A long awaited purchase is finally here!

I've near enough finished playing Kotori Love Ex P now (I only need to get the remaining CGs and scenes in D.C.P.C. when I can be arsed to do so). Although I do wish they added some more depth to Ayumi's involvement in KotoriPlus (I was hoping for one least one RAGE ending dammit!).

Anyway, time for this week's arrivals.


Tuesday (last week), figure_house, I received S.H.Figuarts GARO.

This Figuart of GARO really beings home the fact I've been in this collecting game for a good many years now.

The first GARO I got was the Souchaku Henshin pretty soon after I watched the series, and it was a good representation of GARO too. However, the armour pieces did have a tendency of falling off when you least wanted them to do so.


Wednesday, xxliloandstitchxx, I received Animated Blackout.

Like Lugnut before him, Blackout is a big Decepticon with a toy far smaller than he deserves. Even so, the only real let-down of it for me is the lack of outward poseability in the arms.


Friday, boomingisland, I received CLANNAD ~After Story~ Complete Collection.

The continuation of CLANNAD, and I was quite vocal about it too when the series was airing in Japan.

One thing about the set that baffles me though is they swapped the play order of the Summary Episode and Kyou Arc OVA, but the menu shows the two episodes in their correct Japanese release order.

A GunBuster for the palm of my hand!

No items arrived for me last week, but I did have a couple of things which kept me busy for awhile.

Firstly, I had recently found out there was a leaked patch that translated almost all of Muv-Luv Alternative (and playing that to completion was an utter joy).

Secondly, I've also started playing through the epilogues on Sharin no Kuni, Yuukyuu no Shounenshoujo (never thought I'd see those translated after the Houzuki route standalone was released last year) and have already finished the epilogues for Sachi and Touka.


Tuesday, AmiAmi, I received Revoltech GunBuster.

I haven't had much of a chance to properly check out GunBuster yet, but from I can see of it inside the box looks rather impressive.

Not to mention it's nice to have a GunBuster I can easily fiddle with (my Soul of Chogokin GunBuster is far too valuable for that).


Thursday, supermart_usa, I received CLANNAD The Motion Picture.

Another re-imagining movie by TOEI, but unlike the Air movie I found this one to be really enjoyable even though it differs from the series.

I got the armour, but not the main bot itself

After being kept busy by D.C. II ~Da Capo II~ for the last week or so, I finally get around to posting this entry.


Thursday, toystar_galactica and supermart_usa, I received Drill Boy and CLANNAD Complete Collection.

Drill Boy is basically the token partsformer power-up. I haven't bothered with his own vehicle and robot modes at the moment cos I purely wanted this so I could 'upgrade' my Build Tiger.

CLANNAD, easily one of the better visual novel adaptations I've seen, and also the starting point in my exposure of KEY's other works such as Air and Kanon.


Friday, robotkingdom.com, I received Shadow Scythe.

The inevitable black repaint of the Protector, and a totally awesome one at that (even if it did get stung by those fuckers at Customs).

One complaint I have is with the scythe itself, as those connector tabs are an awfully tight fit and probably prone to breakage.


I wasn't to take this shot until the Shattered Glass Rodimus I bought arrived, but I'm still waiting on it. So I took the opportunity to use the armour on my Challenge at Cybertron Rodimus.

Lovely customer service and my first Masterpiece Black Convoy

In the last two days I received this lovely lot of toys.


The first shipment is from Fan2Fan, and it contained.

• Kotobukiya 1/8 Index
• Wave 1/7 Kyou Fujibayashi
• Henkei! Henkei! Gentei! Gentei! Dirge
• Henkei! Henkei! Gentei! Gentei! Thrust
• Henkei! Henkei! Gentei! Gentei! Strafe
• Alternity A-01 Convoy Vibrant Red
• Alternity A-01 Convoy Ultimate Metal Silver
• Alternity A-01 Convoy Super Black
• Kotobukiya 1/7 Rei Ayanami Gothic Lolita Blanc Ver.
• Alter 1/8 Rei Ayanami
• Busou Shinki Light Armor Valona
• Busou Shinki Light Armor Werkstra
  

The second shipment is from Kapow Toys, and it contained.

• Masterpiece MP-1B Convoy Black Ver.
• City Commander Add-On Set
• Revenge of the Fallen Recon Ironhide
  

I have to give a huge thank you to Kapow Toys for this one, as they dealt with my queries about the delay of the Add-On Set and using the £5 refund from it towards Recon Ironhide very promptly.

