Hello everyone, and welcome back to Objection! This week, rather than having a two-on-two debate, we’re doing a round table on the popular anime Psycho-Pass. Four of our staff are going to take turn discussing what they liked the best about the show, if we liked it at all! Each writer will present their case one by one, leaving you to decide who you most agree with. Let’s get started!
Hello everyone, this week I’ll be covering the last of the three mecha shows that premiered this season. Last week, I covered Gargantia, and how I thought it was off to a pretty good start. Specifically, I mentioned it might wind up becoming one of the few boy meets girl shows I’ll wind up liking. Up this week is Valvrave the Liberator, a new original series by Sunrise. Written by Code Geass’ Ichiro Okouchi, I immediately knew Valvrave would likely be pretty entertaining. The real question is if it’ll turn out to be written legitimately well, even with its supposed entertainment value.
Hello readers, today I’ll talk about Gen Urobuchi’s newest original anime, Suisei no Gargantia. Last week, I concluded Ginga Kikoutai Majestic Prince was kind of a huge mess in many ways. I wasn’t expecting much out of it, as I mentioned, but I also mentioned I was looking forward to Gargantia! In fact, I was probably looking forward to it more than any other show this season, mecha or otherwise. With these sorts of expectations, I was actually half-expecting disappointment. Surprisingly, it’s been pretty promising instead.
The new anime season is here, and with this particular season comes a trio of new mecha shows! Now, if you’re a mecha fan, you know how lucky it is to even get one mecha show a season, but to get three is mystifying. So for the next few weeks, I’ll be covering these three shows. First up is Ginga Kikoutai Majestic Prince, which I didn’t have much in the way of expectations for, then comes Suisei no Gargantia, which is written by Urobuchi and has a rather interesting setting for a mecha, and finally comes Kakumeiki Valvrave, which has Code Geass’ writer on board and should be pretty fun, as a result.
I mentioned that, going in, I didn’t expect much from the show. I really should commend Majestic Prince though, because I came out of the first episode feeling very disappointed. It’s not often that a show gives me a terrible impression when I wasn’t expecting to have one. The core problem I see plaguing the show is a lack of identity. Does it want to be a serious show about humanity’s fight for survival against what seems like a legion of aliens? No, not exactly. Does it want to be a parody of all sorts of mecha shows, poking fun at all the “serious” elements in the genre we take for granted? No, that’s not it either.
It’s been tough following this series. While originally expected to end last fall, ever since Gundam Unicorn has not only been extended to 7 episodes but increased the wait between episodes, fans have been asked to be more and more patient. For many of the older Gundam (and specifically universal century) fans, this isn’t too hard a task to ask, since many of the older OVAs had release schedules similar to current Unicorn’s. For the newer fans, who may never have experienced the OVA waiting game, this is probably especially brutal for them. What’s most important in all this is the current quality of the OVA. Can Sunrise justify to all their fans that Gundam Unicorn is still worth the wait?
Laevatein: Hey everyone, this is Laevatein and Kaushik bringing you another heated debate! This week, we’ll be discussing DLC’s (also known as downloadable content) role in the game industry.
Kaushik: So Laevatein, how do you feel about the state of DLC in today’s gaming industry?
Laevatein: Well, at first I thought it was a pretty neat idea, but I think several factors have forced DLC to become a necessary evil for many.
Nothing makes bigger waves in this industry than new console announcements, and Sony sure dropped a big one with the PS4. Announced at their conference last week, Sony was in the perfect position to wow the general gaming audience, as it not only could also control all the spectacle and hype, but it also didn’t have to compete with another console launch. In fact, the PS4 announcement didn’t really have any notable news to compete with, and I’m pretty sure just about everyone has some opinion on it, myself included. At initial glance, the PS4 looks like a pretty slick machine, but that’s what this industry is good at, style over substance. That’s not to say there isn’t any substance here, but if there is, it’s hard to imagine Sony wanted you to see it; they did a pretty good job of hiding it.
Hello everyone, welcome back to another Mecha Monday! We’re just a few days away from Valentine’s Day, and though I know most of you will prefer to spend it traditionally, today’s the best time to look to our inner Ryuseis and marvel the mecha themselves. There’s a mech for all your needs, so there’s no need to spend your Mechalentine all alone. Please enjoy this very special occasion, hopefully you’ll get giant, oversized candy that could level a house or two from your secret robot admirer.
I seem to be jumping back and forth between genres quite a bit recently, don’t I? Well, I hope this marks my return to writing about visual novels.
Rewrite is Key’s most recent visual novel, and it’s a rather noteworthy one. While I’d like to say “It’s Key, you know what to expect,” you really don’t know what to expect. Rewrite marks the first project where Key’s lead scenario writer, Jun Maeda, does not resume his position. Instead, Key brought in two outside writers, Romeo Tanaka of Cross Channel fame, and Ryukishi07 of Umineko no Naku Koro ni fame, in addition to Little Busters! scenario writer, Yuuto Tanakawa. I’d love to comment on where that leaves Key’s narrative strength, but that’s beyond the scope of these impressions.
And what impressions! As I mentioned in the preceding paragraph, it’s hard to know what to expect with Rewrite. Sure, it has many of the familiar Key trappings, scenarios, and structure, but it really seems to be more indicative of Romeo Tanaka and Ryukishi’s strengths, rather than another Key work.
It’s always a sad day when anyone in the industry announces they’re closing shop. It’s an especially sad day when that happens to a large publisher like THQ, who have a number of properties and studios beloved by gamers everywhere, including some classics. With THQ filing a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, all hopes were placed on life continuing almost as usual, with THQ finding a larger parent to buy them out. Unfortunately, as is the case with all bankruptcies, creditors and investors want to be reimbursed, so THQ effectively got gutted.
So what happened to the properties? Who made off like bandits, and who got left to bleed out in the harsh sun?
