FINAL FANTASY Mascots Accessory Case
Square Enix Official Online Shop
$24.99

This tokidoki inspired accessory bag would be perfect for the nerd chic gamer in your life. It features the four iconic Final Fantasy mascots; Chocobo, Moogle, Cactuar and PuPu. Would be ideal as a makeup bag, or for school or art supplies.

https://ssl.square-enix-shop.com/SqEx/us/ShowDetail.action?productId=1173

FINAL FANTASY VII ADVENT CHILDREN Folding Fan (Sephiroth)
Square Enix Official Online Shop
$29.99

This lovely fan features the colors and symbol of Final Fantasy VII’s villain, Sephiroth. It would be a lovely piece of wall decor, and a welcome, yet subtle alternative to the wall scrolls most anime and gaming fans find their decor confined to.

https://ssl.square-enix-shop.com/SqEx/us/ShowDetail.action?productId=1127&sid=1323120348946r2cJ6sClcf

FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST Trading Arts vol.2
Square Enix Official Online Shop
$39.99

This lovely, blister boxed set of figures features some of my personal favorite character from the series; Olivier and Alphonse, in addition to fan favorites, Roy Mustang and Envy. Square has gone above and beyond in both their Play Arts and Trading Arts, and this set of figures is no exception.

https://ssl.square-enix-shop.com/SqEx/us/ShowDetail.action?productId=693&sid=1323120886123ScvJB8sYJB

FINAL FANTASY XIV Stuffed Moogle -Kuplu Kopo-
Square Enix Official Online Shop
$24.99

Although Final Fantasy XIV as a game might not be where it should, it does little to diminish the adorableness of this plush Moogle. Little Kuplu Kopo would be a wonderful present to find under the tree for Final Fantasy fans of any age.

https://ssl.square-enix-shop.com/SqEx/us/ShowDetail.action?productId=1041&sid=1323120886123ScvJB8sYJB

Spice and Wolf: Season One [Blu-ray]
Amazon.com
$17.49

Lawrence, a traveling merchant searching for profit, finds girl with the ears and tail of a wolf asleep in his cart. Her name is Holo – a harvest goddess with an untamed beast lurking inside who longs to return to her beloved northern home. These two very different traveling companions begin a journey through the wild countryside. Along their path, the riches of happiness shall be reaped, even as the bankruptcy which dwells in the human heart is exposed.

http://www.amazon.com/Spice-Wolf-Season-One-Blu-ray/dp/B0050UEVNC/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1323122381&sr=8-13

Game Characters Collection Mini Princess Crown & Odin Sphere Trading Figure
Play-Asia.com
$7.00

These miniature figures feature characters from a little known favorite PS2 game of mine, Odin Sphere. (Which is also available on Playstation Network.) Characters are chosen randomly, and one would certainly hope to get one of the three heroines of Odin Sphere; Gwendolyn, Velvet or Mercedes.

http://www.play-asia.com/Game_Characters_Collection_Mini_Princess_Crown_Odin_Sphere_PrePa/paOS-13-71-92-49-en-70-48oq.html

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, Shanoa Messenger Bag
EKnightMedia.com
$27.39

This awesome messenger bag is something I personally own, and would make a fantastic gift for any Castlevania fan. It’s quite large and would be great for a laptop carrying case as well. It features a monochrome of Ecclesia’s bad ass heroine, Shanoa.

http://www.eknightmedia.com/bag-castlevania-order-of-ecclesia-shanoa-messenger.html

Code Geass Wallet – LeLouch
EKnightMedia.com
$15.92

A more practical gift for the anime fan in your life. This dark brown anime wallet features compartments for credit card, cash, etc, with a metal Geass logo insignia, and a chain for your belt as well.

http://www.eknightmedia.com/catalogsearch/result/index/?p=4&q=code+geass

Here at Gaming Angels, we all wish you a happy and healthy Holiday season. And most of all, a frugal yet generous shopping experience for the rest of the month! Try to retain your sanity!

