In an interesting development for CG anime, Sunrise has just announced the release date of a new 3D computer rendered Gundam anime OVA, 機動戦士ガンダム ＭＳイグルー2 重力戦線 / Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO 2: Jūryoku Sensen, “Mobile Suit Gundam MS Igloo 2 Gravity Front”, with the first disc to be released directly to DVD and Blu-ray on the 24th of September. The story is said to be an original side story set during the One Year War.
It certainly seems to me that the subject matter (giant robots) lends itself well to CG animation, and the success of Appleseed and the previous MS Igloo demonstrates that this can be done well, so it may be interesting to see how it turns out.
According to the official announcement, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is now completed, so all that remains is to wait for the release. Whilst a variety of dubious marketing endeavours are underway (placing Regain into the game seems positively tawdry), the biggest change this brings is the opening of the official site, filled with movie based quizzes which you can “complete” for “Digital Download Points”, exchangeable for a variety of wallpapers and the like – how very original. Still the game movies are interesting enough.
Hideo Kojima may have put his foot in his mouth recently, and again just now if you read the drivel he spouts in the press conference comparing SCE to space pioneers, but this hardly has any bearing on what will doubtless prove to be the biggest PS3 release to date; it will certainly be interesting to see how well the PS3 fairs with the upcoming releases of its major titles – my guess is well.
You may be familiar with ニコニコ動画 / Nico Nico Douga, (“Smile Video”, though Miku Miku Douga would be a more appropriate name), the popular Japanese YouTube-a-like with the significant innovation of allowing users to comment onto the actual video itself – there is an excellent English explanation of the phenomenon here.
Now, just as there is YouPorn & PornoTube to the prudish YouTube, there is イクイク動画 / Iku Iku Douga (“ComeCome Video”) as an AV counterpart to Nico Nico. I can’t confess to having any interest at all in watching unseemly JAV strumpets squeal away under an enormous mosaic, much preferring the two-dimensional artistic and creative media so well developed in Japan, but maybe there are some to whom this is appealing (the huge AV industry is testament to this).
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I couldn’t help but be astonished on seeing this enormous itasha convention (easily the largest in Japan, and also the world), the FSW Itasha Meeting, covered by Ascii.jp in detail in three parts here, here, and here. Veritable throngs were in attendance, and participation (including non-itasha observers) was around 300 vehicles, gathered from all over Japan, despite the bad weather.
All kinds of vehicles seem to be in evidence, from flatbed trucks to motorcycles, and the meet was held at a race track, the Fuji Speedway, so they naturally hit the track (great Shana paint job there), though not all look as if they belong there.
Itasha seem to be gaining prominence lately; there has been media coverage, of course they are omnipresent in Akiba, and now this. Not long before we see itasha paint jobs as options on the latest models? Still a bridge too far, I’d wager.
Famitsu brings news of the story and characters of Persona 4, as well as more screenshots, due for release in a month or two, almost inexplicably for the PS2. The story centres around a string of murders at the protagonist’s school/countryside town, and the character featured is a ruffian; does this sound familiar to you?
The screens and details thus far revealed really do tend to mark this out as a rehash or expansion pack rather than a true sequel, although at least the production values will not be a let down, and the new setting looks to be a departure from the urban environments used previously. It looks interesting enough, but I am still a little disappointed that they chose the PS2 as platform, as it would be nice to see them push the series forward with a next generation game, rather than simply ride the coattails of the anime.
Pre-orders have already begun for the らき☆すた / Lucky Star OVA! More vague details have emerged regarding the story, in addition to the earlier news that it will feature Animate tenchou, by way of a feature in Comptiq, though things are still quite obscure. We have the comment from tenchou: “Don’t expect swimsuits! The main event is my hot battle!”, accompanied by text to the effect that the actual content is still up in the air, though it is said to be a completely new work. Some scans from Comptiq are kindly provided by Jabro, but apart from some fetching fridge magnets there is not a great deal new.
Mainichi reports that a man who doused himself in kerosene after police responded to a domestic altercation, and was subsequently taken into custody by police, was then offered a light for a cigarette; he caught fire, violently, and later died in hospital. The police were kind enough to provide both cigarettes and lighter. The various policemen involved, when asked about just how he caught fire, responded that they “weren’t looking”. Currently, the possibility that some ash from his spent cigarette got into his clothes is being investigated. Nagoya police will surely have to answer some interesting questions as a result of this.
The article drily remarks that the station was a no smoking area. The station chief also has this to add: “For him to come into the station without changing, and be permitted to smoke in a no smoking station, was inappropriate”.
Two rather similar stories come to my attention via Itainews, one alleging that Japanese youth are suffering from a decline in literacy and historical knowledge, and another asserting the Japan’s sex trade is facing dire straits because young men no longer have the sex drive they once had (presumably they are pursuing alternatives rather than abstinence, although the article doesn’t address this for reasons which will become obvious).
