Pumpkin's Update

You may or may not have noticed my absence from this blog for the past two months. There were two main reasons: 1) I went to Melbourne for a Summer school/holiday, and 2) After I returned I had to complete my PhD confirmation. Anyhow, I am back now and hopefully along with my usual J-related news updates.

Unfortunately, halfway through my Melbourne trip my phone SD card suddenly died/wiped itself, so I lost all the photos and data I had on my phone; I tried recovery programs but it was no use.

Brunetti's - An expensive but awesome coffee/desert shop in Melbourne.

I pretty much completed my confirmation on Friday (22nd Feb), and in celebration I had a little splurge on myself. I visited the anime/manga shop Zombster and happily wasted $50. Here were my spoils:

Tiger, Bunny and Karina figurines (from Tiger and Bunny), Himari keychain (from Mawaru Penguindrum), and Zero, Suzaku and Lelouch keychains (from Code Geass). 

Today I saw this really cute bag and couldn't resist buying:

Yes okay, it's a fake angry bird but isn't it adorable?

Yesterday I also completed a few bookmarks to stick on my wall.

Kuro and Poyo from Poyopoyo Kansatsu nikki.

The princess from Mawaru Penguindrum.

So what are my latest plans/projects? None. I'm happy to receive ideas and feedback or even requests!

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and flumpool to interact with fans via Google+

A new channel featuring music content from Asia (A-Pop) has been launched on YouTube. In accordance with this, a Google+ page has also been launched to share music from Japan, Korea, and China. As the opening project, there will be a special event between artists and fans from March 8 to the 14.

Participants of this project include Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and flumpool from Japan, 2PM,SUPER JUNIOR, and SHINee from Korea, and MAYDAY and LeeHom Wang from China. The artists will take turns interacting with their fans via Google+ hangout.

Currently, Google+ is looking for questions and messages of support to artists. The due date for these submissions is set to February 25.

===

<A-Pop Channel Opening Project Schedule & Artists>

Friday, March 8th – SHINee

Saturday, March 9th – LeeHom Wang

Sunday, March 10th – SUPER JUNIOR

Monday, March 11th – Kyary Pamyu Pamyu

Tuesday, March 12th – flumpool

Wednesday, March 13th – 2PM

Thursday, March 14th – Mayday

Source: Tokyohive

Watch Hatsune Miku Designer KEI Draw the Virtual Idol in Video

The official Hatsune Miku channel on YouTube posted a video of KEI, the original character designer of Hatsune Miku, drawing the virtual idol in a time-lapse video:

The video ends with KEI answering a few questions about life as an illustrator — and how Miku got her signature twin tail hairstyle.

Source: ANN

Sakura Miku Bean Jam Buns Celebrate the Coming of Spring

The FamilyMart chain of convenience stores will begin selling Sakura Miku Man (Koshian) — sweet bean jam buns inspired by the springtime variant of virtual idol Hatsune Miku — about when the cherry blossoms bloom on March 19. This is FamilyMart's second steamed bun inspired by Hatsune Miku, after last summer's Hachune Miku Man.

The new buns will cost 160 yen (about US$1.70) in about 9,300 FamilyMart locations nationwide. It is just part of a larger "Hatsune Miku de Sakura no Ua no Campaign" of 16 different Hatsune Miku items, including Ume (dried plum) & Jako (dried sardine) Ricebentō (boxed meal), bread, and desserts, that will start rolling out on March 5. Most of them will have seasonal themes such as Sakura Miku and the popular songs "Senbonzakura" (One Thousand Cherry Blossoms) and "Sakura no Ame" ("Rain of Cherry Blossom").

The "Po Pi Po" (Poppippo) vegetable juice is back with six designs. FamilyMart has priced the drink at 200 yen (US$2.15) — to match the lyrics in the original "Po Pi Po" song.

People who buy 500 yen or more of these items will have a chance to win prizes such as 39 satin varsity-style "Hatsune Senbonzakura" jackets, 39 premium Sakura Miku Nendoroid sets, 100 "Hatsune Senbonzakura" premium sets, and 10 Kaito V3 software sets.

In addition, people who buy two of the sweets will receive a Hatsune Miku Crystal Card, starting on March 15 and while supplies last.

Source: ANN

2nd Snow Miku Festival Report Video Features Event Tour

The official Hatsune Miku channel on YouTube presented the second part of the Snow Miku Report 2013 on Friday. The video features various Vocaloid exhibits from the 64th annual Sapporo Snow Festival, including an art and merchandise gallery, a Hatsune Miku playground, workshops, game demos and a graffiti wall. The video also features an interview with the artist Chiho, who was featured in the art gallery.

