We come to it at last. Many have fought. Now only eight remain. Of these, who shall wrest the golden crown of victory from the stingy hands of the vulgar otaku mob? Interestingly, my own choices are all on the left side of the Saimoe 2008 match-up diagram: Battle of the 25th: Lucky Star’s Kagami vs CLANNAD’s [...]
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Happy Birthday Miyuki-chan! Our embodiment of moe for the first half of Lucky Star! (until Yutaka took over XD) It’s just sad that Miyuki doesn’t get as much love as compared to Konata, Kagami and Tsukasa. But I guess you can’t have all the characters in a serious be equally popular. That said, Figma Miyuki is [...]
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Here are today's "really cool products" that I've picked out for you, out of the 30+ new items we've added to the J-List and JBOX.com sites today. Note that some products may be "not safe for work" but that all links will allow you to redirect yourself either to the J-List or JBOX.com websites. To see all the J-List products, check out J-List or the JBOX.com updated products link. Ghibli Soft Fluffy Blankets (Jiji). That's right, we've got yet another new Studio Ghibli blanket for 2009, featuring Jiji the Cat, the delightful character from Kiki's Delivery Service. Now, these blankets aren't just soft and warm, they're so high in quality that your perception of Japan will change forever -- they're that awesome. Totoro Nap Pillow. We love Studio Ghibli's high quality Totoro products, and this year the company released two amazing "nap pillows" that are just perfect for catching some Z's on a Sunday afternoon. They feature the same soft construction as the other Totoro cushions we posted today, but have more support for your head for sleeping. Two different designs in stock. Ryoko Asakura & Expand Parts Set ~ Nendoroid-Series 044. Ryoko is a class president with a secret: she's also an android sent by the Galactic Agency to observe Haruhi and act as a backup Humanoid Interface for Yuki. This is a deluxe Nendoroid set that comes with extra parts for other Haruhi figures. In stock now! COSMODE 023 ~ Super Cosplay Magazine 23. There's nothing more fun than dressing up in your favorite anime costume, and this a new issue of the awesome COSmode, featuring hundreds of photos of cosplayers from Code Geass, Miku Hatsune, Macross Frontier, Lucky Star and much more. Character reference art shown, too, as well as a *pattern* you can use to make your own costume. Animage Oct 2008. A new issue of the popular anime magazine. Includes art and information from Code Geass, Gundam 00, Macross Frontier, Ikki Tousen / Dragon Destiny, Kannagi, and more. A gorgeous poster and Macross F document protector are included, too. Lucky Star Chocolate Cornet Cookie. A cornet is a French pastry popular in Japan, a roll of bread in the shape of a seashell, with chocolate pudding inside. Made popular by the Lucky Star anime, it's now legendary among otaku-zoku ("the otaku tribe"). Here are some coronet flavored cookies featuring the Lucky Star girls. This box is also suitable for giving as a gift. This great item is back in stock today! New Japanese Snacks. See other amazing Japanese snacks, too, including the amazing new Caramel Macchiato Kit Kat, delicious Omusubi (aka onigiri) mix for making delicious rice balls at home, and grape mochi, that heavenly traditional Japanese snack food that's been enjoyed by Japanese children for decades. Ninja Snack "Fuwa-Maru" Yuzu & Pepper Flavor -- Corn Puff Snack. Then, Tohato is back with their cool Ninja Snacks, this time a delicious corn snack dusted with pepper and yuzu, a unique citrus fruit from Japan with a strong taste. Check Pattern Cloth Based Bento Set ~ 2 tiers Bento Box & Chopsticks Set. Bento boxes from Japan let you do many things, including eating for less than buying from restaurants and controlling what you eat, which is great when trying to diet. Enjoy this stylish bento box w/included chopsticks and case, that's great for collectors. R2-D2 USB Hub. J-List carries tons of awesome R2-D2 items from Japan, and one of our favorites is the animated USB hub, which accepts standard high-speed USB 2.0 accessories and moves his head and makes sounds while you use your computer. The Japanese Tea Ceremony A.L. Sadler. One of the most mysterious aspects of Japan is the tea ceremony, called sado in Japanese, meaning The Way of Tea." (Note, if they called it chado then they're being cute, thinking that you as a foreigner won't know that proper word.) This is a great book filled with information on this aspect of Japan, all in English. COPIC Super Flat & Wide Marker ~ Black. When you really need to make a beautiful, thick line, we recommend the Copic Super Markers that we sell. DX Large Study Flashcards with Check Sheet. The Japanese are good at studying, a part of this is because of the tools they've evolved to help memorize better. Here's a large deck of blank flashcards you can use to memorize anything. Features "check sheets" that help you hide the information you want to quiz yourself on, too. "I Like What I Like" - Girl's Fitted. We love the unique kanji-themed T-shirts we sell, which feature fun messages in aesthetically beautiful kanji. One of our most popular shirts for girls says, "I Like What I Like, so Get Off My Back" (it's taken from the title of a BL game). If you have any hobbies others might not understand sometimes, this shirt will help you explain yourself! Now stocked in fitted girls' size XL, by customer request. Sake Bottles from Japan. In times like these, we all need to pour a stiff drink, and what better way to do this than with a traditional sake bottle and cups for two? We're restocking several popular items, including our Sushi Sake Bottle, our Happy Tanuki Sake Set, and more. Suzumiya Haruhi Official Fanbook. Great official Fanbook, filled with tons of art and information from the boldest and most interesting anime to come along since Evangelion. Back in stock today. Space Battleship Yamato Cosmo Fleet Collection -- Full Set of 5. I am a big fan of the old school Space Battleship Yamato, known as Star Blazers in the U.S. This is a great *full set* of the detailed Cosmo Fleet Collection, which gives you five awesome ships to display. Restocked Lucky Cat, Other Traditional Items. See fresh stock of this great Lucky Cat, who beckons good luck into your home or business. Also, see fresh stock of our Maiko Style Comb, Samurai Kabuto Helmet, Sakura Jelly Aroma Candle, and a great Working Yukata. Hello Kitty KIRA-DECO Items. "Kira-Deco" comes from kira (shiny, bright) and deco (the English word "decoration." We've restocked some incredibly cute items today, including the Hello Kitty digital camera case, pencil case and more! Renji Abarai, Rangiku Matsumoto Excellent Model Bleach Figures *Preorder*. A popular character from Bleach, this is Renji, recreated in incredible detail in 1/8 scale. Also, an incredibly beautiful figure of Rangiku, with the most amazing detail in her hair, robes and, er, other areas. Preorder both now. Mousse-chan Paper Clay, Signo JUMPOP Pens. We love the "paper clay" (kami-nendo) items we sell, enabling you to make the most amazing decorated cakes and other creations with the included clay and molds, restocked today. Also: Signo JUMPOP pens, the easiest to write with pens we've ever found! Princess Waltz *Preorder*. Princess Waltz is one of the most amazing games ever released in English, an epic story of princess who fight with swords for the right to become "one" with the prince of the kingdom (naturally you). This outstanding game has been declared "Golden Master" and will be shipping soon. You can still preorder this great title now and get free shipping! This massive game will come on PC DVD-ROM.
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Alright, sorry for messing up in the results post, here is the real deal. These are the quarterfinals as drawn by lots to see who would match up against whom. And here are the matchups, thanks to Ando. Quarterfinals 1 Block C Winner: Hiiragi Kagami (Lucky Star) vs. Block D Winner: Sakagami Tomoyo (Clannad)   Quarterfinals 2 Block E Winner: Kawazoe Tamaki [...]
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Quarterfinals 1 @ 10/25 柊かがみ���らき☆すた [Hiiragi Kagami@Lucky Star] 坂上智代���CLANNAD [Sakagami Tomoyo@CLANNAD] Quarterfinals 2 @ 10/26 川添珠姫���バンブーブレード(Kawazoe Tamaki@Bamboo Blade] 古河渚���CLANNAD [Furukawa Nagisa @ CLANNAD] Quarterfinals 3 @ 10/27 柊つかさ���らき☆すた [Hiiragi Tsukasa@Lucky Star] 伊吹風子���CLANNAD [Ibuki Fuuko@CLANNAD] Quarterfinals 4 @ 10/28 千葉紀梨乃���バンブーブレード [Chiba Kirino @ BAMBOO BLADE] 桂ヒナギク���ハヤテのごとく! [Katsura Hinagiku @ Hayate the Combat Butler] Matchups are announced and it looks like it’s set to be a KyoAni fest this [...]
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I sense the cry of many a TT fan, like CCY. F 1位　1198票　古河渚���CLANNAD(Furukawa Nagisa@CLANNAD) 2位　1047票　八神はやて���魔法少女リリカルなのはStrikerS(Yagami Hayate@Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS) As keikaku’d. Nanoha faction has been doing too poorly, and Kyoani/CLANNAD is tearing everything else (save Lucky Star) up H 1位　1312票　桂ヒナギク���ハヤテのごとく!(Katsura Hinagiku@Hayate no Gotoku!) 2位　926票　石動乃絵���true tears(Isurugi Noe@true tears) Wow, good turnout. I surprisingly didn’t expect the TT fanbase to be out in full [...]
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Block E Finals 有効コードがある票の順位 1位　1058票　川添珠姫���バンブーブレード [Kawazoe Tamaki @ BAMBOO BLADE] 2位　898票　シャナ���灼眼のシャナII [Shana @ Shakugan no Shana] Block G Finals 有効コードがある票の順位 1位　1131票　柊つかさ���らき☆すた [Hiiragi Tsukasa @ Lucky Star] 2位　861票　水無灯里���ARIA シリーズ [Mizunashi Akari @ ARIA] Ugh, somehow a 1 hour nap at 5 pm turned in to a 7 hour snooze till 1am. My sleeping patterns are so screwed. Anyways, Tamaki beats Shana quite convincingly, while [...]
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OH WHYYYYYYYYYYYY ;_______________________________; E 1位　1058票　川添珠姫���バンブーブレード  (Tamaki Kawazoe @ Bamboo Blade) 2位　898票　シャナ���灼眼のシャナ 2 (Shana @ Shakugan no Shana 2) Either way, I’m actually happy. But why is Tamaki so damned popular? G 1位　1131票　柊つかさ���らき☆すた (Hiiragi Tsukasa @ Lucky Star) 2位　861票　水無灯里���ARIA シリーズ (Mizunashi Akari@ARIA series) Weep N, Weep Ruki, but know today goes to Balsamic Vinegar. (Seriously, she’s got too much love in this tournament) Next up: 古河渚���CLANNAD [...]
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A Lucky Star maniac on 2ch shares with us the results of his frenzied buying spree, where he spent over ¥100,000 on goods in one session (most of it in Sofamp it appears). He bought all the DVDs, the character songs, Figma and Nendoroid figures, etc. The receipt to prove it: “I overdid it. I still don’t [...]
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Stack of box and bubble envelope (? CMIIW).I think this is the biggest haul i received at a time ever. That's because i tend to order and ship 1 item at a time. But I'm also amazed with the shipment time. It took only 1 working week to arrive, eventhough i used HLJ's SAL shipping and PA's free Air Economic shipping. Normally those kind of shipment took over 3 working weeks. So... let's see what's inside.figma Yuki witch, Force Impulse, Burnout Paradise, and RnC Quest for Booty.Four items, each in their own package. The 2 bubble envelopes contained 2 PS3 games, Burnout Paradise and Ratchet and Clank Future: Quest for Booty. Those games are my brother's orders. I got Burnout Paradise with a bargain price, around USD 30 (normal price around USD 50), and RnC Quest for Booty for around USD 30 (it's the normal price). My bro's played RnC series and the last game he played, RnC Tools of Destruction, had been completely finished. The ending of that game is actually a cliffhanger, and you'll feel like you HAVE to buy RnC Quest for Booty to see the continuation.HLJ Box contained Force Impulse Gundam MG kit. It's also my bro's order. And once again, i also got it with a bargain price in HLJ for around JPY 3150 (not including shipment, normal price JPY 5500). The last PA box contained figma Yuki witch version, which is my order. Yeah, from these 4 items, only 1 is mine.Inside of figma Yuki witch, pretty wide, just like figma Fate.I'm gonna focus on figma Yuki for now, so don't expect too much with the games and Force Impulse. I first heard that figma Yuki witch was a festival exclusive item. But i think i was mistaken, a few days after that, i saw figma Yuki up for pre-order in Play-Asia. And so i ordered her without any hesitation. The only disappointment i got from this chance is PA is so slow in releasing this item. Almost everywhere on the net already mentioned that they already had their Yuki witch arrived, but PA still haven't released it yet. But in the end i still got her, and that's all that matters.So many small parts, make sure you keep them in safe place.figma Yuki witch has so many parts. Even figma Fate parts are still fewer from Yuki's parts. From witch hat, 3 halves of witch cape (1 for the right side, 1 for the left side for guitar, and 1 for the left side without guitar), 2 cup of tea, a teapot, a tray, 2 magic wands, 1 board, 4 promotion sticker, 1 guitar, Shamisen, and a couple of hands (usual 4 pairs of hands, 1 right hand with guitar pick, 1 left hand for guitar chord, 1 right hand for magic wand, and 1 right hand for the board) and the usual 1 set of figma base and 1 plastic