Remember how Konata was being so proud of the fact that her fanart submission was published in Newtype? Well I browsed through the latest issue in Kinokuniya today and indeed it was there! I took a picture of it secretly with my compact digital camera when no one was looking. Just like downloading fansubs and jaywalking, it’s okay as long as you don’t get caught.

By the way it’s the drawing on the right depicting Akira. Apparently Konata is an Akira fan. So cool. The accompanying text basically says that this submission is a message of support of Akira-sama and also, as a side note, includes a small plead for Shirashi-kun to be given better treatment.

Kyo-ani are cool people.

Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu Vol.4 Limited Edition (the manga) will come bundled with a 11cm-tall Haruhi figure. Due for June 2007 release. Preorder deadline is 28th Feb, so plenty of time left to talk to a Kinokuniya branch near you. Or wait for Amazon to put up their listing if you are one of those people who don’t get to pay for overpriced stuff at Kinokuniya. It costs ï¿¥1,785, or just about three times the price of the regular edition. But it’s worth it, right?

The limited edition is waaaay overpriced but I bought it anyway because I am a tool of the system. It comes with a DVD that contains promotional material for the new Negima! OVA.

After watching the DVD, I am happy to say that the new Negima! OVA is better than I expected. The character designs are surprisingly close to the original and the animation quality and detail are a few hundred times better than the horror that was the TV series. A few hundred being a modest estimate. The entire cast is retained as far as I can tell. The OVA also seems to contain a little more fanservice… Well, still far less than the manga.

One complaint: The OP “Yume Minna de” is not as catchy as “Happy Material”.

Image source: 萌えよ！アキバ人ブログ

The magazine will go on sale on the 10th. Kinokuniya in Singapore does not stock Dengeki-Hime, so I’m getting a friend to buy it for me. You can also try Amazon JP, which should be able to do international shipping unless they have some crazy policies about magazines too. Visit Moeyo! for the rest of the pictures.

Buying it is the easy part, but will you use it if you have it?

For no particular reason, I shall talk about Kinokuniya in Singapore today. Bear with me here…

Note: This image has nothing to do with Kinokuniya

As you probably know, Kinokuniya is a Japanese bookstore chain. The main branch is in Shinjuku in Tokyo. Here’s picture of its signboard because I somehow forgot to take the rest of the building when I was there…

Currently there are Kinokuniya branches in Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia and the United States.

Out of the the three Kinokuniya branches in Singapore, the Ngee Ann branch at Orchard Road has the best selection of books in general, the Liang Court branch has the best selection of Japanese manga and light novels and the smallest branch at Bugis is… let’s pretend it doesn’t exist.

Outside of Japan, Kinokuniya is notoriously expensive compared to most other bookstores, but it’s one of the few means to obtain Japanese books in those countries without resorting to online orders. Kinokuniya takes custom orders and helps you source for the books you want through its Japanese branches. Best of all, they don’t charge extra for this service.

Order slips, they symbolize my money soon to be gone

I usually have a few order slips with me in my wallet all the time. They are sort of like good luck charms (well, more like bad luck for my wallet).

My current orders are:

• NHK ni Youkoso Vol. 5 (damn sea shipments)
• Mahou Sensei Negima! Vol. 15 Limited Edition
• Hayate no Gotoku Vol. 5 (out of stock)
• Suzuka Vol. 12 (coming this week)
• Death Note Vol. 13 Limited Edition (gonna cost a bomb)

The great thing about ordering/preordering books through Kinokuniya (in Singapore, not sure about other countries) is that there’s no deposit and you are not forced to collect your orders. If you decide that you don’t want it anymore, they’ll just shelve the book. On the flipside, Kinokuniya is barely cheaper than buying from Amazon JP through EMS.

And by the way, they are unable to fulfill orders for eroge-related materials… Well, sometimes they can; it all depends on luck. I managed to get my order through two out of three tries (the one that got killed was a School Days novel). Still, Amazon JP is a safer bet for those, assuming you use a third party shipping service since Amazon JP does not offer international shipping for such books.

