Dropping in on Home for the Holidays

Well, I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas before I head out. Hope you get what you want or need. If you don't celebrate Christmas, then I wish you Happy Holidays. The usual flava of pics (heh, Pinder x Marsh is a tradition of mine if ya haven't noticed ;)):

And a 18+ present for the interested ^^. Have a good one y'all! Later!

Birds Eye View

Well, Christmas is almost here w/ only 4 days left and I hope everyone's done their shopping or almost done. I finally finished mine :D. I'm probably heading back home for the holidays and won't be posting much. Like it matters as I haven't been posting regularly anyways >_<. Today's post is mainly a 'stuff' post. It's my ongoing barrage of mangas. I got these last week. They include Dragon Ball Ultimate Edition vol.34 HK version, Nekomajin Ultimate Edition HK version, Shi ga Futari wo Wakatsu Made/Until Death Do Us Part vol.3 (awesome sheila art...me wuv), Bleach 23 & 24 HK version (vol.25 JPN tank came out this month), Ukigumo Momojinden vol.1 (be gettin' 2 & 3 soon) and the final volume of Street Fighter Legends: Sakura. I must mention that Udon has licensed Sakura Ganbaru and vol.1 of the Street Fighter Zero manga. Both are done by famed Masahiko Nakahira. Sakura Ganbaru is a rare manga and it's great that they licensed it. I have the HK version Street Fighter Zero vol.1 but was never able to get vol.2, so it's great that they licensed that series as well. I could ebay the JPN tanks if i wanted to, same w/ the Ryu Final in which i've been contemplated for a long time now. Let's hope Udon gets the Ryu Final manga as well. Sakura Ganbaru and Street Fighter Zero/Alpha vol.1 are both slated July 2007 and May 2007. They're up for preorder at Amazon, seen here.

You may or may not know that I'm a big Akira Toriyama fan, hence why I cover Dragon Ball, Dragon Quest and Blue Dragon games so often. I probably mentioned this before, but I hold Akira Toriyama as the greatests manga artist ever. There's just no one in the biz who can draw mangas better than him, especially shonen. The attention to detail (characters, props, background) and fluidity of his art during general scenes and especially fight scenes is unmatched. So I must say as a big fan of the guy, i'm ashamed of myself for getting some of the mangas u see in this post so late. I've heard of the Dragon Ball Kanzenban (Perfect Edition or Ultimate Edition) books for quite some time now but held off on buying them cuz I already own the original 42 volumes (HK). The new Toriyama art for the covers were mostly meh, since his style has slightly changed a bit from his late Dragon Ball days. So, I finally decided to get vol.34 (aka 42 of the original) since it included a new 4 page ending drawn by Toriyama, plus it was on sale. The ending is a mixed bag cuz it ends off mostly well but hints at the horrible Dragon Ball GT which Toriyama had hardly anything to do with.

For those who don't know, the Kanzenban is a rerelease of the original 42 volumes but shrunk down to 34 volumes. So, more chapters has been added to each volume. Also, the book is much larger than the original tankoubon. The paper is not a rough style like JPN tanks but has a glossy finish. The spine artwork is all new as well. Best of all, the coloured chapters from the original Shonen Jump Weekly are included. Since I finally own this and experienced hands on, i must say i regret waiting so long. The quality of this release is just awesome and some of the coloured pages from the original Shonen Jump Weekly is awesome. Though I don't intend to re-purchase the entire series again, I do plan on buying some of the issues that I liked w/ key fave moments, and the chapters I want in colour. Sadly, some things are omitted. Such as the beginning "Mokujin" artwork for each book and each Chapter Title artwork is gone too. It sucks as most of them were really good and sometimes humourous. However, since I own the originals, it doesn't really matter to me, late Dragon Ball fans on the other hand, might be disappointed. I just wished they would release all the popular shonen mangas in this kanzenban form cuz having Bleach, One Piece, and Naruto in this form would be so awesome w/ the coloured pages. Kenshin, Yu Yu Hakusho amongst other oldies deserve this treatment too.

Here's a comparison shot showing the size of the last volume of Dragon Ball.

As for Nekomajin, well, that one was fairly new, since I waited for the Hong Kong version. Nekomajin was also given the Kanzenban treatment w/ a bigger than regular sized tank, glossy finish and coloured artwork from the title covers. The chapters were never coloured, so there's no coloured chapters. Even if you're not a Toriyama fan but a Dragon Ball fan, this is a must get, since the latter half of the book is parody on Dragon Ball. It follows the adventures of Neko Majin Z (previous chapters prior focused on two different Nekomajins). It's quite funny stuff w/ Toriyama's usual style of humour from his Dr. Slump and early Dragon Ball days. Son Goku, Vegeta and others make guest appearances and it's great to see them 'one last time'.

Since I'm an avid movie goer and have talked about movie news in ages, i just couldn't keep quiet about this one. One of my more anticipated movies has put up a teaser. Tarantino and Rodriguez's Grindhouse.

I'm lazy on game news not and debating how much I would like to post. Though I will share this today; Garou Densetsu Battle Archives vol.2 cover from Rakuten....very awesome...wuvin' Blue Mary and Mai there. Terry's just the coolest.

anyways, i'll have one last post before christmas. Time to "Bounce".

Manga Preview: Atori Sho

So I've decided to finally start my manga preview of some of the mangas that i've been reading over the past year or two. I'm excluding some of the more mainstream titles (ie. Bleach, One Piece and Naruto) since well...they're 'mainstream' and info can be found easily. Those who know me during my AnimeonDVD days, know that I tend to purchase obscure, not well known mangas, but have the potential to be a big hit. Mangas that i've read way before most knew about and hit it big (say an anime conversion) include Naruto, Tenjo Tenge, School Rumble, Black Lagoon, Teizokurei Daydream, Genshiken, Ikkitousen and Gantz are some of the few. Of course, there's a million mangas in Japan that are obscure and never get the chance to hit it big (ie. Rosario + Vampire, which i've been reading and waitin' forever for a anime :(). I usually pick mangas w/ impressive artwork and then i look @ action w/ fanservice coming in last ^^. Sometimes just artwork. So most mangas i pick up are the violent fighting type (cuz u know i love fighting anime/games/movies :P ^^).

Vol.1 Cover

First up, is Diaboros Live Atori Sho, also known as Pretty Hunter for those HK readers. the HK version is released by JDcomics while the original JPN version is released by MF comics serialized in Comic Flapper. The cover that you see is the Taiwan version...confusing? yes, i know. Here's the JPN link for reference and resource. The manga is by Takuya Tashiro whom some may know, was in charge of the adapted Najica manga. It's licensed and has been released ADV who also released the anime. Like that manga, Atori Sho is full of action + fanservice and includes a lot of nudity which Najica sorely lacked for its genre.

Takuya Tashiro Najica Manga art

Basically, the manga is about Atori who's half-human and half-diaboros (or half demon). We basically follow her on her everyday school life and her adventures fighting/killing full fledged diaboros. Exterminating these diaboros is her other job. Yes quite cliche. Story just shows hints about her past every now and then, her school life w/ classmates/friends and fighting demons. Pretty ho hum. Vol.3 has a somewhat big fight w/ 'somewhat' major villain. Anyways, due to its slice of life, comedy, main chick w/ a sword and fanservice. i can't help but think of Shakugan no Shana sometimes. Though of course, Atori's more stacked, which i obviously dig. Some may be turned off by the fanservice. Well, it's pretty gratuitous, there wasn't anything explicit when it started. It wasn't until Takuya introduced a new hottie chara who was there to exploit her hotness. Then came the bare boobs (w/ nips) villains and that went a little overboard for me.

