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.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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/.

The card this time round is of Albireo, while the Vol. 25 LE cover is an awesome illustration of Setsuna getting stripped. It’s really kinda worth buying the LE’s just for Akamatsu’s awesome ecchi renditions of the tankouban cover.　Actually I might also buy the normal edition of Vol. 25, since it’s Secchan on both… orz

mmm~ delicious Secchan

I can’t really say I liked OAD 3, I didn’t properly watch it but I did notice the production quality dropping for it already. And I have no idea if I ever will complete subbing OAD 2 and 3, I’ve been busy the past few months as well as lacking in the motivation to do them. I do have a rough script up for 2 so maybe I will eventually complete it.

And finally, the complete set of all three LE’s. Cost in total = RM 170 + SGD 55.92 (yea, i bought the second one in Singapore) + RM 136 = RM 440 ~ USD 118. (Wow, it looks so cheap when converted to USD… orz.)

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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).

My wallet despairs, but my heart rejoices though, since the book is quite worth the RM 130 I paid for it, as it’s really thick. It also contains just about every damn Ah! My Goddess color illustrations over the past 20 years.

There’s even an entire section dedicated to all of the tankouban covers where you get to see how much the art of A!MG has changed over the years from the “oh my god wtfugly” style back when it first started to the current “Belldandy’s eyes look so hollow” style. (I still think the best Belldandy is during the mid 90’s by the way.)

A long interview with Kosuke Fujishima is at the back of the book…

… and an index of all the illustrations and where it was sourced from.

The inside back of the book.

The artbook is really a worthwhile buy for fans of the series and I am glad to own it myself. This is really what artbooks should be like, :D.

If you want the original photos I used for this post, they are all nicely zipped up for download.

P.S. Right after publishing this post, I get an SMS from Kino: “Dear customer. Your order for Negima Vol. 25 Limited Edition has arrived at the store. Please proceed to….”.

…..WTF Kino? I just bloody came back from there!
…… and they said the book’s gonna arrive NEXT week when I placed the order orz.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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…

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Yeah, the Negima Ala Alba OAD #1 set bundled with vol. 23. It was really funny because I was joking to myself right before going to the manga shelves about Kino actually bringing the set in because two days earlier, I checked Amazon.jp and it was out of stock. Then I turned in to the manga “N” shelf and went, “Oh. Shit.” After intensive scrutiny of nearly half an hour pacing the Japanese section, I decided to go for broke and buy it. Now I’m nicely RM 180.20 in credit card debt hell, orz.

That said, it’s a pretty nice set I guess, containing tankouban #23, the DVD itself, a hard box to store the other 2 DVD’s graced with a nice piece of Akamatsu’s art and Kazumi’s Pactio card, all put in to one unassuming box. Pretty much worth it for me, since I am collecting the tankouban volumes (still need to get vol 19-22) and with all the nice extras. I like the quality on the Pactio card especially. Now I’m officially one of the two persons in Malaysia to own the Ala Alba DVD, assuming the other set in Kinokuniya gets bought too, XD.

Now, how to deal with being broke, my dietary choices are very constrained right now… orz. Also, I better preorder DVD 2 and 3 from Amazon.jp instead. Much cheaper than Kino after shipping. Damn j00, Kino, damn j00.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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!

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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.

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Literally had to rip open the top of the packing to reveal my prize, the Evangelion 1.01 LE box. The design is definitely impressively red and elegant. Really nice touch on the “Evangelion 1.01 : You are (not) alone” logo on the front.

Carefully using a blade to cut open the plastic wrapping at the side to unveil out the real thing. The inside case is fully black, with the same “Eva 1.01″ logo impressed on it. The quality of the material used for both the red and black boxes are really solid, dispelling any fears of damage to the innards.

Opening up the black case, which unfolds to three portions, two containing disc 1 and disc 2, and one more holding the additional material and booklet. The insides are all fully red, as you can see. The designers surely did an awesome job.

A closer look at both discs. Both are pure red with the labels faintly etched on them, but still pretty visible. My camera can’t capture the details though, :(.

The extra materials. From left to right; the filmstrip holder, two advertisement pamphlets and the movie booklet. The red advert pamphlet contains mostly Gainax Evangelion merchandise promotions. Oh Gainax, you milkers.

The white one, on the other hand, advertises Starchild products… I lol’ed, then orz’ed at seeing the live action Negima class roster in it.

The filmstrip that I managed to get. It’s Misato when she first brings Shinji back home. Sigh, why Misato. Well, it seems like it can sell rather high on the market, so I’m happy with it. Current highest price of the filmstrips being auctioned off is the one of Rei smiling, at the end of Operation Yashima, at the tune of 61k yen. I sure hope I get a filmstrip with Asuka in it for the next installment. I’m so gonna be pissed if I get Misato again, XD.

And that completes my unboxing of the Evangelion 1.01 LE. It’s my first (and hopefully, only) purchase of the year, and the second limited edition DVD (first being the Byousoku 5cm LE) that I can proudly call my own :)).

Now I’m hoping that Evangelion 2.0 will air this year as planned, can’t wait to see Asuka again :).

©2009 Kurogane's Anime Blog. All Rights Reserved.