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Death Note was a fantastic manga and anime series--sometimes, in the entertainment industry, really successful works get the creators thinking: "So many people liked this. What can we do to keep making profit off the fans?" This usually spawns a sequel, but a general rule of movies/books/etc. is that sequels for profit just don't work. Death Note is one of the latest victims of this, with a one-shot "follow-up" that leaves the readers wondering what was the point.

Story: This is Death Note, after all. The story, limited as it was, involves another Death Note killer. Three years after the ending of the original series, people ... begin dying mysteriously once again. However, this murderer's victims are very different from the original Kira's. The story revolves around that to an extent, but there isn't half as much drive or suspense as in the original. I suppose that is to be expected from a one-shot, but the way it was presented was quite uninteresting. The only thing worth reading was a short flashback of L speaking with the Wammy's House orphans, which gives a little more well-deserved insight into L's character.
Beyond that interesting little tidbit, the story played out like a really bad fanfiction that happened to be written by a professional. The professional, actually: Ohba's still the writer here. This is surprising because you would expect it to be so much better, being written by the original author.
The whole concept of another Death Note user just seems to ruin the whole idea for me: the series' ending was wonderful as it was. I, for one, was perfectly content with how it ended, and to be honest, the original idea of Death Note can only be used once: after that, it's being recycled and is not as good.

Art: The art was way off this time; the characters we know and love all look different, and not just because it takes place three years later. For instance, the adults. The way they were drawn, they just looked...different. I can't think of a better way to describe it. It seemed like the artist decided to slop his way through it, or maybe forgot how to draw the characters since it's been a little while. But that's unlikely.

Character: Terrible. Ohba wasn't thinking straight, because most of the characters are unforgivably "OOC." There are one or two new characters, but the others have weirdly different personalities all of a sudden.
I'm not condemning the characters because of their lack of development--since this is a one-shot story, that's to be expected--but for how out-of-character everyone was.

Enjoyment: I'll name the two enjoyable things: the orphanage flashback, and the fact that Near is now building a Card House Empire that fills up an entire large room. Even better than the original Dice City that I liked so much.

Overall: Since the whole purpose of this one-shot was to make the creators money, and they didn't seem all that interested in keeping to the original series' pace and tone, and felt like majorly messing with the story's canon, there is very little merit to reading this. Unless you want to demonstrate how very, very bad sequels can get, skip it. You'll be no less of a Death Note fan for doing so.

Black Cat at its worst is a typical action manga chock-full of unoriginal characters and plot devices, but at its best an enjoyable series in which those unoriginal characters are endearing, the plot devices are familiar enough to seem almost nostalgic, and the story as a whole flows well (for the most part).

Story: The core story is quite interesting, though it often takes the shonen staples of "I'm gonna fight you just to prove myself" and "I suddenly got so much more powerful" and "I'm the only one that can stop the bad guy." The story is fun and even suspenseful beyond those occasional nuisances. ...

Art: Black Cat also reminds the audience it's shonen by featuring a lot of guys with spiky hair. Train Heartnet's features are adorably catlike. In case you're not sure who to root for, the good guys look nice and bad guys are usually quite ugly. Nothing about the art itself really jumps out at the reader beyond some of the action sequences, which are nicely drawn. Unlike many other shonen, I actually found myself understanding what had just happened in any given fight.

Character: Characters are not this series' strong point, at least not as far as originality goes. Everyone has seen these characters before at some point, they just looked different and had different names. Train is your heartless assassin-turned all-around nice guy who is also a bounty hunter. Sven is the self-proclaimed gentleman sidekick with some kind of trump card in his fighting ability. Eve is the ridiculously powerful child who's been genetically altered and initially had no emotion. Creed is the guy who has a disturbing obsession with the main character and a vendetta against the world who inevitably decides to rule it over as a god.

That being said, the characters are faithful to their unoriginal archetypes. They rarely do anything unexpected, unless that's their intended personality.

