SonicVer2 : The Randomized Otaku

WTF!? Apparently Haruhi is featured in an advertisement

noreply@blogger.com (sonic_ver2) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:29:49 PDT

“Hey Kyon, I’m using esia now!”

Sorry for the Indonesian language in the caption, but this is made by anonymous Indonesian otaku who found something that made him (and me) goes WTF!!! Anyway, the caption said: “Hey Kyon, I’m using esia now!”. FYI, esia is a name of a mobile phone service provider in Indonesia. In the screenshot above, Kyon’s sister said that she’s using esia as her provider.

The WTF banner!

There’s a particural reason why the anonymous Indonesian otaku made an edit on that screenshot. Apparently, he found something WTF in front of esia’s office in Bandung. An advertisement banner. Just proceed below if you want to see it clearly.

"Haruhi wants you to use esia"

Just show your esia provided mobile phone and you’ll get discounts in certain outlets. But that’s not the point! See the WTF part!!! It’s HARUHI FOR GOD SAKE!!! It’s Haruhi MaxFac figure photo with a mobile phone in front with the vectored hand illustration. That’s why in the screenshot above, Kyon’s sister using esia: BECAUSE HARUHI WANTS YOU TO USE ESIA!!!

I am sooooo ~~not~~ gonna change to esia! XD

Anyway, here’s the source: http://gedebuk.com/haruhi

A pretty much random post, but that’s all… See you!

Tayutama –Kiss on My Diety-

noreply@blogger.com (sonic_ver2) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 10:05:07 PDT

Tayutama –Kiss on My Diety-

Another chance for anime review: Tayutama –Kiss on My Diety-. I picked this anime in my watch list because of the cute girls in the preview. Yeah, Mashiro, Mifuyu, Ameri, and Yumina got my attention at my first look even though i knew this anime will be a somewhat harem anime or anime that based on a visual novel.

Anyway, just before you proceed, be sure to know that this post is –as always- FILLED WITH SPOILERS, so if you know the risk and want to proceed, please do so.

Tayutama got a pretty simple story.

The story revolves around young lucky ~~bastard~~ boy with a power of a priest, an exorcist to be exact, Mito Yuuri. One day something bad happened and all the bad spirits –called Tayutai- were released from their seal, including a goddess who sealed them all in the past. So just as you expected, the goddess asked Yuuri for his help to fight the bad tayutai and create a coexistence between humans and tayutai.

Story of Tayutama is pretty simple and straightforward. You can also easily predict what happen next. So yeah, i guess you’ll be enjoying a lot of cute girls without deep stories.

Low on fanservices, too bad…

For an anime with a lot of cute girls, this anime is still low on fanservices, although some scene has references to ecchi stuffs or something to that effects. At first, i was expecting some ecchi stuffs or a lot of fanservices, but no… all i got is some magical battles and romances. Nevertheless, this anime is filled with 4 (or 5?) cute, sexy, and beautiful girls. I’ll be going into details for all of those 4-5 beauties.

Mito Mashiro, the cute goddess who can turn into loli after spending her magical power.

Mito Mashiro, the main heroine of this anime. She’s the goddess that dreamt of the coexistence between human and tayutai. It was a pretty impossible goal to achieve at first time, but she never gave up, and work all the way to defeat 3 most powerful tayutai. Yuuri named her Mito Mashiro after she’s released from the seal. In the past life, she was called Kikurami Kaminohime.

Mito Mashiro is a very beautiful and sexy girl. And she got that dog ears to add her cuteness. A plus point for inumimi girl lovers. She’s kind but at the other side she’s also strict, especially with the training she gave to help Yuuri improves his exorcism power.

Anyway, Mashiro’s appearances are affected by her power. If she activated her power, her hair will turn white-purple. Her hair color became brown if she’s in her normal state. Not only that, if she used up her magical power, she can turn into a little girl (read: LOLI). After regenerating for awhile, she could became adult again.

Just as expected, this anime main heroine is Mashiro and the VN route used in this anime is Mashiro’s route, with coexistence ending and she got married with Yuuri at the end, a very sad marriage. While it’s a good ending for everyone, i guess this kind of ending is pretty ordinary and lame.

Kawai Ameri, another name for jealousy.

Kawai Ameri, a childhood friend of Yuuri. She has a feeling of love towards Yuuri, too bad she kept her feeling sealed in her heart and never tells Yuuri about that. Kawai Ameri is a usual type of jealous childhood friend character. She loved Yuuri from the beginning, but she never told him. After Mashiro came and make Yuuri her husband in an instant, she started to realize her feeling and jealousy grew inside her heart.

Ameri is a good girl, but i started to hate her since she got that jealousy, and just as predicted, she also easily controlled by the enemy and became the source of power for the enemy. I never knew how she’s doing in the VN, but i know her role here in the anime is nothing more than jealous selfish girl.

Kisaragi Mifuyu, a total beauty with exceptional physical strength for a normal human.

Kisaragi Mifuyu, the student council president of Flawless school. She’s a normal human with exceptional physical strength. She got involved with Yuuri while they were up against the first and weakest tayutai out of 3 most powerful Tayutai: Nue. A pretty ojou-sama typed girl minus the spoiled personality.

Overall, she’s a great girl, and she’s also my favorite character from this anime. Too bad, her role in this anime is pretty much minor. I know she loved Yuuri, but since the anime used Mashiro’s route, her love feeling never really revealed explicitly. Her main role in the anime is became Nue’s friend, and that’s a pretty good start of coexistence Mashiro wanted.

Nue, loli demon with sense of humor.

I don’t know if Nue count as a “route character” in the anime, but it worth telling in this post. Nue is a tayutai, the first and the weakest out of all 3 powerful tayutai. She has that tentacle jelly monster with lighting power in her first appearance, but after that she was beaten by Yuuri, Mashiro, and Mifuyu. The reason she attacked was simple: she wanted to steal and try girls’ underwears. XD

Nue is also a great character with funny personality, she brings out the humor from this anime. As the tayutai who opposed coexistence at the first time, she unexpectedly became Mifuyu’s best friend.

Takanashi Yumina, your loli younger sister.

Takanashi Yumina, a loli character, stepsister of Yuuri, and Mifuyu’s friend. She’s a cute and kind girl, but she has the problem of “relied on her brother too much”. She got an interesting character development in the anime. She was able to overcome her weakness because of Ho-oh incident and ultimately, she was appointed by Mifuyu as the next Flawless student council president.

Yumina is a pretty strong hearted character.

As i said above, Yumina was heavily involved with Hooh incident. At a certain day, a bird fell into her room, and sit on Yumina’s head. That bird was one of 2 twin birds Hooh, which also one of the 3 powerful Tayutai Yuuri had to fight. The bird stayed on Yumina’s head to get some rest and regenerate its magical power. Yumina panicked, and if she’s in panic state, the bird’s also became panic. That’s why Yuuri had to accompany her in the school using his female form.

The battle was pretty much straightforward. And it ended well, Ho and Oh were together again, and both used Yumina’s head for their love nest. Yumina knew Yuuri will be troubled if she kept relying on Yuuri. So she decided to overcome her weakness by trying to handle Hooh by herself. She’s a pretty strong character for her ages.

Ameri and her childish attitude and jealousy.

Unlike Yumina, Ameri is older but she acts childish. Her jealousy made her easily controlled by the strongest Tayutai: Ryuu (dragon). Ryuu used Ameri’s jealousy to control her and made her fight against Yuuri and Mashiro. It’s a pretty predictable outcome… really… In the end, she gave up on Yuuri and let Mashiro have him after a long talk.

Confusing ending (for me).

The ending is pretty much weird and to forced. It’s pretty predictable that Ameri and the dragon were easily defeated, but Mashiro’s weakening power was another matter. In the middle of the story, there were some hints about Mashiro’s weakening power, her hand started to fade. In the end, i figured that Yuuri himself was the cause, but that’s just my guess, don’t know the real reason though. Is it just me, or the ending seems to forced? I mean, yeah i know Mashiro’s power is weakening, but was it because of Yuuri’s power or was it because she used too much power? The reason is still mystery to me…

Bonus: Nue and loli Mashiro in topless bikini.

Overall, i gave Tayutama a 7 out of 10. Nice girls especially Mifuyu, nice arts, great characters, and shallow story. That pretty much describes Tayutama in my eyes.

And that’s all for today’s review. I’m gonna be back for another review. And before closing, got a bonus for you: Nue and loli Mashiro in topless bikini, enjoy! XD

So yeah… that’s all for now, and see you at the next post!

Games replay value and post end game stuffs

noreply@blogger.com (sonic_ver2) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:00:03 PDT

Who loves girl playing games?

After beating Valkyria Chronicles, I’ve been thinking about games replay value, since Valkyria Chronicles has that new game plus which bring out our spirit to replay this game again even after you beat the game. This post is discussing mostly about why we gamers want to replay a game, even after you beat it and other games are waiting. Anyway, the games we’ll discuss here are games with genre like RPG or adventure. Games with genre like fighting or Dynasty Warriors styled gameplay aren’t too relevant in this topic, so let’s just assume all the games here are RPG or Adventure.

First let’s find the reasons what kind of replay values games can give:

New Game Plus: you can restart a new game with new features that you can’t access in the first playthrough, some games give you chance to bring your level, items, skills, etc in the new playthrough.
Post end game: after you beat the story, you’ll enter a free roaming mode or something like that, this session gives you chance to find secrets and completing subquests.
100% completion: self explanatory, gamers want to get 100% completion of the game. Depending on the game, 100% completion can be achieved in post end game session, new game plus, or even the first playthrough. This reason is about how gamers want to replay because they missed something in their first playthrough even though they can get a hundred percent in their first game.
Alternate ending: yeah, beating a game the 2nd time to get another view on the ending.
Just plain nostalgia: easy to say, just for nostalgia, no other special reason.

I guess I’ll be ranting about each of them with more details. So just let’s move on…

Disgaea series secrets opened in NG+, the real game will begin after you finish the story.

New game plus is about how the game delivers more stuffs to find, beat, open, etc after the first playthrough is finished and you start a new one. So you have to do those stuffs while you’re trying to finish the second story playthrough. Sometimes the game gives you ability to bring all items, level, etc. MGS3, MGS4, and Valkyria Chronicles are games that give you ability to bring those achievement in the next playthrough.

So gamers want to play those games because they want to taste those secrets. Disgaea series are the type of games that is filled with secrets after you finish the first playthrough. FYI, Disgaea 1 and 2 requires you to restart to access the secret, but Disgaea 3 doesn’t work that way. Disgaea 3 can be included in post end game achievement games. Disgaea 2 secret characters can be accessed after you finished the first game, like Laharl and friends.

Valkyria Chronicles brings you Hard and Ex Hard skirmish. The game also brings you a chance to replay all mission so you can get A rank in each missions. But no other secrets and whatsoever.

I rarely replay a games because of this reason. Disgaea 2 is an exception i guess, because like i said before, the real game has just begun after the end of the story. Usually, games with new game plus is minimum on new secrets, and that’s the reason why i rarely replay a games just because it has a new game plus. How about you guys? What do you think about New Game Plus?

It’s Grand Theft Auto if you don’t know what i want to say.

Next part is worth to play, a post end game achievement. Different than the first reason, new game plus, post end game achievement doesn’t bore you with the same events / stories you saw in the first playthrough. Those secret stuffs appeared after you beat the game, but you don’t have to restart the game and replay and rewatch all the stuffs you’ve watch in the first playthrough.

Games like Grand Theft Auto series are popular with this replay value. You can do things to get 100% completion, like hidden packages, jumps, rampages, races, etc. After the story ends, you can pretty much roams anywhere you want. Midnight Clubs: Los Angeles also gives you chance like this, you can go anywhere, get any kind of cars you want, and beat those <enter car types here> kings and get a hundred percent.

Those 2 games above are examples of games that have post end game session, but have almost no new secrets opened after the main story ended. But game like Disgaea 3 has new secrets opened after the main story ended. Grandia Extreme also has new dungeon appeared after you beat the story. Gamers may want to beat those dungeons or obtain those secrets before they sell the game or just put it in the repository.

Well, yeah… the post end game achievement is one of my main reason why i tried to play the games even after i beat those games. Depending on how many secrets revealed i might change my mind. Midnight Club LA and GTA don’t really have something new, so i guess i won’t be playing with it for too long. But games with so many secrets like Disgaea 3 has can be attractive to me. IMO, post end game session is better than new game plus because you don’t have to worry about rewatching the whole story again. So how’s your opinion regarding post end game session?

Tales series or 100% completion after the first playthrough.

Next is about 100% completion. A hundred percent is different between each games. You can only get 100% in games like Tales series after you beat it once. So it was like 100% in the new game plus. Games with post end game session like Midnight Club LA, GTA, and Disgaea 3 also has the 100% after you beat the game. But the real 100% is about how you get all the things you can get BEFORE you beat the game.

So it’s like, get all items, skills, subquests, equipments, and all the stuffs you can get before you beat the game. Normally, you can do this in the first playthrough. I remembered i played over 60 hours in Kingdom Hearts 2 just to get 100% for the secret ending.

