We finally have a better idea of when Kyoto Animation’s second season of Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!, announced earlier this year, will air. The slice of life/romance TV anime will premiere in Japan on January 2014.
The anime’s English title is Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions and is licensed by Sentai Filmworks in North America and by Madman in Australia. There are still no details on the show’s English home video release, however.
Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! follows Yuuta Togashi who suffered from the common “illness” of a wild imagination in his junior high school years. After putting those embarrassing memories behind him and starting high school, he meets Rikka Takanashi. Unfortunately she still hasn’t grown out of her delusions and Yuuta’s school life takes a turn for the extraordinary.
Hanabee Entertainment have made a major announcement through their official Youtube channel, revealing that they have acquired the license for Kokoro Connect.
They have confirmed that they plan to release the body-swapping slice of life series across two collections releasing on the 4th of December 2013 for the first part and the 22nd of January 2014 for the second part.
The first release will feature the entirety of the 13 episode series, while the second part will feature the 4 episode OVA follow-up that concludes the series. The releases will feature dual-audio and be available in both DVD and Blu-Ray formats.
You can check out the announcement video below for further information from Hanabee themselves. Be sure to let us know what you think of this acquisition in the comments section below.
Those of you who can’t wait to get some more Naruto in your life will be happy to hear that Viz Media is planning on releasing Naruto Shippuden the Movie: The Lost Tower in North America this week on September 17th. The anime movie will be able to be purchased on either Blu-ray or DVD with the Blu-ray costing $24.98 while the DVD is priced at $19.98.
The movies will come with a number of extra features, including the original Japanese trailers and an anime short called Naruto and the Three Wishes. The Blu-ray version also comes with a bonus digital art gallery featuring production art. As for the movie itself, the story follows Naruto’s team as they chase a rogue ninja called Mukade. When they nearly catch him, Naruto is sent back in time thanks to the power of an underground LeyLine. In the past Naruto manages to encounter the younger Fourth Hokage and his father, Minato Namikaze, on a secret mission.
Future Diary: Part 1 Studio:Asread Publisher:FUNimation Format: DVD Release Date: September 17, 2013 Price: $64.98 – Available Here
Overview Sometimes a series can be well known for one specific aspect or character and anime is no exception from this. In the case of a certain anime called Mirai Nikki, now called Future Diary in North America, a lot of focus was placed not only on the story itself, but the female lead known as Yuno Gasai. Now, with an English dub accompanying the release from FUNimation, does Future Diary: Part 1 manage to translate well to English shores?
Story In school it is hard to be popular and while there are kids who still manage to make a few friends here and there, there are others that simply stop trying and try to coast through their teenage years as a simple observer. Yukiteru Amano, also known as Yuki, was one such observer. Outside of being rather skilled with darts, Yuki barely interacted with the world around him and rarely spoke to anyone. Instead he buried himself in his cell phone where he wrote various diary entries talking about the various things that he saw that day.
Well… to say that Yuki had no friends would be a bit of a lie, considering he does have two imaginary friends named Deus and Murmur. The only thing is, these two are not imaginary and they suddenly decide to give Yuki the ability to predict the future through the use of his cell phone. Thinking that this is a gift from a god, Yuki begins to abuse his knowledge of all the future events occurring around him to ace tests, avoid bullies and become a star at his school.
However when he notices that one of his classmates, a girl named Yuno Gasai, appears to know Murmur, Yuki notices that his cell phone’s diary entries have changed and he is now set to be killed by a serial killer, resulting in a DEAD END. The girl who appeared to have knowledge of his diary and of Murmur appears before him, revealing that she too has a diary and will do anything she can to protect him. After managing to thwart the attempt on Yuki’s life, Deus reveals the true nature of the diaries.
Deus is the God of Time and Space and he has selected twelve diary users to participate in a survival game where the only goal is to be the last one standing. After killing or destroying the diaries of the other eleven diary users, the winner will become the new God to replace the soon to disappear Deus. After revealing this news to the other diary users, Deus states to the group that Yuki, the First, is his favorite for the game, instantly making him a target for the rest of the diary users.
