Congo Gum

What do you get if you mix a bunch of teenage bad assess, a Freddy Mercury look-a-like, a gorilla, a robot and a Japanese High School? The answer is Cromartie High School.

I’ve overlooked this show for quite a few months but after watching the first volume I have no idea why I did. Quite frankly this show is so much fun that I love it. When I sat down to watch this it was 11pm, I had a rough day and my brain was on standby. But it was the perfect show for that time.

CHS is a short 10 minute per episode series with a common one joke per episode theme. It follows the adventures of Takashi Kamiyama and his fellow delinquents through fights and the down right weird. The humor is simple but oh-so funny. The animation is basic but it carries its own style and is enough to get the job done. If anyone watches this show for its visuals they deserve to be slapped in the face.Cromartie strikes me as a watered down Beavis and Butthead, but can provide just as much satisfaction.

I haven’t checked out the sub yet. But to give credit where its due, the dub is bloody fantastic and even though the setting is distinctly Japanese you can easily see this in any school. The DVD is also chock full of extras. Unfortunately if you missed this series in ADV’s £1 a volume sale, then kick yourself. This is a fantastic buy.

At the moment my favourite character is tied between Takashi Kamiyama and Noboru Yamaguchi. Takashi’s stupidity and ignorance is just so funny to watch and Noboru’s pursuit of comic perfection is incredibly funny. So far the best seen is in the first episode while Takashi is reading the “How to be a bad ass”

While I’ve only had enough time to watch volume one, with three volumes left there is huge amount of episodes to plough through. And I look forward to each disc.

“What more could you ask for than a bevy of beauties forced to put their lives on the line to answer the call of duty? Divergence Eve is a bold and imaginative voyage leading directly into the heart of evil. A dark tale enlivened by a shocking mystery which will have you guessing until the final fade out.”

** Post Edit Note - I Know that over the last two reviews the pictures have been a bit scarce. I must make it know that it is this series only that will have a lack of pictures in it’s reviews. I was simply in a rush at the time and this show is so horrid i couldn’t force myself to go and cap some more for you. My belated apologies. **

This, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the blurb on the back of the Divergence Eve Volume Two DVD case. This is also what is usually refered to as a big fat lie. i’ll apologise now, this is not my usual review.

Here we are with volume 2 of Divergence Eve, where Misaki and her busty buddies pick up the story from where we left off in the previous volume. Things are taking a turn for the worst, with the presence of the GHOULS becoming ever more persistent. It all gets a little too much for Cadet Susanna Bleustein and she can’t hack the training. Revealing to Misaki that her past about being forced into Seraphim, after promptly having her memory wiped she’s shipped back to earth. Moving on, our snoopy “reporter” Bernard Firestar ventures deep into the core with Misaki to find out the so called truth behind her father’s accident. (more…)

In the year 2317 humans can now travel across the universe at the speed of light by “tunneling” through different dimensions. Out in the depths of the universe is Watchers Nest, a space station built between a split planet and home to 10 million people. But recently mysterious accidents have been occurring on the station. Are these the effects of bad maintenance or a more sinister threat?

Over the course of this series we follow the adventures of Misaki Kureha and her crew of recruits for the military organization Seraphim. But we learn this after the first few episodes. I’ll go on the record here and say that the first episode of Divergence Eve was the most confusing starter I’ve seen. It threw me off more than the first episode of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. The show starts off simple enough with it’s flashy intro with a thumping electro beat to boot but then we are lunged head first into madness. The first episode actually takes place between episodes 12 and 13, as a result this contains way too much techno talk and information about goings on that really I had no idea about. This was an attempt to create curiosity for the viewer in an attempt to hook you into watching more. Unfortunately it failed, badly, and really just left me confused more than anything.

Episode 2 is really the first episode and this is where we get the introduction (more…)

Tenchi Muyo is back after a 9 year hiatus with an all new box set. It’s been 2 months since the action seen in OVA 2 and peace has finally returned to the Masaki household. Unfortunately the calm is all but shattered with the arrival of a few new faces, one even claims to be Tenchi’s mother! It’s not all fun and games though. The powerful goddess Lady Tokemi has sent villain Z on a mission to scout Tenchi and to learn more about his powers, but Z seems to have his own plans. Could there also be a marriage on the cards? Will Tenchi finally learn about his mother’s tragic past? All will be revealed in Tenchi Muyo OVA 3!

For any fan of Tenchi this third box set was always going to be a big thing. From the beginning of production right until release most fans were worried about how the final product would shape up. Would it live up to the expectations laid down by its predecessors? Or it would it float like a lead balloon? (more…)

It was just a few minutes since Misaki left Tokyo train station before she was swept up into the world of Angelic Layer. Staring at the live fights on a huge outdoor screen Misaki quizzed the two kindergartners next to her, only to find that she really was out of her depth. With the help of her mysterious new friend Mr. Icchan, who looks like he’d be more at home as a university lecturer rather than a boffin behind Angelic, Misaki takes one more step into her new life with her aunt in Tokyo.

I started watching this show with no preconceptions at all. I didn’t know what it was about, what genre it was, how good it would be. All I knew was that it was 26 episodes long and had a cool name. After finishing episode 6 I’m happy enough (more…)