Last week I received an invite to watch a free concert. Live Viewing Japan is a distribution group that is bringing Japanese Entertainment to theaters near you. The events seem to be worldwide showings but for only one day. I didn’t know what to expect on this adventure. Would there be an audience? A further niche is that this wasn’t your average band we would be watching. It was a concert put on by virtual pop star, Hatsune Miku.

Hatsune Miku was developed by Cyrpton Future Media as the world’s first synthesized star. The voice samples are taken from voice actress Saki Fujita and then put through a digital synthesizer. Even though she was an animation with a synthesized voice, she became incredibly popular in Japan. Crypton started playing with some alterations creating different personas for Miku: Soft (gentle, delicate voice), Sweet (young, chibi voice), Dark (mature, heartbroken-like voice), Vivid (bright, cheerful voice), Solid (loud, clear voice), and Light (innocent, heavenly voice). At this point she has at least 10,000 songs recorded.

When I read that Hatsune Miku has actually performed in many concerts I was extremely curious as to how. Do concert goer’s just watch a theater screen? Basically watching an anime for an hour? Well I can assure you that the creators of Hatsune Miku in concert do a MIND BLOWING job of making a semi-realistic performance for concert goers to enjoy.

First, the concert we watched was Hatsune Miku Live Party 2011 39′s LIVE in SAPPORO which took place in August 2011. A live band played to a packed house of fans with glow sticks. In between the live band were a couple of tall but thin screens. These screens would be where Miku would perform.

I have to say that I was astonished at how good it looked! They kept Miku at a realistic height and when the camera pulled back, you could have thought that was a real pop star. Miku’s dance moves were fluid, and her long pigtails flowing with her moves. She was incredibly expressive too.

The night started with a line to get in. Didn’t help that I wasn’t on the guest list, although they added me because of the email I had. It actually seemed like many people were having problems with being not on a list. Then the screen showed an error and after a few unsuccessful tries, the show got started. About thirty minutes late. I was starting to consider leaving at the point it started. I’m not sure if this is the first event for Live Viewing Japan at the theater in LA, but it sure felt like it. It was a disorganized mess.

So what is a crowd like that comes to watch a film of a virtual pop star performing in a concert? It turns out a WIDE array of people. First, I didn’t feel like the oldest one in the room. There were many older adults there. A couple next to me were playing on their DS before the show (about my age). The two rows in front of me were freshmen in high school. The kids came in costume, giggled the whole time and brought their own glow sticks. They were ready to party. In fact, through most of the show these kids danced, sang and twirled their glow sticks just like the audience at the real concert.

Overall it was entertaining. I’m definitely now a fan of Hatsume Miku. I feel like Live Viewing Japan has some work to do to make it a better organized event. I was also very surprised that there were no subtitles. So expect to actually know Japanese if you attend an event. You can check Liveviewing.jp (but select English) for information about their future shows. I believe L’Arc～en～Ciel is their next show.

Here’s some video I found on Youtube from the original concert:

Despite planning ahead, illness has made me late again this month. Once again, I am wishing I had an unlimited travel budget, along with no other job or family to tie me down to home. There are a lot of fun things happening!

Note: I have tried to include information on a variety of science fiction/fantasy, gaming and generally geeky conventions, but I am not guaranteeing this covers everything. Please feel free to suggest other conventions, for this month or future months in the comments!

Hurricane Who
November 3-5
Orlando, FL

Naoko Mori from Torchwood and Arthur Darvill (Rory) will be at this convention, which seems totally cool for a Dr. Who Convention. Also featured are Jeremy Bulloch, who played Boba Fett in the Star Wars franchise, and Paul Bradford from Ghost Hunters, who seem a bit more tangential to the theme (although Jeremy Bulloch has guested on Dr. Who), but still fun. A unique cool feature: the day after the convention, a SciFi cruise departs with Bulloch and Paul Marc Davis as special guests.

Comikaze
November 4-5
Los Angeles, CA

@GamingAngel went to this one. The list of Guests of Honor is impressive, with Stan Lee and Elvira at the top of the list, but it was the list of Featured Guests that got me really excited. Ben Crowder from Farscape, Bonnie Burton, both Robert Beltran and Jennifer Lien from Star Trek: Voyager (along with much of the rest of the cast, except for Kate Mulgrew, alas)–these are just some of the awesome people featured. I can’t wait to hear all about this one.

