Typically, I buy manga that nobody bothers to translate or I buy ones that the translators are way behind on. With that in mind, there’s no real good reason for buying this, since I’ve read almost all these chapters online. But how can you resist that cover? Pretty colors…

Who’s a fan of Aria? And what do you think of Amanchu so far? I’m finding it to be quite enjoyable.

Hit the jump for an image of the back.

Too cute…

You can click on it for a slightly bigger image. I think I’ll fix this one up sometime in the future. Random Nanoha sketch for the win! Better than the previous sketch? I think so. Still many things to improve on though…

Me #1: Hey!
Me #2: Hmm?
Me #1: We should get a mascot for this site!
Me #2: Mmm, that sounds interesting. Sure.
Me #1: Let’s make one now!
Me #2: Now? I have other things to do… Besides, how long has it been since I’ve used the tablet?
Me #1: Okay fine, then I’ll sketch some random stuff and practice.
Me #2: Okay.
15 Minutes Later
Me #1: Done! Sort of…
Me #2: …
Me #1: What?

I need to practice for a million years it seems.

I was recently organizing my set of anime related music when this came to mind. I’m sure that people who listen to anime music know about these vocal-less versions. It’s quite fun to listen to these tracks. Sometimes, you might even find something in the instrumentals that was covered up by the vocals. However, I realized that for the most part, I don’t listen to these versions that often. Yet, they’re probably taking up at least one third of the space on my iPod (now known as the iPoo). And now as I’m slowly running out of disk space, just what should I do with them?

I already have the answer to that: I probably won’t do anything. You see, I like forming complete sets, and it’ll probably irk me if I have a half completed album, even if the songs that are missing are simply karaoke versions of the other ones. So what’s the point of bringing all of this up? Well, I was wondering what everyone else does with karaoke versions. Do you like to keep them around?

And on an unrelated note, if you want a fun comedy series, Seto no Hanayome is great. I only bring this up because of the album art that I used in this post.

Now I don’t exactly remember how I felt after previous Wonder Festival coverages, but this time around, I feel like I’ve seen too many interesting things. If Wonder Festivals are indicators of what my wallet will be in the future, then I’m definitely screwed. Time to take a look at the ones that I could possibly commit to, and we’ll do it through multiple rounds! If you’re too lazy to look through everything (shame on you), just skip to the last round. This whole post is very “texty”, but most of it is in the form of a list, so it shouldn’t take too long to read through.

All information was gathered from these various blog posts. If you have not yet seen what was displayed at Wonfes, please take a look at those links.

Round 1

This is for everything that caught my eye. Anything that made me think, “Hey look, they’re making this!” is here.

• Nendoroid Hirasawa Yui
• Nendoroid Akiyama Mio
• Nendoroid Kotobuki Tsumugi
• Nendoroid Tainaka Ritsu
• Akiyama Mio by Alter
• Hirasawa Yui by Alter
• Shamal by Alter
• Takamachi Nanoha (Movie Ver.) by Alter
• figma Takamachi Nanoha (Movie Ver.)
• figma Fate Testarossa (Movie Ver.)
• figma Vita
• figma Emiya Shirou
• figma Saber (Casual Clothes)
• Nendoroid Megurine Luka
• Nendoroid Kirisame Marisa
• Nendoroid Churuya-san
• Nendoroid Minami Chiaki
• Nendoroid Date Masamune and Nendoroid Sanada Yukimura
• Index by Good Smile Company
• Black Rock Shooter (Alt Ver.) by Good Smile Company
• Saber by Good Smile Company
• VN02 by Good Smile Company
• M9E Gernsback by Alter
• Rk-92 “Savage” by Alter
• Marin by Yamato
• Corticarte by Orchid Seed
• Asakura Otome by CMs Corporation
• Shirakawa Nanaka by CMs Corporation

Who makes it to Round 2? Everyone of course!

Round 2

The first set of eliminations begin. For this round, I considered each one individually. I assumed that I has sufficient funds to buy the one in question. The ones who made it through are obviously ones that I would definitely like to have in my collection (if you could call it one). Let’s analyze the previous list shall we?

• K-ON! Nendoroids
• Yui and Mio by Alter

I like all four K-ON! members, and I looking at the six listed above, I’d have to honestly say that I would want each and every single one of them.

• Shamal by Alter

I’m a fairly big fan of the Nanoha series in general, but Shamal never really struck me as being that interesting, so this one’s probably out.

• Takamachi Nanoha (Movie Ver.) by Alter
• figma Takamachi Nanoha (Movie Ver.)
• figma Fate Testarossa (Movie Ver.)
• figma Vita

Being a Nanoha fan means that I would definitely want the four listed above.

• figma Emiya Shirou

I’d say that despite his casual clothes (which is rather plain), he looks pretty cool. He’d be fun to display.

• figma Saber (Casual Clothes)

I like Saber, but I think she’s more suited in her battle attire. And this particular clothing isn’t the casual form that I like anyways.

• Nendoroid Megurine Luka

More Vocaloid stuff is more fun for me.

• Nendoroid Kirisame Marisa

I’ve played some of the Touhou games, and I like many things about it, but I can’t say I’m a big fan of it. I guess one of the reasons is simply because I don’t know much about it. Because of that, I’ll have to pass on this one.

• Nendoroid Churuya-san

The Churuya-san manga and anime was definitely fun to watch, but I’m not so sure about having one of these around in the house.

• Nendoroid Minami Chiaki

Minami-ke was great, and coupled with the fact that this seems to be based off the first season’s design makes this a GET. Where’s my Hosaka Nendoroid by the way?

• Nendoroid Date Masamune and Nendoroid Sanada Yukimura

I could only think of a few things. “ARE YOU READY?” was one. “YUKIMURA!” and “OYAKATA-SAMA” were two others. But in this case that’s a good thing. I want these.

• Index by Good Smile Company

I’m not sure I like this pose, so I guess it’s a “no”.

• Black Rock Shooter (Alt Ver.) by Good Smile Company

Everything about it is cool, but I like the first version just a bit better.

• Saber by Good Smile Company

Nice action pose.

• VN02 by Good Smile Company

“Woah” was my first response. Yes.

• M9E Gernsback by Alter

Mithril’s Arm Slaves are cool, and the quality looks really good. Yes.

• Rk-92 “Savage” by Alter

The Savages on the other hand, were bad Arm Slaves to begin with. Well I’m sure someone out there likes the design, but I don’t.

• Marin by Yamato

I thought this was interesting since Umi Monogatari just started airing recently. As for whether or not I would want this… probably not.

• Corticarte by Orchid Seed

I have no played the game, nor have I really watched the anime. However, I like her character design and have been looking around for a figure of her that I like. Since this is a non-colored prototype, I can’t say how good this will turn out, but if it’s good, I’d definitely consider.

• Asakura Otome by CMs Corporation
• Shirakawa Nanaka by CMs Corporation

As much as I like these two characters, the quality looks disappointing. Can’t we have some quality Nanaka figures? =(

Who makes it to Round 3?

• Nendoroid Hirasawa Yui
• Nendoroid Akiyama Mio
• Nendoroid Kotobuki Tsumugi
• Nendoroid Tainaka Ritsu
• Akiyama Mio by Alter
• Hirasawa Yui by Alter
• Takamachi Nanoha (Movie Ver.) by Alter
• figma Takamachi Nanoha (Movie Ver.)
• figma Fate Testarossa (Movie Ver.)
• figma Vita
• figma Emiya Shirou
• Nendoroid Megurine Luka
• Nendoroid Minami Chiaki
• Nendoroid Date Masamune and Nendoroid Sanada Yukimura
• Saber by Good Smile Company
• VN02 by Good Smile Company
• M9E Gernsback by Alter
• Corticarte by Orchid Seed

Round 3

In this round, I considered things more realistically. I compared each one relative to the other ones in the pool. I also thought about the existing figure that I have and also the amount of money that I would be willing to spend.

