Anime & Manga Horizon

Moderation

2009-11-23T08:37:00.002+08:00

Reference: Galaxy angel picture by Nyama.

Due to spams in comment by registered users over the last few months, I have set moderation/review on the comment prior to publishing.

Fate Unlimited Codes- Saber Lily

2009-10-21T23:42:00.004+08:00

The Saber Lily which I ordered back in has arrived. Was surprised that the shipping is cheaper than i thought, not to mention the big box. But the figure is expensive, 8866 Yen for early bird. The figure come with Caliburn and Excalibur as well as Avalon.

It's discontinued now... maybe they will release again in near future????

MG Sword Impulse

2009-04-29T20:51:00.002+08:00

Received my MG Sword Impulse today, wonder when I'd be able to finish this. I still havent finish my MG Destiny and MG Infinite Justice. :P

ARIA Winter Version

2009-03-12T21:13:00.003+09:00

The gashapon arrived on Tuesday and I was glad to have purchase this. The mini-figures are well crafted and done. It's a lot better than Toyswork which I glad I didnt get.

I was lucky to get another set of the popular young undines; Akari, Aika and Alice as spare since each box comprises 10 figures of 7 types.

It's now backordered at HLJ.

The box, the bookmarks???? and the mini-boxes.

Akari, Aika and Alice. Prima Akira, Athena and Alicia.

Akari, Ai, Alicia and Aria Sachou from ARIA Company

Akira, Aika and Himeya sachou from Himeya

Alice, Athena and Maa Sachou from Orange Planet

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T12:49:00.002+09:00

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Saber.... and Saber

2009-02-02T20:16:00.005+09:00

Just realized that my Gift Saber 1/8 PVC has been shipped by Hobby Search. This should be painful with EMS and weak AUD dollars. Managed to applied around 1176 point and cut 1/3 the shipping cost.

Nevertheless, I also place early bird pre-order for Saber Lily Avalon figure.

Ahhhhh... IT'S NOW ON SALE FOR ALMOST HALF PRICE AT HOBBY SEARCH!!!! DUH.......

ARIA The Illustration Avvenire

2009-01-17T11:31:00.003+09:00

Collected my ARIA The illustration Avvenire this morning from the post office. It arrived 2 days ago but I wasnt at home and I cant pick up until weekend.

I MUST SAY THIS IS AN AWESOME ILLUSTRATION BOOK!

This artbook comprises all the artwork for DVD, CD, PS and Promotional illustration for ARIA The Animation, ARIA The Natural, ARIA The Arietta and ARIA The Origination. In additionn, there are some illustration that I haven't seen before.

We are looking at 109 pages of illustration and 2 index listing the publication record of the illustrations.

My ARIA publication collection:

Final Fantasy Mini Collection 3

2009-01-10T16:46:00.004+09:00

The Final Fnatasy Mini collection No. 3 arrived with my ARIA Best selection Piano book on the 6th January 2009. That's the day someone bumped into the car at my rear and that car bumped into me, so unlucky. The 3rd collection features Tidus, Rikku, Aerith, Balthier and Fran.

The heroes of Final Fantasy VII, VIII, X & VII with their weapon of choice, except for Vaan the slacker.

The heroines of Final Fantasy VII, VIII, X & VII.

Current collection from all 3 mini collections. The fourth box has not been revealed yet. We still got the following characters, though I think they'll concentrate on human characters.

Remaining characters:
* Sephiroth, Vincent, Barett, Red XIII, Cait Sith, Cid, Yuffie (FF7)
* Quitis, Selphie, Zell, Irvine, Laguna, Kiros, Ward, Seifer (FF8)
* Surprisingly no characters from FFIX
* Wakka, Lulu, Kimahri, Paine (FFX, FFX-2)

My prediction of the next 5 designs for Collection 4 is from Sephiroth or Vincent, Yuffie, Selphie, Wakka and Paine.

P/S: Started my MG Infinite Justice assembly which I had back in october 2008. Decided to start with MG IJ. My MG Destiny Extreme Burst assembly which I got a year ago still not yet finished.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009!!!

2009-01-01T00:18:00.001+09:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009!!!

Happy New Year 2009!!!! Hope 2009 will be an exciting and smooth year! Hope better and more interesting anime releases in the new year.

Anime Review 2008

2008-12-30T23:22:00.001+09:00

These are my personal opinion and only on those anime that I watched. :)

My Favourite Anime of the Year
Aria The Origination, Gundam 00, Code Geass R2, Zero no Tsukaima III, Clannad, Conan Movie 12, Mai Otome 0 Sifr.
My Manga of the Year
ARIA, Prince of Tennis, Tsubasa Chronicles, One Piece

My Soundtrack Album/Theme of the Year

ARIA The origination OST
Clannad OST
Macross OST and selections

I rate the anime with my personal expectation and enjoyment, rather than the quality or the anime as a whole, which is often disputable and differ with people's interest.

Enjoyment:
Enjoyable: Anime which is enjoyable to watch
Fair/Content: Anime which is average or content to watch
Disappointed: Anime which is disappointing to watch

Expectation:
Above Expectation: Anime which exceed expectation or impression
As Expected: Anime which match expectation or impression
Below Expectation: Anime which fall short expectation or impression

Exceptional: Anime worth watching and enjoyable.
Terrible: Anime which is terrible. Not recommended

ARIA The Origination
The finale of the ARIA series. Très bien! All the episodes where the 3 young undine become Prima are beautifully choreographed. Music, background and setting all excellent. I actually wish they covered more episodes since there are a few chapters in the manga that are not animated. Nevertheless, it is great to see new episodes that are not from the manga and also beautifully done. The ending, similar to the manga, was sweet and fulfilling. Applaud to Kozue Amano for this wonderful series and Junichi Sato & crew for excellent animation of the series from Animation, Natural, Arietta to Origination.

Clannad
I'll make it simple. I like Clannad >>> Air and Kanon. Fuko's arc was my least favourite but the ending to the arc was good. I like the Makoto arc and also the way the first season end was excellent. Tomoyo chapter was unnecessary in my opinion but guess it's an ending that some people like.

Clannad After Story
Havent really get into this yet but the development is quite good from the preview and sumamry that I read.

Code Geass R2
One of my most anticipated series after season I, not because I like Code Geass but because it left as a major cliff-hanger! A bit disappointing at first but the cliff-hangers were answered gradually. While there are several storylines that I liked, I do find several arc rather weak. probably the worst arc was the part on Charles, Marianne, CC and Lelouch. However, the ending was strong with Lelouch sacrificing his life & name and Suzuka sacrificing his identity. As for the final ending, everyone come together (Black Knights, Britannia, Chinese Federation) for Ougi and Villeta wedding is a bit over. Anya and Jeremiah development is too short to be real. As for the real final ending, I believe Lelouch is dead rather than the ambiguity that people speculated. Poor CC is lonely, except she has her cheese-kun accompanying. Throughout the series, Kallen probably ended up as my favourite apart from Milly. Overall, the whole series is enjoyable and interesting to watch.

Detective Conan Movie 12 Full Score of Fear
I have anticipated Movie 12 as I am interested of how they would pull through the series with a music theme case. I do find it quite balance in terms of the story plot and the mystery. The scene on Akiba's persistence with her Amazing Grace to prevent the explosion is wonderfully potrayed. No doubt, one of the best among the 12 movies, corroborated by its earning figures. Cant wait for Movie 13: The Raven Chaser with Black Organization as the theme.

Dragonaut The Resonance
Cant remember what made me pick up the series but wish I didnt. Some of the dragons look terrible. But aAt least they are CG and no deformation in character illustration. Story plot towards ending is a bit hard to swallow especially the part where Kazuki repented.

Gundam 00 Season 2
Ah, Gundam 00, who can resist a Gundam series, even if you dont like the first series. Afterall, who wouldn't watch it just to have a glimpse at the over-powered Gundam 00 to compensate for Exia. At least they didnt make Gundam 00 God-like throughout the episodes. But now we got the 0-raizer + twin drive giving 290% output is a bit ridiculous. Anyway, there's a lot of twist and plots to anticipated so stay tune to the series. My least favourite character is still Saji. As for the mecha, what the heck is the Gundam face behind Tiera's Seravee. Anyway, with a spy in Ptolemis and stronger mecha from A-laws, thing should be interesting.

Ikkitousen Great Guardian
I still dont really fancy the storyline but the third instalment probably has the least reference to the Three Kingdom. If it wasn't for Shoukyou, I dont really want to watch the series. I still dont understand what this Saji Genpou shit is about.

