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   has good character development so that you care about these people to   
   a surprising extent in the end.   
      Warning:  If you're looking for fan service, the show is   
   surprisingly free of it, considering what a babe Mireille is.  C'est   
   dommage.   
      Licenced by ADV.   
      [Entry by Scott Fujimoto]   
      
      NOW AND THEN, HERE AND THERE:  Shu is an ordinary, cheerful Japanese   
   boy until one day when he meets a mysterious, ethereal girl named Lala   
   Ru and is accidentally brought to a hellish future.  There he must   
   struggle to survive and keep his ideals through slavery, war, and the   
   tyranny of an insane would-be conqueror.  A deep and powerful but   
   extremely depressing show, which goes into some detail about the inhuman   
   brutality created by war.  Definitely not for children, as there are   
   onscreen depictions of torture, some fairly graphic deaths, rape and   
   other nastiness.  13 episodes, available now from Central Park Media.   
      [Entry by Blade]   
      
      NUKU-NUKU:  see ALL PURPOSE CULTURAL CAT-GIRL NUKU-NUKU   
      
   O   
      
      OH MY GODDESS!:  Keiichi is visited by the lovely goddess   
   Belldandy, who grants him a wish.  He wishes that she become his   
   girlfriend.  Her older sister wants their relationship to progress   
   faster, while her younger sister is dead-set against it.  But why does   
   Belldandy resist them both, insisting that promises must be kept?   
   Based loosely on the manga AH MEGAMI-SAMA by Fujishima Kosuke.   
      The original five-episode OAV series is available from AnimEigo.   
   The manga is available from Dark Horse.   
      (See also AH MY GODDESS! and ADVENTURES OF THE MINI-GODDESSES.)   
      [Entry by Rob Kelk]   
      
      OMOIDE POROPORO (English title ONLY YESTERDAY):  Contemporary   
   sentimental drama about a yuppie Japanese woman looking back at her   
   youth and life-choices, brilliantly animated by Miyazaki pro Isao   
   Takahata.  Talky, actionless, and stunningly beautiful.  Licenced by   
   Disney.   
      
      ONE PIECE:  This is a grand shounen adventure saga, with humor,   
   action, drama and great characters.  It's based upon a long running   
   and very popular shounen manga.  The anime is well over a hundred   
   episodes and stays amazingly fresh and imaginative.   
      In a strange world of pirates, that is sort of a funky mix of 17th   
   Century Spanish Main and today, Rufi, a teen who has eaten seeds of a   
   cursed rubber plant, has become a "rubber boy", with super powers.   
   Which is useful, because he wants to be the king of all pirates in   
   this world and find the greatest pirate treasure of all time, the "One   
   Piece".  Rufi collects a strange band of associates and they explore   
   this very baroque world, helping many folks in need (mainly by   
   fighting the real pirates), but not actually pirating.   
      Licenced by FUNimation.   
      [Entry by Anthony D. Baranyi]   
      
      ONIISAMA E (a.k.a. BROTHER, DEAR BROTHER):  Teenage Misonoo Nanako   
   enters an exclusive private high school, makes new friends, and is   
   quickly picked to join a snooty sorority.  She is quickly caught up in   
   the emotional whirlwind of the passionate and unstable personalities   
   of her female classmates:  Miya-sama, the wealthy, beautiful, and   
   ruthless sorority president; Saint-Juste, a brilliant pianist, but   
   prone to depression and fits of self-destructive violence; the boyish   
   basketball player Kaoru no Kimi, smart and ethically clear-sighted,   
   but subject to a mysterious illness, and troubled by an undisclosed   
   romantic sorrow; and the beautiful, fiercely loyal, but unstable and   
   obsessed Mariko, the despised daughter of a wealthy writer of   
   pornography.  With innocent Nanako in the middle, the fragile truce   
   between the other girls begins to break down, and Nanako is carried   
   with them into a destructive maelstrom of passion, madness, and   
   unrequited love.   
      This is the dark side of shoujo, much darker than author Ikeda   
   Riyoko's best known work, ROSE OF VERSAILLES.  It is gothic and   
   atmospheric, dramatic bordering on melodramatic, and includes sexual   
   stalking, graphic physical violence, multiple suicide attempts, drug   
   abuse, and lesbian homoeroticism.  It is deadly serious, with scarcely   
   a trace of humor, and as the story passes the midpoint of its 40 TV   
   episodes, it becomes unbearably intense.  It is not for everyone, and   
   may appeal to women more than men.  Like it or hate it, you will never   
   forget it.  It has an outstanding score, which reinforces the show's   
   emotional tone.  Available only as fansubs of the first 28 episodes;   
   even the original Japanese edition is no longer in print.   
      [Entry by Slithy Tove]   
      
      ORANGE ROAD:  see KIMAGURE ORANGE ROAD   
      
      OUTLAW STAR:  The first show in Sunrise's "Toward Stars" universe,   
   OUTLAW STAR is an old-fashioned space opera writ large.  Gene   
   Starwind, a big fish in the small pond of his home planet, is thrust   
   into a conflict between the Space Forces, the galactic pirates, and   
   the "outlaws" who owe allegiance to neither side as they all try to   
   reach the Galactic Leyline.  Helping Gene are his young partner Jim   
   Hawking, the lovely Melfina, and others who come and go from the plot.   
   If you like "pulp"-era science fiction, you'll like this show.   
      OUTLAW STAR is available uncut on VHS and DVD from Bandai in North   
   America, and an edited version of most of the series has been shown on   
   US television.  The show is available in Australia from Madman.   
      [Entry by Rob Kelk]   
      
   P   
      
      PANDA KOPANDA (a.k.a. PANDA! GO PANDA!):  Hayao Miyazaki's first   
   produced work.  It is two half-hour short pieces.  The first piece was   
   made in 1972, the second a year later.  The main characters are a   
   little girl named Mimiko, a large panda (Pa Panda), and his panda son   
   (Panny).  Mimiko (about 5 years old) lives with her grandmother.  One   
   day, her grandmother has to travel out of town for an extended period,   
   leaving Mimiko alone to take care of things.  By chance, a panda   
   father and his son wander into the town where Mimiko lives, and   
   attracted by the large bamboo garden, come to her house.  Mimiko talks   
   with them and decides to create a family of sorts, wherein she is the   
   little panda's mother, and the large panda is her father.  This piece   
   is generally seen as a precursor to TONARI NO TOTORO (MY NEIGHBOR   
   TOTORO).  It is available on DVD and VHS from Pioneer.   
      [Entry by Matt Huber]   
      
      PATLABOR:  Although PATLABOR TV nominally deals with police using   
   mecha ("labors") to combat labor crime, the series is no more a mecha   
   show than a modern-day Western police show is a "car show" or a   
   "truncheon show"; the majority of episodes are comedy based on oddities   
   of modern Japanese culture (apart from the mecha, there are practically   
   no futuristic elements in PATLABOR) or the thoroughly dysfunctional   
   cast.   
      The second OVA series is essentially a continuation of the TV series;   
   but the first OVA series is less well-concieved, and should probably be   
   watched only if you come to like the TV series.  The movies are very   
   different, being serious works not atypical of Mamoru Oshii's direction.   
      Manga Entertainment released the movies both theatrically and on   
   video.  The TV series and OAV series are being released by USMC.   
      [Entry by David Damerell]   
      
      PHANTOM QUEST CORPORATION (a.k.a. YUUGEN KAISHA):  Hard-drinking,   
   hard-shopping Ayaka Kisaragi is the head of the "Phantom Quest   
   Corporation", an eclectic team of ghostbusters whose members include   
   Ayaka with her magical sword, a huge Buddhist priest, a   
   flame-summoning schoolgirl, and a brilliant little boy whose financial   
      
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)