Goodbye

This announcement has been coming for a long time. When I returned from Japan back in September of 2009 I lost half the will to keep with the blog, and that will was getting weaker and weaker until about a year ago, when I totally lost all of it.

I didn’t want to say it, and pretty much forced myself to keep with the blog, mostly as a token of gratitude to my followers, the people that I know in person and reads this blog from time to time and the people that keeps writting constructive comments... I’ve been trying to keep up to date this blog for quite a few months, lately I tried to increase the number of posts each month and even tried new things like doing the Mahou Tsukai no Yoru summary in "real time" but with no luck and forcing myself to do it just makes me loath it all the more.

Recently I got diagnosed a nervous breakdown. Now I'm reconsidering the priorities in my life and this blog is not in the top. I want to have one less pressure on my shoulders for now, one less stress so I can try and get myself back together once more.

So Soth's Blog is going on indefinite hiatus. I may return in a couple of months, a couple of years or perhaps I move to another chapter in my life and drop this blog for good, I don't know.

So as a goodbye I'm going to post all the stuff I received months ago and was unable to do a proper review:

1/6 Saber Extra by Clayz (sculpted by Miyagawa Takeshi), 1/6 Caster Extra by Phat (sculpted by iTANDi), 1/8 Minase Iori Ryugu Komachi Ver. by Wave (sculpted by Abira) and 1/6 Ayanami Rei Cross Ver. by Amie Grand (sculpted by Suzu)

Valkyria Chronicles 3 Extra Edition for PSP (not played),  Valkyria Chronicles 3 Complete Artworks (not opened to avoid spoilers), and the limited Black Label edition OVAs in Blu-ray (not even unwrapped).

Fate/complete material V Hollow material and Carnival Phantasm Official Guidebook

 THE iDOLM@STER Character Master, THE iDOLM@STER Platinum Album, THE iDOLM@STER DS Delicious Album, Marugoto iDOLM@STER For You! and THE iDOLM@STER Twins Precious Album Guidebook

Doujinshi from circles Nurumaya, King Revolver and Kurusugawa Pikumin Tei

 

TYPE-MOON manga: Shingetsutan Tsukihime volumes 7 to 10, Fate/stay night volume 17, All Around Type-Moon manga, the paperback version of Kara no Kyoukai Mirai Fukuin chapter and several postcards that are Tora no Ana store exclusives.

Well, it's all for now. I hope to see you guys as soon as utterly possible,

Soth

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.

TYPE-MOON manga

A few weeks ago I decided to update the TYPE-MOON related manga that I follow all at the same time at CD Japan, except for the ones that were too recent (like Fate vol. 17) and some of them that they didn't have in stock (like the last 4 volumes I'm missing of Shingetsutan Tsukihime). And to think that while I was living in Japan buying manga was SO easy...

Anyway, the list:

-TAKE MOON Sakuhin Shu Special Edition by Takenashi Eri
-Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2wei! volumes 2, 3 and 4 by Hiroyama Hiroshi
-MELTY BLOOD volumes 8 and 9 by Kirishima Takeru
-MELTY BLOOD X volumes 1 and 2 also by Kirishima Takeru
-Fate/Zero volumes 1 and 2 by Shinjiro
-Fate/Extra volume 1 by Robina

And now a bit more in detail:

TAKE MOON Sakuhin Shu Special Edition is the limited reprint of the original TAKE MOON volumes that I already have (and I talked a little bit about them here) in one big tankoubon instead of two.

The reason of the re-purchase is because includes a dvd called Carnival Phantasm EX Season, an extra episode that includes some gags that didn't make the cut to the regular OVAs.

Cute ashamed Bazett.

My only grudge is that is a dvd instead of a Blu-ray, and now that I'm getting hooked at watching anime with blu-ray quality, dvd quality is an eyesore...

The manga doesn't includes anything new (besides two pages of Takenashi thanking her fans and TYPE-MOON), but the paper is of much higher quality than any normal volume.

The multicolored Ren's chapter. The quality of the paper is not visible in photos, but the page is more white than usual.

A mini-booklet called TYPE-MOON Artworks is also included, that features color illustrations by Takenashi.

Random page.

Most of the illustrations already appeared (also in color) in the first pages of the previous edition of TAKE MOON.

Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2wei! volumes 2, 3 and 4 by Hiroyama Hiroshi.

Until now I only managed to buy the first volume almost a year ago and the limited edition of the volume 4, so now I bought the volumes 2 and 3 and the regular version of volume 4 (because of the different cover).
A pleasant surprise that I found is that in the volume 2, the bonus chapter featuring the cross-over with Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha was included! I missed the chance when was released in the Comp Ace and I thought it was lost forever (or pay an absurd amount of money for it).

Nanoha and Illya.

MELTY BLOOD volumes 8 and 9 and MELTY BLOOD X volumes 1 and 2 by Kirishima Takeru. With this Melty Blood manga is totally over, no new arcs after this. Is a shame because despite I didn't liked that much at first I found it rather enjoyable at the end.

The first 6 volumes included the main story (Sion vs Wallachia) and the volumes 7 to 9 included all the half-joke scenarios (Miyako, Mecha-Hisui, G. Akiha...)

