Itsuki to Issho

I just realized that many entertaining doujin games are for the guys but recently I found an interesting doujin game for the girls as well (or guys who love Itsuki too much).

Itsuki to Issho is a doujin game starring the fabulous Koizumi Itsuki from The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi. Basically it’s a Princess Maker game, but instead making a princess, the player is tasked to take care of Koizumi Itsuki. You play as Kyon and one day Haruhi burst through your door and told you to take care of the young Koizumi. The game takes place in Haruhi’s RPGverse and just like Princess Maker games you can decide young Koizumi’s future. There are three routes in this game as well as 10 endings. You can dl the trial version of the game from the official site but I don’t know when the game will be released

Before you ask me whether I’m playing this game or not then I must say ‘Hell no!’ This game is definitely an otome game for KyonxKoizumi fans out there. However, I’m hoping that another doujin circle will make a Princess Maker-ish game about growing Suzumiya Haruhi, Nagato Yuki, or Kyonko. I will definitely play those games if they exist!

ef - a tale of melodies Official Site Is Up

The official site for ef - a tale of melodies is up! A tale of melodies is the second season of ef - a tale of memories as well as an anime adaptation of Minori’s famous Ef: the Latter Tale. Since they have animated the first and third chapter while putting tidbits of the events from the second chapter in tale of memories, we can assume that tale of melodies will focus more on the fourth chapter, which tells the story of Shuichi and Mizuki, and the background story between Yu and Yuko. tale of melodies will also be animated by Shaft who handles the animation of tale of memories.

This is good news at least for me since that means I don’t need to buy a copy of the visual novel and can just watch the anime. Although it’s a pity since I’ve bought Ef: The First Tale and only played it halfway through.

Dragon Ball Movie Poster

The new movie poster for the upcoming Dragon Ball movie is released. Brace for impact of massive LULZ, WTF, RAAAAAGGGEEEEE or whatever popped up in your mind.

Clockwise from center: Supposed-to-be Goku, Supposed-to-be Chi-Chi, Supposed-to-be Bulma, Supposed-to-be Mai (who is also supposed to be Pilaf’s sidekick but in this movie she’s Piccolo’s) and supposed-to-be Master Roshi. The eyes hovering in shadow is supposed to be Piccolo.

I don’t know what to say. Just look around various otaku-related message boards, my opinions probably won’t differ too much from them.

Pic Source: Film1

And Yet Another Persona 4 Scan!

Before somebody went BAWWW for the sudden increase of P4 articles, I must tell you that I’m a die hard Persona series fan and considering it’s only a few weeks until the release of P4, I just can’t hold my euphoria to tell the world how pumped up I am from anticipation.

Since all the main casts are already introduced, we finally get to see some side characters. The first one is a fox called Kitsune (duh!). We still don’t know what role it’s going to have but maybe some kind of social link or a person needed to fulfill Margaret’s request. The second one is a hot nurse called… Nurse. Her role is also still unclear but maybe she’s going to be this game’s Edogawa (the school doctor from P3 although I’m not sure if I got his name right).

But the most important thing is…

*drumrolls*

Chihiro! Fuck yeah! Chihiro is in this game! In one of the screenshot, we see the now senior Chihiro greeting our party at Gekkoukan High. It seems that they’re on field trip or something. Another screenshot shows the party hanging out at P3 ramen shop and in another screenshot, they’re visiting the night club you used to visit (it’s impossible to be the local night club since they live in a rural area). That means we’ll probably see other P3 casts cameo.

Yay! Chihiro!

Two New Games From Alicesoft

Just when I realized that my copy of Beat Blade Haruka is still lying around unopened, Alicesoft announced two new interesting games to the fans. The first one is the sequel to the famous Toushin Toshi seies (or known as Tournament of the Gods in the US) and a dark-looking visual novel called AliveZ which takes place in a similar world as Alicesoft’s classic AmbivalenZ.

Toushin Toshi is a fun series where you enter a strange tournament accompanied by a female partner. If you defeat an opponent, you will be free to do everything you please to the opponent’s partner for the next 12 hours as long as it doesn’t involve death. The battle in the tournament is one on one and you’re free to use any kind weapons except vehicles. If you win the tournament you will have the privilege to do everything you want and get anything you desire in the city. There’s also a dungeon crawling element in the game where you can explore the local dungeon to train and fight various monster girls. And since they’re monster GIRLS, you can always have a “tender moment” with them once you defeat them.

The story of Toushin Toshi 3 seems to follow the last event of Toushin Toshi 2 where the main character, Seed, ended up trapped in a dungeon for a year. The story in the third installment of the game seems to follow Hazuki, the childhood friend of Seed, who is looking for him. Of course no organized tournament in RPG story is free from conspiracy so you must unveil the secret behind this fishy event and rescuing your childhood friend without losing to anybody.

It’s been a long time since I played Toushin Toshi 2 and I regret lending it to a friend since it never came back to my hand since then. Of course there are several points I forgot from the game but one for sure it sure is a fun game indeed (both in gameplay and H).

AliveZ is a dark story and I kinda didn’t believe it at first that Alicesoft is the one making it. It looks like something that would jump out from Nitro+’s lineup. Then again Alicesoft once made Atlach=Nacha which can also be considered as a dark VN. AliveZ follow the story of Kai Shinza, a badass looking young man who somehow loves to show his navel. In his world, a strange building called the Crystal Palace suddenly appeared and people suddenly turned into strange creatures called “Kuro” (it’s read as IN. Why? I don’t know myself). Kai must fight the “Kuro” with a blade named Kusanagi (BTW Yamata no Orochi also makes an appearance in this game) which somehow have some kind of connection with the main heroine, Ibara Takeuchi. What are those Kuro creatures all about? Who is Ibara Takeuchi? What’s the deal with the mysterious Crystal Palace? And why am I asking too many questions? You can find the answers in AliveZ once it’s released.

AliveZ seems like your typical ‘guy fights strange creatures with cool weapon accompanied by hot girl’ kind of story. I haven’t played AmbivalenZ myself since it’s an old game and it’s so difficult to fin so I can’t form any opinion just yet. But judging from the released art works, I have a feeling this game will be great. Although for some reason some of the art has a rough sketch feeling from it. Maybe that’s just me.

Toushin Toshi 3 and AmbivalenZ don’t have a release date yet. But Alicesoft stated they will be released late this year. Yay for them!

More About Persona 4!

This month’s issue of Famitsu finally revealed more regarding my most anticipated game of the year. This time we finally get to know about our mysterious “hat kid”. His name is Naoto Shirogane and his persona is Sukunahikona which looks like something that might jump out from tokusatsu show. His seiyuu is Park Romi (Ed from FMA, Ueki from Law of Ueki, Temari from Naruto) and this makes me very happy since this is the second time I can hear Park Romi and Kugimiya Rie in a same show (in this case game). He’s also a first grade high school student and a famous detective at the same time. Sadly, his gender hasn’t been confirmed yet but in one of the screenshot, he’s wearing a school uniform that looks like a modified version of the female seifuku uniform from this game.

This time, Famitsu features the MC’s two relatives who are also the social link characters in this game. Doujima Ryoutarou is MC’s uncle and is an investigator who looks ready to kick some loser’s ass while Doujima Nanako is MC’s lolilicious cousin. It seems you have to choose one of them for the same social link (most likely Justice).

One month left until this game is out but I just can’t wait any longer!

The Aftermath of Akihabara Killing

The killing that took place this Sunday left several marks both physically and spiritually in the heart of Japanese everywhere. Not only it stains the name of Akihabara and otakudom in general, it also brings another controversy regarding Japanese internet culture.

• Chugoku Shimbun and Yomiuri Online states that the killer’s weapon, a “Dagger Knife”, is a weapon from famous RPGs such as Dragon Quest and considered as popular weapon among teenagers
• According to Zakzak the killer is a fan of doujin games such as Eternal Fighter Zero and Chantelise. He’s also the fan of a famous doujin danmaku game for PC with cutesy characters *coughtouhoucough*
• According to Yahoo, Japan’s Minister of Internal Affairs and Regulations, Hiroya Matsuda, is planning to regulate dangerous information on the internet since the killer posted his sadistic plan on a cellphone BBS (not 2ch)

From: Kotaku

I don’t know what people will think of point one. Hopefully the public won’t be idiot enough to pin the blame on video game JUST BECAUSE HE USES SIMILAR WEAPON! I mean it’s idiot if someone kills another person with a katana and you blame Rurouni Kenshin or Bleach for having so many katanas in it.

