Chucks Anime Shrine

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noreply@blogger.com (princetrunks) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 01:05:00 +0000

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Shining Wind: Seena Swimsuit ver. 1/7th Scale Figure

noreply@blogger.com (princetrunks) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:03:00 +0000

Spring and summer are almost here but it seems Seena has already made a head start. This beautiful new pre-order figure by Good Smile Company and Max Factory features Shining Wind's Seena in a cute and elegant orange/brown swimsuit. Her pareo around her hips can be removed, too. For a 1/7th scale figure, she's priced pretty well at around $80; granted not as good as before the dollar became so worthless to the Yen (-_-;) but that beats out even some of the 1/8th scale figures coming out.
She should be around for the Summer time around July or August.

You can pre-order here
or simply email us your reservation here

check out some more images of her ^^

Anime Figures and... Swarovski Crystals?

noreply@blogger.com (princetrunks) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:37:00 +0000

Did you guys know I'm also a Swarovski Crystal retailer? Actually, back at the end of 2006, before I thought about selling anime figures and tagging that function to this site, I joined forces with a local wedding products wholesaler who worked with the old eBay consignment place I was employed with back then. It was from this foundation that I actually started my figure selling business, originally calling it "Chuck's E-Store" This was the final chapter in my 2004-2007 hiatus from this site, of which started with me being an Amway dealer (more very interesting news on that connection in a future post). For those who've been with my site since the beginning remember the days of AMV creations and my brief fame on Newgrounds.com way back in 2003. This got halted by me being in college, working for Friendly's Icecream and trying to break free from the job world via Quixtar/Amway ^^;;

With the anime figure business doing well, things are going full circle and I'm planning on bringing ALL aspects of life's little journeys into view. Yes, in due time you will probably see me doing Flash animations again, AMVs, video games and bringing back the long overdue anime sections to the site.

In the meantime, I added a Swarovski Crystal section to the store for all to see. It's only two figures to start off; definitely far less than what I use to stock but the site's been gaining some popularity and I've had customers who love Both anime and Swarovski figures. More are bound to be added in due time. They aren't too different since like anime figures...they are rare to come by and if you don't order them in their small window of availability...expect to be spending a large amount of $ from dealers on eBay and other sites trying to rip people off -_- On a negative note, Swarovski has a tight MAP policy (Minimum Advertising Price) for the legit sellers like me. In other words, if I sell figures at a final price lower than that, I lose the ability to sell them -_-; so I have to practically keep them at their full retail price. I won't however inflate their prices if the figures become super, super rare and I make sure they have free shipping for all US customers :-)

Also, hey, my site is called Chuck's Anime Shrine and a shrine can have some crystals in it, too.

Anime Blu-Rays and DVDs

noreply@blogger.com (princetrunks) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:06:00 +0000

Been expanding the store aspect of this site as you guys might have been able to tell from the recent posts. For a few years now, the store has mainly been catering to anime figures, since well, they sell and help put food on the table. The one thing that has been lacking (besides Gunpla ^^;;) would be the sales of the actual anime that we all so love and dear; the anime DVDs and Blu-ray disks...

Let's face it, the internet age has been killing DVD sales and by the time even a store like mine gets them, the prices get so low and the competition gets so fierce that ANY store that isn't Best-Buy or Walmart that's trying to honestly sell them...will run themselves into the ground within a week. The common tactic of these and other stores online is to sell DVDs for even way less than what it costs them to stock it. In other words, they choose to lose money on the items...mainly so they can scam and overprice people on other stuff in their stores -_- Trust me, I have gotten burned that way by many online & brick and mortor dealers; plus let's not forget the dealers online that say they got the DVD and end up giving you a bootleg with some crappy printed cover -_-

Blu-ray sales on the other-hand, seem to be doing ok, but again, the day for 100% digital downloads is closing in. (oh and let's not forget about the good old anime pirating crap that goes on). Despite that grim future for DVD and eventually Blu-rays, I still decided to expand the store to start to include some great anime Blu-ray disks and yes, even some DVDs.
Will my pricing beat that of the big chains like Amazon, Best-Buy and Walmart? Probably not. Again their tactic is to lose money on these things so that you come back for stuff they overprice. I still sweeten the deal by lowering the price from the retail price AND offer free shipping on them if you live in the US. For those who buy/pre-order I will promise you your copy, even if that means I go and buy it at full retail. But hey, if you end up not getting them, that's just more anime for MY collection.