Steampunk Masquerade Ball
November 12
Atlanta, GAThese people are serious about the costume policy–you come in formal wear or a period appropriate costume, or you will have to buy a mask or leave, no refunds. Which, if you think about it, makes for a much more awesome experience.

Kollision Con
November 18 – 20
St. Charles, ILThis is an anime focused con with lots of artists, gaming, panels and late night karaoke. There are a lot of fan panels, and the fans seem to be really into Mahjong, which is kind of cool.

Pure Speculation Festival

November 18 – 20
Edmonton, Alberta, CanadaJo Walton is the Author Guest of Honor at this con. They have a neat event called A Taste of Pure Speculation, which involves all of the main guests doing *something*, preferably something extra that they don’t normally do at cons. If you want to go to this, buy your tickets before 11/11/11.

Darkover Grand Council Meeting
November 25 – 27
Timonium, MDThis is a small con over Thanksgiving weekend, which makes for more opportunity to actually meet the special guests personally, and attend all of the workshops you want to see. Also, the Gaylactic Sprectrum Awards will be awarded at DarkoverCon this year.

Anyone attending any conventions in November?

I woke up this morning to see the Mass Effect page on Facebook asking what their fans think of Kotobukiya’s Bushoujo Liara Statue. The pictures look like prototypes. The feedback on the Facebook page has not been kind. Many are calling out the pose, boobs, and face are just not Liara.

What are your thought? Kotobukiya is famous for making anime versions of characters. Their DC line of statues have run from cute to way too much boobage. It’s kindof their MO.

Here is a picture of what the statue should look like in color from SDCC:

What are your thoughts? Does it fit in with the character? Does it need to? Does it align with what the company makes? Would you buy it?

Stephanie Herrera: When I made the game I was a lot younger than now and the differences just came out of thin air, I didn’t plan them at all, just made whatever came to my mind. I think the innocence of the moment also helped and the stuff I was going through in my life at that certain point, such as becoming a self conscious woman.

What art your art style influences?

In that time I liked manga and anime a lot, probably you can tell from the images, lol… But now I’m older I have much more influences in my style, most of all come from cool conceptual art in films and videogames, and the range of styles is infinite, so you can use the stuff you like and combine all the aspects of different design forms.

How hard was it getting your art to become a game?

Actually I was really lucky, I was searching for a freelance job at that time and suddenly Adam appeared out of nowhere, told me he had seen my art and wanted to do a game with me. I never imagined it would become this big within internet gaming.

Was it a lengthy process?

Back then I was exploring my techniques of work as well, so yeah, I was a bit lengthy, but it was very cool process. First I did the sketches, then I put ink by hand, scanned and colored digitally.

Did you begin yiur career with a video game App in mind?

Nope, I never thought this game would become of such proportions. When Adam told me the game had been played more than 20 million times… I was shocked!!

The game tells a story without using words, why did you choose to go that route?

I didn’t chose it to be that way, but I’ve always liked the way someone can tell a story without words. That means the communication level has to be higher to make a story understandable. Now I know it’s better to do games without words, it’s more globalized that way.

Is this your first video game project?

Yes it is I did other small stuff for Adam before Dreams, but nothing as mine as Dreams.

What were you doing before working on Dreams?

By that time, let’s see… I think I was starting with my studies at the university or maybe just finishing high school. I’ve always liked art and drawing and painting, so probably I was doing that as well, lol..

Are you going to make more games?

I already finished some more difference games with Adam that soon will come out, and right now I’m finishing a Pinnochio twisted fairytale in a comic style that I hope people will like a lot too.   Part from that, it’s always been my dream to become a recognized woman in the videogaming world. A lot has been lost in the way of making new games, seems like somehow everybody forgot what is like to really think and use your head to win a game.

What games do you enjoy playing yourself?

I enjoy playing games that are not made for dummies, games that are not just about killing a bunch of dudes and massive special effects, but games that actually require you to use your head and present you an interesting new story and new ways of gameplay.

