As an anime fan, I realise that there is more to us than just anime.  Most of us ar attracted to games such as Final Fantasy, Resident Evil and many other games.  In fact, most people that I know that play Final Fantasy games, also love anime.  So this is why I write this about the new Resident Evil 5 game.

Resident Evil 5 seems to be based in a poor African country and a devestating disease has been released into the environment.  Chris Redfield, as usual, is caught in the middle of it all just as everything seems to kick off.

The ‘Zombies’ in this game are more like those in Resident Evil 4 with Leon, than the traditional zombies from previous games.  However, from the short videos that I have seen of this game, these ‘Zombies’ do have some kind of supernatural aspect to them.  They have very strange mouths that split open into  three and hold an tongue that is about 7ft in length…weird.

Anyway, aside from how cool this game looks, there has been much conflict over the fact that the game is based in an African country  as this apparently makes the game racist.  Apparently, if you come from anywhere but Africa, and then make a game that is based there, then you too are racist.  The thing is though, I have no idea as to how they can even say this! 

Resident Evil 4 is based in some Western European village, where the people speak some kind of French sounding language.  However, this game was made by (probably) the Japanese and Americans, however, those of us from the EU never complained saying that it was racist to have Leon going  around killing ‘Our People’.  The whole concept of people making a game because of their opinion on races is rediculous.

But whatever, they are trying to ban this game at the moment because of this, though we know that they wont succeed…if the did, then the people that banned it, must be a bunch of monkeys incapable of intellectual thought and individual opinions.

This game is not set to come out until the middle of next year, so far the date is about August 2009.

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I recently put some episodes of Final Fantasy Unlimted (the unlicensed version) onto outube, and im not kidding when I say it took me all day.  I literally had to seperate the video file into threee just so that YouTube could accept it, then I had to wait for God knows how long whilst the episode uploaded.

So, after taking part in this monotonous activity I decided it would be so much easier, if I created like my own tv channel, here on Anime Zone Central…so that’s what I’m going to do.  If i get enough hits to my site within the next week, I will upload some of my fan subbed anime for the pleasure of others.

And yes, this is completely legal, as fan subbed anime is unlicensed in the US and UK, and is therefore completely legal for me to distribute until the licenses are created.

So please, join my site, leavge me comments telling me what FULL EPISODES you would like me to upload, and ill try and get them all done for some time next week.

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Many of you may know of the yu-gi-oh anime series…but how many of you know about the internet parody that is taking the world by storm?  What is this parody you may ask?  Well, as the title of this blog suggests, it’s yu-gi-oh the abridged series, and its awesome!

I have been watching this series since it first began, and have been amused by the antics of the characters.  The voice acting is brilliant to say the least, and in some cases, these characters sound pretty much like those in the anime, so thats one talented individual right there.  the stories never fail to be amusing, even the random 2 minute ones, so its definitely worth checking out.

Also, the whole point of this parody is to basically put an episode of yu-gi-oh into 6 mins, cutting out all the irrelevant drivvel (of which there are tons) and inserting amazing comedic value to an otherwise attrotious story.

So check it out, and support this young guy a she could really go far.

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Like most anime fans round the globe, I have a real interest in Anime Fan Art.  I enjoy seeing how people can take someone else’s work of art, and make it their own by adding their own style to the character and scene.
 

So because I like Fan Art, I ask, would anyone like to submit some of their artwork to me for me to upload onto the site?  If so, please jsut email me some of your artwork to my email address kristen.b@rghout.com and I will get back to you as soon as posible.
 

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Well, it’s been a long time coming, but I have finally managed to finish this awesome game. Now, don’t get me wrong, as with many released games, this has its flaws, but to be honest, there aren’t many that I can think of. To begin with, we are taken to the extraordinary world of Eternal Sonata, full of beauty, and introduced to our characters and the first inclings of a story.

Now, as I have mentioned previously, this game is beautiful…not in the same way as Bioshock is, where you dont know where the cutscene ends and where the games begin, but in an "oh my God, I think I may cry" kind of way. Not only are the characters textured to look truly as though you are watching an anime, but they are in there is all their HD glory, with cell shading to boot, however, the jaw droppingly gorgeous scenery is the thing that impressed me the most. Now i’m an animator and a concept artist, but these are possibly the most impressive thig I have ever seen in my life.

