Tasunke's Random Ramblings

So I was discussing my visit to Moriguchishi Keihan station, the real-live inspiration for Kanon’s train station, with some folks and I thought I had blogged on it back in May 2010 when I made the trip, but apparently I hadn’t. Whoops! XD So, I’m just going to post a gallery of pics after the jump, with some comments on some of the pictures.
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First off, long time, no post. Sorry about that. ^^; I’ve been busy. Now with that out of the way, let’s continue.

So the MMO I’ve written about before, ai sp@ce is currently running a campaign called the 『花盛り†三国恋乙女！キャンペーン』, or “Blossoming Maidens of the Three Kingdoms Campaign.” When I logged onto ai sp@ce to confirm the AGTH hook still worked after this week’s update, I got a message about the campaign which I wanted to translate and share with other ai sp@ce playing Anglophones. ;)

**************ai space@ Campaign Information***************
The “Blossoming Maidens of the Three Kingdoms Campaign” is underway! This is week 1!!

——————————————————–
For the duration, when you speak to the NPC at “Various Countermeasures” (「さかさま対策課」) named “History-loving Staff Member” (「歴史好きな職員」), and collect the campaign item “Romance of the Three Kingdoms copy” (「三国志演義の写し」), you can exchange them for each Shin Koihime Musou heroine’s items.

[Items for the first week]

From the end of the 6/15 maintenance to the start of the 6/22 maintenance.

4-copy course: Ryuubi cosplay rental set (6 hour)
3-copy course: Shin Koihime Musou Ryuubi poster
1-copy course: Tank-top

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*Please check our website for further details.

There’s a couple more important details I got from the page for this campaign on the ai sp@ce website. The first is that you can only get one copy of Romance of the Three Kingdoms from that NPC per day. That resets at midnight Japanese time. This means you need to login and talk to that NPC at least 4 days out of the 7 to get the “4-copy course.”

Also, the scripts will be exchanged for the items during maintenance each week, so be sure not to lose them. ;) This also means you can’t save scripts between weeks. If you only have two scripts, for instance, you’ll only get the 1-copy course. If you have more than 4, you’ll still only get the 4-copy course and they’ll take the extras too. ;)

Update: Seems I mis-read it. After interacting with the NPC, it seems you talk to her to exchange your scripts for items. I’m not certain if you can keep the items across maintenances, but the items you can exchange for will be changing each maintenance.

The original in-game news post that I translated above is after the jump, for those that are interested.
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So, after some sleep, I have some additional notes on the Haruhi movie. Some things I forgot to mention in my last post. The above image is from a set of postcards given out as a free gift to those attending the film.

The opening theme for the movie was the same as the TV series, 冒険でしょうでしょう？ (Bouken Deshou Deshou?) Which was quite nostalgic and I had to supress the urge to sing along in the theater. XD It didn’t use the original TV opening animation sequence, of course, but it was still nice to hear and beautiful in the theater’s surround sound system. ^_^

The ending theme was a very slow song sung by (I believe) Yuki’s VA, and it was vocal only. No music, no backup at all, just the one beautiful female voice singing. n.n More pictures of the postcard set after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

So I finally went and saw 涼宮ハルヒの消失, or The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya today, Saturday, the 27th of March, 2010. I went to a late showing, which is why I’m posting this after midnight Japan time on the 28th. Wow, what an incredible movie. If you’re a fan of the Haruhi franchise at all, you’ll love this movie, IMHO. Wonderful, wonderful film. The above image is of the movie’s program book, called a “pamphlet,” that you can purchase at the theater, along with other goods related to the movies they are currently showing. (Oh and just for the record, it’s “Disappearance” not “Vanishment.” The name even shows up at the bottom of the screen in English as “The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya” at the beginning of the film.)

