MoeDosed

WGA vs. minori - 「Nanatsuiro★Drops」 - Blog status update

With this entry I’ll be pointing out probable plagiarism committed by minori’s script writers. I’ve also taken a closer look at Nanatsuiro★Drops and its ending. Finally, a minor blog status update at the very end for those that care.

I’m sure you guys are no strangers to stories of Japanese artists being victims of offshore plagiarism. I’ve certainly witnessed my fair share of local TV entertainment that ripped off Japanese comedic sketches without a second thought. Japanese copyright holders had me believe that they are the last in line to seriously infringe on anyone’s copyright, but after this week’s revelation, I think it’s time for me to lose the fanboy attitude. As it turns out, Drew Barrymore has fans among minori’s staff (she’s just too cute, so that has to be it (;ﾟдﾟ)). Kagami Yuu, mikage, nbkz Sakai — who are we looking at here? Barrymore was cast in the Hollywood comedy 50 First Dates (2004). She plays the role of Lucy, a charming young woman who is suffering from short-term memory loss. The fact of the matter is, Lucy shares too many blatant similarities with Shindou Chihiro, a character from the two-part visual novel series ef - a fairy tale of the two (2006). OK, so George Wing didn’t believe in his girls having eyepatches, but these works have other more important similarities to be ashamed of. As it was first noted, both characters have the same medical condition; they lose whatever new memories they obtain during their day as they fall asleep, both of them have to face their realities anew every day, both keep a diary in which they write about their boyfriends, they both ceremonially dispose of said diaries when they decide to end their relationships, and both come to the conclusion that they can’t forget about their sweethearts. Seeing such artistic resemblance shouldn’t be taken too lightly or shrugged off as merely a coincidence. Come on, the comedy even mentions a touching story of a man who was able to stand against the odds of having a memory disorder and write a book on the subject… It’s all as if the WGA was laying it out for minori’s script writers.

I know this topic has been discussed by some bloggers in the past already, but the matter requires further investigation if you’re an appropriate authority. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of minori’s work; I’m bundling the last two anime DVDs with my pre-order of ef - the latter tale, just so we’re clear. I played and watched ef before seeing the Hollywood movie, so I can’t exactly distance myself from all the built-up emotion now, even if this was a case of plagiarism, but it would be unfair to the creators of 50 First Dates to completely discard that line of thought. All things considered, it was a fairly entertaining movie.

Regarding Nanatsuiro★Drops, I’ve finally managed to complete the TV series. The original game was my first eroge purchase, so I’ve been a fan of it for a while, but the initial broadcast run lost me at the height of Sumomo’s growth, since I knew what was coming after she beats Nona with Timu Forma Mei. The anime’s production team must have had a lot of respect for the original work, but they did tweak the atmosphere a bit with its ending. While the modification was a pleasant one, I don’t think it conveyed the original message as best as it could. As far as I remember Sumomo’s storyline from the eroge, the couple’s struggle to get back together wasn’t about getting Tsuwabuki to remember the love he shared with his crybaby girlfriend. The whole story talks about a weak girl gathering courage to stand on her own two feet. She can’t do that at first; Nadeshiko is there to help her cry out her frustrations while the cute plushie serves her as an emotional crutch. After months of Yuki-chan coaching her state of mind, she confronts Tsuwabuki–who has lost his memories–on her own and confesses her feelings to him. I hate to say this, but the eroge’s Sumomo came across as rather slutty with that confession and the subsequent ero event (d’oh), as if she was trying to force Tsuwabuki into dating her again. The game made it very clear that its magical chapter ended with the erasure of Tsuwabuki’s memories, that the days of chasing after star droplets were never coming back. But in the anime, we’re introduced with a very different Sumomo. After Tsuwabuki gets cured of his plushie disease, Sumomo doesn’t take the initiative to make him fall in love with her again, she just waits patiently for him to remember his past feelings, something that shouldn’t even be possible. Still, they managed to keep hope as the underlying theme, so I give them credit for that. In the end, they wrapped it up as a cheesy mahou shoujo romance (the mawkish violin BGM didn’t do it any justice). While the result met certain expectations, especially in regards to character design and animation, it wasn’t exactly what the eroge had delivered, yet surprisingly, the anime managed to keep its scripts very close to the main storyline.

Last issue on today’s agenda: DENSETSU SHOUJO. I am in process of creating a banner for this blog, yay! I’m also reviving the sidebar Notes which will mostly consist of anime/eroge news shorts. I won’t be doing full news entries like I used to, but I figure shorts are enough to keep the public informed about the upcoming industry goods and events. That’s it for today, folks.

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2008/05/14 Author: Miha | Anime, Eroge, Site | No Comments

Otaku Camp 2008 - Denkare - Upcoming Summer anime - KyoAni?

This time around I’m contemplating otaku camping outside of our basements, searching for the next best eroge music production group, looking over the list of Summer 2008 anime, and wondering whether KyoAni has a special place inside the hearts of anime bloggers.

Folks, for once I have an interesting summer ahead of me. One of the guys from one of my IRC channels pointed out a location where we could hold camp in July for local otaku brethren, to kick back and relax while watching anime under the starry sky. I’m pretty excited about it and at the same time terrified of the responsibility as I may have to look after underage folks as well. I’ll ask for help, of course, but now I regret skipping Scout leadership training when I was a kid. In any case, we need to wait for the confirmation of the lot’s tenants.
However, we have a slight problem with Slovenia’s stagnant fan population growth that will have direct influence over the success of this camp. To tell you the truth, our active fandom has been verging on extinction for the last couple of years now. Its pulse is more or less dependent on no more than fifty individuals that discuss anime online, and no more than ten organizers who keep the magic going. What’s really an issue is that Slovenian TV networks are simply not interested in airing content that can be identified as anime. Consequently, our populace is virtually non-existent. Leading the Slovenian fandom would be no more of a challenge than running your typical college anime club, which makes the situation even more pathetic. My estimate is that there are no more than two hundred active anime fans out here, but no more than a quarter of them are willing to participate in open (online) discussions. Our situation requires the fandom to unite, but the two biggest online factions keep each other in check, preventing us to honestly discuss issues our local fandom is facing. All this just proves that no matter the size of the fan contingent, anime fandom is diverse as any other. Unfortunately, the size of our local fan contingent doesn’t give us the luxury to speak our minds out because anime fans, especially if they know each other in person, get way too easily offended. I wonder how prominent local fan “governments” are in the U.S…. But anyway, let’s go over to the first of today’s topics…

A few days ago, I was fortunate enough to discover a song called White Wedding. It comes from a music production group that named itself Denkishiki Karen Ongaku Shuudan (電気式華憐音楽集団, abbr. - Denkare). I love the song above despite its populist formula. So I made a Google search to find more about its creators. What I hoped to discover was a new hidden gem among the numerous production groups working in the otaku field such as I’ve Sound and MOSAIC.WAV. My hopes turned bleak when I found out Denkare’s main focus is neoclassical metal and heavy metal, two genres for which I don’t hold a lot of appreciation unless they employ strong epic character, similar to what we can expect from Blind Guardian. The eroge division BLACK CYC has provided them with a steady stream of new projects for the past several years, they even worked on GUN-KATANA (銃刀) -Non Human Killer-, specifically their theme song Raison D’etre. That particular song turned out to be a complete disaster, for me. The game itself combined standard ADV gameplay with real-time FPS segments (I think they used one of Quake’s engines). The introduction of ADVｘFPS gameplay generated an enormous amount of hype, but many customers denounced its unique feat, yet managed to stay positive about the whole package.
Back to Denkare. The group collaborated with other prominent eroge companies as well. They worked on TEATIME’s Yuki Hotaru and Sacred Plume, they also joined on a few remix gigs with CIRCUS, Navel and MOONSTONE. If you come across SHUFFLE’s Original Soundtrack, you may notice one of their songs called Mirage Lullaby (Denki Newtype mix). So while my search for the next best thing didn’t come up with any significant discoveries, it did reconfirm the notion that visually disgusting games may sometimes surprise in some production aspects. For instance, Complet’s games may be one of the worst corporate eroge to ever hit the market. People mistake them for a doujin circle from time to time due to their buggy game engine, 1-minute ero events and recycled background art/music. What they managed to create, though, is a unique world that can be characterized as a sort of support group whose members help each other out with easing their sexual tensions without any sort of discrimination, as if the act of sex was disenfranchised of the perceptions our societies respectfully hold. Bottom line, sex isn’t “dirty” in their games, it’s your everyday chore. For this reason alone, I think Complet’s–along with Authoring Heaven and CrossTalk–is one of the finer eroge conglomerates in existence. I believe low production values don’t necessarily mean bad games, or bad anime; there’s always one aspect of any title that can be brilliant, whether it’s just songs or backgrounds or seiyuu or CG art or mini games; but they may not warrant a purchase.
UNDEAD’s Metorase (メトラセ) reminds me of a fairly underrated IMAGE CRAFT game called Slow Step ～初めての恋愛～ and its theme song that goes by the same name. In my opinion, it’s one of the best and commonly overlooked Healing Leaf (Kawada Mami, Shimamiya Eiko)/I’ve Sound songs of all times. To state the obvious, Denkare’s vocal color adds a rather excruciating contrast effect to their heavy metal sampling palette. I’d rather have them produce more of the melodic pop genre such as Erogos’ Maho☆Tama (まほ☆たま) theme song Majigecchu (まじげっちゅ), but I guess that option is only viable in presence of compliant employers. If not, I just hope White Wedding receives a quality full-length treatment.

