I’ve been chatting to Joseph Tsai, who runs the TokyoHunter Proxy service (the one which offers to get the really cool event exclusives) for a while on stuff outside of simple purchase requests. He’s a really cool and friendly guy and he even gave me a glimpse of his plans for the future (which are awesome btw) but just today, he landed a bit of a bombshell.
I was told by the man himself that he’s planning to interview the GK group, Dimension Diver next week.

For those who don’t know, Dimension diver are the group who are responsible for the likes of Aegis of Persona 3 fame, here:

And Samus Aran from Metroid:

Danny Choo did a post on Aegis when the group gave him a completed one as a gift (first time I was ever jealous of one of his freebies).
The group have also done kits for an assortment of female mecha, such as Aphrodite A (mazinger Z), Neo Okusar (Godannar) and, my personal faves, Kouryu and Anryu (GaoGaiGar FINAL).

Their main site is here and you can also see their work on the FG boards (account required)

So far, so exciting. But what was really cool is that Joseph is looking for questions to ask DD next week. That’s when you guys come in…
If you have any questions you would like to ask the group, here’s your chance! If you want to ask them about what their next plans are, or how they got started, perhaps even suggest a new project for them here’s your chance!!!!

The questions can be pretty much about anything. There are no guarantees that they will be able to answer them all, but they will try and get thru as many as they can. Joseph will then post the answers in March to coincide with another little thing he’s working on. (I don’t want to spoil the surprise)

To get involved, simply leave your questions in the comments of this blog post. I’ll pick them all up and tidy them up before sending them over to Tokyohunter & Dimension Diver.
You have until Monday morning GMT to write down whatever you may want to ask.

Now, all I have to do is clear my head and figure out what I want to ask them. Aside from the obligatory “can I get some freebies!”

Images taken from the FG boards

Johnson Huang over at Garage Kit Haven has already written up a few posts regarding kits which have caught his eye so here are some which have done the same to me over at the FG boards. Luckily for me, however, these haven’t quite hit “Must get” status for myself. Though that doesn’t mean that I won’t be buying anything from the event. Curious about what I’m going to get? Well, you’ll just have to wait a little while.

Johnsons list is dominated by Touhou kits and they seem to be out in full force this year again but I’ve never found myself particularly drawn to them. My list is dominated by Bakemonogatari kits, specifically of Senjogahara Hitagi. She seems to be a rather popular choice for sculptors this time round. I only counted 3 Hachikuji kits and 1 Kanbaru. I think nadeko had one too…

Anyway, here’s a few kits which caught my eye.

Bakemonogatari

Senjogahara Hitagi

Another Senjogahara

Last Senjogahara kit (for now)

Hachikuji Mayoi

Rideback

Fuego (last seen in Summer WF 09)

Mahoromatic

Custom Figma parts for Mahoro (have no idea how this works!!)

Deathsmiles

Casper. An older kit I believe, and I would have preferred Rosa but I just simply love deathsmiles. Best shmup I’ve played in a while!!

Black Lagoon

Revy. Would have been an amazing kit of the sculptor gave it an evil smile expression instead of a frown but it’s still pretty good.

Kampfer

Sango Shizuku. The student council President and the next kit from Hihumi, who gave me Sheryl Nome!!

Shangri La

Ishida Karin. Was I the only person who actually liked the majority of Shangri-la? Or was everyone put off by all the financial talk and how countries fell without any physical evidence?

Original

Samurai Girl by Cerberus project. A non-SD figure by Cerberus project was their first venture into making a poseable figure. It was quite good as well, very detailed and cast off-able. But this SD number is too damn cute! Armour is removable here as well!!

And that’s all that has caught my attention over at the FG boards. I’m sure that there will be plenty more once pics of the actual event surface so we’ll see when i write them up next week.
Hopefully, I would have finished mass effect 2 by then. Doubt I’ll write a review of it tho. It’s really hard to write about. For starters, I’m not sure I would even class it as an RPG! To me, it’s more like a 3rd person shooter with RPG elements. Bioware may have said that the JRPG is stagnant but at least they have an identity.
Still a pretty good game tho.

All images can be found on the FG boards (account required)

Then the game release date came and went, I got my Bayonetta but no scarborough fair. Then, last week, it finally came…

2 things strike you when you first take this thing out of it’s box.

1) it’s really quite heavy for it’s size. You may not be able to pass it off as an actual weapon but if you use it to pistol whip someone, it’ll definitely leave marks!! And…
2) It’s really shoddily painted!! The actual sculpt is rather good and the details etched into the body is good too. It’s just that the person assigned to paint in the details was either really lazy or simply can’t hold a paintbrush steadily!

Paint leakage is pretty much everywhere and it really spoils the look of the gun.

Even the elevated words suffer from patches of unpainted letters…

But the black areas were the worst. it was as if, not only could the painter not hold a brush well, but was probably using one several sizes too large!!

And it affects both sides too equally.
Sufficed to say, I was rather disappointed with the overall finish. But what could a model kit painter with various paints and brushes possibly do to fix a badly painted… oh, right!

