Posts Tagged ‘eroge’

Manga Gamer: Serving your loli needs since 2009

In the last Highs and Lames post that I put up, one of the notes inside regarded a decision made by MangaGamer.com to willingly censor the upcoming release of eroge Soul Link. After making the announcement, fans were less than pleased and the staff noted that the decision was being revisited. Earlier today, a post went up to the main site announcing a reversal of their previous decision.

Specifically citing the uproar caused by Equality Now in Japan earlier this year and other English speaking countries that have recently tightened their laws, the staff blog noted “we originally felt it necessary to take extra precaution to ensure that neither our company nor our customers would face prosecution or other action as a result of our products.” After a new round of discussion, the company has decided that they will replace the 6 CG images taken out of Soul Link and a single image which was originally set to be replaced in the upcoming Higurashi – When They Cry release which features a naked Satoko.

Now everyone should go say their thanks to MangaGamer while they still can. I’m sure the bat phone has gone off with the international police who have already zeroed in on them as the new ‘enemy #1′.

Updated: I forgot to include this when I originally posted this but Manga Gamer also recently made the opening animation available for download on their site. I haven’t watched it myself yet so I’m not entirely sure about the content. Since it’s from an eroge, just assume that the d/l is likely NSFW.

A few days ago, I put up a post about the latest release from Illusion, Real Kanojo. Requiring at least an i7 graphic card, Illusion has set a new standard for realistic virtual female simulation. With the launch of the new demo (which I have not gotten to toy with because my laptop is not nearly that nice or current), a few new details are starting to be revealed including the names of the three different girls: Ai, Aya (pictured) and Kaori along with a demo movie. If you really want to see what this game is capable of, be sure check out the features page (videos NSFW) on the Illusion site which shows where they have taken double mouse and T-Cam technology.

Has anyone had a chance to check out the demo (or plan to) and want to offer up your thoughts on it? Email me and we’ll try to work something out.

<Images ©ILLUSION>

Writer’s block sucks but sometimes all it takes is just a couple of sparks to get you going again. I missed last week but there really has been very little to fall through the cracks. So what has happened in the last couple of weeks? Moe loli triplets will be airing sometime in the future, Gonzo has taken one more step towards obscurity and the holiday season is fast approaching which means more merchandise that none of us actually need but will probably buy anyway simply because we can.

Second Eden of the East Movie Delayed: Fans of last summer’s hit series, Eden of the East, have been very patient when it comes to the movie adaptations. Finally, the big day was just hours away when Production I.G decided to break the collective hearts of fans just a bit more by announcing a two month delay in the release of the second movie. This isn’t entirely bad news however. Originally both movies were set to be 60 minute adaptations of the TV series but then the staff got creative and expanded the story out even further making what was supposed to a 60 minute feature into 90 minutes instead. Surely fans can wait a measly two months for at least 30 more minutes of story?

Ikkitousen Season 4 Green Lit: For those of you who prefer your anime to lean more towards the action fan service variety, a fourth season of Ikkitousen has been green lit for production. Titled ‘Ikkitousen: XX (Xtreme Xecutor)‘, the new season will feature the animation debut of the character Bachou Mouki (voiced by Aya Endo [Sheryl Nome in Macross Frontier, Cruz in Needless]) and will also feature new characters that were never featured in the manga series. Beyond that, all of the cast and crew from the first three seasons will be returning to reprise their roles.

If you’re dying to get your fix, the official website has already opened with a trailer for the special DVD 0 being released at Comiket 77. The trailer isn’t really safe for work though the nipples are censored.

Major Gets Sixth Season: The seemingly perennial baseball anime had a sixth season announced this week. The new season will be getting a spring premiere, more specifically April 3^rd (just in time for baseball season naturally). I remember when this series was still relatively new and I couldn’t go more than a week without someone telling me to check this one out. Glad that’s finally over with.

LAMES

Manga Gamer Editing Upcoming Release: Manga Gamer put two news updates on their site earlier this week regarding their upcoming release of Soul Link from Navel (Shuffle). First the good news, the game will be released later this month (presumably in time to spend any holiday money you have coming to you) for €36.95 (or around $55). The bad news is that the game is being willingly censored by Manga Gamer before its release. In a statement posted to their site on 12/4 the company said:

“A total of 6 CGs from the game will be removed due to having an arguably underaged(sic) looking character naked. Because we don’t want to risk getting the law in the way of our future releases, we have decided to cut this CG from this release.” They go on to note that no text was cut.

As much as I hate censorship, this has not been a good year to be an eroge fan. Between the bans put into place because of one stupid game that wasn’t even made widely available and the Christopher Handley guilty plea, I can understand why Manga Gamer would prefer to go the safe route. It’s exceedingly lame that they buckled to whatever pressure they felt like they were under but understandable. On the other hand, JAST USA proved earlier this year that a little bit of Photoshop here and there (NSFW) can go a long way towards fixing those problems.

STUFF YOU DIDN’T KNOW YOU NEEDED UNTIL NOW

600 Japanese Girls Saying ‘I Love You’: Alright, so it’s not literally 600 girls being shipped to you just so that you can be peppered with the same phrase over and over but how about a CD containing the same thing? For a mere $25 you can have a special two CD set titled ‘Hougen’ which will help even the loneliest of otaku feel special as hundreds of girls (including voice actresses such as Rie Tanaka [most recently known as Nyx in Queen's Blade, Octavia in Tears to Tiara, Minna in Strike Witches]). If that’s not enough, a second CD is included in the set which features the reverse: hundreds of girls telling you they hate you perfect for that post holiday depression. The set will be released on 12/23 and is available for preorder from CDJapan.

 <Ikkitousen image ©YUJI SHIOZAKI・WANI BOOKS/IKKITOUSEN XX PARTNERS, Soul Link image ©Omegavision>

After recently seeing an article about a man in Guam marrying his virtual Love Plus girlfriend, I honestly wasn’t sure how someone was going to top that. Really, the man even held a reception for the press in an effort to get his marriage recognized. Luckily, infamous eroge studio Illusion (NSFW) has stepped forward and upped the ante slightly in the virtual girlfriend market.

An update to their website has revealed their latest project as Real Kanojo. Using 3D CG animation, the game gives users a beautiful shorthaired virtual girlfriend with features such as wide screen format, webcam support (the picture will actually shift to match your head movements I assume), full motion capture animation, 3D glasses (yeah, seriously) and is compatible with Windows 7. A demo will be released at the end of the month with the full version hitting store shelves in February.

3D Glasses Included Make It Feel Like You Actually Have a Girlfriend!

 

Looking at the demo footage posted to the official site, it’s easy to see Illusion has put a lot of effort into creating something more realistic than fans have seen in previous games. And you have to give them credit, it looks good. But I think I’d like to check out the demo before I praise this one too much. Besides, Illusion is going in one weird direction with this game… a realistic 3D girl? How is that ever going to work?

<Via Sankaku Complex, Images © Illusion>

So you may have noticed that I missed a week and didn’t get the Highs and Lames posted last week. Ironically the feature is returning today looking much shorter than it usually does thanks to a fairly low traffic news week giving me more time to keep caught up. So in the spirit of that, let me fill up some space by telling you that my advance review of Evangelion 1.01 will be going up Monday morning and surprisingly it doesn’t even resemble any sort of long rant on the evils of the series. Have I filled up enough space yet? Yeah, that looks good enough. On with the updates!

Funimation Posts First Four Soul Eater Eps and Almost Nine Minutes of Eva: Over the weekend, Funimation gave fans a reason to stay inside on Friday the 13^th with new videos on their website and YouTube channel. In anticipation of the new February release date for box set 1, the first four episodes of Soul Eater are available in their dubbed format for fans to check out. The latest dark shonen series to take hold of fans, early feedback has seemed to be mostly positive. I haven’t seen the episodes yet myself but plan to later today so that I can finally have my own opinion about the series. The first box set will be released on February 9^th 2010.

For those of you who are still on the fence about the picking up the new Evangelion 1.01 movie, this is also your chance to check out the first eight and a half minutes streaming. Those minutes aren’t going to take you very deep into the movie but it will at least show you a good portion of the fourth angel attack leading up to the Shinji’s first fight inside Unit 01. The movie will hit store shelves on November 17^th (that’s this Tuesday) and is available for pre-order from Amazon and Right Stuf.

Moero Downhill Night Now Shipping: The physical copies have come in and are presumably now free of Scottish highland music meaning that JAST USA has begun shipping the street racing themed eroge Moero Downhill Night. The game was released under the Peach Princess label is available from Right Stuf and J-List (NSFW). Speaking of JAST, it’s been a couple of weeks since they’ve posted any new characters or artwork for the upcoming Demonbane. I know I wouldn’t mind seeing more at least. 

Kaito Reinya Gets Winter Anime: The gag manga series Kaito Reinya will be getting an anime series in January. The series centers on a young girl who works as a sandwich board wearer during the day but at night is a dynamic thief who always foils the hapless police who try to catch her. The lead character was inspired (and will be voiced by) Morning Musume member Reina Tanaka. Can you imagine if a series like this tried to make it on the air here? First there would be no choice but to aim it towards children and then parents would throw a fit on a young girl working as a thief in the night and getting away with it. Ah, good times.

1212 Entertainment to Work on Anime/Manga Adaptations: Anime Vice reported on a new production company that has opened recently called 1212 Entertainment. Headed up by Joshua Long (who is already attached to the upcoming live action Cowboy Bebop movie), the company intends to work primarily on adapting Japanese anime, manga and video games into live action features. Long didn’t have any titles that he could specifically mention right away but promises big updates in the future.

LAME

Gonzo Turns Off Phone Support: Living in Japan and got a problem with the Gonzo DVD you just picked up? Good luck getting someone on the phone to talk about it! Gonzo announced recently that starting in December they will no longer offer any sort of phone support for their DVD products. Fans will still be able to contact the company via their official website. It sounds like this is just another cost cutting measure meant to keep the studio open for even just a while longer. From my fan perspective though if you’re already to the point where even turning off an extra phone line might make a difference, it might be time to start inching towards your panic button.

STUFF YOU DIDN’T KNOW YOU NEEDED UNTIL NOW

Subtitles Beamed Into Your Freakin Eyes Live! : The future is now! Japan based NEC plans to release a product in 2011 which is going to revolutionize international conversation (providing that the things work like they are supposed to). Looking like a simple pair of glasses, a small screen sits comfortably in front of the wearer’s eye. It then listens to whatever foreign language is being spoken and translates them into subtitles on the little screen. It’s not exactly a universal translator and hardly anyone will be able to afford the initial 80K price tag but this is the first step towards awesome new toys coming to us in the next decade.

Single of the Week

Only My Railgun – Fripside

With every new season of anime, there are two things that I absolutely have to do. I have to find the one or two series out of the dozens that I actually want to watch all the way through and I have to find the new theme songs that I enjoy. This season, I was lucky when To aru Kagaku no Railgun came out and managed to fill both of those descriptions perfectly. Debuting at #3 on the singles chart, I have yet to skip over the opening theme and animation while watching this series. I’m sure I will eventually but right now, it’s getting constantly replayed on my iPod. The single is currently available from CDJapan.

At their 10^th Aniversary event held over the weekend, eroge studio Circus (Mai-Hime Unmei no Keitouju, Valkyrie Complex) announced a small boat load of new items related to their flagship title, D.C. ~Da Capo~. If you’re not already aware of the franchise let me educate you really quickly. Since 2002, Da Capo has been one of the most popular titles put out by Circus having spawned four visual novels and television series each and a manga series. Unfortunately, it’s been largely ignored on this side of the Pacific due to no one wanting to dangle its licensing pole anywhere near the magical cousin loving harem series besides Manga Gamer. Though even they have only released one translated version of the original visual novel to US audiences (complete with a painful €49.95/$73 price tag). That isn’t stopping Circus from focusing on their primary audience though which means new everything!

Among the announcements made today, Circus has confirmed that the series will be getting a third visual novel in the series, another visual novel titled D.C. Zero, a new manga series and a brand new anime which will premiere in Spring 2010 which will be talked about more later. Despite how much I enjoy visual novels, eroge adaptations are very hit or miss with me which explains why I haven’t watched this one yet. If a new series is going to be started for it, I guess that means it’s my job to check it out at some point in the near future. You know what that means: yet another weekend spent sitting in front of my laptop watching harem anime. And my family wonders why I’m not married.

<Via ANN, Moetron>

Updated 11/2: Added premiere date for anime, clarified third visual novel

I totally forgot to mention this over the weekend when I wrote up the Highs and Lames! Hate when I do that. Anyways, the new release currently being localized by JAST USA for a 2010 release, Deus Machina Demonbane from Nitro+, is now available for pre-order from J-List.

The fantasy adventure takes place in Arkham City and follows a struggling private detective who learns about the secret world of grimoires and giant mechs called Deus Machina. On the run from the evil Black Lodge, a young girl named Al Azif runs into the detective, Daijuuji Kurou, and teams up with him to solve the mystery of the Deus Machina and destroy the Black Lodge. Originally released in Japan in 2003, Demonbane became popular enough to generate both an OVA (in 2004) and a TV series (in 2006) which follows the game story much more closely. I haven’t seen any of the Demonbane releases because I am lame like that but the early artwork from the game has really made me want to seek it out at some point.

Get your soapboxes dusted off because Alaska has decided to reopen the can of worms that is hentai and virtual child pornography. Prosecutors up in Alaska have included anime in their list of reasons why a complete ban on virtual child pornography is in order. A proposal for the ban is already gaining support from others around the state and so I’m guessing this won’t be the last we hear about this. One of the primary advocates for the bill is Alaska Assistant U.S. Attorney Audrey Renschen who says that she’s never actually charged anyone with possession of anime but was quoted as saying “When you talk about anime, even though a real child wasn’t used, it still sexualizes the child. And cartoons are naturally conducive to attracting a child.”

Everyone knows where I stand on this issue: Censorship bad, banning fictional artwork is a crime against thoughts, yadda yadda yadda. I’m always going to hope that these people are going to end up getting absolutely nowhere with this and we can go back to our daily lives but that might not happen. Regardless, there’s nothing to be upset about yet because all it is are a couple of people who are trying for some kind of ban. Once they start making progress and have a tangible idea of what they are going to try to do, then I’ll pull out the soapbox and rant on their evils. In the meantime, don’t blow this out of proportion yet.

<Via ANN>

Shou Daichi is working on Himeda Ridge as a delivery driver barely making ends meet. He goes into work every day dreaming of something more but doesn’t know what he wants. While out making a delivery, destiny meets him head on in the form of getting hit by a car driven by the beautiful Michi Konozaki. After Michi deems Shou as being the the ‘legendary man’ she’s been looking for, Shou is dragged into the high speech world of street racing. Now serving as Michi’s navigator, Shou will be challenged by a string of beautiful female racers and navigators who want to take on the ‘legendary man’.

Read the rest of this entry »

So it’s the end of the week (well, technically the beginning but since this is late getting up we’re going to do some pretending) which means it’s time for another edition of Highs and Lames. Though, by the way, Highs and Lames is a pretty lame title for this weekly segment of internet pollution, anyone got a better suggestion? Feel free to leave them in the comments and if there are enough interesting choices I’ll let readers pick the new title in a later edition.

23 Toei Titles Getting New Dubs: Earlier this week, William Winckler Productions (WWP), based out of California, announced a new partnership with Toei and Rioloco Productions. Under the new agreement, 23+ classic titles from the Toei library will be getting brand new English dubs. No actual US release or broadcast dates have been mentioned but in a comment to ANN, Jim Tousignant said “Winckler Productions and Rioloco Productions have been tapped to become involved in the U.S. distribution of these titles.” More titles are promised for the future but here is the initial list:

Gaiking , Gaiking II, Gaiking III, Danguard Ace, Danguard Ace II, Danguard Ace III, Space Pirate Captain Harlock, Space Pirate Captain Harlock II, The Adventures of Nadja ,The Adventures of Nadja II, Fist of the North Star – The Shin Saga, Fist of the North Star – The Ray Saga, Fist of the North Star – The Souther Saga, Fist of the North Star – The Toki Saga, Fist of the North Star – The Raul Saga, Fist of the North Star – The Kaioh Saga, Starzinger, Starzinger II, Starzinger III, Lun Lun The Flower Girl, Lun Lun The Flower Girl II, Kitaro’s Graveyard Gang and Kitaro’s Graveyard Gang II

Aoi Bungaku Will Bring Two More Stories to Life: The Madhouse produced series, Aoi Bungaku, will be animating six classic stories instead of the previously revealed four. Along with No Longer Human (created by Osamu Dazai), Kokoro (Soseki Natsume), Hell Screen (Akutagawa) and Run, Melos! (Takeshi Konomi), the staff has announced that they will also be creating animations for In the Forest, Under Cherries in Full Bloom (Ango Sakaguchi) and The Spiders Thread (Ryunosuke Autagawa). Call it a hunch that this series is going to be overlooked by quite a few fans after it premieres on October 10^th. For those of you who are making this series into appointment TV, the full cast and crew have been posted to the official website (translated by ANN).

Kuchu Buranko Gets Live Action Treatment: Speaking of upcoming fall premieres, the upcoming series Kuchu Buranko will be a mix of live action and animation. Yumi Sugimoto will be playing the sexy nurse/assistant to Dr. Ichiro Irabu as he sees his string of eccentric patients. The series premieres on October 15^th.

JASTUSA Posts Demonbane Character Profile: JASTUSA is just starting their process of getting fans excited about Demonbane. Step one: get to know the characters. In what I assume is the beginning of a series, JASTUSA has posted a character profile for the hero of their upcoming game Demonbane. For the most part the profile is an introduction to the general story of the game but I’m sure that once fans start checking out the early artwork all will be forgiven. I hope that JASTUSA makes this a steady new feature that builds up to a big release for this title… but while I’m sitting here hoping for things I could use a new car. ^_^;

Anime Charity Auctions on MySpace: In a vague follow up to a story posted earlier this week, a new MySpace profile has been opened specifically for anime charities. Organized to serve as a go between for conventions, the people behind the profile will help provide rare and autographed items to conventions around the country for their charity auctions. Very cool!

LAMES

Washable Pokemon Maxi Pad Takes Furry to a Whole NEW Level: And that level will be called ‘Oh my gods get that thing away from me!’ Exactly who are these pads being marketed towards? Are there women who would show this off to her girlfriends in a ‘guess what I have in my pants?’ sort of a way?

Shueisha Apologizes for Helium: Japanese publisher Shueisha posted a public apology for a scene in the manga series Sket Dance. In the scene, a group of the main characters are shown inhaling helium straight from the can. The publisher apologized for the scene and noted that people can suffocate from doing this too much. Seriously, if seeing this scene is enough to make someone suck in enough helium to suffocate maybe its just natural selection?

STUFF YOU DIDN’T KNOW YOU NEEDED UNTIL NOW

Dragonball Frying Pan: Alright, so Dragonball is an incredibly tired anime cliché. If you haven’t come to grips with that quite yet, I’m sorry to be the one to collapse your world. I’ll wait for you to recover… you good? Just because it’s a tired and overused cliché doesn’t mean that there aren’t still ways that you can make money off of it (a lesson that K-ON has taken to heart for the last six months or so) thus I present to you the Dragonball frying pan. It’s not going to create anything particularly amazing but you do get to have pancakes and other flat impressionable foods complete with stars or a Kame character! <Via Japanator>

Macross Frontier Meets Lucky Star: I’m not a huge fan of the Macross series or collecting figures. I AM a big fan of Lucky Star and I do have a brain that is capable of picking out an awesome crossover!

So, what were your highs and lames for the week?