Is the reality of Binary Domain coming to life? or is it Japanese just being Japanese? Either way, it sounds promising to know that Suidobashi Heavy Industry is building a 4 meter high and 3 meter wide human controllable robot either via a 3G connection or you navigate in the cockpit. Sounds like a dream come true to me. A step forward to realizing the dreams of all sci-fi fans. Gundam anyone?

The company itself is planning to mass-produce this big boy toy nicknamed SDBX-01 Vaudeville. However, the one you are looking is the prototype that they call KURATAS which is the works of Kogoro Kurata. Mr. Kogoro is a modern day ironsmith in Japan who have a morbid twist to his works as his fans would says. Moreover, this is not his first time in creating a mecha. As a matter of fact, the first one was called ScopeDog from the 80′s anime Votoms. So, in the near future you can actually order this mecha online because this is targeted for the consumer market.

Yea, the mecha is built with a weapon system in mind too. Nothing harmful. Just look below for the video. Fun would be the proper word but if it reached the hand of Tony Stark, the guy who plays Iron Man in Avengers then it will be fully upgraded xD It will be havoc!

So, what can it do? Well, it’s still a bit sketchy on that part for now but I’m sure those who brought them will have various creative ways to use them. Maybe used as a perimeter guard in front of your house?

[View with PicLens]

These awesome photos are from their facebook page.

A Tachikoma would be awesome if they made those little guys.

Videos

Facebook | Blog

Via: RocketNews

Japan is Currently Building Real Mecha | The Otaku Kid - Anime, Cosplay & the Internet | Shockerz

I finished Binary Domain last weekend and I have great fun with the game. Albeit, the controls is a bit buggy which is not as smooth as the controls I get while playing Mass Effect 3 or any popular FPS/TPS. Perhaps a ported version to the PC from consoles is to be at fault here? Gameplay wise, it’s rewarding and gratifying while you’re peeling armors off over hoards of robots coming in your direction.

Binary Domain implemented a “Consequence system” that looks more or less like what you can experience in Mass Effects trilogy. It’s a cut down version of the system and it feels a lot less engaging. It was said that it plays a lot on trusts and how your teammates perceive you. I would be assuming that’s how you answer your teammate questions. Options are limited to Yeah, Damn, Shit and on with a lots of one-liner comments.

I didn’t even understand why Big Bo, the big muscle head that love heavy machine guns, betray me in the final battle and to add fuel to the fire I lost Rachael that got hit by the Boss. I don’t want to leak out spoilers but there’s a twist in the end. So, only after I searched for the ending on Youtube that make me realized that I lost Cain too. That French robot comes in handy in tight situation.

The perfect ending, of course, is having all of your teammates with you which I lost 3 of ‘em.

You know, I like the explanation and reasons behind creating hybrid from of the human race from the AI Amada created. It’s sound and you can’t denied that it have a valid point. If only I can find such specimen hehe

If you have a headphone which I don’t have nor use frequently to justify its existence, I can’t really test out the voice recognition system that is built into each AI and you can choose from 6 languages too. Something different from your usual top of the shelve game.

What makes me laugh was when Dan, the main character and leader of the Rust Crew. Can have the strength to single-handedly hold a mini gun while he is interacting with an object in the game. For instance, you can see him holding the heavy minigun in one hand on the air and another pressing down a button on a panel. WTF?

It’s a fun and interesting game but 20k in sales for March just doesn’t do it justice. The only reason that seems reasonable is that more funds are diverge into development of the game compare to just focus on marketing. Maybe that’s why there are little-to-no marketing campaign running around or they have shitty marking team.

My overall rating is 8/10. Any FPS & TPS gamer out there should give this a try!

Trailer

Bigger than you think

Review: Binary Domain – You Should Try It | The Otaku Kid - Anime, Cosplay & the Internet | Shockerz

AKB0048 is definitely something as the creator is trying to cross blend different genres together. On the first episode itself you can immediately know genres like pop idol, dystopian society, mecha, musical and lastly some science fiction added into the mix. I’m no fans of AKB48′s but I know that they are the most successful girl group in Japan and ventures into different media before joining the anime bandwagon.

My reaction when the anime is 10 minutes into the show. Then, you will see idols fighting law enforcement on all fronts.

15 minutes into the show.

I was trying hard to suspend my disbelief before episode 1 even ended but I’m sorry that I can’t. It feels a lots like I was being trolled by the creator. Questions kept popping out on why would society degrade itself into such level or why entertainment is banned? More Q’s than A’s.

Then, I realized. Oh yea, this is Japan we are talking about. Weird always equals to awesome in most cases but I’m not betting on this one.

Give this a try to get what I mean.

What Did I Just Watched? AKB0048 is … | The Otaku Kid - Anime, Cosplay & the Internet | Shockerz

I usually read while I’m on my way to college and my usual mode of transport is the train. However, most often than not I get nauseated and a bit dizzy when I read for more than 10 minutes, staring on the screen on my phone or a book in hand. I would usually get frustrated at this point and just plug in my earphones then close my eyes to try to balance the feeling.

So, I got curious and did some digging. It was said that the feeling of being dizzy or nauseated while reading on a moving vehicle is caused by a type of motion sickness that is similar to car sickness. It happens because the brain senses movement of the train with all the turns and bumps that the train comes across, but your eyes only see a motionless page of a book or a screen. This causes an unbalance to our body which our brain will interpret it as something bad because to the brain it not something it’s accustomed to yet. Read further the under why I use the word “accustomed” on the last sentence.

So, according to what I can understand from googling is that our body uses our vestibular system (inner part of our ears) and eyes to evaluate motion. These two need to work very closely together to help you sense your balance and equilibrium. It’s best to keep these two in synced or face the dizzy feeling. To which is not a good feeling if you have been experiencing it of late and wanted solution do look below.

Preventing this voluntary response can be tricky, and may be impossible. So, I have five solution for you to try out. No recommendation of drug, of course.

1] Look out the windows often

It may help to sit and hold the book or your phone where you can see out the window at the moving scenery in the background of the object you’re holding. Even out of the corner of your eye, those signals might be enough to allow your brain to synch up the sensations it is feeling.
On the other hand, you can try to look outside of the windows before the nauseated feeling set in. For example, if you know your limit is 15 minutes max then maybe at the 12th minutes you look out then windows for a while to synch up then slowly move back to your book.

2] Take ginger based sweets or gum.

Some people claim they’ve success while taking ginger based sweets or products. You can definitely give this a try.

3] Repetition

Do it even when you feel nauseous while reading, keep at it until your body completely adapted to the feeling. Some people will be accustomed to it in around a week or two. Others might need more. I tried this technique out 2 years ago but I have already lost the ability now because I don’t read as often as I did before thus the reason why this article was written. To find out more ways to prevent the sick feeling.

I admit it would be rough for the first few days but it’s a way that you can train your body to response to these senses and tell it that this is okay.

4] Recommend an upgrade

Schweizerische Bundeshanen (SBB), the train system in Switzerland requested a study on “Eliminate Motion Sickness On Tilting Trains” have since implemented the new finding to their new ordered trains. The finding shows that motion sickness on tilting trains could be eliminated by changing the way cars take curves. So, since you are a customer to the railroad company you can definitely try to recommend them to upgrade their train to be fitted with better technology to reduce the nauseous feeling and increase passenger comfortability.

5] Forget about reading

Yup, don’t read em’. Just get plugged-in to your favorite musics or directly get the audiobook instead.

For me I will be trying 1 and 5 then 2 since I’m on a long semester now. I hope that these tips can help those who are in search of a solution. Till then ciao!

More about general motion sickness.

Solution to Minimizing Motion Sickness while Reading on the Train | The Otaku Kid - Anime, Cosplay & the Internet | Shockerz

I must be honest here because I’m loosing steam fast very passing week. The feeling of pushing it away and trying to not look into my Japanese textbook is showing. I just might have a life-saver that a commentator ask me to try, the famous AJATT (All Japanese, All The Time) way of approaching Japanese. To what degree it will help, I will give it a try and see whether it can help remedy this procrastination habit of mine. Wish me luck! Oh, college just started!

Things that I learnt

• Permission and Prohibition
• Permissibility and Minimal Requirement
• Expressing potential potential and ability
• Revision on chapter 7

I didn’t achieve much last week and my express now is as shown below.

My Japanese Progress: Sad Okay | The Otaku Kid - Anime, Cosplay & the Internet | Shockerz

This project definitely looks interesting of combining western and eastern artists together to create a music driven animation. I suppose something like the feel and looks of Last Exile? I mean the vibe it gives from the video show something of similar to the anime but with a more of a western 70′s pop look. Not to mention the beats sound nice.

It have some big names in the industries on the project like Greg Penny, a record producer for Elton John and kd lang. Studio 4°C, the animation studio that brought us the famous Animatrix and First Squad, will be handling the animation part.

A snippet from their site:

The animation will debuts as a trilogy of three 5 minute music video, driven by strong songs with global hit potential.

1. The Sound Of Hope – due September 2012
2. Alice & The Robot – due December 2012
3. The Queen Of Illumina – due March 2013

So, in order to make such a project into reality they have set up a KickStarter page to raise funds in a more open way. Their goal is to reach 390k USD and have only 1 month to go before closing for more funding. Pledge now!