VIZ is kicking off their 25th Anniversary Celebration with with a special Heroes of Manga reading kit, for librarians to share with their patrons! Sign up by June 8th to receive the FREE kit at http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/541378/Heroes-of-Manga-Reading-Kit-Offer!

Manga is one of the most requested categories in libraries today, and helps promote a love of reading, especially for reluctant readers! Our library kit features some fun giveaways for readers of all ages, featuring popular properties classic & new, including NARUTO, FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST, NURA: RISE OF THE YOKAI CLAN and more! The kits include:

50 book covers
300 assorted bookmarks
50 buttons featuring NARUTO
5 assorted VIZ Media tote bags
1 Heroes of Manga literacy poster

For more information, check out www.vizmedia.com

VIZ Media Announces Product License for Hit Action Anime TIGER & BUNNY!

VIZ Media is now the exclusive product licensor for the hit new crime-fighting action series TIGER & BUNNY! It’s unique blend of comedy and over-the-top action is perfectly suited for a range of merchandising options across all categories!

The TIGER & BUNNY anime is currently simulcasting on the free-to-use VIZAnime.com and on Hulu the SAME DAY it debuts in Japan (currently up to episode #10). In Japan, a wide variety of toys, collectibles and other products are already licensed; the Blu-ray discs are #1 on Amazon Japan!

TIGER & BUNNY follows veteran hero Wild Tiger on his fight against crime for corporate superheroes group NEXT, all the while being filmed by superhero reality show HERO TV… But a tendency to destroy public property while protecting the lives of the innocent has earned him the nickname “Crusher for Justice”… Now, under orders from his new employer, Wild Tiger finds himself forced to team up with rookie Barnaby Brooks Jr., aka “Bunny”… Will these two polar opposites be able to work together to fight crime?!

TIGER & BUNNY is directed by Keiichi Sato with original character designs by series creator, Masakazu Katsura.

For more information check out www.VIZanime.com.

Otakon 2011 announces Johnny Yong Bosch

Otakon proudly announces Johnny Yong Bosch as a featured guest for Otakon 2011! If you’ve played a video game or watched anime in the past few years, you have certainly heard him before;

His first major voice acting role was Vash the Stampede in Trigun. He will later go on and play the voices of Kaneda in Akira, Renton in Eureka Seven, Claus in Last Exile, Clair in Heat Guy J, Sakaki in Witch Hunter Robin, Mike in Please Twins, Albert in The Count of Monte Cristo, Kiba in Wolf’s Rain, Itsuki in The Melancholy of Haurhi Suzumiya, Ichigo Kurosaki in Bleach and Lelouch Lamperouge in Code Geass.

Johnny’s voice can also be heard in numerous video games. He voices the main character Nero in Devil May Cry 4 and performed voiceover work in Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria, .hack//G.U., Persona 4, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, Xenosaga, Wild Arms 4, Disgaea 3, Tales of Symphonia, Tales of the Abyss, Eternal Sonata and Bumblebee in Transformers: War for Cybertron.

Check out www.Otakon.org to register for the event.

Recieve 20% Off Digital Manga with new VIZ Manga App Promotion

World’s Most Popular Ninja Goes On Sale For A Limited Time Only For Digital Download For iPad, iPhone And iPod Touch!

VIZ Media has just launched a special digital promotion for its NARUTO manga (graphic novel) series. Digital versions of Volumes 1-27 of the classic action adventure story are available via the VIZ MANGA APP for the Apple iPad™, iPhone™ and iPod Touch™ for only $3.99 – 20% off the normal MSRP. The promotion kicks off today for a limited time only and ends Friday, June 17th at midnight PST.

Maiden Japan Announces License of Glass Maiden

Maiden Japan is a new anime label, who’s premiere release was a fan originated, cult hit called Papillion Rose.

Maiden Japan today announced its acquisition of Glass Maiden, the 12 episode science fiction/detective anime series directed by Mitsuko Kase (SaiKano, MS Gundam 08th Team: Miller’s Report) with character designs by Hisashi Kagawa (SaiKano, Pokemon 3.) Created specifically for broadcast, Glass Maiden fuses elements from a wide variety of genres as a small detective agency finds itself aiding a series of intelligent weapons built into feminine forms fight for their independence against a force that intends to enslave them.