Manga Sample - Hottie Fight

the art in general is decent. It's pretty average IMO but somehow it's 'averageness' attracts me, especially Takyua's female designs, which have always been well proportioned. However, Takuya has times where he draws some characters disproportionately (slightly bigger heads on bodies). It's a little detracting but nothing too bad i'd say. I personally don't like how he draws his eyes and noses sometimes. The huge eyes he draws makes his stuff seem very amateurish and unappealing. His action scenes are pretty solid throughout. His background art is quite standard and is vast improvement over Najica, in which backgrounds were severely lacking...literally. A lot of times there was no backgrounds in Najica.

Manga Sample - Atori in yum underwear w/ sword

Would I recommend this? No, not really. Story hasn't been all that interesting and though the fights are pretty good, coupled w/ some nice looking ladies showing their stuff, it doesn't stick out from most stuff out there which have been done much better. There are 4 volumes out so far and i stopped around the middle of that volume. I don't plan on going any further right now.

I don't feel like posting any game news really cuz there's been so much over the past week. Though I will mention about Persona 3's US release. For those who didn't know, it's been pushed back to June 2007 instead of it's February original date. This is good as it sorta gives Atlus USA time to possibly translate and bring over the much better Persona 3 Fes, which comes out in Japan in April. I'm not sure if that really is the case. But pushing it this far back may indicate the possibility. Let's hope so.

Slightly Orgasmic

So yeah, Christmas shopping was frickin' crazy on the weekend as expected. I managed to get half of my shopping done. W/ exams over, i've had the time to enjoy life again, with the my usual outings. Been getting back at playing FFXII and Zelda. Also went to the arcades after a month long hiatus. I'm very rusty and lost some matches i should've been able to win in T5DR and KoF XI :(. Anyways, main purp of this post is the stuff i got a week or so ago, in which i mentioned in my last 2 posts. Consists of mangas and R1 DVDs that i've ordered several months ago. the DVDs as you can see consists of Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer Movie version (i decided to order this months ago after looking seeing my PSX version of the game and realized i only had the OVAS and movie on VHS a Masami Obari "classic" of fanservice borrowing heavily from his Fatal Fury movie). I finally finished two series w/ Kannaduki no Miko vol. 2 LE & vol.3 LE and GitS SAC vol.6 RE (didn't want the DTS disc cuz i knew this volume was light on action, 'cept the 1st 10 mins of ep.21). Then there's My-HiME 4 which i'm getting at a snail's pace (as y'all know i own the show on R2 already), cuz i've been waiting for each volume to go on sale (got this one for 10 bucks CDN brand new). Got Geobreeders and Kirameki Project vol.1 cuz i wanted some fanservice fun (and they were dirt cheap). One DVD that was suppose to come w/ this pack but didn't was the 2nd volume of Kirameki Project, as MB didn't ship out enuff and i'm put on hold for this lone DVD.

The mangas mostly include JPN tanks, which i don't buy that often but have started to cuz i can't find any places that sells the Hong Kong versions cheap (or at all). I've been reading a lot of scans & scanlations of mangas that are mostly unheard of to the eng. speaking manga community. These ones are just one of the first wave of mangas i've been reading and started to finally purchase. I'll have my little preview special of these mangas soon. Aside from Tenjo Tenge vol.15 HK version (which is obviously not new as i've been reading that for years before the anime), the "new" JPN mangas are Rappi Rangai vol.1 & 2 and the very awesome Until Death Do Us Part/Shi Ga Futari wo Wakatsu Made vol.1 & 2.

Before I go, Bleach Heat the Soul 4 official site went up today for the PSP. Some "main new" charas for this iteration. They are Ichigo (obviously), Shuuhei, Ikkaku and Yumchika. Grimmjaw is also shown!! sweet, anyways, check out the site for some vids so far. Can't wait to get this in May 2007! That's all the news i sorta want to make today as i'm lazy and this post is long enough as it is. I have another manga package coming in containing vol. 3 of Until Death Do Us Part and some old mangas i've been putting off till now. Otanoshimi ni!!


