Got free tickets from work ^^

While I usually complain about nothing interesting happening around here, it IS true that at least once a year a somewhat decent anime festival takes place, and that would be “El Salon del Manga de Barcelona”. Usually, there are a lot more “Salon del Manga” taking place around Spain, but the one in Barcelona is by far the biggest and the most popular XD

I personally never had the chance to go ’cause it’s kinda far (takes 3+ hours to get there by car from where I live >.<) and I never really had anyone to go with until recently XD This year, we only decided to go a couple of days before the last day!! The thing lasts 4 days usually (from Thursday until Sunday) but we only managed Sunday this time ’cause of how messed up schedules were >.< Hopefully next year we’ll manage to make it to more days XD

Around 8:50 am

Had to wake up at 4 am that day so we could get there on time >.< Luckily we made it there over an hour early, so (as you can see) the queue infront of us was still rather small XD We could already see some cosplayers around though :p (The Miku infront of us being the most obvious XP)

Doors open at 10 am~

The difference between Spain and Japan: people here just jump into the queue when they feel like it. I mean, those are a lot more than what was originally in front of us XD

Failed shot from above >.<

Sunday crowd is supposedly "not much" ^^;

I was gawking at the amount of people there, but I was told that Sunday actually has much less of a bustle than Friday or Saturday o.O Must see with my own eyes to confirm XD Oh, I was also told that on Saturdays, you could find one cosplayer for each normally clothed person… As in, 50-50 O.O And speaking of cosplays:

Bobobo (Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo) + King Nikochan (Dr. Slump) + Norimaki Senbei (Dr. Slump) + ???

I know I’ve seen the guy at the very right, but it’s just not clicking in my mind right now XD And damn, just looking the Nikochan cosplay make’s me get all sweaty -_- Dunno how they could stand that thing XD

Arale (Dr. Slump) + Torpedo Girl (Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo)

The Arale cosplay had to be one of the cutest around XD But nothing beat this in cuteness:

Chii (Chobits)

I was kinda shy of asking people to let me take pictures of them at first, but when I saw this cutie, I just HAD to XD She’s even holding that little animal thing from the books Chii reads >.< Gaah, omochikaeriiiiiiiii~ Oh, speaking of:

Ryuugu Rena (Higurashi) + Furude Rika (Higurashi)

Not really sure what to make of these two ^^; The cleaver and needle were a nice touch, but yeah, moving on~

Kisame (Naruto) + Goku (Dragon Ball) + Gaara (Naruto)

I gotta give it to the kids, their cosplays were pretty impressive o.O Not just these ones, there were some other ones around that had nice stuffs (like the 2 cute girls at the top as well :p) Although, there were also too many Luffy cosplays by kids that just made me sigh…

Soi Fong (Bleach) + Kyouraku Shunsui (Bleach)

I liked the guy’s cosplay a lot more =/

Inuyasha + Sesshoumaru + Miroku (all Inuyasha)

At least they tried ^^; Miroku Prolly looks best here XD

Sora (Kingdom Hearts) + Sora (Kingdom Hearts) + Uzumaki Naruto (Naruto)

I’m sure you’re starting to notice the “mainstream-ness” going around here XD Weeaboos will always be weeaboos after all :p Although I gotta admit this Naruto was pretty cool XD Now, it’s not all mainstream though =3

Me only recognizes Marisa and Reimu (Touhou Project) >.< Any idea about the rest?

Seeing Touhou chars there was a REAL shock XD And it wasn’t just one random person, but a group of girls o.O I actually had to remind myself that I had a cam at this point ^^;

Tsukiyomi Ikuto (Shugo Chara!)

Seeing a Shugo Chara! cosplay was also quite a surprise o.O Especially when it’s a grown up male XD Prolly watches the thing for the loli :p (Don’t think anyone else is crazy enough to watch the thing just for Nana like me >_>;)

Ranka Lee (Macross Frontier)

This one was kinda lol… I was trying to take a picture of something else, and I suddenly see a blob of green hair passing somewhere in front of me, so I literally RAN to get to her o.O I suppose having just watched that Macross F live thing kinda got to me XD I mean really, I actually bumped into several people before getting to her >.< Oh, and that thing she’s holding is supposedly that weird frog thing that Ranka uses as a… phone?

C.C. + Lelouch Lamperouge (all Code Geass)

Bwahahahaha, C.C.xLulu ftw XD All you KallenxLulu people can go sulk in your little corners :pppp Oh yeah, this one was also quite a surprise :p Especially since I had been talking with my boyfriend that day about cosplaying together as Lulu and C.C. for next year XD The plan is either that, or Fate and Chrono, but then I’d be calling him Onii-chan instead :p

Sebastian Michaelis + Ciel Phantomhive (all Kuroshitsuji)

Kuroshitsuji is REALLY popular here for some reason XD Although, I’m not entirely sure about these guys, since I haven’t watched Kuroshitsuji… But that’s them no o.O?

???

I suppose this can also be called cosplay, no? I mean, seeing as we’re not in Japan after all =x

Gino Weinberg (Code Geass)

I think that’s supposed to be Gino at least XD And yes, that would be me beside him :p

Takamachi Nanoha (Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha)

Does she REALLY need any introduction XD Yay, I got a picture with Nanoha ^^ This one was actually the first one I took a pic with. I mean really, it’s Nanoha-chan XD I just had to :p

Lavi (D.Gray-man)

Awesome cosplay is awesome XD We were actually leaving here, but damn, this Lavi was too good to just pass by :p

Polka (Eternal Sonata)/Trusty Bell chopin no yume

My boyfriend with a cutie >.< Talk about feeling lol when he asked me to take a picture of them together XD I think this was the very first pic we took, ’cause he really wanted to :p The good thing about that is that it kinda broke the ice at last and I finally started asking people to let me take pics of them XD

Edea (Final Fantasy VIII)

Now it’s my boyfriend with a hot chick >.< Only reason I let this one slip by is ’cause we were already leaving at this point and I was too happy with the cosplays we saw right before this one (btw I’m not really that much of a jealous person XP)~

Kagamine Len + Kagamine Rin + Hatsune Miku + Akaito (all Vocaloid)

This set HAD to be by far the best around XD Pity they weren’t very expressive, but the cosplays were really well done. I mean, there were COUNTLESS Mikus around, but this was the only one with a mic for example o.O

Yoko + Kamina (all Gurren Lagann)

As we left the place to go to lunch, I thought that would be the last of cosplays I was gonna see, but boy was I mistaken XD The mall beside the building where the event was being held was packed with people and cosplayers XD It was as if I hadn’t left the building after all :p

What better than getting lunch at a Japanese restaurant? Or so we thought...

When we saw the looong queues for lunch at ALL the restaurants, we ended up giving up and just went home already… Ended up eating sandwiches at a random rest place by the highway -_-; This whole trip was rushed really, since we had to get back early for a few reasons >.< I definitely left wanting more =x

Now, cosplays and lunch aside, here are some pics of the random shops and whatnot~

Probably the stand with the most random objects XD

Sushi cushions for the win XP

Random display stand o.O Nothing to buy here =x

Sexy gender bender Naruto cosplay?

"Yaoi for Freaks" XD Awesome original namings lol

Traditional Japanese on the left, Visual Kei on the right. That's a good depiction of Japan XD

Out of place Batman statue much?

Random drawings/writings by random people~

Yup, we had our own stand there too!! Kinda why I got the free tickets :p

I was too caught up with the cosplays to really take pictures of the whole thing, but what you see here is pretty much what was all around the place ^^ As for actual events and whatnot, there were actually quite a few, with the most noticeable being Yuka’s appearance (this would be the singer who sang the Kiddy Grade opening btw). She only performed on Thursday though, and I didn’t really care about her, I didn’t bother much with it. There was also some visual key band playing, and some mangaka signing autographs and stuff, but I really wasn’t interested in any of them XD

What did frustrate me though was when I learned that Jam Project was actually invited to this event a few years ago o.O I was frikkin living in Dubai at the time though >.< Missed my chance of seeing Makkun T_T Hopefully they’ll get them again some time >.<

There were several mini events going around the place, including a cosplay contest of Saturday, but with all the rush and stuff, we really didn’t have much time to enjoy much. Next year we’ll try being a bit more organised ^^;

Finally, to finish this off, a little recap on what I bought:

Kiddy Grade figure x2, Code Geass necklace, Code Geass neckalce + ring, Hatsune Miku wallet, Magic Knight Rayearth character CD Album, Code Geass cushion

Lets see… The Kiddy Grade thing was a gift from my bf… I just pointed out that they looked amazing taking into consideration their price (only 25 euros both o.O), and he went and got it. I’m keeping Lumiere now, and he’s keeping Eclair ^^ The Geass necklace was also a present. We got matching ones :p The necklace+ring I got even when knowing that the ring is way too big for my. I just put it on the chain along with the symbol thing and I’m using them as pant chains (or whatever they’re called).

