Hybrid Active Figure Saber by Azone

Yesterday I went to Osaka with another companion from the university.
I think I'm getting a reputation as a doujinshi freak, because she wanted to buy BL doujinshi and asked me to show her the way to K-Books.
Since is still Golden Week, yesterday DenDen was unusually crowded, even with the rain.

While she was doing her purchases, I went to Lashinbang because there were a couple of things that I wanted to buy. One of them, a telephone card featuring a fox-eared Illya, was already sold. I'm not a big fan of telephone cards, but I systematically buy all the TYPE-MOON ones that are in the 1,000 yen price range (not so many, because the usual price is 2,000 yen or more).

The other thing was 1/6 Hybrid Active Figure Saber by Azone.
It was released in early 2007 for 23,000 yen, but since it was so expensive and I'm not a fan of dolls, I let it go until now, that I found it for 11,000 yen.

The quality is really astonishing, so you can see why is so expensive.

Here displayed without the armor parts.
 

 The face was done by Ouzaka Miki (Cherry Blossom). Is not great, and with that pseudo-happy face it seems that is high on drugs or something...

 Every piece of armor is metal, even the armored parts of the boots and the hanging details in the robe.

Caliburn is also cast in heavy metal, so heavy that the doll arm is unable to hold it properly...

Since is the Fate/hollow ataraxia version, it includes the new outfit. 

 I don't want to change the clothes, so here's a pic with the casual clothes, from Azone webpage.

In the official Azone shop in Osaka I purchased a couple of stands, one for the newly acquired Saber and one for Shiki, 420 yen each.

Random Japan

On Friday I began with the classes, so the blog wouldn't be updated very often until I get the dynamics of the classes again.
As expected, I ended in the level 3 group. The main focus of this level is speech skills and vocabulary, and we will have a vocabulary test of about 20 new words daily... in the level 2 we had test every 3 days so is quite an increase.

Anyways, since I don't have anything new to write about, I'll upload a few random pictures that I took during the past 7 months:

Iga region of Mie prefecture, a very rural place.

Shop selling tanuki statues, also in Iga.

The Glico man in Ebisubashi bridge, Osaka.

Osaka Castle.

Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavilion, in Kyoto.

The Kyoto Tower.

Maruyama Park, Kyoto.

Togetsukyou bridge in Arashiyama, Kyoto.

Another pic in Arashiyama.

Nara Park, with wild deers freely roaming around.

Toudaiji Temple in Nara.

Inside is the Daibutsu, a 15 meters tall statue of Buddha.

Purchases in Den Den Town

Pretty busy week.
Last Friday I had the placement test, on Saturday I went to Hiroshima (photos of the trip in a future post... or not) and today I went to view cherry blossom in the most famous spot in Kyoto, the Philosoher's walk.


On Thursday I went to Osaka with a fellow exchange student from the university. It was his first time in Osaka, so I showed him the otaku shops of Nipponbashi area.
While talking with him, he remarked that I indistinctively use "Nipponbashi", "Den Den Town" and "OtaRoad" to refer to pretty much the same area, but nitpicking the matter, that's not true.

"Nipponbashi" is the name of the bridge that crosses the Doutombori. Going south, down Sakai-Suji street, you find "Den Den Town" (electric town) from Nipponbashi 3-chome through 6-chome. There's a few otaku shops there (Gundam's, VOLKS Showroom, the two shops of K-Books, Animate, the main branch shops of Super Position...) and the rest are electronic shops and videogames shops like Super Potato Osaka.
"Ota Road" is the parallel street at the west side of DenDen, and is almost totally focused to hobby related stores: Melonbooks, Kotobukiya Shop, Gamers, Toranoana... and a few maid cafes.

