Betcha look like this when you wake up. (0_<)

I don’t want to be biased when selecting routes for review, so I’m going accordingly like this: Emi, Hanako, Lily, Rin then Shizune.
Hell, turning off that option affects completion of scenes.

What did I just say?!

Back to the main topic… >_>

Storyline and character development for Emi’s Route: Cliché
Reminds me of a friend though…
Cute, active, enthusiastic about stuff… and certainly likes to bounce up to you.
Guys, this is what you want right? =^^=
But still, it is quite typical. While I guess almost everything must have a benchmark there. Supposedly Emi’s Route is the ‘typical’ kind of thing when other routes are different, must be.

CG: There are certainly some differences between the normal (during conversation) and special scenes…
Normal:

CG:

Result of artist collaboration?
Well, I can’t say either are bad, right? Just different styles.

Bright and cheerful, popular but does not have many close friends (only Rin), and also stubborn. In all perspective, she’s probably the fastest girl you can hook up with in real life.

“幼き頬　朱を滲ませ　疼きに足を崩される”
“My childish cheeks are flushed crimson, my legs collapse in tingly pain”
–緋色月下、狂咲ノ絶

P.S.: Were you able to escape from the Mysterious Cathedral?

Related posts:

1. Katawa Shoujo: Warming Up
2. Katawa Shoujo: It’s Free!
3. Review: Singaporean Comic Creator, Meet and Greet.

Well, you do see live2D clock apps on the iOS like the Mirai Clock 3, which was just released a month ago, or a Oreimo clock app which was in the App store for some time.

Then after hearing about this, surely I would have Google Android users actually complaining why apps like these have not been given some love to Android.

But after seeing this app, some might change this line of thinking. For there’s both an iOS and Android version of it.

“ましろ色シンフォニーあんどろいどあぷり“, is a wonderful live2D clock app by Digimerce, is like the other live2D clock apps out there. If you watched the slice of life, romance anime “ましろ色シンフォニー (Mashiro Iro Shinfoni)”  or “The color of lovers”, you would know who is Sena Airi.

Well she greets you “おはよう” upon opening the application, even when it’s at night.  What I thought is different from the many clock and alarm clock apps is, this actually talks to you.

There is an alarm and time telling function for this clock app.

Tap anywhere on her, she’ll talk with some and different phrases along with emotions, and tap the time for her to tell the time.

Dragging your finger around the screen would make her look where you are dragging the finger. You can also change the attire, which is a school gym class outfit and it must be bought.

Since this app came preloaded with the basic pack of emotions it’s useable, but if you are willing to pay, you can venture more, by buying the respective emotions too.
The background will change according to the time where if it’s in the morning in real life, the background of the clock app will be in the day. Same goes in the night. The location in the background never changed so far, for the 3 days that I’m using this application.

Other functions include the portal to the twitter and the webpage of the anime which will take you away from the app and brings you to your phone’s browser.

The good thing, it’s free to download off the Android Market, But here comes the de-motivational part. . . .

It’s only available on the Japanese Android Market which I think ( meaning you’ll have to get a Japanese Android Keitai ) and I am not to sure whether it could be downloaded in any countries. As when I accessed my phone to download this app with a R800i Android Market app, it says it could not be downloaded in my region which is Singapore. Got this app via an alternative method ( which I don’t really recommend ) as it’s going to be hard finding it.

Since it’s only availible to Japan, these are the phones that this app would work on ( via. Android Market )
On au by KDDI:
-Xperia acro IS11S
-AQUOS PHONE IS11SH
-INFOBAR A01
-G’z one IS11CA
-IS05

On NTT DoCoMo:
-ARROWZ Kiss F-03D
-Xperia PLAY SO-01D
-T-01D
-MEDIAS WP N-06C
-GALAXY S SC-02B
-GALAXY S II SC-02C
-F-12C

Android Market link :https://market.android.com/details?id=jp.co.ono.mashiro.airi

And oh. On the market, this same app comes in with another character, Amaha Miu, but the thing is, it’s a paid app unlike Airi’s. So, I would want to have a go on this one too , even though it’ll be sacrificing a little.

Amaha Miu live2D clock < via. Android Market > : https://market.android.com/details?id=jp.co.ono.mashiro.miu.chara&feature=more_from_developer

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2. Apps: Z―ekkyo Damashi!
3. Is Android bad?

Copyright: vanGrafique (Ivan Lee)

Yesterday, Nick, our shadow contributor and I went down to take part in the Real Escape Game in Singapore Volume 1 at CHIJMEs.

