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With over 45 years of history, there’s no denying that Gundam is one of the biggest and most influential anime of all time. The imagery and storylines of nearly every installment have become some of the most iconic parts of anime, as have its signature Gunpla model kits, and if a story of any medium decides to reference a mecha anime, odds are it will reference Gundam over anything else.

Few anime franchises can match Gundam’s legacy, but that doesn’t mean there are no anime with similar appeals. Gundam is hardly the only anime to have a good balance of intense action and rich, character-driven drama, and as such, there are countless great anime that do a perfect job of capturing the same sort of appeal that made Gundam such an iconic part of anime. A few of those anime, in particular, are especially worth highlighting, and they...

Summer is here, at least for another month or so, and as Yuko would tell us, hot weather makes the perfect setting for ghost stories! That’s not just an excuse to drink more sake, though (not that Yuko needs an excuse, anyway); summer is also the season for Obon, the festival to honor the dead. Tokyo has it’s bon festival around July 15, but for most of the country, bon odori happens around August 15, so to celebrate this spooky time, and look forward to Halloween (notice those fall decorations going up in stores yet?), this week’s AniMania features a horror series, When They Cry.

The title comes from the sounds of the cicada calls in late summer. Also known as Higurashi, this fiendishly clever show recounts a series of strange murders that took place in the small town of Hinamizawa. The story follows Keiichi, a young man who...

Fullmetal Alchemist Premium Ova Collection One of the best things about anime is the “omake”, or extras — also known as that stuff at the end of the tape. Long before DVD’s with their menu of special features, in the dark ages of VHS, anime fans were being treated to a smorgasbord of little goodies — from previews to music videos to something as simple as a visual catalog of a company’s other titles — pretty much anything the studio could find to throw on the last few minutes of a video tape. It was one of the things that made anime, well, anime. Lately we’re seeing fewer extras, as the industry and the economy as a whole have been forced to makes some painful cuts to stay alive. But if you’re longing for some of those good old days, not to worry. Funimation is about to release an entire collection of bonus material,...