Remember how I was moaning about the lack of Natsume’s merchandise a year ago? The lovely people in ALTAIR has announced the pre-order of the figure Natsume from Natsume Yuujinchou!
Love Natsume’s expression! It looks exactly like the way he smiles in the anime… brings back that ‘curing’ feeling~ Moreover, his embroidery on his outer layer is painted so beautifully! This is a must get for me *_*!
The figure is scheduled to be released in July 2010. Damage to wallet is probably around 7000 yen ($80). The conventional sites for Japanese goods are not opened for pre-order yet, but they should be accepting pre-order soon.
The third day of the third month is known in Japan as Hina Matsuri, Doll Festival, when the primitive ritual functions of dolls and the importance of the Heian era in Japanese culture are combined with a celebration of feminine qualities and a wish that little girls will develop them. Families with daughters pray for their health and future happiness, and celebrate with special foods, parties, and a display of traditional dolls in the best room of the house.
An older festival celebrated on this day is Momo-no-sekku, a peach blossom festival originating in China. Artificial or hothouse peach blossoms are an essential part of Hina Matsuri decoration – in Japan peach blossoms don’t appear for another month. They symbolise a happy marriage and the feminine traits of gentleness, composure and tranquillity.
In ancient times, dolls were believed to have the ability to contain evil spirits, and the beginning of Spring was a suitable time for a ritual to dispel the sickness and darkness of winter. Paper or straw dolls were sent out in boats to to carry away all the community’s ills and evils. It made a pleasant outing at the beginning of spring. Kyoto’s Shimogamo shrine still hosts an annual festival where dolls are put in boats and sent out to sea to pray for the safety of children.
The Hina Matsuri festival was legally established in 1687. During the Edo era (1603-1867) a rich and sophisticated merchant class evolved with money to spend on leisure and entertainment, and festivals and celebrations became even more important. Over time, Japanese girls began to celebrate the day with gatherings of friends and special food, including colourful hina-arare rice crackers and hishi mochi, diamond-shaped rice cakes.
The historic origins of the festival are still honoured in the display set up in many Japanese homes with daughters. The dolls and their accessories are modelled on the Heian Imperial Court. Dolls representing the Emperor and Empress sit on the top tier of an elaborate red-carpeted stand in 12th-century Court dress. Three court ladies sit on the next tier down, with five male musicians, two ministers of State and three samurai on the three lower tiers. The two bottom tiers hold screens, lanterns, flowers, carriages, furniture and musical instruments. There are even miniature trays of food so that the Court can join the party.
A set of hina can contain 15 or more dolls. If the family doesn’t have an inherited set, or if a house has many elegant rooms and many daughters, parents and grandparents of a newborn girl often buy dolls as a gift for her, but these are not to be played with. They go on display from the end of February until 3 March, and are taken down immediately after the festival by the superstitious. Folk wisdom says that a girl whose dolls are left on display after Hina Matsuri may have a long wait to get married.
The more expensive sets are miniature works of classical art. Even the cheapest pop-culture editions follow the traditional form, though some are only three tiers high and others restrict the display to the Emperor and Empress dolls. These august personages have been played by pop culture icons including Hello Kitty and her boyfriend Daniel, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, and the festival is referred to in many anime and manga, as well as in films and TV. Akira Kurosawa’s movie Dreams: Yume stresses the link between Japanese culture and the country’s natural environment. In one sequence, a little boy grieving over the loss of his family’s peach orchard is consoled when a group of hina dolls come to life and dance for him.
Boys can display dolls too, on Boy’s Day on May 5, but theirs are themed around the ancient attributes of masculinity, with horses, weapons, gods and heroes. What, I wonder, would be in a modern-day hina set to reflect 21st-century masculinity and femininity? It’s an interesting design challenge, but no modern decoration is likely to replace the traditional court of Imperial dolls in the near future.
If you want to celebrate Girl’s Day by sending a greeting to a friend, you can find the kanji for Girl’s Day, free to download in a variety of fonts, at The Japanese Connection.
Ah, it’s so nice to have new Gundam animation. Although I’m not a UC (Universal Century) fan, I still enjoyed this a lot!
This series is takes place three years after Char’s Counterattack, and focus on a young youth named Banagher Links. And in classic Gundam fashion, Banagher is thrust into a war he isn’t ready for, and becomes the “accidental” pilot for a ridiculously high-powered mobile suit known as a Gundam. Banagher seems to be pretty much standard fare as far as Gundam-leads, he even seems to be a blossoming Newtype. That kinda leads to the small niggle I have so far with this plot: it seems almost bog-standard affair Gundam story. Watching it seemed like watching MSG, or Zeta , or even SEED all over again. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing, but I thought Gundam 00 was a fresh of breath air for the Gundam franchise story-wise, and they seem to have taken a step back here. Of course, I do realize that this story is based on a novel which was released BEFORE 00, so I can understand somewhat if it feels like more of the same. Again, I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, but I guess I enjoyed Gundam 00 so much it left me wanting something different. And this IS only the first OVA, so who knows how the story will pan out (I didn’t read the novels, in case you haven’t figured that out).
Now let me get to the Mobile Suits, as my big interest in Gundam stems from the mechs. I’m a sucker for mechs, and while I love a good Gundam as much as the next guy, I’m a sucker for the “grunt-suits”. The Zaku II is probably my second favorite mobile-suit ever (right behind the Over-Flag from Gundam 00). So of course, I squealed like a little girl when they did this shot:
Ah, it’s nice to see the Zaku animated again, even if this one is dead. Anyway, my favorite suit is probably the Geara-Zulu, mostly because of the previously mention Zaku-fetish I have. I think the Geara-Zulu is a proper successor to the Zaku design, and I love its German-WWII style helmet head. To me it’s basically a slimmed down, modern version of the Zaku, much better then the Geara-Doga of CCA. As for the title Gundam itself, I can’t say too much. I like the design, although it does seem like a step-back from Nu-Gundam (which is top five in my favortie suits list). And honestly I like it better in normal mode rather than Destroy mode. Speaking of Destroy mode, seeing Unicorn transform was almost like seeing Exia go Trans-Am. Ah I can’t help all these 00 comparisons, that series is still fresh on my mind (and will continue to be until the movie premiers and I see it)! As for the combat, it was awesome, as usual for a Gundam. Watching the semi-CG’d suits duke it out was bringing me back to the days of watching Gundam 00 (I know, only less than a year ago!), and reminded me of why I love the Gundam franchise so much: just seeing giant robots blow the snot out of each other is fabulous. I really liked the battle scene inside the colony. I can’t remember a Gundam series that actually shows the real impact fighting inside a colony has (maybe the first episode of SEED). I also loved the fact that most of the grunts didn’t die in one hit. I mean just look at the Geara-Zulu taking on the ReZELs. It took three or four of them to bring him down, and the pilot was still swinging even in the battered state the suit was in. I know it’s impossible to make giant robots fighting each other in space seem realistic, but that doesn’t stop them from trying!
Anyway, I can’t comment much more on this series, because it’s incomplete. I will say though that this first episode was really well done, if not a bit clich though story-wise. But as far as presentation, A+. The animation was awesome, the fight scenes were really well done, and the music was great. It’s safe to say that this series has reignited my Gundam flame! Which is a bad thing, because OVA 2 isn’t slated to come out till the Fall. What a wait!!
Iono the Fanatics by Fujieda Miyabi is a short yuri manga with a vastly distinct premise. The queen of a small nation, Iono-sama visits Japan in search for women with luscious black hair to take as concubines (sobame). After meeting and and quickly seducing Eto, Iono tries to convince Eto to leave Japan as her sobame. Iono the Fanatics depicts the pair’s time in Japan before Iono returns to her country. Clearly, this is not the usual overused schoolgirl romance.
Iono the Fanatics does not take place in a school. The characters are not students infatuated with their sempai. Instead, Iono-sama, Eto, and her ministers are all assumed to be adults (except that one cute loli). With that comes a lack of teenage drama and a maturity in all the characters. This is something I really appreciated.
Further, unlike other yuri manga depicting adults like Octave, Iono the Fanatics features almost no angst. The characters do not show much insecurity or self-doubt over their love for Iono. There is no gray area between romance and friendship nor conflicting thoughts of social conformity. The romance is lighthearted but firm and the characters are honest about their feelings. For example, Iono is very clear on what she wants from Eto and she is very aggressive in getting what she wants… Free from all the uneasiness, the manga remains a fun romantic comedy all the way through the two volumes. This is particularly important also because Iono the Fanatics is a harem yuri manga.
Harem and yuri are two genre that are rarely paired together. Most notably Shoujo Sect has done it before, albeit with less focus on the actual simultaneity of relationships. The notion of being in love with a single lover still remains in Shoujo Sect. Iono, on the other hand, is frank about her status as a queen and her voracious appetite for cute girls. She makes it clear to Eto and the ministers/ mistresses that she cannot love only one woman, and Iono’s harem embraces this. Of course, Eto and some women do wish for more attention from Iono at times. However, as alluded to before, the comedic and loving mood of the manga allow these issues to be addressed easily and pleasantly. Jealousy among the women never becomes anything too serious or ugly. Iono’s charming personality probably helps a lot with that as well.
Iono is definitely quite the character. She is beautiful, cute, ecchi, fun, aggressive, a bit conniving, and most importantly, very queenly. Miyabi Fujieda succeeds in portraying this incredibly lovely queen through Iono’s various interactions with other characters. There are several glimpses of her elegant eminence, during which the readers could really understand why the women willingly follow Iono despite having to share her love.
Iono the Fanatic has always been a favorite. It is a rather unique yuri manga that breaks the popular yuri stereotypes set by Marimite and Strawberry Panic. It is a romantic harem comedy and it does all three genre really well. The romance is heartwarming; the harem is lovely; and the comedy is funny. Moreover, consistent with Miyabi Fujieda’s style, it has no ecchi at all even as a harem manga. What it does have is lot and lots of cuteness. In fact, everything and everyone are so cute that I just cannot fault it for anything.
Well that is my first full cover of an anime song. This song was fairly easy, and nice. The guitar parts are fairly balanced and well composed. There is a part in full edition where it is fucking insane. I wish I could get that good seriously fast. I will upload another video because the score that I used came in two parts. I played the lead. The rhythm part is a tad bit difficult due to the 16th notes. I will work on that right away and then merge the two files improving the first part too. I am still trying to learn how to record a video of my playing this and adding the music.
BECAUSE IF IT IS, KISHIMOTO HAS OFFICIALLY GONE CRAZY.
NO, THIS IS NOT A PLOT TWIST. IT’S MORE LIKE WHHHHEEEEEEEE SASUKE IS DEFINITELY NOT COMING OUT OF THIS MANGA/ANIME ALIVE.
AND THEN PEOPLE KEPT TELLING ME THAT KAKASHI WAS DEAD, AND HINATA DIED TOO.
AND THEN KARIN’S ALSO DEAD, BUT I DIDN’T REALLY CARE ABOUT HER ( or hinata) ANYWAY- /shot then brick’d
/sobsobsob KAKASSHHHHIIIIIII~
and I might not like Sakura all that much, BUT STILL. DID SHE REALLY HAVE TO DIE? I MEAN, GEEZ, WAY TO GO SASUKE. RIGHT WHEN EVERYONE WAS STARTING TO LIKE YOU AGAIN.
DOES HE NOT HAVE ANY FREAKING FEELINGS AT ALL? SHE WAS YOUR GODDAMN FORMER TEAMMATE.
I just love the end love it !!! hahahahahahaha and I just love the look Lee-Lengs face when they toke him back XD hahahaha what more can I say……. Oooh yeee Kajika and Lee-Leng are really fit to be together it just have to be them. hehe but I just love Eugene ^_^he really is like Mustafa
But what happens to the rest??? Watch and find out.
