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Everyone has a list of their favorite anime shows. That's a given. But do you have a list of the anime you consider so pedestrian, lame or terrible you wouldn't show them to you ex ever?

Lemme share my lame list. It's not in any order by the way.

1. "Bartender" - Show about a mixologist who can ease your troubles with a drink. Each episode comes with a history or story behind the cocktail du jour. Employs fourth wall techniques. Verdict: bleah and just plain boring

2. "Boys Be" - Tales of boys at school and the way they drool, pine for and leer at girls and women. Contains fanservice which means scenes where female characters inadvertently end up showing their underwear. Verdict: sexist and dumb

3. "Diamond Daydreams" - Show about the lives and loves of several women who reside or work in the nothern part of Japan. At times seems like an ad for certain locations. The character designs are among the ugliest I have ever seen. Memo to the show's animators: Go back to art school and learn how to draw. Then smack yourself for producing what amounts to nothing more than a disguised travel brochure.

4."Haunted Junction" - Kids from different religious backgrounds attend a haunted school with well-known ghosts from Japanese popular culture. Well they focus mostly on spectres Japanese school kids yak about such as the girl who haunts toilets. Verdict: A big mess. Supposed to be funny but is excruciating to watch. Has disturbing characters like a teen-aged girl overly fond of little boys. Gag.

5. "Gregory Horror Show" - MIni episodes about a mouse the unseen protagonist encounters in a place full of "scary" characters. The segments are too short and choppy. The characters are NOT scary at all since they are drawn simply. Think of wooden blocks then imagine them with faces and stubby appendages. The premise isn't bad but the animators faltered in the execution.

6. "Oh My Goddess" OVA - The first installment in a series that should have been buried long long ago. Geek meets one of the Nordic goddesses of fate. She ends up keeping house for him and falling for this very common guy. This show is nothing more than wish fulfillment for the guy who cannot get a date and still lives in his mom's basement. This tripe is an insult to any woman who can think for herself.

7. "Onegai Teacher" or "Please Teacher" - Half-human/half-alien lands on Earth and pretends to be a teacher to gather data on humans. Circumstances force her to marry one of her students. She looks like a well-endowed woman in her mid-20s. He is actually 18 but looks 15 because he was in a coma-like state for several years. They keep their marriage a secret and eventually fall in love.

Skip this so-called romantic show. If you have the DVDs, burn them and fumigate the room where these were kept. I found the relationship between the main characters disturbing and just wrong. The creator of this show should be ashamed for producing this putrid excuse for an anime. He or she deserves a flogging.

8. "Rahxephon" - Show where giant statues ( actually just prettier looking giant robots) wreak havoc in a walled-off world. Hero is a teen with a murky past. There is also a mysterious girl and a woman who is more than what she seems. Great animation, nice CGIs and compelling storyline at first. But I found the plot too convoluted for my taste and the pace of the show can be glacial at times. I couldn't finish this out of frustration and boredom.

9. "School Rumble" - HIgh school anime about a clueless girl, the guy she likes, the bad boy who loves her and their classmates. Typical show where someone can't tell the object of their affection how they feel because of certain reasons and circumstances. (e.g. the person they love just doesn't get it). Some people like this show. I don't. I got tired of the main characters' inability to confess their love.

10. "R.O.D." the TV series - Three sisters with the unusual ability to manipulate paper. They solve cases and are called paper masters for a good reason. One can create paper animals that do her bidding while another can fashion weapons out of paper. This is the tv spinoff of the popular "Read or Die" OVA about a bookworm who is really a special agent for the British.

The television show buchers certain characters in the original movie much to its detriment. The plot is more complex and folks double cross each other out of the blue. The series also runs too long and gets bogged down by the different subplots. This is one sorry spinoff to a decent, original movie.

Here's the opening song to "Ghost Hound" which hands down wins the award for best production values out of the slew of anime shows aired in Japan this fall. Thanks to a YouTuber by the name of "explodedrunes", I am able to show you the quality of the animation used for the series.

For some weird reason, I feel the need to dress all in black and snap my fingers a la Beatnik whenever I hear this song. I also dig the two-toned ghostly cat that passes by the hero. Cool.

Although the series makes me want to scratch my head sometimes with its talk about the subconscious, out of body experiences and the mysteries of the human mind. I don't remember signing up for a psych class when I opted to watch this show.

A wronged wife. A God with no worshippers. A cat monster haunting a family.

Three tales make up "Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales" which viewers of fansubs knew as "Ayakashi. Japanese Classic Horror Tales." If you are a fan of old Japanese ghost stories, this 11-episode show just might be your cup of tea.

It actually reminds me of the Japanese tales of the supernatural collected and retold by writer Lafcadio Hearn. Try reading his "Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things" or watch the movie of the same name and you'll know what I mean.

This is the Japan found in folklore where samurais walked the dusty streets and fox spirits pretending to be beautiful women bewitch unwary men. The show re-tells the well-known play, "Yotsuya Kaidan".