Miku wallet to replace my old D.Gray-man one ^^ This one has a lot more card slots and a coin pouch, so it’s way better XD The Rayearth CD was a rare find =3 They actually had all the Rayearch CDs, including soundtracks and whatnot, but I really had to hold back on buying them all >.< Maybe next year when I don’t have to save up for excess of Nana goodies XP And lastly the cushion was just ’cause yes XD It looks nice, and my Nanoha cushion is too small anyway. Now it has company~

I originally went there with the intention of not buying anything at all ’cause I kinda have to save up, but being there in the atmosphere just gets to you >.< Not that I regret any purchase. I never do XD

Anyway, I probably should’ve split this post in two, but I really didn’t think it’d turn out this long XD Doesn’t matter, too sleepy now >.< Let’s just look forward to next year and hope it’ll all be a bit more organised~

The cover looks much better when you have the thing in your own hands... But I still don't like it much >_>

Weeee, it’s finally here XD Damn that was fast o.O I mean, the thing was supposed to be on sale on the 28th, it’s the 29th today and it’s already here XD Sure, they did ship it 2 days early (is that normal by the way? I know CDs are usually shipped one day before actual release date >_> ‘the hell, you can even buy them in normal shops one day before XD but not 2 :p Not that I’m complaining of course XD) but the thing still got here really fast *grin*

This should be called "fail press edition" XD

For some reason… I’m not particularily excited about this single… Although the songs are all awesome, but it’s just… Well, I suppose Nana ranking 4th was annoying (although she did climb up to 3rd now >.<) and the crappy cover work and stuff is also a bit of turn off I suppose >.< But at least now that I managed to listen to the album properly, I realise the music wasn’t as messed up as it seemed in the leak XD I still think the quality could’ve been better, but oh well =/

Now really... WHO would be happy when they see something this lolz as they open a CD jacket >_>?

But enough bitching and onto the actual songs XD I already mentioned that my track preference order was 3,1,2,4, let’s see why:

Mugen was awesome the minute I heard it. Sure some parts are messed up and the music feels a bit all over the place, but Nana’s voice is frikkin’ awesome in it. Not to mention the lyrics are really nice. The music itself can be really good in some parts, but kinda of fails to deliver in some other. All in all though, it’s a good track. Pity it had a crappy PV >_>;

Tenkuu no Canaria is a strong, energetic song. Kind of like some of the songs in Nana’s Alive & Kicking album, but with improved vocals (she just keeps getting better and better ^^) and more consistent music. Lyrics are Hibiki’s so that’s kinda immediate win in my dictionary too XD

Dear Dream just makes me think… “SUSUME GO GO!” XD Fun songs are fun ^^ I remember saying the title kinda reminded me something out of Shugo Chara!… Well, the first notes that play in the song DO sound like some of the songs Buono! did for the series, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing XD Sure it sounds a bit rough, but it’s just too much fun I can’t help not loving it XD I suppose not everyone will agree with me on this one though ^^;

STORIES has to be my least favorite… Mostly ’cause it’s slightly boring and doesn’t really stand out in comparison to the rest. It’s a nice popish song though. Doesn’t try reaching where it can’t (unlike a certain Mugen song :p) but it doesn’t particularily fail in any aspect. It’s pretty much a nice listen for when one is in a good mood (without being ridiculously hyper :p) but I suppose the fact that I’ve kinda been in the clouds lately made it so I wouldn’t like the song as much o.O

And with this, we’re done with Mugen ^^ But Nana has more plans for our wallets XD I’m pretty sure this isn’t news for anyone anymore, but Nana’s 21st album already got announced ^^ It’ll be released on the 13th of January. 3 songs have been decided so far (2 Nanoha movie songs and 1 other one) but it’s already confirmed that the single will contain 4 songs so… Hurray for another maxi-single!! Nana doesn’t seem to be getting any breaks lately… I wonder if she realises that this means my wallet won’t be getting one either~

