Various fandom rant

First off, Pokemon. That great, overly repetitve, but nonetheless adorable and amazing show that marked the childhood of all the 90s kids. It all started with Ash, Misty, Brock and the god of cuteness Pikachu.

And then they just had to add the new fucking characters, and the new freakin’ 500 set of all new pokemon. Goddamnit. Just when you though you had managed to catch’em all, nooo, here comes a whole new set of pokemon! And if you reaaally want to catch’em all, forget the original, you have to buy Pokemon Platinum now! (…which I totally will.)

But that’s that. What really bothered me were the female leading roles that were all love interests for Ash. There’s Misty, May and Dawn.

Misty was my ‘favorite’, and I use the term loosely. She wasn’t the greatest character, that’s for sure: bordering hysterical all of the time, insanely loud, and selfish demands. At least, though, Misty had a somewhat unfortunate situation with her sisters, and she was actually the one who helped Ash the most in his travels.  Plus, she was a gym leader, which, in my made, makes her a much better trainer than pokemon coordinators. Misty eventually realizes that she really likes Ash, but much to make intense dismay, Ash is completely oblivious to it. Then again, Ash is/was 10, so…

May is also my ‘favorite’, I have trouble placing her above or under Misty. May is an older sister who constantly takes care of her brother, so she’s much more balanced emotionally than  any than the other female leads. She’s also the nicest, and overall better person out of all three. My main issue with her is that a) she’s a coordinator and b) she’s made out to be sooo much more than she really is (see the episodes where she comes back all cool and awesome… for no reason). Her bond with Ash is also much deeper than Misty’s… for reasons I can’t comprehend since Ash and Misty have gone through many more battles and struggles whereas May only got to share a freakin’ ribbon with Ash :/

Dawn is by far, by far, the female lead I hated, HATED, the most. She’s the most obnoxious, self-centered and spoilt brat that crossed the earth. And she’s also a coordinator. Whereas all of the female leads were all about choosing the pokemon that was cutest, Dawn takes that concept and makes it her life obsession, to the point that even her pokeballs have to be decorated cutesy. UGH. Hate, hate, hate. What’s worse, Dawn’s the one that gets the most hints towards her possible love relationship with Ash. UGHH.

So, all in all, Misty=May>>>>Dawn. And yet, apparently, Ash/the creators find that Dawn>May>Misty. WTF?

My second rant pertains to Hiro Mashima (Rave, Fairy Tail) versus Eiichiroo Oda, the author of One Piece.

I remember Rave okay. Then again I read Rave ages ago so my memory’s a bit iffy on that part. But it’s almost digusting how Hiro Mashima’s work resemble Oda-sensei’s so much. The drawing style is similar, the characterization is similar… The only differences are the heroes, and the fact that One Piece is way more comical, better plot-wise and so much less cliche than Rave or Fairy Tail. It’s the only thing that bothers me, yet it bothers me to no end. It’s like a bad copy pasta. Very, very bad. I really hate how big boobed all the girls are too. But hey. That’s just me.

1/100 Gundam Astraea

My newest hobby: Gundam model kits

I’ve always wanted to give a try with model kits, ever since I found out Escaflowne had one. I’ve always wanted to get that feeling of building something amazing and simply breathtaking from simple parts. That was waaay back when I was tiny and puny and had absolutely no idea where to get them. The desire faded away with time… until Gundam 00 came out AND I KNEW I JUST HAD TO GET ONE. Plus I was attending an anime convention, saw them there at the exhibition hall, and just grabbed as many would fit in the budget I had alloted for the event. Yay!

So I started off with the 1/100 Gundam Astraea, which is the predecessor of the Exia. It’s the smallest model that I bought, so I figure I’d start with this one. It took me around 4 hours to complete. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures as I built it ^^; Sorry. The completed model stands 18.3 cm, and exact 1/100 scale to the real life Exia/Astraea, who stands 18.3 m tall.

