Positive Experience/Entertaining? This series was recommended to me by a friend who claimed it was “the best anime ever.” While I can’t say I fully agree, I can say this is definitely one of the best anime series ever. It’s truly amazing.

Technically any good? While made for kids, the director, one of Japan’s answers to Walt Disney, Hayao Miyazaki, has the ability to create a real feeling of danger. He’ll actually kill characters off, every once in a while, which is really surprising for a kids show. In fact, Miyazaki will put the 11 year-old lead character in incredibly dangerous, truly frightening moments and treat those moments with incredible realism for a show that I think is still perfectly safe for kids to watch. Yes, there are some typical anime and cultural cliches in this, but they are done well. The story keeps you guessing (for the most part) and is a total blast to watch even if you’re an adult.

How did it leave me feeling? Wishing for a sequel series! There’s just something about Conan’s “never say die” spirit that I find incredibly inspirational. There are three things I think people should know about this:

1) The direct translation of the title is actually “Future Boy Conan.” However, the series is about a boy in the future, not a time-traveling boy, as I assumed.

2) This show deals with a lot of black and white issues–sometimes blatantly so. The subtleties are in character, not in theme. In particular the evils of technology and the perfection of communism (!) probably would have gotten tiresome in anyone else’s hands but Miyazaki’s.

3) This series is not available on DVD in the US. I don’t know why. Probably because of the handful of very scary scenes where Conan suffers physical violence. We Americans treat our kids too nicely, I think. Read more about Mirai Shonen Konan in its Wikipedia article.

Final Rating? FI - FIND IT! This show is a lot of fun and I think even the more cynical adult viewers will get sucked in after a few episodes.

This Pocket Review is for the first 3 episodes of Freedom only.

Click above to buy Freedom Vol. 1 or click here for Vol. 2 from Amazon.

Positive Experience/Entertaining? Definitely–this anime is from the guy who created Akira.

Technically any good? While filled with cliches, this anime manages to do cliches well. A lot of typical anime and narrative devices are used, like the teens and their hotrods, the lead character who is a grease-monkey but still awkward with the ladies, and a grand conspiracy that makes them wonder if the life they’ve been sold is really just a lie. See, we’ve seen it all before, but Otomo and friends are great story tellers and the animations is superb.

How did it leave me feeling? The first three episodes are all I’ve seen so far, but they do leave me wanting a LOT more–in a good way, too. I don’t understand how Bandai thinks they’ll make money releasing one episode per HD-DVD while charging $30 each for them. Too bad for them HD-DVD has lost the new-format-wars before the entire series could be released. Hopefully that means the rest of the series will be released on standard DVDs, with standard DVD prices.

Final Rating? RTV - Rent The Video - Not as groundbreaking as Akira was, but a sure bet if you’re looking for entertaining Japanese animation that is safe for most kids (just a bit of violence) and still fun for adults, too.

Positive Experience/Entertaining? Definitely a lot of fun. However, it’s a little uneven. There are very serious moments followed by downright silly moments followed by very serious moments. So, beware–this anime series is far from perfect. Oh and a note on the name–in Japan “Mai” is a girl’s name. “Hime” is the word for “princess” but in this series “Mai” is the name of the lead character and “HiME” is an acronym. Why they changed it to “My HiME” when it came to to the US is beyond me since it makes little sense.

Technically any good? The designs are excellent. As with the best most popular anime shows, the women are all cute as all get out and look older than their ages. The character development is very strong in this, but sadly the story is not. The story, while structurally interesting, is convoluted and never very well-explained. The voice acting is absolutely brilliant. Everyone sounds incredibly real–of course, I refer to the Japanese language dub and not the English dub. I’ve only watched the former and you should, too. In my opinion all media should be watched with the native tongue of the creator being heard. Just my opinion, of course.

How did it leave me feeling? A little unfulfilled, which is a very common trait for anime shows. Lots of times you spend the entire series building up to something and then the pay off is much less than you expected. This is the case here, but ultimately, it could have been much worse. I found the resolution of the plot to be fairly solid nonetheless, though it didn’t end up making much sense of the rest of the series (this was the “less than expected” part). It was tragic and sad and a tear-jerker right up to that point where it got a shrug from me. Still, it did leave me wanting more and luckily, the sequel series Mai Otome/My Otome is now available on DVD in the US (here: urltea.com/1jun) and there’s another sequel series airing in Japan right now called Mai Otome Zwei (don’t ask me about those titles because I just have no idea).

Final Rating? SIYL - See If You Like - I give it 3.5 stars, over all. I think it’s a good show for teen girls to watch because it’s about girls maturing and using their “new powers” to make difficult choices–this works pretty well as a metaphor for what girls are going through at age 15 (the same age as the characters in Mai Hime). Ultimately, if you can ignore the fact that there is never any explanation for why things are happening, then you’ll probably enjoy this series.