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   boy, Junior, heir apparent to the throne of the city-state of Romana,   
   is hunted by his mad brother and his army of warrior marionettes.  The   
   boy's only hope for survival lies with three marionettes, Lime, Cherry   
   and Bloodberry, who are dedicated to Junior's defense.  There's plenty   
   of action and surprising revelations as Junior struggles against his   
   brother to determine the fate of Terra II.  (3 episode OAV series,   
   from Bandai, US VHS release by Bandai, US DVD release by Anime Works.)   
      [Entry by Karl Merris]   
      
      SAILOR MOON:  The first of the "mahoshoujo sentai" genre, taking   
   inspiration equally from the "magical girl" and "fighter team" genres,   
   SAILOR MOON is about a team of (mostly junior-high-school) girls who are   
   reincarnated from the Silver Millenium (a time of magic), reborn to   
   protect Earth from a series of evil invaders.   
      This show is more suitable for adults than others in the genre; while   
   it offers the standard transformation sequences and monsters of the   
   week, it also has a strong sense of humour that frequently approaches   
   parody, and presents a more interesting cast of characters than many   
   such shows.  The US dub of the first two seasons cuts much of the   
   subtext that makes the show worth watching, and makes major changes to   
   some characters' personalities; in particular, the heroine is presented   
   in a much less positive light.  Despite that, the airing of SAILOR MOON   
   on North American television started the latest cycle of popular-culture   
   awareness of anime.   
      ADV released edited-for-television dubs and uncut subs of the first   
   two seasons, while Geneon released uncut bilingual versions of the third   
   and fourth seasons and all three SAILOR MOON movies - these are no   
   longer available commercially.  The fifth season was never licenced in   
   North America.   
      [Entry by David Damerell, Scott Delahunt, and Rob Kelk]   
      
      SAINT TAIL (a.k.a. THE MYSTERIOUS THIEF SAINT TAIL): During the day,   
   she is Haneoka Meimi, at St. Paulia school, but when there is a need,   
   during the night she turns into the Magical Girl Saint Tail, with the   
   help of her friend and classmate Seira, who is a nun in training and is   
   the only person that knows the identity of Saint Tail.  Help to steal   
   precious objects, but with the objective to return them to their   
   rightful owners after being stolen by unscrupulous persons.  Saint Tail   
   is chased by Daiki Asuka (Asuka Jr.) who has the mission to catch and   
   discover the real identity of Saint Tail, and also is Meimi's classmate.   
   As part of a private deal between Saint Tail and Asuka Jr., she must   
   tell the young detective when her next attack will occur.   
      Saint Tail is not the normal magical girl, since must of her tricks   
   evolve between illusionism and magician tricks, many of them taken from   
   her father's skills as a professional magician, but is a nice and fun   
   show, with character development and cute romantic moments.   
      SAINT TAIL comprises 43 episodes and are available on DVD from   
   TokyoPop.   
      [Entry by Gerardo Campos]   
      
      SAIYUKI:  see GENSOMADEN SAIYUKI   
      
      SAMURAI CHAMPLOO:  The end of the Edo Jidai as you've never seen or   
   heard it before.  Two young master swordsmen - one a drop out from a   
   prestigious dojo and the other a former pirate - become unwilling and   
   unlikely guardians to a teen-aged waitress who wants to find a   
   mysterious samurai who "smells like sunflowers".  As the three strangers   
   travel across Japan and slowly become friends the audience is treated to   
   a brilliant collage of action, visual poetry, side-splitting humor and   
   an occasional slice of powerful human drama.  If you liked COWBOY BEBOP   
   you'll love SAMURAI CHAMPLOO.   
      [Entry by Dave Baranyi]   
      
      SAMURAI X:  see RUROUNI KENSHIN   
      
      SAZAN EYES:  see 3x3 EYES   
      
      SCRAPPED PRINCESS:  Pacifica Casull is the "Scrapped Princess"   
   prophesied to destroy the world on her 16th birthday.  Thus she travels   
   the world with the protection of her adopted siblings, the droll   
   swordsman Shannon and the ditzy mage Raquel, fending off those who seek   
   to kill her.  However, it seems as though the prophecy may be only   
   partly true, but there are forces that really don't want the truth   
   revealed.   
      One of the better recent fantasy anime, Scrapped Princess features   
   the usual high standards of production one comes to expect from Studio   
   Bones (RAHXEPHON, ANGELIC LAYER).  The vast cast of characters are   
   generally seen as the strong point of the show, with most getting at   
   least a modicum of decent development - however, Pacifica herself has a   
   tendency towards irritating brattishness, and the writing itself is   
   occasionally rather clunky, with a central plot twist you can see coming   
   a mile away that's been slightly overused as of late.  Yet while   
   Scrapped Princess is hardly revolutionary or massively deep, it's great   
   fun to watch and simply enjoy - what more could you want?   
      SCRAPPED PRINCESS is licensed by Bandai, and begins its DVD release   
   in April 2005 in Region 1.   
      [Entry by Andrew Hollingbury]   
      
      SECRET OF BLUE WATER:  see NADIA   
      
      SEIKAI NO MONSHOU:  see CREST OF THE STARS   
      
      SEN TO CHIHIRO NO KAMIKAKUSHI:  see SPIRITED AWAY   
      
      SERIAL EXPERIMENTS LAIN:  Lain is a shy junior-high girl living in   
   a seemingly normal, not too very far in the future world.  And yet,   
   strange things keep happening.  A classmate commits suicide by jumping   
   off a building ... and the next day, several people receive e-mail   
   from her.  Lain's parents don't behave as you would expect.  Lain   
   starts to become interested in computers and quite naturally and   
   easily demonstrates startling aptitude for them using them and "the   
   wired" - the Internet of her day.  But the real truth of who Lain is   
   will be even more startling yet.  A trippy, surreal, confusing and in   
   my opinion very interesting series.  Decent art and animation.   
   Occasional gore, though very little actual violence.  13 Episodes.   
   From Geneon Entertainment.   
      [Entry by Ben Cantrick]   
      
      SGT. KERORO:  see KERORO GUNSOU   
      
      SHIN SEIKI EVANGELION:  see NEON GENESIS EVANGELION   
      
      SHIN TENCHI MUYO:  see TENCHI IN TOKYO   
      
      SHINESMAN: SPECIAL DUTY COMBAT UNIT:  They're a team of   
   superheroes, just like the Power Rangers, except for one little   
   difference:  Most of them don't quite understand what a "sentai" team   
   is supposed to act like.  But that's what happens when the team is   
   corporately funded, and made up of various mid-level office workers   
   (and an OL as the requisite token female) ...   
      AnimeWorks has released both OAVs on one tape.  Both the sub and   
   the dub have their strong points - the dub has some funny one-liners   
   in the dialogue, while the sub makes it quite easy to identify the   
   voice actors - they're given characters with the same family names.   
      [Entry by Rob Kelk]   
      
      SHOUJO KAKUMEI UTENA:  see UTENA   
      
      SILENT MOBIUS: THE MOTION PICTURE and SILENT MOBIUS: THE MOTION   
   PICTURE 2:  Based on the popular manga series by Kia Asamiya, Silent   
   Mobius is set in the near future, when creatures from the dark   
   universe of Nemesis threaten the Earth.  Founded to fight this battle,   
   the Attacked Mystification Police, a special (and all female) police   
   department is always looking for a few good women who meet their   
   unique requirements: each member brings her own special power   
   (physical, cyber, religious, psychic, mystical) to the fight.  These   
   movies are really parts 1 and 2 of the same story - how AMP heroine   
   Katsumi Liqueur came to join the force (and she's really not this   
      
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)