Akemi's Anime World

2006 What's New

Dec 14, 2006

Quickie between unpleasant medical procedures: New review of Grenadier: The Smiling Senshi from Chainclaw. More from him (and others) to follow.

Dec 12, 2006

Coming to you live from the Mayo Clinic waiting room, an update courtesy the free wireless in frighteningly expensive hospitals.

Anyway, a review of Revelation, the first of a new entry in the interesting indie D7 saga. We've also opened an Amazon-powered Akemi's a(nime)Store with heaps of new and used anime for your shopping pleasure. Plus, if you haven't noticed, we've been seriously beefing up the various ways of narrowing down the reviews to stuff you're interested in. Links to suggested titles in the righthand info box will now take you right to that review, so you can "surf" your way through suggestions, and we've added indexes by star rating (so you can find the best of the best or worst of the worst) and a content guide, which should give you a nice list of films with your favorite stuff in them; Ninjas, say, or all the shoujo-inspired anime. Both are available right from the top of the menu on every page, or linked directly from any of the reviews in the appropriate category.

Since we're just getting warmed up, if you have suggestions for categories you'd like to see, or things we've left out of the categories we have, by all means hit that contact form and let us know! There are also a bunch more reader reviews on deck, coming as soon as I've got time to get them formatted and up.

Nov 12, 2006

After a whole mess of behind-the-scenes work, catching up on the reader reviews submitted since the overhaul. First off for the day, a review of Gungrave from M Man. Along with that, we've got several reviews of gory titles from new reviewer Damian: Gantz, Mad Bull 34, Wicked City, Goku: Midnight Eye, and Demon Lord Dante.

Second, I want to take the opportunity to point out that Bandai's new Honneamise division is FINALLY releasing a proper DVD version of the forgotten classic Gunbuster. In celebration of such, we've touched up the review of it, tossed in some images for those who've forgotten what it looked like, and completely re-did our translations of the full opening and ending songs of the series in new, spiffier, drastically more accurate format (now with Japanese text, Romaji, and English translation, plus an easily accessible plain-text form). Go preorder your copy if you haven't already, and read the review if you don't know why you should. We're also working on touching up our other song lyrics, but since I'm re-translating everything more accurately, it'll take a bit.

Oct 31, 2006

A little late for a Halloween treat, but in the spirit of things how about a totally re-written review of the old action-horror flick Battle Royal High School and for the heck of it a new review of the old Go Nagai quickie Iron Virgin Jun--it's not horror, but it's kind of horrifying anyway.

Oh, and if you hadn't noticed, there's now a searchbox for the site in the lefthand menu of every page to help you find what you're looking for a little more easily.

Oct 25, 2006

Still working our way through the reader review backlog. New for the day are two reviews from Wolfwood: Gundam SEED Destiny (a follow-up to Wolfwood's Gundam SEED review that took way too long to post) and Curse of the Undead: Yoma, and old-school samurai gore flick. Also new is a quick official review of the (rightfully) little-known Demon Fighter Kocho, as well as a complete re-write of the official review of one of my personal favorites, Gunnm (aka Battle Angel; the old review was the second review on the site, way back in 1997).

Oct 18, 2006

As of today another 15 old reviews down, only four to go. Three of those four are really old--the second review on the site from back in 1997 and a couple more from 1998--so they're going to get a complete rewrite, just for the heck of it. Speaking of which, here's a couple of old reviews that got total rewrites relatively recently, if you happen to be interested: Battle Arena Toshinden and AKIRA. More reader reviews on the way, as well.

In other news, a new drawing lesson from Tachihohe is up, this one on eyes. Check it out in the "How to draw" section.

Oct 09, 2006

The update grind continues. New for the day are two reader reviews from the always-funny Animonster: Samurai Champloo and Fullmetal Alchemist. We're still working our way through the submission backlog that built up during my illness, so if you're waiting for a review you submitted to see the light of day, it'll be soon. Also lots of work behind the scenes on those orphaned reviews: 28 down, 19 to go--all of the previously-posted reader reviews have been refreshed with new information and brought into the new look. Oh, there are also spiffy new banners for the "Learn" and "Reviews" sections--hit reload on one of the pages if you're not seeing them for some reason.

Oct 01, 2006

Still working our way through the review backlog. New for the day are reader reviews of Final Fantasy: Advent Children, from M Man, and two more from Chainclaw: Tokyo Mew Mew and a second opinion of Millennium Actress.

There is also a lengthy new official review of the spectacular The Place Promised in Our Early Days.

That's not the end of it, either--there are a half dozen more reader and official reviews on the way, some submitted quite a while back. Speaking of which, we got a hefty review of I, My, Me: Strawberry Eggs with absolutely no byline. If that was yours, please let us know who you are so we can post it!

Note, further, that as part of our new look, there are still a number of "orphaned" reviews. No, not reviews of Orphen, but some of the oldest reviews at the site that have yet to be brought into our new system and so, while they're still "there," they're functionally invisible. We're updating, beefing up the info and trivia, and bringing them online as fast as possible. Currently 47 left "out in the cold," which is about ten less than last week. If you've submitted a reader review that was up before and is gone now, fear not--it shall return.

Sep 23, 2006

As promised, the first of a large backlog of reader reviews, all of Lupin III films to go with that Cagliostro review: Secret of Twilight Gemini, Voyage to Danger, Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure, and Dragon of Doom all from Chainclaw.

