Mary and Max

    Mary and Max is an Australian claymation dark comedy drama film (try saying that all at once). The film takes place in 1976 Mount Waverley, Australia where Mary Daisy Dinkle lives. To sum it all up her life sucks. She has a distant father and a  mother who is a kleptomaniac, and has a serious drinking problem, and has no friends due to a "poop" colored birthmark on her forehead. One day at the mail office while her mother is "borrowing" a large stack of envelopes Mary finds a New York City telephone book and having a moment of curiosity decides to write to one. Some time later a man named  Max Jerry Horowitz gets Mary's letter and they become friends.
    Overall the animation was good. I only spotted a couple of times a fingerprint showed, and they did a great job of showing complex movements (the one I'm talking about is eating). Also just the general style was likable, the characters all had funny little defects that went great with the comedy. I also really liked the use of color. Max's life is in black and white and Mary's is in sepia (kind of scenting the mood each live in).
    Overall I would say it is good entertainment and good animating work, and a good/touching story but there are an inaccuracy I would like to point out. Max is diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome but the symptoms of Asperger's actually are almost opposite of his. Aspergers includes repetitive behavior (which Max exhibits) and is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction (Max also exhibits this) and nonverbal communication (which Max doesn't exhibit (I mean his entire communication to Mary is nonverbal)). Other than that the comedy is good and the drama doesn't completely dominate the story (the story is the drama and not that there is drama in the story). Also it does a good job of illustrating how profoundly we affect each others lives (a single word can make your life miserable). I think anyone should watch this, it just is a good film and anyone could like it.

Max 

Mary

Trigun

    Trigun is a science fiction animated series centering around a man known as Vash the Stampede. Most of the series is spent on the misadventures of Vash and two insurance company employees, Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson. Vash is the most wanted gunman in the world (nicknamed the humanoid typhoon, and had his human status revoked by the government to "localized disaster") with a bounty of $$ 6,000,000,000 on his head (by the way the $$ is on purpose). Most of the misadventures of Vash are because of the excessively high bounty on his head, but occasionally he just gets caught up in bad situations. Later in the series the story shifts to Vash having to confront his past, and the destruction that follows.

    Overall I would have to say the animation isn't to great. Its usually flat and semi-devoid of lighting (especially on the characters). Also character design wise: they're just kind of blocky looking (I don't mean they literally look like blocks, its just that they're drawn kind of static). The environment also isn't anything to get excited over (most of it is literally just sand and rocks). But even though the animation isn't the best it does have interesting style. Up until this point I've usually used style to describe the way it was animated, but this time it might be a little harder to grasp. The style of this series is reminiscent of Ukiyo-e both in color palate and landscape layout.

    Overall it is an ok series. The art is ok, the story is just ok, but what I found to be the best thing about it is that Vash is an altruist (or at least as close to an altruist as you can get). Altruist (for those who don't know) is the principle or practice of concern for the welfare of others (synonymous with selflessness, also the quality "heroes" are usually recognized for). The reason I said "or at least as close as you can get" is because altruism has a basic fault: what if you like helping people? Being altruistic means you have nothing to gain for doing something, but if you take pleasure in helping people then aren't you still being kind of selfish? Hence I have the dilemma of explaining to you how a character is something that might not even truly exist, but I'll still try. The reason I say Vash is an altruist is because of all the fights he has been it not one single person has died by his hand, or by being accidentally caught up in it. Even when injured by him he still doesn't kill anyone (and I do realize that sounds awfully in altruistic, but they are not dead and not hurting anyone else and that is preferable to dead or hurting people). Well there you go a claim of altruism that may or may not be true (altruism is based on opinion after all, and I know there are many). I would recommend this to anyone who likes westerns, and that awful category called "feel good" media.

Vash