Just walked in the door from the first day of Comic Market 73, and before I collapse I’d like to thank everyone who showed for the meet-up afterwards! Akihabara proved to be surprisingly accomodating thanks to the artful assistance of EvoSpace, and though there were a few rough edges I think things went quite well. Lessons learned will be applied for future gatherings (should they occur, and I hope they will). I wish everyone the best of luck on subsequent days of the event, and hope to see some of you on the third day if you feel like stopping by. I’ll try to put up a bit more on day 1 tomorrow, but full HD coverage of Comiket this time around will likely come after things are all wrapped up. Update: and it’s off to day 3, on zero hours of sleep! I wonder how long this adrenaline will last…(no more)

***December 28th bump*** It’s better late than never to wrangle this sort of thing, so what the heck: if you’re reading this and you’re going to be at the Tokyo Big Sight on Saturday, December 29th, why not stop by the coin lockers near the Big Sight entrance at 3:00 PM? The plan at this point is simply to meet up, exchange a round of introductions, and figure out what to do next (if anything); I’m not going to put in reservations anywhere as I have no clue how many people will show, and I know many of us (myself included) might not want to drop 3,000 yen on food when there’s doujin to be had instead. If you’d like to meet a few fellow Comiketting gaijin though this could be a good chance, and if you’re up for something afterwards I’m sure some of us will be too. Meeting spot details below:

Will come back and brush this up in the evening, but for now here’s the bare details: Update: no time to brush up due to frenzied Comiket preparations this evening, so I’ll just note that Amiami has confirmed the castoff of Orchid Seed’s Tsuzuki Shiori from Witchblade, and that Wafuudou Ganguten’s Gurren Lagann Yoko and Manyuu Chibusa PVCs are now up for preorder. Updates will be a bit thin over the next few days as Comiket is in full swing, but expect a full debriefing (one that does not involve undergarment removal) shortly thereafter!

With production first announced in August of ‘06, Light’s long-delayed “gakuen romance battle opera ADV” Dies irae finally hit store shelves on December 21st. In the past week the game has been met with a storm of criticism, much of which is reflected in reviews on its Erogamescape page; while there are many who rated the game in the 70th percentile based on its independent merits, an equal number have declared it a “land mine” and a “betrayal of expectations” (two possible tags in the EGS system). The chief complaints appear to be threefold: first, art used in promotional material and magazine articles was either altered or omitted entirely from the game’s final release; second, characters expected to be possible romantic targets were not; and third, prior to release the game’s writing credit was given to a single popular author, but the ending credit roll revealed a team of six additional writers on staff. More below:

We wrap up our coverage of World Hobby Festival Ariake 17 today with a look at all the other great stuff that didn’t make it into the earlier posts. Contains a run down of garage kits in the following categories: Anime / Manga, Game, Group, Misc., and Ero (18+). I believe most of the miscellaneous kits are originals, but there are probably a few anime and game ones that I wasn’t able to source; if you can correct me on any of these it would be much appreciated. On to the gallery!

A whole lot of figures scheduled to come out in December ‘07 were teetering on the brink of January, but look like they’re barely going to squeak in under the wire - a veritable torrent of items is coming our way in the week between Christmas and New Years that promises to make this a holiday season to remember for my threadbare wallet to curse for all eternity. Read on for a selected list:

Thanks to SDS for the heads up on this: according to the recently updated Genshiken anime site, the tale of otaku life and love in a college “modern visual culture” club is set to receive novel treatment. Writing duty for the book’s original story has been passed to Iida Kazutoshi, director of independent game maker Artdink whose past work includes Doshin the Giant and Aquanaut’s Holiday. I’m not sure how this qualifies him to pen a Genshiken novel, but perhaps designing quirky niche games grants one mystical powers… the book is entitled Hainyuu Ranjin no Yabou ~Return of the OTAKU~ and is scheduled for release from Kodansha on January 23rd at 940 yen; the first part of the name translates roughly as “the ambition/treachery of the Dutch pilgrims”, which makes absolutely no sense to me at this point but will hopefully be clarified in due time. Shimoku Kio seems to have given the project his blessing, so I’ll probably pick the book up to see what all the fuss is about… (no more)

