Oh, gawd those legs! OH YEA.

*ahem* I am so confirmed to be watching Seikimatsu Occult Academy. Regardless of how flawed the second episode might have felt, there’s still enough strangeness to it that I’m still compelled to keep watching. And GOD THOSE LEGS so nice.. I think I have a new favorite character design. The one piece dress with thigh-high leggings is killing me.

Oh, and [gg] is back to help oversub Highschool of the Dead. God bless their souls.

I’m finding it increasingly odd that I have a tendency to watch anime that receive unusual amounts of disdain. Making the rounds off animenano.com, I checked out the reactions to the first episode to Seitokai Yakuindomo. It’s one of the Summer 2010 anime shows that the general reaction seems to be: “Not worth it.” Sure, it might not be for everyone, but it doesn’t mean you should keep people away from it. If anything, this show is for people who wished it was Seitokai no Ichizon with higher animation production, Minami-ke with awkward sex jokes (but that show was awkward to begin with), and/or less shoujo elements than Kaichou wa Meido-sama. And for someone like me, it’s exactly what I ordered.

And with the second episode having aired, I’m happy to say that I’ll be following the series. Atmosphere is laid back enough that I don’t have to absolutely make sure that I’m in the mood for it, letting it be easily digestible.

Drawn by sakon

I’m pretty late to the party, but now or never. I found two VOCALOID videos of Miku and Gumi singing the song Dearest that’s from the ED of Inuyasha’s 3rd season. If you haven’t heard that song yet, you can go visit youtube and find it there. There’s a couple of duds though, so try to find the Japanese one with Hamasaki Ayumi singing. After that, hit these links:

(Miku version), and (Gumi version).

I already knew Miku and her cohorts would be able to sing like humans if they simulated the effects of breathing. A human sings on lung capacity and a machine doesn’t. I find that interesting to realize that a perfect singer (i.e. vocaloids) needs to have human flaws if we want to hear good singing.

In any case, my nutbladder nearly exploded when I heard Gumi sing Dearest. Japan, the land of Nutbladder Targetting Weaponry, I salute you.

Microsoft: 95% of this conference was about the Kinect (The new name of Project Natal) and the games that could be played on the system. Which according to the press conference is just party games and for the most part. Kinect will be launching with 15 games. One of which is called Kinect Sports… Microsoft, we need to have a talk. If you’re going to be copying your competitors at least don’t name one of your games EXACTLY like your competitor’s game. Even the logo is the same!

Then there’s also Kinectimals, a game in that’s like Nintendo dogs but with exotic animals instead. Its showing has essentially become a meme on the internet now.

There were three non-Kinect games shown in the beginning of the conference, with Halo: Reach surprising me at how good it looked, largely the conference was boring. I really didn’t expect anyone else to do worse than this.

Oh yeah, and no price on the Kinect just yet. That’s bad news right there.

Nintendo: Holy crap did Nintendo surprise me. Not only did Nintendo stop bragging about how many Wiis that they’ve sold, they also showed some GAMES for the console. And not just another Mario sports game and Just Dance 2 but games like Legends of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Donkey Kong Country Returns for the Wii and Kid Icarus: Uprising for the 3DS.

Oh, here’s the best part: The 3DS is a brand new console. And from the sounds of things it’s AMAZING. While I haven’t seen the 3D effect for myself, everywhere I’ve read about how amazing the 3D effect is. What’s more amazing is the line up of games for the system. This includes Mario Kart, Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time and SUPER STREET FIGHTER 4.

While Nintendo played to the nostalgia factor in this conference, it was still an amazing press conference. This more than makes up for the last couple E3s. Oh right, I forgot the best news of all: There was no Cammy at all during the conference. So we were spared from hearing about how she sprained her wrist or he lame friends.

Sony: My god, this was worse than Microsoft’s conference somehow. There were some games, sure, but the entire conference was mostly montages and adverts. A new ad campaign for the PSP was launched via an obnoxious kid by the name of Marcus. Kevin Butler gave an epic speech about gaming, however the epicness went away when the price of the Move controller was announced: $49.99 for the Move and $29.99 for the Navigational add-on. There’s a bundle which features the PSEye, the Move controller, and a Wii sports knock off for $99.99… But you still have to buy the Navigational add-on. Sony seems to be fighting with Microsoft to see who the worst in show is..

I actually did some number crunching, and it’s actually cheaper to buy a Wiimote, a Nunchuck, and Red Steel 2 with WiimotionPlus than to buy the Move Bundle and the Navigational Controller. It’s a $10 difference, but it’s still cheaper and more rewarding.

So there you have it. The big three’s press conferences summarized for your reading pleasure. In a surprising turn of events Nintendo wiped the floor with Microsoft and Sony this year. The last thing I’ll say is this: I’ll be buying a 3DS day one because of this conference.

Next Year’s E3 will be on June 7-9 of 2011.

The "new" Hatsune Miku

The image above is of the “new” Hatsune Miku designed by Crypton Future Media which graced the cover of the box for the virtual idol’s second release entitled “CV01 Hatsune Miku Append”. Crypton is widely accepted to be the leader in the VOCALOID world when it comes to vocal quality and merchandising, so when Crypton made the unexpected announcement that they would be changing the pictures for all of their characters with the new releases, people were generally displeased.

It is not the fact that the image has changed that makes this so big a deal, it’s the principle of the matter. Put simply, Crypton made an unforgivable mistake. They forgot that their entire operation is 100% community-driven. In the VOCALOID world, making a change in what a character looks like is tantamount to changing the words to a national anthem. It’s true that it may not be that big of a deal on the outside, but it changes the heart and soul of the thing. Crypton’s decision to change what Miku looks like came without researching how the community would react, and now they feel the consequences. Sales of Hatsune Miku Append, though expected to be high due to very advanced technology and sound-quality, came short of what was expected and now Crypton has some serious decisions to make.

The main problem VOCALOID fans now face is, “Which one is the right one?”, and to a lesser extent, “what about the old images?” Crypton’s misguided move has possibly made tens of thousands of fan-created images incorrect, and more than this actually causes damage, it makes the community feel less attached to Miku, which is terrible news for Crypton indeed, given that their largest income comes straight from the people’s love for the virtual singer.

I understand that playing hardball in the business world is necessary, especially when it involves idols (virtual or not). But this is not the normal business world; this is a business that took off after a joke video that became an internet meme, and is supported entirely by a cult following. There is really no margin for error.

For now, the question remains unanswered, “Does this mark the beginning of the end for Crypton and Miku?” Possibly yes, and possibly no. Crypton still has enough income to stay afloat after a haphazard mistake like this, but if they continue with their previously-stated plan to re-design all of their VOCALOID characters, who knows what could happen?

Close-up of the new “Hatsune Miku Append” Figure

Look at this box art. LOOK AT IT.

I for one, being a HUGE fan of the Megaman series, am very excited for this game coming out. This is despite the fact that I already have all four games in the Zero series on their original GBA release. Plus look at that awesome box art! June 8th can’t come fast enough, I tells ya.

As for Ugha, whose thought process I revealed in my intro post, he’ll come into play soonish. Depends on how I figure out how to make things work.

This is the thought process Ugha goes through. Who is Ugha? You'll find out soon.

Hey there. I’m TeaOfJay, the new guy here on Maserbeam Dot Com. Mainly I’ll be writing about games on this site.

The image you see is a preview of something that I’m going to be doing soon on this site. Feel free to speculate about it as much as you want.