The Irregular at Magic High School anime series has a Feature Film coming out in Japan on June 17th, and it just got its first trailer. The original voice cast is here, but both the director and the anime studio have changed since the original TV series came out in 2014. I have no idea how much those changes might change the dynamic of the story-line, but it was solid as a light novel, solid as a TV series, and I expect it will be solid as a movie. Thanks to the folks at Otaku USA for the heads up on this one.
On March 9th, for one night only, Sword Art Online The Movie -Ordinal Scale- will be on the big screen, this time with a story based on AR, rather than VR. This is another Fathom Events special transmitted digitally to theaters across North America, with the distribution rights going to Aniplex. It appears to be booked in more theaters than these things usually are, so there is a good chance it is somewhere nearby. The Anime are based on a series of light novels by the same name written by Reki Kawahara, who also had his Accel World series of books turned into Anime. Both series have also become Manga and Video Games, of course.
I found this video amazing; it is an explanation of how they used a real person to create a game character, and in the process invented the combination of technology needed to allow that person to act in real time in the game. Which means that anyone with deep enough pockets (which would have to be very deep, at this point) could schedule time to get themselves scanned and processed, buy the gear including the head mounted camera system, and do the same thing. It allows you to be fully immersed in the 360 VR game environment as yourself, with everyone able to see and hear you, right down to your current facial expression. Of course, it will be a decade or so before the price comes down enough that the rest of us get to try this out, but its good to know it is on the way.
There are several excellent choices this week, starting with Passengers, where two people wake from cold sleep 90 years before their starship arrives at their new colony planet. Starring Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence as the wakees, this may be the best choice for the weekend. We also get Assassin’s Creed, which started life as a game but seems to have translated to the Big Screen just fine. If you prefer something a bit lighter and more inspiring, Sing should be just the animated treat you are looking for.
This could be what it would look like if Studio Ghibli made a version of Legend of Zelda, and if that ever happened I would be in the theater on opening day! It was created by fan artist/animator/gamer
Matt Vince in the UK. Thanks to Tor Online for the heads up on this one.
If you haven’t done so already, check out the Humble Game Maker Bundle, and add a very powerful collection of game maker tools to your personal arsenal for very little money. The fact that you get to support charity at the same time is just a bonus, made even better by the option to add your own favorite charity to the purchase! You can also select the percentage of your money that goes to each of the participants (software creators, charities, and humble bundle), although for myself I tend to let the percentages stay at the default, because it seems like a pretty equitable distribution to me. The part of this deal I found particularly exciting were the modules that allowed you to export your finished game to multiple platforms, including iOS, Android, and Windows, as well as the cross-platform power of HTML5. They give you the source code to a number of excellent games as well, so you can study them and learn exactly how they pulled off major effects and game functions. The games themselves, including the ones you create, run on the Steam game engines alongside such iconic classics as Duke Nukem, and can also be accessed through YoYoGames. There is no downside to this package; consider picking up this powerful collection of game creation packages at this insanely reduced rate, supporting charity in the process, and set yourself up to make the game you always wanted to play.
