The first visual for the upcoming live-action film adaptation of Studio Ghibli’sKiki’s Delivery Service has been revealed. The image which can be seen above features Kiki herself with broomstick in hand.
It has been confirmed that 16 year old Fuka Koshiba will play the lead-role of Kiki. The picture above features Koshiba in full costume for the role. Koshiba has stated that in order to prepare for the role of Kiki she swung a wooden sword 200 times a day.
Filming is now underway on an island in the Seto Inland Sea of Japan. Takashi Shimizu – the man behind The Grudge – is slated to direct the movie. Stay tuned for more information on the live-action Kiki’s Delivery Service as it comes to light.
This may come as a huge surprise to many, but retail sources of MCV‘s claim that the Xbox One is tracking ahead of the PS4 in pre-order number in the UK.
Apparently, one store stated that in the 24 hours after the Xbox One Reveal event, Microsoft‘s next-gen console pre-order numbers surpassed the 3 months worth of Sony‘s PlayStation 4 pre-orders. However, it should also be noted that there was a spike in pre-orders for the competitor on the same day, showing that there are some people with common sense left in this community, who actually waited to see what was on offer from both sides before making a cash commitment.
Looks like we know where the UK stands and that internet opinion isn’t necessarily the be all, end all.
Dusk Maiden of Amnesia Studio:Silver Link Publisher:Sentai Filmworks Format: DVD, Blu-ray (Reviewed) Release Date:June 4, 2013 Price:$69.98 – Available Here
Overview Ghost stories are often told to frighten young children or even terrify adults and the entertainment industry has taken advantage of human nature’s fear of the unknown to create multiple horror stories about demons, psychos and ghosts. However what happens when a ghost story isn’t meant to terrify but meant to be something else entirely? Based off of a manga series which started back in 2009, Tasogare x Amnesia began airing in 2011. Now Sentai Filmworks has brought the series to North America under its new name, Dusk Maiden of Amnesia. Does a ghost story with a twist offer something memorable? Let’s find out.
Story Seikyou Academy is a long standing private school which has been expanded upon over many decades, creating something of a labyrinth. Modern school buildings and hallways connect to traditional Japanese wood buildings and some parts of the school have dilapidated to the point where no one uses them anymore. Since the school is rundown in so many areas and has quite a lineage behind it, many ghost stories have been created about parts of the school.
One brave, or perhaps foolish, boy named Teiichi hears the rumor of a ghost living in an old part of the school and goes to investigate it. Upon doing so he finds that this ghost is not only real, but she is also a teenage girl named Yuuko Kanoe who has taken quite the liking to him. After quite the flirtatious first day with this spirit, Teiichi discovers that Yuuko has no memory of her life or even why she died in the first place. She isn’t too concerned with this, as Teiichi is the first person in sixty years which has acknowledged Yuuko’s existence and she delights in touching, teasing and being with him but when he finds her body, Teiichi insists upon finding out more about Yuuko.
Teiichi and Yuuko form the Paranormal Investigation Club to try and uncover more about Yuuko’s mysterious past and by doing so the club is soon joined by the enthusiastic Momoe Okonogi who loves ghost stories, but has no idea that Yuuko exists and Kirie Kanoe. Kanoe’s last name is familiar thanks to the fact that she is the granddaughter of Yuuko’s younger sister and because of this, she is aware of Yuuko’s presence and she realizes that there is a far darker spirit lurking the halls of the academy. What secrets lie in wait for the group as they look into Yuuko’s past?
Upon starting Dusk Maiden of Amnesia, the first thought that will likely cross a viewer’s mind is that it is a simple harem series. Three girls who are charmed with the male lead that selflessly helps those around him and allows himself to be teased relentlessly by the harem lead is almost a textbook definition of a harem. However this series actually manages to surpass the basic harem romantic comedy structure by placing an intriguing well-written plot as the main focus of the series.
The mystery of Yuuko’s past and her death is slowly unveiled over the course of the series but nothing is blatantly obvious. Thanks to the fact that Yuuko has been haunting the school for over sixty years, many of the ghost stories the group comes across were simply actions that Yuuko performed while she was bored. In fact, there are a number of psychological elements at play throughout the series alongside the supernatural, mostly introduced through Kirie. However for every dead end in the mystery, a little more light is shown upon Yuuko’s past, leading up to an emotional and draining reveal that can be hard to stomach.
