In the Emerald City

This Buffy quote occurred to me today that I thought might apply to certain Gurren-Lagann characters after seeing the final:

( Read more... )

A Ja-Dou dojinshi in English? DO WANT!

I don't know if this indicated the series has been licensed, but I certainly hope so. I wonder if they'll be selling the English versions at Winter Comiket?

Meanwhile, Disney's Robin Hood is on TV. I haven't seen it in years, but I've realised it's an awesome movie. I was giggling my head off at the fortune-teller bit.

( Read more... )

So Geneon's cancelling their DVD sales. This really sucks. I'd gotten behind on Kyo Kara Maoh, but I was planning on starting my collection again in a few months. They'd also started releasing Saiunkoku and Shonen Onmyoji, both of which I was thinking about getting. They'd recently licensed Seirei no Moribito, so there's no telling what will happen with that one. I really hope another company picks them up, or Geneon is able to start again in the future.

I want BPAL's new Swan Maiden scent so bad. But I don't think I can have it. And apparently it's only going to be available for two days. ;_; I hope they'll do a re-release next year or something.

September's events was apparently 'Mehanics'. I never would have expected that. Of course, there isn't much of September left. Hopefully the next theme will be posted early. I just hope they're not closed half the time like they have been lately. Of course, I can't actually afford to go right now. *cries*

I think I made a fool of myself in front of my flatmates watching Gurren-Lagann today, but whatever. ( Read more... )

I wasn't sure whether or not I would end up going to the Game Show, but in the end I'm glad I did, because I got to see a Kakihara Tetsuya talkshow! It was purely by chance, I didn't even know he was going to be there, but I just happened to be walking past the right stage while the show was going on. He was promoting a game called (if I remember correctly) My Dear Sun. I've been playing Princess Maker 2 a lot lately, and this game looks to be a lot like that, except instead of raising a queen/warrior/magician/Princess of Darkness, you raise an ordinary schoolboy. Which is kind of dull, really, but I still might give it a go. He was there with another voice actor, Ito-san (I didn't catch his first name), and a singing duo who performed the opening and ending themes for us. There was a janken competition to win signed posters. I lost, boo.

I didn't see a whole lot else that caught my interest, but then, I'm not a gamer. Yet. I have a feeling it's only a matter of time. I had heard about a DS game that was going to be there, however, that I wanted to check out, called Duel Love. Now, a while back there was a game in which you had to find witches by stripping bishojo women and poking them, or something like that. Duel Love appears to be the bishonen equivalent, although rather less violent. In the demo, the task is to wipe the sweat off a bishonen's naked chest. Yep. One of the weirdest concepts I've seen, that's for sure. Also kind of embarrassing when you're playing the demo and it appears on the big screen in front of you.

It's about time.

The first volume of Ai no Kusabi is going to come out soon in English. I had originally planned on buying it, but I'm a lot more aware of my tastes in BL now, and I'm just not going to enjoy a tale of bondage, however much of a classic it's supposed to be. However, this book came up on my recommendations recently.

Naturally, the wings on the cover caught my attention. However, I didn't like the expressions on the guys' faces, and I assumed it was a manga. So I thought I'd wait and see if I could find a review after it came out, and decide whether or not I wanted it then. But then I took a closer look at the cover, and saw 'I's Novels'. A BL novel about white- and black-winged angels? HELL YES!

I only hope DMP's editing/adapting skills have improved.

( Read more... )

( Read more... )

I've finally caught up on Gurren-Lagann. I missed it last week because of Comic City, the week before that because of Comiket, and the week before that because I just forgot. Right now I'm watching episode 23.

( Read more... )

( Episode 23 reactions: )

I decided to check out the Anime on DVD forums to see if I could get any issue on the Saiunkoku Ko/Hong change. It looks like it was indeed due to a request from the creator. Geneon is still cool! \o/

Mostly yaoi, of course.

( Read more... )

So apparently, there were 170,000 attendees at Comiket on Friday, 180,000 on Saturday and 200,000 on Sunday. So now I really don't know why Friday seemed like so much more.

This is a little late, but Cougar's August them is cowboys. They also say 'Please come and see us after Comiket!' Bit late now, oops...

I need to get myself a butler icon.

I got up early again, met up with Mizukiaya and headed off to Big Sight. It was hotter than Saturday, but still not as bad as Friday. We got in at about 10:45 and went directly to the corporate booths. Mizukiaya got her ticket with no problem, but alas, without pre-ordering the CD on my phone I couldn't get one. So the Friday people didn't know what they were talking about. The next couple of hours saw me dashing madly around trying to find a phone that would let me buy it. Thanks again, Reppu!

I did get a bit of shopping done, though not quite as much as I'd planned (though that's probably for the best!). I got a Ja-Dou parody story from Mamiya Oki's table, and a couple of books from Kano Miyamoto's.

Then Mizukiaya and I went back up to the corporate booths to hang around the Hanayoi Romanesque table. We weren't sure of exactly where we were meant to wait, but finally a staff guy took us to the waiting area, which turned out to be outside the corporate booth area, in the sun. We waited in line for a bit, and then another staff guy came to take us in (or at least half of us; the other half waited outside, presumably to reduce the crowd). I happened to be sitting next to a Japanese woman, and the staff member asked her if I was with her, and she said no. Then he said, 'She looks like Heidi, doesn't she?' At least I think that's what he said; I could have totally misunderstood. The odd thing was he was talking past me like he thought I wouldn't understand him at all; I was surprised because there's usually at least an attempt to speak to me. So I said to him, 'I thought I was Alice' (and really, I get the Alice comment a lot, but Heidi was a new one). Then there was a bit of chatter from the Japanese fans about how Kakihara, being from Germany, has an international appeal.

So my group went back into the hall and lined up by the booth. We waited around for a couple of minutes, and then I heard some applause. At last, Kakihara had appeared! He gave a short welcoming speech, and then it was time for the handshaking.

Some people gave him little gifts, and I think the one that was most appreciated was one of those cold packs. That gift was quite amusing, actually - it seems you have to hit it to make it cold, and Kakihara didn't seem to be getting it, so the fan set it on the table and went WHAM! with her fist. He seemed to appreciate it a lot, and goodness knows it would have been a nice thing to have on such a hot day!

I regretted that I hadn't thought very hard about conversation topics. He commented on my dress, so we talked about Lolita for a bit, and he told me I was getting better at Japanese (No I'm totally not! I said, but it was flattering). Naturally I thought of things I could have said afterwards. I really wish I'd asked him about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, at least. Well, I definitely will next time. I might try to think of a nice gift, as well.

I left with Reppu and Cienna shortly after that. We had pizza, and then EPIC KARAOKE. It was seriously awesome. So I got home tired, but very happy.

Today was much easier than yesterday! There wasn't anything I desperately wanted, so I decided not to rush, and arrived at about noon. Though of course it was still crowded, there didn't seem to be as many people as yesterday. It was also cooler, even though it didn't rain.

First I looked at Rozen Maiden, and though I didn't buy anything, there were a lot of cute books. There were also a lot of cosplayers, particularly of Suiseiseki. After that I looked at Hayate Cross Blade, and there was some really great art there. I didn't buy any books because I couldn't find any with kissing and I'm not familiar enough with the characters yet to know who I want to read about, but I'm sure I'll get plenty in the future. I did, however, buy a fangame, because I'm always interested in those. I just hope its better characterised than the Conrad x Yuri ones I bought a while ago!

After that I took a quick look at the Jump area. I wandered around looking at Eyeshield 21, but sadly there was next to nothing featuring Monta, and no pairings for him. Unsurprisingly, Hiruma was the most popular character. I managed to find Kemono no Hanashi and bought her Hiruma/Musashi book. Although I haven't seen much of Musashi, I'm inclined to think that he wouldn't put up with a lot of Hiruma's crap, so if they're both in character that could be a fun pairing. I love the grin Hiruma has on the covers of some of his love-love books.

There were a few Sena x Hiruma books, which was awesome to see. Sadly, that pairing just doesn't do anything for me, regardless of the order, so I didn't buy them. I bought a gag book called 'YA-OI!' purely for the title (a parody of YA-HA!, of course) but it look well-drawn and funny, so I think that was worth it.

Next up was the Golden Pair. I didn't spend much time looking at them, though there were some cute books. I only bought one, a collection of the artists' previous dojinshi. I'd bought her earlier collection, so I know I like her work, and this one looks really sweet.

After that was lunch with a big group of awesome people, then looking at the cosplayers, then heading off to Ikebukuro. I got the Shonen Onmyoji tickets for the exact day and time I wanted! \o/ It looked like there weren't many left, too, so I had some good luck.

Tomorrow I have to arrive early again. Sigh. Hopefully I'll be able to get a ticket, but if I don't I'll at least be able to hang around during the event and idolise from afar! I'll have to find the circles for the artists I like in the catalogue so that I'll have something to look at while I'm waiting.

I can't seem to pre-order Kakkii's CD with my crappy four-year-old phone, and I can't find anywhere on the website to do it. I might end up missing out. Maybe I should go to the Vexille event instead. But the booth people did say I didn't have to buy anything to participate, so I dunno. It'll be annoying if wait for hours to get in on Sunday morning and then have my reason for even going taken away.