Kwak x Misato

Misato loves drinking beer, so why not display her with my favourite Belgian beer glass?

Hasegawa Haruna – AKB48 13th Generation Kenkyuusei

AKB48’s 13th generation of kenkyuusei (research students) made their debut at their Akihabara theatre on the 29th March 2012. I watched the Live On Demand video of this, and one of them in particular caught my eye. Her name is Hasegawa Haruna (長谷川晴奈).

I thought I would make a little compilation of all the videos of her I can find:

First, her version of the Wonda Morning Shot commercial:

Next, her “one minute introduction”:

Her performance of Lemon no Toshigoro (檸檬の年頃)  as a Zenza girl during a Team K RESET show:

And finally, her unit song in the 13th gen KKS RESET show,  Kokoro no Hashi no Sofa (心の端のソフャー)

Watanabe Mayu – Synchro Tokimeki – Live On Music Fair 18/02/2012

Watanabe Mayu, the fourth member of AKB48 to debut as a solo artist, performing her upcoming single Synchro Tokimeki, live on Music Fair, 18/02/2012.

For more information see the Stage48 wiki.

A couple of  HD screencaps after the break:

Yamanaka Sawako – Nendoroid Petit

“How many of me can fit in my box?”

Completed Anime Series 2011

I know this post is very late given its now February. But its time for my annual list of completed anime, this time for 2011. In 2010 I completed 14 series, despite only watching anime in the 2nd half of the year. Last year, I had double the amount of time but only managed 16.

I’ll list here just the anime series (not OVAs, specials or films) that I’ve completed watching in 2011 in (rough) order. I’ve started many more series, you can see the full list at myanimelist.net. I’ll rate the shows out of 10 because that’s how myanimelist does it, even though I prefer rating out of 5 stars.  I watched  a lot more series every week when they aired, but also a fair amount of older shows:

1. Genshiken 2 – 8/10
More mature than most slice-of-life, as it is set in a university anime club where they are graduating and struggling to find jobs (very suitable in this current economic climate). Quite a different feel that season one but still hugely enjoyable.

2. Seitokai Yakuindomo – 8/10
Funny high school comedy with once again, one guy surrounded by a lot of girls. At least this time they give a reason – as a previously all-girl school has opened its doors to become a mixed school. Most of the comedy comes about since he is the only guy, and the girls are all starved of males in their lives and make lots of ecchi jokes.

3. Shakugan no Shana II (Second) – 7/10
Pretty much like two distinct series thrown together. With the first 12 episodes being almost completely slice of life and the second 12 being mostly action with a little of the slice of life thrown in. I preferred the slice of life stuff but felt there was a disconnect between the two halves of the show and I felt no interest to return to the show in between arcs.

4. Moshidora aka Moshi Koukou Yakyuu no Joshi Manager ga Drucker no Management wo Yondara aka What If a Female Manager of a High School Baseball Team Read Drucker’s, Drucker in the Dug-Out  – 7/10
An enjoyable human drama and friendship and perseverance. The theme is a girl who knows nothing about baseball trying to manage a high school baseball team using a project management textbook. But, although the baseball features strongly, the human drama aspects far outweigh it to make this enjoyable even for non-baseball fans, such as myself.

5. AnoHana aka Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai aka We Still Don’t Know The Name Of The Flower We Saw That Day – 8/10
Overblown emotional drama about a group of childhood friends meeting up again in highschool having not spoken to each other since one of their group died. Each character has let that moment affect them, and the unspoken feelings that the group held towards each other before Menma’s death has been dragging over their lives ever since and is finally allowed to come out in a huge mess of tears.

6. Sora no Woto aka Sound of the Sky – 7/10
Enjoyable slice of life about a small group of young female soldiers living in a remote village. Peaceful, fun, and occasionally beautiful. A prevailing memory is that of a lone trumpet call welcoming in the dawn from the mountainside village over the valley. The song Amazing Grace features strongly in this anime.

7. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann – 8/10
A well produced mecha action spectacular. The two cours are completely different stories. The first is a sci-fi tale of oppressed humans rising up out of their underground lifestyle, surviving in groups in the wilderness and eventually taking down a huge oppressor with their human might and all out ridiculous fearlessness. The characters here are excellent. The second half is set a long time after the first, and is a lot more political. Overall, throughout the series, the scale keeps ramping up, becoming more and more epic to the point where the scale physical can’t be any bigger.

8. Lucky Star – 8/10
Featuring four highschool girls who can be hard initially to tell apart, this series is practically zero plot and pure eavesdropping into completely normal stupid conversations that happens within a tight-knit group of friends. Hugely enjoyable, funny, and at times, even really touching.

9. Toaru Majutsu no Index II aka A Certain Magical Index II – 7/10
Like its predecessor, this contains many plot arcs dealing with a huge amount of characters, a lot returning from only very fleeting appearances in the first season. It is very dense, but maintains the same mix of talking, action, fantasy, sci-fi, and comedy for its young characters as the first season. It builds to a climax which makes it seem like both two-cour series so far have just been the prelude to the moment “when science and magic collide”.

10. Neon Genesis Evangelion – 9/10
A complete classic, mixing sci-fi, giant robots, slice-of-life, mythology, psychological emotion and much, much more. The series has different arcs to explore the different aspects, and becomes much more epic than you would ever expect. Everyone who is into anime should watch this series and the following movie “End of Evangelion”. I am a complete fan now.

11. Steins;Gate – 9/10
Set in modern day Akihabara, this is a hugely character driven time travel sci-fi. The mysteries unfold every week, with the suspense continuously building , culminating in the midpoint of the show, where the characters then have to unravel everything that has happened so far. A definite highlight of 2011 that will be remembered for years to come.

12. Usagi Drop – 10/10
A truly heartwarming story about a 30 year old bachelor who suddenly finds himself the guardian of a six year old girl. He is completely out of his comfort zone here and the two both have to learn to live with each other. This series probes real emotions about the joys, worries, struggles and experiences that one goes through when raising a child. My highest recommendations go towards this anime series.

13. Kami-sama no Memo Chou – 7/10
A show featuring teenage NEET detectives, the Yakuza, and highschool kids involved in strange mysteries. Nothing special, but still quite enjoyable, at its best on the longer character driven arcs.

14. Hanasaku Iroha – 8/10
An extremely well drawn slice-of-life set in a Japanese onsen ryokan (hot spring resort). The series switches between serious drama, comedy, and character specific episodes, so can often feel hit or miss. However, it is always really enjoyable and the animation is beautiful.

15. Eden Of The East aka Higashi no Eden – 8/10
Opening with a naked Japanese high school boy suddenly appearing waving a gun outside the White House, which distracts the police from arresting a Japanese schoolgirl who is throwing coins a White House – this series starts with mystery, and gradually uncovers more and more, involving terrorism, a crazy plan where 12 people are given £10 billion Yen to “save Japan” however they see fit – any order they want is brought to be by asking their phone’s conceirge – Juiz. I wish the iPhone’s Siri talked and behaved like Juiz. An involving series with a lot of socio-economic commentary, that is followed up by two movies.

16. Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica aka Puella Magi Madoka Magica – 8/10
A “magical girl” series that a lot of anime fans call “revolutionary”. Although to this outsider to the genre – it seems to be chock full of anime stereotypes. Still, it is enjoyable once you get pass the exterior and a light beginning with school girls somehow ends up as a universe stretching epic.

Pocky Panda

So, I was just about to tuck into my Pocky Panda that I brought back from Japan, when I realised it would look awesome with my Azunyan figure. And of course, all the K-ON! girls love snacks… I just wonder what it tastes like now…

Trips abroad 2011

As part of my look back at 2011 series of posts (at least one more of these to come btw), I thought I’d look back at all the trips I’ve made abroad this past year and share one scenery pic of each (which are nice big wallpapers if you click on them). I ended up making six trips this year, four for work (one with a big holiday attached) and two with family. So that means I didn’t actually go on any dedicated holidays at all, despite going abroad a lot.

First up in April 2011 was Erice for two weeks with work. Erice is a small town on the side of a mountain on the island of Sicily, part of Italy. Lovely views of the sea there. And we did a nice day trip to some Greek ruins.

Next up was Lisbon for a city break weekend at the end of April.

