Megami Magazine April '11

Another magazine that I bought only for the extra, Megami Magazine April '11 issue.

The wanted extra was a Weiß Schwarz promo card:

"New challenge! 765 Pro" card, using iDOLM@STER anime designs.

The other extra was a reversible long poster:

Swimsuit Madoka from Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica...

..and swimsuit loli-Nanoha from Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha.

As always the magazine includes lots of small posters of scantly clad anime women:

Sexy Homura, the same picture of the cover. She's my favorite character from the series.

iDOLM@STER poster featuring Hibiki, Miki and Haruka in maid uniform.

And the rest of the magazine is not really interesting, since Megami tends to be a massive pin-up collection of recent anime, most of them I don't even follow.

The only interesting thing is the character designs for iDOLM@STER anime.

Newtype March '11

More delayed reviews, this time Newtype March '11 issue:

As I said previously, I rarely buy magazines unless it have a nice extra or groundbreaking news. The reason of this purchase was the former, because it contains this clear folder:

A Takeuchi drawn clear folder featuring Saber, Arcueid, Shiki and both Neko-Arcs.

There is another clear folder included featuring Index, Mikoto and Kuroko from To Aru Majutsu no Index. I didn't watched the anime or read the novels, but maybe I'll give it a try since the Misaka Sisters are kinda similar to Serio...

The magazine contents are the usual entries about current and soon-to-come anime. Worth of mention are:

Fate/Zero anime adaptation. The airing date will be this year.

Kiritsugu and his voice actor Koyama Rikiya.

I didn't mentioned before, but iDOLM@STER will also have an anime adaptation! This time the story will follow the games, unlike the aberration that was the mecha filled Xenoglossia...
No date yet.

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica was the only anime I watched this season (not counting Fireball Charming). It was a great series, and if is not by Aoki Ume's character designs (that I don't really like much) this anime would be in my top ten...

And a Carnival Phantasm poster. No new info, just this poster.

Doujinshi loot

This is a really late review of the doujinshi received in early march:

Most of them are c79 releases from the authors I follow.

In detail:
Kikuta Kouji works (circle King Revolver): Mata Rider-san ni Nukareteru (Rider), Dopyu! to Atsumare Hana no Power (Cure Sunshine from HeartCatch PreCure!), Oppai Kikou (Selvaria from Valkyria Chronicles) and BunnyHo, featuring bunny versions of Rider and Saizaki Minori from the manga Hokenshitsu no Shinigami.

Milk Angels 1 by Kakyouin Chiroru from circle Kuro Yuki. Is the follow up of his previous titles Milk Hunters and Milk Masters, but this time moving on to the cast of Fresh Precure!

Enikki Recycle 15 compilation of A1 (Initial-G) blog entries and the bonus book Ryuugu Komachi de Dokki Doki, featuring short haired Asuza and Iori from iM@S 2 plus a 3 pages collaboration by Nekoi Mii featuring Miki.

Tsukiwani from Circle Nuruma-ya works; Dai-chan Yaku Mousou, featuring Daiyousei, Rumia and Keine and his first non-ero work Alice no Tanjoubi, starring Alice and Marisa.

T-Moon Complex EX, the latest work by Shirotsumekusa of circle Crazy Clover Club, a bonus calendar and the 4 pages omake book Arcueid Complex 0.1.

This time he didn't had enough time to do his Fate vs. Tsukihime crossover, and did a gag doujinshi of Fate/EXTRA instead. I'm glad about it, because he's much better at gag situations.

Yuzuki N' (circle Lv. X+) stuff. A doujin based in her commercial work Another World called Another Another World and the C79 releases: the Amagami books Watashi no Itoshi no Wanko-kun (featuring Ayatsuji Tsukasa and Morishima Haruka), Soen Rihoko (starring Sakurai Rihoko) and the short and Valkyria Chronicles 3 centered Omake no Rakugaki Hon.

Super Kotori Time Soushuuhen Vol. 1 from circle Konton Lady Studio. This circle is formed by two artists Tee (drawings) and DIT (story) and is focused in IDOLM@STER works. They have another circle, Chaotic Otome Studio, for their non-ero and non-IM@S works.
This is the compilation of their previous works, starring Otonashi Kotori having erotic delusions with the IM@S girls. Tee drawings are really good and his works was in my wishlist for a while, so this compilation was an instant buy.

Takemura Sessyu works from the circle Chotto Dake Aru Yo. I knew the author for his commercial work Take on Me, but it was his first IDOLM@STER doujinshi that caught my attention. Haruka to Chihaya to Producer is, as the name suggest, a competent story about Haruka, Chihaya and Producer. The girls act a bit bitchy for my tastes, but the drawings are good looking. And totally not expected, X is a futanari orgy with Ryo as the special guest. I can tolerate futa in very small doses, so I'm not sure if I want to keep buying Takemura's works...

