While the current run of the Medaka Box manga is hinting at a possible conclusion of the serialization before the anime begins airing in the Spring 2012 season, the voice actors for that same anime adaptation are being announced. The voice actor Yuuki Ono has revealed on his twitter that he would be handling the voice work for the secondary main character Zenkichi Hitoyoshi in the anime as found by Ota-News.
This also comes alongside the reveal that Aki Toyosaki would be handling the voice work for the titular main character Medaka Kurokami when the series begins airing. The series will be produced by the studio Gainex and will follow the story of Medaka, an unnaturally strong girl from Hanokiwa Academy who won the student council president election by an outstanding 98% of the votes. She begins a suggestion box that will then take any plea from the student body at any time any day of the year. This however is only the tip of the iceberg as powerful forces within Hanokiwa Academy begin to move on the unnatural Medaka.
The Maritime Experiental Museum and Aquarium (MEMA) in Singapore is featuring an exhibit using Infinite Dream’s popular application, Let’s Create! Pottery. Visitors at MEMA will be able to use the application on 32 inch LCD screens in high-resolution, instead of the average-sized smart phone or on the Nintendo DS. The exhibit provides a hands-on experience to familiarize visitors to artistic pottery.
Let’s Create! Pottery is available for the iOS and Android devices, and more recently on the Nintendo DSi and 3DS. Due to its popularity, Infinite Dreams has released a festive edition of app in time for Christmas rightfully entitled, Let’s Create! Christmas where instead of pottery, users create Christmas ornaments.
If you’re going to Singapore, then surely you will visit the country’s world famous landmark, the Merlion, located at the resort island of Sentosa, also home to the MEMA. So make sure you drop by at MEMA and experience the gigantic version of Let’s Create! Pottery.
Fans of the Armored Core series should be happy to know that From Software’s newest installation, Armored Core V, is adding a new slew of weapons that are sure to turn some heads. Dubbed “Over Weapons”, presumably due to their immense size and power, these tools of destruction are famed for being able to destroy a mech in one fell swoop and look cool while doing it.
Those who prefer to get in close and tear your opponent apart with a sword will want to get their hands on the Grind Blade. The Grind Blade is a stunning assortment of six chainsaw blades attached to a gear. The Grind Blade rips it’s victims apart by fashioning its blades into a drill to pierce it’s opponents with all six swords at once.
The Huge Cannon is pretty straightforward, as it’s name would suggest and is for the kind of person who prefers to deliver one massive blow from a distance. It’s an immense cannon (roughly twice the size of a mech) which seems to be powered by another device held in the opposite arm.
Not too dissimilar is the Huge Missile which, again as the name suggests, is a device that fires a…well…huge missile. This one appears to attach to the back of the mech and will fire upward, meaning it would be perfect for hitting a mech who’s far away and is hiding behind some sort of cover.
The last of the Over Weapons that was so far revealed by From is the Multiple Pulse. The Multiple Pulse seems to be the most peculiar weapon. It appears to be a massive array of generators that wrap around your mech and fire electricty at your opponents. In some of the screens it also appears that it is capable of rapid firing bullets? It’s a little hard to discern what is actually going on when there is so much awesome flying around the screen, but it’s safe to assume that whatever it does, your opponent won’t like it.
Armored Core V is slated for Japanese release on January 26th. No date has been officialy set for localization yet, hopefully it won’t be too far off from the Japanese date.
Heaven’s Lost Property Studio: AIC Publisher: MADMAN /FUNimation Release Date: December 20, 2011 Price: $59.95 – Available Here
Overview:
Many anime have based themselves around an average high schooler who happens to either come across something mysterious or have an unknown power about themselves unlocked. While some of these anime usually involve a magical world being revealed, others introduce winged humanlike creatures with strange abilities to steer the main character’s peaceful life right off of a cliff.
Sora no Otoshimono, or as the English localization from FUNimation is called, Heaven’s Lost Property began as a manga in Japan back in May 2007 and is still being published monthly to this day by its author Suu Minazuki. The series was then given its first anime adaptation by AIC and was aired in the Fall season of 2009 with 13 episodes and an OVA released almost a year later. Now, FUNimation has brought us the entirety of the first season Heaven’s Lost Property, should the series be accepted with open arms?
Story:
Tomoki Sakurai is a relatively average young man who just happens to have a very active libido, making him quite the pervert. But beyond his perverted thoughts, he believes in the motto that “Peace and quiet is the best” and tries to live his life relatively simply despite having a childhood friend named Sohara Mitsuki with a karate chop viscous enough to break a wall. Despite his motto for peace and quiet, one thing has been bothering him lately and these are mysterious dreams involving an angel he does not know speaking to him.