• K-ON! Nendoroids

Now I said I liked all the K-ON! characters, but realistically, I probably can’t get all four of them (and where’s Azusa anyways?). And in a financial pinch, Mugi and Ritsu are the first ones out.

• Akiyama Mio by Alter
• Hirasawa Yui by Alter

Same deal as earlier. I could probably only get one of them, so which moe blob shall it be? I’d say Mio. Also, the prototype Yui looks a bit odd.

• Takamachi Nanoha (Movie Ver.) by Alter

I already preordered the StrikerS version of Nanoha, so I probably won’t get this. Now if they made Fate (and you know they will), then I might reconsider.

• figma Takamachi Nanoha (Movie Ver.)
• figma Fate Testarossa (Movie Ver.)

Well let’s see. I already have the StrikerS version of Fate as a figma. So I don’t want this Fate, as I find two forms a bit jarring. Nanoha would also clash with the older Fate too in my opinion. So, as much as I like these two, I’m going to have to pass.

• figma Vita

Seeing as how I don’t have the other members of Squad 6, I probably won’t get this either.

• figma Emiya Shirou

This one’s tough. On one hand, I don’t have Saber or Rin, so he’d be quite a lonesome figma. On the other hand, I still think he’s cool. For now he’s undecided.

• Nendoroid Megurine Luka

By now you’ve probably noticed that I like creating sets, and when I’m on a tight budget, the first thing to go is something that’s part of a set that I don’t own or can’t possibly complete. In this case, I don’t have any Nendoroid Vocaloids, and I don’t want just Luka. If I get her, I’d feel obligated to get the other ones, which means death to my wallet.

• Nendoroid Minami Chiaki

And now I partially contradict myself. She’s obviously part of a group of potential Nendoroids, but since she’s the only one out so far, I would consider it a possibility that I could create this set in the future (assuming they make the other ones).

• Nendoroid Date Masamune and Nendoroid Sanada Yukimura

I’ll probably have to limit this to one, considering that the amount of Nendoroids that I’m interested in is just too many. So which is cooler? Date Masamune.

• Saber by Good Smile Company

I already have a Saber figure. That’s pretty much it. I’ll start doubling up when I stop seeing so many other cool figures. xD

• VN02 by Good Smile Company

This one’s undecided too. I like it, but I just don’t know where I would put this.

• M9E Gernsback by Alter

I’m tempted to believe that this will be similar in price to Alter’s Arbalest (130ish USD). Assuming that, I can’t possibly get this with everything else mentioned above. Plus, I like the Arbalest better anyways, so even if I could afford this, I’d get the Arbalest first.

• Corticarte by Orchid Seed

If this prototype’s good, I believe I will get it. If it’s not good, then obviously not.

So who made it out alive?

• Nendoroid Hirasawa Yui
• Nendoroid Akiyama Mio
• Akiyama Mio by Alter
• Hirasawa Yui by Alter
• Nendoroid Minami Chiaki
• Nendoroid Date Masamune

And three undecided:

• VN02 by Good Smile Company
• figma Emiya Shirou
• Corticarte by Orchid Seed

That’s pretty much it, but if you’re interested, here’s a quick bonus round.

Bonus Round

Now what if I can only get 2 figures? Not much reasoning at this stage. I’ll just have to think impulsively. I would have to pick these two first:

• Nendoroid Akiyama Mio
• VN02 by Good Smile Company

Oddly enough, VN02′s not undecided anymore in this round. I guess things change when you’re only limited to two.

So, did you see anything interesting from Wonfes? =D (If you’ve fallen asleep at this point, you can wake up now.)

[Random Wonfes Images from Hobby Stock]

So, today I was out looking for Sakura Micron pens. Unfortunately, I didn’t find any. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that they had the last volume of D.C. II i.f. in stock. If you’ve been following this blog for a while, then you’ve no doubt seen me mention this particular manga series before.

