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Megami Magazine Vol. 119

Nopy — Tue, 18 May 2010 04:56:42 +0000

Volume 119 of Megami Magazine features Misaka from To Aru Kagaku no Railgun on the cover, one of the more popular anime of last season. It’s actually a relief that they didn’t go with another Nanoha cover this time. The previous volume only included 16 pin-up posters, which was a bit short of the number Megami usually has, and this volume also only has 16. Hopefully the staff didn’t decide to cut back on the number of posters and we’ll start to see 20+ in future volumes.

Anyone who likes maid cafes and Haruhi would love this poster. Haruhi and Nagato pick up on the making-heart-shapes-with-your-hands fad while wearing cute red and white maid uniforms. I wonder how many points you would need to collect at a cafe to get a picture like this.

Ever since meronpan pointed out how Selnia’s hairdo looks like maggots, I haven’t been able to see it any other way. Another interesting thing about the animation is the lack of details like the nose and other parts. I guess it’s a good way of censoring stuff without actually censoring.

Megami Magazine illustrations are usually very good quality, but this one is just horrible. Sure, Sora no Woto might be a moeblob anime, but you’d still expect clothing and hands to look correct.

Baka to Test to Shoukanju wasn’t the best anime, but it had cute characters and some memorable moments. Out of the girls, I think Himeji looks best in a wedding dress, though I’d also like to see how Hideyoshi would look in one ;)

This poster reminded me of the Clannad poster in Megami Magazine Volume 107. Azusa and Yui are in the same position as Ushio and Fuuko, plus they are also relaxing in a field outdoors.

I never saw Omamori Himari after the first episode, but I’m guessing from this poster that there’s some rivalry between Himari and this green-haired girl. I actually quite like this poster, Himari looks cute in it.

Nanoha didn’t make it onto the cover this time, but she still managed to get in the magazine. This poster is decent though, so I won’t complain about it.

I’m not too fond of the art style used in Hidamari Sketch. The wide faces and small bodies don’t really appeal to me.

For the Girls Avenue section of the magazine, this volume featured artist Miki Miyashita (http://www.saturn.dti.ne.jp/~m-miki/). This illustration is lovely, and while I usually dislike plain backgrounds, I don’t think Miki would’ve been able to achieve the same effect with the feathers if she had used a detailed background.

Seikon no Qwaser is an absurd anime, but at least we get nice posters like this one of Mafuyu.

This is the cool image of Misaka that was used on the cover. Pictures of her usually involve her in cute outfits or doing something embarrassing, so it’s nice to get a poster of her just before she fires her railgun.

Megami usually doesn’t have two posters from the same anime in the same volume, so I was surprised to see two railgun posters, especially considering this volume has fewer posters overall. I was a bit upset that they didn’t include Kuroko in here.

Dance in The Vampire Bund weirded me out with the first couple of episodes, and it continues to do so, but now in poster form.

The Japanese come up with some unique maid uniforms. I love how cute these ones are, especially the ribbons around the legs.

I’ve always liked the character designs in Seto no Hanayome, but for some reason I just never watched it. This is another anime that I’m adding to my “older anime that I need to watch” list.

Within this volume was a little section on the Haruhi movie. I still haven’t seen it yet. Hopefully it’ll still being shown in theatres in Japan when I go.

I liked this section which focused in on characters from current and upcoming anime. Sleeping with Hinako is probably one of the weirdest anime I’ve seen. It makes me wonder if anyone actually goes to sleep with Hinako sleeping on their tv screen.

There wasn’t really anything that caught my eye in the upcoming figures section. I thought about getting that Seira figure, but it was just a tad too expensive for a character that I didn’t like more than average.

Personally I don’t see what’s so great about the “Tales of” series, but since it’s so popular, a lot of people must like it.

This time Megami included one of those long and thing posters rather than the regular B2 size posters. On the first side is Yuki Nagato, who seems to have soared in popularity again because of the Haruhi movie.

On the reverse side is Mikoto Misaka in her polka dot swimsuit. I thought her face looked a bit weird here, but other than that, it’s nice.