Attempting to find the reason for the consistent repeating dream he meets with Eishrio Sugata a strange man who is obsessed with a black spot circling the world which he believes is the “New World.” Along with this strange man he also meets a sadistic Mikako Satsukitane… the president of the Student Council. After learning about the black spot Sugata tells Tomoki to investigate a certain field one night and there his life changes forever when a black hole opens in the sky and a mysterious being crashes into the earth from it.
The strange creature turns out to actually be a woman with angel wings on her back. She introduces herself to Tomoki as Pet Class Angeloid type Alpha Ikaros and she is now willing to do anything that her master Tomoki tells her to do. With the people around him already being strange, what more harm could a winged girl from the sky do?
The story of Heaven’s Lost Property revolves around the life of this young man Tomoki as he tries to live a rather normal life alongside the Angeloid Ikaros. The mystery behind who Ikaros is, what she is and why she was sent to him all drive the story forward but rather than be story focused, Heaven’s Lost Property quickly switches into comedy mode with plenty of ecchi fan service goodness.
Now before Ikaros even enters into his life, Tomoki had quite a perverted mind but now that he has an Angeloid who can fly at super speed, contains amazing technology and is super strong his perverseness reaches another level altogether. Becoming invisible to spy on his childhood friend changing and groping her, causing hundreds of pairs of panties to fly around like a flock of birds and even turn into a girl himself to sneak into the women’s locker room or bath are just a few examples of the lengths of Tomoki’s perverted nature. In fact, Heaven’s Lost Property is full of various fan service moments and some of it is quite obviously fan service for the sake of fan service, but in the end, the show never actually tries to hide its true nature.
While the show is indeed full of ecchi things and plenty of fan service, there is no outright nudity nor does it distract from what the show is truly about. From the moment Ikaros is introduced to Tomoki’s life she begins to grow as a character. In fact, the story introduces Ikaros as a blank slate which is then developed through various actions and situations throughout the rest of the series in perhaps one of the best character developing journeys you could ask for.
When she is first introduced to us, she knows nothing about the world around her or who she even is besides that she must always protect and stay by her master (as well as caring for a watermelon) . Then, although the story takes more random twists and turns and plenty of moments where you’ll wonder what the world is going on, there is always development occurring in the background for each of the characters, especially for Ikaros and even for the later introduced Angeloid Nymph.
Heaven’s Lost Property may seem like one of the last places to look for an endearing story but those who judge a book by its cover will always miss out on a great story and once you start watching you cannot help but become attached to the characters and their interactions with one another. Just one question remains however, why would a pet-class Angeloid have so much power?
Visuals:
One of the hardest things an anime can try and do is deal with a character that has practically zero emotional range. With Ikaros’ very limited emotions the series actually does an amazing job of providing subtle nuances in her character to let you know how she is reacting to various occurrences around her. This is usually done through subtle animations in her ears. These little touches extend to the rest of the series where the animation quality displays rather consistent levels of quality.
There are a few moments in the show that the characters will be drawn in chibi-like style with very little detail, usually whenever the character is stunned by the occurrences around them, or in Tomoki’s case whenever he isn’t being serious. While Tomoki may spend a lot of his time in chibi-form, the series does have rather well detailed characters, and as I said before, this is especially true to the Angeloids. Now being that the series doesn’t focus around a lot of action, the high quality that is displayed in the way the characters’ attacks are portrayed puts other action oriented anime to shame. As a whole the animation is truly a treat for the eyes, and no I’m not just talking about all of the fan service either.
Audio:
As standard with FUNimation’s releases, Heaven’s Lost Property contains both the Japanese and English voice tracks so the viewer can choose whichever preference they prefer but the obvious highlight here is the portrayal of the characters by the English cast. Brittney Karbowski provides an excellent job handling the rather emotionless voice of Ikaros, and bravo for the inserted song performance by Karbowski as well, while Kara Edwards provides a suitable fit for Nymph’s personality. The only complaint I have about the way the characters were performed was with Greg Ayres performance of Tomoki, as it made the character seem too whiny at times, even when the situation is serious.
The opening song for Heaven’s Lost Property is “Ring My Bell” by Blue Drops and is enjoyable to listen to as a whole, and I found myself listening to it quite often whenever starting a new episode. Those who pay attention to the opening may also notice slight differences near the end of the series as extra sound effects are mixed into the song. Now the actual highlight of the music in this anime is all of the ending songs.
Rather than use just a single ending song and animation each episode of Heaven’s Lost Property will have a different ending song. Now these ending songs will usually always be visually set to something that occurred during that episode and the songs themselves range from okay to excellent in quality. This is quite a treat as a whole however as each song is fully subbed in English so the viewer will never be left in the dark about what is being sung.
Extras:
The first two discs of Heaven’s Lost Property contain only the 14 total episodes of the series while a third disc holds all of the extras. The extras on the third disc include your standard FUNimation inclusion of past and future release trailers but also clean versions of the opening and endings. When I say endings I do mean all of them. Each ending song in the series has been given a clean creditless version of the ending for the viewer’s enjoyment. The first episode’s ending and the thirteenth’s are the same so those are not doubled up.