bag. It's so complete, for almost all Yuki's role in the anime.Yuki and her tea set in "I'm an alien" scene.Remember when Kyon came to Yuki's room and told about those alien things? If you remember that scene, you must also remember this tea set. I don't know how many cups did Kyon drink that time. It's actually pretty hard to get a fully focused object in short distance photo, the depth of field and lens blur keep coming and haunts you.Photography Tips:Depth of Field (DOF) : a value of how focused an object is and how blurry the background and foreground is.A good photo must have nice depth of field. It must have blurry background, and focused object, to get the feeling of "this is the main object of the photo". But how to made this DOF and what are the parameters that affect the DOF value?DOF is about how focused the main object and how blurry the background is. The higher the blur level, the better the DOF gets. Here a schema on how DOF work:C ----Fc ----54321O12345C stands for Camera, Fc stands for focus point, O stands for object, and the numbers represent the blur level (the higher the number, the blurry the image gets). If you focused your camera to the object, things in front of the object and things behind the object will get blurry. The further the distance between the object and the things, it gets more blurry.There are 3 parameters that affect DOF:- Aperture Value (Av) : how wide the diaphragm of a lens opened. The lower the value, the focus area became more small. That mean the area that focused became smaller, and the other things will become more and more blurry. You can only set Av in certain kind of cameras like DSLR, prosumer, or pocket camera with M, Av, and Tv settings like Canon PowerShot.- Distance between camera and object : the further the distance, the bigger the focus area, that means if you shot an object from a far distance, there's a high possibility that it won't get a nice blurry background.- Focal Length : zoom length on the lens. The higher the focal length the smaller the focus area. That's why using tele lens (high focal length) will give you a nice blurry background.The hardest part of getting nice figure shot is how to adjust the DOF level. You have to get your camera close to the figure, so that means the 2nd parameter of DOF will be affected. The closer the camera, the smaller the focus area. That's why in the photo above, the tea set is somewhat blurry.For countermeasure, increasing Av is an option. But that also means that you have to prepare a tripod or a good light, because increasing Av means lowering shutter speed. Lower shutter speed means a higher possibility of getting blurry (shake) image.FYI, blur in DOF and blur in shake are different blurs. Blur in DOF called lens blur, and blur in shake called motion blur. Lens blur caused by DOF and the parameters i mentioned above. Motion blur caused by moving your camera while shooting (regular problem you'll find in photography world)."Do you want (to eat) Shamisen?"Yuki came with Shamisen, the cat that appeared in Asahina Mikuru no densetsu episode 00. I don't know what does this cat do anyway. Notice that shamisen in this photo are sharper than the tea set. That's because i put my camera in a further distance from Yuki, and i also reduced the focal length (used a wide length).Who'll win, Mikuru's beam or Yuki's magic?This is figma Yuki, witch version, so basically the main attraction of this figure is her witch cosplay suit. There are 2 version of the cape. The 1st version is this cape. The left side of the cape covers Yuki's left hand. Just the same as her pose in Live a Live episode. This episode is my favorite episode, just because of God Knows... But the main role of this witch came in the first episode (Haruhi's order) of Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu, in Asahina Mikuru no densetsu episode 00."subete wa GOD KNOWS!"This is the main reason why i bought figma Yuki witch version, the guitar. Yeah, God Knows rocks! And so does the Live a Live episode. I think I'll stick with this pose for a while. Yuki's so cool yet rocking with her guitar. Too bad i didn't bought figma Hatsune Miku. She came with a microphone, and i could use that microphone for Haruhi, and creating a legendary duo of Haruhi-Yuki singing God Knows!Haruhi got a friend (after being left by Nanoha), she's not alone anymore!Another figma means more possibility to create something great and creative. I'll stick with figma Hare-hare and Lucky Star dance. Maybe next up i'll also create a figma comics or something like that. So just look forward to it!
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