So what’s the replay value IF you can get the number in the first playthrough? Well… not all people can get that number in their first playthrough. So they want to replay it and get the number in second playthrough.

Here are examples of games with the 100% completion in the first playthrough: Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy 7 (don’t know the other series), Atelier Iris series, etc. You can get the 100% completion in the first playthrough, but if you failed or missed to get it, you can just restart the game, go for another try, and get the things you missed before.

Tales series are a very different examples. You can get most of the things in the first playthrough, but it still has the new game plus. As i remembered, Tales of Eternia has a new dungeon in the next playthrough. But in Tales of Abyss, only hardcore mode opened after you beat the game, no other stuffs.

Tales of Eternia bringing a lot of old memories to me. I still a n00b while playing the first ToE, so my target back there is just beat the story and nothing else. But after awhile i knew that ToE has so many potential in the game, so replayed it and beat it almost 100%, replayed it again for the new dungeon. I think this is the game where i spent so much time replaying.

I definitely wouldn’t want to replay a game just for 100% completion. Most gamers, including me, would like to try get 100% before they beat it, so it was like perfectionists who failed to perfect in their first playthrough would want to beat it again. So how about you? Do you want to beat the game just for 100% even though you knew you won’t get new secrets and stuffs?

Suikoden series, I’ve finished all of them and got the best ending except Suikoden 2.

And this maybe the other good reason why you want to replay the game again: alternate ending. Suikoden series are the games that popular with the endings. Each games always has these: 108 characters, one of your closest friend dead, and don’t let your character die at the battle. Target: best ending where you have to get all those character without dying and in the near end, you’ll have your friend revived.

So what if you failed to meet that requirement? Just beat it again! Easy! But it could take a lot of time to replay it again. You just have to beat it again with the condition met. A very potential reason to replay the game.

Most of you gamers, including me, would want to get the best ending at the first playthrough. But the difference is after that. Do you want to put the game off after you get the best ending, or want to play it again for the other ending (even the bad ending one)? For me, I’d stop after i got the best ending. Got more games waiting rather than rewatching the whole stories again. Maybe I’ll find a forum that discuss about the other ending and just read it just to let myself know what kind of stuffs lies in the other endings.

Bonus: Chibi Selvaria cooking (still in the happy mood after beating Valkyria).

The last reason is simple, just plain nostalgia. That’s pretty much self explanatory… Maybe the gamers just want to remember the games they’ve played or whatsoever.

So the main question is: do you still want to spend your precious time, let the new games waiting, and replay your previous games because of those reasons? I won’t be bothering too much with my past games, except i have no more games to play with…

Phew, a pretty long rant here… Well yeah, that’s it for now… See you at the next post.

Zero no Tsukaima: Princesses no Rondo

noreply@blogger.com (sonic_ver2) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 06:23:35 PDT

Zero no Tsukaima 3 - introducing new ~~bitch with big boobs~~ character: Tiffania Westwood.

After a week++ of absence, at last I’m back for another anime review! It’s Zero no Tsukaima: Princesses no Rondo turn this time. This anime is one of the 12++ anime series I’ve watched in my holiday. From those series, I’ve done only 2 reviews out of 12++, so yeah… basically this is the 3rd part of those 12 series, pretty slow huh!? Okay, then let’s get down to business.

Oh and don’t forget: SPOILERS WARNING!!!! Proceed with caution!

Tabitha got the most development in this season.

Zero no Tsukaima 3 story is pretty much short, with only 13 episodes you can’t really expect much plot twist here. Most of the episodes were wasted with fanservices and stuffs, leaving only 2-3 episodes near the end for the real story. The main concern in Zero 3 story is Tabitha and the main antagonist: Tabitha’s uncle (? *CMIIW*). Saito and friends already knew who and what are they up against. And yeah that’s it… The enemies managed to flew and Saito succeeded in saving Tabitha.

So yeah, Zero no Tsukaima 3 is low on plot development but high on fun. More fanservices, more harem, more action, and definitely more fun, unlike the previous season which filled with too much politics and low number of action and fun.

In this series, there were 2 more characters introduced: Tiffania Westwood and Irukuku. Tiffania was the forest fairy who saved Saito from death in Zero no Tsukaima season 2. Irukuku was Tabitha’s familiar in her human form –pretty sexy, i guess-.

Oh and apparently, Louise managed to learn about her void magic and she could control it perfectly, except her magic power wasn’t strong enough to handle such great magic (not enough MP XD).

Judging from the ending of this series, we definitely ARE waiting for the next season to air and looking forward for the continuation.

Saito’s harem, 3 melons and 2 strawberries.

The worst thing here is… Saito got more harem! He became even more popular, he got more girl, plus the girls became even more attracted to him. Let say you’re Saito and now you’re at the end of this season, then you can do these things:

Make love with Louise
Grope or even have sex with Tiffania
Kiss Henrietta
Make love with Siesta
Go out or even make love with Tabitha

I thought he’s loyal with her girl in the first season, but no… Now he’s just a bastard with a lot of cute, beautiful, sexy and dynamite girls loving him. XD

More fanservices!!!

Putting aside the harem, Zero no Tsukaima 3 is also filled with fanservices. Watched the OVA? Yeah… You could see almost all of Zero 3 girls in bikini, very very very sexy bikini. Need more? Don’t worry… There’s still onsen scene featuring Tiffania and Louise yuri action plus nude Tabitha. Still want more? Get a Zero no Tsukaima hentai doujinshi dude. XD

Yuri kisses found in this anime!!! That was really hot!

I forgot whether Agnes involved or not, but i know the best episode for me is the episode where Siesta tried to seduce Saito with love potion. But no… the best part isn’t Siesta, but when the love potion effects were already spread wide! Yeah, 4 girls got affected, and they were involved in some hot yuri chasing and kissing! I LOVE this episode! XD

Bonus: Louise gothic version.

Well, yeah, that’s all for now! As a bonus, an illustration of gothic Louise. I got the figure of Louise in this outfit, go check it out if you want. And yeah… this is it! See you at the next post!

Haruhi Gekisou – Max Factory

noreply@blogger.com (sonic_ver2) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 07:11:20 PDT

Suzumiya Haruhi Gekisou version.

Ouch… some school works forced me to make a week of pause between my last post and this post. Well whatever, this time i bring you another set of figure photos for one of my favorite figure: Suzumiya Haruhi Gekisou version. Get yourself ready for a total of 30 photos of the figure.

Max Factory manufactured this.

This figure is manufactured by the best figure manufacturer ever: Max Factory. I know MaxFact can create such wonderful masterpieces. But lately I’ve been disappointed by MaxFact. I don’t know how you guys feel with figma, but i guess MaxFact has been too focused with their “side” projects or even made this “side” projects become their main projects, and left the PVC building as the side projects.

Why make figma if they can produce something great like this?

As i said before, i don’t know how you guys feel with figma. Maybe some of you were happy collecting figma because of its posability, its cheap price, and most figma models came from popular characters. IMO, MaxFact is “wasting” their skills on projects like that, while us (or me?), static PVC lovers, left unserved, and maybe start to lean to other great manufacturer like Alter. Please do excuse me for saying things like this, especially if you’re a figma lovers, I’m just trying to express my feeling.

SOS-dan + concert = GODLIKE!

Enough about MaxFact ranting, let’s get into the figure. As you may know, around July 2007, there’s a big concert of Suzumiya Haruhi, called Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekisou. Its filled with Haruhi songs goodness like God Knows, Hare hare dance, etc. This Haruhi and her outfit came from the official promotion illustration of that concert. I saw that picture and thought about how great SOS-dan girls in those outfit. And 2 years later, the figures were at last released.

Cheerful and full of spirit Haruhi, well it’s her concert spirit after all.

Haruhi came with a different hairstyle this time. Yes, dig out some illustration of the concert and you’ll know that Haruhi had a different hairstyle. It’s very detailed, with that tied part of her hair and her ahoge. Her face? Just as usual, it’s the full of spirit and cheerful Haruhi we all know. She looks soooo great! Totally perfect!

The best Haruhi ever.

Max Factory’s sculpt is as usual almost perfect. I said almost because there maybe a few little unexpected flaws lurking around. But as usual, it looks better than the other. This maybe the best Haruhi figure ever released, except you prefer the school uniform better, then get the Alter or the old Max Factory version.

Nice eyes.

Max Factory really brought us the Gekisou concert spirit to our home via this figure. It’s all written on her full of spirit face. Oh, and her eyes, MaxFact produced the best eyes of figure IMO. Those eyes can give a live and sparkling feeling, and figures from other manufacturers can’t bring that in their figures (including Alter).

A side view of half of her body.

The minus part of this figure is the pose. Although Haruhi is in a concert, she doesn’t have that dynamic pose like Alter figures have. An even more energetic pose or dynamic pose can add up the joy of the concert.

Haruhi Gekisou concert… is it good? Never watch it.

I myself never watch Aya Hirano in that gekisou outfit, and that means i never watch the gekisou concert. So i can’t really compare this figure with the real world result. But, I’d love to see if there’s a video of Haruhi (anime version) singing God Knows in those concert getups.

The microphone.

She’s the vocalist, so she got this microphone hanging behind her right ear. Looks great for a concert accessory.

Her hair, around 60 degrees above.

A view from above, to get a clearer view around her hair. That ahoge really stands up. I never see any Haruhi with ahoge in the anime. I don’t know how she does her hair but making that ahoge stands out is pretty hard XD . Anyway, even with that new hairstyle, she still wears that Haruhi’s favorite hairband, except this time her side ribbons aren’t there.

A view from the back.

Her outfit is pretty revealing, especially around her shoulder and stomach. The skirt and the frills on the edge of her tank top give a gothic feeling for Haruhi. It’s not a totally gothic Haruhi though. Similar to Mikuru, it has frills around the edges of her clothes and layered skirt.

Nicely done!

Her upper body is surprisingly revealing. Her arms and stomach aren’t covered at all. They got a pretty nice design on the tank top, especially by adding frills around the edges. Nicely sculpted around here, and it’s pretty detailed on the wrinkles right below her boobs.

Cross necklace.

I’m a Catholic and Cross is a symbol of Catholic, so why Haruhi wears this? I ~~thought she’s the God~~ never knew about her religion in the anime. But above all that, this necklace is pretty nice accessory! If you noticed even deeper, there are another necklace and a belt choker on her neck. The other necklace is permanently sculpted on the body, it’s not separated like this necklace.

Ideal boobs for girls around her age.

Nice boobs, but not maximized. I know MaxFact did this because they want to keep Mikuru’s boobs as the biggest boobs in the gekisou set XD . Overall, Haruhi still got a nice boobs, you can still feel it and t** f***ed by it. It has nice size, but her cleavage isn’t revealed unlike Mikuru.

Her right arm.

Her right arm got this red long armband covering her lower right arm and half of the upper right arm. And she’s also tied with some black belts around her arms. Just accessories to keep synchronized with the official illustration i guess.

Her right hand.

And her right hand with red guitar pick on it. It’s a pretty small part, and it’s prone to small paint flow. Yes… small paint flows do happen even in MaxFact’s products. The other bad part here is her fingernails aren’t painted, it’s not that bad but it could add the fun factor of a figure.

Her left arm.

Her left arm, which has nothing on it except that black thing on her upper arm. It’s the part of her tank top. I guess that’s all for the left arm.

Her left hand, handling the guitar keys.

And this is her left hand which handles the guitar keys. Sorry i don’t know anything about guitar, so i can’t tell you much about the guitar and all, do correct me if I’m wrong regarding this guitar parts, because after this, we’re moving to the guitar parts!

The guitar of Haruhi Suzumiya.

And this is the guitar, her famous guitar. She played using this guitar once in the first season episode 12 “Live A Live”, singing God Knows. That scene is the best scene I ever watched and that scene burned to my heart. I will never ever forget that scene. Anyway, the guitar is pretty detailed and has nice paintjobs on it. Great job MaxFact!

Italia Mondial Classic.

Did a little search while writing this and i found something interesting from Sankaku Complex. It is said that Haruhi’s guitar is Italia Mondial Classic, and Yuki’s white guitar is Gibson SG Special White ~~while Yui’s guitar is GITAAHHH!!!~~ . Anyway, those guitar chords are real strings, don’t know if they’re just a string shaped plastics or a real string, but unlike Chua Churam’s guitar they’re not sculpted on the guitar.

Nice layered skirt, also gives a gothic feeling.

We’re done with guitar and moving on the skirt part. It’s a pretty unique skirts. It has 3 layers, the first layer is semi invisible, and the front skirt length is far shorter than the back length. It’s easier to peek below! XD

Her left leg.

Her left leg has a shorter sock compared to her right leg. It’s colored green, has some patterns, a ribbons, and frills on the edge. Those frills also give the gothic feeling for this figure. Anyway, the right leg’s sock is pretty long it reached her thigh, too bad i didn’t take a photo of it.

Her left shoes.

And this is her left shoes. The sculpt is greatly done! Yeah, and it looks shiny, as good as new, nice paintjob especially by adding that glossy effect.

A high angled photos for you.

