CEN.TAKU.ME

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Popular Articles of July-September 2007
2007-09-26 06:57:00
First off, I would like to give many thanks to those who have stopped by CEN.TAKU.ME since its launch in July . Starting off from my previous blogs, I didn't have many readers. Mainly readers who were passing by from the Blogger toolbar. Thanks to MyBlogLog, BlogTopList and Google, the is flourishing faster than I expected. :D With September coming to a close, I have searched around for the most viewed articles on CEN.TAKU.ME that new readers can catch up on. These stories are from July, August and September. No Karazhan for Me... After getting to Level 70 and finished the annunement for World of Warcraft's newest raid dungeon, I am unable to enter after getting the harsh news from the raid organizer. Top 5 Series for "Hardcore" Otaku I take a look at the most popular and argued about anime, with many mentions in anime magazines, forums, and myself. Gaia Online: The WoW of Anime Communities I review the awesome Online Role-Playing Anime RPG Community. Top 5 Anime Opening/Ending Th...
More About: Articles , Popular , September 2007

Blue Dragon Second Ending Music Video
2007-09-26 06:50:00
This is a music video of SS501's "Kokoro". The second ending theme to the Xbox360 game-turned-anime, Blue Dragon. SS501, a five-member boy band from South Korea, released their second Japanese single with this song. After listening to it, it became one of my favorites, next to Akira Toriyama-sensei's character styles! I wish I could watch the series, as it is licensed by Viz... :(
More About: Video , Music , Music Video , Anime

New Time Crisis 4 Information!
2007-09-26 00:14:00
Namco Bandai gave fans the latest information at TGS 2007 on the fourth installment of Time Crisis for the Playstation 3 . The PS3 version comes bundled with the GunCon 3. The third reincarnation of the first GunCon for the PSOne in 1995. The GunCon 3 is similar to the GunCon 2 (The orange color), although there are more controls on the left side of the gun, for character movement, reloading, etc.. It also resembles a bit like a machine gun. In the game, you're able to pick up machine guns and bullet proof vests. About the same in the previous TC games, but IGN makes it sound like it hasn't been there before... I guess it's special, since it's on the PS3. ;) The game is set for release in North America in late November, with a MSRP of $79.99. I have yet to own a PS3, but this is on my list of one of the first games to get when I buy one. Time Crisis is my first and favorite FPS. :)
More About: Information

Yakuza 3 Announced
2007-09-25 07:21:00
At the recently concluded Tokyo Game Show, Sega unveiled its newest game in the Yakuza franchise. Yakuza 3, or "Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan!" in Japan, takes place in a feudal-era Japan, 1605. It will be the first Yakuza game for the Playstation 3 . As for the other two Yakuza games, the first one was released for the PS2 in the US last September. The sequel is making its way to shores in 2008. The series combines the gameplay engine from Shemue and has a Grand Theft Auto theme to it - without the shooting of the strippers and such... I have yet to play the first Yakuza (Let's blame World of Warcraft for the console abandonment), and with the sequel arriving next year, this will give me time to play it. For those who haven't heard of the game, here is a trailer for the first Yakuza. If you're a big Shenmue fan, maybe this will fancy you. :)
More About: Anno

Master Negi Magi (Live Action "Negima") Trailer
2007-09-22 05:01:00
The trailer for the much talked about, Live Action "Negima!" drama, has surfaced, with an air date set for October 3rd, 2007. The drama follows the story from the anime and manga; Magician Negi Springfield goes to Japan to teach at an all-girls school. The role of Negi is played by a very young female actress. Although, I must admit that she potrays Negi really well - appearance wise (Cosplay, anyone?), I feel as though that it's odd having a girl playing a male teacher at an all girls' school, on a TV show - with a moé feel to it. Not only that, the whole atmosphere of the show is too much like the Harry Potter movies.
More About: Trailer , Anime , Live Action

U.S. Death Note News
2007-09-22 01:33:00
Death Note is getting ready for a very optimistic US debut. [adult swim] has announced on their message boards that Death Note is set to air on October 20th, 2007. This is confirmed after a mystery show was blacked out on their online schedule. As for the Death Note movies, many will get to see it in US theaters real soon. Viz Pictures has licensed the live action movie, including the sequel, "The Last Name". The movie is scheduled to air during the Austin Fantastic Fest 2007 in Austin, Texas. This is a very good start for Death Note in the US, especially (and ironically) before Halloween.
More About: News , Death

