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Megami Magazine Vol. 140

Nopy — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 05:21:11 +0000

Now that the new year is here, it’s time to present the January 2012 issue of Megami Magazine, or volume 140. There are a few winter and Christmas-themed posters in this one as you can probably guess from the snowflakes on the front cover, though not as many as you would think. As usual, text links to images are ecchi and/or NSFW, so click at your own discretion.

Here we have all of the puella magi alive and well at a skating rink. I love Mami’s prominence in this illustration, but it’s strange that Kyouko and Homura were barely given a second thought.

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Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon gets the ecchi started early on in this issue…

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Compared to Horizon, IS is actually rather tame, usually only going as far as some beach poses. I’m actually surprised that Charlotte isn’t in this one.

We didn’t get to see much of the Araragi sisters in Bakemonogatari, but they seem to have the leading roles in Nisemonogatari. I thought they were just playing around in this illustration, but if you look closely, you’ll notice that their brother is getting crushed under there.

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Trying to piece together that C3 is about based on these Megami posters is not working. So far it seems like Fear is a regular cosplayer, sporting a Santa outfit this time.

K-ON continues to promote their upcoming movie with UK-related posters in Megami Magazine. Azusa’s shirt has Japan and the UK highlighted in red, and I thought the chibi characters on the plane were adorable.

Ika Musume always goes for the cute look in her posters. Does anyone else wonder if the cats are thinking about eating her after they’re done with the shrimp? She is a squid after all.

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I love artwork from Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, but I thought this poster was a bit plain.

I’m not a big Idolmaster fan, but I loved this poster, the outfits, the poses, the photoshoot-like backdrop; it’s all nicely composed.

I thought this illustration was done in good taste. Although a bit of the “wet tshirt” fanservice does show through, it’s not to the point where I would consider it ecchi. Is anyone else also impressed with how well-drawn Sana’s hair is?

Once again, we get another Ano Natsu poster, and as I suspected, they all combine to form one image.

It looks like there will be at least one more poster in the next volume of Megami Magazine in order to give that soda-holding hand a body.

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I’ve been hearing a lot of people saying that they don’t like the character designs in Last Exile ~Fam, The Silver Wing~, but it’s not that bad. Unfortunately, this poster doesn’t showcase the animation quality, with Millia’s legs seemingly shrunk and dislocated. I do recommend watching the anime though.

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Pure Yukie Mayuzumi fanservice here.

This Shana poster is cute, but I do have a problem with it being completely out of sync with the anime.

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This volume’s featured Girl’s Avenue artist is Hinata Momo of the circle Alice Garden. You can check out her website at http://hinamomo.com/ (NSFW). I’m not too impressed with how the limbs of her characters look like they’re disjointed and just hanging there, but at least she designs some nice outfits.

Personally I didn’t like this poster, there’s nothing that really stands out.

I swear that there are at least a dozen other Zero no Tsukaima posters like this one.

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Highschool DxD looks like a very fanservice-y anime if its posters are any indication.

In this volume’s Anime Character Catch Up, we get to see one of the new characters in Zero no Tsukaima on the bottom left of the first page. We also get a glimpse of Louise and Tiffania in their priestess outfits. On the following pages there was also an announcement of a second season of Kore wa Zombie Desu ka.

Advertisements like this one make me wish that Megami had used different illustrations for their posters. I would have preferred a poster of Yozora in this pose rather than the one of her and Sena.

More ads show off some more wonderful artwork, this time for the Victory Spark franchise. If these cards were available in English, I’d probably buy a few sets, especially from the Atelier series.

On the back cover is an ad for a rather unique anime: To Heart 2 Dungeon Travellers. It’s interesting how they turned the characters from a school harem into your typical RPG cast.

Fortunately, this time around, Megami Magazine included a large poster again. The first side features the heroines from teenage-fantasy anime Guilty Crown. Group shots like these should make everyone happy so long as there’s one character they like.

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The reverse side has Sena from Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai in a very saucy Santa outfit while licking a strawberry. To say this is a racy illustration is an understatement.

I found this volume of Megami to be average. The posters that stood out were the Puella Magi and Idolmaster posters, with Ika Musume coming in third for me. The rest were typical fare for Megami.

–>Subscribe to Megami Magazine

Megami Magazine Vol. 138

Nopy — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 05:13:06 +0000

This comes a few weeks late, but here is this month’s issue of Megami Magazine, volume 138. The magazine seems to have shifted away from Nanoha and friends and is now regularly featuring the girls from Idolmaster on their covers and in their posters. Volume 138 has a good mix of just about everything, so if you’re looking for variety, you may want to consider getting a copy. You can check out all of the posters included in this volume below. Remember that linked images are ecchi (a.k.a. NSFW).

The first poster comes from the new anime Guilty Crown and features Ayase and my favourite, Tsugumi. I like this one because it looks so cheerful and the small details like the emblem on Tsugumi’s sleeve and the buildings in the background are well-done.

If you’re a K-ON fan, you’ll surely be looking forward to the movie. I wasn’t aware that the UK had warm sunny beaches, but this poster seems to suggest otherwise. Mio, Ritsu, and Azusa cheering in the background is cute.

The last mother-daughter poster I remember seeing in Megami was of the Tohsaka family from Fate/Zero in volume 133. Now we have the Einzbern family, also from Fate/Zero. I love Irisviel’s white hat and coat, it matches her silver hair and the snowy background.

