Picked this up during HLJ's Anniversary Sale Part 2 which has now ended. Karen actually came in about a week ago, but I wanted to wait until I bought some lamps before doing a photoshot of her. Karen Onodera is from Please Twins!, and this particular figure was made by Wave.
More photos after the jump... This is a photo of my lighting set up. I based it off a guide to cheap lighting on Happy Soda. I bought two lamps, both about 10.00 each. I didn't really have a good place to set up the lamps like in Happy Soda's guide, but I improvised a bit. One lamp I set on a box, and instead of using a box with a piece of paper taped over it as a diffuser I just taped a piece a paper over the arm rest of my desk chair. The lamp hanging over my chair has a clip stand, and to make the light point straight down toward the figure I clipped the box it came in to it and put a weight in it to hold the lamp where I wanted it. I used a .50 cent piece of red poster board for the background and a another piece of white poster board as a reflector by hanging it over the other arm of the chair.
I think these pictures are better than previous photo shoots that I've done. I was even able to take close up shots without the picture coming out real grainy and out of focus. If anyone has any tips on how to get some better pictures, please feel free to comment on my set up. Here is a link to the camera I use.
Now back to the figure photos.
Karen's another figure that's been on my want list for awhile now. It's always fun when you can find a figure you've been wanting for 50% off.
The detailing on the skirt is very nice. The creases and pleats making it look like an actual cloth skirt being hiked up. Detailing underneath isn't to bad either. They actually added a belly button in case anyone was looking from a lower angle. But none of us would do that right?
Here you can see one thing I don't like about this figure. If you look to the right at the bit of hair painted on between her eye and ear. It just looks kind of flat and two dimensional compared to the rest of her hair. It could just be me though.
The uniform really looks like it's moving with her. Although, I just noticed if you tilt the figure and look at where the shirt meets the skirt, the shirt actually sticks out quit a bit. Essentially making her upper torso wider than her lower.
This is a quick photo I just took to try and show what I was talking about above. I know it's real fuzzy, but if you look at her shirt you can see it sticks out considerably past where her skirt meets it. I know why they did it as it adds to the illusion of her shirt bunching up from leaning over and hiking up her skirt. And you don't really notice it, unless your a perv trying to look at her belly button. Of coarse, I was looking at her belly button when I noticed.
Although the sale is over you can still get Karen at HLJ. Karen is also still in stock at Kid Nemo
A possible new law is in the work in Japan. This law would ban certain subjects from being used in Eroge. If this law passes it would ban the use of the following terms in text or image form:
This would be a huge blow to the Eroge market as the majority of Eroge games out there have 1 or more of these included. Although some companies such as Key who make "all ages" versions of there games won't be hit as hard, but other companies that focus solely on the adult aspects of the games will have a difficult time remaining in business.
Discussions of this possible ban can be found at various sites such as
NDT has finally finished their translation of the visual novel Kanon. They are still working on taking care of typos and such, but you can download the patch from the NDT site. They ask if you find any typos, or other errors to email them so they can fix them for the final version of the patch they plan to release next month.
Just a reminder for any Sasuke (AKA Ninja Warrior) fans out there that G4 will be airing Sasuke 22, and their American Ninja Challenge 4 specials this Sunday, June 21, starting at 2:30PM PST. They will also be airing previous Sasuke challenges all day Saturday, and all day Sunday prior to the new episodes airing.
Ghostbusters The Video Game came out Tuesday, and I picked up my pre-ordered copy from Gamestop for the PS3. Also stopped by Best Buy and noticed they had a copy of Infinite Undiscovery, which I had a rain check for 9.99 when Best Buy ran it's 9.99 game sale awhile back.
More after the jump....
Also got this free Ghostbusters T-shirt because I had pre-ordered the game.
Ghostbusters' is a pretty fun game. But it does have some issues. A couple of the boss fights it is impossible to avoid being hit, especially the fight with The Gray Lady (Librarian, Ghostbusters 1). The story for the game was awesome, and with a little tweaking could of been used as a script for a Chostbusters 3 movie. The online portion of the game is also fun to play. You can play 2-4 people in different co-op challenges such as Survival (stop 10 waves of ghosts/monsters), Containment (Trap as many ghosts as you can within the time limit), Destruction (Destroy as many ghost summoning artifacts as possible within the time limit), Protection (Protect 3 PKE Disruptors as they are being built), Thief (Protect 4 artifacts from being stolen by ghosts), and the only competitive mod Slime Dunk (Compete against other players to see who can dunk the most ghosts into a big trap). If you want to play online sometime my PSN ID is Ziroc.
