Pokemon:
Pocket Monsters duel in amasing battles and varied environment. TV Y. Rating, 6 - I would have to be in the mood to watch it - I like the movies for the most part, but will only watch with a friend.
Beyblade:
Young duelists do battle with battle tops. STUPID!!! No inteligible plot that makes any sense at all. Who decided to get this dumb show translated and put on ABC Family? TV Y7. I give it a 1 and hope it gets canceled like so many other shows that come on.
Digimon:
Digital Monsters and a group of kids quest to free the digital and real worlds. Seasons 1-2 were good, all others after that got stupid and ridiculous. TV Y7. Season 1 and 2 got a 7 from me, but the others get a 5 (season 3) and after that a 1 - this show must be stopped. When they ended the 2nd season they should have stopped there.
Yu Yu Hakasho:
A teenage boy has an extended near death experience and must complete a series of requirements to be returned to his body. After doing so, he finds himself being recruited by the Other Side to be a Spirit detective. Ugh! No matter if you watch the edited or uncut version, it is a grotesque and odd delving into spiritual matters. I draw the line here. No more! TV Y7 (edited) and TV PG (uncut). It is worthy of a 1 for being overly obsessed with violence and repulsive characters.
Yu-gi-oh:
Duel Monsters. Some how a simple card dueling game is linked to the fate of the whole world. It seems to be linked to a spiritual aspect and maintains possession, obsession, and greed - though the "hero" of the show has high standards. It might be a good moral tale if it did not focus so much on the importance of the card game. The outside plot is pretty good, but it is rather dull if odd to watch the duels - I find them confusing. TV Y7. I rate it at a 6, but will give it a chance only when my friend is here.
One Peice:
Some kid - I will guess aged between 10 and 13 - is supposed to become the king of pirates, but only because some pirate hunter gave him a straw hat and told him so. It was quite violent, clearly edited for the US market and ridiculous and yet it was rated Y7 - ask me if that makes sense. In short: UGH! Inspite of seeing it once I refuse to see it again to review it again! Rating 1, since there is no lower rating to give it.
Dragon Ball/DBZ/DBGT:
The DB franchise has been an absolute success with spin offs in merchandise from posters to video games. It all starts with a quest to find the 7 Dragon Balls - which once gathered together would summon a great dragon, Shenron, who would grant almost any wish. The story's main character through out the franchise is the clueless, but pure of heart, Goku-son. The Japanese version is variated only slightly from the American version. Also there are two editions available in the US - Y7 and PG13. For the latter of the two you can only get that edition on VHS/DVD. It is quite violent, but there is a moral purpose to it: Goku fights when he must and tries other ways as well. The matter of the franchise is unappologetically Japanese in its out look, even in the US edition which has cultural references removed. In the PG13 edition there is swearing, brief nudity - tasteful, if there be such a thing - and more blood than in the Y7 Cartoon Network edition.
Case Closed
Jimmy Kudo was an ace detective who happened to still be an 11th grader, but that all changed when he was given an experemental poison by a pair of thugs in black. The drug doesn't kill Jimmy as they hoped and now he is trapped in a 2nd grader body. He takes on the name Conan, after his favorite author Conan A. Doyal of the Sherlock Holms series. The kind Dr. Agasa makes for him a series of descreat but very effective tools ranging from eye glasses that can listen in on bugged places to sneakers that make his kicks fenominal. It is light on the sci-fi, but it is very good and quite entriguing. TV PG for violence and the occadional bad word. Found on Cartoon Network and now on DVD.
8 for the courious nature of the show and my love for shows about crime solving - real or scripted. It only gets an 8 because at times the story can grit my nerves a bit when the guy who is caring for Conan strikes him without caring how hard he hits him (by the way, he is another detective) and I don't like the pointless cussing, however infrequent.