Review - Bleach: Memories of Nobody
2007-09-20 09:36:00
The Bleach : Memories of Nobody DVD went on sale in Japan September 5th after a year since its theatrical release. Meaning that it would not be long before we could see an "fan version" around the web. Just in time as I catch up to all 140 episodes of the anime, I got my hands a copy and sat through close to two hours to see what the "Strawberry Gang" was doing. WARNING: Spoliers ahead! The movie starts off with Ichigo and Rukia on the scene of a hollow attack, as always. Later they see a bunch of ghosts with red heads, then a girl with Shinigami/Soul Reaper attire shows up and gets rid of them. Kon, in Ichigo's body, sees a guy who looks really important - to the story, that is... Ichigo finds the same girl, Senna, later and keeps an eye on her, only to lose her when Rangiku and Toshiro shows up. They meet up back at Kisuke's place and explained the current situation. Later on, that evening, Ichigo finds Senna and treats her to dinner (Awww, how cute!). After dinner, Ichi-nii ...
More About: Anime , Review

Ameba Vision: The YouTube of Japan
2007-09-20 09:34:00
With the popularity of the social video site YouTube soaring, thanks to the "Chocolate Rain" and "LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!" videos, many similar sites are popping up everyday. One of these mock YouTube sites caters towards native Japan ese readers and speakers - or anyone who has passed the JLPT 1 test. Ameba Vision is very much like YouTube, in the Japanese sense. Many videos submitted to the site are worth watching, especially if you're studying the language. The content is similar to YouTube: User created and submitted, often ripped off of television, then later pulled by the site staff for copyright infringement. However, Ameba has a nice selection of rare opening and ending clips of Anime never before seen on the Internet or US Television and DVD. When searching for videos on Ameba, Japanese keywords have a better effect than English keywords. Typing in keywords such as " jpop" brings back only a few results. Adding the dash before "pop" helps, but the results aren't all that g...
More About: Youtube

Rest in Piece - WSVG
2007-09-17 05:09:00
For those who are looking to get into or follow the excitement that is the "World Series of Video Games", you're out of luck. The WSVG has been canceled. The upcoming meetings in North America and in Europe have also been called off. SlashDot Games " target="_blank">reports that the reason for the cancellation of the event is that the company who is responsible for WSVG wants to look into other business ventures. Participants who have won previous meetings will receive cash prizes after negotiations are finished. It's a shame that this happened so sudden, especially after a televised viewing on CBS. Sounds like to me that this is more of a financial problem than just an change of interest.
More About: Rest , Piece

What Not to Do When You're Unable to Attend a Convention
2007-09-15 02:50:00
While coping with a similar situation that I'm dealing with, I have thought over a few things that I have done when I couldn't attend an anime convention. In this post, I will talk about the effects of missing an anime (or sci-fi) convention, and what to do to recover from temporary depression. In the midst of the convention season, especially when a convention near where I live draws closer, I would watch videos of previous conventions, such as this one from Otakon 2007: I am not going to do this again. Why? Because it will just make things worse. Looking at videos of conventions with voice actors, panels, cosplayers, and shots of the dealer's room will add to the excitement of attending a convention. Looking at pictures will have the same effect as viewing videos. However, thankfully, it doesn't have the same impact. Many of the photos I see are in an attendant's hotel room playing around, playing trading card games, and often making their cosplay characters "out of char...
More About: Anime , Conventions , Convention , To Do

How Geek Are You?
2007-09-14 08:19:00
I found this interesting quiz that tells you how geeky you are. It takes about 5 minutes to complete. In the end, this was my result: 43% Geek Mingle2 - Free Online Dating Perhaps I should work on the part about computers...

Naruto: Path of the Ninja (aka Uketsugareshi Hi no Ishi)
2007-09-14 08:03:00
"Naruto : Path of the Ninja " for the Nintendo DS is a port of "Uketsugareshi Hi no Ishi" Naruto RPG for the Gameboy Advance. It is about time they have released this game. With the DS now the primary choice for a Nintendo handheld system over the GBA, I thought this game would not see the light of day. I found out that the game is available for Pre-Order on Amazon.com with a late-October street date. This is really fun to play. It's a turn-based RPG Naruto game. You won't see the side scrolling battles like you see in the "Ninja Council" games. The playable characters, to my knowledge, are Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura. There are several characters that can be unlocked during the game. The game starts off just like in the earlier episodes of the anime: the ones with Haku and Zabuza. You go through Kakashi's training and everything that occurs afterwards. Plus the music during the field battles are catchy. The music is the same as in the TV show, but it brings that Final Fantasy fe...
More About: The Ninja , Ares

