Shinzantetsu's Ramblings

I wasn't a big fan of the second ED the first time I watched it, but now I'm starting to dig it. However, "You Make Me Happy!" edges out "Happy Together!!" as a better song in my opinion. Only slightly though.

It's been two years since Jordan passed away and I started re-reading the series last week since part 1 of the last book will be coming out in November. I'm making some pretty good progress and I'm nearly done with book five. I'd forgotten a lot of things; character quirks and places, so the refresher is serving its purpose.

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My housemate just got a dog. Which initially didn't please me because I HATE animals. Cats, dogs, birds I pretty much hate all pets. This doesn't mean that I'm cruel or go out of my way to terrorize or hurt them because that sort of behavior is unacceptable. They just make me really wary for some unknown reason.

It's kind of funny how that works out since when I visit people's houses their pets always flock to me. Even if I'm in a group, the cats or dogs will ignore all of the other strangers and make a beeline towards me. When I try to move away from them to another part of the room or another room altogether they also follow me. -_-

My roommate has a little nine month old shih tzu poodle mix. He's one of the most well behaved dogs I've ever seen too. He follows me around sometimes but I don't mind as much since he actually respects my space and is extremely quiet. So far I haven't heard him bark once and all of these factors added up result in me kind of like him. What is the world coming to?

This game almost makes me want to buy a Wii and mod it so I can play import games since this game will probably never see the light of day in the US. Because of all the licensing rights with the Tatsunoko characters and series.

One of the main draws for me is the fact that Karas is a playable character and I could never say no to a hero inspired by ninja and Kamen Rider.







I'll just have to settle with playing Street Fighter IV for the time being.

On Monday I received recognition for ten years of service. It doesn't feel like I've been with the company for that long but, wow... Ten whole years.

I received a plaque for being with the company for five years. And Ten? A plaque and a pen.

This is probably the most awesome official artwork of Yumi I've seen to date. Mainly because she's parodying a character I'm extremely fond of. The Magical Girl Shimako tracks on the CDs are a lot of fun too.

Also getting over a foot of snow in a single day isn't fun. Especially when one has to drive in it.

Two weeks of vacation. Going back home on Wednesday and won't be back until after Thanksgiving. Suck on that work. Go me.

Though my faith, and on some level my love of American comics, was shattered by the One More Day storyline in Amazing Spider-man I keep finding myself being pulled back to them in some shape or form. While I haven't bought a single comic since that horrible storyline, the lure of Heroclix was just too much for me to resist.

The irony is that I said that I wouldn't by anymore Clix after the Crisis set since I and just about everybody on the internet was denied a limited edition mail away World's Finest piece. At first I really wasn't too interested in the Secret Invasion set that came out until I learned that they would be making a Spider-girl figure for the set. Since I have almost every Spider-man clix ever made I figured I might as well try and obtain one of Pete's daughter just for completion's sake. (The only Spider-man heroclix I'm missing is the Ultra rare Zombie Spider-man from the Supernova set and I really don't feel like shelling out upwards of $100 for him.)

I've always had freakish luck when it comes to Heroclix so I bought three boosters of S.I. I didn't get a Spider-girl BUT I did end up with some of the rarer and more powerful figures. They have the figure rarity set up that you're almost guaranteed either a Rare or Super Rare figure in each booster but I had a booster that had both. Rare Doom and Super Rare Sentry = awesome. I also ended up with some figures that I really like. The newest incarnation of Punisher and Iron Fist have very good stats and are extremely affordable at less than 100 points. Seeing as how lucky I was I decided to take a better look at the whole Secret Invasion set, and for the most part it's one of the best sets and dial designs I've seen.

This of course means that I'll probably end up buying a couple more boosters in the small hope of getting Spider-girl and I'll probably be getting some of the DC Arkham Asylum set when it comes out in a couple of months. There's a very good chance that they'll be putting Bane in the set and we haven't seen any versions of Bane since the very first Hypertime set that came out more than five years ago. As for the comics themselves I don't really see myself spending any money on individual issues for quite some time if ever again, but I would like to find out what happens in some of the books like the Ultimate line and Ed Brubaker's Captain America so it looks like the collected graphic novels are fair game. Like I said: sucked back in.

