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Blood - The Last Vampire [2000]

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > Anime
starring: Youki Kudoh, Saemi Nakamura, Joe Romersa, Rebecca Forstadt, Stuart Robinson (II)
directed by: Hiroyuki Kitakubo

September 17, 2001
I owned this DVD briefly, but only watched it once & then got rid of it because I really couldn't forsee myself wanting to watch it again. It'd just dull - unengaging, unoriginal, unentertaining. The animation in it is supposed to be a big deal, but since there's nothing to grab you in the plot or characters, it does not help to salvage this very lacklustre film. In vampire fiction terms it's also disappointing, as there are no real vampires in the conventional sense: the enemy is more of a giant flying demon bat thingy. For fans of vampire anime, I would suggest you don't bother with this one - go for Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust for an engaging fantasy yarn, or Hellsing for some cheesy blood & guts fun.

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Vampire Hunter D - Bloodlust [2000]

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > Anime
from: Optimum Home Entertainment

October 18, 2004
It only took 15 years but hey, its worth the wait .... this second vampire D film rockz!!!

The basic story for this is some powerful guyz daughter gets 'kidnapped' by a vampire and taken off into the dead of night and he hires D to hunt them both down ... return his daughter and kill his daughters kidnapper. The truth of it is the vampire and this girl are lovers and whilst trying to find her D comes up against rival vampire hunters, werewolves and even an armed mob lead by the local sherrif of a sleepy town D had buisness in a few years ago.

This film is varied, good graphics and alot of that gothic style you know you love..... def worth a look!!!

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Full Metal Panic - Complete Collection

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > Anime
by: Full Metal Panic

October 15, 2007
I actually bought this by accident after searching for Full Metal Alchemist, but this is great anyway!

You can find plot synopses anywhere, so I'm just going to say that the animation and music is great, as is the story. It alternates between upbeat, comedy episodes with Sagura (the militarian hero of the series) trying unsuccessfully to fit with people from school, and action episodes which see him fighting against terrorists. It's balanced pretty well so that the story flows along smoothly, although I felt it dragged occasionally during some of the combat scenes.

The protagonists are likeable and develop well throughout the series, and the villains suitably evil (seriously, Gauron is a complete freak). I watched it in Japanese ... Read More:

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Colorful [2003]

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > Anime
starring: Koki Tanaka, Sawako Agawa, Kanako Magara, Asuka Komayu, Yuki Kageyama
directed by: Shun Nakahara

October 20, 2003
Anime is often quite strange, particularly, I suspect, to the Western viewer. If you're looking for a fine example of this then look no further than the utterly bonkers, 'Colorful'. It consists of several short segments loosely joined together by repeating characters and situations, all of them devoted to making fun of the male obsession of catching a glimpse of the hidden delights of female underwear. Resolutely PC viewers may be appalled at this, but bear in mind that it is the male of the species that always comes out worse in these short films, while the females are uniformly portrayed as charming, innocent, intelligent, slightly bemused, or just plain sexy. For a start they are lovingly rendered, whereas the males are deliberately badly drawn, and depicted as stupid, ... Read More:

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Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within [Blu-ray] [2001]

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > Anime
starring: Alec Baldwin, Ving Rhames, Ming-Na Wen, Peri Gilpin, Donald Sutherland
directed by: Hironobu Sakaguchi, Sakakibara Motonori

November 05, 2007
I agree with pretty much all of the above reviews.

I would like to comment on the b-ray presentation, Picture quaality in nigh on suberb unfortunately, I did notice several scenes littered throughout the movie where backgrounds suffered from posterization. Now, I'm not sure if these flaws were present in the original picture or not. Scenes like Aki's ship landing in the opening 3:20, in the council chambers at 21:07 etc. For me that cost the review 1 star.

Sound quality is faultless.

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Pokemon 4Ever

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > Anime
starring: Veronica Taylor, Rachael Lillis, Eric Stuart (III), Madeleine Blaustein, Ikue Ootani
directed by: Jim Malone, Kunihiko Yuyama

October 20, 2003
I got this movie for my birthday, and I watched it about three times over. If you haven't seen the movie, then this is the story.
A young boy (who is actually a young Prof. Oak) ventures into the forest where Celebi lurks. He doesn't know this, but when a Scyther and Houndoom catches Celebi, the boy (named Sammy) saves the Celebi. It travels to the future and they meet Ash, Brock and Misty and Pikachu, but Celebi has already fled. They find the afraid Celebi in a small cave, but Sammy takes it and Celebi takes a great liking to Sammy and Ash. When Celebi grows weak, they bathe it in the Lake of Life.
A serious Team Rocket member possesses a ball called a 'Dark Ball' which catches the Pokemon and turns it evil. It catches Celebi, and the Rocket commands Celebi to destroy ... Read More:

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The Pokemon Chronicles - Vol. 1

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > Anime
starring: Eric Stuart; Rachael Lillis

June 13, 2005
I have not yet Purchased this on DVD, but by watching it on Toonami, I think it's amazing! The new Pokemon included give it a better Zing. All the new CGI in it make it much better aswell. I woulld love to buy it but lack the money.

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Azumanga Daioh Vol.1-6 - Complete

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > Anime
by: Azumanga Daioh

November 05, 2007
A Great and fun series!
im 14 and i enjoyed all of it
the way things keep happening like when sakaki gets bitten by the cat is so predictably funny!!
i expected about £30-40 for this but its so worth its money at £25!!

honestly this is my favorite high school anime by far!
especially the rivalry between the two classes!
reminds me of our school....
hehe
x
P.s - You get this really cool notepad and pencil which is a great surprise!

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Daft Punk - Interstella 5555 [2003]

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > Anime
starring: Daft Punk
directed by: Kazuhisa Takenouchi, Leiji Matsumoto

December 01, 2003
I have only recently started to listen to daft punk. But I decided to watch this. And I wasn't let down. This is a supurb anime film, but the difference is that there is no proper dialogue. Instead is the music from daft punk's second album, and this actually works really well. Also it has some great songs such as: Harder Better Faster Stronger, One More Time, Face to Face and Too Long. If you willing to see and listen to something different, then give this a go!

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Tokko - Complete Series Boxset

Childrens Toy Shop > DVD > Anime
by: Tokko

October 01, 2007
I purchased tokko randomly after reading some of the reviews below,
not expecting much more than another forgetable, seen it all before
anime that doesnt really bring anything new to the table.

And that preconception turned out to be quite true, Tokko rehashes the same
ground as such animé as bleach, gantz, urotsukidoji and hellsing,
the plot being pretty much a pastiché of all four, demons running
riot behind the scenes of everyday life in tokyo, only a select few
fighting against the odds to stop them and at times becoming something
similar to that which they hunt creating a moral dilemma,
leading to self sacrifice etc etc.

The thing about tokko is that it does add something a bit different to the
above formula ... Read More: