It's been nice being a fan for all these years, Square-kun, but enough is enough. Ever since the Final Fantasy XIV open beta began with an epic cluster-fudge earlier this month - or even years before that, some would say - it's becoming harder and harder to remain a fan of the once-glorious Final Fantasy franchise. And that's putting it mildly.



As far as I'm concerned, the thing that finally tipped the balance, all the way down to raging bitterness, was the massively failed interface of FF14. It may sound frivolous, but when you couple it with the terrible interface-lag (hello hardware mouse!?), plus the performance-lag (even on the lowest settings), and naturally the server-lag, the game quickly becomes unplayable for more than five minutes at a time - unless you're willing to risk your mental health. And I somehow doubt that all these problems will be fixed in time for the public launch at the end of this month.

And don't even get me started with the combat and chat systems! (...)

 Continue reading 'Final Fantasy XIV Massive Fail, FF13 Double Fail'...

A fresh Moon Phase Diary update lists the upcoming TV anime series Hourou Musuko for a January 2011 debut in Japan. The report also mentions Fuji TV's popular late-night timeslot "Noitamina", which is also set to host another upcoming series called Fractale - likewise scheduled to begin airing from January 2011. I seem to recall "Noitamina" having a second timeslot nowadays, so there shouldn't be any conflict here.



The anime adaptation Hourou Musuko was first announced back in March, as a TV series project based on Takako Shimura's slice-of-life / school manga also known as Wandering Son (or The Transient Son). The manga has been serialized since 2002, with 10 compiled volumes released so far in Japan. The same author also created the Aoi Hana / Sweet Blue Flowers manga, and its anime version aired last year.

The original story centers around an effeminate 5th-grade boy (...)

 Continue reading 'Hourou Musuko Anime Begins In January'...

I'm starting to like this guy Satoshi Kubo. Back in July he was the first to blow the whistle on this autumn's mecha anime Super Robot Wars OG: The Inspector. Then last week he claimed to be working on two anime titles: A Channel and Mitsudomoe. The first one has yet to receive an official confirmation, but the other one is now being announced as the second anime season in this insane franchise spawned by Norio Sakurai's gag manga - via the manga's 10th volume (and in turn via ANN).



With less than a month left until the Autumn 2010 anime season kicks-off, and no release date attached to this announcement - plus Kubo's earlier indication that the series would take a three-months break - it's safe to say that Mitsudomoe 2 won't be starting until January 2011. That should give us some time to catch our breath and clean up the floor for the next session of copious laughter.

As for the ongoing first season, Mitsudomoe episode 10 just came out last night, so (...)

 Continue reading 'Mitsudomoe 2nd Season Announced'...

And yet another one bites the dust. Office AO, one of Japan's least prolific studios has also gone bankrupt, as it turns out today. The news comes hot on the heels of Group TAC's bankruptcy, which was also exposed just a few days ago. Although it seems that the original story about Office AO's collapse dates back to August 11, when the Japanese government's Kanpou paper first announced that the company had filed for bankruptcy.



Office AO was founded in 1991 by Ken Aoki, who continued heading the company until the very end. In the likely event that this is the first time you've even heard about it - don't worry, you didn't miss much. The studio barely has anything to show for in the last few years. Apart from creating a silly series of anime shorts called Hula Kapper / Furakappa in 2006, Office AO mostly did assistance work for larger studios.

Some of the anime titles they contributed to include (...)

 Continue reading 'Anime Studio Office AO Goes Bankrupt'...

This year's OVA series Armored Trooper Votoms: Phantom Arc was initially advertised as the final chapter in this franchise, some 26 years after the airing of the original Votoms combat robotic mecha TV anime series. However, the animation production studio Sunrise has since announced 3 new Votoms OVA projects. Today Gigazine offers the first look at all 3 projects, through a whole bunch of screenshots and poster artworks ninja'ed below.



In order of their upcoming release, these are Armored Trooper Votoms Case;Irvine on November 6, Votoms Finder on December 4, and Armored Trooper Votoms: Alone Again on January 18, 2011. The first of these will premiere at the "Votoms Festival" (website), which is pretty much the topic of Gigazine's article. But without further ado, here are the screenshots and posters. (...)

 Continue reading 'Votoms' 3 New OVAs in Screenshots, Posters'...

Another one bites the dust. Group TAC, one of Japan's oldest anime production companies founded over 40 years ago, has filed for bankruptcy at the Tokyo District Court this August 31. The studio decried about 585 million yen ($6.95 million) in debts at the end of its last fiscal year, which morbidly dwarfs its own capital of 10 million yen (less than $120,000).


A flat course would've been fine, too!
When news of an unnamed anime studio filing for bankruptcy first broke last night, it wasn't clear which company that was (speculations about it being Synergy SP obviously turned out to be wrong). Today, however, a report filed by the financial research firm Teikoku Databank cleared the confusion, while also revealing the gory fiscal details above.

Among the numerous animations created by Studio TAC (...)

 Continue reading 'Anime Studio Group TAC Goes Bankrupt'...

Last year's anime short film Cencoroll was quite a fun short watch. But that's just the problem: it was short, way too short! There was so much mind-bending potential there, that it would've been a shame to not explore it further, beyond the first anime's half-hour run. And explored it shall be, at least once more, now that a second Cecoroll anime project is officially in the making.



The news comes straight from Atsuya Uki, the guy who pretty much did all the hard work on the first anime - writing, designing, animating and directing - before Anime Innovation Tokyo and Aniplex stepped in to co-produce and publish it. As announced on Uki's website (via ANN), the new project's tentative title is simply Cencoroll 2, and its scenario and storyboards are still in the works. So for now, all we get is (...)

 Continue reading 'Cencoroll's 2nd Anime Announced'...

Today is the day! Today is the day that the long-awaited Final Fantasy XIV open beta... didn't start. Not quite yet. A last-minute epic-fail forced Square Enix to postpone the start of the beta yesterday, leaving us without even a rescheduled date. But fortunately they already fixed that, and announced that the open beta will actually begin tonight. Yaaay! So for those of you living in North America, it starts today at 19:00 PDT, for those of us in Europe it starts tonight at 02:00 GMT, and as for the rest of the world - well, check the official FFXIV website.



Now, before I get back to staring at the clock with a very creepy look, let's just get another couple of news quickly out of the way. It doesn't look like I mentioned the upcoming anime Rio: Rainbow Gate! until now, so this would be a good time to point out that it's a TV anime series coming in 2011 and, according to today's update of the official website, studio Xebec is the one animating it. Or namely her.

Another anime project announced today (...)

 Continue reading 'Checkpoint: FF14 Open Beta, Rio, AGC38'...

The classic anime series Dororon Enma-kun (The Little Judge from Hell), originally from the 1970s, is set to make its second comeback in recent years. After the Kikoushi Enma (Demon Prince Enma) OVA from 2006-2007, the next anime title in the franchise is being revealed today as Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera - now with more "moe" than ever!



No release timeframe or format is yet known for this upcoming anime adaptation, which is being announced through a preview collage for the November issue of Kadokawa Shoten's Young Ace magazine (out in Japan this October 4). Said document does mention an official website for the new Dororon Enma-kun anime, but that URL is also not yet active.

Alas, even some decent pictures of Emma-chan seem to be a rarity at this time, despite the manga / anime franchise's venerable age. The best I could find is (...)

 Continue reading 'New Dororon Enma-kun Anime Announced'...

Another manga-based anime project making today's headlines is Coppelion, originally a highly radioactive military action manga created by Tomonori Inoue. Despite the rough terms I've just listed, the manga's heroes are actually three perfectly normal high school girls. Well, except for one minor detail: they've been immune to radioactivity since birth, thanks to the wonders of genetic engineering.



The announcement radiates from the 40th issue of Weekly Young Magazine (via ANN), where the ongoing manga is being serialized. 8 volumes have also been compiled since October 2008, with the latest one releasing next week, on September 6.

The original story begins in 2036, 20 years after radioactive contamination from a nuclear accident has put Tokyo under a blockade. When Japan's military (...)

 Continue reading 'Coppelion Manga Gets TV Anime'...