The game consist of about 15 brain twisting super indirect hints and quizzes. We were join by 1 of the Winner of our Giveaway and 2 other SMU students. So in a way, our team is actually quite smart… … XD

But the reality is that, we didn’t make it out of the cathedral… Like the many who participated in Vol. 1, we were hindered by very last clue.

“>

Copyright: vanGrafique (Ivan Lee)

What is it? Well… We can’t tell~

What we can tell you though, is that we very much enjoyed our time held captive~ The MC is a bit over the top, but adds drama to the seemingly boring setting, coupled with the constant reminder of how much time we had, and that heart trotting bgm…

It’s a good game indeed! No wonder many of the sessions actually managed to get sold out.

Thus it’s also good to report that, a 2nd Volume has been decided!

It will be held at *SCAPE in May. If you didn’t take part in Volume 1, please miss volume 2. It’s really very interesting~ I had fun~

Event Details Name: Real Escape Game in Singapore Vol.1 Date: 27(Fri), 28(Sat) and 29(Sun) January 2012 Time: Varies, Please choose session during ticket purchase Location: CHIJMES Hall, Singapore Ticket Price: SG$20 *extended Earlybird* SG$25, Regular SG$30, Purchase at Gate Ticketing: Gatecrash Booth at SCAPE *Check Facebook Page* At the gate Website: Real Escape Game in Singapore Vol.1 Facebook Page

“>

PS: Did I mention that only 1 team managed to escape in my session?

Related posts:

1. SG: REAL ESCAPE GAME, Are you smart enough?
2. May’n Asia Tour 2011 「UNITE!!」Singapore!!!
3. The EOY 10: Hey, It’s just my view…

I found this in a “hidden” (although there is a large sun-bleached banner facing the street) shop near XiMenDing in Taiwan, full of Dengeki Magazines, Figmas, Nendoroids, you name it! It is really hard (if not impossible) to see a Touhou doujin music album back here in Singapore, so out of the many CDs on display, I simply bought it (I was in a hurry, and also ran out of money TT.TT)
Well, at least it was the right choice to get it instead of TH08 OST.

Album name: Check it up 妖!
Released: 13 August 2006
# of tracks: 10
Length: 0:48:00
Group/Circle: Angelic Quasar (now known as Rolling Contact)
Original Composer: ZUN
Arrangement/Composer: 天音

::Track listings are as of below::

This alone shows the characters whose theme songs are used in this album.

And it turned out to be good idea.
The track arrangement is balanced between folk and techno, even though the album art doesn’t say anything about it.
[youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUtk2lVpI4c

Few tracks are Ryukyuan, while most are techno and trance, yet they are deliberately sorted in such a way that the same genre don’t stand next to each other.
[youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIVkZZsSb8A

Not bad at all. In fact, all 10 of them entered my playlist of favorite songs!
Hence, I’m giving Check it up 妖! a 9/10!

Although I’m against SOPA, I do not encourage downloading the album straight off the internet. Come on, at least support the doujin circles by combing the entire country for the stuff, or do it while you are overseas. d(*⌒▽⌒*)b
Or wait for STGCC, AFA, EOY… etc.
(Since all the shops I went to in SG do not or rarely sell doujin stuff, then there are only two options: Import, DL or wait. ~~>_<~~)

“時空の中で 目覚めるならば
私はここで 叶えたい、叶えるわ、私の夢幻のために”
“If I awake from within this dimension,
It can come true here, it will come true, for my fantasies.”
–Strawberry Crisis!!

P.S.: My Katawa Shoujo review is still progressing, keep an eye out for it! (^_~)

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Currently SKE48 managed to only have 5 songs in the chart, seconding only to AKB48 with with 45…so far.

Yes, the other parts of the “48″ family had no chance to appear yet.

That said, something interesting happened today related to the number 65. Even Akimoto Sensei made a comment on G+ about it.

AKB48 Request Hour Setlist Day 2: 75 – 51 Rank Title Stage/Single/Album 75

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZfjrnhTT4U

1! 2! 3! 4! YOROSHIKU! SKE48, 1! 2! 3! 4! YOROSHIKU! 74 Wagamama Collection Koko ni ita koto 73 Tenshi no Shippo B3 72 Gomenne, Summer SKE48, Gomenne, Summer 71 Himawari H1 70

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z1hTUCiWvo

Tsundere! A5 69 Saishuu Bell ga Naru K4 68 Locker Room Boy B5 67 Sasae A1 66 Kimi no Senaka Kaze wa fuiteiru 65

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLwzKoBfaD8

Arashi no Yoru ni wa B5 64 Yankee Soul Everyday, Kachuusha 63 Banzai Venus SKE48, Banzai Venus 62 Kanojo ni Naremasuka? K6 61 Honestman B5 60

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQZm9gh6ZBs

Uhho Uhho ho K6 59 RESET K6 58 Namida Surprise! Namida Surprise! 57 Seishun to Kizukanai mama FLYING GET 56 Only Today A4 55 Korogaru Ishi ni Nare K2 54

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQqLKCg-UgA

RIVER RIVER 53 Kurumi to Dialogue Chance no Junban 52 Chance no Junban Chance no Junban 51

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro2EmmOGbC8

End Roll K5 En1 Synchro Tokimeki Watanabe Mayu En2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THnJfcaKquk

Kataomoi Finally SKE48 En3 Aitakatta JKT48 Source: http://twitter.com/#!/tgsk48 Information: http://stage48.net/studio48/index.html

“>“Togisaka announced position 65. Audiences in the theater went “EH~” loudly.”

This is reference to a pre-concert tweet by Togisaka, the theater manager for AKB48, announcing that Position 65 is Arashi no Yoru ni wa, a mistake he made while preparing the tweets.

Now for the Setlist and ranking for day 2,

My rant… Tsudere is too low!

If I’m patience enough, I might get to hear Sashihara’s new song later~ As an encore…

Else I leave you be, waiting for the 3rd day of the RH2012.

Btw, 3rd and 4th day will be screen in Singapore at GV. So do get the ticket, if you want to watch it live.

Update: At the end of the concert, it’s announced that AKB48 will be performing in all 47 prefectures in Japan for an upcoming Nation wide tour.

The girls from JKT48 also appeared on stage with Takahashi Minami, Minegeshi Minami, and Kashiwagi Yuki, appealing for their sempais to join them in a performance on the 25th of February in Indonesia.

They might be referring to the Nihon Indonesia Pop culture festival.

Source: Oricon Style

Insert by Ken0601: A sign of things to come for the next 2 days? So far, we have not heard much from Team A, especially from their current A6 stage. It may be a good one as it may appear later or even tomorrow in higher rankings, or in the worse case scenario, totally unranked. The shockers of the day, not just other than TGSK unintentional leak, but it is the early appearance of strong unit/team songs and of course, Namida Surprise & RIVER taking up 50s spots. A big shock indeed for the single that brought the group top at Oricon charts for the first time. It may point out that given the out reach the group as done for the past year, newer fans may be more familiar with the current releases or a few back-dated till 2010 earliest. Thus, the earlier popular singles and stage songs will probably be pushed out away.

And my 4 votes for this RH, the 4 songs have yet to appear though. Not sure is it a good or bad sign, but let’s await the final 50 songs countdown later!

Related posts:

1. AKB48: AKB48 Request Hour Set List Best 100 Day 1.
2. AKB48: Request Hour 2012 voting guide.
3. SKE48 Request Hour Set List Best 50 2011 Result.

*Only difference is the male version have a longer leg （*´▽｀*）

After watching the first episode of Daily Lives of High School Boys (男子高校生の日常),  what surprises me is that I can totally smell the essence of the famous kuso anime Gintama. （　ﾟ Дﾟ）Z *how come?*

Gunda…wait…what is this?!?!?! （　ﾟ Дﾟ）!

Tadaaa~~Here’s a caption of episode 1 of Daily Lives of High School Boys and they have exactly the same joke elements that the anime Gintama always used. If you do know the anime Gintama , their story always involves other anime’s material but without crossing the line by using their infamous censors sounds and pixel.

And another point is that the entire anime production crew, including the director, voice actor and even the music composer from Gintama before! It’s not surprising that you might be getting this idea * Hey isn’t that Gin-san’s voice?!* when watching this anime. Since for Gintoki, the main character of Gintama, Tomokazu Sugita is also the voice actor for the main character in Daily Lives of High School Boys.

*Some dangerous element sensed!!!* （　ﾟ Дﾟ）!

Don’t worry this anime is still safe for you all

Well from the character style it may not appeal as much as having some hot guy or hot girl like you normally will see in other famous anime, yet you will have a change of mind after watching it since the story is freaking hilarious and interesting!

For those who haven’t watched this, go ahead and give it a try! Tama-tan give you his guarantee of that!

*I am actually a fan of Gintama so this anime has become my next favorite anime.

（*´▽｀*）*

Related posts:

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2. Ouran High School Host Club manga, ends!
3. “Kimi to Boku” anime adaptation in the works

Uh well, I couldn’t help it.

