Yup! It was bound to happen! A “Gothic Lolita” version of Haruhi from the wildly popular anime The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. At $130.00 USD, this pre-painted 1/7-scale resin figure features Haruhi in a gothic black-and-white dress, adorned with red roses and red shoes, and featuring her optional musical attachment: Her electric guitar! And according to this accompanying link, Mikuru and Yuki are soon to follow! Gotta have them! But damn, too pricey. Maybe I’ll wait for the PVC versions, lol.
Monthly Archives: May 2007
Blog 071 > Blood Red Garden
Damn. I finally had a chance to start watching the 2006 anime Red Garden. Fantastic. A Japanese series set in an American city — New York City. A black mystery surrounding a high-school girl’s death. A surprising yet touching use of tragic song. With an intense style conjuring the look and feel of BOTH Ergo Proxy (5 of 5 stars) and NANA (5 of 5 stars). I’ve only caught the first few episodes so far, but with a total of 22 installments, this has every potential to earn my 5 of 5 stars!
Blog 070 > Past & Future Circumstances!
Hey folks! If you don’t already know, I follow the otaku blog DannyChoo.com. Not blindly, lol, and not only for otaku news, but also for inspiration. And inspiration smacked me yesterday with Danny’s post on fan art of his mascot Mirai Suenaga. I’ve had several lingering ideas over the last months — okay, maybe just one idea, lol — but I was always too lazy to execute. Well, this time, I was fired up. The idea: Take the amazing and classic His & Her Circumstances (Kare Kano) image of Yukino and Arima dancing in the high-school hallway (seen here), and fuse it with Mirai. But how? Who would be her partner?
Blog 069 > Vacation Day 2 of 6
Day Two of Six! The next dozen photos show much-much older photos, originally taken around the time of my Mom and Dad’s graduation from medical school in 1967. In mid-1967, Mom was age 23, and Dad was age 25. Needless to say, these old photos have always amazed and mesmerized me as a little kid and even today as a grownup guy, but now I’ve finally captured them in digital form. Amazing, lol.
Blog 068 > Vacation Day 1 of 6
Okay, Gentle Readers, here’s my first batch of vacation pics and vids, set in chronological order! During the 5-hour flight from Las Vegas to New York’s John F Kennedy airport, I met a funny blond kid, about 12 years old, named Ethan, not only a self-proclaimed expert on Africa (except the cities, lol) and the solar system (except the moons, lol) but also the future husband of Britney Spears’ little 16-year-old sister Jamie Lynn, lol.
Blog 067 > Return from East Coast Vacation!
Hey, I’m back from my 6-day East Coast Vacation! Over 300 pics! Nearly 2 hours of video! So give me a few days to sort the whole mess out, lol. Meanwhile, here’s one pic taken by me, and one taken by Mom, at the Long Island Chinese restaurant “Palace of Wong” where we picked up some dinner after my parents picked me up at John F Kennedy airport. My first day back in New York! But now I have a question…
Blog 066 > Ikki Lolitas!
Finally, a new figure photoshoot! Nearly a month since my last photoshoot! This time, I’m presenting my 1/7-scale gothic-lolita “Ryomou” (standing) delivered back on January 1st, 2007, and my 1/7-scale gothic-lolita “Kanu” (kneeling) delivered back on December 5th, 2006. Both characters appear in the sexy martial-arts anime series Ikki Tousen (4 of 5 stars, my maximum for half-season!).
While the 9-inch-standing Ryomou was sculpted by Hiroman, and the 4.5-inch-kneeling Kanu by Satoshi Ishiyama, both PVC figures were manufactured by Orchid Seed in the frilly black-and-white “Gothic Lolita” style. (Additional recolored versions are available in the pink or striped “Alice Lolita” style.) As an added bonus, Kanu’s white top is detachable to reveal her fullness. I haven’t detached it yet, lol. For this Canon photoshoot, I saved 50 shots, then narrowed it down to these 35 shots. Enjoy!
Otakurl it! >>
My Anime Figure List >>
Click for Full Photoshoot (35) >>
Blog 065 > Tutoring Vanessa = Chowking!
Definitely not your typical Mother’s Day Sunday! At a very-early 8am in the morning, Vanessa and Darrell visited my house, so I could help tutor Vanessa in HTML and Photoshop for her Web Programming class. Meanwhile, with his late nightclub job, Darrell decided to crash on my couch, lol. The original plan was 7am, but they were running late, and even then, a few hours wasn’t enough.
