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Russia bans 'Death Note' and other 'violent' anime
A court blocked the shows on some streaming sites.
Naruto, Monkey D Luffy and Goku do battle in 'Jump Force'
The Naruto Shippuden, One Piece, Death Note and DragonBall universes collide in the best way possible in Bandai Namco's newest fighting game, Jump Force. Players will be able to form three-character squads, pulling from a stable of iconic characters spanning half a century of Japanese Weekly Shonen Jump manga titles, to beat the snot out of a variety of marquee villains from their respective series. The game is slated for release at some point in 2019 for the Xbox One, PS4 and PC via Steam.
A 'monkey selfie' movie might be on the way
Proving that Hollywood will try anything once (and 17 times if enough people watch it), there might be a movie on based on the infamous "monkey selfie" headed our way. Conde Nast Entertainment has bought the life rights for David Slater, the photographer who found himself in a legal battle over a selfie a macaque took in 2011, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Conde Nast usually develops movies based on articles from its publishing arm's magazines like The New Yorker and Vanity Fair, so this is a slightly different step for the company.
'Shinobi Striker' makes 'Naruto' a serious online fighter
Naruto is in a strange place right now. The long-running manga series ended in early 2015, before its anime adaptation wrapped up in March this year. The spiky-haired ninja saved the world and achieved his dream of becoming the Hokage, or rather the leader, of the Hidden Leaf village. But now there's Boruto, a new series about his boisterous son. Both the manga and anime are relatively new and it's not clear just yet if either will replicate the success of the original series.
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution hits September 16
Following earlier reports that hyper-kinetic anime fighter Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution would be hitting Western shores, Bandai Namco has made things official by announcing that the game will reach the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC platforms on September 16. To celebrate the imminent arrival of the game's cel-shaded fisticuffs, Bandai Namco has also issued a bevy of media, including the trailer seen above and the nearly two-dozen screenshots in the gallery below. Additionally, the publisher has outlined the game's pre-order bonuses: Best Buy and Futureshop are offering four summer-themed costumes, Amazon has three samurai-inspired costumes and GameStop offers customers an exclusive "Japanese Mecha-Naruto" poster. If you'd rather not fork over early cash for the game, Bandai Namco is also offering a few bonuses to anyone who picks up the game at launch, including a short Naruto anime featurette and costume DLC that sees the titular orange ninja swapping costumes with Sasuke while Itachi Uchiha dons the fetching Akatsuki apron. [Image: Bandai Namco]
VIZ Media launching subscription-based 'Neon Alley' anime channel on consoles this fall
VIZ Media, the localization company responsible for bringing Bleach, Naruto and all things Rumiko Takahashi stateside, has announced that it will be launching a 24-hour anime network called Neon Alley on consoles this fall.Which consoles will actually receive Neon Alley remains to be seen, as the press release (found after the break) does not list specifics. The $6.99 a month service will not be an on-demand streaming app, but rather an actual television channel with a schedule and everything. All content will be uncensored, in HD when possible, but always dubbed in English, which could be good or bad depending on your personal anime sensibilities.The channel will broadcast advertisements, despite the subscription fee, though VIZ says those ads will be "limited" and help keep the monthly cost below 10 dollars. Announced programming includes Naruto Shippuden, Inuyasha: The Final Act, Death Note and quite a few others, as well as original programming.
Asura's Wrath reaction no surprise to Matsuyama, dot Hack for NA needs more fan support
CyberConnect2's president Hiroshi Matsuyama was signing autographs at Wondercon in Anaheim, CA this past weekend, and he kindly took a break from showing off his latest game – Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations – to chat with us about how his other games are doing. And by "other games" we of course mean the one with the god destroyer: Asura's Wrath. Despite both critical acclaim and a strong sales start, Matsuyama is still cautious about the new IP. "It's only been a month since it's been out," Matsuyama told Joystiq through a translator. He said that he expected both positive and negative reactions, and that's what he got. "Obviously, it was a challenge to create something new. And when you try to do that, obviously the people that get it will enjoy it. But for people where the game doesn't fit their expectations, they're not going to jump up as much." We also checked in on both the dot Hack title in progress as well as a possible sequel to Solatorobo, but for both of those, Matsuyama says he needs more support from North American publishers. For dot Hack specifically, "as long as we can get more requests from the fans, there's a possibility." But he there are other factors in play as well. "It's not that people don't know about it," he said. "But I think it's more than Namco Bandai Games America is not interested in the typical JRPGs and that's why they're not looking to pick it up." Matsuyama said he's not trying to make directly Japanese or Western games, however. "It's most important to be able to see the whole world. Back in the day, a lot of developers and publishers were focused on Japanese games and sent them out to North America. Obviously that's not going to be accepted as much. From our standpoint, we're really looking to create a game that's fun for everybody in the world." That said, we kindly asked Matsuyama to show us what might be the next evolution of the Asura pose, given that we've seen it twice already so far. But because Matsuyama happened to be in the Namco booth and not the Capcom booth (not to mention that he was dressed up as Naruto anyway), we got the very serene pose above. In other words, the Asura Pose has evolved yet again.
Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva coming to a DVD player near you
Viz Media, the anime localization super-giant responsible for bringing both Bleach and Naruto to North America, will continue its cultural conquest of the western continent by releasing Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva in North American markets. The film takes place between the events of Professor Layton and the Last Specter (due out this fall) and Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, and should be available at your local otaku shelter "later this year." The 2009 animated film featuring everyone's favorite top-hat professor had previously undergone westernization for its 2010 release in the UK, however Viz Media's adaptation will be the first version available in the US and Canada for those weary of importing. The film has been such a success in Japan and abroad that Layton developer Level 5 has already commissioned a sequel, however there has been no mention of localization for that adventure so far.
New Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm, Dragon Ball games coming from Namco Bandai
Two new games in longtime Namco Bandai anime franchise series are on the way. People who either love Naruto or love CyberConnect2's brand of cinematic fighting will be delighted to hear that a new Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm game is on the way next year, called Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations. The PS3/Xbox 360 game includes a "number of playable and support characters far beyond any Naruto game" and promises some kind of updated online functionality. In other Namco anime license news, the game formerly known as "Dragon Ball Game Project Age 2011" has been named by fan feedback. Proving that they fear change, the community decided upon "Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Tenkaichi" for the new fighter, which is coming out on Xbox 360 and PS3 October 25.%Gallery-127534%
Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja: Storm Generations revealed
Look, we'll admit it: we're spectators when it comes to this Naruto thing. Honestly, it feels like the world is playing a joke on us. Is Naruto a guy? A mythical dragon god beast king? A lunch special at the take-out place around the corner?Jokes aside, another entry in the long-running video game series has been revealed in the latest issue of Shonen Jump magazine (via Siliconera). No consoles have been mentioned yet, but the premise seems simple enough: more fighters, both young and Shippuden versions; more unnecessarily lengthy pre-fight dialog; more of the Naruto timeline to play through. It's the Dragon Ball Z formula in full effect, we assume.But, hey, if you're trying to make sense of this all, relax -- we know a guy.[Note: Image taken from Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja: Storm 2.]
Rise and Shiny recap: Pockie Ninja
Well, it's nice to finally get back to my regularly scheduled columns after attending E3 last week. I have to say, I loved all of the new games and gadgets that I got to check out at the event, but I missed the rhythm of my columns. So this week I decided to get back to Rise and Shiny in full force by attacking Pockie Ninja, an odd-looking little game that I have been hearing about for quite a while. In fact, it doesn't take much to see that it has grown pretty popular, but I still wasn't sure why. So I signed up (thank you, Facebook connect!) and jumped into the game. It should be noted that a lot of the game has not been translated very well. This is a real problem when you consider some of the learning curve involved in Pockie Ninja. Sure, the English is there, and there are words that I know, but they are often arranged in such a strange order or just come out sounding so... odd that I have no idea what is going on. Click past the cut and let's see if I can explain what I found.
Netflix deal with Viz Media brings more anime with subbed eps of Inuyasha, Bleach, Naruto
As we noted when Netflix announced its expanded deal with Fox, there's some new anime available on Watch Instantly these days and now Netflix has revealed a deal with Viz Media made it all possible. This has brought hundreds of episodes of popular series including Bleach, Naruto and Inuyasha to the service and most importantly, they're uncut and feature the Japanese audio with subtitles -- a must for hardcore fans. There's also new eps of other series like Trigun and Fullmetal Alchemist available through a deal with Funimation, but unfortunately it appears those are dubbed editions. Clearly licensing issues play a role, but here's hoping we see more original audio, uncut releases in the future (trying to watch Ghost in the Shell dubbed is just painful) or in the best possible case -- an option to watch subbed or dubbed.
Naruto Shippuden: Kizuna Drive gameplay videos get cooperative
Though its title is about as inaccessible as titles get, we're starting to understand Naruto Shippuden: Kizuna Drive thanks to the two gameplay videos posted below. In short: It's Phantasy Star Online, only minus all the technology, and plus a whole bunch of impossible ninja magic.
Naruto and Dynasty Warriors mashed together in a Narultimate Impact
Koei's attempts to infuse Dynasty Warriors gameplay with anime style have met with less than stellar results. Perhaps it'll work better if another company accepts the challenge? We'll find out this fall when Namco Bandai releases Narultimate Impact for PSP in Japan. According to Japanese magazine leaks summarized by Siliconera, Narultimate Impact will be a Warriors-style game (think one player versus thousands of enemy soldiers) set in the Naruto universe. So if "a lot of talking about 'jutsus'" was the one thing you thought was missing from Dynasty Warriors, this could be the game for you. Siliconera previously found a trademark listing for "Ultimate Ninja Impact" in both Europe and the US, and the site speculates that this could be the Western subtitle for the game.
