News roundup: Sengoku Basara Judge End previews - and lots of release news

I'm going to put the preview information right at the bottom of this post so I can hide the spoilers from my blog's front page, but I can confirm that it's rather interesting. First of all though, some news!

Details of the special features for the first Judge End DVD/BD

We were promised more special features when the Sengoku Basara: Judge End DVD and Blu-ray releases were announced, and the details have now been confirmed via VAP.

Sengoku Basara Judge End: I
Release date: 24th September 2014
Catalogue number: VPXY-71336 (Blu-ray) / VPBY-14329 (DVD)
Price: ¥5,800 (Blu-ray) / ¥4,800 (DVD)
Blu-ray specification: Colour, Stereo, Linear PCM 2.0, 16:9 1080p HD
DVD specification: Colour, Stereo, 16:9 LB, Dolby Digital 2.0ch
Run time: 70 minutes
Contents: Sengoku Basara Judge End episodes 1-3

The special audio CD from the first press edition will include the first three episodes of the Hoshi Souichirou and Seki Tomokazu's 'Sengoku Basara: Judge End' Radio show as well as an additional bonus episode featuring seiyuu Nakai Kazuya. There will also be an exclusive keyholder (pictured below) and an audio commentary on the disc itself featuring Nakai Kazuya, Hoshi Souichirou and Kobayashi 'KobaP' Hiroyuki, Capcom's Sengoku Basara series producer.

The set will come in an illustrated digipak with a 20-page booklet. The box art for the first volume is below.

Later volumes will come with additional keyholders for Sasuke/Yukimura, Ieyasu/Tadatsugu and Mitsunari/Yoshitsugu.

Fans who purchase their copies of the sets from certain retailers will receive extra goodies. While Animate is giving away a desktop standee of Masamune to fans who buy all four volumes, the other stores only require that you buy the first volume so there may be additional bonuses for subsequent discs. Tsutaya is offering a Mitsunari bromide, Yodobashi Camera is offering a photo print of Ieyasu and Amazon Japan has an oversized Yukimura badge.

I'm glad I placed my order with Amazon!

The seiyuu guest is confirmed for the second Judge End bonus CD

It won't surprise anyone to learn that the special guest who will appear on the first press bonus CD in the second volume of Sengoku Basara: Judge End will be Ookawa Tooru (Tokugawa Ieyasu). The staff were accepting submissions for his appearance on the Hoshi Souichirou and Seki Tomokazu's 'Sengoku Basara: Judge End' Radio show earlier this week. I wonder who will feature on the final two volumes now that the four lead characters have been confirmed to appear already?

Jacket artwork revealed for the Sengoku Basara: Judge End Original Soundtrack

The big Judge End news announcement this afternoon also included the first look at the artwork for the anime's original soundtrack (details here). The illustrations are taken from the series' ending sequence; they look pretty good.

A brand new Production I.G. art book will be released for Sengoku Basara

An Amazon listing has been spotted for a new book titled Gekijouban Sengoku Basara -The Last Party- Official Illustration Collection II. It's credited to WIT Studio, Production I.G., Capcom and Pony Canyon.

Amazon gives the price of the 112-page book as ¥2,160 and the release date as 10th October 2014. It's to contain unreleased artwork from the home video sleeves (including the recent complete box set), CDs jackets and bonus items as well as an annotated screenplay, and storyboards for scenes which didn't end up being used in the final movie.

Sengoku Basara Magazine vol. 6 is now available from Amazon

There are only three weeks until its release now but Amazon has finally listed the sixth issue of Sengoku Basara Magazine for preorder. e-Capcom's listing has also formally confirmed some of the details that were printed in last month's Dengeki Maoh magazine: this issue will contain two chapters of Mame Sengoku Basara 4 alongside Yoshihara Motoki's Sengoku Basara 4: Bontenmaru-hen and Tane Jugou's Wan-Nyan Sengoku Basara.

Mouri Motonari will get his own 12-page 'Motonari Chronicle' feature article, of course. His seiyuu Nakahara Shigeru and stage actor Kotani Yoshikazu will team up for the double interview this time, which promises some kind of 'doughnut photograph'(?!). Motonari-inspired illustrations will be provided by Kosumi Fujiko and Mizuno Sao.

As part of the in-depth Sengoku Basara: Judge End coverage that has been promised, the staff and seiyuu Nakai Kazuya (Date Masamune) and Hoshi Souichirou (Sanada Yukimura) will talk about the anime and creators KobaP and YamamotoD will provide an interview about its climax.

The temporary cover artwork is satisfyingly green.

