Actual news!

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

So, it's that time when all the Japanese magazines start to leak early, and this month has a whole bunch of new stuff for Code Geass.

Firstly: A new Super Robot Wars game is coming out on PSP, and it includes Code Geass.

Rumours floating around certain forums are that Super Robot Wars Z II: Hakai-Hen is the first part of a two-game series, and as such will be including only the first parts of certain new series, like Gurren Lagann, or the first series of others - including Code Geass. This game is due out April 14th; no news on when the second game, assumedly including R2 will be coming up.

The ANN report links a Japanese post with scans, including some Lancelot pictures.

ETA: And the first trailer will apparently be online January 12th, if you're looking out for that.

And what is probably much bigger news: Newtype has character art for Boukoku no Akito




And some individual pictures with details about the two of them:



Anyone care to translate them? What I'm hearing is the girl is named Layla and the boy is Hyuga Akito, and she's his "boss", but that's completely unsubstantiated.


I've yet to see scans of the accompanying article, so I can't tell you anything about what plot details it may contain, and it seems we still haven't got confirmation as to if this is an OVA or a TV series. If anyone finds anything else out or sees some better scans, let us know!

(Also the first volume of the Renya manga is due out later this month. The article also had a small picture of it's cover, if anyone wants me to post that.)

But anyway: Discuss.

Comments

[megalomaniageek.livejournal.com]

This describes pretty much exactly how I feel.

I am gonna give it the benefit of the doubt when it comes out and try to watch it with an open mind, and I have come to enjoy many series I was ambivalent or uneasy about at the beginning.
Doesn't change the fact that the first impression based on the design is kind of "meh."

[yinake.livejournal.com]

Maybe we're just being whiny. I remember back in the olden days, when every time a new Final Fantasy game came out it was like, "Omg! She looks exactly like Tifa Rinoa Garnet YUNA!"

But then again, maybe not.

Not feeling that ponytail, Xingke-kun.

[megalomaniageek.livejournal.com]

My problem isn't really with Layla looking like a Britannian royal family member...I actually like that. It makes more sense that way if she's a princess or at least of some royal blood. It's more that the two character designs make me think "generic anime guy 14" and to a lesser extent "slightly-less-generic anime girl 36." Like if you told me that these were the new characters in an upcoming Fate Stay Night spinoff or another Tales game or something, I would believe you more than I would hearing that these are Geass characters. It's actually the lack of a Geass aesthetic that bothers me, upon reflection in the process of typing this. They don't quite look like they fit to me.
And actually, that said, I don't actually *dislike* the designs. They're already growing on me, especially the outfits. I'm even starting to come around on the ponytail. It's really far more about context than the designs themselves.

Oh, and yeah, I'm totally just whining. I hope nobody is taking my opinions very seriously, because I tend to be critical of any part of Geass that isn't the original anime...I'll bitch endlessly about the manga spinoff, about NoN, about Renya, about the novels, and now most likely about Boukoku no Akito.
I do honestly want to give it the benefit of the doubt, and I will do my best to watch it with an open mind. But I like Geass very much, and as a result anything that tries to hitch its wagon to the franchise must either live up to it or wither in its shadow.