That’s all the details parts, and here we go, a full view of this figure from above. Looks pretty normal, and no cleavage revealing for you. The parts that stand out here are her guitar and her skirt.

The mandatory pantie shot!

Ahem… Now you see it! It’s a pretty normal white pantie, and it’s already my job to bring a mandatory pantie shot for you otakus! XD

Blue light!

As to make a concert feeling, i tried to experiment with my wireless flash. It’s easy to make this color effect as long as you have a wireless flash set. Just prepare a colored carton / paper / cloth / whatever you have. Put it in your mini studio as the exchange of your reflector. Do your shot, and done! You got your colored effect photos. I know maybe some of you would like to do that in Photoshop, but I was pretty lazy for Photoshopping and chose this way instead.

Green colored!

Got a total of 4 photos with color effects, and each photos have different colors. This time is green. I also took this chance to experiment with some angles i didn’t take in photos above.

Pink colored!

Pink carton isn’t too strong to reflect weak flash, so i had to fire a stronger flash and the result is this. It’s a pretty harsh light result from Haruhi’s right hand side considering the flash was already reflected.

Red colored! And POI: gekisou!

And the last is IMO the best color effect I’ve done, just like Fate Testarossa photos. Oh and the POI of this figure is the “Gekisou” part. Everyone bought this figure because she got concert costume, guitar, and got the concert feelings in it. And that’s the best selling part of this figure.

That’s it for my review. For other reviews, you can go here (I’ve listed some):

涼宮ハルヒ激奏ver ~ Suzumiya Haruhi Gekisou Version by meronpan
Rockin’ with Haruhi Suzumiya by Optic
Haruhi Extravaganza by Vixion
Haruhi Gekiso Extravagance (Max Factory) by Shadonia
Haruhi Suzumiya Live!!! by Rin

Phew, that’s a pretty long list. If you also want to be listed here, please do tell me, I’ll put it right away!

Yeah… that’s all for now. See you at the next post!

Epic Win part 2: great news for you!!!

noreply@blogger.com (sonic_ver2) — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 09:15:07 PDT

Found something great on konachan.

A very great news for you otakus, i found something very interesting. You remember this epic win picture right? We all know that this picture is pretty small even for 1024x768px wallpaper. And the great news is: i found the vectored wallpaper version of this picture. It’s not really a wallpaper size though, but it’s pretty huge for any kind of monitor (3000x2125px). Anyway, i don’t know if this is a widescreen or normal screen size, just try and stretch it on your monitor right away.

Finished reading? Get this RIGHT NOW:

http://konachan.com/post/show/58031/akiyama_mio-asahina_mikuru-bunnygirl-crossover-hir

That’s all folks!

One year (and 2 months) of gaming with PS3

noreply@blogger.com (sonic_ver2) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:54:13 PDT

Playing with PS3 for 1 year (and 2 months).

Last holiday, 26th June 2009, I’ve reached the 1st year of owning PS3. But i didn’t have the chance to post since i was gone MIA in Duri – Riau back there. And after 2 months, i remembered and took the chance just to post this up. So yeah, today I’m celebrating 1 year (and 2 months) of gaming with my PS3.

PS3 system is totally incredible. I never knew that 6 cores of microprocessors would give such performance. I almost never experienced any lags or framing or even freezing (except the game itself caused it, like Midnight Club LA).

The games are also awesome, except there were so little number of games that go boom like the past FF7 or games like that. But waiting between each games can be annoying, it took pretty long time between one great game and another games. Sometimes i also blindly hoped for something crazy (unannounced at first) like English version of Cross Edge (it took some months from the Japan release for the announcement of English version), Tales of Vesperia (from X360, but there’s still no news for the English version), etc.

Online experience? well… i don’t think so. Thanks to my wireless router and PS3 WiFi ability, i don’t have to pull a ethernet cable from my router to PS3. I am using a 1 – 1.5 Mbps internet connection, still too slow for online gaming. So far i only played PS Home and browsing PS Store. Tried once played Soul Calibur 4 online, but it’s totally filled with lags and disconnections.

Our stack of PS3 games.

See the photo above? That’s the stack of me and my 2 bros’ games, worth of 1 year (and 2 months) collecting. The stack under Yoko is stack of finished games, and the stack under Louise is stack of unfinished games. Let me go to details of how “we” are doing (now) on those games:

Left stack:

Ninja Gaiden Sigma (mine): finished it once, never touch it anymore.
Ratchet & Clank Quest for Booty (my bros, both): totally finished it, it’s a VERY SMALL adventure which is easily finished in 2 hours.
Midnight Club Los Angeles (me): 95% finished, finished the story and paid USD 1 million and get all cars and parts free, but haven’t finished every kings available (exotic, muscle, tuner, etc).
Ridge Racer 7 (me and my 1st bro): my bro passed me, he reached stages where you have to beat special cars and own it if you win.
GTA 4 (my 1st bro): finished the whole story.
Dynasty Warriors 6 (all): finished all musou mode.
MGS4 (my 1st bro): finished with Big Boss Emblem owned.
Ratchet & Clank Future Tools for Destruction (my bros, both): totally finished and almost 100%.
Folklore (my 2nd bro): finished it (don’t really know the details though).
Gundam Musou 2 (all): finished all story, i used Lunamaria, my 1st bro used Kira and reached the last ultimate mission in mission mode.
Golden Axe (my 2nd bro): finished the story, it’s a pretty bad game.
Enchanted Arms (my 1st bro): finished the story (don’t know the details).
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (my 1st bro): almost finished all of the available races.
Soul Calibur 4 (me and my 1st bro): there’s no finish in fighting game, just stopped playing.

Right stack:

Eternal Sonata (me and my 1st bro): played until i reached first time meeting Viola, never played it since then, looking for a good time after beating Valkyria Chronicles.
Disgaea 3 (me and my 1st bro): i stopped at the last chapter, my 1st bro reached Laharl and friends.
Cross Edge (me): haven’t even removed the protective plastic seal yet (ZOMGWTFLOL!!!).
Burnout Paradise (my 1st bro): finished the whole race and reached the maximum level, and downloaded the new bike upgrade. Played online with this.
LittleBigPlanet (my 2nd bro): finished the whole offline game. Rarely played with online level.
NFS Undercover (me): played it once until i got my 1st pink slip, left it dead since then.
Hot Shot Golf (my 1st bro): don’t how he’s progressing but he reached the 2nd row characters.
inFamous (my 1st bro): finished the hero scenario, restarted with bad guys scenario.
Elder Scroll 4 Oblivion (my bros, both): i don’t know how they’re progressing, it’s a bad game for me though, but they say it’s a great game.
BlazBlue (all): finished arcade for Jin, Noel, Litchi, Taokaka, Tager, and Hakumen. I main Noel, sub Litchi, and tried Taokaka, my 2nd bro main Jin, sub Tager, and tried Hakumen, and my 1st bro main Ragna. Haven’t tried the story yet, all we play is just versus and versus.
Valkyria Chronicles (me): reached the last chapter, exactly at the 2nd last battle.

And that’s how we’re doing with our games right now. Most of my games were left behind because of my school work. That’s why i still left my Cross Edge unopened. I planned on beating Valkyria ASAP and start Cross Edge right after that while doing Eternal Sonata with my bro. Damn, that’s pretty crazy multitasking i guess XD. For you who hava multiple games on hand, how do you manage your games?

Well, that’s all for now, pretty short post today. So, see you later!

Nagato Yuki - Alter

noreply@blogger.com (sonic_ver2) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 09:50:12 PDT

Nagato Yuki.

After almost a week of absence, let me bring you another photo shoot a.k.a. review for another beautiful figure from my collection. It’s Nagato Yuki, everyone knows who she is already, so I’ll skip the character introduction (if you still don’t know who she is, proceed to Wiki or Google). Anyway, this figure itself is manufactured by Alter and was released back around March-April 2009.

Manufactured by Alter.

Alter released this after their first Haruhi, and i guess this Yuki can be included as a series with that previous Haruhi. FYI, this Yuki has the same base style with Haruhi: white and has big Y letter carved on it, just like Haruhi’s H letter.

Not your usual Yuki here.

Yuki figure this time has an expression and body pose that kinda deviates the usual Yuki. She’s the type of silent character with exceptionally null and flat expression. But in this figure, she somewhat moved her eyebrows up a bit, making a little expression, it’s very little but it’s not her usual expressionless face.

Dynamic pose.

And not only her expression, but also her body pose, also looks unusual. I didn’t do any research of where this pose come from, never found any official illustration of Yuki with that pose. I think it could be Alter’s original idea, just like the other dynamic posed figures Alter made.

Taking of her glasses.

I heard that there was a limited version of this figure, with her holding a book between her hand and her lips, pretty sensual. For Yuki with megane fans, you maybe kinda disappointed because she doesn’t wear that glasses. Maybe she’s taking it off.

“Is there something on my face?” or “Do i look good without my glasses"?”

With a closer look on her face, you could just imagine what’s she trying to say? For me, her face is, like, trying to say: “please don’t stare me like that, I’m embarassed” or something to that effect. Depending on how you translate a figure face, you could get another interesting line right from staring at her face.

Great sculpt, better skin tone.

Putting aside the thought about her expression in this figure, Alter really did a great job on Yuki. The sculpt is as usual: totally great, and one thing i like is the skin tone is getting better. I know this involves my personal preferences but i guess her skin isn’t as pale as Haruhi.

Her face from her right side.

Tried some angle with this figure. Turned out pretty good, except you missed her unique expression a little bit. Anyway, for this Yuki photo session, i originally planned on using blue background with my Logitech keyboard as the base, but i changed my mind and borrowed my bro’s laptop for the base (and accidentally the black screen as background). Black is neutral, so i guess there’s not much problem with the color combination.

Photography tips:

For you Canon user, you can combine your camera RAW settings, Canon’s Digital Photo Professional software, and the picture style files from Canon’s website. You can view and get more picture style files here. As i said before, shooting using RAW gives you 2 advantages: image better and sharper than JPG (lossless) and it enables you to change your photo settings you’ve set in your camera (like Picture Style, White Balance, etc). Combining this RAW editing ability in DPP and new picture style files, you can open more possibilities of having great colored photos.

FYI, i used Studio Portrait picture style from Canon’s website. The color tone and the brightness are somewhat synchronized with studio lamp, or in my case: wireless flash.

I guess this tip is pretty much Canon specific, but i guess the other camera brand should have their own software and their picture style file, so be sure to check out your camera manufacturer’s website and search for more.

Back side.

Anyway, back to the review. Yuki this time really has a sensual pose. I do hope Alter combined their idea of dynamic / sensual pose with a selection of unique costume. That idea has yet to be realized so far.

Flat… common knowledge.

Going in to detailed parts, Yuki’s chest is, as you all know, flat. She’s one of the DFC character. So i won’t bother taking a closer look on her chest. Instead, i give you an almost full view of her body and uniform.

Right hand.

Don’t be tricked by the power of macro lens. I know her hand looks dirty there, but don’t worry, it’s not a factory defect, just plain dirty. Another thing to notice is seams on the side of her thumb. Oh and forgot to mention, painted fingernails!

Her left hand.

And her left hand, the one that hold that legendary Yuki’s glasses, also has those painted fingernails. I intentionally take a shot from this angle, knowing that i would get a dark and ugly result, just to show you Alter’s painted fingernails. Too bad, because of the power of macro lens, another seams is visible in the photo. Don’t worry though, those seams won’t be visible if you view it using your own normal eyes.

Nagato Yuki no Megane (The Glasses of Nagato Yuki).

And this is her legendary glasses. Kyon erased this glasses from its very existence by just saying “You look good without the glasses”. Damn Kyon! You destroyed the hope of all megane fans out there in the whole world!

Great sculpt on the details.

Moving on to the lower part, around her ribbon and sirt. Pretty much detailed, it’s not the main part of this figure, but it still looks great as parts from this figure. As always, Alter did a perfect job on this detailed parts.

Lower part.

Her cardigan is also beautifully sculpted. Everything looks nice, including the fold and wrinkles on the cardigan, and the edge parts of the cardigan. Pretty cool! Anyway, you can see the lines on the shoeprints, somewhat rough for me.

A view from above.

Nonetheless, this figure is a great figure, one of the best Yuki out of all Yuki figures ever released. I guess the other great Yuki figure is Yuki gekisou from Max Factory. The other great thing from this figure is she’s kneeling, so you don’t have to worry about leaning, connecting with the pegs, etc. You could just put her on wherever place flat, all you want.

90 percent…

…of you will look at the left part of the photo XD . Anyway, the main object of this photo is her left leg. Don’t worry dude, maybe I’m also in that 90% XD .

Mandatory pantie shot for those 90%.

And for those 90% of people who looked at the left part, I’ll give you a clearer and bigger view of her pantie. Don’t worry people, pantie shot is always a mandatory for every figure photo session XD .

Depending on how you see it, you could say this is an ero pose. XD

My wild imagination started each time i looked at this photo. She has just started by taking off her glasses. Next, she takes off her cardigan, lowering her skirt, takes off her shirt, and she’s ready to play with you XD .

Which one do you prefer? Kneeling or laying down?

