Zebraman 2 viewed. now where's my tokusatsu merchandise???

So I finally cracked and watched the zebraman 2 film. For those not familiar with Zebraman, its an awesome Tokusatsu film by fav director, Takashi_Miike. First film got good ratings on both the tomato meter and on IMDB. No word if a U.S. dvd release for the 2nd film will occur anytime soon so I'll have to settle for the original RAW dvd. Too bad no one's fansubbed it yet. Guess it'll be at least another few months(hopefully??) before I can really appreciate the takashi miike jokes and dialog. Regardless, I totally cracked and watched it; not sure if a subbed dialog will change my views, but until I have it(or improve my translation skill^^;...so behind studies), I won't give a review or anything til then.

If I had to give an impression right now, I'd say that Zebraman 2 is alot like Iron Man 2: Entertaining, but not as charming as the first one. Not that its bad or anything, I still enjoyed viewing what I did see. With that said, I'd like to say that despite being a toksatsu ZEBRA hero, I'm totally diggin the designs. I liked the designs from the first film and Zebraman 2 totally stepped up for the costume design. Remember, when you were a kid watching bad batman films,but thought the batsuits were so badass? Nevermind batnipples and the lame script or any of the other semantics-the thought was, "cool superhero costume." A grown man dressed as a zebra themed hero can't be worse than a man dressed as a bat. Cool is cool. And I think Zebraman is effin BOSS.


With Japan's very big Toksatsu genre from kamen rider,godzilla, to numerous others, there's been tons of great merchandise. from statues,busts,RAHs, Bandai released figures and more, I have one question: WHERE'S THE ZEBRAMAN MERCHANDISE?? For anyone who's a kamen rider fan and collects figures, you know what the designs are and how that translates to figures. Look at the design of a recent kamen rider, Ryuki(or Dragon Knight for the U.S.)



This is the overall basic design of Ryuki.Not bad. Now look at another design of Ryuki from The SIC line...



Similar,but more detailed. I personally prefer this look.

Thats what Zebraman 2 did to the look of the first Zebraman designs. Below is the only merchandise of Zebraman I could locate. Very impressive indeed. Very detailed. Think of the possibilities with a figure!! Hell, even Batman and Spiderman got the SIC treatment.(yeah, they're bigger than zebraman,but dammit, they already got tons of merchandise.)










Anyways, if anyone knows of any additional merchandise for zebraman, let a guy know! We'll finish up with some trailers from the films and some pics.Enjoy and if you're interested and haven't seen it, check it out ^^. Til next post.


P.S. - Happy Lunar New Year! year of the Rabbit yo.

Kamen Rider Ryuki pictures from HobbySearch
Zebraman bust pictures from GunJap blog
Zebraman film pictures from Gonin Movie Blog

Merry Christmas & happy holidays everyone!

I know my blogging activity has been on a bit of the dead side,sorry bout that. If you work retail, your life gets busy round this time of year. If you're in school as well, yeesh. I'm not in school, but I do work multiple jobs(what can I say? gotta feed the addictions,heh. That and a guy's gotta actually eat!). Regardless, I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and very happy holidays! Hope everyone got tons of prezzies and ate til they passed out from the itis ^^;

I'll try and whip up a holiday/loot/update/WIP post soon as the holidays should be coming to a close and things should be slowing down a bit. Til then, everybody!

P.S. - I wanna see Shinigami in a snowball fight against everyone else!

August 21, 2010 - Room Tour!

After lots of renovation, buying new stuff, throwing away old stuff, and reworking around things, the room is stable. Actually, its been done for a good time. This is still an open project as there as still things on the list to finish buying, installing, etc. But, lets take a look at how the set up is now.

The Display Area

A shelf for MG's of course

Currently used by Code Geass

kits, I'll probably change items on here pretty frequently.

A shelf for 1/144 scale kits, right now-00 kits

Some Misc. Figures that fit in any particular category

A pathetic area for pvc figures.must expand on this...

Shelf for Max Factory goods, like figmas

You gotta have a spot for revoltechs!

Dante and Revy OTP?? wha???

Dangaioh is an awesome piece that everyone should check out.

And for those who like evas, but prefer the smaller sizes from old school revoltechs, mini revoltechs are really great.

GUYVER!!!!!well, guyver I that is, from the bio fighter collection. Amazingly awesome piece with crazy articulation.sad the line ended so they're all crazy pricey now.

And the most awesome mech shelf of course.

On one end, we have the ARX-8, Laevatein armed to kick ass. I hope it shows up in the next season of FMP this fall.crossed fingers >.<**

And such a shelf would not be complete without the gurren lagann. Now I just need the flight pack...

The older ARX-7 Arbalest, less armored but packing the lambda driver and duel shotguns.

Small Bookcases for Manga,blurays,dvds,artbooks,out of date reference books, graphic novels, some other misc reading material.

Some little items on display under my only framed poster up right now and the first wall rack used for comics

Another wall rack for comics(work in a comic shop, gotta take "work" home.), my to do board(which I avoid constantly^^;), some toki doki(damn little addictive little things.), and some posters I got with some games.(not just games, awesome games!)

My louging/sleeping area. Comfortable, yes? heh, it turns into a full bed. though I only sleep in bed mode on days offs.

Workstation #1. This is where the media server links up. Where video work, encoding, and graphic work(been a while since I had a project though) gets done. Its an offline unit as there's lots of data that I can't risk getting slammed from corruption and viruses just because its connected to web.Unfortunately, internet's never 100% secure and safe,y'know??

XN near my hobby work area next to tools and paints...

At workstation #2! Made from some closet free space and a whole saturday.(twas a pain to do though) This is where my old clunky laptop now acts as a secondary desktop thats connected to web and is for personal use, recreation,etc. Also where Hobby work gets done.

WFC Prime guarding my notebook and peripherals. If you haven't, play War for Cybertron.

>_>So many kits to do....

Many boxes for revoltech and pvc's. Yay for collector friendly jpn toy packaging?yeah?YEAH!

My home theater area. Really want a 360 Slim soon to go with my upgraded original 60gb(now 500 GB) monster! This is the grandfather of ps3's and still the best version as far as features.( The day it dies on me, I will mourn.Mourn heavily.)

Project Screen and Front speakers. The screen was such a pain to install. Speaker system isn't holy audio goodness for audiophiles, but I think 1000 watts for a 13 x7 room is more than sufficient.

My lonely projector up there by its lonesome. I totally cheated and am using a "for computer use" projector instead of "approved" for home theater use. Same specs, about $1200 cheaper. Still got 600 plus hours left on the lamp and I've had it for 2 years so far. no complaints.

And that ends the room tour. While still not complete as a project for renovating, its as stable as its gonna be for a few months. Next post will be a mech related post or an anime related post. Which will it be? Gunpla? TF? Fall anime schedules and thoughts? recomended shows for the current season? what will it be? what should it be??? heh, Alright thats it for the tour and the post. Time for work.

Question for the post: How's your room set up? DO you like it?

If you like looking at workstations and rooms and such, check out the otacool books. reallly great spaces and rooms.

May 17, 2010 - May Updates

So I just realized that I haven't made time to throw a post down for May yet or do an update post.

Things have really been a bit hectic here lately IRL. Work's been absolute murder with all the events and changes in Company direction,woot. Since things are in such a transitional period right now, resources preservation and time management is super Nazi enforced right now so with work comes stress.yay. o_0"

On another side on things, due to time constraints, future plans, and mostly international red tape, the gang's trip has been pushed to Beginning of New years and will only be 3 months now. That means more time for saving, and working on "kinks" on the home-front.whew, that's one less thing to have to mess with for now. just gotta get back into studying again( I'm so damn behind [>_<]!)

The last few weeks did have a snag since Hours have been cut with an increase to the workload( at both jobs) plus there was a machine that needed repairs so just when the level of debt was nearing green levels, We're back in the middle of the yellow,total lame sauce.

Still, with only a matter of months away from major developments, we can't afford to be disorientated, confused, or distracted. SO many things to do, prepare, and get taken care of. The list can be crushing at times:

-Get the area ready.

-Having dedicated area for set purposes will give me room to do all the projects that having been stacking for 2 months. This will eat up time, keep me at home and have less spending.

-Repay debts.again

- I was on track to having all debts settled before July, but some new developments have caused things to "shake a bit." With the area ready, debts can be worked toward at an increased rate.

-T.S. is being a punk. not completely his fault though...

- The cat's being a monster lately. He's not getting enough attention since I've been busy lately. That and He has some things that are needed. Things that cost money. Like I said,monster.

-Making use of insurance.

- There's insurance being paid that I haven't been using for things I need.hmm, gotta do that,too.

-Study, study, study!

-Been very bad about this. gotta catch up with current material and catch with material I haven't even started on.(bah, I need a tutor![>_<])

- Saving for trips.

- I expect most of the list to be done before my August trip.(very doable, but a pain in the butt.) After that, I'll return, work some more, finish up anything leftover and save for the trip again. Hopefully, no craziness will ensue that'll eat up trip money,again.

Aside from that, since I plan to hit the ground hard running as soon as I get back to the states, I want everything to be up, prepped, and ready to rock before I leave on trips so I won't have anything impeding me from work or school. That means, I have until the first trip to New York in mid August to get the room/office/workshop ready. We're about halfway done with gathering materials and moving things around. I expect things to be finished within two weeks time and then an additional week to reset all my tech and gear so things will be clean and ready for usage when I return. With the area ready, I can fully take advantage of easily working, studying, and doing other projects. After that, I can work on more finance related things,ugh. That and that whole studying thing, bigger ugh. Hobby Updates in 2 weeks hopefully^^;

p.s.- no idea why card crusher is the pic for this post...

Oct. 03, 2009 - Japanese alcoholic vending machines.

So if you don't know by watching the discovery,science,or travel channel,you'll probably see it in movies and in anime. Vending machines.and quite a bit of em. Not just for small daily bento lunches or soda and tea. Also there are beer vending machines.However, unlike a cigarette vending machine, no need to swipe or scan your ID for proof of age(although there's no camera atm style so if you had a friend/older sibling/parent's ID,it wouldn't really stop you from cigarettes either.)Also, they're usually located outside of big major cities and such. So one can expect to see this sorta thing in say, Okinawa?