A second Geist Crusher collaboration is announced

The first Gaist Crusher game featured an odd cameo from Date Masamune as 'Jet Masamune', and now it seems that Yukimura will be joining him for the sequel, Gaist Crusher God. The official collaboration page includes a preview video showing the tiger-like 'Nekketsu Yukimura'.

There are also two new Alpha Gaists based on Sengoku Basara 4's DLC costumes. Masamune's hakama outfit provides inspiration for the 'White Dokuganryuu' gear and alternate Alpha Masamune, while Yukimura's 'Souryuu' outfit led to 'Blue Yukimura' gear and 'Alpha Yukimura'.

I have never played Gaist Crusher - it's neat that the collaboration is continuing, though.


Capcom continues to promote Sengoku Basara 4

As part of the release activity for the Sengoku Basara 4 Special Package, Capcom has made five of the game's promotional videos available for download on PSN. Thank you to @VegaManX4 for bringing the news to my attention!

What to expect in the next few episode of Sengoku Basara: Judge End

As well as Animate TV's usual preview gallery for tomorrow's episode and the designs for the new additions to the official character page, this week we've got a lot of new information in the form of three more episode summaries and a surprise new character announcement!

The biggest news is that Ueda Youji will be voicing Isono Kazumasa, another anime-only newcomer to the Sengoku Basara cast. While the next episode previews aren't a great deal of help in figuring out how he's going to fit into the plot, his name has been added to the official cast list so he should be appearing soon.

Edit 11th August: I just realised, he's probably the angry Oda retainer from episode 5! I went back and checked the credits and there he was.

We also now have episode summaries for the next three weeks. I'll hide them after a 'read more' jump to protect people from spoilers.

Today's acquisitions (3rd August 2014)

A few things arrived in the post this week which deserved to be pictured.

Way back in January, the Lawson chain of convenience stores ran a special Sengoku Basara 4 promotion with a bunch of cool prizes. I was over in Japan at the time the campaign began so I tried my hardest to win the cool Date Masamune alarm clock - and failed.

However, in the end I managed to win one of the consolation prizes, which was a set of three A4 clear files. They finally arrived this week and I got to see them for the first time!

The first clear file is the one pictured on the campaign page, showing the special artwork that was created for the HMV/Loppi store-exclusive game sleeve. I put some white paper behind the image to make it easier to see.

The next file depicts the 'Production I.G.'-style Date Masamune again, this time in his Lawson uniform.

The reverse side has Masamune's Basara-e dragon artwork.

The last of the three clear files is a silly one, showing Masamune in Mame Sengoku Basara form with Lawson's Karaage-kun mascot perched atop his head.

The same shipment also contained my Sengoku Basara 4 Basara Matsuri 2014 ~Shinshun No Utage~ DVD, which I'll review in the next week or two. The Nendoroid figure of Levi from Shingeki No Kyojin (Attack On Titan) arrived separately - he was a bargain from the Crunchyroll store thanks to the discount coupon that was bundled with my last renewal.

The last item is the Diabolik Lovers do-S Kyuuketsu CD: VERSUS II Vol. IV Carla VS Shin with its Animate-exclusive bromide. I haven't heard the new characters speaking before; it's a little exciting.

Anime review: Sengoku Basara Judge End episode 5

This week's episode of Sengoku Basara Judge End was the fifth - we're almost halfway through the series already!

How to watch

Now that the official simulcasts are beginning it's been confirmed that the alternate title Sengoku Basara -End of Judgement- is being used outside Japan. I'll keep using Judge End for consistency but they're the exact same show.

These are the official ways to watch Sengoku Basara Judge End at the moment:

Television (Japan only)
This week's initial television broadcast on NTV was at 01:55 on Sunday morning (Japan time). The YTV and BS Nittere broadcasts are shown over a week late.

NTV On Demand (Japan only)
This is a premium service. Fans can pay ¥900 to watch the whole series or ¥300 to see an individual episode. The first episode is free and the previous week's episode is shown for free on Fridays and Saturdays. The series airs slightly earlier than the television broadcast at 24:00 local time.

Hulu (Japan only)
Fans who pay Hulu's ¥933 monthly fee can watch the episodes slightly ahead of the broadcast time.

The following Japanese streaming services will also be streaming Judge End; if you can't wait then it might be worth checking them to see whether any work in your region. I imagine they'll make the episodes available shortly after the television broadcast and some will be showing it for free.

