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Hetalia

NEW HETALIA SEASON 5

!!Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney!!

Professor Layton VS. Ace Attorney

Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney is an upcoming crossover adventure puzzle video game being developed by Level-5 and Capcom and published by Capcom for the Nintendo 3DS. The game will be a crossover between the Professor Layton and Ace Attorney adventure series featuring their respective lead characters, Professor Hershel Layton and Phoenix Wright. The game will feature scenario designs from Shu Takumi, the series director for the Ace Attorney series. The game will combine the trademark puzzles and contradictions themes from Professor Layton and Ace Attorney respectively.

GamePlay

          The game will feature a combination of gameplay elements from both the Professor Layton and Ace Attorney series. As Professor Layton, the player will face off against various puzzles whilst trying to solve the mystery of Labyrinth City. As Phoenix Wright, players will take part in 'Witch Trials' using evidence and wits to find contradictions in witness statements and prove the innocence of his client. This time however, Phoenix will often have to question multiple witnesses at a time, requiring him to find which of their statements contradict each other. The game will feature voice acting and animated cut scenes, a staple in the Professor Layton games but a first for the Ace Attorney series.

Plot

       The game takes place in a different universe from the existing Professor Layton and Ace Attorney universes. Both Professor Layton and Phoenix Wright, along with their respective assistants Luke Triton and Maya Fey, find themselves in a different world from their own, where they find the strange medieval city known as Labyrinth City has been victim to a number of impossible occurrences recently. The town is allegedly home to witches who hide in the shadows, and is supposedly controlled by a villain known as the Story Teller. Central to the plot is a young girl named Mahone who is accused of witchcraft. As Phoenix decides to defend Mahone in a witch trial, Layton seeks to figure out the mystery behind Labyrinth City, with the two not always seeing eye to eye.

Characters 

• Professor Hershel Layton (Voiced by: Yo Oizumi), a professor of archeology who likes to solve mysteries through a series of puzzles.

• Luke Triton (Voiced by: Maki Horikita), the professor's apprentice who assists him on his journeys.

• Phoenix Wright (Voiced by: Hiroki Narimiya), a defense attorney who finds himself defending a woman accused of witchcraft.

• Maya Fey (Voiced by: Mirei Kiritani), a spirit medium-in-training and Wright's assistant.

• Story Teller, the main villain of the game. Whatever story he writes with his pen becomes reality.

• Mahone, a girl accused of being a witch.

• Lord Jeeken Barnrod, a prosecutor in the witch cases

Development

         The game was officially announced at the Level-5 Vision 2010 press conference on October 19, 2010. The game was originally an idea that Akihiro Hino, CEO of Level-5, came up with and a project that he himself proposed to Capcom, sometime after some initial development work had been completed on the project. Jun Suzuki, the producer for the Layton series, noted that Hino was a huge fan of the Ace Attorney series and even had challenged Suzuki to "produce something on par with Ace Attorney" while developing the Layton games. The idea came as a surprise to Shu Takumi, series designer for the Ace Attorney series. Keiji Inafune, head of Capcom's R&D Management Group, was "80 per cent certain" that Takumi would refuse the idea. However, according to Inafune, Hino was able convince Takumi to accept the idea, giving him creative control as the main scenario writer for the project. The game features animated cutscenes produced by Bones.

         Inafune stated the game is a true collaboration between the two companies jointly sharing in the effort, as opposed to the licensing of characters by one company; he felt that "we wanted to create a great history, which would have been impossible if both parties were not fully involved". Hino recognized that fans of both series would "want to see a showdown" between the lead characters as well as sections where the two "join hands and take on a really big challenge". Both Level-5 and Capcom are contributing towards the game's development, though Capcom is specifically handing the visual design while Level-5 will publish the game. The artwork style used is a mix between the detailed visuals from the Ace Attorney series and the flatter cartoons from the Laytongames; the mixed style is a result of a drawn-out trial-and-error process to figure out how best to mix the two conflicting styles. The game will support the 3D effects on the Nintendo 3DS console; though Level-5's developers have already worked with this feature in the release of Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracles in 2011, this will be the first Ace Attorney game to support that feature. Takumi was initially hestitent of this feature, but has since come to appreciate it, realizing that the 3D visuals "[let] us present the action from different angles and really [expand] the freedom of expression we have" with the courtroom parts of the game.

