KrisZ on Anime, Manga, Cosplay and Video Games

NIS America has announced that they will be releasing Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory to the USA. It will be getting a PS3 release in Spring 2013 along with a Neptunia iPhone application. Neptunia Victory is the direct sequel to Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk2 , a PS3 that I enjoyed quite a bit. This game is the third game in the series and it follows the eponymous lead of the franchise, Neptune, as she goes into the video game world of the 1980's. The franchise has been fairly popular in the USA with its cute designs and interesting game premise. Look forward to a full review in Spring. Links Neptunia Victory USA Site Neptunia V JPN Site

The Premium console There are few companies that are as well known in the gaming world as Nintendo. In the handheld realm, they have dominated the world with the Gameboy brand the DS brand. In the world of consoles they have a storied legacy that has its fair share of ups and downs. Their last console, the Nintendo Wii came out of the park and smashed sales records left and right. The successor to the Nintendo Wii was announced in E3 2011, but details about the console have been slim to none. On September 13th, 2012 Nintendo had unleashed the gates and has flooded the gaming world with details on its upcoming console. The console will be launching first in North America in November 18, 2012. The console will feature a basic model that has 8 GB of storage for $300. Taking some cues from Sony and Microsoft, they also announced a Deluxe model that includes 32GB of storage, while including NintendoLand, a stand, and a digital media promotion for $350. The console will launch in the E...

In one of the biggest licensing announcements in a very long time, RightStuf has announced the licensing and acquisition of Rose of Versailles. The 40-episode saga will be published on DVD on 2013 through the label Nozomi Entertainment. This is a major coup since this franchise has never seen the light of day in the United States. Rose of Versailles is based off of the revolutionary 1972 manga by Ryoko Ikeda. The manga and the anime that was influenced by it follows the story of a fictional knight known as Oscar on the court of Marie Antoinette in the Versailles royal court before and during the French Revolution. The shojo was revolutionary since it had a strong focus on gender bending, with Oscar being a young woman who comes from French nobility that plays the male role of being a knight. She was raised from childbirth to be a man, even if her physical body says otherwise. It has a powerful, emotional storyline that is still unmatched in the world of anime and manga. I had th...

Today marks the 13th birthday to one of my favorite consoles of all time, the Sega Dreamcast. The console launched on September 9, 1999 in the United States with much fanfare. When it launched, it sold very well, breaking launch records for console hardware at the time. It amassed an incredible library of games in a very short period of time. As promising as the launch was, the console failed to ignite sales excitement from Japan, North America, and Europe. Sega eventually bowed out of the console race in one of the saddest moments in gaming history. Sega continues with Valkyria Chronicles Three main factors (among many others) led to an early end of the console: major third party companies ignored it, Sega lost major brand equity due to poor decisions, and corporate structural issues. When the console launched, it had enthusiastic support from Capcom and Activision, but it did not have support from major third party players like Electronic Arts and Square. Games like Final F...

The signed front page of my Master's thesis I normally do not post personal topics like this, but I felt that I would like to post it on my blog since it is quite an accomplishment. After many years in the graduate business school of California State University Polytechnic Pomona, I have finally finished off my Master's Thesis and signed off the final paperwork, finishing graduate school. Upon completion of graduate business school in Summer 2012, I obtain a Master of Business Administration (or MBA in short) with an emphasis in marketing and international business. In my years of graduate business school I was one of the top students in the program, with one of the highest GPA's of my graduating class. I also graduated with zero debt, since I worked part time and budgeted my finances well. In a rare snapshot where I talk about myself, this post will be on why I joined graduate business school, my graduate business school experiences, background on my master's thes...

Animegacon 2012 Las Vegas Hotel and Casino Convention Center August 17-19, 2012 Website In North America, there are anime conventions that happen almost every weekend. It is hard for established conventions to find ways to distinguish themselves from the pack. For a new convention, it is exceedingly difficult to do so because it means building a brand name and having a strategy to separate from the endless list of conventions that populate North America. I first heard about Animegacon when reading the mailing list of ACML. They attracted attention from con executives with the bombastic tagline “the largest anime convention in the universe.” When the website opened, the convention promoted what was the largest Masquerade grand prize in North America (beating Anime Expo 2011’s $10,000 grand prize by a dollar). It also posted the expectations of the convention, between 2,000 and 5,000 attendees, which would put it near the inaugural year numbers of conventions such as Anime Bo...

Gaming Tidbits 8.28.12: Neptunia Anime, Atelier Vita, and PS Vita Update Neptunia V Anime Hyperdimension Neptunia turned many heads with its racy female designs and its unique take on the console gaming wars through the anthropomorphism of gaming consoles. With the recent release of Hyperdimension Neptunia V in Japan, it has been announced in Dengenki PlayStation magazine that there will be an anime version of the franchise [ source ]. I have played through the first and second game, calling the original game "a great experience that has some flaws [ source ]" and the second game a couple of steps forward and a couple of steps back for "removing some of the satire and humor that made Hyperdimension Neptunia one of the funniest games I have played in a very long time [ source ]." The first game was a unique take on the console wars with a very funny script and a strong central narrative. The second game was a reboot in a different universe and cast of charac...