Weekly Jump Rantings Round-up 07/04/2013

Hello, trust you're all enjoying/have enjoyed your holidays! Here a round-up of some of this week's news:

GAMES

• There are very strong rumours that the next system from Microsoft is to require an always-online connection in order to play games
• This has not gone down very well with gamers across the internet, but Adam Orth, Creative Director at Microsoft, was quick to damage-control, basically saying that "everything is always connected", and that people should move if they live in areas with poor connection, and that everyone should just "deal with it".
• Another rumour is that Microsoft's next system is to be revealed on May 21st, and will come with 2 models: A basic model for $500 and a subscription-based model for $300. A November 2013 release date is also being touted
• Nintendo are reportedly giving away free Wii U dev-kits to selected 3rd-party developers
• This conveys Nintendo's willingness to get 3rd-parties on board and should hopefully encourage development for the Wii U
• Early reviews of the Ouya console have been published - and they're not looking great
• Several reviewers have criticised the interface, and that while there are plenty of fun games, few will work well with the controller
• Project X-Zone will be coming to the 3DS in North America on June 25th
• The RPG crossover will feature characters from franchises such as Devil May Cry, Street Fighter and more from the Sega, Capcom and Namco Bandai universes
• The Pokémon Company has revealed a new Pokemon to be playable in the upcoming games Pokémon X/Y
• Kinda bears a striking resemblance to Mew and Mewtwo, no?

MANGA

• Yen Press has announced it will release the new Highschool of the Dead chapter simultaneously with Japan in the US
• Daisuke Sato and Shoji Sato's manga has been on hiatus since March 2011
• Chapter 30 will ship in Japan with the May issue of Dragon Age on April 9th

ANIME

• The new Dragonball Z film, "Battle of Gods" debuted at #1 on the weekend of March 30-31st in theatres in Japan
• The opening earned an estimated $7 million

• And I suppose this ties in with all 3, but Capcom have revealed a project called "Gaist Crusher"
• They are to be developing a game for it on the 3DS, and also a manga and anime based on it
• Here's the official synopsis:
• In the story, Gaimetal, a metal ore with high amounts of pure energy, was discovered 50,000 meters (160,000 feet) underground in 2047, and mining began all around the world. However, Gaist, metallic lifeforms whose bodies are entirely encrusted with Gaimetal, emerged in 2055 and began attacking people. In 2064, Rekka, Hayato, Kurama, and Siren are among those who suit up in Gaist Gear and battle over 100 varieties of Gaist creatures.

That's it for this week. Well, that's all I can be bothered to do for this week, anyway. Be sure to check out my main blog, Weekly Jump Rankings, where I post and discuss the ToC for manga in Weekly Shonen Jump. Thanks for reading!

Weekly Jump Rantings Round-up 31/03/2013

Hello all, welcome to a new weekly post where I give a summary of the past week's news regarding games, manga and anime that I've handpicked. Without further ado...

GAMES

• Battlefield 4 was officially unveiled by DICE at last week's Game Developers Conference, with a 17-minute long gameplay video
• The game will be powered by EA's new graphics engine Frostbite 3, and will be released for PC, PS3 and 360 this autumn with a PS4 and 720 release believed to be on the cards
• Strangely, the game won't be released for Wii U. Here's the reason the executive producer of Battlefield 4, Patrick Bach, gave:
• “The biggest problem we have right now is we don’t want to back down from what we see as our low spec machines. We right now don’t have support for the Wii U in the Frostbite engine. The reason for that is it takes development time. What should we focus on to create the best possible Battlefield experience? We are now focused on PC and the current-gen platforms, and then there might be other platforms in the future that we can’t talk about…”


• The Frostbite 3 engine won't be coming to the Wii U, giving reason to suggest that EA's future games which are powered by the engine, including Dragon Age 3 and the next Mass Effect won't be making an appearance on the Wii U either. My guess is that EA are still butthurt...


• Sony has revealed new details regarding the PlayStation 4 controller:
• There is a 2-point capacitative front touch-pad on which you can pinch, flick and twist
• It is equipped with digital face buttons, a headphone jack, accelerometer and gyroscope
• There will be an LED used to differentiate players, a share button to stream live gameplay to friends' consoles and a 3D camera for position-tracking
• Mark Rein at this year's GDC laughed at the question of Unreal Engine 4 being supported on Wii U, despite him last year saying the engine was scaleable, and that they'd be able to bring it to mobile platforms, which are weaker than consoles
• He later clarified his comments, stating that the engine COULD actually run on the Wii U, if developers chose to use it. He stated that Epic themselves had no intention of using it on the console
• He then apologised if he offended anybody with his comments
• The Wii U's UK sales have risen by 125%, according to MCV magazine. This is likely due to Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate's release and Lego City: Undercover also coming, in addition to a price drop
• Sengoku Basura 4 has been announced for a 2014 release on PS3

MANGA

• Mangaka Mizuki Kawashita, known for creating series such as Strawberry 100% and Hatsukoi Limited, will be starting a new manga series in the June issue of Jump Sq
• Naruto's Masashi Kishimoto will contribute a new one-shot
• As will The Prince of Tennis' Takeshi Konomi

ANIME

• High School DxD Season 2 has been announced for a July airdate
• The main cast and staff will be reprising their roles
• Risa Taneda will play Zenobia
• Maaya Uchida will play Irina Shido
• Haruka Yamazaki will play Aika Kiriyu
• The One Piece-Dragonball Z-Toriko crossover entitled "Dream 9 Cho Collaboration Special!!" will air next Sunday, April 7th in Japan

Viz Media Rant - Part 1

First off, welcome to a series of off-the-cuff rants I may do, which won't necessarily be weekly. I just rhymed "Rankings" with "Rantings". Like what I did there?

Viz Media Rant - Part 1

Right, so, as we all know, Viz Media are responsible for bringing over to the West many great anime and manga titles, such as Naruto, One Piece, Bleach and HxH. However, I have to question their handling of these titles and their other ones. I'm talking about the series that you never really see them promote, such as Reborn! and Gintama. And the result? Reborn! is on an indefinite hiatus and Gintama has been cancelled.

Let's start with Reborn!. Now, I purchased all 16 English volumes of Reborn!, which was my first manga ever bought, in the space of August 2010 to January 2011, WITHOUT knowing that the series was on hiatus. My suspicions were first aroused when I saw that Volume 17 was supposed to have been released in October 2010. I investigated a little around the internet and discovered that it had gone on hiatus due to low sales. And the cause of this? SHITTY TRANSLATIONS AND SHITTY PROMOTION! I was aware that there were errors that could've easily been corrected, such as "Kyosuke Hibari" and Mammon having the "Yellow pacifier", but a Southern Gokudera and a Tsuna who, under pressure, exclaims "Great gruntin' groundhogs!" and "Holy ham on rye with kraut!" is unacceptable. Now, I don't think Viz fully acknowledged the series' darker, action-y transition, so kept it as a comedy. But that does not make up for very silly mistakes that could've been avoid with a little QC. I mean, if scanlators can do better translations for free, why should Viz pay those morons to do a shitty job? Which brings me to another rant, but that's for another day. Anyway, back to Reborn!. There was no hype for the series, shitty translations, resulting in its hiatus. And what dare Viz doing? They are currently sitting on the licence as if they're expecting it to suddenly "POOF!" them lots of cash. PROMOTE THAT SHIT!!! We've just come out of the holiday season, where people are most likely to spend their cash, and Viz could've used that as an opportunity to get some of their lower-selling manga out there! But what do they do? They put their higher-selling manga on sale instead, as if they're not making Viz any money. I can't fucking stand them and I don't know why they make shut crappy business decisions. At the moment, unless Reborn! gets picked up by another company, its future in the West is looking very bleak.

Gintama sells incredibly well, and does very well in the weekly rankings, coming 1st in a few occasions. I saw no effort by Viz to promote such a great, great series. Very disappointing that Viz cancelled it. Had lots of potential. I understand that there were many cultural references and jokes that couldn't be translated, but that's what makes it so funny and unique! It's like the Family Guy of anime and manga! I was literally JUST about to buy the first volume on my birthday, but that was the day Viz announced its cancellation. Viz, you suck cock big-time. You just let a potential money-maker slip right through your hands. Oh, but that don't concern you, does it? As long as you keep suckling at the teats of your precious Naruto (which is incredibly overrated), you'll be fine! I mean, it only accounts for 10% of your revenue(!) It's not like if you promoted more series as much as you did Naruto, you'd make more money(!) I mean, who'd want that?

This is just one of the many reasons I'm glad Naruto and Bleach (No offence Bleach, you're ok) are in their final arc. I mean, once they're over, I want to see if Viz will continue to ride their dicks for the next 10 years.

Ah well, Part 2 coming soon. Thanks for reading, please leave feedback and comments! ^_^