If you’re dying to see what the Kill la Kill Nendoroids are going to look like, good news: pictures have popped up showing us some of the finer details for Ryuko’s Nendoroid, as well as prototype pictures of Mako.
You can see that Senketsu has an interchangeable eye – one that looks more awake – and that the scissor blade has some sort of attachment. Ryuko also has the blade case on her back, which is a nice accessory.
No word yet on whether Mako will come with brass knuckles and a three star uniform. A girl can dream.
Nagano-based home electronics company Izumi Products will release IZF-V315-E, the second electric shaver featuring its moe mascot character Izumi Matsumoto on March 10. She is 19 years old and 156 cm tall. Her hobby is cosplay, but dresses only in costumes resembling the company's electric shavers.
The biggest improvement from the first version MOFR-V50 released last year is that a color illustration of her is printed on the shaver itself. The first version had only a small logo of her face on the grip. The 500-limited second version comes with a display stand also featuring her illustration. The price has not been announced yet. Check the PVs and leaflet images for the moe shavers below.
Following Cure Peace (August 2013), Cure Happy (September 2013), Cure Beauty (January 2014), Cure March (scheduled for June 2014), Premium Bandai's Tamashii Web store has finally started accepting pre-orders for S.H. Figuarts Cure Sunny, the fifth and final entry from one of the most successful PreCure TV anime series Smile PreCure! which was aired from February 5, 2012 to January 27, 2013.
The 140mm tall S.H. Figuarts Cure Sunny which comes with Fairy Pop is scheduled to be released in September and the suggested retail price is 4,536 yen (about US$ 44.52). Now you can have the complete Smile PreCure! team in your room!
It was officially announced yesterday on February 27 that the first feature film based on Bandai's popular arcade collectible card game and TV anime series Aikatsu!, tentatively titled as Gekijyoban Aikatsu!/Aikatsu! The Movie, is set for December 2014 and its official site was also launched.
Aikatsu! was originally started as a trading card arcade game using Bandai's arcade machine Data Carddass in October 2012, and the TV anime series produced by Sunrise (Mobile Suit Gundam series, Cowboy Bebop) to promote the franchise started simultaneously on TV Tokyo and its affiliates. Since then, the series has been passionately supported by elementary school girls in Japan (and some older male fans called "Aikatsu Ojisan"). The number of total shipment of the cards will reach 100 million by the end of March.
According to Bandai's latest financial report released on February 4 (via: Inside), the year around sales
(April 2013 to March 2014) of the Aikatsu! franchise in Japan is expected to reach 14.1 billion yen (about
US$141,000,000), which was 6.3 times more than that of the previous year. Surprisingly, it surpasses the
sales of the Dragon Ball series (11.7 billion) and PreCure series (10.2 billion). Aikatsu! has become the 5th
top-selling brand of Bandai following Gundam, Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, and One Piece.
While Iron Man was previously featured as a super-deformed Nendoroid, the first Avenger to receive the Max Factory posable figma treatment is the mighty Thor! (Yeah, if you're a comic geek, Spider-Man is on the team and print, and he's already been a figma)
The God of Thunder is slated for release by Good Smile Company in July and is available for pre-order.
Wait until fall and you can pick up a figma Captain America to recreate scenes from the various Avengers yaoi doujinshi. (yes, they exist)
figma Thor
The first in The Avengers figma series - the mighty God of Thunder!
From the movie 'The Avengers' comes a figma of the most powerful fighter in Asgard - the Mighty Thor!
Using the smooth yet posable joints of figma, you can act out a variety of different scenes.
The utmost care has been given to the details of Thor's design and paintwork, ensuring a high quality figure fans will be proud to own.
Careful thought has gone into all points of articulation on the figma, preserving his heroic appearance while allowing for various poses from the movie!
A number of optional hand parts, as well as Thor's mighty hammer 'Mjolnir' are included.
An articulated figma stand is included, allowing various poses to be taken.
Product Details
Product Name
figma Thor (ふぃぐま そー)
Series
The Avengers
Manufacturer
Good Smile Company
Category
figma
Price
¥6,800
Release Date
2014/07
Specifications
Painted ABS&PVC non-scale articulated figure with stand included. Approximately 160mm in height
Sculptor
Max Factory - Masaki Apsy
Released by
Max Factory
Distributed by
Good Smile Company
Planning/Production Assistance
Max Factory
Release/Manufacturing/Distribution
Good Smile Company
figma Hazuki Mizuhara is also newly scheduled for June
figma Hazuki Mizuhara
The beautiful successor of the Mizuhara Dojo.
From the Nintendo 3DS game 'Toushin Toshi' comes a figma of the heroine, Hazuki Mizuhara!
Using the smooth yet posable joints of figma, you can act out a variety of different scenes.
A flexible plastic is used for important areas, allowing proportions to be kept without compromising posability.
She comes with both a smiling expression and a serious expression.
Her reliable sword and its scabbard are both included to help you recreate amazing scenes.
An articulated figma stand is included, allowing various poses to be taken.
Product Details
Product Name
figma Hazuki Mizuhara (ふぃぐま みずはらはづき)
Series
Toushin Toshi
Manufacturer
Max Factory
Category
figma
Price
¥4,000
Release Date
2014/06
Specifications
Painted ABS&PVC non-scale articulated figure with stand included. Approximately 140mm in height
Sculptor
Max Factory - Masaki Apsy
------- Scott Green is editor and reporter for anime and manga at geek entertainment site Ain't It Cool News. Follow him on Twitter at@aicnanime.
Burly and menacing, tanks are an enticing tool for turning the tide in any pitched military conflict. There's also an undeniable coolness to them. Why drive around trees, walls, and foes when you can crash straight through them unscathed, right? Raw power and heavy guns are the primal ingredients that drive World of Tanks, an online multiplayer shooter that reimagines what mid-20th-century warfare might be like if it were fought solely with rolling metal doom machines. But even if you're titillated by the brute force of hammering explosive shells into your adversaries until they erupt in flame, it's the thoughtful emphasis on strategy and the unpredictability of every encounter that keep matches interesting over the long haul.
World of Tanks' 15-on-15 matches get off to a zippy start, spurring your battalion to spread out quickly across the map to destroy all of your opponents or capture their base before they nab yours. A diverse range of terrain layouts in each battlefield create natural choke points that speed you along toward the opening volleys of cannon fire, and once things get crazy, it's rare that a match bumps up against the 15-minute time limit before one side is declared the victor. This streamlined pacing helps counteract the sluggish nature of the many tanks you'll command. Sure, you might move along at a slow pace, but you're never very far from the action, and that's a great thing.
World of Tanks isn't much of a looker, but that's OK: you're gonna blow everything up anyway.
Getting killed is serious business, however, since the annihilated tank is unavailable until the match is over. This prevents you from immediately using a tank that gets destroyed, which is a minor pain at times. The upside is that you're free to grab another available tank in your arsenal and dive into a different match in the meantime. It's a mechanic that gently pushed me to experiment with other tanks I was initially less interested in, broadening my armored horizons in the process.
The balance between simulation-level tank geekery and accessible arcade-style control is carefully tuned here. Each historical tank sports an authentic visual design, and everything from how tanks handle to the way taking damage impacts their performance is realistic enough to satisfy most serious enthusiasts. Get a tread blown off, and you're either hamstrung or immobilized, depending on the damage level. Take a direct hit from an armor-piercing round, and your gunner might get killed, leaving you prone and unable to fire. This unpredictability is refreshing and plays nicely into how tactics unfold. At the same time, it takes only a few minutes in the short tutorial to get a feel for maneuvering and firing. Swapping between a third-person view for short-range combat and a first-person, down-the-barrel perspective for long-range aiming is as speedy as it is seamless. With less to fiddle with on the control front, you have more room to focus and react when it counts.
See?
Rather than being a chaotic free-for-all, World of Tanks takes a more deliberate, strategy-minded approach that favors tactical prowess over outright brazenness. Barreling headlong into the middle of a firefight with your cannons thundering--even in a more heavily armored tank--is a quick way to end up a pile of smoldering scrap. Instead, thoughtful planning prevails more often than not. Using the terrain to your advantage, you can hide behind bushes for camouflage, use hills and buildings to hamper incoming artillery, and position your tank at an angle to spread out incoming fire and increase your chances of survival.
Stealth is another important element that can boost the fun. Keep from being spotted, and you can skirt around just outside of the action and flank your foes for an ambush or make a beeline for their base when the path is clear. It works both ways, though, and scouting ahead and spot-marking enemies for your group to swoop in on is equally important.
All of this emphasis on thinking on the fly over outright reliance on twitch reflexes makes for slower-paced gameplay, which might not suit some players. But the strategic flexibility and large-scale team collaborations keep matches from stagnating--even when you're playing the same cycle of maps over and over again. World of Tanks can get repetitious until you open up more tanks and more territories to fight on. Fresh maps pop up at a reasonable pace, with new areas unlocking as you work your way up in rank. That said, expect to see lots of the same terrain over and over again for spells.
Thankfully, your fellow squadmates and their behaviors also ensure that few matches ever play out the same way. Using a headset is the simplest way to work alongside your team efficiently, though basic communication presets also let you issue orders to your teammates. Whether they follow them is another story. But it's a handy system and, like most areas of World of Tanks, it's easy to use.
The balance between simulation-level tank geekery and accessible arcade-style control is carefully tuned here.
