アニメ Republic

Something I have been questing for quite some time now has been the deck of tarot cards released by then Pioneer as a mail-in offer for their release of the Sol Bianca OVA series (not to be confused with the two OVA/Movies that were released in the early 90’s).

You can see the whole deck here as well as a couple of shots I took of the deck I finally found recently on eBay here and here. I really don’t know much of anything about tarot, but this was one of those anime related rare treasure items that was released in limited quantities almost ten years ago that I just had to have.

Enjoy!!

Well I know wonders never cease, but I have added a couple of new pillow covers to the Linens & Things collection.

First up is the latest in a long line of Ryomou Shimei (Ikki Tousen, like you needed that) pillow covers. You can see one side here and the other here.

Also added to the collection is this one from Zoku Satsuriku no Jango video game/visual novel/whatever thing. Honestly, it was on sale and she looks hot. I have never played or even seen the game for that matter. Yeah, it doesn’t take much. You can see the other side here.

More later.

Enjoy!!

This represents the 40th Ikki Tousen figure in my collection, not counting duplicates or trading figures. I guess it is appropriate that this would be one of Ryomou. This is the “Festival version” from Dragon Destiny released last year by Amie-Grand. The other 39 figures can be seen in various places in the collection including here and here.

In retrospect I think I should have used a different color background for these pictures, but it still works for the most part. Here are a few shots of her from the front and slightly closer; from the back; from one side and then the other; and a couple of close-ups, one with flash and the other without. And just to add a bit of completeness here are a couple of shot of the box, from the front and then the back.

Enjoy!!

January has a number of interesting items in the group. I posted previously about the Macross game LD I picked up at the beginning of the month. Adding to that is this round of items.

First up we have Ikki Tousen Great Guardians Volume 5. This volume comes with the usual round of extras including mini-poster, pencil board and two more postcards. Also included is a booklet and reversible cover (same image as the pencil board).

Next up to bat is one I have been looking forward to for a while. This is volume 1 of a two-volume OVA series for Ichigo Mashimaro. The only bad thing about this is that it is only two episodes. Hopefully it will sell well enough to encourage them to produce more anime for this series. More Nobue is always a good thing.  This volume comes with a box for both volumes, a booklet, a notepad with five different recurring images watermarked onto the pages (but who would ever actually USE this? No true fan that’s for sure!), and a mini-poster (first press item) of Anna and Matsuri.

The last couple of items are both from Ikki Tousen. The first is the Great Guardians fan book. If the fan book for Dragon Destiny was considered to be nothing but extreme fan service, this can be considered one step away from porn. Pretty much nothing is left to the imagination. I’m trying to figure out a way to scan the pages without damaging the book its self. If I can I’ll update the page accordingly. The second is one I saw on the pre-order list and to be honest wasn’t that sure what is was but since it was pretty cheap I figured I’d give it a shot. It is a collection of covers (presumably for the Japanese version) for the Ikki Tousen manga volumes. There are eight different designs total. They are on two types of paper. The first is just standard poster paper and the second is a more plastic type. On the second type the folds have been pre-pressed. I assume to make it easier to put them on the manga volumes. Each image comes in both paper and plastic versions with a total of 16 covers in the box. Here are some shots to give an example of what they look like. Here, here, here, and here. There are 8 more covers in the set, but they are the same images as these, just on a different type of paper. That was certainly hard to convey.

Enjoy!!

I got in this latest addition to the collection as part of my January orders. This one is far more “official” then the last couple I got in. Here is a quick shot of one side and then the other side.

Enjoy!!

As a somewhat early start to the haul for January 2009, I’ve posted some shots of an LD I just picked up off eBay. It was quite a rare find and as the seller had a ‘buy it now’ option and the listing hadn’t been up for more than half a day I was lucky enough to snag it.

From what I can tell from the reference here at the Macross World site, this is rather rare indeed. I haven’t had a chance to play it yet as I still have to get my main LD player set-up again after Anime LA. Here is a shot of the front cover with obi on and the back cover with obi off to the side. And here is a group shot with the front cover with obi off plus the two inserts. The first insert is a one-sheet with a postcard attachment and the other insert is a two sided tri-fold with character information and sketches.

Enjoy!!

A few items came in that fall neatly into this category so I figured I would list them all together. Please note that many of these images in this update are very much NSFW. You have been warned.

