Couple days ago my pre-order of Lon’s best of CD came. Lon is a singer on Japanese video site Nico Nico Douga who does Vocaloid songs and many collaborations with other Nico Nico artists. Many of her songs are Kagamine Len and Rin with her ability to smoothly switch between them. She’s known for her little boy voice and many of her hits get millions of views. Her works include Remote Control, Hanging Garden, and GHOST which are also on the disc. A preview can be found on Nico Nico Douga along with Lon’s video list that has some of the included songs.

Bonus features include a strap for sticking on a keychain or apparel and a small mousepad both with designs of Lon’s character. Insert has lyrics and credit pages as expected. Releases such as these that have some of the songs with Vocaloid origins show human vocals can be as good if not better than the original.

EhNani here helped introduce me to this music quite a while back…all your fault. Thanks.

It can be bought on Amazon or many sites that sell similar music.

It’s so easy to leave manga around wherever, run out of space from having too many, or just not enough room among other personal belongings. Storing on a wall can add more space and create creative ways to show off or to make a more pleasant environment. The one above in the image can be found here on a site called Etsy. Browsing the site will lead to many other designed goods and many sellers at the site even offer custom work.

Give the appearance of manga on the wall without something holding it there with the Conceal or Z Shelf wall shelves by Miron Lior. The designer’s site is Flash based, so the items can’t be linked to directly but one can select the times in the shop tab to find where to buy. Conceal is the small and inexpensive one that doesn’t show the shelving and Z Shelf has a zig zag design that holds the books on their side. Slip the cover around the metal bit and there are small parts that hold the cover from opening. Always remember to find the studs in the wall to make sure the shelving is held tightly to the wall.

Bed readers can enjoy bedside lighting with easy access to their reading with the Lili Light. One half of it stores while the other half has the light that turns on and off if there is a book laying above it. Works as a bookmark without having to stick something inside your manga and has a manual switch if you don’t want to lay a book there for extended periods of time.

If looking for something custom or homemade, try out this tutorial on how to make your own upside down shelf. There’s five steps and the tutorial author even suggests glueing toys or small things to finish off the illusion.

by Miwa Shirow

I hate Vocaloid, and its many abnormal hair colored incarnations. I hate it so much that I could puke. So explain to me… why nearly eight gigabytes of my iPod is occupied by Hatsune Miku and her Nazi friends? Why more than 240$ of my hard-earned paychecks has gone to purchase of synthetic vocal collections? Why I waste many hours out of my week scanning Nico Nico Douga for new songs and videos of that little virtual cunt? But more importantly, why do I cry myself to sleep every night…?

I have a German friend, whom I will refer to as “ribbon”. Now ribbon and I see eye to eye on an intellectual level. We have long engaging talks through the night on topics ranging from the health of the American economy to which child star we would like to bang. However, he revealed to me on one such night a certain anime series he was looking forward to for the New Year, and now we are no longer friends.

But that’s not what I wanted to write. Yesterday, I told ribbon to watch an ONA called “Ontama” since I thought the show was fairly entertaining and cute. He looked it up on youtube and told me that it was a children’s show and that the girl was too young. I was taken aback by the statement “too young” because as far as I know, I don’t watch anime to get a stiffy. He explained to me that is the only reason he watches anime. And also why he loves K-on.

Now, how do these two off-tangent blurbs tie together? Well, the anime he was looking forward to for January 2010 is none other than So-Ra-No-Wo-To. I took it to be nothing more than K-on! with less tea-time and more hay rides. Ribbon sees it as more K-on with less music. Well, at least we agree that it’s going to be another K-on! On the other hand, perhaps we’re both wrong and it is actually something worth watching. Whatever.

You guys suck.

More importantly, one of my good friends from way back is going to jail for child porn. Let’s wish him luck, wherever the court trials lead him. If you liked K-on, then you’ll probably be joining him in a few years. Say hi for me, you sheeps.

Oh yes, by the way, I’ve done gone and bought me one of them fancy television sets. I now have a use for the PS3 sitting in my closet.

Yes, my room is that dark.

What an ugly cover.

A recent article from Yen Press reveals the cover for the new English version of Spice and Wolf, and boy does it suck. Do people really buy novels based on the cover? Unfortunately, yes. It’s a rather shallow way of approaching literature; no, rather than shallow, I’d have to say contradictory… Therefore I can understand their reasoning behind why they would pull something so daft. Many people are less inclined to buy novels with anime characters on the cover, including myself. However, I’m sure whoever gets tricked into buying spice and wolf will feel betrayed upon seeing the inner illustrations, so I think pulling that move was rather stupid and unnecessary on Yen Press’s part.

Not to mention, I’m pretty sure a lot of potential buyers didn’t buy the Haruhi novel because the cover for the paperback sucked. Besides, even though the cover was not anime-oriented, they still stuck it in the “manga” section of every bookstore I’ve gone to. It seems everything is just working against these people’s genuine efforts to bring Japanese light novels to a wider audience. Oh well, I don’t think too highly of any of these children’s books to begin with, so I’m not too affected.

To be entirely frank, I’m not completely enamored of Spice and Wolf, and its elementary economics, or its token furry heroine. I don’t care if the series gets ruined because it got a horrible eyesore as a cover, or the fact Yen Press’s logogram experts can’t come up with a title design that does not look like some early 90’s RPG. Let’s just say, I’m content with what I see. Hah!

As it turns out, today was the date set for something called MikuFES’09. And amongst the humble list of artists who will be present, the last name on the list surprised me. MOSAIC.WAV, known for their creation of the ‘new’ music genre “Akiba-Pop”, have jumped on the bandwagon and will be releasing a ‘collaboration’ CD with Hatsune Miku. Now the only part of all this that bothers me… Is that MOSAIC.WAV already has a high-pitched vocalist who gives me headaches. If you add in Miku to that garbage, just how awful will it become?

On the other hand, MOSAIC.WAV haven’t exactly been the talk of the town after Sumomo mo Momomo, Potemayo, and Kyouran Kazoku Nikki; so perhaps this is their chance to worm their way back into the afterthoughts of nerdy otaku socialites.

What a long wait...

This news isn’t new in the slightest, I believe it was announced nearly two weeks before Comic Market 76. However, my lack of enthusiasm for websurfing cost me dearly in this regard. That makes me sound like I actually care. Hah, nevermind that. I know I won’t be buying this.