You are digging into the mysterious past of AMP!
To see what's going on this week and in the future, return to the home page.
DONE with Eureka Seven
DONE with Gurren Lagann
DONE with Samurai Champloo
DONE with The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
DONE with Tsukikage Ran
10 episodes left of Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi — DROPPED
DONE with Cowboy Bebop
10 episodes left of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
DONE with Genshiken
DONE with Infinite Ryvius
DONE with Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure
This futuristic anime series follows 14-year-old Renton, who leads a boring life till a mecha — piloted by a lass named Eureka — smashes into his house. After Renton helps her get up and running again, he inexplicably finds himself stalked by the military. When the enigmatic Eureka takes him to meet an airship commander who fronts an underground anti-government movement, Renton is soon drawn into a web of intrigue.
Tom's take: little guy says he's in love with little girl, and they fly a big, talking robot together. Sometimes they have visions of chasing each other into toilets. But only the girl can hear the robot!
Living in a future where human beings dwell in underground villages, orphans Kamina and Simon dream of visiting the world on the surface of the planet. As luck would have it, Simon discovers a giant robot that allows them to fulfill that wish. But when they reach the surface, they soon find themselves engaged in an ongoing battle with other robots that terrorize the people living above ground.
Director Shinichiro Watanabe mixes a maturity rarely found in anime with a historical Japanese setting and a funky hip-hop soundtrack. Fuu is a spacey waitress at a teahouse where a sword fight breaks out between Mugen, a wild warrior, and Jin, a more composed ronin. In exchange for saving them from execution, Fuu demands that they accompany her on a journey to find "a samurai who smells of sunflowers."
Erek's take: A great samurai show in the classic sense with an emphasis on hip hop and hilarious historical retellings.
* Erek is a first-time guest author for AMP.
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya on NetFlix
Haughty, beautiful and a tad egocentric, Haruhi Suzumiya starts things off with a bang at her new high school by announcing that she has "no interest in ordinary humans" in this popular anime series. Courting aliens, time travelers and superhumans, the teen starts her own club – the SOS Brigade (whose aim is to "save the world by overloading it with fun") – and recruits Kyon (the only person who'll talk to her) as her first member.
This thrilling anime series directed by Daichi Akitarou follows Ran and her sidekick, Meow, denizens of the Iron Cat fist, on their roller-coaster adventure as they zigzag through Japan in an effort to elude the machinations of a foreigner with blindingly yellow hair. Along the way, they form an unbreakable bond strengthened by their desire to fight for the disenfranchised.
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi on NetFlix
Who would've thought shopping could be so brutal? When young Sasshi and Ayumi uncover the secret to their local mall, they accidentally transport themselves to an alternate universe. Trapped in the doppelganger Abenobashi shopping mall, the youngsters desperately try to find their way home. This spot-on parody skewers anime and other film genres and contains mature content unsuitable for children.
Cowboy bounty hunter Spike Spiegel and ex-cop Jet Black patrol the galaxies for dangerous criminals in this futuristic anime. Spike and Jet resort to dangerous tactics to bring in the universe's most wanted, and trouble's never far behind. Joining the pair aboard the spaceship Bebop are femme fatale Faye Valentine, computer hacker Ed and smart doggie Ein.
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex on NetFlix
Based on the popular manga, this anime series explores a futuristic society where technology reigns supreme, along with new types of crime. Female cyborg Major Motoko Kusanagi and her team of police, Section 9, devote their lives to chasing criminals, both on land and in cyberspace. In these episodes, the team must figure out the secret behind a spate of android suicides, stop a far-reaching hacker conspiracy, solve a hostage situation and more!
On Sasahara's first day of college, a fateful choice awaits him: Which college clubs will he choose to join? But Sasahara also harbors a dark secret — he knows the meaning of "cosplay," how to unlock the secret characters in "Guilty Gear X" and even the plot twist in episode 25 of "Kujibiki Unbalance." Enter Genshikin, the barely legitimized Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture — and home to all subspecies of Otaku!
In the year 2225, an act of sabotage against an astronaut training center strands a group of nearly 500 teens aboard the Ryvius, a hidden interstellar vehicle. With little training and even less experience, can the group save itself from extinction? The external and internal challenges they'll face as they try to preserve themselves and their ship are guaranteed to test even the strongest member's mettle.
Tom's take: Lord of the Flies in space. There is a ferret. "Ryvius!"
Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure on NetFlix
Plagued by visions of giant robots that no one else can see, Kazuki doesn't know that all the years of ridicule are about to pay off. It all starts when the most beautiful girl in school takes an interest in him (always a dangerous sign!) — before he quite knows what's happened, he's whisked off to a parallel world filled with robots and aliens.
Tom's take: the six people inhabiting the world fight each other to save the rest of the planet which we know must exist because we saw it in an episode once..
You are digging into the mysterious past of AMP!
To see what's going on this week and in the future, return to the home page.