In other developments, I’ve been looking over the Summer anime line-up. I believe it’ll satisfy my fetishistic needs with titles like the tsurupetalicious Strike Witches, the oppaioppailicious Sekirei, the otakulicious Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu and the yurilicious Koihime Musou. I figure World Destruction, Mission-E and Blade of the Immortal will try to keep me real. However, the number of upcoming anime sequels that they have announced so far for Summer and Fall sounds pretty disgusting. Jigoku Shoujo S3, Higurei, Rosario to Vampire Capu2… No thanks! I’m giving up on Zero no Tsukaima, unless they are planning to turn Princesse no Rondo into a remake of the second season, which was utterly atrocious, by the way. Kugyuu fan service is not enough, my friends! I’m not overly pleased to see a new season of Hidamari Sketch either; I’d rather see SHAFT working on their next best thing and have them hurry on SHINA DARK. I don’t think I need to explain myself about Ikkitousen - Great Guardians, but I do feel the need to express my opinion about the past staying in the past, for example the latest Slayers Revolution TV series. At times like these I need to ask myself if production committee members have nothing better to do than to scavenge their warehouses for successful old properties. Come on, how many Slayers series has it been? How many years since the last TV broadcast? Or has Japan’s declining birth rate finally started kicking the domestic otaku market? With that said, I’m intrigued by the upcoming Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsuna Koto sequel ~Natsu no Sora~. I haven’t watched the first season, but I plan on doing that before July.

One last question to my readers: Are seasons occupied by Kyoto Animation’s works to anime bloggers what the U.S. election season is to 24/7 cable news networks? So how are you guys holding up this Spring that is virtually free of KyoAni? :D Summer starts with the Lucky Star OVA, Fall they will most likely cover with CLANNAD AFTER STORY. Also, A-1 Picture’s Kannagi will be supervised by the former KyoAni director Yutaka Yamamoto. Then we have Haruhi standing in line for Winter 2009, which will most likely be a two-cour venture as far as rumors go. Fun times ahead of us, hang in there, guys!

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2008/05/08 Author: Miha | Adult, Anime, Community, Eroge, Industry, Music, OVA | 1 Comment

「Rinjoku no Shiro - Kairai no Ou」 - Crunchyroll & GONZO - “HQ” YouTube encodes

Today we’ll be covering CLOCKUP’s newest game, Crunchyroll’s failing distribution model and its fans, how I beat minori and YuzuSoft at encoding YouTube trailers, and the resurrection of DENSETSU SHOUJO!

So I take my eyes off the eroge radar for a good month or so, and CLOCKUP decides to schedule a new release for May 30. Rinjoku no Shiro - Kairai no Ou (凛辱の城　傀儡の王) looks to be another fine example of humiliation bang-on games, much like their recent Ryoujoku Gakuenchou (凌辱学園長) where you’ve played this guy that could hear thoughts of his highschool playmates (girls screaming two different things at the same time is amazing). The gameplay is complete win, judging from the flash demos I tried out. I do think you should check out one of Rinjoku no Shiro’s demos; needless to say, it’s quality ero. You play this hero person who defeats an aggressive demon king with his army. Naturally, you take the demon’s place against your own will. His job was to violate as many women as possible to maintain his power in hopes of getting rid of the binding curse one day. You receive the same instructions from the castle’s eternal mistress, Rosetta.
Caution: Very long ero events and humongous tits (look out for Queen Eleze).

