Otaku Blue

Amoung the many events happening throughout the day at Japan Ex was an advanced screening of Ghost In The Shell: Solid State Society and after watching it, I’m embarressed the think that I haven’t seen the other installments of GITS. Solid State Society is the 3rd GITS film and focuses on a menace called the Puppeteer, a genius hacker who is threatening the very fabric of Japanese Society through a series of child “abuductions” and hacking peoples cyberbrains to make them commit suicide. Thats as far as I’ll go plot wise since the 2 hour long film is rather complex and to be honest I will need to watch it again to fully understand the end of it ( It didn’t really help that I’m new to GITS). The animation in the film was excellent and conistant too. There was not one time when I cringed due to a badly drawn nose and sluggish movements. Production I.G have done a brilliant job fusing lush anime visuals with CGI special effects. Since the film has yet to be released in this country and due to the fact that pirate copy film distribution is a real threat it todays modern society, I wasn’t allowed to take photo’s inside the screening area but I will leave you however with some fantastic screens of what I think is one of the best anime films I have ever seen. I believe the film is schedueled for a DVD release, courtesy of Manga Entertainment, in the August in the UK. I will definatley pick it up and if any of you who read are GITS fans I’m sure you will too.

Well here it is. My Japan Ex “coverage” starts today. Reason why It’s late is due to a number of reasons. One being I’ve been to damn tired these last few days. But anyway, Japan Ex London, was on Saturday and Sunday as you all know. It was a with out a doubt the best expo I have ever been too. Although It was a lot smaller than London Ex and a lot less crowded, that, in a way made it more enjoyable as i didn’t have to waste all my energy trying to push past people. But, since It’s the first one, no doubt It will be a lot more crowded next year.

There were a fair few events going on at Japan Ex. I managed to get to a few of them ( which I shall be writing about over the next couple of days), but unfortunatley I missed the one event i was looking forward to the most. The Taiko Drumming. Since I’m going to Tokyo at the end of August, I picked up loads of brochures and Leaflets that all the Japanese Travel Companies were giving out. Companies such as JNTO ( Youkoso Japan) and Into Japan were on site happily helping anyone who wanted information about Japan. Merchandise wise Japan Ex beat London Ex by a mile. As well as having a wider selection of Figures, Japan Centre was thier selling Tankouban and Japanese Magazines so I picked up Lucky Star vol.1 and a Limited Edition Version of Negima vol.19 ( Which came with a nice Dust Cover and some funny looking Pactio Cards).

I can definatley say that Japan Ex is the one event any anime fan or fan of Japan living in the UK should go to and I’m sure over the years it can only get bigger. Keep checking back for detailed coverage of the key events I attended on the Saturday.

* Sorry for the Picture Quality, I have the most primitive 4.0 Mega Pixel Digital Camera in existance. ^ ^;

It’s safe to say that the in Japan, the PS2 has been a magnet for original 2D fighting games aswell as arcade fighter ports. Now that the PS3 has been out for nearly a year, you would expect companies to stop developing games for what I think is the only console SONY hasn’t messed up. But the games keep coming in and I doubt they will stop anytime soon. One game that is sure to please many Otaku out there is Arcana Heart, a PS2 port of the arcade game of the same name being developed by AQ Interactive. What makes it different from other 2D fighters is probably what your asking. Well, to be honest not much be the looks of it but what makes it appealing to me is that its Bishoujo Fighting game. Thats right, no male characters. Arcana Hearts is to be released on October 11th in Japan so if you don’t live in Nihon, you can pre-order the game online from here . Another PS2 game that I plan on buying and when I do I’ll gladly review the game right here on Otaku Blue.

Arcana Heart Official Website

Now, must get ready to go to Japan Ex London ^ ^

Every year I have come to expect two major events that always attend. London MCM Expo - May and London MCM Expo - October. However no, I must now expect 3. Last year It was revieled that a seperate event would be held in July 2007 called Japan Expo, also known as Japan EX London. And, well, we are now well into July and Japan Ex is now only a couple of days away. It will be held on Saturday 21st - Sunday 22nd and like It’s sister event London MCM Expo, It will be held in the ExCel Centre. Japan Ex promises to be very interesting due to the fact that, as the name suggests, It focuses on Japan and nothing but Japan. While there you can expect to see the British Kendo Association ( BKA ) doing demonstrations, Taiko Drummers, Japanese Travel Companies, Cosplayers, Japanese  Arts and Crafts and much much more. If all goes well, Japan Ex may become a major event in every UK Anime fans calendar since this is the first ever one. I’ll be going to the Saturday event so expect lots of coverage. A lot more than my London Expo coverage since I will have more Japanese orientated material to rant about. If you didn’t know about the event and now want to go, more information can be found on the official Japan Ex Webpage. Until next time ^ ^

PS2 seems to have become a magnet for Visual Novel games. Such an onslaught of Bishoujo games hasn’t been seen since the days of the Dreamcast. Although I’ve had my Japanese PS2 since 2004, I have only tended to stick to action games and Naruto games, hence my tiny collection of 6 PS2 games (Except for one game i have called Operation Sactuary). It seems i need to break away from this miniscule gaming appetite and buy a visual novel game and i think Pure x Cure Re: Covery is the perfect game to start off with. Unfortunatley I don’t know much about this game except it has brilliant character designs and is being developed byAlchemist who are known for thier visual novel games. Pure x Cure Re: Covery is to be released in Japan on the 23rd of August and will retail for about £25-30 (7,140 JPY). If your interested and don’t live in Japan then you can pre-order it from www.play-asia.com . I would like to apoligise for that amazingly dry post but i like the look of this visual novel game and thought I’d share it with everyone ^ ^

Back in April, Weekly Shounen Jump shed some light on the rumoured 4th Naruto motion picture installment. Currently the film is named Naruto Shippuuden: The Movie, wether this is likley to change or not i don’t know. All i do know is that this film looks AMAZING. A short trailer popped up around the same time the movie was officially announced but after that, information about the film suddenly stopped. Recently, an extended trailer has been uploaded onto the Official Naruto Website which shows more action and some interesting looking characters. The trailer describes the film as a “New Story”, so I’m not quite sure where it fits into the Shippuuden Timeline. This is also due to the fact that Naruto dies in the film. How do i know this, well every single piece of promotional material for the film has said so ( Not a spoiler at all ^ ^ . This information  along with a large cast of well known Naruto characters makes Naruto Shippuuden: The Movie my most anticipated film of the year. The film will start screening in cinemas across Japan on August 4th so if i get a chance I’ll go and see it while I’m in Japan at the end of August. I leave you now with a trailer that is sure to wow any Narutard out there.

E3 2007 seems to have started off with a flying start and we still have a number of days left until the end. Being a Nintendo fan, I’m excited to see what Nintendo have coming up for us Wii/DS owners in the near future.

What to Expect?

Not really sure what to expect this year to be honest. All 3 gaming giants have released thier next gen consoles and now It’s all about new games. I suspect Nintendo will reviel Mario Kart Wii….hopefully. They said they have some “suprises so I’m eager to find out what those will be. As for SONY, they have announced thier PS3 price cut and along with a more powerful 80GB model. Possibly, too little too late. As for Microsoft I’m not too sure. I’m not a follower of Microsoft (Nintendo Fanboy) and have never owned one of thier consoles so what they have in store for gamers is anyones guess.

Microsoft had thier conference today while SONY and Nintendo are set to have thiers tomorrow. Expect a flood of new information to emerge all over the world wide web concerning all 3 companies and thier plans for the future in the coming days. I’ll update Otaku Blue as much as possible and as quickly as possible with all the best information possible. Will be tuning into Nintendo’s live conference tomorrow via www.gamespot.com so be sure to check out the blog for loads of updates just incase you miss it. Until then, happy gaming ^ ^

Wow….It’s been a while since I’ve seen such a nice figure, well know the last time I saw such a nice figure was Saturday but that isn’t the point. A couple of hours ago Goodsmile Company revieled an amazing looking Fauna figure. Manufactured by Max Factory.Fauna is the main heroine of the Eroge, Megachu. I’ve never played the game but, woah, this figure is a must buy. As you can probably tell be the pictures below, the figure is based upon the above image of Fauna at a fountain and what makes the figure even more appealing is the fact that it is cast off enabled, though i doubt i will be able to get away with having her chichi showing.

Fauna is to be released this november at a retail price of around £30-35. Due to the fact she looks fantastic, if you want her i would strongly suggest you pre-order her from a site that is planning on getting her in since popular figures can sell out before they even hit the shevles. I’ll be placing down a pre-order for her sometime soon and will review her when she comes out in November. Until Fauna graces our dusty shelves of hobby, enjoy the pleasent pictures courtersey of GSC.

I want to apoligise for the whimsical posts these past few days, It’s all been due to school work and me being completley knackered. This week see’s the start of E3 2007 aswell as some key information about the new Haruhi season being released so i have much to talk about. Wanted to do a triple post the other day but was really tired and couldn’t bring myself to do it (Sorry Sheen for telling you that i would do it), however, this evening there will be 3 lengthy posts awaiting those who read my blog. Until then, sayonara ^ ^

Over the years there has been a lot of Taiko no Tatsujin games and I’ve seen them pop up on various occasions but never thought to buy one. Recently, i stumbled upon the upcoming DS game, Taiko no Tatsujin DS. Upon doing some research a realised that Taiko no Tatsujin games basically revolve around drumming. Similar to the Donkey Konga games but instead of using your hands you use actual drum sticks. How can a game like this work on DS? Well, packaged with Taiko no Tatsujin DS will be two funny looking stylus’. One red, one blue, and with them you must drum to various tunes on the touch screen. Since its a DS game and judging from screen shots I’ve seen, it will revolve around famous Nintendo tunes. The way you play seems to be simple drum beating and I’ve also heard of a new feature exclusive to the DS game that allows you to spin the drum with the stylus. One thing that is worrying me about this game is that, it will be virtually unplayble on the move. The fact that you need two stylus’ to play it makes it hard to play without having something to rest on which i can imagine will be very difficult if your in the car or on the train. Still, theres something about this game that seems very inviting to me and so it will definatley be a game i will be picking up this summer. It’s set to be released on the 26th of this month in Japan so you if you don’t live in Japan you can purchase it from play-asia.