Here's a classic Tifa Fan art from years ago. Not sure of the artist to this day sadly, would love to give him/her credit for this picture. This picture has a special meaning since it was this image and a picture of Trunks that were the first images to grace this site back in March of 2002. Tifa has always been my favorite anime/videogame girl and will continue to be but of course I have other favorites.
Here's a little surprise for you all, my loyal readers. Thanks to the Cosprints.com, may I present you all with professional photos of my fiancee, Danielle cosplaying as Advent Children Tifa. Since she's part Japanese, she holds a decent look to Tifa in my opinion (and definitely Yuna too ^^) These were taken at the New York Anime Fest this past weekend. I might even change the cosplay image on the front page to her now ^_^
(glad to have my site back after yesterday's shut down ^^;;) Here's a video she put up too ^^
More good news for Final Fantasy VII fans. Looks like the recent "On the Way to a Smile" novelettes that went with the Advent Children Collector's DVD set will get an anime.
In case some of you don't know about these little stories, they are accounts of Tifa, Barret and Denzel during the two years between FFVII and Advent Children. There are also ones coming out with the new Complete release that includes stories of Yuffie, Red XIII and Vincent.
Aniplex and BeSTACK will be creating the animation and not MadHouse, as it was with the Crisis Core anime.
As a big fan of FFVII...awesome...but how about a PS3 remake or the inevitable sequel Dirge of Cerberus hinted at? Granted, we still have to wait for FFXIII before any of that will be hinted at ^^;
Happy Valentine's Day everyone! My fiancee, Danielle just made an AMV that is just perfect for today and I'll admit...its been a long while since I've promoted an AMV ^^; so hopefully the (hate) mail might stop.
There are plenty of FFVII AMVs out there but other than this being done by my fiancee, I thought this was a great overall video. Some of you might remember Danielle's other FFVII AMV but due to its huge popularity and since the music industry loves to protect their extra deep pockets without realizing AMVs are actually free ads for their artists..the video was booted ~_~
If you don't have a Valentine or lost yours today, don't fret since the time will come and some of you probably like the single life.
The song is a more modern version of "You Raise Me Up". Pardon my not knowing the artists. Once I know who sings this version I'll give credit of course where credit is due.
Once again we are graced with yet another special version of the Playstation 3. For Final Fantasy VII fans (like myself) , this PS3 might make you want to finally get one after all this time. Painted in "Cloud Black", this FFVII PS3 features the wolf emblem from Cloud's Advent Children outfit but it also comes with other goodies like the new re-release of the Advent Children that includes 30 more minutes of our favorite characters, a 160GB drive and even the demo to Final Fantasy XIII. Comes out next month in Japan, but like usual, us American gamers + otaku seem to be getting shafted since there is no set US release date ~_~ Well, here's some food for though Sony and Square-Enix...after doing my taxes I found I actually did over $100K in 2008 in anime and game sales for this site so...um Sony, Square-Enix, there is a market here for this...no need to shaft the US gamers because of needless fear of... "THE DREADED ECONOMY"
Here's a much better set of Tifa Lockhart Wallpapers than that simple one I did a while back with smoother graphics and bigger sizes. Thanks to photobucket user altoidyoda for the 1820px x 1024px size that I edited for these. Each photo has been adjusted to the popular monitor sizes. Enjoy ^_^
Some exciting news from Square-Enix with the recent announcement of even more new figures! Many of you are aware of the new Crisis Core figures that will arrive state side beginning 09 but as of yesterday, one of my dealers gave the go-ahead to pre-order the latest in the line of Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts figures.
Set to arrive some time near March-April here in the states comes these 6 figures Square-Enix:
Final Fantasy XII: Judge Master Gabranth Play Arts Action Figures
One in particular that catches my eye of course would be the Sephiroth Static Arts figure. This is really the first time since the old resin models that the characters from Final Fantasy VII are made into the standard, static PVC models. For a long time FFVII figures have been mainly the simple and poseable Play Arts $30 figures (minus those rather recent $400 models), which are great but many figure collectors look for those figures that are high in quality (and not over $400) that match more of say the figures of Good Smile Company.
As part of my site and store's expansion, I of course went and pre-ordered a bunch of every one of these figures for you guys. Check out the Final Fantasy + Kingdom Hearts sections of the store to put in any pre-orders*. The exact quantities that I should be getting are in the system but like all anime figures, they are usually limited edition and will sell quick ^_~
*Currently the store only allows for pre-order reserves by paying the full amount for the figure(s) but you can simply ask to be on the waiting list by emailing me here. People who pay for the figures in advance do get the figures first though and if you pay or not for pre-order figures you can always cancel at any time...just be sure to message me in advance ^_^...oh and shipping is FREE if you buy $100 or more and are in the US.
Remember not too long back when my better half, Danielle made that great Crisis Core AMV with the song, Kiss My Eyes and lay me to sleep? Well, in the past few months the video has started to gain some momentum and is almost at 20K views! Due to the enormous amount of AMVs on youtube, this number is very tough to reach. My videos used to have those kind of hits but that was due to the fact that I was one of the first to post up AMVs to youtube.. (until that old account got erased ~_~). For those who haven't seen it, check it out below. Its definitely one of Danielle's best and fits very well to the Crisis Core atmosphere. If you don't have this game yet, be sure to buy it. Congrats Danielle for you achievement ^_^
Was meaning to post this up yesterday but I was dealing with the cases upon cases of FFVII vol. 2 Play Arts figures plus other anime figures that arrived at my home ^ ^; What will be the Crisis Core, Final Fantasy VII Play Arts set, here are some pictures thanks to sdcc08.figures.com and Comic Con 08 of the upcoming Zack, Shinra Infantry Cloud and white dressed Aerith. Yes fan girls, there is a Zack figure coming out. They won't be out till around x-mas in Japan which probably means January to March here in the US ~_~. I could be wrong though...they could come sooner. Keep watching my store and here on the blog for details.