But a game can’t rely on graphics alone, and this one surely doesn’t. When I initiated my first battle, and was introduced to this weird ‘real-time’ and turn-based battle system, I couldn’t help but look back at Final Fantasy XII and think that this wasn’t going to be fun (don’t get me wrong, I love FFXII, but why mess with perfection?" however, I was pleasantly suprised. The game relies on you moving around the enemies and attacking, however the best thing is, that depending on the lighting you are in whilst commencing your attack, the attack chages. For example, if in the light and you use a special ability, you may heal yourself and your party, but when in dark you unleash a ridiculously powerful magick attack.

Then there is the engrossing story, and the weird, yet interesting pieces of history, real history we are told about the character Chopin…and in fact the actual guy. I actually watched all these scenes simply as found them compelling, and I guess it developed the character in the game too…interesting style, not even one that would work with most games, and it barely works with this, but somehow I believe it has succeeded in achieving its goal.

Now for the bad parts…what were they? Probably the worst thing about this game is the near to last level…its jsut too long. In fact, it was so long I gave up after a while and decided to play Lost Odyssey instead…hence why I have only just completed the game now. But don’t let this bother you, the only reason i quit was because I had to go to work and couldn’t play for 2 hours in one row. And the proof is that I actually went back to play it ^_^ - it’s a positive thing. But thats about the only negative thing I can actually think to say about this game, other than, for me, a hardcore RPG gamer, it was a tad easy in places, but I didn’t care.

In fact, I cant even complain about the voice acting, as in actual fact it was good…even had the person who voiced Izzy in Digimon doing one of the characters. So if you have some money spare, I suggest you try and pick this game up, a lot of places are selling this for around £25 now, which is a bargain for such an awesome game!

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New York Anime Festival (NYAF) has announced on Saturday that it will host acclaimed artist and character designer Yoshitaka Amano during the September 26-28 convention at New York City’s Jacob Javitz Center. NYAF programming manager Peter Tatara made the announcement at New Jersey’s AnimeNEXT convention.

Amano designed characters in Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, Shinzo Ningen Casshan, Time Bokan, Yatterman, Vampire Hunter D, Genesis Climber Mospeada, and other anime. He gained additional fame by creating the conceptual artwork for various videogames in the Final Fantasy series and drew the original illustrations in the Vampire Hunter D, The Heroic Legend of Arslan, and Guin Saga novels. He created or co-created several more animated works, such as the surreal Angel’s Egg film, the Fantascope ~tylostoma~ and Tori no Uta videos, and the whimsical Yasai no Yousei - N.Y. Salad television series. An anime is planned for his recent Mateki: The Magic Flute book, a re-imagining of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s classic opera. He splits his time between Tokyo and New York, and recently had solo exhibitions in Los Angeles, Geneva, Hong Kong, and Berlin.

NYAF already announced that it is hosting Vampire Hunter D creator Hideyuki Kikuchi and his novel translator Kevin Leahy.

Thanks to Anime News Network for the info

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The "Post-War Japanese Shōnen and Shōjo Magazine Database" has launched on the Internet on Monday with Japanese listings for 1,221 magazines. The database is split into two parts: "The Era of Post-War Shōnen and Shōjo Magazines and Monthly Magazines" covers 24,841 volumes of 619 magazines with about 200,000 works from 1945 to 1962, while "The Era of Shōnen and Seinen Magazines and Weekly Magazines" covers 5,488 volumes of 602 magazines with about 173,452 issues from 1955 to 2007. For example, the first section lists 1908-1955’s Shōjo no Tomo text and manga magazine. The second section lists last year’s defunct Comic Charge magazine and 1,200 manga titles and features that have appeared in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine. (The 1,200 listings only represent part of Shonen Jump’s manga and features — more are being added to the database.)

The Contemporary Manga Library, Kawasaki City Museum、and the Japan Society for Studies in Cartoon and Comics oversaw the development of this database. There are different levels of access to the data, ranging from no-charge browsing to an annual 6,000-yen (about US$60) "Course C" fee for individual subscribers and an annual 380,000 yen (about US$3,800) "Course A" fee from complete access. (Academic institutions and public libraries have discounted fees.) Browsers can look up a magazine’s company, publishing dates, volume count, manga titles, and authors in the database’s second half without charge. Paid subscribers can access information about individual issues, editorial staff, price, and details about color inserts. Paid subscribers can also search by keyword.

source: animeanime.jp

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IMAGI Studios has announced that Summit Entertainment (Michael Clayton, American Pie, Babel) will release its 2009 computer-graphics film adaptation of Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy manga worldwide except in Japan, Hong Kong, and China. IMAGI itself will handle the distribution in those three regions.

IMAGI Studio also announced that the cast now includes Oscar-winning actor Nicolas Cage (Leaving Las Vegas, The Rock, National Treasure), Donald Sutherland (M*A*S*H, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Dirty Sexy Money), Nathan Lane (The Lion King, The Producers, The Birdcage), Bill Nighy (Love Actually, Underworld, Pirates of the Caribbean) and Eugene Levy (A Mighty Wind, American Pie, Curious George). As previously announced, Freddie Highmore (Finding Neverland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Arthur and the Invisibles) will play the title role of Astro Boy, a robot abandoned by its inventor and raised by a kind professor to protect the world.

Space Jam’s Timothy Harris is writing the film, and Flushed Away’s David Bowers is directing. Warner Bros. Pictures and The Weinstein Company were previously announced as the film’s global distributors, but no new word has been given on their current status on the project.

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I recently wrote about the upcoming Transformers convention taking place in Birmingham on 2nd August 2008, and it is because of this that I have decided to keep you updated as to the status of the New Transformers Movie, which currently has a suggested name of Revenge Of The Fallen.

Michael Bay has even suggested that there are going to be even more robots, and has hinted at a minimum of 10 robots per team (Autobot and Decepticons) so thats quite cool.  Also, Jazz is back despite his death at the hands of Megatron.  We know this simpy because the voice actor Darius McCrary has been seen on the Transformers 2 set.

Little is known as to the actual plot of the movie, however, ‘the Fallen’ are meant to be another race of Robots that were originally mentioned in the G1 comics…or so my partner informs me.  I must inform you that he keeps up to date with everything Transformers related, and that he is to credit for finding much of the informationI relay to you today.

There are also a number of actors that have been confirmed for the movie, and some that are rumoured.  I list them all below with their status and characters they are portraying:

Megan Fox - Mikaela Banes

Shia LeBeouf - Sam Witwicky

Rainn Wilson - College Professor

John Turturro - Agent Simmons

Josh Duhamel - Captain Lenox

Jon Voight - John Keller (Rumoured)

Tyrese Gibson - USAF Tech Sergeant Epps

Matthew Marsden - Graham

Peter Cullen - Optimus Prime (Voice)

Darius McCrary - Jazz (Voice) (Rumoured)

Isabel Lucas - Alice (Rumoured)

Ramon Rodriguez - Leo (Rumoured)

As soon as any more information comes available to me I will update you with another blog, until then, watch this space…and watch the stars…how corny was that???

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Sorry that I havent been writing for a while, but I have had an unbelieveable amount of stuff to do relating to my real life, job and house.

Anyhow, despite all this I couldnt not tell you about this awesome news I have…and yes, that sentence is correct and is meant to be a double negative for all you brainiacs out there ^_^.

Anyhow, after waiting months for my tickets to come through, I finally received my confirmation slip for the Auto Assembly transformers convention taking place in Birmingham on 2nd August.  Now I realise that Transformers is exaclty anime, however, I do realise that a suprising amount of anime fans are fans of the series, most likely because they were brought up watching it.

Anyway, personally, I’m not a great Transformers fan, however, my partner loves them…most likely more than me, and so being the awesome girlfriend that I am, I decided to purchase us both some tickets for the convention, in order to try and win back his affections…and I suceeded.  But enough about why I got them, I must tell you that for any Transformers fan, this is the ULTIMATE UK CONVENTION!!!

Guests include: DAN GILVEZAN (G1 BumbleBee), Jason Cardy (Artist), Simon Furman (Writer), Staz Johnson (G1 and Marvel artist), Kat Nicholson (Artist), Geoff Senior (G1 and Marvel artist), Liam Shalloo (artist and colourist), Lew Stringer (Comic artist), Andrew Wildman (illustrator) and Simon Williams (armada artist).

On the day there will also be art competitions, so if you are interested, make the image and send it to them, the details can be found on the official site http://www.autoassembly.org.uk/

So go and have a look if you are a transformers fan, old and new, and you never know, you may even see me there too…undoubtedly having fun ^_^!!!

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