Today Ubisoft has released a new CGI trailer, which can be found below, for Assassin’s Creed Unity which focuses on Arno racing against the clock as he tries to save a young noblewoman named Elise from being beheaded. He is doing this because Elise is going to be a character central to Assassin’s Creed Unity’s storyline, but it is odd because she is also a member of the Templars.
It seems that despite this conflict of interests, the two form an unlikely bond. Also revealed today is a new book from Oliver Bowden based on the game but this time told through Elise’s perspective.
Overview There are a number of franchises that are iconic to mecha anime fans and very few series have ever been as popular as those big names. Despite this there are still numerous mecha anime produced every year and each one tries to offer viewers something a little bit different. With Majestic Prince making its way to North America and featuring character designs reminiscent of some old school designs, does the series prove itself in Collection 1?
Story
Over a hundred years from now, humanity has mastered space travel and has expanded its reach to other planets, establishing colonies. While this was seen as a great success for humanity, everything changed when unknown lifeforms with advanced weaponry began assaulting human colonies. These aliens, called the Wulgaru, have been dominating the galactic battle and forcing the human fighters to retreat closer and closer to Earth.
As one would guess from the genre, children who have been genetically engineered with higher than normal abilities, are being trained to use large robots to battle against the enemy. Of these children, a group of five misfits have been put into Team Rabbits, also known as the Fail Five simply because they don’t work well with one another and have various personality quirks that make them unfit for most combat situations.
However when one of Earth’s bases in space coming under attack from the Wulgaru, the military calls upon Team Rabbits to make use of special mobile suits that have been outfitted with the JURIA system, a highly advanced system requiring the user’s DNA to sync with the mecha. With the use of the JURIA system, the pilot’s abilities are increased drastically as their survival instincts play a drastic role in the power of the suits and because of this they manage to drive back the Wulgaru, marking the first time that humanity has held back the alien force.
With this Team Rabbits becomes seen as the heroes of the military and despite still not working well as a team and messing up, they are placed to the forefront of the battle against the Wulgaru. Little do they know that there is more to this conflict than meets the eye and someone close to Team Rabbits’ leader’s past plays a role as well.
While Majestic Prince may sound like a fairly standard cookie-cutter mecha show, it sets itself apart decently with two things. The first being the fact that when the members of Team Rabbits were enlisted into the military, their memories were wiped clean leaving them with no past and no future other than potential death in combat. The second is that the main characters are mostly developed well and have personalities unique to the genre.
The team leader Izuru has a childlike obsession with heroes, comic books, and drawing, while second in command Toshikazu often suffers from stomach aches and ulcers due to how much pressure they are under, and Kei’s obsession with extremely sweet things and growing romantic interest all make these teenagers feel like fleshed out characters despite the fact that the other two members of the team, Tamaki and Ataru, serve as running jokes at this point. Add this to the fact that despite having issues co-operating with one another, the group still loves to do everything together creates a sense of family that these five no longer remember.
One thing that becomes an issue however is how inept the command structure is in the military. While it is true this is used to help show how strong the characters are despite a failure in command, it is really an issue that comes up far too often when idiotic commanders force the group into danger or put them in danger because they have no idea how to handle the situation and violently ignore any advice given to them, making one wonder how they even got into such a position in the first place.
Despite that and the issue that the series does feel a bit too unoriginal at times, Majestic Prince is an enjoyable viewing experience in this first half. With very effective humor that plays well off of the situations Team Rabbits is placed in and their own personalities, the various plot twists and revelations that occur throughout the first half, and plenty of action, Majestic Prince has a lot to offer in this first half.
Visuals Where the animation and artwork in Majestic Prince really shine are anytime that the crew enters into battle. Every space battle is amazingly animated and full of dazzling attacks and fluid combat with very detailed and somewhat unique looking mobile suits at use. It is worth noting that as the series goes on, the studio does recycle a few of the more impressive looking battle scenes of the pilots taking out random enemies.
The downside of the artwork in the series comes whenever the characters are simply going about their lives as the studio really takes shortcuts here in the form of basic or static looking animations and scenes with very little happening. While the retro style of the character designs is a nice touch, there isn’t a whole lot to set each character apart from one another and make them memorable outside of a few touches here and there, or in one case a certain female character’s gigantic chest changing size between scenes.
