The blog has been dying down since earlier this year, as other than Desh and Vaik who posted every now and then, I was the one person who was constantly posting here.  Tijuana and Ra were long gone.  After an incident involving Vaik that got him kicked out of MOU last week, I thought it was time to break off from MOU.

With me gone, the MOU blog is now dead.  It was fun while it lasted.

You can check my blog at:

Tales of a Wandering Mind

Rar is now running a blog at:

Midnight Hearts

See you on the other side.

-WanderingMind

What?

What have I been doing lately?  Well, for one thing, I joined rpgamer606′s RPG-a-thon, where I will take all the unfinished RPGs in my collection and beat them.  Maybe I’ll complete some games along the way.  I originally was going to add games to the marathon as I purchased them, but I put a cap on how many games I put in the marathon because I knew I’d never finish it at that rate.

I’ve been participating in the marathon since the beginning of June.  I was limited to my DS and PSP when I first joined because I was still in Japan and didn’t have any of my consoles with me.   and I have beaten 7 games so far:

Progress is going to be slow since I’m going back to school, but I really hope I can get some of these games out of the way.  The last thing I need right now is to buy more games, since I was doing that already on summer break.

I copied the page notes from my Backloggery page below:

rpgamer606′s RPG-a-thon
Progress – 7/33 games finished
(Updated 8/21/2010)

Wander’s Rules for the Marathon:

1) Any RPG bought during the marathon will be added to the list.
2) I have the right to drop or ragequit any game for one reason or another.
3) At least 2 RPGs should be beaten a month.
4) The deadline for this marathon is August 2011.

Tales of Vesperia (360)
Grandia II (DC)
Final Fantasy V Advance (GBA)
-> Fire Emblem (GBA)
-> Izuna 2 (DS)
-> Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume (DS)
-> Chocobo’s Dungeon 2 (PS1)
Chrono Cross (PS1)
Eternal Eyes (PS1)
Final Fantasy VII (PS1)
Final Fantasy VIII (PS1)
Final Fantasy IX (PS1)
Dark Cloud 2 (PS2)
Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (PS2)
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King (PS2)
Final Fantasy X (PS2)
Final Fantasy X-2 (PS2)
Final Fantasy XII (PS2)
-> Kingdom Hearts (PS2)
-> Kingdom Hearts II (PS2)
Okage: Phantom King (PS2)
Sakura Wars ~So Long, My Love~ (PS2)
Shadow Hearts (PS2)
Shadow Hearts: Covenant (PS2)
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne (PS2)
Tales of the Abyss (PS2)
Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice (PS3)
Valkyria Chronicles (PS3)
-> Lunar: Silver Star Harmony (PSP)
Persona 3 Portable (PSP)
Suikoden (PSN) ( when started)
-> Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days (PSP)
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Repbublic (Xbox)

The same can probably be said about the incoming Fall season,but that’s material for another post.Maybe.Just maybe.

But enough talking,have at you!

• Amagami SS

I’m a sucker for some romance every now and then so i couldn’t pass this one. Meet Tachibana Junichi,your average guy who got his heart broken by some girl two years ago right on Christmas Eve,meet a number of gorgeous girl who will fall in love with him for the silliest reasons out there.The interesting thing is that the anime is arranged in omnibus format,which means that every girl shall get her own version of the story.That’s right,no more main heroine getting the spotlight and everyone else watching from the sidelines! Is it awesome? It kinda is and it would certainly be more,if it wasn’t for the fact that each girl’s arc only lasts four episodes and makes you feel like you are watching a very abridged version of a relationship instead of the real thing.

Overall score: 7/10,moderately fun and very droppable once your favourite girl’s arc has passed.

• Highschool of the Dead

The one show EVERYONE is watching.The amount of rage surrounding this is ridiculous but 1) whoever decided to watch this expecting something DEEP deserves to be shot anyway 2) haters gotta hate.Do i need to explain the plot? Very well: ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE,and a bunch of high schoolers must survive. If you want mindless zombies and even more mindless fanservice,this is the show for you.

Overall score: 8.5/10,genuinely entertaining,technically well done and a faithful adaptation of the manga.

• Shiki

AKA Higurashi 2: when the cicadas cry more.”During a fiercely hot summer in Sotoba, a peaceful and quiet village with a population of 1300 people, a series of bizarre deaths begin to occur.” Gee,i wonder where i heard something similar before…ah well,first few episodes were pretty awesome with one twist that managed to create a nice atmosphere of “what the hell?”,the following episodes were kind of boring and introduced some plain weird characters with FABULOUS designs.Thankfully,the general atmosphere stays heavy (the body count gets higher with each passing episode) but I’m not sure where this anime is heading,honestly:anyone with half a brain has already figured out why people are dying now so here’s hoping for lots of twists in the future.

Overall score: 7.5/10,not bad but not terribly interesting either.Given the general lack of horror anime is well worth a watch though.

• Seitokai Yakuindomo

Sex jokes,sex jokes everywhere:this is what SYD is about,and it works well.One faithful day,Takatoshi Tsuda decides to join Ōsai Academy,an all-girls school which has started accepting male students.He is then asked to join the student council as male representative:little does he know that from now on his life will be filled with girls having perverted thoughts about EVERYTHING.

That’s the gist of it,and there’s not much more to add…the plot is nonexistent,the jokes are mostly hit or miss but each episode never fails to make me laugh in some way,if only for the absurd things that pop out of nowhere:Moe vibrators? Check.Bondaged teddy bear? CHECK.

Overall score: 8.5/10,surprise of this season.

]]> http://mastersofunlocking.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/ah-nee-may-ramblings-part-3it-still-is-not-enough/feed/ 0 Orpheon Amagami-SS-アマガミ- High_School_of_the_Dead shiki SYD http://mastersofunlocking.wordpress.com/2010/07/26/another-bughunt/ http://mastersofunlocking.wordpress.com/2010/07/26/another-bughunt/#comments Tue, 27 Jul 2010 01:48:44 +0000 Vaikyuko http://mastersofunlocking.wordpress.com/?p=652 ]]> Chances are, if you play PC games consistently, you’ve heard of Steam. If you’ve heard of Steam, you may have heard of a recent game that came out: Alien Swarm. Released for free mid-July, the game is a Source engine version of an Unreal Tournament 2004 mod revolving around killing aliens known as the “Swarm” who have infested a colony. The Source engine is also used for all contemporary Valve games, and has been around for more than half a decade, showcasing its versatility (other games running on Source include Half-Life 2, Portal, Team Fortress 2, and the Left 4 Dead games, to name a few). The real interesting thing about Alien Swarm isn’t any of this, however.

It’s free.

Alien Swarm was released completely free with dedicated servers, matchmaking, the works, all courtesy of Valve. Reasoning abounds for this, but the main idea is to promote brand loyalty, draw in more Steam users, and to promote mod content for multiple Source games, as the Source SDK is available to anyone who purchases a Source game. So anyone can get Steam, download the game for free, and play with anybody else who has it! It’s a remarkably effective tactic, and the game is highly enjoyable.

As previously stated, the goal is to wipe out the Swarm. The game is a top-down shooter, perhaps reminiscent of some isometric shooters such as Killzone: Liberation. Controls are fairly simple: WASD moves one’s character, albeit not in FPS fashion (W is always to move up, no matter what direction you’re facing, and so forth), mouse aims your cursor and reticule. That’s about it. There are four playable classes, with eight different characters, two per class. Each class has their own equipment and role: Officers deal massive specialized damage, Special Weapons handle hordes, Techs provide supporting fire and hack, and Medics also offer supporting fire while healing the group.

General gameplay consists of moving quickly through levels, as Swarm enemies will constantly be spawning throughout the level at a set pace (those interested in console commands should note the AI Director from Left 4 Dead, which adjusts spawns based on difficulty the group is having, is capable of being enabled). Sometimes the objective is merely to get to the end of the level alive. Almost always there are secondary objectives, such as hacking terminals to obtain flight data, reactivating consoles, outlasting Swarm hordes, and escaping in a timed trial.

The one downside to Alien Swarm is the replayability, and lack thereof at the same time. The game has one campaign, Jacob’s Rest, which is composed of seven relatively short missions (there are achievements for time trials, which have you completing the game in under a half hour if you’re capable of performing them all in one run, but they are very difficult). There are four difficulty levels to enjoy as well, and the different classes make it fun to replay and see what you prefer. The problem is that there’s only one campaign, and by the time one puts a handful of hours into the game and unlocked most everything, Jacob’s Rest seems not enough.

This is where the modding community is to come in and release custom content. Campaigns are being developed already; I’m even writing a friend’s campaign and I don’t really possess any mod skill whatsoever. The replayability problem is exacerbated by lack of true bot support. If someone drops out midmatch, a bot takes their place, but most of the time they are braindead and unable to play properly. There is also no single player mode; offline practice consists of the first level, which does not go to the mission complete screen upon reaching the exit, and an online game requires a minimum of two players.

Despite this, the game is overwhelmingly fun and easily worth the price of admission, seeing as there is none. If you have a PC capable of running the Source engine, you should definitely download Alien Swarm and give it a try. What’s the harm? It doesn’t cost a thing but a few minutes of download time.

So enough with RL boredom and let’s continue with something that is even MORE boring,because it’s time to deliver my half-assed opinion about a few shows that ended this week and some other stuff I’ve been watching.

• Durarara!!

Ahh,my favourite show from the past season.I’m honestly glad it ended because the first half was way better,despite the majority of Shizuo’s awesomeness being concentrated in the second half.I’ve got nothing towards lengthy explanations in my animu,but DRR! just isn’t that kind of show and the amount of redundant and pretentious dialogue in a few episodes make me yawn more than once,especially when said dialogue is explaining things that were obvious to the viewer at first glance.
Still,this one is a must watch:production values are pretty high,it’s genuinely entertaining and last but not least,it contains one of the greatest fictional trolls ever conceived.Forget about Light Yagami,Orihara Izaya brings it to a whole new level.

Overall score: 9/10,would (and probably will) watch again.

• B Gata H Kei.

This is about a virgin girl named Yamada  who embarks on an epic quest:get 100 fuckbuddies.Yes,you read it right.Hell,the whole anime can be summed up with the following pic.

Of course,things won’t go just as planned and she’ll end up falling in love with fellow virgin and nerd Kosuda.
Again,this is something that was better in the first half:after the usual confession said girl becomes your standard tsundere # 28237387 and the interest drops,but it still delivers some fun every now and then.It also deserves praise for presenting the usual ecchi situations without resorting to show 40 panty shots in 5 minutes,a thing that i have always hated in my animu.

Overall score:  7/10,it can get pretty funny at times.

• Angel Beats!

THIS SHOW THIS SHOW THIS SHOW.

Is it good? No,not really.The pacing is very awkward,it doesn’t have a coherent plot 80% of the time,it feels like a 26 episodes anime that was forcefully crammed into 13 and there’s occasional QUALITY.Yet i still love it and it’s probably my greatest guilty anime pleasure ever.
The good things about it? The comedy ( first half of episode 5 almost made me fell off from my chair),the supporting characters and most of all,the OST.Apart from a stellar OP and a good ED,there is a boatload of different songs and the majority of them are pretty good.

Overall score:

• Evangelion:2.22 You Can (Not) Advance

Boy,this was awesome.Really,really awesome and this is coming from a very mild Evangelion fan who totally forgot about the series existing for years.
While the first movie was mainly a good retelling of what happened in the first third or so of the TV series,the second kicks the old canon to the curb and makes everything better.They even made Shinji  badass,and that alone deserves worlds of praise given his character.
Bad things about it? Next to none unless you want to be -extremely- picky and point out that Ritsuko’s character is pretty much ignored but that’s it.

