Pop Japan Travel Offers Payment Plans

Thinking about taking a tour of Japan, but can't afford to pay the price all at once? Well Pop Travel Japan is offering payment plans on two of it's tours. The Tokyo Anime Fair 2011 Tour and the Fangirl Paradise Tour. Info on the payment plan can be found at Pop Japan Travel.

Hopefully they will add more tours in the future with payment plans. I'm bad at saving money, but if I have a bill that's due every month it will force me to save it. So this would be a good way for me to purchase a trip to Japan. I would just have to remember to save up some spending money. Heh. If you decide to sign up for a tour, remember to tell them you heard about it at Ziroc's Anime Blog.



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Hikaru Utada Concert Streamed Live Worldwide

Wednesday, Dec. 8th at 4am CST (7PM in Japan) Utada will be streaming her "Wild Life" concert Live to the World on Ustream. IPad and IPhone users can view a 300kbps stream. Utada will have one concert after this one before taking a hiatus from her music career. Utada has two US albums Exodusand This Is The One. She also performs the theme songs to Disney's Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts 2 for the PS2.

Luckily I am off Wed. so I'll be able to catch the concert and not have to worry about getting up later to go to work. Anyone else plan to watch?


Simple and Clean, Kingdom Hearts Opening


Sanctuary, Kingdom Hearts 2 Opening

News source Anime News Network

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Fuku-bukuro Bags Available At J-List

J-list has put up their Fuku-bukuro bags for this year. A fuku-bukuro, or "lucky bag" is basically a grab bag and a tradition at shops in Japan around New Years. They are filled with merchandise valued at more than the cost of the bag. Last year I bought two bags from J-list, and plan to try and get 2 bags this year as well if they don't sell out. You can see what I got in these posts "Fuku-bukuro Bag 1 Adult set" and "Fuku-bukuro Bag 2 Anime Set"

Current bags available are

Anime Set 1 65.00
Anime Bag 2 115.00
Japanese Fashion/Culture Set 38.00
Japanese Cosplay/Anime Set 65.00
Japanese Study/Culture Set 48.00
Japanese Bento/Traditional Set 40.00
Adult Set 1 65.00
Adult Set 2 115.00
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Fable 3 Collector's Edition

Picked up the Fable 3 Collectors Edition this week. The game is very similar to Fable 2 in the way a lot of the game mechanics work, with slight changes here and there. The biggest change is in inventory management and map use. Instead of an inventory/map window you actually enter an area of the game called The Sanctuary where your butler, voiced by John Cleese, lays out your outfits and weapons for you to examine.

The collector's edition comes in the faux leather book.

Which has two hidden compartments holding the game, a deck of playing cards, and metal coin.

There are 4 achievements requiring co-op play, and at least one Demon Door. Anyone wanting to help each other get those my Gamertag is ZirocStormkiler.


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Remember 11 English Patch Released

An English language patch has been released for Remember 11 from Kid. The patch is available at TLWiki. Remember 11 is the 3rd visual novel in Kid's Infinity series which includes Never 7, Ever 17 and 12 Riven. You can find the game at J-List or Amazon Japan. I've played the English release of Ever 17 from Hirameki and it's an incredible game with a huge twist once you unlock the true ending, so I'm really looking forward to playing Remember 11.

Fuyukawa Kokoro, a third-year sociology major, boards a plane bound for Hokkaido to meet a research subject in the Specified Psychiatric Hospital for Isolation and Aegis, or SPHIA. For unknown reasons, her plane crashes in the mountains in the middle of a snowstorm. Of the 31 passengers, only she, Yuni Kusuda, Seiji Yomogi, and Lin Mayuzumi survive unharmed. Unable to establish communication with the outside world due to the fierce snowstorm, the four decide to take shelter in an empty cabin and wait until the storm passes.

As if the trauma, freezing temperature and debilitating hunger weren't enough, the survivors must deal with something even more frustrating. A newspaper is found in the cottage dated July 4, 2011 - well off in the future. The paper claims that the survivors of the crash, save Yuni, will die in an avalanche in seven days.

Satoru Yukidoh, a graduate student in the field of quantum physics, falls from the SPHIA clock tower. He later awakens with some memory loss and the realization that someone is out to kill him. Unable to leave the SPHIA facility due to a snowstorm, Satoru's only chance at living is to find that person among the three other residents (or perhaps the hidden culprit) of SPHIA.

