Posted on September 1, 2010

By Mat K.

Okay, well maybe there is, I mean I really could have done without Angelic Days, and I’m pretty sure The Shinji Ikari Raising Project was only a step above that, (by the way, if you didn’t know NGE means Neon Genesis Evangelion, which is frankly too long a title to fit anywhere other than body text). The reason I’m bringing up Evangelion is because, that’s right, there’s a brand new series! Neon Genesis Evangelion: Campus Apocalypse releases this week. Written and illustrated by someone only known as Ming Ming, which I sincerely hope is a pen name, or at least just a first name, this is a whole new spin on the fave series. In this new vision Shinji Ikari’s parents are gone, and he lives with his legal guardian, Ryoji Kaji, while attending the private NERV Academy. But no one ever told Shinji about its secrets . . . or that he’d find his fellow students Kaworu, Rei, and Asuka out on the streets late at night-fighting with sword, spear, and whip against an enemy that looks very human, but who Kaworu insists are beings called the Angels.

There is plenty of other good things this week as well, which is great considering how noting has come out for the last two weeks. This is also a huge week for Tokyopop, which makes me think Viz is going to dominate next week. There is another series premiering this week that looks really cute and I think deserves some attention. Hoshi No Witch (aka Witch In The Artemis), by Yui Hara. Before his death, Kazuki’s father told many stories about Artemis, a magical star not unlike their own, Planet. (more…)

Category: Comics, Mat. K, Welcome To Shibuya-cho | No Comments »
Tags: Junjo Romantica, Kyo Kara Maoh, Witch In The Artemis

Posted on September 1, 2010

By Loran

In 1989, the launch of Gundam 0080 attempted to do something new with Gundam: Create all-new mecha designs to replace the ones from the original series-updates, if you will. A lot of the fiction from this time supported this idea, like the SD Gundam OVA episode where the SDs go into the “real” Gundam Universe, and the “MS Era” book, which took a look at the One Year War as if it were an actual war in history. Well, this cool retcon didn’t last long, as Bandai eventually decided to consider them just variants of the original suits as opposed to replacements. Still, they’re awesome designs, and represent one of the coolest design styles ever.

Like all of the other 0080 suits, the GM Command (Or Commando, depending on your preference) was designed by Yutaka Izubuchi of Patlabor fame, and boy it shows through here. It’s very sleek, very late-80’s, and it’s probably one of my favorite “major” GM revisions out there. There are two flavors of this kit-ground and space type. I have the ground type, and the space type is largely the same, just coming in a traditional GM color scheme with a different gun and backpack. The HGUC kit here added a bit of Hajime Katoki/BEE-Craft styling, giving it a more modern look and coming out as the best of both worlds. (more…)

Category: Action Figures and Toys, Anime, Gundam | No Comments »
Tags: Commando, GM Command, Gundam, High Grade

Posted on August 31, 2010

by Christopher Troy

And we’re back at our look at the Eva 0-1 from Evangelion 2.0! I managed to finish this kit amongst the confusion of a bachelor party, birthday, an upcoming wedding and a trip to Atlanta, because I am a multi-tasking hero.

So to the left you have the Waist unit of the 0-1. The articulation here is way different from the traditional Gunpla, as most Gundams has a waist that turn left to right. Not so much with the 0-1, as the plates shift giving it some articulation, but you really cant move the it. It’s not a bad thing, it’s just something different from what I’m used to dealing with. The layers of multi-colored armor is nice as well, and the “spinal cord” pieces fit onto the lower back quiet well, unlike some of the upper back/shoulder.

Yes, this would be the leg for the Eva. Unlike the arms, there’s no cool plastic pieces that hide the knees, but the kit does a find job of doing itself. The legs on the kit are crazy long with makes sense, given the design of the mecha, and I’m happy to say that their pretty strong as well, despite on how thin they are. The feet are fairly impressive as well. Give how more Humanoid the EVA is, you have to construct a separate foot and heel, which are slightly articulate. Nothing special, but hey, it’s only feet right? (more…)

Category: Action Figures and Toys, Anime, Gundam | No Comments »
Tags: Eva Suit, Evangelion, neon genesis, NGE, shinji ikari

Posted on August 27, 2010

By Loran

So, I’m doing kind of a special review this time around. Remember how I mentioned back in the History of Gunpla article that the “support mecha” were the best kits in the original series lineup? Well, here we go, now I’m gonna sink my teeth into three of these kits-the Magella Attack Tank, the Core Booster, and the Dodai YS: a tank, a jet, and… well, I guess I’ll just call it “miscellaneous”. None of these are really essential parts to anybody’s collection, but they’re all fun little projects. So let’s take a look at them one by one…

The Magella Attack is probably my favorite of the three, and has the most balance between ease in construction and paint job. It’s not very large, especially when placed next to a Zaku or something, but if placed next to a real-world tank at the same scale it almost seems gigantic. It has rubber treads which unfortunately don’t move and have a very tedious construction-each wheel is two pieces that have to be glued together and there are about 20 of them. Getting the treads on isn’t too difficult, thankfully.

The turret is removable just like it is in the show. The gun itself is actually pretty stable and can move up and down freely. However, because the engineering at the time was still primitive, the turret can’t move side-to-side. Oh well. (more…)

Category: Action Figures and Toys, Anime, Gundam | No Comments »
Tags: mecha

Posted on August 27, 2010

By Loran

Once in a blue moon when all of the planets in the solar system line up and an eclipse occur, Bandai releases a multi-set of HGUC kits as something that ISN’T a convention exclusive. There have only been five (six if you count the new “Gunpla Starter Set” of a Gundam and a Zaku), and they typically feature special color schemes, extra stickers, and on one occasion, special stuff. These kits are typically characterized by their white boxes with pictures of the actual kits on the front as opposed to a black box with an illustration. Typically, they aren’t very good deals, because you’re basically just paying the same price as you would for the kits separately with extra stickers and a nicer manual, so there’s no real value.

The “Triple Dom” set, as it’s typically called, was released to recreate one of the classic scenes from the original anime-the Jet Stream Attack. Basically, you get the Black Tri-Stars Doms in one convenient package with some optional parts to pull off the actual scene. It’s a nice little set, and a great thing for army builders, but you have to build three of the same kit, which can get kind of repetitive and frustrating. (more…)

Category: Action Figures and Toys, Anime, Gundam | 1 Comment »
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Posted on August 26, 2010

By Devin T. Quin

Here on Earth we use games of both the card and video variety to distract ourselves from the misery of our daily existence. Logically, who wants to be an unemployed barber when you can be an attractive 60^th level elf woman who rides a tiger? A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, however, life was different. Games in the Star Wars universe were utilized for a variety of purposes, such as degrading droids, stealing space ships or just shooting whining farmers with lasers from a robot piñata until they learn to chillax.

I say “were” as everyone in that galaxy is now dead. Yes, even 2-1B. You didn’t know that? Sure, the Hubble Telescope has seen that their sun went supernova about  100 million years back. Like they said, it was a long time ago. (more…)

Category: Card Games, Devin T Quin, Gaming, video games | No Comments »
Tags: Cards, Dejarik, Games, George Lucas, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, star wars, video games

Posted on August 25, 2010

By Mat K.

Jeez, I cannot believe this month. Last week all we get was one manga, and this week? Nothing. Well, okay there is one single item coming at us from TokyoPop, but I’m not sure if it can even be considered manga. And not for the usual reasons I don’t count half the stuff coming from TokyoPop as manga, this is going to be TokyoPop’s first legitimate single-issue comic book. Here’s the deal. You all love and remember Priest by Min-Woo Hyung (which technically makes it manhwa in the first place, but let’s not nit pick). Well coming out this week is the official comic for the upcoming Priest movie “Priest: Purgatory” that’s going to be starring Paul Bettany (Silas from The Da Vinci Code and the voice of Jarvis in Iron Man). Basically, A veil of evil threatens to engulf humanity, and one man stands in the way of the apocalypse: our hero, a fallen priest who sold his soul for the power to battle evil and fight for humanity’s redemption. (more…)

Category: Anime, Comic News, Manga, Mat. K, Welcome To Shibuya-cho | No Comments »
Tags: Arata, Ceres, Da Vinci Code, Fushigi Yugi, Higurashi When They Cry, Iron Man, Min-Woo Hyung, Paul Bettany, priest, Yuu Watase

Posted on August 25, 2010

By Unkiedev

Life, if done right, is long. It is also full of unfair twists. We start it off as mindless eating machines that get to take naps, everybody loves and wants to hold, and we get all our meals through breastfeeding. Six Flags! We end our tenure on Earth as interesting, battle scarred individuals that no one wants to talk to and who are routinely ignored for the new and unusual. Two flags.

