Image via Anime Paper

I found an unknown figure that captivated my eyes in Danny’s Chara Hobby coverage …. oh wait … actually any figures with a sword makes me falling in love with them ^^;; instantly. Later , I found out that she is Emi Kizaki from Kurogane no Linebarrels (鉄のラインバレル), an upcoming fall anime. It will be aired on October ^^.

Image via Anime Paper

Anime Details

When I watched the trailer , the character design reminded me a lot of Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny and I found out that they were designed by the same person, Hisashi Hirai . Same goes with the mecha design, I knew I saw similar designs before and Tsutome Suzuki, who was involved in ZOE and Big-O,  did the mecha design,hence, it explains the similarity.

The animation quality will most likely be top-notch since it’s Gonzo after all but as most other Gonzo’s titles the mecha is computer-generated. I am not sure about you guys but I prefer everything is hand-drawn; I guess I still like the old way of doing it.  

Seiyuu wise, they got some well known seiyuus in particular, Jun Fukuyama (Lulu in Code Geass) and Mamiko Noto (Kotomi from Clannad) so voice acting quality should be high ^^. I couldn’t find who sings the opening song (If anyone knows, do tell ^^) but the ending song is sung by Maaya Sakomoto, a well known seiyuu and singer. I love most of her songs related to anime series.

Since it’s produced by Gonzo, hopefully it does not follow the usual Gonzo ‘Train Wreck’ Ending trend. This anime is going to be either you love it or you hate it just because it’s produced by Gonzo and there is no middle road or decent in my opinion. For those who have watched EVA or love EVA, you might want to stay away from this anime because I get the feel that it’s an EVA rip off just solely based from watching the trailer and reading the manga. I know I may be wrong but it’s just too EVA-like.

Story

Kurogane no Linebarrels is about a boy named Kōichi Hayase who was a crybaby, weak-looking and a loser basically ,however, one day, he got involved into some kind of accidents which totally changes his life and makes him to become a Factor and can control Linebarrels (A giant robot). 

The manga is available at onemanga.com so go read it if you are interested ^^. First impression I got from reading first 2 volumes of Linebarrels is that it is too EVA / Rahxephon looking ie. a rip off of EVA/Rahxephon. Despite of being one of the main character, Emi Kizaki has a minimal appearance in the manga. I am not sure if it’s going to be the case with the anime version but I sure hope she gets more screening time. She engages with the enemies as a Factor at the end of chapter 19 of the manga so during previous chapters, she just appears once in a while and acts more like a supporting character.

image via onemanga.com

Kouichi, the main character, is very interesting I must say since I haven’t seen any characters like Kouichi in anime that I watched before so having someone definitely adds more flavours to the series. He won’t hesitate to pick a fight with anyone and thinks highly of himself (give you the feeling of wanting to punch his face sometimes), although, once in a while, he gets beaten to pulp ^^. In addition, his remark of ‘Ally of Justice’ is a similar trait to Shirou Emiya from Fate/Stay Night series. They both want to be a hero to save others.

image via onemanga.com

It surely didn’t take me long to consider getting the figure or not. A girl with a sword was enough to convince me to get it ^^ so I preordered her at Hobby Search. She reminds me a lot of Lenalee from D.grayman with her black clothing but instead of having ‘Dark Boots’, she uses a sword but the weird thing is that I haven’t seen her holding a sword so far in the manga ^^;;. You can also preorder her at the following stores:

• Kid Nemo
• Play Asia
• Hobby Link Japan

Image via Danny Choo

Figure Details

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For many figure collecteors in general out there, being able to access English version of a japanese website gives us a lot information about the latest releases in the world of figurines without using an online translator which most of the time is not dependable.

Fellow comrade known as Danny Choo has just released an English version of Good Smile Company website using a latest version of Mirai Gaia platform.  The same platform that he uses on his website www.dannychoo.com. Danny has been working with Good Smile Company for quite a while as you can see from his frequent visits at GSC office and a recent article at GSC office.

