Finding the Blue

We Have Moved!!

2010-02-12T15:10:00.002Z

Finding the Blue is GONE!!
Join Us Again:
http://findingtheblue.wordpress.com/

See you there! ★

[FIGURE] Kurusugawa Serika (来栖川芹香) 1/8 PVC by KOTOBUKIYA

2010-01-25T12:33:00.003Z

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Wow, I had no idea I would be doing another post so soon! But over at NekoMagic I've just seen something really nice. I said I wouldn't do figures anymore but...I don't care, this is too important!

Kotobukiya announced on their blog (But they removed it for some reason) that Kurusugawa is getting her own figure! As you probably know by now, I love the original ToHeart and it makes me so happy too see more figures from there, because compared to ToHeart 2, it's not an even balance.

Anyway, release date and price have not been announced yet, but I don't mind. As long as I get it!

As you can see she comes with a removable hat and robe, I wonder if the book is permenantly in her hand.

I don't know what else to say because there isn't much info at this point, but I can't wait!

A Roundup of What's Been Going on Lately

2010-01-24T13:56:00.009Z

The third panel is so true for me orz (Read left to right)

OK so like the comic suggests, I don't want to turn this into another "I'm sorry I haven't posted much" post. So I'll just continue to post what's been happening lately in terms of music, anime, eroge and so on.

Anime

OK so it's been Winter season in anime, I said I was going to post about them but I never did. Maybe I can still do episode updates if it's not too late, here is what I think of series so far:

Ladies vs Butlers

I thought this was going to be really good but I watched it and I think the fanservice is too much. It seemed really predictable and I didn't like it. I heard the manga is really good but I think that the anime does not live up to it.

Following? No

Durarara

This is the new anime made by the creators of Baccano! and it's pretty good. When you think about it, the plot is really basic; boy moves into the city, meets his friend from a long time ago who tells him about the city and about an urban legend. It's really simple but it's pulled off very effectively.

Following? Yes

Chu-Bra!!

This is probably my favorite anime this season! The plot is really silly and should be even worse than Ladies vs Butlers but for some reason it's really adorable! Nayu is SO cute I just can't bear it any longer! I need to spam pictures right now:

I need Nayu doujinshi!!!

Following?: YES

Dance in the Vampire Bund

The first episode of this seemed really slow but it's a very accurate depiction of Japanese reality TV. Sometimes it seems very depressingly staged and fake. I think that's the same anywhere though. I had high hopes about this but I don't think it's going to deliver.

Following?: Maybe

Ookamikakushi

This was based on a Visual Novel but I never played it before. It actually looks really interesting and thrilling, I just hope that they don't mess it up.

Following?: Yes

Seikon no Qwasar

I think this is really bad. I watched the first episode and it just seems silly, I don't get it at all. It seems like a parody of so many series but there's no jokes.

Following?: No

Aki-Sora

OK it's not a series but I just had to add it anyway. This is a really good eroanime! It seems strange to say that but I haven't seen anything with a mildly interesting storyline since a few years ago. I want to read the manga now.

Following?: N/A

Baka-Test

This is really funny, one of the funnier series I've seen lately. It's amusing but slightly strange, also the fact that it's set almost entirely in class so far is a bit off-putting. Maybe I'm too used to slice of life.

Following?: Yes

Heartcatch Precure

Precure!! That's all I have to say there.

Following?: Yes

Sora no Woto

Do you like K-ON! ? Do you like the military? I don't really like either so this wasn't for me. It just didn't catch my interest.

Omamori Himari

I couldn't watch this, it looked like it might of had promise but it's a bit like ice cream and curry: I love them both, but I would never eat them together. In this case, everyone loves swords, fanservice, school life, childhood friends and cleavage, but putting them together just doesn't work. I think this is why we have variety.

Kaito Reinya

Food commercial or anime? It's not really an anime because it's so short. Maybe I'll watch it if I see it.

Music

I just realised it's 2010 and I didn't say it already in this post. Happy New Year! Music this year has been really good. I'm a big trance fan but I've also been getting into House and Electro House a lot more. There is also some interesting stuff from EXIT TRANCE this year too...

New From Anjunabeats this year is "Moon Dust" by Nitrous Oxide & Adam Nickey. It was the first 2010 trance track I brought from beatport. I like how fresh and clean it feels:

Speaking of Trance, EXIT TUNES have announced a number of CDs. I've lost a lot of faith in them, because since EXIT TRANCE BEST ANIME 6 the quality has really dropped I think. UmaUma series has stayed consistant, which is good. BGM is also really good too.

I really like 電波 music and I love trance, so could EXIT TRANCE PRESENTS DENPA TRANCE be a match made in heaven? I personally don't think so, but I'll still get it just to see what it sounds like.

ANIME MOVIE TRANCE 2 just got released recently too, it's just OK, but I think that there is only so much you can squeeze out of anime movie soundtracks.

Onto something completely different, I've really been liking house music lately and particularly the House Nation series.

Moving away from electronic music, Larc~En~Ciel have a new single that will be released on the 27th of January; it's called "BLESS" and I really like it, I prefer their slower songs.

You want something darker? Gothic? OK...

Visual-Kei/Symphonic Metal band Versailles have a new album out titled "JUBILEE" and it sounds pretty good so far, I haven't got it though yet.

I really like the sound of 愛と哀しみのノクターン, Reminiscence and Catharsis.

RIP Jasmine You

In other news I'm still waiting for another album from Round Table feat Nino and Genki Rockets.

Other Stuff

Bing have been doing a promotion for system voices for both Vista and Windows 7. Currently I'm using Nana and she panicks whenever something doesn't compile in Visual C#. The voices are free to download! Go crazy with them!

She doesn't know much about computers but she keeps me company. DON~!

2010 is apparently the year of augmented reality. I guess I should get a better mobile device to get the most from it. But I can't help be reminded of something...

Goods

In dakimakura news, here's what I have my eyes on at the moment:

Nagi from Hayate no Gotoku

Yuuki from Saki

Nagi from ANGEL MAGISTER

Not as many as I thought actually. Oh well.

I still haven't played eroge in such a long time. Remember Angel Magister? I never did finish the review. Nothing has really grabbed my attention lately, only a couple of fandisks. Oh and Cross Days still hasn't been released. Will it ever come out?

There is so much hype over the new Nanoha movie. I will watch it for sure.

Blog

OK so I haven't been very active lately, that's true. However I am wondering if I should change blogging platform to FC2, Wordpress or livedoor or something. Simply, the blogger interface is horrible. If you want to put any kind of formatting or anything in your post, you will get more span tags and so on in the HTML code than ever before. Which means that nothing is nested correctly and I have to use Notepad++ to check which span tag matches up where (Syntax Highlighting) and it's too much work. Does anyone have any bloggin platforms to recommend? Wordpress has the feature to import posts from blogger so maybe we don't have to lose everything, which is good. But maybe a fresh start is preferable?

[REVIEW] Stray Light by Wintermute feat. 初音ミク

2009-11-29T16:09:00.010Z

I am really pleased to make this my comeback post, and from my point of view, it's an honour to review this. It's been on my playlist for weeks and I always enjoy listening to it. The album is by Wintermute and it's called "Stray Light". Recently I have been really tired of hearing Hatsune Miku. I like her voice, but she is being overkilled on nico nico douga videos. This album has given me a new love for her voice all over again.

Artist: Wintermute feat. 初音ミク (Hatsune Miku)
Title: Stray Light
Tracks: 16
Genre: Pop/Rock/Ambient

Jupiter Pop
Sleeping in the Red
Mint Tea
Postscript
秋の空 (Virtual)
記憶の錆色
Song of Pixie
スニーカ
Reality
Fury, Melancholy And Joy
Mint Tea (Mango Roots mix)
Postscript (Mango Magic mix)
スニーカ (Mango Leaf Mix)
Song of Pixie (Bossa Study)
秋の空 (Real)
Mint Tea (Prototype)

In case you were wondering, Wintermute's name and the title of the album are both a homage to my favorite cyberpunk book by William Gibson named "Neuromancer". In the book, Wintermute is an Artificial Intelligence who ordered a man named Armitage to conduct the "Straylight Run" with Molly Millions and Case. They must travel to the Villa Straylight located in an anti-gravity city named 'Freeside' and merge the two AIs Wintermute and Neuromancer to change Cyberspace forever.

If you like anime and manga such as Ghost in the Shell, Akira and Appleseed then you will certainly love the book and the rest of the trilogy.

I am a big lover of Trance music and other forms of electronic music, so along with the Cyberpunk themes on the album cover I thought this would be an aural depiction of the Neuromancer world with hints of Miku's signature vocals (Which is a very cyberpunk concept I think). The album was incredibly different from my predictions. Let me explain.

Imagine a city of the future. Gone are the dirty glass buildings and smoggy streets as conveyed in many Cyberpunk novels, no more underground trading and black companies. Our world just got intelligent.

In a unique genre I would like to dub as 'Intelligent Rock' Stray Light shows us Wintermute's view of the future; a world of clean-white terminal screens and abstract concepts born entirely of an artificial mind where the software meets the soul. If AI was to produce music it would sound like this; bright, clear riffs with a raw yet perfectly timed beat, giving the album a real 'Advanced Analogue' vibe.

Tracks like Reality, Fury, Melancholy and Joy, Song of Pixie and スニーカ are thought provoking, mind-clearing works of excellence that have helped me through many a coding session and ignited my brain to think of new ways to approach problems.

This is the kind of world I can't help but imagine when I listen to Stray Light. Something very similar to net animation Eve no Jikan (イヴの時間)

The album is divided in two. With Mint Tea (Mango Roots Mix) kicking off the largely-electronically-dominated side of the album; an ambient trip into standby mode compiled of chilled out remixes of the previous tracks.

バイバイ
そう眠りに落ちて
聞こえない

Stray Light is a Yin and a Yang of luminant, thought-provoking soft rock and a cool flow of ambient beats and melodies with Hatsune Miku providing colourless, crystaline vocals that produce a facade of emotional feelings inaugrated as a result of compliance to thousands of lines of self-composed code dictating all of her synthetic thoughts and curiosities.

All in All, Stray Light is a real masterpiece and I can't wait to hear more of Wintermute's music. There is no doubt in my mind that this will ever truely leave my collection.

You can listen to some tracks from this album plus more of Wintermute's music on his youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/likeadaydream

The Album Stray Light can be purchased here

Return of Finding the Blue

2009-11-29T14:48:00.006Z

Ok, so I haven't posted much lately, and I was thinking of closing FTB because of work to do and various duties. However I keep track of visits to here just for the sake of statistics. Most people come for the DanceXMixer post I made but today I noticed some visitors coming from a different place.

Basically it's a blog called 'otaku elimination' and FTB was featured on it. Today I was thinking of making a blog comeback and just blog about stuff I'm interested in as well as eroge stuff. I don't want to blog to deadlines, so I will leave the monthly releases to Micchi because he does it much better than me anyway. Anyway, I came today thinking I would make a big return and start blogging for enjoyment and not work but I have been attacked before I started orz

It is embarassing looking at what they said about this place because I think a lot of it is true 。・゜・(/Д`)・゜・。 I need to improve my writing I think. It's easy for me to write good about things I like, but some news I am not interested in at all.

The Otaku Elimination Game is hoping to remove ill-use of 'Otaku' around the internet. I think they are right about some big shops taking over, but I don't know if I agree with the methods. Maybe there is a more peaceful way to go about this target. They spotted the partition in the right sidebar, I have had that for a while now. I want people to support it, but I feel embarassed to tell my full thoughts here.

Somehow I passed the game. Am I a otaku? I suppose it is not my place to say after all that they have said. I don't want to go through to round 2 though. I like visitors to FTB, but I don't like a lot of people watching my every move...

Anyway, from now on I will try to blog about more things, do more reviews. I keep wanting to do music reviews because I feel myself evaluating songs and albums in my head when I am on my own. Should I try reviewing some anime too? Fall season starts soon, maybe I can pick an anime and say what I think about it each week.

I think I will try to avoid figures. Otaku Elimination has shown me a lot of blogs that review figures, so I think to do the same would be a waste of time. I will just preview some of the favorites I see.

From now I think I will have more fun blogging. I tried to be a news blog before, but I think I wasn't up to scratch and I don't have the time either. Now I can blog about anime/manga/eroge/figures/music/tech/games and other things that interest me. I'll get started right now!

[PREVIEW] Re Angel - A Visual Novel From Thailand

2009-10-11T18:22:00.009+01:00

Usually, I don't cover foreign games, but I've been meaning to get around to reviewing a few english language games because I think they're still relevant and I think maybe they are not all bad, it's just unfortunate that many of them seem to be typical 'Hentai' games.

Outside of the blog, a few people have asked me "Are you going to follow Katawa Shoujo?". My simple answer is "No." I don't understand why the protagonist is 荒らし (Internet Troll) and calls the girls 片端 (Katawa). Maybe I don't get it, but I think it could offend many people who visit here so I don't want to attract the wrong attention. Re Angel however, is a different matter.. As always, click 'Read More' to read the entire preview.

Re Angel is a Visual Novel created by a Thai company called StudioGU, who whilst being independant, claim to make their games to a professional quality, and just by looking at the website, you can tell this is no doujin eroge. Whilst being from Thailand, there is a japanese language version of Re Angel, and as long as you know Thai or Japanese you can play it and understand it. But bewhere, it's from Thailand, so this means there will be probably be at least 1 trap somewhere (Chief of Artさん is going to bash me for saying this!).

So far, Re Angel has appeared in magazines and has gotten attention from websites and blogs such as ITMedia and Danny Choo, so I decided it was time to try it out and this is technically Finding the Blue's first coverage of a foreign game, that's a merit of some kind I'm sure. Here's the OP movie; a short glimpse of what you're in for.

The OP song is in Thai and apparently is "just about an angel who came down from the heaven to look for "

OP song: Re Angel's Love
Lyrics by: Nike
Sung by: Fen
Recording by: NTK Music Studio
Production managed by Geneve

The lines in the OP are something like:
"[Because] everything has already had [their future] decided" "By the power of one single thing" "Fate" "Re.Angel"

More of the OP Text. Translator notes are in orange.

First character sequence:

"Fa" "Pratt's little sister/imouto"

Quotes:

"Fa don't think it should be like that"
"Eh...(Equivilent of "Hmm...) Fa does understand it though"
"But if brother Pratt (Equivilent to saying Pratt Onii-chan) is satisfied, Fa is also happy with you"
"Heh heh, not to that point (not that much)"
"Fa just said that because Fa was worried"

Second character sequence:

"Manari"
"The selfish Demon"

Quotes:

"Why can't I do that, Ri?" "Don't be so picky, Ri!"

(She ends her sentences with 'Ri')

"[I] understand it now, Ri" "I like it [alot], Ri. Like this, Ri!!"

Third Character Sequence:

"Kanlaya" "Pratt's childhood friend"

Quotes:

"By talking like that, you're asking for trouble?!" "I didn't mean it like that at all" "Really?" "(I'm having a little bit of a problem reading this bit but I beleive it's..) You're not just joking are you?" "What... Did... You.. Say!!!"

Final Character Sequence:

"Misty" (Not Thai name I can assure you, lol) "The mysterious older sister (Could mean family sister or just someone older than you, in this case it seems like the latter)" OP quotes: "My friends call me Misty" "If it bothers you too much then I apologise for it" "Don't see it as something unimportant like that" "Just do whatever you want to do"

Big thanks to Chief-of-artさん for the translation!

Synopsis: "The story begins when Pratt, a young male teenager with a special ability to see the super-natural, finds out that he is in the middle of an argument between "angels" and "demons" in which it seems both sides has set their eyes on him as a target"

"--- An event in the past that has had it effect to the present, a battle that is tied to how we live"

"[Fate] is what controls and dictates what happens in this world"
"Find out about the story that envolves 4 girls"
"Who are involved in this battle"

Pratt wakes up to see a young girl staring at him. She looks cooldere but she's just a very polite imouto.

Walking to school with Fa. Look at the background...

....And check again! Basically there is a looped animation of walking to school and the scenery changes. Sorry for the cursor being in the way on this image.

The game is animated a lot, the characters eyes blink and move and so on, it looks like flash, but it is not. In fact, I don't know which language it was written in, maybe I should ask. It reminds me of School Days. The text speed is slow, and I couldn't see an option to change it, sometimes it gets annoying reading slowly. Hopefully the full version will have an option to speed this up.

Promotional posters for Re Angel in the background. Fa is very well developed for a younger sister.

It's not nice to trick your sister, but more importantly what is the large tower in the background? It reminds me of something from Popotan.

The Japanese is very simple, so if you know just some Japanese you can still probably play the game. The quality of the writing is simple, but I'm sure many things have probably been lost in translation from the original Thai version. The music is also nice, it's nothing I'd want an OST of, but it does it's job perfectly.

I don't particularly like the art style but it's not bad quality. Maybe this is a common style for artists in Thailand.

Pratt's childhood friend Kanraya has smaller breasts than Faa's

You can't see it, but her fist is shaking with rage. I really like the small animations in this game a lot.

I kept accidently capturing the mouse whenever I do a screenshot of the game, I think the mouse is rendered separately much like you would find in other games (If you play a shooter, you will notice crosshairs and so on) Commonly in eroge, to put it simply they use their own version of the windows cursor, that's why it disappears if you take a screenshot. It is game dependant though.

And she's angry again. Note the pillar in the background, odd. The signs are in Thai too.

くそ！ Her power levels have raised!

Because there are no H-Scenes, I have to keep reminding myself to stop choosing routes in my head. Instead I'm playing the game as it develops, but I'm in favour of Fa. Kanraya looks on enviously.