Sep 20, 2006

Welcome to the all-new, all-improved look of Akemi's Anime World. It's actually still not quite finished, so there will be adjustments, but I wanted to get rolling publicly as soon as possible. If you've been here before, it may look funny--try hitting the reload button to get any old junk out of your cache. We've done a lot of testing in different browsers, but we can't test everything and we're doing some moderately fancy stuff here, so if you see something that looks drastically wrong on your computer, please let us know so we can try to fix it.

We have tested the site with Firefox and other Gecko-based browsers (including the newest version of Netscape), Safari, Opera 9, Internet Explorer 7, 6, 5.5, 5, 4, and 3, Netscape 4, iCab, Explorer 5 for the Mac, and Lynx. The fanciest features will look best in good browsers--Firefox, Opera, Safari, and their kin--but it will look almost perfect in IE7 (you should really get this if you're committed to Explorer), 6, and 5.5. IE5 on Windows will have a couple things that look off, but should otherwise be fine, although if you're still using it you really should upgrade or switch to something else (IE5 on the Mac is fine). It looks awful in IE4 but is still useable, and in IE3, Netscape 4, Lynx, or any other very old browser it will look incredibly bland but is totally functional--if you're still using something that old for some reason, be glad that you can still get to the information.

Notes on the new look for those interested: The new site template (with the possible exception of an ad here or there) is valid XHTML1.0 Strict (a couple pages are Transitional), and all styling is done with CSS. We're using a few fancy CSS features that are only supported in very new browsers (including some CSS3 that, as far as I know, only works in Safari right now), but that's just "sparkle" and doesn't affect anything if your browser doesn't support it.

There are still pages or entire sections of the site that have not had their look updated, and some of our content has yet to be brought over into the new system, so if you run across a crusty-looking page somewhere, our apologies--we're working our way through. Also, we have a number of reader reviews still on the way, but we wanted to get this look live before publishing them, so they get all the benefits of the new look.

Sep 14, 2006

In celebration of Manga's new Castle of Cagliostro Special Edition DVD, we have an all new review of it. This will be followed shortly by a couple more Lupin III movie reviews from readers, as well as more. And, our new look is coming. Soon.

Sep 04, 2006

Very quick note to say that just after noon local time today AAW saw its six millionth visitor. Thank you! (Numbers are, of course, approximate.)

Aug 29, 2006

New review today of the indie web-to-DVD production Broken Saints, the first by our editor, Loretta. It's a weighty review, but then it's a weighty series.

Incidentally, though things have been quiet around here due to ongoing illness (yes, it's that bad), there has been movement behind the scenes. Since the last noted update, we've done minor updates (including the addition of proper information and trivia) to approximately 50 older reviews, significant re-writes of about a dozen, and major re-writes of eight (cutting some of our longest older reviews to about half their previous length). There are also 30 new or updated quick reviews, which now include some of the oldest reviews on the site.

There are also a number of reviews that are effectively "new," since they'd more or less disappeared after being accidentally deleted from the indexes. They're now properly indexed and such a thing won't happen again thanks to the modernized system.

On that note, there are now two ways to search AAW: Using Google from the box at the top of this page, and a title search of all the anime we review, available at the top of the title index page. The title search is now completely up to date, though it doesn't yet include the oldest reviews that haven't been brought into our new system yet. It does, however, include common alternate titles, so if you type a word or two in there there's a good chance if it's on the site that'll come up with it.

Jun 18, 2006

Keeping up the momentum, we have three heavily rewritten reviews in our ongoing quest to improve the writing on this site and bring the oldest material up do date: They Were 11, Photon, and Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge, as well less major re-writes of Shinesman, and MAPS. All are significantly shorter (except for MAPS, one of our earliest reviews), clearer, and include some added trivia.

I would also like to take a moment to introduce our new editor, Loretta. She has extensive professional experience in the field, and has helped polish up the last few new reviews we've published, as well as ensure they don't have so much as a single grammatical or punctuation mistake. Hopefully the improvement is noticeable for our longtime readers. Her assistance is part of our effort begun last year to improve the writing at AAW, both by limiting the length of reviews (and majorly cutting down overgrown older ones) and (hopefully) improving the quality of writing.

Jun 15, 2006

An update! To get warmed up, we have an introductory review of Manga's upcoming supernatural investigative series Tactics, a bit in advance of the DVD release thanks to a courtesy review copy they sent.

On the topic of our editorial staff's recovery, it appears to be progressing very, very slowly in the right direction. Here's a report if you're really interested in what's up.

Apr 16, 2006

Happy Easter to those who celebrate the holiday. Happy Spring to those who don't. AAW is still in a holding pattern awaiting improved health, but I appear to be heading in the right general direction now. Nobody is hoping for a return to regular updates more than me.

Mar 14, 2006

Another status update: Our editorial staff (me, Makosuke) has been entirely bedridden for upwards of a month now. After at long last seeing some fancy specialists in San Francisco, there is finally at least a diagnosis. There is no simple cure, so it may be a while yet before I'm back with the postponed overhaul plan and regular updates, but there is hope of eventual recovery in sight now. I'll post a report for anyone who might be interested in details at some point when I'm closer to recovered and the site has been properly updated.

Jan 26, 2006

Status update: Our one-man editorial staff is extremely ill, which is why nothing has happened here the past three weeks. A wide variety of expensive and unpleasant tests are being preformed, so hopefully the problem will be diagnosed and repaired relatively soon. Please bear with the delay, and our new look and regular updates will resume immediately as soon as is physically possible.

Jan 01, 2006

Happy 2006... and nothing to see yet. I plead act of God. The series of storms hammering the Pacific Northwest hit us directly, and the entire county was without power for most of the past two days. Interesting changes will happen relatively soon, though.