So that’s kinda what I did. I wasn’t willing to use up the excessive amounts of paint required to do a full repaint of the poor thing so I instead, opted to simply try and clean up as much of the problem areas as I could.
This did lead to some problems with the correct shade of purple needed as it required a custom mix, but I got a decent approximation which only really shows up under strong light. I found a match in the gold colour by using my “old gold” paint which I used on my knight of gold.

It’s still far from perfect but it’s much better than it was initially. Had I decided to go all the way, I’m sure I would be able to make it look even better.

The lettering was redone and made a little clearer.

Shots of the other side. I also experimented with using washes to change the colour of the gem but stuck with the original green in the end as the washes made the gem a little too dark so the colour wasn’t as vibrant.

The handle is actually quite small. I’m not sure if that’s the correct way to hold the gun, with the middle finger on the trigger, but that’s the only way for me to hold the damn thing!

Overall, I’m a little disappointed that I had to put in some extra work to get it to this level, but at least the gun was a freebie! With a little more effort and attention, this extra could have been fantastic, but I still can’t say anything really bad about it. I just wish they included it with the climax edition as opposed to making the 2 separate exclusives.
Still, the painting practice got me working on my Sheryl Nome again after a long hiatus. I was finding it hard to get back into the swing of things, but that’s all sorted now!!

And I’m left with a bit of a “meh” feeling, much like how she was when the kit was lacking colour. It’s still not a bad kit, but it simply doesn’t jump out and say “must get” for me.

But for those undaunted, She will be available to buy at winter wonderfestival in 2 weeks time for 34,440yen (not including various deputy charges you’re bound to run up against.

Awesome detailing tho. But I wonder why they made the hair transparent in the prototype…

The bow at the back looks gorgeous!

Face is a pretty good sculpt as well, unlike the majority of Dead or Alive figures. I might still be swayed as it seems to be one of those kits which really grows on you. the more I look at it, the more I like it and appreciate the details.

So, who’s getting one? or are you all going to wait for an E2046 gathering model again, like KOS-MOS?

Images are from the volks figure site

First of all, I have to warn everyone that my PG 00 gundam is currently residing in South Wales, away from my usual kit so the photos will suck somewhat, much like the PG red frame pics!

I think the announcement of  the PG 00 Gundam took many people by surprise, it certainly threw me off. I was curious as to how they were going to tackle the design after doing such a stunning job on the red frame and strike gundam but as the early pics came out I became more and more disenchanted with this newest addition to the PG line.
From a detail perspective, it really does feel more like a throwback to the earlier UC PG kits as there’s not much in terms of external detail. But also, due to the design, the frame also has little in terms of mechanical detail and there are also some weird proportions at work as well.
Nevertheless, despite these setbacks, for better or worse, this kit is, in many ways, exactly what one would expect from a perfect grade.

First, lets get one of my biggest niggles out of the way. At standard retail price, the PG 00 Gundam is the most expensive perfect grade kit available, coming in at a retail price of 25,000yen. The next ones down are the zeta gundam and GP01 zephyranthes.
And for the life of me, I cannot figure out where that extra cost comes from. In terms of complexity and parts numbers, I’m sure the Strike gundam and sky grasper combo beats out the 00 Raiser combo. as for the size of the package…

I took a few shots of the 00 Raiser box next to my old GP01 box which I still have lying around in storage (In fact, for whatever reason, I have kept a large number of gunpla boxes over the years).

Top shot.

And back. As you can see, the 00 gundam is somewhat smaller than the GP01 box. So it has fewer parts (I’m pretty sure) and has a smaller box… So where did the extra costs come in? I find it hard to believe that the GN drives and/or design changes can rack up such an increase…
In any case, I bought mine from amazon.co.jp so I snagged a 36% discount off the main price. Had it not been for that, I would have happily skipped over this number…

In any case, here’s what you get in the box. Bandai separated all the parts for the 00 gundam and 0 raiser as one would expect so it made it easier to find the correct parts and you won’t mix the sprues up.

And after several days of snapping and whatnot, this is what you end up with! A random tidbit of info, I completed the 00 gundam in the wee early hours of 1st January 2010, while watching episodes of Metal armour Dragonar!! My family doesn’t really do New Years so it flew by us. But Dragonar was a fun little show and it has one of the best OPs EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shades of freedom gundam in this pose. It was initially thought that the PG kit couldn’t do this pose as the GN drive bays cannot be rotated like it can in the other versions. Instead, one can rotate the ring which holds the 0 raiser parts in place. Probably not recommended to keep the post tho, as the parts are rather heavy so you’re putting a lot of unnecessary strain on the ring.

And here’s the 00 Gundam on it’s own. The base is the same as the one given for the strike gundam but it’s really worth getting one if you can as the 00 raiser cannot stand on it’s own. It’s too back heavy!!

Side shot where you can see the GN condensers, source of much grief during the build, which I’ll get into later.

