DELAYS! Oh good lord the delays…*cough* I mean hello everyone!

So this was supposed to have been done many many weeks ago, but unfortunately, many, many delays happened instead. Said delays started right away when I began researching this list I actually found about 9 games that I never played that looked interesting. Of course, we can’t have an incomplete list, so I spent about a week and a half on that (sadly none of them made this list…I guess there was a reason I skipped them). So with that out of the way, I sat down to write this article! Except the website was down, which happened two days in a row to me…Talk about a motivation killer. Sigh anyway by the time that nonsense was fixed I’d been gripped by resurgence in my MMO addiction and we all know how those go…

SO! To make a long story short I suck and am easily distracted like a small animal by shinies! In any case this list here was actually the brainchild of the lovely Zai from Plastic Parfait and the general idea of it is to cover games that aren’t what I would call AMAZING like what I included in my last recommendation list, but merely enjoyable in my eyes. Kinda like guilty pleasures only actually good to a degree!

Now without further ado, the first game up in the entirely alphabetical order is…

“If you want a colorful cast of girls to pick from, Canvas certainly delivers!”

Canvas 2

Some of you may recognize the title as it had an anime adaptation quite some time ago (8 years to be exact…and now I feel old), and much like how the show was fairly standard harem fare, this is a fairly standard eroge! The protagonist however isn’t completely useless and the cast of girls is pretty great all around, so just on those merits alone it places it above a lot of the junk I’ve played lately! Specifically you get to play a teacher instead of a student, which changes the dynamic of the usual school setting quite a bit.

Also one thing to note is while this is technically a sequel it shares no characters with the first one, so don’t’ worry about not having played that one already. Overall, it’s just a very nice simple little enjoyable game, which is what the majority of the games on this list will end up being I’m sure!

“Turns out slightly older games only have really piss low rez shots of their box art…”

Castle Fantasia Renewal 2 / Men at Work! 2

I’m actually putting these two together in the same entry because what I can say about one pretty much applies to both. They were made by the same company around the same time, both utilizing RPG gameplay and they are both sequels with silly names! Beyond that though they’re enjoyable enough games with solid gameplay, stories, and characters. While I doubt either of them will wow you with any one aspect, I’d say they both do pretty much everything you’d want from an RPG eroge.

“If nothing else, you know an Alice Soft game will have enjoyable art!”

Daibanchou – Big Bang Age

Now this one is again a case of a similar game from the same company, although the one I compare it to is on the other list in the form of Sengoku Rance. Now why is this one relegated to the B-List while Rance gets to sit pretty on the AWESOME games list? Well the gameplay may have some similarities what with conquering territory and all, but the actual in-combat fighting didn’t capture me like Rance’s did. Likewise, the characters just weren’t as memorable as Rance’s in general…They’re OK in their own ways, but from the protagonist all the way through all the girls you can bag the line-up just wasn’t nearly as compelling.

With that said though this is still a pretty enjoyable game with a fairly fun gameplay system and typically imaginative Alice Soft character designs.

“Only girls that matter in each game!”

Da Capo 1/2

Another twofer! Like Canvas earlier, these games very squarely occupy that “typical” eroge space. However, I’d say the overall cast and writing in the routes is a bit weaker than Canvas. What really made both Da Capo‘s stand out for me was that each had a truly exceptional girl with a memorable and well written route in each game that really drew me in. So I’d say this one is a bit more hit and miss overall…I doubt you’ll like the entire cast or even a good amount of them, but you might just find a really exceptional and special route buried underneath the mediocrity like I did!

“Minori just loves their light flares!”

ef ~ a fairy tale of the two

Ok, this is technically two games (First Tale and Latter Tale), but the overall name of them as a series is the one above, and we had to keep the awesome twofer theme going anyway! But yea I may catch some crap for this one being on the “B-List”, and I can’t really argue they’re wrong honestly…ef is a gorgeous game with really great production values, interesting characters, and good writing all around. It however lacks — to use an extremely pretentious and vague word — a spark. It just never really captured me nor do I think it was particularly memorable. Hell, I can only remember like 2 or 3 things that happened in the game and yea…

But as I said, it is a really well put together game and your experiences may be vastly more enjoyable than mine, so I’d highly recommend you give it a try, as you may end up loving it far more then I did!

“Where it all began for me~”

Figures of Happiness

NOSTALGIA TIME! This is actually the very first Eroge I played ever…amazing, I know. Now it may look like a typical trashy harem eroge that English publishers just looove to translate, but trust me it actually has a few twists!

I don’t want to spoil too much about it (in fact, don’t even read the VNDB synopsis of the story), but you start out already in a relationship and…well, lets’ just say things take a turn for the weird fairly quickly! It’s just an overall very fun quirky little game that I really ought to play again for old times sakes.

“Mecha musume…The perfect blend of my two favorite things!”

Gadget Trial

This one is probably the odd man out in this list. It has no h-content and is entirely linear which aren’t qualities that I’m terribly fond of. Throw in a fairly weak story and somewhat unbalanced gameplay you quickly see why it’s on the B-list.

It does however have great art, pretty fun tactics-based combat, and some seriously charming characters! It’s just a shame they couldn’t be put in a more ambitious game, but whatcha gonna do? It’s still an overall fun little mecha musume themed game to play.

“Note the large amounts of blood — ’tis not a happy game!”

Kara no Shoujo / Swan Song

Ok these two games have almost NOTHING to do with one another in any way shape or form. The reason I put them together like this is they occupy a similar feeling to them, one of a dark and realistic atmosphere.

I usually don’t want anything to do with overtly dark or realistic feeling games. To me, playing eroge is an escape! I want to see pretty colors and cute girls, yea? I don’t mind violence or somewhat darker themes (one of my favorite games and A-Lister was Saya no Uta, afterall) but games of this ilk just aren’t what I’d call enjoyable for me. That said though objectively speaking I found both of these games extremely well done in story, characters, and presentation overall. So if your into more depressing fare that has a gloomy atmosphere to it these are probably perfect for you!

“The amazing thing isn’t how many characters there are, but rather how the protagonist finds time to bang each and every one of them… More then once for most of them at that.”

