Welcome to Anime Trailer Park where we look at new and old (mostly old by the time I write this) anime trailers and how they impact our expectations.  I guess this is the first Anime Trailer Park of the 2009 and the first I've written on Capcom-Unity.  Lets get into them.

Long Promos:

Basquash!

Summary: Swoosh!
I've just realized after seeing this trailer that Base Wars needs an anime.  Just saying, somebody make it happen.  Somebody in Japan was bored with regular basketball and I guess mono a mono mech battles needed a little more competition so the two cross bred to make Basquash.   The surprising thing in all of this is that the giant mechanized Charles Barkley's (that look strangely like Transformers) are comfort fitted with Nike brand shoes.  Its just hard to imagine the sweat shop that has to make those shoes.  I'm actually surprised by the quality of this trailer.  Cross promotion is almost always done in a lazy manner and the animation and character models overall look really good.  I've never really been a big fan of 3d animation in a 2d series, but the transition of Dan interrupting the basketball game works fairly well.  We'll have to see how this will work with brighter surroundings, but so far the trailer seems to prove that mechanized basketball can work in these environments.  The music begins really upbeat and fun, but it loses itself in the countdown.  There isn't any real reason for the countdown to exist other than to have Dan and his Transformer Michael Jordan smash the trailer.  I'm only assuming that its supposed to be a back board.  After all is said and done there isn't any story to be presented in the trailer.  I'm just going to have to assume that this is about a group of Autobots traveling across the galaxy looking for a new source of energy and they land on planet Basquash where the Decepticons challenge them to a one on one battle royale of basketball.  Brought to you by Nike.  Just Do It.


Eden of the East (Higashi no Eden)

Summary: Excellent
Everybody knows (or should know) Production I.G. the creative studio behind Ghost in the Shell.  That alone should get most people into at least trying the trailer.  What we get in it however is a bit of nudity, a bit of terrorism and two people fighting together against the world.  That should get anybody to try the show.  The production quality is stand alone and simply a treat.  You've got Oasis singing in the background, fantastic looking character models that show more emotion than Ghost in the Shell ever did, and a very interesting presentation of the story to the viewer with enough shock value to hook anybody into trying to figure out where this is going and why he is naked.  This is going to air during the noitaminA time slot in Japan that had previously shown the underrated Moyashimon and Hataraki Man so it should fit in very nicely.  That slot is also mainly for Josei (female) type animation so hopefully it will fill a role for both sexes.


Taisho Baseball Girls (Taishou Yakyuu Musume)

Summary: Kinda like A League of Their Own
Okay.  Its exactly like A League of Their Own just without Tom Hanks shouting there's no crying in baseball!  I have to say I do kinda like the silent film style of using text to present the story.  The only reason I call it silent film style is because the Taisho period ran from 1912-1926.  Otherwise it would just be a lazy way to not include voice acting with the trailer.  What we get from the trailer isn't anything spectacular.  Unless you were a feminist or baseball lover, there really isn't anything here.  It'll be interesting to see if this ragtag group of school girls can learn to play baseball, but there doesn't seem to be anything to hook you into wanting to see if they can play like the boys.  The character models are nice, but nothing exceptional.  There just isn't anything to seperate this apart from any other girls sports anime other than the historical aspect of it all.


07 Ghost

Summary: This will sprout some Yaoi doujinshi
That is if it gets popular enough.  Much like any typical Bishounen (Pretty Boy) anime this has a secluded group of boys under the tutelage of a harsh overbearing elder male (Ayanami) which makes perfect Yaoi fanfiction.  Or so I've heard.  With that aside, the story never truly presents itself in the trailer.  You have Teito's tortured past, but it rarely presents an angle to bring you to care.  His father's death is a small clip and any plan of revenge is never revealed.  His friendship with Mikage is balanced awkwardly without a real showcase of why they are friends to begin with.  All we have is a boy who escapes to find the truth.  Whatever that may be.  Pair that with the uninteresting music in the background and it leaves a fairly mediocre trailer.


Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~

Summary: Love the orchestra
Music can always make a decent trailer look good.  The Phantom trailer is timed excellently to coincide and fit with the orchestra behind it.  Phantom is originally a Nitro+ visual novel so the focus on story and dialogue probably won't be a concern since you can't make a good visual novel without either.  It's also done by Lantis who did True Tears  and was surprised with the quality.  While watching, the trailer looks to present itself early on as thriller but quickly devolves the suspense almost as soon as the pink convertible appears.  Because nothing says suspense like a pink Cadillac.  From here on out the scenes cut into a group of action shots with the French maid really stealing the show from the male lead and the masked phantom.  This is mostly due to the stark white of the gown, but I found myself wanting to know more about her instead of the Mask.  That shouldn't really be the case. I'm intrigued and hope that they can capitalize on what they've done with True Tears to make a really good action anime.


Cat **** One

Summary: The title alone makes me want to see it
Cat **** One is a story about the hell of war, updated from Motofumi Kobayashi's manga about Vietnam, in modern day.  It's CG animated by Studio Anima a group that has worked on the movies in Sonic Unleashed, Tales of Vesperia, and Ninja Blade.  The real hook of the show is the fact that the violence is shown from cute furry little bunny rabbits.  That hook alone makes this trailer a surefire win.  The CG looks really good for whats planned to be a 12 episode series.  That's not a surprise to anybody who's seen the opening of Sonic Unleashed.  Showcasing the violence from the perspective of an adorable woodland creature is a great way of showcasing the brutality of war but I feel that shortening it into a trailer dampens the impact that Kobayashi originally intended.  I can't wait to see what they can do with 12 episodes as it'll be interesting to see if they can maintain interest in a CG war story for that long.

Short Promos:

K-ON!

Summary: Seems Familiar
I have to say that the plots of K-ON and Taisho Baseball Girls seems pretty similar.  Two groups of girls trying to form a club in their school when they are told that they can't even though they don't know the first thing about what their club is about.  The only problem is that Taisho told you directly what they were trying to do and K-ON really doesn't.  I know its a 30 second clip and all, but the only real appeal to this trailer is the animation.  The character models follow the same character style as many of the other Kyoto Animation titles (Clannad, Lucky Star) but still look distinct.  As a trailer it does nothing.  As a presentation on animation quality it really shows that KyoAni can consistently do good animation.


Professor Layton Movie

Summary: I solved the answer!
As we all know Level 5 made Professor Layton and they in turn will make it into a movie.  This trailer is cute and simple which means its most likely for children.  I say that because I haven't played the Layton series since I'm a console only gamer.  The animation does look top notch and very reminiscent of British style comics.  The voice work however is off in some places and it makes it feel a little slapped together.  Overall its more universally understandable than this trailer but its a bit too simplistic to really get excited for.


Full Metal Alchemist: Hagane no Renkinjutsushi

Summary: MAES!!!!!
Being a big fan of the first half of Full Metal Alchemist and most of the manga I'm glad that they decided to do a sequel that goes more in line with the manga.  When the anime went off course it really ruined one of the first really good dubs I'd ever seen.  The only real reason I like this is it shows many of the characters killed off in the first anime and my personal favorite Maes Hughes back and in action which means that I get to hopefully forget about the crappy plot for the last half of the show.  Also, anime fans keep an eye out on Funimation's website April 9, 2009 when the anime is shown with subtitles.


Asura Cryin

Summary:  Creepy.  Like Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni creepy.
Asura Cryin looks to be a haunting tale of the occult terrorizing one poor boy.  From what we get that is portrayed very well with little wispers and cries echoing throughout this dark trailer.  I'm left intrigued with the importance of why this particular guy is haunted.  Also, the mech at the end does kinda detract from the mood as you're left wondering how this slimy robot got all squeeky clean at the last scene. It is forgivable for the atmosphere the trailer creates but it is noticable.


Sengoku Basara (Devil Kings)

Summary: Let's Party!
Sengoku Basara is originally a PS2/PSP/Wii game from Capcom and much like the Dynasty Warriors series this just never really interested me.  Samurai anime however are a bit more interesting to me.  The trailer has some action to go well with the rock background music.  Pretty colors also magically appear from spears that brings me back to the Ronin Warriors days.  Overall though its a fairly basic action trailer and it really exemplifies Capcom's penchant for cheese with the Let's Party! at the end.


