Erio Touwa is one of my favorite characters, ever. When I first saw the original Japanese release I fell in love with her. With the just right amount of “moe” without being annoying or too cliched. A young girl who is traumatized by some unknown event, tries to cope with it the only way she knows how. It’s heartbreaking in a way, but sets the viewer up for an even more heartwarming tale. What starts off as Makoto trying to debunk Erio’s supernatural way of thinking, turns into something much deeper for them and everyone they’re involved with. Another aspect that I really appreciated were the somewhat subtle hints of blooming love, they were there but didn’t bog down the story or turn into a creepy accidental incest like a certain MMORPG based anime, that just recently finished airing. Makoto and Erio aren’t the only two who are worthy of praise, Makoto’s classmates and friends deserve a bit of recognition too, because despite the fact that whole town knows who Erio is because of her strangeness. All of them are genuinely strange in some way or another, and they each add their own flair to the series. From Ryushi’s strange way of talking to Maekawa’s need to wear strange costumes.

SHAFT went all out animating Ground Control to Physcoelectric Girl, “Shafted” is the term used when Shaft gives a series a complete overhaul from its original TV version. From small particle effects that radiate from the female characters to the total reanimation of scenes. They spared no expense on the Blu-ray version either. Presented in stunning 1080p, it took pure will to tear my eyes off the TV screen. The same however, cannot be said about the DVD version, in an underwhelming 480i. I don’t recommend it unless a Blu-ray player is unavailable. Although the fanservice is light, it’s still there, and in all its uncensored glory. As always, the NIS release comes with a lovely slip cover that contains the discs  and a glossy story guide, filled with character concept art, brief character bios, as well as interviews with the voice actors and various staff. Theres not much in the special features department save for a clean opening and endings, as well as a japanese commercial. Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl is available now via NIS America.

The Crystal Empire is was a magical city, filled with love and joy until the evil King Sombra enslaved every pony within its walls. Due to the fact that the magic of the Crstyal Empire effected all of Equestria, Princess Celestia and her sister Princess Luna had no choice but to banish King Sombra to the cold wasteland, but his curse on the city caused it to vanish, and only return when he does. Great setup for a group of magical talking ponies, unicorns, and pegasi. When the Empire mysteriously reappears, one thousand years later, its up to Twilight Sparkle and her friends to help Shining Armor and Princess Cadence destroy the evil King Sombra, before he can spread his darkness across all of Equestria.

Adventures in The Crystal Empire is comprised of Crystal Empire Part 1 and Part 2, these are the first two episodes of the series’ third season, and three more episodes from earlier seasons. Sonic Rainboom, Luna Eclipsed, and It’s About Time. All of which have a moral or a positive message to teach the viewer. As the series went on the messages became more complex, for example in Crystal Empire Twilight Sparkle learns the value of self-sacrifice, and that the need of the many is more likely than not, more important than want of one. A lesson I believe many people should learn at a young age, in fact Lauren Faust created the series with the intent of teaching young girls that there is more to life than constant giggles and playing dress up.

The main ponies Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight Sparkle each represent a different element of harmony, laughter, honesty, kindness, generosity, loyalty and magic. These key elements play into many of the episodes, not so much in The Crystal Kingdom, but every pony has a skill they could contribute to the restoration of the kingdom.

If you’re watching the DVD on a computer, in the extras there are coloring sheets and sing-a-long sheets that can be printed out. My Little Pony Friendship is Magic Adventures in The Crystal Empire is available now from Hasbro.

As more girls are introduced and eventually move into the Kaoru/Aoi household, things get a little complicated, with some very serious moments of tension, and moments that make absolutely no sense at all. The amount of fan service J.C. Staff managed to squeeze in is ridiculous, it’s not as crazy as Ikki Tousen, but they don’t skimp at all, from huge breasts to lolicon. Social stereotypes are everywhere, from the loud mouth American to snotty rich British girl. It’s also apparent that the creators believe every Japanese man loves a traditional Japanese woman. Aoi is almost always the center of attention due to the fact that she wears a Kimono and appears frail, although her outwardly frailty belies a much a stronger woman.

