It is that time of the year! E3 is upon us, and in this industry, this one three day period is ours. This week, Dustin Spencer, Travis Bruno, and Nathan Farrugia have come together to spend an hour speaking about the big event on CC Unplugged. The best and worst moments of the event are shared during this episode, as well as thoughts on what the next year has in store. What do we think of it all? Tune in to find out!
So grab a random Ubisoft rep for push-ups, tell your friends, and prepare to get UNPLUGGED!
Be sure to listen to our past CC Unplugged episodes here.
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In between the never ending line of fans clamouring for an autograph and jam packed panels, Michael and Lindsay Jones of Rooster Teeth were kind enough to take time from their chaotic stint at Supanova 2014 to sit down for an interview.
Being that the internet has been abuzz with news of the Jones wedding, we discussed how having such an intense fanbase affects a personal relationship. Turning to “business”, we also talk about some of the finer points of Achievement Hunting, voice acting (both anime and otherwise) and the all around tomfoolery people have come to expect from the staff of Rooster Teeth.
So check out the video below and enjoy our friendly little chat. Be sure sure to stick around ’til the end though for what can only be described as vamp gold.
Being known far and wide for countless roles, the interview centred around the “behind the scenes” of the voice acting world and the process of reading lines. We also spoke of the differences between dubbing an anime such as Naruto and reading for a Western produced series like Ben 10 for example, in which both Yuri and Tara have experience. Conversation also turned to Yuri and Tara’s relationship and whether or not being married has an influence on their professional lives.
Anyway, instead of reading what I have to say about the interview, why not see it for yourself by checking out the video below. You shan’t be disappointed.
Overview Everybody knows how it works in the world of fantasy. A Dark Lord overtakes the world, throwing all into chaos. But wait, there is one willing to stay the course, one who will risk it all to save the world. That’s great and all, but what happens when the villain is slain? When the youthful champion is done fighting for the greater cause, there is only one place for him to go: School.
Rogue Heroes really clean up
Story Some time in the not too distant past, the world was thrown for a loop when a portal to another world suddenly swallowed up a fair percentage of the populace. As those stolen away slowly found their way back home, it was soon discovered that they brought with them magical abilities. This naturally led to a shift in society and Babel was created. As a way to organise those who were now more than your average human, the system protects and nurtures their talents until they come of age and enter the world. Though their choices of employment are arguably limited.
But enough on the world at large, let’s focus the story at hand. Akatsuki Ousawa: Rogue Hero of Alayzard and overall scoundrel. After slaying the Dark Lord Garius and ridding the world of a great evil, the hero made tracks for his home world. Though he brought a little something extra with him: the Dark Lord’s daughter. As was the will of Garius himself, the one who slayed him was to care for his daughter. A weird premise to be sure, though one Akatsuki accepts regardless. Now, before you go believing this to be a serious anime series…don’t. Although it most certainly has elements of a more traditional fantasy series, it also features an amount of fanservice that can only be called…copious. As in “there’s a whole episode centred on bra fitting” kind of copious…followed by a beach episode…where they play strip tag. Ok, maybe copious is an understatement. But don’t say I didn’t warn ya.
Talk about first impressions…
Anyway, when they’re not busy drawing the eye of people both fictional and non, the characters of Aesthetica actually attend school. Though the series doesn’t focus on the day to day of a magic education, we do get to see the highlight reel, which mostly boils down to fights. Monsters, bullies, each other, you name it, they fight it. Though this makes sense considering the nature of Babel, the series never really focuses on this to any major degree. If anything, each fight serves merely as a reminder that Akatsuki is unfeasibly powerful. Though despite this, and for the sake of conflict, he still has a few willing to challenge his methods.
By far the most interesting element of this series is the existence of two worlds, worlds that both sides are fully aware of. As main characters are not the only ones privy to such fantastical knowledge, Aesthetica presents socities that have bbeen greatly impacted as a whole…or so they tell us. Unfortunately the series does not venture too far beyond the walls of Babel. Though the school is the main source of plot in this series, there is a much  larger world that is never truly explored. It’s honestly a shame because both this world and Aayzard
However with all this being said, the characters of Aesthetica are remarkably self aware. Amidst all the perversion and bravado, Akatsuki is incredibly compassionate towards Miu and all of his friends, hell even his enemies can’t help but respect the guy. Though the anime tends to skew towards his more jocular side, his bursts of depth are certainly high points in the series. Miu herself is also painfully aware of her situation, secretly struggling with the burden of her existence. But again, the series leans towards her awkwardness around Akatsuki more often than not.
