Interview: Brian Wheeler (Designer, Warhammer Online)

At the New York Comic Con earlier this month, I took some time to stop by the Electronic Arts booth, where I sat down for a conversation with Brian Wheeler, Senior Designer on Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. He had a lot of insights into the development of the massively-multiplayer online roleplaying game inspired by the Warhammer tabletop game franchise. Check out the full interview transcript below.

Warhammer Online is based on a tabletop game. How was that transition from tabletop to video game made, particularly from the small-group format of a tabletop to the massively-multiplayer format?

A lot of the lore, the look, and the feel of the game we pulled right out of Games Workshop. We actually worked very closely with Games Workshop over the 3 or 4 years of game development, so all of the characters have all gone through Games Workshop confirmation. They said, "yes that looks good, no that doesn't look good, of course you can't have a dragon look like that, yes you can have a dragon look like that, no the Gates of Ekrund can't look like that." So we stuck very true to the lore and the look of all the characters. We did a lot of iconic character classes. Some of the classes we're getting ready to come out with soon are the Choppa and Slayer [...] Everyone sees the red mohawk and they say "Oh, Warhammer!"

What is the current support for guilds and large battles?

The largest battle we can do right now is in the fortress zone where we have the population capped out so that around 300 people can be fighting each other in a fortress zone. We're trying to increase that as much as possible because open-world Realm vs. Realm is what our game's all about. So we're trying to always streamline our code and make the server handle more players. We're always trying to help that number. Right now you though you can look to around 200 to 300 people hammering on each other in a fortress zone. It's crazy how many people we can pack in there.

How does Warhammer differentiate itself from its competitors - quite simply, why should people be playing Warhammer instead of World of Warcraft?

The biggest difference with our game is Advanced Player Quests (or Public Quests we call them), and the Realm vs. Realm combat. Those are the two major, major key differences. Besides, our lore is... better. The public quests are very different from any other MMO we've had out there. So normally when you get a quest from an NPC he says go kill ten dues, come back to me and then go kill twenty of some of his friends, and then come back to me and go kill this general. So those quests are still in the game - but we also did a Public Quest thing where if you go to an area and there're squigs running all over the place, there's probably a Public Quest that says kill thirty of those things. And you don't have to group up with anybody for this, you just have to be there and and I can be there and some other friends and others who aren't even in a group with us could all be doing this together.

After we kill thirty of these squigs or 100 or whatever the first stage is, it goes through another stage, and instead of having to go to an NPC to step into the next stage, it just goes right to it. So you do the next stage of that, and then you do the last stage which is some end boss. Then at the end of that, there's a loot drop that's a big glowing treasure chest. And then this scoreboard comes up that says how well you did in this Public Quest so you know exactly where you're going to place. Depending on how well you do you get items depending on how much damage you did or how much healing you did – your total contribution toward beating that Public Quest. That's one big thing and that's where you get a lot of items in PVE system – the Public Quest system.

In RvR, that is the open-world fighting, and our scenarios, which are the instance fighting, the major difference between us and... them is that they have 5 battlegrounds, we have 30 instances, and you can start RvR-ing right from the start. At level 1, if you hit the "scenario join" button right when you join, you can go right into a scenario immediately upon logging in if you want. You can level up your characters from PvP, we give you experience [and] items. You also get RvR Influence, back to the Public Quest system. Besides the item you get from DOING the Public Quest, you acquire "Influence." Around this hub of NPCs or "Chapters" we call them, there's 3 Public Quests associated with each one, and as you're doing this Public Quest, you build influence, which is like another way of leveling up your character just for that Chapter.

Sort of like Renown from Fable?

Yeah, sort of like Renown, or kind of like Faction, but not. As you level up your influence with those people, you can select items from that as well, so there's the items from Public Quests, there's items from regular quests, there's items from influence, and there's rewards and items from RvR. Again the big thing about RvR is as you're progressing your character through RvR you're unlocking really really good items. And our endgame content is based around how high of a renown rank you are. That's what our Player vs. Player level is – experience for that.

So you're gaining your PvP levels and you're gaining your RvR levels, all en route to fighting the King, and the King drops the ultimate gear. Nobody's beaten the King – yet. He's a tough cookie to crack, but that guy drops the ultimate gear. If you're walking around with King gear, you'll also see somebody walking around [with the gear] and you'll go "Oh my God, they beat the King," because that gear is entirely unique looking. It's like the difference between walking around in greens and walking around in purples and golds. You say, "Oh my God, he did some work to get that." So it's very rewarding in our game to do, whether you want to do [Player vs. Environment] or whether you want to do Player vs. Player. You get rewarded no matter what you do in our game, and actually if you do a mix of both, you tend to enjoy the game a lot more than just focusing purely on one thing. So we have a lot to offer depending on what kind of a player you are.

So in terms of Public Quests, they reset after someone does them, correct?

Yeah, there's three stages to every Public Quest - you can go through stage one and then you might not pass stage two. And then in a couple minutes it'll go back to stage one so you can try it again. If you get all the way through it, it takes about three to five minutes for the Public Quest to reset, and then it goes back to stage one. So if you really like the Public Quest or you just missed it, you can hang around and then do it again. A lot of times when I'm playing I'll use the Open Party system, which is a button you can click to see what groups are in your area. In that window, you can just hit the "join" button, and you can go right into somebody's group, and go run over to the PQ and join them. Sometimes when that happens you run in the tail end of a Public Quest. They're just on stage three, the last boss is at 50%, and you're like, "Ah, I just missed it." But then it resets in a couple of minutes, so you can start from scratch and go at it again.

Are there any plans to add quests that are one-of-a-kind, where if somebody kills a guy, he's gone forever?

We thought about doing "permadeath" quests I guess, but we would rather invest time in the repeatable content than the one-offs. The other thing about the one-offs is that you feel like you might have missed something. We do have our events that occur almost monthly now. We have the "Night of Murder" going on right now, which is in respect to the American holiday of Valentine's Day. We did "Keg's End" which was sort of like the New Year's Eve/Christmas Party thing, and we did our Halloween event, "Hallow's End." But we do events all the time, which are sort of like the one-shots, every year they come up. So those are sort of like the temporary you-can-do-those-for-a-little-bit quests.

And of course, Vigil Games is developing an MMO based on Warhammer 40K, which leads many gamers to question what the differences are between Warhammer Online and the Warhammer 40K Online franchises. So, first off, what is the reason for that difference, where one half of the Warhammer franchise belongs to a different company?

It's just licensing. We made an agreement with Games Workshop four years ago to do the fantasy side, which is just straight, regular old Warhammer. but other companies already had the rights to the 40K, so if you don't have the rights for it, you simply can't publish it. It's like somebody else trying to draw Spiderman, and Marvel going no no no, you can't draw that. It's kind of the same thing in video games. That's why you see that EA has The Lord of the Rings, and nobody else can do a single-player Lord of the Rings, but Turbine has The Lord of the Rings multiplayer license.

Do you see 40K as a direct competitor? How do you hope to differentiate your game?

It's gonna be a different type of game. I don't know, we haven't seen much from them yet, so we're not exactly sure. Obviously it's gonna be sci-fi, and we're fantasy. I'm hoping that we'll actually feed off of each other to a degree. People will wanna play our fantasy game and then they will probably wanna play the sci-fi 40K game, so I'm hoping, you know, everybody hopes that they subscribe to both of them. We wish everybody the best of luck on both sides.

Finally, what kinds of updates lie in Warhammer Online's future? Are there any particular areas that you'd like to improve upon?

We're always looking at improving performance. Me personally, I'm in charge of making RvR and open field more enjoyable. We're looking at adding more depth to our keeps and battlefield objectives systems. We just announced our Tomb Kings expansion, which is sort of like a free expansion. It's gonna be a huge dungeon that gonna be sort of reminiscent of Darkness Falls if you ever played [Dark Age of] Camelot. So the way it'll work is that there will be something that one Realm does to get access to the dungeon and something another realm does to get access to the dungeon taken away from them. So it'll be what we call "the purge" to a degree, if the Order had the dungeon for a while and they're all in there doing their quest and killing the monsters and doing all that stuff in there, Destruction can go ahead and do the trigger to let them get in. Then Destruction floods into the dungeon and wipes out all of the Order players and is like, "Get out of here, we own it now." So it was really cool and we're trying to redo that spirit of Darkness Falls from Dark Age, in that same vein. When you get to the dungeon you're like, "sweet let's rush in and kill everybody!" You don't think, "let's go do the monsters and let's go do the quest." It's like, "anybody that's in there, I wanna kill em to get em out." It's really really cool that we're gonna try to reproduce that. And that's what some of the players have been asking for. We read the forums, we give feedback all the time, so we're always doing improvements to the game.

The other big thing coming up are the Slayer and the Choppa. They are two new classes that are coming out that are melee DPS guys. if you're familiar with the lore at all, they're pretty much like Berserkers to a degree - they just run up and wail on people with axes. They are gonna be coming out in a couple of months, and they're shaping up to be pretty badass.

Well that's all I've got. Nice meeting you, thanks for the interview.

Nice meeting you too. You're welcome.

Continue reading... | Write a comment

News Briefs - FUNi licenses, Best Buy, DSi, and more

So, I've been a little absent lately, mostly due to some personal stuff mixed with the phenomenal task of organizing and writing up the piles of stuff that I still have left over from Comic Con. (Note to self: don't take on so many articles that your coverage will only be complete a full month after the convention.) Since I haven't been up on my normal (i.e. non-Comic Con-related) news in the past few weeks, I've compiled all of the big articles that you might have missed into this post.

First off, FUNimation picked up a bunch of new licenses back in the middle of the month. Their new titles include Bamboo Blade, El Cazador De La Bruja, My Bride Is A Mermaid, Rin ~ Daughters of Mnemosyne, and three Gonzo shows: Blassreiter, the infamous Dragonaut, and the quite well-received Tower of Druaga. (Read Uncle Yo's reviews of Druaga and Mnemosyne for more info on the shows!) It's interesting that FUNi is continuing to license Gonzo shows left and right despite Gonzo essentially spitting in the face of American distributors by pushing out Druaga and Blassreiter directly through CrunchyRoll. Apparently FUNi thinks that Gonzo giving free promotion for a show is at least a little better than Johnny McFansubber doing it.

Speaking of CrunchyRoll, the website announced a couple of days ago that in celebration of "Global Shinkai Day," they will be streaming three of director Makoto Shinkai's works (5 Centimeters Per Second, Voices of a Distant Star, and The Place Promised In Our Early Days) on Saturday, February 28 for 24 hours only. I've yet to experience Shinkai's critically-acclaimed anime, so I'll definitely be taking advantage of that limited time offer come Saturday to watch 5 Centimeters Per Second, a movie that is unfortunately stuck in limbo, as no North American anime distributor has officially picked it up yet.

Best Buy is cutting down on their in-store anime selection due to the economic situation, but it's not all bad news for anime fans. Select stores will be holding 50% off sales, which will make that Haruhi boxset that you haven't bought yet seem so. much. jucier. ANN has a preliminary list of participating stores, but it's still subject to change.

For those of you who watched the Oscars, you might have noticed that when La Maison En Petits Cubes won the award for Best Animated Short Film, it was not a French animator who stood up to take the award. That's because despite it's extremely French name, Cubes is actually an anime, created by Japanese director and writer Kunio Kato. This marks the second Oscar win for an anime, and the first in the Animated Short Film Category. (Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away won for Best Animated Picture in 2003.)

Finally, on the video game front, Nintendo has announced a release date for the DSi, the third redesign of the bestselling DS platform. The system will launch in the United States on April 5, 2009 in two colors (blue and black) and for an MSRP of $169.99. It will sell millions and will top the NPD charts for months on end, despite the fact that it provides no significant gameplay upgrades to the DS Lite. Such is life in this Nintendo-world of ours...

Continue reading... | Write a comment

Con Report: New York Comic Con 2009

Or click here for the Photo Gallery New York Comic Con 2009
February 6-8, 2009
Jacob Javits Center
New York City, NY, USA

I remember the first time I ever went to an anime convention. It was Anime Boston, and I stepped onto the stairs overlooking the main hall, full of 13-year-old excitement, only to find a sea of cosplayers in front of me. Terrified, I contemplated going back for a good two seconds, as I stared into the gaping maw of nerddom. But soon I steeled myself, and took that fateful step into the craziness of anime convention culture.

This year was my first time ever attending a Comic Con. I stood atop a staircase once again, somewhat older and slightly less terrified, but I still felt the echoes of that scared 13-year-old stir inside of me. But just like that time at Anime Boston, I stared into the abyss, took it all in, and finally took that step.

The New York Comic Con has been held annually at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City since its debut in 2006. It is essentially the younger cousin of the San Diego Comic Con, where most of the big action happens, but that doesn't stop NYCC from being one of the largest human gatherings in New York City. Plus, the best part about Comic Con is that it is not simply about Western comics – it's a convention that embraces all segments of pop culture, from Western comics to cartoons to video games anime/manga to movies and even to television. Nothing is off-limits at this con, and so it is littered with geeks of all different shapes and sizes.

On that note, Comic Con is littered with lots of geeks. I mean lots of them. The attendance was around 77,000, and it was clear from standing in the sea of people that the New York Comic Con was the largest convention I had ever been to. There were people like Ani-Gamers' own Karl Custer who were at the convention, but who I never ran into for all three days.

The convention center is luckily large enough to handle such a huge number of people, but sometimes navigating it was a little difficult. The exhibitor's hall was the centerpiece, and there were various entrances into it from different floors. However, the panel rooms were off in a corner, down a flight of steps, and the press room was completely on the opposite side of the convention center from the panel rooms. Exacerbating the situation, the press room was nudged against the "IGN Theatre," meaning that we had to push through a massive line almost any time we tried to get in.

Most of the panels that I went to (predominantly industry ones) were well-run, and the Comic Con staff did a good job of keeping things orderly, setting up tech, and transitioning between different panels. For example, a con staffer was on-hand during the Yen Press giveaway, and she nobly kept the crazy forces of teenage anime fandom at bay by making sure that they lined up in a mature, orderly fashion.

The feeling that I got from the anime and manga industries at their panels was that, while the economy is in shambles right now, the companies will move along with their normal plans with only minor setbacks. Some excessive programs are being cut back, such as FUNimation's podcast, but in general the strategy seems to be the same as last year, with niche titles still getting licenses alongside more mainstream ones. On the mainstream front, Yen Press seems to be picking up some real money-makers, including the new shonen posterboy Soul Eater and the long-awaited Yotsuba&! (which was announced at NYCC). I am of the opinion that over the course of the next year, Yen Press will rise to be as big as Tokyopop once was, and will be Viz's primary challenger in the shonen arena. (Think Naruto vs. Soul Eater)

The anime industry, on the other hand, didn't announce any new licenses, but FUNimation, Bandai and Viz focused heavily on their new online streaming services. This is going to be the future of the anime industry, so it's great to finally see the distributors giving up on single-volume releases and moving to boxsets and streaming video.

The New York Comic Con was also my first time attending a con as video game press. I checked out games like Velvet Assassin, X-Blades, Prototype, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, The Conduit, MadWorld, and Red Faction: Guerrilla, most of which should have hands-on coverage on the site soon. I must say that at some of the gaming booths, I didn't receive very much help from the reps, but the SouthPeak Games booth was really fun and inviting. I received some very informative walkthroughs from developers and representatives for Velvet Assassin and X-Blades, as well as a great interview with the voice actor starring in Velvet Assassin.

Outside of scheduled convention programming, I also got to hang out with some really awesome people throughout the weekend. On Friday afternoon, I stopped by the "Versus Mode Live" panel, featuring Bioshock director Ken Levine and Fallout 3 producer Todd Howard, and moderated by legendary gaming journalists N'Gai Croal and Stephen Totilo. After the panel, I chatted for a bit with the four of them, and they even recorded openers for the Ani-Gamers Podcast. Both on Friday (when the Vertical panel ended early) and on Saturday (when the same happened for CMX), I had a fun chance to meet a bunch of fellow anime/manga bloggers, journalists, and industry professionals – including Brigid Alverson, Deb Aoki, Casey Brienza, Ed Chavez, Erica Friedman, and Michael Pinto.

One of the highlights of my personal con experience was a "blogger dinner" on Saturday night, wherein fifteen or so other bloggers and I headed down to the Tick Tock Diner on 34 St. and 8th Ave. In attendance were friends like Gia Manry, Scott VonSchilling, Hisui, and KuronoK, as well as new acquaintances like Michael Pinto and John Martone. My table was particularly fun, as I sat with Narutaki and Kohaku (from Reverse Thieves), Dave (from Subatomic Brainfreeze), and Carl (from Ogiue Maniax). We discussed ninja self-destruction, Segata Sanshiro, and pedo high school teachers, but quickly noticed that the other tables were all talking about actual anime stuff. (Hah, silly them!) The other highlight was, of course, on Sunday, when I sat down with Brigid, Scott, Hisui, and Narutaki for Ani-Gamers Podcast #012.

I really enjoyed the New York Comic Con, despite my general preference for small, anime-centric cons. I would without question recommend it to any geek with an interest in anime, manga, games, or (naturally) comics – as long as they are okay with large conventions. It's big, it's crazy, and it's hectic, but dammit if the New York Comic Con's not fun as hell.

---

Click for our New York Comic Con 2009 coverage

Continue reading... | Write a comment

Interview: Melinda Cohen (Voice actor, Velvet Assassin)

At the 2009 New York Comic Con, I was able to ask a few questions of Melinda Y. Cohen, the voice actor and promotional model for the main character of the Xbox 360/PC game Velvet Assassin, Violette Summer. Here's a synopsis of the game, courtesy of SouthPeak rep Aubrey Norris: "Velvet Assassin is a hardcore stealth-action game set in World War II. It's about a female British agent who is sent out to run various missions to undermine the Nazi regime. The game is based on the true story of a real 'velvet assassin' from World War II."

To begin, how did you first get into acting, and how did your career lead to this job on Velvet Assassin?

Wow, that's a good question. I've been acting for pretty much my entire life. I went to a private school where we concentrated a lot on the arts and theatre and that kind of stuff. So, I've been acting ever since I can remember, really. In terms of this job, I moved to L.A. about a year and a half ago and my manager actually got me an audition for this. Originally it was just to represent the character at conventions and to do some actual live footage – we did a day of shooting for promotional purposes – and then I sort of ended up doing the voiceover work for it as well. It was really exciting for me because I got to do it in English and in German.

Is this your first work as a lead on a video game?

It is the first time I'm represented in any sort of video game, yes.

How does voice acting differ from traditional acting?

I mean, voice acting is different because you have a lot less to work with in order to communicate something that the character is trying to communicate. If it's an emotion or a thought, you have your voice as opposed to using your whole body or your face. So you're in a sound booth and you're just implementing what you can do with your voice to emit those feelings.

You've been playing some of the early builds of Velvet Assassin here at Comic Con. How does it feel to play as yourself in a video game?

It's really strange actually, because I'll hear myself and for some reason it doesn't sound like me. I mean first off, it's a British accent and I'm American, so I obviously had to put some work into being able to do that properly. And since I haven't spoken in a British accent in so many months since I've done the recording, it seems almost like its someone else, but at the same time it's me. It's all very strange – but kind of cool, too, and I really like playing the game. I just wish I was better at it.

Do you play video games at all yourself, or is it strictly business?

Honestly, I used to play video games when I was a teenager, but I don't play as much now - it's mainly a time thing. But it's been really cool being involved with Velvet Assassin. It's rekindled my interest in the gaming world.

Do you have any plans for more video game roles in the future?

Yeah, I mean, whatever comes along. I think it's definitely a market that's going to be huge. It's up and coming and people are using video games as a medium in a lot of different ways. I think it's extremely fascinating to be involved in that.

On that note, right now video game acting isn't really its own distinct profession, and often gaming roles are filled by stage and film actors. Do you think that as video games struggle to be accepted as an art form, video game acting can separate itself from stage and film as a distinct art?

Yeah, I mean it's very different. Obviously, video games are animated, so as an actor, there aren't really that many things you can do besides doing voice work and motion capture work and that kind of stuff. I think it's really cool when they mix live-action stuff with parts from the game, so you can get a little bit of both. But I feel that a lot of hardcore gamers don't like that. They like it to be purely animated, purely video game.

What has been your favorite experience in working on Velvet Assassin?

Well, the traveling has been great. I was fortunate enough to go to Germany with Velvet Assassin for a convention in Germany and to Seattle and now obviously to Comic Con. So that's been really exciting, just meeting all these people. It's this enthusiasm about games and people showing up in these crazy costumes. I'm not generally exposed to that world at all.

For the benefit of the readers: She showed up in a crazy costume too, but then again that's her job.

Yeah, that's right. It's funny because when I walk to the convention, I wear the costume, and I know that people are looking at me and thinking, "Oh God she's one of those gaming people!" [laughs]

And finally, what tips would you give to aspiring video game voice actors?

Oh, what tips would I give? Don't give up, in anything you do really. And yeah, if you want to do it, then stick to it, and it'll happen sooner or later.

Thank you very much for your time Ms. Cohen. Best of luck with the release of Velvet Assassin this April.

Thank you very much.

EDIT: I accidentally wrote March as the game's release date instead of April. Sorry.

Continue reading... | Write a comment

Preview: Velvet Assassin (360)

I had a chance to play Velvet Assassin at this year's New York Comic Con thanks to the nice folks at the SouthPeak Games booth. Check out my impressions below.

When gamers think "World War II game," they immediately imagine first-person shooters set during the major battles of the Second Great War. Who would have thought that a game developer would create a game that takes place not on the front lines, but behind them, deep in the shadows of the Nazi regime?

Enter Velvet Assassin. Developed by Replay Studios and published by SouthPeak Games, it is the story of Violette Summer, a fictional version of the real life World War II Allied secret agent/sabateur Violette Szabo. She is lying in a hospital bed at the beginning of the game for reasons unknown, and the plot consists of Violette reminiscing about the events of her missions, with the player acting them out in real time. Some readers might be confused, as this game was originally titled Sabotage, but had its name changed due to the other WWII stealth game due out: Saboteur. Rest assured, this is a separate game from Saboteur, and is in no way different from Replay's previously unveiled Sabotage. (Confused yet?)

While Velvet Assassin might be classified as a stealth action title, it is all about stealth over action. According to SouthPeak rep Aubrey Norris, the two things to remember while playing the game are "kill everybody, and don't get seen." She wasn't kidding either – Most of the game is spent crouching in the shadows, waiting for a soldier to walk past so that you can kill him. Much like Metal Gear Solid, every area is a puzzle, with soldiers walking along set patrols and obstacles set up to hamper your ability to get past. It makes for some really interesting gameplay as Violette shuts off lights, hides behind cover, and attempts to creep silently over floors coated with broken glass.

When Violette finally stands behind an enemy, you can kill him with a single button press, which will generate one of thirty-six distinct assassination animations. The one that gets used is determined by what weapon Violette is carrying, where she is standing relative to the enemy, and a variety of other factors. The screen turns red as Violette is about to kill her victims, adding an even greater level of tension to the already nail-bitingly tense assassination scenes. Violette's missions range from assassinating Nazi leaders to blowing up bunkers to killing Allied spies before they can give away information, but a lot of what I played was simple room-by-room assassinations. (Think Metal Gear Solid) I could see Velvet Assassin facing the same problem as Assassin's Creed, wherein there are so many assassinations that they become tedious chores, despite how well-designed they are.

For the packrat gamers, there are "collectibles" scattered throughout all of the levels, but instead of being meaningless trinkets, each and every one is an object based directly off of artifacts from Nazi-era Germany. These include things like medals and even letters from German soldiers to their families. Nearly everything in this game, from the weapons to the hairstyles, was heavily researched by the developers at Replay Studios.

One of the more unusual additions to the game is something called morphine. Violette has the ability to use it while telling her story, causing the game world to turn into a psychedelic, flowery dream, slowing everything down so that the now-nightgown-clad Violette can sneak past enemies. This powerful ability can be recharged with morphine syringes found around the levels, and it sometimes must be used to pass obstacles. The morphine is the only part that diminishes the game's realism, since the weird dream sequences are actually a fully-required gameplay element, rather than an optional crutch for players in need of help.

All in all, though, Velvet Assassin is shaping up to be an interesting game. Its take on World War II is quite unique, as it is simultaneously tackling the idea of a female main character and the concept of the battle "behind the front lines." The game looks beautiful, and the stealth gameplay has its share of nerve-wracking moments. Fans of Assassin's Creed and Metal Gear Solid who are looking for a title a little bit more grounded in reality: Don't let Velvet Assassin sneak under your radar.

Continue reading... | Write a comment

Review: Mega Man ZX Advent (DS)

Genre: Action, Platforming
Designer: Unknown (do you know who this is?)
Developer: Inti Creates
Publisher: Capcom
Console: Nintendo DS
Rated: E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older

If you’re like me, then you probably fell off the Mega Man train a long, long time ago. Time and time again we found ourselves setting out as the Blue Bomber, tasked with defeating eight robot masters before taking on the evil Dr. Wily/Doppler/whoever only to have him slip away once more.

Sure, we had Mega Man Legends and Battle Network which helped mix things up, but all in all it seemed that the traditional Mega Man formula had finally run stale. Enter Mega Man ZX Advent, an ambitious little title by Inti Creates which builds upon the traditional formula while improving upon some features we didn’t even know we wanted.

Now, when I say ambitious what I mean is that this title sports everything from substantial voice acting, to an open world environment, to the ability to play as the robot masters you defeat. That’s right, instead of merely copying a power from your defeated foes you now have the ability to play as that character at any point in the game. Now, unsurprisingly, some of your alternate forms are quite gimmicky and are only usable in specific areas – while one in particular almost breaks the game. But, if it’s a choice between just playing as Mega Man and having the transformation ability, I’d choose the latter any day of the week.

Another thing you might have noticed from the list above is the open world environment. In between the various levels of the game you’ll find yourself back at the Hunter Base - an area where you’re free to run around and accept missions from other characters, buy items, or re-visit previous levels. Again, while this feature is an appreciated one, it also has its setbacks – namely a lack of substance. There are really only a handful of missions to accept and you quickly find yourself with more cash than you’ll ever be able to spend. It’s a step in the right direction and in future releases we’ll hopefully see a more fleshed out game world.

A traditional feature that does carry over from classic Mega Man is the difficulty. While it’s nothing impossible, I must say that quick saves and save states have spoiled me over the years. While the levels are longer than in previous Mega Man titles I’ve played, Advent does a good job of providing a challenge (especially the final level) without having you throw yourself against the game over and over to get it right. It’s a fine line between challenging and frustrating, and Advent seems to maneuver it quite well.

So, you blast your way through the game, defeat the disappointingly easy final boss, and find yourself staring back at the title screen once more. Normally at this point we’d hit the power switch and say it was a job well done - but Advent throws a bit more content our way in the post game. As you’d expect, you can battle your defeated foes once more, only now the game will reward you with medals for fulfilling certain conditions in the battle, such as using only a specific weapon or damaging the enemy at a certain time. While this is all fine and dandy, my personal favorite would have to be "Mega Man a," a mini-game which has you playing an 8-bit version of yourself in what feels like a classic NES Mega Man title. Oh, and if you manage to rack up all of the gold medals from the robot masters, you can use that 8-bit version of yourself in the main game.

There are really only a few constants in this world: death, taxes, and yearly Mega Man releases. The Advent series seems to have a lot going for it, and the various additions brought out in this game will hopefully continue to be improved upon in the inevitable sequels that are to come. For those of us who remember the Mega Man games as a lesson in traditional platforming action but have grown tired of the newer titles - this might be a good point to jump back in.

good.

Continue reading... | Write a comment

Ani-Gamers Podcast #012 - NYCC09 Blogger Roundtable

Hosts: Evan "Vampt Vo" Minto, Brigid Alverson, Alain a.k.a. "Hisui," Kate a.k.a. "Narutaki," Scott VonSchilling, Greg
Topics: New York Comic Con 2009

Recorded on the last day of the New York Comic Con, this episode has four other bloggers and Evan talking about our experience at the con, our favorite announcements and events, and our opinions on the state of the anime and manga industries. This was literally a blogger roundtable, as we were bloggers sitting around a round table in the press room. The guests include the folks from Anime Almanac, MangaBlog, and Reverse Thieves.

You might notice that Evan forgets to introduce himself at the beginning. For those who are new to the podcast and can't figure it out on their own, he's the EIC of the blog and the host of the podcast.

Show notes and links can be found after the break.

Direct Download - RSS Feed - iTunes - Email Us! - More episodes


(Runtime: 45 minutes, 38 seconds)

[0:00:00] Intro: Todd Howard, Executive Producer for Fallout 3

[0:00:05] Opening Song: "R.O.D Theme" by Taku Iwasaki (R.O.D. OVA opener)

[0:00:21] Getting right into the action, we are recording a live show at the New York Comic Con! Introductions ensue: Scott, Alain, and Kate and special non-credentialed guest Greg.

[0:01:24] "What are your opinions on the con?" It was packed, particularly on Sunday due to Joss Whedon's presence. Alain talks about people cutting their fingers off in order to see Whedon. This did not actually occur, though it certainly would have been entertaining if it had.

[0:02:07] Brigid Alverson (from MangaBlog.net) joins in on the fun, bringing her ungodly amount of manga expertise to the podcast.

[0:06:41] We were going to talk about everyone's favorite announcement, but Scott is intent on industry discussion, so we get into that. He talks about the ICv2 Conference, which I unfortunately didn't attend. Brigid brings up the awesome new licenses for the Viz Signature and VizKids lines. Yen Press's Yostuba&! license comes next, and we all fall head over heels in love with Yen. (Hey Scott, if you love them so much, why don't you MARRY THEM?) Brigid loves CMX too. Also, Viz just licensed Rumiko Takahashi's new manga, so we talk about that, and Alain predicts the plot synopsis.

[0:18:20] Scott moves us along to anime with a discussion of Bandai Entertainment's new YouTube-based online distribution system. I bring up the quote, "single-volume DVD releases have gone the way of the dodo," and we talk about the anime distribution model. (Read more here)

[0:21:01] We get to a little bit of general comics discussion as we consider the possibilities of comics being published first as webcomics and later as trade paperbacks. According to Art Spiegelman, people will never give up that experience of reading a comic on the printed page.

[0:28:20] I ask everybody about the non-industry events that they went to. Scott and Alain comment on the Yatterman premiere, and how nobody was there to see Takashi Miike since the room was filled with squeeing Sho Sakurai fangirls. (Read the complete and terrifying story from Dave on Colony Drop)

[0:32:33] Brigid gets to talk about her panel, "NewsFlash! Teen Girls Read Manga." Evan brings up the really interesting idea of flipping manga aimed at mainstream readers. There will be an article about this on Ani-Gamers in the future. Soon we get to talking about literature being adapted into manga. Then we complain about Del Rey's new OEL manga featuring (as Kate called him) "Bishie Wolverine." Evan makes Kate angry by mentioning a potential Twilight manga.

[0:44:43] "Final thoughts?" It's awesome. Crazy and hectic, but so worth it. That's a wrap!

[0:44:58] Ending Song: "WORLD END" by FLOW (Code Geass R2 second opener)

[0:45:17] Outro: Brigid's in the Twilight Zone!

Links:
Anime Almanac
MangaBlog
Reverse Thieves
Dave's Yatterman story (Colony Drop)

Continue reading... | Write a comment

NYCC09: Takahashi manga joins nearly a dozen new Viz licenses

I know that I'm reporting on the Viz Media panel a little late, but hopefully this isn't already old news for everybody. At the New York Comic Con, the biggest announcement from Viz was that they have already licensed the newest manga series from bestselling creator Rumiko Takahashi (Urusei Yatsura, Ranma 1/2, Inu Yasha). Takahashi has not even announced what her story will be about, but Viz (which publishes most of Takahashi's work) has already secured a deal to bring the manga out in 2009, most likely putting it within mere months of the Japanese release! Scanlators will have a hard time competing with graphic novel releases sitting in American bookstores soon after they're available in Japan. Now what I want to see is both anime and manga companies adopt strategies like this, in which the license for a show is decided before it releases. It'll significantly speed up the localization process, putting fan translators in an untenable position.

On that front, Viz also announced a quickened release schedule for the Naruto graphic novels. They will release "eleven new Naruto manga in three months," according to Director of Marketing Mark Chang. That means a manga a week, which is sure to be hell on translators (and teenagers' wallets) as both struggle to keep up with the pace of Masashi Kishimoto's furiously-updated series.

Additionally, Ultimo, the manga created by the team of Stan Lee (Spider-Man, X-Men, The Fantastic Four) and Hiroyuki Takei (Shaman King), will be coming to the North American Shonen Jump, with a tentative launch date of July 2009.

Finally, I've listed all of Viz's new manga licenses after the break.

• YuGiOh! R by Akina Ito - Oct. 2009
• Boys Over Flowers: Jewelry Box by Yoko Kamio - Oct. 2009 (It's actually just another volume of the manga, but they're releasing it as a sort of sequel/epilogue)
• The Gentlemen's Alliance Cross Artbook by Arina Tanemura - Nov. 2009
• Beast Master by Kyousuke Motomi - Nov. 2009
• Butterflies, Flowers by Yuki Yoshihara - Dec. 2009 (an M-rated josei title)
• Jormungand by Koitaro Takahashi - Nov. 2009
• What a Wonderful World! by Inio Asano - Oct. 2009
• GoGo Monster by Taiyo Matsumoto - Nov. 2009 (from the creator of Tekkon Kinkreet)
• All My Darling Daughters by Fumi Yoshinaga - Jan. 2010
• not simple by Natsume Ono - Jan. 2010
• Natsume Yuujinchou by Yuki Midorikawa - Jan. 2010

Continue reading... | Write a comment

NYCC09: Bandai Entertainment / FUNimation panel reports

Yeah, these panel reports are late, but I had a few things that I wanted to say in relation to them. First up are the actual announcements. After that I'll have my little analysis.

Bandai Entertainment
Bandai is one of the few anime companies holding on in the struggling anime industry, thanks in no small part to licenses for fan-favorite shows like Gurren Lagann, Code Geass, and Gundam 00. On that topic, the only big announcement made by Bandai at the New York Comic Con was their license of the Gundam 00 and Gundam 00F manga, as well as the light novels based on the series.

One of the more interesting things that Bandai rep Robert Napton let slip was that the first presses of the Akira Blu-ray release have already sold out to retailers, and the next presses will be in "a couple months." Also, Robert confirmed that Bandai will NOT be distributing Makoto Shinkai's award-winning 2007 film 5 Centimeters Per Second, previously licensed by ADV before they went under. Who's going to pick it up then? The only possibility seems to be FUNimation, but if they wait too long, the buzz might completely wear off. (it already has to some degree) I'd hate to see 5cm/s come out years late and experience terrible sales numbers.

FUNimation
FUNimation also only felt the need to send one representative, the ever-charismatic Adam Sheehan. He began his presentation by showing some charts to illustrate FUNi's growth in a bad economy, hoping to reassure anime fans who fear that our little niche will be crushed under a failing global economy. (I don't blame them, we're all scared.)

Other than that, Sheehan just went over FUNi's new releases and answered some questions. Among his answers to those questions was word that the FUNimation podcast has been put on hiatus until "things get better," Baccano will probably be released in a 13-episode boxset, and FUNimation hasn't licensed Hellsing Ultimate yet because it quite simply "hasn't been offered to us."

---

What really struck me about both of these panels was a single quote, spoken word for word by both Adam and Robert: "Single-volume releases have gone the way of the dodo." Hearing this exact same sentiment said in the exact same way from the two biggest names in anime got me thinking about what that says about the anime industry. Dare I say it?: the New York Comic Con 2009 was the site of the official death of the single-volume release. And you know what?

Good riddance.

The single-volume release has always been one of my biggest problems with anime releases. Yes, I understand that people want their anime quickly, but even if you released DVD Volume 1 of some show on the same day as it was released on Japanese television, what are the odds that the average otaku will buy that $20 DVD instead of watching an HD-quality fansub? Exactly.

The box set release is where the real purchases come in. If anime companies like FUNimation released shows in cheap boxsets and scrapped the single-volume releases entirely, they would save quite a lot of money on DVDs that are probably not selling very quickly during their first few runs. Luckily, this seems to be happening, so hopefully FUNi and Bandai should see the improvements immediately – Bandai especially, since the combination of Code Geass on TV and boxsets in stores is exactly the kind of model that has worked for American television for so long.

I will admit that I don't have the sales numbers for any of these companies, so I don't know how single-volume releases sold when they used to be all over the market. Still, I can say from personal experience that the average 15-year-old otaku will not buy six $20 DVDs, so the strategy is inherently flawed.

It is said that necessity is the mother of invention, and this recession just might be the very necessity to spur the kind of invention that our industry needs right now.

Continue reading... | Write a comment

NYCC09: Del Rey / Yen Press / CMX panel reports (Yen gets Yotsuba!)

Del Rey
At the Del Rey Manga Happy FunTime Hullaballoo (yep, that's what they called it), some of the most prominent folks from Del Rey (including Ali T. Kokmen, Trisha Narwani, and the all-powerful Dallas Middaugh) sat down to list off their new releases, which I've organized in bullet-point form below:

• Nighthead Genesis (story be George Iiida, art by You Higiri) - "Two brothers with supernatural powers who can't escape their dark destiny"
• Four-Eyed Prince (Wataru Mizukami) - "Sachiko has found her dream guy, but she soon finds out that he is a cute boy in glasses by day, but a nightclub host entertaining older women by night."
• Only One Wish (by Mia Ikumi) It's about "A mysterious witch who only grants one wish to five strangers." Includes a bonus short manga from Tokyo Mew Mew (also by Ikumi).
• Genshiken: Return of the Otaku (novelization by Iida Kazutoshi) "A brand new, hilarious story with the most insane anime club ever."
• Kitchen Princess: Search for the Angel Cake (story by Miyuki Kobayashi, art by Natsumi Ando) "An old woman asks Najika to recreate an old recipe that's been lost for over 50 years."
• King of RPGs (story by manga expert Jason Thompson, art by Victor Haa) It's about "a young kid who is obsessed with "World of Warfare," and gets sucked into an insane tabletop roleplaying game

Check out the news from Yen Press and CMX after the break!

Yen Press
Yen Press President Kurt Hassler and the other folks from the manga publisher showed up at their panel room today to provide us with some sweet, sweet new licensing announcements and (as most of the packed room was hoping for) some sweet, sweet giveaways. The new licenses are listed below.

• Time and Again (by Jiun Yun) - Yen will be giving a graphic novel release to this title, already running in Yen+
• Spice and Wolf manga (story by Isuna Hasekura, art by Keito Koume) - A release date is "soon to be disclosed"
• Raiders (by JinJun Park) - Described by the folks from Yen as "early Obata, sort of," referring of course to the distinctive art style of Death Note manga artist.
• Laon (story by Hyum You, art by YoungBin Kim)
• The Crescent Moon Story (by Hyouta Fujiyama) - Releasing in September 2009
• Yotsuba&! Volume 6 (by Kiyohiko Azuma)!!!

Naturally, the talk of the room was the licensing of Yotsuba&!, which was originally owned by ADV Manga until their company went under, effectively ceasing the publication of the manga. In an epic Powerpoint mistake, the folks from Yen accidentally revealed the license of Yotsuba&! a few slides early, resulting is such a deafening roar from the crowd that Kurt's microphone shorted out. (At least I like to think that that's the reason.)

When asked about the translator selected to work on the new release of the manga, Yen told us that they selected a translator who had done some work on the ADV release, so they had some familiarity with the title. Additionally, the manga will not be published in Yen+, but Yen Press is currently looking at republishing ADV's first five volumes of the title

Finally, Kurt pulled out boxes upon boxes of Higurashi and Soul Eater manga and merchandise, which he was giving away... for free. Described by many as a "feeding frenzy" or quite simply "Animal House," the panel room was filled to bursting with gleeful fangirls (and fanboys) entering, exiting, and re-entering the line to pick up more and more manga, while the manga press corps watched in awe.

CMX Manga
DC Comics were firing on all cylinders at the new York Comic Con, with not only representation for their Western comics and DC Universe Online video game, but also a panel run by their manga division, CMX.