Then was a couple of weeks in August with family, visiting Switzerland. We went about and saw lots of stunning mountains.

I then went to San Sebastian, a seaside town in north Spain, with work for a week during September. The beach was gorgeous.

Then was the big one. My 2nd Japan trip in October. I love this country. I managed to spend two and a half weeks holiday there after my one week of work. Visited lots of places, which I should blog more about as I have some interesting photos to share. This is a picture of Fuji-san at night from Lake Kawaguchi-ko.

Finally, in December, was one night in Paris for work. I literally had one hour of free time, so went to see the Eiffel Tower quickly.

What will 2012 bring in terms of trips abroad? Well, I soon make a work trip to the USA and have a weekend city break in Europe planned for next month. After that, I’m not too sure – Japan wiped out all my money! I would love to plan and make a dedicated holiday to somewhere exciting but I doubt I’ll be able to. I’m sure more small trips will occur, particularly with work.

Some Games of 2011

I didn’t play enough of the big games to make a “Best of 2011” list. I didn’t think I bought that many either, although my spreadsheet lists 57 items. Instead I’ll go through that list and pick out the games which had the most effect on me this year, in the order I played them, regardless of when they were released.

Robot Unicorn Attack: Christmas – iPhone
For some reason I think I bought this after Christmas. My first infinite run game since Canabalt. It lacked the purity and brilliant art style. But made up for it with different design ideals. Don’t miss one collectable. The need to play really well for three runs in a row to get a high score. The rhythm of jump, charge, jump, charge, repeat.

Doodle Jump: Christmas – iPhone
Despite having played 22 hours on the original Doodle Jump, I bought the Christmas version for an extra 59p. And have since spent another 15 hours playing it.

stupid wordpress needs this for formatting

Ketsui: Kizuna Jigoku Tachi EXTRA – Xbox 360
The first time I played Ketsui was during my first Japan trip in 2010 in Taito HEY in Akihabara – probably the best arcade for shmups in the world. It lived up to my expectations of being brutally hard but possibly the best shmup ever made. Back in England, I couldn’t play it, but did make one trip to Blackpool to play it during the Replay Expo. Of course, I couldn’t get much time on it there. Finally, at the start of 2011, I ordered a Japanese Asian Xbox 360, solely to play this game.

Deathsmiles: Deluxe Edition – Xbox 360
But just as soon as I got my Asian 360, Rising Star games surprised everyone by releasing a Cave game in Europe. One that had come out the previous year in the North America, and two years prior to that in Japan. Despite not being fond of horizontal shooters I got hooked into this. Helped along by the fact that on the first week of release I could place 3rd in the leaderboards, despite not being a great shmup player. Seems like all the best players already had the Japanese release, and everyone else who bought it needed some time to build up their skills and strategies.

Gottlieb Pinball Classics – PSP
As well as the Asian Xbox 360, I bought another new console in 2011. The same year its successor was released, I finally bought  a PSP. Whilst I was waiting for my ordered games to arrived, I downloaded this from PSN. I loved the way you held the PSP vertically and got hooked on pinball.

OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast – PSP
The game I always wanted a PSP for, despite owning it on PS2 and other versions on Xbox and XBLA. It is still absolutely brilliant. And, despite saying I’ll never play the PS2 version again after my save file got corrupted, I started to play that one too, just so I could make use of the PSP-PS2 connectivity. Two old machines linking together beautifully.

Hatsune Miku: Project Diva – PSP
Then I got on with the Japanese imports. I’d liked a few Miku songs before (Black Rock Shooter) but wondered why she had such big popularity and why she has so many top-selling figures. Well, this game showed me the Miku charm for sure. I now have 5 Miku figures, with one more on the way. And the game is really good, and can be really difficult. Finally completing “The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku” on Hard difficulty felt like on of my greatest gaming achievements.

 K-ON! Houkago Live!! – PSP
This not only is a great rhythm game in the Project Diva mould, but is linked in to my favourite anime series. It is a shame it uses a lot of “image songs” I’d never heard before instead of the excellent season two songs. But it was really good playing each song with the different band members as you gain greater appreciation of each part of the song. Still haven’t finished it with all band members but I hope for a season two sequel!

