In addition to my Comiket 75 shopping spree, I also contributed diligently to the wider economy of Japan in numerous ways, no doubt single-handedly helping the island nation escape the brunt of the on-going global recession and the collapse of our century-old debt-based financial institution. I’m kidding of course: the economy has long passed the point of no return.

Jokes made in bad taste aside, I didn’t actually spend much this trip. In fact, on the whole, I probably spent in my one-month stay about as much as I used to spend in a week-long stay. This is particularly amazing when placed in context with the yen’s current exceedingly high value.

How does this amazing mathematical hocus pocus work? Well, firstly you stay in cheap shared dormitories, and secondly you wait for the daily 50% discount at the supermarket for bento nearing their expiry hour. Also, you learn to not buy every piece of mass-produced fan goods that Gamers stocks. I mean, gee, do I really need another key chain when the same amount of money could be used to buy four second-hand CDs from Book-Off.

And oh yes, the cardinal rule of otaku shopping: second-hand shops are your best friend, your fairy godmother and Santa Claus all rolled into one.

Second-hand

90% of the items you see in the pictures are second-hand. This means that someone’s sweaty overweight paws have touched them all over, but it also means that they are cheap. Fortunately, Japanese generally treat their belongings better, especially when resale value is on their minds due to the thriving second-hand industry.

Every CD in the left pile costs 100 yen

100 yen (slightly more than 1 USD) is the magical number when it comes to second-hand goods. Newly-released items and rare collector’s items are graded according to physical condition and market demand by the second-hand dealers, usually selling for slightly less or even more than the original retail value. (For example Final Fantasy Dissidia retails officially for 6,000 yen, a dealer buys your old copy for 4,000 yen and sells it for 5,000 yen.)

However, older items that don’t sell often sit on the shelves for years until finally they are sold off in the discount bin for 100 yen. These items may be too old, too crappy, too over-produced or too niched, but whatever the reason 100 yen is a good deal and generally the heavily-discounted price tag is not an indication of the physical quality of the product but rather the lack of demand or overstocking.

I bought 15 volumes of Zipang and 5 volumes of Tenjou Tenge for 105 yen each (5% tax).

This copy of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban cost 105 yen

Of course, you don’t have to just aim for 105 yen to get a good deal. DVDs for example seldom sell for that low no matter how low in demand. I saw a complete Kimi ga Nozomu Eien DVD set selling for 6,600 yen at Trader‘s Akihabara branch, when each of the DVDs retailed for 6,000 yen.

The infamous DOA Hand Maid Mai and under-appreciated Seikai no Danshou

If you have the patience and time to dig through poorly-organized shelves of used stuff, you can always find a few gems. Those of you Singaporeans in the late teens to twenties might recognize YAT Anshin! Uchuu Ryokou above. Ah, nostalgia, thou art a money-sucking bitch.

The top left CD is a Nami Tamaki single. I had no idea what it was but I just bought it anyway since it was one buck. Also, Sega Saturn copies of Sakura Taisen!

And I added a few more Pactio cards to my collection. The Chiu single is actually an unopened copy. Also, I think this is my third copy of Evangeline’s card. Fanboyism isn’t cheap either.

And above is possibly my best find in a second-hand shop ever. It’s the first press of the limited edition version of my favourite Maaya Sakamoto album Nikopachi. The cover is different from the regular one (somewhat). First press of the limited edition is like getting double jeopardy or something, except the latter is against the law whereas the former is just milking the fans.

If real-life were World of Warcraft, I’d have earned the “Maaya Fanboy For Live” achievement about five times over by now.

Shiny Things

And of course I didn’t just buy second-hand stuff. I’m not that cheap. Close but not quite.

The only thing I bought at Gamers this trip

Tony Taka’s C74 release

PLANETES manga

And prepare yourself…

Cloning technology put to good(?) use

Yes, I bought LIVE FIGHTER dammit. And the Blu-ray version too. I don’t even own a Blu-ray player! There’s a back story to go with this expensive purchase. It’s kind of long, so here’s the short version:

Every fricking anime shop in Japan was playing the LIVE FIGHTER recording and for some reason I liked it a lot. There was this exhibition at the Animate main branch in Ikebukuro where they displayed all the costumes Nana wore during the concert. There was also a lucky draw promotion for LIVE FIGHTER purchases.