Koihime Musou

This one made fairly big waves when Mangagamer announced they were going to release it, and its presence on this lower list is in no way a condemnation of it, but the game honestly could have been more. The combat in particular is pretty damn shallow and easy, and there are only 3 girls with actual routes while all the others are just side dishes the protag sleeps with (which is a damn shame because there’s some really amazing side girls). Of the girls that you do get a route with, two are lolis. One of them is frankly so childish it even gave ME a bit of regret “romancing” her, and the the last non-loli girl was fairly dull to me.

That aside though it is quite a large game with some really fun and snappy dialogue along with an enjoyable main story. Hopefully Mangagamer translates the what looks to be the far superior sequel in the future!

“Somehow they make transparent clothes badass!”

Muv-Luv Extra – Unlimited / Alternative

Alright lets break up the twofers with a uhhh…three…fer? Now to be fair Extra and Unlimited are technically one game, but they are so VASTLY different from each other and substantial in length they might as well be thought of as two separate games.

Right now, a lot of people consider Alternative to be the pinnacle of Eroge and I honestly can’t really dispute that. But then you must ask: “Why the hell is it on the B-List then Ashlotte you douche nozzle!“. Well my foul-mouthed friend, that’s a complicated answer! Basically, to me to get the most out of Alternative you really do need to play through Extra (at least one girl’s route) and Unlimited. The problem with this is that neither game is especially good as it were. Extra is an extremely generic and often times flat-out boring eroge that I could only barely get through one girls route of. I didn’t think much better of Unlimited either, as I found it often times unlikable and not terribly enjoyable after I had finished it.

But again, without these two games and the experiences of going through them I think Alternative‘s impact would be greatly lessened. So…IF and only IF you have the commitment to play through two fairly mediocre games to play one AMAZING one then I’d suggest this series. If that sounds like too much of a pain in the ass I’d say simply don’t bother.

“Oh boy, seeing that nostalgic form really gets me in the heart!”

Private Nurse

This is actually the second eroge I played (much love for G-collections for getting me into these silly things ages ago <3)! Now since I AM slowly becoming an old man I have a lot of fuzzy memories of this game, and my jaded current self may think it was silly to have loved the game as much as I did, but lets keep those memories beautiful and say this is a wonderful game!

But no seriously, this is a very nice small-ish game. The writing and the characters are quite superb and its one of the few games that actually made me cry like a little bitch, which is a pretty hard feat even for my younger self! Sadly though it’s on the short side, the sex scenes were kinda repetitive I remember, and one of the routes is far superior to the others, but its still very much worth playing I’d say!

“While it’s not the greatest Eroge ever, it has some of the damned cutest girls ever!”

Shuffle!

Once again in the company of Da Capo and Canvas, this game is yet another one that got a fairly successful harem anime adaptation back in the early/mid 2000′s (and was the peak of the shipper wars for me on anime boards…oh man, was that a scary time.). Also just like those games, it’s a very “standard” eroge with little change in the usual formula. But out of the three I’d say Shuffle has the best all round cast with all of the girls being very charming in their own ways (Although Asa-senpai is CLEARLY the best girl and anyone who says otherwise will be KILLED! Oh sorry I regressed their for a moment…).

Overall, it’s just a really nice fun cute game being a bit on the short side that’s kept a special place in my heart for various reasons. You could do far worse!

“All you need to know about this game summed up in one game cg!”

Wanko to Kurasou

Why aren’t their more good animal girl-centric eroge translated? Seriously, whose dick do I have to suck to get some cute freaking dog/cat loli girls up in here?!

…Ahem, Wanko is jut a fun great little game especially if you’re like me and have an unhealthy obsession with loli animal girls. The story is far from amazing though and it doesn’t have a huge amount going for it aside from said animal girls, but for what it is I found it very cute and enjoyable on the whole.

“Goddamn is the art great in this game!”

Which girl should I choose? (Hinatabokko)

I included the original romanized title because the official English one is stupid as hell (which ranks up their alongside such gems as Suck my dick or die!). Anyways, questionable English title aside, this one is similar to Wanko above in that it’s just a very cute sweet standard eroge (though sadly lacking Wanko’s animal girls).  The art style and writing all contributes to a very nice comfy quaint atmosphere. This is the kind of game you want to play in winter with a nice cup of hot chocolate curled up in a blanket.

And…WE’RE DONE! Holy hell I actually wrote an article after god knows how long…Where’s my gold star?!?

Jokes aside, again I apologize for how long this took. The regular reviews probably won’t come out anytime soon either, because there’s nothing I really want to write a full review of! I’m contemplating changing my format and separating the round-up junk I do at the end into its own separate thing from full length reviews so I can actually get out some content to fill the sadly large gaps between good review-worthy releases. Guess I’ll fiddle with it this weekend.

After taking a year off, I’m back at Anime North! After Otakon last year, I had my doubts on whether or not I’d attend AN again, but as luck would have it, I got into touch with Jenn and Suich from Poke the Merch and decided to give it a shot — I just can’t say no to meeting strangers from the internet!

As you might know, figure bloggers have a strong tendency to be smart and attractive (LIKE ME), and Jenn and Suich were no exception. They were rolling out in full force with their friends with their Magi cosplay. I confess I know nothing about the series and had only found out that the characters are actually men much later in the day.

I was both happy and jealous to see readers of Jenna and Sui Chee greet and approach them throughout the course of the day, as their giveaway contest was a smashing success! The lucky winner of the draw took home with him a Nendoroid STRength, but the real winners are hosts of the contest. Not many figure bloggers have the pleasure of meeting readers in the flesh, and I definitely want to do more of that. Dear Santa: I want a life-sized Mikudayo outfit to wear next year. I can just see it now: FIND THE MIKUDAYO AND WIN FABULOUS PRIZES.

The highlight of the day’s events was a three-hour program called “Totally Lame Anime After Dark”. Hundreds upon hundreds of people packed into a massive presentation room to watch hilariously awful anime clips along with fun commentary. There were all manners of badness, but one thing that stood out was a series of super-depressing Japanese beer commercials featuring animated penguins. Apparently the ads were successful enough to warrant the making of a Vietnam War film…starring the penguins. I’m not kidding — it’s serious as cancer.

But that’s enough of me blabbing — I know you’re only here for the cosplay photos. The convention proved to be a great testing ground for the YN-560 III flash I bought recently.

I have to say that I didn’t have much success with it outside. Using it for fill flash outdoors gave off a rather unnatural look, and using the soft box + optical trigger was way to fiddly between adjusting the power of the flash, having the trigger randomly not work,  using one hand to hold the flash and the other to work the camera. But more importantly, Since the maximum sync speed is 1/250 of a second, I had to really shrink the aperture during the bright outdoor lighting conditions. This means I can’t take advantage of the subject isolation that comes with having a large aperture prime lens.

However, the flash really shined indoors. Bouncing the flash off the ceilings made for very nice lighting, and since it’s not blindingly bright indoors, I could keep my aperture big and blur out the crowd behind the subject. I couldn’t believe how easy it was! A couple years back I absolutely dreaded taking photos indoors, but with a flash it suddenly became the preferred place to take photos!

All in all, Anime North was pretty fun. It may not have the superior location and all-star guest list like Otakon, but it’s still a great excuse to meet friends from the internet and blind people with my toys. I’m definitely bringing more water and food next time, though — getting food is a daunting task when you’re fighting in line against the weeaboo hordes. Bringing a couple of pepperoni sticks along with a bottle of Gatorade ranks amongst the best ideas I’ve ever had.

If there is one personal quality that the figure collecting hobby develops, it’s patience. The journey from original source material, to the first prototype at an expo, to painted prototype, to pre-order, to delay(s) and finally to release usually is an absurdly long one. This often means by the time a figure appears of a anime I really enjoy, that anime has flown off the radar ages ago. Still, some series manage to endure the test of time, one of them being AnoHana from which Alter’s 1/8 Menma hails from.

Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai.(AnoHana for short) is a melodrama about a group of estranged childhood friends. Once known as the “Super Peace Busters”, the gang has since parted ways after Honma Meiko (nicknamed “Menma”) — one of its members — died in an accident when the group was out playing together. Yet several years after, Menma’s ghost would come to revisit Jinta, another member of the group and the protagonist of the story, thus beginning a journey to reconcile with the past not only for Jinta, but the rest of the Super Peace Busters as well.

The anime is good, but it’s one of those shows that I’m a little uncertain about after the fact. Looking back, it was very heavy-handed with its melodrama and I can easily see a lot of potential eye-roller moments. But I didn’t seem to mind — I marathoned the series in two sittings, and the floodgates on my face crumbled away to nothing by the end. Having emigrated to Canada at the age of eleven, I don’t even remember the names of my childhood friends from the motherland, so I may be especially susceptible to a story about the ultimately unbreakable bonds of such friends. In any case, I would recommend AnoHana to anyone, but especially if you’ve enjoyed melodramas like the KEY shows — if you could stomach the melodrama in Clannad, then AnoHana should be just the thing for you.

Anyways, back to the figure, which depicts a girl who isn’t dolled up and sexed out in any way — unthinkable, I know! I suppose that’s testament to how much I liked AnoHana, so let’s see if Alter’s Menma lives up to that.

Despite being a ghost, if I had to describe Menma in one word, it would be “playful”. There have been other interpretations of the character before, but Alter really hits the nail on the head here. From her tilted head to the legs in mid-swing, Menma is the picture of playfulness.

I might be a little weird for saying this (oh who am I kidding — I am more than a “little” weird), but I really like Menma’s toes. Her bare feet constitute as one of her hey visual traits, and I’m glad it is emphasized so greatly in this figure. Even her toes are parted, which really isn’t something you see too often in figures.

The pose of the figure allows Alter to really give some volume to the sculpt of her dress — and they did. It looks very fluffy and multi-layered, though it doesn’t look quite as light at it looks in the anime. I think this is due to the small scale of the figure — at only 1/8 scale, I imagine Inagaki Hiroshi sculpted himself into a wall when he had to sculpt such a skirt in such a scale. The result is something that looks a tad too heavy and bulky.

Menma’s display base depicts a slice of their cosy little clubhouse in the woods. The little cross-section lifted from the clubhouse is remarkably comprehensive — it’s got the sheet metal backing, a bit of mattress and um…a mattress-less top bunk? I wonder who built their clubhouse. Either these are some very  industrious kids, or there’s a father-of-the-year working tirelessly behind the scenes.

A stack of tires, wall decorations, and a removable umbrella and Menma’s journal completes the picture — a very detailed picture, at that. The journal deserves special mention. It may be smaller than you big toe tail, but it leaves no de tails wanting.

The display base would be the flawless highlight of this figure if not for one thing and one thing only: the support block underneath it. The clubhouse base is great because it greatly enhances the context and atmosphere of the figure, but the white block underneath it does nothing other than to undermine it, so much so that I can’t fathom why it’s there at all. Hell, even a generic brown disk would be better — at least that would represent the dirt floor the clubhouse is built on. But don’t get me wrong — Menma’s base is amazing — it’s just the decision to put a white box underneath is also amazing (for decidedly different reasons).

Final Say

Would I recommend Alter’s Menma? Yeah, she’s pretty cool. This figure has the distinction of being the only figure I currently own that doesn’t overly play up the sex appeal (unless you’re into feet), and I do admit that I feel something is missing because of that. But she’s such a great depiction of the character that I have plenty of other reasons to like the figure.

Menma is also a great figure to take for outdoors photos — you can make her sit on anything! Furthermore, she’s small enough to fit into the padded compartments of most camera bags, so she is easily “deployable”.  During my Washington trip I had Hamstercorp hold her by her little foot in the middle of  one of the densest crowds all year while I stood off  to the side and snapped away with my long focal length macro lens. And though a horrible human being I may be, even I felt bad for subjecting the Hamstercorpse to such cruel and unusual punishment as I could detect the hint of unease across that usually expressionless face of his.

