Hello everybody. I won’t be able to make as many posts this summer as I did over the school year. I’m currently enrolled at a summer program at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology if you’ve never heard of it,) and I wil be quite busy. Plus, I’m still playing catch-up for The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, Pani Poni Dash, and Keroro Gunso as well as subjecting myself to Amaenaideyo.

If I do post anytime soon, it will probably be about Dragon Quest VIII or about an artist who I have bookmarked. Afer owning it since Christmas, I’m finally relatively close to beating it (although, apparently that means nothing for me since I was “realitvely close” with Lunar for month or two.)

In other news, I recently purchased a buttload of manga (again.)

• Oh My Goddess 23
• Love Hina 11
• Gundam, Mobile Suit Ecole du Ciel 03
• Cardcaptor Sakura 03
• Kamichama Karin 04
• Galaxy Angel Beta 03
• DearS 04
• School Rumble 02
• Strawberry Marshmallow 01
• Tsubasa, RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE 08
• Chibi Vampire 01 (Karin)
• Stray Little Devil 01
• Pita-Ten 06

I’m sure I’ll be busy whenever I recieve all of these.

Some Becky pics:

Recently, I’ve been purchasing a lot of old-school RPGs for my PS2. One of those is Lunar Silver Star Story Complete, a wonderful RPG released by the now defunct Working Designs, albeit, I got it several months ago, so it’s not really “recently purchased,” I just finished it today (on my birthday of all days.)

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Hmm, loli + shoujo ai + sukumizu + catgirl + eyepatch = instawin!

Here’s something that got my interest. It seems as though Shimada Humikane (島田フミカネ,) one of my favorite artists a.k.a. digital bs tuners, and Projekt Kagonish (if you’ve never heard of them, you’re not alone) are putting together a little OVA featuring mech girls (I think) called Strike Witches. It seems as though Gonzo has somethimg to do with the production (which I like, though I suppose MANY anime fans will disagree with me.) If anyone is familiar to the series of figures of hybrids between girls and figher planes, the Shimada Humikane is the same character designer.

The anime seems to be about these girls who use magic to transform themselves into mech girls of some sort. From the homepage description:

The world had recieved the attack from the existance of the mystery that appeared suddenly. Only girls who have magic can stop them. They install arms (me. as in weapons) in an own body, and fight in the sky, the land, and the sea. Fights of girls who defend the world start now.

The premise of the series seems kinda cliched. The whole “an outside threat is attacking the earth and only magical girls can stop them” thing seems kind of common, even though they are transforming into cool looking mech girls. To be honest, the only REAL reason I want to watch this series is because of Shimada Humikane. Here’s hoping that the series retains the charm of his artstyle and doesn’t fail my expectations.

OVA homepage:

Shimada Humikane’s page: Digital BS Tuners

Some pics:

No? Well, to be honest, I haven’t either, but someone out there has to or else Sharpe Production wouldn’t have made a watch with an exact replica (except for size) of Stonehenge on it. I must admit, it does look pretty cool, but maybe that’s because I have a pocket-watch fetish. You can see it here.

This also reminded me of almost-as-sexy Rozen Maiden pocket watch that only came with the limited edition of the Rozen Maiden game. I wonder if it can be found anywhere in Yahoo! Japan Auctions.

It seems that Namco Bandai has finally told us what their big announcement about the Tales Of… series is. A new game (surprise, surprise,) Tales of the World, was announced for the PSP. Interestingly enough, Tales of the World allows you to customize the appearance of the protagonist at the beginning of the game, according to The Magic Box.

In addition to Tales of the World, Namco Bandai also announced two ports (Tales of Phantasia and Tales of Destiny 2 for the PSP) and one remake (Tales of Destiny for the PS2.) It’s too bad, though. I doubt that many of these will make it outside of Japan. I still remain hopeful that at least one of these games makes it.

The links to the source articles:

• Tales of Destiny
• Tales of Phantasia
• Tales of the World

Here’s a pretty good artist, Yusuke Shiba. I don’t know much about this one, either, but that’s okay since Akiba Angels has just posted an interview with him at their site. It’s only 19 questions, but at least it lets you get to know the artist better. I’ll quote it here.

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Or at least that’s what I should have said when I left for Paris on the 7th. Oh well, no harm done. The trip was pretty nice. Lots of beautiful buildings and stuff. But this post really isn’t about my trip to Paris; it’s more about a comparison between manga localization in France and the USA. Or course, I’m not a expert about this (hey! I was only in France for a couple of days,) there are a few glaring differences between manga in France and manga in America.

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Ah, it’s always nice when new stuff comes in the mail. This time I decided to go the tradition route and order through Amazon.co.jp, instead of through Yahoo! Japan Auctions by using a deputy service.

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Japan’s Ministry of Economics has drafted a few rules for robots to live by.

Japan’s ministry guidelines will require manufacturers to install a sufficient number of sensors to keep robots from running into people. Lighter or softer materials will be preferred, to further prevent injury.

Emergency shut-off buttons will also be required. Science fiction heroes in stories and movies have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to find the shut-off button for various out-of-control machines, so I hope that these buttons will be prominently placed for easy access by concerned humans.

Well, if these rules are anything to go by, Japan won’t be making any mobile suits anytime soon . And really, if Japan isn’t going to make the first mobile suit, who is? That’s pretty much crushed my dreams of owning any Quebelys anytime soon. Oh well, I wouldn’t want something like what happened in Ideon to happen, anyway. I like my universe nice and safe…. and intact.

I must admit that I do not know that much about this artist. It doesn’t appear that he/she/it has worked on any anime/manga/etc. In addition, he/she/it hasn’t worked on any doujin.

It’s all quite a shame. For not being a doujin/anime artist/mangaka, this person has some really nice looking art. Maybe I will find more info once the actual site it finished (apparently, the webmaster is still working on the site, and has been for a very long time. Before I first visited the site in December of 2004.

Homepage:

Some pics: