Madman Entertainment’s B2B (business-to-business) website has revealed their release schedule for April 2017. In addition to all of the following anime releases, the Adventure Time: Islands miniseries will also be released on DVD and Blu-ray in the same month.
Assassination Classroom Season 2 Part 1 on DVD and Blu-ray. Episodes 1-11 will be featured with dual audio options and English subtitles. The two anime movies will also be released on DVD in one collection, and will be presented with English subtitles.
Attack on Titan Season 1 Collection on DVD and Blu-ray. All episodes are included with dual audio options and English subtitles. On-disc extras include: a “Making of” video, AX footage with the Japanese director, commentary for episodes 14 and 25, “Attack on Titan at Anime Expo”, an eyecatch gallery and the textless song animations. A 24-page booklet will be included.
Charlotte Part 1 on DVD and Blu-ray. Episodes 1-7 will be featured with dual audio options and English subtitles.
Death Note Collection on DVD and Blu-ray. All 37 episodes and the two anime movies will be included with dual audio options and English subtitles.
Erased Part 1 on DVD and Blu-ray. Episodes 1-6 will be presented with dual audio options and English subtitles. Extras include commentary for episodes 1 and 6, the trailer collection and the textless song animations.
Phantasy Star 2: The Animation on DVD. Episodes 1-13 are presented with English subtitles. “Episode 13 Series Mash Up”, Japanese commentary and the textless song animations.
Sailor Moon Crystal Set 2. Episodes 15-26 will be available on DVD and Blu-ray and in a limited edition DVD and Blu-ray combo pack. They will be presented with dual audio options and English subtitles.
Samurai Flamenco Collection on DVD. All 22 episodes will be featured with English subtitles. The textless song animations will be included as extras.
Shomin Sample on DVD. All episodes are presented with English subtitles. Extras include commentary for episode 5, “Shomin Shorts” 1-6 and the textless song animations.
Space Dandy Collection on DVD and Blu-ray. All episodes are presented with dual audio options and English subtitles. Extras include the teaser trailer, the trailer collection, an art gallery, “Dead Guy in Space” and commentary for episodes 19 and 26.
Tokyo Ghoul: Jack / Pinto OVA Collection on DVD. The OVAs are featured with English subtitles.
Details of these releases are subject to change and may not be complete.
This coming Tuesday, the 3rd of January, 2017, will see the first release from Sentai Filmworks for the year. The ‘Ultimate’ Collection of The World God Only Knows will be released on DVD and Blu-ray tomorrow.
All 40 episodes will be included with English audio, Japanese audio and English subtitles. The on-disc extras include the textless opening and ending animations, the Japanese promotional videos and the music videos. The DVD edition has a suggested retail price of $79.98, but can be ordered from Sentai Filmworks’ online store for $50.99. Similarly, the Blu-ray edition has a suggested retail price of $99.98, but can be ordered from Sentai Filmworks’ online store for $63.99. All prices stated are in USD.
Sega in Japan has released a new trailer for Valkyria Revolution and this one is focused on introducing Princess Ophelia. Her full name is Ophelia A. Jutland and she is the Princess of Jutland and she is capable of manipulating Song Magic making her an invaluable member of the country’s Vanargand unit that was created to combat the Valkyria forces that the army comes up against.
You can check out the video below and keep an eye out for Valkyria Revolution when it is released in North America and Europe for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PS Vita in Q2 2017 or on January 19th in Japan for the PlayStation 4 and PS Vita.
Yasuhiro Wada, the creator of the series that was originally known as Harvest Moon but is now titled Story of Seasons, is bringing out a new game called Birthdays the Beginning and while NIS America had originally planned to have the game released in the West in March, there has been a change of plans.
The company has announced that they will now be releasing Birthdays the Beginning on May 9th in North America and May 12th in Europe with the PlayStation 4 version being available physically and digitally and on PC through Steam. No reason was given for Birthdays the Beginning’s delay at the time of the announcement.
We have seen quite a few characters added to the Musou Stars roster over the past few months but we have yet to see any of these fighters really show off what they are capable of outside of the debut trailer.
Now Koei Tecmo has released the first four videos in a series of character introduction videos with these first four introducing Sophie from Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Journey, Wang Yuanji from Dynasty Warriors, Ouka from Toukiden, and Kasumi from Dead or Alive. You can check out all of the videos below and keep an eye out for the game itself when it is released on the PlayStation 4 and PS Vita in Japan on March 2nd.
