Tsuruya-san Figma

Nyoro~n! Yesterday Tsuruya-san came for a permanent visit to my collection. She's a minor, but still popular character in the The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. I'm pretty sure almost everyone knows that already but there are some who might not. Well, I tried to shoot her yesterday at the nearest park but I was rushed for time so I didn't get very many pictures. Something about Halloween drawing near and the leaves turning color made me want to take the pictures outside, but I really couldn't get what I was going for. My neighborhood isn't very otaku friendly, or friendly in general really. So nothing spectacular in the way of creativity here, sorry. I might try to do something interesting for a Halloween post though.




Her hair is unique to all the other figma, because it's actually jointed in the back, allowing her (heavy I might add) hair to lift up so you can reach the hole in her back with the stand. There's also a hair piece like Konata's that can be taken out to reveal a hole for the stand to go in her hair. I actually prefer the hair one myself, because of how heavy her hair is, but it's nice to have options. I wish Konata would have been like that also. It looks like Max Factory are getting the hang of making figmas now, she's very well made. Her hands are easier to take out and put in, and since the joints in them are made of ABS as opposed to previous figma, I'm not so worried about snapping them. We'll see in time if it really does help though.





She's got two faces and 10 hands, the normal Haruhi figma hands and two V sign hands, which you see plenty of here. I especially like her fang. I do wish she played a bigger role in the anime, but I guess there's nothing to be done. I also wish they would have figmatised her in maid cosplay form instead of the same old school uniform. I love these figures but that uniform is starting to dominate my collection. Ah yes, and she comes with an even more minor character's head, Emiri Kimidori. I didn't go out and buy a second of any of the Haruhi figmas to compensate for her head either, money is a bit tight these days and I can't justify buying two of anything but limited and hard to acquire figures. So I just used Mikuru's body here.




Click on the pictures to make them full size, and check out my flickr for more!

Will be posting again soon...

Sorry for the delay in blogging... Crazy work schedule lately is making me insane... And sorry if these pictures are completely random, just thought you might enjoy some humor a bit.:P
Will post a better post hopefully tomorrow or Wednesday when I have more time... for now enjoy the randomness of pictures here.:D
Len-Vesper, Miku pics are for you btw!:D Thought you might enjoy them! That is if you haven't already gotten them!:P
Alright, until laters everyone!:D...

Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae

I've decided I need to stop procrastinating and get back to blogging. I've been trying to figure out just what it is that I want to focus on, and for the most part it's the figures I buy, but I can't do figure reviews and posts all the time, and I don't want everyone thinking I've given up blogging altogether. So I'm going to talk about anime I watch and enjoy between figure reviews.



Anyways today I'll be posting about Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae. It's the third season of the Jigoku Shoujo franchise. It basically revolves around a girl name Enma Ai. I don't like to spoil things if people haven't seen them, so I'll do my best to explain without too much detail. In these series, there is a website that people have been accessing called Jigoku Tsushin or Hell Correspondence, where if you type someone's name that you carry a deep grudge against on the website at the strike of midnight the hell girl will come and take them away to hell. Basically Ai ferries people to hell after "killing" them various ways that usually suit them for the sins they've committed. To anyone watching any of the seasons for the first time you might be put off by the slow pace and repeated scenes like the process in where she explains the contract people go into when they decide they want to send someone to hell. But, about half way through the first and the second season the pace picks up and things get really good, or at least I think they did. She hands people a straw doll, taken form by her servants, who also have unique stories of their own. Throughout the first two seasons you get to witness Ai's story, how she became the hell girl and the stories of how her servants came to be. At first it might seem that it's just single self-contained episodes but things start to piece together slowly. Reoccurring characters and storylines that string together make the ride more interesting, and both the first and second season I believe finished quite nicely. This isn't an anime for everyone, and some might be quite creeped out by it. It's definitely a departure from moe, and if you're a fan of horror or mystery it might catch your interest.



Apparently there is a live-action series of this anime, which I've considered buying after seeing a bit on youtube. Has anyone here watched it? Is it worth getting for a fan like me? Here's a little sample of it in case you haven't heard of it.



And here's the OP from Mitsuganae, the current on-going third season. Song is Tsukihana (月華) by Nana Kitade.





For the first 3 weeks that this anime was out, absolutely no one subbed it. I was disappointed, in fact I was pretty frustrated about it. I looked every day for that entire 3 weeks hoping I'd find a fansub somewhere. Eventually I gave in and watched the raw. Just recently someone finally picked it up, thanks Aero Subs! Now I'm satisfied because this was one of the most anticipated shows of this season to me. Enma Ai figure WANT. Now if they'd stop making fake nendoroids and make a decent figure of Ai in her kimono I'd be even more happy. Real nendo/pvc want. The Alter version I am still considering buying, but I'm still holding out and crossing my fingers for a kimono version. Well I just wanted to share a little bit about this, and just in case you didn't know it was finally being subbed it is!



Pictures taken from: TheAnimeGallery, Funimation's official Hell Girl site, and Gelbooru

Flickr Update

I know I haven't been that active lately but everything has been going pretty slow lately. I got a couple more manga but other than that not much is going on. So today I updated my Flickr. Previously I only had one folder with some pictures in it I liked. Now I finally got around to uploading my photos that I've taken of my figures. You'll see almost all of the pictures from my previous posts along with a bunch of pictures that I didn't use for my reviews. I've been watching a ton of anime, from this season and also catching up on older ones that I never got around to seeing. I guess I've been procrastinating a lot lately. I've had a few posts written up and then decided not to post them. Anyways, I have 3 more figures coming this month that I'll be reviewing when they do get here, so look forward to that. Halloween is drawing close and it's my favorite holiday here even though it's nothing like it used to be, so I'll probably do something special when it draws closer. From this point on I'll be using Flickr to upload my photos for reviews, so some of the pictures I don't put in my review will be available for viewing there. It's getting late and I need sleep, so I'll finish uploading the pictures tomorrow, but for now you can see what I got up there. Oh yeah, if you have a Flickr account go ahead and add me and I'll add you back.

Here's the link to my Flickr.

Tabitha 1/8 PVC by Kotobukiya

The other day I got my Tabitha 1/8 PVC by Kotobukiya, from Hobby Link Japan. This makes my second order with them. The box was labeled fragile, handle with care, but it looked like customs had their way with it, with a nice little hole punched in the handle with care part. Even so, she remained encased in her box, in perfect condition. In case there's anyone who doesn't know, Tabitha is from Zero No Tsukaima or "The Familiar of Zero". She's a quiet but powerful mage, and probably my favorite character in the series. Click on the pictures for higher resolution, and I hope you enjoy the review!






When I was moving her around for poses I kept noticing that her skirt seemed loose. I kept thinking that it seemed as if it could be taken off. I didn't recall ever seeing a review of her with her skirt removed but something told me it was. So I figured out her body is separable and it does indeed come off. A pleasant unexpected surprise!




The cape adds a lot of character to her, and I love the base as well. She's on pegs and screwed into the base which I like because I can be sure she's secure. The extra piece for the base that holds the cape up at least matches the base, and I didn't find it that annoying, even if I'd rather it didn't need it. At least the cape has some support. Her paint job is great and smooth, didn't notice anything to be unhappy about really. Yes, her glasses don't have lenses and only have half a frame, I assume the lenses aren't there because it'd pose problems for picture taking and make her eyes look odd? She does seem to have this style of glasses in the anime though, so it doesn't bother me. I like her pose as she seems to be in mid casting of a spell. As a Zero No Tsukaima, and more so, Tabitha fan, this figure satisfies me well.