The series isn’t all fan service though, the story is a fairly decent one although it flops at times.  A house filled with emotionally confused young adults, only one of which is a man is bound to have a lot of drama going on. Or so the viewer is led to believe. A lot of times the “drama” feels forced, and occurs in short bursts. It does help that Kaoru, the resident lover boy, is a really nice guy. He doesn’t fit the usual bill of raging pervert and has his eyes only on Aoi, most of the time. Along with the occasional random, accidental groping a few of the girls make various sexual advances on him. One episode even shows a little nipple, but the atmosphere is very serious and should not be taken lightly. That being said, the series is only rated TV 14.

Ai Yori Aoshi: The Complete Series is broken up into two seasons, the second is subtitled Enishi, when used in this particular context, it means the bond between family. A perfect description since the series leans away from just the singular relationship of Kaoru and Aoi, towards the family like bond between the entire group. The struggles of Kaoru and Aoi are still there, but there is a lot of one on one bonding between the other females within the household. As they come to realize why they love Kaoru, and that their feelings are much deeper than mere puppy love.

The set has some good extras, including two bonus episodes, the obligatory, clean opening and closings as well as music video and live performance by Yoko Ishida. The latter takes place during 2004’s Anime Expo in California. Lastly, the set includes a lovely reversible cover of Aoi, Ai Yori Aoshi The Complete Series is available now from FUNimation.

Although the situations may seem comical in nature, many of the skits recreate actual historic events. One good example is the portrayal of the invasion of Lithuania by the Teutonic Knights (Modern Day Prussia), in which he is shown to bully Lithuania, by threatening to torture them if they don’t convert to their order. Other skits include stereotypes of each of the personified countries, that adds some comedic flair. France is touted as smelling like cheese, Germany ends up being extremely mean and militant and Japan ends up being quiet and choose not to reveal their true feeling and motives to the other countries.

The writing for the English dub script is easily one of my favorite things about Hetalia: World Series 2. The dub cast isn’t that great, but the delivery and the vulgarity of it just made it extremely enjoyable. While the dub was certainly entertaining, the Japanese track felt much better, in terms of the cast and overall performance. Since the series is based off of the Japanese viewpoint of these different stereotypes, some of the gags fall somewhat flat and miss their mark. Another issue I had was with the variation of time frames with the series. At one moment, they’re referencing World War II and then the next jumping into events that happened in the Middle Ages, that make the series a chore to keep up with.

For the extras, there are five commentary tracks on the first disc, with the English dub cast talking about the series. On the second disc, Funimation packed a ton of features, aptly titled the “Hetalia Fan Disc”. There are in-depth explanations of the historical situations of various episodes, outtakes with the English dub cast, interviews with both the Japanese and English cast and a look at Hetalia events that have been created around the world. The show doesn’t have an opening theme song, so along with the text less closing theme, there’s also a music video for the closing song “Marukaite Chikyuu” sung by the voice actor, Daisuke Namikawa, who also does the voice for Italy in the series. The final extra on the fan disc are the “Chibitalia” segments that show all of the characters in chibi form acting out various segments not seen in the show. The two stories are how Italy ended up being part of the Holy Roman Empire and the other being the brotherly relationship between America and Great Britain.

I never knew what to expect when watching Hetalia: World Series 2 (Season 4), but it certainly grew on me once I got used to the pacing. Fans of comedy anime would certainly love Hetalia, but history buffs might be turned off by the erratic references that jumps around in time.

The movie opens with Yuri, Flynn, and their comrades in the Niren Corps setting traps to destroy monsters that have recently become more aggressive than usual. This is revealed later to be caused by an abnormal amount of Aer In the area. Aer is the source of not only magic, but all of the technology in the world of Tales of Vesperia. Most of the movie’s plot is fairly linear; in fact the entire movie serves only to build upon the personalities of Yuri and Flynn in the game. There are many nods to fans with minor appearances from characters that have much larger roles in the game as well as an easter egg from Playstation 2 and Nintendo 3DS’ Tales of the Abyss.

Along with being nostalgic for fans, one of the movie’s best selling points are the visuals. Animated by the critically acclaimed Production I.G. the studio behind Eden of the East and Ghost in the Shell they hold nothing back when it comes to visual effects. The spell casting is astonishing in HD, and watching Yuri flourish his blade with all the dexterity and agility he had in the game is just as amazing. Along with the eye candy, both Troy Baker and Sam Riegal reprise their roles as Yuri and Flynn. Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike is definitely a must buy for fans of the series, they even go so far as to play the opening cut scene of the game in the end credits. Anime enthusiasts may be slightly disappointed by the somewhat lackluster plot, but this should not deter them as the visuals are quite astounding.