Even Rogues save the damsel in distress
Visuals Due to its inherent nature as a fantasy series, Aesthetica features some degree of focus on visual variation. Naturally most of this is awarded to the more magical elements of the series, those these admittedly do follow some type of pattern. Spells are immediately recognisable by the glowing sigils that signal them. The particle effect summoning of weapons is also a nice touch, though the reason why Akatsuki’s is such a unique colour and takes longer to materialise is never specifically explored, though this is assumedly just a side effect of his tremendous power.
However the series main visual aspect is something that it proudly wears: fanservice. With a cast populated mainly by women and this being an anime, situations tend to devolve into bouts of wardrobe malfunctions and unabashed groping. As mentioned previously, you’d best come into this series expecting fanservice…because boy are you going to get it. Hell the series netted an R18+ rating for it.
Dramatic build up, one of the benefits of being a Hero
Audio Aesthetica itself features a solid dub cast that capture the essence of the characters well. Despite the mood shifting frequently from drama to comedy at the drop of a hat, the cast excels at capturing the necessary emotions in each scene. More mundane scenes are also bolstered by the rather colourful choice of phrase each character exhibits, such as dubbing a school bully “penis breath” or listing the Student Council as “the Jerkwad Brigade”. A voice filter used towards the end of the series also serves as another method through which the dub receives variation.
Akatsuki is also accompanied by what becomes a recognisable guitar riff each time he takes the stage and decides to play the big damn hero. Which happens quite a lot. Violins also frequently circle Miu, who is often lost in thought regarding pretty much every facet of her new life.
Extras In addition to your typical promotional videos, trailer and textless intros and endings, this release also contains some neat little extras. Two episodes net themselves commentary tracks, with Alexis Tipton, Monica Rial and Felicia Angelle taking Episode 2, whilst Joel McDonald, Ryan Reynolds and Eric Vale speak over Episode 8. The DVD also comes with six additional original videos, that focus even further on the fanservice side of Aesthetica, with stories that are set throughout the series.
She can’t help that she doesn’t “fit in” at school
Overall Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero is…interesting. Despite carrying all the hallmarks of an action packed fantasy anime, it is pulled away from this by its more comedic side. Moments of intense emotion are often immediately contrasted by some form of fanservice, which although not limiting the moments themselves, certainly removes any lasting sense of drama. That being said, the drama of the series is well thought out, with characters who exhibit a tremendous sense of self and understanding. Even a semi-recurring bully receives a believable and understandable development of character that kind of comes out of nowhere. It just serves to support the idea that amidst all of the topless shenanigans and shower scenes, Aesthetica does carry with it a true story. Though for an anime of such a short length, I feel that some episodes were wasted. A whole episode on finding Miu a bra? Seriously? The drama of Aleyzard could’ve received some more attention if it wasn’t for that. Which is a shame. In a series of  featuring two entire worlds, we are only privy to a small fraction of either. This occasionally has the untimely effect of putting us at a loss whilst characters know exactly what is happening. So all in all, Aesthetica is a series that is surprisingly deep for one that promotes its fanservice so openly. The moments of true emotion and drama will draw you in to the characters and the fanservice will bring it all back to face value. It’s a vicious cycle.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Ming-Na Wen started off her Q&A session at Supanova Sydney 2014 on the best note; “Now, there are no Hydra’s out there, right? I just want to make sure because I feel like kicking some ass today.” Although, some people actually volunteered for such treatment. “They’re masochists… I like that.” Ming-Na is easily one of the most nice, approachable and down-to-Earth celebrities you could ever get the chance to meet, with all those traits shining through in her panel. WARNING: Spoilers for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ahead.