C.T.M. News Brief [9/10/2007]
2007-09-10 14:33:00
The late edition; including a special musical guest! Happy September, readers! I apologize for my lateness. Usually I try to get the news briefs out every Wednesday, but things have been quite busy around the site. Allow me to explain... [New Categories] ...or "Tags" as people like to call them nowadays. Previously, I had way too many tags. This is because I originally had them on my old blogs, so I just copied and pasted them when I moved the articles. After some reading from several SEO blogs, I found out that having too many of them would burden (me) and my other guests. So I reorganized them in the appropriate categories. Now things will be easier! [Fresh URLs] For those who found my articles on RSS websites and received "not found" errors, you are getting them because I updated the URLs so it can have "to", "and", "or", etc. in them. I apologize for any inconvenience. [No More Trackbacks!] I disabled the trackbacks feature...for good. I have been getting so much trackback spam...
More About: News , Brief

Anime at Large: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
2007-09-09 07:36:00
"Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann", from the studio who brought us Evangelion and FLCL (Gainax), is currently the hottest anime in Japan - and in the USA as soon as the R1 DVD is released by ADV films. There are over 18 episodes in Japan and it wasn't long before it was acquired for US release (after 10 episodes). Gurren Lagann is about a boy who lives underground and works for a living digging holes, until he finds an important looking relic that will change his life forever... I have not seen many episodes to know what is really going on. With the show being licensed, it is hard to find older episodes. The only alternative is to look on one those -Tube websites, provided the episodes are still there.
More About: Anime , Large

Anime at Large: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagaan
2007-09-09 07:36:00
"Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagaan ", from the studio who brought us Evangelion and FLCL (Gainax), is currently the hottest anime in Japan - and in the USA as soon as the R1 DVD is released by ADV films. There are over 18 episodes in Japan and it wasn't long before it was acquired for US release (after 10 episodes). Gurren Lagaan is about a boy who lives underground and works for a living digging holes, until he finds an important looking relic that will change his life forever... I have not seen many episodes to know what is really going on. With the show being licensed, it is hard to find older episodes. The only alternative is to look on one those -Tube websites, provided the episodes are still there.
More About: Anime , Large

No Karazhan for Me...
2007-09-07 08:29:00
After finally getting attuned to the popular raid instance, I get turned down at the door... I attempted to run Kara zhan with a guild who does it every week. After an "interview" with the raid coordinator, he said that with my 350+ spell damage (yeah, that's low), I could get better gear from normal, (non) heroic instances. However, I could get still enter KZ if there were no "key raiders" online. I waited for 45 minutes outside Karazhan in the heavily contested Deadwind Pass. I got fed up with waiting, so I logged off for a few hours, only to return to find that they were still running it. I asked the raid coordinator if there is still a chance for me to finish it with them. As luck would have it, they were near the last boss. I still had a chance to get in the raid. I waited, and waited, and waited - until they announced the final drops in guild chat. It was all over. I was a bit disappointed, especially since they chose someone with better gear and similar stats than me. To be...
More About: World of Warcraft

Elites, No Thanks
2007-09-05 14:34:00
I used to be in this Linkshell, which will remain nameless, but it had a white Linkpearl that was recognized through some parts of Vana'diel. It was a Linkshell for helping other people out, but to me (and an Elvaan player), it was just about becoming an elite player. The way every talked in the Linkshell seems kind of weird. They would say something like "lool, I'm gonna be level 75!1!." Well, not like that, but it really bugged me. I hesitated to ask for help from them, so I always went to TheTrueAlliance or waited until someone else shouted for the same thing I needed. It was a month before I suddenly disappeared from Vana'diel when a new Elvaan member joined the LS. He happened to be right in front of me when I was hanging around Lower Jeuno. After some conversation with the sack holder and the regulars, the Elvaan said "Thanks for letting me join your LS, but I think it's time to move on. Take care." I think that was kind of rude, but after a while I realize why he left: He...
More About: Hank

