Renato

You had me at "opening battroid hatch". I'm buying this (if it ever comes out). Meanwhile I will be watching its development very closely. Also, only a few more weeks until Bandai Sound Booster goodness!

So is anybody playing Peace Walker yet? I've played for a few hours, but I suck. Really fun game, though. I'm alternating between this and Macross Ultimate Frontier (again) right now.

No, there's no option to turn them off. That was one of the things I was fearing when I saw the screenshots (the windows are definitely much bigger than they were in Ace Frontier), as well as the overall expansion of the display icons and gauges onscreen. It seemed to take up so much space it was ridiculous. However, when I actually played the game it all seemed natural and oddly it never seems to be in the way of the action. I wouldn't dwell too much on it. Recently I've started playing the game again since I have a new train commute these days. It really is fun, and it's never over because even after you beat everything there is still Ultimate Mode. Free Missions and Chronicle, etc. My favourite feature has to be the custom soundtrack, though. It's so much more gratifying to blow away enemy Zentradi pods to the tunes of Led Zeppelin, etc. In fact, I was thinking of putting some Youtube vids up of some of the more interesting sounds to suit the action. Tune points, har har!!

The one with Alto and the 25 on the grass, right? Yeah, I remember Graham asking Tenjin about that painting a few weeks ago, and he replied that it will indeed be in the book, so don't worry.

Fukuyama plays Hummingbird songs all the time in his concerts since he composed most of them anyway, that's nothing new. What IS new is that the song itself is the first new Hummingbird song in over 10 years, since Furuya has been out of the loop forever (in fact, I think he was living abroad for a while, maybe Hawaii?). As for the Kajiura concert, yeah, I might go. It's a bit pricey, though. I wonder if she has any new material, though. Most of her songs are like 15 years old, too.

But... the pictures are right here on this very page.

Thanks! I did find it there, but I just uninstalled the movie player from my hard drive while doing some disk cleanup last week. I'll get around to it in the next couple of days. I see it's on Youtube, too, so I'll just watch that for the time being, and I will download the higher quality version (because the visuals are just amazing!) in the next couple of days. I was just searching on Amazon for the DVDs, and the Japanese site has the DVDs for like 36,000 yen, while the UK site has them for like 4 pounds. What the hell. It was the same for Orguss 02, I just got the UK versions.

This is absolutely uncanny. I LITERALLY woke up this morning thinking about Project A-ko for some random reason. I thought it was odd that I had never actually seen the entire thing, just clips. I have no idea why I never got around to watching it, since I know that it's one of those 1980s greats, but long forgotten in today's market. I think the reason I remembered it was because recently I've been going to several rental shops here in Tokyo to try to dig up some old classics, like SPT Layzner which my local one in Kyoto got on DVD just before I moved out of there, but it seems like many are long gone. Even Spriggan seems to be only available on VHS, and that's from the 90s. But I was actually going to do a search for A-ko online, and when I log on to MW, wouldn't you know it, IT'S THE FIRST TOPIC IN THE ANIME/SF FORUM. Colour me stunned.

I can't see where it says "perfectly". There is a couple of places where it says that it has a 3-stage transformation sequence (３段変形). In my experience, that means getting from B, G, F requires part-swapping etc. Remember that the old v.1 Yamato 1/60s were ３段変形 rather than 完全変形 (PT). It also says that the infinity valk has its own interpretation of the transformation, and from what I can see in the pics it may be referring to the whole nosecone and crotch assembly. In short, it won't transform like it does in the show.

Wow, I had not heard that the JET program was being phased out. Huh, I think they have been rapidly approaching the bursting point for a while now, so I can't say I'm all that surprised, though...

SCOOPDA!! I never thought I would see this webpage again, but it's back from the dead: http://members3.jcom.home.ne.jp/rocky_furuya/ It's Yoshiyuki Furuya's homepage, the bassist from Hummingbird. Apparently, after what has become a ten-year hiatus (to which I am incredulous, it still seems just like yesterday that they broke up!), HummingBird is BACK!! Kind of. They have a new song, "Juutakuyou-kasaikeihouki-sentai JuukeiRanger" (phew), or "Home Disaster Alarm Team Juukei-Ranger". Er... Yeah. It seems to be more of a regional-volunteer, awareness-promotion kinda thing. Will this be the beginning of something new for Hummingbird, or just a one-off?? Who knows? Watch this space! (Fukuyama's diary does mention that they did it for free and have no funds to sell CDs, so... here's hoping??) BTW you can download the song for free here: http://members3.jcom.home.ne.jp/rocky_furu...i/download.html

I guess you could just put one on each side. I always liked the VB6 design, but my Yamato one seems bigger and badder to me, so I'm not so excited about this. I might get one eventually,　though.

Hideaki Tenjin's new artbook is out now, it's called "WORKS", and "VALKYRIES 2" is coming soon, so don't you worry.

I think it's just personal preference. That picture just refreshes my preference for the 1/48. The floating head on the 1/60 just looks stupid in comparison (to me).

Don't you mean the first 1/60 (v1)? I think the 1/48s were always around Y12,000.

Thank you for the info, this was what I was waiting for. Goddamn you, Bandai. I'm buying, but man, I hate myself.

Yep. And he seemed positively bored out of his mind by the end. Overall, I think the piece was OK as far as Western journalistic coverage of the topic in the mainstream is concerned, because there is such a dearth of it anyway. But a lot of things were simplistic, sometimes to the point of strengthening the Western-held stereotypes regarding anime I thought had died out. I liked the interview with that poor douga artist, though. Bless 'im.

Wow, some of you guys are really sensitive about this word. From my experience, I can say that there is definitely a negative connotation and the Japanese in general know it, which is why oftentimes they will instinctively blurt out "some gaijin are..." and then they immediately realize they are in public and ought to behave with the standard etiquette and correct themselves, by saying "gaikokujin" (especially if they are in the presence of a foreigner). It's a split-second thing, but it shows that some feel guilt over using the word "gaijin" publicly. It is also an insight into their private use of the word, and you will hear it being used amongst Japanese if they feel that no foreigners are around to hear it. One time I was in an elevator and a boy and his dad got on, the boy looked at me and said "Ah! Gaijin da", and was promptly smacked round the head by the father, who then apologized to me. I told him it was OK and laughed it off. It just wasn't a big deal, but I can see that to some people it is. Older people definitely feel no real stigma surrounding the word and just use it willy-nilly. I'm OK with that, too, I guess. Maybe I'm just beyond caring at this point? Certainly I use it all the time, to describe myself and other foreigners, usually in a humorous context. Maybe I have some kind of darkly comic self-loathing, "pathetic foreigner who will never understand" thing going on, but to me that, plus knowing and adhering to the rules and customs of Japanese society, are sort of what you need to enjoy life over here. In my personal opinion, being a foreigner in Japan is a lifetime thing even if you are naturalised and get citizenship, that's just the way it is, no kidding yourself about it. Once you make your peace with that while being respectful of the society and playing your part in it, then you can be accepted for what you are. I know there are people out there (and I've met many) who are either like "since I'll always be a foreigner and always be an outcast, I'll just break all the rules, not bother to learn the language, behave how I want, etc.", or "I know this, that and the Other and everything else about Japan, I love Japan, all Japanese are kind, there is no crime in Japan, Japan is the best, and look at all those foreigners, what are they doing in my country, they don't know Japan". I do not feel like I could enjoy my experience here or make the wide variety of friends that I have if I had had either of these two attitudes. But maybe that's just me. I'm in no position to offer advice, much less what I've experienced thus far. Japan is a different experience for every individual, you make it what it is.

Yeah, it's DYRL.

Thanks again for a great day out, Adrian. It was good to see Graham again after so long, and Tenjin was really great, too. He certainly didn't need to go the lengths he did that day. The Big West office visit was really interesting and I liked the attitude of the gentleman we met there, as well as Mr. Ohnishi himself. Extremely friendly and well-humoured. They're the kind of people you can go out for drinks with and they'd have loads of stories to tell you of the good/tough old days. Actually, the Ninja restaurant we went to later that evening impressed me so much, magic tricks and all ("IT'S GONE"), that I decided to book it for this weekend since a friend is coming over from Germany. Gonna be fun to take that weirdo "haunted house"-style mini-tour again. EDIT: Hey you know, we should really go out for drinks on the day of Roy's death. I'm too lazy to look it up, but I'm sure it's in the next few months!

I searched, but couldn't find whether or not you guys had discussed this guy. POWERED COMMANDER! I just got this last week, and I have to say, this is such a fantastic toy, from design to execution. I had fiddled around with the "City Commander" incarnation previously, but I was always much more of a fan of the Powered Convoy colours, so much so that I went out and bought a really expensive "Diaclone colour" edition of the original Magnus mold (reissue) a few years back. Fansproject really outdid themselves. I can't get enough of this toy, I think it's great how many display options you can have for this thing. EVERYTHING transforms. And they even brought out a nifty laser rifle for him recently, I heard. Excellent. And I'm not even that big into TFs.

Indeed. If all of that stuff had been in the box to begin with, it really would have been my favourite toy. I cannot understand why this thing is taking so long. Honestly, it was first announced in February last year. Why are they releasing it PIECE BY PIECE? It's like something some sick-minded murdering kidnapper would do for a ransom.

More like the ninth time. You left out the 1/55, 1/100, 1/72, Banpresto, Toynami.... I'm sure there's more.

The "correct" head positioning alone makes me like the look of this more than the 1/60 Yamatos. I only bought the ones where that wasn't an issue, namely the VF-1D and the VE-1. That said, I already have a 1/48 and 1/55 version of this valk, so I'm gonna wait for another variant. Maybe I'll go for a Focker. Or an Angel Bird. Perhaps even a Super Ostrich. Something tells me Bandai aren't as big into mold-milking as Yamato, though. They never released a Luca VF-100. Maybe holding out for one of the rarer variants is not the most prudent thing to do... but I really don't need another VF1. Overall, looks pretty damn good. I'll be watching how this one turns out.

Hey!