But the crown jewel of this haul is Masterpiece Black Convoy.

I've been wanting to see this repaint for many years now and it is finally in the hands of yours truly!

Nemmy has returned with another load of toys

It has been a couple of months since I last posted here but never-mind; having a lack of motivation in-between getting distracted by other things isn't the best thing to have when thinking of stuff to write for a blog.

So once again I'll just be putting more of what I've been buying.


First we have some Animated repaints I got from a sale on Play.com.

• Animated Shadow Blade Megatron
• Animated Blazing Lockdown
  

Next we have the DX Ixa gear I was lucky to get on clearance from HobbyLink Japan.

• DX Ixa Belt
• DX Ixa Calibur
• DX IxaRiser
  

Then to further complete my need for black repaints I went to Kapow Toys and picked-up this little beauty.

• Alternity A-01 Convoy Super Black
  

Now we come to the first part of the latest haul I received from Fan2Fan.

• Griffon 1/7 Mikuru Asahina Gothic Punk ver.
• Alter 1/8 Haruhi Suzumiya Uniform Ver.
• Kotobukiya 1/8 Tomoyo Sakagami
• Alter 1/8 Haruhi Suzumiya Chara-Ani Uniform Ver.
  

Now here's the second part of that haul from Fan2Fan.

• Revoltech VF-1J Hobby Japan Milia Ver.
• S.H.Figuarts Masked Rider 2
• figma Saber Lily (with PS2 game)
• figma Ryoko Asakura
• Revoltech Revolution Rei
• S.H.Figuarts Masked Rider Decade
• figma Yuki Nagato Evil Witch Ver.
• figma Fate T. Harlaown
• Revoltech Fraulein Haruhi Suzumiya (with Wii game)
• S.H.Figuarts Masked Rider DiEnd
• Nendoroid Yoko
• Revoltech Fraulein Yoko Animate Movie Ver.
  

And finally today from Play.com, we have the repaints of the only RotF toys I own.

• Revenge of the Fallen Swerve
• Revenge of the Fallen Dead End

I think that's everything covered now. I don't think there's anything major missing, but knowing me I've probably forgotten something along the way.

It was great to have this when coping with the hot weather!

Man, I hate this bleeding hot weather! It isn't just hot, it's fucking unbearable!!! This is one of the few times where I've actually had to rely on my electric fan to cool things down.

Anyway, that's enough bitching towards the weather. I'm just going to note what I've been doing these last few days (if anyone cares).

For the most part I've been playing KIRA☆KIRA like crazy from beginning to end. This VN was also entertaining enough to keep my mind off the sodding weather for awhile.


Before I got the VN I'd seen remarks that stated it was the VN equivalent of K-ON!, but I'd feel like disagreeing with that because KIRA☆KIRA had a lot more focus on the music aspect than K-ON! did.

Their training to be punk rockers was hilarious. The girls dressing Shikanosuke Maejima in drag and getting a kick out of it was memorable to say the least. And near enough everything else about it was great in its own way too.

Long story short, I consider KIRA☆KIRA a must play VN!

Besides that I got to try the Episode 1 patch for School Days. Get the Watanagashi-hen Day 1 patch for Higurashi (haven't played it yet). Watch the extremely condensed as hell CLANNAD ~AFTER STORY~ Kyou Chapter OVA (haven't seen it subbed to really comment on it). And finish the week two patch of CROSS†CHANNEL.

Oh, and I saw the start of the Umineko anime. Yeah, they did chop some bits from the VN as I expected, but it wasn't too bad cos they kept Rosa's 'epic parenting' skills for all to see!

I never thought this haul would arrive today!

I got myself quite the unexpected haul from Fan2Fan today.

The reason it was unexpected is because I didn't even know that Ryan had sent it until the Parcelfarce guy arrived with them.

More importantly though, here are all the wonderful toys that were in those parcels.


These were the Revoltech, figma and S.I.C. items I received.

• Revoltech Fraulein Haruka Hasegawa
• Revoltech Fraulein Miki Hoshii Noel Angelic Ver.
• S.I.C. Masked Rider Shadow Moon & Black
• figma Miyuki Takara Winter Uniform ver.
• figma Sun Seto
• figma Sakura Hime JPWA Tag Tournament ver.

These were the Nendoroid and freebie items I received.

• Nendoroid Miku Hatsune
• Nendoroid Rin Kagamine
• Nendoroid Len Kagamine
• Nendoroid Shana Epatsu-Shakugan Ver.
• Nendoroid Saber Lion
• Some gashapon-esque Masked Rider Zanki figure
  

This was (by far) the largest item I received.

