On the eighth day of Christmas, Madman announced the license to A Good Librarian Like A Good Shepherd (Dai Toshokan no Hitsujikai). AnimeLab will stream the series in 2015, and a home video release will follow at a later date.
Animated by Hoods Entertainment (Mysterious Girlfriend X, Fantatista Doll, If Her Flag Breaks and more), this is an adaptation of the eroge visual novel of the same name by August. FUNimation has been simulcasting the series with English subtitles for audiences in the USA, and the final episode is due to air on Christmas Eve. The series is described as follows:
Kyotaro Kakei is a shy student at a prestigious academy known for its massive library. The sole member of the school’s library club, Kyotaro’s always been better with books than girls – until a text message from the mysterious “Shepherd” hints that his fate will soon be changing. Life gets wild in a hurry after a vision allows Kyotaro to rescue Tsugumi, a beautiful girl who also received a text message from the “Shepherd.” Soon, Tsugumi announces her intentions to join the Library Club and, with Kyotaro’s help, make school life much more interesting! It doesn’t take long for a host of other pretty girls to follow Tsugumi’s lead and join the club in the hopes of spicing up their boring academy lives. But just who is this “Shepherd,” what does he or she have to do with the Library Club’s sudden popularity, and how in the world will Kyotaro survive being surrounded by all these girls!?
For the previous announcements from Madman’s Twelve Days of Christmas, read the article about them here.
Today Idea Factory International released a new gameplay trailer for Hyperdevotion Noire: Goddess Black Heart and this trailer happens to focus on the battle system of the strategy based RPG. As you can see in the video below, players will need to take advantage of the various unique stages and also work together with their team mates to create Lily Boosts to deliver large amounts of damage.
Also released are some new screenshots which show off various skills that some characters in Hyperdevotion Noire: Goddess Black Heart will be able to unleash. as for the game itself, currently Hyperdevotion Noire is set to be released on the PS Vita in North America and Europe in early 2015.
Sony Clause is bringing some early Christmas gifts to PlayStation 4 owners in Australia. The services range in price, with several being absolutely free. The following fourteen new entertainment services are now available for PlayStation 4:
PLUS7
ABC iView
Quickflix
SBS ON DEMAND
Foxtel Play
YouTube
MUBI
Plex
Dailymotion
Gamereactor
IGN for PlayStation
Qello HD Concerts
VidZone
WWE
Michael Ephraim, Managing Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Australia said, “Not only is PlayStation the best place to play this Christmas, it’s the home of leading on-demand content and entertainment services. We are delivering our players a host of exceptional home grown and international TV programs to catch-up on as well as additional ways to enjoy music and movies, just in time for the holidays!”
Earlier this year Viz Media announced that they had acquired the license to release Jaco The Galactic Patrolman in North America and now they have announced when fans of the legendary Akira Toriyama can expect the first and only volume of his latest manga to be released in English.
Viz is planning on releasing Jaco The Galactic Patrolman on January 6th on both digital marketplaces and in print. The volume will be printed under Viz’s Shonen Jump imprint and will cost $9.99 U.S. / $12.99 CAN while the digital versions will be priced at only $6.99.
For those unfamiliar with the one volume series, Viz has provided the below story description:
Retired scientist Omori lives alone on a deserted island while continuing his research into time-travel. His quiet life is interrupted when galactic patrolman Jaco crash-lands and decides to move in with him. This agent from space claims to be elite, but sometimes it can be a little hard to believe. Can Jaco get along with the old man long enough to save the earth from a dangerous threat?
Sentai Filmworks has just announced that they have rescued the license to She, The Ultimate Weapon. The TV series was previously released across four volumes in 2004 and in a complete collection in 2005 by Viz Media. The two OVA episodes were then released by Viz Media in 2006. Sentai Filmworks will be releasing the series on home video release sometime in the future.
It is not clear if there will be a Blu-ray release for the series, but given that there is no Blu-ray release in Japan, there is a possibility that this will be a DVD-only release. It is also unclear if the existing English subtitles and audio will be used or if an all new translation and English dubbed version will be produced for this release.
Adapated from Shin Takahashi’s manga and animated by Gonzo, “this post-apocalyptic anime series details the hardships of war, fighting one’s inner demons and the true nature of the human spirit.”
A small grey market industry has cropped up for gamers located in certain regions where digital PC games are priced significantly lower than the rest of the world. People have been purchasing non-region locked copies of games and trading them for Team Fortress 2 keys, Amazon gift cards, and PayPal funds. The buyers often get games for up to 80% off, and the seller walks away with a tidy profit.
In the face of the crumbling Russian currency and the impending Steam sale, Valve is cracking down on they grey market sellers by restricting buyers from several countries from sending or trading gifts outside of their region. Regions affected includes Russia, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Phillipines, Turkey, Brazil, Mexico, Singapore, and many countries that were formerly part of the Soviet Union.
Aniplex of America has just announced their acquisition of the license to stream Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend. Episodes will begin streaming on the Aniplex Channel, Crunchyroll and Hulu beginning January 8, 2015. The exact time of the simulcast will be revealed at a later date. The series will be directed by Kanta Kamei (Oreshura, Nanana’s Buried Treasure) and will be produced by A-1 Pictures (Sword Art Online II, Blue Exorcist, Oreimo 2).
