dennogumi.org » Anime

Unexpected Christmas gifts: THE IDOLM@ASTER

Einar — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 20:04:26 +0000

Sometimes Christmas presents are really unexpected, and today I found out I was given one such gift: the limited edition of THE IDOLM@STER 2, PS3 version. It was quite a bulky box, showing all the main characters from the game (and from the recently-ended anime) (click to enlarge):

Of course, having such a box means that there’s a lot of stuff inside. In fact, once opened, there are two game BDs (one being the actual game, the second being the first volume of Gravure for you! starring Haruka), a soundtrack (no songs, though), a booklet, a number of postcards (mine were showing Iori’s ending from episode 2 of the TV series), a booklet and also the first BD of the anime version:

It turns out the BD is also one of the limited editions, with a nice cover and more goodies, including a small booklet and a CD with the songs heard in the episodes:

And here are the postcards:

What about the game itself? Well, I have played it only briefly so far: I know it will be a bit painful to translate since the text is timed (having it stop, like in Neptume mk.2 is quite handy if you don’t catch something at first) and well, kind of different than the games I played so far. Still, in my opinion the various characters make it a worthwhile challenge.

I’m honestly surprised…

Einar — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 20:49:13 +0000

By browsing through sites, I noticed that the Spanish site Akihabara Denno Gumi Universe has posted a translation of an interview the webmaster had with me through email.

Here it is (Spanish language). It feels nice to recall some memories of the past once in a while, especially since I couldn’t still believe that dennogumi.org had been such a resource back in the days…

A retrospective view: Galaxy Angel

Einar — Wed, 11 May 2011 20:33:16 +0000

Recently I had the opportunity of viewing a DVD that I had bought in 2006 but never had the chance of seeing: it was the third season of Galaxy Angel, of which I had already viewed the first two years before. After viewing it, I realized I could have viewed it sooner, as I liked it quite a bit. Not only that, but I brought myself up to speed by getting what was left in the series, that is the second half of the third season (marketed by Bandai Visual as Galaxy Angel AA) and the fourth and final season (known in the English speaking market as Galaxy Angel X).

Well, I found the whole franchise quite good: and after having explored also other bits of it, including the manga and the games related to it, I thought it’d be nice to have a retrospective with my own views. Which is the point of this post.

Galaxy Angel? What was it about?

I was initially aware of the whole matter when Project G.A. was announced by BROCCOLI (for those who don’t know, it is, or at least used to be, a large merchandising company which also owned the GAMERS anime chain until very recently) at the Tokyo Game Show in 2000.

At the time the designs were very preliminary and they showed mostly about the game (more on that later) than on the TV series that was going to be made by Madhouse. As you may already know, BROCCOLI thought of this whole matter as a rather spread initiative, encompassing different medias: games, a TV series (13 episodes in total) a manga (made by the Kanan, the same person who did the original designs) plus a lot of merchandise and associated bits.

But back then, it was all yet to come. I admit I didn’t pay attention much to the announcement and moved on.

It was only years later that I bought the animated series, in 2004, that is when BROCCOLI USA opened and a partnership with Bandai Visual was formed to bring the anime and the manga to the English-speaking market.

The animated series

Season 1 – Galaxy Angel

That’s where it all begins (TM), in all senses, because the animated series was the first to come out after the announcement. I wonder if people watching it thought that BROCCOLI had been trolling them, since it was completely different than the promo. Difference that’s seen already by the opening song, ギャラクシーBang! Bang! (Galaxy Bang! Bang!), markedly nonsensical. The episode titles reinforce the impression, as they’re almost about food and have a somewhat loose connection to the actual content.

Even though it was just 24 15 minute episodes, I already appreciated the highly non-sensical humor that permeated the series. The first series sets the basis for all the characters (from the second one top rightwards, Milfeulle Sakuraba, Ranpha Franboise, Volcott O. Huey, Mint Blancmanche and Vanilla H – pronounced ash) and to introduce their… peculiarities.

Already, unlike the games (see below) there’s a lot of nonsense and parody humor that will become even more important in the later seasons. At this point the characters aren’t that developed but I found most episodes to be enjoyable. Already hilarious is the presence of Nomad (rightmost on the second row) that is just a target for some serious nonsense violence.

