Below is a Q&A session with rising anime star Hiroshi Yamazaki, the director of “The Duel” episode of Halo Legends — an all-new seven-episode anthology expanding the Halo universe.

The Blu-ray and DVD will be available February 16

Anime director Hiroshi Yamazaki provides fans with a distinctly different artistic vision of the Halo universe with his painterly approach to animation in “The Duel.”

Yamazaki’s episode goes back to ancient times, at the dawn of the Covenant. A shamed Elite defies his role as an “Arbiter” — an honored but suicidal role that would regain him a shred of honor—to take a path of revenge against those that stole the only thing that matters to such an amazing warrior: His true love. This ancient Arbiter must fight his way through ever-growing groups of his former allies (grunts, elites, hunters, etc.) until he finally stands face-to-face with the elite who betrayed his trust.

QUESTION: What made you think Halo would lend itself to anime/animation?

HIROSHI YAMAZAKI: I believe that the suitability (of a property for animation) depends upon each story. This story definitely worked well in animation, and in this style.

QUESTION: What was the inspiration for your artistic vision in your episode of Halo Legends?

HY: I have been a lover of viewing the Halo art /illustration collection books and such for some time and the entire collection of Halo properties inspired me.

QUESTION: Were there any particular images within the Halo realm that helped shape or drive your creative vision?

HY: When I was contacted by I.G about the project, I imagined that the project would be very Sci-Fi in taste. However, when I met Mr. Frank
O’Connor (of 343 Industries, Microsoft Games Studios) for the first time, his requirement was to create a Samurai episode featuring an Arbiter, and I was considerably and happily surprised.

QUESTION: What did you set out to accomplish in this episode, and why do you think you achieved or exceeded your goals?

HY: What I was aiming for in this project was to make audiences understand there should be other styles of animation beyond the existing two primary kinds of animation presented — precisely cel-drawing 2D style and CG 3D style. I wanted to show that creators are not limited, that they have many options for different (animation) styles to create stories.

QUESTION: Did you feel you had the proper Halo experience to to bring the world to life in anime?

HY: I have played Halo 1 and 2 all the way through to the end. As I was so busy in this project, I could not play Halo 3 but instead I watched the gaming movie many times from the beginning to end.

QUESTION: Did you include any "Easter eggs" for the devout Halo fans in your episode?

HY: I employed the phrase "Akuma-da!" ("He is a devil" in English) as part of the dialogue of a grunt soldier for fun for game lovers. I’m not
certain whether everyone will get to enjoy that treat, though, as I understand the English version and Japanese version differ considerably and I am not sure how this dialogue by the grunt is treated in the English version.

Microsoft’s Halo studio, 343, recently released the first episode in the Halo: Legends anime series, but today the company gushed details on the second episode, exclusively available on Xbox Live tomorrow, Nov. 21.

That’s right, the second showing, “The Duel,” will come to Xbox Live’s Halo Waypoint tomorrow, and will be available for all to view, but only for 24 hours, at which point the episode will sadly disappear.

Here’s the synopsis, as told by 343:

"The Duel" takes place thousands of years in the past at the dawn of the Covenant. The story follows a shamed Elite who defies his role as an Arbiter to take a path of revenge against those that stole the only thing that mattered to him. This ancient Arbiter must fight his way through ever-growing groups of former allies (Grunts, Elites, Hunters and more) until he finally stands face-to-face with the Elite who betrayed him.”

Sounds like drama only comparable to high school! I’m ready, are you?

And as a reminder, the Halo Waypoint, where the Legends films will be shown, is available for both Gold and Silver members right now, but after this weekend, Silver subscribers get the boot, sorry.

For you collectors, the Halo: Legends series will come, in its entirety, to DVD and Blu-Ray, in Feb. 2010.

Grenade, grenade, fire, fire, melee. Master Chief can do more than that quick combo, which almost always gets you a kill in multiplayer, in the upcoming Halo animated feature.

