The Legend of Black Heaven is the electrifying story of Oji Tanaka, a Japanese salary man facing mid-life crisis. The glory of his early years as a rock star has since fallen into the doldrums of the married 9-to-5 daily grind. Crying into his sake one night, Oji is propelled from office space to outer space when he learns of an intergalactic war…a war where the safety of the Earth can only be won by the power of rock. As it turns out, the spiritual energy released by his music powers a super-weapon that the good aliens use to annihilate the bad aliens.
Oji’s liaison to the alien fleet defending our section of the galaxy is the buxom Layla Yuki, who disguises herself as an office coworker in order to get close to our hero. This disguise tends to backfire, as their secret relationship is often (and humorously so) misinterpreted as an extra-marital affair. None are more suspicious than Oji’s wife, Yoshiko, a former groupie that Oji met in his rocker days and now mother of his son, Gen. In order to maintain cover, Layla enlists her trio of ultra-cute and ultra-ditzy assistants Kotoko, Eriko, and Rinko.
As conflict in the stars escalates, the ultimate weapon soon requires more rock than Oji alone can provide. On his knees, Oji must convince his former band-mates–all of whom have also moved on to become blue collar family men themselves–to reunite and turn the tide of battle while rekindling the stage-lit fires of their prime. By the end of the climactic battle involving a shadowy figure from the band’s past, Oji saves the universe, his marriage, and his dreams with the strum of his guitar pick.
As the show’s tag line suggests, The Legend Of Black Heaven follows in the spirit of Macross 7, weaving action-packed space battles with the power of rock music. What makes this series unique is its take on the theme, framing it around the journey of Oji on his path to resolve the disillusion of adulthood and rediscovering meaning in his life. While there is the fair share of wacky hijinks (Ã la the ditzy trio), the series’s humorous forte is in the exaggerated glorification in all that is awesome. They just don’t make enough anime like this anymore…
Ever since its first announcement, I’ve been taking the news of Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom with a grain of salt. I’ve been disenchanted with Capcom’s “Vs” line of games for almost seven years. After Capcom Fighting Evolution, I believed that Capcom’s crossover-themed fighters were nothing more than for novelty’s sake…lazy design with flawed, boring gameplay.
However, after seeing this first trailer of Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom, I may be coming around! It has the 3D toon shaded graphics applied to fast 2D gameplay that I’ve been eager for. (Street Fighter IV looks great, but still too sluggish in speed for my tastes.) The gameplay looks true to the “Vs” games that I did enjoy, without the excess that Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 reeked of. It surprisingly looks fun!
I’m kinda hoping that it gets ported stateside, but I know that’s a tall order. When it comes to large companies like Tatsunoko, it becomes painstaking and expensive to bring together all the companies that have license to those characters in North America. So the same licensing issues that have saved us from a Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 now prevent us from a potentially worthwhile game Perhaps, if this game lives up to its hype, I may import it whenever I get around to getting a PS3.
A 21-year-old Japanese man was arrested today after posting a message on an online message board where he threatened to kill voice actress and singer Nana Mizuki and her fans at a planned concert. This might have not gotten him in as much trouble had he not described how he was going to kill everyone–by using the same weapons used in a recent massacre in Akihabara. Way to go, sport.
Now, I’m hardly versed in Japanese freedoms of speech, but even if this had taken place in the USA, none of this would surprise me. We have the right to express anything we want in America, but that doesn’t exempt us from any backlash that expression may incur. You can’t call a Hell’s Angel a queer and not expect to get punched.
Funnier still, the dude claimed that he merely posted the message just to see what kind of reaction it would create. I hope that satisfies your curiosity, jackass. The thing about the authorities in Japan: They don’t less of a sense of humor than we do. They do not fuck around with that. Especially when the Akihabara massacre was preceded by a similar threat on another message board.
A friend of mine just got a short story published! You can get the book here. I haven’t read it and if I may be honest, I may never. Heh, though the title is undeniably charming. The theme of the story collection is not my cup of tea, but it might be yours! She’s awesome, so check it out…
Since I’m taking my writing and this website more seriously as of late, I hit the local used book store to check up on some books that might help me improve on my composition skills. While there, I saw one book that at first glace I found just silly. I almost tossed it back up onto the shelf, but then I realized that while the idea behind the book was ridiculous, the form which this idea had taken was so much more so that it circled back around to awesome.
What I’d found is a 300-page hardcover vernacular guide that lists, breaks down, and examines the slang used in Buffy The Vampire Slayer. The thought that not only did someone get paid to meticulously research and compose this lengthy guide, but then the publisher felt it worth to pull all the stops on its presentation. Decent sized, hardback, and a snazzy dust jacket… I’m happy to give it a home on my bookshelf.
Kaloo Kalay! Fanboys rejoice for we have our first look at Chrono Trigger on the Nintendo DS in this official trailer. So far, nothing really new. In fact, I can’t be sure that the footage revealed above is of the port or just scenes from the original SNES version. Since the DS port will no doubt be derived from the original ROM, I’m sure it won’t make a difference.
The one thing I am most curious about is information on the new bonus dungeon that will be introduced in this version. I’m familiar with the extra dungeons added to some of the Final Fantasy remakes, but I’m curious to learn how they apply that to Chrono Trigger. Though if it also means a new ending that can be achieved, that would be awesome too.
