Animatic Figmation

Dance in the Vampire Bund

Persocom — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:56:27 +0000

I don’t do manga posts very often, because it’s unfortunately not very often that I actually buy manga. I find a bit of shame in reading scanlations, as I much prefer to read manga from the actual books. However, I can safely say that I’ve gotten into another manga that I will be buying the entire series of: Dance in the Vampire Bund. This manga is written by Nozomu Tamaki, though not his first work, it’s the first of his works that I’ve seen. The manga itself is rated Older Teen (16+) in the US version release, and with good reason. As this is a vampire series, there is quite a bit of violence, blood and in this case, nudity. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a vampire story that caught my interest. If you wish to learn more about this manga then by all means read on.

The story is set in modern Japan. Mina Tepes, no doubt related to the original Dracula, Vlad Tepes, is princess of the ancient ruler of all vampires. Using the vast wealth her lineage has gathered over centuries, she has paid off the entire debt of the Japanese government in the condition that they allow her to create an independent nation of vampires off the coast of Japan on an island created from landfill. Mina publicly unveils the existence of vampires through the opening of her bund, which is to be a safe haven for all vampires in the world. Of course, such a bold announcement brings extreme danger to her, and vampires and humans alike seek to assassinate her. This is the basic story going on here. Add a race of werewolves who are servants to the vampires into the mix (reminds me of Underworld: Rise of the Lycans), and a vampire “antidote” which can cure people that have recently been turned over, and a vampire princess who seems to desire a normal human life, and this is what you get. The other main character, Akira is of the werewolf race and has sworn to protect the royal vampiress Mina. The story does seem to have a hint of romance involved, which is perfectly normal for this kind of story. Perhaps it’s not really as original as I claim it to be, but it’s my personal opinion here.

コミックス7巻発売！by Pixiv artist 環望

Now, of course this manga and the future anime that is in production will likely gain harsh criticism due to Mina’s appearance. She has the appearance of a child, yet exposes her body often. This is likely to spawn controversy especially once the anime airs. Her loli body is however, not her true form. I won’t spoil what it is though. Likely this manga won’t appeal to anyone offended by nakedness, and will probably appeal to lolicons for that reason especially. Label me however you wish, but I find the story interesting and unique for the vampire genre, at least in anime, and I enjoy it for what it’s worth so far. I’m only 2 volumes in as of posting this, but I plan on buying every volume that gets released in English, which I hope will be the entire series.

Since this is a post about the manga, I don’t want to get into the future anime much, but I will include the trailer since it is relevant. Though the trailer looks promising, I’m actually concerned about how the anime will turn out in comparison to the manga. It has been announced that it will be produced by Shaft.

Ah yes, for those who may wonder, I prefer to buy my translated manga locally at Barnes and Noble, with my discount card of course. Only $1 off, but it’s good enough for me. Luckily they are nice enough to order volumes they may not have in for customers, and they are quick at receiving them. My main concern is that the publisher, Seven Seas Entertainment, doesn’t drop the series before it’s completed, because as far as I know the manga is still ongoing with 8 volumes out and 5 of which are currently in English. Well, hopefully my “preview” isn’t too shabby, but I felt compelled to write something about this manga series since I’m enjoying it. Maybe I’ll write more as I get deeper into the series.
~
~

Happy Halloween from Raspberyl Seraphy!

Persocom — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 05:59:30 +0000

I know I’ve been away from this blog for over a month now, for various reasons, but it’s time for me to get this back up and running and what better way then to celebrate one of me favorite holidays! I recently acquired nendoroid Raspberyl and while we were carving a pumpkin I decided to get Melissa Seraphy, Pixie Hiyori and a couple others to make guest appearances. I’ll be doing the actual review of Raspberyl soon. Since last year I didn’t do a post for Halloween I wasn’t going to let it slip by unnoticed again this year! Of course, this post is a bit late seeing as it’s nearing November first as I write this, but what can I say we took our son out trick-or-treating and haven’t gotten home until just a bit ago. Anyways I’m not going to write a big wall of text or a story but instead share the pictures I took today. Hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween!

First we had to gut the pumpkin. Riiana loves to make roasted pumpkin seeds and they taste pretty good if you like that kind of thing. I myself eat way too much pumpkin pie, but it’s good this time of year. I also like pumpkin Pocky but was unable to acquire it this time around. Raspberyl, Melissa Seraphy and Reisen all joined, even Kyouka wanted to try the pumpkin fashion, though her pumpkin was a bit too big.

Then we cut the eyes, nose and mouth out. Nothing too fancy here, we’re far from master carvers and we had more fun messing around than actually cutting it. Our son wanted a happy pumpkin so we just went with something simple. Maybe next year we’ll put more effort into it. I had fun though, this was the first Halloween all three of us have been able to spend the whole time together in a few years, and it turned out great.

Raspberyl and Melissa didn’t have much time to think of costumes to wear so they swapped outfits, and they looked adorable. I especially think Raspberyl looks great cosplaying Melissa. One of Remilia’s bats even came by and tried on Melissa’s pumpkin. Everyone stayed home and trashed our house while we went out with our son taking him trick-or-treating, what a mess, well I’m off on clean up duty, will report back soon and give you a more formal introduction of Raspberyl and catch you up on the happenings that I haven’t been posting about! If you want to see the Pixie Hiyori pictures you’ll have to check them out on my Halloween 2009 Flickr set as they’re semi-NSFW and I didn’t want to make this post NSFW just because of a little Pixie butt. Hope you enjoyed the pictures!
~
~

Reisen Udongein Inaba by Ichijinsha

Persocom — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 21:32:15 +0000

A recent get from ToysLogic, and the first thing I’ve ordered from them in over a year, Reisen Udongein Inaba limited edition mini figure by Ichijinsha came with the manga “Inaba and the Ground in the Moon” vol 1. Reisen is the second Touhou figure added to my collection, and also the smallest figure I own to date. She cost me $21.99 total, shipping included. Not a bad price for something so cute, even if she is tiny. If you’re interested in buying her you might have to search around a bit, as she’s no longer in stock at ToysLogic. Cheapest Touhou purchase I’ll probably ever make, and one that I don’t regret at all. More lunar rabbit madness behind the cut.

The manga itself is in Japanese, without furigana to help novice readers. Of course, this means that I can’t really read it fully, as I am no good with Kanji yet. It will be a mission for me to learn Japanese to the point where I can actually read and understand it all. The first few pages are in full color, and the rest in standard black and white. There is a slip cover over it as well. The manga looks pretty cool, but honestly I got this mainly for the mini figure. The mini figure is quite simple, no pegs for the base, no joints or pieces to put together. The highlight is that she’s very cute and accurate to the character. I’m going to have lots of fun taking pictures of Reisen, I’ve already got her with Remilia and took some group pictures, and she’s perfect size to ride on Remilia’s bats: smaller than a puchi nendoroid! Anyways, there’s not a whole lot that I can say about her, but she’s made quite well for a figure of such tiny proportions. Worth a get if you’re a Touhou fan, guess it’s obvious I am by now. I love my little Reisen. Here’s some more pictures of her along with Remilia and her bats.

I’ll definitely be taking more pictures of little Reisen because she’s too adorable to ignore. I think she’s perfect for her size and I almost wish I had an army of little figures like her. I might have to do some photo manipulation with her in the future.
~
~

Konata Izumi Summer Uniform Ver. Figma

Persocom — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 22:07:27 +0000

This review is a bit overdue, since I got this figure last month. Konata Izumi shouldn’t need an introduction, she’s the super otaku main character girl from Lucky Star, and this is her Summer Uniform Version Figma by Max Factory. I previously reviewed the Winter Version Figma over a year ago. I bought her from Hobby Search for 2,261 Yen, and she’s still available for purchase there at the time of writing this. Read on for pictures and a full review.

Konata comes with 11 hands, including 2 thumbs up, 2 for holding, 2 open hands, 2 fists, 2 pointing hands and 1 hand attached to a Figma bag. She also comes with her cousin, Yutaka Kobayakwa’s head, as well as 3 faces, one of which is a blank face. The blank face comes along with some stickers, which will be featured with all the Summer Version Lucky Star Figmas. I haven’t actually put any of the stickers on the face yet, perhaps another time I’ll be doing that. I have heard they are difficult to place properly, which is probably one of the reasons she comes with so many. The hands fit easier than the Winter Version Figma, but they also come out almost too easily. The only problem I see with this Figma is that they did nothing to soften Konata’s bangs or make the front hair piece more secure than the Winter Version. It’s true, the Summer one seems to have less problems falling out, but it’s made exactly the same as the old one, so you might expect to need something to hold her hair piece in place. I really like both of the faces, and Yutaka’s head is now mounted on the Winter Version of Konata. I took some pictures of Yutaka’s head on both the Summer and Winter version of Konata’s Figma body. I can’t afford to go out and buy 2 of each Figma that has an extra head like some people may want to do, but she looks good in either uniform. Yutaka’s face can be replaced with Konata’s, though you may find it doesn’t fit the best. I managed to get one of the old Konata faces on her. Also, Yutaka’s hair is on ball joints. I’m glad I got this Figma, more faces are always a plus, and if I can use these stickers I’ll have even more to choose from.

Now for some mixing up with the Winter version.

If you love Figmas, love Konata, or love Lucky Star, this is a worthy buy! I prefer this version to the Winter one and having Yutaka’s cuteness around is a great bonus. The rest of the pictures can be found on my Flickr page.
~
~

Osanpo Remilia Scarlet

Persocom — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 07:19:26 +0000

Today I’ll be reviewing Remilia Scarlet the vampire mistress ofrom the Tora no Ana Touhou Sofubi series line of figures. Remilia is a vampire mistress character from the game series Touhou Project. This figure is only available through the Tora no Ana store, thus harder to get a hold of. I opted for going through TokyoHunter rather than a proxy service in this case. Her original price is 2,625 Yen, with the mark up I paid 5,000 Yen plus another 2,400 Yen for EMS shipping, though I had paid for her pre-order ahead of time so it didn’t seem as much. She is non-scale and made of soft vinyl. Read on for the review.

Remilia comes with 2 bats, her base, and stands for the bats. The bats are a nice inclusion, and they go well with other figures as well, I know I’ll be having fun with them. The stands the come on aren’t the sturdiest, they’re thin and easy to knock over. Remilia herself is held up well by her base, and I really do like the crescent on it. When I pre-ordered her I didn’t notice her size, I guess I just assumed she was around Nendoroid size and left it at that. I was a bit surprised at the size of her box when she arrived, she’s about the size of a 1/8 PVC figure. I took some pictures to compare her size to PVC, Nendo and Figma. This figure was actually based on this illustration.

Some size comparison with Nendoroid Melissa Seraphy, Louise Gothic Punk Ver. and Konata Izumi Summer Ver. Figma.

I think this figure is only for the hardcore Touhou fan, at least considering the fact that it’s harder to come by. But, as a figure it’s quite nicely made and I’ll most likely be buying from Toranoana again. I can recommend buying this figure if you’re a Touhou or Remilia fan, or want a cute vampire to add to your collection. I hope they make a Flandre Scarlet. If they do, I’m definitely going to be getting her. I’m sure you’ll be seeing more of Remilia next month.
~
~