Onepiece

Onepiece is a pirate based anime set in a fictional world in the Golden age of Piracy. The plot is set around the main character Monkey D. Luffy who wants to be king of the pirates and his crew of pirates searching for the legendary treasure Onepiece. Luffy ate a magical fruit when he was younger thinking it was dessert and gained the ability to stretch like rubber, but lost the ability to swim. He uses his ability to fight villains and advance his dream of becoming king of the pirates. This anime was one of my favorites a couple of years ago but is not a personal prefrence of mine any more. It is a little kiddish and better for a younger audience.

Bleach

Bleach is a shonen action style anime based around Ichigo Kurosaki, a teenager with an unusual ability, he can see ghosts. His mother died when he was little and he has been quite solomn since then. He goes about his life being annoyed by ghosts who love to irritate him, and some who just want someone to talk to. But not all ghosts are good, those who are overtaken by evil become hollows, demonlike creatures that seek to feed off of other ghosts and sometimes even humans. Ichigo then meets a strange girl named Rukia who turns out to be a soul reaper, powerful beings who help escort ghosts to the soul society, an equivalent to heaven. While fighting a large hollow outside of Ichigo's house Rukia becomes injured and transferes some of her energy into Ichigo, which turns him into a soul reaper, he then defeats the hollow and then helps Rukia kill other hollows while she recovers.

Gunslinger Girl

This anime is set in modern Italy and is based around an assassination company that uses specially trained, geneticaly modified assassins to take care of it's targets. These assassins are little girls that were on the verge of death, brought back by the genetic and internal cybernetic augmentations made to their bodies. These girls are brainwashed into thinking that they are nothing but machines meant for killing. They retain their feelings but do not know what to apply them to. The main character is Henrietta, a relatively new addition to the group, and her handler, Jose. They carry out contracts as Henrietta tries to cope with being an adolescent as

sassin in a dangerous Italy.

The Cat Returns

The Cat Returns is an anime movie made by Hiroyuki Morita. It is an astounding family movie that Disney also played a part in. It is about a high school student named Haru, whose life is fairly average, a little too average. She wakes up in the morning, too late even to eat breakfast, which her mother proceeds to do to spite her. She runs to school, has multiple delays and ends up late. She tries to sneak in, which fails and from there proceeds with her day. This life is a little too boring for Haru, and when she saves a cat, who turns out to be the cat prince, from being hit by a truck her life changes drastically. She is kidnapped by the cat king to become the cat prince's wife against her will. She doesn't have much hope until a cool cat (sorry I couldn't resist) named Baron von Gikkingen makes a daring attempt to save her. This movie has great art and a magnificent storyline, and unlike the three previous animes that I have posted about, this one is a family movie and could be enjoyed by all ages.

Naruto

Naruto is another anime that I enjoy quite a lot. It is about a hardheaded young ninja named Naruto (the show's namesake) who wants to someday lead his ninja village. He needs to balance his training with the relations of the other members of his squad, one of which is the girl he has a crush on, Sakura Haruno, and the other is his arch-rival and later best friend Sasuke Uchiha. This series is interesting because the main character is not the strongest, in fact at the beggining of the show he is one of the worst students at the acadamy, and he nearly fails. Most of the middle is about his development into a better ninja. After Naruto and Sasuke get into a fight to decide who is stronger Sasuke storms off in a huff. He is then kidnapped by Orochimaru, an evil rogue ninja who wants to take over the world. Naruto then has to rescue Sasuke from his own lust for power.

Full Metal Alchemist

This is easily one of my favorite anime/mangas. This is based around an art known as alchemy, which is the changing of something from one form to another using formulas and the users own abilities. An example of this would be one of the characters instantaniously changing a lump of iron into a sword. Alchemy is based on the law of equivalent exchange, you can only get a product that has the same amount of material as the components used. The show's main characters are Edward and Alphonse Elric, two brothers who lost parts of their bodies in a forbidden alchemical transmutation trying to revive their mother, they had not accounted for the equivilent exchange of reviving a human and it took Edwards right arm and left leg and Alphonse's entire body. Edward was able to save his brothers life by replacing his body with a suit of armor that is now controlled by his brother. The basic storyline is about them trying to find an item called the Philosophers Stone which allows alchemists to ignor equivilent exchange. They need to locate this in order to restore their bodies, but they are not the only ones who want the stone...

Princess Mononoke

Alright, I finally got this site set up and I think I'll kick it off with a review of the movie Princess Mononoke. This movie has an excellent storyline, it is based around the character Ashitaka, he saves his village in the begginning of the movie by fighting a demon that ends up cursing him which sends him on a mission to find a way to stop the fighting that caused the demon to come to his village. He is very self-righteous and I don't especially like his character, my favorite is actually the one from which the movie gets it's namesake. San, or Princess Monenoke, is a girl who was raised by the wolf god Moro. She is a warrior who fights on the side of the animals in the war over the mountain they live on. On the other side is Lady Eboshi, a woman bent on ruling the world, she is in control of Iron Town, where iron is mined and made into weapons. Most of the movie takes place in the events leading up to the final battle between the giant animals of the mountain and the humans of Iron Town. This movie has a great storyline and breathtaking art. It is an amazing movie and I would recommend it to anyone who has a tolerence for violent content.