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Afro Samurai: Resurrection is probably one of my favorite anime "movies" of this year and perhaps to date. I quote movies simply because Resurrection has an episodic feel to it, without the OPs and EDs.

The story begins with a flashback of Afro on a bridge. What follows is an intense battle with two against Afro which he of course dispatches. His hat then breaks open and that's when the great soundtrack (made by the RZA, once again) kicks in and your eyes get the treat of a fantastic, albeit short blood fest. We are then taken to Kuma (Jinno) riding a motorcycle and an ... older Afro carving statuettes.

From there, the story begins to unfold. What I liked about it was the fact it still pertained to his father. The story was much darker at times, what with the sadistic antagonist Sio (voiced by Lucy Liu, who did a damn good job) attempting to resurrect Afro's father in order to torture him. Her reasons aren't expressed in great detail, but as the movie carries on, if you pay close attention to the three androids Afro fights, you'll catch the gist of why she's doing this, other than other more obvious reasons.

The art/animation in this installment looks polished and far less gritty than the original five episodes of Afro Samurai. The fight scenes are nothing but amazing and intense and most of them carry on with satisfying length. Some parts had me yelling out explicit words at the top of my lungs even.

In this, you'll also notice that the western style of architecture, culture and style have been merged with the eastern culture, which looks great. I felt a lot of effort went into the process of combining the two and I even took the time to watch the special features. They even went so far to get aid from English speakers just so they could sync the mouths of the characters with their VAs.

The characters felt wholesome, as Afro once again assumes the role that he had in the first installment. However, you can tell that all the killing has made him a little softer, as he could have easily killed the men surrounding him in a particular scene, but instead he uses non-lethal methods to dispatch them. This has not made him any less bad-ass than he was in the original, but I feel it portrays his weariness of killing quite well. Jinno also makes a come back and his character's parts are awesome. They displayed Jinno's love for Afro as a brother and friend so well, most notably at the end of the movie. His character was very well developed, as was Sio's. Her drive for vengeance was as powerful as Afro's in the first "movie."

Surprisingly, Ninja-Ninja also made a come back and provides nearly all the comic relief in the movie. There were parts that had me nearly rolling on the floor with laughter and his character actually has a lot more screen time and speaking parts compared to the original.

The sound was superb, as the voice cast clearly knew what they were doing. Lucy Liu and Samuel L. Jackson are the big names here and they prove they can dub like veterans. They conveyed emotion well and as Ninja-Ninja's VA, Jackson is a riot. On top of the excellent voice acting, not only did the RZA provide the soundtrack for the movie, he even had a speaking part of his own as a DJ near the middle.

Speaking of the soundtrack, if you liked the first series, the amount of hip-hop in this installment has been increased, which I thought just made it better. If you're a fan of hip-hop, this movie supplies you with all that you need. The music helps build up the fight scenes too and they seemed to sync up together which had me all but overjoyed. These are why I simply had to give the sound a perfect ten.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and if you were a fan of the original, I don't feel that this one will disappoint you. I've already re-watched it three times and would be willing to do so a few more times. Overall, I gave this a 9 because while it's not perfect, it is close. I do wish it was a little longer, but judging from the popularity of this series, I am willing to wait until the third installment.

Fate/stay night was, for lack of better words, "pretty good." It was not GREAT, nor horrendous, but it was riding the fine line of mediocrity at times. I understand that it is quite difficult to be original in a day and age where it seems like everything new and innovative has already been used. But I digress.

Much of the mediocrity found in this series is in the story itself. There were very few twists and the ones that were there have already been done many times over. A fairly useless kid is our protagonist, by the name of Emiya Shirou, who turns out to ... not be quite so useless. Go figure. Emiya, with the aid of his Servant, Saber, who turns out to be quite powerful (yet again, go figure) must now battle the other sorcerers in a tournament to obtain a Grail that will grant a single wish.

At this point, I kind of feel like we've heard this story before. Weak kid, strong guardian figure, an object of limitless power that they must possess after countless trials and tribulations.

With that said, I really have nothing more to add other than the story got a 5 because of the total lack of originality. Granted, the Servants at times were pretty cool, but it isn't anything we haven't all seen before.

There were some refreshing comedy moments that helped throughout the staleness of the story, in my opinion. It wasn't made to be like Shakugan no Shana, it was very serious throughout most of the series, which, when looking at it from that perspective, it kept the anime fresh simply because it wasn't another fighting anime filled to the brim with comedy.

I will hand it to the animators, they made the fight scenes in this series quite well. The art was great, continuity throughout the scenes were excellent, and the animation itself was top notch and quite beautiful. I enjoyed the color schemes, notably during the scenes in the school when Rin is battling with Shirou.

Once again, I reiterate the battle animations: They look GOOD. It is what kept me watching all the way to the end, hoping for another battle. The characters moved like liquid at times and when they fought, you could almost feel the intensity. Which does a lot for the overall score of this anime because nothing is worse when you watch a series about fighting and the fighting itself is boring.

The sounds were nothing special, pretty much what you would expect from an anime such as this; sword clashing, the sounds of flesh being destroyed by weapons, incantations, the occasional battle soundtrack, etc. The voice-overs were done well. Shirou had the typical high school voice you come to expect and his screams were well recorded. Saber's total lack of emotion in her voice throughout most of the series was pleasing, considering that her character and personality reflected the lack of emotional response unless regarding her aims for the Grail.

I was disappointed with the characterization though, in a few ways. Shirou starts off pretty spineless and soft-hearted. As the story progresses, he is given a few opportunities where he has to act and a few times, he surprised me. But ultimately, even though he made a few decisions that I did not expect, I felt he still never learned anything and never grew as a character.

Saber, on the other hand, was an amazing character. She initially comes across as a hard-as-nails, straight to business kind of character. In the later episodes, she shows a bit of her softer, more caring side which is a drastic change. And when the end credits finally roll, you realize that she is a character, despite the faults she felt she had, despite the turmoil of feelings she had, Saber stuck to her convictions, duty and purpose. You could not ask for more.

Fate/stay night was enjoyable, its animation and characters being its strong points and its story being its lowest. Overall I gave it a 7 because it could have done better, but it is worthy enough that I would recommend it to other people and would give it a second watch. I cannot say I did not enjoy quite a few parts of this, especially some of the more intense battles that took place near the end.

If you're looking for an anime that has great animation, multiple battles and strong characterization then look no further. Just be prepared to occasionally scoff at the over-used foreshadowing and plot twist techniques and being able to say "I saw that coming" more than once.