Dissidia Arcade shows off new characters Bartz and Squall

Square Enix confirmed Final Fantasy VIII protagonist Squall Leonhart and Final Fantasy V protagonist Bartz Klauser as playable characters in the upcoming arcade version of Dissidia Final Fantasy during a live stream this morning.  In-development versions of the characters were shown.

Dissidia Final Fantasy is due out in Japanese arcades this fall.  Watch the full stream below.

Bartz’ footage begins at 46:35, and Squall’s begins at 52:20.

Predator: Dark Ages short film released!

About a month ago I posted about an intriguing fan film in the Predator universe.  The trailer looked intriguing and now we have the entire short film on youtube!!!

From the film's youtube channel:

Set during the Crusades, the faith & fighting skills of a group of Templar Knights is put to the test when they encounter the Predator. Their battle is the thing Myths and Legends are born from.

Starring Adrian Bouchet, Amed Hashimi, Sabine Crossen, Ben loyd-Holmes, Jon Campling, Joe Egan and Philip Lane.

Written and directed by James Bushe.
http://www.jamesbushe.co.uk/

Director of Photography - Simon Rowling. http://www.srcinematography.co.uk/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PredDarkAges
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Predator_DA
@Predator_DA

A huge thank you to all our kickstarter contributors and everyone that has supported our film. We couldn't of done it with out you and hope you enjoy!

This is an independent, non-profit, artistic expression created purely as a fan film, for fans, by fans! It is in no way connected to, or endorsed by 20th Century Fox, nor is it intended to undermine or compete with any existing or forthcoming material.

Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' Theater Run Announced, Teaser Trailer Released

FUNimation has announced that it's limited theatrical run for the latest Dragon Ball Z movie, 'Resurrection 'F'', will begin on August 4^th hand last through the 12^th. No theater locations or times have been announced at this time however, but we can probably expect to see them soon.

In addition to this announcement, a teaser trailer for the film's English version was released.

I, as well as fellow writer Alc, missed out on going to see the previous film in theaters here, but hopefully with this film getting a slightly longer run than Battle of Gods did, we'll be able to go see this one!

Persona 4: The Golden Licensed by Aniplex USA

Aniplex USA has announced that they will be releasing the anime adaptation of Persona 4: The Golden as two 6-episode Blu-ray volumes in sub only format, with the first set to come out on July 21^st. The volumes will also come with an original soundtrack CD, deluxe booklets, and a postcard set.

Sentai released the first Persona 4 anime, and for a variety of reasons, I really wish they had gotten this one as well. Sentai was able to get us a dub that got most of the original game cast back (and even some of the replacements soon became the new official cast members, and thus probably weren't their fault), and their sets, while pricey, weren't anywhere near the kind of pricing we can definitely expect to see from Aniplex, who excel at price gouging to an ungodly degree. Needless to say, this is far from stellar news from where I sit.

'The Boy and the Beast' Licensed by FUNimation

Coming as a surprise to probably no one, FUNimation has announced it's acquisition of Mamoru Hosoda's latest film, 'The Boy and the Beast'. The film is set to open on July 11 in Japan, with international theaters getting a limited release later this year and more to come in early 2016.

FUNimation has also previously released Hosoda's films 'Summer Wars' and 'Wolf Children', and seems likely to be the go to company for all of his work moving on. This is purely speculation, but it's also likely that Mike McFarland will be the director for this film's English dub, as he was for the previous two films.

Fairy Tail's Second Film Announced

Weekly Shonen Magazine in Japan has announced that a second film for Fairy Tail has been greenlit. No other information is available at this time, but as with most things, additional news is expected to leak out in earnest in the coming weeks.

Fairy Tail's first film was released in 2012, and while I haven't seen it yet (or any of the anime, despite owning a chunk of it), I am a huge fan of the manga, so I hope this movie turns out to be a good one.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure To Be Dubbed

Despite earlier information hinting that the release of Season One of 'JoJo's Bizarre Adventure' would be sub-only, the listing has been updated via RightStuf to include a dub! This is very exciting news as this series is definitely one that could get some attention from outside the anime bubble, so this is a great additional way for it to do that, as well as maybe even ending up on Toonami in the future.

