Paniponi Dash:Plot: An 11 year old MIT grad and child prodigy becomes a high school teacher for a bunch of insane students. Insanity ensues. Think Azumanga Daioh meets Excel Saga.
It was funny and crazy as all hell, and had so many cultural references of both Japan and the US even ADV's Vid Notes couldn't keep up. I actually enjoyed this show a lot with the exception of the fact that it had quite a bit of distracting fanservice in random places that wasn't there for comedic reasons. In a comedy fanservice should only be there if it's a part of the gags and humor. The most awesome thing I noticed about the series is that the main character actually changed her clothing every episode.
I recommend it.
Speed Grapher:Plot: A famous war photographer is sent to find out information about a secret club run by the richest people in the world and occupied by corrupt politicians and famous rich people. There he finds lots of sex, drugs, and money passing under the table, as well as a secret ceremony where ordinary people are turned into powerful bio weapons based off their desires, by kissing the 15 year old daughter of the president of the company that runs the club. Our hero is turned into such a weapon by the girl, and gains the ability to destroy anything by taking a picture of it. The girl asks him to save her, and he kidnaps her in order to find out what the hell happened to him.
The original Japanese version had Duran Duran's "Girls on Film" as the intro song, which was replaced by a generic song on the US version due to license issues. Suck!
I didn't like the series quite as much as I though I would. The first few episodes seemed to hint towards something awesome, and I loved the whole anti-greed, anti-corrupt-politician, anti-big-rich-corporation, anti-weird-twisted-sexual-desires, anti-system theme. But the show stagnated in the middle with the exception of a wild twist in the middle of the series. And the ending wasn't quite as epic as I expected. I'd put it about in the middle: It didn't suck, but it wasn't awesome either.
The ending had an amusing moment. The main villain's unleashing his bio-powers, and trying to make the world bankrupt, and an unidentified English-speaking country that created the bioweapon virus in the first place is going to attack the villain's headquarters with military strikes. Even without a name you can tell the warmongering country's the USA. The dub doesn't even try to hide it - they say it's the USA and the president even sounds and acts like Bush. Thank you Japan for reminding the world how much Bush is a warmonger.
Edit: Oh yea, the outtakes on the last DVD were almost as funny as the ones on Beserk's last DVD, but I doubt any outtakes can beat Beserk.
