Archive for the ‘Manga/Anime’ Category

Tokyo – Nakano

I found Nakano because Mandarake has a main location there, but afterwards I realized it has a whole list of places in my shopping guide too! It’s a few stops west of the central Tokyo line, and it is a lot of fun. There’s an arcade that you go through, and once you pass through it and enter the next arcade (Sun Plaza), there are many many fun shops – I could have probably spent a whole day there. Besides the awesome Mandarake shops (they have about 5 separate little shops there with different focuses (focii??)) there are other ones with just about any cult favourite you can think of – models, cult movie posters from decades ago, cosplay, miniatures – it’s a great place to bring people (and then leave them while you go and browse in Mandarake, heh).
So, first I reached the manga section, and got these:


Nade Pro Vol 1 and 2, they were both pretty cheap. And the VitX-Z CDs with my favourite characters (Chisato and Konokage of course!). And Koisentai Vol 1! So I can get excited for when they release that game!

I couldn’t figure out why there were no games, so I asked, and a clerk kindly gave me a map of all the different Mandarake shops in the plaza. Headed over to the games section (it took me a few rounds to figure out where it was because I kept getting distracted by cool stuff), and bought:

Lucian Bees Justice Yellow and Evil Violet, yaayyy! I’ve been wanting to buy the Yellow for forever and held off. Also the VitX to Z fandisk, heehee. I almost didn’t get the Gekkan Ryouran Romance because I thought I might find it with an extra somewhere, but I couldn’t resist. And finally Arabian’s Lost DS, maybe now I will finally be able to get the tutor guy…whatever his name is.

And now a summary of everything I’ve bought for myself, otome-wise, so far:

Not bad…if I do say so myself.

Kyoto Day 3-4, Tokyo again

My netbook lost power for a couple days, so I couldn’t really do much on it, but I didn’t do much shopping anyways.

I got a Betsuma to check out the stories and because it was big, but the furoku was just an extra little book of short stories. Cute but not amazing. I actually read most of it and left it in Kyoto, along with the Lala and LalaDX, because they are waaaay too big and heavy to lug around. Oh, the clearfiles are ones I got at the 100Y store because, hey, Y100!!
And I also got Kyun, one of the magazines that runs otome comics (like Hakuouki), because the furoku was awesome:

Three extra comic books, and two of them included drama CDs!!

On the day we left Kyoto, I got these:

Weekly Jump, which just came out, and a special of Betsuma called Sister, mostly because it had a short by Takanashi Mitsuba (Crimson Hero) who I love. And I had a few hours on the shinkansen to read them, perfect!

Once we got back to Tokyo, we headed out to Akihabara.

From Traders, a used game store, and animate:

Dear Mine Sun!! I wasn’t sure if I could find this so I’m very happy. Also, I got Asuka, with an extra, yay!
The one in the top right has been argued to be one of the first otome games, Abarenbou Princess. I don’t know if it is, the description doesn’t really sound like it, but it was 105Y!!!! So of course I bought it. I think that was from the Book Off in Akihabara.

So, a couple days of no posting, sorry about that, but expect a big post tomorrow! I’m stationed in Shinjuku now, and am poring through my Otome Shopping Guide in preparation.

Day 4 – Hiroshima

Hardly anything yesterday and no otome stuff. I accidentally bought Shonen Sunday for the shinkansen, and later bought Shonen Jump (what I meant to buy earlier) for another train ride. Only read three or so stories in Sunday, and Jump I’m working on (still going through the Lalas too!)

Now we’re staying in one place (Kyoto) for a few days, so I am definitely going to get to an Animate and Book Off soon.

Japan Trip

Today I was finally able to get out for a bit and shop! I still haven’t found an animate or a bookoff, but I went to Akihabara!!! It was evening, and was really busy with mostly men (and several women in maid costumes advertising stuff) but I checked several stores. I only bought stuff at two, Mandarake, and one I haven’t seen before which had both new and used games – especially a lot of retro games for old consoles. I almost bought a PS game of the first Harutoki, but I restrained myself.

The Mandarake was great, of course, but it was SO hard to decide what to buy. The Akihabara store has 8 floors, and though I can skip at least one (the guy’s doujinshi floor), the rest are fascinating! They had two for models and cards, one for manga, one for games, and one for women-targeted doujinshi. On this floor, not only did they have the doujinshi, but they also had a bunch of drama CDs and comics comics from games, like the Nise no Chigiri comics and Lucian Bees. I bought a few of those, and they also had a lot of the extras from B’s Log etc and the preorder goodies from games! I ended up buying two preorder drama CDs (only 315Y each!!!) from Beastmaster and Prince, one from Desert Kingdom, and the Nise no Chigiri soundtrack.


And then there were doujinshi. I’m really glad that I’m going to have another week in Tokyo later, because man, there are so much doujinshi, and it’s impossible to decide what to get on the spot. I did get some, mostly some VitaminZ doujinshi, three from the same circle, Ahiru Taichou (Duck Captain) whose art I really liked.

