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'Pocket Monsters: The Origin' anime TV special takes Pokemon back to basics
Pocket Monsters: The Origin, unveiled during this weekend's ongoing Pokemon Game Show in Tokyo, is a new animated TV special slated to air on TV Tokyo on October 2 at 7 p.m. local time. As the name implies, The Origin takes the world of Pokemon anime back to its franchise's humble roots as a Game Boy game. Based on Pocket Monsters Red and Green, The Origin forgoes Ash Ketchum and Pikachu for Pocket Monsters Red's eponymous lead and his Charmander. Gary Oak has likewise been replaced with Green, the lead from (you guessed it!) Pocket Monsters Green. Professor Oak/Dr. Okido and Brock/Takeshi do return, although Misty/Kasumi is nowhere to be found in the above trailer. No word yet on if Nintendo has any plans on localizing the special, or if it is more than just a one-off installment.
Uncharted 2 becomes a Japanese TV show
Sony is priming the Japanese audience for the release of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, helping them build familiarity with the series' story, not by cheaply re-releasing Uncharted 2 (though that did happen) but by cutting video of Uncharted 2 into a TV drama series. The first seven-minute "UnchaTV" segment ran on October 4 at 12:53 am (today at 11:53 am Eastern), featuring four minutes of recut Uncharted 2 footage and three minutes of gameplay segments starring an actor and his on-screen girlfriend (who doesn't like games and, no doubt, will be shocked by how much she loves Uncharted). If you happen to have access to TV Tokyo, you can watch the continuation of the show four days a week through October 27. This is one way to make a good adaptation of Uncharted!
Blu-ray reportedly trailing CBHD in China, the second theater of the format war begins
Just because Toshiba has given up on HD DVD and moved on, doesn't mean the format war is totally over for red. According to a report by a Japanese TV station, its successor, China Blue HD is actually leading Blu-ray in marketshare in that country. Of course, based on the article found by our friends at FormatWarCentral, all we have to go on is a machine translated description of a video in a language we don't speak describing the apparent initial success of the government backed format in a socialist republic. If you need more evidence than that to declare the format war officially restarted, you're probably a communist, but before we drag you in front of the Un-American activities committee check out the video for a peek at the slick new CBHD cases that The Onion will surely be shipping its videos in very soon.[Via FormatWarCentral]
Blue Dragon anime coming to TV Tokyo
Blue Dragon's universe is expanding rapidly, and Famitsu reports that an animated TV series is scheduled to air on Japan's TV Tokyo station in April. The Blue Dragon anime is in production at Studio Pierrot -- which has worked on the animated series of such hot properties as Power Stone, Naruto and Bleach -- and is directed by Yukihiro Matsushita, who previously directed the Star Ocean EX animation. Kluke, the female lead in Blue Dragon's main trio of adventurers, is voiced by Erino Hazuki (pictured), while Keiko Nemoto and Daisuke Namikawa provide the voices of group leader Shu and quiet boy Zero (respectively). Now how about some hype for the English-language release of Blue Dragon, Microsoft? We're dying out here.
