus she is often mistaken for a child. Now an adult she has become incredibly prickly and is quick to anger, it was on one such occasion after she ran away after getting angry with her father while clothes shopping, that she met with Min-Seong. Da-Jeongs meeting with Min-Seong is one of mere coincidence but almost seemed pre-destined, whereas she is an adult whose body never grows older, Min-Seong is a 17 year old boy whose mind is that of a 7year old. A touching story is about to unravel as they both become good friends and protect each other as their emotions go up and down.

This is a wonderful story which deals well with the issue of handicapped people as well as accurately portraying the strong feelings of abandonment and sorrow they both share. This is a very depressing read with many sweet outcomes. As a first project by Lee Jun, this manga signals a great start to his career in the business. Though generally I am not a fan of webcomics, my preference being mostly for those setup in a standard format, I found this story had me hooked from beginning to end. This is a great read for anyone who likes stories of a dark emotional nature and it also deals with the matters of mental and physical disability without providing any areas of insult to them both.

Though this may seem long at 5 Volumes and 64 Chapters, the added length of this webcomic seems completely necessary having almost doubled from the authors original intention. Unlike most extended manhwa / manga, this series does not feel stretched and the ending will leave you thirsting more like all good manga should whilst also providing that sense of completion at the end of a story. I recommend this read to anyone and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Anime North 2013 Coverage

Posted: 02 Aug 2013 08:17 PM PDT

Hello everyone, it’s your boy Curser656 aka Anthony aka uh, well you get the idea.
So it’s that time of year again. Firstly I want to personally apologize that this coverage has taken so long, we had no contact with admins and no access to the site. So to begin.

This year we’d opted for a hotel room, this way we’d get to go to the really late panels that Anime North now has, or we hadn’t noticed it had last year.

Here are the highlights of Friday:

Opening Ceremony

We started our day with the opening ceremony, I don’t know who the lady talking to us was but we got to meet our guests, have a few laughs and of course kick off Anime North.

Big shout outs to the great drumming performance and of course to all the guests.

But I have to ask, when did Anime North become My Little Pony North?

I don’t think we should just be doing things to please people, for example throwing in clips of My Little Pony in the opening video.

I have a thing against bronys, you’ll figure that out soon enough.

On top of this, unfortunately the opening ceremony ran over an hour late. Meaning we missed our friend Initial P’s panel, still unhappy about that.
Late night with John and Tyson

This panel ended up being Late night with John, Tyson, Chris, and Michael.

If I had to sum up this panel in as few words as possible, it’d probably go something like this: Holy F***ing S**t.

I have never laughed so hard, this panel was great.

It’s just four guys telling stories that anyone under 18 would be shocked and confused about. (Then again let’s be realistic in this day and age 14 year olds know more than they should.)

Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take any pictures or video and technically we shouldn’t be talking about it. But if I had to pick one panel as my favorite during the Anime North weekend, it’s this.

Saturday

We woke up a bit late to attend the early panels on Saturday, so we started our day with a good all day breakfast, and watching Shingeki no Kyojin air in Japan.

Funimation Panel

This consisted of Funimation blatantly lying to fans, pretending they actually make anime, and licensing the worst titles of the season.

Stick to Crunchyroll.

(This is my opinion and it doesn’t reflect the overall opinion of the site, blahblahblah.)

Sunday

The Dealers Room

Gallery Momiji

Gallery Momiji Staff

These guys put a lot of work into the displays and the security of the artists works. Honestly, hats off to them.

As press we are allowed to take pictures under artist approval. Even with our guide with us we had multiple staff approach us to double check our privileges.

As a little treat we’ve taken our favourite picks from the gallery and the piece that I wish I’d bought.

Ruwinda’s Favourite

Anthony’s Favourite

The one that got away

To Summarize

Some people may think this con is a bit backwater and that it doesn’t live up to the big boys. But to be honest it’s one of the better conventions I’ve been to. And it’s definitely the effort put in by the staff that makes it that awesome.

There Is No Such Thing As HD: Final Fantasy X & X-2, Final Fantasy XIV and Beyond

Posted: 15 Jun 2013 04:05 AM PDT

Some people may not notice but when you turn your Wii U on, PS3 (Playstation 3), or Xbox 360 that there is something called HD, hi-def, high definition, high-def… this is an ignorant persons tutorial to hi-def.

As an anime & game lover, HD is my friend. I’d give anything for FLCL to be in high def (HD). It is not yet. Hell, I wish it was. Tonight, I was playing Final Fantasy 14 beta on the PS3(Playstation 3) and was told it does not look any better than FF X for Playstation 2.

Sorta insulting to us game geeks. How do u explain HD? I am gonna Google right now for an answer to that. Look above, see the difference spelled out for you? Why buy a Blu-Ray? In my ultimate opinion, because if I have a high def (HD) television, you do not want it to look like shit.

In doing so I found a good example:

See the difference in the island? I do. See the difference overall? Yes. There is definitely a difference. Clear island vs cloudy island. Now imagine that in anime. Imagine that in video games. Imagine that in anything.

The thought HD doesn’t exist is an ignorant assumption. It is truly sad that people, not I, but several people are too ignorant (I fucking hope that is the word to use) to grasp HD.

Are you excited, an HD version of Final Fantasy X & and Final Fantasy X-2 are coming out? Can you tell the difference between them and the original PS2 ( playstation 2) versions? Fuck I do not care how ignorant you are. I can and several other fan boys can.

I am an official beta tester for Final Fantasy 14 (final fantasy xiv). I love the game because of its beauty. It’s true best as it is the fact I have to read everything, minus the pretty intro, says. The story is good but come on! Give me a break!

By signing up for the game’s beta we are not allowed to disclose anything yet. So hey anyone, take the time to look at a game, HD and & SD. Do not be ignorant. There is a difference. Maybe I am insulted but the people that put the time into the games we love, we play, will be unhappy to read shit from you.