In Paprika, prepare to enter the realm of fantasy & imagination where reality & dreams collide [...]. The magical tale centers on a revolutionary machine that allows scientists to enter & record a subject's dream. After being stolen, a fearless detective & brilliant therapist join forces to recover the device before it falls into the hands of a dream terrorist [...]. - Amazon
My comments: Time of Eve started out as episodes. Now there's the movie which has the same story, but it goes more in depth with the background so there's new scenes, too. Summary: Two high school boys grapple with their own humanity in a world where people are serviced by androids distinguished from their masters only by the halo-like rings above their heads. Public mores, enforced by the shadowy Robot Ethics Committee, dictate that androids be treated like appliances, and those who empathize with their robots are branded as "android-holics." Rikuo and his childhood pal Masaki find their assumptions about androids radically challenged when they come across Time of EVE, a cafe where androids and people are treated as equals. Liberated from the strictures of the Ethics Committee, Masaki and Rikuo must confront old wounds of betrayal and grief, and are faced with decisions that put their friendship and families on the line. - iTunes
My comments:
There are multiple stories intertwined into one -- about two very different girls with the same name coming together...about two rival rock bands...about multiple love stories...about the ups and downs of chasing your dreams...about fame...about everything your momma told you not to touch... Okay, I was joking about the last part. Am I? The main focus is about the two girls, both named Nana. One is a naive homegrown mommy's girl and the other is a rebellious punk rock smoker. You don't want to know what kind of crazy ideas boil after they meet. It's exactly what you're thinking right now. Not. Summary: Two girls with the same name leave their old lives behind and come to Tokyo to start fresh--what adventures await these two hopeful young women under the bright lights of the big city? Nana Osaki wants nothing more than to make it big as the singer of a rock 'n' roll band, while Nana Komatsu wants to put her life in motion and get her new relationship off to a good start. When the two Nanas fall in love with the same apartment, they become roommates and then best friends, and the party has just begun! - Amazon
Trailer:
(I didn't put the typical trailer this time because this anime is so famous that everyone's seen it so I'm not going to bother finding the real trailer or be too serious about this review CUZ YOU'VE ALL SEEN IT. If you haven't seen it yet then get out from under that rock!)
The broadcast series Ergo Proxy (2006) attracted considerable attention because Radiohead let them use "Paranoid Android" as the closing theme. Detective Re-l lives in the domed city of Romdo, a pseudo-utopia where humans and robots exist under a Big Brother-esque government. When a powerful monster begins attacking the citizens of Romdo, Re-l discovers the word "awaken" scrawled on her mirror; she's attacked by the monster but somehow survives. As she investigates these events, she discovers the inevitable government conspiracy. Ergo Proxy borrows heavily from Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. and Boogiepop Phantom, [...]. Director Shukuo Murase employs a monochromatic palette so dark [...]. - Charles Solomon
My comment: The girl in Elfen Lied does really cute things. She's sexy in a really naive way. And her dark secret brings out the dangerous side of her. She sounds like a dream, right? Lol. But I have to warn you that she has 2 personalities (childlike vs. heartless killer) and neither personality is consciously aware of the other. It's like multiple personality disorder. The movie is very gory (body parts chopped up, over-exaggeration of blood squirting) like the movie Kill Bill and all the trailers only show that side of the movie, but there's a whole cute/sexy side to this movie that's not even remotely hinted in the trailers. Summary:
Lucy, a beautiful young mutant, is bred by the military to be the ultimate weapon. Now, with government killers on her trail, the disposition of a five year old, and a hair trigger for ultraviolence, Lucy and her young friends must unravel the dark secret of her legacy before it's too late. - Amazon
Paradise Kiss is about a beautiful college girl who is persuaded to be a model for a group of talented fashion students from the Yazawa School of Design. She tackles her school work, lying to her mom about modeling, & her feelings for the lead designer. If you like the anime, Nana, you might like this one since the style is very similar.
Summary: In the near future, personal computers take the form of toys figures, animals or even people, called Persocons [...]. [A student named Hideki] wants a Persocon for himself, but is way too poor to afford one. One day, while passing a building, he finds a Persocon in a trash heap. However, his new find doesn't seem to be like the others he's heard about. She doesn't seem to have any operating system at all, and only says "Chii". As Hideki learns more about his Persocon, he finds that she is not of any known type, and most likely some sort of homemade model. He also learns of the rumor of the "Chobits", Persocons with the ability to think for themselves, instead of running only complex programs. What is this mysterious persocom and why was she in the trash? - Amazon
