Anime of the Year 2000-III Summer - Strange Dawn

Strange Dawn made my day. Vampire Hunter D (2000) also deserves a mention.

1. Hand Maid May HAND MAID メイ   [TNK] (Finished 3/10) Tags: Harem Comedy, Romance, Sci-Fi, Ecchi Saotome Kazuya is a computer whiz. One day his friend Nanbara, threatens him with a computer virus. Trying to stop the virus, Kazuya ends up making a special order. May is a cyberdoll that arrives at his door a few minutes later and she is 1/6th the size of a normal person, which makes for many awkward situations. Not to mention the fact Kazuya can't even afford to keep May. Cyberdyne is not satisfied with Kazuya's non-payments and will do anything to retrieve CBD May. One of the most boring slapstick comedies that I've seen in a while. I don't even see Moe here, actually, don't see absolutely anything of interest. If there is any humor, it's of lowest quality.   Overall Rating: 5/10

2. Medarot Damashii Medabots Spirits メダロット魂 [Trans Arts] (Finished 1/39) Tags: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi The sequel to the famous Medabots series, following the continuing adventures of Ikki and Metabee. The two encountered a strange enemy named Jinkai and the so called Death Medabots. Along with Nae and Erica, they will defeat Jinkai and the Death Medabots. Same kids stuff.   Overall Rating: 5/10

3. Brigadoon: Marin to Melan Brigadoon ブリガドーン まりんとメラン [Sunrise] (Finished 3/26) Tags: Mecha Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi  Marin is a typical junior high school girl with a sunny disposition and a loving adoptive family. Her life takes a drastic change when a mysterious mirage is seen in the sky above the entire earth. Killer androids called Monomakia descend to earth from the formation in the sky called Brigadoon and begin to hunt down little Marin. She discovers a blue bottle in a shrine as she seeks escape and from the bottle comes a protector, a sword carrying gun slinging alien called Melan Blue, together they must save the earth and deal with family crisis, school prejudice and the police and come to an understanding of Marins past and Melans unexplained mission, as well as learn to trust each other. Set in 1969 Japan with a colorful cast of friends and enemies. Finally Sunrise starts experimenting with mecha, namely, mecha here are small and of different shapes. Main genre is nonsense comedy, but with occasional serious drama elements. There's no real plot to develop, so need to enjoy flow or characters to keep watching. And count me out on both.   Overall Rating: 6/10

4. Strange Dawn ストレンジ・ドーン  [Hal Film Maker] (Finished 13/13) Tags: Isekai Adventure, Drama, Fantasy Yuko and Eri are two normal girls who are sucked into the alternate world filled with tiny people. The people of this mysterious world sees them as their "Great Protectors" who can protect their land in a time of strife. The two girls set out on a mission with a group of warriors from the village to find out how they were brought here and how might they return home. However, there is a war brewing and these two Great Protectors are the political tool that every faction lusts for to rally the people to their side. Wow, what a surprising and pleasant ride. Isekai is still my favorite genre. What I especially liked is natural and believable reactions of high school student girls, nice system of politics with three factions and some rivaling leaders inside factions, humor overall, including great running jokes about worms and shoes. Second half got a bit loose after girls split up, but ending after reuniting impressed. Plot scale is not big enough to grant it something more than minor masterpiece, but this anime definitely needs some highlight as I never heard about it before.   Overall Rating: 7/10

5. eX-Driver エクスドライバー  [Actas ] (Finished 3/6) Tags: Racing Action, Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi Ex-Driver is set in the future, when all transportation is easily controlled by AI. Though like all machines they tend to break down or lose control or re-programmed. This is where three high schoolers with non AI cars, Subaru WRX, Super 7, Lotus comes in to save the day and make sure the public is safe at all times. I can only enjoy non-racing parts in racing anime, and this one does not have much to offer on the side.   Overall Rating: 5/10

6. Honoo no Labyrinth Labyrinth Of Flames 炎のらびりんす [Studio Fantasia] (Finished 2/2) Tags: Samurai Adventure, Comedy, Ecchi Meet Galan, a Russian spastic geek who`d do anything to be a real, live samurai. But that`s just an impossible dream... or is it? When his friend Natsu, who is a successor of Japanese emigrants family, gives him the gift of an ancient sword, strange events unfold, and even stranger people drop out of the sky to attack. Now Galan must overcome his ineptitude and join a bunch of beautiful women in a wacky romp through a kingdom that time forgot. Hey, what could be better? It's too short , fanservice-heavy and unserious to rate it highly. But it's sure decent among trashy comedies.   Overall Rating: 6/10

7. Koutetsu Tenshi Kurumi Encore Steel Angel Kurumi Encore 鋼鉄天使くるみ 25-28話 [OLM] (Finished 4/4) Tags: Shounen Historical Comedy, Romance, Sci-Fi Four additional short stories of the Steel Angels: Saki becomes a film actress, Karinka goes on a blind date with Kamihito, Kurumi practices the art of becoming a traditional Japanese woman, and the rest of the Steel Angels engage in a contest to win Nakahito's heart. Too few new titles this season, so can't afford luxury of blocking even supplementary season ovas. Anyway, just fanservice OVA in both senses as personality highlights and even more ecchi.   Overall Rating: 5/10