Re Angel has it's touching moments. Despite her attitude, I feel like Kanraya will get 'Unfortunate Childhood Friend Syndrome' if I don't pay attention to her, and I never like seeing that. The music just adds to my guilt of favouring Fa orz

Whack!

Overall, for an independant game, Re Angel is not bad at all and the animations make a nice touch, I wish more eroge companies would adopt this a little more as it would really bring the characters to life. I'm not sure if there are Seiyuus planned yet or not, but the demo is voiceless (For Japanese at least) at present.

It makes me wonder, ever since 東方 the quality of games produced by independant or small-scale entities has really gone up a lot, as more and more people have free time they are beginning to spend it on projects like this, I think that soon, doujin games will begin to give commercial companies a lot of competition.

I don't know when Re Angel is to be released but it's worth keeping an eye on it, it is very impressive for what it is and definitley worth downloading the demo if you want to try something new. You can download the demo here.

October - Eroge Release Calendar: Preview of this month's Bishoujo Games

2009-10-01T21:51:00.020+01:00

It's October! Finding the Blue is back! Which after a long summer break can only mean one thing: Back to school romances! Unless you're 「Little Princess」 in which case it's still summer. Yeah. Sorry this post is so late. I really hate blogging at this point in time, things are just stressful.

October brings some highly anticipated titles, some new faces, some suprises and the downright strange. I think this will be the big bubble before Christmas, but who knows. Something for the Finding the Blue Christmas Awards might crop up... Click 'Read More' to Read the full post!

Skyprythem
Producer: Armonica
Release Date: 23rd October 2009

Synopsis: Kazuki has just entered his new school, and after his induction his teacher says that everybody is under the same wing, meaning that they will be working together to achieve the same goal. Kazuki must choose his "feather partner" to compose a song with for the school festival. Who will he choose?

When I first started this blog a few months ago I previewed the new company Armonica briefly, and I have to say that it hasn't quite built as much hype as I thought it could have, but in terms of quality it's not too bad. I will try the available demo over the space of this month because it'd feel wrong not to.

Mashiroiro Symphony
Producer: Palette
Release Date: 30th October 2009

Synopsis: The protangonist Shingo has been selected to join a girls school as it is joining with his school. Before they combine, shingo is staying at the girl's school. As per usual the girls dislike boys, so it's up to Shingo to change their minds.

There is something really lacking from this game. I love the OP, and the publicity has been great but the characters or plot don't really grab me at all...

Love Delation!

Producer: Smee
Release Date: October 23rd 2009

Synopsis: Our protagonist has come back to his hometown only to find that his new school used to be a girl's school, so the ratio of Males to Females is 1:9. However, there are only males in his class. In fact they're all in his class! But never mind, there are girls outside of the classroom...

I can't find much in particular to fault about this, but I can't find anything to praise either. I'm not familiar at all with Smee, but this just seems like a really run-of-the-mill eroge. Which I suppose is better than a bad eroge. I'm gonna get sick of this girls school obsession this month.

Hachimitsu Otome Blossomdays
Producer: Lupinus Soft
Release Date: October 23rd 2009

Synopsis: Kyosuke comes back to his hometown after 10 years and meets the two girls he knew 10 years back, living a peaceful school life with two additional girls too. They love him, but how do they say it?

Once again, I don't really think this game is anything special, but it's interesting that it's based more around the girls and their problems as opposed to 'Who will the male lead choose?'. What does interest me is KOTOKO/I'veSound doing the OP. Unfortunately it's not available for preview yet. More on this as it develops.

Trouble@Vampire
Producer: Tactics Luxury
Release Date: 30th October 2009

Synopsis: Magical Teacher Ritsu begins teaching at a prestigious magical girls school and saves his female students by shielding them from some strong magic whilst getting hurt in the process. When he wakes up he sees a vampire girl named Shion who claims him as her servant for saving his life with her blood.

To me this just seems like Negima meets 怪物王女 meets Rosario+Vampire meets eroge. I don't think the game itself will be bad, but it's just not something I am interested in. The OP is catchy though.

Shuffle Essence+
Producer: Navel
Release Date: October 30th 2009

Synopsis: N/A: Follows the original Shuffle plot, give or take a few routes.

Suprisingly, I'm interested in the prospect of this, but not in actuality. The new characters don't interest me, and in my opinion you can't improve on the original Shuffle because it was just one of those timeless classics. I'm tempted by the limited edition Primula Dakimakura cover, but I'm sure that will appear on YJA! in time.

Natsuiro Penguin
Producer: LittlePrincess
Release Date: October 30th 2009

Synopsis:Our protagonist's parents have gone away on business, as a result he lives in a small town with his cousins where he used to live. There he meets many childhood friends, and a simple love comedy begins...

It's summer! The wind is blowing, the leaves are falling and the temperature is dropping! Oh wait, it's not summer at all and that's because we're in autumn. It's one thing to delay a game, but quite another to delay a summer game into another season. It's a shame because it could have had a little potential too.

Co:mu -Kuroi Ryu to Yasashii Oukoku-
Producer: Akatsuki WORKS
Release Date: October 22nd 2009

Synopsis: There is an urban legend that "Girl A" comes out at night in the city and sings all night. One night Akihito goes out as if attracted by girl A, and finds 4 boys and 4 girls in the same situation as him. They can control a giant metallic monster by combining their powers together. When the monster dies, the group disappears, so they head for another world in search of a mysterious witch.

Okay so the premise is good if a little odd, but I think it'd make a much better anime than an eroge. At least it's a deviation from the typical "Happy School Life!" we've seen so much of.

Osananajimi wa Daitouryou -My Girlfriend is the President-
Producer: ALcot
Release Date: 30th of October 2009

(Copied from a previous post)
The story starts off normally, our protagonist wakes up; his childhood friend Yukino next door is the president and her house is now the Whitehouse. Now I know what you are thinking: "That isn't normal at all!" Oh yes it is, that's nothing compared to how this came about in the first place:

Aliens visited earth in order to start a diplomatic relationship with them, however it was just so unfortunate enough that the spaceship fell out of the sky and crushed all of the ministers (I am not making this up).

So how does the alien fix the problem? Simple: Brainwash all of Japan and put a young girl in charge, oh and because the alien didn't know much about Japan, they implemented a presidential system (Like the US. I blame NASAs signals). So because of this, not only is there the most strangely placed Whitehouse in the world. Our protagonist is running as vice president to help support Yukino...首相? 閣下?

Really? What can I say? I covered this previously but I still can't get over just how strange this is. Of course I will try my best to play it. It'd be a crime NOT to play something like this.

Kiss to Maou to Darjeeling
Producer: Marmalade
Release Date: 30th of October

Synopsis: Keiichi has a big problem. At his school there is a legend about a devil, and this legend just happens to be true. Why? Because Keiichi is the devil, and transforms when he kisses the school council president Sarasa. His friends form a club to eliminate the devil with no idea of his real identity. Can Keiichi live a peaceful life?

All in all, this game doesn't interest me too much. Not that it's bad, it simply just doesn't appeal to me much. I like the loli-at-first-glance teacher Chiyoko (Affectionately named Choco Sensei) but I was suprised to find out that Shinobu is a trap. I didn't look at character profiles until after I heard the news, but upon looking at pictures of the cast beforehand, he sure didn't raise any flags. Must be that time of year.

Koiiro Soramoyou
Producer: Studio Ryokucha
Release Date: DELAYED! - 26th March 2010 (Thanks Micchi)

Synopsis: Seigo lives a lazy life with his friends at school. He thinks that by getting a girlfriend his life will get better but he is too lazy to take action. One day, his school is threatened with closure. At first he doesn't care, but his friends do. Then he realises he can make many friends and maybe even get a girlfriend if he stops it. And from there starts a new adventure..

Actually, I really like the plot of this. I'm not keen on lazy protagonists, but I think it's a really nice simple idea that could be really interesting. Unfortunately, none of the characters really appeal to me in a special way. I'll play the demo to see whether or not it's worthwhile.

Sakura Tale
Producer: Fizz
Release Date: 30th of October 2009

Synopsis: Masumune has started his first day at school, and he is saved from being caught up in a recruiting battle between sports clubs by an attractive girl, despite being initially attracted to her, he also finds himself attracted by another girl who is entirely different. Dark and Light, Yin and Yan. He also meets an old friend at his dormitory, but she has changed completely too. New School, New Friends. A gentle school life starts at a school overlooked by a big cherry tree...

Well, I have to say my opinion of this has changed a lot since I previewed it slightly back in the August calendar, maybe it's the lack of other games, but I'm quite interested in playing this. Not ANGEL MAGISTER interested, but pretty interested, I like the whole clothing switch thing too.

And so that's the calendar. Hidamari Basket got delayed, as did some other stuff. As for Cross Days? That's november...and I thought I submitted stuff late. Well, I'm not a business either, so I don't have much to say.

Why was the calendar so late? Well, after not posting for a while I really lost touch with the blogging and the eroge world. Just as I was set to get back in motion I realised that I was more interested in other projects I was doing, music I was listening to and the latest anime series starting so since then I haven't had much of a passion for eroge.

My interests are almost always centered around anime, manga, eroge and so on, even in indirect ways, so I'm wondering now if I should keep to the theme of eroge-only and have a mediocre blog, or if my posts should follow more of the trends in what I'm doing. I think I may go for the latter.

When I started Finding the Blue, I wanted an eroge news-blog because I thought it was completely original idea and it was something I was interested in, I'm now realising how much of a responsibility it is to keep a blog up to date from a news perspective, not to mention I had never really made a blog before. In the week I posted nothing, 3 backend changes were made to Finding The Blue (Nothing that affects visitors really). I think that shows where my priorities are to an extent.

So now from now on I'm going to treat this place more like a blog for my interests and less like a news site hosted on blogspot. The heart of finding the blue will always be in eroge; just one glance around and you can see that. But it's going to follow other stuff too, deviate slightly, and not be so regimental with its content. Here's to the future!

Just to let everybody know...

2009-09-29T21:11:00.003+01:00

...I'm back and fine again. I'll be posting the calendar for next month On Oct 1st or more likely to be the 30th seeing as a lot of fall anime is debuting on october 1st. Then it'll be back into full swing as ever. See you then!

Finding the Blue - No Posts for a While

2009-09-23T18:05:00.002+01:00

Sorry to be so abrupt, but I thought I would explain the absence for those that haven't seen the twitter feed:

Lately, some terrible things have happened and generally things have been difficult and affected me quite badly. I've tried to comment on some other places, gradually I am getting back to normal I think, but I still can't build up the passion to post something.

Therefore, I will be absent for a while until I feel ready to post again. Maybe you will see me commenting on other blogs, but for now, Finding the Blue won't be very active at all.

In the meantime, check out the blogs on the right, they're all really great.

Thank you for your understanding in this matter. Hopefully Finding the Blue will be back on track soon.

[PREVIEW] My Girlfriend is the PRESIDENT! （幼なじみは大統領）宇宙人, 毒電波, 幼なじみ, 国際政治!? (Aliens, Dokudenpa, Childhood friends, Politics!?)

2009-09-15T22:27:00.018+01:00

Okay, so I apologise once again for the lack of demo-previews. I will try and get them done sometime this week, thankfully I have a good excuse, which is basically I'm back in education. It was tough life as a ronin, but I survived! (a few months summer break. But ronin makes me sound cool).

Either way, once I am back in routine, I should be OK. Also, Chief of Artさん is also going to be absent for a while too.

Anyway, about every few months websites and blogs such as アキバBlog focus on a particular eroge for their own reasons that I don't really understand. Either way, the flavour-of-the-month is 幼なじみは大統領 or "My girlfriend is the PRESIDENT" (Osanna for short) and it is a strange game indeed. Click "Read More" to read more.

You can't blame ALcot for not venturing into the unknown, they have travelled all across the eroge genre map and really explored uncharted territory, but nobody expected this.

The story starts off normally, our protagonist wakes up; his childhood friend Yukino next door is the president and her house is now the Whitehouse. Now I know what you are thinking: "That isn't normal at all!" Oh yes it is, that's nothing compared to how this came about in the first place:

Aliens visited earth in order to start a diplomatic relationship with them, however it was just so unfortunate enough that the spaceship fell out of the sky and crushed all of the ministers (I am not making this up).

So how does the alien fix the problem? Simple: Brainwash all of Japan and put a young girl in charge, oh and because the alien didn't know much about Japan, they implemented a presidential system (Like the US. I blame NASAs signals). So because of this, not only is there the most strangely placed Whitehouse in the world. Our protagonist is running as vice president to help support Yukino...首相? 閣下?

As if that wasn't enough, it seems Vladmir Putin （プーチン）, the current President of Russia also has a female rendition...

So err, let's go onto the CGs and have a look at the characters? I feel like I am violating some sort of law by posting pictures of such important people :P

First up we have Ouhama Yukino （桜濱雪乃） , childhood friend and...President of Japan.

There's something cute about Yukino. Maybe it's because I associate them with Akari from ToHeart, but Yukino seems very cute in her own way. She's also embedded with a brainwashing device in her body. Yeah.

Illna Urajimilovana Puchina（ーナ・ウラジミロヴナ・プチナ） I'm sorry, I really do not understand her original English or Russian Name, so we'll call her Puchin （プーチン） like Putin.

She's the president (or equivilent) of Russia, and is ALcot's version of Putin. She's not far off either, apart from the fact that Putin isn't a young girl with long silver hair. But we can still dream. I don't really know how much more I can say without offending our international members. Not because of any particular reason, but for the sake of not wanting to give the wrong image. I do not understand Russian politics at all.

Next we have "Kouchuufune Wezekieru" （航宙船ヱゼキエル） That's 'Space-flight ship Wezekieru' ('Spaceship' isn't correct here really). But importantly for us, it's "Eru" for short.

She's certainly an alien I wouldn't mind meeting. I think she is much less scary than green martians. She's clumsy and afraid of heights too. She is very interested in Japan and she is in search of love. She even said herself "Please teach me about love!". If that isn't an invitation, I don't know what is. If I play this game, I will choose her route.

Finally we have the dark horse of the main characters: Chief of Staff Miyoshi Ran （三芳蘭）

Well let's face it, it wouldn't be an eroge without more than a few members of female cast, so of course there's going to be other characters. In this case we have Ran, the Onee-chan. Because if at first you don't succeed, go for her sister.

※American dubbing! Offical too. Perfect if you don't understand Japanese!

Morning hardonｗｗｗｗｗｗ

It really made me laugh how ALcot has decided to go American in their approach to the OP. This game looks really interesting, but October has some great titles coming up too. So I'll definitely be playing and reviewing the demos in order to sort the good from the bad. Or to put it more delicately: what you may or may not want to spend your time on.　

However, I think this may be too unique to miss =P

Final Fantasy XIII To be released on December 17th 2009 （ファイナルファンタジーシリーズ）

2009-09-11T01:04:00.010+01:00

Well, this is interesting isn't it? It isn't often I do posts about non-eroge games, but I've been trying many new things recently, and I love the Final Fantasy Series too. So I thought I would give a preview as an apology for not having the HimexHime Demo up on time (It has an omake I'm trying to unlock). Click 'Read More' to read the full post.

Final Fantasy XIII （ファイナルファンタジーⅩⅢ） marks the first game in the Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy XIII （ファブラノヴァクリスタリスファンタジーXIII） series of games (What a mouthful!). And isn't linked to the rest of the previous Final Fantasy series in any way, however we may well see easter eggs and so on.

I'm going to directly copy from Wikipedia EN here:

The plot focuses on the fal'Cie, beings created from the crystals residing inside them. The people marked by the fal'Cie for a greater purpose are named the l'Cie. But being a l'Cie has a price; for should they die before fulfilling their Focus, they will turn into monsters called "Cie Corpses". Some thirteen centuries ago, a fal'Cie constructed a paradise for humanity: The shell-like city of Cocoon floating high above the surface of the world now known as Pulse, both maintained by their own fal'Cie. Cocoon's fal'Cie created life forms and machines for its inhabitants to use, and humanity flourished. Over time, the people of Cocoon began to fear for the safety of their world, and were worried that it would be cast down from the sky into the hell that they see Pulse to be.

In present day, the wilderness of Pulse has strange effects on people, and the theocratic Cocoon Sanctum quarantines and exiles anyone who has been influenced by Pulse from the city with the help of its mighty army, PSICOM. However, as Snow leads Team Nora in a vain attempt to stop the purging, the mysterious Lightning fights her way past PSICOM soldiers to find Pulse's fal'Cie with the aid of Sazh. But by a chain of events, these three along with two of the Purgees, Vanille and Hope, are chosen by the fal'Cie of Pulse against their will to become l'Cie among others, and with that become enemies of humanity that would bring about the downfall of Cocoon.

I wish I could say more about what I think of this, but I have not gone back to the 3D gaming world in a long time. The graphics I find very impressive, but I have only played 2D games for a long time now, so I have no real comparison. No doubt the question most people will ask is "Will it be as good as VII?"

Well, apparently the female lead 'Lightning' was based with the idea of a female Cloud Strife in mind, so I think Square Enix are trying to recreate some of the factors from VII that made it so popular.

I feel disappointed with myself about this post. I simply do not share the same passion for console games that I used to. I can show some screenshots and some footage of trailers/gameplay. But all in all, it's like I can't get excited orz I suppose this means that future video game posts like this will be considerably rare.

Official Site

Once again, sorry for the lack of enthusiasm in this post. Maybe it was not such a good idea after all, but at least I tried to post about a non-eroge game; simply I could not build up the passion. Still, maybe there will be other games in the future I am more enthusiastic about.

Keep an eye on the twitter; I'll be updating it soon. Also, the HimexHime demo is coming soon, as well as the Angel Navigate ones (H and Non-H). All in time for next week (18th AKA Release date). Good day!

