Small time haul from CM 75, and retry Osaka

(tags doujinshi, Comic Market 75, 薄荷屋, Osaka, character goods)

Some goods from Comic Market 75: Hakkaya / Yuiko Tokumi (薄荷屋 or 篤見唯子) calendar (2), Doki Doki Tama-tan, Hello World, a free booklet for GA Bunko Publishing with a nice illustration of Polyphonica Corti. This was last weekend's haul.

In Osaka, Books Lashinbang had one CM 75 Hakkaya / Yuiko Tokumi Calendar for 1500 yen, which I thought was great, until I found Hobby Vanilla selling multiples for 600 yen each. Ouch. So I bought the second one to average the cost out. :-/

I only bought the Polyphonica leaflet because of the illustration on the cover. Inside was merely a catalog of new light novels coming out. 200 yen via rental space case (委託販売), really not worth it.

And Tama-tan (たまタン) related goods, which was a CD to be eventually be sold at Tora no Ana. I got this one at K-Books just because I felt the haul was small and the Tama-tan goods need to be collected.

I can't say that I am looking for more CM 75 stuff to buy. I probably missed most of the good stuff going in on 2008-01-11 Sunday anyway. I did pick up some other goods from previous CMs that I missed. The picture shows in the background the bag from Hakkaya CM73 goods. Also I picked up some drama CDs and other おまけ/特典 (exclusive goods) not related to CM. 

Still today I plan on going out to Nipponbashi to swim through the goods again. Also, today is World Hobby Fair (for the Pikachu in me) at Osaka Dome. Also a new event for me is Comic Treasure, a doujinshi fan event sponsored by AoBoo, but it's a non-free event. It appears to be held at Intex Osaka, the same place as Dream Party I attended last November. I learned about this through Aoi Nishimata's blog (大阪にむけて出発です). Is she visiting?

Let's see what's there. Osaka Osaka, nande nande ya nen.

Books Lashinbang Kobe Sannomiya opens

(tags failure, telephone card, ecsite, doujin, Kobe, anime, manga, character goods, 200803, Shining Wind, Estrian Odyessy, CD)

On Saturday I woke up early but played the FFTA. Then I remembered Books Lashinbang Kobe was opening today. I need to put these things on my calendar. And I need to review my calendar every day. :-/

Anyways I got there 5 minutes before, and the line was somewhat okay, probably about 100 people in front of me. I was able to get in around 10:30 AM. I headed straight for the telephone card (TC) cases which were in the back. It goes without saying that it was packed. I couldn't see over the other people lining up there. I didn't see anything I really wanted, and I started to peruse the rest of the store, bouncing off fellow otaku. Still I didn't want to exit just yet so I headed back to the TC cases again. I then decided to get the two TCs pictured here.

The bottom right TC is that PlayStation 2 game Shining Wind related illustration with beautiful, lovely Kureha in a miko dress. WIN. I've seen it before at Books Lashinbang Osaka and K-Books Osaka and the price is the same over there. Might as well commemorate the shop opening with something special.

The second TC at the middle left is a DS game Etrian Odyssey II (世界樹の迷宮II 諸王の聖杯) which was an exclusive to Akihabara-based game store Messe Sanoh. The game itself was release just two weeks back, and according to the description, it's a "classic RPG" with manual mapping (whoa). Emulate the grid paper on yer DS. I don't care about the game, but I love the illustrations and wallpaper. The illustration theme is receiving a belated Valentine chocolate from the (tsundere?) blond hair gunner (job class) chick. What a cute "Jack Frost" badge. I don't even think she has a name. I scoped this same card at the Telecard Paradise Osaka store for like 4500 yen, so maybe its a deal. Also, the game comes with a soundtrack with that Insert Credit sound artist favorite Yuzo Koshiro (古代 祐三) and others. The cover illustration is again the blond hair gunner. Nice nice maybe I'll get the game nice nice. No.

I also bought some cheep manga: Kyoushiro to Towa no Sora volume 1, and CDs: the Loco Roco single and Angela Aki's "Kiss Me Goodbye" single for Final Fantasy XII. I have the over-sexy Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora CD case holding my Xbox 360 discs, but I never explored the story until now. Also this is the first time I've seen a store selling Quo Card plastic sleeves. Quo cards are a different size than TCs so you can't reuse the TC plastic sleeves for them.

