I received my first two gashapon figures in the mail today. I knew that they would require some final assembly, but I failed to realize how small one’s hands need to be to do the job properly. Anyway, here they are:
The first, produced by Yujin, is Untyou Kanu from Ikki Tousen (the Battle Vixens):
The next, from Bandai, is Sawatari Izumi from He Is My Master:
Thanks to House of Anime for both figures.
Some enterprising soul(s) — sneaky Shinigami? — have created an online replica of a Death Note notebook which anyone can use. This thing is very nice, though I haven’t tried it out to see whether it is fully functional or not — too high of a price. It is an interesting bit of webwork though!
And for the bad news: There are now over 3,000 (!!) pages filled out!
BusinessWeek has a good article in their April 23rd issue which talks about the coming wave of manhwa (Korean for comics, a la Japanese Manga). The article, entitled “Forge Manga. Here’s Manhwa” may be a bit premature in dismissing Manga, but I do believe many of the Korean titles will see success here in the States, especially if they win in the race to the web:
Netcomics caters to the U.S. audience’s customary means of consumption with print titles, but it’s the company’s online delivery system that has potential to change the face of comics publishing in this country. Visitors to the publisher’s website can sample the company’s growing roster of titles for roughly 25 cents a chapter. Chung estimates that by this spring, Netcomics will have 75 volumes of 25 series in print, and more than 120 volumes of 30 series on the web.
I love having the paper version in the collection, but there are other titles I will want to try without having to plop down the full cover price, and at 25 cents a chapter, one can certainly preview as many title as one wants.
Started watching Maburaho Vol. 1 tonight.
The story of a boy with weak magical powers in a school of magicians (no, not a Harry Potter wannabe). Kazuki, the main male character, is only able to use his magical powers either times during his life (compared with thousands or hundreds of thousands for his classmates). But suddenly he finds himself the center of attention. by all of the cutest girls in the school. Not only do they turn their attention towards him, but they all want his genes, and the story revolves around three or four main female characters who are trying desperately to have “relations” with him.
Certainly different from any of the other anime I’ve seen!
No, not the manga, though that is present there as well, but “real live” death notes. It appears as though there is at least one company in China producing Death Note notebooks and selling them to students. Unfortunately, teachers in schools have been finding them with the names of students and teachers filled in! Now, school officials are confiscating them:
According to the director of Wuhan’s Publication Bureau, a copy of the confiscated “Death Note” has already been sent to be processed and checked. As soon as the notebook is declared illegal, the authorities will begin taking further actions against “Death Notes” sold around schools.
It all started in late March, when a parent found a “Death Note” in her son’s (currently in elementary school) backpack. The parent was shocked to find names of her son’s classmates and teachers inside the notebook, complete with gruesome descriptions of their deaths.
While I’m not surprised that students would emulate the actions of the characters in the popular series, I hope it doesn’t affect the ability of whichever company is distributing Death Note in China to continue to sell it there.
Source: ComiPress
Started Death Note 4 today. The battle between L and Light continues and we find out more about the role of Shinigami and the use of Death Notes.
In other news, it seems as if Light’s father has fully recovered both from his recent non-Kira-induced heart attack and from his having driven an armored police van into/through the front of the Sakura TV building. I must say I was amazed at the ability of the police force to marshal such a strong showing in the five minute period L provided!
Such a happy sounding start to this blog! But I’m serious. I’ve been an on-again, off-again fan of manga and anime for several years now, and although I manage to read several titles (issues, not series) per year, I’ve never gotten truly hooked on any particular series… until now.
This book keeps the reader on the edge and although it may get a bit predictable at times, and the ending may be pre-destined, from minute to minute it keeps turning unexpected corners and leaving me impressd.
Currently Reading: Volume 3
Every blog needs one, this one now has one. Rather, it came with one when I installed the software and I’ve modified it until it looks rather like this, but at least I’ve fulfilled that prerequisite.
Welcome to Jestre’s Court.
