I should start off this entry by saying it’s been about four months since I’ve see Macross Frontier ~Itsuwari no Utahime~ in Japan, so my memories are pretty foggy. However, thanks to the movie pamphlet and the general story of the series I can still more or else give Macross F fans an idea of how awesome the movie is!

To be blunt, if you’ve been following the TV series the movie will not be that new to you. I would say the movie is roughly 50-70% straight TV footage and general storyline while everything else is movie specific. Specifically, I would say from the beginning of the TV series until the first major battle with the Vajra during Sheryl’s final Macross Frontier concert.

I’ll get into the movie specific plot in a bit but to continue like me run down the characters real quick. To cut some time on the love triangle, pretty much everyone (or specifically Alto) knows Sheryl and Ranka in the movie. They do show via quick flashback scenes how each met (pretty much the same in the TV series) but I did like how they saved audience’s time with such introductions.

Obviously with the movie only being like an 1 1/2 hours long, the majority of character development went to the three leads, i.e. Alto, Sheryl, and Ranka. I would say for Alto, he’s pretty much SERIOUS BUSINESS in the sense he’s not as undecided about his career and whatnot. Still uber girly looking, though ^^;; Sheryl actually has some development really being more, I guess, down to earth? Don’t know how to put it exactly, but I guess she shows more of her emotions openly versus Alto chipping away at them like in the TV series? Ranka, on the other hand, got to show more of her drive to become a singer/idol and it was great to see that determination a bit more drawn out versus how it was in the TV series.

Going back to the plot, and warning now but these are total spoilers, the movie specific add-ons definitely added a nice touch and overall improvement to the series. Just listing some off the top of my head, one of the biggest is Sheryl is in the know of Grace’s project/communicating with the Vajra… or at least knows Ranka’s “Aimo” song; something like that ^^;;

Also nice and an easy way to get his character involved at the start, Brera is Sheryl’s bodyguard. I don’t think him and Ranka being siblings was established in the movie although I think he knows… really forgot or I could be mixing this up from the TV series.

There’s probably a lot more I’ve forgotten about the movie but two more things I have to mention related to the plot before I forget. Even bigger than Sheryl knowing about the Vajra, MICHAEL FRICKING LIVES! Yes, during the final major battle where you just know he’s going to bite the dust, they pull the wool over our shoulders and have the man live! How crazy is that!?

Really the only thing that topped MICHAEL FRICKING LIVING was the epic, and I do mean epic, final battle during Sheryl’s pirateship live. The concert, fighting, singing… just everything was 100x better than anything the TV series gave us! Like if I wasn’t going to buy the DVD/Bluray of the movie prior to this scene, after the final battle, I would have been sold otherwise! That’s just how insane the final battle & concert scenes are!

I know I didn’t really give much of a review but rather “oh I vaguely remember this and that” free-flowing post, but if I had to say one thing about the movie it would be this: BUY IT!

Even if you’ve never watched Macross F, I believe the movie did a good job of setting up the characters and showed the plot in a way that anyone could enjoy. Heck, the friend I bought to watch the movie with me doesn’t understand Japanese and I could only give him a general rundown of the series, but still enjoyed the movie nonetheless (actually he liked it a lot more than One Piece: World’s Strongest which I thought he would have liked better since OP is pretty straight forward to watch). It may be the lack of sleep talking but I must admit I was pretty impressed with the Macross F movie never expecting it to make me like the series more after watching…

… though I do got to admit seeing Sheryl more dere dere didn’t hurt to improve my opinions either!

Oh, just in case you’re wondering all the images in this post are from the random scans I did from the movie pamphlet one could buy. Sorry if the scans aren’t that great but I’m way too tired to even try to re-do them.