Kinokuniya Singapore has a very arbritary pricing system for Japanese books that has not changed since the time when 100 yen was 1.60 SGD (it’s 1.40 SGD now). Based on the current exchange rate, tankoubou from a standard Kodansha shounen series, such as Negima!, costs 10 SGD per volume (about 6 USD). That is just about twice the price of the official retail price of 390 yen (5.30 SGD). One can only imagine how much its profit margin has grown over the past one year due to the decreasing value of yen to SGD…

Another quirk with Kinokuniya Singapore is that different branches receive new Japanese releases at different times. Major series such as Death Note and Negima! are always sent by air, so they are on the shelves here about two to three days after their release dates. However, the Ngee Ann branch receives less popular titles such as Suzuka and NHK ni Youkoso! through sea shipment, which can take two weeks or more. The Liang Court branch on the other hand gets those less popular titles by air. Thus if you preorder books from the Ngee Ann branch, you may end up collecting them two weeks after your friend picks them up off a shelf at the Liang Court branch…

This is mainly because the Liang Court branch caters more to the Japanese expats who, for some reason, like to go there (it’s really not a very popular place). Another side effect of this is that although the Ngee Ann branch has a pretty good selection of Japanese novels, there were no light novels (e.g. Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu, Shakugan no Shana) stocked there at all. The Liang Court branch on the other hand has two shelves of light novels and constantly receives some new titles. But just last week, Ngee Ann brought some light novels over from Liang Court and rearranged their manga shelves to accomodate the new additions. I attribute this to the number of people who ordered Haruhi novels from Ngee Ann in recent weeks. :)

On a final note, Kinokuniya here has a membership that costs 20 SGD a year. It gets you 10% off ALL purchases except stationeries and sometimes even 20% during promotional events. I must have “saved” myself a few hundred dollars by now…

Anyway, that ends my short little introduction to Kinokuniya in Singapore… Okay, wtf made me do this? Seriously. =_=

Although our hotel is located in Ikebukuro, it is on the opposite side of the train station from the major concentration of anime-related shops, so we didn’t take the time to visit there until now. (You know, Akihabara and all…)

Tama-nee compels you to read on.

Although Ikebukuro isn’t exactly Akiba, there are still quite a lot of anime goods to be found here. Lashinbang and K-books are not to be missed if you are looking for hard-to-find anime collectibles. From limited edition phone cards to alarm clocks and pillow covers, these shops buy and resell all kinds of limited edition collectibles. If you look long enough, you might find a good deal, such as a secondhand anime OP single for 200 yen or a Tamaki Kousaka wall scroll for 2000 yen. (I bought the only one by the way…) Here’s a picture of Lashinbang and K-books from my previous visit.

I got this Tamaki mug from Lashinbang for 1000 yen. :3

The prices at secondhand collectibles shops are quite unpredictable. Different traders have different pricing based on product rarity, condition and popularity, so it’s better to look around first before buying. For example, K-books was selling a secondhand copy of Rie Tanaka’s Chara de Rie first print for 4000 yen when I found an unopened copy collecting dust in Yamagiwa Soft for the list price of around 2000 yen. On the other hand, secondhand shops are probably the only way you can find items limited to events or preorders, such as limited goods from the latest Comiket. Just be prepared to pay a lot for those rare goods… (6000 yen for a rare phone card of a popular character is not uncommon)

And right beside Lashinbang is the main branch of Animate. Well, you can find one in Akihabara too, but the it’s still nice to visit the main branch. Animate deals manga, anime and character goods, but not much in the way of doujin unlike Toranoana. A picture of Animate main branch from my last visit. (Yes, I’m lazy to take pictures again)

There used to be a Gamers (Dejiko’s birthplace) near the underpass to Sunshine City in Ikebukuro, but it seems to have closed down… Awww…

Anyway, on to Shinjuku. Gah screw it, I’m too lazy, so just look at the pictures.

Kinokinuya here is huuuuge. The South Shinjuku branch has a whole building for itself beside Takashimaya Times Square. The main branch farther northeast has a whole building and an annex of comics and light novels. Interestingly, the annex for the main branch is named “Forest”. Maybe it’s a wordplay of Kinokuniya…? (木の国？)

On another note, I briefly read through a few World War II-related books in Kinokuniya. It seems to me that Japanese accounts tend to focus on either specific battles and the strategic events in the Pacific or the situation of Japan under American Occupation. Out of the entire shelf on WWII, there were only three books on display on the Nanjing Incident. The first book was supposedly an “unbias” account. The second book claimed to be able to prove that the Nanjing Incident never took place using “newly-uncovered Chinese Communist Party documents from Taiwanese archives” (most impartial source of information ever…). The third book was just spouting nonsense about how the entire thing originated from Communist propagandas. Right beside them is a book about how Japanese nationals “forced to remain in Manchuria due to circumstances” suffered in China before finally returning home after many years. And somehow this book is a lot thicker than the other three.

And yes, I was born in Nanjing.

Anyway, enough with the rant, it’s time for today’s loot!

1. To Heart 2 Tamaki Kousaka coffee cup
2. School Days Official Visual Art Works
3. Gundam SEED DESTINY Lacus Clyne Limited Poster
4. Nanoha Raising Heart from Animate (not for me)
5. School Days Sekai-hen novel
6. Kami-sama Game Vol. 1 & 2
7. Hayate no Gotoku! Vol.1

Anyway, that’s all for today~

Maybe no one at the Censorship Board reads Japanese, so they judge the content of the books by their pictures. But then again, I did managed to order two Da Capo novels, containing a few HCG’s from the game as illustrations, from the very same Kinokuniya. Not to mention that I know for a fact that the branch at Liang Court has (or had) the Kotonoha-hen of School Days novel in stock.

So, I’ve come to the conclusion that my order was blocked because someone in the government hates me. I’m pretty sure that the insidious fiend plotting against me will find a way to intercept the book again even if I were to order it from Amazon JP. Shit, now I absolutely have to go to Japan in June, if only just to get this novel.

And they just had to inform me about this on Friday the 13th. Grrrr…

Release Dates

• 17/11 – Suzuka Vol.9 (Manga)
• 23/11 – Destination / FictionJunction YUUKA (J-Pop Album)
• 23/11 – Usotsuki Alice to Kujiragou wo Meguru Bouken / Yui Horie (J-Pop Album)
• 23/11 – Harvest Moon: Boy & Girl (PSP Game)
• 25/11 – Hello / Haruna Ikeda (J-Pop Single)
• 07/12 – Kamigami no Tasogare / ALI PROJECT (J-Pop Album)
• 07/12 – Sore wa Toki ni Anata wo Hakemashi, Toki ni Sasae to Naru Mono / Youko Takahashi (J-Pop Album)

The title of Yui Horie’s new album reminds me of her 2001 album “Kuroneko to Tsuki Kikyuu wo Meguru Bouken”… I know that it’s quite clichéd how every other J-Pop artist is naming albums using English words/phrases, but at least you don’t get this whole string of stuff that 90% of your non-Japanese fans can’t pronounce. I’m also very looking forward to Suzuka Vol.9, ever since I spoilered myself by flipping through a recent issue of Shounen Magazine (which Suzuka is serialized in) and saw the scene where Suzuka…nevermind.

Seiyuu Ranking

This issue of Newtype also comes with the 2005 Seiyuu Popularity Rankings. I shall only type out the female list here, since I don’t recognize most of the male names… ^^;; I’ve added one of each person’s anime roles in brackets.

1. Megumi Hayashibara (Rei Ayanami)
2. Rie Tanaka (Lacus Clyne)
3. Houko Kuwashima (Stellar Loussier)
4. Yui Horie (Naru Narusegawa)
5. Maaya Sakamoto (Hitomi Kanzaki)
6. Naomi Shindou (Cagalli Yula Athha)
7. Mamiko Noto (Yakumo Tsukamoto)
8. Nana Mizuki (Shinobu)
9. Mai Nakahara (Mai Tokiha)
10. Megumi Toyoguchi (Winry Rockbell)

Mamiko should be higher. I shall not complain about Maaya-sama’s fifth position, since she hasn’t exactly been doing much voice-acting in the past few years. Megumi can still hold her top position even after giving birth and retiring. I’m pretty happy with Houko’s third placing. ^^

NewWORDS

There is also this one-page advertisement about a new magazine called NewWORDS, which is being billed as “Newtype for adults”. The same people are doing both magazines and NewWORDS will still cover anime and games. However, it will focus more on things like mainstream movies, lifestyle and tech. The first issue will be a special issue to be released on 25/11 (Fri) and comes with a UMD video of Blood+ epsiode 1.

Quite interesting. I think I’ll give the first issue a shot.

The second part of the story has been drastically altered, perhaps even more than the first volume. Chikane’s motivation is shown more explicitly (not that) than in the anime, so it won’t really make you go WTF? (unless you can’t read Japanese).

Perhaps the biggest difference in the manga is level of explicitness depicted (yes, that). The anime isn’t exactly something you watch with your family, but it is certainly far from receiving the 18+ label (at least not in Singapore). The manga on the other hand has nudity and more obvious softcore scenes. The fact that the manga isn’t 18+ either tells you a bit about morality in Japan… (not that it’s a bad thing)

That aside, the ending sucked. I don’t recommend getting this unless you are that desperate for some Chikane x Himeko scenes. Then again, I’m sure that you can find some high quality doujinshi out there that better suit this purpose.