Ey, ey oh! whats up people

Here we have a new Preorder Post with a few new purchases and many other alluring figures where a decision hasn’t been made so far.

There also was a delay for the Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA – Prisma Illya figure from Phat Company, that should actually be released in this month, unfortunately she was pushed back to April, which already is a quite busy month. I will also receive the Azusa doll in April, I’m still searching for a fancy outfit for her, even though the stuff she comes with is already pretty nice.

 New Preorders

I restricted myself a little bit, at least for once and also tried to prevent myself from loading too many figure preorders in the first half of the year, since I know what great things can be expected to be released in this year. Hmm yes these three are mainly sexy choices.

Katsuragi – Senran Kagura – Phat Company

After all the good impressions of Phat Company’s Hibari, this was a nearly no brainer for me. Even though the still running anime didn’t met my expectations, I still think that the girls are cute and have an appealing characterdesign. Katsuragi is quite creepy as a person you wouldn’t see that from her look, but anyway as energetic blonde with a bright smile and big boobs I want her in my collection. Next to Hibari’s design I like Katsuragi the most with her blue skirt and the  killer boots. As well as Hibari, Katsuragi is also scaled 1/8 the release is sheduled for August 2013

Sayaka Yumi – Shin Mazinger Zero – Ami Ami Zero

This figure has been a bit longer on my radar, I was captivated by the design and the lovely curves of Yumi. Her suit and the base have a sci fi fetish look, the base looks like a sex toy, but from what I know about Mazinger Zero it is none, it’ more something like a command center.

I was a big fan of Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-Hen which aired a few years ago. This figure of Yumi isn’t based on it, at least not in that outfit. I like the skin revealing outfit and her face, Yumi’s looks so damn great, well I also like that she features the style of old school manga very well. The figure is scaled 1/7 and has a length of 260 mm, in the final product, she will have alternative face parts. The figure is very detailed and for some reason her discounted price is relatively high with 9500 Yen, oh well I had ordered her for a higher price, thanks exchange rate.

Ami Ami Zero is popular for delaying their products, hopefully this figure will be more or less on time, she is sheduled for June 2013 *fingers crossed* kyahh I’m really excited about her.

Irma – Queen’s Blade – MegaHouse

 Hmm why the heck, have I ordered Irma actually!? You can only guess why Megahouse made a figure from the original Queen’s Blade at this this time, it seems that Tier from Tentacle Armada wasn’t the only one who wished for a figure of Irma, since the feedback was quite positive.

Wll, there are certain things that make this figure that appealing, Irma has an attractive petite bodyframe, still in a trained way, but she’s more slender than most Queen’s Blade characters. She also has this super dynamic pose and also a lot of details are on her body and outfit.

I really like her look, the body with the perky breasts, a nice back and a bubble butt compared to her body. Her dark skincolor makes a great contrast to her hair, actually. I would have sightly preferred a different face expression, but oh well the overall appearance is very good.

Irma is scaled 1/8, castoffable and her release date is sheduled for July 2013.

Maybe Baby List

Touko Aozaki – Mahoutsukai no Yoru – ALTER

release – July

Sometimes you will get overly excited about a certain figure that you’ve seen in an early production status, only to feel dissapointed when it can finally be preorderd. I think her dress turned out beautiful, the green is gorgeous, but whats with the face, it looks so plain, pale and undetailed, at least in these first promotion shots. I don’t feel like throwing my money torwards her in advance anymore. Maybe I will be convinced another time,but not for once.

Yuki – Maid Yome – Orchid Seed

release – September

This ero figure is very popular at the moment and Im starting to fear that she will be sold out before release, which happens not that often with figures from Orchid Seed. Yuki is a bold figue without pantsu and have you noticed where her fingers are? actually I didn’t pay attention to it at first. Hehe, it should be fine when displayed normally. The figure looks very pretty, I like the flushred cheeks and her cute moaning mouth. You can display her with the “wet t-shirt” look with her boobs exposed or just admire her plump butt. So far I could resist preordering her, since I’ve planned to get her at a later date, but Im not sure how long this composure will last.

Nymph – Sora no Otoshimono forte – PLUM

release – April

Nymph seems to be the most popular Sora no Otoshimono character at least on the manufacurers side, Kotobukiya already made a second one as well as PLUM, which can be seen here. They’ve put her into a innocent white school swimsuit, that compliments her butt nicely. The 1/6 scaled figure of Nymph has a cute energetic pose, her face doesn’t look like exactly like in the illustration she is based on, beside that it appears like an adorable figure. In worst case just display her from the enchanting backside ;p As I was checking on her at Ami Ami, the site said it’s sold out. I’ve waited too long! but maybe I’m able to get her on or after the release date.

Hibiki Ganaha – THE IDOLM@STER – Kotobukiya

release – April

Kotobukiya is pretty serious in adapting the Idolm@ster characters in the Angelic Island versions, where they put the girls in beach fashion. I already found the majority of them pretty adorable like Haruka, Makoto and Yayoi even though I haven’t bouth them in the end. Hibiki is no exception in terms of cute bishoujo appeal, her face is very pretty and her fang adds a little more playfulness. I’m also a fan of dark hair and the kind of earings, Hibiki is using, lovely ^^.

Rumi Sumida – Gutto-kuru Figure Collection Sweet 02 – CM’s Corporation

release – May

That face expression is priceless and let’s this figure appear super adorable, I really like the lovely expression and interesting pose of this figure. Also her school uniform is appealing, I like the colors, the stockings and her sneakers. The only problem is that I have no experience and no trust in CM. I have serious doubts, that they will deliver a quality that satisfies me and with that in mind she is a few thousand Yen too expensive, still I would like to have her in my collection, since she looks so appealing in these promotional pictures. On second look her butt could be a bit bigger, but that is my least important concern and something I could live with.

Preorder Roadmap (updated)

Idolm@ster is a 25 episode long anime which aired from July to December 2011 it was produced by A1 Pictures and Aniplex. Idolm@ster is an anime adaption of the popular XBox console game with the same title, I never played any of these games, but I was interested in watching the show.

At first I wasn’t sure if a 25 episode long anime show could do justice to the background and personality of each of the 12 (13) idols. But I must say that it worked surprisingly well.

The anime starts with short introductions of all the aspiring Idols of the Idol agency 765pro through the lens of a cameraman. 765pro appears like a small, family like agency, where the idols and the staff are hanging out and having fun, unfortunately they don’t have many appointments, so they read magazines and do other nonsense. Later the cameraman turned out as the new producer, called Producer-san who should help the Idols to become more successive.

The Idols

An interesting aspect of Idolm@ster are of course the Idols, all the girls are quite unique characters with different personality’s, while sharing the same dream of becoming an idol, everyone of them has different motivations and reasons to take a step into the Idolbusiness.

Despite the number of characters, every girl has a good recognition value. The Idols are Haruka, Ami, Mami, Hibiki, Yukiho, Miki, Makoto, Chihaya, Iori, Azusa, Takane, Yayoi and Ritsuko, who is mainly working as producer at 765pro and only acts as Idol in case 765pro is short on people.
All of the characters can be considered as main characters, but there are certain persons who get more screentime than others. Haruka for example is very present during the whole show.

My favorite characters were Haruka, Iori, Makoto and Azusa. Haruka the main heroine who is also the heart of the 765pro , I liked her since the first second she appeared on Idolm@ster.

Iori, well I have a weak spot for petite anime girls who are voiced by Kagumiya Rie. With her rich girl tsundere attitude Iori is rather enchanting and her even brown hair is just beautiful.

Makoto is cool and athletic, I was able to see her feminine side despite her more tomboyish style.
With her 21 years Azusa is one of the older Idols at 765pro, she has a very pretty appearance, is extremely kind and has a bad sense of direction, she is somehow the motherly and caring type.
All the characters are quite likeable, even though I had a few problems with Miki in the last part.

2DT had more refined descriptions about all the Idolm@ster girls in part 1 – 2 – 3 on his blog.

I also would like to know which were your favorite Idols, so feel free to tell me at the end of this post.

Story

At first Producer-san seems to be quite overextended with taking care of these lively and happy characters and the jobs he gets for them are quite lame, but soon things slowly start to improve, but as they start being successive, a villain appears, the boss of the Idol agency 961 Production, who sabotages the appointments of 765pro by using his influence in the industry.

The main story follows 765pro and the Idols on their journey to success. Most episodes consists of episodic stories which concentrate on a certain Idol dealing with her weaknesses or problems and mentally growing during this process, these episodes still feel connected with the main story because the main goal of becoming an Idol is always present. The relationships between the group of Idols are very well fleshed out what is also noticeable in the character centered episodes, there are always Idols who are supporting the main character of the episode when it is needed.

