Busou Shinki or Loveplus?

Cuteness is in the eye of a Japanese otaku. In the hands of the troops from Konami, the words "Buso Shinki" and "Loveplus" seems to be differ depending on which Konami fan decide on those two. Could an otaku choose a "take-everywhere virtual girlfriend" or figures with movable parts most Konami fans love especially the PSP game where they show who's Busou Shinki is the boss?

CASE ONE:

Konami's not all things Metal Gear, DDR, Silent Hill, and Castlevania. These troops also specialize in all things "moe" and cute, especially animes with their own Konami-branded games, goods, and others.

About Busou Shinki, these were the figures that were cute and customizable. It uses MMS (Multi Movable System) to move the figure's parts freely as the customer wishes to do with it. It debuted since fall 2006 with the introduction of the very first two Busou Shinki figures, Arnval and Strarf, following with different Busou Shinki variants in the following years.

The Busou Shinki shock in Japan is not just the success of these figures, but also online (http://www.shinki-net.konami.jp/) and now on the PSP video game Busou Shinki Battle Masters. From the net to the PSP game, most Busou Shinki enthusiasts in Japan can customize their Busou Shinki the way they want, and pit them to battles. Reputation is the key in the eyes of the Busou Shinki owner and his/her Busou Shinki, and the only way to gain reputation is to win battles. If they win battles, the Busou Shinki will gain experience based on their performance. A key reminder is its respect, if his/her Busou Shinki wins more, it will respect more on the owner. Talk about a part-dating sim, part fighting-game....

CASE 2:

Since its debut from fall 2009, Loveplus is a real-time dating sim game that pits lonely male Japanese players to choose either Manaka Takane, Rinko Kobayakawa, or Nene Anegasaki. What the player do to the selected virtual girlfriend is spend time together any way a player wants.

Since the Loveplus shock that made this game successful in Japan, the R&D of Konami decided to give Loveplus some minor changes and the Loveplus's facelift, called Loveplus Plus, debuted just in time for the long Japanese summer vacation.

Fast fact: Some Japanese guy tied a knot with the choses Loveplus gal, Nene. Read the scoop: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10404956-71.html

My Comment: Seems the Konami name is not just a "Militaires Sans Frontieres", the R&D of Konami also specializes in all things "moe" and cute, especially the wide success of either the Busou Shinki figures and the Loveplus game. Hope I can find one of those in selected Comic Alley stores...

Kia K5 to be featured in IRIS Spin-off

Back in late 2009, with IRIS making a huge success thanks to actor Lee Byung-hun and others, Taewon Entertainment made tie-ups with Kia Motors for the vehicles shown in this Korean action drama, including the K7 premium sedan.

Coming late 2010, Taewon Entertainment is planning a spin-off from the successful IRIS action drama, titled Athena.

Read the article:

http://www.dongdrama.com/action-spy-korean-drama-athena-releases-teaser-poster.html

And also according to the Korean car enthusiast site, Megaauto, the Kia K5 will be making an appearance in this IRIS spin-off drama.

Last they heard, they've seen the K5 during the Athena shooting, as far as I know. It seems to be a cold principle, but the K5 is a hard-hitting blockbuster car, defeating the Hyundai Sonata as the top-selling car of this category.

Thumbs up to Taewon Entertainment and good luck for this project, and thumbs up for Kia Motors for making the K5 successful.

Trick DS -Kakushigami no Sumu Yakata-

With the success from the 2000 mystery J-drama series and movies especially the latest Rei Noryoku Sha Battle Royal movie, Konami (famous for its flagship titles such as Metal Gear, DDR, Silent Hill, and Akumajo No Dracula, otherwise known as Castlevania) has decided to bring the mystery drama straight to Nintendo DS, as a direct alternative to PSP's Misshitsu No Sacrifice.

This Trick game made exclusively for the DS is far more to be a mixture of visual novel that covers the new adventures of talented magician Naoko Yamada and eccentric professor Jiro Ueda and as a searching game to look for items and puzzles that proceed you to different aspects.