Several months in the making, Japanese eroge review site Eroge Review (can’t beat the naming sense) is now online! The brain child of Nargrakhan and Ayyo, the site has been established to house English language reviews of Japanese language bishoujo games (primarily adult titles), the only site I’m aware of devoted exclusively to such noble pursuits. There is currently a single review up (the rather underwhelming Kissing!! under the mistletoe), but as the former proprietor of Elizar.com is on board for the project we can likely expect several dozen archival reviews to appear on the site in short order. I’m not affiliated with them in any way, but I wish Narg and Ayyo all the best in this endeavor and hope to see a lot more great reviews over the coming year. (no more)

Word is in from Comptiq, Dengeki, and the official Machi Chara website tonight that two of the heroines of anime and manga Doujin Work are headed for hug pillowization! Tsururi and Sora both feature double sided original illustrations at 150 x 50 cm and 10,500 yen retail (case only), and are set for release on February 29th. As with other Machi Chara (Matching World) items these will be available internationally via Hobby Search and other retailers within the next few days. Images below:

Two pieces of news on the PVC front this evening: first is word from Griffon that their gothic lolita Haruhi kit from Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu is scheduled for release in PVC. She’s 1/7 scale with a retail price of 7,500 yen, and currently without a release date specified; currently only Griffon has her available for preorder on their site but presumably other retailers will carry her as well. Sculpt from Yamamoto Masahiro. Next, word is in from Yamato that the alternate color version of Aruma we’ve seen lurking around for a month or so is dubbed Anne-Rose, and will see release in April of next year at 7.140 yen and 30 cm tall (1/6 scale?). Sculpt is from Tandem Twin, and preorders are expected shortly. (no more)

Some bits of figure news coming over the desk from yesterday evening: first is news that Hobby Japan’s online arm Hobby Channel will be offering a 700-piece limited edition run of a black school uniform variant of Alter’s Kanu Unchou PVC from Ikkitousen. She’s set for release in April at specs similar to her regular edition counterpart (1/8 scale, 21.5 cm tall, 7,140 yen) and preorders open at the Hobby Japan online shop on January 7th. See below for more news:

Our World Hobby Festival Ariake 17 coverage continues with a look at what the official industry presence had to offer at the event, as well as what I took away from it personally. Includes what may be an HD exclusive look at the original resin cast of Orchid Seed’s Tsuzuki Shiori, with hopes that it bodes well for the PVC! Needless to say, this post is not safe for work.

Happy Holidays from Heisei Democracy! ***This message brought to you by the Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture, Ohno Kanako Appreciation Division***

In addition to recently popular standards of the garage kit repertoire (Nanoha, Touhou, Rozen Maiden), World Hobby Festival Ariake 17 saw the emergence of some new titles that are currently taking hold of the fan imagination in Japan. Chief among these at the event were virtual idol Vocaloid Hatsune Miku, the cast of Gurren Lagann, and Lucky Star, all of which saw a sharp rise in representation since the last figure event covered by HD. Check out the many offerings below for a look at the cutting edge of what’s heating up the winter ‘07 garage kit world!

A bit late to the scoop on this one, but it’s worth noting that as of last Friday preorders are now open for the Queen’s Blade bishoujo fighting book game volume for Yumil, delayed for well over a year (her figure was released before she was), and the second Bitoshi Gaiden volume, Koudai Oujo no Sho. The latter features the adventures of Menace, including an F.S-illustrated novel and accompanied drama CD (Menace is voiced by Gotou Yuuko). Both are scheduled for release on February 15th, and both are currently available at Amazon.co.jp, among other retail locations [Yumil | Bitoshi Gaiden vol. 2]. (no more)

Those interested in procuring the latest work from [ERO] doujin figure circle Keumaya are urged to act quickly with their proxy of choice, as preorders are now open at Toranoana for both Axia (”A” ver.) and Violet (purple ver.). Further information on the figures can be found here and here, and a list of proxy services can be found in the lower left corner of the main HD page. Good luck to anyone going for these, as they’re likely to be quite popular… (no more)

It seems irc.pyoko.org is being DDOSed right now, but those keen to chat in the HD channel can find us live at #naisho on clover.arity.net. Looking ahead to the coming week there are a lot of competing update priorities, the first of which is to squeeze out a WHF report; that’s on schedule for this evening. A December eroge news roundup is in the works, as are several figure reviews; I’d like to get in a few Comiket-related posts as well leading up to the event this weekend, and want to get a copy book finished to sell… not sure when it’s all going to happen, but might as well aim high. If you’ll be at Comiket watch this space for information on a possible meet-up after the event on Saturday! (no more)