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Higurashi no Naku Koroni Kai (When They Cry II: Solutions) Part 1 Review

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June 26, 2012

Higurashi no Naku Koroni Kai (When They Cry II: Solutions) Part 1 Review

Higurashi no Naku Koroni Kai (When They Cry II: Solutions) Part 1
Studio: Studio Deen
Publisher: Siren Visual
Release Date: 24/05/2012
Price: $49.95 Available Here

Overview:

Higurashi no Naku Koroni Kai (When They Cry II: Solutions) Part 1, that’s quite the name here! This recent DVD collection from Siren Visual is essentially the first part of the second season of the Higurashi (When They Cry) anime series, titled as Higurashi no Naku Koroni Kai. The second season picks up right after the first season, and attempts to tie several things together and move the story along.

The first season of the Higurashi anime series, titled Higurashi no Naku Koroni, took place in a remote Japanese village called Hinamizawa during the year 1983. The show revolved around the lives of some local high school students, and in particular a transfer student who moves into the village with his family. While it initially appeared as a typical sweet slice of anime series, with plenty of laughs and adorable moments, the show suddenly took a U-turn into something very different. Let’s just say Higurashi no Naku Koroni was an anime series with a serious case of bi-polar disorder.

Higurashi (When They Cry) is pretty much a slice of life comedy anime that also just happens to be a brutally violent murder mystery thriller. It’s a very unusual combination, but it’s for this very reason that the anime is so down right shocking and disturbing. Seeing cute and cheerful anime characters suddenly flipping out and commit relentless homicide is just so freaky, that it needs to be seen to be believed.

Higurashi no Naku Koroni Kai (When They Cry II: Solutions) Part 1, offers a much different experience compared to the first season, but what it really does is clear up many things that left viewers dazed and confused when they watched the first season. What’s interesting however, is how self-contained both seasons are, meaning that you can watch the second season without having watched the first season, and still be able to follow what’s going on.

Story:

When They Cry II: Part 1 covers two chapters of the second season, Disaster-Awakening Chapter and Mass-Murdering Chapter. The basic premise and setting of the second season remains unchanged from the first season, if anything the second season actually attempts to make progress in resolving the story and explain a lot of things. The show takes place in a remote and apparently peaceful village in Japan called Hinamizawa, it is the summer of 1983 and a student named Maebara Keiichi moves into the village with his family and immediately befriends a cheerful and happy group of girls at his school. However, he quickly learns a very disturbing yearly occurrence that takes place in the town, in the form of a mysterious homocide. Every year, around the annual summer festival, the Watanagashi Festival, someone gets murdered and someone goes missing, and this has been happening for the past five years or so.

This harsh and bitter reality gravely influences the characters, especially in terms of their relationships. In the first season, we were treated to brutal murder after murder, involving several of the main characters in different scenarios. This aspect is explained in the second season.

The first chapter in When They Cry II: Part 1, Disaster-Awakening Chapter, sets the scene for the season and explains the events of the first season. The protagonist for the season is one of the main characters of the show, a young girl by the name of Rika, who serves as the village shrine maiden. She takes center stage in the story, serving as the primary plot catalyst and the one who reveals the truth underlying the insane and twisted nature of the events that transpire in the village. Disaster-Awakening Chapter ties the first season with the second, and does so in a way that’s surprisingly not very convoluted. The second chapter, Mass-Murdering Chapter, follows a story arc focusing on Rika and her close friend Satoko, and it progresses the underlying plot.

The plot in When They Cry II: Episode is surprisingly layered, featuring elements of science fiction, supernatural phenomenon, and mystery, all nicely mixed together with a slice of life style setting. The story is bittersweet, filled with irony and tragedy, but even so it does a good job in portraying hope and determination, with the idea that if one is willing then they could even fight a predetermined fate.

There’s a lot of elements to the story, and the characters are quite deep too as they have many sides to them, it’s especially compelling to see their darker nature. What made the first season of When They Cry so interesting was the sheer violence in the sadistic and psychotic murder scenes. In When They Cry II: Part 1, this is vastly toned down. While it is still very dark and mature, the violence isn’t nearly as over the top as in the first season, which perhaps makes it less memorable in comparison.

Visuals and Audio:

Higurashi no Naku Koroni Kai (When They Cry II: Solutions) Part 1 is a pretty nice show visually, and while the character designs seem to be quite typical, their unique portrayal still manages to make those tried and tested designs appear fresh. The art style does a nice job in portraying both a happy go lucky slice of life, and a twisted murder thriller. The animations are nice too, especially cool to see the animation style just switch gears when characters go from being adorable to genuinely psychotic. The soundrack in the anime isn’t anything particularly memorable, but it does feature rather fitting opening and ending themes.

