Check Out These Gorgeous Studio Ghibli Papercraft Model Kits
From My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away to Howl’s Moving Castle and Kiki’s Delivery Service, Studio Ghibli is responsible for some of the most beloved animated films of the past fifty years. Plenty of merch has been released for the iconic movies, but few are as adorable as these papercraft decorations–which are both affordable and will make for great display pieces in your home theater or office.
If you’re unfamiliar with papercraft, they’re essentially a buildable kit that lets you piece together a scene using nothing more than premium art paper. You typically don’t need any fancy tools to complete their construction other than some tweezers, scissors or blade, and glue, and each kit comes with all the paper you’ll need to build your masterpiece.
One of the best Studio Ghibli papercraft designs on sale is My Neighbor Totoro: Wood Style. It depicts Totoro, Mei, and Satsuki relaxing by a river–and its unique construction consists of both wood and paper. It’s a bit pricey at $32, but it’s a premium option if you want something a bit fancier than just paper.
Other cool models include Spirited Away: Chihiro In A Mysterious Town for $18, Howl’s Moving Castle: Good Weather for Laundry Day for $24 (down from $26), and My Neighbor Totoro: At The Bus Stop for $19 (down from $22). You’ll also find a few papercraft models for Kiki’s Delivery Service, including one featuring Jiji for $22.
Plenty of other Studio Ghibli papercraft is available, and you’ll find our favorites below. Nintendo fans should also take a look at the Kirby PuPuPu Park Paper Theater kit, which is on sale for $21, and this smaller model featuring sleeping Kirby.
Best Studio Ghibli Papercraft
The Simpsons Might Kill Off This Character Very Soon
The Simpsons may kill off a character on this weekend’s episode of the long-running animated series. Matt Selman, who has written for The Simpsons since 1997, posted a cryptic message on social media this week, portending the death of a character.
He said, “WHO WILL DIE THIS SUNDAY ON THE SIMPSONS?” Attached to the post were images of Simpsons family members Homer, Bart, and Marge, as well as Larry the Moe’s Tavern barfly. It’s pretty safe to assume that it’s going to be Larry that dies, but who knows. Also unknown is if the death of the character, should it actually happen, will be permanent.
It’s possible someone could die and come back to life, or it’s possible “die” takes on a different meaning altogether. In any event, the only thing that’s clear here is that Selman is trying to drum up interest in this weekend’s episode of The Simpsons. The episode is titled “Cremains of the Day” and it follows Homer and the guys from Moe’s going on a roadtrip to scatter the ashes of someone. That person is probably Larry.
Alongside Sam, Larry is a regular at Moe’s Tavern that viewers know almost nothing about beyond his interest in drinking beer. In the Season 7 episode, “Two Bad Neighbors,” Homer has a rummage sale and gives Larry a blender, and Larry widely smiles upon receiving it. You can see more clips of Larry on The Simpsons in the video below.
Larry would not be the first Simpsons character to be killed off or to vanish from the show. Mona Simpson, Bleeding Gums Murphy, Maude Flanders, and Fat Tony were all killed off. In the case of Fat Tony, his death wasn’t exactly permanent, as the character Fit Tony rose out of his ashes, then gained weight and became Fat Tony again, with Joe Mantegna doing the voice throughout. Schoolteacher Edna Krabappel was written off the show after voice actor Marcia Wallace passed away.
The Simpsons is now in its 35th season, and will come back for Season 36 later.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 Update Will Make Dragonsplague Less Annoying
Capcom plans to scale back the infection rate of Dragonsplague in Dragon’s Dogma 2 later this month. In addition, it will become more obvious when Pawns have fallen ill with the disease.
On X (formerly known as Twitter), the official Dragon’s Dogma account revealed the upcoming update that focuses on Dragonsplague and Pawn behavior. “Glowing eyes will be more noticeable” to affected Pawns, the notes state, and players will now be able inspect them up close in the status screen. In addition, your Pawns should navigate cliffsides better, meaning they shouldn’t tumble over them as much.
Dragonsplague has been a real plague for Dragon’s Dogma 2 players. In fact, modders have even removed the disease from the action-RPG because it had become so bothersome. On top of that, players had come up with a rotten gimmick to warn others in Dragon’s Dogma 2 about infected Pawns.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 launched on March 22 and pretty quickly sold over 2.5 million copies. This is a feat that took the original game roughly two years to reach. Last month also saw an update for the action-RPG that finally let players start a new adventure. Previously, you couldn’t begin again in the title.
It’s not just Dragonsplague you should be aware of when deciding to venture out into the lands of Vermund and Battahl. We have you covered with 20 things to know before playing Dragon’s Dogma 2. For more, check out GameSpot’s Dragon’s Dogma 2 review.
Destiny 2: The Final Shape Raid Launch Time And Everything We Know
Bungie has revealed when its new raid activity will go live in The Final Shape, and surprisingly, players will be able to dive into this event much sooner than anticipated. Here’s a look at everything we know so far about the pinnacle PvE activity.
Destiny 2: The Final Shape Raid release date and time
The Final Shape raid will officially launch on June 7, 2024 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. This is a lot earlier when compared to previous raid release dates, as Bungie typically launches one of these activities a full week and a half after an expansion is released. This date will give you just three days to get ready, a challenging prospect as The Final Shape will introduce the Prism subclass and a new faction to battle inside of the Traveler, the Dread.
Destiny 2: The Final Shape Raid story details
Beyond the release date confirmation, Bungie is remaining tight-lipped on the story for its new raid. Raids usually introduce new threats to Destiny 2 in the aftermath of the campaign, and with The Final Shape teasing a final showdown with The Witness, it’ll be interesting to see which antagonist is waiting for players at the end of the storyline to the Light and Darkness saga. There are several possibilities here, as this raid could take a page out of The Taken King expansion and pit players against The Witness in its ultimate form, similar to how Oryx was defeated in the Ascendant Realm when he was at the height of his power.
Xivu Arath is another wildcard who could be the star of this raid, as this dangerous loose thread has been lurking in the shadows ever since she was severed from her Throne World at the end of Season of the Witch. The road map for Destiny 2’s episodes has also hinted at the Hive god of war appearing to menace players after The Final Shape.
Destiny 2: The Final Shape Raid rewards
Bungie hasn’t revealed the rewards available for this event yet, but if it follows the tradition of previous raids, you can expect exclusive weapons, armor, and Exotics from completing runs of the raid.
Destiny 2: The Final Shape raid – How to access
Like The Final Shape, the raid is a paid piece of content in Destiny 2. It can be accessed by purchasing the expansion.
Destiny 2: The Final Shape Raid clan updates
There’ll be several quality-of-life updates in The Final Shape, including improvements designed to reinvigorate the clan system in Destiny 2. Hawthorne will be receiving a vendor reputation track and Guardians can earn clan reputation by completing activities. Clan bounties are also getting overhauled, and there will be two new bounty types available–one for seasonal content and one for dungeons–and all clan bounties will also grant some clan reputation. For established teams, it could be worth paying a visit to Hawthorne to stack up on bounties before the venture into the raid.
Additionally, clan perks are being refreshed, and players will get discounted Raid Banners, Exotic engrams, and more each week when they do a fresh raid run.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes Sequel In The Works Despite Creator’s Death
Rabbit & Bear Studios has revealed it will work on a sequel to Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes despite the death of its creator, Yoshitaka Murayama, back in February.
In a Reddit AMA thread, the developer confirmed that it is moving forward with a sequel, saying, “It is very sad that Murayama is not with us anymore, but we have discussed many things with him. [We] hope we will be able to carry on Murayama’s legacy, and [we] always want to treasure his last work. [We] hope many people will support this game.”
Murayama was also the scenario writer for Eiyuden Chronicle, and was battling an ongoing illness that ended with his death on February 6. He joined the games industry back in 1992 starting with Konami as a quality assurance tester. He eventually became producer, writer, and director of the first three games in the Suikoden series.
After leaving Konami, he started his own company called Blue Moon Studio in 2005 and released 10,000 Bullets. He also worked with Atlus on 2017’s The Alliance Alive. He eventually joined Rabbit & Bear Studios to work on Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes and its prequel, Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising, the latter of which was released in 2022.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes launches on April 23 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. It will also be available on Xbox Game Pass when it’s released.
Here’s All The Destiny 2: Into The Light Content Leaving In June
In the lead-up to The Final Shape, Bungie has detailed which parts of Into The Light will remain after June 3 and which parts of it will be going away.
First up, the new raid boss gauntlet Pantheon will be exiting Destiny 2 in June. This mode will be available starting April 30 and allows players to earn a variety of rare emblems that were previously only available in Contest Raids. Bungie says Pantheon was always intended to be a time-limited event, and this means players will only have a month to earn the Brave title and other rewards from this mode.
As previously mentioned by Bungie in a livestream, the limited-edition variants of the Brave arsenal weapons will only be available to earn until June 3. If you’re looking to take on that challenge, here’s how you can unlock The Mountaintop and The Recluse. Other parts of Into The Light you can wave goodbye to include the Hall of Champions social space, the Arcite 99-40 quests, armor chests, and weapon attunement.
Currently, players can attune these popular weapons and get “god rolls” on them with sought-after weapon perks. Once the expansion drops, it’ll be much harder to get optimal rolls once this feature is no longer available.
“We really like the attunement experience so far, and while it won’t be available right at the launch of The Final Shape, we’re already working on bringing back a new attunement experience for Brave weapons sometime during Echoes,” Bungie said.
The good news is that a lot of good stuff will still be available once The Final Shape launches. The Onslaught horde mode will be sticking around as a dedicated playlist, regular Brave Arsenal weapon rewards can still be earned from it, and Bungie has plans to introduce new ways to unlock the popular Parade Armor sets and the Superblack shader.
The reprised Exotic missions will also remain, and they’ll be moved to the Legends tab. The Exotic weapons and catalyst rewards from these missions will also still be available to earn from their respective vendors.