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.

Groundwork of Evangelion 2.0 Parts 1 & 2

Released in last year's May and last year's October, Groundwork of Evangelion 2.0 parts 1 and 2 are a selection of key animation drawings (genga) for the movie Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance.

Unlike the Groundwork book for the first movie that was released in a single volume, the second movie is divided in two books. Part 1 is 328 pages long and includes (as the title suggests) the first half of the movie (up to the scene of Asuka trying to make dinner) and part 2 is 384 pages long and covers the second part of the movie.

Like previous Groundwork books by Gainax, the first few pages are in color and includes promotional pictures plus the genga versions of it.

Fanservice Mari that was the cover of the last issue of Continue magazine

This part also includes some full colored key animations.

The rest are a selection of key animations. Some of them are rather lenghty sequences while other are just a few eye-catching scenes. Some random pages:

Rei at the school

Naked Asuka without censorship!

Mari in the Eva-02

Kaworu final scene with the Evangelion Mark.06

Plugsuit Rei and Asuka before the battle with Sahaquiel

Eva-00 running sequence

Eva-01 extracting Zeruel's core

Eva-01 final form

Fate Unlimited Blade Works guidebook and pamphlet

Two more items that I received in the last loot, and both related to the Unlimited Blade Works movie:

Gekijouban Fate/stay night UNLIMITED BLADE WORKS Koushiki Guidebook, released on February by Kadokawa Shoten, is the official guidebook for the movie. The other is the theatrical pamphlet sold at theaters while the movie was airing.

The Official guidebook begins with a gallery section:

Pictures used in magazines, using the re-designs for the anime by Ishihara Megumi (Club40).

Some of them were drawn exclusively for this book, like this one by Makita Yoshinobu.

A summary of the movie.

Characters profiles.

The only setting in this book are for the background, not the characters.

There are a quite extensive part with staff interviews:

Long interview with the voice actors Suwabe Jun'ichi (Archer) and Ueda Kana (Rin)...

...Sugiyama Noriaki (Shirou) and Kawasumi Ayako (Saber)

A summary of the TV episodes.

A short list of Fate related merchandise.

And a message from TYPE-MOON with an exclusive picture by Takeuchi Takashi.

Theatrical pamphlets are always available for anime movies. Those are sold at the theaters in the first weeks of the movie airing and usually features thumbnails, summaries, character profiles, interviews and a ton of merchandise advertising . This one is not an exception, is a short 30-pages pamphlet with nothing really outstanding.

Several pages are a collage of screen shots from the movie.

Characters profiles.

It also features short interviews with Nasu, Yamaguchi Yuuji (director) and the voice actors Sugiyama, Kawasumi, Ueda and Suwabe and a small glossary of terms.

The theatrical pamphlets are not really worth the purchase, so are more a memento than anything else. The only thing that I made me purchase it is that the first print contained an exclusive Weiss Schwarz promo card, and like the Dream Symphony cd's, is easier and cheaper purchase the item than included the card than purchase the single card.

"Always graceful" Rin

Kara no Kyoukai Blu-ray Disc Box

Today I received Kara no Kyoukai Blu-ray Disc Box:

The box is pretty big (aprox. 30cm x 30cm x 5cm) and is pretty similar to the novel's limited edition.

Inside there are the blu-ray discs and an artbook called Visual Chronicle. Both have a velvet-like texture that is easily marked with fingerprints.

The seven chapters are each in a blu-ray disc, as well as the 8th Special Disc.

The Visual Chronicle contains all the illustrations from each movie dvd covers, theatrical posters (each piece with the personal comment by Takeuchi or Sudou Tomonori, the main illustrators) as well as an interview with Nasu, Takeuchi and Sakamoto Maaya.

Announcement posters for the theater screening.

The cover and the special postcard from the limited edition version of each movie.

A rather long interview between Nasu, Takeuchi and Sakamoto (Shiki voice actress).

Each movie theatrical poster.

And the covers for the regular dvd editions.

Each chapter is contained in a blu-ray disc, without any extra besides the manners commercial. It have subtitle options in Japanese and in English.

I'm not an expert in blu-ray quality image, upscales and stuff, but the movies have a pretty visible smudged effect in the border lines, something like a translucent black glow.

Shiki in the 3rd movie.

Azaka in the 6th movie.

Is not really visible in the pics because those are photos taken in front of the TV, but compared to the dvd releases, the image have a sharper look and crisp colors, but in the outlines of the characters seems like a saturation of the Photoshop sharpen filter. I don't know if this is an usual technique for anime not drawn originally in HQ, because that effect doesn't appear in the final chapter, clearly done with the blu-ray edition in mind.

The final chapter, called Kara no Kyoukai, is featured in the special disc. This was the last chapter in the novel and is a 30 minutes talk between Shiki and Mikiya in a snowy road. Well, is mostly a monologue by Shiki, explaining issues like the human personality and origin.

Despite being only Shiki and Mikiya talking for 30 minutes in the very same scenario, the quality is astonishing and really shines in BD.

In the same disc there's also included Kara no Kyoukai Remix -Gate of seventh heaven-, a recap movie of the first 6 chapters that includes a single newly done scene. Each chapter uses the respective theme song as the background music, so is like an hour long video-clip.

This is the only new scene in Remix.

And the last extra is a special TV program that was aired to promote the seventh movie. Is mostly a recap of all the previous movies, but with short interviews to ufotable's crew.



I didn't re-watched all the movies yet, but it seems that are not retouched or edited, except for the glaring mistake in the 7th movie:

Unlike the scene in the dvd version, this time Shiki's thumb IS missing.

To complete the set of dvd versions that I already own, I also purchased the dvd version of the last chapter.

It doesn't have any of the extras of the BD version, and after seeing it in high definition is hard to return to dvd quality...

Comparison shot:

DVD version.

BD version (picture taken at the TV screen, so in fact it have a way better quality than that)

Evangelion 2.0 Complete Records Collection

Evangelion 2.0 Complete Records Collection is a massive compilation of visual material used for the second Evangelion movie.

The contents are:

• 2 hard cover books with the material collection.
• 2 soft cover books with the storyboards.
• A box for the hard cover books.
• A film strip
• A tote bag (pre-order limited item)
  

The storyboards are divided in two books. The first one, called avant+A+B Part, covers until the eyecatch (232 pages) , and the second one called C+D Part covers until the end (292 pages).

Nude Asuka scene.

This time the contents of the storyboards are almost all brand new, not like the ones for the first movie that was literally an amplified photocopy of the storyboards for the series. Only a few scenes like the fight against Bardiel or the first part of the Asuka and Rei elevator action are reusing the old storyboards.

The unfinished scenes that appeared as an extra in the blu-ray disc are also included. In the photo, Ritsuko says that Ayanami is always wearing the same plain underwear, and suggest her to ask Gendou to buy some cute ones. Rei responds that is unnecessary.

The most shocking scene at the end was not featured in the movie. Inside the Eva-03, the angel takes Asuka's face and says in Kaworu's voice that "a happy Asuka is not like you", then Asuka says that her happy self is scary and tries to put her usual face back.

The two hardcover books contains all the illustrated material and interviews. The Complete Records Collection for the first movie contained only one hard cover book, but this time is divided in two because the movie digest takes the whole of one of the books. Is called Film (362 pages) and is the entire movie scene by scene, with the dialogue when available.

"You're quite impertinent for a doll."

At the end there's also included the music cue sheet marking when each track begins and ends, and the script of all the background dialog.

The second book is the biggest one, with 436 pages. The first part contains character designs, rough sketches, early concepts... pretty much all the visual reference for the movie.

Mari's second plugsuit color checks and designs.

Mari's character design evolution. At first she seemed the twin sister of Clarisse from The Castle of Cagliostro.

Rough sketches for Asuka's test plugsuit.

Eva's data, details for Eva-05 and Mark.06

Zeruel's rough sketches. I'm glad they finally opted for a more conservative design.

The rest of the book is mostly interview with the movie staff raging from Anno and Sadamoto to the sub-directors and the image boards artist. I didn't read through all of it, but it contains several unused storyboard ideas, some of them quite interesting.

Mari's first appearance bandaged like Rei. In other one (non pictured), she takes the personality of Asuka, Anta baka? included.

Angry Ayanami in her suicide scene.

A "suggestive" scene between awakened Eva-01 and the giant Rei.

Mari and Asuka piloting the Eva-02 together!?!

At the end of each hard cover book, there are a couple of foldout posters drawn by Sadamoto.

Mari in the Archives book and Asuka in the Film book.

And finally, the film strip. At last I got one featuring the female pilots!

Rei (and half the head of Asuka) eating at the aquarium.