Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Comic Market 81 stuff

Finally I received all the stuff I purchased from the last Comic Market, held in December. It takes me about 2 months to gather all the stuff I want from each Comike because I use several sources, and as a last resort Yahoo! Auctions. For example, this specific loot was received in 5 separated shipments from 5 different sources.

Pretty much the same as usual, doujinshi by the authors I follow and TYPE-MOON goods:

-Mahoutsukai no Hako set from TYPE-MOON
-Fate Zero set by circle Crazy Clover Club
-Circle King Revolver works
-Enikki Recycle 17 and the omake booklet by circle Initial G
-Konton Lady Studio Soushuuhen Tora by circle Konton Lady Studio
-Yayoi Ganbaru! by circle Chotto Dake Aru Yo.
-Milk Catchers 1 by circle Kuroyuki
-Namae no Nai Sakuya by circle Nuruma-ya
-Flag Crash and Omake no Carisa Hon by circle Lv. X+

And in detail:

This year Mahoutsukai no Hako set consist in two phone cleaners, a mug, a metal bookmark, 2 mini-posters and 4 plastic coasters. In the same shipment I also received Carnival Phantasm 3rd Season, that I covered in my previous entry.

Fate Zero set by Shirotsumekusa of circle Crazy Clover Club consist in T-MOON COMPLEX "ZERO" (short gag comics featuring characters from Fate/Zero), C81 Omake Hon (a small bonus booklet that contains a calendar and a few pin-up illustrations) and clear file bag. I like that he lately returned to gag comics instead of his dragged for too long T-Moon Complex X.

The latest doujinshi by Kikuta Kouji from circle King Revolver: Taisa ni Seieki o Makishirasu Hon (featuring Selvaria from Valkyria Chronicles dressed with the bikini from the upcoming Alter figure), Shouken No Bo (featuring the old school Dragon Quest warrior) and Soushuuhen to Horizon, a compilation of his previously released omake books plus a new story featuring the busty Aoi Kimi from Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon.

Enikki Recycle 17, the picture blog compilation of A1 (Initial-G) covering the first half of 2011 plus the omake booklet Criminal Girl featuring iDOLM@STER's Takane.

Konton Lady Studio Soushuuhen Tora by circle Konton Lady Studio. This actually is a C80 release but I was unable to secure a copy until now.
Is a compilation of IDOLM@STER gags drawn and written by DIT, all of them quite funny, and was sold as a pair with Soushuuhen Ryuu, that I covered in my C80 post.

Keeping my collection of Takemura Sessyu's IDOLM@STER doujinshi (4 thus far including this one) , in this one Yayoi Ganbaru! is the turn of Mami, Ami and Yayoi.

Milk Catchers 1 by Kakyouin Chiroru from circle Kuroyuki, starring HeartCatch Precure! characters Yuri and Itsuki paired with the returning kimo-ota from Milk Masters. I bought it only because I own all his previous works from the same series, because I hardly know anything of Precure besides the first season...

Namae no Nai Sakuya, the third non-hentai work of Tsukiwani from circle Nuruma-ya, starring a young Sakuya when she first entered to work in the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

Sakuya first day as a maid.

Is rare for me to say this, but now I prefer his non ero works because is much better than his usual ero-works that uses exactly the same formula each time.

And finally, Flag Crash and Omake no Carisa Hon by Yuzuki N' of circle Lv. X+. Flag Crash features the yandere Gasai Yuno from Mirai Nikki, and the bonus booklet features Carisa from Valkyria Chronicles 3. To tell the truth, I was only interested in the omake book, so for me Flag Crash was the bonus.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Carnival Phantasm 3rd Season & Fate Prototype

Released in the past Comic Market 81, here's Carnival Phantasm 3rd Season review.

The contents are:
  • Box to contain all 3 seasons and the bonus attachments
  • Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code PC game
  • Carnival Phantasm 3rd Season (both Blu-ray and dvd versions)
  • Fate Prototype Blu-ray
  • Prototype material artbook
  • C81 exclusive hand towel

3rd Season consist again in four episodes, but unlike the previous seasons only "Loli reversion" part of episode 10 was based in the original TAKE-MOON, the rest are new material

Like the other 2 seasons, both Blu-ray and dvd discs are included, no subtitles and the special audio commentary this time is made by Mahoutsukai No Hako characters Hibiki, Chikagi and Keitai-san.

The last part of the last episode acts as an epilogue, and gathers almost all the Type-Moon cast at Ahnenerbe.

My favourite characters from Tsukihime, Kara no Kyoukai, Fate/stay night and hollow ataraxia sharing the same table.

Mahoutsukai No Hako characters at last making an appearance. It's kind of weird that only appeared here, considering they work at Ahnenerbe.

