Hideo Kojima has finished an editing: is this the trailer for his next game?
Hideo Kojima has finished an editing
Hideo Kojima - known (also) as the creator of Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding - has revealed via Twitter that he has finished editing ... something. It is possible that this is a trailer for his next game, in time for Gamescom 2022.As fans know, Kojima is used to editing his game trailers himself. The tweet, however, does not specify what it is, so it is not certain that it is really a movie and, in this case, it is not certain that it is from his next game. However, this is a credible possibility, given that we are approaching Gamescom 2022. Specifically, the Opening Night Live of Geoff Keighley - a well-known friend of Kojima, also appeared in Death Stranding in the form of NPC - would be a perfect time to see a trailer .
We know that Kojima is working on a Microsoft Xbox game, as he himself confirmed. Also, according to rumors, the creative's next project will be "Overdose". According to Tom Henderson, Overdose is not a Death Stranding sequel, but it will include Mama actress Margaret Qualley.
According to reports, Kojima Productions has two games in development and one of them is the sequel to Death Stranding, which has been "confirmed" by lead actor Norman Reedus. As for Overdose, there are no official announcements and we do not know if it is the game in development for Microsoft, but Tom Henderson is convinced of it.
There are therefore various possibilities and the hope of the fans is that Hideo Kojima is finally ready to show what else he has in development. Tell us, would you prefer a new game or Death Stranding 2?
Source Have you noticed any errors?
The Trashy Treasures of BASTARD!!
]]>Jean-Karlo and Steve check in on the first half of this anime throwback. Buckle up for the might, magic, and mammaries of Bastard!! They really don't make them like this anymore.
This series is streaming on Netflix
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the views of Anime News Network.Spoiler Warning for discussion of the series ahead.
Content warning: sexually suggestive content, nudity, mention of 'splooge'
Jean-KarloI'm saying this from the bottom of my heart:Fuck yeah.
All you potatoes sit down, the real handsome, dashing main character has arrived. This is Dark Schneider, and this is BASTARD!! -Heavy Metal, Dark Fantasy-.
Lol that rocks. And so does Bastard!! Even on the heels of our prior column on Spriggan, which was also a blast from the past, I was very unprepared for how much of a time capsule the adventures of Dark Schneider would turn out to be. And in that respect, I'm glad this new adaptation doesn't try to modernize it. Not even a lick. It's all wizards and warriors and hot babes with fluffy mullets.Hagiwara, like many artists of the 80s, had him some tastes. Guy loved heavy metal and Frank Frazetta-style erotic art, and that's exactly what he set out to draw. The anime misses a bit of the raw power of the manga, where so many of the spreads are just heavy metal album art done with beefy, muscled-out wizards and buxom half-elves. But the energy is there, and that counts. Heck, everyone keeps their fluffy hair—that's important for this show to really be a throwback!
Yeah, so unlike JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, BASTARD!! mostly keeps its heavy metal references intact. There's a spell named Def Leppard and its incantation is listing the names of its bandmates ('Phil, Joe, Elliot, Allen'). There's actually a spell named 'Dio' (as in, 'Ronnie James', the guy that named the vampire in Egypt). I wanted to make a joke about them having to do the JoJo thing of renaming the 'Venom' spell to an oblique reference like 'Poison' or 'Toxic', but 'Poison' is just another band and I think they used a 'Toxic' spell anyway later in the series. It's a lot of fun if you like old Metal bands, especially when they namedrop the more-obscure stuff like 'Riot' or 'Helloween'.The opening conflict is that Dark Schneider is the only guy who can bail Meta-llicana from their problems, and Yoko has to balance summoning Lucien (and bearing the embarrassment of kissing him) with keeping Dark Schneider under control. And given how worthless the rank-and-file are (and how lazy the nobles are), maybe it'd be better for Dark Schneider to stay in control? He's got more backbone than all of them combined.
But as time goes on, we deal less and less with Lucien—for two reasons. First, the writing realizes we're all here for Dark Schneider. Second, Schneider's powers are returning, and more and more he's able to will himself back from under Lucien's control by sheer force. Usually because Yoko is under threat.
Where it would have been fine if Dark Schneider just went about on his antics, there are depths to him—early on, it's established that because Lucien truly loves Yoko, and Dark Schneider has been merged with Lucien, by extension Dark Schneider loves Yoko. He'll make a show of flirting with other women, but ultimately Yoko has him by the ear. So what we have is basically Inuyasha and Kagome, only Inuyasha has fucked and is not afraid to say 'fuck' (and will).It's a dynamic that, as I watched BASTARD!!, I realize we haven't seen in a while: a dangerous, feral man chained to reason by a headstrong woman, and the hot-and-cold relationship they both share. Most folks would indeed recognize the dynamic from Inuyasha, but it was pretty common in the 80s and 90s—see Vision of Escaflowne and (to an extent) Fushigi Yuugi.
I mean, more generally, we don't see this kind of fantasy fiction a whole lot in anime these days. Or rather, isekai has soaked up pretty much all space in this niche for the past decade, and a show like Bastard!!, warts and all, feels like a cool breeze in comparison. I don't have the time nor willpower to get into all my issues with most isekai stories, but suffice it to say, Bastard!! sidesteps most of them just by letting its protagonist be an unrepentant shithead. In place of mealy-mouthed moral quibbling, Bastard!! just lets its characters look and act ridiculous and have cool wizard battles along the way.
I thought about that a lot while I was watching BASTARD!!. Plenty of folks have seen me raise Cain about isekai protagonists and the genre's thematic leanings and might wonder why I'm so soft on Dark Schneider. Best way I can put it: it's the difference between Hideo Kojima hemming and hawing over how we'd feel ashamed of our thoughts and deeds when we learned Quiet breathed through her skin and that's why her outfit was a torn bikini, versus Yoko Taro just admitting he likes violent women with white hair and 328-pound bubble-butts and if we'd please send him a zip file with all that nice 2B smut he'd be much obliged. It's shameless in a way that too many isekai just isn't: the virgin isekai protag wants to be hardcore and have his harem of slave-girls but wouldn't know what to do with a woman if one fell into his lap. Dark Schneider's been there, done that, bought the t-shirt and doesn't wear it anymore because one of his ex's took it after a messy break-up. She still wears it when she shows up for their occasional booty-calls-slash-hatefucks, and it makes Dark Schneider giggle every time.Some pages of the manga don't even bother with covering Dark Scheider's little Rob Halford, they just slapped pixels on it and called it a day. You know Hagiwara drew every vein.
Bastard!! really deserves a full tits-out OVA. Maybe that's what the old anime was like, but this one doesn't do its raunchiness nearly enough justice.If we lived in a fair and just world, we'd get a BASTARD!! OVA with no fewer than five show-stopping scenes with full-frontal female nudity (possibly animated by Satoshi Urushihara).We don't live in that world.
At any rate, Dark Schneider and his three buddies (and Yoko) do have to deal with his old posse from 15 years ago, his Dark Rebel Army. As it turns out, Kall-su (Dark Schneider's second-in-command from back in the day) is trying to resurrect the demon Anthrasax in order to create the utopic Sorcerer's Kingdom. The four kingdoms house the seals to Anthrasax, and the first kingdom, Judas (hehehe) has already fallen. So after Osborn meets his maker, the Dark Rebel Army sends the ninja master Gara (no, not that one) to Meta-llicana.
Hey, at least Schneider has his nipples! That's how you know this anime doesn't fuck around!
For the record, BASTARD!! ran in Weekly Shonen Jump.Also for the record, BASTARD!! has a scene later in the manga where Dark Schneider (comedically) splooges all over a woman's face (albeit with some artistic licenses).
Shonen manga was... different... back in the day.
You would think having your body rent apart from the inside would be punishment enough, but nope. You get toaded too. No half measures in Bastard!!And while Arshe's army is doing her thing, Schneider deals with her trio of lackeys by giving two of them tongue baths and turning the other one into a bat. As one does.
And the season ends on a cliffhanger—but what a goddamn cliffhanger it is: Dark Schnedier just fucking rips his heart out of his chest.Like. Jesus. Have we impressed upon you the kind of show this is? Because I don't know if I can underline it any further!
Also, I'm very pleasantly amused to see that many artists, particularly women, have been reintroduced to Dark Schneider and are finding themselves drawing art of the guy. Dark Schneider was a bit of a husbando back in the day, it's nice to see he's still got it with the fandom!
Sure beats sand, yeah?To round out this column, I wanted to address our readers in the audience for a bit. It's a bit more emotional for me to say now that I'm here typing it, but: this is my last This Week In Anime! column for the foreseeable future. Our lovely editor was extremely generous in inviting me to join Stevie Nick² (my private nickname for Steve, Nick and Nicky) back in November of 2020, and as I've told them in private: I have not regretted a single moment of working on this column. Ever. The outright-unpleasant columns, I can't even think of off the top of my head outside of... what, maybe two of them? The rest is the kind of opportunity most dream of, and I never thought I'd get. I got to kick off my tenure with this column with the one-two punch of covering Yami to Bōshi to Hon no Tabibito (myself a tremendous fan of Carnelian), with a Dragon Quest: Dai's Great Adventure chaser (myself also being a fan of Dragon Quest since the days where it was still called Dragon Warrior). I've been exposed to wonderful, amazing shows I never thought I'd love like Horimiya and Fairy Ranmaru, and I got to gush like a schoolkid about favorites like The Ultraman and SSSS.Dynazenon. I'd always hoped that someone, somewhere would bring Tekkaman Blade to streaming so I'd be able to squeeze that in with the victory list, but that never happened—and that's fine, because what better way for me to round out my time with TWIA than with freaking BASTARD!!, a series that's had so much emotional weight to me?I'll be filling Heidi Kemps' old position at This Week In Games!, whom you should all remember from our spectacular Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture column (which was one of my favorite columns to take part in). Chris will be filling in my place—be as nice to him as you guys were to me. It was always special to see people commenting on my stuff, saying 'Wow, I agree with Jean-Karlo on [x]' or 'Oh, I didn't know about [y] until Jean-Karlo mentioned it!'. So thanks for being a part of making this happen.Please look forward to the next This Week In Anime!. The folks here are real nice. つづく
