Posts Tagged ‘unlimited blade works’

So at the time of writing, we are now almost an entire month into 2010. Things have been getting off a slow start so far with a not entirely exciting winter season. But there are still eleven months to go with a lot of unseen things waiting to happen. But while we’re waiting for the unknown to happen, there are a ton of things that we can already start getting excited about. With that in mind, here are some of my big reasons why 2010 isn’t going to suck:

Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works (Premiered 1/23): Fate/Stay Night is back! Reviving the popular franchise that started with a Type/Moon eroge in 2004, the new movie travels down the Unlimited Blade Works story arc which is much more focused on Rin Tohsaka and her servant Archer. The early trailers have looked amazing and moved it into my ‘must see’ category. So if anyone wants to license this one, I’m going on record as saying I’ll buy.

Katanagatari (Premieres 1/25): Another series based off novels from NisiOisin (original creator of Bakemonogatari), the first one hour episode premieres at the end of January. Told in twelve monthly episodes, early trailers have created a lot of buzz thanks, in part at least, to a unique art style from White Fox. Anticipation for this one is high so maybe it will even give fans a distraction which will give Shaft a little bit of breathing space from everyone who is still waiting for the last two episodes of Bakemonogatari. And speaking of the last two episodes…

Bakemonogatari Concludes (Available 3/24):  It’s in 2010 that fans will finally get to see the final two episodes on DVD. Though incomplete at the time of its TV airing, fans happily consumed the story and started to grow antsy when it was drawing close to the end of the broadcast. But then from the darkness, Shaft began waving a beacon of hope and spoke loudly ‘never fear,’ (not a direct quote) ‘for we hear your pleas for more and always intended to make more so enjoy the last three episodes streaming.’ And then the first streaming episode premiered and there was much rejoicing… until we realized that the last two episodes were not coming. Despite breaking their promise to get them up on the site, listings for the sixth DVD volume are billed as including the fabled episodes 14 and 15 meaning fans can finally see how the series ends.

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (Premieres 2/6): Last year, Kyoto Animation and Kadokawa had a field day with fans. A little information leak here, an exasperating story arc there, a sprinkle of animation delays early in the year and voila, fans who are annoyed beyond belief and yet still come back for more. Perhaps it’s a reward for sticking it out through 2009 but finally fans are getting to line up around the block for a brand new, two and a half hour Haruhi Suzumiya movie.

Soul Eater US Release (Part 1 Available 2/9, Part 2 Available 3/30): The popular shonen series will finally hit the US starting in February! Originally produced by Bones in 2008, I still remember friends at my old anime club pulling me aside to tell me about this ‘awesome new series’. Filled with unique art and enough laughs along the way to keep things interesting Soul Eater has the potential to reach out to a lot of new fans this year (which means I should start preparing for lots of Maka and Soul cosplay this summer).

New Adult Swim Anime: Early in the year Adult Swim announced on air that they had lost a couple of their current anime licenses but had hopefully acquired three more with the first of which premiering on February 14^th. I’ve made my predictions known but even if I’m drastically wrong, three new series on Adult Swim is sweet!

K-ON Season 2: Alright, so a certain percentage of you are nodding your head vigorously in agreement right now. Another percentage of you are rolling your eyes and/or contemplating writing off this entire list right now. Either way, there’s a good chance that if you’re an anime fan on the internet you’ve at least been introduced to this title just enough to have an opinion on it. The wildly popular moe bait series will be returning for a second season this year leaving legions of Mio fans waiting patiently to see their goddess once again. A summer premiere would be awesome for this series though a summer license announcement would be even better.

ShoDojo.com: Since July of last year, Funimation has been teasing a new project called Shodojo. Supposedly mixing the best features of your favorite social networking sites and the video player already in place, the site is meant to help anime fans from all over the country connect and bond over their favorite anime. Details on features and how it’s going to work are being kept under some pretty tight wraps but hopefully we’ll get to see the fruits of their labor before the end of the year.

PenisCam Technology: Last year, eroge studio Teatime announced that they would be taking facial recognition technology to the next level. In their upcoming game, Love Death 4, players will be able to use their webcams to show their stuff to the heroines. The penis tracking software will recognize the shape of your knob and the girls will reportedly act accordingly. Though ‘accordingly’ could mean anything from being amazed to yelling ‘pervert!’ and running away.

Black Rock Shooter (Premieres April 2010): Despite using one of the virtual idol’s songs and announcing the series at one of her concerts, the spring series has nothing to do with the Miku Hatsune vocaloid character. Other than that, there’s not much known about the story right now but the first trailer has some very intriguing artwork. The series is being put together by Yutaka Yamamoto (of Lucky Star and Kannagi fame) and his studio, Ordet along with Shinobu Yoshioka and the song’s original creators, huke and ryo.

NYAF/NYCC (10/8 – 10/10): Taking on a slightly different form, this will be the first time New York Anime Festival has taken place in October and the first time that the con will be sharing the Javitz Center with New York Comic Con. Quickly becoming one of the hottest east coast conventions to find out what’s happening over the winter (it was the third largest last year with over 21,000 paid attendees) NYAF shows no signs of slowing down for 2010. This, along with AX over the summer, will be one of the conventions that I hope to attend the most.

Angel Beats (Premieres April 2010): If you’re into moe than you’re likely familiar with the name Visual Arts/Key (Air, Kanon, Clannad). This spring, the studio returns with another series titled Angel Beats. In this world, angels have rebelled against god and are fighting to shape their own fate after death. Usually responsible for the beautiful music and theme songs attached to Key productions, Jun Medea is getting his first shot at planning and composing a series here.

King of Thorn (Premieres May 2010): Based off the sci-fi horror manga, a group put in a cryogenic sleep must survive after waking up in a world overrun by monsters. For the last year, the movie has been playing at film festivals around the world and finally will see its theater premiere later this year. I’m hoping that since the movie has gotten so much publicity outside Japan that fans will get to see a US release date announced soon after.

Real Kanojo: To this day, one of the most consistently viewed articles on this site is the initial report I did on this particular upcoming release from eroge studio, Illusion. Taking mankind one step closer towards that elusive goal of a genuine virtual girlfriend, Illusion has begun work on Real Kanojo. Featuring three different girls, realistic 3D CG animation and 3D glasses (really? All that technology and you’re going to include some cardboard 3D glasses?) the early artwork looks to set a pretty high bar for the final product to match. Unfortunately the technical specs are steep (the site recommends a Core i7 and 8GB+ of virtual memory) so I think it’ll be awhile before I pick this one up. Besides, it doesn’t even have penis tracking technology!

*For anime fans. The rest of you are on your own.

<Images ©Studio Deen, Bones, Illusion. Black Rock Shooter image via Pixiv>

Rin reporting to kick someone’s ass!

It’s when I get to come home to things like this that make other days worthwhile. New trailer today… have you already guessed what it is? I tried to be subtle with any hints you may have picked up along the way. But yes, it is the first 50 second trailer for the new Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works movie has been posted to the official website. Premiering January 23^rd, the 90 minute movie follows an alternate path from the original visual novel.

Alright, has everyone had a chance to savor the newness? It looks as though all the favorites from the original are returning. The only one really missing was Berserker but a small Iliya insert implies that he’s somewhere in the background. I’m more curious to see Emiya and Archer finally have a go at it. Though is it just me or does the animation look almost exactly like the television series? Hopefully that’s just because I’m not viewing it on a particularly nice monitor but still, I just kind of expected flashier or at least very well polished. Maybe I’m just seeing things. Still excited to see it either way.

<Via Gigazine, Image ©Rona>

Perhaps I need to schedule a Rin week for January?

 

Seriously, I could go on a fanboy Rant of Joy here. So, by now I think everyone is at least vaguely aware of the new Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works movie premiering on January 23^rd. The 90 minute movie will be released to theaters and obviously will be following the Unlimited Blade Works path from the original eroge. That has been enough for me to be very giddy about January arriving but then Type-Moon had to go and steal my heart all over again.

A day before the movie is released to theaters (January 22^nd), Type-Moon will be releasing a special two volume Fate/Stay Night TV Reproduction I and II on DVD and Blu ray. Each set lasts for 60 minutes and completely retells the story path followed in the TV anime. Obviously this means that the entire 24 episode series is getting reedited and in some cases reshot to tell the story in 120 minutes.

For those of us who loved the music from the series (I absolutely did by the way), the announcement stated that Sachi Tainaka will be re-recording her single disillusion for the OP and sing a new song with Jukai (who performed the first two TV ED themes) for the ED theme. The new singles will, not so coincidentally, hit store shelves on January 20^th along with the Unlimited Blade Works theme also being performed by Tainaka (The new OP and movie theme are already available for pre-order from CD Japan). Not everyone loved Fate/Stay Night but it’s hard to argue that the score composed by Kawai Kenji is wonderful and the theme songs were just icing on the musical cake.

Funimation currently holds the distribution license for the TV series after rescuing it from Geneon. Hm, do you think that if enough of us ask for it as our (insert winter gift giving holiday of choice here) gifts Funimation will get us some new Fate/Stay Night licenses? We promise to be good next year and always clear our plates of sushi!

Either way, this is cause for celebration so here’s the Fate/Stay Night TV OP animation featuring disillusion sung by Sachi Tainaka.

 

<Via ANN>