AcTVila, Bandai Channel, Best Hit Anime Douga, d Anime Store, DMM.com, Google Play, GyaO Store, Happy Douga Anime, Hikari TV, JCOM On Demand, Movie Full+, Nico Nico Official Channel, Rakuten Showtime, Tsutaya TV, TV Dogatch, U-NEXT, Video Market

FUNimation (US only)
The episodes are streamed weekly on Saturdays at 14:20 Eastern Time with English subtitles. They've added the first three episodes already with the next two scheduled for today. From episode five onwards, subscribers will be able to watch the latest episode on the same day it's available in Japan while free users have to wait a week. FUNimation also have the home video rights, so if the stream is popular the series should eventually be dubbed into English.

Anime Digital Network (France only)
ADN are offering the series online with French subtitles. So far, the first three episodes are available. They charge a monthly fee for the service.

J-ONE (France only)
A French-subtitled broadcast will take place on J-ONE - Canalsat (50) and Numericable (38).

Viewster (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway only)
The show's broadcast was announced as being 'day and date with Japan' so I'm guessing they'll appear every Saturday afternoon once the service has been set up. So far, three episodes are online with English subtitles. Viewster is a free ad-supported service.

Like many fans around the world I live in a country which has been excluded from the licensed simulcasts so far (thanks, anime industry!). In spite of this treatment I feel very strongly about supporting the official western version when it's available rather than resorting to piracy. The Japanese distributors will use the official viewing figures to see how successful the show has been while the US anime distributors like FUNimation use them to decide whether to give new titles home video releases, whether to dub them and whether to go the extra mile and produce a high quality premium release. If we want Sengoku Basara Judge End to receive a decent western release and raise awareness of the series, we need to make sure people are watching the official streams if possible. Please get your friends to watch it too if you can so that the industry can see that there's an audience out there. It might help to visit the official streaming sites and leave supportive comments there too, even if you live in a country where the video itself is blocked and you had to watch it some other way.

I'd rather not say how I'm watching the Japanese streams but it's not that difficult to find a method with some searching.

Important reminder

Sengoku Basara: Judge End is not a continuation of the previous anime adaptation. It's a brand new story and none of the events in Production I.G.'s version of Sengoku Basara have taken place in its timeline. Please don't get confused trying to match the old story to the new one; this anime is a complete reboot of the entire Sengoku Basara scenario. The story takes place after the fall of Oda Nobunaga.

Summary

The rest of this post contains spoilers for the first five episodes of Sengoku Basara: Judge End and some low quality screenshots. Please note that I'm watching the show in Japanese and using my preferred spellings for character names; they won't necessary match the localised spellings if you're watching one of the subtitled versions!

Manga review: Sengoku Basara 4 Dengeki Comic Anthology

The Sengoku Basara 4 Dengeki Comic Anthology is a 132-page collection of manga based on the Sengoku Basara 4 setting and characters. It was originally released by ASCII Media Works in the Dengeki line on 25th April 2014, priced at ¥850, and it's still readily obtainable from all good online bookstores such as CD Japan, Yesasia and Amazon Japan. A Kindle version is also available.

With this being the very first anthology to feature the seven new Sengoku Basara 4 characters, it was a real treat for fans who want to see more of them in manga form (outside of the two series being serialised monthly in Dengeki Maoh). The regular cast members show up too, of course, but their roles are far smaller than those of the newcomers.

The cover depicting the game's four leads with antagonist Yoshiteru looming in the background was illustrated by Ayamura Kirihito. Sadly, it doesn't wrap around to the back of the book to depict the rest of the characters; I'd have loved to have seen them drawn in Ayamura's style as well. There are two additional colour illustrations on the first few pages: Satsuki Yuu has drawn an amusing picture of Shingen, Naotora and Yukimura, while Yamada Uiro presents a cool confrontation between Katsuie and Sakon. The pictures make for a stunning start to the book and really set the scene.

The rest of the anthology is made up of short manga.

Matsuri De Chouhan Shoubu ('A Chouhan Match at the Festival')
Ashika Nozomu
Sakon goes to visit the festival with the intention of speaking to Keiji and gathering information about Ieyasu. Not long after he arrives, however, Tsuruhime and Magoichi turn up and propose a gambling match, supposedly acting on Himiko's orders. It's a proposition that Sakon can't resist, but with all of the cheating going on it seems unlikely that his original mission will ever be a success...

News roundup: Sengoku Basara Judge End episode 5 airs tomorrow

It's been a relatively quiet week as far as Sengoku Basara news goes, though that doesn't mean nothing's been happening.

