I'm back

Well, after an over a year long hiatus I'm finally back.

I was planning to make a comeback in May 11th, to make it exactly one year break, but I'm quite busy and didn't have the time until now.

To tell the truth, my otaku culture motivation is still a lot less compared when I first began this blog, and nowhere as much as it was in my consumerism peak (in the early to mid 2000's). Compared with myself 10 years ago, now I hardly watch anime (one series per season at most), almost stopped to purchase manga at all (when once I was following over 20 titles monthly), and the time I spent in videogames became less than 10 hour per week. The global economical situation doesn't help either, and the time when an euro was 170 yen was long ago...

Perhaps I must be growing too old for this, but that doesn't means that I no longer have stuff to show in this blog! In fact, the list is too large that I'm sure I'll be missing things.

I'll try to sort it by genres, the fist being:

VIDEOGAMES

The games I purchased since my last update, 15 in total.

For PC, the English version of  Saya no Uta published by Jast USA. Is my favorite VN and I was planning my purchase back when I was living in Japan but was too expensive for such a short game. I decided to buy it in English when was first announced to support western publishers when they release quality titles... they only took 2 years for an already translated and short VN...

For PS2, the regular edition of Melty Blood Actress Again. I purchased the limited edition years ago, but because the regular edition had another cover it was on my wishlist for a while.

For XBox 360, Muv-Luv Twin Pack. I was planning to purchase the PS3 release of Muv-Luv and Muv-Luv Alternative, but then I found the XBox pack with the same price for ONE of the PS3 games and includes a Figma Kagami Sumika as well. And since my XBox is my most underused console ever (purchased only to play iM@S) is a nice way to add value to it.

For the PSP, the limited box of Fate/EXTRA CCC. The game is still unwrapped, so I can't say much...

For the PS3: 428 Fuusa Sareta Shibuya de, Aquapazza, Dream C Club Complete Edipyon! and Dream C Club ZERO Special Edipyon!.
I already bought 428 for the Wii several years ago, but I was unable to play it with my unmoded PAL Wii. I was interested because of the bonus scenario written by Nasu and drawn by Takeuchi that surprisingly was the weakest scenario of the game. I really wanted to do an extensive review + summary when I just finished it (a year ago), so maybe I'll decide to do it sometime now that I'm back.
Aquapazza is a fighting game featuring Leaf/Aquaplus characters, so is like the official version of The Queen of Hearts doujin games by Watanabe Seikakusho (now French Bread). I used to like Leaf a lot and I like fighting games, so it was a no-brainer purchase.
I was interested in Dream C Club games back when was announced for the XBox, and the games where way better than I expected, if you put aside the somewhat creepy setting of a hostess club simulator. Maybe I will do a review as well...

For the PS Vita, Fate/stay night Realta Nua. With this I bought Fate/stay night for the 6th time (3 for PC: limited, regular and DVD versions and 2 for PS2: limited and budget versions) despite not having a Vita nor planing to buy one anytime soon. At least I was able to play the extra game included as a bonus, Tobitate! Chojikuu Toraburu Hanafuda Daisakusen, in the PSP.

For the PSP, the 3 versions of The Idolm@ster Shinny Festa.To tell the truth I didn't play any of them that much and the only interesting bit besides the OVAs included (that act as an opening for each game) is the brief appearance of the iM@S Cinderella Girls idols as a collectible boosts.

And finally for the NDS two games; 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and Love Plus +.
I was interested in 999 mainly because the designs of Nishimura Kinu and because the writer was Uchikoshi Kotaro (writer of the excellent Ever17). I ordered it when the sequel was announced (fearing that it will became hard to find) and I ended with a reprint version. I liked a lot the whole premise and some of the fictional themes of the game, but for me the ending was a bit lacking and the "plot twist" was too similar to the Ever17 one...
And Love Plus +, that caught my attention before the release date. I've been playing this every day a bit for almost one year and it became the permanent cartridge in my NDS. My girl of choice was Manaka.

And to finalize my videogame review, last September Kubooka Toshiyuki visited Spain. He is one of my favorite character designer (I talked a bit about him in this post).