My impression as a first time model collectionneur: its sooo fragile! Of course, when the model stands and takes poses, it feels sturdy and I feel confident leaving it there without having it toppling over (unlike BJDs), but everytime I move a part, it feels like its crumbling in my hands. Some of his joints didn’t close properly either – one of his hip joints keeps popping out when I lift his leg! – but most of them are really minor and don’t hinder anything. It also may be because I simply suck at putting it together, or had been too rough on the plastic when cutting it/putting it together. The other major thing that I wish I had known before starting the kit was pointers such as advice in cutting the pieces and sanding them to look nice (because I don’t know how some of the other modellers do it, but everytime I try sanding it scratches everything else or just looks plain ugly ), or just plain out how time consuming the whole thing is, because I’ve miss cut several corners already and I feel sad inside because of it I was also exhausted by the time I got to his legs, so I just got messier and messier. I should’ve definitely taken breaks in between each part and had water close by. Really close by.

Model wise, I must say that I like Astraea a lot more than I originally thought I would. The mecha is simple, without any fancy add-ons, but I still really, really like it. What’s also neat about him is that you can ‘transform’ him into Exia, minus the weaponry and the shoulders that is (though I haven’t tried that yet). One thing I didn’t like about him were, obviously, the stickers but also the fact that the clear parts weren’t painted… and therefore looked really lame. Next on my purchase list: clear green paint! The other thing I was sad about was the amount of detailing they put on some of his parts… only to be later covered up by plainer armor! It’s just too bad that all those details aren’t exposed.

Otherwise, I’m overall really happy with Astraea. It’s been a real learning experience, and a childhood dream fulfilled satisfyingly. I’m still not done with him yet, as I’m not overly fond of having mass produced stuff (especially the BWR default colors), I really want to paint him in different colors and really customize him. One day, I’ll definitely do that.

And now: the total noob tutorial to putting together your first model kit!
aka a few neat things that I learned after my 4th runner. Ugh.
Disclaimer: I’m mostly writing this as a reminder for myself. Also, I don’t claim to be perfect and know everything and have the bestest method in the world either. As a said, I did one kit so far. I may totally wrong. These are jus tricks I’ve found that worked for me, and that I haven’t found on other tutorials since they mostly concentrated on the actual painting and customizing parts (which I SO want to try out!). Please feel free to correct me or give me advice, I really want it ;_;

1) Tools of trade: the cutter that’s illustrated in every manual (a must have). Have it sharp, and clean at all times. Mine was an old used one I found in the garage, with danted blades and all, so I’m sure that didn’t help in cutting the runner and gates properly. I say clean because sometimes plastic dust get stuck on and when you cut again the dust might stick on the part you were working on. It’s really annoying when you have red specs on white pieces for absolutely no reason. I’ve also found that having a mechanical pencil (for positionnig the stickers) and a nail clipper (to clean up the stubs) really helped out. Mainly, though, it was because I felt most comfortable with my mechanical pencil and my nail clipper because these are stuff I use daily, so I really felt more precise and more dexterous with it. Conclusion: use stuff you know well and feel confortable with!

2) Parts numbering: This took me awhile to figure out and I really panicked for a second. Anyways, simplest thing in the world and I felt utterly dumb once I figured it out. Simple: the parts are named as thus: a letter followed by a number, for example A17. Each letter corresponds to a sheet (took me forever to find the letter, but its usually on the edge and its punched through, not written) and the number corresponds to a piece on that sheet. So sheet A, piece 17. Easy, neh?

3) Cutting: The manual recommends that you cut the gate first, and then cut the part that was holding the piece to the gate afterwards. I stopped doing that half way because I got lazy, but really, I find the recommended way to be better though the lazy way works too. But be careful: always cut following the angle for the piece, cut carefully while making sure that the blades don’t accidently cut out something you don’t want it too and always have the flat side facing you so that you can actually see where the cut is being made. If a stub still stays behing, what I would do was cut it out with a nail clipper and actually go a bit deeper than the limit, and then fill it up with paint or just a marker. Not the prettiest thing in key areas, though, so aim for dexterity and precision!

4) When following the steps, try not to cut out everything in one shot and try assembling them. It won’t work, you’ll forget what goes where and what was what @_@. At the least, cut out the ones from a small step and place them on your manual sheet corresponding to where they go. Or just go one piece at the time.

