Nico Nico Douga: Attack On Basara

I've had this post sitting in my Drafts folder for a long time. There hasn't been much news to post recently and I've been too busy to finish off any of the reviews I've prepared, so it was convenient when I spotted that Nico Nico user Marimo had posted a splendid Miku Miku Dance remake of the Attack On Titan (Shingeki No Kyojin) opening video. Please enjoy watching Attack On Basara:

Nico Nico Douga: MMD Basara Battle Festival

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the Miku Miku Dance users of the world had set up a 'Battle Festival' event this weekend, meaning that talentless fans such as myself could enjoy some excellent Sengoku Basara movies with a more bloodthirsty theme than usual. The artistic skill of the Japanese BSR fans is quite humbling. These were my favourites from the first day. Check out the MMDBASARA戦闘祭 tag for a wealth of other celebrations of swordplay if you have time; they look amazing in full quality. The event is planned to last for the rest of the weekend so it's likely I'm not going to get anything productive done as long as people keep uploading brilliant new videos for me to watch...

Simply titled 'Kessen', this video by yurie shows a confrontation between Masamune and Yukimura. It's exceptional in its attention to detail and makes me long for more Sengoku Basara games! The creator took the scene from the superb BONES movie Sword of the Stranger and made it even better.

Nico Nico Douga: Hetalia is back

It was obvious as soon as the new season of the Hetalia anime had started showing, because Nico Nico Douga was suddenly full of brand new videos based on the series almost overnight.

This first one cracked me up when I saw it. It's an western-style movie trailer for 'Nekomimi Ninja', which seems to be some kind of imaginary crime thriller starring Japan. It's notable for starring a huge number of Hetalia characters, and more importantly, for featuring instantly-iconic synthesised dialogue straight out of a machine translator. Thank you to user yusura for making me laugh out loud.



The second is a beautiful dance by male and female versions of Japan set to Sasa No Ha Sarara by user Kairi. The ornate costumes give a glimpse of the charm of Japanese history.



Sengoku Basara video community is still going strong. Here ku-ya puts six of the boys in their Gakuen Basara attire to dance to Kagamine Len's inappropriately lewd song, Gigantic O.T.N.

Nico Nico Douga: Best of the 10th MMD Cup

Disclaimer: My idea of what constitutes the best of the 10th MMD Cup may not necessarily have much in common with the final rankings.

The first video today is unusual; a science fiction themed Sengoku Basara dance video. The video was made by the renowned Otthi who cites Tron, The Terminator and Call of Duty as reference material. Otthi is the person who originally made these Sengoku Basara models (as well as several others) and every video he/she makes using them tends to be worth watching. The music is HachioujiP's Hatsune Miku song 'Baby Maniacs'.



The next is a parody of the Btooom! anime opening 'No Pain, No Game', put together by Uta. It's well made even though I didn't like Btooom! much.

Nico Nico Douga: A new Sarutobi Sasuke

Back in 2011, Nico Nico user ikapra revealed a brand new Sarutobi Sasuke (Sengoku Basara) model for users of the Miku Miku Dance software. Apparently made by the user's sister 'AZ', the model's quality was superb and it swiftly became very popular. They've now released a refined version of Sasuke with even more options, including his old black 2P costume and a detailed Gakuen Basara customisation. The song is Wowaka's chaotic 'Odoru. Tsumu. Zureru. Tomete. Uragaette Mawaru' mash-up performed by utaite NO=L.



The original video from 2011 (set to the ubiquitous Nico Nico anthem 'Bad Apple!!' feat. nomico) can be seen after the jump.

Nico Nico Douga: Mini Sanada Yukimura

A new Miku Miku Dance model has debuted! It's not yet complete but user Haseko (KengekiP) has produced a very expressive version of Sanada Yukimura as he appears in the Mini Sengoku Basara series. The song is a cover version of Sweets Magic sung by Lon and Junky.

Nico Nico Douga: Cuteness, comedy and male beauty

A super-cute video with 'mochi' style Hideyoshi and Hanbee dancing alongside the popular 'mame' style Mitsunari! The song is Worlds End Dancehall by wowaka and the MMD video comes from user Mofu. I love watching their little feet move. The Toyotomi forces definitely need a proper reunion in the next game.

