E3 is long gone, leaving in its wake countless corpses of trailers, game play videos, and interviews scattered about the ground like leaves on a fall day. Final Fantasy XII, Little Big Planet, and Street Fighter IV get all the press coverage to last them a life time, but the poor anime-based video games fall in between the cracks and are forgotten. Not anymore, because I’ve done the dirty work for you and collected them all in one place, an E3 video blowout!

After the jump I present to you videos of a million different Naruto games set to be released next year, plus a couple of games that are not based on Naruto; as crazy as that sounds. Despite the Naruto redundancy, the games themselves are evolving, becoming better and better after each game released. Naruto: Rise of a Ninja was good, but Broken Bond looks a lot better; therefore color me excited. Also, Dragon Ball for the DS looks like it might be epic, and needs to be localized. But don’t take my word for it and check it out for yourself.

Lord knows we all like a good otaku debate. Sifting through the finer points of who is better than who is the keystone to all truly geeky pursuits. Also, we all know that girls in skimpy outfits make everything better. So why not judge girls in skimpy cosply of your favorite anime characters?

Enter these guys. I don't know what those magic pixies are up to, but I like their pixie drink. They're running a series of cosplay battles. Previously they've featured a few of the characters from Haruhi Suzumiya.The newest installment features none other than Rei and Asuka from the super symbolic giant robo battling Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Yeah, this is pretty much a can't miss batch of awesome drool-worthy pics. Check out the gallery for a few of the drooliest, then check out the site for way way more. Who do you think is the winner?

It should come as no surprise that the new animated film Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea from the legendary Hayao Miyazaki did very well in its opening weekend. Miyazaki is a master and Ghibli knows how to work it. Jason Gray reports that it's already on track to become Miyazaki's second biggest hit, monetarily speaking, at least.

Yet, on the other hand, both the critics and the children the film is aimed at seem to have given it a solid "meh." Ryuganji has collected and translated a few of the choice quotes:

“Compared to his last three films that addressed environmental destruction, morality and pacifism head-on, its themes of love and keeping promises are important but overly minimal.”

“Although it’s set in the sea there’s no sense of scale, and there’s not much in the way of uplift either.”

"In fact, even Miyazaki himself has admitted that 'the reaction from kids at preview screenings was absolutely non-existent, and he’s down in the dumps because he tried making something for kids but failed to hit the target.'”

All of that seems a bit like splitting hairs to me. For one, this is a kids movie. Kids don't really dig huge, deep themes. They want to see cute things doing funny things. As for kids not being able to sit for an hour and a half and stay interested in said cute things, I think that says more about the parents than the kids.

Personally, I think people are projecting way too much responsibility onto what sounds like a very simple, quiet and easy-going film for kids. Can't the guy just do something pretty and fluffy once in a while? Does everything have to be about World War II?

Sometimes, I really really feel bad for the geeks of Japan. I mean sure, we all know that most of the things we love are birthed first on the mean streets of Akihabara and housed in the depths of Super Potato. Yet when Japan looks to the outside for its geek goods, it sometimes has to look for a very very long time before setting their sights on the prize.

Case in point, Harry Potter. Turns out those poor Japanese Potter-philes have been waiting all this time for he final installment of the Harry Potter series Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The book finally hit stores today, July 23rd. Just how they've endured this long we're probably better off know knowing. Some things are just too sad and horrible.

To top it all off, just look at how abysmal the cover art is! Oh JK, what did these people ever do to you to make you treat them so badly? It's not like they were the ones who killedURK!

[via Japan Probe]

Really, the only thing I need to say here is something like "OMG super kawaii Pokemon tarot deck FTW," right?

I mean, I could go on and on about the various character choices for their respective cards, how so-and-so would totally be a better choice than such-and-such. I mean, there's, like, a zillion and two of those little bubbly critters to choose from after all. I think I'll leave all that debate and deep philosophical discourse up to you, loyal readers, in the comments. Meanwhile, I'm just going to ogle them all in the gallery.

Besides, I don't actually know anything about either Pokemon nor tarot, aside from the fact that I think they're both just about as effective at telling your furtune as the dark side of my ass. But hey, at least they provide this handy tool to automatically draw cards for you.

FUNi had promised to close the gap between licensing a show and putting out the DVD by making digital download versions of the shows available for all who wanted it. Well, they're at it again with Jyu-Oh-Sei, a futuristic shoujo series from BONES. The episodes are going to be available for download for $1.99 a piece or $16.99 for the whole series, all subtitled. One of the things AoD notes is that you need Windows XP to watch these episodes, just so you know

The story revolves around a pair of twins, Thor and Rai, who were abandoned on a jungle planet after their parents were murdered. When they woke up, they found that the planet was extremely deadly, and is actually a prison colony where people are just sent to die. Now they've got to survive. Sounds pretty interesting, and the manga has been licensed by Tokyopop, but it's not yet out. The first volume is due August 12th.

Last week we had an epic debate between two megalomaniacal leaders who also happen to be fan favorites in villainy; Gendo of Neon Genesis fame vs. Final Fantasy VI’s Kefka. If these two ever fought, you know the world would be destroyed in the aftermath, a pretty sad fact knowing we wouldn’t be able to watch this awesome brawl without loosing our lives. And the winner is…

This week’s Hollywood influenced debate is after the jump.