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The use of atmospheric popular music, cinematic camerawork and special effects distinguish this "soap", (actually soap belittles NIGHT AND DAY, perhaps serial drama is a better description). Having bored of repetitive plotlines and characters, I'd given up on British soaps, until this one arrived. Off-beat characters, regular and genuine cliff-hanger endings to episodes, even adult content in the omnibus repeats, all add up to a unique approach to a formerly hackneyed genre. The opening intrigue of the series alludes to TWIN PEAKS in that the femme fatale of the neighbourhood is a blonde schoolgirl who touches many lives before shuffling off...

All of which is good enough to keep this viewer hooked.

This marvellous gem shows how computer graphic FX can be used to make convincing shots that are exciting and artistic too! The opening shots of Mount Fuji erupting are totally spectacular and lead us into the story by way of an entrance to hell being opened. Demons are emerging from the pit and only Sakuya, teenage Slayer of Demons can stop them with her magic sword! It is set in the distant past when all you can fight monsters with is swords and gunpowder. Each of the demons that Sakuya fights takes a different form! As usual the character is based on a popular manga title. It's more exciting than creepy, but the plot certainly keeps up the surprises and demons keep on getting bigger and bigger! The film looks like a Hong Kong action movie but was shot in Japan, which may explain why the wirework in the fight scenes isn't very sophisticated. The FX team for this film have also worked on the fantastic nineties trilogy of GAMERA films (the third of which has to be seen to be believed).

Usually known as BLUE SUBMARINE 6, this Japanese animation has both action and brains! It's set in the near future when the world is being held to ransom by a rogue scientist, Zorndyke. He is melting the icecaps and has genetically created an underwater race to conquer Earth. Humanity's last hope is the Blue Submarine fleet and their brave crews taking on Zorndyke's living whale/submarines. The story progresses obliquely with many flashbacks filling the viewer in on the motives of both the crew and their quarry, Zorndyke. All the characters are rendered in the traditional 2-dimensional anime style but all the hardware (the submarines, the surface crab/tanks) are all 3-D animation, bringing a gritty realism to the action scenes. The subs, the explosions, the sea are all beautifully realised. The craft and creature designs are imaginative but still based on reality. I'd recommend this to someone who wants to see something unique and unusual, exciting and demanding.