Canaan
A series about Black and White. Alphard and Canaan, similar ruthless assassins but one fighting on the 'good' side and the other a 'terrorist' (Eventually it is revealed that they both received the name Canaan). Maria and Liang, in love with their respective Canaans but one sweet and innocent, the other obsessive, brooding, and finally insane. Around this dual of light and dark is a story of ambiguous government morality, enemies fighting on the same side, allies betraying each other, the good guys doing despicable things and the bad saving the day. Around that is the public. People that are cannon fodder at times and cheer for the Good Show but are too stupid to realize that it's a deadly battle, and the military following orders without thought to whether what they do is right or wrong. A cynical story with aspirations of being another Ghost in the Shell. While not that good it is better than average.
Camp Lakebottom
Kids in summer camp forever like Camp Laslo and several other shows. This however has an interesting twist. There are two camps, Camp Sunny Smiles, the good one across the lake that has everything you could want plus McGee's sister and rival Jordan Buttsquat and Camp Lakebottom where McGee is. Camp Lakebottom has a zombie and a sasquatch as camp counsellors, a monster in the lake, psycho cook, and more. It's as bad as a camp can be but that makes it more fun. The show is surprisingly fresh and interesting. I like it.
Camp Laslo
Kids at summer camp. Laslo is a monkey, Raj is an elephant, the camp is run by a moose and a slug and so on. Mildly amusing but very juvenile. It also got to be strange to see summer camp stories in the winter. Don’t these kids ever get to go home?
Castle in the Sky (Movie)
(Miyazaki) A young mining engineer Pazu, rescues Sheeta, a girl who floats down from the sky. Together Pazu and Sheeta try to escape flying pirates, the military, and figure out where Laputa, a mythical flying castle is. They discover giant robots that are powerful but friendly. Are captured by the military and then rescued by the pirates. Finally, they find Laputa but then have to stop the secret agent running the military operation when he tries to claim Laputa and use its power to take over the world. A great, exciting story with many twists. The bad guys are not always bad and the good are not always good. In the end there is a clear message when the technology, greed, and military on Laputa are destroyed and the tree saves Pazu and Sheeta. It is exciting, funny in places, engrossing and above all beautiful. A very good film.
The Cat Returns (Movie)
(Miyazaki). Haru is kind and means well but is a disorganized mess. When she risks herself to save a cat, it turns out to be a prince of the Kingdom of Cats who are so grateful they decide to reward her. The first few gifts are amusingly inappropriate (the hundred gift-wrapped live mice stuffed in her locker is laugh out loud funny) Then she discovers that the King has decided to marry her to his son. She is not happy about this and is at a loss about what to do when a mysterious voice directs her to find the Cat Bureau. There she meets the Baron and several of his friends who will help her. Then she is kidnapped and taken to the Kingdom of Cats for the wedding. This is a very enjoyable film, funny in places, and has a good message - know who you are and believe in yourself. In the end Haru is not a disorganized little girl any more, she is a confident young woman. Perhaps not as emotionally moving as Spirited Away or Nausicaa but still a good film. The voice casting is perfect.
Cat Scratch
Three cats inherit all the money they could ever use. They live in a mansion and have a butler to wait on them. One is a moron, one is an arrogant leader (think Abbott and Costello) and the third is Scottish. A strange show but not awful. Surprisingly fun actually.
Cat Soup (Movie)
Two anthropomorphic cats travel and have adventures. The on line description said "A cats journey to find his sibling's souls". It could be. The plot is a little hard to follow. There is no narration. Overall it's very surreal, philosophical and dark. The cuteness of the Hello Kitty style cats and bright colors are put in stark relief by what they experience. Terrifying at times. Horrific in places. Disgusting in others. Beautiful in others. Amazingly enough I think I got what they were trying to say even without words. Just a very strange film.
Chicken Run (Movie)
(Burton)The Great Escape adapted to star hens trying to escape from a pot pie factory. A slick handsome rooster comes in and promises to teach them how to fly. Trouble is that he is a poser who cannot really fly. Lots of slapstick humor and chicken gags.
Chobits
Computers have evolved into humanoid robots that look like little girls. Hideki tries to figure out how to get his Persocom running, but Chee is not like most Persocoms. She feels emotions and learns. The idea behind Chobits is to examine how society objectifies women. Unfortunately Hideki is too much of a dork/spaz to be sympathetic, and much of the early writing is embarrassingly obvious (her on-switch is between her legs for example). Several of the episodes feel like filler that do nothing to forward the plot. Lastly Chee is far too passive. She needs to grow into a much stronger character. At #19 the writing suddenly gets much better. Suddenly, Hideki is logical and hard headed, even aggressive when called for. There is real menace when two dark figures start stalking Chee and drama when Chee is kidnapped. Secret pasts and hidden agendas come to light. The story also starts to examine how Persecoms are viewed by women. Unfortunately, it is too late to save the series. Chobits also has some of the worst music ever attached to an Anime.
Clarence
The neighbourhood fat kid. Common suburban comedy situations. Kinda reminds me of a low budget The Simpson’s. It’s not terrible but doesn’t really break any new ground.
The Cleveland's
All of the creativity, cleverness, and subtlety of Family Guy and American Dad, (that is to say none whatsoever) but now with Racism. The Cleveland's spins off the black characters from Family Guy and plays on every ugly black stereotype from the last century. They even had to change the original words to the theme because it was so full of tacky racial slurs that even Fox affiliates were starting to talk about not running the show. The Cleveland's continues the career of Seth MacFarlane. How someone so utterly lacking in any vestige of talent, creativity or simple taste keeps producing shows escapes me. Oh yeah it's on Fox.