In today’s update: We catch up on Moon Phase updates with notes on the Angel’s Feather OVA, pachinko anime, undulating jawlines, podcasting voice actors, thirty new eroge (including the long-awaited Muv Luv Alternative), dynamite figure news from Queen’s Blade and Megahouse, more Wonder Festival scoops, and a mini-rant on the “A boy” phenomenon.

Media Side

• A promo video is online today for the upcoming Angel’s Feather OVA.
• I assume most off the people reading this also check ANN regularly, but if not, an anime based on a line of pachinko machines is slated to air in April. In other new April anime news, the characters in Rabuge-chu seem to have sine waves flowing through their jaws. Might want to get that looked at…
• In case you missed it earlier, ITmedia has a scoop online of Cave’s Ibara webcomic, the first epsiode of which is currently available via the maker’s official site (Flash player 8 required).
• Episode 16 of Gun x Sword net radio is online today, along with a third installment of the Magipoka web manga.
• Want to cosplay as Etna or Flonne without going to the trouble of actually putting the costume together? Enough money will get you anywhere (provided you’re skinny enough to fit).
• I’ve been seeing references to this pop up for awhile now, so I figured it might be worth mentioning – Kouenji Joshi Soccer is a PS2 ADV coming from Star Fish in March that will let you date the soccer team, apparently. Beware the comically shrunken Flash implementation, and music that is difficult to disable.
• Web Anime Style has character design work online today for the upcoming xxxHolic TV anime. Holy distended arms, Batman. These designs look almost One Pieceish, except each of the characters seems to have Luffy’s stretching ability. Constantly in use.
• Your favorite Japanese voice actors (mostly female) are now podcasting online at vablog.jp. I’ve never subscribed to a podcast myself and I have no idea how it works but this looks like it might have the potential to turn into something big.

Ero Side

• Galge.com scoops the 30 eroge titles on sale tomorrow, February 24th. The 800-pound gorilla in the room is undoubtedly the DVD edition release of Age’s Muv Luv Alternative, one of the most anticipated (and most delayed) titles of 2005; we also have AR ~Wasurerareta Natsu~ coming from Circus, Giga’s Angel Breath, Purple Software’s Aruto, Marin’s Oshikake Scramble, Palette’s Moshimo Ashita ga Hare Naraba, Ail’s Ragna Science, etc. etc.
• Imouto Charenji! An imouto-themed collection of game music will be coming to you on March 31st, courtesy of Dandelion and a junta of eroge labels.
• New Site Launches / Release Announcements
  • Littlewitch’s Littlewitch Fan Disk
  • Zero’s Hitorijime
  • Meroq’s Hachukano [Galge.com scoop] [Dengeki scoop]
• We’ve Got Movie Sign!!
  • Riddle Soft’s Zebra (scroll down)
• Sample CG
  • AniSeed’s Relict 2
  • Juliette’s Goshujin-sama he
  • Nico’s Kaleido Sonata
  • P+Lass’s Junren [official site]
  • Feng’s Aozora no Mieru Oka
  • Silver Bullet’s Setsuei
  • White Cyc’s Kami-sama no Yado!
  • West Vision’s Bakunyuu Kissa [official site]
• Wallpapers
  • FlyingShine’s Inaho no Mirai
  • FlyingShine’s Omana 2
  • Purple Software’s Aruto
  • Atelier D’s Nurse no Obenkyou

Hobby Side

• Scooped briefly in one of the shots from Wonder Festival, the official Queen’s Blade site confirms the production status of a Nowa resin kit, coming from Wave. Of far greater interest is the note on that page below the Nowa pictures to the effect that Megahouse (makers of the recently released Koyori PVC) will be producing a PVC figure in their Excellent Model series based on the design for Reina. Details (and presumably visual evidence as well) will be available in the April edition of Hobby Japan magazine.
• While on the Queen’s Blade theme, you can get an original wallpaper from it if you scroll down past the survey questions here and click the “submit” button. You don’t actually have to fill anything out, it seems. :V
• More Wonder Festival scoops in today – first off, I’d recommend checking beerman’s excellent list for some I may miss:
  • Akiba-k.com report
  • Army-tan cosplay
  • Galkko report
  • eg reports [1] [2] [3]
  • Hobby Channel cosplay scoop
  • GA Graphic scoop contd.
• Several scoops on figure sets coming out very soon (late February): Yujin’s Capcom Fighting Jam ver.1.5 capsule figures, Ichigo Mashimaro prize figures from Banpresto, Bandai’s Super Robot Wars heroines trading figures, and Yujin’s Kamichu! capsule figures.

Of the many bastard children spawned by the Densha Otoko boom, the “A boy” phenomenon is assuredly the misbegotten runt of the litter. The “A” stands for Akihabara, and its assertion is that the popular TV series has lent Akiba-kei otaku guys a nominal amount of credibility as dating material. As Hating the Otaku Wave points out, this is a bizarre and unfounded correlation; it hasn’t stopped the fad from being mined for new eroge material, though, and I have to say I’m curious (as I always am when some metacultural artifact like this pops up). The main heroine suddenly confesses her love to the otaku protagonist, and he runs away… could be an amusing premise.

Whew. Caught up with Moon Phase through yesterday, so only Hobbynet, Akiba Blog, Akibajin, and Midareuchi remain… I’ll try to churn out the resulting massive figure post tonight.