Ein is the main female character from the anime Phantom -Requiem for the Phantom- which was based on the game Phantom of Inferno. She’s generally quiet and has a reserved personality due to being trained to be an assassin from a young age. If you’ve watched the anime, you’ll also notice that she shows absolutely no emotion at all; I guess that’s just something you need to do to be the best assassin in the world.

This nendoroid of Ein came with a lot more pieces than I had anticipated. There are at least three different arms for each side and the figure also comes with a bunch of accessories like a stuffed teddy bear, a pistol, and a dagger. Unfotunately, there was only one extra leg, so although there’s a lot of poses that Ein can do with her arms, there’s not much as many choices when it came to her stance.

This is what Ein looks like out of the package. She has a standard pose and coupled with her expressionless face, she looks really plain. Pics from other angles are shown below:

This is Ein’s smiling face, but it still seems a bit expressionless, just like in the anime. What I really liked about this nendoroid is that she can actually hold her teddy bear with one arm. Most of the other nendoroids I have can either only carry small items that you fit through a hole in the hand, or have stuff sitting beside them.

In the anime, Ein actually cut open the poor teddy bear. It looks like GSC decided to include the stuffing for the teddy bear so you can recreate that scene. The only thing missing is a Reiji nendoroid.

My favourite face was the one with the Phantom mask. Although Ein doesn’t look cute anymore, she looks a lot cooler. All of the extra arm pieces also allow you to place both the dagger and pistol in her hands at the same time. A lot of nendoroids only come with one arm or hand piece that you can place items in so I was happy to see that Ein can carry two items at once.

This is probably what most of Ein’s victims saw before they died, and it’s my favourite pose.

The main points that make this nendoroid better than others are all of the extra little items like the weapons and teddy bear. All of the extra arms also make Ein a lot more poseable than your average nendoroid. My only complaint is in the choice of the faces. I know that Ein is usually expressionless, so it makes sense for her nendoroid to be expressionless too, but the two non-mask faces look identical except for the mouth. It would have been nicer if the two faces were a bit more different, perhaps having one with a sad expression. Other than the two really similar faces, I thought this was a nice nendoroid that has a lot of different pieces for you to play around with.

Three months later than usual, here’s Megami Magazine Vol. 113 featuring Rin Tosaka and Saber on the front  cover. Its been a while since I’ve been able to flip through a Megami Magazine so this was like a blast from the past for me.

Although this was from a while ago, I don’t think K-ON will be going away anytime soon.

I know Mio, Yui, and Azusa are the three most popular girls of K-ON, but I’d still like to see more of my favourite character, Mugi.

Did anyone actually enjoy the Princess Lover anime?

I swear that almost every poster of Horo has her naked, but she’s wearing clothes all of the time in the anime.

Yay for bikinis!

And anime with bikinis!

As much as I liked the beginning of CANAAN, it just fell off a cliff somewhere in the middle, but at least we got some bunny girls out of it.

Fight! Ippatsu Juuden-chan was probably one of the more ecchi anime out there last season, it’s no surprise that the Juuden-chan posters are so suggestive…

It feels like so long ago that Saki aired, so seeing this poster kinda surprised me.

I thought this one was pretty cool. I like the girl in the blue suit.

After so long, I still can’t believe what happened at the end of Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~, it was so sad. Well, at least it looks like Mio and Elen are enjoying themselves though.

I’ve never heard of Mahou Tsuka wa Yuyu Shiki Otome before, but Ru-ru Kisaragi and Yu-yu Mashiro look pretty cute.

What better way to sell anime cards than to make your own anime? I still have to catch up with Weiss Survive, but I don’t remember the episodes being all that long.

I’m pretty sure now that Kanokon is really an H-anime disguised as a regular anime (kinda like Queen’s Blade), especially after having seen the screenshots of the OVA.

Did anyone watch all of GA? I remember seeing the first episode and thought it was too childish, does it get any better or is it pretty much the same throughout the series?