Source: ANN

Vampire Knight Manga to End in May

The April issue of Hakusensha's LaLa magazine announced on Saturday that Matsuri Hino will end her Vampire Knight manga in the July issue on May 24. The series revolves around Yuki, a high school girl whose unique school features a "day class" of normal kids and a "night class" of vampires. She works with her adopted father and headmaster to prove that vampires can coexist with humans peacefully, but the school — and the vampires — hide many secrets.

Hino launched the manga in LaLa in 2004, and the manga entered its final arc last month. Hakusensha published the 17th compiled book volume in December.

Source: ANN

Ghost in the Shell Online Game to be 'Hacking FPS'

The staff at the Ghost in the Shell Arise press conference revealed more details on Tuesday about the Ghost in the Shell Online(tentative title) PC game.

The staff revealed that the game is classified as a "hacking-FPS" (First Person Shooter) game. Neoburu, a subsidiary company of game-developer Nexon, is in charge of the game's development. The game lets players strengthen their characters by utilizing information and remodeling their cyborg bodies. Players will also be able to collaborate with Tachikoma to fight. Nexon plans to release the game in the first half of 2014. The company also plans to release the game worldwide, although a time frame for the worldwide release has not yet been revealed.

Famitsu and Online Gamer have both posted additional artwork images for the game and pictures from the presentation.

Nexon announced in December that it had signed an agreement with Japanese publisher Kodansha to develop and release a PC online game based on the anime titles Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG, and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Solid State Society. The company's releases in Japan include MapleStory, Arad Senki(Dungeon & Fighter/Dungeon Fighter Online, the inspiration for the Slap Up Party -Arad Senki- anime), Mabinogi, Sudden Attack, and around 60 other games. Nexon currently operates in more than 100 countries and territories in Asia, North America, Europe, and elsewhere.

Source: ANN

Zetsuen no Tempest Manga's Main Story to End Next Month

Manga artist Ren Saizaki announced on Wednesday that the Zetsuen no Tempest: The Civilization Blaster manga's main story is ending in the April issue of Square Enix's Monthly Shonen Gangan magazine on March 12. However, Saizaki with writer Kyo Shirodaira and story collaborator Arihide Sano are continuing with a spinoff story.

The main story centers around Yoshino Takigawa, an ordinary high school student with a mysterious friend named Mahiro Fuwa. Mahiro made a deal with a witch named Hakaze to hunt down the killers of his parents and sister. Now Mahiro is missing, and Hakaze confronts Yoshino. Yoshino finds himself involved in a crisis that may doom the entire world.

The manga debuted in Monthly Shonen Gangan in 2009, and Square Enix published the eighth book volume last month. The fantasy mystery manga inspired a television anime series last Fall that is still ongoing.

Source: ANN

How to Make a Snow Miku Sculpture in 3 Time-Lapsed Minutes

The official Hatsune Miku channel on YouTube presented the first part of the Snow Miku Report 2013 on Friday. In the 210-second video, snow sculptor Tsutomu Hatakeyama shows how he and his crew made this year's snow sculpture of Hatsune Miku in five days:

The sculpture debuted at the Sapporo Snow Festival earlier this month. This is the third "Snow Miku" that Hatakeyama has sculpted.

Source: ANN

Wield Sword Art Online's Elucidator Sword … Bag

The character goods maker MOVIC is offering a bag shaped like the Elucidator, the sword wielded by the lead character Kirito in the Sword Art Online anime. The cloth bag measures 1,000 millimeters (about 39 inches) long and includes mesh pockets that are handy for storing game systems and gadgets.

The sword will go on sale on April 4 for 5,250 yen (US$57).

Source: ANN

Cospa Stores' Top-Selling Cosplay Outfits: 2012

The cosplay outfit store chain Cospa announced its top-selling outfits in 2011. Only three oufits — those from K-ON!, Toaru Majutsu no Index, and Yuruyuri — returned from last year's list. Unlike last year, four of the outfits are not school uniforms.

1. Vocaloid Hatsune Miku
Costume Set

2. Steins;Gate
Kurisu Makise's Jacket

3. Hyouka
Kamiyama High School Girls' Uniform

4. Rurouni Kenshin
Kenshin Himura Costume Set

5. Yuruyuri
Nanamori Middle School Uniform (Summer)

6. K-ON!
Sakuragaoka Girls' High School Uniform

7. Dragon Ball Z
Freeza Costume Set

8. Neon Genesis Evangelion
Tokyo-3 1st Municipal Middle School Girls' Uniform

9. D.C.III ~Da Capo III~
Royal London Academy of Magic School Girls' Uniform

10. Toaru Majutsu no Index
Tokiwadai Middle School Girls' Uniform

Source: ANN

Mamoru Miyano to Perform Uta-Pri Anime Sequel's Theme

As expected...

