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Monday 31 August 2009

Hatsune Miku's Birthday

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Today, the 31st of August, is Hatsune Miku's birthday. Her second one to be exact. Hatsune Miku is a voice synthesizing software that was released 2 years ago to this day making her the fastest rising virtual idol on these interwebs. To think that a voice synthesizing software has become popular enough to get her own game, figures, manga and an anime based on a spin-off. They've even set up a site to celebrate it this year. It seems like they're releasing a new album too.

To commemorate this occasion, I have set up a bunch of good Miku related viedos to be watched. Enjoy:


Miku's first Live Performance


Qualia


Inai


Hyper Esthesia


~White~


Seven Seas Sailing


Promise


Firefly


Melodia


Love-colored Ward


Melt


Star Story


Mo Tu We Th Fr


Akashi


Voice Limit


Rainbow Color


Color(Anyone else reminded of one of Fate/Stay Night's BGM?)


Flowertone


April Fool


Packaged


Last Night Good Night


Disappearance of Hatsune Miku (Hope that's a very long way from happening)

Here are some commemorative images as well.
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Happy Birthday Miku! May you sing many more hit songs for years to come!

Manga Review: 3 Gatsu no Lion

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Title: 3 Gatsu no Lion
Author: Chika Umino
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Josei, Slice of Life, Comedy
Art: B
Originality: A
Story: S
Characters: S+
Humor: A
Action: A

Impression: This is about Kiriyama Rei, a professional teen genius Shogi player who lives on his own in the city. The story focuses on him the loner and the three sisters that live near him. This comes from the same author who did Honey and Clover and true to the famed style, there is a perfect mix of the light and the darker parts of this manga. The main focus of this manga is how people get over the pain and the emotional scars left behind by tragic events in their lives so the mood can be quite dark and heartbreaking at times. The characters are all created with much depth and are quite interesting. For example, Rei is a loner who no longer lives with his foster family for unknown reasons and the eldest of the three sisters works as a hostess to support her two sisters and their grandfather. The hints towards the tragedies in their lives compel readers to read further into the story and have them reflect on how they’d act if they had to go through the same loss. If they did, then the characters become much more relatable than they already are and I imagine that it amplifies the strength of this already powerful manga. I look forward to the day this gets animated as it could give KEY a run for its money in the department of making people cry.

Manga Reviews Index

Manga Review: Hayate no Gotoku

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Title: Hayate the Combat Buttler
Author: Kenjiro Hata
Release: Weekly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Slice of Life, Shonen, Comedy
Art: B
Originality: A
Story: C
Characters: A
Humor: A
Action: C

Impression: This is a story of a young man who is left to deal with a 150 million yen debt left by his parents who just abandoned him all of a sudden. Because of this, he is chased by the yakuza who his parents are indebted to and comes to conclusion that crime is the only way to solve his problems. After deciding his new way of life, he runs into a rich girl who’s having trouble using a vending machine. One thing leads to another and eventually she decides to buy his debt from the Yakuza and hire him as her butler. This manga has a lot of 4th wall breaking jokes and many, many references to other works to accompany the many crazy events that take place in this manga. This is the sort of manga that kids and otaku will absolutely love as humor is always the main focus of the manga. The characters certainly have good chemistry with each other and develop well but the story really lacks depth and planning. The story gave a hint of the main plot sometime in the first 20 chapters but the plot itself hadn’t actually started until after 150 or so chapters later. What resulted was a set of backstory chapters of the main characters that felt like complete retcons to me even though they actually explained some his extraordinary traits. I really didn’t like it when that happened but at least the author still kept up with the humor so it wasn’t a total mood breaker. I can’t grasp why exactly the series is such a boom with so many people though. I do find it funny but it’s not the funniest manga out there and I really can’t figure out why people enjoy seeing Hayate crossdress and consider him to be very moe at those times. Nevertheless it’s a good gag manga and quite an enjoyable read.

Manga Reviews Index

Manga Review: Kampfer

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Title: Kampfer
Author: Tachibana Yuu, Tsukiji Toshihiko
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Fantasy, Gender Bender
Art: B
Originality: B
Story: C
Characters: C
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: This is a story of a group of girls fighting each other for unknown reasons. The twist is that not all the girls are actually girls as boys chosen to fight in the battles transform into girls ala magical girl sequences. It’s based on a series of light novels by the same name and judging by the nine volumes out it seems to be reasonably popular story. I on the other hand don’t really find much appeal in the manga version. The characters aren’t very interesting and the story isn’t compelling at all. Maybe it’s the author as it’s the same person who did Maburaho and I didn’t find the manga for that one very good either. It could also be that manga isn’t the best medium for the story and could actually be better in text. In any case aside from its concept it doesn’t really do anything to stand out among the thousands of other manga out there. Incidentally I can’t help but wonder why is it there are so many yaoi manga with shoujo-ish titles on mangatraders.

Manga Reviews Index

Sunday 30 August 2009

Manga Review: Manabiya

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Title: Manabiya
Author: Kojima Akira
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Slice of Life, Romance, Comedy
Art: A
Originality: B
Story: B
Characters: S
Humor: A
Action: B

Impression: Kojima’s new publication is about a young man who enters the first year of high school. His father recently remarried so now with a step-mother in his life he has more time to devote to his social life. He is unsure about what kind of person he should be but following his father’s advice to use all the free time he now has to make the most out of his life, he joins the photography club along with two girls. The first few pages of this story start with a look into the future where we see a married and possibly pregnant woman whose face is hidden from us looking through a photo album. One particular picture of the entire photography taken by the young man is shown to us in great detail as a two page color spread promising a huge cast of colorful characters. I really enjoyed Mahoraba a lot so I was delighted when I heard he had a new manga out a few months ago. It’s still very early into the series but I really like how the author hasn’t changed his style from his previous work. Same artwork and humor with new characters and it seems that this one will also be focusing on them going after happiness again. There is the added element of trying to guess which of the two girls is the woman looking through the album but as it’s meant to be obvious I’m guessing the blond one. I’m really looking forward to seeing how this story will develop.

Manga Reviews Index

Manga Review: Mahoraba

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Title: Mahoraba
Author: Kojima Akira
Release: Monthly
Status: Finished
Genre: Slice of Life, Romance, Comedy
Art: B
Originality: A
Story: S
Characters: S
Humor: A
Action: B

Impression: This about an aspiring children’s book writer, Shiratori Ryuushi, who moves to Tokyo on his own to go to an art school and so he becomes a new resident at Narutaki-so, an apartment complex designed in the traditional style. The apartment has a small group friendly residents of varying backgrounds and their landlord is Shiratori’s second cousin, a high school student with multiple personality disorder by the name of Aoba Kozue – that’s her main personality by the way. In total she has five personalities: her normal girl next door self, a silent bookworm dabbling in magic, a sporty tsundere, a cosplay fetishist and an ever curious younger version of the girl. I can’t think of any other manga that fits the genre of “slice of life” as perfectly as this one does. There’s a certain charm to the manga that comforts readers somehow. In fact, I’d have to say that the focus of this manga is not actually the unique characters or their antics but rather happiness. Sure it’s funny and the characters are definitely memorable but the best moments come from when the characters are going after their happiness making some of the most heartwarming scenes in the manga world. It ended on a rather satisfying note for all the characters but I do wish that they had a few more chapters devoted to the other personalities.

Manga Reviews Index

Manga Review: Maburaho

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Title: Maburaho
Author: Tsukiji Toshihiko, Miyashita Miki
Release: Monthly
Status: Finished
Genre: Harem, Fantasy
Art: B
Originality: D
Story: C
Characters: C
Humor: C
Action: C

Impression: It’s about a guy and three girls who are in a school that teaches magic. Their magic system works based on how many times can use magic (more like wishes actually) in their life and those with fewer opportunities are said to be more powerful than those who have a lot. The guy has seven chances to use so that makes him one of the most powerful. Basically it’s one of those generic harem manga where everyone goes after the guy for different reasons. You can tell by the ratings I gave it, it’s got nothing really going for it so there’s no need doubt yourself for missing it. It might appeal to some people, most likely fans of the anime as it feels more like the Nanoha supplementary manga series than an actual story on its own. The only reason I even took a look at this one was because I downloaded the chapters by mistake since Mahoraba and Maburaho were easy titles to mix up. It really baffled me that it was completely different from what I heard Mahoraba was about when I read it; it even took me a week to realize the mistake I made.

Manga Reviews Index

Saturday 29 August 2009

MG 1/100 Infinite Justice Review

I've finally gotten around to writing up this entry for my Master Grade Infinite Justice Gundam. I actually finished building it about two weeks ago but haven't had the time to take pictures or write it up. Part of that is because of school and the other part was because I've dedicated my blogging time to preparing the daily manga reviews. It's really a pain in the ass when I'm doing a review of a manga and I don't have a good preview page for and have to go hunting for it at onemanga or mangafox. It'd be an even bigger pain in the ass if I hadn't prepared a template that I just need to copy and paste into the HTML editor. I've dug my own hole and it's only getting deeper since I haven't even reached 10% of the total I've read so far. Hopefully I'll be able remember the ones that I've read only online.

As you can tell by the first picture, this particular model kit has weapons almost everywhere. Try counting how many weapons there are from my pictures and you'll probably overlook one or two of them. Judging by the weapons Infinite Justice has, I'd have to say it's probably the best suit to use in a one on one duel whereas Strike Freedom is clearly the God of anti-army battles. That doesn't excuse them from the recycled ending though. The shield is the most interesting weapon out of all of them, including the glider pack. In it there's the shield, the beam shield, the grappling claw and the detachable Yakuza-like switchblade. It can even make the inner portion of the shield move inwards and outwards of the shield frame.

Overall, it's quite an impressive kit. Despite the articulation flaws, the posability is very good and makes for very good pictures. It's worth the price tag they put on it but it also makes me wonder if Master Grades are only good for static poses since all the extra parts put even more weight on the joints. The joints themselves feel very strong but they're also a bit too loose in this case.


Many many weapons

Manual

Box Art

Decals



Anyways back to my latest gunpla. I am pleased to tell you that this particular kit was a pleasure to build. I started with the backpack then the torso, the waist, the head, the arms, the legs and finally the weapons. There aren't as many runners as the MG Sword Impulse I review last time but the parts are bigger and it weighs more than Impulse does. It's also got a good weight to volume ratio since it feels like it'll fly pretty well if I throw - not that I'm idiotic enough to do that... Well, I might do it if I was bored and the landing spot was my bed...





In terms of appearance, the model has a surprisingly pleasant color scheme - at least in my eyes. It doesn't have that bright pink shade that the original Justice and Aegis had but a darker and edgier tone that blends perfectly with the black and silver areas. The frame looks very dynamic even when equipped with the backpack and the parts are made with an incredible amount of details. All in all, it'll look just as good as a trophy if you put on display and will draw attention to itself if exhibited.







Ouch...

Now for the articulation. Though it is a master grade, I find that my 00 kits still have better mobility in the legs and the head. Infinite Justice's waist was designed to replicate a spinzaku-esque kick (I forgot to take a picture of that pose though) so it can do a crazy ass split that most humans would wince at if done by another human. Unfortunately, I think the replacement of the ball joint prevents it from twisting to the side too much so the feet have less range than our heads do. Speaking of the head, I really have to wonder what the SEED Destiny designers were thinking when they add that back plate at the base of the head. It limits the movement too much and I like having my gundams being able to look up since the head's position is important in making good poses.




Wing cutters

Now for the articulation. Though it is a master grade, I find that my 00 kits still have better mobility in the legs and the head. Infinite Justice's waist was designed to replicate a spinzaku-esque kick (I forgot to take a picture of that pose though) so it can do a crazy ass split that most humans would wince at if done by another human. Unfortunately, I think the replacement of the ball joint prevents it from twisting to the side too much so the feet have less range than our heads do. Speaking of the head, I really have to wonder what the SEED Destiny designers were thinking when they add that back plate at the base of the head. It limits the movement too much and I like having my gundams being able to look up since the head's position is important in making good poses.

The arms at the shoulder joints are bit weak too. Impulse has no problems holding up its bigass swords but Justice can't even keep it's arm up at most angles when they're holding anything at all. Even the beam sabers can only be held up at certain positions. Incidentally those beam sabers fall out of their holsters way too easily.















As you can tell by the first picture, this particular model kit has weapons almost everywhere. Try counting how many weapons there are from my pictures and you'll probably overlook one or two of them. Judging by the weapons Infinite Justice has, I'd have to say it's probably the best suit to use in a one on one duel whereas Strike Freedom is clearly the God of anti-army battles. That doesn't excuse them from the recycled ending though. The shield is the most interesting weapon out of all of them, including the glider pack. In it there's the shield, the beam shield, the grappling claw and the detachable Yakuza-like switchblade. It can even make the inner portion of the shield move inwards and outwards of the shield frame.

Overall, it's quite an impressive kit. Despite the articulation flaws, the posability is very good and makes for very good pictures. It's worth the price tag they put on it but it also makes me wonder if Master Grades are only good for static poses since all the extra parts put even more weight on the joints. The joints themselves feel very strong but they're also a bit too loose in this case.







Overall, it's quite an impressive kit. Despite the articulation flaws, the posability is very good and makes for very good pictures. It's worth the price tag they put on it but it also makes me wonder if Master Grades are only good for static poses since all the extra parts put even more weight on the joints. The joints themselves feel very strong but they're also a bit too loose in this case.

That's it for this post. My next review will be the di:stages and my new Konata Izumi Summer Uniform Figma that I ordered and just been approved for shipping. Hopefully I'll be able to find the time to take pictures and come up with good poses for my fifth figma. Enjoy these bonus shots of how much space my collection takes up in my room.









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