'The Muppets' Official Trailer Released

An official trailer for the newest incarnation of the Muppets was released online a little over a week ago!

The show is set to air this fall, and while the mockumentary/interview cutaway gag style still seems a little iffy in theory to me, I have to admit – this trailer gives me a lot of hope that this is going to be the kind of show Muppet fans are really going to enjoy.

Mushishi: The Next Chapter film previewed in teaser

The Mainichi Shimbun paper's MAiDiGi service began streaming the teaser trailer for the Mushishi Zoku Shou:  Suzu no Shizuku film on Thursday. The same teaser trailer debuted on the anime's official website in April.

Patlabor - Running Up That Hill AMV

AMV link:  here
AMV creator:  Shae Studios YouTube Channel
Series:  Patlabor The Movie 1/2
Song:  Running Up That Hill by Placebo

Many people know the Patlabor series through the OVA and Television Series which took an oftentimes lighthearted comedic approach with occasional series story threads.  Others however, like myself, were introduced to the series through the films which are much more serious in nature (both are good however, but it can be jarring going from the films to the series if you don't know what to expect).  Patlabor has a few AMVs but not as many as the franchise deserves.

Sentai Filmworks Licenses My Love Story!! Shojo anime

North American anime licensing company Sentai Filmworks announced on Thursday that it acquired the ongoing My Love Story!! (Ore Monogatari!!) television anime series. It plans to release the anime "soon" through select digital outlets, with a home video release to follow.


Viz Media is publishing Kazune Kawahara and Aruko's original shojo romantic comedy manga in North America, and the publisher describes the story:

Takeo Gōda is a giant guy with a giant heart. Too bad the girls don't want him! (They want his good-looking best friend, Sunakawa.) Used to being on the sidelines, Takeo simply stands tall and accepts his fate. But one day when he saves a girl named Yamato from a harasser on the train, his (love!) life suddenly takes an incredible turn!

The anime's main cast includes:

• Takuya Eguchi as Takeo Gōda
• Megumi Han as Rinko Yamato
• Nobunaga Shimazaki as Makoto Sunakawa

 
Morio Asaka (Chihayafuru, Aoi Bungaku Series' No Longer Human, NANA, Card Captor Sakura) is directing the anime at the studio MADHOUSE (Parasyte, Hunter x Hunter, Summer Wars, Paprika).  Natsuko Takahashi (Brothers Conflict, Nobunaga Concerto, Akatsuki no Yona, Yokai Watch) is in charge of the series scripts, and Kunihiko Hamada (Chihayafuru, NANA, Monster, Summer Wars) is designing the characters.

Crunchyrollhas been streaming the anime since it premiered in Japan in April.

I've been a fan of the series ever since the first volume of the manga was released stateside so I'm very eager to see how it translates to an anime format.  I already know Episode 4 is a chapter from later on (Chapter 6 or 7 if I'm remembering correctly) but it's placement as Episode 4 doesn't hinder things in the slightest as far as character development goes.

Sentai's dubs however are very hit-and-miss with me so while I would have preferred FUNimation to acquire the rights to the series I'm just happy someone stateside has the anime for us fans to purchase!

Digimon Adventure Tri Website Lists Daisuke Motomiya

'This world has chosen the reality and the future which shouldn't have been chosen.' This line from the recently released Digimon Adventure Tri trailer has already lead to much speculation from fans that the film series might be retconning Digimon Adventure 02 – the immediate sequel to the original anime and often considered the black sheep of the franchise. This theory might already have been derailed however, as some poking around on the official Japanese website apparently can lead one to finding the name 'Daisuke' in it's coding. Daisuke – or as he was known outside of Japan, Davis – was the lead character of Digimon Adventure 02.

This obviously doesn't confirm anything 100% however. There's a chance this could amount to nothing, however, it's also possible it could amount to the character (and perhaps others from 02) being used in entirely different ways and still retcons 02 in some form or fashion. We'll keep you posted as more news becomes available!

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure 'Season 1' DVD Listing Unveiled

An Amazon listing has gone up for 'Season 1' of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, listing it for a July 28^th release, from Warner Home Video. ANN has confirmed through Viz Media – who are the master merchandise license-holder for the franchise – that they are not involved in this release, though they are releasing the original manga.

Not much else is known about this release as of now. 'Season 1' might not even mean the original anime series adapting Parts 1 and 2 of the manga, as a 'test dub' of a few 'Season 2' episodes which adapts Part 3 of the manga was released online last year. Hopefully this is a release of the first anime however, before they can move on to the later material at a later date.

Viz Licenses First Three Naruto Epilogue Novels

Coming as somewhat of a surprise, Viz Media has announced that they will be releasing the first three Naruto 'epilogue' novels in English starting this year. The epilogue novels tell character-specific stories that will help bridge the gap between the final two chapters of the manga, much as last year's film 'The Last' did.

The first three, of six total, novels that we're confirmed to get are 'Kakashi's Story', 'Shikamaru's Story', and 'Sakura's Story', and are planned to be released in November, February 2016, and May 2016 respectively. The following three books, which are entitled 'Konoha Hiden', 'Gaara Hiden', and 'Akatsuki Hiden' in Japan, are due to come out in May, June, and July of this year respectively, and will hopefully be licensed at a later date.

Viz also announced licensing the 'Uzumaki Naruto: Illustrations' book that will be released in November, as well as giving the 72^nd (and final) manga volume a February 4^th release date.

Digimon Adventure Tri Update News: Trailer, Movie, and Cast Announcement

News on the upcoming 'Digimon Adventure Tri' series has been coming out at a somewhat steady, somewhat slow, pace ever since it was first announced, but at the end of a recent streaming of the original series, Toei dropped some pretty big bombshells about it, as well as giving us a teaser trailer.

Digimon Adventure Tri, which was originally announced as a TV series, is now apparently a six-part film series instead, the first of which is titled 'Saikai' (or 'Reunion') and is due out on November 21^st. The series has also reunited the cast of the Digimon partners from the original series, but the DigiDestined/Chosen Children themselves have all been recast.

Taichi Yagami – Natsuki Hanae

Yamato Ishida – Yoshimasa Hosoya

Sora Takenouchi – Suzuko Mimori

Koushiro Izumi – Mutsumi Tamura

Mimi Tachikawa - Hitomi Yoshida

Jou Kido – Junya Ikeda

Takeru Takaishhi – Junya Enoki

Hikari Yagami – MAO

The series will be re-using the original series opening and closing, 'Butterfly' by Kouji Wada and 'I Wish' by AiM, as well as Ayumi Miyazaki's 'Brave Heart' being used as the insert song. Whether this means literally the same songs or re-makes of them by the original artists is yet to be known.

Overall, this is some big and rather shocking news. The anime was originally supposed to start this Spring as a TV series, but then it was delayed, and now seems to have shifted formats entirely. This, as well as the main cast upheaval, is a bit of a sign for worry, but the trailer definitely peaks my interest, and I'm still eager to see where this goes.

Dragon Ball Xenoverse: Resurrection 'F' Goku and Vegeta Outfits Now Available!

It's been known for a while now that the third DLC pack for Xenoverse, when it finally comes out, will contain playable characters from the new film. However, an unannounced bonus pack was just released yesterday, containing even more Resurrection 'F' goodness!

The pack, which is free to players who previously purchased the Season Pass (unsure on if it's free for everyone or not) contains two outfits and one accessory for our customizable characters.

• Whis Symbol Gi
• Whis Symbol Armor
• Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan Goku Wig

The Gi and Armor are the outfits that Goku and Vegeta wear in the new movie, after Whis 'autographs' them, and the wig gives the playable characters Goku's SSGSS hair. The items are deposited right into your inventory, so you don't even have to spend any in-game zeni on them to use them.

We're still waiting on the release of DLC Pack 3, which contains SSGSS Goku and Vegeta, as well as Golden Frieza and Jaco, as playable characters among other bonuses, but it should be released any day now.

Master Keaton Case 5: Paris Under the Roof

Case 5:  Paris Under the Roof


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