First we went to Mandarake Grand Chaos, located in America-mura (NW from Nipponbashi).
I went to the buy-back counter to sell some doujinshi that I brought from Spain. Sometimes I buy from Yahoo! Auctions doujinshi lots, and among the stuff there are things that I had already bought. I sold 7 doujinshi (one from King Revolver, one from Crazy Clover Club and the rest from Shoujo Hyouhon, one of them containing a Takeuchi collaboration), Tsukihime Shiryoushuu (most known as White Book) and Maikaze's Touhou anime. I earned 9,800 yen, most of it coming from Touhou dvd (6,000 yen) and Tsukihime White Book (2,500 yen).

I purchased a Fate/stay night shitajiki (for 105 yen) and Ok Zwei, a Mai-HiME doujinshi from circle Twinzito that contains a collaboration by Kikuta from circle King Revolver. I think that now I'm not missing anything from him, but everytime I say this, an obscure and hard to find collaboration appears...


After that we went to OtaRoad, stopping at several shops. In Toranoana I bought:

Milk Hunters 5 by circle KuroYuki. Milk Hunters is a series of doujinshi based in the first and second seasons of Pretty Cure, where Nagisa, Honoka and Hikari are abused by a fat and ugly otaku...
I have the Milk Hunters 1-4 compilation, but the 5 and 6 seems very hard to find.

In Melonbooks building, after a brief checking on the 1st floor, we went to the second floor, that usually avoid because is the girls section, but to my surprise now a Lashinbang shop was opened there! I didn't check it all because we were short of time, but in my next trip to Osaka I want to buy a couple of goods there. I purchased Kara no Kyoukai Gengashuu Kessaku Sen 1 for 10,000 yen.

It was very expensive for a 2nd hand book, but since it was a C74 exclusive is very hard to find (only 1,000 were made). Nodaways, I was expecting to pay that much for it in Yahoo! Auctions, so it was a good purchase since I'm avoiding proxy bidder fees.
It contains key animations from the first 3 Kara no Kyoukai movies, but unlike the regular books (that I pictured in the C75 loot entry), this book is in full color.


Our last stop was K-Books. I bought:

Street Fighter Artworks Ha. Released a few days ago to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Street Fighter series. Contents wise, is similar to the previous Eternal Challenge (that commemorated the 15th anniversary), but with the new illustrations of the past five years.
Unlike previous books, is sorted by artist and not by games.

Akiman, one of the legends from Capcom's earlier period. Sadly, he left in 2003.

Bengus, now known as CRMK. The guy who defined the main Street Fighter II cast and created from scratch the Darkstalkers/Vampire cast. Until he left in 2006, he was my favourite artist at Capcom.

Nishimura Kinu. When Bengus left, she became my favourite.

Shinkiro. Formerly an SNK employee, I didn't got used yet to seeing his works with Capcom label.

Edayan. Sometimes I find some of his drawings a bit ugly, specially the girl's noses, but most of the time his works are great.

Ikeno. I don't like his "realistic style", but is the main one in SFIV... I prefer his cartoonish style better (like the pics in the photo).


Bonus photo. Capcom Main HQ, located in Osaka. Was my first stop in my first trip to Osaka.

Doujinshi purchases

Yesterday I went to Osaka because over a month and half had passed since my last visit.

First I went to Mandarake Umeda, because last time I went was in September, in my first trip to Osaka. Is near the Umeda Station, but since that station is like a labyrinth, is really hard to find the right exit. I pick the nearest exit and once outside I going around the station until a Namco Land arcade center. From there is straight following that shopping arcade.
From all the Mandarake shops that I visited (Grand Chaos, Nakano, Shibuya and Complex), Umeda have the smallest doujinshi section. At the end I didn't buy anything there, so I went to Nipponbashi.

First I went to Melonbooks Osaka, to check if they had the new releases of Sunshine Creation (that was yesterday). They had only a few of them, but luckily Oppai Suki? Boku Wa Suki, the newest doujinshi of Kikuta from circle King Revolver, was one of them.
The main character is Rider with the wrestling suit (from the last April Fools' joke of TYPE-MOON).