Not the original image, but this was on the box anyway XD

Bwahahaha, ok, the dangers of working at an anime shop are finally showing XD If I hadn’t been working here, I wouldn’t have known that almost all the figures were being taken to some anime fair, and Kureha would’ve left and my wallet would’ve been saved, but alas, I’m not so lucky (or my wallet isn’t anyway; I’m happy with the figure =3). Erm, to make it clearer, what I mean is that one random day when I went to the shop to work, I found the owners packing stuffs up, and they told me that if I wanted any of the figures, I had to tell them then and there, so yeah, instincts took over and before I knew it, I was buying this lovely Kureha and taking her home =)

Thank goodness its a small box >_> I'm already dreading Fate's box whenever it arrives >.<

Not much to comment on the box… I like the symbol carved at the sides of it, but I kinda forgot to take pictures of that ^^;

I wonder why they made the face so pale o.O

side 1 = sexy leg

Side 2 = even sexier leg XD

love the hair and the ribbon >.<

I’m kind of used to figures full of life, so Kureha feels a bit dull in comparison. Now, it’d actually be kinda weird if that weren’t the case though, ’cause Kureha herself is that much of lively character. You can just look at the array of expressions she has in the game and compare them to, say, Seena or Houmei, and it’s pretty easy to spot. Clalaclan is also like that, but I suppose its all got to do with the character type XD Kureha is one of the few soft spoken characters that I like, so yeah ^^ (and no, it has nothing to do with Hocchan being her seiyuu >.<)

As for the pose… Well, unlike the other 2 figures that were made of her (by Max Factory and Presiden Japan), this one isn’t based off any picture from the Shining Wind illustration book, so I suppose some flaws were bound to appear. Particularily this one:

Over-sized right boob much XD?

While the left boob is perfectly shaped and has no issues, the right one is clearly too big and, well, weird =/ One could argue its the pose’s fault, but really, no matter what one does with her boobs, they’re not gonna stretch just like that XD Not to mention… What the hell is Kureha doing trying to expose herself like that anyway o.O? Not that I can’t see it happening >_>; I mean, from my experience, it’s always the quiet ones that do the most outrageous stuff =x

Getting a pantyshot from one of the posters might as well be easier >_>

SERIOUSLY what’s with the skirt being “blown” inwards O.O?! WHAT kind of non-ero wind is that >.< It’s like, Seena shows off too much panty and Kureha shows off too little o.O Which reminds me~

1/7 vs 1/8 >.<

When I put the two figures beside eachother, I realised that I might have acually been grateful to Seena’s pose after all XD I mean, if she’d been standing up straight, she’d have looked huge XD Or Kureha would’ve looked tiny, all the same :p Funnily enough the bases are similar in shape too, but I prefer Seena’s ’cause it has the Shining Wind logo on it ^^ Having a non-white base for a change is nice too though~

Come to the dark side... We have cute twintails-chans o.O

Okay okay, before the title starts causing any confusion (as if that wasn’t on purpose *whistles*), what I mean was that it was the first time I went and did a poster myself. Well, not myself per se really. I just chose a picture (snapshot rather) and went to a photographer to make it bigger XD

Size-wise, the “poster” is A2 I think. I wanted B2, but it was impossible with how crappy the original picture was XD I mean, DVD snapshot lolz? Of course the picture is a bit modified. We cut the edges and whatnot, and brightened it up a bit and stuffs, but all in all I think it looks pretty decent XD Better than the one that came with the single at least =x

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I never did anything like this with Nana ’cause there was never any need to =3 I mean, finding an awesome Nana poster is easy peazy, finding a decent Ayane poster is frikkin’ tough >.<

Anyway, that’s it for today XD I’m too lazy to post anything about the Kureha figure, so I’ll just do that from work tomorrow~

Had this as my wallpaper for a really long time... Until Nana came around :p

After a tiring day of sick professors and going home early (excuse my lame attempt at sarcasm), I went to work as usual in the afternoon. We were packing stuffs for some anime festival they’re having here, and as I watched the Kureha figures get packed away, I realized it was now or never, so I finally found the will and bought it! But that’s not really the point today :p

