Sundries

Since I’ve stopped playing WOW I don’t seem to update my blog much so I figured I’d make a post about getting my first “daughter”, I hope.  I’ll find out around May 14th if I get her or not.

By my first “daughter” I’m of course referring to getting my first Dollfie Dream.  I’ve entered the lottery for a chance to buy Dollfie Dream Sakura Matou from Volks USA.

Yes, as you can see – she’s a doll.  But she really has no connection to Barbie in any way.  Volks is a Japanese company and is one of the best known names in high quality dolls and they are not known for being “affordable”.  If I’m lucky enough to get a lottery entry I’ll be able to buy Sakura for about $550.   Yes, they are pricey but once you’ve become addicted to them and get used to the pricing you understand why they cost so much.  Seeing these limited edition figures on Ebay going for $1,000 – $1,500 also helps take the sting out of the price I’d pay.

As you can see they have fully adjustable joints which let them hold a large number of poses.  These are large dolls as well, close to two feet tall.  This one I’m biding on is from Volks’ Doll Part 23 event that just started and she’s one of the characters from the anime called Fate/Stay Night.

Their outfits are changeable and Sakura comes with her recognizable school uniform as her basic outfit:

There are also other outfits that are limited edition for Sakura so she can be displayed as other parts of the anime.  As they are limited edition outfits as well and especially made for Sakura I decided to try to get them as well.  Once again, these are part of the lottery system so I don’t have any guarantee that I’ll get Sakura or her outfits.  The 3 outfits I got are:

Her casual wear from the anime.

of course you always need a good bikini to show off your dream doll. 

Sakura’s “transformation set”

The “transformation set” is from a part of the anime where she changes, I won’t bother going into details so I avoid any spoilers for those who haven’t seen it yet.  As you can see in the transformation set there are two round white and red pieces near the top of the photo.  These are a new set of eyes for Sakura.  You not only can change the hair but also the eyes which give her an entirely new look.  Below are some shots of her in the different outfits that you can click on to see larger versions of:

I’m obviously hoping to win lottery entries for all of the items but at least I’m hoping to get Sakura herself.  The worst case scenario is to win the outfits but not the doll.  If that happens I may keep them to see if I can get Sakura on an auction site like Ebay, if she doesn’t cost too much, or maybe just sell her outfits at a much higher price!!!   haha

The final thing is that I’ve heard once you get your first daughter you can’t wait to get more.  Considering what they cost, I’m not too sure how fast that would happen.

I should also explain about the “daughter” part – that’s what most doll collectors call their dolls.  Maybe it’s just a way to express that the dolls are more than just a toy or a decoration to them or perhaps it’s so they don’t feel so bad paying so much money for them.  I’ll be sure to take a bunch of photos if I’m lucky enough to adopt her.

**James.

It’s been a while since I posted.  My last update was about Sake.  I can’t exactly say I don’t like sake but since I hardly drink alcohol these days my tolerance has gone way down and I’m having a hard time getting used to the “alcohol” flavor of it.

They are about as strong as a potent wine, about 13% alcohold or so and all I seem to taste is the harsh alcohol.  I feel like such a wimp.  I used to love very strong beers and wine but not now.

I have been getting into other areas of Japanese culture.  I’ve been a musician most of my life, thought I don’t play as often now, but I’ve been playing the guitar since I was about 15 years old.  I’ve started looking at YouTube videos of traditional Japanese instuments and I’ver really taken a liking to the Shamisen.  It’s basically like a 3 string banjo/guitar from japan.  It has a very unique and Japanese sound that I’m really enjoying.

The following video is a duet with two very talented musicians.  The first is the Shamisen player and he is playing with a Taiko drummer that also sounds great.  I don’t see myself going out and learning to play the Shamisen though I did quickly price how much they cost.  haha

**James

With my interest in Japanese culture I’m surprised it took me so long to check out the world of quality Japanese Sake.  I did some self education on the Internet about Sake and then found a few places that let you order online.  I prefer to order stuff like this online as it gives me plenty of time to research the products and go over my selection.