English Death Note Voice Cast Announced
2007-09-05 05:40:00
Finally, after several months of speculation since the shows accusations, the English voice cast for Death Note has finally been announced. I must say I'm very disappointed...As Ocean Group is in charge of the dubbing. The person who is known for the voice of Gundam Wing's Quatre will do the voice of Light Yagami. As for L, I'm afraid that I do not know any of his work as I have never heard of him before. Everyone else, but a few other actors from the Gundam Wing days, are new - to me. Well, I can't say for sure if the dub will flop. I'm a dub supporter, not like those who take one look at the cast list and loses all hope. I will check out the first episode of the dub. I was expecting Edward Elric's English voice actor as L. He would have been perfect! The Ocean Group...makes some dubs (like a certain martial arts anime that we all know and love, for 12 years) sound like early 90s cartoon shows.
More About: Voice , Cast

UPDATE: Live Action DBZ Movie in Production After All?
2007-09-04 12:16:00
According to the Montreal Gazette, the Live Action Dragonball Z movie will go into production very soon. The estimated budget for the film is $100 Million...That's not enough money for a film that is likely to bust due to the series' "complexity". Not only that, but how are they going to do the hair? Who is going to play Vegeta?! :O UPDATE: Fox acknowledges the movie, but no filming date or location has been set at the moment. That's a close one.
More About: Movie , Live Action , Update

Live Action DBZ Movie in Production After All?
2007-09-04 12:16:00
According to the Montreal Gazette, the Live Action Dragonball Z movie will go into production very soon. The estimated budget for the film is $100 Million...That's not enough money for a film that is likely to bust due to the series' "complexity". Not only that, but how are they going to do the hair? Who is going to play Vegeta?! :O
More About: Movie , Live Action , Production

Gaia Online: The WoW of Anime Communities
2007-09-04 09:17:00
People who are into big online communities and anime should know about Gaia Online , The first online RPG community with anime elements. For those who don't know what Gaia is about, read this and maybe you will take a look into it. 8-) On Gaia Online , you can do whatever you want to do (provided you follow their ToS), and pretend you're playing World of Warcraft - Without the weapons and PvP! Now, this isn't a replacement for the top tier MMORPGs out there, unless you have a computer that is 3 years out of date with a low-grade video card, and still have a dial-up connection, Gaia is a good place to get to know fellow anime fans. The main objective of Gaia Online is to browse around the site and post on the forums to collect gold to dress up your avatar - just like in any other MMOG. There are no benefits to wearing the clothes, but it will make you stand out from the naked avatars (or noobs). Gaia Online has guilds for users to join to show off their love for an anime series ...
More About: Anime , Communities , Unit

Top 5 Series for "Hardcore" Otaku
2007-08-31 08:40:00
Holy cow! It's been about a week since I've made an entry that wasn't about WoW. I have made a list of top 5 anime that is "Otaku friendly". As in anime that is worthy of being defended by losers with nothing better to do than flame others on internet message boards for disliking it. Without further ado, here is the Top 5 Serie s for Hardcore (or shall I say, "Haddo-kore") Otaku. A word of warning: If you find this post offensive, then stop reading it and go find something to do other than beating up other fans. ;) 1. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya For those who have not watched the series, MoHS is about a very bossy girl, Haruhi, who "gathers" key members to her recently established "SOS Brigade" school club. The first episode starts off with a poorly made home video, who Haruhi directs for the club. The episode is funny, but it doesn't make sense. The second episode introduces the cast of MoHS, which should have been the first episode.... Haruhi Suzumiya is on the top of t...
More About: Erie

C.T.M. News Brief [8/29/2007]
2007-08-30 06:28:00
500 Visitors, Spamming and Comment Policy. Go clicky fast! It's Wednesday! It's time for another news brief. This week, there is much to discuss what has been going on since last week. [500 Visitors!] Thank you, thank you, thank you! 500 hits is a surprise for a blog carrying over visitors from my old blogs and new ones from search engines. Here's to another 500 in the coming months! [No Spamming, Please!] Lately the site has been getting comment and trackback spam. Stop doing this, guys! Who wants to buy Viagra with a commercial ruining a perfectly good Elvis tune? [New Comment Policy] In addition to the spam attacks, I have created a commenting policy. Be sure to read it! ;) [New Columns!] There are new columns on CEN.TAKU.ME: "Watch Once, Know Once, and "Broken Figures". "Watch Once, Know Once" is a column on anime that was deeply praised by the fan until the storyline or character messed it up, never looking back on it ever again. The only featured post is my "review" on Gun...
More About: News , Brief