Three blu-ray disks that I'd like to let you all know about are the ones that just got announced for pre-order;

Dragon Ball Kai Season 1, Part 1

Full Metal Alchemist; Brotherhood Part 1

and last but definitely not least,

Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE Complete Series

As for other new DVDs & Blu-rays, these I actually right now:

Halo: Legends (2-Disc Special Edition) (DVD)

Kurokami: The Animation Vol. 1 (Blu-Ray)

Eureka Seven: -good night, sleep tight, young lovers- (Blu-Ray)

K-On! Figma Figures

noreply@blogger.com (princetrunks) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 16:00:00 +0000

Yes, here's yet another K-On! figure post by me. (deal with it -_-) For those of you that have been tracking my little rants, a recent pet-peeve of mine has been the fact that licensees in Japan have become a bit scared of making money and try to keep some anime and figures in Japan only for themselves. Well, looks as if some of the complaining (and the good old power of $) has paid off and with the second release of 2 K-On! figures, comes the rights for us here in the states to actually buy a legit K-On! figma locally.

Yes, that's correct, you won't have to pay $20-$30+ in shipping from a store in Japan if you want a Mio figma figure of a Ritsu figma figure (if you live in the US...and international customers are still welcome ^^). I have gotten the rights through my business and my trusty (legit) suppliers to acquire these cuties for the store.

Click here to go to the Mio figma pre-order page

Click here to go to the Ritsu Figma figure pre-order page

Rather shoot us an email to get yourself onto a waiting list? You can do so here.

Once the number of figures coming to my store get filled, that's it since I want to make sure ALL who order or get on the list get one when they come out in June or July...so don't wait too long.

FUNimation Aquires Trigun

noreply@blogger.com (princetrunks) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 01:32:00 +0000

Ah, 90's anime. You gotta love it and to call yourself a true anime fan you have to go back and watch some of the classics here and there. Been watching the entire series of Outlaw Star as of late and Trigun is also what we fans would call neo-cowboy(ish) late 90's anime genius. Just before anime went on that 7-9 year streak of cut-and-paste, school-uniform color-by-numbers school centric series, it was the days of cowboy shootouts on an Earth-2 planet...by a plant. (ok, Outlaw Star takes place on Earth and other spots...but you get what I'm saying)

All kidding aside, FUNimation, on top of everything else they've been buying with DBZ Zeni, announced today in their newsletter that they bought the rights to Yasuhiro Nightow & Satoshi Nishimura's Trigun from FlyingDog, Inc. Like Outlaw Star, the English dubbing was spot-on so doubtful of a re-dub but expect to see the DVD and Blu-ray copies to be around in the stores (and maybe mine ^^) come this fall.

(oh and for those who aren't true anime fans that either just watch Naruto (no worries I like the series, too) or nothing older than 2005...well, expect to see more new Trigun as their is to be a new full length animated movie this spring, in 2010)

Mio Akiyama (Moe Moe Kyun) Figure

noreply@blogger.com (princetrunks) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 01:06:00 +0000

You thought I'd leave for the weekend without mentioning this oh so Moe figure? For those who might have not heard the news from a few days ago, FREEing and Good Smile Company joined together to come up with the "Moe Moe Kyun" version of K-On!'s Mio Akiyama.

Of course, she's up in the store for pre-order for those who just have to have a moe figure for themselves.