            The game was first hinted at as a crossover between Capcom and Level-5 by Inafune, who was talking to Japanese business magazine Diamond prior to the Tokyo Game Show 2010, where he mentioned that he had great respect for Akihiro Hino, the CEO of Level-5. On September 25, 2010 the game was outed on Twitter when Jiro Ishii of Level-5 accidentally tweeted to Jin Fujisawa of Square Enix, "Huh? Oh, Gyakuten XX. I'm making it, with Mr. Takumi!" in Japanese. This led to rampant speculation of a new Ace Attorney game being developed by Level-5, similar to how new Capcom games from established franchises are being developed externally, such as DmC being developed by British developer Ninja Theory. The mistake was quickly covered up by Jiro Ishii who tweeted later that day that, "A misunderstanding seems to be spreading, so let me say that I'm currently working only on Time Travelers" Yo Oizumi and Maki Horikita, who voiced Professor Layton and Luke in previous games will reprise their roles, whilst Phoenix and Maya will be voiced by Hiroki Narimiya and Mirei Kiritani, who are also playing their roles in the upcomingGyakuten Saiban live action film.

            The game has currently only been announced for release in Japan, with Capcom currently gauging interest from the community over whether or not to localize it for other territories. In July 2011, Level-5 International America Inc. conducted a Facebook poll in which fans were asked what currently Japan-only Level-5 game they had the most interest in. Professor Layton Vs. Ace Attorney ultimately won the most votes, with over 6,000. Although the game has yet to be officially announced for release outside of Japan, an English-language press release from Capcom atTokyo Game Show 2011 hints as such. Journalists have also noted the game's listing on various Western online retailer, further suggesting a release outside of Japan. The game was notably absent from E3 2012.

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Hetalia

Note: Go to http://www.mangareader.net/ to read Hetalia online!!

Hetalia Day

Fans of the series have spawned a yearly meetup titled "Hetalia Day" where fans gather at various locations to celebrate the series. The meetup started in 2009, coinciding with United Nations Day, and has been held throughout the world since then. Note: It is celebrated anywhere in the world.

Hetalia: Axis Powers is a Japanese webcomic, later adapted as a manga and an anime series, by Hidekazu Himaruya. The series presents an allegorical trivialisation of political and historic events, particularly of the World War II era, in which the various countries are represented by stereotyped anthropomorphic characters. The main characters are the countries which made up the Axis powers and Allies of World War II, namely Italy (North Italy in particular), Germany, Japan, United States, England (representing the United Kingdom), France, Russia and China. Hetalia is a portmanteau combining hetare (Japanese for "gutless") and Italia. This is to make light of Italy's domination by neighboring states since the Italian War of 1521–1526.

English translations of the first two volumes have been published by Tokyopop in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. Both printed volumes published so far have topped The New York Timesmanga best seller list. An anime series created by Studio Deen has also begun streaming online. As of January 8, 2010, the anime series' international distribution is being handled by Funimation Entertainment.

The main historical events portrayed in this work occur between World War I and World War II. The series often uses satire and comedy to reinterpret well-known historical events as well as historical and cultural trivia. Historical, political, and military interaction between countries.

Allies: Russia, Britain, U.S.A, China, and France.   

 

               Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, and Japan

Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva

              Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva also known as Professor Layton: The First Movie, is a 2009 Japanese animated mystery film directed by Masakazu Hashimoto. The film is a continuation of the Professor Layton series. The film takes place directly after the events of Professor Layton and the Last Specter, as a flashback story three years before the events of Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box.
              According to Level-5, the film stays true to the games, with music, puzzles, and characters. The film was released in Singapore on March 18, 2010, showing in Japanese with English and Chinese subtitles, and an English language version was released by Manga Entertainment in the United Kingdom on October 18, 2010. The film was released in the United States on November 8, 2011.

Plot

             In the present day, archaeologist and puzzle master Professor Layton and his young apprentice Luke Triton solve the mystery of the theft of Big Ben, deducing the culprit to be Layton's perennial adversary, Don Paolo. Following this resolution, the pair return to Layton's office, where they listen to "The Eternal Diva", a record by an old student of the professor's named Janice Quatlane, prompting them to recall one of their earliest adventures together from three years ago...

             Layton is invited by Janice to attend an opera in which she is performing, centered around the legendary lost land of Ambrosia and the secret of eternal life it claims to hold, which it is claimed will be rediscovered when its queen returns. Janice believes recent strange occurrences are somehow connected to the opera: in addition to girls disappearing from London, the opera's composer Oswald Whistler has recently adopted a young girl who has claimed to be Whistler's deceased daughter, and Janice's friend, Melina, restored to life. Layton and Luke attend the opera at the Crown Petone opera house, built on theWhite Cliffs of Dover, and witness Whistler play the entire piece on an elaborate one-man orchestra machine known as the Detragon. Once the opera is complete, however, a mystery man (speaking through a marionette), informs the audience that they are to play a game, the winner of which will receive the secret of eternal life.