Compared to what we’ll see in later sesons, the interactions among the cast are a bit stiff: understandable since nothing else had been done (the game would come out later).

Sometimes the fact that the episodes end without a real conclusion can be surprising (as well as finding that in the following episodes the characters are still there!) but one gets used to it pretty quickly. The series “ends” with a non-ending like the rest of the episodes (introducing counterparts that will never be seen after that episode), but at the time I knew already that there was a sequel.

Season 2 – Galaxy Angel Z

The second season (known as Galaxy Angel Z outside Japan) introduces a format that will become common: assemble two episodes (which are half as long as a common anime episode) separated by the eye-catch. In this case we’re looking at 18 episodes, or rather 9 in total. Compared to its predecessor, elements of parody and marked non-sense begin appearing, which make the show even more enjoyable. Also the cast has better interactions than in the first series, leading to truly hilarious moments.

One episode in my opinion stands out, because much more of this type will be featured in later series, is the second, ウェディングケーキ合体スペシャル (Wedding Cake Gattai Special, aka Wedding Cake combined Special). In this specific episode, we see the Angels having to pilot a robot which is basically a reference to a number of 1970s and early 1980s mecha shows, in particular Combattler V and Voltes V. I would rather say rather try to pilot, as the thing explodes every time combination is attempted… But this is not the only element of parody there: a scene where Milfeulle rides a scooter to reach her vehicle is a mock of Daisuke Umon / Duke Fleed’s rocket “motorbike” in the launch sequence of Grendizer. The final icing on the cake is the song played in the background, たたかえ！ぼくらのX X X (Fight! Our X X X), sung by a real singer of mecha shows and tokusatsu sentai. The X X X in there because the mecha blows up exactly when the song would say its supposed name.

Like the original Galaxy Angel this series ends with a non-ending, showing something great about to happen “but now it’s the last episode” and thus ending in an anti-climactic way. Still, the game was about to come out and a third series was in the works.

Season 3 – Galaxy Angel A & Galaxy Angel AA

This section is the longest when dealing to the anime, because it is the longest of the four, featuring 52 half-length episodes, and a few specials on the way. This is in my opinion the best of the bunch, where the mixture of the interactions among the cast and decidedly weird plots form a very nice mixture.

I mentioned the plots. Well, starting from this series the parody / non-sensical element is much more noticeable, and often every episode would lose every bit of sanity within seconds. The situations where the Angels fall in also are even stranger than in the previous series (although they magically get fixed in time for the next episode).

Regarding parody this series stars a number of successful experiments. In primis, one episode, サインはブイヨン (Sign wa Bouillon), which is a complete parody of famous sports anime like Attacker no. 1 (the song sung in the end, あたしたちがNo.1, or We are no.1, is a direct reference), featuring improbable and out-of-the-line volleyball techniques, but also references to Ultraman and Cyborg 009 (such as Forte’s acceleration, complete with spark on the teeth). In the end there’s even a “next episode” that puts together all the possible cliches.

However if I were to pick, parody-wise, two episodes from this series, I’d definitely choose ピュルリクマジカルステーキ (Pyururiku Magical Steak) and 新鮮鯛づくし (Shinsen Taizukushi) because they bring that element to a new level.

The first of the two is an all out reference to the “magical girl” series, where the Angels (and Volcott, too!) try to use a magic stick that would grant a wish to a truly believer in magic. This somehow ends up in a sort of clip where lots of historical shows are referenced, as shown in the images below.

The series reference relatively recent productions such as Doremi, but also real antiquities (for the Japanese, at least) such as Megu-chan (the Italian readers of this blog may know it as Bia e la sfida della magia), touching also video games. How many references did you find in the image shown above? This video shows all of them. As you can see are quite a lot. The song is also performed by a veteran of such series.

The second parody episode I mentioned instead is a reference to super sentai series, where the Angels have to fight as a group known as the “Angel Five”. Also this episode compresses a full-length sentai 52 episode series in little less than fifteen minutes.

Almost all the cliches are touched, including also a reference to the first Kamen Raider series and the always present narrator that tells how things go on. Oh, and I should not forget about the obligatory mecha scenes (with the combination of the girls’ 紋章機 – monshoki or rather emblem frames - referencing the usual lack of budgets of these series). Just like the previous episode, there’s even a specific song for the various scenes.