Thanks for spilling the beans on this one, Danny Choo.

Here's the a fan-made clip from youtube from that seen. I know, us anime fans can be weird (and oh so funny) at times...but let us enjoy some moe cuteness.

...oh and more pictures of her too:

Fate/Stay Night: Rider Figma Action Figure

noreply@blogger.com (princetrunks) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:48:00 +0000

Here's a figure I know you all have been waiting for. That's right, you are looking at the highly anticipated Fate/Stay Night: Figma Rider Figure. She's definitely a beauty and I'm more than likely going to keep one for myself for my work desk. This figure is full of win; more images below.

Naturally I'm stocking her in my store for pre-order. The thing is though, Max Factory is limiting the number of these that are coming to the states -_- Yes, just like the K-On! Nendoroid + Figmas, anime sites and stores like me are allowed to only keep a limited number (or in the case of the K-On! Figmas...none at all -_-). In this case, only the first 12 who reserve her will be guaranteed* one. So check her out in the store and if you'd rather get on the waiting list via email...you can do that too with this link.

*I would love to say "100% guaranteed" but Max/Factory and GSC have been a bit slow to catch up from the demand so sometimes delays may happen and you never want to leave everything to chance. It's about a 99% chance and if any issues..I'll make it known.

(now on to the pictures)...

Anime Voice Acting

noreply@blogger.com (princetrunks) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 21:25:00 +0000

Great news! Well, not so new if you follow me on twitter. I've been keeping tabs on the voice studio famous for anime voice acting, Bang! Zoom! I oddly only first heard of them when I went to NY Anime Fest back in 2008 and not surprisingly, the panel for them was so packed that not even I, an anime store/site owner, was able to get in -_-. They are situated in Burbank California and have been featured on the Tonight Show (Conan's superior but now canceled version)..since well, they are right across the street from them. Last year's NYAF was with the same results..no entry into their coveted voice acting panel.

Thankfully Bang! Zoom! started a voice acting class fronted by famous anime voice actor as well as the head of writing and producing for the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Tony Oliver. Being that I'm in NY on the boring yet overrated Long Island east coast, and their classes are usually at their main studio in Burbank, CA...well, you get the picture; mainly a no go since it's a $300 class, the trip there would be about 2x that much and with the anime store doing well, I'd have little time to spare away from home...

So what's the "great news" I spoke of? Well, Bang! Zoom! will be coming to New York City soon and I am one of the 12 that's confirmed to be there for their Beginner Class! That's right, yours truly will be put into one of those sound booths (like Conan and Andy Richter did here) and I'll be doing some practice dubbing with Tony Oliver, the Bang! Zoom! crew and 11 other classmates. We'll be learning the basics for being in voice acting.

(Seiyu tend to be singers before anime voice acting, in Japan)

Some people have indeed gone from this class to being in a recent anime! That's the best case scenario for me but the experience plus learning if I can or might not have what it takes... is all worth it. Many voice actors here in the states are usually trained in acting before even trying out for this business. I'm much more like the Japanese Seiyu who are more verse in singing than acting.

For those who might not know, back in 2001 and 2002 in my Junior and Senior year, I was part of New Field High School's Select chorus which was only about 13 people. One of my fellow class mates was American Idol semifinalist and current The Challenge game show host, Jared Cotter.

So in other words, I have a bit of singing and voice lesson experience (though being about 8 years ago now ^^;;). I don't however have drama class or acting experience but I don't let that put me down..nor it should for you if anime voice acting is something you want to maybe do one day since one of the most famous anime voice actors & the voice behind 7-11 commercials here in the states, Steve Blum (...Spike from Cowboy Bebop), didn't have that experience. Steve Blum just had what it took to be a voice actor from connections through his friends that were close to these studios. He didn't know till he gave it a shot.

More on what happens at the end of next month. I'm looking to learn about the industry and learn if I'm even good enough for them. Good or not, it'll be great to learn and mingle with the voices of the anime industry.

