Madman Entertainment made several acquisition and release announcements during their industry panel at SMASH 2013. Alongside updating on previously announced titles, Madman confirmed that they have acquired the license for the following anime titles:
Stella Women’s Academy, High School Division Class C3 – Commonly known as C3-Bu, while they did not confirm any plans for a physical release of the series they confirmed it will begin streaming on the Madman Screening Room by the end of this month.
Maou – The full Japanese name of this series is Maoyuu Maou Yuusha, it appears Madman will be releasing it simply as Maou. Other than that no release plans were given for this title as of yet.
Date A Live – There are plans to stream this series in the Madman Screening Room, however no date has been confirmed. There was also no details given for a potential physical release of the series.
Other than those announcements, Madman shed some light on the situation regarding Sword Art Online and Guilty Crown. Many fans have speculated that both series have been delayed. However we now have some clarity on these releases.
Madman have confirmed now that Sword Art Online will start being released in early 2014 with the first of four volume releases. Each volume will feature dual audio and roughly 6-7 episodes a pop. Sword Art Online will be available in both DVD and Blu-Ray releases, on top of that there will be some extras included with the releases such as a collector’s box with the first volume.
As for Guilty Crown, it will be released in much the same way as Sword Art Online, in volumes for both DVD and Blu-Ray, bundled with some lovely extras. It will also feature dual audio. The first volume for Guilty Crown is slated for release in November.
Finally Madman revealed plans to release a new line of Kids manga which will begin with Pokemon Adventures and The Legend of Zelda box set manga in September.
All in all it was a great showing for Madman and it was definitely good to get some clarity on the releases of Sword Art Online and Guilty Crown. Stay tuned for further updates on the release plans of the newly acquired titles as they come to light.
After the reveal of Mega Evolutions yesterday, Nintendo have released some more English details and screenshots about Pokemon X & Y showing the new evolutions in battle and the new Super Training Facility.
First, Pokemon will retain their Japanese Mega names and will not be renamed to Awakened Pokemon as we previously thought. The Awakened forme of Mewtwo is now known as Mega Mewtwo. Each Pokemon that has access to a Mega Evolution will need to be holding a unique type of Mega Stone when they are in battle to evolve into their Mega Evolution, for example, Lucario needs Lucarionite and Blakiken needs Blazikenite. Some of these stones will be available in game but some will be event exclusive. Blazikenite can only be received by downloading a special Wi-Fi event Torchic that is holding the item. The event will be available from launch until the 15th of January, meaning only early adopters of the game will have access to the item. We also learn that the Mega Evolutions are only temporary and will only happen during battle.
Some more details about Super Training or S.T. were also spilled. Super Training allows you to raise a Pokemons base stats by means other than battles. One Super Training activity involves having Pokémon train by facing huge Pokémon-shaped Balloon Bots in a virtual space, with both sides trying to shoot balls into the opponent’s goal. Using the Circle Pad and Touch Screen to avoid shots from the Balloon Bots while landing their own in the goal. It is likely other training activities will also be available and each one will focus on a specific stat.
Another way to train has also been revealed called Core Training which Pokemon will complete on their own. Payers can set up training bags, earned by completing Super-Training Regimens, for Pokémon in their party to use. By tapping on the Touch Screen during a Core Training session players can help their Pokémon increase their base stats. These features can be accessed from the Super Training screen at any time.
Finally, a few more details on the new Pokemon revealed yesterday were also released. By emitting radio waves from its antenna-shaped whiskers, new Electric- and Fairy-type Pokémon Dedenne can communicate with far-off allies. Its Ability,Cheek Pouch, is new to Pokémon X and Pokémon Y. If a Pokémon with this Ability eats a Berry during battle, it will not only reap the benefit from the Berry, but the Pokémon will also be able to regain HP. Dedenne can learn the new Electric-type move Nuzzle, which looks cute as the user nuzzles up to a target with its cheeks fully charged, but it’s quite dangerous! Nuzzle will do damage while paralyzing the opponent.
Bunnelby is a new Normal-type Pokémon that creates its den by digging in the ground with its large, shovel-shaped ears. These powerful ears are strong enough to chop right through thick tree roots, making them a force to be reckoned with in battle. Bunnelby can learn the Ground-type move Dig. On the first turn, the user burrows underground, and on the second turn, it attacks! In Double Battles, a Pokémon can use Dig to avoid its ally’s attack and then dish out damage on the next turn.
Skiddo evolves into the already announced Gogoat. A Grass-type Pokémon, Skiddo has a gentle nature and is said to be the first Pokémon to live alongside humans. Because of this relationship, Skiddo doesn’t mind carrying people or supplies on its back, and it has become able to read the feelings of its riders through their grip on its horns. Skiddo can learn the Grass-type move Leaf Blade, where the user wields a sharp leaf to slice like a sword.