Aika Zero = panty-shot heaven? It seems all the Megami Magazine posters of it involve panty shots.

Still waiting for Kowarekake no Orgol to be released. It feels like its been in production forever.

Just a reminder for anyone looking forward to Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works, it comes out on Jan. 23 this year.

These pages sure do bring back memories. I think I only watched the first four episodes of Endless Eight. There’s only so much time a person can waste just to see their favourite characters in different clothing.

After seeing these pages, I remembered that the opening song for the Nadeko Snake arc in Bakemonogatari should be out now, then I find out that its been delayed. Looks like I’ll have to wait until the end of the month to get the full version of Renai Circulation by Kana Hanazawa.

A look at some new figures. Unfortunately, it was impossible for me to preorder the Mio nendoroid in time, and I don’t have enough money or room for a collection of Touhou figures.

As if having their own anime and posters wasn’t enough, Weib Schwarz is still putting a bunch of ads at the back of Megami Magazines.

If anyone liked Princess Lover, the DVDs are already coming out for them.

This volume came with a large poster. On one side is Nanoha from Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha The Movie 1st. As much as I like Nanoha, I personally think that Megami has been overloaded with Nanoha material over the past year.

On the other side is the same image of Rin and Saber that was on the cover of the magazine.

I like a few of the posters in this volume, like the K-ON ones and the “deep one” poster, but overall I didn’t think they were all that great. Sure, there were a lot of girls in bikinis, which is true for every Megami Magazine, but it just felt like something was missing. Maybe it was just some of the poses or backgrounds could have been done better. I’m also not too excited about some of the childish stuff like GA and Kanamemo; it’s Megami (goddess) Magazine after all, they should just stick to what they’re good at: bishoujo anime characters.

–>Subscribe to Megami Magazine

This volume of Megami Magazine is probably one of the thicker ones that I’ve gotten considering all the freebies that came with it. But as always, lets take a look at the posters first :)

When you’ve got an anime with girls that are always running (or swimming) around in very revealing swimwear, you know they’re going to show up in Megami Magazine sooner or later. That’s certainly the case with Umi Monogatari.

This is a really reall adorable poster of Azu-nyan ^.^ I wish there was a bigger version somewhere.

Even if the girls from an anime aren’t normally in swimwear, Megami Magazine does the favour of putting them in some for us. Canaan looks pretty confused though, I guess anyone would be if they were suddenly put in a swimsuit and found themselves on a beach.

The chair is becoming even worse of an enemy than steam and fog.

Personally, I don’t like it when characters are drawn with red circles on their cheeks, it just looks weird to me. Does anyone else think so too?

On the other hand, red blush doesn’t bother me at all.

I haven’t seen Sengoku Basara, but maybe I should watch it. The character designs certainly look interesting.

When a figure of Plug comes out, I hope it’s in this position ^.^

Plug in a bathtub would be nice too.

Sometimes you have to wonder what the girls in these posters are doing. What kind of situation would involve 3 nearly-naked girls in the bathroom with two girls seemingly feeling up the third.

I think the only reason Ein and Zwei in Phantom ~Requiem For The Phantom~ were pretending to be high school students was so they could show some schoolgirls in the anime. Of coure, now we get to see Drei as a shoolgirl too.

Basquash is also one of those anime I haven’t gotten arond to.

Lolis in swimsuits anyone?

Or maybe you prefer no swimsuits at all.

I haven’t seen any new Yami to Boushi no Hon no Tabibito stuff in a long time. That anime had some good character designs too.

I didn’t really like Kurokami, but with posters like this, it can’t be all bad.

I actually liked the animation in GA, but the anime itself bored me out of my mind. It seems more like something kids would watch.

The girl on the left has a really nice figure for someone so short…

Another Kowarekake no Orgol poster.

Although the posters are the main selling point of Megami Magazine, there was some nice artwork in the magazine itself too. I just love Haruhi in that dress, and look, there are DVD boxsets for Kanokon and Zero no Tsukaima now.

Still waiting for the Nanoha movie to come out, it’s going to be so good!

Just had to show this, love the cat ears and tail.

 Here’s the adorable pic of Azu-nyan again, this time alongside her seiyuu, who’s also pretty cute.

I wonder how many girls change rooms/locker rooms have been shown in this magazine over the years.

 Can’t wait for To Aru Kagaku no Railgun to start up, then I get to see more of Kuroko <3

This page really shocked me, mainly because it’s not animated! But just because it’s not animated doesn’t mean it’s not good, I know I’d like to have my desserts brought to me on a naked girl.

All of these Weib Schwrz ads are starting to make me want to get a deck, I guess ads really do work.

For any other Umineko fans out there, the first DVD will be out this october.

This volume had quite a few freebies that came along with it.

First off is a Nanoha drama CD. I still haven’t listened to it, but I probably wouldn’t understand anything since I don’t know Japanese.

The next freebie was a Weib Schwarz card based on the first Nanoha movie.

There’s also a CD Jacket included so you don’t have to label your new Nanoha CD.

This also came with the magazine. I think the artwork on the cover looks a bit weird, but the actual comic itself is drawn pretty well.

And of course, there’s the large poster that comes with most Megami Magazine volumes. This time around both sides are from Nanoha. The first side is for the movie, and the other side is for the new Nanoha game.

I really liked this volume of Megami Magazine, it had quite a bit of Nanoha stuff which is always welcome. Out of all the posters, I’d have to say that Azu-nyan was my favourite, hopeflly there will be more of her in the future.

–>Subscribe to Megami Magazine

The 110th volume of Megami Magazine features Saki and Nodoka from the mahjong anime “Saki” on the front cover. I’m not following Saki right now, but from the images that I’ve seen it looks like more than just mahjong goes on in the anime.

The posters this time around were pretty nice, as you can see below:

On the first page are the moe girls of K-ON. Personally, I liked Mio at the start, but by the end of the series, my favourite character had shifted to Mugi. It makes me sad that they decided not to include her in this poster :(

Like I said before, I really liked the animation in Tayutama, but the story just couldn’t keep me watching so it’s nice to get some posters I can put on my wall.

Yay for Haruhi-chan!

I haven’t seen Basquash before, but from the size of those oppai, I’m guessing there’s quite a bit of fanservice in it.

It’s funny how there seems to be so many more female fighters in Valkyria Chronicles than in real life. I’m not complaining though, especially if there’s more Alicia.

Yoko doing cosplay is always a plus. I like the chinese dress best out of the four. In case you’re wondering where all the costumes are from, it’s actually from Yoko’s first album which you can read about here.

Here’s the first of the Saki posters in this volume. It looks like it belongs on a dakimakura instead of a poster, but I like it, she looks so cute with those bunny ears.

On the reverse side of the bunny ear girl are the girls from Queen’s Blade. Strangely enough, even though they’re in bathing suits on the beach, they don’t seem to be flashing as much skin as in the anime.

I can’t wait for the Kowarekake no Orgol anime to come out. If any of you don’t know what it is, it’s basically something being put together by amateurs (not a production studio) that has a similar story to Chobits. From the trailers on youtube, the animation quality looks even better than some work that actual anime studios have put out.

This volume’s Girls Avenue girl has some big assets :)

I wonder how those two can stand the smell of wet dog.

This is the image that they used on the from cover of the magazine. Unfortunately, they decided to just use a generic background which is a bit upsetting. They could have at least drawn in some scenery or something.

Ever play strip poker? what about strip mahjong? Here’s undeniable proof that there’s more going on in Saki than just mahjong playing. Poor Nodoka looks like she lost a few too many times.

I’m not sure what’s up with this duck outfit, it looks kinda weird.

Cal’s a bit too young for my tastes. I wonder if Phantom will get to the point where Cal becomes Drei, she looks way cooler that way: http://gelbooru.com/index.php?page=post&s=view&id=148924

In the non-poster parts of the magazine there’s some stats and bios of all the Queen’s Blade characters. I’m sure fans would like to know the actual measurements of their favourite girls.