For those of you critical of anime dubbing. I do share some of your fears and god knows there have been utter fails in it. This video from 2006 from the DBZ voice crew on their Budokai 3 game, might humble you and make you realize that it's not as easy as it looks to dub anime and those who do it right, are truthfully skillful, like Chris Sabat and crew undoubtedly are.

(Speaking of DBZ voice actors, recently DBZ Kai English voice actors were announced. Most of the actors are back with a few exceptions. Bulma for example will be done by famous voice actress, Monica Rial now)

...
Sorry about the lack of posts. This has to do with a number of things; (p/t job trying to be full time without my permission, anime store sales through the roof, and good old errands that seem to last all day -_-) I see that the Member's Blog is back on track with a few new posts. I plan on making a contest as soon as I can settle things down on the home front, so keep posting.

X-Men PHOENIX / DARK PHOENIX MARVEL BISHOUJO Figures

noreply@blogger.com (princetrunks) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 14:00:00 +0000

Didn't want to overload you all with too many figure posts yesterday but if you keep tabs of my store's inventory, you might see that I snuck in a brand new Bishoujo figure release. Yes, the great artist Shunya Yamashita is at it again with TWO new figures of an American comic book beauty, once again proving that the Japanese do it best.

Announced yesterday was both the Phoenix and Dark Phoenix X-men Bishoujo figures. They are scheduled to come out some time in June or July and Jean Grey never looked so good.

Click here to the Pre-order page of the Phoenix figure

Click here to the Pre-order page of the Dark Phoenix Figure

Hyakka Ryouran: Senhime 1/8 Scale Figure

noreply@blogger.com (princetrunks) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:31:00 +0000

Wanted to throw another figure your way today. I simply had to blog about this beauty of a figure. Fans of Hyakka Ryouran are familiar with Senhime and Alter announced this today. I'll be saving this beauty for myself too ^^. She looks so much like my significant other.

She's about 8200 yen or about $100+ (darn $ being too weak -_-)

Pre-order her here

Strike Witches Anime Figures

noreply@blogger.com (princetrunks) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:46:00 +0000

Got news from Alter about some new pre-order reservations up today for the Strike Witches figures as well as the resale of the very popular Miyafuji Yoshika figure that recently got released. I have one Yoshika from the first release and Alter did a great job.

Naturally I added them to my store for you all to pre-order ^_^ Check out the details below:

Strike Witches: Miyafuji Yoshika 1/8th Scale figure

Click here to Pre-order page

Strike Witches: Erica Hartmann 1/8th Scale figure

Click here to Pre-order page

Strike Witches: Sanya V.Litvyak 1/8th Scale figure

Click here to Pre-order page

Click here to email me for what you'd like if you feel more comfortable with emailing your pre-order reservations.

Localized Anime Licensing Killing the Industry?

noreply@blogger.com (princetrunks) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:00:00 +0000

You all know you love your anime and you do what you can to get it, right? Well, most of you know that if you are viewing shows like K-On! with English subtitles, that the fan-subbing done with the series was illegal, correct?

Despite the huge popularity world wide for K-On! and some other shows in Japan, there has yet to news of them being licensed for (legal) viewing outside Japan and it almost seems like the licencees simply don't want you to watch them or own their products if you are a gaijin (foreigner). Yes, FUNimation is doing their best to bring many new series here. Even NIS, the guys popular for great anime games just got the rights for Toradora but even THEY can't get some well loved series here...and it ain't all about the money.

Being that most anime fans are computer literate, they easily get around the red tape but obviously, the large amount of pirating has also undermined the entire industry, killed entire anime companies and in fact probably prevented even better series from getting to the fans or ever created. Of course there are a large number of series that have been given the go and we can watch on Blu-ray, DVD or for free (legally) on sites like CrunchyRoll, YouTube and Hulu, but the industry seems to not understand how to profit (enough) from the new media paradigm.