Along with the figure, I had asked for a Code Geass bag a couple of weeks ago (not sure how many regular readers this place has, so I dunno if you guys remember me mentioning something about it before XD). Originally, I was supposed to pay 14 euros instead of the usual 19.90 that these kinds of bags cost, but I suppose since I also asked for the Kureha figure at the same time, the guys at the shop decided to just give me the bag as an extra freebie ^^

Yay for me XD Don’t worry though, I already have another use for those euros I saved up :p Will talk more about that either tomorrow, or the day after ^^ For now, here we go:

Don't mind my dinner in the corner ^^; I really hadn't noticed it XD

Yes, I actually plan on walking around with that :p Luckily weeaboos here are kinda accepted, plus being a computer engineering student means I have all sorts of freaks/geeks/weeaboos/retards in my class, so at least in Uni I’m safe XP

~~~

Look forward to a review of Kureha tomorrow~

I suck at taking pics orz

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Okay, these past 2 days have been too awesome, I can’t help but be silly-happy ^^

First off, yeah, Mizuki Nana’s Mugen (White Album OP2) single got streamed already XD Yes yes, 4 days early lolz As usual, you can just browse the net a bit and you’ll be able to find it. Shouldn’t be too hard, there’s even a torrent out with it XP

As for the songs… I like all of them O.O I know I’m a Nanatard, but its still pretty rare for me to like all her single songs so much… I mean, when I think of her previous maxi-singles (Wild Eyes, STARCAMP EP), I remember finding a lot of flaws with them =x Well, thats a good sign for now I suppose XD Nana-chan, please keep this up ;p

Order of preference:

1, Dear Dream (“SUSUME GO GO!”)

2, Mugen (It’s just that awesome)

3, Tenkuu no Canaria (could’ve been easily second actually… very close to Mugen >.<)

4, STORIES (it’s nice, but its a bit forgettable… I haven’t listened to it once so far without my mind wandering off half way through o.O)

Erm, not gonna stress on this matter much more. I’ll just wait until I have my own copy as usual. Just a thing that npal pointed out, but it could just be the leak’s quality fault (kinda doubt it though). The music is a bit… Lacking… As in, it lacks vitality/vibrance. Only thing I can come up with for that is that King Records messed up the recording again >_>; Either that, or the people playing the instruments during the recording weren’t happy with their pay XD I wonder which one’s more plausible =x

NEXT

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Yes, again :p

Ayane’s Arrival of Tears (11eyes anime OP) single got here today!!!! And with it I got a really really nice surprise and a really really annoying dilmma o.O Apparently a B2 sized promo poster got sent with the single =) Now, that’s nice and dandy and all, but here’s the catch, it’s double sided XD Meaning, on one side, I get a cool picture of the sempai (I still haven’t memorized the names orz) and on the other I get a (kinda meh) picture of Ayane. Now, if the Ayane side actually had her with the twintails and the red dress (oh, how I wish T_T) then this would’ve been a no brainer. I’d have put that side up without giving it a second thought. But instead, we get Ayane sitting on that chair with the fugly black dress and the straight hair that really doesn’t suit her face >.<

In the end, this was my choice:

The side with the char that I don’t give a damn about won over the side with a singer that I’m starting to love orz SERIOUSLY WTF >.< Whoever was in charge of Ayane’s promo stuffs should go die >.< I want my cute twintails-chan >.<

I love the red color on the first CD =3 Has a weird shine XD

In case you didn't notice, these pics were taken with the new cam (AT LAST!!) :p

Gah, we only get a glimpse of the red Ayane look >.< Such a tease =(

*sigh* I wonder if I’ll still get the poster if I order another copy now? While I wouldn’t like to put up the meh picture instead of the nice one, I wouldn’t mind having them both up I suppose XD Not sure I have any more space in my room though =x Had to move some posters around so this one could fit lol

I know I said I’d post something decent about the actual songs on the Arrival of tears single, but it feels kinda pointless at this point >.< All I can say is that Arrival of Tears has really grown on me now (kinda what I expected though) and that’s in no small part thanks to the PV As for the c/w song (Shinjitsu e no Chinkonka), it’s nice, but I think it’s the kind of song I’ll be forgetting easily. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean that I’ll get bored of it or anything, just that it doesn’t have anything too attractive or special about it, so it can easily just slip my mind ^^;