And before I forget, btw this is another spoiler, I remember reading on some site when the movie initially came out, they thought Sheryl’s “Welcome to My Fan Club Night!” outfit’s (i.e. the cowgirl looking one) skirt was dynamite or something. Well to put people’s fear aside, they are in fact not dynamite but mini-rocket boosters that get put into good use to save her at one point ^^;;

… also, the iSlug gets a nice upgrade to orange which was weirdly one of the first things I noticed once the movie started.

Okay, I’ve definitely run out of anything useful at this point, so I’ll leave the rest of the post to the scanned images of the postcards one could also buy for the movie ^^

This post is more for myself so I have a list of sorts of what I want to buy while in Japan and also to help keep my budget somewhat in check. Obviously this doesn’t include day-to-day expenses like food, transportation, housing, the random “WTF”, and other folks’ “buy this for me” wish lists but…

Nana Mizuki’s LIVE ACADEMY Concert

For more info about the goods, head over to danie sensei’s blog. I thought initially I was going to try to get everything but honestly there’s some crap there that just isn’t worth the money.

Conversely, there’s some stuff I’ll probably get a double of like the calendar and card sets. Maybe also the cap since I do plan to actually wear it but would like one that doesn’t have all my sweat on it as a keeper ^^;;

Total: 44900 yen (roughly depending on what doubles I get)

AKB48 Request Hour Set List Best 100 2010 LIVE at SHIBUYA-AX

I’ve fallen pretty bad for the AKB48 fandom, ’tis all I have to say orz

… but to sum up this DVD, basically AKB48 has a yearly countdown of the top 100 fan voted songs that usually span 4 days. The great thing about these concerts other than getting to hear and see your favorite song(s) sung, is they always invite graduated members to come back to sing if it used to be their sub-unit song. So fans get their chance to see old members come back and perform songs that just aren’t the same if it weren’t for said member(s).

Also the Shinbuya AX concerts are a good primer if you want to hear the wide range of AKB48 songs (and trust me, there are A LOT) before you dive deeper into the fandom. They helped me a lot when I got started and are actually 10x more enjoyable after you know who’s who and what song is what ^^;;

Total: 20300 yen

AKB歌劇団「∞・Infinity」

For more information, check out STAGE48. There’s yuri action for those interested

Total: 5980 yen

AKB48’s “Sakura no Shori”

I actually have three copies of the CD single already (one Type A and two Type B) but figured since I’ll be in Japan, may as well get the theater version as well (which can only be picked up at their official shop).

Total: 1600 yen

Kamen Rider W – CycloneJoker (S.H.Figuarts)

First off, photo credit goes to the awesome TASTE. Second, I blame AKB48 for getting me into Kamen Rider W since two of their members happen to guest star in the series. Checking their related episodes led to downloading the currently released episodes which led to checking out other Kamen Rider series to well… yea ^^;;

Total: 2500 yen

Kamen Rider W – Heatmetal (S.H.Figuarts)

See above for the reasons why I’m want this.

Total: 2500 yen

Kamen Rider Decade – Diend

Photo credit goes to TOMOPOP. So after watching Kamen Rider W, I jumped back a series and started to check out Decade. Overall not a bad series and it was kind of cool seeing past Kamen Riders in it if anything else.

As for the figure, well Diend is pretty cool and got to admit, your gun as your henshin “belt” is something new to me! And at least he isn’t pink like the main character ^^;;

Total: 2800 yen

Queen & Elizabeth’s “Love Wars”

CD single with two AKB48 members (Tomomi Kasai and Tomomi Itano) tying into the Kamen Rider W series. You can see the full PV if you click the image and overall, it’s a decent pop-ish song so…

Total: 1890 yen

Minori Chihara’s “Sing All Love”

Yes I already have the Bluray edition but I need to pick up the normal and DVD editions to support her. Also may try to get the other photo cards from the various stores if I actually remember which has which.

Total: 6800 yen (if I’m just picking up the normal and DVD versions)

Maaya Sakamoto’s Birthday Live

I have no idea what they’ll be selling at her concert but odds are I’ll be picking up at least her recently released Everywhere album celebrating her 15 years in the business.