Tried a few shot with her laid down on the keyboard. Turned out prety good i guess. It could be better if i used something like cotton or something soft like pillow or just plain white cloth, just to give a “laying on bed” feeling.

Be ready people, be ready to assault her. *Evil laugh*

Damn, this Yuki is tempting, even though she’s not sexy, she gives that ero / sensual feeling. I need to find and read Yuki H doujin after this XD .

POI: ero pose!

The POI of this figure is of course her ero pose. I’ve seen much ero figures, but i never seen any normal figures with a ero pose. From this angle, she looks like she’s ready to accept you and your dirty desire.

Well, that’s all for you hungry wolves! Be sure to follow the updates for more ~~prey~~ figure photos and anime stuffs. So see you later!

Epic Win

noreply@blogger.com (sonic_ver2) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:55:03 PDT

Haruhi x K-On! = instant total epic win!

This picture is made of pure epic win! Totally cool!!!! Haruhi and K-On! in one picture with the characters swapping costume each other. Mio in Haruhi’s gekisou costume, Haruhi in Mio’s gothic costume, and Mugi in Yuki’s gekisou costume, and the rest of them are total instant win.

Too bad there’s no wallpaper resolution of this picture. >.<

I’d say this is epic, that’s all! Via DannyChoo member news posted by p00hax0r. Original source from Gelbooru.

Indonesia references in anime

noreply@blogger.com (sonic_ver2) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 21:02:11 PDT

Picture totally irrelevant, just made of epic win.

Today, 17th of August: we, Indonesian, are commemorating Indonesia’s Independence Day. And that’s why, i, as an Indonesian too, also am commemorating Indonesia’s Independence Day by bringing you a few Indonesia references i found in anime.

Oh, for some people, this post could contain SPOILERS for CLANNAD, Code Geass R2, and Index-tan. So yeah, just watch out while reading it.

CLANNAD, Kotomi’s arc, around the ending.

This is the first reference: CLANNAD (first season). It happens in Kotomi’s arc, right at the ending. That “warui otoko” guy came to Kotomi and gave her the suitcase, with a bear for Kotomi’s birthday present from her parents. The parents died in plane accident and that suitcase dropped in the middle of nowhere. There was also a letter in the suitcase telling “If you find this suitcase, please take it to my daughter”. The suitcase found by someone from country to country around the world, including Indonesia.

The screenshot above doesn’t really tells that it was in Indonesia, but if you heard the lines, you’ll know that the person talking said that line in Indonesian.

Code Geass R2, total revolt in Chinese federation.

Next reference came from Code Geass R2. It happens in Chinese federation part, where the Eunuch generals tried to sell Tianzi to Britannia, but the Black Knight foiled that plan by broadcasting Eunuch generals evil plan to the Chinese federation and triggered a revolt in the whole Chinese federation, including Jakarta.

Apparently, Jakarta, which is the capital of Indonesia, already became a main city in Chinese federation. Heck, i think the whole Indonesia was already under the power of Chinese federation. In the screenshot, the subtitle already said Jakarta but the map hasn’t reached Indonesia yet.

Index-tan, last part in first episode: my favorite!

The last reference is the best IMO. It’s in Index-tan, almost the end of first episode of Index-tan. The actual scene is about Index and Touma were going to public bath, and in Index-tan, Index asked this: “Nashi goreng te nanii?”. I totally LOLed after hearing this. Anyway, Nasi Goreng is Indonesian fried rice, and it’s one of my favorite afterschool lunch.

Well, yeah… that’s it for commemorating Indonesia independence day. I’ll be taking my leave. See you at the next post.

Shugo Chara

noreply@blogger.com (sonic_ver2) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 04:47:03 PDT

Shugo Chara!

Hi! I’m back for more anime review. I did say that I’ll be choosing what’s next by random, and the randomizer’s result today fell to Shugo Chara. To be honest, i was introduced to Shugo Chara kinda late by my friend evangeline88 (at least that was HIS nickname in HIS myanimelist), IIRC Shugo Chara Doki was already at around its 60th episode. At first i was uninterested because of its “childish magical girl” theme, but in the end i decided to try and got attached to the end.

Anyway, as always: SPOILERS WARNING. You’ve been warned, if you want to proceed while knowing the risk, please do so.

Guardian, Shugo Chara, Embryo, Easter, etc, etc, etc.

Shugo Chara! revolves around a girl, named Hinamori Amu and her friends of course: the Guardian, and their life as Guardian with their cute Guardian Character (Shugo Chara). All of the kids in Shugo Chara has a “would-be self” which shaped in an egg form, called Guardian Egg (Shugo Tama). Those eggs are the shape of their would-be self or should i say dream. Kids with bigger strength of heart can make their Guardian Egg hatch and became Guardian Character. Most of the main characters in this anime have their Guardian Eggs hatched to Guardian Characters.

So what’s the conflict? A unusual egg called Embryo is rumored to be the magical egg that can fulfill any wishes. The Guardian main target was to get this Embryo. Of course there would be an enemy who also tried to get this Embryo, the enemy here was a group called Easter. They wanted to get their hands on Embryo by any means necessary. As you can guess, most of the story of this anime will revolves around the battle between Guardian and Easter.

Daily dosage: 1 episode of Shugo Chara per day, watch before sleep.

Even though i said battle and stuffs, this anime is pretty light and pretty fun to enjoy. There are a lot of cute, romantic, heartwarming, friendship, and funny events going on in this anime. But you know, this kind of anime theme always has that “embarrassing” moments or lines or stuffs (just like Akari’s lines in ARIA series). If you want to enjoy some not-so-light anime, you can try Shugo Chara and watch it with daily dosage of 1 episode per day before sleep.

Magical girls anyone?

And for you magical girl fans, Shugo Chara got so many magical girl costume for you. As i said before, this anime is filled with girls and their Guardian Characters. To fight their opponents they transform with their Guardian Characters, do a Character Transformation (Chara Nari, *CMIIW*), and became a cosplayer in an instant. XD

Chara Chen~ji! Chara Nari!

Oh, and before continuing, I’ll let you know more about the basic knowledge of this anime. Character that has Guardian Character can do a Character Change, it’s not really powerful but it can bring out their hidden character like Amu & Ran became an energetic and athletic, Rima & Kusu-kusu became a clown, etc. With more power and miracle, they can do Character Transformation, as i explained above. They use Character Change for everyday life and Character Transformation for fighting dark power.

Talk about the enemy, Easter, they tried to bring out the Embryo by extracting children’s heart’s egg and making it X Egg (Batsu tama). X Egg is a symbol of a people who has already thrown their dream and became desperate. The more they became desperate, the stronger the X Egg, and it could even hatch into an X Character (Batsu chara). Almost all of the 51 episodes of Shugo Chara will be filled with this X Eggs and X Characters and with the Guardian tried to purify them all.

That’s all for the basics, and let’s move on to character by character reviews.

Hinamori Amu: my favorite pink haired girl (even though she’s 5th-6th grader).

Hinamori Amu, a 5th grader, who’s also the main heroine of this anime. She didn’t have much confidence with herself until she made herself an “outside character”, the Cool and Spicy Amu. She looked cool and all on the outside, but on the inside she just didn’t want to lose her confidence and do something stupid. Because of her outside character and her inside wish, 3 eggs “came out” from her and they all hatched to a Guardian Characters.

The Guardian in the school however, believed that Amu who has 3 Guardian Characters with her, was the chosen one and they invited her to Guardian and gave her Humpty Lock. This lock itself still mysterious up until you completed Shugo Chara, the only thing i knew about this is just: this lock helped Amu and her friends perform Character Transformation.

Amu has the best combination of personalities.

Also with the power of Humpty Lock, she was also the only one who can do X Character / X Egg purifying action by doing Open Heart: “Negative Heart lock on! Open Heart!!”. Anyway, for me, Amu is my favorite character. She’s the main heroine and the person who moved the anime forward. She’s cool outside, funny and doesn’t have confidence inside. But she tried to overcome any trouble by believing in her heart’s strength and her friends. In the end, Amu herself could convince all the wavering hearts, including Utau’s heart (Amu’s nemesis).

Fujisaki Nadeshiko: Fujisaki Nagehiko is also HIS name.

Next is the 2nd main girl you met in this anime: Fujisaki Nadeshiko. Although she was Amu’s best friend at the first time, she left in the middle of the season and became *HUGE SPOILER* a guy. Nadeshiko was a nice and kind girl, but her real character was a wild girl. She also acted as Amu’s place to consult for her problems. Anyway, she became a guy in the middle anime, err… sorry… she is actually a he. His actual name is Nagehiko, and his family runs a tradition that a boy in that family has to act as a girl until he reached 5th grade. Just a little sneak peek to Shugo Chara Doki: he’ll came back and live as Nagehiko (boy). Urgh… i guess Nadeshiko can be counted as one of the best trap in anime.

Yuki Yaya: the childish wannabe baby girl.

This is the other Guardian, Yuiki Yaya. She is one childish girl and act as a baby. Heck, her would-be self is baby! For that reason, i kinda hate this character. She’s almost totally useless in the battle until she got her Character Transformation, Dear Baby. Nonetheless, she’s still Amu’s best friend who stayed beside her until the last episode of Shugo Chara.

Mashiro Rima: the God of comedy.

Next character introduced after Nadeshiko left: Mashiro Rima. Even though she was a guardian, she was very unsocial at first. She also was the first Guardian member after Amu who can do Character Transformation. Her outside character was kinda annoying but her would be self is a gag performer, she does like to laugh and do funny stuffs. Amu managed to befriend her and she became another Amu’s ~~yuri harems~~ best friend. I like Rima’s character and her story, but i don’t really like her appearance, i don’t like short girl you know.

Hoshina Utau: incest maniac twintailed blonde girl who likes to sing.

The last character is Hoshina Utau. She was Amu’s arch nemesis, whether in job and in romance (Ikuto). You’ll see her a bit annoying at first. She was one of Easter best employee in order to get the Embryo. By singing and doing character change with her first Guardian Character, Iru, she can bring out audience’s Guardian Eggs and make them X. These scenes happen a lot in the 2nd part of the anime.

She’s actually a good girl.

She’s bad indeed, but in the end of the anime, she was beaten by Amu and became a good character, and even Amu’s best friend (and rival). She’s so beautiful when she’s character transforming with Eru. In the end, she quitted Easter and opened new celebrity agency with her manager. I started to like her nearing the end of the anime, especially in that almost end episode where she and Amu travelled around the city to find place where she can sing (the best part is Amu was wearing megane in that episode!!!).

Black Diamond is the best! (from this anime)

A pretty darn good move to put Mizuki Nana as the seiyuu of Hoshina Utau. Most her song were awesome, i too still attached with her Black Diamond, totally like it! Utau sang 3 main songs in this anime: Meikyuu Butterfly, Black Diamond, and Heartful Song. The first 2 songs were the songs used to extract X Eggs out of audiences’ hearts. And the last song is the song she sang after she quitted Easter.

Mio moe moe kyun open heart!!

This illustration above is Mio doing Open Heart, for me. But for me, it’s Mio doing original move called moe moe kyun beam or whatever you name it.

Well, Mio above marks the end of this review. That’s it for today. See you at the next post!

To Aru Majutsu no Index

noreply@blogger.com (sonic_ver2) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 10:09:46 PDT

To Aru Majutsu no Index.

While waiting for another figure photo session, I’m gonna fill you with updates of anime reviews. You should’ve known that I’ve finished 12++ series in 1 month. So (maybe) the number of anime reviews will also be 12++. I’ll start with To Aru Majutsu no Index, and I’ll be random at choosing which one to do next.

Obviously, beyond this section is full of SPOILERS, so… if you haven’t watched this anime i suggest you stop here. If you already knew the risks, please do proceed.

No basic knowledge.

The story of To Aru Majutsu no Index circles around Kamijyo Touma a very unfortunate boy who lives in Academy City. In this city, science rules and supernatural phenomenon is pretty much normal occurrences. At the first scene, you’ll see is a girl blasting a damn huge electricity wave to a boy who can block that blast totally only with his right hand.

I was pretty much confused and kinda waiting for a clearer information or explanation, but no… i didn’t get any explanation about this city and the people of the city in the early episodes. So i continued on watching this anime without knowing any basic knowledge about the city, the girl, and Touma.

Apparently, i continued on with my own assumption. Here’s my assumption:

- There are 2 kind of supernatural power in this world: magic and esper.

- Academy city is full of esper, and they learned how to use esper abilities in their school.

- Misaka is the highest level of all esper, while Touma is the lowest level a.k.a. level 0, but he has that anti supernatural power right hand.

- Touma’s right hand can block both magic power and esper power.

I knew beforehand that this anime is similar with Shana, but as i remembered, Shana’s early episodes were filled with some basic explanations. It seems each anime has its own way to entertain their viewers by letting them make their own assumptions.

Anyway, this anime is pretty similar with Shana, including on how they split the stories between arcs. So I’ll be reviewing this anime arc by arc.

1st arc: Index is a loli noodle bread eating sister.

The first arc, which is the opening arc is about Index’s arrival on Touma’s apartment. As you can guess, Index’s arrival was pretty much funny: she came with empty stomach, begging for food while hanging on Touma’s veranda. Touma didn’t know at that time, that this was just the beginning.