Extras:

There is nothing much to write home about when it comes to extras and special features, all you’re really getting are just the 13 episodes spread across two DVDs. The extras are just the usual clean opening and ending animations. This collection features only the original Japanese dub with subtitles.

Overall:

Higurashi no Naku Koroni Kai (When They Cry II: Solutions) does a nice job in telling an interesting and highly layered story. However, it does lack the unique ‘wow’ factor that made the first season so memorable. It may lack the over the top sadistic violence of the first season, but at least we finally learn just what was going on. While the second season can be enjoyed on its own, those looking for the sole reason why Higurashi (When They Cry) became so popular should definitely jump in on the first season, as you won’t find it in this collection.

WWE Main Event coming soon!

Evan Brander-Jones

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June 26, 2012

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WWE will be bring back Wednesday night wrestling with WWE Main Event. WWE will be teaming with ION. Both parties are very excited to begin, a partnership. WWE Main Event will air every Wednesday at 8pm starting October 3rd. Raw is also going 3 hours a week starting July 23rd which is also the 1000th episode of Raw. So with 3 hours of Raw 2 hours of Smackdown, and One hour of Main Event. WWE will have 6 hours of wrestling a week on tv in October. This could be ever good for WWE ,but the real question is where is the WWE Network? What do you think about WWE going 6 hours? Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!

Ubisoft Dates Far Cry 3, Rocksmith & Just Dance 4

Claire Phillips

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June 26, 2012

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The scheduling king was in to work today at Ubisoft, and decided to get some things straightened out. Not only have the company set a release date for an upcoming title, they’ve done it for THREE. The recipients of all this attention from Mr Organised are Far Cry 3, Just Dance 4 (yes there are that many Just Dance games in the world) and Rocksmith.

Far Cry 3 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)

November 29 : Australia, Middle East, Asia and Europe

December 4 : United States

Just Dance 4 (Wii, PS3, Xbox 360)

October 2 : Australia, Middle East, Asia and Europe

October 9 : United States

Just Dance 4 is Move and Kinect compatible, and will release on the Wii U during the new consoles release window.

Rocksmith (PS3, Xbox 360)

September 27 : Australia, Middle East, Asia and Europe

October 18 : PC version to follow

So there you have it, another release date for Far Cry 3 and a European release for Rocksmith. Ubisoft have become ever so slightly notorious for delaying the PC versions of their games, so here’s hoping that Far Cry 3 or indeed Rocksmith doesn’t fall prey to the pattern!

Anime to Watch Before You Die

Luke Halliday

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June 26, 2012

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Recently Japanese media site MyNavi held a poll for it’s readers asking what anime you must watch before you die. The results were determined by over 7000 MyNavi users and as such shouldn’t be taken as solid fact, because you know this is the opinion of random people and this is simply a list of their opinions. Now that I got that out of the way, here is the list of anime they believe you must watch before you die:

1. Clannad
2. Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day
3. Madoka Magica
4. Gintama
5. K-on!
6. Angel Beats!
7. Bakemonogatari
8. Natsume Yuujinchou
9. (tie) Neon Genesis Evangelion
9. (tie) Toradora!
11. Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion
12. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
13. Nichijou – My Ordinary Life
14. Fate/zero
15. Steins;gate
16. A Certain Scientific Railgun
17. Detective Conan
18. Higurashi When They Cry
19. (tie) Ginga e Kickoff!! (a recent soccer anime)
19. (tie) Mobile Suit Gundam SEED
21. Hanasaku Iroha
22. Eureka 7
23. Squid Girl
24. Gurren Lagann
25. (tie) Atchi Kotchi (a recent 4 panel gag manga adaptation)
25. (tie) Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny
27. Nadia Secret of Blue Water
28. Zoids Genesis
29. (tie) Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (first season)
29. (tie) Guilty Crown
31. (tie) Jewel Pet Twinkle
31. (tie) Kannagi
33. Ben-to
34. Blood-C
35. Bleach
36. Horizon on the Middle of Nowhere
37. Kill Me Baby
38. (tie) Kanon (the newer one)
38. (tie) Kimi ga Nozomu Eien (Rumble Hearts)
40. (tie) Darker Than Black
40. (tie) Galaxy Express 999 (the movie)
42. (tie) Baby and Me
42. (tie) Akazukin Chacha
44. From Up on Poppy Hill
45. The Familiar of Zero
46. Umineko: When They Cry
47. Ōkami Kakushi (a Ryukishi07 game adaptation)
48. (tie) Fractale
48. (tie) Betrayal Knows My Name
50. Togainu no Chi

I believe this list is filled with several troll choices, such as Kill Me Baby and Bleach. Also the lack of several legendary anime series leaves me pondering the sanity of some of the users that were polled. Let us know what you think of this list in the comments section below.