First up is a figure I picked up recently off eBay. This is a modified version of an existing figure with added…..enhancements. I would put the scale at about 1/6. I have included a few shots of this new one in its new home along with Ryofu and Kanu, also in various states of undress. I also included the detailed pictures from the eBay auction listing (thanks!) as they are very good and thus save me the time in taking my own. At the end of the batch are the “censored” shots mainly just for humor value. These were used on the eBay listing its self as eBay tends to not like boobs.

And in the “why even bother” category I have added in a couple more pillow covers, both from Ikki Tousen. These are also to be considered very NSFW. For whatever reason I decided pony up a few bucks for a couple of these more than likely bootleg pillow covers from some dude in China. I really don’t need to say any more than that.

First up is the Kanu cover. Here is a shot of one side and the other. Next up is the Ryomou cover. Again here is a shot of one side and the other side. Notice the high degree of sheen on these. Yeah, that’s pretty much what they look like. Well, at least now I know. I also picked up a slightly less suspect “sports” towel of Ryomou from the same guy. At least this one looks somewhat legit.

This concludes the NSFW update. Into storage they go. After all it’s not like I will actually use them.

Enjoy!!

The December 2008 batch of items brings a close to the year. It’s another small but rather notable grouping this time around. Here is a quick group shot of the DVDs, CD, and Blu-ray for this round.

Leading the charge of course is the latest volume in the Ikki Tousen Great Guardians series. Volume 4 comes with a box (yes, I did get two. It’s me after all) to house the remaining volumes in the series (4-6) plus all the standard goodies such as two more postcards, a new pencil board, reversible cover (same image as the pencil board), booklet and mini poster.

The best thing about this volume in my opinion has to be the bonus CD that comes with the DVD. This CD has a fairly large number of pre-sized wallpapers from all three series (IT, IT: DD & IT: GG) plus several screen saver apps (install is in Japanese, but it’s pretty easy to figure out. Hint: rename the file first before trying to run the install) as well as a bunch of character icons. I have already loaded up one of the screen savers, applied one of the wallpapers and tried out a few of the icons. Not truly that big of a deal, but if you want to jazz up your desktop with a bunch of Ikki Tousen theme items; it’s the way to go.

Next up is the fifth volume for Macross Frontier. This is the Blu-ray edition and comes with a box (no, I only got one) to house the first five volumes (Blu-ray) of the series. I picked up the first volume of this series just to check it out and then picked up volume two because of the first press “pins” that came with it (unfortunately those turned out to be less the stellar). This is as far as I’ll go with this series for now unless they release a later volume with another box. I know the series will not get picked up in R1 land, but since the JP releases do not have any English access I really can’t justify it past a couple of “just to check it out” volumes.

Moving happily along is the CD/DVD combo for the new Ichigo Marshmallow OVA series. The CD is for the OP/ED songs and the DVD has the OP/ED credit less animations. I’ll probably pick up this OVA series when it starts as it is only a short OVA series. And for more Nobue.

Rounding things off, I picked up another Ikki Tousen poster (seen here with the mini-poster for IT: GG volume 4). This is described as a “bathtub poster”. Apparently this is the idea of how it is supposed to be used.  Yeah, as cool as that may be I don’t think I’ll be doing that anytime soon.  And finally here are a couple of shots of the latest in the line of never-to-be-used Ikki Tousen body pillow covers. This one is of Ryofu Housen in (or in this case ‘mostly out of’) school uniform.

Well that’s all for this round. Until next time.

Enjoy!!

I’ve pretty much given up on the whole idea of disclaiming how I won’t buy any more of these as it is quite obvious that will not be happening any time soon. But at least I know they will stay in mint condition! Here are a couple of shots of the latest in the line of never-to-be-used Ikki Tousen body pillow covers. This one is of Ryofu Housen in (or in this case ‘mostly out of’) school uniform. I have a couple more on order of the more… how should it be put…NSFW versions. More on those later though.

Enjoy!!

As I mentioned back in the October listing I had picked up the first volume of the new MS Igloo series on Blu-ray rather than on DVD. Therefore my Bandai Visual USA MS Igloo DVDs would not fit in the box as I had planned. Blu-ray is great and all don’t get me wrong, but since this release was in Japanese with no English subtitles, it was more about the packaging.

I have since rectified that issue with the same volume 1 of the second MS Igloo series on DVD with box that nicely hold Bandai Visual USA’s two volume release of the first series plus this first volume of the second series. All is now well in box land.

I’ll hang onto the Blu-ray version as well, just on the extreme off chance that Bandai Entertainment USA will release the new series under their Honneamise line (formerly Bandai Visual USA) in Blu-ray (or at all for that matter). It’s still a cool box after all.

Anyhow, off to Anime LA!

Enjoy!!