A Shinichiro Watanabe Joint...

Official Trailer     Official website

Nishimi Kaoru has moved from city to city and school to school because of his father's job. So the first day at his new school was just routine for him. Being intellectual and the new transfer student, he has always been seen as an outcast and all Kaoru had to do was bare it until the next time he moved. But things were slightly different this time. First, he started to get close to the class president, Mukae Ritsuko, and, secondly, unlikely as it seemed, grew closer to Kawabuchi Sentaro. Sentaro was infamous for getting into fights, skipping class and was an overall bad boy. Strangely enough, the three of them find common ground in music, namely jazz, and Kaoru finds himself actually enjoying the new town.

So, I've been a follower of the folks over at Gotham Public Works for quite a while (as in a few years). Recently, they shared this video on their Facebook. It's a fan film put together by some of their good friends centered on, what else, Batman. Before I go into my likes and gripes with it, check it out for yourselves!

Cosplay is very much an all-encompassing artform, from the construction of the costume to the presentation to the final photos of the cosplayer in action. This section of the site is going to focus on one photo or costume per week (for right now, maybe more frequently later on if time permits) and why we think it deserves its own spotlight.

First up, Thor's Loki gets captured...by Stormtroopers!!!

This one comes from Elendriel, who made her Loki costume months before anything substantial was released for The Avengers, due out in the US on May 4. This pic just made me laugh the second I saw it! Stormtroopers seems to be getting around at conventions quite a lot lately, so why not arrest a trans-dimensional lunatic alien of sorts on sight? -gigglefit- Elendriel has done an awesome job on her costume, putting in well over one hundred hours of construction, according to her. For something that we haven't even fully seen in promo materials, this is pretty astounding!

Do you know of a picture or costume we should feature? Let us know in the comments!

Radical Entertainment, the folks behind the highly anticipated Prototype 2 video game, has joined together with comic giant Dark Horse for a brand new comic series set in the video game universe. The series will consist of three original stories that take place between the ending of the first Prototype game and the beginning of the sequel game, which is due out on April 24, 2012.

Direct from the press release:

The all-new digital comic series will be broken into three original stories that bridge the gap between the original blockbuster game and the highly anticipated sequel, PROTOTYPE 2.  The first entry, “The Anchor,” illustrated by Paco Díaz, continues the story of Alex Mercer, the protagonist from the first game, while the second story, "The Survivors," illustrated by Chris Staggs, follows a small group of residents of New York trying to escape the city after it has been transformed into NYZ with the outbreak of the Blacklight virus. The third and final story, illustrated by Victor Drujiniu, is "The Labyrinth" and provides fans a deeper look into the backstory of PROTOTYPE 2’s new protagonist, Sgt. James Heller.  Each comic in the series will be available at Digital.Darkhorse.com every other week beginning February 15, 2012.

Here's a sneak peek of the comic, just for you!

What do you guys think? Are you looking forward to the next installment of the Prototype universe, the new comics, or both?

Attention everyone! Cosplay for a Cause is holding an eBay auction for ONE 2012 calendar signed by all eighteen featured cosplayers and artists from around the world, including Yaya Han, MalroDoll, Francesca Dani, and Yuki LeFay! The only way to get one outside of this auction is to buy the calendar and track down every single person across the globe yourself (and that can get mighty pricey). Every penny from the auction, as well regular calendar sales, will be donated to the Japanese Red Cross to help with the disaster relief from the tsunami and earthquake back in March 2011. Let's see how much they can raise! The auction ends on January 26, so get a move on, people!

Like most people, I have a list of thing that I absolutely hate. Things like Miley Cyrus, Jail Break, and black licorice fill my list of hatred, ,somwhere in the top ten near Hitler, is Excel Saga. This anime documents the misadventures of Excel Excel (yes her first and last name are the same) as she and her sidekick Hyatt do missions for the secret organization of Across. While Excel and Hyatt serve Across, many side stories continue and occasionally coming back to the main story. 

My main problem with Excel's idiocy is that makes it hard to get any fragments of humor out of a lot of the jokes. Many times jokes are reused to the point of predictablilty and the characters' gags are similar, if not the same, from episode to episode. Also the series attempts to poke fun at other genres making one episode a detective show and another episode turning Excel Saga into a romance, but the attempts are feeble and on don't always come Across (pun intended). I will admit that I did laugh once or twice, but it wasn't enough to make up for the ridiculously bad jokes. 

The series is available on Netflix and Hulu, but it's not worth the time wasted watching it.