What I spent the last four and a half hours doing

This.

Medicine~ <3

Artbook: Your Eyes Only

Okay, I think I’ve been spending far too much money for artbooks now.

I’ve had a number of artbooks already, but this is the first English version artbook I’ve ever seen and impulsively bought. With 170 pages of art, one would expect a lot of content. Indeed, there is - about 150 pages of Chii… and nothing more, save for picture commentary.
Your Eyes Only is sorted, rather than chronologically, by theme (ergo: “flower.”, “after school.”, etc.). The art itself has a lot of relaxing, pastel colors, in a style reminiscent of Italian oil paintings. CLAMP’s art isn’t really the world to me - it’s nice and all, but it doesn’t particularly strike a chord. That said, a lot of the pictures here are very well done, nicely detailed, and pleasing to the eyes. Every so often, a black and white picture or collage of pictures breaks the monotony, giving some contrast and a bit of rest for the eyes - a rest much-needed, after having your eyes exposed to such a multitude of tones and shades of a wide gamut of colors. Rather creatively done, the back portion gives the commentary for each picture - the source and a bit of what CLAMP had to say on it.
Unlike just about every other artbook I have, there is no interview or text-heavy area in the book. I have no idea if the original is the same or if Tokyopop decided to just not translate that (which I doubt).
Nothing else to say, really. While the thing ran at Php 999 at Bibliarch, a sister bookstore of Fully Booked, I got it for about 800, thanks to a sale they had going on.
With over a hundred pages of illustrations, this is a must-have for Chobits and CLAMP fans. Still, now that I think about it, unless one is into collecting artbooks or is the aforementioned kind of person, this artbook isn’t really worth getting.

Hit the jump for more pictures.

Artbook: Comic Party Visual Fun Book

So I was browsing the local figure forum for any neat stuff, and I came across the ComiPa artbook. Seeing as it was only going for 600 Pesos, about 14 USD, I saw no reason why I shouldn’t get it.

To be honest, I have no clue on who Mitsumi Misato, Kanro Yuu (is that how you pronounce his name?), and Nakamura Takeshi are. I’d only periodically see things from them if it concerned anything Leaf, but no more.
First thing to note is that since the game was released 9 years ago, the artwork is definitely a bit dated. The shading in particular, is a little flat for some of the work. However, taking into consideration that CG technology wasn’t exactly as advanced as today’s Photoshop Suites, the artwork, particularly Mitsumi’s, is rather well-done.
Another thing to note - the artwork from game CG section (and basically any part that involves the game’s graphics) is rather blurry beyond a roughly 9 square inch picture. This is very clearly seen when a low resolution game CG is scaled to a full page - pixels all over the place. No one can be really faulted here though, because I’m assuming no one really bothered to make higher resolution CG suitable for large prints.
There aren’t too many illustrations in the illust. collection, though they’re not that few either. However, one totally awesome thing about this is that it comes with a five page pullout poster, fuck yeah. I wish it came with two though, because I’m not going to cut that single one out. However, if it did come with another one, I’d have it framed in mahogany or something and hang it in my room.
Nitpicking aside, I honestly don’t know if I would’ve bought this if it hadn’t been easily available at such an affordable price. Since that isn’t the case though, I’d say this is worth it, but not so much if you don’t like the artists’ styles.

A whole bunch of other pictures after the jump.

Lucky Star Gashapon

For a country that has a relatively low demand for figures (save for the proper hobby shops), gashapon seem to be quite popular. Despite forcing you to fork out the equivalent of two US dollars per figure, on average, some gashapon are actually pretty awesome, like that Hayate no Gotoku cellphone strap one, or well, this.

Kagami~n <3

and no, I’m not telling where I got her.

Quick Figure Write-up: Kinoshita Rumi

This time it’s Kotobukiya’s Kinoshita Rumi from Pia Carrot! To be more specific, she’s from “Welcome to Pia Carrot G.O.” I got her just this evening when I sold Ryouko to Snacks just a few hours ago. He decided to have us meet in a toy store, and well, when you just got money, and you’ve been looking at a figure at 50% off, well… yeah.

The rest of the shitty pictures plus a bit of commentary on the shoot after the jump.

Even More Spring Impressions

Since I get back awfully late everyday, I haven’t found the time to take, process, and upload screenshots, so the posts will just have a single screenshot and some randomass wallpapers at the beginning and end.

Shows covered: Wagaya no Oinari-sama, Kazoku Kyouran Nikki, >Nabari no Ou, Kurenai

Happy Birthday to me.

Isn’t it sad, Sacchin?

So I turned 17 on April 17 and spent the day getting a Social Security number, playing beatmania Complete Mix 2, IIDX, and eating steak.

Oh, and my aunt gave me what is possibly one of the sexiest accessories you could have for your computer.

Unfortunately, I have a job orientation tomorrow and the day after, work starts Sunday with a 6-day work schedule and Japanese classes.

Fuck.

PS: I swear I’ll get to the rest of the shows, considering I’ve already blazed through maybe half of them.

More Spring Impressions

What I felt like after watching To LOVE-Ru

I’ve been feeling under the weather recently (colds, sore eyes, and all that), not to mention I have a summer job coming in a few days, so I’ll keep this short.

Special A 01

NOODLEPEOPLE.

Library War 01

Judging from the first episode, this may turn out to be one of the most awesome shows this season, or one of the dumbest.

Highlights of the episode include:
-A wide pan of a huge library complex with barracks, field, what seems to be an armory, and of course, the library, which in itself is several floors tall
-A swat-esque team, complete with gear, guns, and helicopters raiding what looks to be a publishing office of sorts to prevent the publication of a scandalous article
-A couple of soldiers (main + side character) talking in a hallway littered with card catalog cabinets
-Someone who is willing to kill people for a gravure magazine poster (and the main character kicking his ass, as well as his subsequent handcuffing)
-Evil booksnatchers dressed in Red, Nazi-themed uniforms who take books from little kids

Unfortunately, since I only saw it raw, it’s mostly gibberish to me, though I understand much of the general plot.