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First look at new Halo Legends anime featuring King Kong
by Zac Bentz, 07/24/2009
First look at new Halo Legends anime featuring King Kong photo

Hey kids! It's time for Super Action Time Kid Show Toy Sales Video Game Power Block Hour Friends Cool Time Times Show!

At least that's the feeling I was left with after seeing this first teaser trailer for the ultra-new Halo Legends anime series. Produced by a long list of big names in the industry like Bones, Production I.G., Studio 4°C, Toei Animation, Casio Entertainment and Microsoft, it would seem like there could be no way the Halo anime could fail. And to be fair, there really is very little to go on from this trailer. But then again, who likes to be fair? I think it looks like silly crap.

In the interest of full-frontal disclosure, I've never played a single second of any of the Halo games. I don't think I've even been in a room with Halo playing. I've certainly seen the thing on Internet web site blog pages, but I've never had the slightest stirring to play it. People seem to like it well enough. Yet I'm guessing that the anime is going to go in some directions that make devotees of the game more than a little concerned and riot-y. Like, for instance, the fey girl in the body suit, and the teddy bear charmy thing. And what's with the King Kong arms? Is that in the game?

The whole thing comes off as a little too old-school mega-franchise toy company cash-in. I'm thinking He-Man, G.I. Joe, M.A.S.K. etc. Silly people in silly suits riding around in silly vehicles that are all available now in a store near me.

Maybe we need to hear from some actual Halo fans. What do you think of what you see in the trailer below?



Gallery Images:
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(22) COMMENTS



Kilkrazy

The contrast between the computer and the cel animation is particularly horrid.
 
serial

Well, I think it's too early to tell, but it looks interesting.
 
hybrid-kernel

Some scenes look ok, others are just terrible. As stated above, the contrast between 3d/2d is bad. It could go either way but I'll bet on it being really lame.
 
Reibooi

It's gonna be like the animatrix was. If you are a fan some of the shorts are gonna be great while others are gonna be horrid.

Like I've already said a Anime collection for Halo isn't really the type of thing thats gonna appeal to the college frat boy fan base that Halo has so I really don't understand why they are making this in the first place.
 
GNE7iN

Halo already has a giant tentacled character, so they should do just fine in the anime field.
 
Chicken008

@ Kilkrazy, I doubt any of these companies are using cel animation, probably all computer drawn.
 
Tricerabortion

ANIME JANAI.

Well, it shouldn't be at least.
 
Necros

The "King Kong arms" are actually the arms of a Brute, the English name for one of the alien races in the Halo universe. (Like every alien race in the series, they have a different real name that only hardcore Halo fans can keep track of.) The Brutes are basically war-happy, beefy ape-like aliens, so comparisons to gorillas is inevitable.

So yes, the King Kong arms are in the game. They're just usually firing some kind of spike-based weapon. Some of the Brutes get pretty big.

As for the trailer, I'm never a huge fan of CGI, especially when mixed with 2D (unless it's, say, a fighting game), but I'm still optimistic that I'll be able to enjoy some parts of this.
 
Pangloss

The trailer is a pretty decent mix of interesting and meh.

I'm not personally invested in the Halo universe, but outside of the campaigns I've seen them do interesting things with the material, so this could well be good. If it isn't, it's certainly not going to hurt my feelings.
 
bahamut

I've been waiting for the next great Casio anime since Digital Watch Monogatari!
 
Shin_Ra

feel like they took out all the Cowboy-western-badasstry and incorporated dramatic dilemma. the scene where "master Chief" and a Elite circling each other with powersword was very very lame...
 
misterclock

I've read all the books and one GN and the shot with a guy pointing a gun at a girl makes no sense whatsoever, especially if that's suppose to be Master Chief.
 
Kid Nicky

The people who play FPS games are the same people who think you catch the gay from anime,so fail.

And He-Man,MASK and G.I. Joe RULE,damnit!! All the stuff you said about them could easily be said of Gundam.
 
Heero Yuy

I find it amusing that so far the only people that I've heard diss this production and say it looks stupid are people that either don't own an xbox or haven't even played the game.

First off, the "gorilla arms" you see are from a Brute: http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Jiralhanae

Secondly, there were plenty of other Spartan II's other than the Master Chief. Third, the series has plenty of plot and backstory that's rather detailed and well done, and even has a few novels that aren't your run of the mill garbage based-after-a-game books.

You people need to realize this game has a lot more to it than it's infamously "12-year-old-over-infested" multiplayer (that's another generalization to debunk, but, another time).

@Kid Nicky: Then explain why the hell 3/4 of people that play halo 3 use the Hayabusa helmet cause they think it's "cool"?

Seriously though, I'm predicting this will get about the same actual sales figures as the Gotham Knight or Animatrix movies.
 
Kid Nicky

^I don't know,I played it a couple times,and frankly didn't enjoy the fratholes and the 10 year olds,both of whom know no words other than racial or sexual slurs. Am I saying they're the ONLY people who EVER play Halo? No,obviously not. But in the time I've spent online gaming on the Xbox 360,I was playing against obvious members of the popped collar crowd,who I don't usually associate with anime OAVs.

You're talking about a game where after you kill a person,you squat over their dead corpse repeatedly so it looks like your genitals are in the person's face. To those of you who have not played,no I am not making that up. Typically when a player does that they'll either question your sexuality (when they're the ones crotch-thrusting) or call you the n-word.
 
Pentence

Kid if ya played the games campaign and not just online ya might aprecciate its depth. Not to mention the books REALY flesh the universe out along with halo wars which has a good bit of drama too on a bigger scale no less.

I think if they incorporate some of the books plots and background stories along with maybe sumtin a bit new or fill in blanks (like i think that was a mark 1 or 2 Mjolnir suit there no shield kinda bulky more mech than battle armor) then we might have sumtin here. The 2d and 3d was very clashing but then again i have seen worse so ill leave final decisions for later frankly i love the halo universe and its originality yes some things are cliche but it has great moments too.
 
Raukon

That can't be a brute in the header picture, they are only larger by a few feet in the actual game and screenshots so one couldn't possibly cover a spartan soldier's whole body with his bare hands like that.

 
Zeouterlimits

Well Zac, the brute in question is part of the TOEI short. The TOEI short is a non-canon pisstake.
Instead of Spartan-117 (Master Chief) it's Spartan-1337.
The brute is intentionally looking ridiculous.
 
Heero Yuy

@Kid Nicky: First off, like I said before the multiplayer fans ISN'T what this is aimed at. GET THAT THROUGH YOUR HEADS PEOPLE. Half of the assholes online haven't even played the campaign or at least finished it, and you really mustn't have played very long if you "only ran into the popped collar crowd", considering that the large majority will usually curse at most. Teabagging is generally frowned upon even by the frat players.
 
Heero Yuy

Actually, like I said before, you don't even own a 360 according to your comment, so how the hell can you honestly say you truly understand what the crowd of people who play it are like?

Once again, another person just going along with the generalization cause it's cool.
 
retrorevolver

Good Day!!!!

When is battle of the planets coming for cg?



Retrorevolver
 
Ohmygodiamonfire

As a Halo player who plays mutiplayer alot, I am absoultely loving the idea of a Halo anime.

In regards to the online players who play live, most of them don't even have mics, at least when I play. I've also met a few players on live who like anime, so yeah.
 

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