Source: MyNavi

WWE13 Live the Revolution and cover.. your.. ears?

David Christison

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June 26, 2012

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That’s right guys, believe it! (or don’t and then check the website like this writer did) but one of this years legends is none other than the baddest man on the planet Iron Mike Tyson. Yep, no no I’m not kidding, remember all those boxing moves in the creation suite last year? Yep.. mhm, dem punches. In all seriousness though Iron Mike was inducted into the celebrity wing of the hall of fame this year so it only makes sense.

Besides, there’s only so many times we can Shellshock or Aw Funk it, John Cena or John Laurinaitis so being able to deliver the knockout blow or (oh please oh please) lock in the ear lock (yes I went there and again THQ pretty please make this happen) should be another in the many treats coming to this years game.

As I’ve mentioned in previous articles OMG moments are a new development for this year and it would seem that executing them is going to be far from easy, you have to be in the right position or situation and at least for the ring break moment: the player will require two superheavyweights and 3 stored finishers to even achieve such a moment. One has to question the validity of this considering what it takes to get even one finisher and why I would risk losing to get three.

The ring break moment has been confirmed to end the match in a KO and it has also been confirmed that we can set how many finishers we have at the start of the match in the match options so the possibility is there but feels cheapened by taking the finisher gifting option rather than earning them. Hopefully more detail on OMG moments will come to light as we draw closer to October and they’ll all be detailed here on Capsule.

Finish it THQ!

Feed. Us. More!

This is better than the new Spider-Man Film

Luke Halliday

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June 26, 2012

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Excited for the new Amazing Spider-Man film? Well how about checking out the earliest live-action Spider-Man film still in existence? I checked it out and my spidey sense started tingling, if you know what I mean.

So what the hell am I talking about? Well it’s an old school Spider-Man fan film from 1969, which was created, written and directed by future Spider-Man TV cartoon writer Don Glut (he even dons the blue and red suit himself).

You can check out this classic bit of fan-film history and what is also the first live-action Spider-Man film in existence beneath this article. Be sure to let us know what you think by web-slinging your thoughts into the comments section below.

Rumour: Team Fortress Animated Series?

Michael Irving

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June 26, 2012

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If EA and Activision are the game industry equivalents of the loud, shallow, attention-seeking people at the party, then Valve is the cool one that sits in the background, not saying much, but has people hanging on their every word when they do speak.

In the last couple of days Valve has cleared their throat, ready to say something interesting no doubt, and people are already leaning in.

Team Fortress 2 is known for its humour, and the hilarious Meet the Team videos have introduced us to all the characters, except the Pyro, so far. That series is finally concluding this week, as the long-awaited Meet the Pyro short debuts on Wednesday afternoon in the USA, or very early Thursday morning in Australia.

To celebrate, there’s a big update being rolled out over the next few days, with the first announcement being a new map and game mode: Doomsday. It sounds like a slight variant on the modes already on offer, with teams fighting to “transport a suitcase nuke full of recalled Mann Co. Australium to American monkeynaut Poopy Joe’s rocket, so he can blast off and hunt down Soviet space chimp Vladimir Bananas.” Sounds like it’ll be just what the salivating fans are looking for.

There are still more details on the update to be revealed right up until Meet the Pyro launches, so keep an eye on the TF2 site.

But on to the most exciting news: Valve has teamed up with Adult Swim, that late-night block of Cartoon Network dedicated to a more mature audience, with shows like Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law, Metalocalypse and Robot Chicken. So far, there’s nothing more than a teaser page (above image) on the Adult Swim website, showing the Team Fortress 2 characters and telling visitors to return next week. I’m not entirely sure how long the page has been up, but I’m assuming it actually means next week – unless it’s been there since last week, so maybe it’ll be revealed when the Pyro video launches. Again, I’m not sure, so just visit regularly, so you don’t miss the announcement. That’s what I’ll be doing.

If the humour demonstrated in the TF2 Meet the Team videos – and the game itself – can be expanded into an animated series, it will be Godsent. Already, Adult Swim’s programming is much the same kind of comedy, so it should feel right at home on the network.

Of course, nothing’s been confirmed yet, so I might be jumping to conclusions here, but come on – a game studio known for its humourous videos, teaming up with an adult-oriented humour television network – what the hell else could it be?

I guess it might just be a short-term promotion or something. You know what, we’ll find out soon enough.

RayStorm Review

Jessica Barabas-Bui

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June 26, 2012

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RayStorm
Developer: Taito Corporation
Publisher: Taito Corporation
Platforms: iPhone (reviewed), iTouch, iPad
Release Date: June 22, 2012
Price: $8.99 – Available Here

Overview

Arcade remakes are a popular app genre, given that they have that special mix of nostalgia and a simple enough gameplay style to translate well onto mobile gaming devices. RayStorm is a title that has been around since 1996 when it was an arcade release, so the question is how well has it transferred over and does it keep that same addictive, arcade style?

