Capcom Announce Arcade game based on Attack on Titan

It is officially announced at Japan Amusement Expo 2015 (JAEPO 2015) today on February 13th (definately not a lucky day for us gamers and anime fans) that Japanese game company Capcom (Street Fighter, Biohazard/Resident Evil) is now developing an arcade game based on Attack on Titan. The details of the project will be revealed in this summer. In the end of the announcement video, there was a phrase "Sacrifice Your Heart."

In December 2013, Spike Chunsoft released a Nintendo 3DS game on Hajime Isayama's mega hit manga series "Shingeki no Kyojin: Jinrui Saigo no Tsubasa" (Attack on Titan: The Last Wings of Mankind), and several social games based on the franchise have been available in Japan.

For people new to anime 'Attack on Titan' (Shingeki no Kyojin)n it is a manga following human survivors barricaded behind many walls to escape the hunger of the Titans who want to feat on their flesh. People can be infected and become titans too. SO it is a slow paced anticipation of the soldiers trying to defeat them and the realisation that they perhaps can not and losing comrades all over the place.

Watch my interview with Wit Studio:

London MCM Expo 2013: The Highs and Lows

Tara Platt, Yuri Lowenthall voice actors XD

(Originally this article was written for Anime Picks.)London MCM Expo 2013 really out did themselves as an expo for providing great anime guests this year including:

• Wit Studio (Attack on Titan, Hal)
• Ryo Mito (Saint Seiya Brave Soldiers)
• Kunio Hashimoto (Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z)
• Hideo Baba (Tales of Symphonia Chronicles, Tales of Xillia 2)
• Hiroshi Matsuyama (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle)
• Troy Baker (Voice actor, Joker, Bioshock, Last of us, Trinity Blood, Tekken, Tales of Vesperia)
• Richard Craig Smith (Voice actor, Bruce Wayne, Assasin’s Creed, Tekken, Tales of Vesperia)
• Yuri Lowenthall ( Voice actor, Naruto, Obscure)
• Tara Platt (Voice actor, Tekken, Naruto, Obscure)
• Ellyn Stern ( Bleach, Patlobar, Ghost in the Shell)
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One of the main highlights of the convention was the attendance of the creators of Attack on Titan, Wit Studio. We managed to get hold of the very busy guys to talk to them about the series, some changes, the music and their new anime Hal. Listen/watch our inteview with Wit Studio here.

Wit Studio

As much as everyone is willing to queue hours to meet their idols, it didn’t end well for everyone sadly. Unless you followed specific people on Twitter, aka Yuri and Tara who posted their signing schedules for everyone to come see them. It became a mission to find the stall to queue, or if you needed to get a wristband and timings. This is something companies need to liaise with MCM about so that MCM have a schedule to release to customers. These changes need to be made known before or on the day. We had many reports coming in of attendees missing their chance to meet certain guests including Wit Studio. The chances of this Japanese team returning is unpredictable.

My highlight was participating in the League of Legends UK cosplay meet, it was an experience I enjoyed through finding the ‘Fringe’ section on the London MCM Expo 2013 site. This page is a must for cosplayers, it has a list of all cosplay meets on all three days with locations, times and even links to Facebook groups. Especially since we have so many cosplayers attending the Eurocosplay awards that we need somewhere universal for people to connect through. Then the official Konami Cosplay competition where Konami sought out cosplayers to cosplay as Konami characters. A lot of Snakes surfaced with a Raiden, Female Dracula and myself as a retro character, Viki from Suikoden.

Check out the great photos taken by the Konami Uk team photographer Ace: http://www.konami.co.uk/mcm-expo-gallery-day-1

The lows were seeing the poor organisation of staff. Sadly there were reports of bad behaviour towards people in wheelchairs, no facilities or allowances were made to make them comfortable. Being in crutches and fighting my way through thick crowds of cosplayers, I can relate. Luckily the attendees were polite and understanding but looking at the MCM group from the amount of complaints shows the lack of training with London MCM Expo 2013 staff/volunteers.

Yugioh life size playing board

What added further insult to injury was if you were at the wrong place at the wrong time, dockland staff were confiscating cosplay weapons. With no justification cosplay weapons or props were taken away and destroyed. This is alarming, as London MCM Expo is known for cosplay, and staff around the area should come to recognise this. However precious works of art and hard labour were taken away and destroyed un rightfully. Please comment us with any updates on this controversial issues.