[FIGURE] Morikawa Yuki ( 森川由綺 ) 1/8 PVC By Good Smile Company [White Album]

2009-09-09T12:26:00.010+01:00

Okay, so in time for the second half, Good Smile Company have announced a 1/8 PVC figure of Morikawa Yuki ( 森川由綺 ) to be released in December 2009 from the Anime/Visual Novel 「White Album」. She'll cost about 6,190円 and will stand at approximately 21cm tall.

Click 'Read More' for more pictures and information.

I only played the White Album demo a little bit but I don't think it's on the Leaf/Aquaplus website anymore, but then again it is an old game. I haven't seen the anime at all (I was going to watch the entire first series in bulk but didn't get around to it) but she looks a lot like she did in what I played of the game.

Later on, we'll probably see the announcement of Ogata Rina (緒方理奈) pictured on the right. Well, I might get these depending on what I think of the White Album anime when I watch it, but I'm not sure. All I can say is that I'm glad those DC II figures aren't the first post anymore.

Photos credit to Good Smile Company

[FIGURE] Asakura Otome ( 朝倉音姫 ) & Yukimura Anzu ( 雪村杏 ) Non-Scale PVC By CMs Corp [Da Capo II: Second Season]

2009-09-09T00:32:00.007+01:00

This October, CMs Corp will be releasing two Da Capo II: Second Season figures.

※PLEASE NOTE: These are two separate figures with their own pricetag. I'm not kidding...

Asakura Otome ( 朝倉音姫 ) and Yukimura Anzu ( 雪村杏 ) will both come with a pricetag of 3800円 EACH. With Anzu being approximately 15cm and Asakura being a bit taller at approximately 16cm. Please Click 'Read More' for more information.

Okay, so basically. What can I say about these two? Well, personally I'm not enough of a Da Capo II fan to get these, but I think maybe CMs Corp. are pushing their luck. The ToHeart Trading Figures were one thing, but the original ToHeart is a rare series for figures..

As you can see, they aren't the greatest of quality. I'd expect something like this to be in Dengeki Gs as a free gift, not a paid-for PVC. If you are a die-hard fan, by all means get it. But otherwise, what is the point?

Anyway, photo credit goes to HOBBY STOCK

On the upside, if you haven't been keeping track of the Twitter feed. You'll be pleased to know that I should have a HimexHime demo review for you by tomorrow! Enjoy.

[DEMO] - Tropical Kiss (トロピカルＫＩＳＳ)

2009-09-06T22:37:00.007+01:00

Okay, so today I played through the Web Demo of Tropical Kiss. In my last post, I said I would be choosing one game out of the many on the September calendar. So why Tropical Kiss? Well, I came to the conclusion that I probably won't play both Tropical Kiss and Natsuiro Penguin because of their obvious similarities.

Tropical Kiss has a demo, Natsuiro Penguin didn't. It's as simple as that. Click 'Read More' to read what I thought about the demo and some screenshots I took of the game.

First impressions of the game were not bad, I liked the BGM although it doesn't loop; it just repeats itself, which I think can get a bit tiresome after a while. Overall, the story isn't that complex, in order to be a 'BIG Man' you're working in a holiday resort with girls you already know and they all want you.

Firstly we get a short lecture from Tenさん. I know it said he liked eroge and galge on the official site, but I didn't realise how forward he would be about it.

Let's just say Ten-san is VERY passionate about eroge (and breaking the forth wall). He also makes many masturbation jokes too. 「我武者羅に抜け！」ｗｗｗｗ

He's a very...passionate man. As you can see. At this part he's actually asking you if you are ready, is the door locked? The screen hidden? The tissues ready? and so on. Yeah, he's one of those characters.

Hinata appears and says she likes you and asks if you're seeing anyone. She's actually very cute. I wonder if she will sway my decision on my favorite character.

Rikka is here too, and she thought you were going out with her. I sense trouble on the horizon...

Izumi wants you too...I think this is one of those 'Which girl will you choose?' moments.

Our fourth lovely - The cute and timid Aoi Matsuri. I should be a dating TV Show host.

Thinking of taking the older choice? Nagi can help you out!

みんなさん！Everyone is here and demanding a piece of Kaito. Shame it's all a dream...

LOL! She may be your innocent childhood friend, but she's REALLY protective over your imouto. Don't mess with a look like that.

Punyu～

ひどいな　orz

Kaito has a habit of comically scoping out girls breasts, while Nagi nearly goes off the charts, Katakage-san's are simply overwhelming, as indicated by the snorting/choking noise made by Kaito.

Well, the situation was inevitable. It was going to happen at some point.

Clean thoughts only please.

Hey this room looks familiar. But why did you put my printer up there?

In the end I got the bad route! Well, the one where nothing happens anyway. Bah! Put away those tissues and wait for Angel Navigate or something else instead!

The game is fine, and when I mean it's fine; it's just OK. The art is cute, really colourful; in fact, you may get sick of seeing bright neon colours everywhere but it IS a summer game and it IS a beach resort.

It plays fairly averagely, okay so I only tried the demo, but I didn't see any kind of dramatic twist on it's way. You choose a girl, work hard at getting her, see a number of H-CGs and feel proud of yourself. This is no drama or touching story, just go for what you like the look of and put up with the bumps, bashes, punches and all kinds of chaos that hits you (And it really does hit you alot in Tropical Kiss).

Some parts are comical, the characters are relatively forgettable but it's not difficult to build up a temporary rapport for the duration of the game. And Krit, you were right, the shark does indeed talk and YES it is a male and YES you are not the only one freaked out by it. The real question is 'Would you trust your Imouto with him?' I know I wouldn't.

Overall, it's not a bad game, but it's not showstopping either. It won't be a painful experience to play it, but you may feel it's a waste of your time. What does this mean for Twinkle though? Well, I think if they tone down the colours a notch and put some more effort with the scenario, they're talented enough to make a brilliant game of it.

So is it this or Natsuiro Penguin? Well, suprisingly I will say "Neither". I think I've had my fill of bright, summer-coloured romance and my sights are firmly set upon Dakko and maybe Angel Navigate! What's everyone else looking forward to?

[REVIEW] IOSYS - ANIME HOUSE PROJECT　～神曲selection～　Vol.1 (CD)

2009-09-05T22:23:00.005+01:00

So this post is going to be about the latest CD from IOSYS, the 'ANIME HOUSE PROJECT'. That was released just over a week ago now, and priced at a reasonable 1905円. As ever, click 'Read More' full the full review.

If you're not familiar with IOSYS, they've been producing animations and music mainly for 東方 related items and apparently did the ending animation for the second ED of Penguin Musume Heart which I didn't really notice was IOSYS, but then the whole series did feel a little bit patchwork. IOSYS are also connected with 電波 Supergroup Albatrosicks. You can read more about them [Albatrosicks] here.

Anyway, IOSYS's latest endevour has been the 'Anime House Project' which is basically anime themes remixed into 'House classics'. Okay so they weren't dubbed as 'House Classics', but it felt like the right thing to add. So let's see the lineup:

01. “K-On!” ~ Don’t say “lazy” / Arm (IOSYS) feat. Anporin
02. “Tales of Phantasia” ~ Yume wa Owaranai ~Kobore Ochiru Toki no Shizuku~ / Tetsushi (Red Hot house) feat. Anporin
03. “Shin Seiki Evangelion” ~ Zankoku na Tenshi no These / Sound Holic feat. A~Ya
04. “Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann” ~ Sorairo Days / Dr. Arm (Albatrosicks) feat. miko+Resurrection (Albatrosicks)
05. “Sousei no Aquarion” ~ Sousei no Aquarion / Boido (IOSYS) feat. ichigo (Kishida Kyoudan & The Akeboshi Rockets)
06. “Fushigi no Umi no Nadia” ~ Blue Water / fishtone (TTB Studio) feat. Beat Mario (Cool & Create)
07. “Mahou Shoujou Lyrical Nanoha A’s” ~ Eternal Blaze / Arm (IOSYS) feat. Asana (IOSYS)
08. “Digimon Adventure” ~ Butter-Fly / AVSS feat. nyanyannya (Team. Nekokan)
09. “One Piece” ~ Believe / Redalice (Alice’s Emotion) feat. Ayumi Nomiya
10. “Dragon Quest” ~ Yume o Shinjete / D.watt (IOSYS) feat. witch (Sound Cyclone)
11. “Air” ~ Tori no Uta / Arm (IOSYS) feat. Rekka Katakiri
12. “Shoujo Kakumei Utena” ~ -Rondo- revolution / D.watt (IOSYS) feat. Yuuko Meguro

thanks to dancemania-ex.com for saving me time of having to type the tracklist :P

I'm not much of a house fan. I pick up the 'HOUSE NATION' series of CDs, but I would never go much further than that. So remixes of famous anime tunes sits well with me and I don't mind giving it a listen.

Before I go much further, beware; if you've ever listened to an anime remix CD, prepare for the same tracks to come up again. As you can see, we've got the compulsory Tori no Uta mix, a nanoha remix, Sousei no Aquarion mix and so on. So watch out for the same old hats coming up again and again.

I have some serious doubts about the CD being house. Like I said, I'm not a house expert, but I know when I am and am not hearing house, and a lot of tracks on this CD could be summed up as 'Ambigious electro'. 「Dont Say Lazy」 is far too fast for house, and despite most tracks hovering at about 130BPM, many shift into technopop (Sorairo Days) or just really plain electromixes.

But with all credit to IOSYS on this one, it doesn't sound cheaply made, it just seems like they've really beaten around the bush as far as house goes. Some of them are most definitley house though, I found the Dragon Quest ED 「Yume o Shinjete」 to be a really good midnight blend of Jpop and House without going into Technopop territory.

Okay, so at times it's a bit random and not as house-y as it could be, and unless you like dropping slow tracks (I wouldn't recommend it for the pacing of many of the tracks) it's not really good for mixing, but it isn't all that bad. If you want to wind down after some more frantic music, this CD really isn't a bad way to do it. Just watch out for a few odd tracks that might ruin your peace.

Overall, I'd give this about a 7/10. Doesn't really do what it says on the tin, but the production quality isn't bad at all and it's enjoyable. If you click the image of the album art above, you'll be directed to the official CD website, where you can listen to previews and make your mind up from there.

Favorite tracks:

「Sorairo Days」 by Dr. Arm feat. miko+Resurrection (From Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann).
「Yume o Shinjete」 by D.Watt feat. Witch (From Dragon Quest)

Tomorrow I'll be playing and hopefully previewing a demo of a game featured in the most recent calendar. But what will it be?! You'll have to find out tomorrow!

Updates: Where Finding the Blue Might be Headed

2009-09-05T02:24:00.005+01:00

---
Okay, in my opinion when I see a title like this it usually implies something bad; a change that nobody really likes and so on. So I'll do my best to make sure it isn't one of those changes.

Firstly, Finding the Blue isn't gonna change that much. I like the concept that I've settled upon and I just want to keep building on it instead of making vast changes. So I'll go over a few things that will influence the direction of Finding the Blue and where it's going in the future.

First things first! If you haven't done so already (Which you probably haven't) please complete the survey by following the red link on the right! It really helps us, takes a couple of minutes (if that) to complete and there's no registration or anything. Oh and every single response is taken into account.

So what's going to change? Well, if I refer back to the survey, there was a question that said 'What would you like to see more of in Finding the Blue'. And basically, I'm just going to try posting about all of them; see what's successful and what isn't, and go from there. Here's what to expect.

Eroge demos being played and previewed properly.

Because basically, almost every choice I make of what game to get is based on art, CGs, OP movie and synopsis, it can end up with some dissapointing results every now and again. So by playing the demos through instead of buying blindly, we can get a good idea of what's good and what isn't so that no time/money is wasted.

I'll only play and preview demos of the current months game lineup. That way I won't get flooded with demos to play, but every game should get covered all the same.

More posts about goods and merchandise.

I twitter (I tweet?) regularly about the latest merch announced/released but I rarely go in detail and it's usually restricted to figures or eroge related merch. This time I'm going to try and make a proper post about merchandise and what's announced/released with pictures and so on. I missed a whole load of Angel Magister goods because I simply wasn't paying enough attention orz

Event coverage

Last Comiket post was 2 weeks late I think, which is unacceptable really. I'm putting together a calendar of events so that I can make coverage posts on them even if I don't attend and just generally provide some information and images.

Other Games

There are probably loads of blogs and loads of websites who of course cover this much better than I ever could, but I still love to play RPGs and other non-エロゲ games, so once in a while I might make a few posts about this.

Technology

I've wanted to make some technology posts for a long time now, but I've always been unsure as to what level I should make the posts. I think hardware components and so on is probably a bit too in-depth for the blog. But also I don't want to make posts like "Hey it's a USB stick, but it's also a fan, isn't it great?!" The release of Windows 7 will probably make the news here, but I'm still thinking about this section really. Of course, I am open to ideas.

Anime

I really don't want to be YAAB (Yet Another Anime Blog) so I've avoided individual episode reviews and so on, not to mention I do watch a lot of anime so it would be difficult to keep up and would flood the blog. Next season I will do some 'light coverage' on some of the new series because I don't think summer has been all that great. Speaking of anime, look who made an appearance on Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou a few episodes ago!:

Kyouran Kazoku Nikki and Gendai Mahou were made by the same studio (Nomad) so it's only natural we'd see our favorite jellyfish at somepoint :P

Anyway...

Others

Manga is kind of tough to do because of scanning pages is not possible for me, plus I wouldn't want to anyway (breaks the spine). But if I find scans other people have done I will post them. Koe De Oshigoto! is particularly relevant because it features a girl working as an eroge seiyuu.

Figures comes under goods, as does cosplay I suppose. Although I don't really keep my eye open on the cosplay scene much.

Music is one I'm willing to do (of course). In fact, starting tomorrow, as well as an eroge demo, I'll review IOSYS's latest CD (anime house project) and also do other genres and character CDs too.

Akihabara related kind of fits in with events, and with the Akiba Game Fair soon, I can consider that covered.

I think that just about finishes it for today. Chief of artさん has been busy/bored and is toying around with a Finding the Blue mascot character with her own 4coma. Should be interesting, maybe he needs more work :P

As always, any feedback, comments and everything else about the blog or anything really. Contact me in whatever way you want; email, comments, survey, smoke signals and so on.

Omake Post! Finding the Blue: Goodies and Extras

2009-09-03T00:27:00.012+01:00

Okay, so as you may have noticed the chief of art has been very busy creating a new background for Finding The Blue. And despite me initially falling into a few 'traps' it came out really well!

（*＾∀＾）八（＾∀＾*）

On top of this, he also created some great wallpapers, banners, skyscraper banners and so on. So if you wanna spread the word about this blog or simply just want pictures of Otoha to drool at, here's your resource! Click read more to view the contents of the omake!

IMPORTANT: Click all images to enlarge them. Ignore the blurry Jpeg thumbnails!

700px x 100px Banner

700px x 100px Banner

120px x 600px Skyscraper Banner

200px x 40px Link Exchange Banner

1024px x 768px Wallpaper

1280px x 1024px Wallpaper

Thank you very much chief of art!

Of course, all characters images and liklinesses used WITHOUT permission. But we promote your games, not make money them. Remember that, Makura Soft!

September - Eroge Release Calendar: Preview of this month's Bishoujo Games

2009-08-31T20:32:00.028+01:00

Another month has arrived in time for me to do the monthly calendar, and what can I say about this month? Well firstly it's a vast improvement on last month's games which is good. I got &LOVE recently and it's waiting to be played a long with some July releases, but I don't plan on getting anything else from August.

This month looks promising to say the least, with the release of NatsuiroPenguin (夏いろペンギン), HimeHime (姫ｘ姫), 'dakko' (だっこしてぎゅっ！～オレの嫁は抱き枕～) and much much more. Let's say that Sept. 18th is going to be hectic. Click 'Read More' to view this month's upcoming games.

ANGEL NAVIGATE

Producer: Aries Soft
Release Date: 18th September 2009

Synopsis: Our protagonist 'Sota' has come back to his hometown after a few years. Him and his imouto Koharu start living at their childhood friend's house 'Hinako'. He falls in love on his first day at school but typically, he's no good at talking to girls. His friend then shows him a website named 'Angel Navigate' where people talk about love. Sota decides to visit the website himself...

I can't really decide on a character, but I think I like Urara the best (When in doubt, go with the meganekko). Overall, I'm semi-interested in this, it's really well presented and I like the art, but no character really catches my eye over the others, and I think that the story won't be an 'active' one, but more laid back. If you're into that, go ahead, I may pick this up further down the line.

Eden*
Producer: Minori
Release Date: September 18th 2009

Synopsis: Set in the far future, a huge ball of energy named the 'Planet of Destruction' appears near Mars, yet adverse weather changes and the deformation of the Earth's crust effect Earth to the extent of terrorism and wars, eventually destroying it. However all is not lost; 100 years are left until the extinction of mankind, and to avoid this humans are getting out of Earth by following the 'Felix Plan'. Whereby they invent a creature called the 'Felix' and manipulate it's genes.

99 Years later, a girl who works as a main part of the 'Get out of Earth' plan. She devotes her life to this plan, and decides to stay on earth for the rest of her life. One day, a boy is sent to her place, it is his mission to protect her life at all costs. This is where the story begins.

(Apologies for the inconsistent CGs)

So, eden* has a complex storyline, and one hell of an epic trailer. If I'm honest, there are not many elements about this that draw me in, but because it's minori, because the trailer is incredible, because SO much money has been poured in, it'd be a crime not to play it. All we can ask ourselves is 'Will we see an anime adaption in the future' as our minds all dart to Ef.