Videos of the PV are starting to make their rounds. I have to say that the game looks flat out gorgeous. As much as I love Alpha 3, this game is definitely a step above that. They've taken the techniques they learned from Original Generations and OG Gaiden and applied them to a SRW game that involves other properties.

Notable first appearances in a Super Robot Wars console game for Big O, Gundam Seed Destiny, Eureka Seven, Sousei no Aquarion, Overman King Gainer and Gravion. Surprisingly Gundam ZZ won't be in this game but highly probably in the next installment since Amuro, Camille and Judau are kind of the Holy Trinity of the U.C. Gundam universe.

The PV also has a certain scene which my little sister will absolutely hate. If you've ever heard me speak about her and certain robot anime you'll know which one it is.

Because Shura-ou Alkaid is Raoh with Ooishi-san's voice. And for those who doubt, the falling star at the end is a definite reference to Hokuto no Ken.

I've been playing Super Robot Wars Alpha 2 again. Only Zengar's route left and then I can go about finishing up Alpha 3. The unfortunate side effect of playing said game is that it resparked an interest in robot anime again. It's the main reason I picked up the 1st Gundam Wing collection (They didn't have the 2nd one in stock or I would have picked up both). My sister has also expressed an interest in watching Wing as well since she was like five or something when it was being shown. I'd also like to track down the complete Brain Powerd series since it is featured prominently in the second Alpha game. I've never seen it before so I didn't realize how much nudity the OP had... (Thanks Youtube) It's not sexual nudity, but still. I may end up buying the Evangelion Platinum collection as well since End of Eva is featured in the 3rd game and I'll probably be in the mood to get reacquainted with the series when I start playing it. Bandai is also re-releasing the Zeta Gundam series in two collections and I'll probably end up buying them at some point since Camille is a major character in the Alpha series. Plus I'd like to see the anime with one of the most infamous Bad Ends. (Though it got retconned in the trilogy of Zeta movies they showed last year)

Naturally one of the anime I'm watching right now is Macross Frontier. I'm liking it so far though I can't believe the seiyuu for Sheryl also does Miyuki's voice in Lucky Star. Also watching the second season of Code Geass though I still have an intense dislike of Lelouch. I watched the Daughter of Twenty Faces and I really enjoyed what I saw. It seems quite promising and I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be one of those sleeper gems. Allison and Lillia looks like it might be interesting as well.

We had six to seven inches of snow today. The drive back from work was pretty thrilling and dangerous. I don't know what possessed me to, but as soon as I got back home I spent an hour and a half making a snowman because we had the perfect snow for it. Thick and wet and easy to pack. The last time I made a snowman was fifteen years ago. So odd...

A belated Happy New Year to everybody. Didn't do much for the holiday except sleep. I did get a nice New Year's present today in the form of the 2 Gigs of RAM I ordered last week. I can already see an improvement in speed when accessing programs and playing games. More RAM in time for some Dark Crusade and possible Unreal 3K on Saturday. 

Made  a side trip to Best Buy before picking up my comics today. Saw a 500 GB external on sale for less than $120 so I had to pick that up before they were all gone. I'm currently in the process of transferring all of my manga/doujinshi, Type Moon and Maria-sama folders to it. 100+ GB takes just a wee bit of time to transfer. (And in case some of you are wondering the only adult content being transfered is in the Type Moon and Maria-sama folders.  I have another ridiculously big external dedicated to only H manga and doujinshi. I won't tell you how big because it just made me realize how much H I have on it since it's almost full. <_<) 

Today's Comics

Hulk vs Fin Fang Foom
Captain Marvel #2
Giant-size Avengers
Marvel Zombies 2 #3
Amazing Spider-man #545 - They actually went through with it and Pete and MJ's marriage is now officially gone through one of the stupidest methods ever. I'm still a bit upset over this so I don't want to get into it right now. Happy 20th Anniversary Pete and MJ! -_-;
Avengers The Initiative #8
Thor #5
Ultimate Power #9
Ultimate Fantastic Four #49
Ultimate Spider-man #117
Captain America #33 - The fight we've all been waiting for: Winter Soldier vs Iron Man. Possibly one of the best books Marvel has out at the moment. And the new Cap is who everyone expected. It's not too surprising considering it actually makes sense. He'll be debuting next issue to kick some Red Skull @$$.

