Kanu Unchou Maid Ver. - By GoodSmile

Hello all! I know it's been a LONG time since the past post, which was my first music post, but I swear I have a good excuse! Actually, I have a few. After classes ended last semester I was planning to make more posts here, but little did I know that I had less than a couple of weeks worth of vacation, and life off the internet took priority there. Christmas time came, and I got the new Nikon D40 that I asked for, so I have been doing a little experimenting with it, trying to get used to it. It's rather difficult for someone who has never used an SLR before, digital or not. Anyway, down to business. I recently purchased the maid version Kanu Unchou off of a Dannychoo.com member, drakanity, so I thought I would go ahead and do my first formal figure review on her, especially since I have a DSLR to take some nice pics with now. ^^




This Kanu figure isn't a brand new release or anything, but she is quite lovely. She's listed as a "Wani Books" figure, but she was actually sculpted by Good Smile Company, and I have as of yet to be disappointed with Good Smile.



Her skirt is castoff-able (pics at the end of the article ^^), but it's too bad that her top isn't. :p



I read multiple reviews on her before I decided to purchase, something I suggest everyone do before making a figure purchase, even if they are sure that they will like the figure. One review I read mentioned her boots, which happen to be somewhat of a vibrant, semi-dark color blue, which, of course, does not seem to match her outfit at all. This would be the only complaint I have -- as they look more fitting of Ryomou than Kanu, but it's most definitely not that significant of an error in my mind.



I love her maid outfit, it gives her sort of a more girlish, cute look, while retaining her strength and elegance.



In quite a few of these pictures you can see the way Good Smile sculpted her hair, which is quite amazing. Very detailed, lots of work went into her hair, and the entire figure at that.



If anyone were considering buying this figure, I would wholeheartedly recommend it. It's an excellent sculpt, paint job, and general figure design. Definitely worth the money.

Also, not much, but at least a little yoko-pai (side of the "eyes," if you do not know what I mean by "eyes" then you may want to visit dannychoo.com and do a little research) is exposed, always nice to see. ^^



Also, these are the first pictures I have watermarked. I'm not very experienced when it comes to digital photography, whether it be actually taking pictures, or working with them in a photo editor, but I tried my best to make a good looking watermark. I ended up watermarking each photo by hand, individually, for two reasons. One, I don't have a batch watermarker (anyone know of any for windows? ^^.) Two, I had finally found a good looking design/color combo for my watermark text, but it didn't contrast enough with the white snow, so I had to tweak certain images by hand to get the contrast right.





Well, I'll stop babbling on and finish this article off with the remainder of the photos. Any and all feedback on my photo taking/editing skills is welcome, as I am trying to improve however I can. Also, just a little heads up. Here start the cast off photos, not too risque though, so shouldn't matter for most. ^^















I had promised more music posts previously, and they most definitely will be coming. For now, posts will be unpredictable, just as my current school schedule is. x.x Also, I am taking a web design class, and my final project is supposed to be a custom designed web page. As such, I am thinking of using that project as an opportunity to improve this blog. I might end up overhauling the entire design of this site, and hosting it on my own in the (somewhat) near future.

I know I don't have very many readers, but what would you like to see on this site?

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Update and Anime Girls

I'm very sorry that I haven't kept up with updates, English and History classes have been taking all of my time up, so things have been pretty hectic. I will definitely update when I have the time, and once classes end for this semester I'll be back to update daily hopefully.

In the mean time, here are a some sexy and cute anime girls. ^^

Ringo and Konata pics are from The Anime Gallery, really not sure about the rest.








And last, but not least by a long shot:

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Fall 2008 Anime List

The new Fall anime list is out! I would like to thank Denizen over at myanimelist.net for making this list. By the way, click for a much larger image. ^^

Which of these anime are on your to watch list? I have a lot of them on my list, but I'm most looking forward to Rosario + Vampire Capu2, Penguin Musume Heart 2nd Club, Clannad: After Story, Kemeko Deluxe, and Vampire Knight Guilty.

Found via dannychoo.com news items, posted by member, Sie Kensou.

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Opening of Good Smile English site

As you may or may not have heard by now, Good Smile Company has opened an English version of their website. The website is being run on Danny Choo's web platform, Mirai Gaia. Danny was, of course, the first to announce this great achievement. In his post, he also made mention of the fact that he is now part of Good Smile's "International Strategy team", they are aiming to make figures more easily available to people all over the globe. Very good news for all of us not in Japan right now.

With such great a great achievement and, I'm quite sure, many more to come, I do believe we have much to look forward to in the otaku community.

(Read the rest of this post here.)

S4 League

I recently found and started playing this game called S4 League. WOW, what an awesome game.

Created by Korean game company Pentavision (Sorry if that link doesn't work, it's supposed to be their homepage but I can't get it to load.), and translated/distributed by international game distributor Ala Playa, the game has anime inspired graphics, awesome fast paced third-person shooter action, amazing physics (not completely realistic but very well executed exaggerated physics), and excellent costume and character designs.

Here are some screen shots of my character and the gameplay.



You play either Death Match or Touch Down (where there is a ball and each team competes to get the ball to the opposing team's goal, very fast paced).



You earn "PEN", the in game currency, for playing games, with which you can purchase new weapons, skills, and costumes.



The game is still in beta so it's somewhat glitchy, bad server connections at times and slow/laggy servers. But overall it's VERY worth it to play, it's a ton of fun.



Originally found via dannychoo.com news items, posted by member: seth.frostheart.

By the way, I'm starting my new college semester tomorrow, Monday. It's already hectic, time wise, and I haven't even start, so I really don't know how much time I'm going to have. I will most definitely try to keep this blog updated, but we'll see what I can manage.