This also comes originally as a non-explicit game, but with a special 'Mosaic' pack too, if you so desire. Which you do.

Dakkoshite Gyu! (だっこしてぎゅっ！～オレの嫁は抱き枕～)
Producer: Tactics Latte
Release Date: 18th September 2009

Synopsis: "Dakko is about a guy named Yuya. Yuya goes to school as a normal guy, but he absolutely loves Dakimakura, he is a 抱き枕er (A collector of dakimakura) and is surrounded in them when he goes home. His life is like heaven.

One day, in the school corridor he hears the voice of a girl. She is the boss of the Pillow Research Club and she asks him for a favour. Her name is Tobari and she's holding a dakimakura of a beautiful girl. Yuya is of course excited by the sheer sight of a dakimakura and asks if he can have it, Tobari accepts...but only on the condition that Yuya will accept her offer.

The Dakimakura Tobari is holding is not any normal dakimakura, it is a special dakimakura that when you sleep with it, you will meet the girl on it in your dreams. The girl on the dakimakura is called Akari, and Tobari's condition is that Yuya must sleep with the Dakimakura, visit Akari in the dream world, fall in love with her and help raise her mind via the dream world.

Of course Yuya doesn't believe a word of it, but takes the dakimakura anyway with the intention of sleeping with it. That night, Yuya sleeps with the dakimakura...and discovers that the dream world really exists.."

(copied from previous post)

Okay, a large part of this part was copied from the original post that I previewed it in. What can I say that I haven't mentioned already? Hmm...I'm really looking forward to this? Nope, already mentioned that. Roll on September 18th!

HimexHime (姫ｘ姫)
Producer: Etoiles Soft
Release Date: 18th September 2009

Synopsis: There is a famous school for rich boys and girls, this school has a tradition whereby a girl called 'Princess' （姫） governs the school. By accident, our protagonist (An average boy) finds himself in the school. Because of the complications this has caused, he is forced to share a dorm with Saki, the current princess, who of course treats him like a slave. Eventually, he begins to develop feelings for Saki...

Okay, despite the basic, and maybe not the most intelligent of storylines, I really like the look of HimexHime and I think I like Hikaru the most. Not much to say here really other than, I hope it's good and interesting.

Koibumi Romantica (恋文ロマンチカ）
Producer: Chuable
Release Date: September 18th 2009

Synopsis: Fumito came to town with big dreams of being a novelist, but shortly his dreams are washed away as he becomes penniless. While standing in the rain, a beautiful girl hands him an umbrella. Thanks to her he is able to work as an assistant at a Novelist's house. He meets many people and experiences many things, until one day a cat says to him: "Fall in love with someone, it will be beneficial to your career as a novelist". Fumito begins to think deeply about falling in love..

What can I say about this except for "Zzzz.." it's kind of dull, to put it simply, but other than the art style, which doesn't really do much for me at all, I can't find a fault. Maybe if you're a novelist yourself and want to live out the fantasy or if you want to follow a really typical Visual Novel scenario. I hope those guys didn't have to work overtime on this.. Also, I really don't understand why there is a talking cat...why? Just why?!

Natsuiro Penguin （夏いろペンギン）
Producer: LittlePrincess
DELAYED!: October 30th 2009

Synopsis: Our protagonist's parents have gone away on business, as a result he lives in a small town with his cousins where he used to live. There he meets many childhood friends, and a simple love comedy begins...

Natsuiro Penguin looks like a really nice summer comedy. Shame about the delay because I think the nice weather will be behind us by the time of release. Korone (ころね) is very cute and I like her a lot. I know me and a few other bloggers have been waiting to play this one. Let's hope it's good!

Hapitora -Happy Transportation- (はぴとら　-HappyTransportation-)
Producer: Bloom Handle
Release Date: 25th September 2009

Synopsis: In a fantasy world, Tio runs an air transportation company, his parents died when he was young, so he has been looked after by the workers in his company. One day he decides he will leave the island for a short period of time to learn to fly an aircraft. When he returns, his company is about to go bankrupt and there is just one worker left. Raica, his childhood friend says she will join the company to help, but she is very careless. Will they survive the struggle?

ARIA meets eroge meets the air...maybe. Upon first glance this is once again a very basic game, with a tried and tested scenario. I like the art, even if I do think Raica looks like Mikuru. All in all though, while I won't be getting it, I think the art style is nice and I hope we'll see more from Bloom Handle.

Signal Heart
Producer: Purple Software
Release Date: 25th September 2009

Synopsis: One day, the protagonist's house is destroyed by a fire, so he has to move to a school dorm. This is all well and good, but all the male dorms are taken so he must live as a caretaker in the female dorms. A few days later, the school decides they will tear down the dorms and build a new one. The students debate over whether they can live in separate dorms or together, as both sides seem to dislike each other. The score will be settled in a battle of sales in the school festival, but the our protagonist is on the girl's side...

Okay, so my love of Purple Software isn't exactly the strongest bond in the world, but I'll tell you what's wrong with this game: The story is weak and in some places, nonsensical. Why do the boys and girls hate each other? I also don't like the number of お姉ちゃん characters that seem to be in Purple's games a lot. But that's a personal thing.

Generally, the whole 'Purple Software' part gets me, BUT there is an upside: this is something of a new direction for Purple. I like how they've tried to make the game more fun than touching. Maybe Purple are going up in the world; let's hope so. Nothing against games that aren't fun, but it's nice to have diversity. Keep going Purple!

Tropical Kiss (トロピカル Kiss)
Producer: Twinkle
Release Date: 25th of September 2009

Synopsis: Protagonist Kaito decided to leave home in hopes of being a big man, but instead he just found himself lazing about all day because he has no ideas. He decides to work at the A-LO-HA resort, but many girls working there had relationships with him..

This looks like a really great game and eroge newcomers Twinkle have really done a great job on getting a head start on breaking into the market. I think the story could do with a bit more depth, but it more than makes up for it with great art, cute characters and candy colours to tempt the eye. I will hopefully get this and I really hope Twinkle retains it's greatness onto it's next game.

・

Well That's all from the calendar this month, and it does look really good, here are the games that will be out in september, but you can view info of them in my previous post:

Nega0

Sorairo

There are a couple of fandisks out too, such as Princess Camilla Party and Haruka no Sora.

Well, that's that then. Keep your eye on the twitter feed and until I post again. Bye for now!

[FIGURE] Seira Orgel （星来オルジェル）by OrchidSeed [Chaos;Head]

2009-08-28T00:57:00.010+01:00

Okay, this figure was at the last WonFes and I was very suprised they would make it. But Orchid Seed have done the unthinkable, and really made her into a figure. She's 1/7 (Hurrah!), priced at 7429円 and castoffable. To see more pics and info, click 'Read more' as normal.

This figure is a bit more relevant than normal to this blog, why? Because the name Finding the Blue comes from the Chaos;Head game OP (Titled Find the Blue). I wasn't THAT blown away by the game, but it's nice to report something with additional relevance.

In the Chaos;Head anime, Seira is a fictional character from the (also fictional) anime "Blood Tunes the Animation" that Takumi [Protagonist] loves. If you paid a lot of attention to Chaos;Head, you're probably thinking the same as me: "Is it the awakened edition?" My answer is no, the awakened edition was trampled in Shibuya's スクランブル交差点 and the figure had a standing pose I think :P

Oh yeah, the series also covers the topic of 2D delusions. Kind of familiar for me and others I'm sure.

Castoff in 5...4...3...2...1

...

But she's still covered up! Orchid Seed really have been cruel on this one. Still, it saves me the trouble of censoring it myself. Seira will be available for your shelves this December (About a year since Chaos;Head the anime started I think). Thanks to OrchidSeed for the images. I was going to do a comparison of 3 up and coming eroge companies today, but instead I got distracted by this so I'll do it tomorrow.

[RELEASE] - Friday, August 28th: Eroge Scramble!

2009-08-26T01:34:00.007+01:00

It's that time of month again! As you know, the trend with eroge releases is that they tend to be release at the end of each month, and as expected there are times when they all fall on the same day. Although I'm not that impressed with this month's lineup, this friday marks the simultaneous release of a number of games. Let's have a quick recap:

&LOVE shows the return of the cute, naive robot character I haven't seen since Chobits and the first ToHeart (Although Multi can't be compared to the others I think). COMET did an online public Q&A session with the characters (Mainly Miru) where you basically ask them a question, and they answer it.

Last time I checked, somebody asked a question something like "If you won lots of money, what would you spend it on?" to which Miru listed a bunch of hardware upgrades. It made me laugh and I think it gives the characters some depth. Glad to see the ratio of 萌え：パソコン　has been kept even!

@Honey Coming Royal Sweet just seems to be an expansion of the original Honey Coming. I never followed the series so I've got nothing to say about this really apart from the fact that there are fans out there who are eagerly awaiting this. Good luck to you!

Mazo Love. Well, every now and again we see the emergence of a game starring a recluse or a loser as the main character, unfortunately these games seem to spiral down into the dark world of train molestation and pregnancy fetishes fairly quickly, and actually I think Mazo Love will go in a similar direction.

Why? Because there is a nurse as one of the main characters. It seems drastic but Nurses add an element of such obvious perversion to a franchise that it's basically a lost cause from then onwards. Except Komugi-chan; she's a magical nurse. There's a difference.

Memoria. A Purple Software game similar to other Purple Software games that will result in an equally dull fanbook. I appreciate the hard work and talent involved in making a game like this, but I think that there needs to be an influx of new ideas in the Purple Software offices. This one is a big miss for me.

Mimi wo sumaseba. I don't think I'm really very interested in this game, but considering we are in summer, this is one of the only true summer games this month. Also it doesn't look too bad from a quality standpoint. But for me the characters did not attract me enough to want to spend time on a deserted island with them.

(There's always one that doesn't have a horizontal banner...)

Finally, Time Leap Paradise. Something a bit different on the market this month (I always say that when I talk about it). If you liked dancexmixer (And judging by the sheer number of unique hits per day my post on it seems to get, you clearly do like it.) and you love eroge, then this is for you. In my opinion though, I think the dance part will be watered down, as will the visual novel part.

If you're wondering where Ai☆Kyan is, then I decided that it's not worth the time. The art isn't bad and it's colourful, but it lacks originality and depth. I'm not even gonna bother myself with it.

So, who would have guessed that the most exciting game this month was &LOVE? Maybe it was the Comiket 76 propaganda, the Q&A session or even POP signing a standing poster.

I was going to write a bit about what you could spend your money on this friday instead, but it seems that other areas are kind of dry too. Just collect any of those 'I've been meaning to get that' merchandise I guess. Or save up for September, which looks much more promising for Bishoujo Games.

Update Post: Comiket, Recent Events and Other stuff

2009-08-24T00:02:00.016+01:00

Okay, I know I haven't updated in a long long time (Over a week! Sorry! ｍ（＿　＿）ｍ) so I thought I'd tie up some loose ends I missed before I get back into the swing of things. Basically in this post I'll be covering comiket, Animelo Summer live RE:BRIDGE 2009, eroge news and misc stuff. Comiket stuff is way overdue but I decided I'd do animelo stuff because not much is reported about it normally and it's relatively recent (Sunday ended a matter of hours ago).

So what has happened since I last updated? Well the main event in everybody's mind is Comiket. Many blogs and websites have done their own photo reports and so on about the events. Unfortunately I didn't attend, so at first I didn't want to do what everyone else was doing, but I decided I might as well. Here's a look at some of the stuff that interested me out of what I've seen.

Here's something different to start off with: I was always suprised why there wasn't more RosarioとVampire figures, the characters were very marketable. Hopefully these Cocoa and Awakened Moka uniform figures are an indication of more to come soon (Yukari!!)

This Cross Days Kotonoha figure comes from Taki (Tacky) Corp. as you can probably tell. If you don't understand the hostility; anyone who collects figures knows that Taki Corp are famous for 3 things: Ikkitousen figures, bad quality figures and bad quality Ikkitousen figures. Let's hope they don't move onto any other eroge characters from here and leave that to WAVE instead.

Anyway, I'll move on from the figures, seeing as this isn't WonFest. As usual there were some screens showing trailers and teasers for the latest upcoming anime or movies (Nanoha and Fate/Stay Night of course this time) I was really pleased to see the following:

11eyes anime adaption looks really great and I really can't wait. If there's something that the TV needs nowadays it's more eroge and visual novel adaptions. Make sure you buy your favorite games and their related merchandise to ensure we get more of them!

I don't think there was anything for Seitokai no Ichizon, which was disappointing, but there was an Angel Beats trailer. This has been really hyped a lot. If you read Dengeki, you'll know what I mean. The interesting thing about it so far is that it seems to be marketed much like an eroge would be. I'm not sure what AniPlex are planning with this.

Onto something else, the EXIT TUNES record label booth was fairly impressive, with a maxi-single 「幻舞」 from Ryu☆. I got this myself very recently and it's an interesting release from him and veers away from his usual JCORE stuff and is much closer to Trance. I am a hobby/bedroom DJ and I have separate musical projects for both JCORE and Trance and when I spun the tracks from this album, I think they were about 150BPM, which is...awkward for the rest of my music, but they were good nonetheless. I'll be interested in seeing if Ryu☆ takes his trance further.

Also at the EXIT TUNES booth was a dakimakura cover of the ウマウマ mascot (Who's name has escaped me, if she had one) among other goods.

Tempting, very tempting.

New brand 「Twinkle」 were also there, I love it when a new brand emerges and Twinkle look like they could be very promising indeed with their first title 「トロピカルKiss」 or 「Tropical Kiss」. Right now I'm pitching them up against Tsukasa Soft and Armonica (Tactics Latte I haven't included because they're an offshoot of the Tactics brand).

Anyway, Twinkle's first title looks really promising and I think Rikka is my favorite, which is lucky because there was a Mikka cosplayer at the booth. I don't want to go too far down the 3D route, but it goes to show that Twinkle are off to a great start and really doing well for themselves.

Leaf/Aquaplus also had a booth of course, but from what I can see, it seemed somewhat empty. Maybe there is a big new project underway.

Max Factory (Yes the figure manufacturer) first eroge project 「Se・きらら」 had a booth of course (That picture isn't of the booth by the way). Se・きらら is interesting in a number of ways, not just because it is funded by a figure company, but because it also provides a direct outlet for figures of the characters. The only problem is that they'll probably be figma's. I wanted to get the Yu figma that was shown at WonFes, but I think the joints are too obvious.

Se・きらら has recieved a growning amount of popularity among the english speaking anime community, mainly due to Danny Choo.

I'm not a big fan of K-ON! but I think a mention of Mio's rice bowl is necessary in any C76 post. Apparently, it's much smaller than expected.

※　Contrary to what was said previously, 「HeartsNative」 was not at C76. Thanks to 電波の世界 for pointing that out

Apparently they also played live at C76. However I heard some samples from the Heartsnative album and I didn't really like it. I think I am beginning to lose interest in Miku's voice now.

Moving on from Comiket and staying on the subject of Hatsune Miku; this past weekend saw the return of annual anime song event "Animelo Summer Live"

This year, Animelo Summer Live 2009 RE:BRIDGE boasted a lineup of artists such as JAM Project, COOL & CREATE, May'n, Yui Horie, GACKT, Minori Chihara, 3 girls from THE iDOLM@STER, Nana Mizuki, Yui Sakakibara, Aya Hirano, Savage Genius, FictionJunction and of course, the long awaited Hatsune Miku.

There was a lot of speculation about the form Miku would take. Many people assumed a hologram, but in the end it turned out to just be a huge Miku on a screen. She sang みっくみっくにしてやんよ, the video for Black Rock Shooter was shown, and then there was the teaser for the anime adaption of Black Rock Shooter. I was expecting much more from the performance personally, but I'm sure there was a tight schedule of how much could be played. Here's the video of Miku's performance. It was recorded from 二コ動画 and put onto youtube by a kind person:

I think that just about ties it up for the update. Keep your eye on the twitter feed of course, as while I don't update the blog daily, I do try to update the twitter daily. Simply follow me on twitter or keep watching the home page here.

Photos courtesy of Moeyo, Akiba Hobby, Galge.com, Ameblo and Famitsu.

[Small Preview] だっこしてぎゅっ！～オレの嫁は抱き枕～

2009-08-15T23:26:00.008+01:00

I don't like romaji so I'll call it 'Dakko' for short.

That's right. "My wife is a Dakimakura". I'm sure most of us are familiar with the feeling.

If you've been watching the banners on the left tentatively (If this is the case then I thank you for your dedication to Finding The Blue!) you may have noticed that a banner for Tactics * Latte's latest game 「だっこしてぎゅっ！～オレの嫁は抱き枕～」 has appeared. You may know that it's rare for me to preview games, but I make an exception for games that really take my interest. This is one of those games and here's a quick preview of it.

This is the first game for Tactics * Latte and marks a promising beginning for their games in the future. Tactics has always been a strange company for me; I was never bothered about their original Tactics games, but the Latte branch has suddenly brought my attention to their games. I'm a big fan of Dakimakura so this game naturally appeals to me in a similar way that Figu@Mate did for me.

Dakko is about a guy named Yuya. Yuya goes to school as a normal guy, but he absolutely loves Dakimakura, he is a 抱き枕er (A collector of dakimakura) and is surrounded in them when he goes home. His life is like heaven.

One day, in the school corridor he hears the voice of a girl. She is the boss of the Pillow Research Club and she asks him for a favour. Her name is Tobari and she's holding a dakimakura of a beautiful girl. Yuya is of course excited by the sheer sight of a dakimakura and asks if he can have it, Tobari accepts...but only on the condition that Yuya will accept her offer.