So yeah. I am heavily susceptible to the right kind of targeted advertising and ended up coughing up 9,450 yen for LIVE FIGHTER despite not being a huge Nana fan.

And not just that…

I also picked up the CDs for Suddenly ~Meguriaete~ and Dancing in the velvet moon, my two favourite Nana songs. For what reason? Because Animate gives people who buy over 2,000-yen worth of Nana CDs and DVDs (but not Blu-ray) a limited edition photo of her in a kimono. Kind of creepy if you think about it. Heh.

My current long-term plan is to somehow leverage this photo to recoup my monetary losses from Moyism (the Nana Stalker) somehow. The plan is still in the conception stage.

Keitai

And finally, I bought these…

That looks like 2,000 bucks worth of mobile phones right there. But in actual fact, they cost four dollars in total.

They are actually one-one models used in mobile phone shops in Japan to promote phones. They weigh and feel exactly like the real thing but are otherwise useless. I found a shop in Akihabara selling these off for cheap because it no longer needs them.

zaku towa chigau no dayo!

And of course, a little slice of Gundam thrown in for those G00 fans who are still reading my blog for some inexplicable reason.

P.S. I really need to finish my Comiket report some time before C76…
P.P.S. Yes I am torrenting the HD encoding of LIVE FIGHTER now to make my money worth.

I’m finally back in Singapore. It’s really hot even in my air-conditioned room. Gah. But anyway, here’s my damage report for Comiket 75. I didn’t buy much. Really.

Basically I had only three things on my wishlist for Comiket: Heart Work, Afterschool of the 5th Year (5年目の放課後), and T2 ART WORKS.

Coincidentally, the three circles have their booths on different days, so I ended up queuing for one item a day, a rather relaxed and stress-free arrangement that meant that I did not have to do any overnight queuing or prior planning.

5年目の放課後

Day 1 was Gonenme no Houkago (or as the circle translates it “Afterschool of the 5th Year”). It is a relatively obscure circle probably best known online for its drunken Haruhi illustration. I wrote a post on 5年目の放課後 before.

Their C75 release information can be found on the blog. It’s basically a coloured illustration book, a monochrome ero-sketch book, and a mini poster.

Heart Work

Day 2’s queuing was for Heart Work, Hiro Suzuhira‘s one-person doujin publication. It is a compilation of her recent illustrations and sketches.

Heart Work release for C75

She is probably best known for her character designs in various Navel games such as Shuffle! (Asa, Nerine, Sage) and Soul Link. She often collaborates with her good friend Aoi Nishimata, whose doujin publication is called JOKER TYPE and who designed the other half of the Shuffle! cast (the crappier half that includes Kaede).

Incidentally, the illustrations found in the recently-desecrated Akikan! novel series are among some of Hiro’s older works. They still look better than the anime.

Heart Work phone card

Hiro is my hero(ine).

T2 ART WORKS

The final day of Comiket brought T2 ART WORKS, the awesome release from Tony Taka. His latest release (NSFW) is Clannad-centric with a fulfilling dosage of Tomoyo, hands down the best character in an otherwise overrated generic Key franchise. *Ducks for cover*

Tomoyo megane moe

Tony is probably one of the most successful doujin artists and runs a rather commercialized operation. Personally, I don’t really care about the distinctions between indie and mainstream as long as the art/song is good, but a direct result of Tony’s popularity is that his releases are more costly than most.

Back and front covers of the doujinshi (NSFW but too late)

He also sells his own product sets that change in design every Comiket but are generally the same things. I bought them last year too.

Goodie bag content

In fact, these Comiket-exclusive goods are basically the only reason why you would want to queue for T2. The doujinshi itself is always available brand new from any Toranoana outlet, albeit for 50 yen more due to tax. In fact, I picked up his C74 release (Macross F) at the Akihabara branch. The goodie bags on the other hand can only be found in collector stores at jacked up prices after the event.

Others

Those were my planned purchases. Now for the rest of the random splurges that are the natural consequences of wandering around the Comiket event halls filled with shiny stuff.

Bought for the cover art

Kyonko

Doujin Little Busters! calendar

Rather nice art

Although I’m not really a LB fan

My only purchases from the commercial booths

And some other stuff I won’t go into details about… *cough*

And finally, what might arguably be my most awesome Comiket purchase ever…

IKINOKORITAI!!!

P.S. I have multiple copies of T2 and Heart Work releases… (When you’ve already queued for 2 hours, you might as well.) I wonder what I should do with them.

Why does everyone assume that I would be blogging Gundam 00 Season 2? I never said that I would. It’s not good to be overly presumptuous. I mean, it is true that the only thing keeping this blog from becoming a desolate wasteland is my weekly episode “review”, but that doesn’t mean anything! So yeah, you can take your baseless preconceived notions and stuff them up that place where you stuff things up into! (Turkey?)

So anyway, let’s get this thing going.

Summary

Don’t tase me bro!

These guys called A-LAWS, who sound like a cross between A-HOLES and ARROWS, are totally bad ass dudes who have been running the post-Celestial Being solar system like their own private Sim City, except that Will Wright didn’t make slavery an option in the game. If I had to compare them to one classic group of assholes in a previous Gundam universe, it would probably be Titan from Zeta.

“This is so not in my contract”

Saji is finally realizing his true potential, not. After appearing to be cool and grown-up for the first 30 seconds of his appearance, the degeneration process kicks in and he’s the same old crybaby by the end of the episode. This is to prepare him for the journey to real maturity that he is about to embark on, something he should have already completed in the five years since season one. But let’s give him a break: he’s not been getting any.

He grew up into yaoi doujinshi material

Now, I’m not one to read up on background stories from magazine articles, so I don’t know what the heck is going on in G00 right now. Judging by this episode, I guess there’s a lot of political tension between the regular Earth Special Forces Earth Sphere Federation and the elitist A-LAWS, just like in Zeta. In addition, there are some random third parties like Celestial Being wandering around messing things up, just like in Zeta.

Saji should consult an optometrist

Everyone is all grown up and cool now (just like in Zeta) and Setsuna even changed his suit colour to a less gay shade of blackish grey. Peries and Sergei are living together and there’s some rather disturbing chemistry going on between the two of them that I want to pretend is just my misunderstanding. I like Peries more now that she’s not loli anymore. Louise is an A-LAWS pilot now, which I totally predicted one year ago when she lost her hand.

I quote myself:

… But seriously, I can just imagine Louise being abducted by some top secret joint Union-AEU-HRL black project to manufacture cyborg pilots for whatever super weapon they plan to build to counter the Gundams …

They sewed her hand back

In Gundam, losing an arm means that it’s time for an upgrade! That said, Louise’s a pretty crappy pilot so far, but I guess she’s due for a berserk pwnage sequence sometime in the next few episodes, Stellar style. I think I may be in love.

Thoughts

I realized that my summary didn’t actually summarize anything about the episode, but screw you! I’m sure everyone’s watched the first episode by now! Leave DarkMirage alone!

“AI EIMU GANDAMU”

In any case, the first episode is great. I can’t say that that’s unexpected since the first season had an awesome start too. I want to believe that this is a sign of improvement from the ending of the last season, and that this season will finally be awesome now that everyone’s grown up and not so whiny. I really want to believe it, but unfortunately Sunrise made a cynic out of me with the false hopes it’s been giving me over the years.

In order to not raise my hope again for nothing, I’m going to be a pessimist and assume that episode two will drop right back into clichéd dramaville and it will be a one-way ride to hell from there on. In fact, I’m going to just call this a “trainwreck” right now at this stage, before anyone else does. Remember: I did it first!

Of course, I may be proven wrong. Perhaps the forgettable first season was intentionally meant to be an awful prelude, so as to accentuate the awesomeness that will be season two. Maybe now that the main characters are all grown up, both literally and figuratively, the real story behind this boy-love franchise can finally take its ultimate shape. I want to believe, but let’s not.

In any case, this show should be worth watching, considering the number of female cast members who have now reached full fan-service maturity. Mmmmm.

She’s legal now, right?

It’s a good thing Grace didn’t die. Christina did a great service to mankind

(*ﾟДﾟ*)

Setsuna is most definitely gay

So…*cough* I wonder when the next swimsuit episode will be?

