To be brutally honest, I bought this issue mainly for the Konata pencilboard. But that’s ok as I really like this shitajiki. As Shingo pointed out in his review, none of the posters had the ‘OMG must buy and hang’ always on my mind level of Megami-type evilness but the Lucky Star content was enough to keep me satisfied.

Voice of Kagamin. Gosh, Emiri Katou is cute. Five stars out of five for the good job that she’s been doing thusfar in the series. A perfect foil to Aya Hirano’s Konata and stealing the show on a more than occasional basis. Definitely wil be on the look out for more of her roles.

I am seriously underwhelmed by KONAMI’s Yuki. She’s too lanky and her facial sculpt seems off especially when compared to Max Factory Yuki.

Another Yuki figure which has caught my attention is Nendoriod Yuki Nagato; even though I intend to keep my collection at 1/8 size, NYN is just so cute. The last photo of her dissembled parts was a tad traumatic though. Stripey thinks that one of the big four should produce a figurine of ‘It’s just a flesh wound’ Nagato when she got errrm penetrated by Asakura’s missiles. Rather disturbingly I agree. -_-;;

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

Stripey and I marched into our usual loot supply depot, intent on sharing the purchase of Megami 84 – I wanted to the StrikerS comics cover and he would keep the rest of the magazine. Lo and behold, our dealer approached me with a twinkle in her eye. ‘This issue of Comp H’s you sure like one!’ I thought I could resist as I already had some psychological preparation from Shingo’s review. But it wasn’t one of the posters that caused me to swallow hook, line and sinker and open my wallet to purchase the issue. It was:

YUKI-CHAN FIGHTO! Great goddess Nagato in beach volleyball attire and sunglasses. And there’s a phonecard version of this lovely picture as a prize in one of those draws that Konata and Kagami chat about but I’m not able to participate. T_T

Lucky Star OP dance steps sequence and instructions.

Aya Hirano eats the choco corone. Besides Lucky Star mangaka Kagami Yoshimizu’s drawing of her on the back of the pencil board, there’s also a cute 4koma where Konata and Hiyori run into Aya Hirano eating (and failing at eating) a choco corone.

Mugi and Kayo. Would have liked a Mugi x Nono poster but this was still pretty sweet. There’s some hand-holding between the two old friends but there’s no indication yet that there’s any trace of yuri between them.

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

Thanks to Shingo, I rushed to purchase a copy of Comptiq Heroines Vol.3 (2007 Spring). Amazon.co.jp then just had to flag Megami DELUXE Vol. 8 (other people who bought X also bought Y…) with Asa-senpai in all her waitressing glory on the cover. As moyism sayeth unto us: Evil I tells you.

And this, ladies, traps and gentlemen, is the reason I spent more on postage than the magazines themselves. orz Back home, at Kinokuniya, the evil things tend to sell out faster than a taikayi stall under attack by an army of hungry Ayus so I wasn’t prepared to take any chances.

Other than the fact that it’s Asa, it’s Asa x Kaede yuri! Much better than the half-nekkid Sia x Nerine symmetrical docking on page 22 of the Megami DELUXE IMHO. Besides the ero-ero, there’s a sense of mystery about the picture that really intrigues me. Kaede’s gone psycho on Asa before (once in Ep 19 and also in Memories 12) but she looks almost coyly affectionate, reaching out while leaning in for a cuddle. If this were tagged under the late lamented danbooru rules, ‘aftersex’ would probably one of those applied. And Asa-senpai looks like she’s in the equivalent of the ‘male’ position with Kaede’s head resting on her arm. I thought her expression seemed vacant when I saw Shingo’s photo as well as a scan. But having seen the real thing on glossy paper up close, it looks more like quiet compassion. The way I’m currently reading is its the aftermath of threesome with Rin Tsuchimi the lucky bastard (who is mercifully absent from the picture) in the context of a harem ending and the two erstwhile rivals are indulging in some skinship and pillowtalk. Not yuri then. Bah.

As for the Megami DELUXE, it collects together most of the posters over the past year, either as one or two page formats (no fold-outs). My favourites include the Haruhi girls doing bunnygirl (p.8), catgirl (pp.10-11) and gothloli (pp.12-13) cosplay, hot n’ bothered Asa-senpai in those leaf-side-tie panties (p.23), black bikini Eri in her wicker throne (p.42), Shana as a miko (p.71) and StrikerS Nanoha x Fate back-to-back, butt rubba and blushing 4tw (p.76). The surprise was this 104 x 38 cm poster:

Haruhi is on the reverse side but, forgive me O-Haruhi-sama, Yuki wins pantshands-down. I’m particularly weak to this swimsuit design and Yuki just has to take it over the top with her two finger-adjustments and the surprising presence of the expression of surprise which charms-up her moé by 100 points. Am even thinking of framing it up but there’s no way I’m taking this to the framing shop. To repeat the wise words of our avatar of the goddess of spending: ‘Evil I tells you.’ OTL

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