K1-Max Cosplay Fighter

You'd never think K-1 and cosplay would be related in any way. But now there is Yuuichiro "Jienotsu" Nakajima. He's not just any K1 fighter. He is an anime-otaku K1 fighter.
His love for anime is shown in his K1 ring entrances and appearances at press conferences. In his latest fight he entered in Ranka cosplay and doing her dance from her song Seikan Hikou. He also won that fight with a KO, though in later rounds he got TKOed himself. Too bad he can't fight in cosplay. Would be funny seeing Ranka punching a K1 fighter knockout. Previously he has cosplayed as various anime characters including Hatsune Miku and Haruhi. It is hilarious when all other K1 fighters get pictures taken in fighting pose in a suit while he does a pose in cosplay. I also got quite some laughs with his ring entrances. It seems he has gained quite some support from the akiba-kei. If more people would do this we could get a K1 fight between anime characters~
But still.. cosplay would be preferred over crossplay. Seeing good female cosplayers in the ring would be nice wouldn't it?

Here's a video of his latest appearance:

more videos here
and his blog
image from gelbooru

Anime Sping Season 2009

Winter season is coming to an end so its time to take a look what the spring season is offering.
After a first glance and preliminary filtering the following remains(with respective links to their anidb page):
Shangri-La (like the cover image),
K-on (kyoani of the season),
Sengoku Basara (wondering how they change japanese history),
Senjou no Valkyria(heard good things about the game),
Pandora Hearts(shounen series of the season),
Saki(yeah Mahjong Anime~),
Queens Blade(images in the megami creators makes me wonder what it is about),
Hayate no Gotoku 2(Hinagiku~),
Tears to Tiara(enjoyed the game),
Tayutama (ecchi harem serie of the season),
Polyphonica s2(s1 was reasonable).

Ovas:
Denpa Teki Kanojo(biribiri~?),
To love Ru(because I watched the anime),
Koihime Musou(I don't know why...),
Yurumates(like the art),
To Heart 2adplus(Tama-nee~),
Hayate no Gotoku2 OVA (More Hinagiku~),
Spice & Wolf 2(more economy lessons for current recession),
Higurashi Rei(higurashii~).

Still a large amount of titles -.- I guess the amount will drop after some eps or prioritizing.

image again via 4chan

edit: found a nicovideo of anime in the spring season, ranking of winter season and some previews of the summer season:

1/8 Meiya Mitsurugi review

So I have finally taken some pictures of the Meiya I got last month. For people that don't know the character, Meiya is a female main character from the game MuvLuv made by âge who also made Kimi ga Nozomu Eien. MuvLuv is actually split into two games Extra and Unlimited which take place in two universes. Extra is a normal one where the main characters are schoolmates and one where aliens invaded and humans are fighting them off with giant mecha. Meiya happens to be a pilot of such mecha in the Unlimited universe, hence the skintight pilot suit. The figure is actually based on the sequel Muvluv Alternative which also takes place in the Unlimited universe. It has a great story though some might find it depressing. Also it has some welcome cameo's from KimiNozo.

Enough about the game, on with the figure.
As said before the figure looks great and was modeled well after the original character designs. The suit is painted with glossy paint giving it a shiny finish whereas her head end hair is painted matt using white for highlights. The hair looks great as her hair and hairribbon are modeled in an active pose showing the many layers of her hair.
Though there are some imperfections that are visible when you are looking for them. Her left knee's paint is a bit "chipped" and some casting lines are still visible.

A pic of Meiya in her natural environment. The cardboard backdrop that came with the box.

After some miserable attempts to take pictures in my poorly lit room with a compact camera I decided to move to a more bright environment.. the bathroom.
With plenty of light and bright walls the pictures turned out much better as no flash was needed. Though some exposure adjusting was needed.
Here Meiya was exposed more giving the picture some bloom effect. Her hairribbon disappears into the background.
Frontal view showing her shiny suit.
Side view where if you look closely at her left knee, you can see some paint chips probably caused by removing masking tape.

More pictures of painted 1/7 Lily Saber

Mikatan posted some pictures of the painted version of the 1/7 Lily Saber that will be up for preorder soon. Release will be in june. I must say the figure looks even more gorgeous after some paint. The new pictures show Lily saber from more angles now. A behind and above picture is available now. The motion and flow in her pose is very well captured in her dress. You can also see how Avalon(the sheath) is floating midair.

update: more pics added. More close up pics with some details of her corset, dress and stand.

Find the pics at mikatan

New Loot

Some loot finally arrived. It arrived last week but I was too busy/lazy/distracted to post about it. This time the order contains another issue of megami creators. This time it is vol 08. I just put a megami creators in every order until I get them all. It got a nice poster of a nurse mecha girl and several foldouts :3 more on megami creators in future posts.
I also got several figures. With figma Miyuki I now got all main lucky star girls complete. Also got two haruhi third set puchi-nendoroids. Never had much luck with puchi nendoroids. I Kept getting the same one when I was in Japan last summer -.- Luckily enough this time I got two different ones. The Haruhi and Nagato in concert outfit.
But the thing I was anticipating moest was my first 1/8 sized figure: Meiya Mitsurugi of the MuvLuv series. I must say she looks very nice. There are some small things that are not entirely perfect but not anything to fuss over. More on it in a review of her which will be posted in the future when I find time to make decent pictures.

I'm quite happy with the purchase this time. Only I'm just realizing that besides Meiya there are two other figures in the MuvLuv set. Somehow I get the urge to get those too though my wallet is complaining as it is quite empty now...

More Haruhi Extravaganza figures releasedates announced

The releasedates of Haruhi and Mikuru were announced before to be March and April 2009 respectively. Now the releasedate for the Yuki figure has been announced to be May 2009. With this the releasedate of the all of the extravaganza set have been announced. All are still available for preorder on HobbySearch. With 7057 yen per figures it would be too much of an assault on my cash reserves :(

Also a cute MikuMikku Kagami nendoroid from the Lucky Star OVA was announced.
pictures and info at Goodsmile and Mikatan

Plamo Projects Update

The plamo projects were not in a standstill in the holidays. After finishing the build of the rafe, I started practicing with airbrushing some old hgs of mine. Until I get some confidence in airbrushing painting the rafe will have to wait. Because airbrushing all the time is somewhat monotonous I decided to start another build. Since i was already working with aiplanes the Valkyrie would be a nice intermediate. I got quite some work done in the holidays. The mochup build is done and I spend some time trying to have it transform.
Here the blank VF25F in airplane modus. The components are somewhat loose and parts do not always join up very well due to the joints used for transforming. The plane modus looks quite nice and sleek but without decals it is somewhat empty.
The VF25F in Gerwalk modus. The gerwalk modus hasn't been a modus I was very fond of. It just looks a bit weird. The landing gear and the body-mounted gun are removed. The engines are rotated down and have become legs. Furthermore using a mechanism in the engines/motor allows the thruster to pulled out more making it become an ankle and foot. Also arms are rotated out from the body. The tail becomes the shield. The shield also holds a knife.
The VF25F in Battroid modus. Here is a shot of the VF25F holding the rifle. Transforming to battroid required more work. The wings were folded back in. The hips were straigthened out making it become more of a standing leg. The cockpit area is divided in several parts that fold into the body. Whereas the head and antennae pop up from the body.

2 different sheets of decals were in the box. A clear sticker sheet and a water decal sheet. Saving the water decals for the more high quality painted version in the future I have started to put the sticker decals on the body. This is quite some work handling the damn small decals. I haven't finished putting on the decals yet. I guess I'll save that for later.

Valkyrie girl via moe.imouto.org (original a megami creators poster)