Dusty Video Box Presents: The Blue Playlist

Being a writer can be somewhat frustrating, especially when I can't really talk about my projects with anyone in depth, let along even utter the names of the characters without a mountain of intelletual property protection. So instead, I've decided to put together a Youtube playlist for you guys to rock out on, basically the same playlist I'm using for inspiration for my current novel project. These songs are various J-Pop and J-Rock songs, pop songs and rock songs from Japan. Yeah, they might not be in English...but who has to totally understand the words to jam?! I mean, do you get mad at instrumental music because there are no words? Anyway...enjoy The Blue Playlist!

1. Hikari Sasuhou by Back-On(uploaded by dragonkill1987)


2. Haruka Kanata by Asian Kung-Fu Generation(uploaded by Darokun12)


3. Identity by Sacra(uploaded by 9fuck9you9tube)


4. Rewrite by Asian Kung-Fu Generation(uploaded by MGVguy)


5. Again by Yui(uploaded by vladimird55)


6. Hoshi Akari by Jyukai(uploaded by oikyan)


7. Kimi ga Sora Datta by Misato Aki(uploaded by BlazesLover)


8. Michi to you all by aluto(uploaded by tictactoe20e)


9. Go!(Fighting Dreamers) by FLOW(uploaded by kindgirlz1)


10. Tomorrow by Shimokawa Mikuni(uploaded by MeGotNoLife)


11. O2 by Orange Range(uploaded by ktaskishima15)


12. My Will by Dream(uploaded by Tenchikins)


13. Seishun Kyousoukyoku by Sambomaster(uploaded by KageShinobiWarrior)


14. Crystal Energy by Kuribayashi Minami(uploaded by cikonos)


15. One Day by The Rootless(uploaded by YujiSetsuna)


16. Hikari no Rock by Sambomaster(uploaded by ichiban109)

17. Obokuri - Eemui by Ikue Asazaki(uploaded by silmanarmo)

18. Kutso Himo by Asami Yamamoto(uploaded by princeuriko)

My Top 10 Anime of All Time(Right Now) Part Two

So here is the rest of my top 10 anime that are the greatest as of this very moment. The great thing is that anime seem infinite...there are so many more titles that I would love to get my hands on, but I'm taking my time, trying not to burn myself out.

So, here are the rest of my faves:

• Witchblade: If you simply go by this image...then you're missing out on a spectacular story. One of the reasons I initially avoided this anime was because I thought it was just some anime tie-in to the American Witchblade comic series. Imagine my surprise when, thanks to some offhanded comments from someone who watched it, I checked it out...and fell in love with it. This is mainly because this anime took the intial American concept and told its own story with it. Thus, instead of NYC cop Sara Pezzini, you get the Japanese young woman Masane, who is forcefully bonded with the Witchblade. Its a whole different story here, folks...and I would say that this is its greatest strength! Sure, the chick maybe half-naked here...but you get so much story, similar to Ikki Tousen...the themes of motherhood and destiny are very prominant.
• Those Who Hunt Elves: What do you get when you mix a Japanese schoolgirl who is a military otaku, a meat-headed but deadly martial artist, a highly-intelligent actress, and a dog that does magic...in a fantasy world where they have to strip sexy elves to return to their home dimension? Surprisingly, this isn't at all pornographic. One of the very first anime I encountered, Those Who Hunt Elves is the story about three individuals who, along with a tank(!) are accidently summoned to a fantasy world by Celcia, Mistress of the Elves, to intially battle a world-threatening foe. Of course, the real story takes place afterwards...with the trio having to travel that world to find pieces of a spell that literally tattooed itself on the bodies of five elves. This is one of the funniest anime I've watched, with crazy concepts such as Celcia becoming part of the group as a magic-wielding dog, to the tank becoming possessed by the soul of a cat!
• Jo-Jo's Bizarre Adventure: THE WORLDO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One of the most awesome anime of all time, Jo-Jo Bizarre Adventure is based on the manga by Hirohiko Araki, which in turn spawned Capcom's awesome game. Basically, the story is about these individuals, who can create spiritual warriors from within their bodies called "Stands". These Stands have unique powers such as manipulating fire or electricity; they can be as varied as using dead bodies as weapons or killing with light! Anyway, the Stands are named after cards in a Tarot deck, such as main character Jotaro Kujo's "Star Platnium". Anyway, the anime tells the story of Jotaro and his crew's battle against Dio, one the the craziest, most powerful, and vicious anime villians of all time. He's also a vampire...and unlike ol Dracula, he doesn't care about romance...he's all about brutalizing his enemies and getting the blood of the Jotaro Bloodline. Think Phantom here; just like the title of the Ghost Who Walks is passed down through the generations, the eponymous "Jo-Jo" in the title is unofficially passed down from father to son. The manga seems to cover a few generations of the family bloodline, and in the anime, both JOtaro KuJO and his grandfather(who is the star of one of the previous manga arcs/sagas) is JOnathan JOestar.
• Hellsing Ultimate: I'm not talking about the 13-episode anime, but the spectacular OVA series that has yet to be finished. Still, check out the episodes that have been released so far...great stuff. The story here is this British organization, known as Hellsing, has control over and uses the original and greatest vampire of all time, Alucard, against the undead and Millennium, a remnant unit of Nazis. Alucard can do things that would make Dracula jealous with envy(of course, it is implied that they are the same person)...he can regenerate from ANY wound, fabled anti-vampire weapons or otherwise...and apparently, like Goku or Naruto, he has more states of higher power. My little blurb on the subject doesn't do justice to the story at hand.
• My-Otome/My-Hime: If you like magical girls ala Sailormoon, this is a perfect counterpart for ya. I included both because they both take place in the same universe of sorts or use the same characters in different ways...think Tenchi Muyo/Pretty Sammy. My-Hime came first, and, like Jo-Jo's Bizarre Adventure, it is about schoolgirls who gain powers via outer manifestations of animals and/or warriors. My-Otome, on the other hand, is more straight-forward magical girl fare. Wonderful stories, both!

My Top 10 Anime of All Time! (Right Now) Part One

Remember the Japanime features I've have written up before, one on Bleach, and the other for Lelouch of The Rebellion? Well, since I'm very limited as far as Internet access right now, I can't give detailed writeups of awesome anime like I would want to. However, it doesn't stop me from giving you some small blurbs.

If you don't know by now, I'm a huge anime nut, bitten by the bug in 2001 by exposure to Cartoon Network's Toonami Block. Thanks to the awesome anime store in town, I was able to move beyond Sailormoon and Dragonball Z, into Those Who Hunt Elves, Rurouni Kenshin, Sorcerer Hunters, Project A-ko, and Ranma 1/2. Nowdays, I'm in danger of burning myself out with this obessession!

So, I decided, hey, lets put down my top 10 anime of all time, graded basically on concept, character development(in some cases), and story/plot(as it can be debatable with some people). Really, anime fans, check these babies out if you haven't already. Some anime, such as Inu-Yasha, Naruto, One-Piece, and Bleach are not included, because they are extremely long(I think Inu-Yasha is about what, 400 episodes?) and they are the constants in many an anime fan's library of choices.