The Dakimakura Tobari is holding is not any normal dakimakura, it is a special dakimakura that when you sleep with it, you will meet the girl on it in your dreams. The girl on the dakimakura is called Akari, and Tobari's condition is that Yuya must sleep with the Dakimakura, visit Akari in the dream world, fall in love with her and help raise her mind via the dream world.

Of course Yuya doesn't believe a word of it, but takes the dakimakura anyway with the intention of sleeping with it. That night, Yuya sleeps with the dakimakura...and discovers that the dream world really exists..

Okay, so it sounds tacky, corny and predictable, but I can't resist its charm.

The demo movie is amazingly cute and I love the OP, which by the way if you want to sing a long to at home, tactics latte have been kind enough to provide us with lyrics:

「ねぇ……だっこして」

（いぇ～い!!）
（せーの、１・２・だっこしてぎゅっ！）

お日様いっぱい浴びて Monday (Monday!!)
折り目きっちり整え Tuesday (Tuesday!!)
朝から晩までドキドキ (゜∀゜)ノｷｭﾝｷｭﾝ!!
ハート七色 Everyday (゜∀゜)ノﾊｲﾊｲ!!

今日はどの娘にしよっかなんて (なんて！)
にっこりまったり笑顔で悩んじゃって (じゃって！)
Silkの心の痛みは
今夜も気付かないふりねえ……？ (ね～え？)

あなたの寝顔見つめるたび
泣いちゃいそうになるけど
夢見るだけじゃしょうがないね (そうだよねぇ……)

恋する乙女は総High Tension (Tention!!)
恐れちゃいけない Reflection (Reflection!!)
そう Motion Action Communication (Motion Action Communication!!)
絶対絶命 Nonfiction (Nonfiction!!)

全身全霊全力全開叶えちゃうんだから

そう……負けない！ (う～～～～Let's go!!)

そっと GoodなKissで目覚めさせて (≧∀≦)ノﾌｯﾌｰ!!
BedでSlitに触れさせて

ねえ我愛 need you, still (Love×4 only one!!)

もっと KitschなTrickで絡ませて (≧∀≦)ノﾌｯﾌｰ!!
RudeなClickでとろけさせて

もうあふれちゃう

しわくちゃになっても
あなたを愛してる

だからお・ね・が・い☆

朝までずっと　だっこしてぎゅっ！ (だっこしてぎゅっ！)
いつでももっと　だっこしてぎゅっ！ (だっこしてぎゅっ！)
おやすみ前に　だっこしてぎゅっ！ (だっこしてぎゅっ！)
生まれたまんま　だっこしてぎゅっ！ (だっこしてぎゅっ！)

朝までずっと　だっこして (だっこして)
いつでももっと　だっこして (だっこして)
千年先も　だっこして (だっこして)
空前絶後　だっこして (だっこして)
朝まで　いつでも　千年　万年 (だっこだっこ　だっこだっこ)
昨日も　明日も　永遠　絶対 (だっこだっこ　だっこだっこ)

水金地火木土天海冥 (だっこだっこだっこ……)
天網恢恢疎にして漏らさず　
水兵リーベ俺の嫁

そうあなたを……

あ・い・し・て・る (あ・い・し・て・る)

だっこしてぎゅっ！ (だっこしてぎゅっ！)

Some of the characters caught my eye too. I love Tobari and I hope she has a route, and I also love Makurako too. They're the first two in the following pictures & CGs (Tobari first).

Dakko is set for release for the 18th of September and of course I will be featuring it in the September calendar. Let's hope it's as good as it looks.
EDIT: Here's something cool, if you have flash enabled you can check out this embedded device:

Finding the Blue - Information

2009-08-13T03:31:00.011+01:00

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Last Revised - 2009/11/29

Finding the Blue was a blog originally intended to provide news about the latest happenings in the eroge world.

Since then, it has deviated into a place where I post reviews, news and generally talk about the things I am interested in. These can cover, (but are not limited to):

Eroge
Manga
Anime
Games
Music
Technology/Software

Despite not having much to do with eroge anymore, I still keep the banners and background as a homage to the 100% eroge blogging days of Finding the Blue.

When I'm not doing something related to the above I'm also a DJ and a programmer. One day I will post some sets on here!

The best way to understand the blog is to read it! Comments are always welcome, along with feedback (Good or bad). If there is something you want to talk to me about but do not wish to do so on the blog, you can email me at gekamelon[AT]gmail.com or you can contact my twitter page @findingtheblue

[FIGURE] ToHeart -Remember my Memories- Trading figures by CMs Corp

2009-08-07T19:03:00.010+01:00

CMs corp are releasing trading figures of 7 of the original ToHeart girls with the 7th figure as a secret figure. It will be packaged under the title "ToHeart Collection ‘09 Box" ( ToHeart コレクション ’09　ＢＯＸ) .

The characters in the package are:

Akari

Shiho

Remii

Kotone

Aoi

Multi

I think we all know the ToHeart girls so I don't need to go in detail on their names.

I love ToHeart (much more than ToHeart 2), it is one of my favorite visual novels of all time and one of my favorite anime's too. I had the orginal ToHeart for the PlayStation and still have it now, but at the time I didn't understand it, so while it was my first visual novel, I just liked the fact it was different from my other games which were mainly action.

I brought my (chipped) PS1 from a friend of my dad's along with a box of 50+ (genuine) games, and to this day I wonder how ToHeart got in there. Even now I can't play the original ToHeart because I don't have the PS1 or a region free PS2, but it's in a cupboard somewhere for safekeeping.

Anyway, it goes without saying that the figures are not of the best quality, but they are just trading figures. The outline on the image looks like Akari in a different pose, so I think that they just used a stock image for the 'hidden character' and it will probably be Serio or maybe Hoshina. I'm suprised they chose Kotone over Serika. I know Serika wasn't in Remember my Memories much, but I think she is more of a well recognised character than Kotone who only got a small arc in the anime.

Either way I'm glad to see more of the original ToHeart series getting figures. I probably have more ToHeart figures than from any other series, and I don't like the way that ToHeart 2 gets more merchandise than the original. If I carried on buying Tamaki figures they would be more than my entire ToHeart figure collection.

I'm also glad to see Multi in casual wear. I have her in uniformed and plugsuit editions, so casual wear will be nice too. And the more Akari figures the better. Maybe we can see some updated PVCs of the original ToHeart soon too.

Updates Updates Updates

2009-08-05T03:17:00.003+01:00

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I felt inclined to make another post because I have a few things to mention regarding the site and content. Nothing life changing but still I felt I should mention them anyway.

I've been really busy lately with a few projects of my own but I'm still plugging away at Angel Magister and Stellar Theater, I'll finish them soon and review them here. So don't get the impression they're forgotten about.

I'm thinking of adding a twitter feed to the right of the page for small updates in the eroge world that don't warrant a full blog post to be made. It might be successful, it might not be, but I'll try it out and see how it goes.

Remember the comiket post I made? Well amazon.jp has just stocked up on Lynette Bishop dakimakura covers. Looks like she won't be comiket exclusive!

Do you also remember Lanovee - the visual novel creation software? Well mycom.co.jp has posted their review of it. It's an interesting read but I don't think I will bother with the actual product personally. However I'll give a demo a shot if I can get one.

A preview video for 僕らのカタチ、世界のカタチ has been released. I added it to the August Calendar Post.

New Bishoujo Game company TSUKASA has opened it's website to the public. I tentatively await their first game 『EternalSky-悠久の空の彼方-』 slated for release on the 27th of November (pictured).

August - Eroge Release Calendar: Preview of this month's Bishoujo Games

2009-08-01T20:37:00.034+01:00

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Okay, so this isn't much of a calendar seeing as most of the release dates seem to fall on the same day (28th is going to be a VERY hectic day in shops like ゲーマース and on the internet too for leaked games. Anyway, mark the day in your diary and look at some of the games on offer this year. I've thrown in a few 'different-from-the-norm' games in too, just incase you want to broaden your horizons a little.

Also, for good measure I've put the list in chronological order. Not that it matters much in this case.

&LOVE
Producer: Comet
Release Date: 28th August 2009

Synopsis: Protagonist Ryo lives an average school life with his average school friends, until one day he recieves a large box-shaped package from his father. Inside this box is an android girl named Miru (Mil), deciding to live with her, Ryo must teach her essential skills such as wearing underwear and so on. And from here a comedy life unfolds with Mil...

This seems to remind me a lot of Chobits with the whole 'Innocent but Naive Android' however be warned that when looking for preview CGs it was tough to get something that wasn't outwardly explicit. So if you're expecting a romantic tale like Chobits then forget it. Although it may suprise us. I'm kind of interested in this, I may buy it if I decide to.

マゾ×ラブ
(Mazo Love)
Producer: 10mile
Release Date: 28th August 2009

[Awaiting Release of Preview Movie]

Synopsis: Soji is a doujinshi artist who makes his living selling his works, however he is constantly searching for an average love of his own. One day, his love interest Yuzo is surrounded by a group of common thugs, in a brave attempt to save her he winds up in hospital. When he is released, he sadly walks out, wishing he could have saved the girl he loves. However, 3 women surround him outside the hospital. Yuzo thanks Soji for saving him, the second woman; a police officer congratulates him on defeating the thugs and a third woman; a nurse asks if he has a girlfriend.
What is this amazing situation happening to Soji? However nobody notices that a new evil side of Soji is about to be revealed.

I think this could have been interesting upon first glance, but upon closer inspection it just seems like it will probably veer into 'Hentai Game' territory, which I do not really like. I doubt I will bother with this one.

ネガゼロ
(Nega Zero/Negative Zero)
Producer: Eternal
DELAYED - 25th September

Synopsis: According to a girl from the future inside a computer, the world is constructed of a metaphysical composure: 'Recognition'. Each individual's 'Recognition' is linked together to a congregation of 'Recognition' and decides the individual situations of the world. To forcibly apply a 'recognition' to the world and therefore change situations by force is what we know as 'Magic'. Only those who can believe in magic can use magic, and as that number of girls increases, eventually the world will begin to contradict itself and eventually freeze. "That's why I don't want you to believe in dreams. Please be a debugger and save the world!"she says...

This isn't so much an eroge as a complex battle game. The system itself is explained on the website in video form, but I think it's slightly out of the scope of this post to go indepth.

Upon first glance of the story of this I was expecting a complex Sci-Fi scenario, but it seems like a typical harem tale too. The idea is nice, but I am somewhat confused as to where a plot like this could lead. The characters are cute, but I am not particularly interested in any of them.

あい☆きゃん (I can)
Producer: LiLiM
Release Date: 28th August 2009

Synopsis: Ryota is the average student. One day walking home he accidently bumps into a girl named Miyu and accidently kisses her in the process. Right then and there she turns into an idol. Then a mysterious creature named Kupu appears, she claims to be a limb of the devil and came to this world to turn Miyu into an idol. However, she didn't cast any magic, and it was infact Ryota's kiss that transformed Miyu. It turns out that Kupu's magic can be amplified by Ryota...

This is one of the games I am most interested in this month, I know, it must be something about idols... But either way this seems that this is another cute, yet highly sexual game. I think that the innocent storylines of summer have gone out of the window and we're entering a very エロ August. I will think about this, but I'm not completely taken by it.

さくらテイル (Sakura Tale)
Producer: Fizz
Release Date: 28th August 2009

Synopsis: Masumune has started his first day at school, and he is saved from being caught up in a recruiting battle between sports clubs by an attractive girl, despite being initially attracted to her, he also finds himself attracted by another girl who is entirely different. Dark and Light, Yin and Yan. He also meets an old friend at his dormitory, but she has changed completely too. New School, New Friends. A gentle school life starts at a school overlooked by a big cherry tree...

Personally, I not interested in the slightest in this. It looks like it is a high quality game, but I only like certain gentle school tales, and I don't think this is one of them. Of course pick it up if you are interested. But personally I will avoid it, it reminds me of something from Purple.

タイムリープぱらだいす
(Time Leap Paradise)
Producer: Frontwing
Release Date: 28th August 2009

Synopsis: Next year is the 100th Anniversary of Hamagase Shrine, and people are hoping for it to be rebuilt, however it is too expensive. Once the protagonist and his friends hear of this, they decide to hold a festival to raise money. The main event being a concert and dance show...
This is not a standard eroge, in fact it is more of a dance/synchronisation game with eroge elements with 3D cell-shaded characters.

This seems more like a cross between an eroge and DancexMixer than a visual novel, but nonetheless I am not really interested in 3D girls. Cell-shaded or not. But take a look at the CG images above! 1st pic has the girl wearing something looking like it has a pokeball (From Pokemon) embedded in it. The second image has a uniform that reminds me a lot of Fortune Arterial, and the final image is unmistakably an imitation of Little Busters!

僕らのカタチ、世界のカタチ
(Our shape, The World's Shape)
Producer: Nord
Release Date: 28th August 2009

Synopsis: On the final day of summer training camp at school, Kazuya stays up all night with Noa asleep with her head in his lap. When he looks to the sky, he notices two moons. From that moment his world and the other one is changed. What shape do they want the worlds to take?

The synopsis of this seems mysterious, but aside from that I can't spark any kind of interest in it. None of the characters really do anything for me. Still, it seems like it is of good quality.

真剣で私に恋しなさい！！

(I'm seriously in Love!!) (?)
Producer: Minato Soft
Release date: 28th August 2009

Synopsis: Yamato has a few good friends he has known since childhood; 3 girls and 4 boys. One day, 2 more friends join him, and their school life gets more lively. Because of her Lineage, one of the girls is good at martial arts. And a new love story unfolds in 2009...

I'm not REALLY excited about this, but it is interesting I think, and I like the artwork, I will try and pick this up if I can. I think the demo movie is supposed to be like...that..on purpose. But I won't pass judgement based on it and instead hope for the best. Maybe if they are so keen on animation they will do an anime adaption.

メモリア (Memoria)
Producer: Purple Software
Release Date: 28th August 2009

Synopsis: Asteria and Esteria are two different eworlds until one day they are connected, after the initial shock and confusion, people accept the fact and life proceeds forward. Months later, protagonist Kouichi meets a girl in town. From there, their story begins together.

I am not impressed with Purple Software at the best of times, so I am definitley not pleased when I have to paste the same pictures again and waste time because it the game was delayed. Simply I am not interested in this.

みみをすませば (Whisper of the Heart)
Producer: Syakunage
Release Date: 28th August 2009

Synopsis: Tetsu has moved to a remote island where his grandmother lives. Mobile phones are prohibited there and almost all of residents are engaged in agriculture or fishing. Upon his first day in class, he is shocked to find all the students have animal like ears. 'Ear time' is every few days, where all residents have animal-like ears on their head and can hear the thoughts of others. What will Tetsu make of this situation?

It just goes to show that their are still summer games around. I like the art and character design on this, but the concept is a little hard for me to get interested in. I may well pick this up if I feel inclined to.

そらいろ
(Sky Blue)
Producer: NekoNeko Soft
DELAYED - 18th September

Synopsis: After a long rainy season, a brilliant blue summer sky emerges. In a world where every student actually knows one another, who will be standing by your side?

No official images as of yet. Sorry!

Another summer game, this time from a relatively unknown brand. It doesn't look that impressive to be honest, but as a first try, it doesn't seem entirely terrible. After coming back after a 3 year hiatus (Thanks to tatose for this information) NekoNeko Soft may be a company to watch in the future.

Delays

Purple once again drop the ball with Signal Heart being delayed until September 25th.

Natsuiro Penguin has been DELAYED to September 18th. I'm really sad about this because I am dying to play it.

Others & Sequels

Cross Days had been delayed from June and will be released on August 31st I haven't played Summer Days yet, so I'm in no rush.

If you're looking for something with a little more action, you may like Unicorn-A's Isometric Strategy Game: 出撃！！乙女たちの戦場～闇を切り裂く、にび色の徹甲弾～

This concludes the August calendar. Of course there are more games, these simply make up the majority of lighter games and I have ignored the 'darker' games that are mainly エロ content from start to finish. Overall I think I feel I'm pushing myself a little to try anything here as nothing seems to grab interest, but I have a few games backlogged anyway that I need to complete and review. I'll let you know if I decide to pick any of these up at all.

Galge.com Comiket Booth Map and Merchandise Listings

2009-08-01T01:01:00.008+01:00

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As Comiket 76 (Summer) is just two weeks away, Galge.com has released it's Comiket 76 booth map along with merchandise listings. Below is a picture of said map along with which booth their numbers correspond to. I manually pasted　スキャナたん's message into the image because I like to show her off at any opportunity I get :P . Another image for my collection! For all booths marked （See Below）that means below is a preview of merchandise available from said booth. I may or may not have this finished in one post (It's getting late) but it will be updated tomorrow morning.

★★★★★★★★★

111　株式会社ブシロード
112　サンデーVSマガジンカードゲーム
121　ニトロプラス/ニトロプラスキラル
131　NET SLOT LIVE!!
132　アクシア
133　響-HiBiKi　Radio　Station-
134　ぽにきゃん
135　Lantis/Mellow Head/GloryHeaven
141　ブロッコリー/ゲーマーズ　（See Below）
151　NANOHA The MOVIE 1st PROJECT

★★★★★★★★★　

★★★★★★★★★

211　TYPE-MOON
212　GOOD SMILE COMPANY
213　Gift
221　honeybee, BlackButterfly, fluorite.
222　アニメ「うみねこのなく頃に」&フロンティアワークス
223　まんがタイムきらら
224　WAVE MASTER
225　IM
226　花宵ロマネスク
231　電撃家
232　RONDO ROBE
233　エンターブレイン
234　GA文庫・ゲーマガ
251　TBSアニメーション
252　GONZOスタイル
253　メディアファクトリー
254　YTE

★★★★★★★★★

★★★★★★★★★

311　シャイニング・ワールド
312　日本一ソフトウェア　～ローゼンクイーン商会・コミケ出張所～
313　アークシステムワークス
314　ラブ×MIX
315　松竹株式会社　「うみものがたり～あなたがいてくれたコト～」
316　AQインタラクティブ
317　トライファースト/アイディアファクトリー
321　私立クレアール学園
322　Prime Time
323　ケンメディア
324　癒されBar若本
325　ホビレコード
326　UN TROIS CINQ
327　ミラクル☆トレイン
328　AIR AGENCY
331　一迅社
332　毎日新聞　まんたん
333　コミックブレイド
334　コミックハイ！
335　月刊サンデーGX
341　アニプレックス
342　インターネットラジオステーション＜音泉＞
343　月刊コミック　ラッシュ
344　少年画報社
351　プロジェクトEGG×KOTOBUKIYA
352　(株)タカラトミーアーツ
353　スターチャイルドレコード
354　ツーファイブ

★★★★★★★★★

★★★★★★★★★

411　スーパースィープ/ZIZZ STUDIO
412　アキバアーティストショップ
413　ティームエンタテインメント
421　ホビージャパン
422　K-BOOKS
431　ROOT/SPICA/CORE
432　VividColor
441　まちキャラ
442　キャラハイ（See Below）
443　Berry's & キャラクターズビレッジ
444　株式会社コスパ
445　PoRO/鈴木みら乃/shelf/2匹目のどぜう
446　ディーエルサイト
447　Leaf/アクアプラス
451　コミックとらのあな
461　萌人－MOENCHU－
471　すたじお緑茶
472　Russell

★★★★★★★★★

★★★★★★★★★

511　アージュ／ファイアージュ
512　Ｗｈｉｒｌｐｏｏｌ/しゃくなげ
513　PeasSoft
521　OVERDRIVE
522　でぼの巣製作所
523　potage
524　TAIL WIND・TAIL SKID
525　Siren‐アキバコレクション
526　だんでらいおんとりぷる
527　ま～まれぇど
528　チュアブルソフト・HOOKSOFT・シルバーシーツスタジオ
531　AXL
532　リトルウィッチ
533　ホワイトキャンバス
534　0verflow
535　クロシェット＆ PRODUCTION PENCIL
541　CUFFS
542　Ricotta
543　エフアンドシー
544　GEE!STORE
545　Lass
551　ハイクオソフト
552　Twinkle
553　Regista／WILL GROUP
554　蒼空のフロンティア
561　Purple software
562　ぱれっと
563　あかべぇそふとつぅと愉快な仲間たち
564　アルケミスト
571　オーガスト/ARIA
572　ねこねこソフト/コットンソフト
573　ういんどみる

★★★★★★★★★

★★★★★★★★★

611　ケロＱ・枕
612　MOON STONE
613　ABHAR
621　ALcot
622　エスクード
623　FLAT
624　Innocent Grey
625　シューティングスター/DreamParty事務局
626　se・きらら
627　ホビボックス（See Below）
631　フロントウイング
632　しとろんソフト/めろめろキュート/C:drive.
633　views/ARIELWAVE
634　WAVE STAR＆LOVERSOUL
635　LOiD
636　EXIT TUNES（エグジットチューンズ）
637　アニたまSHOP/ラジオ関西
641　エグゾースト
642　MOVE
643　IllustStudio＋ComicStudio
644　メロンブックス/リブレット
651　らしんばん
652　カミカゼスタイル
653　カフェ　メイリッシュ
654　pixiv/シャッツキステ

★★★★★★★★★

★★★★★★★★★

911　GENCO
912　ママチャップトイ
921　ハローキティといっしょ！
922　d;VIRTU
923　アニメ・ゲーム着うたフル　にじちぅ？
924　Ｔｏｍｏｃａ
925　『蒼藤学園』購買部
931　コミックトラベル案内所
932　S&Graf
933　アールエスケイ
934　株式会社一水社

★★★★★★★★★

Merchandise

Because obviously even the small amount of booths listed here will contain copious amounts of merchandise, I'm going to give a small preview of noteworthy items on sale and their price. All of these plus the information above is of course subject to change.

141　ブロッコリー/ゲーマーズ (Broccoli/Gamers)

There are a lot of August's Moonlight Cradle goods here including the 'Moonlight Cradle Set' which includes a Tote bag, T-shirt, Fan and a Face towel. (6,000円)

Among classier goods such as Zippo lighters, silver and gold pocket watches (ranged between 5,000-8,000円) there's also quite a nice looking sports towel (2,500円)

Fans of Da Capo II such as myself will be happy as there are a number of related goods there including limited gold edition Zippo Lighter (8,000円) Mega Bath towel (12,000円) Innocent Finale drama CD (3,000円) and of course the Da Capo II Set (10,000円)

The Da Capo set includes standard edition Zippo, Tote Bag, Telephone card (Top right) and sports towel. For me I would only make use of the sports towel and maybe pin it on my wall, so for 10,000円 it's not worth it for me.

Although I'm uncertain of the price, the mega sports towel will of course be very big. It is nice, but I don't think it's 12,000円 nice.

There is a small selection of Clannad ~After Story~ goods on sale too, I think this is the first comiket after the anime had finished. The items are a Nagisa pocket watch (6,000円), a Nagisa limited gold zippo (8,000円) and the Clannad AS set. 10,000円 the set includes: Nagisa tote bag, Nagisa telephone card, Nagisa and Tomoyo sports towel, Nagisa standard Zippo. I'm not as much of a Clannad fan as one person I know, so this is meaningless to me. We need more Kotomi goods.

Up next is more Key stuff with some Little Busters Ecstasy goods. Once again this follows the same pattern above of Zippo (Saya edition), Zippo (Kanata edition) and the Little Busters set. All for 6,000円

The set includes 2 telephone cards, 1 tote bag, 2 dog tags (One big and one small) and a face towel. For 6,000円 it's not bad in comparison to some of the other stuff.

Hayate no Gotoku!! (Second Series) has a few goods too; a pocket watch (6,000円) the set (6,000円) and a dakimakura cover (9,000円).

The dakimakura cover of course features Hinagiku, I don't think I need to tell you about her popularity, but I am certain these will sell like hotcakes. It's also not bad for 9,000円

The Hayate no Gotoku Set is 6,000円 and includes Tote bag, T-Shirt, Face towel and Fan. I think you could do much worse for 6,000円 and I like the face towel.　

Next up is Aquarion Age goods, featuring wallscroll and drama CD both for 3,000円 Here's a picture of the wallscroll:

Suprisingly there will be some Digi Charat goods, including the set for 6,000円 and bath towel for 5,000円

The set contains 2 telephone cards, 2 dogtags (1 big and one small), one tote bag and one face towel. I think this is really good actually and I'd really like to get this myself. Maybe some will be on Yahoo Auctions later on.

Next on the list is Tayutama goods. Your choice is between a bath towel (5,000円) or the set for a staggering 10,000円 I say staggering because what's in there really isn't that great and the price is considerably bumped up by the Zippo.

Set contains Tote bag, standard zippo, sports towel and telephone card. Not worth it in my opinion.

Now for the misc. stuff. My favorite part. I'll just go over some of the notable stuff here.

K-ON! set: 10,000円 I'm not really much of a fan of K-ON! so this doesn't interest me that much. It was an OK series, but overrated I feel. Anyway, for 10,000円 you will get yourself; T-shirt, 5 dogtags (4 big and 1 small), Tote bag, Fan and Mini cushion. It's not too bad for 10,000円 I suppose, but I'm sure these will sell heavily.

Shuffle Essence+ Set will be 6,000円 and is fairly standard really. Contains 2 desk mats, 1 Tote bag, 1 face towel and 1 telephone card.

Seitokai no Ichizon set will be 8,000円 but carries some interesting items. Seitokai no Ichizon is airing this fall so these goods seem slightly early. Either way, it includes; 1 card box, 1 binder, 1 clear bag, 1 Sleeve, 1 platinum pack plus (TCG set). It's good value for 8,000円 (due to the TCG) and if you have high expectations for the show or liked the light novel then go for it.

Finally for 5,000円 you can get a Twinkle☆Crusaders bath towel of Ria. Great if you're a fan of hers, but I would have preferred Misa.

442　キャラハイ (Chara-high)

Despite having less (listed) goods than the broccoli/gamers booth, Chara High instantly grabs my attention with:

Lynette Bishop (Strike Witches) Dakimakura Cover for 10,000円！ I was very surpised about this as Lynette is my favorite of the 501st. Will absolutely be looking out for this after comiket!

This next one really suprised me, a limited edition two-way tricot Tears to Tiara dakimakura (Morgan) for 10,000円 I'm not interested, but it really wasn't expected at all.

There are also a number of Ikkitousen おっぱい mousepads, plus other goods.

627　ホビボックス

Okay so HobbyBox has some interesting goods on their lineup: Cross Days Dakimakura for 10,000円

There's also an &LOVE stand from the upcoming game this august. Autographed by none other than POP it will set you back 18,000円. I don't have time to censor it right now, so you'll have to make do without the picture, but I'll link you to the page in a second.

Remember that all these goods are subject to change, and that if you are going to Comiket, make sure you buy a tote bag of your favorite character (if possible). The paper bags given are good for holding doujinshi and posters, but other goods may cause them to split. Fabric tote bags are very strong and will hold as much as you can fit in them (within reason of course).

Oh and for those attending Comiket, make sure you pack water, sunblock and stay safe in the summer heat. Oh, and bring me back a Lynette dakimakura!

*All images belong to their respective owners (Mainly galge.com)*

You can view the rest of the merchandise listings here

Oh and also, it was revealed a few days ago that Fate/Stay night is to have a 'Theatrical Adaption' you can view the teaser here. Very exciting!

[RELEASE] Natsuyume Nagisa, Mechamimi and 77 Released

2009-07-31T01:07:00.010+01:00

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Okay I didn't do this for the others, but I feel I should do this from now on. As of today (31st of July), we see the release of 3 new games..

Natsuyume Nagisa is what should be your general 'Wakes up with no memories and surrounded in girls' type scenario, but comes across as so much more.

MechaMimi is a "Boy has normal life" "Boy is saved by girl" "Boy ends up stuck with girl" "Other chaos ensues" adventure. The underlying concept isn't so original, but on the surface it is very cute and bright. A nice summer title. I was going to pre-order this along with Angel Magister but because of the low demand I figured it would drop in price very quickly. I'll get this before the other two though.

Finally, 77 (Sevens) -And two stars meet again- is a magical adventure set in a world where magic is perfectly normal and there exists an elite training school in the magical arts and the students are divided by power, intelligence and fate. Annually a festival is held where the girls from each division fight over a selected man with a certain ring (Of course the protagonist).

I have a friend who is very excited about this title, but personally I am not particularly interested. Maybe if I am lucky he will lend me the game when he is done, which I highly doubt. But until then I will maybe consider it after some time.

Also on the release schedule for today is:

あの蒼い海より (Ano Aoi Umiyori) by Lilac Soft

Ashita wa Kitto Haremasu You ni by HUG

フォルト！！ (Fault!!) by Ciel

H2O √after and another Complete Story Edition by Makura Soft

Tiara by Symphony

夢みる恋の結びかた (Yumemiru Koi no Musubikata) by Atu Works

If you liked Soramizu by Ciel then the obvious recommended choice is Fault!! but for me I am not a fan. I liked H2O and if you are too then the extended version is tempting, as for the rest, it is up to you to choose.

In other news...

-Galge.com has shortened the competition for Galge.com award 2009. I'm voting Da Capo II because I love it and I hope that it stands a chance against Fate/Stay Night, which I didn't like much as a game (the anime adaption I liked, however).

-WonFes Summer is over now and of course many photos have surfaced on the internet. There were a number of eroge/Visual Novel figures, but the one that really caught my eye was of Inaba Yui from Unisonshift Blossom's Flyable Heart.

Of course, credit to moeyo.com for the photo.

On top of that, she was at the GSC stand. Even more of a reason to love them!

I'll do the August eroge lineup calendar on Saturday. Until then, have a good weekend!

Fall Anime Lineup Chart Released - Plus other misc. stuff.

2009-07-29T02:57:00.008+01:00

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Okay I didn't really want to make this another update with no content, so as luck would have it, I found some form of news to report on that was interesting enough.

Chartfag has released another of their charts mapping the seasonal anime lineup. I'm sure most are familiar with the chart as they circulate the internet a reasonable amount. Usually I keep up with news of upcoming series with moonphase but I like how the Chartfag charts condense the information nicely with images. Usually there is v1, 2 and 3 and this is v1.

From a visual novel adaption point of view, it is interesting. We finally get to see 11eyes anime series, the continuation of Leaf's White Album and new Koihime Musou (I thought it was planned to be an OVA, maybe I was wrong). I already saw Nyan Koi, Saitokai no ichizon and Letterbee on moonphase so I'll be watching those. Plus, A Certain Scientific Railgun looks interesting, so I'll watch that too.

I'm sad to see no second season of Strike Witches just yet, but we are still in an early phase so maybe there is hope.

- In other news, Okayama Figure Engineering has announced a 1/5 scale pre-painted Garage Kit of Konoe Nanami (Ramune). I'll post a neatly censored picture a bit later on, but for now bear with me. The figure is a staggering 20,600円 and so I don't think I will get it. Ramune is a good game and had a nice anime adaption too. Both are somewhat old now, but classic. I may try finding a banner for the game and post it on the right of the blog.
Added:
Image originally from Shop Voltage. Censored by myself to stay within the FTB style. (As you can tell by the rough edges, the Chief of Art was not responsible for this :P )

-Due to expected extended time offline in the near future, most of my spare time has been spent getting many visual novels and eroge to try while offline. That and wasting time on an old MMO I haven't played in a long time. My Angel Magister review will be here soon in time.

-So far current anime is bleak I think. 2009 has not been very impressive, with 2009 Haruhi being not as good as expected and many series being...not that great. Currently I'm following Saki, Haruhi Season 2, Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou, Tears to Tiara, Umineko no Naku Koro ni and CANAAN. But I feel let down by Haruhi, Gendai Mahou and CANAAN.

-I'm gonna review the anime adaption of UNiSONSHIFT Blossom's Nanatsuiro Drops soon. Just to let you know, as I haven't done a dedicated anime post so far.

Oh and finally, the august Visual Novel preview will be here in...well, August.

[Review] - DancexMixer Trial

2009-07-26T02:20:00.014+01:00

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As I'm sure you're aware, a while back I did a preview of DancexMixer, the original character creation software, which was suprisingly popular and got a lot of traffic (I think I was one of the first places to cover it in some detail in english). Anyway, today I took a break from Angel Magister and got to grips with the trial version.

Originally, because of the price I thought I would either wait for it to get cheaper, or not bother at all, but because I stumbled across the trial I decided I'd finally give it a go.

Note about installation: If you downloaded the trial (which most people probably will have), it is very complicated. Not because of the Japanese, but because of things like the NoActiLauncher and so on. The best approach I found was this:

-Download game as usuall
-Go to Dancexmixer folder > dancexmixer > DirectX
-Search through the folders and install DirectX via DXSETUP (I thought I already had it installed, but apparently not)
-Install dancexmixer via Dancexmixer.msi
-When it is installed, select 'Setup' you should get a blue menu come up. Select trial: "トライアル"
-From there play the game as normal

These are NOT 100% going to work. Sometimes I got errors and I had to re-install, reboot or repair the installation (it's on the uninstall menu). And eventually it worked. Keep trying and you should get somewhere. Trial and error.

That isn't a problem with DancexMixer though, it's just what you get when you use downloads instead of the official disk. It can't be helped I suppose.

Anyway, the program itself is not bad. The trial version had limited options in terms of clothing, hair and other appearance options, and there was nothing to indicate that the rest was available only in the full version, however given the small amount I'd say there should be more in the full version. If not, then someone has a lot to answer for..

Once everything is installed, the interface is very easy to use. If you're worried about needing to know Japanese to navigate around, then don't worry. All you need is a little common sense and the rest speaks for itself. More advanced settings regarding making the video however, will take some knowledge. But they're not crucial stuff for making a music video.

Character creation is very fun, and it's almost impossible to create something that isn't at all 萌え. For the trial version, the hairstyles were very limited, pictured above is the closest I could get to normal twintails. But there is also a super long, Miku-esque option there too.

Breast customisation: raging melons of fury, or cute pettanko. I went with the latter.

Customisation is a slightly strange, but really not that difficult process. Physical attributes such as hair colour, hair style, eyes, chest and so on are saved in one file (.chf) and clothing options are stored in a (.drf) file. Once you've selected your physical attributes, save it as a .chf file, go to the dress editor and load it up there to see the character you just made.

The clothing is really the fun part. Although limited, the options will fulfill most desires, ranging from Bloomers, Maid, School Swimsuit, Chinese Dress, Nurse, Bunny Suit, plus of course many separate items for mixing and matching.

In the end, I think I overdid it with the accessories. But hey, at least I didn't go for the eyepatch. Grade school nekomimi maid, meganekko, ahoge pirates just don't sit well with me.

As for the actual dance creator, well. The interface is very easy to use once again, and there are some great options, but it really lagged me out in terms of processing power (Hence no screenshots). This software demands a high-spec computer, if you have to question 'Is my PC good enough to run it?' then the answer is either 'Only Just' or 'No'.

Basically there is a timeline bar at the bottom of the screen, a preview box on the top left, and selection of dance moves etc. on the right. It reminds me of Windows Movie Maker actually. For each tab you select on the 'dance moves etc.' part, there is a different timeline; one for stage effects (spotlights, lasers, bubbles, pyros and so on), one for dance moves, and one for lip-syching, and one for camera angles.

