Semi-finals E3-1 有効コードがある票の順位 1位　987票　シャナ���灼眼のシャナII [Shana @ Shakugan no Shana] 2位　969票　高町なのは���魔法少女リリカルなのはStrikerS [Takamachi Nanoha @ Nanoha StrikerS] Semi-finals F3-2 有効コードがある票の順位 1位　1120票　八神はやて���魔法少女リリカルなのはStrikerS [Yagami Hayate @ Nanoha StrikerS] 2位　625票　森宮蒼乃���sola [Morimiya Aono @ sola] And our favourite Flame Haze loli manages to edge out Nanoha’s BEFRIENDMENT by 18 votes to go to the group finals. Hayate also follows suit with a big win over Aono. I should also [...]
(Read the rest of this entry) (Entry meta)

Winners: Shana and Hayate — Shana fans have every right to celebrate tonight. Next match, it was fun while it lasted, but Question Fairy needs to go. Groups Finals are coming up for crying out loud!…
(Read the rest of this entry) (Entry meta)

Well now, a pleasant surprise or just as planned? I say….KEIKAKU DOORI. Thanks Ando. C3-2 1位　1031票　藤林杏���CLANNAD(Fujibayashi Kyou@CLANNAD) 2位　741票　南夏奈���みなみけ シリーズ(Minami Kana@Minami-ke series) D3-1 1位　1080票　坂上智代���CLANNAD(Sakagami Tomoyo@CLANNAD) 2位　719票　泉こなた���らき☆すた(Izumi Konata@Lucky*Star) Expected this of the rabid KyoAni fanboys. Especially with After Story’s advent. You’d think this was all a conspiracy~ Tomorrow is StrikerS’s time to step up, what say you, INTERNET? E301 シャナ���灼眼のシャナII(Shana @Shakugan no Shana II) 高町なのは���魔法少女リリカルなのはStrikerS(Takamachi Nanoha @ Magical Girl [...]
(Read the rest of this entry) (Entry meta)

Semi-finals C3-2 有効コードがある票の順位 1位　765票　藤林杏���CLANNAD [Fujibayashi Kyou @ CLANNAD] 2位　559票　南夏奈���みなみけ シリーズ [Minami Kana @ Minami-ke] Semi-finals D3-1 有効コードがある票の順位 1位　803票　坂上智代���CLANNAD [Sakagami Tomoyo @ CLANNAD] 2位　536票　泉こなた���らき☆すた [Izumi Konata @ Lucky Star] A good day for the CLANNAD fans, as Kyou and Tomoyo both advance. Vote counts are pretty low though. Next round 10/14:- Semi-finals E3-1 シャナ���シャナII��� [Shana @ Shakugan no Shana] 高町なのは���なのはStS��� [Takamachi Nanoha @ Nanoha StrikerS] Semi-finals F3-2 森宮蒼乃���sola��� [Morimiya [...]
(Read the rest of this entry) (Entry meta)

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. Mikuru Asahina 1/4 Figure Red Bunny ver. ~ Freeing. There comes a time in every anime fan's life when he must pick up the most awesome, the most special figure he'll ever see. And here she is: a *1/4 scale* recreation of the time-traveling Mikuru in her bunny suit from the famous illustration from Megami. Battle Dress Girls by Solid Works Collection DX -- Full Set of 7. This is a great series: beautiful bishoujo females in various real military battle uniforms, from female Self Defense Forces officer to infantry to jet pilot and more. Full and partial sets in stock, with no duplicates. Figure Maniacs vol. 29 Otome Gumi 2008. Fabulous new issue of Figure Maniacs, the all-time best anime figure information photobook, which documents Japan's best prepainted figures from the most famous countries. This issue focuses on Shana, Figma, Code Geass, Roasria x Vampire, Clannad and much more. Nanoha Takamachi Figma Action Figure Barrier Jacket ver. ~ Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. I cant' remember when I've seen a Magical Girl show done so well, and Lyrical Nanoha has tons of fans who love toe show's depth and characters. We've restocked the awesome Figma of Nanoha today. Dengeki Maoh Oct 2008. Need some manga? How about 600+ pages worth? That's what you get every month in Dengeki Maoh ("Electric Shock Magic King"), the gorgeous monthly magazine of manga and more. Features popular manga like Spice and Wolf, Sengoku Basara 2, Tales of Symphonia, Hanged Man, and more. One of our most highly recommendable manga. Plus, difficult kanji inside have hiragana beside them, making it great for students. Dengeki Layers vol. 20 Aug 2008. Just in time for the biggest cosplay event ever (Halloween), here's a new issue of Dengeki Layers, covering Japan's top cosplayers with lots of photographs of anime costumes for you to gaze at and copy. This issue comes with anime hair color-matched hairpins, free! Let's Make Eraser with Microwave ~ Cake. More fun erasers you make yourself using the included microwavable eraser stuff and molds. Make your own little cake shop! All the molds can be reused with other kinds of clay as well. Morinaga Cookie Gift Set for Special Occasion. Here's another great gift set from Japan, filled with delicious cookies that are fun to eat. This boxed set is specially made to be given as a gift, and it comes with an outer shrinkwrap and picture to show you what's inside, but this can be removed, leaving the inner wrap inside. The container is made of metal too, so you can reuse it, and the cookies are individually wrapped. New Japanese Snacks. "Crunky" is the popular chocolate that's so much fun to eat, not least because of its weird English name. We're posting two awesome flavors, Cafe Latte and Caramel Latte. Try them frozen, too! Also, delicious Mochi treats, enjoyed by Japanese kids since before World War II, in Green Apple, Ramune and . (They're only .50 per package, too.) WAGARA Winnie the Pooh Bento Set ~ Box & Chopsticks & Bag. A really cute "traditional Japanese" Winnie the Pooh bento box . This comes with everything you need to enjoy a cute, healthy lunch. Lovely Bento Cup ~ Race Pattern / 20 pcs . Bento is fun to eat, but not when your rice mixes together with the okazu (that is, whatever main course you eat with your rice). Keep this from happening with these attractive bento food separators. Buddhist Lucky Bells Omamori. A really fascinating item from Buddhist Japan, these are bells that are on a stick. Shake them to summon the spirits of the dead. The bells have a very Buddhist look to them but could also be used to make some great Jingle Bells sounds. Purple Hello Kitty Fountain Pen. People liked the Hello Kitty Fountain Pens we posted recently that we decided to post a bunch more. These pens are very high quality and feature fountain pen type tips for many years of smooth writing. Purple, pink and black posted today. Chirimen Strap ~ 2009 Year of the Cow. 2009 is the Year of the Cow, and we've gotten in two amazing phone straps (which can be use just about anywhere) featuring plush Japanese "Lucky Cow" figures that are made of chirimen fabric. Outstanding, and they have little bells on them too, which helps you not lose your keys, phone etc. Pink or white. Nyan Nyan Nyanko Hot Springs. We've got a grade 1 kawaii alert, with little cats from San-X's "Nyankoverse" bringing extreme cuteness to Japanese hot springs. This popular book has been restocked. Restocked Genki CDs, Dictionaries. We've gotten in a huge restocking of the #1 selling Japanese study aid in J-List's history, used by more students of the language than any other tool. Today the Student and Teacher CDs are restocked, along with the Illustrated Dictionary of Japanese Onamatopoetic Expressions, which helps you learn to express idea like the sound of "nothing" or silence in Japanese. (It's shiiiiin.) Waku Waku Oekaki Bento. J-List customers know that we've got more bento boxes and related items than you can shake a chopstick at. Today we're restocking this popular art bento book which gives you tons of examples of things you can make, from Godzilla Bento to Santa Claus to anime characters. Japanese Fleece Hoodie "Looking for a Japanese Girlfriend" (red circle) -- Unisex. Our popular original T-shirts and warm hoodies pop up in the strangest places, like a customer of ours who was interviewed on Japanese TV while wearing his "Now Accepting Applications for a Japanese Girlfriend" sweatshirt -- awesome! Now is a great time to think about what warm hoodies you want to pick up for the coming colder months, and we've got them all in stock in San Diego. GETA ~ Okaku Black. Geta are those wooden sandals that are seen in so many popular anime series, and we've restocked our most popular pair, the Geta with black or white strap. Other Fun Traditional Items. Fun restocked items today include our Classic Wooden Sump Games, our stylish Asakusa Bag, samurai sword keychains, miso soup bowls and more. Godzilla 1954 3D Post Art ~ Real Artwork Series *Preorder*. Oh my, this is awfully cool -- a "3D" Godzilla poster that features the 1954 original monster doing battle with military forces. It literally jumps out at you! This preorder item is the ultimate item for the Godzilla collector. Feng Shui Sunshine Buddies -- Green. We could all use a little good fortune these days, and Tomy offers it to you in the form of the feng shui Sunshine Buddies, aka Hidamari no Tami, cute little figures that help you relax by lolling their heads from side to side through the miracle of solar power. See Lucky Fortune and Good Relationship, back in stock today. Sabra Magazine Oct 2008. Gorgeous new issue of Sabra for you, featuring a lot of top names from Japan's idol world, including Satomi Ishihara, Emily, Yuka Hirata, and more. Pull out giant poster, DVD too. New "H" Manga. Got some amazing new manga for you today. First, enjoy Complete Declaration of Oppai, a superb work by Kazuo Kikkawa that centers around really cute girls and really round, welcoming oppai. Then see Magical Moe Girl Lyrical Rininka, a super twist on the magical girl genre. Anime "Initiation Paddle" - YAOI. By customer request, we've gotten those wacky anime "Initiation Paddles" for fans of yaoi and yuri, a great way to spank your way into the heart of that someone special. Kurumi Imari 1/6 Cast off Figure "Kuro no Kourin" *Preorder*. Here's an outstanding item for Bible Black fans, a dynamite figure of Kurumi recreated in super large 1/6 scale. She's being held by a demonic horror, and can't get away. Muhahaha! Of course, a figure this detailed and nice wouldn't be enough if it weren't cast off as well.
(Read the rest of this entry) (Entry meta)

Blanc Neige - Kotobukiya.Blanc Neige is my latest figure (for now), so i think this photoshoot will be the last photoshoot before new figure arrived. For this October, i only got Yagami Hayate (Alter) pre-ordered, and i heard that Hayate release date is delayed so yeah, no more new figure for awhile.Blanc Neige in her Shining Wind outfit.As you all know, Kotobukiya made this figure and released it around last September. This figure is actually the only Shining Wind version of Blanc Neige. The other Blanc Neige figures are Shining Tears version. As i said before, Blanc Neige in her Shining Wind outfit is better than her Shining Tears outfit IMO. The reason why i bought this figure is because of this Shining Wind version of Blanc Neige.Longer hairstyle in Shining Wind version, stylish!Not only her outfit, but also her hair. Blanc Neige in Shining Wind version has longer hair than before. Not only longer, but also stylish! But i think those are the only changes from Shining Tears to Shining Wind version. She still got her ice magic and ice personality with her.Blanc Neige without her cape on, sexy!This figure is actually came with removable cape. I think i know now which one i prefer more. I like her without her cape on. She does look sexier without her cape on. And this is somewhat rare find, because you won't see her without her cape on in the anime.It would be better if you could remove the long gloves.The only downside of removing her cape is her long gloves. The gloves doesn't suit her without her cape. But if you put her cape on, her long gloves suit her well. But that won't change the fact that she looks sexy without her cape.You won't see her pale and glossy skin because i used Canon's picture style to get a good skin tone.You won't see her smooth skin too much if you put her cape on. This is one of the reason why i like her without her cape. Talk about skin, i think Kotobukiya can't really made a good doff skin. I don't know how they did this thing, but all i know is Blanc Neige's skin is somewhat pale and glossy. It makes sense if her skin is pale, but glossy skin is a no-no in every figure.Photography tips:Notice that her skin doesn't look really pale and glossy in the photos because i set the picture style and white balance before shooting them. Picture style can be set in camera's menu, and white balance, well... almost all camera has white balance setting. If you used RAW shooting mode, you can get a better and sharper result than JPEG, and on top of that you can edit the picture style and white balance setting in Digital Photo Professional (or your camera software) AFTER the shot. FYI, you can't change camera setting for a particular JPEG photos AFTER shooting.Rough details, bad...Let's get down to the details. Her choker on her neck isn't really well sculpted. It's somewhat rough. Yeah, kinda disappointed with this. Kotobukiya sculpt isn't really improving. Kureha's outfit is well sculpted but she has a glossy skin. Shana Candy Bikini's skin looks even glossier. But Elwing's quality is a top notch, just as good as Alter's quality. After Elwing, there's this Blanc Neige which has a worse quality than Elwing.Her left hand and glove, with snowflake mark on it.I think Kotobukiya weakness is small details. Her long glove is okay, and i don't think i can find any flaw in this glove. Looks like i forgot to clean this figure before shooting :P. You can see some dust on her glove in the photo above.You don't want to mess with her or she'll ice you.Returning to small details, her staff does look rough on detail sculpt. In the photo above, i played a little bit with the histogram. I tried to make the shadow stronger, that's why the staff in the photo above looks like it made from metal. Small details actually can only be seen when you used a detailed camera like DSLR or other good camera. But with our human eyes, you won't see any visible rough details on these parts, that's why this figure does still look good if you watch her from distance of 15cm or more.Can you see her cleavage from here?Once again, you'll see rough paintjob and sculpt in the photo above. But that's because of the DSLR power, as i said just above. From a distance of 15cm or more, she still looks good. But that's not really the point of this photo. Girls in Shining Wind have their cleavage showing, including Blanc Neige. Eventhough it's small, but her cleavage is still visible because of the hole on this part of her dress.Cleavage or tie, which one do you see first? XDThis is another photo where you can see another visible cleavage. She doesn't have big breast, but she still looks sexy, she still has the charm. Anyway, look at the tie on the cape. It has that snow / ice symbol on it. The string itself isn't really well sculpted, so i don't think you want to see this tie from a close distance.Feeling of smooth and soft skin.Because of her cape, you won't see her back in the anime. I think this is one of the details missed (or unseen) in the anime. Seeing bare skin like this gives you the feeling of smooth and soft skin, and make you want to touch it.Her waist and butt, hmm... delicious!You know it's very rare to see Blanc Neige in a naughty pose like this. Just because she has a cool personality, doesn't mean that she can't do a sexy pose. Her pose made her waist and butt look sexier than ever.Sexy body curve.From this photo, you'll see nasty seamline going on everywhere on her outfit, her cape, and her skin. But you'll see some nice and sexy body curve here. I think this figure is somewhat off from her real personality, but that's just the selling point of this figure!Folds and wrinkles plus shading.Talk about body curve and her pose, Kotobukiya made a good effect on her outfit. They made a good sculpt on her outfit, around the waist. The folds look so real. You may not notice, but every figure has this folds / wrinkles on their outfit, and because of that, the figures look so real and alive.Long boots...She doesn't wear any thighigh, but she wears a long boots. I think this long boots go well with her long gloves. And you can also see her thigh in the photo above. Soft and smooth as always. Her dress is partially long on the left leg and short on right leg, this explains why she looks so sexy yet elegant.POI of this figure: her expression.POI of this figure IS..... her expression! She already has that sexy naughty pose and sexy body curve, the rest is just her expression. It's just so naughty! I know it's off from her personality, but that's just the reason why this expression is so priceless. She has that "come on play with me" expression. Her eyes, her glance, and her smile are the best. You won't see this expression anywhere in the game or anime.Well, yeah that's it for now. All that's left is a loooong wait for next set of hauls in November 2008. So i think I'll post some thoughts about anime i watched recently, look forward to it!
(Read the rest of this entry) (Entry meta)

