Welcome to the first of three trailer posts for this week
This is another busy week but not as busy as last week. I’m about midway through Project X Zone and looking to complete it in the first half of November.
This is a tactical RPG where players move teams of sprite-based characters around 3D environments to engage enemy forces. Once engaged, colourful anime artwork lights up the screen as players input fight moves. The name of the game is to cause as much damage through juggling enemies with punches, kicks etc. and working with other characters to keep enemies staggered in the air and taking massive damage and all that damage feeds into a specials counter that allows the player to pull off even more moves. The flamboyant animation plays into this mechanic through demanding pattern/rhythm recognition to keep the fights going and by keeping things hype.
I was initially unimpressed by the gameplay – imagine the combo system of Xenogears and the simple tapping to start and mix combos – but got into the rhythm aspect and enjoyed the way that it mashed up various franchises into one package.
Yes, the story is very anime with funnily-named organisations and characters running around causing universe-melding calamities but being able to see heroes from Resident Evil, Dark Stalkers, Valkyria Chronicles, and Tron Bonne work together and throw in one-liners mid battle is fun. I’ll try and get the second game in the series completed by the end of November so I can play Legend of Legacy.
Anyway, what are the first set of trailers for this week?
Kitarou Tanjou Gegege no Nazo 
鬼太郎誕生 ゲゲゲの謎 「Hi no Tori Eden no Hana」
Release Date: November 07th, 2023
Duration: 104 mins
Director: Gou Koga
Writer: Hiroyuki Yoshino (Screenplay), Shigeru Mizuki (Original Creator),
Starring: Miyuki Sawashiro (Kitaro), Akira Ishida (Kenji Nagata), Atsumi Tanezaki) Sayo), Rie Kugimiya (Kanoko Nagata),
Animation Production: Studio 4C
Synopsis: A new feature-length animation based on Gegege no Kitaro has been made to commemorate the 100th anniversary of manga artist Shigeru Mizuki’s birth. It is based on the sixth season of the “Gegege no Kitaro” animated television series that aired from 2018-20 and tells the series’ origin story which involves Kitaro’s father and Kitaro’s birth, all of which happens amidst the power struggle of a wealthy family in a village.
Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny Special Edition Final The Cost of Freedom HD Remaster 
機動戦士ガンダムSEED DESTINY スペシャルエディション 自由の代償 「Kidou Senshi Gundam Seed Supesharu Edishon Kanketsu-hen: Jiyuu no Daishou HD Rimasuta-」
Release Date: First Broadcast in 2006
Duration: 93 mins
Director: Mitsuo Fukuda
Writer: Chiaki Morosawa (Series Composition),
Starring: Akira Ishida (Athrun Zala), Souichiro Hoshi (Kira Yamato), Rie Tanaka (Lacus Clyne, Meer Campbell), Kotono Mitsuishi (Murrue Ramius),
Animation Production: Sunrise,
This is the fourth of four movies that are HD remasters of TV movies that were compiled from Kidou Senshi Gundam SEED Destiny series that was first broadcast in 2004. Said TV movies were screened in 2006. This movie consists of episodes 29 to 42 out of 50 episodes.
With that out of the way, what was different from the TV movies and the series? A shift in perspective, telling the story from the POV of side characters so that the story is more neutral. Also new scenes and tweaks to animation and dub.
The four films go under the titles:
1. The Broken World (Kudakareta Sekai)
2. Respective Swords (Sorezore no Ken)
3. The Hell Fire of Destiny (Sadame no Goka)
4. The Cost of Freedom (Jiyuu no Daishou)
They will open on October 06th, October 20th, November 03rd, and November 17th, respectively
They run ahead of the Mobile Suit Gundam Seed FREEDOM film project which will open in Japan on January 26, 2024.
Synopsis: The crew of the Archangel join forces with the battleship Eternal to stop Durandal’s Destiny Plan.
In Love and Deep Water 
クレイジークルーズ 「Kureiji- Kuru-zu」
Release Date: November 16th, 2023
Duration: 125 mins.
Director: Yusuke Taki
Writer: Yuji Sakamoto (Screenplay),
Starring: Ryo Yoshizawa, Aoi Miyazaki, Yo Yoshida, Rinko Kikuchi, Yuki Ikumisawa, Kento Nagayama, Amane Okayama, Nahana, Ken Mitsuishi,
Synopsis: Aoi Miyazaki returns to the screen as a passenger on a luxury cruise ship where she meets a butler named Yu Ubukata and gets involved in solving dicey situations on the high seas during a 42-day voyage from Yokohama to the Aegean Sea.
Copo A Copo 
コーポ・ア・コーポ 「Ko-po A Ko-po」
Release Date: November 17th, 2023
Duration: 97 mins.
Director: Masaaki Jindo
Writer: Kazuhiko Kondo (Screenplay), Renji Iwanami (Original Story),
Starring: Fumika Baba, Masahiro Higashide, Yuki Kura, Reiko Kataoka, Takashi Sasano, Yui Kitamura,
Synopsis: Yuri Tatsumi is one of a number of residents at a cheap apartment complex in downtown Osaka. She has fled her family and wound up in the arms of a bunch of misfits, each of whom seems like a wheeler dealer and a schemer or just plain awkward. When a fellow resident commits suicide, those remaining begin to contemplate their lives.
Out 
アウト 「Auto」
Release Date: November 17th, 2023
Duration: 129 mins.
Director: Hiroshi Shinagawa
Writer: Hiroshi Shinagawa (Screenplay), Tatsuya Iguchi, Makoto Mizuta (Original Story),
Starring: Kotaro Daigo, Yuki Koda, Ryutaro Yamasaki, Shin Koyanagi, Sukai Kinji,
Synopsis: Tatsuya Iguchi was the leader of a motorcycle gang in Tokyo but got sent to Juvie. Upon his release, he moves in with his aunt in neighbouring Chiba prefecture and works at her restaurant. The rules for his release insist that he avoid getting into fights but that proves hard to do as everyone he meets seems to be part of a biker gang. As he tries to go on the straight and narrow, he befriends some of these people…
SUNRISE TO SUNSET 
Release Date: November 17th, 2023
Duration: 145 mins.
Director: Show Mogi, Daishin Suzuki
Writer: N/A
Starring: K, Pablo, Tsuyoshi, Zax, Jin, Kihiro, Jesse, Kj,
Synopsis: This is a documentary of the band Pay money To my Pain and traces their history, from forming in 2004 to their major label debut and their disbandment following the death of vocalist K and the rare appearances they made during brief reformations.
Shohei Ohtani – Beyond the Dream 
Release Date: November 17th, 2023
Duration: 145 mins.
Director: Tooru Tokikawa
Writer: N/A
Starring: Shohei Ohtani, Hideki Matsui, Yu Darvish, Hideki Kuriyama, Pedro Martinez (Appearance/Narration),
Synopsis: This is a documentary that will be available on Disney+ and it is all about the baseball star Shohei Ohtani, a pitcher and hitter for the Major League Baseball team the Los Angeles Angels and the first Japanese player to win the home run crown in the 2023 regular season.