Oiwa gets dumped by her faithless husband Iemon for a younger woman. Not only that, she becomes disfigured when she drinks the "medicine" sent over by her next door neighbor who happens to be the grandfather of the young hussy eyeing Iemon.

Iemon is a masterless samurai who killed his father-in-law after the old man accused him of stealing from his former lord and demanded he stay away from his daughter, Oiwa. This scum in samurai form then pretended someone else killed Oiwa's father and promised to help her find the killer. Duh. Look in the mirror, buddy. He tells himself he did it to remain with the woman he loves.

But he soon resents Oiwa when he ends up making umbrellas for a living. And when the granddaughter of a rich neighbor makes goo goo eyes at him, he decides to get rid of his current wife. He orders a servant to rape and kill her.

Now hideous and abandoned, Oiwa dies. In the show she accidentally cuts her throat on a sword Iemon gave the servant. Her faithless husband isn't satisfied with this but has another servant killed. He has Oiwa and this man's bodies nailed on both sides of a door which is then flung into the river.

Oiwa comes back from the grave to haunt Iemon which leads him to kill his new wife and father-in-law. This version also has lots of hungry rodents a la that '70s horror flick, "Ben."

I didn't much care for "Tenshu Monogatari" which features a fallen God's love affair with a human and the fallout from such a relationship. They're a doomed couple. He has a wife. Her species eats people in order to survive.
No one else supports their love. You know how that is going to end.

The final tale is apparently an original story. "Bake Neko" is about a monster cat killing a family with more than its share of skeletons in the closet. A mysterious medicine seller with an unusual sword unravels the secret. But the family pays a heavy price for a sin committed in the past.

Each of the story is told in a different style. I liked the animation used for "Bake Neko" the most because it appealed to my artsy snooty side. Hey, at least I'm honest about being a pretentious twit now and then.

Apparently, I'm not the only one who enjoyed "Bake Neko." The unnamed medicine seller got his own show this season called, "Mononoke." I'm currently watching that and so far, I'm enjoying it. No fanservice here folks.

OK I admit I've been a tad bit tardy in updating this blog. Life and work have been getting in the way of my anime watching and yapping about anime-related subjects lately. Sorry. My online boss is probably going to bean me soon with my old copy of "Oh My Goddess" which I sneakily gave away to a friend and somehow he palmed it off on her. Muwahahaha. I detest that lame show for reasons too numerous to list.

I enjoy reading Zac Bertschy's column, "Answerman" for Anime News Network because he is funny and sometimes has an acerbic take on the anime business and its fandom. Just today I learned a new term from him. Seems those people who hang around the manga section of bookstores reading for hours and blocking other people's access are called "manga cows." They graze there all day. Get it?

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/answerman/2007-08-17

Was wandering around Fry's Electronics in Industry last weekend in search of bargain compact discs when I saw that the first volume of "Shonen Onmyouji" and "Mushi-shi" are out. I liked these shows when I saw the fansubs so I am definitely saving moolah to buy the licensed copies. I reviewed "Shonen" on Dec. 21, 2006 while I talked about how much I liked "Mushi-shi" on Jan. 29, 2007.

I included images of the offiicial DVD covers for both. These shows are worth a look. "Shonen" is entertaining enough for a boy's action anime with a dash of romantic interest for the girls. "Mushi-shi" is a keeper. It's in a class by itself - an unusual anime that doesn't fit the traditional anime genres and comes with its own mythos.

Not all anime is geared for teens and kiddies. Hence shows like "Bartender" which originated from a manga for the older male population.

It's a slice-of-life anime where regular folks get good drinks and advice or help from Ryu Sasakura, the whiz bartender at a small bar in Ginza called Eden Hall. Now either the fansub I saw had it wrong or I need new glasses because it wasn't really clear if Ryu is called "The Glass of the Gods" or he creates drinks customers call "The Glass of the Gods."

Each episode focuses on a specific drink, a customer with a problem and how Mr. Genius Bartender helps them by mixing said drink and dispensing sage advice. And in case you want to make the drink, the show ends with a recipe for that cocktail.

The series tries hard to be different by having characters suddenly address the viewer and by tossing in anecdotes or historical tidbits about the liquor business. Cute but not enough to make the show a must-see.

Most of the characters left me feeling cold and several of the 11 episodes were dull. I didn't get an insight into Ryu's character even after an episode that showed him as a new bartender making several mistakes. Who is Ryu really? The viewer only sees this smiling pleasant young man. Where did he come from? Why does he have such skill mixing drinks? Does he even have a life outside Eden Hall? And if he really cared about his customers, he would call a cab for them instead of letting them stumble drunkenly out of his place.

Ryu is no Sam Malone of "Cheers" fame. He has no sassy waitresses at his bar and no funny, interesting bar flies. Too bad. They would certainly liven up Eden Hall. Better pass on this one.

