From the Creators of Bakuman. and Death Note . . . . Platinum End!!!

The mangaka duo that brought you Bakuman. and Death Note, Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, have announced a new collaboration work titled Platinum End, "a story of a human and an angel". The story centers around main character Mirai Kakehashi. 

It was announced in Weekly Shounen Jump issue #44 that the new series will launch in Jump SQ on November 4th. 

Bakuman. will also be receiving a short, two-chapter prequel to commemorate the release of the Live Action Bakuman. feature film, set to open on October 3rd in Japan. Bakuman. age 13 follows the two main characters Saiko (Moritaka Mashiro) and Shujin (Akito Takagi) before their fateful meeting which begins the events of Bakuman.

Reference Links:

Platinum End

Bakuman. age 13

Kingdom Hearts HD II.8 Final Chapter Prologue & Kingdom Hearts II.9

Director: Tetsuya Nomura (Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy VII Remake)

Announced by Square Enix at the Sony Computer Entertainment Japan Asia Press Conference, the new installment in the series will feature a compilation of three Kingdom Hearts titles for the PS4

• Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance HD
• No new plot elements to be added.
• Kingdom Hearts X: Back Cover
• Features the "oldest story" in the Kingdom Hearts lore.
• Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth By Sleep - a fragmentary passage - 
• Kingdom Hearts III technology is being used to create part of this game, hence the release of KH II.8 on the PS4 and not on say, the New 3DS, etc.
• Nomura stated in an interview with Famitsu that Kingdom Hearts 0.2 would be a mix of Kingdom Hearts III and the original Birth by Sleep game for the PSP. 
• The story of the Kingdom Hearts 0.2 game takes place immediately after Aqua finds Cinderella's Castle in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Final Mix. 

Japan release is expected in 2016.

Kingdom Hearts III, which uses Unreal Engine4 technology, will be released on the PS4 and the Xbox 1. Confirmed worlds for Kingdom Hearts III include Tangled and Big Hero 6.

Reference Links:

KH II.8

Nomura Interview

Fall 2015 Anime Season

What're we Watching?

• Garo: Guren no TsukiStudio: MAPPA

  

  Sequel to the first Garo Animation

  
  Genre: Action, Shounen, Supernatural, Fantasy, Magic, Demons

Producer Masao Maruyama announced at animation studio MAPPA's Otakon panel that the second Garo: Honoo no Kokuin television anime series is slated for this October. Unlike the first Garo anime, this series will be a jidaigeki (period drama) set in the Heian period. It will have a female protagonist.

• Heavy ObjectStudio: J.C. Staff
  Genre: Action, Mecha, Sci-fi

The science-fiction war action story revolves around Objects — powerful, massive weapons that change the course of warfare — and Elite Object pilots. An odd Elite girl named Milinda meets Quenser, a student who aims to become a Object mechanic, with the soldier-in-training Heivia on a snowy battlefield.

• K: Return of Kings (K project 2)Studio: GoHands
  Genre: Action, Superpower, Supernatural

In modern Japan, where history has strangely overlapped with reality. There, seven "Kings" with great superpowers existed. Along with their clansman to whom they shared their own power with, the kings each formed clans. Order bound by blue, red flames that cause chaos, irregularities that shine in white, and reforms branched off into green. The Kings, each with their own abilities, now...

With "jungle" once again jumping back into action, the fates of the various Kings are brought together.

• Noragami Aragoto
  Sudio: Bones
  Genre: Action, Adventure, Shounen, Supernatural

Season two of Noragami which will adapt the manga's Bishamon arc.

• One Punch Man
  Studio:Madhouse
  Genre: Action, Comedy, Sci-fi, Seinen, Superpower, Supernatural

The manga revolves around the titular super hero who has trained so hard that his hair has fallen out, and who can overcome any enemy with one punch. However, because he is so strong, he has become bored and frustrated with winning all his battles so easily.

• Shingeki! Kyojin Chuugakkou
  Studio: Production I.G.
  Genre: Comedy, Parody, School, Shounen

The school comedy story is set in a junior high school and centers on the original manga's characters such as Eren and Mikasa as they battle with Titans. The spin-off incorporates gags while using Shingeki no Kyojin's story and notable scenes as its basis.

• Subete ga F ni Naru: The Perfect Insider
  Studio: A-1 Pictures
  Genre: Drama, Mystery, Seinen

The story of the original Subete ga F ni Naru novel revolves around Souhei Saikawa, a member of the Saikawa Research Lab. He goes on a vacation held by the lab, and Moe Nishinosono, the daughter of his mentor, joins the group on their vacation despite not being a part of the lab. There, the two end up finding a corpse. The two work together to solve the mysteries of what becomes a serial murder case.

The entire Fall 2015 Anime Season List

[PAD] JP Stream, Awoken Sakuya

So JP had their big stream this weekend, the usual one where all the PAD celebrities gather to tease some information on what's to come in the JP version of PAD. Max Murai and co. go and clear some dungeons, netting the JP players sweet sweet stones and pys (RIP NA), and then we get to learn about awesome new content. The highlights for this one? Tons and tons of new ult evos. Where do I even begin?