It might seem rough to do it but this game is much more like the PSP game called Misshitsu No Sacrifice, but the storyline is original, showing not only characters from the TV drama but in-game characters as well. I think this game is rather more primitive than other games that were visual novels at first but its a puzzle-solving game that requires the player's mind to solve puzzles for a very long time.

My point: The TV drama seems to be OK in the eyes of a J-dorama addict but fans are going to be frustrated when they're playing this DS game. It's worth attempting...

Zettai Karen Children -Aitazosei! Ubawareta Mirai?-

Zettai Karen Children -Aitazosei! Ubawareta Mirai?-

Made for DVD and Blu-Ray sequel of the ever-popular 2008 anime, Zettai Karen Children focuses on the new mission of the now-grown The Children, now on their junior high school days. Their latest mission is to find out who's responsible on the attack of B.A.B.E.L. and take this culprit once and for all. Unknowingly, the key person, Koichi Minamoto was held responsible for the attack but he's not involved on the attack. He was possessed by an evil power from the villain called the Phantom Daughter. Dubbed herself as the "queen", the true "queen" is none other than Kaoru Akashi, and only she can stop the Phantom Daughter. Things are getting complicated for the Children because also on the OVA, their first encounter with the three girls from BABEL's rival organization, PANDRA.

The OVA of Zettai Karen Children might seem to be okay because our crime fighting trio are all grown up. Seems that Kaoru Akashi is now more look a lot like that red-haired girl from Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou, Aoi Nogami hasn't changed a lot from her 10-year-old to her teenage look, and Shiho Sannomiya now looks a lot like Peace Walker's Paz Ortega Andrade, if you know what I meant. However, the storyline seems to be quite an original, sometimes suitable for the otaku's personal taste, some are not. Fanservice? Rarely, but almost, because of the swimming pool scene and the shower scene.

Despite the original storyline, this OVA is still a Zettai Karen Children favorite even when our favorite crimefighting trio are now grown to be teenagers. Still, it's enjoyable.

CAST:

Aya Hirano (Haruhi Suzumiya from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya) as Kaoru Akashi

Ryoko Shiraishi (Hayate Ayasaki from Hayate the Combat Butler) as Aoi Nogami

Haruka Tomatsu (Lala from To LOVE-Ru) as Shiho Sannomiya

Yuichi Nakamura as Koichi Minamoto

Koji Yusa as Kyosuke Hyobu

Kisho Taniyama (Stiyl Magnus from To Aru Majutsu no Index) as Syuji Sakaki

Marina Inoue (Yoko from Gurren Lagann) as the Phantom Daughter

..and others.

Based on: A manga serialized from Shogakukan's Shonen Sunday

STAFF:

Original Score: Kotaro Nakagawa

Director: Keiichiro Kawaguchi

Screenplay: Shinichi Inotsume

Chraracter Design: Takahiro Kagami

Animation Work: SynergySP

DVD and Blu-ray Release Date: July 16, 2010

Distribution: Geneon Universal Entertainment

Happy Birthday Mr. Manny Pangilingan!

Last night's episode of Lokomoko U celebrates the birthday of Mr. Manny Pangilingan! I don't know who is he but it sure is interesting.

It's not just him, but the granny of knock-knock jokes throws some more knock-knock jokes from the Talentadong Family sketch. Guess we could do birthdays without cakes, just candles. ROFL

Another ROFL-prone madness from that night's episode is another complaint on Case To Case, where a woman was complained by, you guessed it, a doctor who was used to be one of the tagay-payos. Why baby blue and baby pink colors were used? No need to ask but this sketch is more prone to ROFL.

Also more prone to ROFL is Round 3 of Pinoy Brainless, the Lokomoko U-gagged version of Pinoy Henyo.

What do you think?

To Aru Kagaku No Railgun Archives 1-3

Just because that the To Aru Majutsu No Index spin-off, To Aru Kagaku No Railgun (日本名:とある科学の超電磁砲), ended does not mean you missed the fun-filled adventures of Mikoto (Biri-Biri, Onee-sama, Level 5 Electromaster) Misaka, Kuroko Shirai, Kazari Uiharu, and Ruiko Saten.

With the OVA special coming this fall, Geneon Universal welcomes them back in To Aru Kagaku No Railgun Archives, a drama-music CD that features a two-part audio drama with elements never before told from the anime and two character songs for the high-voltage excitement Railgun fans will love. I'm sure they will listen to Archives after watching the entire Kagaku No Railgun story, and these CDs pack more Biri-Biri in the ears of otakus.

Archives One features a two-part mini-drama plus a song from Biri-Biri (CV: Rina Satou) and the Judgment member, Kuroko (CV: Satomi Arai). (Availability: March 2010, the date when Kagaku No Railgun anime ended)


Archives Two features another two-part audio drama with songs from Uiharu (CV: Aki Toyosaki) and Saten (CV: Kanae Ito). (Availability: April 2010)


Archives Three features the final two-part audio drama and two duet songs. First song features Mikoto and Kuroko while the last song features Uiharu and Saten. (Availability: July 2010)

The New Fourth-Generation Nissan March

In Japan, most cars that are Japan-branded but built in other countries such as the U.S., Thailand, or U.K., they do not enjoy much success as true Japanese-built cars, like for instance the Toyota Avalon/Pronard, Honda Fit Aria (the JDM Honda City), Mitsubishi Triton (known by Filipinos as the Strada) and the Toyota Avensis. Today, the latest Nissan March (known in other countries as the Micra) is another one of the Japanese cars built from other countries, and this latest-generation was built in Thailand, much like the Japanese cars in the Philippines that were built in Thailand where success is inevitable. Would this Thai-built Japanese compact car become a major success or a major flop in the eyes of Japanese female buyers? It is time to find out how the new March shares a mixture of Japan's Miso soup and Thailand's Tom Yum soup.

The new March sports a cute exterior face that resembles more from the previous generation model, but this new generation model's cute look is not the kind of March you expect because this is plainer than the JDM Suzuki Alto. This plain characteristic also applies to the interior as well, meaning the comfort is rather unquestionable to seat. If I would choose between the new March's interior and the new Toyota Passo +Hana's interior, I would rather pick the +Hana's interior because it is stylish than the cheap interior of the new March.

With the Toyota Passo comes with the 1.0L and the 1.3L engine types, the Thai-built March only comes with the HR12DE engine which has 79PS of power output that is greater than the Passo's 1.0L engine's 69PS power output. The base engine's fuel economy of 24.0km/L is sure enough to obliterate the sweet little Toyota Passo. Combine the new March's HR12DE engine with Nissan's Pure Drive (which is like Mazda's i-Stop) idling stop system and you will have the most fuel-efficient engine combined with XTRONIC CVT. This fuel-efficient combo is sure enough to be as fuel efficient as Japanese kei cars, even when the Nissan March is not classified as a kei car.

There is also an Autech-modified version of the March made to be somewhat retro. It is called the March Bolero, now made even better.





My thoughts about the March:

I guess I can take it all back about what I said about Japanese cars built from other countries. This Thai-built Japanese compact is the most fuel-efficient compact car engineered thanks to the combo of the HR12DE engine, CVT, and Nissan's Pure Drive idling stop system. There were some Japanese cars built from other countries enjoyed their JDM success such as the Honda Civic Type R Euro and the Suzuki Splash. I guess this latest generation model will have its true potential of becoming the most fuel-efficient vehicle ever made. Because we, Filipinos, enjoyed playing with Japanese cars built from ASEAN countries, I am assuming that this new March will have a probability of reaching our shores soon. Now what we need is a sporty SR variant or the super turbo, but scrap it away folks, because this car will always be targeted by women.