Winter Wonder Festival (WonFest) 2010 had just started its run today at the Makuhari Messe.. However, there are already some good photos from the event itself on the upcoming figurines.. And I’ll say that there are plenty for you to drool upon just like the one above; 1/8 scale Love is War Hatsune Miku by Good Smile Company…

Let us move on with the rest~

1/8 scale Black Rock Shooter Anime Ver. by Good Smile Company. No date or price yet.

1/8 scale Deadmaster by Good Smile Company. No date or price yet.

1/8 scale Deadmaster Anime Ver. by Good Smile Company. No date or price yet.

Figma Black Rock Shooter by Max Factory.
Summer 2010 – No price yet.

Figma Deadmaster by Max Factory. No date or price yet.

Nendoroid Black Rock Shooter by Good Smile Company. No date or price yet.

Nendoroid Dead Master by Good Smile Company. No date or price yet.

Figma Tainaka Ritsu School Uniform Ver. from K-ON! by Max Factory.
May 2010 – 3,800 Yen

Figma Nakano Azusa School Uniform Ver. from K-ON! by Max Factory.
June 2010 – 2,800 Yen

1/8 scale Senjougahara Hitagi from Bakemonogatari by Good Smile Company.

Figma Ayanami Rei from Rebuild of Evangelion. No date or price yet.
Figma Asuka Langley Shikinami from Rebuild of Evangelion.
Summer 2010 – No price yet.
Figma Makinami Mari Illustrious from Rebuild of Evangelion.
Summer 2010 – No price yet.

Figma Suzumiya Haruhi Long Haired Ver. by Max Factory. No date or price yet.

1/7 scale Momohime from Muramasa: The Demon Blade by Alter.
July 2010 – No price yet.

1/7 scale Sankt Kaiser Vivio from Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS by Alter.
July 2010 – No price yet.

Nendoroid Nagato Yuki Disapperance Ver. by Good Smile Company.

Nendoroid Suzumiya Haruhi Disapperance Ver. by Good Smile Company.

Nendoroid Saber from Fate/Stay Night by Good Smile Company. No date or price yet.

Figma Saber Alter from Fate/Stay Night by Max Factory.
June 2010 – 2,800 Yen.

Figma KOS-MOS Ver. 4 from Xenosaga by Max Factory. No price or date yet.

There will be more to come as the event is still ongoing. I will you updated on any exciting figurines from the event itself.. ^^

Source: HobbyStock.jp via Wcloudx

Figma’s Blog has finally updated some preview images of the upcoming “Figma Hirasawa Ui School Uniform Ver.” from K-ON! by Max Factory ^^

Lovely picture~

The figma will be available for sale during Wonder Festival 2010 Winter on Febuary 7th, 2010. Do note that during the event, only 3,000 pieces will be sold, and limited to 2 pieces per person. It’ll also be available for pre-order through GSC Online Shop starting Febuary 8th, 2010 until Febuary 13th, 2010. You can go Here for more info.

Just recently, Max Factory and Good Smile Company has updated the WonHobby 11 Site with interesting info on their upcoming exclusive goodies which are going to be sold during Wonder Festival (WonFest) 2010 Winter on Febuary 7th, 2010.. It has been quite some time since the last WonFest took place which was the Summer WonFest 2009 held in July…

Well, here are the items that are going to be sold exclusively during the Winter WonFest 2010.. Lets start off with:

Name: Nendoroid Snow Miku
Company: Good Smile Company
Retail Price: 3,000 Yen
Note: 1,500 pieces, limited to 2 pieces per person.

Name: Nendoroid K-ON! Mio & Ritsu Live Stage Ver.
Company: Good Smile Company
Retail Price: 8,000 Yen
Note: 3,000 pieces, limited to 2 pieces per person.

Name: Figma Hirasawa Ui School Uniform Ver.
Company: Max Factory
Retail Price: 2,500 Yen
Note: 3,000 pieces, limited to 2 pieces per person.

