Higurashi no Naku Koro ni – Why It’s Teh Pwn

Ah, Higurashi. The only show this season which will simultaneously overload your brain with cuteness and scare you so much you wet yourself. The entire plot centers around one question: "What can Keiichi do to piss off the killer lolis and the local deity so that he gets himself killed?". To understand the show so far (I'm thinking about adding it to the blogging lineup), you need to understand the characters, and what makes them so deliciously cute and evil at the same time. (Note: the story so far is detailed below, beware spoilers and the like)

Lesse Now, How’s This Thingy Work?

Hmm….I think I'm liking WordPress a whole bunch more than Blogger. Consider the move permanent!

I've imported my posts from Blogger, sans the ones I don't really care about. The one screenshot per line thing is no more! On new posts at least. 

E3 – Unmitigated Awesomeness

The lowdown:

Sony's Press Conference:

Watched this one live on Gamespot…and was totally unimpressed. Save for the FFXIII and MGS4 trailers. Peep the MGS4 trailer below, and check GameVideos.com for FFXIII.

FFXII got datedish (October), Heavenly Sword looks badass (like God of War, but with a hot chick), the PS3 controller looks the same as the PS2's…but it has motion sensing. Way to steal Sony! That's it. Really. Oh, PS3 launches November 17, 2006 here and over the pond, November 11 in Japan. Price? $499 for 20 gig hard drive, no HDMI, no Memory Stick or SD card slot, no WiFi (meaning no PSP conectivity). $599 for all the above missing stuff and a 60 gig (I think) HDD.

Nintendo's Press Conference:

Wii=uber fun. Managed to watch this one too, despite the earliness (11:00 AM here…the world doesn't exsist before noon. Wait, it does? I need to talk to Haruhi to change that. Oh, right, the conference.). Miyamoto-san came on stage at the beginning and conducted a virtual orchestra to play the Zelda theme with the wiimote. No date, but it will be cheaper than the competition and be out Q4 2006. Zelda: Twilight Princess at lauch, both GC and Wii versions. Wii control looks killer awesome. Metroid Prime 3: Contamination (I think that's what it was), Super Mario Galaxy, Wii Sports (a collection of sports minigames), Warioware (not actually announced at the conference, but there was footage from it and Time said they played with it), ExciteTruck, the standard EA fare, Red Steel, even more that I forgot. All look like fun. Some bastard that won that AOL contest got to play tennis with Miyamoto-san against Iwata-san and Reggie in a doubles match, random bastard guy spikes the ball to Reggie and wins. I want a Wii now…the PS3 can wait till MGS4 and FFXIII come out.

Microsoft's Press Conference:

Unfortunately, Microsoft was being retarded and didn't allow live streaming, although GameSpot will have a free taped stream up at 2:30PM PST (4:30 here). There was only one thing I, and everyone else, was waiting for. And it was there. Win. It's purdy. Real purdy. Find it on XBL if you've got a 360, or go here (Note: the Quicktime High-Res is MUCH better, so get that one.) to DL it. Don't know what I'm talking about? Then you loose. Or not.

Image shamlessly stolen from bungie.net

He's back bitch! Notice the tan armour. Notice the old-school assult rifle. Notice the reflection in his visor. Notice that THIS IS FUCKING REAL-TIME! Notice that it's out in 2007, and that I'm already putting away for the special edition. Download the trailer. Do it. DO IT.

Lolis – Not just for Pedos Anymore

Lolis. They're everywhere. In action anime. In harem anime. Even in horror anime. Why are they important? Because the loli can make or break the show. In my Otaku experience, there are 3 types of loli: Shana-Type, Mikuru-Type, and Rena -Type. Why do you need to know this? Because, as they say, Knowledge is Power! That, and you really need to stay away from those Rena-Types…

Naruto – Great Clash! The Illusionary Ruins at the Depths of the Earth

Dattebayo released Naruto Movie 2 today, a day after it's DVD release over in Japan. They probably got a copy in advance, but it doesn't stop them from being damn fast…anyway, the movie was pretty good, and it made me wonder why the hell the fillers were utter trash story wise. I mean, the story here was okay, so why didn't they get the people that wrote it to write the filler? The story had to have been finished way before the filler started airing, they most certainly could have used the same writers…ah well, no use complaining now that they're about done. The only gripe I have about the movie is one small continuity issue with some weird red Rasengan that Naruto busts out with near the end. He wasn't in Kyubii mode (in fact, he didn't even attempt to do anything of the sort, no red eyes, no freaky red fox-shaped chakra, nothing), so WTF?

A bunshin helped him make the red one, while random one time use movie character man somehow, without any prior Rasengan training or even knowledge of the existence of chakra, managed to help make the other one.

They also had a few instances where he did a Rasengan without a kage bunshin lending a hand, which he shouldn't be able to do yet (note that you actually don't see him do it with one hand, but he doesn't summon any clones either). That, and the really odd lack of the word "jutsu" throughout…Shikamaru and weird lookin' puppet guy (forgot his name) might have said it once, but Naruto just said "Kage Bunshin!" and that's it. Strange. Gah, I'm turning into a Naruto fanboy…ah well. At least it wasn't as bad as Dragonball Z movies 4-13 (all of which I refuse to watch on grounds that they're sucktacular and have no continuity with the series). Here's lookin to August and movie 3.

Advent Children

Welcome to my Reunion!

Evangelion movie? Eh….OMG WETA?!?!

The fanboy in me leaped with joy last night as I stared at my torrent for the first episode of Ah! My Goddess Season 2. Today, the fanboy in me cried. Not the bad kind. It was probably the best movie related news I had heard since Bungie announced that Peter Jackson would be Executive Producer for the Halo movie. The story?

I was meandering along the internets out of shear boredom, and eventually ran into Anime News Network's writeup of the New York ComicCon last month. Out of curiosity I looked at the story for A.D.V.'s panel. At the bottom, there was a blurb about the live action Evangelion movie that A.D.V. was planing, how the director had yet to be chosen, the runner of the panel visiting WETA about production, and Emma Watson (Hermione in the Harry Potter movies) being ruled out to play Auska because she is too old. I suddenly felt something was off…and I re-read the paragraph. WETA. Evangelion movie. That's when the tears of joy started. I quickly realized that the man could have been just visiting WETA to see if they would do it, and I scoured the internet for more clues, finally coming to a stop on WETA Workshop's own website. And the Evangelion movie was listed. The crying continued. When I first heard that A.D.V. was planning a live action Evangelion movie, I immediately stated that A) it would suck terribly, and B) I would watch it anyway. After today, I've decided that A is wrong. WETA FTW. Take a looksy at their concept art, especially the ones for the Eva hangar. Commence fanboy drooling and eager anticipation…NOW.

Sidenote: why the hell isn't the Halo movie listed at all? It's already been confirmed, and pre-production has started. Hell, filming is supposed to start soon! Not even WETA Digital has it listed…

Anime Season Spring 2006

Well, it's that time of year again. Shana, Magikano, Kashimashi, Noein, Otome, and Canvas 2 are all finally over (the finales of the latter two are downloading as I type this). So, what's in store this season? Read on brutha.

Returning from last season:

Naruto – Apparently Ep. 182 is the last in a looooong year of filler crap. It better be…
Bleach – Like it's big sister (brother?) series, Bleach is in filler, but it looks like it'll be a while longer till it's over.
Fate/Stay Night – I was growing tired of the all-talk-no-action stuff. Then I saw ep 12 and wet myself. Saber=win.
Ergo Proxy – After the spectacular (and uber high quality encoded) first episode, the last few have been…lackluster, I suppose. I'm gonna keep at it, mostly because the chances that it'll be on [adult swim] between Bleach and Eurika Seven are about 100%, so I might as well watch it with a quality dub. Oh, did I forget to tell you that [as] picked up Bleach? My bad.

Returning from long ago:

School Rumble Season 2 – Win. I just finished watching the first season on a recommendation, and I'm positively excited for the sequel. Questions still need to be answered! (the most pressing of which: is Sara a lesbian? Hmmm…)
Ah! My Goddess Season 2 – The first season was on my download list for the longest time, and it's now on my buy list for R1 DVD's, alongside Mai-HiME. Why? I have no freekin clue, but it's awesome. MOAR BELLDANDY FTW!

New Series that I will be watching:

Strawberry Panic! – The first in many Yuri series this season. I hear it's like Maria-sama ga Miteru, only with actually girl-on-girl-ness. I never saw Maria-sama, but girl-on-girl-ness is always win.
Soul Link – I have no idea what it's about, but it looks good and the first ep reviews are positive, so it looks like a keeper.
Joshi Kosei GIRLS HIGH – like Azumanga, but with more panty shots. How can that not be awesome?
ZEGAPAIN – Sunrise might fuck up every once and a while (coughOtomecough) but when it comes to robots the house that made Gundam is king. This should hold me till GS3 (you know it's coming…)
.hack//Roots – .hack. Nuff said.

New Series that I might watch:

Kiba – Looks like standard shounen fair so far, which hasn't stopped me before, but I am running two shounen series already, so this might get the back burner. Maybe.
Simoun – More Yuri, only this time with a very weird twist: In the world that the story takes place in, all people are born female, and choose their gender at a certain age (I believe it's 15, but I could be wrong). Obviously, it's about a group of girls that have yet to decide their sex. It does have airplanes too…

Holy shit that's a lot of anime…oh wells, I'm sure I'll find another series or two to watch too :p. I might blog about the episodes themselves when someone gets around to subbing them (Kiba looks like the only one subbed so far) so look forward to that. Maybe.

In other anime relatedish news, both Hyde (from L'arc~en~ceil) and KOTOKO are dropping US albums in the near future. L'arc~en~ciel could make it here, but Hyde by himself…eh. KOTOKO's techno-pop doesn't sound like something the mainstream here would enjoy (although the entire Re-Sublimity single has been stuck in my head for like EVER). KOTOKO will be at A-Kon in Dallas this summer, so hopefully I'll be able to see that and get a taste of what she's doing here (the album is apparently called -hana-, which either means she's playing off the fact that she's japanese, or that the whole album is in japanese and it's for the american otaku. Still, her stuff is catchy…). And in totally anime related news, Naruto movie 2 will be out on DVD at the end of the month, there's a new Sousei no Aquarion project due this fall *crosses fingers new series*, and I'm still eagerly awaiting the arrival of the FMP! TSR OVA (yay for acronyms!) that is supposed to depict a day in the life of Tessa. Mmmm…Tessa…

The Almighty Power of Blu-Ray!

Behold Ruri in uber high def!

(I could have used a better image of Air, but Ruri>Everything. Baka.)