Audio With the release of Majestic Prince Collection 1 viewers will have the option of choosing between Sentai Filmworks’ English dub or the original Japanese voice work. The English cast for the series does an impressive job with fitting into their character archetype, especially in the case of Monica Rial as Tamaki and Houston Hayes’ portrayal of Izuru.
The sound effects in combat are impressively effective while the series’ background music works well though it does tend to be forgetful. That being said, there is a nice insert song used during an emotional moment in the middle of the release and the full opening theme is used to great effect in the first episode’s final minutes. The opening theme “Watashi wa Souzousuru” by Natsumi Kon serves as a nice opener and “Sayanara tte Iu” by Chiaki Ishikawa is a fitting ending theme.
Extras Unfortunately Majestic Prince: Collection 1 does not feature even the most basic of bonus content as the only on-disc offerings are trailers for other Sentai Filmworks releases and the disc credits.
Overall Majestic Prince Collection 1 does a good job in this first half trying to set itself apart from the rest of the mecha shows on the market by introducing a unique premise for its characters. Combine this with a properly paced story that has a few interesting revelations and secrets and pad it nicely with plenty of good humor and great looking action scenes and you have yourself a decent start to a series. Although the animation can leave something to be desired at times and the series does feel a bit too standard at times, Majestic Prince establishes itself decently enough in this first half and hopefully it will pay off in the second.
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To be honest, even though I have never tired all of the LEGO titles (there are a TON!), there is something rather special about the brand. Sure, we all love the creative aspects behind the name, but the characters – regardless of the franchise, all come off as equally charming and warm, no matter how cold their intentions may be.
LEGO Ninjago: Nindroids is now out for the 3DS, bring to life yet another installment of the much loved Ninjago series, with even more characters ages young and old can fill the shoes of. Due to the game’s release, a nice launch trailer has also blasted out via WB Games, showing players what to expect from the experience – which you should check out below. You can pick up LEGO Ninjago: Nindroids for the 3DS and Vita, so do so and get to smashing more blocks.
Legendary rock group X Japan has recently announced that tickets for its upcoming performance at New York’s Madison Square Garden will go on sale on August 1, 10:00am EDT. The date was previously thought to be July 25 but was changed according to band leader and drummer/pianist Yoshiki’s Twitter post.
The group has also released a trailer to coincide with the announcement which you can check out below.
Since the Yoshiki Classical Tour earlier this year it’s been known that X Japan are finally going to rock the world again this October 11. The last time the veteran visual kei band performed overseas was during their 2010 North American tour and again in 2011 across Europe, South America and Asia.
X Japan isn’t your ordinary Japanese rock band. They’re big. Really big. Since their formation in 1982, the glam metal rock stars have filled the 55,000 seat Tokyo Dome 18 times and sold over 30 million albums thanks to a unique blend of heavy, fast rock music and poignant ballads. Their crazy hair and make up is often mentioned as having pioneered Japan’s pop cultural scene.
After releasing five studio albums the band announced a shock hiatus in 1997 when vocalist Toshi announced his departure. A year later tragedy befell the group with the death of guitarist and cultural icon Hide. Although the band reunited a decade later with Sugizo from Luna Sea, their founding bassist Taiji also died in 2011.
Remarkably, X Japan has continued the dream of an overseas breakthrough and are currently working on a new, long-awaited album. Tickets for the Comic-Con sponsored concert at Madison Square Garden can be found on the Ticketmaster website. Are any of you going? Let us know!
In just a few short weeks, the heroes in a half shell will be crawling out of the sewers and onto silver screens for the first time in over a decade. As I am sure everybody knows, behind every great film is an awesome soundtrack, and today we found out just how kick-ass the TMNT soundtrack is really going to be. Artists: Juicy J, Wiz Khalifa, Ty Dolla $ign feat. Kill The Noise & Madsonik have all teamed up for the new Turtle’s theme song: Shell Shocked. The ensemble cast have managed to create a song and film clip that captures the essence of the Turtles, and combines that with an urban style that brings the whole franchise into the 21st century.
Paramount Pictures have uploaded a small sample of the video, which you can check out below. Do you think it fits the tone of the TMNT or do you still wish they just reused the old 1980s classic “Heroes in a Half Shell.” Let us know in the comments below and as always, make sure you stay tuned to Capsule Computers for all the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles news as it becomes available.
