D.N.Angel

D.N.Angel is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yukiru Sugisaki. There was also an anime adaptation and a PS2 video game.

Yukiru Sugisaki's D.N.Angel manga started in Japan in Monthly Asuka in 1997 and inspired a 26-episode anime adaptation in 2003. The manga is published in English by Tokyopop. The manga currently consists of 11 volumes in tankōbon form. The series went on an extended hiatus after the August 2005 issue of Monthly Asuka, but the magazine announced in its March issue (released on January 24, 2008) that the manga would resume the next month in its April issue. This issue was released in Japan in February, and it featured a 123 page comeback issue, including 20 free extra illustrations by Sugisaki.

A series of drama CDs (D.N.Angel Wink) were also released, although it should be noted that the seiyū cast for the drama CDs is largely different from the anime cast.

The 26 episode television series aired in Japan on TV Tokyo, and has been released on DVD in the US and the UK by ADV Films and in Australia by Madman Entertainment. The final broadcast of the anime coincided with the release of the game, which carried on the story from that point. Due to the anime series having a different storyline than the manga series, a two-volume special manga series was serialized in Monthly Asuka titled D.N.Angel TV Animation Series in 2003 which followed the anime storyline.

Daisuke Niwa is a 14 year-old-boy who has a special genetic ability: Whenever he sees or thinks about his crush, Risa Harada, he turns into the infamous phantom thief Dark. During the start of the anime, Daisuke carries a picture of Risa Harada in his back pocket for such occasion. This will continue until his crush learns to love both him and Dark.

Satoshi Hiwatari is a student at the same school as Daisuke and the Harada twins and also the Commander of the police force, heading the investigation on Dark. This is because he is a member of the Hikari family, a clan of artists which has opposed the Niwa family of thieves for centuries. Satoshi has Krad, Dark's opposite and, like him, part of the Hikari artwork "Black Wings", within him in much the same way Daisuke has Dark within him.

Interestingly enough, Risa falls in love with Dark, and proceeds to do all sort of absurd things to get him to go out with her, which he eventually does. She has also kissed him on more than one occasion, and it is hinted that Dark loves Risa; but Dark claims that he does not love her, and that (according to the anime) Risa's grandmother, Rika, is the only woman he has ever loved. In the manga, Dark's reasons for rejecting Risa seem to be so that she is not hurt by the fact that he is immortal and not really human, and therefore cannot participate in a functional relationship. As expected, Risa doesn't really listen to him and continues to try to get him to go out with her.

During much of the plot, Satoshi Hiwatari's (adoptive) father, who is a high ranking Police Officer, happens to butt in, and ruin a few of Hiwatari's plans to capture Dark. His father also plans to capture Dark himself. But Dark and Daisuke always manage to escape his plans.

Trigun

Trigun is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yasuhiro Nightow, with an anime adaptation released in 1998 and an animated movie currently in production for a 2009 release. Madhouse produced the 26 anime episodes for Trigun, and they are also working on the upcoming movie. As of April 2007, Trigun has ended in Japan, currently spanning 102 chapters and 14 tankōbon volumes.

Known for its Space Western theme, Trigun is about a man named "Vash the Stampede" and the two Bernardelli Insurance Company employees who follow him to minimize the damage caused by his appearance. Most of the damage attributed to Vash is caused by bounty hunters after the "60,000,000,000$$" (sixty billion "double dollars") bounty on Vash's head for the destruction of the city of July. However, he cannot remember the incident clearly due to amnesia. Throughout his travels, Vash tries to save lives using non-lethal force. He is occasionally joined by a priest, Nicholas D. Wolfwood, who is an excellent gunfighter like Vash. As the series progresses, it is revealed that he was actually assigned by Knives to "protect and guard" Vash. Later, he also become a target by a member of the band of assassins, the Gung-Ho Guns, for not following the change in "orders" ( to eliminate Vash).

As the series progresses, more is gradually learned about Vash's mysterious history and the history of human civilization on the planet Gunsmoke. The series often employs comic relief and is mostly light-hearted in tone. It also involves moral conflict pertaining to the morality of killing other living things, even when justified.




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One Piece

One Piece is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda, with an anime adaptation produced by Toei Animation. It focuses on a ragtag crew of heroic pirates, formed and led by Monkey D. Luffy. Luffy's greatest ambition is to obtain the world's ultimate treasure, One Piece, and become Pirate King.

The One Piece manga began its serial run in issue #34 of Shueisha's Shonen Jump magazine on August 4, 1997, while the anime adaptation produced by Toei Animation premiered on Fuji TV on October 20, 1999.

Eiichiro Oda originally planned One Piece to last five years, and he had already planned out the ending, but he found himself enjoying the story too much to end it in that amount of time, and now has no idea how long it will take to reach that point. Nevertheless, the author states (as of July 2007) that the ending is still the one he had decided on from the beginning, and he is committed to seeing it through to the end, no matter how many years it takes.

One Piece is the third highest selling manga in the history of Weekly Shonen Jump, (behind Kochikame and Dragon Ball) and is currently their most acclaimed and all-time third-best-selling title in Japan. The manga is so well-liked that it is the first to increase the sales of Weekly Shonen Jump in eleven years. Volume 25 of One Piece holds a manga sales record in Japan, with 2,630,000 units sold in its first printing alone; as of volume 46, the series has sold over 140,000,000 copies domestically, and is the fastest manga to reach sales of 100,000,000.

As the success of One Piece rose within its serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump, the manga was adapted into an animated television series. The anime (a mostly faithful adaptation of the manga) debuted in 1999, but animated One Piece had its origins one year earlier with an OVA. It was translated into English and brought over the Pacific in 2004, when it debuted on 4Kids TV. Since then, it has migrated to Cartoon Network's Toonami block, and is currently helmed by FUNimation.

Konosuke Uda, the director, said that the he believes that the creators "made the anime pretty close to the manga."

Oda has referenced many real-life pirates over the course of the manga as well as many other figures of the Golden age of Pirates. These have included; Bartholomew Roberts (Batholomew Kuma), Edward Teach (Marshall D. Teach, Thatch and Edward Newgate), Samuel Bellamy (Bellamy the Hyena), Francois l'Ollonais (Roronoa Zoro), John Hawkins (Basil Hawkins),Henry Morgan (Captain Morgan), Bartolomeo Português (Portgas D. Ace), Samuel Burgess (Jesus Burgess), John Auger (Van Auger), Jean Lafitte (Lafitte), Francis Drake (X. Drake), William Kidd (Captain Kid), Woodes Rogers (Gol D. Roger) and female pirates such as Awilda (Alvida) and Anne Bonny (Jewelry Bonney). In addition, Calico Jack has two references, both in the Rumbar Pirates captain "Calico" Yorki and in his famous flag, where the two crossed swords and skull are believed to be referenced by the flag of Red-Haired Shanks. However out of these references, only Zoro, Morgan, Alvida, Bellamy, Whitebeard, Thatch and Teach have been confirmed by the creator.

Another pirate related reference comes from the Shichibukai. They are loosely based on the privateers of old Europe. The privateers were approved pirates, considered heroes in their homeland and pillagers in others. Their main goal was to plunder the villages and towns of the then mighty country of Spain.

The worlds "Great Age of Piracy" is comparable to the Golden Age of Piracy in the real world. The flow of pirates into the Grand Line, is equally comparable to the flow of pirates into the Caribbean.

One Piece - Season 1, First Voyage (Uncut)



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