This is something I have wanted to post for a while, my reviews on Japanese, Korean, Thai and any other asian horror movies.  So I decided that I would start from the top, with the first Japanese horror movie I remember watching, ‘The RIng’ or ‘Ringu’.

I remember watching it downstairs with my sister, late at night, with the volume down low so that my mother didn’t know.  It was so creepy and eerie…unlike the US adaptation.  There was just something different about it, I was used to watching horror movies, but Ringu was like somehting I had never seen before.  the story, the style, the concept, everything was completely different to US and UK theatre, and that was where my interest began.

The creepy thing about watching Ringu, is it actually makes you believe that there is a possibility of this being a true story, it is told as though it was from a newspaper headline.  So, of course, when my mobile rang just at the end of the film, I was very reluctant to answer until I saw the callers ID…phew!

The synposis for Ringu is:

Investigating the inexplicable, near-simultaneous deaths of her young niece and three teenage friends, reporter Asakawa (Nanako Matsushima) learns of a story about a supernaturally cursed video-tape circulating among school kids. As soon as anyone has watched the tape, allegedly recorded by mistake from a dead TV channel, the telephone rings and the viewer has exactly a week to live. Those doomed are invisibly marked, but their images are distorted if photographed. Inevitably, Asakawa gets hold of the tape and watches it. The enigmatic collage of images include a coy woman combing her hair in a mirror, an old newspaper headline about a volcanic eruption, a hooded figure ranting, people crawling and a rural well. When the phone rings (a memorably exaggerated effect), Asakawa is convinced that the curse is active and calls in her scientist ex-husband Ryuji (Hiroyuki Sanada) to help. He watches a copy of the video a day after Asakawa is exposed and willingly submits himself to the curse. Even more urgency is added to their quest when their young son is unwittingly duped, apparently by the mystery woman from the tape, into watching the video too, joining the queue for a supernatural death.

So if you like your horror movies and want something different, the DVD of Ringu can be picked up for as cheap as £3.50, which is a bargain ^_^

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I recently purchased the popular and ground breaking anime Paprika.  For those of you who don’t know about this anime, it was recently (semi) released into the UK after its long awaited release.

The animation style is ground-breaking, and once you have watch Paprika, you can fully understand why it was so awaited.  It’s just brilliant and beautiful, it really is, so much so, that can’t even really begin to tell you about it, so here is the synopsis:

The visually striking thriller is set in the not-too-distant future, where doctors are developing a groundbreaking new psychotherapy treatment called PT. This coincides with the invention of a device called the ‘DC Mini,’ which enables researchers to enter the dreams of a subject and explore matters of the unconscious mind. But one day, a ‘DC Mini’ prototype goes missing, and the doctors are thrown into a world of confusion. They realize how dangerous a turn of events this could be, and to ensure that things don’t spiral out of control, they embark on a mad quest to track down the missing prototype.

So anyway, any anime fan must see this film, it’s one of those few films that more or less everyone loves and appreciates!

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Just today I got my copy of House of the Dead on the Nintendo Wii from my beloved Amazon again.  I know, I love games too much, but now that I purchase all such goods online, I can afford to.

For those of you who don’t know, House of the Dead is a first person shooter, where you, and a team mate should you desire so, blast your way through hoards  of flesh eating zombies…so basically, just good fun.

The reason I decided to buy the game is because recently I have spent a lot of money down at the arcades at my local cinema, playing House of the Dead…and this way I save LOADS of money ^_^ - that’s what I like to hear.

Also, for those who care, you can buy it now on Amazon.co.uk for under £25, which to be honest, is a steal compared to the prices on the highstreet.  GAME and most other video games outlets are selling it for £30.

House of the Dead is one of the best shooter arcade games that you can buy, and the use of the Wii-Remote has been well implemented in this latest release of the game (which includes House of the Dead 2 and 3!).

So if you want to scare your partner, or if you just want to take out your boom-stick and pebble dash zombies all over the floor, this game is definitely the one for you.

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I recently purchased a game called Folklore from Amazon, after having had my PS3 a year, and successfully owning only four games.

Given the fact that Folklore was a PS3 exclusive game, my natural instinct was to assume that it would be a horrendous, monotonous excuse of a game.  However, I was pleasantly suprised when I got to actually playing the game.

See Folklore actually plays like the Broken Sword games, which are brilliant…and that’s not just my opinion, its the opinion of thousands…millions…of gamers worldwide.  Now, as with any game, Folklore has its faults, for example, the fact that most of the talking between characters is text, something, that as a programmer and a gamer, I believe shouldn’t exist in next-gen games.

However, having played Folklore for a good few hours, I can tell you that it is actually a good game, suprisingly so.  It was even voted best of E3 by IGN…if that means anything to anyone.

The problem I have with games these days are that if you go into a store for a game, they are ridiculously expensive, thats why i have boycotted shopping in favour of online shopping.  I can’t even begin to think how much money I have saved over the past few months from online shopping. For starters, Folklore cost me all of £29…and thats cos I bought it new.  I even got FFXII on the DS for £12…what a steal!

