First off, long time, no post. Sorry about that. ^^; I’ve been busy. Now with that out of the way, let’s continue.

So the MMO I’ve written about before, ai sp@ce is currently running a campaign called the 『花盛り†三国恋乙女！キャンペーン』, or “Blossoming Maidens of the Three Kingdoms Campaign.” When I logged onto ai sp@ce to confirm the AGTH hook still worked after this week’s update, I got a message about the campaign which I wanted to translate and share with other ai sp@ce playing Anglophones. ;)

**************ai space@ Campaign Information***************
The “Blossoming Maidens of the Three Kingdoms Campaign” is underway! This is week 1!!

——————————————————–
For the duration, when you speak to the NPC at “Various Countermeasures” (「さかさま対策課」) named “History-loving Staff Member” (「歴史好きな職員」), and collect the campaign item “Romance of the Three Kingdoms copy” (「三国志演義の写し」), you can exchange them for each Shin Koihime Musou heroine’s items.

[Items for the first week]

From the end of the 6/15 maintenance to the start of the 6/22 maintenance.

4-copy course: Ryuubi cosplay rental set (6 hour)
3-copy course: Shin Koihime Musou Ryuubi poster
1-copy course: Tank-top

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*Please check our website for further details.

There’s a couple more important details I got from the page for this campaign on the ai sp@ce website. The first is that you can only get one copy of Romance of the Three Kingdoms from that NPC per day. That resets at midnight Japanese time. This means you need to login and talk to that NPC at least 4 days out of the 7 to get the “4-copy course.”

Also, the scripts will be exchanged for the items during maintenance each week, so be sure not to lose them. ;) This also means you can’t save scripts between weeks. If you only have two scripts, for instance, you’ll only get the 1-copy course. If you have more than 4, you’ll still only get the 4-copy course and they’ll take the extras too. ;)

Update: Seems I mis-read it. After interacting with the NPC, it seems you talk to her to exchange your scripts for items. I’m not certain if you can keep the items across maintenances, but the items you can exchange for will be changing each maintenance.

The original in-game news post that I translated above is after the jump, for those that are interested.

******************ai sp@ceキャンペーン情報******************

『花盛り†三国恋乙女！キャンペーン』開催中！　今週は第1週です！！

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期間中、「さかさま対策課」にいるＮＰＣ「歴史好きな職員」に話しかけて、

キャンペーン用アイテム「三国志演義の写し」を集めると、

真・恋姫†無双ヒロインの各アイテムと交換することができます。

【第1週の期間とアイテム】

6/15日定期メンテナンス終了～6/22日定期メンテナンス開始まで

4枚コース：劉備コスプレレンタルセット（6時間）

3枚コース：真恋姫†無双劉備ポスター

1枚コース：タンクＴ

——————————————————–

※キャンペーンの詳細は公式サイトをご覧ください！

The opening theme for the movie was the same as the TV series, 冒険でしょうでしょう？ (Bouken Deshou Deshou?) Which was quite nostalgic and I had to supress the urge to sing along in the theater. XD It didn’t use the original TV opening animation sequence, of course, but it was still nice to hear and beautiful in the theater’s surround sound system. ^_^

The ending theme was a very slow song sung by (I believe) Yuki’s VA, and it was vocal only. No music, no backup at all, just the one beautiful female voice singing. n.n More pictures of the postcard set after the jump.

This film does a really great job continuing where the TV series left off, and manages to also tie up some loose ends that I had forgotten about. Something I found very interesting though was the product placement in the film. Instead of your standard slight spelling change so that it’s similar to the brand you’re trying to portray but different enough that you won’t get in trouble, the actual brands show up. For instance, Kyon buys some stuff at a Family Mart (a convenience store chain here in Japan), and when a computer gets booted up in the film, there’s the actual Microsoft Windows startup screen, with correct spelling and everything.

The background visuals, especially in certain parts of the movie, where this effect seemed more pronounced than others, seemed like they could have just been rotoscoped video. The cars and the buildings had a more real feel to them than the actual characters did, at times. Don’t get me wrong, I dearly love the movie, and this certainly doesn’t ruin it for me. However, it was slightly distracting at times, with the characters almost seeming like they didn’t belong in those scenes, like they were actually just characters drawn onto real-life video footage.