The last mention for this series is the last episode, final dish REBECCA, which is actually full-length. In contrast with most of the series, there’s not a single trace of humor. It’s like one of the few serious episodes scattered through the series but in a more coherent and longer form.

Despite the difference, the essential psychology of the characters is not changed at all (in fact some bits reminded me of the game) and the whole story fits perfectly as ending of the series (open ended, also with Masami Okui and JAM Project’s In the Chaos as ending song). If Galaxy Angel had to end there, final dish REBECCA would have been ideal. By the way it was done, I also feel that this season was to be the last one, but the decision changed only later on.

Season 4 – Galaxy Angel X

The last of the seasons is also the one of the most absurd, because the parody and nonsense elements increase dramatically. Usually it’s impossible to predict where an episode would end up to being, because aside the initial settings they almost go completely random (but they’re rather funny). The craziness affects even episode titles, which become tongue-twisters that also play on assonance: an example 非凡平凡チョコボンボン (Hibon Heibon Choko bonbon, translatable as Extraordinary, ordinary chocolate bonbon).

On the parody side, an episode like 哀しみ憎しみ凍み豆腐 (Kanashimi nikushimi shimi tofu, or Sadness and Hatred Tofu in the English translation) replicates (very faithfully, I might add) the aura of Japanese dramas, complete with rather improbable plot twists and character relations (who is the daughter of who?). Another episode, ラブ米, feels like a session of Tokimeki Memorial, with the Angels infiltrated in a school-like environment (complete with stereotypes) and with an insert song performed by a singer that actually did some of the game’s songs.

Along with the already present characters, this season also includes Chitose Karasuma, but she’s completely different than the game counterpart, with a personality bordering on psychopathic. She doesn’t appear very often in the season as well, but she leaves her mark, definitely.

The last episode (オールオッケーロケ弁当, All OK bento) is somehow meta as due to plot reasons it almost feels that the main voice actors are speaking about their characters, in a way. However, near the end the nonsense returns, showing a “battlefront” against aliens that is more reminiscent of the tennis anime エースをねらえ！(Ace o nerae! or Aim for the Ace!) as the “battle” is played at table tennis. Other notable mentions which also include the appearance of a character from the 1970s Great Mazinger series, namely 闇黒大将軍 (Ankoku Daishogun, or Great Dark General). but with the face of Di Gi Charat‘s Digiko…

Unfortunately the last episode is a bit of a let down because it’s half-length, unlike final dish REBECCA, and thus the final part is a bit rushed. It’s not a bad ending per se, anyway, and doesn’t affect the overall quality of the series. Series which despite its length never really bored me and provided many hours of enjoyment. Especially the latter seasons show a great coordination among the cast that increases the comical effect.

To be very brief, watching this series, even now taht many years ahave passed, is definitely recommended.

The video games

It is somewhat less known that Galaxy Angel had also a series (three) of game counterparts, in fact part of the all round strategy devised by BROCCOLI. Unlike the animated series, however, none of these have been translated to English (actually, such a translation was planned, but hastily canned when BROCCOLI USA closed up shop).

The scenario of the game is much closer to what BROCCOLI had announced at first. Gone are some of the anime characters (the ones devised by Madhouse themselves, such as Nomad and Volcott) and others come in, most notably the commander Takuto Meyers, the character whose actions are controlled by the player.

So, how are the games? From a purely technical standpoint, they’re a mixture of 恋愛 (Ren’ai, literally love but used in the terms of dating sims) and strategy-based battles, a formula that was employed succesfully by the Sakura Taisen franchise in the past. Basically, a good part of the game involves talking and interacting with the Angels, building up relationships (and eventually love with one of the heroines), while the other part involves controlling the Angels’ monshoki and fighting various enemies, trying to achieve specific victory conditions. The latter is basically a 3D strategy game, where orders are issued and then executed, while the first involves reading the main story dialogue and occasionally making choices (unlike Sakura Taisen, those aren’t timed). Poor choices, however, will inevitably affect the Angels’ morale and hence the battle performance, so the girls must be treated well.

