Umehara's famous comeback at Evo 2004 parodied in gdgd Fairies

The 8th episode of anime "gdgd Fairies" season 2 that was aired last night in Japan has a parody scene of Daigo Umehara's famous comeback from Evolution 2004.

During the race between 3 protagonists in a Mario Kart-like racing game, Shirushiru tries to stop Korokoro by throwing her to a Street Fighter III-like mini game. To make it hard to win, Korokoro is forced to start in the last round with a few pixels of life. However, she is able to parry all of the hits of Chan-Li's super move, and makes a big comeback. Shirushiru then shouts in surprise "Are you Umehara?!"

Everything including the way Korokoro dashes, the way Chan-Li builds meter using normals, the super moves, were very well-animated just like the original.

gdgd Fairries (pronounced Gudaguda Fairies) is a sitcom-styled anime created entirely using CG animation. It is being aired on 2 TV stations in Japan, on Niconico, and on Crunchyroll (English).

This's not the first parody of Umehara's famous comeback, the scene was reproduced in anime Acchi Kocchi last year.

English version of Vanguard Princess released

The English version of Vanguard Princess is now released (see press release here).

The game was originally made by a former Capcom employee with minimum resources, and was released as free download (video below). This English version is the official localization. There're improvements, but it still has no online play. The price is just $5, even though you can easily sell for $10. Note that the character sprites and the camera are better than some fighting games from bigger developers.

Umehara Column: Ken no Maki already sold out on Amazon Japan

Daigo Umehara's new book "Umehara Column: Ken no Maki" is already out of stock on Amazon Japan after 2 days. You can still buy it now but will have to wait 1-3 weeks.

Umehara Column: Ken no Maki is a compilation of Umehara's column in Arcadia magazine since mid 2009, with additional new contents. The book was released on February 25.

[Updated with video] Karipaku vs. Nero-tan FT5 result

 

This's the match between two well-known Japanese female players Karipaku and Nero-tan from 2nd stage of Sentos Carnival III tonight.


Below is the result but we suggest you wait for the match video which will be added later.

Umehara Column: Ken no Maki cover revealed

The cover of Daigo Umehara's new book "Umehara Column: Ken no Maki" is now revealed. You can also check a sample page at Amazon Japan. The book will be released on February 25.

Umehara on TOPANGA TV tonight

Daigo Umehara appeared on TOPANGA TV tonight to promote his charity event in Sendai.



Notes
- Skip to 2:11:00 for Umehara.
- (Talking about Kuwait trip) Umehara praised his teammates for the performance in 3 on 3 tournament.
- He went to the biggest shopping mall and said the food there was delicious.
- He said that the bonus video #2 is really fun. (When you donated money via Taito Station's Ustream channel you get access to bonus videos. It received 71,100 yen as of now.)
- He played 3 Ranked Matches. The 2nd opponent is Inco, the well-known Rufus player.
- In the 2nd match, he used his signature crouching medium punch x3 in the last round. (Not even top Ryu players use this in a real match.)
- He said that he's maybe the world's No.1 at "Grab Tsubushi" (Throw Tech Option Select) at during the 1st match.

K.O. Fighting Game Festival Kuwait 2013 summary

Info
- February 7-9
- Umehara joins tournament in Kuwait
- SSF4AE2012 bracket 

Notes
- Umehara played casual matches against Kuwaiti players on stream before tournament in Day 3.
- This's biggest fighting game tournaments in Kuwait. The event is big. Venue is big, and there's a lot of people.
- The crowd at the venue was very nice cheering just everyone.
- R (Guy) said that Kuwaitis treated him very nicely.
- R (Guy) was seen singing Mazinger Z theme song on the stage.
- R (Guy) commentated off-stream in Japanese language. He didn't participate the tournament but also received a trophy at the end of tournament.
- Nishikin received a surprise birthday cake after tournament.
- There're casual matches on stream after the tournaments.
- The stream had more than 11,000 viewers at peak.

Pictures from R
- R with Tokido and Mago at the airport (departure)
- R was surprised by the fact that Justin Wong likes "Moe" anime.
- R struggling with Ryan Hart's Kitkat Kunai?
- R and Umehara arrives Japan together


Day 1
Exhibition (SSF4AE2012 10 on 10)

Team Kuwait 4-10 Team Japan

Mesh3al (Fei) 2-0 Gachi-kun (Sag)
Mesh3al (Fei) 0-2 Okkun (Ibu)
Feras (Dic) 2-0 Okkun (Ibu)
Feras (Dic) 1-2 Rariken (Sag) *close last round
Hayat (Fei) 0-2 Rariken (Sag)
Osama (Oni) 2-0 Rariken (Sag)
Osama (Oni) 1-2 Shin (Jur)
Iori (Set) 0-2 Shin (Jur)
King Vega (Claw) 1-2 Shin (Jur) *close last round
Aziz (Cam) 1-2 Shin (Jur)
Nox (Guy) 1-2 Shin (Jur)
Sai (Ruf) 0-2 Shin (Jur)
Fawaz (Fei) 2-1 Shin (Jur) *Shin almost made a big comeback in 2nd round but Fawaz did it instead in last round
Fawaz (Fei) 1-2 Nishikin (Bla)

Day 2
SSF4AE2012 3 on 3

Team Mad Catz 3-0 Team ???
Mago (Fei) 2-0 Kazuma (Jur)
Mago (Fei) 2-0 Ink (Claw)
Mago (Fei) 2-1 Boochi (Cam)

Team Mad Catz 0-0 Team ???
Mago (Fei) 2-0 Feilachawi (Yun)
Mago (Fei) 2-0 Hayat (Fei)
Mago (Fei) 2-0 Sai (Ruf)

-R- (Boxer) 0-2 Ryan Hart (Sag)
Super Santarou (Sag) 2-1 Ryan Hart (Sag)
Super Santarou (Sag) 0-2 Xian (Gen)
Nishikin (Bla) 1-2 Xian (Gen)

Day 3
SSF4AE2012 3 on 3

[Winners] Team Mad Catz 2-3 Team ???
Tokido (Aku) 2-0 Gachi-kun (Sag)
Tokido (Aku) 2-1 Shin (Jur)
Tokido (Aku) 0-2 Okkun (Ibu)
Mago (Fei) 1-2 Okkun (Ibu)
Umehara (Ryu) 1-2 Okkun (Ibu)

[Losers] Team Mad Catz 0-0 Team ???
Mago (Fei) 2-0 Santarou Man (Sag)
Mago (Fei) 2-1 -R- (Boxer) *very close last round
Mago (Fei) 0-2 Nishikin (Bla) *close last round
Umehara (Ryu) 2-1 Nishikin (Bla) *Nishikin won 1st round and almost won 2nd since Umehara just continuously walked straight to him.

[Losers] Team Mad Catz 3-1 Team ???
Mago (Fei) 2-1 Ganoon (Sak) *Perfect'd by Ganoon in 1st round
Mago (Fei) 2-0 Dookey (Ken) *Dookey almost had big comeback in 1st round
Mago (Fei) 1-2 Aziz XIV (Cam) *Mago tried to escape corner but got punished by Ultra (finish) in last round
Tokido (Aku) 2-0 Aziz XIV (Cam)

[Losers Final] Team Mad Catz 3-1 Team ???
Mago (Fei) 2-0 Shin (Jur)
Mago (Fei) 2-1 Gachi-kun (Sag)
Mago (Fei) 1-2 Okkun (Ibu) *Rekka got punished by Ultra (finish) in last round
Tokido (Aku) 2-0 Okkun (Ibu)

[Grand Final] Team Mad Catz 3-1 Team ???
Mago (Fei) 0-2 Akimo (Hon) *Mago almost had big comeback but timeout in last round
Tokido (Aku) 2-1 Akimo (Hon) *Tokido struggled in first 2 but perfect in last round
Tokido (Aku) 2-1 RariKen (Sag)
Tokido (Aku) 2-0 KijijojiKen (Ken)

[Grand Final 2] Team Mad Catz 3-0 Team ???
Mago (Fei) 2-1 RariKen (Sag)
Mago (Fei) 2-0 Akimo (Hon) *Akimo dropped FADC Ultra punish and lost in last round (close)
Mago (Fei) 2-0 KijijojiKen (Ken)

Umehara joins tournament in Kuwait

Out of nowhere, Daigo Umehara has appeared on the stage at K.O. Fighting Game Festival  in Kuwait this evening local time (February 7).

The revelation happened at the end of the foreign players introduction at the event. Umehara, who came out last as surprise guest, mentioned that he almost couldn't make it.

This's Umehara's 3rd visit for Kuwait. He went there in 2010 and 2011.

K.O. Fighting Game Festival will be held between February 7-9. Among the Japanese players in the tournament are Tokido, Mago, and R (TOPANGA League commentator and Guy player). The stream is here.

3rd TOPANGA League B to be announced soon?

MOV, the famous SF3 player, was on Eita's stream tonight to talk about his new project "Gamers House." In short, MOV is offering share housing for gamers. It's interesting deal since many people in Japan live in a small apartment that has thin walls. They can't play games (especially fighting games) due to fear of the noises. (And this's where Mad Catz silent stick comes into play.) Eita is already planned to move into that house.

But during the conversation, MOV accidentally "revealed" that The 3rd TOPANGA League B is happening this month.

MOV: So TOPANGA League B is this month?
Eita: You will be in it?
MOV: No, that's what you said.
Eita: No.....umm I think it....umm...should be around this....
MOV: I see.... You can do it here.
Eita: Erm...let's not talk about this.
MOV: Ah..I'm sorry....
Eita: I'm sorry...
MOV: .........
Eita: ...I won't be doing it yet, really.


Let's see if this's a leak or just misunderstanding.

Umehara Column: Ken no Maki release date postponed

We just noticed that the release date of Daigo Umehara's Umehara Column: Ken no Maki was postponed to February 25. It's almost one month delay.