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.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann - Lagann Hen

Yesterday the Aoi matsuri was held, one of the main festivals in Kyoto.
I went directly after classes to Kamigamo-jinja, were the parade ends, but it was already late when I left, I did a train exchange in Kawaramachi and a 40 minutes of walk... At the end I arrived just in time for the closing moments:

After that, I went to a Japanese theather for the first time, to see the movie Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann - Lagann Hen.


Contrary to popular belief, anime is not a popular genre in Japan, and every anime except the main stream ones (One Piece, Meitantei Conan...) are considered way too otaku-ish. That is why most of the anime is airing between 11 P.M. and 4 A.M, because is not targeted toward "normal people".
Anyway, what I wanted to say is that Gurren Lagann is airing in only one cinema in Kyoto, and where only 14 persons, myself included, watching the movie...

With the trailers you can see that you are labeled as a geek for watching this movie: the new Evangelion movie, Summer Wars (directed by Hosoda with designs of Sadamoto), the new Star Trek movie and Transformers 2.

When you purchase the ticket, they give you a Stamp Card, and if you get stamped 3 times they give you a random film strip from the movie. It sounds tempting, but you must go to the cinema 3 times (1,500 yen each, and this being the "reducted fee" for university students) and the chances of getting a lousy strip are high (for the record, the strip that I got from the limited Evangelion Movie dvd was from this scene).


The movie itself was gorgeous. The EPICness in the series was high, but in the movie reaches another whole level. Unlike the previous film, fewer scenes are directly recycled from the TV series. There are several changes in the plot, some of them quite important.

It was really great and the last 30 minutes of the movie were one of the most memorable moments in anime history.


And now a few screenshots from the movie. HEAVY SPOILERS AHEAD!!!:

In the movie Simon sees the transformation of Nia just after this scene.

Nia got several ecchi poses here and there, and even clearly visible nipples at one point.

EDIT: Here, I found a pic of it.

Dai-Gurren Dan members before the last battle.

Kamina and Kittan in the "awakening of the dream" part. The Dai-Gurren Dan members survives the battle, but Kittan still dies.

For the last battle, almost every Gurren Dan member gets his/her own Tengen Toppa and shows it in a minute of glory. In the pic is Nia's Tengen Toppa Sorubaania (ソルバーニア), that I think the correct romanized name is Solvernia.

Gurren Lagann last form, the bigger-than-ever Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, that resembles a blue Kamina with red cape. To get an idea of the size, those white dots in the background are galaxies.