While I wish that they didn’t cut back on the number of posters, I thought that the qualit of most of them was really good. My favourite one would have to be the first poster of Haruhi and Yuki as maids. The Seikon no Qwaser poster was also really nicely done with a detailed background, nice curves, and water that looks like what it should. This volume would be a good choice to get if you want quality and don’t care about quantity.

–>Subscribe to Megami Magazine

Nyantype Magazine Vol. 5

Nopy — Tue, 04 May 2010 04:13:27 +0000

Volume 5 of Nyantype Magazine came out a few months ago, and it looks like they’ve caught Nanoha fever as well judging from the cover. Hopefully they won’t go overboard with it like Megami does.

One of the things that I like about Nyantype over Megami is that they have one pin-up poster that’s 3 sheets long rather than two. Here they have Nanoha and Fate getting ready to film their big movie; I thought it was really cute.

On the other side is Haruhi looking hot with her long hair.

Strike Witches has always provided lots of nice posters, but I hear that the show itself is pretty good so I’m thinking of giving it a go.

Seikon no Qwaser freaked me out when I heard about it and it still does. In this poster they seem to have the girls lined up like cows.

Chu-Bra also sounded a little weird, and I didn’t particularly like the art. Likewise, I wasn’t too thrilled with this poster.

This railgun poster was really nice. How often do you get a chance to see Misaka and Kuroko in maid outfits? I actually like Kuroko’s little pose there.

Unlike Chu-Bra, Omamori Himari provides excellent fanservice without the ugliness. I think it has something to do with the faces, and the fact that there’s actual shading in this poster.

I thought the background in this Sora no Woto poster was nicer than the characters themselves. It might be because Sora no Woto uses such a simple style for their character designs.

One of the better posters in this volume is this Ookami Kakushi poster. Not only are all of the characters drawn to the right proportions, the shading also looks nice, and it has a beautiful background.

I’d love to receive Kurimu in a box of chocolates, she looks so adorable!

This poster from Sora no Otoshimono is pretty cute too. It looks like she was attempting to make some valentines chocolates.

This poster could have used some work. Everything from the character to the bed and the background were all really plain.

While I didn’t really like Ladies vs Butlers, I was really impressed with this poster. The shadows of the leaves were done extremely well.

Rin is looking hot as always. Has anyone gotten the chance to see the FSN movie, and was it any good?

There have been a few posters in Megami where girls are just randomly falling out of the sky, and it looks like Nyantype is following in their footsteps. I wonder how many people would try to catch a naked girl from the sky.

I thought Mai’s face looked really off here, that’s something that Nyantype still needs to work on.

Nyantype also needs to work on the positioning of body parts. If you look at this girl’s hips, they’re pointing mostly forward, so it shouldn’t be possible for her leg to stick up like that.

I don’t know if this was intentional or not, but it looks like they just stopped drawing once they reached his crotch area. I’m glad they did because we all know that Hideyoshi is a trap, and I’m sure readers of a bishoujo magazine wouldn’t appreciate a male part in there.

The magazine did a little feature on Rin Tosaka and had a bunch of information on the anime series that were airing at the time.

This volume came with these three decoration seals that you can stick on to your PSP. Unfortunately, I don’t have one so I’ll have to save them for when I do get one. If I had to choose, I’d go with the Hayate seal.

Some of you may have bought these figures already. I considered getting that Mio figure, but I didn’t like her facial expression in the end so it was another non-buy.

For those of you who actually enjoyed Chu-Bra (is that even possible?), the opening and ending songs are now available on CD.

After looking through the posters in this volume, it looks like Nyantype’s posters are getting better in quality, but they still have a lot of work to do. My biggest concern with the quality is how body parts are drawn disproportionately or in impossible positions. Everyone has a body so I don’t think it’d be too hard to take a look at yourself and compare that to what has been drawn. On the other hand, whoever they hired to draw the Nanoha, Ookami Kakushi, and Ladies vs Butlers posters should get a raise. I thought those three posters were really nicely done.

Megami Magazine Vol. 118

Nopy — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 04:54:59 +0000

I know I haven’t been posting much (or at all) recently, but like I said in previous posts, it was because I had a ton of deadlines to meet and exams to write. I finally finished everything on Friday and spent the weekend partying (meaning I played video games with friends and ate ice cream). Now that I’m all done celebrating though, I figured it was time to get back to blogging. So for my first real post in a long time, I present to you volume 118 of Megami Magazine.

Once again, Nanoha is featured on the cover of the magazine. I liked seeing her on the cover at first, but now it’s starting to get old. I’d prefer seeing some other anime on the cover now.

It looks like the K-ON craze is back. This poster is from the K-ON OVA that came out a couple months ago. You can tell because Mio and Ritsu have those backstage pass stickers on their coats.

I really liked Seitokai no Ichizon, but I found this poster to be really creepy. No, it’s not the fact that Kurimu and Chizuru are hugging each other nude, it’s the fact that Kurimu’s legs are missing. Just take a closer look, her legs go straight into Chizuru’s left leg and then disappear.

I really want to show this poster to some people and ask, “do you prefer large, medium, or small?” Seriously though, Ladies vs. Butlers was too ecchi for me, and I didn’t particularly like the animation quality.

Yay for some yuri action. I guess Seikon no Qwaser isn’t all that bad.

I didn’t expect to see a Chu-Bra poster in here, then I remembered that this is the March issue. You would think that a girl obssessed with lingerie would wear something more attractive than this.

This poster was nice because Minami has her hair down for once and not tied up in a ponytail. I’m actually surprised that Hideyoshi isn’t in this poster, he’s the main selling point of the anime.

I still haven’t seen the Haruhi movie. I’m hoping that it comes out on DVD soon or else I’m going to have to bring a translator into the theatre when I go to Japan. It feels so weird to see Nagato act shy and timid, it just doesn’t fit her alien aura.

Here’s another shower scene poster, this time of Darker Than Black. I’ve been meaning to watch the anime, but I haven’t gotten around to it. Can anyone tell me if it’s any good?

I liked the character designs in Omamori Himari, so I’m happy to see a poster in here. The only problem with the anime was that it seemed to follow the typical anime formula of boy meets girl + fantasy + action.

This is a cute little poster of the girls from To Aru Kagaku no Railgun. I love their outfits and how Uiharu’s flower ring thing has been replaced with a flower hat.

This is an amazing illustration. The colour and detail just make me want to stare at it all day. I’ll even forgive the fact that it doesn’t make sense to wear armour if you’re whole front is exposed, just because it’s so pretty.

This poster was a surprise, I didn’t expect to see Louise from Zero no Tsukaima so long after the series ended. While I am a Louise fan, I actually didn’t like this illustration very much. I think it’s a bit hard to tell who she is if you don’t look at the Saito doll.

Considering how popular Ikkitousen is, I’m surprised that there aren’t more posters of it in Megami Magazine. I realy like the chinese dresses in this poster.

I thought Shana looked cute in this poster. I was hoping that Shakugan no Shana S would continue with the story, but nothing really happens in the series, it’s just for people that need their Shana fix.

Here’s another blast from the past poster. I remember watching Mai-Hime several years ago, the Orphans that they summon were so cool.

Ookami Kakushi was a terrible anime, but at least it produced some decent artwork, like this poster. While I think Mana and Isuzu are nicely drawn here, I think they could’ve fixed Nemuru’s hand. It looks like it’s 50% bigger than what it should be.

In case anyone needs their Shana fix, the DVD for the OVA has already been released.

It looks like Megami is still covering the first Nanoha movie. With each new volume I’m starting to think that I was right when I said that someone that works for the magazine really likes the Nanoha series.

While I’m not too interested in a breast-feeding anime, I’m sure many people are. If you’re one of those people, you should be happy to know that Seikon no Qwaser is now on Blu-ray and DVD.

With this volume comes the 100th issue of Girls Avenue (the beautiful illustration of the knight earlier). I haven’t been pointing out which posters are the Girls Avenue ones in my Megami posts, but it’s not too hard to tell. They’re the ones that look nicer (most of the time) than the rest and usually aren’t from any anime.