Now does anybody have a forklift? My god, I've never seen so many figures in my house 0_o
If you were at Comic-Con 08 (unlike me ~_~;;) you would have seen a wonderful booth set up by Square-Enix showing off their newest figures, game trailers and manga. In not too surprising news, they are beefing up their non gaming products to profit off of the growing European and American otaku fans who most likely have FF figures in their must-buy list. As an anime distributor myself, I'll agree very much to Square's interview with Anime News Network on their high selling line like the Advent Children Cloud and Sephiroth. As of very recently, the Play Arts Volume 2 which includes FFVII game versions of Sephiroth, Vincent, Cait Sith, Red XIII, and Yuffie have been selling like hotcakes. I've bought cases of them and I'm already down to my last few ^^;
New figures are on the way from Square including some very nice (and a bit pricey, but worth it) Kingdom Hearts Figures. Other figures on the way include FFXIII figs, like the incomplete one shown in the pic above, a stunning $1000 FFXII Gabranth 1/1 helmet (seen in a previous post), and most likely more from the Final Fantasy VII line. Otaku got more to be excited about but hopefully they come out here by x-mas...chances are late January will be when they are all available outside of Japan.
My fiancee was doing some youtube browsing when she came across this video. I love the Final Fantasy VII Play Arts figures and recently got boxes of both Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 for my store so after seeing this I'm tempted to tap into my stock a bit use them for stop motion animation. Kudos to youtube user ffjason for the hard work it takes to make stop-frame figure animation.
For any otaku who didn't know, Japanese music artist Gackt is in fact Genesis from FFVII Dirge of Cerberus and the recent Crisis Core game. Character designer Tetsuya Nomura is a big fan of his work and had him create his song "Redemption" for Dirge of Cerberus. If I'm not mistaken, Gackt even did the Japanese voice for Genesis in Crisis Core. It is also rumored that FFVIII's Squall was also based on Gackt. It'll be great to see him again when Square-Enix makes the next installment in the Complilation of FFVII series.
I also attached the Redemption video for you all to see.
As promised I created a full review of Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core. To prevent this blog entry from being to large I placed it here and also on my forum for further discussion. You can also rate it here on helium.com. Enjoy this game for it's an experience all right.
Was able to snag my own copy of Final Fantasy Crisis Core a day before release and the hype is very much true. I will do a full game review after I complete it but many gamers have already stated their love for it. Arguably it's even better than many of the pure numbered Final Fantasy series based on a number of gaming mag reviews and from fellow otaku and gamers. I got the guide too and there's a lot to do. Also, in case some of you didn't know, the main bad guy, Genesis was in the secret ending to Dirge of Cerberus taking away his "brother" Weiss. For any Final Fantasy VII fan this is really exciting news since that means there will be a sequel to Dirge of Cerberus! (hopefully for the Playstation 3). Rumor has it the title will be "Endless Crisis" but none of that is official. On top of that, many fans now want the original FFVII to get a PS3 face lift. Either way you cut it, FFVII fans have a lot to look forward to. Enjoy this game for there is more on the way! Check out more info at crisiscore.com
Got some more Tifa goodness for you all. Since 2002 I've had the luxury of having this Tifa figure as the centerpiece above my computer here before me. This one is the version II model that came out all the way in 1997 and is in my opinion the best looking Tifa figure to date. The thing about it, is that it is made of resin which compared to PVC is much more fragile. I recently purchased the Aeris (Aerith) model from the same line but she died... I mean got busted along the way because of how fragile resin can be. Above and below you can see pictures I took with a photo tent and my Kodak Easyshare camera. Expect a figure gallery section soon that will show off some of the figures I kept for myself. This one and Mirei being my favs. I also have just took pictures of the resin Yuffie figure that stands right next to Tifa on top o f the computer desk. That'll be for a future post.
Also, I do promise to make better pictures than these. They are ok but can be much better.
Here's a little treat for you guys. I came across this amazing photo of Tifa Lockhart. It's how she looked during the Final Fantasy VII game but with the Advent Children graphics. I was only able to find a 400 x 300 pixel image and god knows I wanted it as a wall paper so I photoshoped the pic to add on some more width to it. If anyone is of course able to find a more clearer version of this picture, I'd love to have it. I believe I'm the first to make it a wallpaper and if anyone wants to modify it more go right ahead. This is why I kept it simple. Tifa is by far my favorite character of all time and this image is hopefully a glimpse of what we might see if Square-Enix makes a Final Fantasy VII for PS3. Be sure to click the picture to get the full 1024 x 768 wallpaper. As for those that have a bigger screen, had to go with the still current majority resolution. Check out more of Tifa here.
Many fans are excited about the release of Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core. The prequel to not only the number one video game of all time but the very reason this site exists in the first place. Sorry for the brief Holiday hiatus, the blog is back on and what better way to kick off the end of 2007 with a new AMV. Danielle made this one using the song "Prelude 12/21" by AFI. Click here to view it if you can't see it below. Be sure to comment on it both on youtube and here. I think Danielle did an amazing job on this one. Also, as always remember that no ownership is taken on this or other amvs. Be sure to buy the game when it comes out (might be in the anime store, too) and buy the album to support them. Enjoy ^_^