So for you PS3 owners out there, that fancy something different from the usual games already released (and to kill time before MGS4 comes out), I would seriously advise you to go and check out Folklore, its affordable and a good, enjoyable play.

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I have been looking on the net and trying my best to find a cool anime site, but most of the ones I found were run by people who have NO idea about anime at all…they just wanted to make a site…people like that annoy me.

Anyhow, after hours of searching I found this really cool wesbite called Anime Exchange.  Its a top notch website, that has its own 4Chan style image board, a video wall, where you can shard your own vids, or vids you find on youtube, and just loads of stuff.  I was actually pleasantly suprised by the site.  You can even customise your area.

I have even been on the forum and spoken to the admins of Anime Exchange and they seem to know what they are talking about, a nice change if you ask me.  And they always seem to reply, something most forums these days lack, that bit of a personal touch.

I found out that they also have their own store, where they sell anime and video games merchandise.  They said it was at an affordable price, so I took a look, and it actually is.  They have these Final Fantasy figures that I have been wanting to buy for AGES, but couldn’t afford cos most places sell them for £20 a piece, but they have them for like £14!!!

So, I spent all my spare money at the Anime Exchange Store -_-; which, yes, sucks, but I have some cool new collectables coming in the post.  Awesome….I love Final Fantasy ^_^ - it makes me happy!

So for all you anime fans out there who are sick of getting ripped off cos of our hobby, check this place out and see for yourself what you think of the site.  Maybe even drop a private message to the admin and see just how real these people are.

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The Yaoi Jamboree convention has announced that the Shōnen-ai manga artists Eiki Eiki and Mikiyo Tsuda will be attending its inaugural June 20-22 event in Phoenix, Arizona. Eiki Eiki created and drew ‘Dear Myself”, ‘The Art of Loving’, ‘World’s End’, and other popular manga titles. Tsuda created ‘The Day of Revolution’, ‘Family Complex’, and ‘Princess Princess’ (pictured left).

Digital Manga Publishing, which is responsible for the release or the announcement of all the above titles except Color in North America, is sponsoring the two artists’ appearance.  Tsuda also co-created ‘Color’ and other manga with Eiki under her other pen name, Taishi Zaou. In fact the two creators share a website called Kozouya.

Yaoi Press, the sponsor of Yaoi Jamboree, is also hosting le Perrugine, the two Italian artists who draw the ‘Winter Demon’ series and created the Cain graphic novel trilogy

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Right Stuf interviews ‘Emma’ Manga creator Kaoru Mori.

The North American distributor and retailer Right Stuf, has included a two-page interview with the creator of the popular manga ‘Emma’, Kaoru Mori, in its Spring 2008 catalogue. The catalogue is available as a downloadable 16-megabyte PDF-format file which is completely free.

Kaoru Mori describes her lifelong interest with Victorian England, her thoughts on the anime adaptation, and what she thinks when she looks back at her six years devoted to the manga. Right Stuf is offering the first season of the anime series on June 24, and CMX Manga is releasing the original manga version in North America.

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The computer software, Hatsune Miku Virtual Idol, has hit the number 1 spot on Amazon!

Crypton Future Media is promoting its new Hatsune Miku virtual idol software that makes human singers obsolete. It allows musicians to inject the voice of their self styled 16-year-old pop idol into any melody and sing the lyrics to any song they choose.

Voice actress Saki Fujita (Tokimeki Memorial) provided the model voice for the program. The software ranked in 1st place in Amazon Japan’s top software sales rankings as of September, 10th and sales have just increased since then. The achievement is very unusual for DTM (Desktop Music) package. Retail stocks of the software are said to be extremely low and in many places are completely depleted!

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The live action Death Note movie could be coming to the UK some time soon.

According to the BBFC wesbite (for those unfamiliar with this, this is the certificate board who set the age limits on games, fils etc), the company  ILC Entertainment (’ILC Prime’ are known for their low budget UK anime DVD releases) are planning to release the first live action Death Note movie here in the UK. Also, tit is suggested that it has been awareded a 12A certificate which suggests that it may have a theatrical run (limited) for the movie as the 12A  certificate rating is only awarded to films set to be released in UK cinemas. The BBFC page for Death Note suggests that they expect it to "open" on the 25th of April.

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Atari and FUNimation Announce Next Chapter in DBZ Video Game Series

Attention all Dragonball Z fans: Atari and FUNimation have announced the latest chapter in DBZ next generation video games. Dubbed Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit, the new game is being developed for both XBox 360 and Playstation 3.

Burst Limit is the latest in a long line of DBZ video games that includes Budokai Tenkaichi 3 (PS2), Harukanaru Densentsu (DS)and Super Dragonball Z (PS2).

But Burst Limit has something its predecessors doesn’t - amazing 3D graphics that can only be experienced by next generation play systems.

"Atari is excited and ready to offer fans the next iteration of the Dragon Ball Z video game series on the next-gen consoles," said Donny Clay, Producer, Atari, Inc., in a recent press release. "With explosive cinematic graphics and online gameplay, fans of the series and of the fighting genre will surely enjoy Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit."

The new game will feature online battle capabilities, graphically enhanced playable characters and a realistic battle environment.

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