Animate previews tomorrow's episode of Sengoku Basara: Judge End

It's Friday, which means the usual teaser screenshot gallery from tomorrow's new anime episode courtesy of Animate TV. The international streams seem to have been gradually catching up with the Japanese broadcast as promised; in the US and Canada, FUNimation subscribers will be able to watch episode 5 on time with English subtitles!

Sengoku Basara 4 features in a shopping centre event

From 1st August 2014, Capcom will be running a special 'mystery-solving' event at More's City, a shopping mall in Yokosuka, Kanagawa. The catchily-named Capcom Nazotoki Challenge pits visitors against a choice of four challenges, and Sengoku Basara 4 is one of them (along with Biohazard, Hakase No Jikkenshitsu and Yume No Sekai Kara No Toubou ~escape from dream~). According to the description, you play a member of the Ishida army's Sakon squad on a mission to reclaim Osaka Castle from Masamune and Yukimura by solving puzzles. It sounds pretty fun.

Details announced for the Butai Sengoku Basara x JTB official tour

It's customary for the recent stage play performances to offer an 'official tour' package and the one for the next show has now been confirmed. I'm going to assume that anyone who is likely to want to go on it will be able to read the details on that page already, but it's worth noting that attendees will receive three exclusive bonuses this time: a bromide of the stars, an original poster and a pencil case. Each item will be themed around Butai Sengoku Basara 4.

This year's Masamune-kou Matsuri will use Sengoku Basara 4 on its posters again

Is it that time of year again already? The 51st Masamune-kou Matsuri will take place on the 13th and 14th September 2014 in Iwadeyama-machi (Oosaki). The traditional local festival is once again using Sengoku Basara's Date Masamune on its posters to help promote the event in honour of the real-life Masamune, according to Twitter user @teruteru0293 who managed to spot one on display.

New Sengoku Basara goods were teased at Wonder Festival last week

I've been hoping for more solid information about these but it seems that it's not forthcoming at the moment. The Wonder Festival event took place last weekend and visitors were able to take some snapshots of a few new prototypes.

Firstly, it seems that Mitsunari will soon be joining Masamune in Kaiyodo's 'Micro Yamaguchi' Revolmini figure line. The unpainted prototype has been shown off but there's no date yet. I wonder whether they're going to remake all of the original full-sized Sengoku Basara Revoltechs for the Revolmini collection before introducing some of the new characters? Some characters will obviously be much easier to turn into poseable figures than others...

The other prototypes on display were the newest additions to the Gift x Algernon plushie range: Sakon, Mitsunari, Motonari and Motochika. Famitsu has a good picture in this image gallery while user Nanahashi on Tumblr and @BASARA_GD posted some more shots. Since they seem to be selling so well, perhaps we'll get Ieyasu, Katsuie, Keiji and Hanbee next? In case anyone at Algernon is reading this, I'd definitely buy a Tadakatsu plushie.

Even more Judge End merchandise is on the way

AmiAmi have published listings for seven collectible ema plaque straps based on the characters of the new anime series. You can choose from Masamune, Yukimura, Keiji, Mitsunari, Motochika, Motonari or Ieyasu, and each will retail for ¥410 when they come out in late September 2014.

Special senjafuda stickers using the Judge End designs will also be available from late August priced at ¥300. The website doesn't say where to buy them at this time but the stickers are printed by special machines, which are usually strategically situated at tourist locations and hobby stores such as Animate and the official Capcom shop. You pay the fee and then get to personalise them with your name, sticker design, font and other details until you've created something to your liking.

Today's acquisitions (27th July 2014)

This should rightfully be called 'yesterday's acquisitions' but I was too tired to post them after the event. Especially as my friends and I spent the evening watching a bunch of fantastic movies, namely Tiger & Bunny: The Rising, Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Rebellion and Kotonoha No Niwa (Garden Of Words) before my weekly Sengoku Basara: Judge End session. It was a great day.

First up, CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs. I collected the US versions of Cat's Eye Season one, Hetalia: The Beautiful World, Aquarion Evol Part 2, Anohana: The Movie, The Devil Is A Part Timer! (Hataraku Maou-sama) and Amnesia. The Amnesia set came with two copies of the first disc since the original pressing had a rather embarrassing production error. I feel a little bad buying the standard Blu-ray version of the Anohana movie instead of the gorgeous special edition, but as it's mostly a recap and I don't know whether the music is any good it seemed prudent to save money.

There's one Japanese import Blu-ray set in this picture and it's Tiger & Bunny: The Rising, which is the second film in the series. The first press edition of the movie comes with two bonus discs all housed in a gorgeous chipboard box to match the first one.

