As usual, I should have seen it coming. Or rather, I should have heard it coming. The running footfalls approaching from behind. The intake of breadth. Perhaps even the swinging of her arm through the air. There was, of course, no missing either the loud greeting of "HELLO!" and the slap on the back.

‘You sure are late going home today!’ she chirped.

‘You too, Asa-senpai.’

‘Cooking club activities! And now I’ve got to rush back to make dinner. See ya!’

And as she turned to speed off in her characteristically energetic way…

Nature sent a blessing wind. Blue crossed stripes on white…

She spun round, an interrogating gleam in her eye. ‘You saw, didn’t you?’ she crooned.

Crap! Did I say that out loud!? ‘Huh? Of course not! Definitely not! Not even a little!!’

A sly grin crept over her face, eyebrows raised sceptically. ‘That’s a little disappointing.’

By the light of the setting sun, her smile was reflected in mine.

—

This figure can look quite different when seen from just a slightly different angle. My favourite is the one above right where the eye can travel in a straight line from top to bottom, taking in all the design points of interest from her ahoge, hair ribbon, front bow, cleavage, upraised left hand, pleated skirt and underskirt, briefcase (with adorable Ama keychain) and bent knee. Certainly seems to have been sculpted with a very specific placing in mind.

Her back is certainly a lot less interesting. I do appreciate and enjoy all the painstaking details such as the dots borderng the grey underskirt, the belt buckle at the small of her back, the buckles and clasps on her school briefcase, the painting of the brown stripe just above the hem of her white skirt, shirt sleeves and sailor collar but, as with all the points of interest mentioned above, the front view is definitely where the focus is.

Being a green-haired chara, I thought that a green background wouldn’t work at all but it doesn’t seem too bad. Also the light was a bit low. But the hair still manages to stand out from the grass behind. And I think it has a nice contrast against the uniform. Also, for some reason, the pic on the left had a brownish tinge which cleared up after using Auto Levels (right). Not a very successful shoot but a fun one nonetheless.

Still have much to learn especially from other great shoots like Dancing Queen‘s – who used a background with yellow stripes that’s just a tad more elaborate than the packaging box’s. Blue, as seen on 1999.co.jp‘s catalog pics, works great too.

My favourite is Saku‘s photo shoot. He made such marvelous use of a variety of outdoor backgrounds (sky, water, buildings and trees), careful posing as well as low f/stop to create a lovely date mood and the feel of 1/1 perspective. Great to see others enjoying this figure of my favourite SHUFFLE! chara too.

©2012 hontou ni sou omou?. All Rights Reserved.

I was arguing with Stripey that Ga-Rei Zero has been disappointing. Because Kagura was whiny – definitely not a Good Job from Minorin here. The middle part was just dumb. See also #2-5 in Baka Raptor’s post. *But* having just read tjhan raging on the manga (which I didn’t pick up because I thought the art was fugly), I’m starting to think that Ga-Rei Zero was another case of asread being able to make the most out of rather poor source material so I’ll still give it Good Job overall. But not as far as declaring it the top series for Fall 08.

However balance has been restored returned to the Force in Minami Ke Okaeri! Everyone is lovable again – at least for the first four episodes that I’ve seen. I’m wondering who should I credit/blame? Okawari shared the same director and series composer as SHUFFLE! – Hosada Naoto and Suzuki Masashi – could it be that their forte is eroge conversion? They scored a lot of points in my book by going for the non-obvious ending. But without another asread eroge conversion to test this hypothesis against, it’s hard to say this way or that. Ga-Rei Zero was a joint effort with AIC Spirits and I’m too lazy to track down whose staff did what. Anyone more industrious? Details, on ANN, are still scant about the team behind Okaeri but I hope the asread team led by director Oikawa Kei will keep up the Good Job!

Picking one favourite moment from each of the four episodes thus far:

The pen divination scene was nice especially Kana’s wonderful potential future husband. (This must be totali‘s geass at work, dammit!) Honorary mention for Haruka’s hair toss in the OP. Yes, Oneechan x Hair toss = WIN.

Devil Chiaki and Curry Fairy Song has captured the hearts of moyism, Kurogane and Suguru but forcing myself to choose one, Hosoka is Dah Curry Man. What I especially liked how it serendipitously helped Chiaki out of her pinch and that she, with real childlike innocence, actually took to this weird but essentially harmless display pretty well rather than having the more grown up kimochi warui response.

Ringo no Hako (Box of Apples) is something I could totally relate to. There was a potluck get together at my home when everyone, and I mean everyone, brought Old Chang Kee curry puffs. We had over 40 freaking curry puffs. And no beer. No beer!! Enough to make grown men weep. ;_; Anyway, loved the mystery before Uchida opened the box. And it stood up very well to rewatching. Including the aftermath for Uchida and Touma. Aaah, Uchida is so lovably stupid that I’m never tired of her. And I could just about start to believe that Mizuki Nana voices Touma from the way she skipped into her house, full of anticipation of the pudding from that store beside the station. Well, until she used the ore pronoun again. *cue Index glass shatter eyecatch*

Doggy Kana, Chiaki, Haruka and Touma FTW. Taiga has just got to see this. Of course, this leads to the Iron Claw scene that the OP has previewed already. Iron Claw is indeed the proper waza of the Oneesama! Do you know of any other users besides Tama-nee and Haruka? Honorable mention also for Kana’s ominous speculation that Haruka could like Natsuki and Chiaki’s initial OH SHI- D: reaction.

I dearly hope the goodness can be sustained right till the end of Okaeri and keenly await the return of the One, the Only, the Mako-chan.

©2012 hontou ni sou omou?. All Rights Reserved.

The Nanoha Mobile!!! Parked along the road on the right of the overhead rail when crossing from Gamers side.

I never expected to actually see it but now I have!

The truth is… I am a magical girl. There [what?] is forbidden.

I think the shorter one is cosplaying Konomi, mini-twins and all. Face-wise, she’s actually quite cute.

I went back to the Rei and Asuka ramen place and sat right at the end of the counter so I could get my photos. Tried the noodles kata this time and I think I prefer them more cooked. But am glad I tried.

A bit of a commotion in front of the JR station. A girl taking off her shirt top and photography is not only allowed but encouraged!? An idol launch I think, she was flogging tickets to her opening event? I’m not entirely sure what was going on but I have to admire her guts and determination.

Donation by persuasion. / Neal’s Yard normally sells just cheese in the UK!

Consolidated loot for 16 Aug:

Lucky Star OP for JPY 1,050 (vs RRP JPY 1,200), Black Lagoon OST for JPY 2,814 (vs RRP JPY 3,000), Yuki Nagato Character Songs for JPY 1,155 (vs RRP JPY 1,200) and Ryoko Asakura Character Songs for JPY 945 (vs RRP 1,200). Less discounting at the Liberty Akiba No.4 shop than from the Nakano Mandarake UFO Centre but can’t complain because they did have stock.

Nanoha first season OST for JPY 2,289 (vs RRP JPY 2,625) from Liberty Akiba No.5 shop. [Add: Which were also selling used boxsets for SHUFFLE! (JPY 47,040), Black Lagoon (JPY 33,390) and Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage (JPY 26,040) - added together, cost almost as much as my accommodation bill and air fare put together!!]

Nemu drama CD for Stripey. The fifth and final track is entitled: ‘Nii-san mo watashi mo – epilogue’

And the charm from Washinomiya for JPY 1,000.

The story here is the stuff that I didn’t buy. There was one figurine that was going for a JPY 3,000 mark up but I realized that the person was actually breaking even as she cost him that same amount to rent the space where he was displaying his swag for sale! I was going to buy her but I had run out of cash and the shop’s credit card validation line was maxed out and down for the day (just 45 mins to go to closing time at 8pm!). orz But it has given me pause to think about whether to go back tomorrow to grab her… Talk about charging into a fight without the requisite ammo!

And yes, we were talking about the figurine like a person rather than an object: ‘Ano ko yoroshi desuka?’ I was asked if her condition was satisfactory upon inspecting after she (still in her box, of course) was taken out of the locked glass display case. ‘Hitori (rather than hitotsu) dake desu.’ was the reply when I asked if there was any more stock.

©2012 hontou ni sou omou?. All Rights Reserved.