The Avengers Appreciation Day!

Okay, I totally made this up. I found these pictures on someone’s tumblr and I thought I’d mash them all up together in one post and share with anyone who happens to come across my blog:

WARNING: Pic/GIF heavy!

 

And finally…

~ Days of Memories ~ Kare to Watashi no Atsui Natsu~ (デイズ オブ メモリーズ: 彼と私の熱い夏〜)

Arghhhh, how I managed to completely miss this for 6 years I have NO idea.

My previous posts had me rambling on and on about a game called King of Fighters…well, today I just found they have actually created OTOME GAMES for the fighting game series too…back in 2006(!!!!!!!???). Whether or not they are officially recognised by the King of Fighters company SNK, I’m not so sure, but they were originally made for cellphone before becoming a Nintendo DS port. There’s about 6 games in total, I think, and I have to say I’m disappointed because the majority of the ‘Days of Memories’ games, or ‘DOM’ for short, are mostly geared for male players, with a wide range of female fighters/characters as the potential routes.

There is only one Days of Memories game which is for girls, which is the 4th title of the game, where you can either go with:

1. Kusanagi Kyo

2. Yagami Iori

3. K’

4. Sakazaki Ryo

5. Terry Bogard

6. Rock Howard

7. Alba Meira

8. Ash Crimson

This is what the game pretty much looks like (it follows basic visual novel style):

Strangely enough, I am really happy with the choice of potential routes, namely cos I like all the guys mentioned above hehehe. I’m especially surprised they decided to include Ash, Alba, and Rock. I’m really surprised about Rock, because he only appears in the Fatal Fury/Garou: Mark of the Wolves games and also the 3D spinoffs King of Fighters Maximum Impact and I didn’t think he’d be included in this.

Anyway, this otome game does not stick to the official storyline of King of Fighters with all the beating up and kicking and punching (nooooo cos it’s all about luuuuurv now), it still contains some elements present in the game, such as the relationship between some of the characters such as — Iori and Kyo are still rivals/enemies, and Terry is Rock’s surrogate father etc.

From SNK wikia, this is a summary of what the game entails:

“The game also includes a “clothing system”, as certain choices can better or worsen their compatibility. The protagonist is a 16 year old high school student, hoping to do something exciting during her summer.

• Kyo Kusanagi - childhood friend of the protagonist; regarded as the “older brother”
• Iori Yagami - jazz bassist to the local live house, OROCHi
• K’ - childhood acquaintance who has trouble with his memory
• Ash Crimson - wealthy classmate who likes to frequently pull pranks and tell lies
• Terry Bogard - basketball teacher and father figure to Rock; in his Mark of Wolves attire
• Rock Howard - member of the basketball team; has a fanclub though he doesn’t approve of it
• Alba Meira - American employee from the father’s workplace staying abroad at the protagonist’s home
• Ryo Sakazaki - protagonist’s martial arts instructor”

Here are the only screenshots I could find.

Let’s start with Kyo (CG pictures below). Meh, nothing about Kyo particularly stands out for me. He’s your very average high school boy hero who barely ages throughout the entire game series from 1994 all the way to 2012. I guess he’ll stay about 17 years old forever.

Now we come to Iori (I’m guessing he’s the hot head tsundere of this game judging by how angry and angst he looks in every CG). Iori is Kyo’s rival and he hates him so much he even dreams of killing him in his sleep. He has also sworn to the heavens that no-one can kill Kyo but him. Aside from this grudge, Iori loves cats and music. He’s also one of the most powerful fighters in the series:

K’ route (I like how some of the guys in this game are in their game outfit/costume as well as something different). Maxima (the big guy in this first pic) is K’ buddy and partner and the two are often in the same team as each other when it comes to the KOF tournaments. While Maxima is the nice guy, K’ is pretty much this mean, brooding emo guy who loves his beef jerky and pure violence. As you can tell by the CGs below, K’ is obviously differently portrayed in this game. And Kula Diamond has become his sister all of a sudden. Very weird:

Now we have Ash‘s route (looks  interesting because for once, Ash does not look so camp as he usually does xD). Ash was introduced as the new antagonist for the game series and another flame-wielder/rival against Kyo, Iori and K’. I guess he’s turning a new leaf now:

Here are the CGs from Rock‘s route. Rock is the son of a bad guy called Geese Howard who was defeated by Terry. However, Terry took Rock in (yes after murdering his father or whatnot) and began to raise him as his own (My thoughts: awww, Rock is so cute in this game):

This is Alba‘s route. Alba appeared only in the 3D spinoff Maximum Impact 1 and 2 and then in the 4 episode anime ‘Another Day’. He is the older brother of Soiree (guy in fourth pic) and wears sunglasses all the time. Despite his coolness, Alba has a limited move set and when did Alba get so hawt????:

Terry‘s route (Terry’s meant to be 35 years old in this game. I suppose he’s the oyaji). I actually don’t know much about Terry cos I never played as him in the games much. Yeah, so after he pretty much threw Rock’s dad off a skyscraper, he then went to adopt Rock. Terry has cool moves though, and I like how he always goes ‘ARE YOU OKAY?????’

…But what’s with the monkey?

I missed Ryo out because I only found 2 pictures and even then his pictures were pretty damn embarrassing to look at >___>

So there we go; aside from those pictures, that’s pretty much the entire game in a nutshell. I’m not sure if I will get this game, partially cos there are apparently no voice actors and I have found all these CGs so nothing will be new — and I find the art rather mediocre and it does not entirely do the guys justice. Iori and K’ are my favourite characters from the entire KOF game franchise but in this game, they just don’t appeal to me that much. On the other hand, I’m surprised and taken aback with Alba and Ash (omg…Alba’s route looks so….so….romantic???). The protagonist could also do with a better design, but meh.

Overall, an otome game for KOF???? COUNT ME IN

La Storia della Arcana Famiglia

My latest obsession: an otome game called La Storia della Arcana Famiglia

Katekyo Hitman Reborn got me into the manga/anime/mafia stuff so you cannot imagine how overjoyed I am with seeing this otome game, which combines mafia, with romance. Whooooohoooo!

It’s coming out in October and the main character you play is called Felicita (I think; it says Heroine on the main website but the OP said it was Felicita). She looks pretty awesome, and she has an owl, too ^^

Unfortunately, I don’t have much of a clue about what it is about at the moment except that Felicita is the boss and all these guys are her underlings and then I’m guessing somehow you’re meant to end up with one of them. I am liking Jolly very much at the moment. Yes, that is his name. Don’t laugh.

Here are some pictures I found!

UPDATE MAY 2012. MORE PICTURES!

For the time being, you can watch this video of the game’s OP I found on youtube:

Skyrim Jokes. Get with the times, woman!

Meh, here comes another short post. It took me some time but I finally finished the final quest in Elder Scrolls: Skyrim and so I have completed the game. I’ve been playing it for some time now since I got it roughly last month; I’ve never really been keen on the game series but decided to give Skyrim a shot and I’m glad I did. It’s one of the best games I have ever played, although I didn’t have much fun at the beginning because everything in the game kept killing me and I was a complete noob on the controls.

But now I have smithed myself a complete set of Daedra armour and will now begin to attempt to kill everything in the game because I am a lot stronger now. Fun times indeed.

And here are some of the best Skyrim jokes I’ve found…well, okay, Skyrim came out last year and I just found these now. Um, yeah. You’re probably thinking ‘Get with the times, woman!’:

This is hard to read because of the order. Basically, killing a chicken in the game will get an entire town of NPCs wanting a taste of your freshblood

Stealing and re-selling lol

Kinda gross…but funny xDD

Because sometimes when you kill a bear or a wolf, they’re holding a ring

Oh My Alucard is finished….

Wow, so I posted up the final chapter of Oh My Alucard today. I started the story last year after my final exams, and now I’ve finished it. It feels like such a long time ago when I wrote it, and now it’s got 34 chapters! Hmm, I’ve not much to say, other than I’m glad I got another story out of the way.

