Retro Studios perfectly translated Metroid game design into 3D, with a satisfyingly complex non-linear map, and puzzles that feel more alien than any Metroid I’ve played so far.
The environment design and atmosphere are some of the best I’ve ever seen. Every single region and room on Tallon IV is gorgeous and fun to explore, and collecting upgrades is just as satisfying as the 2D games. The graphics are amazing, with awesome lighting, and cool details like seeing rain droplets on Samus’ visor, or even her own reflection.
I got used to pressing R to aim decently quick, and after a while it became second nature. Plus with the lock-on it’s really not a problem. The sidestep dodge is fun, too, and the bosses are very challenging but rewarding.
The story is also wonderfully fantastical, with some really cool sci-fi ideas, and some very disturbing content for a first-party Nintendo game. I love how you collect pieces of the backstory through documents, like a traditional horror game.
Kenji Yamamoto and Kouichi Kyuma’s music is mind-blowing. It’s officially dethroned Super as my favorite soundtrack in the franchise I’ve heard so far. The synths are sweeping and beautiful, the grooves are badass, the melodies are fantastic. It’s perfect.
In fact, this entire game is perfect. A total masterpiece. I can’t stop gushing about it enough. I’m almost completely sure it’s my new favorite Metroid.
I: Arai Kouichi-san, Nishio Tetsuya-san, Utsunomiya Satoru-san were working on "Persona 5" as animators - incredible staff members. The cut where Takamaki Ann is doing a spin, drawn from above is amazing too.
Yamamoto: For that cut, we drew inspiration from Suzuki Akiko's spins. I drew the storyboard and gave the animators videos to use as reference, explaining what's so good about each skater's spins. There wasn't anybody who watched figure skating regularly with passion, but they are so incredibly talented, that just after a little bit of studying of the reference materials, they can understand the characteristics. They really are super-animators.
I: It was really so well-made. In Yuri!!! you actually filmed skaters and then animated the skating. But the first work, where you have used live-action footage in production was…
Yamamoto: The first time when I felt that it is possible to film movements and then make that into anime was thanks to Suyuki Okamura's "Viva Namida" PV. Back then, Okamura-san actually danced for us. In that type of work, what's important is that just making the footage as it is into animation won't give you an anime that you actually directed. That's why after filming the reference footage, I draw the storyboard. By making the animation match the vision you have as the director, and deforming the movements, you can give the animation a better pace, and the final product is closer to what you have imagined.
I: Did you ask Abiko-san and Hisagi-san, who were also a part of Okamura-san's PV animation team, to animate the skating scenes, because they are so skilled at animating movements?
Yamamoto: From the start, those two had a strong reputation as action animators. With Hisagi-san I first have worked together on "Space☆Dandy", and with Abiko-san I have first worked together a very long time ago, on a TV anime series called "TEXHNOLYZE" that aired in 2003. When we were working at Madhouse Studio, my desk was two desks away from Abiko-san. That's why we started talking, and since then, every time I work on an anime as the director or episode director, I ask him to work with me.
[Note: If you want to watch that "Viva namida" PV that Sayo directed it's on yt. It's Sayo, so a bit NSFW ;))) ]
into worlds strange by audiosalvage
I’m a big fan of the E-mu Proteus line of ROMplers. They are not hugely versatile, but their sounds were all over 90s and early 2000s sci-fi television and games. Probably my favorite of those was Kenji Yamamoto and Kouichi Kyuma’s moody atmospheric score for Metroid Prime. Since the 20th anniversary of Prime’s release was last Friday, November 18th, I decided…
A translation of the “@Voice” section of the June 2000 issue of Animedia, including an interview with Digimon Adventure 02 voice actors Reiko Kiuchi (Daisuke Motomiya), Rio Natsuki (Miyako Inoue), Megumi Urawa (Iori Hida), Taisuke Yamamoto (Takeru Takaishi), Kae Araki (Hikari Yagami), and Romi Park (Digimon Kaiser).
The interview also contains quick comments from voice actors Junko Noda (V-mon), Miwa Matsumoto (Patamon), Kouichi Tohchika (Hawkmon), Megumi Urawa (Armadimon), and Yuka Tokumitsu (Tailmon) regarding the character song “Definitely All Right ~Digimental Up!~”, along with longer extra comments from Toshiko Fujita (Taichi Yagami) and Yuuto Kazama (Yamato Ishida).
Remix of Kraig’s Theme done the style of Metroid Prime, complete with using many of the same samples and synths used by Kenji Yamamoto!
The composer has also done some videos looking at the various synths and patches used in the Metroid Prime games, as well as an obscure hip hop sample CD that some of the percussion came from.
Tokyo Revengers - Crunchyroll Spring 2021 Spotlight
Crunchyroll's Spring 2021 lineup is already well underway, and with a bunch of the new shows starting, now is a great time to take a closer look at what this season has to offer. Let's start with one of the most hotly-anticipated debuts: the TV anime adaptation of Ken Wakui's Tokyo Revengers.
Official website
Twitter
Navigation
Launch Info
Official Trailers
Synopsis
Characters and Cast
Staff
Additional Info
Launch Info
Launch Time: April 10 (Live NOW!)
Territories: North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, Oceania, the Middle East, and CIS
Show Page
Official Trailers
youtube
Synopsis
Takemichi Hanagaki is a freelancer that's reached the absolute pits of despair in his life. He finds out that the only girlfriend he ever had, in middle school, Hinata Tachibana, had been killed by the ruthless Tokyo Manji Gang. The day after hearing about her death, he's standing on the station platform and ends up being pushed over onto the tracks by a herd of people. He closes his eyes thinking he's about to die, but when he opens his eyes back up, he somehow had gone back in time 12 years. Now that he's back living the best days of his life, Takemichi decides to get revenge on his life.
Characters and Cast
Takemichi Hanagaki (Present and Past)
VA: Yuki Shin (Natsuo Todoroki in My Hero Academia)
Hinata Tachibana
VA: Azumi Waki (Ao Horie in Ao-chan Can't Study!)
Naoto Tachibana
VA: Ryota Ohsaka (Marco Bodt in Attack on Titan)
Atsushi Sendo
VA: Takuma Terashima (Klaus Lunette in Black Clover)
Masataka Kiyomizu
VA: Satoshi Hino (Noritoshi Kamo in JUJUTSU KAISEN)
Takuya Yamamoto
VA: Yuya Hirose (Yuta Hibiki in SSSS.GRIDMAN)
Makoto Suzuki
VA: Shunsuke Takeuchi (Hackmon in Digimon Adventure tri.)
Kazushi Yamagishi
VA: Shouta Hayama (Mark Bean in Wise Man's Grandchild)
Shuji Hanma
VA: Takuya Eguchi (Nero Vanetti in 91 Days)
Staff
Original Creator
Ken Wakui
Director
Kouichi Hatsumi (Deadman Wonderland, Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga)
Ken Wakui kicked off serialization of the Tokyo Revengers manga in the pages of Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine in March of 2017. Over three million copies are currently in circulation, and in 2020 the manga won the shonen category at the 44th Kodansha Manga Awards.
Kodansha just released the 20th volume of the manga in English, and the 22nd hits shelves in Japan on April 16.
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Joseph Luster is the Games and Web editor at Otaku USA Magazine. You can read his comics at subhumanzoids. Follow him on Twitter @Moldilox.