As other diary users begin to target Yuki’s life, Yuki must try to not only survive their attacks, but also deal with Yuno and her obsession with everything about him. Future Diary: Part 1 works in an interesting manner by creating mini-arcs within the main story. Every encounter with a diary user takes roughly two to three episodes to conclude and each of these arcs put these two against deadly opponents that can only be overcome when they work together. To keep things interesting, each diary user’s diary works in a different way and while most diaries are cell phones, they can come in any shape or size and each user has various tactics for trying to eliminate Yuki and Yuno, some indirect and some simply involving a lot of explosives.
Only a handful of the diary users and characters within Future Diary are developed through the first half of the series, a few of them are barely given any story whatsoever though most of them seem to suffer from a bit of eccentricity, or are simply psychotics given the power of a demigod, that lead them to this path of murder, but it quickly becomes apparent that there is much more to Yuno than meets the eye. Not only does she stalk Yuki to the point where her diary is only capable of telling her exactly what Yuki is doing or what will happen to him in the future, but there is a sinister nature lying beneath her devoted façade.
There is a certain character type known as a yandere and while it is far from new in anime, rarely has anything been taken to the level that viewers will find in Future Diary. She cares little for anyone else besides Yuki, wishes to kill anyone who would become close to him and will freely throw away the lives of others if it means Yuki will be okay. To make things worse, numerous mysteries begin to circulate around her personality and these circulations reach their tipping point at the final episode of Part 1, bringing Yuno’s yandere level to something rarely seen in anime.
Future Diary: Part 1 leaves viewers with a cliffhanger into the second part of the series but also leaves viewers with many questions at the same time. By keeping the diary users anonymous from one another, it keeps viewers from knowing where the next threat may come from. It also helps that the aforementioned mysteries and psychological issues surrounding Yuno make for an interesting story built upon plenty of action sequences and numerous deaths.
Visuals It is worth noting that this is an uncensored version of Future Diary, which means there is a bit of extra gore here and there as well as some mild nudity and very dark tones meant to push a certain character to their breaking point. These inclusions are rather mild however and while there is plenty of violence and explosions to be had, a lot of it is very mundane and unlikely to bother anyone.
Now, as for the anime’s artwork and style, for a series that can be very dark at times there is a wide ranging color palette on display throughout the first half of the series and numerous backgrounds and environments are highly detailed. Each of the action scenes are nicely animated with little drop in quality and the characters themselves are varied enough and go through numerous outfit changes that the anime is always keeping things fresh. Unfortunately there are some animation issues with the characters’ faces in mid-range shots or group images, resulting in some rather odd looking facial expressions.
Audio With FUNimation’s release of Future Diary: Part 1 the company has done the standard thing of including both the original Japanese dub as well as their new English voice track. While Yuno’s English voice actress, Brina Palencia, does a decent job with the character, the writing and portraying of her character is less extreme sounding than the one presented in the Japanese dub, instead her constant obsession with Yuki is dumbed down a bit thanks to her calling him various pet names. Outside of that the rest of the cast is nicely handled, though Yuki also sounds more capable than his Japanese voicework would let on.
The series’ soundtrack in this first half is very impressive as there are numerous times that the action is made all the better by being accompanied by fitting background music. As for the opening theme, we have the very fitting and impossible to skip because it sounds so great “Fantasy Mythology” by Yousei Teikoku while the ending theme is “Blood Teller” by Faylan, which is also fitting and enjoyable to listen to, but not as much as the opening.
Extras With the release of Future Diary: Part 1, FUNimation has included a number of on-disc bonuses but it is mostly their standard inclusion for releases such as this. There are clean versions of the opening and ending songs, original television commercials from Japan and trailers for other FUNimation releases and two episode commentaries.
The first episode commentary is for episode 5 and features Emily Neves, who voices Minene, Ian Sinclair who handles the voice work of Yomotsu, and Rob McCollum who does Keigo’s voicework. The second commentary comes in at episode 13 and features Joel McDonald who does the voice for Kosaka, Caitlin Glass, the voice of Hinata and finally Ashleigh Domangue, the voice of Mao. It is interesting to note that this is Ashleigh’s first time on commentary and actually only her second bigger role in anime voice acting.
