I’m not sure if this post is necessary, seeing as most anime viewers would already have a general idea of what to watch, but let’s look at what’s coming up after K-ON! finishes.

Wait.

Mugi expressing the desire of thousands of K-ON! fans.

What will I do without K-ON!? But that’s a bit premature. First let me deal with some K-ON! news:

• The main “plot” (K-ON!! didn’t really have one, did it?) of K-ON! will end at episode 24, while episode 25 and 26 are extra episodes, presumably like episode 14 of the first season.
• Potential spoiler/rumour, but apparently the girls end up at the same university. Season 3? SEASON 3?

Anyway, let’s begin with Chartfag’s excellent seasonal chart of upcoming anime (despite the title of the website, it is safe for viewing), after the conveniently placed Read More link.

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Time to finish this article that I posted prior to my trip to China.

So let me preface this by saying Steam has a MASSIVE sale on right now, lasting until July 4! Save up to 80% on games like Borderlands, Bioshock, The Witcher and Trine (which will be reviewed below)! You only have a few hours before the 50% savings on Bioshock 2, 80% savings on Trine and 50% savings on Aion expire! Buy 13 Star Wars games for US$75! Get most of the Call of Duty series for US$20!

There’s only a few hours, as I said, for some of these sales, which I why I’m rushing this article half-finished. It’ll be finished later, hopefully.

Assassin’s Creed II

Information

PC, PS3, Xbox 360

• US$59.99 on Steam
• Purchased from JB Hifi for $89.99

Thoughts

Ezio's repertoire of death has increased more than threefold.

I know that some of you didn’t like the first Assassin’s Creed, even if it was based on a half-hour playthrough of Leona’s copy (Leona, do a bit more research before you buy games, my recommendations are not typically suited for you). Well, almost anything you didn’t like in the first game is fixed in the second game.

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*Hugs Hans*

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The King is Back, Baby!

The long derided vaporware game of all time, Duke Nukem Forever, has not died with the collapse of 3D Realms. After much rumour and speculation, Gearbox have confirmed that they will be taking over the development of this cursed game. Not only that, they had a playable demo at PAX!

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Yes, this is such a nerdy/geeky/sad thing to do, but in my down time I did some research about real-life locations in Japan that are portrayed in anime. I still need to finish Beck and watch Die/Gunbuster. But anyway, it’s time to consolidate this research and present it in a picture heavy format for your perusal. Also included are some locations related to anime though not portrayed in it. You could pretty much use this as a travel guide.

"Boys, Be Ambitious!"

We start with the statue of American professor William S. Clark, whose contribution to Japan’s modern tertiary system, agriculture and economy is almost unmatched in Japanese history. After serving in the American Civil War and taking part in the development of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, Clark was invited by the Japanese government to help set up an agricultural college on the then-frontier island of Hokkaido in 1876. Despite spending only 8 months in Japan he essentially jump-started the development of Hokkaido. On the day he left to return to America, he turned to his students and told them: “Boys, be ambitious!” His words are known throughout Japan and are printed inside the covers of most Japanese textbooks, as well as being inscribed below his statue.

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The MMO of the Year, the WoW-killer, the game of the century: Hello Kitty Online is a serious contender for all of these. We’ll now know, because it just went out of beta and is available as a free-to-play MMO now!

Shiny AND pink!

What’s more, if you import this fine box from the States, you get not only the game, but $15 worth of Sanrio points, one of four in-game pets, a full-colour manual and some Hello Kitty Online postcards!

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I just finished watching Kara no Kyoukai: The Garden of Sinners, and it was brilliant (as I shall talk about below). Which is fortunate as some interesting news came out today. A Kara no Kyoukai Blu-ray boxset is being released in Japan, and it will have english subtitles included. It will also include the new 30 minute epilogue OVA, featuring the child of Shiki and Mikiya, as well as a recap OVA Gate of seventh heaven.

Shiki is one of my favourite anime characters ever.

So, you may want to head over to Play-Asia right now. Well stop right there. This Blu-ray disc box costs 52,500 yen. That’s AU$700! Admittedly, at AU$100 a movie, that doesn’t sound too off the mark with the individual prices of each movie. Well, you could buy the epilogue OVA itself on DVD for 4,410 yen instead.
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I make this dire warning, because this first video features K-ON! Which you may have surmised I like a lot. But fear not, this post is about games, and this video features the K-ON! PSP game coming out September 30 and available for approximately AU$75 from Play Asia, alongside a K-ON! PSP accessories pack that no would be embarrassing to take out in public which is priced at AU$56. Which is all very pricy considering Valkyria Chronicles 2 will only be AU$51.

Anyway, disregard that diatribe, because Yui sings the Sega jingle and it is kawaii!

(Note: the author was promptly shot after writing this. We have replaced him with a clone. Your scheduled post will not be interrupted).
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Yesterday accalimed anime film director Satoshi Kon passed away at age 46. The cause was reported to be pancreatic cancer.

Satoshi Kon directed Madhouse films Perfect Blue, Millenium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, Paranoia Agent and Paprika. These films were known for their distinctive style and most had the theme of mixing dreams with reality. The recently released Inception was noted for sharing some plot elements with Paprika.

Satoshi Kon was working on a new film for Madhouse, called The Dream Machine. It is not known whether the film will continue without him.

Gigazine has translated some of the tweets expressing grief for his death, from mangaka and other anime studio employees.

While I never watched any of his movies, I remember being haunted by the cover art for Perfect Blue when I was younger. I was intrigued by Paprika, but never got around to watching it.

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So as I was browsing JAM Project music on Youtube several days ago, I cam across a live concert performance at an event called Animelo. After doing some research on Wikipedia, it turns out Animelo is an annual (currently) two-day music concert that features a LOT of anime music. We’re talking Gundam, Macross, Code Geass, NGE, Initial D, Fate/Stay Night, Bokurano, Madlax, Busou Renkin, Air, Chaos;Head, Higurashi, Hayate, Haruhi Suzumiya, and much, much more.

While the list of performing artists changes from year to year, repeat performers include JAM Project, Minori Chihara (Yuki Nagato), Nana Mizuki, ALI Project (Code Geass), May’n (Sheryl Nome), Angela (Seitokai Yakuindomo, Asura Cryin’), m.o.v.e. (Initial D), Lia (Angel Beats!, Air), and Chiaki Ishikawa (Gundam 00, Sengoku Basara). Other past perfoming artists have included GACKT, Aya Hirano and Shoko Nakagawa (Gurran Lagann).

But what caught my eye was this performance. I don’t care if you don’t like anime or not, don’t understand Japanese or don’t have time, WATCH THIS PERFORMANCE, and look at the lead singer.

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