In today’s update: Single man animation tour de force Yonna in the Solitary Fortress is introduced to the world, Air TV on blu-ray, Ar Tonelico vocal albums on sale, Puyo Puyo 15th anniversary, an official site launch for Leaf’s Fullani, a major Tsuma to Mama to Boin update, more Type Moon mania, a bizzaro eroge recap, several Wonder Festival scoops, Yujin’s SRDX Kotona in color, a Sela-chan review preview, and a whole lot more.
Media Side
- The official site is now open for Yonna in the Solitary Fortress (Hanare Toride no Yona), a short film animated singlehandedly by Kengo Takeuchi and produced by CoMix Wave, the same unit that backs the works of Makoto Shinkai. The film is now complete and will be seeing a limited theatrical release beginning on April 8th; hopefully a trailer will be online soon as well, this looks pretty sweet.
- An official site is online today for the March 23rd release of Media Works’ Shakugan no Shana PS2 game. In other all-ages AVG news, Kid has sample CG up for Memories Off ~Sorekara Again~, also a March 23rd release, and Separate Hearts, out a month earlier on February 23rd. Finally: Underbar Summer Double Sharp will be coming this summer from Hook. [official site]
- The extended winter ’06 anime season continues its show launches with the recent first episodes of Binchou-tan and REC, as well as tomorrow morning’s (February 5th) launch of Futari wa Precure Splash Star. Still waiting for the Ergo Proxy pilot…
- The afficionados over at Anime on DVD have no doubt scooped this months ago (edit: yesterday), but it was recently announced that Air TV will be among the first (if not THE first) anime series to be released on blu-ray DVD. The revolution has to start somewhere, I guess.
- Weekly Web Radio Roundup
- Tactical Roar (I spy Nakahara Mai!)
- Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuu-utsu (coming next week)
- Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl
- Ar Tonelico‘s twin Vocal OSTs went on sale in Akihabara yesterday, with sample tracks available here; thanks to VanRaily for initially alerting me to this item. Listening to the Blue side samples gave me the shivers… truly cinematic stuff.
- A few more shots of the upcoming Kyou no 5 no 2 OVA are available here, courtesy of Comptiq.
- This week’s Famitsu reports on the April 27th release of Eva 2 for the PSP.
- In commemoration of the 15th anniversary of Puyo Puyo Fever, Sega is giving away 240 Puyo pillow sets to randomly selected participants of this survey.
- If you wear this jacket, you will be moe. Or Akiba-kei. If you wear it while reading this book, you will be a piece of social commentary.
Ero Side
- An official site is online today for Leaf’s next eroge production, Fullani. As the name implies it will be fully animated, though the genre is described as “animation + mahjong”; stay tuned for more information as it is made available. Will this become the next To Heart 2, or another high-budget but relatively minor work like last year’s Tears to Tiara?
- G.J? pulls out the stops in today’s Tsuma to Mama to Boin update, favoring us with a new splash image, a game introduction, a system introduction, a motherload (literally) of new sample CG, a blog update, and the announcement of the game’s release on April 28th. Waiting is hard to do, but today’s batch of CG should sate the Sano Toshihide craving for awhile at least…
- Akiba-k.com updates their feature page for Fulltime’s Eroi today with a set of animation clips from the game. [official site]
- Ero ero pillow alert! Windmill’s Happiness! is the source, and it’s slated for a late March release. Those who prefer their pillows in a more Zoidian flavor will be able to acquire this Le Mie x Kotona one from Broccoli in April.
- What with the Fate anime on air, Hollow Ataraxia fallout still drifting down through the doujin stratosphere and the recent announcements of Fate on DVD and for the PS2, there’s rarely been a day in the past few months that Type Moon hasn’t made some kind of news. Today is no exception, as Toranoana announces the January 29th release of a Type Moon anthology comic entitled A-ZONE he Youkoso, and Hobby Channel has postrecording interviews of the Fate anime cast online. At this rate I wouldn’t be surprised to see a full English translation and international release of one of their titles; perhaps the all-ages PS2 version of Fate. AVGs will probably never achieve significant popularity outside of Japan, but Type Moon has done the impossible before…
- While most eroge these days are aiming straight for the moe strikezone, once or twice a year a title is released that seems so utterly bizarre it’s difficult to place its target audience anywhere beyond the fevered imagination of the game’s creator. 2005 brought us Erobomb and Daibu Bokan (the official site for the latter has since disappeared, confirming suspicions of a flop). Just when it seemed 2006 would herald in an age of (relatively) sober and sensible erotica, FlyingShine returns us to bizarro world with their upcoming release of Omana 2 [sample CG]. Something tells me Coca-Cola won’t be happy with this particular product placement…
- New Site Launches / Release Announcements
- Light’s Runasora (scroll down for sample CG)
- Elf’s Elf All-Stars Datsui-Jan (strip mahjong) 3 (copy-paste the link)
- Atelier Kaguya’s Hitozuma Cosplay Kissa 2
- We’ve Got Movie Sign!!
