Main Feature: A Popular Japanese Game - El Shaddai / Creator's interview: Makoto Kobayashi, Japanese Mechanic Designer
Main Feature: A Popular Japanese Game - El Shaddai
This week, we feature El Shaddai, an action video game that attracted plenty of attention at E3 - the world's largest video game trade show - in Los Angeles in June last year and the Tokyo Game Show last September. The 3D game software for PlayStation3 and Xbox 360 consoles was inspired by the Book of Enoch, which is held to be canonical by some Christian churches. The mystic story takes place on Earth, in Heaven and in the world of the dead. The player is Enoch, described in Genesis as a great-grandfather of Noah and in the game a priest and clerk of Heaven. Enoch has a mission to capture seven fallen angels in order to prevent a great flood from killing mankind. The game went on sale in Japan in April and surprised both the industry and fans with its unusual sales strategy. In Akihabara, a jeans shop was opened for a limited run in collaboration with Japanese denim maker Edwin, which sells jeans similar to those worn by characters in the game. The El Shaddai café there also became an extremely popular meeting spot. The new PR approach drew the attention of women and casual buyers before the product hit the shelves and paid big dividends in sales. It went on sale in August in the United States and Europe. The game comes from Ignition Entertainment Ltd., which was established in the UK in 2002 and opened its Japan branch in 2004. How did this newcomer to the game scene score such a big hit? Where did the energy come from? Why did the game make such big waves? And what was the initial creative strategy? Join us for the answers! It may even next be turned into a Hollywood movie. We delve into the secrets of a game that is thrilling users of all ages around the world.
Creator's interview: Makoto Kobayashi, Japanese Mechanic Designer
Makoto Kobayashi creates both 2- and 3-dimensional works. Kobayashi became widely known as the designer and builder of "full-scratch" (everything made himself) models that he published in Hobby Japan magazine in the mid-1980s. His mechanical suits and other machines for the 1985 serial TV animation Mobile Suit Z Gundam and 1986 serial Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ were loved by fans of both animation and mechanical design. Kobayashi has since described various popular new models that develop the world of Mobile Suit Gundam in a magazine for plastic model builders. We discover the multi-faceted creative world of Makoto Kobayashi.
Trailer
Recently Updated Shows
Futurama
Futurama follows pizza guy Philip J. Fry, who reawakens in 31st century New New York after a cryonics lab accident. Now part of the Planet Express delivery crew, Fry travels to the farthest reaches of the universe with his robot buddy Bender and cyclopsian love interest Leela, discovering freaky mutants, intergalactic conspiracies and other strange stuff.
Ghosts
Samantha and Jay throw caution to the wind when they convert their recently inherited country estate into a bed-and-breakfast. Call it mislaid plans. Not only is the place falling apart, but it's also inhabited by spirits of previous residents -- whom only Samantha can see and hear. Ghosts spins the funny, heartfelt story about a newfound dream that reveals connection and self-discovery aren't just for the living.
Hijack
Told in real time, Hijack is a tense thriller that follows the journey of a hijacked plane as it makes its way to London over a seven-hour flight, as authorities on the ground scramble for answers. Sam Nelson is an accomplished negotiator in the business world who needs to step up and use all his guile to try and save the lives of the passengers — but his high-risk strategy could be his undoing.
Revival
Revival is set on one miraculous day in rural Wisconsin when the recently deceased suddenly rise from their graves. But this is no zombie story as the "revived" appear and act just like they once were. When local Officer and single mother Dana Cypress is unexpectedly thrown into the center of a brutal murder mystery of her own, she's left to make sense of the chaos amidst a town gripped by fear and confusion where everyone, alive or undead, is a suspect.