Voice actor Mamoru Miyano revealed on his website on Tuesday that the title song for his ninth single will be used as the theme song for the Uta no Prince-sama - Maji Love 2000%, the second season of the Uta no Prince-sama - Maji Love 1000% television anime series. More details on the title of the song and the release date for the single will be revealed later.

Miyano sang the opening theme song for the first season of the series, and performed in the ending theme song with the other members of the voice actor unit ST☆RISH. 

The series adapts Broccoli's 2010 PSP romance game franchise of the same name for female players. In the slapstick romantic comedy, a girl goes to a school for the performing arts with boys who are budding idols. Niconico streamed the first season of the series as it aired in 2011.

Uta no Prince-sama - Maji Love 2000% will premiere in Japan in April.

Source: ANN

Pumpkin's Palette + Autumn Anime Season Wrap up

Oogami from Code:Breaker reminded me of Rin from Ao no Exorcist with the blue flames and sword

Mikoto [K]
(I'm never going to officially finish this sketch)

Most of this season's animes are more or less wrapping up in these two weeks. 

Firstly, Sword Art Online. I still think that the anime does not do the original novel any justice. Many important interactions and emotions of certain characters were not portrayed well, if at all, in the anime, and the arrangement of the story in the anime was very poor. I highly recommend people go and read the original light novel.

Btooom!: The last few episodes felt rushed. Again some in-depth interactions between characters were missing, which were present in the manga. However, they left enough cliff hangers for viewers to want to watch the second season.

Ko-inu from Code:Breaker

Code:Breaker: This anime started off well. I'm just annoyed that they deviated from the original manga storyline and made one of the characters I enjoyed into "acting evil". It lacked character development, not that there was much to begin with in the manga though. One would find the story confusing because there is no explanation of why the characters acted the way they did. I felt that the art slowly degraded.

Mikoto - I was trying a new method of shading

[K]: There are many mixed feelings about this anime. There will be dislike due to the under-developed plot and characters.  You won't understand what is going on until around the 3rd/2nd last episode, and by the last episode things escalates so quickly it leaves the viewer go "What!? It ended already?". There were quite a few flash back scenes which helped a little with character development. Nevertheless, the art and animation are amazing and very detailed. I loved the sound, they must've spent a lot of money hiring the bunch of famous seiyuus. The BGM was excellent and so were the character songs. There are many many many fan-service scenes, big boobs, short skirts, lolis, BL, and I leave it to the viewer to decide whether this is a love or hate factor. I kind of expected the ending, but then in the corner of my fangirl heart I would hope that it wouldn't become true. Unfortunately, [K] ends with melancholy. Good news is that a second season is slated for future release, so something to look forward to while reading the manga side stories.

MikotoXMunakata and ShiroXNeko (Inspired by ep 13 of [K])

Anna [K] parody of Wooser

Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!: I think this is one of the best romance comedies that I have seen. This anime takes viewers down memory-lane to their childhood, instigating nostalgia and perhaps not so pleasant memories. I think many viewers can agree to the emotions of the characters because I think that almost everyone has been through "chuu-ni byou", the phase of life where your imagination runs wild and merge your fantasy world with the real world. The OP and ED songs were also well written and performed.

Mikoto [K] parody of Wooser

Wooser no Sono (Hi)Gurashi: This is a set of random 2 minute stories, well more like parodies of other anime. It's funny only if you get the references, otherwise this will be a bunch of jumble with no storyline.

Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun: This is a light hearted shoujo comedy. I'm not one for lovey-dovey stories but this anime was bearable because of certain bishies in it, oh and I mustn't forget the chicken. The main characters' personalities really irritate me. It's set in the typical high school setting.

Nagoya from Tonari no Kaibutsu kun

Kamisama Hajimemashita: Also another shoujo anime. This has more lovey-dovey elements than Tonari, but then KamisamaH has more bishies (and better seiyuus) than Tonari.

Chibi Tomoe from Kamisama Hajimemashita

Finally, a small parody of mine based off ep 12 of [K].

Seri [K] parody of Wooser

Neko [K] parody of Wooser

Misaki [K] parody of Wooser

Munakata [K] parody of Wooser

Minami-ke Tadaima’s 1st PV: get high with new OP Shiawase High Tension

One of the hallmarks of the Minami-ke TV anime series, now in its fourth season with January 2013′s Minami-ke Tadaima, is its upbeat, infectiously catchy opening and ending themes, always performed by Rina Sato, Marina Inoue, and Minori Chihara – the voice actresses who play the comedy gag anime’s protagonists, sisters Haruka (eldest), Kana (middle child) and Chiaki (youngest) Minami.