Fully equipped. The shield parts can be attached to the GN drives as seen above or connected together to form a proper shield which can be mounted under the arm. If you have the 0 raiser parts attached, they can also be added on there.

And as a little added bonus, I took a cutaway pic so you can see the frame and compare it to it’s armoured look.

You can see that there’s not much in terms of detail on the frame parts. Everything simply looks smooth. Even the GN strips (which were a pain to put on) are usually obscured from view!
One offshoot of the frame design is the fact that you get somewhat odd proportions for the 00 gundam. The legs are somewhat fat (thunderthighs!!) while the arms are very thin by comparison. The belly area is also exceptionally thin. While previous PGs had sufficient volume to make you think that the design was plausible, the 00 frame constantly makes you wonder how the thing could possibly function with it being so damn thin!!!

There are some good points tho. You can see a small hole on the lower arm, close to the elbow. While in blaster mode, the GN rifle butt can connect to the frame to provide extra stability. A really cool feature which I hope may return in later kits. You can see it a little better in the “freedom” shot above.

And here’s the 0 raiser. fully kitted out. There’s not really much to add about this part as it’s functional and that’s about it.

The underside provides the kit with landing gears but it’s a bit of a struggle to get them working when the 0 raiser is fully equipped as the large missile pods also touch the ground…

0 Raiser equipped with the GN sword III. Basically, it’s the weapon used by the Exia except for the 00 gundam. As far as I am aware, only the PG 00 gundam has this particular weapon.

00 Raiser, fully equipped.

Sword mode is long… Really long!!! (and heavy!)

The “beam” section for the GN sword 3 is actually quite massive and literally slides over the blade.

there’s also one for the GN blaster.

Back shot  of the 00 gundam. The hole at the top is where the 0 Raiser connects.

and with the 0 raiser.

Right, with that out of the way, here come the daggers. Aside from the cost, there are some other issues I have with the 00 gundam. I’ve already mentioned the weird proportions but you really have to see it to believe it. it’s not something I can quite convey with these pics alone.
Another thing was that some idiot over at bandai thought that it would be a good idea to make the kit builder connect every single finger by hand!! Each finger consists of 3 parts and, unlike every other PG kit, you needed to put them together. Damn that was an annoying exercise in pointlessness. And I don’t know why they even bothered in the first place!!
The kit is also exceptionally back heavy when in 00 raiser mode. without the stand, it would have some serious stability issues! And the 0 raiser parts also take up a hell of a lot of space. Not quite as much as the GP01, but way more than the seed or other UC perfect grade kits.

But my biggest scorn goes to the new joint design for the kit.

I mentioned in my opening notes that in many ways, the PG 00 gundam is very much a perfect grade and this is why. Aside from the scale, 2 other things usually define a PG over the lower grade kits (afterall, you can get 1/60 HG kits). One is the level of detail in the inner frame, which I think people will agree the 00 gundam dropped the ball over, judging from the frame pics above) and the other is some gimmick or featuer in the design which (at the time of release) cannot be seen in the other grades. That’s usually because the Perfect grades have often been a testbed for gunpla ideas before they are shrunk down and put into smaller kits in the MG line. Strike gundam gave us the leg swivel mechanic which was seen in later Seed MG kits (and then modified into the derided one seen on the destiny gundam) and even before that, the inner frame design seen on all MG kits these days were first done on the PG line.
So now we have the next feature, and I hope it disappears quickly… The locking joint mechanism. Here are the shots from the instruction manual:

On paper, it seems simple enough. You are told to build the GN condensers early on and are given a warning to make sure that the parts are aligned. You then feed the condenser into a joint and then, when you press down on it, it allows you to bend the joint and the parts will snap together when the pressure is lifted and lock it in place. Great idea!! No sag and the kit should, in theory, be able to hold lots of poses because of it.

In practice, the mechanism is an exercise in extreme frustration I haven’t experienced since I built my PG Evangelion unit 1, and believe me, that eva nearly had me in tears!!!
The main problem I experienced was that after putting the condenser in, the part simply would not rotate when you pushed it in. I had to take the parts apart, double and triple check the build and then, when all else failed, apply copious amounts of elbow grease to make it work. Luckily I didn’t damage anything and it worked as advertised afterwards. One really odd issue was when I discovered that the right shoulder was only able to lock at 0 degrees (straight down) or 90 degrees (perpendicular to the ground). never did figure out why although the problem went away after I took it apart and put it back together.

One other thing which would have been somewhat funny if it wasn’t so annoying is that the joint which allows for the arm to move up and down is one of the old style joints. Also, consider the fact that the GN sword III is both large and heavy. Put the 2 together and you will find that the 00 gundam simply cannot hold the GN sword III on it’s own as the arm cannot support the weight of the weapon and will sag instantly. 3 locking mechanisms on each arm and it all turns out for naught when the GN sword gets involved. Notice that my pics with the GN sword 3 above never has it raised? Now you know why!!!

