[continued from previous message]   
      
   demonic captain of the high school football team, Hiruma, decides to   
   rebuild the team around Sena, with Sena disguised as the mysterious   
   running back "Eyeshield 21".   
      What results from this is a fast-paced, unpretentious story with   
   surprisingly adept character development and smart, consistent comedy.   
   Add to this reasonably good animation and a lively soundtrack and you   
   have a nice bit of old-fashioned fun done in a thoroughly up-to-date   
   manner.  So forget about anything you ever knew about American High   
   School Football, sit back, grab a bottle of "sports water", and enjoy   
   the action.   
      [Entry by Dave Baranyi]   
      
      
   F   
      
      FAKE:  A very gay detective story with young man and woman in care of   
   the officers in an alternate version of NYC.   
      The senior detective, who is in love with the younger who is   
   Japanese-American, sets up a vacation for both in England.  He bribes   
   the young man to stay behind so that he and the object of his affection   
   can enjoy a truely romantic weekend.   
      Too bad the hotel they have chosen is the scene of a mystery which   
   has attracted the attention of a senior officer of the NY State Police.   
   A woman vanishes and then the kids show up to prevent seduction.   
      Well the vacation is already spoiled when a flaming fellow officer   
   insists on following them to the site and they get a harsh suprise on   
   their return to the station house.   
      Very amusing!   
      One 60 minute OAV, from Anime Works   
      [Entry by bobbie sellers]   
      [Parental Advisory:  FAKE does touch on male/male romantic   
   relationships, but it's clean.  There isn't even any nudity in it past   
   the occasional male chest.  - David Watson]   
      
      FAM AND IHRIE:  see RUIN EXPLORERS   
      
      FANCY LALA:  FANCY LALA is the story of a girl and her magic sketch   
   book.  I think that cleared all of the DBZ heads out.  For the rest of   
   you, no, there are no magical princesses fighting evil by moonlight,   
   nor are there any convoluted love polygons.  What we have here is a   
   simple show about how a young girl, Shinohara Miho (all names in   
   Japanese name order) obtains the power to grow just a bit older from   
   some 'funny dinosaurs' (Pigu and Mogu, her wise helpers ... yea right,   
   they spend more time arguing and eating all the food than helping) and   
   her not so meteoric rise to stardom.  Her alter ego's name is Lala,   
   for short (Fancy Lala in full).  She's got powers that every little   
   girl would want:  growing older, drawing all the cool clothes you   
   could ever want with a magic pen (just say Dabu Dabu and the clothes   
   become real!) and meeting all your favorite stars (in Miho's case it's   
   the fabulous male idol, Aikawa Hiroya).   
      However, this show's best aspect is its unusual realness.  Lala's   
   rise to stardom is no instant success.  It's a lot of hard work full   
   of bright lights, pushy stars, and time spent away from friends.  Her   
   time as Miho isn't all sugar sweetness wrapped in a candy cane either.   
   Miho's a rather real little girl, genki or not, and she gets   
   frustrated and tired.  An interesting point is the depth of character   
   is actually accentuated by Miho having two forms.  Seeing how   
   characters react to each form shows their characters in more detail   
   than otherwise would be possible.  That's it, except for maybe that   
   mysterious guy...  (Fushigi-san, called 'Mystery Man' in the   
   commercial version).  Maybe he has something to do with Miho's   
   spectacular transformation? This 26 episode series was on Japanese TV   
   in 1998, and now is released in the US by Bandai Entertainment.  An   
   extra note:  it's a homage to CREAMY MAMI, a 1983 magical girl show   
   along the same lines (both done by Studio Pierrot).   
      [Entry by Hana no Kaitou]   
      
      FIGURE 17:  Some young anime girls get wands or pens that let them   
   transform into powerful fighters.  Tsubasa got a twin sister.   
      This anime takes place in rural Hokkaido, a quiet place just right   
   for slow character development, quiet childhood life, and the occasional   
   fight against an alien menace that could destroy the planet.  And shy,   
   out-of-her-element Tsubasa is caught in the middle of it all when her   
   father moves there and an alien spacecraft crashes.  After getting that   
   "twin sister" (actually an alien AI), who names herself Hikaru, Tsubasa   
   spends most of her screen time learning how to open up to her new   
   classmates, and about close friendship.  However, there's still the   
   alien menace to be dealt with, and it seems that only Hikaru and   
   Tsubasa, working together as "Figure 17", are up to the challenge.   
      FIGURE 17 will seem familiar to old-school anime fans; the show was   
   originally presented as one 50-minute episode every month, so the pacing   
   is very much like the original OAV anime series of the 1980s.  (However,   
   the anime was first released to cable television, not to video.)  The   
   production values are state of the art for the turn of the millennium,   
   though.  The show also doesn't pigeonhole into convenient genres; it's   
   roughly equally a "coming of age" story and an "intense battle" story.   
      Parental advisory:  There is some violence, and people do die.   
   Please preview the show before letting pre-teens watch it.   
      13 episodes, available in North America on six DVDs from Anime Works.   
      [Entry by Rob Kelk]   
      
      FIRE TRIPPER:  One of the more serious of the "Rumik World" stories   
   by Rumiko Takahashi.  A young woman gets sent back in time to feudal   
   Japan, but how?  And what happened to the young boy that was with her?   
   Was available from USMC.   
      [Entry by Rob Kelk]   
      
      FLCL:  What makes a boy a man: older women, baseball and rock and   
   roll.  FLCL is a hilarious, surreal comedy from GAINAX (NEON GENESIS   
   EVANGELION, KARE KANO).   
      Naota is a 12-year old boy in a boring town that has the steam-iron   
   shaped Medical Mechanica factory as its most distinguishing feature.  He   
   lives in the shadow of his older brother, a local baseball star who went   
   to America, and his life is going nowhere.  He spends most of his time   
   hanging around with his brother's ex-girlfriend, Mamimi, and being   
   manipulated by Ninamori, the class president.   
      Then SHE comes to town, Haruko Harurura.  Riding an Italian Vespa   
   scooter and carrying a wicked electric guitar she starts like a   
   chainsaw, she enters Naota's life and turns it and the town upside down.   
   Just what is it she wants with Medical Machinica and why do robots keep   
   bursting from Naota's head!?   
      Visually, it is as if Chuck Jones decided to make anime.  It's wild,   
   frenetic and full of hilarious sight gags, but it's also a coming of age   
   story.  It will remind you of your awkward "tween" years as you   
   discovered the opposite sex, feeling cynical about adults and the   
   question, "Where do you want to go with your life?"   
      Age: 12+  Warning: Suggestive scenes, fan service, no nudity.   
      Available in North America from Synch-Point.   
      [Entry by Travers Naran]   
      
      FRUITS BASKET:  This is a shoujo story about an orphaned girl who is   
   taken in by a wealthy clan that has been cursed to transform into   
   animals from the Chinese zodiac.  While there are the usual tropes of   
   growing up in the face of loss and dealing with being an outsider,   
   FRUITS BASKET treats it with a wry sense of humour, an excellent cast of   
   characters and genuine warmth.  But despite the overall cheeriness of   
   the series, there are darker undercurrents to the story and some   
   powerful moments when  the characters utterly break down in the face of   
   something they can't deal with.   
      [Entry by "IwillneverbeaJedi"]   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)