Overall, though, I must say that I quite enjoyed the movie, and was pleasantly suprised how much of the dialog I actually understood. I didn’t get alot of the stuff when they started talking all technical and using alot of sci-fi jargon, but then again, some of that stuff’s hard enough to follow along with when I do have subtitles. ;)

Well, that’s the spoiler-free version. More pictures, followed by spoilers, are after the jump.

This is a knapsack of Yuki standing in the snow that I picked up at the movie theater after the movie. Really like this shot of Yuki. ^_^

Next are some 涼宮ハルヒの消失 “clear files” (basically single-pocket plastic folders), and a cloth to wipe my glasses with.

Okay, now with that our of the way, spoilers are next.
WARNING!!!! 注意!! Spoilers Ahead!!!
Well, as some of you may know, this movie actually foucuses more on Kyon, Yuki, and their relationship than anywhere in the TV series. This story arc really is Yuki’s arc. There were definitely some suprises, such as the entire situation of the movie actually being Yuki’s fault, and not Haruhi’s (for once). Also, holy carp! Asakura is an extremely scary yandere! XD I knew she was kinda nuts originally, but not quite like this.

You’ve really got to feel for Kyon. The world is all of a sudden normal again, Asakura is back, and sitting in Haruhi’s seat, noone knows who Haruhi is, nor do the other members of the SOS団 (which also no longer exists) know who Kyon is. The guy is practically going out of his mind here, and is actually pining for Haruhi, even if he won’t directly admit it at first.

They eventually do find Haruhi, who has long hair again, and wow, I just want to say that ponytail Haruhi is extremely cute. ;) Anyway, I do believe I’m rambling here. It’s extremely late now, so I’ll just finish up this post now. Thanks for reading! ^_^

The following pics are of the KyoAni secondary studio. (Click them to enlarge.)



Getting to this office is quite simple. Get on the Keihan main line and take it to Chushojima (中小島), from there, transfer to the Uji (宇治) line, and take that to Kowata (木幡). When you get off the train, walk down to the platform exit, turn right, walk across the tracks, and it’ll be there right in front of you, to the left, next to the 7-11.

The main office is only about a 5 minute walk (if that) from the secondary studio. From the secondary studio, walk back across the tracks, and keep walking until you encounter another set of tracks (shown below). These are the tracks for the JR Nara line.

Right before this crossing is a street, turn and walk down this street.

Down this street is the JR Kohata station (木幡). Note that it’s the same kanji as the previously mentioned Keihan station, but with a different reading. If you’re coming via JR instead of Keihan, you’ll want to come to this station. Google Maps says it’s on the JR Nara line.

Not much further down the street from the station (by “not much further” I mean, just a few feet, at most) is the Kyoto Animation main office building. It’s a fairly unassuming building, the only clues that it was the KyoAni building were the sign on the building, the ads for the Haruhi movie, and the mailbox. ;)




This last image is of the mailbox out front. I kinda liked it and decided to grab a shot of it. n.n

I have some photos of myself outside the KyoAni buildings, but they’re not the best considering I had to take the photos myself using an outstretched hand. ^^; I don’t really feel like posting them, but could possibly be convinced to. If you really want me to inflict upon you pictures of my ugly mug, please tell me so in the comments. ;)

Oh, and here’s the scenes in question in Lucky Star, in case you need a refresher.

Basically it’s a package of pre-made curry sauce, including a small amount of meat and vegetables, in a plastic pouch. The pouch itself can be boiled in water to heat up the curry and make it ready to serve straight out of the pouch, or it can be emptied into a microwave-safe container and put in the microwave for a minute or so. The curry is fairly mild, and very good, IMO.

There’s also a small set of stickers for the kids to place on everything they can included in the package. ;) Since this is the cheapest single serving curry available at ライフ (Life), the grocery store where I buy these, I bought a bunch of the Heartcatch Precure curry recently as well.
The Heartcatch precure curry is identical to the Fresh Precure curry, just has different artwork on the box and different stickers inside. If you want me to post pictures of the Heartcatch precure curry as well, please let me know in the comments.

For those unfamiliar with the movie, it’s a retelling of the events of the first season of the anime of the same name. Basically, they took a 13-episode anime series, and condensed it down into a movie. They seemed to do a good job at it too. They manage to hit the major plot points and even give us glimpses into parts of the backstory that had only been hinted at in the original anime, though at least one such revelation actually didn’t happen until the 3rd season, originally, if I remember correctly.

The movie was just as touching and moving to me as the original series was, so it definitely scores points there. Also, there was a scene that surprised and amused me, where Nanoha and her friends are playing Wii Sports Tennis. ;) I really didn’t expect to see them inserting that into Nanoha. Of course, it’s not directly Wii Sports, but you can tell that’s what it’s supposed to be. n.n;

Now to comment on the dialogue. I was surprised how much of the Japanese I actually understood, I guess my Japanese is improving, but I’ve still got a long way to go. ^^; The intelligent devices (IDs), as in the original series, speak completely in English. And not Engrish, either. That’s one nice thing about Lyrical Nanoha, they hired native speakers (or at least ones that sound native and have western names) for those parts. When the IDs spoke, there were Japanese subtitles at the bottom of the screen. It was interesting trying to follow the conversations, though. Nanoha perfectly understanding Raising Heart’s English, and responding in Japanese, and vice versa.

Raising Heart (yes, not Raging, Raising is the official name) also has alot more lines in this version, I think. She talks in more complete sentences. They also seem to me to be more natural English, with much less Engrish-ness to them. Also, at times she seems less mechanical, and her voice even displays emotion, whereas in the series I never really got that sense. The same applies to Bardiche, his voice sounding very much human at times. They also have a voice for Precia’s ID this time as well, at least I think it was her ID.

I wonder what’s next to be animated in the Nanoha-verse… will it be a movie version of A’s (the second season)? Or perhaps one of the offshots like Vivid? I guess we’ll have to wait and see, ne? ;)

[Image from moe.imouto.org]

花咲つぼみは花や植物が大好きな中学２年生の女の子。
ある日、つぼみは不思議な夢を見た。
大きな木に咲く美しい花。たちまち全ての花が落ちてしまう。そしてそこから妖精が飛び立っていく――
　
それから数日後。明堂学園へ転校したつぼみの前に、なんと夢で見た妖精が現れる！ 妖精はつぼみに、「伝説の戦士プリキュアになって、≪こころの大樹≫を守って！みんなの≪こころの花≫を咲かせて！」と頼む。 自分にそんなことはムリ……と断るつぼみ。
だが突然謎の敵が襲ってきて、新しいクラスメート・来海えりかの≪こころの花≫を奪ってしまう。えりかの心を救うには、プリキュアになって戦うしかない！
つぼみは勇気を出してプリキュアに変身する!!

Translation:

Tsubomi Hanasaki is 2nd year middle school student that loves flowers and plants. One day, Tsubomi had a mysterious dream. There were flowers that bloomed on a great tree. Suddenly, all the flowers wilted and fell off. And then, because of that, the sprites took off.

Fast forward several days. After Tsubomi transferred to Myodou Academy[A1], the sprites that she saw in that dream appeared before her! The sprites begged Tsubomi, “Become the legendary warrior Pretty Cure and defend the Great Heart Tree! Make everyone’s Heart Flowers bloom!” Tsubomi refused, saying that such a thing was impossible for her to do alone.

However, a sudden attack from a mysterious enemy came, and the Heart Flower of her new classmate, Erika Kurumi, was stolen. To save Erika’s heart, she had no choice but to become Pretty Cure and fight!

Tsubomi summoned her courage and transformed into Pretty Cure!

Translation notes:
[A1] This is an educated guess at the reading of the kanji for the school’s name, 明堂学園.

ハートキャッチプリキュア！ 新シリーズ来春スタート！ (Toei Animation)
[Image: Precure Wikia]

Well, the last end-of-the-year NHK Kouhaku Uta Gassen was good, wasn’t it? As for me, when all is said and done, I was especially impressed by Nana Mizuki’s appearance on stage as the first seiyuu to do so. Anime Songs, Anison for short, certainly have been featured on TV recently, but, spots on the people who sing them have, save a few exceptions, been non-existent. Ms. Mizuki was featured in the [January] 13th evening paper’s “popstyle”!

As noted in the article, for New Year’s Eve, I watched Mizuki’s singing from within the Tokyo area via 1-seg on my cell phone, while at the same time our music reporter (Makoto) was covering the event on-site, capturing the sights and sounds.

In the main interview, which was done last year, a part that was not included in the article, that was impressive, was the story that a lot of fan mail came from abroad. Because Kouhaku Uta Gassen was relayed overseas, people were able to see and enjoy it, gathering together from various places such as South Korea, China, the United States, France, Brazil, etc. Mizuki herself has said, that because she has never been abroad to sing, that she definitely wants to go.

So, what I was most suprised about coming into this new year was the news that in the new program “Heartcatch Pretty Cure!” which starts broadcasting on February 7th, Mizuki was chosen to play the part of the voice one of the protagonists, Cure Blossom. Speaking of the 8:30 AM slot in TV Asahi’s Sunday morning block, this is the 7th series in the long running “Pretty Cure” franchise targeted at girls. Personally, I remember how the original “Futari wa Pretty Cure” tempestuously strode onto the scene, and has continued forward as such, with especially strong feelings.

Shifting production staff, it was anounced that Nagamine Tatsuya would be the series director, Kuriyama Midori series organizer, and Yoshihiko Umakoshi character designer. Ladies and gentlemen, as these are the same people who excitedly brought us the series “Ojamajo Doremi” which broadcast in this same slot previously, I look forward to the start of broadcasting of this series, wondering if they’ll give us a Pretty Cure with a taste of Doremi this time.

It certainly will be interesting to see what this team’s take on Pretty Cure will be. They’ve got some big shoes to fill in some aspects. ;)

今週のＡＬＬ　ＡＢＯＵＴは水樹奈々さんです！ (Daily Yomiuri Pop Style Blog)
[Image shamelessly ripped from that same article. ;) ]

No, that’s not a hamburger patty, from what I understand, it’s supposed to be some kind of cookie. Going to be looking for these when they go on sale on the 13th of January for the price of 120 yen each. Here we see the mouth area cut out of the bun to expose the innards of it. Looks delish!

Source: 30周年を記念した中華まん「パックまん」発売 (ITmedia) via Twitter via Kotaku. (Pics from there, too.)

Keeping in mind that I’ve only seen the first few episodes of Baccano, the opening sequence for Durarara does seem as frenetic as Baccano’s, with each character of the main cast having their own little introduction with them being isolated in the frame while their name is splashed up on the screen in handwritten kanji I can’t read. ;) The art style in Durarara is also quite interesting, in that only the characters you are meant to focus on. In other words, the main characters, are rendered in color. Everyone else is black and white.

(SPOILER ALERT: Review continues after the jump. Though there’s not much to spoil considering this is the first episode.)

The action all seems to take place in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district. One of the characters, who from how he acts and reacts, is not from that area, meets up with his childhood friend at Ikebukuro station. I was pleased to see that they did their research and had the same signs you see everywhere in the stations in Tokyo nowdays, with both Japanese and English. I didn’t go to Ikebukuro, but I’m guessing they had the stores in the background in the same locations that they are actually in in the real Ikebukuro… which makes me wish I’d gone there, because if that’s right there’s a Wendy’s not a stone’s throw away from the station along the main road, and I’ve been hankering for a Frosty something fierce, but I dunno where they are in Osaka (I’d be surprised if there was one in Hirakata itself)… and they’re probably gone by now, what with all Wendy’s closing down in Japan.

But I digress…. In Durarara, you have your unsavory characters too, such as this trio that kidnaps this girl (not exactly sure why, however). But they meet up with the local urban legend, the rider of a black motorcycle, who knocks one of them out by doing a wheelie and running over his face with her bike. Then proceeding to beat the tar out of the second, then chasing after the third. During the chase, the guy suddenly stops, causing the biker to crash. The guy comes out of the car, brandishing a knife, and approaches her… and stops short because…. she has no head. Her helmet has been knocked off, and there’s just a black mist coming out of her neck. Despite being headless, she stands up and kicks the guy’s butt. Yeah… This looks interesting. n.n

Anyway, it’s late and I’m tired, and there may be something I’m missing in this summary, but basically the episode ends with that new guy and his friend seeing the local legend streak across the road in front of them. I think I’ll try and follow this series and see where it goes. n.n

[Pic from the Durarara!! official site.]