This film does a really great job continuing where the TV series left off, and manages to also tie up some loose ends that I had forgotten about. Something I found very interesting though was the product placement in the film. Instead of your standard slight spelling change so that it’s similar to the brand you’re trying to portray but different enough that you won’t get in trouble, the actual brands show up. For instance, Kyon buys some stuff at a Family Mart (a convenience store chain here in Japan), and when a computer gets booted up in the film, there’s the actual Microsoft Windows startup screen, with correct spelling and everything.

The background visuals, especially in certain parts of the movie, where this effect seemed more pronounced than others, seemed like they could have just been rotoscoped video. The cars and the buildings had a more real feel to them than the actual characters did, at times. Don’t get me wrong, I dearly love the movie, and this certainly doesn’t ruin it for me. However, it was slightly distracting at times, with the characters almost seeming like they didn’t belong in those scenes, like they were actually just characters drawn onto real-life video footage.

Overall, though, I must say that I quite enjoyed the movie, and was pleasantly suprised how much of the dialog I actually understood. I didn’t get alot of the stuff when they started talking all technical and using alot of sci-fi jargon, but then again, some of that stuff’s hard enough to follow along with when I do have subtitles. ;)

Well, that’s the spoiler-free version. More pictures, followed by spoilers, are after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

So, much like Konata did in Lucky Star, today I went to Kyoto and visited the outside of Kyoto Animation’s offices to take pictures. I believe some would call this a “pilgrimage.” ;) Pictured above is the sign on the front of KyoAni’s main office building. Read the rest of this entry »

In Japanese supermarkets you can find all manner of licensed foodstuffs, everything from candy, to gum, to “candy toys,” even licensed stuff to sprinkle on your rice. This naturally extends to curry as well. ;)
I picked up this package of Fresh Precure curry at the end of February, when Fresh Precure was just wrapping up.
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So I went and saw the Nanoha movie, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (魔法少女リリカルなのは) The MOVIE 1st, today with some friends. The theater was packed, and we had standing room only tickets, basically. This is my first time watching a movie in a Japanese theater… and also the first time watching one in any theater while standing the entire time. ^^; Though being as tall as I am and standing in the back, I had no trouble at all seeing the entire screen, so it was a blessing in that regard, at least. ;)

For those unfamiliar with the movie, it’s a retelling of the events of the first season of the anime of the same name. Basically, they took a 13-episode anime series, and condensed it down into a movie. They seemed to do a good job at it too. They manage to hit the major plot points and even give us glimpses into parts of the backstory that had only been hinted at in the original anime, though at least one such revelation actually didn’t happen until the 3rd season, originally, if I remember correctly.

The movie was just as touching and moving to me as the original series was, so it definitely scores points there. Also, there was a scene that surprised and amused me, where Nanoha and her friends are playing Wii Sports Tennis. ;) I really didn’t expect to see them inserting that into Nanoha. Of course, it’s not directly Wii Sports, but you can tell that’s what it’s supposed to be. n.n;
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So, up on Toei Animation’s website, they have an introductory synopsis of Heartcatch Pretty Cure. I was notified of this in IRC, and proceeded to translate it on the spot in IRC. I then put it up on the Wikipedia article and decided to publish it here as well. Translation is after the jump for those who don’t wish to have (what’s likely to be) parts of the first episode of the series spoiled for them.
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Someone pointed this blog post out to me on IRC. Apparently, Nana Mizuki was featured in a Daily Yomiuri section called “Pop Style.” There was a blog post about it, and I’ve done my best to translate the relevant segments of it, which are after the jump.
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So, in commemoration of Pac-Man’s 30th birthday, Circle K in Japan is going to be selling Pac-Man buns.

No, that’s not a hamburger patty, from what I understand, it’s supposed to be some kind of cookie. Going to be looking for these when they go on sale on the 13th of January for the price of 120 yen each. Here we see the mouth area cut out of the bun to expose the innards of it. Looks delish!

Source: 30周年を記念した中華まん「パックまん」発売 (ITmedia) via Twitter via Kotaku. (Pics from there, too.)