Weekly OP: LOVE X HEAVEN

Ladies Versus Butlers! is not a good series, by any stretch. It takes the maid chic so popular, and beats it over the head until it loses what little appeal it had. That said, what I read of it said it had lots of T&A, and so I had to give it a chance. It's not that bad. Just... not good. The most I'll say about it is, as you can see from the side image, that it's more a triangle sort of anime than a harem. Which isn't saying much.

The opening itself is somewhat typical of a harem anime, though. Very cute and peppy, which I like. And an ensemble cast; Love X Heaven has as its singers Kawasumi Ayako, Nakahara Mai, Koshimizu Ami, and Kugimiya Rie, all of whom of course have rather extensive CVs at this stage in their careers. None of them really take the lead, per se, though sometimes they do have little short, one line solos.

Unfortunately, unlike other multi-seiyuu songs, this is mostly fluff. Sometimes in these songs, you get a good expression of emotion. In this case, they're simply trying to sound cute. And, to be fair, they do a good job of sounding cute, but that's not the point. There's more to a good opening than sounding cute and throwing out a lot of pink visuals in the animation. In this case, they could as well be extolling the values of a particular brand of dishwasher detergent.

thus, we're left to the music to actually convey something. In point of fact, there's a weird little effect the bass has going through the verses that I think is pretty neat. Past that, though, the only things to suggest this song are the driving beat and general, peppy tones. As noted, I like peppy. Peppy is why I listen to anime songs so much... but this is a bit too much.

3/5 stars for this, mostly on catchyness and general genki.

Weekly OP: Errand

Yet another offering from Seikon no Qwaser. I promise there will be an end to them. Just not this week.

faylan is one of those odd singers I fell across pretty much by accident. As I recall, she did an insert song for the Munto series when KyoAni revived it, and I was completely blown away by it. So, now I keep a bit of an eye out for her, and so I noticed when she did the opening for Seikon no Qwaser.

Sadly, this is not really representative of her better work. It's somewhat pedestrian, really; the music is only so-so, and while she has a great voice, she can't quite make up for everything.

It starts out promisingly enough, with a slow guitar riff, but then it slides straight into synthesizer hell, and struggles to win back from the abyss. There's little imagination or dynamism as it progresses through the first verse, just a sort of conversational, walking style. By the time we get to the chorus, faylan is trying to add some excitement, but the instrumentals are still only halfhearted. I suppose this might add a bit of a mysterious flavor, which might be useful at the beginning of the series, when things are still being teased and revealed.

The main problem with this song, I think, is its repetitiveness. There's very little meat to the song, and so it drones on and on. In its ninety second OP version, it's decent. AS a whole, though, it's just bland and uninteresting. faylan's low, smoky voice really isn't suited for this sort of instrumental, and it shows, alas.

I'll give it 2/5 stars, I think.

Touka Kureha and other babes

Everyone likes a bikini. Except me, really. Most of my figures are not bikini figures, mostly because one of the things that I like about figures is the clothes that they wear, while a bikini figure... well, there isn't really all that much to it. The sculpting, in that case, goes in a wholly other direction. Occasionally, though, a figure comes along that forces me to sit up and take notice, and the Shining Wind figure set from Max Factory certainly did that.

Admittedly, I took little notice of them when they were first announced, but after the large buzz they created in the scaled figure community, I thought I would try one out. And after it arrived, I was so blown away that I snapped up the next, once Hobby Japan happened to have another in stock. This is that figure. Touka Kureha hails from the video game which later spawned an anime series. I watched only a couple episodes, and was not terribly impressed, but when you have Tony Taka doing your character designs, at least you know you'll have cute girls (and boys!) to look at. Note how her bikini bottom cuts into her hip a little, adding the idea of plumpness.

AT 1/7th scale, she's starting to get up there. Of course, I'm spoiled; my first figures were 1/6th scale, and now anything less than 1/8th is unbearably small. I still can't understand why anyone would make do with a Nendroid. Anyway, she's nicely sized in all the proper ways, and since there aren't clothes to speak of, I get to focus on her body instead. I adore the sculpting of her stomach. Kureha, from my understanding, is not the type to have ripped abs, and so she doesn't. Though, I think some opportunities for definition were missed; her knees are almost nonexistent. She does have very nice legs, and the kneepits from behind are quite nice, but I would have liked a bit more pronouncement there.

I love her smile. It's one of the best smiles I've seen in awhile; just the right amount of playfulness, coy sexiness, and a knowing smirk. The way she's tugging at the straps of her bikini without overtly taking it off helps, as well.

This is normally where the panty shot would go, but there is no skirt, and the pictures I tried to take of her rear were rather unflattering. Actually, if there is a single disappointment in this figure, it's that the derriere is somewhat lacking. Which is a nice way of saying that she's got no butt. Baby definitely does not have back, and as a noted aficionado of that particular bit of anatomy, I can't help but be unhappy. Still, what there is is rather nicely done.

I'll note here that her feet are exquisite, which is notable considering Tony has been criticized in the past for unrealistic feet. These are, I think, just about perfect. Also note here the base, which gives a sandy impression, and in my opinion, must better than the 1/10th WAVE models. Or, for that matter, the plain white bases my 1/4th Nanoha and Fate have.

One of the nicer figures that I've gotten in awhile. And probably my favorite, in a bikini. Though there are the aforementioned Nanoha and Fate, but I'll attend to those later.