The anime consists of character centered episodes and episodes where everybody at 765pro plays a role. Idolm@ster feels diversified in regard of storytelling, the personality of each girl is very well reflected in the character centered episodes as well as in the group centered episodes. Even when you don’t like a certain girl you can at least see where they are coming from.

Idolm@ster is mainly light hearted, slice of life comedy, but also makes good use of drama elements. At the beginning of this anime there is a lot of hilarious slapstick comedy, but as the story progresses there is less comedy, especially near the end, the anime gets a darker tone.

I guess I already told you in an older post that Im no fan of the real Idol industry, while I like cute girls and a little Jpop, I don’t like how some of these girls are or have to sell themselves.

The presentation of the Idol industry in Idolm@ster is a bit romantically idealized, but the show at least scratches a bit on the downsides of it, like being exploited in questionable entertainment shows or receiving bad gossip from the media. In episode 4 a few of the Idols appear in a bad game show where the cameramen were trying to peek under the skirts of girls all the time.

technical aspects

The visual presentation of Idolm@ster is very appealing and shows a high quality, the backgrounds are very detailed and the animations, even during the concerts seem very fluid and are very well choreographed. In some episodes they made use of nice lights and shadows which gives certain scenes a cineastic look. Overall the quality leaves a very positive impression.

The idols are voiced by very good voice actors since a few of the idols are younger and there’s quite a number of high-pitched voices. There is a lot of Jpop music inside this anime and the always different ending songs are either performed by one or more of the 765pro Idols. I only liked a few of these ending songs, for me they don’t had the same impact as the opening songs.

“READY!!”

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r53LlIRGG7E&feature=related

“CHANGE!!!!”

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIG4mhLcplo

 Final Words

Idolm@ster delivers a lot of entertainment over the entire 25 episodes. The anime combines cute girls, slice of life, comedy and character development placed inside an Idol business setting. What first appeared as a mere comedy show about a bunch of weird Idols, quickly developed into a very likeable show about all the 13 aspiring Idols of 765pro aiming for their success in the industry.

The miscellaneous kinds of episodes range from lighthearted, slightly cheesy stories to very well executed drama. The very nice character interactions overshadow the one or another not so good part in the storytelling. The character centered episodes are very well interwoven with the main story and every Idol is equipped with an proper amount of screentime. Only Takane seems to received the short end of the stick, she was a rather undeveloped character during the show.

For me Idolm@ster was a highly enjoyable show which I liked to follow in the second half of 2011,
I had a lot of fun with all these likeable characters and the technical presentation of this anime.
My favorite episodes were 7, 12, 15, 17, 18, 20 was very good, 24 and 25.

dont forget the vote at the end of this post

Blood C

This 12 episode long show was made by studio Clamp and Production I.G, the story centers around Saya, a beautiful tall grown girl with braided black hair and glasses, it seems like I created the characterdesign haha anyway, she’s really pretty. She is a happy and kind girl, who is acting slightly worldly innocent in a few situations. Saya can be quite clumsy and is easily distracted by her surrounding. Together with her father she lives at the Ukishima Shrine in a very rural village.

She lives her daily live as a teenager, but at night she has to take over the task of her passed away mother, she slays terrible and ugly monsters, who eat the people of the rural village since ancient times. The only weapon against them is a sacred katana which only Saya can use.
She manges to kill the monsters, but she never stays unharmed, which is quite painful to watch, poor Saya :(. The fact that Saya is a young girl and no tough superhero, can be seen after the fights. Aside from her wounds, she always appears emotional disturbed and her body is shivering.
The fights are full of action and look epic, even though its very bloody and hard, in general I try to to avoid such scary shows, but somehow I like that part of Blood C. Albeit the show isn’t scary all the time, there are also calm and funny moments, at least before sunset *Buuuh*.

Blood C features an appealing animation art and one of the nicest looking school uniform designs I’ve seen so far. One of the strange things of this show is that Saya always fights in her school uniform and damages them regularly, I learned that these uniforms are expensive in japan, why doesn’t she use a battle suit. It’s also strange that Saya doesn’t own a bike, when she always arrives late at school and has to walk a lot around the village to search for scary monsters.

Ikoku Meiro no Croisée

My first reaction after a few seconds of watching was “No! not again an old boring europe setting I don’t want this anymore”. Btw have you enjoyed the story of Gosick, aside from the cute Victorica? I didn’t liked most of the second half, too dark and too fragmented storytelling .

Back to Croisée, before I completely lost my interest I heard the light steps from a cute little angel called Yune dressed in a vivid kimono, she looked so enchanting, I said to myself in case I also like her voice Im completely done for haha. Yune is a 13 year old girl who comes from japan and for what reason ever Yune is accompanying an old bearded man called Oscar who took her along to Paris. Both start to live at the house of Oscars nephew Claude who owns a small iron workshop in the shopping district. At first Claude isn’t very amused about the new guest and the idea of his uncle to let Yune live with them. After a few obstacles which appear caused by cultural differences, Claude gets used to Yune and Yune gets slowly used to Claude and the new environment.
To spice things up there is a spoiled and rich girl called Alice whose family owns the shopping district. She is interested in japanese things and a quite spoiled brat, but means no harm.

Ikoku Meiro no Croisée is a slice of life anime without detectives or stuff like that, it somehow has a cozy atmosphere like Aria the animation, the whole shopping district where this story takes place appears very lively, together with the music and the architecture, this show manages to create the charm of an old european city. The daily life of the three is quite enjoyable and also the lighthearted comedy is nice. I can somehow identify myself with Claude and his attitude.

Nekogami Yaoyorozu

This show was made my studio AIC+ and centers around the cat godess Mayu who was banned from the realm of gods after playing several dumb tricks, now she she lives on earth at the house of Koyama Yuzu, who is running an antique shop. In the neighbood live more earthbound gods. In the anime we follow the mainly funny and happy daily life adventures of Mayu and her friends.

This shows feels a little bit inspired by Touhou, well I don’t know enough about Touhou to cover my comparision, but the characterdesign shows some similarities and gives off a certain feel.
This anime is good to start your day, the lighthearted slice of life mixed with comedy plot is easy to digest and the opening song is really nice and catching, when you watch this show at night you’ll probably fall asleep XD. Necogami is no great show, but the likeable characters with their interesting characterdesigns and the interactions between them make it at least entertaining.

Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel: Kyun Kyun Tokimeki Paradise!!

This 12 episode long show was made by the studio J.C. Staff. It is originally based on a pachinko slot machine, a few years ago there was a two episode long Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel OVA where Haruka Minazuki and Aoi Kannazuki are two students at St. Cherine academy, both are the magical girl duo Twin Angel who fight against thieves and weird supervillains. Of course this concept isn’t new, but I really like this new adaption of Twin Angel, it doesn’t take itself too serious and shows a few parody elements here and there. I like the oldschool anime flair of Twin Angel, it somehow reminds me of shows like Samurai Pizza Cats and Sailor Moon.

This show features three of my favorite voice actressess. The main characters Kurumi, Aoi and Haruka are voiced by – Kugimiya, Rie, Noto, Mamiko(Sawako) and Tamura, Yukari(Nanoha) could I ask for more ^-^. Of course I could ask for more, but this shows is nice. It’s funny, nearly 1/4 as weird as Tantei Opera Milky Holmes and has cute characters in cute outfits and the action is nice.

The iDOLM@STER

This show was made by studio A1 – Pictures and shows us the daily adventures of the staff of 765 pro a idol managing agency and their 13 aspiring idols. A new producer has arrived and as to be expected at first everything at 765 pro is chaotic and somehow messed up, but that can be quite entertaining. The main selling point of this show is the variety of female characters, a nice mixture of cute and funny individuals. So far this anime takes its time to portray each of the 13 girls in a sufficient way and screentime. Its fun to watch and the animation art looks very good.

I somehow dislike the idol industry, the girls somehow sell themselves and always have to pretend that their are cheerful and friendly anyway this anime is brave enough to show the downsides of being an idol at some parts, like staging at lame locations and appearing on stupid TV shows.

Mawaru Penguindrum

This 24 episode long show was made by studio Brains Base and the story centers around the siblings Kanba, Shouma and Himari who are living together in the house of their passed away parents. Himari has something like a tumor and the doctor gives her only a few more weeks to live. After a trip to the aquarium Himari collapses and dies in the hospital, but then a miracle happens and Himari is brought back to life. Later we learn that the penguin hat they’ve bought at the souvenir shop of the aquarium is a extraterstial liveform who keeps Himari healthy and alife.
When the penguin hat takes over Himari’s body she transforms into an arrogant and sassy penguin queen and if Kanba and shouma won’t obey her, their sister Himari will die for real.

