Summer 2002 Anime

In a fairy tale come to life, the clumsy, sweet, and gentle Ahiru (Japanese for 'duck') seems like an unlikely protagonist. In reality, Ahiru is just as magical as the talking cats and crocodiles that inhabit her town - for Ahiru really is a duck! Transformed by the mysterious Drosselmeyer into a human girl, Ahiru soon learns the reason for her existence. Using her magical egg-shaped pendant, Ahiru can transform into Princess Tutu - a beautiful and talented ballet dancer whose dances relieve people of the turmoil in their hearts. With her newfound ability, Ahiru accepts the challenge of collecting the lost shards of her prince's heart, for long ago he had shattered it in order to seal an evil raven away for all eternity.

Princess Tutu is a tale of heroes and their struggle against fate. Their beliefs, their feelings, and ultimately their actions will determine whether this fairy tale can reach its "happily ever after."

(Source: MAL Rewrite)

Note: Princess Tutu aired in two parts. The first part included 13 25-minute-long episodes, while the second part consisted of 24 12-minute-long episodes with a 25-minute-long final episode for a total of 38 episodes.

Shuuji and Chise are third year students at a high school in Hokkaido. The shy Chise is finally confessing to Shuuji, and finally the two of them are starting to exchange diary awkwardly. One day, Shuuji tries to escape from a sudden enemy air raid on Sapporo. While desperately escaping from the air raid, Shuuji sees a scene that he could not forget for his life. He sees Chise, with a huge weapon looking as if it was part of her hand, shooting the enemy fighters down one by one. Apparently, Chise is the ultimate weapon with destructive power which is important for the war.

(Source: AniDB)

In the year 1600, during the battle of Sekigahara, warriors Kyoshiro Mibu and "Demon Eyes" Kyo - the legendary slayer of a thousand men - engaged in fierce combat. Both men disappeared when a meteor crashed in the battlegrounds. Four years later, Kyoshiro is spotted on a rural highway, acting as a traveling medicine salesman. He is captured by the female bounty hunter Yuya Shiina when she discovers that deep inside him is the dormant personality of "Demon Eyes" Kyo himself.

(Source: Anime News Network)

Robin Sena is a powerful craft drafted into the STNJ - a group of specialized hunters that fight deadly beings known as Witches. Though her fire power is great, she’s got a lot to learn about her powers and working with her cool and aloof partner, Amon. But the truth about the Witches and herself will leave Robin on an entirely new path that she never expected!

(Source: Funimation)

Kyosuke Kano has lived under the shadow of his successful brother Seisuke all his life who is a professional soccer player. Tired of being compared and downgraded at, he abandoned playing soccer until a boy from his new highschool discovered him and asked him to their team. Kyosuke s it and befriends two other first year players named Rodrigo and Sakai with the dream of becomming professional soccer players themselves.

(Source: Anime News Network)

Oozora Reiji isn't a lazy boy, he's just terribly unmotivated; all the clubs and activities he's ed don't interest him for long. That is, of course, until his best friend Yukino takes him to a underground arcade where an unbelievable virtual reality game is played - Dragon Drive - in which players fight each other with virtual dragons. Reiji ends up throwing all he's got into training a dragon so rare that the Dragon Drive staff are baffled. But soon Reiji learns that Dragon Drive isn't all it seems, and he might be the only one who can save an entire world from evil.

(Source: Anime News Network)

Sometime in the distant future, mankind is forced to live in domed cities while the rest of the world is left to recover from years of environmental hardships. In the Siberian Dome-polis, professional gamer Gainer Sanga and mercenary Gain Bijou commandeer an Overman and lead a mass exodus out of the city.

(Source: Anime News Network)

UFO Princess Warukyure, aka UFO Princess Walkyrie is about a princess from outer space who accidentally crashes on earth, where Kazuto desperately tries to maintain the public bath of his grandfather. Due to circumstances, Kazuto receives part of princess Walkyrie's soul which forces her to stay there with him. But that's not the only problem ... because her soul lost strength, the princess transforms both mentally and physically into a little kid!

(Source: AniDB)

While sleeping one night, Ryo Utsugi had a nightmare of monsters attacking him. One day he learns a mysterious power to let him hear voices and have visions of girls getting killed, but one night he hears the same voice.

(Source: Anime News Network)

At Saint Hoshikawa School there is a secret group called the G-On Riders. Students with superior strength and ability are chosen to be in the group, which was formed to fight against alien attacks on the earth. However, many of the problems that the face are ones amongst themselves, and the same is true for the invaders. And another student at the school, Ichiro, tries desperately to confess his love to Yuki, one of the Riders.

(Source: Anime News Network)

A French Bulldog is adopted from the Happy Kennel by a girl named Ai and is given the name Alex. She tells him stories and reads to him from a book titled The Adventures of Freddy about dog who leaves home to find the Fortune Tree.

However, he is separated from Ai when he mistakenly follows a girl wearing the same clothes as Ai on a bus. Adopting the name Freddy, after the hero in Ai's storybook, Alex begins his quest to return to Ai. But before he can return to his owner, Freddy and his new friends must find the Fortune Tree and save it from dying, otherwise all the humans in the world will lose their good will and no longer care about their pets.

(Source: Wikipedia)

The Grand Evil was sealed in a cave behind an energized shield. But now, thousand years have ed and he is about to regain his former power to break away free from the shield. In order to prevent this disaster, the Elders of Fantasia have to take measure to keep the radioactive power in the shield. They send out nymph warriors to find and fetch Ki-fighter cocoons hidden somewhere in the word.

During the mission, the nymphs come across with TaeRang, the Ki-Fighter, our heroic kid. He turns out to be the one who has a power to defeat of the Grand Evil, TaeRang sets on his way to find other weak creatures and their villages that are endangered by the unjust evil power. TeaRang is the one wise and brave kid to set it all to justice.

(Source: Anime News Network)

Since childhood, Tadahiro Amatsu has two different-colored eyes - one brown and one light hazel. But because of a dark secret behind his left eye, he's become a target for the masked sorcerer Ayatara Miramune and his band of demons. To combat the demons appearing all over town, Yuzu Hieda, a priestess in training, recruits four other girls from her high school. Under the supervision of Yuzu's elder sister Kurako, the five young priestesses must undergo months of training to master their abilities.

(Source: Anime News Network)

Mao Onigawara is a happy 8-year-old grade-schooler and the granddaughter of Chief of Staff of Ground Defense Force. Equipped with her cloverleaf-shaped badge which enables her to transform (but gives her no special power whatsoever), Mao and her best friends (granddaughters of Chief of Staff of Air and Marine Defense Force, respectively) will defend Japan against the invasion from "cute aliens," who are way too cute to be dealt with regular armed forces.

(Source: Anime News Network)

The Cat Returns is something of a loose spin-off of "Whisper of the Heart" as it features two characters from that film: Muta (the cat from "Whisper") and the Baron (the cat statue from "Whisper"). There is no other connection between the two movies and this is not a sequel. The story is based on Neko no Danshaku (Baron of Cat) by Hiiragi Aoi.

The main character of the story, Haru, is a clueless, ordinary 17-year-old girl. She has no special abilities and neither is she an extraordinary beauty. When faced with reality, she is unable to make decisions for herself, thus often sways to others' opinions to avoid challenge. One day, Haru saves the life of a cat without considering her own safety. The cat turns out to be the Cat Prince from the Kingdom of Cats, however as a result, Haru is trapped in the world of cats. Can Baron and Muta rescue Haru who has wandered into the world of cats?

(Source: AniDB, edited)

Millenium Actress blurs the lines between the past and the present, and truth and fiction, when a documentary filmmaker fulfills his quest to find the legendary actress Chiyoko Fujiwara, and learn why she mysteriously vanished at the height of her brilliant career. When Chiyoko grants the filmmaker’s request, he, in turn, presents her with a token – a key she had lost and thought was gone forever. The filmmaker could not have imagined that the key would not only unlock the long-held secrets of Chiyoko’s life, but also his own.

(Source: Dreamworks)

Note: The film received an early premiere at the Fantasia Film Festival on July 28, 2001.

As they continue their journey through the Johto region, Ash and his friends visit Altomare, an island city that hosts an annual racing event called the Pokémon Water Race. While Takeshi and Kasumi are enjoying themselves, strange things seem to be happening to Ash—he somehow loses the water race, sees some women attack a girl with their Pokémon, and despite them saving her, the girl later denies ever seeing Ash and Pikachu before!

Fortunately for Ash, his confusion clears up as he learns that the girl he and Pikachu saved earlier was actually a Pokémon named Latias, who likes to disguise herself as her human friend, Kanon. Latias and another Pokémon, Latios, are known as the Eon Pokémon, as they inhabit and guard Altomare along with a mystical blue sphere called the Soul Dew. An ancient legend of Altomare is highly connected to the Eon Pokémon and the Soul Dew, and is well known among the locals—as well as among Latias' earlier assailants, the thief sisters Zanner and Lyon. As the thieves attempt to capture both the Eon Pokémon and the Soul Dew, Ash is forced to act in order to stop them from bringing disaster to Altomare.

(Source: MAL Rewrite, edited)

A few years after they first met, Naomi Armitage and Ross Syllabus have started a family. Despite their normal lives, they must keep their identities a secret because many people beleive that Robots do not deserve equal status with humans. Ross has an oppurtunity to abolish these ideas on Earth through a vote, but organizations in the shadows are working so that it doesn't happen.