• Alter 1/7 Hayate Yagami

And finally, these were the anime figure items I received.

• Good Smile Company 1/7 Shiki Ryougi Garannodou
• Alpha x Omega 1/8 Kallen Kouzuki Bunny Girl Ver.
• Wave 1/8 Yoko Space-Look Ver.
• Alter 1/8 Asa Shigure
• Resinya 1/6 Kudryavka Noumi Wafu pose ver.
• Kotobukiya 1/8 Kyou Fujibayashi

Personally, I think the biggest shocker inside this haul for me was the Hayate figure cos the box for her was so fucking huge she needed her own damn photo!

Distracting myself from this melancholy is a tiring task

I haven't been feeling all that great lately. My AOHell connection persists in pissing me off as usual by going stupidly slow and cutting out at any given moment. And with it constantly doing that I can't even generate enough motivation to login on forums I normally visit at the moment.

Which means I've been spending a lot my time in the last few days replaying CLANNAD to try and take my mind off things. And there's enough hidden extras in that VN like the Jet Saito and Storage Room Curse events I haven't reached to keep me busy when I'm not going through the routes for Tomoyo and Kyou again.

Ugh, why do I even care? It's not like anyone really responds to all this drivel I write anyway.

All the bitching on Kyou's route finally paid off!

Okay, slight exaggeration, but the result is the same either way.

Just when I'd almost given up hope of seeing Kyou's route animated when the recap episode aired. KyoAni go and confirm it'll see the light of day as a bonus episode when the eighth DVD of CLANNAD ~AFTER STORY~ is released on July 1st.


And despite the fact it'll be condensed as hell like Tomoyo's route was, I don't really give a shit, as I'm absolutely ecstatic that they're animating it!

I've been waiting for this moment since finishing her route in the VN, and it's enough to make me wish July would get here sooner.

Is this the last we'll see of CLANNAD?

The CLANNAD anime has officially finished with the recap filled episode 24 of CLANNAD ~AFTER STORY~ which was surprising better than I thought it'd be.

Seriously, KyoAni did well in recapping the happenings of the last 44 episodes of the main story into roughly 20 minutes or so.

They did it using the means Tomoya telling Ushio the story of "how I met mama" and even showed after she fell asleep that he retained some vague memories of another world where Nagisa died, he fell into a depressive slump, getting reunited with Ushio, enjoying life with his daughter, having her fall ill and later dying, and finally the 'something' that brought him to the happiness he has now.


We did get some new animation at the end with Tomoya, Ushio and Fuko in the forest behind the hospital. It wasn't a bad way to end the series, but I would have liked that Kyou route I was hoping for as I doubt KyoAni will ever do as a OVA now.

Their next series announcement at the end was for something called K-ON! I don't know if I'll be interested in seeing this series as I've never even heard of it before.

Nevertheless, CLANNAD is been apart of my anime viewing schedule for the last two years and it'll feel weird not seeing it anymore. I still remember deciding to check this series out on a whim when Death Note was still airing in Japan at the time.

I'm glad I followed that whim as it posistively resulted in me getting interested in Air, Kanon and other KEY works in general.

Wave show their love for Kyou too

I kinda knew in advance that Aoshima were doing a figure of Kyou as I saw it in the prototype stage.

But today after browsing Ami Ami for new items as I do quite regularly. I found another figure listing for Kyou Fujibayashi. Only difference this time is that the company behind it are Wave.


She isn't due out until August. But I'm already set in wanting to order this one more than the Aoshima one.

I'm glad Kyou is getting new figures by various companies, as she was a favourite of mine in the VN and the anime.

But after Kyou there is another CLANNAD character I'd like new figures of, and that's Tomoyo Sakagami.

And my reason for that? Well, she is the main character I've used as my signature and avatar on nearly every forum I'm a member of barring the TheTF.net.

At least the figure market is giving Kyou some attention

Kyou Fujibayashi may have gotten screwed over by KyoAni, but it seems the same can't be said for Aoshima.

Our neglected dictionary throwing tsundere will be getting two figure releases by Funny Knights (never heard of them before) in June. A standard Gym Clothes Ver. and a Milestone Ver. variation with furry animal ears and a tail.


One thing that interests me about this figure is that she has been designed to sit on the edge of your computer moniter.

I wouldn't do that with mine if I got her. But I think it's an amusing way for displaying a figure in my book.

Kyou got screwed out of her route again

For the 23rd episode of CLANNAD ~AFTER STORY~ we're getting Another Story. A story set one year before the start of CLANNAD and that meeting at the bottom of the hill.

Here we have Nagisa nervously beginning her third year at school, while Tomoya begins his second year hanging out with his buddy Sunohara. The delinquent duo are hard at work on their latest punishment task for trying to leave the classroom through the window.

Kyou is less than happy about the situation as she's been asked to keep tabs on them because she's the class representative. This little meeting was the duo's first official trade of introductions with Kyou Fujibayashi, and quite possibly the first brief hint towards Kyou's VN route.

Meanwhile at the Furukawa Bakery. Nagisa has returned home and tells Akio about her first day in the third year. He decides to give his daughter some advice on how she should make friends in class by using wacky methods. This discussion obviously backfires on him when he badmouths Sanae's bread.

Now we're return to the school where Nagisa is still feeling nervous, and Tomoya is taking a nap on the grass. Kyou finds him and tries to wake him up while dropping further hints about her VN route when Sunohara appears and confronts her. After Sunohara correctly guesses what was on her mind, he receives a memory erasing punch for his trouble just before he could spill the beans to Tomoya.


On the way home from School, Nagisa meets a couple of girls who invite her to do a spot of window shopping. They get Nagisa to try on some clothes and then decide to play a joke on her. When Nagisa arrives home afterwards, she and Akio have another talk regarding the making friends subject when Akio gets careless and insults Sanae's bread for the second time this episode.

Next we have our first proper viewing of the Fujibayashi household. Ryou is doing her fortune telling with Kyou and kindly informs her of what fate has in store for the following day. But that hope was quickly shot down by Sunohara and his cunning love letter plan.

Kyou finds Sunohara's love letter in her locker and thinks it's the real deal after Ryou's fortune telling. Sunohara is happy that she fell for it, but Tomoya is thinking otherwise.

We then see Nagisa entering her classroom and missing out on a chance to bond with her classmates when they're discussing the Big Dango Family.

We now switch back to a visibly flustered Kyou who believes something good will come from the love letter. But after being given the run round by Sunohara and Tomoya several times, she soon discovers the pair in the act and sends them to hell!

Shortly after that trip. Sunohara decides to vent some stress with another prank due to his failure with Kyou. When the time came to include a message inside the prank, Tomoya is the one who writes it because Sunohara was getting overly hyped on weird thoughts of them being a duo.

The prank is set at the entrance to the school with no-one being stupid enough to actually spring it. Well, no-one expect for Nagisa who probably suffered a mild concussion for her curiosity. She does later recover in the infirmary and leaves with a new friend as a result.

At the end of the episode we see Kyou and Ryou having a little talk about the problematic duo while taking a bath. Sunohara starts work on his love letter 2 plan to use on Kyou. And Nagisa is happily telling Akio and Sanae about her new friend, and then thanks the message she kept from the prank by Tomoya for giving her courage.

And I'm finished! Man, I sure wrote a lot there.

Anyway, the next episode preview showed it'll be a bloody recap offering. I feel cheated here as I'd have liked to have seen KyoAni animate Kyou's route as a final send-off.

Hell, they could have done Kappei's route as he got totally screwed over by not appearing in the anime at all!

You can't be mad at this happy ending

We're finally here at the end of CLANNAD ~AFTER STORY~ (well, the main story of it anyway). I know one thing, I never thought I'd be done with this on Friday the 13th of all days.

The revelation of the girl and the robot was handled nicely and tied into the miracle event almost perfectly. I can hardly find fault with the work of KyoAni on this particular part of the VN.


If anything I'd say they improved on the original ending by showing how the other characters are getting on with their lives instead of just Tomoya, Nagisa and Ushio.

• Kyou is still a kindergarten teacher with her pet Botan.
• Ryou got her dream job as a nurse.
• Kotomi is off travelling the world.
• Sunohara learning to drive with difficulty.
• Mei matured well over the last five years.
• Tomoyo doing what Tomoyo does best.
• Yoshino truly enjoying his music.
• Akio and Sanae living life as usual.
• Yukine and the gang are still hanging out in that bar.
• Nishina and Sugisaka leading their cosy little life together.
• Misae and Shima continue to look after the dorm.
• Koumura lives out his well deserved retirement.
  

And lastly we see the epilogue with Fuko and Kouko walking around, having fun and sniffing out a special someone in the forest near the hospital.

Even though there are still two episodes remaining. I feel sad that this anime is ending because it has been a real highlight of my viewing for the last couple of years.

CLANNAD gets a further dose of devastation

I had guessed it last week, and if you can recall the sadness you felt from episode 16, you'll know what you'll need to brace yourselves for in CLANNAD ~AFTER STORY~ episode 21.

Ushio is suffering from a condition that's almost identical to that of her late mother, and Tomoya is finding that very hard to deal with. He quits his job to look after her as the condition continues to worsen as time goes on with no visible signs of recovery in sight.

At this point he's willing to do anything for his daughter, but the thing she wants most is another trip with her papa. He does eventually try to fulfil that wish, and starts the long walk to the train station.


However, they never reach their destination as Ushio collapses on the way and later dies in Tomoya's arms. So once again fate has dealt him another cruel card in order to break what's left of the broken man.

After that we're whisked away to the Illusionary World where the girl and her robot friend are facing a similar hand of fate. Although they didn't reveal the big connection between the two worlds in this episode, you might have already figured it out if you were watching carefully enough.

The final moments in this episode were again a flashback of that beginning scene from CLANNAD episode 1 where Tomoya is still contemplating on whether or not it'd be better to let Nagisa live her life without him.

I already know his answer from playing the VN, but how well will KyoAni adapt this for episode 22? It'll be a miracle waiting to happen.

The final calm before the storm in CLANNAD

There's only a few episodes of CLANNAD ~AFTER STORY~ left now, so I'm going to keep giving my meagre take on the anime until there is no more.

Episode 20 saw Tomoya meeting another familiar face from his school days. The violent dictionary throwing tsundere turned kindergarten teacher, Kyou Fujibayashi (along with her pet Botan of course).


Things were really going well for Tomoya and Ushio until fate decided to ruin it all once again. And going by how episode 20 ended, one can only assume episode 21 will conclude with that other tragic event from the VN.

The Queen of Starfish returns to her throne

Episode 19 of CLANNAD ~AFTER STORY~ served as the perfect continuation to the events of episode 18.

But that wasn't the only special thing in this particular episode.


That's right. After about a 34 episode absence, we get to see Fuko Ibuki brightening our screens with her old starfish fetish and new plans for making Ushio her little sister.

I thought they might have had a moment where Tomoya somehow remembers his encounters with her from his school life given the larger role she had in the anime, but I guess it weren't to be.

A new beginning for Tomoya and Ushio

CLANNAD ~AFTER STORY~ reaches its 18th episode, and here I am feeling more miserable than these characters of fiction.


Nevertheless, I loved this episode. Everything from the train ride to the meeting with Shino Okazaki was just as I had been anticipating from KyoAni. Although I would have liked a bit more time spent on the reminiscence scene at the end.

You've grown a lot since last week, Ushio

There isn't a lot I can say about episode 17 of CLANNAD ~AFTER STORY~.

They kept Tomoya's five years of angst filled depression down to a minimum. And although it's accurate to the VN, I'd have liked to have seen more coverage of it.

Nevertheless, this episode did have one enjoyable factor to it, and that was Ushio.


She looks more like Nagisa here than she did in the VN, which is a nice touch I think. Her voice did take some getting used to when I first heard it, but I couldn't picture her without it now.

The episode finished with Tomoya and Ushio going on their trip. A trip that will greatly affect their current estranged relationship before the return trip home, and gives us the viewers one of the all-time memorable scenes from the VN.

Devastation arrives to the world of CLANNAD

If you're a fan of CLANNAD that has already played the VN, then you'll know what tragic event is on the horizon in episode 16 of CLANNAD ~AFTER STORY~.

If you've only been following the anime adaptation of CLANNAD, then be forewarned that there'll be spoilers on episode 16 of CLANNAD ~AFTER STORY~ if you have not seen the fansub of it by whichever group you're following.


Today is a day I've been waiting on since first watching the CLANNAD anime in October 2007, the day where Nagisa Furukawa/Okazaki dies after giving birth to her daughter, Ushio Okazaki. And KyoAni more than delivered in bringing you this scene that is guaranteed to make you shed tears of sadness.

They even went as far as timing the change in that variation of Nagisa's song to the exact moment of her last breath. I always thought of that scene as cruel in the VN, but here it's been levelled up with Yuuichi Nakamura's powerful performance as Tomoya Okazaki.

But I am pissed at KyoAni for keeping that upbeat Torch ending for this episode. What in the hell were they thinking?! We just saw Nagisa DIE for fuck sake, and you go and make a fucking mockery of it by playing that! Damn you, KyoAni!! Damn you for making me lose another bit of the utmost respect I had for you at that precise moment!!!