I didn’t know that there was an Utawarerumono OVA, but apparently the Blu-ray and DVD are now on sale.

A little extra that came with this volume of Megami was this Starter Book for the Nanoha Battle of Aces game on the PSP.

Inside you’ll find some information on the moves that the characters can perform. Unfortunately, I don’t have a PSP or the game so I can’t try them out :(

The large poster that came with this volume features Nanoha characters on both sides. Like I said before, as much as I like Nanoha, they really need to have more variety when it comes to the magazine cover and the posters. I actually have enough Nanoha posters from Megami Magazine now to cover an entire wall in my room, that’s a lot of posters.

Obviously, my favourite poster in this volume was the one with the knight girl, but some other notable ones were the Haruhi and Shana posters. This volume could have been better with some more quality control. Drawing Nemuru’s hand weird is forgivable, but cutting off both of a character’s legs is just bad quality. Megami Magazine isn’t known for slip-ups like these so hopefully we won’t see them again in future volumes.

I’ll try to make more regular posts here now that I have some free time, so look forward to them :) I actually wanted to post this yesterday, but I was busy writing this article for ForeverGeek. It took me a lot longer than I thought it would to write, so if you read it, let me know what you think of my choices.

–>Subscribe to Megami Magazine

Megami Magazine Vol. 117

Nopy — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 02:04:36 +0000

Alrighty, for everyone that’ve been waiting patiently I’ve finally gotten around to another Megami Magazine post. This is Volume 117 of Megami Magazine, for February 2010, only 1 month later than usual (or 2 if you consider that Megami releases 1 month before the printed month). With all the hype over the Nanoha movie, it’s only natural that Nanoha would once again find her way onto the cover of Megami Magazine. By my count, this is the 10th time that Nanoha has been featured on the cover, more than any other character. She has appeared in volumes 68, 77, 82, 84, 88, 90, 91, 100, 112, and 117. When you do the math, that works out to be 8.5% of all the Megami covers. I think it’s pretty obvious that someone at Megami has a soft spot for Nanoha, especially when you consider that other characters like Haruhi have only made it on to the cover twice.

The first poster in the volume is of Yuki Nagato and Ryouko Asakura from the Haruhi movie. I don’t think I’ll get the chance to see the movie until this summer when I go to Japan, but it seems like a lot of people are going fan crazy over Yuki. I guess she has an important role in the movie, or I just never realized how many fans she had.

Moving on, here’s another Nanoha poster to add to my collection. Since I don’t have all of the Megami Magazines, I don’t know how many Nanoha posters there are, but like the cover appearances, I’m sure she has a lot more than most other characters.

I really liked this poster, not for the art or anything, but because it has my two favourite Seitokai no Ichizon characters: Mafuyu and Kurimu.

I don’t know what I’m supposed to think about this poster. In case any of you haven’t seen Baka to Test to Shokanju, Hideyoshi (the one in the middle) is a guy, but everyone sees him as a girl (in otherwords, he’s a trap). In the anime he gets his own changing room because the boys don’t want him changing with them and he doesn’t want to go into the girls’ changing room so I’m surprised he’s changing with Himeji and Minami.

I think Queen’s Blade might be able to rival Nanoha in terms of the number of posters shown in Megami Magazine.

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun also had a good chance early on, but considering how the anime went, I don’t think we’ll be seeing much biri biri by the end of the year.

Originally, I thought that Hidamari Sketch was about a bunch of elementary school students, but I just found out recently that they’re in high school. I guess that explains why they’re so developed in this poster.

I had completely forgotten about watching the second season of Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu until now. I don’t recall seeing any reviews of it anywhere, has anyone seen it and was it better than the first season?

I decided not to watch Omamori Himari since it looked like an average harem anime, but it does produce some yummy posters :)

This was a cute poster. I like Mio’s clothes, it’s too bad Yui and Ui didn’t dress up too.