It's too bad I decided to get the stuff late, because I was only able to get the exclusive clear file pictured above. If I was perhaps 10 minutes earlier, I could have got the exclusive TC (with slightly more horndog illustration, rawr). Doh. I really wanted something related to Kobe because heck I live here. The illustrator is 憂姫はぐれ先生（サークル：WIRE FRAME）. I suppose this link is NSFW, but it's not up now.

There seems to be some other specials, centering on telephone cards. Goodie. Take for example this one, a Card Captor Sakura TC set "celebrating" the re-release of the manga a year or two ago. I did check the price. Each card is 3_5000 yen +. A little steep, don'cha think?!?

I went to the store again this Monday evening and there's a healthy crowd of people there looking and buying. I was hoping that the Kobe-only exclusive card was available, because net auctions rip hard. No luck.

Here begins another store relationship. This location does seem to have a lot of interesting things and good selection, for now. I do hope they expand their TC selections. I want more stuff with daishi (台紙, lit. card backing) and more all ages stuff like Di Gi Charat. I am not interesting in the eroge TCs even though they are rawr.

Pikachu reuse

(tags kawaii, character goods, Dual Screen, hardware, Pikachu)

I stopped by the Pokemon Center on a quiet Friday. There seemed to be a lot more Pikachu goods for some reason. Maybe hard times are hitting the Pokemon brand?

Aww, the plastic case illustration is just so perfect. :-)

It's not like I'm going to use yet another Pikachu skin and case and stylus. But I will use the hand towel for bathing. Okay, no jokes about electricity and the bath, please.

Buy confident: Fairial Garden

(tags manga, character goods, Fairial Garden, magazine)

Fairial Garden (FG) has got a hold on me. I've been looking for FG stuff on the net. I even prepped a RSS feed on the search words at Yahoo Auction JP (keyword: 「フェアリアル ガーデン」), which currently returns nothing. Only a few weeks back did I spot this in Den Den Town:

It's Comic Blade (bishoujo) and Comic Blade Avarus (boys life) magazine's informal tribute to Comic Market 73 (Winter 2007). It comes with a flimsy cloth bag and I paid too much for the set. :-/ FG's Claire graces the cover in a Santa outfit. Unfortunately Sakurano's illustrations only gets the cover and one page.

I assume this is supposed to be a blending of FG and a neko theme. Notice there are only cat ears, not the regular ears. Four ears looks strange?

I really wanted to read the next episode of this story. But I didn't know what episode was available in the current Comic Blade. I contemplated buying a back issue at one local used book store, but they didn't have it. So I took a chance and bought the 2008-02 (January) monthly issue.

Yokatta. Lucky for me it is the next episode, so there are no story breaks. Here I am cutting up the thick magazine so I save the manga that I want to keep.

I also clipped some seperate color illustrations and ads. The right most clipping shows a pink-themed illustration, nice. The original illustration is a green background on the manga. The middle clipping shows a raffle telephone card for 20 winners. Argh, want.

BTW, the issue held the last manga episode of Akazukin. I don't follow it, though. I did try to get into the DVDs because of the POP illustrations. With this issue, I just clipped the color parts. Talk about levelled up armor, the antithesis of kawaii. Heh.

Comic Blade is a monthly magazine that distributes every 30th. So next time I go out I'm gonna pick it up and clip it.

Cold reminder, Idolmaster point cards

(tags character goods, Idolmaster, game, PlayStation 2, Street Fighter, Xbox 360, Yuiko Tokumi)

I did another out and about session in Nipponbashi Den Den Town this weekend. I hate it when I am reminded that I spend too much money on character goods. Too much money. TOO MUCH MONEY. (echo echo echo...) Uh oh this is starting to sound like a whiny post. :-/

I am now considering not going to Den Den Town for the month of February. I would save on travel money that way. But sometimes Den Den Town has the cheap stuff. Also the shop prices adjust my expectations when doing online auctions. Ugh online auctions.

(picture thanks Inside Games JP)

Let's see, the only entertainment thing I planned to buy in February was Idolm@ster Live For You but that's coming in the mail. Today I saw the pre-order for the two Idolm@ster branded Xbox Live Point cards, shown above. I've never seen any XBL Point cards with a design before. You know I'm a card collector, e.g. a telephone card collector. I'm used to 1000 yen prices. But 5000 yen retail is steep. Then there's the question of whether to use the code on the card or not. My feeling says yes, idiot, use the stuff you buy. I'll see if they have a pre-order at my local shop.

Actually today I wanted so much to pick up Burnout: Paradise at Den Den Town but my go-to store doesn't have it yet. I could have instead bought the new Wipeout PSP or the new Contra DS or Bioshock or whatever games not yet in my region... Then I reminded myself, I have Jak Combat Racing for the PS2-US. Break that out now.

Okay today was somewhat thrifty, I think. I got Street Fighter III Third Strike for the PS2 for 1580 yen and Project Sylpheed for the Xbox 360 for 1480 yen. Original covers on both of those too, great. Unfortunately they are dented (ケースイタミ) but even though I don't see where. And I got (another) Yuiko Tokumi illustration 2008 calendar. (I haven't posted about my Yuiko Tokumi purchasing, have I?)

Finally I bought (not pictured) Yuu Kobayashi's new music single (based on j1m0ne's recommendation) and Miyuki Hashimoto's single for a 2008-01 season anime. Ouch 1200 yen for singles. The disconnect on my purchasing is pretty stupid, huh.

Okay now to enjoy space.

Pikachu in World Hobby Fair 2008

(tags convention, Japan, Osaka, game, Pikachu, character goods, Wii, Dual Screen, PlayStation Portable)

Today was the World Hobby Fair 2008 in Osaka. To me it's a mainstream electronic game and toy hobby fair for kids ages 12 and under. These days one must bring a DS and PSP for the special goodies and opportunities, but I didn't bother. I went because I was planning to go to Den Den Town anyway. Plus there were video game demos from top-tier companies major like Nintendo, Sega, Capcom, etc. I know its ultimately a waste of time which is why I didn't go last year, even though I did go two years ago.

OMG hypocritical thoughts: There were far too many kids games about collecting or battling. It's horrifying to think about all this free time wasted on games, especially the fad games. I saw kids with hundreds of cards from those card battle games, toy cars on race tracks, kids/tweens walking around while playing whatever RPG on their DS lite or PSP, etc. Decadently vulgar mass consumerism. I wanted to shout, "Read a m!%'%'-f%)%(% book! And not a manga!" I kept on thinking to myself, man if ever become a father... yeah right. But this is what people will pay for, so the companies will provide. So essentially I was ignoring 95% of the wares being hocked.

Ahem, back to sparkle gazing. :-)

I saw the Star Soldier R download game for the Wii which was great because of my recent shmup mood (thanks Shikigami no Shiro 3 and Omega Five). It seems like it has a slightly tweaked power-up system, but it's definately Star Soldier, for better or worse. It makes me want to play my Gamecube or PSP version. I didn't bother entering the 2 minute high score contest because I already saw a contestant get one million and first place with excellent technique (eg shoot both targets at the same time). If I ever buy a Wii I'll probably get this. Are there any other shmups besides Shikigami no Shiki 3?

Super Smash Bros. for the Wii was up and playable in groups of four, though the demo movies were the same ones from E3 2006. I was surprised to see that it is in a widescreen format, because I always thought the Wii was only 4:3. And I've never played this franchise though, so the details are lost on me. I mean come on, Pikachu had 105% health but 30 seconds later it became 0%? Wut?!? I still want to get the SSB for the Gamecube because it was said to have a interesting collection mode. But I haven't wanted to buy it in the 6 years it has been out, so I don't think I'll ever get it.

Sony had their booth with the newest Ape Escape game. I wanted to play the Patapon demo, but I wasn't in the mood to wait in line. I also saw the refresh of the Taiko no Tatsujin for the DS, "7" something or other, but only in passing. Um what else? Nothing else I can remember, so the rest is not important.

On the non-video game front, I was surprised to see Speed Stacks there. I don't hold it in high regard, sorry to say, but it is indirectly useful for my Rubik's Cube hobby. They were selling the mat and timer for 5040 yen, ouch. I am kicking myself for not asking if the timer hooks up to the 2_0000 yen competition display. Show some courage, big guy. Well, I still don't need it yet.

Regarding anime and manga goods, the only thing that I found interesting was Hayate no Gotoku goods, but I resisted buying even a pencil card. The big A2 non-sale poster/tapestry at the back was a desirable Nagi design, ooh white dress. Okay that's enough.

The Pocket Monsters franchise had a big booth as always. I just had to take this picture of the inflatable playroom and big movie poster. I adore Pikachu but I have no idea about the stories or TV. Pikachu occupies the same area as Hello Kitty in my mind. It's enough just to sit around looking cute and kawaii.

Lastly I took a stroll through the exclusive goods area. I braced myself for the sell out signs because I arrived in the afternoon but all the Pikachu goods I wanted were available. Huh, lucky me. Unlucky wallet. Of course I want to show my haul:

I usually don't buy 3D representations of Pikachu (eg plushie dolls, figurines) but this coin purse was pretty much spot on. The silicone case for the DS lite was new to me, but its not an event exclusive, rather a regular Pokemon Center sale item. Lastly I never say no to pencil cards because they are relatively cheap and light to keep and store. Whoa, I have come to the conclusion that my favorite color must be yellow. :-)

The event was held at the Kyosera Dome Osaka, which I believe is an indoor baseball stadium. After leaving the event, I visted the baseball hobby shop on the first floor. I was surprised to see U.S. merchandise like official Major League Baseball shirts and hats. Even my home town team the San Diego Padres had some decent stuff there. Of course, there were a lot of fan goods of the Japanese dudes who made it big in the U.S. like Ichiro.

WHF has come and gone. At least Pikachu was there for me to keep me interested. :-)

Hooray for cuteness: Gamers character goods 2007/11 and Goshuushou-sama Ninomiya-kun

(tags illustrator, character goods, music, anime)

A week ago on 2007-11-21 I picked up the Gamers point exchange telephone card. This time it's cute Petit Charat, but with green eyes. She normally has brown eyes, right? What is with this iris color change thing anyway? I did not anticipate the other point exchange item, which is the "light novel" yellow book cover made of really flimsy canvas-like material. Still, Dijiko FTW!

The telephone card was unadvertised that month, which worried me. Was the period where there were no telephone card item during the 2007 Summer a real break or did I miss something? I am uneasy. But I'm fine, really. :-(

Today I picked up the opening and ending theme of the 2007-10 anime Goshuushou-sama Ninomiya-kun (ご愁傷さま二ノ宮くん). I am a sucker for the cutesy moe voices by Mai Kadowaki and Miyuki Sawashiro (門脇舞以 & 沢城みゆき). A cheerleader's "hooray hooray" turns into "furefure" in Japanese, heh.

Also purchased but not pictured was the limited edition of Nana Mizuki (水樹奈々) latest CD+DVD release, Great Activity. I'm a week late on this recent release, but it still came with a goodie, a slightly large picture of the seiyuu-diva herself. I heard one ballad from the CD at Animate (I think it's "Last Scene" 「ラストシーン」) and it was enthralling so... Normally I'm not into her but I don't doubt her talent.

BTW, it shocked me to learn some time ago that she wanted to be a enka singer. Luckily for us of the moe pursuasion she puts her full concentration on being the imouto-voice seiyuu, haha.

Dead or Alive 4 hunt, Hisashiburi Osaka, Kureha digitized

(tags Osaka, purchase, character goods, telephone card, game, Xbox 360, anime, seiyuu, PlayStation 2, Kasimasi, Ikaruga)

Last post was a real bummer. How to get back to my dreamland? Goods!

On Saturday I headed to Tennouji and Nipponbashi Den Den Town for some Xbox 360 game scoping and telephone card hunting. I haven't been there since middle September because I spent 5_0000+ yen on an Xbox 360 last month, so the change of season makes the area look different. I didn't know how the Osaka tower looked at night, but it was so so. Anyways, the obligatory goods picture:

My goal was to get Dead or Alive 4 for less than 2200 yen, with original cover. The Platinum Collection covers irritate me and the DoA4 Platinum Collection edition comes out on 11/1 so maybe there are old copies lingering somewhere. Unfortunately I only scoped a 2900 yen one at A-Too, that crazy price used game shop that also carries a good selection of foreign console games. I let it pass (I got that telephone card there as a consolation prize). I could have snatched up a foreign edition BioShock with embossed case, but I don't need it yet at 7000 yen. One interesting find at another shop: a Panzer Dragoon (?) Xbox 1 console going for a little less than 3_0000 yen. No box?!? Oh please.

My buy threshold was 2000 yen for other games. I found Gears of War english-only edition for 1880 yen and Bullet Witch original cover for the same. At the northern Super Potato (?) I could have picked up Trusty Bell and Ridge Racer 6 for about 1900 yen each, but I figured enough was enough. BTW, at the same store, the Dead or Alive 4 arcade stick for the Xbox 360 was selling 12800 yen used! Why? Why!? It reminded me that I don't want to play Ikaruga on the Xbox controller. I'm not so hot on a joystick, though.

A semi-serious goal was to get the various Street Fighter on PS2 re-releases. The highest priority is on the Street Fighter Alpha collection. I had some fun times playing Guy on SF Alpha 1, but he wasn't the same on Alpha 2. Anyways, this game disc never got "Collection"-ed so its still 4500 yen new. Then again why should I bother since I already have the Windows PC port. I notice that there are no used copies of these SF games (!?!), but plenty of SNK fighters to be had.

Explaining the other items: various TCs abound. j1mOne's recommendation of Tiaraway's music made get the Seiyuu Gran-prix TC. I don't know the name of this anime, but a neko-mimi maid, right. The recent anime Kimikiss reminds me of the artwork from that old True Love Story - Summer Days and yet PS2 game, which was great illustrations by itself. Could they be related? Something to research. I wonder if I got that Kasimasi TC already, but it's a scratched reference. Oh yeah, I had fun watching Zettai Shonen (絶対少年) so I couldn't pass up this Quo card.

And still I have Kureha fever so I bought that Shining Wind Fun Disc from Sofmap Saurus Treasure Box. It was a special preorder item, which explains the 1200 yen used price. I bought it for the wallpapers, and I am a bit disappointed that Kureha doesn't smile in any of them. :-/ I found a Kureha telephone card at K-Books where she was smiling... only 8000 yen :-( Still, official artwork on my desktop background rotation, FTW. Pretty much I'm into Shining Wind based on the Tony artwork only. I know nothing about the game.

The cover for the drama CD Vol 1 is nice, rawr. :-) It surprised me that my class A seiyuu Yui Horie (堀江由衣) voices Kureha. The drama CD could be a buy.

On the way home, there was more security guards at the JR Osaka entrances, something like 10 to 15 guys in blue uniforms patrolling. "Osaka Kanjyosen" Halloween Train?

I am definately not going to Nipponbashi next weekend. I decided to get Ace Combat 6, and before that I need to start Idolm@ster. So I'm not going to repeat the Dead or Alive 4 hunt for a couple of weeks. :-)

Pikachu love: DS Lite, silicone case, backpack

(tags game, hardware, Dual Screen, character goods, Pikachu)

I've been sitting on this for a couple of weeks, but some stuff came now so I can now show you the height of my Pikachu obsession. Yes, I was able to buy a Pokemon Pikachu DS Lite (ポケモンセンターオリジナル ニンテンドーDS Lite ピカチュウエディション)! Thats the one on the left. The one on the right? Let's just say I didn't have faith in securing one through an online auction for it, so I canvassed Nipponbashi Den Den Town for it. Only 27800 yen, which seems to be around the fetching price on the auctions... Why another?

The flyer for the Pikachu DS Lite (shown top right) sold for 1000 yen on an auction, IIRC. When will I actually open one of these DS Lites? Soon now.

The top right shows a Pikachu backpack for small kids that I bought yesterday at Toys R Us. No way I will actually use this for its intended use. I will, however, use the backpack for storing my pristine Pikachu DS Lite. Ha ha ha!

But that's not all. Today my Amazon.co.jp shipment came in, though I doubted a timely delivery during the O-Bon holidays. In it was the yellow Takara-Tomy licensed Pikachu silcone case (Nintendo DS Lite ポケモンシリコンカバー イエロー) that received DSFanboy attention. I couldn't find this case in the usual children's shops, nor at Sofmap or other game related stores, so I did my first ever Amazon.co.jp ordering. The carrying case on the right is available everywhere, but I got it at the Pokemon Center Osaka.

I'm going to test out the silicone case on my Love and Berry pink DS Lite, which I can imagine is a vomit inducing color wonder. My intention is to use it on the Pikachu DS Lite, but again the color is probably horrendous.

Telephone and Quo card catch up

(tags DVD region 2, telephone card, character goods)

I wasn't planning on getting Mizuki Nana (奈々水樹) concert DVD "NANA MIZUKI LIVE MUSEUM× UNIVERSE", but it came with a pretty good telephone card and card backing (台紙). That is, until I had the idea to put that card in plastic. Now I see it's scratched where the paper holds it in. Ugh. I really like this picture of her, though, smiling. The otaku blogs are giving this DVD release some serious lovin' (thanks senakablog, akiba blog).

Moving on to the top right, Gamers had another telephone card / Quo card "festival" (a thinly-veiled exclusive time-limited sale of TCs and Quo that moves from each chain store). This Kamichama Karin (かみちゃまかりん) design is on a pencil card (下敷) already, but I am the telephone card freak so I got this as well. In the same "festival" there was a old-school Galaxy Angel with Vanilla H making an appearance, but unfortunately I didn't pick it up before it was sold out.

Finally, in the middle is a Quo card with a design by Hiromu Minato (湊ヒロム) of Blue☆Wind. It's a gothic lolita style blond gal with requisite zettai ryoiki in front of Kobe Tower. Definately a thumbs up for me! I don't have many anime/doujin telephone cards with backgrounds inspired by real places. Anyways, I could have got the Quo card yesterday, but I mistook yesterday for today. When researching Hiromu Minato for a link, I came across her webpage, but it announced that she passed away a few months ago at the young age of 29. Her art was featured in otaku/bishojo magazines like Elfics and Dengeki Hime (電撃姫).

It's just a box: Rozen Maiden suitcase

(tags character goods, Rozen Maiden, anime, figure)

At the figure section of Sofmap, I saw a cardboard box with the words, Rozen Maiden "Bara Otometachi no Kaban" (薔薇乙女達の鞄) I was intrigued but not willing to pay 6000 yen on something sight unseen. Luckily I remembered the name and the all-seeing Internet brought me this:

Uh huh, 6000 yen for a box with no doll inside, and it's only for display use. Right. Makimasen (巻きません)

A close reminder: Nanoha A's "Raising Heart Necklace"

(tags anime, Nanoha, character goods, collectable)

I have an anime DVD backlog that if measured in yen is probably... well let's not get into that. In any case, I think its a motivational problem that I haven't seen all the DVDs I own.

So, for the 2005/10 season anime Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, which I still haven't seen, I bought a collectable that reminds me of the series: the "Raising Heart Necklace". This 4000 yen toy is a replica of the necklace and weapon that the main character Nanoha uses.

And I wear it, all the time. When I'm in non-anime mode I put it underneath my clothes, but when I'm out otaku shopping, I display it. It's kinda like those people with anime/character goods in their cars. Other fans will understand what it symbolizes, while normal people will think its just an exotic trinket.

Actually I saw this necklace at K-Books going for 8000 yen mint pre-owned, but the Animate in Nipponbashi had a stash load of them, so it's not as rare it appears.

The little red orb is supposed to transform into this weapon. Yeah, this is an anime with a girl transformation sequence.

I can say after wearing this necklace for a week, it had an effect. I finally dug out my DVD set of Nanoha A's and I am now watching it. Maybe at this rate I'll be talking about StrikerS next week?