Child of Eden – Xbox 360
A semi-sequel to one of my favourite games of all time, Rez. How could I resist. Despite falling far short of Rez (with worse music too), and annoying with its polarity switching and aping of classic Rez moments in an inferior fashion – this game still has its moments of pure beauty. The giant see-through glittering space whale! The moment when the giant see-through glittering space whale transforms into a giant glittering fiery space phoenix! The flowers. (Er, I actually bought this game twice, to get two different pre-order t-shirts, its just a shame they both are large instead of medium).

Mushihime-sama version 1.5 – Arcade
An out of nowhere release. Practically a “Black Label” remix of a game from 2004. This game improves upon the 2004 version in its standard modes. And then introduces the brand new “Max Power” modes which are just completely over-the-top fun. I was really shooting for the 1CC on my last day in Japan, but fell short on the final boss. I really really hope they port this over to the Xbox 360. The recent iPhone port of version 1.0 bodes well…

Infinity Blade II – iPhone 4S
I upgraded my half-broken iPhone 3GS to the 4S pretty much just as this game was released so bought it to see the power in the new machine. And it impressed, offering similar (if limited) visual grunt to the current gen consoles. The game itself is a highly addictive grind. I only stopped playing when it wiped my save file.
A bug that’s now apparently fixed in a patch, but all too late for me.

Zen Pinball – iPhone 4S
Possibly the best free game I can think of. The Sorcerer’s Lair table comes for free and is one of the best video pinball tables I’ve played. All the elements are there and there is so much to do in the table. There are plenty of mini-games which can only be done in the videogame and the whole thing builds up and up till you reach the final boss. My top score is 92.8 million.

Dark Souls – PS3
I bought this in the first week of December. It was the first time I used my PS3 for playing games since Yakuza 3 back in April 2010 (I only played six hours of that, so my Yakuza 4 special tin box just sits on a shelf looking pretty). And what an amazing game this is. I first played it one afternoon at a friends house, eventually taking down the Taurus Demon. When I got the game for myself, I had to do that all over again. I felt that run from bonfire to Taurus Demon was very much like a shmup. I did it hundreds of times, failing every time but twice. I knew the exact location of each enemy – and each enemy has the potential to kill you. It was all about the perfect run and improving your skills. I had huge fun further into the game too. I got addicted. I sat at work reading about the game waiting to get home and play it. I only stopped at the entrace to Blighttown because I was struck with illness for a week and then it was Christmas. I don’t think I want to get sucked into its depths again.

 ———-

 And that’s it for the highlights of what I bought last year!

A little shout out is needed to:

Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu (Version 1.5, Ressurection, Black Label, Black Label Arrange) – Xbox 360/ArcadeIt was a strange move to release the iPhone port first in the summer of 2010, so I eagerly awaited the Xbox 360 port which finally arrived in December 2012. So spend more time on the game this year. I knew I could get the 1CC (well, 1-ALL really) from the iPhone port, but it was took a little while to get it on the 360. But now, it remains the only one I can 1CC regularly, I’ve now done it various times in the arcade too. And also finally stumped up for the Black Label release, mainly for the Ketsui crossover mode. Oh, and then was surprised again when Rising Star Games brought it over to Europe. So bought it again. Um, I’ve also bought a wallscroll, clear file and artbook, despite the fact that its not even in the top three of my favourite Cave games.

 And of course, a big shout out to:

Mushihime-sama Futari Black Label
– Xbox 360/Arcade
I first bought this version 1.5 on the Xbox 360 in December 2009. It was the first Cave game I really played. It was amazing. A few days into January, and I bought the Black Label DLC and never looked back. Strangely for a game I played a lot at home, on my first Japan trip in May/June 2010, I spent a lot of time playing this in arcades. Upon returning back home, I started playing with my 32″ LCD TV sat on its side on the floor. And bought an arcade stick (of course the Mushihime-sama Futari branded one from Hori with a Seimitsu stick). I came ridiculously close to the 1CC. Finally, in August 2011 (a year and a half after I started playing it), I finally achieved the 1CC in Original mode with Reco. It felt like an anit-climax. I did it with 1 life and 3 bombs left. I could not repeat that feat. In October, in my second Japan trip, in Taito HEY arcade in Akihabara, I got the 1CC again. With Reco, 0 lives and 0 bombs left. I was buzzing. Sometime at the end of November, back in England, I achieved the 1CC for the 3rd time, again with 0 lives and 0 bombs left. I’ve never beaten the 447 million point high score of my first 1CC. I then started playing God mode. It was is awesome.

Working!! – Gashapon straps

There’s not enough figures made for Working!! (Wagnaria!! in the US) despite now having two seasons. Most are Sega prize figures. However, whilst in Japan I spotted these gashapon straps. The Japanese love straps, no phone is without one, and they also put them on their game handhelds, bags, you name it. Oh, and gashapon is the Japanese term for those capsule machine toys. I managed to pick up three of them – Taneshima Popura, Mahiru Inami, and Matsumoto Maya.  Popura and Inami are the most popular characters but Maya just appears in the background and literally only speaks in two episodes over two seasons, so was very surprised they made a strap out of her!

Games Completed 2011

Each year I keep a list of all the games I’ve completed. The criteria for making this list is somewhat dodgy. Other games you could call complete aren’t added and some people wouldn’t call some games I list as completed.  This list doesn’t represent the games I spent the most time playing either. There are many many games I play but don’t complete. Anyway,  last year I  only completed 15 games. A huge step down from last year’s 41, and the year before’s 39.  As you can see from the list, I only completed shmups and Sega games this year. Quite a few 1CC I didn’t blog about. I’ll be doing a post on the games which have struck me most this year later.

• Vorpal – Xbox 360 (Live Indie Games) – 03/01/2011 – medium, Jade Harlaq
  Space Invaders: Infinity Gene – Xbox 360 (Live Arcade) – 03/01/2011 – medium
  DeathSmiles – Xbox 360 – 21/02/2011 – 1CC, Rosa, 1L3B, EX off
  DeathSmiles: Mega Black Label – Xbox 360 – 27/02/2011 – 1CC, Rosa, EX off
  Manx TT SuperBike – Saturn – 05/03/2011 – Arcade, both tracks
  Hatsune Miku: Project Diva – PSP – 12/04/2011 – medium
  Trouble Witches Neo! Episode 1 Daughters of Amalgam – Xbox 360 (Live Arcade) – 14/05/2011 – many many continues
  Sega Rally Online Arcade – Xbox 360 (Live Arcade) – 20/05/2011
  Child of Eden – Xbox 360 – 19/06/2011
  Dondonpachi Daifukkatsu ver1.5 – Xbox 360 – 29/07/2011 – Type B, Strong, 1CC
  Mushihime-sama Futari Black Label – Xbox 360 (DLC) – 13/08/2011 – Xbox 360, Original, Reco, 1CC, 1 life, 3 bombs
  Mushihime-sama Futari Black Label – arcade – 15/10/2011 – Original, Reco, 1CC, 0 life, 0 bombs, Taito HEY
  Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu ver1.5 – arcade – 31/10/2011 – Type B, Strong, 1CC, 1 life, 0 bonbs, Taito Station Akiba
  Dodonpachi Ressurection – Xbox 360 – 10/11/2011 – Type B, Strong, 1CC, 0 life, 3 bombs
  Bug Princess (Mushihime-sama) – iPhone – 16/12/2011 – Original, Hard, M-Power, 1CC, 0 life

French Kiss – Saisho no Mail (Type A) – Review

French Kiss is an AKB48 subgroup consisting of popular members Kashiwagi Yuki, Takajo Aki, and Kuramochi Asuka. If you don’t know who AKB48 are – they are simply the biggest girl group in Japan (both in terms of members, currently at 59 full time) and sales (a quarter of a billion dollars last year just in CD sales). From this single release, French Kiss to me feel like a subgroup of AKB48 that could easily take off in the West. The three members look amazing together and their style, both in terms of looks, CD covers, and music is fairly similar to Western (well, British anyway) girl groups.

Happy New Year 2012!

A brand new year is upon us, and for some unknown reason, I’m posting an image of some chestnut shells I ate on New Years Eve. I haven’t been blogging a lot lately, there’s a lot of posts I want to make, but I’m half finished writing some I wanted to post first. Maybe next year I should just write the new posts and leave the half-finished ones alone and see if I return to them. I’m going to go through each category I claim to blog about (well, they are in the top menu bar anyways) and tell you about my thoughts on them in 2011 and what I plan for them in 2012.

Music

I thought 2010 was bad for new music releases, however, there has been nothing truly inspiring released this year. Maybe because I simply pick up each new release from my favourite old bands and the names in instrumental music I keep up with. There has been some new albums from those old bands, but of course, they are never as good as when they  were in their prime. And those instrumental acts are getting similar too. I haven’t been seeking out any new music, and even though I still attend quite a lot of gigs, I normally just take on someone else’s suggestion. I’ve also been getting more into Japanese music. I’ve been a AKB48 fan since early 2010 but ever since my 2nd Japan trip, I’ve been utterly obsessed with them – on forums constantly and watching a performance by them almost every day. It’s taken over my other hobbies recently and doesn’t look likely to stop for a while. The only thing I know in music other than AKB48 in 2012 is the return of The Stone Roses – I’ll need to get myself a ticket to one of their gigs. Oh, and Jeff Mangum (of Neutral Milk Hotel) should hopefully return to curate the delayed ATP.

Videogames

This year I’ve practically stopped playing games apart from in one genre – shoot-em-ups. And then, just by one developer – Cave. I’m still not very good at them, although have a few 1CCs notched now (which I haven’t blogged about). I still haven’t kept up with all their console releases, despite buying an Asian 4GB Xbox 360 Slim to play more of them on, despite owning a PAL Xbox. I also purchased a PSP this year (behind the times) which has been great fun. And recently, I upgraded my iPhone 3GS to a 4S so have been checking out some of the games there. In 2012 I’m seriously tempted to get a Nintendo 3DS (now that its cheap and some decent games are out), and also a PlayStation Vita when that becomes cheap and there are some games I want. Also, I’m hoping for an Xbox 360 port of Mushihime-sama version1.5.

Photos

I’ve been a bit slack on taking and sorting photos. Now I have a decent phone camera again I might take some whilst out and about – I need to explore new places recently. I’ve got loads of holiday snaps to sort out too.

Figures

This past year I’ve bought loads of scaled figures and nendos, culminating in a huge bunch of purchases during my 2nd Japan Trip. However, the more I have, the less I appreciate them. And I’m running out of room to display them nicely. I don’t even change the poses of my nendos any more. Still, there’s a few nendos coming out early 2012 that I’ll buy but maybe I should put scaled figure purchases on hold until I sort out a nice display solution.

Anime

This year I’ve been watching more series weekly as they air (although only half the amount of series that I like the look of from the previews) rather than marathoning through old series. As a result, I’ve only watched about the same number of series as last year, despite watching anime for twice as many months! I got really into Evangelion this year (behind the times again) and my favourite series from 2011 was definitely Usagi Drop. So many real human emotions. I’ll post a list soon of all the anime series I’ve completed in 2011 with thoughts. I haven’t finished the Fall 2011 series that I’m watching yet so will post thoughts on those in due course too. As for 2012, I’ve only got two series on my eye for the spring season. But I have lots of series from 2011 and some box sets to catch up on. Also, this year I’ve started reading manga. I have a huge shelf full now – I’ve been planning to blog about that for a while now, but the shelf keeps getting bigger, and I’m not finishing off enough series.

Japan

This year was strong – I made my 2nd Japan Trip! I spend a lot of time in Akihabara but also visited loads of other places. Tokyo (Roppongi, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku), Osaka, Kyoto, Toyosato (for the K-ON! school), Tsukuba, Kawaguchi-ko (for Fuji-san and Evangelion World), Nikko. There’s still loads of places in Japan I want to visit, even in Tokyo itself (like Odaiba for instance) and I need to make some pilgrimages like my Shenmue one to Yokosuka that has been on the cards for 10 years! I don’t think I’ll make my 3rd trip next year but hopefully in 2013. I should post more themed pictures here, but honestly, I find posting a large amount of photos a pain in the arse using WordPress.