The sheer tank variety and absorbing progression system ultimately trump some of World of Tanks' minor grindy moments. Spread out across three different countries, each with its own branching trees of vehicles and upgrades to unlock, the breadth of rolling thunder available is staggering. There's a huge assortment of light, medium, and heavy tanks that are also bolstered by a mix of tank killers and vehicles specializing in long-range artillery. Each looks and handles quite differently, and you can use experience and cash earned from your performance in battles to upgrade their firepower, maneuverability, and other critical stats.
Unlocking all that World of Tanks has to offer is a slow but satisfying pursuit that helps to cement long-term interest in diving back into the fray. You start with a single tank from each country, and a limited number of bays to add new vehicles to your fleet. Aside from a few special tanks that cost a bit of real-world coin and pack a mighty powerful punch as a result, you can eventually access everything without spending a cent. If you do feel inclined to drop a little actual green to buy power-ups, tanks, and other perks, the good news is that a little money goes a fairly long way, provided you don't want to get immediate access to everything.
Ready... set... roll!
Match structuring and tank types help provide necessary balance, keeping things from devolving into a pay-to-win situation. Even among the higher tiers of tanks at your disposal, the strengths and weaknesses of each vehicle keep any single player from being too superpowered. The way matches are populated by a range of vehicles from different ranks within a range of similar tiers further keeps battles from being too one-sided. It's not so much the size of your tank, as it is how well you use it and how cohesive your team is.
World of Tanks has some room to grow until it mirrors the heavily updated PC version, but the smooth transition to the Xbox 360 is off to a great start, offering tons of tanks and a strong online player base to dive into. The strategic large-scale tank battles pair with a deep progression system to give everything a greater purpose and deliver a real winning combo.
A formidable brother of light, Gabriel Belmont, may hold the key to Earth's salvation. The spirit of his recently deceased wife, Marie, who fell at the hand of evil, idles in limbo. Neither dead nor alive, and painfully aware of the crisis at hand, Marie reaches out to Gabriel from beyond with the promise of a solution to right humanity's plight.
Gabriel heads for the Lake of Oblivion, where the living can communicate with the dead if deemed worthy by its guardian, Pan. There, Gabriel meets Zobek, a founding member of the Brotherhood of Light, before conferring with Marie's spirit. The Lords of Shadow, who possess immense power and a fragment of a life-giving artifact, the God Mask, must be defeated, not only to restore peace on Earth, but also to revive Marie.
Gabriel and Zobek set out on their own in search of the Lords of Shadow, and it isn't long before Gabriel finds himself in the land of lycans. He encounters Cornell, a powerful lycan lord, who bestows key info upon Gabriel: the three founders of the Brotherhood of Light, including Cornell's former self, are the reason the Lords of Shadow exist at all. When the good part of their spirits ascended to the heavens long ago, their dark remnants ultimately transformed into the Lords of Shadow. Despite the separation between good and evil, the death of a Lord of Shadow also applies to his counterpart in heaven. Undeterred, Gabriel slays Cornell and collects the first part of the God Mask. He then travels to the land of vampires, defeating the second dark lord, Carmilla, before heading to the land of the dead for the final showdown with the lord of the dead.
The lord of the dead commands three powerful necromancers, two of which are ultimately defeated by Gabriel before he confronts his third target. Gabriel prevails, and acquires the final piece of the God Mask, but something isn't right. He has not killed the true lord of the dead, but instead, he has killed the third necromancer in disguise. Zobek, it turns out, is the true lord of the dead. Long ago, he conferred with Satan, displeased with the fact that the power of darkness had to be shared among the other Lords of Shadow. Satan gave Zobek the Devil Mask and the power to sever the line between heaven and earth.
Zobek set that plan into motion and used the Devil Mask to manipulate Gabriel into murdering his own wife. Marie had discovered Zobek's true identity, and by getting Gabriel to kill Marie, Zobek secured his secret identity, while also motivating Gabriel to defeat the other lords while in search of the God Mask. Before Zobek gets the final say, Satan appears and wrenches the mask from Zobek. In a twist of fate, Satan reveals that he was only using Zobek to acquire the God Mask in hopes of usurping heaven's throne. With his new target in sight, Gabriel confronts Satan, and ultimately wins, regaining control of the God Mask and freeing the souls trapped in limbo, including Marie. Before she departs, she explains that the God Mask only allows the owner to see through the eyes of God; Gabriel can't use it to bring her back to life.
Lords of Shadow: Reverie and Resurrection Downloadable Content
After Marie passes on, Gabriel is contacted by Laura, a girl he met while in the land of vampires. She informs Gabriel that the Forgotten One, an ancient evil, has awoken during the turmoil between heaven and hell and is attempting to use the chaos to his advantage. To get to him, Gabriel must take on the darkness that fills Laura. In this moment, she offers him her blood, and he accepts it, taking on her immortality and starting down the path toward his current identity: Dracula.
Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate
The story fast-forwards generations. Simon, son of Trevor and grandson of Gabriel, is on Dracula's trail after the slaying of his mother. Along the way, Simon recovers his father's sacred weapon, the combat cross, which was lost during his own attempt to slay Dracula, years ago. Simon arrives at Dracula's throne, combat cross in hand, before the game takes a step back in time.
The next chapter opens on the vampire Alucard, rising from his tomb. Unsure of the events leading up to his new form, he looks into the mirror of fate. In it, he sees the one responsible for turning him into a vampire: Dracula. He travels to Dracula's castle and encounters Simon, never partnering with him, but twice saving him from sudden death nonetheless. Alucard eventually arrives at Dracula's throne just in time to interrupt Simon's arrival. Again, the game takes a step back, this time to Trevor Belmont, Simon's father.
Trevor, with a wife and a newborn Simon to protect from the forces of evil, sets out to destroy Dracula, knowing full well that he's also killing his father in the process. The two meet, and Trevor loses. Before he ultimately passes on, he tells Dracula, formerly his father, Gabriel, that he is his secret son. Marie had kept him a secret from Gabriel, having learned of his destiny to become the evil lord he is today. Hearing this, Dracula has a change of heart. Before Trevor's life fades, he attempts to turn him into a vampire. Having seemingly failed to do so, he buries Trevor.
Next, we see Dracula standing over his son's tomb. However, the grave marker doesn't read Trevor. Instead, it's marked for Alucard, the inverse of Dracula's own name. Having witnessed Alucard's rise from the grave earlier in the game, we know that Dracula was more successful than he realized.
The game returns to where it left Simon and his father, Alucard, standing before Dracula in his throne room. The two take on Dracula and defeat him (as much as you can defeat an immortal), but the lord escapes before his castle begins to collapse. Simon escapes to the mountains where he witnesses his family's unfortunate legacy crumble before his eyes. Alucard seeks out the remaining fragments of his former weapon, the combat cross, and escapes with it before the ruined castle overcomes him.
Thus ends our guide to the history of Dracula, Alucard, and the Belmont family, leading up to the events in Lords of Shadow 2. There are a lot of revelations to keep track of, and this trend continues through to the end of the saga's third and final chapter.
What will ultimately become of the two immortal Belmonts? Don't ask. I don't want to spoil it!
Nijigencospa, the bishoujo label of character goods maker Cospa, has revealed the Non Non Biyori items that they will be offering for pre-sale at next month's AnimeJapan trade show. A Renge "Nyanpasu fan"is cute, but not thing that will prompt a second look. The Hotaru hug pillow on the other hand is apt to be a bit controversial.
The former sells for 1944yen and the latter for.9720yen Limited amounts of these items are being made, and they're set to ship in May.
A special Madoka x Homura big towel (140 × 80cm) is also being offered is also being offered for 5184yen
------- Scott Green is editor and reporter for anime and manga at geek entertainment site Ain't It Cool News. Follow him on Twitter at@aicnanime.
Alt-audience anime programming block Noitamina is living up to its raison d'être this spring with a Tatsunoko produced adaptation of Taiyo Matsumoto's Ping Pong. The latest on this anything but typical anime production is that newcomer Fukujūrō Katayama has been cast by audition to join Kouki Uchiyama (Hunter x Hunter's Meruem, Blast of Tempest's Yoshino Takigawa, Soul Eater's Soul) as the leads in the series.
Acclaimed animator/director Masaaki Yuasa (Kick-Heart, Tatami Galaxy) will be returning to TV for this adaptation of Taiyo Matsumoto's (TekkonKinkreet) Ping Pong. The 1996, five-volume Big Comic Spirits manga follows long time friends and ping pong players, cold Smile and flamboyant Peko.
The new commercial focuses on the former...
Principal cast includes...
Yutaka Hoshino (Peco) - Fukujūrō Katayama
Makoto Tsukimoto (Smile) - Kouki Uchiyama
Ryūichi Kazama (Dragon) - Shunsuke Sakuya
Manabu Sakuma (Akuma) - Subaru Kimura
Kong Wenge (China) - Yousei Bun
Obaba - Masako Nozawa Jō Koizumi - Yūsaku Yara
Staff:
Original: Taiyo Matsumoto (originally published in Shogakukan's Big Comic Spirits) Director: Masaaki Yuasa Character Designer: Nobutake Ito Music: Kensuke Ushio Color esign: Kunio Tsujida Art Director: Kevin Aymeric Director of Photography: Shunsuke Nakamura Editing: Kashiko Kimura Sound Director: Eriko Kimura Production: Tatsunoko
It was previously adapted into 2002 live action movie by Fumihiko Sori (Vexille, To, Dragon Age). The film, nominated for eight Japanese Academy Awards, was released in North America by Viz.