First details of 3DS Naruto game revealed
It was announced at E3 that there would be some kind of "Naruto Shippuden action" game for 3DS. It would have been pretty safe to assume that the popular franchise would show up on Nintendo's new handheld anyway! Now, according to Andriasang, V-Jump magazine has revealed the first details of that Naruto game: Naruto Shippuden Nin Rittai Emaki Saikyou Ninkai Kessen -- a title that suggests the game is part of the Ninja Council series and has something do with a "three-dimensional scroll" and "decisive battle." The new game is described as a side-scrolling action title that takes place on "3D fields." To see what that looks like, you can consult a partial scan posted by Siliconera. There will also be "gimmicks and stage formations" that make use of the 3D effect in the game, heralding the arrival of the occasional 3D effect as the new random DS microphone feature. Naruto Shippuden for 3DS will be released in Japan this spring, likely as close as Takara Tomy can get to the February launch date.
Naruto transforms into inevitable co-op game for PSP
There's a reason why every PSP game seemingly has four player co-op play nowadays: Monster Hunter. Capcom struck a gold mine by bringing the franchise to Sony's handheld, and Japanese developers have tried -- over and over again -- to replicate that success. Phantasy Star Portable, God Eater and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker are just a few of the titles that have attempted to follow the formula. Naruto Shippuden: Kizuna Drive is Namco Bandai's anime ninja flavored variation, and it's coming to the US in Spring 2011, nearly a year since its original July release in Japan. Unlike the Storm series, Kizuna Drive is developed by Premium Agency. In addition to featuring an "all new story" with "game-exclusive characters," Kizuna Drive will have one more bonus Naruto fans will probably appreciate: a theme song, sung by Naruto's voice actor, Junko Takeuchi. See the press release after the break.%Gallery-111544%
Atlus and Tomy bringing Naruto Shippuden: Shinobi Rumble to DS in Feb.
Atlus has yet to ship the two Naruto titles it's releasing with Tomy, but the two companies have already announced another. Naruto Shippuden: Shinobi Rumble, known as Naruto Shippuden Ninjutsu Zenkai! Cha-Clash! in Japan, is a four-player, Smash Bros.-esque fighter for DS starring 16 characters from the Naruto series -- including Naruto, Naruto's friend, and that one guy Naruto is always fighting with. Shinobi Rumble will be released in North America on February 8 of next year. That gives you plenty of time to convince three friends to pre-order it, so you can enjoy the multi-card wireless multiplayer.%Gallery-106518%
Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja: Storm 2 review
There's only one staunch barrier to entry with this game, and it's right on the front of the box. "Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja: Storm 2," with its awkward colon placement, speaks to fans of the serialized manga and its long-running anime adaptation so fluently, it sounds like gibberish to anyone else. Oh, and there's a "2" in the title, so now I can't follow because I don't know what happened in Gibberish 1. If you manage to get past the cover (featuring Naruto and his friend-turned-rival Sasuke, by the way), you'll find an energetic and accessible adventure that respectfully harnesses its source material, without locking out newcomers. Fans tuned in to keywords like chakra, Rasengan and Orochimaru will be more invested in the story, and everyone else will find some way to survive a fighting game without being ensconced in the narrative. Just pretend it's called Ninja Tornado Fight. %Gallery-97853%
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 on the radar for Oct. 19 release
In case yesterday's announcement of two Naruto Shippuden games wasn't sufficient Naruto news for you, Namco Bandai announced the release date for Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 for Xbox 360 and PS3. Fans will be able to take control of Naruto and, um, all those other characters on October 19. If you'd like to experience a sample of the Ultimate Ninja Storm -- an Ultimate Ninja Drizzle, perhaps, or Scattered Ultimate Ninja Showers -- Namco Bandai also announced that a demo for the CyberConnect2-developed fighting game is available now on both PSN and Xbox Live.
Atlus distributing two new Naruto Shippuden games
Naruto games have been published in North America by D3 Publisher, Namco Bandai (who bought D3 Publisher), Ubisoft, and Tomy. Now Atlus is piling on, having announced a deal with license holder Tomy to distribute two new Naruto games. We think Atlus is acting as a distribution partner rather than sole publisher, as both games' boxes still bear the Tomy logo. Naruto Shippuden: Dragon Blade Chronicles for Wii puts players in the roles of both Naruto and Sasuke as they search for the "Genryu" Elemental Dragons. And Naruto Shippuden: Naruto vs. Sasuke is a side-scrolling game for DS in which the two are at odds, and face off with a team of fighters that you recruit in-game. Both games will be released November 16. Atlus said that retailers will reveal pre-order bonuses in the next few weeks, and also teased "more Naruto Shippuden adventures on Nintendo DS in early 2011." The publisher went ahead and revealed two of those items early in the images it sent: a hat for both the DS and Wii game at GameStop, and a set of figurines as part of premium bundles from Amazon.%Gallery-100299%%Gallery-100298%