Overall Future Diary: Part 1 may take somewhat of an two to three episode approach to many of its story arcs, but as the series progresses a larger picture comes into focus as the mysterious surrounding Yuno, her devotion to Yuki, the diaries themselves, and the various motivations of the bigger players still in the field lead viewers along a psychological survival game that has gotten rid of numerous bit players along the way only to leave viewers at the heart of things when the last episode of Part 1 finishes, leaving them dying to see what will happen next.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Welcome to another episode of CC Indie Spotlight with Editor in Chief Phil Federico aka MasterAbbott, where we demo the latest and greatest of indie gaming.
This episode features Card Hunter, a free to play card and miniatures tabletop game on the browser. Phil will teach viewers the basics of Card Hunter and run through the first few levels.
For more information on the game, check our feature article on Card Hunter. The game can be played for free on modern browsers at the official Card Hunter website. There are micro-transactions for new skins, random items, and gold. Alternatively, interested players can purchase either a subscription or a copy of the Basic Edition.
“Hello there! Welcome to Capsule Computers! My name is Frank! People call me…Frank“…Ok, granted, I’m not as good Professor Oak at this whole “introduction” thing, which is great news because I’m not here to introduce you to anything, instead I’m here to help you along with your Pokemon X and Y preparations! People, we have a little under a month until this game is release, if you haven’t started preparing for your next extraordinary Pokemonadventure; I’m not angry, I’m just disappointed…but don’t be upset for too long because I’m here to get you on your way while also getting myself ready for the release of the game.We’re going to go through some of my key points in an attempt to be 100% ready for the game ahead while also having a little fun. Shall we begin? Alright! “This world is inhabited by creatures called Pokemon. For some people, Pokemon are pets, others use them for fights, Myself? I study Pokemon as a profession!” – P. Oak.
Pokemon X or Pokemon Y:
Red or Blue? Bird or Stag? Cool or…cool?
This is the first thing you have to ask yourself; should I get Pokemon X or Pokemon Y? Some people will disregard this and just get whatever first comes to their mind, which is a way to do it, or you could do it in a more “strategic” way, allow me to explain. If you have no idea about Pokemon games, the one thing you should know right now is that some Pokemon do not appear in both of the games yet you’re expected to get those “excluded” Pokemon to finish the Pokedex (if that’s what you intend to do), so what do you do? First of all choose the game with the Pokemon that you are interested in and hope that at least one of your friends has chosen to grab themselves the other game, this way you can trade the exclusive Pokemon and complete the Pokedex. I, for one, have chosen to buy Pokemon X strictly because I wan’t to add the X-Exclusive Pokemon Clauncher to my team, not only that but at least one of my friends will be buying Pokemon Y, so that’s like fainting two Pidgeys with one stone. If this isn’t a big deal to you at all just go with what legendary looks cooler to you or go for the opposite of what your friends are going for, at least you can help them out with their Pokedex if need be.
Choosing Your Name:
Stand aside Red and Blue! We’re the new kids in town!
While a lot of you will probably call your characters something like “butt” or “ass”, a lot of the other people will choose other names that either reflect them or their Pokemon Trainer Persona, yeah people have them. This isn’t that big of a deal but let me just say one thing: It’s a Pokemon game, you will be playing it for a great deal of time, you’ll also be playing against others who can see your name, please don’t call yourself “Buttlord” because it will come back to haunt you! Choose something cool that will reflect you as a person, Pokemon X and Y has some incredible customisation aspects including being able to customise your trainer so make it fit, you’ll never get to be a real Pokemon Trainer so live vicariously through your character…don’t call it “Buttlord”!
