Love Hina Gorgeous Chiratto Happening ~First Press Limited Edition~

The turn has now come to the game "Love Hina - Gourgeous Chiratto Happening", an adventure game based on the best-selling romance manga series "Love Hina". You take control of Keitaro and has to raise the affection levels of the girls in the dorm. You do this by completing different mini-games, join them on events and visiting their room on a regular basis. If the girls affection towards you is high enough, you'll be treated to a good ending: a date with the character you choose. If you don't focus on any of them and try to give everyone the same amount of attention, you'll most likely get the bad ending where the game ends halfways.

The game itself is great. There's 100+ unlockable CG pictures and a whole lot of events. The mini games are divided into four kinds (Reaction, rotation, direction and  fast-forward/back), and are usually very challenging. Losing a mini game means losing CG, so it's necessary to save often in this game. You can't load a game before you've completed a chapter, so you will have to restart the whole console if you did something wrong. That, or you can fast-forward to the end of the chapter (takes 15 minutes, though!). Every voice actors is here once again to reprise their roles and the artwork is made by Ken Akamatsu. Or more accurate, it's panels from the manga series, just colored.

The bonus items aren't really something to brag about. It has your typical big box, and some cards. Not playing cards, not trading cards but "event" cards. They're better explained by pictures, so take a look at the pictures if you're curious about those.

The box. It's pink, it has hearts, it has shiny silver lines...

Yes, it looks like a game for girls...

The back of the cover. The rectangle in the middle is

the back of the included limited "event" cards

The game cover, just like on the box

The inside of the cover. Even the disc is pink...

One transparent card and one event card. Put them together and...

Voila!

Want some Keitaro x Shinobu romance as well?

Well, here you go!!

Also includes some dress up cards. There's only

one outfit for every character, so it's a bit lame

Game ni Natta yo! Dokuro-chan! ~First Press Limited Edition~

I didn't really enjoy Dokuro-chan that much (the violence was way over the top), but it had some really memorable moments I'll never forget. Like the infamous "Binkan the salary man" TV show, or the cut/paste pictures of real life animal heads used on human characters. And who can forget the man-angel Zansu, the biker gang lookalike with a very silly personality?

I was looking forward to more of these moments and therefore brought the game. The voices were the same as in the anime, the story was avarage at best and the game lasted for four hours. The amount of CG was fine, and the videos were ripped off from the OVA series, which is pretty dissappointing if you're expecting new animation. Still worth the money, though (15$ including shipping).

As for this edition, it features a pretty neat box, an interview CD and an artbook with full color artwork, sketches and character profiles.

..

Front of the box

                                                                     Back of the box

The cover for the game with a warning about grotesque/

horrific or gory content. The 18+ rating speaks for itself

The inside of the game cover, disc and manual

All limited goods were stores in this box

The interview CD. Interesting if you like a inside view on the production

The front of the artbook. Not hardcover like most art books

                                      "Artwork used as the different character's poses in the game"

"Character sketches, not colored"

                                           "I just had to pick this guy's profile, he's awesome"

School Rumble Nigakki ~DX Pack~

After searching for a while on ebay for low-priced anime games, I noticed that the american amazon store had limited editions of these for extremely low prices (10-20$). These are sold by japanese retailers and as the packages are usually sent på SAL (takes about 1 month to reach the destination), the shipping cost is very low.

I brought a lot of limited editions after noticing this, so my next posts will contain the items I've received. First out is "School Rumble Nigakki", a visual novel for PS2 based on the popular school comedy series by Jin Kobayashi. It's the story of a class trip to the beach gone horribly wrong after having visited a haunted house...!  The full, awfully long title is: "School Rumble Nigakki: Kyoufu no (?) Natsu Gasshuku! Yokan ni Yuurei gen ru!? Otakara wo Megutte Makkou Shoubu!!! no maki"

The contents in this box are few, but still noteworthy. It features a special box (of course), a drama cd, some stickers and an artbook containing everything from sketches to character profiles. The game itself is avarage, but it should be interesting to fans of the show as long as you can understand the language. Every playthrough is only 2 hours long, but as the game is propped full of CG and alternative story lines led by your own choices, it's sure to last for a good while if you're a completist. 

                                  The front of the box. Simple and plain, with great artwork as well

The back of the box. Mentions what the box contains, as well as

a plot summary for the game, together with screenshots.

The side of the box. The box has been in sunlight for too long...

An artbook with different kinds of content. 

Harima as a naked angel on the front.

                                    An original short story featuring the School Rumble characters
           

                                  Enviromental artwork. These are used as backgrounds in the game

                                                       Some character sketches in full color

A bunch of character profiles. These are my favorites.

                                 A 12-minute long special drama CD. A story about the gang visiting
                                          an abandoned mansion and experiencing creepy events.

                                       The back of the drama CD. Resolution turned out horrible.

Two stickers bundled together with the drama CD. All that

glitter makes it look girly

The Quest of Suzumiya Haruhi

I ordered the DX edition of "Suzumiya Haruhi no Tomadoi" for 20$ on ebay some weeks ago, and it finally arrived. The content of the game is the same, the only difference is the revoltech figurine included in the box. I didn't really know how to show it off at the best way possible, so I made a picture story of the whole thing. The other toys I had present at the moment were some from the "Disney Infinity" game, so I had no other choice than to use these. Enjoy!

                           "Haruhi: Welcome to Haruhi RPG! We're on a quest to save the prince!"

                              "Woody: Howdy, stranger! I'm looking for something with stripes.
                                                            Perhaps you've seen it?

                        "Woody: Ah, I knew you had 'em. Never seen a better pair in my whole life"
                                    "Haruhi: YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS, HENTAI WOODY!"

                                                       "SUPAAA HARUHI KIIIIIIIIIIICK!!!"

"Jack: Ah, a perfect victim, I see"

"Haruhi: ......"

"Jack: Let's get this party started!"

"Woody: GYAAAAAAA!!!"

"Haruhi: .............................................."

"Haruhi: Hey... no public intercourse, please. You'll ruin the age rating of my game!"

"Jack:  AGH! You stab people for that reason alone!?!?"

"Haruhi: Mister, teach this man a lesson he'll never forget!"
"Jack: I will forget it! I'm dying over here!"

"Incredible: I love to hit people"

"Jack: No, please, I'll rather die slowly than beeing punched of a cliff!"

*BAAAAAAM*

"Jack: You son of a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-"

                                                                           *DEAD*

"Haruhi: ... let's just quit this, it's getting too complicated."

"Incredible/Sully: Agreed..."

So there you have it! Did you enjoy the story? No? Sorry about that, my characters just acted on their own. Just forget you even read this piece of... art.

Genshiken Mini-figure set

After some research, I discovered that they're selling "Genshiken" figures from Gachapon machines... Well, they SOLD, but they're out of print long ago. Fortunately, Yahoo auction Japan! comes to the rescue, where I got the whole set for only 500 yen (About 5$)! Let's take a look at these rarities!

A typical scene you will see in this anime countless of times

VCR, Xbox, Dreamcast, PS2... The Complete experience

Considering these are toys found in gachapon capsules, the quality is surprisingly good. Every character looks like themselves and the craftmanship is as good as ever. The paint is where it should be and the figures/items are extremely sturdy. The extra items (consoles, TV, tables, chairs) makes it possible to recreate your favorite Genshiken scenes and perhaps even "feel like you're a part of them". The tables even have items underneath, which is a pretty nice touch! There's some monochrome figures I got as an extra gift (these are rarer than the usual ones), but I didn't know what to do with them, so I put 'em in the back. I find the full color versions more interesting anyways.

While the set itself was really cheap, most of the money went through middleman services. I used "Yokattaweb", which costed me 700 yen(fee) + 600 yen (JP shipping) + 960 yen (International shipping). This equals to about 23$, but I didn't mind as I really wanted these. They packaged everything in a lot of bubble wrapper, so I was extremely satisfied with the purchase when I discovered nothing was broken.