Well come the 27th it will be my birthday. I decided to buy myself a gift package because I do enjoy gifts quite a bit. What? Nothing wrong buying yourself a gift. So I figured I would Just make a small post about what I bought because i’m a little picky about things I buy believe it or not. Also note worthy that while i’m not a fan of any of the Gundam anime series, I do love some of their models because they look great and are fun to put together.

So first up this is originaly what I bought and only planned on getting this little cutie. As any Gundam 00 fan will know, this is Haro who accompanies Lockon Stratos inside his gundam. While I have yet to get any of these items (they arrive monday or tuesday) according to the description given, he reacts to voice by lighting up his eyes and saying a few phrases. On top of this he can rock left and right when he is on his special stand. He can also tell the time and function as an alarm clock if you want. Another feature this has is if you roll it on the floor, when it gets upright it will pop open its ear flaps and say a phrase. He comes with 2 arms and legs which you can pose him with if, like me, you wouldn’t want to ruin him.

Next up we have a Master Grade 1/100 Zeta Plus C1 Type from Gundam ZZ. Having never even heard of Gundam ZZ before last night, this model was rather surprisingly cool to look at. As you can see he is all gray with some white, silver and blue on him. Quite a welcome change from the usual white base you tend to find. When these actually arrive, I may put some pictures up of the finished results incase anyone coming here also likes to make these. He also transforms into a plane! Woo! He is like the Kyrios model I have only cooler looking.

Moving along, we have another Master Grade Gundam. 1/100 Wing Gundam Zero Endless Waltz Version to be exact from Gundam Wing. When I saw this I had to buy it as it just looks so damn cool. After seeing the Zeta gundam this one was a little ordinary with its colour scheme but it more than makes up for it with awesome looking wings. Comes with its own display stand too so He will have a place on my desk next to my already built Hi-Nu Gundam from Char’s Counterattack.

Yet another Master Grade kit here. Actualy they are all MG rank so I won’t bother saying that anymore. This one comes from the 08th MS Team series according to the site. He is a 1/100 GM Sniper. What caught my eye about this fella was the colour scheme, like the Zeta, and the fact his huge sniper gun was wired into his backpack and then is in turn, wired into a big generator (I assume) which comes with him. He was quite cheap too so it was a win win.

Next we have the 1/100 MG Strike Noir Gundam kit, from Gundam Seed Stargazer. Again this guy is pretty cool looking with his colour, which actualy reminds me of Saber’s kit I bought years and years ago from the Tekkaman Blade series. Anyway this guy has these funky Scorpion-esque whip things that come out of his hands and I thought that was so cool that I had to get him. His wings on his back open up as well to look even cooler when he is all posed up.

Finaly we have a kit from a series I have never even heard of before last night, Super Robot War. His name is Alteisen, and is the heaviest of the lot that I bought (most kits here are around 800g, this guy is 1300g) This guy is what set me off on my Gundam hunt because after reading some of the stuff he has in/on him and seeing his pictures I just had to buy him. According to details he has Individually articulated fingers, which is pretty damn awesome I think. On top of that his shoulder cannons open up which again reminds me of Tekkaman Blade’s kit. On top of that he has something i’ve never seen in a MG kit and that is when you push his “vernier” as the site puts it, an LED inside his head will light up and show his eyes. Thats pretty cool. Just wondering if you can keep his eyes on for good. That would look pretty spiffy i’d imagine but I would be willing to bet it would drain the battery and kill the LED rather fast. On top of that, this kit comes with a 12cm high PVC model of his pilot to stand next to if you wish. I’m not sure I really care about that but I may as well add it to my collection.

Note: I could only find a blue painted version of this guy but this is him none the less…

So as I said these havn’t arrived yet but when they do I may sort of continue this post and put up some finished product versions along with the collection I already have. Not sure yet.

It is quite unfortunate that amazing manga like this will rarely see the light of day outside of japan. Wether it be the series is considered too short or that people don’t believe that it would do well, it is when you come across a manga like this that you really just hope that someone notices it’s brilliance and decides to pick it up for translation. For those who have read this series you no doubt enjoyed it and agree with what i’ve said. As for everyone else, if you are a fan of romance then I cannot recommend this enough. It rivals Kanon 2006’s Makoto story arc which (IMO) was 1 of the 2 best and saddest romance stories i’ve encountered. This is a short series that only runs for 5 books, and was made quite awhile ago but it still remains a brilliant work. However lets get on with the point of all this.

STORY

We follow a man by the name of Yoshizumi Ikuru who lives in the future. As I read this series over 4 or 5 months ago I cannot remember exactly if you find out how old he is but he seems to be around his eairly 20s. Unfortunately due to a major traffic accident when he was young that claimed his parents, he is now close to dying. He was able to survive and avoid his imminent death by scientists grafting body parts of another person onto/into him. This allows him to live but not for much longer. As he only has short time left to live, he turns in his application for an Ai-Ren. What is an Ai-Ren? Well as the manga puts it they are

“Human beings made out of artificial genes with the purpose of relieving the mental despair of a patient during his/her last moments of his/her life”

They are custom grown to suit the person they are given to. Unfortunately their life span is also not as prolonged as 1 would hope. They usualy die a few months after being “born” which in itself is quite sad but in this case is just worse. Ikuru decides to name his Ai-Ren simply Ai, as that is all she can say for the first few hours after taking her home. With both of the main characters introduced, the story now follows them together as they experience life together and eventualy fall in love with each other.

Characters

I figure more information on the main focus of this series wouldn’t be too out of order so i’ll go into some further depth of the characters. There are more that you meet but Since 90% of the story is based on 2, I will only go into detail about them.

Ikuru: He is a rather intelligent person who often has dreams/nightmares about his impending death and about his body’s deterioration. Sometimes these are so severe that they leave him unable to eat or even move due to bodies reaction. He doesn’t seem to mind cleaning and is pretty good at cooking too. He is an exceptionaly kind and understanding character that unfortunately feels cut off from the rest of the world. He seems to feel guilty about applying for an Ai-Ren but that later disappears through time when he becomes truly happy he did.

Ai: Born/grown at the request of Ikuru in a lab. She physicaly looks about late teens, eairly 20s but since her mind requires a short span to mature to her physical age, she acts very childish at first. Drawing on walls and never being able to stay still and the like. Although her personality is designed to compliment Ikuru’s, she seems to enjoy flashy things in life such as rock music which Ikuru doesn’t. She learns to play the piano thanks to Ikuru but soon passes him in skill and picks up the guitar as well. Together with Ikuru they grown vegetables outside of their country house. She keeps a diary of her life with Ikuru and always writes in it about her day and what happened.

Final Comments

Unfortunately that is about as much as I am able to write up about this due to it being short. However don’t take that as a bad thing has writing any more would just spoil it for the people who wish to read it. If you are looking for a great romance series that wont suck up too much of your time then I cannot suggest a more perfect book. It has great artwork in it that is minimalistic at times, but really shows a sense of the atmosphere and surroundings. A great read that should be on everyone’s list of “must read” manga.

So for those who read my Clannad Visual Novel write up or just like Clannad in general, I thought I would post about some items that are currently out and about to come out. There are only 2 but they are pretty worthy of money I think. Since these measurements are in centimeters, you’ll have to work out inch conversion for yourself if your in the US.

First up we have a Clannad Tapestry which looks quite nice. It measures 120cm x 65cm so physicaly it’s quite large which is a good thing. I’ve ordered this one today so I can’t say much for the quality of it but judging from the price i’d bet it’ll be really nice. Speaking of price, this currently runs for 4,000 yen, which works out around $38 US. A bit more expensive than what you would find at other online shops selling Hellsing or Naruto (eucgh) equivalents, but I’m sure that this is made up for in quality. My only gripe? NO FUUKO! WHAT GIVES?! She is the best character in the entire game/series and they leave her out?.

Next up we have a plush Botan which just looks adorable. He is about 18.5CM long and looks pretty much exactly as you would expect him to look. This little guy also sells for $38 US so again he isn’t cheap, but cmon… look how adorable he is. Awwwww. The only thing that would make him better is if when you hugged him or applied pressure to him, he viborated. Not sure if that was shown in the anime version but he does it in the Visual Novel. Yeah dont ask.

I’ll be sure to pick 1 of these up for my birthday

So it’s been awhile since I lasted posted something and figured that since my latest anime package just arrived I’d do a write up on 1 of the main things I bought. So here is my write up of the Lucky Star Limited Edition DVD 1 pack.

So no doubt many, if not most, of you have at least heard about Lucky Star. Many loved the show and an equal amount of people disliked it for it’s slow, pointless episodes. Being one of the former, when I heard that this show was getting an english dub I was straight away worried. It may be just me, but Lucky Star always seemed to be a show that is only good if you understood the many abundant culture refrences. If you are new to anime and hear characters talking about Otaku, Moe and “Flags” you would be very confused and miss many of the shows jokes; mainly made by Konata. However I will not go further into this as I am mainly concerned with the package itself and not the content of the show. Onward we go

Collectors Box
Straight away when I opened my package I saw the collectors box that this show comes in. While it isn’t excatly as big as I expect it to be, It is still as impressive. The box is covered, inside and out, with many colourful images of the characters of the show and is visualy extremely pleasent to look at. If you had this on display with other DVDs it is likely to be the first to grab your attention which is a great thing. 1 picture seems a bit out of place though. On the underside of the box (what I presure is the underside) is a picture of Kagami and Tsukasa in rather… interesting… poses with Konata off in the distance looking shocked. This picture wouldn’t be out of place in a form of H-manga which I think is odd for the box art. Still, for some this isn’t a bad thing so i’m surely not complaining about it. Opening the magnetic flaps at the top of the box reveals even more of the wonderful artwork that went into this. Both flaps have artwork on them (including a very nice picture of Konata in a maid outfit. Service anyone?) and the inside of the box itself has pictures of the character’s faces in it which is rather fitting. This box is ment to eventualy house the 6 DVDs that will be released so right now it may seem a bit oversized but that will be fixed soon enough.

Shirt
Now that the box is out of the way, the first thing I noticed was the shirt that comes with this. A white, XL shirt with the winter school outfit (known as Sailor Fuku) printed/swen into on the front. Personly I think that this shirt is something you would only wear around the house or when you are alone as being seen in public with this… well it just doesn’t seem right to me haha. The shirt seems well made so quality wise they did well with this as too. So far that is 2 good grades for this. Next up would be the 2 CDs that come with the set.

CDs
Included is the opening theme, Motteke! Sailor-fuku, and Lucky Star Character Song Vol.001 Konata Izumi. Each CD has 2 songs, and 2 instrumental version of those songs, making 4 songs in total on each CD. Since these CDs proved so popular in japan, it’s very nice that they added these into our boxed set. If you have seen any of the Haruhi Character Song albums then you can expect about the same type of artwork on the CDs that come with this. Motteke! Sailor-fuku is a great song with a very addictive and recognizable beat so this song automaticly gets a pass for me. I havn’t listened to the 2nd song on the album yet so I can’t comment on that. As for the Konata album, it is very unfortunate that the most popular character in the entire show (arguably) has such a standard album. Her songs are decent but no where near as good as what Kagami’s are, which is a shame. Still though they aren’t BAD so this also gets a pass from me. This should provide you with about 30 min of music give or take a bit if you listen to them both back to back.

Screen Wipe
Quite an odd little item burried underneath the Shirt inside the box. This item is a furry little chocolate cornet which I thought was going to be a lot bigger than what it actualy is. At first this was disapointing but what I didn’t expect was that this only houses the actual screen wipe. If you pull on the bit of cloth inside the cornet a bigger, but still small, cloth comes out that you can use to clean your screen or glasses I expect. Just dont pull on the cloth too much as I just did then because the cloth can actualy come completely out of the Cornet housing and then you are stuck with the annoying task of feeding the small thread back through it. Since i’m lazy i’m just going to leave it as it is. Despite it being small and semi-useless (unless you live in a dust filled room and why would you be?) I still think it was neat to add this so again another passing grade.

