Sometimes keeping up with the world of anime is not so easy. Typically, my academic life is something of a deterrent. I often, then, find myself drawn to older releases, titles that unfortunately escaped my eye. So, this month I give you two oldies and two -- well, nothing seems to rhyme -- new releases.

For fans of the original movie, notable changes to the story might be shocking, but Blood + stands on its own.

Blood + Vol. 2
2007 TV Series (five episodes). Director: Junichi Fujisaku. 124 minutes. DVD, bilingual, $24.96. Distributor. Sony Pictures.

Adapted from the popular film Blood: The Last Vampire (2000), Blood + is the tale of Saya Otonashi, a seemingly typical high school girl in Okinawa. One thing, however, separates her from the rest: she cannot remember the past year of her life. Enter Hagi, a mysterious figure from a secret organization called Red Shield. He bestows upon her a samurai sword, which she must use to protect humanity against the Chiropterans (artificially created monsters now plaguing the globe). Yes, Saya is no ordinary teenage girl in a school uniform. She's actually a vampire, whose blood is a death sentence for these genetic mutations. Consequently, she must cut herself and let her blood run along the sword in order to unleash its power. Together with Hagi, Saya embarks upon an international quest to eradicate these aberrant scientific experiments.

For fans of the original movie, notable changes to the story might be shocking. There are, in fact, too many to mention here. Blood + simply stands on its own, and should be evaluated accordingly.

In the second volume, we find Saya still struggling with her new life. She has the sword. She knows her blood activates its power. Yet the act of killing is hard. The student in training is the general theme of this DVD. Fortunately, Blood + keeps it simple. It combines an extraordinary, and supernatural, coming-of-age tale with constant action and bloodshed. Each episode moves fast and holds your attention. Moreover, we should applaud the writers for making Saya's adventures explicitly contemporary. While hunting in Vietnam, for example, we are reminded of the havoc that undetonated land mines have wreaked on children playing in the fields. So, while enjoying the action-packed, fantasy-driven scenes of a sword-wielding schoolgirl, we are not completely separated from our own dramatic reality. Thus fantasy and reality harmoniously meet in the international adventures of Saya Otonashi. Check it out!

The series Speed Grapher indulges in excessive sex and violence, but the initial episodes are worthy of a glance.

Speed Grapher Vol. 1
2005 TV Series (four episodes). Director: Kunihisa Sugishima. 100 minutes. DVD, bilingual, $29.98. Distributor. Funimation.

Although Speed Grapher has been around for a while, its plot eerily mirrors the current financial crisis plaguing the global market. After the so-called "Bubble War," in which the world's financial institutions bottomed out, Saiga, a once renowned war photographer, is trapped in a world split between the rich and poor. Now reduced to the status of a paparazzo, he spends his Tokyo nights working for either the tabloids or the manipulative, sexpot police detective Ginza. And while all seems lost and utterly normal, Saiga begins to investigate an underground club that caters to the lascivious desires of the wealthy. What appears to be another day on the job unleashes an unexpected chain of events. Saiga is thrust into the embrace of a sexually exploited girl named Kagura, whose drug-laced lips empower him to kill with the flash of his camera. These two "slaves" of a decadent Tokyo thus begin a journey that will expose the vices and corruption of their palsied world. Like most in Tokyo, they are just looking for something that resembles freedom.

First and foremost, Speed Grapher is definitely TV-MA -- let's keep it 18 and over, folks. That being said, I found myself bewitched by this dark dystopia. Sure, there is plenty of eye candy roaming the screen, both clothed and unclothed, but the character of Saiga is unique for anime. The combination of his slacker-inspired Philip Marlowe demeanor and psychosexual dysfunction creates a grotesque antihero well-suited to exposing human vice. He's not the typical knight in rusting armor, who just needs a bit of polish, that we see in so many series. Saiga is utterly flawed and intrinsic to his world. And while Kagura doesn't transcend the often-found naïve female lead, her pairing with the troubled photographer works. Though the relationship is forged within a highly sexualized backdrop, their emerging bond is anything but. Subsequently, it's not hard to find yourself curious about what their future holds.

Now, admittedly, the series indulges in excessive sex and violence -- in this respect it has been heavily criticized and even dubbed ridiculous. But these initial episodes are worthy of a glance. Chances are, you'll either love it or hate it.