On the fateful night when ace teen detective Jimmy Kudo was attacked by two mysterious strangers and forced to ingest a poison, he was on a date with his sweetheart Rachel Moore at a popular theme park. Now, when a horrific murder has shocked Rachel into amnesia, he must solve the mystery as quickly as possible before the murderer returns to eliminate her as a loose end. As Rachel tries to recover her memories, will she be able to see past Conan’s disguise, and does he even want her to? When a return to the theme park might spark Rachel’s memories, can they risk a return with the killer still on the loose?

Jimmy Kudo is just your average high-school detective: brilliant, popular, and on the fast track to success. Even the police department don’t hesitate to call him in on their toughest cases! However, when an attempt to thwart a crime (while on a date with his probably-sweetheart Rachel Moore) finds him at odds with a mysterious duo, they poison him to eliminate witnesses. Fortunately, the poison was apparently untested, and Jimmy didn’t die. Unfortunately, his body has shrunk to that of a grade-schooler, and he must conceal his identity to protect himself and those around him. Will the world’s greatest new detective be able to solve cases as child prodigy Conan Edogawa?

Death gazes on with silver eyes. Vicious monsters known as Yoma ravage a medieval world, terrorizing the human race as they hunt down and devour any and every human in their wake. A highly specialized organization has been established to create an army of female mercenaries, infused with Yoma blood, to hunt and kill the Yoma. Clare is one such warrior, a Claymore, alienated from the rest of humanity by her unnatural powers and fearful ability with the blade. In saving his life and dispatching the Yoma that was threatening his village, Clare meets a young boy named Raki and decides to let him follow her in her endless travels. (Though he’s more of a load than any sort of asset.) Privately, Clare is pursuing her own personal mission—to hunt down Priscilla, a former Claymore who fully Awakened to the Yoma blood inside of her and killed Teresa. In the winding path to that end, Clare begins to realize that the Organization knows more about Awakened Beings than they let on to the Claymores, and when she is sent to what would surely be death with several other Claymores that are marked as possible trouble makers Clare...

Based on the video game(s) of the same name, Devil May Cry is the ultimate payoff for those of us who greatly enjoyed the sardonic humor of the game, but are too busy to devote hours to puzzle-solving and random battles.  Dante, the sword-swinging, gun-wielding, but-kicking proprietor of Devil May Cry detective agency, lives a day-to-day existence like anyone else:  ordering pizza on an ever-growing unpaid tab, trying to find a decent strawberry sundae, and goading otherworldly horrors into fights.  Wait...what?  There's also the constant stream of wry humor, the occasional irritating orphan, and drop-ins from friends, allies, and friendly rivals who aren't above charging a finder's fee to include him on jobs.  With friends like these, who needs enemies?

    The Celestial King is retiring. He's begun a tournament to decide who will be the next Celestial King.  Each Celestial Candidate must choose a junior high school student to represent him in the tournament.  Each student is then given a power to aid them in these tournaments.  If they ever use these powers to harm a non-power use (as the students are called) they will lose talents.  Each student has a limited amount of talents and if they are all used up they cease to exist.  However, Power-User's can gain new Talents by knocking other Power-User's unconscious. This is the backdrop for the story that follow Kosuke Ueki, a Power-Use who represents Mr. Kobayashi (also known as Mr. K), a Celestial Candidate with an astute sense of righteousness.  Ueki is given the power to trash into trees.  He must defeat his opponents and get the coveted 'Talent of Blank" so that it does not fall into evil hands.  Along the way he makes friends with Ai Mori (a normal female junior high student who eventually gets wrapped up in the tournaments), Sano (whom has the ability is to turn Towels into Iron), Rinko (whom has the power...

It’s more wacky adventure on the high seas as the Straw Hat Pirates continue their adventures on the Grand Line. Their newest mission? Protecting Princess Vivi until she can be safely delivered to her homeland of Alabasta, preferably before Crocodile, the leader of the elite assassin group Baroque Works, can completely destroy her kingdom. With enemies on all sides, who has time for the minor annoyances, like landing on an island populated with warring giants and hungry dinosaurs?

