Orends: Range

Power Rangers MegaForce Casting Updates

2012-05-25T18:22:00.002+08:00

The auditions for the next Power Rangers series is now over! Ranger Crew has an on-going thread about it and here's the summary of what transpired during the auditions.

Whatever color that they are auditioning for, all male participants performed lines coming from the Silver Ranger casting side that shows a scene of Silver meeting Ryan of the Power Rangers Star Force. The casting side was based from Gokaiger's 33rd episode entitled, "It's A Hero!!!".

Same case with all females, they all performed lines coming from the Pink Ranger casting side that shows a scene of Pink revealing the plan of retrieving the Zaferia Stones from Silas. The casting side was based from Gokaiger's 31st episode entitled, "Crash!! The Secret Operation".

Though all of them recited lines coming from Gokaiger, the casting matches more that of Tensou Sentai Goseiger with one of the actors having a producer session, making his dream to become the Black Ranger a step closer.

Finally, for the callbacks, from all of those who auditioned, approximately 50 actors for each color will enter next week's callbacks. The producers are said to be picky this year. After the producers will filter all actors, Jonathan Tzachor will do the final check on all of the actors. Check out who are some of the actors who made it into the callbacks!

1/1 MMZ-01 Moe Moe Z-Cune Update

2012-05-25T16:49:00.000+08:00

More details about the 1/1 MMZ-01 Moe Moe Z-Cune, the transformation device and weapon of the Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger was recently revealed!

Click to enlarge images

The MMZ-01 has two modes, a "Gun Mode" that has a length of 290mm and a "Figure Mode" that depicts the protagonist of Nijiyome Gakuen Z-Cune Aoi, Aoi Ichikawa that stands 240 mm.

In the series, Nobuo, Mitsuki and Yumeria uses this figure to transform into the Akibarangers. By saying their transformation call, "Grand Delusion!", the figure transforms into a gun, transforming our heroes into the Akibarangers.

The DX 1/1 MMZ-01 Moe Moe Z-Cune costs 12000 yen and is slated for a September release.

New Gundam SEED Figures Announced

2012-05-25T16:28:00.001+08:00

To commemorate the 10th Anniversary of the Mobile Suit Gundam SEED anime series, Bandai and Megahouse will release new figures! The two new figures are based on Athrun Zala and Lacus Cylne.

The new Athrun Zala figure will be the latest bishounen from the G.E.M. female audience label. The new figure depicts Athrun in his red ZAFT uniform doing one of his signature poses from the anime.

The new Lacus Cylne figure depicts Lacus singing "Mizu no Akashi" in her blue dress and will come with an alternate set of crossed arms, allowing collectors to give Lacus a range of poses.

The release dates for these new figures are still unknown as of this moment.

via Crunchyroll News

Street Fighter 25th Anniversary Set Announced

2012-05-25T16:00:00.003+08:00

For 25 years, at least every gamer at least played a Street Fighter game and to commemorate 25 years worth of Hadoukens and Shoryukens, Capcom has announced the Street Fighter 25th Anniversary Collector's Set!

This set includes a lot of stuff for dedicated Street Fighter fans. For $149.99 (on either Xbox 360 or PS3), you get the following games: Sreet Fighter X Tekken (including all character and Swap Costume DLC), Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition (with all costume DLC), Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online Edition.

Videos that includes a new documentary Blu-ray that highlights the lifelong love affair fans have had with Street Fighter, and how their dedication has affected the game, Street Fighter IV, Super SFIV anime movies All episodes of the Street Fighter animated series and Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie.

Lastly, other items including a Light-up Ryu statue, 11 disc soundtrack, 64 page hardcover art book, Ryu's belt and a Certificate of Authenticity.

In addition, a series of tournaments will happen for the 25th Anniversary of the Street Fighter franchise. For details about the tournament, you can check this post from Facebook.

Street Fighter 25th Anniversary Collection Set will be released this September 18th, 2012. Pre-orders are now available on the Capcom Store!

HTT's U&I Being Played on Google Moog Doodle

2012-05-25T13:55:00.002+08:00

Last May 23, Google just posted on their front page one of their latest Doodles, a working synthesizer for music pioneer Robert Moog's 78th birthday. In this video, a fan plays a song from the anime K-ON!! entitled "U&I" by Ho-kago Tea Time (HTT)!

The song was originally played on the school festival episode of the K-ON!! anime. For the original song, you can check this video.

I tried playing with the synthesizer and all I end up doing is create random senseless noises. Kudos to the guy who spend hours figuring out how he can play a K-ON!! song in this Google Doodle!

More Power Rangers Super Samurai this Fall!

2012-05-25T13:36:00.001+08:00

Power Rangers Super Samurai will have new episodes starting this fall. Here's the trailer to show us what is in store for us in the show's epic conclusion.

Serrator will reveal his plan in splitting the Earth into two, Jayden's secret will be revealed, Master Xandred rises from the deep, the Red Ranger and Deker will finally have their final duel. Lastly, will the Rangers defeat Master Xandred for good?