Just a final thing more (yes, I know my posts are pointlessly long… I can’t help but start drabbling all the time >.<). I realised after watching an 11eyes episode today that the “gothic voice” I mentioned in the Arrival of Tears PV matches with the voice they put at the beginning of the 11eyes episodes, so I suppose I don’t mind it in the PV anymore XD If anything, I now think it’s a nice touch~

P.S. Posting from work seems to have become a habit now o.O Not that I think anyone minds XD

P.P.S. Madobe Nanami ftw XD I’m still waiting for my copy of the Windows Nana, but I’m already using one of the wallpapers and the sounds on my PC :p It’s sweetly addictive~

I originally intended to write something about Arrival of tears once my own copy of the single arrived, and I still plan on doing that regarding the music, but I just had to comment on the PV the second I saw it >.<

I’ve actually been checking sites like youtube and nico nico douga regularly these days while waiting/searching for the PV, so obviously, I was really looking forward to it =3 Now, when the video was finally put up, and I got around to watching it, I gotta admit it started off quite badly. The whole gothic voice thing at the very beginning made me thing of… Ali Project… or worse… Mugen O.O And then Ayane popped up with that fugly black dress and the over-sized gloves and my face literally went =(

BUT THEN! OMG TWINTAILS + CUTE DRESS + AYANE IS SO EFFIN’ CUTE XDDD Yeah, that was kinda what ran through my mind when I saw the whole twintails thing (did I ever mention that I kinda have a twintails fetish :p? I actually had “twintails” as my password for some account of mine (not gonna say what it was :p) at some point XD). You know her Sono Saki ni Aru, Dareka no Egao no Tame ni PV? The half-twintails (not sure what else to call them) looked really nice. She also had that hairstyle in this year’s Animelo theme song PV ^^ But nothing beats the proper twintails XD

Now… Who do I have to murder to get a poster of her in that look >.<? Seriously, I’m too used to having Nana goodies flying around all the time that when it comes to a more average singer, I get really annoyed when hardly any promo material is available -_-; I suppose the best I can do now is suck it in, wait for my copy of the single, then try taking a decent quality snapshot of her ^^; I’ll probably go for something around 2:05 (epic pose!! Oh, and the way she turns around just slightly before that… *drool*) or one of the snapshots from above *nods* The crappy part is all that amature video effects they put in… It’s gonna make it really hard to take a clear snapshot >.<

Anyway, not sure what else to say XD This was really just a spur-of-the-moment-post XP I’ve already lost count of how many times I’ve replayed the PV (and I won’t even mention the single XD I managed to get myself almost bored of it already ^^;) but what I can say for sure is that it’s definitely beaten Mugen =x

Random notes:

A good part of the reason why I was looking forward to the PV was ’cause PSYCHIC LOVER’s Imajo is actually featured in it. I was kinda expecting some sort of awesome combo or something, but in the end he hardly appeared in the PV XD Oh well, only thing I can hope for is that we might get an AyanexPL duet next year in Animelo =3 I mean, they better bring Ayane back again at least >.<

I love what they did with the eyeliner >.< Okay, that's a more girly topic, but really, love the eyes XD

'Grats to Ayane for beating both Yui-nyan and Kuribayashi Minami on the Oricon Charts XDDD I suppose 18 is a fine rank for her now. She'll get closer to the top with time (hopefully) ^^

Anyone else thinks the twintails look (including the dress) makes her resemble Shugo Chara!'s Utau XD? Good thing she doesn't sound that much like Nana in this song, 'cause otherwise it would've felt kinda weird lol

P.S. I'm posting this from work… I actually saw the PV at home but I only have time to post while working orz

Weeeee~ Such an awesome song XD Loved it from the very first listen O.O It’s quite energetic, but not in the ridiculously hyper kind of way ^^ Hmm… Makes me want to pump my fist up in the air to the beat XPP But that could be me being a bit too hyper right now. Just finished watching the very first big arc in Bleach, so yeah, I think that’s being somewhat influential :p