Ristorante Paradiso

Summary:  What happens after the Ouran Host Club gets old
The animation in these shows are usually below normal quality and that is true in this case as well.  The music is soothing and warm however and really seems to take after Ouran Host Club specifically as a young girl gets taken under the wings of a group of men to work a restaurant.  The time slot this is taking over was Michiko to Hatchin which was fairly stylized and unique.  That aside the trailer is a bit pretentious and doesn't do anything to really make a name for itself, but most anime like this (see Bartender) don't have to prove themselves as their style will.

Direct Link to Video

.MP4 (Ipod compatible)
472mb
Download Episode 36: Couples

I once said I'd do this episode...and then real life happened...and it continues to happen.  I'm now working 6 day weeks and loads of overtime so doing this has gone to the back burner.  I originally planned this for Valentine's Day and got about halfway through the intro and then things got hectic.  Then I thought I'd post it for April Fool's and well...it took too long to get it compressed.  So I now present it to the masses (or whoever really cares).  Originally it was going to be the 2008 episode before this but then I got started for V-Day and that got pushed back.  I actually made a really badass intro for the 2008 episode that is in all concievable viewpoints better than this one...I've just got to finish the damn thing. hopefully before 2009 is up.  Also Spoilers.

Check out/Download the other vids here.

This isn't a review for people who want to see the movie.  Spoilers will be involved.

After years of sitting on the side saying that a Watchmen film could never be compressed into a movie, Zack Snyder decided to prove me wrong.  For his efforts he did indeed do that.  In what felt like a Lord of the Rings style lengthy movie he really tried to make the Watchmen work. 

I went to see the film with two other people.  One had just read the book that day, the other had never read the book with myself not having read the thing in a few years.  I have to say out of all three I'm the only one who seemed to enjoy the movie for what it tried to do.  It tried to be Watchmen.  It just wasn't any of our idea of Watchmen.

One of the biggest additions to the movie was Nixon's involvement in the story.  From him we got the Doomsday clock or whatever they referred to it as in the movie.  It's basically a clock (with a standard watch face) that counts down to midnight.  At the stroke of midnight will signal nuclear holocaust.  Its a vague metaphor that never really seems to make sense and is too on the nose for anybody who enjoyed the writing that Alan Moore does.  It is a bad metaphor that stems from the role that the newspaper vendor played in the book.  He was the one that brought us into the gravity of how the world was and the ultimate signal for when the Cold War was to come at its highest.  His scenes were the obvious first choice to being removed, but what replaced him failed to show the gravity and tension of the Cold War.

My second gripe would have to be the audio.  I actually think that Zack Snyder made some of the parts in the film quite enjoyable with some songs that he used.  However he didn't succeed in every scene.  In the weirdest scene I've ever had to sit through was hearing Hallelujah pumped through the speakers while Night Owl and Silk Specter II made love on Archie.  It was either intentionally funny or unintentionally so, but it still was weird.  It didn't help that the scene was arguably too long unecessarily.

Characterization throughout the movie fluctuated.  Ozymandias wasn't any fun to watch until the big fight at the end.  The Comedian did a fairly decent job.  Every part where they expanded on him or showed some emotion with him felt awkward, he did however nail every scene he had to fight through.  His fight with Ozymandias was fantastic and everything I had hoped.  Dr. Manhattan was too soft spoken for me personally.  Not that he shouldn't be, but that I would never believe Manhattan would allow himself to be so soft as to deal with other people to leaning in to hear him.  I had to do that more than a few times and it didn't fit the character.  Silk Specter I (the agent from Entourage that slept with Vince) was too young to be an old lady in make up and demeanor.  She also was flirting with The Comedian way more than she should have before he raped her.  Silk Specter II was also unnecessarily flirtatious.  She never flirted with Night Owl II before the alley fight.  She did however in the movie. Night Owl I was underused completely.  His book had no meaning on the story where in the book it was the whole backdrop into the lives of the Watchmen. Night Owl II was amazingly awkward.  I feel like he should be, but then I feel like maybe it was just bad casting.  In other words he felt too awkward.  Last but not least is Rorschach.  I was a little over critical of Jackie Earle Haley before the film.  He didn't impress me through 3/4 of the movie, but nearly everything from the moment of his capture felt like I had seen Rorschach come to life.  That was the Rorschach I wanted to see on the big screen and that's what I got, but only really for that one scene.  His alter ego Walter Kovacs was never fully flushed out and the ominous The End is Nigh scenes were fully overwhelming, because they focused way too much on this man that was basically a back drop with no pressence in the book, and every time he was showed on screen, we were made to stop and focus on him.  The violence that Rorschach caused however was pretty on the nose.