Check out the brand new trailer below and continue joining us as we ride the hype train all the way to the release of Pokemon X & Y on October 12th exclusivly for the Nintendo 3DS.
Earlier this week some amazing news happened when XSEED Games announced that Senran Kagura Burst would finally be released in English in North America. After this news was announced, many European gamers were wondering whether or not this long awaited game would be heading to Europe as well.
Well today it was revealed that Zen United is going to be publishing the title in Europe and unlike North America, the game will be released physically as well as digitally in Q1 2014. Similar to the North American release, currently no price for either the physical or digital release has been announced.
Today the Japanese online retailer Rakutenposted a listing for New Atelier Rorona which states that the complete remake of the first game in the Arland series will be released on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita on November 21st. Whether this is the exact release date is unknown, as Tecmo Koei has not made the official announcement as of yet.
The listing also states that anyone who purchases an early copy of the game will receive a download code for a Peach Vacation costume. Unfortunately no images of the costume were provided, but for those who want to know about what New Atelier Rorona will offer, you can read more about the title here.
Short and fairly boring compared to other Call of Duty videos, the trailer for the upcoming Ghosts multiplayer component spends the entirety of its time showing a series of latitude/longitude coordinates with a date attached to each. Each location is spread across different parts of the world: the United States, Europe, Australia, South America, and so on.
At the end of the trailer, they showcase the classic Call of Duty “Ghost” skull with a date and time, letting us know the “Global Multiplayer Reveal” will occur on August 14 at 10:30 AM PDT.
To check out teaser trailer, be sure to watch the video in the player below this article.
Today Kadokawa Games released the first trailer for High School DxD, though it really can’t be called a game trailer by any means since it really doesn’t show off any actual gameplay footage. Instead it has plenty of what fans of the series, such as myself, like, a look at all of the female characters and their jiggling.
Currently announced only for Japan, and likely to stay there, the High School DxD 3DS game will be released on November 28th and is going to be a game that features a turn based battle system alongside a visual novel storyline. No details about whether it will be an original storyline or will follow the story from the anime/light novels have been revealed at this time.
Today Compile Heart’s official websitefor Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 1 was updated with a few new screenshots which can be found below. While not much is shown here in these images, we are presented with a look at some of the dialogue sequences between Neptune and Noire, their CPU forms Purple Heart and Black Heart, as well as a shot of Noire wearing a pair of red glasses.
For those who don’t know, Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 1 is a complete remake of the first Hyperdimension Neptunia title for the PlayStation Vita and it is currently set to be released on October 31st in Japan. Although NIS America has brought nearly every Neptunia game over, minus one, they have yet to state whether this one will be localized as well.
It has been revealed that Sega will be announcing the results of their “Yakuza Character General Election” on August 18th outside of Shinjuku Station. While not major news itself, it is what the company will be announcing after the results have been revealed.
The company has said that they will be making a “surprise announcement” for the Yakuza series, but at the moment there has been no indication of what this news could be. Considering this is a Japanese event, it will likely not be news of Yakuza 5 or Yakuza 1 & 2 HD Edition being localized, but perhaps a sixth Yakuza title or another HD release.
Music game Groove Coaster Zero will be teaming up with RPG game Puzzle & Dragon for a crossover event. The event begins on August 12th and will feature content inspired by the other game.
Groove Coaster Zero will be receiving a music DLC pack priced at $4.99. The pack contains four songs from Puzzle & Dragons and a special Puzzle & Dragons themed avatar. Three of the songs are composed by Kenji Ito and the last is remixed by ZUNTATA. During the event, one song will be available for free for all players. Groove Coaster Zero is a free to play game available on iTunes.
Puzzle & Dragons will have a new Groove Goaster Zero themed technical dungeons that features Space Invaders‘ cast of characters. There are four difficulty levels available for these dungeons. Puzzle & Dragons is also free to play and is available on iTunes and Google Play.
Eureka Seven: AO (Astral Ocean) Part 1 Studios:Bones Publisher:FUNimation Format: DVD / Blu-Ray Combo Release Date: August 13th, 2013 Price: $64.98 – Available Here
Overview
A sequel series to the Eureka Seven anime, Eureka Seven: AO brings the LFO’s to television after being absent for several years. Fans may be excited to see what is happening in the world of Eureka and Renton again, though the first thing viewers will notice is that neither is actually present. How does the lack of the title character impact the series? Read on to find out.
Story
The series is very peculiar in the fact that it is set in the year 2025 on Earth, which fans of the original series may find as confusing, while those that are new to the universe shouldn’t have any problem. The story starts out in a demolished city as members of Generation Bleu attempt to aid the situation, amidst idol talk of a blue haired woman who had be a great help but vanished. From here, the story takes to the island of Okinawa, which being disputed between China, Japan, and independence has a lot of ill will towards anyone that does not come from the island itself. Because of this the main character Ao, an outsider whose blue-haired mother gave birth to him on the island after she was rescued, has dealt with a lot of crap and whose closest friend is Naru, a sick girl treated by Ao’s adoptive grandfather.
While Ao may be the focus of the show, there is quite a cast of characters, a three man group lead by Gazelle who seek to find their way in the world, the Japanese Armed Forces trying to get a leg up in the world, and the previously mentioned Generation Bleu who continually save the world. One of the main problems with the show is that the characters are pretty quickly introduced and while additional major characters aren’t really added after the first half every person in the show seems to be in constant flux, changing from situation to situation. Gazelle’s group itself goes from trying to earn Okinawa’s independence single-handedly to going off to Generation Bleu. There are a few really interesting characters, but the major problem is that almost no one has set motivations often making it hard to tell how characters will react to any situation except waiting to see how it all plays out.
The episodes themselves are almost as lost and confused as the characters within them. So many of the elements of the show remain unexplained and the things that are explained are often unsatisfactorily so. Ao is explained to clearly be Eureka’s son from the original series, which was set 10,000 years in the future, so time travel? This would explain the Scub Coral arriving in the huge flashes of light, but not really cover who or what the Secrets that the LFOs are combating are, which were not part of the original series. In some way this series is like Blood C, a sequel, prequel, kinda thing that has the same name, but acts very much alone, though in the case of Eureka Seven: AO this is just the first part, which means no resolution or really any explanations.
Visuals
The visuals are very clean and well done and for once almost all the characters have very realistic features, such as hair and eyes with the exception of Ao and Eureka who are stated to be not human, or not fully human at least. There is one other character with made dyed maybe not pink hair, but she herself has multiple questions brought up about her with no solid resolution yet, but anyway all the characters, for the most part, look like normal people. At least the people anyway.
The most interesting aspect of the series are the LFOs, while Ao’s is a surfer robot on a board, the other LFO’s stay away from being humanoid. Brightly colored and with unique shapes and designs, the LFO’s of Generation Bleu are some of the most visually interesting things in the entire series, where other countries’ LFOs are all designed and painted similarly. The Generation Bleu LFOs are also visually distinct with how they are meant to operate and at least do act consistently in that regard as the ranged LFOs will actually stay at range for support.
Audio
The voice acting is certainly done well and at least the voice acting doesn’t suffer despite all the dramatic changes in characters throughout the show. Between the English and Japanese, viewers shouldn’t worry about which would be the preferred version as both stand up pretty well to one another.
The music throughout the series does a pretty good job on encapsulating the feelings during the none combat oriented episodes of the show, which there are a few. It compliments the world building taken to show off what the Earth of 2025 is like and the people that live in it. The opening theme “Escape” by Hemenway is a standard rock style song that captures the themes of Ao trying to find answer, even if there are so far none in this first part. The ending theme “Stand by Me” by Stereopony follows much like the opening theme except focused more on the themes of sticking with those you care about and trying to find them again.
Extras
While this first part of the series has a few problems with maintaining consistent characters and answering any questions that come up, one of the positives of the series is the special features at least does offer a little more than the standard commentary, clean opening and ending, and trailers. In addition to all those standard features is a special making of video titled “Inside the Booth: Eureka Seven AO”, which actually shows off some of the process that FUNimation has for recording lines. For those that are curious about how the voice actors go about their job and the process of fitting the lines to the animation, it gives a lot of interesting information. Another curiosity viewers may find is the fact that there are in fact 4 opening and 3 ending themes, which allows viewers to see and try to pick the subtle differences as the series continued.
Overall
While the series itself has a few problems related to pace and characters, it is an interesting series. Fans of the original series may have far more questions than new viewers, so in some ways it might be more of a series for those less familiar with the series. The visuals are very vibrant, especially for the LFO, Secrets, and Scub Coral those not much else stands out. The audio is very par and certainly meets the standard of today’s anime and the extras have one stand out feature. Though ultimately Eureka Seven: AO suffers from the problems of its story, perhaps the next part will fill in those answers that the series so desperately needs.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Bunnelby is a new Normal-type Pokémon that creates its den by digging in the ground with its large, shovel-shaped ears. These powerful ears are strong enough to chop right through thick tree roots, making them a force to be reckoned with in battle. Bunnelby can learn the Ground-type move Dig. On the first turn, the user burrows underground, and on the second turn, it attacks! In Double Battles, a Pokémon can use Dig to avoid its ally’s attack and then dish out damage on the next turn.
Skiddo evolves into the already announced Gogoat. A Grass-type Pokémon, Skiddo has a gentle nature and is said to be the first Pokémon to live alongside humans. Because of this relationship, Skiddo doesn’t mind carrying people or supplies on its back, and it has become able to read the feelings of its riders through their grip on its horns. Skiddo can learn the Grass-type move Leaf Blade, where the user wields a sharp leaf to slice like a sword.