The panel was unfortunately nothing more than a simple list of the latest titles coming out from CMX, all of which I've listed below:

• The Name of the Flower (by Ken Saito • Jan 09
• Fire Investigator Nanase (story by Izo Hashimoto, art by Tomoshige Ichikawa • Jan 09
• Jihai (by Toshimi Ningoshi • Feb 09)
• March on Earth (by Mikase Hayashi • Mar 09
• Venus Capriccio (by Mai Nishikata • Apr 09)
• Genghis Khan: To the Ends of the Earth and Sea (art by Nakaba Higurashi, original story by Seiichi Morimura • Apr 09) - FLEX
• The King of Debris (by Yusuke Aso • May 09)
• The Lapis Lazuli Crown (by Natsuna Kawase, who worked on Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne • May 09)
• Ballad of a Shinigami (story by S-she Hasegawa, art by Asuka Izumi • June 09)
• Broken Blade (by Yunosuke Yoshinaga • Jul 09)

Regarding the CMX Mobile service's possible expansion to American cell phones, the division is "discussing a variety of options for a variety of devices." Of particular note is that they are looking at devices other than cell phones as well. (DS makes sense, since there are a lot of Japanese companies trying to pull that off.) And that's a wrap for the manga panels of NYCC09 day two!

Continue reading... | Write a comment

NYCC09: Day One, complete!

And that's a wrap for day one of the New York Comic Con! It was a lot of fun (and even more walking), but Saturday looks like it'll be even better. The events that I wrote up/will write up are:

• "Newsflash: Teen Girls Read Manga" panel
• The Conduit (Wii) hands-on
• Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (DS) hands-on
• X-Blades (360) hands-on
• Velvet Assassin (360) hands-on
• Melinda Cohen (voice actor for Velvet Assassin) interview
• Vertical, Inc. panel

Oh yeah, and I got to meet Stephen Totilo, N'Gai Croal, Ken Levine, and Todd Howard. Ahhhhhhsome!

Anyway, Saturday's events are almost totally anime and manga industry panels. I'll be blogging with all the details.

• Del Rey Manga panel
• Bandai Entertainment panel
• Yen Press panel
• FUNimation panel
• CMX: Manga Mania panel
• Madworld/The Conduit hands-ons and interviews

Continue reading... | Write a comment

NYCC09: Vertical to partner with unnamed Japanese publisher

Earlier tonight, I sat in on the panel for manga/Japanese book publisher Vertical, Inc. (MW, Black Jack, To Terra...), hosted by Vertical's Executive Editor Ioannis Mentzas. He was pretty much just going over the company's latest releases, so there were no new titles announced, but there was also a juicy bit of industry news:

Vertical is in the process of solidifying "a new investment, and an alliance with a Japanese publisher." According to Ioannis, who did his best to beat around the proverbial bush, the new deal is all about "acquiring rights" - Vertical will remain an "independent company" rather than a subsidiary of their partner. In these tough economic times, Vertical is having trouble with their previous investors (almost all banks), so a new investment from a Japanese publisher will give them a renewed source of cash that will help them stay afloat. More important to the average reader is the impact that this will have on Vertical's ability to publish manga. An agreement with a publisher means guaranteed titles, without all of the haggling (and hence added costs) of getting a title from a greedy Japanese manga company.

Who is the mystery publisher? All of the big three (Kodansha, Shueisha, and Shogakukan) are already taken, and even Yen Press has scooped up a valuable asset in Square Enix. Could Vertical be securing more retro manga? Or will they instead be trying out new titles? I can't see Vertical moving that far into the mainstream, so I'll take a bet that they're going for a publisher that will net them some seinen and josei stuff. Check out the full list of possible publishers (via Wikipedia) after the break, and let us know who you think it's gonna be.

• Akita Publishing Co., Ltd.
• Chuokoron Shinsha
• Enterbrain
• Fujimi Shobo
• Fusosha
• Futabasha
• Gentosha
• Hakusensha
• Hayakawa Publishing
• Kadokawa Shoten
• Kobunsha
• Mag Garden
• MediaWorks
• Shinchosha
• Shinshokan
• Shodensha
• Shonen Gahosha
• Tokuma Shoten
• Wani Books

Continue reading... | Write a comment

Come meet us at New York Comic Con!

Ani-Gamers will once again be invading the East Coast convention scene, this time at the New York Comic Con this weekend, from Friday, February 6th to Sunday the 8th. As usual, Uncle Yo will be there to provide his popular comedy routine, and I will be there as press, killing myself with far too many events to report on.

If you're going to be at the convention, and you happen to see us, you'd better come over and say hi. I'll be meeting up with the folks from some other blogs like Anime Almanac, Anime Vice, Japanator, Manga.About.com, MangaBlog, and Reverse Thieves, so you'll probably see me next to them in the front row of every anime industry panel. Uncle Yo can be found... at his panel of course! It's on Saturday from 12:30PM to 1:00PM, so get over there to see his performance. (For those interested in finding us, I look like this, and Uncle Yo looks like this)

As for the content that I'll be getting out of NYCC, let's just describe it as NYAF08 on steroids. I've got over a dozen events I'll be going to that are directly related to the blog (half of which are industry news panels), so as long as I'm still alive by the end of the weekend, expect about a month's work of ongoing features thanks to Comic Con. For those attending, see you there! For those not attending, make sure to follow my Twitter for the occasional live updates, and use the NYCC09 tag for all con coverage.

Continue reading... | Write a comment

Reed Exhibitions to begin new pop culture event in Chicago

Bad economy be damned! After previously announcing PAX Boston, Reed Exhibitions is now expanding their reach even more with a brand new pop culture event, and this one isn't restricted to East or West Coasters. The Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2) will be held on April 16 – 18, 2010 at McCormick Place in downtown Chicago, and according to Reed, it will follow in the spirit of the New York and San Diego Comic Cons. NYCC and C2E2 Show Manager Lance Fensterman says, "We are thrilled to bring what we hope will be another massive comic and pop culture event, in the spirit of New York Comic Con, to an eager audience in Chicago and the entire Midwest."

Also of note is that, in an attempt to spread out their events more evenly, Reed has also announced plans to move New York Comic Con 2010 to October 8 – 10, 2010. This significant date change will presumably help pop culture companies and the press to be more able to attend Reed shows. Perhaps most interesting to anime fans is the New York Anime Festival, which has been scheduled for September 25-27 in 2009. Reed will undoubtedly be forced to move the convention for 2010, but it is effectively boxed-into the anime con schedule, as it is now surrounded by both New York Comic Con and Anime Weekend Atlanta.

Moving to a summer date could work, but then NYAF (One of the largest anime cons in the country) will be bumping up next to Otakon and Anime Expo, the top two largest anime conventions in North America. That sort of summer anime con density would result in lower numbers for all three cons – certainly not something NYAF is looking for. It will be interesting to see how the scheduling turns out, and I'll be sure to ask Lance and others at NYCC if I get a chance.