Shu’s a detective, the brooding, enigmatic type with an eye for the ladies. Together with his kid brother Akira, and ‘the girls’ Manami and Ayaka, he runs an investigative agency that takes on odd cases. But when the oddest case of all comes through: a ‘package’ intended for ‘delivery,’ it turns out to be a lot more trouble than expected. Shu’s always considered himself a quick study (he can see through most lies in a second), but when he goes head on with a girl who doesn’t even know who she is, he’ll be seeing through more than he ever imagined seeing through. Unfortunately, there are other people who want Sara back and they know a lot more about who, and what, she actually is than she does! Old fashioned detective work meets the latest in modern weapons technology as sci-fi meets private eye in Glass Maiden!

Maiden Japan will be distributing Glass Maiden in conjunction with home video distributor Section23 Films (Clannad, High School of the Dead, Appleseed,) with the entire series to be released in both English Subtitled DVD and Digital Formats.

BioWare and FUNimation are adapting a full-length anime feature film based on the Mass Effect franchise. Tokyo-based T.O Entertainment will act as co-producer, with BioWare’s Casey Hudson acting as executive producer with FUNimation’s CEO, Gen Fukunaga, and Director of Original Entertainment, Chris Moujaes. On the T.O Entertainment side, Takeichi Honda and Yui Shibata will also produce.

“Over the last few years, we have revealed different pieces of the Mass Effect world through different media. Extending the story through an anime medium is another amazing opportunity for us,” said Casey Hudson, who serves Executive Producer for the Mass Effect series as well as this new venture. “Partnering with FUNimation ensures that we will bring this rich universe to life with the utmost quality and the same attention to detail that the Mass Effect games are known for.”

The movie is already in production, with a scheduled release (both digitally and physically) in Summer 2012, a few months after the final installment of the trilogy ships.

Developer:

RENT

Last year publisher Koei and developers Omega Force released Fist of the North Star: Ken’s Rage.  The game is a spin-off of the Warriors series based on the manga by the same name. The story of the game happens during a nuclear war where the world is left in violence and despair.  The strong took over and slaughtered the weak for supplies. Humanity never gave up hope and held on to the ideal that someone would come to the rescue in their time of misery. In the middle of that, a hero emerges by the name of Kenshiro.

Kenshiros story:

The successor of Hokuto Shinken and the youngest of the four Hokuto Brothers, Ken wanders the land in search of his love, Yuria, who had been kidnapped by his nemesis, Shin.  After a great battle, Kenshiro defeats Shin, but is unable to find Yuria.  However, with his companions, Rin, Bat and Rei, Kenshiro matures as the heir to Hokuto Sinken.  Together they battle against the other Hokuto Brothers and Nanto Masters.  Ultimately, they triumph over their greatest enemy, Raoh the eldest Hokuto Brother.

The game is a simple “beat them up” game.  The screen has all the information divided into sections.  Your common spirit/spirit reserve, focus, armor, block and life gauge; hyper signature move markers, karma points, boss life gauge (if you are fighting one), mission bonuses, and a mini map to tell you where you are.  This makes it very simple to just start the game and fight. The game feels extremely on rails, you can’t roam freely through the narrow hallways they send you through.  At times this  is extremely frustrating, as you are trying to get from point A to point B, but the game has you going through A.2, A.3, A.4, etc.  You find yourself in an area where pillars start to crumble down and you are trying to get away.  Of course it is not that simple, so they tossed in a mob of bad guys to fight as well.  Kenshiro, with his unnerving rippling muscles and veiny body, cracks his knuckles to get the fight started.  At this point I thought the game would play more like N3.  Leave the brain at the door, gear up, and just watch the combos rack up as you push buttons without rhyme or reason.  I pressed the first button and I was amazed at the fact that I was wrong.  There is no combo to rack up, there is no fluid combat, but instead I was forced to watch Kenshiro punch the air, over and over again, because his punch combo animation was not done.  The enemy standing on the sidelines was perhaps wondering the same thing I was, “When is Kenshiro going to punch him?”  “Hello? Kenshiro we are over here!” I thought to myself, imagining what the enemy would say if they could talk.

