More Card Captor Sakura Anime planned

This news from ANN has me extremely surprised. Card Captor Sakura Anime is a magical girl CLAMP title from the late 90s. The last time we ever saw Sakura and few others was Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle  Manga and Anime.

According to the ANN post the key voice actors will be reprising their roles and even better news is that animation studio Madhouse is doing the Animation work. They were the ones that animated the CCS TV series and two movies. Can't wait to see them apply their modern tools and skill set to

Got to wait Until at least 2018 though, I hope it gets Simulcast on Crunchyroll when it airs in Japan.



You can read the ANN post below: 


http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2016-11-26/cardcaptor-sakura-clear-card-arc-manga-gets-tv-anime-series-in-january-2018/.109204

Naruto Shippuden is getting a board game (spoilers)

While there are plenty of Naruto.Shippuden video games out there to play (3 of the games are on Steam and the major consoles right now) I don't think there has been a board game for the English speaking fans to be able to play. I'm not much of board gamer myself but still nice to see non-video game related Anime stuff come out in the west.

 Found this overview/preview video on The Dice Tower youtube channel.

Note: The video does contain possible plot spoilers if you are in the middle of watching the Anime or reading the Manga.

Just Finished: Familiar of Zero Season 2

Season 2 aka Knight of the Twin Moons is a 12 episode season that picks up right where Season 1 left off. With Loise and the boy from another world (Modern day Japan) , Saito.

Agnes, royal guard captain probably gets most of the character development in this season. I guess the initial concept of Familiar of Zero aka Zero no Tsukaima drew me in back in 2007 but I wanted more. The steady development of the main relationship, an evolution of Saito's ability. Just something.

 The use of WW II fighter was really stretching it for me. Teenage boy knows how to make repairs to the war plane after it was just in  a rough landing. Fixed it with metal and items found in a Medieval world. Sort of reminds me of "Army of Darkness" to be fair to FOZ.  One  was about a making a chainsaw and "boomstick" usuable while the other is about a flying hunk of metal...

Started watching Dagashi Kashi

It is an Anime that started airing last month and so far only four episodes are out/simulcast. The show is about a boy that wants to become a manga artist but his father wants him to carry on the family business of running a countryside snack shop. The shop also sells model kits.

The main protagonist's name is a pun of Coconuts. 
Oh and the show follows the trope of one of the parents not being with the family for one reason or another. The dad is as big of a goofball as the dad  from Bleach.   So many Gundam parody sequences in just two episodes.

Only seen the first two episodes so far and it is really a nonsense show. My only real takeaway  so far is that I like to eat Japanese snacks (like potato chip flavors unique to Japan,Konpeito,  Pocky, Ramune and so on.) This show has gotten me interested in trying  more stuff. In the first episode alone, I had to look up that snack featured there. Umaibo?



I think that Funimation and Japancrate (japanese snack subscription service) should do a cross-promotion for the show. How or what I don't know but it would make sense and since it's being simulcast via English Subs, do it now while it's timely. 

Currently Watching - Chivalry of a Failed Knight

One of the few 2015 Anime that I watched this year was Chivalry of A Failed Knight (The Worst One)

A total of 12 episodes and the series follows the usual Shonen/Action Tournament Anime. Follows the life and battles of Kurogane Ikki. He is indeed the titular "Failed Knight"/ The Worst One because among all the students in the school with Sword-magic, he can't enchant his sword with magic. be it elemental or otherwise. The school gives him a student rating of F (the best being an A-rank).
Most of the usual RPG elementals tropes are here (Fire, Water, Lightning).



The art direction for the last two episodes goes really out there as it takes a Grey, Black, and white with hints of red, blue, and yellow in select objects or characters. The actual picture quality of  show goes into a "Grindhouse" mode where you can see more noise and pop in the picture like it was and old film. Something odd to be sure and really got my attention...

J-list asks about the oldest Anime title you have ever seen

Anime then and now. So, what's the oldest anime you've watched?
Posted by J-List on Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Took me a few minutes to think of an answer and the oldest Anime I've ever seen is either a few episodes from the Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, or Lupin The Third  series that originally aired back in the early 1970s. I am going off of Anime News Network's date info. 

The Samurai Pizza Cats are now on Crunchy Roll!

Three cats that operate a Delivery service and hero business to stop The Big Cheese. Probably one of the few English dubs that give a pass to no matter how much it changed from the original Japanese script. Mainly due to the fact that the characters in the show are anthropomorphic cats and other animals that talk like humans and the three protagonists don battle armor and launch out of a cannon.

I haven't watched the show since 2000 so the heavy pop culture references might make this an odd watch for younger Anime fans.  You can find the show on Crunchyroll's site at the time of this post, the first 18 episodes of the show are viewable for free, while the rest of the episodes are locked away for paid Premium CR users. Thanks Crunchyroll and Discotek Media for making this happen.

Re-watched: Tekkaman Blade II

The direct sequel to 1990s Tekkaman/ Teknoman (the name that Saban Entertainment gave it)

This being a 6-episode OAV and not a full TV show. The  Tekkamans or Radam technology  seem to favor the color red for both the good and evil ones.  The big problem presented in Tekkaman Blade II is the fact that Earth scientists finally figure out how Tek Setter (transformations) works and how to recreate it near perfectly without the mind control side-effects. Unfortunately the tech falls into the hands  of some not so nice people. While I don't think the OVA is a good stand-alone experience. Any fan of Tekkaman Blade (TV series) should take the time to watch


One thing I really answer is what happened to one of the former member of the Space Knights team from the prior show. You would have thought that Rebin would have continued to work on the Tekkaman project but no sign of him.

 I think Discotek Media is currently publishing the series on physical DVD.  The protagonist characters here were featured in a strategy-RPG game for the Nintendo DS. "Super Robot Wars W".  Sadly never released for English speaking gamers.

Attack on Titan Live action films will be in some "Chicago land" theaters

Any Attack on Titan fans  in the state of Illinois? Well the live action movies from Japan will be having a very limited release in Chicago and select theaters in the suburbs . Both parts 1 and 2 will be screened on different days and Months (September and October)

I'm not really a fan of the Anime, Only seen the first episode so far but something like this deserves a shout out. An authentic Live-Action adaptation brought over from Japan. 

http://www.attackontitanthemovie.com/ 


Just skip the intro and punch in your zip code to see if a theater near you will be showing the two films.  really neat how the map results have that custom Attack on Titan emblem for the map results.

If you put in Chicago/60606 then

Music Box Theater
 Studio Movie Grill Chatham 14
Muvico Rosemont 18

come up as results...





I'll wait and gets released on North American home video. Don't want to watch the films until I get around to seeing the Anime first.

One of the Anime Podcasts I listen to has gone into Hiatus

It's kind of sad news to hear especially if you're a long time listener to the main show. Anime-Pulse was one of the main Anime podcasts  I first listened to on a regular basis. The hosting pair chose some good names to go by. Ichigo I'm  guessing from the protagonist of (Tite Kubo's) Bleach, which had been airing in Japan/ "fan subbed" for around a year by that time. The other co-host went by the name Batou which came from (Shirow Masamune's) Ghost in the Shell. I think I started listening to them around their 10th published episode. Been a good run of 10 years talking about Anime.

I was only really subscribed via RSS to the the original show, none of the spinoffs live Manga-Pulse and VG-pulse really appealed to me. This now joins  the other Anime news/review podcast I used to listen to back in the day which was  the"Weekly Anime Review Podcast".

...

Humble Bundle store having a sale on Anime, Anime inspired games

Steam is not the only digital download store having a sale on Anime games this week, The Humble (Bundle) store is also taking part.  It's offering up way more than Naruto Shippuden games. Discounted games in the Anime Weekend sale include Anime-inspired games  and Japanese-role playing games

Aside from Dragon Ball Xenoverse which is the game where you can create your own fighter from the most popular races from the Anime. I think all of the Ys games ever released on PC are discounted as well. If fighting games are more your thing then Two Guilty Gear games are also listed.

https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/animeweekend/
Steam is only having a sale on Naruto games 

Naruto Shippudden PC Games part of Steam weakend sale

The two Naruto Shippuden games available on Steam are being discounted for the "Weekend Sale" The last time these two games were on sale was two months ago during the big Steam Summer Sale.  You can get  both games for about $20.00 dollars

http://store.steampowered.com/sale/naruto/

New Gundam's Exterior revealed

There is going to be a new Gundam series coming and so soon after Gundam Reconguista in G which came out in Japan and online streaming last year. This new Gundam unit reveal has been slow over the past few days since early July with a mere silhouette. As of the twitter post below, The head, shoulders, and chest have details and colors now

The G-Tekketsu Gundam bares its chest today but also pretty much reveals its face. It's looking tough. pic.twitter.com/5G6g65jgR4

— Tom Aznable (@TomAznable) July 13, 2015

I'm going to reiterate what I posted on an Anime from my Twitter account but the Shoulders still remind me of the Talgeese #1 from Gundam Wing. The fully revealed image seems to show a red glow on the shoulders reminding me of Unicorn Gundam.  The rest of the unit  "G-Tekketsu" shows hints of Gundam 00 (chest area).

An Anime convention gets a shoutout from the local news

For some reason I keep on forgetting about this relatively new Anime Con. Anime Midwest  happened this 4th of July Weekend and ABC Chicago gave the event a short nod on the website. This is the newer fan convention that happens in Rosemont, Illinois.  The unique thing about it is that there is a attendance limit of 10,000 fans.  I really should attend this at least once.

Hi-sCool Seha Girls final impressions (9-13)

Turning objects/items into walking, talking female protagonists seems like a trend in Japan. The first time I ever heard anything about this was the "OS-tan". That's when Microsoft and Mac OS versions get turned into girls.  So why not Sega video game systems.

from left to right: Mega Drive, Saturn, Dreamcast

One of the best things about this is the span of history that the show goes over. From the Arcade 80s all the way to game references released in the late 2000s. Kudos to Sega and TMS Entertainment for keeping the original graphics/ looks of the various worlds that the Hardware Girls visit.  

I can see a lot of Anime viewers just dropping or avoiding this show due to the varying graphical styles, About half of each episode is just the girls trying to crack cultural jokes and puns at one another.  Strangely reminded me of The Super Mario Super Show (minus the live-action).Episodes are half the length of a normal Anime Tv series  Definitely worth watching if you were a big Sega console fan growing up.

The final episode of  the show is really bittersweet since any current gamer will probably know that the last home console that Sega made was the Dreamcast .  I kind of wish that Game Gear got more representation than just a cameo in one episode.  Oh and "Segata Sanshiro  commerical are wacky. Even more so than the Legend of Zelda wrap  What was with the "Foreigner" running gag for Sega Saturn? Did the console sell really well in North American and Europe or something?

Started Watching: Infinite Stratos

Having recently just finished watching  Hi-sCool Seha Girls I decided to go with a Mecha show that I initially skipped over due to bad reviews  I was seeing online even among the hardcore robot/mecha fans online.

What intrigued me about the show is that the Mech angle in this show revolves around "Power Armor" that only the female gender can activate and operate. The only exception being out main protagonist named Ichika Onimura.  This actually reminds me of two other shows from the past. Macross Frontier and Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure.  The slimness of the power suits remind with of Macross Frontier in the way how the Pilot school suits allow students to fly and  had a strong school setting.  Dual! features a man being able to fight in  a robot mean for a female pilot.

Only a few episodes in an the Fanservice is really difficult to ignore. Happens often and the "camera" likes to focus and linger on the moments. It doesn't help when the main focus of the plot is how Onimura is the only guy in an all-girl school. Every girl in his class (an in the school at points) are always trying to get Onimura's attention. The real saving point for me so far is that the Power armor suits  are interesting to look at and mech designer actually makes the fighting suits have different color schemes and combat systems.


Having paused my viewing at episode 4, there is a more serious sub-plot going on that I hope develops in the 8 remaining episodes. Something that adds to the combat-sport use of the mech suits.

Hi-sCool Seha Girls episodes 5-8

This set of episodes start off with possibly the weakest one in the entire series.  Dreamcast, Saturn and Mega Drive are tasked with trying to come up with new games by using an existing property. In this case "Puyo Puyo". An old puzzle game made by sega.  Never really played this game  since I was more into Tetris and  the various clones.  The only Sega puzzle game I actually did play in the arcade was a Sakura Taisen/Wars themed puzzle game.

Seems there are Puyo, Puyo related games released for current smartphones but only available in Japan.


Moving onto episode 6 ...

We get to see a fairly more modern Sega game. Border Break, A mech/combat game. released in Japan and Asia about 5 years ago  Showing that while Sega may no longer be making home console systems they still do develop Arcade machines. From  how it looked in the show, it seems like an evolution the Virtual-On  game series. This episode gave me that Halo Red vs Blue vibe (early seasons)  so much! if you  enjoy that show you might find this episode interesting.


Click on to read episode 7 and 8 thoughts.

Quick thoughts on the Dragon Ball Super teaser

Probably the most interesting this really short teaser video was that it includes the characters from  the Battle of the Gods movie from last year. This is seems like a new thing because most of the movie characters either end up being one-offs or only get brought back for specials and stuff. That or they were already established in the original series

Does this also mean that Goku will be transforming into god form during the new series?

Note that Trunks and Goten are getting into trouble and they're still fairly young so this will take place prior to episode 286? End of the Buu Saga but prior to the final time jump in DBZ.

The Otaku No Video kickstarter is raising funds

The funding requirement is considerably lower than what was needed to fund Bubblegum Crisis coming to Blu-ray in North Amerca.  With 20 days left I would be surprised if it doesn't meet the minimum goal.

A quick DBZ: R of F thought

Son Goku's new blue hair/aura in the Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection of F trailer is faintly reminding me of another Sayajin character when he charged up...

Broly, back in the older movies. from the 1990s, I forget which ones they are specifically though.