One final thing to note are the GN drives. You’ve all probably seen the video of the gimmick. Basically the parts in the GN drives can rotate and light up, giving a somewhat cool lightshow for a few seconds. There are just a few problems with that too. Firstly, the drives are really loud! when activated, they give off a very audible buzzing noise which will continue until the parts come to a near stop.
Secondly, you activate the drives by pushing them in. And they are VERY sensitive. You will often find yourself activating them accidentally while simply handling the kit, I know I did.

Sufficed to say, I wasn’t too impressed with what bandai did with this perfect grade kit, although I will stop short of saying I outright hated it. There were a few good ideas in there, most of them small but the major additions, for me, didn’t work at all. Add in the additional costs and I find it very difficult to recommend this PG to anyone. The other PG kits are cheaper, less frustrating (with the possible exception of the zeta gundam and it’s massive amounts of wiring for the lighting effects) and, for the later kits at least, more visually appealing.

Unless you’re a massive fan of the show and the gundam itself, I’d say skip it. Esp if you have to pay full price for it!!!

And as a final shot, here’s an updated shot of my PG collection. Note that the 00 gundam takes up an insane amount of shelf space!! Only the GP01 (on the far left) takes up more but then it has 2 core fighters and numerous additional parts added into the mix.
I also took a few comedy pics using my PG gundams, but I’m holding on to those. I used them to mimic several shots from animes I have seen.

What, it’s Wednesday? Oh, all right…

Well, I finally got it. After waiting several weeks after it’s initial intended launch date, Bayonetta was finally released on the first week of 2010! Lord knows why Sega thought that it would sell better on such a dead week compared to going against MW2 (which it technically still is doing) but at least it’s here.

For those who didn’t know, I have been looking forward to this game since it’s announcement. I’ve been a big fan of the Devil may cry series (except 2. nobody like DMC2) so I was really interested in seeing what the original director had up his sleeve. The premise was also just too stupid for words!
Been playing an unhealthy amount of this game since friday but I have still yet to complete it, although it’s entirely my fault as I have set myself some pretty masochistic rules for myself as I play which I might get into later.
One can use quite a few words to describe Bayonetta, and most of them begin with “over”: Oversexualised, Overdone, overblown, over the top, etc. But when you boil it down, Bayonetta can be described as thus: Pretty damn fun!!

It’s excess really gives it a camp charm and, while I don’t think it’s worth a Famitsu 40/40 or Edge 10/10, it’s definitely a strong game in it’s own right. Time to break it down a little.

Loved

• witch time: The big addition to bayonetta over DMC is witch time, activated by dodging enemy attacks at the last minute, it’s a feature which you MUST learn to use well in order to survive! But when you pull it off, and the enemies all slow down, it gives you a few important moments to truly just think about your attacks and combos without having to worry about anything else
• Bayonetta: Platinum games really did strike gold with her design. She’s sexy, sassy and (at the risk of sounding sexist) gets away with so much more than Dante. Remember the point in devil may cry 4 when you get the infernus weapon? When Dante shows it off while spouting off some seriously suggestive lines? Bayonetta does that all the time!! And she’s not under the thumb of 2 partners *cough*trish&lady*cough*
  Plus, She has a British accent!! SCORE!!!!
• “did they just…” Moments: There are quite a few moments in the game which just make you check what you saw was correct and leave you with a big smile. Torture attacks do it a fair bit. Like the first time you do the guilotine torture attack and kick the enemys ass while they’re tied up before decapitating them, or the Joys and their “death by bondage orgasm” (no, i did not just make that up!!!)
  They may not match up to Uncharted 2’s moments but they aren’t setpieces either.
• Simple but satisfying combat: One thing I disliked about playing as dante in DMC4 is that I thought that he had become too complicated to control with 4 modes which could be changed on the fly. It made it possible for some amazing combos but were often far too complicated to do well. Bayonetta makes things simple again yet makes sure that you still feel a sense of accomplishment when you do a particularly long combo.
• Smooth tracks for smooth moves: There’s something really relaxing and awesome about kicking all kinds of ass to a remixed tune of “fly me to the moon”
  It’s no Sinatra but it’s still very good!
• References galore: There are quite a few references to other games in there, from madworld to fantasy zone. Not sure what they loved so much about sonic the hedgehog tho…
• Balanced difficulty unless…: If you just play the game normally then it’s pretty fair. On the standard difficulty some bits will be challenging but not impossible. You’ll get a low score but you’ll get through it. however…

