About Dustin

Dustin (aka Stilts) enjoys playing and yelling at video games, especially RPGs. He also likes super robot shows... the more outrageous the plot, the better!

Bakacast Briefs – The Saga Begins

Hey, look! It’s the debut episode of Bakacast Briefs! As always, you can download it directly, subscribe to our RSS feed, or let iTunes do all the work for you. So, what is Bakacast Briefs, you ask? Basically, we’ve resigned ourselves to the fact that Bakacast will only update once a month. However, we wanted to give our audience something to listen to during that large gap of time. So we figured we’d try doing mini-episodes that ditch our typical news and in-depth review format; instead, Bakacast Briefs will feature Jon (aka Ritsu), Chris (aka Kagami) and me giving our brief thoughts on each week’s new anime episodes. Unfortunately, Chris is unusually busy with something called “real life”, so it’s just Jon and me in this episode. We discussed:

I was hoping to add Sengoku Basara 2 to this list, but Funimation still hasn’t put the first episode up (so much for a “simulcast”). I’ll talk about it on next week’s show, I promise. Also, this list is likely to change as we drop shows we’re not interested in. So by the time we’re a few weeks in, we’ll probably have narrowed it down to a few shows that all of us are watching. In the meantime, tell us what you think of the new style. It’s very much in the “experimental” stage, so we’d love to know what you like or don’t like about it. The music used for this episode is “Colour Television” by J. Arthur Keenes.

Haruhi’s Blu-ray Appearance Doesn’t Come Cheap

As reported by Sankaku Complex [NSFW], pre-orders for the October 22 release of the complete Haruhi TV series on Blu-ray have recently gone up on Amazon Japan. With all twenty-eight episodes of Haruhi in high-definition, extra content and English subtitles, it may seem like this is the release fans are waiting for.

But then there’s the price: 30,000 yen (or $338 USD). For eight Blu-ray discs.

The Project Haruhi staff has talked about Japan’s absurd pricing structure multiple times, but it bears repeating. What the heck are they thinking? Here’s a short list of other stuff you could buy from Amazon Japan for that amount of money:

Okay, you probably get my point.

What makes this frustrating is the actual release is great. It’s something I might like to own, and I’m not even that big of a Haruhi fan. The price, however, kills it for me. The even crazier thing is that, compared to the price of the DVD release of Endless Eight, this Blu-ray release is actually a bargain. Collecting the single-volume release of Endless Eight on DVD would cost the equivalent of $288 USD.

So, now the question is: how many people will actually buy the Blu-ray series? And if it sells poorly, will Kadokawa interpret this as disinterest in the Haruhi franchise instead of a rebellion against outlandish pricing?

Crunchyroll on the Road to Profitability

Earlier yesterday, ANN reported that Crunchyroll—the formerly illicit streaming anime site that went legit in January of 2009—broke even in May. This is huge news for advocates of on-demand and simulcasted anime like myself. It proves that Crunchyroll’s strategy can work, which hopefully means Japanese companies will be less hesitant to put their stuff online.

To put this in perspective, the enormously popular YouTube has yet to turn a profit, though this is likely because the service was largely ad-free for quite a while. Crunchyroll, on the other hand, supports itself by charging subscription fees for instant access to their newest shows and—for non-subscribers—including commercial breaks in their videos. It would be interesting to see what percentage of their revenue comes from each source, though it’s highly unlikely Crunchyroll will ever release that kind of information.

Whatever the monetary breakdown, Funimation and the Anime Network are probably feeling much better about the chances of their own streaming services. And if they succeed, us fans may finally get decent, legal alternatives to DVDs.

Review: High School of the Dead 1

Here is the basic premise of High School of the Dead. There are zombies. There are high schoolers. The high schoolers beat up zombies. Some of the high schoolers have big breasts.

On the surface, that should be a show I’d really like. As I said when I talked about Gunsmith Cats, I’m kind of a fan of well-developed women who kick lots of butt. Unfortunately, High School of the Dead (which I will now refer to as HSotD, because I’m lazy), is a mixed bag. While technically impressive and fast-paced, some of the content made me feel pretty uncomfortable.

And not in the way that horror shows are supposed to.

I’ll explain in detail after the jump.

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New Manga Series from Gunsmith Cats Creator


According to Anime Vice, Kenichi Sonoda is creating a new manga series called Bullet the Wizard, which makes me very excited.

Why?

Because he also created Gunsmith Cats—one of my favorite manga series of all time. It had fun, fast-paced plots that often felt like episodes from a crime drama, great art, an impressive showcase of firearms and a charming team dynamic between Rally Vincent and Minnie May. Of course, it certainly helped that Rally appeals to my particular taste in women: a smart, athletic adult who spent her time beating up bad guys and enjoyed the sound and recoil of a gunshot. Now that’s sexy.

Like Jason Bourne, but with breasts.

The “bullet” part of the title of his new series implies that he’ll be going back to the gunslinging storylines that Gunsmith Cats did so well. As for the “wizard” part, maybe he’ll be taking inspiration from Outlaw Star‘s caster shells. Or, at least, that’s what I hope he’ll do.

Bakacast 6 – Robots in Hell

That’s right, it’s the episode everyone I have been waiting for… we finally review Casshern Sins. But because even we can’t fill up an hour with Casshern discussion, we also review Venus Wars and tackle some important issues with the help of special guest Chris (aka Kagami on Project Haruhi): manga aggregationabsurd Haruhi DVD pricesthe “loli bill”, Japan’s search for new creative talent and—of course—beards.

Truly, we are the pinnacle of moe- and beard-related content. And if my script for a new slice-of-life show about lumberjacks gets green-lit, we may finally get to combine our passions!

As always, you can download the episode directly, follow our RSS feed or subscribe to us through iTunes. Head on over to our forums to discuss this episode in detail!

The music at the end is “ROBOTS” by Dan Mangan and is available for digital download on Amazon.

Bioware’s Dragon Age Will Soon Be An Anime

It seems Halo: Legends started a trend. Soon after Bungie made their own Animatrix, Stan Lee and Marvel teamed up with Japanese studios to create Heroman and Iron Man. Now Western RPG developer Bioware is collaborating with Funimation to created an animated movie based on Dragon Age: Origins, according to an ANN story.

Bioware is no stranger to using other mediums as tie-ins to their video games: both the Dragon Age and Mass Effect franchises have expanded to multiple novels, comic books and even a Flash game. However, this marks their first attempt at an animated film. Combine this with the recent news of a live-action Mass Effect film, and it seems like the game developer is making a strong push to broaden their audience. As a huge fan of Bioware, I sincerely hope they can accomplish that without angering their existing fans.

My advice? Don’t do a retread of the video games.

And don’t let Uwe Boll get within 100 miles of the production team.

Video Game Review: Nier

Nier box art

Oh, Cavia. What are we going to do with you?

I mean, first you make Drakengard, a game so bizarre that even a detailed (and humorous) Let’s Play has difficulty deciphering what the heck is going on. Then you decide to make an even weirder game based on the most mind-bending ending of Drakengard? Do you just hate making sense?

*sigh*

Alright, I guess I’ll just take this from the top. It’ll be easier that way.

Nier, in a nutshell, is a third-person action RPG with bullet-hell elements. Yes, you read that right. Bullet-hell elements. Early on in the game, Nier (our hero) picks up a talking book named Grimoire Weiss, who gives him the ability to use magic. The two spells you start out with—Dark Lance and Dark Blast—let you summon lances to shoot at enemies and fire a steady stream of magic “bullets” that looks suspiciously like the ones used in Touhou games. Oh, and the bosses, mini-bosses and some normal enemies fire bullet patterns that you have to dodge, block or negate with magic attacks.

So yes, the combat is a strange mix, but it’s also the best part of the game.

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Bakacast 5 – Project K-ON!

Hey, guess what’s back! Ritsu, Shamisen and I finally got enough free time to put together another Bakacast. And…uh…this one is a bit of a doozy.

As always, you can download the episode directly, subscribe to the RSS feed or follow us on iTunes.

We start out easy with a short discussion on the possibility of J-Rock bands making their way to Rock Band before launching into a much more involved (and tangential) look at some recent poll results about Cool Japan. Oh, and I guess there’s something about a new Kyoto Animation series.

For the reviews segment, we wonder what the hell is up with Project A-Ko; and if you’ve read Ritsu’s post on the subject, you’ll have a good idea of where that conversation goes (he totally stole my Commando comparison). Also, we weigh in on the merits of K-ON!

Galactus Is So Moe

Galacta cover

Confession time: I’m a big fan of American comics. Unfortunately, I don’t get many opportunities to talk about comics around these parts, since they’re—you know—not Japanese. But every so often, something wonderful comes along and merges things I love from the East and the West. In the case of “Galacta: Daughter of Galactus”, those two things are the Eater-of-Worlds and moe anthropomorphism.

Now, some of you who actually know who Galactus is might be saying, “But Stilts, how can he possibly have a daughter?”

To which I would respond, “There is a weird story reason for it that’s a spoiler, but it’s mainly just an excuse to turn Galactus into a cute girl with a miniskirt. Now can I continue with my review? Thanks.”

So, yeah. Galacta is the gentler, prettier half of Galactus. She’s not quite as powerful as her dad, but she’s very conscientious about only eating “exotic” biomass (translation: organisms not native to Earth). Which means the Fantastic Four don’t have to worry about threatening her with the Ultimate Nullifier. The downside of this strict diet is that she is always really really hungry.

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