About a month and a half ago Compile Heart announced that they were working with Shade to create a new third-person shooter for the PS Vita called Gun Gun Pixies and now the game has been given its opening movie a few months ahead of the planned release.
For those who didn’t read up on the details of the game, Gun Gun Pixies places players in the shoes of a tiny alien girl who invades a girl’s dormitory on Earth in an effort to save their planet by learning how human girls interact in an effort to learn how to solve their own lack of communication that has plunged their home planet into troubled times.
We’ve learned previously that in Four Goddesses Online: Cyber Dimension Neptune, the digital game that all of the characters are playing will feature their goddess forms in the game as NPC characters. Now Compile Heart has released a new trailer for the action RPG that shows just how these NPCs will react, and it even appears that they are now playable in some form.
You can check out the video below to see Purple Heart, Green Heart, Black Heart, and White Heart in action and keep an eye out for the game when it is released in Japan for the PlayStation 4 on February 9th.
Osomatsu is the eldest sextuplet in the Matsuno family. His younger brothers Karamatsu, Choromatsu, Ichimatsu, Jyushimatsu and Todomatsu, all of whom are adults, live at home with their parents as NEETs. All six of them have a crush on Totoko, who is aspiring to become a mega-famous fish idol but continually fails to gain any positive attention from anyone other than the Matsunos. Iyami is a con artist who randomly switches from being helpful to antagonistic towards the brothers, and is often helped by oden chef Chibita. Dekapan is a scientific genius who keeps his incredible concoctions in his pants, and is often seen with Dayon, a person who is simply bizarre. Each of these characters are capable of demonstrating the positive aspects of humanity, but they usually just try to annoy each other and/or kill each other as violently as possible.
Story
The first thing to do before watching this series is to throw your perception of reality out the window for the duration of your viewing session. You will need to be prepared to ignore common sense, the laws of physics and human decency for about 10 hours. If you can do that, you may find yourself having an excellent time watching this wonderfully bizarre comedy. On many occasions, one or more of the brothers will come up with some ludicrous plan that should never be put into action, or say something utterly ridiculous that really needs to be questioned. Then, one of them will be the voice of reason. This supposedly ‘normal’ person is annoyingly common in anime series, and exists mostly to say ‘no’ to everyone else and tell them that they are crazy. Having someone play this role in Mr. Osomatsu is surprisingly effective, however, and somewhat necessary in this particular case. Some of the ideas that the brothers have really do defy logic and reason, yet much of the humour in this series comes from witnessing them following through with their dangerous plans. That is assuming, however, that we are told of their plans beforehand. There are times when something insane just starts happening for no apparent reason, and can be entertaining to see just how messed up situations can become in the shortest possible amount of time.
Some problematic situations can last for a few minutes before being resolved. This show does not let a joke go and move onto the next one as soon as the first joke has achieved its intended purpose. Instead, some jokes are repeated in increasingly ridiculous ways in an attempt to see how far the writers can take a joke while still being funny, and it works every time. These writers commit to a joke once they begin telling it like few others do.
Despite them all having more or less the same appearance, the Matsuno brothers all have different characteristics. Osomatsu gambles his or his brothers’ money away. Karamatsu acts cool and pretends to be a ‘ladies’ man’. Choromatsu tends to be the butt of many jokes, which is not an actual human characteristic. Ichimatsu always looks disinterested and is shy around humans, resulting in him making friends with cats. Jyushimatsu is hyper-energetic and obsessed with baseball, yet he has no idea how baseball works. Todomatsu is the most normal of the Matsuno brothers; he is shown to have a job and be able to talk to women, unlike each of his brothers. Jyushimatsu is the most consistently hilarious of the six, despite not being relatable.
Odd situations occasionally just happen to the brothers for no real reason, but Jyushimatsu is one of the most active characters in the entire show. Despite his appearance, he is capable of having emotions and developing relationships with other people. Those occasions are few and far between, but they still happen. He is extremely unpredictable and random, and that characteristic works well in this series. One would probably not predict, for example, that he would pull down his pants and shove his behind in his interviewer’s face at a job interview, nor that he would pick up one of his brothers, throw him in the air and ride him like a surfboard. As a result of all his hyper-energetic randomness, the episode devoted entirely to him immediately becomes one of the highlights of the series. Every Matsuno gets a moment in the spotlight, and they never cease causing and getting into as much trouble as they possibly can.