Overall score: 10/10,going to buy it so much.

• Martian Successor Nadesico.

Part of an oldschool animu crusade i have started,it’s about space and fights and love triangles,all drenched in a healthy mix of comedy and drama.In the year 2196,Earth is being attacked by some aliens called Jovian Lizards and the battleship Nadesico sets sail to find a way to defeat them.Not exactly my cake,but it’s undeniably good.My only complain so far is that the transition between serious moments and 100% slapstick comedy is something you have to get used to.

Overall score: 8/10 so far.

Well,that pretty much sums it up.The incoming summer season doesn’t have a whole lot in store for me,but Highschool of the Dead and Shiki have potential so i’m pretty sure i’ll end up watching those.And who knows,maybe you’ll get a new animu review then.Stay classy,folks.

The one exception to this was my 18th birthday.  That was the day I graduated from high school.  It was an awesome day and loved how the two went together.

I made an effort this past weekend and Monday and Tuesday to get as much homework done as possible.  It was pretty tough, considering that I’m just past the halfway point of this semester.  I had quizzes and papers coming up, and I had to rework my entire schedule to get everything done before Wednesday.  That meant not being able to go out on Saturday and Sunday and having to stay up Tuesday night to get a paper done that is due on Friday.

I slept in today until 10:00.  I loaded some music on my PSP, took the bus to the train station, boarded the train, got off, and walked to the student center.  The only thing I had to do that day was study for a Japanese quiz on Thursday, but that was pretty easy.  Since it was around noon by that point, I went down to get something to eat and was going to go see a movie in the theaters.  However, I realized that there was nothing out that I wanted to see and I wasn’t too happy with the times.  Iron Man 2 isn’t going to be out in Japan for another month or so.  So I spent some time in the arcades.  Spent a lot of time with the Taiko Drum Master game.  This time, I managed not to get any blisters from playing too much.

I walked back to the student center and here I am, hanging out right now on my computer until around 6:00.  I’m going to go to a baseball game with some friends.  Going to get some beer and have a good time.  I would make a bigger deal about drinking if I was back in the States, but hey, it’s my birthday.

I’m waiting for Final Fantasy VII to finish downloading on my PSP.  I hope to start that sometime later tonight.  That and possibly start watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

I’m staying chill.

Letsee…there was

1) Toaru Majutsu no Index

2) Soul Eater

3) The Irresponsible Captain Tylor

-and-

4) RE: Cutie Honey

The first show I watched and finished this year was

Toaru Majutsu No Index (A Certain Magical Index)

Based on a series of light novels, Toaru Majutsu no Index takes place in the very modern city known as Academic City.  The show focuses on Kamijo Touma, a boy who goes to school in the city.  Being a Level 0, he has no esper abilities to speak of.  He does have a special ability called the Limit Breaker.  He can cancel any magic or divine power just by using his left hand.  No exceptions.  The tradeoff is that Touma has the worst luck out of any character in the series, something that gets played on throughout the show.

He runs into a number of characters throughout the show.  There’s Index, a girl in a holy-looking outfit who appears on the balcony of Touma’s apartment one day.  There’s Misaka Mikoto, a girl who can generate large amounts of electricity and the main character of the spinoff show, Toaru Kagaku no Railgun.  There are a bunch more characters, but I want to keep this brief.

The show is broken up into different story arcs, each focusing on certain characters and such.  There’s a good amount of action, a good amount of character development, and that’s about as much as I can say.

Soul Eater

I watched the first half of this show in anime club back when I used to go to club.  From September 2008 to May 2009, I met at club and watched one episode of Soul Eater along with one episode of four other shows once a week.  When the school year ended, we had to finish Soul Eater on our own.  I lost progress of this show, watched a few episodes later that year, but didn’t pick it up until two months ago.

The first half of the show introduced the main characters, Maka, Soul, Black Star, and Death the Kid and Medusa, one of my favorite villains I’ve seen in any anime.  Sadistic yet likeable.  Add the slick animation and a darn catchy soundtrack and this is a shounen action show that I’ve really enjoyed.

Though, the second half of the show was pretty uneven.  There were the awesome episodes.  Then there were the filler episodes.  Then there were the Excalibur episodes, some of the most annoying filler episodes I’ve ever watched.  That aside, this is one of the few shounen shows I’ve finished and thoroughly enjoyed.

The Irresponsible Captain Tylor

Probably my favorite show I’ve watched so far this year.  A comedy set in space, this show is about Justin Ueki Tylor, a 20 year old who’s one of the biggest slackers I’ve seen in an anime.  He decides to join the army one day so he can get an easy desk job and retire with a lot of money.  Through a stroke of (dumb?) luck, Tylor becomes the captain of a ship.  Thing is, he’s become the captain of the Soyokaze, a ship that has the worst reputation in the military.  Made up of people like the uptight Yuriko, the always drunk doctor, a bunch of manly Marines, and a whole bunch of other personalities, the ship is supposed to be a lost cause.  Tylor, who is oblivious to what is going on around him, usually gets the Soyokaze in some sort of mess in each episode and somehow manages to pull through at the end of each episode.   There’s the two higher-ups, Admiral Mifune and someone else, who are constantly embarrassed by Tylor and their attempts to find a way to get rid of him are pretty darn entertaining.  Somewhere in the process, Tylor manages to have every female character in the show fall for him.  Heck, even the empress of an enemy empire develops a crush on him.

At 26 episodes, The Irresponsible Captain Tylor never feels like it drags on.  It’s highly entertaining and if you’re in the mood for a show that isn’t moe or just want a show that doesn’t take itself too seriously, I would recommend checking out this show.

The TV anime was the last anime I watched before going off to Tokyo and I plan on watching the 10-episode OVA series when I get back.

RE: Cutie Honey

A remake of a magical girl show from the 1970s, this anime is colorful and has a ton of ecchi.  Honey Kisaragi is an android with a heart who fights evil.  Along the way, she makes a best friend by the name of Na-chan, a detective who at first wants to put Honey under arrest for public disturbance, but later develops feelings for Honey.  There’s action, there’s ton of fanservice, it’s all good.  The 2004 remake is only 3 episodes long, meaning that it can easily be watched in one sitting.

Honey Flash!

Most of the games I’ve bought have been RPGs, which will take me a while to play through.  Though, I can actually put a good amount of time into some of those games because I tend to have long commutes in Tokyo.  As long as I remember to charge my Nintendo DSi or PSP the night before, I’m good.

In this blog post, I’m going to cover the games that I finished in March.  They are the following:

1) Star Ocean: Second Evolution

2) Hatsune Miku: Project Diva

3) Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

4) Shadow Complex

5) Matt Hazard: Blood, Bath, and Beyond

6) Pac-Man World: 20th Anniversary

Since I know this may turn into a Too Long, Didn’t Read, I’ve broken up the post by game

Star Ocean: Second Evolution

On the surface, it looks like the same exact game as Star Ocean: First Departure.  You start out with a sci-fi backdrop, and then you’re dropped off on an underdeveloped planet, where you spend the first part of the game.  Again, the gameplay is the same.  You can have up to eight characters in your party in any given playthrough.  Every time you level up, you gain skill points which you can use to upgrade skills and learn special abilities along the way

This time, you can choose between two characters as your main character: Claude C. Kenny or Rena Lanford.  You get the same plot no matter which character you choose, but you will get a different perspective.  Also, you can recruit different characters depending on which person you main.

At around 25 hours on my first playthrough, the game is short enough that I can replay it without it being too repetitive.  The voice acting is much improved over the PS1 original.  Second Evolution has been cleaned up from First Departure, meaning there’s less room to exploit stuff and break the game.  It’s also far more challenging this time.  It’s a very welcome change.  In the first game, you could easily steamroll your way through certain parts.  This time, I had to really watch what I was doing.

That and there’s an optional sidequest you can do to in order to fight the final boss’ true form and therefore get the true ending.  I haven’t done it yet and I’ve only defeated his regular form with Claude, so I will save that for Rena’s playthrough.

Overall, it’s more polished than its predecessor.

Hatsune Miku: Project Diva

I picked this game up in Osaka back in January, although I didn’t play through it until last month.  I am now working on a Completion, the first time I’m doing something like that in a while.  It’s easily one of my favorite games for the PSP.  It’s very easy to pick up and play for a music game.  You can play through the main game and see the credits within a few hours, but unlocking everything will take a while.  Even though the game is in Japanese, you don’t need much reading skill to get by and you can look up anything you have questions about online.  I just need to remember to save since the game doesn’t automatically do it for you.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

I picked up this game the day it came out in the States, despite not getting a PS3 until later in 2008.  I played through most of Act 1 last summer and saved the rest for the two weeks I was at home in the States in March.  Like the last three Metal Gear Solid games, MGS4 is very heavy on the cutscenes.  Half of the time you’re playing the game, the other half involves you watching the story unfold through cutscenes.

As far as cutscenes go, they do a very good job at telling the latest chapter in the MGS series.  The gameplay has been cleaned up a bit from MGS3.   I don’t have to worry about constantly changing my camoflauge since that has been simplified.  With the exception of a few weak spots, each Act really does a good job at letting you approach areas as you feel.  There are times when you can get away with running and gunning, while there are other times where you better sneak your way through.

The boss fights were by far my favorite parts of the game, although I won’t go into detail because I don’t want to spoil it for people who haven’t played it yet.

Did I mention that the game looks good.  If you can play it on a high-def TV, do it.

If there’s only one thing I regret, it’s that I haven’t finished Metal Gear Solid 3 yet.  Then again, I can do that this summer when I’m back in the States.

By far my favorite game of the month.

Shadow Complex

I knew I wouldn’t have any time to play a console RPG while I was home, so I downloaded Shadow Complex off XBLA.  Since I love Super Metroid so much, I got a treat out of playing this game.  You get introduced to the plot of the game, which I honestly could care less about, and then got into the actual game.  I picked up upgrades along the way, did some backtracking, and about 4 gameplay hours later, finished the game.

The game has a leveling system, although it’s very light compared to other Metroidvanias, including the Castlevania games themselves.    Boss fights were fun, although they weren’t very challenging.  Then again, I played on Normal difficulty.  I wish the game was longer, even though I could have spent a lot of time hunting upgrades.  Though, it’s one of the best XBLA games out there.

Matt Hazard: Blood Bath and Beyond

I wish I didn’t waste my money with this game.  A meh side-scrolling shooter that tries to parodies other games, but falls short.  Having to worry about shooting enemies in the background in addition to enemies coming to the left and right of me is no fun.  A lunar landing minigame thrown in later in the game only makes things worse.  There’s not much else I can say about this generic game other than avoid it at all costs.

Pac Man World

You can tell this game is made in the 90s, and it really shows its age as a platformer from the PS1 generation.  Pac-Man’s family has been kidnapped, and Pac-Man has to go through 6 different worlds to rescue each one of them and defeat the Big Bad.  I was very lazy about making progress in this game because I was watching through my backlog of anime, but also because this game had a tendency to piss me off.

Where do I start?  The camera.  It sucks.  It was fixed and therefore was the cause of many deaths because I didn’t know when enemies or platforms would show up.  That and I couldn’t make a good guess at where to jump to.  I would think I had a clear shot at landing somewhere, but nope, I fell to my doom.  If the camera wasn’t killing me, then the many frustrating jumping puzzles did.  It wasn’t too bad in the first area or two, but it went downhill from there.  Only being able to use the D-Pad on the PS controller did not help at all.  In this day and age, it would have been nice to be able to use analog sticks.