Macross Frontier
Macross Frontier is above my expectation but the ending ruined it. The ending of Grace being the final antagonist and her mass destructive weapon is ridiculous. Nevertheless, love the macross mecha and the vocal soundtracks are probably among the best I heard so far.

Mai Otome 0 S.ifr
I love Mai Otome 0 S.ifr! It's even better than the Mai Hime, Mai Otome, Mai Otome Zwei. Wish it's more than 3 episodes! There's a lot more that they can tell on Rena Slayer but it wasn't covered. However, the fighting scene between Rena and the Garderobe Meisters are awesome! The scenes on Elliot having attraction towards Rena is amusing. How I wish there are more Mai Otome 0 S.ifr episodes.

Soul Eater
I was surprised to find that the anime is sponsored by Square Enix. I like the way the setting and characters are potrayed in an unique illustration manner. But then, I lost interest since the ressurection of Asura. Probably the most exciting bit for me was the part where Shinigami got serious, no more funny guy. The worst part is also the crona and stupid excalibur (It is not funny! It's boring).

Tales of Abyss
I really tried to watch it but it just doesnt appeal my interest enough to conitnue watching after episode 2. Need to find some time to continue watching it

Toaru Majutsu no Index
I only watched till episode 9 or 10 (heading to Makoto arc) and started to lose a bit interest in it. I wish they have more funny scenes of Index and Toma, especially eating scene.

Zero no Tsukaima Princess no Rondo
Zero no Tsukaima is always amusing to watch. At least one thing that the third instalment is better than the last tone is less bombing on Saito. Season 2 was ridiculous with same ending almost every episode. It's great that the third instalment focus more on Tiffania and Tabitha. I do find it interesting that Colbert isnt dead and now Kirche is in love with him, guess Fire attracts Fire. The part where the gang rebel against the order of Henrietta is great, except the circus attire they wore to Gallia sucks.

Other popular anime that I'm following; One Piece and Prince of Tennis National Champtionship OVA.

P/S: Done in a rush... will be updated tomorrow.. I hope..

Merry Christmas 2008

2008-12-24T22:04:00.005+09:00

Merry Christmas to you all!!!

Coutersy of moe.imouto

Have a wonderful celebration!

2007 Christmas Post
2006 Christmas Post

P/S: I like the fanart below.

AMH Forgotten Third Anniversary

2008-12-12T12:58:00.008+09:00

Gee... How could I... forgetting AMH 3rd anniversary..... November 28th...2 weeks ago.

Three (3) is rather good number for anime, apart from 4, as most anime tends to have 3 main heroines. Of course, my favourite anime with 3 main heroines are Ah! My Goddess and ARIA series.

ARIA, what an awesome finale to the series. Wish it lasted longer but it was sweet. Three young Prima undines succedding the Three fairies. Applaud to Kozue Amano for this wonderful series.

Ah! My Goddess... I wonder if I'll be seeing your 30th anniversary. As I mentioned before, the story is getting nowhere and latest story arc is about Hild being overthrown by Hagall.

Oh ya, just another picture of the 3 heroines that rock Japan animation in 2006.

As Christmas is coming and my compulsory leave starting soon, I shall spend sometime on the blog wrapping some end of year post just like the last 2 years.

Griffon Belldandy Figure

2008-12-12T10:57:00.002+09:00

Celebrating the 20th anniversary of Ah! My Goddess, Griffon has scheduled a Belldandy figure in March 2009 (which will then be 21st anniversary. The figure looks quite nice but I dont fancy the dress as it resembles something.Nevertheless, it's a worthwhile figure if you have about $US123 or 11800 Yen to spare excluding shipping charges.

Anyway, with the current exchange rates and the ownership of 2 Belldandy figures, I'll skip this one.

Hobby Stock

MIA II

2008-12-11T11:19:00.004+09:00

Yea... if it wasnt for a cold and flu, guess, I'll be MIA till Christmas.

Couple of updates

1. Bookcafe no longer offer online purchasing, so I have to revert back to the expensive Yesasia. Kinda wish that I bought Prince of Tennis 1-8 in the last order so that I wont have to settle for Yesasia now. The saddest is that I cant find ARIA CH V12 unless I get the TW version.

2. My brother got MG Impulse cheap from HLJ, sale + before the economy hurricane. We had to pay 0.016 instead of 0.011 conversion for MG Justice last month. By the way, my brother finished both his MG while my MG Destiny and MG Justice still......
But I have spray painted the skeleton to silver leaf which looks whiter than the gloss aluminium that my brother had on his Justice.

Madman Australia had a massive discount last week and yea... spend couple of hundreds to get 3 boxsets.

There're still some orders with HLJ and Hobby Search.
1. FF Mini Collection 3 and ARIA with HLJ
2. Tsubasa Piano Book and ARIA Aveniere with Play-Asia
3. FSN Saber figure with Hobby Search

Wanna buy a couple of DVD from Amazon but exchange rate is so not appealing at all.

Bookcafe awesome

2008-10-11T11:42:00.003+08:00

Beat that Amazon, Yesasia, Play-Asia. Ordered my stuff on Thursday and sent on Friday, arrived on Saturday.

Ordered 16 volumes of Prince of Tennis, HL2, Cross Game 11-12 and Tsubasa 24.

I couldnt get Aria 12, HL 1 and Prince of Tennis 41 as they are out of stock. Darn...

Still got 4 more books, Tsubasa 22 & 23, Pastel 19 and Aria 12. I try my luck with Yesasia on Aria 12. Not looking good as the other 3 are in stock now and Aria 12 still searching for suppliers.

I could have order them a lot earlier but Bookcafe upgraded to Verified by Visa card only, my cards cant complete the purchase process. Absolutely no problem with other site like HLJ, Amazon, Yesasia and Play-asia. Stupid. So I got myself a new card but by that time Aria 12 is out of stock.

Anyway, hope Yesasia can find one for me...

GSD Piano Book

2008-09-16T23:16:00.003+08:00

My favourite song for the Gundam Seed/Gundam Seed Destiny series.

The piano book comprises 50 selection from the anime Gundam Seed Destiny. I dont play piano but another musical instrument. Had always want the original score as I find most transcribed are not accurate (or different keys) but I do appreciate the effort of all transcibers out there.

Available at Play-asia.

ARIA Origination PS2 II

2008-09-16T22:46:00.003+08:00

Aria the Origination Aoi Wakusei no el Cielo Material Collection

Left: Agnes Dumas in 3 different undine uniforms
Right: Example of character profiles

Some scenes from the game.

Two of the most beautiful scene. Instead of having Akari or Alice for the hill scene and the promotion, you'd be able to experience the promotion from the choice of Alicia, Akira or Athena of your choice. Of course, must be the company you have chosen!

So you got promoted to single undine and the other undines congratulate you with a present

Received my ARIA Origination PSII Cielo gamebook. Basically the game offers role-playing as Agnes with a choice to join either of the 3 undine company. As you can see from the photos that I have taken, it's a good quality as the previous PS2 installment.

A wonderful collection for an ARIA fan!!!!

Available at Play-Asia.

ARIA Origination PS2 CD

2008-09-10T15:51:00.003+08:00

The Theme CD for Aria Origination PSII arrived today. Expecting the PSII Gamebook to arrive maybe next week?? Available at Play-asia.

*Graceful Way / Hana No Saku Hoshi / Il Cielo (Aria The Origination - Aoi Wakusei No Il Cielo Theme Song)

Short Note

2008-09-06T00:53:00.003+08:00

1. Play-asia broke my shipping... they said wont be more than my original shipping. Havent really check them. But here's what I'm going to receive.

* Aria the Origination Aoi Wakusei no el Cielo Material Collection (The new PS2 II Gamebook)
*Graceful Way / Hana No Saku Hoshi / Il Cielo (Aria The Origination - Aoi Wakusei No Il Cielo Theme Song)
*Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny Piano Solo Album

2. Placed the pre-order for Final Fantasy Mini Trading 3!!!

3. A pre-order for Griffin Saber figure at Hobby Search

4. Wanna place an substantial manga order but 2 manga are available but the system still had them as unavailable. Getting the online shop to fixe them. So maybe 30 or more manga by then...

5. Pre-ordered MG Infinite Justice.. Wooo Hooooo!!!!!!

Saber Gift Figure

2008-08-26T22:43:00.003+08:00

If I can I really want the pearl white version Saber that comes with the Fate Unlimited Code. But I dont wanna buy the game just for the figure.

Back to the topic, there's a new figure revealed today, the Gift Saber 1/8 figure scheduled for December release. I'm skeptical of Gift figure as I haven't come across much figure release by Gift. Nevertheless, it's good find this on GSC website. Hopefully, the quality's good given the affiliation? Anyway, the figure has exactly what I want, silver armour, full dress with crystal-like skirting and the sword. The risk that I'm taking;
1. The figure facial expression might turn out tasteless
2. The metalic armour may turn out rough and ugly
3. Figure turn out 80% uglier than the promo figure.

I prefer the facial expression on the right.

Nevertheless desptite all the risk I'm taking i have pre-ordered the Gift figure, cause it has the style and accessories that I want. If the quality comes out good, then I'll be overjoyed in December, else ......

ARIA Origination Perfect Guide

2008-08-07T19:50:00.001+08:00

Received my ARIA Origination Perfect Guide from HobbySearch yesterday and collected this morning. Had abrief look and saw a special navigation depicting around 6 pages of the moment Ai arrived on Aqua to join ARIA company as trainee/pair undine.

More after I read them....

MIA????

2008-06-23T22:25:00.003+08:00

I didnt check my blog stats but probably all my visitor think this blog is dead or probably dead.

Havent got the time and energy to update since I start working. At the moment, I got about 6-7 projects on hand and practically exhausted most of the evening when I reached home.

Anyway, I finally start assembling the MG Gundam Destiny which my bro gave me as a birthday gift back in Feb. Finished the body and the right arm.

Currently watching only a few anime like; Code Geas R2, Soul Eater and Macross. Just pick up Dragon Destiny Guardian (Gee, they didnt even bother to sensor this time). By the way, over the last few months, I watched through One Piece, 359 chapters of them!

As for manga, still the same; Cross Game and Tsubasa Chronicles. Glad that Hatsukoi Limited has finished, not really a fan apart from the female character designs. As usual, Conan and AMG are long-winded series that belong to never-ending story catergory. Air Gear, I only browse through when very bored.

As for purchases, only ARIA Origination guidebook and a SD Gundam on order. Nothing more. The new Kureha figure looks nice, but I have one already.

Ok, to the purpose of this post. Remember when 4 Mega Pixels was such a high-edge technology back in around 4 years ago? back then, 3.2M was the norm and I bought the Ixus 430 of 4Mpixels. It has served me very well, especially when I take photos of kids and need to be fast. Well, it has been years and I have decided to get a new one, an IXUS 85 IS, the slimest canon so far. It's a 10 Megapixel digital camera with latest tech such as image stabilizer, motion detection
and image noise reduction. I have also asked my bro to get an 8Gb SDHC memory card. Maybe I'll retake my figure or Gundam shot in near future to see the difference. ^^

So a tribute to my old camera and a welcome to my new camera.

My new digital camera!!!!!!!!

The new camera taken with the old camera and the old camera taken by the new camera. Confused?? :P

Taken with my Nokia 3.2Mpixel phone camera, showing the dimension between IXUS 430 and IXUS 85 IS, also revealing the low quality of a 3.2Mpixel phone camera.

Long Intro Short Series

2008-05-24T14:03:00.003+08:00

For those who read Hatsukoi Limited by Mizuki Kawashita, yes, chapter 32 is the finale!

It takes about 10 chapters to get things started and then you mess the series with a bomberman during the Valentine's Day. Then the guys went on a trip and confess and then next chapter is Ending?

So 32 chapter and 3 volume.... that's all after the comeback from Ichigo 100%????

So all those love chains and dozens of characters ... and last only 32 chapters????
(Why bother introducing new character every 2-3 weeks???)

Thankfully I wasn't anticipating or expecting anything great from this series.... else I'll end up with frustration.

Reminiscent Songs (Non Anime)

2008-05-20T23:50:00.004+08:00

Not anime-related, only that I recently purchased 2 compilations from Yesasia. One's a compilation/collection of chinese love songs I used to listen when I was a decade younger.

Released last year, Forever Love~finest collection of timeless love songs collection features 2 CDs with 32 tracks in total.

Also released last year was a compilation of Jacky Wu's song, The essential. He has recorded several unforgetable song and yes, the songs fit my era, which is a decade ago.

So, gonna listen to them in car tomorrow on the way to work. Can't wait for it!!!!!!

ARIA The Origination PS2

2008-05-13T23:31:00.004+08:00

Wow another instalment of ARIA PS2 DVD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 蒼い惑星のエルシエロ

Literally translated as The Blue Planet Erushiero, the DVD is scheduled for June 26th release with Limited Edition priced at 13,440円 and 7,140円 for Standard Edition. I hope there's a gamebook again this time...

Visit the Official Website!!!!!