The final item in this picture is Exit Tunes presents ACTORS, a CD collecting famous Vocaloid songs covered by male seiyuu such as Hoshi Souichirou, Okiayu Ryoutarou and Eguchi Takuya. How could I resist?

I picked up the second half of the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon manga (the new release of Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon) from Kodansha's stand at Hyper Japan, and Shiina Ringo's Toutaikai: Heisei 25-Nen Kamiyamachou Taikai Blu-ray/CD set arrived by post. At the bottom of this picture is a slightly better look at the free Jean Kirstein (Shingeki No Kyojin) charm I received with my last Yesasia order.

The last picture has a story behind it. My friend recently went to Japan on holiday so I asked him to enter Animate's in-store Diabolik Lovers Ani-Kuji lottery if he had enough time - I wanted to obtain the two exclusive drama CDs. Well, yesterday he produced all of the prizes he won for me. Not only did he get both CDs (amusingly titled Teddy in the pool and Bath bubble panic), he also won three large tin badges (Ayato, Kanato and Reiji), an Ayato bath poster and two sets of scented bath salts (Ayato, Kanato). Wow! There are a couple of duplicate items which I might give away someday.

The same friend then surprised me with a few extra Sengoku Basara goodies as well. The silly Date Masamune wall sticker is going to be stuck above my monitors shortly, and the Mame Sengoku Basara memo stand charm set is super-cute. I'm so lucky...

Event report: Hyper Japan 2014

The annual (and sometimes biannual) Hyper Japan event returned to London's Earls Court exhibition centre between 25th and 27th July 2014, so I managed to find time to pop to yesterday's show to see what they had arranged for this year's celebration of Japanese pop culture. Hyper Japan is a unique event which blends Japanese fashion, artwork, games, music, cinema and traditional culture together to allow visitors to get a taste of all kinds of activities in a single venue.

It's popular with young people, naturally, but also with older Londoners who are curious about Japan and expats who want to introduce their favourite traditions to a wider audience. The attendees come from a rich mixture of backgrounds; if the intense atmosphere at MCM Comic Con is too much for you, Hyper Japan tends to offer a much more pleasant, friendly experience.

The first hurdle we were presented with was that the popular Saturday show had been split into two halves this year as an experiment to help ease crowding. The first session ran from 09:15 until 14:15, then the second started at 15:15 and ran all the way until closing time at 20:15. You could buy tickets for both halves of the show, of course, but this would leave you waiting around in a fairly empty part of London for an hour with nothing to do until the event reopened. I wonder how well this experiment worked out.

Judging by the ticket sales on the official website, the Saturday afternoon and Sunday shows were probably the most popular. My group opted for Saturday morning as we wanted to see one of the special guests perform, and it turned out to be a good choice. The crowds weren't too bad at all first thing in the morning so we managed to see everything we wanted to before our session was over.

Anime review: Sengoku Basara Judge End episode 4

I watched the fourth episode of Sengoku Basara: Judge End a little later than usual today due to real-life commitments.

How to watch

Now that the official simulcasts are beginning it's been confirmed that the alternate title Sengoku Basara -End of Judgement- is being used outside Japan. I'll keep using Judge End for consistency but they're the exact same show.

These are the official ways to watch Sengoku Basara: Judge End at the moment:

Television (Japan only)
The initial television broadcast on NTV is at 01:50 every Sunday morning. The YTV and BS Nittere broadcasts are shown a week late.

NTV On Demand (Japan only)
This is a premium service. Fans can pay ¥900 to watch the whole series or ¥300 to see an individual episode. The first episode is free and the previous week's episode is shown for free on Fridays and Saturdays. The series airs slightly earlier than the television broadcast at 24:00 local time.

Hulu (Japan only)
Fans who pay Hulu's ¥933 monthly fee can watch the episodes slightly ahead of the broadcast time.

The following Japanese streaming services will also be streaming Judge End; if you can't wait then it might be worth checking them to see whether any work in your region. I imagine they'll make the episodes available shortly after the television broadcast and some will be showing it for free.

AcTVila, Bandai Channel, Best Hit Anime Douga, d Anime Store, DMM.com, Google Play, GyaO Store, Happy Douga Anime, Hikari TV, JCOM On Demand, Movie Full+, Nico Nico Official Channel, Rakuten Showtime, Tsutaya TV, TV Dogatch, U-NEXT, Video Market

FUNimation (US only)
The episodes will be streamed weekly on Saturdays at 2:20pm Eastern Time with English subtitles. They've added the first three episodes now with the next two scheduled for next week, to catch up with the Japanese broadcast. From episode five onwards, subscribers will be able to watch the latest episode on the same day it's available in Japan while free users have to wait a week. FUNimation also have the home video rights, so if the stream is popular the series should eventually be dubbed into English.