Aniplex provided a synopsis for this series:
One day, an otaku high school student Tomoya Aki has a fateful encounter with a girl amidst the beautiful cherry blossom trees. This meeting inspires Tomoya to design his very own “gal-game” (dating-simulation video game) featuring a heroine modeled after the girl he saw. In order to make his desire a reality, Tomoya must persuade a few eccentric “creators” such as the ace member of the art club, Eriri Spencer Sawamura and the school’s top student, Utaha Kasumigaoka to join his development team. Meanwhile, Tomoya is shocked to learn that the girl he idolized as his muse for this whole project was none other than his boring classmate, Megumi Kato!
But, this doesn’t dissuade Tomoya. He is determined to give Megumi a total make-over within his game and raise her to be the absolute girlfriend that every man desires…!
The press release does not state if the license includes the home video rights as well.
Independent games developer Squad has just released a huge new update for Kerbal Space Program. The game is a physics-based spaceflight simulator, which has garnered huge popularity for it’s physics engine, but has been somewhat lacking in other more traditional content. The game is available on PC, Mac, and Linux, though it is still in Early Access, and it takes a very different approach to spaceflight than games such as Star Citizen.
However, building on recent other updates, Squad has finally brought in more of a career and progression system, called the Kerbal Experience System; this lets a player’s Kerbal’s gain new specialized skills from missions. Some of the new skills that characters can learn and grow in, include advanced piloting, science gathering, and in-flight repairs to spacecraft.
The major new mode added involves a space center progression system; players start with just a basic space center now. Players must work to unlock the full compound, earning new building and unlocking new capabilities and bonuses as they play and succeed in more and more missions.
Another piece of exciting news, is that not only have modders been asked to implement their mods into the game’s official release, but Squad has partnered with the European Space Agency. The ESA has granted Squad use of their logo’s and branding in-game, which shows just how much of real-world orbital dynamics are in this game.
Other new features include:
A Retooled Craft Editor: Build crafts better than ever before with advanced part sorting and construction gizmos that allow players to place, offset and rotate the different parts on your craft.
Expanded Contracts: Brian “Arsonide” Provan, creator of the highly rated mod, “Fine Print,” has implemented and expanded his mod into the game, granting greater variety, depth and difficulty to the previously implemented contract system.
Biomes Everywhere: KSP-TV host, Alyson “Tanuki Chau” Young created new biomes for the game, bringing them to over 100 areas from which Kerbals can collect, store and send science data. The new biomes have been placed all across the universe, giving players bigger incentive to explore every inch of the game.
New Mk3 SpacePlane parts: Prolific modding community member, Christopher “Porkjet” Thuersam has overhauled and added to the popular collection of Mk3 parts that allow crafts to carry larger payloads.
Even as the game is still in it’s beta and early access mode, the title remains surprisingly difficult, with huge depth to those who look. I struggled for a long time to even get ships in orbit, but there are players who have learned to create full multi-module ships to travel into the depths of fictional space. The developers say that while the game is only just entering beta, they can see that they’re in the home stretch. The progression of this game has gone from a simple spaceflight simulator, to being a space agency simluator. The depth available now as compared to when I first started playing way back in the early days of alpha, is immense.
Kerbal Space Program is available on Steam for $30.00 (USD), and I highly recommend it if you haven’t tried it. Getting into space is a huge challenge, that you will enjoy; blowing up dozens of rockets (and poor hapless Kerbals) along the way is just icing on the cake. You can see a gameplay video below.
Hanabee Entertainment has just announced that they have acquired the license to distribute The Ambition of Oda Nobuna. The DVD and Blu-ray sets will be released on February 4, 2015. Both editions have a suggested retail price of $59.99 AUD, come with two discs, feature all 12 twelve episodes with options for both Japanese with English subtitles and English audio and feature the textless opening and ending animation as on-disc extras. Hanabee’s describes the series as follows:
Yoshiharu Sagara is about to get a blast from the past.
Stranded in what appears to be the Sengoku period, Yoshiharu’s understanding of Japanese history is about to be turned on its head. Not only is Oda Nobunga not male, one of the key figures in history has just been accidentally killed defending him.
Tasked with making history right, Yoshiharu comes under the command of the very female Oda Nobuna, leader of the Owari province. Can Yoshiharu aid this ambitious leader into achieving her goal or has he forever altered the course of history?
Fans who enjoyed other series involving time travel to the Sengoku period and fans who enjoy gender-flipped characters will likely find something to enjoy in this series. Pre-orders can be made here.
Last night we wrote about how Sekai Project had launched their Kickstarter campaign to bring all three of the Grisaia games to the West and now in under twenty four hours not only have they managed to reach their full funding goal of $160,000 but they have actually managed to reach their first stretch goal at $200,000.
This means that Sekai Project will begin localizing the spin-off game, Idol Magical Girl Chiruchiru ☆ Michiru, shortly after they finish releasing all three of the main games. It is worth noting that at the moment, the company has not mentioned how much this extra game will cost to add-on to your current pledge, but they did say that it will be available in both physical and digital forms with a collector’s box that will be adjusted to fit all four games.
Currently the Grisaia Trilogy Kickstarteris at $201,827 and the next stretch goal is at $240,000. At this point the company will not only release the games on the PC but they will also port them to Mac, Linux, and possibly the PS Vita.
Thanks to the outstanding support already given to the Kickstarter, Watanabe Akio, one of the artists behind the Grisaia games, drew up a special congratulations image that you can see below.