Personally I really don’t feel like writing ever again, so I don’t see much of a future for a sequel. Here are the related artwork to Oh My Alucard, with my OCs, Caelum and Luther who are also up on my deviantart. Funnily enough, I have never drawn a picture of Ruby/Leanne.

Ok, so here is Caelum, the bad dood of the fic.

And here is Luther’s pic:

Finally, we have Grey (concept sketch), the werewolf who came out in Chapter 33-34 (but as a dog).

I draw the most evillest looking dog

Overall, it’s been a fun experience writing for the Hellsing board. I’ve had ups and down but it’s been fun. I thought it’d be a pretty dead board with no-one reading stories anymore but I’ve had really great feedback. Also, the recently released OVAs are keeping the manga afloat and is doing it far more justice than the anime and it’s also keeping the love for Alucard in existence ))

Deathnote Deathnote Review

Here comes another review I enjoyed writing the Hellsing Ultimate Journal Review so thought I’d do another. Although, Deathnote came out donkey years ago and why I didn’t get a Deathnote replica until now, I’m not really sure. Anyway, I got this deathnote from the manga/anime/movie Deathnote, which comes in a black box that features Light and Ryuki on the front, as well as this marvellous quill pen.

Apparently, it was meant to come with a CD but I never got one. Damn ebay. You can get other versions of Deathnotes, which will just be the book itself with no quill pen or box. It doesn’t really matter. The quill pen is nice except it’s so obvious it’s fake xD

Essentially, this deathnote is a notebook for fans/cosplayers of Deathnote, complete with instructions on how to use the ‘deathnote’ in engrish and Chinese, which takes up a quarter of the notebook itself. One instruction is:

When the same name is written on two death note the ote which was first filled in will take effect, regard less of the time of death.

I guess they missed out the ‘N’ on that ‘ote’ eh?

Following these instructions is where the note begins with Light’s ‘handwriting’ printed on a few pages and his victims and how they died, and then Light’s name appearing as written by Ryuki in the manga/anime/movie. This is the last name entered and then the rest is blank.

I don’t know about you, but since the last name was Light’s, it kinda gives the whole deathnote a spooky kind of feel even though it’s just an item for cosplay. I suppose this is every fan’s dream. It’s a really nice book, an exact replica of the Deathnote Deathnote, with Light’s handwriting on it and all. The book itself has a nice black cover which makes it feel like a journal of any sorts, and the paper….well, it’s a bit too thin for my liking, but because it’s thin, it can be mistaken for being very fine paper.

I give this deathnote 5/5, because it’s simply fabulous and I do like the feel of the cover and the paper very much. The instructions and Light’s victim and his own name was an added bonus. The quill was great, too, but I’m wondering how I can refill it when it runs out. Overall…. It’s very mysterious and spooky DD

Palty Hairdye Sparkling Blonde review

Palty Hairdye Sparkling Blonde Review

So I am upping my gear and writing a review on a hairdye now! This is partially because I’ve been daring to go blonde – I bought 2 boxes of Palty which sat on my shelf for A-G-E-Ss. In general, I was inspired by Jessica from girl group SNSD who had her hair dyed blonde for her role as Elle Woods in the Legally Blonde musical. She was blonde during a period when they were promoting the songs Genie, Oh! and Run Devil Run.

 

As much as I don’t think I would suit being a blonde, I thought I might as well give it a try because I’d rather try this big and bold hair colour when I’m still young rather than when I’m 30.

I’ve been using Palty hairdye since last year. It’s good for asian hair and the model on all the boxes is Tsubasa Masukawa, a popular Japanese model. Along with Palty, she also promotes her own false eyelashes product range and other various make-up accessories and cosmetics.

There are a wide range of colours to use, the most popular being Milk Tea Brown:

 

The colours I have used are:

•  Juicy Peach (this was my first Palty)
•  Sakura creamy
•  Honey Brown

 If you want to use Palty, then take these 6 bullet points of Palty wisdom:

1. If you have short hair, one box is enough
2. If you have medium – long hair, use two boxes
3. The instructions are in Japanese but you can look up people’s youtube videos/ people’s blogs
4. It’s probably better if you ask someone to help you dye your hair as it can get fiddly
5. If you wear glasses, pop on your contacts!
6. The colour doesn’t always turn out as the colour on the box

Since this is a product review on Sparkling blonde, I’ll give Juicy Peach, Sakura creamy and Honey brown a miss for now. I’ve dyed my hair previously though, so my hair was already brownish/red. Basically, I dyed my hair Juicy Peach and it turned red. Then I dyed Sakura creamy when the colour faded. I used 2 boxes of Honey brown later on in the year and my hair became a darker, brown shade.

Because Sparkling blonde is a bleach, they give an additional thing, such as a shower cap and a satchet of bleach powder. Other dyes do not have this.

Basically, the dye contained:

 

 PS This is from someone else’s blog. I stupidly forgot to take a picture of the stuff before I began the dye and in my hurry, threw all the stuff away at the end TT_TT

Firstly, I put the satchet into Bottle No2 and shook that for 30 seconds. Then I opened the squeeze tube No 1 and emptied it into Bottle 2 and shook that for 15 seconds. It can get messy so its best to wear some old clothes and put some petroleum jelly on the contours of your face so it doesn’t dye your face too. After that, swap the lid of the bottle for the dye nozzle and APPLY! Its pretty wet and sloshy so make sure you use the gloves provided. I started with the back of my head before working to my roots.

It’s as easy as pie!

 Using the shower cap, I kept my hair tucked inside for 25 minutes. I felt a stingy sensation in my scalp and then waddled over to the hairdryer and heated my head for a couple of minutes.

 After 10 minutes, my hair actually got lighter. But it was actually…le gasp! Orange! And after an additional 15 minutes, I was freaking out because it was still pretty orange, but because it was stinging my scalp, I took the shower cap off and my hair and rinsed off the dye with cold water (horrible experience…), then I used the conditioner provided.

HINT! – After using the Palty conditioner, rinse your hair again with your normal conditioner!

So this was my hair colour BEFORE DYING (I have a dark neck TT________TT this is why I dislike posting up pics of meself):

 When I dried my hair, here was the end result:

 

 It wasn’t as blonde as the box but close enough? It’s still pretty orange though >_> I read other reviews from blogs and people were saying their hair turned out even orangier than mine and a lot damaged….I don’t think mine is actually as orange compared to some people. It could be because I have dyed my hair previously so it’s not just virgin black hair, if you get what I mean. Another downside was I also ran out of dye despite using 2 boxes so the hair on the back of my head is actually still-brown. How is the colour in general? Well…My sister got a heart attack when she saw what I had did when I got home.

 

Overall rating:

 Hair colour: 4/5

 Not entirely blonde, but close enough… I still think my results is because I dyed my hair previously. It’s a very bold colour even though it’s not even blonde, and probably won’t suit everyone; I probably don’t suit it too but I had prepared myself already. It’s just something I wanted to do at least once in my life.

 

Ease: 3.5/5

 Very easy to use, but it’s really best if you have a friend/family member to lend you a hand with the dying process. I did the dying myself this time (usually my sis helps) and I had to tilt my head left and right and even upside down to make sure I had covered all my hair with the dye, and then it was hard getting the back of my head down properly, too.

 Smell: 3/5

 People say they like the smell of Palty but I find it rather….a bit too much. It’s not bad but it’s so in-your-face and doesn’t go away for a few days.

Damage/Hair condition after dying: 4/5

Actually not too bad. This one needed me to use my own condition for my hair though whereas the other dyes do not necessarily need you to do so. My hair’s not too bad at the moment!

So! There we have it! Sparkling blonde review! I would give it a score of 4/5 in general, because it actually gave me decent results compared to the other dyes. If you are wanting to try Palty, there’s really nothing to fear. It’s very safe and easy to use, with the only problem being that…well, the colour doesn’t always look like the colour on the box. Aside from that, it’s great!!! Bravo, bravo!

Omu-Rice attempt = Epic Fail

Finally, a post about actual food! I don’t know about you, but I’m so sick and tired of blogs where the authors display their wonderful homemade cookies or cupcakes or sushi or whatever and take all these bright and glossy photos of their efforts. My life isn’t like that >__>

I’m just going to get straight to the point – I’m a bad cook. So is my sister. So is my mum.

Basically, what happened was my family and I watched a scene from a new Korean drama called Rooftop Prince (it’s about where a Prince from the past gets sucked into the future) and in it, the girl protagonist cooks a dish known as Omu-Rice, for the ‘prince’ and his three minions – er, servants.

Omu-rice, or omu-raisu, is an omelette with fried rice tucked inside topped with ketchup; it’s a popular Japanese dish but mixed with western inspirations. Here is a picture guide of how to make one:

And THIS is what it’s meant to at least look like:

And er….this is ours (my mum added tomato TT_TT):

WTF?!

 

Scared Rider Xechs Official Fanbook + scans

Holy shiet! It finally came! My ordered SRX fanbook has arrived! Oh I’m so happy ~~ Here comes my reviewwwww!!!

Word of warning: This post is rather pic heavy. My pictures also came out rather dull and dark even though I was using my sister’s Sony HD camera for this artbook review. I also could not scan the pages in because then it would mean I would risk bending the book into oblivion, which I did not want!

So here is the book front and back

Mmm new book smell *3*

Art style:

Simply put, I adore pako’s style (the illustrator). I’m assuming pako is a guy so I’ll be referring as ‘he’ or ‘him’ throughout the post. He’s also drawn for other games, I think, including another otome game called ‘Beyond the Future: Fix the Time Arrows’ although I’m not too keen on his character designs there because they look a little gaudy. What can I say? I like pako’s clean lines, colouring (it’s very soft and pleasing to the eye), and generally the way how he draws guys because they’re nicely proportioned, tall and lean. Lol. That said, I think the design of Akira (main girl protagonist of SRX) could have been drawn with a little more effort.

I’ve noticed a few awkward-looking head angles now and then….and what is up with the CG scenes? He’s obsessed with drawing the back of people’s heads. Unfortunately, that is my only gripe, because a picture of the back of someone’s head during a romantic CG doesn’t accomplish much TT_TT

Layout:

The artbook has a decent layout, starting first with a gallery,  then a section about the Blue world and the Red world, ‘liner notes’ – ie, the character profile section with 6 pages for each Rider (with characer bio, a small concept art, in-game CGs, information, facial expressions etc), voice actor interviews, a section called ‘Encore’ dedicated to each character (GRRR I wish I could read Japanese I’m so lamerz), product details and a quick walkthrough. I found the book so colourful @_@ There was almost something slotted in each nook and cranny and really, I was only surprised by a few CGs which I hadn’t seen before, since well, if you’ve seen my other SRX post, I looked EVERYWHERE on the internet on whatever SRX picture I could find and compiled an art gallery on Photobucket for myself.

Top left: What the-? I've never seen that pic before!

So that being said, if you have seen my gallery, then almost every picture there, is featured in this book. My highlight of this part, is, because I’m Yosuke-biased, so my highlight of the book is obviously the tiny picture of NAKED YOSUKE!!! well, half naked Yosuke, sumthing along the lines like that xDD

Character profile section:

Whoohoohoohoo! This was the best section!!!! Akira’s profile was surprisingly very short, it was only HALF a page, with tiny pictures of her facial expressions, different clothes (for winter and summer) and…. I guess there wasn’t much considering she was character you played and everything that happened would depend on the choices you make. Regarding Akira’s character design, I really do think pako could’ve made much more of an effort. But oh well.

Yosuke was after Akira. You get a brief bio of Yosuke, his facial expressions, his different ‘poses’ in the game, his outfits (NAKED YOSUKEEEEE), a special illustration, then a strip of shots from the animated sequence when they plug into their Substance. The pictures are actually really really small which I’m not happy about >o<

Basically, the layout is this:

Naked Yosuke!!!!!!

Then we come to the CGs for each character’s route

Next, was Takt’s section.

Then, Yuuji. NOTE: Pako’s special illustration of Yuuji made my eyes bulge. It’s actually quite hard to see >o<

Hiiro was next! OMG! Hiiro is so cute *3*

I have Kazuki, too.

Finally, Hijiri! Again, Note the special illustration if you squint your eyes and look really really hard. Hijiri looks HAWT.

Soichiro, Ishidera and Granbach also got their own sections, if not, just one page. But that’s enough for me, I guess. I’m still recovering from all those pictures of the guy’s summerwear @___@

After the character profiles and illustrations, we get 2-pages of the animated sequences, including detailed sketches of the aircarrier. What I’m disappointed is that…well, now that I think about it, there was no background art!

Extras: Voice actor interviews/Encore/Product details/Fan’s Ranking:

Well…there’s nothing much I can say here since I don’t read Japanese. I wish I did. But this section gives us pictures of all the voice actors and their respective character they played in SRX, with bigger sections for Miyano Mamoru and Tatsuhisa Suzuki. The product details is pretty self explanatory. Basically, it was a part about the drama CDs, songs and soundtrack.

Then, the Fan’s Ranking. Basically, there were a few questions and this is the results gathered from fans. Here is what I think they asked since I recognised a few Japanese kanji:

Out of the SRX guys, who would you like to have a summer romance with?

And here were the results -

1. Hijiri (aww :33)
2. Yuuji
3. Kazuki

Another question was – Who do you think is the most prettiest? And the answers were:

1. Takt (lol no kidding)
2. Kazuki
3. Hiro

And then – Who do you want to marry the most?

1. Yosuke (DUDE WHO WOULDN’T???)
2. Yuuji
3. Kazuki

The other 5 questions I really had no clue, so sorry TT_TT I think I’m going to look through them again though and try to translate, so keep your eyes peeled, look out for an update of this post!

Along with the Fan Ranking page, was the Super special Cafe 801 promotion Scared Rider Xechs did. Basically, from September 2010 to some time in October, a cafe was specially promoting SRX, with SRX decor, SRX meals (WTFFF I wish I went!!), SRX merchandise etc.

Conclusion:

I <3 this book!!!! I love the pictures  The book itself was super glossy and special, because the game is so hard to get access to in the UK, this book was a real treat :) But as I said before, I’d found most of the pictures online so there didn’t seem anything new except from a few CGs I hadn’t found. But this is my first fanbook based on a video game (my first artbook being a Yu-Gi-Oh one PFTTT) so I thought this was really nice and I’m really pleased with my purchase. I’m satisfied and it includes everything a fan could get, even including a CD of the character song Loves Hooooooooot! (sorry, forgot how many O’s is actually in that hoot) so that was nice, too. The book was only 109 pages and there wasn’t background art nor was there many concept sketches, which is a bit of a let down, but that’s okay with me. I’m generally happy with anything I buy ^^ 

I’m going to try and look for La Storia Della Arcana Famiglia one next!

Thank you Yuukichaan :DDD

This is a shout-out post to fellow Scared Rider Xechs fan, yuukichaan, who helped me so that I can FINALLY play the game! And I also want to thank you for helping me with the controls. THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!

When it finally worked after a few early niggles, the SRX menu came on and I was like:

 

And definetely

So here are some screenshots of the game whilst I was playing. It looks so good!!

this is so cuuuuuuuute

It's Yuji! By why is he covering his nose and mouth with his hand? Does Akira smell bad??? LOL just kidding

Yosuke decides to go out to the mountains

This is one of the guys you speak to first before meeting the band

Talking to Yosuke for the first time!