Anyhoo, the Mugen single just keeps shaping up better and better now ^^ The actual Mugen song was cool (crappy PV aside) and this one’s so much fun~ Kyaaa, slightly over 2 weeks for the release >.< Next week, we’ll be getting “Stories” steamed on Smile Gang =3 Oh, and me wants another PV >.< It’s only fair y’know, since STARCAMP EP got 2 PVs in it~

P.S. Hibiki’s lyrics rock as usual XP

EDIT: BTW, go listen to this week’s Smile Gang (no. 393). Misato tried singing the song at the beginning… I LOLED, ’nuff said.

Putting this even though I ordered the limited edition :p

Okay, excuse the REALLY bad pun I did in the title, but I was just listening to the CANAAN insert song single, and the first song (China Kibun de High Tension!) is just so silly, it kinda got to me >.< I really like the second song btw… I mean, “Ikiterundayoooo~” what’s better than that? XD And no, I am NOT a middle-aged taxi driver… Thankfully ^^;

Anyway, moving onto the actual topic (I wonder why I always stray at the beginning of my posts >_>;), I just watched the first episode of the 11eyes anime!! It’s one of the animes I’ve been looking forward to the most, surprisingly enough. Although, I’ll admit that was more ’cause of the music aspect. I already said that I’ve grown really fond of Ayane lately, but did I ever mention how awesome Asriel are? They kinda remind me of Yousei Teikoku, but on a less hard-core level (they actually had some jazzy-sounding stuffs on their album ^^), and with somewhat better vocals. Their music isn’t as awesome though, but it’s still really cool regardless =3

shanaxfatexblood+ dudette (forgot her name)???

Anyone remember the Tsuyokiss OP? Yeah, same deal, but horizontaly this time...

the gang :p

I'll leave this interpretation up to you =3

¿the bad guys...

...and the damsel in distress?

So of course, with that in mind, the minute the episode finished downloading, I jumped right to the opening and ending sequences (yes, before actually watching the episode :p). I’d already heard part of the opening a couple of weeks ago (you can click on the link from the image to get to the single preview) and I gotta say, I don’t really like it as much as the previous 11eyes songs (i.e. Endless tears… and Lunatic tears…) but it took me time to start liking endless tears anyway. Not to mention I liked the song a lot more once I heard the full version, so that might be the case here too.

arrogant guy +1

meganeko +1

Basquash OP anyone? Hopefully there's no trap here XD

everyone start drooling... NOW!

As for the ending, I don’t think that’s the best Asriel could do. It’s rather strange, both artists didn’t perform their best for the series… It does make one wonder =x But regardless, the ending is still nice, and again, I’d rather wait for the full version of the song to give my final verdict.

Now, the actual first episode…

Saki gone horribly wrong?		now looking on the moon~	the obligatory perverted buddy
MariMite gone straight O.O	Must've been quite the panty shot... It's the only one that got cencored o.O	Venus Versus Virus?
Now we got Ranka and the shining stomach =x		Black moon = Kannazuki no Miko...

…Was quite a bit better than I expected. I mean, no matter how much I looked forward to this, it’s still an eroge adaptation; one can’t help but be cautious =x So far though, I’m liking the main character (OMG an eroge lead that’s actually kinda cool O.O) and I like the relationship he’s got going with his childhood friend (trust me, I’m not one of those that go for the osana najimi >_>;) but I suppose since this is originally an eroge (read: harem), I’m guessing it’s not always gonna be that nice.

new chars set 1	the transfer student (from Italy )	Princess Cradle ^^
hawt sensei with jingling boobs, check		obligatory mysterious-bishoujo-on-a-rooftop

First off, lets go step by step. Animation: Nothing great, but not a disaster. The character designs were pretty nice, and the fact that most of the thing was well-drawn close-up shots, it’s all good. I can’t really say much, since there weren’t any action scenes and this is kind of an action series. Well, mystery, action, stuff like that. Point is, it’s supposed to have some fight scenes, let’s just hope the animation doesn’t start slipping there.