That part hasn’t changed one bit in this fourth season, as you’ll tell in a moment by watching Minami-ke Tadaima’s first promo video trailer.

The new season’s opening theme, Shiawase High Tension (シアワセ☆ハイテンション↑↑ or Happiness High Tension) is every bit classic Minami-ke, complete with an “M-I-N-A-M-I-K-E, let’s go” chant thrown in at the most vicarious points of the song.

What has changed in the fourth season of the TV series is a new director – well, a different one has taken the helm every season.

This time around the hot seat’s fallen to Keiichiro Kawaguchi (Mayo Chiki, Zettai Karen Children, Minami-ke Omatase). The new season is also now produced by studio Feel (who also did Minami-ke Omatase), instead of Asread, the studio responsible for the first three TV anime seasons.

Minami-ke Tadaima is slated to premiere on Tokyo TV late on January 5 (technically January 6, since the broadcast is after midnight).

The show’s opening theme, Shiawase High Tension, will also released as a CD single (paired with Triple Attention, the opening theme to Minami-ke’s Web Radio series) on January 23, 2013.

Source: SGCafe

New Magi OP and ED songs by Porno Grafitti and supercell

It has been announced that Porno Grafitti and supercell are the artists for the second set of theme songs for Magi. The former will perform the opening song and the latter will be singing the ending song.

We have yet to hear the title of the song by supercell, but Porno Grafitti has already revealed that their single, Matataku hoshi no shita de, will be featured as Magi’s second opening song.

Source: SGCafe

New Figure for Lelouch Lamperouge

Hyper Hobby magazine has announced that the SH FiguArts Zero is slated for an April 2013 release in Japan.

This gallant figure of Code Geass‘ antihero stands 140 millimeters tall and comes with an alternate head. You can also remove the cape and interchange the hands. Upon release, the SH FiguArts Zero will cost 3,990 JPY (around 47 USD).

Source: SGCafe

'Kuroko no Basuke' Anime Gets 2nd Season

Shueisha's Shonen Jump Next magazine is announcing on Friday that production on a second season of the Kuroko's Basketball anime has been green-lit. The first season based on Tadatoshi Fujimaki's manga ran from April to September of this year.

Source: ANN

Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F (PS3) accessory set comes with skins for every PS3 model in existence

Also contained in this seven-item PS3 accessories set are a Dual Shock 3 controller skin, a controller stand, mascot figure, cleaning cloth, a charm strap, and a set of four (earphone) cord managers themed after Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Rin, Kagamine Len, and Megurine Luka.

The Dual Shock 3 controller skin and stand, as well as the Hatsune Miku mascot figure contained in the pack can be seen in the image above.

And here are what the cleaning cloth, charm strap, and set of four cord managers look like:

Cleaning cloth

Charm strap

Cord managers

Design A

Design B

As for the PS3 skins, if you own the latest “super slim” model, you have a choice between two designs (both are apparently included in the pack, and you’re encouraged to swap between them the same way you do Vocaloid modules in Hatsune Miku: Project Diva games):

Owners of the previous model, the “slim” PS3, will have quite a little more real estate to work with, so an image of Hatsune Miku herself will actually grace the top of your console:

As for gamers who own the gigantic first-generation model of the PS3 (like myself), well, that’seven more real estate:

If you happen to more than one of the three types of PS3s as shown above, then you’re in luck: all four of the skins above will be included in the pack. It strikes me as a little odd, since normally it’s pretty costly to buy just one PS3 skin alone, much like get a pack of four skins (at least two of which the typical PS3 user would not lead) as well as a bunch of other cool accessories.

But according to this image provided by Amazon Japan, everything does indeed come in one package.

Price for the entire pack? According to Sega, the recommended retail price is 4,179 yen including tax.

But! If you go to Amazon Japan now, you’ll see that they’re offering a discount for the set, slashing the price down to 3,409 yen for the whole thing!

On AmiAmi (who ships internationally), the same set can also be pre-ordered for 3,540 yen(not including shipping).

For that price it’s quite unbelievable that Sega is including four PS3 skins in one package, but if you try to order the accessories set there does not seem to be a field where you can indicate which PS3 skin you’d like. There’s also no other indication that each customer is entitled to only one of the PS3 skins per pack.

Regardless, if you want this, you ought to pre-order it right away. On Amazon’s site at least, they’ve said that they are anticipating high demand for the item, and thus will allow only one order per customer.

The Hatsune Miku Project Diva F PS3 accessories set comes out the same day as the game itself, on March 7, 2013.

Source: SGCafe