In a move that has long been speculated by fans of the series, it has been confirmed in the latest Weekly Shonen Jump magazine that the Hunter x Hunteranime will be moving to late-nights starting with episode 99 of the series.
Starting on the 8th of October, 2013, Hunter x Hunter will begin airing at 1:29 AM Tuesday nights. The series has run in the Sunday morning time-slot of 10.55 AM for roughly 98 weeks now. While no official reason for the change has been given, many speculate that it has to do with the increased level of violence in the Chimera Ants story arc.
This change to late-night also paints a pretty clear picture of when the anime series may come to an end. Judging by the amount of manga material currently available to adapt and the ending of chapter 339, it seems that there is a greater chance that the anime will end with chapter 339 at some-point in mid-2014. Stay tuned as further updates on this developing story come to light.
Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo Studio:Studio Khara Publisher: Madman Format :Cinema Release Date: 26th September 2013
Overview
Neon Genesis Evangelion would have to be, by far, the most widespread and influential Anime seriesand franchise to have ever been created. It has spanned over 18 incredible years and, although it showed signs of slowing down during the 90s, it has been a fan favourite for most of those years. Every Anime fan knows Neon Genesis Evangelion and – between the original series, the End of Evangelion movies, the Rebuild of Evangelion tetralogy and it’s countless marketing adventures – if you didn’t know about it “back in the day” I’ll guarantee you know about it now.
“Say something, stupid Shinji!”
Story
Unlike the movie that came before this, 3.0 doesn’t directly start from where 2.22 ends, but that doesn’t mean you should go into this one blind, you HAVE to have seen the other two movies to understand this one and even people like me that has seen those movies multiple times didn’t entirely get it. If you’re interested, head over to these pages here (Evangelion 1.11) and here (Evangelion 2.22) to read my review of the first two movies. These movies are proving to be extremely hard for me to review because the spoiler level here is incredible, I may have to ruin a few things so bare with me as I try my best to ruin nothing. The movie takes place a fair bit after the second movie, the gap is bigger than you would expect and the thing I loved about this film is the fact that they don’t entirely tell you what went on in that time gap, yes they explain bits and pieces as to what caused what and who did what to who but it’s almost Tarantino-like the way that the story is told.
Captain Misato after many years of hardship.
Once again the movie begins epically and ends in a way that, well, you couldn’t even imagine. I though the second movie was hard to beat when it came to shocking reveals and awesome scenes but 3.0 definitely takes the cake. You’re introduced to a character in 3.0 called Kaworu who plays a big role yet was swiftly introduced and then swiftly taken away, or so it seems. I don’t know how Anno does it but in any other situation I would count this as a negative and while people will consider me biased, just hear me out: He was introduced almost secretly, he didn’t have too many lines, he didn’t outwardly project much at all, he almost seemed insignificant yet he was the one who, in a way, destroyed Shinji mentally. Kaworu was the final step backwards, disregarding the events at the beginning of the movie. Once again we saw Shinji slip back into madness, I love the flow of Shinji’s mental state throughout these movies and when it comes to “snapping” and making “bad decisions” this movie really did it right.
Introducing Kaworu.
If there’s one thing I have to say about the story in Evangelion 3.0, it is that the story is a little hard to follow the whole way through, now I watched it with another writer for the site, we both sat quietly in awe for the movie and by the end of it we both had a great deal of questions that the other simply couldn’t answer, my thoughts are that the final movie will answer so many questions that were asked during the 3rd movie, which is fine but when it’s on the format of film and you’re waiting almost a year for the next iteration it somewhat looses its traction, it doesn’t make it a bad movie story-wise, not at all, if anything it has made me want to watch it more than I had already planned, and that was a lot. The ups and downs are very fitting and they handled a “time-skip” storyline better than any other Anime or Anime movie I’ve ever seen, it was something special to see how the characters have all changed and hardened, grudges are still intact and the world is still a terrible place. Despite it’s slight flaws in pacing, the story was incredible.
Gendo and, what I’m calling, “The Head”.