Don't miss the new episodes of Power Rangers Super Samurai coming this fall only on Nick!

More GTO Remake Cast Members Revealed

2012-05-25T13:25:00.000+08:00

More cast members for the new Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO) live-action series was recently revealed! The new GTO will star EXILE's Akira. The new series will premiere this July on Fuji TV.

Joining the cast of the new series is Miori Takimoto as the heroine Azusa Fuyutsuki, Yu Shirota as Ryuji Danma (Onizuka's friend and manager of a cafe), Yusuke Yamamoto as Toshiyuki Saejima (Onizuka's friend and police officer), Ryosei Tayama as Hiroshi Uchiyamada (head teacher, likes Azusa and hates Onizuka) and Hitomi Kuroki as Principal Ryoko Sakurai.

The following actors will play as Onizuka's students in the drama: Haruna Kawaguchi, Sho Takada, Shintaro Morimoto and Taishi Nakagawa.

Unlike the original drama, the new drama will also adapt the manga "GTO -SHONAN 14DAYS-". The new series will feature the realistic, universal themes like bullying, conflicts with parents, love, abuse, dreams for the future, and more will be shown through Onizuka's powerful and great activities.

via tokyohive

S.H. FiguArts Black Condor Announced

2012-05-25T12:45:00.003+08:00

The second S.H. FiguArts figure for the Choujin Sentai Jetman Super Sentai series was recently announced! The S.H. FiguArts Black Condor will be sold exclusively through Bandai’s Tamashi web store.

The figure was first seen on the Tamashii Features Vol.03 event last March will include the same accessories of the S.H. FiguArts Red Hawk that includes the following: Bringer Sword, Beak Smasher and Bird Blaster.

Pre-orders for this figure will begin on May 25, 2012. The suggested retail price of this figure 3675 and will ship out in October.

Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters 09 – Kidnapped

2012-05-24T18:09:00.000+08:00

A robot rabbit on chains. Continue.

In this episode, Usada was kidnapped by some random people and he later ends up in Enter's hands and demands a 20,000 tron ransom! Can the Go-Busters fix this mess? Lastly, will Yoko and Usada finally understand their differences and settle their petty dispute?

It's a fun episode overall, it is just as good as the previous episode. Usada getting kidnapped is one of the things I didn't expect to happen in the series since a) most of the Buddyroids are with their partners and b) for the past 8 episodes, a Buddyroid and his partner are inseparable. Making Yoko and Usada have a fight was interesting to see since from the beginning of the series, Usada keep on praising Yoko as the "team genius" and all of the sudden he will just call her an idiot just by not doing her homework! Usada and Yoko's argument felt like I am seeing two kids bickering kids.

Same case on how they treated each other after the fight. Usada just do the job without Yoko and Yoko just ignored Usada and ate all of her sweats like some depressed chick who recently broke up with her boyfriend. Because of Yoko and Usada's fight in this episode, I now have an idea that Yoko is being home-schooled by Usada. Makes perfect sense since the Go-Busters might receive a special mission out of nowhere while Yoko is in school listening to her teacher.

Meanwhile, Enter showed Messiah the blueprints of the new Megazord. Though Messiah likes the idea of additional forces to help with his conquest, he hates the idea of him giving some of his precious Enetron just to make a single Megazord. Come on Messiah, it is like he is asking Enter to create orange juice without squeezing any oranges or use concentrate! After learning that Messiah denied his request of having Enetron to produce the Megazord, he decides to search for it and ends up in the current kidnap situation Usada is in and ends up becoming Usada's kidnapper after the Go-Busters failed to rescue him. Enter, please continue in being awesome.

Now for the kidnapping part in this episode, Usada's first kidnappers are incompetent, you can say, amateurs, making this rescue mission a piece of cake for the Busters but because Enter can into the scene, it made things a lot complicated. He demands a hefty ransom and the main EMC doesn't want to get involved in this, they need to make a plan on rescuing this robot rabbit without spending any Enetron. Yoko making the plan was surprising due to her intelligence but this episode made me change my idea about Yoko. Surprisingly, her plan was brilliant and perfect for this situation. Letting those two guys as decoys while Yoko rescues Usada alone was brilliant also, letting Enter think that they are planning something was a pretty cool plan.

Even the plan was something you can consider "perfect", turns out Enter has some tricks left in his sleeve. Remember the Alpha-type Megazord Enter summoned in the previous episode, turns out that he hasn't summoned the Bug Zords packed in its bag, causing them to wreck havoc in the city. I find it impressive but deceiving Enter again this time with the Buddyroids piloting the Buster Machines while the other two Busters are rescuing Usada? That is what you call great teamwork. With that, Enter was pissed since the Busters were able to rescue Usada. I can't believe I saw Enter lose his cool for once.

