Velvet Underworld

More belated news...

4-20-07 (11:49AM EDT)---- ANS Exclusive First Look: Velvet Underworld

What happens when anime voice actors create their own anime? Find out today in our exclusive look at Velvet Underworld, Takehito Koyasu's first new creative project since Weiss Kreuz, as it was shown to the world for the first time at the Tokyo International Anime Fair 2007. From an exclusive high res poster image, to never before released details, ANS has a comprehensive overview of this upcoming project, now early on in the production stage. [Source]

http://www.animenewsservice.com/archives/velvet.htm

http://www.velvet-uw.com/

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Velvet Underworld was already the name of the 1st opening theme song for Weiss Kreuz...

So we kind of already know what happens when Koyapi starts creating shows... they're full of bishonen like him! XD

I also noticed on this youtube video, one of the comments:

One of the last times we get to see Koyapi with nice hair. Please stop wearing hats! T_T

==> other people call him Koyapi, as well my brother and I? :D

Taiko No Tatsujin DS

I forgot to post about this a few days ago...

Taiko No Tatsujin DS hs been announced by Namco-Bandai via Famitsu magazine. Source.

There are also magazine scans and a partial tracklisting on this site:

Taikods1 J-Pop:
Natsumatsuri (Summer Festival)
Won't Be Long
Mata Aimashou (Let's Meet Again)
Dance2 Featuring Soy Sauce [Pocky Chocolate Commercial Song]

Children's/Folk Music:
Mori no O-Kumasan (Bears in the Forest)
Inu no O-mawarisan (Dog and the Policeman)

Game Music:
Super Mario Bros.

Taikods2_2 Classical:
Beethoven's 7th (partial)
William Tell Overture
Heaven and Hell (Offenbach)
Flight of the Bumblebee (Rimsky-Korsakov)
Classic Medley (Wedding Songs)

Namco Originals:
Kimi ni Touch!
Mojipittan Medley
Kagekiyo
Pachi O-Sensei

and more hit songs!

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No external (to Namco/Nintendo) licensed music, I guess they need to sort out the licenses before any further announcements...

Retro Games in Stop Motion / Frogger = Rascal?

I was watching a video on youtube entitled Retro Games in Stop Motion, which is a fun little animation, and one thing that caught my ears was the BGM for Frogger.

The Frogger sequence has videogame music that sounds *a lot like* the Opening sequence for a really old anime called Araiguma Rascal (Racoon Rascal) - part of the Nippon Animation World Masterpiece series, with Ohsugi Kumiko singing the opening theme. (NOTE: singing the non-terrible part, I mean!)

I don't know where that music is sourced from, though. I can see it's not borrowed from the SNES game of Racoon Rascal...

Lumines Demo - Free legal download for PSP

If you want to play some Lumines on your PSP (if you have one), but can't be bothered with carrying round the UMD, and would like it to only take up a small amount of space on your memory stick... and you're not bothered about unlockables... You can download the demo version here.

I got the heads-up on this from Siliconera and it has more on installation instructions there (if you can't read Japanese).

Karyudo split up

It's unimportant news I spotted on Mainichi today: 1970s J-pop duo Karyudo have split up.

Their biggest song was "Azusa Nigou" which featured strongly in episode 99 of Sailor Moon (S). It's a great song. You can download it from this fansite.

I also found a short clip of *someone else* (Yamaguchi Momoe) covering the song on youtube, before seeing Karyudo appearing in the background themselves, presumably to cover one of her songs.

Of course, that song was popular about 30 years ago, so the duo splitting up doesn't really mean much... I just remembered how much I like that song. It worked powerfully in that episode.

I also found the clip in Sailor Moon S where that song is used and remembered why I decided never to follow the path of dubbed anime in my watching habits.

Ghost In The Shell S.A.C. 2nd GIG DVDs

Woo! I found out that I won a competition by receiving the prize in the post!

(I haven't got/watched the first series of Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex though!)

Samurai Deeper Kyo for GBA.. now?

Apparently the Samurai Deeper Kyo game for GBA has been licensed for the US! That's so... late!! O_o

various unorganised things

Not much happening here... I've been playing Cooking Mama for NDS, which is addictive and almost educational (but the recipes are a little misleading)... watched the 1st episode of Lucky Star, which would be better if it was funny; it's about as entertaining as... listening to any average group of teenagers bantering... >_< and the best bit about the first episode was a terrible (intentionally so) karaoke rendition of Uchuu Tetsujin Kyodain in the ending credits. Well, the OP is catchy, too. I expect they intend the dance to catch on like it did with Haruhi last year. I like the GUNPLA version, but then, I always do. ^_^

I just found a Sakamoto Eizo fan site: http://www.shoutimpact.com/

I've been watching his old live performances as the lead singer of ANTHEM on youtube recently... I still haven't watched the ANTHEM and ANIMETAL DVDs I got for my birthday... -_-;

I also noticed a live performance of X Japan doing Endless Rain and, well, I've really loved that song for years... but I have to say... it was better in my mind when it was simply a beautiful tender ballad and in my mind they didn't look all SUPER BIG HAIR METAL; it's so hard to take it seriously... I mean, when they're doing the whole metal thing, it's ok that it's silly; that works... the ballad is just 100 times wronger...

Beautiful Katamari - officially announced

Remember I mentioned there were rumours floating around about a new Katamari Damacy sequel?

The Magicbox has reported that Famitsu magazine reports that (yeah, I know, I know) Namco-Bandai have actually announced it, with screenshot pics published in Famitsu magazine. Follow the Magicbox link! Take a look!

Pretty, isn't it?

Even though the games have been rolling downhill since the 1st one, I'm still a big fan of the series. Even though the screenshots make it look no different than a polished-up version of the PSP game, which was the worst one by a long way. (But I blame the limitations of the system - PSP is too small for Katamari and the console lacks the appropriate control system)

I hope the soundtrack is as good as on the first game! And the attention to detail, and... well, everything that's lacking from the later two games.

I guess I'll have to actually buy either a PS3 or 360 when it comes out, depending on price and which port is best, which controls are best... whether I'll need to get an import console... whether there are any other games on the console worth playing...

Shame it's not coming out on wii, since it sounds the funnest of the 3 new consoles, but then, it would posibly be forced to use unsuitable controls (and we already found out that's bad via the PSP version)

Is this game really going to be a console seller? I don't know, but it's a Katamari Damacy game, and, as is embodied in the game itself... I really really like collecting things... ^_^;;

(Katamari Damacy is why I own a PSP! Even though all I play is Disgaea!)

Animelo Summer Live 2007

Source: Anime News Service

4-16-07 (3:57PM EDT)---- Animelo Summer Live 2007 Generation A Event Scheduled
Animelo Summer Live 2007 Generation A will occur at Nippon Budoukan on July 7. The large anime songs concert will feature many popular artists and seiyuu. Similar events were presented in 2005 and 2006. 10,000 people showed up last year. Hironobu Kageyama, Masami Okui, Nana Mizuki, and Momoi of JAM Project are confirmed participating artists this time around. A CD featuring the particpating artists songs will be put on the market on June 20th.

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Since when were Mizuki Nana and Momoi Halko members of JAM Project? -_-;;

I see ALI Project, Kuribayashi Minami and Takahashi Naozumi listed too, according to the official website.

Xenogears patch

http://alcahest.club.fr/XG2.0/xg2.0.html

It's a huge 370MB patch you can apply to the USA version of the PS1 game. According to the site:

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So what exactly is altered by this patch?

* Controls are put back to the original Japanese controls.
* In-game battle combos are back to the original Japanese ones (matching Japanese controls).
* Audio in the Full Motion Videos is in Japanese with English subtitles.
* Voices in the game are back to the original Japanese ones (in battles + certain cutscenes).
* The weight unit in character's stats is back to kilos (.kgs instead of .lbs).
* Emeralda's icon eyebrow transparency is corrected.
* The selection arrow in shop menus doesn't overlap choices (Buy, Sell, Exit) anymore.

Note: there are no changes whatsoever to the script.

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They fixed eyebrows!! O_O

Kuon for PS2 - PAL version

Here's another game that I've managed to buy (Amazon, £22 used), yet have never seen in an actual shop... Kuon, for PS2, the PAL version. I don't know why I've never seen a copy in shops; Japanese horror games seem quite popular, so you normally see at least a few copies of every release around, and this was supposedly released last year (almost to the day). There are 5 European languages on the back of the box, and it says "Made In Austria".

It also says it's by FROM SOFTWARE, and it's rated age 16+, and... it doesn't look graphically spectacular, but atmosphere will be the key, and it looks interesting, has an ancient Japanese setting and comes dual language (though I haven't checked that yet). Here's the blurb:

WILL YOU BE ABLE TO CONTROL YOUR FEAR AND KEEP CALM ENOUGH TO INCARNATE TWO YOUNG WOMEN READY TO CHALLENGE THE WORLD OF SPIRITS?