Visuals
The Rebuild of Evangelion movies are no short of perfection when it comes to visuals. Something I picked up on more during 3.0 was mouth movements and facial expressions, they matched perfectly to the voice artists’ speech and, to me, that’s downright unbelievable, it was almost like watching something that was done with motion-capture at some points. Having a destroyed city as part of the story really allowed the visuals some “crazy time” as I’m now calling it, everything was so distorted, everything looked like it could bleed despite it being concrete or wood, the ground was raised, the buildings were torn down, you actually felt fear through visuals. Because of the time-skip story element a lot of characters have changed, some drastically, others got facial hair, either way it seems like the visual team got it spot on! Having a character come on screen and the viewer thinking; “Wait, who’s tha-oh wow…no? Wow!”, to make a natural reaction to something that has been illustrated and animated, to react like it was seeing an old friend after years of not, simply awesome.
Nya, Mari? Nya?
Audio
The musical score in this was simple incredible. It was mostly orchestral, there was a great deal of violin involved in a lot of the score but the placement of some old-school sounding electric guitar didn’t go to waste. The orchestral music is so fitting when it comes to a movie like 3.0 and, in fact, all of Evangelion because the entire plot is about dealing with something of a higher power, something almost holy yet infinitely evil so you can see why the violin and the harp would play a big part. There was a scene where Shinji and Kaworu played the piano and it was very beautifully composed and actually played a fairly big part story-wise. The Japanese voice artists did an awesome job, I’ve seen the other two movies in English so I had the grounds to compare and while I still prefer the English audio tracks, the original Japanese voice actors and actresses did an incredible job on the whole thing, emotion was conveyed really well which is a big “tick” in the positive box.
What’s left of Nerv HQ.
Overall
The movies don’t stop getting better and while Evangelion 3.0 was a bit confusing because of pacing and what not it still holds up as a fantastic movie and honestly takes nothing away from the other two. It keeps the Rebuild of Evangelion integrity and continuously adds to it. It has now become a whole different thing to the series and I find that fantastic because it still feels like Evangelion it still acts like Evangelion and this movie has proven to me that a film can be full of intensity from the start all the way to the end without loosing anything in between, or at least, nothing too crucial. It’s a fantastic movie, it makes you question a bit too much but it is still fantastic and it gets even better once you’ve finished watching it, it makes you want to research more on it and get to know it more. It plays hard to get but it’s just a fantastic movie.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
On a quest to unravel the secrets surrounding the death of her father and to locate the, “woman with the scissor-blade”, Ryuko Matoi found herself at a school called Honnouji Academy. There the school is under the command of an elite group of students granted superpowers by their “goku uniforms”. At the top of the chain of command is the school council president, Satuki Kiryuin, who it emerges knows the secret behind the scissor-blade. Ryuko must become more powerful in order to take down her seemingly unstoppable for and learn the mystery behind her father’s demise.
The series will begin streaming on October 3rd and will be available just an hour after the Japanese release in selected countries. Subs will be available in English, Italian, Spanish, Portugese, and German. Visit Daisuki’s official website for more information on their autumn streaming line-up. To find out more about other exciting, new autumn anime check out our anime picks over in our Anime News section.
If you are a fan of post-nuclear anime, then you may want to check out the new Action/Drama series that Madman has acquired. Coppelion is the story of three normal-looking high school girls that arrive at the irradiated remains of the old capital. But, these girls are more than they seem, as they are in fact genetically altered to be able to survive in the radioactive conditions.
Coming from studio GoHands, the same studio that produced the Mardock Scramble films and the K series, anime fans will be able to watch as these three girls, members of Ground Self-Defence Force Dispatch 3 Special Force, will do their best to carry out their mission of rescuing those survivors left in the area.
Just what do these radioactive ruins hold for the girls as they carry out their mission? Be sure to check it out for yourself when Coppelion starts its simulcast on October 3rd, 2013 at the Madman Screening Room alongside its release in Japan. Be sure to voice your thoughts on this series in the comments below.
Bakemonogatari Part 2 Blu-ray Publisher: Hanabee Studio: SHAFT Format: DVD, Blu-ray (reviewed) Release Date: September 4, 2013 Price: $49.99 – Available Here
Overview
Here we are again, back for the second half of NisiOisin’s supernatural tale of ailments and oddities. Based on the original light novels and animated by Studio SHAFT, Bakemonogatari caused quite a stir when the anime unleashed its unforgiving script on the audience and quickly gained a rabid fan base.
Released by Hanabee here in Australia, Part 1 covered the first three arcs of the story while part two centres on the remaining two. Be sure to read through our review of Part 1 (and watch it, of course) before diving into this. Let’s see if the second half of Bakemonogatari maintains the quality, or surpasses, the first.
