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Kotaku East
Saekano Uses Well-Written Characters to Explore Rom-Com Clichés
Anime rom-coms are a dime a dozen these days, but Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend stands apart by gathering many of the genre’s more prevalent clichés and taking them apart through great characters and excellent comedy. Saekano follows anime/game/light novel otaku Tomoya. One day, he encounters a beautiful girl in a scene seemingly…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published June 5, 2015 -
Kotaku East
The Up All Night Stream Plays Summer-Colored High School [Finished]
Summer-Colored High School is a game with an insanely long name. It is also a game where you go to class, help out around school, go on dates, spend afternoons fishing… and take numerous up-skirt photos of school girls. …I may need you all for moral support to get through this one. Update: The stream…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published June 5, 2015 -
Kotaku EastIt Takes 31 Minutes to Run Across Xenoblade X’s Open World
I’ve spent a lot of time in the sprawling open world of Xenoblade Chronicles X, doing quests and just exploring. And given how much time I’ve spent running, that got me to wondering just how large the main continent was. Thus I decided to quick travel to one side of the map and run to…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published June 2, 2015 -
Kotaku East
It Takes 31 Minutes to Run Across Xenoblade X’s Open World
I’ve spent a lot of time in the sprawling open world of Xenoblade Chronicles X, doing quests and just exploring. And given how much time I’ve spent running, that got me to wondering just how large the main continent was. Thus I decided to quick travel to one side of the map and run to…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published June 2, 2015 -
Kotaku East
A Beautiful Anime Makes for Beautiful Gifs
Fate Stay/Night Unlimited Blade Works’ second season is the most beautiful anime on TV right now—if not the most beautiful of all time. So it’s time to present this visual feast in the best way I know how: (bandwidth-gobbling) animated gifs. *Note: gifs contain spoilers—like who fights who, etc. If you’re looking for more awesome…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published June 2, 2015 -
Kotaku East
Monster Strike Is The Free-To-Play Conquering Japan
Monster Strike is one of Japan’s biggest mobile games—currently raking in $3.7 million per day. And since I’ve already covered no less than two of its clones, let’s take a look at the original. Like the Danganronpa and Tokyo Ghoul smartphone games, Monster Strike is based on the game of billards—where you bounce balls on…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published June 2, 2015 -
Kotaku East
Yatterman Night Takes Campy Humor and Makes It Disturbing
Yatterman Night is a sequel to the popular 70s anime Yatterman. However, it is also far more than that. It is a story that explores just what makes a hero and why heroes are such powerful symbols—as well as how those symbols can be twisted into something horrible. Yatterman Night follows Leopard, a nine-year-old girl…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published May 29, 2015 -
Kotaku East
After 55 Hours of Xenoblade X, I Finally Got My Mecha
Then I promptly broke it. In a lot of ways, Xenoblade Chronicles X is a bit of a slog. Main story quests are few and far between—and you’ll need to level up before attempting each one. So when you’re not aimlessly exploring (which, don’t get me wrong, is by far the most enjoyable part of…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published May 29, 2015 -
Kotaku EastTen Catchy Anime Theme Songs from Spring 2015
One of the best things about each new anime season is the vast amount of new anime music that comes with it. And with so many anime this spring, there is a wealth of musical styles to enjoy. So here are ten of my favorite openings and endings—along with a few notes about why I…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published May 26, 2015 -
Kotaku EastWhat You Need to Know Before Playing the New Sword Art Online Game
Love it or hate it, there is no avoiding the fact that Sword Art Online is one of the most popular anime of the past few years. However, before you jump into the newest game tie-in, Sword Art Online: Lost Song, there’s more than a bit of lore to get caught up on first. To…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published May 26, 2015 -
Kotaku EastThe Times Mario Wasn’t a Nintendo Exclusive
When you think of Mario, you think of Nintendo. The two are linked so firmly in your mind it’s almost impossible to think that the beloved character’s games ever showed up on other systems. But it has happened—and more than once. Donkey Kong (1981-1988) The first Mario game (though he was only known as “Jumpman”…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published May 26, 2015 -
Kotaku East
The Up All Night Stream Plays Sword Art Online: Lost Song [All Done]
The second arc of Sword Art Online wasn’t exactly my favorite, but that doesn’t mean I’d pass up the chance to strap on my fairy wings and explore this (not so) online world. So why don’t you join me? Update: Livestream over, check out the full livestream below! Part 1 Watch live video from BiggestinJapan…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published May 22, 2015 -
Kotaku East
The Tokyo Ghoul Stage Play Cast All Dressed Up
These days, many popular anime and games get live action-stage play adaptations—including Tokyo Ghoul. And let me say, the cast doesn’t look half-bad in costume. Yuki Ogoe — Ken Kaneki Aya Tabata — Touka Kirishima Shogo Suzuki — Nishiki Nishio Shuto Miyazaki — Hideyoshi Nagachika Yuri Hamada — Rize Kamishiro Mitsu Murata — Uta Tomokazu…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published May 22, 2015 -
Kotaku EastA Look at Adding Mario to Non-Mario Games
This week sees the US release of Puzzle & Dragons Z + Super Mario Bros. Edition, which (as the name implies) includes a version of the addictive mobile game completely redone with Mario characters, enemies, and levels. But this is far from the first time Mario has taken over a pre-existing game. There are numerous…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published May 20, 2015 -
Kotaku East
Death Parade Is About Life, Death, and the Darkness of the Human Heart
Somewhere there exists a mysterious bar. When you arrive at it, you are forced to play a game—cards, bowling, darts, etc.—against another person. If you win, you get to leave. If you lose, however, you die. Or at least that’s what the situation appears to be. In truth, it is far different: Players are already…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published May 19, 2015 -
Kotaku EastSometimes I Leave Xenoblade X Running Just to Listen to the Music
As I write this post, Xenoblade Chronicles X is up on my TV, its music blasting from my surround sound system—just as it has been for hours. I haven’t really played the game at all today. In fact, the most I have done in the game is move my character (Kotaku-tan, naturally) to a different…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published May 19, 2015 -
Kotaku East
Maria The Virgin Witch: The Anime Review
Some of the most critically acclaimed anime share the same basic setup: A young girl on the edge of womanhood struggles as her ideals and the harsh realities of the real world collide. Take that, mix in medieval warfare, and you have Maria the Virgin Witch Set near the end of the Hundred Years War…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published May 15, 2015 -
Kotaku EastXenoblade X Lets You Launch Your Camera into the Stratosphere
I had no idea how much I wanted an RPG to let me do this until now. Xenoblade Chronicles X is not an easy game to navigate. It is simply massive and can take hours to run across. More than that, even with waypoints, it’s common to find an unclimbable mountain or area full of…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published May 15, 2015 -
Kotaku East
Five Must-Watch Anime for Spring 2015
This season there are 50 new anime on the air, so it can be more than a little difficult to know which ones to watch. But now that the season has reached its half-way point, we at Kotaku East come bearing our recommendations. Fellow Kotaku author Toshi Nakamurai and I have spent the past few…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published May 12, 2015 -
Kotaku East
Xenoblade Chronicles X is Pure Scenery Porn
Xenoblade Chronicles X may be on a system far less graphically powerful than the PS4 or Xbox One, but that doesn’t stop it from having some of the most beautiful alien scenery I’ve seen in a game. At this point, I’ve been playing Xenoblade Chronicles X for around 20 hours. And in that time, I’ve…
By Richard Eisenbeis Published May 8, 2015
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