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Posts tagged ‘Anime’

23
Sep
Japanese billboard for High School of the Dead Music

Anime, Games and TV Stuff

Since my holiday, time has just disappeared. So much to do, what appears to be no time.  Last weekend I attended Japan Matsuri in London, Japan away from Japan, somehow that is already a week ago.

So… anyway, lots in the world of Anime, Games & TV.

Tokyo Game Show 2010. I’ve not really had any time to watch all of the footage, but, things of note;

  • Devil May Cry
  • Kinect Sports
  • Last Guardian
  • Tekken Tag Tournament 2
  • Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2
    visually more impressive than the first and I’m assuming the story continues where the first left off
  • Deus Ex: Human Revolution
    I really hope that Trailer is the game engine rendering live, but I highly doubt it

Several upcoming blu-ray releases, a notable non-anime is a double box Death Note: Live action.  Blu-ray Anime include;

  • Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood – Volume 2
  • The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
  • Eden of the East
  • Eureka Seven movie
  • Rin (US only)
  • D Gray-Man (US only)

thankfully my import PS3 has arrived for a couple of those.

  • K-On ended
  • Highschool of the dead ended (although seems open for a 2nd)
  • Mitsudomoe ending (2nd season suggested to start January 2011) currently on Crunchyroll

American TV picks up again for me for the next couple of months as well, so I feel its going to be busy.

There is also MUCH more that I am interested in from each of the above, but there are not enough hours in the day.

3
Aug

It has been a while

Well, its been quite some time since my last post, so I thought I would at least add something.

Due to my house move, I have used most of my spare time packing. After moving in I was without Internet and was forced to use my spare time for unpacking….great.

Either way, since I’ve been browsing today, I see there has been a PS3 update, PlayStation Plus updates announced for August & September, several PS3 store updates, uTorrent 1.0.something for the Mac, several anime episodes I have not yet seen, broadband usage now shown by my ISP (yay I get to see what I really use), a steam client update which at a glance seems to fix an obvious “bug” and I know there is more, but not for now. I’ll try and post stuff on the useful bits of the web over the last couple of weeks, just to catch up, if I think its interesting.

29
Jun

Umineko no Naku Koro ni – Review

When I first saw details on this, I was quite pleased with a fairly different take on the series Higurashi no Naku Koro ni “ひぐらしのなく頃に”.  Although that was not necessarily my favourite anime, it was up near the top.

This series takes place on an island owned by the Ushiromiya family, Rokkenjima (六軒島).  Shortly after the family members have arrived a typhoon his and the game begins.  Six mysterious deaths occur and the challenge of solving the witch’s epitaph begins.  Battler Ushiromiya (右代宮 戦人) is trying to figure out who is causing the murders, creating some rather odd circumstances so as not to suspect any of the family he loves. As time passes and the epitaph going unsolved, more people are murdered, narrowing both the list of suspects and increasing the likely-hood these murders were not committed by a human.

At the start of part two, Battler and Beatrice (ベアトリーチェ) the Golden Witch go head-to-head to prove, or disprove, the existence of magic as well as the reasons behind events that have occurred and still to come.

The real let-down in the series was most defiantly the final part. The final episode in particular really did not seem at all well planned to fit in with the series.

The first 3 parts of the series were pretty good overall, one or two episodes and ideas were a little far-fetched however.  It was the final few episodes that really let the series down.  It really did seem as though there had been no thought put into any of the episodes to make the final one make any sense.  Battler offered an extremely long explanation as to how the events all took place, yet it was entirely full of holes and seemed as though Beatrice (and the writers) had simply given up to let the anime die.

Although leaving out the final part would have really left the series incomplete and almost defiantly would have annoyed most, I feel as though this would have been a better ending.

I think I am going to have to read the Manga and/or Novel to see if this finale was what was originally intended.

Story

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Overall, an OK story, just missed really being finished properly.

Characters

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

I must say, I don’t even recall the names of some of the ‘main’ characters

Music

Rating: 3 out of 5.

The intro track was actually made this series to catch my attention, although it’s far from my favourite.

18
Jun

Bleach now on Crunchyroll

For a few days the more recent episodes of Bleach have been available on the Crunchyroll website.  This is another anime series Crunchyroll has got which I already watch and may push me to get a subscription.  For anyone who doesn’t know what Bleach is either go here, read the manga, watch the series on crunchyroll, buy the series, watch one of the movies…….

Going through myanimelist and the Crunchyroll anime list, I’m sure most of what I am watching is available as well as several of what I have watched & intend to watch are also there.

So…why havn’t I already got a subscription?

This is actually quite a simple answer. I don’t want to sit in front of my computer to watch anime.  Although I own a 24″ imac (soonish to be replaced by 27″ imac), I also own a 42″ TV which I most defiantly prefer to use.

The device I use at the moment for most of my media & online streaming is the Popcorn Hour A-110.  Unfortunately Crunchyroll is not in the online services section of that box.  A PS3 is attached for Blu-ray & DVD’s which have been released in the UK, or work on my UK based console.

OK.. So there is Boxee, a great bit of software, supports crunchyroll, but the only “set-top” box it runs on is the Apple TV, which from what I can tell, doesn’t work at all with the 720p stream and not well with the standard ones.  At this stage I am not going to plug my imac into my TV for this stuff when I have dedicated hardware for the job.  Downloads would have been a great addition, but I don’t expect that to happen any time soon.

So, whats next?

  • Popbox, when originally announced, looked to have Crunchyroll support.  This seems to have since dissappeared and at this stage, there is no UK release.
  • A mac mini under the TV, really costly for, really, only crunchyroll (maybe I can replace the old mac-mini and use that instead).
  • The boxee box, no mention of price, UK release, or even if a lot of online services will work
  • Plugging in my imac to my TV.  Although this is a possibility I’d rather not.
  • Using the PS3 to watch.  This could be the one I choose, as long as it works. Both positive & negative responses so far.  I have packed away my PS3 ready for a house move so its not happening quite yet.
19
May

2010 Summer Anime

So, what’s listed for 2010 Summer anime that I will like to get watching ASAP.

A couple more may be selected as I get a chance to watch the first episode or 2.  The season does seem to have plenty of horror (and some….almost horror) in store at least.

A nice image version of more of the Summer 2010 anime is available from chartfag.