For those of you in the Phoenix area, AniZona has recently announced their latest Guest of Honor: none other than Amano Yoshitaka, character designer for the Final Fantasy games, creator of Angel's Egg, and comic artist for The Sandman: The Dream Hunters.

AniZona will be held March 25-27 of this year, and many of the THEM Anime members will be present at this convention. Please check the Forums for more details as the convention date draws closer.

A quick update here, as our Editor, Carlos, updates his scathing ICZER-ONE review in commemoration of its recent (and completely uncalled for) rerelease by Media Blasters.

*sigh*

Carlos and Christi team up to give the first look of the anime adaptation of one of Christi's once-favorite manga, PEACH GIRL. Which, unfortunately, only serves to remind Christi why she ran screaming away from it.

Carlos also delivers a thorough slapping to COSPLAY COMPLEX, an irritatingly exploitationist OAV series that purports to be about cosplay, but is actually about getting girls naked and making them act like perverts.

Distracted by the holidays, our updates have been a bit sparse, but now our hard-working reviewers are doing their best to provide you with quality insights into the latest greatest (and occasionally the not so greatest or latest) that Japan has to offer:

Neophyte THEM reviewer Connor wades through the parody madness of GAINAX's MAGICAL SHOPPING ARCADE ABENOBASHI which he finds more than a little hillarious.

Not all of Connor’s recent viewing experiences have been pleasant. He also provides us with a review of the “low budget cliché” fantasy SPECTRAL FORCE which he feels was a “nonsensical collage” and needed a “miracle” to render it even worth watching. He also gives us his insight into the older sci-fi mecha adventure, TEKKAMAN which despite a nice soundtrack and some good ideas still earns a poor rating for its extremely flat characters and poor execution of plot.

Diane sits through the plodding horror/mystery SONG OF THE SHEEP which barely manages to be saved by a talented cast.

Our Norwegian correspondent Stig reviews Korean anime title HAMMER BOY, which despite some beautiful early visuals reminiscent of CASTLE IN THE SKY, he finds quite average overall.

He also finds time to give a full five-star rating in a second opinion to the spiritual drama HAIBANE RENMEI and calls it “one of the finest animated works in existence.”

Dipping a bit into the old school, Stig also reviews STAR BLAZERS: QUEST FOR ISCANDAR and ULYSSES 31. He finds both the titles quite good but only ULYSSES 31 features crystal afros!

Despite being a huge HAPPY LESSON fan Stig finds that HAPPY LESSON FINAL is only average quality at best and notes that “Mama is not happy.”

Punished by the universe for watching too much quality anime, Connor wades through the insipid romance anime W-WISH with a strong warning: “W-Wish is just bad. Don’t watch it.”

Not to be outdone, Stig counters with a review of the apparently painfully awful harem comedy LOVE LOVE and warns that it is even worse than such previously disturbing shows as DEARS.

Stig offers more evidence of a masochistic nature by revealing his review of underage fan service filled UTA~KATA which he slams with one star and a note to his fellow THEM reviewers that they “owe him” for sitting through as much of this show as he did. I, for one, salute his valiant sacrifice.

Lastly, Tim provides us with his review of the slightly surreal magical girl comedy, MAGICAL PLAY, and wonders if the whole show was just an exercise in trying to cash in on a famous mangaka’s name with an inferior product. Say it ain’t so!

-Updated By Jeremy A. Beard