We are now about halfway through the Spring anime season of 2013, and for weeks now I have been bombarded with the question, “What anime should I be watching this season?” Well, with a good chunk of episodes under my belt from many of the different series, I feel it’s now safe to answer that…
For the past three weeks, Tomodachi Collection: New Life has been the best-selling game in Japan—and in its first week, the best-selling game in the world. When I picked it up, I knew next to nothing about it. I had heard that it was a sequel to the Japan-only DS title Tomodachi Collection and played…
I’ve never really cared too much about Miis. I never even made one for my Wii or 3DS—hell, I’ve never even opened Street Pass. The only reason I made a Mii for my Wii U was because it was part of making an online account. But then I picked up Tomodachi Collection: New Life for…
When I picked up Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus: The Girls’ Proof for my Vita, I was filled with existential dread. I knew very little about the game itself going in, but after watching the anime based on this game series in preparation for my playthrough, I was more than a little worried. For the most…
Each year, Japan produces dozens of live-action drama series. While some are original, many are instead adaptations of popular manga—and even, occasionally, games. Such is the case with the first CLAMP live-action adaptation: xxxHolic Good – Beautiful Costumes and Visuals If there is one thing CLAMP is known for, it’s beautiful visuals in its manga.…
Japanese games are well known for targeting a straight male audience with their overly sexualized (i.e., incredibly busty and scantily clad or moé) female characters. In some games, this fan service is the entire game’s focus. Of course, while fan service tends to be aimed toward males, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t games with…
Sexual fan service is hardly a new aspect of anime. While the most obvious are panty shots and boob bounces, few anime come without a shower scene, beach episode, or hot springs episode where the female characters—and sometimes even the male ones—are shown off in all their near-naked glory. But occasionally, there comes an anime…
Library Wars, a new live action movie based on the anime and novel series of the same name, was released in theaters across Japan just over a week ago. It is everything from a war story to a light-hearted romantic comedy. But at its core, it remains an excellent social commentary on the dangers of…
In the past, the Senran Kagura series of games have been brawlers exclusive to the 3DS. But the newest iteration on the PlayStation Vita makes the game play more like Dissidia: Final Fantasy than an old school brawler or its 3DS cousins. But brawler gameplay is hardly the aspect Senran Kagura is famous for. No,…
When One Piece: Pirate Warriors was released on the PS3, I found myself playing it and enjoying it—despite having next to no knowledge about the source material. In other words, going in, I had never seen so much as an episode of One Piece—though I seem to remember having seen one of the movies on…
Nearly a year ago, I talked about what it was like to play One Piece: Pirate Warriors without any foreknowledge of the massive One Piece franchise. In summary:everything seemed like pure, unmitigated insanity And thanks to the way it jumped through the series’ story at a breakneck speed, it wasn’t easy to follow either. Overall,…
The first time I saw a Dynasty Warriors game, it was when I walked into the TV room of my high school dorm. I had left my PS2 out for the others in the dorm to play (loaded with Final Fantasy X) and was surprised to see a friend playing Dynasty Warriors 2 instead. It…
Richard: Today, myself and fellow Kotaku author Toshi Nakamura are here to look at the recently released movie sequel to the 2011 Steins;Gate anime: Steins;Gate: The Burden of Déjà Vu Toshi: Which was in turn based on a very successful visual novel. Richard: I very much enjoyed the anime series, saying it “might be the…
Growing up, I was a very thin kid. Thanks to an amazingly high metabolism, I could eat anything I wanted, as much as I wanted and never gain weight. Once I did nothing but eat junk food and play games over winter break in high school and lost 5 pounds—dropping me to 119 pounds. My…
Like most shonen anime and manga, One Piece is filled to the brim with crazy attacks and special moves. But what would these attacks be if they weren’t all given names to be shouted at maximum volume whenever said attack is used? With everything from the Gum Gum Elephant Gun to the Mirage Tempo: Fata…
This coming weekend, Japan will see the release of the new Steins;Gate movie, Steins;Gate: The Burden of Déjà Vu So in preparation for this film—and because of the numerous recommendations I received when reviewing the pseudo-sequel Robotics;Notes—I sat down and watched the visual novel-based 2011 anime this last week. And not only was it one…
JRPGs are often a dime a dozen in Japan but late last December, Level 5 released Fantasy Life for the Nintendo 3DS in Japan (which experienced shortages in its first week on sale). And what is it about Fantasy Life that sets it apart from the crowd? It’s that the game mixes the adventure of…
When it comes to gaming, RPGs represent the pinnacle of storytelling with games like Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, Mass Effect, Skyrim, and Earthbound. While many games from many different genres do indeed have compelling stories, storytelling, more than any other facet, is what RPGs are known for. But despite this, RPGs always seem to…
Back when I looked at the first half of Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic earlier this year, I was impressed by the amount of creativity present in the anime—in everything from its art design to how it re-imagined a literary classic. While much of the adventure and creativity finds its way into the second half,…
Level 5’s newest game Fantasy Life is a whole new take on the JRPG genre. In the vast majority of RPGs, you play as either a magic user or a melee/ranged fighter killing every living creature you come across. But while you can still play as combat classes like a knight or a mage in…
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