            The Crown Petone is revealed to be a ship, which breaks off from the cliffs and sets sail to isolate the "game", after which the mystery man unveils a series of timed puzzles intended to progressively eliminate the players until one winner remains. The first two puzzles challenge the players to find "the oldest thing they can see", then go where they can "see the largest crown", but Layton's prolific puzzle-solving prowess allows him and a group of eleven others to quickly deduce the answers (the sky and the Crown Petone itself, respectively). To "see the largest crown", the group leaves the ship in two lifeboats, rowing out to a distance from which they can see the whole ship, at which point the lifeboats start moving on their own, taking the successful players to their next destination.

             The next morning, the group finds that the boats have brought them to a mysterious island. Discovering a sculpted stone seal, party member and amateur historian Marco Brock realizes that they have discovered Ambrosia. Evading mentally-controlled wolves as they make their way towards the bizarre castle at the centre of the island, Layton, Luke and Janice become separated from the rest of the group and cobble together a makeshift helicopter that allows them to fly to the castle in short order. There, they solve the fourth and final puzzle that directs them to the final room of the contest, but Layton leaves Luke, Janice and two other contestants (Brock and child prodigy Amelia Ruth) to enter it while he explores the rest of the castle. He's followed by two others, who are quickly claimed by a trap.

              Finding Melina in the castle and witnessing her apparently talking to herself, Layton realizes the truth of what is going on, and races to rejoin the others: Oswald Whistler is behind everything, having conspired with Layton's old foe, maniacal scientist Jean Descole, to abduct girls from London and use the Detragon to "program" them with his dead daughter's memories in order to resurrect her. This is the fate that befell "Melina" — actually named Nina — and it is the fate that Whistler has planned for Amelia... until Layton explains that Janice was also a victim to Whistler's experiments, and that unbeknownst to Whistler, he had succeeded. Janice was "possessed" by Melina's memories, and had invited Layton to stop her father from hurting any more girls, at which point Descole reveals himself to be the true villain of the piece, having always intended to use the Detragon in concert with Melina's voice to combine the melodies hidden in the seal of Ambrosia to raise the island itself. Melina complies, but when Ambrosia does not rise after two attempts (Both involving Descole playing the melody of the stars and Melina singing that of the sea), Descole loses patience and thinking music is not enough, resorts to drastic measures. The Detragon destroys the castle, unveiling and becoming the controls of a gigantic robot of mass destruction called the Detragiganto, which Descole commandeers and begins rampaging across the island in a desperate attempt to uncover Ambrosia by force.

                  During the fracas, Melina tries to stop Descole, who knocks her away, causing her to fall over the side of the robot, leaving her holding on for dear life. Upon seeing this, Luke pleads to save her from falling. While Luke rescues Melina, Layton duels with Descole on top of the Detragiganto, and reveals that Descole had overlooked a third melody hidden in the seal (that of the sun, revealed by turning the seal upside-down). Again, Melina sings as Layton takes the Detragon's controls, and this time, Ambrosia does indeed rise, infuriating Descole even further. He lunges at Layton, believing that the ruins only belong to him, but merely damages the control panel instead, throwing the Detragiganto out of control and causing it to heavily damage itself and him to fall off it and disappear. In the aftermath of the island's rise, Melina's thoughts and memories leave Janice's body (as Melina could not take over someone else's life), and Layton and Luke wonder if Melina could have been a reincarnation of Ambrosia's queen.

                In a post-credits scene, back in the present day, Layton and Luke finish listening to the record, just as Janice arrives at Layton's office.

Fruits Basket

 

Note: Go to http://mangafox.me/ to read it online!!

Main characters

                   When high school student Tohru Honda's mother died in a car accident, Tohru begins living in a tent and supporting herself. That is, until she finds a home in the least likely of places, inhabited by her classmate Yuki Sohma and his cousins Shigure and Kyo. The Sohmas however, live with a curse. Thirteen members of the family are possessed by spirits of the Chinese zodiac and turn into their zodiac animal when hugged by the opposite gender, are weak, or when under stress. When Tohru discovers the Sohmas' secret, she promises not to tell and is allowed to keep living with them. The Sohma's curse, however, is deeper and darker than Tohru realized, but her presence soon becomes a large, positive influence on those possessed by the zodiac. She sets out to break the curse, and on the way, meets and discovers each of the Sohma's vengeful zodiac spirits. Each has a different personality, just like the animals in the Chinese Zodiac. Tohru's existence changes the Sohma clan's lives forever...