Choosing Your Team:
They’re cute now but just wait till they evolve…they’ll still probably be cute…
So far we’ve been shown around thirty or so Pokemon, it’s a lot while also not being too many within the grand scale of things. You MUST start off this process by choosing your starter Pokemon and, while I’m not usually a grass type, I’ve chosen to go with Chespin and it’s not so much I like it’s base design but I am a big fan of it’s middle evolution, Quilladen, and I’ve got big hopes for it’s final evolution. So start with that, once you’ve made that decision you can go on to choosing the rest of your team and, I know, they haven’t released all the Pokemon yet, that doesn’t mean you can’t make the best of what we’ve got. I’ve already chosen four of six for my team and I guarantee that will change, it’s just nice to have an idea considering these guys will most likely be with you for the entire game, unless you’re crazy and decide to do a Nuzlocke challenge on your first playthrough. Think about Pokemon Types, you don’t want an all-fire team because “fire Pokemon are cool”, there’s a new Type now (Fairy) so maybe think about changing your usual team up a bit. Remember that you can name Pokemon too so choose some good ones would ya’, I think people are sick of seeing “Your Mum” in battle. One thing to keep in mind as you decide is the introduction of Mega Pokemon, are you going to have one on your team or do you just stick with the basics?
Start Badmouthing Your Friends:
The best kind of competition is aggressive competition!
This is what separate us from the animals, people; hostile conversation. Get real mean with your other Pokemon-playing friends, express your hate towards all of their Pokemon choices, make them know that, on the battlefield, you’re not their friend and that their Pokemon don’t stand a chance against yours. Not only does this lead to some extremely pointless arguments but it also gets you pumped up for the game even more! Obviously I’m joking though. I think it’s games like this that need to be played alongside friends because, while they were good to play alone as kids, I feel that games with unique players and unique outcomes are best shared and compared. The development team have given you the option to make your own team and give them all their own names, each with their own (pre-chosen) characteristics so have a little more fun with it. Anything that is fun can always be made more fun, that’s what I think!
Just Have Fun With It:
The Kalos Region Map, it’s your playground!
A lot of people think the Pokemon games are just targeted at kids but a lot more of us know that it’s not just for them, if you feel like you want more of a challenge; start off with a Nuzlocke, if you feel like the game isn’t “in depth” enough for you; EV and IV train your Pokemon. There’s so many ways you can play the game and there are so many ways that people continuously enjoy it so do what they do and make it your own. This next generation is going to open up the door to so many different audiences, with the customisation, the older-looking protagonists, the full 3D graphics and the nostalgic value of the series (that’s how I feel), there is going to be so many people having fun with it, so should you!
There’s less than a month until the next season of Anime begins and a lot of the Anime-fan population are excited for the second season of the hit mecha Anime, Valvrave The Liberator. A couple of weeks ago we were given some pretty images of the lovely ladies of the series in what seems like their very own military uniforms and today we’ve been given, by Aniplex, something I would consider even better. While it’s basically just the one image, accompanied by some magazine scans, I feel like it’s an image that will appropriately highlight the epic events of the series to come. This image may or may not be the poster image for the second season, I for one hope that it is. Check out the image just below:
We can see just by this one image that the characters have grown, not only into maturity but into a great deal of angst and frustration, which is a given considering the events of the season that came before it. Their faces have changed, their outfits have changed and I guarantee that their attitudes have changed as well. I mentioned this in a previous article; it seems like the teens have grown into their very own government, you can see this instantly simply through their clothing, while I’m sure they’re not as formal nor structured as the world government I can guarantee they will be shown to be doing a greater job at enforcing rules and all around leadership and regulations. Who knows? I could be wrong, but speculation is the first step towards confirmation.
As the days draw closer to the release of Battlefield 4, DICE and EA are giving even more detail on the amount of customization that players will have in the game. It seems that Battlefield 4 isn’t going to stop at just weapon customization, but have vehicle customization as well to ensure that players can tank and heli the way that they want to.
Prefer armor piercing over explosive rounds or vice versa? Because that is one of the options players will be given in Battlefield 4 when waiting for a round to start. Perhaps a camo to make vehicles harder to see, or throw caution to the wind and make vehicles easier to see and fear.
Battlefield 4 gives players so many options and new challenges with dynamic elements that it’s really too much to tell about, so those wanting a nice look can check out the trailer embedded below. While those wanting to read the full write up on the “Road to Battlefield” can check out the dev blog in anticipation for the games release October 31st for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC, with Xbox One and PS4 to follow.
