rj_NYC is an active member of the Anime Unleashed community with a taste for unusual, eclectic films.

Memories
Memories is from the mind of Katsuhiro Otomo, the man who gave us Akira, and consists of three very different tales. The first tale, "Magnetic Rose," is about two men who are a part of a space salvage outfit. Upon entering ruins floating in space, the two men find themselves thrust into an imaginary world, surrounded by the memories of a woman's past. The second tale, "Stink Bomb," is about a researcher who takes a newly approved drug to combat his cold and falls asleep. When he wakes up, he finds himself being targeted by the entire government and manages to have created chaos all around himself. After all, he is now the ultimate biological weapon that no one can stop. The final tale, "Cannon Fodder," tells the the story of a city that only knows war. Each citizen's life is all about the maintenance of cannons and the continuous bombing of an enemy they know nothing about past what the government tells them. Memories has a little something for everone, a dark sci-fi tragedy, an upbeat comedy and finally a well rounded social commentary. This should be a must-have for anime fans that are looking for something past the usual suspect titles.

Cat Soup
Cat Soup is a wonderful little short film about a pair of kittens. Nyaako, the sister, is ill and soon passes on with Death taking her soul. Her brother, Nyatta, decides to take her soulless but still living body on a journey to retrieve her soul. Their travels find them going to all parts of the world and seeing incredible sights, some of which include a mysterious carnival, a mind trip of a sea adventure, and being stuck in a madman's home. This is a rather unique anime which is very hard to describe as it is very hallucinogenic most of the times and often morbid. There are few animes which feature a kitten tackling it's pig companion, taking parts of his body to make food, feeding it back to him and then ultimately to bludgeon him to death. Did I mention that this anime features no spoken dialogue? None the less, it is a fun little adventure with a cartoon style that is worth the time viewing. Recommended for fans of dark comedies, and for people who fan handle mature content (18+).

Dead Leaves
Dead Leaves is about two people, Retro and Pandy, who awaken on earth with no memories of the past but a thirst for mayhem, so naturally they go on a crime spree in Tokyo. They are soon captured, sent to the infamous Dead Leaves lunar prison and eventually start an uprising. As the new found mayhem goes on, a conspiracy is revealed that links their past to the current state of events. This is a frantic paced anime that features more violence than should be allowed in under a hour by law. Between the extreme cartoon violence, over the top sexual situations and unique characters, this should appeal to a fair amount of people, possibly even FLCL fans, but is recommended for people of a mature age (18+) only. There is nothing in this release that hides the fact of it being no more than a vibrant rumble fest, with a story chaser and wonderful animation.

12 Kingdoms
A PBS-type, quality anime with a very good story which is finishing up—Vol. 9 comes out this month & Vol. 10 comes out in February wrapping up the series. It's a similar concept to Fushigi Yugi & Neverending Story with the lead being pulled into an alternate world to save it, but that alternate world is very complex & intricate.

Requiem From the Darkness
Another quality anime, which is at the halfway point already with Vol. 2 having been released this month. It's a horror collection, with a bit of a twist like Night Gallery, but not as big as many of the Twilight Zone twists. An author collecting 100 ghost stories keeps running into a weird trio which usually results in someone paying a gruesome price for a past sin. 

Fushigi Yugi
If you missed this series the first time around, it's being re-issued much cheaper which would make it a good second-look shojo classic. I also love Saiyuki, but it appears ADV is issuing it cheaper(as an anime essential or something) this coming year, so it'd probably be better to save it for next year.

Gravitation
I'm sure someone else would point this one out. If not, it's a fun title, although it falls into the shonen ai/yaoi realm, despite the fact that the anime focuses more on the rock band angle.

Excel Saga
You can get this series boxed this year, and I LOVE this one. When they show episodes of this series at Comic-Con, the room is usually packed. It seems many like either FLCL or Excel Saga; Excel Saga is more satirical than the surreal feel of FLCL. It's like the movie Airplane made into an anime--they throw a bunch of jokes at the audience hoping everyone will get something, but know very few will catch everything. Every time I watch it, I seem to find something I missed.

Here is Greenwood
An older title which was re-released this August with 6 episodes on 2 discs for the price of 1 DVD, it's an interesting school drama, but more weird in the Ranma 1/2 sense. The first 4 episodes are fun, but the last 2 are more typical romance stories.  As for the story, it's about Kazuya Hasukawa, who missed the first month of school due to incredibly bad luck. Greenwood is the dorm he winds up living in at his rather prestigious private school, but the dorm is populated by very strange types--one guy keeps his motorcycle in his room (on the 2nd or 3rd floor), another room has turned their area into an arcade, and a guy named Shun is his roommate, but he looks so much like a girl everyone suspects he really is (even though it's an all-boy school).

GetBackers
My favorite new title is GetBackers--sort of X-Men minus the uniforms & bald guy. It's about a couple of mutant-type powered youth for hire, and has that cool vibe going for it. The American scriptwriter commented there are almost none of the cultural differences that usually need explaining in this title. ADV's been giving us 5 episodes per DVD.