Valvrave the Liberator

In the 71st year of the True era, most of the human have moved from Earth to other planets and other artificial space bases, such as a Dyson Sphere. There are two superpowers: Dorssia, who are a powerful military and European based empire and ARUS with a North American basis. There is another country known as JIOR which consists of Japan and other Asian countries and are neutral peaceful and prosperous. Dorssia has a sent a group of teenage military trained team of boys to infiltrate JIOR and find a secret weapon they are working on. Meanwhile Haruto and friends live a peaceful and typical teenage life, with Haruto and his childhood friend and crush Shoko, who is the daughter of the JIOR prime minister. Without warning Dorssia forces attack the Dyson Sphere in hoping to take control and expand their territory. The secret team led by L'elf succeed in finding a powerul robot called Valvrave, but at the last second the dying engineer manages to eject the robot to the surface where Haruto just happens to be. Haruto has witnessed the violence and death caused by Dorssia and even seeing Shoko get caught in an explosion. He snaps and takes off in the robot to easily destroy the enemy. Returning back to land L'elf stabs and shoots Haruto, who falls dead. As L'elf starts to walk away, Haruto rises again and bites L'elf on the neck, and both fall to the ground. As L'elf's teammates arrive, he turns on them and wounds his colleague. He, Haruto and friends escape, while his teammates wonder why the loyal L'elf has returned. The Valvrave robot has made Haruto immortal and he has the ability to transfer his soul to another being and now is the only capable of operating the robot. L'elf is captured by JIOR forces after switching back, but escapes and single handedly destroys an entire troupe of soldiers. JIOR goes back on their word to evacuate all of the high school students. Realizing they have to rely on themselves, Shoko and Haruto lead the school in independence from JIOR and anyone else, actually separating their colony from the rest of the Dyson Sphere, with Valvrave at hand to defend them and L'elf in tow...

I thought this was going to be another Gundam clone and in fact it starts out that way. It's all set up with a young teenage guy stumbling across a super robot that's more powerful than the enemy's mecha. But the story set up and plot take a somewhat different turn which makes it very watchable. The robot is a little different as it makes the user immortal and gives the ability for the user to transfer his soul to another person with a direct bite to the skin. But it's a very kick ass robot in the tradition of a Gundam that can take on a fleet by itself. It also leaves the person who was used without any memory of what the person inside him did: did you get that? The best part comes when JIOR is willing to sacrifice it's people to protect themselves, the school declares independence from them and takes Valvrave with them!That's a nice spin on the story and it takes the anime to a different and interesting level. The characters are interesting from the unsure Haruto to the more confident Shoko who turn out to make a good team. Then there's L'elf who is stemmed from Dorssian military training and believes conflict is important and the only option. Obviously he has a past that we are eager to learn about. As for Valvrave, it definitely doesn't look like a Gundam--it has it's own original design. The best part is the interface which is a cute teenage blonde girl that pops up on the screen and tells you everything is okay. If anyone but Haruto is in the cockpit seat, she will let you know that it's NOT okay. But it's way powerful and I bet it has more tricks up it's sleeve. This is a nice spin on the genre and I look forward to the conclusion. thumbs up.

Brave Beats

On a distant planet, A "Dancerian" named Breakin challenges the king of dance, showing off his fantastic Breaking moves. But the king says he doesn't stands a chance against him and so he fails. His punishment is to have his dance stones taken from him and sent to another planet. His objective is to go and find the scattered stones. And wouldn't you know that the planet happens to be Earth?! Breakin is reduced to a cute little robot form and so must resort to having someone help him restore his energy and help him find the stones. He comes across a kid named Hibiki who reluctantly takes him into his home, and does not believe in Breakin's plight. The stones begin to appear, and be used by classmates or others who can't control the power of the stone, making things go awry and destructive. Hibiki ends up having to fuse with Breakin to create a powerful new dance being named Flash Beat. Using Breakin's power, his dance moves can counter the uncontrollable stones and in doing so gives them more powerful. Meanwhile some villains make their appearance: a duo who love to steal for fun and who work for a mysterious man named Kamiya who seems to be looking for the stones as well. Hibiki's friend Kotone has become infatuated with Flash Beat the moment he saw him and hopes to meet him up close and personal. Another alien appears on earth, taking the form of a cute bunny like creature name Adeline who befriends to Kotone. When Flash Beat has trouble with his moves (due to Hibiki's lack of practice), Adeline decideds to fuse with Kotone and create another new dance being called Wink Beat. Both dancers can take down the villainous duo and conquer the dance stones, but Kamiya is about to make himself known...

This is sort of a mix of elements of stuff like Dragon Ball, Pokemon and DDR maybe!With the simplistic animation style it's definitely geared for kids, but I do like the dance aspect of the series, especially since the aptly named Breakin is expertise in, well, breakin'! It's also interesting that the Dancerian and the human character can fuse together to make a powerful dance warrior (and a good looking one to boot!), although fusing is nothing new. But there's the catch that the human has to practice dancing so he can keep up in his warrior mode moves. We then throw in a couple henchman: a beautifully annoying lady (can you say Jessie?) and her simple minded muscle man cohort who can only say "yeah!" who are straight out of something like the pokemon anime. Even more nods to pokemon or even Dragon Ball, where they have to go and find the dance stones to complete his quest. So it's a pretty simple anime with a standard story line--nothing fantastic about it. I liked the dancing and the opening theme song, plus the fused dance warriors are cute, but there's not much else to give it a rave review. But kids are going to love it, and why not? It's got everything to please them in this show, but even they've seen it before. I'll give a minor thumbs up.