Getting right into the action, Ming-Na revealed that her favorite fight scene in filming Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 1 was the one that took 17 hours to shoot; the final confrontation with Ward (Brett Dalton). She stated; “he needed his butt kicked, really bad! And, you know… NAIL HYDRA!“. When Ming-Na misheard a little girl asking what her favorite line was from the show, she answered hilariously with “My favorite wine?! You’re a little young to ask that question!” Ming-Na spoke on her “slight martial arts background”; “Whenever somebody asks me what form I studied, I say “the acting form. It’s very, very popular in Hollywood.” I think the training that I’ve had with dance, as well as with Tae Kwan Do, the Tiger Claw Kung-Fu method and a little bit of Wu-Shu – which, I don’t think you can actually do just a little bit of Wu-Shu, but in my world, yes – really helps me prepare for these kinds of roles.” Having voiced Mulan, Ming-Na then lamented the lost spirit and artistry of hand-drawn animation when asked if she prefers 2D or 3D animation.
Ming-Na as Chun-Li in Street Fighter (1994) with JCVD and Kylie Minogue
The obligatory question of how Ming-Na is enjoying Sydney was then asked. She replied; “I have to say, the very first day I was in Sydney I started looking at real-estate prices. There’s good air here!”. The question-giver was then showered with boos as she suggested that Ming-Na instead move to Melbourne. Ming-Na then reflected on the short-lived Stargate Universe, stating that the writers weren’t really prepared for its cancellation, resulting in unresolved character arcs leaving them “floating in space”. She hoped for an unlikely Firefly/Serenity-esque resurrection on the silver screen, but will keep with her all the fun memories of filming the show, including her first girl-on-girl kiss, which was “really great”. Our host Peter interjected that it’s a bittersweet fate because, otherwise, we may never have gotten Ming-Na as Agent May. Going back to animation, while Ming-Na doesn’t approach live-action or voice roles differently, she does enjoy the luxuries related to doing V.O.;
The fantastic thing about being a voice actor is, I could be in my PJ’s, I could have rollers in my hair if I wanted to…it’s fantastic not to have to worry about all the other aspects when working in front of the camera. I could have a big zit on the forehead and it’d be fine. And also, being able to create something more or less in your head, as opposed to playing in a sandbox with a lot of other people. But I still like working in front of a camera – I’m so vain!
Ming-Na in Stargate Universe
Things then got a little dicey…a female fan asked if Ming-Na knows why Agent May is referred to as the Cavalry in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., or if it’s still a mystery to even her. She replied, channeling the stoic, tough pilot; “Don’t ever call me that. *Applause* God you pissed me off! We were having so much fun! I think that might not be revealed until, hopefully, Season 2. But no, I have no idea why she’s called that.” In regards to her all-time favourite filming location, Ming-Na recalled a prior visit Down Under; “Well, not to be brown-nosing all the Aussies, but I did a film in Australia – it was my first trip out here, on the Gold Coast – called Street Fighter. It was also on the Gold Coast that my Husband proposed! We don’t talk to each other anymore, but it was so nice when he proposed!” The happily married couple are actually celebrating their 19th anniversary today, so congratulations! Ming-Na returned to Marvel, equating the obvious question of whether she’d like to be in a Marvel film to “do you want to win a million dollars? […] I’m waiting for Joss to give me a frickin’ phone call! Maybe I should break his legs…or at least threaten to.”
A fan proceeded to ask about how the cast and crew reacted to fans’ disappointment at Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s lack of super-heroics in the first half of the Season, to which she echoed the overriding opinion that the show and its pacing got progressively better and people came to understand the true focus of the show being in the title itself – the agents. She humorously compared Marvel to the shadow organization; “They are exactly alike. There are things at Marvel that you should know and that you can’t know.” The demise of S.H.I.E.L.D. was a shocker, even to the cast. Moving on, Ming-Na was asked if she had to rehearse her Cantonese dialogue in Episode 5, but of course, being of Chinese ethnicity, she busted out some Cantonese right then and there. Unfortunately, I couldn’t translate it for you if you paid me, and in response to subsequent cheers and applause, Wen quipped; “Oh yeah, like you knew what I was saying! I could have been ordering Chinese food!”
Another animation fan inquired as to what Ming-Na’s favourite part of Mulan was. She gave a very touching response, whilst fighting back classic “jet-lag brain”;
My favourite part actually has a lot to do with the scenes that Mulan had with her father. You know, my father has passed away, but when we were making the episode – bah, the episode, listen to me…I’m a little jet-lagged – making the movie, he was still alive and was able to see the movie. That was a very special part for me, when they made the connection and he was really proud of her.
