# A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Weathering Continent Whisper of the Heart A Wind Named Amnesia Windaria Windy Tales Witch Hunter Robin Wolf's Rain
See Gundam
A short drama in the fantasy vein. A swordsman, a healer (who knows a little about magic), and a young runaway have fallen in together in their travels. This is an incident that befell them in the desert amid the ruins of an ancient civilization. Very moody.
60 minutes. Released in the US by Anime Works.
[Entry by Jack Bohn]
For some reason, every book Tsukishima Shizuku borrows from the library seems to have been borrowed before by someone named Amasawa Seiji. One day, when she encounters a strange cat on the train and follows it on a whim, she ends up in front of a peculiar shop that turns out to be owned by Amasawa's grandfather. Getting closer to the Amasawa family, Shizuku begins to realize that she doesn't seem to have any real ambitions in life.
Available in North America from Disney, in Germany from ufa.
[Entry by Ansgar "59cobalt" Wiechers]
It happened suddenly. One minute all was as it should be, the next ... everyone on Earth had their memory wiped. Language, social habit, everything. The story surrounds one boy, who has been retrained to normality by another boy who escaped erasure by the fact that he was linked to a computer in a radical new way. Touring the devastation, he is accompanied by a woman who seems also to have escaped erasure but will not say how. On their journey they see what Man has made of himself since his memory was wiped, and view the consequences, all of which leads to the ultimate questions; who did it, and why? Available from USMC.
[Entry by Chika]
A lovely fantasy story of two kingdoms at war, and how that disturbs two pairs of lovers - one peasant, one royal. A tragedy. Well worth the watch, IMHO. Nice music, too.
[Was available dubbed from Streamline Pictures while Streamline was still in business. - Rob Kelk]
Nao is a keen photographer who loves photographing the ever-changing sky. Whilst on the school roof one day indulging her pastime, she sees something impossible: a flying cat. Nao is so surprised that she falls off the roof, but instead of plummetting to her death, a sudden surge of wind slows her fall so that she lands unharmed. WTF is going on? Haunted by the memory of her near-death experience, Nao is determined to find out, but first she has to quash rumours that her four-storey fall was a suicide attempt.
Despite being ostensibly about people (and cats!) who can manipulate the wind, Windy Tales is really a series of tales about growing up: young people being initiated into the adult world and adults regretting the loss of their carefree youth. The visual style is unusual for anime: the characters look Japanese, with their small black almond eyes, and the drawing style is bold and simple, like a crude watercolour painting. However this appearance is deceptive: the animation itself is subtle and fluid, and the rural landscapes are beautiful.
13 episodes, originally broadcast in 2004-5. Made by Production I.G.
[Entry by Wasabi]
Under the jurisdiction of an organisation known as Solomon, a group of "Hunters" known as STN-J targets "Witches" in modern day Japan - people with special powers passed on by genetics that use them for evil. Into their midsts is introduced a new recruit, Robin Sena, a 15 year old ex-nun from Italy with pyrokinetic abilities, whose arrival is the catalyst for the uncovering of a conspiracy in STN-J itself and the true nature of Witches. A dark, subdued series that many may find dull due to its episodic first half, the show's strengths lie in its meticulous characterisation (particularly of Robin) and realistic production stylings alongside sparse, but impressive action sequences.
Available on 6 DVDs from Bandai in Region 1, and broadcast on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.
[Entry by Andrew Hollingbury]
Legends tell that wolves are the key to finding paradise on Earth. However, wolves were supposedly extinct years ago, and now the world has been ravaged by the passage of time. In this futuristic, bleak Siberia, wolves have learnt to fool the eyes of humans and appear like them so they can scrounge a living in the cities. However, one wolf, Kiba, is obsessed with finding paradise and Cheza, the "Flower Maiden" who will guide them there. After gathering together a group of wolves including Tsume, the hard-bitten city wolf, Toboe, the naive cub, and Hige, the seemingly care-free slacker, they head out to find Cheza, but draw others into their quest for Paradise along the way.
Wolf's Rain shares several staff members with the late-90's classic Cowboy Bebop, and features many of the similar strengths; an exciting score from Yoko Kanno, excellent animation, and a melancholic, wistful atmosphere. Although not quite as emotionally resonant due to the distant, animalistic characterisation of the wolves (the human characters that join the quest add a great deal of depth), the strongly-written, multi-threaded plot is only really spoilt by four consecutive recap episodes that fall in the middle of the series; these can easily be skipped, however.
The complete series is available in Region 1 from Bandai; a cheap boxset is forthcoming at the time of writing. It is also currently on release in European Region 2 from BEEZ and in Region 4 from Madman.
[Entry by Andrew Hollingbury]
# A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Any images on this page are copyright their respective creators or licencees, and are used under Fair Use (review) provisions of the Copyright Act. All reviews on this page are copyright their respective authors, and are used with permission. The compilation copyright for this page is held by Rob Kelk.