わふー! はろー・わーるど！なのです。(A Kudo PC unboxing affair)

(tags hardware, PC, Windows 7, Kudo)

Today was the 6th Nipponbashi Street Fair, but I was only interested in one thing: The Noumi Kudryavka PC netbook. It's a VisualArt's / Key Official Original Goods「わふーでハイすぺっくなnetbookなのです。」 To make a long story short, I purchased one way overpriced Atom Pineview netbook.

I woke up at 6:00 AM, arrived in Nipponbashi at around 7:40. I thought I was late, and I was, since there was about 500 people already. They lined us up in groups of 60. I was standing in the middle but for some reason, they decided to let our group (5th!) enter first. I finished buying everything at 9:15 AM, and I headed back home, missing the rest of the Festa.

One unremarkable cardboard box gives way to a kawaii assault. The box set is basically the netbook and the themes backup CD-ROM.

Everything seems to be in order. Glossy finish with no imperfections. Hard disk looks alright at 320GB. No discernible way to upgrade the 2GB RAM. Only two USB 2.0 ports and both of them on the left side.

There are important things to do before booting into Windows 7 Home Premium Japanese. I first checked the boot up sequence, then did a quick MemoryTest+. After that I backed up the hard drive using Clonezilla Live USB. Finally I ran Windows, played around with the themes and backgrounds, and checked out my Miku score.

This is pretty much my first time to listen to Naomi Kudryavka in depth. It's the original voice actress Miyako Suzuta (鈴田美夜子). The PC comes with 6 voice themes: maid, wife, sister, love, wahoo and russian. The wife one is good for a laugh but the sounds are longer than 3 seconds so I know I will tire of them quickly. First I need to make some noise by making errors.

Now to actually play this Little Busters!. It's been 2 years already and I still haven't finished any scenarios. I just like the way she's illustrated. Now that there's enough space I will install that game, Kudo-Wafter (クドわすたー) when it comes out, and Starcraft 1 right now!

Death Smiles 2 cosplay at AOU 2009

(tags cosplay, arcade, convention, Tokyo, gothic lolita, loli, Death Smiles)

This is gothic lolita right? Even though the clothes aren't black and white.

This cosplay promotion is for Cave's Death Smiles 2. All I gotta say is thanks Geemaga. This one has better lighting than this other guy's pictures... but his has some background info: (official?) cosplayer for "Spee" (sp?), a 150 cm tall, 15 years old, idoru talent named Eri Yamaguchi. Oh, and here I am thinking that the creases in her face makes her older, like legal or something. One more from Gigazine, with some video.

As for the actual game, Death Smiles and 2, I'll buy them on the Xbox 360, but it will be my first time to play them. It's a Cave shmup, that's good enough for me.

Kudo-tan Get: Little Busters! Ecstasy Sofmap point poster and telephone card

(tags telephone card, stick poster, figure, Little Busters, Kudo-tan, Miku Hatsune, zettai ryouiki, loli)

Sofmap recently implemented a Pre-Order Ticket award system, where if you pre-order 1 video, game, or hobby (figure, toy model) related item, you get a "Ichi Map" (1 "map") ticket. (新品TVゲーム、PCゲーム、DVDソフト、ホビーの予約購入チケット、「壱マップ」). You can normally redeem them for a discount, but I don't think anybody would be foolish enough to do that. If you have 10 "Ichi Map" tickets, you can redeem it for a exclusive telephone card. Sometimes there's a diamond in the rough. Yes, look what I did here:

Posable Figma Miku Hatsune figure says "Wow!" to the Kudo-tan

Alright, I've never played the gal-ge visual novel game Little Busters! (リテルバスタース！) by VisualArt's / Key, but it sure does have a lot of commercial backing and support. You can't swing a dead neko-mimi in a character goods shop without hitting one of the many games, magazines and figures that pimp this work. Without checking the Wikipedia, I bet you this game will have a mainstream game release, followed by animes, movies, and stuff. I've already seen the hug-pillows and the itashas.

This telephone card is an illustration of Noumi Kudayavka (能美 クドリャフカ). I though she had an affectionate nickname call "Kudo-tan", because it was mentioned at Senaka Ota-Road blog, but I was told I was wrong to use that name. Anyways I like this character and this particular illustration because of the zettai ryouiki, and also the cute hat with the big button. It reminds me of the button on Saga (in the background). Furthermore, I like to collect telephone cards that have "Sofmap" written in them. I don't intend to actually play this game, though.

To tell the truth, I bought the card and an accompanying stick poster (shown above) from Sofmap Saurus 1 Treasure Box floor (委託販売階) for 8000 yen. This is actually a steal, in comparison to buying 10 video games, or dueling with auction snipers (the average open auction is about 10000+ yen right now). So the story on the stick poster was that it was the tokuten for buying 3000 yen worth of goods at Sofmap, probably at the same time this telephone card was released. Both items appear to be already out of stock, and both were only released 3 days ago. Frantic hordes, I think.

The September rush of Miku Hatsune (VOCALOID 初音ミク) figures also cannot be ignored as well. I only lucked out on that figure through a buy-it-now auction. Sweet, because its sold out everywhere. The non-posable but killer Good Smile Company version was released a week ago, and it's probably fetching beaucoup (?) bucks (?). I actually pre-ordered this one, but mine will be coming in the October shipment. Uki uki!

Kodomo no Jikan DVD with "randoseru" case: Add another skeleton to your closet

(tags DVD region 2, anime, season 2007/10, loli)

No doubt as part of the elite group of anime DVD connoisseurs that have bought Kodomo no Jikan DVD 1 with the "randoseru" case, I have this sense of satisfaction:

I am enjoying this anime, no lie. What is the phrase? "Give me six sentences from any man, I can hang him in three." ? I have hanged myself hundreds of times already. Still, the novelty is buying the DVD-case size randoseru case. Using it for stuff other than holding DVDs is out of the question. But figures? It's possible.

This is some alternate universe. No I'm sure it is. Either that or the animators do not like their day jobs. Unless third graders in Japan are already doing fractional multiplication. But still, _0 x 2 = 15? In what base? Or is the teacher dishonest?

kawaii. orz

Of course, watching the DVD version, there's no censor graphics. But its the same as the manga, so there's nothing much that's new. Except for Houin-sensei's hair color. I was totally shocked that its brunette! Aw, it should be blonde.

Another thing is that the main character, Rin Kokonoe voiced by Eri Kitamura (喜多村英梨), sounds less like a child and more like a teen, what with the vocabulary and the intonation. She also sounds a little like Yukari Tamura (田村ゆかり), but my ears have deceived me before.

Having read all of the manga, I suspect this anime will subside quietly without drawing much more blog/Internet drama.

Turn away but I'll be back: Ace Combat 6, Kyon no Imouto figure

(tags game, ECsite, Xbox 360, Wii, figure, anime, sexy, loli)

Yesterday evening I had a chance to pick up Ace Combat 6. Though I love the trailer and demo, I finally decided not to pick up the game due to a short comment from destroy tokyo. Besides I haven't played a flight game (not sim) in a long time, and my idea of flying is AfterBurner II. Also I like the 2D freedom of FPS like Halo 3 and Crackdown.

The Super Mario Galaxy demo movie which was playing at the new arrival area (thanks Senaka Otaroad) stopped me for a couple of minutes. There's just something about flying through space hanging low over a lava planet that looks spectacular. Galaxy Force II, anyone? But I don't have a Wii and I won't buy one just yet. Plus it made me feel guilty about not finishing Mario Sunshine.

I have to go to the shop again. I waste too much time just loafing around shops looking for things to buy. Stupid me. Anyway, I guess I have to pick up the Famitsu Xbox 360 magazine since it's selling out due to Ace Combat 6 and Idolm@ster special info. As an aside, I am looking at Idolm@ster auction goods and tickets for an upcoming live in Osaka and/or elseshere go for 2_0000 yen plus. If the Xbox 360 was cheaper I bet you it reign with Idolm@ster alone!

And the shop must have my pre-ordered figure "Kyon no Imouto" from FREEing. It's a 1/4 scale figure of Kyon's little sister in a bunny suit, part of the FREEing series, and based off of the Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsuu anime. I totally forgot about it and Akiba Blog reminded me (also Senaka Otaroad). As FooBarBaz puts it, it's cute but "pretty immoral". Um.... 9000 yen. You know I'm all about the bunny suit.

I suppose I need to balance this out by buying the other figures in the series (official pages: Mikuru, Haruhi, Tsuruya-san, Kyon no Imouto, Yuki), but the only other ones I want are the "Mikuru" and "Yuki", and even still, they are not smiling which is :-/ (sentence ends here).

Already in the glass case on the first day: Doki Doki Majo Shinpan

(tags game, Dual Screen, loli, telephone card)

Like I said, Friday night was frantic for goods collecting. My mission was collecting the telephone cards (TCs) I saw a week earlier. As I was working my way up Nipponbashi Den-Den Town from Books Lashinbang, I noticed that the all-ages otaku game of the moment, Doki Doki Majo Shinpan (どきどき魔女神判), was sold out in all my favorite stores except at A-Too where the price is not nice. I didn't pre-order it, because the TC situation for it was pretty dire. There were different designs at different stores and some stores were not in Kansai. So I was content with a picture of the all TCs from this news article.

All of that changed when I spied the Sofmap version TC in the show case at Sofmap's Treasure Box area. 2000 yen? Not that bad for the first day. I'll take it.

(At the same shop, I also got a used but unopened copy of Submarine Super 99 (サバマリン スパー99) on UMD. When it comes to anime on UMD, I don't have a problem, as long as it is cheap.)

So since I started digging that hole, I thought why don't I just jump on in? I still didn't see the omake Japanese-style amulet with the cute picture, until I went to the meager show cases at Big Tiger Nipponbashi. There they had a copy of the game, the Sofmap TC and the amulet for 7890 yen. Well, sure I'll take it.

(At the same shop I first bought the Slitherlink DS game for about 1690 yen used, which I was planning to play anyway. It is pretty rare and I didn't find it either new or used in other stores, so getting this 2500 yen game at this price wasn't bad at all.)

(And at both show case areas, the clerks reminded me that the merchandise can't be returned (「委託販売です。返品は承りませんので宜しいですか。」). One even used their finger to point out the return policy explanation in kanji. I take this to mean they recognize me as a kanji-reading foreigner. I get irritated if they start using a lot of hand gestures though.)

Since I was at the end of my Friday purchasing, I could not buy the fan book. I read that it wasn't available at regular bookstores, so I counted on Sofmap Kobe to have a copy. But it wasn't there (!?!?) despite the fact that one of the early stores I visited, Sofmap Nipponbashi 4, had many copies. (On a strange note, Sofmap Kobe had many copies of the game itself.) I finally got the book at Gamers Kobe, bless their character goods hearts.

Also, on Monday, I picked up a second copy of the game with the other telephone card design, that wasn't mentioned anywhere. Sweet.

So there it is, one can get a limited release game if one is in the area specializing in reselling. Yes.

As for playing the game, well that can wait until I finish more Sudoku.

A questionable pre-order: Kodomo no Jikan manga 4

(tags manga, pre-order, loli, DVD)

I was going to pre-order Kodomo no Jikan volume 4 at Animate Kobe but they didn't have pre-order slips. So I went to Melon Books Kobe on a whim and a pre-order slip was there. I was first pre-order because it says the slip had the number "1" on it... so obviously this is not in demand.

(picture thanks: アキバブログ)

What is Kodomo no Jikan? I was intringued by a fellow #ic post about the failure of the translation of this manga to the U.S. market, poorly renamed as Nymphet. It is pretty much a "loli" manga but still just barely all-ages.

I started reading it to see if it was really bad and also because I like the drawing style. Well it is very crude in some places. How does Rin, the mischievous girl get such a potty mouth and sexualized clothing and mannerisms? From the TV? From friends (but her friends are wholesome)? From her guardian-parent (but he's a good guy)? I suppose that's part of the fantasy, but it doesn't make sense. In any case, I like the story because the male teacher, Aoki-sensei, is compassionate for the welfare and education of his students. He is not a pedophile and he is not taking advantage of the situation. Unfortunately he's the butt of many jokes because Rin is wily and crafty.

I pretty much gobbled up volumes 1, 2, 3 in a two week period. Now that I know 4 is coming out I want to see the relationship between Aoki-sensei and Rin resolve into respected teacher-devoted student instead of this disheveled, wet-behind-the-ears teacher being played by this all-talk Lolita. Except the whole point of the work (including the bonus DVD which has almost naughty scenes unfit for Japanese TV?!?!) is to be as loli as possible.

Hahaha, um. Yeah.