I’m about halfway through this volume. I can probably post a brief review in a few sentences. Overall, the series is fairly average and doesn’t bring anything new and revolutionary to the table, yet I can’t stop reading it. I guess I’m a big Nanaka fan after all. Has anyone else experienced similar things? You find a story that’s best described as “meh”, but since it’s got characters that you like, you read it anyways. ^^

This is another one of those interesting things that I’ve found the past few weeks or so. At first this doesn’t really make much sense, until you consider that both Valkyria Chroncles and Project Diva were made by Sega. This is definitely an interesting bonus for Valkyria fans. Though honestly, I don’t know what Project Diva song this costume would work well in. Not that she looks bad in the picture above (quite the opposite in fact), but I just don’t think an armor clad Miku dancing at a pool would make any sense. Two more pictures after the jump.

I don’t usually post up reviews of anything that I watch. It’s typically because I have a hard time formulating my thoughts into coherent sentences that don’t make me look dumb. But I’ll give it a shot this time. Onwards!

First off, it’s quite easy to satisfy me, as far as Anime goes. Throw in some nice art, nice animation, and an enjoyable storyline and I’m all set. So it’s not very surprising that K-ON! managed to attract my attention. Yes, on one level K-ON! can be accurately described as a moeblob show. Yes, I did fully enjoy watching these moeblobs every week. But it’s a little more than that. To put it simply, I just had a fun time watching this. I suppose the weekly timing of this helped things personally. It aired in the middle of the week, right when I was getting destroyed by college work, so it was always a relief to just watch four girls (or five, by the end of the series) running about doing cute and fun things. I wasn’t exactly looking for a proper story out of this series. Some relaxation is all that I looked for.

This was always fun to see… xD

That’s not to say that there weren’t bad parts to the series. I felt that the best episodes happened to be around the middle. The last few episodes, although quite nice to watch, gave me a different feeling compared to the earlier ones. It wasn’t that some of the plot was essentially repeated. That part didn’t matter. Things just didn’t seem as enjoyable. After a little bit of thinking (you can laugh at this if you think it’s a no-brainer), this is the reason why it felt that way for me: the small drama scenes that popped up towards the end didn’t really work too well in relation to the rest of the things in the series. By then, I was expecting fun, light-hearted comedic scenes (you know, the usual K-ON! stuff), and I couldn’t take the drama as seriously as I could have with series like Clannad or ef.

Funny faces rule.

And since I just watched the last episode, I figure I’ll throw a few comments about that too. The first thing that I thought of was how similar the mood felt at times with the 14th episode (chronologically) of the first season of Haruhi. Nothing really happened, but in the end I still came away with a smile on the face. I liked the way they showed the friendship between all the members, even when they’re all away from each other. Admittedly, I was half expecting a giant hot pot session at the end with all of them gathering, but oh well.

Overall, I found K-ON! to be a great series. It definitely won’t win over those looking for an intricate story, but if you just want something to take your mind off of things, then this one should be pretty good!

I think I’ve kept you guys reading this for too long, so I’ll just leave it at that. Oh, and Suzumiya Haruhi no Gensou is a great album. Very nice pieces!

I just saw this on page 174 of Hayate no Gotoku, Volume 19. I have no idea what chapter this is (180s? 190s?) since I read by volumes. This is the first time I’ve seen this used as a reference.

For those of you unsure what this is all about, take a look:

Here’s the latest Aria Nendoroid! Ai didn’t really get too much physical screentime in the anime, but at least we got to hear her conversations with Akari at the end of each episode. I think this one turned out alright. Some parts of her design ended up being annoying when it came to Nendoroidizing it (if that makes any sense). I like to be picky about my own work so I’m sure I’ll find some random minor mistake later on. ^_^ Hit the jump for a little bonus.

It’s Ai in an Aria Company uniform! Take note however that it’s not entirely what she looks like by the end of the anime series. This one is based off of an image of her wearing the uniform when she was still little. I’ll probably make a different version of her later on for her older form, but because they’re Nendoroids, she’ll probably look very similar. I used the Aika/Alice uniform base to make the Aria Company one. It really shortens the amount of time that I have to spend.

Ai-chan has a few additional outfits that she wore in the series that I want to draw sometime later. Perhaps after I’ve worked on some other characters?

Now I wonder what the next one should be. There are still quite a few characters left.