Enjoyment: In spite of the perceived recycled characters and storyline, Black Cat is quite enjoyable. There's plenty of humor interspersed throughout and the characters, to their credit, are diverse enough where a reader could pick one he/she really really likes and cheer them on over the course of the story.

Overall: Black Cat is criticized for not being too original, but that's not really its intention. The idea is to create an interesting story with characters that have been tested and proven to work on an audience before, and besides, if Black Cat were to happen to be the first anime anyone saw, they wouldn't necessarily know the difference. This is, in the end, a worthwhile series for action fans.

Unfortunately, the movie that introduced 'mainstream' America to Miyazaki is not as good as it has been advertised.

Story: The story itself is rather underwhelming; a small spoiled brat is 'spirited away' to, well, the spirit world, her life as she knows it is suddenly in danger, and she has to overcome her selfishness in order to get back to her world, all the time helping and being helped by an attractive young male spirit who is actually a dragon...did you catch all the cliches in there?

Art: This is the movie's one saving grace. Miyazaki was always known for his fantastic animation, and Spirited Away is ... no exception. The scenery is breathtakingly realistic, and despite the two-dimensional characters, could almost be mistaken for live-action if one were to not be careful.

Sound: The music is relatively bland; no really noticeable or memorable moments in the score. For once I prefer the sound effects to the actual soundtracks. It is also worth noting that the voice actors usually speak all their lines with one monotonous emotion. This is not inherently their fault, though, as will be explained in the next section.

Character: The movie's weakest point by far. None of the characters are likeable, except the minor ones, and maybe the animals. Sympathy for Chihiro doesn't really grow as the movie progresses, which is no doubt the opposite effect the filmmakers wanted. The spirit Haku is also an offender here; as cool as we are supposed to think he is, this is hindered by his all-around boring-ness.

Enjoyment/Overall: In the middle of recording this for my family to watch later, I had to just cancel it after realizing how disappointing the film was. What was I expecting? Well, maybe a movie that had a storyline that was taken further, characters that actually develop and manage to be likeable, and an interesting musical score. Is that too much to ask? If you haven't already fallen prey to Miyazaki mania with this one, I would say just skip it. Not missing much.

Story: Any vampire fans would appreciate the story; the ever-reusable (and reused) vampire legend gets a new spin here. From the very first episode, the main character Saya is unwittingly thrown into a fight for humanity that only she can put an end to. Accompanied by her (sexy) cellist guardian who has some link to her, she sets out to rid the world of the vampire-like chiropterans plaguing the earth. Fortunately for us, the story is quite a bit more complex than that. Very soon into the series, the story becomes deeper, with many twists revealed about Saya and her dark past.

Art: From what ... I have seen, this has a very unique art style, especially in that all the characters actually look unique. I'm referring to many other series where the characters all look ridiculously similar since they were designed by the same person. Also, the show has a decidedly dark atmosphere which is wonderfully presented in the animation. If you are a fan of much blood, also take comfort in knowing you'll find a lot here. It is in the title, after all.

Sound: Personally I'm not a fan of any of the opening or closing themes, but the soundtrack is one of my favorites from any anime. Mark Mancina composed the score for Blood+ (turning him into an anime fan in the process) and was helped by Hans Zimmer, so it's the first anime I've seen where the music was written by someone not actually Japanese. Mancina's rich score is perfect for the show. The voice actors did wonderfully as well. Noteworthy is Kari Wahlgren as Saya (though I didn't approve of using her for Diva, too, whom she rather botched) and Crispin Freeman as Haji (for some reason, the mysterious and seemingly emotionless characters suit him).

Character: Character development is great here, thanks mostly to Saya, who must grow from the timid amnesiac she begins the show as to a strong female warrior, and it is interesting to watch how this transformation really takes a toll on her personality. The other supporting characters also help contribute to the character development, to a certain extent. After my own heart, the show's creators let the audience in on the villain's side many times, allowing us to see their plans before the other characters do. Hooray for dramatic irony and moving forward of plotlines!