Director Shinichrio Watanabe has quite a resume in the anime industry. I'm not all that familiar with anime, but even bystanders to the genre like me have heard of and seen some of Cowboy BeBop, one of Watanbe's most popular works. Another series he was behind that recently came to Blu-ray is Samurai Champloo. The complete series set includes all twenty-six episodes of the series that was shown on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. Perhaps the biggest question to ask here is if owners of the DVD collection should upgrade to this blu-ray set? The short answer? No, but let's take a closer look at this set in general.

A boy and his shikigami are seldom parted. Abe no Seimei was Japan’s greatest onmyouji and kept the land safe from demonic incursions. He passed on his spiritual skills on to his son and grandsons, and named his youngest grandson, Abe no Masahiro, his heir. However, Masahiro had a problem—due to the lack of need for onmyoudo skills in recent years, he had lost his sixth sense and his ability to see spirits around him. One day he runs across a mononoke spirit Mokkun who declares that Masahiro must become an even greater onmyouji than his grandfather and pledges his loyalty as the shikigami (one of the guardian spirits in who aid Seimei) Gurren. From that day forward, Masahiro must work hard to protect the kingdom from invading demons from both abroad and at home and achieve the even harder goal of proving to the other shikigami loyal to Seimei that he is right rightful heir to his grandfather’s legacy. But in honing his powers, Masahiro will face great losses and hardships as his story unfolds.

Don’t look into her eyes… Poor Sawako Kuronuma just can’t seem to make any friends, no matter how hard she tries. Her naturally creepy appearance has had kids calling her Sadako (the evil character from “The Ring”) for so long that she can’t even remember the last time someone called her by her real name. That is, till the most well-liked boy in her class, Shota Kazehaya, extends an olive branch. He alone sees how hard Sawako works as class rep to take on all the unsavory tasks to spare her classmates a hard time and how much she tries to be friendly and kind to people. Because of this, and some discreet meddling on his part, slowly Sawako’s classmates begin to open their eyes and look past her ghostly appearance and creepy smiles to the shy and kind girl she really is. And Kazehaya’s interest in her is more than more kindly friendship, but Sawako is a little slow on the up-take and idolizes his ability to charm people and his positivity. Misunderstandings are in the forecast in this budding shoujo story on both the part of our unlikely heroine and those around her.

  12,000 years ago, Shadow Angels ruled the world.  They harvested human being for a life force energy called Prana to sustain the Tree of Life.  However, it was all changed when the Shadow Angel Apollonius fell in love with a human Seliane.  He betrayed the Shadow Angels and destroyed their homeland Atlandia forcing them to retreat and recoup.  Now, the Shadow Angels have returned to once again harvest Humans.  However, humans aren't going to take it lying down.  They have trained pilots to fly a large mechanical angel named Aquarion.  In order to fly it though, three people must Merge (also referred to as Gattai) their souls as well as their Vectors (the separate parts that make up Aquarion). However, things become difficult after Sylvia and Pierre discover Apollo.  Apollo is a brash young man who grew up on the streets.  He's also believed to be the reincarnation of Apollonius and Solar Wing, the hero destined to save humanity.  Apollo must realize who he is and learn to get along with his fellow pilots if they have any hope of stopping the Shadow Angels and saving humanity. This series focuses more on how each person must overcome their own...

T’was beauty that tamed the beast. Yuiko Kubozuka was an outlier as far as high school girls go—she’d rather waste her time trying to befriend animals and suffering their scorn than pursuing the opposite sex. This is a constant old tease from her classmates. Then she chanced to meet the wild-looking young man Leo Aoi when looking for her neighbor’s pet cat. Bloody and wild-eyed, he looked more like a savage beast than the kind and gentle transfer student she came to know. There’s just one problem—whenever Leo is confronted with someone/something poses a danger to himself or Yuiko, his beastly violent fight or flight response kicks in. Yuiko, with her fearlessness of the normally naïve Leo, becomes the only person that can calm Leo down and reach him in his vicious animal mode. Causing more problems through misunderstanding than his bestial tendencies, Yuiko’s friendship with the mysterious Leo may end up very hazardous to her health.