“Halo Legends” will hit DVD and Blu-ray on February 9. Distributed by Warner Home video and produced by 343 Industries, part of Microsoft Game Studios, the CG and traditional anime will explore the history and origins of the Halo universe and some of its characters. The eight episodes will cover seven storylines, which will also be available via On Demand and Digital Download.

The episodes will fall inside Halo’s 26th Century continuity as humanity battles aliens to protect the ever-expanding space colonies of Earth. Halo fans will recognize some characters and locales from the games. Each episode will be 10 to 17 minutes long, with about two total hours of viewing.

Halo Legends will have the same look and feel as “The Animatrix” and “Batman Gotham Knight,” in that each episode will be self contained. Each episode will be presented as imagined by a the director or animator. Children of the 80s and anime fans, alike, will recognize the work of some of these creative contributors including Shinji Aramaki, who did character designs on “MASK;” Mamoru Oshii, creator and writer of “Jin-Ro;” and Hideki Futamura, a key animator on “Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust.”

Extras on the two disc will include a “making of” feature, audio commentary with the directors and a mini-feature detailing the rise of the Halo franchise from an Xbox game to a mammoth property commanding over $1 billion in revenue with games, comics, novels and other merchandise. The Blu-ray will retail for around $35, the two-disc set for around $30 and the DVD for around $20.

If you’re into the creation of professional animated graphics or you’re an artist looking to design your very own masterpiece using live-like animation, Smith Micro’s Anime Studio Pro 6 for both Windows and Mac is an impressively powerful tool.

Smith Micro’s Anime Studio Pro 6 ($199) is a vast update over the previous versions and adds many great new features. Enhancements to version 6 include motion tracking, integrated lip-syncing, a scatter brush, auto shading, morph targets, a new sequencer, HD video support along with the ability to export to more video formats and better scripting. This edition also adds speedier production times, improved drawing and design enhancements, the ability to directly upload content to YouTube right from the application and a large collection of predesigned graphics, sounds and templates.

I decided to put Mac version of the product to the test and the results stacked up well. One thing to note is this is a very large piece of software. The installation took about 578 megabytes of disk space, so I would recommend you have plenty of space before you go ahead and decide install this product. Other than that, the installation was smooth and took only about two minutes.

Anime Pro sports a sleek, clean interface, reminiscent of Photoshop or Flash. Performance-wise, everything seemed to run smoothly and I never ran up on any errors. Because this product is designed for professional use, there’s a bit of a learning curve and training may be necessary to fully utilize the capabilities of the software, but those who have used this product before will be satisfied with the interface, commands, tools and navigation of the application.

The applications preloaded content is especially useful for people who are just starting off. Within fifteen minutes I had my own animation going (AnimeStudioPro sample). It’s simple, but it just shows that in less then fifteen minutes, someone who has never used this product can get right to work with the simple, yet familiar interface.

The product retails for $199 new or $129 to upgrade from a previous version. If you currently use previous versions of this software, the new features are definitely worth the upgrade cost.

You can purchase this product online from Smith Micro’s online store.

Atari announced that final Dragon Ball Z title for the PlayStation 2, Infinite World, has gone gold and will be released on time November 4 for $29.99. The title was developed by Namco Bandai Games.

“Dragon Ball Z: Infinite World will boast several special features including ‘Dragon Missions’, new battle types, and dramatic cut scenes that enable fans to delve deeper than ever before into the Dragon Ball Z universe,” Atari said Wednesday.

The new “Dragon Missions” feature will follow some of the popular scenes from the television series, making their first appearances in a video game. There will be a time attack and cerebral skills-based tests included.

The game features over 40 characters, plus their transformations, fighting techniques and battle stages.

For more information on Dragon Ball Z video games, visit http://www.atari.com/dragonballz.

This is a Blast Magazine enterprise piece.

Robert Scholz took a deep breath as he carefully walked backwards up the stairs. In the distance he could hear shouts from the eager audience and the sound of the MC trying to hold their attention. Scholz tried to move a little faster, but his pace remained constant while friends assisted him from all sides.

He had to walk backwards up the stairs because he was on 10 inch stilts and could not lift his feet high enough to get up the stairs normally. He was off balance because his hands were partially attached to animatronics that controlled arm body armor. He was clad body armor because he was Canti, the friendly robot from the anime series “FLCL.” Scholz was performing in an animation masquerade competition, and the audience wanted their Canti.

Scholz reached the top of the stairs. The attendants in charge of the competition quickly helped him readjust his costume before he walked out onto the stage. They tucked the part of his ponytail that had fallen out from behind his LED mask into his headgear and straightened the jacket that covered his red chest plate. Some of the other contestants for the “master’s level” of the masquerade muttered under their breath about the duct tape being used to hold together Scholz’s leg armor, but all that mattered was that he was finally at the stage entrance in one piece.

Duct-tape or not, he was Canti, and the audience ate it up. Scholz/Canti had been so rushed getting up the stairs that his fingers were not entirely in the animatronic hand armor, making it look like he was giving the audience the middle finger. They didn’t care — they still screamed when he finally took the stage.

Scholz was performing in Anime Boston’s most popular event, the cosplay competition, called The Masquerade. To cosplay is to dress up as a character, — in this case from an anime – and act in their character. This was Scholz’s fifth year cosplaying, and he decided to sign up for the highest level of the contest.

It was only fitting that he wore a costume that took him three years to design and create.

The 5,000 audience members roared as Scholz performed his skit with his two friends. They were pretending that were playing Guitar Hero, and Canti was losing. Scholz accidentally dropped the toy guitar out of his hand because his arm armor had been put on too hastily. Instead of letting it ruin the skit, he just switched to the costume guitar that Canti always carried in the anime series.

By the time the skit was over, Scholz could barely see out of the costume’s visor, which cut off most of his vision. He was not focused on the noise going on around him. All that mattered was that he had finally accomplished what he had set out to do five years ago; compete in his Canti costume.

It took his friends’ wild gesturing at him to make him realize the MC was yelling to him.

“Hey, hey you! Giant red robot! Stop!” cried MC Michael Lee.

Scholz turned around to once again face the audience, and the lights in the auditorium suddenly went black. The audience gasped in wonder as the 204 LEDs attached to his outfit suddenly lit up and created a dazzling light show. By the time the house lights were turned back on, the audience was on its feet cheering for him.

“That’s why I cosplay from anime,” Scholz said, “because of how complete strangers give you praise for your skills at creating them.” 

Anime refers to Japanese animation, and is different from what most Americans view as cartoons. A popular example of anime is the smash hit from the 1990s, “Pok©mon”, which exemplifies what is broadly known as the anime “style.” The Japanese Times describes it as “exaggerated physical features such as large eyes, big hair and elongated limbs… and dramatically shaped speech bubbles, speed lines and onomatopoeic, exclamatory typography.”

Scholz said that he started watching anime when he was a kid. “But, like most of the US public we didn’t realize we were watching anime,” he said. “Rerun shows like ‘Speed Racer’ and ‘Battle for the Planets’ were some of the anime I watched back when I could actually willingly wake up before sunrise [to watch them].”

Scholz is the son of two German immigrants and a first generation American. He says because of that he tended to think “outside of the states” and that it was during his trips to Germany with his parents that he originally developed an interest in anime and manga. His parents supported his interest in a culture different from his own.

“I was the first person in middle school and high school to get onto the ‘Sailor Moon’ and ‘Dragon Ball Z’ kick,” Scholz said. When the animes were still aired on Sunday mornings, Scholz would set his alarm clock early enough to be able to watch them. After they were moved to weekday mornings, he learned to time driving to high school around them.

Anime originated in Japan in the 60s, but didn’t really begin to grow as a major cultural export until the 80s and 90s. While early hits began with “Robotech” and “Dragon Ball Z,” today’s American audiences are following hits like “Naruto” and “Bleach.”

These animes are more action-based, or “shonen,” animes and generally are geared towards young boys. They tend to focus around cultural aspects that are specific to Japan. “Naruto” follows the story of a boy who wants to be a ninja. “Robotech” and “Dragon Ball Z” both have to deal with select characters defending their worlds from alien invaders. They use advanced technology to achieve their aims.

Japan is well known for its advances in technology, and this obsession with machinery is evident in most animes. The weapons used in “Bleach,” such as the katana, mimick those used by samurai in feudal Japan. The fantastical elements and intense plot lines make it easy for young viewers to be drawn into the worlds created through these popular animes while accepting the subtle aspects of Japanese culture in them.

When animes are brought to American television, they are often altered in content to satisfy conservative television studios. The animes are dubbed English before they are aired, and the translation can end up being extremely different from the original dialogue.

For example, in one episode of the Japanese version of “Sailor Moon,” there is a scene where one of the characters is nervous about getting into a hot spring, but his parents convinced him it was okay because only family was in there as well. However, the English dub changed it so that the boy says the water smells funny, and his father replies with “That’s just the sulfur in the water, you’ll get used to it”, followed by his mother saying “It’s not so bad smelling like rotten eggs.” This changes the entire meaning of the scene.

Select scenes and even entire episodes can be cut from a series because the American distributors feel that it is unfit for children’s eyes. This was done infamously to Sailor Moon by the television distributor, DiC. In the first season, five of the original Japanese episodes were cut and two episodes were merged to one because of “excess violence”. Also, two of the characters who were lesbians in the original show became cousins in the American televised version.

Andrew Cocuaco, owner of the anime store Tokyo Kid in Cambridge, finds that anime addresses far more mature themes. “[Japanese] don’t have the same hang ups we do,” he said. “You see sexual themes addressed more in anime than you do in regular American television.”

Cocuaco finds that what tends to be aired on television stations like Cartoon Network are the more action-based and fighting animes, while the more intellectual animes like the movie “Five Centimeters Per Second” are left for viewers to discover on their own either from hearsay or via the Internet.

 ”[Anime] is written for adolescents with power fantasies,” he said.

Scholz watches whatever animes his friends introduce to him, be it the newest hit on Cartoon Network or an obscure title found on the Internet.

The UMASS Dartmouth student says that college life really increased his ability to watch anime. Not only did he have access to the internet on a daily basis in order to watch animes through file streaming and sharing, he also had the freedom to venture off to “indie places” in Providence.

He was first introduced to the idea of cosplaying in 2003 at the first Anime Boston convention. It was not until his friend suggested that he dress up for the next years’ convention that Scholz realized that anyone could cosplay, not just models hired for specific character advertisement. He decided to dress up as Vash the Stampede from the popular anime “Trigun”.

Backstage at the masquerade competition, Scholz was nervous about going out in front of the growing audience in his costume. When he peeked out from behind a pillar to look at the growing number of spectators, he was surprised at the screams of excitement his costume elicited from one group of girls.

After his performance, the masquerade coordinator took him aside from the other contestants and suggested that after he received his first award, he should run quickly from the stage because he would be receiving another. “This kind of took the fun out of waiting to find out if I won,” Scholz said. He received two trophies for his costume, as well as numerous prizes.

Anime Boston’s first convention in 2003 drew 4,110 people, including vendors and staff, and had only 14 exhibitors selling anime-related goods. The most recent convention in March drew over 14,000 with 66 vendors, including Cocuaco’s Tokyo Kid.

Scholz returned each year to Anime Boston with a cosplay costume bigger and better than ever. After over three years of working on the project, Scholz introduced his newest masterpiece: the robot Canti from the anime “FLCL”.

“Canti was an inspiration of both genius and insanity,” he says. “With the cosplay world increasing in talent and competing against my past creations I figured I’d go overboard.  I decided on Canti because it was challenging.  Oh, people cut out old computer monitors, but it wasn’t accurate in my eye and vision.”

Scholz pictured a Canti costume that was intricate and honored the anime’s depiction of the robot. In order to do this, he wanted to create a full body suit that would look similar to the metal body Canti had. Instead of the flimsy cardboard cutouts other contestants had used for heads, Scholz wanted to create a head mask that would be able to light up like Canti’s does multiple times during the series. He wanted to make himself into a robot.

The idea seemed brilliant when Scholz first imagined it in 2005. However, after being laid off from his job,  he did not have enough money to continue working on Canti. The fiberglass, plaster, and electronics were all expensive. Scholz was only able to work on building Canti for months at a time because the amount of time and effort it took to put together the pieces of the costume as well as his limited funds. That is why Canti took so long to complete.

“My parents didn’t like my cosplaying until after the first win and I started off to make the next one,” Scholz admits. “My friends enjoyed it; some were amazed by what I put into it. … But when I came to Canti and strived over those years when I had time from occupation and responsibilities, [my parents] found it fun to see it arise from its pieces and were happy to help here and there with electronics and fitting.”

Scholz says that Canti is still in progress, but he presented the costume for the masquerade competition at this year’s Anime Boston regardless. One of the judges said that they saw him as “a walking accessory”.

What the Canti costume did consist of were 204 LEDs, 20 of which were blinking, contained in 14 different sockets on the body armor. Scholz was stilted on 10 inches of piping and plywood covered in foam and fiber glass. He used basic hand animatronics to extend the arm lengths to keep them in proportion with the rest of the body. The body armor was constructed by making plaster shapes and fiber glassing over them.

The final height of the costume rounded out at about 7 and a half feet.

The future looks bright for anime lovers out there. Nickelodeon’s 2004 release of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” produced a show that was an American take on Japanese animation and ended up being extraordinarily popular with a large age-range.

“This equilibrium of thoughts and ideas has influenced a majority of US film and in return has sparked Japan’s creation.  I might be pushing it, but the world might be a better place when we have these medias intermixing,” said Scholz. “Not to say we’ll all become a bean pot, but I feel the growing generations in this time are more understanding and tolerant compared to past generations.”

“Maybe world peace will be found in the global sharing such as anime,” Scholz said. “Yeah, now there’s rambling.”

Goichi “Suda 51″ Suda is kind of a weird guy.

The Japanese producer, famous for works like “The Silver Case” and the highly under appreciated cult favorite Gamecube title Killer 7, is known for his unique sense of style both in and out of his games.

Case in point: Killer 7 was a bloody, brain-scratching art house title that failed to catch on with anyone outside of the most hardcore gamers. Who would have thought that something so odd would come from a man who donned a lucha libre mask while promoting the game?

Suda 51′s latest title, No More Heroes for the Nintendo Wii is just as weird as his previous works — if not more so. It’s a bloody, sex-driven romp filled with a mix of styles and gameplay elements that make it one of the most eclectic and intriguing titles to hit the North American market in quite some time.

In “Heroes,” you play as Travis Touchdown, your average, everyday anime fan in Santa Destroy, California. After buying a brand new beam katana on an internet auction, Travis enters into a tournament of sorts to become the top ranked assassin in the world.

For a nominal fee, Travis is given the name, bio and location of the next ranked assassin (who oddly all live in this small town). Each assassin’s hideout is crawling with thousands of nameless copies of the same cronies looking to take you out in any way possible. Get through them, and it’s on to your ranked fight.

This is where Heroes truly shines. Sure, it’s quite repetitive, in the same way that a Final Fight or Double Dragon was in the golden age of gaming, but there’s something sublimely satisfying about the combat system. Perhaps it’s that it does bring back those memories of games gone by, but credit must be given to the simple on the surface, yet deceptively deep control scheme.

Heroes avoids many of the pitfalls of previous action games on the Wii by not depending on the motion controls too heavily. You control Travis by way of the thumbstick and attack with the A-button (minor moves, like dodges and throws are done via other face buttons).

The Wiimote’s motion capabilities come in to play in a matter similar to that of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, only in a much, much more sinister fashion. After depleting your enemies life bar, an icon will appear on screen telling you which way to move swing your Wii-mote to administer the “death blow.” These moves are over the top, violent acts of aggression not short of decapitating your opponent or slicing them directly in half.

You’ll also find yourself using the Wii-mote to charge your Beam Katana and initiate duels, which, when won, leave your opponent wide open for the death blow.

Travis can be in two different stances while in battle mode: high (initiated by holding the Wii-mote straight up like a baseball bat) or low (like a hockey stick), and can perform different moves based on the situation and what stance he is in. For instance, charging the attack button while in the High stance will cause Travis to perform a heavy upwards slash attack, while charging in the low stance will result in an awesome cyclone swing, taking out most enemies around you.

The motion controls feel fresh and important, not like a tacked on gimmick. What’s more, the game finds other small ways to implement the controls including lifting weights and mowing lawns.

Yeah, really, mowing lawns.

Travis is able to travel all throughout Santa Destroy on his motorcycle to perform odd-jobs to collect money towards his entrance fees for the ranked matches. These jobs are broken up by class and range from collecting coconuts, to the after-mentioned lawn mowing and, of course, side assassin missions.

The side missions are reminiscent of those found in the Grand Theft Auto series. Wait — scratch that — the missions are more like one of those bad GTA clones that only 13-year-old play.

While doing the jobs, you’ll find yourself just wanting to get them over with and get back to the hack and slash gameplay. The cities are not as detailed as a Liberty City or San Andreas, as sans a few landmarks, buildings seem to just go by in orange, yellow and gray blurs. What makes things worse is that the driving mechanics of Travis’ motorcycle are just plain atrocious. It’s unresponsive and slow, and the collision detection is almost absent. Invisible walls form around most objects as you’re almost hit them, only letting you crash on random occasions.

Suda openly admits to using movies as inspiration for a lot of his games, and it’s very obvious in No More Heroes. While he mentioned that most of the game comes from a mixture of Japanese art-house flicks — I couldn’t stop thinking about Kill Bill while playing through the game.

The obvious link is the assassin VS assassin gameplay, but more than that — the dialogue and art styles are reminiscent of Tarantino’s slash fest. While they don’t exchange pleasantries, Travis and his opponents quip about life and other mundane topics while getting ready to enter in the kill-or-be-killed battles.

At a few points in the game, we even hear Travis’ thoughts as he battles with bosses and other characters throughout the game. Oh, and the buckets of blood don’t hamper the comparison either.

Blood, innuendo, extreme violence and profanity; No More Heroes makes no bones about the fact that it’s a mature game aimed at hardcore gamers. The opening cut scene has Travis decapitating two guards, while calling them “fuck-heads.”

Women in Santa Destroy are smart and sassy sex objects that seem to serve no purpose other than to drive Travis’ libido crazy (after killing the first assassin, Travis even asks one of the ladies if she’ll “do it with him” if he makes the next kill). This is half of the reason No More Heroes sticks out on the Wii — it’s so different than anything else that available. It’s not exactly Sonic and Mario at the Olympics.

No More Heroes deserves to be played by anyone (of age) with a Wii, even if merely for its novelty factor. Even with plenty of flaws. It’s not the best game on the system, but it’s definitely the most original.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Ubisoft/ Marvelous Entertainment
Developer: Grasshopper Maufacture
Platform: Wii
Genre: Action, fighter, puzzle…coconut collecting.
Players: 1
Launch Date: January 14

Playability: 4 out of 5 stars
Learning Curve: 3 out of 5 stars
Sound: 3 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 3 out of 5 stars
Overall: 3 out of 5 stars