Author Archives: Maya Cato
An Anime Review: Puchi Puri Yuushi
This time around, I’m reviewing Puchi Puri Yuushi, a Shoujo anime of 26 episodes. This is a rather generic fantasy anime, complete with kingdoms, a prince, princesses, a legendary hero monsters and demons. It’s not the best storyline in the world, but it’s a personal favorite of mine.
The English title of Puchi Puri Yuushi is Petite Princess Yucie. The English dub of the anime is very well done, so you may view this in whichever dub you like. The voices match up fairly well for the most part from Japanese to English and the lines are mostly kept about the same aside from slight, barely noticeable, differences in certain words or names here and there.
An Anime Review: Cutie Honey
Cutie Honey
For this review I decided to look back at one of the first full anime series to feature a female lead, Cutie Honey. Cutie Honey, first aired in 1973, wasn’t the first anime to have a heroine lead, but it was one of the first of its kind to actually receive high ratings and gain popularity and franchising. It’s been adapted and reproduced in several titles from the popular Cutie Honey Flash to the laughably bad live action series, Cutie Honey: The Live. The only constant in each version is the opening theme. This anime is also considered the first of the “transforming magical girl” genre, though it was Sailor Moon that set the standards of today’s magical girl anime. The style to Cutie Honey was quite unique as well, employing colorful, almost surreal backgrounds that were pleasing to the eye.
The original Cutie Honey follows 16-year-old Honey Kisaragi, who is a joker and a “class clown” at her school. While attending Saint Chapel School for Girls, she enjoys pulling pranks, sneaking out of classes, and torturing two of her teachers, Alphonne and Miharu. Actually most of the comic relief of this series happens in her exploits and antics at school. The story starts when Honey finds her father has been murdered by a strange organization known as Panther Claw and that they are after a special invention of his, something that’s in her. Honey Kisaragi then realizes that she’s an android with the ability to transform and fight against the members Panther Claw, who want the device in her neck that allows her to transform.
An Anime Review: One Piece
It was hard to decide what my first topic of review should be. I’ve been asked to review different anime for this blog, but the truth is I’ve never reviewed anything before. Being an amateur, I decided my first anime review should be on something mainstream and easy to find. However, I find that reviews of the two biggest mainstream anime in the US, Naruto and Bleach, to be overdone and common. Even as a beginner, I wish to at least slightly stand out from the norms. Thus, this shall be a review of one of the most popular mainstream animes running in Japan, One Piece.
One Piece is one of the biggest mainstream animes in Japan. It started as a manga written by Eichiro Oda and serialized by Shonen Jump. Since 1997, the anime has been in production by Fuji TV and Toei since 1999. It currently has well over 500 episodes and sells all kinds of merchandise throughout Japanese malls.
The world of One Piece is a world ruled by the seas. The vast array of countries and terrains are merely islands across the globe. The backstory is that long ago the famous pirate Gold Roger traveled the world and collected a vast treasure. Before Gold Roger’s eventual capture and execution, he hid his fantastic treasure somewhere within a strip of sea known as the Grand Line. This legendary man is known as “king of the pirates” and pirates around the world strive to obtain his fabled treasure.
The story in One Piece follows Monkey D. Luffy, a strange young man who has only one goal in life: to be king of the pirates. Luffy’s dream seems to be rather farfetched at first, since first meet him with no ship or crew. He’s light-hearted, fun-loving, easily impressed with others, and not quite what you’d expect when you think of a pirate, but it’s his strange personality that attracts the crew members that eventually come to follow him.
Wait! What's A Dial? 