Miyako was the main heroine in the second arc.

MELTY BLOOD X was not based directly in the Melty Blood games, so in an original arc starring the Back Alley Alliance formed by Sion, Riesbyfe and Satsuki. Is a non serious arc like the Miyako one, were the main characters are forced to climb a pyramid-like house made by mistake by Sion.
Even if it was not based in any story arc from the game, it included some characters that didn't appeared in the previous volumes.

The short appearance of the tsundere White Ren

Actress Again final boss Dust of Osiris.

Fate/Zero volumes 1 and 2 by Shinjiro.

It covers until the battle royale of Saber, Lancer, Rider, Archer and Berserker. I don't have nuch to say besides that the male characters looks quite ugly, and some females (like Maiya) looks weird as well.

Berserker vs Saber

And finally Fate/Extra volume 1 by Robina.
Robina did a Fate/Extra one shot for the Type-Moon Ace 6 (that is included in this volume) and that escalated to a whole series. The pace is pretty quick, in one volume they are already fighting against Archer, and for now I like it better than the game.

Main characters are the male MC and Saber.

Archer, Caster and female MC appears in some extra pages, quite unhappy for not being the main characters.

Carnival Phantasm 2nd Season

With over a month of delay since I received it, here's Carnival Phantasm 2nd Season review.

Carnival Phantasm 2nd Season, the limited edition book CP Dokuhon and Toranoana exclusive clear book featuring Saber Alter and long haired Arcueid.

Like the first season, a large amount of it is directly based on Takenashi's TAKE MOON, but several pieces of it are original contents.

Saber Alter's pose based on this figure

Saber Extra short cameo. Her "it's not see-through, I'm showing it" line is priceless.

Like the previous season, both Blu-ray and dvd discs are included, no subtitles and the special audio commentary this time is made by Tiger Dojo Taiga and Bloomers Illya.
There's also a Special section that includes a playthrough of "Illya's Castle" minigame from Fate/hollow ataraxia with the characters audio commentaries.

CP Dokuhon (reading book), includes the script of the audio track "Teach me Ciel-sensei" from the previous season, a character settings section, a section of special illustrations (like the eyecatch scenes), an early storyboard with contents that never went to production and a couple of short manga by Kengou Yagumo and Keikenchi.

Character settings for Arcueid and Saber

Eyecatches from the first episode

Storyboard with Saber Lily versus Princess Arcueid in the unused opening

Carnival Phantasm 1st Season

Received over a month ago but unable to do a proper review until now, Carnival Phantasm 1st Season, the OVA series that commemorates TYPE-MOON's 10th anniversary.

Carnival Phantasm, the limited edition book Catalogue and the Toranoana exclusive postcard.

The contents and all the leaflets. It includes both a dvd version and a Blu-ray version. Except for the floating menu in the blu-ray version, the contents are the same.

As every one knows, Carnival Phantasm is based in a couple of manga anthologies by Takenashi Eri called TAKE MOON that were released several years ago:

The episodes were rather nice and much more faithful to the original chapters than I expected. The biggest part in each of the four episodes included is actually a short story from the anthology:

Some minor characters that appeared in some of the stories were changed for the OVA for more popular and newer characters. For example, in the beach volleyball chapter Akira, Hanei and Souka were changed for Miyako and Sion (and Len doesn't play)
Some of the mini-gags are also faithfully based in the short stories, like Phantasmoon:

The Blu-ray it doesn't contains many extras besides the audio track "Teach me Ciel-sensei" written by Nasu itself that features Ciel-sensei and Neco-Arc loosely explaining the situations and characters on screen.

This is the floating menu in the blu-ray, featuring all the necos; the already old Neco-Arc and Neco-Arc Chaos plus the newly added Neco-Arc Bubbles (voiced by Ciel's VA Sakuma Kumi) and Neco-Arc Destiny (voiced by Caster's VA Tanaka Atsuko).

The limited edition extra, Catalogue, is an over 250 pages long artbook that compiles Takeuchi Takashi's illustrations in the last 10 years.

The format is rather small (is the same size of a dvd box) and 95 % of the contents already appeared in other media, but as a Takeuchi fan is definitely a must have and probably the best TYPE-MOON artbook available.

The contenst are divided in sections covering each franchise: Tsukihime, Melty Blood, Kara no Kyoukai, Fate/stay night, Fate/hollow ataraxia, Fate/stay night [Realta Nua], Fate others (Fate Zero, Unlimited Codes and EXTRA) and Others.

Some random photos:

Tsukihime illustrations from 2001-2002 period.

Usually each section contains a newly drawn pic. In Tsukihime section is the Arcueid to the left.

Melty Blood pictures.

Kara no Kyoukai

Fate/stay night newly drawn Saber to the left.

The Fate Others section

Fate Zero pictures from the drama cds

Thee others section includes the covers of the Vampire Wars novels.

CANAAN

Guest illustrations for Kannagi, Gainax (Fushigi no Umi no Nadia) and for the Tactics eroge Harem Party

B&W pictures used in stuff like Comic Market catalogs.

The 2nd season was released this week, so I expect my copy at the end of November...