An Acrostic List of Liked Anime

Hey gang! There was a bit of fun going around on Twitter earlier, whereby folks were spelling out their name by listing anime titles they liked. This is an acrostic game (thanks to Twwk for cluing me in on this), so I thought I’d give it a go and then some as a blog post. AstroNerdBoy is a lot of letters to fill out with titles, but I’ll give it my best.

A: Azumanga Daioh

Good grief, it has been a while since I watched this lovely anime or read the manga it was adapted from. That aside, Azumanga Daioh is a comedic, slice of life series about a group of high school girls (and a couple of their teachers) going from 1st year students to graduation. One of them, MIHAMA Chiyo, is a 10 year old genius who skipped from 5th grade to 10th grade.

Azumanga Daioh is quite funny, thanks to the unique characters. And it is wonderfully wholesome…well, except for one whacked, male teacher. Also, this series is where the term “Mai waifu” started.

S: Slayers

There are a lot of anime titles that start with an S that I like. But when push comes to shove, Slayers has to be my favorite. This fantasy-comedy title (and series) features Lina Inverse, a young but insanely powerful sorceress who doesn’t take crap from anyone. She’s joined by the fighter Gourry, the cleric Amelia, and the fighter-mage humanoid chimera, Zelgadiss. While the series can be quite funny at times, it also has an interesting set of multi-episode stories.

The franchise is hugely popular in Japan, and it made me a fan Lina’s seiyuu, HAYASHIBARA Megumi.

T: Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki

This one was a no-brainer, considering my heavy attachment to the canon series and franchise as a whole. Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki is the story of a teenage boy named MASAKI Tenchi, who’s grandfather runs a family shrine out in the country. Tenchi is curious about the shrine’s supposed sealed oni and ends up accidentally freeing her. However, Tenchi learns that this legendary oni is actually a notorious space pirate named Ryoko. With that, Tenchi soon finds himself in a house full of humanoid, alien women for comedy hijinks. However, Tenchi is also on a road to discover his true self.

Note: I was the adapter for the True Tenchi Muyo! novels from Seven Seas. You can pick them up from Amazon.com.

R: Record of Lodoss War OVA

Whenever someone asks me who the best elf babe is, I’m always going to say Deedlit from Record of Lodoss War. She’s one of the two main protagonist of the series, having left the isolationist High Elves who no longer produce offspring since Deedlit’s birth. She meets the human Free Knight Parn, who’s with a party of adventurers investigating the rise of evil in the land. The anime is pretty enjoyable on the whole and spawned a TV sequel series. But the OVA does suffer from poor animation at times, and poor adaptation of the source material. But hey, it has Deedlit.

As an aside, I do need to read the light novel that spawn this anime (and even a manga) adaptation.

O: Onegai Teacher

Man, this is another series I haven’t watched in years, though I still own the DVDs. Onegai Teacher is the story of KUSANAGI Kei, who has a rare disease that causes him to go into a comma and lose time. As such, even though he’s 18, he physically looks 15 and is in his first year of high school. No one knows his secret. One day, Kei sees a UFO and discovers a humanoid alien babe named Mizuho. Circumstances force Kei and Mizuho to marry to protect their secrets.

While the premise to get this marriage is stupid, and the comedy aspects are weak, I did like how the series took a look at marriage and the work that goes into making a marriage work, especially with the age difference and species differences of Kei and Mizuho.

N: Natsu no Arashi

Since I liked KOBAYASHI Jin-sensei’s School Rumble, I had no problems giving Natsu no Arashi a spin when it came out in 2009. The story centers around a 13 year old boy named YASAKA Hajime, who’s spending the summer at his grandfather’s home. At a local cafe, he meets a teenage waitress named Arashi. When a private investigator comes to take Arashi, Hajime takes her hand to flee. It is then he discovers Arashi has the power to travel in time, back to World War II Japan, and is actually a ghost with a mission to save people.

Although Crunchyroll did license Natsu no Arashi for streaming, no one licensed it for physical release. Further, no one licensed the source manga, which has always irritated me. And scanlators stopped well short of the manga’s ending. So I never was able to get the full story of Arashi’s and Hajime’s tale. The anime left unanswered questions, but was still pretty enjoyable, both in comedy and story.

E: El Hazard: The Magnificent World

HAYASHI Hiroki was the director for Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-ohki OVA 1. When he left the franchise, he decided to create his own version of Tenchi called El-Hazard: The Magnificent World (OVA). The story centers on high school boy MIZUHARA Makoto, who’s attacked by student council president KATSUHIKO Jinnai in order to stop Makoto from testifying against him. However, time stops and Makoto discovers ancient ruins under the school. A beautiful woman is there, who sends him, Jinnai, and a few others from campus to El-Hazard. Makoto eventually finds her, but she has no memory of him and is not exactly what she appears to be.