I will be talking a little on game features today besides keeping it brief. As long as I keep playing, you will see an endless stream of commentary, not voiced by Danny Choo unfortunately.

• Jukebox, a.k.a BGM playback
• Gallery, a.k.a CG view
• Library, something new
• Cinema, for all your shorts and animations

I won’t be talking about everything save for the ‘Library’.
Now the VN veterans may notice that ‘Scene Recollection’ or whatever it is is missing…

Unlike most other VNs, you can playback every single snapshots of your ‘life’ you’d experience, instead of only some special scenes.

Act 1 went away pretty fast…

…in like… about at least an hour and half?

What could be better?

From First Impression to Act 1:
So far so good, I won’t comment on the art, no point. If I’m to continue on with the art all day long the reviews would resemble each other in many ways.

Everything’s from first-person perspective, nothing much to say about the style. Description-wise, detailed enough to let you imagine what’s necessary, not too informative to lose you out.
The music matches the mood fairly easily, not to mention well-timed BGM switching during turn of events etc., which is good. I have played certain VNs that weren’t capable of approaching it in such a manner.

Character personality is explored during Act 1, only getting deeper for selected few as you close in on to Act 2.

Closing the curtains on this one, I hope this has been enjoyable for all of you!
Cypher signing off. ^_^

“この愛が真実(まこと)
伝えにいくよ恋しくて”
“I missed the chance to say that my love for you is true”
–サクラ咲ク

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2. Library War: The Movie, In the works~
3. Star Driver gets PSP game

Touhou lotus destiny english edition was released in October 2011 and can be seen at CDS‘s booth during major events like AFA11, or the EOY.

This dojinshi is about the famous series Touhou, or rather a possible prequel to it. Following Byakuran Hijiri, the founder and head nun of the Myourenji.

Beginning the story is a flashback of how she acquired her magic powers and her journey towards enlightenment.

However a common theme found within the plot is greed and selfishness within a human as well a the yearning for family.

Storywise, it has proven to be a good read especially for one that don’t have in-depth or with no knowledge of the game it’s based on, like me.

But I think the story could be improved on further, because of the many lucky coincidences, like how the scroll land in Japan or how a storm flew a Yamato class warship into the past and etc. Perhaps this maybe be a premise of another book.

Art on the average, is good with many stunning scenes like the one above, but marred a little by the fact how non-characters like the neighbors, Yokai A or B, officers and even Hijiri’s brother Myoune, was drawn is unimpressive.

Not pretty… This is a bit of a nagging but it’s really nothing much.

Overall:  The art is good, the story is better and I see many chance for a sequel for this title. So do check it out the next time you saw this title at Collateral Damages Studio‘s Booth.

2nd Opinion? Sure, Check Cypher’s view on this,

It’s local produce!

I wonder how many doujin circles are there in SG, but (besides the editor) this is a one man work!

Lotus Destiny is somewhere between Shonen and Seinen, however if I have 3 votes I’d pass 2 to Seinen.
For those who are new to Touhou, trying to grasp the ‘when and where’ is understandable, but I believe that the story covering this doujinshi does not require much knowledge about the timeline of Touhou. Why is that so? It is very much focused on the life of the protagonist, Byakuren.

I find the story enjoyable, not just it being different from other doujinshi which depicts Byakuren as something else. The proportions of the drawings are within my preference range, and humor is well-balanced and appropriately used alongside with the serious tone of the story. What’s new to me is the appearance of a Japanese WWII Imperial Navy battleship in Touhou fan-fiction. It was originally a large sail ship in both the official series and fandom, and the side-character on it was originally never from the future.

Good thing there is an English version of it.

Related posts:

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2. CDS @ Comics World(aka Cosfest)
3. Foiled! A story of an Abuse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndij_RvHMhE

This week, the chart for the first time counts a day of year 2012 and without much surprise too…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGOVJfdG5HE

New entries to the charts is 9… … but majority of them got the top 5 slots. With Akanishi Jin’s “Season” claiming the top spot followed by a rare clash between an AKB Sub unit, No3b and a Sister Group, SDN48.

But what really picked my interest for this week is the group known as E-Girls by Avex Trax. A better look at them and you might notices something… Isn’t that the girls from FLOWER? HAPPINESS? and DREAM?

Ok… here comes another mega girl group…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bdsy9c7fO_0

Yes, you have not mistaken… AVEX have merged them together to form E-Girls to bring us “Celebration!”… Not sure if it’s a temporarily arrangement or not but… Looks like FLOWER at least have a chance of survival now… given their dismay performance against the other 2, 2011 debuted groups, Super Girls and Fairies.

