Jan 06 2009
#8 & #9 - “Demon Lord Dante” & “Nana”
I picked “Demon Lord Dante” off the list of available titles on my On Demand service, and had to start with episode 2 since the first wasn’t available. I don’t think I missed anything. As far as I could figure, some Satanists were trying to rise up and bring forth some demon god, and a teenage boy with weird demon powers was out to stop them. The animation style was done to look like old school shows from the late 70’s, early 80’s, but was too crisp and clean to mimic them properly. And the story had a lot of shady build up that ultimately led nowhere.
“Nana” was a refreshing change after the “Demon Lord Dante” debacle. Two young women meet on a train and learn that they share the same name. That seems to be about the only thing they have in common. One Nana is sweet and conservative and longs only to make a life in the big city with her boyfriend, while the other is a cool and sexy rocker chick who longs to make it big in the music industry. But eventually their different paths lead them to the same place and a friendship is born. With highly stylized animation filled with pretty characters and gorgeous cloths, plus a storyline that managed to transcend the normal gooeyness found in most shojo anime. I will be spending more time with “Nana” in the near future.