Our favourite stalls this time round include:

Good Smile Company

Founded May 1st 2001, Good Smile Company is a Japanese manufacturer of hobby products such as the Nendoroid and figma product lines. In addition to production and manufacturing, its business includes design, marketing and distribution. They have come back to the UK after two years as unsure of their popularity, this time around I personally made sure they knew how popular their products are. Releasing a new line of Attack of Titan figmas and an exclusive Europen Sakura Miku.

Watch our Interview with Mr O about GSC and figuring out a fake here..

Pixiebunny.com

Launched by fashion icon and lolita Pixie late who has sold various products in the past but know has her own Pixie Couture line. The many facets of Tokyo street fashion have influenced her shop’s cute, fun and unique aesthetics. Pixie believes that style is a combination of makeup, hair, clothes and accessories, which is why Pixie Bunny strives to be your one stop shop for the hottest kawaii looks and trends. Pixie Couture sprinkles a bit of magic and fairy dust to whoever wears it. The debut line focuses on the preppy cute look of Japanese school uniform (seifuku) and plaid patterns because she adores that look. The shop currently stocks quality Japanese cosmetics, fashion accessories as well as one of a kind hand crafted fashion goods but there will loads more to come!

Facebook: facebook.com/PixieBunnyShop

Sheep hand warmer from Kekiko!

Kekiko.com

Kekiko’s founder also has a passion for pandas like Anime Picks. She sells cute stationary and fashion items, one of the popular ones being the car ear clips, light and real for kids and adults to enjoy for casual day or cosplay. The online store should be up and running by the end of November, you can visit it at: www.kekiko.com. The headgear were the top sellers at the Kekiko stall, these included the kitty and bunny ears, the tokidoki snapbacks and the bunny ear beanie hats. Everyone loved them and thought they went well with almost any outfit. Pandas are Amy’s all time favourite animal. They are cute, huggable and just adorable fluffy creatures. This is why she chose to have them as her mascots.

Watch our compilation video here.

London Film and Comic Con 2013: Top Picks

The event was originally covered for animepicks.co.uk/events which is alas no more.

Veronica Tyalor doing a Q&A

London Film and Comic Con has come round twice already this year, and is one of the smaller cons by Showmasters which specialise in television and movie stars, where you come and buy autographs and have chances to get photographs with your favourite celebrity, whether it be sci-fi, or anime.

Jokes cosplay skits, Thor is not impressed

This year the calling of cosplay was immense. Compared to past years where you wouldn’t even have enough people participating in the Cosplay Masqerade. This time round you had cosplay guests situated in the middle of the convention in a square selling prints available for photographs. The cosplay masquerade was so popular, the queue of audience left the stage and you had to arrive early to see any of it.

Me interviewing Veronica Taylor

The ultimate highlight was watching Veronica Taylor’s Q&A and being able to find out what it was like being the voice of everyone’s childhood hero Ash Ketchum from Pokemon. Watch my interview here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3nqDJr3Ly8E

 Aisha’s top stalls:

Bad n Crazy

A range of merchandise with unique and quirky cartoon characters, a few resemble Mr T, Hell boy, Cinderella and even a zombie spongebob. Pick which ever design you want for t shirts, phone cases, mugs, bags, iPod covers. Find them here: badncrazy.co.uk



Canime

This stall specialises in anime and game art canvases, from commission art to the stall owners favourites, these three guys have sourced some of the best Ghibli and Cowboy Bebop art around to make great exclusive artistic sets of canvases varying from £20 a canvas depending on size. Find them here: canime.co.uk

Jed Phoenix

A fashion brand giving us Japanese inspired elegance to our everyday attire. What I love the most about Jed’s range is it varies from casual to office smart! Military outfits with a twist to passion for pinstripe for men and women. Find them here: jedphoenix.com

Iconic Legion

Iconic Legion

Lastly but not at all least a company that is brilliant for what they stand for Iconic Legion are a group of amazing quality cosplayers who attend events and conventions for charity. They pose for photos for small donations to collect money for different charities. for LFCC they were collecting for the dog trust, you can contact them and ask them to attend functions with a charity in mind or join them as crew or cosplayers here: iconic-legion.co.uk

View our montage of the entire event here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2stctk5nkSc