Noble Phantasm has moved!

Hello, long time no see!

I’ve been quite busy with a lot of things (LOL Tinierme, Nicovid) so I took quite an indefinite hiatus from writing. But now that I’m back, I’ve decided to buy my own domain and continue writing about anime, drama CDs and a lot of other things :3.

You can now find my blog at: MINTYRAIN DOT NET.

Basically, I’ll be writing the same things I write here and more, so please do visit! This blog will not be deleted or emptied, but I won’t update this anymore. All updates will be at mintyrain :).

Thank you so much for supporting this blog!

Lupin III vs. Detective Conan – A Boring Combination

It’s been a while since I updated. Life has been very demanding. I haven’t even watched any summer anime *whines* >A<. Anyway, there are also some plans of this blog merging with nihonwatch, which is owned by my good friend Selphie. We’re having some problems with the maintenance and updating of that site, so for now I’m still stalled here :D.

I’ve recently watched that long-awaited special: Lupin III vs. Detective Conan. It was shown last March 27, 2009, but the subs were released just a few days/weeks ago. I had been waiting for it since it was announced. Even my longing for Kaito Kid was expected to be quenched.

After watching, I kind of feel rather disappointed :(. The waiting was not worth it, in my opinion.

The title is misleading since the special is not really about Conan trying to catch Lupin. Instead, they worked together. The special is supposedly an original story apart from both series (see more of that below). The setting, aside from Tokyo, was a small country called Vespania. The royal family was in despair because of the death of their Queen and Crown Prince in an shooting accident while they were hunting. The next one in line to the throne was young Princess Mira (CV: Horie Yui) who, aside from looking entirely like Ran, doesn’t want to succeed the throne for reasons I did not really understand.

Princess Mira crossed paths with Mouri Ran (CV: Yamazaki Wakana) when she went to Japan as a special guest to a hotel opening. Seizing the opportunity, she ran away, leaving Ran with the princess clothes (don’t ask how it happened -_-). Keith Stinger (CV: Midorikawa Hikaru), Mira’s bodyguard and assistant, persuaded Ran to act as the princess and come with them to Vespania while waiting for the princess’ return. Mouri (Kamiya Akira) and Conan (Takayama Minami) of course wouldn’t take that sitting down. They followed Ran to Vespania and found out about the hunting incident. Thus began a series of investigations to unravel the truth about the queen’s and prince’s deaths.

At the far side of the story, Lupin (Kurita Kanichi) had set his sights on the Queen’s crown, which is the symbol of the country’s royal family. Apparently, he had tried to steal it once before and failed and now he’s back again. With him was his trusty friend Jigen (Kobayashi Kiyoshi) and Mine Fujiko (Masuyama Eiko), who had been just a bother for the whole special. Goemon (Inoue Makino) was there, too, for about 30 seconds.

And so, Conan and Lupin met in Vespania. Surprisingly, Jigen helped Conan find out the truth about the incident which is dun dun dun…actually a murder! Lupin was most of the time in hiding or whining about Fujiko because Zenigata was in the castle and he cannot actually go exploring.

After some confusing scene-tossing and random running, random discoveries and stuff which are all Fujiko’s or Mira’s faults, the crown has been stolen and Lupin found himself trapped in a locked safe. Also, the murder is solved, the criminal has been arrested and the princess came back without anyone getting angry with her even though she’s such a brat. The end.

No, really. That is just what happened aside from some random stuff.

Summer Anime 2009 List

I’m a bit late in posting about anime series to be shown this summer 2009 basically because I’ve been too busy tending to my seiyuu stuff and BL dramas. However, looking at the list of series to be shown, summer doesn’t seem interesting especially when compared to the last winter and spring schedules. It’s a bit sad that there was nothing much to look forward to (IMO). Anyway, for the sake of recording, here are series to be shown this summer, arranged alphabetically.

Hetalia Fandub Craze – Bringing Nations Closer One Dub At a Time

Marukaite Chikyuu - Hetalia's ending song

Everyone who is into Hetalia has probably heard of its amazingly adorable ending song, Marukaite Chikyuu sung by Italy’s seiyuu, Namikawa Daisuke. It has a catchy tune, stupid lyrics and very cute visuals. The first time I heard it, it stuck and I ended up listening to it in loop for weeks (until Romano’s character song was released~). It’s a great hit among fans and non-fans alike (I know, I managed to reel a friend into the fandom because of this song).