(Source: Anime News Network)

The Bladebreakers are on a well deserved vacation. But, a hyperactive kid named Daichi continues to pursue Tyson for a rematch after his defeat in the Beyblade World Championships. The Bladebreakers' vacation eventually takes a turn for the worst once they encounter mysterious Beybladers who claim to be the Dark Spirits sealed inside a strange temple. With Daichi under their control, the Shadow Bladers seek to destroy the world with their Dark BitBeasts. Together, Tyson, Max, Ray, and Kai must save not only Daichi... but the world as well...

(Source: Anime News Network)

The five digi-destined children stumble upon an ancient island inhabited by two different types of digimon; The Beast types, and the Human types. When they see two young digimon-a beast and humanoid-have become friends, they decide something must be done about the feud.

(Source: Anime News Network)

The very first Gear even made in the world is stolen. The gear, named Kaiservern, beats the prize winners of the Australia convention one after another. Kouya and Manganji, which won a prize in the Asia Convention, become targets too. When the unidentied gear fighter who handles Kaiservern appears in front of Kouya and Manganji, the two boys decide to fight together to win victory over their enemy. (Sunrise)

In order to save a princess, Mantarou (Kid Muscle) and the gang must find a special ginseng. They are later ed by Kevin Mask.

(Source: Wikipedia)

The theatrical anime film is a full digital (3-D) action/horror film based on a manga by Tamaki Hisao, best known to Western fans for his manga adaptation of Star Wars: A New Hope. Characters were designed by Yasushi Nirasawa, a well acclaimed maker of creature action figures. Monkey Punch (Lupin III creator) served as the film's script superviser. Set in the year 2088, it depicts a dark future in which humans have been transformed into the "Guilstein," creatures with no human souls in them...

(Source: AniDB)

One day, a strange monkey with a golden helmet drains out the insides of another monkey by kissing him. Hikaru, Spike's brother, goes out on an adventure to find this strange monkey. He soon befriends the monkeys and runs forward. But it isn't easy when every boss from the former games tries to block his path...

(Source: MAL)

Note: Aired in theaters with Beyblade the Movie: Decisive Battle! Takao VS Daichi

The second theatrical BONOBONO movie, done completely in 3D.

A pseudo-historical movie that follows a modern day elementary schooler as he's tossed back into time to observe Aterui--a real leader of the Emishi who fought against the Imperial Yamato Court.

14th Anpanman movie.

12th Anpanman short movie.

In the year 2150 A.D. space pilot Takeru and human computer Martha come across a giant ship which contains two mechanical beings called Sara and Ru Mi. They warn Takeru and Martha of the Gump, an alien race that is heading to Earth so that it can take over the planet. With only 40 mintues remaining until Earth's invasion, Takeru enters the Solvalou, a combat aircraft, and heads to the Gump's base on the planet Andoa.

Based on Namco's classic 1980s videogame of the same name.

(Source: Anime News Network)

Makoto and Yura Onoda are a newly-wed couple with zero sexual experience. Yura is a shy and naive 25-year-old woman whose good looks grab men's attention, something that she dislikes because she gets embarrassed very easily. Her husband Makoto is of the same age, but as opposed to his wife, he loves having dirty thoughts about other women. Physically though, Makoto is truly faithful to Yura.

Both of them may be virgins, but now that they are married, they are ready to dive into the world of sex, "practicing" as often as possible. However, the world of sex is complex, so they need all the help they can get to find their way through it. Thankfully, their friends, acquaintances, and porn media lend them a helping hand.

(Source: MAL)

While playing the newly released MMORPG ‘The World’, Minase Mai and Tomonari Kasumi collapsed in the real world and were sent to the hospital after hearing a mysterious sound. Only Mai had recovered while her friend Kasumi had slipped into a mysterious coma. Mai is later approached by the creator of ‘The World’, Tokuoka Junichiro, who unveils to her that, just like her friend, six other players across the country had also collapsed while playing ‘The World’ and are now in mysterious comas. What exactly is ‘The World’, what is this mysterious sound Mai keeps on hearing, and why are people slipping into comas from this game? Minase, Junichiro and their acquaintances set off to get to the bottom of this problem before any further harm happens.

(Source: MAL Rewrite)

Ungrar, the King of Viruses, has escaped from his prison cell in Vaccine World. Maya, the Goddess of Vaccine World sends Mugimaru down to Earth to find a human to accept the powers of Vaccine World and become the Magical Nurse. He finds the best (and the only willing) person for the job when he meets Komugi Nakahara. Komugi is a playful, lazy, and easily distracted (typical) teenager whose dream is to become a cosplay idol. Balancing her career with the Kiri-Pro Promotion Company and her new job battling Ungrar's loyal henchman, the Magical Maid Koyori, Komugi delights audiences in this parody anime series.

(Source: Anime News Network)

This full 3DCG digital animation has story takes place in the far future after a pillar of huge fog appeared suddenly in the South Pole. This pillar, known as Jam, is actually a age for an earth invasion.

In order to oppose the threat, the United Nations established an earth defense mechanism. Fukai Zero is a hero ed to the main force of earth defense and the special 5th flight squadron. His reconnaissance plane, Yukikaze (windblown snow) is the best tactical reconnaissance plane. His job is to collect battle information return safely to the base with the information. But one day when he about to finish his duty, an unidentified machine attacked him...

(Source: AnimeNfo)

After the events in the city, Haré and family come back to the Jungle. But it is never calm for Haré as he first must deal with an unstable substitute teacher, then with some big news: Weda is pregnant. The answer to how and who will change his family forever. Poor Haré, now has to deal with a father in addition to his drunk mother and Guu, and soon a sibling too.

(Source: Anime News Network)

This is the Animation Store Manager!!

Anime Tenchou is a CM character for Animate, one of Japan's biggest retailer of anime, games, and manga. The character series was created by Shimamoto Kazuhiko for publicity purposes. Later adapted into a manga, a weekly radio drama and this OVA animated by GAINAX and directed by Anno Hideaki.

Anizawa Meito is the blazing store manager. He is a fireball who loves animation merchandise at heart. He takes over the dying wish of the former store manager, though still alive, who was attacked by the rival store and becomes a “store manager” of newly opened animation goods specialty store, Animate. The scarlet, “store manager visor” is his trademark.

(Source: AniDB)

A showcase of Macross variable fighters in action, from the VF-1 Valkyrie to the YF-19 and YF-21 - as animated in 3D by Gonzo.

A flash animation remake of the Ginga Tetsudou 999 series.

Pikachu and some of the other Pokémon camp out in the woods and help the Pichu brothers get on the train.

First tells the story of the origins of the Lupin gang. In this blast from the past, Lupin is after American mafia boss Galvez's single most precious treasure: a treasure within a treasure. Jigen is Galvez's hired gun who fails to kill cat-burglar Lupin in his first attempt on the treasure and seeks revenge. Fujiko is the girlfriend of Lupin's rival, Brad. Zenigata travels from Japan to America to find and arrest Fujiko. Goemon seeks the almighty sword that cuts steel, Zantetsuken. This sword is mysteriously connected to the treasure in Galvez's vault.... After a series of twists and turns, these complete strangers become acquainted in their "First ," an epic adventure together!

(Source: Discotek Media)

Ayu is one of the coolest students at her school. She is smart, studious, sporty and has just the right amount of untouchable quality to make her everyone's friend. Her male counterpart is Kaji: warm, happy, friendly and a member of the baseball club. No wonder Ayu's has a crush on him!.

One day, Ayu sees a new student, Nina, crying; looking for something. After Ayu helps her, Nina decides to show her gratitude with magic. Nina turns out to be a student from the Magic Kingdom and is currently studying aboard at Ayu's school, of all places...

(Source: AniDB)

Note: This short story was produced for the Ribon Event in 2002 and features the same happenings that are shown in the manga's first chapter and the later TV anime's episode three. Later bundled on a VHS together with the November 2002 issue of the Ribon magazine, released on October 3, 2002.

A 15 minutes 100% CG animation presented by "buildup", a company that brought many japanese CG movies such as Godzilla vs Biollante, Stray Dog - Kerberos Panzer Cops, Godzilla vs King Ghidora, Kappa, Gundam Mission To The Rise and D.

The story takes place in the future, the year is 2119. A dangerous container is to be secretly loaded into medical transport ship which goes into the earth orbit because it's forbidden to store dangerous container on earth.

It's so secret that no crew on the ship were told about the container's contents or any possible hazzards. The truth is, the container carries a dangerous living body in some form like liquid / worm which is capable of reading DNA information of other living beings and then transforms itself as an exact copy. Of course, the original object then will be killed.

(Source: AniDB)

Short DVD extras that feature Megu in various costumes and poses.

The first film in Shin-Ei's series of annual WWII themed anime television movies for children "Sensou Douwa" (war story).

(Source: AniDB)

Music video featuring art and animation by Kiyoshi Nakajima for the song Koi Hanabi by Mio Isayama. This music video is a part of NHK's Minna no Uta program.

Music video for the song Chicchana Photographer by Hitomi Ishikawa that was featured on NHK's Minna no Uta program. The video was animated by Yumi Koishikawa.

Black-and-white music video for the song "Densha Kamo Shirenai" by a Japanese folk band Tama (たま). Directed by Akino Kondoh.

The third release of the Japanese version of the 1876 song My Grandfather's Clock by American composer and songwriter Henry Clay Work that was broadcast on NHK's Minna no Uta program. It was performed by Ken Hirai and featured artwork by Masaki Shiota that was animated by Three-d.