Story-wise, a lot of questions start popping up immediately. The whole mystery feel is clearly there, and in this first episode obviously nothing was explained. I’ve personally heard some rather nice things about the game, and since the anime does seem to be concentrating on the story aspect, I’m guessing we’ll at least be having something resembling an intriguing plot. The only thing I’m a bit weary of with this kind of show is that a lot of things tend to be left either poorly explained, or simply not explained at all. I’ll just be having faith that the story-telling will be somewhat decent.

There’s not much else to say just from this first episode. It’s just basically the main character being taken to another world (?) and meeting his supposedly-dead sister (or her look-alike). The rest of the characters just got brief appearances that don’t really present much (other than a bunch of questions XD).

Penzo-san... Nodoka's plushie's rival!!	Priceless expression on the dude's face lol
	X.O	the typical shot from the villian's back...

So far, we have decent music (the background pieces that were played throughout were fine too), a good voice staff (Ono Daisuke, Gotou Mai), likable characters (from what little we’ve seen of them anyway), an interesting premise, and, well, lets just say the fact that I’m looking forward to the second episode is a good sign. My main concern is the animation, but we can only wait and see about that~

Finally... Our winner =3

sway~

Boy, talk about overwhelming tiredness and laziness >_>; I was supposed to post some of the stuff as it came out, but I just kept putting them off until, voila, we got enough announcements for a Nana Randomness part.2~

This time around, we have the following:

1, All info on Mugen’s tracks has been announced!

1. 夢幻

★TVアニメ「WHITE ALBUM」OPテーマ/アニメロミックスTV-CMソング
作詞：水樹奈々　作曲：上松範康（Elements Garden）
編曲：藤田淳平（Elements Garden）

2. 天空のカナリア

★「テイルズ オブ シンフォニア THE ANIMATION テセアラ編」オープニングテーマ
作詞：Hibiki　作曲・編曲：加藤裕介

3. Dear Dream

★TBS「カード学園」エンディングテーマ
作詞・作曲：しほり　編曲：齋藤真也・IPEMOTO

4. STORIES

作詞：神田怜鴎・斉田和典　作曲：サイトウヨシヒロ　編曲：古川貴浩

Yes, it’s copy/pasted. As I said, I’m too lazy to actually point out everything in there. It shouldn’t be too hard to figure out who’s worked on what before anyway…

2, The release date for the Live DiamondxFever DVD and Blu-ray has bee announced… Along with the shitty price T_T 9,900 yen!! EACH!!! Some one shoot me DX Here I was hoping to be able to get both, but now that I decided to get Windows Nana (again, someone shoot me please T_T) I know that I’ll only manage to get my hands on the Blu-ray… Oh well… Oh, and the release date is December 23rd. Why do I get the feeling all the x-mas presents I’ll be getting will feel completely shitty and pointless now ^^; ? Well, unless someone’s kind enough to buy me that Kureha figure I keep staring at during work… *sigh*

3, Mugen cover art finally unveiled!

Anyone else think it doesn't feel very appropriate? ^^;

I’m sure danie~ doesn’t mind me stealing the image from her blog :p We all do anyway~ =x

4, Nana-chan will be singing an original theme song for the Layton movie, in which Nana stars as Jenice Quatrain. The song will be called Melody of a Memory (sounds like the 2 ef seasons put together @.@) and you can get the single here~

5, Mugen’s PV got released… And I say it with half-hearted illusion because… Well… I don’t like it… I suppose it didn’t have any major issues, but I was just hoping Nana wouldn’t ever come close to that style… I guess it had to happen eventually, but I’m not sure now was a good time >_>;

Anyway, you can see for yourself…

I think I liked the White Album animation that accompanied the song better than this =/

6, NANA MIZUKI LIVE ACADEMY 2010 will be Nana’s next concert… Or tour rather. It’ll be a 7 days tour, with ridiculous dates ranging from February 14th (yeah, Valentine’s… woohoo) until March 27th o.O The exact dates and locations are these:

-Day 1 February 14th – Fukuoka International Congress Centre Main Hall
-Day 2 February 20th – Niihama City Culture Centre Big Hall (yay, Nana’s hometown…)
-Day 3 March 7th – Sendai Sunplaza Hall
-Day 4 March 13th – Yokohama Arena
-Day 5 March 14th – Yokohama Arena
-Day 6 March 20th – Osaka-Jo Hall
-Day 7 March 27th – Nihon Gaishi Hall

My wishful thinking makes me believe that I might be able to make it to the March 7th, 13th and 14th concerts during Spring Break, but lets be realistic… It’s just not gonna happen *sigh*

7, Mugen got performed yesterday at Music Japan~ This was announced ages ago actually, but since she just performed it now, I figured its okay to post about it here :p The actual show will air sometime soon I suppose =x I’ll just, hopefully, post something about it once it’s available online~