Dollfie Arrival!

I had a surprise arrival yesterday evening in the form of three parcels all in one go! One I was expecting that day, the other I had been expecting within the next few days and the other was quite a bit earlier than I expected.

Yesterday’s arrivals: Figma Canaan, some bits and pieces from Volks, and… my brand new Super Dollfie!

Note: this post is very image-heavy and contains censored doll nakedness.

Akihabara Loot

I finally received my first scholarship payment yesterday (or rather my first three, as the previous payments had been delayed) and decided that a trip to Akihabara was in order! It was a short trip this time, as although I had planned to spend most of the day there and make a trip to Volks, a friend of mine had some tickets to a couple of films at the Tokyo International Film Festival, so I went along to that in the afternoon.

A couple of hours wasn’t long enough to fully explore Akihabara, but I did visit the big anime stores and a few smaller ones as well, and I’ll have  a better idea of my way around on my next trip (which should be pretty soon as I want to order myself a doll from Volks while I have the money for it, and while I’ve got enough time for their Full Choice System wait time which is currently about two months).

I just have pictures of the spoils of my trip this time. Next time I’ll be taking some pictures of Akihabara itself.

From top to bottom, left to right: Figma Kagamine Len, Azone Ryougi Shiki, trading figures from Togainu No Chi and Sengoku Basara first and second sets, an Azone biscuit freebie, clear files from Kara No Kyoukai and Canaan.

WonFes 2009 – Nendoroid

I think Good Smile Company are going to financially ruin me. This summer’s WonFes has had a lot of interesting announcements, plus lots of prototypes of previously announced figures.

This was the most surprising and interesting announcement as far as I’m concerned. Good Smile Company are clearly one of the leaders in terms of producing male figures, but Sengoku Basara Nendoroids came as quite a surprise. Both characters have rather complicated outfits, but given the great quality and detail on the most recent releases, these two shouldn’t present too much of a problem.

Initial Impressions – CANAAN

Next up from the new anime season is CANAAN. I was pretty interested to take a look at this series because I generally the way Type Moon material handles female characters, and the promo art for it was very pretty. I was also intrigued that prototype figures of Canaan emerged before the first episode had even aired, which is a rather confident move.

The plot isn’t exactly clear from the first episode – it focuses mainly on the action and atmosphere, both of which it pulls off with style. It’s apparently a continuation from 428: Fūsasareta Shibuya de, the game it’s connected to, but it’s hard to tell from a single episode whether knowledge of the game is necessary to enjoy the anime. The first episode is certainly watchable enough without it – the great visuals make up for the confusion.

The few male characters introduced look to suffer from the same problems as most of the men in the other Type Moon shows that I’ve seen, which is to say they came across as either boring or unlikeable. Their character designs are generic compared to the beautiful designs of the women, and there wasn’t much appeal in their personalities, either. The journalist was pretty amusing, but that was about as good as it got. I hope they’ll get enough development throughout the series that they don’t drag it down.

The women on the other hand seem pretty interesting for the most part. Their designs were definitely attractive, but also fairly practical – less silly outfits and ridiculous proportions compared to other series. Maria’s cheerful personality was borderline annoying at times, but Canaan herself is mysterious but likable, and Alphard and Liang Qi are mostly just mysterious, but enough hints were dropped about them that they seem interesting.

The fanservice was largely kept at a minimum, with the exception of one scene. There’s nothing that distracts from the rest of the episode, and hopefully they’ll keep things at the same sort of level in future episodes.

The atmosphere was great. I thought the mixture of violence and celebration was really effective, and the contrast between the seemingly lighthearted festival-goers and the sinister incidents occurring worked nicely. The use of colour, light and ‘camera’ angles was good, and the animation was fluid.

CANAAN definitely looks like a promising action series. It looks great, and hopefully the plot will turn out decent as well.