5) Stickers. I hate them with pure hatred. I put them on this time ’cause it was my first, but I might plunge Astraea in hot water and just rub them off one day. Moving on, the stickers were the most stressful thing I had ever done. Because there’s one sticker and if you mess up that one sticker than you’re doomed. Thankfully I got them all correctly, hence why I’m really happy despite the miss cuttings. What I would do is that if the sticker was going over an uneven/non straight surface. Say, the orb on his chest. I would find a reference point and stick the reference point on and gradully work my way all around the surface. If creases remained, I’d slowly etch them out with my nails. For pieces that went into tight spots (the gree on the back, for example @_@), I’d let the sticker ‘float’ above it and gently nudge its corners to position it correctly with my mechanical pencil. Once its at the right spot, I’d take the lead in, and stamp it into place.

That’s about it. I’ll post some pics next time

Review; Kurosagi Saga

Kurosagi – Jdrama. 9 episodes of continuously rehashed plot, plus 2 episodes of a variante of the rehashed plot + and open denoument.

Pros:
-Yamapi
-Koyama

Cons:
-What’s her face Tsurara. I hated her from head to toes. Horrid character. Stupid and stubborn. UGH.
-Yukari’s 180 personality shift, which was really sad since Yukari started really well. Then she was reduced to being a love rival. Sad, really.
- Detective Kashina’s creepy cackling laugh. Like, really creepy. *shudder*
-Terrible music timing
-Reuse of plotx1000
-Really bad TsuraraxKurosaki development
-Open denouement

Kurosagi: movie. Another rehashed plot, except wait! Add Shakespeare’ Julius Caesar,  more settings, more luxury and more gadgets and it turns into a totally original movie!

Pros:
-Yamapi
-Funnier
-Better settings/scenery
-Really cool shadow play
-Julius Caesar symbolism semi-interesting
-Barely any Tsurara!

Cons:
-Cackling laugh.
-Still bad music timing
-NOT a closure to the story
-Still no inclination towards Mikimoto
-Finishes off on a “I’LL KEEP SWINDLING FOREVER!!” note

All in all;
I quite disliked the jdrama, simply because there was to much focus on Tsurara and because 9 episodes of the same thing is way too much. Tsurara sucked. She was very idealistic, and never faced reality until she oh-so-magically **~falls in love~**. She’s also completely useless, and only causes trouble and inconveniences. She’s also incredibly slow. She doesn’t do ANYTHING in the series. I get the point of her character, its an important part of Kurosagi’s struggle, but Tsurara’s main focus isn’t even that important aspect of balancing out Kurosaki’s nihilism. She’s practically there just for the drama factor. And yes, too much of the same plot. It only changed at episode 10, and then again it changed soooo very little. Even when Kurosaki lost to Shisaishi, it was STILL the same routine, except they added a “HA NO YOU ACTUALLY LOST!” snippet at the end instead of the usual Tsurara confrontation about righteouness and her obsessive love over him.

The movie, on the other hand, was pleasant. This was how the jdrama should’ve been. It’s too bad it wasn’t. I’m mainly pissed at the movie simply because I was expecting some epic showdown between Mikimoto and Kurosaki… which totally didn’t happen, and instead we get ANOTHER random Shirosagi. Still good, because this time around the tricks were way cooler, but still. I wish they’d finish his story once and for all. It’s like they did it expecting the movie to be so popular they’d be able to make a sequel or something >.>

Review; Hana Yori Dango

The manga, that is. I’m going to watch the korean drama next, but I don’t have high hopes.

EDIT: OK so I’ve watched the k-drama. It was better than the manga: Ji  Hoo was 1000x better (as if that was even possible) and Ga Eul and Yi Jung are soo getting together. Some of the useless plot was cut out too, and all the side-guys were really well fused together. Minuses: Geum Jan Di is stupider, Gu Jun Pyo is still annoying as hell, she still doesn’t end up with Ji Hoo and the amnesia episode is still there. UGH. At least, it ended way better than the manga. Ga Eul’s story was much more interesting, and so was Ji Hoo’s with his grandfather. The initial setting was better too, plus the scenery is freakin’ beautiful. And the luxury!! Scary, scary thing. Now I reaaally have to go find their soundtrack.

I was so disappointed with this manga. I know a lot of people raved about it,  and that the serie itself had gotten itself a lot of praise and approval. And think about it, this manga was first published in 1992 and its still popular today!

But what kind of hell of a shojo manga was this? It was long, dreadfully stalling, and really, really stupid.

Makino started really well; a good heroine that was strong willed, morallistically correct and most of all, realistic. Then she just got stupid and fell in love with Domyouji. Who, by the way, has abused her physically, nearly raped, and is a controlling, selfish and unsensitive bastard. I don’t see how, in all infinite possibilities, she could’ve found something good about him.  I still haven’t. He’s violent and dumb. Worst combination ever. But hey, I guess this is what this manga is all about: love is unpredictable.

The mangaka is an expert at dilly-dalling. She should’ve just kept the story at a “slices of life” type of setting. But no, instead we have abductions,  mystical twins, deserted island, AMNESIA, and a load of side-guy-lovers along with the central two guys, Rui and Domyouji. It’s sickening how unrealistic the story is. These things do not happen. Any girl would’ve been freaked out and possibly dropped out ages ago if she were in Makino’s shoes. Makino, who was once spirited, witty and actually smart, becomes a complete idiot once she ~*falls in love**~. What’s even more unrealistic is that Domyouji, the boy who was spoiled all his life and knows how to do nothing on his own, suddenly becomes really reliable in the face of danger. What? And god, the amoung of misunderstandings and missed-out moments and DURAMA is insane! If Makino and Domyouji, or even Rui, had been able to speak and listen to each other, which they never do, even when they were together, more than half of their problems would’ve been solved ages ago!

The only praise that goes along with Hana Yori Dango is the realistic view the author gives to the notion of love. It’s very real, very pure, yet filled with hardships and bumps and difficulties. Makino easily sees the differences between loving Domyouji, and loving Rui. They are many ways to love, and lucky for her, Makino actually gets to choose which ones she feels best with. Which takes her forever, considering she keeps on swinging back and forth between the two.

In my own opinion, I really, really, REALLY thought she should’ve ended up with Rui. Other than his really creepy obssession with Shizuka and his rebound episode, I thought he was the better guy. Makino even admits it herself; with Rui, she feels at ease and has a peace of mind. IMO, that’s the type of guy I’d go after. He’s always there for her, listens to her, supports her, and really, Rui has never hit Makino or forced her into anything at all. Domyouji was a brainless idiot. Next to him, Makino seems surpressed, and becomes a useless girl herself, vs the girl who used to be able to defend herself against others. Next to Rui, she seems to bloom, be herself and grow into a better person.

All in all, this was a disappointing read. I was really looking forward to a nice shojo to cheer me up, but this one just got me even more frustrated. Christ.

Migidoll Miho NS – Faceup by bread17

I don’t have any pictures yet, they will be uploaded soon. Hopefully. Along with the SDF body.

All I will say for now, is that it is beautiful.

I also tried to put the head on my SDF body. The resin match is quite close, around 90% I would say, but Migidoll 08 resin is slightly darker and pinker than Luts resin. But that’s ok. The proportions are a tiny bit off, especially in the neck area. Its waaay too long. But it should easily be hidden with a wig and some clothing, so its all good there too.

TBC.

Review; Casshern Sins

I- I loved it ;~;

Casshern Sins is an anime remake of the 1973 Neo-Human Casshern, thought I hear that the two are entirely different.
It is the story of Casshern, an immortal robot with no memory of who he is or what he’s done, as he wanders a destroyed world filled with ruin in search of truth. It’s really emo and filled with angts, but there’s action, and the slow-paced story drawn in a unique art is really compelling.

There was so much imagery and hidden meaning involved that it just blasted my mind, but I am a sucker for symbols, and Casshern does not disappoint.

Spoilers start here!

The story is really unclear at first, which is something this anime just does. You just don’t know what the hell is going on. Appreaciating what isn’t said is really the key to enjoying the serie. It took me awhile to actually understand what was up with Luna and the ruin, and episode 18 is still a big question mark in my head.

From what I’ve understood, at the beginning of the serie we are led to believe Luna was some sort of iconic goddess that allowed robots and humans to live eternally with, presumably, her healing. When Casshern was ordered to kill her, he killed the source of life and hence brought death into the world. Apparently, this isn’t true. Luna was once the embodiment of death – her role was to bestow death unto the beings that had gained eternal life. When Casshern managed to kill her, he released death into the world, causing ruin to spread and affecting everyone. Purged from death, Luna magically became a foutain of life from which Casshern attained eternal life. Hence her newfound healing ability, because it sorta makes sense that she would have the power to withstand her own power of death?

Casshern Sins dealt with one of my favorite dilemma’s of all, which is What is the meaning of life in a meaningless world? Is death a curse, or a blessing? The show offers both views on the matter, Casshern’s side being that death is natural, and Luna’s side being that death is unnatural. Both sides are dealt with in all aspects, and the show eventually reaches the conclusion that life is meant to be lived, but death should not be forgotten. Symbolically, Luna and Casshern end up being the only two beings capable of eternal life and representing the two constants of our existence – Life and Death.

I also loved the fact that there wasn’t any real ‘villain’ or destroy the world plot in the anime. There are only differences in opinion and views, which brings about hostilities, but no actual embodiment of evil, which was nice.

The anime lasts 24 episodes, which really should’ve been planned out better. The 12 first episodes were simply amazing, despite the fact that all Casshern does is wander a dying world. His meeting with the various people struggling for life is beautiful, and the action scenes are breathtaking.  On the other hand, though episodes 13-23 deal more with the plot, the production quality seemed to have dropped down considerable, especially during action scenes, and somehow the mini stories weren’t as interesting as the first ones. The last episode was really touching thought, and I really wished they had split the ending into at least 3 more episodes, considering the amount of things happening they squeezed into that half an hour. Especially since Casshern Sins had always been so slow paced, it was a bit disappointing to have them rush it all in the end. Still, Lyuze and Oji’s deaths were especially touching, and seeing Ringo grown up was nice. It was a strong ending, and neatly wrapped up an decent anime.

On the other hand, many questions remain unanswered. There’s that colorful stone, for one, which was supposed to be Luna’s nano-cells or something. I’m assuming its only role was for Oji to discover Luna’s past, but damn that stone was pretty and had so much more potential (and why did those kids have to ‘die’ for it since it was so unimportant?). Nonetheless, Casshern Sins has a knack for keeping things realistic and low on the coincidences and drama and I guess this is one of them. Another point that I didn’t really get was Luna. How did she become death in the first place? Why was she so revered? How did she magically become Life after being stabbed? It was all a little too weird. And what was up with Braiking Boss? I get his role in the past, but in the present time he’s practically only there for action purposes, thought I’m not complaining. Leda’s part of the story is a bit unclear as well. What actually happened to her child, how did it end to cause her to become so bitter, seeing as the experiment was considered a failure but its pretty heavily hinted that Ringo is the child? And how did Oji NOT understand it when he found baby!Ringo, considering he was the Professor that worked on the robot baby project? And what were Dio’s accessory for?? Leda’s were swords, Casshern was rocket booster, but what about Dio??

Yeah. Things we’ll never know.

Review; The Night Angel Trilogy

Written by Brent Weeks, The Night Angel Trilogy is a compilation of three heavy 600 pages tomes - The way of Shadows, Shadow’s Edge and Beyond the Shadows.

It follows young Azoth’s life as he becomes an professional assassin (a wetboy) known under the name Kylar Stern.  Magic, evil powers at work and saving the world insues. Oh, and did I mention immortality?

Spoilers start here!

When you first open the book, there’s a map, reminiscient of any fantasy world books. Its typical, hand drawn, simple, yet utterly unclear. I can see the countries involved in the story (which is scarcely limited compared to the amount of countries/places indicated on the map) but the borders are poorly definined, and I really can’t tell how big Ceneria is supposed to be. Small detail, but it really irked the hell out of me. Khalidor looked tiny! compared to Ceneria, which I don’t think it was supposed to be? Anyways, the maps does serve its purpose in setting the countries in accordance to each other.

Story:

In all honesty, I loved the trilogy with all its good and bad. I was so addicted I read throughtout the night without being able to put it down. The story is exciting, fast-paced and filled with actions. The book is not for the faint hearted, though; sex and violence are common occurences in the serie and really add to the spice and realism of the assassin’s life.

Each and every event keeps you holding on to your breath and reading on to find out what happens next. You just can’t stop. It’s that bad. Every plot and twist is nicely brought about and linked together, forging a strong tale. On the other hand, the author is guilty of deus ex machina, though mildly, and also of being a tad predictable, especially with the damsel in distress card, or the HIDDEN POTENTIAL!! card. Or the immortality card. Durzo coming back to life despite losing his immortality? And Elene going miraculously from mute to not was a mistake, in my opinion. What was the point of having her mute from the start? The ending was my only low point in the plot, considering the fact that it was really rushed and ended in an open way. A bit too open; and the author forgot Ulyssandra and Momma K. Uly didn’t attend the funeral, and Durzo forgot to visit Momma K, which really irked me considering he wrote her a message of “I’LL COME BACK FOR YOU”. Not. And Kylar ended up staying immortal afterall, which is a bit disappointing, considering I consider immortality a form of godmodding. Oh and the baby thing? Yeah. As great as it sounds, it was pretty far fetched.

Characters:

The main character, Kylar/Azoth, is a typical hero in my book. Though he lives a life of murder, his moral grounds are unshaken and he feels remorse towards the jobs he does. Read, total emo. Not as much as his master, Durzo, thought. Still, both characters are strong and just, and readers can easily sympathize with them. The author also presents the other side of the assassin world through Hu and Vi, another pair of master-apprentice assassins who, on the other hand, relish on the violence that thier job entails, which evens out the strong sense of justice the main characters carries about. But Kylar was a good character, in the sense that as the hero, he persevered and grew stronger with each and every struggle that came his way. What is there not to like about a guy like that?

As any good hero does, Kylar has a sweetheart. First introduced as Doll Girl, later on named Elene, she is the epitome of perfect goodness incarnated in a desolate world of nothingness and death. Yeah, I didn’t like her much. I didn’t like her the moment I found out her name was Doll Girl. Because really, that’s the only purpose Elene serves throughout the book: she is a doll. She doesn’t do anything except being dragged along by whomever decided to drag her along. Of course, I get that she’s there as Kylar’s only fragment of happiness, or whatever, still doesn’t beat into my head that there’s only three girls in the entire book, and that one of them is a bratty child, the other is the forgotten assassin and this one’s a total ignorant fool who can’t even understand that her entire life was payed with the death of others. That point irked me the most. Hadn’t Kylar taken the job as an assassin and killed so many people, he wouldn’t have been able to send the money for Elene to get out of the slums and live the carefree life that she did. But no, the girl instead yelps on and on about the God and goodness and how Kylar is disgusting for deceiving her. Yeah, right. Not to mention that Elene falls into the enemies hands… well ALL of the time. She has her redeeming points at the end of the series thought, but its not much compared to the amount of fail that she was the rest of the time.

And then there is Logan, Kylar’s best friend and up and coming King of Cenaria. This man, I loved. Logan started of as a naive, rich, and righteneous young man yet became cruelly caught in the threads of fate. Yet despite all of this, Logan faced his own humanity and kept his honor. As unrealistic as it is, it is so damn cool.

Vi was by far my favorite character. It’s a shame she’s always pitted against Elene, and ends up being overshadowed most of the time. Vi represented the femme fatale character, what with ultimate feminie beauty and all, yet I loved her anyways. She had her share of troubles, and faced them all with her chin held high, and she was actually useful! She also ended up being pretty damn strong. It’s not clear wether Kylar ever did end up with her or not, thought it was hinted at it but I had the unrepressible feeling that it was a rebound time of thing :/

Another character I loved was Momma K. Epic, that’s really all I have to say. She had influence, power, and values.

There are many more characters to The Night Angel Trilogy, but my most memorable ones limit themselves to the above. Dorian’s story was exceptionally sad, I found, considering he is probably the character that had the highest influence on Cenaria’s victory, yet ended up crazy and without the love of Jeni.

There was something that kind of had me thinking about the cast, though. I couldn’t help but get the feeling that there’s a hint of racial discrimination (if you can even call it that) or even just plain stereotypical associations with appearances. The most notable one: if you’re blond, you’re pure. Hell, Elene is blond, Logan is blond, and they were both characters with exceptionally high degrees of moral justice and righteousness. I can’t recall if Momma K was blond, though she might be the exception to this. White skin people were obviously the favorite, considering Ceneria and its neighboring peaceful city were inhabited by white people whereas the rest of the world was not. Khalidor people were dark skinned (except Dorian, curiously) despite the fact that their country was up north and filled with snow. The Sethi were dark skinned, and although good, they had their share of savagery. There were even Asians, who ended up being uptight honor people liken to the Japanese during the samourai era, and whose young leading was already guilty of patricide. Oh, and the only black guy mentionned ended up being a prostitute and dead. I don’t know if any of this was intentional or not, but its something that I picked up and thought I should point out.

Overall, though, this trilogy is definitely worth a read. Its one of my favorite books by far.

Luts SDF Boy Body – Review

So I’ve had the beautiful body for nearly a week now, and I must say, I do love it quite a bit.
Before I start off, I should let you know that I’ve only owned three bodies so far (DOD’s DOT Boy Body, Luts/CP’s Delf Body Body Type 3 and the following SDF) so I may lack knowledge about some technicalities. As always, refer to DoA for a more complete view of the matter.

I’ve purchased Luts‘ Senior Delf Boy Body Type 1 in Normal Skin (the White skin being limited), and mine comes from the February 09 batch with a pinker tone. I am this body’s second owner.

(pictures to come)

The Type 1 body stands 62.5 cm tall, and boy is it impressive. The torso sports 4-5 (depending on how you count them…) rows of abs and is beautifully detailed; the veins on the feet are especially note worthy. The legs are really long thought, something that kind of always irked me, but it’ll probably seem more proportionate when I get his head back. The resin is thick, unlike the Delf Body, which was a bit thin around the neck and waist areas. Needless to say, the LUTS logo can be found everywhere, but it is hidden inside the joints, so I don’t have any complaints in that area either.

Stringing wise, I can’t say if Luts is strung too tightly or too loose, though I do often hear that the company has the habit of stringing their dolls too tightly and having bucky leg problems. I got him unassembled, so I strung him to my liking. So far, so good. The stringing is simple, the regular way of stringing dolls. There’s no special way of getting the head on either, its just a simple S-hook, so the doll head needs the little cavity for it or else you’ll need the special and oh-so-useful donut. Well strung, the doll stands perfectly well, and has no problem holding its poses.

What I hated, was the way Luts feet hooked on at the end. It is incredibly hard to string on,  even more so then the Delf’s feet were, since the SDF ones are bigger. If you don’t know what its like, Luts foot don’t have the little s-hooks like the hands do –  they have this huge knob at the end of the feet to which you hook on the elastic string. Easier said then done. You have to hold the string down a deal longer than you have to with s-hooks, since you actually have to open up the elastic into a loop so that the knob can fit. My thumb suffered for hours. Then again, all Luts feet are like that. DOD’s were not, so I always compared with their so tiny and easy s-hooks. Then again, maybe its just me and the rest of Luts dolls owners found this beautiful and easy way to hook it up. Feel free to share if you’re one of these knowledgeable owners ;~;

Resin color, like I said previously, is much pinker than Luts old batches, though it still seems a bit pale, to me. When I get my doll head back, I’ll be able to judge more thoroughly on this. UPDATE: The resin is fairly close in tone. It looks to be 100% from far or in dim light, but if you blast hard light on the resin, you can clearly see that Migidoll is pinker and slightly darker than Luts. Otherwise, I’d say about 90% match.

Poseability wise, the Type 1 is pretty basic. Type 2 can do far more, such as a full kneel, bigger elbow range, and crossing its legs. T1 has a bit of difficulty sitting straight – it has a tendency to lean backwards – but its not impossible to do. The torso joing is a bit short inside (compared to the T2, anyways), which makes the torso’s hard to align properly and to have it stay that way. Mine’s always a tiny bit crooked towards the right, probably because of the stringing inside. Its suuuper minimal, hardly noticeable, but its there.

Overall, though, I adore the SDF body. Its a beautiful body, and it does what it needs to do without any alarming problems. If the torso and poseability limitations bother you, than the T2 fixes all that quite nicely, thought the company isn’t selling the T2 body separately yet. The listed price on the company web page is 400$, but they are currently running from 350$-400$ in the marketplace.

extras;

A full comparison between the Type 1 and Type 2 Body, by shirou_oh_sakura, on DoA.

Introductory post

I came here to hide from LJ. I must say, I quite like wordpress so far.

I am Anonymously Me. My main interest is myself, and the occasional you.
I intend to turn this into my BJD blog and sometimes add reviews about books, movies and music. Or just random things. And, when I have the time, anime/manga opinions and thoughts. We’ll see. I don’t intend on turning this into my second LJ.
I’ll see you around.