Since I’m also getting into photography I figured I’d setup a clean and simple little backdrop and take some pictures of the pretty bottles!!!

First one is Setsugetsubijin.  This is a Junmai Ginjo which is a pure sake, it only contains water, rice, yeast, and koji mold.  Don’t worry, this is not a bad mold.  This mold helps break down the starch in the rice to sugars which the yeast can use to ferment.  This bottle is 720ml and is 14% – 15% alcohol by volume:

Next is Gekkeikan Sake – Black & Gold.  It’s 750ml and is also 14% – 15% alcohol by volume:

Finally I got a bottle of Hakutsuru Junmai Ginjo Sake which is a 720ml bottle at 14.5% alcohol by volume.

I did get a few more items.  I got a bottle of Japanese Plum Wine to try out since I’ve never had it.

Unfortunately the label got torn during packaging but it’s the least interesting looking bottle of the bunch so it’s not a big deal.

I also bot a bottle of Redstone Meadery’s Black Raspberry Nectar Mead.  The mead is 750ml and about 8% alcohol by volume.  I’ve only had mead about 3 or 4 times before and it has always been just heavenly!!!

I’m hoping to get some time this weekend to try some of these out.  I almost never drink anymore so I’ve really become quite a lightweight when it comes to alcohol.  I’m sure they will seem a bit too strong for me at first till I get used to alcohol again.

Kampai !!!

I have been studying Japanese by myself for about 1.5 years now.  It’s one of those on-again off-again hobbies of mine that I’m getting back into again.  I’ll spend 2 or 3 months studying and take a month off, come back for another month or two and take another little break.  Needless to say, it’s a little slow going but I’m making progress and really enjoying it.

What’s strange is how a large portion of Japanese is so much easier than English yet in some areas it seems, from an English speakers point of view, needlessly hard.  Tonight I ran into another one of those instances with the verb “to wear”, as in clothing.

In English it’s really just one verb.  You can wear a hat, wear a shirt, wear a watch, or wear a pair of pants.  Very easy to understand.  In Japanese the verb you use “to wear” something differs depending upon what part of your body is going to be doing the wearing!

• Kaburu - for items worn on your head. (hat, helmet)
• Kiru - for items worn on your upper body and arms. (shirt, jacket)
• Haku - for items worn on your lower body and feet. (pants, socks, shoes)
• Tsukeru - for wearing accessories. (earrings, watch, rings)

I’m still not 100% sure about the fourth one (Tsukeru) for accessories, it appears there are some variations about where it’s being worn, even though it’s an accessory.

Iyariungu o tsukeru. (I wear earrings)
Tokei o suru. (I wear rings)
Yubiwa o hameru. (I wear a watch)

Ugh, so hard to keep track of.  I also just need more work in dealing with verbs and when it’s ok to use “suru” and when it should be “shimasu”.

Boku wa zubon o haite imasen!!!!

That last line is a bit of a joke.  (I’m not wearing any pants).

Other memorable moments included Letterman once using a bullhorn to interrupt a live interview on The Today Show, announcing that he was the NBC president and not wearing any pants….
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Letterman)

**James.

I don’t think I’ve posted about anime in a while.  With my little sidetrack of spending way too much time in WOW and then getting out of WOW into studying photography I had been spending way less time watching anime then I usually do.  Thankfully I recently got caught up on all my regular shows as well as finished off a few old ones I never completed watching.

The series I’m watching new episodes of each week are still Naruto, Bleach, and Soul Eater.  As much as I like Shojo and comedy I’m still a guy and these shows speak directly to my inner child’s need for shows about action, fights, and overloads of testosterone.  Plus they are filled with some good humor as well which I always love.

Tonight I just finished off a rather disappointing old series I never finished called Comic Party: Revolution.