The pirating is a problem with ALL electronic media in this internet age but to blame the internet trend and the pirating masses is only blaming half the problem. The other half comes from the way anime shows and media content in general are passed around from the creators to the content creators/end-animators and to the licensees. A map of it I believe was done by Anime News Network and I can't help but keep the word, clusterf$^% from leaving my brain. The internet age now lets the people creating content to simply cut out the middleman and getting straight to the fans. This has happened in the music industry, self-made fame on YouTube and recently in anime we have seen it with Cenceroll. This straight-to-all-fans-worldwide marketing scheme is ticking off the old hats of the licensing world by both virally advertising videos to much more fans than the old way of throwing money at an advertiser would and (more importantly) creators are making far more money by ignoring localized licensing rules and just letting their creation go into the wild of the internet. The internet is the great equalizer now; if something is good, it will grow via word of mouth. If it's not worthy, it won't get very far at all. In other words, the success of say an anime, manga series, a music artist or any show in general is based on their talent and the quality of the content and NOT whether a big name is behind them.

So, why the large rant, Chuck? Well, as an anime fan, anime site webmaster and anime store owner, I see things both from the view of the fans and from the business point of view. The way shows like the Sailor Moon anniversary DVDs and K-On! figures + shows are being handled, is not very smart business at all. The localization of certain titles is money lost for the content creators, unfair to the fans and only breeding more urge for fans to pirate meida and thus undermining the industry.

Notice I don't have ANY K-On! Figma figures for sale? Well, that's because the licensing behind K-On! is so anti-foreign sales that they won't allow the legit stores to sell those figures...if you are an overseas seller. Silly, right? Actually, the licensees told Good Smile Company to not sell K-On! overseas. I got word two weeks ago from the good people over at AAAanime.com that Good Smile Company was forced to limit the amount of K-On! items that go overseas and thus, if you pre-ordered items from a store not in Japan...chances are your K-On! Nendoroids aren't coming (or might simply be fake) To people who bought from me, thankfully all is good, I have increasingly better relations with the wholesalers both in and outside of Japan.

I made a formal complaint to the licensees of K-On! about this through AAAanime.com and hopefully something good will come from it. I know you guys want to see all Japan has to offer and I know you'd love to see shows like Sailor Moon and K-On! be on the TV, DVD, Blu-ray block in the states. From a business standpoint, they might not want to allow a series to go to the states and probably fall short, thus losing sales and money but at the very least, K-On! and Sailor Moon (yep still to this day), as well as a few others are $ in the bank for all involved and for us fans...we just want to see them. The demand is there and with demand for content comes sales, business 101.

...
Discuss what you think the anime biz should do to both give us the series we want to see (outside Japan and legally) and to calm down the pirating crazies out there from destroying everything we love about anime.

Anime Valentine's Day

noreply@blogger.com (princetrunks) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 17:00:00 +0000

Today is that lovey-dovey day of Valentine's Day that you either love or hate. If you have a valentine, get him/her that gift you always wanted to give. An anime plush or some chocolate Pocky is always a good gift for an otaku in love. If you don't have a Valentine, or can care less, he, just enjoy the day the best you can and relax for that special person will eventually come by...if you be the best person YOU can be.

...
Off to have some all-you-can eat sushi. Big ramble of a blog post tomorrow about anime licensing.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Tonight on Adult Swim

noreply@blogger.com (princetrunks) — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 15:40:00 +0000

You all probably heard this already but for those who haven't, tonight at midnight (both on the east coast and on the west coast at midnight), Adult Swim will be starting their run of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. This is the first of 3 anime series to finally get the spot here on the US shores. For the sake of the anime industry here in the states, I implore you to watch this tonight.

If the ratings are good enough for the execs at CN, we can hopefully see Adult Swim go back to what put them back on the map and hopefully have them dump those home-brewed 2 cent crap shows they been putting in anime's place.

