Galneryus - Beginning of the Resurrection

"Beginning of the Resurrection" is a 3 song EP from the Japanese Power Metal band Galneryus. It serves as a teaser for their upcoming album simply titled "Resurrection". This is also the first material from Galneryus featuring their new bassist Taka and the new vocalist Masatoshi "Sho" Ono.

Sho?...

Just a little background for the new frontman, Masatoshi Ono. He is a Pop/Rock musician who became popular during the 90's. He also contributed songs for some Anime and Japanese drama shows such as Mama wa Poyopoyo-Saurus ga Osuki (1995) and Anything for You (1992). Fans describe him to sound like Toshi (Toshimitsu Deyama of X Japan).

Beginning of the Resurrection

Fans may find this EP very different from Galneryus' earlier works. Here's a track by track description.

1. DESTINY (MV MIX)

Only one word to describe this song: Awesome!. A very nice opening song with an anime-opening-theme' feel. Fast-paced beats accompanied by guitar, keyboards and bass solos joined in by a powerful voice. The tune is very catchy, it's like Dragonforce meets X Japan.

2. YOU'RE THE ONLY...2010

This is a cover version of a ballad by Masatoshi Ono. Galneryus pulled it off nicely, a lot of guitar solos have been used but the dramatic feel of the song remains.

3. A FAR-OFF DISTANCE

Another song with a slow beat. The intro sounded like the intro for "Shining Moments" (from the 2008 album Reincarnation). It's also used as the ending song to the anime titled "Rainbow" which also started earlier this year. Honestly, this song was good but not as good as the first two.

There we go, that's what I can say about their new material. Galneryus done a great job here, Masatoshi Ono's voice fits the band well.

Current Lineup:

Masatoshi "Sho" Ono - Vocals

Syu - Guitar

Taka - Bass

Yuhki - Keyboards

Junichi - Drums

Watch out for their new album "Resurrection" coming out on June 23rd, 2010. I can't wait to hear it's entirety myself.

Official Site

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new from Loudness, King of Pain

This year, Loudness released a new album entitled "King of Pain". This time, featuring Masayuki "An-Pang" Suzuki succeeding the place of the late Munetaka Higuchi on the drums... Yes, another point of evolution for the band.

Anyway, here's the music video for the title track..

An-Pang is showing off some awesome drumming skills here. Good work by Akira, Minoru and Masayoshi as well.

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Chou Kamen Rider Den-O Trilogy... wait, not ANOTHER ONE?!

Seriously, this is like the series' fifth, sixth and seventh film. I do remember Momotaros saying that the Saraba Kamen Rider Den-O movie is the final one and yet they've released a Decade/Den-O crossover... and then there's three more! Well, it seems like TOEI still had a lot of Den-O ideas on their vault that needs to come out.

By the way, Ryotarou Nogami, Sakurai Yuuto and the others will return!

Anyway, here's some images that I've found about the upcoming movies.

Previews of the (hopefully) last 3 Den-O Movies

Kamen Rider G Den-O? Insert Uchuu Keiji comment here...

Reiji Kurosaki... yep, you've guessed it. He's G Den-O

Kamen Rider Diend's... complete form... I know, it's not his series.

There's a lot of teaser images out there (I can't remember where I grabbed the ones here, sorry). Yes, it's another set of Den-O movies but, looking at the bright side, we'll see another adventure from the Kamen Riders, the Denliner crew and the Imajins...

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Pokémon Movie 12: Arceus and the Jewel of Life

Since I'm getting hooked with Pokémon games again. I decided to check out the latest Pokémon movie. It's about the strongest Pokémon as of now... Arceus.

Summary:
The Legendary Pokémon Arceus came back to Earth with a vengeance to reposses the Jewel of Life and to bring judgment to humans after being betrayed a thousand years ago by a man named Damos.
Ash, Pikachu and the gang ends up saving the day as usual.

My Views:
It's very typical in Pokémon that Ash takes the glory of becoming the hero and Team Rocket re-appearing too much it's not funny anymore. I'm sticking to my words that I hate the TV Series but the fact is that this movie is great. Seeing the 4 strongest Pokémon from Diamond, Pearl & Platinum alone is enough reason for me to say it's awesome. Not to mention the four of them having a very decent fight.

Maybe I'll check out the other Pokémon movies later hehee...


Pokémon will have another movie which will be released this July 10, 2010 in Japan titled Phantom Ruler: Zoroark. It will feature the first two of the Generation V Pokémon: Zorua and Zoroark. For more info, check out the following pages:

http://www.pokemon.co.jp/anime/sunday/index.html
http://corocoro.tv/pokerelease/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_Ruler:_Zoroark

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Pokemon Soul Silver

I tossed Dante's Inferno aside for THIS?! 

Well, one can't blame me if I like the colorful, kiddish graphics of Pokemon games (I HATED THE TV SERIES!). Come on, not all games can give what Pokemon games can give: Adventure and Choosing monsters to raise from over 400 choices.


