• Yurei Deco Premiere Review: First Three Episodes

    Yurei Deco premieres on July 3, 2022, on Crunchyroll.

    Science SARU's latest anime, Yurei Deco, is a vibrant and colorful take on augmented reality, as well as a poignant loose adaptation of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Still, clumsy tech talk and thin characters hold back the show's otherwise solid promise in its initial three episodes.

    The latest show by the studio behind Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, The Heike Story, and Devilman Crybaby takes place on Tom Sawyer Island, an augmented reality world where characters go to school from their rooms and sit on a virtual video call with their peers — you know, the distant future. Meanwhile, they have a little device on their eyes that allows them to decorate the surrounding world (from billboards, to shop signs, to facades on buildings and houses) however they see fit.

    Of course, they need to pay in order to do that, with "love" serving as the local currency, earned by doing things others approve of and assign value to. With no crime, no hate, no unhappiness, everything seems perfect on Tom Sawyer Island, except where the mysterious Phantom Zero strikes, draining all the love in their surroundings.

    The plot follows an average girl named Berry who, thanks to her broken deco device, is able to see an otherwise invisible girl named Hack and the two stumble across one of Phantom Zero's attacks. When Hack gets the blame for the attack, the two unravel a web of lies at the heart of their entire society.

    Translating a piece of literature so deeply connected to Americana as the works of Mark Twain to an entirely different culture is no small task, but it's not surprising that writer Dai Satō, who worked on Cowboy Bebop, Stand Alone Complex, and Wolf's Rain, manages to find universal themes in the novel and bring it to a futuristic setting. Sure, there are more obvious references, like splitting the name Huckleberry Finn among the main characters, but where the show shines is in its exploration of societal hypocrisy. Berry may live in an utopia where no one is ever unhappy, but that's because there's extreme censorship where everything "undesirable" is quickly eliminated in secret – where anything that goes against the norm or the mainstream is unseen.

    This is why it's so poignant that — just like in Twain's novel — it is the Yurei (literally "ghosts" in Japanese), those who are socially dead or invisible, who are the only ones who can actually see what is going on. How this plot thread resolves remains to be seen, but it makes for a promising start to the show.

    Yurei Deco is vibrant, colorful, and visually imaginative.

    Unsurprisingly, given this is a Science SARU anime, Yurei Deco is vibrant, colorful, and visually imaginative. To make the possibilities of augmented and virtual reality come to life, the show changes its art style and aesthetic depending on whose point of view we are experiencing, as deco allows one to change their surroundings virtually. A bland and boring building will look 3D and elaborate in one scene, or minimalistic and 2D the next. Even more than Belle or Summer Wars, Yurei Deco shows how malleable a virtual world can be for the user.

    Where Yurei Deco falters is when it comes to actually making its technology clear. For a show all about how technology blends into our daily lives, with a story all about a system that is not what it seems at first, the distinction between the fully virtual world and the augmented reality deco system, as well as how the deco even functions, is not clear enough. It could be better explained as the story continues, but out of the gate it leaves something to be desired. Likewise, in its first three episodes, the characters of Berry and Huck are quite thin and under-defined beyond just "the weirdo with the funny speech pattern" and the "normal one."

    Masaaki Yuasa, who created the original concept of Yurei Deco with Dai Satō, may have retired, but his influence can still clearly be seen here. Despite some concerns, the show has a lot of promise and is already a visually distinct and narratively weird show deserving of more attention this summer.

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    Westworld Season 4, Episode 2 Review – “Well Enough Alone”

    Warning: The following contains full spoilers for the Westworld: Season 4 episode "Well Enough Alone."

    To read our review of last week's Westworld: Season 4 premiere, "The Auguries," click here.

    "Well Enough Alone" contained rudimentary Westworld intrigue and revelations — including notable unveilings about Charlotte's evil plan and the introduction of a new theme park at the end — but it also very much felt like an addendum to last week's premiere, focusing a bit too much on lengthy scenes featuring host William being smug and taking down political foes. This scenario was already the centerpiece of Season 4's opening A.I. chess move at the Hoover Dam so seeing William do more of the same felt like a misuse of time.