From the looks of it, it doesn’t seem like the girls in Ladies vs Butlers wear any bras. Either that or their clothes are extremely tight around the chest. I don’t mind some ecchi stuff every once in a while in an anime, but when an anime is all about the fanservice (like this one), then there’s really no point in watching it.

That statement also applies to Seikon no Qwaser.

Fate/stay Night Unlimited Blade Works also came out in theatres around the same time as Haruhi and Nanoha, but I think those two kinda pushed FSN to the back of everyone’s minds.

This is an interesting scene. I don’t think I’ve ever seen people snowboarding/skiing/tobogganing in the snow naked.

Did anyone bother watching Chu-Bra? I didn’t like the first episode so I didn’t watch any more of it and it seems like no one else watched it either.

I don’t follow the Koihime Musou series so can someone enlighten me as to who this pink-haired girl is?

Cute catgirl.

I really like the character designs for Seto no Hanayome, but I just have too much anime to watch to get around to it.

This illustration is part of the Girls Avenue section. I like the style of the armour.

I’m not familiar with this anime, it looks too childish for me.

Not sure why they decided to put a Kurokami poster in here when the anime ended so long ago. I was a bit disappointed with how the story turned out.

I didn’t really like Fight! Ippatsu Juuden-chan either, but I thought that Plug was a cute character, especially with those bunny ear-like things sticking out of her head.

It’s always funny to see anime characters cosplaying as other anime characters ^.^

I just have to say that that is a huge bed. I wish I had one.

I watched Kowarekake no Orgol, but I don’t remember seeing those three girls in the background in the anime. Is there another part of the story that I don’t know about?

There was quite a bit of information regarding the Nanoha movie, certainly a lot more than the Haruhi movie.

Weib Schwarz looks like it’s trying to capitalize on Haruhi fans recently. If I knew anyone that played with Weib Schwarz cards I’d probably buy some, but right now I would have no one to play with.

Another free card came with this volume. This time it’s Fate from the Nanoha movie, but I think she looks a bit scary in here.

In case any Umineko no Naku Koro Ni fans missed it, the DVD and Blu-ray for the 4th volume was released on January 22. I thought the anime was better than most, but it wasn’t as good as Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, which was a big disappointment.

This time the large poster had Nanoha on both sides. The first side has Fate and Nanoha in their barrier jackets with the city at night in the background.

The opposite side has Nanoha and Fate in the middle of their transformation sequences (aka naked). I’m sure a lot of guys out there would be happy to have this poster, but I’m sure a lot of them would also get into trouble with someone if they stuck it on their wall :)

I really liked the first several posters in this volume, but the ones in the middle and end seemed very average to me. There also wasn’t much content in the magazine that caught my attention except for the Nanoha stuff. Overall, it felt like Nanoha was the main focus of this volume so it’s certain to please any Nanoha fan, but the number of non-Nanoha posters helped to balance it out if you don’t like the series.

–>Subscribe to Megami Magazine

My Thoughts on Winter 2010 Anime

Nopy — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 01:23:14 +0000

Well, we’re past the second week of the new season and I’ve tried to take a look at most of the new anime series that have aired so far. Some were good, some were bad, and some just made me go “WTF?” I thought I’d go into a little detail on what I thought of each one here.

Baka to Test to Shoukanju
High school, a stupid (baka) main character, cute girls, and fighting; this series has all the points of a generic anime. What makes it different though is that instead of giving the students some sort of special powers like most anime, they have to write tests to level up their summoned beasts, which are actually adorable chibi versions of themselves. These chibi characters then fight head-to-head RPG style until one side loses their HP, which results in detention. When one class defeats another class in a battle, they get to change classrooms (each classroom has different facilities, some more desirable than others). You can already tell what kind of story is going to develop here (i.e. promoting teamwork, self-sacrifice, maybe some romance), but I think the chibi characters make this anime worth watching. If the story in each episode is the same though (anyone seen Angelic Layer?), then I might drop the series.

Chu-Bra
Ok, this is an anime about a schoolgirl that’s obsessed with lingerie, need I say more? Aimed towards guys (maybe girls) with an underwear fetish, I just can’t see myself wasting my time watching this.

