Amnesia

Genre: Romance (kinda?)
Age Appropriate: Teen
Emotional Response: total confusion
Notable Features: amnesia, repeating days, hot guys
Language: Japanese
Length: 1 season, 12 episodes
Overall Recommendation: WTF?

"Don't trust him!" - Orion

A young lady has lost her memory, and begins a strange journey toward recovering it. She has an apprentice fairy friend, Orion, who seems committed to helping her find her lost self, but it becomes more complicated at the series goes on. She re-meets her friends, re-learns her job and finds herself trying to hide what's missing. It gets her in trouble with the person who is supposedly her boyfriend, and she can't figure out what's missing, again.

She fell and lost her memories from after she lost her memories, which happened right before she lost her memories - again - and behind it all is a strange, probably evil, man with green hair who messed with her by appearing and disappearing every time she tries to have a meaningful conversation with him, maybe. It's a upside down world and the path to getting out makes it worse rather than making it better, maybe. Her strange journey takes her through different worlds, sorta, and she changes love interests per world, kinda, and in the end it theoretically makes sense.

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I picked out this series, because at the time I was looking for something with hot guys. This looked kinda good, but I decided to wait a little bit because it was being simulcast. You can't really finish up a series for review if it's not actually done being aired, right?

It wasn't anything at all like I expected. I guess, I was expecting something a little more comedic, and a lot less creepy. It almost has the same quiet tone as "Say 'I love you,'" but there is a sinister aftertaste that is nowhere near related to anything else I've seen. I've seen creepy zombies and dark vampires, evil gods and bad guy ninjas, but nothing prepared me for this. I didn't want to finish it, but I made myself. Usually, I don't want to finish things because they're terrible and I make myself because I've committed to it. This just had me nervous the whole time. I don't know how to explain it, and I don't know that it would translate to another viewer. I think part of it was the eyes. Each person's eyes are a wierd half/half mix of odd colors. Otherwise, they all look like normal characters - and they have very interesting clothing tastes. I also realized somewhere near the end that there doesn't appear to be much of a soundtrack - I'm not sure if that makes a difference either.

I really didn't understand what was going on until the second to last episode. I know a number of people who would enjoy, or at least be intrigued by, this series. I would definitely recommend it to them, but unless you're into really weird, mind-boggling, confusing, kinda emo-esque stuff, this might not be for you. I've finished the series, and I understand everything now, but I'm still feeling a little
dazed.

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What's going on?: Kenichi: The Mightest Disciple

Master of Martial Hearts

Genre: Action
Age Appropriate: Adult
Emotional Response: O.M.G., speechless
Notable Features: actions, fighting, high nudity, shocking messed-up-edness
Language: English
Length: 5 episodes
Overall Recommendation: WTF

"What the hell is going on!?"  Aya

There is a supposedly magical heart that will grant the bearer any wish. This heart is the Martial Heart. Generally, it's considered some sort of local urban myth but young women everywhere believe in its existence. The way to obtain this magical heart is through trials and battles. It was thought to have disappeared but some time recently it resurfaced and now women can be found secretly battling each other for the chance to have their wish come true.

Aya is a teenage high school student who stumbled upon one of these fights with her friend. The fight was between a priestess and a stewardess, and the girls were shocked to see two random people fighting. Aya steps in a certain point, being a good person, and beats the stewardess enough to get her to back off. It is revealed that she has a good amount of martial arts training because he mother used to compete. The girls make a new friend, Miko, as a result. She explains to them how she entered the battle via text message and her wish was to make new friends.

The girls become her new friends and she decides to drop out, somehow this means that Aya is now in the fight and Miko has disappeared. The stewardess returns, holding Aya's crush hostage, and Aya beats her soundly, cementing her fate to enter the contest. The series follows Aya's desire to figure out what is going on, and how to save Miko from her mysterious fate. There is a giant, unexpected twist at the end!

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The series is messed the hell up. The high nudity is a little extreme. Every point of contact in a battle means some piece of clothing is damaged or outright destroyed. Really, a punch to the face shouldn't end up with someone's shirt tearing off, but that's how it goes. Generally, this isn't that unexpected. It almost reminded me of Sekirei in that respect. It's also a bunch of women fighting for some sort of prize, also very like Sekirei. The big difference is that there is no comedy in this series whatsoever. It's almost as if the nudity is supposed to be some sort of smoke screen for how messed up it really gets.  It isn't nearly as bad as Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne, but it Rin is one of my favorite anime series, and this is not.