    The last part of Heroic begins where the first part took off.  After the battle of Jupiter, the Tribe of Iron fights their way to earth finally freeing it from the oppression of the Tribe of Silver.  From this, the Tribe of Iron realizes it can accomplish anything and moves in to take on The Tribe of Bronze and the Tribe of Silver.  After a quick and brutal battle the Tribe of Iron conquers the Tribe of Bronze's home world and realize that not only is it poorly defended that it is where the Tribe of Bronze raise their young.  Moving from that disaster they maneuver toward the Tribe of Silver's home planet, Codomos.  Once there, the Tribe of Silver engages the Tribe of Humans in a relentless all out battle.  Dhianeila meanwhile makes her to the surface to speak with the only member of the Tribe of Silver not to hold hostility toward the Tribe of Iron.  The two realize that in a lot of ways they are both looking for the same thing.  The gift of wisdom left behind by the Tribe of Gold. They realize quickly that this gift is on the planet, Elysium. ...

Military might with a bow on top. After the great dragon Shen Long was summoned back in season one, Goku and Bulma find that now they have to repeat the process all over again. The dragon balls have scattered to random locations all over the world, but the tenacious Bulma won’t stop till she gets her wish and Goku wants his grandfather’s four-star ball back. However, once again, they aren’t alone in the hunt for the dragon balls and the Red Ribbon Army has emerged from the backdrop. Goku must now fight his way through the entire hierarchy of the Red Ribbon Army if he wants to achieve his goal. If the RRA wins, then they will use the balls to conquer the world. More dire circumstances hang in the balance than Bulma getting a cute boyfriend, and Goku must grow stronger to overcome enemies stronger than he has ever faced. In the race for the seven dragon balls, who will win? (Yeah, we know who.)

Before there were Super Saiyans there was one small boy. Son Goku was the most cheerful and most freakishly strong boy an old man could raise. After finding him abandoned as a baby, Son Gohan, a kindly old martial artist, took the boy in and raised him as a grandson. After the death of his grandfather, Goku continues to go about his daily life in the wilds while keeping his grandfather’s most prized possession safe as a memento. Enter Bulma, the plucky young daughter of the world’s most premier inventor. After literally running into Goku on the road, she discovers that this strange boy is holding on to one of the seven mystic dragon balls—items she covets to have the great dragon grant her wish. Being unable to talk Goku out of his cherished possession, the two set off together on a globe spanning adventure to find the rest of the set together. Along the way they meet the most ragtag cast of misfits (the least of which being the persistent Emperor Pilaf) and get into the most outrageous trouble imaginable. It makes one wonder if getting any wish your heart desires is worth being kidnapped, chased...

The second installment of Season One of D. Gray-Man sees Allen Walker and the Black Order as they continue to gather Innocence to combat the Millennium Earl.  They're first stop is a city which seems to be under the state of perpetual winter.  They run across an older gentlemen and his daughter whom are trying to find the Leaf of Revival to bring back his son. It is discovered that this Leaf of Revival is actually a tree and not only the cause of the perpetual blizzard, but is also of course Innocence.  Their next mission has them investigating a "vampire".  Things get hairy when it's discovered that this "vampire" is actually an Accommodator whom is capable of draining an Akuma and becoming more powerful in the process.  Even worse is that this "vampire" is in love with Akuma.  To top it all off, the Millennium Earl decides to make his move and declares all out war on the Black Order and the rest of the world. This installment of D. Gray-Man goes into some of the various character's history and personalities and gets more into the meat of the storyline.  It’s a bit deeper then the first half of...