If you still haven’t seen the CGI wizardry that is Appleseed: Alpha this new clip released by Sony Pictures might convince you. Titled as “Open Your Eyes”, this little teaser of the full movie is packed with both ranged and close quarter combat. Be sure to see it below.
The futuristic animated film is set around special forces soldier Deunan and her bioroid partner Briareos who set off on a mission to find the lost city of Olympus in the backdrop of a post-World War 3 environment..
Based on the popular manga by Shirow Masamune (Ghost in the Shell) and directed by Shinji Aramaki, the Appleseed reboot film is only days away from release, July 31 to be exact. We were given a snippet of a more quieter moment from the movie just a few days ago.
Predestination is a great, upcoming sci-fi thriller distributed by Pinnacle Films, starring Ethan Hawke (Before Sunset, Gattaca, Boyhood), Noah Taylor (Game Of Thrones, Shine) and breakout Aussie newcomer Sarah Snook (Not Suitable For Children), directed by Daybreakers co-writers and directors, the Spierig Brothers.
Do you want to see the film and meet the masterminds behind Predestination? We have three double-passes to give away to the Sydney Premiere of Predestination and live Q&A with the Spierig Brothers at Palace Verona, Wednesday, August 6th. Simply email your details along with 25 words or less about your why you would like to come to [email protected] by Sunday, August 3rd. Winners will be privately notified. Good luck!
Little Orbit have released a new teaser trailer for their upcoming sci-fi RPG, Falling Skies, which made quite the impression at the San Diego Comic Con 2014. The game follows seasons three and four of the hit T.V. series of the same title, with an action-packed storyline that takes players on the same journey as their favourite characters.
Falling Skies demands players to prepare for a new breed of war, with never before seen alien enemies, by building a resistance for an epic battle against the Espheni. The strategy game will be available this fall on PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, and can be pre-ordered from the official site here.
The Pokémon Company International has launched its official 2014 Pokémon World Championships website for fans to keep up with all the action & strategy from the event. The World Trading Card Game and Video Game Championships are taking place on August 16 and 17 in the nation’s capital Washington DC. If you didn’t receive an invitation to the event or it’s a bit too far to get to you are still in luck as the event will be live streamed on Twitch, featuring a full day of TCG and Pokemon X & Y matches on the first day, followed by all the finals action on the 17th. The full schedule is available below:
Saturday, August 16
14:00 BST – Opening Ceremony
14:30 BST – 22:00 BST – Pokémon Video Game Streaming
22:00 BST – 1:00 BST – Pokémon TCG Streaming
Sunday, August 17
14:00 BST – TCG Masters top 4
14:30 BST – 20:00 BST – Pokémon TCG Finals (Junior, Senior, and Masters Divisions)
20:00 BST – 23:00 BST – Pokémon Video Game Finals (Junior, Senior, and Masters Divisions)
23:00 BST – Closing Ceremony
The coveted world champion trophy from the 2013 championships
You can watch the live stream on Twitch.tv/Pokémon Live Player or just bookmark this article and head back here where the live stream is embedded below. If you want to know more about the World Championships then head to the newly launched official site by following the link. Readers might be interested to know that yours truly finished top 8 in the Australian nationals in Melbourne a couple of weekends ago and was recently offered an invite to attend myself as the 3rd and 4th place victors passed on the invite. Due to lack of funds it doesn’t seem like I will be able to participate either though, so make sure to get on the Twitch stream and cheer on your fellow countrymen as they fight for Pokemon glory!
Holy returning actors Batman! Back in the 1960s, Batman saw a massive surge in popularity and that was in no small part due to Adam West’s campy portrayal of the world’s greatest detective. Since then, he has become an icon of the character and the one man that many think of when they hear “Batman.” Well the man who popularised it all is making his triumphant return to the character in the upcoming Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham.
Not only will players be able to play through the game with Adam West providing the voice of Batman, but a veritable cornucopia of acting talent is joining the game. To give you a look at the incredible talent (and who they will be voicing) Warner Bros. have put up a small showcase trailer that you can check out below.
Are you as excited as I am to finally see Adam West kind of donning the cape and cowl once again? Let us know in the comments below, and as always make sure you stay tuned to Capsule Computers for all the Batman news as it becomes available.
