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Saturday, 12 December 2009

Manga Review: Goodnight Punpun

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Title: Goodnight Punpun
Author: Asano Inio
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Seinen, Slice of Life
Art: A
Originality: A
Story: A
Characters: A
Humor: A
Action: B

Impression: This is the story of an average ordinary boy in Japan and his average ordinary everyday life. No seriously, that is what this is about. The catch is that he and his family are drawn as strange looking creatures resembling Excalibur of Soul Eater but other than that the manga is about the life of some kid with a troubled family and his experiences growing up. For most part the art style is very realistic but the silly visual jokes that the author throws in look like something out of a crack webcomic or SHAFT’s Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei anime. Combine that with the amazing way the author brings the characters’ insecurities and craziness to life and you get a manga about someone else’s life that‘s compellingly fascinating and unexpectedly funny.

Manga Reviews Index

Friday, 11 December 2009

Review: Lucky Star OVA EX Figure Hiiragi Kagami Cosplay Ver. & Izumi Konata Cosplay Ver.

The stuff I ordered for last month arrived last week but I had to delay my reviews until now since the camera was with my brother who at my grandpa’s at the time of arrival. Once I got my hands on the camera and some time to myself, I spent two hours taking pictures of my new merchandise while arranging all the stuff I brought to the funfair back on the tables.

I’m splitting my new loot into two posts for neatness otherwise there’ll be 88 pictures in one post alone which will kill the page the loading speed. I’ve scheduled my review on my new Figma Emiya Shirou for this Sunday at 2100 hours so please look forward to that.

In this post I’ll be reviewing my new Kagami and Konata Cosplay PVC Statues by SEGA. Before I saw these things up for pre-order at Hobbylink, I honestly had no clue that SEGA actually diversified into making anime merchandise. I saw these at Hobbylink but ordered them from Hobbysearch as a 2-piece set for 2375 yen. These prices are all the Hobbysearch prices which are usually 5% cheaper than Hobbylink’s but buying them at Hobbylink would have cost me 625 yen extra.

Front View

Kagami's Box

Konata's Box

Right Side

Left Side

Rear View

Top View

Bottom View

Not sure what these openings are for.

Both of the statues come in boxes with the same exact same design so the only way to know which item you’re getting is by looking at the contents inside. Both say “Konata Izumi” on the right side and “Hiiragi Kagami” on the left side and both have Crypton Future Media Trademarks on them even though that only applies to Kagami’s statue. I detect some corner cutting here since I figured they could have at least added the respective characters’ names on the under the transparent window for their boxes. The way they tape the box lids is also rather telling here.

The first thing I noticed when I opened Konata’s box was the smell. Unlike Figmas or Revoltechs, these PVC statues smell quite strongly of their material i.e. PVC. I suppose that has something to do with how much more of this particular material is used in these statues. Konata more so than Kagami since Kagami uses shiny plastic to make parts of her costume reflective while Konata seems to be completely made of the stuff. The texture feels smooth and slightly rubbery so they’ll probably be able to endure quite a few accidents should I be unfortunate enough for that to happen.

Konata Witch Cosplay

The Base. Very Bland.


Looks pretty good







As for the design, I wasn’t really expecting anything amazing considering how cheap these are compared to other PVC statues but I have to say that the level of detail is quite satisfactory. Both figures look great when you look at them from the side, especially in Kagami’s case since her face looks kinda off since the eyebrows don’t really match each other. I even had a gripe about the way the front part of her hair doesn’t really stick out but a few days after taking out the box seems to have fixed it somehow. At first it looked way too flat for my taste but that part of the head seems to have expanded made things look more natural. All in all, both figures retain the charm of their characters in terms of appearance quite well but I have to wonder about the pose Kagami takes as that leaning forward pose from the hips does not look very comfortable.












The figures come with their own bases but I really feel disappointed at the design here. The bases are round, completely white and unmarked on the top with two holes to insert the pegs in. Seriously, it would have nice if they had given some attention to base design since the all white thing is rather lackluster. On the upside however is that the pegs fit the holes in my di:stages quite nicely so I can put them there. I really need to buy more of these things but Gunpla is on my agenda for my next order so I’ll have to put that off for a couple of months.

The Concept Art

The Reality

Had to see which way was the best way to put them side by side




Naturally I had to undo the tower design I had to make a display with a lower center of gravity considering the extra weight these two bring but it was a good time to do so anyway since the parts were already unassembled due to the funfair. I went for something that looked like a concert stage and placed the two together on the middle platform. This also gave me the idea to make miniature flags for the longer poles but my printer lacks color ink T-T. Oh well…

The mess after the funfair box unpacking

di:stage holes are bigger than the base's

Still holds up perfectly though.


Concert Stage Configuration!



So what did I do with bland bases they gave me? I used them to display the weapons that came with my Figma Fate T. Harlaown and Revoltech Saber Alter. I suspect it had something to do with the fact that my newest figma was a character with Unlimited Blade Works as an attack. I wonder what else I’ll be able to do with these other than painting them to look better. I’ll have to thank G.A. Geijutsuka Art Design should I feel the need to recolor those things for the techniques the show’s taught me. Just wished their Irodorunjaa BGM was a bit longer.

GET SET!


Exclaiburs!


These items were really worth the money I spent on them even though I don’t usually buy static figures because of their high prices and immobility. I’m actually surprised at how these are meant to be prizes for arcade machines considering how nicely made they are and at such low costs too. I look forward to any future EX statues that SEGA makes. Hopefully they’ll be of characters in series that I like.

Thursday, 10 December 2009

Manga Review: Melty Blood

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Title: Melty Blood
Author: Type-moon, Kirishima Takeru
Release: Monthly
Status: Finished/Sequel
Genre: Shonen, Supernatural
Art: B
Originality: B
Story: B
Characters: A
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: This is the manga adaptation of the Melty Blood doujin game featuring the characters of Tsukihime. It features a girl who comes from a school of alchemists who has come to Japan to destroy a vampire called Tatari that’s responsible for a horrific incident from her past. She and Tohno Shiki, the main character of Tsukihime, team up to deal with the effects of the presence of this vampire in the city. This is a pretty good shonen manga with some well designed characters but I can’t really come up with anything particularly good or bad to say about this manga. The pacing, action, humor and plot are all solid but they just don’t have anything particularly memorable about them. Fans of the games will probably love this but to everyone else it’s just a decent shonen manga.

Manga Reviews Index

Wednesday, 9 December 2009

Manga Review: Lost+Brain

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Title: Lost+Brain
Author: Yabuno Tsuduku, Ootani Akira
Release: Weekly
Status: Finished
Genre: Seinen, Psychological
Art: A
Originality: C
Story: B
Characters: C
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: This is about a young high school genius who is basically perfect who feels that everything has become boring and that people are weak so learns the art of hypnotism to enact his plan for his ideal world. It’s basically a rip-off of Death Note only instead of sure-kill notebook, the guy uses hypnosis to get people to do what he wants. The main character himself is what you get when you combine Light’s assholeness with Lelouch’s Geass so it’s very, very hard not to call him a rip-off. I swear, it’s very hard to like this manga and its main character since the story runs too similarly to a certain cult hit and the main character isn’t even given a scene for the readers to sympathize with him. Sure the hypnosis could have been very interesting but the way that it’s explained in the manga is rather superficial and most of the aspects are introduced in quick succession of each other making it sound very bland. If the story and characters were taken in different directions I’m sure it would have been much more well received. Hopefully there won’t be anymore manga trying to rip-off classics so obviously like this one did.

Manga Reviews Index
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