Death Note is currently available on Netflix, Hulu, Yahoo View and on Viz/Neon Alley. The 2006 anime lasted for 37 episodes at around 22-24 minutes per show. Yahoo and Viz offer the show for free to anyone able to watch via computer or laptop.

Considering the (justified) brouhaha surrounding the upcoming live action film, I decided to take a weekend to binge on Death Note and see what all the fuss was about. 

Before we begin, a few (pun not intended) notes about this article.

First of all, this will only be about the anime by itself.

Second, after seeing the show, the outrage over the race changing of the entire cast is highly justified. And no, I'm not going to entertain your last minute "excuse" that race changing is "okay" because of the Korean Death Note drama. The characters all have Japanese names. Excusing Misa's blonde hair (it's dyed) all of the characters have Japanese features, so you can just save it. We're mad. We have the right to be. Deal with it. So done with White Facebook crybabies trying to force us all to accept Whitewashing and other race changes just because they're not adult enough to accept the fact that it's wrong and those of us not White are correct in being angry. Learn to like it, guys. We're right. This is wrong.

And third, if you do not want to be spoiled, stop reading right here. I'm being serious here. In order for me to capture my raw thoughts on this TV anime, some spoilers will have to be leaked. 

So now that I'm climbing down from my soapbox, it's time to dive into the story of Death Note.

The series follows Light Yagami, a spoiled, wealthy kid who has everything handed to him. The only thing not being handed to him are his studies, and I will admit, he actually is honestly good with academics.

He's also bored.

HOW?? Your parents buy you everything. You're in a great district with plenty to do, and for some reason, you have plenty of friends. Why are you bored?

One day, he comes across a Death Note, which is a black notebook in which if you write someone's name in it, they die. There are a few, tiny rules around using it, such as you can't go to Heaven or Hell when you die, if you're going to pick a death, it has to be realistic, (no unicorn stabbings) and a few little pesky things, but nothing too serious. If you can write at a kindergartner's level, you can murder with the Death Note. Fairly simple.

Well in using the book, Light finds himself being trailed by it's original owner, a Shinigami (death god) named Ryuk, who lets him know that when it is Light's time to die, he will write Light's name into his own book. The reason why his Death Note was dropped in the world of the living?

Ryuk is bored too. Oh. Nice.

Initially, Light uses the book idealistically. He only kills criminals and people who are generally awful. He does things in secret, expecting to one day gain accolades for recreating the world in his image as a teenage God. But as the series moves forward, a few non-evil people find their way to the book too, and it isn't long before his descent into madness is made clear. The police, the FBI and several other governmental agencies start to link together the murders, and refer to Light in the news as "Kira" since nobody can figure out his identity.

​Death Note has a variety of characters with interlinking stories that all lead up to Light's story, and it isn't possible to watch the show without secretly cheering for at least one of them.

The Shinigami Ryuk and Rem have my sympathy right from the start. Ryuk never actually does anything bad. He has an addiction to apples for crying out loud. And Rem acts as a surrogate mother to Misa (I'm getting to her) and bases her actions on her protection. This ultimately leads to her downfall, which is just heartbreaking to watch.

Misa will appeal to you if you like Harley Quinn. A bouncy idol with a tragic life, she initially becomes obsessed with "Kira" after he unwittingly kills the man who murdered her family in a botched robbery. Once she finds out Kira is Light, she falls head over heels for him in a one-sided romance that endures through several mind wipes. Light does not love her back. He instead chooses to use her, and long after she moves in with him, he is still entertaining other women, further illustrating what an asshat Light is. Misa is used mostly because she can access the Shinigami eyes, at the cost of half her life span, which she pays twice, just for him.

L only lives for little more than half of the series, but his legacy endures for the entire span of the show. A detective fresh out of college, he comes across as a creepy, feral child. Constantly sleep deprived and hunched over, his biggest drawback is that he sometimes second guesses Light, which leads to his downfall. He is succeeded by equally creepy and childish Near, and flat out insane Mello, neither of whom quite match L's essence.

The mystery element is alive and well, as each episode, it looks like Light will be caught, only for the angsty little bastard to escape. By episode 14, you're already convinced that Light is the scum of the Earth, you stop trying to see things his way, and you're just hoping someone will do him in. Every few episodes, it seems pretty clear his identity has been given away, only for Light to find a way to dance around the issue and have the police write him off. There's a little bit of humor sprinkled through to break up the seriousness of the segments, keeping the writing fresh even during times where it feels like the same subject is being re-tread over and over.

The series end is looked at differently by people. Light's end is by far one of the most childish exits I've seen in anime, but just a little more dignified than his manga demise. Some say it's perfect, considering what an asshat he was, while others say it could have used more pizzazz. The final episode has the right people making a difference against him (I'm not referring to Near) and justice is served, but it's a promise that you won't see it coming.

Death Note was an interesting ride, and I can see why it's fans want to protect the story. The epilogue is heartbreaking during the credits, but this is a show that ties up all of the loose ends and doesn't leave to many characters in the dust. If you only saw the Cartoon Network version, you owe it to yourself to catch the original on the above streaming platforms.

Shamaniac Princess currently airs on Crunchyroll. The entire OVA lasts only six episodes, each at under 30 minutes. It ran in Japan off and on between June of 1996 and June of 1998.