- Giga’s Angel Breath
- Unisonshift / Blossom’s Nanatsuiro Drops
- Groover’s Kanenone Dynatic
- Gash’s Space Trouble
- 13cm’s Neko Kawaigari!
- Silver Bullet’s Setsuei
- Demo Downloads
- Pulltop’s Princess Waltz
- Ja no Michi wa Hebi’s Kougeki Shoujo Falselion
- Dreamsoft’s Ether no Sunadokei
- Sample CG
- Giga’s Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku wo
- Pulltop’s Princess Waltz
- Silver Bullet’s Setsuei
- Q-X’s Hime-sama Ririshiku!
- Lyric’s Lebensende
- Purple Software’s Aruto
- P-factory’s Ano Machi no Koi no Shi
- Arkshell’s Maebari Teikoku no Gyakushuu
- SpiritSpeak’s CC Hospital
- Ninetail’s Kikaijikake no Eve
- Bluege Hybrid’s Onesuku! [official site]
- Wallpapers
- Nippon Ichi’s Disgaea 2 (not ero)
- Dreamsoft’s February wallpaper
- Circus’s AR ~Wasurerareta Natsu~
- Psycho’s Shimai Donburi
- BaseSon’s Harukoi Otome
- Orbit’s Quilt
- Strikes’ Injoku Hitozuma Onna Kyoushi
- Tactical Roar’s Biglobe wallpapers (not ero)
Hobby Side
- The few. The proud. The top image and Wonder Festival Pinky St. kit updates.
- Wanfesu Corner
- Akiba Blog scoops Goodsmile’s Wonder Festival release-scheduled Saber trading figure repaints from Fate; quite possibly worth the 1,500 yen they’ll be going for at the event.
- Kotobukiya chimes in as well with a selection of Hollow Ataraxia limited edition event-only resin kits. A bit lower angle on the Saber, please…
- Konami posts with a long list of what they’ll have on display at the event, with two items on sale: a set of Ichigo Mashimaro trading figures, and something else listed only as a “long-awaited new item”.
- Toys Planning has their list of event specials online; just a few rereleases and minor repaints.
- Happinet Robin will be releasing this Comet-san resin kit at the event. It’s from… uh, Comet-san.
- Solid Theater updates their official site today with the scoop of this [ERO] Hiiragi Hinata PVC from Hinatabokko, with the release date as-yet undecided. They also have samples of their two upcoming Aki-iro Renka PVC kits online, Niiyama Aoi and Mayu Tokura, both set for a May release.
- Coming in May from Yujin’s SRDX PVC lineup are Chie Rumiko from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, and Kotona Elegance from Zoids Genesis. I have the feeling the latter item will wind up on quite a few wish lists.
- Amiami brings us a full gallery introduction to Max Factory’s Amaenaideyo! onsen trading figure set, and with typical Max quality it definitely makes lemonade out of the lemon that was the show. Amiami also has a gallery online featuring Toysworks upcoming Zeolla PVC from Super Robot Wars, certainly the most tempting of the series thus far.
- Get your Atelier-Sai FMP Chidori PVC in normal or one of two bizarro flavors!
- Griffon’s Kanu Unchou battle pose cold cast from Ikkitousen is a possible Wonder Festival release, slated to be out at the end of February.
- Coming in May from Piccolo is this Black Cat trading figure set, and a PVC figure of Black Cat’s Eve.
- Now On Sale
- Azon’s Sherrice Adjani poseable doll from Scryed [Akibajin Scoop]
- Kaiyodo’s Bome Collection Carmine PVC from Magical Canan [Akiba Blog scoop] [Akibajin scoop]
Sela-chan was delivered yesterday as expected, and Akibajin has a review online. The HD review should be up later today; for now, here’s a preview:
Look for NHK and Genshiken chapter reviews up later today as well, if I can get my act together.
“G.J? pulls out the stops in today’s Tsuma to Mama to Boin update, favoring us with a new splash image, a game introduction, a system introduction, a motherload (literally) of new sample CG, a blog update, and the announcement of the game’s release on April 28th.”
>> Hey, that’s my birthday…
nice, Sela is a cute figure
WOOO!!! Kotona!
Goodness gracious, I hate Kotobukiya even more for keeping Sela-chan so far out of reach for the rest of us. You lucky dog, Shingo.
Binchoutan is industrial grade cuteness…. I want a binchoutan to cook my rice now. XD
An old (Sep 2004 is when I found it) trailer for “Yonna” can be found here:
http://www.mangazoo.jp/mztv/cwfilms/003_yonna/index.html
>>Agent Wax
Sounds like a good self-inflicted present to me…
>>LiK
Agreed. It’s a damn shame Kotobukiya kept her to a limited release.
>>bakaboobie
Thought you would appreciate that particular item. :)
>>Kyouji
:( They’re being particularly asnine about this; it doesn’t stand to reason unless you consider that they’re one of the few retailers in Akihabara that actually sells figures at straight MSRP, almost everyone else discounts around 10-20% from the sticker price. I see a lot of people browsing in the official Kotobukiya shop, but not many buying; creating monopolies like this is a good way for a quick cash injection (albeit at the expense of the fans’ good will).
>>Lk_LoA
I haven’t caught the first episode yet, I should really get on that. I’m afraid she might be a bit too SD for me, though.
>>dbm
Thanks! I seem to recall hearing the project mentioned before, but don’t not a trailer… looks pretty nice. I hope we get something a bit less teaserish soon.
Shingo-
After an inexplicably long delay, my Hymmnos Blue disc finally arrived in the mail yesterday. But boy, was it worth the wait.
If you’re looking for the music featured in that trailer video, this is where to find it. It has at least two of the three tracks featured (I don’t remember what the third track was), including that epic choral piece used in the first half.
And EXEC_PAJA rocks, plain and simple. With layered vocals, electric guitars, and a driving force that never lets up, it verges on chaotic, but it’s incredibly (and awesomely) intense. It’s hard for me to imagine better battle music. It’s also hard for me to get any work accomplished while listening to it.
While Akiko Shikata does the majority of the vocal tracks (and demonstrates a remarkable vocal range in the process), two of them are done by Yuko Ishibashi. Her songs are a bit more tame than Shikata’s, giving a nice change of pace. They perhaps aren’t quite as enganging, but she does have a nice voice.
The closing instrumental track also bears mention. It’s a flute(?)-driven piece that’s a bit happier and lively than the rest of the album, but it provides a rather nice closing touch. Stylistically, it’s somewhat reminiscent of Yasunori Mitsuda.
In fact, my only real complaint about the album is that the vocals often drown out the instrumentation. Yes, this is a vocal album, but I do like to hear good music backing the vocals. A good example of this is PAJA, which has what sounds to be some killer bass work going on in the background toward the end. Shikata sings so loud, though, that I can’t quite tell.
Overall, if you’re still considering getting any of the Tonelico albums, I’d recommend this one over the OST–the OST is good, but this is better. Of course, I’m also extremely and unashamedly biased toward PAJA.
On the other hand, the OST is a lot longer. Its two ~70 min. discs have a lot more music as compared to the mere 42 min. for this disc. So, I guess it’s the old “quantity vs. quality” issue. In my case, I’d go for the quality.
–
As a side note, you’ll notice that I didn’t get the Red Hymmnos disc. Like I said before, the samples didn’t interest me enough to buy it. However, I did find a place to download it, so I thought I’d check it out and see whether my mind changed. It hasn’t.
I suppose part of the reason is that I’m not much of a fan of Haruka Shimotsuki (is it just me, or has she been everywhere lately?); her voice just isn’t to my taste. That aside, the tracks on this disc just aren’t as interesting or epic as the ones on the Blue disc–they don’t grab you and “give you the shivers”. Furthermore, a lot of the songs tend to sound the same. If you only get one of the Hymmnos discs, favor the Blue one of this one. The Blue disc has all the good tracks anyway.
Well, that was a big post. I’m finished now.
Woah, that’s a hardcore review. Awesome. I’m inclined to agree that the blue album is far more engaging, at least from the samples, and following your description here I’m looking forward to hearing the whole thing quite a bit. When I close my eyes and try to imagine visuals that would go with the music I see something far more epic and cinematic than the game’s battle graphics, which is unfortunate, but the fact that this caliber of music is produced for games at all is a real wake-up call. I barely know what I’m missing without a console.
I definitely intend to pick up the Blue disc as soon as I can… probably won’t be for another week or so, though. I’ll keep the clips on loop until then.
Thanks again for the kickass review, I think I’ll link it in the next Mainichi update as it’s rather invisible down here in the comments and should really be read by others beyond myself.
Well, I’m honored.
You’ll have to let me know what you think of it when you finally do get it.