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Nishiura Momokans Win 2nd Nico Baseball Tournament in Extras

July 31, 2009 in Games, Sports by Tom Langston (calaggie) | No comments


Rallying back from 2 down in the bottom of the 9th to tie the score, the Nishura Momokans [西浦モモカンズ] (Oofuri) won the 2nd annual unofficial Nico baseball tournament on an RBI double off a tired Heiji Hattori in the 10th. Ren Mihashi pitched his fifth consecutive complete game and deservingly won tournament MVP. Their opponent, the Baker Street Detectives [米花町デテクテイブス] (Detective Conan), led for most of the game thanks to RBIs in the 6th and 7th by Hiroshi Agasa and Genta Kojima, respectively, and to Conan Edogawa throwing six scoreless innings before being relieved by Ai Haibara to start the 7th.

Hattori came in to replace Haibara in the ninth and that’s when the Momokans’ comeback began. A single by Yūichirō Tajima and a double by Azusa Hanai off the left field wall made it 2nd & 3rd with no outs. Kazutoshi Oki’s sacrifice fly to center drove in Tajima for their first run of the game but then Fumiki Mizutani flied out to center, leaving them with only one out left. Mihashi got on base with a single, pushing Hanai to third in the process, which set up Takaya Abe to slap an RBI single to left to knot the game at 2-2. They had an opportunity to clinch the title without going to extras with runners on 1st & 2nd but Kōsuke Izumi flying out forced the game into the 10th.

Showing signs of fatigue, Mihashi managed to retire the side in order to set the stage for a championship-winning bottom half of the inning. Yūto Sakaeguchi led off with a line out to second but then Shōji Suyama doubled to deep center and both Tajima and Hanai both drew walks, loading the bases for Oki. His double to center on a 3-1 pitch drove in Suyama to win the game and the tournament. (Tajima was close behind Suyama and would’ve been the 4th run but Nishiura only needed one.)
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2nd Nico Sim Baseball Tourney Already in Full Swing

May 10, 2009 in Games, Sports by Tom Langston (calaggie) | No comments


While browsing for Koshien clips on Nico last week, I came across a pleasant surprise. It turns out that the same person who ran last year’s inaugural tournament that pitted 16 anime & manga-based teams against each other in a sim bracket has already started doing it again this spring. This time around (Nico link), the tournament has been dubbed “Koshien Dream Match” (甲子園ドリームマッチ), the field has been doubled to 32 teams, and the game has been upgraded to Pawapuro 15. It took two months but the first round wrapped up on Saturday so if you’d like read those results and the 2nd round matchups, feel free to continue.
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Bandai 1 of 20 Content Providers in Nico, TMNG Joint Project

November 11, 2008 in News, Websites by Tom Langston (calaggie) | No comments

I received my first legitimate press release in the site’s inbox this evening and it did not seem exciting at first. It was sent by the The New Media Group and announced a collaborative content-sharing service to launch this December with Nico Nico Douga where Nico users will be able to view content from 20 “official providers” including as TNMG’s IPTV platform World On-Demand, MTV Japan, Avex, Bandai, and Livedoor. Wait, Bandai?!?

Yes, the anime and tokusatsu producer-slash-distributor is listed as one of many partners involved in this project (unclear if it is specifically Bandai Visual, Sunrise or both) so I have a little excuse to write about this. Frankly, there aren’t many juicy details except that Nico reportedly has 9.3 million Japanese (and secret foreign?) subscribers and commands either 2.3 or 2.9 million daily unique users, depending on whom from TNMG is trying to impress people. Simon Godden, President of e-learning service Teacher Tom Japan, thinks “this [deal] is a home run” so it must be great, right? Um, it guess it would be nice if you wanted to leave streams of comments on top of official music videos and foreign content as well as the swath of Touhou, IM@S, and Miku MADs that currently inhabit the site.

At any rate, you can read the entire release after the jump to get a few more optimistic quotes from executives focused on expanding the global reach of their managed brands.
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The Anime Sim Baseball Tournament on Nico

July 31, 2008 in Games, Sports by Tom Langston (calaggie) | 1 comment


Have you ever wanted to see characters from your favorite anime series face off on a ballfield diamond? Well, some enterprising Japanese person set up a 16-team tournament using Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 14 to simulate the matches and posted the results on NicoNicoDouga with some added graphics to make them seem more televised. While there were obvious baseball inclusions such as Oofuri and Dokaben, there were also a few obscure choices like Maple Senchi and shojo manga Muteki no Venus by Ayumi Shiina. An added bonus was that the uploader also took the time to craft relevant chants for each team (i.e. “Star Rise” from Bamboo Blade), which made the whole thing all the more authentic, at least as much as a video game can be real.

Anyway, if you are a baseball nerd like myself and if you want to watch the matches, there is a video playlist containing them in sequence but for those who are not (and also lack Nico accounts), I’m also posting the results after the jump.
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Lagann Ani-Monday Announcement, Nico News Style

May 27, 2008 in Video by Tom Langston (calaggie) | No comments


I found this news report on Nico and want to say two things about it:

1) It’s odd but a bit nice that the synthesized-voiced reporter felt the Gurren Lagann/Sci-Fi Monday deal was important enough to pass along to the NicoNico audience (about 700 views worth). Here’s the related story from Anime! Anime!.

2) That was one of the driest news reports I’ve ever seen, but it does get the information across in a straightforward way.

For those who don’t know, Weiß Schwarz is a 2 player trading card game like Project Revolution where you try to beat your opponent by using characters from various series. In the case of the advertised TCG, the series currently involved include Zero no Tsukaima, Little Busters!, Disagea, and Persona 3. [Akibahara Channel]

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