20th Anniversary PlayStation 4 Unveiled

Sony unveiled a 20th anniversary special edition PlayStation 4 during the PlayStation Awards 2014 on Wednesday. Only 12,300 individually numbered units will be sold worldwide.

The special edition PS4 will retail for 49,800 yen (about US$416) and Sony Japan will be accepting applications for its lottery system until December 10. Pre-orders will begin in the United States and Canada on December 6, and the system will also be available at the PlayStation Experience this weekend in Las Vegas.

The special edition PS4's grey color is the same as the color of the original PlayStation, which first shipped in Japan on December 3, 1994. The system will come with similarly customized accessories, including a stand, DualShock 4 Wireless Controller, and PlayStation Camera.

Sony also began streaming an unboxing video and a trailer:

Evangelion Gets New Japanese Blu-ray, DVD Boxes

Blu-ray to have HD-remastered TV & video versions of 1995 anime, 1st Japanese home video release of original Death

Studio Khara announced on Monday that the 1995 television anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion (Shin Seiki Evangelion) will ship in Japan in new Blu-ray Disc and DVD sets next summer.

The HD-remastered Neon Genesis Evangelion Blu-ray box will contain all 26 episodes of the original television anime, as well as the video format version of episodes 21-24. The set will also contain the films Evangelion: Death & Rebirth (including the first Japanese home video release of this version of the Death portion), The End of Evangelion, as well as Revival of Evangelion (with Death (True) 2 and the two halves of The End of Evangelion).

The Archives of Evangelion DVD box will contain all 26 episodes of the television series in the anime's original broadcast version. This will be the first time this version of the series has been released on DVD in Japan. The set will also contain Evangelion: Death (True) & Rebirth, as it aired on television. (This will be the first Japanese home video release of this version of the Death (True) portion.)

The release date, price, and extra features will be announced at a later time.

The original Neon Genesis Evangelion anime broadcasted from 1995 to 1996. Since then, the series has spawned multiple films, including a series of new films beginning in 2007.

THREE ANIME NEWS OF THE WEEK

1. Project Itoh Film The Empire of Corpses Announced For 2015

Staff also announced for Harmony, Genocidal Organ

Fuji TV programming block noitamina announced during its "noitamina Announcement Conference 2015" that an anime adaptation of Project Itoh's Shisha no Teikoku (The Empire of Corpses) novel has been green-lit for a 2015 premiere. Ryoutarou Makihara will direct the film at WIT STUDIO (Attack on Titan, Hōzuki no Reitetsu).


The film was announced in a promotional video for the Project Itoh films:

In addition, the video announces the staff for the Harmony and Genocidal Organ films. The duo of Takashi Nakamura (Fantastic Children) and Michael Arias (Tekkonkinkreet) will direct Harmony at STUDIO 4℃ (Berserk: The Golden Age Arc I - The Egg of the King, Tweeny Witches), while Shukou Murase (Ergo Proxy, Witch Hunter Robin) will direct Genocidal Organ at manglobe (The Unlimited - Hyōbu Kyōsuke, House of Five Leaves). All three films announced will premiere sometime in 2015.

The story of The Empire of Corpses takes place in 19th century Europe, and revolves around John Watson. He is scouted by the government to become a secret agent- However, Watson lives in a world where "Frankensteins"- human corpses that are re-purposed with a false soul in order to use them as laborers- are used to improve industrial development.

Viz Media describes Harmony's story:

In the future, Utopia has finally been achieved thanks to medical nanotechnology and a powerful ethic of social welfare and mutual consideration. This perfect world isn't that perfect though, and three young girls stand up to totalitarian kindness and super-medicine by attempting suicide via starvation. It doesn't work, but one of the girls—Tuan Kirie—grows up to be a member of the World Health Organization. As a crisis threatens the harmony of the new world, Tuan rediscovers another member of her suicide pact, and together they must help save the planet...from itself.

The author's final novel, Harmony, debuted in Japan in 2008. Project Itoh wrote Harmony and the novel adaptation of Metal Gear Solid: Guns of the Patriots while he was being treated for the cancer that ultimately took his life in 2009.