8. Kirara  [Ashi Productions] (Finished 1/1) Tags: Comedy, Romance, Slice of Life, Supernatural, Ecchi Twenty-four-year-old Kirara is on her way to her wedding when she is killed in a car accident. However her love for her fiance is so strong that she is permitted to return to earth as a ghost to see him. But she is sent back 8 years in time, to when she and her fiancé first met. However her own meddling in the past may make her 16 year-old-self turn away from her would-be fiance. Great. Ghost tries to seduce a high-school student. There's no end to stupidity in here.   Overall Rating: 5/10

9. Geobreeders 2: Mouryou Yuugekitai File-XX Ransen Toppa ジオブリーダーズ２ 魍魎遊撃隊 [Chaos Project] (Finished 4/4) Tags: Shounen Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi Taba and the Girls of Kagura Total Security Inc. are at it again. This time they have to battle a Gang of Phantom Cats and a mysterious enemy and assassin. And there are the run ins with the Government, the need for a new office, as well as sorting out the past to deal with. Luckily, they've got a stock pile of weapons and super technology to help. Original OVA had weird concept, rather bland characters and weak nonsense comedy. Doubt anyone waited for continuation, but here we are with all poor elements intact and some blood with ecchi added. Average in most aspects.   Overall Rating: 5/10

10. Vampire Hunter D (2000) Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust バンパイアハンターD [Madhouse] (Finished 1/1) Tags: Vampire Action, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Romance, Sci-Fi The story revolves around D, the infamous "dhampir" (born of a vampire father and a human mother) outcast and renowned vampire hunter. His prowess at hunting the creatures of the night allowing his acceptance among humans, he is called upon to locate Charlotte Elbourne, the lovely daughter of an affluent family who has been mysteriously kidnapped. When the sun sets, the hunt goes on! Charlotte's father offers a rich bounty, be she dead or alive, a task D willingly accepts, even with notorious Markus brothers and their gang of bounty hunters seeking the prize as well. Amidst the chase and unknown to all lurks, a sinister evil which has been secretly manipulating their every move and has set a chilling trap that none will expect and few will survive. With the tables turned and the secrets revealed, the hunters could quickly become the hunted! On one hand, it's brainless action with predictable flow from the moment Leila rode bike towards D, and I'm sorry for invested time. On other hand, it's almost flawlessly done movie with given concept. Lastly, I usually evaluate highly stories like Gantz:O where an omnipotent team faces even more overwhelming force. I guess I can still call it a minor honorary masterpiece by sum of factors.   Overall Rating: 7/10

11. Cardcaptor Sakura Movie 2: Fuuin Sareta Card 劇場版 カードキャプターさくら 封印されたカード [Madhouse] (Finished 1/1) Tags: Mahou Shoujo Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Romance For this year's Nadeshiko Festival, Sakura Kinomoto's elementary school class is presenting a play. She will portray a princess who struggles to respond to the love confession of the neighboring country's prince. Sakura empathizes with her character all too well, since she herself still owes an answer to the boy who confessed his love for her four months ago. When cousins Shaoran and Meiling Li return from Hong Kong to pay a surprise visit to their friends in Japan, Sakura receives further encouragement to finally declare her feelings. However, she is repeatedly distracted by a presence reminiscent of a Clow Card as well as unexplained disappearances around town. Eventually, Sakura learns of another of Clow Reed's creations—the "Nothing"—which was formerly sealed away beneath the magician's old house. It has power equal to all 52 cards Sakura possesses, and furthermore, it wants to take those cards away from her! Objects, space, and people disappear from Tomoeda with each card that is stolen. Sakura sets out to capture the Nothing so everything will return to normal, but what must she sacrifice in the process? A much better movie with focus on school, and there is even song here. Concept is still alien to me.   Overall Rating: 6/10

12. Kaze wo Mita Shounen 風を見た少年 [Brain's Base] (Finished 1/1) Tags: Adventure, Drama, Fantasy  Young boy Amon has mysterious powers. His dad is the cheif scientist for the Empire of the Golden Snake. He's invented weapons for this country in the past, but does not want his boy's powers to be used for destruction so he burns his research and tries to escape the country with his family. The mom and dad die in the escape and only Amon is left. He runs from the military, ends up on an island where he learns about the ancient people who could fly on the wind and talk to animals (as he can). Amon then ends up in a fishermen's village and makes friends with Maria. After this village is attacked by the Golden Snake army, the two run away with a band of rebels. Together, they try to stop the Empire of the Golden Snake from destroying and conquering everything. Based on the book by C.W. Nicol. I don't know why it's so boring. It seems to follow other similar popular works, but with only scratching the surface to stay family friendly. Lots of imitation and simplification together with totally failed characters, probably.   Overall Rating: 5/10

13. The Aurora: Umi no Aurora The Aurora 海のオーロラ [Nippon Television Network] (Finished 1/1) Tags: Adventure, Sci-Fi  Deep-sea archeologist Hiroshi Ibuki is the member of the digging team working at the bottom of the sea hoping to uncover the origins of Earth's existence but instead uncovers a mysterious colony of bacteria which gives off light similar to the Aurora Borealis. The ancient bacteria, once revived, attempt to make the world habitable for themselves —a process that would bring Earth back to its early primal form, killing all current life in the process. Early CGI are awful. Plot concept is super primitive, another "Alien". Execution just can't be good with these terrible torn animations.   Overall Rating: 4/10

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