Special features include the U.S trailers, all of the Japanese promotional footage from theatrical to TV trailers, as well as an interesting video called Picture Sound, a  musical slide show of various characters from the movie, the original Xbox 360 game and the Playstation 3 version of the game which was never released in the US.

I recently had the pleasure of watching FUNimation’s Dragon Ball Z: Kai Season Two set, which opens at the end of the “Namek Saga,” continues through the “Captain Ginyu Saga,” and concludes with the beloved “Frieza Saga.” I had known that new scenes were added to DBZ: Kai, but the amount of new content blew me away. Nostalgia overtook me as I relived my childhood through the “Frieza Saga,” one of my favorite arcs in DBZ.

When the set opens, our heroes have traveled halfway across the galaxy in order to retrieve the Namekian Dragon Balls and revive those who had been killed during the “Saiyan Saga.” With Goku still some hours away from Namek, Krillin and Gohan try to prevent the last Dragon Ball from falling into the hands of Vegeta and Frieza who only want them for personal gain. With the appearance of Frieza’s Ginyu Force, Vegeta, Krillin, and Gohan are forced to team up to defeat these seemingly unstoppable new foes. Vegeta shows some impressive fighting ability, and although he continues to talk big and back stab our heroes, he manages to come through in the end.

All the fights in Dragon Ball Z Kai: Season Two are amazing, but the final fight between Goku and Frieza is where this set really had me on the edge of my seat. Even though someone with a trained eye would clearly be able to distinguish between the new and old animation, it doesn’t take away from the high octane experience in the least. It should also be noted that Frieza’s new voice actor, Chris Ayres is absolutely phenomenal.

Like the other Dragon Ball Z Kai releases, this one is lacking in special features. It includes a clean opening and closing and a really interesting U.S. cast interview in which the cast discusses their individual characters. Dragon Ball Z Kai: Season Two is simply a repackaging of the previously released Parts Three and Four; so buyers should only invest in this if they didn’t pick up those parts the first time around.

FUNimation’s Dragon Ball Z: Kai Part Eight collects the final nine episodes of the series, which wraps up with the “Cell Games Saga,” an arc which many argue is the best in the series. Here we see Z Fighter Gohan at his best. Not only must he fight an extremely powerful foe, but he also battles his own reluctance to give in to the anger that gives him power. In this, he contrasts his father, Goku, who has always enjoyed fighting. Only after seeing his friends defeated by Cell’s minions does Gohan learn that there are some foes who just cannot be reasoned with and that its okay to fight for justice.

With much provocation by Cell, Gohan explodes with rage and awakens within him a new level of Super Saiyan power. Throughout the course of the battle, and even more so during the final four episodes, there are hints that this may have been intended to be the final arc in the series. Although it’s still just a rumor, many fans within the DBZ fan community have argued that Akira Toriyama originally intended the series to end with the Cell Games. The characters’ inability to revive Goku coupled with the final farewells of all the Z fighters makes it hard to think otherwise. Personally, I’m glad that Dragon Ball Z: Kai ends with the Cell Games, and, from what I’ve read, the creators of Kai have no future plans to incorporate the rest of the series.

Visually, DBZ: Kai looks great, with a few exceptions. There were a few scenes, for example, that strangely looked as if they had been cut out of a flash animation. For fans who have seen Dragon Ball Z: Kai air on television, all the censored material has been restored for the Blu-ray release, which means no dots where halos should be and Mr. Popo is back to his original color. While FUNimation’s release of Part Eight is lacking in special features, there’s an interesting web interview with director Christopher Sabat, also known for voicing both Piccolo and Vegeta, and Sean Schemmel, the voice of adult Goku. Both men express their love of the DBZ series as a whole and their enjoyment of DBZ: Kai.

Dragon Ball Z Kai is an amazing addition to the DBZ re-releases but it’s clearly meant for those who are new to the series, and only newcomers or diehard DBZ collectors should consider making this purchase. Everyone else will be better off purchasing the FUNimation Remastered Box Sets or waiting until the Blu-ray releases of the unedited DBZ are taken off FUNimation’s back burner.