* A UNIQUE, BLOODCURDLING ATMOSPHERE (UNCENSORED VERSION).
* A PERFECT BLEND OF ACTION AND ADVENTURE.
* PLAY THE ROLE OF TWO DIFFERENT CHARACTERS AND DISCOVER FOUR DIFFERENT ENDINGS.

That's a horrible first line. ^_^;;

I've uploaded the box art because this is the only place I've seen it close up. I like it better than the Japanese / American boxart...

Momoi Halko (momo-i) - Famison 8-bit - tracklisting

I've romanised the tracklisting for this album, for making it into MP3s:

1. Touch (from Touch)
2. Koi no Jumon wa Suki Tokimeki to Kiss (from Sasuga no Saru Hi)
3. Hadashi no Flone (from Fushigi na Shima no Flone ~ Swiss Family Robinson)
4. Lum no Love Song (from Urusei Yatsura)
5. Delicate ni Sukishite (from Mahou no Tenshi Creamy Mami)
6. Yume Ippai (from Chibi Maruko-chan)
7. Fushigi na Melmo (from Fushigi na Melmo)
8. Hajimete no Chu (from Kiteretsu Dai Hyakka)
9. Moonlight Densetsu (from Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon)
10. Sougen no Marco (from Haha o Tazunete Sanzeri ~ 3000 leagues in search of mother)
11. L wa Lovely (from The Kabocha Wine)
12. Areare Arale-chan (from Dr Slump Arale-chan)
13. Romantic Ageru yo (from Dragon Ball)

BONUS TRACK:
14. Kimi wa Hoe Hoe Musume (from Idol Hakkenden) (vocal arrange version)

FAMISON ORIGINAL KARAOKE:
15. Touch (from Touch)
16. Koi no Jumon wa Suki Tokimeki to Kiss (from Sasuga no Saru Hi)
17. Hadashi no Flone (from Fushigi na Shima no Flone ~ Swiss Family Robinson)
18. Lum no Love Song (from Urusei Yatsura)
19. Delicate ni Sukishite (from Mahou no Tenshi Creamy Mami)
20. Yume Ippai (from Chibi Maruko-chan)
21. Fushigi na Melmo (from Fushigi na Melmo)
22. Hajimete no Chu (from Kiteretsu Dai Hyakka)
23. Moonlight Densetsu (from Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon)
24. Sougen no Marco (from Haha o Tazunete Sanzeri ~ 3000 leagues in search of mother)
25. L wa Lovely (from The Kabocha Wine)
26. Areare Arale-chan (from Dr Slump Arale-chan)
27. Romantic Ageru yo (from Dragon Ball)
28. Kimi wa Hoe Hoe Musume (from Idol Hakkenden) (original ongen version)

Tracklisting Source: http://www.5pb.jp/records/works/2007/0321/VGCD0070.html

Akai Ito - more translation help

I've had a look through ZoharContact's translation - which is very well written, btw - and I've made more helpful files:

HTML downloadable version
Plain Text downloadable version
Navigation help document so you can see which page links from which.

Akai Ito translation available!

Yay! ZoharContact's released her line-by-line translation of Akai Ito for PS2! You can read it on her website.

It's a huge huge translation!

It only covers Uzuki's route so far, but it's still huge!

Darwin for PS2

I found an interesting-looking game while browsing Amazon (UK) today:

Darwin for PS2, released ont he 23rd March 2007. I'd never heard of it before! The blurb is:

"From ape to human lead the evolution of mankind! Darwin is on a mission to broaden his horizons, evolving himself and his surroundings to a new life. Evolve everyone in your village from ape to human by teaching your troops to hunt, fight and speak"

So I was thinking... perhaps it's like Evo or the new Seaman game...

As it's a brand new game with an interesting concept that is selling really cheaply, I thought "maybe it's a Simple 2000 game" and looked on the D3 website.

I found the game here:
Simple 2000 Series #99 - the Genshijin (Commercial to watch)

It looks kind of like Pikmin... but with monkeys that evolve into hairy cavemen. I placed my order, since this looks interesting. It's also unusual to see a game being rated for ages 3+ (according to Amazon's box art) with that much blood in it.

I've just found a review of the game here. They seem to think it's a really good game considering that it's a Simple 2000 budget release.