Do you own a PlayStation 4? Wanna play games online this weekend? Well Sony has got you covered! Sony will be sharing the online-play benefits of PlayStation Plus to ALL of the current PlayStation 4 owners. That means you can get your beloved into Grand Theft Auto Online, or if you’re by yourself this weekend, maybe join a clan and take down the latest Destiny raids.
So the little free online weekend runs from 1700 AESTon Friday 13th February to 1700 AEST on Monday 16th February. After that if you want to keep playing, you will need to subscribe to a PS+ account, but don’t fret – doing so will net you a few downloadable games per month to keep you entertained.
Tecmo Koei are releasing custom Samurai Warriors themes for current generation handheld owners. Playstation Vita owners with a Japanese PSN account can now purchase a new Samurai Warriors custom theme as the popular series marks its 10th anniversary. Nintendo 3DS owners will also be treated to two custom themes (the 10th anniversary plus an extra Chronicles theme) that will be released on the 18th February through the Nintendo eShop.
The Playstation Vita anniversary theme will alter the home and start screens as well as including Samurai Warriors themed background music. The theme will cost 400 yen plus tax.
The anniversary theme for the 3DS will include a moving wallpaper, Samurai Warriors background music and available to purchase at a cheaper price of 186 yen plus tax. The Chronicles theme is the same price but all changes are related to the Chronicles game.
Fans of Samurai Warriors 4 (reviewed here) should take note of Samurai Warriors 4-II which releases today (11th February) in the Japanese markets for Playstation 3, 4 and Vita owners. This is a revised remake of the original ‘4’ game with an added character to the roster. A treasurebox edition is also available for purchase with a few notable extras, including a soundtrack CD and a photo frame with a clock.
VIZ Media has announced the acquisition of two new shojo manga series for their already impressive catalog. The new series are Idol Dreams by Arina Tanemura and QQ Sweeper by Kyousuke Motomi. VIZ plans on releasing the titles in their Shojo Beat magazine, in print, and digitally on the VIZManga online site. Picking up two new titles is common for VIZ to do for Shojo Beat.
Idol Dreams will release in November 2015. The title follows an office worker named Chikage Deguchi who seeks to relive her youth. She takes an experimental drug which makes her appear to be 15 years old again, and she becomes determined to do everything she didn’t accomplish in her youth.
QQ Sweeper is to debut in October 2015 and follows a ‘cleaning expert’ of a highschool, Kyutaro Horikita. This protagonist partners with a new transfer student, Fumi Nishioka, in order to clean the school of spirits.
Both titles will release for $9.99 (USD) / $12.99 (CAN) per volume, as well as in Shojo Beat and online.
VIZ Media has announced that the upcoming sequel to Boys Over Flowers will release simultaneously in English as the Japanese release. Shueisha is releasing Boys Over Flowers 2 on the Jump+ digital manga platform as a bi-weekly digital serialization starting on February 15th. VIZ will be releasing the English translated version on February 14th on the VIZManga platform free for a limited time.
The titles will also be available via Comixology and from Amazon for the Kindle platform. While this isn’t the first release of digital manga by VIZ this represents is an unprecedented change in the manga industry, and I’m excited for it. One of the major things holding the industry back has been the ‘scanlation’ groups, who are able to get English versions of manga up near simultaneously with Japan. This shows a move to try to build up more business via a legal platform and more importantly, growth in the industry to where they can afford to do so.
Japanese light-novels are frequently adapted into anime series. Such animated adaptations are typically produced just to serve as an advertisement for the original work. These adaptations sometimes end up running for multiple seasons, usually with a multiple-year break in the middle, but most of them only run for a single season. Some of them do not even get a full 12 or 13 episode season, however, such as Problem Children Are Coming from Another World, Aren’t They?, which only received a 10-episode adaptation and a single OVA episode. Many adaptations waste the potential they had, but despite its short run-time, is this one worth watching?
Story
Izayoi Sakamaki, Asuka Kudou and You Kasukabe are from three different locations on Earth in space and time. These children possess incredible psychic powers and are quite bored with their individual lives. When they are transported to Little Garden, a place where supernatural powers are more common, they find themselves developing an interest in exploring this new world and contributing to the betterment of its society.