One of the impressive things about this series is that the minor characters can become the star of an episode and sideline the Matsunos without being boring. For example, Chibita becomes a compelling protagonist in one story. In it, he waters a plant that seems out of place, only to be greeted later by the Flower Fairy who reciprocates Chibita’s kindness. That such a one-note character who ends every sentence with ‘you idjit’ (‘idiot’) can be a part of a sweet story of fantastical romance without completely ruining it demonstrates the potential that this show has. Even Iyami can be entertaining when thrown into the spotlight, although his antagonistic nature renders him as little more than an occasionally effective gag. Dekapan and Dayon are without a doubt the most hilarious minor characters. Dayon’s mostly incomprehensible behaviour and tendency to only say his own name is inexplicably entertaining. The only character who is genuinely annoying is Totoko, mostly due to her constant physical abuse of the Matsuno brothers. Fujio Akatsuka does not seem to know how to write female characters properly, and the writers of this adaptation did not seem to have any interest in writing female characters properly either. The only female characters that are not entirely annoying are the ‘Girlymatsus’, the gender-flipped versions of the Matsuno brothers. They tend to be petty, focused on gaining the attention of boys and are generally mean to each other, but they at least more entertaining than Totoko. There are some average minor characters and some hilarious ones, but they all contribute to a crazy viewing experience.
Visuals
The animation is solid throughout the series. One episode mostly recycles clips from previous episodes, but aside from that and the otherwise minimal use of flashbacks, it rarely suffers from a drop in quality. The artwork is where this adaptation really succeeds at standing out. The Matsuno brothers are distinct enough in appearance that it is possible to identify each of them visually, and the minor characters are all unique. The faces that many characters make are some of the best elements of the visuals. Characters will often make a menacing face towards another, and at other times will look pleadingly at a person who just does not care. Some of these faces can be truly hideous, but it can also be hilarious. There is a significant amount of slapstick comedy, and watching characters spontaneously combust or bash their heads into a something is more funny than it is horrific. Characters can often be seen bleeding from their heads, and they die from anything ranging from oxygen deprivation to nothing whatsoever. There is a lot of male nudity, although it is censored. There are also certain episodes that feature bishounen versions of the Matsunos, which typically play out like a bizarre reverse harem anime.
Audio
The music is effective, but the most memorable aspect of the music is the opening and ending songs. They are quite catchy, and the accompanying visuals are cool too. Unfortunately, presumably due to licensing issues, they are not subtitled, nor are textless versions included as extras. The voice acting is excellent throughout, and this is no surprise given that some of the biggest names in Japanese voice acting are present.
Overall
Mr. Osomatsu is brilliant in an insane kind of way. If you had one or more brothers growing up or went to a co-educational school, you can probably recognise some of the characteristics and behaviour that the Matsunos demonstrate. If not, this series might function as a good advertisement for all-girls schools; boys like this should be avoided at all costs in the real world. Its sheer ridiculousness and constant barrage of jokes, as well as the slapstick violence that sometimes even results in reversible death, combine to make it stand out as one of the funniest anime productions ever.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
NIS America has announced that they will no longer be able to release the paired games Touhou Genso Wanderer and Touhou Double Focus on their previously planned dates of February 7th in North America and February 10th in Europe. The company has announced that these games will now be releasing on March 21st in North America and March 24th in Europe.
At the time of the announcement the company did not state why this delay occurred but the games will still be available in the same form as before, with the retail PlayStation 4 versions including both games on separate discs in North America (Touhou Double Focus will be digital only in Europe) and the PS Vita versions being available digitally as separate purchases.
Koei Tecmo has announced that they are aiming to have Atelier Firis: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Journey released physically and digitally for the PlayStation 4, digitally on the PS Vita, and on PC through Steam on March 7th in North America and on March 10th in Europe.
To go along with this news the company also released a batch of new screenshots showing off various elements that will return in Atelier Firis as well as some new features such as how outfits will actually play a bit of a role this time around. You see, in-between settlements there are a plethora of different environments to discover, each with their own particular weather conditions that affect travel. Selecting the appropriate attire for each situation will grant Firis benefits and allow her to easily traverse these terrains.
The Snow Bright costume reduces the consumption of Life Points in icy cold conditions, while the Zealous Explorer gear aids travel through blistering heat. Outfits can have countless other effects such as accelerating movement speed, enhancing synthesis abilities or increasing the likelihood of finding high quality materials.