Finally, to close the panel, Peter threw to a cosplayer dressed as Natasha Romanov aka Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) who he convinced to concede and represent Agent May (“you’re Agent May in this panel!”). She asked how hard it was for Wen to keep a straight face throughout shooting Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., to which she showed just why she is so awesome;
It’s the worst! You can tell I’m a little verbose, maybe? Like, I like to talk. And I like to laugh. And I get the giggles all the time. That’s why a lot of times I actually like the fight scenes, because I’m so focused that we can get through those. The DVD is coming out…oh wait, I’m not in the States. It comes out in the States…in September! And there’s a whole gag-reel apparently. I’m sure you guys will be getting it soon! I can’t wait, I love gag-reels. Do you ever do that? Do you ever sometimes just go online and watch gag-reels? […] Oh, and whenever I get a bit confused about my lines or I forget my line, I panic and I’ll just blurt anything out, and half the time it’ll just be like *makes unintelligible noise*. And then I’ll keep a straight face hoping nobody noticed. It cracks my cast mates up, and Clark Gregg has coined it “Minglish”.
She thanked us all and expressed how much of a pleasure it was meeting us all. Ming-Na is the polar opposite of her serious role as Agent May, and it was a real treat to sit and listen to a truly kind, relatable celebrity.
Supanova Sydney was pretty much “the Stan Lee Show” this year. Having said that, it’s more than understandable; the man has had a bigger influence on the comic book industry and global pop culture than any single individual in history. These conventions might not even exist without his contributions. So it was a real honor to have Stan here in Sydney, granting his hordes of fans the opportunity to grab a photo and an autograph, as well as a special Q&A session at the FilmInk Theatre.
Starting off with the first audience question, proposed to be a simple one, Stan quipped back “then I’ll give you a simple answer!” Before proceeding to give any real answers, Stan warned that his hearing is not what it used to be, and introduced us to his “interpreter” Max, who sat on stage with Stan. Upon taking a good few seconds to communicate the first question, Stan replied to Max “okay, but you gotta learn to keep your interpretations shorter – these people don’t want to sit here while you’re whispering to me!” Stan intimated than an intriguing, powerful and imposing villain is the most important element in a book, because “if it looks like an easy fight, you’ll go and buy a DC book or something!”. On which actor best embodies their given superhero on film, Stan sang the praises of Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man before comically stating; “I am so glad that I sat him down and gave him all those pointers.” When asked who is his favorite superhero, Stan related the quandary to choosing a favorite child.
Stan may seem, at time, to play up some semblance of arrogance, but it’s more-so a sardonic style of self-deprecation. A prime example is his jest about taking a scientific approach to Thor’s flight ability when compared to Superman’s – “he swings the hammer as hard as he can, and lets go, and the hammer takes him with it! You can’t get more scientific than that!” In an origin story that many might not be aware of, Stan explained that the idea for Spider-Man came from observing a literal fly on the wall…he simply wanted to design a character who could stick to walls. “I’m really sorry I killed it with a fly swatter!” In regards to what was the hardest character design to nail down, Hulk and Iron Man proved most problematic. For the former, the challenge was simply making an ugly monster the good guy through visual language – and those purple pants were purely an artistic choice of Lee’s colourist Stan Goldberg. For Iron Man, it was about iterating on the simple, nondescript grey armor. Stan was never satisfied with Iron Man’s armor, claiming “it took the movie [artists] to design the perfect Iron Man armor!”
Oh, and Stan wasn’t done with the jabs at rival DC Comics;
DC Comics asked me to do a series for them […] it was called Just Imagine Stan Lee Creating the DC Universe. I took about a dozen of their most famous, well, not that they’re that famous…a dozen of their big characters. Of course the books were brilliant, they sold out. But there was nothing DC could do after that! They couldn’t let it continue as a series because they’d be competing with their own books; it was a very stupid idea to begin with, although I did a magnificent job!
