Aika

So this is actually a 3 part review. They are all pretty much based on the same character of Aika, and take place in the same apocalyptic water covered planet. All three are secret agent type shows (though Aika isnt actually an agent). And all of them are super Ecchi. Ecchi of course are animes that show sexual fantasy, or sometimes known as Fan Service. Now when I say that this is a super Ecchi, I mean that the entire show is all about this. Every villain is either a scantily woman, or a crazy guy attempting to create his own Harem. And just about every female character (and there are a lot) wear short skirts or sexy lingerie. And the "camera" angle is almost always low so that you get hundreds of upskirt shots. Also these allow for tits to be shown unlike some other Ecchi's.

The first is Agent Aika. This one has 7 episodes each being about 25-29 minutes long. This series came out in 1997-1999. And it has an english dub.

The second is AIKa R-16: Virgin Mission, which has 3 episodes each also being 25 minutes long. This series has the same Aika of the first one, but one shows her when she was 16 years old. This came out in 2007. This one also has an english dub.

The third is AIKa: Zero. This last one also has only 3 episodes and again they are each about 25 minutes long. This final part came out in 2009 and shows the Aika when she was 19 years old. This is the only one of the three without an english dub.

We shall start with Agent Aika. This is the story of Aika as an adult who salvages objects from the ocean floor for those who will pay for them. As all of Tokyo and more of the world is now deep in the oceans this job has gained quite a bit of competition. She gets hired for a job and ends in a whole conspiracy of world destruction, followed by rebirth and repopulation with a ship full of beautiful women. Aika and her friends must fight them to stop their nefarious plans. But wait, Aika also has a that super piece of clothing that is really a metaloid being that changes the very chemistry of her body. It strips her down then barely wraps itself around her private parts. It then gives her strength and agility beyond the norm. She uses this to aid her and even save her life at times. But wait there is still more. The Harem organization continues fighting Aika, even after their original goal was thwarted. 

This high school aged Aika wants adventure, and loves submarines. She gets her scavenging licence and then makes some new friends (rich friends that is) who also want adventure. They set off on a quest to find out the meaning of a secret code butterfly tattoo that leads them to fighting mind-controlled classmates and clones. And their teacher turns out to be a bikini-clad bad guy behind a lot of this whole thing. Unlike the first series the men don's seem to be as affected in this one by the sexuality all around them. But this may be due to the fact that because most of the girls are 16 or so, it would be too perverted to do so.

Finally we see a 19 year old Aika. This one starts with a school conspiracy and weird glowing tentacles that seem to take possession of beautiful young girls. This one also has quite a few lesbian jokes and insinuations. Aliens and a whole bunch of penetration jokes. This one tells the tale of how Aika fights to discover the truth of a high school conspiracy and save her friends. 

Honestly these were rather boring series. I only finished them because of how short they were. The only one with a real semblance of a somewhat good story arc was the first, but the dialog was terrible. The last one had the best video quality and dialog, but has a rather stupid storyline. The middle one Was kinda just between the two in all regards. It wasn't the worst at anything, but it wasn't the best at anything either. 

So here are the scores. Agent Aika receives a 5.5 out of 11. AIKa R-16: Virgin Mission gets a 6.5 out of 11. And AIKa: Zero gets a 5.5 out of 11.

Deadman Wonderland

In this world of destroyed Tokyo there is a series of 12, 22 minute episodes that tell the story of a convicted child murderer. This series came out in Japan in 2011 and America in 2012.

Now as you may be able to gather from the picture, this is a violent series. The very first episode shows an ordinary middle school kid Ganta chatting with his friends before class. When suddenly there is a flying person out the window and everything goes red. Ganta awakens to see blood everywhere and all of his classmates dead. The man goes up to him and melts a crystal into his chest. Then Ganta is convicted of the slaughter of his entire class and is then sent to Deadman Wonderland. A prison/amusement park where the prisoners have to work to survive by performing for audiences and crowds of tourists. 

Ganta soon realizes how hard his life is, but further realizes that he wants to fight to survive. Then starts the supernatural stuff. Ganta is infected with a virus known as Branch of Sin that allows the infected to control their own blood and use it as a weapon. Each persons Branch of Sin is different, allowing for different types of weapons to manifest. Ganta's BoS is a gun like weapon while others are similar to a sword or whip or even as an explosive sphere. 

Ganta finally is entered into the hidden cell block G where all the inmates are forced to fight each other with their Branch of Sin. The loser either is dead, or plays a slot machine game where they lose a body part. The body part could be as small as a tooth (even small, they will remove this while you are awake without anesthesia), all the way up to a leg or an organ. Of course these battles are time sensitive no matter who you are as you are literally losing your own blood with each attack and defense.

I loved this series. It is violent with some sexuality that is there but not over the top (at least in my opinion). The series earns a solid 11 out of 11. It lost half a point on dialog, but earned it back with impressiveness.

Akame ga Kill

This series of 4 episodes came out in 2014, and should be coming out on adult swim in August 2015 later this year, with english dub. Each episode is 24 minutes or so.

