sola heads Japan's list of favorite 2007 anime?!

Matsuri, YOU'RE WINNER!

Yeah, it's so shocking it's worth stealing and reposting from Danny Choo's barely five-minute-old post. I happen to get on the internet at just the right time, I suppose.

Anyways, according to Danny Choo the results from about 2 million Japanese ballots are in, and everyone's favorite tomato-juice-drinking, sky-photographing show apparently grabbed the top spot by an overwhelming margin, with over 340,000 votes to runner-up Lucky Star's 140,000. The full standings are as follows:

1) sola
2) Lucky Star
3) Katei Kyoshi Hitman Reborn
4) Ookiku Furi Kabutte
5) Higurashi
6) Gintama
7) Nanoha StrikerS
8) Nanatsuiro Drops
9) Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
10) Hidamari Sketch

Really curious, if you ask me. It makes me wonder (as I commented on over there) what the criteria were to be eligible, as many big-name shows that ended this year, like Kanon and Gurren Lagann among other things, are nowhere to be seen.

I'm pleasantly surprised to see sola up there at the top - it was one of the shows I enjoyed greatly this season, despite it having a few glaring flaws. Still, to have it top all with nary a moe show (or even very many manly shows) in sight is quite perplexing. Makes you curious what the polling audience was in Japan - random people off the street? 2ch visitors? Any certain demographic?

It makes me wonder again of the divides present in anime fandom; it's apparent to many that anime that casual or inexperienced U.S. fans watch (typically shonen), and anime that hardcore English bloggers watch (all over the board, but a lot more moe, mecha, and dramatic) are worlds apart, but is there a second difference in taste between the anime fanatics on both sides of the Pacific? And is there a similar, 'casual' anime division in Japan that is looked down upon?

And which one was the most vocal in this vote? All food for thought, speaking as a relatively new member to the anime community.

Regarding that and the rest of the list, I guess this means I can't tout sola and NanaDrops as 'underrated anime that no one's heard of', as I've been out to do of recently. I do enjoy playing a show's (advertising) knight in shining armor too much.

Lucky Star was popular, as expected from a slice-of-life on moe crack (lemme tell you, them's good crack too), and I'm happy to see SZS up there on the list as well. This list also reinforces my idiocy as the only person left on Earth who hasn't waxed poetic about Hidamari Sketch as well...time to put that back on the list.

Would like to see the rest of the list, but that's probably not possible.

-CCY
(Obvious thanks to Danny Choo for the news.)

Melty Blood Act Cadenza Sequel Confirmed!

For a while it was up in the air between the previous news (broken in the preview for the Novemeber issue of Japanese magazine Tougeki Damashii) of a possible sequel to the hit 2D fighter and the consequent removal of the title from the preview page, but now it's confirmed:

Hot meido-on-unlucky-osananajimi action is back, baby.



OK, maybe that is a bit of a stretch for the purpose of random innuendo but the fact of the matter does remain that the Tsukihime universe does contain a lot of seemingly-cliche characters that actually are pretty in-depth and have emotional storylines ... which is why we're having them fight to the death. Or something.

I'm sure there's some sort of reason that could be understood if I could read Japanese but the point still remains that Melty Blood remains one of my favorite 2D fighter series if only because it's one that leans more towards the pick-up-and-play end, with only 3 attack buttons and a shield to worry about.

As such 90% of the attacks can actually be pulled off by someone with little experience to the game; the movesets are relatively simple and as always the combo potential is still very complex, which is evidenced by the fact that I get completely wiped whenever I try to play someone over the age of 10.

Still, 2D fighters have always had sort of an appeal since they are one of the "cooler-looking" genres; if you've ever seen some of the special moves in Melty Blood, you know what I mean. (Sacchin's Blood Heat Arc vs. Shiki, or Ciel's Seventh Holy Scripture)

Or, maybe I like this game because it is with established characters, and it is always win to see and hear Hisui & Kohaku being Hisui & Kohaku.

And now, Hisui can actually moe people to death. Almost.

Rant aside, here's what's new in "Actress Again", from what I've read:
- 2 new characters, Riesbyfe Stridberg (she shows up in one of Sion's Arc Drives, the rest is Japanese to me) and Roa (Far Side version)
- New character select art
- Some new "Guard Crash/Crush" system (this is probably why I keep losing)
- More than one playing style per character
- "5 buttons;" whether this includes shield / heat activation buttons, I don't know.
- More Nasu-tastic storylines

Sounds good so far, although a lot of it is lost on a casual player like me. Look forward to more news on this sequel coming to arcades in 2008 (and hopefully to a home release too.)

-CCY
(Thanks to Beast's Lair for the news.)

Melty Blood Act Cadenza 2 in the works?

That's right. Not version B2 (the PC version of Act Cadenza), but supposedly a full-fledged sequel.

According to the preview of Tougeki Damashii's (a Japanese magazine devoted to fighting games) October 31 issue, there's going to be some news on this mysterious sequel-sounding game in just a few weeks.

Commence hyperventilating until then.

If you're not familiar with Melty Blood, it's a 2D fighter based on the Tsukihime universe. So if you like Tsukihime, Melty Blood is high amount of win, and if you don't, it's still a pretty solid, relatively easy-to-pick-up 2D fighter (only 3 attack buttons and one shield, attack input is simple, most complex attack is a half-circle forward).

Look forward to more news come Halloween.

-CCY
(Thanks to the guys at Beast's Lair for the news)

ONE ~Kagayaku Kisetsu e~ English Patch Released!

Welcome your new Key (Tactics) visual novel overlords. Do it.

So yeah, the English patch for one of first (big?) visual novels released by the famous producers of AIR and Kanon was released earlier this month here.

ONE has always been one of those blank spots in many Key fans' histories mainly because there was no anime or major translation previously produced for it outside of what I've been told is a very shoddy OVA (one hentai, one non-hentai) produced a few years ago. Now it's time to figure out all those strange characters that you may only be acquainted with through doujin games like Eternal Fighter Zero (another excellent 2D fighter featuring Key characters).

So, uh, yeah, get to it if that's your thing. Eternal gratitude to the producers of the patch, and looking forward to a good read.

-CCY

(Mio Kouzuki image stolen from this Japanese site)

Oh my God they killed Tsukasa

Just a short newspost for today, since it's something I heard of off the AnimeSuki forums and haven't seen much news about recently (maybe since it's originally two months old, anyway, but right now is prime time for Lucky Star).

Short story shorter, the Lucky Star bandwagon marches on as the manga and quite popular anime marches on to conquest it's next media form...books. The Lucky Star light novel, "Lucky☆Star Satsujin Jiken" (Lucky Star Murder Case) is due to be released on September 1st.

Certainly it seems like odd material for the lighthearted slice-of-life show but this probably means we'll either get a parody or another Remote Island Syndrome setup. It's certainly an interesting and altogether different premise and I look forward to seeing how the Lucky Star characters fare in a more...drawn-out storyline.

And in case you haven't put together the pieces from the title and the text, take a closer look at the snapshots in the cover art. Yeah. Might be Yutaka on the right too. Man, they kill off all the innocent naive characters? Those are the funniest.

Still, I look forward to seeing just how the false murder mystery plot is going to get pulled off - not to mention who's behind it (Miyuki. You know it.). I say false perhaps out of knowledge of the tone for the series - and for the fact that if it's not, I'll be the first with a pitchfork.

-CCY