As you can see from the images, Kanan did all the job (like in the manga, which covers the same story as the games). The result is unpredictable: at times it’s quite nice, at others it’s rather poor. Nevertheless, it is good enough.

While the story has a more serious tone, it has also many comical moments that remind of the series (although they don’t reach such levels of absurdity). However, in my opinion there is a huge letdown when you are forced to choose your Angel: the characters aren’t “strong” enough, from a personality standpoint, to stand up alone, as their strength lies exactly in the mutual interactions. Therefore, when focus is given to a single member of the group, the results are often poor, and even “out-of-characters” scenes occur. The problem, which affects the first game (Galaxy Angel) only partially, is even more evident in the second instalment of the series (Galaxy Angel – Moonlit Lovers) where for basically half of the play time there isn’t even the full squad available. On the plus side, every scenario for each group member is often very different.

Speaking of characters, Chitose appears in Moonlit Lovers, and as I wrote before she has a completely different personality, the one of an elite soldier but so fresh that’s not capable of adapting (let alone in a carefree unit such as the Angel Tai). She still has a good deal of humorous scenes, though: her interplay with Milfeulle or with Forte in their respective scenarios is quite funny.

Let’s go over the battle part a bit. In these sections, the player is thrown in a 3D battlefield, having to control the Angels, the command ship (the Elsior) and optionally other friendly units (this only from Moonlit Lovers onwards). Units can be selected and orders given (in this case, the visual switches to a zoomable 2D map). Each unit has a series of gauges that indicate their status: the Hull gauge indicates how badly the unit in question is damaged, the Energy how much energy it has (the Angels’ monshoki can be resupplied by coming within reach ot the command ship) and for the Angels only, the Spirit gauge. The last one fills when damage is dealt or received, and once full can be use to unleash a powerful special attack which varies depending on the pilot (or in the case of Vanilla, to repair all units). Although the monshoki are rather powerful, some careful planning is due, especially in Moonlit Lovers, where the enemies are in much larger numbers. Aside that, there isn’t much else to control. The camera can be switched to the various units (useful if you want to check their performance or watch the specials).

To show you how the game plays in these sections, here is a video.

I haven’t played the third instalment of the trilogy (Eternal Lovers) yet, but I can say so far that the games are good enough when all the characters are involved and terrible when they focus only on one heroine (and Moonlit Lovers is painfully short, with a rushed ending). Not too bad, but not too excellent either.

Concluding remarks

Whew! This was one long blog post. I took almost one month to finish it (including viewing the last two seasons and reviewing the game). I can say that Galaxy Angel (but not its mediocre sequel) is definitely a series that will stay in my list of favorites for a long time, especially due to the way the cast interacts, both in the games and in the anime. A shame that we won’t see any more operations of this kind, due to the way the TV slots have become so far (very tight and packed).

Taking video snapshots quickly: KDE VLC Snapper

Einar — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 12:40:26 +0000

Some of the oldest readers of this blog are well aware of a certain hobby of mine. Over the years I’ve always wanted to write more about that, including the stuff I’m viewing nowadays, but I found a hassle to collect snapshots from videos / DVDs, selecting them, and so on.

Recently I learnt that VLC has some rather complete Python bindings, and I thought, why not make the process automated? Yesterday I had some free time on my hands and a quick session of hacking brought some results already.

As the stuff is somewhat past prototypal stage, I thought I would push somewhere for others to use. Lo and behold, here I present you KDE VLC Snapper.

As you can see, it’s a minimal dialog: just select your source video file (any file supported by VLC will do), the number of screencaps, the destination directory, and the program will do the rest. Currently it works somewhat OK (see caveats below) and is good enough for my use cases.

How do I get it?

Just clone this repository:

git clone http://git.gitorious.org/kde-vlc-snapper/kde-vlc-snapper.git

followed by

sudo python setup.py install

You can then invoke the program with

kdevlcsnapper

Requirements include PyKDE4 (tested on KDE Dev Platform 4.6), numpy (just for its “linspace” function, alternatives are welcome) and VLC installed (you don’t need the bindings, however: I provide a local copy).

What about bugs? Well, currently there are two issues that I’m unsure on how to fix: the first is a crash on exit, the second is that certain media files make VLC crash in the background when called from the bindings.

In any case, if you try it out, let me know what you think in the comments!

