All About ZHiME & Artbooks

Finally, the post I've been wanting to post for more than a month. If you haven't already noticed w/ a couple of my last posts/pics (aside from the My-ZHiME S.ifr post). I got some items before and after Christmas. But most were after Xmas. None were gifts, since I would got more 'practical' stuff this year. Anyways, just some the very late and latest stuff I got, since I don't get too much anime-related stuff each month now. Yup, you know me....artbooks galore!

My-ZHiME Graph Premium (!)
Ryu Final vol.1 (E)
Appleseed EX MACHINA 2D SE (R1)
Kite Liberator (R1)
Purgatory Kabuki vol.1 (E)
Change 123 vol.7 (J)
Black Lagoon vol.7 (HK)
Until Death Do Us Part vol. 6 (J)
Manyuu Hikencho vol.2 (J)
Hiderou Horibe Colors Artbook (!!)
All About Capcom
Art of Gyakuten Saiban
Yoko Portraits Artbook (!!)
Cloud 1 + Special DVD
Uno! Uno Makoto Artworks (!!)
Crisis Core FFVII PSP + Shinra UMD Case

So that's the list. I'll probably post some pics or scans from some of the artbooks in the future just for the hell of it. No promises since I'm a busy man. If anyone wants info on any of the items, lemme know. Some comments I want to make, Change 123: Absolutely love the cover since Fujiko's always been my fave. Kite Liberator: Pretty meh, didn't like how some things were left unresolved, didn't mind the abrupt ending. CCFF7: I got a lot of other games but only bothered showing CC cuz if one doesn't remember, I got the Japanese version last Sept., not too long after it's release. Finished it in Dec. I probably won't play this till much later. Only reason why I got it is to listen to the Eng. voices and I guess support SE ...again.

Anyways, The biggie and the one I'll go into detail is Otome Graph Premium book. The book is a major disappointment. There's hardly any new work at all. Maybe one or two that I think I haven't seen that are worth a mention. All promo images are various artworks seen from past mags, which is why I didn't take a photo of any spread from the beginning of the book (where most new artworks usually go in these kind of books). Like the previous books (Idol, Scoop, Graph), Premium gives quick details and brief summaries on some of the characters and the Series. In this case, My-ZHiME and My-ZHiME Zwei. There's a little bit on S.ifr for those wondering. Aside from the usual interviews w/ staff and cast, there's some stories and some panels of comics that are quite funny & entertaining. The best thing in Premium is some of the production sketches, most are old and ripped from the DVD booklets and novels (ie. Destiny, since zero non-Japanese fans purchased them....except me :P). There's a neat section detailing on the Meisters and their elements. The pics for that section are from Hisayuki's site & Graph if one has a good memory. Best part of the production sketches is the My★Maid section (For those who didn't know, My★Maid was announced not too long after My-HiME ended, it was the supposed sequel, this name was then changed to what we know now as My-Otome), which shows what some of the characters looked like had they decided to go in this direction. You can see the evolution. Arika's roommates were suppose to be this Sara Gallagher look-alike, Chris/Cris and Shiori (who kinda resembles Shion). The maid outfits/robes had their respective element symbols (ie. Mai's signature flame symbol, Natsuki had an ice symbol). There's also a cool sketch of Mai in a Vega (from Dendoh) style outfit. It's not really Vega but more like a hybrid of Vega and Sara's (Otome) outfit.

So in the end, Premium is probably the crappiest of the four as you don't get much new and exclusive artwork for you buck. Being the greatest HiME, ZHiME and Hisayuki fan, I took the plunge for you other fans. Latz.

New ZHiME OVA is 'Overloding' w/ 'Syphilis' and Win

So I hope y'all have watched S.ifr as this post will contain some spoilers. If you don't get the Syphilis part well, if you watched S.ifr and just listen to the characters say Sifr's name. It sounds like an attempted engrish Syphilis at times...to me, maybe I'm high ^^. Either way, it just makes me laugh almost everytime i hear them say..."See/shee-fuu-ruu". Or you can associate it w/ the yuri that goes on :P.

So yeah, episode 1 was amazing w/ good combo of fanservice in all categories: action, comedy, boobs (fuck yeah lena, no thank you Sifr), some drama, yuri, homages. Hisayuki, you are definitely my hero. Great job as director and really dug Lena using the Lofty Crimson Jade/Ayane robe [which I showed from the novels oh sooo long ago (1/NSFW), (2)]. Love the ED credit image w/ old and new charas.

The DVD arrived today and even though I watched it thrice yesterday, I gave the DVD a go w/ 2 more viewings. Thus, showing how much I'm loving it. However, Sifr is killing me. She's too annoying, first viewing was okay but it grated on me in the subsequent watches. She's too much like Arika (not that I hate Arika mind you) and they're not related...wtf, so don't give me that she passed it down bullshit as S.ifr is an afterthought of the series. But I'm just hating her as she's 'copying' Arika's charm.

SO, yeah, DVD is your standard stuff, there's no FP or LE. Standard DVD only and the booklet doesn't contain any new concept art that the official site and other sites have shown you save maybe for Lena in Lofty Crimson Jade robe.

As you can see, I also got the 舞-乙HiME Dream Box from last month. The box is kinda boring to look at. Chipboard quality. It houses 3 DVD cases.
The fan disc doesn't include an insert of any kind. The ZHiME movie doesn't inlcude a booklet but houses a pack of postcards featuring the R2 covers.


The ZHiME Zwei movie is the same. Just postcards of the R2 covers but has 2 extra postcards that were promo images during Zwei's release.

That's it for now, next post I'll show ya the otaku stuff I got over the past couple of months I've been away for. Nothing too exciting I guess.

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.

A Return to Orgasmic Proportions

My Amazon Japan package finally arrived after my many months of hyping. First time I went thru Fedex w/ them. Still got hit w/ customs but packaged seemed to be safe and intact. The box was quite huge and weighed 10 lbs. Anyways, as per usual, the items in the box were filled with Hisayuki/My-HiME/My-Otome swag and artbooks galore. I think I mentioned before that I hardly buy anime series DVDs now. I'll mostly be collecting R2s of any HiME/ZHiME/whatever-Hime/Hisayuki related anime items and a few anime movies. There are 2 anime series that are licensed for R1 that I may (or may not) buy in the future.

So items shown above include Ripe Sano Toshihide Artworks, Sano Toshihide Illustrations (since 'y'allready' know I'm a huge Sano fan), Shining Wind Collection of Visual Materials (since y'all know I'm also a huge T2 fan), Sekirei Engagement (cuz y'all didn't know I'm a Sekirei & Sakurako Gokurakuin fan), R2 My~ZHiME Zwei Limited Edition vol.4, My~HiME Destiny Ryu no Miko novel, My:HiME & My:Otome My Collection mook (since y'all know I'm the greatest HiME/ZHiME fan), Queen's Blade Claudette (cuz y'all know I'm the biggest Hisayuki Hirokazu fan), Nuye Kagami Visual Works (because you all should've known that I'm huge Kagami/Utility-pole Spirit fan) and R3 Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo Limited Edition DVD (cuz y'all didn't know i dug the movie and have always been a huge Yoshiyuki Sadamoto fan).
Well, unlike other orgy posts, I won't go into details of all the artbooks and items...for now. I'm gonna leave 'em for a future post (which I hope is soon as I'm always busy now). But here's a sample of the goodness to come courtesy of the Shining Wind Visual Materials book (scans were obtained months ago, like hell I'd scan mine :P).