Fans of Viz Media‘s Shojo Beat label will be happy to hear that the company has released a new manga series today called Black Rose Alice with the first volume being available for purchase both in print for $9.99 in the US or $12.99 in Canada or digitally for $6.99. The series has more than six volumes under its belt and Viz is planning on releasing a new English volume on a bi-monthly basis.
The story of Black Rose Alice takes place in early 1900s Vienna where a man named Dimitri Lewandowski is killed in an accident only for his corpse to become the host of seeds from a vampire master. Although he insists that nothing has changed once he awakens, when people begin to die around him he is forced to accept the horrible truth.
The author and the artist for Black Rose Alice is the award winning Setona Mizushiro and Viz Media’s editor for the series, Pancha Diaz, had the following to say about Black Rose Alice:
“Black Rose Alice is a dark supernatural romance with a suspenseful storyline that puts its own unique twist on the vampire genre. After a prologue set in a beautifully rendered 1900s Vienna, the series flashes forward to modern Japan where Dimitri, who has become a fully developed vampire, appears in the dreams of a heartbroken woman to present a sinister proposal – he will save her fatally injured love, for a terrible price!”
Think of everything wrong with Mario Kart 8. It’s probably not a long list but there are most likely some minor annoyances in there. Luckily for the 1.2 million plus Mario Kart 8 owners a free update is inbound and includes solutions to many of the problems fans have been complaining about since release. New features in the update will include:
Drivers will now have the option to display the course map on the TV screen during races.
Users will be able to check out statistics such as their total number of coins accumulated, win-loss record from online play, and their most frequently selected character overall.
Users will be able to change options of others’ Mario Kart TV downloaded highlight reels, such as changing the focus to a new character or event.
The order of the menu after each race will be changed to “Next Race”, followed by “Watch Highlight Reel”.
The game will remember the most recent customised kart settings that were selected, even if the Wii U system is powered down.
Improvements to stability of connection in online play to enhance the user experience.
To coincide with this update, some free DLC will also be available. In a partnership with Mercedes Benz three new cars will be available for the cast to race in including the 1957 300 SL Roadster, the 1934 W 25 Silver Arrow Legendary formula one racing car and the new SUV from Mercedes called the GLA. All cars come in classic Mercedes Grey but one screenshot showing Peach driving a red 300 SL have revealed other colours will be available. The DLC and update will be launching worldwide on the 22nd anniversary of the Mario Kart series on August 27th. A special worldwide Mercedes Cup Tournament will also be running to celebrate the update and anyone can enter as long as they download the Mercedes DLC.
This is not the first Nintendo has teamed up with a real company for in game content. In Mario Golf: World Tour for the Nintendo 3DS players could earn exclusive Callaway golf gear by participating in special tournaments. You can watch the trailer showcasing the DLC below.
If you happen to be a fan of the Vampire Knight series but never felt like picking up the anime or didn’t feel like buying each of the anime volumes then we have some good news for you. Viz Media has recently released the complete collection of the series in one DVD set.
For the price of $44.82 fans of the series can pick up the entire twenty six episode series, including all of Vampire Knight and Vampire Knight Guilty. The release also comes with an “O-card box art” that features embossed stamping and an illustrated chart showing the relationships between all of the key characters in the series.
For those who are unaware of the series, Vampire knight follows the story of Yuki Cross, a girl who cannot remember anything that happened to her earlier than ten years ago when she was saved from a vampire by the pure blooded vampire Kaname Kuran. Years later Yuki and her partner are Guardians at the Cross Academy where humans and vampires attend the school in seperate Day and Night classes. However when Yuki’s memories of her bloody past begin to emerge, darkness begins to grow ever closer to the academy.
Overview Creating an anime for a popular card game or one that is set to be released after the series airs has become quite popular in Japan. However before these type of anime were used as a way to promote a game, numerous card based anime were created back in the 1990s with Cardcaptor Sakura standing out as one of the best. The latest card based anime to make its way overseas comes in the form of Fantasista Doll from Sentai Filmworks, but does the series have enough of a story to stand on its own?
Story Uzume Ono spent her childhood playing card games on a competitive level to such an extent that she managed to become a champion despite only playing for fun. Since then she has grown up to be a standard middle-school student who enjoys tennis but is something of a pushover who has trouble speaking up for herself.