    It's good that Ed Harris is getting more to do in Season 4, and "Well Enough Alone" even gave us, briefly, real William (even if it was just a scene where Charlotte woke him, taunted him, and then put him back in cold storage), but as the host pawn of Charlotte, the public face of her diabolical plot to enslave the world, his scenes are already wearing thin. At a certain point, because William is so vague with his threats (a lot of it's very "do what I say, or else"), you might think he enjoys the metaphoric "mustache twirling" villain game too much. If not, then maybe he should try being more direct and saying "Look, fall in line or I'm going to kill you and replace you with a robot." Float that idea. See how it lands.

    Check out our video review of Westworld's Season 4 premiere here…

    There wasn't much happening this week that added to the saga, though the episode wasn't bereft of movement either. Caleb and Maeve flirted a bit on their adventure, pointing toward a romantic past we've not been privy to involving them possibly hooking up in a lighthouse as human/host couple. Anyhow, they bopped along, following William's trecherous trail of replacing prominent figures with hosts and/or loading them up with "flies" that puppet them while they're alive and awake (or reclaiming old Dolores hosts, like Angela Sarafyan's Clementine). There was appropriate action and violence — including menacing guest spots for Heroes' Jack Coleman and Deep Blue Sea's Saffron Burrows — but compared to what's come before it, on the show, it seemed like a rather simplified puzzle trail.

    This streamlining of story is most likely by design now (following critiques about Westworld being more structural gimmick than substance), though the show also feels very sparsely populated these days; a lot of empty pavilions, business parks, and wide open spaces with only a few characters present. Even when Caleb and Maeve head to the "obvious trap" daytime opera, the auditorium's empty (as were the entire grounds outside, which the duo didn't seem to notice).

    This week's ending, of course, dropped the curtain on how Season 4, despite being a decade away from the Westworld massacre, will circle back and give us theme park antics. The Golden Age, revealed to both Caleb and Maeve (on a train complete with Lili Simmons' returning "Clementine 2"), seems to be a Roaring '20s playground, no doubt hiding nefarious intentions. What could be lurking beneath the fun here, behind the choice between white and black fedoras? Let's sift through Charlotte's wicked game a bit, and also pull Christina's story into the mix.

    Season 3 of Westworld saw humans being, more or less, controlled by machines. It was all background noise of course, under the watchful eye of Rehoboam, but the script had been appropriately flipped. The only snag was that people didn't know their lives were being molded and manipulated (and capped). Now that humanity's A.I. cruise control is gone, thanks to the riots, Charlotte wants to go bigger and badder.

    Christina's search for answers seems like it has a rather obvious end right now.

    What Charlotte says to William (and also the dude from the Justice Department) — about doing the same to humans as humans did to them — seems to imply not just A.I. dominance but also the cruel added ingredient of imprisonment. Much like how the hosts were treated at Westworld, humans might be destined for a world where robots controlling them is no longer a secret, almost like a global theme park where everyone's lives are pre-written and masterminded by gleefully merciless bots, basically turning all humanity into NPCs. Is Charlotte after the Sublime Key so she can retrieve all the hosts from there, or lock people in there Matrix-style? Or both?

    How does this connect to Christina? Well, she writes stories for NPCs and a paranoid guy just tracked her down (though now it seems he died a while back — a game loop?) and accused her of controlling his entire life. Seeing as how we're in a show that loves to play around with time, it could be that Christina's story is taking place years after the Caleb and Maeve drama, in a future where people are already being "Free Guy'd" around life, like game characters. Is it the Sublime? The twist here though, right now, which seems to fly in the face of Charlotte's plan, is that it's still a secret and only a few can see through this Matrix (and can "hear the music" from "the Tower"). There's little doubt that these two stories — the only two stories for the first two episodes — are connected, but the specifics still need to be learned.

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    Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Trailer and Key Art Revealed at Anime Expo 2022

    At Anime Expo, VIZ Media shared the world premiere trailer of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War and new key art for the anime set to arrive in October 2022.

    As reported by Anime News Network, the trailer focuses on the Stern Ritter characters and this new anime will be based on the "Thousand Year Blood War" arc of Tite Kubo's manga.

    Kubo himself appeared in a video message to fans during Bleach's Anime Expo panel and said that fans can "expect modern contemporary coloring and a new and refreshing viewing experience with the new anime."

    Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War will premiere on TV Tokyo in October and VIZ Media will be releasing the series in English.

    The story will cover the final arc of the manga, which covers volumes 55-74, and the series' returning cast will also include characters that didn't appear in the original anime but are reprising their roles from the Bleach: Brave Souls video game.

    The Bleach manga was first released in Weekly Shonen Jump in 2001 and ended its run in 2016. Its popularity led to an anime adaptation that ran for 366 episodes from 2004 to 2012 alongside four films, two OVAs, video games, novels, stage plays, and even a live-action film that was released in 2018.

    Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

    Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

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    Cyberpunk: Edgerunners – Netflix Reveals Opening Title Sequence for Its Upcoming Anime Series

    Netflix has revealed the opening title sequence for Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, the upcoming anime set in the world of Cyberpunk 2077.

    The "so-stylish-it-hurts opening" is accompanied by Franz Ferdinand's This Fffire and was shared during the Trigger 10 Year Anniversary & Announcement Panel at Anime Expo 2022.

    Alongside the opening credits, Studio Trigger also showed the first episode of the series to those in attendance and confirmed that Zach Aguilar, the English voice actor of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba's Tanjiro Kamado, will be lending his voice to main character David Martinez.

    Martinez is a street kid who is "trying to survive in a technology and body modification-obsessed city of the future. Having everything to lose, he chooses to stay alive by becoming an edgerunner—a mercenary outlaw also known as a cyberpunk."

    The 10-episode series will also focus on a netrunner named Lucy and a recent official clip revealed that part of the story will take place in the same location as The Pickup mission from Cyberpunk 2077. For those unfamiliar, that is the mission where V and Jackie have to pick up the robot spy-spider from the Maelstrom gang.

    Cyberpunk: Edgerunners will be released on Netflix in September 2022 and remains one of our top 10 most anticipated new anime of 2022.

    For more, check out how David Martinez was referenced in Cyberpunk 2077 and 10 essential anime to watch before Cyberpunk: Edgerunners arrives.

    Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

    Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

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    Final Fantasy 14 Patch 6.2 Arrives in August and Adds the Island Sanctuary

    Final Fantasy 14's upcoming Patch 6.2, which is titled Buried Memory, will add the long-awaited Island Sanctuary that will allow players to gather materials, build facilities, care for creatures, and much more on their very own island.

    Revealed during the latest Letter from the Producer LIVE broadcast for Final Fantasy 14, Island Sanctuary very much sounds like it takes inspiration from games like Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley and it is being described as "relaxing solo content" that required no previous crafting or gathering experience.

    Island Sanctuary was announced in 2021 and Final Fantasy 14 director Naoki Yoshida shared a bit more about what players can expect from this content.

    "There are elements of pioneering and building things," Yoshida revealed. "So you would have a facility that you build or a farm that you can cultivate or you can have animals there. You can leave it as-is if you want to let the weeds grow out of control, that's perfectly fine. Or if you want to go there and make it your own, that's perfectly fine as well."

    He also mentioned players can invite their friends to their Island Sanctuary so they can "idly chat," if they so desire. While there are no real objectives or ties to the main story, it looks like there will be a lot to look forward to for those looking for a new way to play Final Fantasy 14. Oh, and players can earn special items by completing various content on the island.

    Island Sanctuary and Patch 6.2 are scheduled to arrive in late August and the patch will add "the latest chapter in the critically acclaimed story, fresh battle changes, system updates, and more." There will be a new 8-Player Raid called Pandæmonium, the Duty Support feature will be "expanded to include main scenario dungeons from Snow Cloak through The Vaults," and more.

    Patch 6.25 was also teased and it will feature new Side Quests and the promise that the Somehow Further Hildibrand Adventure will continue.

    For more, check out how the dream of playing Final Fantasy 14 solo is almost here and why, although the MMO's housing is daunting, HGXIV is here to help.

    Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

    Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

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