Gameplay

The game’s arcade style translates really well to the iPhone layout. There are two different types of gameplay, auto and manual. In auto the ship automatically fires for you, with the only thing you have to control being you moving around and using the special. In manual you control the shot, laser and special.

There are nine areas to play through, but you can pick which one to play, you don’t have to actually unlock any of them. This takes away from some of the incentive to play through them, plus there doesn’t really seem to be much of a difficulty difference between the levels, however it is fun enough to play through them, and the game certainly has that fun and intense arcade feel to it.

It doesn’t take a lot of time to play through the levels at all, especially since the game will be taking you through the level regardless of whether or not you kill all the enemies on the screen. You also have a health bar and a few lives you can go through quite easily, since your ship is replaced right away without pause. Even if you do die then you can just tap the screen and insert another ship in. The process is made as painless as possible, and the game is clearly just about you getting your awesome space ship firing action on, rather than tying you down with things such as going back to the menu screen, or even restarting the level.

There’s an arcade mode and an iPhone mode that you can play through. The arcade mode is a remake of the original classic, from all of the original cut scene videos and whatnot, while the iPhone mode is an updated version of the game with more enemies and updated graphics and sounds. To be honest, the difference between them isn’t something huge, and it was actually nicer to play the arcade version because it had more of a feeling of depth and history to it. Plus it will be of somewhat more enjoyment and nostalgia’s sake for those who actually did play the original.

Visuals

The game actually looks a lot cleaner than some arcade games get, that’s one of the reasons I sometimes avoid such games. Rather than having a constant source of explosions and colours bursting everywhere, like the typical arcade game, you can really tell in RayStorm where everything is and how to dodge and play through it with a lot more ease than you might experience in other arcade games. Yet it still retains that same intensity, because it certainly hasn’t got any less going for it, it’s just able to remain far more tidy and compact in a way that other games tend to go over board with.

The modernized graphics do look a bit better, but to be honest the arcade graphics don’t look bad at all and are just slightly more blocky in a way that you can’t notice unless you look for it.

Audio

The soundtrack for the arcade mode in the game is just as much of a typical arcade game as the rest of it. It’s loud, energetic, and just about as intense at it gets. I’m not a huge fan of listening to such intense music while playing a game, but it would surely help if you were the kind of person who needs music to get yourself going.

The updated soundtrack in iPhone mode is a bit more chilled, and sits in the background a bit better. Personally, I enjoyed this soundtrack a bit more because I appreciate soundtracks that can be a bit subtler and don’t continually jostle the player for attention, but again that’s a personal preference, and if you want the nostalgia then you will probably prefer the arcade mode. In saying that the iPhone music is different, it is still quite clearly derivative of the original soundtrack and can still be appreciated as such.

Overall

RayStorm has all of the charm of what you can expect from an arcade remake of a game, with the addictive nature, as well as the insane visuals that you can expect from a game like this. It must be noted that the game is fairly expensive, and isn’t really all that long, but if you are a fan of the past RayStorm games, or arcade games in general, then this is certainly a game that you should look at getting.

Madman Supanova Perth 2012 Announcements

Luke Halliday

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June 26, 2012

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Madman Supanova Perth 2012 Announcements

Following their killer announcements of REEL Anime and several film acquisitions at the Supanova Sydney 2012 event, Madman followed up with an equally impressive line-up of title acquisitions at Supanova Perth 2012 this past weekend.

During their panel they announced that they have acquired the license to distribute the following series:

Majikoi – Oh! Samurai Girls! – currently streaming in Madman Screening Room, release date to be determined.
Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt – to be released in October.
Is This a Zombie? – the first season will be released early 2013.
Infinite Stratos – to be released in November.

This is a great line-up of acquisitions and I for one immediately shouted ‘GOD MY OH!’ as my head exploded upon hearing they had licensed Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt (a favourite of mine). Be sure to let us know what you think of these announcements in the comments section below.

Resident Evil restaurant coming this summer to Japan

Evan Brander-Jones

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June 26, 2012

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You are not reading the title wrong. The Resident Evil is heading into the restaurant business. Resident Evil Cafe & Grill S.T.A.R.S. will be opening July 13th 2012 in Shibuya, Japan. Capcom has yet to announce any menu items, but have stated there will be special items and S.T.A.R.S. dancers.

Unfortunately the restaurant will only be open for one year. It is worth noting that anything can happen and the restaurant could be around a lot longer depending on it’s success. It is also worth noting that Resident Evil is Capcom’s best selling franchise, beating both Street Fighter and Mega Man. What do you think about Capcom opening a Restaurant based on Resident Evil, and what other game franchises would you like to see get their own restaurant?