Rental Find Sites

I'm very lucky to live near a store that has a large collection of anime for rent (. if you live near Philly check 'em out!). Every break I have from college I end up renting three or more titles a night. Sometimes I'm catching up on old series, but I also like to check out new titles that look interesting. I've found quite a few good ones (and a one which should never have existed in the first place.) This column's a review of sites about my favorite underappreciated rental gems. You won't find any of the more popular anime here (no Eva, Esca, Tenchi, etc.). Now on to the sites!

I suppose I should mention that most of the titles at are dubs, so I saw the dub of most of these titles (and they were a pretty good batch of dubs overall).

Compiler

Sigh, you know half these titles are so underappreciated that they have only one or two sites to their name. Such is the case with Compiler. Compiler's a fun title consisting of four OAVs on two tapes. It's a great series that alternates between being Dragon-Half wacky and romantic. And if you know anything about computer terminology you can probably guess by the title that it's used quite frequently in the series (gotta love villians named Upload and Download!).

Marriage

God there's only one site for this title too! Jeezu. Anyways, Marriage is a title released by Media Blasters consisting of two OAVs on one tape. It's a title with little action, instead it focuses on the relations between men and women (complete with SD classroom scenes!). If you can deal without the gore and rapid-moving plots of other more popular anime, you'll find a fun and sweet little series that has elements that we can all relate to sometime in our lives.

Those Who Hunt Elves

What a great series! A whole lot of fun and one of the best dubs I've seen ADV do, Those Who Hunt Elves deserves a hell of a lot more attention then it's been getting. Basically, three people from our world get trapped in a world of magic and elves. The spell to send them home gets split into five pieces and gets imprinted on the bodies of five elves. Trouble is, our three heroes don't know which five elves have the fragments, so they have to go around stripping every elf they find. You know, I thought this series would be really hentai, but it's not really perverted at all. It's certainly no worse then some of the more popular fare (i.e. Ranma 1/2). Oh and did I mention the tank?

Luna Varga

There are absolutely NO sites listed for this four OAV series on the Anipike. I haven't been able to find any others either. That's a shame since it's a fun series ending up like a slightly less wacky Dragon Half. The plot centers around a princess named Luna who awakens an ancient power in order to save her kingdom from invaders. The power turns out to be the giant lizard named Varga and he does indeed stop the invaders. Varga's help comes a price, however, Luna is now fused to his head! A great series that is available subbed from .

Spirit of Wonder

A wonderful romantic movie available from Animeigo. The plot isn't exactly the most realistic out there (a scientist strives to get a moonrock to give to his girlfriend as an engagement ring), but this anime is a lot of fun to watch and will leave you with warm fuzzies afterward. Also this dub is done by one of the great dub masters Scott Houle and his crew at Coastal Carolina. These guys have also done Oh My Goddess, Shinesman, You're Under Arrest and Elf Princess Rane. Two of the goddess VAs make return appearances as main characters in this anime. The manga is available from Dark Horse.

Oh wow! A whole four sites for this anime! Of course, the first listed one is currently down for repairs, but that still leaves three listed- more then any other anime I've reviewed so far. I'm gonna celebrate by giving each site bullets!

Sorcerer Hunters

Actually, you've quite possibly heard of this last title. It's a TV series released by ADV who call it Sorcerer Hunters, however, when it was being fansubbed it was known as Bakuretsu Hunters. The plot? Well, mind you I haven't seen the entire series, but it seems that sorcerers rule the Spooner (?) continent and the Sorcerer Hunters act as a check on the power of the ones that get out of hand. As for the Sorcerer Hunters themselves, there's a bishonen mage (Maron), the requisite fighter (Gateau), the girl with glasses, a whip, and an outfit stolen from the wardrobe of the Dirty Pair (Tira), her sister with the SMJ/Tigre outfit (Chocolate) and the resident pervert and Darling of Chocolate (Carrot). It's a diverse cast, and while it may not be as fun as Slayers, this series has some interesting things going on in it.

Finally! There are a pretty good number of sites for Sorcerer Hunters (listed under Bakuretsu Hunters)! Woohoo! A selection of the best:

You know in my next life, I really do want to be a schoolgirl with a tank. Anyway, here's some mail.