Screencaps

He sounds like a good guy, but his eyes look evil

What’s going on here?

New loli to fill the loli gap now that everyone’s grown up

In space, no one can see you pose

The cameraman is upside down. What an idiot

They repainted their Realdos and call it an upgrade, just like an MMORPG

Red vs Blue, just in case you can’t tell the two sides apart

Tachikoma rejects

Pew pew pew

Twice the penis size

This thing actually looks way cooler than all the Gundams

After Louise left him, Saji became a crack addict

*Cue Imperial March*

I should really be studying.

Surprise! I bet you totally didn’t expect me to blog Code Geass, especially considering that awful parody video I made which should best be left to rot in the depths of hell, my MySpace account and the fact that I used to own code-geass.com.

That said, the fact that I’m a huge Kallen fanboy has absolutely nothing to do with why I have decided to blog R2.

OP Sequence

Miku miku ni shiteageru~âª

OMG who made her cry? T_T

Hurray for racial stereotypes!

For King and Country

Whose illegitimate child is this?

I hope this won’t be the eventual pairing…

Summary

Season 2 starts off with a fast-paced bang that manages to give airtime to most of the major characters that we have come to love/hate.

At the end of the first season, Lelouch faced off his former friend Suzaku and the confrontation ended inconclusively. Due to his (Zero’s) absence from the front line during the critical moment of the Black Knights’ insurgency, the Order was eventually crushed, with most of its senior members captured. (Kallen escaped, though.) Zero himself was announced to have died. Due to the failed revolt, Elevens are now mistreated even more badly than before.

Since then, Lelouch’s memories have been sealed off, presumably by C.C., and he has returned to his regular life as a Britannia student in Area 11.

Kinky

Interestingly, Villetta (the platinum blonde Knightmare pilot) is now a gym teacher at Ashford Academy, placing her right in the comedic relief section of the Geass cast, although that is probably going to change soon.

And I must have missed a few memos, but out of nowhere, Lelouch now has a younger brother called Rollo. Whatever happened to Nunnally?

mai waifu~

In the first episode, Lelouch and Rollo go to a high-rolling casino where Lelouch intends to challenge rich Britannian nobilities to chess as usual. Unknown to him, the remnants of the Black Knights are betting all their remaining strength on a plan to reunite with him and bring back his memories as Zero.

A secret royal military unit meanwhile has kept Lelouch under constant surveillance to lay an ambush and wipe out the Black Knights when they make a move.

chuuu~

The episode ends in (predictable) bloodshed, and Lelouch regains his memories in a déjà vu sequence that feels just like the first episode of the last season. Still, C.C. fans can rejoice.

Kallen and the rest of the Black Knights are once again under the command of Zero. (It seems that they all know his real identity now.)

Opinions

I think it’s a pretty good start. The feel is a bit too similar to the start of the first season, but I’m sure the story will diverge soon considering the difference between then and now, content-wise. The fact that Lelouch regains his lost memories in the first episode suggests that the comedic aspect of the show will probably be short-lived as compared to before.

At this point, Code Geass is pretty hard to screw up. Even if we are served more of the same, the well-established characters will probably pull the series through to the end. That said, I really do hope that Sunrise tries something different. Looking back, the most awesome shows from Sunrise are always the ones that try to be different from Gundam, while the rest suffer from the burdens of their past (“staying loyal to the franchise”) and are inevitably overshadowed by their similar predecessors.

I mean seriously, Sunrise. Let’s be creative and go all out! Make Kallen the main character! Kthx bye.

Screencaps

Isn’t this scene from that ero anime…

A familiar sight

Bunny kick

This alternate future is screwed up

Fanservice @_@

Poison gas

Suzaku is totally the villain now

Now if you would excuse me, I have to write a one-page report on postwar Japan’s new constitution… in Japanese.

Apparently some time during the past few months, I found it within me the sudden urge to preorder both the PS2 and PSP Haruhi game releases, despite the fact that I didn’t actually own a PSP at that point of time. (I do now.) Wow, this is sort of like receiving a belated birthday present from an unknown stranger who broke into my bank account to pay for it.

More pictures after the break.

Suzumiya Haruhi no Tomadoi

Box front

Box back

Box side

DVD case front

DVD case back (crappy photography alert)

The figurine that comes with Suzumiya Haruhi no Tomadoi (PS2) is pretty damn crappy. I’ve seen better gachapon then this sad pathetic excuse for a collectible. Okay, so it’s not that bad, and I’m keeping it in its packaging anyway so it makes no difference. Feh.

Special preorder disc front

Special preorder disc back

The preorder-only disc that comes with the PS2 game is pretty cool. It’s basically the Hare Hare Yukai dance done in full three dee. It’s not long now before cel-shading filters supersede 2D completely. I had of course already seen the dance video on YouTube beforehand, but whatever.

Suzumiya Haruhi no Yakusoku

Box front

Box back

Suzumiya Haruhi no Yakusoku (PSP) comes in a packaging that totally looks like there’s a PSP inside, but there isn’t. It’s just a bunch of useless trinkets made by underpaid labour that will break within five seconds if you ever attempt to ever use them. I just keep mine in their bubble wraps.

UMD case and useless junk

UMD case back

Gundam 00 Singles

Surprsingly, it seems that I actually bought the new Gundam 00 first press singles even though, according to some, I hate the show and shouldn’t be blogging about it. This must be some kind of terrible mistake!

Ash Like Snow – CD case front

Ash Like Snow – CD case back

Friends – CD case front

Friends – CD case back

Ash Like Snow first press comes with Allelujah’s ID card and Friends first press comes with Tieria’s ID card. Unfortunately (or perhaps thankfully) you won’t get to see how they look like here, because I have a policy of not opening my CDs. Japanese labels could sell me nicely-packaged blank CD-Rs and I wouldn’t ever find out. Then again, not pressing the CD probably doesn’t save Sony that much money, so I’ll trust them on this.

Friends also comes with a B2 poster that uses the same illustration of Setsuna as the back of the jewel case.

I guess I’ll just go set the CDs on fire now since apparently I hate G00 very much.

I spent less than expected at Comiket, probably because I already bought a ton of random doujinshi from specialty stores. Some pictures are NSFW. (Basically the T2 Art Works stuff.)

T2 Art Works, the famous Tony Taka’s (aka Takayuki Tanaka) doujin circle, was selling goodie bags for ï¿¥3000. It contains a clear file, a calendar and a pencil board.

I also bought four copies of his latest release, Kiteru yo! Takeuchi-kun. (Based on Bamboo Blade.)

Kyoto Animation was selling some goodie bags from their current flagship titles. I will be reselling one Haruhi bag (I have extra) and one Clannad bag (I don’t like it that much).

They both come with a 2008 calendar and a phone card each. In addition, the Haruhi one comes with a A3 clear poster and the Clannad one comes with three bookmarks that are kind of lame when compared to Haruhi’s terrific poster. I will probably be selling them through KKnM, so you will need to be in Singapore to buy them.

This is a bag made by some booth that was selling Miku doujinshi. The doujinshi is pretty bad but the bag is cool. I think it was the only reason why so many people were queuing for that booth.

I got this for ï¿¥3500. It’s a 100% hand-drawn fan art of Yuki. It’s quite awesome, but I would’ve preferred Haruhi. The artist also drew Tomoyo and Kotomi (from Clannad) and Tsukasa and Kagami (from Lucky Star) in the same style, but I decided to pass.

I also bought Arisa Mizuhara’s latest cosplay collection CD-ROM. If you have never heard of her before, you need to check out her gallery. She’s basically my all-time favourite cosplayer.

The best part is that I met her in person at her booth! I managed to get a picture too by waving my press pass around. Huge thanks to Danny Choo and Akihabara News for the pass.

The CD-ROM is somewhat expensive at ï¿¥2000 for eight galleries of photos, but it’s extremely awesome. You can find a list of all her past releases on her website. There was actually a Singaporean trading company selling her photo collections at Cosfest, but I forgot its name.

On hindsight, I should have gotten her to autograph my copy of the CD-ROM… Damn.

I managed to obtain one of the forty copies of Cradle’s Re:frain that were on sale. The press has a seperate queue that is super short and located right beside the entrance to East Hall 1, so I got in quite early. I met and spoke with the duo behind Cradle, but unfortunately they were camera shy and declined my request for a picture. :(

KEI is the artist behind the official art for Crypton’s VOCALOID2 software series. I bought four copies of his new VOCALOID illustration compilation and one copy of his second artwork collection (which I sold to my friend).