Anime Digital Network (France only)
ADN are offering the series online with French subtitles. So far, the first two episodes are available. They charge a monthly fee for the service.

J-ONE (France only)
A French-subtitled broadcast will take place on J-ONE - Canalsat (50) and Numericable (38).

Viewster (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway only)
The show's broadcast was announced as being 'day and date with Japan' so I'm guessing they'll appear every Saturday afternoon once the service has been set up. So far, two episodes are online with English subtitles with a promise that the third is due soon. Viewster is a free ad-supported service.

Like many fans around the world I live in a country which has been excluded from the licensed simulcasts so far (thanks, anime industry!). In spite of this treatment I feel very strongly about supporting the official western version when it's available rather than resorting to piracy. The Japanese distributors will use the official viewing figures to see how successful the show has been while the US anime distributors like FUNimation use them to decide whether to give new titles home video releases, whether to dub them and whether to go the extra mile and produce a high quality premium release. If we want Sengoku Basara Judge End to receive a decent western release and raise awareness of the series, we need to make sure people are watching the official streams if possible. Please get your friends to watch it too if you can so that the industry can see that there's an audience out there. It might help to visit the official streaming sites and leave supportive comments there too, even if you live in a country where the video itself is blocked and you had to watch it some other way.

I'd rather not say how I'm watching the Japanese streams but it's not that difficult to find a method with some searching.

Important reminder

Sengoku Basara: Judge End is not a continuation of the previous anime adaptation. It's a brand new story and none of the events in Production I.G.'s version of Sengoku Basara have taken place in its timeline. Please don't get confused trying to match the old story to the new one; this anime is a complete reboot of the entire Sengoku Basara scenario. The story takes place after the fall of Oda Nobunaga.

Summary

The rest of this post contains spoilers for the first four episodes of Sengoku Basara: Judge End and some low quality screenshots. Please note that I'm watching the show in Japanese and using my preferred spellings for character names; they won't necessary match the localised spellings if you're watching one of the subtitled versions!

News roundup: the Sengoku Basara 4 Special Package is released

The Sengoku Basara 4 Special Package was released yesterday

The biggest Sengoku Basara news story this week has definitely been the release of the limited 'Special Package' edition with its attractive price point, bonus DVD and bundled DLC codes. KobaP tweeted a picture of an unboxed version showing all of the contents.

People who already have the game can still enjoy a few of the benefits, such as the free promotional wallpapers and the video tributes from Aoki Shiki (Maou) and Edosan" & Fumiichi. There's also a little competition; if you follow the @BASARA_CAPCOM account on Twitter and retweet this message, you'll be entered into a draw to win a signed Sengoku Basara 4 promotional poster or some Ichiban Kuji goodies. Please be aware that it's necessary to have access to a Japanese mailing address to claim the prize.

More Mame Sengoku Basara collectibles are on the way

A set of eight Mame Sengoku Basara Trading Rubber Magnets is due for release in November 2014 priced at ¥5,000 for a box or ¥500 per individual magnet.

Details of the third standalone Sengoku Basara Magazine CD

An Amazon listing has appeared for a new audio CD: Sengoku Basara Magazine CD: Showgeki Basara Talk! Vol. 3: Ieyasu & Mitsunari No Maki Special-ban. This is the third disc based on the talk CDs packaged with the magazine and it collects the two shows presented by Ookawa Tooru (Tokugawa Ieyasu) and Seki Tomokazu (Ishida Mitsunari). As usual there's some bonus content for the standalone release such as a guest appearance by Nakamura Yuuichi (Shima Sakon) and an additional drama track.

The themes for the three 'Basara Challenge' segments are 'Sentai Hero' from Sengoku Basara Magazine vol. 5, 'Children's Telephone Consultation Room', which is presumably from the as-yet unreleased sixth issue, and 'Tennis', a brand new challenge. If the second one sounds strange it's because it's a parody of a real Japanese radio show called Kodomo Denwa Soudanshitsu where children call in with questions for adults to answer on a variety of topics.

The new CD will be released on 27th September 2014 priced at ¥2,700. The artwork used on Amazon is a placeholder so there will probably be a brand new illustration produced for the final version to match the earlier volumes.