After that I went to K-Books Nanba. I didn't expect anything new but I found:


Enikki Recycle 7 and 8 with the extra booklet Beat Angel by A1 from circle Initial G.
I discovered this author for his pics of To Heart that sadly are not longer available on his website (but still uses in his banners). His real name is Yoshioka Eiichi, known for being the character designer of Quiz Magical Academy games.
He maintains a picture diary that every 6 months compiles in a DVD that sells at Comiket. As a bonus he does small booklets that sells along with the DVD. He draws stuff from from several series, but among his preferences (that changes often) are To Heart, Muv-Luv, Marimite and in the past few years mostly iDOLM@STER.

Hakanai, a Kiddy Grade doujinshi from circle Irodori. This circle is very prolific and contains several authors, but the main one is SOYOSOYO.
I bought it because it contains a 6 color pages collaboration by Shirotsumekusa from circle CRAZY CLOVER CLUB.

And Doppo, an old R.O.D. doujinshi by circle King Revolver. Finally I own all the doujinshi by this author, yaaay!

Doujinshi purchases Part 3

The last stop in my Osaka trip was Toranoana Nanba.

They had a bargain sale, with a lot of their used doujinshi at 100 yen each (105 tax included). I didn't expected much since Toranoana is not specialized in used doujinshi (is kind of a "multi-purpose otaku shop") and usually the 100 yen corner is filled with leftovers that nobody wants.

I ended buying:
Applause, a Fate/hollow ataraxia fanbook, with several pin-ups from different circles.

Momiji-iro No Tsuki by circle Nanairo Koubou. Nothing to say about since I don't know the circle. Nice parody of Tsukihime.

Man in the Mirror by circle Black Dog.
He is known by his recurrent theme of "Sailor Moon team gang raped in a train", but in this doujinshi changing the "Sailor Moon team" part by "Kagami from Lucky Star". Despite beign repetitive, his drawings are top notch.

Outlet 3 by St. Different. I was fooled by the different To Heart cover, so I ended buying the same twice. Not familiar with the circle, and a bit dissapointed with the contents.


And 8 doujinshi by Neriwasabi, an old school author (active since the 80's) that changes the name of his circle forth and back (usually Jack-O'-lantern, Dedepoppo or Narusawa Hatsudensho).
He usually draw -among others- parodies of To Heart and Square-Enix games. Lately is very focused on Final Fantasy XI, so I lost insterest (Final Fantasy series is going downhill, and I find myself only playing the remakes on the handle consoles).

They also have on sale a small amount of doujin soft, also at 100 yen each. I found:

Shinuchi Oouso Disc. Contains the early flash works of Namikai Harukaze (circle Shunpuu-tei Koubou).
Before being known for Ragnarok Battle Offline, he was known by his flash animations, mostly Executioner Ciel and specially Glove On Fight, that was later remaked as a fighting game by doujin soft circle Watanabe Seikakusho (now called Frech Bread).

And speaking of Watanabe Seikakusho and his fighting games, I also found THE QUEEN OF HEART '99 and the Second Edition update disk.
Before MELTY BLOOD, this circle was already very popular with their doujin fighters featuring Leaf characters.
In the late 90's, Leaf was the main visual novel studio who set the trend to the rest.
Is evident by now, but before being a hardcore TYPE-MOON fan, I was hooked to Leaf visual novels, specially To Heart (the first one, I never played the "sequel").

Doujinshi purchases Part 2

Following yesterday's post, my next stop was K-Books Nanba.
K-Books was my favorite shop in Akihabara, and perhaps is my favorite from Den Den Town, too.
There are 2 shops, one male oriented and the other female oriented (except the first floor).
The doujinshi selection is well assorted and easy to check.

It seems that in mid November they dropped the prices of the stuff of some circles, so it was worth checking, although I supose the real bargains were long ago sold out.

I bought:

(Kyaa! Sorry for the flash!)