I didn’t really bother to queue for any commercial booths, but HOOK’s HoneyComing merchandises looked pretty, so I spent about one hour queuing to get Asahi’s phone card set and Clarissa’s microfibre towel set (not pictured above). I seem to be the only person that I personally know who actually liked this game, but oh well.

My personal favourite purchase is Hiro Suzuhira’s latest HEART-WORK release. She is one of my favourite illustrators ever because of her works in the SHUFFLE! bishoujo game franchise (SHUFFLE!, Tick! Tack! and Really? Really!), specifically Nerine, Asa and Sage.

It has Hiro’s trademark design and Miku. What more can one ask for?

HEART-WORK’s booth was also selling a very beautiful Hatsune Miku and Kagamine Lin phone card set and a HEART-WORK collaboration calendar.

I queued over two hours for HEART-WORK’s booth. It was worth it. T_T <– Tears of joy.

I’ll talk more about the entire event itself in a later post. Really tired now. And, uh, an early Happy New Year! 明けましておめでとうございまãï¼ I’m watching Kouhaku on NHK right now.

It’s the fourth day of our little adventure in Tokyo and we took a trip to neighbouring Saitama prefecture to visit Konata’s favourite Gamers and Animate branches. Long story short: Saitama isn’t a very exciting place.

JR Ueno Station

The location is JR Oomiya Station West Exit (大宮駅西口), about five (long) stops away from JR Ueno via the Utsunomiya Line (宇都宮線) or the Takasaki Line (高崎線). The journey takes around 30 minutes and cost 450 yen on an express train. You can also pay 1280 yen for a one-stop ride on the Shinkansen.

JR Oomiya Station

Immediately outside the exit, face left and you will find this:

Head towards the McDonalds and into the streets behind it to find the old location of Animate’s Oomiya Branch.

The branch has since moved to a bigger location about 10 metres away.

In fact, it even has a second storefront just next door selling character goods. (There’s also a Melon Books above it.)

And a few hundred metres away from Animate lies Gamers. It’s kind of hard to describe its location. In fact, I had to ask a guy in Sofmap for it. Then I asked for the directions to Animate from a Gamers employee. It seems that they do hire real otaku in such places.

The East Exit of the station also happens to be one of the setting locations for School Days, specifically Sakakino-chou (榊野町).

Well that’s about it. We didn’t wander too far from the station because it was already getting dark (at 4pm). We split up and I ended up wandering around some familiar places in Ikebukuro to take pictures and busk in nostalgia.

And by popular demand, here’s a soapland:

And here’s Odex:

Most of the other pictures suck, so I’m not going to bother posting them here. Go look at today’s gallery for more.

By the way, today’s doujinshi haul is as follows:

• Yousei Mangasha – Kaiketsu Ma-ryan (okay)
• Arestica – Sweet Folk Music
• Essentia – Giga Drill Break
• CRIMsON – CRIMsON plus (awesome)
• Rei’s Room & Spread-Pink – Double Again (decent)
• Amekazesyokudou – Clannad (nice cover)
• Arestica – Baby talk (nice)
• Matsumoto Drill Ladoratory – Tamakin (interesting…)

One more day till Comiket.

A fire engine just drove by. I wonder where it’s heading to. But anyway, read on for photos from Kaminarimon, Nakano Broadway, Shinjuku and nighttime Akihabara.

Asakusa

We went to Sensouji near Asakusa Station in the morning. I tried the omikuji. It took forever for a stick to fall out, but my fortune is apparently good.

Tourist traps

Spot the odd one out

Tsuruya-san’s family business

Ruined symmetry

Small boat town

Kanji

Paying for protection

Shake, pull and match

Roses are red, violets are blue. All my base are belong to you

They need to add a foliage-penetration mode on cameras

I want one

Nakano

Next stop, Nakano Broadway. I already covered this place in a previous entry so I shall save the explanations. More pictures!

Still in the mood for X’mas

Fraulein Revoltech Rei for 1485 yen

The only other picture I took inside Nakano Broadway

In the back alleys

Japanglish

Reminds me of FLCL

Shinjuku

I spent the afternoon alone wandering around Shinjuku. I walked around 4km. I bought a light novel called Bungaku Shoujo to Shinitagari no Piero (“文学少女”と死にたがりの道化). I have no idea what it is about, but I bought it anyway because I liked the little prose in the page before the prologue, and because it’s in some kind of “Top 10” list so it has to be somewhat decent.

Pink flowers added just in case you miss the message

Outside the Shinjuku Station’s New South Exit

New South Exit

Shinjuku Station is about the size of a small city with exits that are hundreds of metres apart. It’s a hell load of walking.

I don’t know where this place is but whatever

Shinjuku Station serves a few dozen lines

Takashimaya used to be a cloth shop

One line

Two lines

Three lines

Shinjuku Station is the busiest train station in the world with over 3.3 million passengers a day.

Compensation

Random building

Kinokuniya South Shinjuku Branch

My membership card doesn’t work here…

Walkway connecting Kinokuniya to Takashimaya

Kinokuniya is actually a grocery store in Japan!

Walking towards the Metropolitan Government Office (800m away)

Hey, is that…?

Yeah it is.

Bureaucratic zone

One of Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s buildings

Taxpayer yen at work

Fuji News Network news truck

Push the button for audio signals

Akihabara

Finally, I met with Don777 in Akihabara. He’s a pretty nice guy, especially since he likes Maaya too. He brought me to @home cafe and Cafe with Cat (Toranoana’s new cafe). Cafe with Cat seems to be a pretty standard maid cafe deal except with cat-inspired uniforms instead of maid costumes, whereas @home is definitely on the manic side of things. The waitress who brought us our drinks actually did this heart-sign action to inject a “moé” flavour.

But I shall not go into that because I am falling asleep anytime now… A few more pictures and we are done.

Fortune Arterial is the latest game by August, the makers of Yoake Mae yori Ruri-iro na. Basically it’s the exact same game except the hair colours get shuffled around a bit and the Feena-lookalike is a loli. It’s also the most anticipated upcoming game according to Comptiq magazine, so expect it to sell a gazillion copies and be turned into a cabbage an anime.

Eva coffee

The second Kara no Kyoukai movie will be out on Saturday

Well, that’s it for today. I need sleep.

By the way, in case you didn’t know yet, all the photos (and more) can be found in my photo gallery.

We overslept and missed Tsukiji, and ended up spending the whole day in Ikebukuro. (Otome Road in particular.) This is what happens when you don’t plan your itinerary in advance.

This is the fourth time I’ve been to Japan, but it’s the first time I’ve stayed in any place other than Ikebukuro. I have stayed in Sunshine City Prince (east Ikebukuro), Hotel Metropolitan (central Ikebukuro) and Grand House Chang Tee (west Ikebukuro) on three separate occasions, so you can say that Ikebukuro’s the place that I am most familiar with in the whole of Japan.

Ikebukuro

Bleach movie

I really want to watch this

This is a small cinema

Tokyu Hands

Sakura Cafe

Entrance to Sunshine City

Fire hydrant

Pepsi

Waiting for Tokyu Hand to open

hikoukigumo

Arcade opposite Tokyo Hand

Gundam P.O.D.

I realize that I suck at taking pictures for introducing a place. But it’s okay because these parts of Ikebukuro are unimportant. By the way, Tokyu Hand is a really cool franchise store that sells all sorts of awesome things from ant farms to plamo to DIY supplies to marble Rube Goldberg kits. Some examples:

Amuro!

I cannot comprehend people’s obsession with Zeon

Tape fixes everything, even broken holy lances

Otome Road

The most important area in Ikebukuro is the Otome Road. It has tons of BL and yaoi (hence the nickname), but don’t let that deter you from visiting this awesome place. (Unless you are a fujoshi, in which case further convincing is not needed.) The shops along Otome Road have awesome deals for secondhand item and limited edition collectibles.

Here’s a map of Otome Road. I will include the locational names in Japanese below so you can compare.

Walking from the south, the first place that you’ll probably see is the main branch of Animate (アニメイト本店), the biggest anime chain store in Japan, and probably the world.

Animate main branch

The main branch had a renovation since the last time I visited over a year ago. They shifted the position of the main entrance for some reason.