Nico Nico Douga: Hello, 2013!

I received a lot of new visitors to my pathetic little blog the other day! Thank you for being kind about my dorky fangirling...

There's still very little to report in the way of news, though the Butai Sengoku Basara 3 Utage website launched a countdown at the start of the year which is rapidly heading towards its glorious opening next week. To add a little excitement the character on the front page changes daily; so far we've had Masamune, Yukimura, Ieyasu and Mitsunari. I'm hoping that Kojuurou and Sasuke will come next.

Anyway, here are some of the most indulgent Miku Miku Dance videos I've been watching on Nico Nico Douga to celebrate the New Year recently. It's not quite Kouhaku, especially as all of the best videos lately seem to feature the twin dragons of Oushuu. This is not the most balanced post.

In the first Sengoku Basara's Date Masamune dances to Shoujo Misui on Keiji's Kyoto festival stage courtesy of the user ariNO. There are some pretty effects, but really the reason I'm linking this is simply because I love both the song and Hittou.

Nico Nico Douga: The joys of Vocaloid (and Basaraloid)

Nico Nico user moonlight presents a Basaraloid cover version of Rerulili's collaborative song 'Mr. Music'. Various UTAU users participated to make the Basara characters 'sing' the song accompanied by a Miku Miku Dance video made by another talented group of fans.



This week's pickup ranking also brought two new actual Vocaloid videos to my attention for a change!

Nico Nico Douga: Come and join us in the church of Zabii!

Today we have a MAD video in the form of a PV for recruiting new followers to the church of Zabii (or Xavi, if you prefer). Zabii Rotation is a lighthearted take on AKB48's famous song Heavy Rotation with some help from Sourin's limitless zeal.



Nico Nico user Mugimugi has put together a beautiful Sengoku Basara MMD video set to the song Akahitoha. It shows scenes from Masamune's life - including his childhood - interspersed with magnificent dancing. Kojuurou is present too, of course, and just as graceful.

Nico Nico Douga: Hetalia Renaissance

It's that time of the week when I notice that I've been spending far too much time on Nico Nico. Here are my latest picks. Hetalia has always been popular; with a new series on the horizon at the moment it seems to be enjoying an ever-stronger surge in high quality fan creations.

First up is Carnival Phantasm's Super Affection, performed by the Sengoku Basara cast in the medium of Miku Miku Dance.

Nico Nico Douga: Kyouyuu Misui and some Love Plus

I've been trawling Nico Nico Douga again instead of translating the latest SenBasa Science Laboratory on time.

It seems that I will never tire of well-done Shoujo Misui MMD dance videos. Here's Sengoku Basara's Matsunaga Hisahide giving it a try.

Nico Nico Douga: Sanada Yukimura in Miku Miku Dance

A quick post to share this visually stunning version of the Sode Fureau Mo Tashou No En motion trace, with Sengoku Basara's Sanada Yukimura taking the spotlight on a brand new stage. I've been trying to avoid posting too many videos with this song as there are a lot, but I'll make an exception for this masterpiece.

Nico Nico Douga: Hetalia and Tiger & Bunny, for a change

For once, these aren't Sengoku Basara videos! The MMD pickup ranking posted yesterday had two fantastically dynamic videos from other fandoms squeezed in between the Touhou and Hatsune Miku skits. Since I haven't prepared a proper post for today, I'll draw attention to these new finds.

In the first of the two MMD videos, Japan and the UK (both  from Hetalia) dance to Sode Fureau Mo Tashou No En.



Next, the Tiger and Bunny characters participate in an exhilarating take on the song Hikari, by Utada Hikaru.

Nico Nico Douga: Ikemen Edition

The unlikely combo of Takenaka Hanbee and Katakura Kojuurou dance to Cantarella with precision and some very nice camera work. A lot of people have been uploading videos based on this choreography recently and this one by Nowa is my favourite. Whether the pair are representing the tangled story of the Sengoku Basara 2 anime in the medium of dance or simply being pretty is up to the viewer. Thumbs up to the person who cheekily commented "Harenchi de gozaru~!" around 2:20 into the video...