Stan Lee’s cameos extend past the Cinematic Universe
Stan went on to relay two specific reasons why we don’t see heroes killing villains in Marvel Comics; “one, I don’t like little kids reading books where people are dying. And two, on a practical basis, these villains are too difficult to dream up and if I kill one, I’ll have to think up another one, and I don’t want to have to go to all that trouble!” On his famous cameo appearances, Stan explained his absence from the X-Men films as a “clever marketing ploy” in which people would think they blinked and missed it, forcing them to buy another ticket just to see if their minds weren’t playing tricks on them, leading to more revenue. “If you believe that, I’ll tell you some other lie later on.” In response to the penultimate question, Lee gave a much more harmless, playful hypothetical relating to DC’s business;
I’ll tell you why I think the people at DC are not as smart as they should be. If you were running DC, wouldn’t you say at some time or other “I want to make sure our next Superman or Batman movie makes a lot of money, so I’m gonna give Stan Lee a cameo!” Just imagine when the fans find out he’s in a DC movie! They haven’t thought of that. So now you know which company is smarter!
Finally, Stan blessed us with a (not anymore) secret – his personal favorite superpower that he has purposely never given to a character on page or screen. Why? Because he doesn’t know what costume they would wear. That power…is 100% good luck. “The villain shoots at him, the bullet misses. Whatever he wants to do, he accomplishes. He’s lucky!” It’s absolutely genius, and would be Stan’s preference for a real-life power. The dilemma of a suitable costume had been his one true frustration for many years, but if you have a great concept for what it should look like – “don’t bother telling me because I’ve already lost interest!”
Munin is a puzzle platformer inspired by Norse mythology. Players will play as the human form of Munin, Odin’s messenger. Normally, Munin is a raven, but Loki has transformed it into a mortal girl and scattered its feathers across the nine worlds of Yggdrasil. The game mixes traditional puzzle platforming gameplay with rotating environments to create 81 mind bending puzzles.
Story
Munin follows the title character’s journey to reclaim its feathers and return to Asgard. The story is pretty light, being told through short readings at the beginning of each of the nine chapters. To make things more interesting, the plot is inspired by Norse mythology. The story is an good read, as the writer manages to maintain a poetic flair throughout the game. It is important to note that mentions of the ravens Hugin and Munin in Norse mythology are found in a collection of Norse poetry. In the end, the story serves as the game’s window dressing, versus a central pillar.
Gameplay
Munin takes the traditional physics based puzzle platformer genre and quite literally turns it on its head with the world spinning mechanic. Each level is blocked into several sections. Each section can be spun clockwise. Some sections are bound together, forcing multiple sections to be spun at the same time. To make the game more challenging, the player is unable to rotate the section Munin occupies.
Munin will visit nine worlds in its travels. Each world’s puzzles are based around a game mechanic, such as water or rolling boulders. Some mechanics can kill Munin, which will start the level from the beginning, while others are a little more forgiving. I personally found the death mechanic to be frustrating in more complicated levels that may require long multi-step solutions and the successful completion of several dexterity based challenges. The game really is at its best during non-fatal puzzles, as there are enough pitfalls to force the occasional level reset, without having the added frustration of death.
The level design of the puzzles are decent. Physics plays a huge role in Munin’s gameplay. Many puzzles will have the player juggling fluids or moving objects while they spin the environment around. Munin is probably at its finest during the fluid based worlds. The water level is hands down my favourite, as it allows the player to experience the impressive fluid mechanics without the pressures or frustrations of death.
Munin’s controls are probably the weakest link in the chain. They are usable for travelling around on flat surfaces. Using the mouse to spin certain environments works well, though it means controller fans will be left out in the cold. Munin’s biggest problem is the terrible ladder behaviour. Getting Munin to grab onto a ladder while jumping is an exercise in mild frustration, getting Munin to properly dismount a ladder at the top is almost rage inducing. Most games will allow the character to dismount the ladder and move around on the top level when more than half of the character’s body is above the area. Munin, on the other hand, requires Munin’s feet to be at the top rung of the ladder. Otherwise, Munin will throw itself off the ladder and fall to whatever surface is below.
The developers estimate that the 81 levels will take roughly seven hours to complete. Their estimate is pretty reasonable, if not a little conservative. At its current price point, the game is setting itself at the higher end of casual puzzle games.
Visuals
Munin has a great art style that is reminiscent of children’s story books. It is a fitting style that suits the Norse mythology theme developers Gojira have chosen. When mousing over an area that can be spun, a light white frame appears if the zone can be moved and a light red frame if it cannot. I would like to see the level of transparency lowered a bit, as I find it was rather difficult to see clearly. The game runs very well performance wise. The minimum requirements are extremely low, so most laptops should have no issue running the game.
