A derivative of the Full-Metal Panic series, which was a pretty good series about a soldier who never had a childhood having to attend high-school to act as a bodyguard for some young woman who was the key for global domination for some evil group. Since he never was a teenager his response to high school hi-jinks isn’t always pleasant.

In Fumoffu, the mission is over but Sagara stays in school to be a bodyguard. The episodes are just extending the concept of a soldier responding to typical teenage events in an extreme manner. Booring. Of course, you blow-up the shoe locker because someone left a note in it. Of course, you open a watermelon with a shotgun, blindfolded. Not really worth watching any further, I will give it a 4 out of ten.

Speaking of girl Assassins, Madlax is certainly busy in a war-torn country. She seems to have a strange mental link to Margaret, back in some distant peaceful city. It would seem that reality may not be all that it is cracked up to be, but only a few, like Letisia, seem to know something is not quite right. Plus, there is some sort of global takeover plot by a secret organization. An organization so secret it doesn’t even know it exists.

It is certainly intriguing and leads one to want to find out what will happen next. And Madlax isn’t some mindless killing zombie; she has a very human side to her.

I will give this a 7 out of 10.

Just sent back Samurai Champloo Vol 3. The series is still going strong, though this disk slowed down a little with a recap episode. Looking for #4.

Maybe I ‘m getting jaded, but a show about turning prepubescent girls into cybernetic assassins is just a bit over the top. It’s like since they’re a Gunslinger, cyber-enhanced, they aren’t human anymore. And their handlers are a bunch of sociopathic thugs, or they would be except they are government agents so this makes them dedicated civil servants.

The girls are supposed to be robotic killing machines, and with the brain-washing and conditioning they go through, they mostly turn out that way. Of course, sometimes a little emotion may break through, but that’s a sign for more conditioning (which shortens their life span, not that what they have is much of a life.)

I don’t know if the authors are going out to an extreme limb to make a point, or if this is the only place left for them to go. There have been other girl assassin shows, like Noir, but they generally are about the girl’s quest to regain her humanity, not about watching it get drummed out the her.

So, while this show has very good production values, I don’t think I could take another DVD of this. I will give it a 4 out of 10.