DVD
So the last part of this goodie filled box is the actual DVD itself. I guess I dont really have to mention anything about the show itself because if your buying this boxed set, you already like the show and know what you are going to get. The box art is very basic and when compaired to the collecters case and CD art, it seems very basic and flat. On the front is a big (and bad) picture of Kagami in a shrine maiden outfit who looks very angry to boot. No doubt this was supposidly drawn by Konata is she is always making fun of Kagami. On the back of the case we have a bit more to show off. The standard DVD seatures menu, episode list (4 per DVD) and DVD extras menu. All basic stuff you would find on any dvd. Incase you have forgotten in the few moments since you saw them last, is also a little bubble telling you what is contained in the special edition boxed set. Quite a pointless thing to add if you ask me but oh well. Inside we have a very nicely printed dvd and a fold out insert that has a bunch of show notes from the translaters about jokes you may not understand, random objects placed in the show and other things such as “Episode 4 – When Kagami can’t sleep, she is reading the novel Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo”. Mostly this is just full of useless info but it is very pleasent to have incase you dont get something. Yet again I give this a passing grade.

Overall
All in all, if you liked the Lucky Star show when you should invest in this because it is well worth it. It may seem a bit expensive but when you consider you are getting a shirt, 2 CDs (which sell for around $15 AUD each) and a screen wipe in addition to the dvd and a special box to keep everything in it is quite the bargin. I don’t regret paying for this awesome show at all and glad to support it. Now if we can only convince more companies to make special editions like this.

I have seen many posts proclaiming distaste for Lucky Star calling it all sorts of colourful names. I personaly loved this show as it poked fun at anime lovers and other culture aspects. For those who don’t already know, Lucky Star was produced by Kyoto Animation which was responsible for the massive hit, The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya. Due to this, there are many Haruhi refrences throughout Lucky Star often as a result of Konata, 1 of the characters in the show. Both Haruhi and Konata even have the same voice actor, Aya Hirano, so it should come as little shock when Konata’s friends show up to her work in a cosplay cafe to find her dressed as Haruhi.

While undoubtibly 1 of the best moments of the show, figure designers Max Factory have taken this moment to design what I believe to be the best cross-over item ever. Konata dressed as Haruhi in their Figma range. If that wasn’t enough, they thought it would be fun or something to only make 5000 of these and release them only at Wonderfest ’08. As to be expected of such a popular and rare item, many poped up on ebay and I watched them sell for over $200 US each. Pretty crazy considering that the actual cost of these figures at the festivel was only around $25 US.

Perhaps I was just lucky (no pun intended) but last night I was able to snatch 1 of these for under $100. Still expensive for a figure but being an otaku isn’t cheap as every collector knows all too well. So as the title of this post says, Best. Item. Ever.

As is the case with all reviews, the ideas and thoughts contained in the paragraphs are the from workings of the reviewer’s mind. They are all his or her opinion. So keep that in mind when I say that while i’m not a fan of most romantic animes out there, I just adore clannad. The story is great, the artwork is colourful and well done, the character voices (such as the case with my last review of Strawberry Marshmallow) are brilliantly suited to the characters and for me personaly, is just an extremely relaxing show to watch and enjoy. Mabye its due to my deeply growing affinity for slower paced, relaxing, romantic, comedy type animes but I digress.

Having no clue about this show other than having seen a few pictures, I honestly didn’t expect much from this show as at first, I thought the characters looked a bit deformed. The girls to be more exact. However after the first 2 episodes I had become really attached to the smooth style they seemed to have. There was nothing over-the-top about the art and it just really suited the general mood of the show. Wether it was Nagisa’s overly honest and pure nature or Sunohara’s antics, the show never stopped being interesting. Finaly a show that didn’t seem to drag itself out to fill episodes and had a point to itself. I’ll stick with this show until the last episode it’s just that good.

Then I played the Clannad Visual Novel…

Perhaps it’s just me being bias but with the exception of Kana: Little Sister (which I will now call K:LS), this is the single greatest anime style game I have ever played. Despite what you may think though, this is by no means a H-Game. No no, not by a long shot. This is a visual Novel. To be more exact think of it this way… this is a choose your own romantic adventure visual novel game. This game is about 1 man, and the many diffrent paths you can take in your school life. How is this fun though you may ask. Whats the point of playing a dating-sim if you dont get to screw the girl at the end? Well if thats what your expecting there is no shortage of games out there for you so stop reading.

While it may not be a very well known fact, some of the best written games and storylines have come from H-Games. I very much doubt there could be a better written romantic storyline than K:LS. That game alone has made more people cry (including myself) than perhaps any other single game. However the point of this whole paragraph was not to lavaish the many incredible praises onto K:LS that could very well be. The point i’m trying to get to is that while this IS a game by the technical sence, it is also a novel. As a novel it also has a brilliantly written story for the diffrent arcs you can take.

As logic would dictate, the storyline too has to be well set out and written as to keep the reader interested. This game reaches that point and just keeps going for a couple hundred feet. Nearly every story arc completed was amazing and took me to a point where I have no further desire to watch the anime series itself as I feel it would degrade the well layed out storylines i’ve encountered in the game. Now that I have those thoughts out of the way, I shall go onto the actual review of the game characters and features itself.

Features

Perhaps this was 1 of the first things I should have touched on in the eairly stages of my long winded writings, but this game is not in english. At least not in the typical sence that is. This is a japanese game and as such, needs a fan translation. While this fan patch is nearly finished (around 87% complete last I checked), there are parts of the game not in english and a few random sentences throughout the game that are still in japanese. However that by no means detracts from the game itself. While there are a few errors here and there, you are able to understand the game fully so this didn’t earn any negative points for me.

As is the case with h-games, Clannad comes with a CG mode, Music mode, Main Story and After Story feature. All the standards but what is an after story? Well this part of the game is a continuation to the Nagisa story arc and takes place 10 years after you graduate from school. Unfortunatly this portion of the game has yet to be translated so i’m unable to comment on anything further about the after story. Sorry. From what i’ve heard however it is especialy sad so until the fan patch is fully ready (I played with a beta release of the patch) we cant know for sure unless you are fluent in japanese.

Unfortunatly the biggest issue I had with this game was the window size it runs in (if you pick window that is). I run at 1440×900 on a widescreen so playing a window game at 640×480 is a little odd and small for me. I would of liked to be able to play at least 800×600 but that is apparantly being fixed with the re-release of Clannad shortly. Another issue some may have is that there is a lot of reading to be done. I mean a LOT. Being a visual novel there are apparantly over 66,000 lines of text to be read in this game so prepare yourself when you choose wether or not to play this.

Main Story Characters

This will be perhaps the biggest part of the review as there is just a ton of information to go here. I’m only going to list the main and Arc’able characters and a bit of their story line. I’ll try my best not to add any spoilers that may ruin the game.

Okazaki Tomoya – The Main character, and guy you play as. Often late for school and has a bit of a cold attitude toward people. He is labeled a delinquent due to his attitude and tendency to skip classes. When he does attend classes, he usualy sleeps during the lesson. He is best friends with Sunohara despite what he may say about it.

Furukawa Nagisa – I guess you could call her the main female character. She is repeating her last year in school due to her becoming sick and missing a very large portion of her previous years classes. She is 1 year older than Okazaki and most of the other characters due to this also. Her dream is to revive the drama club at school and enlists Okazaki to help her bring it back to life.

Fujibayashi Kyou – A pretty girl with long purple hair. She is the twin sister of Ryou, and has a secret crush on Okazaki. Known for her aggressiveness and bad mouth, she always seems to have a dictionary or heavy book somewhere on her incase she needs to inflict pain on someone. She is a pretty good cook and has a pet boar named Botan. After she helps her sister Ryou confess to Okazaki, she becomes depressed and avoids him as much as possible due to her feelings for Okazaki.

Fujibayashi Ryou – The twin sister of Kyou and is very shy and timid unlike her sister. She is also a bad cook and likes to perform fortune telling for people using playing cards. Unfortunatly most of these predictions while very specific, are often flat out wrong. After hearing her sister Kyou talk about Okazaki so often, she develops a crush on him but cant work up the courage to confess to him without her sister’s help.

Sakagami Tomoyo – A new transfer student that has a legacy behind her of beating up people who annoy others. She is rather sarcastic and a little rude when talking to Okazaki and some others despite being 1 year below him. Her goal is to become the student council president and save the line of sakura trees on the way to school. Sunohara gets enough beatings from Tomoyo to have permenant brain damage. Despite her being 1 of the most popular students in the school and Okazaki being 1 of the most infamous she falls for him.