Also it seem S/mileage is making up for lost time… Releasing the cute Please Mini-Skirt Postwomen and then in Feb 1st, Chotomate Kudasai.

Now for the charts,

Yay! Mori Mori Maru Maru is still in the charts for the almost half a year now!

And for the first time in a long long time, there is no K-pop in the top 30 chart!! wow! How is that even possible? I dunno..

Video by Rina93
Source: Oricon Style
Picture and links by CDJapan ~Our prefer Online CD Shop~

Related posts:

1. Oricon Weekly: 12/12 to 12/18, We Never Give UP! Really~?
2. Oricon Weekly: 02-01-2012, Happy New Year!
3. Oricon Weekly: 12.12.11

Konichiwa~ It’s Cypher desu~! =^^=
Katawa Shoujo Full Ver. was just recently released so I’d be giving a heads-up on this one!

http://katawa-shoujo.com/

Well, don’t worry, there’s one for Windows and Linux as well! ^^

Although many things may be covered by the developers themselves, but I can give a brief summary.
It’s a Visual Novel (duh), ADV and First Person.
The story goes like this (not much of a spoiler):

Hisao suffers from a heart defect and has to transfer to a High School for the disabled children (while he isn’t really ‘disabled’). Despite that, he is able to find friends -and perhaps love, if, that is, he plays his cards right.

The main heroines ^^:



Interesting…

Here’s the Main Menu, pretty simple for now as you progress through the game.
I noticed that for every ‘Act’ (or chapter you might want to call) a ‘paper cut-out’ of a sketch of a certain character appears. My guess is that it shows how far you’ve went through.

The Options Menu, not much but… it features the ‘non-H’ option! Handy if you’re playing in everyone’s view. ^^ Or you just want the story, no pre-marital ero.
There’s no ‘Fullscreeen Mode’ for Mac OS is probably some resizing issues. The Windows version does have Fullscreen Mode though.

I can’t do much of a review (school and all) but so far, in my opinion, the story is well thought out but it may be new to some of you. The theme can be ‘Tragedy’, and the character design is unaccustomed to me. It took me quite a while to get used to the characters.
The game itself isn’t voiced though, so, make up some voices in your head as you go! ^^

This is what it might look like back in 2007. Once Japanese pen-on-paper concept art of a dating sim back in Comiket 61, December 2000, drawn by RAITA of Zettai Shoujo.
This translated and colored omake appeared in the /a/ board of 4chan on 4th January 2007, somehow sparking a wildfire among the community . Ideas and suggestions, and even requests for actually making the game flooded the page. It even became a stickie on 4chan.
Ah yes, I forgot to briefly mention its development.

• Started in 4 January 2007, ideas and suggestions flooded the /a/ board. From what I know, in November 2007 the team (later known as Four Leaf Studios) start to grow.
• December 2008, discussion on Voice Acting comes to a conclusion. The answer is, well, you guessed it: NO
• January 2009, translation translation translation.
• April 2009, Act 1 Preview released.
• December 2009, Act 1 V2 released.
• May 2010, Act 1 V3 released.
• June 2010, 5 translations completed. Also, Act 1 V4 released.
• July 2010, FLS reflects. Katawa Shoujo gets featured at Babycastle indie game arcade in New York City.
• August 2010, Katawa Shoujo panel at Manifest Anime Convention in Melbourne, Australia.
• April 2011, Act 1 V5 released.
• Late 2011, Katawa Shoujo in Comitia and Comiket.
• 4 January 2012, Katawa Shoujo Full Version released! Exactly 5 years since the /a/ board incident.

That’s all for now, I give it a 8/10 for its art and story. Of course, I do not criticize it for not being voiced because I understand how this project came about and it seems pretty low-budget, due to the fact that Four Leaf Studios is simply a group of 4chan regulars, one heck of helluva enthusiasts who love doing it for the community. My praises.

You can download Katawa Shoujo here:
http://katawa-shoujo.com/download.php (opens in new tab/window)
Other languages can be found at the bottom of the webpage.

P.S.: I’m really busy with school, perhaps I’d give a full review on Katawa Shoujo in future. Fingers crossed.

“花火して　笑ったね　夏の海
遅刻して　けんかした　駅の前
ずぶぬれで　はしゃいだね　帰り道
バンソコが　似合ってる？！　私たち”
“Setting off fireworks in the summer sea,
Running late and fighting in front of the station.
Running home soaking wet in high spirits
Do our plasters* look good on us?!”
–the first the last

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