Instead, the selections on this list are usually short...probably about 20-50 episodes at the most. These selections are not in any order, they are all equally awesome. So, without further adieu, my top 5 of awesome anime of all time:

• Gungrave: Can you believe this anime is based on a video game? Of course, the game in question was created by Yasuhiro Nightow...yes, that Yasuhiro Nightow. The game itself is pretty cool...short, but cool. The anime is...is an awesome exercise of character development, as two best friends, originally homeless young men fighting for scraps in the street, rise through the ranks of the powerful criminal organization Millennium...only to have one friend betray the other. If you've played the game, the various boss characters and the main villian are developed beyond the max in the anime...you get to see how and why these characters chose their paths in life...and how the main hero got to where he is at the start of the story, a gunslinger from beyond the grave!! Now I warn you...this anime takes you to a very dark place...its a tearjerker and violent in some parts. But these characters are developed in such a way that you forget that they represent the villains of society!
• Black Lagoon: John Woo meets girls with guns meets...hell, Gungrave. The girl on the cover with the short shorts? That's Revy. You do not want to f*** with her. Messing with her is like drenching yourself in flammable liquid and walking to hell to stand in the hottest furnace. Like Gungrave, the protagonists of this anime are essentially the bad guys of society...Lagoon Company is a crew of pirates and mercenaries who smuggle goods in Roanapur, a Thailand criminal haven that could be described as hell on Earth. Revy is the psychotic gunslinging muscle of the quartet of main characters, with Rock, the Japanese salaryman abandoned by his company(which led to him "joining" Lagoon Company) as the audience surrogate. If you like those classic John Woo films, or you like a good combination of criminal protagonists and gunbattles, look no further. Seriously, you got nuns with guns, maids with guns, and even a hot Chinese chick with...knives as elements here. But the best element of this anime? Characterization. Reasoning behind these criminals' viewpoints and actions. Wonderful stuff!
• Fullmetal Alchemist: There is a new Fullmetal Alchemist anime out, one that is closer in manga translation than the first series, which I am referencing here. Any American who wants to complain about how ANY animation is for kids...I dare them to find anything on television that is as powerful emotionally as this. You have two children who, while trying to bring back their mother, nearly lose their lives in the attempt. Basically, these two brothers go through a journey of maturity and life, learning from their experiences as they try to find a way to return to normal. Seriously, awesome stuff.
• Tengho Tenge: I'm telling you, that theme song will get to ya! Think of YuYu Hakusho, but instead of taking the supernatural route, it was simply a straight-forward fight anime. That's what you have here, although there is more to simply fighting than that. I'm reluctant to suggest this anime, as it doesn't really finish with its 26 episode...but then again, Black Lagoon did not finish either(although it did have a definite ending of sorts...as in "until next time"-type ending). Basically, the main character and the black character are delinquents who usually beat up students in various schools. However, when they get to the school in the anime, they find out that the students attending here are all badasses. Remember that scene in Kung Fu Hustle when Steven Chow's character found out how bad everyone was in Pig Sty Alley? Like that. And yes, the kid turning into a hot chick? That's Maya Natsume...and that SHAZAM thing is one of her martial arts techniques.
• Ikki Tousen: Fanservice. Few will admit that they actually like it. I f**** love it. I don't care. But the beauty of Ikki Tousen is that the fanservice is simply an element of an awesome story about accepting destiny/avoiding destiny, reincarnation/history repeating itself, and brutal martial arts battles, all centering on the Romance of the Third Kingdoms era of Chinese history. Basically, its Dynasty Warriors meet school fighting anime. Seriously. Famous characters/historical people from that novel and/or period in history are reborn as various schoolgirls and schoolboys, and schools fight each other across Japan to rule them all. Once you get past the panty and breast shots, a wonderful story unfolds about a clueless female warrior who struggles against her destiny, a repeat of her previous Romance of the Third Kingdom's incarnation's death.

I will return with more later!

Japanime: Code Geass: Lelouch of The Rebellion

In the various fictional worlds of superpowered individuals, there has been one seemingly mundane human trait that can overwhelm even the most powerful of paranormals: the human intellect. That is why, in the DC Universe, Batman is easily the most dangerous among the “gods” who walk among men. That is why, in the Marvel cosmos, Captain America, a mere man, has led teams of heroes that include antediluvian gods, cosmic-scale beings, and humans with massive and astonishing power. And on NBC's Heroes, Noah Bennett, the former Company Agent who is fully human, is considered superhuman because of his extensive knowledge of the enhanced humans that he has hunted in his previous life.