Black Rabbit is the person that summoned the three ‘problem children’ to Little Garden, and she explains to them how Gift Games work. Along with Jin Russel, she gets the group to help the community of No Name out. In order to play a Gift Game, a person must offer a Gift in return. These games can be extremely high-stakes, and a game issued by a Demon Lord resulted in No Name losing its name, flag and much of its land. Izayoi takes it upon himself to defeat many powerful enemies, including the Demon Lords. Despite their large egos and tendencies to mess with Black Rabbit, especially Izayoi, who constantly makes inappropriate sexual comments aimed at Black Rabbit, the three ‘problem children’ are impressively strong and capable of effectively strategizing against even the most devious enemies.
The use of real legends, mythology and historical details adds to the depth of the series, even if it does not make much sense for the inhabitants of Little Garden to know so much about Earth’s history and tales. Those familiar with Greek mythology will recognise the Helm of Invisibility worn by Perseus in real-life and by the character Perseus in this series, who happens to be the leader of a community of the same name. Many people will be familiar with the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, whether that is because of other anime or not, and it is fundamentally important to the plot. Instead of simply telling the original story, or recreating it in some way, the writers adapt it for their own purposes. The end result is an emotional story that helps end the season on a high note. It is also at this point where the supernatural elements of the series feel more believable than at any point prior in the series.
Clearly, the original creator of the series was not afraid to borrow details from all types of fiction. There seem to be parodies of other Japanese series, for example. You’s male calico cat is one such example, as it is apparently quite rare to come across a male calico cat in real life, as mentioned in a certain fan-favourite series. Another apparent reference to anime is with Dean, the mecha that Asuka controls. All it can do is say its own name, which may remind viewers of a certain long-running franchise. There are lots of little references throughout the series, so observant viewers may notice a reference to something they are familiar with.
Visuals
The series looks great. Of particular note is the detail that went into the visual representation of Little Garden, a rather beautiful world that has been ravaged in certain areas. The character designs are not particularly unique, but it is easy to tell the characters apart. Fan-service in the main season is surprisingly tame, visually speaking, as the Thousand Eyes Floor Master Shiroyasha has placed a spell on Black Rabbit that makes it physically impossible to see her undergarments. She also forces her to wear somewhat revealing clothing, much to the enjoyment of Izayoi, but this is never taken too far in comparison to other anime series, at least.
Audio
Music can be fairly hit-and-miss with straight-up adaptations of light-novels or manga series. Fortunately, this series features background music composed by the talented Shiro Hamaguchi, a composer many anime fans will be familiar with. The expectations on his music for this series are high, and he certainly meets those expectations. He is as skilled as ever at creating music for all kinds of situations, and his music always adds to the atmosphere of the show instead of feeling like it is there simply because it can be. One thing to note is that background music is used abundantly throughout the series; periods of musical silence rarely last for even 30-seconds, an unusual practice for a Japanese production.
The theme songs are typical anime fare: decent pop songs with lyrics that are mostly relevant to the series. The song lyrics are subtitled, however one of the insert songs remains un-subtitled, likely due to a rights issue. One issue is present with the romaji transcription of the opening song’s lyrics, but this can be easily ignored by those with no knowledge of the Japanese language.
The dubbing work by Sentai Filmworks is excellent this time; the entire voice cast is perfectly suited to their roles. The script is not as faithful to the original as Sentai’s dub scripts usually are, though, so it comes as no surprise that the ADR script was written by Josh Grelle, a person who has worked with FUNimation on many of their less-faithful dubs. Plot details are not altered, but plenty of colloquialisms make their way into the script, making it feel more westernised than it should. The OVA episode is also dubbed into English.
Extras
There are several on-disc extras included with this release. The textless opening and ending animation sequences are included on the first disc. Episode 10 has a special ending sequence, however the textless version of it is not included. The bumpers, Blu-ray spots, TV spots, promotional video and OVA episode are included on the second disc. This OVA episode does not further the plot much, as is typical of OVAs like this one, but it is entertaining nonetheless and a good incentive to purchase the home video release. Potential buyers should note before buying this series that the OVA features girls being covered in milk and dirt in an inappropriate sexual manner, girls being molested by tentacle monsters, girls hypnotised into wearing extremely revealing loincloths, acid rain that eats away at the clothing of everyone present, including Izayoi, and more. Given the tendency of the series to go overboard with the perverted sexual references, this shameless female sexualisation is not particularly surprising, but a disturbing disappointment nonetheless considering that the OVA could have been spent exploring the world of Little Garden and its inhabitants more deeply without treating the female characters as nothing more than sexual objects.
Overall
Problem Children Are Coming from Another World, Aren’t They? is an enjoyable series for the most part. Despite its short length, it is able to explore its characters and its world just enough to keep things interesting. Though it may take the sexual references and the female sexualisation in the OVA to a disturbing degree, the music and the clever plot make this one of the better anime adaptations in recent years. More importantly, the focus on actual historical events, myths and legends makes this series even more interesting and even educational to a certain extent. Fans of fantasy and supernatural series will likely find something to enjoy in this series, but people who respect women will need to skip several of its scenes.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Come April, players all around the world will be able to get their hands on the next installment in Warner Bros. and Netherealm Studio’s epic, violent Mortal Kombat franchise; Mortal Kombat X. Well, to get everybody warmed up, the developers have taken a break from character reveals in order to put up a short little video that takes a look behind the scenes at some of the development choices and game mechanics that players will be button mashing their way through in just a few months time.
The video is pretty insightful and definitely worth a look if you are an M.K. fan, so make sure you check it out below and let us know your thoughts in the comments section.
Last year, Wizards of the Coast announced that they would be changing the way they produce and distribute Magic: the Gathering. One of the biggest changes was that they would be doing away with the traditional yearly Core Set, with this year being a fond farewell to the time-honored tradition.
Well, Wizards are certainly going out in style, and have announced that the final Magic: The Gathering Core set will be titled Magic Origins and will detail the lives of some of the most popular Planeswalkers of the franchise before their spark ignited and they were ordinary mages.
Not much is known about the set other than the fact that it will center around Jace, Chandra, Liliana, Gideon and Nissa before and after they got their world-hopping powers.
Rarely are any colorful 3D platforming games released under a name that is not Nintendo and one of the companies that used to dominate that market, Rare, has long since shifted focus. Thankfully it seems that six former Rare staff members have joined up to create what they are calling a “worthy spiritual successor” to the fondly remembered platforming adventures they made in the past.
Forming a company called Playtonic Games, the staff includes “the bloke who programmed Donkey Kong Country, the character designer behind Banjo and Kazooie, and the artist who made your console fit to burst with lavish environments across a decade’s worth of adventure games. Other than the artwork up top, nothing has been revealed for Project Ukulele at the moment but Playtonic is saying that more will be revealed in Edge issue 277 which is set to be released in a couple of days.
Today Koei Tecmo had quite a lot to say and show off for Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea. First anyone who pre-orders the game in North America from GameStop will be given a DLC pack that includes a costume that looks like Escha Malier’s, a Flower Pareo costume, a Passion Dress, and the Atelier series music collection. Those who pre-order through Amazon will be given two exclusive compilations of music as an extra bonus
The company went on to release a large batch of gameplay clips showing off various elements of the game including introducing us to Shallotte Elminus, the second protagonist of Atelier Shallie. Shallote is a young poor alchemist with very little knowledge of the craft but is very eager to learn. Thankfully her devoted friend Miruca Crotze is an extremely skilled alchemist that is somewhat harsh with her words.
You can check out the trailers below and keep an eye out for Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea when it is released in North America on March 10 and in Europe on March 13.
It looks like Bethesda is going to make a big deal at E3 this year. I say that because the company has announced that they will be hosting their own E3 press conference for the first time ever. The press conference will be held in Hollywood, California on June 14th while E3 itself begins on June 16th and runs through June 18th.
The company has said they will reveal more details about how fans can possibly attend in the next few months but they have also assured fans that the event will be streamed on Twitch for everyone to see. Considering what Bethesda is currently working with and has worked on in the past, there is a good chance that DOOM might be shown off and we may even see the announcements of Dishonored 2, Fallout 4, some type of expansion for The Elder Scrolls Online, or perhaps something entirely new.
