Power Stone

First thing you'll likely notice about this anime is that it has a kickass dub OP, available in English and German. This alone would be enough to make it stand out among the other shonen adventure series at the turn of the millennium. That and its English dub being exclusive to the Canadian channel YTV. But is this stone truly a hidden gem worthy of obscure anime bragging rights? If you're looking for a good ol' 00's era adventure anime, this band of fighters is worth travelling with. To be straight, though, this wasn't a groundbreaking series even at the time, and if you've watched enoughof the genre, you'll recognize the stock character archetypes: the hotheaded shonen lead, the perky ninja girl with a crush on said shonen dude, the bumbling Team Rocket like pirates, the stoic samurai rival, and so on. The episodes themselves can get pretty repetitive: with a good deal of new character introductions following the standard "team visits new town with a crisis that turns out to be instigated by a corrupt authority figure." But their interactions are fun, and there's a surprising depth to lead boy Edward Fokker/Falcon, who starts off as a spoiled, privileged brat but grows to really understand and empathize with others along the journey. His kindness especially makes for heartwarming interactions with the creepy mummy-esque Jack, who gets too little screentime considering how tragic his story is, and his personal idol Valgas, whose true role in the story probably will not be surprising to people who have been watching anime for a while. Still, their interactions make the final episodes an emotional roller coaster that is well worth the journey to get there. All in all, it's a good way to spend 26 episodes if you're looking for a nostalgia trip. ...oh yeah, there was a Power Stone game, wasn't there? Two of them, in fact.