This show is violent, spoiler alert, but people die. I wont tell you who, but be forewarned that characters do die. The show follows Tatsumi (the guy in the tan sweater in the photo above). He comes to the capital to earn enough riches to save his small village on the outskirts, unfortunately he quickly finds out that the capital is not all that he believed, especially not it the case of the people. Things occur that leads him to joining the elite team of Night Raid, a group of assassins that kill prominent members of the army and government. 

However thats not the most interesting part, that belongs to weapons they each carry. Imperial Arms. 1000 years ago the first emperor realized that he would not be able to live forever, so he endeavored to create 48 weapons of superior power to pass down the generations to keep his empire safe. These weapons were created using the rarest of elements and the energies of the rarest and most powerful "danger beasts." These Imperial Arms range in power as well as type. Some are swords or guns, others are armor or supply like objects. There are even a few organic ones that are in and of themselves alive. These Arms have incredible abilities like being able to cut anything in the world in half, or cursing the victim with death from only a single cut, or being able to summon those that have been killed by it, or even to create ice out of thin air. These Arms however have ended up on both sides of the fight over the years and now Night Raid must fight the Jaegers of the empire for control. And it is important to know that because of the power of the Imperial Arms, if two people each with one fights against each other, it is pretty much guaranteed that at least one of them will die.

I enjoyed the series, though I thought that some of the fights were a bit short, however that may be from my own history or watching things like Dragonball Z where the shortest fights were 10 episodes long. But here I thought that some of the fights ended too soon, sometimes making it feel somewhat anti-climatic. But in the end the series gets a 10 out of 11.

Law & Order Criminal Intent

This show came out in 2001 and lasted 10 seasons. Now this isn't the first Law & Order to come out, and there have been others after. However this is my favorite of the lot. The series had a total of 195 episodes each  being about 42 minutes or so.

Now let me start off by saying that the series does change its cast every so often. This being due to a variety of circumstances, but in the end the only 2 that stay for pretty much the entire thing are Detective Alexandra Eames, and Detective Robert Goren (The two in the center shown above). The series starts out with the first 4 seasons or so having half about the cops finding the criminal, then charging them. But the other half being filled with the law side of attempting to prosecute them. This ends up showing a side that a lot of other cop shows don't. Which adds it own set of intrigue to it. Unfortunately they dropped the courtroom side of things after the 4th season and they refocused on the cops side more. 

The series starts out not telling us much about the characters individual lives. And honestly they barely tell us much about anyone by the end except Goren. All kinds of stuff happens to him. Schizophrenic mother, drug addict brother, daddy-issued crazy childhood friend, super crazy and yet insanely awesome mentor (played by the incredible John Glover), a sociopathic grifting nemesis, a mostly useless nephew, a potential serial rapist/murderer father, and more. 

What the series lacks in personal characterizations, it makes up for in intelligent and interesting dialog and fascinating bad guys and scenarios for the characters to fight through. Some are predictable, and others are obvious. But it still has some unknowns.

I liked the show, but there were some problems therein. Especially the episodes with Jeff Goldblum, and I say that even though I very much like him as an actor. Law & Order Criminal Intent gets a score of 8.5 out of 11.

Tokyo Ghoul

This anime is violent, bloody, occasionally sexual, thrilling and most of all intense. This series is very recent having had its second season come out in early 2015. There are a total of 24 episodes.

The series revolves around Keneki. A young man who goes on a date with the beautiful Rize in the first episode, only to find that she is in reality a Ghoul. Or a being of incredible strength and supernatural abilities, that also just happens to consume humans. And on top of all that Rize is a little different than other ghouls, she doesn't eat for her own survival. She eats for the sheer pleasure of seeing the light drain from her victims eyes as she guts them alive and feasts upon their flesh. Unfortunately for her there is an "accident" during her pleasure time and she gets killed, at the hospital her organs are scooped out and placed into Keneki to keep him alive. And now he is a half human, half ghoul.

The first season is mostly about his struggle in dealing with his new found abilities, but more importantly his new found tastes and hunger. For ghouls cannot eat normal human food, they must consume human flesh to survive. Human food is somewhat like a poison to them if fully digested. So he hungers for blood but continues to refuse to eat on the lines of his morals. But he struggles through, he joins a group of ghouls who only eat flesh of those who are already dead, and work to help out and support other ghouls in trouble. But they must always be vigilant because there is a police-like organization CCG who hunt down and eliminate ghouls. This first season ends with a gigantic change awakening in Keneki which leads him to allowing his violent side to emerge.

The second season deals more with this new violent Keneki and the new organization he joins called Aogiri Tree. A group of ghouls bent on surviving and destroying those who might be a threat to them. All of this leads to some interesting characters and discoveries. One of which is that the CCG find out about his original group who helped in at the beginning and the war that ensues from this discovery. Keneki is constantly battling with himself and his urges, as well as with Rize who is now often present in his mind, and tends to represent his ghoul side. 

I really enjoyed the series. Sometimes I think we all need to watch some gory violence to satisfy our internal angers and struggles, and this show definitely provided that. That being said, I thought the end of the series was a bit weak. It doesn't end with that final blaze of glory I was hoping for. Now there is the potential that a third season may occur. However from what I have been able to find at this point in time, they are not planning to do so yet. In the end I give the series a 9.5 out of 11. A good show to watch if you want to see some blood.