Enter Soul Silver (or/and Heart Gold)...


Okay, basically, these are enhanced Nintendo DS remakes for Pokemon Gold and Silver versions. Just like Fire Red and Leaf Green for the Gameboy Advance not SP, the locations are remodelled, a bunch of features were added and the lineup of Pokemon includes those found in the Sinnoh and Hoenn region (Ruby, Sapphire, Diamond and Pearl versions).


Oh well, I'll be stuck in this game for a while... until i find something else interesting.

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L: Change The World

Happy New Year, Everyone!

I've had some free time today so I watched a DVD that has been lying on my shelf for a while now: L: Change The World (or as some fans call it, Death Note III)

As the title says, the movie is about L Lawliet from the Death Note series following the story of his last case taking place between the Death Note movie and the end of Death Note: The Last Name. The movie was alright, it's L but you'll get to see him do stuff that you won't see in the anime or the two previous movies...

What's wrong with these pictures?

Oh, yeah and I don't want to give spoilers but you might know who this kid is... yes, he is also in the movie.

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Jump Ultimate Stars

I haven't seen any new cool games on the Nintendo DS since CORE. I'm still feeling lazy to get a copy of the English version of Dissidia for my PSP so I tried out some old DS games (well, not very old).

Here's one of the games I've checked out: Jump Ultimate Stars. Released in 2006, it's a follow-up to the game titled Jump Superstars. It is a 2D fighting game featuring the crossover of Anime characters that's originally seen from Shounen Jump! Magazine. So it's like an anime version of Super Smash Bros. Now how cool is that?

Jump Ultimate Stars features at least 100 playable characters (trust me on that), all from Naruto, Dragonball, Bleach, Gintama, Hitman Reborn, Death Note, One Piece, D.Gray Man and some other Animes that I never knew about.

The gameplay is very simple. You punch, kick, defend and attack to either blow your opponent off the fighting stage or reduce their life bars to zero. There's also this feature called the 'Koma' (Japanese term for 'panels'). The Koma takes up the bottom screen. It's like a deck of cards that you use for the battle and has three types: Battle, Support and Help.

Replay is also necessary if you want to unlock all the characters. Not to mention the Wi-fi multiplayer mode.

The only problem is that Jump Ultimate Stars is NOT released in English but what the hell? It's a lot of fun.

In conclusion, I'd say this game is great. Not just for Anime lovers and Otakus out there but for every avid gamer. If you want to play it, then go on. You won't be disappointed.

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C.O.R.E.

This is one of the DS games in my 'wanted-to-play' list since Feb. 2009. C.O.R.E. is a futuristic first-person shooter game to be released this year in North America (up to now there's no finalized release dates yet. It's been delayed over and over. Sorry but I think the European 03/27/09 release date that is said in other sites are false).


C.O.R.E. (as stated in their official website) will be one of the few DS games with an 'M' rating.
There will also be a local multiplayer feature, both single and multi-cartridge. Multiplayer Features includes Deathmatch,Team Arena, and Capture the Flag. It has support for up to 4 player Single-Card Play. It has 10 Maps and has the usual features of a hardcore FPS, with powerups and weapon spawning.

Let's face it, the graphics and trailer looks real promising but I have to get my hands on the actual game to see if C.O.R.E. is really that great.

Oh, don't forget to check out their official site:
C.O.R.E.

and the debut trailer of the game can be found here

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Shin Megami Tensei - Devil Survivor

Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor is a Tactical Role-Playing Game for the Nintendo DS released just recently (The English version, June 23, 2009).

Story:

Tokyo has been sealed by the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force due to a demon outbreak, and it will be seven days before the whole capital is wiped out. The protagonist, a 17 year-old high school student (which the player decides the name), is trapped with his two friends Atsuro Kihara and Yuzu Tanikawa within the city, and is forced to make contracts with demons by utilizing a peculiar device called COMP to survive.

My Views:

First, getting on the concept of the COMPs, it actually looked like a Nintendo DS Unit, except that it is hacked with the "Devil Summoning Program" which is used in fighting demons. Another cool thing about the game is the references to Japanese Pop Culture (Characters like hackers, cosplayers, otakus, high school delinquents and Japanese rockstars are present in the game), The location is in Tokyo and you'll get to go around districts like Akihabara, Shibuya, Shinjuku etc.

Gameplay-wise, It's fun because it is somewhat a visual novel with a mix of tactical and turn based battles. The Cathedral of Shadows function where you fuse demons is a bit of a pain and you'll probably replay the game 3 to 5 times for the alternate endings and the stronger demons.

On the visuals and audio, it's well done, You won't get bored seeing the locations and the character designs and the soundtrack wasn't bad either.

The way I see it, the game is almost similar to Square-Enix's The World Ends With You. It's almost perfect for a modern RPG. So for Nintendo DS owners who love Asian-style RPG's don't miss this, Shin Megami Tensei DS, would be great for you.

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