The mecha fight in this episode is quite impressive. Instead of relying on the Go-BusterOh, they used the Animal Modes of their Buster Machines to fight the Bug Zords. This made me forgive the problems I had with the Go-BusterOh. Their respective mechas are in-charge with the minor battles and major damage to the enemy Megazord while the Go-BusterOh is in-charge in finishing it off. The concept is quite unique for a Sentai series and something that I never imagine to see in Sentai series. Guess us people complaining about the Gokai Machines not doing much in the series and are just there to form the mecha made an impact on the production crew of this series. This episode ends with Usada and Yoko being friends again. Not that surprised on how it ended.

Kamen Rider Fourze 32 – Cosmic Friendship

2012-05-24T16:00:00.000+08:00

FIYA ON~!

Gentaro dies and the Kamen Rider Club knows the identity of Kamen Rider Meteor, who turned out to be Ryusei Sakuta, a man that they least expect to become a Kamen Rider due to the act he pulled the whole time he was with them. What will be the Kamen Rider Club's next action after Gentaro's death? Will this lead to the birth of the Kamen Rider Fourze Cosmic States?

Fantastic episode overall, the idea of having a dead hero and have him resurrect later on was reused countless times in comics and in movies. I was not excited when they decided to resurrect Gentaro but the build up for his resurrection made me watch it. It was sweet and something that I expected the series will pull up. It's thanks to the Cosmic Switch that Gentaro was revived and the power of friendship, but more importantly, Gentaro's friendship made his resurrection happen. Turns out that for Fourze to unlock the Cosmic States, he and the hearts of his friends are connected, unlocking Fourze's most powerful form. The power of friendship thing was reused countless times in shonen anime but its execution in this episode made me eat it up again. Seeing the clips of the times he did the friendship handshake with the members of the Kamen Rider Club was an emotional moment, it didn't help that prior to that sequence; Gentaro's parents are waiting for him in the other side.

This episode was also one of Ryusei's best moments. After his betrayal and see his friend now out from the coma, he realized what happened to him thanks to his quest to find the cure to Jiro's coma. He became someone that is not his true self. His realization and later, his redemption for his sins is one of the best scenes in this episode. Speaking of his redemption, the scene where he places the Meteor Driver in the ground and fights all the Dustards without transforming into Meteor is really epic. It shows how dedicated he is in redeeming himself from his sin in betraying a friend that trusted him, who just wants to see him smile.

Tachibana revealing himself as the man behind the Gate Switch and as Ryusei's benefactor was surprising. To be honest, I didn't expect that he is the man who send Kengo the Gate Switch or the one who will tell Kengo his father's final message before he died. Thinking about it, the theory about Tachibana being Kengo's died with a strange face mask makes perfect sense.

The rest of the Kamen Rider Club are now part of some weird play about the student council executing those who offended the school or something along those lines. Aries' play was brutal, something only an insane man could think of or a screenwriter who just want easy money and get accused of plagiarism for getting ideas from a Japanese novel or some novel that talks about post-apocalyptic North America where they have kids kill each other. Though the Kamen Rider Club members ended up becoming the ones to be executed, but the lead up to that state raised my respect to the members of the club, especially JK. As for the Mei and her group, it feels like they are just "there" in this episode unlike before where they are useful the entire episode.

Finally, Kamen Rider Cosmic States' first appearance is one of the best final form debuts in recent Kamen Rider history. It matched up the epicness of Kamen Rider Double CycloneJoker Xtreme's debut. As for the form itself, the concept of mixing Switch abilities is really neat, creating really interesting Switch Combinations. In this episode, we have the Rocket + Elek, Rocket + Fire and Launcher + Freeze. Just let your imagination run wild on what to these combos do. The Barizun Sword is one interesting piece of weaponry, though I find it disappointing that we never see the lance aspect of this weapon in action, I just love how Fourze uses this as a sword. The finisher, Rider Super Galactic Finish was really cool to watch, I mean, opening a warp to outer space and finishing Aries in there? How cool was that?

At the end of the episode, though Aries reached the Supernova state (him growing larger horns and shoot lighting is his Supernova state, you can see the circle thing when he did that), he was booted out from the Horoscopes and is now on a coma. Quite ironic I might add. Ryusei now considers Gentaro as his friend and that the Kamen Rider Club now has the task in keeping Ryusei's secret as Kamen Rider Meteor.

Kamen Rider Fourze Rider Quiz Episode 1

2012-05-24T13:23:00.000+08:00

Here's a special feature coming from the Kamen Rider Fourze Blu-rays, the Kamen Rider Quiz wherein the cast of Kamen Rider Fourze talks about past Riders. In this episode, Kengo Utahoshi talks about Kamen Rider 1!

Kengo talks about all we need to know about Kamen Rider 1 and later, starts a quiz about Kamen Rider 1 based on the clips of the original 1971 series that was featured in this episode. Which team that wins the quiz will win a Kamen Rider 1 figure!

The episode also shows us Shion Tsuchiya, best known for his role as JK in the series, his knowledge about past Kamen Riders during this episode. Hopefully, after watching this episode, you will have interest watching the original Kamen Rider series courtesy of KITsubs!