Speaking of the enemy, apparently in Fist of the North Star, after a nuclear war, inbreeding and/or mutation happens rapidly where every enemy looked exactly the same.  Some would have a helmet or a Mohawk, some didn’t, but I am 99.9% sure they were all related.  Sadly this highlights the lack of creativity when it came to character design for the guys you are going to see more often.  The bosses were one thing, but the mob of enemies you have to fight over and over again got extremely repetitive and weary to the eye.  I wish I could say that this only plagued the character design, but it did not.  The levels also suffered from the same amount of repetitiveness.  So much so, that on one wall made out of 8 panels, it only had 2 textures: almost broken and broken wall.  This made navigating the map even more difficult, since everything looked the same, no matter what turn you took.  At one point I clicked the mini map off by accident and I was so lost, that it felt I was just walking in circles.  When I found how to activate the mini map again [by pressing the select button], I confirmed my initial thought… I was running in circles.  You would think that a game that is heavily on rails would make it nearly impossible to get lost, but somehow Fist of the North Star manages to do both very well.

The music of the game was repetitive, annoying and felt out of character.  It was some sort of heavy rock that only had, perhaps, 5 notes total in a loop.  I went through the menu and disabled the music right away.  It was in here where I found one good thing about the game:  I am a fan of Asian games based on manga and anime that allows you to use the original soundtrack and voice track.  Most games are able to get the original actors of the anime to do the voice for the game.  For example, I could not stand the Naruto fighting games because, “You better believe it!” was going to cause me to turn green and go “HULK SMASH” against my Gamecube.  So when Naruto adventure games came out and you could switch to the original voice track, my Xbox sighed in relief and the Gamecube came out of its hiding place.   Fist of the North Star was about to suffer the same fate and I could see my 360 shake in fear.  With the original voice track, the repetitive taunting, was not annoying.  It also made Kenshiro more manly and less boy like, which was unsettling since he is such a big dude.  “Hulk Smash” disaster was happily adverted.

The game also suffered from really slow loading times between the chapters: once the game was loaded, no other section lagged or needed to load; so that was a benefit, but one that only matters if you are a complete explorer of a zone.  I did not try to install the game to my hard drive to see if the speed would improve, since I did not have a measure of how long it was taking the game to load from the disk.  All other games I played that night, loaded without a problem, this particular one had a major delay.  Objects in the game could be destroyed, but only a few.  This was also irritating since there were tons of burned out cars that if allowed to punch them, they would give you karma points.  Some items in the world could be punched and they would reveal +life, + spirit, + health items or Karma points.  So what is the point to load up your maps with items that can’t be destroyed?  I wish I had an answer for that one, besides that they possibly did it because it looked cooler or the area was less bare.

I did find something amusing about this game.  Kenshiro, at the end of a boss fight, would enter into a sequence of punches and animation, heavily on a button combination from your part. It was entertaining to watch.  Very much a la Goku from Dragon Ball Z, they were elaborate but ultimately satisfying.  Kenshiro’s move, “Hokuto Fist of Penitence”, is guaranteed to make you laugh, depending on where it lands on a boss.  Not all bosses are the same size, but they did not adjust for this, so some landed on their heads, some on their chest and some on their stomach.

Fist of the North Star allows you, once you have played enough chapters, to play as any other characters. The more you play the story, the more of them you’ll open.  Different styles of fighting and powers to try and finish the same section you had already cover with Kenshiro.  The game allows you to change your gore settings, and in my opinions it needs it cranked up to 11, ala MadWorld style.

This game felt flat on is back.  It comes from a very rich world fill with manga and from a story that is actually fun and entertaining, yet the game only brings back key moments.  So if you are a fan of the manga/anime, you might like playing this game to relive those moments, but only if you are a diehard fan of the series.  Otherwise, rent it for the achievements points.  You can get a good portion in a short period of time.

AM2 has announced another aspect to their convention on July 1-3 this year at the Anaheim Convention Center. They will be hosting an Animaid Cafe. The cafe will feature of 50 maids.