I really love this OVA series, except for two parts, both related. First was the very young teen lesbian girl Alielle, who’s trying to have sex with adult women left and right. It is done for comedy purposes, but considering how young Alielle is, it made me very uncomfortable. Likewise, the Phantom Tribe king is boinking a 12 year old boy, though this isn’t played up as much. But it is still uncomfortable seeing this adult x seriously underage teen hookups happening.

R: R.O.D. the TV

When I first watched the 3 episode Read or Die OVA series, I had no idea it was based off of a series of light novels. The OVA was just good enough for me to watch to see the TV series. R.O.D. the TV introduces four new female characters, three of whom have the power to turn paper into specialized weapons (Anita is melee offense, Maggie is defense, and Michelle is ranged offense). The three “paper sisters” help Nenene hunt for her missing friend Yomiko Readman, the protagonist from the OVA series.

While the OVA didn’t do a good job establishing the world or Read or Die, R.O.D. the TV does. Further, the protagonists in the TV series are given a lot of development. I really enjoyed the series, which made me sad when I decided to give it up to pay off over $33,000 in medical bills. I should look to get it back in my collection.

D: Dirty Pair

Yuri and her partner Kei are Trouble Consultants, working for the for profit company World Welfare Works Association (normally called 3WA). Yuri and Kei are dispatched to handle different kinds of cases around the galaxy. While their official code name is Lovely Angels, they are unofficially known as Dirty Pair since a lot of their cases are solved with a massive wake of destruction.

The Dirty Pair anime series (TV, OVAs, and movies) may not be the best anime there. In fact, it isn’t. But it is a series dear to my heart, in part because the Dirty Pair: Flight 005 Conspiracy OVA came out when I lived in Japan. And Yuri was a 2D crush I had back then. 😍

B: Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040

This was a hard one, as it competed against Bottle Fairy and Binchou-tan. But the sci-fi action of Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040 won the day and is still in my collection. The story is set years after a massive earthquake in Japan. Robots known as Boomers have repaired Tokyo. However, a series of Boomers going rogue are giving A.D. Police a lot of trouble. An armored hardsuit wearing, renegade group named Knight Sabers are dedicated to putting down these Boomers over A.D. Police’s objections. Further, Boomer making company Genom is concerned Knight Sabers will interfere with their plans.

Although I didn’t care for the original Bubblegum Crisis series, which I saw in Japan, the remake is quite good. You’ve got battle babes in Iron Man-like power armor, only cooler. Although we have an “evil corporation” at work here, it story isn’t a cliched, anti-capitalist tale. The ending wasn’t the best, but other than that, I really enjoyed the serie. I should dust it off and rewatch it.

O: Otaku no Video

How many years has it been since I watched Otaku no Video? 2004? That aside, this 2-episode OVA series centers around KUBO Ken, who went from being a college tennis club star to a shunned otaku. With his new, otaku friends, Ken attempts to become Otaking. Years later, Ken takes his otaku passions to the business world, eventually creating a Disneyland for otaku, aptly named Otakuland. More years later, Ken and his best friend Tanaka return to a post-apocalyptic Japan for one final adventure.

I’ll admit that Otaku no Video is pretty whacked, especially toward the end. However, what makes it really good is that it is the fictionalized telling of how the anime production studio Gainax (who created Neon Genesis Evangelion) came to be. The series is interspersed with live-action documentary segments. One features a Western otaku (who really worked for Gainax’s Western merchandising company, General Products). Here, Gainax mocks American localization by having the “translation” of what the American guy said have no resemblance to what he really said.

Y: You’re Under Arrest (OVA)

There aren’t a ton of “Y” titles that I’ve watched. Nevertheless, the initial OVA series for You’re Under Arrest wins this hands-down. The series centers around female police officers and partners TSUJIMOTO Natsumi and KOBAYAKAWA Miyuki. Natsumi is the brawn of the pair while Miyuki is the brains. Further, Miyuki is a mechanic, and has done a lot of work on their Honda Today mini patrol car, including giving it nitro engine boost. The pair work with the rest of their station’s officers to solve cases, or just handle traffic issues.

The initial 4-episode OVA is mostly episodic, but it does establish Miyuki and Natsumi. Further, it establishes the pseudo romance between Miyuki and Ken. I say “pseudo” because it is never allowed to blossom, which is unfortunate. The OVA was really gorgeous for the time. I should rewatch to see how it holds up today. (I still own all of the old AnimEigo DVD sets.) The OVA was the launching point for the various TV series, specials, movie, and OVA titles that were to follow. While its stories may not have been the best, visually it is the best.

That’s It!

This took a lot more time than I thought, but I managed to find anime titles to spell out the name AstroNerdBoy. That’s a lot of anime titles, but thankfully, I’ve seen enough titles to cover them all. 😁