High School of the Dead Returns

If there is one anime that people keep saying "Hey Alicia, do you know if High School of the Dead is going to get a second season? That anime is kick ass!" well... the anime was named in the question. Now I can finally answer with "possibly". Still no solid green-lit for a second season of the hit zombie anime HSoTD buuuut after a 2 year hiatus the manga is finally returning to serialization via Dragon Age manga mag in Japan. This could only mean if the manga gets popular enough, or the demand for season 2 is just so overwhelming, we could see a second season by 2014. Fingers crossed.

[source: Sankaku Complex]
[source site is NSFW]

New Vault Hunter coming to Borderlands 2

Been a while since I've found some solid news on Borderlands 2. While there has not been a confirmed level cap increase despite predictions one would arrive in March, there has been some even more interesting news circulating the net...

During a SXSW panel, Gearbox revealed 

a new vault hunter would be joining the mix:

 

 

I personally wish a level cap increase would be implemented. I have one character who has hit level 50 and one who is almost there, but most of my friends have at least 3 characters who have been at level 50 for a while. I also want some news on the next DLC but haven't seen anything for that either. Oh well.

 

I honestly hope this new character isn't another "girlfriend mode" one made to make the gaming experience easier for those who have not really played Borderlands or FPS games in general before. Only 1 of those kind of characters is needed!

Aku no Hana Anime slated for Spring

I've been reading the Flowers of Evil (aka Aku no Hana) manga lately as Vertical has been releasing it buuuuut I only have 3 of the volumes out so far. It's one of those manga that takes some used to getting when reading. Very emotional series with some deep deep character interaction that is rarely seen in manga outside of the Vertical line.

An anime adaptation is slated for release on April 6th, 2013. I haven't seen any solid trailers for it and according to animenewsnetwork the series will not be animated traditionally. I'm hoping this will help keep the creepy feel of the series!

Gintama anime Might End in March

There was a tweet that went out from Gintama's supervisor that Yorinuki Gintama-san run will end in March. The supervisor, Takamatsu thought the series would run through the summer but TV Tokyo advised him Aikatsu! is slated to take over Gintama's time slot starting April 4th... so if Gintama will still continue is up in the air at this point. The tweet has since been deleted.

Seems like a lot of bigger anime series that have been running for years now are either ending or up in the air if they will be continuing. There was a small period of time that people were speculating that Bleach would end soon as well, but nothing solid to that effect has been announced.

[source: ANN]

[PS3] Gundam Breaker

I know what you're thinking- "Why does RX-78 have Sinanju's legs?" Well Gundam enthusiast, the answer is simple. You are looking at some concept art for a new Gundam game in the works called Gundam Breaker. Instead of just recycling the age old method of making Gundam games that just feature a bunch from different universes and series, Gundam Breaker will allow you to take pieces from different Gunpla and meld them together to make a new mobile suit. How cool is that!?

Accodring to Japanator "Instead of actually controlling mobile suits, players will select from different model kits, mixing and matching parts to create a chimera of Gundams. Even cooler? Gundam Breaker allows for a huge degree of customization, from the amount of gloss you want, damage, air brush, and even decals. If you've ever enjoyed building mobile suit models, this is going to be one hell of a good time."

It's been a really long time since I've been this excited to play a Gundam game. You can bet your booties that I'll do my utmost best to get this one and review it on a future r//w[g] entry... for now I just have to wait for a demo.

[Road to Miku Day] Who are the Kagamine Twins?

Ahhh, the twin vocaloids. I honestly was not going to do them second, but my friend Ron who is a huge fan of Rin asked me to do them next so as I like to do things for people they are second in this 5 part series! They have lovely blond hair don't they?

 Len's voice was achieved by singing within the chest, while Rin's at the top of  head.

Originally following Miku there was only suppose to be a vocaloid with a low teen voice, but there was also high demand for a male voice- so Crypton Future Media (the company the creates the vocaloid software) decided to make 2 voice packs using the same voice actress. Kagamine Rin was released November 8th 2007 containing a voice bank for Len as well, but on December 3rd 2007 Len was officially unveiled. Even though the first release contained two voice banks, the program was still the same price as Miku.

The twins are modled as 14 year olds, have blond hair, Len is taller than Rin and weighs a little bit more. There are currently 3 versions of the Rin/Len software with a planned  English one on the way but there is no official release date or demos set for it.

There is a very special day coming up in El Paso Texas being hailed as Miku Day El Paso 2013 aka MD39. The event will be held on March 9th 2013 at the UTEP Hilton Garden Inn from 12-9pm.  The event is very small with a few Miku related events. It is only $5 to attend. For more info, be sure to visit the event page.

Rin and Len are featured in all 3 of the concerts that will be showing at MD39 El Paso!

[Road to Miku Day] Who is Gumi?

