Air Gear

Air Gear  is a shonen manga and anime by the mangaka Oh! Great.
Air Gear is about the lives of Itsuki "Ikki" Minami and his friends along with the latest trend, Air Trecks. The early parts of the story carry out the introduction of characters that eventually join Ikki, and as the story progresses, it focuses on their roles as Storm Riders and their quest to be on the top of the Trophaeum Tower.

Main article: Air Gear Media and Materials

Air Gear has been serialized in Weekly Shonen Magazine since 2002. Currently, 17 tankobon have been released in Japan by Shounen Magazine Comics.

The Air Gear manga was licensed for release in the United States by Del Rey Manga and the first volume was released on July 25, 2006.^[3] Subsequent volumes will be released every three months.

ADV Films announced over the October 20, 2006 weekend at Oni-Con, that they had licensed the Air Gear anime for release in the USA.^[4] The first volume was released on February 6, 2007.^[5] ADV is releasing the uncensored Japanese home video version, rather than the broadcast version. On January 3, 2007, IGN released a special sneak peek of Episode 1 of the English Dub.^[6]

The series has also been made into a musical called Musical Air Gear,^[7] which made its debut on January 7, 2007 and ran until January 21, 2007. The musical is loosely adapted from the manga and is similar to the Prince of Tennis musicals in that all female roles are eliminted from the plot. The cast featured Kenta Kamakari, KENN, and Kenjiro Tsuda reprising their roles from the anime respectively as Ikki, Kazu, and Spitfire with Masaki Kaji (who had also starred with Kenta and KENN in the Prince of Tennis musicals), RUN&GUN, etc. as their co-stars.^[8]

Due to the success and popularity of the musical's first run, the musical will have a rerun in May 2007 titled, Musical Air Gear vs. Bacchus Super Range Remix (?????????·???vs.???? Super Range Remix, Musical Air Gear vs. Bacchus Super Range Remix^?) with the entire cast reprising their roles.

Ranma 1/2

Ranma ½  is a comedy manga and anime series created by Rumiko Takahashi. The story revolves around a 16-year old boy named Ranma Saotome who was trained from early childhood in martial arts. As a result of an accident during a training journey, he is cursed to become a girl when splashed with cold water, but hot water will change him back into a boy.

In Japan, the manga was serialized in Shogakukan's Shonen Sunday where it ran from 1987–1996. Takahashi has stated in interviews that she wanted to produce a story that would be popular with children. Ranma's main audience was boys from elementary to junior high school age.

Ranma ½ was extremely popular among American anime fans in the 1990s and popularized many of anime's most common visual gags. The infamous 'cursed springs' plot device has even come up in anime-themed custom role playing games as a quick transgender device. The anatomical logistics of the cursed condition were purposely glossed over by Takahashi to avoid complications or detractions from its comedic effect.

On a training journey in the Bayankala Mountain Range (Bayan Har Shan) in the Qinghai Province of China, Ranma and his father, Genma, fell into the cursed springs at Jusenkyo (loosely translated, it means "cursed springs village"). Each spring is associated with a story about someone or something that drowned in it hundreds or thousands of years ago. When one falls into a cursed spring, they take the physical form of whatever drowned there. Cold water initiates the curse while hot water reverses the effect. During a sparring match, Genma fell into the Spring of the Drowned Giant Panda, and Ranma fell in to the Spring of the Drowned Girl.

Upon returning to Japan, Genma informs Ranma that he has been arranged to marry a girl that he has never met. At the same time, Soun Tendo tells his three daughters that one of them is set to marry Ranma (whom they have never even heard of) for the Tendo dojo legacy to be carried on. When they first meet Ranma, he is in female form. This causes some confusion until Akane Tendo sees Ranma in his male form after walking in on him, as a stranger awaiting her in the family bath. When Ranma's curse is explained, Akane's older sisters push the engagement on her since she "hates boys" (due to being relentlessly pursued and attacked by a portion of the male student body) and "Ranma is half girl." The awkward relationship between Ranma and Akane is one of the focuses of the series.

Spirited Away

Spirited Away, originally known in Japan as Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi , is an Academy Award winning 2001 film by the Japanese anime studio Studio Ghibli, written and directed by famed animator Hayao Miyazaki. Its original Japanese title can be translated as The Spiriting Away of Sen and Chihiro or Sen and the Spiriting Away of Chihiro.
The film received many awards, including the second Oscar ever awarded for Best Animated Feature and the only winner of that award to win among five nominees (in every other year there were three nominees).

Synopsis

Chihiro is a 10-year-old girl who is moving to a new town with her parents. She is unhappy about the move and only considers how it will affect her, complaining about everything including her new school to the bouquet of flowers she was given as a parting gift from her friend wilting.

While trying to find a shorter route to their new home, Chihiro's father drives down a small road that ends at a mysterious building. Chihiro's parents are curious and walk through the dark entryway of the building. On the other side, they discover what they assume to be an abandoned theme park, which is later revealed as a borderland between the human world and the spirit world.

While strolling across a dry riverbed, Chihiro's parents smell food and follow the scent across a grassy plain to a small village full of restaurants. Although the restaurants appear empty, the tables are heaped with food. Chihiro's parents help themselves– with increasing gluttony– but Chihiro is reluctant to enter because she's afraid whoever made the food will catch them and be mad. When they offer her some food, she refuses and runs off. She discovers a large bathhouse and approaches a bridge leading to it. Before she can reach it, a boy, later revealed to be named Haku, approaches her and warns her that she must leave before night falls. At that moment, the sky darkens and the lamps of the bathhouse are lighted. Haku tells Chihiro to cross the river as fast as she can and says he will distract the others.

Chihiro runs back to the restaurant where her parents are still eating and discovers that they have transformed into pigs. She is terrified and tries to find her way back to the car. She is stopped in her path when she discovers that the grassy plain is submerged by a large body of water.

Chihiro's distress is compounded when she notices that she is becoming transparent. Haku finds her and gives her something to eat from the spirit world, so that she will not altogether vanish. He helps her sneak into the bathhouse, which is managed by a witch named Yubaba. He tells her that the only way she can safely stay there long enough to rescue her parents is to work in the bathhouse.

Chihiro, following Haku's advice, goes to the boiler room to ask the boiler man Kamajii for a job. He rebuffs her until one of his workers, an enchanted ball of soot, collapses under a lump of coal. Chihiro picks up the coal and carries it to the boiler. Although the coal is extremely heavy, she completes her task. Kamajii is pleased and decides to help Chihiro find a job by enlisting a young woman named Lin (Rin) to take the girl to Yubaba.

Chihiro discovers Yubaba to be a regal but monstrous woman. Chihiro asks for a job, despite Yubaba's repeated refusals. Yubaba eventually consents, on the condition that Chihiro give her name to Yubaba. The witch takes possession of Chihiro's name, grasping the signature from the contract and leaving Chihiro only one part of her two-character name on the paper. The kanji character with one stroke removed is pronounced "Sen."^[1] Now known as Sen, Chihiro is assigned to be Lin's assistant.

The next morning, Haku shows Sen that her parents are in a pen with other pigs. Haku gives Sen her old clothes and the card from her farewell bouquet of flowers. Sen reads the card and remembers her name. Haku warns her that Yubaba controls people by stealing their names; once they forget their names, as Haku forgot his, they belong to her.

The bathhouse brings out the dormant monster in No Face. Able to give mud the appearance of gold, he thrives on the greed of the bathhouse's employees. Eventually he becomes ravenous and eats everything in sight, including three bathhouse workers.

While No Face is transforming into a gluttonous monster, Haku returns to the bathhouse in the form of a dragon, pursued and attacked by a large flock of enchanted kirigami (paper) birds. Badly injured, he finds his way into Yubaba's office. Sen recognizes the dragon as Haku and goes to look for him, unaware that she is followed by one of the paper birds.

While looking for Haku, Sen encounters Yubaba's baby Boh, who wants to play with her. She escapes his grasp and finds Yubaba's servants, three disembodied heads called Kashira, trying to push Haku down a shaft. The paper bird that followed Sen transforms into Zeniba, Yubaba's twin sister, who was chasing Haku because he had stolen her seal. A spell is placed on the seal that kills anyone who steals it.

Zeniba transforms the baby into a mouse, Yubaba's harpy servant into a small bird, and the three heads to look like Boh, in order to fool Yubaba. Haku cuts the paper in two with his tail, which causes Zeniba's presence to disappear. He then falls down the chimney, taking Sen with him, but they land safely in the boiler room. Sen feeds Haku a piece of the river spirit's herbal cake, which causes him to spit out the stolen seal. On the seal is a black slug, which Sen destroys on the orders of Kamaji. She resolves to help Haku by returning Zeniba's seal and apologizing on his behalf. Kamajii gives Sen a train ticket and tells her how to find Zeniba.

Before she leaves, Sen returns to the bathhouse to confront No Face, who is calling for her in his delirium. She feeds him the remainder of the herbal cake, which causes him to regurgitate the food and three bathhouse workers he has eaten. His gluttony is cured once he follows her outside. Sen and No Face, accompanied by Boh and Yubaba’s flying servant, take a train to Zeniba’s home in Swamp Bottom.

