Araki is going o be having a new art exhibition in Florence at the end of the month. “Hirohiko Araki an Exclusive Manga Exhibition” will be held in Florence starting June 28th and lasting all the way to July 14th. As you may be able to tell by the art, the event is sponsored by GUCCI and will be held in a historical building that is currently owned by them. On top of that, the exhibition is free to attend. The cost of actually getting to Florence so that you can attend it is different, but the exhibition itself it totally open to the public.

The above is going to be one of the key pieces out of a group of what’s intended to be 60 total works. It’s very fashion oriented and distinctly resembles the work Araki did for “Jolyne, Fly High with GUCCI” and his fashion drawings he did for their clothing line around the same time. The pose of Bruno sort of feeling Jolyne up is kinda weird, but the internet shows me that male and female partner fashion poses are often like that, so what do I know?

The exhibition is relatively soon, so hopefully will get some video or pictures of the works on display to go along with it.

(Image and news from Araki-JoJo. © LUCKYLAND Communications, Hirohiko Araki, GUCCI, and Shueisha)

It’s finally here, and it’s finally awesome. Again since the TV version was already pretty all right. This video is of the special “Guren no Yumiya” music video by Linked Horizon broadcast on monitors across Shinjuku. The full version starts after the TV version plays and REVO’s words to the audience that includes a mention of “March to Freedom.”

The shift in the second half is interesting. At first I thought it might be a different song because the vocal patterns are pretty distinct from what we’re used to from the TV version. I was worried I’d skipped ahead without realizing until it goes back to feeling more related towards the end. Not that that’s a bad thing, I like it when songs buck standard structure, and it makes the surge to the forms during the first verse and chorus all the more powerful.

Remember that the CD ships in a few weeks. By then, we should be able to get a higher quality version. It may be something of a bootleg recording, but we’ve finally got the full version.

And we’re off on a long series of matches. They decided to start everything off with an exhibition between the top 4 characters, 1st vs. 2nd and 3rd vs. 4th. That’s why Johnathan, Dio, and Josuke are fighting despite them being automatically placed into the final 16 because they got so many votes.

Anyway, we’re getting our first look at the gameplay. These are CPU only matches, so the balance and mechanic functionality may change when human players start getting control.

Bruno vs. Josuke was pretty nice. Good exchanges leading to a pretty even match. Bruno’s dash looks like it’ll be hard to use since if your opponent doesn’t jump or recover from an attack that goes over you, they’re in a pretty good position to punish the move. I’m glad that we got to see the stands going at each other. From the looks of it, it seems to last a set time, and whoever has the advantage at the end of that gets the free hit. Bruno’s get up at the end of the match he’s losing did happen, though it happened so fast I almost didn’t notice it at first. It doesn’t look as troubling as I feared, but the amount he gets back is still a little more than I think would be ideal.

Johnathan vs. Dio is a little more telling. Johnathan at the end managed to get a small rally, but it looked like, without a stand, he was getting pretty stomped. Dio was able to keep him at bay pretty well by just attacking with The World. It also didn’t look like it was particularly difficult to land the Road Roller skill, though that could be due to CPU not having to do difficult button inputs. I’m hoping that it’s a fluke and that stand user vs. non-stand user won’t typically create that problem. It doesn’t affect the majority of characters, but it would be kinda lame.

This is just the first match. They haven’t announced when the next one will be, so keep an eye on the UStream channel for the most up to date matches and Nico, YouTube, and here for the match recordings.

The raws are out for JoJolion 22.

“This is the Legend of the Joestar Jizou Statue”

It’s the story of Johnny Joestar and his two hats reclaiming the Sacred Corpse in a quest to save his wife.

And the tragedy that ultimately befell him.

Also, despite her yet unseen ability to lick her own elbow…

Things are about to get very uncomfortable for her.

And also the audience, because that is not the end image, and the end image gets a touch more racy once you see what happens.

Also of note is Johnny’s American retainers or whoever it is those people at his death are that came to Japan with him have Funny Valentine’s distinct hair curl. There may end up being a connection.

You can check out the whole raw set, posted generously at the JJBA forums, in this Image Barn gallery. You’ll probably be able to grasp the substance of Johnny’s story just from what’s going on even if you can’t read it, so if you’re not ready, please proceed cautiously.

This is a little commercial that is here to tell us that the ending theme for Dangan Ronpa has been decided upon. The song will be called “Zetsubousei: Hero Chiryouyaku” (Despair Student: Hero Cure). The artist is Suzumu and it features the voice of Soraru.  Here’s an example of their work together:

This is SoraRhythm, a collaborative album the two put together last year. Suzumu wrote all of the music (lyrics not included) and Soraru sung all of the songs. They seem to do a pretty decent job. Suzumu does a good job with the music and Soraru’s voice is quite nice, so I think we’re in for a good ending theme. The album with this on it will be realeased on August 7, one month after the anime premiers, so now there’s more to look forward to from Dangan Ronpa.