Continue reading... | Write a comment

Review: Shikabane Hime - Corpse Princess (Sub)

Medium: TV Anime
Number of Episodes: 12
Genres: Action, Horror, Supernatural
Director: Masahiko Murata
Studio: Feel, Gainax
Licensed? Yes (FUNimation)

Hopefully, by now you’re pretty much aware of FUNimation’s desire to bring us fresh, crispy, brand-new anime NOW. Shikabane Hime: Corpse Princess (Shikabane Hime: Aka in Japan) is the first in what may be a long trend of anime released online, fully subtitled, through an American company. True, you can buy high-quality subbed episodes right now through iTunes, or watch them on YouTube or Hulu, and it’s perfectly legal. But we’ll hold off on the legality for a law firm podcast.

For now we’ve got guns, demons and boobies to discuss.

Studio Gainax picked up this supernatural action series from a moderately popular manga. Shikabane Hime follows Makina Hoshimura, an undead soldier who must slaughter 108 fellow "shikabane" (vengeful zombie/spirits) in order to achieve Heaven. Fighting alongside her is her contract monk, Keisei Tagami, a modern man using old-school methods. The real pull of the story is through his adoptive, detached younger brother, Ouri. Ouri’s fascination with death is a moth-to-the-flame archetype that is destined to leave him burned. The situation quickly reaches the clichéd catch-22 of “we both want to protect each other, but we’ll both get killed in the process,” as Ouri includes himself in many of Makina’s missions.

Gainax flexes their muscles with the opening animation, whipping zombie arms and bullet casings like they were party-poppers at a New Year’s party. The fluid animation paired with the distorted close-up angles bears the proud badge of the studio that gave us Evangelion. Shikabane Hime tones down most of its colors to create the eerie atmosphere we’ve come to associate with modern Gothic stories. It’s dark, almost macabre coloration reminded me of Blood+ (though without the whiny characters). It is strange how the camera holds Makina in frame: her ice-cold beauty and violent passion is quite hot. Almost all of the backgrounds and scenery are unmistakably grim however, due to the lack of any major light source.

Sadly, at times the overbearingly grim tones leads to flat, professional supporting characters that do not elicit much sympathy. Even so, director Masahiko Murata tries to interject slapstick humor and innuendo comedic relief... to no avail. If anything, the jokes are so forced and out-of-place they distract from the task at hand: shooting up zombies. Still, I’d hate to think of how dull this series would be without Keisei’s closeted otaku-tendencies.

Gainax’s staff brought out their big guns in letting Shou Aikawa handle the script. His ear for corrupted morality can be heard in the Fullmetal Alchemist movie, Rahxephon, Wrath of the Ninja, and the OVA of Vampire Princess Miyu. In short, a very experienced man with one foot firmly planted in the realm of the fantastic.

Beyond the gripping stories of people resurrecting as powerful monsters only to be mowed down, I was most invested in the political struggle of the monks’ hierarchy. Indeed, the tethering of "shikabane hime" (corpse princesses) to fight off monsters is a no-win situation of fighting fire with fire – and boy do they use fire. Makina’s firearms are a beautiful, bouncing pair of... Uzis. Another corpse princess fights with her fists, another with a big-ass hammer, and another with a sniper rifle. This team of living corpses perpetually argues among themselves and with their contracted monks, leading to a more fitting, subtle (though definitely black) humor.

As the story exhumes the mysteries surrounding Makina’s death and Keisei’s involvement with the Kougon Sect, it is clear that Ouri’s involvement with the hime will only pull him deeper. I will not spoil the end of the first season, but I will remind you to stay tuned to FUNimation’s YouTube channel, as Shikabane Hime: Kuro, or season two, is already in post-production and ready to launch here in America. It turns out that Gainax is keeping themselves quite busy between this production and both the Gurren Lagann movies. They're clearly not going to let Studio BONES have all the fun.

Shikabane Hime is an all-around decent action piece that dictates a black-and-white argument on using monsters to blow away other monsters. Nothing ground-breaking, but much better than your run-of-the-mill zombie film.

fair.

Continue reading... | Write a comment

This Month in Ani-Gamers ~ January 2009

To subscribe to these posts through our email newsletter, click here.

Hey there, welcome to the first "This Month in Ani-Gamers" post. Unlike our previous column, "This Week in Ani-Gamers," I'll now be posting the latest stories on a monthly basis, along with some editorial commentary on where the site is headed.

On to business. In January, Ani-Gamers kicked off its first month of the year with a high concentration of editorial content like reviews, columns, and features. We announced our Top 3 Anime, Manga, and Games of the Year, and even talked about our favorite titles in the two-part Ani-Gamers Podcast #011 (part 1, part 2). Rounding it all off, Ink finally posted his second Otakudemia column, providing a brilliant look at Speed Grapher's noir themes. And yes, there was some big news, such as the announcement of the Cowboy Bebop Hollywood movie and the call to arms for Kamina as MTV's Baddest Badass.

In the future, Ani-Gamers will be moving toward a slightly more opinion-based model, meaning that we will balance our simple news posts with some more opinion content such as reviews, critiques, and columns. Will news go away? Of course not! How will our readers stay up-to-date with current events in geekdom without reading our site? Actually, don't answer that one.

Anyway, the Super Bowl party is getting started around here, so I've gotta take a break from blogging to pretend that I care about any football game that doesn't feature the Devil Bats. In the meantime, check out the month's posts after the break.

---

News:
FUNimation to announce ten new series before year's end [EDIT 4]
Legend of Koizumi plays Mahjong with your world leaders
Show MTV your otaku chops: vote for Kamina!
Cowboy Bebop live-action announced, Keanu Reeves to star

---

Reviews:
Black Jack vol.1 (Manga)
Origin: Spirits of the Past (Hyb)
Eyeshield 21 vol.1 (Manga)

---

Features:
Ani-Gamers' Top 3 Manga of 2008
Ani-Gamers' Top 3 Video Games of 2008
Ani-Gamers' Top 3 Anime of 2008

---

Columns:
This Week in Ani-Gamers ~ 12.28.08-01.04.09
This Week in Ani-Gamers ~ 01.04.09-01.11.09
Otakudemia: Translation as the Definitive Noir Element in Speed Grapher

---

Podcasts:
Ani-Gamers Podcast Promo#02
Ani-Gamers Podcast #011a - Goodbye 2008! (part 1)
Ani-Gamers Podcast #011b - Goodbye 2008! (part 2)

---

Notices:
A proposition from the Reverse Thieves
"This Week in Ani-Gamers," Newsletter goes monthly

---

On Deck:
[Review] Ga-Rei-Zero (Sub) - Uncle Yo
[Review] Gurren Lagann (Hyb) - Uncle Yo
[Review] Mega Man ZX Advent (DS) - Pigeonflu
[Review] Paranoia Agent (Hyb) - Uncle Yo
[Review] School Days (Sub) - Uncle Yo
[Review] Shikabane Hime (Sub) - Uncle Yo
[Review] Tekkon Kinkreet (Hyb) - Vampt Vo

---

Thanks for reading. See you next week!

Continue reading... | Write a comment