Saishu Heiki Kanojo (She, the Ultimate Weapon)
Not yet domestic, though I hope it does pop up sooner or later: yes, these are digisub reviews...
Description:
The storyline is a twist on other previous plots. Cute girl with special powers and romance conflicts, though this one is extremely awkward in terms of differences and execution.
This is most seriously a mature audience's anime. There's extreme violence (aka bombing runs) adult situations (love making scenes) and some plot details that some of the younger viewers probably won't understand.
Starting up, cute/clumsy girl confesses her love to big asshole of a guy. Yes his personality is wicked and crude. From there they start going out and then WHAM, some of the government's officials turn her into a biological being of pretty much limitless power. Although she willingly volunteered, some of the consequences are quite significant. For one thing, she can't get her normal body back and is stuck with a body that can pretty much wield and morph into anything with massive destructive power. My favorite part of her weapon body is her wings which are very reminiscent of the Evangelion 1st impact sightings.
Character Design is kind of awkward considering the character's side profiles are rather "noseless". ^_^ But to me, I like it better than the extreme beaks one sees in Escaflowne. The characters are rather stereotypical as well. The main character is a huge dude with big shoulders who's kind of clueless and pretty much all the females are so curvy, their clothing has trouble holding it all in. 0_0
The Main character (title describes her) is named Chise. Her boyfriend (whose mind seems like scrambled eggs in terms of relationships) is Shuji, aka Shu-chan...
Their friends don't seem too important because I've only seen a few eps and can't remember them just yet. One wrench thrown in to mess around with the plot would be named Fuyumi-Senpai (her full name isn't mentioned) and she seems like a character ripped straight from a soap opera! 
The music is bad-ass to say the least. I like the "dreamy" light music the intro is composed of and the ending is a slow song. Though some would say this conflicts with the anime's theme of war. The BGMs are cool as well once the fighting starts.
Action-wise, this anime delivers. Not in huge whopping amounts like Evangelion or Berserk, but it does more than enough damage. Imagine airplanes coming in from the East in the morning and then bombing your town just as you got out of school. Yes, this is a war anime and all of the violence and tragedy that comes with it are located here.
The digisubs for this anime are very well captured. The files I acquired came as a joint project from Anime-Empire and Elite-Fansubs. Both of which release awesome quality encodes of some of my favorite anime: Onegai Teacher and Kanon are examples. I'm definitely going to use these babys for anime music videos.
CG FX-wise, since most anime are now going into this, this anime does an awesome job utilizing this type of technology. Some of my fav uses of CG are shown in Inu Yasha, Gatekeepers, and Gasaraki. Both of which are done by animation companies Sunrise and Gonzo. From the credits, this anime is done by Gonzo Digimation which I think is the same as the Gonzo that did Vandread and others. Most of the CG fx appear as the weapon morphs from Chise's body.
The cast of this anime is quite diverse with many of the friends making appearences and helping twist the plot of the series by changing back and forth the relationship between Shuji and Chise. This was no easy task. Lots of effort went into the making of this thing and this series has quickly made its way to my top 10 list in under 3 episodes.
Overall, this anime is definitely the anime for which story and wartime lovers will enjoy. Evangelion lovers may love this series for the plot that as of now, I'm still sifting through the details. Those of you hentai who like high school girls in high-cut skirts will like this series as well... 0_0 The people who won't like this anime may want more action then what is given. It's difficult to say just yet which genre this anime falls into so I'll throw this into the romance/action type of anime.
So, my scores are:
Originality: 7
Capture: 9
Sound: 9
Action: 8
Digital FX: 9
Lip Synch: english dub isn't out yet, so this score is N/A
Effort: 8
Overall: 9
Reviewable: 9
Yes, I like this series and you should check out the first 3-5 eps as well.
If others of you have seen this anime, I'd love to hear your input since it's not domestic yet and I've only seen the beginning... ^_^
