you really think so?
I haven’t been following Hayate no Gotoku for a while already. But Mentar’s praise and Stripey’s exuburent squeals piqued my curiosity and I can easily see her charm. Despite the fact that she is the younger sister of the crazy teacher chara, she’s no imouto-chara - her role as school council president and caring friend to Hayate makes her oh-so-oneechan. :D Plus she’s voiced by Shizuka Itou. :D
Just slightly late to the party but slightly late was still almost too late when it comes to pre-orders, or so I thought, so I resorted to Ebay to get my hands on Max Factory’s Ryoko Asakura - also via a Japanese reseller but, thankfully, without having to pay any significant premium over the release price. My guess is that the seller’s margin came from the 20-30% discount that Japanese online shops often give so, potentially, this was a pareto-efficient outcome where everyone got a good deal out of this situation.
The delay (and non-pre-order during the pre-order window) had a lot to do with my belated conversion to Ryokoism. Though, of course, I stress that my allegiance is still first and foremost to St Nagatochi. And you can see both of them together towards the end of this fantastic digirama [add: and review post]. Here’s the link to a Yuki gallery too. This type of figurine photography is simply the stuff of legend!
Continue reading ‘The Striking Pose of MaxFac Ryoko Asakura’
tjhan noted that Alter’s August 2006 re-release of their Jo and Meg figures (RIUVA review) would mean that their ‘monetary value and rarity will… go down’ - well, he needn’t have worried too much. Almost 14 months later, Jo sells on ebay (via a Japanese reseller) for a whopping 80% premium over her release price (not inclusive of P&H). orz
This particular ball got rolling when I asked Stripey to pre-order Alter’s January 2008 release of El Cazador’s Nadie on my behalf. The Shima-Shima-Tailed One casually noted that Nadie would go well with Alter Revy whom I had acquired at the Akiba Kotobukiya shop. ‘Pity you didn’t get Alter Jo earlier,’ he said, ‘would had made a great team in a “girls with handguns” theme.’ And I knew it was The Truth. And so, off this Zaku went on another one of his mad online shopping rampages. Ah revenge (since Stripey blames me getting him started on figurine collecting) is indeed a dish best served cold. orz
Continue reading ‘Late to the Party with Burst Angel’s Jo by Alter’
Two orders from RightStuf arrived today. Over the three weeks it took them to make their trans-Atlantic journey, I’ve been brooding about the relative success of US-based anime distributors’ strategies vis-a-vis my wallet and how we, fansub-downloading anime fans, can better market ourselves.
The first shipment was a pre-order, made during the previous RightStuf Bandai sale, for the Haruhi Limited Edition boxsets 2-4 and joins the first Haruhi LE boxset in my anime DVD collection now. The second batch was a panicked order, a few weeks later as GENEON USA announced that they were closing down, for the first season of Black Lagoon, the Kannazuki no Miko and Kamichu! boxsets (with ADV’s 801 TTS Airbats and Bandai’s Onegai Twins also in this shipment).
Continue reading ‘Can the Church of Moyism bring salvation to animebloggers?’
Takaaki and School President Sasara attempt to cope with Maryan’s extensive interference in the organization of the school festival. Sasara *surprise surprise* likes Takaaki and tries to get closer to him but is discouraged by the cameos put on by the various girls in his harem. But all’s well that ends well, they do the folk dance at the bonfire (off camera) and some semblance of normality is reasserted for the actual festival.