Index came with some hard explanations about her church, her mission, about that grimoires, and about someone pursued her because of that grimoires. Doesn’t take too much long, someone suspicious calling himself magician: Styil Magnus came and attacked Touma. Not only that, Styil’s friend came and also attacked Touma: she’s Kanzaki Kaori.

Actually they both were Index’s friends and they planned on erasing Index’s memory which is actually a ritual that needs to be done every year in order to keep Index alive. As predicted, Touma found a way to prevent that at the cost of his own memories.

As expected, this arc is just an opening arc. You knew Index, you knew Styil, Kanzaki, Touma, academy city, and some basic knowledges. There’s not much going on here.

2nd arc: Touma’s first job, rescuing Himegami Aisa.

The next arc is pretty short. It’s about Touma’s first job as Index’s friends helper. Styil asked him to get Himegami Aisa from someone (forgot his name) who can do crazy magic (Ars Magna) which can turn his thought into reality. This arc doesn’t really important for story advancement. The only things significant here are: that man was Index’s previous partner even before Styil and Himegami Aisa joined Index’s group in Touma’s place.

Starting from this arc, i realized that Index’s role wasn’t that much even though the title of this anime is Index.

3rd arc: Misaka Mikoto and MISAKA sisters.

The 3rd arc is unexpectedly long. It’s about my favorite character: Misaka Mikoto. She was involved in a cruel experiment: making a level 6 esper. The level-6-to-be esper is called Accelerator, and his job was to kill 20000 clones of Misaka a.k.a. sisters. One of the sisters met Touma and learned that life is important even though they were clones. FYI, Accelerator’s ability is manipulating vector and air by calculating it and deflecting or doing whatever he wants with it.

As expected of our hero, Touma suggested that he himself, a level 0 esper, has to beat Accelerator in order to stop the experiment. And he totally defeated Accelerator with his right hand and some helps from the sisters (changing the wind so Accelarator would have a hard time counting and manipulating the air).

For a Misaka fan, this arc is definitely my favorite arc, since Misaka herself and also the sisters were involved in some action-packed scenes.

4th arc: Angel Fall.

Fourth arc returns Index and her friends back to the spotlight. The first thing you’ll get to see is fanservices: Index in swimsuit and bikini, pretty entertaining. The fun ends in just 15 minutes, suddenly everything went wrong. Everyone swapped body: Index became Touma’s mom, Styil became the hotel staff, and Touma’s blue haired friend (forgot the name) became Index!

Apparently Kanzaki came, and she told Touma about a big magic is activated: Angel Fall. I forgot the effect, but it sure is something big. Touma and friends investigated and found out that the one who activated the magic is his own dad.

This arc is unexpectedly short even though the magic seems pretty big. You’ll get to see Tsuchimikado and Kanzaki Kaori in action in this arc. Pretty cool, especially Kanzaki’s nanasen.

5th arc: Unabara, Touma, Misaka, a love triangle here.

The 5th arc, which only has 1 episode in total, is about a demon who tried to kill Misaka by disguising as Unabara, a boy who loved Misaka. This episode is pretty weird for me. Touma was able to beat that demon but he said about “more will come”. Up until now, I’m still curious about his “more will come” line. Because the enemies from the next 2 arcs didn’t have any connection with him.

Anyway, for a Misaka fans, this arc is also the best arc since you can see Misaka in her tsundere scenes. Misaka pretended to be Touma’s girlfriend because she needed to avoid Unabara at all cost. XD

6th arc: Accelerator is a lolicon.

The 6th arc could be called a side story. There’s no Touma involved here, no Kaori, no Styil, no Misaka (real). The main heroine here is surprisingly Accelerator himself. He involved in the continuation of MISAKA network experiment. He met with the brain of MISAKA network: MISAKA number 20001. Apparently, one of the researcher in that experiment tried to infect MISAKA 20001 with virus, so all the other MISAKA sisters will go berserk and destroying everything they see.

Accelerator is a bad person, but he tried to help MISAKA 20001 even almost with the cost of his life. This arc is short, not really funny, but it’s somewhat touching in its own way.

7th arc: Hyouka the megane oppai girl who isn’t a human.

The 7th arc which is also the last arc returns the spotlight to Index. She met someone new and special: Kazakiri Hyouka. Easy to predict, Hyouka wasn’t a normal human. At that time also, a magician from other church who can control golem, came and attacked academy city.

The main point of this arc is: Hyouka wanted to make friends even though she’s not human and of course Touma and Index gladly accepted her as new friend. As for me, Hyouka is very sexy: she got megane and oppai. XD . I thought she’s just an unusual human who can’t die but in the end, she managed to kick a golem butt and safed Index from pinch.

Overall, Index is a good anime. There’s a little significant story connection between each arc, just like Shana. Most of the arcs stand on its own and give their own great story. Action and magic fans should watch this. But as i said before, even though this anime has Index in its title, Index herself doesn’t really get much screen time compared to Misaka, unlike Shana which story always revolves on Shana herself.

That’s it for my (sorta lame) anime review. I’ll try to post it once per day / 2 days. So yeah… see you at the next post!

Louise Gothic Punk version - Alter

noreply@blogger.com (sonic_ver2) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 05:22:49 PDT

Louise Gothic Punk version.

Double the Louise, double the fun! Yet another figure photos coming right up, and Louise is still right under the spotlight, but this time is Louise in her gothic costume. I did this figure photos just exactly right after Louise school uniform’s photo session done. And i still used the same background for this one.

Alter made her.

It was pretty surprising for Alter to release 2 same character in just 2 months interval. That’s right, IIRC, Louise school uniform was released in February and this Louise gothic was released in April. Pretty short interval for a same character in 2 figures by only 1 manufacturer.

Louise yesterday and Louise today.

Considering Louise is my favorite character and in the past, there was no decent figure of Louise, i decided to buy both. I bought Louise school uniform because i like Louise and i bought this one because i like maid outfit.

Gothic or maid? You name it.

I did say about maid outfit in the haul post. Yes… even though the manufacturer named this figure: Louise Gothic Punk version, i still think that this is maid outfit. What do you guys think? Is this maid outfit or gothic styled dress?

“Sho…should i… l-l-li-lift it a little bit hi-hi… higher?”

While we got cheerful expression yesterday, this time we got a unique expresion with her mouth opened, shaping “o”. IMO, Alter did a wrong move regarding this one. Just see the lower part of this figure: Louise is lifting her skirt. It could be better if Louise’s expression filled with blushes and deredere expression, and you could see “Sho…should i… l-l-li-lift it a little bit hi-hi… higher?” written all over her face. XD

Maid hairband + red ribbon = not maid?

See her hairband? I think it’s safe to say that this hairband is maid hairband. Things that didn’t match up with maid is her ribbon. It’s red colored ribbon, and maid rarely wears red colored ribbon. Usually maid outfit consists of only 2 colors: black and white.

11 red ribbons attached on the hair.

There are a lot of red ribbons all over her hair. After doing some counting, i noticed that there are total of 11 red ribbons (including the 2 that attached on her hairband), that’s a lot! Anyway, Alter did the same great job they did on Louise school uniform: her long wavy hair looks great, and even greater than the anime.

Closer look on the ribbon.

A closer look on the red ribbon. Beautifully done by Alter of course. Not much i can say, so skip it.

Is that red line a bra line?

Uhh… i hate to say it twice in a row, but it’s a common sense that Louise’s chest is flat. DFC fans should get this figure in their collection. Anyway, can you see that red line on her right shoulder? Is that a bra line?

Her right arm.

This outfit has short sleeves with white ribbon right on the shoulder area. And she also equipped with maid gloves-wristbands things. You can only see the wristband from this angle, but the wristband continues, covering the backside of her hand like a glove, and stop at her middle finger like a black ribbon ring.

Her left arm.

A clearer view on her left glove. See what i meant? It’s her right arm in the photo, that’s all.

3 layered skirt.

You can see 3 layers of skirt fabric inside her skirt. But she’s lifting it, so you can easily see her pantie. Anyway, see her apron? That’s also another reason why i called her outfit maid outfit, not gothic styled dress.

Right knee sock.

She got different knee socks. The right leg is covered with white knee sock, and the knee sock is tied with red ribbon on the upper part. It’s pretty unique and cool i guess.

Left knee sock.

The left knee sock is just plain brown colored knee sock. Both of the legs has that frilly maid band with black ribbon tying it right in the middle.

Right boot.

Her boots, focusing on her right boot. Her boots also have different accessory and different lace(?) color. Her right boot has white lace and a “jack skellington”-styled skull (like Yoko’s hairpin).

Left boot.

And the left boot got red lace and a small tied red ribbon on it. Pretty unique and interesting style of boots fashion.

Mandatory pantie shot part 1.

This is her pantie, kinda pinkish white colored, with a frill or something like that on the upper side. I like her pantie. XD

Mandatory pantie shot part 2.

Hey, the pantie shot doesn’t end there. There are 2 small pink ribbons attached on her side of the pantie. It’s pretty hard to get this shot considering there’s a very small source of light can enter this part.

Change to black background.

Forgot to say that i did this photo session with my friend Jaya (he just opened his blog yesterday, be sure to visit it), who’s also helping me in the past photo sessions. He suggested that i should change the background from pink to black. I guess he got a sharp eye! The results are also amazing.

Flip horizontal.

Used this chance to try another angle for her face, and also a close up + tight cropping styled shot. Looks like a horizontally flipped version of the 5th photo, haha.

Black ribbon.

I like that black ribbon on her chest. I think that’s the biggest ribbon attached on this figure.

Higher, higher!

Yes Louise, you should lift it even higher! XD . My first thought right after seeing this figure is: “damn, you could lift it higher!”. Does anyone also has the same thought?

POI: her outfit.

Regardless of maid outfit or gothic styled dress, this dress wins the POI. The reason why people bought this figure is her outfit. You can’t really find Louise in this outfit in any official illustrations or in the anime.

I didn’t really take my time finding someone in my blogroll with a review post of this figure, found one though at Leonia. If you want to be linked here, just tell me and I’ll put it right away.

That’s it for now! Can’t really decide what’s next to post. I got the materials but i haven’t decide which one to prioritize. Guess I’ll go with random, just be sure to check it. See you at the next post.

Louise School Uniform version - Alter

noreply@blogger.com (sonic_ver2) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 05:20:27 PDT

Louise school uniform version.

Time for another figure photoshoot, and it’s Louise’s turn to get the spotlight. It’s been awhile since i did my last photo session, over 1 month and a half i think. I don’t know what’s wrong, but this time i only got 17 photos. Anyway, i’ll skip the character introduction since everyone already knows who she is.

Alter made it.

In this figure, Alter gave us fans a chance to enjoy Louise in her normal school uniform. Not just that, Alter also gave Louise a dynamic pose, which is somewhat unique because they made her levitating.

Cheerful and full of energy.

Another plus point from Alter is her expression. Louise is totally cheerful in this figure. Maybe some people would said that Louise looks the best when she’s in her deredere mode, but you’ll still love Louise in this cheerful version of her.

Levitating version? School uniform version? Or Alter version?

I’ve heard different names for this figure like Louise levitating version, Louise school uniform version, or even Louise Alter version. Well, all of them are true: she’s levitating, she’s wearing school uniform, and she’s Alter made. So which version do you like?

Try experimenting with some angles.

Louise’s photo session is somewhat fun. As you can see, she’s levitating, she got a dynamic pose, and she also got a unique angle. So you can try shooting her with so many angle… Even though i said that, i only managed to get 17 photos.

Low angle for this one.

Like this one, i tried a low angle from her front left, and this photo above is the result. Except this time, i didn’t capture her pantie from the low angle. If you want to look at her pantie, be sure to proceed to the next photos.

Can you see the difference between this and the 3rd photo?

I even tried to experiment with close up photo and tight cropping photo. I’m not really an expert in face close up or tight cropping photo, so i guess i need more practice on it. Anyway, FYI this photo doesn’t have much different with the 3rd photo.

About the cape and the base.

And this is her from a higher angle. If you want to make her looks like she’s levitating, you should take a photo of her without showing any sign of her base supporter. Louise’s body is totally supported by her cape and only her cape, while her cape is the one which is supported by that base. That set is totally permanent and you won’t be able to remove anything.

Her hair, beautifully sculpted by Alter.

The main question here is: Is Louise’s hair this long? I know she got a long hair, but i don’t really know the actual length of her hair. And also, Alter made a very detailed version of her wavy hairstyle, even more detailed than the anime version.

Flat chest, she’s one of your DFC character for you DFC fans.

Uh… Louise’s chest is flat, it’s a very common sense for us otaku, Zero’s or Louise’s fans, or even Kugimiya Rie fans. Talk about Kugimiya Rie, i watched so many anime with Kugimiya Rie doing the voice for the main character, and all of them are: tsundere, flat chested, and short.

Wand in her right hand.

Moving on to details, i got report of seeing wand on her right hand and painted fingernails. Yeah, they’re painted in pink, beautifully done by Alter. You could say that she’s ready to swing her wand and do some void magic.

Left hand also with painted fingernails.

The same sighting of painted fingernails is spotted on her left hand, looks clearer in this photo. Well, other than that nothing’s special.

Short skirt is common sense.

Her skirt is very short, it’s also a common sense for us otaku. It’s pretty hard to find anime nowadays where in the anime the girls wears a longer skirt for their school uniform. Most of them are competing to make the shortest school uniform skirt ever.

Shoe with dust.

Damn, i forgot to dust her before doing the photo session. I can see so many white dust on her shoe while I’m viewing this photo in 100% zoom (10 Megapixel picture). Someone please remind me to dust the figure before i do my photo session.

Extreme?

Whoops, i guess this photo is pretty extreme! Yeah, pantie right from down below, her thighs, and maybe the lower part of her butt. Judging by woman anatomy, i guess this is the place of girl’s *ahem*vital part*ahem*.

Her pantie is showing.

“Her pantie is showing” is what people would thought once they saw this figure. Yeah, i guess her pose is her selling point of this figure. You don’t have to lie her down or do anything special to see her pantie. Just rotate it until you see it, done!

POI: her pantie.

Hunger for Louise’s pantie? Get this figure! Her POI is “her pantie is showing”. I like it! Alter is surely amazing and naughty. XD

Looking for another review, i only saw one as i remembered, and again, i saw it in meronpan. If you want to be added here, just comment here and i’ll add you right away.

EDIT: go here for more: Leonia

Well, that’s it for now! Next post will also be a figure photoshoot, be sure to keep check it. See you at the next post!

Akashiya Moka haul

noreply@blogger.com (sonic_ver2) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 21:56:56 PDT

Play-Asia box, it’s been awhile.

This box was in my HQ before i was back, lucky! It seems this box arrived faster than me. Yeah, as you can see this is the only haul of July. I sorta cut out my expenses because Fate and Nanoha from Alter awaits me after this.

Akashiya Moka.

It’s Akashiya Moka from Rosario+Vampire. FYI, this Moka is the awakened version of Moka. I like Moka, and she’s my favorite from the anime, especially the awakened version. That’s why i bought this figure.

Good Smile Company and Gift?

She was manufactured by GSC, but i saw Gift’s logo on the back of the box. I guess this figure is a result of collaboration between GSC and Gift. I know Gift has made some good figures, but most of their products didn’t really took me into interest, instead i thought Gift’s Saber has the weirdest face ever (and ugly, sorry for Gift Saber fans :P).

Cross (big), cross (small), Moka, and base.

At the official preview shot, i saw metal chains on her neck and on her left lower arm. I thought those parts would be a separated parts, but no… the only separated part is her crosses (the small seal cross and the big cross she sits on). You can put her small cross in her right hand, between her thumb and index finger to be exact.

Gothic: yes, metal accessories: yes, Moka awakened: yes, yes, YEEESS!

She’s just totally gorgerous, and gothic! The main reason i bought her are: gothic styled one piece dress, Moka in her awakened version, and metal accessories. Moka in the anime is minimum on outfits but maximum on sexiness. She’ll look the best if Moka’s outfits are maximized, just like this figure.

Her hair! I like it!

Her hair is another plus. I like her long hair and the shape. Anyway, when i first opened the box, i smelled something awful. After a bit of investigation, i found out that the smell came from the base. I don’t know if it is a smell of the material used to create the base. It’s not a complete mirror, but it can produce clearer reflection than the usual base.

Great!

Overall, this is a good figure. If you’re a fans of gothic style or even a fans of Moka, this figure will be a great addition to your collection. Also, it’s Good Smile Company! we can expect great quality from this manufacturer.

It would be cool if the chains on her neck are connected to the small cross.

So far, i haven’t seen any review of this figure in my blogrolls except in meronpan, be sure to check it! Well, that’s all for now. See you at the next post!

Hauls (and loots) i left behind

noreply@blogger.com (sonic_ver2) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:53:03 PDT

Things i left behind.

Before i went to Riau, i left these hauls and loots untouched. Two of them came from Play-Asia, another 2 of them again came from my local store, and the last 2 came from STF 09 loots. And now, i took the chance to open them up, make a preview photograph, and create this post. So here’s the hauls / loots classification:

May Play-Asia hauls: Yuki Gekisou (Max Factory) and Nendoroid Kureha (GSC)

June local hauls: Seena Kanon (Max Factory) and Konjiki no Yami (GSC)

STF 09 loots : Nendoroid Yoko (GSC) and Nendoroid Louise (GSC)

This time i won’t separate them into 3 individual posts so this post will be filled with 6 figures straight.

Nendoroid Kureha.

Let’s start with the May Play-Asia haul, shall we? Nendoroid Kureha is one of the item in that haul. I love Kureha, and having a nendoroid of my beloved character wouldn’t hurt, so i bought her. I just love her cute face in this nendoroid version.

Nice parts , including the “draw sword” parts.

She got some nice interesting parts. Three faces (smiling, closed eye, and serious), 4 arms (1 normal pairs, 1 bow pairs), bow and arrow, 2 swords and 2 magic circles, and 1 ribbon for the “draw sword” pose.

Overflowing with cuteness.

Nendoroid Kureha wins the cutest face awards from me. Yes, she’s a total beauty in her real form, and in her chibi nendoroid form she’s still a beauty and also combined with overflowing cuteness.

Unlike in the anime version, her face isn’t showing that she’s having an orgasm.

GSC didn’t forget to put this draw sword pose. I watched the anime, and everytime someone drawn a sword from her chest, she looks like she’s having an orgasm. I wonder why GSC didn’t make her face looks even more like she’s having an orgasm. XD

Archery action.

And this is her with her bow and arrow, ready for some archery action. She still looks sooooo cute even with her serious face. Great job GSC, for making the nendoroid version of Kureha.

Yuki Gekisou.

The 2nd item from May PA haul is Yuki Gekisou. It’s the last figure from Extravaganza set. It’s a must get for a Haruhi series fans. Right after the announcement, I’ve already decided that i would bought all 3 of them. And here, Yuki, came as the mark of my set completion.

White guitar with real string!

Yuki is equipped with white guitar, cable, and something she stepped on below. I’m not really into musical instrument world, so i don’t know what’s that thing she stepped on. Someone care to fill me in?

I like that white guitar.

Compared to the other anime guitars (Haruhi’s, Yui’s Gitah, and Mio’s bass) i like Yuki’s guitar the most. It’s white and it looks so futuristic for me. That’s why i also bought figma Yuki with before. That white guitar is the reason.

Always with her serious null face.

Yuki came with her serious null face. She looks like she’s kinda angry for me. Don’t know why. Anyway, can’t you see her guitar pick? It’s purple. Uh… nothing much i can say from here on, so just skip to the next picture.

Cool outfit Yuki!

Talk about her outfit, she wears a different styled outfit compared to Haruhi and Mikuru. While those 2 wear gothic styled outfit with frills anywhere, Yuki got a cool and simple outfit. Red short jackets and a black tight mini skirt. It’s pretty cool for me!

Nendoroid Louise.

Next is loots from Surabaya Toy Fest 2009. I bought 2 items, and one of them is Nendoroid Louise. I heard something about Louise being exclusive Hobby Stock and all, which means it’s pretty hard to get your hands on this figure. So yes… Wajuwa sold it, i saw it, and bought it right away. Took me IDR 500k (USD 49) for this cutie.

Two whips!?

Louise came with 3 faces (angry, crying, and deredere? faces), 1 pairs of normal arms, 1 pairs of whip arms, and 1 arm for book i think. She’s also came with her cape, magic book, a magic wand, and 2 whips (1 straight and 1 bended). I guess she’s always ready to whip Saito.

“SAAA-IIII-TOOO!!!!!!”

Saito, you’d better be prepared… She’s ready to whack you with her favorite whip XD ! Louise isn’t complete if she doesn’t came with her whip. I didn’t put any photo of her straight whip here.

“Saito… kiss me…”

I don’t know if this is what you called deredere face. I still don’t know that kind of expression. I do think that this isn’t the deredere face, because the deredere face is the “shy” expression. So what’s this expression called?

I love her crying face!

Oh… She’s crying! I love her crying face, and right now I’m displaying her like this. Well, nendoroid Louise is filled with cuteness, but this Louise isn’t as cute as nendoroid Kureha.

Nendoroid Yoko.

Next loot from STF 09 is Nendoroid Yoko. I decided to bought her right after i started to watch Gurren Lagann last month (aired in Animax Southeast Asia), right a week before STF 09 started. I already predicted that Wajuwa would sell this figure, my prediction came true and i bought it right away.

I need her sniper rifle!

Other than Yoko, the reason i bought this figure is the sniper rifle. Yes, even though nendoroid filled with cuteness, sometimes cool weapon can bring more fun! Anyway Yoko came with 3 faces (smiling, angry, and that last face), 1 pairs of normal arms, 1 pairs of sniping arms, 1 “face scratching” arm, and 2 pair of shooting legs. She also came with her sniper rifle and her glasses.

This is my favorite version of Yoko.

There are 2-4 version of Yoko in the anime: before Genome defeated (which is my favorite), the hunter version, Yomako sensei version, and the space version. I guess Yoko looks the best when she’s in the first version. That’s why i lost interest in watching Gurren Lagann after Simon became the supreme commander.

Shoot! Shoot!

This is the first time i got a new kind of nendoroid base. I don’t know where and how to put the figure on the base. And in the picture above, Yoko was supported by her hair and her hair was supported by the base. I guess her hair is big and strong enough to support her whole body.

Sniper rifle is win.

Surprisingly enough, you can remove her scarf. She does look weird when she doesn’t put her scarf on. Anyway, nendoroid Yoko is fun to play with, especially with her sniper rifle. For a Yoko / Gurren Lagann fans, nendoroid Yoko is a must have.

Seena Kanon Max Factory version.

And this is the last haul set: local store haul. The first item is Seena Kanon, Max Factory version. This haul should have came around March-April, but local store is always late as always. I just got the items in STF 09, i met the store owner there, he brought the items there, and i bought them right away.

Nice pose: shimapan!

Judging by the look of her base, you can say that this Seena Kanon is a set of 2 MaxFact’s 1/7 Shining Wind figures. The first figure is of course Touka Kureha from Max Factory. The first Kureha doesn’t really have a unique or dynamic pose, but this Seena Kanon came with extra service included in her unique pose: shimapan.

Facing backward, too bad.

But as you can see, her pose is the “facing backward” type, so if you want to see her pretty face, you’ll have to skip on seeing her front side body, including her chest. I guess the special part of this figure is her butt and easy-to-look striped pantie.

Her legs is just too big.

Another downside from this figure is her thigh and legs look way oversized. It’s long, it’s thick, and the size seems doesn’t really match with her body. Maybe her naughty pose is the reason for that.

Best quality from Max Factory.

Overall, Max Factory always done a very great job. Seena Kanon’s quality in sculpt and paintjob is totally amazing, just like the Max Kureha… no… maybe even better than that. I guess this is the best Seena figure I’ve ever seen.

Konjiki no Yami.

The last item, which is also the 2nd item from the local store haul is Yami. I never watch any To Love Ru, but i know this character is a loli pretty girl. The other reason i bought her is: I’m a fan of Eve from Black Cat, and i heard that Yami is designed and drawn by the same artist.

I bought her because she’s Eve to me, not Yami.

First time To Love Ru became popular, Alpha Omega released a figure of Yami, sitting and eating something. I kinda interested back there, but i can still told myself not to buy it. This time is GSC’s turn, i like GSC’s quality, and i like Eve, so i decided to buy her.

She also has the same transformation ability as Eve.

This figure is also equipped with sword transformed lower arm. Just like Eve, i guess Yami also has the same transformation ability. Hey… i never watch and read anything about To Love Ru, so if anyone care to fill me in, please do so.

Glad i bought her.

This Yami is total loli beauty, and thanks to GSC for bringing the best quality of Yami. Of all the artistic photos i made above, i like this one the most. The best part of her is her swaying hair, it took a lot of space just like what Acesan said, but it is also the best part of this figure.

Well, that’s all i can post for now. Be sure to stay updated for the next post! So… see you!!

Back at HQ and ready for action!

noreply@blogger.com (sonic_ver2) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 10:01:43 PDT

One step closer to our marriage. XD

Back at my HQ at last, and now i can continue doing things i must do. If you ask where, why, and what is all that MIA stuffs, I'll tell you here:

I went to Riau (a province in Indonesia, located in Sumatra island, while Surabaya is located in Java island), landed in Pekanbaru (the capital city of Riau), went again right to a small city 3 hours from Pekanbaru, called Duri and lived there for almost 1 month. Why? It was a step to “upgrade” my relationship with my girl, i met her parents there, Duri is her hometown. And what did i do there was socializing with her parents and her whole family (her mother’s siblings).

It was pretty fun yet kinda hard living there, because Duri isn’t really a big city. It was pretty much hard to find any entertainment. Fortunately i brought my HDD (filled with anime) along with me, so i can watch it there. Also, her family owned 2 net-cafe and multiplayer game center, so i can play there for free, that’s why i was able to do 3 posts there.

I won’t be too detailed about my trip, because it doesn’t really have any connection with my otaku life, so just skip it and move along to the next part.

Completed 12 series in a month.

I did say i watched anime while i was MIA. Yeah, in fact, i finished 12 series straight! I don’t know if i can brag about this number. For a full 30-days of doing almost nothing, i guess that number is pretty small. What do you guys think? In picture above there are 12 girls, who’re also my favorite character in each anime i watched completely: Zero no Tsukaima 3 (13), Shugo Chara (51), Toaru Majutsu no Index (26), Tayutama (12), Code Geass R2 (25), White Album (13), Gurren Lagann, CLANNAD After Story, Hatsukoi Limited, Hayate no Gotoku, Toradora, and Maria Holic.

From this list the anime i like the most is Maria Holic and followed by Code Geass R2. Zero 3 is just filled with more harem. Shugo Chara is long, but fun. Index is just like Shana. Tayutama is just your typical harem anime. Code Geass R2 is totally cool! White Album is confusing. Gurren Lagann is piercing the heaven!!! CLANNAD After Story is soooo sad, but the ending is kinda forced. Hatsukoi Limited is romantically funny and interestingly complex. Hayate no Gotoku is just very normal. Toradora is ridiculous at first and romantic at last. And lastly: Maria Holic is totally awesome and hilarious especially with Kanako yuri action!

I also watch 12 episodes of K-ON!

Oh, i forgot to mention that i watched 12 episodes of K-ON! Just as expected, K-ON is totally awesome. It was a pity that this anime ended in 13 episodes only. I haven’t watched the 13th episodes because i didn’t have it in my HDD back there.

Well, that’s all my very short anime watch list back there. For a full review, just wait for it!

Bought a mahjong set there.

The last thing worth to mention is this. I bought a mahjong set (without the table). Found it in Pekanbaru, got interested in it after reading meronpan’s post about mahjong. I never found this set in Surabaya, so i took this chance to buy it. I took IDR 380k (USD 37) for this set. I guess I’ll find more references about mahjong rules and play it with the right rules.

So there it is! See you at the next post!

Teana Lanster - Alter

noreply@blogger.com (sonic_ver2) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 10:04:46 PDT

Teana Lanster.

Yay! I’m back for another figure photos! This time is my favorite Teana Lanster! I think this is my last post in my MIA status. I’ll do more after i got back at my HQ. So for now, enjoy this one!

From Nanoha StrikerS, manufactured by Alter.

As you can see, Teana Lanster is my all time most favorite anime character, and that also makes this figure my all time favorite figure too. This is Teana Lanster, from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, and this figure is manufactured by Alter.

The best and the (almost) only Teana figure there ever was.

This version of Teana Lanster is IIRC the 2nd Teana Lanster PVC figure (excluding gashapon) ever released. The first Teana figure was that ugly Movic’s Teana i bought before. And of course that face makes this figure the best Teana Lanster there ever was!

Also had the same characteristic with the other Alter Nanoha figures.

Since this figure is one of the Alter Nanoha series masterpieces, it also has so many characteristics just like the others. Just like the dynamic action pose, complete alternate parts (weapon specifically), and also the white base with that information.

Her head is facing downward, but it’s kinda too low.

I had 2 disappointment regarding this figure. Both were caused by her pose. The first disappointment is her head is facing downward. Her head is just facing too low, resulting on her face mostly covered by her front bangs. It’s also pretty hard to see her mouth because of this low angle. Because of this matter, i had no choice but to put her above my speaker. I’ll tell the 2nd later.

Action-packed facial expression.

But nonetheless, i like her action-packed expression! She looks like she’s ready to strike anytime she wants! One of the best part from this figure which is also a hard-to-see part from this figure. FYI, I took this photo from a very low angle.

Twintails anyone?

Alter didn’t put too much details on her hair. But just look at the end of her twintails. That’s a nicely done hair sculpt right there. They also did a nice job on her black ribbons. Talk about twintails, I’ve been seeing a nice illustration of Teana with her hair down, i wonder if someone will take this style and make a figure out of it XD .

Dilemma between face and body.

Alright, and this is the 2nd disappointment i had: Her dynamic pose. It’s pretty annoying to know that figure without dynamic pose looks kinda plain, but figure with dynamic pose sometimes does not look as good as you want… a dilemma.

Although this pose doesn’t look too weird (remember Alter’s Signum), it does have a problem with it. Most of you people would like to display your figures’ head facing front. If you do that on this figure, you’ll only get a backside of a jacket and skirt, you can’t really see the front part of her main body.

Side view of Teana.

Well, that’s not really a big problem since that’s an original dynamic pose Alter gives to us Teana fans. Overall, Alter still gives us the best quality of a figure.

Tried various angle and took even more photos than before.

Because this is my most favorite figure, i also had special treatment exclusive for this figure photo session only. I tried various angle and took more photos than the other figure photos. That’s why up until now, you only saw full body photo, head and face, and half body photo of her. From this point on, you’ll get into detailed part.

Backside.

For some reason, i like this photo. Don’t know why. It’s just a photo of her back i guess.

Ideal size, not really exposed in this figure though.

Teana is a girl right? Unlike Nanoha who started her debut when she’s still in 3rd grade, i think Teana started her debut when she’s at her high school age. So it’s not surprising seeing her boobs with this size. It’s not that big, but it’s not small either. I guess this is the ideal size.

Do you know where she aims at?

Another back side of her battle jacket photos. Nothing really special, but at least you’ll all know where is she’s aiming at by looking at this photo.

Left hand.

A very detailed photos of her left glove. It’s pretty much normal. for a gun grabbing hand. Nothing special, so skip…

Right hand.

Her right hand which is also not really special, so just skip it… or don’t if you want to enjoy the details.

Cross Mirage with blade on the left.

I’ve been displaying her like this since i opened her. I put Cross Mirage with the blade on her left hand. Looks cool, especially the material used, semi transparent plastic. If you can play with lighting, i guess you could manipulate the blade’s color.

Cross Mirage without blade on her right hand.

A even closer look on the Cross Mirage. It’s a very nice detailed job from Alter. I put the one without blade on her right hand. Cool enough, i suppose.

Around the skirt.

Nice detailed job on the folds and wrinkles around her skirt. And also nice and smooth sculpt on the belt. Alter did such a great job!

No nice butt this time.

This is the part where i should say “nice butt”, but because of her white outer skirt, that nice butt isn’t really exposed. So say bye-bye to nice butt for now.

Kneeling, you can put it without her base.

In this pose she’s kneeling, so you don’t have to be afraid of putting her without her base, since she’s very balanced with that pose and you don’t have to worry about falling.

Still pale skin, just as usual.

Seeing bare thighs like this reminded me of Alter’s skin tone coloring. This time, you won’t see any different. It still looks kinda pale. If you see any differences here, that’s because the lighting settings and color manipulation.

There’s still pegs around.

Even with that pose, Alter still provide some pegs to stick the figure right on her base. I remembered about Nagato (Alter) which is at her sitting pose, she doesn’t have any pegs at the base.

Right foot.

I don’t know why but i don’t really like her shoes (boots). So yeah, skip to the next part which is also the last part of this post.

POI: eyes!

Her POI? Her eyes! Yes… Her eyes are mostly covered by her front bangs, and because of her head facing downward, it’s pretty hard to see it. But once you grab your camera, zoom, and take a closer view from a lower angle, you’ll know that she got those courageous eyes. Full of expression inside those eyes. Nice job Alter!

Well, that’s it for now. I don’t have anything more to say, so yeah… See you later!

Random Photos done by my girl

noreply@blogger.com (sonic_ver2) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:25:50 PDT

This post contains some photos which were done by my girl. While i was busy with something else (i forgot), she snatched my DSLR + 100mm macro and did some nice photograph on these 2 beauties. Anyway, this post contains photos with small caption from me. Enjoy!

Louise’s cute loli face.

Louise almost full view.

Accessory on her boots.

Her popular flat chest.

Red ribbons on her hair.

Her gothic styled choker.

Her gothic (or maid) styled hairband.

Yet another ribbons on her stockings.

It’s Mikuru’s turn.

Side view.

Cleavage!

A red rose hair accessory.

Nendoroid Puchi Miyuki.

Please do give feedback for these photos. She’s still trying to learn photography here. Well, that’s all the photos! See you later!

Amami Haruka bikini - GSC

noreply@blogger.com (sonic_ver2) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:36:35 PDT

Amami Haruka bikini version.

I did say that i was MIA, but i managed to find an internet connection and i took this chance to post something. So here it is, a figure photos of Amami Haruka bikini version.

The old version of Haruka.

Amami Haruka is a character from Idolmaster Xenoglossia, and this figure is manufactured by Good Smile Company. She’s Haruka in Idolmaster Xenoglossia version, where she was still sitting inside AMBER (i forgot, CMIIW), piloting that thing to destroy meteors. She’s still an idol in training back there. Nowadays, she’s even more popular because she became a real idol in IDOLM@STER (without xenoglossia).

There are also Iori and Yukiho with bikini.

After a little bit of searching, i found out that this figure came in a series with Hagiwara Yukiho and Forehead-chan Iori both in bikini version. If there’s Yukiho bikini figure around, i think i’ll buy it since she got the biggest breast compared to the other 2.

Sunset…

Normally, i used light blue background for bikini figure, but this time i tried orange colored background to make a sunset feeling. Turned out pretty good IMO.

Tried various angle for her face.

She’s pretty much cute, just as expected of Haruka. I tried to capture her face in various angles. Two photos for her face aren’t enough to capture her cuteness.

GSC’s old figure.

GSC really have gone in some improvement lately. This is GSC’s product from 2007, and i think the current GSC’s figures are definitely a lot better than this one.

This figure is good, but not good enough.

And this is the last photo of her face, taken from a low angle. I think her face is plain cute, but i notice something wrong with the sculpt on her face. Also her eyes don’t really give a live feeling unlike the other great quality figures.

The ribbon of ribbon-chan!

It’s pretty amazing that she’s still wearing that ribbon even though she wore that bikini. I did watch Idolmaster Xenoglossia, but i never saw her without that ribbon off. I guess that’s ribbon-chan for you!

Skin? Hm… somewhat pale.

Seeing bare skin like this reminded me of skin tone. Haruka’s skin in the anime was a little bit pale and white, so i guess this figure’s skin tone match the real Haruka. But for me, it always looks too pale.

Cleavage here, what else?

If you’re a guy and the first thing came to your mind after looking at the photo above is cleavage, then you’re a normal guy, trust me XD . It’s pretty nice seeing a cleavage of considerably small sized breast from up here, it gave a different feeling.

Small? Yes… but at least she’s not flat.

For an anime girl, she’s small. But she’s surely not flat. Compared to Yukiho, she’s nothing, but she still got something there. So… what do you guys think?

Rough sculpt around her hand.

Her favorite cell phone, with that penguin shape. I saw a very rough sculpt and painting here. The paint job on the phone is obviously pretty rough. And the sculpt around her fingers just so bad. Moreover, there’s a seamline on her thumb.

Nice pantie.

Oh ho… nice pantie. Very girlish, with that pink color, white border and those 2 cute ribbons. I guess this bikini isn’t for swimming reason but just for a show. It really suits Haruka.

Nice butt!

Although she got small breast, she still got a nice butt. Especially around that wrinkled part. Seeing her butt like this makes me want to touch it and get a feel of it XD .

Left foot… so what?

Her left foot, and sandal. Nothing special, just a photo of it.

Bad sculpt on her right foot… again.

Her right foot, which is connected to the base using a screw. The base is a custom base with sand sculpt on it, pretty good. The sculpt around her right foot is just as bad as her right hand. Also, she got a pretty glossy skin around this part.

POI: bikini.

Her POI? I think it’s her bikini. Remember in the anime? It’s cute, it’s girlish, and it’s full of ribbon, just what ribbon-chan need to add more cuteness.

Okay, that’s all for this figure. Right now, I’m still in MIA status. The next 2 posts will be a scheduled post. So yeah, see you later!

I’m MIA

noreply@blogger.com (sonic_ver2) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:44:49 PDT

I’m MIA (Missing In Action) now, and I think I’m gone MIA somewhere far away from my HQ in Surabaya for a whole month. So, there a very high possibility that there will be no updates around this time. And yeah, just wait till I get back to my HQ, see you!

Surabaya Toy Fest 2009

noreply@blogger.com (sonic_ver2) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:15:56 PDT

Surabaya Toy Fest 2009.

And… I’m back for another event coverage. Pretty quick huh? The interval between the last event and this event didn’t even reach 1 month. Lately, this kind of events have became pretty popular in Surabaya, but all of them were pretty much the same, same participants, same programs, same competitions, etc. So whatever it is, let’s get deep into the event… Oh and forgot to mention, this event was held and ran for 2 days straight: 6-7 June 2009.

