Today, our Miku celebrates her 2nd birthday and you could say that she turns 18. But for me, she is still a fresh 16-year-old girl. No matter what birthday she has. What shall I do about present? Well, I cannot give her anything, but I can at least post here some of my favorite songs and videos of her.
I came across this interesting article about dating simulator games and related games at Japan Today, and I thought it would be a good idea to share it with you. This particular article is not far-fetched and tells virtually nothing but truth and facts. It covers the dating sims history, its expansion and distribution outside Japan (J-List is mentioned there for distributing eroge, nakige and other dating sims to the world). The article goes through the case about Rapelay too, and it tells what is most likely the truth.
I absolutely agree with the statement that many otaku play nakige (crying games) for that emotional side of theirs. I am one of such people, though I've played just a few such titles, namely Planetarian, One -Kagayaku Kisetsu he-, Narcissu, Planetarian, True Remembrance, and currently Kanon. But I loved them all.
The article ends with awesome words by a creator of dating sims for women.
“Dating simulators show us our dreams,” says Kurahana. “Love is a theme that has dominated entertainment from the beginning of human history. I just want to explore new ways of telling the story.”
Aren't those words pretty?
Nyan Koi! romantic comedy manga by Fujiwara Satou got a chance to be adapted into anime. Its promotional video has begun streaming on the official website of Nyan Koi! which resides at TBS television channel sites. Nyan Koi! will begin broadcast in October.
The story of this anime revolves around a high school student, Kousaka Junpei, who hates cats as he is allergic to them. One day, while returning home from school, he kicks an empty can an hits the local deity, which happens to be a Guardian Deity of Cats. Later, he realizes that he can now understand what cats say. But if he doesn't grant their wishes, he himself will be doomed to become a cat.
I have some expectations of this anime and will certainly give it a try. I realize that it probably won't have any high value and it will be a mainstream romantic comedy, but I hope that it will at least entertain me.
Source: ANN
Have you seen or read Chaos;Head? Then you probably remember that Seira was a girl from the main male protagonist's delusions, and also his beloved character from his favorite anime series Blood Tunes the Animation. That's why he also had a lot of figures of her. Now, it's your chance to have a figure of her too, because Orchid Seed announced December release of Seira figure.
She will have about 15cm in height, and as you can see in the photos, she will be a castoff-able figure. Her retail price is 7,429 yen. But you can preorder her at Hobby Search, where you'll get her 5% cheaper. But remember that they ship only via EMS.
I'm starting a new post series today, in which I will present you pettanko characters. There will be always three in each episode. As you can tell from the name, new trio will be introduced every Thursday, provided I'm able to do it. In case that there isn't any new Pettanko post, don't ask why, it will most likely come next week, unless I announce termination of this series. Enough of unnecessary talk; let's move to the sexier part of this post.
I had a really hard time deciding where to start, because there are so many quintessential examples of pettanko character. In the end, I have decided to start with some very well-known classics, although most of you know them. So I decided to start with characters voiced by one of my favorite seiyuu, who is well-known for voicing such characters. I'm sure that many of you know who I'm talking about. Yes, it is Kugimiya Rie.
First Kugimiya Rie pettanko character I saw was Shana. She is a mysterious girl from anime Shakugan no Shana and her hair color changes from black to red when she is fighting. She used to be a human but now she is an existence called Flame Haze, whose purpose is to fight Crimson Denizens who are evil. Her weapon is a sword called Nietono no Shana, therefore she was named Shana by her friend. Before that, she was identified only by her Flame Haze title "Enpatsu Shakugan no Uchite (Flame-Haired Burning-Eyed Hunter)". The boy I am talking about is Sakai Yuuji whom Shana loves, even though she's very well hiding these feelings.
She has a talking pendant called Alastor, the Flame of Heaven, and it is something like her mentor. From time to time it tells her what to do in a battle, or it gives her advice when she is troubled by something. Another one who helps her is Wilhelmina Carmel, another Flame Haze. She is acting a little bit strange because she obviously lacks social experience, but she is kind and is like a mother to Shana.
Shana's most usual words are "Urusai, urusai, urusai (shuddup, shuddup, shuddup)", and she often tells it Yuuji whenever he says something that embarasses her or upsets her. Her favorite food is melonpan (a sweet pastry with melon topping).
Second Kugimiya pettanko character I saw was Louise from Zero no Tsukaima. Her full name is Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière. She is a student at Tristain Academy of Magic but her results are extremely poor. She is not able to perform any magic right, therefore others call her Louise the Zero.
At one stage, magicians summon their familiars, and when that time came for Louise, she summoned a boy from Japan called Hiraga Saito. Everyone makes fun of her for that, because she failed again (normally, you summon some kind of animal or magical creature). The process is irreversible and she has to keep him. Her approach to him is rather cold though, and she treats him like a dog. However, she gradually begins to feel something for him and falls in love with him. Despite that, she still does very horrible things to him sometimes.
Louise is 153cm tall, her three sizes are 76/53/75, and her favorite food is Cookberry Pie. Later in the series, it is revealed that Louise is capable of performing a certain kind of magic, but I won't spoil it here in case you haven't seen the series.
Third to the party is Sanzenin Nagi from Hayate no Gotoku. She is the only heiress to the Sanzenin fortune (her grandfather is oil tycoon) so she lives in a huge mansion of her own. Obviously, she is not the only one living there as she has her own butlers, maid, and bodyguards (however, those bodyguards don't live in the mansion; don't know where though). She is good when it comes to finances and she is good at studying too. Thanks to her financial background, she attends a school for rich, but doesn't go there often, because she rather stays at home playing games or reading manga. Yes, she is a hikikomori. But still, she had so good results at school that she skipped grades.
Nagi fell in love with a boy called Ayasaki Hayate, when she misunderstood a certain incident as a profession of his love to her. To make it even worse, Hayate is very dumb when it comes to things like love. Every of her attempts to become closer to him ends in a big failure.
When it comes to manual work, she is hopeless. Cooking, drawing, she sucks at that. However, her gaming skills seem to be very good thanks to her heavy training ^^
She has a pet, tiger called Tama, which she rescued on a exploration travel in Africa. She is only 137cm tall and weighs 29 kg. She is very frustrated by her chest flatness, and that applies also to the former two characters, Shana and Louise. Her blood type is AB and she was born on December 3.
Mikatan has updated her blog with lovely photos of Puchi Nendoroid Vocaloid, and they are absolutely adorable. It must be the pinnacle of cuteness I think. These Tako Lukas come with various expressions. In the picture above, you can see dull, dumb, and stupefied faces ^^ And each of them has a different colored vase. If you didn't want to only place them somewhere as a nice decoration, you could use them for example as a keychain, because they have a strap on top of their heads.
I can't help myself. I just love Tako Luka. At first, I thought that it was crazy and stupid, but now after several months, I find her funny and cute.
Standard Luka looks as if she was their mom.
UPDATE: You can get them at Hobby Link. And Hobby Search have them too, just search ^^
Well-known artist Tony Taka's latest illustration work "Fault!", which is set into tennis background, will get its anime adaptation. Although it has been released less than two months ago, the first episode of this ero-anime is due to 27th November. This news comes from CottonDoll sites, which will be producing it.
According to the site, the first episode will be released on DVD and cost 7140 yen. The animation looks pretty well done, judging from the picture on Cottondoll's sites, so if they keep up with that level, there shouldn't be any animation quality issues.
Something about Tony Taka now. He's something like an idolised artist, an illustrator ace, whose works are of the best quality. He is mainly a character designer and has worked on various games. Besides that, he has produced a few artbooks, and many excellent doujinshi of amazing level.
There are many characters from popular anime in his doujinshi. He has made doujinshi based on Hayate no Gotoku characters, Bamboo Blade characters, or characters from Clannad. The games he has worked on are for example Shining Wind, Shining Force, Genmukan, or Sora no Iro. The last mentioned has been turned into anime and has become a huge success.
What I really like about his style is the usage of soft colors, which don't strike your eyes. They are gradient and diffuse well, hence the illustrations have pretty shading and look more natural, but unique as well. It is also most likely the easiest way to identify Tony's artworks.
I'm finally back at home, as I returned from vacations in Portugal this afternoon. The flight was safe, though we had some turbulencies, and at first I even thought that the bus at airport was taking us to a field, and not to our plane. But in the end we reached our home airport and went home.
Now, I'm writing from my notebook, while trying to repair my desktop computer. That "something" which is wrong with my PC is very stubborn, evil, and it's pissing me off! I wanna watch the recent episodes on my desktop!
I'm still convinced that it's not any major problem that I wouldn't be able to handle, but I must admit that I'm a bit worried as I'm looking at the progress of various tests of RAM, HDD, etc.
SOS... yes, I might start shouting that XD
Enough of my despair. There have been also some good news for me today. I got an e-mail from HLJ that a package has been shipped to me. It is a T-shirt from Umineko no Naku Koro ni series. There is Beatrice's portrait on the front side, and the epitaph on the back side. It was a re-release and it seems that they have been sold out already. But if you want one, you should try ordering it, because they might still have some left.
One more thing. When I was looking for some nice appropriate pictures with computers, I found this picture of Konata. Looks awesome, doesn't she?
Today, in some 4 hours, I'm leaving for Portugal for vacations. And what happened this morning? When I turned on my computer my antivirus told me that the computer was infected and needs a restart. And then, Windows didn't boot up any more and kept restarting. So my desktop is out of order for the time being. And it just had to happen right before the trip. This is an ultimate bad luck.
Well, the further consequences are that I can't take my notebook with me, so there won't be any new posts for about 10 days. Now, I am going to try to find out what exactly is wrong with my computer, before I leave. But I don't have much time left. Jaa, mata ne.
Ongoing anime series Umineko no Naku Koro ni will be available to buy in 3 different editions. There will be a regular edition, cheapest and with no or least extra bonuses. Then there will be two editions with nice thingies included. One is called Collectors Edition, and is to be available on both DVD and Blu-ray. And the second is called Gold Edition, but it will probably be available only on DVD, as there are no signs of Blu-ray version on official homepage of Umineko.
Collectors Edition will come with an append disc, which is said to contain some original content. Maybe some cut out scenes. Next item is a fortune tarot card, and there will probably be more, but it hasn't been specified yet. And of course, everything will be in a special sleeve box that you can see in the picture above. One more important thing, DVD edition is going to cost 6930 yen, and the Blu-ray 8190, tax included.
Gold Edition will contain different goods. One will be Maria bedsheet. Then, Maria's note, which will contain TIPS from the game, some talk (not specified, maybe an interview), storyboard, and other yet to be specified things. Everything in a stylish yellow box. The price is 9975 yen.
The price of DVD regular edition is 5565 yen, and Blu-ray will cost you 6930 yen.
You never know what you will encounter while eating. Or should I say, you never know what exactly is in your meal? Well, it doesn't really matter. For example, I remember finding a fly in ham once. It wasn't a pleasant sight and I will most likely never forget about it. Anyways, here comes a small gallery of what you will probably not see in your food or while eating. Unfortunately. (contains some a bit NSFW pictures)
A new season of anime Sekirei was announced on Sunday on the website of this anime and at Square Enix's Anime no Okage Summer 2009 event. A few days later, promotional video is presented to us. It's 93-second long video that will assure anyone that the second season will follow its prequel in terms of oppai endowement. Well, it would be definitely strange if the characters suddenly had smaller breasts than in the first season ^^
The staff will remain as was for the first season. Which means that it will be directed by Kusakawa Keizou, whose previous works include for example Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha series, or Inukami. Music will be done by Sano Hiroaki, who worked on Nanoha series, Honey and Clover, or Nodame Cantabile in past. The animation will be provided by studio Seven Arcs, same as the first season.
Source: ANN
New episode, or arc if you want, begins and this first episode focuses on events before October 1986, and character relations developments over the time. It starts in not so distant past, in summer 1986, when George is on a trip to Okinawa with Shannon. They have visited an aquarium, and now they are enjoying a lunch in a restaurant there. George is talking about their relationship, and how it's surprising that he, a member of Ushiromiya family, is able to go out with a family servant. His thoughts are that it's a work of magic. Shannon, hearing those words, shows a little shameful expression and doesn't say anything that would oppose George's supernatural theory.
Going further into past, we see what happened in December 1985. Shannon is standing by the small shrine on the reef, and lifts up a mirror. Then, she breaks it and shouts that she fulfilled her promise, and that now it's time for Beatrice to fulfil her part.
We are in even further past, October 1984 to be exact. Eva, Hideyoshi, and George are on Rokkenjima. They talk with Krauss' line of family in parlor and Eva is swaggering with George's achievements is study. Natsuhi tells Jessica that she should learn a bit from him, which irritates her so much that she leaves the room. Some time later, she is in the garden with Shannon and they talk about George. Jessica teases her, and after that George suddenly appear behind them. A few moments later, another person comes to the garden. It's Eva and she tells George to that Grandfather wants to hear about George's arranged marriage meeting. Shannon makes a shocked expression when she hears it and it doesn't escape Eva's attention. Figuring out that Shannon might have some feelings for George, Eva tells her that she should know her place in a straightforward way.
Later, Shannon is lamenting by Beatrice's portrait about her problems and painful feelings. She probably doesn't expect any response, yet the witch shows herself and talks some funny rubbish about love being the basic element in the world. After that verbose talk of hers, she gives Shannon a magical brooch that should help her to get close to George. However, in order for that brooch to get power, she must break a mirror in the shrine on the reef.
We have moved forward in time, and now we are in some time when the trip to Okinawa is already an event of past. Shannon is having a tea with Beatrice on the beach, and she thanks her for everything. Saying that she doesn't need it anymore, she wants to return the brooch that helped her get George. However, the witch doesn't want it back and tells her to keep it as a token of their friendship.
Shannon doesn't keep the brooch in the end, but gives it to Kanon instead. Even though he doesn't want it at first, he accepts it.
School festival is held at Jessica's school and she has invited Kanon to go there. To be precise, she wants him to pretend to be her boyfriend. When her girl classmates see him, it drives them crazy and say some inappropriate remarks which doesn't remain unpunished by Jessica.
A big event at the festival is musical performance by school band, in which Jessica plays the guitar and does the vocals. Kanon isn't used to such music and big crowds of noisy people and finds it stupid. But he notices that the Jessica singing on the stage is different from the Jessica he knows from the mansion.
Back at the mansion she tells him that she has created another her that can live without thinking about bearing responsibility for being a member of Ushiromiya family, and enjoy the life to the fullest. She suggests that Kanon should try doing the same, but receives quite a harsh negative answer. He claims that it's impossible for him, because he's nothing but a mere furniture. Only humans can create another self, in his opinion.
He thanks Jessica for thinking of him as human and leaves her alone in the arbour. On his way back to house, he encounters Beatrice. She says that she will revive and control everything on this island, and then the door to the Golden Land will open again.
I almost forgot. This episode had altered opening, the portrait of Beatrice was replaced by the other one.
On the whole, I didn't like this episode much, but I didn't like this part even in the game. It was too long, more than was necessary in my opinion. Well, what I liked in this episode was that cackle of Beatrice. I was afraid that it might go wrong and sound bad, but her seiyuu did a really good job at this.
Concerning the song that Jessica's band played on the stage, it was obvious that it wouldn't be Tsurupettan, like in the game. But still, it wasn't a bad song. Sound is something that we can't complain about in Umineko anime, though there are people who don't like the ending or some characters' voices. It is definitely a way better than animation, which is one of the weak points.
Anyways, I'm looking forward to the next episode, because there might be some murders already. And there will be some nice ones. *cackle*
Bandai Visual has announced that the first Yu Yu Hakusho Blu-ray Version Box will ship with a brand new picture drama. It will tell a newly written story that takes place after the end of Yu Yu Hakusho tv series. The story will feature four main heroes, Yuusuke, Kurama, Hiei, and Kuwabara, and their seiyuus will remain the same. At least that's what it seems.
The second Blu-ray box, episodes 33-72, will ship on December 22, and the third box, episodes 73-112, will ship on February 23.
If you are interested in getting these, you can buy them for example here. Just use the search bar if you want the second and the third box as well.
For me, being Yuu Yuu Hakusho fan, the news about new drama is very exciting, and I'm really looking forward to it. It was one of the very first anime I came across, and it brings back memories.
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