I also got one from VitX and one from Harutoki 4. Those were “used” I think, so most were either 210 or 410Y, but there were new ones featured near the door averaging around 700-800Y each. I didn’t have time to even try looking through the shelves of Gintama or Prince of Tennis or anything else, I just focused on the Vitamin shelves, and then grabbed the Harutoki one at the end.

Both Mandarake and the other store also had used games! I didn’t buy any, I thought I would wait till I could find some Book Offs and check those out, but I may go back there later.

One thing though, I definitely want to go to Otome Road first – Akihabara is unquestionably set up for men. Lots of moe posters and even banners hanging on buildings meant I felt alienated before I even went into any stores. That part wasn’t fun.

Well, that’s it for yesterday, today I’m heading to Osaka for an overnight stay. There’s a Book Off right near our hotel (totally coincidental I swear!) so I’m hoping to check it out, and then tomorrow we’re off to Hiroshima.

Summary:
6 doujinshi
4 CDs
5 comics
3 game guides (Harutoki 2, 3 for 300Y!)

Going to Japan!

I’m working on a post for Beyond the Future, but I’m being lazy and thought I’d post about my upcoming trip to Japan first!

Next month I’m going for over 2 weeks, and besides it being pretty lengthy, I haven’t been there for at least firve years, so I’m extremely excited!
I will be doing a lot of sightseeing, but also have a whole week in Tokyo where I plan to shop shop shop for otome stuff. I have been poring over this shopping guide for months, and am actually staying for a few days very near to Otome Road.
I’m making up a shopping list, and have held back from buying many games all this year (though I couldn’t resist getting Musketeer!), and I am ready to go on a bit of a binge once I get there! In addition to whatever new games have come out (pretty much anything I can find that I don’t have yet, like Waga Ichizoku) I’m also planning for several fandisk purchases that I’ve been resisting, like Lucian Bee’s, Xechs, Wand of Fortune, Hiiro no Kakera 4, Clover no Kuni no Alice, and a huge number of PC games which we just can’t order here (without an enormous expense and hassle – I think I’d probably have to pay about 3 times the retail price to get one here), and there are lots of doujin (indie) games as well. I also can’t wait to see what merchandise I can find – I know there’s tons for Hakuouki, but I’m looking to seeing what else is available. And let’s not forget drama CDs! I never buy them here, because they are so expensive, but I think I might get some there…last but not least, there are manga and doujinshi. I’m not planning on getting too much manga, as I don’t follow many series anymore. Here’s my shortlist:

• Jellyfish Princess/Kuragehime Vols. 8+ whatever is out
• Violinist of Hameln Shell-kun (anyone else read/watch this? it’s so schizophrenic but I love it) – the new story about Hameln’s kid Grate, which my friend loaned me the first two volumes of and it’s awesome, I see there’s up to volume 7 out now!
• Ai da no Koi da no 2 and 3 – fun and a little different heroine than usual
• Otogimoyou Ayanishiki Futatabi 1 and 2 – mostly because I love Hikawa Kyouko, though I couldn’t get into the original series I think it’s because I was lazy in paying attention
• OMG, what is this?? Sekai de Ichiban Daikirai Special and it has my favourite couple on the cover! Geez, this list is getting longer the more time I browse at Amazon Japan…
• Probably anything I don’t have by Sakamoto Miku, because I find her stuff cute and not too angsty
• I’m counting on checking out the new phonebooks (mwahaha, my travelling companion is probably going to be shocked at how many I buy the first chance I get, which may be before we get out of Narita airport) and finding a couple series to pick up, but nothing over 10 volumes – I just don’t have the patience anymore!

As for doujinshi, well I don’t keep up at all with circles or anything, so I’ll probably just spend several hours at Mandarake and get whatever catches my eye – especially anything based on otome games. I know there’s a bunch for Harutoki, and I’m positive there are lots for Hakuouki, but other than that I don’t know how easy/difficult it will be finding stuff. I’ve seen covers of VitaminX doujinshi and but who knows how rare it is. If anyone has recommendations for doujinshi please let me know!
So, there you go, my trip to Japan in terms of shopping. Three weeks, four days, and counting!

Tokyopop Manga No More

I was shocked to hear today that Tokyopop is closing down its manga arm. From my outsider’s view (since I haven’t bought much English manga for years), Viz always had a lot of the big, dependable blockbuster series like Inuyasha and Naruto, but Tokyopop did so many smaller, interesting titles; they really opened up the market and brought a huge variety of manga to the English marketplace. They were the first publisher that I thought really dove into shoujo and brought out tons of titles – before Tokyopop, English manga was really focused on shounen like Ranma and Tenchi Muyo.

This is really sad. I hope the series that aren’t complete from Tokyopop find a home somewhere else.

Mags and Swag

It didn’t seem right to post fluff right after the disasters in Japan, but things seem to be approaching normal now, and I got a new shipment of otome magazines.

For anyone wondering what kind of swag you get with otome mags, here’s a pic I took (the colour’s kind of off but whatever):

1 – several miniposters (one set of five or so from each B’s Log)
2 – two booklets about the Yamanote Boys series (one from each B’s Log)
3 – page of stickers from Starry Sky! very cute
4 – the mags – I got the April and May B’s Log, and the most recent Cool-B and Sweet Princess
5 – The 2011 Tokyo Otome Guide – I have to plan for my fall trip! it has listings of otome-focused stores, manga, games, cosplay, everything, as well as some hotel and restaurant listings (even some butler cafés!), with lots of pics and ideas. Lots of fun to read through!
6 – Two DVD-Roms that came with Cool-B and Sweet Princess. They have promo movies, wallpapers, game guides, and even some playable demos.

And now for the news from those magazines!
A fandisk was announced for Hiiro no Kakera 4 Shin Tamayori-hime Denshou, called Piece of Future. Scheduled for July 2011, the Suwabe Brothers will be capturable! Awesome.

Sangokuren Senki is coming to PS2!!! I’m extremely happy, I’ve heard a lot of good things about this game and darnit, I’m just a sucker for fantasy historicals!

A new Quinrose game, Mother Goose no Himitsu no Yakata (Mother Goose’s Secret House) – scheduled for the PSP on June 23. Apparently there are two parts, a quiz part and an adventure part. The story is kind of like Alice, in that the heroine falls into a different world and has to find a way out. But to do so, she has to pass quizzes based on nursery rhymes. The men she meets all know her, but she doesn’t remember them. There’s a lot of really gorgeous art for this, it seems that Quinrose has over 200 nursery rhymes (which will be shown in English and then Japanese translations) illustrated by lots of different artists. Here’s a pic!

Cute huh? From left to right, the characters are:
Cezary Fritche (CV: Morikawa Toshiyuki) – a poor scholar
Eric Burrell (CV: Toriumi Kousuke) – an odd jobs guy
Heroine
Arthur Lindgren (CV: Sakurai Takahiro) – a noble gentleman
Bacchus Moore (CV: Suwabe Junichi) – a cook
(sitting) Vincent Noble (CV: Yasumoto Hiroki) – a student of Cezary at a well-known school

The Nise no Chigiri fandisk, Omoide no Saki e, is coming July 21!

A new R18 game, Persona, is announced from Mirai, the creators of the Hoshi no Joou series and Jingi Naki Otome, It seems to be based on the Phantom of the Opera, but there was just a teaser spread this month.
More info on the new Otomate PSP game, Amnesia. The heroine wakes up with (surprise!) amnesia, and apparently has to figure out which of her (current?past?) boyfriends is the real one, or something.
Kago no Naka no Alicis, the all-ages fantasy PC game from icingCandy, is set for Apr 22.

Info on the Alice movie! It’s coming out on July 30, in 7 cities around Japan. The art is quite nice, dare I say, possibly nicer than the original game! Apparently the story is new, and they’re trying to make it accessible to people who’ve never played the game. Apparently Joker is in it, and that is a hint as to the story, and there’s lots of action.

Seiyuu announcements for Hotokensaa, the sentai otome game:
Kondou Ryuuichi, Hotokensaa　Blue: Akabane Kenji
Sumeragi Rikuto, Hotokensaa Yellow: Takagi Shun
Doujima Mitsuki, Hotokensaa Green: Kimura Ryouhei

One Piece!

Oi yaroudomo! Hehe, I wanted to write about news from B’s Log, but I haven’t gotten it yet, and the last few days I’ve been wasting TONS of time watching One Piece, thanks to a certain One Piece evangelist (thanks Maggie!!)
I missed One Piece when it first came out, I was only reading shoujo at the time, even though I was in Japan and could have watched from the beginning – oh, what I’ve missed! I’ve been watching the anime, no manga, but from all reports it’s just as awesome.
Great characters and seiyuu (yay Nakai Kazuya, Balflear!, and Krillin!!!! Krillin!!!) as well as shounen fights (the many-episodes-long kind) that don’t even seem that long (not for shounen anyways) which is amazing in its own right since it has the ‘draw a fight out for as many episodes as possible’ trick down even in its first season.
So anyways, now in addition to catching up on hundreds of episodes (and I thought TeniPuri was long!), now I want an otome game for One Piece I mean, there are ones for TeniPuri, and kind of one for Gintama (which I still have on my list to buy, even if it doesn’t count). There are apparently about a million One Piece games, I will have to dig around find out if any are even close to an adventure game…
I’ll be doing a big 2010 review post this week, until then let’s see how far I can get in One Piece!
As of today, Tuesday Feb 15: 55 down, 432 to go. Phew. Saki ga nagai na~

Not an otome game, but fantastic nonetheless!

I’ve been plunged headlong into a binge — a reading binge that is, and I finally came out the other side tonight. I had seen a couple webcomics before, but this is definitely my hands down favourite – and it’s totally free!

Girl Genius has been serialized online for years, and I think I’d heard of it before, but never got around to reading it. It’s a steampunk adventure romance that is hilarious and fantastically written and drawn, with tons of awesome characters that feel like real people.

A new page comes out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and they have a complete archive, so you can read right from the beginning in 2002. They also release paper copies, which I think I’ll try and get so I can enjoy them without scrolling (I think the size is the same as other American comics, so much bigger than manga).

I can’t really add anything, if you’re at all interested check it out! And now that I’m all caught up, maybe I’ll be able to tear myself from the computer and play some otome games