If you want to make a video, it will take a serious amount of work. I foolishly thought I could just put random stuff in and then show it off here, but after a few watches....well it was just terrible really. Time and effort needs to go in for a good video. Also, make sure you have some .wav music files handy, because it won't accept mp3s. You can save a silent video and sync it up with music on WMM later on, but that would make things very hard for yourself, and would be like guesswork. Oh and videos can only be up to 5 minutes on the trial.

Overall, it's fun to play around with and if it was cheaper, I would get it. But with the pricetag being so high, and not being sure if any new customisation options are added in the full ver. (I sure hope so) it puts me off. Now I'll leave you with a video someone else made, because mine was really that bad. Thanks for reading.

「ANGEL MAGISTER」　It's here!!!

2009-07-24T22:47:00.006+01:00

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ｷﾀ━━━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━━━!!

As you all know, 24th of July can only mean one thing: the release of the long awaited ANGEL MAGISTER game. Oh and some other stuff too.

Suprisingly, it arrived today. I was expecting it to be sometime next week, but given that it got leaked onto the internet a few days ago, it makes sense...which brings me onto my next point...

I couldn't play the game. That's right, despite paying out good money for a slice of mana goodness, my OS was simply not Japanese enough to play the game. This isn't regional settings either, it does a deeper system check to tell if you're on a Japanese OS or not.

Thankfully however I was not as worried as I would have been, because I figured if I couldn't play it, that means that the downloaders can't either, so they would come up with a crack for it (or at least I really hoped). Thankfully I was right, and I had to use a crack on a game I brought with my own money to play...crazy.

However I am glad it worked, but I will take notice that I won't be buying mana/visualarts games anytime soon without checking beforehand, not until I upgrade to a Japanese OS (May wait for Windows 7 to be established, and then buy a laptop online from dospara.jp) anyway.

Make sure you watch out for this before you purchase a game. I was lucky enough with the crack, but maybe you will choose a rare title where it is not supported. Check with the downloaders or the store you are buying from first to determine if there are any restrictions in place.

Anyway, onto Angel Magister...I don't want to give too much away because I have a review coming soon, but so far I am very impressed.

Remember, Kurenainotsuki and 終わりなき夏永遠なる音律 (endless summer) are also out today. There may well be an 'endless summer' review soon after Angel Magister and Stellar Theater. And don't forget, it's Mechamimi, NatsuymexNagisa, 77 release time in a week (77 is next thursday, not friday). I'm really gonna see what I can do to get all of these three, particularly Mecha Mimi.

In the meantime, while you wait for my review, here's Nagi dressed as a nurse!

It's Angel Magister Release Week..

2009-07-19T23:39:00.006+01:00

..And I'm really excited! I'm still playing Stellar Theater, but I really can't wait.

Also got the second EXIT TRANCE ドラマ　CD, I won't review it because it's not my field, but I particularly love 'forever' (from an old drama called 'Beach Boys' with 反町隆史 in it (actor and songwriter).

Just thought I'd mention it seeing as the blog looked bare despite what is about to come up. See you when I either finish Stellar Theater, or recieve Angel Magister (whichever happens first)!

Update Time Again! Changes were made!

2009-07-16T02:04:00.004+01:00

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Okay, if you've ever been here before you'll be thinking 'Wow that's new', because a lot of changes have been made. I'm gonna run through them...

Firstly: BANNER!!! Finding the Blue has a new banner! And it's all down to Chief Director of Art and Design: Krit. I absolutely love it. Thanks a lot! You may be seeing more from him both in design and content, as he's a big fan of Key/Visual Arts. Nothing is certain yet.

Secondly: The background is different. It's much more plain than before, but I do intend on getting it changed to something better.

Next: Possibly the biggest change of all is the fact that the blog now has 3 columns instead of 2. It may look like I've just put some banners on the left hand side, but it took a fair amount of tweaking the xml to get everything to my preferences. I did it basically so that there was not so much wasted space and that it was nice and cosy feeling.

The banners: Please note, this is not a shameless advertising attempt. I am not affilliated with these companies and their games, and I get no money for displaying them, it's just down to the love of it. It goes a bit like this:

Banners on the left - New games that have been released anything up to a month (at the MOST) or upcoming games. The rule here is simple, you see a banner you like the look of, you click it, you go to the official website to find out more. In many cases I'll cover the games in the blog anyway, but if you feel that a game is particularly great and I haven't covered it or shown signs that I'm going to do so, then let me know! I'll be glad to try it out and give it a feature.

Banners on the right - Old games. These banners are for older games that can be anything from a month to years old, they're some of my favorites (although finding banners for a number of my favorites has been difficult orz) and is basically like me saying 'I enjoyed these, why not give them a try?'.

Recommended sites: These are simply a bunch of websites, each varying in [related] content. They're mainly reserved for real professional websites and companies, and they aren't affiliates by any means, although if there is enough interest I may have a section for some of my favorite 'community' websites and blogs.

Anyway, the small 150px wide links on the right vary from figure companies to online stores to anything within the scope of this blog really. If you don't recognise a link, click it! You may find a great website you didn't know of before.

As for the square icons at the bottom...no comment, except I thought they made the blog much cuter and filled some boring blank space.

Coming soon, I'll post a review of Stellar☆Theater, which I'm playing through at the moment. As for after that; well there are a bunch of releases coming up, I'm going to have my work cut out for me.

New This Month [July] - Upcoming Eroge, Visual Novels and Bishoujo Games to look out for.

2009-07-10T22:07:00.009+01:00

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As you may know, there are (almost) hundreds of eroge/bishoujo games/Visual Novels etc. released every month. (I'd say it averages on about 40 per month). Now some of those are great quality games such as Angel Magister, Da Capo, ToHeart...the ones that get a lot of hype and attention. Then there are also those that are a little more...ambiguous and tend to fall straight into 'sex game' territory. Because I have no interest in those (not to mention it'd be hard work for me alone to mention each and every one of them).

I focus mainly on the games of a bit more high quality. So I'm going to make this a monthly thing to mention the "worth-a-watch" games that are coming out this month. I can't guarentee I'll review or even say much at all about all of them, but I can give you a short summary of each one for you to take your own interest.

July 2009

Tayutama: Kiss on my Deity (XBOX 360 Normal Edition)

Company: Lump of Sugar
Release date: 30th July
Official Website

Angel-Magister

Company: mana
Release Date: 24th July
Official Site

クレナイノツキ
(Kurenainotsuki)

Company: ALcot ハ二カム (ALcot Honeycomb)
Release date: 24th July 2009
Official Website

77（セブンズ）～And, two stars meet again～
(77 ~And two stars meet again~)

Company: Whirlpool
Release Date: 30th July
Official Site

終わりなき夏永遠なる音律
(Endless Summer Eternal Rhythm)

Company: Phi-age
Release Date: 24th July
Official Site

メカミミ
(MechaMimi)

Company: CandySoft
Release Date: 31st July
Official Site

ナツユメナギサ
(Natsuyume Nagisa)

Company: SAGA PLANETS
Release Date: 31st July
Official Site

メモリア
(Memoria)

Company: Purple Software
Release date: DELAYED!
Current release date: 28th August
Official Site

KEY 10th MEMORIAL BOX　（TBA)

Company: Key/VisualArts
Release Date: TBA
Official Site

All in all I'm looking forward to almost all of these. The Key 10th Memorial Box doesn't interest me really, neither does Memoria, Endless Summer or Kurenainotsuki. But I'm particularly interested in Angel-Magister (Of Course), 77, MechaMimi and Natsuyume Nagisa.

For those wondering, Natsuiro Penguin (Summer Colour Penguin?) by Littleprincess has been delayed a month to August. Still, it looks awesome (See banner on the right).

Round Up (Update post)

2009-07-08T18:01:00.009+01:00

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Okay, so I made a bunch of posts today and I want to close todays bunch off with a few words plus some stuff I didn't want to make separate blog entries for...

Firstly, banner still not done. I'm not going to give up, but it would be a lie to say I'm working on getting it done. It will get done one day.

You might have noticed at the side of the page and at the bottom there are banners promoting various Bishoujo Games and other related items. These are not ads, just banners gotten from the official website to show support. Nothing special will happen when you click them other than going to their homepage. I still refuse to put ads up.

The 'anti-foreign' eroge battle rages on, and now I'm beginning to feel it too. You may remember in this post I mentioned that minori.ph (Official Minori website) was blocked outside of Japan because of foreign protests towards eroge. Well there has been yet another update, which I think has been taken down now, but there is a debate between some english language websites and minori. I don't want to make an arguement, but I will say that I suppose the fact that minori.ph is listening is good because maybe this can get talked over some how.

As well as this, I downloaded the official demo of Angel Magister, not just to enjoy myself, but to post here too, only to be prompted with the message that 'This game is Japanese only'. I use an english language version of windows because I find it easier and it avoids power wattage problems than if I got a Japanese computer. I even tried using applocale, but still I was prompted with the message. If this is the future of eroge, then I will be looking into buying a Japanese laptop so that I can still play. But that of course will mean no reviews of any new games. Bad news indeed.

In related news, I started playing りんかねーしょん☆新撰組っ！ the other day, only to lost my save data ( orz ) I took some screenshots as I was going to write a review, but in all honesty, the game was not that great and I didn't feel like getting my old save data back. However the art is incredibly cute, so I'll leave you with a few images from the beginning of the game and if you feel inclined to get the game, feel free to do so. But remember I'm not the only person to give it a bad review.

I was drawn in at first, anything with stars and a beautiful description is more than OK with me

"Chrisanthumum Kimono" won't let you go that easily, despite your situation.

Okay, so a forgetful main character isn't the most original thing ever..

Yep, the game is actually heavily centred around taxes (Joking)

The taxes thing suprised me too, there is such a thing as being almost too descriptive, and then there's a lesson in economy.

Anime 'round up': New Haruhi: not that great, not to mention I think I have bigger Deja Vu than Kyon after seeing Endless 8 for what seems like the 15499th time. CANAAN: Not bad, NEEDLESS: Not bad, Juuden-chan: ...could be better. Tears to Tiara: Still good, thank you Leaf!

Apparently, MOSAIC.WAV have a new self cover album on the way featuring 初音　ミク that's right, Hatsune Miku herself. Read more about it here.

おまかせ！とらぶる天使 is currently in top position of the galge.com game award 2009

Key's Angel Beats anime and Strike Witches season 2 anime draws closer as we progress through the year, やった！

[FIGURE] 聖沙・B・クリステレス (Misa B. Cristelis) from ティンクル☆くるせいだーす (Twinkle Crusaders) by Penguin Parade

2009-07-08T17:42:00.012+01:00

Okay, this is relatively old news (A few weeks) but because I was away I missed it. Manufacturer 'Penguin Parade' has announced a figure of Misa Cristelis from Twinkle Crusaders. I love Misa, but I have not heard of Penguin Parade before. Either way, this is a great figure. 1/8 scale, due in August 2009 and priced at 6800円　(A nice average price I think). Yes she is castoffable, but the last pic is as far as I'm going to show you. Buy the game or the figure to see more!

Can you say 絶対領域？

「ANGEL MAGISTER」 The Countdown Begins! It's Preview Time!

2009-07-08T14:58:00.015+01:00

http://angelmagister.jp/

For me, Angel Magister is going to be THE game of 2009. I am so excited I am literally counting down the days until release. So as we approach the release date, I decided I would give a preview of what to expect for the latest game from mana/Visual Arts...

Picked a favorite yet? I know I have. Angel Magister looks to be magical, hilarious and incredibly cute. Music is by 電波 up-and-comers 「LOVE BULLETS」 I suggest you check them out.

Story (loose translation, but much better than the previous one )

After challenging angels to a battle, devil king Baal has the tables turned on him and is defeated. As penalty his memory is erased and he is outcasted and left on the streets of heaven. Because of his above average magical power he becomes a teacher for a 'failure class' of angels who are poor at magic, where he goes by the name Tomoya. This is a school comedy of a class of poorly skilled angels and a teacher named Tomoya.

Main Characters:

ナギ　エバーブライト　(Nagi Everbright)

"The violent tsundere girl"

Coming from a family of extremely talented and well respected angels, (who heaven is usually dependant on) Nagi had great talent expected of her, unfortunately this was a mistake and she dropped out of the "elite talent class" full of the highest level of angels. Although known as strong headed to her colleagues, she has a shy side (In other words, she's completely tsundere).

カナタ　クラムロイド (Kanata Gramilyd)

"Always Mysteriously Coolheaded"

Under her crisp appearance she is unthinkably blunderous. Despite always being able to retain a cool face in times of severe trouble, mistake after mistake dropped Kanaya into the 'Failure Group'. She's basically the typical cooldere, in contrast to Nagi.

　ミコトイブルバー二ア　(Mikoto Ibievernie)

"Distinct looks and a skilled singer, heaven's top idol"

(Okay, Mikoto is my favorite character I think) However, because she works hard as an idol, her studies have suffered but she is aware of the danger of dropping out of school. Because of this, her time away from being a TV star is spent completely on her studies. As a result, she's in the "Failure Group".

On the surface she has a calm personality, but is there something poisonous below the idol surface? To get to know her true colours, strong intimacy is needed.

All these were loosely translated from their official descriptions, so take it as you will. (Hence why I tried not to go into too much detail).

All I can say is, I'm really excited about this, roll on July 24th.

「らのべえ」 LANOVEE: Visual Novel Creation Software

2009-07-08T13:41:00.015+01:00

I'm honestly not sure how long this has been out now, because I just stumbled across it randomly a few days ago, but I'm sure it is this year some time. Simply stated, Lanovee （らのべえ）is a visual novel creator, allowing the user to create professional looking Visual Novels simply by using the mouse. No need for coding or expensive animation software.

Creating scenatios, selecting animation sprites and other tasks are made easy with a minimalistic interface.

This is a big mystery for me because I knew nothing about it until a few days ago, but it certainly has some interesting features such as 『萌えボイスシステム』 or "Moe Voice System". I'm not sure how this works but I think it is through the use of samples or pre-recorded phonetic sounds. Either way, I don't think it'll be anything vocaloid-like which is good.

This is something the end product is likely to look something like.

I'm really shocked at how simple and easy to use the interface is, it couldn't be more self-explanatory if it tried. At first, I thought 'Hm, that's interesting' but I think I may try and get this and maybe write a review about it, but don't count on it 100%

You can get more information at the official site. I hope to get more information about this soon, because it truely looks very interesting, the closest I heard about this was Ren'py, which is a visual novel creation engine in the Python programming language.

Here is the promotional video, with music from Cutie Pai. The song is 「小っちゃな翼」 or "Tiny Wings"

[REVIEW] EXIT TRANCE PRESENTS SPEED アニメトランス BEST 7

2009-07-08T11:07:00.006+01:00

As you may know from about a month ago when I reviewed EXIT TRANCE PRESENTS BEST エクスタシー ~Second Season~ I am a big fan of the EXIT TRANCE series. There are many CDs in the series, some of which contain anime related tracks, and others are just J-Trance mixes. For the sake of this blog I decided I would only review the BEST エクスタシー (Best Ecstasy) and the アニメトランス (Anime Trance) series.

Anyway, as much as I hate to admit it, I think that gradually the Anime Trance series has gotten worse over time. 1-4 was excellent, there wasn't a track I disliked. 5 was amazing, but there was maybe 1 or 2 tracks I didn't like (not a problem though) then there was 6. 6 had some good tracks, but I think there were more I didn't care for than there were those that I really liked. Not to mention while I love Toradora (トラどら) and the remixes were great, I think that it was overkill to have more than one song from a small series. Anyway, I'll get on with the review.

Track List

01) Cagayake!GIRLS (K-ON! OP) / Helvetia(DJ Sa9+Hommarju) feat.CAMRY
02) キミシニタモウナカレ (Shangri-la OP) / MK feat.R.Cena
03) Wonder Wind (Hayate no Gotoku Second Season OP1) / Hommarju feat. YURiE
04) 経験値速上々↑↑ (Minami-ke ~Okaeri~ OP) / DJ Sa9 feat. MAKI
05) Spiral (Asura Cryin' OP) / MK feat. YURiE
06) SHUT UP AND EXPLODE (Bounen no Xamdou OP) / B.U.S feat.YUKI
07) RIDEBACK (Rideback OP) / Icon feat. Latte
08) silky heart (Toradora OP2) / MK feat. MAKI
09) Prototype (Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Second Season ED2) / Icon feat. PECO
10) What 'bout my star? (Macross Frontier IN) / B.U.S feat. MAKI + R.Cena
11) 天使のゆびきり (His & Her Circumstance OP) / Dizzi Mystica feat. YAH
12) プリズム (Dennou Coil OP) / Starving trancer feat. R.Cena
13) being (Shakugan no Shana OP2) / DJ Sa9 vs. Judas feat. PECO
14) masterpiece (To Aru Majutsu no Index OP2) / Hommarju feat. Latte
15) 笑顔の理由 (Asu no Yoichi OP) / CAMRY
16) HANAJI (Maria+Holic OP) / Hommarju feat. MAKI
17) ？でわっしょい (Hidamari Sketch × 365 OP) / Ryu* feat. MAKI + Ma15 + CAMRY
18) JAP(Sengoku Basara OP) / Acid=Stone Valley feat. YUKI
19) Don't say "lazy" (K-ON! ED) / Helvetia (DJ Sa9 + Hommarju) feat. Latte
20) ずっとみつめていて (Ryu* Remix) / DJ UTO vs. Starving Trancer feat. 森永真由美

I don't want to launch into attack right away, but with the exception of some nice suprises there, I think that they have tried to cram in as many OPs, EDs and INs from the newest series possible, and I think that K-ON! has gotten the Toradora treatment this time around. There are some suprises in there too, Prism (Dennou Coil OP) and HANAJI (Maria+Holic OP).