Tohru Honda

                A kind hearted orphaned high school student who, at the start of the story, begins living in a tent. She is then found by Shigure and Yuki, who offer to take her in in exchange for housekeeping. She loves to cook and describes herself as an excellent housekeeper. She also has an after-school job as a janitor to pay her tuition fees to avoid being a burden on her grandfather. She is depicted as polite, optimistic, extremely kind, and selfless; several other characters, including Kyo, Rin, and Hanajima, tell her she needs to look out for her own interests and not shoulder everyone else's burdens. In the original Japanese, Tohru habitually speaks formally but not always correctly, a habit she picked up from her father, Katsuya, after he died when she was three, as a way of replacing him in her mother's eyes. Tohru's mother, Kyoko, raised her alone until she died in a car accident shortly after Tohru entered high school, a few months before the start of the story. 
                  Tohru repeatedly calls Kyoko the most important person in her life and treasures her photograph; when she falls in love with Kyo she feels guilty of being "unfaithful" to her mother's memory.

In the first half of the series, as Tohru learns about the zodiac curse and its effects on those she loves, she becomes distressed, and when she learns that the dangerous Akito is the "god" of the zodiac, she resolves to break the curse. Only later does she admit that she wants to free Kyo most of all. Despite setbacks, she stubbornly persists in her goal and eventually frees Kyo and her friends. In the last chapter, she begins moving with Kyo to another city so he can continue his martial arts training, and in the final pages they are shown as a loving elderly couple with a granddaughter.

     Kyo Sohma

               Kyo is cursed by the cat, an animal not in the Chinese zodiac but which legend says would have been if it had not been tricked by the rat into missing the induction feast. He is depicted as an orange-haired young man who is short-tempered and charismatic, if initially awkward around people; Arisa Uotani once calls him "anger management boy," andYuki Sohma expresses envy of his ability to make friends easily. He is also fiercely competitive, and can be easily manipulated into doing things he does not want to by turning it into a competition—especially against Yuki. As the cat, Kyo hates Yuki, the current rat of the zodiac, who he sees as never having to work hard at anything, and has dedicated his life to defeating him. Shortly before the series beginning, Kyo made a bet with Akito: if he defeats Yuki before graduating high school, he would officially be accepted as part of the zodiac; however, if he does not, Kyo would be confined inside the Sohma estate for the rest of his life. Despite many months of strict training, however, Kyo never lands a decent blow on Yuki. Their rivalry distresses Tohru, who likes them both, but she comes to worry even more when they do not fight. The two eventually tell each other, during an argument, they envy as well as despise each other and come to a truce for Tohru's sake.

                  At the start of the story, Kyo moves into Shigure's house with Yuki and Tohru. When Kyo was young, his mother died in an accident rumored to be suicide over her son's curse, and after his father rejected him, Kyo was taken in by Kazuma Sohma. The two love each other as father and son, but Kazuma insists he continue to live with Shigure because he believes Tohru is helping him open up. Aside from his foster father, however, Kyo runs away from the people who want to help him, because he is ashamed of his true form—a grotesque, foul-smelling, larger version of his zodiac animal—which he turns into when his bone juzu bead bracelet is removed. When Tohru sees his true form, however, she is initially repulsed but follows him to beg him stay with her, which strengthens their bond. However, Kyo also blames himself for the death of Tohru's mother, whom he could have saved at the risk of turning into a cat, and he was shaken by Kyoko's last words, "I'll never forgive you..." As the story progresses, Kyo falls in love with Tohru, but he refuses to subject her to the pain he is convinced he will cause, so when she confesses she loves him, he calls her "delusional." Only when Uotani, Hanajima, and Yuki impress upon him how deeply his rejection hurt Tohru does he get up the courage to accept her, and when he does finally confess to her, his curse lifts—along with the rest of the zodiac. In the last chapter, he and Tohru begin moving out of Shigure's house to another city, where he will study at another dojo in preparation for inheriting Kazuma's, and in the final pages they are shown as a loving couple with a granddaughter.