If you have never seen the original Comic Party I highly recommend it.  It’s a great series filled with humor and interesting peaks inside the world of doujinshi making.  Granted, it’s a very “family safe” view of that world which is not very realistic but it’s still fun.  (See my description of doujinshi below)

Unfortunately the 2nd series, which is called Comic Party: Revolution, is’t very good.  Let’s face it, for the most part it sucks.  I only made it through about 8 or 9 episodes when I first watched it.  I wanted to enjoy it so much but in the end I couldn’t take it and put the series on the side, even though my favorite character, Aya Hasebe, still was a cute as ever:

It’s been a few years since I did that and I picked it up and finished watching it tonight.  It still wasn’t good but it was watchable.  Out of the 13 episodes I only really enjoyed episode 12 which was very similar to the original series.  It was all about making the stories, the artists feelings for what they create, and the process involved behind the scenes.

What exactly is Doujinshi?

Doujinshi is the term used to describe amateur artists who make their own manga (comic books), print them, and then sell them to their fans.  Many of these doujinshi are parodies of famous manga and anime in Japan.  These artists don’t get the permission to do these parodyies but for the most part the owners of these original works don’t pursue any legal actions against these amateur artists and let them continue their publications.

This is somewhat surprising since the vast majority of doujinshi are pornographic in nature.  In America it’s hard to imagine DC Comics letting someone write their own comic books using the DC universe characters and then selling them to the public.  Now imagine if they were also pornographic stories?

That’s basically what happens in Japan.  There are hundreds of artists doing pornographic comics with the characters from almost every series, even the huge ones such as Naruto, Bleach, and even Comic Party.

What’s interesting is that many of the manga artists who created the characters in the popular anime on TV got their start by being doujinshi artists.  I’ve heard that a number of them still will create doujinshi under another name because they enjoy the ability to create whatever they want.  They do not have a studio telling them what the character should look like, behave, or if they should have a cute animal mascot or not!!!!!   LOL

You may be asking yourself, ‘does anybody really go to these conventions where they sell doujinshi?’  If you only describe it as amateur artists making pornographic comic books it doesn’t sound like much but as you can see from the image above from Mizuki Signalization many artis are very talented.  The doujinshi conventions are very popular and VERY CROWDED.  At a recent ComKet there was a 5 hour wait in line before the doors opened.  This is just to be able to get into the building, wait on line at the tables of various sellers, and buy their doujinshi – it’s not being given away for free.

Here is a video clip I found showing an example of how incredibly crowded these places get:

These conventions aren’t the only places that you can buy doujinshi but many of these people are die hard fans of the artists and want to make sure they can get a copy of the Circles work.  A Circle is the term used to refer to the group of people that put together the doujinshi.  Some Circles are only a single person that does it all and others may contact a number of people who all work together.

I think it’s pretty safe to say that the most famous of the Circles is CLAMP though I don’t know if you would say they are doujinshi artist.  They are a collection of female artists who are professional manga creators and have had a large number of their stories get turned into popular anime shows:

• Angelic Layer
• Cardcaptor Sakura
• Chobits
• Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE
• XXXHOLiC

I think I should point out that CLAMP doesn’t put out pornographic material, as far as I’m aware.   If you haven’t seen any of their stuff I strongly recommend you watch Card Captor Sakura and Chobits.  Both are very good stories, funny, and at times a bit sad.

I plan on continuing to work on finishing some anime series that I started but didn’t continue for some reason.  I currently have about 25 of those left in my list on ANN:

Seen Some

At this time I’ve seen about 214 complete anime series, at least that I’ve documented at ANN:

Seen All of the Series

Granted, some of these are 1-3 episode OAVs which aren’t impressive but it’s still a good amount.  All the new ones I enter to the list I try to give a brief review to on ANN as well.  One day I’ll have to go through the entire list and get it up to date.

**James.