Dec. 12 9:20 AM edit: HOLY SHEEAT!!! DRAGON QUEST IX:Hoshizora no Mamoribito/Defender of the Stars has been announced for the NINTENDO DS of all systems!!!!!! the DQ series has come back to Nintendo after two iterations on Sony's system. Like other publishers, this was a surprise as Famitsu mentioned a some news about DQ in the "This Week" column last week but most were expecting DQMJ or DQSMasked Queen news. This is another big blow to Sony since the DQ series is the greatest franchise ever in Japanese videogame history. Once again, the 3 great mainstays will be handling it (Yuji Horri, Akira Toriyama, Koichi Sugiyama) and Level-5 will once again develop (SWEETNESS). It will support 4-player Wifi and battle will be heavily action-oriented as it's an Action-RPG. The game will be released before the end of 2007 and everyone in JPN who doesn't own a DS by then, WILL ^^ (heh, that includes me though i'm not in JPN). As for the handheld wars, PSP never had a chance and this just sealed the deal. Media news can be found EVERYWHERE, including DQS Wii, w/ awesome shots of the 3 new characters announced last week, designed by Toriyama. me wuv goth hottie Setia ;). They also announced a "Graphic Card Design" arcade game for Summer 2007. Great Toriyama and Sugiyama are once again involved. Sadly i'm not too interested in this one. U can see the hero from DQ8 in one of the shots. The game is called Dragon Quest Monsters Battle Road. Here's some of the links covering 'em: Game Watch, Dengeki Online, JF, etc. Here's the official site for DQIX and a TV Spot. Expect more news & media on gaming sites SE due to Jump Festa.

The Spirit of Giving

Dec. 6 7:25PM edit: Yeah, gimme some b(.)(.)bage :P. Anyways, first day of finals is also my last day of finals!!! YAAAYYY!! Finished my exams today and i'm officially on holidays now. Thus, it's time for me to start my Christmas shopping, hence why i got all the Christmas pics up (don't worry, i got pics for my Christmas post later in da month). Though i don't think i'll be doing any tonight as i'm dead tired. So, i'll probably do a more interesting post tomorrow or in the next few days (like some recent mangas and dvds that came in). That's it for this quick post.

Original Post
Doing my Famitsu review as usual (along w/ Dengeki today and few tidbits). Might make an update later tonight. Currently at school doing final exams. Have two today. Finished one and one more to go!!!