There is a lot of bizarreness involved. People disappear after losing and no one ever hears from them again - the myth says to a mysterious "Dark Realm." Not only that, but it seems that others have no idea that the person in question remembers their existence. It's also a little strange that Aya's sidekick friend follows her to almost every fight as her cheerleader. The messed up part is actually hidden until the very end and then o.m.g.. I mean, if you like this type of series, go for it. I'm sure it's a good one. Personally, I watched it in the light of day. Of course, I can sometimes be a little bit of a wuss.
Don't let your kids watch it.
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Turn around: Blue Exorcist

Elfen Lied

Genre: Action/Drama
Age Appropriate: Older teens+/Adults
Emotional Response: Wow, look at all that blood.
Notable Features: Blood, psychic killer, clueless teens
Language: English
Length: 1 season, 12 epoisodes
Overall Recommendation: WTF

"Nyu?" - Nyu/Lucy

Elfen Lied opens with a mysterious woman in a serial killer/Silence of the Lambs situation. She's naked with a creepy helmet, somehow supposedly protection for others. When guards enter, as she telepathically begins bending the bars on her prison, she begins telepathically ripping them apart. Blood everywhere, bones visibile, head popping off and hearst exploding out of chests is pretty common as she makes her escape out whatever facility she's been held in. Guards attempt to stop her, and fail miserable (hence the telepathic dismemberment) and she gets out of the prison with a little mysterious help with last door. At some point she removes her helmet and we see a young woman with pink hair, and pink, discerning eyes. As she leaves she's shot in the head by a sniper, but apparently misses the vital shot, and she jumps into the sea.

Next, we see Kohta and Yuka - young college Freshman - meeting up at a station and walking together to what will be Kohta's house, a former traditional Japanese restaurant owned by Yuka's family. This ends up being the home-base of sorts for the easier storylines. When Yuka and Kohta visit the beach they happen upon a mysterious girl, who says nothing but "Nyu," and bright eyes, and pink hair. The take pity on her situation and bring her home. At this point, we realize she's the deadly girl from the beginning and drama ensues, and it seems that she's lost her memory.

There is a mad scientist or two, a mercenary/military bad guy, a young homeless girl, another young girl like "Nyu" (a "diclonius") and an adorable dog!  Between certain characters' bizarre memory loss, a strange romantic obsession between the mains and breaking through brainwashing with the girls, this series has a lot of complicated situations, if not a complicated storyline.
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First off, let me say that while there are some nude girl scenes, they are in general not in any sexual nature - usually during a bad situation or a comedic situation. My primary focus on the Older Teen/Adult rating was the high level of outrageously bloody, disturbing violence and dismemberment in scenes where Nyu becomes her other self. I, personally, prefer implied beheadings than looking at a head psychically popped off and floating around with bright red blood pouring out of the bottom. Maybe that's just me?

At some points I felt that the story was going kind of slow, and with the two storylines taking so long to converge, it seems somewhat disjointed. While I certainly see the appeal to some audiences, this series was not for me. Unlike HOTD, this didn't pull me in at the end, making me see the anime series light, as it were. The ridiculous grotesque bodies really give it the WTF rating, but it is a whole different type of messed up from Rin. I personally wouldn't recommend it to mini-geek girls like me, and definitely don't recommend it for anytime after the sun goes down. In the end, the best part of the series (and it is a seriously awesome part) is the opening theme "Lilium."
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Next time on....: Ouran High School Host Club

Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne

Genre: Drama/Action
Age Appropriate: ADULT
Emotional Response: Confusion, intrigue, car-wreck fascination
Notable Features: Immortals, evil angel creatures, disturbing
Language: English
Length: 1 season, 6 episodes (45min)
Overall Recommendation: WTF?

"Vodka is water in Russian, you know." - Mimi

Rin: The Daughters of Mnemosyne follows a woman named Rin, who is immortal due to altering by a "time fruit." This makes her immortal (females only), and leaves her vulnerable to the evil angels (male only; only called angels because of their winged appearance). Rin Asougi works as a private detective with her handy assistant, Mimi - also an immortal, and their new friend Koki. Each episode is shown at a different time - mostly exemplified in Koki's aging. Rin and Mimi seem to have a different kind of relationship as well.

The immortality/angelhood is the result of having a time fruit from the tree Yygdrasil. Apos, the seemingly evil primary antagonist is a sadistic other being who eats the tree fruits by stealing them from women and angels. There is a significant amount of adult-age material involved with Apos and his minions. For most of the series the Apos' endgame is a mystery, but in the end all is revealed. As it's a short series with only 6 episodes, I'll refrain from giving any more details.

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Rin: The Daughters of Mnemosyne is probably the most messed up anime I've seen. EVER.
I've seen a lot of bloody anime, and a lot of psychologically horrific anime. The mix of good and evil, grotesque blood and torture, and screwed up sexuality really bring together a confusion unparalleled by any other anime I can recall to date. The content is probably something I would only see in anime form. While the series isn't about sexuality issues, they are certainly present. I could see this running late night Showtime style, but maybe under a Horror setting.

It's actually really well done. I'd seen it before, but not in awhile. Somehow, it's more disturbing having seen it once already. I'm not sure how that works. The ending was a little meh, but if this type of show might be within your genre preferences, and you don't have a particularly weak stomach, I might recommend it. It's definitely psychologically taxing, but so was SAW and Titus. Just don't mistake it for something else in the beginning. I gave it a WTF? rating simply because I thought it a good warning for people only interested in easier to normal life anime series. *THIS IS NOT FOR CHILDREN*

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Next Time:  Tears to Tiara