If you are watching the episodes in order, nothing will make any sense to you. In order to fully understand the story, you need to watch the episodes in the following order:

5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 4.

The big complaint most people have is the story bouncing all over the place, but if you watch episodes five, then six, then one, it will actually flow.

The story begins with Tiara, a princess from the Guardian World, who can summon mythical creatures, and can herself become a demonic harpy, due to her fusing with her own shadow when she was a tween. If you start with episode five, then you'll see little Tiara befriending two other magical girls, Sarah and Lena. You will also see Tiara crushing on Sarah's older brother Kagetsu, who later becomes Tiara's lover.

Between episodes five and six, Tiara learns to use her magic without fear, experiences her first kiss at age 10 from her own shadow (WTF??) and then earns the right to have her first Guardian Partner, Graham, whom she summons, but summons wrong, causing him to suffer brain damage, have permanent speech problems and screws up his arm. Way to go, kid.

Graham is deeply in love with Tiara, and while Tiara cares for him, she has her heart set on Kagetsu. Graham hates this, but can do nothing to make her change her mind. He actually gets violently attacked by Tiara's magic for trying to come between her and Kagetsu.

Kagetsu is a neutralizer, meaning he has the ability to nullify magic if need be. As Kagetsu and Sarah grow up, Sarah becomes a bit more sickly. If you watch all six episodes, you learn Sarah is destined to be one forever with the Throne of Yord, which in and of itself is a screwed up demonic source. After the Throne (which by the way, is in fact, a mirror) absorbs Sarah, Kagetsu steals the mirror and tries to bring his sister back. Graham tries to stop him, and after a freaky battle involving bright magic, Kagetsu kills Graham, causing Tiara to dump Kagetsu.

Interspersed between the episodes is the recurring character Lena. Lena used to be Tiara's friend, but her feelings for Sarah and later Kagetsu, caused her to hate Tiara. As the girls grow up, she acquires her partner, Leon.

Episodes 1-4 take place after Tiara grows up and starts college. She has a new partner, Japolo, who is something between a ferret and a cat. Japolo argues with Tiara constantly, but is useful as he has the power to pause time.

By day, Tiara is a girlish college waif with a ton of new friends. By night, she has battles with Lena and tries to retrieve the Throne of Yord so she can rescue Sarah. Each time, she also has to confront her feelings for Kagetsu and the fact that between the time she first had Graham until now, she's become colder, ruder  and more hasty, but all of it links back to her own feelings over everything that has happened. 

Eventually, this all leads to an inter-dimensional fight with the Throne of Yord itself, and by the end of the fight, Kagetsu and Tiara are a couple again, Lena learns to deal with life, and Sarah accepts being one with the evil Yord.

The entire story is focused on repairing broken relationships and Tiara's personal growth. It's dark, ripe with shock-value violence and seizure-inducing flashes, and at times is a little confusing. In a nutshell, everything bad happens to Tiara, Kagetsu is one-dimensional, Sarah is a perpetual victim and Lena is the show's Meg Griffin. 

Only one episode of Abunai Sisters is available on Crunchyroll and strangely, it's dubbed in English with Japanese subtitles. There was a DVD release, but few legitimate sites seem to have it these days. 

Have you ever downloaded one of those weird, CGI phone apps of random cartoon characters dancing and singing? Okay, remove the dancing and singing, this is Abunai Sisters. You can actually get a better show just from a basic phone app of a rabbit cuddling a carrot. 

This is what happens to BratZ dolls after they hit rock-bottom.

If you look it up, there is actually a DVD out there of this... show. Yes, as in a full DVD. The series is basically made up of a ton of 3 minute shorts, that are supposed to be funny. 

Emphasis on "supposed to be". 

It must not have sold well, as Amazon doesn't seem to have it today, but I did find a listing for it on MyAnimeList, implying that somebody else watched it on purpose.

Now aside from the story, in which these scantly clad women are the key holders of the "Boobie Gem", there's really not much here to see. This is not a hentai. There are no bedroom scenes, it's just these two women "spies" and a gem. There are 10 shorts in total. Crunchyroll mercifully only has one short up, where the women try to evade a missile and a shark attack. 

The issues can be summed up below:

PROS: (Yes, there might be a few.)
1. It's only 3 minutes long.
2. Crunchyroll does not have the other 9 shorts.
3. The girls are not anorexic, and actually have bottoms.
4. The girls are over the age of 18.

CONS: (Here we go.)
1. This is NOT an anime.
2. You can tell by the lip movement this was originally made for an English speaking market, and then Japanese subtitles and names were randomly thrown on later. This is actually insulting.
3. The writing is not paced well, and lags behind the animation, despite the voice acting matching the lip animation.
4. Whoever wrote the lines was clearly a very lonely man, typing one-handed in the dark.
5. The man watching the spies in the short is beyond creepy ~ not "creepy guy in the bushes" creepy, but "man, did someone super-impose a bad bitmap of a middle aged man's head??" creepy.
6. The tight clothes are no more scandalous than what you already see on Crunchyroll. This is NOT an ecchi clip.
7. Animation is cheap and lazy, and the backgrounds look unfinished.

It's not the worst thing you'll see, but it's still no excuse. Upon further investigation, it seems the other nine episodes did have a few sexual jokes, but nothing you didn't already hear out of a 5th grade classroom. Watch at your own risk.