Japanese and Korean Music You Should Hear
2007-08-29 14:43:00
Tired of listening to Utada Hikaru and BoA? Gackt or Seo Tai-ji? Make room on your iPod for Japanese and Kore an indie MP3s! For Japanese indie music, check out Muzie (Japanese Only). If you know a little Japanese or can read past the Engrish text, they have a featured artist page. One of my favorite artists that was featured on Muzie in 2005 is dance-pop artist vin-PRAD. Her best songs include "Not The Only One" and "Believe In You". Next, for Korean indie music, visit MILLIM (Korean Only). Navigating the site is a bit tricky for me as I'm learning Hangul, but check out House artist merefox. One of my favorite songs by him is "Faked Motion". He has a few more, but the names are a bit hazy as "Faked Motion" sits in my "25 Most Played" playlist. I'm also interested in Chinese indie music sites, but I have no knowledge of Mandarin at the moment. Both of these sites are worth checking out - provided you understand the languages or have a hunch of what the pages are. Your MP3 player...
More About: Music , Hear

Keeping Track of Your Favorite Anime!
2007-08-29 12:39:00
Have you ever wanted to keep track of every anime you've watched in your entire life? There is a website just for that! MyAnime List is a site to share your list of anime you watched with others. They have a community for fellow otaku to post their ramblings of their favorite anime and then some. Not only can you keep track of anime, you can keep track of manga! I have a growing list of anime I have viewed, and a manga list that I'm working on. There's much more to check out on the site, so go take a look!
More About: Track , Favorite , Trac , Favor

The World Crashes Down On Me (WoW Server Problems)
2007-08-28 08:54:00
So, Stormreaver is not alone. In the past few days, the World of Warcraft's North American servers have crashed due to an exploit that causes all realms to be interrupted. Tichondrius realm has crashed approximately 10 times yesterday. Players, including raiders, are upset and are waiting for official word from Blizzard about this situation. Rolling restarts are scheduled for 5 AM US PDT tonight, but it is uncertain that it will rectify the exploit.
More About: Problems , The World , Server , Crashes

No Avail, No Service
2007-08-28 07:53:00
It was a year and a half ago when I went into an EBGames (now a Gamestop) and found a copy of Gran Turismo 4--used. It was $14.99. I said, great, I'll save $5, and It's in perfect condition! After getting home and trying out the game, I wished I paid the extra $5. Why? Well, I'm sure you've been through this before. After inserting the game disc in the system, I get an disc read error. There were no scratches on the DVD. I did wipe it off gently with liquid that I have always used on my other game discs [and they still play alright]. To make sure it wasn't the Playstation 2 that happened to kick the bucket right then, I inserted other games I had near by. They played on the system with no problem. I was disappointed and returned it to the store the next day. I returned the to the EBGames I brought the game from. I went up to the cashier, who looked like she had played only one game in her life. I didn't see a gamer face. She didn't look like she was into anime or similar nic...
More About: Service

YES, [The Master's Key]!!
2007-08-26 12:25:00
I'm ready and willing for Karazhan now, thanks to a group consisting of three warlocks, a priest and a warrior.We wiped once, but it was all good. I didn't get an drops, but it was an excellent BM run.
More About: Mast , Aster

Get DirecTV, Get Free WoW
2007-08-26 12:24:00
So, Blizzard hooks up with Dire cTV to snatch up new WoW players...From the Blizzard website:We?ve partnered with DIRECTV to offer a great value to World of Warcraft players and new DIRECTV customers. Between now and November 30, 2007, players who sign up for DIRECTV will receive 11 months of World of Warcraft FREE! New DIRECTV customers who aren?t already World of Warcraft subscribers will also receive a free copy of the World of Warcraft game client.So, people will get eleven months of World of Warcraft just for signing up for satellite service with nothing but 2,324 channels dedicated to non-stop sports coverage? Good luck.
More About: Free , Directv , Rect

Naruto Movie to Premier on Cartoon Network
2007-08-26 05:06:00
The first Naruto movie, "Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow", will premier on Cartoon Network on September 8th at 7 PM ET. Naruto and the Squad 7 gang is on a mission to protect a popular actress from danger. However, she has an mysterious past... I have only seen 30 minutes of the movie - the subbed version. Not finishing the movie was not because it was a non-canon filler movie, it's the whole series altogether. After watching 61 episodes, I do not want to abandon this show. It's has a terrible fanbase, but the action and the characters are interesting, especially Kakashi!
More About: Movie , Cartoon Network