One day on the way to school, a strange person slips an odd device into Uzume’s bag and then later that day a stranger begins stalking her within the school. As she tries to escape whoever is chasing her, Uzume hears an unknown voice speaking to her from thin-air that begins walking her through a process that sounds oddly like a registration. Once this is done, a blonde girl appears and helps Uzume fight against the mysterious assailant, defeating the girl who then turns into a card.
The blonde fencer introduces herself as Sasara, one of four digital beings called Fantasista Dolls that have been given to Uzume when the stranger slipped the summoning device into her bag. These Fantasista Dolls now see Uzume as their new master but although each girl has a one-note personality, they all carry the weight of being abandoned by their previous master with no real memory of what happened to them.
To make matters worse, an organized group of card holders has placed a target on Uzume, promising to grant the wish of any person capable of defeating Uzume and taking away her Dolls. As such, Uzume must learn to not only battle against those wishing to steal away her newfound friends, but also try and grow close to these strange Dolls that have been placed in her life.
That being said, Fantasista Doll is something of a fluffy and light-hearted story that has a few moments of drama but only really finds a solid story arc in the final three episodes. Up until that point Fantasista Doll follows the standard formula of focusing on one of Uzume’s new dolls each episode, giving viewers a closer look at their personality and their feelings about being abandoned and accepted by Uzume while also featuring a, usually inept, opponent trying to take down Uzume’s dolls.
There are some minor story arcs interlaced within these standard episodes that help them from being one-note affairs and actually make the story something a bit more than a friendship building exercise as one of the first enemies Uzume encounters not only treats his Dolls cruelly, but one happens to be an old friend of Uzume’s Doll Shimeji, as well as the slow development of an opponent to a frenemey to an ally.
Despite being a predictable series at its core, the way that the Dolls’ pasts and worries are handled, the lack of seriousness in many of the battles, and the constant bonding between Uzume and her Dolls creates a heartwarming experience as viewers follow Uzume through each episode before the series takes on a serious tone for the finale. Although a number of the larger questions about the existence of the Dolls remain unanswered, Fantasista Doll pulls itself together for an emotional ending that wraps the story up nicely while also capitalizing on Uzume’s growth and the bonds she has made with her friends.
Visuals If there is one thing that can be said about the artwork in Fantasista Doll is that the studio really wanted to try and make every Doll in Uzume’s group look as cute as possible. Each Doll is presented with a wide-range of colors and nicely detailed outfits while the normal human characters are also presented in a cutesy style. One nice touch in Fatasista Doll is the way that all of Uzume’s Dolls can project themselves on surfaces such as desk tops or papers, giving them some extra time for comedy and a unique presence.
Even some of the battles are presented as comedic sequences since almost any time a trap card is used, the effect places the opponent in a funny situation. That being said, while the combat is fairly impressive looking when the series begins, things begin to feel less elaborate as the story progresses and there is a noticeable drop in quality at times both in and out of the battles, with some of the slice of life sequences having a very basic presentation and some odd looking facial expressions.
Audio It is worth noting that Fantasista Doll has been given a subtitle only release in North America, leaving the Japanese voice track as the only option for viewers. This isn’t much of an issue however as the Japanese voice actresses all fit their roles rather nicely and a number of them have had quite a lot of experience playing main roles in the past.
The background music in the series is unfortunately very standard and because of this it tends to be forgettable. On the other hand, the opening theme “Ima yo! Fantasista Doll” is a nice energetic opener that even has a lead-in like some classic anime series used to. The ending theme “Day by Day” has an old feeling to it and works well considering the feel of the series, and it is a nice touch that both the opening and ending are performed by the voice actresses of Uzume’s dolls.
Extras With Sentai Filmworks release of Fantasista Doll: Complete Collection there are only a few bonus features to speak of and they very standard. There is a clean version of both the opening and ending theme, trailers for other Sentai Filmworks anime, and disc credits.
Overall Fantasista Doll is a delightfully fluffy series filled with comedic moments and friendship with some slightly serious moments giving the series form of character development and occasional drama. There are some nice ideas within Fantasista Doll and it finds a satisfying and emotional conclusion, but this is an anime that will not be surprising many viewers who will probably remember the series as a formulaic but fun and light-hearted diversion and nothing more.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Let’s face it, the October release schedule this year is insane. However it seems that with every week that passes a couple of games jump from October to either being released earlier or delayed until 2015. The latest game to be given the delay treatment happens to be 2K and Turtle Rock Studios’ Evolve.