Go-Busters: Who is Beet Buster?

2012-05-24T12:52:00.002+08:00

Next week, Beet Buster along with his partner, Beet J Stag will make their first appearance in Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters. Though this guy will help the Go-Busters, the question is, who is the man behind Beet Buster's mask?

Masato is Beet Buster, a genius engineer that Ryuji admired back then and one of the scientist who was send to the Hyperspace 13 years ago. As Ryuji opens his locker some contents fell, Hiromu and Yoko found a runner-up certificate from a contest. Ryuji tells the story behind it.

He was also Commander Takeshi Kuroki's secretary that nicknamed him "Kurorin" due to his odd girly attitude or personality. The man who will play Masato is Hiroya Matsumoto, best known for his role as Tsubasa Ozu aka MagiYellow in Mahou Sentai Magiranger. This isn't the first time a past Sentai actor played a different role in another Sentai series.

Fourze: Aquarius Arrives, Gentaro Changes

2012-05-24T12:10:00.002+08:00

After the defeat of the Capricorn Zodiarts, it is time to introduce a new member of the Horoscopes in the form of the Aquarius Zodiarts! Along with are some updates about the Kamen Rider Fourze TV series and what will happen in later episodes.

The Aquarius Zodiarts is a Horoscopes that can absorb energy to revive. Even how many times you attack her, she seems undefeated. Because of this, the Zodiarts has a chance to finally defeat Fourze while he is struggling to find the weakness of Aquarius' ability.

Aquarius uses a whip that is stored on her shoulder. With a good concentrated amount, it can erode switches and other metals. Since she had an ability to heal itself, she can also use it to heal others too.

In the 37th episode of the series entitled, "Selecting the Star Pupil", a coveted mock astronaut selection is held annually. It is said that the exam tests the qualities on becoming an astronaut. Whoever passes the exam will have a special scholarship.

Erin Suda (played by Karen Takizawa) is a transfer student from the United States takes the test. She is almost perfect in any academic and sports activities like a true elite. Taking the exam with her are Yuta Sugiura, Kengo Utahoshi and Tomoko Nozama.

Gentaro finally meets the school's Chairman Gamou, little did he know that he is the man behind the string of Zodiarts-related incidents that transpired in AGHS. He is later seen wearing the AGHS uniform that he failed to wear since the day he got transferred.

Is it something that was influenced by his meeting with the president, that even the Kamen Rider Club changes their ways? Shuki Emoto, the friend of Kengo's dad and Gamou, will appear again soon.

Lastly, Kamen Rider Fourze will take a break on June 17th, anyways here are the rest of the episodes airing this June.

Episode 38: Deciding on the Winner - 06/03
Episode 39: Law of the School - 06/10
Episode 40: Logical Sense of Information - 06/24

via JEFusion

Kamen Rider Den-O 01 – Here I Come!

2012-05-23T19:05:00.003+08:00

Here he comes.

Since I downloaded an HD version of the first episode of Kamen Rider Den-O, might as well do review of the first episode! In this episode, Ryotaro Nogami just your average guy with a bad case of bad luck ends up becoming a superhero. Sounds like its good start for a TV show!

I finished watching Den-O a few years ago so why watch it again? Simple, because I want to watch it again. The first thing I noticed in this series was the amazing CGI sequence of the DenLiner, a train that can travel through time. That causes me to think how much money they spent on this over 1 minute CGI animation sequence. Then we are introduced to the main protagonist of the show, Ryotaro Nogami, a man with a bad case of bad luck. To put it simply, just in the first episode, he was stuck in tree while riding a bike, his bike's tire got flat causing him to meet a bunch of thugs who wanted his wallet, he later ended up being punched by the said thugs and was chosen as a host by some monster from the future. It didn't help that his sister, Airi is so used to it that it feels like he was not that worried when he saw Ryotaro with scratches in his face.

Speaking of the thugs, I noticed that Kirihiko Sudo aka Nasca Dopant from Kamen Rider W, to be exact, his actor was one of those thugs who beat up Ryotaro! Guess Kirihiko ended up Den-O's city in some point in his life before returning to Futo! Anyways, just like every superhero story, Den-O has his own origin story. Ryotaro just ended up becoming one because he was at the wrong place at the wrong time or rather; he was at the right place at the right time. I find Den-O's origin story a bit generic with some elements to make it a bit unpredictable. He picking the Liner Pass in some random area is quite common to most shows but he ending up in some random dessert with colorful skies was quite surprising. What's more was that he just saw some train passed by and some strange lady serving him some coffee. To add up the humor Ryotaro just left like nothing happened!

Meanwhile, some chick from that train is looking for that Liner Pass. To add up the humor, one of the thugs lost an important key holder and thinks that Ryotaro has that key holder thanks to a police officer who pointed some guy with a red muffler having some item in his possession! Speaking of that chick, she was able to track the location of the Liner Pass and chased Ryotaro who is on his bike with the DenLiner! Instead of Ryotaro giving the Pass to the chick, he just told her that if she wants it, she can just get it from the cops! I am not sure if Ryotaro lacked common sense or was being polite, but if I were in his place, I will just give the Pass and call this a day.

