Normally, I am no longer one to care much about Saimoe, but Senjougahara Hitagi is in it this year. How can you not vote for her? Senjougahara for Saimoe 2010! MAKE IT HAPPEN! Picture from moetron.

Related posts:

1. The Senjougahara Fascination Movement
2. Happy Lunar New Year & Valentine’s Day!
3. Wonder Festival 2010 Winter – Max Factory & GSC

We dwell more into the past behind Apachai and Agaard.

Honestly though the hints were already there in the previous chapter, I guess I must have missed how Agaard just felt that this was all a game and that all he really wanted was to break out of it. Whether or not he was bored or just sick of the worthless idiocies restricting him on his tendency to go all out, he went along with it all, except with Apachai. He knew Apachai was the only one strong enough to actually take him on for real, and he did not hinder Apachai’s growth in any way.

Of course, we get shown exactly the darkness inside Agaard’s heart when he purposely delivered a killing blow that would only take effect a short while later on his opponent in that match where he was supposed to lose, in order to protect Apachai. It was a fine, dark touch for Agaard. It seemed only right, for him, that his opponent would die after winning the match through threats. Of course, Apachai did not understand all that. The next chapter should conclude the reason either Agaard or Apachai left the dojo, and I believe it will likely be Agaard that leaves to join Yami. So we will likely only see the continuation of the fights two chapters later.

No related posts.

It is still a cat…just going to be a very big one.

We take a look into Apachai’s and Agaard’s past in this chapter, though I was expecting it to be more…violent.

It turns out Agaard once took Apachai in despite his tendency to destroy everything and anyone. He was so strong that no one dared to even feed him fully, but Agaard did. Agaard found Apachai to be the one man he could be calm around, but also knew that because of this strength, one day they would both have to fight and kill each other.
 

Nothing much else happened in this episode, though Kenichi was shown to be able to keep dodging Koukin’s attacks. I suppose this small look into the past shows why they are both going all out now to kill each other. It is no longer just a problem of Yami vs. Ryouzanpaku but also a sort of debt that they knew long ago they had to settle. The next chapter will likely start the fight proper, though I wonder whose fight will finish first – Kenichi’s or Apachai’s.

No related posts.

Hilarity ensues once again as Niijima and Akisame try to break back into the security system.

With Miu protecting him, Niijima manages to avoid getting slashed, but he is less than ceremoniously thrown into the control room by Miu in order to avoid the endless number of Yami enemies. What is funny is how Akisame manages to catch him in the room, as below.
 

Oh, Akisame.

Amusement ensues as Akisame shows that the book he was reading was “Winzows for Dummies”. Nice one on the wordplay. The two combine their intellectual powers to hack back into the system, and Akisame also manages to bring out a 3.5″ floppy disk (good god ancient now in the digital world) for fun, peace, laughter and joy. Though Niijima is stumped by the fingerprint identification system, Akisame calmly produces a method to replicate the fingerprint that is on the button, and puts the lights back on, setting the stage once again for the decisive fight between Koukin and Kenichi as well as between their two masters.
 

At least for this chapter we are back to the fun and amusement that Kenichi continues to provide, along with some contemporary aspects such as the digital world that is mixed in with the established world of martial arts. A fine contrast. I suppose the decisive fight between Kenichi and Koukin will take about two chapters and maybe their masters’ another two chapters, perhaps more. It should prove interesting to see how Kenichi uses stage two of Ryuusui Seikuuken to defeat Koukin, if he can.

No related posts.

Because turning off your phone before a duel to the death is only good manners.

The lack of courtesy and good manners is seriously detrimental to our society’s health nowadays. What has the world come to? It is well-known that it is only good manners to shut off your cellphone before a movie or a duel to the death.

I could ramble on and on about the lack of good manners in our society, but back to the chapter. Niijima upgrades his eye-skill to EX, but decides Kenichi cannot make it. But as the fight starts, the blackout happens and Kenichi’s phone rings soon after. Koukin is unable to concentrate and forces Kenichi to pick up the phone. It turns out to be Akisame, who wants Kenichi to pass the phone to Niijima as he failed to hack the computer system. Now we know who was behind the blackout.

With Miu as his bodyguard, Niijima makes his way to Akisame. The fight thus begins in the next chapter with both fights, as Agaard faces off against Apachai.

Again, it was funny how Miu wished for advice from Apachai only to have him say “Ganbarre, Kenichi!” Apachai, full of innocent humor and wit. Really, he is one of the characters that makes this series as good as it is.

No related posts.

Sasaki goes up against one of the Three Spears of the Imperial Black Guard, the Spear of the Core, perhaps the best out of the three.

Like as it should be with all true weapon users, the Spear of the Core utilizes the weapon as a part of himself, an extension of his arm. He can even feel the air at the tip of his spear and adjust accordingly to his opponent, making him a truly fearsome opponent indeed. After cutting Sasaki several times, the latter decides to show him that the spear is after all a weapon and not a true extension of the self, by taking off the decoration at the blade, leading to the amusing exchange in the panel above.

Angered beyond words, the Spear of the Core unleashes his strongest attacks, and Sasaki turns to Musou Gamae, translated as the “Matchless Stance”. Despite being stabbed in the stomach, Sasaki takes the hit like a man and throws an ultra-strong punch back. He is not in the least hurt upon pulling out the spear other than the flesh wound, for he used a special breathing technique that pushed all his lower organs into his rib cage. In the end, Sasaki used it because he wanted to take out the Spear while the opponent was still alive, a fine example of the Katsujinken.
 

Next up, it is the start of the decisive battle between Apachai and his fated opponent. These fights were pretty short since they were only one chapter each, so I guess Matsuena wanted to just rush to the decisive battle, which is the main event.

No related posts.

A surprisingly short fight. The chapter that was initially filled with humor turned out to be more towards the end, as Ma Kensei lays bare his intentions in the above picture in the middle of the fight.

Of course, Kensei taking off Izayoi’s clothes from under her armor without touching her armor was initially funny, especially how he then turned to fold them, but it turned out he had a good motive in mind. He must have realized it even before Izayoi laid bare her tits (more fanservice from Matsuena Syun for once), but the way he did it did touch Izayoi and turn her into a human at the end, even as he landed a strong strike in the darkness after dodging her attack.
 

Izayoi’s thought of not having to see him die in the darkness was a little touching, as it showed Ma had achieved his intention. Next up is the fight between men, with Sasaki’s battle. I apologize for the lack of Kenichi updates but the usual group I was following has either dropped it or put it on hold, and I only managed to find this one from elsewhere.

No related posts.

This post is, of course, seriously way overdue. But owing to the fact that figure collection is not really a hot passion of mine anymore, it is no longer a huge priority of mine to post any updates on figures. There are, of course, way better sites for that. Project Aurora, as many of you know by now, is the lighting display of my two display cabinets for my figures. Although the bottom two shelves are now empty because I have kept figures I want to sell back into their boxes, the lighting effect has remained the same. These pictures you now see come from a time when all my figures were still in my cabinet. Many thanks to TP and YuKi-To for taking these pictures (I have no idea where the others’ pictures are).

The image above, “The Zodiac – Sagittarius” by Kagaya, is because I felt it brought out the same effect as I would have wanted Aurora to – the different lights of an aurora. It serves as a good starting image I suppose, but I wonder how many of you will actually think that this lighting display is of a nature that is “colorful”, in its various meanings, to you.

This lighting display was seriously difficult for any photographer to take good pictures of, and so you must excuse TP and YuKi-To’s photos – they did not have much to work with, either in experience or hardware.

I have many pictures for this, and you will understand why later on. The last few pages will be dedicated to all the remaining pictures that I have not used, serving as a repository of sorts. Anyway, first of all, here is a default look at the cabinets while the room light is on.
 

You can already see the lights in the reflection, but otherwise, the cabinets look pretty normal. However, when the lights are off, their true glow shows.
 

This blue display was the same one used in the filler post a while back. As you can see, the blue lights are very strong. You may wonder what was used but if you are accustomed to light displays by now, you would have known that the lighting display utilized LEDs. LEDs are nothing new; they are touted as the most economical lights for display purposes, among other uses. So what is so special about my LEDs and their lighting display, you might ask? Perhaps a movie might serve the answer better.

Edit: No one bothered to tell me I forgot to put the movie up. Nice one.
 

To be honest I would have preferred saving that particular display to the last, but no matter. Those who were here during my early blog days will remember I am no stranger to LEDs and their beautiful display possibilities – I used to have them on my bike. These are new models of LEDs, and my friend Dennis kindly helped me procure and install them. The LEDs are actually in strips, and each strip in my cabinet has 6 LEDs, with 7 different possible colors combining into a hue, hence “rainbow-colored”.
 

With the different light possibilities, other than the slowly changing light, I can also set it to show just three primary hues, red, green and blue, alternating in varying speeds. I can also set the cabinets to show just one light (for example, white only, without changing color at all, like in the picture above). Unfortunately I cannot switch the light on or off for either cabinet – the switch works for both cabinets together. It would hardly have mattered if not for the fact that the second cabinet (on the right) had its lights installed facing inwards. Thus, the color difference is remarkable, as the wall behind it is light blue and interferes with the hue showing from the lights by changing it to a slightly different color from my first cabinet, which has its lights installed above every shelf. You can see that effect on the second cabinet quite clearly in the picture above as well.
 

Above, as you can see, this is the third shelf in my second cabinet. The lights face inwards, thus lighting up the figures nicely. Some may find it too bright, and indeed the LEDs are very strong. But do not fear, these lights are not hot. This is one of the reasons I went for a LED display – the lights do not hurt the figures over long exposure.
 

The first cabinet in glorious, warm yellow light. Bathed in this glow, the LEDs stand out very much against the cabinet due to their extreme brightness. It is indeed strong for the eyes, but not this strong as captured in a photo. It is thus painful to look directly at the LEDs, but so long as you put them above the shelves, or have them face inwards, in both cases your eyes will not come into direct contact with the lights. The yellow light is pretty good for most figures, especially if captured in a photo up-close. It gives a warm feeling, as opposed to the cold one displayed by the blue.
 

The cabinet’s primary lights are gone through in order when I display them in stationary light, namely red, green, blue, yellow, aquamarine (as above, or you may prefer to call it cyan but I think it looks closer to aquamarine), violet, and white. I most prefer, however, to leave it on the slowly changing lights. It gives the cabinets a unique touch, at least for me.
 

This pink gemstone (pieces used in tabletop games) and others like it of various colors are scattered throughout my cabinet, though sparsely. I use them to create a vivid colorful feel, though it may be too colorful at times. This pink gemstone is particularly noteworthy however, for its ability to look more vibrant and brighter than any of the other gemstones under different light colors. A very nice touch if placed in the correct shelf, and manages to balance the overall color theme of the shelf it is placed in, or draw attention to its one spot as a contrast to the entire shelf.

These game pieces can be easily found in shops that sell tabletop RPGs and board games locally, and I am not sure if there are such shops overseas, but there should be online. They serve to beautify and enhance the nature of your cabinet in a small way, if you so feel inclined.
 

So why LEDs? They are not only gentle on figures despite their harsh light, they are also economically the best for your display cabinet. Fluorescent lights have to be replaced regularly and harm the environment when disposed of improperly. Conventional light-bulbs or other lighting display means also use more electricity on the whole than LEDs. Guaranteed, LEDs may not be the best choice if other better alternatives can be found, but you could always buy a cheap strip of LEDs with just one or two colors and light up your display cabinet easily.

Moreover, the whole thing is, if you are used to DIY, easy to set up. Procuring the parts may be a little difficult if you take into consideration where you live and the fact that you may have to ship the LEDs from abroad, but all in all, I think in the long run a LED display of lights saves more money than other conventional lighting means. Then again, this is merely my opinion, so you should feel free to experiment with, or choose from the lighting display method you feel is best suited for you and your own cabinets. I present only one of the many options that you can use for your display cabinet, albeit in a rather flashy way.
 

I really have nothing more that I can say about this project. The whole cost got compounded by the special adapter needed for the LEDs; it is no longer in production and Dennis had to go out of his way to get one. The final cost was almost $500 SGD. Then again it included another set of strips that are no longer used, and the adapter was the problem. I really do not believe the whole cost for one cabinet may be more than perhaps 150-200 SGD at the most, especially if you can procure the parts cheaply or easily in your own area. Besides, I used rainbow-colored LEDs, which are obviously more expensive than single-color LEDs.

Anyway the rest of this post is a spamming of the various lighting displays and their shelves, all from TP’s camera. Red and green colors are missing from the shots; I suppose the photographers felt they did not look nice. Feel free to leave your comments and ask me stuff about Project Aurora; if I can answer, I will.

Related posts:

1. Project Aurora Eyecatch Filler

Insert slowpoke.jpg. I kept up with most of the updates surrounding Wonder Festival this summer 2010, but really, I was hoping there would be nothing that caught my eye. By that I mean the kind that shout “MUST HAVE!”. Well, wishful thinking. Luckily it was only really one figure, since the others were announced long ago, or already on preorder. No, Nendoroid Ikaros above (from Sora no Otoshimono) is not one of them. I just felt she made a good image to start with.

All images are from Akibahobby (Alter, WHL, AmiAmi, Orchid Seed, Figma) and all information from Wcloudxkumo’s blog (part 1, part 2). I have no idea where the hell Volks’ coverage went, but whatever. I am not particularly interested in anything they showed this year. I am sure as well that most of you have already seen the rest of the coverage, so I am just going to talk about the figures that interest me, or that I found interesting.
 

The slap in the face, or rather, the staple. Good things come to those they wait, or so they say. So it is with this 1/8 figure of Senjougahara Hitagi from Bakemonogatari. Considering my fascination with her, despite her not being my waifu that is, I am almost about ready to click the “Buy” button. Though the color sample is not yet available, the quality of the work can already be seen. As expected of Alter, from whom I have been buying all my figures from lately (countable on one hand). I still have to see the final color sample (I will post the link on Twitter once it is up) but it is almost certainly on my list of preorders. The release date says winter this year, but really, with Alter, you could rearrange the name to say “Later”. Catch the drift?
 

Alter has been throwing out bombshells year after year, and this year was no exception. This wonderful figure above is the first I have seen of Dizzy from the Guilty Gear series (specifically, this version is from GGXX AC) with both her wings, Necro and Undine, fully sculpted. As malzias put it, it is like they sculpted three people into one figure. You can expect her to be expensive. Her release date is set in the same time period as Senjougahara’s above. No, I am not getting her. I have never been a fan of Dizzy’s (iceberg FRC FTL nightmares of fighting against Dizzy pros) but I must say this sculpt of her is extremely nice.
 

My 8th waifu, Selvaria Bles, from Valkyria Chronicles. Already on the preorder list, I thought I would show her technicolor full color sample for kicks. Also to all the fools who thought they took out her stand for her weapon…think again. By the way this version is, far as I know, from the game and not the anime.
 

AmiAmi exclusive, I believe. This is Mina Tepes from Dance in the Vampire Bund, but in her awakened version. I will not be getting her, but she does look good for now. This was put up just to beat all those lolicons who were all over the loli version into the ground.
 

Oppai Orchid Seed has been highly successful in recent years for releasing either mildly ecchi, or full ecchi figures. However due to my losing interest in figure collecting except for those of my waifu’s, most of their oppai figures no longer interest me. But seriously Orchid Seed, STOP GIVING ME TEASERS OF MY 1ST WAIFU AND RELEASE HER ALREADY OR AT LEAST GIVE ME A COLOR SAMPLE DAMMIT. Thank you very much for your attention.

For those wondering, this is Ira Blanc Neige Gardenias from Shining Tears (not Wind, she has a different look in Wind).
 

This is Hatsune Miku from Vocaloid as illustrated by Taka Tony, the oh-so-great-one-face-wonder hentai artist. Quite frankly this was not too surprising, considering Miku’s popularity. Another one I am not getting, but the sculpt looks nice enough and it follows his illustration closely enough, I suppose.
 

When I saw this figure of the recently announced new Vocaloid character Lily, I went “WUT?” She was just announced, and they already have a figure prepared for her? Apparently this was also a T2 illustration. Her pose is awfully similar to Alter’s KOS-MOS though…
 

And of course, speaking of my 2nd waifu, here is a Figma version of her by Max Factory. Another must-get, but I remember she was announced before or something, so nothing new.
 

That kind of sums up what interested me enough to post about at Wonfes this summer. Like I said my passion for collecting figures has largely faded, and I see little or no reason to continue with it in earnest. Now if only Volks would bring down the price of their resin KOS-MOS with the R-Blade…

Related posts:

1. Wonder Festival 09 Summer – Car & Flower
2. Wonder Festival 2010 Winter – Max Factory & GSC
3. Wonder Festival 2010 Winter – Kotobukiya & Orchid Seed

The long-awaited (and I do mean long) arrival of Cat Shit One did not disappoint – Cat Shit One is the most anticipated series for me this season after watching the first episode. I must admit that despite it being an original net animation, the animation quality was fantastic, and the premise is right up my alley.

Cat Shit One starts out as we are shown in the trailer – the duo of Packy and Botasky combine to try and rescue two hostages from the clutches of terrorists. What makes this show even more interesting is that it is fully animated in 3D, the codename for Packy and Botasky is Cat Shit One, and both of them are rabbits. The terrorists are camels, and this is all most likely a parody. The word “rabbit” in Japanese Romanji is “usagi”, which translates to U.S.A. G.I.

The first episode starts out slow, but moves into action pretty quickly as Cat Shit One moves in on their own in order to save the hostages in time, as the arrival of their backup is too slow. Packy mentions that two pros are more than enough to take down 15 enemies, and he was right.
 

I believe they did research some military tactics in combat – this scene shows Packy pushing down a terrorist he meets point blank at a corner, which surprises the terrorist and allows Packy to shoot at him undisturbed while the terrorist is on the ground. Packy then immediately switches to a pistol to deal with another terrorist in close-range combat, as his rifle would be a little slow and inaccurate. Good use of combat techniques, ones that obviously come from long training and experience.
 

Sorry but the shock factor here when Packy threw the grenade at them was just awesome. They basically went “Huh!?” and blew up.
 

It is true what Packy said – unnecessary parts slow you down in combat. After all, Botasky merely wanted to look cool and the stuff was expensive too. A normal 6x-12x scope would probably have worked fine. Speaking of which I did not recognize the assault rifle Packy was carrying; the terrorists were holding AK-47′s, which was familiar enough. Is Packy carrying a M4A1 Carbine (my first guess, but it does not look like one) or is it something else? Anyone want to identify the rifles they were carrying?

Edit: Thanks to anonymous gun nerd and Kherubim for pointing out that Packy’s rifle is in fact the SR-47. No wonder it looks familiar – it was based on the AR-15, a gun I handled before. Thanks to jester for identifying Botasky’s as the Mk14 EBR. For information about the unnecessary parts on Botasky’s rifle see Kherubim’s comment as well. Thanks to yf19ex for identifying Packy’s pistol as the STI M1911.
 

Packy is shown setting up a Claymore mine. I was taught that Claymore mines were curved; the one shown here is flat. Probably a variant, but powerful nevertheless. The Claymore is a nice setup as a trap – the main purpose is for defense. The specific way a Claymore blows is only toward the front – on Claymore mines the side that it blows towards has a very obvious “FRONT TOWARDS ENEMY” printed on it. As for the RPGs, I guess Packy took them from the terrorists’ supplies. He had a nice setup for diverting the terrorists’ attention first, buying him enough time to blow up the trucks and kill some of them.
 

Well, though it was not serving the purpose it was intended for, Botasky’s scope did have a use in the end, though he had to discard it right after. I am not sure what kind of knife the terrorist is holding, the name slips from my mind. Thanks to CK for identifying the weapon as a kukri. Anyway without that scope stopping the knife I am pretty sure Botasky’s rifle would be rendered useless.
 

I just thought this part where they got surrounded in the encirclement was pretty cool, if a little cliche in plot for such shows.
 

Every time the show slowed down, it was so obvious something was going to happen. I kind of dislike it for the most part; realism is taken out. The only exception was when Packy got knocked down by the RPG. By the way WTF helicopter is this? One that has armament and has carrying capacity for at least 10 troops, and has a double-seater cockpit? Thanks to lesterf1020 for the help in identifying this chopper as the Mil Mi-24, which is, amusingly, also known as the “flying tank” among the Soviet pilots of past.
 

Pure destruction. Loved this part. Most likely those were Hellfire missiles.

General Impressions

Awesome animation quality, awesome premise, awesome military action. I mean the premise is not for everyone of course. The only complaint is the lack of blood, but then again since this is being streamed on Youtube, I guess they had to make it family-friendly. Cat Shit One suffered from a lack of sponsorship, which accounts for the delay until now in its production. Out of all the series I am catching this season, it is the one that currently shows the most promise, easily beating Sekirei ~Pure Engagement~ and Sengoku Basara 2.

Not much to say about the seiyuu – Hino Satoshi did Tsuchida-sensei in Hanamaru Kindergarten and is Botasky in this show, while Packy is voiced by Tsuchida Hiroshi, with his only known role for me being Masamune in Soul Eater. By the way for the lolicons, CP does not stand for “child porn” but “Command Post”. Assholes.
 

This 3D animated series may not be for everyone, but for those who like such stuff, get hyped. Cat Shit One is blowing things up, the right way.

Related posts:

1. Winter 10 Anime Watchlist

The rest of my summer impressions follow for the series I am currently watching – Seitokai Yakuindomo, Highschool of the Dead, and Sengoku Basara 2. Honestly I was not planning on watching any more than the three I mentioned in my summer anime watchlist, but there was hype about certain series that made me pick them up.

Seitokai Yakuindomo

One of the shows I was not originally planning on watching, I heard some good things about this show and decided to give it a go. Like Seitokai no Ichizon before it, Seitokai Yakuindomo is about the Student Council (duh), but unlike Seitokai no Ichizon, there is no real harem vibe. Rather, Tsuda Takatoshi the lead male is thrust rather forcefully into the Student Council by the President, and he has no intention of chasing any of the girls in there. What makes it worse is that he has just started his high school life in a school that used to be for girls only, and so the male population is still very low.

Originally a 4-koma comic, Seitokai Yakuindomo has its ups and downs and funny moments. There are a lot of perverted jokes, or ones that are related in some way to sex (along with wordplay). After seeing two episodes, I guess I will continue with it because it could be funny at times and has a great side-show feel to it, unlike Seitokai no Ichizon which had too many parodies for me. This one at least did not lay it thick with them. The animation style is rather similar to Princess Lover in certain aspects, and in episode 2 there is even a reference to that show.
 

I must say Kobayashi Yuu is showing her best once again as the useless but perverted teacher of the Student Council, Yokoshima Naruko, while Omigawa Chiaki is trying too hard this time round as Mitsuba Mutsumi. For reference, Kobayashi was Lala Gonzalez in School Rumble, Ichinose Nagi in Nyan Koi! (where her role was similar and where she brought out her best), and more recently Kanejou Kyouka in B Gata H Kei. Omigawa is only well-known for one role – Maka Albarn in Soul Eater.

Asanuma Shintaro plays Tsuda, and he was also in Nyan Koi! as the lead. I got no comments about his voice acting here, because his character is just too deadpan.
 

All in all this is not a show to be taken seriously, and as I said, it is a great series to watch on the side in addition to the bigger shows that are airing this season, for some light-hearted humor. Not everyone will like the style of this series though, so you might want to give it a try first if you are interested.
 

Highschool of the Dead

Quite possibly the most anticipated show of the season for many, Highschool of the Dead did not fail to deliver in its first episode, going straight into the zombie killing action. I really doubt there will be much of a plot, considering how much fanservice there was. I even have to admit some of it was just pointless – wow look at the amount of tits. At least have a reason for them like Sekirei does. There was also too little actual smashing – the part where Hisashi’s head got smashed should have shown it getting smashed. Miyamoto Rei (voiced by Inoue Marina) is just irritating, and yes this is the first time I find a character voiced by Inoue to be irritating. Oh wait, one more girl is even more irritating – Minami Kana. Ok that makes her a little more acceptable.

As of this post I have yet to catch the second episode where Busajima Saeko (voiced by Sawashiro Miyuki) appears, the character I am most interested in for the series. The animation quality was top-notch as usual, but there will likely be little plot considering how it is just a rehash of the Resident Evil generic plot, which got old 7 years ago. I will finish this show of course, but the jiggling boobs and pantyshots makes it difficult to even take this series with anything but a snigger. Add to that a premise which I already found to be slightly boring and I realize why I catch this show – for the lulz.

I heard there was no bitching and whining in the manga, though there is still fanservice. Then again since the premise already is not my cup of tea, I guess I will just catch the anime.
 

Sengoku Basara 2

The last of the three series I said I would catch for summer, Sengoku Basara 2 starts off on a high note with Sanada Yukimura once again facing off against Date Masamune, the former trying to prevent the latter from disrupting a fight between Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen. The usual highlights are back, but this time round it seemed a little too much rehashed, and not enough power. The epic stuff from the first season does not seem to exist in similar form in this season.

Their fight is interrupted by the arrival of the new evil dude, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and his gay sidekick, Takenaka Hanbee. For a guy that is like 2-3 times the size of a normal human, he actually needs no swords to deflect a full hail of arrows from both Uesugi’s and Takeda’s armies. Neither does he need swords to fight against Date; as you can see in the screenshot above, he can pierce the heavens with his hands alone. Then again I still cannot get over the fact that he is voiced by Kuchiki Byakuya (Okiayu Ryotaro). Sooner or later he is going to show us he can actually pull pink swords out of nowhere and shatter them into a thousand pieces. Wait, this might be the last episode’s fight.
 

Hanbee is played by veteran Ishida Akira, and his gay voice sounded familiar because last year he was also a villain at the top (and almost as gay anyway) in Kemono no Souja Erin. A fitting choice of seiyuu for such a character, I might add.

As I watched the raw I could only guess at the conversation in the second half of the episode (this old style of Japanese talking stuff is still heady), including the plot. It is still too early to say that the plot will be a rehash of the first season’s but that is rather likely. Then again who watches this for the plot, we want the manly ACSHUN and the GAR battles that have footmen merely to serve the purpose of showing how powerful the warlords are. Kasuga seems likely to be the only female saving grace in that sector for this season.

The new OP sucks compared to JAP, even though it is also sung by T.M. Revolution. Ah well, they could at least have chosen a better song. The ED has yet to be shown. The animation quality is epic once more, and will likely continue throughout the series. I just hope some decent or good fansub group picks this up, even though I will be catching it raw.
 

All in all summer is not giving me my expectations except for one series, which is Sekirei ~Pure Engagement~. Kazehana and Benitsubasa get a lot more coverage this season, which is to be expected for the former considering how long ago she has been winged in the manga. They hint at her winging in the third episode so I hardly consider it a spoiler, but I do love how they follow just the general plot of the manga and do it their own way for the anime. It is a treat for both those who read the manga and those who do not.

I also just realized Sekirei has the largest group of my waifu’s (their voices) gathered in one series – Tsukiumi (who is indeed my 4th waifu), Kazehana (Yukana, Shishidou Takane of Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo) and Asama Miya (Ohara Sayaka, Selvaria Bles of Valkyria Chronicles). Sekirei also has a lot of female seiyuu I actually like or respect, and this is one big reason why the series is really good for me in more ways than one.
 

I am not going to be doing any more impressions, though I feel like catching Mitsudomoe after hearing good things about it. The only other series I will be doing an impressions’ post for is Cat Shit One, which has finally arrived and will stream on Youtube this coming Saturday (the 17th). I have no idea if I will catch it on Youtube, considering I dislike that place, but there is no guarantee that I will be able to get a raw for it either (though I already asked kaizoku about it). If I do get a raw then yes, an impressions post is in order.

Related posts:

1. Summer 2010 Anime Watchlist
2. Summer Anime OP/ED Full Impressions
3. Summer 2008 Anime Watchlist

So we moved straight to the fight between Akisame and the Lance of the East first. I suppose Matsuena wanted to finish this one up quickly so he can move on to the more anticipated fight between Izayoi and Ma Kensei, since that one will likely have fanservice.

Again, like the Lance of the West before him, the Lance of the East believes that unarmed opponents are at a disadvantage against armed ones, and both he and Akisame show off a few of their counter skills in this chapter, before Akisame finishes him with Kodama Awase, which causes vibrations within the helmet that knocks out the Lance of the East. This is not as far-fetched as one would think – in basic physics there is resonance frequency in which you can make things vibrate at their optimal frequency (usually maximum, IIRC). In Darker than Black there was also a contractor that had the same skill based upon this principle.

Not much in terms of plot development in this chapter but we expected it. Next chapter would probably be better, considering it is definitely the fight between Izayoi and Ma Kensei.

No related posts.

Well I actually missed Senjougahara Hitagi’s birthday on the 7th of July, the day of the Japanese Tanabata Festival (for lovers; the Chinese also have a similar day in their culture). So, here is a belated happy birthday to our novel tsundere queen, Senjougahara-sama. Not surprisingly, her birthday puts her squarely in the month of Cancer. Hitagi Crab much? Above image by Sutanri.

No related posts.

Damn right. In a sudden turn of events, we are moved to the next fight…or is it? No, it appears that first, Ma Kensei and Koetsuji Akisame must first resolve the issue of who gets to fight whom. The cause? Because Kensei finds out the opponent Akisame picked is a woman.

Izayoi sure has a nice body but I am not too sure about that outfit. In any case the entire chapter was hilarious as it was based upon how Ma Kensei had to find a way to make Akisame change his mind, especially after he said “Ehhhhhh…..no way.” It was iron determination and stubbornness on Akisame’s part, and Ma Kensei knew that. The only way was to get him to relinquish his choice through a defeat, but as usual, in Jan-Ken-Pon amongst the masters, in one second they can change their hands quite a number of times.

Ma Kensei reaches his limit when he gets tricked by a feint, but as in the panel above, he allows his ero powers to dominate, though it leaves him without the use of his right hand for a month. Quite the disadvantage, as Izayoi starts going all-out on him. Her fighting style appears to be really berserk, so I wonder how this fight between her and Kensei will turn out, especially since we know Kensei will just keep trying to take off her clothes. I would hardly mind some Izayoi fanservice, but she looks quite similar to Shigure in certain ways.
 

I doubt we will switch to the main fights so soon, so I probably expect that next week is a continuation of this fight, or the start of Akisame’s. Ma Kensei’s would be more interesting though, as there is actually a chance he might not win that easily.

Related posts:

1. Kenichi 387 – Shigure’s Joust
2. Kenichi 386 – Bike Lancer Shigure
3. Kenichi 385 – General Niijima

Well actually Project Aurora was finished a very long time ago. The pictures taken by YuKi-To (one of them is presented here) and TP have been sitting around in my HD waiting to be processed for a very long time as well. I am just way too lazy, even though Project Aurora’s pictures probably do not need much processing. As proof, this picture was almost wholly unedited, especially the color. Now you get a hint of what Project Aurora was about. Of course, my display cabinet no longer looks like this in terms of the figures, but the lights are still there. Maybe I might get around to working on the other photos soon, since I finally mentioned it and presented you with an eyecatch filler.

By the way I am still selling my figures and most of them were already put in their boxes, you might want to find out which ones have been sold (only a few) and get updated on the situation by contacting me though.

Related posts:

1. Project Aurora

And I can actually pretty safely say that I would be, if all I did was follow this series in the anime world, die happy now just by seeing the above. For the first time in the manga, Shigure’s boobs are exposed. This chapter saw the continuation and the end of the fight between Shigure and the one who calls himself the “Lance of the West”.

Overall the fight was pretty exciting, or as exciting as drawn manga chapters could be. I would far prefer this to be animated, but consider that Shigure actually managed to control and stand up on that bike while jousting against a real knight on a real war horse. Of course, he calls himself a “knight”, but then again, it is kind of…old-fashioned. Whatever it is, Shigure’s lance is hardly anything like a real lance, since it can bend and twist. She also had the advantage in movement on her bike and with lighter equipment.

Her vest gets broken at that stage in the panel above, hence exposing her upper body to possible injury, but Shigure cleverly meets the opponent’s lance with her own and shaves off the sharp tip before jumping onto his head in a drill move. He did however catch it before it pierced his skull, attesting to his ability. Of course, like how Shigure is, the reason she never attacked his horse was because he never attacked her mouse, which was probably impossible for him anyway. In acknowledgment of the fact that she was now horse-less (the bike got pwned), and in light of the fact that the Lance of the West will also likely get owned in a swordfight, he conceded defeat.
 

Well, nice fanservice, Matsuena Syun. Thank you very much. I just wish this fight was a little longer, but then again, he did show us her tits. Yay. I wonder whose fight is next.

Related posts:

1. Kenichi 386 – Bike Lancer Shigure
2. Kenichi 388 – The Power of Ero
3. Kenichi 385 – General Niijima

Damn straight. Cosplaying as Shiranui Mai (with her patented “Nippon ichi!”), having an otaku fetish for eroge and cosplay (I do not, but that is all good), beautiful, nice boobs, and is somewhat of an airhead but pretty passionate…well the Kanetsugu-sama part is a little worrying, but whatever. Kiryuu Yuuzuki from Kiss X Sis (TV) wins this season’s females in mah book. Now if there was really such a hot teacher in Japan Imma fly over and marry her if I could.

Oh and I was wondering if I should have a sort of vote/popularity fight between the females (main and sub characters in different categories) on my blog for each season. Then again I do not catch every show out there, and it might just end up being a popularity thing, but I could make it a tournament fight of sorts. Of course, I wonder if it will even pick up, but let me know what you guys think. If the response is positive enough I will start off the fight ASAP, with tables, ladders and chairs.

No related posts.

So sorry, but this should have been up earlier. This must be the cutest, if not the catchiest, ED this season. Then again, those of you who watched Shin Koihime Musou: Otome Tairan already knew that. It just ended last week by the way. The song was sung by Kan’u Unchou (Kurokawa Nami), Sonsaku Hakufu (Yoneshima Nozomi), and Sousou (Maeda Yukie), otherwise known as Engi no San Otome (the Three Maidens of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms) in the single. I initially thought it was the three sisters, but guess not. Anyway, this season is the best out of the three so far, and it really was good, mindless fun. So, without further ado, enjoy this cutest ED, the full version is a little better but that is about it. The ED animation is what makes it all worthwhile.

Aiya, aiya, aiya IYA IYA~! Aiya, aiya, aiya IYA IYA~!

Related posts:

1. Life and Proud [SINGLE] Impressions
2. Maiochiru Yuki no You ni [SINGLE] Impressions
3. Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 Ending Theme Review

HNGH I AM HIGH ON SEEING SEXY SHIGURE WEARING ALMOST NOTHING ON A BIKE, SHE IS THE BEST FEMALE IN ALL OF KENICHI, DESHOU, DESHOU?!

Fanboy-gasm aside, this chapter was titled “Battle on All Fronts” but it only really showed Apachai and Kenichi (along with Miyu and Niijima) meeting up with Agaard Sum Jai and Tirawit Koukin, before turning to the first fight, that of the lancer vs. Shigure. Mentioning that she is rather lightly equipped for the battle, the lancer manages to charge down Shigure into a warehouse but misses her as she takes off her outer robe before replying as she jumps onto the bike “I believe I’m not as lightly equipped as you say.”
 

I expected that they will jump between fights, but concentrating on the fights one by one is a good thing too. At least, it is quite likely that we will be shown more of the fight between Shigure and the lancer than between the other three masters and their respective opponents, before we move on to the combined fights of the two Muay Thai masters and Kenichi’s fight. It is kind of unbelievable how Shigure actually knows how to ride a bike, but that just made her hotter by about 9000 times in my book (since I ride too).

Challenging the lancer to a joust on a bike vs. his war horse but with a smaller joust seems to be rather disadvantageous for Shigure here since the higher speed will cause greater impact for her if the joust on the other side hits her, but she might be able to use her smaller lance and greater speed to her advantage. I have no doubt that Shigure will win; the “how” is the sexciting part.

Related posts:

1. Kenichi 387 – Shigure’s Joust
2. Kenichi 388 – The Power of Ero
3. Kenichi 385 – General Niijima

An early airing of Sekirei ~Pure Engagement~ is out and as expected, we are back to the harem acts of Minato and his, well, harem. What else did you expect? Of course, there is more to the story than that. Because most of this happened in a time even before the second round in the manga (we are actually at the third round and quite a bit into it some more, in the latest chapter), I forgot most of what happened beforehand. So some of this will be spoilers for those who do not read the manga. I will, wherever I can and remember, put the spoilers in tags, but essentially, if you are not following the manga, this post may be a little too…informative.

The entire raw had those annoying words throughout so you have to bear with them. Anyway since this is already aired, I might as well spoil you on the details regarding the first part of the episode. Haihane and Benitsubasa in the second half of the episode talk about information regarding Yume and Karasuba being the 2nd generation Disciplinary Squad, and any information relating to the first generation Disciplinary Squad is erased. As you might expect from the prelude, the top five Sekirei (Asama Miya, Matsu, Kazehana, Karasuba and Mutsu) are the 1st generation Disciplinary Squad. More details I decline to give – in fact, this information, if I remember right, was only revealed in the manga sometime during the second round (after it started) or even after it.

I guess they were doing the same as they did for the first season, revealing this ahead in order for the information to fit into the anime.
 

This part hardly interested me. It all felt very contrived to me. I know it was to show that they were back to their daily lives after the successful escape plan in the first season, but even so, in the manga, they hardly played around that much. Further, the ending of the first season, as I mentioned before, is different from how that particular scenario ended in the manga, so really, I want to see how they continue from here, but for now, this “peaceful life” thing is a little blatant even for possible fanservice shots, and none too funny.
 

Whole damn thing in spoilers because what happens next with Uzume is only hinted at in this episode. It contains my speculations about how this season might go for Uzume and Chiho compared to the manga’s plot for them.

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

SURPRISE SURPRISE! They showed tits in this episode! It is all very silly, if you ask me, to censor Musubi’s tits and not Benitsubasa’s. implying big boobs are better, not that I mind Anyway Benitsubasa got a lot more exposure, including a filler fight showing how she prevents another escape, as well as her going over to Izumo Inn to check out on Minato and his Sekirei. The chat in the bath did happen in the manga though. Well Beni is pretty cute, though the same cannot be said for her personality…
 

Another impression full of spoilers, and this might involve the rest of the second season so please, do not read if you really want to be kept guessing for the rest of the second season. For the manga readers, this is some food for thought as to how the anime might diverge from the manga.

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

General Impressions

First of all I have to say this – I finally get to hear Inoue Marina after a long absence of her voice in my anime, and as Tsukiumi no less. For that matter I finally get to see Tsukiumi too…ok where are my manga stuff I want to see Tsukiumi’s tits in the latest chapters. Anyway, not much different in terms of style from the first season, would be how I describe the first episode of the second. Nice to hear some of the returning cast once more in these roles. The OP and ED are again sung by the four primary Sekirei of Minato’s harem. Like most combined seiyuu songs, not too much to expect, but I suppose the first OP is better than the second, the current OP is better than the ED, and the 2nd ED is better than the first. That is how I see it.

Most of what is going to happen is only hinted at, and some of it also hints to stuff that actually happened in the manga, but I wonder how much they will move away from the manga in relation to what we have been shown in this episode. I do not mind moving away a little, but too much means they will try to end it in 12-13 episodes, and that is going to suck. Big-time.
 

Oh they mentioned some release of the four seiyuu going at it in a game or something, at the end, should pick that up just for Inoue Marina and her loveliness.

Related posts:

1. Sekirei Favorites
2. KKN & Sekirei Chat
3. Summer Anime Impressions

Quite a while ago I mentioned on Twitter that I was playing a game. More specifically, an eroge. But I should think it will likely be classified more as a visual novel RPG, if there is such a definition. And at the time, I did want to write up a review of sorts for it, but I lost interest. Recently, I started up the game again in an effort to get a few girls’ routes and endings, and so I have finally managed to bother getting some screenshots from the game itself and make a post for the game. In English, it is perhaps better known as “Beloved Kingdom”.

First of all I forgot how I really managed to find this game but I do know where it can be found…or could be. It no longer exists there. A hint – HF. Ok I am sure most of you eroge regulars instantly know where that is. There is a new thread for it but I am not sure if you-know-what works. But in any case, thanks to the person who originally made the post for it, and of course, BTAxis for having translated the game with an unofficial English patch.

Beloved Kingdom was, if I am right, released in (or around) the year 2001. This makes it a really old game by today’s standards. But it remains pretty fun. My review will be structured in a loose format, and the last page contains spoilers on certain girls’ routes. The first two pages deal with gameplay and my impressions of the game. Click on any of the images to enlarge them.
 

Storyline

You play the role of Crow (yes he even mentions himself at the start that it is a weird name), who has left his hometown to seek greener pastures. He has arrived at the city of Gardeorea. Gardenia bread Gardeorea is a city with an exceptional rule – someone who has just arrived looking for a job may take up apprenticeship with many different masters in order to find the job that he/she wants in life. In this way no one is bound to a job without first having tried it out for some time and deciding if it is suitable for them.

Crow has arrived here with not just the idea of looking for a job however; he also wants a girlfriend. His goal is to spend the night of the festival on March 24th (in-game) with his beloved if possible, but his character is definitely not one that exactly pleases every woman…
 

Gameplay

The idea of the game itself is pretty simple – you have to take on a job each week, and at the end of each week you will be paid your wages for that particular job. Some jobs have prerequisites, like having a certain set amount of stats to be able to do them; others simply require that you do a simpler job first before moving on to it. Still others demand that you do something in the game (story-wise) before you can take it, like the Soldier job for example.
 

At the end of each working day after you finish working at your job, this stats screen pops up and tells you what was improved (or degraded). You can pop up the stats screen anytime during the game using “S”.

Crow himself has 6 stats to deal with – Mystery, Exercise, Intelligence, Nature, Artistic Sense and Technical Skill. Doing certain jobs will raise certain attributes but may also lower others over time. For instance, taking the job of a priest will increase your Mystery and Intelligence (no idea why) by quite a bit, but will gradually lower your Exercise level (since you hardly have to keep fit as a priest).

Are these stats important? Yes. You require some to be able to take a job that is related to a girl’s route, or to be able to impress a girl. I am actually not too sure about the “impression” part, but you do need a lot of physical exercise to get to a few of these girls. Others require an artistic sense, or lots of mystery. But most of the girls’ routes begin with just the job itself (ie. taking the chaplain route may open up a certain girl’s route for you, while taking the weapons store salesman route opens up another girl’s), though some do not require a job for you to begin their route. Exploration is key (assuming you do not want to use the walkthrough, and yes there is one).
 

At the beginning of each work-week (a work-week lasts from 8 AM in the morning to 4 PM in the afternoon, Monday to Saturday), you will be given the choice of a job for that particular week. You can choose what you like, or choose to continue what you did during the previous week. Some of them are upgraded to level 2 (or have a different job title but is essentially the same job, just gives you more stats and wages at the end of the day or week) if you took a lower-level job related to them. Wages are paid only at the end of each work-week (end of Saturday’s job-time). Sundays are totally free (starting from 8 AM) for you.

As you notice, some jobs are marked as question marks. This usually means that you have yet to unlock them, either because you did not fulfill a lower-level job requirement or that you have not come across them in the “story”. Though the story itself is actually a sandbox style of types, there are certain things you must accomplish at certain times to begin a girl’s route (or story). Some of these jobs are related to some of these routes, so if you want to be rather complete in your first playthrough, explore thoroughly every day.
 

You can stay awake after work up till very late but I am not sure exactly how late, because the latest I ever went to sleep was something around 4 AM. Obviously, if you get to bed late, you might be late for work (never happened to me though). Some of these girls’ routes also make you go to bed late but these are automatic and you suffer no penalty the next day.

No related posts.

This here is a public service announcement for people who actually comment on my blog. Wait, they exist. WOW. Anyway my spam filter has recently gone bonkers on comments (even more so than before) and I have to make this PSA in order to set things right. Also the image above is a placeholder, and thanks to RenOfHeavens, she has been identified as Usami Haru from G-Senjou no Maou (whatever series that is), drawn by alpha. Anyway, if you find your comments have not been showing up, read on to find out why.

More than a few bloggers should already know this if they even occasionally check their spam filters – there are now bots that copy and paste whatever comments were already present in a post, and only change the nick and maybe email or URL of the person that originally made the comment. What this means is that each time I manually reject these copycat comments in my spam filter, the filter believes that the original comment’s owner was recognized as a blacklisted URL for future reference. What is even worse is if you all arrived from Wordpress.com (for example) and it is in the blacklist. Instantly, the spam filter eats, and never tells me.

I regularly check my spam filter but even so there may be comments that are marked as having too much bad karma. Some of you already know that I am using the no-longer-updated Spam Karma 2 plugin. It is powerful, but recent bot tactics have shown that something that is not updated to keep up with the times is obviously going to leave it behind.
 

So anyway, if your comment has been eaten, it may or may not send me an email. Comments that are in the grey area, meaning the spam filter holds it in a moderation queue, will have an email sent to me notifying me that there is a comment waiting to be approved. What I am worried about are the comments that are instantly tagged as spam (having too much bad karma) and never even surfacing. I have to actually manually set the damn thing to show me really low karma just to be able to see your comments and then manually approve them.

I have already whitelisted two troublemaking URLs, namely Wordpress.com and Google.com. However there is still a chance that bots may use these two URLs to ensure that they are again blacklisted. What I need you to do is to cooperate and send me an email if your comment has been eaten, regardless whether or not it tells you an email has been sent to the moderator. You can also contact me on Twitter. Either way is fine. I can also be contacted on IRC, channel #BP in the Rizon (irc.rizon.net) server.
 

I do not care if your comment flames or trolls…ok actually I do. But if it is a legit comment, even if it flames or trolls, it should be allowed to be shown. There are very few cases throughout this blog’s life where I actually deleted comments. In fact I can only think of two, and both were highly justified.
 

So, please help me with this matter. If your comment has been eaten unfairly, contact me and let me know. In this way, I will actually know if people are able to comment. There are people who do not use Twitter or are passers-by in this blog, or are lurkers that comment only once in a while. But no matter who, if you want to leave a comment and have done so yet it does not show, I believe it only right for you to just make that extra step and inform me, in order for me to give you the fairness that is deemed to be just on the side of the person who comments. Ok so that was a little exaggerating, but you get the idea.
 

Thanks in advance! Feel free to comment anytime here, if you feel a post of mine deserves a comment or further discussion. :) Feel free to suggest any new and good spam filter plugin for Wordpress as well if you know of any.

No related posts.

Because running around a frenzied military base in a bathrobe is so not cool for an alien.

So I decided that I might do a weekly post for the manga series of Shijou Saikyou no Deshi Kenichi, which I have been touting on Twitter for quite some time with regards to its awesomeness. If you caught the anime, you should read the manga – it has more information, the anime does not show everything (there is an episode that is actually not in the manga and was a filler, I had no idea until I rewatched the anime), and etc. Of course, the manga is much further ahead than where the anime left off (around chapter 150 in the manga). I read all 381 chapters (at the time I actually marathon’ed the series, that is) and have kept myself updated since. Martial arts, comedy, fighting, and lots of friendship and love, with just that little bit of fanservice. What more could you ask for?

In any case, as I said, I might do a weekly post. Reasons are multi-fold, not the least of which is the latest announcement regarding manga scanlation sites. Personally I am pretty upset about it – I understand some of the reasonings behind it but I think they are not looking at the full picture. So, my source of manga scanlations may sooner or later get done in. No sauce, no chapters, no story. The other is just motivation. I might lose it along the way, but as of now, Kenichi sure deserves more than just obscure or random references to it.

Unlike TJ I will not bother with the summary and will assume with each post that you already read the chapter. Hence, spoilers abound if you have not already read the manga. Of course, for those who stopped at the anime, this whole post itself will be full of spoilers…but whether or not you even understand them due to the lack of development in-between the story where it left off in the anime and the story now, is another thing. Oh, by the way, for those who have read the manga but not watched the anime, I suggest you watch it. Just to place voices and character styles in animation to the main characters. It sure is worth it hearing Apachai go “APAPAPAPAPA” in the anime.
 

Chapter Thoughts

I lol’ed so damn hard when Niijima showed up with his night-vision goggles and that uniform, as above. General Niijima was the second thing that came to mind; an alien version of Adolf Hitler was the first. Good god. Also, Japanese youkai. It was anything but intelligent as a plan, but it did serve its purpose.

Most of this chapter served to set up the fights between the various masters and their opponents. The funny thing is, there were four of the armed side of Yami, but I remember Agaard mentioned “The Three Spears”. So where did the fourth one come from? Shigure fighting that lance knight sucks though, who the heck fights with a freaking joust on a warhorse nowadays? Mount&Blade gamers not withstanding. And yes, if you cannot already tell, I am quite the fan of Shigure. My favorite female in this series, quite possibly. <3 200 cookies says she is going to just beat his ass into the ground because she ain’t Kushinada Mikumo, who is my other favorite female of the series…tit-size not withstanding.

Sakaki’s opponent and the verbal brawl they had was just so…in-character. Except maybe for the armed dude, but then again he only talked once so far, during the meeting with Agaard. Also, lol at the masters wondering if he was praising them. Seriously, these guys are just too broke.
 

Next chapter will see Agaard Sum Jai face off with Apachai and Kenichi with Tirawit, which is just as it should be. I wonder if Niijima will actually get involved, or will he get protected by Miyu instead? Then again, with General Niijima, there is never anything to fear. There has never been an alien so devious, so cunning, and so evil as him in manga/anime series, with so little to lose.
 

PS: I WANT MY SECOND SEASON OF THIS SERIES IN ANIMESHUN! SOME GOOD STUDIO PICK IT UP PL0X!

Related posts:

1. Kenichi 386 – Bike Lancer Shigure
2. Kenichi 388 – The Power of Ero
3. Kenichi 387 – Shigure’s Joust

Recently announced for preorder release is the new cold cast figure of my 6th waifu done by our favorite cold cast manufacturer Alphamax, Shiranui Mai Hip Line Ver. Omega Style. Quite the mouthful. Apparently Omega Style is a new type of design they are looking into, and the Hip Line Ver. refers to Mai’s extensive revealing of her hip and ass. Her main model is taken from the upcoming KOF XIII game. All pictures in this post are thanks to HobbySearch’s listing for this figure.

As mentioned by the poor English translation provided in the listing, the aim of Omega Style is to reveal as much skin as possible and to do it in the best way possible. I bet the quality of that skin is really going to be akin to resin, and not just in durability. If you own both PVC and resin figures you will know what I mean. And over half of this figure reveals skin. Of course the original Mai does reveal this much skin but still, borderline ecchi figures seldom look as good as this.
 

DAT ASS!

That face also looks so alluring, she seems to be softly and subtly hinting in the overall pose with this particular expression. The figure will stand some 33cm tall at 1/5 scale. As you can expect, it is expensive, but the price was even higher than what I expected. At some 21K+ Yen (and more), this figure costs over 200 USD. WTF? Yeah I am debating if I should get her, but the seriously high price tag really turns me off. What is more I already accidentally smashed one Alphamax Mai before, and am really fearful that the same thing might happen if I am once again not careful. So I am holding off on this one for now.
 

Alphamax is, by the way, really pushing out the quality of their products. I wonder how far they have come, because since the last Mai that I got from them, they have released quite a few other figures, all in cold cast material.

Related posts:

1. A Tribute to The Memory of Shiranui Mai
2. KOF MIRA Shiranui Mai!
3. Q1 2009 Figure Preorders

Considering that there are only 3 shows I am going to bother with this coming summer, it is quite surprising that I would even bother to do a post for the season’s anime series at all. But oh well, I suppose it could serve as an excuse to make yet another post, albeit a very short one compared to the other anime watchlists that I had done so far. I also no longer have any authors writing for me, so anything here is all my own opinion. Also included is something that was talked about on IRC two nights ago (my time) regarding the anime industry, at the end of the post, if you are interested.

For way better previews of the coming anime season (heck it actually already has started or is going to) check out T.H.A.T. Anime Blog’s preview and Sea Slugs! Anime Blog’s preview. Like all other watchlists of mine, I only talk about the shows I will watch.
 

Sengoku Basara 2

How can one skip this manly anime? Truthfully the first season showed the amazing GAR-ness that can result from ridiculous strength and power, and even Gundams in a time period where obviously there was no such thing. Season 2 may or may not, however, continue the outrageous animation that was the staple of the first season, seeing as it has a new director. Most of the old cast return for the show, with the addition of a few new veterans. I might do a post on the first episode and any subsequent episodes that impress. Sengoku Basara 2 is likely to keep me engaged for its entire run, anyway.
 

Sekirei ~Pure Engagement~

The other sequel I am following, Sekirei is part of the classical harem genre with the same old kind of male lead…and a lot of boobs. That aside, I am interested in seeing how they will tie the second season with the first if they want to follow the manga, as they had a different ending than the storyline continuation in the manga. I doubt if they are not following the manga from this point on, so count on some more action. On another note I just realized Hibiki and Hikari (no. 11 and 12, Kaoru Seo’s Sekirei) are voiced by two really good “onee-san” voices, Neya Michiko and Kaida Yuko, and Seo himself is voiced by Konishi Katsuyuki (Kamina of Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann), so that is some real power in that team right there, especially the girls. Hot voices are hot…and yes, IIRC both Neya (she is 41 and married) and Kaida (she is an idol as well) are pretty hot IRL.

The other notable seiyuu I want to mention is the return of Inoue Marina after an absence…at least from the anime I watch. It will be great to hear her voice again, especially as my 4th waifu, Tsukiumi.
 

High School of the Dead

The only new series I am following, the High School of the Dead manga has received raving reviews ever since I started hearing about it, long before an anime adaptation was even planned I believe. So it comes as no surprise that I am really going to see what all the hype is about, in an animated version. The director of Death Note returns for this series, and the composition is done by the same dude who did Infinite Ryvius‘. Add to that the rather strong cast and we might have a real winner this season, what with its popularity already sky-high among anime watchers, and the anticipation that comes with it.

The premise by the way is a pretty generic zombie one, so I am interested to see how the story might differ or be better than the other 200 million copies. The cast is formed of many well-known folks – Inoue Marina will star as the lead female and Juwabe Sunichi (Grimmjaw of Bleach) will star as the male lead. Sawashiro Miyuki (Kanbaru Suruga of Bakemonogatari, Celty Sturluson of currently airing Durarara!!) will voice the busty nurse Busajima Saeko (who is pictured above), and I wonder if she is actually appropriate for the role. Busajima’s look certainly does not seem to fit Sawashiro’s voice, but if it works…

Seiyuu that need no introduction and have roles in this series are Miyano Mamoru and Hiyama Nobuyuki. Relative newcomer Taketatsu Ayana will join them, alongside Fukui Yukari (Sarah Adiemus of School Rumble series, Oerba dia Vanille of Final Fantasy 13) and Kitamura Eri (Uchida Yuka of Minami-ke series).
 

Shiranui Mai from Fatal Fury/King of Fighters by Ueyama Michirou. And thanks to mefloraine for identifying the top image of her as having been drawn by Kagehara Hanzou.

That covers the series I am watching, and it is pathetically small. That brings up the issue of how the “anime industry is dying”, something that I know has been discussed countless times before. This point was brought up in a conversation by someone who found my IRC channel (channel #BP on Rizon server, which is irc.rizon.net, do join if you are interested), Obiyer, who had followed my blog for some time. Thanks for the compliments dude, and to expand on what I said on IRC that night, I think I made it pretty clear that most of anime series nowadays are rehashed storylines and characters. You thought that I was taking it too seriously, that I had been into this for a long time, but frankly, I really have not been in it at all compared to all those that had, as I said, spent half their lives watching anime or something. They definitely know better than I do how the stuff nowadays are just being brought back from the old times, like in the 90’s and maybe early 00’s.

Certainly, I may feel that it is dying per se, but I just mean that the content is no longer original. Then again, nothing in this world is anymore. People buy what they are familiar with, and what they are familiar with is what sells. That means what could be deemed as “good” by the gamers of old is no longer the “good” of contemporary gamers, for example. Same thing goes for entertainment, and that includes anime. Of course, I may seem serious about how it is “dying”, but that does not stop me from doing what you said (and probably though I do not do) – taking it easy and enjoying anime, sometimes mindlessly. Tell me how the Koihime Musou series even needs anything other than a faint sense of humor to enjoy – it is the kind of stuff that seems to be pandering to quite a lot of fetishes as well as the likes of what the Japanese deem “otaku”. I enjoy it nevertheless. And Mayoi Neko Overrun! is almost certainly not original in context or the way it carries off its episodes, but I enjoy most of it too, light-heartedly.
 

In the end it hardly matters, I think, what we think of the anime industry, because even if you are a diehard fan, there are many things beyond your control. This is true of life itself. What matters is not how each new season sucks more than the last in your eyes, but whether or not there are individual shows that you will actually like and enjoy watching for the new season. Stop thinking of anime seasons as “sucky”, and start talking about the individual shows instead, anibloggers.

Related posts:

1. Summer 2008 Anime Watchlist
2. Spring 2010 Anime Watchlist
3. Summer 09 Anime Watchlist