Haibane Renmei is the anime (TV-series, 13 episodes) about Rakka, an angel-like creature, and how she adapts to her life after “birth”. From her dream of falling (Rakka = Falling, how she got her name), to hatching out into this new world, she has no memories of who she was, or what happened, just like all the other Haibane. After the painful process of her wings sprouting and the awkward period of adjusting to her wings and halo, Rakka sets out to show us the world she fell into. In this medival looking world(complete with mopeds and school uniforms), the winged and haloed little angel people help out and voulnteer their services in exchange for goods and other things in the small town and countryside area surrounded by a giant wall. No Haibane is allowed outside the wall, and is represented by a person in a ghibli-esque mask from the outside world for unknown reasons, but it all is accepted as normal. The other Haibane, all named for their type of dream, seem happy in their work. Reiki, the oldest, seems to be the boss and shows Rakka thee ropes.

This is not your typical anime. There isn’t a lot of action like Full Metal Alchemist or comedy as in Azumanga Daioh, but Haibane Renmei still stands as a really good anime with other qualities such as it’s connotative tones towards religious aspects and general progression of life. Unfortunately, there are some themes in this anime that have no closure. I was left with unanswered questions in the end.

Haibane Renmei is one of the most wonderfull and kind Anime series I have ever seen. A beautiful story, beautiful score and lots of moments which will touch your heart deeply. All in all very epic with a storyline which lets space for your own thoughts. If you aren’t afraid of actionless but ambitious Animes don’t hesitate to get a chance to have a look at it

Masamune Shirow is now one of the most famous anime and manga creators in the world. Indeed, for a time, he was more popular outside of Japan than inside. He was chosen as an early author to bring to the West because of many stylistic similarities between his work and traditional American comics.

Ghost in the Shell is a famous anime in the West based on his work, hence his popularity. Many people mistake him for the creator of the original anime movie, but he had no major role in its production. Mamoru Oshii directed both movies, which were adaptations of several chapters of the original manga put to film. However, he did play a role in the development of the TV anime series Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.

Much of Shirow’s work consists of high-tech themes underscored by tongue-and-cheek humor. He also fuses the world of science and technology with religion and spirituality. As the Internet and other technological advances continue to dominate society, he questions our ability to retain our humanity. That’s not to say Shirow doesn’t embrace the new world order - in fact, he postulates that technology has a mythic element to it. “I do think science and technology are becoming more like magic,” he explains.

I loved this anime when I was a kid : )

Here is a synposis of each Macross series and movie to date…

Super Dimension Fortess Macross (1982-1983, Japen, TV, 36 episodes)

Super Dimension Fortress Macross is inarguably one of the signature anime titles of the 1980s.
In 1999, a city-sized alien spacecraft crashes on Earth, and the humans rebuild the spacecraft just before a fleet of Zentradei warships arrive on the hunt for the ship belonging to their enemy, the Supervision Army. Meanwhile, a young pilot comes of age and struggles with a love triangle between a rising pop singer and a dedicated bridge officer. During the war that ensues, the human crew operating this untested alien ship find themselves alone in fending off the invaders. Due to inexperience operating the ship, they end up stranded on the edge of the solar system, with the city that grew around the restored space craft as refugees within the ship. The malfunctioning “fold system”, which usually allows rapid space travel, refuses to work, causing the crew to take about a year to return to Earth using conventional engines.

This series has a prequel and sequels…

Macross: Do You Remember Love? (1984, movie)

It is a retelling of the original series in movie form.

The Super Dimension Fortess Macross: Flashback 2012 (1987, OAV, 1 episode)

It is a collection of music videos from The Super Dimension Fortress Macross anime and The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? movie. It also contains several minutes of all-new footage that depicted story events that were initially planned but not animated for the endings of the television series (the launch of the Megaroad colonization ship captained by Misa Hayase/Misa Ichijyo) and the film (the final concert on Earth for Lynn Minmay.) Preliminary designs were created for these story events in the production of the earlier works, but Flash Back 2012 was the first time that these events were animated. (The earlier preliminary designs were replaced with new designs by the original director/mechanical designer Shoji Kawamori, original character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto, and original mechanical designer Kazutaka Miyatake.)
The premise of the collection is a farewell concert by Lynn Minmay, who is leaving the Earth on its first long-distance colony vessel—Megaroad-01.

Macross II:Lovers Again (1992, OAV, 6 episodes)

This six episode mini-series takes place eighty years after Space War I (the first Human-alien war), and the events depicted in the first Macross story. Many fans don’t consider Macross II to be canon because the production did not involve the original Macross creators from Studio Nue. Macross II is available in America.

Macross Plus (1994, OAV, 4 episodes)

It is a four-episode anime OVA and theatrical movie in the Macross series.
The OVA version consists of four episodes, each approximately 37-40 minutes in length. The movie version consists of the footage from the OVA and about 20 minutes of new footage, reedited for the original script outline. (The scriptwriter Keiko Nobumoto originally wrote Macross Plus as a feature-length work before the script evolved into the four-volume video series. The movie edition returns the story to the initially planned feature length.) The main characters are Ismau Dyson, Guld Goa Bowman, and Myung Fan Long. It is available in America

Macross 7 (1994, TV, 49 episodes)

Macross 7 is an anime television series. It is a spin-off of the show The Super Dimension Fortress Macross that takes place many years after the events of the first series following a cast of mostly new characters. The series runs for 49 episodes, and it’s not legally available in the USA.

Macross Dynamite 7 (1997, OAV, 4 episodes)

Macross Dynamite 7 is an anime OVA set one year after the events in Macross andMacross Dynamite 7. It was a four episode OVA that continued the Macross 7 series’ story. It is not legally available in the USA.

Macross Zero (2002, OAV, 5 episodes)

Macross Zero is an anime prequel OAV to The Super Dimension Fortress Macross consisting of five episodes. It is set nine years after the fall of an alien spaceship on Earth and one year before Space War I, the first large-scale extraterrestrial war. It’s not legally available in the USA.

Macross Frontier (2008, TV, 25 episodes)

Macross Frontier marks the 25th anniversary of the Macross anime franchise. It is a direct sequel to the first Macross series and Macross 7 and follows the lives of Alto Saotome, Ranka Lee and a pop idol named Sheryl Nome on board the Macross Frontier colonization fleet. After the war against the Zentradi aliens, Humankind has spread across the universe in order to ensure its survival. The Macross Frontier fleet is part of a effort to spread and maintain the culture of humanity.

Nana is the title of the latest hit manga. It is about two girls who are the same age, have the same first name Nana, and share an apartment together, yet they are both totally different, or so they think. Together they experience the trials and tribulations of living and working in Tokyo. The first edition of the latest Nana book has sold 1.7 million copies, bringing the total sales of the twelve books published so far to a staggering 22 million copies. Everyone who read Nana appreciate the realism of the stories and find that they can relate to the two lead characters.

There is 20-year-old Nana “Hachi” Komatsu is a ditsy girl who, in her head, thinks she’s easy and can never find a job because of her lazyness. She went to Tokyo to live with her high school sweetheart, Shoji. Then there is Osaki Nana, a singer in the rock band Black Stones, or BLAST for short. She travels to Tokyo to make her big break and maybe reunite with her old love, Ren, who moved to Tokyo a year before her to join the band TRAPNEST, while she is also coming to terms with the emotional scars from being abandoned by her mother. The series gives a realistic portrayal of the two friends’ travails, romances, and dreams as they go about their lives in Japan’s capital.

The stories in Nana are about the realities of life. This is a big contrast to most other manga aimed at girls and young women, whose dream-like themes tend to revolve around fantasy and love. Nana’s heroines are independent by nature and their lives are an emotional roller coaster of worry and sadness mixed with interludes of joy. They display both strengths and weaknesses. As for the men in the stories, they fall well short of the prince charming stereotype, riddled as they are with their own flaws and shortcomings.

This realism allows the readers to relate the gritty experiences of the two Nanas to their own lives. One of the secrets of the comic’s success is that it assures readers that their own problems are not unique.

“Fly me to the moon”…

You really have to love the art of him. I think Masakazu Katsura draws the prettiest manga girls.

The story

The title of manga comes from the initial letter of the 3 main characters - Ichitaka, Iori and Itsuki.

I’’s is a story about a guy name Ichitaka. You see, Ichitaka had a bad experience with a girl that he like when he was small. Since then he afraid to confess to the girl he likes. Now he fell in love with Iori, a beautiful model-like classmate who is nearly perfect. She is also a drama actor in the drama club.

Once all kind of obstacles started to fall on Ichitaka. He branded pervert and such. However, a chance came when they were paired for a project and hence the name I”s as their group name. Slowly, Iori notices Ichitaka’s warm and kindness. Ichitaka on the other hand is trying very hard not to take advantage of Iori on so many occasion.

However, things took a twist when Ichitaka’s childhood friend Itsuki appear. Remembered as a tomboy, she turn up to be a beautiful girl. Itsuki thus enter the triangle of the I”s team. Itsuki move abroad about 4 years ago and now she return perhaps to rekindle old love flame.

But Ichitaka didn’t have any feeling for her except as a childhood friend. And not to mention that Iori thought that Itsuki is his girlfriend. Yet Itsuki encourages Ichitaka on to keep pursuing Iori. Sooner or later, Ichitaka is bound to realise Itsuki’s love for him. Then who would he choose?

Masakazu Katsura’s characters have a realistic and familiar quality that makes it easy to identify with their identities and situations. In I”s, Katsura has even managed to remove any fantasy elements in his work and gives us a love story that could have happened to you or someone you know.

The manga artist is not known for being an ecchi artist for nothing and his work in I”s is no exception. However, despite the large amount of gratuitous panty shots and cleavage art, there are chapters that made good use of these elements to explore the physical side of the characters’ love

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