Ani-Gamers

Review: Fate/Extra (PSP)

nameslongerthanyourmothers@gmail.com (David Estrella) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:00:00 -0500

Medium: Handheld Game
Genre: Role-Playing
Designer: Shuetsu Kadowaki (Director), Kinoko Nasu (Scenario Writer), Arco Wada (Character Designer)
Developer: Imageepoch, Type-Moon
Publisher: Aksys Games
Platform: Sony PSP
Release Date: Nov 1st, 2011 (US)
ESRB Rating: T for Teen

Like most properties with a visual novel at the core, Fate has had a rough time gaining exposure outside of Japan. Most people know of the story through Studio DEEN’s mediocre anime adaptation. Given the nature of original creator Kinoko Nasu’s writing, few fans have risen to the occasion to translate the esoteric media associated with the series without eventually losing interest half-way. Only a handful of actual Fate products licensed for Westerners exist, including a laughably overpriced Bu-ray box set for Fate/Zero that serves as a reminder of the disparities in how the Japanese do business with consumers in contrast to American publishers. I’d venture to say there is a sizable following for the franchise, but the marketability of Fate is still largely untested. Aksys Games are among the first since Geneon’s Fate/Stay Night (F/SN) DVD release to take a significant shot at it by releasing Fate/Extra (F/E) for the gracefully aging PSP.

Fate/Extra is an RPG much in the vein of the later entries in the Persona series. You assume control of a blank-slate protagonist who finds himself involved in a single-elimination tournament for the Holy Grail for reasons he cannot remember. Gameplay breaks down between information-gathering in the school-themed central hub and commanding a Servant, a supernatural being, to fight for you in the tournament. F/E follows passage of time mechanics similar to Persona, assigning you time-sensitive tasks to do before progressing to the next elimination round. Now, I happen to love the Persona games, so I’m painfully aware of every moment F/E doesn’t meet the standards set by the game it emulates.

To start with, the environments (the school and the arena) aren’t all that interesting, and you’ll stare at them for hours as you run through the game. The arena is simply a collection of sparse corridors that don’t serve much purpose other than to hold an enemy encounter, treasure, or scripted event. The school is equally lifeless, especially once the number of NPC combatants is reduced by the end of the tournament. While the level design is lazy, it has nothing on the Extreme Rock-Paper-Scissors battle system. It’s a major letdown to learn that the Servant fights that awed me in the original visual novel have been reduced to a guessing game wherein you input six commands each turn (attack, break, guard, or a selection from a list of skills) and hope for the best. You can easily throw away an hours worth of playtime by not playing like a coward. After a while, Servants will familiarize themselves with enemies and telepathically figure out the enemy’s command order, at which point you can turn off all thinking processes and grind until the enemies stop dropping worthwhile XP.

So the gameplay isn’t all that great, but at least the story and writing should be good, right? Nasu’s name is prominently featured on the back of the box underneath a screen shot, which is more credit than what most writers involved in games can hope for. Unfortunately, Nasu takes it easy with this one. The only characters that are remotely interesting are the three playable Servants and characters with existing ties to the Nasuverse. The F/E originals are surprisingly clichéd and difficult to sympathize with in their dying moments after having remorselessly delivered a beating on them.The principle antagonist for most of the game is a snotty kid who happens to be the king of the world and spends most of his appearances giving condescending advice to your character, who takes it like a punk. Really, that’s the extent of the relationship with what you’re led to believe is your greatest foe for over 25 hours of gameplay. Everything is scripted so that you’re never at a loss of where to go, who to talk to, or what item you need to overcome any obstacle that comes up, and everyone is more than glad to help your amnesiac protagonist against his incompetent and stagey opponents. It’s so straightforward that it prevents interesting developments in the story. I never really felt like my choices had any impact on my character’s development, and forging a bond with your Servant essentially comes down to “Did you talk to your Servant today?” This is essentially the opposite of my experiences with the visual novel, so I wonder how much involvement Nasu actually had in writing the scenario for the game.

There are choice moments where the Fate spirit shines in the game, though. Saber Extra’s dialogue and vocal performance is excellent throughout, pretty much single-handedly justifying F/E’s inclusion in the Fate canon. Caster is worth a playthrough for seiyuu fanatics interested in having voice actress Chiwa Saito refer to them as “master,” even if she’s the weakest servant and requires hours of tender, loving grinding to compete in boss fights. I haven’t yet steeled myself for a third run of F/E, but I imagine Archer is just as wonderfully a jerk as he was in F/SN. Though I wish the game would make a proper name for itself, all of the call-backs to other Type-Moon properties are amusing. The Noble Phantasms are as flashy as the PSP can hope to muster, and the remixed F/SN music tracks let you know that its about to go down right now.

Aksys Games did see fit to give this game a proper showing here in America with its own limited edition release in a big cardboard box that seems to be the fashion with PSP RPGs lately. The extras are typical fare for a release like this: a small art book and an incomplete soundtrack CD. It’s a really nice art book, though; the hardcover binding and paper stock are above what’s usually done for bonuses like this. I’m only a little (very) upset that the Saber Extra figma from the Japanese release isn’t included, but I suppose licensing deals and price and all those other bothersome factors came up.

I’ll keep my berating of Aksys Games' F/E localization to a minimum if I ever hope to see them publish the sequel, which sounds infinitely more interesting. I’ll just say that the localization is kind of weird from time to time. There are a few embarrassing typos in the script, and even more embarrassing are the occasional fansub-isms that pop up in dialogue, a thing people complain about in, you know, actual fansubs and not a product released by professionals. I’m sure no one at mirror moon got paid to translate the F/SN visual novel, but I’m also sure they would have had the integrity to never have Caster say “OMG.”

So Fate/Extra didn’t manage to become my favorite game despite being a Persona clone with Servants in it. The game is a "fans only" experience that often feels like a chore. Even so, I will probably buy the sequel from Aksys or whoever publishes it in America, regardless of all the bad things I’ve said about the first game. I feel responsible to let publishers know there is a market for Fate in America, so I am compelled to vote with my dollars (though Aniplex won’t see a dime of that, let alone $700 to own the complete Fate/Zero collection). I optimistically await to have nothing but good things to say about the sequel.

[Passable]

This review is based on a retail copy purchased by the reviewer.

Review: Fate/Extra (PSP) was originally published on Ani-Gamers on January 27, 2012 at 7:00 PM. Unless you are reading this in an RSS reader or a blog aggregator that credits the original authors, this version has likely been illegally copied (or "scraped") from our site. If you believe a site has scraped our content, please contact us so we can take action against the offender.

Drunken Otaku: The Drops of God – First Sip

ink@anigamers.com (Ink) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:30:00 -0500

Ever have just a little too much to drink and, due to the kindness or mischief of friends, wake up in some other place than you remember being last? Well, I have to give a big thanks to Evan Minto here at Ani-Gamers for giving Drunken Otaku, a silly drinking-based anime blog I started during the Ani-Gamers lull, a new home as a regular column! You’ll still be exposed to the Great Drinkers (profiles), Great Moments in Drinking (more or less), and Beer Goggles (reviews) you may have come to love, but you’ll see them in a much more ... blue ... environment and on a regular schedule (once a month, blackouts permitting). House Rules still apply, so with those in mind: kanpai!

Varietal: Seinen Manga (Chapters 1-18)
Vinter: Tadashi Agi (Yuko & Shin Kibayashi)
Label Artist: Shu Okimoto
Sommelier: Vertical, Inc. (US)
Cellar: Weekly Morning (JP)
Vintage: November 2004 – Present (JP)
Age Rating: 21+ (or younger with convincing fake I.D.)

Created and written by a brother-sister pair using the pseudonym Tadashi Agi and illustrated by Shu Okimoto, The Drops of God follows Taiyo Beer salesman Kanzaki Shizuku as he tries to prove himself the rightful inheritor of his late father’s estate: a mansion with a wine cellar worth roughly two billion yen. Shizuku’s father, Kanzaki Yutaka, was a world-renowned wine critic and collector who devoted what seems to be the entirety of the time spent with his son to delivering an intricate education on the ways of the vine. Like most children force-fed any kind of topic, Shizuku rejects wine due to the fervor of his father’s obsession (thus the job at Taiyo Beer) and really couldn’t care less about the inheritance ... that is until it’s contested by one Tomine Issei. One week before Shizuku’s father passed, Issei, a celebrated wine critic, was adopted as Yutaka’s son. To determine which of Yutaka’s sons will inherit the estate, Shizuku and Issei have to describe, in the same descriptive vein of their father, the essence of 13 specific bottles of wine within one year’s time via blind taste tests.

While the plot is certainly centered around the struggle between Shizuku and Issei, the real struggle of the story is the exploration of self through which Shizuku has to go in order to be able to relate to his late father. Shizuku has had an in-depth education on the ways of wine but has never drank any, putting him at a severe disadvantage at a blind tasting. Issei has had a lifetime and celebrated career as a wine taster, but only one week as Yutaka’s son. As the plot progresses, Issei doesn’t try to be any more a son to the departed, but Shizuku (with help from apprentice sommelier Shinohara Miyabi) goes through various trials that bring him further and further down into the cellar of the subject that was his father’s passion.

The aforementioned trials are the bulk of this manga, and the wines they center around (all 100% authentic) are the respective heft of the chapters. This is made most obvious via the attention paid to the visual rendering of any panel featuring bottles or wine. Character designs and settings are distinguished but rather average in most instances, while any scene involving wine, wine bottles, or the various visual metaphors employed for the euphoric experience of tasting wine (a Queen concert, a maiden in a field, a merry-go-round, a scene from Strauss’s Salome) come across not as photorealistic but as lovingly crafted portraiture. Any serious wine drinker will love this manga for this aspect alone. To all readers, the alternation betwixt what I’ll call character and bottle style imbues this 424-page volume with a diversity of visuals that whets appetites for the next feast.

There is also a LOT of textual description within these pages: vinter lineages, wine taste, wine smell, how to drink wine, how to pour wine, when to pour wine, wine origin and similarity ... you get the gist. Casual readers would probably find the material a bit too dry for their tastes were it not for the almost beguiling charm derived from the pacing of Shizuku and Miyabi's adventures as well as humor written a little too perfectly via extended metaphors exploiting similarities in terminology between manga and wine (such as the conversation pictured on the right). So that, combined with the almost laughably yet convincingly applied left-field taste analogies (did I mention the Queen concert?) and their culmination, actually makes the manga a proverbial page-turner. The same characteristics contribute to readability for those in the know. Being shoveled information on decanting, vintages, vineyards, etc. can be downright tedious, but it is the mix of storytelling techniques and art that will elicit interest and propel wine connoisseurs through the book. While outright descriptions attempt to fill readers in on the wines as well as the experience of drinking them, the authors and illustrator do a fantastic job defining Shizuku and Issei via glimpses into their preparations for the upcoming battles.

Shizuku, whose first musical wine metaphor involves Queen, describes the wine admiringly as “somehow like classical” but not quite, with “a melting sweetness and a sharp rush of sourness.” Altogether not the most poignant of descriptions, but it is a Romantic one. Later on, readers get a taste of Issei’s musical leanings: Richard Strauss’s opera, Salome, which Issei associates with a “blood scented sensuality born of decadence.” If one sets aside the obvious sweet vs. evil leanings of those descriptions, the context in which they are delivered is as subtle delivery mechanism as any for showing a major difference between the main characters.

The perpetual learner, Shizuku mostly listens to others. When he does speak, usually to elaborate upon the characteristics of a wine at hand or demonstrate a wine-related technique, his flowery meditations are written such that they are more Zen moments of sensory exploration that seem identifiable to those surrounding Shizuku. Even the way he gives advice to people shows him to be a genuine helping hand — a person who keeps in mind exactly who he is reaching out to as opposed to showing off transcendent talent of taste/technique. The latter is more applicable to Issei’s preachy tone. A lecturer at heart, Issei often talks as though no one else is in the room ... even when it’s part of a dialogue. I wager readers can take everyone else out of a scene involving Issei describing wine and that scene would have the same effect. By the end of the volume, the main characters’ choices of musical allusions reflect not only how personable they are but their sense of modernity as well. So far, Shizuku involves the recent present (as much as 70s Queen is recent) and Issei invokes a century-old opera. As wine is consistently referred to as a living thing (temperamental), how closely each critic can pull similarities from their own near history is an indication of who keeps wine closer and who put it upon a pedestal of distance.

Not everything in The Drops of God is great. The pacing can seem laborious depending on personal experience with and interest in wine, and there are a few minor instances where clichés border on offensive and overly convenient: why must the wine wisdom and saving grace in one arc come from a homeless person ... who then ends up knowing the main characters and acting as a judge?! But even if I found myself getting angry at situations like that, keep in mind that I was getting angry because it wasn't perfect. Why? Because this manga is just that good, and I wanted it to be perfect. This graphic novel has actually influenced countries' wine sales and purchases fer chris’ sake. If nothing else, to quote Evan Minto, “it’s almost frustrating how compelling it is!”

[Recommended]

This review is based on a retail copy purchased by the reviewer.

Drunken Otaku: The Drops of God – First Sip was originally published on Ani-Gamers on January 24, 2012 at 6:30 PM. Unless you are reading this in an RSS reader or a blog aggregator that credits the original authors, this version has likely been illegally copied (or "scraped") from our site. If you believe a site has scraped our content, please contact us so we can take action against the offender.

Review: K-ON! (Manga)

nameslongerthanyourmothers@gmail.com (David Estrella) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:00:00 -0500

Medium: Manga (4 volumes)
Author: Kakifly
Genre: Comedy
Publisher: Houbunsha (JP), Yen Press (US)
Serialized in: Manga Time Kirara (JP)
Release Date: Feb 9, 2007 (JP), Nov 2010 – Dec 2011 (US)
Age Rating: Older Teens

Getting into something like K-ON! is a lot like developing a drug habit. All it takes is one fateful bout of curiosity and then a few years later, you find all your savings poured into collecting 1/8th scale figures and importing limited edition Blu-rays. People on the outside won’t really understand why you’re into it. Users will defend their vice claiming that there is no harm done and the whole point is merely to feel good. For a while, you can successfully keep your tendencies under control. At some point, you reach a turning point when you can no longer convince anyone, not even yourself, that you’re on the right track. So, you grow out of it, seek help, move on, look back on the experiences fondly, and shoulder any regret, or you indulge deeper, lose sight of reality, and plummet into the abyss, chasing after a fleeting moment of euphoria.

I feel like I’ve let the prose get ahead of me for a manga review about a quintet of schoolgirls, all members of their school’s Light Music Club, doing silly things and being cute. Even so, I can’t deny the unsettling parallels between drug usage and reveling in the moé lifestyle. It can’t be ignored that there are some deeper machinations at work to have propelled this humble 4-koma gag manga into a merchandising empire that will keep a few creators and publishers financially sound for a time. It’s easy to forget there ever was a manga while the anime has commanded such a blinding presence in the last couple of years (primarily in Japan, different story in the West), and I would argue the franchise wouldn’t be half as successful had Kyoto Animation (KyoAni) not been handed the reigns. K-ON! is one of those cases where the adaptation overshadows the source material.

I would like to stop talking about what KyoAni has done for K-ON! and focus on the manga in question, but it must be said that Kakifly provided an excellent framework rather than a fully realized work. If your first taste of K-ON! came from the television show, the manga may come across as a downgrade. Most of the essential elements are there, but there’s something missing. We might as well get it out of the way now and admit that the missing piece is that deft, loving KyoAni touch that elevates erog and light novels to heights unimaginable by their original creators. While Kakifly competently illustrates the experiences of a group of high school friends, KyoAni breaths life into the world and quite literally makes the characters come alive and sing.

As unremarkable as I make it sound, Kakifly’s K-ON! is still one of the better slice-of-life manga out there. Like any good slice-of-life 4-koma, it’s easy to pick up and effortlessly flip through a whole volume in an hour. There are no ponderous subjects to tackle, hardly any moments of distress, and most conflicts are resolved through spirited enthusiasm and encouragement. Kakifly plays up the sexuality plenty of times, either for a joke or a splash page, but don’t get the wrong idea that K-ON! is some sort of subversive perversion of schoolgirl idolatry (the author isn’t nearly brilliant enough to make that work). Between the anime and the manga, Kakifly takes the crown for having the sexiest content of the two, but even he manages to show some restraint. There are no two-page full color spreads of bathhouse scenes with the Light Music Club, although I’m sure you’d be able to find a poster like that by browsing through K-ON! merchandise.

I don’t want to make any excuses for K-ON! to explain why I like it so much, which is why I need to admit that several criticisms about it are on the mark. K-ON! is about nothing, aside from an account of a high school music club across three years, and occasionally there are too many bare thighs and maid outfits for the typical manga cynic to stomach. K-ON!’s greatest strength that prevents it from collapsing into a sugary goo are its characters. Granted, this won’t work for everyone, but endearment towards the characters goes a long way in one’s enjoyment of K-ON!. While several characters are pulled from stock anime personalities (Ritsu is the energetic girl! Mugi is the kind-hearted rich girl! Nodoka is class rep among class reps!), the execution is such that everyone mixes together well. The anime might do it better, but the manga does a fine enough job convincing me that these people can be friends for reasons other than "we're in the same club". Each character possesses distinct minor traits and are allowed equal time to shine, avoiding favoritism in what is supposed to be an ensemble cast. The clean and attractive character designs avoid the usual anime embellishment, opting instead for a subdued and unified design across all characters. They are “real” enough while allowing Kakifly space to capture the characters' expressiveness.

For a manga that is wholly character-centric, Kakifly makes it look good by keeping it simple. The situations and jokes are such fluff, readers are likely to either grin like a creepy idiot or frown with measured disappointment. Don’t expect too much in-depth musical territory to be covered in the manga, as the girls spend most of their time lounging around in the club room or hanging out in town and each other’s houses. The leisurely pace of Kakifly’s high school utopia covers the usual circuit of Japanese adolescence, from school festivals to club trips. It’s hard not to get even a little invested in the world and characters when it’s made to be so appealing.

The Yen Press release of K-ON! is put together quite nicely. The pages are larger than the typical manga volume, so you won’t need to keep the book so close to your face to absorb the details. Each volume has an abundance of color pages and a few extras tacked on at the end, which I appreciate. The covers and spine are done up in each featured character’s image color and look appealing when lined up. I have minor grumblings about the localization, a welcome change to how I normally feel about having things I like put in a language I can understand by people paid to do so. I commend Yen Press for not writing out Mugi’s yuri-vision scenes after KyoAni killed that noise early in the anime adaptation. However, they dropped the ball by swapping out the onomatopoeia in Azusa’s nickname for the American equivalent, despite how damn near everyone who would pick up K-ON! knows what “nyaa~” is. Yen Press even goes to the length of including a glossary in each volume to explain details that might be lost on American audiences, yet they couldn’t keep “Azu-nya”. Not to mention how poorly “Azu-meow” tumbles out of my dumb American mouth.

I suppose the purpose of a review is to sell someone on a product, but I can’t put it out of my mind the weight one must carry to enjoy something like K-ON!. To the uninitiated, approaching K-ON! requires a blind leap. You either come out of it feeling gross or you discover a new dimension to that Japanese stuff you enjoy so much. If you’re like me, you won’t find out about the dark side of seinen manga target demographics until after you’re in too deep. You’ll most definitely be judged for being into “That Little Girl Crap”, but they can never hope to understand you or your moé. Like with any drug, remember to never take it too hard and always mind your budget.

[Recommended]

This review is based on a retail copy purchased by the reviewer.

Review: K-ON! (Manga) was originally published on Ani-Gamers on January 19, 2012 at 4:00 PM. Unless you are reading this in an RSS reader or a blog aggregator that credits the original authors, this version has likely been illegally copied (or "scraped") from our site. If you believe a site has scraped our content, please contact us so we can take action against the offender.

Ani-Gamers Welcomes David Estrella to Our Staff

evanm@anigamers.com (Evan "Vampt Vo" Minto) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:00:00 -0500

It's only been a couple weeks, but I'd say Ani-Gamers is already off to a pretty great start in our 2012 reboot. We have a couple of great posts in the pipeline, and today I'm proud to announce the newest member of our staff: David Estrella, an anime fan and game design student who reportedly overdosed on moé anime in late 2009 while seeking to understand the Mysteries of the Universe. He is now a shell of a man, eking out an existence by absorbing rays of pop culture and transforming them, via a perverse form of photosynthesis, into strings of words that may or may not be reviews on the Internet.

If you want to check out more about David, you could probably follow him on Twitter, or just stick around to see his first review later today, an analysis of the churning core of the dread spectre: the K-ON! manga.

Ani-Gamers Welcomes David Estrella to Our Staff was originally published on Ani-Gamers on January 19, 2012 at 10:00 AM. Unless you are reading this in an RSS reader or a blog aggregator that credits the original authors, this version has likely been illegally copied (or "scraped") from our site. If you believe a site has scraped our content, please contact us so we can take action against the offender.

Otakon 2011: "The Fine Print on the Contract" – A Madoka Magica Panel

elliotp@anigamers.com (Elliot Page) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 19:00:00 -0500

We were out of the picture for a little while, so here is one of our articles from 2011 that we never got around to posting. Enjoy!

One of the last panels of the Otakon weekend was the grandly named "The Fine Print on the Contract: the Themes, Philosophies, and Birth of a Legacy in Puella Magi Madoka Magica." I must admit to being fan of the series itself I was curious to see if such an ambitiously named panel could live up to my expectations. The panel was aimed squarely at people who had already seen the balance of the show and it pulled a very respectable crowd into its mid-sized panel room, especially given that Madoka is currently (EDITOR'S NOTE: when this was written in August 2011) only available via fansubs.

The panel started very strongly, and I feel I have to give the panelists top marks for their ambitious introduction, which clearly showed that they had put a lot of thought into the content that they wanted to cover. Also praise-worthy was the miniature AMV that one of the panelists put together which set the tone of the panel as a whole — exploratory but still humorous.

The panel hit on a number of different points — the use of magical girls as a allegory for puberty, an examination of gender relations presented in the show, altruism, the existence of the Ubermensch and role of a deity (if there is one) in the shows universe. All of the individual points were well presented, in particular during the altruism and "Where is God?" sections where the panelists had some very good exploratory discussions amongst themselves. I would have greatly enjoyed more instances of this as opposed to the sections where the three panelists took turns handing off the same argument between each other. The panel certainly had enough meaty content to live up to it's name and presented it in an approachable, engaging manner.

Sadly, this is the part where I write up a small laundry-list of niggling issues I had with the panel, none of which "ruined" the presentation but taken together weakened it. Primary among my irritations was the over-use of PowerPoint slides — at some points the panelists exhibited my pet hate habit of reading directly off of the slides and not adding anything to the text on screen. This, combined with the aforementioned lack of debate between the panelists left some very interesting points relatively unexplored. The slides also contained numerous typographical errors — not a major issue in itself but combined with previous niggles was indicative that the content presented could have done with an additional critical look to shore up the arguments presented and provide a more "solid" talk overall. In particular the lack of a proper conclusion before the floor was opened up for Q&A at the end of the panel left me feeling somewhat unfulfilled.

An additional misstep was taken in the middle of the panel when the audience was asked to respond to a small question — sadly this did not go as planned as instead of answering the question participants instead rushed the mic to present their own theories and have miniature discussions with the panelists. This took a lot of the momentum out of the discussion and it never fully recovered.

To be frank, I did not expect great things from this panel — rather cynically I presumed the discourse would be at the level of message board chatter and I was very pleased to be proven wrong. The panelists here have some very good ideas and discussion points tobring to the table, and if they can take what they currently have and iron out the kinks then they will have a very robust and intriguing panel.

Otakon 2011: "The Fine Print on the Contract" – A Madoka Magica Panel was originally published on Ani-Gamers on January 14, 2012 at 7:00 PM. Unless you are reading this in an RSS reader or a blog aggregator that credits the original authors, this version has likely been illegally copied (or "scraped") from our site. If you believe a site has scraped our content, please contact us so we can take action against the offender.

DMP Kickstarting Another Tezuka Manga: Barbara

evanm@anigamers.com (Evan "Vampt Vo" Minto) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 14:01:48 -0500

After the success of their Kickstarter campaign to reprint Osamu Tezuka's Swallowing The Earth, Digital Manga Publishing is now attempting to gather enough funds from their fans to finance the licensing and release of a new, never-published-in-English manga. This time, the Tezuka manga of choice is Barbara, the twisted story of a mad novelist and the strange woman he meets at a train station. It was published as a follow-up to Ayako (as in a spiritual successor, not a sequel), the disturbing historical Tezuka manga that Vertical published last year (read my review of Ayako).

Giving at least $25 to the Kickstarter will net you a copy of the book if and when it is released, giving over $35 gets you the book plus a digital companion with "bonus art and commentary," and DMP has thrown in a bunch of other nice extras as the pledge amounts get higher. (The top prize, for pledging $145 or more, is a copy of Barbara signed by Tezuka scholar Frederik L. Schodt, your name at the top of the credits in the book, and a tour of the DMP offices, among other things.) And the way Kickstarter works, your money only goes through if the campaign is successful, so there's no risk.

As anime scholar Helen McCarthy points out in a blog post, this new strategy of financing publishing based on customers fronting the cost is certainly unusual. However, a changing industry environment requires changing business practices, and I think this is a really cool way to get fans involved and ensure that releases are actually going to be profitable. Plus, DMP is getting more Tezuka manga out there, and that's all I can ask for.

For more information on Barbara, check out the great profile of the manga over at TezukaInEnglish, and make sure you pledge to the Kickstarter right here!

DMP Kickstarting Another Tezuka Manga: Barbara was originally published on Ani-Gamers on January 14, 2012 at 2:01 PM. Unless you are reading this in an RSS reader or a blog aggregator that credits the original authors, this version has likely been illegally copied (or "scraped") from our site. If you believe a site has scraped our content, please contact us so we can take action against the offender.

Evan attempts to understand the Brony Menace.

ink@anigamers.com (Ink) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:00:00 -0500

Evan attempts to understand the Brony Menace in the New York Comic Con Exhibitor's Hall.

Evan attempts to understand the Brony Menace. was originally published on Ani-Gamers on January 13, 2012 at 10:00 AM. Unless you are reading this in an RSS reader or a blog aggregator that credits the original authors, this version has likely been illegally copied (or "scraped") from our site. If you believe a site has scraped our content, please contact us so we can take action against the offender.

AnimeNEXT 2011: Suminagashi – Floating Ink

ink@anigamers.com (Ink) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 08:30:00 -0500

We were out of the picture for a little while, so here is one of our articles from 2011 that we never got around to posting. Enjoy!

As panels at AnimeNEXT 2011 were also assigned to workshop-designated rooms, it was impossible to tell what "Suminagashi: Floating Ink" would be before attending and without reading the program guide. I was late due to hanging out and talking with others after the previous panel, but it turns out I didn't miss much in the way of exposition. When I first stepped inside, I definitely saw a workshop in progress. People were sitting in pairs at tables that bore shallow metal trays filled with what looked like colored water. To find out exactly what it was I had stumbled into, I asked one of the panelists who was circling around the room helping those at work.

While the art’s origins are debatable, “suminagashi” is the oldest known form of paper marbling — decorating paper by laying it atop a shallow bed of water laced with inks and can be traced as far back as 12th century Japan. As explained to me by the aforementioned panelist, the process of letting paper absorb the patterns of ink was used by monks to help extend the lifetime of handwritten scrolls so they would not need to be as frequently copied due to threat of deterioration. Reading up more on the matter, suminagashi emerged as an art form that involved gently blowing, fanning, or using a single human hair on the ink to create intricate patterns and spread worldwide in myriad fashion and form.

Most of the people at the workshop did not seem to be taking as much care with their projects (of course this was only an hour workshop). Instead, they randomly added ink spots here and there in their shallow pans of water and used a small paintbrush to make large strokes and patterns like so much modern art. Even though this produced naught but colorful Rorschach tests and tie-dyed shirts for paper dolls, the results were always quite fetching. Watching the process of con-goers-turned-painters trying to bring their own visions of patterns to life made me, after reading about the skills employed in eras gone by, nostalgic for the image of the lone artisan matching wits against the will of water, the ink's surface tension, and his or her own skilled hand.

Suminagashi seems an enviable art of patience and skill equally open to abstract painter and hobbyist. If you'd like to try your own hand at suminagashi, there's a detailed how-to here, and of course the Wikipedia page has tons more info than I've relayed here. Just wanted to wet your appetite!

AnimeNEXT 2011: Suminagashi – Floating Ink was originally published on Ani-Gamers on January 12, 2012 at 8:30 AM. Unless you are reading this in an RSS reader or a blog aggregator that credits the original authors, this version has likely been illegally copied (or "scraped") from our site. If you believe a site has scraped our content, please contact us so we can take action against the offender.

Review: Lychee Light Club (Manga)

evanm@anigamers.com (Evan "Vampt Vo" Minto) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:30:00 -0500

Medium: Manga (1 volume)
Author: Usamaru Furuya
Genre: Drama, Science Fiction, Tragedy
Publisher: Ohta Publishing Company (JP), Vertical, Inc. (US)
Serialized in: Manga Erotics F (JP)
Release Date: Jul. 7, 2006 (JP), Apr 26, 2011 (US)
Age Rating: 18+ (contains extremely graphic violence, uncensored sexual content, and off-panel rape)

In an over-industrialized Japanese town, 8 schoolboys have found a valuable way to waste away their boyhood years: a "Light Club" in an abandoned factory, where they meet up to hang out after school every day.

But things are not what they seem to be. The club has a miltaristic structure, complete with neo-Nazi themes and German nicknames, and the boys maim and murder anyone who dares discover their secret hideout. That, and they're building a robot — powered by lychee fruit — with the express goal of using it to "capture a beautiful girl."

Lychee Light Club is a one-shot graphic novel from cult favorite Usamaru Furuya, based on the Tokyo Grand Guignol theatre troupe's tragic 1985 play of the same name. It follows the rapid degeneration of this tightly controlled boyhood hierarchy, perpetuated by the successful activation of their robot, "Lychee," and his successful capture of a beautiful girl named Kanon. Amidst growing paranoia in the club, Kanon forms a strange connection with her robot captor, who has been programmed to believe that he, too, is human.

Lychee's greatest strength is its brevity; the one-shot format allows Furuya to tell a complete story with a surprisingly satisfying arc, all while driving home some biting social commentary. My first impression was that Furuya is commenting on Japanese sexual seclusion, most clearly evidenced by the boys' idolatrous view of girls. One says "I kinda can't believe it: a girl, right in front of me," and the dictatorial leader of the group, Zera, declares that "you must never look at her as an object of lust!" Intentional or not, it calls to mind otaku culture's "sexualization of innocence," as evidenced by moé anime and teenage idol culture.

Grand Guignol-style theatre is known for its gruesome violence, and this manga adaptation pulls no punches. A female history teacher who chances upon the Light Club is stripped and then evicerated for her crime, and a fellow student who makes the same mistake has his eyes burned out after a morbidly funny scene in which the boys brainstorm ways to punish their unfortunate captive.

These moments of quirky, black comedy are rare, but they are deftly incorporated into the story, such as a sequence in which Lychee brings back a series of inanimate objects and ugly people in a failed attempt to pinpoint what "beautiful girl" means. There's a fascinating (and horrifying) cognitive dissonance in laughing during a scene involving human beings who have been needlessly kidnapped to fulfill the sexual urges of a cabal of disturbed teenagers.

The two rays of light in this story are Kanon and Lychee himself, who, in working as a tool for the Light Club members' dark desires, becomes more human than they could ever be. By the end of the story, the friendship (and perhaps romance?) between Kanon and Lychee becomes a strong driving force, and manages to leave the reader with a satisfying conclusion despite the horrific events throughout the book.

Furuya's art is a perfect match for the subject, mixing super-high contrast shadows and highlights with intentionally ugly, androgynous character designs. He seems to delight in drawing hair and cloth in particular, usually depicting them as all-black with white highlights.

There's a lot going on in Furuya's macabre epic, from subdued commentary on industrialization (told through background art but never explicitly mentioned) to homoerotic experimentation (the boys fulfill each others sexual desires in absence of a female presence). If you can accept that all of Furuya's absurd violence, including people being flattened from the head-down, burned alive, snapped in half, and raped, is there for the sake of commentary and (in some cases) catharsis, not titillation, you will find Lychee Light Club to be a wholly satisfying, even ... fruitful experience.

[Recommended]

This review is based on a retail copy that the reviewer borrowed from a friend.

Review: Lychee Light Club (Manga) was originally published on Ani-Gamers on January 10, 2012 at 6:30 PM. Unless you are reading this in an RSS reader or a blog aggregator that credits the original authors, this version has likely been illegally copied (or "scraped") from our site. If you believe a site has scraped our content, please contact us so we can take action against the offender.

Happy New Year And Welcome Back

evanm@anigamers.com (Evan "Vampt Vo" Minto) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 17:30:00 -0500

Long time no see! It's been four months since our last post, and we're not planning on letting that number get any bigger. After a year of falling behind self-set deadlines and watching my schoolwork slowly chip away at the time I dedicate to this blog, Ani-Gamers is finally back! Plus, I designed a new content management system in 2011, called "Tofu," and it now forms the administrative backbone of our blog. It has a number of features that should help to alleviate the problem of my schoolwork ruining our posting schedule, but I make no promises just yet.

Since we dropped off into a sort of unofficial hiatus, many of our contributors have branched out and found other anime, manga, and video game websites to write for: Elliot is at UK Anime Network, Ink created Drunken Otaku, Mitchy is at IGN, and Evan (Krell) and Kyle (a.k.a. Lwelyk) are still hard at work over at Insert-Disc. Nevertheless, I'm happy to announce that Ink, Elliot, Evan, Chris (a.k.a. Kit Inaka), and Sean will remain with us at Ani-Gamers as we relaunch for the coming year. And, to those who have moved on to bigger and better things, such as Uncle Yo, Mitchy, Kyle, and Hayley, we wish nothing but the best!

That said, we're looking for a couple of new people to join our team. If you're an opinionated fan with a strong passion for writing words about cartoons and video games on the Internet, check out our Help Wanted page for more information on how to apply.

Now, a little update on the new blog. We're refocusing our content a bit, so, in addition to the usual reviews, expect more regular news briefs, a couple new recurring columns, and more episodes of the Ani-Gamers Podcast. (Plus a few backlogged posts from before our content frequency sputtered out.) This site, is, as always, a constantly changing work in progress, so please remember to provide us with feedback along the way about how much we suck (or how great we are).

Oh yes, the new layout! How could I forget? As you might have noticed, I decided to make a new blog layout to go with the new blogging platform (let's call it "Ani-Gamers 4.0" for theatricality's sake). It's not too functionally different from the old layout — featured posts are still up top and the sidebar has all the goodies you're used to — but now posts have nice graphic representations of their type and categories to the left. Click on any of those buttons to find similar posts, and use the "Explore" tab in the sidebar to search the blog by traditional search or by selecting a type, category, or author.

If you're still reading our humble blog after such an embarrassingly long drought, I want to thank you for sticking with us. And if you're new to Ani-Gamers, welcome aboard! I hope to see you in the comments sometime.

Happy New Year And Welcome Back was originally published on Ani-Gamers on January 8, 2012 at 5:30 PM. Unless you are reading this in an RSS reader or a blog aggregator that credits the original authors, this version has likely been illegally copied (or "scraped") from our site. If you believe a site has scraped our content, please contact us so we can take action against the offender.

Downtime in the Next Few Days

evanm@anigamers.com (Evan "Vampt Vo" Minto) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 13:21:00 -0500

Hey everybody, long time no see! Ani-Gamers will likely experience some downtime in the coming days as I switch us from Blogger to A Small Orange hosting. There's more news to come in regards to the blog itself, but I'll let that slip as soon as we're all set up on our new server. Don't you worry your pretty little heads, though: our domain name will remain anigamers.com, as always. See you on the other side, and keep your eye on our Twitter and Facebook feeds for news on when the site is back up!

Downtime in the Next Few Days was originally published on Ani-Gamers on December 30, 2011 at 1:21 PM. Unless you are reading this in an RSS reader or a blog aggregator that credits the original authors, this version has likely been illegally copied (or "scraped") from our site. If you believe a site has scraped our content, please contact us so we can take action against the offender.

Otakon 2011 : Japan's Apocalyptic Imagination Panel Report

ink@anigamers.com (Ink) — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 22:00:00 -0400

Japan's Apocalyptic Imagination in Anime, Manga and Art, a panel at Otakon 2011, featured essayist and Japanamerica author Roland Kelts, who offered examples of apocalyptic imagery in Japanese art and pop culture, put them into historical and cultural perspectives, and analyzed them. While the focus of his examples was definitely anime films, Kelts went as far back as Katsushika Hokusai's famous woodblock print The Great Wave off Kanagawa (pictured right) to show how apocalyptic imagery is nothing new to the island nations creative focus.

The Great Wave..., published between 1830 and 1833, depicts a large wave immediately threatening boats off the shore of Kanagawa Prefecture. While almost 50% of the frame is taken up by the wave, its ominous nature can actually be attributed to how tiny Mt. Fuji, a symbol of Japanese pride and culture, is by comparison. Another threatening aspect noted by Kelts is the crest of the wave, which seems lined with "clawing fingers." Hokusai, according to Kelts, has often been referred to as a precursor or gateway to modern manga. And with that smooth transition, together with the statement that anime and manga have always been at least in part a response to catastrophes (which Ill explain a little further down), the discussion shifted to the God of Manga, Osamu Tezuka.

Kelts specifically noted Astro Boy, which emerged after World War II, and pointed out how the story uses radiation as an aspect of creation rather than destruction. This "boy born of radiation" shows a faith in the same technology (or along the lines thereof) that delivered such a crushing blow to life not even a decade earlier. Along the same lines, Kelts offered up a similar method of thinking regarding the resurrection of the Japanese battleship Yamato, which was the pride of the countrys naval fleet as one of its most technologically advanced WWII warships. After its defeat, the Yamato came back to life via fiction as a technologically superior spaceship ("Take THAT, America!"). In addition to Kelts also mentioned the birth of mecha as means to fight the disillusionment with current technology. In all instances, destructive new technology didnt bring about fear in art but rather promise as well as hope that what has been survived can be learned from and built upon to become stronger.

Next Kelts focused on two anime film directors, Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, and their specific works. Perhaps to take advantage of Ponyos immediacy, Kelts pointed to this Miyazaki film as a shining example of the portrayal of natural disasters and Japanese natives reactions to them. Kelts focused specifically on the scene where personified waves of a storm are reaching up and over the road with cars, which are trying to escape. Kelts said that this portrayal is not a malicious one but rather a dangerous fact of life. He said that the eyes in the waves had a sort of aimless, "staring into space" aspect that relayed the same sense of natural innocence as another one of Miyazakis creations, Totoro.

Kelts pointed out one scene in particular from My Neighbor Totoro built on a couple of images meant to evoke memories of the Japanese people who went through WWII. In this particular scene, characters in mismatched clothes watch as a man drives off into the countryside in a jalopy. According to Kelts, this scene was one that took place in many homes during WWII as those types of cars were simply what were available and clothing supplies were scarce. In all, Kelts concluded that since Miyazakis family was one of relative privilege and could afford to escape the paths of destruction, that personal history is what colors his work.

This contrasts Isao Takahatas Grave of the Fireflies, which is tied to the notion of not being able to escape and having to deal with the event as well as its aftereffects. Most of the movie, after all, centers around trying to define and etch out an existence after an American firebombing raid consumes life as the children had known it. Kelts said the differing vantages between directors makes sense given the fact that Takahatas family was of lesser means and could not afford to escape.

After a few more specific examples of the panel, an audience member asked if there was a difference in how man-made and natural disasters are depicted. Kelts postulated that manmade disasters serve as an analogy to the evil that resides within all of us. He noted that even historical apocalyptic depictions spare specific countries any finger pointing. Instead the focus of most anime that deals with man-made apocalyptic scenarios open with disasters instead of trying to prevent them (as with the majority of Western media). This further demonstrates the themes of coping with and overcoming ourselves. Natural disasters, said Kelts, are portrayed as indirect, non-intentional ... just a part of life thats meant to be dealt with and overcome. A rather pertinent question from the audience as to if there has ever been any backlash to the depiction of such tragedies reaped a rather funny, rather thoughtful response from Kelts, who said that there have been none to his knowledge but that the popularity of mo might just be that ... another means of escape from economic or climate-based disasters or both.

Click here for more of our Otakon 2011 coverage

Otakon 2011 : Japan's Apocalyptic Imagination Panel Report was originally published on Ani-Gamers on August 27, 2011 at 10:00 PM. Unless you are reading this in an RSS reader or a blog aggregator that credits the original authors, this version has likely been illegally copied (or "scraped") from our site. If you believe a site has scraped our content, please contact us so we can take action against the offender.

Review: Hoshi o Ou Kodomo – Children Who Chase Lost Voices From Deep Below (Sub)

evanm@anigamers.com (Evan "Vampt Vo" Minto) — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 22:49:00 -0400

Medium: Anime Film
Director: Makoto Shinkai
Studio: CoMix Wave, Inc.
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Romance
Distributor: Media Factory (JP)
Release Dates: May 7, 2011 (JP), July 30, 2011 (US)
Age Rating: Not Rated (contains gun and sword fights, but minimal bloody violence)

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Makoto Shinkai is the Green Day of anime.

I used to make this half-joking comparison between the newcomer anime director and '90s punk revival band since both of them make "the same great song over and over." But little did I know that Shinkai's newest film would fulfill the other part of the Green Day prophecy: the moment they stop making the same song, everybody gets angry that they stopped.

Hoshi o Ou Kodomo (localized as the comically verbose subtitle, "Children Who Chase Lost Voices From Deep Below") is just that moment — Shinkai's American Idiot, if you will. It is a distinct break from his typical teen angst stories and a foray into magical action-adventure. The transition isn't too smooth, either for viewers or the director himself, but Children — the fourth film in Shinkai's catalog — is still a beautiful work, and one that hopefully heralds a new period in his career.

12-year-old Asuna is living alone with her workaholic mother following her father's untimely death, but despite a healthy school life she spends most of her time up on the nearby mountain, listening to whatever radio signals she can pick out on her crude ham radio. However, a dangerous run-in with a giant monster in the woods results in a friendship with a mysterious boy named Shun. Thus begins Asuna's adventure into the ruined underground world of Agartha.

You might already be sensing a bit of an influence here, and no, you're not mistaken. Makoto Shinkai has openly expressed his admiration for the works of Studio Ghilbi, particularly Laputa (Castle in the Sky), which made a big impression on him when he saw it as a boy. And while imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Shinkai — almost certainly accidentally — leaves the realm of homage and heads straight into the no-man's land of full-on copying. Oh look, there's the Forest King from Princess Mononoke, the cave shelter from Grave of the Fireflies, the fox-squirrel from Nausicaa, the architectural style of Castle in the Sky!

Shinkai's touch is definitely there, and one need only pay attention to the director's masterful use of watercolor-esque lighting and color to understand that this is not straight-up imitation, but I still feel like there's a little bit too much Miyazaki and not enough Shinkai in the film. His trademark brooding, silent moments are still there, but they are interspersed with action scenes and fast-paced plot developments.

And boy oh boy, those action scenes! I was sure surprised to find that a director whose last outing was characterized by long stretches of waiting silently on a train can create such lightning-fast, exciting action sequences. The film's moments of gunfire and hand-to-hand combat have a sort of whipping speed and kineticism that I've seen only in some of the best action anime directors (and of course, Mr. Miyazaki). Shinkai claims his team studied both Ghilbi movies and the Rurouni Kenshin anime in order to figure out how to animate the scenes.

Children hits all the emotional points that you might expect from the director of Voices of a Distant Star, The Place Promised in Our Early Days, and 5 Centimeters Per Second, but one too many deus ex machinas and a few too many different set pieces bog down the pacing to what feels like a crawl. Shinkai has got to learn to edit if he's going to attempt another movie in this vein.

But let's make this clear: I would love for Shinkai to try another movie like this. It's a distinct break from his previous work, and while it's more of a so-so Ghilbi film than a great Shinkai film, it is enough of a proof of concept to hook me for the rest of his work. As long as he learns from his mistakes and doesn't get stuck in the rut of re-making this exact movie over and over, this director could really go places. He's got emotional expression down better than basically anybody else in the business, and now has proven his mettle in the realm of action scenes. A little bit more editorial oversight will probably do wonders for honing his style.

Is he still the Green Day of anime? Yeah, probably. Is he "the next Miyazaki?" That still remains to be seen, but Children is certainly a fine down payment towards the title.

[Recommended]

This review is based on the Otakon 2011 premiere screening. The reviewer was given a complimentary press pass for the convention.

Click here for more of our Otakon 2011 coverage

Review: Hoshi o Ou Kodomo – Children Who Chase Lost Voices From Deep Below (Sub) was originally published on Ani-Gamers on August 13, 2011 at 10:49 PM. Unless you are reading this in an RSS reader or a blog aggregator that credits the original authors, this version has likely been illegally copied (or "scraped") from our site. If you believe a site has scraped our content, please contact us so we can take action against the offender.

Otakon 2011: Touhou Panel Report

elliotp@anigamers.com (Elliot Page) — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 23:07:00 -0400

Let me be blunt: I am a massive fan of the Touhou series of vertical-scrolling shoot-em-up games, and all the fan-works that surround it. It would take an entire another article to explain the sheer breadth of the phenomenon for a primer/overview check out the piece I wrote for Evan Krells Ancient Technology is Always Superior Magazine.

Being a giant fan I jumped at the chance to attend a panel that explored the series, and as the program guide pegged the panel as being accessible no matter what your familiarity with Touhou, I dragged my friend Gerry along with me to see how the panel would be for someone who knew next-to-nothing about the franchise. So how did we fare, the utter newbie and the jaded fan?

First, a logistical item: The panel was originally scheduled for 9AM Friday, but when Friday rolled around the panel vanished from the Otakon Guidebook app and moved to 2:30PM Sunday due to panelist availability. Its great that staff were able to move the panel instead of canceling it outright, although this led to the new, smaller panel room being packed out.

The panel was headed up by five separate hosts, and was sadly a victim of the too many cooks spoil the broth adage as the panelists would often stumble during transitions from one part of the panel to another, asking each other what came next in the program. A lack of tight forward planning was made apparent around 20 minutes into the panel when an impromptu Q&A was called with the inviting phrase Just ask something, to fill time.

The actual content presented in the panel was well chosen, if marred by one instance of bad judgment. This included both the original Touhou games and some of the more famous fan-made games that use the series as a basis, all of which worked flawlessly on the projector screens. Seeing an average player, a rank newbie, and then a frighteningly skilled player each play one of the games in turn was a good idea and entertaining for everyone in the room. Commentary on the games shown while in progress was insightful, but demanded some familiarity with the franchise to understand. More basic background information on the games and aspects of fandom would have been helpful to make the subject more approachable for total newbies. In particular a greater mention of the Touhou music scene would have been very welcome, as this was relegated to a few offhand mentions.

The one instance of critically bad judgment came halfway through when one of the panelists showed an example of the many fan made doujins the series has spawned. This particular example was called Miss Yukari, Please put on some clothes! and was primarily about a small subset of characters getting buck naked and having mundane adventures while strategically placed word bubbles and sound effects covered their naughty bits. Frankly, this was a terrible choice of material to present and soured me on the panel. If you have to yell Its safe for work! at a bemused crowd then something has gone very wrong.

The Q&A session at the end of the panel was surprisingly insightful half of the questions asked were memes that were quickly dispatched by the panelists and the other half were very pertinent comments such as how to legally purchase Touhou goods, and the best starting point if you are interested in playing the games themselves.

At the end of the day, the panel was a success as it did persuade my friend Gerry to try out one of the games in the series. One thing that could be improved in future instances of the panel would be to provide a more comprehensive initial introduction to introduce the franchise and its self-contained world to people. Another aspect that would certainly help would be a stronger connecting narrative to guide the viewer from one item to another.

Click here for more of our Otakon 2011 coverage

Otakon 2011: Touhou Panel Report was originally published on Ani-Gamers on August 8, 2011 at 11:07 PM. Unless you are reading this in an RSS reader or a blog aggregator that credits the original authors, this version has likely been illegally copied (or "scraped") from our site. If you believe a site has scraped our content, please contact us so we can take action against the offender.

Otakon 2011: VIZ Media Industry Panel in Pictures

ink@anigamers.com (Ink) — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 17:44:00 -0400

After a short delay from the preceding Tiger & Bunny panel, Amy Martin, the person in charge of VIZ Media’s social media accounts, started off the panel by cheerfully announcing VIZ’s 25th anniversary as well as a new website with which to celebrate the milestone. In addition to various other social media aspects, Martin proceeded to announce available and forthcoming manga, novel, and anime titles. The slideshow above is 99% of what was revealed. After the break, there’s a text breakdown of everything that appears in the pictures along with info on a couple slides that were not pictured.

25th Anniversary
– www.viz.com/25years
– Promotions on iTunes end August 23, 2011

October premiere of Naruto Shippuden – Bonds movie

VIZ Manga app is now available for iPad™, iPhone™, iPod™ touch.

www.vizmanga.com
– “Now you can finally read your favorite manga on your computer...legally!”
– Buy once and transport across platforms/devices
– First chapter is always free
– Simultaneous print and digital releases

Future Releases (Manga)
– Oishinbo
– Naruto to see quicker release schedule (volumes 36-45)
– Ai Ore (volume 2) – August 2011
– The Story of Saiunkoku (volume 4) – August 2011

New Fiction
– ICO: Castle in the Mist (paperback), by Miyuki Miyabe – August 2011
– Book of Heroes (new edition, paperback), by Miyuki Miyabe – August 2011
– Ten Billion Days and One Hundred Billion Nights (hardcover), by Ryu Miysuse – November 15, 2011

2-in-1:
– Tenjho Tenge “Full Contact” edition (18+) – Available now

3-in-1 Editions (Omnibus) – Kekkashi
– Fullmetal Alchemist
– Bleach
– Naruto

Art Books
– The Art of Vampire Night – September 6, 2011
– D. Grey Man – Features interview with creator
– One Piece: Color Walk 2 – November 1, 2011

VIZ Kids Box Sets
– Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Adventure! (volumes 1-8), October 28, 2011 – Comes with poster
– Legend of Zelda (volumes 1-10), October 25, 2011 – comes with poster

VIZ Media Box Set
– Fullmetal Alchemist (volumes 1-27) – November 1, 2011 – Comes with light novel and poster

Specialty Books
– Naruto: The Official Character Data Book – January 2012
– Studio Ghibli’s Arriety – January 2012: The Art of Arriety, Arriety Film Comics (volumes 1-2), Arriety Picture Book
– Bleach MASKED: Official Character Book 2 – March 2012

New for Shojo Beat
– A Devil and Her Love Song – February 2012
– Dawn of the Arcana – December 2011
– The Earl and the Fairy – March 2012
– Hana Kimi (3-in-1), March 2012
– Skip Beat

Available Now
– Meet Mameshiba!
– Mameshiba On the Loose!

Special Format
– Mameshiba (Heart) Winter – November 2011
– Pokemon Magnetic Playbook – November 2011

Newest Pokemon Movie
– Zoroark: Master of Illusions – Video and manga – DVD: September 20, 2011

Coming Soon
– Fluffy, Fluffy Cinnamonroll – January 2012
– Voltron Force – Old crew trains new crew – Spring 2012

New for VIZ Kids (April 2012)
– Mr. Men Little Miss
– Little Miss Sunshine: It’s Always Sunny in Dillydale

Key Summer Releases (DVD)
– Vampire Night Guilty (volume 3)
– Kekkashi Set 2 – August 23, 2011
– Hero 108
– Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva (November 8, 2011)

Continued Simulcasts
– Tiger & Bunny
– Blue Exorcist
– Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan
– Blue Dragon (uncut), If numbers are good enough, this may see a physical release.

Click here for more of our Otakon 2011 coverage

Otakon 2011: VIZ Media Industry Panel in Pictures was originally published on Ani-Gamers on August 7, 2011 at 5:44 PM. Unless you are reading this in an RSS reader or a blog aggregator that credits the original authors, this version has likely been illegally copied (or "scraped") from our site. If you believe a site has scraped our content, please contact us so we can take action against the offender.

Review: Silent Hill – Homecoming (360)

hayleym@anigamers.com (Mehket) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 15:00:00 -0400

Genre: Survival horror
Designers: Jason Allen (Lead Designer), Jeremy Lee (Producer)
Developer: Double Helix Games
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: PS3, Windows, Xbox 360
Release Dates: Sep. 30, 2008 (US/CA), Feb. 27, 2009 (EU), May 12, 2009 (AU)
ESRB Rating: M for Mature

Silent Hill: Homecoming proves that a game series can still remain scary and true to itself while changing elements that define it. Homecoming follows a man named Alex Shepherd whose family was one of the four founding families of Shepherds Glen, a town located across Toluca Lake from Silent Hill. Waking from a dream in which he sees his younger brother running away while exploring a hellish hospital, Alex returns to Shepherds Glen in order to find his missing brother. Things are worse than he first imagined, though, as his mother is catatonic, his mentally abusive father has abandoned the family, and a childhood friend reports that more people go missing every day. As he continues chasing after his brother, talking to several of the citys prominent leaders in the process, he travels through Shepherds Glen and Silent Hill, discovering the truth to Joshs disappearance and the secret history of his familys heritage.

The storyline itself is very interesting, and the symbolism involved is rather profound. Taking its enemies into the darker corners of Alexs past, the creators at Konami have once again hinted towards the truth through bosses, enemies, and sceneries, mixing symbolism with the background to the game. Enemies, which range from nurses to underwater lurkers to creatures which walk on needles, are all scary but rather easy to kill given the right weapon. It takes very little practice to master the games combat system, yet fighting on the whole is somewhat clunky. Alex receives a variety of weapons throughout the game, and it is explained that he can handle most without training due to his background in the military. Therefore, Alex easily wields weapons such as knives, pipes, and even guns, but the game does a somewhat poor job of making combat as seamless as possible. Guns tend to lag when fired, and enemies will freeze for split seconds when shot. It is much more efficient and satisfying to play the game without guns at all, but when the time calls for some heavy firepower, players will be met with a bit of lag.

The sights and sounds in Homecoming are highly impressive. The graphics appear to be taken out of an old photoshoot, as there is always a bit of fading in the details of scenery and characters, particularly in the hellish versions of Silent Hill and Shepherds Glen. Rather than taking away from the experience, this touch makes the events that are happening truly seem otherworldly. Overall, graphics are very bleak and gray while nightmarish and dark in the hell counterparts, making for a beautifully disturbing game. Lighting is once again a crucial factor, as enemies are attracted to Alexs flashlight as well as light from objects such as televisions. However, on default mode, the game is almost too dark, to the point that players will have to turn the brightness level up just to see what they are doing. It is nice when things are dark and scary, but there is a point when players just have to be aware of their surroundings. The sounds of the game are just as good as the graphics, and voice acting is also well done. The only flaw is that dialogue is spoken very softly, making it difficult for players to hear at times. Subtitles help immensely, but surprisingly subtitles oftentimes do not align with what characters are saying. A word or two is off or the timing is wrong, making it difficult to follow along if players are relying solely on subtitles (which they should not have to do). However, the soundtrack to the game is phenomenal, and Akira Yamaoka has once again made magic with gruesome sounds and terrifying noises.

The game features a lot of exploration, and maps are, as they are in all Silent Hill games, extremely helpful. Traveling in the game can get pretty tedious, though, as players will backtrack through multiple areas numerous times in order to gain new items, talk to different people, or simply retrace their steps. Save points are scattered haphazardly around the worlds of Silent Hill and Shepherds Glen as well, making it hard to gauge when the next save point will be. Some save points come within five minutes of each other; others may take up to an hour to find. Furthermore, Homecomings puzzles can be a bit tiresome, including several tablet puzzles where players need to move pieces on a board in just the right way to proceed. These are frustrating, in that when a player gets stuck, they must exit and return in order to reset the puzzle, if it resets at all. With the lack of save points in certain areas, this can make for some disgruntled players. There are plenty of hidden items to find during Alexs travels, including photos taken of the various Shepherds Glen citizens, drawings left behind by Josh to be used as clues, and powerful weapons. Obtaining these items can be tricky at times, but the rewards are relatively good. Not only are there achievements to be unlocked, but they add a layer to the overarching story that makes it worthwhile to explore. With so many items to find, the inventory system is laid out somewhat nicely, yet it stops overall gameplay and can be tricky to maneuver when in the middle of combat, as players must choose from a wheel what items they wish to use.

Silent Hill: Homecoming has its flaws, but compared to the entire game, theyre actually relatively minor. The game itself is a great, in-depth story that is both horrific and inspiring. With five available endings for players, along with many unlockable items including outfits and weapons, there are plenty of reasons to replay this game. Achievements are relatively easy to get, as it only takes two or three playthroughs to unlock them all, but with such a good storyline, players will want to play it to relive the experience instead of just obtaining points.

[Highly Recommended]

This review is based on a retail copy of the Xbox 360 version, purchased by the reviewer.

Review: Silent Hill – Homecoming (360) was originally published on Ani-Gamers on July 27, 2011 at 3:00 PM. Unless you are reading this in an RSS reader or a blog aggregator that credits the original authors, this version has likely been illegally copied (or "scraped") from our site. If you believe a site has scraped our content, please contact us so we can take action against the offender.

New Uncle Yo Album: Matching Hair Clips

evanm@anigamers.com (Evan "Vampt Vo" Minto) — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 09:05:00 -0400

Surely you've missed Uncle Yo, the anime reviewer who contributed a lot of great reviews to Ani-Gamers early in our blogging career. He's been off working on his "otaku comedy" stand-up routine for over a year now, which is why you haven't heard much from him on the site, but now he's got a new album, featuring live recordings of some of his best routines. Check it out and support Uncle Yo!

iTunes Link
Amazon Link

New Uncle Yo Album: Matching Hair Clips was originally published on Ani-Gamers on July 26, 2011 at 9:05 AM. Unless you are reading this in an RSS reader or a blog aggregator that credits the original authors, this version has likely been illegally copied (or "scraped") from our site. If you believe a site has scraped our content, please contact us so we can take action against the offender.

CPAC 2011: Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls as Visual Culture

ink@anigamers.com (Ink) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 13:00:00 -0400

Dolls. Is anything in real life creepier? Forget about the associated gender bias for one moment (dolls vs. action figures) and think: if you saw a random stranger talking to, animating the movements of, and interacting on a seemingly bidirectional level with any other inanimate object a lamp, a tinfoil helmet, a severed lock of a former lovers hair, youd think that person insane. Yet as toys, dolls grant their owners a certain degree of amnesty from such critique so long as they fall within a certain culturally agreed upon age range and exhibit gender identity appropriateness in their choice of playthings. Even doll owners who defy those socially embedded norms are not immediately deemed insane. Why then are Ball-Jointed Dolls (BJDs) and their owners so ostracized? At the Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls as Visual Culture panel at Castle Point Anime Convention (CPAC) 2011, panelist "Tempest Strife" explained efforts required by the hobby, how those foster owner attachment to the dolls, and how physical aspects of the dolls as well as traits of their owners are exploited by the media in order to shape public opinion.

Tempest started off by setting BJDs apart from their plastic counterparts by noting how the latter is comprised of mass-manufactured, static, non-polished, semi-posable figurines: pre-made molds around which owners minds must build a plausible reality or personality. On the other hand, BJDs are hand-crafted and fully customizable and allow owners to make the dolls in their own image. This doll as avatar idea even comes across in one of the manufacturers (Volks) mantras of building another yourself. This is no understatement. BJDs can be customized to the buyers desire with regards to skin tone, eyes, appendages, body type, and hair in addition to the myriad outfits and accessories available to adorn the laboriously conceived mini-me. Ms. Strife also pointed out that the amount of time and number of decisions that went into the conception of each BJD added to the sense of anticipation and attachment experienced between the completion of an order and its arrival. If this wait is likened to the months parents nervously spend waiting for their own baby to be born, it is possible to see the kind of attachment BJD owners form with their other themselves.

Concerning the levels of attachment betwixt owners of regular dolls vs. BJDs, depth of feeling is further differentiated by semantics of acquisition. Whereas regular dolls are bought, BJDs are brought home. This may seem an inconsequential difference, but what follows is definitely not. It is common for BJD owners to record, via video and photographs, box openings and celebrate such arrivals as births. These photo welcomings arent the only media-based evidence used to accuse BJD owners of obsession. Pride taken by owners in their BJD customization efforts, the giving of form to secret dreams in an aesthetic representative of the owners own style, can only be fully realized when appreciated by others. So those involved with the hobby often attend public meets and publish their collections on the Internet in presentations that range from photo shoots to photo stories. This form of presentation is not original. Hans Bellmer, a German artist, used life-sized pubescent dolls as the subjects for his photographs, which were published in surrealist journals and arguably started the tradition of doll-based photo stories. However, one quick look at BellmersWikipedia page will explain the ringing of modern societys prude alarm.

While most of us in the USA are uncomfortable with public (and even private) nakedness, there exists a major difference when it is seen in what is perceived as a childs hobby vs. art and an anatomically correct vs. neutered state. This nervousness is what sparks the playground-style teasing seen in Western media coverage of BJDs. Not a single news story fails to mention the presence of genitalia on BJDs, which stands in stark contrast to neutered dolls such as Barbie and G.I. Joe. Other common elements in newscasts used to persecute BJDs include removing the dolls wig to make it seem sickly or less recognizably human; focusing on the cost per doll, which can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars; and even automating the dolls movements, such as spinning its head or raising/lowering an appendage, to make it look possessed or unnatural. Over-exaggerated examples of BJDs are not the only focus of finger-pointing newscasters. Tempest pointed out that Western broadcasts specifically target the nervous, the fidgety, the socially awkward for on-camera shock value and the ratings that come with it (or at least to keep the news anchors entertained). This is complemented further by the portrayal of BJD owners as obsessive, which is reinforced when the fact that it is rare to find a BJD owner who only has one doll is combined with the aforementioned statements about cost and emotional attachment. BJD owners are not only interviewed in the USA (of course), however, but their treatment and the story focus tends to vary greatly.

In Japanese media, for example, news stories shows both sexes treating dolls as children. What the West perceives as an obsession translates to almost parental pride. There is a certain air of honor concerning the degree of caretaking required for BJDs, and the bestowing of names, personalities, and back stories is seen as a creative act rather than psychotic. One additional difference is in the focus on obsession, which is seen as a great joy derived from the size of the collection as opposed to a fixation on customization.

According to Tempest, dolls are seen by many as creepy to begin with, because the figures can seem so uncannily human and yet are static ... almost corpse-like. It could be said then that the juxtaposition of these concepts elicits a knee-jerk emotional reaction to the innate fear of death. Ms. Strife did an excellent job of exploring and explaining aspects of the dolls and their owners that Western society generally finds creepy. She also was quite adept at pointing out the cultural bias at work in the Western media and mindset that ostracizes BJDs and those that dare to love them. I say and wholly mean the latter because the panelist, whether knowingly or subconsciously, kept stroking her BJDs hair or caressing its arm whenever she walked near it, and that sort of affection for an inanimate object (at least to me) is just plain creepy.

* Individual doll pictures are of Tempest Strife's BJD, which she was kind enough to share with the panel audience. Group photos were taken at AnimeNEXT 2011.

Click here for more of our CPAC 2011 coverage

CPAC 2011: Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls as Visual Culture was originally published on Ani-Gamers on July 25, 2011 at 1:00 PM. Unless you are reading this in an RSS reader or a blog aggregator that credits the original authors, this version has likely been illegally copied (or "scraped") from our site. If you believe a site has scraped our content, please contact us so we can take action against the offender.