Latest Famitsu scores
Chocobo to Mahou no Ehon (NDS, Square Enix): 8 / 8 / 8 / 9 - (33/40)
Wild Arms: The Vth Vanguard (PS2, Sony): 8 / 9 / 8 / 9 - (34/40) - surprised
World Soccer Winning Eleven X (Xbox 360, Konami): 9 / 8 / 8 / 10 - (35/40) - nice
TOCA Race Driver 2: The Ultimate Racing Simulator (PS2, Interchannel): 8 / 8 / 7 / 7 - (30/40)
Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 13 Ketteiban (PS2, Konami): 9 / 9 / 8 / 9 - (35/40)
Daisenryaku VII Exceed (PS2, System Soft): 7 / 7 / 6 / 7 - (27/40)
Bleach Wii: Hakujin Kirameku Rondo (Wii, Sega): 7 / 7 / 6 / 7 - (27/40) - meh, expected
Rabbids Party (Wii, Ubisoft): 7 / 8 / 8 / 7 - (30/40)
Oneechanbara vorteX (Xbox 360, D3): 7 / 7 / 6 / 7 - (28/40) - damn, was hoping for a 30
Chikyuu Boueigun 3 (Xbox 360, D3): 8 / 7 / 7 / 8 - (30/40)
TOCA Race Driver 2: The Ultimate Racing Simulator (PSP, Interchannel): 8 / 8 / 7 / 8 - (31/40)
Daisenryaku Portable 2 (PSP, Genki): 7 / 7 / 6 / 9 - (29/40)
World Soccer Winning Eleven 10: Ubiquitous Edition (PSP, Konami): 9 / 8 / 8 / 9 - (34/40)
SNK vs. Capcom Card Fighters DS (NDS, SNK Playmore): 7 / 6 / 5 / 7 - (25/40) - FUCK I'm SO DISAPPOINTED. Oh well, i'm still not gonna cancel my preorder of this last collab
The Sims 2: Pet Wan Nyan Life (NDS, EA): 6 / 7 / 6 / 6 - (25/40)
Ryuusei no RockMan (NDS, Capcom): 8 / 8 / 7 / 9 - (32/40)
Kabushiki Baibai Trainer Kabutore (NDS, Konami): 8 / 7 / 7 / 7 - (29/40)
Quiz! Nihongo-Ou (NDS, Success): 7 / 6 / 5 / 7 - (25/40)
Fushigi no Dungeon: Fuurai no Shiren DS (NDS, Sega): 9 / 9 / 8 / 8 - (34/40)
Puyo Puyo! 15th Anniversary (NDS, Sega): 8 / 7 / 7 / 8 - (30/40)
Naruto: Shinobi Retsuden (NDS, Takara Tomy): 7 / 6 / 6 / 6 - (25/40) - yeah, this looked like crap, expected.
Gintama: Gintoki vs Hijikata!? Kabukichou Gintama Dai Soudatsusen!! (NDS, Banpresto): 7 / 6 / 6 / 8 - (27/40)

Dengeki PS
Seiken Densetsu 4 [Dawn of Mana] (PS2, Square Enix): 75 / 90 / 95 / 70
Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops (PS2, Konami): 90 / 90 / 95 / 90
Wild Arms: The Vth Vanguard (PS2, Sony): 85 / 85 / 75 / 85
Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 13 Ketteiban (PS2, Konami): 95 / 90 / 85 / 90
Tales of The World: Radiant Mythology (PSP, Bandai Namco): 75 / 85 / 70 /80

JF reports that Famitsu announces Persona 3 Fes!! Crap! I haven't even finished Persona 3! The US version is suppose to come out early next year. That's gonna suck with this superior special edition [includes a new scenario worth 30 hours, new personas, new costumes(!) and a hard mode] coming out later. Might have to own 3 copies of the game now :P.

Lastly, rumours of Tekken 5 DR for playstation store. Thus, making it available to download on PS3!!!! That's awesome news. Based on the arcade and probably adding new featurs ala psp version. Let's hope this one is true cuz this game so needs to be played on console, aside from the superior arcade cabinet that i play on of course ^^.

FFXII Revenant Scans (DS), info and shots. Game plays in real time, uses Gambits and Mist Attacks. It basically looks like the Seiken Densetsu/Mana series but w/ FFXII characters (and a bit of it's mechanics). Can't wait.

It's a Wonderful World (DS) info and scans. Main chara is a 15 yr. old telepathic named Neku Sakuraba.

Blue Dragon comes out finally today(JPN)/tomorrow!!! WAAAHHH!!! ZOLAAA ME WUUUVV!!!

Stress Free...

...for now that is. Haven't been able to sleep in the past 3 days due to having 3 10-20 page assignments due this week. juss finished my last one, hence why it's sorta late. Anyways, i got a package of manga goodies today. i'll take pics probably next week once i'm done my exams (yes, finals start next week!!!!). I'm planning on having a special feature on mangas that i'm currently reading as well (mainstream won't be included). So enjoy these sweet mag scans, especially the new Ikkitousen Dragon Destiny (whose official site updated w/ the new look weeks ago). Have a good weekend peeps!

oh Kanu my luv, how i've missed U!