Project Itoh released Genocidal Organ as his debut novel in 2007, and it is also inspiring an anime film next year. The Japanese film website Cinema Today reported in 2012 that film adaptation rights were being pitched in Hollywood.

Viz Media's Haikasoru imprint has published three of Itoh's full-length novels in English, excluding The Empire of Corpses.

2. Attack on Titan Team, Code Geass Writer Make Kōtetsujō no Kabaneri Anime

Wit Studio animates series for 2015
Fuji TV's Noitamina programming block announced Kōtetsujō no Kabaneri (Knocking on the Walls of the Armored Fortress), a new anime that will premiere next year. The project reunites director Tetsuro Araki and Wit Studio, the team responsible for Attack on Titan. Code Geass creator Ichiro Okouchi is writing the scripts.






3. Latest "Psycho-Pass" Movie Visual and Trailer

Plus a sample of f Ling Tosite Sigure theme "Who What Who What."

Following the 2015 , the latest trailer for the Psycho-Pass movie has gone online aling with a new visual and sample of Ling Tosite Sigure theme "Who What Who What." Working with  Makoto Fukami a, writer Gen Urobuchi will be returning for the featuring, opening JAnuary 19th. Naoyoshi Shiotani  is director with Katsuyuki Motohiro as chief director.


凛として時雨 『Who What Who What (fragment)』

Attack on Titan TV Anime Gets 2nd Season in 2016

A stage greeting event to celebrate the opening day of the Shingeki no Kyojin Zenpen ~Guren no Yumiya~ (Attack on Titan Part I: Crimson Bow and Arrow) film announced on Saturday that the television anime will get a second season in 2016. The event also announced that the second anime compilation film, Shingeki no Kyojin Kōhen ~Jiyū no Tsubasa~(Attack on Titan Part II: Wings of Freedom), will open on June 27, 2015.

The film and television anime's voice actors Yui Ishikawa(Mikasa), Yuuki Kaji (Eren), Marina Inoue (Armin) and director Tetsuro Araki (pictured from left to right) appeared at the event. The group cut a large cake featuring the Colossal Titan.

The first compilation film's midnight premiere screenings also ended on Saturday with the same announcements. The two films compile the 2013 television anime series based on Hajime Isayama's manga, and are named after Linked Horizon's popular opening themes for the television anime.

Both Funimation and Crunchyroll streamed the first season as it aired in Japan, and Funimation released the series on home video this year.

The main cast members for the live-action Attack on Titan films were unveiled in costume on Wednesday. Shinji Higuchi is directing two films that are slated to premiere in Japan next summer. With the supervision of Isayama, the story will be based on the world and characters of the manga, while incorporating new characters and new formidable enemies.

Update: More details and background information added.

UNDERRATED ANIME RECOMMENDATION: KAIJI

Plot:

Itou Kaiji is a bum who steals car emblems and slashes tires on what seems to be a regular basis. This routine changes one day when he is paid a visit by a man in a trench-coat. Once the two get talking, it seems that the visitor (Calling himself Endou) is a debt collector. The reason for his visit is an unpaid loan which Kaiji had previously co-signed for a work-mate (Furuhata Takeshi). The original loan was 300,000 yen and once Takeshi had disappeared, the loan then fell on Kaiji.

Kaiji is then told of a way to clear the interest compounded debt (which stood at 3,850,000 yen), which involved getting on a boat with others in his position. Once on the boat the debtors would then have to gamble with loaned money, which would end with a few winning, and others getting into deeper debt and having to work to pay of their debts. After some coercion Kaiji accepts a position on the boat, in order to clear his debt and make a bit of money as well...


Genre: Game, Psychological, Thriller, Seinen


Theme: Gambling, Survival Game, Yakuza


Episodes: 52(26 Episodes in Each Season)


Studio: Madhouse Studio

Similar Anime: Akagi, One Outs, Death Note


Watch it On: Kissanime