Josh is a staff writer at Anime News Network, where he writes the weekly This Week in Mobile Games column. He also writes longer hands-on pieces, including a 30-hour look at Neverness to Everness.
Josh is an Anime News Network writer whose work in these stories centers on the outlet's weekly mobile games column, This Week in Mobile Games. The column carries the week's mobile news and hands-on impressions. Across June, July, and August 2026 he used it to cover Sonic the Hedgehog's 35th birthday and the character's history on mobile platforms, an update to Women's Pro Golf Heroine Collection, the launch and reception of Hololive Dreams, and the Genshin Impact 7.0 update that opens Snezhnaya.
His longest piece in this run is a hands-on report on Neverness to Everness. Josh spent 30 hours with the anime-style open-world gacha game from Hotta Studio and Perfect World Games, set in the fictional city of Hethereau. His conclusion was that the game delivers the anime-style GTA-like open world it promised but that its story and progression do not match the scale of the setting, and that the main story is short and ends abruptly with expansion planned for a future update.
The column's coverage also reaches beyond the games themselves. A Bleach Mirrors High closed beta entry ties a mobile action-RPG to the Thousand-Year Blood War story, and a Gamescom Opening Night Live column follows China-based developers taking major announcement slots, including HoYoVerse's Nodusfall and Petit Planet. Josh's byline appears on the Neverness to Everness column under the name Anime News Network's Josh.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the cited Yomimono stories below, each itself sourced, then editorially reviewed. Every fact links the story it came from.
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BanG Dream! Our Notes launched globally a little under a month ago, aiming to update the Girls Band Party (GBP) formula for players drawn in by the SANZIGEN anime series. The game is story-forward, with full-voice-acted cutscenes adapted from the anime and Live2D cutouts. Where GBP used chibi characters, Our Notes keeps everyone fully proportioned, with animated home screens and in-song band visuals.
A website opened on Wednesday to announce a smartphone game for illustrator neco's Heavily Armed High School Girls project. NextNinja is developing JJK: Ju Heisogata Joshi Kosei Wordless Record, a casual idle RPG where players watch over the characters from a cat's perspective. Rie Takahashi plays Touka, Sayumi Suzushiro plays Kanade, and Yoshino Aoyama plays Honami. The project is also getting a television anime in 2027.
Prime 1 Studio will release a Justice League (Comic) Batman 'Advanced Suit' White Ver. statue designed by concept artist Josh Nizzi, part of the Ultimate Museum Masterline line. The polystone piece stands 50.8cm tall, 29cm wide and 27.6cm deep, weighs about 6.3kg, and includes a special base and a detachable fabric cape. The chest has an LED light-up function. Edition size is 300, priced at 139,590 yen, scheduled for release around February to May 2028.
Bandai Namco Entertainment announced that ACE COMBAT HOUR ZERO, a live-action prequel to ACE COMBAT 8: WINGS OF THEVE, will stream in four parts starting September 15. Josh Holloway plays a pilot, Brandon Routh a doctor, and Tamlyn Tomita a news anchor, three survivors of the invasion whose stories lead into the game's campaign. The full series finishes before the game's October 2 release.
The column covers Gamescom's Opening Night Live, where China-based developers took many of the splashiest announcement slots. HoYoVerse led with a tease for Nodusfall, a dark fantasy co-op action game with no platforms specified. The company also showed Petit Planet, an Animal Crossing-esque life sim with a final beta open for sign-ups that explicitly includes mobile platforms, and offered a demo of Honkai Nexus Anima on the show floor.
The latest column spotlights Hololive Dreams, a free-to-play rhythm game from developer QualiArts that launched on mobile and PC in July. It features 54 playable Hololive members, over 150 songs, and an exploration-based 3D island mode. The game has seen strong traction in Japan's top charts.
This week's mobile games column leads with Genshin Impact's 7.0 update, Everwinter Without Mercy, arriving August 12th. The update opens the frozen nation of Snezhnaya, adds Cryo-based elemental reactions, a third-person shooter mode via tech-goggles, and introduces characters Odette and Alyosha. The column also explains why many live-service games schedule events for mid-to-late August.
Walt Disney Company CEO Josh D'Amaro acknowledged that Star Wars: The Mandalorian & Grogu underperformed at the box office. The film, the first theatrical Star Wars movie in seven years, took $345 million worldwide against an estimated $165 million production budget. D'Amaro said the film still generated value through retail sales, theme park attendance, and gaming. Disney now looks to Star Wars: Starfighter, set for May 28, 2027.
Bandai Namco's closed beta for Bleach Mirrors High, a mobile action-RPG, features an original story set six months after the Thousand-Year Blood War. Players choose between new protagonists Shirin Migishima or Shirane Sanari. The game's visual style directly echoes the high-contrast, typographic look of the recent anime season.
Kinyuu Joshi. Co., Ltd. and SocioFuture Co., Ltd. began providing Letter, a communication tool for experiential IR, on July 7, 2026. The project marks the 10th anniversary of Kinyuu Joshi., which started in 2016 and has grown to 3,500 members and over 10,000 contacts nationwide.
The latest mobile gaming column covers Sonic the Hedgehog's 35th birthday and his history on mobile platforms, including the early Sonic Cafe service and Java-based games. It also touches on Fate/Grand Order's upcoming summer event requirements and other industry updates.
Gravity Game Arise updated the JLPGA-licensed game app 'Women's Pro Golf Heroine Collection' on June 24, 2026. The update adds a Club Function for up to 30 players to form groups and an Annual Support Function where total user votes determine which player becomes a card. The app is free on iOS and Android.
Ján & Josh, a team formed by former Beat Saber co-founder Jan Ilavský and former game director Josh Joynes, announced Inversion Day, a side-scrolling puzzle platformer for PC via Steam. Players control a boy and his dog exploring a neon-lit spaceship, solving over 100 puzzles that involve manipulating glowing blocks to invert space.
Lionsgate has signed director Jeymes Samuel and writers Pat Casey and Josh Miller for a live-action Streets of Rage film. Derek Kolstad, previously attached to write and produce, is no longer involved. The film is produced by Toru Nakahara, Story Kitchen, dj2 Entertainment, and Escape Artists.
Anime News Network's Josh spent 30 hours with Neverness to Everness, the anime-style open-world gacha game from Hotta Studio and Perfect World Games. The column describes it as a large urban sandbox with driving, combat, and life-sim elements, set in the fictional city of Hethereau. The game leans into supernatural "Anomalies" and an SCP-inspired narrative, but the main story is short and ends abruptly, set to expand in a future update.