Boss fights were a mixed bag.  Some were ridiculously easy, while others were downright annoying (like a Galaxian-style level with only one checkpoint and an aggravating boss at the end).  Game had a lot of annoying difficulty spikes like that.  Final boss was ridiculously easy, but I’m not complaining.

The only other noteworthy thing I can say about Pac-Man World is that it features the most generic music I’ve seen in any game in a while, let alone a platformer

I now know why SnakeEyez paid me to take this game off him when I traded games with him last year.

I thought I wouldn’t have a chance to go back to Akihabara for a while, but then I had the opportunity this past Saturday.  This weekend, I went to Tokyo and Nikko with my parents since they happened to be on vacation in Japan while I was here.  On Saturday, I went around the city and one of the last stops of the day before dinner was at Akihabara.  My parents went to a camera store to look at some stuff, so I went off on my own to some shops I didn’t have time for the last time I was there.  Again, I really had to look after my money and only had so much stuff I could carry around.  I mean, I had to carry everything with me until I returned to my host family’s place yesterday evening.

Most of what I’ve bought so far have been artbooks, figures, and plushies.  I haven’t bought a lot of doujinshi in Tokyo just yet.  I may save that for later on.  Anyway, let’s go to the meat of this post: the pics.

Click on the pics for larger view.

Catcuar plushie + Gekkokan school emblem

I went into a Kotobukiya store in Akihabara last week, which was the last stop I made that day before taking an hour long train ride back to my host family’s place.  I was walking around on the first floor of the store when I came across a Cactuar plushie.  I remember some people on Twitter talking about it, which prompted me to get one for myself.  Nearby was a Gekkokan high school emblem.  I don’t know what I’m going to put it on, but I do have it in case I want to do something with it.

Hatsune Miku CD

I bought this at a shop that specialized in doujin games and music.  There was a lot of Touhou stuff and a lot of vocaloid CDs.  I’ve listened to a few songs by IOSYS before and listened to some of the songs on this CD while I was at the store.  I liked it enough to warrant a purchase.  I still need to listen to the rest of this CD, which I plan on doing soon.

Baccano! + Valkyria Chronicles artbooks

It’s no surprise that I’m a huge fan of Baccano!  I’m also a fan of Valkyria Chronicles.  I haven’t gotten far in the game, but I will play through it this summer.  I actually bought both of these at a bookstore at Ueno Station while waiting to meet up with my parents on Saturday morning.  The only bad part was that I had to carry them in my backpack for the rest of the day.  The Valkyria Chronicles book was thick!

Tales of Symphonia + Tales of the Abyss artbooks

Grabbed both of these at an Animate in Akihabara.  Pretty basic as far as artbooks go, but nice to have.

Pixiv Girls Collection 2009 + 2010

Probably my favorite artbooks I’ve found so far.  Got the 2009 book at Animate in Akihabara while I got the 2010 book at a bookstore at a train stop around the Tokyo area

Cyndaquil + Totodile

Nabbed both of them at a toy store on top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Tower.  If you’re ever in Tokyo, go to that building.  You get a view of Tokyo that’s much better than Tokyo Tower, is very easy to get to by subway, and best of all, is free.  As nice as Tokyo Tower is, it’s overrated.

Moogle keychain + GYAKUTEN MEETS ORCHESTRA

I couldn’t resist getting a Moogle.  Now it hangs on my backpack.  It’s all good.  Also, I need to give GYAKUTEN MEETS ORCHESTRA a listen to when I have the time.

Rena + Rise figures

Since figures are going to be a pain to carry around and ship back home when it’s July, I had to be really picky about the figures I wanted.  I ended up getting a Rise (Persona 4) figure at one store and a Rena (Star Ocean: Second Story/Second Evolution) figure at another store.  I’m pretty happy with my purchases.