Name: Set of Sailor Uniform & Miko Outfit for FREEing 1/4 Scale Lucky Star Figures
Company: FREEing
Retail Price: 4,000 Yen
Note: 200 Sets, no limitation purchase.

Name: 1/7 Scale Saber Lily ~Golden Sword of Victory Caliburn~
Company: Good Smile Company
Retail Price: 9,000 Yen
Note: 2,000 pieces, limited to 2 pieces per person.

According to Wcloudx, there will be a special online pre-order period which will start on the February 8th, 2010 until February 13th, 2010.. These items are scheduled to be released on mid-June 2010 (Only applied to Online orders, excluding FREEing). The number of stocks will be based on the number of orders.. Also each person is limited to 3 orders of the same item for Online order (Exluding FREEing)..

So for those who are really getting something from this WonFest list, do keep yourself free on the February 8th to pre-order on these items.. As for me, I will sure keep myself ready to pre-order the Nendoroid Snow Hatsune Miku.. XD

Although you’ve seen the Yoko cosplay by the famous Kipi a few months ago, she has done it again by cosplaying not just one but 2 different characters; Kasumi from “Dead or Alive” & Mio Akiyama from “K-ON!”.. I do like the one she did as Mio, very nice indeed, especially the last pic.. ^^

Well, as per usual, I should just leave you to see the pics..

I like this picture the most among the rest.. XD

Funny picture aside, I’d like to make an important announcement.

Starting tomorrow, we’ll start serving adverts on the site. The server won’t pay for itself you know, and my friends keep telling me I should be putting the site traffic we have right now to good use.

There is one thing I’ll clarify though: these ads are non-intrusive. We’ll only place them in the sidebar, and all they’ll do is sit there. Well, maybe there’ll be a poll in place of one of the ads, but it’s completely up to you to answer them.

Since they’re in the sidebar, all you feed readers shouldn’t be affected, and there should be no pop-ups. If you do get malware warnings from your browser though, don’t hesitate to tell us.

That said though, thanks for supporting Kyouran Kyōdai all this while. Never once in my life did I even consider the possibility of being the owner (or at least a co-owner) of a blog with ~1000 hits a day. And don’t worry, we’ll put the money we’ll earn from this to good use. =D

EDIT: Also, here’s a video:

I can now die a happy man. Dibs on the drummer by the way. =D

Just last weekend, the Chara Hobby 2009 event was held at the Makuhari Messe International Convention Complex.. There are some new and upcoming figurines that the some of the companies have made and I would say that they are a Must-Get for some people like the one above for example.. XD

Alot of websites have already done their coverage on the event.. I’ve gathered some of the pictures they took of the event and without further ado, I shall post them here for all to see.. Enjoy the pics..

I shall await the B★RS figurine from Good Smile Company (GSC) that I’ve already pre-ordered and also the Alternate version which will be announced very soon I hope.. =3

Not to forget the Hatsune Miku “VN02″ figurine by Max Factory..

Via Wcloudx, Moeyo, Akiba Hobby & Hobby Stock’s Blog.

But let’s talk about Jason Mraz.

According to the most trusted of all sources he’s an American singer and songwriter, born in 1977, and made his debut in 2002.

I’ll be honest; I don’t listen to his music. However, one particular track got my attention:

There are certain snippets in the song that perk my interest a bit. To be precise, at the points 0:10 and 1:09. Sound familiar?

Jason Mraz and K-ON! fans alike are stumped over this one. It’s a single that hasn’t been announced (much less released), and the snippets don’t even go well with the song. And there’s also the fact that some Jason Mraz fans think it sucks, but that’s besides the point.

According to some, the song originates from a chinese website, and a lot of other chinese song websites carry the same information.

So, what could this be? The songwriter succumbing to his alleged otaku roots? A successful internet-wide troll? Or did some composer get drunk and leaked a badly edited song?

Considering it came from China…

[Via Random Curiosity]

Azunyan as Miku (Yum)
Ritsu as Len (Appropriate. Yes?)
Yui as Rin (Meh.)
Mio as Luka (F%^# YEAH!)

But wait…

Tis all but a paltry dream by the perverse subconscions of Tsumugi! :O

But what’s this?

Honeymoon pictures?

Mio: Azu-nyan is mine~

And look what our paparazzi troops found!

Mio spotted having a not-so-secret rendezvous with Azunyan!?!

Is there more to Mio than meets the eye?

This post marks the first time I’ve started and finished an episodic for every single episode in an anime series.

Episode summary time!

It’s winter time, and with the exception of Yui, the light music club members all seem to have personal issues, and they end up drifting apart (sorta). Ritsu receives a love letter in the mail, while Mio wants to head to the beach (in winter, yes) to get inspiration for moar lyrics. Tsumugi wants to start working, and Azusa promises her friend to take care of her kitten (though she has no idea how to).

Yui ends up organising a “hot pot” alone with her sister (and Gitah) and somehow manages to send everyone else a text message at the exact moment when their moods are at their lowest. Azusa’s the first to reply, asking for help with the kitten since she has no idea about feline 101.

Slowly the club members gather together at Tsumugi’s workplace (which happens to be McD’s), and Mio reveals that Ritsu’s “love letter” is in fact her lyrics which she had mailed to her. With that, everyone lives happily ever after etc.

Minus the clubroom parts, as well as any cheek grabbing (not buttcheek, mind you), the episode was actually pretty slow compared to the rest. Then again, you can’t exactly have a fast pace when everyone’s gloomy and all.

For a last episode, I expected the OP and ED sequences to be replaced by additional scenes, but somehow that wasn’t the case here. It almost felt like there was going to be a next episode (since it felt so normal)…but then again we all know K-ON’s reached its end (for now).

Since there really isn’t much else to talk about, time to review the series as a whole!

Series Review

Back when K-ON! started, it received a hell lot of hype after the first episode aired. This was probably due to the OP and ED sequences, since it’s been a long time since we’ve seen anything as dynamic, accompanied by a good soundtrack. It didn’t stop some from noticing animation errors, however.

After a while though, that hype died down to average levels. It didn’t stop otaku from buying all those guitars. Opportunistic music store owners didn’t help though.

Speaking of which, there was a great amount of product placement in the series (prompting obsessed fans to identify each and every one of them). I haven’t seen this much product placement in a series. Then again, the only product placement I’ve seen so far was the pizza in Code Geass.

Animation quality wise…it sucked. Kyoto Animation wasn’t constant with the QC (Quality Control), and from time to time (more than average) errors popped up. It also felt like KyoAni was disguising it with bloom (similar to the gaming industry), since there was only one scene (if I remember correctly) which lacked the effect.

In my opinion though, that one scene looked better than the rest. I prefer sharper lines as opposed to slightly blurred ones.

Story-wise though, the animation studio did a good job of portraying the manga, even going so far as to inject a few more scenes here and there. However, adapting a 4koma manga also caused some scenes to feel disjointed, with the characters running over a joke and then immediately moving onto the next without giving the viewer time to comprehend. I think if I hadn’t read the manga in advance I wouldn’t have caught half the jokes that were carried over.

The characters were alright, and none of the characters had terrible voice acting, or felt out of place. I didn’t feel any real attachment to any of them though excluding Yui, and maybe Azusa. But then again I have an affinity to lolis being just…loli.

There was just one problem: the anime (and manga) lacked male characters, as well as actual parents living with them (though we’ve seen Yui’s parents, sort of). It was almost as if all the members of the light music club lived on their own, similar to the girls in Hidamari Sketch. It’s probably one of the biggest plot holes in the series.

Overall? K-ON! was a slightly flawed anime in terms of quality, and I believe that if Kyoto Animation had paid more attention to quality control than product placement, K-ON!’s popularity and quality could have easily overcome the likes of other slice-of-life anime such as Haruhi and Lucky Star.

I gives it 6.5/10. The 0.5 was for bestowing upon us Yui and Azu-nyan. :3