I’m reviewing another western comic already? Apparently so. This is issue #1 of the new miniseries, Flashpoint.
 

 
Flashpoint is Geoff Johns’ latest big event, and he and DC themselves have said it’s fine if you just want to pick up this book without reading the large amount of build up to it. To be honest, I hadn’t even heard of it, and I didn’t even know it was a Flash story when I was asked and agreed to review it! So once again, I’m going to be finding out if this comic really can stand alone and be enjoyed by someone who’s completely out of the loop. Continue reading →

This isn’t the kind of thing I’m normally asked to review, but there’s a first time for everything. Today will be my first review of a western comic book: Action Comics #900.
 

 
#900 is a milestone issue, so as well as finding out just what I think of it, I’m going to be asking myself if it’s a good place for new readers to jump in. I haven’t read a DC comic since around the Blackest Night event, so I might just have been the right person to ask! Continue reading →

Gunslinger Girl is hitting bookshelves again, this time thanks to Seven Seas Entertainment.
 

 
This first release from them is an omnibus collecting volumes 1 through 3 of the manga. That’s 544 pages of gunslinging action! This wasn’t my first attempt to get into the series, so how did I like it this time? Read on and find out! Continue reading →

I’m extremely disappointed right now.  When I read a manga called Amnesia Labyrinth, I expect to see someone wake up in a maze without any memory of how they got there.  That’s not what this is at all!
 

 
Sarcasm aside, Amnesia Labyrinth isn’t nearly as exciting as its intriguing name would suggest.  The series has just hit American shelves in graphic-novel format courtesy of Seven Seas Entertainment, and I can’t say I was riveted by the four chapters included in this first volume.  In fact—and I know I sound like a bit of a bastard for starting out the review this way—the volume peaks in its first three pages.  You look at the catchy (if misleading) cover, read the synopsis on the back, and settle down to read a good ol’ mystery manga about a couple of high-school kids.  And what’s the first thing to happen in the volume?  An innocent student gets shoved in front of an oncoming train. Continue reading →

Funimation comes out swinging with a big film release, arguably the biggest film they’ve released since the first Evangelion Rebuild film (and based on who you ask, possibly bigger.)
 

 
A big push is being given to Summer Wars: theatrical screenings, larger than normal advertising, even an attempt to get it nominated for an Academy Award.  Is all the extra push worth it?
 
As a fun little experiment, Alex and I are reviewing this film together, since we both had things we wanted to say about it.
Continue reading →

Infinite Ryvius is a top-notch psychological drama from Sunrise that aired in 1999. Bandai first put it out on DVD in North America in 2003, and it’s really worth a look.
 

 
Infinite Ryvius, on its surface, looks like the kind of generic mecha/sci-fi series that Bandai often releases. It seems like it has nothing new to offer and is really only for the hardcore Sunrise fans. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. There’s very little action in the show, and the mecha is only used a handful of times throughout the entire 26 episodes. So I’m not really sure if that crowd would enjoy this. No, this series instead seems aimed at fans of character driven dramas, and that’s perfectly fine. There is also some great insight on political systems, and what human beings truly are at their root. This series cuts deep into human psyche. Continue reading →

What is Fractale? To tell you the truth, I’m still figuring that out myself…
 

 
One of the latest additions to FUNimation’s incredibly robust online streaming repertoire, Fractale is being simulcast every Thursday on Hulu at 11:45 am (EST), one hour after the episodes premiere on Fuji TV in Japan…at least, that’s the plan.  The simulcast was halted after the first episode when the show’s copyright holders demanded FUNimation take steps to stop piracy of the episodes.  Once this was sorted out and the simulcast resumed, the massive snow storms and cold fronts sweeping much of America prevented this week’s planned simulcast of episode four (I know how you feel, FUNi – it’s cold here too!).  Thus, this review covers the first three episodes of the series as part of a new plan on this site to review streaming content in ‘blocks.’  Fractale will only be 11 episodes total, so we’re planning two more reviews, each highlighting four new episodes, to cover the rest of the series as it airs. Continue reading →

We’ve been meaning to have me write something for The Fanboy Review for a while—around a year, in fact—so here I am! This is my first review around here, and I’m quite happy with the show the boss decided on. So let’s get down to it and take a look at the latest release of Tenchi Muyo! GXP.
 

 
The truth is that I’ve been a fan of Tenchi Muyo! for a long time. I was always interested in animation in general, but I was first introduced to Japanese animation properly when I was still in school, and Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki happened to be one of the first shows I collected on VHS. As such, it’s surprising that this is my first time taking a proper look at GXP, but I just never got around to it. It’s about eight years old now, so how does it hold up as a show, and how good is this latest release of it? Continue reading →

As a new reviewer for the site, I just wanted to quickly introduce myself to readers. My name is Jonathan R. Lack, and I’ve been writing film and TV reviews for eight years now, much of that time spent at Denver Post subsidiary YourHub.com where I publish most of my work. Anime isn’t an interest of that reader base, however, which is why I’m excited to write for The Fanboy Review and share my interest in anime with fellow ‘fanboys.’ Enjoy!
 

 
Has any anime ever been released so out of order in North America? Collecting the original Dragon Ball series has always been an exercise in frustration, going back to the jumbled release of the 2-disc ‘saga’ sets and culminating in the overdue but welcome blue-brick season set releases. The release of the films made just as little sense. When FUNimation began releasing the movies on DVD, we got uncut releases in the extremely strange order of film 3, Mystical Adventure, film 4, The Path to Power, and finally film 2, Sleeping Princess in Devil’s Castle, which was simultaneously released in a “Movie Box” alongside the other two. Meanwhile, movie 1, Curse of the Blood Rubies, had actually been released much earlier in an edited-and-dubbed only release as part of the material FUNimation (teaming up with various other companies) released in an earlier, failed attempt to bring Dragon Ball to young American audiences prior to their release of Dragon Ball Z. Rights issues related to this period in the franchise’s history meant an uncut release failed to see the light of day on DVD until just recently, just as the first thirteen TV episodes didn’t get an uncut release until the season sets. But the DVD is finally here, completing the long, complicated, and largely jumbled release of the series in North America. That alone may be cause for celebration. Continue reading →

NIS America is back with a new show doods!
 

 
After a few early missteps that NISA worked quickly to fix does a second attempt from NISA come out golden… doods? (It’s my second NISA review, I feel obligated to toss in a few doods at the beginning.  You read enough NISA Twitter posts and press releases and you will do it also.   Just passing it along to help NISA with their diabolical plot to spread the word dood around.) Continue reading →