Junk 3rd by Fukami Naoyuki from circle Chill Out.
His drawings are nice, but the themes are way to extreme from my tastes: scat, cum belly, inflation,... focused on humiliating girls from fighting games and with special predilection with the poor Nakoruru (Samurai Spirits/Shodown).
I bought it beacause it contains a rare 5-pages collaboration by Takeuchi Takashi ( from TYPE-MOON) and because it had a discount of about 50% the regular price (but even with the discount it was still expensive...)

And Ayanami 1 Gakuseihen by Mogudan from circle Nakayohi Mogudan.
Mogudan is rather famous, and his Ayanami series needs no presentation.
He was a member of circle Nakayohi with Izurumi, but when he left formed the circle Nakayohi Mogudan.
His style changed a bit with the time, and his voluptuous characters became slightly disgusting titty monsters. I prefer his older works, when Ayanami was still proportioned.
Again, it had a 50% discount.

More to come...

Doujinshi purchases Part 1

Yesterday I went to Osaka all day in hunt for doujinshi.

For my comments, it's like I'm a regular doujinshi buyer, but is not true. My collection of -physical- doujinshi is only of around 130 or so, very focused on a few circles (about half of them are from only 3 circles).

Buying doujinshi outside Japan is almost impossible. The only doujinshi that you can find at Yahoo! Actions are from very popular circles (and using a bid proxy is really expensive, so I use this method only to keep updated my CRAZY CLOVER CLUB collection); at eBay you can find a bit of doujinshi, but with awkward prices and random availability; and finally, the doujinshi stores have usually only mainstream stuff, so is hard to find old doujinshi or from not-so-popular circles. Also, the huge amount of doujinshi available makes impossible to keep all them in a database, so they usually put on-line a small amount of them.

So at the end, the only way to buy doujinshi is to stay in Japan and search for them in person.

Back to topic, I went basically to 3 shops: Mandarake Grand Chaos, K-Books Nanba and Toranoana Nanba.

Mandarake Grand Chaos is in America-mura, kinda far from Nipponbashi, where the rest of the otaku interests shops are placed. Is one of the 2 Mandarake in Osaka (the other one is near Umeda station).

There I bought:
INAZUMA Warrior 1 and 2 and UNDER 300M by INAZUMA (Sato Shouji) from circle Digital Accel Works. Warrior 1 and 2 are compilations of his works until 2005. Under 300M was released last year.
He is also the author of the commercial manga HIGHSCHOOL OF THE DEAD, that I don't read but lately is getting a few figures...

MuchiMuchi Angel Vol.7+ from circle MuchiMuchi7.
This circle consist of several authors, some of them quite good but some of them rather mediocre. I liked the works of the main author, Terada Tsugeo, but I don't like his recent style. This doujinshi is the revision of a 2003 release, with a few new pages. Sadly, the old pictures are retouched with his new style, and I still prefer the original one...

And finally, Koyoi Konban Serio-san and Herion, from circle King Revolver. In a previous entry I spoke about this circle and my intention to get all his works. Now I'm missing only 2...

That's all for today. I will put my lot from K-Books and Toranoana later.

Greetings

Responding to the petition of Danny from dannychoo.com, today I'm starting my first blog. It will be focused in the stuff that I'm buying, mostly figures.
Don't expect daily updates, almost professional photos or groundbreaking news...

To begin with, here is a photo of today's lot bought in OtaRoad (Osaka):


A 2002 doujinshi, Gyunn Gyunn Color: 1, from circle Shiitake.
It's from a somewhat obscure eroge from Littlewitch, Shirotsume Souwa, but I bought it just for the colaboration of Shirotsumekusa from circle Crazy Clover Club.

Both cd's are from Kalafina; Re/oblivious and the limited version of sprinter/ARIA. I missed the chance to bought it when were released and I was searching for them since I arrived to Japan.
Kalafina sings the endings of the Kara no Kyoukai movies.