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Fullmetal Alchemist - New TV Series

Awesome news: Fullmetal Alchemist is getting another TV series!

All that's known so far is that it has been confirmed. More detail is available over at Anime News Network, info found via dannychoo.com member news items, posted by member marl0.

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Animation's 100th Anniversary.

Animation had it's 100th anniversary on the 17th of this month.

Sorry this is a little late, have been delayed in things lately.

We owe a thank you of massive proportions to the pioneer of animation: Émile Cohl. 100 years ago it took Cohl from February 1908 to May or June 1908 to create the very first animated film: "Fantasmagorie".



Made up from 700 double-exposed drawings, Fantasmagorie had a running time of almost 2 minutes. The film's title is a reference to the "fantasmograph", a mid-Nineteenth Century variant of the magic lantern that projected ghostly images that floated across the walls.

Émile Cohl


My hat is off to Émile Cohl, along with all the other pioneers of animation, without them we probably would not have such amazing animated shows:

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya


Death Note


Neon Genesis Evangelion


Howl's Moving Castle


Lucky Star


Or sweet 2D girls as these ^^:















Click on any of the pictures for full res versions, I don't have the sources unfortunately. Also, I recently found a ton of Miku pics on Wakachan, is anyone interested in a Miku pic post? :p

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Anime Parody MADs

Sorry I haven't really been able to keep up with the posts like I should, been busy organizing and cleaning around the house.

This way posted by a dannychoo.com member named Coco the Bean in the news items.

Multiple anime OP parodyMADs.

Haruhi x Hidamari Sketch OP


By the way, I realize that I haven't had this blog for long, but I would like to make it as good a blog as possible. I haven't covered any anime or idols, both quite an integral part of otaku-dom. So, I just want to let you all know that I will be covering everything, but it may take a bit for some things because I'm still getting the hang of this and I'm very busy. As a matter of fact I'm starting my next college semester in about a week or so, that will make it even harder for me. I will try to keep a pace of 1 post every 1-2 days, but we will see what happens.

Anyway, without further ado, here are a few OP parody MADs.

This is actually an ED: Haruhi x Hidamari Sketch ED


Gurren Lagann x Cutie Honey OP


Idolm@ster Xenoglossia x Neon Genesis Evangelion OP


Sunon: Sunohara x Kanon OP


Kanon x Lucky Star OP

And last, but definitely not least: Haruhi x Lucky Star OP (I love this one xD).


Has anyone here made any MADs?

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Akihabara Geeks

Otaku Dan has a review up of a movie called Akihabara Geeks over at his blog. More pics available there, too.

I'm trying to get this movie as we speak, seems very interesting. I would really like to see more about the lives of Japanese otaku. Is anyone else interested ins seeing this movie?

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My new Nendoroid and Figma!

Just got these two from Hobby Search, will take more pictures and do full reviews later. Nendoroid Mikuru and Konata Figma, I just HAD to get them both when I saw them at Hobby Seach... I should probably stop browsing that site when I know I should be saving my money. xD

I know I said the same about other figures I got, but I'm having some trouble getting any kind of good pictures out of this camera I'm using. I'm probably going to use my dad's old 35mm SLR and get the pictures on CD, at least till I get my own DSLR.

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Bakuman, from the creators of Death Note

Creators of the hit manga and anime series Death Note, Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata have started on a new series, called Bakuman.

For those who don't know, Death Note is an immensely successful series in both the US and in Japan. If you haven't read it or watched the anime by now I highly, highly suggest you do. Some people say it's just a fad, and others just plain hate it, but it really can't be denied, the art in it is amazing and the story is just so awesome.

Well, this post isn't about Death Note so I won't dwell on that too much. I just finished reading the first chapter of Bakuman, released today in Japan (August 11th), it has been scanned and translated already. It's available for reading over at One Manga.

I'm loving it already, awesome beginning chapter. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, so I will just say a few words about it, the story *seems* to be completely different from Death Note, as far as I can tell it's not a melancholic story, neither is it a detective/mystery story. Surprisingly enough, it seems to be a story about becoming manga-ka, a story type that, I'm sure, appeals to many otaku out there. The first chapter really explains a ton and gets you engaged while at the same time leave the entire story completely open, they could do ANYTHING with the story from this point. The art is spot on, as one would expect from Takeshi Obata. I will definitely be following this series closely, most likely will buy it all when it's released here.

Once again, the manga can currently be read online at One Manga. Source for this news is dannychoo.com member, Akari's news item post.

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Lucky Star OVA

I recently found this scan of a flyer for the new Lucky Star OVA. Release date for the OVA is set for September 26th, it will only be one episode though, unfortunately. =/

No matter though, it should be quite awesome. Lucky Star never fails to amaze me, even after seeing it a countless amount of times. Though, it helps that all of the characters are SO cute. xD And the fact that Aya Hirano is Konata, she really is the best seiyuu ever, at least in my opinion.

Who here likes Lucky Star? I know some people think that Lucky Star is, in their words, a "stupid" show. I guess they don't realize that the original manga was in 4-koma style, and so the show basically seems like that too. I've heard some say that they don't like it because it has too many loli characters. Well, I have the opinion that because it's drawn there is nothing wrong with loli characters, they don't hurt a soul.

Also, almost every anime has a loli character, I always hear people preaching about quality of the show, but they then will ignore shows like Lucky Star, which have excellent animation quality, and are just plain funny, fun shows to watch.

If you haven't watched Lucky Star by now then I urge you to do so right away, it's a great witty comedy.

High res version of the picture above can be found at moe.imouto.

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