But there is one thing the chick notice, something came out from his body, it is not sweat but sand. Turns out the sand came from the creature that possessed Ryotaro, a devil-looking monster who wants to make contract with him. The said creature later took control on Ryotaro's body when he met the thugs the second time. All I can say is, he is vicious and is willing to kill someone just to protect his host. Though Ryotaro is what you can consider a weakling, he was able to control the creature before he can kill the thugs. Guess this is an important plot point for the series then.

The reason why he was able to control the creature was because he was a Singularity Point, I don't know what it specifically means, but I guess it is a good thing. Another thing, he can also transform into Den-O, the titular hero of this series. Just by swiping the pass in his waist, a special belt that will transform him into Den-O will appear. Ryotaro's first transformation as Den-O was not impressive, same goes with the suit. Heck, it didn't help that he didn't know how to use the suit and it feels like he is just Ryotaro in some fancy costume and not superhero. To add up the hilarity, instead of using weapons strapped on his waist, he just used some broom as a weapon!

Turns out that he failed to do one thing, to press the red button on the Den-O Belt, enabling him to switch places with the creature that possessed him earlier. All I can say is, unlike the impressive transformation sequence we had for the opening sequence, Den-O Sword Form's transformation sequence was just average in my opinion. Nothing special or note worthy, it is just some fancy form changing sequence. Though I find it a bit average, Den-O's second fight felt like he has a chance to defeat the bat monster that attacked them. Den-O's weapon system is interesting; I just love the idea that Den-O must assemble the four separate parts to create a sword or some other weapon. Another thing I noticed in this fight is that Den-O feels like a completely different character, he is not anymore that wimpy Ryotaro Nogami, but that creature who just likes to fight. Den-O's finisher was okay I guess a controllable flying blade is not a bad idea to be honest.

The episode ends revealing that those creatures Ryotaro saw came from the future and they are invading the present. All I can say is, the episode gave me an idea what is this series overall, it is a comedy series that will involve slapstick humor, there will be at least 4 monsters that will possess Ryotaro thanks to the buttons found on the Den-O Belt and the opening sequence and that the DenLiner is an important plot element in this series. To it simply, it was an impressive start for a TV show.

Some ending thoughts, I can't believe that this episode started a sub franchise of the Kamen Rider series. Another thing I notice is how impressive Takeru Satoh was in this series, especially when he changes his expression from Ryotaro to the creature that possessed him. From some innocent looking protagonist, he transformed into a punk who is willing to kill someone if he can. Guess we will see more of personality switches later in the series.

HG 1/144 Gundam AGE-2 Normal Special Force Unit Ver. Revealed

2012-05-23T17:52:00.001+08:00

It was recently revealed that a HG 1/144 model of the white Gundam AGE-2 Normal from Mobile Suit Gundam AGE, the Gundam AGE-2 Normal Special Force Unit Ver. will soon be available!

The Gundam was first seen on Mobile Suit Gundam AGE's 28th Episode entitled, "Chaos in the Earth Sphere". This repainted version of the Gundam AGE-2 Normal was a tribute to Asemu Asuno's mentor, Woolf Enneacle who died during battle in the show's 2nd Generation storyline.

This P-Bandai Hobby Online Shop Exclusive model can be yours for 1575 yen. Pre-order begins on May 25 and it will be released on July.

Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger 03 – The Chronicles of Akiba: BoukenRed, The Fujoshi and the Booze

2012-05-23T17:30:00.001+08:00

BoukenRed, Tamashii Web Exclusive Form. You know Bandai will do this someday.

In this episode, we have drunk heroes, some yaoi stuff that a fujoshi can enjoy and surprisingly, BoukenRed only doing an in-suit appearance. As a bonus, we have Hikaru Midorikawa voicing the monster of the week named Kabukicho something something.

The series continues to be amazing and it seems that there no signs for them to stop now! This episode reveals a lot of things about our 3-man Sentai team. The earlier bits of this episode hint that Yumeria might be a fujoshi, a person who likes to see man on man action. By man on man action, I mean the other one that involves bondage, kisses and all that crap. Yumeria being a fujoshi affected this episode in such a manner that she can't properly fight. I will expand about it later.

The primary focus of this episode is the effect of booze to our heroes. Since the Akibarangers are powered by delusion, booze will help them increase in making better delusions a prime example is the arrival of BoukenRed Good Luck Form, something Hakase and the other two Akibarangers didn't expect to see come out. The power of booze also increased Nobuo's strength in such a manner that he was on fire while fighting Kabukicho, didn't help that Nobuo is heavily inspired thanks to hitting a flag of romance.

Since booze is an important factor in this episode, drinking it is part of the Akibarangers' special training less Mitsuki who is the only minor in the group! Seeing Nobuo and Yumeria getting drunk was fun to watch especially when Yumeria is slowly showing off her fujoshi traits by telling her favorite characters in some Sentai series and giving some reason only a fujoshi can say. The reaction of everyone after Yumeria denied that she is not a fujoshi was fun to watch. Thanks to the booze, it caused Nobuo to start singing Sentai themes and do other stuff that drunken people do.

Mitsuki, being the only minor in the group thinks that this "training" is stupid since it is just three adults drinking. So, she decided to just marathon Boukenger. The best part of this episode has something to do with Nobuo and Yumeria being so drunk that their delusions are what you can say, uncontrollable. In Yumeria's case, she has fujoshi delusions while as for Nobuo, he has heroic delusions. Both delusions caused a lot of hilarious moments in this episode, especially in Nobuo's heroic delusions. Seriously, he is so drunk that he keeps on falling to the same enemy trick.

Thankfully, Mitsuki is the only person who is not drunk and was able to snap the other two Akibarangers in their current state. Hearing Mitsuki saying lines coming from a Sentai series was refreshing to watch. Thanks to that BoukenRed makes an appearance and helps the Akibarangers! Though BoukenRed's cameo was amazing, I am a bit disappointed since we didn't see BoukenRed out of suit. Granted, we have his actor do his voice for this episode but it is still a bit disappointing in my part. The Boukenger's Penultimate Power is the Bouken Scooper and having Mitsuki have it makes sense since she recently became a Boukenger fan and that Nobuo just got the D-Wrapper from the previous episode. I wonder what power Yumeria will get later in the series…

The fights in this episode are fantastic to watch and just like the previous episodes, the fights also has some comedy into it and surprising in this episode, some stock footage shots and I find it understandable why they had it. The episode also introduced those cartoony panels in the series. All I can say is that those panels add up to the humor aspect of the series, giving the show this 2.5D vibe in it. At the end of the episode, Mitsuki decided to leave the group. Wait, what?!

Shinryaku! Ika Musume OAD Announced

2012-05-23T16:42:00.000+08:00

Kanae Ito will again sing an ending theme for the Shinryaku! Ika Musume anime series. Entitled "Puzzle", this will be the ending theme for the upcoming original anime DVD of the said series.

The DVD will ship with the limited edition versions of Shinryaku! Ika Musume Vol. 12 manga on August 8. ULTRA-PRISM is also returning to perform the opening theme "Let's☆Shinryaku Time!"

The DVD will include music videos for the theme songs.

via Anime News Network

Adult Swim's Toonami Anime Block to Air Casshern Sins & Deadman Wonderland

2012-05-23T16:21:00.000+08:00

Adult Swim has just posted the schedule of the new Toonami block and it reveals that Deadman Wonderland and Casshern Sins will air on the said anime block!

The full schedule of the new Toonami block is as follows:

12:00 a.m. - Bleach
12:30 a.m. - Deadman Wonderland
1:00 a.m. - Casshern Sins
1:30 a.m. - Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
2:00 a.m. - Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG
2:30 a.m. - Cowboy Bebop

The schedule then repeats between 3:00 a.m. - 6:00 a.m.
Jason DeMarco the vice president of strategic marketing and promotions for Cartoon Network and Adult Swim added that Toonami will not show Naruto, Dragon Ball Z and similar titles since the rights for those shows are owned by either their competitors or are out of their price range.

He also revealed that this Toonami has very, very little budget. They need ratings success to receive more funding for new shows and more animation budget for Tom (the mascot character). He is thankful that they have funding though it isn't a lot.

DeMarco also clarified that Toonami will not have original titles created for the anime block, just new acquisitions. DeMarco also said that he loves to see One Piece and Gundam Wing on Cartoon Network again. He also added that Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, Fairy Tail, and Inuyasha: The Final Act are some of the "many shows we've been looking at" or discussed.

Lastly, he confirmed that Steven Blum will reprise his role as Tom 3.0, Sara will not appear for now since it costs too much to make and Peter Cullen will not do the block's promos due to his busy work schedule. The anime titles will keep their theme songs and Toonami will have those pre-intros.

via Anime News Network

009 Re:Cyborg English Script In Development

2012-05-23T15:48:00.004+08:00

It was revealed days ago that the English script for Kenji Kamiyama's 009 Re:Cyborg anime film is in development.

Kamiyama travelled to California a week ago to discuss the film, although the purpose of the trip is not necessarily the English script; California's Skywalker Sound studio is producing the sound for the film, just as it did for The Sky Crawlers, the 2008 update of Ghost in the Shell, and other Production I.G films.

The film will open in more than five Asian regions simultaneously, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, and South Korea. Production I.G and SANZIGEN Animation Studio will co-produce the film.

009 Re: Cyborg premieres this October 27th in Japan.

via Anime News Network

Kamen Rider Fourze 31 – Counting Sheep

2012-05-22T16:50:00.000+08:00

Baa, baa, white sheep.

