It’s been two years since the award winning manga Gunslinger Girl ended, but today sees the return of the popular mangaka Yu Aida with his brand new series.
The manga 1518 focuses around a high school student council, it will be published in this years 37/38th issue of Big Comic Spirits alongside five other new series created by various mangaka. The double issue seinen magazine will be available all across Japan today; other new titles within the magazine include a series set in the Kamakura period and a comedy series created by horror mangaka Jun Abe.
This will be the first series Aida has created since gunslinger girl, which ran for 15 volumes in Dengeki Daioh magazine and was adapted into two anime series. Let us know what you think about Aidas’ return into manga, and what you think the series is going to be like by leaving a comment down below.
Although the more recent releases of Fairy Tail in the West have been focusing on a filler arc, FUNimation has already announced the English voice actors for two important characters that will appear as enemies once the series returns to the canon storyline with the beginning of the Grand Magic Games.
The characters I am speaking of are Sting and Rogue, as well as their cat companions Lector and Frosch. These characters will begin appearing in Part 13 of the series and Michael Jones will be voicing Sting while Garret Storms will be voicing Rogue. As for the cats, Marti Etheridge will be voicing Lector and Dawn Bennett will be voicing Frosch.
This weekend at Otakon FUNimation revealed a number of new English voice actors who will be joining the rest of the already established and newly announced cast members for A Certain Magical Index II’s English dub.
The newly revealed voice actors and their characters, many of which appear in the second half of this season, can be found below:
Andrew Chandler – Acqua
Marcus Stimac – Amata Kihara
Barry Yandell – Biagio Busoni
Bob Magruder – Pope Matthai Reese
Patrick Seitz – Ritoku Komaba
Clifford Chapin – Shiage Hamazura
George Manley – Terra
Leah Clark – Vasilisa
Kara Edwards – Vento
As for the series itself, FUNimation is planning on releasing the first half of the second season in a Blu-ray and DVD combo pack on October 14th.
Aksys Games has announced that they are planning on releasing Arcana Heart 3: Love Max for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita in North America on September 23rd. While the title will be available both digitally and at retail, the retail version of the game will feature a reversible cover that features three of the characters in fighting poses on the main side, while the alternate side will feature the same three girls wearing cheerleading outfits.
Additionally those who are waiting for the game in Europe can expect NIS America to release the title in that region sometime later this year. Alongside this announcement came a number of new screenshots which can be found below.
Recently Compile Heart released a trailer for Omega Quintet that focuses entirely on some of the performances that players will be able to see in this idol based RPG. The trailer can be found below and is four minutes long, focusing on performances that players will be able to put together themselves with the game’s “Promotion Video System.”
Some of the songs shown in the video are “Eureka,” “Move Menter,” “Complex: Crescent,” as well as two others, all of which feature unique costumes and dance moves. Currently Omega Quintet is set to be released on the PlayStation 4 in japan on September 18th.
As we already know, in Great Edo Blacksmith players will take control of a blacksmith that only has one year left to live. With such a limited amount of time left in his life, the player will spend their time fighting enemies, gathering materials, forging weapons, and making money in an effort to make one of three beautiful women fall in love with him.
In the first character focus video, which can be found below, the side-pony girl Kiyohana is highlighted where she reveals that she is a bit scatterbrained but also suffers from an illness. Currently Great Edo Blacksmith is set to be released in Japan on November 27th and while no Western plans for the game have been revealed, NIS America will probably be keeping a close eye on the title.
Overview Four years ago NIS America surprised anime fans in North America by announcing that the company would start releasing English subtitled anime series in the region. The first series that the company released happened to be Toradora! and now NIS America has revisited that release by doing something they have never done before, release an English dub for an anime. With this new English dub and an upgrade to Blu-ray, the company has released the entire series in one complete premium edition. How does NIS America’s first foray into English dubbed anime turn out? Let’s find out.
Story Ryuji Takasu is a self-sufficient second year high-schooler who helps take care of his mother and is a bit of a neat freak. Despite being a good guy at heart, the eyes he inherited from his long-departed father gives him the outward appearance of a delinquent, causing many to fear him. Despite this he is best friends with Yusaku Kitamura, the vice president of the student council, and has developed a crush on fellow classmate Minori Kushieda.
On the start of his second year of school, everything seems on the up and up until Ryuji encounters Taiga Aisaka, a diminutive high schooler whose reputation for having a temper as short as she is has earned her the reputation of the palm top tiger. After Taiga makes a fated mistake of slipping a confession letter, sans letter, into Ryuji’s bag the two learn that they each happen to have a crush on the others’ best friend.
With Taiga trying to ask out Ryuji’s friend Yusaku after a failed confession from him a year prior, she enlists the help of Ryuji to help her get close to him and also overcome her bouts of shyness whenever he is near. Along with his help comes Taiga’s influence with the always confident and highly athletic Minori, Ryuji’s crush. Since Taiga and Minori are the best of friends, the more time he spends helping Taiga the better he thinks he will look in Minori’s eyes. As such the two begin to work together to help one another, becoming allies of love in a rather interesting fashion.
Now there are many types of romantic comedies out there and while there are formats that are tried and true there are also those that step outside the box and become something great and Toradora! is the latter. Having characters that play off one another well is a must and Toradora! has that in spades thanks to the classic tsundere nature of Taiga, who has trouble taking care of herself sometimes, being paired with her ambitious and capable best friend Minori and assisted by the reliable and good-hearted Ryuji. Add in Yusaku’s knowledge and calm attitude as well as his childhood friend Ami, an ex-model with an attitude, and you have a great core cast.