Hated

• Hell hath no fury: If the score matters to you, then bayonetta will quickly become an intensely frustrating experience. If you’re like me and want a decent score on all the stages, then be prepared to restart levels… a LOT!!! The challenge rooms (aflheims) also become some kind of horrible trap as well, ones which could very well lead you to tearing all the hair from your head!! Only MW2 had me cursing more, but I was playing on veteran difficulty!!
• Some versions are more equal than others: Everyone knows the story by now, and judging by the demos on both, it’s all true. The PS3 version of the game is considerably inferior to the 360 version. Anyone who tries to say otherwise is either lying or has only played the PS3 version. The difference is like night and day.
  That’s not to say that the PS3 version is a bad game, but it’s much like watching a movie in the regular cinema or in an IMAX in 3D, for the same price. which would you go for?
  You know it’s got to be pretty bad when someone like me can notice the framerate problems, the washed out textures and occasional slowdowns. It’s made worse by the fact that the problems can seriously work against you, esp in the more hectic fights… But more than anything I am sorely disappointed in Platinum games and Sega for their shoddy work. When the game was announced, Platinum games said that it would be on both systems, but in the end, they made a game which was tailored for the 360 and then passed the buck onto another team who had nothing to do with the development of the game so it’s no real surprise that it ended up like it did. Worse still is how Platinum games have tried to distance themselves from the debacle and effectively disowned the PS3 version. It’s like they’re backtracking on what they said to begin with. Poor show…
• Exclusively for nobody: In Australia, they get a special edition of the game which came with a small artbook, 6 track OST CD and replica Scarborough fair gun and they call it the “climax edition.”
  In the UK, you can get the artbook and CD from one retailer and the gun from another. If you want both, you need to buy it twice!! ARSE!! (and for those curious, I have bought the witch of vigrid artbook already so I went for the scarborough fair, tho at the time of writing, I’m still waiting for it. The retailer assures me that it will come tho ¬_¬)
• Luka: God I wish he died!! Imagine a guy with the arrogance of Dante but with none of the abilities or charm. That’s pretty much Luka. He’s also used as the butt of several situational humour sections but they were just really uncomfortable to watch. Like a joke with a really really flat punchline. Even the little girl, Cereza was more tolerable.
• What plot?: Bayonetta wants to tell a story but can’t. It’s narrative is so weak that it may as well not be there. the original DMC kept things simple. Dante is a half demon and has been sent to an island to get rid of the demons who lurk there.
  Bayonetta gives you plenty of backstory but then fails to flesh things out properly. It tries to get you to invest in the story but there’s not much to invest into!
• Damn cutscenes: There are too many of them!! want to go into the shop? Cutscene before and after. EVERY TIME!! Also, some story cutscenes, particularly near the beginning, are done in stills with voiceovers. The lack of movement in these scenes can often make it difficult to understand just what is going on at times.
• Suddenly… QTE: I hate QTEs in general but these take the cake!! In several instances in the game, QTEs will pop out suddenly and without warning. Usually, they’re just a single button press but some have a very small window for error. Fail it (which you probably will the first time round) and you will die. That’s just unfair and damn wrong!!!
• Angel attack: At the end of every stage, you are given a chance to play a small minigame where the game challenges you to move your aiming reticule to shoot moving targets and and exchange points for items or halos. It just feels so unbelievably out of place that one wonders what purpose it serves!
• Camera issues: It’s a 3rd person action game! What did you expect? Granted, it never plumbed to the depths of Ninja gaiden 2, but the camera is still often your enemy rather than your ally!

At the end of the day, despite it’s flaws, Bayonetta is an incredibly fun game and a very good one at that, but I stop short of calling it great. Looking back, I think Uncharted 2 would still be my game of 2009 even if Bayonetta was released last month but it’s still a solid purchase. I just wish that the PS3 version wasn’t so poor. That way, I would have been able to play the game on a controller which suits my hands far better than the 360 juggernaut.

Now, I just need to finish it! Already clocked 30 odd hours on the damn thing and I’m still not done, thanks to my targets. For those curious, I’m playing through and not accepting any award below gold on the stages. Which means that I cannot die, can only use 1 healing item per stage, need to check my awards after every verse and for the aflheims, I must complete them with only being hit once! failure to do so means restarting the stage.

I must have been mad when I thought that up, but I’ve managed it so far… Take my advice tho, don’t do it!

Well, it is now completed but it looks like it’s going to be a rather big post so I need more time to sort things out. It’s probably going to end up being a little contravertial as well…
Expect to see it soon, that is unless a certain sexy witch clad in black, wearing glasses and weilding 4 pink handguns will release her hold long enough for me to write it up!

But as the new season is just about starting up, it’s probably best to get my usual roundup done and not delay it. So here goes my thoughts for the last season:

Best show:
Seitokai no Ichizon

A really close one this time round. It was either Ichizon or Asura Cryin’ (they were picks for best of the year afterall!) but in the end, Seitokai wins it by not being affected by sequel-itis. Asura Cryin lost points for having a slow start yet expecting viewers to know what happened in the first season. the result was a rather slow and poorly paced first few eps which served little purpose other than to set a couple of things up for later while treating viewers like noobs!
But Seitokai really was a great and fun show to watch. The comedy was incredibly funny at times and even the more serious sections were done well enough that they didn’t jar too badly with the rest of the show or affect the tone of the show itself, unlike Toradora!
Surely, the name of Sugisaki Ken should go down in the annals of manly men, alongside Kenshiro, the Joestar clan, Roy Mustang et al! It was amazingly refreshing to watch a character who was so honest in his aims and was ridiculously perverted yet never came off as annoying!
The show also had another secret weapon… Normally, I would simply say that Chizuru is the best female character of the show and leave it at that. And under normal circumstances, that would be correct. Chizuru is freaking awesome! But there is a hidden character in the show who blows away even the mighty queen… Minatsu!!!
Normally, Minatsu would be a clear second in the rankings (mafuyu loses points because her intense yaoi love is simply abnormal and downright scary. It broke Ken!!) but, much like her shounen heroes she worships so much, when the situation calls for it, she can call forth an immense power…

