So anyway, here are some purchases I made this month that I have NOT been regretting. The rare few, that is.

First up, we have a D.C. II Nanaka mouse pad and phone card set that I mentioned before in a previous entry. It cost a bomb. Like the nuclear kind. But Nanaka fanboyism overcomes all, including food and daily necessities.

Mouse pad
Phone card

It’s pretty nice. The phone card is where most of the explosive price tag goes to. People are selling the mouse pad on Yahoo! Auctions for just a few hundred yen without the phone card… Ah, crazy Japanese collecting telephone cards that no one ever uses because every single one of them has a mobile phone surgically attached to his/her hand. No one will even notice the difference if NTT stops putting credits into these cards. (Or maybe they already did?)

Moving on, we have SummerDays & School Days Visual Collection. Despite the huge screw-up that was SummerDays, fanboyism dies hard and sometimes you are rewarded for it. This visual collection is waaaaay superior to the game. Really.

Full cover
Sekai’s mother
SummerDays preorder phone card from Messe Sanoh
SummerDays event-only promotion phone card
New School Days box design
Sekai so hawt
Setsuna V!
Setsuna turning kick!

And a whole bunch of other promotional and game-related art that I shall not post here because they are too… ummm… cool. Yeah. Let’s just say that Kinokuniya wouldn’t bring this in so I had to pay through my nose to get it online. (As opposed to paying through my nose at Kinokuniya, that is)

Next… Caladbolg from T2 Art Works (NSFW). Oh, so much win that I shed tears as I befouled it with my unworthy touch.

Back cover (NSFW!!!)
Saber Saber wai wai!
Rin in swimsuit

I’m sure you all have the complete scans of Tony Taka doujinshi stowed away somewhere on your hard drives, so I shall not bother with more pictures…

And finally, Zero no Tsukaima 1/6 1/8 Louise PVC (I have no idea why I like to type 1/6 these days) from Kotobukiya. This was a pleasant surprise because I was sooooo sure that the final mass production figure will totally suck compared to the pictures. It turned out quite awesome, possibly better than the Alter one.

Frontal close-up
Tsundere power
Right side
It’s moonspeak!!!
Book cover
Pantsu!

Speaking of which, I have a Chinese O’level paper tomorrow. Wow, I should really start working on that or something… Oooo shiny object!…

Anyway, before I go, I just want to say that Happiness! episode 4 has caused me so much mental pain and agony. GAOOOO!

Some people were wondering where the picture of Haruhi in my new banner came from. It’s a doujin art by a circle called 5年目の放課後 (go-nenme no houkago) or as the doujin covers say, “Afterschool of the 5th Year”. It sounds only slightly less weird in Japanese… XD

I really love the cowgirl Haruhi picture. I was planning on using it for the site banner, but the angle and the cropped gun barrel made it difficult to position. I only realized that after I was almost done with photoshopping away the background… gao.

The picture is actually the cover page for his/her latest doujinshi; “t.y.s. 21” stands for “tachiyomi senyou vol.21“. You can see the rest of the doujinshi here, except for vol.1-3 which, according to the site:

……これより古いのは無かったことに。
……Let’s pretend the ones older than vol.4 didn’t exist.

lol. Anyway here’s the original image used in my banner.

And the latest illustration on the website. Apparently it’s goign to be the cover art for vol.23 (coming soon).

Other than Haruhi, 5th Year also has a LOT of cool illustrations from various series. Such as this one from NHK ni Youkoso!

I just absolutely love this picture of Saber for some reason. Maybe it’s the burger. It’s just cool. This was one of the pictures considered for my new banner, but alas it didn’t fit either.

And here’s Sasara from To Heart 2!!!!!!

Of course it can’t be complete without Maaryan-senpai!!!!!!~!

5th Year also seems to have a thing for Yuki Kotonomiya from Suigetsu and Manaka Komaki from To Heart 2. Although I’m not much of a Manaka fanboy, this picture is nice.

Just about the only complaint I have with 5th Year’s art is the complete lack of Tama-nee. ._. You can take a look at the rest of the illustrations on je-pu-pu ‘s listing for 5th Year.

P.S. I am sooo buying the issue with the Haruhi cover.

Image taken from Moeyo!

This custom-made Saber from Paper Moon was on display during the recent Wonder Festival 2006 Summer. Now she can be yours for the price of just 480,000 yen (tax included) or your first born! That’s about 4000 USD (the yen, not the baby).

The figurine will be on sale exclusively through the DMM.com website. She comes in three versions: the movable joints in dress and leg armour version, the movable joints in casual clothing version and the fixed-pose soft material in casual clothing version.

Image taken from Moeyo!

The leg joints are quite visible (and ugly) if you pull down the socks (gee, why would anyone ever do that?), which is why a jointless version made of more flexible material is offered. The jointed versions are made with FRP (fibre-reinforced plastic) while the softer version is made from polyurethane rubber. The legging armour is FRP with a metallic coating.

Saber measures 154cm tall and has a shoe-size of 23.5cm. All three versions cost the same. Replicas of Excailbur and Caliburn measuring 117cm long are included. You can also purchase each sword separately for 150,000 yen.

I wonder what’s the market size in Japan for this. Damn rich Japanese otaku.

Visit Moeyo! (they were loaned a set for photo-taking and other lewd purposes) for more pictures.

A++ if I were his teacher.

Rin didn’t die… Damn.

Personally, I think the ending was well done and the impact is there, but it’s just not my type of ending. That part towards the end, where the scene jumps to the various characters and a tune plays in the background, was pretty emotional to watch, though. Gao…

I want the ED song “Hikari” by Jyukai…

Anyway, to sum up episode 23…

Rin dies.That is all.

First pressing of disillusion by Sachi Tainaka and Anata ga Ita Mori by Jyukai. Woohoo! (Yeah, that’s two copies of each.) I’m still trying to decide if I should open them up.

And speaking of anime music, I need to know the lyrics for the fourth stanza of Hoshi ga Kanaderu Monogatari from episode 22 of Mai-Otome. I’m quite certain that the fansubs are wrong but I can’t make out the singing because of all the fighting that’s going on. Can’t wait till OST 3.

P.S. Miyu may have changed her name, but she still rocks. ^^

I’m waiting for my JLPT 2 results. Judging by last year’s experience, it should arrive by mail within this week, probably on Thursday or Friday. I really need my certification so that I can qualify for the JLPT 1 prep course. I haven’t been doing much in terms of studying Japanese for the last three months and I really, really wish to pass JLPT 1 this year…

I’ve been looping disillusion and wasurekaketeita no kana from the Fate/stay night anime for the last 24 hours. Can’t wait till my CDJapan order arrives. ^^ Crystal Energy from Mai-Otome is nice too.

More blogging after I get my JLPT results. I promise. No, really.

P.S. Watch REC.

*wub*

The start of the anime seems to be different from that of the game. As far as I remember, the game started with Saber pledging her allegiance to the player, which only takes place at the end of episode 2 of the anime. Then again, my knowledge of F/SN sucks and I’m really more of a Ayako fanboy. (Saber is fine too :P)

Are you my master?

The story is about seven mages fighting one another to obtain the Holy Grail. The mages do not know the identities of one another. They summon Servants (which come in different varieties like Archer and Lancer) to fight for them. Ok, that’s about I all can tell from two episodes of raw anime. Wahahaha.

Ayako-sama~~~

So anyway, the main character is a mage failure who’s only good at one spell. He witnesses a fight between two Servants and gets targetted for termination because mages do not want their existence to be known. With his sheer determination, and probably his Main Character’s Secret Hidden Superpower(tm), he accidentally summons Saber, said to be the most powerful of all Servant classes.

ZOMG Chikane flashbacks~!

Anyway, Ayako Kawasumi rocks. That is all.

On another note, I picked up Newtype Feb today. Sadly, Negima Vol.13 will only be coming in on Wednesday. Damn. Suzuka, though it has the same release date as Negima, will only reach here in a few weeks. Sigh.

Airtimes for Fate/Stay Night anime:

局名	放送開始日	曜日	放送æ‚é–“
ちばテレビ	1月8日	毎週日曜日	24：30～25：00
テレビ神奈川	1月8日	毎週日曜日	25：30～26：00
テレビ埼玉	1月6日	毎週金曜日	25：30～26：00
サンテレビ	1月11日	毎週水曜日	26：05～26：35
テレビ愛知	1月13æ—¥	毎週金曜日	26：43～27：13 ï¼ˆ1月のみ）
KBS京都	1月8日	毎週日曜日	25：15～25：45
MXテレビ	1月10日	毎週火曜日	25：30～26：00

TV Saitama has it the earliest. 25:30 on the 6th. So get your Winny and BT RSS feeds ready…