Only played a little of Infinite Undiscovery so far, but I can say this about it. The combat system sucks, but it does seem to have an interesting story. And it was only 9.99.
And to top off this weeks purchases, the Karen Onodera figure I ordered from Hobby Link Japan's Anniversary sale came in yesterday. Will post more pictures once I have a chance to take them. Read more On "Who Ya Gonna Call?"!
Bought volume 2&3 of Rosario+Vampire. Just read volume 1 last week, and couldn't wait to start getting the rest of the series. The art isn't always that great, especially on the male characters, but it's still a good read.
Punynari of Moe Passion has been covering the building of the 1:1 Scale RX78 Gundam in Odaiba. The day before he had to leave Japan he decided to check the progress one last time. He wasn't expecting to see it finished, but had a pleasant surprise upon arriving in Odaiba. The RX78 Gundam was completely finished. You can see more of his photos at his blog.
J-List has copies of Ever 17 - Out of Infinity available for sell. This awesome Visual Novel is no longer in print because the English publisher Hirameki quit publishing Visual Novels in 2008. If you missed out buying Ever 17 before retailers began to sell out now is your chance to pick it up for only $24.95. If you've never played it, then I highly recommend you do. It's the one of the best Visual Novel's that have ever been released in English. It's rated T (Teen) as there are no H-scenes in this game, and they would probably ruin it if there had been.
More after the jump...
You tries to beat the control panel into submission, while Sara tries to stop her
On May 1st 2017 an underwater amusement park known as LeMU has an accident that floods the first floor and most of the second and third floors of the park. Six people are trapped inside of LeMU and learn they only have 5-7 days to be rescued or find a way to escape the underwater park before the water pressure outside the park causes it to implode.
Tsugumi saves Sara when one of LeMU's rooms flood
The game begins with an introductory segment where they introduce the main characters, Takeshi, Tsugumi, Sara, Coco, Sora, Yubiseiharukan (who goes by You for short), and a young boy with amnesia who everyone just calls "Kid". Once the park begins to flood you are given a choice which then determines who you will play during the rest of the game, either Takeshi or the Kid, the only two male characters in the game.
Sora gets angry, but why?
As Takeshi you are trapped with Sora, Tsugumi, You, the Kid, and Coco. As the Kid you are trapped with Sora, Tsugumi, You, Takeshi, and Sara. This is the first major mystery of the game. Why is Coco only present during the Takeshi part of the game? Why is Sara only present during Kids part of the game, and how come the Kid keeps seeing Coco but no one else trapped with him can? This is just one of the mysteries that will confront you. The only way to learn the answers to just exactly what is going on is to play through the game multiple times.
Some interesting announcements from Microsofts E3 press conference today. First up Hideo Kojima announced that the next Metal Gear game is being developed for the XBox 360. The new game will be titled Metal Gear Solid: Rising, and will feature Raiden as the main character. Prior to Kojima's announcement Felica Day showed off Facebook and Twitter for the Xbox.
Next Mircosoft announced it's version of motion control called Project Natal. The Xbox 360's motion control throws the traditional controller out the window, opting instead for full body recognition. This means instead of using a controller to play the game you use your entire body to play. The new system also incorporates voice recognition.
Got Kotobukiya's Asa Shigure in a couple days ago. Bought it from Hobby Link Japan as part of their 1 year anniversary sale. Was able to get her for 4,080 yen (approx. $42), normal price is 6,800 yen (approx $70)
More after the jump....
This is another figure that's been on my want list since she was released. I just couldn't resist the chance to get her at nearly 50% off. They also just added some new figures to their sale today, and I'll have another new figure coming in the next couple weeks.
I don't have any lamps at the moment to use for photo shoots, but I tried some different things with my camera's flash and the light from my TV and monitor to try and reduce shadows some.
Cute striped pantsu.
Oops. Doesn't seem Asa realized anyone was watching her.
You can view some more of my photos of Asa at my Flickr page
I use.