Both Kokoro and Satoru soon realize that, their "consciousnesses" are experiencing a kind of exchange, in which Kokoro's mind takes control of Satoru's body in SPHIA as Satoru's mind enters Kokoro's body in the mountain cabin.

However, a boy named Yuni Kusuda appears at both locations. How is this possible?

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New Genshiken Manga Announced

The November issue Kodansha's Monthly Afternoon magazine announced that Genshiken will be returning as Genshiken Nidaime. Apparently it will pick up where the previous manga ended with Ogiue as the club president trying to bring in new members. Genshiken is one of my all time favorite manga series. If your not familiar with the series it is about a college anime club, The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture or Genshiken for short. The club has members that cover almost all aspect of Otaku culture including anime, manga, eroge, model building, cosplay, dojinshi, and even yaoi. If your a big fan of anime your likely to see a part of yourself in at least one of the characters. I highly recommend reading it, and can't wait for the new manga series to come out.



News and Image source Anime News Network

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Transforming SDF-1 Macross

Just saw this transforming SDF-1 over at J-List. It is done in 1/3000 scale and measures 15.7 inches long. Only problem is. It's 395 dollars + EMS shipping and I'm flat broke :(. It's scheduled for December release so guess I really need to start saving. Anyway for anyone not familiar with the SDF-1 it's from a series called Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, which is also known as Robotech: The Macross Saga in the US. It's an awesome series so check it out if you haven't.

Images pulled from J-List

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FREEing Kagami Hiiragi

Here are the pictures of my FREEing 1/4 scale Kagami Hiiragi using my new Nixon Coolpix S3000 camera. It takes much better pictures than my previous camera which was a Aiptek DZO-V50. I purchased Kagami at the recent Animefest Convention in Dallas, TX.

Continued after the jump...



FREEing makes amazing large scale figures. They are really detailed, and the Lucky Star gymsuit line has actual cloth gym suits.


But unfortunately they cost quit a bit, which has limited my collecting the full set. I only own two other FREEing 1/4 scales, Haruhi Suzumiya and Mikuru Asahina. Konata, Kagami, Tsukasa, and Miyuki are already out, and they have Yutaka, Minami, Patrica, and Hiyori planned for release between now and January


Since the uniforms are made of cloth they can be removed. I just don't like how obvious the joint connection is on the left arm. But, if you ever wonder what kind of undergarment Kagami wears it's apparently a sports bra and....

Shimapan (Striped Panties).

While I'm pretty sure Kagami is sold out at most retailers, you can preorder Yutaka, Minami, Patrica, and Kayori at some of the following

J-List!
AmiAmi
Hobby Search
Play Asia
BeNippon


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Animefest Report

Last weekend I went to Animefest in Dallas, TX. It was my first anime convention, and I had a great time. I went with a friend, his wife, and a friend of hers, although the two ladies spent the weekend shopping around Dallas instead of attending the convention. The picture above is a shot of the Dealer room, which I spent a good deal of time in.



Here is a shot of the lobby near Artist alley. I attended a few panels while at the convention. Some of them were hit and miss as the very first panel of the day was cancelled because the guest artist, Matt Herms, was still driving to the con. The Webcomic panel didn't have a lot of people sitting in on Friday, so their weren't a a lot of questions asked. It was still enjoyable listening to the artist talk about their favorite comics, and how to get started in the webcomic industry. I sat in on the Visual Novel panel even though I'm not interested in actually making one myself. It was held by a group called Sake Visual who are attempting to make original English language VN's. They actually have 2 free to play ones they made on their site, but I haven't checked them out. It's good to know that there are groups trying to get more English VN's out there.

The last panel I attended on Friday was the Anime Club How To panel held by Mu Epsilon Kappa. Think their may of been 10 or so people there so one of the people giving it actually wanted to cancel it. He's co-presenter talked him into continuing since people had shown up. Instead of following their discussion outline he just asked everyone what they wanted to know about starting your own Anime Club. Learned some stuff, and will be looking into getting something started here.

Other than panels I walked around the dealer area for awhile. Saw several items I would of liked to get, but had to make sure I had enough to eat on for the weekend. Didn't make my major purchases until Saturday. Bought some Melon Pan, and Chocolate Cornets that had been made fresh by an Asian bakery in Plano, TX called Mozart. Was the first time having either item, and they were extremely good. Especially the chocolate cornet.


Started Saturday off wanting to attend the World of Bishoujo Games, but the presenter decided to sleep in since only a few people signed up for it on the Animefest website. Went and watched an episode of K-On! since that was canceled until the next panel started, Learn Japanese With Anime!. The panel was for advertising classes the presenter gives in Richardson, TX. He went over a bit how he uses anime to help you learn Japanese. We went over conjugating some verbs, and listening to clips in full speed then at a reduced speed to see if we could pick up what they were saying. He made understanding how to conjugate the -te form of the verbs we went over easier than some of the books I've looked at for self study.

After that I sat in on the voice actor panel. Lots of laughs were had as they talked about their favorite roles, favorite non-anime TV shows, and Chris Rager singing his favorite '80s song in the voice of Hercule Satan. The Funimation Industry panel showed off some trailers for upcoming releases, and gave away some DVD's They had an Urd Dakimakura which they hinted would be given away, but ended up not being given out. Of the new series they showed trailers for I think I'm most interested in Corpse Princess. After the Funimation panel I went and made my final purchase pictured further down and called it a day for the convention. Afterwards we all went to eat at a place called Sushi Yama. More on that below also. Now form some cosplay pictures. These were some of my favorite costumes.


Travis Touchdown from No More Heroes

This was probably the best costume I saw while at the convention. Unfortunately I took the picture with my camera which is why it's a bit blurry. My camera sucks. Was able to borrow my friends afterwards, so the other pictures are better.


Celty_Sturluson from Durarara!!

Haven't watched this series, but think I will now.


The Doctor and Rose from Doctor Who

I guess even Time Lords enjoy anime.


Nia Teppelin from Gurren Lagenn


DC Heroes vs DC Villians


Samurai


No clue who the characters are, but had to get a shot of this. Anyone care to fill me in?

As I mentioned above on Saturday we went to a place called Sushi Yama. I had come across mention of the place online when searching for Okonomiyaki recipes and saw lots of great reviews. But the two biggest selling points for trying the place was they served a lot of tradition Japanese food that you don't find in your typical American Japanese restaurants, at least here where I live. Also on Saturdays they have 1.00 sushi (min. 10 pieces) and all the reviews said it was the best Sushi in Dallas.

The place is small, and laid out like you might find in a mom and pop sushi restaurant in Japan. At least that's the feeling I got. I didn't take any pictures of the interior, but you can find some pics here as well as pictures of more of the food they serve. A scan of their menu can be found at SushiDallas.org

My 3 companions aren't really into Japanese food so they ordered "safe" items they were some what familiar with. One ordered Teriyaki chicken, one Teriyaki beef, and the other Tempura shrimp. I tried getting them to expand their culinary horizons, but failed miserably. One of them did try the ice cream with sweet beans.


For my meal I ordered Okonomiyaki, which I have made before myself. It was completely different from how mine turned out, and I was in such a hurry to try it I took a bite before remembering I wanted to photograph it for the blog. Probably the biggest turn off on trying to get my friends to try a piece was that the heat from the okonomiyaki was making the bonito flakes move on the plate.


The second item of the night was Takoyaki, or Octopus Balls. It's pieces of octopus mixed in a batter and then fried into the a ball. This also had bonito on top which brought up more "Ew! It's still moving" comments. Despite that they were quit good.


The first of my 10 pieces of 1.00 sushi they brought out were the 2 yellowtail, seared tuna, and tuna nigiri. Again in my rush to see if the sushi was as good as all the reviews said I ate the tuna nigiri before photographing the plate. Was it worth it? You bet. It was worlds better than any sushi I have had here my home town. Really wish there was a place like that here. You might notice the lack of rice in the photo. That's because the portion of rice is very small, probably has to do with it being 1.00 a piece. But skimping a little on the rice is fine by me, because as you can tell they don't skimp on the size of the piece of fish you get. And as I said each piece was better than any I've had here.


I also ordered 3 eel and 1 sea eel. I've had eel before, but never sea eel so wanted to see the difference. The sea eel had a different texture than the regular eel, and I a better taste in my opinion. I had never had salmon eggs or spicy tuna so gave them a try. The tuna was good, but salmon eggs don't have much of an actual taste. I didn't order the avocado slice nigiri, and assume the sushi chef put them on the plate to fill it out. Not really big on avocado so only ate one piece of it.


For dessert I had the Taiyaki with ice cream. They were very good, but all the sweet bean paste makes it a very heavy dessert.