And Mahou Shoujo Soushuuhen 2 by RAITA from circle Zettai Shoujo. I already bought the previous compilation in 2006, and I patiently awaited for this.
Mahou Shoujo is an original story about a series of magical girls fighting sex fiends. As usual, RAITA's drawings are great and keeps improving.

Sasaki, the main heroine, in her first appearance (2003).

And this is Sasaki most recent design.

More iDOLM@STER 2

I finished THE iDOLM@STER 2 three more times since my previous post.


My second playthrough was with Yukiho. Unlike Takane, her story is pretty good. She overcomes her fears and becomes more confident. At the end, she sings a self composed song called "First Step".

Since I got her good ending and not the true one, she only sang half of the song and she will finish it when the Producer returns from Hollywood.

Third playthrough with Chihaya. Her story was also good, taking aside the miraculous recovery of her throat injury thanks to the spirit of her deceased little brother that appears in form of a swallow (??).

I managed to get the true ending, that ends with the Producer going to the brother's gravestone, thanking him and asking permission to take Chihaya to Hollywood.

The third playthrough was with Haruka. She screws an audition versus Jupiter team due overwork, but at the end she becomes a great leader. Somewhat boring story...

I did a serious scheduling mistake and was unable to win one of the special festivals, so I got the good ending, when you promises her that you'll return and become her Producer again.

I got an A rank with Yukiho and S rank with Haruka and Chihaya.

So far, my best results with Chihaya.

Most likely I'll do one more entry about the game once I completely finish it.

Kara no Kyoukai Ongaku Shuu

Sorry for the lack of updates. As expected, I'm using all my free time to play iDOLM@STER 2.
I received this at the same I received the game, so I almost had forgotten that I bought it.

Kara no Kyoukai Ongaku Shu (music collection) is the first commercially available cd containing the BGM of the Kara no Kyoukai movies. The tracks were already available in the cd included in the limited edition dvd's but this is the first time sold as a stand alone.

It contains 2 discs, with a total of 18 tracks. It seems like way too few to contain all the movies, and the reason is that most of them are a medley of all the music for each movie and are around 10-15 minutes long each one.

Weiss Schwarz collection update 2

A very short entry. Today I received the last 3 Weiß Schwarz cards I ordered, plus the 27 that I received last week:


With this, my collection status is:

THE iDOLM@STER: Now I have all the promo cards. I'm still missing 12 SR cards.

Fate stay/night: Now I have all the promo cards besides the Chibi Rin promo card, that I have already ordered. Missing 3 triple rares and 3 SR.

Fate hollow/ataraxia: Now I have all the foil versions and all the promo cards. Completed!

Melty Blood: All the 100 from the booster and all the promo cards. Missing 3 SP and one SR.

For WS cards sales and trades, please visit this post!

iDOLM@STER 2 clear

Just finished my first play-through of THE iDOLM@STER 2.

My unit after winning the IA Grand Prix.

The story sections are way too few. There are only 5 story related events with your group leader, only two festivals against Ryuugu Komachi team and Jupiter rival unit doesn't appear until very late in game, completely centered in Touma and forgetting the other two.

The event parts barely develops the characters. In the first game you need to do several communications to get enough memories to do the memory appeal in the auditions. This time it was completely changed; now the events raises the overall number of appeals you can do in the auditions, and those are automatically refilled. This makes the events less necessary and since the the gameplay is now focused in the auditions, the story part is now secondary and actually worse than the first game.

Takane's story was a bit disappointing, mostly being Takane being flirted by a rich middle aged man. Her personality was changed a bit, too. She is unable to understand casual speak or foreign words, and easily gets offended due to this. I got the good ending but it wasn't as heartwarming as I expected... I hope the other girls have better stories.

Lovely swimsuit Takane.

Since until now I played the PSP version, I find the visuals incredible, and there are a pretty nice added things, like the girls able to send you pictures via the mobile phone.

Chihaya send me only 5 e-mails, and 3 of them had pictures attached (Takane send 37, and only 2 with pictures).

There's also the nice effect that now the girls wears winter and summer clothing, and changes the outfits pretty often for the events.

Takane in kimono! This sure is a future DLC.

And my status post game:

I managed to get the first position in the sales chart, but my hi-score was rather low and I ended with a B rank.

Now I'll begin my second play-through with Yukiho as the leader. Her new voice by Asakura Azumi is very similar to Hase Yurina's one, and only sounds weird in certain songs, like "Kosmos, Cosmos"

And for those curious, this is my Xbox gamertag: