Alrighty, tore myself away from Dragon Age long enough for a fate review ^^;  Was actually surprised almost half the people in the poll said they didn’t know what it was – if you were wondering it’s an epic rpg by Bioware set in a fantasy world under siege by evil forces known as Darkspawn.  Read more at the main site if you’re interested ^^  Anyhow, back to fate~

A massive 1/4 entry from Good Smile Company to accompany their previous Nanoha release.  Like most 1/4 pvc releases, nothing spectacular in the detail department but her size alone makes her an interesting addition to any collection ^^

Nanoha owners will recognize the matching box, stand and leg support.

Luckily she seems to stand fine without the leg support so you can review without it getting in the way ^^

Ah yes, forgot to mention, also had new camera lewt arrive last week!  These first pics were taken with my brand new EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens ^^  Got it more for taking low light pics and portraits (i.e. not figure reviews) but also turned out nice for the full body shots of fate.  Trying to get her with a 100mm lens on a 1.6 crop body requires a bit more room ^^;;

Once around!

Being a swimsuit figure it comes down more to the pose, face, and hair for me.

Alas the part where this figure falls short for me is the face.  …though I should qualify that by saying I didn’t quite like the way they drew her in StrikerS either.  Seemed kinda too square? or flat?  Maybe it was just certain episodes.  In the figure her face also comes out a little flat or something?  Can’t really put my finger on it.

Or maybe it’s the viewing angle and/or my lighting?  Like… i like how she looks in the above shot (08) but in the one above that (06) it doesn’t look right to me.  Also doesn’t look so hot on my bookshelf right now.  Might be the shadow from her bangs making her eyes dark…

For the pose they were just reproducing the source pic and it seems pretty accurate?  Again maybe it’s the viewing angle but it feels sometimes like it’s lacking something.

click for gelbooru

I believe that’s the source pic above…

Feels like maybe there’s a slight variation in the tilt of her head or something?

Well, for all my complaining I’m actually very satisfied with her.  Nice to have the pair together ^^

Also nice to see nanoha without jaundice ^^;  (my last review’s pics’ white balance was all off ;_;  this time i did what i should’ve been doing for a long time – took a picture of a piece of paper and used the custom white balance setting.  took a second and their skin isn’t yellow ^^;;)

Definitely glad to have the new lens.  No way I woulda fit both of ‘em with my 100mm.

You’ll just have to humor me with all these paired shots with nanoha.  Wanted to give her some love after my initial review ^^;;

I definitely don’t remember fate being so well endowed.

divine fang’s comment on high angle oppai shots with my new tripod stuck in my head.  the result:

the above pic is 1920×1280 if you need to inspect further. (so are a bunch of others in this review… i wonder if i should label them…)

shitapai, yokopai.  full course today.

normally i don’t go so eros but in a swimsuit figure, what else is there? :P

I assume the base is so huge to accommodate the leg stand and support the 1/4 insanity.

feet.

Thought I took more oshiri pics, but I guess it was just two :P

well, and this next one is more focused on her top

highlights too strong i think in the next one -_- hard to see the details on her fingers.  ah well.

fripside

dust strikes again!  this is why i have to do my reviews the day i unbox.

There was one flaw i noticed… kinduv unsightly mark on her leg ;_;

Pictured above is after I tried rubbing it off with some water.  Guess I’ll have to try something stronger later… or maybe just leave it since it’s hard to see :P

Not a bad pickup but wish i was more satisfied with her looks from all angles.

Hopefully this is some of the last remnants of set completion disease ^^;  Had the same misgivings when I saw the preview pics but decided to push ahead to have the pair of ‘em together.  Plus it’s fate-chan.

Retailing at 12,000 yen with an exchange rate that’s around 90 yen/$ or less… she’ll cost ya.  Nowadays that’s a price I reserve for must-have figures but fate slipped in before my budget reductions.

foo-bar-baz is back in action with a lovely review.

Also stop by Wolfheinrich’s World for some symmetrical docking action ^^  His review also has a nice comparison shot of nanoha, fate + his recently reviewed 1/4 e2046 kenshin.  kenshin takes the cake when it comes to fine details on a 1/4 though.  no contest.

以上！

Just a super quick post to say, hey sorry, meant to have that fate review up this weekend, but i can’t tear myself away from dragon age ^^;;;;  It’s been awhile since I’ve anticipated a game so much and then had my hopes exceeded.  Highly recommended for rpg fans looking for an epic story.

I’m playing a bloodthirsty, ruthless female dalish rogue (on the left, above).  It’s been a blast ^^

and here’s a better look at my character’s face (again she’s on the left)

Ok, now to try and take some pics like I shoulda been doing instead of putting up this update post ^^;

More test pics with my new light in preparation for incoming fates.  One fate i should be able to pick up tomorrow, the other due out later this month ^__^

Wasn’t actually going for the wet look, but wanted to wash off the figures i was going to shoot and didn’t want to go through the trouble of drying them/waiting for them to dry.

To be honest there’s just something that doesn’t really do it for me with the water… droplets look unnatural i guess…  If i had actually been trying to be artistic or something maybe I woulda tried to disperse the drops to make them finer/more natural… guess that’s what i get for being lazy :P

On the other hand I think I’m happy with how the pics turned out otherwise.  Sharp as ever thanks to my trusty macro lens and tripod ^__^

I believe Rin hasn’t gotten any/much love on this blog…

Picked her up at fanime i think?

A pretty cheap kotobukiya figure to keep saber company… not terribly unsatisfied with the purchase :P

This rin is one of those that is bolted down to her base.

panchira~

mishiro is another figure i haven’t gotten around to reviewing yet ^^;

There was/seemed to be a lot of hype around the shuraki figures at the time… kinda disappointed they never came around with the followup series.

On the other hand I’m glad to not have been lulled into another whole series of purchases ^^;

mishiro has kind of a… what to say… generic moe?  school girl + dual wielding katana’s?  Almost seems forced or something? ^^;;;  I don’t mind though.  Katana wielding babes suki dakara na~

Ryoko’s tights provided some interesting patterns to the background above ^^;

One last one… kemeko!  Didn’t wash her ‘cuz… well, i hate putting her tentacle tube things back on ^^;

Didn’t really edit any of these so hopefully the colors and such turned out alright.

I gotta get around to taking more pics, even if not for reviews.  Had fun with this session and it’s a good motivator for keeping my figures clean.

1cc! … … on easy :P

I’m addicted to playing on easy now for the false sense of skill it provides ^^;;; On my first play through on easy (had been playing on normal up ’til now), got all the way up to utsuho’s 2nd to last card or so. Frustrated at being so close, played a few more times and this is the result ^^

As you can see on my progress page I’ve gotten all but UFO 1cc’d on easy… currently working on spell practice in IN to hopefully but a normal 1cc under my belt soon…

feito-chan is in the mail.  slightly apprehensive because of how her face looked in the pics i’ve seen but nevertheless, nanoha needs company :P

期待しててね！

以上！

Real quick post…

Now I admit the Alstroemeria Records version of Bad Apple!! is one of my favorite (if not my favorite) touhou mixes, and I’m already a touhou fanboy… but the above video is jaw droppingly awesome, regardless. Touhou fans, definitely check it out ^^ (niconico link)

Oh, and if you’ve never bothered to look up the lyrics, part of the cool thing about many bad apple pv’s is the black and white imagery — verses end alternately with, “become/turn black” or “become/turn white”. A translation is at the touhou wiki.

Half my fascination with touhou is the amount and quality of fanwork out there… this is a perfect example ^^

以上！

This time it’s Ymir for my equipment test shots.  Again not really a full review, just trying out the soft box I acquired recently ^^

Got the soft box for a few reasons – first of all wanted more lights to attempt some white bg stuff in the future.  Second of all wanted the more powerful bulb it came with (listed as 75W but found an 85W in the box! my current bulbs are only 25W or so).  Thirdly got this one ‘cuz it was dirt cheap (relatively ^^;)!  $40 and it came with the bulb!  (no stand though)

Though I was interested in trying to do better with white, ended up using the soft box as my main light and was fooling around to see how it would turn out.

I think ‘cuz of the distance I was able to manage between ymir and the bg it looks a lot better than my previous wrinkle-filled shots.

Wrinkles are still there but out of focus, personally I think it even manages to make the shot more interesting.

Since the softbox has a flat surface I decided to try some silhouette shots for fun.

I guess it turned out as expected… but it’s really a lot more interesting when your background is interesting ^^;;;

Was bored and threw some photoshop at it ^^;

Sorry loli lovers, no cast off shots today :P

Was really pleased with the purchase.  The bulb is bright as all heck, before I had to be f/2.8 or f/3.5  to get 1/10-ish shutter speeds… now I can get that at f/5.6! ^^  Light’s nice and well… soft :P, now I just need to free up more time for more pics!

Blowfish has a real review for you, including a detailed look at her cast off features for those interested ^^ did i mention she has fancy pantsu?

Got quite a few recommendations for this one so I was surprised by dialog after dialog after dialog.  ‘course don’t get me wrong – having played my fair share of galge I’m not biased against that or anything.  Rather, was surprised that others weren’t ^^;  pantsu screenshot incoming, don’t say i didn’t warn you.

I suppose with an opening like this though… perhaps it’s not surprising people sat through all that dialogue? :P

pantsu and service aside, I really enjoyed the unique style of the show.  Kinda reminded me of shigofumi and natsu no arashi – not in content, but that both of those shows really captured a certain feel and ran with it.

You may know I’m a japanese language nut so the brief flashes of text on screens really caught my attention and added to my enjoyment -

Not sure if the translators are capturing this in their editorial notes or whatever (well, actually knowing their fanaticism I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve already dissected everything in much more detail ^^;)… but here’s my simplistic take on things:

The above screen seems harmless enough.  Two characters and they even have a reading at the bottom.  However, you’ll notice that 黑, in the screenshot isn’t the usual writing of black, 黒 is.  Also, the other character isn’t very common either – it’s not listed in my “compact” nelson japanese character dictionary (i put “compact” in quotes because it still has 3000 kanji ^^;;).  Finally looked it up for this post and it turns out that 齣 means paragraph or section.  It’s kind of hard to describe the feeling if you’re not familiar with characters, but seeing these non-standard ones evoked a unique sort of flavor for the show for me.

I’ve given up on translating the bottom part for now… more crazy characters that aren’t commonly used anymore make it hard to search ^^;

More word fun below:

Usually kanji aren’t used at all for その (sono == that, or in this case, part of “sono ichi” which is like, “part 1″ or, “the first”).  Not toooo weird to use it, but then they go and bust out 壹 for one (ichi)!  One is usually written 一, sometimes you’ll see 壱 for some old school flavor… but this takes it to the next level ^^;  Turns out that this is the character sometimes used in Korean, and I’m sure it must be a Chinese character as well… not sure if the feeling they wished to evoke was ancient Japan, Korea, China… or just uniqueness ^^;;

And on the bottom, it says something like, “Font used: HGP Mincho B”.  What the heck?!   (oh and they used another weird character in place of 体 (tai) ^^;).

Soooo, just imagine that sort of internal conversation/puzzling going on every time they flash text on the screen… that’s what a large part of the viewing experience was for me ^^;

After geeking out on the language aspect, add in 戦場ヶ原 (senjyougahara)

feisty little mayoi-chan

tomboyish suruga

…who, i really thought was a guy all the times i saw the following ^^;

buruma nadeko

meganekko iinchou tsubasa

I liked the short vignette style of story telling with a greater arc coming to a close as the series ended.  Was like that in shigofumi too.  Characters come and go, but, when done well, their arc will leave a lasting impression on you.

Couldn’t get enuf of mayoi’s butchering of araragi’s name ^^

かみまみだ。

^^

Speaking of mayoi kamimamida, there’s a huge craze of マイムマイム (mayim mayim) vids going around niconico in which she has no small part ^^

Think I’ve watched it at least 10 times ^^;

Oh yes, and top things off with an ED song by supercell!

Really grew on me throughout the series and now I’ve set it as my alarm clock song ^^;

Haven’t seen enough (other shows) yet to call it the anime of the year (or even of that season ^^;;) but it was definitely a solid watch for me.  Need to pick up the light novels now ^^

Without my visual novel exposure I’m not sure I would’ve enjoyed this the same way.  Since playing, long dialog and run of the mill everyday conversation have become part of my expectations ^^;

Have you watched it yet?  Favorite character?

以上！

Would be a waste to not put the new tripod to waste, darou?  Took some test shots with nyx now that i can finally do portrait orientated shots again.  Makes a big difference when shooting with a 100mm lens with a 1.6 crop factor ^^;  Unfortunately…  I totally forgot to check my ISO!!!  So used to having it  stuck at 100 for my reviews I forgot I had shot some non-figure stuff and it was at 800 ;_;

One last thing before we get to the mini-”review”… oppai warning!

Resized you can’t notice the noise as much but still not the sharpness I aim for ;_;

Also I can’t enjoy the pics at wallpaper resolution -_-  Ah well.  Must remember to switch it up next time.

Chose nyx for these shots ‘cuz I discovered a spider had left it’s mark on her!  ;_;  washed off a couple bits of web and ended up giving her a thorough cleaning so the time was ripe for pics

Do not plan on switching her back and forth between clothes and no clothes.  I’ve had her outfit on for the past… oh say 10 months or so?  The results:

oshiri too ;_;

For my display purposes it doesn’t matter I guess since her outfit covers it, but still annoying.  Drop of water on her shoulder from her bath, not related to damage or age :P

Kinduva a rushed set of pics and my first time out with the new tripod so framing wasn’t quiiite what I was aiming for on some shots.

out of focus oppai

If you were wondering what I was complaining about in the beginning in regards to image quality… here’s a 100% crop of nanoha with this iso 800:

(errr dang, resized to 550 due to my theme ^^;;) you can see the pixelation, especially in the shadow caused by her bangs.

100% crop from a saber pic.  Much more smooth.

Final random shots.

I was actually able to manage a full body shot of nanoha with a portrait orientation! ^^ (with my 100mm ^^;)

Nice to have the full range of angle available again ^^

Hmm, I guess since this is technically my nyx review I should throw in a few more comments about her ^^;

Nyx was released… almost 2 years ago now?  ^^;  As far as her details and pose go, nothing jaw dropping… I’d say she’s pretty average… But I really liked her character design so that’s what really got me in the end ^^;  Long hair, quite a nice outfit, oppai, what else could you ask for? :P  Tentacle thing is a little weird but oh well.

Reviews posted long ago await you if you need more pics.  Post necromancy engaged!

• blowfish!
• tommy!
• sonic!
• foo-bar-baz!

以上！

Time for another manga… hmm… sampler?  はるみねーしょん – Harumination – is a 4-koma published by manga time kirara, authored by 大沖　(daioki).  I bought it because I just loved the cover art:

Wasn’t let down.  In fact I’ve thoroughly enjoyed pretty much all of the manga time kirara comics I’ve randomly purchased ^^  Speaking of which, did ya know K-ON! is published by manga time kirara?  Or that Daioki did a guest comic at the end of vol. 1 and 2 of K-ON!?

Forgive the cut off frame, couldn’t quite get it all…

This is the first comic of the tankoubon.  The meganekko is 坂本香樹 (sakamoto kajyu), her friend is 高橋ユキ (takahashi yuki).

Panel 1: kajyu: I heard a transfer student is coming today!
yuki: he~

Panel 2: yuki: I wonder where they’re from… hmm?

Panel 3:  yuki: Something outside?

Panel 4: (text was cut off: “?!”)

Very simple drawing style, lots of jokes playing on words, right up my alley ^^

Panel 1:  teacher: Well then, if you’d introduce yourself…
細野はるみ (hosono harumi): Nice to meet you.  My name is hosono harumi.

Panel 2: harumi: I come from space.  I look forward to working with everyone. [ugh, you know, it's yoroshiku onegaishimasu.  i hate having to translate that for every situation ^^;]
class: [sound effect: zawa]

Panel 3: yuki: …she’s an alien?  That’s insane!  She must’ve meant some region called, “space” or…

Panel 4: harumi: My special ability is that I can fly.
yuki: [actually not really sure about the translation here.  literally it's "unwavering" or "steady" but that doesn't make for a good translation ^^;;]

I can never tell if harumi is baka, likes cheesy jokes, or is just having trouble dealing with an alien culture:

Panel 1: (after school)
yuki: Alrighty, school’s over.  Let’s go see how kajyu is doing (omimai – visiting someone who is ill)
harumi: k

Panel 2: yuki:  You gonna bring some sashiire (snacks/refreshments)?
harumi: ah, I’ve got something good.

Panel 3: harumi: tada~

Panel 4: harumi: sashiire… (also means putting something in/to insert)  \\She’s gone!//
yuki: yeah yeah…

If you liked the above joke, you’ll love harumination ^^

Panel 1: kajyu: Oh yeah, could you show me your notes?
harumi: sure

Panel 2: harumi: here [sound effect: chira]
kajyu: sorry, a little longer please…

Panel 3: harumi: ok [sound effect: chira~]
kajyu: …

Panel 4: kajyu: ah, can you *lend* me your notes?
harumi: sure
yuki: she wasn’t being mean…?

harumi loves curry, yuki is over to cook something different for once:

Panel 1: yuki: Guess we’ll take a little break…
harumi: yuki-chan, you want sugar? ah… \\ah crap//

Panel 2: harumi: Accidentally put salt instead of sugar… but if I put sugar in it should return to regular flavor, right?  \\sugar//

Panel 3: [sound effect: gulp]

Panel 4: \\crap//

I’m actually not sure what a good translation for やべえ (yabee) would be… The original word is やばい (yabai), meaning dangerous or awful.  It can also be used to mean something positive, like 「このチョコやばい！」 (kono choko yabai! – this chocolate is dangerous! (i.e. dangerously delicious)).  yabee is a slang pronunciation with not only informal undertones but also mmm how to explain… not necessarily gangster, but kinda punk-teenager tones?  Anyhow, that’s what harumi was saying in the first and last panels in the \\ // text.  It’s something of a catch phrase for her ^^

Anyhow, on to the nikujyaga making ^^

Panel 1: yuki: First of all, cook the pork in the bottom of the pot.

Panel 2: yuki: Next put in the vegetables and 4 cups of water…

Panel 3: harumi: …And the curry powder.
yuki: yes, and the curry…

(was supposed to be meat & potato stew ^^;)

Harumi’s first time in a family restaurant:

Panel 1: waitress: Well then, allow me to repeat your order.  Drink bar for 3,  2 daily lunch specials, and 1 curry rice.  Is that correct?

Panel 2: harumi: Yes, that is correct.

Panel 3: harumi: Let me repeat my response: Yes, that is correct.
yuki: What is harumi…?!

Panel 4: waitress: Understood.
yuki: and the waitress ignored it!!

Panel 1: waitress: welcome!

Panel 2: harumi: Family restaurant waitress are neat, huh? I wanna try..
kajyu: Well let’s say I’ve come into the store.

Panel 3: kajyu: What do you say to me?
harumi:  ummm… Let’s see, I’m pretty sure what she just said was…

Panel 4: harumi: Welcome! Who the hell do you think you are?
kajyu: Who the hell am i?!

That last one merits some explanation… usually waitresses say, 「何名様ですか？」　(nanmei-sama desu ka? == polite way of asking how many people).  Harumi doesn’t remember to include the mei part and it becomes, 「何様ですか?」 (nani-sama desu ka?).  nani-sama translates something like above, “who (the hell) do you think you are?”

So there you have it, harumination ^^  I need to check to see if the second volume is out… ^^

以上！

Figures after I put up my whine post I go and 1cc pcb a few days later ^^;;

You may have noticed I added another top level page – 東方プロジェクト (touhou project).  It’s just a list of all the “regular” touhou games and my progress through each.  By regular, I just mean the touhou games that got an integer number, i.e. th6, th7, etc. through th12 but not including th7.5, 9.5 etc.  (though I am curious why potfv was given a regular integer number since it’s not much like the games before or after it).  Once I get my hands on the other games, I’ll add ‘em to the list.

Kinda sucks that my run was ~32 minutes long.  Didn’t divide up into youtubable chunks nicely at all.  Ended up with stages 1 & 2 in the first vid, then each stage after that having to go to a separate segment.

Been practicing stages 4, 5 and 6 almost daily, yet I put out one of my worst performances on each -_-

My yuyuko fight was particularly bad, where i fail to capture a single card.  (for non-touhou’ers, the ‘cards’ are the special attacks that follow when you see the character portrait appear on the screen.  to ‘capture’ you must survive without dying or bombing)

Think I’m going to try and repeat the miracle with a regular 3 life clear then move on to IN.  My extra stage queue is building but I get brutalized so bad I think I’m gonna wait for the IN extra (IN features a spell card practice mode) before making a serious attempt.

Relieved to get this one under my belt!  2 down, 5 to go!

以上！