#but bandai handled it well

[desertdragon]

So srs I think one of the only modern game Eng (and I specify english because other languages tend to not be as bad) localizations that's WORSE than this one is T/e/k/k/e/n and 8 is by far the worst bandai have ever done it for that game, but playing devil's advocate you can argue it's not as important there bc of the tone meanwhile XIV takes its tone very seriously so it's worse thematically and from a quality perspective to drop the ball in a serious story

[athena-gunpla]

Xingfeng Knockoff HGUC 1/144 P-Bandai E.F.G.F Specialized Mobile Suit RGM-79S "GM Spartan"

GM Spartan is a really cool looking kit, with a a lot of cool details and an excellent set of extras. Unfortunately it's also a P-Bandai realease, and for once I couldn't be convinced to shell out the $100 or so for the actual kit. Luckily a friend from my uni's model club let me know the Xingfend knockoff clone of this kit was only $6 - a price so low I'd be stupid to say no.

So how was the Xingfeng kit? It's essentially a one to one clone. I'm not sure how they got the moulds, but they've pretty much exactly replicated the sprues from the actual kit, although they've had to separate the multicolored "A" runner into three separate pieces to maintain colour separation. The only issue was the kit being a more yellow-tan and brown rather than the JGSDF Green that the actual kit is supposed to be, although I just headcanon this kit as being a desert variant.

There was a little bit of flashing and some mould lines, but nothing worse than older HG Bandai from the early 2010s. Overall a surprisingly good experience. In fact, it had some perks over the official kit - it includes a perfect clone of the EVO Waterslide decal set and by god they're miles better in quality than Bandai's official decals. They're thin, strong, and only need a little bit of water to come off the sheet, and look super vibrant on the plastic.

I ended up using the digital camo as a base layer and placing the marking decals on top, which gives it a super gritty, realistic look.

So how is the actual gunpla then?

The GM Spartan is a super detailed kit. The legs and arms are full of panel lines, and there's some great detail on the feet with little claws and treads, which I've painted grey. There's a large reactor backpack, which has a pop-up Minovsky Particle dispenser, really cool vents detailed in both grey and brown to emphasize depth, and a pulse knife/MS combat knife.

The kit also comes with a shoulder mounted set of wire-guided missiles, a forearm mountable beam saber rack with two beam sabers and two beam effects (The Xingfeng KO effects are hard plastic and UV reactive, as is the visor), and a really cool minigun.

The minigun targeting sensor can flip down sideways or remain upright. The magazine can fold to the side to allow an extra magazine to be added to the top, or the spare box mag can be stored on the back skirts. There's also a foregrip-mounted beam handgun with its own E-CAP magazine in the handle. The handle swings freely allowing for super easy posing.

The kit comes with one left open hand, a right and left pistol grip hand, and a right and left open fist hand.

The beam saber rack can be easily relocated to either forearm, or swapped with the shoulder missiles and attached to the right shoulder, or left shoulder if you remove a part. Beam effects can be added while stored, or the sabers can be removed and posed normally.

The GM Spartan's MS Combat Knife is my favorite part of this kit. The knife actually goes into the sheath on the backpack, and can be held nicely by the open fists either upright or backhanded.

This kit does use some polycaps, but it's still overall a very well articulated and solid kit. It's not floppy or lose at all, doubly surprisingly since I'm working with a knockoff.

A neat feature of this knockoff is the dual-effect visor. It fluoresces blue under UV light, but it also glows green in the dark. Bandai wishes it had features like this.

Overall, if you can get your hands on the Xingfeng knockoff you should really give it a chance. It's a really fun kit, and at a fraction of the official kit's price.

[the-eeveekins]

The 18th Day of G-Witch: Precious Things

So, off the bat I get to address a complaint I saw about Miorine pop-up later in the show: Prospera never manipulates her into her bad choices, she makes them on their own.

And that's true, to an extent. Nearly every bad choice Miorine makes starting in this episode and into the next few were ultimately decisions she made. But in every case, it was Prospera's words that pushed her towards making those decisions. Prospera doesn't actually have to heavily manipulate Miorine into playing into her hands, she doesn't have to actually convince her to do these things, because she understands Miorine so well that she knows just what to say to make Miorine make those choices herself.

This is a perfect example of that. Prospera wonders aloud if Suletta will really give up Aerial and stay uninvolved in her schemes, thus pushing Miorine to concoct a plan to forcibly separate Suletta from Aerial. Time and again, Prospera hands Miorine the rope and she hangs herself with it.

These scenes make this episode so tough. You can tell Suletta has been waiting for Miorine, you can tell how excited she is to finally be reunited with her. And you can tell how excited she is that Miorine is about to turn 17 and they can officially get married. Look at her face, Suletta is so ready to marry Miorine as soon as possible.

This was essentially Miorine's last hail mary attempt to avoid something drastic. I think if she would have gotten a positive reply from Suletta, she would have asked Suletta to simply give up Aerial to Prospera/The Benerit Group and tried a different route of breaking Prospera's grip on Suletta. But Suletta's answers combined with Prospera's earlier words push Miorine into drastic measures.

Look, ultimately I don't like Guel and I disliked his character development and how much focus he got in S2 at the cost of more important characters. But at least the guy handles being rejected properly and accepts Suletta's response. Which makes the way parts of the fandom and even Bandai itself continuing to try and push this relationship so annoying and frustrating. He got rejected TWICE, accepted Suletta's rejection and moved on with his life. I feel bad for fans of his who keep getting stuck with merch trying to push that aspect of his character.

Also, there's nothing complicated about this scene, there's no love triangle going on. Only homophobes desperate to downplay a same-sex relationship would turn a scene where a girl clearly rejects a guy while explaining she has feeling for someone else (Miorine) into some sort of complicated relationship situation. Looking at you, Anime Trendz.

As if to drive home the fact that Suletta was talking about Miorine in the last scene, Miorine also reiterates that she doesn't want to lose the things precious to her (Suletta). I know it was frustrating when the show was airing that they never said "I love you," but given what we know in retrospect, I'm glad the staff still found ways to show that these girls loved each other. I'm so tired of people saying they had no chemistry or their relation was a weak one because they never said those exact words, when we now know that Bandai would have never let the staff do that.

Miorine is doing everything for Suletta's sake, even going behind her back and making decisions for her because she thinks it's for the best (just like her father did to her). This also begins the very frustrating trend of Guel silently sitting back instead of speaking out, because he clearly sees that what she's doing won't keep Suletta uninvolved. And considering his feelings for her, you'd like to think he'd push Miorine a bit harder towards a less drastic course of actions than the one that would hurt her so much.

This is a duel Suletta detractors love to point to when they say Suletta isn't skilled and is carried by the Aerial. "Override is cheating and Suletta was only about to win this fight because she cheated" was a common argument I saw. Setting aside that it's not against the rules, by the same vein, Guel is also cheating by using the AI assist to basically do most of the piloting for him. Funny how people are quick to disparage Suletta's skill as a pilot because they think Ericht controlled the whole suit (it was just the bits), but when Guel literally has an AI program pilot the whole MS for him, there's suddenly not a peep out of those people about Guel being a bad pilot. And sorry I know this is kind of a pointless rant but I've had to read too many sexists on Twitter and Reddit tell me how good Guel is and how bad Suletta is to not say anything.

Anyway, even though Guel had a newly repaired and upgraded Darilbalde against Suletta's damaged Aerial, Suletta still basically had Guel beat easily before the AI saved him and put Suletta on the defensive.

Like, I know Suletta doesn't literally say "Will you marry me?" but look at this dialogue and tell me with a straight face it's not a marriage proposal. If you think this scene is anything but Suletta asking Miorine if she'll marry her, you're either homophobic or have a horrible case of heteronormative you need looked at.

Miorine is a stronger woman than I am. After hearing that I don't think I would've had the strength to push that button, and you can even see her hands shaking in that moment. The anguish she must feel hearing Suletta say those words and knowing what she's about to do must have killed her inside.

Also...we saw what the GUND-BIT Rifle does to a mobile suit even in school regulation mode. Suletta was so determined to win and marry Miorine that I think she was seconds away from accidentally straight up murdering Guel here.

Honestly, this scene probably hurt me more than any Gundam death ever has. I was depressed for a long time after it aired, and it absolutely made in so much worse that there was a one week delay until episode 18 aired, making this the last thing we saw for two whole weeks until the next episode (which was more pain!) Even though this is my 4th time watching it, it's still difficult to sit through, and it's only made bearable by knowing there's a happy ending waiting for them at the end of this.

Lynn said in an interview that Miorine had to be as cruel as she possibly could in this scene because if Suletta had detected even the slightest hint of kindness or care for her in Miorine's words and actions, she would have held onto that and not let go.

I definitely agree that Miorine's actions here are awful to Suletta and I understand it when people say they wouldn't personally be able to forgive her after something like this. But also realize that:

Miorine never expected Suletta to forgive her or come back to her, and she was fully prepared to throw away her own happiness and her relationship with Suletta for the chance that she could break Suletta free of Prospera and let her live an independent, happy life.

For better or worse, as horrible as this is, it does work. This puts a massive dent into Suletta's belief that listening to her mother and following her motto will always lead to gaining positive things in life. And that dent is important in the next episode.

[dollsorwhatever]

Inners and Serenity

My Inner Senshi Styledolls arrived last week, and I actually deboxed them for once!!

Jupiter and Mercury are DEFINITELY my favorites, which is no surprise because they're usually my favorite Inners of the vintage Bandai JP lines too lol Jupiter's hair needed a lot of work (had to layer her ponytail to blend in the stupid short tendril they cut at the top) but Mercury only needed a slight trim to even things out!

Mars is third favorite! Her hair is a little too short imo but looks mostly correct and only needed some flat ironing to curl the ends more consistently. I don't love the way they added crimps to her bangs but it doesn't look horrible and it is pretty accurate to her design, I'm just really annoying about doll hair being as organized as possible lol Venus is definitely my least favorite; her hair is like half an inch shorter than Mars and her half-up style is severely over-engineered in a way that is incredibly confusing to me- she has an entire thatched parting under the half-up ponytail that stretches horizontally across the back of her head, and the ponytail can't lay flat as a result so it looks really wonky fresh from the box. I had to brush out the parting and redo the entire style to get it to lay somewhat correctly, but it's still too short and I hate her bangs lol Aside from Jupiter, none of the Inners have a lot of gel in their hair- maybe a tiny bit on the bangs, but otherwise it is incredibly soft and smooth nylon! Overall a really excellent set of dolls! They won't be dethroning the vintage dolls for me, but they're well made and very nice to handle. Much looking forward to the Outers whenever they get made, and hopefully Eternal Sailor Moon and Sailor Cosmos! While I was at it, I also deboxed and restyled my Princess Serenity that I got months ago! I have been hesitant to debox my Styledolls because it was an absolute nightmare trying to iron out the factory kinks left behind by the heinous amount of elastics in SSM's hair, but I decided to test fate and Serenity turned out to be much easier to style. From this:

To this!

I absolutely hate the way Bandai has done her hair so far, but I've been collecting SM dolls long enough to have figured out a relatively low effort way to get mostly-accurate Usagi hair that satisfies my personal vision for how her hair should look on a doll lol Still, Usagi is a lot luckier than Chibiusa when it comes to factory hair:

Her odango are literally just....spikes they cut into her hair. Probably the worst attempt at Chibiusa hair I have ever seen, and I will likely never debox her as a result (unless I decide to spring for a reroot lol).

[hexfloog]

One menacing little meitantei I finished back in September for a contest at Nan Desu Kan 2022 :3c He both lights up (shoes and glasses) and has secret definitely not evil details which can only be revealed under black light. He placed second in the "figurine" category!!

Base kit is this Bandai Entry Grade Conan Edogawa that can be bought very cheaply and assembled without any hobby-specific tools. But I am a hobbyist and I do have a lot of tools on hand so I went a little nuts (below the break):

Base is scratch-built from black acrylic and real brick and mortar (these little slips are the kind made for cladding dollhouses). Since the brick material is real, it's heavier than it looks. Box was designed to have a removable door on the bottom in order to access the custom LED wiring and the on/off switches. It's just a door with a notch in it that you pry off with any tool that will fit, as it's only being held in place with double-sided tape.

There are two custom LED circuits wired into the figure. One circuit controls the LED in his glasses and runs all the way from a tiny spot just above his left eye (the LED is very small! just .6mm) down through his body, to his feet, and into the base. The other controls the ones in his shoes. The wires are not visible except behind the door in the base, they are routed through many a hand-drilled hole.

The wires are incredibly fragile since they're so tiny... pieces fatigued off when I was putting this together since I was handling them too much trying to figure them out. I definitely could have done a better job here but I've given myself a pass since it's my first foray into this kind of stuff. It also works, so I can't ask for more, really.

The blue color in his eyes is hand-painted. The kit provides a sticker sheet for the details (below) but instead I opted to paint them in with my smallest brush because I'm a masochist I guess

For what it's worth, I think it paid off lol. I did try to apply at least one of these and I thought it looked incredibly jarring, plus I didn't really trust the strength of the adhesive to stick well while I hauled him around.

Similarly, the sticker that is used for the homing glasses radar on the lens that lights up is custom-made. The kit does not come with this detail and I wanted something to justify the trouble of wiring up his glasses. A custom waterslide decal would have been ideal, but the issue with this one would've been finding a vendor that can print white (most run-of-the-mill custom services can't).

Under black light, Conan is knee-deep in UV-reactive paint splatter. I wanted to mimic the look of a luminol reaction on blood. Yeah this might've been an extremely self-indulgent decision because the shine in his eyes glow with this same paint too LOL but there was no way I wasn't completing the look by going for some evil eyes >:) Makes him look like an animal at night and I'm very here for it and also tagging this as Evil Conan now hehehe

With the exception of his glasses, and his eyes, the entire kit is finished with a matte topcoat. Without it, he's got a very plastic, glossy shine to him. The topcoat protects the black light paint, too.

Anyway I'm quite proud of this and I'm glad I finally took good pics ;0; It's very different from my usual gunpla-adjacent stuff (Zoids) and because the kit is so affordable I was more comfortable with experimenting. I'm delighted to have placed at all in the contest, and now I have unwavering confidence I can carry this experience to other kits I have on backlog >w<

[saffronapplemanga]

Recent Read Manga Recommendation Round Up (plus anime!) - Part 3

Manga/anime I’ve been enjoying recently! Links to part 1 and part 2.

Twitter link to this post here.

~Links to my other manga posts~ My personal favs/ones I super enjoyed will have a ✨ on them :)

PLEASE LOOK UP ANY TRIGGER WARNINGS!

CRIME, ACTION, DRAMA

✨GANGSTA. by Kohske

(8 volumes + chapters released past vol.8, hiatus)

Available in English

Please check out my dedicated post I linked for this series. I worked super hard on it!

If you take one recommendation from this list, let it be GANGSTA. I’m begging… This series is going in my all-time favs. I have a whole “Why You Should Check GANGSTA. Out” section in my dedicated post, so definitely take a look at that! But in short: Do you enjoy great character writing? A diverse, adult cast featuring different races and disability rep (deaf MC)? A gritty setting? A FOUND FAMILY OF DORKS?

I'm obsessed and I'm making it my mission to take as many of you down with me as possible...

TIME TRAVEL, SUPERNATURAL

Link Click directed by Li Haoling

(24 Episodes - Season 2 Coming Soon)

Link Click is a donghua from Studio LAN and streamed on Bilibili — the Chinese streaming service that I do some subs for, if you're unfamiliar with them — as well as Funimation. I enjoyed the art, animation, and atmosphere. The premise is that two guys working at a print shop time travel through photos to help their clients. And who doesn't love a trio of kids with a big-hearted jokester, the quiet, mature one, and a feisty girl who reins them in? I think this is my first donghua and I enjoyed it!

Plus, the opening and ending themes are pretty slick ->

Season 1 Opening Theme - Adding it to the playlist.

MECH, POLITICAL, SCHOOL

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury by Yatate Hajime

(12 Episodes + Prologue - Season 2 currently airing)

Let me tell you about me and Gundam.

I used to work at a translation company in Tokyo where I translated some Gundam figure commercials/interviews (which are currently privated on Youtube, unfortunately) amongst other things. I'm telling you guys, every time I walked into the office and saw an email from Bandai/TAMASHII NATIONS with a new Gundam translation request in my inbox, I would cry a lot little inside. I had never watched anything Gundam and didn't know what the heck was going on in the stuff I had to translate. There was this one interview with a figure designer where I was like, "Oh, you have to be a Gundam fan to understand what the heck he's talking about..." I remember me, another translator, and our editor staring at our screens exasperated. We managed, though. Big shoutout to the Gundam Wiki — not that I understood anything from it LOL.

If you told me back then that I would enjoy a Gundam thing, I would've laughed — but here I am, enjoying a Gundam thing. I'm not into mechs, even though I think robots/robot-adjacent stuff + space are cool. Still, I could never get into mechs for some reason. So if you're like me, try The Witch from Mercury. Our MCs are these two girls who end up engaged to each other in a rather hilarious way imo, with a colorful cast of supporting characters. The political themes I hear Gundam is known for really hooked me, and I LOVE how the kids handle a situation they end up in. I won't say more so as not to spoil it, but I think this is a great entry point for Gundam newbies!

Season 1 Opening Theme - Am I turning into a Gundam fan? Wild. Who would've thought the day would come? What if I start getting into Gunpla? A slippery slope, really.

SLICE OF LIFE, SCHOOL

✨Skip and Loafer by Takamatsu Misaki

(10 volumes, ongoing) + Season 1 Anime

Available in English

I remember seeing volume one of this series at the bookstore I frequented in Ikebukuro Station when it had just come out. Sooooo many times, I almost picked it up over the years. But I always passed because I was swamped with work, school, and current reads.

Now, I have a little more time on my hands, and the new anime adaptation has so much love put into it! A great coming-of-age story following young Mitsumi as she moves to the big city for school. This series is so wholesome, it's cavity-inducing.

This opening is the most delightful thing~

SLICE OF LIFE

Hotel Metsäpeuraan e Youkoso by Fukuta Seira

(5 volumes, ongoing)

JP only

In the mountains of Finland is a hotel run by two men. One day they see a young man outside in a snowstorm, and bring him inside. The men can tell that teenager Jun seems to have a heavy past and offer him a job and place to stay at the hotel.

Super cute, wholesome, and has great found family vibes!

SLICE OF LIFE, FOOD

Samenai Machi no Kisaten by Hasha

(2 volumes, complete)

JP only

A chill read with a touch of melancholy. At the end of each chapter is a recipe! The art is very cute and pleasing.

DYSTOPIAN, SCI-FI

✨Fool Night by Yasuda Kasumi

(8 volumes, ongoing)

JP only

In the future, the sky is blacked out, not allowing any sun through. To survive, technology has been developed to turn people into plants. The real horror is late stage capitalism though. I'm in love with the art and atmosphere of this series. I can't wait to read more!

ROMANCE

Gakusou by Tsurimaki Nodoka

(oneshot)

JP only

This is a super short one-chapter oneshot. Cute little read with lovely art! By the same author as 聖血の海獣/Seiketsu no Kemono, a 3-volume manga I've been meaning to read.

LGBTQ, DRAMA, COMEDY

To Strip The Flesh by Tooda Oto

(oneshot/anthology)

Available in English

An anthology that has some funny stories, and some that made me feel too seen...

DYSTOPIAN, SCI-FI, CRIME, ACTION, POLITICAL

✨PSYCHO-PASS by Urobuchi Gen

Check anilist for all content because the seasons, movies, manga, light novels, and watch order are a little all over the place.

The Psycho-Pass: Inspector Shinya Kogami manga is available in English from publisher Dark Horse.

Set in the future, Japan has implemented a surveillance state that measures people's psyche and flags anyone with the potential to do crime, even if they have not done anything or will never have done anything.

I watched season one back when it first came out in 2012. Since then, I would see ads for new content at the train stations in Japan and thought I’d catch up. There’s a new movie, PSYCHO-PASS PROVIDENCE, releasing May 12, 2023.

I've been having a lot of dumb, edgy fun with this series and its on-the-nose political themes. It's kinda camp-y? I do wish it spent more time on character moments, though.

I love me a trio (which seems to be a theme in this round-up lol) and this series has a good trio! Akane is such a great character, and Shinya and MY BOY GINOZA NOBUCHIKA!!! have been thoroughly entertaining me.

I love him. I wanna bully him and stuff him into a locker...

[argumentalist]

The grandaddy Gundam, and the grandaddy of all Real Grade kits...

I really enjoyed the RG Zaku II I built, so I had to get another Real Grade kit. And I figured I ought to start from the very beginning, with RG01, so I could see how the line has evolved.

Imagine my surprise when Bandai announced a 2.0 version of this kit. Now I'm eagerly waiting to get my hands on that one so I can compare the builds.

Once again, my mind was blown by the Advanced MS Joint runner. I just don't understand this thing. I can't wrap my head around the engineering needed to produce movable joints on a single runner like this.

But I also don't really understand the point... It's got to be expensive and time-consuming to make something like that. Wouldn't it be easier to just build a normal inner-frame?

I absolutely love the detail in this RG kit. Five tiny pieces to assemble a bit of ankle armor that'd be just one or two pieces in an HG kit.

Unfortunately that detail leads to increase complexity and some unfortunate compromises. This ankle armor, for example, makes the heel very weak. It's hard to get a good, solid pose out of the feet.

I thought I'd lost a piece for good.

I was putting this tiny little almost-invisible bit of grey plastic into the leg, slipped, and it just vanished. One moment it was there, the next it was gone.

I never heard it hit anything or land anywhere. I spent about an hour crawling around under my desk... But the plastic is the same color as my carpet. I thought for sue it was gone for good.

I ran the robovac overnight in a vague hope that it might find the piece... And it did! The next morning I emptied out the dustbin and there it was.

I need to work on my building and detailing process...

I like to do the panel-lining during the build. I find it easier to do before everything is completely assembled. But I later discovered that some of the decals were supposed to go over areas I'd panel-lined already.

Maybe I need to do decals during assembly too?

The detail, again, is just fantastic. I'm kind of stunned at what they can cram into this tiny little 1/144 scale model. So many different shades of color, tiny little bits of plastic, gimmicks. Little opening hatches and moving pieces of armor. Amazing.

There's even a tiny little transforming core fighter. It can fold up and go into the Gundam's torso - just like in the anime.

While I did build and fully detail the core fighter, I decided not to actually use it in the model. You lose a little bit of flexibility if you use the core fighter instead of the MS Joint part.

I thought it'd be a shame to use the included sticker-style decals on such an intricate model, so I grabbed some waterslide decals. These aren't anything special - just the official Bandai waterslides for the kit.

They're basically a duplicate of the sticker-style decals that are in the box. This means that everything is accurate... But you also get some weird, boring, flat versions of the metallic stickers from the box. I'm really not sure why you'd use those for anything.

And, of course, once the decals were done I had to topcoat the whole thing. I did a couple very light passes with the Mr. Hobby matte topcoat and I think it turned out well. Things still softened and blurred maybe a little more than I wanted them to... But the end result wasn't horrible.

Once again, I thoroughly enjoyed this build. I love the level of detail and complexity in the Real Grade line. It's absolutely fantastic.

Unfortunately the kit is a little soft and fragile once it's built. It's not falling apart on my desk... But it didn't like being handled much. I kept losing thruster bells off the backpack when I tried to pose it.

I'm eager to see what the 2.0 is like. How detailed it is. What they do (or don't do) with that MS Joint runner. How it'll compare to this grandaddy of grandaddies.

[alienaiver]

Tales of Meet Cutes

Kozume Kenma x gn!reader

warnings: this is pretty fluffy! while reader is gender neutral, they are cosplaying male characters and are being described wearing makeup, so beware if thats not ur thing! :’) wordcount: 4.4k content: FLUFF, genderneutral reader, poc!friendly reader, canon compliant, post-timeskip, meet cute, kenma FALLS IN LOVE... HARD!, cosplayer!reader meeting kenma at a convention basically, kuroo’s the worst wingman but he swings it anyway!, kenmas a bit awkward but hes got the spirit, weirdly enough became an advertisement for the tales of games..., unbeta’d bcos i am sobbing about my con, reader cosplays mikleo from tales of zestiria and jack vessalius from pandora hearts! heres mikleo and heres jack (theres no switch release of zestiria this is just me dreaming btw </3)

notes: hihey!!! i was at a convention this weekend and have been ruDELY STRUCK by the post-con depression and its... its GIVING ME feelings. so i wrote this. im aware that conventions in japan are usually simply called ‘events’ and not cons like in the west but it felt sO UNSPECIFIC so ye. i actually do Not know what bouncing ball corp DOES... so im playing around. this is all based off of my own convention experiences but theyre obviously very local to my country so idk how it is in others <33333333 i hope u enjoy AWKWARD KENMA who stutters <3

It’s Friday afternoon and Kenma’s plugging the Nintendo Switch’s HDMI into the television’s port that the convention provided for their booth. Kuroo’s humming by their table as he places the flyers nice and orderly next to the game cases. Kenma turns to his friend, “you didn’t have to do this.” he says, flustered that Kuroo had to take a weekend off for him. Kuroo smiles, “’course I didn’t have to,” he looks knowingly at Kenma who bites his lip and stares pointedly at the floor, “but I wanted to. It’s a free convention, a weekend with my best friend plus, you’re paying me.”

It's true, Kenma has agreed to pay all of Kuroo’s meals this weekend no matter what he wanted – he knows Kuroo will seize the opportunity and ask for food he’s normally too cheap to buy himself, but Kenma’s happy to indulge.

Bouncing Ball Corp has for many years sponsored a big part of Tokyo Expo’s Game Room. It was one of the first places that properly introduced Kenma to streaming so it’s become like a silent thank you to them. The community is nice too and he knows a lot of his fans come here. For just as many years that he’s been a sponsor, they’ve tried to get him to have a booth or maybe even a panel but he’s been dodging them successfully every year. The attention seems like it’d be too much for him to handle for a whole weekend so he’s always declined and showed up stealth as a regular convention guest and enjoyed the Game Room. He was almost found out once because he beat a high score on the big center screen in front of an audience. He’s never ducked out so fast of anything in his life.

But this year’s dodging and parrying proved unsuccessful due to circumstances out of his power. You’d think running your own company would make situations like these impossible but alas. Kenma has been playing the Tales Of game series on his channel since the early beginning and after the third game, Bandai Namco reached out and they made a rather fruitful arrangement that’s served both of them well. Now, they’re releasing an anniversary Nintendo Switch release of Tales of Zestiria and wanted Kenma at the convention, advertising. He was put between a rock and a hard place when the game company reached out to the convention on his behalf – he knows they did it on purpose to render any of his moves ineffective.

So here he is, plugging the television into the massive outlet that runs through the room to accommodate every booth and game (is this even fire safety regulated?) with Kuroo by his side. One of the volunteers, a Gopher, has already stopped by multiple times to offer their assistance in setting up. Kenma thinks they might be a fan because the Game Room’s volunteer-leader has already been by upon their arrival and walked through whatever they might need from the convention and what they’ve brought themselves to the booth with him.

There’s usually not a lot of booths in the Game Room, traditionally focusing more on just having a lot of platforms and screens available with games ready to be played by the guests but it’s not uncommon to see a company or two advertise for something. At the far end, Kenma knows an indie-game developer is going to be. She’s also going to host a panel on how to make your own games and where to start. He’d like to stop by for that out of curiosity. There’s also a booth from a school where you can become a game designer who advertises for their education and tells people of the way you’ll have to go to reach that.

And then Kenma’s. He certainly feels out of place as he sets up the brand-new Switch with only one game inserted provided by Bandai Namco. He originally connects it to the Convention Center’s Wi-Fi but decides his own might be faster for the final download of the software. He hears Kuroo talk to someone behind him as he fiddles with his phone settings. The convention opens in just a few hours and he’d like to get lunch before anyone arrives. He dreads how he’ll have to be available here until at least after the dinner rush. He’ll have to eat a heavy lunch. He has a gnawing suspicion that Kuroo’s got food or snacks in his bag if the size of it is anything to go by. He hopes there’s the red bean Taiyaki that he likes in that bag. He really wants one now.

  __

  His stomach is gnawing, reminding him of that Taiyaki he imagined earlier. It’s past 7PM now and there’s been so many people that he really doesn’t want to come back tomorrow. Kuroo’s currently out, there was a tabletop event he wanted to check out and since there wasn’t that many people when he left an hour ago, he had said yes but they’re all coming back from their dinner and filling up the room again. The heat is unbearable; poor ventilation and so many machines turned on making it worse on top of the people crowding it. More than once he’s had to explain how the Switch controls work for curious guests and it’s getting repetitive in a way that he really doesn’t enjoy. Is he really an asset as a sales representative? He thinks not.

Maybe he should just take a peek in Kuroo’s bag. He probably wouldn’t mind, right?

Turns out that he definitely wouldn’t mind given that all there is in said bag is snacks that only Kenma likes and that he knows Kuroo doesn’t even the least bit pretend to enjoy. He stays crouched and rummages through it and lo behold, a red bean Taiyaki shines from the bottom of the bag. Out of the corner of his eye he spots two people nearing the booth, one whose color scheme is glaringly blue. He hears talk, someone jumping in excitement and thinks it might be an old fan of the game excited about the remake. He’s surprised by how few knows the game – it’s not that old, he keeps telling himself.

“It’s you!” a voice exclaims and with the Taiyaki hanging from his mouth, Kenma looks up with confusion and an accidental glare. Before his booth stands two people. One is dressed like an anime character from that fighting show he’s heard about and the other… Well, the other is none other than Mikleo, a character from the game he’s currently advertising. You’re standing with the game in your hands, sparkles flying from your eyes in excitement, your underlip worried between your teeth.

Kenma drops the Taiyaki from his mouth as his brain decides you’re the most beautiful person he’s ever seen.

(Luckily for him the snack lands on the bag and not on the floor. He doesn’t notice that at all though.)

“I shouldn’t buy it. I already have it at home for the PS3,” you start arguing resolutely, putting down the Switch case with much reluctance. Your friend laughs at you, “yeah that would be silly. But you were so sad about not finding any merchandise with Mikleo or Sorey on it in Dealer and Artist, so I’m glad we saw this!” you nod to your friend, eyes still glued on the game, “me too. I hope this remake will get it the revival it deserves. Maybe we’ll actually meet people who knows the game now,” you sigh before you start to continue on, “I don’t want to be late for the Tekken tournament though and if I stay here much longer, I’ll end up buying the game.” Your friend follows and you look back at the game one last time with mock sobs and an arm reached out towards it. Your friend laughs and drags you along.

Kenma stays crouched and frozen for a few more moments until Kuroo’s voice breaks through, “that cosplayer’s the character from the game, aren’t they?” his eyes are turned towards you before he looks down at Kenma, “you found the snacks?” he walks around the tables to get inside the booth, “we can go get dinner in an hour or so, is that fine?”

Kenma barely registers any of the questions that Kuroo asks him, still looking after your form. It’s easy to see where you’re going with your cosplay prop, Mikleo’s staff being his guiding star as you’re walking towards the big screen for the Tekken tournament.

Maybe he should join the tournament.

No, he definitely shouldn’t.

Right?

A palm suddenly touches Kenma’s forehead and Kuroo’s form is crouched next to him, looking only mildly concerned, “you okay? You need to get out a bit? Too many people?” the questions are many as Kuroo tries to locate what Kenma’s issue might be. It’s not a fever, so the redness in his face much be account of the crowd, Kuroo thinks. Kenma scrunches up his nose before he gets back to his feet, “I’m fine.”

Kuroo shakes his head before he picks up Kenma’s abandoned Taiyaki and gets back up, “let me know if that changes. I’d be more than happy to duck out for food early.”

Kenma reluctantly grabs the Taiyaki from Kuroo and continues to eat it in silence. Kuroo does what he does best and try to sell the game to whoever stops by even if they’re only stopping briefly. There’s an influx of people for the tournament and Kuroo manages to sell a few copies to old fans. Kenma fiddles with his water bottle as his eyes are glued towards the tournament area, hoping he’ll see you on your way out. He definitely doesn’t want to go for dinner before it ends.

  Sadly, he doesn’t see you in the crowd leaving the area, all morphed together into one blob of mass. The Game Room is finally breathable again and they get ready to leave the booth, putting up the “Out for dinner, be right back!” sign and notify the Gophers that they’re leaving so they can keep an eye on the unattended booth for them.

Kuroo wanted something from the food stalls, much to Kenma’s chagrin. Kenma doesn’t particular like going out to eat but a restaurant’s volume levels is miles apart from the food halls of an anime convention’s. The line luckily isn’t long as Kenma stands with his phone, playing Valkyrie Connect on it to pass the time. Kuroo talks to the people around them in line, blending in even though this normally isn’t his crowd.

“Ah, thank you for holding the line! It was such a bother going to the bathroom in this,” you laugh, sounding out of breath as you pat your friend’s shoulder.

Kenma’s afraid to look up because out of his peripheral he spots the blue of the bottom part of Mikleo’s pants. The tail ends of your cap sways as you move around too and he feels his tongue grow a few sizes in his mouth. Kuroo continues talking with your friend who introduces you to him.

The good thing about Kuroo, that Kenma’s always appreciated, is his uncanny way of knowing when to push Kenma’s social buttons and when not to. So Kuroo simply lets the conversation flow with the two people in front of him, not letting their focus shift to Kenma in an effort to relief him.

He chances a look at you without lifting his head and you’re even more beautiful up close. Your wig seems to be of high quality and well taken care of, even after a whole day at the convention. Kenma doesn’t know a whole lot about makeup, but he can see that yours is sharp and accentuating the parts that make you resemble Mikleo the most. You’re wearing purple contacts and Kenma’s brain is fuzzy with the thought of what your real eye color must be like. Is your hair long underneath the wig? Or short? Your face seems perfectly sculptured and he has to look back down at his game so he doesn’t pass out from the way you shine.

  “Whatcha want?” Kuroo suddenly asks Kenma and he realizes it’s already their turn. Kenma gulps loudly and shakes his head at Kuroo, hoping his blush isn’t too obvious. Kuroo nods at his non-verbal response before he orders two sets of bibimbap with two chicken bao buns. Kenma fumbles to get his wallet out of his pocket to pay for the food and Kuroo wordlessly takes the wallet from him so he can hand them the correct amount. “Anyways, have a great con!” Kuroo gladly tells you and your friend as they go to leave the queue and wait by the side for their order. Kenma stomps his feet mentally and looks you squarely in the face. Your smile is gentle and warm as he gets eye contact with you, “you’re a… b-beautiful.. Mikleo.” he stumbles over his words and hurries to join Kuroo by the side, feeling very childish with his breathing ragged and heart beating. He hears you making a reply behind him but he doesn’t make out the words as he focuses on Kuroo’s shoes and quieting his own heart.

  When he reaches Kuroo, an unfortunate but very teasing smirk is on the bastard’s lips. “So it wasn’t a fever.” He teases, ruffling up Kenma’s hair. “Shut up,” he bites back and punches Kuroo’s stomach. Kuroo leans forward in mock pain and whispers close to Kenma’s ear with a teasing lilt, “they’re still looking at you. I think they’re flustered.”

Kenma just hits him again but dares not to look back to confirm whether or not Kuroo’s right, a pout evident on his face from Kuroo’s teasing.

      Saturday morning comes around without too many hiccups and Kenma’s playing Octopath Traveler on his own Switch, precariously tipping the chair to alleviate boredom. Kuroo only teased him mildly yesterday and this morning, so he thinks he might be safe with his private crush. It’s lunch time soon and the big cosplay show is currently underway, which makes the Game Room pleasant, only a few people sitting by different platforms quietly playing games.

Kuroo’s at the cosplay show too, leaving Kenma behind. He’d offered to go together, but Kenma thinks the noises will be too much. He can always watch the show online at another date and he doesn’t technically mind manning the booth when it’s this quiet. A few fans have found out he’s here and passed by for pictures, but it hasn’t been too wild. He misses his cats even if he briefly saw them this morning.

He yawns as he finishes off one of the chapter 2 bosses, checking his battery percent as the victory screen loads. He’s still good to go for at least some time yet before he has to get up and dig the charger out of Kuroo’s bag.

“Excuse me,” your voice rings as you clear your throat and Kenma’s head whips up so fast at the sound of your voice that he loses balance and with a leg raised tall in the air, he falls backwards with a yelp that he’ll deny until the day that he passes.

“Oh my God, are you okay?” he hears the worried wobble in your tone as you shuffle around towards the little entrance to his booth but stops in front of it, unsure if you’re allowed to enter, stomping your feet anxiously. “I didn’t mean to give you such a scare, I’m sorry!”

As Kenma groans and places his Switch carefully next to him on the floor, he realizes that you’re trying to hold back a laugh at the scene in front of you, but your brows are still furrowed in worry.

You’re not Mikleo today.

He’s not sure who you are, really. He doesn’t recognize the design but then again, he hasn’t watched a lot of anime. But even if you’re in a total different outfit, with a different hair and eye color than yesterday, there’s no mistake who you are. You’re the one inflicting psychic damage on Kenma’s heart and he’s not sure how to handle this properly.

Your outfit is no less detailed or well-done than yesterday, with a blonde wig styled with a ponytail and a very exquisite-looking, long green coat lined with gold. You’re wearing a ruffled shirt underneath a black vest, knee-length boots and white pants. You must be hot in all that. He feels heat flush to his cheeks at his own staring and throws his head back to the ground, staring at the ceiling to avoid your gaze, exhaling a deep breath. You crouch down, still by the entrance to his booth and look at him, careful of the length of your ponytail – he can see now that it’s a braid. “Are you sure that you’re okay?” you ask, biting your lip in worry about how he has yet to reply to you. Maybe you shouldn’t have walked up to him at all.

Kenma tries to make his eyes meet yours but he finds that he’s not really able to. He’s frozen staring up at the ceiling, feeling his blood pump faster than he’d like. His palms are lying spread but he can feel the sweat gathering there and there’s quite a bit of saliva gathering in his mouth that he seems to have forgotten how to swallow.

“Uhm. Was it Kazu?” you look up at the ceiling to see if Kenma’s found anything interesting, “ah! Kuroo! He said you’d be here when I saw him during the show break…” there’s a pause as you seem to think about what you want to say and Kenma finds the courage to move slowly to sit up, the thought that you sought him voluntarily out replenishing his HP bar.

You follow him with your eyes, a triumphant yet tense smile on your lips at making him blush so exceedingly. He’s pretty when he blushes, you think.

“I was wondering if you’d like to… Uh, get some lunch together from the food stalls?” Kenma whips his head towards you again, his expression more constipated than positive and you raise your arms in alarm with an apologetic smile, “y-you don’t have to of course! Kuroo just suggested that you might be hungry and well… I am too, but my friend didn’t want to miss the award ceremony so I thought… maybe… you’d like to? We could talk about the Tales of games, if you’d like?”

Kenma nods and looks away to regain control of his voice, “I’d like to, let me just close up here before we leave,” he says and a new excitement rises in him from being able to speak a whole sentence without stuttering to you. He chances a look at you he feels like he shouldn’t have because the smile that adorns your features is absolutely breath-taking and Kenma feels his heart stutter at brightness in front of him. You move to get up and dust off your thighs before reaching out to him, “need a hand?”

  The walk to the food stalls isn’t as awkward as Kenma feared it’d be with his newfound inability to compose proper sentences. You let the conversation flow freely and naturally, filling in when his answers are stunted. You’re so calm and patient that Kenma finds himself opening up more naturally as you reach the stalls, taking a walk through the area to figure out what you’d like. Kenma also learns that you’re dressed as a character from Pandora Hearts today, a character named Jack. “Don’t get the curry,” you warn in a whisper-voice and lean in close to continue what Kenma supposes is gossip but his heart is beating so loud in his ears he barely hears why you issued such a warning in the first place. He simply nods and trots along, hands buried deep in his hoodie’s pockets.

You settle on the food stall that sells pizza slices. It’s a small food truck with a pizza oven inside that Kenma’s frankly fascinated by. There’s not a lot of options that he likes on their menu and he feels embarrassed to order something where half of the ingredients needs to be taken off in front of you but he would also like to be able to eat said food in front of you.

When it’s your turn in the line, Kenma motions for you to go first and as he hears your order, his mind immediately relaxes – he’s not the only one with special requests to remove certain ingredients. As it turns out, you end up wanting the same exact pizza as him, so he taps your shoulder and quickly asks if you want to change it from two separate slices and just share a regular sized pizza. Your eyes shine at his question and you nod excitedly before turning towards the cook on the other side who happily takes the new order.

  You’re seated in front of each other with the pizza between you, the conversation flowing naturally and freely between games. “Have you ever played Fire Emblem?” Kenma asks through a bite of pizza and you hum through your chewing, “not yet. I only recently got my hands on my own Switch and that’s my first Nintendo console so I think it’ll take me a while to rack up my arsenal,” you laugh and Kenma nods, “you could always watch a stream of it?” he tentatively ask and you shake your head and put down your slice of pizza to take a sip of your drink, “I can’t really concentrate on streams… they’re kind of boring,” you admit with a sheepish laugh and Kenma’s back straightens as he tries not to take it personally. It’s technically not a big deal and he usually isn’t bothered by whether or not people would like him but he has a very deep-seated need for you to like him right now.

“What do you do on the daily? Outside of cons?” you ask after you’ve swallowed your last bite of pizza, “something with sales?”

Kenma raises a confused eyebrow at you and you laugh apologetically, “I just thought maybe for Bandai? Since you’re selling their game at the con.”

That’s when Kenma realizes.

You have no idea who he is.

And hey, Kenma isn’t that conceited that he thinks everyone knows him but with all the games you have the same interests in, he’d figured you at least knew his name or something of the sort. He also had a tiny drop of fear that you might just be seeking him out due to his status. He’s not sure he wouldn’t just let you, given how infatuated he is with you. What a wonderful way to get played, he absentmindedly thinks.

He's glad it seems to be in a whole other alley. You might just be interested in him for him.

“I uh, I own a company.” He tries not to sound like too much of a jerk but the sentence makes it hard to not sound high and mighty, no matter how he’d said it. Your eyes widen and you slap your palms onto the surface of the table, “that’s so cool!” you exclaim and Kenma tries to will down a blush. “What kind of company?”

He must look like a deer in the headlights to you because you shrink in on yourself and apologize for prying. He’s not sure why he didn’t expect such a follow-up question but his brain malfunctioned at the way your eyes shone. You’re wearing contacts again today, bright green and making your eyes seem bigger than they actually are. There are golden lashes lining your eyes and once again your makeup best accentuates what he believes fits the character because it’s different than it was yesterday but still just as sleek and beautiful. He hitches a breath before he can properly reply, “uh, it’s called… Bouncing Ball Corp.” he admits with a hand scratching the back of his neck.

Realization seems to dawn on your face as your eyes narrow, seemingly in deep thought. Then your mouth opens in an ‘o’ shape before you burst out laughing, a hand to your stomach. Kenma’s sitting like a duck, watching you go through all of these motions, confused as to what they might mean. Then, you wipe a stray tear from your lash line and apologize for your outburst, “it’s just. Oh my God, please apologize to your friend. When we met him at the show…” you laugh again, trying to breathe calmly, “I thought he was trying to hit on me because he started talking about knowing some kind of CEO and a streamer. My friend knew who it was but I didn’t and he seemed embarrassed that I didn’t. Oh God,” you’re still laughing, hiding your face behind your hand as Kenma puts two and two together.

That blathering idiot.

How many times does Kenma have to tell Kuroo not to be his wingman? He groans as he hides his face on the surface of the table, letting out strings of apologies on behalf of his friend. “I’m so sorry he’s just… like that,” Kenma bites out as he raises his head back up, licking his front teeth. You wave your hand with a smile, “don’t worry, don’t worry. He seems… fun. And he really seems to care about you.”

Kenma nods and plays with the woody veins on the table, unsure what to say when you grab his hand, “but you can thank him for his meddling, I think. It got the two of us talking, right?”

Kenma’s body seems to freeze at the contact as he feels the warmth of your hand in his. Your eyes look hopeful as you worry your lip between your teeth, a half-smile on your face. Kenma smiles in what he hopes is a reassuring way as he squeezes your hand back with a courage he hadn’t felt in a while, “yeah, I’ll be sure to treat him to a nice dinner later. But I think I’d like to treat you to one first.”

You giggle as you look down at the table in front of you, “that’d be lovely. But I think you need to see me out of cosplay before you decide, don’t you?” you ask with nervousness teetering in your lilt. Kenma shakes his head, “I cannot imagine that you’re not beautiful underneath your costume. Besides, your personality’s what’s important and I like that a lot already.”

The smile you send his way make his heart pump again. Yeah, he definitely needs to thank Kuroo, no matter how stunted his attempt were, it ended up working.

[shihalyfie]

Am I the only one who thinks Digimon is in a better place now than Pokémon?

I do understand the sentiment considering the subjectivity of "better", but in terms of franchise longevity and chances of not dying, Digimon is in a far worse place in almost every way imaginable:

We still aren't sure if the anime will make it past Ghost Game or if we're going to get another franchise hiatus

In fact the entire franchise is barely surviving by the skin of its teeth mostly due to the card game, which is in a market that's infamously difficult to penetrate past the "big three" (of which Pokémon is one and has comfortably been in that spot for years)

Bandai's handling of its many simultaneous franchise branches is sloppy and things that should have been timed together are not (the flip side of Pokémon's often-criticized franchise stagnation is that because its quality control is incredibly strict, it rarely if ever falls out of sync to this degree)

Toei has near exclusive rights to Digimon anime production, but they have to juggle it with more profitable IPs like One Piece, and getting a station to agree to air Digimon on it is infamously difficult, especially overseas (OLM has also apparently been struggling with production as well, but their overall influence on the IP is much lower, and they can still justify making full-length theatrical movies for kids when Digimon absolutely cannot right now)

For that matter Digimon localization quality (game translation, official subtitles, and overall handling of localization "consistency" like terminology or Digimon names between works) is infamously awful, both in terms of the lack of releases and the actual translation quality usually ranging from messy to downright unreadable (Pokémon got this one right from day one)

This of course extends to kids' anime dubbing still being very difficult to pull off if at all, we only barely know a reboot dub is happening but we've heard little information about it or what network it's even airing on, and it's hard to predict because Digimon has turned such poor financial figures that most networks outside Japan refuse to entertain it

Digimon's game design quality and QoL is arguably not that much better than Pokémon's, and depending on the person it may be much worse, it's just that we expect more from Pokémon because it's better-funded and more famous (and this goes for other things like Bandai's sloppy localization and quality control; we take for granted that TPCi should get this right, but with Bandai we're used to it being an incomprehensible mess anyway, even when they outsource to studios bigger than Game Freak)

Pokémon can afford having actual physical store locations in Japan

The overwhelming majority of hardcore Digimon fans have been fans for over 16 years, meaning the "turnover rate" for gaining new fans is dangerously low and the franchise risks losing its fanbase if more and more adults lose interest

...and so on and so forth. In fact, as far as financial figures go, Digimon has never remotely held a candle to Pokémon for even a second, with the "rivalry" being mostly media engineered for sensationalism (the similar genre of "monster collecting" means they might be somewhat worth comparing in terms of fiction content, but definitely not at all in terms of overall franchise health or whatnot).

Of course, in terms of quality of content, that's subjective and even as a Pokémon fan myself I have concerns about its potential stagnation (if anything, Digimon is at least much better at risk-taking), but while Digimon's definitely at the highest point it's been since it nearly died the first time in 2003, it's still very much getting by on life support and could easily end up going back on hiatus or even dying completely if things don't pan out. Pokémon has a much more comfortable safety net in comparison.

[buggernaut-kal]

Hi, Zack!

Finished up the Hobby Hizack, barring a few stickers. As somebody who wanted the Hobby Hizack as a kit since I saw Char’s Counterattack this is pretty neat, but I do have some mixed feelings here and there. Call this a pseudo-review:

PROS:

Great part separation, stickers are mostly for vent and vernier details. Impressed the shoulder thrusters are separate parts!

Articulation is great for a High Grade. It’s got the Zaku II Revive’s swivel-elbow-thing so you can spin the forearm around while it’s bent AND it has a dropping hip joint to get better kicks and a great ab crunch.

Solid construction. Everything holds together nicely despite all the joints. Feels really good to pose and handle.

CONS:

Oddly enough they abandon the “chin switch” monoeye control in favor of popping the head open like the old HG Zaku II. Better than the static monoeyes of old but still strange.

The front skirt clashes with the waist when tilted past a normal walking angle… so making use of the dropping hip means you have to scrape parts past each other. It’s a weird tolerance oversight.

No hand options. You only get the “holding” hands.

Price. Previously a Side F exclusive and now P-Bandai, it came out to about $30. With no accessories either, that’s a pretty penny for a High Grade.

NOTES:

The Hobby Hizack being a civilian-use machine explains no weapons, but in absence of Hizack weapons I would have liked at least one open hand.

This design borrows some elements from the Hizack Custom, which has no model kit. The shoulder armor and leg boosters can be considered “exclusive” as such.

Despite originating from Char’s Counterattack this model is based on Advance of Zeta’s design. Given the different aesthetics it’s gonna stick out next to your CCA models.

Final Thoughts

The Hizack was derived from the Zaku II F2 in lore, and while I don’t have a standard Hizack I do have an F2. Interestingly, the AOZ proportions of the Hizack line-up quite well with the F2. I’ll have to see how a standard Hizack fares when I get one later down the line.

Overall I grabbed this because I really like the Hobby Hizack as this civilian-ified mobile suit that’s also derivative of the Zaku II. It’s got great shelf presence, is a really fun build, and has some excellent engineering, but the only turn off is exclusivity and price. I certainly don’t regret picking this up but I’d say only go for it if you’re a diehard fan of AOZ or Zaku derivatives in general.

[usamingif]

How do I get into THE IDOLM@STER?

...is a very frequent question we idolmaster fans get!

I recently got a message from someone asking me if I could make a post answering this question, and I said I would try. I'm very bad at explaining things, but idolmaster is my biggest special interest, and I am always really happy to try to get people into it.

Before we start, I want to remind you that Idolmaster has no localization. All translations are fanmade. Please remember to support translators. I'll leave as many resources as possible. If you have any translators or sites you'd like me to mention, please let me know.

If you're willing to try and get into it, please open the readmore. I wont only be including Cinderella Girls, I'll try to include every branch.

How do I get into THE IDOLMASTER Cinderella Girls?

Alright, I know I said I wouldn't only be including CG, but this is still a deresute gif blog. I know what most of you are here for.

Cinderella Girls is a huge branch. There's 190 idols. I see some people backing out when they realize this, but I don't think that should discourage you! With that many idols, you're guaranteed to find someone for you. And please, just because you think the voiced girls are more worth your time, please check out the unvoiced ones as well.

Alright, but how do you get into it?

There's a lot of Youtube channels that translate different commus from it. From card lines, to memorial commus, to entire events. Simply search "deresute translation" if you'd like. HNKM_days on Twitter also translates most of the events as they come out.

CG's music is great! there's tons of uploads on soundcloud. My soundcloud playlist has about 200-ish songs. You can find a bunch by just searching "idolmaster".

To find more information on a song, search it up on project-imas.

Project-imas is *the* best idolmaster resource I can think of. It's entirely in English, it has every single song, CD, card — anything you can think of. I use it everyday of my life, which might sound sad but I assure you it isn't. Probably.

How do I get into THE IDOLMASTER Million Live?

Sankyuu ML subs on YouTube does a great job at translating mirishita related content! Another personal note I wanna add is that million live has an amazing discography, and full versions of pretty much every song are on Spotify. Even tho the cast is way smaller than Cinderella Girls, there's still a lot to love about the branch. I dont play Mirishita as much as I do some of the other games, but I still consume lots of content from it and it's a lovely branch I definitely recommend you get into. As of writing this post, Mirishita is celebrating it's 6th anniversary! It's a good time to download the game. Remember, you will need a Japanese VPN or Japanese Apple ID to play it. This goes for every imas mobile game.

How do I get into THE IDOLMASTER SideM?

Well, this is where we're gonna have to start getting into the thorny dark side of being an idolmaster fan. SideM is a great branch which I absolutely adore, and all of it's producers are so passionate about it, however.. Bandai Namco has never been kind to it.

This year, it was announced that it's only current running game, THE IDOLM@STER SideM Growing Stars, will be ending it's service. This was extremely sudden, and hard for everyone to handle. This means that there will basically be no way to properly produce the idols. SideM won't fully die, with there being lives and such, but producing the idols is such a big part of this franchise. I don't want to make this post gloomy out of nowhere, I swear. It's just a bit touchy for now.

There's a huuuge translation masterdoc for SideM, if any of the units or characters catch your eye from the project-imas wiki page on SideM, I suggest you search for whatever idols intrigue you most in the doc. As well as the doc, you can search up "#sidemTL" on Twitter for more translations not on the doc. There's so much to love about every unit and idol, I swear it's worth your time! Even tho it's current state might steer you away, I think it's important to still appreciate the branch for what it is. Oh hey, SideM's discography is also on streaming services! Please stream Piece Montee and Secret Ornament.

How do I get into THE IDOLMASTER Shiny Colors?

Here's ones that's been gaining traction! Luckily, it's actually a pretty accessible branch to get into, if you're willing to download the English patch. The gameplay might seem complicated and scary at first, but even that has tons of guides. I think a lot of this post is motivated by my emotions on the franchise, and I'm sorry about that, but I really mean it when I say the writing is incredible.

You can play Shinymas on your web browser here. If you search up "Shiny colors English patch" on google, you can download it using the instructions. If you're still hesitant on playing for whatever reason, you can read episodes recorded in the English patch on YouTube. I'm not exaggerating when I say the writing is amazing.

p.s if you dont care about that then I should let you know there's unlimited free ten pulls when you start the game

How do I get into the original idolmaster games? (765AS + Dearly Stars)

If you specifically want to get into the console games, there's English roms and translations of routes on Youtube, as well. Dearly Stars is currently in a very weird state, tho. You see, the 765AS girls are all in Million Live, and there's a lot of consolemas games they appear in. But for Dearly Stars, there's only one game. Which is, well, Dearly Stars. And 2/3 of the Dearly Stars just.. havent gotten content since?

I think that it's still a game you should check out, tho! There's not a single bad song in it, and even tho 3 idols might seem like an underwhelming number, they're all brilliant and very lovable. As with a good chunk of consolemas games, there's Dearly Stars translations up on YouTube! A really dedicated RyoP posted them all and I am eternally grateful to them for it.

Alright, phew. I wrote half of this at 11 am and procrastinated for a few hours then wrote more at midnight. Remember that project-imas is an insanely good resource and I encourage you to tell me if I should add more things onto this post. 100% of this post was made off the top of my head and based off of my own experience with the games. I want to mention that there's also a channel called "アイマスSUBS" that covers all the branches in terms of translations, and they've got a bunch of those. Have fun, producers!

[tamapalace]

Tamagotchi Uni Uses AWS, Amazon Web Services

The Tamagotchi Uni is the first Tamagotchi to ever connect to Wi-Fi, which enables it to receive over the area updates, programing changes, and more. How exactly is this all being done by Bandai Japan? Well Bandai has built the Tamagotchi Uni on the Amazon Web Services platform (AWS).

The details of this are actually outlined on a recent article on the Amazon Web Services blog. The blog post provided a detailed view on how Tamagotchi Uni use AWS to achieve secure and reliable connectivity and quickly deliver new content updates without leaving customers waiting.It details that Bandai Co., Ltd., the company responsible for product development and sales, adopted AWS IoT to realize the concept of globally interconnected Tamagotchi, enabling users to interact with each other.

Bandai partnered with their cloud development partner, Phoenisys, Inc., to connect and manage million of Tamagotchi devices. One of the critical features was the over the air software updates which uses the jobs feature of AWS IoT Device Management to distribute the latest firmware across all Tamagotchi devices without causing any delays to customers.

To make Tamagotchi Uni IoT-enabled, Bandai establish the three key goals, which was implementing secure connections, scaling the load-balancing resources to accommodate over 1 million connections worldwide, and optimizing operational costs. The article even features the AWS architecture for the Tamagotchi Uni, which is interesting.

AWS IoT Core is used to manage the state of each Tamagotchi Uni device, which helps retrieve distributed items and content. AWS IoT Device Management is used to index the extensive Tamagotchi Uni fleet and create dynamic groups on the state of each device, facilitating efficient over-the-air (OTA) updates. FreeRTOS is used to minimize the amount of resources and code required to implement device-to-cloud communication for efficient system development. AWS Lambda is used to process tasks, delivering new announcements, and registering assets. Amazon DynamoDB is used as a fully managed, sever less, key-value noSQL database that runs high-performance applications at any scale. Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) is used for object storage service, each of these data stores are used to manage the various resources within Tamagotchi Uni. Lastly, Amazon Timestream is used to accumulate historical data of user’s actions like downloading items and additional content.

The article also details how Bandai is handling large scale firmware updates to Tamagotchi Uni devices which are executed at a rate of 1,000 units per hour which would have resulted in a delay for some devices. The team actually designed job delivery as a continuous job which automatically updates the devices under certain conditions. This is using fleet indexing that runs a query to see which devices meet the criteria for the update to be pushed out to it.

Lastly the article details how Bandai conducted system performance testing at a large-scale to emulate what it would be like after the device was released. They verified the smooth operation and performance of updates through their testing.

Be sure to check out the full article here on the Amazon AWS blog.

[athena-gunpla]

HGFC 1/144 P-Bandai Neo-America Mobile Fighter GF13-006NA "Gundam Maxter" 🥊🇺🇸

He's here! Last week I prepared the 30th anniversary Yasuhiro Imagawa redesign of Gundam Rose, and now it's time for the next one in the series, Maxter.

Just like Rose, this kit is really well designed, with a streamlined parts count (only 8 sprues) and limited colour correcting stickers. Unfortunately it's not perfect, requiring a few stickers on the Core Booster, but otherwise it's totally colour accurate just from the parts.

This kit comes with a lot of extras, including two open fists, two closed fists, and two open hands, the gigantic magnums, removable "gloves" on the shoulders, the shield/surfboard, and just like the Rose, an action base 5, this time in red. It also has a removable core booster groundcar, which has a really nice reflective green cockpit.

Maxter has significantly more gimmicks than Rose. The fighting knuckles are articulated and can flip forward over the hands. The gigantic magnums can attach to the thighs, or slot in easily to the open fist hand options.

The boxing glove shoulder armour detaches and clips onto the forearm, transforming the suit into boxing mode. The chest piece also detaches for this mode, revealing a muscle detail underneath.

Extra parts are included that allow the feet to be secured to the surfboard/shield, and a handle also flips out to allow it to be held in shield mode. There's a 3mm hole behind the green metallic piece in the shield that allows it to be attached to the included action base.

Boxing mode can be enhanced by all of the extra armour bursting off. This is achieved with a series of extra trans red pieces for the action base, holding armour from the ankles, knees, and front skirt, as well as the aforementioned chest piece.

Also included is a purple punch effect to recreate the Gounetsu Machine Gun Punch from the latter half of G-Gundam. This clips onto the fighting knuckles.

Overall this was a really fun kit to build, and I loved messing around with the gimmicks for photos. The tolerances are really good, with no loose or floppy parts, and the colors are super vibrant.

I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the Shuffle Alliance being released!

[prophbuilds]

CAMS-02 Catsith – A Review

After my little Test of Buyee and Finally getting my grubby little paws on not one but Two(!) HG Catsith kits - essentially a double dose of personal Unobtainium - you know I had to build one eventually.

Well… this one left me with more than a few questions when I was done.

So sit back, relax and join me as I enjoy my rare recent win. Here’s my review of 2015’s G-Reco grunt suit from the Capitol Army, the HG CAMS-2 Catsith.

So… what can I say about a kit that, at the time of writing/building, is almost a decade old?

Well, the Catsith has all the earmarks of a classic Grunt Suit. The back has the now fairly standard two-peg system for the High Grade backpacks. It also has a little long square hole above those that looks to be another type of mounting point (not the blocky one of some of the old SEED kits but possibly another locking point?). Aside from the big ‘ol flight pack that it almost always had in the show, it comes with that very basic load out of a shield, a gun and swords - a staple of a number of Gunpla but the hallmark of a basic grunt unit.

Before I get too deep into that rabbit hole, let me talk up the build a bit.

The build went really smoothly. It’s a 2015 kit so it relies on polycaps for stuff that’d be better served with a plastic-on-plastic connection but it’s still an amazing solid kit. It's even disturbingly well balanced. The Catsith even has one of my fave gimmicks – leg based beam sabers! I mean, I love the when a mobile suit has beam weaponry in places that isn’t just the backpack. I Really love when it’s someplace that can be used defensively – a hole in the palms, a spot on the forearms, etc.

The Catsith one-ups other suits by hiding them in a moving flap on the front of the shins. The toes move down, the handle of the saber flips out from behind the moving flap and it lays in a groove along the front of the foot. It’s absolutely a neat gimmick and I love it.

So here’s my final thought on the kit before I get back into the rambling from the beginning…

The Pros:

It’s a simple kit. Not super complicated to stick together. Not a lot of stickers that you couldn't just paint in or ignore.

You have options for the optics. You can place them over the clear lens or use the smaller one on the head directly and have it behind the “glass".

It can balance like nobody’s business. I didn't have to do much to get my goofy pics. It’s a tad back heavy with the full flight pack installed but it's Super stable.

The Cons:

There’s flexibility just left on the table. This tends to be a thing with certain G-Reco kits. The designs are unique and I love them but they’re a pain in plastics. The knees could bend more with a few tweaks and the arms could have a better range in the elbow. Same with the waist.

It’s an HG so it suffers from a lack of hands. I love that it comes with three hands (and hand backs) for stuff but it lacks a basic holding hand. It’s two open hands and a trigger finger. I get that the leg-mounted sabers are Technically a part of the suit but they’re still beam sabers. They’re even used in the hand in the show. A bummer not to have a set as they are molded in a very nice pink color. Hard to just grab a Hand kit and replace them without work.

Overall, this is a fun kit. There’s just one issue that confuses me about it… why is it not one of those kits that gets reprints and alternate versions?

This thing has all he trappings of a GM style suit. It’s simple but not so much that a builder couldn't do something with it. It's got a gimmick, sure, but it’s an easy enough fix if you didn’t want to deal with the flip out sabers. It even has a bunch of artwork for alternate versions and You Know how Bandai likes to take a kit, mold it in a new set of colors and drop it on P-Bandai. The Catsith doesn’t even get that.

The G-Self is the Hero suit of G-Reco. It makes sense that it’s going to hang around a bit despite the series not being that popular. But it’s not the only one to get a different version. The Grimoire – the Zaku to the Catsith’s GM in this universe – got a nice modded version in the third Build series, Gundam Build Divers. It makes no sense.

Instead of going off too much on stuff that no one can use, how about I wrap this up.

Overall, the Catsith is a fun little build. It’s a solid kit that has a good range of motion in the hips and neck. A nice little base kit to mod into the mech of your dreams…

If you can find one.

[toku-action-figure-news]

Figure-Rise Standard Kamen Rider Drive Type: Speed announced

With Wizard due out in a couple of months, Bandai have announced on their Hobby Next Phase Spring event the next entry in their Heisei Riders Rising project: Kamen Rider Drive Type: Speed, the base form of the 16th Heisei Kamen Rider's main character. With this release, only Kiva and Gaim remain until all 20 Heisei Riders are made in the line.

Featuring metallic silver parts and clear pieces for the eyes and even the signal lights on his shoulders, Drive's eyes are also specifically designed to reflect light in a similar way to the show suit. The tire also has a different texture to the rest of the plastic, and the machinery molding on the back of Drive is also captured in the plastic parts.

For accessories, Drive comes with multiple Shift Cars - Speed, Flare, Funky and Ninja - which aside from his holsters and Driver can also slot into his included Handle-Ken sword and Door-Ju gun. Alternate stickers are included for Belt-San's expressions as well.

Figure-Rise Standard Kamen Rider Drive Type: Speed releases at general retail in September 2023 for 4,070 Yen.

[skydigiblogs]

i totally forgot to even mention that i read through all of digimon next, i think bfhjsdbfjhsdbfs

i mean i also didn't mention reading through all of v-tamer but i feel much less negatively about v-tamer than i did about digimon next

i can go into more detail if people want i guess but at the end of the day i think you're gonna need to go into next with more critical thinking pants than v-tamer (which i would argue requires maybe only critical thinking shorts), and that has to do in main part with two very large parts of their plot.

this is gonna be long (but i mean, that's what you come to this blog for lol), and, unfortunately, i have a lot of not-so-fun gripes with digimon next.

characters with disability (and how that disability is portrayed or discussed)

train kid yuu's disability is functionally cured in the digital world, and a large part of his arc has to do with him getting the courage to have heart surgery. i don't think this was handled with the kind of nuance that could have made him more interesting to me, especially with yuu calling himself a "weakling" at one point (internalized ableism is a thing, but i don't think it was written well with yuu).

folks familiar with v-tamer might ask me what i think about rei, and i feel similarly that it's a little weird to have a disabled character lose their disability in the digital world. however, i at least like that rei seemed to acknowledge it beyond mentioning surgery to get rid of it, and multiple times it was mentioned that despite being able to use her legs, she had no feeling at all in them while in the digital world.

neither of these portrayals are particularly good pieces of representation, and signify to me that the authors really didn't know how to fit someone with disabilities into their story without it being for the purpose of angst.

barbamon

barbamon just. is a whole essay i don't want to write at the moment because of how extremely antis*mitic its design is. if you don't know what i mean, look at barbamon's mask. guess what? look at barbamon's concept art, too. that huge nose is a mask in the final design, but the fact that at one point the demon lord of greed was considered to have that be its actual nose is uhhhh.

bandai what can i say but yiiiikes.

digimon next had an uphill battle the entire time almost entirely thanks to picking barbamon as its antagonist. when you use an antis*mitic caricature as your antagonist, it's going to be really hard not to pull on antis*mitic tropes, too! or at least, that's what it really felt like with next, considering barbamon's whole plan is literally some great r*placement theory "kill all non-aligned digimon and control birth itself" bullshit.

while destroying/conquering the digital world is textbook digimon antagonist bullshit (every series has one), the elements and aesthetic of barbamon in next particularly bothered me because they really do not reflect well when paired together.

i'll remind you too that barbamon in next has a notably militaristic army in "the commandments." this also isn't foreign in digimon--- a few years after next, we would see troopmon in bagramon's army, as an example. but like, again, one of these antagonist leader digimon is a caricature.

i am assigning homework for anyone who read(s) next, and that is some literature on antis*mitism and what it looks like in media.

"sky, if you hated next so much, why are you posting about it?"

first off: because it's my blog and i can, lol

second off: because i wanted that sweet sweet yggy lore

as much as i have my issues with digimon next, i think it introduced some very fun tools that could be built upon. yggdrasil, and the fact it just sent its girlsona to the human world because it was worried humans didn't like digimon enough? EXTREMELY funny on paper, yes, but also a fascinating idea!

in next, we see that yggy is able to detach its consciousness from its core, and i think it would be fun to see that explored further. what if, instead of someone external taking control of the core, we see something similar to, say, a split (yes i'm bringing plurality into this). that's to say, yggy mitosises off its girlsona or something, cloning its consciousness to assess the situation beyond its core's reach. yggy core and yggysona, however, are split up because yggysona needs to go collect data. what if there was conflict between yggy core and yggysona because the data retrieved just doesn't make sense with the data yggy core started with?

furthermore, we see some interesting ideas with yggy's kernel, where it's guarded by a magnaangemon (who we see both fall and quite easily reclaim their status as magnaangemon). the implications of this are that yggy can sometimes be the god that angel digimon serve, and that it is possible for fallen angel digimon to become unfallen.

and then next drops NEO on us, calls it "a power beyond yggy" AND REFUSES TO ELABORATE? NO, GET THE FUCK BACK HERE, WHAT DO YOU MEAN GOD IS MADE OUT OF THE COLLECTED MEMORIES OF DIGIMON SPECIES? that's such a cool concept to me (and i am also a sucker for chimera characters, so uhhh), especially read with a metaphorical lens. like. the idea of god being our experiences has endless thematic storytelling potential in a series that is all about its characters Having Emotional Experiences.

anyways uh

digimon next, huh?