In other news, just when I thought the Crunchyroll controversy had started to subside and people began to accept their newly introduced distribution method for GONZO’s Spring shows, I notice some guy stirring up shit over at AnimeSuki Forums. Anti-GONZO arguments, here we go! I mean, I recognise a sane argument when I see one. For instance, if you think the video quality of CR’s XviD encodes is crap, here’s the tip of my hat. Let’s make this perfectly clear, it’s a craptastic simple profile encode made with Mencoder, but it’s still watchable (reminds me of AT-X anime caps). Still, if you enjoy a certain degree of English language proficiency, be sure not to blame GONZO for hurting your national pride ’cause they don’t do multilingual releases. I’m sure you’re not nagging English fansubbers for not including Spanish and Swahili scripts inside their MKVs. I forget, I forget, they make fansubs available to us free of charge, we shouldn’t complain when we get free stuff… Good thing GONZO isn’t offering their anime free of charge, otherwise we’d be left without any solid anti- arguments. Oh, wait…
For crying out loud, support this distribution model, we can expect only good things from its continuation. I want GONZO to adapt CHAOS;HEAD, so…

Let’s go to YouTube. I’ve been publishing some high-quality FLV1 encodes again; you can watch them below. Though it may seem redundant to tinker with FLV1 now that YouTube is effectively reencoding every video piece ever uploaded to it to H.264. The difference between FLV1 and H.264 is remarkable, but even with clean sources, it can still be inferior to a custom FLV1 encode at 1000 kbps, while YouTube rates its H.264 encodes at 850. I can let YouTube reencode it to H.264/AAC, but it’ll still have severe sound clipping and video blocking problems.
Here’s the newest trailer for AQUAPLUS‘ PS3 port of tears to tiara -Kakan no Daichi- (-花冠の大地-). Animation sequences have been produced by STUDIO 4°C, the TV anime is being produced by WHITE FOX, which is a newly-founded animation studio that consists of Utawarerumono’s former staff. I’m expecting a fantastic anime adaptation, and so should you. The PS3 port comes out in August. High-res trailers on AQUAPLUS’ official site.

For those who haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, here’s my own encode of minori’s ef - the latter tale. demo movie. Priceless Shinkai Makoto directive! I’ve just submitted an Amazon JP order today for the game (comes out on May 30) and the last two anime DVD volumes. HMV has been cruel to me. =(

And last but not least, an encode of Natsuzora Kanata’s (夏空カナタ) opening movie. This newest YuzuSoft game is slated to be released on May 23. I’ve played the demo for half an hour, but wasn’t too impressed. Although I have to say, Sasara’s character design, with a touch of fushigi-kei and Miru as her voice… Gorgeous. The video below may get a bit bandwidth hungry.

Last order of business: Why is this blog still alive? In early March I just had to take a break from it all. I’ve noticed that ANN’s got a lot faster at retrieving and posting MOON PHASE updates, so I kind of lost my drive to do that. DENSETSU SHOUJO was a sort of protonews blog; it’s been designed to be one, but now I’m changing the clockworks. I’ll be doing weekly updates from now on and covering events and products that have provoked my mind over weekly intervals. This way I may actually be able to write some editorial material, imagine that. ~_~ I have to thank In Search of Number Nine, for his articles have evoked a craving for resurrection of this broken girlish legend once more.

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2008/05/03 Author: Miha | Anime, Eroge, Fandom, Industry, Visual Novels | 1 Comment

[Woohoo!] 「Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann」 movie on its way!

Let us rejoice, GAR fans! According to Kadokawa Shoten’s Tokyo International Anime Fair 2008 exhibition page, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann’s theatrical movie feature will receive a formal announcement in NewType magazine that’s going on sale on March 10. So let’s sit tight ’till we receive more information on it.

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2008/03/03 Author: Miha | Anime | No Comments

[Alcot] 「Fair Child」 OP karaoke

Another one of my late karaoke projects cleared from the fansubbing queue! This time I’m presenting Alcot’s Fair Child that got released back in December. The story focuses on a whimpy young lad Takanashi Kazuki and his adolescent days. The lucky eroge bastard gets to enjoy the attention of his cute cousin Kotori, his childhood friend Kokoro, a self-proclaimed yamato nadeshiko named Tobari, Yuuhi, who is an overseas returnee, and Sakuya, the president of their Student Council.

My usual disclaimer: You may experience loading difficulties on your first playback run due to high-bitrate streaming. Actually, the effect used in this video isn’t that appropriate for YouTube, so we’ve made a torrent for the original high-resolution XviD release. Most of the work (translation and effects) was done by one of my closest buddies that also karaoke-subtitled Kichiku Megane’s OP.

Rorippoi bodies, junai relationships, attractive ero illustrations… What’s not to like? (;ﾟдﾟ) User reviews on Erogamescape were bland, but I’m sure junai enthusiasts will manage to appreciate the game. Random thought: Tobari is seriously hot, judging from her imagery.

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2008/03/01 Author: Miha | Adult, Eroge | 3 Comments

[Nitro+] 「CHAOS;HEAD」 newest demo video and introduction

I had to be disturbed not to say anything about the plot in my last CHAOS;HEAD entry, so I’ll do this now for the occasion: Nitroplus released a longer demo video today and the opening theme song. Worth checking out.

You’re playing this guy named Nishijou Takumi, a fully fledged otaku with no interest in the real world. He’s also an Internet addict, a shut-in who attends his second year of high school just for the sake of keeping his attendance rate high enough. He lives alone in a small container house, away from his parents and his little sister. The Base, as he refers to his living quarters, is set on top of some Shinjuku apartment building. This goes without saying, his place is filled with piles of eroge packages, figures and other goods, empty convenience store lunch boxes etc. ダメ人間www
At this point in time, Shinjuku is a stage to a series of murders appropriately labeled as The New Generation Frenzy (abbr. NewGene) that involves young people brutally murdered in a number of ways. So what’s Takumi’s part in all of this? Right, he’s a net addict, and the events surrounding the serial murders were covered by various news outlets and heavily discussed on the Internet. So one day he chats with this person nicknamed Shougun (将軍, tl. General) who had a huge take on the next NewGene murder. He posted a few links to Takumi that were filled with guro imagery of the next murder scene, he also tells him the way the victim got killed. Takumi’s search for the bizarre leads him straight to the mentioned murder scene, an event that changes his life completely.

Senses tingling tell me CHAOS;HEAD may become Nitroplus’ next collaboration with GONZO. If that happens, I sincerely hope they bring the potential anime production over to the U.S. Yes, I’m making predictions right off the bat, but believing strongly in the power of plot, this title could be a viable candidate for the U.S. anime consumer market, not to mention a great compromise between moe and action-adventure. I just hope the final product lives up to my expectations as it has me fired up pretty good for the moment.

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2008/03/01 Author: Miha | ADV | 5 Comments

[Curiosity] BaseSon’s 「Harukoi Otome」 OVA

Browsing through BaseSon’s official website the day after the announcement of Koi Hime Musou’s television anime adaptation, I stumbled upon another interesting news bit regarding their latest game Harukoi Otome -Otome no Sono de Gokigenyou- (春恋*乙女 〜乙女の園でごきげんよう。〜). The title is getting an adult OVA, it seems. The OVA announcement predates the game release on December 15, 2007 for about a month. Getchu has the DVD release set to April 18, 2008. WhiteBear (Nee, Chanto Shiyou yo!) is in charge of production.

Harukoi Otome is a shameless princess harem revolving around a boy named Hayasaka Akihito who finds himself attending a school on which he’s the only guy in class, surrounded by a fuckload of maiden princesses. (;ﾟдﾟ) So yeah, you might as well imagine how the story plays out.

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2008/02/29 Author: Miha | Adult, Eroge, OVA | 1 Comment

[ファンのために！] THE IDOLM@STER 「L4U! Original Anime」

You guys must’ve heard about today’s THE IDOLM@STER - Live For You! release, am I right? Well, hurry up and check out the original anime bonus. Miki’s finally animated!

Haruka, Azusa, Miki find themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere with 18 hours left ’till their fan appreciation concert. They must have fallen asleep on the train… How in the world did that happen?! It’s a race against time as the girls quicken their pace to reach Tokyo before sundown. Will they make it in time or will they let their fans down?
Impression: Very cute. The best feat of this short, 17-minute anime piece were the original game seiyuu. An abundance of Miki fan service, although Hasegawa Akiko’s performance wasn’t too satisfying even though her character had more air time than any other. A disappointing shortage of Kugyuu, I must note. ･ﾟ･(つД｀)･ﾟ･ We only got one nihihi~ from Iori-chan. Overall, the anime offered a pretty satisfying experience for the dire fan.

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2008/02/28 Author: Miha | Anime, Games | 3 Comments

[Blog] First report

Notes
If you divert your attention to the sidebar on your right, you will undoubtedly notice a section called Notes. This will be my repository of short news bits that I personally deem unworthy of blogging about, but they have managed to steal my attention for a few minutes of reading anyway. Basically a bin of information others might find useful, but I personally didn’t find them that important. It will also harbor front-page news if I were very late to report them. The RSS link for Notes is already up, but I’ll add some links to it at a later time.

Stage6
To my regret, the high-quality video streaming site Stage6 is shutting down today. I’ve used it on a few occasions to embed some videos into my blog posts, so I’ll have to reencode those eventually and put them on YouTube. Just so you know.

2008/02/28 Author: Miha | Blog | No Comments

[w00t] 「Koi Hime Musou」 anime & comic versions announced!

I can’t believe this. So this very popular eroge title from early 2007 is finally getting a television anime. Dogakobo, an “in-between” studio that are best known for their rendition of Saishuu Heiki Kanojo, will be in charge of the animation production. Nakanishi Nobuaki (Sumomomo Momomo) is taking over the direction. Further details about the anime are still unannounced. The comic serialization starts in the second issue of Dengeki G’s Festival! COMIC. What’s more, the game’s PS2 port will double the number of concrete heroine endings.
BaseSon’s original work Koi Hime†Musou -Doki☆Otome Darake no Sangokushi Engi (恋姫†無双 〜ドキッ☆乙女だらけの三国志演義〜) is an eroge style Romance of the Three Kingdoms that deals with five teams of ~26 unique bishoujo characters. I’ve compiled a visual character list below, but I encourage you to read a bit about the game in AnimeSuki’s game thread.

Source
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2008/02/27 Author: Miha | Anime, Eroge, Manga | 6 Comments

[Boys Love] 「Kichiku Megane」 OP karaoke video

Gosh, I never imagined I’d write about yaoi willingly. (;ﾟдﾟ) As it turns out, one of my good buddies decided to karaoke Kichiku Megane’s opening sequence a few days back. Kichiku Megane is a BL eroge from Spray that was released last October. What grabbed my attention before the release was I’ve Sound’s participation on the project. They deployed C.G. mix to compose and perform the theme song titled under the darkness. A pretty enjoyable tune if you ask me, so let’s get to it.

As with all my YouTube uploads, you may experience loading difficulties on your first playback run. I’ve stuffed every ounce of bitrate in the FLV to preserve as much picture clarity as possible. You can download the original high resolution encode with BitTorrent.

Oh, one more thing… The game is getting a fan disc release titled Kichiku Megane R sometime in 2008, so keep your eyes sharp, my beloved fujoshi.

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2008/02/27 Author: Miha | Adult, Eroge, Music | 1 Comment

[OVA] 「School Rumble 3rd Semester」 confirmed!

Nice, the information released on School Rumble’s Kodansha website confirmed the second OVA installment of our adorable tennen romance series. School Rumble 3rd Semester OVA will be bundled in with manga volumes 21 and 22 as first-press limited edition bonuses. Volume 21 is slated to come out on July 17.

Source
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2008/02/26 Author: Miha | Anime, Manga, OVA | 4 Comments

[PV] 「Wagaya no Oinari-sama」 vol.0 preview

Readers of Dengeki Comic Gao got a chance to apply for the special prologue DVD Wagaya no Revolution (我が家のれぼりゅ〜しょん). The package will contain a DVD with 7 minutes and 33 seconds of footage, a bonus titled Wagaya no Oinari-sama Visual Liner Notes, and a 32-page booklet containing original illustrations, PV setting etc. The promo below is part of this campaign.

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2008/02/25 Author: Miha | Anime, Light Novels | No Comments

[3rd series] 「Ikkitousen - Great Guardians」 announced

Ikkitousen - Great Guardians, the third of its anime franchise, is coming out this Summer. Arms and GENCO will continue handling the production aspect; the seiyuu list is about the same compared to the previous anime season as well. We’re looking at a completely original story with added characters. Sonsaku Hakufu’s sister is making her debut as an original anime character. The announcement was made on the cover of Monthly Comic GUM, April issue.

Oh well, can’t say I’ll watch this one. Figure otaku, rejoice! (;ﾟдﾟ)

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2008/02/23 Author: Miha | Anime | 4 Comments

[Scoop] 「Natsume Yuujin-Chou」 anime on the way

It’s going to be made after a ghost-story shoujo manga by Midorikawa Yuki that’s being serialized in LaLa magazine. The fifth volume is on its way and will be released on March 5. The description below is courtesy of ANN:

The story revolves around Natsume, a boy who has been able to see ghosts since he was little. Unfortunately, humans shun him, and there is not much fondness between him and ghosts either. One day, he inherits a Yuujin-Chou (”Book of Friends”) from his grandmother. The book is actually full of contracts that his grandmother made to trap ghosts. As one ghost after another shows up, Natsume tries to release or help them — even while many of them seek vengeance on him.

Looks to be fujoshi fodder. Yuck!

Source
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2008/02/22 Author: Miha | Anime, Manga | No Comments

[Scoop] 「Count and Fairy」 TVアニメ化決定

First scoop of the day: The light novel series Hakushaku to Yousei (伯爵と妖精, tl. Count and Fairy) by Tani Mizue and Takaboshi Asako is becoming a TV anime! Nothing official yet, no details either. The thirteen-volume series was published under Shueisha’s shoujo label Cobalt Bunko. A drama CD based on the work was released in June last year. The second CD is scheduled to come out in March.

The story is set in 19th century England and centers on a “fairy doctor” named Lydia. Her life takes a 180-degrees turn when she meets a legendary blue knight count named Edgar and his crew. He hires her as an adviser during his quest to obtain a treasured sword that was supposed to be handed down to him by his family.

Hm, better keep a tab on this one.

Source
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2008/02/22 Author: Miha | Anime, Light Novels | 1 Comment

[約束] 「Tsuyokiss 2nd Semester」 PV karaoke

As promised, I tackled Tsuyokiss 2nd Semester PV yesterday and included simple subtitle karaoke. The high quality H.264 version should propagate TokyoTosho and the likes sometime today, but I did my best to make your YouTube experience as painless as possible. Video is set at 1400 kbps so loading might be rough on your first playback run. Enjoy!

Source
[amtap amazon:asin=B00137SH0O]

2008/02/21 Author: Miha | Eroge | No Comments

[Neta] 「12RIVEN -the Ψcliminal of integral-」 promo out

KID’s demise nearly crushed project 12RIVEN last year. Luckily CYBERFRONT managed to get it back on track, so it’s apparently ready for sale now slated to happen on March 13th. I’d rather see this having a near-simultaneous PS2-PC release though.

Keep on smiling to watch this rather color-wise miserable trailer. Alternatively you can download it from 12RIVEN’s official website. Take a peek inside the Downloads section (41 MB).

Source
[amtap amazon:asin=B000LF7K48]

2008/02/18 Author: Miha | ADV | No Comments

「Quiz Magic Academy」 OVA announced on AOU 2008

Originally a KONAMI arcade game, Quiz Magic Academy is now being ported to Nintendo DS. More importantly, an OVA version is also on the way. The announcement was made at KONAMI’s AOU 2008 convention booth.

AIC’s animation team will be supervised by Motonaga Keitarou of the Princess, Princess fame, scenario will be in the hands of Uezu Makoto (Seto no Hanayome). The remaining staff and cast will be announced on February 20th when Quiz Magic Academy 5 gets under way. The arcade is a network quiz game with weekly additions of new questions. The announcement was made at KONAMI’s AOU 2008 show booth.

Source 1, Source 2

2008/02/16 Author: Miha | Games, OVA | No Comments

[Barely official] 「Penguin Musume」 anime gets announced!

The anime version was officially announced in Champion RED’s April issue. The manga had previously been serialized in Weekly Shounen Champion, then made a jump to Champion RED for its February issue. The anime format is still unknown. You can read more about Penguin Musume on BasuGasuBakuhatsu from where I dared to steal the description below.

Penguin Musume seems to be a random “sometimes” 4-koma starring a weird girl named Nankyoku Sakura. Her last name means “South Pole” or “Antarctic” so her friends call her “penguin.” Much like Konata from Lucky Star, Sakura seems to be obsessed with anime and manga. She started her first day at school wearing a school swimsuit, cat ears, and a maid tiara and called it her “pajamas.” She’s also insanely rich, apparently.

Source
[amtap amazon:asin=4253209432]

2008/02/16 Author: Miha | Anime, Manga | 2 Comments