That's two episodes of Umineko completed

And that's it for Turn of the Golden Witch. I get through these things rather quickly if they hold my interest, and you could even call it a testament to their greatness.

Anyway, I thought Episode 2 would bore me slightly after the slow start. But as the story progressed it got a lot more interesting, and intriguingly freaky.

There's a lot I'd like to say about it, but I won't cos I'd hate to spoil too much of this awesome VN. Seriously, it's well worth checking out if you haven't already.



All that's left for me now is to begin Episode 3, Banquet of the Golden Witch. Which should be a right blast and a half on the ol' awesomeness meter.

That's one episode of Umineko completed

Umineko no Naku Koro ni, or simply Umineko for short, is the VN I'm spending the most time on right now. Which is hardly surprising when it's incredibly awesome, and has an equally awesome character in it called Battler!

Anyway, at the original time of writing this entry I'll have recently finished Episode 1, Legend of the Golden Witch. And before I can begin Episode 2, Turn of the Golden Witch. There are a couple of Tea Parties to attend first?



Tsk, they'll no doubt be some weird spectacles where the characters talk about the events that transpired in Episode 1, and have Beatrice scaring the shit (along with other bodily fluids) out of everyone.

A Certain Magical Index is walking the path of Shana-tan

In the beginning there was Shana-tan, then Hecate-tan, and now Index-tan. So, how long will it be till we see Louise-tan and Taiga-tan in the '-tan' family?


These specials were funny to begin with. But when you start referencing other shows you've produced, it becomes almost too funny.


Index-tan acting like Shana-tan was classic, even before the blatant shameless plugging of a Shakugan no Shana DVD.

Oh, and the brief cameo of a certain Palmtop Tiger was highly amusing.

Sagarc won't accept being shunned anymore!

Who wants a DX Sagarc belt for an absolute bargain of a price?

If so, head on over to HobbyLink Japan, where they're currently selling it at whopping 80% off!


Seriously, you'd have to be a complete fool to say no to a DX Kamen Rider belt that's going for under £10, as these things tend to go up in price as time goes on.

I'm preying that HLJ will reduce the other DX belts from Kiva to a similar price range, then the DX IXA and DX Dark Kivat belts will be mine for the taking!

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.

A fresh twist on the usual milking of Yoko

Why can't we get cool movie exclusives like these? Seriously, it'd encourage me to see more films at the cinema than just waiting for the inevitable home release.

But that's enough about that, cos we're here for this sweet looking variation of Revoltech Fraulein Yoko who isn't afraid to let her hair down.


Obtaining her is going to be a pain, as she'll only be available with advanced ticket sales for the Gurren Lagann: Face Chapter movie (due for release on April 25th) via Animate.

There are of course options of importing her through a proxy, but our lousy exchange rates will drive the overall price up (much to my never-ending annoyance).

UPDATE 17/02/2009 - Trust me to not notice this simple fact sooner.

After checking the Fraulein section of Kaiyodo's Revoltech website, I now know there'll be two versions of this Movie Ver. Yoko. The exclusive Animate one I mentioned above, and another for the mass market without Boota lodged in her cleavage.

Was this movie a Sprial Paradox or a Paradox Sprial?

I finally made some time to watch the fifth Kara no Kyoukai movie, and I'm still trying to figure out what was going on for the most part.

Hell, these movies are confusing enough for me already with each chapter taking place at different points in the chronological timeline without adding weird shit like that.

I'd call it pure mindfuck, but there's probably a method to Nasu's writing madness I'm not seeing.


Leaving complex details aside, I was able to thoroughly enjoy watching this movie. It had plenty of screentime for Shiki Ryougi to showcase her Mystic Eyes of Death Perception; while wielding a sword no less.

I liked watching Souren Araya, as he had that vibe of likeableness about him that's comparable to what you get from Kirei Kotomine, which is probably thanks to Jouji Nakata being the seiyuu for both these characters.

Cornelius Alba was a hateful nutjob with a inferiority complex that made me picture Urataros every time he spoke.

Nevertheless, I'm now looking forward to movie 6 so I can see just how similar Azaka Kokutou is to Tsukihime's Akiha Tohno.

Snow won't keep Nemmy from his toys

The weather outside may look like a winter wonderland, and the temperature bloody freezing. But luckily for me that didn't stop Parcelfarce from delivering my newest goodies from Japan.

The first needs no introduction. It's the DX Decadriver from the new Kamen Rider Decade series, which I got from toy-wholesaler.jp for roughly £80 including EMS shipping. Pricey, but it was worth every penny to this Heisei Rider fan.


Next up is my haul from Ryan a.k.a. Fan2Fan.

This shipment from him contained Enterbrain's Rider figure from Fate/stay night, Alter's Signum figure from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, both versions of Wave's Lena Sayers figure from Mai-Otome, the Dengeki Daioh Ver. of Nendoroid Shana from Shakugan no Shana, and Revoltech Ricky from Doko Demo Issyo.


And if that weren't enough, I even got this transforming beetle robot as a free gift. Haven't got a clue as to which range it comes from though.


Well, I'd say today was a good day for receiving toys. You could almost call it a second Christmas for me with all the snow we've had.

There are no secrets to this gorgeous figure

The world just can't get enough of the loveable Mikuru, and Max Factory must know this because they're releasing this Mikuru Asahina Adult Ver. figure in May.


Isn't this like the forth (or fifth if you count the Mikuru Beam! Ver.) one they've done of her? I'm not complaining about it, but it'd be nice to see them do more of the secondary characters like Emiri Kimidori.

Ah well, I know of at least one other person besides myself who'll be wanting this beauty.

G.I. Joe Vs. Transformers on the silver screen

Hasbro are going to be raking it in big this summer, or not given the current state of global economy.

But we're not here for that, are we? Not when new ball grabbing teasers for G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen aired during the Super Bowl.

First off, G.I. Joe isn't really my thing. I've watched the animated movie, read a few comics, and fiddled with the odd figure or two. Other than that, I hardly know anything about the franchise.

But this teaser for the movie gets me the impression that it'll be worth seeing.

Then we have the teaser for Bay's sequel to Transformers, subtitled Revenge of the Fallen, or simply RotF to us fans.

I didn't get much enjoyment out of the last movie; too many humans and not enough Transformers among other things. But it seems RotF is set to change all that from what I could decipher here.

Carnage on the Armed Forces, glimpses of Ravage, the new bots in town, Starscream attacking Sam, Optimus Prime getting pummelled, and that fucking HUGE Constructicon wrecking absolute havoc.

What more could one desire from a teaser?