Speaking of attractive people from the internet, check out Wieselhead and Jenn‘s reviews of this figure!

Pros

• Very true to Menma’s character
• Scene-setting display base
• Detailed feet

Cons

• Slightly chunky feel to the dress
• Block beneath the base breaks the scene

Speaking of Washington, here are some random photos from the trip!

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky on that day and the cherry blossoms weren’t in full bloom, so the conditions weren’t ideal for my plans to take photos of plastic butts. However, I rather enjoyed Washington, and I especially took a liking to the memorial statues. Makes sense — I mean, they ARE technically large-scale figures if you think about it.

…Now I feel terrible about comparing the statues in Washington to the plastic butts in my Detolf. Oh God I’m so sorry.

You can find the rest on Google+ where I occasionally post stuff for the #figurefriday events or other things that may not be too relevant to plastic butts. So if you use G+ ADD ME because my self-confidence is measured in +1s.

Hey there boys and girls! For this review I’m gonna be using the 1-game format like I did last article and probably will continue to do so for all future reviews going forward. Hopefully this will cut down on the delay between articles. Besides, I think I yammer on enough about one game as-is to warrant each getting its own post!

So the topic for this review shall be Rewrite!

Rewrite is the latest Visual Novel by the oh-so-famous folks at Key and boy, just uttering that name creates all sorts of expectations doesn’t it? They’ve seemingly cranked out one memorable game after another and out of every Visual Novel maker I can think of, they’re probably the one most people who don’t even play such games would recognize. For myself though, I haven’t been as enthused about their games honestly. Starting with ONE (which I detested), I’ve thought of their games with the exception of Planetarian as merely average (Discounting all of the Little Buster games that I haven’t played as I’m waiting on the translation of Ecstasy and Kud Wafter).

That said, even with my opinion of Key games being what it is, you still feel more than a little excitement to see a new game from them, and so I headed into this with more than a few expectations. So how did it hold up to those expectations? Well, in some regards it fulfilled them and in others it fell woefully short.

Let’s start with presentation first before we get ahead of ourselves here though. As I said, this is a Key game and when it comes to its presentation it has all the strengths and weaknesses of a typical Key game, namely the music is wonderful and the art is fairly mediocre haha… First on the music side of things it doesn’t disappoint at all from the great opening to the ending songs it’s all an absolute joy to listen to. While the character themes aren’t quite as strong as they were in say, Little Busters, they’re certainly still a step above the rest of the competition. You’ll also notice that the game is in glorious 720p resolution — thank God! More and more games are adopting wide screen resolutions and I couldn’t be happier (Now all they need to do is get to 1080p!).

This bump up in resolution comes with a lovely UI being supported by Visual Art’s new Visual Novel engine. Features of it include a slick pop-up radial menu, a nifty little moving icon in the bottom left affected by story choices, and a huge suite of options in its menu. You’re given a large number of tools to manage your save games (Including an auto-save function, which is unheard of in the VN world!) and vast control over practically every aspect of the game you could want. This game probably has one of the best and most comprehensive engines I’ve seen to date and it was a joy to see it in action! Sadly all this loveliness isn’t always supported by Key’s art as always. While the art assets have improved considerably over previous games like Clannad, the designs and overall art still don’t match up to the otherwise high quality feeling of the game.

“Lucia is angry at how cheap the art assets are in this game! Still that UI is lovely~”

Probably the biggest offender is what’s missing…Namely character sprites. For some reason that I can only guess was a lack of time or manpower many MANY characters in the game simply lack character sprites. If this was simply “mob characters” or side ones that only appear briefly I could write it off, but they’ve neglected to give extremely important side characters with speaking roles and main antagonists sprites which leaves you staring at empty backgrounds for large tracts of time. Sadly, seeing as Key’s main artist is one of their founders I doubt this problem will go away anytime soon, and even though it bothered me at first, it quickly took a back seat to the story…Or rather the many issues I had with the story.

To start with the positive though the common route is GREAT! As fitting a Key title there is large amounts of fun to be had here, and while the humor can be a bit juvenile it almost always had me laughing out loud at it. No small part of that is due to the various girls in the game that each have very interesting personalities and leave a strong impression almost immediately  Key has long been known for making more than a few characters that are…how to say…borderline mentally retarded. While  this made them cute to some I can see how it can be extremely grating to others, but thankfully Key went a different direction this time and made each and everyone of the characters extremely intelligent and capable (Well ok Chihaya is a bit of an idiot but she’s far from incapable).

“It would have been awesome if the art had been as good as the animated second opening…Oh well at least the common route was as heart warming as this image shows!”

While the common route does a wonderful job of getting to know the girls and have a great time with them the individual girls routes is where things begin to go horribly wrong. Probably the biggest oddity is just how massively different each route is from one another where they literally shift into entirely different genre’s from one another. I’ll do a brief mini review and break down of each to help lend some understanding.

In play order:

• Lucia: Begins with creepy horror elements then jumps to romance then jumps to a political thriller. At least the route does have some romance but the genre shifts are handled extremely poorly.
• Kotori: Probably the best written and most “Key-like” route. Very internalized with lots of those classic “Sad Key Girl” moments. Very little romance but it at least has SOME sexual tension to it.
• Chihaya: The exact opposite of Kotori’s. A very straight-up almost Shonen like route with battles and lots of side characters. Probably the most enjoyable one for me, but it also has almost no romance in it.
• Shizuru: Again a thriller like Lucia’s, but with more of a personal level focus instead of a more global one like Lucia’s. Barely any romance to speak of and probably one of the worst epilogues ever.
• Akane: A goddamn mess. A sad precursor for how utterly terrible the “True” routes will be. Again no romance because its too concerned with boring you about the inner workings of a literally faceless organization and scandals.

“There’s a lot of relationships in this game though sadly the friend tag doesn’t change much for most of the girls it feels…”

As you can probably see, the unifying thing here is the utter lack of romance in this game. Yes it is an all-ages game, but just because you remove the sex doesn’t mean you cut out romance as well! Just to tell you there’s ONE real kiss scene in the entire damn game (unless you want to count secret girl which carries with it as much romantic feeling as kissing a rock…) and you’re lucky if you even get to hug the girl in your route. In every last one of these routes save for Lucia you just keep the girl at arms reach never really expressing any sort of genuine affection for the girls whatsoever. The game is so busy trying to tell these large in scope stories it just completely discards any notion of romancing these girls altogether.