Total: 3780 yen?

AKB48 DVD Magazine Vol 3

I have to get this DVD (although I already have the rips) since this is during the time AKB48 was in NYC, including their Webster Hall concert ^_^

Also yes, you can see myself and few others in the audience during the concert if you know where to look ^_~

Total: 6000 yen

And surprisingly, that’s all I want to buy at the moment. Totaling at roughly 96350 yen, it’s actually not as bad as I thought. Really only Nana’s concert merchandise and the AKB48 Shinbuya AX concert are going to kill me but otherwise pretty straight forward purchases.

Knowing myself though, I’ll probably end up buying something totally random and expensive just cause or it was something I “wanted”. I just hope it won’t be anything too big since I don’t have THAT much free luggage room ^^;;

The world must be coming to an end as I’ve updated this blog three days straight! Even if the posts are crappy, that’s probably the most I’ve ever updated the blog in months! Go me!

Anyway this update is an oldie but goodie, my quarterly(?) room photo post! Really mostly to satisfy @prajantr’s curiosity to see what my otaku room is like, I figured may as well make a post while I’m at it. For those that have been following my “otaku room” series, all I can say is I’m sorry and man, every post I always have more crap in ‘em ^^;;

Basically what it looks like as soon as you walk in. Really not much has changed since last time other than more figures and posters, which I’ll go into more detail in a bit.

More figures and stuff I’ll probably never open due to space. Also cleaned up the magazine mess moving them to their own shelving.

Figures you’ll see as you go to the bathroom. Tis been the same for months/years I believe.

The two Nanoha figures any decent fan with the money should have. Lovely figures from what I can tell through the box and seeing others’ photos. Probably will never open them since I’ll be too lazy to dust them off; plus I don’t have any room at the moment ^^;;

My DVD/Bluray/Signed items shelves. Had to reorganize the whole shelf, basically cramming more DVDs per shelf to make room for my non-anime DVDs/Blurays. Also the two big tubes you see hold my various posters that I don’t put up but are somewhat important to keep safe (i.e. my Nana and AKB48 ones).

Probably can’t tell from the image, but every DVD that’s displayed in the front part of the shelves are all signed. Have fun guessing (if you can see at all) who signed what media!

Mostly the big figures I can’t fit in the glass cabinets and whatnot.

The bed and probably one of the few times you’ll ever see it half-way decently made ^^;; New poster since last time as well, Atsuko Maeda from AKB48 from her 2010 calendar that I picked up while in Japan. Not bad and you have to admit, 90% of the time any poster looks 5x better framed versus not framed right?

Basically my “back” wall? Also another new poster, Haruna Kojima from AKB48 looking good in that blue one piece dress. Sadly I’m really out of room for these posters as maybe, I can hang two more if I pushed it. It’ll be interesting to see what I’ll do once that happens…

Just a quick shot of my HTC Touch Pro 2 in its cradle. Really glad I picked up the cradle for like 12USD on ebay; really it just allows me to stand up my phone so I can use it as an clock/alarm when I wake up in the morning XD

You’ll also see I moved all my magazines and artbooks to these shelves to save/maximize the space I have left. Sadly also running out of room here as well.

Where any good otaku will spend a majority of their freetime when they’re a NEET orz

Closer look at my PC setup and yes, I’m still loving the portrait monitor setup!

Scanner, mini-fridge, and misc clear file folders I’m using to sort various crap. Mostly seiyuu photo cards and other billing stuff, nice to finally find a use for the folders!

My tower of CDs and one of my (still) favorite Minorin shots. God I won’t tell you how long it took me to sort my CDs in alphabetical order, but let’s just say I was mighty glad when I was done ^^;;

Got to watch anime, Nana, and various idols on a big screen right? Surprisingly no big screen upgrade this time around, although that’s mostly due to financial issues rather than any personal reason not to ^_~

Bought a cheap “game chair” to sit while under the kotatsu which makes things a lot better than sitting on the bare cold floor.

Yes, I know I need to dust. Badly.

Very Badly.

Picked up a second glass shelf many moons ago to move all the figures I had lining around the plasma and whatnot. Looks better plus they get less dusty that way.

It’s sad they’re both completely maxed out although I could use a third one if I ever find room or the money to do so ^^;;

FFXIII soda can (yes somehow it made it in one piece from Japan to HK to USA) and random figure boxes I’m keeping as well as Japanese PC/PS2/PSP games in the back.

Theme: put as many figures as possible and luckily pull off a “bunny girl & maid” theme at the end

Theme: play figure tetris to see how many figures I could get in on a shelf without activating the row deletion feature ^^;;

Theme: Rock ‘n Roll?

Theme: Nanoha, Swimsuits, and Dust!

Theme: Dust v2 and Gundams!

Theme: Stuff the big figures and pray nothing falls

Theme: Red red red red!

Theme: Junk the figures until you can junk no more!

Theme: Wedding Dress with reincarnated warriors as guards?

And that ladies and gentlemen, sums up another fun trip to moyism’s “otaku room”. Stay tuned until next time when I will probably do something financial stupid again only to regret/enjoy whatever ill-gotten gains it’ll be!

If you are looking for an in-depth review or something actually worth reading, I would highly suggest checking out animemiz’s report instead. If, however, you would like something entertaining or want to kill a few minutes reading an “old man’s” ramblings, continue on as I’ll give the quick 411 on Utada’s “In the Flesh” concert in NYC!

I was debating whether or not to tell it in my usual style of “play by play” (like I do for the majority of my cons posts), but seeing that would lead to a lot of dead air time (i.e. ranting about 7+ hours standing in line) I decided to skip that. Instead I’ll just give the good, bad, and overall impressions to save the hassle.

On the bad, this really had to do with the venue’s management. I’ll admit I don’t do concerts, like ever, but out of the few I’ve been to I would have to say the Fillmore’s was the worst. What I mean by that is how once they started to let people in the actual building, any sense of order was thrown out the window. Beside normal security checks, getting into the actual venue was a mad rush with everyone waiting an additional 30 minutes before they would let us to where the stage was. During that time, the line ended up being lines and once the door was opened to the stage, it was like cramming 10 people at a time into a door opening that only fit 2 people at most. Plus people pushing like mad to get through the already crowded venue just made it all the more annoying. Great right?

Luckily venue management issues was pretty much it, as beside that, the concert itself was great. Like out of the dozen or so Japanese related ones I’ve seen live, easily the top 5 hands down! Utada definitely knows how to work the audience and kept everyone thoroughly pumped through her 20-odd song set list. Obviously my big favorites were her japanese songs with “First Love” being the top, but even her english stuff (which I did not like initially) grew on me as the night went by. I was thoroughly glad she stuck to her more popular and mainstream Japanese songs as its really her older songs that made Utada well, Utada Hikaru for me. I won’t go into more details on why but let’s just say after a certain time period, Utada’s songs have been hit and miss for me since ^^;;

Not really have seen any of Utada’s Japanese concerts (beside Nippon Budokan, what others have been released on DVD?), I was quiet surprised at how good she was during the various MCs. I guess since I’m used to seeing MCs a certain way after watching god knows how many other Japanese concerts, it was refreshing and weird at the same time for Utada to be pretty normal/American(?) during hers. I mean, how many Japanese artists during their MCs would bitch about the venue’s pillars (Boston), call the audience crazy for camping out (NYC), or tell them to shut up (playfully) for being too enthusiastic for cheering her on? Plus she was freely switching between Japanese and English depending on the song/mood, which had my brain working overtime to boot! Actually, on this, I have to admit it was kind of sad I understood her better when she MC’ed in Japanese versus English. I think it had to do with how she was talking; not in term of accent (she had none really) but grammatically (edit: thanks wah, my English goes down the crapper the later it gets) I guess? Like if she switched some wording around, whatever she was saying would have sounded smoother? This was more obvious to me in the beginning but I think as the night went on and Utada got more in the mood, it disappeared. Heh, go fig, but I guess it simply comes down to not being used to having a predominantly Japanese singer speak normal english ^^;;

Overall though, excellent concert and totally worth the 40USD, 7+ hours of waiting in line outside in the cold, and having my feet totally destroyed. Would I do it again if I had to? Definitely. I mean as much as Utada may not be as uber popular as she was during her peak, she’s Utada fricking Hikaru! Easily one of the artists that got me interested in Jpop back in the days whom career I’ve seen only get better and better (for the most part) since she started! Plus there are only so many chances to meet and hear artists of her caliber in Japan, let alone in the US, so for foreign fans like myself there’s just no excuse not to take the chance when available!

Just in case I sleep in way too long or get too lazy about it, Happy Chinese New Years to those that celebrate! Hope everyone can enjoy the holiday (CNY, Valentines, whatever) peacefully!

… And while I unfortunately got nothing for the ladies, for the guys at least, here’s an additional eye candy shot of Oshima Mai (former member of popular idol group AKB48) they can enjoy:

I swear I did not simply change my blog layout because super rats did as well; timing was just weird like that! Also, 2+ brownie points for anyone that knows who the girls are in the post image I’m using. Hint, they’re not seiyuus ^^;;

Anyway, and as seem to be the norm looking at past entries, I switched around my blog theme again to spice things up… or at least give the illusion that I can be productive with the blog when I need to ^^;; The new theme, Magazine Basic, really made my life easy as I hardly had to edit much of the code to my taste as the creators already made all the options accessible via GUI instead! Really, the longest part was finding an image to use for the front page, which after much soul-searching, I think worked out well.

For said image girl, I’ll let you all guess who it is although it’ll probably be pretty easy ^^;; As an FYI, I’ll probably make a few more banners and have them randomly rotate as the days go by as long as I don’t get too lazy about it, so look forward to more eyecandy!

So beside actually getting off my uber lazy butt for once, I’ve also scanned in a few tokutens I got recently and while in Japan that I thought I’ll share. Mostly Nana Mizuki’s stuff, I also have some random Yukari Tamura scans to hopefully settle the non-Nanatards down ^^;;

From one of the stores in Japan (either animate or toranoana) for Nana’s “Mugen” CD. Close up of Nana FTW!

From HMV for Nana’s “PHANTOM MINDS” CD. Not much to say other than it’s very colorful O_o

Princess/Queen Nana from HMV from her “Silent Bible” CD ^_^

Scan from a flyer I took while in Japan when visiting Tokyo’s Anime Center in Akiba. Also around the time the Layton movie was coming out so…

From HMV with Nana’s “ULTIMATE DIAMOND” album; forgot if it came with the normal or limited edition (yes I have both) ^^;;

From either animate, toranoana, or gamers in Japan when I picked up her “You & Me” CD single. Actually like this shot a lot for some reason.

In Japan from one of the stores above ^^;;

And just for kicks, scanned in the Haruhi movie flyer I picked up when in Shinjuku watching various anime movies in Japan. Currently out, hopefully I’ll be able to catch it when I’m in Japan next month, along with the Nanoha and Fate/Stay Night movies!

So after months of saying I am going to Japan in March, I finally sat down and planned out the darn trip. Figured while I was making the plans, may as well post about it and see if I can get anyone else to join in on the hi-jinks that may ensure!

Initial planning has me in Japan for at least 2-3 weeks, with me leaving the US around March 9-10th and going back around April 3-4th, depending. For lodging, looking through hostelworld.com, Backpackers Hostel Ks House will probably be the best bet and relatively cheap to boot (like $40/night per person)! So with just travel and lodging, I’m already looking at ~$1600USD which I don’t think is too bad considering how long I’m planning to stay.

On the actual stuff I plan to do, want to at least hit up two seiyuu concerts. Nana Mizuki hopefully in Yokohoma March 13/14th and Maaya Sakamoto at Budokan March 31st (I think?). Haven’t even attempted to find their tickets yet but I figure I’ll figure something out (or bug folks who know better what to do). Beside that, hopefully will check out a few anime movies like Haruhi’s, Fate/Stay Night’s, and Nanoha’s (if the last 2 are still playing) as well. Also seeing some sakura action will be nice assuming my timing is right and I can find where they’re blossoming.

Other than the above, I’ll probably just wander around and try not to spend too much money in general ^^;; Hopefully if I can get some folks to go along (looking at animemiz, Omo and his various crew for example), there will be stuff they will want to do as well. I’m pretty much up for anything as long as someone convinces me to do it, which depending on what it is, isn’t that hard ^^;; For example, since I’ll be in Japan for a bit thinking of hitting up Kyoto for a day or so depending on what my plans may be.

So yea, I’m pretty psyched but praying I’ll have someone to tag along with. ‘Cause as much as I can do Japan solo, it’ll be 1000x better with a buddy or two. If anyone is interested in going with me or doing some type of meet up while in Japan, let me know! I’ll be more than interested and definitely in this case, the more the merrier!

FYI if there is anyone interested in going to Japan with me, please let me know if you can or not by the end of January. I need to book the hostel at least a month in advance else lodging may be living off the streets for awhile XD

Quick little post to start off the new years. With boredom re-settling in after being back in the States for about two weeks, figured I may shave a few minutes by changing wallpapers for once. Surprisingly the last time I did a “major” wallpaper switch was back in July of 2009; about six months which isn’t too bad for me, I guess. After much soul searching (*laughs*) I decided to do something a bit different…

… and change one of my monitors to portrait mode!

Honestly could not tell you why I decided to do so other than seeing random folks do it once in a blue moon. I must say, while I’m still getting used to it, portrait mode with a decently sized monitor really rocks! On the wallpaper end, you have like 9304812 more options as most photos/scans are done in portrait layouts. I mean, just look at the huge Minori Chihara wallpaper I’m using!

Beside the floodgates of possible wallpapers, general productivity at least while web browsing is a lot better. It’s simply nice not having to scroll down to check if x or y site has updated as well as being able to read a post in one full screen! And if I was still coding, I can easily also mention that being able to see more code in one screen is like heaven on earth. Honestly, I would recommend giving it a try if possible as I think you’ll be highly surprised at how it can really change (for the better) one’s computing habits.

Okay, now with ranting about portrait mode done I guess I should talk about the wallpapers huh? If one hasn’t already, click on the first image to see a screenshot of all my current desktops/monitors. I decided to go with a “green”/spring-ish/nature theme this time trying to select images that would go well with each other. Ended up with Nana Mizuki on my plasma (left), Haruna Kojima on my main (middle), and Minori Chihara on the portrait (right). Overall, I’m pretty satisfied with my selections and if anything else, it’s a nice change of digital scenery to help keep me sane during my NEET-like days ^_^

Wallpaper Sources:
- Nana Mizuki: 1920×1080 | GiRLISH BEAUTY@BLOG
- Haruna Kojima: 1920×1080 | 1280×850
- Minori Chihara: 1080×1920 | 2136×3027

After months of living the life as a hikkikomori, I decided to take a somewhat impromptu month long trip to Asia. Hitting up Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, and China my body went through the ringer as I ended up getting sick in some shape or form in every country I was in. I won’t go into the details but much to say, it felt good when I eventually returned back to the States.

I’ll probably have a separate post about my misadventures in Japan if anything else, but for now I figure I may as well start with the most important aspect of the trip: all the loot I bought ^^;; Surprisingly, I didn’t end up spending too much if only given the fact I wanted everything to be carry on so I could only buy certain things. Thank god for my wallet I guess? Oh, before I forget the figures (i.e. Fate in Sonic Form and Nendoroid Mio) were preordered online and not something I actually picked up while in Japan; god forbid how I would have fit Fate’s box in a suitcase, let alone a carry on!

First off CDs, which didn’t take too much out of my wallet, I think only about 100USD or so with about 2/3rd of them being picked up only for the various tokutens. Thus why I now have like five copies of Nana Mizuki’s “Mugen” single ^^;; Also in the pile (from top left going clockwise) sphere’s “Kaze wo Atsumete / Brave My Heart” (LE but no extras), May’n’s “Styles” with promo poster, AKB48’s “River” (used for like 8USD), 2x Yukari Tamura’s “You & Me” with 2 different photocards (Gamers and Animate I think), Nana Mizuki’s “Theme of Lan Fan by THE ALCHEMISTS” (wtf no one BT it yet?), 2x Nana Mizuki’s “Mugen” with 2 different photocards, Minori Chihara’s “Kimi ga Kureta Ano Hi” with photocard, Minori Chihara’s “Junpaku Sanctuary” with photocard, and Sugawara Sayuri’s “Kimi ga Iru Kara” (LE with DVD).

Overall I’m pretty happy with the random CD purchases although if I had to do it again, probably would have skipped sphere’s and May’n’s. While May’n’s album is alright it really didn’t attract me that much, but I think since I saw Macross F ~Itsuwari no Utahime~ the night before, I was more “willing” than normal. Sphere’s I was kind of hoping it had some type of tokuten but the stores I went to didn’t seem to have any, but figured I would support them anyway… and to make myself feel a little better that I could not pick up their first album that was going to be released a week later.

On the others, well Minorin is Minorin so my only factor was which photocards looked good since I already have all her major singles and albums ^^;; Same with Nana Mizuki’s although now that I think about it, should have looked at Shin’ai as well (then again danie did post scans of all of them). Yukarin was actually a real random purchase but after seeing the PV and hearing the main song “You & Me” blasting at various stores, I eventually gave in; also helped the tokutens given out she actually looks pretty good in ^^ AKB48 was simply because I figured I may as well support them considering how deep in the fandom I’m getting into and “River” is actually a decent song… once you forward fast past the stomp-like intro. As for Sugawara Sayuri, that’s simply because we’ve been hearing the song with any FFXIII related videos for MONTHS but thankfully, even without the FF tie-in, her single stands well on its own.

Before I leave my thoughts about the various CD purchases, should mention I believe at Gamers they had a nice section for sphere related goods. This included their various concert goods (i.e. towels and t-shirts), various CDs (WTF never knew there were that many if you include each girl’s monologue CD), as well as their costumes from their “Super Noisy Nova” PV. There were also some nice random Haruka Tomatsu goods that I wanted to get (shows some great legs!) but wasn’t 100% they were on sale (plus a bit pricey).

And crap, as I write more the memories slowly start to come back… one other thing I thought was pretty cool while buying CDs was seeing a random Japanese dude pick up Nana Mizuki’s “Mugen” out of the blue. Always makes a Nana Mizuki fan like myself proud when you see random folks buy related goods of the idol you like ^^

I guess all my random anime related goods for a better lack of grouping. Honestly didn’t buy much straight anime ANIME OMG-he’s-a-freaking-OTAKU goods since I’ve been cutting back on the stuff for months. Heck 75% of the anime merchandise I bought was when I was watching movies with the real only purchase being Tony Taka’s “Tony’s ART Works”. Other than that, picked up the Macross F ~Itsuwari no Utahime~ brochure (more like an artbook), clear file, and four postcard collection while I got the One Piece Strong World Vol 0 manga free for watching the movie along with a random trading card(?).

Really nothing else to say since I didn’t get much other than that the Suzumiya Haruhi flyer I picked up at the theater as it has Nagato on it(!) and the random Moyashimon toy thingie I got from a capsule machine while in Akiba, I think.

Oh, with the random mentions of the Macross F movie, do expect a review of Macross F ~Itsuwari no Utahime~ soon-ish depending on how lazy I get ^^;;

Random hm3 and Seiyuu Animedia featuring Nana Mizuki. I will say this, compared to Seiyuu Animedia now, back in the day they sure knew how to please the fans by giving them more images of the cover girl plus more pull out posters to boot!

Random AKB48 goods, mostly photo books and the like. All I can say is months ago I figured I would never fall for the group but 100+ GIGs later of various concerts, variety shows, PVs, images, and songs I guess I’ve proven myself wrong @_@

I may do a separate post trying to explain the fandom that is AKB48 and their various sister groups but for now, all I can say is they look cute, sing pretty decent, and if you have any mind to save money DO NOT get involved with them at all cost!

Weekly 2010 calendar and while I don’t know like 3/4th of the girls in it, it was a good purchase considering I got it for like 5USD used while it goes for 25USD new. Got to love the Japanese and the fact their “used” is like still brand-fricking-new XD

2010 B2 calendar of one of the “front” girls, Atsuko Maeda. Actually picked it up at their theater in Akiba, which was kind of cool since I got to check out the place real quick. I’ll probably pick one or two to frame but got to figure where to display them since I’m running out of wall space ^^;;

Another 2010 B2 calendar of one of the girls of AKB48, Haruna Kojima. Don’t feel so bad about picking this one up since she’s closer to my age (vaguely) versus Maeda but yea, probably pick one or two months to frame once I move around stuff to do so ^^;;

Before I forget, I was actually tempted to pick up a few more of the AKB48 B2 sized calendars but due to the fact some of the girls are like under-aged, didn’t want to explain why I would have posters of said girls framed, and didn’t want to go broke, I somehow stopped myself. AKB48 is very scary for one’s wallet, without an doubt.

AKB48 ranting done, this thus ends my Japan loot post. Minus some random stuff I forgot to mention like the Nana Mizuki 3rd anniversary Smile Gang DVD and Macross F concert in Bluray, both awesome buys with the former being 1/2 priced and the later simply cause it’s Bluray, overall purchases weren’t as horrible as I thought. With plans to go to back to Japan in March for hopefully Nana Mizuki’s LIVE ACADEMY concert, I think my first run in with Japan was successful in getting me used to the place and letting some spending urges go. I can only hope when/if I do go back, spending (at least related to AKB48 if anything else) will be a bit better (i.e. controlled) but good to know I now know the major places to go to be broke if needed.

I’ll most likely write more of my impressions on Japan in my Japan trip post (whenever that happens) but I can definitely say I had one hell of a time there, even with all the spending, and honestly can’t wait to go back again!

Yet another quick post since it will be rather short and sweet. If one has been following my twitter, pretty much old news, but for those that don’t I’ve setup a free shorten URL service over at m0e.me. Pretty much the same thing you’ve seen from sites like tinyurl.com, bit.ly, etc simply input in the address you want shorten, hit the button, and you’ll have a nice short m0e.me/XXX address instead. For example, m0e.me/j goes to a Japanese site that displays my tweets like a blog post (thanks to Michael Pinto for the link).

Really meant for twitter to save on character count, one can obviously use it anywhere they want an easier address to copy and paste. I pretty much made the interface as straight forward as possible, including making links to automatically post the new address in facebook and/or twitter, but if anyone has suggestion to improve the service/interface, let me know.

As I mentioned previously, it’s open to the public so please feel free to use to your heart’s content. Tell others, which would be great, as I setup the service for anyone and everyone. Plus, it was a nice quick project to keep me occupied helping me learn about domain naming schemes and the like; thus why the domain name “moe.me” (or close enough) since I wanted something related to the hobby and was short in length ^^;;