I was struggling what to bring to get it signed, and finally I decided on the first iDOLM@STER for the XBox (the cover for the second one was not made by him):

BLU-RAY & DVD

Not really that much I bought this last year, and most of it is still unopened.

-Fate Zero Blu-ray Disc Box II. Still unopened.

-TYPE MOON Fes. Blu-ray Disc Box. Also still unopened.

-Gurren Lagann Movies DVD's. Spanish edition, unopened.

-Evangelion 1.11 Blu-ray. I already bought it in DVD, but since now I have 2.22 and 3.33 in Blu-ray I bought this one in Blu-ray as well)

-Evangelion 3.33 Blu-ray. After the hype I had with the previous movie, I'm not sure if I liked this one. I need to see the last one to properly judge.

-Zettai Junpaku: Mahou Shoujo Blu-ray Disc. RAITA's self published short movie based in his original doujinshi series. Too bad is so short (less than 6 minutes), because the voice cast and the animation is great. PV below.


And that's all for today. I'll keep posting more as soon as I can.

Sadamoto, Kubooka and Colorful Highschool

Today I'll post a short story of my otaku youth and a bit of field work research, too.

In '93 I watched Fushigi no Umi no Nadia and I fell in love with the character designs. Months later, I read in a videogames magazine that a Japanese RPG called Lunar: The Silver Star was causing furor in the US. Thanks to the tiny pic, I instantly assumed that the character designer of Lunar was also Sadamoto Yoshiyuki, designer of Nadia.
I was young and was the pre-Internet era, so I didn't realized of my mistake until years later, in 1995, when Shin Seiki Evangelion was announced.
I became an instant fan of Evangelion because of Sadamoto's designs, and realized that the person who drew the Lunar characters was in fact Kubooka Toshiyuki, who was the animation director of Fushigi no Umi no Nadia.

Left, Fushigi no Umi no Nadia cast.
Right, Lunar: The Silver Star cast.

After that, I more or less followed the works of both Sadamoto (FLCL, .hack series, Toki Wo Kakeru Shoujo...) and Kubooka (Lunar series, Giant Robo, iDOLM@STER...).

When the arcade version of The iDOLM@STER was released, it's aesthetics reminded me of a previously released arcade game also with Kubooka as the main designer and also released by Namco, but at the moment I didn't paid much attention because those kind of games are fated to never see the light of day outside Japan...

Now, obsesed with iM@S, I began to dig for information about that game, called Seishun Quiz: Colorful Highschool.
The game was released in the still unemulated (as far as I know) System 10 arcade board in 2003, but is almost unkown even inside Japan.
As a quiz game, it follow the steps of Capcom's Quiz Nanairo Dreams, but instead of moving randomly in a board game world, in Colorful Highschool you have to specifically date with the girls and make them happy answering correctly her questions.

I don't know why it doesn't became famous, because it really seems like an early iDOLM@STER game but changing the idol part with more traditional dating sim parts, but the main focus of the game is the "events", like the "Communications" in iM@S.
The girls' movements are like in iM@S (they MOVE, and not just change from static pose to static pose) but in 2D, and despite being only partially voiced, the seiyuu cast was well known.

The characters are:

Kanzaki Miku

The transfer student. Kind, modest and pretty much the default main heroine of the game. Asks about general knowledge. Voiced by Nasu Megumi.

Kujou Ayaka

The ojou-sama from a rich family. Intelligent, good at sports and overconfident. Asks stuff from the fashion and trendy world. Voiced by Takahashi Chiaki, who also voices Azusa in Idolmaster.

Shishido Megumi

The tomboy basketball team captain. Genki type. Asks about sports. Voiced by Saitou Chiwa.

Takamura Marie

The intellectual meganekko. Clumsy and otaku, so asks about that theme. Voiced by Ueda Kana (also Tohsaka Rin's voice!).

The game was re-released in 2008 for mobile phones, and there are rumors of a possible Nintendo DS port as a cheap alternative to PSP's iDOLM@STER...

There's not really much info on the net about this game, and most of it comes from the official site (worth checking, specially the sketches of the characters). Also, the user Misokatsu from Nico Nico Douga have uploaded a full playthrough until Ayaka best ending in his list.

EDIT: For the non-NicoNico users, I uploaded the first video on YouTube.