Monday, April 11, 2011

Popular New Japanese Anime Series

Japanese anime has become a popular entertainment import into the North American television circuit. Many of the shows have developed cult followings containing both adult and youth fans. Some of the most well-known anime television series were Pokemon, Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon. All three shows became household names, first starting out as imports and then later developing into full-blown commercial successes. While they can still be viewed as re-runs on television, there is a new generation of anime shows that has taken over where the originals started. Each was somewhat of a success in Japan, however they have become even bigger in the North American market.
Bakugan
The Bakugan series was originally a failure in Japan as far as television shows goes. It was not until it was brought to North America that it developed a popular following. The anime is about a card game known as "Bakugan" and follows an adolescent named "Dan" as he and his friends' battle through the card game to save another universe known as "Vestroia". The game contains marbles that transform into monsters when they land on different cards. Presently, 48 different marble monsters exist in the first series.
The card game that is introduced in the anime has also been commercially made for purchase at toy stores. Children or adults can buy the cards along with the marble figures to play against friends in their own time.
Beyblades
Beyblades is another anime import from Japan. Unlike its counterpart above, the show was a huge success in Japan and is the reason that it was imported to North America. The plot follows an adolescent named "Tyson Granger", who is described as a strong willed kid that participates in competitions featuring Beyblades. The Beyblades are metal tops that compete against each other in a circular or square ring to see who can knock the other one out. Tyson leads a group of called the BBA revolution through a series of challenges with the ultimate goal being the world tournament. At the tender age of 16, he is already a world champion, but the real goal is to maintain his status and fend off challenges from other characters.
Similar to the Bakugan series, kids can buy their own Beyblades to battle against one another and hold their own tournaments. There is a variety of differently styled Beyblades that you can purchase. Kids can also buy their own launchers, which equip their blades with different spinning techniques.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6074860

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Anime Review - Naruto and Naruto Shippuden

What do you get when you mix Dragonball Z and Ninjas together? You get Naruto. Naruto is an very long, but entertaining anime. The first series running about 220 episodes and the second series, Shippuden, running about 150 episodes, yet it is big even today. It has some of the most interesting story arcs you can find, and the animation is top notch. But with an anime this large there doesn't seem to be an end in sight yet. So how much longer can this anime go on before losing the attention of Otakus?
Now the first place any reviewer should start for this anime is the characters. This anime has a lot of characters. In every story arc they create new good and bad guys, go into there back stories, and by the end of the arc you grow to love them. This here is the reason why most fanfic writers love this anime. When you get so many characters, you can have a lot of material to write. But Characters are not enough to create a great anime, you need a story.
The story is amazing. It is moved along completely by the characters, with very little out side force. Story arcs are all different and entertaining, with the exceptions of the fillers, the story is really good. But as I said, there are a few things dragging down the story, and you can't talk about Naruto with out talking about them.
First, it is long. If you have a low attention span, then some of the longer story arcs feel like a task getting through. The last story arch lasted 20 episodes! Then there is the evil every Naruto fan knows all about: fillers. Filler arcs are used when an anime that is based off of a manga, like Naruto, catches up with the manga. They are used to kill time till the manga is far enough out that they can continue on with the story without problems. Now I will be honest, I haven't watched every filler episode, for a reason. Naruto has 3 years worth of fillers, and by the time I got to them Shippuden came out. Now Shippuden creators have made some interesting fillers as of late, fitting them into the story by filling some holes that the manga didn't, so hopefully this means they are trying a little more to make quality fillers.
Naruto is really good, for the most part it is fun and entertaining, the characters are good and the story is interesting, and if they keep up what they are doing, then I think this anime would be worth watching till the end. You can check out Naruto on Hulu.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/2534687