Friday, May 6, 2011

Spring Anime First Looks Part 1

(Cross-posted from Animereel) It's April, and the new anime season has begun. (Although, due to the continuing effects of the earthquake, several shows from the last season have not yet aired their conclusions.) Since there are so many new shows starting up this month, I decided to break up the "first looks" post into pieces. So here we go.

Boy meets girl... er, princess... er, dog?
Dog Days kicked off the season with a bang. Tsuzuki Masaki (writer), Kusakawa Keizou (director), and Seven Arcs (animation production) from the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha series and movie teamed up with a first-rate voice cast for this highly-anticipated show. The opening song is done by one of Dom's favorite singers, the character designs and art are strong, and all the pieces look to be in place. It remains to be seen if Tsuzuki and Kusakawa can tell a compelling story or if this just becomes an eye candy fluff piece.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Idolmaster 2 Get!

Fear for my life. I got Idolmaster 2 yesterday. No time to post pictures or anything... must... produce... idols...

Friday, February 11, 2011

IS Poll: How long before Laura falls for Ichika?

So, in IS episode 5 they introduced the French character, Sharuru, and the German character, Laura. In episode 6, Sharuru falls for Ichika.
Feed her, Ichika.
How long before Laura falls for Ichika? Vote in the poll!
Just a matter of time, right?

Monday, January 31, 2011

Afterschool Pleiades hits the ground running

Afterschool Pleiades (放課後のプレアデス) is a short streaming-only anime produced by Gainax and sponsored by the car company Subaru (Subaru is the Japanese name for the constellation Pleiades). By "short" I mean the whole series is less than 30 minutes long, spread out over 4 episodes.

The character designs are very cute, the voice acting is pretty good, and the animation is pretty top-notch considering the medium.

On the other hand, due to its length (or lack thereof) there's almost no characterization, and so they rely heavily on genre familiarity to move the story along. No time for explanations, this is the way things are and you can fill in the detail in your own imagination. Or wait until there's a sequel, I guess.

Afterschool Pleiades is up on Youtube now; links after the jump.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Galgun: First Look

So I downloaded and played the demo, and I have to say: wow. This is a piece of work. Here's a video created by a Japanese blogger containing the first stage of the game as presented in the demo:


The idea is, you are a regular schoolboy named Tenzou. By mistake, a trainee cupid named Patako (who sounds suspiciously like Tamura Yukari) hits you with 16 love arrows, making you totally irresistable to regular girls. (This was your day to be hit by a single arrow, allowing you your "day of being popular" but she screwed up and overdosed.)

Friday, January 28, 2011

Now downloading: Galgun demo (this time for real)

The Galgun demo is actually available for download on Xbox Live Marketplace for Xbox Live Silver (read: free) members. As we speak, I am downloading it. It's 1.4 GB in size, so it'll be some time before I can report to you success or failure. Or both, depending. There's also a note on the official site apologizing for long load times on the demo, and promising faster load times on the official release.
If only you accepted dollars...
There's also DLC (downloadable content) available for the newly-released game. First, for 800 Gates Points, there's an "underwater mode" where all the girls are wearing swimsuits and move just a bit slower for you. For 400 GP they'll dress in maid outfits and try to deliver maid cafe items to you (it's a tie-in with a particular maid cafe, Sengoku Maid Cafe and Bar Mononobu). And for 80 GP you can get an icon pack.

(Remember, Gates Points are not interchangeable between regions, so points bought in Europe or the US won't work for Japan or Asia.)

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go out and crack the whip on the bits so they come in faster.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

April Fool's Joke Becomes Reality

Famitsu is reporting that Irem's April Fool's Day joke from 2001 will actually be released as a PSP game. To which I say: Oh. Em. Gee.
Back in 2001, this was the talk of April Fool's Day.
The original joke site was amazingly detailed for its day, and included pixel art and data for all 108 heroines, as well as a coffin-sized limited edition box set. That's 2 meters by 1.3 meters by 0.4 meters, or 1040 liters of love-sim greatness.
2011 version's heroine, Haizeru Yuuko. Pic from famitsu.com
The PSP game, on the other hand, appears to be a cosplay simulation. Other details are sparse, but it appears set for an April release. Perhaps on April 1st we'll find out this was all just a dream.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Pretty Rhythm works towards world peace

There's a new idol anime coming to town this April, and it's called Pretty Rhythm Aurora Dream. The "super point blank range" seiyuu unit LISP will be voicing the main characters: Asumi Kana as Aira (center, below), Kataoka Azusa as Rizumu (right), and Hara Sayuri as Mion. The three will also be singing the opening theme song.

Is your rhythm pretty?
Avex idol group SUPER☆GiRLS will be providing the ending theme. The other interesting thing about this production is that it's a collaboration between Japanese toymaker Takara Tomy and Korean toy and game company Sonokong. In other words, it's a step towards world peace! Or something.

More details to come, but according to the official website there will be fancy clothes, cute boys, and... ice skating? All righty then.

Monday, January 24, 2011

What are you watching? January 2011 edition

Japanese TV is divided into quarterly seasons, and this January brought us a new one. Kicking off with Rio Rainbow Gate on the 4th, to the most recent Fractale on the 14th, at least 17 new anime shows have premiered so far this month.

So, what are you watching?
If you had one wish, what would you wish for?

Through two and a half weeks, here are my impressions on the new shows (in the order of the premiere date):

New Promo Video: Afterschool Pleiades

The guys and gals at Gainax can't seem to make up their minds whether they want to make cute stuff (like Hanamaru Kindergarten) or weird stuff (like Panty & Stocking), but it looks like Afterschool Pleiades (放課後のプレアデス) will be more like the former than the latter. More proof is in the promo video they released this weekend.


The web anime series will be out exclusively on Youtube starting February 1.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Bakatest TV resumes in summer, OVAs to fill void

Over at bakatest.com, they've announced that season 2 of the heartwarming story of idiots, tests, and summoning will hit the airwaves in summer 2011. Last month they also announced OVAs, due out in February and March of this year. Thanks to these (wholly expected) developments, Bakatest fans will have plenty to laugh about in the coming weeks and months.


What, no Hideyoshi? (pic from bakatest.com)

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Tamayura TV announced

Tamayura, the heartwarming story of a girl who loves photography, is graduating from OVA to TV. Also, the main cast from the OVA series will all be coming back for the TV series as well. Air dates and TV stations to be announced at a later time.


Congratulations, indeed. (Pic from tamayura.info)

Friday, January 21, 2011

Now downloading: Galgun demo (update: not!)

According to andriasang.com, the Galgun demo is available now for Japanese Xbox Live users. I have a Japanese Xbox, so I will take the hit so you don't have to. Or something like that.

The game will be released on Jan. 27 for Xbox 360 in Japan.


She wants you to play... (pic from galgun.com, drawn by Daisuke Ito)

Update: I would be downloading it, except it's a Xbox Live Gold exclusive, for now. Curses! Foiled again! Will update again if this changes, or if I can circumvent this somehow.

Update 2: It will unlock for Xbox Live Silver (aka non-paid members) on the 27th, aka the day the game goes on sale. I'm not sure that's a good marketing plan, but whatever.

Welcome!

Just starting out here. Check back soon for actual content. The idea is to have news, pictures, videos, and commentary related to anime, manga, and games in the "moe" category. That's "moe" (pronounced like "mo-eh") for the Japanese 萌 (as in budding, sprouting) and also 燃 (as in burning).

Because as the saying goes,
草冠の「萌」も大切けど、ファイアーバーニングの「燃」も大切だよね!
(budding/sprouting "moe" is important, but "fire burning" moe is important too!)