So the next series that I watched recently was Pumpkin Scissors, a somewhat comedic military anime. It was originally a manga started back in 2002 and (unfortunately) it is another one where the manga is still going, even to this day, but they decided to stop the anime for whatever reason, leaving the majority of the series as well as many plot points left unattended to. Anyway, the anime adaptation was made in 2006 by Gonzo (think Afro Samurai and Kaze no Stigma) and consists of 24 episodes at regular half hour length each. The opening was "Aoki Flamme" by Yoko Takahashi, and here we go into Pumpkin Scissors.
Kaze no Stigma, also known as Stigma of the Wind, originally started out as a light novel series that started back in 2003. While the series was also adapted into an anime by Gonzo, the novels were still being created up until the death of the author in 2009 leaving the story itself unfinished and thus, the anime could not be fully completed as well. However, that does not mean that the makers of the anime had to completely leave it up to a cliffhanger. Well they kinda did, but it wasn't as bad as some others that I have seen where they stop the series even if it does continue (*cough* Rave Master *cough*) but I digress. At 24 episodes this series has a lot to offer, action, comedy, romance, incest (kinda), magic, ...wait, did that just say incest? Yes, this series does seem to have something like that in it, and while it may not be what it intended to be, that's almost how it came across. Anyway, we can talk about that later, so here is Kaze no Stigma. The opening for the show was "Blast of Wind" by Sario Kiuiji and the endings were "Hitorikiri no Sora" by Sario Kiuiji, "Matataki no Kiwoku" by Ayumi Fujimura, Yuka Inokuchi, and Shizuka Ito, and these are kinda random for which episodes they go with they just kinda switched back and forth and then they have a random third ending for just episode 12 which confused me but it was "Tsuki Hana no Inori" by Sakai Kanako.
All right, now that I am back from that short hiatus that I was unofficially on for the past month, I can start getting back into the swing of things with my reviews. This time, I went back to an older anime (or at least older in my mind), way back in the olden days of 2001. The anime today is Hellsing the anime version. Hellsing was originally made as a manga in 1997 and then they made an anime adaptation in 2003. They also have been making an OAV version with a few different episodes called Hellsing Ultimate. Being an OAV they can make the episodes as long as they want to allowing them to go into as much detail in the show as they need. Hellsing Ultimate is releasing its final episode here in a few months and at some point I may check the series out. However, this review is not about that, instead its about the anime TV series with the standard 24 min run time per episode. With only 13 episodes in the one season it had, it isn't a long series by any means and didn't have a lot of time to build a story with it.
The series is made by Gonzo, who has since the making of this series is known for anime such as Full Metal Panic!, Samurai 7, and Afro Samurai. It was then a few years later released in the English dub by Geneon Entertainment and shown in America on Starz! in 2003. The opening theme used for the show is "Lokos Naki World" (A World With No Logic) by Yasushi Ishii. So, here is my review of Hellsing.