Danny is also a part of GSC’s International Strategy Team with a mission to make more figures available internationally so for most of us, figure collectors outside Japan, we can expect to being to able to buy figures easily with less shipping cost hopefully ^^. Honestly, I am really excited on what Danny and GSC can do for us in overseas because most of the time, we got screwed in the shipping cost of figures and not to mention border fees ^^;;.

The website is currently on beta stage so bugs and errors can be expected , however, I personally like the overal look of the website and the color scheme that it uses. It runs smoothly. Despite of being similar to dannychoo.com in term of colour, the colour scheme of the new GSC english website fits its logo colour which I don’t mind ^^. A lot of features and additional User Interface will be added in the future. I guess for us figure collectors, we couldn’t wait to see a shopping cart and its online ordering section. In addition, Danny is planning to introduce an affiliate scheme in the future for website owners and bloggers. I honestly couldn’t wait to see the growth of the new GSC english website and future additions.

Lastly, I would like congratulate Danny with the launch of the new GSC website using Mirai Gaia and glad to see that his business is growing. Looking forwards for more things from him in the future ^^.

Google Chrome logo image via Google

A new browser just established itself yesterday and joined the Browser war against other well known browser such as Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape, Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera and other browsers. Apparently Google has a lot of confindence in them and launched their own browser called Google Chrome on September 2nd, 2008. It’s still currently in Beta stage so a lot of bugs are to be expected, however, the future looks promising from user feedbacks that I read on various forums.

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Image via Gelbooru

Stardock announced The Gamer’s Bill of Rights a day before Penny Arcade Expo. It contains list of standards or guidelines that they hope to be followed by game developers/publishers in particular PC game developers. The document was aimed toward PC games because console games developers already have some standards set by Nintendo, Microsoft or Sony. The objective of The Gamer’s Bill of Rights is

to increase the confidence of consumers of the quality of PC games which in turn will lead to more sales and a better gaming experience.

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A rare figure from Canvas 2 : Niji Iro no Sketch ( Canvas2 ～虹色のスケッチ～ ) which I bought from Fan Expo 2008 last week for $60. Expensive price tag but I like the series a lot and I rarely see this figure since it’s released long time ago. Canvas 2 is one of those series that I have watched multiple times already so getting this figure is totally worth it for me despite the price. Btw, check out my coverage of Fan Expo Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3 ^^ if you haven’t done so.

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Gattai!!!!!

Another Saber figure is added to my Fate series figures collection and this time is the Saber Holiday version by Good Smile Company. Unlike other 1/8 figures that I have, this one is 1/6 scale (Yes James, I do buy 1/6 figures occasionally ^^). It was released back in October 2006 for 6,476 Yen ($59.00 US) so it’s quite an old figure and  I couldn’t remember where I got this from ^^;

The background colour works really well with her brown dress and base colour. I made them slightly darker than usual and the results still came up pretty well I think.

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Image via Play-Asia

After seeing a member news about Nendoroid Saber Lion at Dannychoo.com, I couldn’t resist my urge to preorder it >.<. Being a Saber fanboy and all, this would be a nice addition to my collection and it would be my first nendoroid ever ^^. I preordered mine from Play-asia and it will be out in December. This year Christmas will be a very good one for me ^^.

PS2 is not dead yet apparently so it was a right decision to keep my ps2 around ^^. NIS America announced that Ar Tonelico 2 will be out this December for ps2. Having just recently played Ar Tonelico: Melody of Elemia back in June, this is a really good news for me because I was worried that NIS America may not release it due to decreasing popularity of ps2.

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On my way to Fan Expo 2008

Today is the last day of Fan Expo 2008. It’s not as crowded as yesterday but there were still a lot of people and most of them were looking to get autographs. As usual and what I always do in every convention is wondering around looking for cosplayers and things to buy ^^.

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Day 2 of Fan Expo is totally packed. There was a long line up at the registration and barely enough room to move around in the exhibitor room and outside the exhibitor room. I arrived around 1:10 pm which was little bit late than I originally planned as I was stucked at my dentist.

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