Audio
The music in Munin is enjoyable. The developers have chosen a more subdued style that works great for focusing on puzzles, lowering the amount of distractions during difficult challenges. Though there are not too many, the sound effects are very good.
Overall
Munin has some great ideas, though flounders on execution. The mushy controls and the terrible ladders can become an irritant. Dying late in complex multi-stepped levels is frustrating, as remembering all the steps needed to return to the previous point can be annoying at time. On the other hand, Munin is a beautiful game with a smart design. Gojira’s choice of Norse mythology is novel, as Roman and Greek mythology tend to be over-represented. Unfortunately beauty, an interesting setting, and a unique gameplay mechanic really is not enough to hit this one out of the park.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
The man behind the voices of Android 17 from “Dragon Ball Z“, Shou Tucker from “Fullmetal Alchemist“, Hiei from “Yu Yu Hakusho” as well as so many others, Chuck Huber, has made his way down to Australia for the 2014 Supanova Sydney Expo and us here at Capsule Computers were given the chance to interview the talented man one-on-one.
Mr. Huber was the star of the very first anime panel (which you can read about here) of the Sydney convention and we were given the chance to interview him just after it. Now Mr. Huber and I did talk for almost twenty minutes so before you even think about heading down to our featured video section to watch the interview, make sure you’ve got some time on your hands.
We spoke about his favorite anime roles and he even acted out some of his favorite lines. The conversation went from his previous work to his anime voice acting work and even to his family life. If you’re a fan of Chuck Huber and his work than this is definitely an interview you do not want to miss so head down below now to check it out in all its glory!
Every once in a while a series like “Psycho-Pass” comes along that shakes fans of anime to the very core. Usually these series’ are filled with likable character, they take place in an interesting location and they have a story that people can become engulfed by…”Psycho-Pass” is no exception to this. It had it’s original run back in 2012 to an amazingly positive reception and to this day is still revered as one of the very best contemporary anime series’ to have been released. Thanks to the lovely people over at Madman Entertainment, I have been given the chance to review “Psycho-Pass” in all it’s high-quality, English dubbed glory. Let’s see just how much I loved the series a second time around.
Story
Set in a seemingly utopian future somewhat like our present, “Psycho-Pass” follows the journey of a young woman named Akane Tsunemori who has just joined a law-enforcement team working under the “Public Safety Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division”. “Psycho-Pass” takes place in a world where crimes are stopped long before they can even be committed: Simply thinking negative thoughts can have an individual thrown into Police custody or even be publicly executed in some cases. It is an existence ruled by technology but you’re quickly shown that technology may not be as reliable as once thought. Mrs. Tsunemori has a healthy mind but the unit she has just joined happens to be filled with civil officers that have been deemed “latent criminals”.
These “Enforcers” have shown that they can be assets in the fight against crime so they’re placed under guard by “Inspectors”, of which Akane Tsunemori happens to be. Armed with firearms accurately named “Dominators” (weapons that read the “Psycho-Pass” of possible criminals and activate if necessary), these peace-keepers are possibly the only force that can bring a sense of stability to a world slowly sinking into madness. The story of “Psycho-Pass” is very reminiscent of older science-fiction tales and has been compared to movies like “Blade Runner” countless times ever since its release back in 2012.
It’s overall dystopian setting is something we’ve all seen time and time again but its story execution is absolutely something that sets it apart from all the rest. The way characters develop and the way the world they live in skews in all types of negative ways is extremely well-written and perfectly paced. Each of the characters are as unique as they can be which is saying a great deal considering they’re living in a world that greatly dislikes outside thinking and forms of individuality.
“Psycho-Pass” seemingly slides in and out of different sub-genres to weave a tale of absolutely delight that has you wanting to watch “just one more episode” in anticipation of the events that are to come. Most of “Collection One” seemed like a cop drama you would see on late night television with each episode featuring a new case and a new perpetrator but, by the end of the collection, you begin to see everything fall into place with the introduction of the series antagonist and the revelation of quite the web of connection.