Kamen Rider Kiva seems to be aimed at younger audiences. The fact that he has a cutesy mascot and lives in a weird dragon/mansion with movie monsters seems to support it. However the director of the show is Ryuta Tasaki (Kamen Rider Agito, Ryuuki, Faiz and The Next) and the main writer for the show is Toshiki Inoue (Agito and Faiz). With these two on board it could actually be good since I enjoyed Faiz and Ryuuki. Agito is possibly the best KR series I've seen to date. I know that Inoue is also the head writer for the LA Cutey Honey series so I might have to check it out as well. And even though Kiva has a cheesy/cutesy mascot to help him transform the fact that his unsealed Rider Kick has the power to level a city block balances it out. The main site http://www.tv-asahi.co.jp/kiva/ is up and we have a fairly young actor playing the Rider in the series. You can see the bat mascot and his Rider Kick looks like it's of the over-head drop kick variety.

I actually did go to my comic shop yesterday but I was too lazy to post the list.


I also checked the Wizkids site yesterday to see if they finally put anything up about the Crisis set since it's being released in February. Holy crap was it some news. http://www.heroclix.com/brick This is probably one of the most heinous pieces ever created. Granted you can't field them unless you play a game of 500 points or more but wow... Their stats aren't too godlike but that they have built-in willpower that can't be outwitted and a duo figure that can make ranged attacks even when being based is huge. The fact that they're only making 5000 of these means I'll have to buy a brick on the first day and send in the 10 bottoms on the same day too. -_-; Honestly though, if I'm going to play a 500+ point game I'd rather field a team with the holy trinity of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. The fact that I'd get 3 very powerful characters to one figure is a bonus in terms of tactics.

I haven't posted anything in 4 weeks. But I can chalk it up to a combination of laziness and working a lot of extra shifts thanks to the holiday season. Just six more work days of Package Hell until the peak season is over! My body hurts from moving literal tons of freight for 11 hours straight but the huge paycheck makes it all the worthwhile. I just finished enrolling in out new health plan and I looked over all the terms of it last week. I've got to say that we definitely got a major upgrade to our plan. We are covered 100% for almost everything. Medical, dental, vision and prescriptions. There's a $10 copay for some of the medical stuff but paying ten dollars and having our insurance pick up the rest of the bill is awesome. Definitely an upgrade over our previous plan and the company still pays for everything. The pay and the hours may not be the greatest but UPS has some of the best benefits in the business so I think it balances out nicely. Good news for me indeed since I'll probably have to get glasses sometime soon. -_-;






 

I'm off for vacation. Time to regain my sanity and be without internet for more than a week. (Which isn't necessarily a bad thing.) Be back the weekend after Thanksgiving.

Somebody managed to get ahold of a promotional poster for the Mutatations and Monsters set coming out later this month. It has several figures that I really really want and one figure that I can do without. Figures are color coded like a stop light so it should be fairly simple to understand. I would really like all of the Hulks from this set (four of 'em!) since the ones I have are pretty outdated and, for a lack of a better term, sucky. 

 

Just got back from the comic shop a couple hours ago and I have to say that it was a good week for stuff.

Comics

Marvel Comics Presents #3
The Ultimates Saga
Ultimate Fantastic Four #48
Captain Marvel #1
Thor #4
New Avengers #36
Avengers: The Initiative #7
Amazing Spider-girl #14
spider-man/Red Sonja #4
World War Hulk #5 (Probably one of the better Summer Events I've read in a long time. The ending was satisfying and you get to see that Hulk really can live up to the title of World Breaker)
Superman/Batman #42
Wonder Woman #14 (I know what you're thinking but since Gail Simone is writing WW I thought I'd give it a try. I was very pleased with her first issue)

Misc

Toyfare #125
Twisted Toyfare Theater 1-3 (Presents for my sister)
Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days vol 6