Now onto the loot of the trip. I came back with the Kagami Miku Cosplay version Figma, and the Dark Saber Figma, as well as the Freeing 1/4 scale Kagami.


The booth I got the Kagami Figma at was selling 20.00 grab bags. They were putting some bags together while I was there and noticed they were putting some Revoltechs into them. So me and my friend both decided to buy one of the ones that were already made. I ended up with the above items. My friend didn't score a Revoltech in his, but did get a Midvalley the Hornfreak trading figure from Trigun, a trading figure from Tenjho Tenge, Reign the Conqueror DVD, volume 4 of Card Captore Sakura manga, a Sgt. Frog trading figure (which his wife didn't care for since it was a girl in a bikini), and a 3 pack of chibi style Tenchi Muyo characters.

Well that's it for now. I actually ordered a better camera yesterday. When it comes in I'll post some pictures of the figures I got. Until then.

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Animefest This Weekend

Going to be heading to Dallas for Animefest with some friends this weekend. This will be the first anime convention I've been to. We've had some comic "conventions" here in the past, and I use the word convention loosely. They were nothing more than a single room full of dealers and lasted one day. Think one actually had George Takei as a guest, but I couldn't get the day off work for that one.

I'll be attending Friday and Saturday for sure. The friend I'm riding with suggested we go to Gameworks one day, but just found out the Dallas location closed a couple months ago. So as of this post our Sunday plans are up in the air.

Already have the panels I want to check out lined up. Planning on trying to attend the Webcomic, and Voice Actors panels on Friday, as well as the Anime Club How-to and Visual Novel panels. Saturday I want to check out the World of Bishoujo Games, Learn Japanese With Anime!, and Kazuyoshi Katayama panels. And I can't decide if I want to sit in on the Funimation panel or the Dai Sato panel as they both take place at the same time.

I will probably check out the gaming area to, even if I don't play anything. Anyone else going, and have some suggestions on things to do?



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Labyrinth and Dark Crystal Manga

The last volume of Return to Labyrinth is finally out! It's been over a year since volume 3 came out, but we can finally learn what happens to Toby, Sarah, and their friends in the Goblin Kingdom. Also out this month is Legends of the Dark Crystal volume 2. It's been an even longer wait for this book, the first volume released in 2007. And I've heard Tokyopop isn't planning to continue the series. That's to bad because Labyrinth and Dark Crystal are two of my favorite Jim Henson films, and I have enjoyed being able to return to those worlds and experience new adventures.

.

While at the book store I also got Rosario+Vampire Season 2 Volume 2, and Negima! 27. I got The Lightening Thief because I just watched the movie today, and needed 4 dollars more to be able to use a coupon I had. I enjoyed the movie, so the book must be a pretty good read.
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Revoltech Vash the Stampede

The Vash Revoltech figure I ordered from J-List came in. This is my first Revoltech figure. It's a great figure, but can be a pain in the ass to pose due to all the joints. Still it's probably the best Vash figure out there. I also ordered the May issue of Comptiq with Vash. It came with a Lucky Star pillowcase.

More after the jump.....

I tried setting up some of the poses featured on the back of the box. This is my favorite pose, but the wall he's sitting on doesn't fit very tight on the support base so he falls over very easy.

Also, for anyone with their own Vash and trying to replicate this pose. I has to pull the shoulder joints out some in order to get his arm to bend to the proper position.

Behind the back shot! Reminded me of episode 9 with the robot sentries, although the pose is different in the anime.

And we'll end the photo shoot with Vash wishing everyone Love and Peace!



Very awesome AMV for anyone who hasn't seen it, though I suspect most have already.

Here is the Comptiq I ordered.

I ordered it for this pillowcase of a a pink haired Kagami dressed as Miku Hatsune, and I just love the way Miyuki looks in the background.

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Ryan Reynolds Green Lantern Costume

Entertainment Weekly has a pic of Ryan Reynolds in his Green Lantern costume for the upcoming movie. I believe the costume is supposed to be completely CG and in my opinion looks hideous. If you look at this large version of the image at Collider it looks like the mask is actually part of his skin as you can see the pores on his face. The same with the costume it looks like his neck starts to turn green and flow into the odd muscle design of the suit.

Anyone actually like the design of the suit? Or do you think they should of stuck with a more classic look from the comic?


Fan Made Green Lantern Trailer featuring Nathan Fillion as Hal Jordon.

Source: Ain't It Cool News

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