Bleach movie ad again

Too many

Way too many

The old main entrance

A few steps further down the road from Animate lies an inconspicuous stairway to Lashinbang (らしんばん). This is a secondhand store that sells doujinshi, event-limited collectibles and various other rare character goods. You can find some good deals here, but it’s hard to say for sure as prices are often set quite arbitrarily and can vary greatly from store to store.

Moving on, we find K-Books’ anime section (K-BOOKS　アニメ館). This is similar to Lashinbang, except that it does not sell doujinshi. The last time I was here, I bought an episode script for Kimi ga Nozomu Eien. (The kind that seiyuu use.) You can get some really rare stuff here if you can afford the premium. If not, look for cheap deals and enjoy the secondhand savings.

K-Books panders quite a bit to the fujoshi crowd, so it’s wise to stay out of any area with suspiciously-pink decor. The next store is K-Books too, this one with more doujin-related items.

Mandarake (the shop is in the basement)

Next we have Mandarake (まんだらけ), a famous franchise store for doujin products. Their Ikebukuro branch deals exclusively with BL, so proceed with caution.

Finally, K-Books has two additional outlets farther down the street. The doujinshi section (K-BOOKS　同人館) deals with BL and yaoi doujinshi (K-BOOKS　コミック館), while the comics section has awesome deals for secondhand manga, often with entire sets up for sale.

Cheap as they may be, manga are absolutely the worst thing you can get in Japan as a tourist due to the weight limit placed on your check-in luggage.

But still, the price is tempting.

Well, that’s about it for Otome Road.

More Pictures

Trees

Tree

We ate at this underground (literally) Chinese restaurant

The waitress spoke Chinese

Spot the Bleach movie ad!

His Master’s Voice

Wendy’s

Real movies that are not Bleach

Denny’s

Pachinko parlour

Toranoana’s Ikebukuro Branch

“Christ’s blood will save the world!”

McPork

On a closing note, for those of you who are wondering about the doujinshi…

From left to right, top down:

• Paper Crown – Blade Works (crap)
• T2 Art Works – Entangle
• Kagi No-do – HowTo Hatsune Miku (okay)
• Lost Rarities – Industial (decent)
• Kohakutei & Sakai-Hamachi – EDEN -Rei7- (frigging awesome)
• T2 Art Works – Nekomimi Batoraa
• T2 Art Works – Watashi wa Kyozetsu suru!
• Hiro Suzuhira – Heart-Work 2005
• Hiro Suzuhira – Heart-Work 2007 Summer
• Hiro Suzuhira – Heart-Work 2006 Summer

Total expenditure (food and transport included) today: ï¿¥7,367.

Which is why Saigo no Kajitsu (The Last Fruit) is such a pleasant surprise for me. Not since Shounen Alice (2003) has there been any Maaya releases that excited me quite as much as this new single, which also happens to be the ending theme for Tsubasa Chronicles OVA, Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations.

And the best part? The postman finally brought me my copy today!

Tracklist:

1. Saigo no Kajitsu さいごの果実
2. Mitsubachi to Kagakusha ミツバチと科学者
3. Saigo no Kajitsu (w/o Maaya)
4. Mitsubachi to Kagakusha (wo Maaya)
5. Saigo no Kajitsu (short size)

I translated Saigo no Kajitsu for the karaoke of a fansub release and I had been waiting for the full version since. (Well, it wasn’t that long ago.) I am so happy. T_T

You can find the full transliteration and translation of the lyrics at the usual place.

Low-bitrate stream:

nee boku wa, boku wa shiritai~

Please buy the single from Amazon if you like it!

Now as per policy, the CD shall remained shrink-wrapped forever, to be buried with me in my grave. Therefore, I don’t have any more pictures for you. (Go look for the scans yourself!) Instead, here’s a picture of the current state of my Maaya CD collection.

Click for larger version

As it currently stands, excluding the CDs that are not released under her name (i.e. Whoops!!, OSTs, Yoko Kanno), I am just missing a few of her older singles. Mainly because they are in the old 80-mm CD-Mini format and I don’t like that. Well I guess I’ll get to them eventually…

And for some reason, there’s a ten-year-old album from Megumi Hayashibara in there too. Heh.