BEHOLD!! By removing her ribbons, which are obviously some kind of power limiter, she calls forth the power of THE HOTNESS! (patent pending)

Even her character changes and she becomes just feminine enough to make her tomboyish qualities seem cute! Against such power, even Chizuru stands stunned. It’s just a shame that Minatsu only unleashes this power for a very brief period of time. Hell, she even sleeps with her limiters on!!

No, you cannot touch “THE HOTNESS!!!”

And just to recap: Hair down Minatsu >>>>>>>>>Chizuru>>Regular Minatsu>>>Mafuyu>>>>>Kurimu.

Runners up: Asura Cryin S2, Sacred blacksmith

__________________________________________________________

Biggest Surprise:
Kampfer

I actually found myself enjoying this show far more than I had expected. A lot of other bloggers and anime watchers have been pouring their love over Nyan Koi, but for some reason, I actually found Kampfer to be more entertaining overall.
The characters came off as less annoying and a closet pervert Kaede voiced by Horie Yui is awesome!! I was quite surprised by the strength of the voice cast tho. A lot of big names in there and the characters even referenced the VAs! Nogizaka Haruka tried the same trick but it wasn’t as well done, tho they went the extra mile and put Noto in the show!

___________________________________________________________

Biggest disappointment:
Queens Blade S2

Nyx Lasted a whole 3 episodes and was almost insufferably annoying!! FAIL!!!! Yeah, there were other issues as well, but that one hurts the most…

_________________________________________________________

Worst Ending
11Eyes

Now, the ending to 11eyes wasn’t particularly bad, per se. But it relied on a lot of suspension of belief of how the stuff in the show had worked prior to the last ep, a lot of “matter of fact” bits regarding parallel worlds and, most damning of all, a few abilities which were “kept secret” until they were needed. Man I hate those… It’s like a building up a mystery but leaving the most crucial part out until the solution is presented. ugh…
Otherwise it was fine, and a happy ending was had by all but it just rubbed a few of my pet dislikes a bit too much for comfort.

Runners up: Kampfer

___________________________________________________________

The “WTF” Award:
Kiddy Girl-and

I rather like the original Kiddy grade. It has it’s problems but overall, I thought it was a reasonably well done show, and by GONZO no less!!!
Kiddy girl-and may have been done by a different studio and I didn’t know what to expect but it certainly wasn’t slapstick comedy!!!
Initially, I couldn’t understand how this could be considered a sequel to kiddy grade save for the few links to the original show, such as 2 of the original 6 ES teams, 3 of 7 if you count the team not specifically mentioned in KG (we’re still missing Sinestra/Dextera, Viola/Caesario and, of course, Eclair/Lumiere. Alv/Dvgr kinda showed up tho, even though they’re dead).
But as the show went on, more of the Kiddy grade-ness came to light, such as the abilities of Q-feuille and Ascouer appearing to be somewhat simple but show great potential and, rather annoyingly, no real plot to come to light until quite late into the series…
Ascouer and Q-Feuille also have a partnership which strongly resembles Eclair and Lumiere but, again with far more lighthearted and slapstick qualities to it.
I still don’t know what to make of the show. Aside from the prologue in episode 1, the entire show felt a bit like a slap to the face with subsequent eps due to their lightheartedness, although episode 6 was comedy GOLD!!!
But now that the plot has started in earnest, it may be time to re-evaluate the show.

___________________________________________________________

The rest:

• Natsu no Arashi: Akinai Chuu contines to confuse me with random injokes but it’s still well written
• I wasn’t too big a fan of the ending to Asura Cryin either. It was decent and competent. but it just felt a bit too convenient…
• Nogizaka Haruka S2 is basically S1, but without any character introductions…
• Shin Koihime musou manages to be pretty entertaining, tho the service has been toned down quite a bit compared to the first season. And there’s going to be a season 3!
• Sora no Otoshimono was actually quite good but not quite on the same level as Seitokai or Kampfer
• Needless was really DBZ with a sense of humour. I can’t remember the last time I watched a show where the heroes stayed in the same location for so damn long!!
• The more magic they threw into umineko no naku koro ni, the less interested I became
• I don’t actually find biribiri that entertaining…
• Why the hell am I still watching Kimi ni Todoke??? It’s some kind of reflex reaction. It’s not a bad show, but I just don’t find myself interested in it!
• I don’t really see why people rave about nyan koi. It’s OK, but not great. and some of the characters come off as really annoying.
• I’m quite enjoying the sacred blacksmith. Also BREASTPLATE!!! (you have to watch the show to get it. Image was taken from desudesu a while back (link NSFW)

