Let me be frank: role-playing games are my least go-to genre in the video game realm. Sure I've played a plethora of titles -- from Final Fantasy adventures and a couple Tales games to Skies of Arcadia (my all-time favorite in the genre) -- but it's usually difficult for me to get into this style of gaming. Is there anything that could draw me into diving headfirst into the RPG realm no questions asked? Sure enough, Level-5 knew how to do just that with Ni No Kuni: Wrath Of The White Witch.
Back in 2009 I came across an anime series called Seitokai no Ichizon (translated here as The Student Council's Discretion), which featured five students in a student council discussing their lives, opinions, and thoughts regarding the rules of their school. The series mostly took place in a single room, with almost no changes in the settings and pace of the program. Despite this Twelve Angry Men approach to animating the series, the show delivered a lot of surprising laughs, especially when it came to poking fun of itself. (Watch the first couple minutes of the first episode, and you'll see how good they do this.) Now after over three years of waiting a new season has come to fruition, and while they change the formula a bit the chuckles still keep coming at the same pace as before.
It's surely a coincidence when two four-panel manga-based anime series of almost the exact same premise and run at the same length of time arrive in the same season, yet it has happened here this winter of 2013 with the release of Choboraunyopomi's Ai Mai Mi and Kagari Tamaoka's Mangirl! Does one series fare better than the other, or do both show have their highs and lows?
Anime fans and Xbox 360 owners got themselves an early Christmas (or late Hanukkah, depending on your religious affiliation) present last week when the free Crunchyroll app was launched, just under five months after PS3 owners were given their own. Just as when the PS3 version was launched, I offer up five new suggestions to check out once you download the app:
If there is one thing I can always count on, it's big laughs from Kenjiro Hata's creation Hayate the Combat Butler. Starting off as a hilarious manga, it spawned two equally-funny anime series and a good (but not great) movie that followed the misadventures of the debt-ridden butler Hayate, the young Nagi, and the wise young Maria. This past October a new series began airing entitled Hayate the Combat Butler!: Can't Take My Eyes Off You, which instead of following the manga has an entirely original story created by Hata with elements that didn't make it into the manga.
**WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS**
One quick look at Shaft’s anime series Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and you might find yourself shrugging at the idea of another magical girl fantasy anime. Those who don’t stick around, however, will be missing out on one of the most original and intriguing anime series to come out in years.
**WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS**
How do you categorize Asura's Wrath? Is it a video game with anime-based qualities, or is it the other way around? While going hands-on the full version of CyberConnect2's creation I found myself watching what was happening on the screen rather than playing it. If this was your average run-of-the-mill game that would be a problem. Fortunately Asura's Wrath is anything but average.
The mere utterance of Shinichiro Watanabe in the anime world will send hundreds of thousands of otaku to their nearest TV set or computer to watch his next work. The Quentin Tarantino of animation Watanabe is a man with a trademark style and a patented branding of badassery. When word got out that Watanabe was to reunite with his Cowboy Bebop cohort Yoko Kanno in a new series the sound of buzzing transformed itself into a roar of anticipation. This past spring the show made its premiere in Japan and on Crunchyroll: Kids on the Slope.
**WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS**