The special bonus if you purchased it at TYPE-MOON both at Comike was a large hand towel (one of those used in Japan during summer to wipe the sweat) with the ending illustration.

Since is very long (20 cm x 225 cm) I was unable to fit it in one picture.

The anime this time was bundled with Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code for PC:


Actress Again Current Code was the improved arcade version of Actress Again for PS2, tweaking a few movements and including "new" characters, and this is the improved-improved version for PC

The only "completely new" character is Powered Ciel, a playable version of Executioner Ciel (that was a non-playable mid boss in Re-Act) and Archetype:Earth now uses her own sprites instead of reuse the ones from the regular Arcueid so can be considered "new". Some stages, like the one in the pic, are also new.

Characters exclusives from the PS2 version are playable as well, like school uniform Akiha and Ryougi Shiki.

The box can hold all 3 seasons, Melty Blood AACC and all the books (Catalogue, CP Dokuhon and Prototype material)

And the last bonus included is a twelve minutes Blu-ray featuring Fate Prototype, a short clip based in the original draft that Nasu wrote in his high school years that was the base of Fate/stay night.

The main character Sajyou Ayaka summoning a male Saber.

Since the main character was female and most (if not all) of the servants were male in the original draft, Takeuchi suggested to change the gender of the main characters to fit in a H visual novel, so Ayaka became Shirou and King Arthur became the female Arturia.

Prototype material includes the script of the anime and a basic bio for each character with rough sketches by Takeuchi.

The main heroine Sajyou Ayaka, a below average magus with low self-esteem. It was retconned to have blue eyes intead of black (as appeared in Character material) so it gives her a not-so-gloomy look.

Saber true identity is King Arthur. Chilvalrous yet more carefree than female Saber, was first summoned in the previous war by Ayaka's sister Manaka, but betrayed her in order to save Ayaka.

Reiroukan Misaya, Lancer master and prototype Rin. Her personality is a mix between Rin and Luviagelita, and uses black dogs as familiars.

Like the final version Lancer, prototype Lancer true identity is Cu Chulainn, and pretty much have the same personality.

Archer true identity is Gilgamesh. This Gil is not as much as prepotent as the final version, and have traits of Emiya Archer in his personality. He wants Ayaka as his woman.

Rider identity is Perseus. His master was terminally ill and used all the command seals to make Rider fully human and during the story he acts as a normal student going at the same school as Ayaka and at the same time acts as a master disguised with a mask.

Sajyou Manaka is the sister of Ayaka, and have a similar role to Illya (a seemingly inocent young girl that is in fact much older and ruthless). Summoned Saber 8 years ago and reached the Grail, but after seing the corruption of both the Grail and Manaka, Saber killed her. Resurected like Kotomine by the Grail, now is the master of Beast (similar to Avenger) and a yandere towards Saber.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

IDOLM@STER Blu-ray & Gravure For You! Vol. 3

With a delay of only two weeks, this is the review of the third Blu-ray of iDOLM@STER and Gravure For You! Vol. 3 for PS3.

The episodes included are 6, 7 and 8. Includes the usual features; creditless endings and the extended episode previews from the website.
The extra audio commentary track this time is by Wakabayashi Naomi (Ritsuko), Nigo Mayako (Yayoi) and Kugiyama Rie (Iori) for episodes 6 and 7 and Takahashi Chiaki (Azusa), Hirata Hiromi (Makoto) and Hasegawa Akiko (Miki) for episode 8.

This time the extras included (besides the usual postcards with the images from the endings and the I-Gra!! magazine) are the bonus cd Perfect Idol 02 and the booklet Key Art Collection Volume 1.

I-Gra!! this month covers Yukiho and Ritsuko. In the picture, a short manga by Kurose Kousuke

Perfect Idol 02, that contains four tracks: "Coffee Ippai no Image" (sung by Ami-Mami, Makoto and Hibiki), "Positive! -TRANCE Rearrange Mix-" (Ami-Mami), "Jitensha -HOUSE Rearrange Mix-" (Makoto) and "GO MY WAY!! -HOUSE Rearrange Mix- " (Hibiki). I don't know why they bother with remixes, since most of them are awful.

Key Art Collection Volume 1 is a 62 pages booklet that contains selected genga illustrations from the first 6 episodes. Sorry for the quality of the photos, my camera is very temperamental when taking photos of black lines in not-so-white backgrounds.

Chihaya and Haruka from episode 5

Envious Miki in episode 6

Iori dancing "SMOKY THRILL" in episode 6

Gravure For You! Vol. 3 setting this time is at the beach with the "Vivid bikini" and in the street with their personal winter outfits.

Random shoots: