I had always hoped and dreamed that North America would receive a Starfy game if we wished on enough…stars. This was because I wasn't really sure what it was, other than a cute 2-D "marine platformer" where, yes, every level is at least part water …Read more »
The box housing the first season of The Familiar of Zero made me cringe. Pink hair, magic wand, two moons -- can we be any more generic? This does not look like the sort of thing you would pick up if it weren't stashed in …Read more »
As part of the NEW PEOPLE grand opening, the underground Viz Cinema hosted the regional (and red carpet!) premiere of the first part of the 20th Century Boys trilogy: The Beginning of the End . Takako Tokiwa, the producer, and a mysterious character from the …Read more »
I'm not sure if Yoshi's has ever had a crowd surfer before. The venue, near San Francisco's Japantown, is primarily a jazz lounge, but Sunday night it hosted the Japan Nite Special Girl Rock Explosion! + Harajuku Kawaii Experience presented by NEW PEOPLE, and all …Read more »
I had set my alarm for 8:00, but ended up waking up around 7:00, perky with J-pop glee. It was a lot like Christmas, only instead of a tree incubating brightly wrapped packages, I got a building in San Francisco's Japantown made of windows, full …Read more »
Continued from Part 1 . Next they discussed a bit the tendency in Japan for the auteur theory to be pretty heavily used, at least in terms of the storyboarding process: "In Japan, it's a normal method to have the director draw the storyboard. So …Read more »
A few weeks ago, Berkeley's Center for Japanese studies awarded Hayao Miyazaki with the Berkeley Japan prize for, among other things, "[furthering] our understanding of Japan and its contribution to global culture." "Rare opportunity" sounds really cliché, but honestly, that's what we had – how …Read more »
I was pretty much ready to give up on Utawarerumono after a disk or two. The amnesia man premise I could give a go, as those sometimes lead interesting places; I was able to accept that for some reason the girls have tails, and could …Read more »
Save me! Lollipop is a series you can safely skip over. That seems mean, though, and I don't want to be mean to a series with a such a good message to teach us: Be Strong and protect the people you love! It's almost a …Read more »
Here is a game that taunts you by giving you a high score even though you didn't actually beat the level: We know you're trying really hard, and look how far up the board you managed to get! Maybe next time you'll actually manage to …Read more »
This past weekend was WonderCon in San Francisco, and in case you hadn't heard, part of the Otaku USA crew made it down there to panel it up and, of course, spread the goodness of manga wherever we go. Not every second of …Read more »
I was already really addicted to the theme song from Mirror's Edge , even before they announced last year that a remix album was coming out to coincide with the game's release. I would just keep replaying a trailer on YouTube over and over, listening …Read more »
You have to go at either Onechanbara game with a supreme single-mindedness: kill zombies as bikini girl. Or sailor fuku girl. Or a couple other female characters you unlock as you go. It's not a game for deep meaningful plot (unless you count introspective ruminations …Read more »
Yep, childhood. Family restaurant placemats with an abundance of paper spaces and stubby crayons dozens of grubby hands have ground down . Does it come with fries? Yes, but we're sharing them. And we wait. Thankfully eternity is broken by the cheer of doodling random …Read more »
Planet of the Beast King: I didn't go so far as to expect furries, but I will say that I at least anticipated some wolf men or something-cat girls, hyena goofballs, foxy tricksters, rabbit children-something! Instead, the planet is ruled by violent plants; only the …Read more »
Emily Balistrieri
