Japan Offering Free Airfare to 10,000 Foreigners

After the recent earthquake and nuclear accident, Japan's tourism has drastically decreased. In order to help show that Japan is safe to visit The Japanese Ministry of Tourism will be offering to pay round trip airfare for 10,000 foreigners wishing to visit Japan in 2012. In return they hope these visitors will blog, and use other social media to tell what a wonderful time they had while in Japan. Applications will be taken online and people interested in applying should keep an eye on the Japanese Tourism Board website. Anyone planning a trip to Japan in 2012?

News from Culture Japan

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Don't Preorder From Best Buy

This is a warning for anyone considering ordering, or in my case preordering, anything from BestBuy.com for in store delivery. The follow situation has happened to me twice in the past year when using BestBuy.com in store delivery. The most recent happened today and involves a video game called Dark Souls. If you preordered Dark Souls you were supposed to receive the Collector's Edition (pictured above). I wanted the Collectors Edition so I preorderd over a month ago. The game came out today so I headed over to the local Best Buy after work. The game they gave me was the regular edition. I questioned them about it, and they informed me they only received one copy of the Collectors Edition (my copy) and had sold it early today. I was told the collectors edition had been under ordered, and they had several people coming in looking for it today. I doubt any of the people coming in asking for it had actually preordered it. Of coarse when I called their customer care line to lodge my complaint, I was informed that when you order something online for in store pick up it arrives at the store clearly marked with your name on it and is to be held for you. Odds are an employee saw it and bought it for his or herself thinking no one would notice if they just put the regular version of the game behind the pick up counter.

Preorder receipt from BestBuy.com

And as I said this is not the first time this has happened. I pre-ordered Valkyria Chronicles 2 last year for in store pickup. Guess what. When I arrived to pick up the game it was no where to be found. They said they only received a single copy of the game (again my copy), and that it must of got put on the shelf and sold. So a word of advice, do not use Best Buy's in store pick up. Save yourself some hassle and pay the extra money to have it shipped to your house. Or better yet, buy it some place else. Now the only way I can get the Collectors Edition Dark Souls it to pay a hundred dollars or more on Ebay.

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Live Action Ranma 1/2

Japan's NTV network will be airing a 2 hour long live action adaptation of Rumiko Takahashi's Ranma 1/2 this December. The special will feature Kento Kaku (Paradise Kiss, Gokusen) as Male Ranma Saotome, and Natsuna (Gantz) as Female Ranma Saotome.

And here's a brief synopsis of the story for those of you who might now know what I mean by Male and Female Ranma Saotome. During martial arts training in China, Ranma fell into the Spring of Drowned Girl. The spring was cursed so that who ever fell into it would take on the appearance of a girl when splashed with cold water. Hot water reverses the effect. This leads to several hilarious situations between Ranma and his friends and causes him to be the center of affection for several characters in the series, both male and female.

I hope the show is good. And if it is that someone licenses it for US release.



News from Anime News Network
Image from Deeds and Musings


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DC Universe Online Goes Free to Play

Starting in October DC Universe Online will be free to play for both PC and PS3 players. However, like any free to play MMO there will be certain parts of the game requiring a purchase. Sony is adopting a membership tier setup similar to Dungeons and Dragons Online. That being there will be 3 tiers consisting of Free, Premium, and Legendary. The tiers breakdown as follows

Free: New players will now have access to the current gameplay in DC Universe Online (including Gotham City, Metropolis, and all current raids and alerts), with the ability to create two characters, join a league and many other benefits. Free level players will be able to purchase downloadable game packs/updates, additional character slots, powers and more through microtransactions.

Premium: Any player who has spent at least $5 USD (including former paid subscribers and new players who have purchased $5 of in-game items) will qualify for the Premium access level. Premium level players will have more benefits available to them than the Free level player, including additional character slots, additional inventory slots, and higher cash limits. Downloadable adventure packs, additional character slots, and more can be purchased in-game.

Legendary: Maximum features and benefits are included at this level. Loaded with enhanced additional features, Legendary access will be available for a $14.99 USD monthly fee and includes all DLC packs at no cost, more than 15 character slots, more than 80 inventory slots, the ability to form unrestricted-sized leagues, and many other benefits.

