Higurashi update

Some When they Cry news...



"Sonozaki Futagotachi" have released a patch for up to day 12 of the visual novel translation! Hooray!

The Higurashi movie came out about a fornight ago in cinemas in Japan - I haven't heard if it's any good or not, yet. It covers the first arc of the story, a second film has also been announced.

There's a DS game coming out next month. I've seen preview screenshots, and it features pics of 5 new characters! They are mentioned on the official site but there are no pictures. The game seems voiced as there are seiyuu listed. I have seen a description of what you get with the Ltd Ed of the game, it sounds like getting a bunch of cursed items for free. T_T One thing I noticed is that as it comes with a box to store 4 games, so that suggests this must be the first of 4 games.

Preorders: Regular version, Limited Edition.

Also, related, the two released volumes of 07th Expansion's newer story, "Umineko no Naku Koro ni" has been translated and game patches are being released.

EDIT: Oh yes, I forgot... a new OVA - Higurashi no Naku Koroni Rei (OAV) has been announced, but I have not heard of a release date or further details yet.

DS Visual Novel Reader

There's a visual novel reader for Nintendo DS, you know. I had heard of the demo of Fate Stay Night and some of Tsukihime (English translations) being ported to the DS, but had not looked into it.

The site for the reader is here: http://digital-haze.net/vnds.php

That includes the reader, and ports of that demo of FSN and Tsukihime, as well as Narcissu (which I hear is good from the PC version), and something called "Anon's Nice Day" which I admit I haven't heard of before.

It seems to use its own format - some .scr files that describe the background image to use, sound files, music, text, choices etc, as well as needing those visual/audio files separately.

EDIT: Wow, this Fate Stay Night DS download is 73MB whereas I thought the demo for DS was under 10MB... maybe it's the whole game after all!

My new crimson & black Nintendo DS

Hee~~~~ I bought myself a present! ^___^




It's a "crimson and black" Nintendo DS Lite, and I bought it and got it shipped to me from North America! The total price including shipping was actually cheaper than I could get a UK one, but I got this mostly because I like the colour scheme. My old silver DS has served me well, but it makes an annoying high-pitched sound, which is worse when using headphones. My old DS is so worn out that you can't even see the serial number on the back anymore - all the writing wore away!

The crimson and black DS Lite has a shiny metallic crimson surface, and is matt black plastic on the inside and back.




This comes with one (only one!) spare stylus, a recharger (very compact, with an American plug, of course), instructions for the console and instructions for Pictochat, a health-and-safety booklet, a product registration card I can't use, and subscription offer to "Nintendo Power" magazine which I can't use.



I'm recharging my DS by plugging the charger into a stepdown converter!! ^_^;; I think I need to get a new charger when I can...!

Why my scanner doesn't work

I tried all sorts of things, reinstalling drivers and such, all fruitlessly, until I finally noticed...



...yeah, I don't know why I didn't see that before! I think that's classed as a hardware issue!

(I'm sure I have a spare USB cable somewhere.... though somewhere is quite a lot of possible places...)

So, yeah, I'm using my camera a lot for these posts at the moment...!

Bandai Visual USA is disappearing

There was an announcement on their website on the 23rd of May and I only just saw it today.

Link: Bandai Visual website

May 23, 2008 new
Announcement by Bandai Visual Co., Ltd. regarding dissolution of Bandai Visual USA Inc.

-> PDF file

(which won't open on my computer! I'll read it later...)

Another news source: Anime news network

== start of excerpt ==

Bandai Namco Holdings has announced on Friday that it will combine its two video/audio content subsidiaries in America — Bandai Entertainment and Bandai Visual USA — on July 1 and liquidate Bandai Visual USA. The company's announcement still lists Tatsunori Konno as the head of Bandai Visual USA, even though he moved back to Japan this month. As of the end of April, there were officially only two employees of Bandai Visual USA. The liquidation of Bandai Visual USA is expect to be completed by the end of September.

Bandai Visual USA was established on January 5, 2005 with an emphasis on collectors' editions of Bandai Visual titles from Japan. It met with heavy resistance to its prices which were similar to those in Japan, but far above those in the rest of the North American anime market. It has US$4 million in capital and, as of last December 31 (the end of its last accounting period), US$2.983 million in total assets. During the accounting period that ended last December, it sold US$1.151 million worth of goods, but lost US$595,000 before taxes.

== end of excerpt ==

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom

Tatsunoko VS Capcom ~ Cross Generation Of Heroes

There's an article on it in Famitsu magazine, both in print and online! Here's the online version of the magazine article: http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/1215298_1124.html

We can see Ken from Gatchaman, Shinzo Ningen Casshan, Ryu and Chun-Li fighting, in stages that seem to be based on Yatterman and Tron Bonne. And it looks incredible!

Apparently it comes out as an arcade machine at the end of this year, then may possibly be ported to a home console. ^_^

More upcoming UK game releases

Oh yeah. Other games I forgot to mention are coming out:

The Nippon Ichi RPG Soul Nomad and the World Eaters (which still sounds like it ought to be the title of a David Bowie album)

And the SNK fighting game Samurai Shodown 6, which seems to be one of those occasions where a game gets released in Europe without it first being published in North America. Wikipedia describes it as a big "dream battle" game without a story, which makes me worry that it might be as bad as Guilty Gear Isuka. :(

And Etrian Odyssey is coming out as well, though I bought the US version of this many many many months ago. You occasionally see it in UK stores already, in the shops that don't mind stocking import handheld console games, so I'm wondering if maybe this is being released a bit too late. The 2nd game comes out in the US soon, as well.

Upcoming UK PS2 game releases

According to Play.com, Baroque is coming out on 27/06/2008, and Growlanser: Heritage Of War is coming out on 13/06/2008. Both priced cheaply at £14.99 (RRP is £19.99).

It's quite surprising, as Baroque is a dungeon-crawler that's a port of a Sega Saturn game, and it's a long way through the Growlanser series to start releasing games now... I think this is the 5th one... the American version was way overpriced since it came with a load of useless stuff as a "Limited Edition" (I saw a lot of Ltd Ed versions in shops, no regular cheap version!)

BTW there's a special deal on at play.com at the moment, where if you spend £20 you can get £2 off by using the coupon code: NEWPLAY08. Offer runs out on the 25th of May. I'm undecided on whether there is anything on there at the moment that I'd like that doesn't look like its price will drop over time.

Triumph Solar-powered bra

What's this year's Triumph lingerie gimmick in Japan?

Well they already had the shopping bag bra, the chopsticks bra, now they have... the solar powered bra!



Source

...it's a prototype, that obviously won't work if you are wearing clothes over your underwear, and also breaks if you wear it in the rain. -_-;;

Gaelco World Rally on MAME

I just read this and thought it was especially cool:

== Source ==

The big news in this release is that World Rally — long thought to be unemulatable — is now up and running, thanks to some help from Gaelco S.A. directly! Even more exciting is that Gaelco has officially offered the World Rally ROMs for free download on their site.

Please note carefully that these World Rally ROMs are only available for personal, non-commercial use. In fact, there is already concern that some folks are out to make a buck off of the released ROMs, since they include the coveted protected Dallas code. If we hope to get additional help in the future, please do not abuse the kindness of the folks at Gaelco!

==

Not only are Gaelco releasing the game for free, but they helped get it running on MAME! That's just really good of them. ^_^

Overpriced game

I think the price they're asking for this game is a little too high.



Source: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0007XXEU8/

Gungrave box set (UK thinpack)

I buy lots of anime DVDs, but hardly ever buy myself UK DVD box sets unless they're exclusive or very well-priced.

I had a £20 voucher to spend in HMV, given to me by my granny one Christmas a few years ago. I was just carrying it around as there are rarely any good deals on videogames or films that I'm interested in in that shop. I find it overpriced for the majority of the time. However, today I actually found a good deal so I actually spent my voucher. ^_^

It was a thinpak box set of the series "Gungrave". It cost £40, meaning £20 + voucher.

The series was originally a Geneon license, and so is now out-of-print in the US, with box sets usually priced at over £100 if you manage to find a copy. In the UK, this 7-disc box set distributed by MVM is priced at about £60 everywhere.

So, yay, yay, yay. ^_^

Apparently it's a pretty good series, too. My brother said so, and he's generally got good taste. I played through the first videogame, I don't know how close the stories are.

I wonder if there are any other series that Geneon had that are somehow still being released in the UK...

Kimura Takahiro's character designs

I was tidying up this evening, glanced at my DVDs, and... how come I never noticed before?



The certain blonde lady on volume 5 of my Godannar DVDs....

...looks just like a certain green-haired lady in Code Geass...

...except that she's blonde and has bigger boobs.

If anyone says that the Code Geass character designs look more CLAMP than Kimura Takahiro.... well, I disagree with them. :P

(EDIT: I get the feeling my brother might have mentioned this to me before, and I forgot about it...)

ARIA licensed for US distribution by Nozomi / Rightstuf

Nozomi Entertainment / Rightstuf made a big press release yesterday of a new license. It's ARIA THE ANIMATION. The whole first series will come out on DVD, subtitled-only, at the end of September of this year.

I'm not sure, I might pre-order it. I'm undecided at the moment.

I'm glad they're releasing box sets.

[GLARES at ADV for stopping releasing the ARIA manga after 3 volumes]

Yeah, I can hold grudges for an incomplete series for years...!

Michi~road Mizuki Ichirou Debut 40th Anniversary Commemoration CD-Box

Wow, that's a long title, but at least there's a box big enough to hold 5 CDs and a DVD to write the title on!

It's for preorder already, and I think at 10000 yen, it's a pretty good price.

...though I probably already a lot of the tracks on other CD compilations already. Ah, I'm a sucker for this stuff. ^_^;;

Details from the CD Japan site:

Michi Road Ichiro Mizuki Debut 40th Anniversary CD-Box [5CD+DVD]

Fortieth anniversary CD box set from anime song legend Ichiro Mizuki includes five CDs with over 120 tracks from Mizuki's career plus bonus DVD with nearly fifty minutes of footage from Ichiro Mizuki's January 2008 fortieth anniversary concert at Shibuya O-East. Also includes deluxe box.

Catalog No.: COZX-311
Format: CD
Number of discs (or other units): 6
Release Date: 2008/07/02
Price: 10000yen

That's not Jesus, it's Ultraman!

Ah, I've looked and looked and I really don't see a picture of Jesus in this photo. I think it looks like an Ultraman... all metal with oval eyes, no nose but a distinct mouth shape...

[stare]

Maybe it's the Ultraman king, with the beard.



[stare]

I went and bought the original 1960s series of Ultraman on DVD the other week, in a sale at Rightstuf, but it hasn't arrived yet....

[wait wait wait]

There are cool Ultraman goods for sale at CD Japan, I just found that page this evening. You can buy real Ultraman masks! (<>_<>)