Over The Edge Page 10 January 14, 2002 Anime Review: Battle of the Badass Sexy Boy Anime! By: Kathleen De Vere This issue the anime review is a head-to-head down and dirty competition of one bishonen (pretty boys) anime against another. Going up against each other are Gensomaden Saiyuki and Weiss Kreuz. First the stats on our com-. petitors. Gensomaden Saiyuki started out as a manga that was adapted into an anime that ran for 49 episodes on TV Tokyo and just had a feature film debut in theaters this summer. Weiss Kreuz started out as a J-Pop band that did radio plays, eventually branching out into a 26 episode TV show, a whole slew of direct to video releases, and anoth- er 26 episode TV series due to start later this year. Both are incredibly popular in Japan, and are gaining almost cult-like popularity on the Internet although Saiyuki is much harder to find than Weiss Kreuz. Weiss Kreuz is available in North America under the name -“Knight Hunters” and Saiyuki has recently been licensed by AD films. Both anime feature similar casts of 4 handsome young men fighting for jus- tice. Both Weiss and Saiyuki have a womanizing charac- ter, a perky younger member of the team and a silent moody leader. Our local softwood lumber industry is in bad shape, while | see metal studs being used in the walls in our new lab building! Why? Needed: Drummer for Metal/ Progressive Metal band with decent experience. Weiss is the story of 4 young bishonen that live as florists by day and assassins by night. They work for a secret organization that they tell you very little about, except for the fact that they work to kill evil crime lords t * > Weiss Kruez: Chutney ferret anybody? and general nasty poo-heads that threaten pretty young girls. Most of the episodes revolve around the Weiss boys acting sexy and mysteri- ous. | didn’t care for Weiss for many reasons. First of all, Weiss’ whole soundtrack is a J-Pop nightmare. | personally don’t care for J-Pop and it really turned me off the show. The biggest problem | had with the show was the fact that all the main characters did was stand around and look pretty, smiling mysteri- ously and fending off female attention. They acted very *ahem* friendly to each other, friendly to the point that | couldn’t help but think that there was some chutney fer- ret going on behind the scenes. The plot of Weiss was pretty uninteresting, and | saw through it rather quick- ly. [had been looking forward to seeing this show, but | was pretty disappointed by it. | wasn’t too excited about seeing Saiyuki after Weiss Kreuz, but | was pleasantly surprised by the show. Saiyuki follows the tried and true format of shows like Slayers: get a bunch of funny and odd characters together and send them on a mission to eradicate some evil magi- cal force. It's also loosely based on.the Chinese legend of the Monkey King. The best part of Saiyuki is that it does- n't take itself too seriously, so there is plenty of humour sprinkled through the show. A prime example is the little while dragon that turns into a jeep... it's very surreal at times, but that works to draw the audience into Saiyuki’s strange pseudo-magical world. The main character Sanzo is one funny badass monk and has more person- ality that the entire leading cast of Weiss Kreuz com- bined. Saiyuki had a shoe- string budget and it shows because of all the still shots that the show uses to save money, but all the stills were beautifully composed, and had a lot of effort put into them. In short, if you’re looking for a adventure show with a good sense of humour in the vein of Slayers, go hunt down some Saiyuki. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN FUN WITH KATHLEEN? TREVOR IS NOW A CAT-BOY y % ; | a - REVOR AND MIKE ARE BEST FRIENDS URSELA WAS ATTENDING URSELA TS MIKE'S FEMINIST GIRLFRIEND TREVOR GOT NAKED AND RAN AMOK AT THE OVULAR THAT WHO BEAT UP THIS SELF AWARE TELEVISION TOM IS TREVOR'S ROOMMATE AND SOME SORT OF TERRIBLY POWERFUL DEMON AND THEY REALLY i DIG ANGELA LANSBURY BOOMPY DOESN'T HAVE ANYTHING TO BDO WITH THIS AT ALL... FEAR HTS LAZY EYE... HAREING AND IBBERSON ARE TWO LITTLE EATING DEMONS THAT TOM CREATED THAT TOM BROUGHT TO LIFE hree Lines Free The views expressed in this section are not those of Over The Edge. Josh: 564-0837 Gord: 563-1537 No matter what stick ya chest out, put your chin up, and walk with pride. A friend around the corner. All inflicted pain, mental’ or physical is only pain leaving the body. All your transcripts are belong to us. What you say? Looking for parking space for small pinto like vehicle. Have baseball bat for F250’s that take up 3 spaces. Matt wants Punnani My name in Fabio because I’m Fabio-ous!! No | don’t want to feast on the toasty souls of the damned! Have something to say? Submit your beef, complaint, praise, thank you, or irrele- vant comment to Over The Edge’s Three Lines Free. it’s free! Over The Edge welcomes all letters to the Editor and attempts to print every submission. Submissions may be withheld and printed at a later date due to special restrictions. Over The Edge reserves the right to edit for spelling, grammar, or content and withhold, in whole or in part, any Letter to the Editor. Anonymous letters will not be printed in any way, shape, or form. Send submissions to: Over The Edge, 3333 University Way, Prince George, BC V2N 4Z9 or E-mail: over-the-edge@unbc.ca or drop by our office across from the Wintergarden.