This fact is made all the more frustrating by the AMAZING voice acting of the girls. They really do an absolute stellar job across the board with the lines they are given and really make you care about the girls. But sadly the story never gives them a chance to make you feel the common routes sparks ignite into some passion between your character and them instead just keeping you at a distance constantly…it’s all just so disappointing. There is a secret 6th girl who is the focus of the last two “True” routes, but unfortunately she’s as boring as boring can possibly get. An unemotional lump that the game tries to convince you the main character fell in love with despite the fact that you have absolutely no chemistry with her and are provided with not one scene that makes you feel like theirs any real emotion behind his confession other then “the writers say so”. This problem sadly crops up in the other girls routes as well, probably worst of all in Chihaya’s.

The lack of romance could somewhat be excused if the game could at least nail its other aspects, but it can’t even do that. All of the fight scenes except for maybe Lucia’s end one are extremely dull and unengaging. They rely far too much on pretty pre-rendered effects and the same reused CGs over and over. Some don’t even bother with a CG and only ONCE is ANYTHING bloody shown despite the graphic descriptions…The best you can hope for is a flash of red light on the screen and that’s it. You don’t see so much as a scratch on any of the characters or anything violent in the least beyond one lousy CG. Meanwhile the overall story told across the entire game while being suitably high stakes never delivers much tension or interesting drama at any point…It all just comes off feeling very immature and  PG-ish at best.

It really boils down to the problem that the individual routes in general don’t build upon the great things that the common route setup…Instead they quite literally discard most of it and rush headlong into telling these “bigger” stories while leaving silly notions like nuanced emotions and  deeper personal connections with characters by the wayside. I sadly can’t really expand on these criticisms without massively spoiling the game but all I can tell you is by the time I finished the game all I felt was disappointment at what they had done with such wonderful characters. From looking at the Fan Disc Key later released it seems to address this problem nicely, but for the game at hand this is not a “Romance” game in the least. It starts as an enjoyable game in general but ends as a disappointing bloated self-important piece of junk with no heart with a terribly silly ending.

Verdict:

Play it for the common route and maybe Chihaya’s and Kotori’s routes. Otherwise don’t go near it with a ten foot pole ESPECIALLY if you’re someone like me who enjoys the romance aspect of Visual Novels most.

“Oh Takako don’t worry you’ll always be #1 to me!”

And now for a quick summary of all the other various games I’ve played lately!

Otoboku: An older very standard-ish Harem eroge, but it has some solid characters and a surprisingly enjoyable story. I’d honestly say give it a shot as the selection of girls covers pretty much all of the bases and it’s almost Yuri vibes make for a pretty fun game all things considered.

Moero Downhill Night Blaze: Its another Moero game just like the ones that came before it…Well except they stuck in some driving game bits with PS1 graphics and car handling that makes you feel like you’re driving a really crappy go-kart. Wouldn’t bother with it personally.

Sono Hanabira 6/8: Again these are additions to long running series where nothing much has changed…High sexual content of the Yuri variety while light on story mainly focused on a pair of girls. That said 8 in particular has probably my favorite couple thus far from the series and is worth taking a look at if you never played a game in the series before.

Rance III: If you want a nostalgia trip you could do far worse then this classic. Obviously not nearly as refined as more modern games its still a great trip to the past of eroge history.

Slave Witch April: Bland fap game not really worth your time…Like most fap games its short on choices and story. Art is merely ok sadly.

And that’s that! I’m planning on writing another general Visual Novel list in the very near future and maybe ACTUALLY do a figure review! Amazing I know…

Until then folks take care of yourselves!

I got this gigantic movie poster for being one of the first people to pre-order tickers for the screening. Nifty ain’t it?

Earlier this month, the first two Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica movies finally came to the fine city of Toronto — at a theater right across from my flat, no less! The sold out theater looked like any anime convention in this part of the world: dressed up and disproportionally Asian. There was a festive air at the screenings, and if the Madoka movies ever do show up in a city near you I would whole-heartedly recommend attending for that bizzaro-world vibe alone.

If you are curious about actual movies, don’t be — these movies don’t really add anything new to the series. There are some new cuts here and there (most notably some spiffy transformation scenes), but they’re fairly inconsequential and most of them would go by unnoticed unless you’re comparing them side to side with the TV series like the nerd you probably are.

Rather, these movies simply a slightly dressed up version of the original series that retains the integrity of the storytelling, nothing more. If you’ve never watched the series before, you wouldn’t be missing much if you dived straight into the movies. The Gurren Lagann movies these are not.

However, the movies are a good occasion/excuse for fans of the series to revisit the story — a perfect way to reflect on the little SHAFT show that took the world by storm. It’s been a long while since I watched the series, and I’ve forgotten the a lot of Madoka‘s quirks. The first movie made me look down at my watch far too often, while the second movie warmed my heart enough to make me think twice before writing a tl;dr textual smackdown. So instead of a smackdown, this not-so-little post is a gentle putting down of Madoka — a retrospective on the series and a couple of the storytelling problems that irked me during my two-part re-visitation.

Needless to say, the following rant contains plenty of spoilers, so you have been warned.

Superzombie

Worth becoming a magical girl for?

Sayaka is not very bright.

…Okay, that came out a little too bluntly, but throwing your life away for an arm? Talk about selling yourself short.

I never was a huge fan of Sayaka in the original series, and as I found myself rolling my eyes in the theater, I started to remember why. Don’t get me wrong though, the whole “saving my not-boyfriend’s fapping arm” thing isn’t my problem with her, because the frivolity of that wish reinforces her naive nature. Stupid as it may seem to me, it certainly paints her as a character who is innocently romantic. Nay, it’s when Madoka threw Sayaka over the bridge that the eye-rolling commenced.