Wajuwa

I’ll get to PVCs first, which will lead us to Wajuwa. I guess Wajuwa was the only Japanese PVC seller participant in this event. Saber didn’t participate, but i met the owner there. Wajuwa’s items were pretty interesting: Vita, Teana Lanster, Haruhi Alter, Tsukishiro Mina, Rider maid, Gift Saber, Limit Gunz, Emma Ai, figma Kagamine Rin and Ren, figma Kagamiku, figma Ryoko Asakura, Nendoroid Maritan, Miyuki, Kagamiku, Saber Lion, etc. I bought 2 figures from this store, what are those figures? Wait for the next post XD .

Shinra hobby shop.

Shinra sold some nice figures and they were pretty cheap. Elwing, Alter’s Mitsuru, Shuraki Nida, and Shuraki Rize. I heard Miku GSC also sold here too (with very cheap price around USD 55), except i was late and it was sold out.

A shop with nice Gundam collection.

Stack of Gundam here, including Sword Impulse, Launcher and Sword Strike Gundam, Godkeron, etc. I also saw some figma Miku and figma Shana. Not really interesting, but this store has the most Gundam kits stacked.

Surabaya Hobby Shop with cool RCs.

A store with cool collection of radio controls, complete from the ground, there’s a nice modified Nissan 350Z, air with helicopters and planes, and water with fast boats. It’s Surabaya Hobby Shop, pretty cool, but they also had that scary price tags.

Time Walk.

There was also Time Walk, a board game selling store, with free demo. I never heard about the games they sold, but they look interesting. Ever heard about Carcasonne? They also had that game sold back there.

Dream High Studio.

Dream High Studio, they got some pretty nice handmade artworks. I thought they also had BJD or Dollfie Dream, because as i remembered the last year, there was a pretty similar participant with BJD and advertising it. After seeing BJD booming in Danny Choo, i too want to take a look of a real BJD myself.

ISCC.

ISCC (Indonesia Soul Calibur Comunity), also participate in this event and held 3 games competitions. At the first day, they held Street Fighter 4 tournament, the second day, they held Soul Calibur 4 and Mario Cart NDS tournament. I didn’t participate this time.

And another nice show from the committee, they had a nice opening dance, here are some photo of it:

One of the girl on the stage.

The main dancer (queen).

And the main boy dancer.

I failed bringing cosplay photos in the last event, but this time, i got some number of cosplayer photos. I did most of them candidly, so here we go:

Anya cosplayer, without her real hair, nice costume though.

Arale and the poo from Dr. Slump, they won the best cosplay award.

Archer, ugly.

Someone from Sengoku Basara (the Masamune Date wannabe).

Da Qiao, or is she Xiao Qiao?

Darth Maul, pretty scary.

Someone fat with radiator on his sword.

A girl with short kimono and the other with Cardcaptor Sakura’s school uniform.

Sailor Moon, classic.

Stormtrooper, with light saber surrounding him.

Stormtrooper with friends.

Those warriors from Japan and China in group.

A sort of cute girl with cool cosplay, except i don’t know the character.

Yue Ying cosplayer.

Well, that’s all the event coverage. Event like this has became more and more monotone, with the same programs and all. The number of participant that sells Japanese PVC figures has dropped significantly, resulting drop of my interest in this event. But oh well, sometimes this kind of event brings me a chance to find some hidden treasure. XD

Loots? Expect them at the next post. So see you!

Ryougi Shiki - GSC

noreply@blogger.com (sonic_ver2) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 08:17:40 PDT

Ryougi Shiki

I’m back for another figure review. This time, i did a photo session using white background. Thanks to my photography friends Joan who lent me a Canon SpeedLite 430EX and Jaya who helped me with lighting settings. So here’s the result. Please note that not all of these photos aren’t purely white, some of them are edited using photoshop to get a white background.

So let’s move on to the figure itself: Ryougi Shiki.

From Kara no Kyoukai, manufactured by GSC.

Once again, she’s Ryougi Shiki, a character from Type-Moon’s anime: Kara no Kyoukai, and this figure is manufactured by Good Smile Company. I really like this figure, because she radiates elegance and beauty. I haven’t watched Kara no Kyoukai but i know she’s a total beauty.

Between Shiki and Mikuru.

Before deciding on this figure, i had a hard time picking between this figure or Mikuru gothic by Griffon Enterprises. And know, i think i took the right decision. I never know someone with review of Gothic Mikuru, and i think this figure is totally better than that Gothic Mikuru. The other reason why i picked this is her Yukata.

Cute blushes.

I think i got new habit of taking more close up photos since i got my macro lens. This close up photo is one of the result of my new habit. She got a nice pair of blushes. I don’t know why GSC added this blushes on the cool Shiki.

Plain pose?

Some of you may think that this figure has a plain pose compared to the other figure. Yes, that’s right, i think so too. Alter released so many dymanic posed figures lately, why not GSC? But every figure has its own interesting part, and in this figure, pose isn’t that interesting part.

Is she smiling?

I’ve been thinking and trying to figure this out: is she smiling? It’s pretty hard to say… Her lips looks pretty flat from a certain side, but from other side, she looks like she’s smiling. What do you guys think?

No busty chest, sorry…

Chest? Err… no, she’s not that busty. Maybe that yukata she wears doesn’t really reveals the size. I heard that Japanese girls should NOT wear pantie and bra IF they wear yukata. Is that true? If that’s really true, then Shiki isn’t wearing anything down there… XD

Great paintings!

What i really like from her yukata is the patterns on it. Let’s take a closer look on this one. And wow, i think GSC put a lot efforts while doing this. Painting very small (even smaller than 1 cm) flowers on her yukata isn’t an easy task. GSC really amazes me this time.

Great paintings also on her obi.

And also on her obi (*CMIIW* it’s the belt, i remembered it’s called obi), there are more beautiful flower painting on it. I guess i never knew there were such details painted on obi.

The backside of her obi.

And this is the backside of her obi. Also painted and sculpted nicely. I guess this is how obi is tied. I also never really noticed something like this in the anime. A girl with yukata always radiates elegance and beauty.

Her right arm and sleeve.

Uhh… i can’t really say much about this part, but she got nice sleeve with that blowing wind effect on it. So just enjoy!

The left sleeve from above.

And here’s a photo of the left sleeve from the above. It does look like wind blowing to her right. Sometimes, adding blowing wind effect on the figure could be nice, another great job from GSC.

Her “nothing special” left hand.

Her left hand, nothing special, really… I was expecting something like painted fingernail (just like what Alter did on their figures), but this is GSC, and GSC has its own way to make a figure.

Her right hand.

And this is her right hand, holding her katana. Eventhough her fingernails aren’t painted, GSC still did a pretty nice job on the sculpting. It looks pretty detailed.

A very detailed sword hilt.

And we’re moving on to her katana. And, yeah, the hilt part is nicely done. And it’s also pretty detailed… You know… i think i said “pretty detailed” too much this time. Detail isn’t everything, but if you’re doing figure photoshoot, try to get something unusual, something that our usual eyes can’[t see but a camera’s lenses can.

Very sharp katana.

Her katana looks so sharp that it looks like it really could kill someone. It also got a nice paintjob, makes it looks like it made from a real metal. It’s a pretty long katana, just as long as Nietono no Shana.

“Toward the Battle”

I think this is the best photo so far because i put a concept (meaning) in it. Also with a title to give more meaning. The title is: “Toward the Battle”. You can laugh if you want to XD .

Yet another patterns beautifully done by GSC.

Moving on to the lower part of her yukata. Can you see white pattern on it? It surely is beautifully painted, nice job once again for GSC. FYI, those patterns are all over her yukata, not only on the lower part of her yukata.

A small tissue right under her right foot.

Remember about my Shiki got leaned? Yes, and in those photos above, you can see that she stands straightly. At that time, i used a small ripped tissue, folded it, and it became a small supports. That’s also the reason why i used cotton to cover that tissue (although the other reason i used cotton is to make a snowy effect).

POI: yukata.

Can you guess the POI of this figure? It’s her yukata (including her obi). She radiates elegance and beauty of a Japanese lady in that yukata. And with all that patterns and paintings on the yukata, it makes her a perfect Japanese lady.

Well, at least that’s all i can give for today. Expect another event coverage for the next post. So… see you at the next post!

Sakagami Tomoyo - Kotobukiya

noreply@blogger.com (sonic_ver2) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 08:27:54 PDT

Sakagami Tomoyo.

Man, I’ve been busy last week of this semester and I can’t even keep up with updates. So well, in this small chance, i tried to pull myself and did a post. It’s a yet another review of Sakagami Tomoyo, a figure manufactured by Kotobukiya. Well.. just let’s get it on to the review.

Oh and forgot to mention, this was the first time i used my Canon 100mm macro lens for full photo session, so enjoy the new (if you can feel the difference) style of my photos!

My favorite Clannad girl.

Tomoyo is my favorite character from Clannad. I also like Kyou, but i didn’t really like the figure. I also discussed about choosing this Tomoyo or Kyou with my girl, and she said she didn’t like Kyou (the figure, not the character).

Still has that Key-ish art styled face.

This figure is the re-run version of Tomoyo from Kotobukiya. It has been released a long time ago, even before Clannad was aired by Kyoto Animation. That’s why this figure lacks one thing: KyoAni art style! Yes… for Key / Visual Art’s art style, this figure could be great, but not too good for me.

No summer uniform?

Oh and for your information, this figure is the only Clannad character that doesn’t wear Clannad’s school uniform (forgot the school’s name). Personally, i prefer Tomoyo in her summer uniform, but a casual clothes isn’t bad either. –_-b

Lacks of expression?

Back to her face, yeah… this part of her is the most annoying part IMO. First, she lacks of KyoAni art style. And next, she lacks of expression. Yeah… i do think that she need some kind of smile or whatsoever to enlighten her face and adding more expression in her face. But anyway, the blushes are kinda nice touch though.

Kotobukiya did her too rough.

Just as predicted, this time Kotobukiya didn’t do their homework too well. I can see seamlines right above her front bang. I think Kotobukiya did their job too rough on this figure. But don’t worry about the white dots on her hairband, those are dust :P .

Nice long hair.

I like girl with long hair, and that also goes for Tomoyo. It’s pretty nice seeing her long and straight hair goes down freely. But yeah, Kotobukiya screwed it up again. Her hair isn’t that soft. And there’s so little artistic touch on her hair. Maybe it’s some kind of an old sculpting style.

Standard size… kinda disappointing.

IIRC, she got a nice big chest in the anime, but where’s that big *cough*boin-boin oppai*cough* go in this figure? At least she still got some standard size on her chest XD . But hey, i think this figure doesn’t really emphasize on sexiness.

Glossy hand.

Her right arm grabbing the pan. You can see that right on her fingers, there’s a glossy and rough part. I guess this is just another flaw from Kotobukiya. This stuffs really make me think twice on why i decided to get this figure.

Ouch… another flaw on her hand.

Hey, that flaw doesn’t stop on her right but also her left hand. Yeah, that’s Kotobukiya, sometime they can make it good, but sometime they screwed it up. Never know why.

Looking delicious?

I think this part is the most popular part of this figure, the pan with stew in it. I don’t know what’s she cooking though. Looking delicious? No, i really don’t think so. But it’s pretty nice tough from Kotobukiya to add some small details like this stew.

Cute bear slippers.

I never knew Tomoyo wore this slippers back in the anime. Never really noticed it. But it’s cute and suits her perfectly. Except for the rough finish and poor paintjob. Just watch around the bear’s nose. The brown skin paint is overflowing to the white part.

No… nothing…

And this is the left one. Nothing in particular, so just skip it…

Mandatory pantie(?) shot.

Even her pantie doesn’t look really appealing to me. Well, it’s not really a pantie anyway. I think it’s her stockings. From down here, i can see more of Kotobukiya’s rough job, right on her skirt. But yeah… i still don’t know why i bought her.

POI: apron.

POI of this figure is her apron. Yeah, she’s not a maid, and she doesn’t wear that gothic styled or maid outfit, she only wear casual black sweaters, brown skirt, and an apron. But she could attract some fans including Optic. I guess her popularity does help on selling this figure XD . Can we expect Alter releases on Clannad characters?

Yeah that’s it! So… what do you think about the photos using new lens? Just share it here. So… see you at the next post!

Fast Typing

noreply@blogger.com (sonic_ver2) — Thu, 28 May 2009 20:39:07 PDT

Yuki is the fastest typist out of all anime characters.

Just a very random short post today, to brag about my typing speed XD . Yeah, last Wednesday (27th May 2009), i participated in a typing record challenge held by my college. The task is to type around 2900 characters (including spaces and symbols) about Italy. The software used there is MaxLite Type.

The result? I’m not the first, but the SECOND fastest typist in my college, boo yeah! (hey… I’m an IT student and i do typing everyday, especially in coding). The result was measured by 3 parameters: average typing speed (in cpm not wpm), accuracy, and time completion.

I got 370cpm for average typing speed, 90.7% for accuracy, and 7 minutes 57 seconds for time completion. There were too many hard and unusual words, and that’s the reason i can’t reach my maximum speed. Glad i brought my own keyboard XD .

I’ve tried Typer Shark’s typing test lesson and reached 77 wpm at max and 69 wpm average. In a Facebook typing application, I’ve reached 80 wpm at max. So how’s your typing speed? Ever tried to measure yourself in typing? Just share your result here!