Over the weekend the team at Namco Bandai Games began streaming a new trailer for the upcoming One Piece 3DS game; One Piece Unlimited World Red. The game’s new trailer has come off of some news that we had last week which spoke about the three new, game-only characters that were introduced, well now we have some actual footage of those characters in action. Just to reiterate: The three unique and game-specific characters are Red who is the over-dressed and pale man, Pat the talking Raccoon-man and Yadoya, the woman who is shown in what seems like a shop front.All these characters were designed by Eiichiro Oda himself and are said to be key characters within the story which, although is said to be different, seems like it is based around the events of the New World Arc.
We see characters like the dragon from Punk Hazard and Hordy Jones from the Fishman Arc make appearances alongside the new character Red so who knows what’s in store for us. Alongside the two different 3DS XL systems that coincide with the game, which was announced a while back, will also be a download code for both a costume for Luffy which is from the One Piece Strong World film and an extra Marineford Quest where ace becomes a playable character. The new 3DS XL systems will be shipping around Japan on November the 21st of this year, so far the game itself does NOT have a release date so continue looking on the site for more news and info as it is released.
Now you can head down below to watch the awesome One Piece Unlimited World Red Trailer and, if you’re interested in this style of game, I suggest you also check out the upcoming action, fighting game which just so happens to feature Luffy as one of it’s main characters; J-Stars Victory Vs.
In Dodge This!, endless hordes of runners await you. Armed with your trusty cannon, you must stop then from reaching their goal. Meanwhile developer Imagination Studios has armed their title with wonderful presentation, solid controls and familar gameplay. This quirky, casual shooter is packed with fun and surprises, although it may not hold your attention span for long. It’s not perfect, but Dodge This is a solid title for iOS devices.
Gameplay
Contrary to the title, you’re not really expected to dodge anything in Dodge This. Instead, you must fire at cannon fodder and stop them from reaching the other edge of the screen. Again, contrary to the title, they don’t really try to dodge your shots for the most part, which makes the endless firing at endless runners all the more fun. Players manoeuvre their cannon via on-screen controls or gyroscope and fire by tapping the screen. Personally, I prefer the on screen controls but gyroscope works efficiently too. This is all done in first-person perspective but sorry FPS freaks – this casual title has more similarities to carnival games where you throw baseballs at milk bottles than a Call of Duty title. Power ups and upgrades also await you with a slight push towards in-app purchasing which proves to be slightly disappointing. Still with a large variety of enemies gameplay proves to remain interesting. These vary from offensive bomb-throwing opponents and others that vary in speed, hit points and more. Daily objectives are also thrown into the mix to keep things fresh to make earning in-game currency for these upgrades easier. Still in-app purchases seem a little pushy, but if one enjoys the gameplay enough this can be overlooked.
With plenty of variety in opponents, weighted ammunition, upgrades and wacky environments you’d think Dodge This may tick all the boxes for an engaging title, however the formula quickly pulls it down and falls flat. Without a gimmick or stand out element to entice the player, Dodge This is forced to rely on it’s repetitive gameplay and quirky presentation. While it remains entertaining on a superficial level, the gameplay remains all too simple and repetitive. After playing for a short while, many gamers will probably have a very “been there done that” attitude towards the game.
Audio & Visual
For what Dodge This lacks in the gameplay department, it surely attempts to make up for it in presentations. Quirky themes and characters all filled with personality ranging from military men to wizards to chickens flying out of your cannon. Textures are simple and cartoony with bright colours that are sure to bring smiles and animations are fairly decent. It can be a little rough around the edges at times but for the most part the childish atmosphere is enough to disguise the incredibly average gameplay. Sound effects are efficient and and the music is of what you’d expect in a carnival themed title. It’s fun, it’s friendly and it gets the job done.
Overall
Dodge This! doesn’t have any major flaws – it’s presentation is spot on and filled with personality, controls are solid, there’s plenty of variety….there really isn’t too much to complain about. However there isn’t much in the gameplay that stands out either creating a very familiar and lacklustre experience. While it may feel incredibly average, you don’t have too much to lose as it is free-to-play if you ignore all the in-app purchases that are highly encouraged. Regardless, if your a fan of arcade fun and shooting people in the face, Dodge This may still be worth a go. After all it’s free so what’s the harm right?
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Those of you who can’t wait to get some more 
