Trigun Movie Announced

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Considering how quickly anime can gain and lose traction among fans (does anyone talk about Ergo Proxy anymore?), it’s impressive that Trigun still seems to show up in “my favorite…” lists. And with the long-awaited movie coming out, the franchise isn’t likely to fade into obscurity any time soon.

According to Sankaku Complex’s report [NSFW], the movie will be released during spring of 2010 and will star Vash the Stampede, Meryl, Milly and Nicholas Wolfwood, all voiced by the original cast. Given Wolfwood’s presence, this probably isn’t going to be set after the end of the anime or the manga–unless Nightow has been getting some inspiration from Lost.

From the Japanese I was able to decipher on the official site, the movie is set in Makka, a town surrounded by quicksand. Rumors around town say a legendary robber named Gasubakku is targeting the place. In order to protect his town, Mayor Kepler gathers ruffians to take him out…for a monetary prize, of course. Meryl and Milly happen to be in the town on a job for their insurance company when, to their surprise, they see Vash in the line of people hoping to take down Gasubakku.

So it seems the movie will be like a longer, self-contained version of the average episode of the TV series. This will likely please existing Trigun fans, but will it be able to expand the fandom?

Are You Excited About the Disappearance Movie?

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KyoAni obviously expected the announcement of their Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya film to generate lots of excitement and anticipation. However, the response thus far from the fan community has been underwhelming. Many fans have expressed concerns that the Disappearance arc is far too lengthy for a feature-length production. Other are merely apathetic towards Haruhi in general since the Endless Eight fiasco. However, there are also fans who are cautiously optimistic; they believe that KyoAni learned their lesson, and will produce a quality motion picture that does Haruhi justice.

So what do you think? Are you excited about the Disappearance movie? Let us know in the poll below, and join the discussion on our forums!

[poll id=”8″]

Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya Movie Announced For 2010!

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Today, the final episode of Suzumiya Haruhi No Yuutsu‘s ‘renewed airing’ was broadcast, and at the end, a very special announcement appeared.

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya has been announced… and it’s going to be a theatrical film, opening in the spring of 2010! Aside from that, no further information on the film is available, although Haruhi’s official site will be updated with more details ‘at a later date’.

Fans are still debating whether this is a good or bad idea. However, for at least a little while, Haruhi seems to have recaptured the spotlight. For those of you wondering about the future of the Haruhi franchise, you now have your answer!

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Video Game Review: Red Faction Guerrilla

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Stop! Hammer Time!

Nothing good ever happens on Mars. It always seems to be Earth’s whipping boy, so you have to wonder why anyone would willingly go there. It’s covered with sand and rocks, it’s colder than Earth, the entire place has an red-ish orange hue (except of the ice caps, obviously) and–according to Wikipedia–it has the largest dust storms in the solar system. How could Mars possibly be more fun than Earth?

Well, if it’s anything like Red Faction: Guerrilla, you can destroy every vehicle and structure in sight with a hammer, explosives and a good deal of reckless abandon. That’s a pretty compelling reason.

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Lucky Star Girls Destroy Mind With Macross Cosplay

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Sometimes in life an event just knocks you over, completely leveling all logical thought, leaving you babbling incoherently until you do something to alleviate the problem. This mental jaw-drop occurs for me whenever I see these new figures of the Lucky Star girls I adore cosplaying as characters from another favorite anime, Macross Frontier. Moe blindside delivered right to the eyes.

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Uncanny Valley, Thy Name Is Miku

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Have you ever heard of the uncanny valley theory? It states the following:

As a robot is made more humanlike in its appearance and motion, the emotional response from a human being to the robot will become increasingly positive and empathic, until a point is reached beyond which the response quickly becomes that of strong repulsion. However, as the appearance and motion continue to become more distinguishable from a human being, the emotional response becomes positive once more and approaches human-to-human empathy levels. —Wikipedia

Basically, the idea is that we tend to find things that too closely resemble humans, but are clearly not, repulsive. So, for example, a stuffed animal or anime moe girl, due to their stylization, would be considered cute and likeable. A zombie or dollfie, however, would not.

A group of Japanese scientists with the YAMAHA corporation recently debuted their HRP-4C Miimu robot, and decided to dress her up like Hatsune Miku and have her ‘dance’. The result, visible in the video below, falls squarely in the lowest part of the uncanny valley.

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K-On Dethroned!?

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Previously posted by Ryoko, we saw K-On! enter the record books with 33,000 Blu-Ray and 8,000 DVD sales for volume one alone. Today we hear of this record being broken by another anime, Bakemonogatari, with over 29,000 Blu-Ray and 15,000 in DVD sales. This lands it at 44,000 total sales to K-On’s 41,000.

Bakemonogatari is an anime by Shaft, now rather well-known for it’s artsy style and 24 minute slideshow for episode 10. Apparently the latter wasn’t enough to label it a lost cause.

As Bakemonogatari is not the moe-blobbery of K-On! and many other recent anime, we can only hope that it’s popularity will serve as a shoe to the hindquarters of the anime industry. So far this information has only been found on Sankaku Complex, so it should be taken with a pinch of salt; but if true then more reliable sources will be available soon.

-via Sankaku Complex [NSFW]

Miku, K-On! and Good Smile Themes for Google Chrome!

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Google Chrome’s theme feature recently went live, and among the dozens of themes offered are some interesting otaku-related choices.

These Chrome themes join dozens of others available on Google’s website, including such geek-oriented choices as Super Monkey Ball, Ratchet and Clank and Bayonetta. It seems like the folks at Google are just as big of nerds as we are!

These themes can be activated simply by visiting the theme page in Chrome and clicking on the “Apply theme” button. Here are the relevant links.

Miku Theme

K-On! Theme

Good Smile Theme

Now if Google would only add live bookmarking and Rikaichan to Chrome, I would drop Firefox faster than a flaming vulpine.

–Via ANN, pics via Figure.fm

Zaku Curry Noodles

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What better way to show your loyalty to Zeon than snacking on these possibly delicious Char Aznable Spicy Curry Noodles? The noodles mimic Char’s cometary qualities with spicy and red peppers, with just a hint of cheddar cheese flavor thrown in for good measure. They even come with their own reusable glass Zaku II cup!

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