Evolution - Volume 1 (Animated)

Advantages: Good music, extremely good animation, good action scenes and very emotionally involving.
Disadvantages: Might be too extreme for some. Expect ultra-violence, nudity and a hint at incest. Possibly expensive.

...This is the first volume of the series Elfen Lied. The series is based on the manga, and consists of 13 episodes. The full episode list is: 01 A Chance Encounter 02 Annihilation 03 Deep Feelings 04 Attack 05 Receipt 06 Innermost 07 Confrontation 08 The Beginning 09 Reminiscence 10 Infant 11 Complication 12 Quagmire 13 No Return This volume contains episodes 1-4 in both dubbed and subtitled versions. Each episode is about 20 minutes in length, as standard with most animes. The 13 episodes are spread across 4 dvds, so it can cost quite a bit to acquire the whole series. The story is set in a fictional version of our own world where some humans have a special mutation which gives them a kind of psychic powers, and a human with this mutation is called a Diclonius. The series revolves around one of these Diclonius named Lucy... Read review

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Advantages: Totally hilarious...and somewhat sickening!
Disadvantages: Leaves you wanting more!

...Happy Tree Friends Volume #1 First Blood, is the first crazy instalment in a series of three hilarious volumes and is certainly not for the faint hearted…or the easily offended! Simple in its animated form, Happy Tree Friends incorporates simply designed characters and backgrounds, with bold colours and comical sounds to create hilarious scenarios that start off innocently, and end in 'bloody' chaos. Concentrating on the 'misadventures' of cute little animals (with a bizarre little language of their own), these animated shorts are gruesome, yet wildly entertaining, especially if you've got a some what 'sick' sense of humour. But it's the fact that it's sick that makes this animation so funny. It's just downright deranged, but in a totally hilarious way! When I first saw these shorts at Bradford Animation Festival in 2002, Happy Tree... Read review

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Advantages: Great graphics and you're convinced the critters are actually there
Disadvantages: Doesn't quite live up to Walking with Dinosaurs as a prequel and relatively short

...heard of any of the creatures in this series and it was very enlightening. I do think that they could have been a lot more detailed as they pass through 300 millions of years of evolution in the space of a three half hour episodes, leaving many unanswered questions, and it could have been so much more given the time and money it deserved. It tends to concentrate more on the stepping stones of evolution, such as the first steps of a fish onto land, the first land animals, it doesn't give much of an insight to survival between these milestones, but I'm trying hard to pick faults here. One good thing about this series which I think Walking with Dinosaurs lacked, is a sense of time and it's effect. In these episodes they document the activities of a creature then focus in on it and show a time scale and as this moves along the creature evolves... Read review

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