Sure, the realization of having been transformed into an Easter decoration is a lot to take in. But after the initial shock and horror, is the idea of having a super-durable magical body really that bad? Of all the things she has to worry about (i.e. dying a horrible violent and lonely death at the hands of otherworldly horrors), this line of fine print on the magical girl contract is pretty benign.

But alas, Sayaka seems to be impervious to common sense as she latches on that one detail with like a hungry piranha on a drowning man’s buttcheek. Her reaction towards it becomes the driving reason behind her freefall down a cliff of angst, spouting nonsense like “I can’t even hold him with a body like this.” The length of the series rushed things along even further, but at the same time the entire phase of the story felt agonizingly long.

Seriously, what bloody difference does it make? The fact that no one other than Homura knew about it means that there is no difference on a functional level. The faculties of her senses remain perfectly normal and would not a hindrance between her and her would-be boyfriend. You know what would be a hindrance? The constant need to go engage in mortal combat with the aforementioned horrors — something she is perfectly aware of already. If I were Sayaka, I would have no problems with the idea of having violin boy plow my invincible pain-resistant zombie vagina. Just sayin’.

With Mami removed from the picture rather quickly, Sayaka’s drama is essentially the core of the first movie — a very flimsy core at that. The weight of the drama dangles on this thin string — a weight it could not sustain.

Telling, not showing

Fighting over scraps of screen time, no doubt.

For all of the time spent on Sayaka’s sob story, the time spent on Kyouko and Mami’s respective stories is remarkably scant. The only thing I remember about Mami’s past was that she was a victim in a traffic accident who made her wish on the verge of death. Oddly, no mention of the accident was made in the movie, nor did it expand on the loneliness of her life as a magical girl beyond the brief mention shortly before she had the run-in with Charlotte. Ultimately, I never got the chance to really know Mami as a character, and I still think losing her head was the best thing that’s happened to her.

Kyouko fares a bit better in that she actually gets a back story — an effective one at that. What happened to her was truly awful and made me empathize a lot more with her cynical attitude. Yet as good as it may be, it could’ve been so much more — instead of having Kyouko narrate over a short recollection of paper cut-out lookalikes, a flashback could’ve been included to allow the audience experience this story directly.

Kyouko reminds me a lot of Archer in Fate/Stay Night – not only are both of these characters defined by their tragic pasts, but both character also suffer a big case of having their stories told to the audience instead of being shown to the audience. Archer is by far the bigger offender, though — not only was his past completely conveyed by telling, but it was also vague — it was almost as if Nasu ran into a writer’s block and gave up. I still have trouble picturing Archer running around a world of guns brandishing his little swords around, but that’s a rant for another time.

The reason why I think Mami and Kyouko are big missed opportunities is because of how well-done Homura’s backstory is. Instead of merely telling the audience, we are actually shown Homura’s attempts to save her friend. We see her frustrations and the way she changed over time, and by the end of her montage, the audience has a good sense of how emotionally exhausted she must be. The sheer determination with which she carried out her task made her admirable, and the growing sense of futility in her attempts was heartbreaking. That’s quality character development.

Because of this, the second half of Madoka soars above the first. It make me wonder what Madoka would’ve been like if it was a 2-cour show with enough time given to each of the supporting characters. Hell, even Sayaka would probably benefit from this — if I knew more about her history with violin boy, maybe I wouldn’t think making a contract to heal his arm is such a stupid wish. Madoka did a good job at fitting its story within its twelve episodes, but the glossing over of its side characters is its biggest flaw — a character drama needs to give its characters time to develop.

Afterthoughts

Though I’m still not the biggest fan of the WIDENESS, Ume-sensei’s character designs are still appealing.

At the end of the day, Madoka is not high art. It is not anime Shakespeare. It is, however, a great blend of entertainment value and substance — a clever twist to an existing genre, along with unique art direction and a stellar soundtrack. I can nitpick at it all day long, but at the end of the day it would be like nit-picking Inception for its plot holes instead of just enjoying the movie for what it is: an action Hollywood blockbuster with an idea. And with all the derivative schlock on so prevalent in both anime and Hollywood, I would feel uncomfortable dismissing the few gems out there, flawed as they might be.

My hipster senses do get inflamed sometimes at how the anime fandom (especially on MFC) worship Madoka as if it’s the best thing since sliced bread, but between the quality and the marketability of the series, the reaction it has received is pretty reasonable. I guess I just wish the anime industry was in such a state that an offering like Madoka would be considered “above average” instead of ANIME OF THE YEAR ALL YEARS — an industry filled with shows venture outside of tropes and conventions to varying degrees, an industry fueled by a fanbase that would actually reward ambitious shows with sales figures.

…Well, a man can dream, can’t he?

Anyways, what do you think? Am I being a little hard on Sayaka? What do you think of Madoka, both the anime itself and the reaction it has had?

Over the last few months, I’ve gone on a bit of a spending spree. With a new camera body, new lens, and a new bag to hold everything in, I found myself feeling slightly ridiculous at how much I’ve poured into this hobby of taking photos of plastic butts. I was itching to make more use out of the D7000′s advantages, and that itch drove me from my cozy man-cave and into the Canadian winter, where I rediscovered why I enjoy photography.

I’ve tried doing some non-figure photography before, but none of it clicked with me. That’s probably because I didn’t post-process my photos all that much back then. Even if the idea occurred to be back then, I probably wouldn’t have known where to even begin. Thankfully, my good friend Blowfish gave me a bunch of Lightroom presets he had for doing cosplay photography, and I decided to playing around with them by going out and snapping some photos.

These presets are definitely more nuanced than the usual adjustments I use for figure photos. Where as I’ve almost always aimed for a bright and exuberant look in my photos cartoon girl statues, these outdoors photos tend to be sombre in tone, mostly due to the season, and the preset settings showed me a couple of things on how to make a photo more moody and dramatic.

When Hamstercorp dramatically removed his figma Miku from his collection and sent it my way, I knew I had to follow it up with something. The initial idea was to have her hot-glued by Gollum, but upon the sight of a recent snowfall, I decided to take advantage of the weather and do something a little more ambitious by going to the field of a school nearby after work.

The lesson learned that day is to wear gloves. Being an urban hermit who rarely goes out in the winter, the importance of keeping my fingers warm in the dead of winter is one of those common-sense things which eluded me. By the end of the short shoot, my frozen sausages could barely turn the focus ring. There were some missed opportunities with this shot, but there’s no point in crying about spilt milk. After a fiery grilling from Ashlotte, this is what I ended up with — A most bleak fate for a former president.

I also took a couple of self-portraits, which I had not done in a long time. The first one had me travelling to High Park once again, mostly due to the fact that it was secluded enough to make me not feel ridiculous when smiling stupidly at the camera sitting atop the tripod. The Tamron 90mm macro lens made for some pretty really nice bokeh, and I’m loving the subject isolation potential of the lens when it comes to 1/1 scaled figures. Overall I’m happy, as the shots really brought out the narcissist in me — though that’s not really saying much.

The second self-portrait was crazy fun. I took it on my birthday with the aim of creating the most depressing birthday photo ever. It all started when I found in the fridge this cheap supermarket cake my roommate had bought. I thought to myself: “wow, this would be the most pathetic birthday cake ever.” From there the idea just snowballed. The whiskey bottle vase of dollar store plastic flowers, the dinky party hat, the ugliest shirt I have, petit nendo Haku, and a row of neatly-arranged party blowers. The cherry on top is the look in my eyes — I confess I am perhaps a little too proud of that dead expression that seems too convincing to be faked.

My favourite thing about going out with a camera for the hell of it is the fact that there aren’t any expectations. Whereas I would get frustrated if a figure photo idea doesn’t work out the way I had wanted it to (which has happened many times), taking a stroll downtown or in a park has virtually no planning involved.  Although most of photos I shot are throwaway garbage, finding the few interesting shots at the end of the day is a very satisfying experience — like this black guy on an unicycle whom I happened across downtown.

I definitely see myself doing more of this in the future, especially when the weather gets warmer. I’ve recently met someone who’s pretty big into cosplay, and with any luck she’ll be my unfortunate test subject for some cosplay portraits. I’m also planning to go to San Francisco at the end of May for a friend’s wedding, and given the things I’ve heard and seen about that city, it should make for a pretty amazing weekend of aimless roaming.

Anyway, that’s enough of this off-topic nonsense for now — I really must finish working on the hobbylink.tv post this weekend. To my fellow figure photographers: do you do much creative photography without figures?

Remember that post I wrote for Hobbylink Japan that I mentioned in the Hi-Nu review? It is now live on hobbylink.tv — check it out!

Suprise — a Gundam review! Bet you weren’t expect that, huh?  It’s a little depressing to realize that it’s been a year and a half since I’ve done one of these. But unlike the hiatus I took in figure collecting, there’s a bit more to why the plamo section of Hobby Hovel has been neglected for so long.

In short, I’m a little burnt out on Gundam. From its conception, the Gundam franchise has been somewhat of a glorified toy commercial. Director Tomino Yoshiyuki broke the conventions of the late 1970s with the original Mobile Suit Gundam, but after 30 years, Gundam has become a convention if of itself, along a long list of tropes that are continually recycled to this day.

For me, the straw that broke the camel’s back was episode 5 of Gundam Unicorn, which continues to sideline quality storytelling in favour of echoing as many tropes as possible. There’s even a Lalah clone, right down to her physical appearance. The OVA has started to feel like a snotty little rich kid living big on his grandfather’s fortune — everything about it seems to be a thin slice of something great long ago. Once again, I find my expectations butting heads with reality.

I like Gundam, and the adventures of the White Base and its crew will stay with me forever (not to mention the exploits of Bernie, Shiro, and hell, even Domon). Yet for the sake of the franchise, there is a desperate need for innovation and risk-taking. I’d much rather have oddballs like Turn-A Gundam and G Gundam as opposed to the same story of about the space colony boy stumbling into the cockpit of cutting-edge military hardware.

By now you’re probably asking “if you’re so worn out on Gundam, why’d you buy another kit?” Well, I didn’t — this bad boy is actually a freebie from HobbyLink Japan for a little article I wrote for them (which will be up on hobbylink.tv in a few days). Whatever feelings I may have towards the Gundam franchise, building models is as fun as it has always been, especially when it’s one of the big daddies of early universal century mobile suits.

The RX-93-ν2 Hi-Nu Gundam never appeared in any anime — rather, it is the alternate interpretation of the Nu Gundam in the novel Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack – Beltorchika’s Children. Nevertheless, the Hi-Nu, along with the its rival the MSN-04II Nightingale, are very well-known amongst the Gundam fandom.

The original design of the Hi-Nu Gundam is bulky — really bulky. Its thick legs, large shoulders and forearms give it a rather tough and intimidating appearance. But for reasons unknown, the suit was re-designed for this kit and would go on to become the “official” look. Its proportions have been changed to more or less match that of the of original Nu Gundam.

As someone who first saw the Hi-Nu Gundam in its revised form, I like the new look, but after seeing the original design, I can’t help but to feel that the kit missed out on a great opportunity. The original Hi-Nu’s bulkiness set itself apart from its predecessor and most other Gundam designs out there, whereas I can easily see a Gundam newbie mistaking the new Hi-Nu with something like the Strike Freedom.

But alas, we’re not really here to debate whether or not Bandai made call in the design department. Instead, let’s take a look at the actual model itself. Being at the apex of the Universal Century era before mobile suits were miniaturized, the MG Hi-Nu stands at an impressive 22cm(9.6 inches) tall. Bandai also used the large size to flex its injection technology muscles, most noticeably on the raised writing at the middle of its v-fin.

The Hi-Nu also takes the greatest aspect of Char’s Counterattack mechanical designs and improves upon them. Small vernier boosters are scattered across the surfaces of the suit, and the addition of two propellant tanks on its back further pushes the realism of the design. The plated metal finish at the ends of the tanks are a very nice touch, and the tiny nozzles at the tips says volumes about the attention paid to detail in this kit.

If you own virtually any kit from Gundam Seed Destiny, you probably have already guessed that this kit would have a rather hard time standing on its own two feet with the funnels attached — and you’d be right. While it’s not impossible to do, having the Hi-Nu stand upright feels like guiding a drunk across a tightrope. Thankfully, the included display base does a great job at propping up the model in three angles.

Hi-Nu’s right forearm has an integrated machine gun and detachable magazine — another nice touch of realism on a giant robot made for Japanese space Jedis. The machine gun barrel can tilt up and down, and though tiny as it might be, it’s got a bit of a mean stubby look to it.

If you recall, the main beam saber of the original Nu Gundam has a beam spike at the end of its pummel. Not to be outdone, the Hi-Nu’s beam sabers just have a second smaller blade sticking out the other end. There are two of these larger beam sabers, which are stored inside the compartments on the wings.

Also like the original Nu, the Hi-Nu has a miniature beam saber. Opening the hatch on the left forearm conveniently extends out the hilt of the weapon. Interestingly, it only accepts the larger set of the beam saber blades.

The Hi-Nu’s hyper bazooka is, for the lack of a better word, standard. As it does not mount to the back of suit , it has lost its place amongst the Hi-Nu’s mainstay arsenal. I’d like to point out that the square brackets around the barrel are not separately moulded pieces, thus the entire front end of the weapon is white. I think this is a bit of a wasted opportunity to insert some contrast to front end of the bazooka, much like the original Nu Gundam’s black brackets.

The ubiquitous beam rifle comes in a sleek package. There’s no oversized targeting radar on it, which is partly why it’s one of my favourite beam rifle designs. Nothing to write home about, though — a beam rifle is a beam rifle.

The top side of the shield is comprised of colour-separated parts, giving it a unique striped pattern. I was surprised that the main decal for the shield is actually a clear sticker, which I’m never a fan of. Thankfully, there is a smaller version of the decal on the dry-transfer decal sheet.

This is one of the few shields that look just as great underneath, thanks to its fully detailed underside. This is important due to the fact it can only be mounted one way to Hi-Nu’s left forearm, limiting its display option — not the most practical part of Hi-Nu’s design, to be sure.

Thankfully, the Hi-Nu scores back some big practicality points with its funnels. While it looked cool, the giant sail of funnels on the original Nu Gundam’s back can be real clunky and often got in the way of the shield and left arm. By contrast, the Hi-Nu’s funnels are stored on wing-like back units that can be adjusted and repositioned. It’s a great mix of hard sci-fi and flair — they look like angel wings without undermining the overall aesthetic of the suit.

The funnels can be detached and displayed via bendable clear tubes mounted onto display base. It’s a great idea in theory, but in practice, these tubes are unstable and frustrating to adjust. Let’s just say there’s a reason why the new Katoki version MG Nu Gundam opted for solid jointed arms instead of these floppy tubes.

On the bright side, the effects part on the Hi-Nu look absolutely amazing. The crackling electricity effect is reflective and very convincing, and there is even a little effect part that connects the funnel to the tube. Unfortunately, the Hi-Nu’s funnels cannot be used with the Ver. Ka MG Nu Gundam’s stand, so you’ll have to either get used to the tubes or ignore the feature like me.

Articulation

Compared to other post-stone-age Master Grade kits, MG Hi-Nu’s articulation is standard (i.e. pretty damn good), so I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking.

There are a couple of points that need to be raised, however. The Hi-Nu’s chin is ridiculously large — so much so that it actually inhibits its ability to turn its head.

The hip pegs utilize a swinging design, which allows the legs to be raised higher, making kneeling poses like the above possible. The central portion of the chest opens to reveal the cockpit within.

The shoulder and hip joints have a nasty habit of coming apart after some fiddling. This can easily be remedied by manually pushing them back together, but needless to say, it’s still a bit of a drag.

Though the Hi-Nu’s back unit is heavy, a simple contraption on the suit’s back prevents the waist joint from being tilted backwards by that weight. Simply flip down the tab to keep the waist an upright position, and flip it up if you want the waist to bend further back.

Finally, as an added bonus, the hooks on the underside of the feet are actually deployable.

Final Say

The Hi-Nu doesn’t have too many fancy tricks going for it, and that’s mostly because it was released back in 2007. That is actually impressive in of itself, as this 6-year-old kit is no slouch when compared to newer kits. Granted, It doesn’t have anything like the crazy articulation of the MG AGE-1 or the laser-etched clear orbs on the MG Exia, but it’s enough detail and articulation to trump some kits that came long after (I’m lookin’ at you, MG Shenlong!).

The only concern I have about this kit is the value factor. The MG Hi-Nu retails for ¥7,000, which just so happens to be the price of the new MG Nu Gundam (ver. Ka). Leaving aside the questions of taste or preference, the new Nu kit is objectively more detailed than its older brother, not to mention the fact that it has a much better system of displaying its funnels in action.

So as much as I like this kit, the MG Hi-Nu is not a straightforward recommendation. This is a solid kit even if a couple of its gimmicks are slightly lacking. The big prices corresponds to the kit’s big size, so if you have a thing for the redesigned Hi-Nu, the minor issues shouldn’t be enough to dissuade you.

However,  if you’re on the fence between the Nu Gundam and the Hi-Nu Gundam, and you aren’t screaming bloody murder at what Katoki’s done to the design, then I definitely recommend the newer kit. You gotta love how the Gunpla hobby has been able to keep consistent with its prices across the years — if only figure makers had a similar policy.

What’s good

• Details right down to the writing on the v-fin
• Great articulation
• Convincing funnel SFX parts

What’s bad

• Displaying the funnels using the supplied tubes is frustrating
• Shoulder and hip joints come apart easily

And that is that — for someone who’s supposedly burnt out on Gundam, I sure do get easily carried away with the tl;dr, don’t I? Shucks, I’m sure I’ll snap out it once Sunrise makes a real winner of a TV series one of these days. Many thanks to Hobbylink Japan for giving me this bad boy — it’s one hell of a way to snap out of a long hiatus, I’ll tell you that! For those of you interested, you can pick up the kit here.