Simsense polyPOV feature, Sakura Studios/HighstarIf there is one thing the Japanese can’t seem to get enough of, it’s anime—especially anime with giant robots, towering monsters, and buxom heroines. Continuing a popular trid series, HVC: Do You Know My Love? is directed by newcomer Kazuo Tanigaki and stars veteran anime talents Jun Hatoyama and Akiko Silk. The story revolves around a squad of Japanese Imperial Marines on loan to the UN to combat space terrors from another galaxy. The trid series finished its fifth and final season two years ago, and the wait helped put the film high on everyone’s must-see list. The sim introduces a new villain, the demonic computer entities known as the Mind Eaters, which shows you how some folks at MCT (Sakura and Highstar’s parent company) feel about digital intelligences. The feature-length version was a hit in Japan, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see another season of the trid show, or a spin-off series, soon. Releasing the sim under the aegis of both Sakura Studios (MCT’s anime-focused company) and Highstar (which handles their international distribution) is sure to bring Japan’s number one anime sim to audiences everywhere.
Sakura Studio’s Matrix special effects are bleeding edge, and rumors of an “Effects War” between Sakura, Hisato-Turner, Paradigm Pictures, and the other major players in the anime market have started circulating.
HVC: Do You Know My Love? also gained widespread media attention when over half the cinemas showing it were hacked opening weekend, causing strange disruptions of certain scenes. The investigation is ongoing, but it’s suspected to be techno- mancer sabotage. If that’s true, the people involved are among the best in the business, as they simultaneously hacked 257 separate cinemas, for a total of 1,028 nodes hosting the sim. In addition, MCT security hackers discovered the first 65,537 direct download purchases were compromised in the same way, corresponding to the same time frame as the cinema hacks.
-- hannibelle
-- Baka Dabora
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-- the smiling Bandit