Suddenly, someone had a great idea (if you know this wonderful person, please tell me) to make a Marukaite Chikyuu version for his/her country. Taking a karaoke version of the song, someone rewrite the lyrics to fit the words in their language and sang it with the karaoke track. The project was made people amused and happy. Soon, everyone wanted to pitch in an sing Marukaite Chikyuu in their own language. And thus began the great craze of singing the ending song in different languages.

More than the paper craft, the doujin game, the MADs/AMVs, I love this project of singing Hetalia‘s theme in different languages. I do not know if it’s the participation of people from all over the world or the sheer creativity of some members of the fandom, but I’m really glad that this project started and is continuing even now.

While I was searching around for the various fandubs, I became curious of other countries and their languages, even those not even in Hetalia yet. I am thankful to those who wrote the lyrics and translations with their fandubs because I feel that I’ve learned something, even if it’s just lyrics to a simple song. It’s also amusing that some contributors even changed the lyrics to fit their countries’ cultures (like changing the food or personality of the song). All in all, this project is amazing and I hope that there will be more contributions. It’s not only making Hetalia more accepted in communities — it’s also bringing people together. I cannot particularly say how, but seeing the comments in each fandub and sharing in the excitement whenever a new fandub is up makes me think that way :).

In Youtube, there is already a playlist organized to collect all the fandubs in one place. However, there are new ones as well as some which are missed. Here’s a list of the fandubs I collected some time ago, arranged alphabetically by language.

I’m still including names of countries in parentheses even though it’s mostly obvious where some languages come from because some of the fandubs are pretty specific with the country they want to represent (like French for Canada). Each link leads to their corresponding YT video.

• Hetalia original version (Japan)
• Cantonese (China)
• English (Canada)
• English (UK and US)
• Estonian (Estonia)
• Finnish (Finland)
• French (generally Canada and France)
• French (Canada)
• French version 1; version 2; version 3 (France)
• German (Germany — and probably Prussia?)
• German (Austria)
• Hebrew (Israel)
• Hungarian (Hungary)
• Indonesian (Indonesia)
• Italian (Italy)
• Korean (Korea)
• Latin-Spanish (…?)
• Latvian (Latvia)
• Malay (Malaysia)
• Mandarin (China, Hong Kong, Taiwan)
• Mandarin (Taiwan)
• Polish version 1; version 2 (Poland)
• Romanian (Romania)
• Russian version 1; version 2 (Russia)
• Swedish (Sweden)
• Spanish version 1; version 2 (Spain)
• Thai version 1; version 2 (Thailand)
• Vietnamese (Vietnam)
• Visayan (Philippines)

Sadly, the Filipino-Tagalog one seems deleted and I don’t know where I can find it again :(. Anyway, if there are more fandubs in YT, please tell me. Other than that, enjoy how a little silly song has become an international sensation :D.

To everyone who contributed to the project directly or indirectly, you are awesome >v<bbbb

Samurai Gattai DX Shinken-Ou preview

the very large and rather heavy box

I’ve just bought my very own Samurai Gattai DX Shinken-Ou at Great Toys in Greenhills today. It’s a whopping Php 3800, way above my expected amount (I just wanted to buy the Ryuu Origami! But it wasn’t available).  But I think it’s worth the price despite the bad reviews. That might just be because I haven’t had a Super Sentai model before, though.

the side of the box. i just had to include the people, right? :D

Each origami has three modes: kanji, animal and Shinken-Ou part. Each origami is easy to transform and attach, although of course, the kanjis aren’t as perfect as the ones in the series. I’ve taken pictures of all the modes as well as the formed Shinken-Ou, so under the cut, it’s going to be a hell of pictures.

Going for Gashapon

gashapon line in robinson's place ermita

Japanese merchandise (real ones, not those ones you buy in 168/Divisoria and then sell for twice the price at some mall) are hard to find in the Philippines, if you do not know where to look. It’s quite a hassle for my sister and I to order stuff from online, too, since the post office in our place is probably the most unreliable post office in the world. Most of the time, anime fans can buy anime merchandise at Greenhills (Wasabi Toys, Great Toys) or some odd anime shop in malls. The appearance of gashapon machines (capsule machines) made everything happy and gay, though. It’s both an oasis and a quicksand, those machines. They can either make you so happy you want to bust the gashapon machine … or too frustrated you want to kill the employee watching over the machine because you can’t get what you want.

Aside from gunpla and figure/candy toy collection, we’ve been into gashapon collection for quite some time rather than going to Comic Alley like everyone else and their mothers. My sister and I have made raiding gashapon stops in toy stores a hobby. We invest on our “raids” a lot. Fortunately, we often get what we want (after a number of tries? XD). We didn’t realize how big our gashapon collection was until we decided to open the capsules and arrange them on figure cases.

Ladies’ Training CD: Where Butlers Teach You Table Manners

Lately, I’ve been stumbling upon the weirdest yet most amusing talk CDs. You might remember me talking about sheep-counting and diet CDs and you, just like me, might’ve wished that there were more surprises like them. Well, look no further. A few days ago, I got my hands on Shukujou Training CD ~Shitsuji ga Oshieru Seiyouryouri manner~ (淑女養成CD ～執事が教える西洋料理のマナー～).  I read it in English as “Training for Ladies ~Butlers’ Guide to Manners when Eating Western Food~”.

This Ladies’ Training CD is released by TEAM Entertainment for female listeners who have dreamt of becoming an aristocratic lady at one point in their lives. This CD, hosted by butlers, aims to help these ‘ojousama’ become the refined lady that they always wanted to be. These butlers, in six tracks, give tips and advice on how to behave during a Western-style party or dinner, from the moment of stepping off the car to the end of dinner. With the help of your loyal Stuart and Robert, you, my lady, will easily achieve those flawless table manners which will help you gain good impression as you expose yourself to high society XD;.

[impressions] Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Episode 01

My most awaited spring anime series is undoubtedly Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. I loved the anime and even rewatched it in preparation for the remake. As I’ve said before, the new seiyuu cast was a bit of a letdown, although since the replacements are wonderful seiyuu, I know the voices are still going to be awesome. What I expected from the new series minus the new voices are better art and effects while hopefully keeping the intensity of the first series as well as its charisma.

After watching episode 1 of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, however, I have slightly  mixed feelings with the changes they’ve made to the series.

[Impressions] Pandora Hearts Episode 01

To be honest, I’ve never touched Pandora Hearts‘ manga until I heard that it’s going to become an anime. I’m usually an anime person when it comes to such genre (shounen, seinen, psycho, etc.) so I usually watch the anime first then read the manga or sometimes, not read it at all. My first impression with Pandora Hearts is that it reminds me of Kuroshitsuji (not that they’re the same o.o). I guess it’s because of the dark, shadowy backdrop, the main character, and the premise of evil and sorcery. Anyway, enough of my guessing game with Pandora Hearts. This is my unadulterated impression of the first episode.

Slim Naru SUPER DIET CD — Where Seiyuu Helps You Lose Weight

I’ve mentioned in my Pankore CD review other odd talk/seiyuu CDs that Japan comes up with. One of these is the SUPER DIET CD produced by Honeybee, the same company that brought us Hitsuji de Oyasumi Series, also known as the sheep-counting CDs.

Slim Naru is a talk CD featuring the voices of Miyano Mamoru and Nakamura Yuuichi. This is, basically, a CD that will help girls who are trying to lose weight or are in the middle of dieting. It doesn’t only encourage the listener (YOU) to lose weight to ‘look better’ using the deeply seductive (and tsundere) voices of Mamo-chan and Nakamura, it also helps the listener with daily exercises with both seiyuu counting your stretches, push-ups and sit-ups for you.

In this CD, Miyano and Nakamura are both responsible persons who are concerned with your health. Mamo-chan is the gentle, kind guy who wants to help you become pretty while Nakamura is the tsundere guy who is a little snobbish but is willing to help you because he feels happy when you try your best (FIGHT-O!). In order to fully explain the wonderful dynamics of this CD as well as to help listeners utilize the CD as intended, I have to enumerate the tracks and what activity should be done in each.