I don’t know how I ever doubted him. DIO is the most popular character as is the way of things. He’s followed pretty closely by Johnathan, though, which I legitimately didn’t expect. Josuke was a good lock on third. It was a struggle between the top 5, but the final rankings put Bruno a few hundred behind Josuke and Johnny a few hundred behind him. Then there’s a huge drop to Caeser at sixth before the rankings start to become close again.

The importance of the ranking thing, other than it being a big popularity contest, is the tournament brackets. The easiest way I can think to describe it is like the World Martial Arts Tournament in Dragon Ball. Every character will be put into blocks of four or five for preliminary matches. Those prelim matches will determine who gains a place in the final brackets. In this case there are 16 slots to fill of two on two matches. The top three characters in the supporter race are seeded and don’t have to fight preliminary matches. That leaves 13 slots left for the remaining 26 characters to fight over. That means that half the remaining characters will be lost at the prelim stage.

But the big point of all of this is showcasing the gameplay. It will be COM matches, but they will be real matches instead of just demo moves against what are probably dummy opponents like what we’ve seen in the PVs. Every character will get showcased through tons of battles on the official UStream channel. Streaming starts on Wednesday the 19th at 9PM JST. For me, that’s 7AM, but UStream tends to keep recordings of streams in the channel’s library, so the fights should hopefully be available even after the matches are over.

Get ready for a brawl, everyone. We’re going to get a real taste of just what it is this game can do!

The preorder period for Linked Horizon’s single album “March to Freedom” is now open. The CD will contain “Guren no Yumiya,” “Wings of Freedom,” and “If We Make the Inside of These Walls Our One Home,” and the special edition will contain the exclusive “Guren no Yumiya” music video.

That’s standard. The preorder bonus is an interchangeable cover jacket with original anime art. There’s a Mikasa one, and Eren one, an Armin one, a Rivaille one, a REVO and Jean one, and a Sasha one. Amusing on their own, but nothing too special. What’s cool is that if you latch them all together, you get this:

And, yes, Sasha is eating a potato.

Which picture you get depends on which preorder service you use. REVO and Jean come from Animate Online, Mikasa comes from HMV, Rivaille comes from Tower Records, Eren comes from TSUTAYA Records, Armin comes from Pony Canyon, and Sasha the Potato Girl comes from select supporting stores across Japan. It sounds like you may never be able to get that Sasha picture, and if there’s one I know the western fans would want, it’s the Sasha eating a potato one, but they have given a list of online stores. I was able to find the preorder page for the ones on JBOOK, Neo Wing, Chara-Ani, GuruGuru Kingdom, and Melon Books. That last one asked me for confirmation on something when I looked it up, so I would click with care if you decide to use that one.

The cost seems to be pretty stable at ¥1,800 (~$19) for the special edition with the DVD and ¥1,200 (~$13) for the standard edition. If you’re interested in a little original art of your favorite character/vegetable, keep it in mind. The CD launches on  the 10th.

(CD image from Animate Online, full image of bonus pictures made by Yaraon made of images originally from Shingeki.LinkedHorizon. © REVO, Linked Horizon, and Pony Canyon)

The plan to reclaim Trost has been laid out under the command of Pixis. We’re going to have Eren go Titan and plug the hole leaking wild titans into Trost with a big boulder. Titans come into the district by the second, so this plan has to start immediately. Eren is under confident about his newfound powers, but his determination, and hatred of titans, is high. He will go and fight while shouldering everyone’s hopes.

The holder of our hopes and dreams or the future!

Some dumb faces are natural, but when they aren’t, Pixis makes sure to help them along

“What? Were you going to eat this?”

“Really hope no one I liked was on that roof”

Seeing a lot of polarized opinions on this episode, especially in conjunction with the last two. I haven’t seen it yet, but my understanding is there’s a lot of non-manga filler, which may be troubling in the future when it comes time for anime only endings. Regardless, if you’re on the negative side this time, now you’ll know who to stay clear of in the future. Screenplay is once again Hiroshi Seko. Storyboards are Minoru Ohara back from episodes 3 and 6. Directed this time by Kiyoshi Fukumoto back from episode 3 and with a long list of director credits. Tons of animation directors this time, six in total. I had heard a rumor that the recent episodes have been low key due to staff exhaustion, so I’m not sure if this is pulling out the stops or patching together the crew. #1: Teruhiko Yamazaki with a good mix of AD, such as Bleach and one of the AT Votoms movies, and key animation, such as Majestic Prince and Bakemonogatari. #2: Miyazaki Satomi, AD and key animation for several episodes so far. #3: Koizumi Hatsue back from episode 9. #4: Daisuke Saito from episodes 4 and 9. #5: Satoshi Sakai, largely key animation, such as Death Note and Code Geass S1, but has some AD, like Guilty Crown. Lastly, #6: Hiroshi Tatezaki back from episode 4.

You can see even more images at Yaraon. Tons of crew this time. How did that end up working out for your take on the episode?

This is from an store in Akihabara. It isn’t that they’ve got PV 5 running in the store. That’s normal. It’s that they’ve got every TV on that back wall running the store. They probably only run that commercial every few hours, but once in while, that store has the wall of pure passion and JoJo.

But for us, those are still images. The idea is super awesome, but if you need a massive ASB fix:

Someone was nice enough to stitch together every character display across all characters that we’ve gotten so far. It’s a pretty well done editing effort, so if you want 10 minutes of gushing or just a quick way to see your favorite character so far, it’s now all together in one video.

(Thanks to JoJoF2C for posting the Akiba pictures)

To that end, I decided to work on something else.

This is the first Titan 4koma “Training Corps.” The main Shingeki.tv site doesn’t keep them longer than a week, but Matome.Naver users have been keeping up and have the full collection of the current ten. Because there’s been no word on the preview, I’ve been making an effort to try and translate them all. I’ve got a workable rough draft for all ten if you’d like to read along with the link:

1

Panel 3
Armin: I wonder what Eren’s doing…

Panel 4
Mikasa: Brother’s got some hero shadows. He might be going through puberty…
Armin: Ahh
Eren: Ch… It’s not the same!

2

Panel 2 (chomp, chomp)
Mikasa: Eat properly, Eren.
Eren: Eh? I’m eating.

Panel 3
Mikasa: That’s not enough.
Eren: Gkt- (gulp)
Armin: Mikasa, that’s your bread! Will you be all right?

Panel 4
Mikasa: That’s why I brought rice. (DON!)
Armin: Where did you get that from?!

3

Panel 2
Eren: Damn it! Not yet!
Armin: Maybe your head is too heavy… Maybe if there was more weight below the belt…

Panel 3
Eren: All right! How about that!!

4

Panel 2
Annie: Wanna try again?
Eren: Hold on, Annie! We’re going to do this differently.

Panel 3
Eren: First: You’ve got a molester approaching you from behind. Suddenly, he moves from your thigh to your hipline… Where they suddenly take advantage of where their first hand is-

5

Panel 1
Soldier: Akerman. You have to leave for a training assignment.
Mikasa: B… But I’m with Eren right now.

Panel 2
Eren: Hey! That’s enough, Mikasa!

Panel 3
Eren: Solid!
Mikasa: That was bad. I couldn’t stay calm.

Panel 4
Mikasa: But I can’t die if there’s a request…
Armin: Eren! Ereeeennn!!

6

Panel 1
Mikasa: Hey, Dad, where do babies come from?
Mikasa’s Father: Ehehe. Why don’t we ask Doctor Yaeger?

Panel 2
Dr. Yaeger: Do you remember me, Mikasa? We have met many times…
Mikasa: Doctor Yaeger…

Panel 3
Mikasa: How do I make babies?
Dr. Yaeger: Whaaa?!

Panel 4
Mikasa (VO): Why would I remember that at a time like this?

7

Panel 1
Armin: Mikasa!

Panel 2
Armin: Hold on!
Mikasa: Armin!?

Panel 3
Armin: Heavy!? Just how many kilos are you? You’ve got to use your gas now! If you can match your use to mine… the strength in my arm…

Panel 4
Armin: I can’t do it anymore!

8

Panel 1
Jean: It’s some goods from the Military Police.

Panel 2
Marco: Th… These are… Dresses and ears?
Armin: These are sideshow costume goods!

Panel 3
Marco: Those peaceful idiots! Because we haven’t fought in a hundred years… (We’re doomed!)
Armin: No, Marco. These can take away the giants’ sight.

Panel 4
Marco: Why aren’t the girls wearing that!
Armin: I thought I looked best in it.

9

Panel 2
Rivaille: Dirty

Panel 3
Rivaille: … It won’t come off.

Panel 4
Corps Leader: Retreat!! Why isn’t Rivaille…
Girl Soldier: He’s washing something in the river still!!

10

Panel 1
Mikasa: I’m going too
Eren: That’s pointless. I’ll leave.

Panel 2
Eren: For God’s sake, I’m your brother, but I’m not a child!
Mikasa: So?

Panel 3
Mikasa: My reason… What do you think it is?
Eren: Eh!?
Armin: Don’t give the wrong answer, Eren!

Panel 4
Eren: This isn’t necessary right now!
Armin: It’s because it’s now!
Mikasa: You have to answer in 15 seconds.
Command Girl: Wait, this is important now.

Unfortunately, I don’t remember everyone’s name, so you get things like “Commander Girl” and “Soldier Girl,” but these are my notes essentially. I think I might try to get someone who can check my work, and if I can, I think I’m going to post these to Batoto or something like that. Even if these are 100% accurate, which I’m not sure on a few lines because the writing are done in that handwriting style that makes kanji tougher to read, I’ll still have to trim them to get the typesetting right. I’ll let you know.