Similar, there's also an alcoholic beverage thats usually served in festivals.It's alcohol concentration is quite low and the drink is said to be very healthy so its served without an age restriction.(least this is what I read about) With all this, it seems that there are many opportunities for underage drinking and such,yet America is still actually seen higher at risk of alcohol related incidents.interesting. Could this be an effect to exposure freely of such things? There are plenty of European countries with a low drinking age or very liberal enforcement of such laws.Then again, the legal blood alcohol content in america is 0.08 while japan is 0.03 and some places like the czech republic are said to have a zero tolerance law about it.(so its written.) Hmm, interesting. Is there any interesting vending machines in your neck of the woods? and what are your thoughts about this sort a thing?

source from dannychoo.com

Sept. 12, 2009 - Cross Fight!!!!!DAN GAI OHH!!!!

DAN-GAI-OH!!!!!

So its the late 80's,early 90's.The age of style with no substance.American Tv is becoming more and more flooded of ideas and full blown shows from overseas.Eventually there was tekkaman Blade who became TeknoMan,Super Gattai Force became The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Kamen Rider became The Masked Rider,Super Defender-Voltron became Voltron:Defenders of the Universe, and much more. Among those name was another obscure gem that later came back in its own ways and forms. That name? Dangaioh. Dangaioh originally started as a short 3 episode OAV/OVA. It had all your typical old school parts-Space pirates,minimally dressed cute girls,character arc-types, -ESPers,mad scientists,over the top henchmen,Cyborgs,Aliens,space ships,etc.The list goes on. Makings of an awesome story?eh, wouldn't say that much.

Now, in the late 80's,this sorta thing did the trick though,but thats not what really made it for Dangaioh.It was the awesome animation and mech designs of Masami Ōbari. Dangaioh's designs just scream "holy crap,I don't wanna be a bad guy anymore if I gotta fight THAT." And the animation in general was really tops. It had the really detailed look that wasn't computer cel assisted(not a big thing used yet and probably really expensive then) that major studios like MADHOUSE Studios are known for.It definitely lives up to ova expectations(given the time) and more. And to top it off,The last ep ends on such a cliffhanger,I'm just totally reminded of the very last episode of Code Geass Season 1. Yeah, its that major.And it wouldn't see anything more than that for almost 10 years...

Eventually, Badass,Dangaioh made his way to SRW(super robot wars). He continued on as a favorite until more and more new mechs came out in later games. Years later, The Anime industry is as common as a prime ABC sitcom. Hit and misses all around. Some succeeded,some epically failed.But they all got a chance to be eventually made. Even the revival of Dangaioh. Big company-Gonzo animation takes over for the upcoming series:Great Dangaioh. Its reception?Not good.not good at all. The old super awesome Dangaioh is long dead and buried it seems. What's left of him? Our current standards for shows. While the computer assisted animation in general looks clean, The story didn't really improve at all with time. and now the awesome style is gone now,too. 10 years later and now Dangaioh has no style AND no substance. weep.weep hard. However, it is not without its slight redeeming factors.

Great Dangaioh did eventually slightly attend the big WTF??? of the 1980's as to a huge cliffhanger. If you're a dangaioh fan, a real fan- you force the watch(and might slightly enjoy it here and there) just to get the big answer. And if you're a fan of Mazinger Z and getter robo, then you'll love the new Dangaioh. Disclaimer: don't come in expecting to watch an amazingly deep or well written story. Thats like watching Transformers films and expecting shakespearean masterpieces.Yeah, good luck with that. Dangaioh does as a whole deliver its package of simple enjoyment though. I highly reccomend the Oav to all. If you really like it and wanna know what happens and have a really open mind toward the Gonzo related,then get the answer to the Ova in Great Dangaioh.

Whats that?Merchandise?Oh course Dangaioh had some merchandise come out for it. The Big D is in plenty of SRW games, Studio Half-eye made a perfect combining transforming Dangaioh(awesome and expensive) which can be found at popular online hobby sites(i.e. HobbylinkJapan,HobbySearch,etc.If that fails,Ebay). and for the more play orientated and price skimmer-The revoltech Dangaioh.Pure Awesomeness. Mechs and revoltech stuff always work and this is no exception. I'll post a later review of Dangaioh after my Linebarrel finale stuff. I now leave you with some links to the Dangaioh OVA and a few pics of my freshly aquired revoltech Dangaioh.( also wanted an excuse to fiddle with my macro settings.yay,cam-play).

AniKat's Dangaioh OVA links page

Megaupload-Dangaioh OVA 01 - Dangaioh

Megaupload-Dangaioh OVA 02 - Spiral Knuckle In Tears

Megaupload-Dangaioh OVA 03 - Gil's Revenge

Anime-eden's Great Dangaioh Page

The Hylia's Great Dangaioh Page

Dangaioh Ready!

I think the Design just rocks.
PSYCHIC WAVE!!!
Full Figure review to be done later.