| Low-carb eye candy▲▼ | Rating▲▼ | Comment▲▼ |
| Amazing Nuts! (OAV) | Excellent | |
| Ame to Shoujo to Watashi no Tegami (ONA) | Decent | Clumsy storytelling, very interesting artwork. Here's hoping that "digital Doujinshi" really take off big time |
| Appleseed (movie) | Not really good | Motion capture is such a wrong, wrong idea, be it for SF or christmas tales. Let the technology mature another decade before you give us headaches again, pleeease. |
| Beyond (OAV) | Decent | Unforgivable. The Animatrix made us believe Reloaded and Re-fried might actually be any good. We should sue for false advertisement. |
| Connected (OAV) | Decent | |
| (The) Diary of Tortov Roddle (ONA) | Very good | |
| Extra (OAV) | Very good | A.k.a. "The Ghost in the Drum Box". You have to worry a little bit about the mental stability of people able to so casually toss out imagery like this. Just a little bit, though. |
| Four Day Weekend (OAV) | Decent | |
| (The) Garden of Sinners (movie series) | Good | |
| Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (movie) | Good | This is what you get when you upload a Bartlett's into your Cyberbrain, and then take a big hit form your cyberbong. Sorry, it just ain't the same without Motoko. |
| Kakurenbo - Hide & Seek (OAV) | Decent | Ah, this is more like it: understand your limitations before you advance, said master Sun. This short shows the way to avoid the pitfalls of motion capture: mask your characters to avoid the Eyes From Hell problem, and keep the story dark (illumination-wise as well as narrative-tone-wise). The plot is gossamer-thin and not exactly original, but the story does its job of providing a barebones scaffold for the pretty images and absinthe-dream characters. |
| Metropolis (movie) | Weak | Impeccable pedigree, and sure it's purty and Langy to look at. Shame it's as dull as an "Antiques Roadshow" special on Art Deco lampshades. |
| On Your Mark (movie) | Very good | The ultimate AMV. |
| Paprika (movie) | Excellent | |
| (The) Place Promised in Our Early Days (movie) | Decent | Visually gorgeous, but Shinkai needs to start asking someone to help him with his scripts. A must for military gearheads. |
| (The) Sensualist (OAV) | | |
| Sky Blue (Korean movie) | Good | Visually striking, if overbusy. Pity the storytelling was so cliched and clumsy. |
| Steamboy (movie) | Very good | Otomo is baaack. Visually, this is every bit the treat you’d expect – this is one you *have* to watch on the big screen. The art is breathtaking, especially the crisp Victorian backgrounds and the gearhead-paradise mechanical design, and the animation is fluid and exciting. Now again, Otomo is baaack, stuffing his restless adventure with whizz-bang action sequences without bothering to give it much of a dramatic core. Unfortunately, too, the plot makes you expect Will Smith to drop by at any moment. Eek! |
| Survival 2.7D (OAV) | | |
| Tales of the Street Corner (movie) | Good | |
| Tobira o Akete (OAV 1995) | Good | A slight but ever-so-pretty CGI fable, with the usual fantastic 4C background art. The style and color palette respectfully tips its hat to George Dunning. |