Ar Tonelico III

Einar — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 21:33:20 +0000

It’s been a while since I blogged about anything non-FOSS. This time I’ll be sharing some impressions on one of the games I’m playing at the moment, that is, Ar Tonelico III (which arrived at my doorstep two days ago). I admit I haven’t been a fan of Gust games (aside from Ar Tonelico, they’re known mostly for the Atelier series), mostly because technically wise they didn’t really perform that well. While I understood they’re a small company, sometimes it was a little too much.

I bought this one because from the movies and information disseminated throughout the net it looked like it was better, so I started reading information, which in turn prompted the buy: it’s also a good way to keep my Japanese in order, as I need to keep up with the language if I want to understand things.

Right now I’ve just played a couple of hours, and it looks decent, although with some technical issues (the characters glide over the terrain, rather than walk). I’ve also seen the infamous Purge System in action (look it up online), which made quite a number of fan sneer for a various number of reasons. As of the story, I can’t say anything at the moment: I’ve just started. At least it is moderately fun.

Here’s a hands-on (Italian) which covers more details. I’ll try to post a few updates in the future (if I don’t forget….)

And here’s a quick video I made with my camera:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Danbooru Client 0.5 is out

Einar — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 08:54:54 +0000

Sometimes answering apparently harmless questions on instant messaging can have unexpected results. In particular, I was telling about Danbooru Client to someone and a question popped up "Why don’t you support pages?". It seemed a nice idea, so I branched off the code (yay for git!) and started working on it.

Well, it took me more than a month to get this thing done… I didn’t spend every day coding, but it was a challenge. Glad it’s over now, which means that Danbooru Client 0.5 is finally available. Grab it at the usual place on kde-apps.org.

Changes in this version:

Massive code refactoring and documentation
Support for multiple pages: the same query can be repeated multiple pages (shown in a tabbed interface), kind of like browsing the actual Danbooru board;
Rating information added to the API;
Support for translations (thanks to Pino "pinotree" Toscano for the help): the tarball now contains a .pot file which can be used for translating Danbooru Client. If you make a translation, send the .po file my way and I’ll include it in the next version.

Improvements that I have in the queue:

Suppport for pools (every board out there changes the API, so it will require some work);
Support for storing password/username using KWallet (through python-keyring, so it works even without KWallet installed);
Review usability of the dialogs (I have a separate branch for that);
Improve the image download dialog.

On recent KDE SC versions (4.4 beta 2 and onwards) there are some painting issues with regards to the thumbnails, but I’m not sure if the fault is in PyKDE4 or in the underlying libraries. Nothing too bad, luckily: hovering the thumbnails or giving focus to the thumbnail view should be what’s needed.

Here’s a screenshot of the new interface (click to enlarge):

Comments and suggestions are always welcome, so don’t hesitate to drop me a line.

As a final word, some thoughts on the work required to get this out of the door. My largest issues are related to garbage collection: Python’s reference counting based GC got a lot in the way, at least because of how the underlying C++ structures work. I had to work a bit to keep references to objects around so I wouldn’t get crashes (accessing an already deleted object). All is well now, and I think my Python/PyQt/PyKDE4 knowledge gained from it. I keep telling myself that I should be writing some tutorials one day…

Danbooru Client – a client for Danbooru based sites

Einar — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 20:16:50 +0000

A while ago I presented “danbooru2nepomuk”, a small program to tag images coming from Danbooru-based image boards. Today I want to present the evolution of that program, that is a PyKDE4 client for those boards.

Danbooru? Is it something you eat?

Well, aside from the Wikipedia link above, I think a small introduction is in order, at least for the readers coming from PlanetKDE. Danbooru is a kind of image board which structures its data semantically, by having tags attached to images (along with other things, such as favorites, rating, etc.). It can be browsed normally (newest posts, etc.) or by using tags and other properties. Some boards are quite popular in the anime-viewing community. The neat thing about Danbooru (which is by itself a Ruby on Rails application) is the fact that it can provide a REST and POST API to access data. So. it’s technically possible to access such boards programmatically: the API permits not only retrieving posts, but also upload, tag, and perform other operations.

The API could be technically used also for client applications, in order to free the user from using a browser. That is what Danbooru Client is aiming to do.

Introducing Danbooru Client

Danbooru Client fits exactly these needs by providing a GUI to (part of) the Danbooru API.

Features:

Connect to any Danbooru board (three predefined)
Download up to 100 images with selectable tags;
Download or view images with the KDE preferred image viewer;
Tag semantically the images using Nepomuk.

Requirements:

PyQt (at least version 4.5)
PyKDE4 (tested with PyKDE 4.3 only)
(optional) Nepomuk
Python (at least version 2.5)

Screenshots

(click to enlarge)

Download & Installation

You can obtain Danbooru Client from kde-apps.org. For the bleeding edge people (but are there such users for such an application?) there is a git repository set up at Gitorious. Once downloaded, you need to use CMake to install the files. Unfortunately due to the way CMake is set up, you’ll need the KDE development headers and a working C++ compiler, even though you won’t need them for the installation.

The installation process is very straightforward:

cd /path/to/source
mkdir build; cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=`kde4-config --prefix` ../
make # This just byte-compiles Python files
sudo make install

Then, just launch “danbooru_client”.

Known limitations

There are plenty for now, it’s just version 0.1:

Zero documentation (although it’s kind of straightforward to use)
Empty cells are created when a row is not filled with images
No support for multi-download
Untested login/password access
The interface may be horrid
Danbooru does not support rating filtering via API, so it’s not currently possible to do so

The client is licensed under the GPL v2 or later. The artwork for the splash screen is also under the GPL and was made by Melissa Adkins.

Tears to Tiara – Blu-Ray volume 1

Einar — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:57:08 +0000

Today, after some customs delay and courier problems, I finally received the first volume of Tears to Tiara. Having got a PS3, I chose the Blu-Ray version (priced 8,192 yen, quite steep if you hear me): as I preordered it soon enough, I got the first presse edition, which, according to CDJapan, was comprised of a “deluxe outer case”, a “stick poster” and a booklet, in addition to the Blu-ray itself.

This is how it looked after unpacking:

The “deluxe outer case” is in fact a cardboard case which is quite large. Perhaps too large for its contents when we look inside:

As you can see, we have here a rather thin artbook, the famous “stick poster”, and the BD itself. The rest of the box is filled by cardboard to keep things in place. Not the best deal for 8000+ yen, indeed.

The artbook contains interviews with the staff, details about the places, and information on the characters. Here is an example (badly taken photo) showing a part of Arawn’s profile:

The “stick poster” is quite long once unfolded, and is an illustration of Morgan and Octavia, done by the series’ character designed, but colored in a way that reminds more of the game:

And now to the BD itself. Video is encoded at 1080p (quite nice!) but the audio is classical stereo without any bells and whistles. I wonder what the buyers of the non-first press version get, because inside there is absoultely nothing save a promotional sheet and the disc. Once loaded on my first-generation PS3, the disc played normally, and indeed at 1080p. It’s quite nice to view the opening in HD format.

The menus inside are terrible. They only offer chapter selection, a “play all” feature and an “information” link which plays some commercial of related Aquaplus anime adaptations, namely To Heart 2 (the upcoming OAVs) and Utawarerumono (again OAVs that should be out very soon). Sadly, this is on par with the rest of the offerings from other Japanese companies (and most Western anime publishers, too): the disc is simply a container, and nothing else is offered. I could understand if the price was lower, but at 8000 yen and more it’s simply unacceptable.

What about the content? Weil, I like it of course. The anime is very faithful (save some minor changes in recent episodes) to the game and thus I’m enjoying it qute a bit. I haven’t watched the episodes closely yet, but I doubt there will be any “redone” parts in this volume (I was hoping for specials a la Utawarerumono, but oh well…). Hopefully I’lll be able to write a little more (time permitting) once I finish watching it.

Tears to Tiara in animation – faithful?

Einar — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 17:40:58 +0000

So I’ve heard that Tears to Tiara is coming in animated form. Being in the middle of playing its PS3 incarnation, Tears to Tiara – Kaikan no Daichi, I decided to take a look at some images that have been recently published on news.dengeki.com. It was already known that the anime would be an adaptation of the PS3 game, which is a good thing (I didn’t like the original character design). Animation is done by Oriental Light and Magic (OLM), and the same staff who adapted another Aquaplus game, Utawarerumono (or should I say Underwater Ray Romano ? *snicker*).