What really matters though are the emotions these characters can draw out of the viewer as they go through the various issues that arise in the series outside of the romantic hijinks. In the first half of the series the drama is limited, though we see how Taiga’s family life is harsh thanks to issues with her father, a trait shared by Ryuji, and it only comes to a head halfway through the series as he begins to try and enter Taiga’s life once again, forcing conflict on the group who have conflicting opinions on what Taiga should do.
There is a lot of emotion on display throughout the second half of the series as all of the emotional and romantic developments that have been occurring throughout the series begin to culminate as some characters realize that their feelings may cross with the feelings of their friends and conflict will surely come to the forefront if any of them try to make a move to upset the status quo. The way that Toradora! handles the emotional aspect of the love these characters feel is the best I have seen as it all feels realistic and has a lasting impact on the viewer. Even though some things are handled a bit haphazardly in the last couple of episodes, the series ends with a satisfying, albeit a bit rough, conclusion.
Visuals Despite being produced back in 2008, Toradora! has held up pretty well for its age with some memorable character designs for its colorful cast. Whether it is Ryuji’s facial expressions or the way that Taiga acts, there is a lot of charm in the artwork of the series. The backgrounds are fairly standard for a series set mostly in a high school, but the mundane nature of these backgrounds is changed up thanks to numerous clothing changes throughout the anime.
That being said, there are still occasional slumps in the character artwork, with some odd looking faces and expressions appearing from time to time. There is a noticeable jump in quality thanks to the Blu-ray treatment that Toradora! has been given for this release, with every color having a bit of extra pop and each character design looking crisper than what is found on the DVDs included in the release, making it a worthwhile visual upgrade for those who might have picked up the series before.
Audio Now one of the key aspects with this new Toradora! release is the fact that NIS America has actually provided an English dub with the series, their first ever. That being said, they sure have done an amazing job with the English voice cast. Finding a voice actress that can match Rie Kugimiya’s tsundere voice work is a hard task to accomplish but Cassandra Lee Morris has done an excellent job filling her shoes by replicating the character perfectly in English.
Along those same lines, the rest of the main voice cast is handled impressively well with the entire English dub working very well with the series as a whole. While some may still choose to stick with the Japanese voice track, they will be missing out on the chance to hear these characters in English. It is worth noting, and also for the best, that the Christmas song in episode 19 is still presented in the original Japanese.
The rest of the music in Toradora! is strictly background music which works well for the most part but doesn’t stand out very much. Both opening themes “Pre-Parade” which is sung by the Japanese voice actresses of Taiga, Ami, and Minori, and “silky heart” by Minori’s voice actress, are incredible opening themes while the endings “Vanilla Salt” and “Orange” serve as suitable closing themes and are again performed by the Japanese cast of the series.
Extras With this release of Toradora! NIS America has done something a bit different from their standard premium edition. Instead of the oversized chipboard slipcase, the release is contained in a smaller slightly-larger than a DVD style sized slipcase of the same material where the large disc set and hardcover art book are contained. The on-disc features include clean versions of the opening and ending themes, four Toradora! SOS! bonus shorts that have been given English voicetracks, promo material, Ami’s Impersonations, and an OVA that takes place somewhere in the middle of the series.
The art book is sixty eight pages and an interesting thing to note is that inside cover features fuzzy tiger stripes. The majority of the art book is an “Art Gallery” featuring full page illustrations of the characters in various situations. The other features include a few interviews with the original cast, an episode rundown for the bonus OVA, and character details including an extra look at some of their outfits.
Overall It isn’t often that you will hear me say that an anime is a must watch… but ToraDora! is a must see for those who have any interest in romantic comedies or even anime in general. This series takes its fun cast of characters and delivers a memorable and lasting experience full of humor and emotion. With this upgrade to Blu-ray and accompanied by a superb sounding English dub, Toradora!’s new English release is a must have.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Atlus USA has revealed that they are planning on releasing Persona 4 Arena Ultimax for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in North America on September 30th. As previously announced, those who pre-order the game will be given an inflatable bop bag that looks like Teddie as well as a set of Tarot cards.
It is also worth noting that for one week after release, both Marie and Adachi will be available as free character DLC. After that they will cost a yet unannounced price. Currently it is unknown if the recently revealed Margaret will be given the same treatment.
As you likely already know if you’ve been following the game, Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1 will feature not only a revamped storyline and better graphics, but also a slew of new gameplay options when it is released on the PS Vita.
Idea Factory International recently released four videos showing off some of the new gameplay options available in the game, including the Disc Development system where players can create various discs to add extra status effects or damage reductions/increases to their characters, the Remake system that allows players to create “plans” that modify the game slightly such as adding new dungeons, creating harder monsters, or changing items, and the EXE Drive/EX Finishers which are special moves that can be performed when the player fills up their EXE Drive Gauge.
There’s always sense of mystery whenever an original anime title has been announced, especially if the only thing you’re given is a title. P.A. Works recently created a website for their upcoming anime Shiro Bako showing the title, month of premier (but no date confirmed) and a link to the official twitter page.
Although no details about the synopsis or characters have been given the anime will be directed by Tsutomu Mizushima, his previously directed works include Another, Blood-C and Girls und Panzer. At the time of writing no further information has been announced, but P.A Works will be revealing more about the anime at Comiket 86 which will be held next week in Tokyo. This will be the second original anime produced by P.A. Works this year, the first of which being Glasslip which is currently airing this season and is being streamed on Crunchyroll.
Keep your eyes on this site for more information on Shiro Bako and let us know what you think about Glasslip by leaving a comment down below.