Those who want the series to come in a collectible hard art box can do so by purchasing the Limited Edition version of the anime for an extra $5 here, but I was unable to review this art box’s quality at this time.
Overall:
Who would think that an anime full of fan service could be so interesting? should be the question ringing through many viewers minds as they watch each episode of Heaven’s Lost Property unfold throughout this first season collection. There are plenty of laughs to be had and more than enough comedy to keep people watching and of course tons of fan service if that is more your thing. Even with all of the fan service the shining star in Heaven’s Lost Property is the character development. While some people may not enjoy seeing so much fan service, they will be missing out on a great anime that takes its comedy and fan service to another level and still shines through with an amazing plot and lovable characters.
Namco Bandai Games have today announced the official release date for Tales of Graces F, which will be the first Tales game on the Playstation 3. Not only that but it’s slated to be an exclusive to the console.
So I’m sure you’re all wondering what the release date will be. Well here it is; March 13th, 2012, for North America. There you have it Tales fans. While there has been no solid confirmation for other regions besides the vague date of ‘2012’, North America now has a solid date set in stone.
What do you think about Tales of Graces F’s release date? Is it to your satisfaction? Let us know in the shoutbox and comments section.
While most games may hold you to playing as only one class of character, being a hybrid fighter is sometimes the funnest option. In Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning you will have the ability to do just that. Rather than lock the player into one specific fighting set, the title will allow the player to do whatever they want with their abilities.
This means that if a player chooses to be a strong warrior who also uses magical abilities at times, they can do just that or any combination of the titles’ three base skill structures that focus on warrior, rogue and mage type abilities. Watch the trailer below to see all these skill sets and combinations in action.
It is tough to survive in a world that has gone to hell, especially one that is as devastated as the one in I Am Alive looks. To survive in a world so destroyed and full of hazards, one must learn the rules of survival and the new trailer for I Am Alive released by Ubisoft today is about to give you a run down of those rules.
As you can see in the video below, the dust is quite hazardous and can kill you quickly if you don’t have a mask. It is also good to get a map and climb up high to avoid the dust clouds. Plus it is always good to be nice now and then, never know when someone might help you later. We can expect to see I Am Alive sometime on the XBLA and PSN this Winter though no exact date has been released yet.
Capcom themselves stated recently that Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom on the PlayStation Vita would not have an actual game manual included in the package, but instead would contain an in-game digital manual. Now it seems that a number of titles will be taking this route as Japanese website Inside Games has managed to get their hands on a Vita title before the handheld’s release tomorrow in Japan.
With this, they found that the package only contains the game itself and a sheet of paper with the various warning messages and firmware update notification. They also state that PlayStation Vita titles do away with the paper manuals in favor of digital ones. However this is not the case, as an unboxing video for the Vita and a number of titles show that Dynasty Warriors Next indeed comes with a full manual as you can see below. Also for those interested in the cartridge size of the Vita’s games, you can find a size comparison with a 3DS game card, Micro SD card and normal SD card from the same website.
No, it’s not your local barber’s newest innovation, and it’s not a complete abuse of hyperbolic adjectives. It’s Althi’s Naked Sheep app for iOS devices, and it’s got a new item available for purchase to give you that extra edge in the finger-swiping, sheep-shearing gameplay.
The Super Ultra Electric Clipper is a purchasable add-on for the free game that “shears sheep at the speed of light”, to give players willing to lay down some cash an advantage on the scoreboards.
Gameloft seem to have turned over a new generous leaf, and are planning to make four of their current, and popular, games available completely for FREE! And who doesn’t love themselves some free things? I know I certainly do, and when they’re good quality apps like these two it certainly is something I’m interested in. Anyone who say they aren’t are either silly, or lying.
The first of the few games is Real Tennis, in which you can expect some damn good graphics, 8 characters, 7 stadiums on 3 different surfaces (the hardest part will be choosing which amazing city you want to play in, Paris, New York, or perhaps Stockholm this summer?), a range of realistic strokes, awesome controls, and a career mode that includes a tennis tour. Grab Real Tennis for the iPhone or iTouch HERE for FREE.
The second game that you can grab for free is Real Football 2012, arguably one of the best football (well, I like to call it soccer) games on the iPhone and iTouch. You can use the app to recreate any match-up, get some sexy custom uniforms, enjoy some amazing graphics and gameplay, and play with real players from 350 teams and 14 league championships including England, Spain, France, Germany and South America. Grab Real Football 2012 for the iPhone or iTouch HERE for FREE.
The next two games will be revealed at a later date, however if you are too impatient for them then just head over to this Facebook site and keep up to date on just what else is next to be free!
