All I want for Christmas is two ...

Just wanna wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. The lack of pictures is mainly due being busy w/ parties and gift exchanges. I'm also getting lazy now at scouting for Christmas images :P. So anyways, currently at my fiancée's place for dinner tonight and tomorrow, will be going home for dinner @ my place. So hope y'all have a safe and happy holidays. Enjoy.

Oh 舞!

So Wii game of the week is....no game. Didn't get a Wii game this week since I'm not interested in any upcoming Wii games till Smash Bros. I'm going back to my 1000+ DS game backlog and just started FFXII Revenant Wings and DQ IV (JP). And yeah, I already finished Trauma Center 2 and RETUC. However, I did get some anime & manga items this week. Pic shown in the end.

Anyways, this post is a continuation of my orgy some weeks ago. This time, I'll cover the HiME/Otome/Hisayuki stuff. First I'll cover the My-HiME & My-ZHiME My Collection book.

The book is 160 pages and basically, if you own the previous HiME/ZHiME artbooks, guidebooks etc, then this is essentially the same but updated w/ some new info. It's the most complete (so far) of guides since it covers almost all the novels, comics, games, figures and other media formats that the "Mai" franchise has been released. It covers Mai-HiME, My-ZHiME and My-ZHiME Zwei. Production sketches are included but they're all old as they've been featured in the DVD booklets and other books before. Only the Yuna+Mashiro-Child is new as that's not even in DVD 4. Some ppl may find the prototype sketches of My-HiME to be new, but it's very old as those images were floating around before the show aired (and later some were put in the guide mooks), oh yes I got them way back then ^^. The gallery section is small for each franchise is small, and does contain a few artworks that has not been compiled in a book before (ie. Hisayuki figure packaging art, clocks, jewelry etc.). It's only a handful. However, there is ZERO new artwork (aside from the cover) that yours truly has not seen before this book. So, if you're a casual fan of the series, it's a pretty good guide to get you caught up. If you're a mega fan like me and own basically almost every print of the series, then not much is new. the Destiny section contains artwork from chapters published in キャラの, and few from anime mags, for those wondering. All in all a decent book.

The My-HiME Destiny novel...I haven't read it due to having zero time and limited JPN skills. What I can tell you is that it contains a few artwork exclusive to the novel like the other HiME/ZHiME novels. All artwork is done by Sankichi Meguro (artist of the novels and one of my fave artists as I've been following her Teizokurei Daydream art for years). The only Hisayuki work included are the old design sketches of Mayo and Shion.

Now for Queen's Blade Claudette. Well, as I mentioned before, I got this book only cuz she was designed by Hisayuki Hirokazu. So, it's just like the first Queen's Blade book Rena, interior action pic art is done by another artist. Very gratuitous, demeaning and yummy shots are shown. Not bad not bad.

Just wanna show off how I displayed my Zwei figs.

Finally, this is what I got this week, as mix of old and new. Animes are all R1s and include Paprika, Burst Angel OVA and El Hazard The Magnificent World (cheap re-release). Then there's UDON's Sakura Ganbaru mangas 1 & 2. Cover art is done exclusively by Omar Dogan. I would've been happier if they had included the original Sakura Ganbaru covers by Nakahira Masahiko.

Sexual Healing

Wii game of this week is Trauma Center New Blood. Can't believe that it's just been a little over a year since I got my Wii & Trauma Center Second Opinion on launch date. Perfect timing to get back to my surgical skills. I'll get back to focusing on my fall orgy in the next post as I need to "let the rhythm guide my soul"...WTF? ^^.
Anyways, just want to wish any American readers a Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow and hope you score some sweet deals on Black Friday.

Passing Wind?

So here's the first item that I'm going in-depth after my fall orgy. As mentioned, I'm doing it this way due to distractions in life...and my overall laziness. The first item, I'm gonna go over is the Shining Wind Visual Collection of Visual Materials in which I had preordered way back in July. Luckily, I obtained scans from the book about a week after it's street date, thus, the wait wasn't too unbearable. Also, moyism gave his two cents on this book along w/ some nice photos months ago. I'll just give my take on the book and include some nicer pics....scans ^^. Note that scans are from the CHN version of the book but it's mostly the same.

The book is 160 pages and A4 size. The cover and pages have a glossy and shiny finish. Thus, indicating good quality for an artbook. The book is mainly split in 3 sections. 1/4 of the book is dedicated to awesome images for the game. So you get promo art for magazines, telephone cards and the like. The other images are events from the game.


Nearly 1/2 of the book is mainly dedicated to the characters in the game. With information on the characters as well as design notes.

The last half contains misc. info on the game. There's an interview. Artwork and info on the world of Leaveria, such as landscape and minor characters. Weapons art is also contained in this section along w/ some details on the some anime scenes. But I'll only show one worthy pic ;).

So should you pass on this wind? well, if you have even the slightest interest in T2's art or are a fan of the game, then this is a no brainer. People who have a fancy of collecting artbooks but may not necessarily be T2 fanatics would also do no wrong, as the book is of great quality for the price you're paying. It's actually the best artbook in the my order cuz not only was it cheaper than most of them but contained more art and was just of higher quality in general. I pretty much have the same sentiments as moy did and can't recommend this book enough. Definitely worth the buy.


Lastly, just want to show off Hisayuki's new site artwork (which I did already at the My-HiME/My-Otome animesuki forums). That's Elliot from S.ifr and the Subaru isn't anything new as Hisayuki did a drawing of Mai and Arika in Subaru racing gear for a fig.

Oh and of course, I bought Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles today ;).