It’s sad that Triple H ended up as Double H in Mawaru Penguindrum. If I were in Himari’s position, I would’ve been heartbroken. This poster shows a world that could’ve been, or maybe it will be considering how unpredictable the series is.

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Infinite Stratos seems to be one of those series that will be in Megami for a long time.

Everyone’s favourite squid girl makes an appearance in this volume. While the art style is simple, I’m still impressed with the smooth lines and nice shading. The only problem I have with this poster is that it doesn’t look like Ika’s umbrella is actually covering her.

Working is another anime with a simple art style, but it still looks good; this poster is a perfect example of that.

This Madoka poster looks like an alternate ending to the series. I am surprised at how drawing a few loose strands of hair on Madoka and Homura makes it look like they’ve been working up a sweat. Brilliant illustration in my opinion.

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Ro-Kyu-Bu shower scene. Warning: very ecchi.

This illustration is absolutely lovely, not to mention cute at the same time. Alice and Yune make a great pair.

An Idolmaster poster with the same image found on the cover is also included for all the fans out there.

I’m not really liking this poster of Himeji and Minami from Baka Test. Himeji’s legs look further away than the water, but they’re in front of it.

This is Megami’s second Ano Natsu de Matteru poster. I was dumbfounded as to why there is a random hand coming from the side holding a pop can. Other than that oddity, the illustration itself is decent.

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Fanservice courtesy of C3.

Considering how dark the final season of Shana is looking, I welcome this calmer-looking poster with Yoshida mixing Shana’s bow. Both of their outfits look nicer than anything they wear in the anime.

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Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon seems largely based around fanservice.

The featured Girl’s Avenue artist in this volume is Fuyuno Haruaki (ふゆの春秋), you can find his website at http://technofuyuno.net/. He is the artist behind the above illustration, and as you can see, he uses very vivid and bright colours. This reminds me of the concept of painting marine animals in space for some reason.

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I just noticed that the cast of Nekogami Yaoyorozu have very bright hair.

One of the great things about anime originating from visual novels is that they have some nice school uniform designs. This Mashiroiro Sympohny poster looks nice at first, but if you look at Miu’s knees, they’re actually out of place. They also forgot to include Sakuno, my favourite girl in the series.

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I commented in my Fall round-up how the girls in Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai were manly and I’m going to stick with that no matter how many of them they put in lingerie.

I admit that I do not like the character designs in Kamisama Dolls. Sticking nekomimi on them isn’t going to change anything. On the up side, that tea cup in the cupboard looks pretty.

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Exploding clothes are a staple of poorly written anime. It seems it has also made it into Megami Magazine with Manyuu Hikenchou.

If I had a choice, I would’ve had a poster if this Mashiroiro Symphony image rather than the one on the grass.

Within the magazine itself is some content about upcoming anime, not least of which is the new K-ON movie. If you didn’t know already, the light music club will be travelling to England, though I think the swimsuit scene will turn out being a fantasy.

A couple of anime that I’m looking forward to are Nisemonogatari and the third (plus fourth) Rebuild of Evangelion movie. Nisemonogatari is a spin-off series of Bakemonogatari, one of my favourites from 2009. The Eva movies should be a treat no matter what, although I’m disappointed about pirate Asuka.

This is the first time I’ve seen Megami fill a page out of their figures section with dolls. I know a number of you are probably into dollfies and whatever other brands there are, but I have an aversion to them thanks to watching Child’s Play 20 years ago. Chuckie, and any doll for that matter, still gives me the creeps. On the bright side, the figures and dolls are kept on separate pages so I can just flip really fast through the doll section :)

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The double-sided B2 poster this time is really ecchi, but they come from two series that I love. The first side features the four most popular girls from Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai lying on a bed. Yozora and Sena seem to be sharing a single uniform.

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The reverse side is the female cast of Mayo Chiki enjoying a dip at a hot spring.

That wraps up the main contents of this volume. Several posters stood out for me this time: the Guilty Crown, K-ON, Madoka, Ikoku Meiro no Croisée, and Fuyuno Haruaki posters were all high quality illustrations. If you don’t mind a large ecchi poster as a bonus, then this would be a good volume to get to fill up some barren walls.

–>Subscribe to Megami Magazine

Shana Nendoroid

Nopy — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 05:05:06 +0000

Well after one hectic week, I have time to write on my blog now (yay!).

As you can see from the above picture, my Shana Nendoroid came this week. I would’ve liked to have the regular Shana version with black hair too, but apparently that’s like some limited edition figure so I couldn’t just order it online :(

Oh well, the enpatsu version is still just as good.

This was the only “cute” pose I could make with this figure. Shana didn’t come with any happy faces, but I guess that should be expected considering her personality…

I decided to swap in Miku’s head since she’s always smiling.

But Shana got angry and threatened me with her sword o.o

Good Smile Company seems to be getting better with their Nendoroid quality. The head barely weighs anything and you don’t have to worry about Shana falling over when using the stand. The only problem I have with this figure is with some lines on the underside of Shana’s hair that you can see in the above picture. I’m not sure what the point of the lines is, but you can still see some of them when you put all the pieces together.

Except for the lines in the hair, I thought this figure looked pretty nice. The necklace that Alastor hangs off of is made out of metal wire so you can position him however you want. My Misa nendoroid (from Death Note) has a string necklace and it was really difficult to position it correctly. Well, that’s pretty much all I have to say about Shana.