Hello my nettaversers! There is a very special day coming up in El Paso Texas being hailed as Miku Day El Paso 2013 aka MD39. The event will be held on March 9th 2013 at the UTEP Hilton Garden Inn from 12-9pm.  The event is very small with a few Miku related events. It is only $5 to attend. For more info, be sure to visit the event page.

While there will not be many events centered around Gumi during El Paso MD39, I decided to start this Road to Miku Day series with her because it seems she is the lesser known vocaloid even though there is an English version being worked on which will be the first official English speaking vocaloid available! Due solely to that I am honestly surprised she isn't that well known.

According to the vocaloid wiki "Gumi is an official mascot character of Megpoid  which is a singing synthesizer application software powered by Yamaha's Vocaloid2 and was published by INTERNET Co.,Ltd." This means while she is not part of the original series of vocaloid characters like Miku is, she is still a vocaloid. Megapoid was first released June 25, 2009 with an extended version released in 2010 and version 3 in 2011.

A version of Gumi's Vocaloid2 voice bank is being worked on for a Vocaloid3 revamp which had a planned release in 2012 but has not been seen. On the other hand her English version was released on February 28th 2013- being dubbed the "English Meapoid". This version of Gumi is the first English speaking Vocaloid; containes 5x the amount a Japanese vocaloid bank usually has and is the first in a series of vocaloid released for the Trans-Pacific campaign. The first sample of Gumi's English voice bank can be found here.

The Vocaloid2 version ceased sale on March 15th 2012.

Evangelion Manga Possibly Ending at the end of 2013

Kadokawa Shoten's Young Ace magazine (where the Evangelion manga is serialized) confirmed that Yoshiyuki Sadamoto will resume Neon Genesis Evangelion in the April 4th issue after his one month break from drawing the series. Sadamoto stated in a side bar of his series that he is "working hard until the very end of the manga... this year." Could this mean the Evangelion manga will be ending December 2013? The only real way to know is to wait til the end of the year.

Volume 13 of the Neon Genesis Evengelion manga shipped simultaneously to Japan, the United States and other countries on November 2, 2012.

[Source: ANN]

[PSVita] PSO2 Vita Ads

This news is a little old. On Friday Sega Japan began streaming some Vita trailers for Phantasy Star Online 2. These trailers show that the Vita version can support up to 12 players at one time for co-op play. This is pretty cool considering most PSP co-op games couldn't support more than 4:

From ANN:

"Sega released the game on the PS Vita in Japan on Thursday. The software download is free, and the game is free to play, although some in-game items have fees. There is also a Phantasy Star Online 2 Special Package sold with exclusive item codes released on the same day for 5,229 yen (about US$58).

Sega launched Phantasy Star Online 2 for Windows last summer. Sega will also release the game for iOS/Android smartphone devices, but the release has been delayed until this year to raise product quality. The game is free-to-play across all platforms."

Fairy Tale Anime Run Ends Early

Sad news for Fairy Tale fans, the anime adaptation has an end date of March 30th, 2013 which means at most there will be only 3 more episodes. This means the anime will "end" at 175 episodes... which is really early considering this series is pretty much Rave Master crossed with One Piece; also take into considering the manga which started in 2006 is still ongoing.

I have to wonder what this says about the state of anime these days... There has been speculation that Bleach will be ending prematuraley as well... but at this point that is still just a rumor but with Fairy Tale which is a much more meaty series ending so early who's to say other, bigger series aren't going to meet an early end as well?

Mashima posted a statement to fans on his official Twitter feed on Saturday:

"Until the time comes, I cannot say something I've always wanted to say, even on Twitter. Please be patient and wait until the time comes for me to announce some good news."

[source: ANN]

[AOW] Inu x Boku SS (3/3-9/2013)

There's nothing super special about Inu x Boku Secret Service. It has that whole butler element mixed with almost boss falls for worker feel... but I can't really describe the series all that well as I'm currently on episode 5. Usually I give a series 5 episodes before dropping it but this one is hard to decide if I want to keep watching it or not (and I also picked back up Mirai Nikki since it is finished) so I decided might as well feature is as AOW and have it be the first one for my new image labeling lol

Type: Manga Adaptation

Genre(s): Comedy, Shounen, Supernatural

# of Episodes: 12

Synopsis:

The Shirakiin house's daughter, Shirakiin Ririchiyo, who has a complex about being unable to live independently and unprotected, feels the need to move out and live on her own under the condition of residing in the mansion named "Ayakashi Kan." In this mansion, only those who have cleared a very strict examination could reside in it, and for each resident, they are accompanied with one agent of the Secret Service (S.S.). Although Riricho has rejected the company of the S.S., while residing in the mansion she finds out that the agent dedicated to protecting her is actually the Fox Spirit.