___________________________________________________________

And now, on with the new shows this season:

Must watch

Dance in the Vampire Bund

Naked vampire loli aside, I found the manga to be a rather interesting and engrossing read, so I’m looking forward to see how they manage to adapt it into anime form…

Seikon no Qwasar

I enjoy the manga to this show as well so I’ll be seeing how this turns out. The story isn’t particularly interesting but the characters and their abilities are. The powers also allow for some really interesting and creative attacks as well.
And yes, there will be some of this…

…Actually, a whole lot of it. But at least it serves a purpose and isn’t service for the sake of service…

Katanagatari

Based on a series of light novels from the author of Bakemonogatari. Well,  hard to say no to that, esp since I enjoyed Bakemonogatari so much. Release schedule is a bit weird for this one, as it gets just 1 ep a month for 12 months. Something to do with copying the release schedule of the books.

Interesting but meh

Durarara

Baccano gets a fair amount of praise in some circles and this show is from the same creator so I figure it’s worth checking out to see what all the fuss is about.

Ladies vs Butlers

Fanservice show? Check!

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu

I have no idea what to expect from this show, but the promo vids seemed to be able to pique my interest so it’s in!

Omamori Himari

One more service show for the road!

Why am I watching this??

Ookami kakushi

I have to stop watching these shows from the maker of Higurashi. They always start off interesting but fizzle off by the end…

So-Ra-No-Wo-To

It’s a fully original anime which hasn’t been adapted from some manga or game so I want to give it a chance but… Dammit, even the premise is silly. And the cast look like they just walked out of K-on… This might not end well…

That’s it for this season. Not many shows premiering this time round but quite a few carrying over from last season. I doubt I’ll be adding anymore to this list but never say never. Maybe I’ll take this chance to watch darker than black!! So what is everyone else watching?

All images are copyright to their respective owners

Top Shows of 2009!

I really wanted to put in Eden of the East in there as well as I thought that was a great show, but since it didn’t end and we still have to wait for a conclusion, it didn’t feel right to include it. At least bakemonogatari gave us a really well done and satsifying “last ep”

Shin Mazinger Z almost made the list too, as did Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou.

Worst shows of 2009

• Kurokami – No contest!!
• Kurogane No linebarrel – What the hell did they do?????
• Queens blade – even the service can’t save it!!
• Munto should also be in the list, but I didn’t even get past the first episode…

Biggest disappointment of 2009

• Valkyria Chronicles – Man, they screwed up really badly on that one…
• FullMetal Alchemist Botherhood – Pacing is well off!
• Toradora – WTF happened with that 2nd half???

Shows I enjoyed far more than I thought I would:

• Hatsukoi Limited – Yes it was retarded and the parts in the manga which annoyed be are still in the anime and do the same thing, but it was quite fun!
• Bakemonogatari – Not my usual type of show.
• Kanamemo – Horie Yui as Haruka was just awesome!!! (actually Horie Yui is just awesome regardless. Looking that damn cute in real life should be a crime for anyone under the age of 8 )

Other notes:

• K-on was pretty naff. There, I said it!!
• I still don’t know why I watch Maria-sama ga miteru…
• More Mahoromatic was a really fantastic surprise for the year! “ecchi nano wa ikenai to omoimasu!!”
• I get conflicting feelings by seeing my room in the Otacool book
• Buying Garage kits got both easier and harder this year. Looks like I don’t have my old method to rely on anymore, but I have more methods at my disposal, which means more overheads…
• Kendo is damn fun. I’m so glad to be wearing armour again!!!
• I still can’t believe that I finished my Knight of Gold!!!
• there were quite a few “so bad they’re almost good” shows this year.

And onto the Games

Best games of 2009

• Uncharted 2: among thieves: GOTY!!!
• Streetfighter IV: King of the hill!
• Modern Warfare 2: Multiplayer is all that matters

Honourable mentions

• Batman: Arkham Asylum is GOTY contender material, so long as you stop playing about 2/3rd of the way into the game!
• Boarderlands: Awsome fun with mates. Pretty crappy without
• Virtual On: oratorio tangram: Ahh, the memories!!!
• FLOwer was quite an experience
• Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of war 2 was the first PC game I have enjoyed for aaages!!!

Disappointments of 2009

• Ghostbusters: Fun for the first playthrough but that’s it. Multiplayer never worked either!
• Resi 5: It’s just not resi anymore…
• Bayonetta: DAMMIT, WHY??? WHY 2010???!!!!! I wanted it in 09!!! (the 360 version, else I would have just imported)

Just going to show off my chistmas gift this year and a bit of a progress report.
I’ve been working on it for a few days already and am about half way done.
But at thus stage I would say that “disappointment” would be the most appropriate description though not the most apt.
There are a number of major annoyances involved in the construction which I will go into once I complete the whole thing but, in some ways, it very much is a perfect grade and yet, not.

I have read the manga, Watched the OVA and played the game (yes, there was an Ichigeki Sacchu hoihoi-san PS2 game) so when they announced the 1/1 Hoihoi model, there was no way I was going to miss out!
I had actually bought 2. The initial plan was to build one as-is and then mod the other into something else. My first choice was to mod her into Combat-San but since Kotobukiya announced a separate kit for her, that idea became redundant.
I had several ideas for mods, ranging from Marissa from touhou to Mahoro from Mahoromatic floating around my head at various points, but after tomopop announced their monthly megapixel thingy, I picked up my copy of the Hoihoi manga, read it again and found some inspiration.

This is the result!

The project wasn’t too hard at all. In fact, the initial build was incredibly easy. Hoihoi took me just over an hour to put together, and that’s really fast! I can’t even do 1/144 gunpla that fast! well, not quite that fast…

Here are all the parts laid out. Unlike other Kotobukiya kits (SRW and Armoured core models, I’m looking at you!) there were no stupidly small parts which you could easily lose if you weren’t careful so I was able to go all out with the initial build.

Unfortunately, all the weapons required painting so Hoihoi borrowed Nieto no Shana for the above pic!

After the initial build, came the interesting stuff. While reading the hoihoi manga again, I came across this page:

And once I read it, that was when I decided how I was going to mod my Hoihoi.

There was also a good one on the FG boards but the user actually sewed the costume for hoihoi. My sewing skills are, unfortunately, somewhat lacking (tho not nonexistant!) so I had to make a few concessions and go via another route to make my santa hoihoi!

Using the masses of sculpey I still have lying around, I fashioned a cape around the neck and, using the antannae as a base, crafted the hat in a similar style to what was seen in the manga. Each antanna is housed in one of the “horns” of the hat. I also added sculpey to certain areas around the skirt and gloves. The idea was to raise the areas to make it easier to paint them white and add stuff later on. Then, disaster struck.

The sculpey required baking to make it solid so I chose to put the parts in the oven while still on hoihoi. I had tested the temperatures with spare plastic bits prior and saw no adverse effects on them. It’s just a shame that the same couldn’t be said of hoihoi herself. The parts didn’t melt but some warped badly and made her unuseable. I had effectively killed Hoihoi!!

On the plus side, the extra parts came out unscathed and held their shape. The hat also had an extra bonus in that the antannae parts were fine so I could simply put the hat onto a different Hoihoi. So there went my second one. I am now without a regular Hoihoi-san in my collection. I guess that gives me a reason to get the heavy weapons version but I hate the colourscheme…

Here’s how the hair ended up. It kept it’s overall shape but you can see where various sections warped due to the heat. Couldn’t really use it after that…

With a new body ready in about an hour, All that was left was a change in colourscheme. Being unable to cook Hoihoi meant that I had to abandon the idea of having sculpey to raise certain areas so I just painted them white in the pic above.

With the white areas painted, I stuck cotton wool to the white areas to give them the needed “fluffy” look. The hat was given the same treatment.

For the little balls on her neck, I put 2 blobs of sculpey on the ends of a piece of elastic string and then tied a bow on her neck, over the cape. The sculpey was painted white and more cotton wool was added all over.
One thing you can’t see tho (luckily) are the fingerprints I left all over the hat and cape. I’ve got a long way to go before I can say that I can sculpt stuff. Making something one can sell at Wonderfestival is a distant illusion at this point.

I actually did a bad schoolboy error when making the cape and forgot to check to see if the hair on Hoihoi actually got in the way, but luckily, I was able to turn the hair up enough to make sure that the 2 don’t interfere with eachother.

The one concession I made with the mod was that I was unable to give Hoihoi any sleeves as I couldn’t find a way to make one while keeping the articulation. I could have painted them red, but that would simply have looked awkward with the oversized hands so I chose to keep them skin coloured. At this point, some of Combat-Sans parts would have been useful. In fact, the process would have been many times easier with combat-san providing extra parts, but there’s no point in thinking about that now, since she’s not due for release until March.

The final extras were the gun included with the kit, which was painted in a simple black and white scheme and the sack. How can you have a santa without a sack???

The sack was easy. I cut a square sheet from an old handkerchief, put some cotton wool in the middle and tied the corners together with string. The sack was then tied to Hoihois hand with yet more string.

I have to rest the sack on her hair, otherwise it would simply hang on the side…

And because she’s santa, here’s a pic of her delivering an early christmas present. I finally picked up my copy of Otacool from a friend of mine who was in Japan around the time of it’s release. I just didn’t find the time to meet with her to pick it up until yesterday, when we went to see Avatar as a group. Plot was terrible but the world and the characters were really impressive!

And that’s probably it for 2009. Since it’s christmas, I don’t know if I’ll keep up with blogging until after the holidays but Sheryl still needs to be completed and I have my missing parts for KOSMOS now, so I’ll definitely be back.
Have a great christmas readers and see you in 2010!!!