It’s been 6 months since I got these two figurines, and I never got round to doing a full photoshoot with them… I have used them for experimenting in my dodgy made lightbox, and the results haven’t been as great as I have been expecting. Even now, I’m finding that doing a good, plain photoshoot still hasn’t produced the kind of quality I’ve been looking for, but nevertheless, after taking hundreds of shots, here are some of the results.
I do hope to do an outdoors photoshoot and get better results sometime in the future… But time is hard to find these days.
Rika-chama~! ^.^
Continue reading Photoshoot (Lightbox) – Furude Rika and Hanyuu by Wave
*cries so much* Okay, well, this is primarily a test post, just to see if Facebook will now import my full blog post now, and if it doesn’t, screw it… So anyway, back on topic. I WANT MY REI!!! Three days is way too long to wait! I’m downloading that 40MB terrible quality raw of episode 1 and I hope to watch it soon, even though it’s a raw, and I won’t be able to understand much… Damn it!!! I want to start Higurashi Rei!!!!!! *cries even more* If you haven’t noticed already, yes, I made a new header image especially for the release of Higurashi Rei. Speaking of Higurashi, well, Rika in particular, it’s good to know that she is in the International Saimoe League and I certainly hope that she once again, is declared Queen of Moe!
Now Higurashi aside for a bit, Seriously, remember that whole big argument I had with Bayden about Creative vs. iPod… well… that continued yesterday, with my good ol’ food tech buddy, Nick… So, that went on for a while longer, Bayden seems to have given in? Anyway, so, they kinda killed my blog in the way that means my view count for yesterday was 67, which is about 60 views above the norm… 50 of those 67 views, were on that post… (Sarcastically) Thanks Nick and Bayden. (even though I did play a large role in starting the whole argument… So yes, wasn’t that fun?
Oh crap… Just seen the first 5 seconds of that video I downloaded of Rei. As was expected, animation is below standard… Well, not as pretty as Higurashi Kai that is, but better than the first season… Anyway, so I’m not going to watch a low quality version of Higurashi no naku koro ni Rei just yet. I’m going to save it, till the official release date. Then watch the fansub release. Damn it!!! Why do you haunt me Rei!!!!! *cries some more as I resist the urge to watch Rei*
Haha, okay, so, as from my last post, I’ve given it some thought, relaxed myself, and I have come to a “final conclusion” about spending $46.17AUD for the “Higurashi no naku koro ni Character Illustration Book”. So, first of all, I would like to present to you the firm, and essentially, the un-opinionated points. First of all, the book cost 2,381 Japanese Yen. The current exchange rate, translates to $38.80AUD. Shipping the book from Japan would have cost at least $10AUD and there is no guarantee that it would arrive on time, or at all for that matter. The book contains 128 pages, 84 original full colour artworks, along with an artist Q&A, one sided poster, and a 12 page merchandise list. That’s all assuming I can count properly. All artworks are textless, full color, and are done by the original artists from both seasons of the series. Any text is in Japanese.
Okay, so opinionated things now. We shall start with the negatives just to be a little pessimistic. Now, the main reason I thought I wouldn’t like what was inside, I knew that there was going to be a lot of fan service. Now, that was from some blog or something (I don’t remember the web address or anything) and from which, they had said a lot of the images had already been leaked on to the internet, of which I had trouble finding. They were not kidding when they said that it had a large amount of fan service! The poster is definitely fan service as it has Rika as a “catgirl” and in a pose that makes her look vulnerable? I don’t know, but I’m not the type that would put up that sort of a poster. I was much rather hoping for the famous “Rika and Hanyuu in front of the moon” pic but noooo… Approximately 28 of the artworks are “material that is designed to amuse or excite the audience with sexually-derived content”, and I would not be surprised if people disagreed with me and said that there was less than 28 designed that way. Personally, not high enough quality art with too much fan service from the artists of the first season. Some of the art from the first season artists are rather low-res, felt kinda rushed and not very detailed. The first season artists were cheap. It had all the DVD covers from the first season but only one from the second season?
The positives? The book is nice and large, has a decent number of original artworks. It is nice, thick and high quality paper that it is printed on, and generally well ordered and presented. The art from the second season artists was a lot better, was more detailed and high-res. Much less “sexually-derived content” by the second artists, and overall the second half of the book was what I was looking for. Much like any Higurashi fan, more Rika and Hanyuu pics would have been better but nevertheless, it does have a fair image gallery of them two.
Price wise, judging by quality of paper, amount and content of art, the current exchange rate, and the fact that it was official merchandise of a series I now seem to almost(?) have an obsession with, it wasn’t that bad. Had I known what it contained detailedly, I would not have payed the amount I did pay for the book. I get paid standard about $8 an hour, buying that book cost me 6 hours of work. Although I’m regretting spending $46.17 on such a book, I’m not kicking myself anymore. I am not mad, nor am I happy. I am just plain confused now… I am very confused. Now, I am unsure of what to do with my money… I do plan on buying more Higurashi merchandise, (I have my eyes on things already) but where’s the money? *cries* I’m so confused right now…
Okay, so my blog is now kinda my website, with my profiles on many internet based life like this as my “homepage/website”. Although, what I mean by my title is that my blog is becoming as frequently updated as The Corny Paper was. Speaking of which, the upgrade of that site isn’t exactly moving very fast. (Or at all for that matter!) Hehe, I don’t expect many blog posts this month as I become more lazy as was explained in my “About my Blog” part of this blog… *sigh* What shall I write about today? There isn’t really much to say. Sam stole some of my money again on Saturday, which, you could say, was kinda expected but meh. (He didn’t actually “steal” it, he just borrowed quite a bit off me again)
Okay, I should buy that/those Japanese Dictionary/ies that I’ve been meaning to buy. I bought me a very good condition second hand manga chaper three of “Higurashi no naku koro ni – Tsumihoroboshi-hen” in Japanese and I can barely understand it… I also took a look at Kinokuniya to look for the “Higurashi no naku koro ni Character Illustration Book” and to see if they have any of the recently released translated chapters. No translated chapters in stock however I did find the Illustration Book. It’s a nice bulk of color pages. It is wrapped in plastic so you can’t take a look into it. Some have been leaked out onto the internet, and so I know that there is a large amount of fanservice to the book whcih I don’t like… Grr at fanservice… It costs $46.16 here… I don’t know if I should buy it though… I want to, but spending $46 on something like a lot of fanservice… I don’t think so… Although I’m probably gonna buy it sometime soon. What’s the chance of it appearing in a second hand book shop?
Hehe, I’ve been working recently… I don’t like my job that much… Standing around scanning items and asking whether they’re paying credit or if they want a bag for their items… Well, at least it earns me money eh? Money which I’m scared to spend… Grr… Thomas and Daniel have pretty much been drained of all their money since their trip to Hong Kong, so probably not going to do much during the upcoming holidays… (Yay! No school soon!) Hopefully I’ll be doing something interesting during the holidays, but right now, since everyone has no money, that doesn’t seem likley… So I guess I’ll be staying at home, spending my time watching anime and working, and not going out having a social life… Heh, sounds like fun eh? Oh and just an added note, I found out sometime today, that someone doesn’t like the sunlight because it causes cancer… True, but… you know…
Note that this was a post from my blog at an older location: Posted July 2 2008
Well, it is now July and so I think that the Watanagashi of 2008 was the same as Watanagashi of 1983. Anyway, I have recently just finished “Higurashi no naku no koro ni Kai” (”ひぐらしのなく頃に解” in Japanese, “When the higurashi cry – ‘Counter of Occurrences’” as English translation.), which is the name of the sequel to “Higurashi no naku koro ni” – See “Happy Watanagashi”. Higurashi Kai (for short) was not quite as gory or horror-y as the prequel, which I know some viewers were disappointed with.