Lelouch Lampange, the title character of this anime, can literally control the mind of anyone he comes across simply with direct eye contact, thanks to a power called “Geass”. However, as Lelouch demonstrates well throughout the first season of Code Geass(25 episodes), it is not the power itself that is dangerous...but the cunning human intellect that can point it in the right direction.

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion is an epic war story set in an alternate universe, 17 years in the future, where Great Britain, as the Brittanian Empire, is a massive superpower that has taken over much of the world surface. In fact, in the prologue scenes, it is clearly implied that Brittania's seat of power is an alternate universe United States. The nation of Japan, in 2010, had been conquered by the Empire, and renamed Area 11. Already stripped of their nationalistic identity, the native Japanese(dubbed Elevens) are treated harshly as second-class citizens, and regarded by most of the Brittanians with extreme prejudice.

On the eve of the conquest of Japan, our title character, then a young boy of ten years old, vows to his Japanese friend Suzaku Kururugi to destroy Brittania. His motivations are not selfless heroism or naviety, however; years ago, his mother, the fifth wife of Brittania's Emperor, was murdered violently before his younger sister Nunnally, rendering her unable to walk and open her eyes. Lelouch, then a Prince of Brittania, fled with his sister to Japan before the conquest, hooking up with the the son of the Japanese Prime Minister, the aformentioned Suzaku.

The series itself begins 17 years later, where Lelouch has assumed a new identity, and attends a prestigous school where he and his young sister also live. His friend Suzaku has become an Honorary Brittanian in the Brittanian Army, a position held by Elevens that are deemed worthy by the Empire. The two old friends meet in an incident, where the Army is tranporting a secret project, publicly described as gas. However, said project is revealed to be something entirely different...something that will reignite Lelouch's passion for destroying Brittania through the spectacular masked alter-ego known as Zero.

One of the wonderful things about this anime is its uncompromising portrayal of war. War is dirty and nasty, and usually, it is not divided so neatly between the traditional lines of good and evil. As Zero, Lelouch gets his hands dirty in a lot of situations, which often leads to unexpected twists. The cast of characters, on both sides of the conflict, add to the great story...from the stoic devotion of Suzaku to "change Brittania" by following the rules, to Kallan Stadtfeld's iron devotion to Zero and his rebellion. And it being a Sunrise production, there is that subtle nod towards the "Gundam Role"...i.e. the character with the biggest, baddest robot that can almost singlehandly shift the tide of war. This is embodied in Suzaku's Lancelot's experimental Knightmare Frame, with its powerful Yggdrasil Drive.

I'm currently in Season 2, and man...what a doozy. There are even more twists and turns...spoiler....keep your eyes on the Chinese Federation. And Lelouch/Zero...the intellect is awesome in action.

This is one of the best anime I've ever seen in my life so far. Check it out, seriously.

JapAnime: Bleach

Weekly Shonen Jump in particular, and the Shonen Jump brand in general, has reached a peak of exposure to the American market at the dawn of this new millennium, thanks to a little anime known as Dragonball Z, the sequel series to Akira Toriyama's Dragonball saga. Essentially, Shonen Jump is an anthology manga(Japanese comics), where many manga serieses share space in the book, often becoming famous as a result. Thus, many of the long anime(those with episodes stretching into the hundreds) that are now in many of the video stores, and on Cartoon Network on Saturday night, comes from manga based in this one anthology.. . such as One Piece, Naruto, the forementioned Dragonball, and Bleach.

Bleach is about death...but it is not at all as morbid as you think. The core concept is essentially based around Japanese personification of death, which is not the malevolent Grim Reaper of Western culture, but the Shinigami(death gods)...a loosely referred-to death deity that could be of any association(good/evil), and can take on a variety of tasks and forms. A mainstay of Japanese culture, Shinigami have appeared in a large range of anime like Boogiepop Phantom, where the Shinigami is a protector of mankind, and Death Note, where these beings kill humans to extend their own lives. However, only in Bleach is the Shinigami, or Soul Reaper in the English manga and anime translations, an otherworldly samurai with a superpowered sword and the ability to control spiritual energy or Reiatsu(known as Spiritual Pressure in English dub)!

The gist of the story focuses on Ichigo Kurosaki, an orange-haired 15-year old Japanese young man who lives with his two younger sisters and his widowed father, all living at and working out of a small medical clinic in Karakura Town, Japan. Ichigo, a target of bullies while growing up because of his strangely-colored hair, has a talent for seeing ghosts. While helping out a young girl ghost, Ichigo encounters two supernatural beings that would change his life forever: Rukia Kuchiki, a Soul Reaper assigned to protect Karakura Town, and a Hollow...the being or beings that Rukia protects the citizens and the city from. Hollows are one of the main antagonistic forces of the series, malevolent deceased souls of former humans that are transformed into monsterous beasts with masks, and a hole in the center of their chests(thus, giving them their names).

Of course, both Rukia and the Hollow are invisible to humans, the secret war between the two often manifesting in monsterous damages caused by unseen phenomena. However, when a Hollow is drawn towards Ichigo's house and family, Rukia tries to fight the creature, only to get deeply wounded while trying to save Ichigo from certain death(Ichigo blindly trying to save his two sisters from being crushed by the creature). As the two heroes stand defenseless before the monster, Rukia decides to lend Ichigo some of her Soul Reaper abilities. A pact is made, and the powers are transferred...however, Ichigo draws too much of the power. After defeating the Hollow that threatens his family, he becomes the "Substitute Soul Reaper", as Rukia has to regain her powers with the help of a artificial body called a gigai(thus, becoming a human to some degree), and cannot perform her Soul Reaper duties.

The first arc of the anime, "The Substitute", deals with Ichigo getting use to his duties as a Soul Reaper, battling various Hollows while balancing his life and school duties. It is revealed that his Spiritual Pressure is massive, so much so that it "leaks out", causing spritual powers to manifest in a few of his classmates, Yasutora Sado/"Chad", who develops an armored arm with the ability to fire a powerful blast of energy, and Orihime Inoue, who develops powerful healing and defense abilities, which manifest as six fairies from her hair ordament. A rival of Ichigo also surfaces in the bespectacled Uryu Ishida, the last Quincy, a clan of spritiual-energy manipulating humans that were rivals to the Soul Reapers at one point in time. Said rivalry almost causes the destruction of Karakura Town at one point, when Ishida summons an army of Hollows in a challenge with Ichigo to see who is the greatest between the two factions.

Other characters are introduced as well, some more intergrated into the main plot of the whole series. One such character is Kisuke Urahara, the owner of the Urahara Shop, who is known for his perchant for a striped hat and geta. He is introduced when Rukia approaches him to purchase a gigai, as well as "Soul Candy"(used for Ichigo to pull his soul out of his body to become a Soul Reaper). However, there is more going on with him, revelations that are revealed in the arc after "The Substitute", the "Soul-Society" Arc, where Ichigo and his friends have to travel to the Soul Society, the world where most souls go after death, and where the Soul Reapers originated.

But, I'll let you check that out.

If you're a fan of samurai anime, then this anime if for you...although, in all honesty, the Soul Society Arc is where the true samurai action is at. But monster-slaying is prominant in the first Arc. Also, if you're a fan of DC Comics' Green Lantern...you'll love this. Seriously, the Soul Reaper concept, with their individualistic uniforms, swords, divisions, and juridictions, remind me of the Green Lanterns, their sectors, and classifications as true Space Cops.


Check out the First Opening:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWdhWQNI2Cg

First Episode:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBQvA2ZByNQ