The first volume of Mame Sengoku Basara 4 will be released in September

Fans of Sumeragi's cute super-deformed spin-off series can finally pick up the first volume of Mame Sengoku Basara 4 on 27th September 2014 to see the Sengoku Basara 4 cast joining the Mame Sengoku Basara world. So far it's only been listed in a few reliable Japanese stores such as MangaOh; expect it to appear elsewhere in the next few days. The formal announcement would usually coincide with the release of this month's Dengeki Maoh magazine tomorrow.

Sumeragi has tweeted a preview of tomorrow's chapter of the Mame Sengoku Basara 4 manga if you're curious about how the designs for the new characters look.

Round 3 of the Capcom Summer Sale on PSN means more deals on old games

The current round of Capcom's Summer Sale on the Japanese PlayStation Store has added the PlayStation 2 Sengoku Basara titles to the list, so if you happen to have some extra PSN credit and don't want the Sengoku Basara HD Collection for some reason, you can grab the old games very cheaply indeed.

Sengoku Basara (download edition)
Old price: ¥823
Sale price (until 1st September 2014): ¥500

Sengoku Basara 2 (download edition)
Old price: ¥823
Sale price (until 1st September 2014): ¥500

Sengoku Basara 2 Eiyuu Gaiden (HEROES) (download edition)
Old price: ¥823
Sale price (until 1st September 2014): ¥500

Capcom preview the design for the new Katakura Kojuurou x Sanada Yukimura bus

I already described the bus a couple of days ago, so I guess all that's left is to post the new preview picture showing how it will look when it's in service!

Nakai Kazuya is to be a guest on Sengoku Basara: Judge End Radio

It's been announced that seiyuu Nakai Kazuya (Date Masamune) will appear as a special guest on the exclusive episode of Hoshi Souichirou and Seki Tomokazu's 'Sengoku Basara: Judge End' Radio which comes with the first pressing of the Sengoku Basara: Judge End I home video release. Fans are invited to submit messages for Nakai by email before Wednesday next week.

Enter-sis show off the intricate buttons for their upcoming merchandise

The 'Giga Collection' clutch bag and canvas wallets are still a long way off but Enter-sis Factory have begun promoting them on Facebook with a preview picture of the detail on the metal buttons which will decorate both items. They look a lot like the Giga Basara stamp in Sengoku Basara 4, and I think they're very attractive even as unfinished prototypes.

NTV presents more Sengoku Basara: Judge End merchandise

Two more upcoming items appeared on the official website today for release at the start of August 2014.

A shitajiki (pencil board) costing ¥400.

A collection of coasters costing ¥300 each.

More actors are to graduate after the next Butai Sengoku Basara stage play

The 'urgent' Butai Sengoku Basara news broadcast took place this afternoon. I haven't had a chance to watch the hour-long broadcast myself yet, but bad news travels quickly and it seems that the show has announced that four of the most popular actors from the series will be 'graduating' after Butai Sengoku Basara 4 at the end of this year.

This is a real blow for the stage play series as Nakamura Seijirou (Ishida Mitsunari), Hirose Yuusuke (Tokugawa Ieyasu), Yoshida Tomokazu (Katakura Kojuurou) and Murata Youjirou (Sarutobi Sasuke) have all played their characters every single time they've appeared. Yoshida and Murata in particular have been with the stage plays ever since they first began. Given the trouble that the staff have had finding a replacement for Kubota Yuuki (Date Masamune) and Hosogai Kei (Sanada Yukimura) ever since they left, I feel quite uneasy about the future of Butai Sengoku Basara.

Animate posts its weekly Sengoku Basara: Judge End preview

To end on a happier note, here's the preview gallery for the fourth episode of Sengoku Basara: Judge End which airs tomorrow. It looks as though there's going to be a lot of interesting content!

In addition, Capcom's official Sengoku Basara Twitter account has drawn attention to today's image from the online Basara-ya shop in Sengoku Basara 4. It has a teaser picture of Kenshin and Kasuga together from the new anime as well as a birthday message for Matsu.

News roundup: nine years of Sengoku Basara

The first game's anniversary was actually yesterday but I wanted to let a little more news build up before posting to avoid the flood of news we had last week. Next year will be the big tenth anniversary so I hope we can expect good things!

Sengoku Basara: Judge End bath towels are coming to arcades

Game centres will be offering four different 120cm x 60cm Sengoku Basara: Judge End bath towels as prizes during November 2014 for lucky fans in Japan. The sample pictures are small so it's difficult to tell how the towels will look at full size.