Continuing what was left in the previous episode, Tachibana's tip of a Zodiarts roaming around Suraboshi High was confirmed to be true and so, the Kamen Rider Club investigates the place. Turns out that Gentaro, Yuki and Kengo's former classmate, Tatsumori Yamada was a Zodiarts that evolved into the Aries Zodiarts! What will Ryusei do after learning the man that he is seeking for a long time is now in front of him?

The episode was fantastic, not to mention that it started with the lines, "Previously on Kamen Rider Meteor", hinting that this episode is a heavy Kamen Rider Meteor focus episode and this episode never failed to deliver it. Ohsugi finally shows his use for the Club as he was able to grant Gentaro, Yuki and Kengo the license to go to Suraboshi High as visiting students. At Suraboshi High, we are introduced to Mei Shirakawa, Ryusei's former classmate that gave him a book called, "Puppet Masters". She claimed that she is just returning a book that she once borrowed from Ryusei. Ryusei claimed that she didn't borrow any book from him. She just walked away. This is a strange way to start a school visit.

It gets much stranger thanks to what the students and the English (?) teacher are acting in class. To cut this long introduction short, Yamada declared himself as king of Suraboshi High and has full control on what is happening around him. Who defies him will be put into eternal sleep. What's more is that he thinks that Suraboshi is his stage and every person stepping in this school are characters in his stage play. Thinking about it, guess the book that Mei gave to Ryusei gave us hints to the current situation Suraboshi is in right now. This is clever writing.

Aries Zodiarts' ability is to put people into sleep... and it makes perfect sense I may add. Remember, you need to count sheep if you have a hard time to fall asleep? But unlike average sleep, only Aries can control your sleep and that it slows down the human biological processes slowly, making you unaware that you are asleep. This type of sleep is what Ryusei needs to awaken Jiro. This is the best part of this episode, Ryusei having troubles on what to do after learning that Aries has been awakened. Will he follow Tachibana's orders to team up with Fourze and fight Aries and grab the Horoscopes Switch for the Anti-Zodiarts Alliance to study? Or make a deal with Yamada just for him to save Jiro and in return, Ryusei will do something for him.

Ryusei decision at the end was something I expect to happen at the first place, knowing that Ryusei will do everything for his best friend, even if it includes fighting Fourze that might end up killing him. His fight with Fourze was amazing; you can clearly see that he is really desperate to get Aries' help. Same goes with the other fights in this episode, glad to see Power Dizer back as Fourze's back-up. Makes perfect sense since Meteor will not really help them right now thanks to what happened with Aries earlier in this episode. Fourze Magnet States was surprisingly impressive in this episode.

The new Switch, the Stamp Switch was really amazing. I mean controlled explosions? That's really awesome! As for the Cosmic Switch, unlike the other three States, Fourze is having time to insert the Cosmic Switch. Also, I find the Switch a bit weird. Seriously, it has a "Danger" button? Also once you over click it will just explode? Wow. For the ultimate Switch, that's a bit retarded.

At the end, Meteor indeed killed Fourze. Because of what Meteor did, Tachibana cancelled Meteor's transformation reverting back into Ryusei. Because of that, the Club discovered that the kind and cowardly Ryusei is actually the badass Kamen Rider Meteor! Wait a minute; it was revealed in one episode that Tachibana can hear what Ryusei is saying once he has the Meteor Switch. So does this mean that Tachibana planned on letting Ryusei on killing Gentaro?

Go-Busters 08 – Dreams & Blueprints

2012-05-22T15:21:00.000+08:00

MASSIVE FORESHADOWING.

In this episode, we have a very discreet Enter infiltrating a Megazord Development Center, Ryuji's high school friend and blueprints for a new Megazord and Enter wants those blueprints to beef up the Vaglass.

The foreshadowing for Beet Buster was well made thanks to the blueprints we saw in this episode. I love the idea that the EMC actually needs to plan and build the new Megazord rather than for it to appear out of nowhere. The writers did a good job on hyping Beet Buster's personal mecha without spoiling much about the details about it. By details, how it will look like since they only showed the cover page of the plan in this episode.

Enter continues to be one magnificent villain in the series, making me wish that he is the final boss for the series. Back to the actual episode, Enter hacking in the center's security system was fun to watch especially when it feels like he was just playing around the whole time. Heck, he even did some cute pose in front of a CCTV camera and pranced around as the police officials in the center are running around looking for the intruder that they just passed by! Enter's Metaroid in this episode is the Drillroid and though its appearance is quite brief and all he does were just drill noises, the guy was pretty fun to watch. It didn't help that its partner Megazord, an Alpha-type Megazord gave the other two Busters a hard time since it prefers fighting underground!

The episode overall is a Ryuji focused episode that expands more on his character. Unlike the rest of the Go-Busters who started training at an early age, Ryuji started at the age of 15, causing him to catch up with the younger Go-Busters if he has the time. But unlike the Go-Busters who didn't have the chance to dream about the future, Ryuji once dream about becoming an engineer but because of the incident 13 years ago, he ends up becoming a Go-Buster. Thinking about it, what will happen to the Go-Busters after they have defeated Messiah? I mean, on how I see it, Hiromu and Yoko barely had a chance to dream on what they want to be in the future back when they are kids.

