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?

Guess it’s kinda good timing what with the anime airing and all.  Megahouse Queen’s Blade figures are full cast off so here’s your nsfw oppai warning :P

Was very impressed when she arrived (over a half year ago ^^;).  Not sure why I wasn’t expecting more out of megahouse, but she was definitely higher quality that I thought.

click for airi's character page

Read through her character description a bit… I guess she’s some sort of spirit but has a real physical body. Now it makes sense that she has those wisps and her base gives her a floating appearance ^^;

Love her twin tails ^^

Was aiming for the original color version at first, but couldn’t find her.  Preferred the traditional black/white outfit.  The blond hair ended up making up for that though ^^

yummmm scythe

Her maid-fuku isn’t bad.  Still think Alter’s saber maid wins that battle, but for this scale I was satisfied.

shiny shoes

Now to get to that oppai…

oh, and pantsu.  Not white for a change!

for a detailed look…

Of all the cast off figures I have I think megahouse does the best oppai.

Background wasn’t big enuf to handle the angle for the next shot… well, rather I probably coulda set it up, but woulda taken some rearranging of everything ^^;;  shitapai ftw

oshiri~

sexay

Haven’t kept up to date with the anime… has airi and her oppai made their debut yet? :P

When putting airi’s scythe in place I keep having some trouble but once it’s in it’s fairly stable…

A little closer look at the ribbon on her back.  Now that I had even more trouble getting the dang thing to stick.  Stuck some blutac in the hole to help it stay a little better but still not very stable.

Hmmm mebbe shoulda used a bit smaller aperture… is her nose out of focus? ^^;

If you’re lacking Queen’s Blade figures, you’re pretty safe giving Megahouse a try.  Quality is pretty good and most of ‘em have some sort of weapon ^^

Once again, sorry for yet another dated review despite all the new stuff ^^;;  Unfortunately will be busy this weekend so it might be a few more days until I can get those new reviews out.  m(_ _)m

foobarbaz has a review of the regular version

sonicver2 has a review feature some yuri action :P

and last but not least, a review at vision of vixion of the regular version

before closing up, 3 more arrivals today~

It’s been a good week ^^

以上！

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！

Queen’s Blade (figure) fan?  Megahouse afficionado?  Been looking for Nyx?  Looking for a deal?  If you answered yes to all of those questions, head right over and go buy Nyx at hlj now.  Seriously, stop reading and go buy her.  She’s on sale for only 2500￥.  Dunno if that’s old news, but the instant I saw that price all I could think was wholy crap, and the next thing I knew my order was placed.  Even if you only answered yes to a couple of those questions, still worth considering because of the discount.

Don’t quite understand why they have her at such a low price.  That’s basically 50% off, right?  Was she not a popular character?  I mean, she’s not the greatest PVC out there, but the quality is very decent and the elegance combined with weird tentacle monster accessory ^^ …umm, btw, another preview this is, gomen m(_ _)m

Hlj has a whole section of sale items that you may be aware of. It’s sorted by category, and you’ll find Dolls/Actions figures starting at around page 12 and regular figures at about page 14. They go on until page 27! Alternately, use the radio button to switch to list view and you only have to go through pages 3 to 6. Another nice thing about the list view is that you can see the manufacturer easily.

Lots of stuff to sift through there, and perhaps Nyx isn’t for you, but hey, when the potential for a deal this good is out there, I don’t mind spending a little time window shopping. Getting back to Nyx, she’s cast off like the rest of the Megahouse Queen’s Blade gals.  Click for the uncensored version, as usual.

Should’ve been cutting back on my spending but with that kind of bargain (on a year old figure I had kinda given up on, no less) I went for it. Decided to move Narika to my desk so the Queen’s Blade girls were all together.

aaaaand yet again I’m up later than I want and still no progress on my Hayate review ;_; …and I have an early meeting tomorrow. ;_; Aaaah, sorry, enough complaining out of me. ^^;;;

以上！

Bla bla, not enough time to get another full review out yet, still working on human mage, bla bla ^^;;;

So yes, yet another preview post ^^;

I think Nanael was the first Queen’s Blade girl I happened upon. Been waiting for this release since I started getting Queen’s Blade figures ^^;

Pic from official site (click for source page)

Service pic while I work on the main reviews ^^ Click for uncensored version.

Looks like it’s gonna be another busy month, but I’ll try my best ^_^

以上！

It’s always bad when an older figure I’ve been eying gets re-released.  Bad because I always go into, “Oh, maybe I should pick up so-and-so while I’m at it… and her… and her…”  Today it was Alter’s KOS-MOS.  My wallet escaped only after sustaining the following casualties… ^^;

Yuumiru from Queen’s Blade…

Airi, also from Queen’s Blade…

As mentioned, Alter’s KOS-MOS Ver. 4…

And the recently announced Limit Gunz…

[images from the official sites. Megahouse, Alter, Good Smile Company]

As you may have noticed, I have a weakness for babes wielding weapons…

Reviews of the first three for those interested:
KOS-MOS @ foo-bar-baz (one of the uncommon 5/5 star reviews… i’ve found the ratings there to be fairly similar to my taste), wcloudx, panther
(next two are cast off and reviews are nsfw)
Yuumiru @ akibahobby
Airi @ akibahobby, vision of vixon, foo-bar-baz

Oh… and I nearly forgot. Earlier this week my last defense against Chizuru finally gave way…

[img from Akibablog]

Worst part is, I kind of want to get the fox edition too… orz