This was a brutal movie for action scenes.  Somewhat unnecessarily so.  There are only four people that should have killed somebody in this movie.  Rorschach in the name of Justice, The Comedian showing the Joke that is humanity, Dr. Manhattan to preserve humanity and Ozymandias in perverting justice.  Silk Specter II killed a thug by jamming a knife in his throat.  Night Owl broke a lot of people's bones in awkward positions.  Dr. Manhattan just went around frying mobsters and Vietnamese.  Rorschach killed a few people in manners that were obscenely violent.  Splitting the pedophile's skull open with a meat cleaver numerous times just didn't seem like the Rorschach that I knew.  It was pointed out to me later that the man was supposed to be burned alive in the same manner the girl was incinerated instead.  While on that, it was a little on the nose to have her foot dangling from the bone that the dog's were fighting over.  We all knew what the dog's fought over. 

These were some of the main gripes:
The menage-a-trois wasn't done right with hand placements in weird positions and Dr. Manhattan saying I thought this is what you liked instead of I thought this is what would please you
Lack of Dr. Manhattan's devolution of costume showing his withdrawal from humanity
Night Owl had a cape when he said specifically he made his costume without the cape due to dollar bills death.
There was no progression of change in outfits for the heroes.
The reveal of Janey Slater was ridiculous and down played the feelings she truly had for Dr. Manhattan.
The revelation of The Comedian as Silk Specter II's father was so poorly done that it made it more obvious than interesting.
They showed Silk Specter I and her husband's fight multiple times.  This didn't need to happen and it revealed the punch line too early in the story.  So it just turned into a bad joke.
Night Owl I lives whereas that moment is what propels Night Owl II to break Rorschach out of jail as it brings to light the validity of the Mask Killer theory for Night Owl II.

All that aside the movie did bring some really cool parts: 
Night Owl II in the Snow Owl outfit was really cool as opposed to his lame brown costume. 
The violence with its extremities aside was still some of the best fight scene direction I've seen in a while. 
Archie was really cool looking.
Dr Manhattan looked really cool crashing through the Antarctic reactor.

Also, there was no Squid and even though that would have been cool there was a fairly reasonable script change.  Not brilliant but pretty good as far as script changes go.

Overall its a C grade movie that came from A grade material.  Its not at all a bad movie.  Its not a really good movie.  Its better than what I thought Watchmen would be but worse than what I wanted it to be.

 Direct Link

I found the subtitle file for the video and had to post it.  It is such a great little music video that Capcom did.

I've been doing these videos of the RetroforceGO podcasts for awhile and I just wanted to post links so people can download the files to their computers or Ipods or whatever.  They are .mp4 format so almost anything will play them.  Especially since some of the longer videos have to be compressed weird for GameTrailers to accept them into the system and they are too big for capcom's uploads.  As you can probably tell there isn't too much of an order as I'm basically doing the newer episodes and doing some of the older ones as I go along.  Also, be sure to check out the RetroforceGO website for new podcasts since doing these videos for them takes a while.  Its age gated since there is some language that may be harmful to some (not a lot...but some).

203mb
RetroforceGO! Episode 27: SNES

375mb
RetroforceGO! Episode 32: SHMUPS

238mb
RetroforceGO! Episode 34: TurboGrafx 16

472mb

RetroforceGO! Episode 36: Couples

465mb
RetroforceGO! Episode 60: Rhythm Games

460mb
RetroforceGO! Episode 61: Beat Em Ups

496mb
RetroforceGO! Episode 63: Neo Geo

490mb
RetroforceGO! Episode 65: Reader Questions