Kurogane's Anime Blog

An interesting email came to me via reader rynstone, who informed me that there’s a dedicated group of Elfen Lied fans who are trying to a Lilium music box, a very important memento of Lucy in the Elfen Lied series.

The group has managed to persuade Sankyo, a Japanese company, to make the music box mechanism but it requires a one-time project fee of USD 670 + about USD 7 per mechanism to produce and they are looking for fellow fans or kind donators to contribute to the fee.

Personally, I think this isn’t a bad undertaking and it does result in very interesting piece of merchandise. Fellow Elfen Lied fans can visit their website/forums at http://stromnova.webs.com/ to register and find out how to donate.

Interested fans can also directly email Mr. Jarrod Pierce at liliumbox@gmail.com to get more clarification on the project.

Went to Kinokuniya to pick up my order for the THIRD time in 10 days to collect my order of Negima! Vol. 25 Limited Edition, after they trolled me last Saturday. To my most pleasant surprise, Kino actually gave me 20% off (RM 170 -> RM 136) my Negima Vol. 25 LE! Must’ve been a reward for my loyalty to them \o/.

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I went to Kinokuniya for the second (SECOND!!) time this week with some friends and fell in to temptation again, buying myself the 20th Anniversary artbook of Ah! My Goddess, with a 20% discount (saving me RM 32,which is quite a substantial amount).

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Bah, Kinokuniya really has a spell on me. Went there and ordered Negima OAD 3 and bought The Record of a Fallen Vampire Vol.4 and The Gentlemen’s Alliance Cross (my guilty shoujo pleasure). Did I mention I also blew RM 100 on lunch earlier at Traders Hotel nearby? Well, the Hokkaido scallops were worth it…. :D

I have got to say though, Record of a Fallen Vampire is shaping up to be one of the best vampire manga I’ve read. Starting from vampire vs human vs dhampir, it sprung a huge twist involving foreign invaders, making it one of the best pageturners I’ve had in a while. I already can’t wait for the next volume even as soon as I’ve finished the one I just bought.

I’m also quite liking the complicated and mysterious backstory revolving around RotFV’s “hero”, Akabara Strauss and his relationships with his Queen, Adelheid, and Bridget, who used to look up to him as a father-figure. The story just keeps throwing surprising revelations around it making another important plot line to follow alongside the main one in the present. The presentation of both plotlines also intertwine very well, with neither affecting each other too much.

The next volume seems to finally focus on that backstory as well, as the main plot in the present takes a bit of a break from the action that was continuously going on since the beginning. I do really want to know what happened that lead to Akabara to betray his people and go on a 1000-year quest for revenge.

Right, I’ll end the promotional blurb for RotFV here (which was actually the point of this post anyways). I can hear my wallet lamenting now on how I am gonna explain this dire financial situation I’m facing right now…

After 5 months of saving up, finally Sora no Kioku GET! Man, Makoto is sure is a genius at skyscapes. I spent like half an hour ogling at the pages with skyscapes.

I believe the book has been well reviewed by others (Pireze, Xcomp) so I’m not gonna do it again. It’s definitely dear for RM 110, but it’s still a good buy for collection.

Oh darn. My love-hate relationship with Kinokuniya Books is reaching a crescendo of sorts. What was supposed to be a nice, routine trip to Kino for me to check some books out eventually ended up with me buying this:

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Hell yeah, I love KyoAni and Lucky Star. Konata Nome 4TW!

Would Kagamin be a nice Klan, though? I guess Tsukasa could do Ranka and Miyuki as Nanase, LOL.

EDIT: Well, even the innards are practically the same!

This picture is for decorative purposes and has nothing to do with the content of this post at all.

I went out to Kinokuniya today, mainly to post something and then go look for Superior Saturday, the latest book in the Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix.

I’m happy to say I achieved both aims today, with little hassle, except for the fact that Kinokuniya is really, REALLY good at tugging on my purse-.. or shall I say, my wallet-strings. Not only did they have Superior Saturday, but they also had Honey & Clover Vol. 2 (on 20% discount too!), The Gentlemen’s Alliance Cross Vol. 6, ARIA Vol.2, Trinity Blood:RatM Vol. 3, Missing Vol. 2, Shinigami no Ballad Vol. 1, a bunch of interesting looking new titles and finally, Full Metal Panic! Vol.3. Dear god, I nearly crapped when I saw the big pile I grabbed after browsing through the manga section.

I swear, every time I go to Kino, I get a really huge urge to buy books. I suspect they have subliminal messages embedded in their store-wide music (mostly classical pieces) compelling me to buy, buy and buy.

In the end, managed to cut the purchases down to Superior Saturday, FMP! Vol.3, Trinity Blood:RatM Vol.3 and Hachikuro Vol.2, which came up to about RM 115. Sigh, if it wasn’t for the crap exchange rate making the prices of the books 3x higher, I’d have bought the whole stack I took, plus a bit more. Would’ve been funny if I descended to credit hell from buying all the volumes of Negima! or something, haha.

Anyways, blazing through Superior Saturday now. Garth Nix doesn’t disappoint. The Keys to the Kingdom series must have one of the most original fantasy-sci-fi combo settings of recent young adult fiction titles. Gotta love Suz- sorry, General Turquoise Blue now :).

P.S.: Goddammit, I can’t seem to stop looping the Rinbu Revolution duet by Masami Okui and Nana Mizuki in Animelo 2007. I swear, the song is well meant to be a duet song, and this rendition by Nana-chan and Masami is just fits soooo well.

Right. I just found out about it. And it was released around the same time as the Eva 1.01 LE DVD. Goddamnit, if I knew about it, I would’ve ordered them together! ORZ ORZ ORZ.

Anyways, now on the way to secure a copy, even though I’m really, REALLY out of money already. Amazon.jp seems to still stock it, but the shipping estimate says “…in 3-5 weeks.” Still awaiting a reply from the local Kino. I do hope they *might* carry it.

(Psst… anyone knows any good loan sharks willing to lend me 100-200 ringgit for a month or so?)

Addendum: Anyone local (read: KL and it’s surroundings) want to order this artbook as well? Need to share the shipping to make it worthwhile.

Finally got my hands on my order of Evangelion 1.01. Amazon.jp is impressive. Ordered placed on Saturday, processed on Sunday, delivered on Monday morning, arrived at Tuesday evening. That’s what you call service, eh. But I must say, for the 1,700 yen I paid for the shipping, they could’ve used a much more better packaging. I was surprised at looking at thin boxpack(or whatever it’s called) used for the DVD. I was expecting a box, heh.

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