Point two is not valid enough to pint the blame on them. As far as I know, the doujin games mentioned is not some massive killing spree game on the level as, let’s say, GTA or Manhunt. Even if you’re a bit distressed, playing Touhou won’t make you want to stab random people. At the worst case, it should make you want to blast your enemies with laser and we all know that’s impossible!

And point 3 is the most ridiculous. Regulating the internet? I don’t where to start. Heck I don’t even know what to say.

Well, this is the first time I rant so much. But I think it’s a serious case (at least for me). Even my parents warned me if I want to go to Japan this summer thanks to that madman. I can only hope that the public would at least have a grain of intelligence in them and won’t blame this case for nearly unrelated stuffs.

Tragedy Struck Akihabara

A gruesome incident struck our beloved Akihabara today. A madman went on rampage with a truck and ran over 5 people. But that’s not all. The man then get down from his truck and stabbed everybody he set his eyes on. 10 people are reported to be injured injured by the madman and 7 died. The murderer is some guy from Shizuoka who is apparently suffering from heavy distress and needs to unleash his problem to someone else’s life. It’s a shocking news for many otakus all over Japan (and maybe the world) since despite the fact that the man has nothing to do with otakuness at all, the incident will stain the name of Akihabara.

Source: Yahoo

Photos of the incident from AkibaBlog

Makoto Raiku Is Through with Shogakukan

The mangaka of the famous Konjiki no Gash!!!, Makoto Raiku, has decided to quit from Shogakukan who has been releasing his manga on their Shonen Sunday. After Konjiki no Gash!!! ended last December, some kind of tension between Raiku and Shogakukan began to spark due to artwork problem. On May 21, Raiku stated on his blog that will no longer make any work for Shogakukan which resulted many publishers offering him new work opportunities. And recently, Raiku sued Shogakukan for 3,3 million yen due to the previously stated artwork problem. Raiku claimed that Shogakukan lost the artworks he made during the serialization of Konjiki no Gash!!!. He also stated on his official blog, the reason behind his action is that he doesn’t want the publishers to look down on mangaka (which is quite true since most publishers treat mangakas like some kind of slaves. Especially on weekly magazines). Let’s just hope Raiku-sensei quickly gets over with his problem so he can start a new awesome work.

From: TBS

Anyway the publisher and mangaka thing remind me of my favorite mangaka, Kohji Kumeta (the guy behind Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei). His manga (Katte ni Kaizo) was forcefully stopped by Shogakukan and he was forced to move to Kodansha (Shonen Magazine). It amuses me how Shogakukan must be feeling uneasy knowing how popular SZS ended up like. What does this have anything to do with Makoto Raiku? Well, none. Just some random thought that popped up in my head.

New Persona 4 Scan

The new scan by Famitsu is up and lots of new tidbits are revealed!

Here’s some details from the new scan:

• The pop idol’s name is revealed. Her name is Kujikawa Rise and she’s the navigator of the group this time. Her persona is Himiko and she’s voiced by… DUN DUN DUNN Kugimiya Rie!
• Rise is a pop-idol on her way to success. But in the middle of shining career, she suddenly stopped and changed school. Now she’s attending the same high school as the MC. She is sophomore.
• Two new female social links are revealed. Yumi Ozawa (the taller one) from theater club and Ayane Matsunaga (the pseudo loli one) from orchestra band club.
• New shadows design. The king shadow is probably another rare shadow.
• Tomoe (Chie’s persona) might know elemental-based spells rather than just physical strikes. The scan shows how her Persona attacked the enemies with ice-based spell.
• One more thing that bugs me. Why is Rise, who’s a pop idol, working as a waitress in a rural area?