It is  notoriously difficult  to convey what a virtual reality video game looks and feels like to people who aren’t wearing virtual reality goggles. This trailer for Vive launch game  Fantastic Contraption , however, nearly nails it. The mixed-reality video from  indie trailer maker Kert Gartner  inserts live-action footage of a person playing the gizmo-building VR game with the graphics they see while playing the game. Because this is a Vive game, the player really does move around in a rectangular space and uses two wand controllers to build objects out of virtual wheels and bars. And, speaking from my own time with the game, it really is as incredible as it looks here. This trailer is, of course, not exactly what the game looks like. The trailer is a little more  Who Framed Roger Rabbit  than what players or observers would see. You don’t see your body when you play, since you’re wearing a headset that blocks out your view of the real world. And an...

According to the latest report from CODA (The Content Overseas Distribution Association)  posted  on their official website on March 31, the damage caused by piracy of Japanese films, anime, broadcasting programs, music, and manga outside of Japan in 2014 was estimated at 288.8 billion yen (about 2.5 billion US dollars), which was more than double of the sales through legitimate distribution routes of the year, 123.4 billion yen (1.1 billion US dollars). CODA  is an association of major Japanese contents holders and copyright-related organizations established in 2002 to cooperate to reduce piracy of Japanese contents around the world. Based on the request from the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry of Japan, CODA conducted the survey with its 33 member companies. The estimated total damage amount was calculated from the companies' revenues of their Japanese contents  that were officially licensed overseas. The potential damage on the titles that were not licensed i...

Sailor Moon  and her crew of alien-fighting buddies are back! A looming sense of foreboding hangs in the air as Mamoru, Rei, and Usagi sense that this time of peace will be short-lived. An elite high school called Mugen Academy and two of its students, Haruka Tenoh and Michiru Kaioh, seem to be at the center of a recent rash of “reversions,” where victims' bodies are devolving into monsters. Usagi will have to once again resume her role as the Guardian of Love and Justice if she wants to get to the bottom of Juban district's latest threat.  Sailor Moon Crystal Season III  is based on a manga and can be found streaming on  Crunchyroll  and  Hulu , Mondays at 10:35 AM EST. How was the first episode? Lynzee Loveridge Rating: 4 Sailor Moon Crystal  had quite a few hurdles to clear for its premiere this season. The first two seasons were part of a delayed, yet highly anticipated revisiting of a show that is nothing short of a cultural phenomenon among anime...

The Ace Attorney anime debuted in Japan over the weekend, but if you want to watch it shortly after it airs in the region, Crunchyroll has announced it will be airing it exclusively. The first episode of Ace Attorney is now available to watch on  Crunchyroll  for premium members, while free users can start enjoying the show starting on April 9th. New episodes will air every Saturday at 4am PT. The anime adaptation of Ace Attorney tells the beginning and early stories of the series. Fans of the games will be reintroduced to a number of fan-favorite characters, like Phoenix Wright, Miles Edgeworth, Maya Fey, and more. If you’re a fan of Ace Attorney, or enjoy the later games but never was able to check out the earlier titles, this would be a great opportunity to relive what made the first set of games such an enjoyable experience.

It was announced at the special event held at the Ryogoku Kokugikan Sumo Arena on April 3 that  a TV anime adaptation  of Reject's romance game for female,  Scared Rider Xechs , is in the works for a summer 2016 premiere in Japan. Its  official website  and  Twitter  have also opened, announcing its main staff. The game was initially released in Play Station 2 format from Red Entertainment in July 2010, then also released in Play Station Portable in April 2012 and in Play Station Vita in November 2015. The story centers on the 17-year-old female protagonist Akira Asagi, who is assigned as the commander at the Ryukyu LAG base to counter invasion of mysterious invaders called "Nightfly O'Note." She has to train the six male members of the Scared Rider Xechs unit, and gradually builds relationship with them. The TV anime is animated by Satelight ( Aqualion ,  Macross Delta ), and 36-year-old  Hideto Komori  is attached to direct. He recentl...

In the beginning, I really responded to episode 1 of Kumamiko: Girl Meets Bear .   The watercolor backgrounds are sweet and the premise sounded great: a shrine maiden, her talking bear, the countryside. I don’t read up on the backgrounds of anime before I watch them because I like to go into them blind and be surprised by what I find, so I expected an idyllic, calm slice-of-life anime along the lines of a  Studio Ghibli  production – something with whimsy and gentle fantasy.  Perhaps with episode 1 of  Kumamiko: Girl Meets Bear  , this was my first mistake. My expectation was fully borne out with the addition of some welcome humor… at first. I cackled when Machi went on and on listing the many, many reasons why her town sucks (“no asphalt” and “no one wants to develop the economy” among them). The bear, Natsu, has a great voice, equal parts paternally warm and whiny as a cranky salaryman. But my first inkling that this would get pedotastic real fast was the...

The  My Hero Academia  anime is instantly likable from the very start of episode 1. I watched episode 1 of  My Hero Academia  having never read the manga preceding it, but the anime doesn’t assume you have any knowledge of the wildly popular manga behind it. My Hero Academia  anime is from the folks at  Studio Bones , who are responsible for  Fullmetal Alchemist , Cowboy Bebop ,  and  Space Dandy , so I had high expectations going in. The premise of  My Hero Academia  is that almost everyone has superpowers. Note that keyword:  almost  . This means bratty little kindergarteners with superpowers can gang up on one brave, shy boy who shows no powers, aka Quirks. When this boy’s mother is told that her son has no Quirks, she sobs for his loss, but the kid - our protagonist, Izuku Midoriya, aka Deku - doesn’t give up on his dream of becoming a superhero. He fills notebooks with his studies of heroes and idolizes the Texas-size...

Endride  is one of those endless smartphone commercials masquerading as an anime that seem to be so common these days. This makes  Endride  a little hard to judge, even if this review is only a preview based off of episode 1. Should I be judging it using the same standard as original anime like  Erased?  Should I judge it as a video game adaptation like  Ace Attorney  , where it’s important to note how the source material relates to the text  ?  Because  Endride  is a smartphone tie-in, does that make the anime itself cheaper and more disposable? Where is the creative heart, if any: with the smartphone game or with the anime? Is it all just a cheap cash grab? But there’s plenty of original anime that I don’t actually like as much as I enjoyed  Endride episode 1, so I’ll judge  Endride  without deriding its smartphone game tie-in. After all, I recommended a look at the  underwhelming  Ace Attorney  anime...

Strap yourself in for a fresh volley of new streaming announcements at Crunchyroll News! The first off the line is  Cerberus , based on the popular card battle social game  Seisen Cerberus , which begins streaming today, April 4th at 11:15AM PST!  Cerberus  will be available to Crunchyroll members  worldwide excluding Asia. Cerberus  is the anime adaption of the popular card battle social game, Seisen Cerberus! The anime is directed by Nobuhiro Kondo and features animation production by Bridge. The story involves a sword & sorcery world where the delicate balance between three rival kingdoms is upset by the arrival of the evil dragon, Daganzord. Heero and a group of like-minded companions band together and embark on a quest to defeat the monster. About  Cerberus Sword and magic rule in the continent of Kuna'ahn. In this continent are three powerful nations: the Holy Kingdom of Amoria, the Kingdom of Ishilfen, and the Kingdom of Vanrodis, ...