Enjoyment: As I mentioned earlier, vampire fans who are sick of the "same ol’, same ol’" vampire stories will love this one. Really, the only similarity between "traditional" vampires and the ones in Blood+ are that they drink blood. Speaking of blood, if you are squeamish at the sight of cartoon blood, keep away from this for obvious reasons, as it would inhibit your enjoyment of the series tremendously. Anyone else would like Blood+ since it has a good amount of action, but doesn't deviate from the main plotline, which is surprisingly complex.

Overall: Unless you don't like really violent anime, I would recommend this to anyone who likes vampires, action, drama, romance, and a good plot. And sexy cellists.

Eight years later, Final Fantasy VII finally got a sequel. Under tight scrutiny by Cloud fans everywhere, here's how it measures up:

Story: I won't lie; unless you're a Final Fantasy VII fan, you won't appreciate the story for what it really is. (You probably won't even understand it, for that matter.) The film references story elements from the original game heavily. Though there is a short recap at the beginning, it doesn't go as in-depth as it really needs to. This is the story's one major setback; a few more explanations was all it would have taken to hook a few more FFVII fans. For ... those already hooked, no worries! The game's canon is being faithfully continued here.

Art: I don't think I really need to explain this, but the graphics are outstanding; a huge improvement on the Playstation game's pixelated world. Characters do look real if you don't think too much, but several clever camera angles and movements remind us that this is an animated film (albeit a very sophisticated one).

Sound: Of all the Final Fantasy series soundtracks, VII's is easily the most recognizable. Nobuo Uematsu returns for Advent Children, recreating the game's music for full orchestra, often with a rock band thrown in for added effect. Everything from the opening theme to "One-Winged Angel" has been made over for the better. The character's voice actors are spectacular, English and Japanese alike; though any number of voices could have been imagined for them during the game, the ones we got seem to fit perfectly.

Character: Final Fantasy VII was character-driven to begin with. The whole focus of the story is Cloud's inability to move on (yeah, he still angsts), and the new villain is trying to obtain a goal he doesn't even fully understand himself (guess who's pulling the strings here), but beyond that there isn't a whole lot of character development to speak of. On the other hand, dead characters stay dead (thankfully), and every supporting character from the game makes a CGI-appearance of some kind. Nostalgia, anyone?

Enjoyment: Depends on who you are, really. Die-hard FFVII fans will love seeing Cloud being forced yet again into a battle he initially doesn't want, only to have to face his arch-nemesis in a battle that can really only be called "incredible". It is also worth noting that our dead flower girl friend stays that way, despite some throw-away cameo scenes that serve no purpose other than to please the fanboys.

Overall: Fans have waited seemingly forever for this, and in my opinion it was worth the wait; it finishes Cloud's personal story in a satisfying way, and its ending is loads more clear than was the original game's. This is a must-see for any Final Fantasy VII fan.

Story: Ouran's storyline is surprisingly unique. It manages to poke fun at typical shoujo "cliches," yet still take itself seriously in places. Most episodes are stand-alone which would allow the viewer to watch any random episode and still get the general idea of the series.

Art: Typical of shoujo art, the characters are undeniably cute-looking, each with their own distinct style unless intended otherwise (the twins, for example). The scenery is beautiful as well, with a happy, bright atmosphere throughout.

Sound: Ouran is accompanied by a charming soundtrack, full of mostly classical style music that perfectly matches the show's setting and fun themes. The voice actors ... each portray their roles marvelously, as well.

Character: One of Ouran's strong points is its unique characters (and development thereof). No one person is the same; each has his or her own quirks and aspirations which make them all likeable.

Enjoyment: My highest individual score; Ouran is a fun ride the whole way through. Besides the interesting character development, it's chock-full of humor, and it's good humor; I was a victim of side-splitting laughter more times than I could count. (Yes, this is a good thing.)

Overall: You should check into Ouran no matter who you are. If you love shoujo, you'll love it. If you don't love shoujo, you'll still love it because it's not afraid to make fun of itself. (And if you're like me and don't really care about demographics, yes, you'll love it, too.)