This story features a bit more realistic cast of characters in the familiar setting of Tokyo.  The author and artist, Inio Asano, delves into the hardships that one can face when they’re first starting out.  ...
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It has been a very busy couple of days for trailers! Starting with the fall premieres, the first trailer is for the upcoming OVA (really? I was under the impression that it was going be a TV series), Kemono to Chat. The first volume of the series will be released on October 23rd with animation [...]
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Amiami has announced preorder for the figure of Charlotte E. Yeager from the Strike Witches anime series. She is scheduled for release in Nov 2009 and will be retailing for around 6,980 yen. While its supposed ...
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The new trailer of  Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea has begun streaming on Yahoo! Movies website.  The movie is planned to release in American theaters on August 14th, which I personally ...
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Battle-ready Battler-kun! Prepare to battle with battling spirit! Battle your technicolor looks! Battle that retarded hat! Battle Maria back into Touhou and then go over to K-ON! and battle Mio’s hat too! Battle this insufferable wench for her lack of battle spirit when her mom so valiantly battled Beatrice! Battle her too for taking all of about five [...]
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What can I write about Perfect Blue that hasn’t already been written? Like many others, I thought it was an excellent film that did a great job of presenting a fairly creepy psychological thriller for those of us achingly bored with most anime series on television nowadays. Never once did I yawn or [...]
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Original artist: Urushi A promotional video for the IOSYS track, 「Okuu’s Nuclear Fusion Dojo」, from the upcoming album 「Touhou Nengaranenjuu」 is now out. The flash PV was produced by a favorite artist of mine, Urushi. A collection of his other works can be found here. The new IOSYS CD will be out at Comiket 76, (August [...]
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Adoption in anime is always an interesting theme. From what I have seen, the theme is largely ignored, and is mostly a plot device of sorts. It receives no further treatment, exploring the minds of the adoptee and adopted. Ponti-dono speaks of Mari acting as a de facto mother for Mirai in TM8.0 and how this [...]
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I nabbed Kroze for an interview. If you don’t know who Kroze is, firstly, you should, secondly, Kroze is affiliates with sites such as Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged, Red vs. Blue, OverClocked Remix, and Snafu Comics. Share & Save
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Vorg! :wah
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Not impressed at all with the Fall 2009 season lineup… since there is nothing that interests me or worth watching… That’s because Kyoto Animation is still wasting their time animating Endless Eight garbage instead of working on another Key adaptation (Little Busters!, Tomoyo after, or Planetarian) which is worth watching, but it could change [...]
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<spoiler 'show="" spoiler="" for="" bleach="" chapter="" 368'="" 'hide="" spoiler="" for="" bleach="" chapter="" 368'="">So this week, Hisagi confronts Tousen, but Tousen is too cool for him; Hitsugaya and Hiyori argue like little kids while Lisa springs into action; Mashiro kicks Wonderweiss in the face; and Hachigen's spells can't stop Barragan. Reading that, it might seem like a lot happens, but it certainly didn't feel that way. I didn't find the Tousen and Hisagi stuff very interesting, and the Hiyori and Hitsugaya argument was completely pointless, so aside from Lisa, the only other saving graces were Mashiro and Hachigen. The problem is that there's only incremental progress on all the fronts, and it's hard to get excited about that. Hopefully there's been enough setup now so that the next chapter can focus entirely on one of the battles, and given where this chapter leaves off, Barragan would be a good choice.</spoiler> At least this week's chapter of Ane Doki was nice...
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I needed a break from watching crappy shows, so I figured that I could kill two birds with one stone and finish Cardcaptor Sakura. I had previously watched about half of it a few years ago, but had a hard drive failure and suspended it. But since it was in our giant stack [...]
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Moeyo shows us some sexy ramune peppermints… …which have designs of 48 different sexual positions. Sex candy, anyone? :3
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Wow okay so I didn’t expect Shu to have some kind of blot clot/heart attack thing and then die all in one episode So then because of that obviously Asumi was the candidate to go to NASA but not before the paparazzi harrassed her for most of the episodes. Thankfully with support from [...]
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Possibly one of the most anticipated part of going to Japan? (laughs)Day 4: Spending the whole afternoon in Akihabara.Note - Again no pictures of shops' interiors as there's an emphasis on the rule that no photography is allowed.Breakfast: Onigiri. Onigiri's are usually packaged this way so that the seaweed is not in contact with the rice in order to keep dry and freshThere are a few but simple steps on preparing it. First off tear the middle part around the onigiri.Pull one side of the package - this automatically gets the seaweed to wrap around the rice.Pull the other side as well...Done! Now the onigiri is ready to be eaten~Lunch - Tonkatsu in Sunshine City.It's worth mentioning that me and mother noticed a rice dispenser in the kitchen. With a press of a button rice falls out like grains into the rice bowl, always in equal amounts. This saves the time and effort of having to scoop out rice into the bowl and keeping consistency. o_oFried shrimps for mother.A crisper look at the tonkatsuAnyway, enough with the food. After the tonkatsu lunch, I went to Akihabara by myself while the rest continued shopping in Ikebukuro.Akihabara JR Station Electric Town Entrance - remember to take this exit when you got there - the Chuo Avenue (中央通り), which is literally the high street of Akihabara.Getting out of Akihabara JR Station and the first noticeable building is usually the Radio Kaikan.There are 6 floors to it as follows (source from the guide book I use, excluding small shops):7/F - Yellow Submariine (Game Shop / Scale Shop), VOLKS (Rental Showcase)6/F - VOLKS (Akihabara branch)4/F - Kaiyodo, Yellow Submarine (G-Shop)3/F - K-BOOKS (whole floor)2/F - Kotobukiya1/1 Kenshiro statue outside Kaiyodo shopYou are already sold out.Eva Unit 04s on display.Uchusen (宇宙船, i.e. spaceship). The "Animate" shops in Hong Kong are related to this, and not the ones of the same name in Japan. Confusing, isn't it?Volks Akihabara branch. Finally got to see the Dollfies myself, andVOLKS Rental Showcase - basically a store with many labelled shelves so you pick what stuff you like and grab them all at the end.Example right here - say I want this particular black plane (which is seen in my loot post last month), then I grab a form and write down the shelf number it belongs to as well as the item's number. Write down how number of items wanted and hand it to the cashier at the end. A member of staff will lead me to each shelf I've requested and unlock them so I can grab them. Once everything's ok I pay the money and it's done.Such shops are great for hunting smaller toys such as gashapons, shokugans, and other harder-to-get items that may be gone in many places already.Kotobukiya store on ground floor. There's also one on the 2nd floor but I will show that on the next trip post.GAMERS.PSP game Project DIVA, not yet released at the time of visit.Nendo Miku as well as a Miku Itansha on display thereAsoBitCity - hobby chain stores. These stores tend to focus more on models and such, so it's not so much of a hit for figure collectors.Setsuna's dream of becoming a Gundam has finally come true XDAnimate store in Akihabara. Not as big as the one in Ikebukuro, but definitely more crowded.Generally Animate always sells things at retail price, so if you are looking for cheap stuff, this may not be the place to go for in the first place as other stores tend to sell the same items for a discount.Liberty - another hobby chain store. They are pretty varied so you have to look and see what each particular branch focuses on (e.g. models, figures, games etc)A huge poster of Prime Minister Aso TaroFigure Hobby Kan - I surprisingly took a long time loitering around there - many second hand or resold items can be found there. T'is one of these places where you can look for hard-to-find items such as exclusive figures etc.Notice how many buildings in Tokyo are thin and tall. Hong Kong has many highrises but are usually not as squeezed as Tokyo's.SofMap is anotherNightlife in AkihabaraGiGO - various arcade games can be played there, and each floor are sorted by game categories. Ikebukuro has one too which I've forgotten to mention last time.LaOX Hobby - another hobby chain store similar to AsoBitCity (i.e. mostly models and such), so another one that figure collectors may like to skip.Mini 4WD courses spotted in LaOX Hobby store. When I was little there was a hype of mini 4WDs in Hong Kong (obviously brought by Japan's hype wave), and many kids had their own mini 4WD. It's nostalgic seeing this popping up again.Nightlife in Akihabara 2Angel Beats! is getting animated soon. Anyone know anything about it?Dream Club; I somehow almost mistakened it as IDOLM@STEROn my way back in Ikebukuro there's really heavy rain going on there. Even with a raincoat and an umbrella my lower half has gone completely soaked.But t'is good that my mother and sister have ordered me a large curry rice dish in advance for my dinner, which was a good way to end the day.I couldn't finish going through Akihabara in one day, mainly because I got stuck in some shops and loitered around too much. As a result I ended up only visiting one side of Chuo Ave, and had to revisit it again on the next day. Since my sister was still on her shopping spree with her friend, that didn't cause interference to my compromised plan.
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While trolling about on the Internets, I discovered a rather good acoustic guitar version of one of my favorite songs from the Final Fantasy XI soundtrack: the theme for the Sanctuary of Zi’Tah. It’s a beautiful piece of music, and this Japanese fellow does a wonderful job. Don’t mind the stocking cap on his head…that’s [...]
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I am not really in the mood to post this right now cause I am lacking inspiration but I have to do some cleanup so…There you have it 1. My cute Chrome… For some unexplained reason the episode begins with Chrome and not the Arcobaleno Trial which I found a little… irritating! Of course that changed when I saw Ken ^^ but Chikusa whose hairstyle sucks made me turn: “Okay?…next one please” I actually liked it when we got to see the escaped-from-madhouse-costume Chrome cause her hairstyle is soooo pwetty ^^. Mukuro ...
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I feel like I don’t “get” Tokyo Magnitude 8.0. In the aftermath of a huge earthquake, a bunch of flat, uninteresting characters wander around and evade danger by a small margin once per episode. Even if I could be persuaded to care about how Mirai is predictably maturing from a boring, whiny girl to a [...]
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