From the reward panels on the right side of the page I can see that if you pledge 10K for the project you would receive a trip for 2 to Japan for 5 nights. Those who are enthusiastic and have the resources should consider this option. As for me it’s totally way out of my budget. lol

Le video intro

More screenies

Their official homepage

Project:13 – A music Driven Animation Trilogy | The Otaku Kid - Anime, Cosplay & the Internet | Shockerz

In lieu of recent events happened in China there seems to be a new Chinese version of Hatsune Miku on the rise. That spot the same iconic twin tails hair as to the virtual pop idol herself but styled with a red color hair instead. Red is perhaps the color that China like to associate itself?

As you can see that the video have been causing uproar to Miku fans online and even the video itself receive so many “dislike”.

The animation looks decent but listening to Chinese digitalized voice feels weird compare to the authentic Vocaloid voices.
Video link

New Miku-like Virtual Idol from China? | The Otaku Kid - Anime, Cosplay & the Internet | Shockerz

Great news halo-tards! Halo is getting a web series near the end of this year.

More and more big video game publishers are producing live-action series to help hype up their game before release. Like the all famous Assassin Creed – Lineage which is released before Assassin Creed II came out. Other previous titles like Halo, Mortal Kombat and so forth have also did the same. I mean it’s a good thing and I can only hope that all other publishers would do the same too with their games.

The series will be released in weeks leading up to Halo 4 release at November 6th. It’s a 5 episodes series that span across 15 minutes each. Watch out for Machinima and Halo waypoint as they will be the one’s releasing them.

Playing the games and reading the books or other “Halo” spinoffs is “a big commitment,” O’Connor said. “We needed a way to ensure there was a way for people to get onboard this universe without feeling intimidated.” As a result, the Web series is “an origins story that teaches you about a lot of different facets of the (‘Halo’) universe.”

Now that I think about. It’s really a big commitment indeed as I’ve read almost all the novels, games and related materials to get into the Halo universe compare to those who just wanted to kick some alien ass. However, there’s still one book I haven’t finish until now — Halo: Grasslands by Karen Traviss. Need more motivation to go through it due to bad reviews (╹◡╹)凸

On another related note. Halo actually have their very own anime version of the spartans. It’s called Halo legends, it’s a collection of seven short anime films set in the Halo universe. To me, the animation is pretty good and is handle by famous animation companies in Japan. Recommended watch!

Halo Legends Episode 1. Sorry, it cannot be embedded

Source: Variety

Halo: New Web Series “Forward Unto Dawn” | The Otaku Kid - Anime, Cosplay & the Internet | Shockerz

The cosplay looks superb! Onto the character, those of you who are not in the loop of the ever popular Vocaloid. SeeU, the character that Electric Lady is currently cosplaying is a new character introduced in Vocaloid3. She is the first voicebank that is capable of producing Korean or Japanese voice which is a new front for the software company behind Vocaloid.

The very first video on her debut

The cosplay is done quite nicely by Electric Lady but I still like the SeeU version from Tomia.

Software: Vocaloid

Character: SeeU

Role: Virtual idol

Cosplayer: Electric Lady (or Kara)

[View with PicLens]

Oh! Why am I even bothering to explain when you are here to check out some hot chick in costume. ≖‿≖

Source: Electric Lady

Vocaloid: SeeU Cosplay By Electric Lady | The Otaku Kid - Anime, Cosplay & the Internet | Shockerz

Oops! Another late post to my progress on the subject. The progress speed is normal now because I can be very demanding even when it comes to myself. I realized that speed learning won’t be helpful in the long run but slow to average speed will give my subconscious a little bit more time to absorb those learnt materials.

I mentioned that I was halfway into Chapter 8 last week and this week I’ve finish until Chapter 9. Am ready to jump into doing revision again in those chapters to further strengthening its foundation.

Things that I learnt

• Taking about experiences with ARU
• Verbs in the plain past form
• Describing people and things
• Describing skills
• Nominalizers NO and KOTO
• Suffix TAI
• Absolute time expression
• More on particle YA, DE and NI
• Question word ITSU
• The Te-Form in verbs and adjectives
• Direction
• Using Sousuruto
• Te-Form of IRU
• Expressing an extreme habit with BAKARI

The above will be some of the things I have learnt in those chapters.

On a totally off topic note. Legend of Korra is super awesome! I feels like I have become a child again like when I first stumbled upon Avatar: The Last Airbender. It was the first show on Nick that have fascinated me for a long time in the world that people have the ability to bend elements. Anyway, episode 4 just aired a day ago. I would recommend a watch if you are not already a fan of the series.

Image credit: Ninjatic

My Japanese Progress: Good | The Otaku Kid - Anime, Cosplay & the Internet | Shockerz