News Roundup

OK, time for a bit of a roundup.

Jack Thompson news first and he recently offered to donate $10,000 to charity if a developer made his game proposal. Seeing as the headlines over Hot Coffee have dried up this pretty much a way to get himself back into the limelight. Gabe of Penny Arcade decided to tell him about Child's Play and got an angry phone call in response. More info on that over at the PA site.

This is kinda old news but I haven't mentioned it yet. Tokyopop (may they live forever) are distributing the Blu label of manga. The Blu label is basically exclusively shounen-ai and yaoi manga and that fact that there is a company dedicated to it is great news for the rabid yaoi fangirls. Tokyopop itself publishes a fair few boy love manga like Eerie Queerie and Loveless. They're also winding up for the release of Offbeat, another very interesting looking shounen-ai manga series.

The almighty Shonen Jump magazine have announced a video label to go with their manga label. The first release will be Hikaru no Go in japanese and english on December 27th. Then there will be the Cartoon Network version of Naruto in english only in March followed sometime next year with the uncut japanese and english version of Naruto.

Zac Bertschy otherwise known as Answerman over at the superb Anime News Network went slightly overboard today on the subject of fansubs.

"The people you're talking about arguing with are a new breed of "fan" (although I hesitate to call them that) out there right now, created mostly by the proliferation of anime via bittorrent. They make a number of wacky claims, like anime companies are all evil behemoths who exist solely to drain your wallet, that all commercial translations are incorrect, that dubs "butcher" the spirit of the original Japanese version and that anime is created under some bizarre bohemian ideal that it should be totally free and readily available to anyone who wants it. Their general attitude is that anyone trying to make a buck off of anime is an evil capitalist pig-dog who disrespect and mutilate their untouchable sacred artwork."

This obviously gave many people the impression that he was making an attack on fansubbers. While this was denied later by ANN editor Chris Mcdonald phrases like this make me wonder.

"They behave as though the ultimate show of affection and support for someone's art is to steal it, slap your lame fansub group name all over the title sequence (Like #ANIME-SOX PRESENTS CHRONO CRUSADE), use gaudy fonts and half-assed translations to subtitle the show and then give it to as many people as possible for free."

I download fansubs but I also buy DVDs of those series' when they get released. You ask me why I pay money for a series I've seen and have on my hard drive? Well explain all those box sets in your DVD rack. Explain to me why you downloaded and watched Lost through bittorrent, saw it again on Channel 4 and will probably buy the box set when it comes out. I downloaded Stratos4 and Yumeria off KragaMuffin and loved them. I have 2/3 of the Stratos4 DVDs and will buy the Yumeria DVDs now its licenced (I couldn't believe it either). I also know where I can download episodes of Fruits Basket and Full Metal Alchemist but I'm waiting for the DVDs. Why? Because the sofa is far more comfortable that my computer chair.

OK, quick roundup of some Gamespot review scores.
Key - Gameplay/Graphics/Sound/Value/Tilt - Total (NOT AN AVERAGE)
First up a little known game for the PC.
F.E.A.R.
9/9/10/9/9 - 9.1


To say its a good week for the DS is an understatement.
Castlevania - Dawn of Sorrow
8/9/9/8/10 - 8.9

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
8/9/8/8/10 - 8.8

Trauma Centre: Under the Knife
8/8/7/7/8 - 7.8

Trace Memory
7/7/7/6/8 - 7.2

The Gamecube has a moment too.
Pokemon XD - Gale of Darkness
7/7/6/7/7 - 6.9