Weekly OP: Baptize

For being an all-around awful anime, Seikon no Qwaser had some great OPs and EDs. This is in particular the second opening, and as I've pretty well hashed the actual abysmal (but very bouncy) content of the series earlier, I won't waste too much time on that, except to note that, in keeping with a general trend of second opening songs, this one is a bit darker than the one which preceded it.

Baptize is done by the group Yousei Teikoku. They've a number of other anime to their credit, as well as two albums that I'm aware of. This song is fairly representative of their work; very fast paced, with a bit of symphonic rock feel to it. They fairly brazenly market to the gothic lolita market, and you can hear a good bit of that in their music too. In that respect, they're kind of like Ali Project, but with a harder feel.

Normally, I find it pretty easy to overdose on Yousei Teikoku. Or for that matter, on Ali Project. This is a pretty good one, too, mostly I think because they don't try to be cute. It's a very driving, intense song, that barely gives you a time to catch a breath. This includes the vocals; one of the things I like about this song is the way it really tests the vocal chords. It's a very tough song to karaoke; the words come rapid fire, hopping up and down the scale with wild abandon. The presence of a backup chorus and tolling bells in the background help, as well. They give a somewhat religious feel to it. Or perhaps, sacrilegious is a better term.

One somewhat ignored aspect to this song, and I think overlooked in a lot of anisongs, is the drumming. I don't know who the kid is behind the drum set in this song, but he's a beast. My luck, it's probably a drum machine. The bridge, on the other hand, is a somewhat lackluster, almost perfunctory guitar solo, as if they had to have one because that's what anime opening songs have. I'd have preferred if they went back to lyrics and rocking.

In any event, I think this is one of Yousei's better songs, and definitely worth a 4/5. Which is probably more than I would have given it on first listening, but it's grown on me.

Ryoko Kaminagi,or how to videotape without being as creepy as Tomoyo

Zegapain was one of those anime which, I think, flew under a lot of radars. In terms of story, it was quite similar to the Matrix series of films. But then, I didn't like the Matrix series of films, and I did like Zegapain. Two dimensionality might have had something about that. Another notable thing about Zegapain was its animation; for the time it was quite well done, and thus it probably translates rather well to bluray. Not that I'll ever see it, since bluray anime in general is somewhat rare in the US, and the chances of seeing a BD for a series which is near impossible to find now even in ordinary DVD form are effectively zero.

The third thing that I liked about it, though, were the characters. For typical school/mecha fare, they were oddly compelling, and one of them was one Ryoko Kaminagi.

This is, I think, one of the more interesting figures in my collection. Not because it's a particularly good one. It's not a bad one, mind, and I like it, but because it was just about the only PVC done of any character in the series. In 1/8th scale, by Alter, I picked it up more or less on a lark from jlist, around 2008. It was, I think, somewhere around $70, which I thought was on the high end. Now, one finds it listed on ebay for between $300 and $500, if it's still mint and in the box. Not too shabby.

Unfortunately, my particular Ryoko is substantially less than mint. As one of my very first figures, I was still somewhat of a newcomer to the game, and I simply didn't know anything about proper care. I would dust her occasionally, perhaps, but I definitely didn't have a proper case. I think for some time I left her on the windowsill, in fact, and of course one should minimize the exposure of a PVC figure to direct sunlight. My figures are in front of a window, now, but that window is screened by windowblinds and a heavy duty blackout curtain. It's fun to work nights, sometimes.

Anyway, on to the piece of plastic. I think Ryoko is actually somewhat large, for 1/8th standards. She's in the rather stylish uniform of Maihara's high school, which I've always rated rather highly. Not quite in the standard sailor fuku mode, but the bow is a nice touch. As the more girl-next-door, down-to-earth foil in the series, her pose is rather cute and playful, hands behind her back. I don't really like her smile, as it's somewhat brackety (i.e. :] ish), and her hair isn't quite puffy enough, I suppose, but as far as her face goes, it could be worse.

The base is somewhat unremarkable green plastic, with two foot pegs holding her in place. I think that she may actually have developed a bit of a lean to one side, which would be notable as none of my other figures have fallen prey to this malady. It might just be a natural consequence of a walking pose. In any event, looked at in profile, I like how up and down her pose is. It's quite natural looking. Strange to consider that sort of thing, in a figure, but these are the things I come up with when I really think about it.

The bunching of her sweater vest is rather well done, and I like the shading that was done with it. Sadly, not all of the paint job is that good; the Maihara logo on her breast has some small irregularities, and there's a little break in the V of her neck. I'm a fan of the pleated skirt, though, especially with the white stripe on the hem. I should use this outfit for a MUSH character, in fact.

How can I do a figure session without a panty shot? I hate the flash in this picture; I took a lot more pictures for this one, both with and without flash, and I couldn't really get either to work properly. Next week I experimented with natural sunlight, and you can decide for yourself how it turned out. Plain white, in this case; I wonder who was the first anime character to sport shimapan?

Ryoko is pretty well done, and from a time when Alter was really waxing in popularity. I'm pretty happy with her, though I wish I'd taken better care of her. Hindsight is 20/20, though, and now it's mostly a shame that other characters from the series didn't receive the same treatment.

As a small aside, after I finished this post and was moving on to the next, I found I'd taken some more daylight pictures. I'll append them here without commentary, for comparison purposes.