I, and many of you other travelers, am/are “Middle Aged.” I’ve been around enough now that younger people call me “Mr.” and try to avoid listening to me, while at the same time they have to admire things I’ve done or powers I’ve accumulated.

Where am I going with this?

Well, it was recently announced by Hayao Miyazaki, “Mr. Totoro” himself, that we might get a Porco Rosso sequel! HOORAY!

QUESTION 1: What is Porco Rosso?

Pocco Rosso is an amazing animated film which, on the surface is about high flying adventure in dog-fighting seaplanes in the tense political climate of the Mediterranean Sea between World Wars, but which is actually about being middle aged. Specifically this aspect of Porco Rosso is about looking forward and looking back.

Did I mention the main character is a human pig because of a death curse from a bi-plane duel? Did I mention there are cute girls, handsome pilots, and more air pirates than you could shake a stick at? It is one of the best animated films from one of the best animated film directors of all time. (more…)

Category: Anime, Contributors, Devin T Quin | No Comments »
Tags: art book, Disney, dvd, Hayao Miyazaki, Howl's Moving Castle, Kiki's Delivery Service, My Neighbor Totoro, Ponyo, Porco Rosso, Princess Mononoke, sequal, Studio Ghibli

Posted on August 24, 2010

By Loran

Welcome to part two of Double Zeta week. I’d love to cover the new HGUC Gundam ZZ kit, buuut I don’t have that one yet. I’m going to cover one of the earlier ZZ HGUC kits, the Zaku III, which appeared only a few times towards ZZ’s end. The kit used the previous Zaku III Custom kit as a base, and unfortunately inherits a lot of that mold’s flaws, along with adding some new ones.

The Zaku III is a big, nasty, imposing pseudo-grunt that towers over all the previous Zakus. Its construction isn’t very involved or complex, but it has some issues with individual parts that make me hard-pressed to truly consider this a “good” kit.

The head is where some of my first issues with the kit come in. Aside from the number of pieces, there isn’t anything remarkable about the design. However, it has some parts fitting issues, mostly on the “snout” and on the vents in the back. Even if you aren’t gluing the kit, you’ll have to cut down the pegs to get the snout to stay together, and you’ll need to sand down the vents in the back to get them to stay in properly. Also, be careful when putting the antennae in, as they break easily. (more…)

Category: Action Figures and Toys, Anime, Gundam | No Comments »
Tags: gundam kit, Review, zakus, zz HGUC

Posted on August 22, 2010

By Christopher Troy

Fun facts kids: Bandai makes kits for other mecha franchises that don’t contain the word “Gundam”. Macross Frontier, Dragon Ball Z, Escaflowne, and of course, Gainax’s Neon Genesis Evangelion have all received the Gunpla treatment, and today, we’ll be looking at the EVA o-1 from the 2nd Eva movie “Evangelion 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance. Spoiler alert: It’s awesome, yet complex as hell.

Series Origin: The Eva 0-1  originates from Gainax’s 1997 mega-hit “Neon Genesis Evangelion”, a 26 episode series which spawned 2 movies, another 4 movies which retell the series (or at least we think they 2. So far only 2 of them have been released and things aren’t exactly the same. Remember the Mari review from a few weeks back), and a ton of merchandise, including countless manga, video games, figurines, and stuff I can’t mention here.

Legacy: The Eva 0-1 is probably the most popular of the mecha from the series, although Asuka and Rei have gotten a lot more of merchandise as fan service has made Gainax a lot of money. Aside from the various merchandise, movies and manga (aka the Gainax tri-fect  of  money) ,  the 0-1 has cameo-ed/been re imagined for the Japan-only Super Robot Wars game, has appeared on postage stamps, and recently, had a amusement park built at the base of a Japanese mountain with a 1:1 scale bust of the Eva 0-1 as well as a to scale entry plug. That’s all kinds of awesome in my opinion. (more…)

Category: Action Figures and Toys, Anime | No Comments »
Tags: Evangelion, Gunpla