Cagayake!Girls does work well as a remix, but I think it drags on a little, they could have cut it down by one chorus. But then I think that with the popularity of K-ON! This and 'Dont Say Lazy' were the intended highlights of the album, so it is to be expected. I'll also cut in quickly with this comment: it is actually well mixed. Not that the others were poorly mixed, but most tracks have really good transitions with each other.

I think that the length of tracks on the album was slightly irritating and made some tracks that could have been really good just a little bit boring. I was let down by Wonder Wind (ハヤテのごとく　OP) because I expected it to be much bouncier, plus it suffered from length problems as well.

I feel I might be being too picky here, but many tracks were either too long (No I wasn't listening to the extended track version), simply not interesting or for some reason had crossed over in genre. SHUT UP AND EXPLODE for example sounded more like electro-house and HANAJI was like a speedcore/Gabber crossover. I'm not going to mince words here; it was horrible. I was really looking forward to a trance mix of it too.

But there are some nice things to say about the album too, prism (dennou coil OP) was a completely unexpected choice but wasn't bad at all, and being (Shakugan no Shana OP2) was a really perfect track, perfect length and sounded really good. You could have slipped it into one of the older albums and it would have fitted perfectly.

I thought Macross F music was impossible to sound bad in the EXIT TRANCE series, but What 'bout My Star? Was just...disappointing I think. Really, it is not nice to have to say, but I think that there were many tracks that I really didn't like. being was good, Prism was nice, Hidamari Sketch OP (？でわっしょい) was upbeat and nice, Dont Say Lazy was...pretty bad really. The final track ずっとみつめていて (Ryu* Remix) (I'm sorry, I don't know where this is from either). Was just Okay, I thought with DJ Uto himself involved, it may have been outstanding, but it was just listenable and not much more.

Overall, I'm disappointed. It really wasn't a very good album at all and I think the genre crossovers were a very bad idea. I sincerely hope this isn't the destiny of EXIT TRANCE. I'm not saying 'Don't buy this' but instead, take great caution before doing so.

Favorite track: being (Shakugan no Shana OP2)

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I don't want to write a review about it because I don't feel it really fits in here, but Perfume have released their new album: ⊿ (Triangle) and it is not bad at all, there are some great tracks on there!

In other EXIT TRANCE news, if you're quick to buy the ウマウマできるトランスを作ってみた COMPLETE BEST box set, you'll get a figure of the mascot character of the series! Sorry I couldn't find a bigger picture:

--Intermission--

2009-07-08T02:41:00.004+01:00

I haven't updated for a while but a LOT is going to be posted on wednesday 8th July, including EXIT TRANCE, bishoujo creation software, figures and more!

Minori Official Website Blocked Outside Japan

2009-06-28T12:31:00.007+01:00

The visual novel company behind titles such the Ef series, Wind: A Breath of Heart, Angel Type and the upcoming game Eden have blocked access to their official site to anybody outside of Japan. By visiting their website outside of Japan you can see the following message:

Some foreigners seem to be having an antipathy against EROGE.
Therefore, We prohibited the access from foreign countries, to defend our culture.
Sorry for you of the fan that lives in a foreign country.

minori Inc.

Why minori blocking foreign accesses?

We are little perplexing now because we received a lot of response about this issue from foreign people.

Now we will tell you the short detail about the reason why blocking you to this website, because of we, all Japanese EROGE makers were facing at the problem, the crisis of "Freedom of speech".

Currently, The bill that allows to limiting the content (It is censorship. Isn't it?) to all EROGEs is being discussed in the Diet because intellectuals and politicians said "Japanese EROGE were being problem and troubled with the foreign country. Therefore we should make EROGE hidden away from foreign country, and also its content should be limited and censored".

Okay, now we trusted the word what they said at once. So we blocked you to make stay away from the trouble.

...Do you like that?

If not, please tell your idea directly to Japanese government and politicians.
(For example, you can write the letter to the administration of Japan directly from here.)
(If you can comprehend Japanese...There is information of the politicians in Japan.)

Otherwise, you just can talk your idea about this issue at your blog or other media to inform the existance of this problem to the public. It would be very helpful for us.

If you do so, we might be able to recover the "Freedom of speech" and the barricade lying in between us would be taken away.

Please help us.

We hope this separation would be only for short moment.

Sincerely.

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This is a very sad occourance, and it's a shame that Visual Novels and Bishoujo Games must face the same kind of censorship as violent video games or graphic movies. I know there is a big debate on this, on this internet as always, so I have just taken Minori's advice and written about it on my blog.

I can understand why they are doing this, but it is obviously inconvienient for people outside of Japan. It's a shame because I think that people who buy Bishoujo Games are in such a niche market that they are very unlikely to commit crimes such as rape or other sexual abuse.

There has also been a ban of certain elements in Bishoujo Games such as rape, loli (young girl), gang rape, sexual violence, cruel sexual play, reverse rape, shoujo (I think this would be young girl, but not child young), forbidden sex (adultury, incest etc.), and so on. Simply anything that is not normal sexual activity.

Of course this will severly ruin content in many eroges to come. There are a number of titles I hope are not held back because of this, but many developers are having a hard time because they have to cancel projects.

However, what many people in Japan are saying is that this content is likely to be distributed through patches instead of packaged with the game, seeing as it won't count as the actual game itself. I think this is an interesting idea and maybe we are saved after all.

I advise that you follow the links above and write to the Japanese administration about this issue and make it known about how much this is upsetting people. (You do not have to write in Japanese).

Orchid Seed: ToHeart 2 Yuzuhara Konomi "Sweet Lolita" Figure

2009-06-25T13:20:00.005+01:00

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Orchid Seed has announced their 1/7 scale Yuzuhara Konomi (柚原このみ) figure. She'll be 11.5cm and she'll cost 7400円 and set for release this November. Oh and she's castoffable too. She seems to come complete with a ToHeart 2 branded handbag (Not a real one, though).

As ever, click to enlarge the images.

I think Konomi is going down a similar path to Kousaka, I've loved the ToHeart series ever since I first played it, and I love ToHeart 2 too, so when I saw Kousaka figures, I brought them, then I had about 5 figures and I was thinking "This is slightly getting out of hand" (I like Kousaka, but not enough to buy all her figures) so I stopped and only brought the figures of her I really liked. And now the same thing is happening with Konomi: I have 4 figures of her so far, all in different attires, and now I think she is being overkilled.

Still, this is a very cute figure, I think I am most confused by the base; I can't tell if it's a shadow, thin plastic or genuine cloth. I personally am really hoping for the latter, it would really complete the "sweet lolita" look.

Pics from Orchid Seed

DancexMixer （ダンスミキサー）Original Character Creator for Release on June 26th

2009-06-24T00:35:00.012+01:00

The original character creation software named DancexMixer （ダンスミキサー）is set for release on June the 26th (Another great birthday gift for me!) with a playable demo packaged with the August edition of TECH GIAN magazine. The magazine demo will be limited to 30 days trial and designs cannot be saved. However, it will be possible to export videos of dance movies featuring your created character. (Details of how to create the dance videos are in a booklet with the magazine).

I'm not sure if any of you have played 3D Custom Girl, but this seems like a far more 萌え rendition, and is certainly more to my tastes. Here are some screenshots:

Character design. Meido, lolita among others are all part of the package.

Hair customisation. You can really create your dream wife with this if you don't already have one.

The dance mixer. For adjusting dance moves. Make your own idol videos and become a wota of your own creation!

There is so much potential for this software. I think that this will pick up where 3D Custom Girl fell short. I imagine that many blogs will use software like this to create a mascot of their own. Might not be a bad idea to do here...

Oh and he're is a preview video of the software in action:

I'm heavily reminded of Komugi-chan here.

Debut of New Bishoujo Game Company "Armonica"

2009-06-22T13:17:00.009+01:00

A few days ago a new competitor in the Bishoujo Game market debuted named "Armonica" with their first game SkyPrythem 〜あしたの天使〜 or SkyPrythem ~Angel of Tomorrow~ (Or 'Tomorrow's Angel').

Their site has just gone live a few days ago and can be found here it's obviously only populated with a sparse amount of SkyPrythem content such as character profiles, staff, spec, story and diary. No downloads, specials or sample CGs just yet, but with the game set for release in fall 2009, I'd imagine it won't be long before we see more.

Apparently the story is a tale of love at a music campus at a generic academy somewhere. With the goal being the music festival. The setup is standard; many girls each with their own musical instrument and so on. Although I can't help but wonder if the success of K-On! has anything to do with the underlying music theme, but maybe I am being too skeptical.

Either way, the main point here is that Armonica is a new face on the market, which is always good to see, and I hope that SkyPrythem is an excellent debut title for them.

Asakura Otome Nendoroid Bundled with Da Capo II To You: Side Episodes Game

2009-06-18T11:39:00.008+01:00

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I knew this game was going to come out soon, but I didn't realise just how soon. Luckily enough for me, not only is it released on my birthday, it also comes bundled with a limited edition Asakura Otome GSC Nendoroid. What a gift! This deal is only available from Circus's Official Website so I think this may be Japan only. So if you are not in Japan, then maybe you can find someone via online service who can recieve the goods and ship it internationally for a small fee.

I only ever played Da Capo and Da Capo II games, never any of the PS2 versions or Da Capo II - Plus Communication so I will try and play them all before I play this, which is a shame, but at least I'll have Asakura to enjoy. Speaking of which, the pics are here:

thanks to nekomagic.com for the heads up about this. A great blog too!

Just a Brief Update

2009-06-16T18:56:00.003+01:00

Just thought I'd write this to give a few updates on stuff.

The background image for the blog has changed, it's now a jpeg instead of a png and I don't think much visible quality has been lost. So hopefully the background should load much more quickly as opposed to staying white for a long time.

Banner: Still not done or even attempted for that matter. Procrastination is never good, I'm hoping I can get someone good with photoshop to get something done, or I'll do something minimal myself, as I'm simply not good enough for this kind of thing.

Because the news front is kind of weak, I'm deciding to turn this into something a bit more like a blog. Less news and more general posts about anime, bishoujo games and so on. Because of this, I'll review a few series (adaptions of visual novels) and some games too, regardless of whether or not I've played them/watched them before.

As mentioned before, I simply don't have the time to review every series I watch, otherwise I'd end up spending more time blogging than watching, which I'm not keen on. But here is what to expect to be reviewed soon:

Nanatsuiro Drops
Shuffle
Wind: ~A Breath of Heart~
School Days
Tears to Tiara (When it finishes)

As for games, I can't review any right now because I'm not on a Windows system, so playing them is difficult, however it's not long before I'm back to windows, so I'll be able to play and review them. Shamefully, I haven't watched Wind, nor played it despite it being out for so long, so I'll do them together hopefully and compare the two.

Anything else to say... well, not much really. I heard there is a Saber Lily figure declared to be released later on in the year, this time it's ALTER's attempt, but it doesn't look as good as GSCs in my opinion. More info can be seen Here

Also, people are annoyed about K-On! ending, I thought everyone knew it was just going to be a 12 episode series, but maybe you don't realise these things until the last moment. So far K-On! Has been enjoyable but nothing that excellent. Mio is cute, but I have been distracted by some backdated anime. Such as Zettai Karen Children, which I think is absolutely amazing so far and very enjoyable.

Angel Beats from Key/VA has been given the go ahead for an anime series (this is ancient news). I don't think any word has been said about a game so far, but the story looks interesting and seems to be more surreal and verging more towards fantasy. I think this may be a new direction for Key/Visual Arts.

I think that wraps it up. I'll also be without internet soon, and the time will be approximately 2 months as I'm moving house again. (I'm really preparing for the worst here, lets hope it definitley isn't that long for my ISP to get it together).

ToHeart2 Trading Figures with Upcoming Dengeki Magazines

2009-06-07T18:15:00.007+01:00

Over the next few months various Dengeki (電撃) Magazines are going to be releasing more ToHeart2 exclusives. This time it's trading figures, or more specifically; naked apron trading figures. Each magazine will be 990円 with the exception of 電撃G’s Festival DELUXE which will be 3800円 and Dengeki Hime (電撃姫) at a more modest 1150円

If you think this is a lot for a magazine, you should know that this is pretty normal for Dengeki magazines. It isn't uncommon to pay a few thousand yen for a magazine. But considering there are some situations when you'll get a dakimakura worth much more.

Let's look at the figures.

電撃G’s September 2009 & July 2009: Kusugawa Sasara

電撃G’s October 2009 & August 2009: Yuzuhara Konomi

電撃姫 September 2009 & July 2009: Komaki Manaka

電撃姫 October 2009 & August 2009: Kusakabe Yuki

電撃G’s Festival! DELUXE July 2009: Kousaka Tamaki

As you can see, Tama-chan thinks 'Why an apron?' and goes one further than everybody else by simply wearing a swimsuit. Oh and that's not solid pvc either, it's a stretchy rubbery material, so you can uncover the nipples if you want.

I have to say I'm really glad Yuki got another figure. I'll try and get her and Komaki.

[REVIEW] EXIT TRANCE PRESENTS CODE SPEED アニメトランス BEST エクスタシー (Second Season)

2009-06-05T14:40:00.007+01:00

A few days ago, EXIT TRANCE PRESENTS CODE SPEED アニメトランス BEST エクスタシー Second Season was released by EXIT TUNES under the QUAKE HOLDINGS label. I've always loved EXIT TRANCE and I especially love the エクスタシー (Ecstasy) series they do, which are OPs, EDs and other music from Eroge/Bishoujo Games.

Tracklist

1. 深愛 (White Album)
2. 夢想歌 (Utawaremono)
3. YOU (Shuffle)
4. Hello (ToHeart2)
5. SHINING STARS BLESS☆ (Nanatsuiro Drops)
6. 前奏曲(プレリュード)-We are not alone- (Crescent Love)
7. マジカルちょーだいっ (Magical Canan)
8. 大好きだよ(Into Your Heart) (ToHeart - Remember my Memories)
9. プラスチックスマイル (Canvas2)
10. Fly (Comic Party Revolution)
11. トモシビ (ToHeart2)
12. amulet (Hani Hani: Operation Sanctuary)
13. 舞い落ちる雪のように (White Album)
14. AGAIN (Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru)
15. 素直になれない (Tsuyokiss: Cool x Sweet)
16. ぽぽたん畑でつかまえて (Popotan)
17. 跪くまで5秒だけ! (They are my noble masters)
18. LOVE POWER (Otome wa boku ni koi shiteru)
19. 片翼のイカロス (H2O - Footprints in the Sand)
20. きらめく涙は星に (Fate/Stay Night)

ToHeart and Otome wa boku ni koi shiteru sure got alot of attention this time around, but they were both great and both were very good in the last album, so I'm not complaining. I'm glad to see Nanatsuiro Drops get some attention as I'm currently watching it right now and absolutely love it. I can't say that I feel a bit ripped off in the sense that YOU, 片翼のイカロス and きらめく涙は星に were all on other EXIT TRANCE albums, and are virtually remixed the same too. But they're still welcome as far as I'm concerned, seeing as EXIT TRANCE アニメ 4 and 5 were some of my favorite CDs released under EXIT TUNES.

The whole thing was a joy listen to the whole way through, on the first BEST エクスタシー CD, things got a little dry and uninteresting for a phase around tracks 13-17 but picked up toward the end. Here however, there was none of that, and kept interest throughout.

The typical EXIT TRANCE familiar faces are there too; MAKI, MK, Icon, Ma15, DJ Sa9, Acid=Stone Valley, Starving Trancer, B.U.S etc. and of course Ryu* giving parts of the album a bouncy J-core feel. If you've ever listened to any EXIT TRANCE album, you're bound to notice at least one of these names.

One thing I've noticed with the EXIT TRANCE series is that albums with alot of diversity (Like アニメ 4) tend to be poorly mixed, but albums with not as much variety in sound are very well mixed, but I think that cannot be helped. However, I think that エクスタシー Second Season has done a really good job of keeping the album interesting and being well mixed too. However I am not a DJ so I can't really say much.

Overall, the album is more of a solid, interesting listen than the previous CD, but lacks the number of memorable tracks. Next, lookout for my review of EXIT TRANCE PRESENTS SPEED アニメトランス BEST THE MOVIE. The first in the series of EXIT TRANCE CDs dedicated to themes from Anime MOVIES. Then look out for EXIT TRANCE PRESENTS SPEED アニメトランス 7, the 7th installment of the anime series. Due on the 1st of July.

Favorite tracks (Excluding the repeated 3): SHINING STARS BLESS☆, マジカルちょーだいっ, 大好きだよ(Into Your Heart)

Buy the album here

MOSAIC.WAV 1st Tour of 2009 in Full Effect

2009-06-04T15:16:00.009+01:00

To commemorate their latest album "Superluminal Ж AKIBA-POP" (One of their best albums yet, may I add.) Akiba-pop innovators MOSAIC.WAV have kicked off their latest tour of 2009 dubbed "SuperluminalЖMOSAIC.LIVE". At the moment, the schedule of the next shows look like so:

When: 2009/06/06
Where: Nagoya (名古屋)
Venue: Bottom Line ( ボトムライン)

When: 2009/06/20
Where: Osaka (大阪)
Venue: BIGCAT

Opening: 17:00
Show Starts: 18:00
Drinks: 500円
Tickets: 1F - 5,775円 2F - 5,775円

More info can be found here

If you were wanting to see them at BLITZ then sorry, you were too late. But I highly recommend going to see them if you're able to.