Announcing "Otaku Bingo": Otakon 2011 Edition

evanm@anigamers.com (Evan "Vampt Vo" Minto) — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 14:00:00 -0400

We love Otakon here at Ani-Gamers. For the past few years we've been eagerly heading down to Charm City to meet up with fellow bloggers, speak with awesome guests, and take in the stunning variety of fan panels on display at the convention. But this year (July 29-31) is going to be EVEN BETTER.

In addition to Ink and I (who have been attending the con for a few years now), our very own and very British Elliot Page will be coming to the States to attend and cover the convention. And if that's not exciting enough, we're running "Fandom & Criticism: The Art of Active Viewing" on Friday at 6 PM, with all three Ani-Gamers bloggers talking about what it means to be both a fan and a critic, and how those two viewing styles interact. Trust us, this is going to be a great panel; we've gotten some really insightful audience participation at previous versions of it.

Now that I've spoiled the surprise in the title but led you on for two paragraphs of typical pre-con hype, I'd like to announce our little con game for Otakon 2011: "Otaku Bingo." How does it work? Well, you print off one of these fancy little cards and mark each square whenever you see that event occur somewhere at the con. We generally included funny, often groan-worthy moments of fandom silliness, so we hope it'll give you a chuckle or two. If you get five in a row, send your Bingo card to me evanm [AT] anigamers [DAWT] com and we just might publish it on the site (as long as we don't see any evidence that you lied about the squares that you got, but really guys, please be honest).

At the very least, Ink, Elliot, and I will be playing Otaku Bingo amongst ourselves during the con (with a punishment for the loser to be determined by the other two players), but we'd love to get our readers, listeners, and fellow bloggers involved. So feel free to print out a card or find us during the con to get one from us. Of course, if you have ideas for more squares for us to use next time, definitely let us know. Have fun, and see you at Otakon!

DOWNLOADS:

Announcing "Otaku Bingo": Otakon 2011 Edition was originally published on Ani-Gamers on July 23, 2011 at 2:00 PM. Unless you are reading this in an RSS reader or a blog aggregator that credits the original authors, this version has likely been illegally copied (or "scraped") from our site. If you believe a site has scraped our content, please contact us so we can take action against the offender.

AGP#036 – Experts of Fan Controversy

evanm@anigamers.com (Evan "Vampt Vo" Minto) — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 08:09:00 -0400

Featuring: Alex Leavitt (Dept. of Alchemy), Chris Beveridge (Mania.com), Ed Chavez (Vertical, Inc.), Jennifer Fu (Comparative Media Studies at MIT), Clarissa Graffeo (Anime World Order), and Ada Palmer (Tezuka in English) Yes, yes, I promised a review of Spice & Wolf for this episode, but Alex Leavitt has forced my hand by politely requesting this long-overdue recording. That's right, get ready for ANGRY ARGUMENTS, because this is Experts of Fan Controversy (Anime Boston 2011), in which anime fandom "experts" face off on major issues of the day, including piracy and translation accuracy! OK, let's be honest here: there isn't actually much controversy or anger in this panel, but it certainly has lots of very useful insights into the workings of the anime industry and fandom. Plus it's got points. And who doesn't love points? Show notes and links are coming soon, and cross your fingers for that Spice & Wolf episode next time! Send us feedback at podcast@anigamers.com! Show notes, links, comments, and more can be found at podcast.anigamers.com.

AnimeNEXT 2011 : CliffsNotes to Fear in Japan

ink@anigamers.com (Ink) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:43:00 -0400

If his regular presentations are to be considered epic poems, then Kowai, Yokai and the Culture of Fear in Japan, is a focused exercise in extended metaphor. Like his other panels examining one particular work (Neon Genesis Evangelion), one particular director (Hayao Miyazaki), or one particular field of study (fanthropology) each taking into account several defining elements and giving supporting examples thereof, Charles Dunbar uses researched cultural perceptions and superstitions across several eras to define an overarching theme of fear regarding the reasons behind the things that go bump in the mind of the Japanese people.

With projector as campfire, Dunbar explains that the sheer age of Japanese culture means that every subsequent generation since the first has had a hand in building upon and inventing new ways to scare themselves and those who survive them. This leads to a culture with a dense history of superstition, specifically one with a ubiquitous focus on the fear of reprisal and retribution. Dunbar, equipped with his PowerPoint Pokdex, explains several types of ghosts along the way, examining nomenclature, common traits, and reasons for existence, and then accentuates select examples by reading aloud from actual tales.

The breadth of types of apparitions (and examples thereof) included in the presentation is impressive, but specific tie-ins to anime are minimal compared to Dunbars other panels. Luckily, anime viewers need only take in all the information this panel is offering and then apply it to whatever it is they are watching to appreciate the inherent anthropological aspect. Dunbar does, however, rather ingeniously link Japans fear culture with anime, explaining how the latter helps people cope with the former ... or as he so poetically put it, "as if the Japanese build Gundams to fight the monsters." Personally, I would have liked to have seen more insight like that but directed towards what spawned changes in specific fears and the resulting embodiments thereof between eras.

It speaks to Dunbars sense of presentation that this panel does not feel like an instructor orally reciting an encyclopedia entry. His intense interest in the subject matter and humorous delivery combine to produce an entertaining and informative initiation into the shadows that haunt the Japanese mindset. This was a great panel, and it was only the initial version. There was even extra time for more theories, stories, and examples, so like most Dunbar panels there are bound to be edits, revisions, and additions to look forward to in future versions. Look for it and request it for your favorite con!

Click here for more of our AnimeNEXT 2011 coverage

AnimeNEXT 2011 : CliffsNotes to Fear in Japan was originally published on Ani-Gamers on June 20, 2011 at 4:43 PM. Unless you are reading this in an RSS reader or a blog aggregator that credits the original authors, this version has likely been illegally copied (or "scraped") from our site. If you believe a site has scraped our content, please contact us so we can take action against the offender.

Fruits of Stalking: Cosplay and More from AnimeNEXT 2011

ink@anigamers.com (Ink) — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 19:57:00 -0400

The cosplay at AnimeNEXT was as colorful as it was plentiful this year. There always seemed to be a seifuku, bright red coat, sword, or neon-colored wig no matter where my head turned. Characters from games and anime series, old and new, were on the scene and ranged from Mobile Suit Gundam’s Char Aznable to Princess Jellyfish’s Kuranosuke in "the" dress. What you’ll see in the photos above are some of the costumes and characters that caught my eye, workshops and panels I attended, and various shots from around the convention center. I’m not a photographer, so I offer you these purely so you can get a glimpse of the convention if you could not attend, or reminisce about it if you did.

Click here for more of our AnimeNEXT 2011 coverage

Fruits of Stalking: Cosplay and More from AnimeNEXT 2011 was originally published on Ani-Gamers on June 13, 2011 at 7:57 PM. Unless you are reading this in an RSS reader or a blog aggregator that credits the original authors, this version has likely been illegally copied (or "scraped") from our site. If you believe a site has scraped our content, please contact us so we can take action against the offender.

Ani-Gamers at AnimeNEXT 2011

evanm@anigamers.com (Evan "Vampt Vo" Minto) — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 09:00:00 -0400

One unfortunate consequence of being late with my pre-con posts is that I lose the luxury of (not) clever titles like "See you AnimeNEXT weekend!" As a longtime punster, this is enough to make me consider founding a convention called AnimeTHIS, just so I can rectify the conundrum by writing "See you AnimeTHIS weekend!" The gag would certainly never get old.

Anyway, now that I've blatantly disobeyed the inverted pyramid of journalism, on to the actual meat of the post. Ani-Gamers will, as usual, be at AnimeNEXT in Somerset, NJ, presenting our shenanigans to whichever fools decide to wander into our panel rooms. We'll also be covering the convention, with both Ink and I attending panels and maybe asking a few questions of some of the guests. (Satoru Nakamura in particular looks interesting.) Other cool blogger folks in attendance include The Reverse Thieves (they're actually staying with me for the weekend), Scott VonSchilling, and Ed Chavez, all of whom will be on panels throughout the weekend.

If you're heading to the con for the weekend, make sure to attend "Satoshi Kon Tribute: Truth from Fiction" (Workshop 2) on Saturday at 11 AM and "Fandom & Criticism: The Art of Active Viewing" (Panel 4) on Saturday at noon. Yep, they're back to back — two straight hours of more IN YOUR FACE ANI-GAMERS ACTION than ever before. Oh, and Hisui from the Reverse Thieves will be joining Ink and me for Fandom & Criticism. If you need to brush up on your discussion points, why not listen to Ani-Gamers Podcast #032, which is a recording of last year's panel?

Our buddy DJ Ranma S from Anime Jam Session will also be running "Anime Incorrect," an 18+ panel based loosely on Bill Maher's late night show "Politically Incorrect" that will bring together four or five different members of the anime community — including yours truly and the aforementioned Mr. VonSchilling — to talk about topics of his choosing. Sounds fun to me! That's 10 PM Friday night, so you'll have to skip out on the second half of the must-see 18+ Anime Dating Game.

That's about it. We don't have our schedules prepared yet, but we might add them to this post later. Before then, however, feel free to let us know what you want us to cover in the comments section! Any questions you want us to ask the guests or staff?

Ani-Gamers at AnimeNEXT 2011 was originally published on Ani-Gamers on June 8, 2011 at 9:00 AM. Unless you are reading this in an RSS reader or a blog aggregator that credits the original authors, this version has likely been illegally copied (or "scraped") from our site. If you believe a site has scraped our content, please contact us so we can take action against the offender.

Review: Tales of Vesperia (360)

hayleym@anigamers.com (Mehket) — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 21:26:00 -0400

Genres: Adventure, Role-playing game
Designers: Kiyoshi Nagai and Eiji Kikuchi (General Directors), Takashi Hasegawa (Project Leader)
Developer: Namco Tales Studio
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Platforms: PS3, Xbox 360
Release Dates: Aug. 7, 2008 (X360 JP), Aug. 26, 2008 (NA), Jun. 26, 2009 (EU), Sep. 17, 2009 (PS3 JP)
ESRB Rating: T for Teen

Tales of Vesperia is an impressive, original JRPG that follows a sarcastic yet compassionate 21-year-old named Yuri Lowell. The game begins with players watching Imperial Guards fighting rabid animals, followed by the beginnings of a secret plot in the Imperial capital Zaphias. The opening then turns to the Lower Quarter, a poor section of Zaphias whose inhabitants are tormented by the Imperial Guards, where an aque blastia (magical machine to create clean drinking water) has been stolen and is causing chaos. Yuri attempts to retrieve it only to be captured by one of the Commanders of the Imperial Knights, the leading organization that protects the Empire, and he is thrown into jail. Through making his escape, he runs into a noble named Estellise who is trying to run away for her own personal reasons. A very naïve and sensitive girl, Estellise becomes very crucial to the storyline, as the story progresses to become a power struggle over the blastia technology between the Empire, the Guilds, and all who inhabit the planet.