Go sightseeing in Japan with Sengoku Basara: Judge End

The Hachimanyama Ropeway and Shizugatake Lift attractions - both situated in Shiga Prefecture - will be hosting a Sengoku Basara: Judge End tie-in from Saturday 26th July until 28th September 2014. Visitors to the Ropeway can look forward to seeing cable cars decorated with Sengoku Basara: Judge End illustrations and a take a look at a free exhibition of Sengoku Basara display panels (standees).

Another attraction for Sengoku Basara fans will be the special Ishida Mitsunari tickets on offer for the first 1,000 visitors.

The Hachimanyama Ropeway tickets (leftmost picture) cost ¥820 and cover a single round trip on the cable car, while the Shizugatake chair lift tickets (rightmost picture) will be a little cheaper at ¥780.

Katakura Kojuurou's vegetable okayu will soon be available in Japan

The latest tasty-sounding Sengoku Basara 4 tie-in is yasai-kayu, or vegetable rice porridge, featuring the series' vegetable enthusiast Kojuurou on the packaging. The description recommends enjoying the cold porridge during the blazing summer season. It will be available for purchase in Animate stores and a variety of other outlets from late August 2014.

A new bus will be decorated with Kojuurou and Yukimura from Sengoku Basara 4

The city of Shiroishi in Miyagi Prefecture has long embraced its ties to the Date clan and in particular the real-life Katakura Kojuurou, who is something of a local hero. One of the cute side effects of this is that the local tourist board readily participates in Capcom's Sengoku Basara collaborations. There's a little shuttle bus called Castle-kun which takes tourists to and from Shiroishi Castle, and for several years a few of the vehicles have been proudly decorated with illustrations of Sengoku Basara's version of Kojuurou. It's difficult to walk through the town without seeing constant reminders of Sengoku Basara!

It was announced today that another bus is going to be joining the fleet from 4th August 2014, this time decorated with the Sengoku Basara 4 versions of both Kojuurou and Yukimura (who also has strong historical ties to the Katakura family). The new bus will be on the Obara line and there will be a special event held one day before it goes into service, where fans can have pictures taken with the bus and apply to go on an inaugural tour.

It's not all happy news, though: one of the earlier buses adorned with illustrations of the Production I.G. version of Kojuurou is being taken out of service at the same time due to its age. Fans are being given advance notice so they can say farewell to the old bus before it disappears for good.

...did I just write three paragraphs about buses?

'Yukimura from BASARA' trends on Twitter in Japan

There was a great deal of excitement on the Japanese side of Twitter today when television coverage of the 'hugely popular Sengoku-era warrior' Sanada Yukimura was accompanied by his Sengoku Basara 4 character illustration. The coverage of popular tourist spots in the Shinshuu (Nagano) area created such a buzz that Yukimura began to trend for a while.

The Masamune and Ieyasu jerseys are back on sale for a very limited time

To go with the Motonari and Motochika jerseys unveiled last month, the Akita Shoten store is offering the older Ieyasu and Masamune jerseys once again for a very limited time. They're not cheap at ¥9,500 each and fans outside Japan will need to use a proxy service if they want to buy them, but this is an opportunity to get hold of some extremely rare merchandise so I'd recommend placing an order swiftly if you've been hoping to own one of these one day. At the time I'm posting this the Masamune jersey is about to sell out.

FUNimation's Sengoku Basara: Judge End simulcast is coming very soon

FUNimation have posted a new blog entry reporting that the first three episodes of Sengoku Basara -End of Judgement- (Sengoku Basara: Judge End) will be available on their streaming website from Saturday at 2:20pm ET, with the next two episodes to follow next Saturday.

This will bring them completely up to date with Japan's broadcast schedule so the US simulcast is finally on the way!

(Now who wants to be the one to break it to them that the show isn't actually 'episodes 26-37' of the original series?)

And finally...

That's all for the regular news coverage, but two other interesting things took place yesterday on the game's ninth anniversary which I should give a proper mention on this blog.

First of all, the lovely Justin over at Organization Anti-Social Geniuses posted an article introducing fans to the world of Sengoku Basara. With the Sengoku Basara: Judge End anime running it was perfectly timed, so when he asked me to answer a few questions in an interview I eagerly accepted the opportunity to talk about the series. I hope that my excited praise helped...

Organization ASG is a great blog which I've been reading for some time; it covers the western anime and manga industries (and it's already paid more attention to the series than certain mainstream news sites). Even if you completely disagree with every word I said in the interview it's still worth checking out!

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Lastly, I want to show off a cute picture my friend (and extremely patient Sengoku Basara co-op buddy) drew to celebrate the character poll we all did here a few months ago. He tried to add lots of cute little details. It made me happy, so I'm going to use a tiny version of the picture to brighten up this post!