Friday, March 29, 2024
Samantha H.

Samantha H.

Review Staff

Tuesday, 27 August 2013 10:33

Gen Con Indy 2013 Impressions

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Despite living in Indiana all my life, I had never really thought about attending Gen Con Indy until about two years ago in 2010. Only then did I realize how large this convention actually is. Gen Con Indy 2013 took place in the Indianapolis Convention Center during the weekend, August 15-18. The first Gen Con took place in famed Dungeons and Dragons creator Gary Gygax's home in 1967 and has since grown to have a turnstile attendance of 159,364 and unique attendance of 49,058 as of 2013.

Thursday, 27 June 2013 11:02

Zakuro (DVD) Review

Based on the series Otome Yōkai Zakuro by mangaka Lily Hoshino, Zakuro is a romance revolving around the struggles of spirits living in a world where they were once revered and respected. NIS America announced their acquisition of the series in March of 2012 and released their premium edition package in June 2012.

Spawned from the mind of talented artist Ryohei "Huke" Fuke, the popular Black Rock Shooter franchise gets its very own cleverly named video game Black Rock Shooter: The Game. Though the game originally came out for the PSP in Japan in August of 2011, players in North America and Europe can now download the game from the Playstation Network thanks to the efforts NIS America.

Where can you find tengu, chupacabra and crop circles all in one place? Waldstein Academy of course! NIS America’s recent release, Occult Academy, focuses on the abnormal and unexplainable phenomena that happen in Waldstein Academy, or “Occult Academy” as it is called by the individuals who live nearby. Occult Academy focuses on Maya Kumashiro and time traveler Fumiaki Uchida as they scour the city looking for the key of Nostradamus that will cause an alien invasion on July 21, 1999 while battling against all the occult creatures that get in their way.

As of February 14th the, .hack series has returned to American audiences nationwide in the form of a three episode long OVA series called .hack//Quantum. FUNimation Entertainment announced they had grabbed the license for this particular installment in the .hack world during Anime Atlanta last year, and have just released the OVA as a pretty Blu-ray/DVD combo. It has been awhile since I’ve seen anything related to the .hack series since I watched the first episode of .hack//roots when it first aired in Japan. However, I have been a big fan of .hack//sign and was eager to give .hack another try.

Way back during the Nineties when the VHS was king and not Blu-Ray/DVD, there were tons of classic and beloved anime that were released into the United States.  One particular series, Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040, holds a special place in my heart as one of the first anime series I really got into and one of my personal favorites. It is also perhaps one of the first anime brought over here to the West to incite the cyberpunk genre fandom for English speaking audiences.