This just in, the much awaited 2nd season of Haruhi will indeed air this year. A few weeks ago it was revealed that the 1st season will reair in april. Of course this caused quite a bit stir in fans and many, including myself, thought “well they the hell make an announcement leading us to believe you were airing season 2 this april?”. It seems they had a plan all along and according to reports, season 2 will begin after the airing of the 1st season. In otherwords Haruhi season 2 airs in july. So unless there is a report further down the track declairing otherwise, mark it on your calanders… Haruhi season 2 in july

So today my brand spanking new gundam kit arrived in what I thought was a rather excessivly sized box. Looked like it could of shipped a small child it was so large. As the pics below should show as well this kit is indeed so big that it requires (rather gracious of Bandai) a carry handle to cart around; something i’ve never had the pleasure of seeing on a kit i’ve bought. Gone is the flimsy cardboard housing that could eaisly be taken apart by some theiving bastard to steal a precious runner which would leave you and your kit high and dry. This baby is fully enclosed, fully colored thick cardboard which looks like in itself would of cost a little bit to make.

It even has embossed kanji on the side of the box which makes it very pretty to display. Unfortunatly due to the weather and the time this guy arrived construction is schedualed to start tomorrow when I wake up so this is sort of a pre-build post just to show off the box. Next 2, 3 or mabye even 4 posts I do will be about the building of this bad boy. Fun times ahead!

PG Astray kit together with the Limited options kit. This includes an extra katana, stand for both weapons as well as clear armor plating that replaces 2/3rds of the armor on him, including head, shoulders, 1 arm, 1 leg, chest and waist,  allowing you to show his innards off.

This is the other side of the box. Spiffy no?

Next up we have a size comparison with the Strike gundam’s housing. As you can see the Astray box is around 2 – 3 inches taller and about 2 inches wider. More parts = more fun

And finally here we have the side of the box which has the handle on it as well as the embossing. So far this kit gets a 10/10 on box presentation

So… tomorrow starts a long day of sore shoulders and modeling. Many more pics to come.

Dosei Mansion is a so far four volume science fiction manga by Hisae Iwaoka. It is unlicensed, but there is or was a live action adaptation movie in the works. You can find the author’s site and illustration gallery here. The latest announcement there is for the cover art of Apple Light’s Pocket of Rain album. Apple Light is a group that a lot like The Pillows, but more tame.

The basic story idea is of a young boy named Mitsu who lives in the lower and poorer area of a huge flying ring structure where people live. Mitsu graduates middle school, but his father dies and leaves him with the job of cleaning the flying ring’s windows. Humanity now lives in such places because everyone decided to no longer be allowed to step foot on Earth. The story takes its time and the artwork is flawless (see link above). Maybe there can be enough buzz or people bugging publishers to get the manga into English.

Apple Light – Pocket of Rain Amazon Japan
Volume one of Dosei Mansion Amazon Japan or beNippon

On the website for CNN’s TIME magazine, 4chan.org’s owner moot is currently holding #3 as the world’s most influential people on the finalist list for 2009. Voting is still open and surely the army of 4chan isn’t going to take anything less than top. It would be an interesting turn of events to have moot on the front page of a magazine of readers who don’t know who he is. This will just add even more new people to visit the site as people who see the list wonder who he is. You can see the full list or vote here.
Update: He’s now #1…at times… Also it’s up to the editors to decide who gets to be on the cover with a different list.

This series is more cute and dramatic if anything and not really a humor series which the back of the book claims. Thankfully the my lack of normal humor is delaying its “die laughing” side effect long enough to post this. Momo Tama is about a short boy named Kokonose Mutsu who’s out to reclaim his very special island, which has been turned into a base for training students to become ogre killing senkishi. Only problem is Kokonose is short, arrogant, and too cute to be taken very seriously. He has powers and is nearly fearless, so with that he sets out on his mission to retake the island. Won’t be easy since many of the instructors are powerful and Kokonose even comes across the descendant Momotaro himself, the one who banished his family. He’s a strong yaoi man with a military uniform and it should be noted that Momotaro was born from a peach and has three animals in the form of humans who fight with him.

Momo Tama is easy to get into, styled, and cute. Nobody really mentions Kokonose’s odd clothing or hair cut as he lands on the island and it’s amusing to watch his expressions change as his life is in danger. The art of this manga is sharp and smooth, but isn’t perfect on occasion like previous Chrono works. One or two panels are difficult to fully grasp and many of the non-main characters aren’t easy to remember or tell apart. An example would be not really knowing what Chairman Nagato Tougen (the 39th Momotaro) hit Kokonose with in chapter two – Allow Me to Speak. It may stem from the author’s older work which was very gritty and ruff, but in a good way (see ADV’s Peacemaker manga).

Tokyopop is the current license holder and volume two is due out in May 12th, 2009. There are two volumes mentioned on their site, but five volumes out in Japan with serialization in Mag Garden’s Comic Blade (that also brought Beyond the Beyond, Erementar Gerad, Gamerz Heaven, Tactics, Otogi Zoshi, and others). With that said I would actually recommend this if you like Erementar Gerad or the previously mentioned manga. They are all supernatural, styled, and dramatic fantasies. Of course you can look into Peacemaker and Vassalord which are also by Nanae Chrono and licensed. Have good expectations for this well spoken nine year old exorcist because he’ll be worth a lot money once he owns the island. I love the main character because he’s very reminiscent of Peacemaker’s Tetsunosuke, but with a wide mischievous smile like The Cheshire cat of Alice in Wonderland. Get this.

Number of times Kokonose showed a hint of fear: 3
Number of times Safari 4 crashed while writing this: 1
Number of pink manga covers for Momo Tama: …every volume is pink.

So while I wait rather impaitently for the release of the Astray gundam kit next week (which I will be doing a rather lengthy post on as I construct it) I thought i’d try and keep my bordem to a minimum with a rather basic topic. Desktops. Everyone has them, everyone has different tastes. Heres mine and I invite you to show off your own in return. What say you?

Few things in case your wondering.

• I have the start menu on auto hide. I’d disable it with a program but I do use it from time to time
• On the left is a program called Rainmeter. Great program for a few set useful things
• Everything except for the winamp controller and network traffic meter, is from the same skin which is avaliable Here 
• Program on the right is Rocketdock. Same thing as Objectdock, but free and cleaner
• I’m using Windows 7 beta, so if anyone knows how to get rid of that damned recycle bin, PLEASE tell me. I hate it there