Adventure Duo, The Episodes 1 3 (Animated) (Subtitled) (DVD)

Welcome to the darker side of anime

Advantages: Curiously sophisticated story and psychologically telling examination of violence - and girls with guns, too
Disadvantages: Nothing, really.

A regular guilty pleasure, Noir is 26 episodes of um, err? well, girls with guns. Well, not exactly, this is, of course, why it works. Like so much anime you have to work within generic conventions and Noir is no exception. On the surface you expect this volume, being the first five of twenty-six twenty-five minute episodes, to be full of dubious fan-service (a term applying to the use of rather gratuitous flashes of sex / nudity, etc., I quote: "unnecessary to a storyline, but designed to amuse or excite the audience"). Noir, thankfully, manages to avoid all this and instead hooks the audience through vertiginous plotting, depth of characterisation and the ability to immediately intrigue the viewer. It also has a fantastic soundtrack! Unusually for an anime series the cast is minimal - there are only really four characters ...

No_name 04.03.2007 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Noir - Vol. 1 - Episodes 1-5 (Animated) (Dubbed and Subtitled) (DVD)

Review for Friends - Series 3 - Episodes 1-8 DVD

Advantages: Lot's of laughs, easy watching, Can be watched by a wide range of audiences.
Disadvantages: Is a very particular type of comedy.

Most of you won't be new to friends, and will have already decided between the 10 years (1994-2004) it was on tv whether you like it or not. I personally love it and think it is comedy at its best. This DVD is the beginning of season 3. I think that this was one of the best seasons because the directors and actors were comfortable as they had already done 2 seasons, but the jokes and the show were still fresh. Jennifer Aniston (Rachel), Matt LeBlanc (Joey), David Schwimmer (Ross), Courtney Cox (Monica), Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe) and Matthew Perry (Chandler) are back after the media "backlash" and what i would call one of the most promising seasons of friends proved that they had remained undefeatable and the media were back supporting them. Here is a full list of the contents: 1. The One With The Princess Leia Fantasy Monica ...

rachelicious904 14.08.2007 (17.08.2007) · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Friends - Series 3 - Episodes 1-8 (DVD)

Fruits Basket DVD 1

Advantages: Fantastic characters, great and original story line.
Disadvantages: That the anime only covers so little of the manga story.

rare occasions where I preferred the English dub to the Japanese with English subtitles. Main reasons being that I disliked the Japanese cast for Yuki Sohma, and that the English cast did the series justice and didn't sound wooden at all. Music: The background music (BGM) fit the series well, and is for the most part light and pleasant. Nothing special, though, even the opening and ending theme are non spectacular. So though it fits well, Fruits Basket isn't a series I would buy the soundtrack for. Value for money: Amazing. Seriously, this disc has the first 6 half-hour episodes. It is a 26-part anime series, and fits on 4 discs total (you can also buy a special boxed set of the 4) whereas most 26-part series' can drag them out for 7 or even 8 if they're clever (a la Escaflowne). From manga to anime: As with most anime series Fruits ...

Mayoki 15.03.2008 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Fruits Basket - Vol. 1 - A Great Transformation And (Animated) (Dubbed) (Subtitled) (DVD)