Main Feature: ARMORED CORE / Creator's interview: Taijin Takeuchi, Japanese Animation Director

Main Feature: "ARMORED CORE"
Here's a special report on the Armored Core series of combat robot action video games software for PlayStation. It has been popular since the word go in 1997 and now runs to 18 titles, including remakes. Each player manipulates a mercenary humanoid combat robot, an Armored Core or AC, on a mission in a world where gigantic corporations rule. Players design their own AC by combining parts - hundreds millions of variations are possible - and use them in within an extremely wide range of sophisticated parameters to fight against each other. We report on the game creators at work on the newest edition, Armored Core V, which hits the shelves soon. This includes online play where multiple players can cooperate to expand their territories. The creators are talking of a shift from speed to power and say the new game makes upsets more likely. There are new actions and operating methods as well. Our reporter, Isabell, tries it out and tells us about the new software.

Creator's interview: Taijin Takeuchi, Japanese Animation Director
Japanese animation director Taijin Takeuchi, born in Aichi in 1984, specializes in stop-motion animated photos of 3-D objects. He uploaded "A wolf loves pork" to a video-sharing site while still at Kyushu University and his wolf-chases-pig video became a global sensation with over a million hits in 10 days! Takeuchi says he loves the weird and surreal and regards stop-motion animation like vitamin pills. We report on his much-anticipated latest work and view some of his older works as well.