Next, user Kanou Sana puts TETA's gorgeous Date Masamune model into a PV-style take on Rerulili's Roshin Yuukai -melt down- JunK Arrange feat. MARiA.

Nico Nico Douga: Happy Halloween!

I couldn't resist adding some more Halloween videos since the quality on Nico Nico today is so high. First, the popular song Kiss Me Aishiteru gets an unsettlingly sexy interpretation by the Sengoku Basara master and servant combinations.



This one has very little to do with Halloween at all besides some more atmospheric clothing design and Kojuurou's creepy eyes. It's Masamune and Kojuurou doing Shoujo Misui though so the context doesn't really matter.



Last but not least, the Date army take on the Takeda army in a Halloween curling showdown. I don't know how the producers of these videos come up with these ideas. The deadpan timing cracks me up.

News roundup: Takarazuka to perform Sengoku Basara?!

This morning, my Twitter timeline suddenly exploded into action with rumours that Sengoku Basara was to be adapted for a musical performance by the famous Takarazuka Revue. It wasn't at all difficult to trace the reports back to their source.

A Google search result showing the page existed

Unfortunately, by the time I had time to look into it properly, the page had been taken down by Capcom. I dug a little deeper and found a screenshot to confirm what had happened.

The article on the official Capcom Sengoku Basara website

In a post on the official Sengoku Basara news feed, someone had mistakenly uploaded an article (dated this coming Friday) with a title which unambiguously announced that the Takarazuka Revue would be performing Sengoku Basara. The article text was a copy of a different news item from a few days ago describing the Blu-Ray/DVD release for Sengoku Basara -Moonlight Party-, so no further information was found in the leak. Friday just happens to be the day of the new Butai Sengoku Basara stage play. It's likely that the announcement was originally planned to debut there and that's when we'll find out more of the details.

The crowd on Twitter have reacted with cautious enthusiasm. I'm excited for the eventual Blu-Ray/DVD release since seeing it live would be challenging for me at the moment!

The other three news items which have caught my eye recent have been Aksys Games announcing the localisation of another Hakuouki PSP game in the US, this time Hakuouki Bakumatsu Musouroku. Hopefully they'll consider a limited edition again as it will be a guaranteed purchase.

Secondly, Kick-Heart was not only successfully funded in the end but it also made its two lowest stretch goals, which means the short will be twelve minutes long rather than the planned ten. In addition it will come with an English dub and Spanish subtitles on top of what had already been announced. Congratulations to the Kick-Heart team for making anime history!

Finally, Crunchyroll have revealed that Giant Killing is going to be removed from their site in a few days. I hadn't taken the time to watch it and now it's looking unlikely I will. A DVD licence in the US would be great.

I'll end this post with a video suitable for the current festive time. In "Helloween" below, the Sengoku Basara characters star in a strange Hong Kong Disneyland commercial with some help from Miku Miku Dance.

Nico Nico Douga: Dancing Mouri and historical fashion

First of all, a beautiful video set to Megurine Luka's Mujou. Mouri Motonari of Sengoku Basara performs a sword dance. As Mouri's weapon is so unusual, the care taken to properly accommodate this in his movements makes the video especially delightful.



This clip was originally posted a few days ago but the user has made some refinements. It's not Miku Miku Dance; instead it's a comparison video showing Sengoku Basara characters next to the famous armour their original historical counterpart is associated with. A side by side view makes it easier to appreciate the way the unique designs from real life were incorporated into the exaggerated Sengoku Basara character costumes.

Nico Nico Douga: MMD Sengoku Basara selection

First, a silly video. No explanation is needed (and indeed, none would make sense).



Today's second video is a treat: a new video from Otthi! Accompanying Miichan's English version of Rolling Girl, Masamune and Motochika dance in beautifully modelled new costumes. It's already accumulated a respectable number of mylists in the short time it's been up.

Nico Nico Douga: Maeda Keiji in Rainbow Girl (Remix)

Gero and Lon's version of this song is strangely addictive. I like the concept for this video, and since it's a bit of a Sengoku Basara 2 themed day it seemed appropriate.