Back at the bathhouse, Haku recovers from his wounds. When Yubaba learns that her baby is missing, she is enraged. Haku makes a pact with her to retrieve the baby, and in return, he demands that Yubaba send Sen and her parents back to their world. Yubaba accepts, on one condition: Chihiro has to correctly identify which of the pigs are her parents.

At Zeniba's cottage, Sen learns that the black slug she squashed was put in Haku by Yubaba, and allowed her to control him. Zeniba tells Sen that the only way the spell on her seal can be broken is by love.

Haku, again in the form of a dragon, finds Sen at Zeniba's cottage. Zeniba forgives him for stealing her seal and invites No Face to stay with her. Haku carries Sen back to the bathhouse, and while soaring through the air, Chihiro remembers that she and Haku had met before: When she was young, she fell into a river and survived because she was carried by the current to the shore. She was saved by Haku, who was the spirit of the Kohaku River. Upon remembering this, Chihiro tells Haku that his name is Kohaku, whereupon he is freed from Yubaba's control, and he and Chihiro profess their love for each other.

At the bathhouse, Chihiro must perform one final task to free her parents: She must choose them from a group of pigs. Empowered by her newfound courage, Chihiro accepts the challenge and correctly answers that none of the pigs are her parents. As a result, they are allowed to return to their world. Haku promises her that they will meet again one day.

Blood+

Blood+  is an anime series, produced by Production I.G and Sony's anime production arm, Aniplex, and is a continuation on the 2000 animated film, Blood: The Last Vampire.^[1]

It premiered in Japan across Sony's anime satellite television network, Animax, as well as terrestrial networks such as MBS, TBS, RKB, and others from October 8, 2005, to September 23, 2006. The series is available as internet high resolution streaming video provided by AII.co.jp for Japanese internet users on a subscription basis.

Blood+ was licensed for international distribution in numerous regions, including North America, by Sony's international film distribution arm, Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI) .^[2]

It was discovered on November 1, 2006 that Blood+ will be broadcast in the USA on Cartoon Network in the future. A schedule on Adult Swim appeared sometime in early February and stated that a new anime would be premiering March 10, 2007 after Trinity Blood ended its run; this was later confirmed to be Blood+.^[3] The episodes rotate between TV-14 and TV-MA for strong violence.

Introduction

Blood+ is set decades after the events of Blood: The Last Vampire. Under the care of her adoptive family, Saya Otonashi has been living the life of an anemic and amnesiac, but otherwise ordinary schoolgirl. Saya’s happy life is shattered when she is attacked by a chiroptera, and learns that she is the only one who can defeat them. Armed with her sword, Saya embarks on a journey with her family, allies and faithful servant, Haji, to rid the world of Chiroptera and rediscover her identity.

The series is initially set in present day (September 2005) Okinawa City (Koza), on Okinawa Island, near the US Kadena Air Base. In the course of the series, Saya visits locales across the world, while fighting enemy chiropterans and searching for her origins.

Gakuen Alice

The Alice Academy is allegedly located somewhere in Tokyo, beside a huge gorilla billboard. The size of the school grounds resembles the dimensions of a sprawling estate, reminiscent of the CLAMP School in CLAMP School Detectives. The grounds are enough to contain three levels of school (elementary, junior high, senior high) which respectively accompanies with a Hostel, as well as Central Town, where shops managed by Alice-bearing artisans sell goods resulting from their Alices.
In the Anime, the Academy has its own monetary system, the Rabbit (Rt). One Rabbit equals 100 yen. However, in the Manga, the Academy uses yen as their primary currency. There are four forests surrounding the estate.
The school has its own set of student representatives in addition to the top brass of the school.

Alices

In the story there are many types of Alices. The five main types of Alices are:

1. Latent Ability- Alices that are super powers (flying, mind reader, illusion, etc)
2. Technical - Alices that are based on technology and research fields (drawings, stuffed animals, invention)
3. Somatic type- Alices based on the body of humans, animals, and other living things (animal pheromone, voice pheromone, dog ears);
4. Special Ability Types - Alices that don't exactly fit in the three types of Alices above (nullification, shadow manipulation, doppelganging, time travel); and
5. Dangerous Ability Types - Alices that may be one of the above but are considered dangerous.

Every Alice is categorized as one of four shapes, that specify how much of it can be used and how often.

1. Childhood Alice: The Alice slowly disappears as the child with it grows into an adult.
2. Diffuse: The Alice is always available, but at a relatively low power level.
3. Intermittent: The Alice can only be used for a short period at any time, but at a relatively high power level.
4. Limitless: The Alice can be used as often and as much as desired, but each use impacts against the user's own life and can kill them if overused.