At any rate, today’s subject… mio!　とにかく、今日は澪ちゃんです！

萌え萌えキュン♥

Not really sure what to say… I assume you’ve already seen k-on! ^^; Or maybe not?　何書けばいいんでしょう。　皆さんはもう『けいおん！』を見たんでしょう。　見てないのかな？

If not, I guess it’s pretty quickly summed up as a slice-of-life-school-club-moe-band anime.　見てないのなら…一覧と言えば、日常学校軽音楽萌アニメ…かな？　＾＾；

Personally I didn’t really understand the hype at first.  After seeing the first episode I still wasn’t really into any of the characters.　実は、これ、どうしてそんなに人気あるのかなと思ってさっぱり分かりませんでした。　第１話見た後で誰にも萌えなかったです。

But, remembering having had a similar reaction to hyakko, which I ended up loving, I kept watching.　それでも、大好きなヒャッコと同じようなリアクションを覚えて、もうちょっと見ることにしました。

mio and azusa go the top of my character ranking for the show… straight black hair (or twin tails) ftw ^^　一番好きなキャラと言えば、澪と梓ですね。　やっぱ黒いストレートヘア（ツインテールも）いいな

Girl in seifuku… I’d say the off balance pose and guitar help this one from being too boring ^^;　制服と少女それだけで何だか普通って感じかな…バランスを崩してベースを持ってこのフィギュアはもっと面白くなったと思ってます。

Speaking of the guitar… took some rather lousy macro shots for ya :P  I say lousy just because the framing and subject matter didn’t really end up being terribly aesthetic.  But it’s sharp!  ^^;;　ベースと言えば、下手に接写撮影しちゃいました。　あんまり面白くなくて綺麗じゃないと思うんですが…シャープに見えます　＾＾；

Just a warning for those eyeing macro lenses… easy to get carried away :P　マクロレンズを買おうと思う人に注意：接写撮影しすぎしやすいですよ～　（ん～ん何か変な日本語書いたかな、今の…＾＾；）

Well, I almost like how the above shot turned out.  … Almost.  For those who like lens talk, it took all of f/11 to get that single machine head in focus (is that the popular word to use? i know nothing of guitars/basses/stringed instruments ^^;;;)　まぁ、上の写真が好きかな。　F/11も必要でペグ一つだけはシャープに見えます。

I love the cold, but the only downside is that it makes skirt sightings like this even more of a rarity.　寒い天気が好きだがそうなったらこんなスカートも見えなくなっちゃいますね。

Not much to complain about, but not much to praise for the seifuku.  Standard fare, nothing to drop your jaw.　嫌いなところはないが、これは超素晴らしいところもありませんね。

Mmmm almost didn’t include the below shot but a little more post processing and I think I saved it ^^; (was a bit under exposed)　下の写真は使わないところだったけど何とかPhotoshopで救いました。 （ちょっと暗かったです。）

Highlights maybe too strong on her hair now, but better than how I originally shot it ^^;　今はハイライトはちょっと強いと思ってますが前よりましかな。

no review is complete without pantsu.　フィギュアレビューと言えばやっぱ…パンツ？

I wonder if someday I’ll look back at this blog and marvel at my insanity.  … … nah :P　いつか、このブログを読んで、何考えてたんだろうと思っちゃうかな。　…　…　いや、ないな　：P

In case you’re new here, lots of these pics are uploaded 1920×1280 (or 1280×1920) so click on ‘em if you’d like to see a huge version.　初めての方へ、一つ伝えたい事があります。写真の大分は１９２０ｘ１２８０（もしくは１２８０ｘ１９８０）だからもっと詳しく見たいのならどうぞクリックして下さい。

aaand saving the best for last… or rather, my favorite shot for last:　それでは、最後には僕の一番好きな写真：

I dunno, but I really really like how that shot came out ^_^  Actually, excuse me a sec while I change my wallpaper… ^^ … … hmmm prolly shoulda closed up the aperature a little to get both eyes perfectly in focus…  ah well.　よく分かんないけどすごく好きです。　＾＿＾　ちょっと待ってね、今壁紙変えますから…　＾＾　…　…　え～っと開口をもっと小さくした方が良かったですね。そうしたら目は両方シャープ…　仕方ない…

A very nice figure though if you’re not afraid of her going out of stock, it may be best to wait for the wonfes aftermath to see if there are any other versions which catch your fancy.  It seems we’ll have quite the selection ^^　なかなかいいフィギュアと思うけど完売が怖がらない場合…もっと待って他の澪フィギュアと比べればいいんでしょう。きっとたくさんから選べられますからね。　＾＾

If a more shy mio is your thing, punynari’s got some sexay pics of future mios here.  I don’t know how I could not buy the moe moe kyun maid ^^;;　もっと恥ずかしがる澪が好みでしたらpunynariさんのブログにはそのフィギュアの写真もありますよ。　萌え萌えキュン♥の澪ちゃん…絶対買っちゃいますね、僕。　＾＾；；

More mio love can be found:　澪のレビューはもっとありますよ～

~foo-bar-baz – i think you know the drill by now.  lovely review ^^　もう知ってるんですよね。foo-bar-bazさんのレビューはいつも最高です。

~tentacle armada – i think tier wins a prize for most words talking about her bass ^^　tierさんはベースの事を以外とたくさん書きました。　＾＾

aaand I think that’s it for now?  As usual I’ll update as I come across others.　では、そこまでかな？　他見つかったら追加します。

以上！

First up is a K-ON! gem:

Unlike the painful, “if yui hated mugi-chan” remix, this one is more light hearted… what if everyone was lazy ^^;  I would sub it if I had an easy method for doing so… gomen ^^;

Second episode:

Next up, a hilarious touhou flash animation featuring the koumakan crew:

If you watch the niconico version, pausing at opportune times will get you bonus stuff ^^

This next one is quite a bit heavier material… I don’t think I’ll ever look at a yukkuri the same くっすん ;_;

Wouldn’t want to leave you on that note, you might’ve seen this one floating around, but in case not, voca-on!

And finally to completely dispel any sorta mood that yukkuri video might’ve put ya in, an ecchi humored saki vid:

Playing lots of touhou and X-COM (the original UFO Defense/enemy unknown version) lately, hopefully more regularly themed content soon ^^;

以上！

I did make a trip to J-Town to pickup some manga I had ordered some weeks back…

^___^

Some people probably don’t want spoilers by reading ahead, but since it’s the original material, I personally have no qualms doing so.

Other pickups included the first volumes of Saki and hatsukoi limited, and volume 13 of ToLoveる

Haven’t started any of those yet but did read through volume 1 of K-ON! already.  In case you were wondering about the mio pantsu scene in the source material…

Panel 1

mio: minna arigatou~!  (thanks everyone!)
ritsu: kore de mio mo hazukashigari kokufuku dekisouda na (looks like mio will be able to get over her shyness after all)

Panel 2

mio: kyan!

Panel 3

mio: aitatata…  …eh?! (owowow… wha?!)

Panel 4

mio: iyaaaaa

narration: koushite kotoshi no gakuensai wa maku wo tojimashita (and that’s how the curtain closed at this year’s school festival)

Lulu’s review to come soon I hope… he’s getting angry.

Errr or maybe his face is always like that :P

horoooooo

Didn’t finish off pics for her review as I had planned either -_-

And the last thing I blame on the heat wave…

Failed to submit an entry to Danny’s contest -_-  Then again, even with 5 runner ups now getting a prize, I don’t think I was in contention for getting anything.  Sure I’ve got a ton of figures lined up but otherwise it’s just a jerker with 2 monitors on it.  Plenty of other desks with more monitors and/or more figures out there so it felt pointless ^^;  Plus I feel like I’d be using up my contest winning karma which I need to save for when Danny throws some sort of Japan trip prize out there :P

Ok fine, so in the end I really have no good excuse except for being lazy due to the heat :P

Wanted this to be a short post, so that’s it!

以上！

DC member Edwards' Tumblr -> DC post -> To here ^^; click for tumblr entry

I should be working on other stuff, but I must spread the nico nico insanity.

If you have a nico nico account, you can head directly to the vid.  What’s it about?  Two words: Mio maid.

If you don’t have an account, I’ve made a dc post so everyone can enjoy ^^

New figure under my desk… maybe a preview later tonite.

Gaming

I haven’t played a shoot-em-up for a while but the fire is burning strong now.  Sucking really bad when I started, I could barely clear the first level of Exelica without continuing.  Now I’ve gotten up to stage 4 (of 5) once and can usually make it mostly thru stage 3.  Couple more weeks and maybe I’ll actually be able to clear the game!  (i.e. I still suck, but less now ^^;)

Click for source (official site)

Visual novels have unfortunately fallen by the wayside for now and with the FFXIII footage spreading throughout the web, I’m getting a craving for an RPG.  Last Remnant caught my eye, with its PC port looking ripe for the picking.  Want to pick up the demo to see for myself, but in the meantime, anyone already have thoughts on that one?

Click for source (official site)

Anime

Another season of anime is upon us!  What to watch?  How do you decide?  What resources do you use?  …I’m sure this has been discussed a lot already (even here perhaps? ^^;;) but I have a bad memory :P

My method caters to my anti-spoiler policy.  Well, perhaps not a policy per se, that sounds too institutionalized ^^;  Not so eloquently let’s just call it a medium-strong desire to avoid spoilers.

click for gelbooru

Basically there’s the collective.  The blagosphere.  Names of shows that crop up often enough usually are added to my list.  I don’t actually read episodic blog posts so as to maintain a clean slate, but I’ll at least glance at titles ^^;

My main rundown is at anidb.  There are perhaps better resources out there… but anyhow what I find useful is their calendar.  For each month you get a list of the shows that started to air.  Once a new season has started I go to the calendar and do an audit of all the shows to make sure I’m grabbing everything I want to (eventually) see.  Making my way down the list, any shows with enough tags that interest me or cute characters get added ^^;

click for gelbooru

Now for all that trouble… I really don’t have high standards.  I don’t do deep analysis of themes or characters.  I hardly ever catch inconsistencies or plot holes.  Most of the time I turn off my brain and just get swept away to some author’s cheezy/perverted/action packed/anguishing/scary/thought provoking/stupid/awesome world.  This is not to say I end up liking everything as the bestest evar in teh whole wide world, but I do add quite a bit to my initial watch list every season.

Props to those who actually go through the trouble of intelligent discussion while I’m mindlessly watching as if the whole season were a giant omake.  I guess it’s a byproduct of my heavy manga reading/tendency to seek out source material.  Obviously that doesn’t apply to shows that start off as anime, but with so many coming from manga/light novels/games… I think I developed this disposition so as to brace myself for the inevitable inability of the anime to capture the entirety of the original work.  …Which is not to imply that I always like the original work more but the anime versions do face uphill battles when trying to deliver content that has been spread out over years of print material.

Click for gelbooru

…*ahem* sorry, anyone still here? Let’s talk briefly about this season’s shows ^^;  Here’s how the current season is shaping up for me:

シャングリ・ラ (Shangri-la)

Saw this one pop up on quite a few blogs so decided to check it out.  Set in some sort of post-apocalyptic future (or whatever future that has, for some reason, covered Tokyo in plant life), there’s a tomboyish chick who looks like maybe she’s gonna lead a rebellion against something.

Shangri-la OP

For me half the fun of shows like this is trying to figure out what the heck is going on when I’m only half listening ^^;  If it really grabs me then I go back and rewartch to make sure I understand everything ^^;

Shangri-la ep 1

The lack of moe characters means it’ll have to deliver in other areas to keep me interested :P

けいおん! (K-ON!)

You’ve checked this out already, haven’t you?  Many blogs I read have already posted about it in some way or another ^^;  I wasn’t really feeling the hype when it first started… the whole band thing wasn’t doing it for me… Yui was a little *too* clumsy… ojyousama characters don’t usually hold my attention… and Ritsu wasn’t sparking either.

K-ON! ep 1

Let the episode play a couple times while working on various posts… slowly grew on me.  Kind of like hyakko (which wasn’t too great for me at first either), mediocre start, now I love it.  It’s mostly yui and mio but that’s been more than enough.

If somehow you haven’t started yet… seems like it’s slice of life + 4 member band + kawaii~… if that doesn’t do anything for ya, can’t blame ya for not liking it.   Meanwhile I can’t wait to get a hold of the comic to read ahead ^^;

K-ON! ep 2 ~ ritsu: "MATSU!" ((I/WE) WAIT!... err depends on how you want to translate this part :P)

Really started to fall in love with Yui’s voice ^^  I totally love the Japanese language (if that wasn’t apparent already :P) and I admit, a big part of that is for whatever reasons girls sound kawwwaaiiiiiii to me :P

K-ON! ep 1 yui: "gomennasai! fukemasen!" (I'm so sorry, I can't play!!)

…I was gonna try to get through this section without succumbing to mio but I just have to post at least one pic of her :P

K-ON! ep 1

夏のあらし! (natsu no arashi! – Summer Storm!)

In the past, I would’ve researched all the authors of the manga I was reading and made sure I tried out whatever latest work they came out with… Now I’m swamped so I completely missed the fact that the School Rumble mangaka, Kobayashi Jin, was behind this one.

Click for gelbooru

Haven’t gotten to start yet but have high hopes :P  Short summary at anidb, and probably many other places.

クイーンズブレイド　(Queen’s Blade)

I put this in the hilariously absurd fan service category.  Plot be damned, if you want oppai, watch this show in its uncensored glory.

Queen's Blade ep 1

Not that it justifies anything, but considering the nature of the original work…

Click for gelbooru

Is anyone surprised? :P

From what little I picked up in the first episode… something about a battle to become the queen or what not.  Does it really matter? hahaha

An all-star cast including Hirano Aya, Noto Mamiko, Kugimiya Rie, and Goto Yuko of all people… it’s seiyuu fan service to fuel the fan service show ^__^

Hey, who knows, maybe it’s actually really good and I’m just unfairly assuming it’ll be totally shallow… on the other hand… well, there was a symmettrical docking maneuver in the first episode to overcome an oppai canon, so… I’ll leave that call to you :P

Queen's Blade ep 1

アスラクライン (Asura Cryin’)

I keep wanting to call this one Ashura Cryin’ but looking at the Japanese title and such… it’s a-su-ra, not a-shu-ra.

A high school boy and the ghost of his childhood friend… magical/fantasy shenanigans?  Seems interesting enough, giving it a try.  Based off a light novel, so I assume (hope ^^;) it at least has some sort of solid plot to build on.

初恋限定 (hatsukoi gentei – First Love Limited)

Here we go, comedy, romance, school life… the stereotypical visual novel setup (well, it’s originally a manga, but still), and my bread and butter :P  Ever since I made the plunge and played through ToHeart 2 and Kanon, feel like I have a much better understanding of akiba-kei stuff, and a new favorite genre.

Soon as I figure out what the deuce is holding up my internet connection I’ll be able to check out the first episode ^^;;

タユタマ -Kiss on my Deity- (tayutama -Kiss on my Deity-)

I’m a big sucker for visual novel conversions so this is right up my alley :P  Bonus points for deity characters and fox(?) ears/tail ^^

tayutama ep 1

ka-kawaii!!

and… eroi!

tayutama ep 1

Even more bonus points for Wakamoto Norio.  Love the voices he does.  Crack me up ^^;

The whole premise of visual novels is generally to craft a set of characters that the player wants to hook up with, which generally means kawaiiii/moeee which means a higher probability that I enjoy more of the characters and hence the show :P

戦場のヴァルキュリア -Valkyria Chronicles- (senjyou no Valkyria (Battlefield Valkyria) -Valkyria Chronicles-)

Following this because I really wanted to play the game (which, for some reason, has the subtitle, “Gallian Chronicles”), but don’t have a PS3.  Have to content myself with anime for now ^^;;

Valkyria Chronicles OP

Something about the art really appeals to me and given the setting I assume it’s gonna be heavy on the dramatic elements ^^  Hopefully this one turns out… though the overly paranoid treatment of Welkin was getting kind of annoying -_-;;

ティアーズ トゥ ティアラ (Tears to Tiara)

Tagged with fantasy, magic and harem.  Game had releases on multiple platforms & was originally by Leaf… Good enough for me to at least give a try :P

Tears to Tiara OP

First episode was engaging enough… nothing like starting out with a damsel in distress ^^

Tears to Tiara ep 2

While I”m at it, before closing up just wanted to say…

喰霊-零- (ga-rei-zero-)

Really liking this one.  First episode was one of those what the deuce? sort of moments but it pushed forward with purpose and awesomeness ^^  ’bout halfway through and can’t get enough yomi ^^

ga-rei zero ep 4

A nice mix of heavy action with character development.

ga-rei zero ep 4

errr no, it’s not a fan service fest as the above shot would suggest ^^; (though it doesn’t shy away from it either :P)

In vaguely related news, gads it takes forever to rip DVDs.  I just want to watch the frikkin Haruhi season without having to swap 7 (yes 7!!) discs.

以上！