So show that you are a true anime fan and you want anime big in America again and watch FMA: Brotherhood! (or Colonel Mustang might snap his fingers in your direction -_-)

#FanServiceFriday: 2/12/10 - Tifa Lockhart

noreply@blogger.com (princetrunks) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 16:05:00 +0000

Brought back #FanServiceFriday (#FF) from a long delay with my favorite of all anime/game characters, Tifa Lockhart. If you've been on the internet as long as I have, you'd know that this image is a colored version of a wonderful pencil sketch from probably as far back as 1998. ^//^

K-on! - Nakano Azusa Alter Ver.

noreply@blogger.com (princetrunks) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 03:28:00 +0000

Just when you thought there was too much cuteness with the Nakano Azusa Nendoroid figure, Alter goes and announces a wonderfully cute 1/8th scale model her too.

Expected to come out some time in June or so, Nakano isn't as expensive as some of the other 1/8th scale figures but a price tag of $85-$90 still makes you wish the Yen was weak again and the US gets it's financial game back in gear (along with many other issues).

Still though, if you are like me, you will probably get one for yourself ^^ and yes, she's found in my store here for pre-order or you can reserve one by email with this link.

...
(btw, good to be back. Darn cold, the web work I do over at Berger-Bros.com, a crazy blizzard here in NY, as well as a boost in anime biz sales kept me from blogging. Obviously the latter I'm all for but the other stuff sure would be love if erased from my schedule for good. Anyways, more posts to come)

Wonfes 2010: Nendoroid Mickey & Figma MJ?!

noreply@blogger.com (princetrunks) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 02:10:00 +0000

The event is going on right now and thanks to Danny Choo, we are getting live feeds and images straight from the event. For those who maybe don't know, Wonfes is the largest figure and custom figure kit convention in Japan. Most if not all of the major anime figure manufacturers are there showing off the newly announced pre-orders as well as some surprises.

If you've been keeping track of the numbers on your Good Smile Company Nendoroid, you'd know they are close to their 100th figure. That figure has been announced and it's actually a non-anime character...Mickey Mouse. You heard me right, the 100th Nendoroid is Disney's Mickey Mouse. I'm fan of him...don't get me wrong but I would have so wanted a Nendo Tifa Lockhart and expected one to come before a Mickey one. Oh well, "a man can dream...a man can dream"- Futurama

It gets weirder than that. Of course for every new Nendoroid figure announce, a new Figma isn't far away. Yesterday Good Smile announced the figma K-On! Yui...but sdly, like ALL the other K-On! figmas...some sort of ass-backwards licencing embargo prevents even ME from snagging them for my store -_-
Anyways..this newley announced figma figure will surely be available in the US. That's right, you saw that link correctly from Danny Choo, it's a Michael Jackson figma.

Probably more figures to come, more anime news and more on that K-On! licensing mess in a few...for now let this news populate your mind and try not to hurt yourself with any blunt objects.

-pictures are all from Danny Choo, please visit his site for more images and info (gt to give the credit where its needed ^^)

Nendoroid Nakano Azusa

noreply@blogger.com (princetrunks) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:51:00 +0000

What a week. Been sick most of it (today included) and yesterday Danny Choo announced the new Nendoroid Nakano Azusa. Sadly, Good Smile Company decided to tell only HobbySearch and Amiami of this figure and they simply bought them all -_- and pre-orders were sold out...before even I could get dibs on them (another even madder face -_-).

Well, thankfully Good Smile Company just announced a second production release and I wasted no time in making sure MY STORE gets the rights to sell her too -_-.
...Yeah, there ARE other anime stores out there that are legit, guys.

Anyways, this is of course the Nendoroid figure of Nakano Azusa with her having the nekomimi ears as well. A very, very cute figure that even I will be keeping for me and my fiancee Danielle (she just melted from the cuteness when she saw it).