Shana’s clone o.0? I’m getting mixed responses from lots of people with obviously very conflicting opinions about the anime so far.Especially the handling of episode 2.It is claimed that the light novel was “better” in that it included more material particularly those which build on Taiga and Ryuji’s relationship or friendship at this point.I would assume that this is the “romance” aspect in this romance comedy.Yea,plenty of comedy but not enough romance? For me I do appreciate the aesthetics of romantic relationship between characters, however lets not forget that this is potentially ...
(Read the rest of this entry) (Entry meta)

I just watched TORADORA and as you know, the main female seiyuu for the series is Rie Kugimiya. She is famous for some anime roles, especially the tsunderes-loli ones. It does not bother me at all the fact that lately she has been doing this roles, sometimes I am afraid she has been typecasted by [...]
(Read the rest of this entry) (Entry meta)

Max Factory is going to release the figma 025 Shana ( シャナ ) Flame-Haired ver.( 炎髪ver. ) action figure form light novel/anime “Shakugan no Shana II” ( 灼眼のシャナⅡ ). Will be released in December 2008. Around 130mm tall, 2,500 yen. Black hair ver. will also be available for online purchase, will [...]
(Read the rest of this entry) (Entry meta)

Finally she’s here! Figma Shana is now available for preorder. She is scheduled for release in December and will be retailing for 2,500 yen. Sad to say, she doesn’t look as good as when I first previewed her.
(Read the rest of this entry) (Entry meta)