Fighting her allergies and our insurmountable hunger as I guided her on the details of table coding, hex coloring, image editing, inline framing, hyperlinking, and general layout according to her basic but elegant design, Vanessa didn’t finish her website project until 1pm! Five hours! But on the plus side, she tells me it saves her five weeks! Take a look at her website design in the following screenshots…
Blog 064 > Stuffed Pocky?
Hmmm, what does the American men’s magazine Stuff have to do with the popular chocolate-covered Japanese treat Pocky? Well, not much, lol. That is, until this past week, while having some breakfast before work… when I turned to page 58-59 of the Stuff March 2007 issue. In the first pages of the “SPEND” section — “SNACK ATTACK!” — Pocky is actually featured as choice “A5”, lol. Check out the following close-ups of what the magazine says…
Blog 063 > Another Alias?
A couple of posts ago, I mentioned that “Vanessa convinced me to start watching her Alias (2001; Jennifer Garner) in exchange for her watching my Dark Angel (2000; Jessica Alba), lol.” Well, after having watched the first five episodes of Alias Season 1, one thing became exceedingly clear: Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow looks A LOT like my ex-sister-in-law Lisa!!! So to demonstrate their strong resemblance, I’ve put together several side-by-side composites, including two more below… Maybe you’ll agree?
Blog 062 > Seven of Nine
+++++ Star Trek Voyager – Season 4 (1-26) – Started 07/15/06. Finished 05/05/07. My speed review: “DOUBLE-WOW! The Borg! Seven of Nine! Still one of the best Trek seasons ever!” (5 of 5 stars!)
As I might have mentioned in previous posts, I finally finished Star Trek Voyager, Season 4 (1997) for the second time, after starting it nearly ten months ago! (The first time was back in 1997-1998.) I should probably blame Battlestar Galactica for breaking me away from anime moreso than usual, lol. But clearly, the most outstanding feature of this already remarkable crew was the introduction of Seven of Nine, played by Jeri Ryan. Her character combines the most recognized features of the Star Trek universe: The Vulcan-style “logic” and full-figured “femininity” of early Trek, fused with the greatest innovation and most-elaborate adversary of modern Trek — the Borg Collective — first introduced in The Next Generation.
In Voyager Season 4, Seven not only further defines the series via the complex relationship between Borg and human, machine and man, but also as a substantial adversarial foil for the convincingly quick-witted Captain Kathryn Janeway. Intriguingly, their friendship is reminiscent of the Kirk-Spock emotional-logical contrast, an absent Trek element that isn’t quite missed until it reappears with Seven-Janeway. Add to that, Jeri Ryan’s visual and vocal beauty, and her memorable assimilation is complete, lol!… 5 of 5 stars! I hope to start Season 5 (1998) again soon!
Blog 061 > Just Eleven So Far
In 2006, I watched 58 anime series in 8 eight months, or 7+ series per month! Sadly, in 2007, I’m off to a pathetically slow start: Just 11 anime series in 4+ months. The reason for this: Amazing live-action series like the new Battlestar Galactica – Season 3, new Smallville – Season 6 and rewatching the older Star Trek Voyager – Season 4 (1997) which introduces “Seven of Nine” (Jeri Ryan) for the first time. And now, my best bud Vanessa convinced me to start watching her Alias (2001; Jennifer Garner) in exchange for her watching my Dark Angel (2000; Jessica Alba), lol.
So now, in an attempt to catch up with my anime, it’s time to give my long-delayed reviews of the 11 series I’ve seen so far this year, ranging from the super-cute 1992 series Sailor Moon to the ultra-violent 2006 series Black Lagoon – The Second Barrage … I hope you enjoy the ride!
Blog 060 > The Filipino Experience!
Most of you have heard of the “Star Trek Experience” thrill-ride at the Las Vegas Hilton, right? Well, today was quite a “Filipino Experience”! Weeks or months ago, when my best buddy Vanessa first mentioned the Filipino fast-food chain “Jollibee“, I was pretty skeptical. Apparently, it’s quite popular in California as well as the Philippines of course. But the “McDonald’s” of Filipino cuisine? Fast-food spaghetti? Hmmm, I wondered if it could be like Panda Express, but yeah, skeptical…
Blog 059 > Enter the Construct!
Whoa! After more than 3 years (sparked by Trialia’s inquiry), the dead Constructfic.org has been resurrected as ConstructFic.com, home of the best Matrix fanfics on the net! While it’s still in a state of reconstruction (maybe 25% so far), rest assured, The Construct will be fully online as soon as the Real World allows. Hopefully, in a matter of weeks. Enjoy!