In Higurashi Kai, the chain of bizarre and gruesome deaths continue on, along with the forever repeating June of 1983. Rika is stuck in an endless cycle of rebirth, thus she is the only one who has witnessed every single death in each realm and she tries desperately to find a way out of June, avoid her death, and move to see the world ahead of June 1983. Problem is, can you change fate? Rika has witnessed the same events over and over again and always ends up being murdered in the end. She feels that there is no way out of this fate. Are all her efforts pointless? Or can fate be changed?
Higurashi Kai focused more on answering questions from the prequel, and focused more on Rika and the reasoning behind the ever-repeating June of 1983. I found that this sequel was a lot less confusing than the first mainly because I’ve kinda figured out how the first season was structured and that Kai gave me the answers to some of the questions, especially why June was continually repeated… New questions have been raised in this season and an epilogue that certainly raises an eyebrow and asks whether there will be a sequel to this season.
Now, this season certainly hooked me in when the whole “changing fate” thing came in and if it was even possible. Once again, a very appropriate soundtrack was used. I very much enjoy the opening theme and the end theme song was easier to understand compared to the prequel’s, even though it was in Japanese and the prequel’s was in “English”. There is notable improvements in animation (notably the eyes) although it was still a rather poor standard… I have heard from other sources that there is some form of sequel to be released/produced sometime this year, although it does seem unrelated to the “Higurashi” series. This is definitely not to be watched unless you have seen the prequel.
Next on my anime watch list – “Vampire Knight” and “Death Note”.
Story – 10
Animation – 8
Music – 10
Characters – 9
Enjoyment – 10
Overall Rating – 9.5 out of 10
More info on “Higurashi no naku koro ni Kai”: Wikipedia ||| Anime News Network ||| My Anime List
Note that this was a post from my blog at an older location: Posted June 19 2008
Well, seeing that it’s June, I thought that it’d be kinda appropriate if I reviewed the events of “Watanagashi” that occurred 25 years ago, from an anime that I have recently finished watching. “Higurashi no naku no koro ni” (“ひぐらしのなく頃に” in Japanese, “When the higurashi cry” as English translation.), is the name of this anime, and I am currenly watching the sequal, “Higurashi no naku no koro ni Kai”. Be warned that Higurashi does contain quite a bit of yelling and horror elements to it.
The basic story line of the plot, is that the main character’s family, Keiichi Maebara, moves to a village called “Hinamizawa”. “Hinamizawa” seems to be a a relatively “normal” village to Keiichi, however, this “normal” feeling changes after the annual “Watanagashi” Festival. “Watanagashi” is a celebration to commemorate and give thanks to the local god, although, Keiichi learns that every year for the past four years, one person has been murdered and another has gone missing on the day of the Watanagashi Festival and Keiichi is soon brought into the strange events that take place every year. The anime uses separate story arcs and in each story arc, he or one of his friends succumbs to extreme paranoia. Often, this paranoia often results into the murder of one or more of their own friends.
Although at first I found this anime to be very confusing, (especially after the events of episode 5 after what took place in episode 4), I found that continuing to watch this anime was certainly not a bad decision. It is not at all innocent and cute like a lot of anime’s. The events of Watanagashi, and the reasons behind it, are slowly revealed to us in a somewhat annoying way, but the resulting answers I found to be rather satisfying despite it’s mind-boggling-ness, although the ending I found to be a little cliche. It also left me a few questions unanswered which resulted me in watching the sequal.
Higurashi was certainly not how I expected it to be, nor had I expected what was to happen in the next episodes and the sequal (which I am near the end of watching…). The soundtrack for this anime was very appropriate although the ending theme (even though I speak English) was hard to understand but it was a nice lead-up for the next episode preview. A few downsides are that the animation is rather poor, and although the the voice actors did do their best (and I think that it was the best any voice actor could do…) in quite a few scenes (notably the ladder scene), I will have to lower my overall score. I would very much recommend this to anyone who does not mind the blood and violence that is present in this anime.
Story – 9
Animation – 6
Music – 10
Characters – 8
Enjoyment – 9
Overall Rating – 8.5 out of 10
I am terrible at writing reviews…
More info on “Higurashi no naku koro ni”: Wikipedia ||| Anime News Network ||| My Anime List
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