Story Part 2 of Bakemonogatari continues the tale with the start of the Nadeko Snake arc, consisting of two episodes. Although Koyomi started dating Hitagi during the first half, he is seen getting friendly with his new admirer, Suruga Kanbaru, on their way to the local shrine. Our protagonist’s growing harem is about to get bigger once he stumbles upon an old acquaintance who is a childhood friend of his sister’s that looked up to Koyomi years ago, Nadeko Sengoku. Accursed with a snake spirit after turning down a love confession, Nadeko tries all sorts of methods to exorcise the apparition such as nailing parts of snakes to trees.
True to the inherent nature of Bakemonogatari, this arc employs a stack of fan service. And why wouldn’t it? Nadeko is one of the cutest characters yet in the series thus far. But in contrast, it also includes some grotesque action as Koyomi resolves the situation in his usual way, crippling way.
It is when the Tsubasa Cat arc starts that I feel Bakemonogatari drops the ball in regard to plot continuation and, more plainly, a coherent story. Ignoring for a second the fact that the series is purposefully erratic. You see, the problem stems from way back when the series aired, with the final TV broadcast being episode 12 and while the last three were streamed online.
The Tsubasa Cat arc begins its focus on the infamous Golden Week, a holiday that occurred before the Bakemonogatari timeline, and the penultimate heroine Tsubasa Hanekawa. Her curse happens to be a cat, possessing Tsubasa and wrecking havoc while she sleeps because of pent up stress. Then with the next episode we’re thrown back to Koyomi’s relationship with Hitagi (which is incredibly weird to say the least) as they go on a date.
The two go through an awkward moment of understanding each other more before an ending fit for a conclusion to some twisted love story. Throwing away the allusions of an ending, we’re thrust back into the real Tsubasa Cat story in the next episode. This is the unfortunately jarring structure of a TV show that had to “end” at episode 12 before posting the “real” ending to total an uncommon number of 15 episodes.
With that aside, the story continues to hold your interest if you can survive some of the more painfully slow conversations later in the series. The mention of Shinobu again will be a welcome sound to most ears, as the plot gets back on track and culminates in a rooftop confrontation that is more underwhelming than its build up suggests. Not even the huge amounts of blood can mask the disappointment many will feel having expected an epic showdown between Koyomi and the final apparition.
Visuals Bakemonogatari Part 2 maintains the fine quality that SHAFT achieved in the first half of the home release, redrawing and cleaning up its TV broadcasts to perfection. The show continues to utilise some beautifully interesting still-shots with the occasional real images to spicen up the conversations and stamp the unique art direction that the franchise is known for.
Audio Composed by the famed Satoru Kousaki (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Lucky Star), Part 2 of Bakemonogatari keeps up its steady soundtrack of upbeat rhythms and mysterious sounds, along with some great acoustic guitar work here and there. Being a sub-only release, viewers can expect no English dub just like last time and instead they have to keep up with the rapid pace of the subtitles.
Extras Hanabee has released its Blu-ray versions of Bakemonogatari in a standard format, rather than opting for the special art books like in their DVD counterparts. This is a fair tradeoff considering the huge jump in image quality, where we get a super clean result at 1080p with no fuzziness. This works wonders for the stunning environment still-shots that are scattered throughout the show.
Included on the second disc are all the unique textless openings, endings and trailers.
Overall Bakemonogatari Part 2 concludes in an expected fashion which fans of the first half would surely lap up. It wasn’t, however, exactly satisfying the whole length of the way nor as consistent as Part 1 was. It could be a subjective viewpoint, but the Nadeko Snake arc was more entertaining to begin with before the dilapidated and overly drawn out Tsubasa Cat arc threatened to throw the show off course. Bakemonogatari might have been a more effective anime had it tightened up the later conversations, placed less emphasis during the final arc and reduced the total episode count to 13 at the most.
Not as outstanding as some would say but neither as nonsensical as other critics would decry, Bakemonogatari was quite a wild ride and its ending is one of the few that strikes a strange balance between not too open-ended and not too final. Neither thought-provoking nor obvious, the final scenes will have you simply reflect back to the various arcs as special little accomplishments that Koyomi achieved, with a promise of what’s to come in the future.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
While Warner Bros. may have announced the Deathstroke preorder bonus for Batman: Arkham Origins not much was revealed about what all the preorder bonus would contain. However, with a new trailer just released today all the little pieces have been shown off.