At a maid cafe, maids serve food and drinks and they also dance on stage to Asian pop songs. There are also games that guests can play against the maids. Win three times and you can win a personalized picture.

Maid Cafes are really fun for all ages and all genders.

AM2 representative Chase Wang states, “The Animaid Café is an amazing event
and is exclusive only to AM2. Only here can you truly experience what a
maid café is like in Akihabra, Japan. Come and join the fun and have the
time of your life!”

GamingAngels recently had a chance to catch up with CrunchyRoll, a website dedicated to bringing anime and Eastern television shows to Western audiences. Keith Kawamura, the brand manager of the site was more than happy to answer our questions for subscribers.

GamingAngels: What inspired you to create a streaming site for Anime/Eastern Drama?

Keith Kawamura: This Crunchyroll community is amazingly passionate about their interest in anime and Asian entertainment. Our continued goal is to bring fans all over the world together, strengthen the community and create a way to make the physical world as we know it, a little smaller and intimate through the legal distribution of anime and Asian content. In doing so, perhaps we can develop a greater sense of understanding and awareness throughout.

How did you guys get started? What were some of the first shows streamed on the site?

Crunchyroll began its operation in 2006 and started simulcasting Anime titles in 2008. Some of the first titles we showcased were GDH’s LINEBARRELS OF IRON and Directions’ TIME OF EVE. We also started featuring a myriad of other content like RAMEN FIGHTER MIKI, EGG MAN and BLASSREITER.

Do you have any favorite anime or television shows you watch on the site?

Well, now that the NARUTO SHIPPUDEN story arc is back on track we’ve been watching that, as well as the ending of the Arrancar: Downfall saga on BLEACH. Most recently we’ve been checking out GOSICK – which has this amazing detective-mystery storyline – and BEEZLEBUB – which is just hilarious if you’re really interested in Japanese style humor. There are honestly too many titles to list.

Anime and video games typically go hand-in-hand in today’s culture; Do you have any video games you enjoy?

We all have our different interests in gaming, so if you were to draw a Venn diagram, you would probably see League of Legends, World of Warcraft, Star Craft 2 and Dragon Age, as well as console games like Grand Turismo 5 and God of War all hanging out in the middle section.

Do you have any plans to further expand content or any other areas of the site in 2011?

Our goal is to feature 100% of the content from Japan, and eventually from all of Asia – ranging from TV shows to movies. While we are constantly trying to progress forward in that effort, so we’ll see where 2011 will take us!

We saw that you recently acquired DVD distribution rights for”5 Centimeters Per Second.” Can we expect any other DVD or Blu-Ray releases from you?

Hopefully!

There have been complaints about the Crunchyroll iPad App. What problems have you run into while streaming shows to iPad owners, and will there be any adjustments soon? Is the iPad difficult to work with?

We take feedback from our community very seriously and constantly work on the application everyday with all parties involved and continue our efforts to improve it. We definitely appreciate everyone’s support and patience throughout this entire process.

Compared to other Anime streaming sites, what does Crunchyroll offer that others don’t?

What we offer more than anything else is the experience of being on a platform that features a myriad of Asian content ranging from anime to Korean and Chinese dramas; from Japanese horror flicks to autocross videos. On top of that, airing a variety of brand new anime episodes within one hour of Japanese broadcast makes Crunchyroll the premier location to access content as soon as it airs. Moreover, being part of a worldwide community that is interested in the same things that you are interested in, helps make this a truly robust experience.

Do you have anything else you’d like to add, or a message for fans and subscribers of the site?

As always, we want to thank everyone out there who has, and continually, supports Crunchyroll and our efforts to empower both the user and creators of content in Asia. Thanks to you we are able to provide you with the best possible service we can and continually expand and evolve the way that the rest of the world views videos. If you’re new, please check us out at www.crunchyroll.com/freetrial

—

Thank you to CrunchyRoll and Keith Kawamura for answering our questions. I would definitely suggest checking out the site, if you’re a fan of anime and interested in a streaming site with high quality streams for a nominal subscription fee.