Visuals
“Psycho-Pass”, as I mentioned above, was released back in 2012 now even though it was only two years ago, that happens to be quite a while when it comes to animation technology. Somehow the series visually dominates a great deal of the series’ released at the same time while also being able to do the same to series’ being released now. Each of the characters was designed by Akira Amano who you may know as the creator, writer and illustrator for the hit Shonen Jump series “Katekyo Hitman Reborn!”.
She does a fantastic job at designing character that are realistic but also fit into the visual style of anime which, as you may know, is unlike a lot of the typical animated TV shows you see. The animation throughout “Psycho-Pass” is fluid and there’s never a visual dip. Every so often you will notice the use of CG animation for small things like vehicles, you don’t often see this because it is barely used but, even so, it is used properly and to a subtle degree. One thing that is extremely striking about the series is it’s colour palette.
Filled with blues, greys and blacks, it seems as though “Psycho-Pass” is a bleak and dull series…it’s anything but that! When you’re presented with colours, they’re always vibrant, piercing and perfectly suited to the scene. “Psycho-Pass” is aesthetically pleasing and will deffinitely go down in history for having animation that is “ahead of its time”, for lack of a better term.
Audio
As an avid anime fan that had previously watched this series in its original Japanese dub, I’m so very grateful that time was taken to properly translate from the original. The English dub of “Psycho-Pass” would have to be one of my favorites, at this point in time. The voice actors naturally use Western speech styles to portray the characters while at the same time correctly pronouncing Japanese names in a way that I’ve really never seen before. Despite the fact that the voice actors record their lines in solitude, nowhere near their co-stars, characters interacted with each other in the most realistic ways.
Whether it was a simple “we need to talk” or a more aggressive “shoved up his ass”, each line was delivered perfectly and really made for an incredible watch that, in my opinion, outdid the Japanese dub. What impressed me, once again, was the soundtrack for the series: It didn’t exactly use a plethora of genres like a lot of the series’ you see today but it didn’t need to. It never used any unnecessary tracks and when it did, you absolutely heard it and it made in impact. Big or small.
Yugo Kanno, who provided the soundtrack for the series, deals greatly with more classical styles of musical composition and his tracks matched perfectly with the overall vibe of the series as well as the individual scenes where they were played. When it comes to jazz and acoustic sounds, he definitely knows what he’s doing and it is thanks to him that “Psycho-Pass” was able to musically represent each and every scene so quintessentially.
Extras
“Psycho-Pass Collection One”, despite being distributed on Blu-Ray, actually doesn’t feature that many extras. Like regular anime home video releases, “Collection One” comes with somewhat of a reversible cover, episode commentaries and textless opening/closing sequences. It was nice to see that the release also featured a “Sakura-con” spotlight video that basically showed “Psycho-Pass” in it’s element at a popular convention but this is all pretty much normal for standard anime releases. It would have been nice to have seen more special features, especially seeing as I was given the Blu-Ray version to review; a format that can hold a great deal of data. Still, at least “Collection One” came with what it did rather than nothing at all.
Overall
“Psycho-Pass Collection One” is exactly the type of series we need in this new age of anime that is currently being populated with sub-par stories and constant shows of unnecessary fanservice. There is a reason “Psycho-Pass” has retained it’s popularity even two years after its release. It honestly takes a special anime to last this long. Mixing science-fiction and crime is something we haven’t entirely seen before and even if we have, it hasn’t been anything near as good as “Psycho-Pass”. “Collection One” has set up the series perfectly and it has also left the audience with nothing but anticipation of the next half of the series. I cannot wait to, once again, sink my teeth into more “Psycho-Pass” and I’m so glad its quality hasn’t diminished over these past two year. Absolutely fantastic.
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“Adventure Time” has really exploded down here in Australia so it’s no surprise to see that the voice actress behind one of the most favored characters, Marceline, would make her way down to the seemingly secluded country to connect with her fans in one hell of a big way.
Olivia Olson, the voice behind Marceline the Vampire Queen, came to Australia alongside her fellow voice actress Jessica DiCicco (see our interview with her here), both of which featured in their very own “Adventure Time” panel. After the panel I was able to sit down with the beautifully talented actress and signer to talk about her career and all things “Adventure Time”.
Head down to the featured video section below to check out the full interview with Olivia Olson and don’t forget to hit up our comments section to let us know what you think. For more “Adventure Time” action at Supanova Sydney 2014, click here to check out our article on the Olivia Olson and Jessica DiCicco panel.
