harmless kitten

Doesn't exempt them from lacking consistency. Looking up the official localization for Archenemy or whatever (I don't recall what they used for Jutsushiki and the longass name the NOL has in the original version) is twenty minutes in Google even if you're not familiar with BlazBlue. Neither Aksys nor ArcSys have done a perfect job with localizing the game, but Funimation comes across as sloppy themselves. I assume that these problems will only be for the simulcast because it's, well, a simulcast.

Agreed. I honestly don't like the name Nox Nyctores, but throwing it out and replacing it with Archenemy for people familiar with the localization makes me think they either don't care about consistency or just don't like the terms the localization uses. It's one thing to translate Hakumen's chant or Ragna's release incantation differently, but translating terms differently just breeds confusion. Sure, you should be able to pick up that Archenemy is Nox Nyctores even without any prior knowledge, but it's kind of jarring.

Yes, every character in XB that shares a voice actor with someone in BB has a connection to them. Except Isomura.

I think the Azure Grimoire consuming Ragna's body has always been in the cards. In his CS bad ending he has a hallucination of its corruption rapidly spreading up his spine and into his brain. I don't know if this particular twist of AWAKEN BEAST was planned, but there's been weird stuff planted all throughout the games that can be dug up and repurposed for a suitable "twist." Consider the revelation of it being CP Ragna who is in Phase 0 and Phase Shift 4. Think what you want about the twist, but it does neatly solve a few problems, such as Ragna's bad ending in CT where he becomes the Black Beast, or Tager's bad ending.

There's two different pieces of art, both by Mori, that indicate that it's pretty far along. One is a phonecard, the other is the Sound Accord 2 cover. It's consumed all of his right arm (even the part that wasn't chopped off), and is creeping up to his collarbone. Not sure if it really counts. The anime also shows Ragna having a glove that goes all the way up to his shoulder instead of just halfway up his upper arm, but the anime is...yeah.

Nirvana is not based on Ada. As I understand, inside each Nox Nyctores is a core, its "soul," that powers it (Sector Seven sidestory in CSE). Nirvana's core was removed after the Dark War, so Relius used Ada to restore Nirvana. In the concept art for Nirvana there are also drawings that strongly suggest he put some of Ada's body parts (such as her face and upper torso) inside Nirvana. In the illustrations of Nirvana from the light novels, Dark War Nirvana also has Ignis-like eyes with defined irises and pupils, as opposed to the blank eyes she has after Relius restored her.

Amane doesn't have much of a role, but given that CP confirmed the Imperator = Izanami, Amane might actually be Ame-no-Uzume or some equivalent after all. Rachel calls him Uzume in his arcade ending. The thread is broken up between story info/discussion and speculation territory.

That explains the animated cutscene and CG, but how can Izanami control his Azure Grimoire and why didn't she just do that before he kicked Take-Mikazuchi's ass? Was it just a diversion? So many questions. This is truly the sequel to Continuum Shift.

Black Beast going dormant was going to happen regardless. Rachel says in Phase 0 that his existence is unnecessary and he can just stand by and watch if he wants.

Part of the main story obviously. You need to open the Nemesis Horizon to remove Amaterasu from the Boundary, right? Noel is the only one who can open the Nemesis Horizon according to Hakumen, but Terumi figured a way around this--by getting Nu to synchronize with Noel.

Takamagahara was unnatural though, an entity made to contact and usurp Amaterasu. In comparison, Amaterasu can be seen as a natural and benevolent god--it's even referred to as God several times in the series. Besides, administrate can just mean that she keeps stuff running and makes sure that time flows as it should. Amaterasu trapped humanity in a time loop to make sure a certain hero arose, and once one did, the time loops stopped. The order that Rachel claims to hate so much may exist independently of Amaterasu. "Family" could be referring to Noel's "brother and sister" prime fields, but idk.

Makoto's story has Bang telling Makoto that Ibukido was entirely destroyed. Not just ruined by Take-Mikazuchi in the current timeline, but COMPLETELY destroyed. That's probably the timeline he's talking about.

She's the administrator of time itself. It's not entirel clear (at least right now) what kind of bad shit would happen with no Amaterasu, but uh, Izanami would probably be one step closer to fulfilling her goal without Amaterasu. Terumi's only been railing about killing her for...almost four years now? Presumably, no one to administrate time means time stops having meaning OR someone with less morals would come along and take the reins. Amaterasu isn't exactly a character per se, more of a plot device.

Could the girl in the story be Amaterasu? It sounds like Rachel is talking about herself, but the story reminded me of Amaterasu more than anything, what with Amaterasu being responsible for the loop.

Well, that explains how Ragna still had his Azure despite the Black Beast prowling around, and explains the discrepancy between his alternate ending in CT and Phase 0. lol was this planned all along?

Baby Terumi still laughs like a demon child. How terrible. Is the snake on a stick a reference to anything? Terumi's arcade mode seems like one of those stories that you have to play twice to really get. Or it closely ties into the main story, like Relius's arcade mode in CSE.

If anybody has the game and is going through story mode, could they take a picture of the final screen? Amaterasu's emblem was present in the final screen of CS but was only visible if you messed with the colors (example), and I think it was the same with Mu's in CT. Final screen might reveal the emblem for the next game. Carl joining forces with Relius doesn't really surprise me. He ultimately loves Ada more than he hates his father and is willing to bargain with him if there's even a slim chance of restoring Ada.

At least there's an explanation besides "Kokonoe can do anything." Thank you very much! What is effect referring to? Seithr?

Do you know if there was an explanation over how she did this? Did Kokonoe make it so that Ragna doesn't need seithr at all to use the Azure Grimoire, or was Celica's seithr nullification working by shutting down the Azure Grimoire (since its physical form is made out o fseithr) and Kokonoe got around that?

Perhaps all that Uzume stuff was just a red herring... Suzaku, is there anything about the animated cutscene and CG that seemingly had Ragna losing control of his Azure Grimoire? Thank you for the translations!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQh1QAtKGyA

Amaterasu's crest and the words NEMESIS HORIZON flash beneath it in the opening, so there's the possibility of it being Ammy. There's also a new commercial with more animated scenes including what seems to be Ragna losing control of the grimoire.

It's already canon in that it happened in an alternate possibility. The Idea Engine only busts some of the limits on his Azure Grimoire. When the Azure Grimoire starts to go out of control, Ragna describes it as something that deep inside it had burst, with fluid (liquid seithr? blood?) seeping throughout. I think losing to Rachel and the heavy reliance Ragna put on the BlazBlue (from healing him constantly to using its power in battle) just broke it and finished the corruption of his body.

It's this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9zx0PHZ20w A lot of the pictures are from CP arcade or have already been shown in other promotional material, but some of it is new. It also confirms that the picture with Celica, Ragna, Jin, Noel, etc eating at the table is in the game, very likely to be a joke ending.

That's how it looks like in the game. Ookami has a blunt tip.