Unlike Ryuji, his friend Kazuya became an engineer, a dream both of them dream of becoming someday in the future. Unlike Ryuji, in Kazuya's case, he feels like the dream is slipping away from him after achieving it. This caused him to team up with Enter for him to get his hands on the new Megazord blueprints. At the end, he realizes his mistakes and tries to stop Enter in acquiring the blueprints only to end up failing. His failure in stopping Enter was one of the highlights of this episode due to how good it looked like.

The fights in this episode were fantastic, especially Ryuji's solo fights. His out of suit fight with the Drillroid was really fun to watch, didn't help that the method on finishing him was amazing. Seriously, double wielding of the Sougan Blade and then use them to trap the Drillroid one position he can't move and then finishing him with a blast from the Ichigan Buster, man, that's really neat! The mecha fights are starting to bore me a bit blame the Go-BusterOh being a sitting duck for most of the time. Though I find his ability on trapping an enemy Megazord in some time and space field neat, every battle that has something to do with the Go-BusterOh bored me.

At the end, Ryuji admits that he loves being part of the Go-Busters and accepted the fact that Kazuya failed in protecting the blueprints. With that in my mind, guess the debut of Beet Buster's mecha will be really interesting to watch since the Vaglass now has the blueprints in their possession, all they need to do is build it.

Go-Busters Mini-Album Yellow Ver. Details Posted

2012-05-22T14:41:00.003+08:00

The details for the 2nd Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters mini-album surfaced online! Called, "Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters Mini-Album Yellow Version", the mini-album contains the character themes of Yellow Buster and Beet Buster!

The mini-album contains 5 songs with one karaoke track. The songs that are part of the mini-album are:

Busters, Ready? Go!
Shinpai! Honey ♥ Bunny!
Boost Up! Beet Buster!
Je M’appelle Enter
Kizuna Go-Busters!
Kizuna Go-Busters! (Original Karaoke)

Shinpai! Honey ♥ Bunny! is Yellow Buster's character theme to be sung by Arisa Komiya and Tatsuhisa Suzuki. Boost Up! Beet Buster! is Beet Buster's character theme to be sung by Hideaki Takatori. Je M’appelle Enter is Enter's character theme to be sung by Syo Jinai.

Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters Mini-Album Yellow Version will be released on June 27. Pre-orders are now available on CDJapan and Play-Asia ! Order now and get excited bonuses!

Source: Hero Shock Alpha

Gareth Edwards Updates Godzilla 2012 Status

2012-05-22T13:10:00.001+08:00

For months, we didn't have any new news about the upcoming Hollywood adaptation of the classic tokusatsu movie Godzilla. In the Kapow! Comic Convention in London, director Gareth Edwards talks about the status of the movie.

It's going great and I'm genuinely excited about it. We're just working really hard with Legendary, who have been fantastic. Thomas Tull has just been an absolute pleasure and nothing like the experience they warn you about when you go to Hollywood. I can't say much other than I hope that we'll have some proper news soon. So you won't have to wait too long at all.

The new Godzilla film is penned by David S. Goyer best known by fans for his work on Nolan's Batman Trilogy. Legendary Pictures producers Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni are also attached to the project.

Godzilla is set for a 2012 release date. Warner Brothers and TOHO will distribute it in their respective countries.

via Crunchyroll News

Power Rangers Super Samurai DVDs Announced

2012-05-22T12:09:00.000+08:00

After the announcement of the Power Rangers Samurai DVDs, Lionsgate has just revealed on a latest press statement that they will also release DVDs for Power Rangers Samurai's sequel, Power Rangers Super Samurai!

Lionsgate will release two volumes this year, namely, Power Rangers Super Samurai Volume 1: Secret of the Black Box and Power Rangers Super Samurai – Volume 2: Super Showdown. Both will be released on August 14th at an SRP of $14.98.

Read the full statement about the Super Samurai DVD release here. In addition, just like the Samurai DVDs, it is likely that the DVDs will also include some extra features.

Takeru Satoh Meets Tim Burton!

2012-05-22T11:38:00.000+08:00

To promote Tim Burton's latest movie collaboration with actor and friend, Johnny Depp called "Dark Shadows" in Japan, he had a special interview with Takeru Satoh about the film!

Takeru Satoh, a big fan of Tim Burton's work was thrilled to do an interview with the acclaimed director. In the interview, he says that he wish to see Mr. Burton do a film in Japan someday. Tim Burton also saw a footage of the upcoming Rurouni Kenshin movie staring Takeru Satoh.

Tim Burton finds the footage fantastic and after knowing that the release of the movie will fall under his birthday, August 25th, he says that it is one nice birthday present. At the end of the interview, the two exchange gifts. Tim Burton gave a book while Takeru Satoh gave him an S.H. FiguArts Zero Kenshin Himura that he signed.

Source: Oricon via Bluefin Tamashii Nations USA