This sounds all quite sad but Mawaru Penguindrum is no sad show, I can hardly put it into words, but this anime is totally funny and the way of storytelling is different, very creative and mainly unpredictable. The characters and the setting are very interesting and additional to that the animation style looks simply awesome with the very colorful and playful design. You could also say that this show has a real psychadelic look with all the signs and colorful things everywhere. This show is probably my favorite in this season, its so creative and the plot appears very promising.

Usagi Drop

This 11 episode long show was also made by studio Production I.G, the story centers about Daikichi, a 30 year old guy whose life will totally change soon. At the funeral of his grandfather Daikichi learns, that his grandfather had an illegimate child, called Rin. Her father passed away and also her mother left her behind. Now Rin has nobody who could  take care of her, even nobody of the relatives wants to give her a home. They even consider to give her into public care, Daikichi doesn’t want that to happen and so he takes her into his home. Daikichi has to reconcile Rins needs, his work and his life, but he manages to be a good spare dad for his new family member.

Usagi Drop spares us with the random loli, oni-chan crap, Daikichi really wants to give Rin a good home and take good care of her. Rin behaves like a real child, when you have smaller children in your family, you’ll probably notice that Rin is a realistic character as well. I like the attempt of this show to act in a more mature way than most other animes these days. The relationship between Rin and Daikichi is very nice and heartwarming, I really their daily life adventures.

Also the opening song “Sweet Drops” from Puffy is done very well, a beautiful song.

Rou Kyuu Bu!

This 12 episode long show was made by studio Magic Capsule and Studio Blanc. The story centers around the the highschoolboy Subaru, his aunt is the advisor of the female elementary school basketball team and somehow forces Subaru to be their trainer for at least 3 days.
The members of the team are happy about having a trainer, because they want to teach the male basketball team a lesson. As I’ve read the description of the anime I thought that Subaru would be a girl, but I was wrong and so the show takes a quite different direction than I’ve expected.

A few of Subaru’s friends and other people make fun of Subaru because of his job as elementary school basketball trainer, they call him prince lolicon and whatnot. At first Subaru isn’t that enthuisastic about being the trainer of a female elementary school basketball team, but after he learns about the circumstances of the team and why they want to win, he gives his best to help the girls with improving their skills. After some time Subaru shows traces of affection torwards Tomoka, the ace of his team. Im curious about how the story will go on.

I dislike seductive acting lolis in anime, but in case of Rou Kyuu Bu! they are mainly acting in a cute way. I try to ignore them the inappropriate scenes. I keep watching this show because  the girls are cute, I like basketball, the show has funny moments, the characters are interesting.

Mayo Chiki!

This show was made by studio Feel and TBS, the main characters are Kinjirou who always gets nosebleed when a girl touches him and Subaru who works as a butler. Subara is only allowed to keep working as a butler at the Suzutsuki household when nobody at school notices that Subaru is actually a girl. One day Kinjirou accidently discovers that Subaru is a girl and the chaos begins.

Suzutsuki Kanade the boss and friend of Subaru forces Kinjirou to keep silent about this incident, but in return she wants to help him with overcoming his so called gynophobia. Well in fact she is only teasing him for her personal joy in the first place. As the sadistic girl she is Kanade puts Subara and Kinjirou into embarrasing and risky situations who could even expose Subaru’s true gender, but thanks to that both become very close soon. The show has a harem flair to it and a few girls try to approach Kinjirou in a more or less violent fashion during the first few eps.

This show is a bit silly sometimes, some things doesn’t really makes sense, but its very funny, entertaining and the fanservice is quite nice. One point I have to mention, is the animation art of this show, it looks very well done, crisp and clean, also the design of the eyes looks great.

That was my “little” watch list for this season, with the ongoing shows from last season and the new shows Im at my limit with the shows Im following. I initially watched a few more shows but I couldn’t bring myself to like Sacred Seven, the same can be said about Gainax’s Dantalian no Shoka where I’ve expected a lot more and Kamisama no Memochou is on hold for the time being.

Which shows of summerseason 2011 are you watching?  What are your favorites so far?
If you have any suggestions how I could improve my Anime Season post please let me know.