Summer Anime 2010
By Kokoro-chan
Hello anime-lovers, here's a chill-pill anime list for this summer:
Mecha ahoy!
Heroman: The guy who gave us Spiderman is here with yet another tale of a legendary 'man', only this time it's in anime. Stan Lee, in association with Studio Bones, brings us 'Heroman' (lol at the name)- the adventures of young Joey Jones and his toy robot that can turn into a giant mecha and fight against evil. Transformers, anyone?
But cliché storyline and truckloads of American flavour aside (the story is set in the US), Stan Lee trying his luck at manga/anime and succeeding (according to different sources) should be pretty interesting to watch.
SD Gundam Sangokuden Brave Battle Warriors: A summer treat for the Gundam fans.
Samurai
Hakuôki Shinsengumi Kitan: This writer's personal interest would be in this one. Yukimura Chizuru comes to Kyoto in search of her father and gets caught in the middle of a fierce battle between an Oni (demon) and the Shinsengumi. The Shinsengumi seem to be looking for Chizuru's father too and they take her along with them in their perilous quest. Lots of swordfight guaranteed. Sounds fun.
Sports
Giant Killing: A soccer club loses five games in a row and is well on its way to the bottom of the ranks. But their coach is just too hell-bent on winning and will do anything to lead his team to victory. The plot's nothing special, really. But sports anime have a general tendency of being fun to watch (e.g Tsubasa, Slam Dunk), so why not give the series a try?
Major: Baseball anime 'Major' has launched its sixth season this April. Fans can watch out for it.
Shoujo (Girls)
Kaichou Wa Maid Sama: Making its debut this April on Animax, the anime looks promising with good visuals and stuff, so much better than the manga. The story is super cliché, though (Study freak class president works in a maid-café, hunky school 'bad-boy' finds out and starts black-mailing her. Meh). But then again, it's the genre 'Shoujo' we're talking about. Candies and flower showers, whoopee!
K-On: Second season starting this April. More sugarcoated treats and insanely girly music. Amen.
Shonen (Boys)
Senkô no Night Raid: A WWI background of Shanghai 1931, military unrest and intrigue and a secret spy organisation named “Sakurai Kikan”- storyline and visuals both look good. This anime promises some good piece of action.
Rainbow - Nisha Rokubô no Shichinin: This here has a pretty twisted plot. Seven teenagers are confined in a reformatory and subjected to regular abuse and suffering. The story is set in 1955 and follows these teens' lives and how they move on.
Other
Romance: 'Arakawa Under The Bridge'. This looks pretty good.
Slice of life: 'Working!' Looks cute and fun.
Historical: 'Saraiya Goyou'. This has the art director from 'Samurai Champloo' and the director from 'Ranma'. Looks really good.
Comedy: 'Magic Kaito'. Director from 'Detective Conan'
Fantasy: 'Angel Beats'. Wacky storyline.
Action/Adventure: 'Nurarihyon no Mago'. Has an 'Inu Yasha'-ish flavour.
Horror: 'Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin'. Scheduled for this July. Looks good.
OVA
xxxHolic Rou
Trigun the movie
Bungaku Shoujo (really really wacky storyline about a literary club president who's actually a demon who devours books and stories and pages…yeah, I didn't get that either)
(Source: animeph.com, ANN. Views are the writer's own.)
RESIDENT EVIL
THE DARK SIDE CHRONICLES
By Musarrat Rahman
When the vampires and werewolves tire us out, we turn to the zombies to keep us entertained. Zombies are one up on the vamps and the werewolves! You could serve up three zombie video games or even movies back-to-back, and there wouldn't be any complaints. We just love huntin' us some zombies, and we always want more. Whether it is from a long-running respected franchise, like Resident Evil, or a fairly new franchise like Left 4 Dead, zombie video games just seem to hit the spot. So, does the latest Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles keep the adrenaline pumping when heads start rolling?
While it may lack high-definition graphics, the Wii Zapper and the Cyber Wii gun make it a helluva lot of fun.
While Umbrella Chronicles was kept busy retelling Resident Evil, RE 1, and bits of RE 3, The Dark-side Chronicles focuses in letting players experience the juicier bits of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil: Code Veronica, with new character arcs and storylines weaved throughout to keep things fresh and interesting.
The games plot centres on the popular and cinematic moments and characters from both Resident Evil 2 (Memories of a Lost City) and Code Veronica (Game of Oblivion) games, with an entirely new scenario (Operation Javier) serving as the ghoulish glue that binds the two plotlines together. Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield returns, while Steve Burnside joins Claire for a drastic retelling (and revision) of the Veronica storyline. Operation Javier gives us a preview at what's to come in RE4 with Leon Kennedy joining future-antagonist Jack Krauser hunting down a South American drug lord who wants to use the Veronica virus on his daughter Manuela. The result is one of the most disjointed, nonsensical pieces of videogame storytelling and it brings the game back to its B-movie roots.
The storytelling, however, was definitely so much better than its predecessor, but there is one major aspect during game play that should never occur in games these days: the camera being shaky to give it a sense of realism. This was probably the game's largest flaw. About halfway through the game, it becomes slightly better, but still extremely out of control. The camera heaves left to right in and out of focus of the screen at every point, making it extremely frustrating and difficult to blow them darn zombies heads off, let alone shooting out tiny little targets like light bulbs to unearth hidden items and gold.
The graphics have not really been improved much, though they look great on the Wii. One negative thing worth mentioning is that in the few sunny outdoor levels, the graphics appear jagged and scratchy and do not flatter the visuals. Luckily most of the game is spent indoors or in dark corridors, in which the graphics look smooth and the zombies look super creepy: when you execute a perfect headshot, the head blows clean off and blood spurts everywhere!
For the Wii, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles is a great game to add to your co-op arsenal. A minor drawback is that now your ammo is shared with your partner, so either lay down the law about being trigger-happy before you play, or you're just going to have to hold tryouts for new friends who know how to shoot some zombies. The single player experience is still fun and worthwhile, but the real fun to be had is with the multiplayer. The difficulty is definitely a bit twisted to be easier for the co-op experience because whether playing solo-style or with a friend, the amount of zombies and other enemies that you'll encounter on-screen will remain the same.
Like its predecessor, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles remains firmly committed to the franchise's roots in survival horror, with healthy doses of zombie-blasting action.
The graphics look really good on the Wii and the soundtrack is outstanding, both efforts will no doubt be much appreciated by long-time fans of the series.
If you are a zombie fanatic (and come on, who isn't?) and a Wii owner, you must get this game immediately.