The most hyped up news was definitely the reveal of Awoken Sakuya. A fan favorite and commonly complained about, Sakuya is a card that GungHo frankly can't afford to mess up. But honestly, the reveal was a bit underwhelming. If it were any other card, people would be really excited about a powerful, bind clearing, unbindable leader. For Sakuya though, this just didn't cut it. The community reaction was so negative in fact, that GungHo has said that they're going to tweak Sakuya again to make her more acceptable for the community.

Is the revealed Awoken Sakuya so bad that it warrants a change? Let's take a look at Super Ult Sakuya as a comparison.

Awoken Sakuya - L/B
Active - Gravity + Bind Clear
Leader Skill - 5x with a 1.3x boost for 7+ combos

Ult Ult Sakuya - L/G
Active - Gravity
Leader Skill - 5x with a 1.2x boost on active use

Stats: Awoken Sakuya trades 650 HP for 200 Attack and 120 RCV
Awakenings: Awoken Sakuya trades 1 Enhanced Light Orbs and 1 Poison Resist for 2 Bind Resist

What does this all mean? Well in a nutshell, Awoken Sakuya makes her team very resilient against binds and features higher and more consistent (assuming player skill isn't an issue) damage than L/G Sakuya. Personally, I would consider her stronger - but definitely not by much. L/G Sakuya already had very convenient access to on-color reliable bind clearing in the form of L. Meta and the jump from L/G's 36x to Awoken's 42.25x while not insignificant, is definitely not game changing (not to mention it's not the easiest combo threshold to pull off consistently). Bind clear and gravity also don't make too much sense to put into the same active. There will hardly be any situations when both will be useful on the same turn, making it an awkward active in the sense that the two components have very little synergy.

There are a few other little things: Awoken Sakuya trades orb enhance (damage) and poison resist (pretty good utility) for unbindability. While unbindability on a leader is huge, she definitely would've benefited more from giving up her blind resist or jammer resist awakenings instead. Losing out on HP and gaining attack also goes against Sakuya's identity as the "tank, safe, utility-based quadcolor lead". While she does gain RCV to compensate, it's not like L/G Sakuya has any shortage of RCV with access to most of the games light healers as subs.

Overall, I think Awoken Sakuya, while definitely powerful, just didn't have as much impact as people were hoping for. People wanted something to rival Awoken Ra and the MP dragons. Instead, they got a slightly buffed Sakuya. Here's to hoping that the tweaks do Awoken Sakuya justice.

Bobo's Bizarre Adventure

First attempt at Virtual Villagers: Origins

A struggling village on a island lost at sea . . . . 

This is the world that Bobo knows. Bobo, a third generation of the original island settlers was conceived at a troubling time for the village; although, being but a child, he wasn't conscious to the anxious, harried complexions of the adults. Never in his young life had he known a full stomach, and so this became his reality. 

It was when Bobo had reached his tenth year that the villagers started disappearing. Long stretches of famine occurred more and more frequently and the village adults spent more and more of their time pacing back and forth with their heads in their hands and the only source of food they could hope for was an occasional mushroom. They called this time the Era of Starvation. Despite the hardships and the loss of this time, the villagers were able to find some solace in the peaceful garden that they cultivated and the miraculous lake that they uncovered. A cemetery was erected to house the sprawled skeletons that had begun to appear in the town center.  

Before long the Era of Starvation came to an end, leaving the village half as full as it was before and with survivors who were severely weakened. It was during this time that Bobo became a man. It was a mad race to research another food source, a race against time that became harder and harder as their bodies became increasingly fatigued, but nonetheless, this rush gave them hope. It was then that they came. The barrel of babies. 

The barrel of babies brought doom upon the tribe. They robbed the survivors of food and pushed everyone over the brink of starvation and their path left only hallowed skeletons in their wake. And then one day, it was just Bobo and two members of the barrel of babies. One baby died before he could mature and the other did not last long past 14. And with them gone, it was just Bobo. Just Bobo. 

[PAD] NA NA NA NA BATMAAAAAAN

HOLY ULT EVOS BATMAN

NA just got the Batman ult evos first! (see title)

Since we're probably not getting the Hunter x Hunter collab anytime soon, it looks like this is GungHo's way of making it up to us: specifically, these new Batman ult evos seem to be the counterparts of Gon and Killua from the HxH collab.

D/R Batman boosts Physical and Machine type HP/Attack by 1.3x while boosting Dark Attribute attack by 4x when at full HP OR under 50% HP. This mirrors Gon Freecs' leader skill which is a 1.3x HP/Attack boost for Attacker/Physical and a 4x boost for the whole party under  the same HP conditions. Awakening-wise, Gon has 2 skill boosts over Batman who makes up for it with immunity to binds, not quite as useful in general, but it can definitely make or break your run in certain dungeons.

D/D Batman boosts Balanced and Machine type Attack/RCV by 1.3x while boosting Dark Attribute attack by 4x when HP is above 80%, not quite as flexible as D/R, but powerful nonetheless. He's the NA counterpart of Killua, who provides the same boosts for Attacker and Devil type cards instead of Balanced and Machine types. On the awakenings side, D/D Batman packs double skill boosts and double TPAs while Killua features only one of each, but is unbindable. Again, making that tradeoff between offensive power and utility.

Right now it seems that Gon and Killua are better due to better access to subs (good machine type monsters are still pretty scarce), especially Gon who gets to play with all the green attackers, but that could change very easily in the near future.

Either way, even though I would've loved to get HxH collab in NA, I actually think this is way cooler (well, until JP gets them too) since it's like we get our own exclusive versions of the same card.

[PAD] End of August GodFest Results

A little backstory first:

I've wanted Sarasvati ever since her Ultimate Evolution got announced in JP. The Indian 2 Pantheon has popped up in GodFests three times since then. The first time she hit the REM was right after the June Player's Choice GodFest, right after I had spent all the stones I had been saving up for the past few months. Just to add salt to the wound, this particular GodFest coincided with a Water Gala, it was the perfect chance to roll her and I had next to no stones. I completed every dungeon I could to scrounge up the stones for at least one more pull, but in the end, the event didn't even get me a featured god. I figured it would be a while before the Indians were back at the REM, so I decided to hoard my stones for my chance.

When they came back, they were alongside the Chinese Celestials, another great pantheon that I'm more than willing to roll in. That turned out to be what I consider my most successful GodFest ever. I think I rolled something ridiculous like 10/12 gold eggs featuring Krishna, Vishnu, Durga, and even Rodin. But true to the desire sensor, I failed to obtain Sarasvati, the one whom I desired the most.

Fast forward a bit and we get to Chibi Summer REM. It wasn't long since the last appearance of Indian 2 and I wanted a few of the cards. Yeah, yeah, I know, Collab REMs are always a trap, but I'm usually really stingy with my rolls and I wanted to let loose a little (and since Awilda was a 4* I thought I would have at least a decent chance of getting her T__T)

ANYWAY, yeah, Indian 2 came again right after I was done wasting all my stones on chibifest 2015. I was half excited half disappointed, excited because I got another chance to roll for my beloved Sarasvati, disappointed because I had like 8 stones. I did some more dungeons to get stones and somehow managed to scrounge together 15 by the day of.

I opened up the REM, took a breath, closed my eyes for a bit and pulled. Gold Egg. Awesome. But I was prepared for disappointment, I knew with the recent changes to the REM, gold rates were now much higher, but so were troll gold rates. I waited in anticipation half hoping that it was Sarasvati and half hoping it wasn't in some sort of lame attempt to beat the desire sensor. I got a blue mech thingy that just made its way into the NA REM lineup. Oh well, at least it's better than a mermaid, time to roll again. Another gold popped out of the dragon. ISIS. I was ecstatic at this point. I had been wanting Isis for a while. Not only do I really like her art and concept, but she was just what I needed for my Awoken Ra team.

Riding on my newfound (and misplaced) momentum, I proceeded to roll again. This was my last shot for a while at getting my Sarasvati. Did I mention that this was a big deal because it's a Water Gala again? No? Well it was. I see the gold egg pop out as it bounces and makes that ever so satisfying ringing sound all I could do was imagine how happy I would be if I saw Sarasvati. The egg is center screen, the light flashes and I hold my breath in anticipation. The light begins to fade and...

Ganesha.

Welp, better luck next time I guess. Although at this point I have every single Indian 2 god except for her...

Natsume Yuujinchou Episode 5: Heart-Colored Ticket

"Natsume comes across an old ticket in Reiko's belongings and decides to go to the abandoned train station to see why she kept it. There, he meets a slow witted spirit named Santo, who was waiting for Reiko the entire time to go Kiriganuma, to see and make up with his friend, Mikuri, but the trip isn't as easy as it first seems..."
-- taken from Crunchyroll

The loneliness of having someone you love be upset at you. If the two of you are close enough you'll always be able to make up, right? Be able to see that this argument or that misunderstanding doesn't amount to the worth of your relationship, right? How much does it take to decide that something isn't worth it anymore? 

Puzzle and Dragons Reroll Guide (beginners) *Updated*

We've updated our beginner's reroll guide! (well more like we just put the tier there but that's the most important part right?) So yeah, check it out sometime and tell us what you think.

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (saphira)

I recently started The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. Not really sure how this game fits into the Legend of Zelda universe, but apparently it's a companion to Phantom Hourglass. 

The gameplay is exactly the same as Phantom Hourglass; entirely stylus-based and shares a lot if not all of the same game mechanics. The premise of the game is entirely different, however. 

I might be making a page about it but I'm as motivated to as I am for Etrian Odyssey.