Bet you didn't expect this to be anime did ya?
Everyone knows this story, Tom Sawyer is Mark Twain's story of a young mischievous boy growing up in the Southern States of early United States. Along with Huckleberry Finn and a host of other colourful characters, it's pretty much the origin story of the class clown way before the creation of Dennis the Menace and Bart Simpson.
Since the Japanese love adapting western novels, it came as no surprise when they tried their hand at Tom Sawyer and it's remarkably well made, so much so it became America's most faithful animated adaption.
Now being British, this doesn't hold much weight for me in nostalgia, so this slice of wholesome Americana is not something I can give a fair review for as in my opinion if you see one episode, there isn't going to be much difference in the rest, but I also didn't have the benefit of reading the story when I was young so take this with a pinch of salt.
Of course there's a dub, if they couldn't dub this properly then they should apologise to Uncle Sam; thankfully the dub is solid.
Final Verdict: I can see alot of care went into this and I can see why it's the best version but I'm also British and lack the nostalgia goggles for it so I leave it to the viewers to judge this more fairly.
Now for a complete waste of time.
The Planet Libertia was once known as the Planet of Death until the inhabitants installed giant mirrors to try and curb the extreme heat.
Alicia and her grandfather Professor Grace are developing the armour unit Legaciam said to be capable of surviving extreme heat but a group called the Guild led by a former friend wants the armour in order to investigate a mysterious tower, which is also what Professor Grace wants to do so together with Zeno they break out of the Guild's grasp and head to the tower which never gets resolved.
That was a waste of time, nothing gained from the effort put into the armour which Alicia is too petrified to even pilot, there appears to be some form of class war but it's barely touched upon, it's unclear what the ultimate goal is either, all we know is the tower makes a horrible sound that makes people die and that Legaciam was found there, nothing gets resolved.
No dub but wonderful musical score, wish you spent more effort on the story.
Final Verdict: Waste of time but the music is at least nice
Now for something awesome.
In the Tensho era Japan, evil rises as the Black Night Demon returns to lay waste to the land, only the half crow demon Kabuto and a band of warrior gods, the human forms of Genbu, Byakko, Seiryu and Suzaku along with a talking sword can rid the land of evil.
This is so 80s, they had to release it in the 90s; it's art style, rock anthems, dark gritty colour palette and nonchalant attitude to violence is all 80s in aesthetic almost reminding me of a Japanese GI Joe of how casual everything seems in regards to action.
It was apparently licensed for western release but good luck finding a copy let alone any sign of an English language release
Final Verdict: There's not much to say, it promised 80s style action and that's exactly what you get, no complexity just a good old fashioned ninja anime where it's just beat the bad guys, what more do you want?
Now for a manga spinoff for a change.
Fairy Girls is a bunch of filler side stories to the main manga Fairy Tail, featuring prominently are Erza, Juvia, Lucy and Wendy as they take on various jobs and ultimately get drawn into shenanigans including such situations as looking after a lost baby, infiltrating a school as students, waifu wars as well as many ecchi situations; this among the regular Fairy Tail filler types of poorly constructed villains vs Fairy Tail.
What more could you ask for? Well they chose a guest artist named Boku to draw this version which is fine but Hiro Mashima's style is missed in this.
It's pretty harmless, they chose the timeline between Grand Magic Games and Tartaros which I always considered the point where Fairy Tail peaked, at four volumes it doesn't out stay it's welcome either.
Final Verdict: A nice breather to read before Tartaros arc as I always believed that arc to be brutal and emotionally draining, while the art and situations aren't for everyone it's still a good read.
This has taken a while but I have something to work with.
Ozunu Enno, the great Bodhisattva of Japan, fought to defeat the Demon Goddess Karuma along side the Guardian Spirit Zenki who defeated her.
Many generations later, Karuma returns, leaving a number of evil seeds across the land, these seeds in the shape of eyeballs feed on greed and desire and turns the unfortunate victims into monsters.
Chiaki the descendant of Ozunu must revive Zenki and defeat the returning evil, however Zenki is a lot smaller than remembered and alot more obnoxious, so Chiaki must learn to work together with Zenki as she is the only one who can awaken his true form. During the battle, a buddhist monk adorning shades looks for a way to recover his lost love.
It's monster of the week but much of the dynamics of the show including Chiaki's constant butting heads with Zenki gets old really fast and this being a 51 episode run can really be exhausting; it's not like it's incapable of mixing it up, Chiaki gradually gets better at her job, not all monster defeats have a happy ending, Souma Miki the sunglasses monk gives a good character performance and the supporting cast doesn't feel like it's relying too much on Zenki as they are just as capable.
Zenki himself is a great enough design but let down by his personality which drags out through the whole series.
The dub is pretty awful, Zenki especially is ten times of ear breaking which just makes the experience worst.
My last nitpick is the set pieces of Zenki's awakening and opening lines in almost every episode, the time wasted easily eats two full episodes of run time.
Final Verdict: It's a long Anime dragged down by it's set pieces that fails to evolve much over the course of the series, it's biggest sin being Zenki himself not being a good character.