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There was something of a furore when Metal Gear Solid 4 creator 小島秀夫 / Hideo Kojima gave an interview to Edge and was quoted as saying “The original vision was to go ten steps further, the reality was just one step”, amongst other negative statements about the PS3 platform. Now on his own blog, he denies all, and claims it was in fact a mistranslation; his humble and self abasing Japanese was distorted through translation and cultural misinterpretation, as well as shameless media exaggeration in pursuit of page views, and so he was grievously misquoted.
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Falcom offers up a promising looking action RPG for the PC, “ZWEI II”, set for release this summer, with a few screenshots just released, and mirrored below. This is refreshing news given the poor condition of PC gaming in Japan (if we exclude visual novels and the like), but what I am really keen to know is whether this will be fully voiced or not – no info as yet.
Graphics look none too bad; full 3d, and there is the comment that characters display their current equipment on their actual models, a nice touch. I am liable to comment favourably on any RPG involving demon girls – there is indeed one in evidence, with splendid crimson eyes the colour of hellfire, and she is co-protagonist. In case you were wondering, the original ZWEI is a title from 2001, which I will confess to having never heard of.
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Two interesting new anime adaptations are pending announcement, according to Moon Phase. First up is 屍姫 / Shikabane Hime, “Corpse Princess”, a manga which focuses on gun toting zombie hunting school girls and so is sure to be popular; though the author is renowned for his reluctance to grant upskirt schoolgirl panchira (he seems to rely on strategically placed guns instead, or possibly nopan as evidenced by the above cover), so it may be interesting to see how it works in motion.
Secondly is the interestingly named とある魔術の禁書目録 / To Aru Majutsu no Indekkusu, “A Certain Magical Index”, which promises to explore the largely uncharted territory of nun moe and nun service through fantastic magical comedy. You may not have heard of either of them, but if the anime adaptations go through that will change soon enough, I’d wager; “A Certain Magical Index” has already run the usual course of manga/novel/drama CD adaptation, so it seems likely the only direction is now to game and anime status, and Shikabane Hime has plenty of volumes already out, so its success seems to have been established.
Mrs Wide Open, or 沢本あすか/Asuka Sawamoto as she likes to call herself, 30 but “eternally 22”, now famous for exposure and arrest in Akiba, reveals plenty of lurid details about her life of crime, exhibitionism, theft, and (alleged) prostitution, in an exclusive interview given to ZakZak. Regarding the photos surfacing on 2ch, flyers for call girls and the like, allegedly of her from her days of disgrace (if these can indeed be said to be over) working in the sex trade, she says of the woman in the photos: “Her size is the same”, and sympathetically laments “If she gets mixed up in this, she’ll probably get some strange customers”. But it doesn’t stop there, unfortunately.
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Togijo no Senhime: Another Story Unexpectedly Gory
Coming of Age Day Illustrations Quite Formal
Atelier Shallie Plus Trailers Unbearably Cute
Pyramid Head’s Great Knife Replicated
Mortal Kombat X DLC More Gruesome Than Ever
Top 10 Most Anticipated Anime of Winter 2016
Splatoon “Super Play Time” Absolutely Cringe-worthy
Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut “Dragons & Mechs?”
Monster Hunter X Megaman Event Profusely Blue
Love Live! Sunshine!! MV “Will Brighten Up Your Day!”
Top 10 Best Anime Girls of 2015
Hai to Gensou no Grimgar “Has Oppai!”
Picking Up Japan Express Vol. 36 Worth a Pickup
Dimension W Out Of This World
Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir PV Certainly Nostalgic
One-Punch Man Soundtrack PV Packs A Wallop
XmasTrickStar “A White Christmas Indeed…”
Wo-Class Carrier Ero-MMD In Dire Straights
Voice Translation Tool Promotional Video “Inexcusable!”
Luck & Logic Far From Lucky
Yandere Simulator Possibly Headed to Kickstarter
Top 20 Recent Anime Most In Need Of A Sequel
Hyrule Warriors Legends PV Clashes Interminably
Akagami no Shirayukihime English Dub Surfaces
Koukaku no Pandora Really Opens That Box
Gate Season 2 Darker Than Ever
Super Sweet Sonico Bikini Figure
Top 10 Naughtiest Late Night Anime
Shoujo-tachi Mezasu Seemingly Innocent
Final Fantasy XIV Lord of Verminion Trailer Highly Adorable
Dagashi Kashi “A Total Sugar Rush!”
Legend of Zelda Ero-SFM Trailer Supremely Magical
Shingeki no Kyojin Fan Game Swoops In
Musaigen no Phantom World: “KyoAni’s Oppai Anime!?”
Hypnotize My Girlfriend Quite Entrancing
Haruchika Blows Nicely
Is The Order Omame Onahole Parody
The Asterisk War Trailer Battles Fiercely
Top 10 Anime Songs of 2015
Oni Chi Chi Refresh Beach Bikini Bonanza
To Love-Ru Darkness Absolutely Mouth-Watering
Love Live! Movie Museum “Idols Everywhere!”