Players will be able to use Deathstroke in 2 different challenge maps for Batman: Arkham Origins, one a standard style challenge by the name of “No Money Down” and the other a new mode titled “100-to-1” where Deathstroke faces off against a force of 100 enemies. When playing in these challenge maps, players will also have 3 different suits for Deathstroke to wear from the regular Arkham Origins Deathstroke, to Injustice Deathstroke, and finally Judas Contract Deathstroke.
Players wanting to see all these in action can check out the trailer embedded below, but in order to get all that sweet Deathstroke swag on day one they’ll have to preorder Batman: Arkham Origins before it releases October 25th, 2013 for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, and PC.
Also, movie-goers from Sydney and Melbourne have an additional 20 unannounced titles to look forward to. Any guesses?
The Japanese Film Festival will arrive in various Australian cities this spring season at different dates, so be sure to check out the Ticketing & Venue section of the website.
The preorder incentive for the upcoming Thief game has just been announced by publisher Square Enix and developer Eidos-Montreal. Looking to take things back old school as an homage to the Bank mission of Thief II: The Metal Age, the exclusive preorder mission “The Bank Heist” pits players with infiltrating the Stonemarket First Bank to steal a precious family heirloom.
Designed to test the player’s mettle as they work to circumvent exclusive security measures found only in this preorder mission, players will also be able to collect unique loot and secrets for their trouble. Plus, players will also be able to race against the clock to be the fastest of all their friends to sneak into the Bank and retrieve the Star of Auldale.
Those wanting to see a bit of what the preorder mission has to offer can view the trailer embedded below to see Garrett in action. To get the exclusive mission, you’ll have until the game releases on February 28th, 2014 to preorder Thief for Xbox 360, PS3, Xbox One, PS4, and PC, which can be done from their Website.
Just nights ago, in celebration of the upcoming release of BEYOND: Two Souls from Quantic Dream, exclusive to the PlayStation 3, Sony hosted BEYOND The Game: Live Forum. The event saw both film and gaming experts from across the world attend here in Sydney, to discuss interactive entertainment and its meteoric rise, no doubt helped by David Cage’s contributions to the genre.
The Writer and Creative Director at the critically acclaimed game development studio travelled from Paris to join the esteemed panel (we also got an interview with Mr. Cage the day after, which you can read here). Cage spoke of his personal experiences throughout the development of BEYOND: Two Souls. The game’s casting director Suzanne Goddard-Smythe, spoke about the “evolving requirements of actors and the skillset needed to remain competitive with the emergence of this new entertainment category.” 2013 Tropfest winner and film director Nicholas Clifford, and Sydney University film lecturer Dr Bruce Isaacs, rounded out the panel and brought their own specialist perspectives to the conversation.
Logie Award winning Australian actor and writer, Robert Carlton hosted the evening and live Q&A. The panel in its entirety can be viewed directly below. Just want the highlights? Check out the video embedded at the bottom of this article.
“BEYOND: Two Souls is by far the most ambitious title Quantic Dream has worked on to date. We wanted to create this emotional journey into the life of a character and tell her story through fifteen years. Blending the frontiers between video games and films was one of the challenges we had to face: we wanted to create an experience that would be fully interactive with a strong story that the player would tell through his actions rather than through cut scenes” – David Cage.
BEYOND: Two Souls releases October 9th nationwide.
Relic Entertainment has released the first downloadable content for their recent strategy hit Company of Heroes 2, titled Case Blue for the game’s Theatre of War mode.
The mini-pack is based on the devastating German assault of the same name upon Soviet Russia during 1942 and includes two new solo challenges, two AI battles and a co-op scenario.
Eligible pre-order customers along with owners of the Collector’s Edition (retail or digital) will receive the DLC for free. Otherwise, players will be able to purchase it on Steam.
Two new multiplayer maps will be made available for free from the same update. Rostov, a six player map centred around a frozen river, and Kharkov, an industrial city littered with choke points.
Released by SEGA, Company of Heroes 2 is the sequel to the original 2006 RTS that focuses this time on the Eastern Front and the savage conflict between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Check out our review of the game from earlier this year.