I still haven’t gotten around to watching the second season of Hayate no Gotoku 2, but it looks like Hinagiku is in it quite a bit, all the more reason to watch it soon.

In case anyone was wondering what the voices behind the characters of K-ON actually look like, here they are.

There was no large poster in this volume, but I did get some nice K-ON stickers instead (oh joy -.-).

Some info on Kowarekake no Orgol, which will be coming out this summer.

Weib Schwarz really does have a lot of advertisements. I’m thinking of actually getting some cards now, they look nice, and the gameplay is explained in the anime Weib Survive (Weiss Survive).

Utawarerumono fans probably already know this, but the OVA came out last month.

Besides not having Mugi in a poster, and replacing the regular large poster with some stickers, I actually liked this volume. My favourite posters would be the Tayutama one, the one of Yoko, the bunny-ears girl, and the Kowarekake no Orgol one.

–>Subscribe to Megami Magazine

After much searching and some waiting, I was able to get a hold on a copy of Nyantype Magazine volume 1 (unfortunately, it’s a bit damaged from shipping). Since it is the first volume I guess a lot of people wanted it to see is it was any good, making it really hard for me to find. Much like Megami Magazine (it’s actually a near carbon copy), Nyantype has a number of pinup posters at the front and back of the magazine with info on anime, games, and figures in between. To start off,  here are all the pinup posters included in the magazine:

I’m sure anyone out there with a foot fetish would live this Haruhi poster.

This one of Haruhi, Mikuru, and Yuki really looks like it would make a good dakimura. Maybe they’ve already made one.

Out of all the new characters in Nanoha Strikers, the only one I actually liked  was Teana.

I’m sure there’s many guys out there who would swap “guns” with Yoko right now.

I really like the character designs for Tayutama, but I just couldn’t stand the story. Oh well, I’ll just have to enjoy posters like this one instead :)

It always seems like Ein is being molested by someone.

Rin, Kuro, and Mimi from pedo anime Kodomo no Jikan also make an appearance. It’s scary to think that Mimi is only in elementary school…

The dreaded steam/fog commonly found in Megami Magazine also seems to have infected Nyantype magazine.

Ako (left) and Riko (right) seem to have gone back to their panty-flashing ways after an encounter with some slimy tentacles.

I always thought Riannon was an innocent looking girl, but looks can be deceiving, just look where her left hand is.

If the proportion of cute girls in Valkyria Chronicles was actually representative of the military, I’d sign up in an instant.

Out of all the pinup posters, I’d say my favourite is the Tayutama one even though I don’t watch the anime. The one with Haruhi, Mikuru, and Yuki in bed was also nice.

Like Megami Magazine, Nyantype Magazine also has news on popular anime and anything anime related:

On the first pages of the magazine is an ad for Yoko’s (Gurren Lagann) new single “Pieces of Sweet Stars” which was released on May 27. The single comes with some nice Yoko pics and a music video which you can see on youtube.

Of course, any magazine that focues on bishoujo characters must include Nanoha. Still waiting for the new movie to come out.

There’s also a short section in the magazine that lists all the new upcoming anime for summer 2009. Canaan looks pretty good so I’ll be looking forward to that.

Another similarity between Nyantype and Megami is these little manga inserts.

One thing that Nyantype has included that isn’t in Megami are these non-poster full-page images. It’d be a bit hard to cut these ones out to stick on your wall, but they’re still nice to look at.

Near the end of the magazine is also a section devoted to bishoujo games.

At the very back is something that regular readers of Megami Magazine would be familiar with by now: Weib Schwarz trading cards ads.

This volume came with a free card of the adult version of Nanoha.

The back of Nyantype Magazine just has some ads for Minami-ke and Tora Dora.

Overall, I thought Nyantype Magazine was worth the $15+shipping, but I think Megami Magazine is just a bit better. Why you ask? Althought Nyantype Magazine is almost an exact copy of Megami Magazine, there is one big difference: it has no size B2 poster included. I know a lot of people get these magazines for the posters, and when it comes to posters, the bigger the better.

Time for a look at another volume of Megami Magazine. This issue has a lot of goodies in terms of posters, and some very very nice extras which you will find near the bottom of this post.

Haven’t seen one of these larger posters in a while. The front features Kyou and Ryou Fujibayashi from Clannad.

On the reverse side are the girls from everyone’s favourite anime this season, K-ON. After seeing Mugi-chan in a nurse costume and here in a maid costume, I have concluded that she should be a professional cosplayer. Poor Mio looks so embarrassed.

I wonder how Nodoka is able to keep that towel around herself.

I finally have the Taiga nopan poster ^.^

Queen’s Blade is too much ecchi and not enough story for my tastes.

I watched the first episode of Asura Cryin and it just looked like an amalgamation of every anime genre possible: supernatural, magic, mystery, adventure, mecha, ninjas, etc.

Nice poster of the girls from Tayutama.

Not sure which anime this is from, but I like the girl on the left (pink hair is always a plus).

The K-ON girls in swimsuits ^.^

I thought this was a very nice poster of Fate and Teana. I think Teana looks better with her hair down.

I was too busy looking at the girl to notice the huge number of cats in the background at first.

Currently enjoying Natsu no Arashi, but I wish the animation was a bit better.

Yoko’s right oppai looks really deformed with the strap like that…

It looks like Ein doesn’t go anywhere without her gun.

Second episode of Kissxsis comes out on May 22.

I really like this Higurashi poster. I wish the Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Rei OVA episodes would be released sooner.

*smoooch*

One more Nagi poster for all the Kannagi fans.

I liked the variety of posters that they had this time around. Only K-ON had more than one poster so there’s sure to be something for everyone in this volume. I also liked how they included past, current, and upcoming series this time. On to more of the magazine itself:

Looking forward to To Aru Kagaku no Railgun. More Mikoto and Kuroko ftw (though I actually like Kuroko more than Mikoto).

Can’t wait for the new Nanoha movie to come out.

I just love Fate’s pose on this page.

I read the Hatsukoi Limited manga, and although it was easy to get lost in all the characters, it was still enjoyable. I would have to say my favourite character is Koyoi.

I did not know that the school swimsuit mecha nurse girl nana figure was cast-offable >.>

Episode 3 of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei is almost out, only 1 more week! The 3rd and 4th episodes will be released on June 24 and August 21 respectively.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, this volume came with some very nice extras, and here they are:

First is a Nanoha pencil board, with Nanoha on one side

and Fate on the other. I really love Fate’s pose, hope they make a poster of it in the future.

The other extra that came with this volume is Megami Magazine’s volume 1.5 of the Nanoha Visual Collection. Since it’s volume 1.5, there aren’t as many pics as a full volume, but they’re still really nice. Resized scans are below, the originals were too huge, but if enough people want them then I might post them somewhere.

This is definitely one of the better Megami Magazines I’ve seen (maybe even the best). Lots of variety to appeal to a larger audience, and although there was no large poster this time, I thought the Nanoha goodies more than made up for that. If you’re planning on buying a Megami Magazine, I would recommend volume 109.

–>Subscribe to Megami Magazine

In this episode we see Ein in various forms of clothing, something that’s been lacking since she dressed up as a maid in the first episode. The story in this episode is that Ein and Zwei are scouting out for potential spots in a mall to assassinate a certain mafia boss. In order to scope out their surroundings and not be noticed, they act as a young couple enjoying their day out shopping.

Of course, when anime girls go shopping, they always have to buy swimsuits :)

We also get to see Ein in some more fashionable clothes:

and we finally get to see both Ein and Zwei in action when they go to assassinate their target.

Before the end of the episode, viewers are given one more treat in the form of Ein just stepping out of the shower.

In a serious anime like Phantom, it doesn’t hurt to have a little fanservice as long as it’s not the whole point of the anime. Although this episode did have quite a bit of fanservice, it still progressed the plot a bit with Ein and Zwei’s relationship and a look into what Ein thinks of Zwei. The next episode will probably see some more action as Zwei continues on with Inferno’s tests.

Bang!

The anime focuses on two characters Ein and Zwei who work for an organization called Inferno, and their occupations: assassins. The episode starts off with Zwei infiltrating some building and meeting up with Ein (who’s in a maid uniform), all the while dodging gunfire and headshotting random dudes in suits. In the middle of the fight, the episode does a flashback to before Zwei became an assassin. The flashback goes to when Zwei was first captured by Inferno and wakes up in a locked room with no memory of who he is (since his memories of himself had been erased). All he remembers after seeing his bag on the floor and looking at a mirror is that he’s a Japanses tourist. He then decides to break out of the room, but soon after leaving the room, he is attacked by a woman wearing a mask (Ein a.k.a. Phantom) who tells him to fight her if he doesn’t want to die (this is because Inferno wants to test his abilities to see if they can make him into an assassin). Ein chases Zwei around what appears to be an abandoned factory and shooting at his feet with a gun before throwing him a knife and the two duke it out (which was pretty awesome). Zwei overpowers Ein, but decides not to kill her and leaves the factory only to be shot with a tranquilizer gun.

Ouch

Ein is too pretty to kill

Phantom is being produced by Beetrain and will have 13 episodes in total. What I didn’t know about Phantom before watching it was that it was based off a game from Nitro+. Now, I’m not very familiar with Nitro+ games, but I certainly hope they’re not all like Chaos Head for reasons you can read about here. What I liked about episode 1 of Phantom besides all the cool action scenes was when Zwei woke up with no idea as to who or where he was. There was one time when I bumped my head and woke up in the same situation (minus the locked room) and I can say that Zwei’s actions and train of thought is exactly what it would be in that position (trying to piece together who and were you are by checking out everything around you while still feeling disoriented).

Who am I?

Besides the plot, I thought the animation and music were done really well. Since this is a show about assassins, it needs to be dark and serious, and the animation and music certainly deliver by setting the mood. I really hope that Phantom turns out to be a good anime series, it has so much potential, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

As you can see from the list of all the new anime airing this season, there’s quite a few to watch. After reading dozens of plot summaries and looking at the trailers, I’ve narrowed down my watchlist to what I think might turn out well:

Pandora Hearts

I think this one looks the most promising anime this season. Pandora Hearts looks like it’s going to be a mystery/magic/action/adventure type anime and I haven’t seen one of those in a while. I guess what also got me interested in this title was the music in the trailer, it’s really good. If you look for Pandora Hearts on youtube, you should be able to find the trialer.

Phantom – Requiem for the Phantom

I saw guns, knives, and explosions in the trailer so this is definitely on my watchlist. Not to mention that the animation looks pretty good, and the storyline seems really serious, all things that I like to see in my anime :)

Natsu no Arashi

School Rumble was my favourite anime when it was airing, except when I saw the ending and had the same reaction as everyone else. However, I believe people deserve a second chance, so I’ve decided to give Natsu no Arashi (written by the author of School Rumble) a shot. The girl in all the advertisements for this anime reminds me of Yakumo.

Hayate no Gotoku 2

I’m actually still watching season 1 and with my current schedule I probably won’t finish before season 2 airs, but I’ll get around to watching season 2 eventually.

Saki

It’s amazing how the Japanese can make everyday normal things into awesome anime, just think about Prince of Tennis (Tennis), Hikaru no Go (Go), and Yakitate Japan (Bread). Saki just so happens to be about mahjong, and if it’s like any of the three anime I just mentioned, then it’s going to be great.

Some of the other anime that I may consider watching this season (depending on how they turn out) are: Tears to Tiara, Full Metal Alchemist, 07 Ghost, K-On, Shangri-La, and Asura Cryin’.