Matsuda is a sportswriter who has become disillusioned with the gossip and scandals he has been exposed to in his daily work. Things change the day he sees a young girl overpower a purse-snatcher. It turns out she is Yawara Inokuma, the granddaughter of Jigorou Inokuma who had once held the all-Japan judo title for five consecutive years. Though Yawara had the talent, she had no love for the sport. She wanted to be a girl like any other girl. However, Matsuda was compelled to write about her. When he did, Yawara was thrust into the spotlight and found herself right in the middle of the world of Judo. Can she balance the ambitions of her authoritarian grandfather who would have her win an Olympic gold medal with her own aspirations to be a normal girl?
Yawara is a show for all ages male and female - for those who love sports and for those who have an aversion to sports. Best of all, it's a show of memorable characters who lead interesting lives in overcoming the challenges that stand in the way of their dreams.
AnimEigo has licensed this 124-episode series.
[Entry by Phil Yff]
This is a four-volume OAV series based on the manga Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou by Hitoshi Ashinano. It is centred around the character of Alpha, a robot who runs a coffee shop in the Japanese countryside many years after some kind of apocalypse has caused the seas to rise and flood the coasts. The world is in a slow peaceful decline with a much-reduced population and houses and roads lie abandoned to Nature.
The anime's bucolic atmosphere is juxtaposed with assorted wonders to jolt the viewer's expectations: odd new species of plants and animals grow alongside the unrepaired roads, a giant swan-like aircraft is occasionally seen high in the sky, a female sea-spirit seeks the company of children. It is a slow, almost plotless travelogue with visuals and skyscapes comparable to Miyazaki (IMO) rendered in a watercolour-style form very similar to the manga.
[Entry by Robert Sneddon]
The adventures of Natsumi Tsujimoto and Miyuki Kobayakawa, two female police officers on the Bokutoh City police force and their day-to-day adventures. Set in a more or less present day city.
Good animation and artwork. Good clean fun. Little if any violence or gore, and only some innocent flirting on the sexual side. Both OVA and TV series has been made. Based on a manga by Kosuke
Fujishima, the same guy who did Oh My Goddess! There's also a TV series that hasn't been released yet in the US. Four OVAs. From AnimEigo.
[Entry by Ben Cantrick]
[The TV series has been released by AnimEigo. There is also an excellent You're Under Arrest movie, which has a tone somewhere between the You're Under Arrest OAVs and the Patlabor movies, and a series of "Mini-Specials" that are almost completely humourous - these have been released by ADV Films. - Rob Kelk]
Humankind has been at war with the JAM for over thirty years. We've forced the JAM back through their original hyperspace portal and taken the fight to their homeworld of Fairy. However, despite the near-continuous conflict, no-one knows what the JAM look like or what they want. To the rest of humanity, the battle has gone on so long that it's become just another background feature. Yet the pilots assigned to the Fairy Air Force are about to be reminded that the enemy is still around ... and closer than many may suspect.
Yukikaze's story centres on a mysterious, pale-faced ace called Rei, who has a very strong connection with the Artificial Intelligence system that co-flies his aircraft - or at least, is supposed to co-fly his aircraft. Rei loves his aircraft. Really loves his aircraft, to the extent that he dreams about its naked female avatar locked up in a cage. Kinky. This connection worries Jack, the closest thing Rei has to a friend. (And this is why Yukikaze is also known as "Brokeback Air Force" on the Macross World forums - Jack is perhaps just a little too interested in Rei.)
Fortunately, as a distraction from similar disturbing lines of thought, is the air combat. Forget the men. Yukikaze is gorgeous. There's all sorts of little details that military aviation fans will adore, such as the authentic warning tones in the cockpits and the best HUD depiction I've yet seen in anime.
Added to this are the planes, which are beautiful. The creative staff have apparently stated that they knew the rules of aerodynamics, and ignored them anyway. Be thankful, because these are probably the greatest anime aero-designs since Kawamori first picked up a mechanical pencil, and the aerial combat scenes are the best I've seen since Macross Plus.
Speaking of Macross Plus, one might get a sense of deja vu with certain story elements, particularly when the Yukikaze find themselves in competition with a new unmanned fighter. However, Yukikaze is based on a novel first written in the 1970s and thus predates even the original Macross series.
Yukikaze does have a few flaws; like many modern anime it mistakes lack of explanation for creating an air of mystery, and the characters so far have have about as much substance to them as vapour contrails, but that's okay. One rarely watches anime of this kind for the character development.
Yukikaze. If you like fast jets with improbable flight surfaces, it's probably for you. Bottles of tanning oil optional.
[Entry by Justin Palmer, edited by Rob Kelk]