As the first image suggests, the character designs follow the PS3 game, although with some exhibit evident differences from the game (and honestly, I liked the game’s designs more). For example, Arthur looks like this in the two versions:

Although I dare say that it’s Gaius that changed the most: from a battle veteran (and a general), we get someone like this:

Hardly a look for a general…

As for the rest, though, according to what is shown in the Dengeki preview of the first three episodes, the team has tried to be rather faithful to the story, up to almost replicating the same shots, as shown here:

Quite similar indeed. Knowing the team, I fully expect a faithful “conversion” nevertheless, although I hope they don’t turn Arthur into the Oboro of Utawarerumono (mostly used for comic relief).

Tears to Tiara starts on April 5th. I’ll be sure to take a look.

Kurokami – The Animation – episode 1

Einar — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 11:06:13 +0000

New season, new anime to see. Since a certain guy kept me telling wonders about Kurokami (黒神), a manga serialized in Young Gangan by Dall-Young Lim and Sung-woo Park, two Korean artists, I decided to give a go to the animated version, produced by Bandai Visual, which has just been out.

The episode opens with the main character, Keita Ibuki, wondering about philosophical questions while he’s dying. We don’t get to know more, as the opening kicks in and once it’s over, we’re presented with another situation, presumably before that event. What we get to see is that Keita seems a rather introverted person, supposedly after a shocking event that happened in his past. His days seem to follow a precise routine: school, then a go towards an unfinished/collapsed highway on the sea, ramen in the evening at a certain place.

A few exceptions are when a little girl, son of a person who lives next door to him, approaches him. Meanwhile, the spectator is informed that something is going awry: disappearances and deaths occur throughout the city, and they’re apparently linked to people seeing an exact replica of themselves (Doppelgänger): when this happens, one of the two identical people dies within days (and we learn that something like that has happened to Keita’s mother as well).

And that’s what happens to one of Keita’s schoolmates, who has seen a replica of herself at a concert (although the encounter was probably planned by someone behind the shadows). Of course Keita is saddened greatly, and he vents his frustration when he’s alone. During the evening, while he’s eating ramen, he meets a strange girl who’s starving. He lets her have his cup, and during the conversation that ensues, this girl seems to know a lot about the replica affair. She mentions that, out of the 2 or 3 replicas that exist in the world, only one is the so called root, and the only one who will survive when he/she meets the others.

It’s not like she can tell more, because a scary-looking person with a bat arrives and hits her on the head without any hesitation. The owner of the shop tries to act, but is hit as well. The newcomer says a few things without much sense and proceeds to hit the girl more. “Of course”, Keita decides to run to her defense but the outcome is rather predictable, and he gets a spanking as well.

That’s when the girl steps up and shows to be quite apt to fighting. She and the other man exchange blows for a while, although the girl is at disadvantage and has her head smashed against a car’s screen (ouch). The man mentions that he has “to take her alive” (as if someone would survive the beating she had), and that’s when she gets up again and treats him with a lightning fast series of punches and kicks (it reminded me of Ryo Sakazaki’s super move in Ryuko no ken / Art of Fighting games), sending him against a fence and knocking him out.

She then complaisn about the spilled ramen (?) and leaves shortly afterwards, before the police comes, but not before introducing herself as Kuro. The other guy disappears as well. The following day, Keita meets the small girl from next door again, and she says she has met another identical girl the day before. You know what’s going to happen now: she gets run over by a truck in front of Keita’s eyes. And then Kuro is next to Keita, talking again about the replica stuff, mentioning that the girl was obviously not the “root”.

That’s when the episode ends. What can I say about it? It looks good so far, with a promising storyline, but knowing Sunrise’s previous “accomplishments”, including Code GEASS, I’m still wary. The number of episodes, also, will determine how much the story will be rushed or not.

Animation and sound wise we’re at good levels, although Kuro’s final “combo” looks more like an animation stunt than something that’s really needed. The opening theme, “sympathizer” is decent enough, and coupled well to the images (that should be taken for granted, but according to what I heard about Gundam OO‘s new opening, one can never know).

I’ll be keeping an eye on this series and see if it keeps on doing well.