Recently I picked up the DVD set for The Legend Of Black Heaven and I plan on writing up a review on it soon. It’s the story of a man who used to be a rock star when he was young, but grew into working-class family life. Then aliens call upon him to play his music in order to power their super-weapon that’s the only hope of defending the universe.
One thing that struck me as funny as I watched the first episode is that as it starts out, the lead character finds that his wife has thrown away his beloved guitar from his rocker days. He calls her from work and she insists that it was an accident. When he returns home, his wife confesses that she did it on purpose and has thrown it away again. The dude runs out to rescue it, but alas, the trash has been picked up…his guitar lost, buried beneath tons of garbage. When he drowns his sorrows in tears, he’s approached by the alien woman who tells him how much his music means to her and that she wants to take him to heaven. She means that she wants to take him into space so that he can fight evil, but he believes that she wants to sleep with him. Drunk and missing fan adoration, he agrees to go with her…
Now, here I am watching this show where this guy is supposed to be our hero, but within the first episode he’s totally cheating on his wife. But then I remembered: Bitch threw away his guitar…twice. And lied about it. I’m not saying he was right in cheating on her, but I understand.
It’s like me and my Dreamcast. I love that console. I don’t care how many years go by and how many inches of dust blanket it, I’m taking that thing to the grave. I doubt I’ll be buried with it, since I intend to be cremated. But I plan on requesting that my ashes be contained in the Dreamcast as an urn and then buried in that. If my girlfriend were to throw that away, I don’t think I’d cheat on her, but it would certainly put a strain on our relationship.
“Nothing is pointless! And the reason is…because I am the president of the great United States of America!”
In the spirit of Independence Day weekend, I thought I’d post the trailer to one of the most patriotic video games never to be released in America… Metal Wolf Chaos. In this game, you play as the president of the United States who has been betrayed by the vice president. As a fugitive, your only means of escape is by shooting your way out in a giant armored robot. The VP pursues you in his own mech while using the media to label you as a terrorist in the eyes of the American people. Your mission is to blow shit up, clear your name, and restore great justice. Fucking awesome.
Anime publisher ADV has announced that five DVDs that were due to release this week have been “suspended indefinitely” with their “fate undetermined”. These titles consist of:
Shattered Angels Vol 2
Shattered Angels Vol 2 (with art box)
Kanon Vol 6
Tokyo Majin Vol 4
Welcome to the NHK Vol 5, 5th Conspiracy
Matt Greenfield spoke at the ADV Sneak Peak panel at this week’s Anime Expo, expressing licensing troubles. Specifically, ADV has officially separated from its Japanese licensing partner, Sojitz. While the above titles may be lost into the ether, they did say that they were in negotiations to carry 23 other new titles.
This kinda sucks for me since I was really enjoying Welcome to the NHK. With luck, maybe someone else will acquire the license stateside so it can be completed. Although I suppose that loss is not in vain if the balancing factor is that garbage like Kanon is also brought to a halt. I hope the pedophiles that enjoy that show drown in their tears.
Having a girlfriend whose career involves theater costuming is not without its side-effects.Almost every anime convention, we’ve dressed up as some character or another. And in true couple fashion, it’s only a matter of time before we begin wearing matching outfits. Nothing lame like Raggedy Ann and Andy… (Does anyone even know who they are anymore?) In fact, next con, we’re planning on going as Jesse and James from Team Rocket.
Of course, there’s more than just conventions. Halloween is in a couple months and no doubt we’ll find some other excuse to dress up for fun. I found this sweet Princess Peach costume on Yandy.com that I’m trying to talk my girlfriend into wearing for me. Of course I’d have to compliment her by adorning the Mario costume. But it would be a small price to pay for that hotness.
Now I’d just have to figure out what hoops I may have to jump through to get her into some of these other sexy numbers…
Who can I high-five for getting Unico in the Island of Magic on the Animazement video room schedule? 5 hrs ago
Oh, what the hell... We now have an Official Alpha Counter Facebook. If you like us, please Like us! https://t.co/Jkdh7wAO6 hrs ago
Hey, Method to Madness listeners: Out of curiosity, what's your favorite episodes of the podcast so far? For reference: http://t.co/Hi3DPOFp8 hrs ago
I had a dream that a fan offered to get the @AlphaCounter crew into a convention but we couldn't afford the travel expenses. #NIGHTMAREBOAT1 day ago
Maybe the reaction to my name is like a trigger word. It works in the same way as MK-Ultra sleeper cells, only benign. 3 days ago
Maybe my name is some unknown glitch in the English linguistic code. Like there's a percentage of folks just wired to have that reaction. 3 days ago
Is "Sean" registering in peoples' minds as a title? Like "Sir", "Doctor", or "MC"? Do some people not know "Sean" IS a name? 3 days ago
There's gotta be some kind of mass hysteria or something that creates that phenomenon; rendering "Sean" invisible to sight and consciousness 3 days ago
I have to know... What is it that--despite everything I do being plastered with "Sean Ryan" or just "Sean"--people think my name is Ryan. 3 days ago
I dreamed I was the meat in the cuddle sandwich between Detective Kate Beckett and @Labantnet while watching Vampire Diaries. #NIGHTMAREBOAT3 days ago