I'll probably be trying the game out once it switches over. Anyone else planning to check it out?

News from G4's The Feed

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New Books and Used Games

 Picked up some new books this month. Finally got around to getting The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. I had ordered it back in February at Books A Million, but wasn't able to go pick it up due to a broken ankle. I've got The Rampage of Haruhi Suzumiya ordered. It should be here next week. While at Books A Million I also picked up Dungeons and Dragons: Forgotten Realms Classics, which collects Issues 1-8 of the DC comics from 1989. And let's not forget Higurashi: Eye Opening Arc volumes 1 and 2.

Decided to stop by the local comic book store. Hadn't been there in years since I've been more into reading manga than comics. I went because a friend had told the new IDW Dungeons and Dragons comic was pretty good and I wanted to check it out. While I was there I got Red Sonja issue 2, Transformers issue 25, and Dungeons and Dragons issue 10.

Gamestop was running a Buy 2 Get 2 Free sale on used Playstation 2 games. I've wanted to pick up the Fatal Frame series for a long time, but wasn't to keen on paying 30 bucks a piece on them. But with the sale I could buy 2 of them and get the 3rd + another game free. Got Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne as my extra game. And was also able to find a copy of Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days. That's all for now.

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Disgaea 4 Premium Edition

My Disgaea 4 Premium Edition came in the mail yesterday from the NIS America Store. It comes with the Limited Edition version of the game,  and the "Complete" 9 figure Disgaea 4 figure set. I say "Complete", but more on that later.

More after the jump....

The limited edition of the game includes a Fuka figure, and art book. The artbook has art for the main characters, the various unit classes, and monsters. It also contains some comments from the voice actors for the each of the main characters. I like the background for Fuka. She was supposed to be a Prinny, but they ran out of Prinny skin. All she got was a Prinny hat. She's also convinced she isn't dead and this is all a dream.

The figures come packaged like Trading Figures. But the website advertised as "Complete Disgaea 4 Nine Figure Set ($72 value)" That makes one assume you will receive all 9 unique figures. Add in the Fuka figure that comes with the limited edition of the game and there should be 10 unique figures.

If you look you may notice there are only 9 figures pictured above. That's because my set is missing the Fallen Angel Flonne figure. Instead I got an extra Final Boss Nominee Desco (figure in top right next to the Prinny, and behind Archangel Flonne). I've not seen anyone else mention this problem, and the few other blogs and Youtube unboxing videos I've found showing off the Premium set have all had the complete figure set. 

Because of this I am assuming my receiving 2 Desco figures is a mistake, and have emailed NIS America. And before anyone says, "But, the package says Trading Figures, so they are probably randomly inserted." That is not what was advertised. What was advertised is a complete set of 9 figures. Not 9 randomly inserted figures. Plus so far I seem to be the only one in this situation. Anyone else not get the complete set? 

Other than the missing figure the set is very nice. The figures and bases are magnetized so the figures mostly stay standing. Prinny due to his size and tiny legs does tend to fall over if the base is bumped. Also the individual bases connect together as you see in the picture above. I'll get some individual pics of each figure up soon. And will post when I hear back from NIS America on my missing figure.

UPDATE: I got a reply back from NISA and they said they will mail me the figure I'm missing. Now I just have to wait for it to get here. Thanks NISA for taking care of this.

Feel free to comment.

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MangaGamer and J-List Join Forces

English Visual Novel producer, Manga Gamer, has partnered with J-list to offer packaged versions of some of their titles. Manga Gamer started in 2008 as a download only producer of English translated visual novels. Earlier this year they released their first retail box, with the Da Capo Limited Edition. On July 19th, 2011, J-List announced it had partnered with Manga Gamer to release more titles as packaged games. The first five games currently available from this partnership are:

Da Capo 2 Limited Edition (18+)
Guilty The_SiN (18+)
Higurashi When They Cry (All Ages)
Higurashi When They Cry Kai (All Ages)
Kira Kira (All Ages)

This is great news for people who prefer to own an actual box and DVD (like myself). And hopefully this will get more exposure for Manga Gamer so they can continue translating new titles to English.


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