a digital girly-girl's take on Japanese pop culture
While I was traveling recently, I visited an anime shop and, despite just having been in Japan recently, bought a couple of interesting things…
I initially discovered this pillow on jlist months ago, but couldn’t bring myself to buy it because I wasn’t sure if I would like it.
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As always, a figure-heavy list:
nendoroid Haru-chan
(img from amiami)
I won’t lie…. her color scheme lured me in D: that and she’s riding a freaking carp! I mean, come on! and that cat… XDDD I love her “cold/allergies” expression too~ I can see that being useful.
nendoroid Kuroneko
(img from amiami) Since I got Kirino, I’d have to get her friend Kuroneko~ I’m really hoping Ayase will be made into a nendoroid, too… hopefully with yandere eyes… >_> I love her “hmph” expression XD
K-ON! nendoroid puchi set (Lawson/TBSishop exclusive)
(img from otacute)
I love K-ON 
and this set is nice in particular because of Yui’s expression~
figma Senjougahara Hitagi
(img from amiami) Bakemonogatari is wonderful~ 
and I’m pretty fond of Hitagi. Her ponytail is cute~
To Aru Kagaku no Railgun with Shirai Kuroko figma (PSP)
(img from amiami) Kuroko~~~~ 
*coughs* right, um, well obviously I’m getting this because Kuroko = 
Not sure there’s much more I can say about it than that…. XD; This has since been delayed to “Summer 2011″… not sure if the cause of the delay is the game or the figure or both.
This (past) month’s list is going to be a long one. I don’t know why everything comes out in December (Christmas, maybe?) or perhaps it’s just everything I want coming out in Dec, but either way…
Here we go…
Umineko no naku koro ni: Ronde of Witches and Deduction (PS3)
(img from amiami) It’s no secret I love Umineko, so this should be no surprise. Supposedly all pre-orders come with red & blue truth pens XD; We’ll see. I did take a look at the other preorder items from various stores, but some of them are kind of… strange XD; (the Ange money clip is pretty epic, though, I have to say.)
this list is subject to change as I order more things but at this point it’s not likely until the end of the month, anyway.
figma Dead Master
I, er, still haven’t seen BRS, but I saw her and said “YES, MUST HAVE.” >_> Maybe it’s the curls, maybe it’s the expression…. or the fact that she comes with two floating skulls. Who knows~ 
but a very appropriate October release, assuming she gets here before Halloween XD;
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The other day, I received a package from Hobby Search (my first order from them!).
A fairly small order, but it contained two things I wanted and couldn’t buy elsewhere.
最近、ホビーサーチから注文されたものをもらいました。（初めての注文です！）
結構小さな注文なんだけど、ほかの店で買えなかったものが入れていました。
When I found out K-ON! was getting a second season (twice the size of the first, even!) I was really excited not only for the adaptation of the comics, but also the new music. I’ll leave my opinions for the OP/EDs for another post because what I want to talk about today is the new character songs!
Yui’s tracklist is as follows:
1) Oh My ギー太！！ (Oh My Giita!!)
2) しあわせ日和 (Shiawase Hiyori ["Blissful Weather"? this is a little hard for me to translate, seems like it would be more like "a great time to be happy" or something like that? I'm unsure ^^;;])
3) Come with Me!!(唯Ver.) (Come with Me (Yui ver.)
followed by instrumentals of the three above tracks
Oh My ギー太!! is really cute, essentially a pop love song to her guitar (very Yui, right? XD). This makes two Yui songs dedicated to her guitar (ギー太に首ったけ was the first).
しあわせ日和 is the more mellow track, although it still has a beat, much like Sunday Siesta. It’ll probably grow on me eventually, but right now I’m not enjoying it as much as Sunday Siesta and the lyrics are kind of meh, even for Yui XD; (I appreciate her…. quirky style sometimes but I can’t help tuning out when I listen to this one. The spoken bit is classic natural-airhead Yui: “That puppy just now… was it really a puppy I wonder. Maybe it was a small dog, an adult dog… Haa… it was so cute.”)
Come with Me!! was actually pretty disappointing for me. It’s not bad per se, but “Let’s go” was a lot more exciting and had a rock feel to it. Come with Me!! is… I’m not sure how to describe it, but… I almost want to say a carnival feel? Not even pop – this is way too childish for standard Japanese pop (or at least the stuff I end up listening to). It’d be less of a disappointment if this wasn’t the group song that will be on every character’s single :/
Moving on!
Mio’s tracklist:
1) 青春Vibration (Seishun Vibration [Youth Vibration])
2) 蒼空のモノローグ (Soukuu Monologue [Blue Sky Monologue])
3) Come with Me!!(澪Ver.) (Come with Me!! (Mio ver))
青春Vibration is a nice pop-rock track that reminds me of my favorite Card Captor Sakura song XD (sorry, that’s the first thing I thought of!) I’ll have to go through the lyrics more carefully, but they seem to have some potential and aren’t forced rhythmically speaking.
蒼空モノローグ is Mio’s requisite ballad. It’s very calm and full of (presumably Mugi’s) keyboard as the main accompaniment. As with Yui, I prefer Mio’s first track-2 (Hello little girl), but I don’t dislike it. I just keep losing focus, so I suppose that makes it suitable background music… XD;
And we already know how I feel about the last track. (No, having Mio as a singer does not save it, sorry.)
So, should you get them? It depends.
If you’re a serious K-ON! fan, then you’ll probably want them no matter what.
If you’re a casual K-ON! fan and Yui and/or Mio are your favorites, then it’s probably worth your money, since the covers are gorgeous and singles are comparatively inexpensive.
If you don’t really care about K-ON! there’s nothing to impress you, so I wouldn’t bother, unfortunately.
A very belated review of the Mio and Yui Nendoroids.
First, Mio.
She arrived at the beginning of February.
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