The series isn’t all horror however, as it’s romantic element still plays a major part in Dusk Maiden. While a bit haremesque, it is clear from the beginning that Yuuko is the main girl of the series. She begins the series with a childlike glee of being touched and interacted with, so much so that she enjoys teasing and flirting with Teiichi to rather extreme level. However as it progresses and their emotional connection deepens, even the smallest interactions between the two is heartwarming to the point of tears in the final episodes of the series.
We’ve talked about a lot of themes so far and a lesser series likely would have struggled to balance these themes properly. However in Dusk Maiden everything is written so well that it creates a fluid series that works so well. While comedic at numerous points, the comedy is never forced to break tension of ruin a suspenseful moment. There is plenty of horror, romance, drama and love to be had in Dusk Maiden as Yuuko’s past is revealed and it all combines into a series that is simply unforgettable.
Visuals Creating an atmospheric world is something that many anime are capable of doing. However many of these worlds are simply fantasy lands or a basic school setting which are rather generic. While Dusk Maiden does take place in a school setting, Silver Link has crafted an atmospheric world that works wonders with the plot and setting of Dusk Maiden. While I usually discuss the characters first, the true highlight of the series’ graphics department is the world itself. Through nice uses of coloration and subdued tones, there are numerous moments throughout the series that are stunning, especially in Blu-ray.
As for the characters themselves, they are nicely handled and have some wonderful facial animations. Yuuko is obviously the highlight here and she receives quite a bit of low-level fan service throughout the series. Her pale complexion and often traditional dress forms a nice comparison with the rest of the cast. It is also worth noting that the series enjoys the use of visual effects such as screen narrowing or highlighting of specific parts of a scene which is something that only a few series have managed to pull off successfully and Dusk Maiden uses these to great effect.
Audio With Dusk Maiden of Amnesia Sentai Filmworks has provided both the original Japanese voice track as well as a newly recorded English dub with this release. Both voice casts are nicely handled in this series and thanks to the limited number of main characters the cast fits their parts nicely. The English dub also does a nice job of handling the numerous emotional scenes throughout the series, with Emily Neves’ Yuuko and Clint Bickham’s Teiichi working well together.
As for the series’ soundtrack, Dusk Maiden of Amnesia sports an impressive collection of background music. Often with anime series the background music simply works as filler and is often forgetful. However with Dusk Maiden each song is played during a fitting scene with a wide range of tunes that fit dramatic scenes, comedic scenes and even the creepy sequences as well. As for an opening and ending theme, the opening song “Choir Jail” by Konomi Suzuki is wonderful and fits the theme of the anime perfectly while the ending song “Calendrier” by Aki Okui has a more emotional impact and receives a bit of variation a couple of times in the series.
Extras Sentai Filmworks actually went far above your standard bonus feature expectations with Dusk Maiden of Amnesia. Sure this release contains your standard clean opening and ending animations as well as trailers for other Sentai products but alongside these bonus features we have an extended version of Episode 12 which adds a little bit to the episode that was cut due to broadcast time.
Alongside this there is a full length OVA episode, which some claim as Episode 13, that takes place after the events of Episode 12 but the OVA is more comedic than anything else as it sees the cast return to simply tracking down ghost stories that existed in the school and more antics between Yuuko and Kirie. Also contained on this release are episode commentaries by the original Japanese voice actors for the series. There are commentaries for all thirteen episodes and they have been subtitled for the viewer’s enjoyment and are a nice addition.
As I mentioned before, Dusk Maiden of Amnesia features an amazing soundtrack and Sentai has included this amazing soundtrack with this release as two soundtrack CDs have been bundled with this release. There are a few re-used pieces of music that are played with different instruments and it is worth noting that for some reason, the opening theme “Choir Jail” is not included on these CDs. However the vocal versions of “Calendrier” and “Requiem” are included on disc. As an added bonus a paper insert includes the translated lyrics for both of these songs.
Overall Dusk Maiden of Amnesia doesn’t seem like a lot from its initial episode which seems like the beginning of a romantic comedy laced with harem antics. However it quickly develops into something far more than that. The small cast of characters work so well together and the story is exceptionally well-written to the point that all of the drama, suspense and mystery feels right at home alongside comedy and romance. Sporting a stellar English dub and a nice collection of bonus features, Dusk Maiden of Amnesia is a ghost story that transcends it’s limitations and becomes a truly superb anime.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Some former Team Bondi and KMM employees -many of whom were released from working on the next ‘Brendan McNamara creation’ Whore of the Orient– are opening up Intuitive Game Studios.
Long time friends Alex Carlyle (lead designer on L.A. Noire) and Kelly Baigent (contributed storyboards for the title, also worked at Tui Studios in New Zealand) are the heads of the studio and will be bringing in contractors shortly, which is something indie start-ups need to do for financial reasons, at least in the beginning. Carlyle commented on this venture and what it means to him to stay in Australia when speaking to MCV;
I really do want to stay in Australia and try and overcome the drive which is leading everyone to Canada or the like. I want to stay here and make games and hopefully be able to sustain a small studio, provide employment and jobs here.
As of this moment, Intuitive Game Studios has a Facebook page, and a Twitter account, but there is no word on their debut project as it is extremely early days yet. We at Capsule Computers are proud that the team wants to make it Down Under and represent the local industry. Employment is sorely needed in the field here. We look forward to their work; support them with a ‘like’ and a follow Capsulers!
DAISUKI Inc. is the newest Official Anime Distribution site to hit the web and so far not a great deal of Anime has been set up to be viewed on the site, that’s normal though because it’s still growing. To help the growth of the site DAISUKI has had a couple rounds of voting, pitching the general public a great deal of Anime titles hoping we would vote and, well, we have…so much so that DAISUKI his opened up it’s third round of voting.
Slowly, round by round, the names get whittled down and will continue this way until submissions end and we get ourselves a nice, full list. This is just part three of DAISUKI’s five-part survey t determine just what Titles you want to see streamed in the future.
I’ve been to the list to check it out and it’s quite big, too big to have within this article so whatever kind of Anime fan you are, whatever genre you favour there’s surely a title here that will get your attention.
To vote for your favourite Anime title or an Anime title you would like to see streamed head to the Official DAISUKI website here. There you can also view the current titles and check on any info to do with the site.
Finally any rumours or heresay can be put to rest, Sony has officially stated that there will be no DRM (Digital Rights Management) implemented into the Playstation 4 against used games. This much welcome news comes after rumours were mounting that Sony may indeed implement some sort of measure against used games after they refused to actually address the issue. Recently Sony had their PR department beating around the bush on social media in response to the no DRM campagains that were rallying and gathering support against the idea.
Apparently the question of DRM had already been answered before by Shuhei Yoshida himself and has just recently been rediscovered. His statement is as follows:
“…any requirement for users to register a game online in order to play it would be left to game publishers. Sony won’t require that.”
But, and this could potentially be a big but, Yoshida made specific mention that Sony is not requiring DRM, meaning that developers will be able to place their own forms of DRM on titles if they so wish, probably in similar vein to EA’s recently scrapped online pass scheme, which required users who had purchased a used title to pay an additional fee to access online features of the title.
Measures against being able to play used games in consoles have been a hot topic recently after the Xbox One reveal event showed that there will be some sort of system in place to stop anyone from simply playing a disc based game if they are not the original owner. I am sure many are breathing a sigh of relief with this news, especially those who like to borrow games or buy used for a cheaper price. Stay tuned to Capsule Computers for more news on the PS4 as E3 draws closer.
London isn’t getting it easy this year in film! (G.I. Joe: Retaliation anyone?)
The World Premiere of World War Z was unleashed upon London, England with Muse performing a free concert for upwards of 15,000 fans straight after. Bring on the Sydney premiere on June 9th!
Courtesy of Paramount, we’ve embedded the Newswrap video on the festivities at the bottom of this article, which includes footage from the Red Carpet, interview snippets from the stars and director Marc Forster, as well as a look at Muse entertaining the English crowd on an awesome ‘Z’ shaped stage. The gallery directly below features images from the night, which better showcase the amazing pyrotechnics display during the show in some spectacular shots.
Also remember to check out our first-hand impressions of the film leading up to our full review near release on June 20th.
Funimation has recently revealed further details regarding the Englishdub of Hiro Mashima’s Fairy Tail. The revealed cast will voice characters from four major Guilds:
Cait Shelter Guild Members
Wendy – Brittney Karbowski
Carla – Jad Saxton
Oracion Seis Guild Members
Cobra – Jarrod Greene
Brain – Philip Weber
Midnight – Micah Solusod
Angel – Lindsay Seidel
Racer – Jeff Plunk
Hoteye – Chris Cason
Blue Pegasus Guild Members
Ren – Christopher Wehkamp
Hibiki – Aaron Dismuke
Eve – Daniel Litwin
Ichiya – Chris Guerrero
Lamia Scale Guild Members
Jura – Kent Williams
Sherry – Trina Nishimura
Lyon – Jerry Jewell
Season Two of Fairy Tail, Part Five of the collection, will be available on Blu-Ray on June 23rd. For more details on the adventure so far, check out the reviews for Fairy Tail:
Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes Publisher: Stardock Entertainment Developer:Stardock Entertainment Platforms: PC Release Date: May 22, 2013 Price: $39.99 – Here
*Discounted price for those that have purchased the original title.*
Overview
Garnering a mixed reception from their previous title, Stardock Entertainment held on to their determined mindset to produce a standalone sequel to the strategy game – Fallen Enchantress. Yearning for success is everyone’s dream, but these guys had already achieved something that most of us cannot proclaim. By having an already published product, Stardock Entertainment could look at the public’s reception and gear the next chapter of the company’s life in a new direction. Did they succeed in this new venture?