Hiroko Matsukata is single and a workaholic. The 28-year-old is one of several editors at the magazine, Weekly JIDAI, which covers political scandals, food trends, sports and scantily clad models on certain pages.

It is not unusual for her to pull all-nighters, subsisting on natto hand rolls. Yep, natto. The sticky soybean, which is an acquired taste.

She earned the nickname, “Hataraki Man” or working man from fellow employees because she works really hard and doesn’t think too much of those who cruise through their jobs.

We see her get excited about stories, work like a maniac, interact with her fellow editors and bemoan the time she cannot spend with her equally busy boyfriend.

Thus goes “Hataraki Man”, one of those slice-of-life animes geared for an older set. Don’t get me wrong. The animation looks sharp and the character designs are true to the manga version. They’re normal looking folks, if you get my drift.

She goes drinking sometimes with the tubby editor who deals with the food section and the models. They’re pals only. In an earlier episode, she went out on a stakeout with the prickly Fumiya Sugawara, whose job seems to be going undercover or doing stakeouts to get photos of people caught in the act.

I’m predicting sparks will eventually happen between them. It’s a cliché in anime. The couple who gets on each other’s nerves eventually falls in love or feels some sort of attraction.

There are only 11 episodes but I didn’t feel the need to rush back to the store after watching three episodes. Part of my disinterest is that the show hits too close to home for me. Ya see, I watch anime because it has nothing to do with my real life. I doubt that giant robots would suddenly attack the towns I cover or purple-haired school girls with magical powers would soon attend the local middle school.

I write for a living and I deal with more eccentric characters than Hiroko does so her pals and sources leave me bored. The fact she works through the night isn’t unusual in our business either. And I was appalled that her fellow employees seem amazed she works that hard. They should be embarrassed they’re not working as hard as she is.

At the JIDAI, she and her co-workers are called editors when they would clearly be reporters here. I was also surprised when she sent an interview back to a government official so he could approve it after they chatted. I know nothing about Japanese journalism so I’m not sure if this is common practice over there or just something the show’s writers made up. I can tell you that we never do that in American journalism.

Maybe I will watch the rest of the show this summer when I have some extra time. Right now, it’s sort of a yawner for me.

Satoshi Kon makes films which happen to be animated. He stands out from the rest of the pack with his choice of subject matter, the depth of his films and his ability to tell a story in a very interesting way. He also uses films to make social commentary.

I may not like all of his work but I appreciate the man's talent.

This native of Hokkaido, Japan is the director of "Perfect Blue", "Tokyo Godfathers" and "Millennium Actress." He also directed "Paranoia Agent", a television series that aired on Cartoon Network. I wasn't too wowed with the ending and the explanation offered in "Paranoia Agent" plus I guessed who the killer was midway through "Perfect Blue." But "Millennium Actress" and "Tokyo Godfathers" are among my personal favorites.

"Perfect Blue" is about Mima Kirigoe who decides to leave her J-pop idol image behind and become a serious actress. Along the way, she becomes the target of someone who does not approve of her new image. People around her start getting killed, a man stalks her and someone posing as "Mima" writes an online diary.

I thought this film was more or less a murder mystery set in the world of Japanese entertainment. I didn't think it was that exceptional but I liked the way the characters actually look like real people and was intrigued with the whole idol-making process. I gave the mystery plot a B.

In "Tokyo Godfathers", Kon tells the tale of three homeless people - Gin the drunk, Hana the former drag queen and Miyuki the teenage runaway - who find a baby in the trash during Christmas Eve. The film details their search to find the child's parents and reveals the reasons why these unlikely godfathers became denizens of the streets. I think this is Kon's most accessible work. The main characters are good, decent people despite their flaws and they really care for each other. The humor can be broad in some scenes. But the film also takes a jab at the way Japanese society views and treats the homeless.

But it is "Millennium Actress" that touched me the most. To me, it's about the search for a long lost love and also a loving tribute to Japanese films. Other folks might see it differently.

In "Millennium Actress", director Tachibana manages to land an interview with Chiyoko Fujiwara, a famous actress long retired from the business. He wants to do a documentary on her. She tells him her story and literally takes him along on her memories. I'm not kidding. We see Chiyoko in various stages of her career and Tachibana invariably pops up dressed appropriately for the period. We later find out why he is such an admirer of Chiyoko.

I enjoyed this film because I can relate to Chiyoko's search for someone she loved and lost. Sometimes, the search takes on more importance than the object of one's affections who becomes an idealized image. Such a trek can end in heartbreak. I know so.

Kon's next film is called, "Paprika" which is based on a novel by Yasutaka Tsutsui. I haven't read the book and have only seen stills of the movie which is supposed to be more surreal than Kon's previous works. Anime News Network reported that "Paprika" will be shown in certain U.S. cities and will be released on DVD too. I can't wait.

I consider Satoshi Kon an artist who uses animation as the medium to express his creativity.