Originally the title was meant to be released on October 21st but now the company is planning on releasing it on February 10, 2015, another month that is also filling up quickly with high profile releases. The reason 2K gave for the delay is to give the developers more time “to fully realize the vision for Evolve and meet our collective standards of creative excellence.”
Remember back in June how Atlus put up a teaser website that almost everyone guessed would be for an Etrian Odyssey game? Well today the cat was let out of the bag and it has been announced that an Etrian Odyssey II remake is in the works and is set to be released in Japan this Winter.
This game is titled Etrian Odyssey II Untold: The Knight of Fafnir and Famitsu has given us a look at the game’s five main characters and some of the dungeons thanks to the preview trailer that you can check out below. It is also worth noting that while details are still scarce, it appears that the hero can transform into a demon.
It has been revealed in this week’s issue of Famitsu that Guilty Gear Xrd: Sign will be released in Japan on December 4th for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. Why should you care? Well back in May Aksys Games announced that they were planning on releasing the title in the West in Fall 2014.
This means that either Guilty Gear Xrd: Sign will now be missing its current Western release window and either will be given a worldwide release in December or might be hitting North America and Europe early in 2015. That means that some fighting game fans may wish to import the title and for those importers, it is worth noting that all first run copies of the game in Japan will include the game’s original soundtrack.
This week’s issue of Famitsu has revealed that Margaret will be added as a post-launch downloadable character for Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. Details about her fighting style are scarce but it has been revealed that she will use three different Personas in battle: Yoshitsune, Cu Chulainn, and Ardha.
We can expect more details on Margaret’s fighting style to be revealed soon and it will be interesting to see if she will be released as free DLC in the West like Marie will be. Until then, Atlus USA is planning on releasing Persona 4 Arena Ultimax in North America sometime this Fall for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
Today Ubisoft has announced a brand new Assassin’s Creed game exclusively for last-gen consoles. It is called Assassin’s Creed: Rogue and it is set to be released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on November 11th. Assassin’s Creed: Rogue is being developed by Ubisoft Sofia and will bet set in the middle of the 18th century during the Seven Years War and will take place in various locations including North America, the frozen North Atlantic, New York, and more.
Players will be playing as a Templar named Shay Patrick Cormac who was betrayed by the brotherhood and is now an Assassin hunter. The debut trailer and screenshots for Assassin’s Creed: Rogue can be found below.
The 2014 Otakon is happening this weekend and Viz Media is bringing a number of events for fans of Sailor Moon and some of their other properties to enjoy. You see, while Otakon takes place from August 8th to the 10th, Viz will be hosting a Sailor Moon day on August 9th which will feature a cosplay gathering from 9AM to 10AM where cosplayers of all ages can don their Sailor Guardian outfits to create what Viz is hoping could be one of the largest Sailor Moon cosplay gatherings in North America.
There will also be the official premiere of two newly dubbed episodes at the event taking place during a panel that will be held from 12PM to 3PM featuring Charlene Ingram, the Senior Manager of Animation Marketing and the English voice actors for Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask, Stephanie Sheh and Robbie Daymond. Finally from 4:30PM to 5:30PM there will be an autograph session where fans will be able to pick up a full color poster of Sailor Moon and have it signed by Stephanie Sheh and Robbie Daymond.
Viz will selling some exclusive physical merchandise at the event and will be holding some additional panels during the event, details of which can be found below:
Friday August 8th
4:15 – 5:15PM Viz Media Panel
Join the Viz Media staff for a presentation and Q & A session all about the latest in manga and anime! Staff will be talking about the latest news, upcoming releases and other cool announcements from the publishing and animation teams. Free manga for attendees while supplies last!
Saturday August 9th
10:15 – 11:15AM Viz Media Animation Featuring Neon Alley
Find out all that’s new and awesome directly from the Viz Media animation team! Discover the inside story about upcoming releases, catch new announcements and the latest on the anime streaming service, Neon Alley. Bring all your anime questions, too because the Viz Media team will be there to answer them!