Story
As ancient lore states, Elemental was once a radiant world flowing with magical energy. In these times the magical energy was utilized by men in creation of three powerful civilizations. However, this extraordinary pulsing magic could be felt across the universe, and soon immortal creatures came upon Elemental to take the magic as their own. These immortal creatures became better known as Titans and took the innate powers from the world by creating shrines across its lands. Titans found little resistance now from the race of men as their powers had diminished with the creation of shrines. As the fall of men became imminent, later generations were born with the innate ability to use these magical shrines across Elemental. A great conflict started brewing between warring Titans, and the race of men knew well when to play their cards. The greatest magic in the battle’s finest moments was the leader of men’s sacrifice. Magic tore the ground asunder as The Cataclysm took effect.
What is left of Elemental? The land remains but now torn between factions of different races. Two distinct groups are known: The Kingdom and The Fallen. The Kingdom are populated by races that hope to attain life that existed in the pre-Titan era. Yet The Fallen choose to destroy or assimilate their foes into slaves following the Titan mantra. Elemental has known much destruction, but who will rise above all others?
Other than a brief introductory cinematic, Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes does not provide much of a background within the game. Obviously by creating a custom game, you will be departing on your own adventure and thus create your own background story. However, players are able to access “lore” from the title’s website which details the main turning points previously mentioned.
Gameplay
If I had to describe the gameplay for Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes in only a few words, I would say the game is a “hellaciously addictive, fantasy, Civilization mash-up.” Even without fully grasping the world’s lore, players can snatch up this title and pour endless hours into a single campaign. An aspect that invokes hours of endless play is the game’s theme as a fantasy driven Civilization. Instead of building realistic armies like Civilization 5, players can attune their characters to the mysterious weaves of magic and battle great monstrosities of legend.
I feel that without the tutorial the game would be very hard to grasp for beginning players. Yet I did appreciate that Stardock Entertainment did not force its players to complete the tutorial before starting a game. The tutorial goes through the basics of how to make a settlement, enrich your settlement by casting magic, build units/structures, and perform quests. Settlements are the focal points of your kingdom and allow you to expand your area of control as well as provide additional resources. Placement of a settlement can be extremely important when considering surroundings such as mines, free range horses, or magic shrines. Players can also enrich their settlements by casting spells on them to add in the production of research, grain, essence (magic), gildar (currency), and much more. Choosing the correct enhancement for each settlement is important as it may decrease the amount of seasons you wait for new units, research, or money.
Seasons are basically considered the number of turns that an object will take to research, train, build, or move. However, the number of turns can be reduced by decreasing unrest in your settlement, connecting settlements by creating roads/outposts, or performing specific research. If the citizens of a settlement are unhappy, the amount of seasons to create a structure or unit may be doubled or in intense situations almost unattainable. Placing your sovereign or other attained heroes in the settlement may help reduce unrest.
A detrimental aspect that should be mentioned is that the game automatically shifts to the following season once you set a chain of events. At first this seems very convenient as the game continues its flow, but this is a strategy game after all. An example of this would be positioning units in or around an enemy encampment. Let’s say you noticed multiple encroaching enemy forces, and you wanted to move out of the area. You set the destination to a nearby settlement that takes 3 seasons, and as the movement finishes you end your season automatically. A season has been solely used to move one army when other units could have utilized. Granted that this does not always occur, and even in most cases as one army movement ends the game switches to other available units. In the heat of the moment, the automatic change of seasons could be very disastrous. Note that this option is automatically selected in your main menu options and can be turned off.
Bringing in a greater role playing element, quests are available to provide instances for heroes to gain fame. Beginning at with lowly tasks such as exterminating rats, these rewarding experiences can build to grand adventures of discovering ancient ruins or encountering the most deadly of creatures. While performing quests is not the only way to acquire fame, it is perhaps the easiest way to gain new heroes to join your mighty quest.