I reserved quite a few so you can go to her page in my store here. Be sure to chose "Cash/Money order" choice at the end so you don't have to pay via paypal until she arrives.

To get on an email list instead of using the store to later be billed when she arrives, instead of using the store...
Click here to email your pre-order reservation

Unless stated otherwise, unless something terrible happens, you are pretty much guaranteed to get one; but only if you act quickly. Once all the quantities that I ordered for the store are used up, the only chance you have of getting her is to hope for a cancellation from those before you.

This batch of Nakanos will be in some time in late June or so. For those lucky enough to pre-order from Amiami and HobbySearch, those will be in some time in May.

For those worried about bootlegs, be assure I DON'T EVER stock bootlegs...only the real deal. Still worried? Check the list of legit stores on Danny Choo's blog. My store won't be on that list till I pay for advertisement on his site, so it's why I'm not on that list yet -_-

After seeing the craziness behind anything K-ON!...why the hell the series isn't officially here in the states is beyond me.

Here's a great vid with clips of Azusa ^^

Here's some more pics of her:

Tohou Project: Nenodroid Izayoi Sakuya & Figma Kirisame Marisa

noreply@blogger.com (princetrunks) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:07:00 +0000

Thanks to my good friends over at Mile-Stone.jp,(who by the way are also manufacturers of some nice anime figures), my store got the rights to sell these two new Tohou project figures that originally were only meant for stores in Japan.

Good Smile Company has announced these extra rare figures.
The first being the Tohou Project Nendoroid Izayoi Sakuya figure.

The second of course being the Figma Kirisame Marisa figure.

Both are super rare and will probably be on display at the upcoming Wonfest convention in Japan. Sadly, due to their rarity and exclusivity, their price is a bit higher than your typical Nendoroid and Figma at a $69.99 price tag. These though will in time go for $200+ on eBay and if you are in the US, their final price turns out the same anyways since store in Japan might be able to sell them at a cheaper price, but you'll pay for it in the shipping -_-

To reserve Nendoroid Izayoi Sakuya, just check the product page and order her or email me and I'll reserve yours.

To reserve Figma Kirisame Marisa, just check the product page and order or of course, email me to get your name on the list of those getting her.

Be sure to use the "Money Order/Cash" option if you wish to not pay now. Once they arrive all who reserve them (confirmed and in time) will be guaranteed one.

Their release date is to be some time in April so expect them to arrive around that time or possibly sometime in May id Good Smile is running late on production.

The iPad: Good or Bad for Manga?

noreply@blogger.com (princetrunks) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:41:00 +0000

Of course many have you have heard about the iPad (and god knows this is probably the 1 millionth post about it on the web.) I was busy posting about it on my other personal blog as the information was coming in during the Apple conference. The first thing that comes to our minds when seeing it is; how great would reading manga be on it? Also, there are the Kindle, the Nook, and the Sony Readers out there that for the most part, haven't captured the hearts of manga fans and the lack of manga on them is proof.
Now, here's the more important question. Will this be good or bad for the manga industry? The good is that people who might not have been into manga, could start to realize what all the hype is about. On a bad note for the industry, it is bound to reduce the actual paper printing of manga plus it will give more fuel for all those illegal manga viewing sites...even more so than what we already see.

The anime and manga industry hopefully will be able to monitize from the iPad and the other readers as well and if they don't, though many fans will be happy to build the pirating free manga sites, less money in the pockets of the content creators means less anime for us to read and watch.

Comment what you think this means for manga. Would you be buying the iPad for manga (as well as the other features)? Maybe you are already or planning to use the Nook, Kindle, Sony Readers, etc...or are you just sticking to what most anime fans continue to do and buy stacks and stacks of manga?

