It starts again...

Um, so I started the year with a post mostly in Japanese. Sorry about that. Since I usually watch my anime subbed or raw, occasionally some of my interal reactions come out in Japanese as well. Because of that, sometimes my immediate reaction can only be best expressed in that language rather than English. And it just so happened that I was off the day I watched the last episode of OreImo so I had time to write my thoughts down.

Last year had been uneventful in various ways. Like 2012, there's only a small handful of posts. I bought a whole bunch of toys but had very little time to play with them and it also didn't help that I went back to watching anime for much of my free time.

A brief list of anime series I've finished watching as follows. It's not a complete list as some anime I'm not sure if I watched in 2013 or 2012.

OreImo
Infinite Stratos (1st season, watching 2nd season)
Sword Art Online
Vividred Operation
Bakemonogatari (unfinished, uncertain if I'll continue watching)
Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere (unfinished, same as above)
Guren Lagann
Kokoro Connect
Moyashimon
Dog Days
Shingeki no Kyojin
Moyashimon
Hanasaku Iroha
GIRLS und PANZER
Maoyu
Madoka Magika

Manga I've been following in 2013 are Bleach, Saki, and since Crunchyroll started rolling out their manga section, UQ Holder, Seven Deadly Sins, Fort of Apocalypse, Coppelion, and Wife is Wagatsuma. I've caught up on all of them except the last two but I'm not sure if I'll continue to follow them especially Wagatsuma.

^One of my favorite scenes in UQ HOlder. Yes, I love gender bender characters. I also love Charles from IS...before she joined the Ichika harem as Charlotte. :p She remains my favorite IS heroine however.

Why she so cute as boy... orz

It's old news that I have too much toys but what really hit me recently was just how much. The impact is driven home even deeper since much of my newer toys haven't been opened and those take up much more space due to the packaging. It's about time I take a look at my older toys and decide which I want to dispose of and how as well as a closer look at my unopened purchases.

Sorry for Japanese. Oh, and Oreimo spoiler image, LOL.

Continue if you can read Japanese. Basically, it's my direct thought after watching Oreimo 2nd season end.

Madoka Magica review & comments

I've been watching Madoka Magika since the weekend and finished watching it 2 days ago. After watching the last episode, I spent the rest of the day in emotional BSOD while digesting the series as a whole. The next day was wasted reading through the Madoka section on TV Tropes. (I need to ban myself from reading that site, everytime I go there I find new stuff to waste time reading.) And now that I'm done, it's time to summarize my feelings on the show. The show has become my new top favorite anime I've ever watched (previous title holder was Code Geass). It was a nice emotional roller coaster ride and I definitely expect myself to rewatch at least the last 3 episodes over again in the near future. Those last 3 were definitely the ones most "relevant to my interests" plus I had to hold back tears at least once during each episode. =.=;

Hongfire withdrawal

Hongfire's been down this entire week and I'm suffering withdrawal symptoms. I don't know if this was a planned or unplanned outage; either way I'm not too happy about it. While I'm busy trying to deal with the loss of my favorite method of wasting time online, I'll yap about this summer.

This summer has been pretty good to me as far as me finding great steals on brick-related (IOW Lego, Mega Bloks) stuff and because of that, I've also bought more brick stuff this year than all previous years combined. Let me list the brick deals that I've gotten this summer.

Bionicle Baranus V7 $15 @ Walmart (original: $39.96)
Dragons Universe Dx Dual-Blast Dragon Hunter $7.48 @ Target (original: $29.99)
Dragons Universe Rapid Fire Dragon Fighter $4.98 @ Target (original: $19.99)
NFS Porsche 911 GT3 RS $13.74 @ Target (original: $54.99)
Kreo Starscream $7.48 @ Target (original: $29.99)
Kreo Sentinel Prime $9.98 @ Target (original: $39.99)
Hero Factory Fire Lord $9.98 @ Target (original: $19.99)
Hero Factory Von Nebula $13.00 @ Walmart (original: $19.99)
Covenant Phantom $39.99 @ Target (original: $79.99)

All of the Target stuff were from the same store which leads me to wonder what's going on with their pricing/clearance department especially considering the fact that the Kreos have only been out for a brief period while the NFS Porsche and the Phantom are brand new releases. The Phantom is frankly a bit over budget for me so I'm not sure if I'll keep it or not. I'll be doing a post on the Baranus, Dragon Fighter, and Porsche within the next couple weeks.

There were also some other deals which I'll post about later but at this rate, I might as well rename this blog "Cheap-ass Toy Box"... :P

 

On the anime front, I've watched Sora no Oto and Asobi ni Ikuyo (Bombshells From the Sky). Sora no Oto, I liked a lot, maybe even more than K-On! Asobi ni Ikuyo, while enjoyable, doesn't exactly move me much but that kinda goes with most harem anime in general. Haven't watched much anime lately but that might pick up depending on how I spend the next few months. Haven't bought any import toys lately although I'm considering a few purchases in the near future. The high yen has really dampened my want for imports so future purchasing plans are really uncertain at this time.

Speaking of bricks, I had recently got the Lego midi-scale Star Destroyer for half off but I found it to be too delicate and crumble too easily so I returned it. The engine parts in particular were easy to fall off if not careful and then there's that unsightly gap through the front middle of the ship. It just didn't work for me. :/

Gundam on youtube

I just watched the 1st episode of the original Gundam series on youtube, dubbed. It's like so old school memory. Zeta Gundam's available as well so those with nostalgia or want a taste of the real old-school should check it out. They've cleaned up the video so it looks sharper and the colors look better than before. Plenty of other anime available on youtube as well if you don't know about them already.

While I was at it, I also rewatched a bit of Code Geass episode 12. It's really funny how they interject the table humping scene out of nowhere and then go back to the main plot. I really need to go watch some new anime.

I got a package today from Hong Kong. I got a Busou Shinki Yda, EX-weapon set Schmetterling, and MMS Ichijou Eika from eBay. I've also bought a few other stuff as well which should slowly trickle in throughout the rest of the month including Chogokin Drossel, Busou Shinki Asuka, and Mikuru figma. Hopefully, I'm also getting a Miku Nendo but I'm getting the feeling that this one might be a fake as the fact that nobody else has bid on it is a big sign of that. I've definitely spent way too much money on toys lately so there probably won't be any more toy purchasing for the foreseeable future.

P.S.: Due to my purchasing of the Drossel Chogokin, my planned big purchase of either a bathing Kanu or Chogokin Quarter is put off indefinitely. My decision was leaning slightly towards Quarter and I still plan to get it but not until it drops to a more reasonable price.