Let’s take a step back for a moment and retrace our steps back to the completion of the tutorial. From personal experience I would advise you to create a custom match with only a single opposing AI. You can make the game as simple or as hard as you would like regarding the AI’s experience and conditions to win the game. But for the first game I would suggest selecting all of the potential end game conditions, so that you can attain victory your very first match. If the AI believes you to be too powerful, they may concede to becoming allies which would result in an automatic win. However, these are trying times and you cannot just allow the AI to give up so easily… DESTROY THEM!
Alternatively, players can engage in a more rigorous trial by playing a Scenario instead. Scenarios are pre-built maps that engage players in individual races and their personal story in the events of Elemental. Do not expect to complete this match quickly as it may take plethora of hours to gain an advantage over your foes. To use personal experience, I am currently over 10 hours into my Scenario. Remember when I mentioned that this game is hellaciously additive? Yeah, 10 hours just flew by…
Depending on personal preference, battles can be automated or personally engaged. For those control freaks like myself, you may feel that every battle requires your undivided attention even if the odds are overwhelmingly in your favor. However, automating battles can greatly reduce the amount of time spent in battles yet take a tole on your group of forces. I must admit that there was one instance that I believed that I would undeniably falter and pressed automate. I was pleasantly surprised to see that my single, unmanned catapult was able to decimate a horde of archers. Seeing the battle results was a complete shock because I automatically assumed I had spewed money into a pile of planks. Yet I scrolled through the enemy forces and saw that all had been reduced to zero. At that moment I saw success.
Visuals/Audio
Attention had clearly been given to the monsters that inhabit Elemental. In the storyline some of the greatest fiends existed even before the invasion of the Titans. One such monster lies in the depths of Elemental and is appropriately named Abeix, Who Dwells Beneath. Given the appearance of gigantic scaled worm, Abeix has many unique powers such as: poison immunity, uncontrolled rage (immense melee damage), spit acid (damage over time), and fear. Even from a visual standpoint adventurers should know not to go hand-to-hand with this crazed beast. Fill up your party queue with leveled archers and then have a go with him.
Those who are looking to create their own hero will be welcomed with open arms in this title. Instead of choosing one of the pre-generated heroes of Elemental, you can mark your own place in Elemental history by making your own character from head to toe. This includes choosing magical traits, leadership abilities, appearance, and even starting equipment. Once a character is created, this avatar may be used in any future game that you begin. However, stats from previous games do not transfer.
Continuing the line of customization, players can alter the look of their troops by designing their own custom armies. Tired of creating the same ole archers? Under the “Train” icon, a “Design” option is available for those that truly want to customize their gameplay experience. Want archers to wear mage robes? Make it happen with a few changes and even name them something silly like: “Misguided Arrows.”
While some titles are plagued with long cinematic scenes, Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes could be enhanced by further attention to audio and visual development. The initial cinematic does not instill a great amount of lasting knowledge for players as I have noted a need to use their website for information. Implementation of cut-scenes for major battles in Scenario would help bridge the visual and audio gaps in the storyline instead of purely having these deliverables text driven.
Overall
What could be changed in the game? Being one that falls into a game purely for a story, I couldn’t help but be slightly disappointed with the lack of continuing story from previous events through active visuals and audio. Though other gamers may prefer to be tossed into the fray of bloodshed, I like to visualize my efforts in line with the world I am engaging. Other issues that I have experienced and documented through my gameplay can actually be altered in the main menu options.
In conclusion, Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes has been a thrill to play due to its addictive nature as well as the plethora of customizations available for its characters. With a solid foundation for gameplay, the game would continue to be enhanced by implementation of cut-scenes that address major events. The $40 price tag may deter some from an initial purchase, but then endless amounts of hours plugged into the game already can attest to the quality of product that Stardock Entertainment has provided. A title well worth your investment.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Military jackets that make both the women look sexy and the men look tough.
Just the other week we saw some awesome looking, official clothing from One Piece which was based on the character Trafalgar Law, not we’ve got something that I’m going to say is probably even better, if not, more received. Attack on Titan has gotten extremely popular with it’s new anime series release, that’s not to say that the manga wasn’t popular it’s approaching 20 million copies sold, it’s just that the anime has expanded it and opened the series up to more people. With this spike in popularity the “character goods maker” Cospa has decided to bring back their replica military jackets from Attack on Titan.
Looking sturdy enough to fight Titans.
What’s available is both the standard length and the more feminine short length which ends just under the chest. Both come with the military emblem on the left pocket and back. The standard size will go for about $157 and the short version will go for $147 so it’s safe to say this isn’t so much for cosplayers as it is for people who love the series and want an awesome jacket.
Check out the gallery just below for all the pictures of these jackets and don’t forget to hit up our comments section just below that to tell us what you think.
