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!
Oh, well, in any case, if you do have something you’d like Satomi Sato to say or a question to ask her, head over to Danny Choo’s website. Choo will interview her for the debut of his new show, “Culture:Japan,” and is taking phrase-requests, questions and fanart from his audience.
Take note: the show airs on June 12, but he’ll film it on June 3. So don’t be like our favorite absentminded drummer and wait until the last minute.
Not content with simply stealing the hearts of otaku, the K-ON!! girls’ newest single, “Go! Go! Maniac”, stole the top spot of Oricon’s weekly singles ranking according to ANN. “Listen!!” came in second place, because there’s apparently no such thing as overkill.
“But Stilts,” I pretend you’re asking, “who are they beating?” Good question! Looking at today’s daily rankings, the #3 slot belongs to enka-singer Fuyumi Sakamoto’s “Asia no Kaizoku/Mata Kimi ni Koi Shiteru” (“Asian Pirates/I’m in Love with You Again”). It was released over a year ago and recently climbed to the top, only to be unseated by Hokago Tea Time’s songs. And in #4 is “Mahō no Ryōri ~Kimi kara Kimi e~” (“Magical Cooking ~From You to You~”) by the curiously-named Bump of Chicken, who have done songs for video games and anime, too. It was released on April 21 and made it to the top of both the daily and weekly charts. Clearly, both songs were worthy contenders for the cultural steamroller that is K-ON!!
I’m pleasantly surprised by this development. To me, the vast majority of the songs from the first season of K-ON! were generic and forgettable J-pop tunes. When I first heard the OP and ED for the second season, I thought, “Hey, they’re actually taking risks and experimenting with different styles. Good for them!” It’s nice to see that they’ve been rewarded for their efforts.
Before you get your hopes up, no one’s made a Touhou-esque shooter featuring Ritsu and the gang. Yet. Instead, Beat Hazard gives you a ship, throws you into a twin-stick shooter arena filled with enemy spacecraft and asteroids, and determines your weapon strength, spread, and re-fire rate based on how frantic the background music you choose gets. In other words, it’s like Macross 7 was adapted into a curtain-fire shooter. As you can see from the video, “Go! Go! Maniac” works really well. In fact, J-pop in general works really well, as does metal.
It’s a cool idea, and I’m enjoying it so far despite a couple irritating problems. For example, Beat Hazard doesn’t work well for every song. Since your ship’s ability to kill things is heavily dependent on the intensity of the music, trying to play some genres will just be an exercise in frustration. Everyone hoping to cause massive destruction with Enya will be disappointed. I also found that the amount and density of particle effects on the screen can often become absurd; it’s a neat visual effect, but the gameplay isn’t fun when I can’t see where the enemy bullets are. Finally, there’s no AAC or M4A support (at the moment), so anything you buy off of iTunes won’t work unless you convert it.
Still, for $10 it’s a fun little diversion that I can see myself consistently going back to for half an hour every few days. After all, I still play Audiosurf (another game with music-generated levels that I highly recommend), and it’s been over two years since I bought that thing.
Have you ever wanted to be a badass with a heart of gold?
That’s a rhetorical question. Of course you have! It’s why Goku is one of the most popular characters in the history of anime. It’s also partly why Yakuza 3 is so much fun. Kazuma Kiryu (that stern-looking dude in the box art) is not your typical ex-yakuza. He’s not just one of the most respected and feared chairmen in the Tojo Clan’s history; he’s also a big softie. He’s such a nice guy, in fact, that he decided to run a small orphanage in Okinawa after leaving his life of crime. And this is where the gameplay portion of Yakuza 3 begins…after about an hour of cutscenes. Yes, like many of my favorite games (Psychonauts, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and Final Fantasy X), this one has a few caveats to its otherwise solid design. I’ll explain why after the break.
I have a confession to make. I am not a big manga reader. I follow a few titles, but I’m generally ignorant of the latest Japanese comics until I’m clued in by one of my friends. So I came into GA-REI -zero- with only basic knowledge of the manga. I knew it was about slaying evil spirits in the modern world, but that was all; and, honestly, that’s all you need to know. The show works fine on its own. It even made a fan out of me.
Be warned: the first episode is a massive tease. As usual, Tokyo is going to hell, this time because of a massive spike in spirit activity. A group of elite spirit hunters—whose best member is clearly the girl who uses her motorcycle as a weapon—is brought in to clean up the paranormal activity. They’re doing quite well up until the end, when a mysterious girl kills all of them with her katana. Continue reading →
For this episode, we talk about the legality (or lack thereof) of the Chris Handley case that’s been going on for two years now, followed by our thoughts on whether Nippon Ichi Software America’s venture into anime licensing will succeed. Then, in the review section, we trip out on Interstella 5555 and bravely don our flame-shields to give our mixed opinions on Lucky Star.
So, that obscure reference to an anime store that Jon mentioned not quite understanding? The Anime World Order explained it in their review. The shownotes I just linked to have comparison videos of the joke, too.
On this episode of Bakacast, we go from super-serious to super-goofy in the span of one LOST episode. First, we use this article on the Akihabara killer as a springboard to talk about…well…a lot of stuff. Then, we discuss Blu-Ray sales going up and what that might mean for our anime collections. Plus, the ASOS Brigade is back with a new voice actress for Haruhi. Finally, we wrap the show up with our finalized impressions on the Silent Mobius movies and a review of the Dirty Pair TV series. Be sure to watch the clean OP that Jon/Ryoko uploaded. It’s disco-riffic and perfectly encapsulates the style of the show.
This is the first “real” episode of Bakacast (the chronologically first episode was a proof of concept), a podcast hosted by Shamisen, Ryoko and myself. For this episode, we talk about alien designs in both Japanese and Western media, a point-and-click adventure game called The White Chamber and first Silent Mobius movie. Shownotes for this episode are after the break.
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So, Square Enix teamed up with Pop Cap to create a game that mixes Pokemon with Bejeweled. I guess this means Kingdom Hearts is no longer the strangest collaborative effort in video games. But I’ll put my incredulity aside for a moment to talk about the important point: is it worth $15? Continue reading →