Team Four Star: DBZ Abridged Season 2

noreply@blogger.com (princetrunks) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:38:00 +0000

It's been some time coming. The very funny work-for-free voice actors of Team Four Star had some hurtles to go through over the past number of months; stuff I'm actually familiar with. Their videos were doing insanely good and for good reason. The DBZ Abridged parody is a thing of genius. Even the American voice actors of DBZ loved their series and they got the go-ahead to continue their not-for-profit clips by FUNimation. Then came the miscommunication with content creator, Toei who unknowingly shot themselves in the foot by banning TFS's original Youtube page. Reason why it was a suicidal move on the part of Toei was well, the darn parody was getting a fan base that has been keeping DBZ alive and well long after the "geniuses" at Cartoon Network dropped the series.

Well, as of yesterday, Team Four Star posted up episode 11, the first of the long awaited Season 2. Below you'll find the clip and good god is it hilarious XD.

...
In reference to what I said above; I've had the same garbage happen to me on YouTube back in 2005 and 2006 when Youtube first surfaced. For those who've been with me since the beginning in 2002 know that back in 2003 I created some very popular AMVs that made it to the Collections of Newgrounds.com and even got the blessings from the group QED who's song I used in the "Love Bites" AMV. This site was having loads of bandwidth issues due to the downloads from the site pre-youtube for the AMVs. Once youtube came along in 2005, the videos did great with well over 100,000K views per vid. Then of course, due to images of Inuyasha during the series' peak, it seemed that Viz didn't understand the good the videos did for the series and the account got booted -_- It took me a year just for people to find me on my new account as well as try to tell people I was who I am. Most thought I was an imposter..of myself! Anyways, this little rant is to tell you guys at Team Four Star...that I went through the same crap. now that I run an anime store in conjunction to this site...you'll actually see Viz buy ad space here ^^ and of course I continue to sell their product and put $ in their pockets.

Vocaloid: Kagamine Rin Nuclear Fusion "Meltdown" Figure

noreply@blogger.com (princetrunks) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:30:00 +0000

Just when you thought Good Smile Company went insane with the Miku Hatsune VN02 figure, they do it again with this very cool and very crazy Rin Kagamine figure. This figure will retail for 9800 yen (~$115-~$120) and will hit the Japanese market by August (so probably September here in the states -_-). Naturally she's up for pre-order in my store ^_^
Check out the images and (long) video below. Info thanks of course to Danny Choo.

Twilight Manga

noreply@blogger.com (princetrunks) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:00:00 +0000

Ok, I'm either going to create some hatred or some happy fans...or both but as some of you might know, Yen Press is printing 350,000 copies of the Manga version of the hit book and movie series of Twilight. As an anime store owner, I naturally placed the manga in my store for pre-order. My fiancee, Danielle is a big fan of the series, she has read all the books and is for both Team Jacob and Team Edward (did I just type that? 0_0). Listen, I'm not a huge fan of the series, I'm more of a Bram Stoker's Dracula or Vampire Knight person. Unavoidable for both fans and non-fans is that the series is big news on all fronts.

Yen Press will make 2 volumes of the manga both of which are set to be a massive 200+ pages; massive for a single manga volume of course. The expected release date of the first volume is around March 17th so fans of the series, I'll gladly help you get access to a copy (while supplies last of course ^^;;). Both fans of the series or non-fans, you can bring on the discussions in the comment fields but for the love of God, not crazy fighting -_-

Nendoroid Petit: Fate/Stay Night Action Figures

noreply@blogger.com (princetrunks) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:20:00 +0000

Saber and Fate fans are going to be once again happy to hear of some more great news from Good Smile Company. On top of the amazing Excalibur Saber figure announcement, there is also this wonderful Petit Nendoroid set that was announced back before the weekend...

As the picture shows, there's a couple versions of the figures included in the set and supposedly a secret figure as well. I'm so keeping a set myself ^^.

Of course, you can find them for pre-order in my store (or you can email your reservation). There's 12 in the set and they go for $90 altogether so not bad at all. Expected to come stateside in August; could always be sooner or later ^^;;

More images below: