Anime
Why Mysterious Girlfriend X Is Exactly The Romantic Story We Needed
Mysterious Girlfriend X (or Nazo no Kanojo X in Japanese) redefines how a romantic story can be depicted in anime. It strays miles away from your common love-comedy series, which is a good thing. Continue reading
Acchi Kocchi (Place To Place) Is A Super Cute And Relaxing Light Comedy
Acchi Kocchi (or Place to Place as it is called in English) shares a lot of similarities with series like Lucky Star and Working! that came before it. It’s a series based on a 4Koma (4 panel comedy) manga, which follows three girls and two boys as they go to school and goof around in their funny and harmless ways. Continue reading
FUNimation Will Be Spreading Some Anime Love In July
Remember all of those classic anime series that FUNimation rescued from ADV and Geneon? Well, prepare for some good news because FUNimation is preparing to release a couple of these and has a few more surprises coming your way.
.hack//Versus Unlocks A Secret OVA Called The Thanatos Report
Yes, you are reading the title right. By playing the free game .hack//Versus, which is included on the .hack//Sekai no Mukou ni (Tentatively: “Beyond The World”) disc you can unlock an OVA called “The Thanatos Report”. According to a recent trailer (see below) the OVA will connect the events of the game with the events of the movie and “reveal the last truth”. It is not yet clear what are the conditions that must be met in the .hack//Versus game in order to unlock the bonus OVA. The trailer did not reveal which animation studio is behind “The Thanatos Report”. The length of the OVA also remains unknown, but judging from past iterations of .hack media it is expected to be presented in short movie clips, similar to the Online Jack OVA that was included in the .hack//G.U. games.
In addition to promoting the movie and introducing the OVA the trailer also shows how the online system for .hack//Versus will work. The game will advance it’s plot based on online battles. Players will be able to not only watch but also comment on other players’ battles in real time. By playing against other players online and commenting on other battles you will be able to “unlock further secrets”.
Update: unfortunately the original trailer that was embedded here has been removed from YouTube.
.hack//Sekai no Mukou ni will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on June 28th. Do note that only the Blu-ray version will have the game and OVA bundled on the disc, and that some retailers (such as Amazon) are currently listing the Blu-ray version in their games category instead of their movies/series category. The movie will not have English subtitles available on the Japanese disc and Bandai has yet to reveal any plans for a U.S. localization of either the movie or the bundled game.
Update: According to a report by the online Famitsu Magazine website players will be able to watch the Thanatos Report by clearing the game’s main scenario. The protagonist of the OVA will be Dave, who also appears in the main movie. The OVA will take place in both 2024 (the year in which the movie takes place) and 2025 (the year in which the game .hack//Versus takes place).
Upcoming .hack Movie Blu-ray To Bundle Fighting Game For The PS3?
According to the latest news by Famitsu the Blu-ray of the newest .hack movie Sekai no Mukou ni (Tentatively: “Beyond The World”) will include a PS3 fighting game titled .hack//Versus. Details on the game are scarce at the moment, but it seems to be either a fighter or a brawler. Since the .hack game franchise is handled by Cyber Connect 2- the studio renowned for its Naruto Shippuden games – some have speculated that .hack//Versus will be a “Naruto game clone” with .hack characters. Famitsu has also kindly revealed the release date of the movie’s Blu-ray – June 28th. The movie will be released in two editions: a regular edition that will retail for 7140 Yen, and a limited edition that will cost you back 1050 Yen. The limited edition will include an additional DVD (titled .hack//Extension Disc), mini posters, an art book and an art box. Both the regular and limited editions will bundle the .hack//Versus game. Both the movie and the game will support stereoscopic 3D via the PS3 firmware.
The limited edition will have many goodies for the avid collectors.
That settles it then. Get ready for a big .hack celebration on June when the movie + game combo arrives on Japanese store shelves. Be sure to check back here in early July for my review of the movie (and maybe a short POV about the included game as well).
NISA “Does It Again”
NISA has been having a bad week. TRSI has just revealed that all the copies of NISA’s latest House of Five Leaves Premium Edition Box Set supports only mono sound. NISA has been quick to offer replacement discs free of charge to all the early adapters and have halted the release of all other copies until April the cope with the issue.
While NISA’s fast (and honset) response is appreciated, this is hardly the first time NISA has been shipping defective products en masse. On July 2010 NISA released defective copies of the premium editions of Toradora! and Persona – trinity soul. These first edition copies suffered from interlacing and aliasing artifacts, as well as ghosting issues. While the interlacing and aliasing artifacts were quickly resolved with a replacement program similar to that which NISA now offers for House of Five Leaves, the ghosting problem persisted in later edition. Perhaps the most troubling aspect in this story is that most of these problems are easy to spot during routine quality checks, checks that NISA apparently does no take too seriously. These defective DVDs and the companies’ insistence on not releasing Blu-ray discs definitely puts NISA in a bad light. But with a big titles such as Toradora! and other fan favorites like Working! and House of Five Leaves in NISA’s arsenal it’s easy to see why fans are willing to forgive the company’s many mistakes.
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