Dance in the Vampire Bund
I’ve never understood why the Japanese give English titles to their works when their target audience is Japanese, and it looks like they’re starting to use German too. From Wikipedia:

Bund is the German language and Yiddish word for Federation or Union, in which context it is pronounced “boont“.

Well, at least they were able to make a title mixing two languages that made sense, unlike some other titles. I thought the first episode itself was like the title in that it made no sense at first, but became clear in the end. It starts off with some kind of gameshow debating the existence of vampires, which doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the story until later when it was revealed that the show was all set up to capture a rebel vampire. I’m still not exactly sure what the anime is about except that it involves vampires, so I’ll have to watch a couple more episodes before I decide to drop it or watch it.

Durarara
There’s a lot of stuff happening in the first episode of this anime, but it mainly focuses on a kid named Mikado Ryugamine and his first night in Ikebukuro. Like with anyone moving to a place they’re not familiar with, he sees a lot of new and strange things and people. I thought the combination of the animation, music, and strange characters gives viewers the same feeling that you get when you move to or visit someplace new. Very few anime are able to pull off something like that. The whole thing about this phantom motorcycle rider was pretty cool too. Instead of just following around some normal people, they’ve managed to include quite a bit of action with this character. I think out of all the new anime this season, Durarara has the most potential and I’ll be looking forward to the next episode.

Hanamaru Kindergarten
This anime was just plain weird. First off, the kindergarteners in this show are way too short. The average 4 year old is about 3ft tall, but the kids in the anime barely reach the knees of the adults. Secondly, the kids are way too mature for their age. When I was in kindergarten my friends and I were only able to tell apart girls and boys by the length of their hair, but the kids in the anime seem to already know about stuff like relationships. That leads me to my third point: this seemed way too much like a harem anime mashed together with Kodomo no Jikan (an anime about a grade school teacher getting intimate with one of his students). Although this wasn’t as suggestive as Kodomo no Jikan, it still felt like it had the same underlining themes which was enough to make me stop watching the first episode halfway through. It’s no wonder the Japanese are so perverted, they start brainwashing their kids with this kind of stuff early on.

Omamori Himari
I thought Omamori Himari looked like a generic anime based on the first episode. An average guy gets attacked by some kind of monster but is saved by a beautiful schoolgirl wielding a katana. A love triangle later ensues between the guy, his saviour, and his girlfriend. Did I mention that the sword-wielding schoolgirl also happens to be a catgirl? Everything about the first episode just screams “normal anime,” which isn’t a bad thing, but it’d be nice to see some new ideas every now and then. If you like regular anime, then you’d probably like this, but I don’t think I will be watching it unless I end up with a lot of free time on my hands.

Ookami Kakushi
The first episode made no sense to me, but I liked the animation. From what I can tell, it involves wolves and maybe some supernatural powers. Looks like I’ll have to watch a few more episodes to see if it’s worth my time.

Seikon no Qwaser
“WTF!?” That’s the best phrase to describe this anime. Seriously, how can you watch an anime about a guy that gets special powers by drinking breast milk. The plot itself sounds like it’s more suited for some cheap porno, not an anime. Needless to say, I won’t be following this series.

Sora no Woto
Cute, but you should ask yourself: is this really worth watching? Sure, the likes of Lucky Star and K-ON have been huge successes, but eventually the formula gets old. A few years of anime about a group of girls doing random, somewhat humorous things without any real plot, and I’m beginning to get tired of it. If Sora no Woto had come out two years ago, I probably would have liked it, but since it’s coming out now, I’m not planning on watching any more episodes.

Although this isn’t all of the new series that are airing this season, they’re most of the ones that I planned on checking out. I still have to watch Katanagatari, but the rest are either sequels of anime I haven’t seen, have a younger audience in mind, or just sound even weirder than Seikon no Qwaser (i.e. Unko-san Junjou-ha, an anime about poop). So to sum up, the anime I think are worth watching are Baka to Test to Shoukanju, and Durarara. The “maybes” include: Dance in the Vampire Bund, and Ookami Kakushi.