Reel Anime 2012 Kicks Off Next Week

Madman's Reel Anime 2012 festival is kicking off next week in cinemas across Australia. It runs from September 13 - 26 and features four fantastic-looking films. Here's some info from Madman for each:

From Up On Poppy Hill

Set in Yokohama, From Up On Poppy Hill is a high school love story that takes place in the year before the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics. As the country begins to pick itself up from the devastation of the Second World War, the new generation struggles to move towards a prosperous future whilst trying not to lose the essence of their past. The film’s rich and vibrant animation captures the entrancing beauty of Yokohama’s harbour and lush surrounding hillsides and, with a soundtrack that draws inspiration from the finest music of the time, perfectly captures the thrills of young romance and the hope of a new dawn.

From Up On Poppy Hill is directed by Goro Miyazaki and comes from the acclaimed Studio Ghibli. Look out for IGN's review in the next few days.

Wolf Children

When Hana falls in love, it feels like a fairy tale. She starts a family and produces two beautiful children – Yuki (Snow), a girl, and Ame (Rain), a boy. But the family harbours a secret – their father is a ‘Wolf-Man’, half human and half wolf, and has passed his affliction on to his children. The family try to reside discreetly in a quiet corner of the city, but their joyful life is shattered when their father passes away. To live peacefully, Hana must make the difficult decision to move Yuki and Ame to a small town and surround them with nature.

Wolf Children is directed by Mamoru Hosoda, who you no doubt know from The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars.

Berserk - The Egg of the King

An epic action-adventure tale set against a dark, European-inspired medieval fantasy world, Berserk – The Egg of the King follows the story of Guts, a lone mercenary renowned for his ferocity and unmatched in a fight – especially when armed with his imposing sword, a towering blade as tall as he. His destiny is to eventually become ‘The Black Swordsman’ and he will face untold horrors in battle.

In this first film from The Golden Age Arc trilogy, Guts’ actions in combat capture the attention of Griffith, leader of the mercenary group ‘The Band of the Hawk’. Griffith soon moves to recruit Guts into their ranks, but despite a slew of victories and successes, Guts begins to questions Griffith’s true purpose, whose ambition may lead them both to a horrible fate.

Based on Kentaro Miura’s bestselling manga series – which has sold over 30 million copies worldwide – Berserk: The Golden Age Arc trilogy takes the franchise into a bold and exciting new direction, with cutting-edge animation, intricately detailed swordplay and a gripping storyline.

Berserk - The Egg of the King is made by Studio 4°C, which is known for feature films such as Mind Games and Tekkonkinkreet. It also produced shorts for the Batman anthology Gotham Knight, Halo Legends and The Animatrix.

Children Who Chase Lost Voices

Having lived a lonely life ever since her father’s passing, Asuna spends her days listening to the otherworldly sounds of a crystal radio, left to her as a memento. Exploring the mountains near her home, Asuna is attacked by a strange beast. A mysterious stranger steps in to save her life, however their acquaintance is tragically cut short when the boy is killed. But when Asuna discovers a gateway to another world, she is overjoyed at the prospect of seeing him again. Alongside a band of friends who hold feelings of hope for their lost ones, Asuna undertakes a journey into a land of legends.

Children Who Chase Lost Voices is directed by Makoto Shinkai, the man responsible for the independently-produced Voices of a Distant Star, as well as The Place Promised in Our Early Days and 5 Centimeters per Second.

Reel Anime 2012 is coming to Sydney (Dendy Newtown), Melbourne (Cinema Nova), Brisbane (Dendy Portside), Canberra (Dendy Canberra), Adelaide (Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas), Avoca Beach (Avoca Beach Picture Theatre), Hobart (State Cinema) and Perth (Luna Leederville). For more information and session times, head to reelanime.com.

Source : ign[dot]com

Watch All the Anime You Want with Crunchyroll on PS3

If you’re an anime fan, chances are you’ve heard of Crunchyroll, the streaming service that brings the masses in the west a slew of hard-to-access (or outright inaccessible) eastern entertainment. You may have even heard in recent weeks that Crunchyroll will be bringing its service to PlayStation 3. And if you’re curious about this forthcoming app, there’s good news. We’ve been given access to it, and have plenty of information you’ll need leading up to its launch.

For starters, why is Crunchyroll migrating over to PlayStation 3? A lot of it, according to the service’s co-founder and CEO Kun Gao, is because there’s an undeniable “synergy” between the PS3 and the audience that enjoys anime. The company polled their audience and found that 40% of those who responded said they owned a PlayStation 3. That, combined with the fact that PS3 offers more games from Japanese developers (and JRPGs in particular) than its competition makes Crunchyroll on PS3 make a lot of sense. There’s substantial audience crossover.

But how about some specifics concerning the app itself? The Crunchyroll app will be available to download free of charge for all North American PS3 users (specifics regarding its release in other territories are still unknown). It can be initially downloaded from either the XMB (under TV/Video Services) or from the PlayStation Store itself. However, access to the application once downloaded will vary.

Crunchyroll is a service that has both free and premium options ranging over different subscription tiers. This is true on the Crunchyroll website as well as on the many devices that already accommodate the service, ranging from iOS and Android to Roku and Google TV. The same is true for PlayStation 3. While a “comprehensive sample” will be made available for users having a taste of Crunchyroll’s service (such as being able to watch the first episode of a series), a premium membership will be necessary to use all of the application’s functions and see everything it has to offer.

If you’re interested in paying for Crunchyroll, then you’ll have unlimited access to its wares. Since Crunchyroll actually offers more than just anime (in the form of live-action dramas from all over Asia), you could opt to get the anime-only membership for just under $7 a month, with other options for a dramas-only membership, or for tying everything in together. Regardless of what you choose, everything will parlay over ubiquitously to PlayStation 3, and any other applicable device you stream Crunchyroll on.

For premium subscribers, Crunchyroll’s library of over 400 anime series will be available on PlayStation 3, and 34 of those series are “simulcasts,” meaning that they are posted on Crunchyroll only an hour after they first air in Japan, complete with English subtitles. Crunchyroll’s co-founder and CEO Kun Gao told me that his service is “one of the only places where you can watch [these shows] legally,” undoubtedly making it enticing for anime fans who may be using other means to get their fix.

The Crunchyroll application itself on PS3 is easy to use and fairly fluid. In many ways, it resembles Netflix. Users will have access to various menus to make navigating Crunchyroll’s roster of shows easier, boiling things down to submenus showing the service’s most popular shows, shows that are available via “simulcasts,” the most recently posted episodes and more. Obviously, users can make their own queue as well, and that queue can be updated and accessed from any device that supports Crunchyroll. Better yet, if you start watching an anime on your phone, you can pause it, then watch it on your PS3, then pause it again and watch it on your computer, and so on.

Crunchyroll on PS3 currently only supports up to 480p, which Gao explained to me was a fairly standard resolution for anime, as it’s more expensive to produce shows in higher quality. So even at 480p, most anime will be viewable on PS3 in its native resolution, though that will still fluctuate depending on the shows you’re interested in.

The Crunchyroll service will also be coming to PlayStation Vita, though it’s farther away from release than the PS3 iteration of the application. Gao told me that his company is shooting to release Crunchyroll on Vita by the end of the year, and “hopefully sooner.” They want to first be able to use the feedback they get from Crunchyroll on PS3 and make necessary improvements to make the Vita iteration of the application as good as it can be.

The release date for Crunchyroll on PlayStation 3 hasn’t been nailed down yet, but it will be coming to a PS3 near you (in North America only) very soon.

Source : ign[dot]com