Japanator is back...ish.

Most of the site isn't really working right (and the ad space is MASSIVE) but Japanator is back in working order (and looks a bit crap in Firefox).

City of Heroes / City of Villians FREE weekend!

Shining Paragon City & the dastardly Rogue Isles are open to play in for FREE this weekend! I'm so rusty that I'd probably end up dragging down whatever poor team picked me up. However, if I go in with all the other rusty players, no one will notice!

Here's the official blurb:

AIR RAID! PARAGON CITY! THIS IS NO DRILL!

Any and all Superpowered individuals are needed immediately to stave off the Rikti Invasion that threatens all of humanity! To support the fight against this ruinous alien invasion, all former players in good standing have their accounts reactivated from Thursday, August 2nd through late Sunday night (August 5th, 8:59PM PST / 11:59PM EST). Anyone who has previously played City of Heroes or City of Villains is able to log in get into the fight! Spread the word to your supergroup or guild mates and online friends who might not be playing CoH that now is the time to come back and check out the great new Issue 10, for FREE!

Welcome back to these Heroes and Villains! Join the fight against the Rikti Invasion Force and have a great "City of" weekend!

Everything else....

I'm here to amuse and disturb you. Is it working?

Gia says that 8 /01 is Yaoi Day because "on Japanese cell phones 8=ya, 0=O, 1=I, blah blah blah 801 Media blah blah." I wish I'd known this sooner. I would have emailed my friends inappropriate pictures and went out to buy Y!Smut. Drat. Instead, I'll torture you with a disturbing Final Fantasy fanart.

I now officially will add a hug pillow tag to this blog. ;_; Srsly.
Heisei Democracy & Majoria's News report of a Masane Witchblade hug pillow (proper Japanese term is Daki Makura, and I should probably start using it). This pillow doesn't particularly offend me, as Masane is an actual grown woman and is (exaggeratively) drawn as such. On the far opposite spectrum, a Doki Doki Maho Shinpan hug pillow has been released as well. For you lol-pervs. PedoBear Approved. nsfw, dood.

A New Cutie Honey has been cast for an upcoming Cutie Honey tv drama. Bishoujo Club 31 member Mikie Hara will "fill" (hah.) the role. Her qualifications? Giant knockers. Looks like a gravure model to me. Bikinis with some "spillage" - probably nsfw.

In US geek news, there was a Heroes panel at SDCC. Newsarama has some of the highlights. I am so relieved that I was not the only one that noticed this before their actual story was revealed.
Excerpt: An Australian fan queried Panettiere about the much-discussed Peter/Claire chemistry. Ventimiglia: “They…are…related. End of story. I’m flattered, but…” Panettiere pointed out the age difference between her and Ventimiglia, and asked, “Which is creepier, the fact that he’s my uncle, or the fact that there’s….” Ventimiglia replied, “Uncle. Uncle.” He then pointed out that the characters had “hooked up” on the level that they had an emotional, caring, protective relationship, along with a strong bond.

Momoi backpedals! After posting about how anime expo, the "Queen of Akihabara" Halko Momoi has essentially issued a retraction. She erased the negative post and replaced it with the one shown here.
Exerpt: I’m sorry for making you worry with the things I wrote on my blog, and also for canceling my autograph session to prepare for my concert. When I received so many words of encouragement and presents at my panel, I thought to myself “I must make this performance a success.”

Today was new comics day at the shop....

This is probably a preemptive post as I haven't read all these books yet. Oh well, I reserve the right to post again if they suck. Here are some books of interest:

Witchblade: First Born finally arrived. I have not had time to read it in detail, but there's quite a bomb dropped on the last page. Pick it up, or go hobotaku it.

She Hulk 20:
Official blurb - Twenty issues of secrets and mysteries...
...and here's where we let you peek at the answers!
Is She-Hulk still married? What's Mallory's master plan? Who has Mr. Zix been talking to? Where's John? Awesome Andy? Pug? Southpaw?!! BIG returns, BIGGER reveals, and THE BIGGEST SURPRISE OF ALL! All this, and a giant-size Man-Thing.

My take - I'm really excited to see how the storyline with the Leader and Jen's recent sluttacious behavior pans out. I hate to say it, but Mallory has a really strong argument for gamma radiation causing "irregular" behavior.

In some older news, Majoria's News found info on the San Diego Comic Con's X-Men panel.
My favorite quote? "A fan asked Carey if Rogue is going to "continue to be a bad ass and not die." Carey said he didn't spend so much time on the character just for her to die, and there's "certainly more to Rogue's story" to come."

New Warriors 3:
Official blurb: Sofia and Wondra face off as the New Warriors respond to Tony Stark’s offer of amnesty. But will they accept or reject it? Meanwhile, Detectives Sykes and Givens uncover a shocking mystery about the death of the original New Warriors, and a former member may hold the key. Plus, Wolverine shows up…and he ain’t happy!

My take - New Warriors is way, way better than it should be. Last issue Jubilee appears, I suspect things only go uphill from here. (hey after the new issue drops, last month is no longer a spoiler)

Did you get that thing I sent you?

Evening, and welcome to today's (gaming) blog dump.

In something that might make your day, Kotaku has posted footage of the upcoming Harvey Birdman game. It's essentially a Phoenix Wright clone, but...why is that a bad thing? The only bummer is that it is currently only slated for the PSP & the PS2. Show Nintendo some love, Harv!

Dropped into my local game store, and to my glee got 15 dollars credit when I traded in Futurama! Collectors, save it, as it's retailing for 35.00 used. Broke gamers, sell it while it's hot! I assume it's fallout from The Simpsons movie being a hit. While I was there, I was informed that Mario Strikers Charged had sold out. What was that about the Wii having no games and it being a flash in the pan? Not so much.

In other news,
Cyberfanatix reports that all the World Heroes games will be gathered together into a collection and released with one of the best names ever, World Heroes Gorgeous. It has an October 18th release date, but I am unsure if that will be in the US, Europe or Japan.

Insert Credit has some new info on the new Capcom fighting game, Sengoku Basara X. <- Click that link to read it. They also report that Izuna will have a sequel - "Gouma Reifu Den Izuna Ni" For those that don't remember, the first Izuna was released by Atlus in the US as Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja. It was a dungeon crawler of epic proportions, if you got to the 'bonus' dungeons after the first run through of the game.

A wonky virus that's floating around the intertubes will attempt to lure you into opening it by offering a playable version of Super Mario Bros. It plays, but also infects the hell out of your system. (Why are you opening attachments anyway?)
Info at Wii Fanboy

Japanator Down?

Well, it's been a couple of days now, and Japanator is still down. Wonder what's going on with that...