The plot is very original and highly in-depth. The main protagonists stray away from general archetypes, and the voice acting adds a layer of realism and depth to their characters. Special dialogue options triggered with the Select button reveal small discussions between certain characters which brings to life their daily thoughts and feelings. While this may seem a bit useless at first, it does add a new dimension to the plot, revealing the character’s thoughts and feelings in a way without overloading players with cut scenes. These dialogues are shown through boxes revealing the characters involved, and the presentation may appear a little out-dated to some players. Many of their actions reflect the hard decisions between right and wrong, values over necessity, and the storyline forces players to reflect on their own morals, asking themselves what they would have done in such a scenario. There are just as many scenes of laughter as there are of remorse and sadness, and Namco Bandai does a god job of keeping it from becoming childish and cliché while still driving a point home. In the end, unlike most RPGs where the group simply goes their own way to save an unsuspecting population, the protagonists work together with world leaders in order to accomplish a common goal. For such an unrealistic plot, the game’s realistic problems faced, both with individuals and in society, grab players in an astounding way.

Like any JRPG, the game is not just about the main plot; side quests are a must, and in a game that spans 60+ hours, there are certainly some side quests to be accomplished. There are a good number of things to do, such as puzzles, extra exploration, and special monsters to defeat, but the game does very little to present such events. The side quests offer a good amount of extra items, money, and, surprisingly enough, plot, meaning that parts of the main storyline are solved by looking for a side quest players would never have known about. With so many extra cut scenes and information available, it would have been nice if such events were given a bit more advertisement. Instead, they are hidden away and must be followed in a specific order, creating confusion and a bit of frustration for players.

The sights and sounds of the game are very well done. The graphics are very bright, and while Namco Bandai strays away from making the game look realistic, the looks of the game are very sharp and clean. Environments are nicely done, and the music played in each area evokes a certain ethos that contributes to the environment. With four large continents and many smaller areas to explore, the variety of music and atmosphere is refreshing.

Tales of Vesperia utilizes a very efficient system of combat. You initiate battles by running into stationary enemies and are transported to a circular area of combat, where you can use 3-D movement to jump, run, and attack enemies. You can choose to set the battle system to manual, where you control everything, semi-automatic, in which the computer sometimes determines attacks or motions, or automatic, where the computer fights the battles for you. Added to this are a large number of attacks, spells, and items available during combat, which includes moves called ‘Artes’ that utilize Technical Points, or TP. The camera is a bit annoying sometimes during battle, particularly when using 3-D movement, but overall it follows the characters well. At the end of each battle the game lists several properties of the fight, including experience, money, and Grade earned. Some of these properties do not make sense until much later in the game, particularly Grade, which is used at the end of each run to purchase abilities to be used in the next playthrough.

A very large part of the game is synthesizing materials, and Namco Bandai made the system both fun and innovative for players. Each character can be equipped with specific weapons and armor, and by visiting stores around the world, players can enhance older weapons or create entirely new ones, allowing characters to learn new abilities. Accessories to outfits can also be synthesized, which adds a bit of humor to cut scenes. One in particular gives Yuri Lowell a large moustache and old-school pipe, which is hilarious to see when he is arguing with the Commander of the Imperial Knights. Added to this are Titles characters can earn, which sometimes changes a character’s attire, and players can make some pretty interesting outfits. Synthesizing occurs throughout the game, and while it may seem overwhelming at first, the fundamentals are easy to understand, and players quickly learn how to master the system.

All in all, the game is a classic JRPG that features unique content to keep players interested. Despite its length, the game stays fresh the entire way through, and the plot offers enough twists and turns to satisfy even the most die-hard RPG fan. Multiple run-throughs for such a long game may seem tedious, but the rewards are great, and it takes more than one run to truly appreciate the plot of Tales of Vesperia.

[Highly Recommended]

This review is based on a retail copy of the Xbox 360 version, purchased by the reviewer.

Review: Tales of Vesperia (360) was originally published on Ani-Gamers on June 7, 2011 at 9:26 PM. Unless you are reading this in an RSS reader or a blog aggregator that credits the original authors, this version has likely been illegally copied (or "scraped") from our site. If you believe a site has scraped our content, please contact us so we can take action against the offender.

Revenge of the iPad Video Game Review Round-Up

elliotp@anigamers.com (Elliot Page) — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 18:16:00 -0400

Have an iPad? Want to play games on it? Don't want to throw your money around the app store like a madman in search of a decent purchase? You've come to the right place, my good friend! Pull up a chair and I'll give you some more rapid-fire reviews of iPad games!

iPowa

($0.99 – US App Store link – UK link)

iPowa was released with zero fanfare onto the App Store, and I picked it up day one on a whim. It’s an endearing little puzzle game where you flick a tiny penguin around the screen to collect stars, using bubbles that act as launch pads and various randomly placed power ups to keep from falling off the bottom of the screen and ending the game. There is no overacting structure or plot line, just a fun little time waster with a global scoreboard and infinite replayability due to its randomly generated levels. iPowa has given me hours of enjoyment playing it on the bus, and the low price even includes an iPhone port in case you own one of those as well.

[Recommended]

War of Eustrath

($5.99 – US App Store link – UK link)

War of Eustrath is a turn-based strategy RPG which very closely follows the mold of Super Robot Wars and Fire Emblem. You control a small number of very powerful but specialized mechs and get thrown into pitched battles against hordes of other mechs as ... you do something or other. I have to admit that while the world is well realized, the plotline is instantly forgettable and I often found myself skipping past the character conversations between battles. This is not entirely the fault of the plot itself — in fact it is quite interesting — but it is horribly copyedited and reads like a Google-Translated version of the original script. Putting this aside, the combat itself is very enjoyable and well balanced except for a few brutal encounters that you will have to throw yourself at over and over again to get past. There is a robust leveling and customization system, as well as multiple plot paths and endings that depend on your choices and how well you play. A rather pricey offering, this game is still well worth a look if you are a fan of strategy games. You may want to wait for an update if you can’t stomach Engrish, though.

NOTE: Since this review was originally written a major patch has been released that corrects many of the problems with the script. The story is still inconsequential, but at least now it is in legible English!

[Recommended]

Dominion HD

($4.99 – US App Store link – UK link)

Remember the first iPad game article, where I reviewed Strategery, a game much like Risk but not quite? Well, Dominion is a straight-up clone of the modern rule set of Risk with a cleaned up visual aesthetic. If you have ever played the wonderful nuke-em-up game Defcon you will recognize the clean, faintly glowing look instantly. The AI is a bit dense and so the single-player mode is best used as an extended tutorial beyond the basic one provided, or as an exhibition mode to view the different maps provided. Multiplayer is where the meat of the game lies, especially at the time of writing as the game has a dedicated player base viewable via the game browser. There is one glaring oversight however — if, on the first time you start the app, you turn off Push notifications, you are unable to enable them later on. Due to this I now have an abysmal online record as I have no idea when I am supposed to take turns in the games I have signed up to. One upside is that the game is updated frequently with new maps and other goodies, something that looks likely to continue in the future, even if the additions are nothing earth-shattering.

[Passable]

Warpgate HD

($7.99 – US App Store link – UK link)

This is going to date me, but this game is an awful lot like the old spacefaring game Elite. You are given a spaceship, dumped into an open map, and it's up to you to trade, shoot and mine yourself to the top of a dog-eat-dog galaxy. Sadly, Warpgate does not quite live up to the comparison, as the whole thing feels disappointingly sterile. Even in hostile areas where the locals want your head on a space-pike, things feel very empty and inconsequential. The tutorial plot chain drags out endlessly, both by screen after screen of empty dialog and by the clunky menus and interface. Combat feels almost random and it is hard to intuit if you are succeeding or not, or even if strategy would help more than simple button mashing. All of this is a shame as behind all these clunky elements is a well-constructed core with an interesting universe to explore. Sadly it is slathered in a thick layer of gloop that makes the game unpleasant to play, even excepting the frequent crashes. I would still recommend trying the Lite version if space exploration is your cup of tea, after all inscrutable interfaces are almost a point of pride for the genre at this point. In all seriousness, you may find yourself in love with it and able to overlook the flaws in favor of the depth of experience on offer here.

[Bad]

Tweet Defense HD

($7.99 – US App Store link – UK link)

I must admit that I am rather fed up with tower defense games, and unless they do something exciting I tend to tire of them quickly. Tweet Defense’s gimmick is that it links to your Twitter account and changes gameplay variables based upon the status of your account. In particular there is a "booster" function where you get a large buff for following a particular account each day. An important thing to note here is that one of the driving forces behind the game is a marketing firm and so this particular game mechanic feels rather invasive and unsettling. But never mind all this, how does the game play?

Well, poorly. First off, the game is bloody ugly. The general design is not very pleasing to the eye and without a spark of originality. The game plays out at a painfully slow pace and it is worth noting that it is a great deal harder if you eschew the Twitter account linking, making this slightly unsavory feature a must to actually play the game. I was honestly hoping for a more inventive use of the Twitter association, such as having enemies or towers procedurally generated by incoming tweets.

I only downloaded this game because it was free for a day, and even for free it feels like a waste of time. The original price of $8 sounds like daylight robbery. Avoid.

[Terrible]

Uzu

($1.99 – US App Store link – UK link)

This is a bit of a cheat, really. Uzu is not a game, but an experience. It calls itself a "kinetic multi-touch particle simulator" and that's exactly what it is. You tap the screen with one or more fingers and a sea of multicolor particles whirl around the screen in various patterns and motions much like an interactive music visualizer. The effect is amazingly entertaining, and heightened by listening to good music at the same time. I have lost an hour of my life so far playing with the app while utterly enraptured by it. Plus, it's a dollar. I've paid much more than that before for less entertainment, like when I saw Transformers 2 in the cinema. Get this now, and amaze your friends with it.

[Highly Recommended]

We Rule

(Free – US App Store link – UK link)

I have a theory as to why this game exists. It goes like this: Developers NGMoco took one look at Farmville and the other Facebook free-to-play micro-transaction games and said, "hey we should get in on that too!" The result is a rather daft-looking clone which is more abrupt at demanding you pay money for features and blackmailing your friends into signing up as well, cutting short the tutorial into what could have been an interesting fantasy kingdom sim. The game has an irritating tendency to crash, and this coupled with an utter lack of charm and the horrendous loading times meant that I found it hard to be bothered with playing after my second session was abruptly ended. If you must play a time-sink game, you would be better off playing a more established and well-known example.

[Terrible]

Revenge of the iPad Video Game Review Round-Up was originally published on Ani-Gamers on June 2, 2011 at 6:16 PM. Unless you are reading this in an RSS reader or a blog aggregator that credits the original authors, this version has likely been illegally copied (or "scraped") from our site. If you believe a site has scraped our content, please contact us so we can take action against the offender.