Ibuki Fuko – My personal favorite character in the entire game. She is a super cute 1st year student who is trying desperately hard to get the entire school to celebrate her older sister’s coming wedding. She refers to herself in the 3rd person which just makes her that much cuter. She loves starfish and often spaces out when hugging them or thinking about them. Usualy this leads Okazaki to play some pretty mean pranks on her which are just downright funny. While most of the other characters like Okazaki from the start, she seems to be a little afraid of him and it isn’t until pretty late in the game where she tells him that she likes him more than a sea snail. This leads him to the conclusion that her rating system goes as such; Starfish > Okazaki > Sea Snail.

Ichinose Kotomi – A very quiet, strange girl who loves reading books more than anything. She is in the top 10 students in the entire country and as such is given special status to study at her own pace rather than attend classes. She loves to play the violin but is rather bad at it, often leading it to being refered to as a “Sonic Weapon”. She likes Okazaki not surprisingly. She is often found in the library cutting out pages and parts of books.

Sunohara Youhei – In the same class as Okazaki and is his best friend. He is the only worse student than Okazaki and as such is also a delinquent. He is often beaten up by Kyou, Tomoyo, Fuko, Okazaki or the Rugby team members. He is basicly there for comedic value as he does have some rather funny moments.

Sunohara Mei – Sunohara’s little sister. She is 13 and comes to visit to see how her big brother is doing with his life. She is very diffrent from her brother and is considered “normal” Okazaki. As expected, she has a bit of a crush on Okazaki and stays at his home when she comes to visit. She is the youngest girl in the main story and as such you cannot end up dating her.

Sagara Misae – She is an older woman (around 30) that runs the dorms where Sunohara lives. Not much is known about Misae but due to her past she is reluctant to like Okazaki and it is left a bit open as to what really happens between the 2 in the end. Hilarity ensues when Okazaki tells her to be more strict about the dorm rules when he vists. Poor Sunohara…

Miyazawa Yukine – Another strange girl who loves the refrence room in school. She seeminly has turned it into a sort of coffee shop where she often makes Okazaki and Sunohara drinks. She seems to enjoy casting “spells” from a book she has found in the refrence room. She is very upbeat and happy and often helps people. She slowly develops a liking to Okazaki and sometimes sleeps with her head on his lap. Like Misae though, it’s a bit open as to wether or not her and Okazaki actualy date but due to the ending of her story it seems they do.

That about does it for what I would consider the main characters. There are others I would think of as secondary but if I went to list them all, we would no doubt be here for another hour so i’ll spare you that.

Overview

With all that said how does this game fair in the end? Quite well I must say. Each story arc you play through is so well written and in depth. The Fuko route almost brought me to tears it was so sad. Luckly the “True” ending was very very happy or else I would of cried like when playing K:LS. There are moments where Okazaki is a bit of an idiot with the typical male love interest syndrome of “no girls like me so I wont notice any advances”. I guess that can’t be helped though. The music is wonderfully relaxing and very easy to listen to. While there is no offical voice acting in this game yet, there are patches that will add them for you but being illegal (and the fact it erases your saved games which I dont want) since it is ripped from the playstation 2 version I chose not to play with them. If you need voices then you can just wait another month or so for the re-release of this game officialy.

So how long will it take you to finish all the main story arcs then? Well this is when the game really shines. There is apparantly a guide called the “300 hour walkthrough” and While I seriously doubt there is 300 hours of gameplay here, the lesser “90 hour walkthrough” I think is right on the money. I played this game through twice on my own, and the rest of the times with a walkthrough and it still took me over 60 hours to finish right. Without the guide I used I could have eaisly spent another 30 hours replaying scenes and hoping to get the right endings.

If you can find this game, can get ahold of the translation patch and dont mind a lot of reading then I cannot recommend this enough. Actualy i’m quite annoyed I put playing this game off for so long since it is so good. If your in the mood for a relaxing, story revolving game then look no further than Clannad. I would rate this as a “Must Play” game myself.