Yuki Sohma

                 Yuki is the rat of the Chinese zodiac. Yuki is depicted as an attractive, reserved, and accomplished young man with many admirers, but who finds being friendly difficult. When Yuki was young,Akito Sohma kept him isolated and convinced him no one liked him; because of this, Yuki has low self-esteem and feels isolated. He is known as "Prince Yuki" and "Prince Charming" at school, where he has a fan club headed by Motoko Minagawa that tries to "protect" him from other admirers, with the result that Yuki is further isolated, and he is pressured by his popularity to become president of the student council despite his misgivings. Yuki, however, wishes that he could be with people as friends, rather than be admired from afar, and envies both Kyo Sohma's and Kakeru Manabe's easy ways with others. He is touched when, faced with the prospect of having her memory of the Sohma family secret erased, Tohru Honda asks that he remain her friend, which no one had asked him before. With Tohru's help Yuki is gradually able to "open the lid" on his feelings, and the summer after she begins living in Shigure's house, Yuki admits to himself that he loves her.

               When Yuki was around six or seven years old, he ran away from Akito and was the one who returned Tohru to her mother when she was lost. For that, Yuki has always had fond feelings for Tohru for actually "needing" him. However, he later admits to Manabe that he was looking for a mother-figure and found her in Tohru. As the rat, Yuki despises the current cat, Kyo, despite envying him, and is contemptuous of his attempts to defeat him. Even when he recognizes the true nature of his feelings for Tohru, Yuki is uncomfortable when he recognizes her and Kyo's growing feelings for each other. Yuki becomes attracted to Machi Kuragi, a student council secretary who also had a traumatic childhood, and falls in love with her. When he knows that Kyo will be confessing to Tohru that he loves her, Yuki meets with Machi, and is with her when his curse lifts, whereupon the first thing he does is embrace her. In the last chapter, he gives Machi a key to his new apartment, where he will be living as he attends university.

Character names

               Natsuki Takaya named most of the twelve Sohmas cursed by zodiac animals after an archaic names of month in the former Japanese lunisolar calendar that corresponds to their zodiac animal. The exceptions are Kureno and Momiji, whose names were swapped by mistake; Kyo, who as the cat is not part of the official zodiac; and Yuki.

Manga

              The 136 chapters of Fruits Basket were originally serialized in Japan by Hakusensha in Hana to Yume from January 1999 to November 2006. These were collected in 23 tankōbon volumes, with the final volume published in Japan on March 19, 2007.

              The series is licensed in English in North America and the United Kingdom by Tokyopop and in Singapore by Chuang Yi. The Singapore edition is licensed to be imported to Australia and New Zealand by Madman Entertainment. All 23 English-language volumes have been released in North America and Singapore. In addition, Tokyopop released a box set containing the first four volumes in October 2007, and started re-releasing earlier volumes in "Ultimate Editions" combining two sequential volumes in a single larger hard-cover volume with new cover art. The first Ultimate Edition release met with mixed reviews, however, because they exactly reproduce the first two volumes without correcting changed page numbers or prior errors. As of June 2008, six Ultimate Editions have been released, covering the first twelve volumes of the series.

Chuang Yi also publishes in Singapore a Simplified Chinese edition as well as English.

Critical reception

            Critics have praised the overall story in Fruits Basket as being intellectual, with even the relatively light-hearted first volume giving hints at something darker in the background that makes the reader "question everything that happens." Some felt the series was getting close to overloading readers with angst in later volumes, and questioned the credulity of the sheer number of bad parents in the series. As one reviewer noted: "in the world of Fruits Basket, good parents are as common as penguins in the Sahara—every single one is either neglectful, smothering, unfeeling, abusive, misguided, or dead." Takaya manages to balance the series' comedic elements with the more dramatic and heartbreaking moments, making it a captivating and engaging story.

                "As this title progresses the fact that this title was one of the more popular series in Japan becomes clear. The characters get a lot of love. You get to experience them when things are good, as well as when they are struggling. The pacing is perfect. There is a good mix of comedy, fun filler, drama and action (something for everyone). In addition Fruits Basket is easy to relate to. With all the different personalities and the different signs of the zodiac, there is always someone to associate with. There are few titles that can do all that well, Fruits Basket puts all of these aspects together and makes a tasty treat..."

                "The real strength of Natsuki Takaya's artwork isn't that that it looks good—though it definitely does, from its beautiful characters to the intricately rendered textures of their clothing—but how well it communicates mood and emotions. Not content to rely on facial expressions, though she does them well, Takaya is particularly apt at using shading and shadows to indicate character's mental states... The details of character's emotions—the disparity between Tohru's private emotions and her public front, the punishing intensity of Kyo's feelings for Tohru—are not only discernable but tangible, all without a word being spoken."

                "The entire series of Fruits Basket proves to be a true emotional roller coaster, hiding truly deep and heartfelt drama behind a candy coating of fun and humor. Deep down, it explores many aspects of emotion as the various characters search for their place in the world, gaining strength from each other."