News of the Day:

• Figure: February 29th figure news
• Figure: Wonder Festival 2008 Winter: industry wrapup
• Eroge: 3D Custom Shoujo gameplay video online
• Eroge: Bullet Butlers x Ayakashibito crossover “Chrono Belt” official site, demo movie online
• Eroge: Illusion announces Jinkou Shoujo 3 expansion
• Eroge: Sano Toshihide personal site updated, Majodou OP movie online
• Eromanga: Hanaharu eromanga compilation announced

Other Headlines:

• Eroge: Gyakushuu 3 trial version available for download
• Figure: Atelier Sai’s Mahou Senshi Symphonic Knights Symphonic Lilly figure up for preorder
• Anime: Dragonaut is now a cell phone game

It’s been a long and busy week, and it’s nice to have it finally over. I’m planning to use the weekend to recuperate a bit, clean the place up and martial forces to move ahead into the new month. There aren’t any major events planned for March (until the big eroge release weekend at the end), so it will likely act as a staging ground for April and especially May in terms of event reporting. Otherwise it should be a good opportunity to catch up on some of the more reflective writing I’ve been meaning to do, or at least write a bunch more Mainichi posts about how I’d love to catch up on all that reflective writing. Oh, and reviews. Those should be starting up again shortly…

Tech Arts 3D put a gameplay video online this evening for their upcoming polygon-based ero sim, 3D Custom Shoujo. It’s a nearly four-minute clip of uncut footage from a sex scene within the game engine, showing off some of the game’s capabilities to switch positions and costumes on the fly. Watching it feels stiffer and less natural than what Illusion has managed to achieve through years of development, but it doesn’t look half bad for the first game from a new brand. That said, I hope what we’re seeing is something closer to the 50-60% development mark than the 90-95% mark… if what’s shown here is all there is to the game it’s going to be a hard purchase for a lot of people to justify, I think. (no more)

Following last week’s teaser in Tech Gian, the official Chrono Belt site is now online! Not only does it present a good dose of story and character information, but a very nicely produced demo movie is available for download as well. Combined with the sample CG available at the newly listed Getchu product entry for the game we start to get a decent picture of what to expect, and that “what” is looking totally awesome. The game is listed as going on sale this summer, at 7,140 yen retail - rather lower than the typical full price of 9,240 yen, though hopefully that doesn’t mean the content will be significantly less than its two predecessors. We’ll continue to keep a close eye on the game as development proceeds. (no more)

Several new preorders went up today, including the Kanu Unchou and Ryomou Shimei (china dress DVD box ver.) pair from Griffon, two versions of Amami Haruka the first Idolmaster Revoltech and fifth in the Fraeulein series, the SMILE800 V.I.P Aquaplus character trading figures from Goodsmile, and Kotobukiya’s Yamashita Shunya-designed Elf from Mu ~Kiseki no Daichi~. Also a bit of minor Nendoroid news, a Dengeki Daioh figure extra, and release delays from Orchid Seed (I don’t think that item will be surprising to anyone).

Getchu posted a listing earlier today for Jinkou Shoujo 3 Hannari, an “append disc” for the November ‘07 released Jinkou Shoujo 3. According to the product description it adds additional sex positions, maps, hairstyles and voice options (including Kyoto and Hakata dialects) to the original game. It’s scheduled to retail on May 30th at 6,090 yen retail, and the first lot limited edition comes with a set of two figures (likely similar to those that came with the first game). We’ll keep an eye on this expansion as it develops - hopefully the official Illusion site will have more information when it’s announced there later today. Update: an official site is now online for the game, though it’s rather sparse at present. (no more)

We wrap up our coverage of Wonder Festival 2008 Winter (for real, this time) with a look at the industry items that fell through the cracks in our earlier reporting. This primarily consists of offerings on display at the Yamato and Happinet booths, but also contains a look at Organic’s Tama-chan from Bamboo Blade and the as-yet unsubstantiated rumor of an Erect Sawaru-designed figure from Solid Theater. Details follow:

Those of us eagerly awaiting further news of G.J?’s upcoming Sano-designed Majodou eroge got two welcome surprises today: first is news that the personal site of game artist Sano Toshihide was updated yesterday with a new piece of fan art, depicting a fictional Nagato-ified rendition of (male) bassist and Nico Video internet phenomenon Tissue-Hime. News is also in from the official site for Majodou that the game’s opening movie will go online there some time today - we’ll update this post when it’s available. Ahh, it’s a good time to be a Sano fan… Update: the first in a series of three Majodou movies is now available for download! In addition they’ve begun a fan participation campaign where you can develop the profile of one of five enemy witches to appear in the “Houki DE Babyuu~n!” mini game included with the main release - it seems a bit like Armored Core for broomsticks, where you get to customize your witch and then race her against computer opponents. We’ll keep an eye on this as more news comes to light. (no more)

I hope Zepy will pardon me for quoting him directly, but I couldn’t contain myself when I heard the news: according to the latest issue of eromanga serial magazine Kairakuten, Naruhiko Hanaharu will be releasing his first ever tankoubon compilation of eromanga soon! I’m not sure whether I’ve raved about his work properly here in the past or not, but as one of his legion of diehard fans all I can say is it’s about bloody time. I’ll be keeping a very close eye on this story for any developments - first, to go pick up that issue of Kairakuten. I was wondering what he’d been doing since the Kamichu manga ended… (no more)

News of the Day:

• Figure: Cafe Reo’s Food Girls Stawberry-chan preorder open
• Feature: Event Report: Wonder Festival 2008 Winter
• Figure: Alter lists Chuua Churam, preorders follow
• Anime: New Slayers TV anime announced

Other Headlines:

• Anime: Perfect Blue gets (re)released on DVD and Blu-ray
• Eroge: EvoSpace covers tonight’s big sale
• Eroge: Zepy talks about problems in the industry
• Eroge: Fulltime announces a free-roaming 3D remake of Eroi, similar to Teatime’s Love Death 2
• Figure: Degitamin lists Griffon’s R-Line china dress DVD BOX ver. Kanu and Ryomou PVCs for preorder, no images yet
• Goods: Chara@ updates their [ERO] Shimai Tsuma and Chikan Senyou Sharyou dakimakura listings with preliminary sample images
• Anime: a trailer for Mnemosyne ep. 2 is online
• Manga: Monthly Dragon Magazine gets release date, format change

I’ll be pulling together a final Wonder Festival post tomorrow with information on the remaining industry offerings not covered in the earlier post. I’d also like to address some of the above headlines in a bit more depth, particularly Zepy’s post on problems in the eroge industry - I’ve been working up some great (awful) puns on the theme that I am gleefully hoping to unleash soon. >:3 Now that WF coverage is mostly done I should be able to return to some long-form posts on other subject matter - a good thing, because at this point I’m getting rather tired of it. I’m glad the next one isn’t until August. ^^;;

Obligatory whoredom: spiky ball Dynamite Kanu is very competitively priced at Play-Asia!

Nary a week has passed since we first reported on her prior to Wonder Festival, but Cafe Reo’s Strawberry-chan from Okama artbook Food Girls is now up for preorder! She’s due out in April at 5,775 yen, non-scale (18 cm long) with a sculpt from Azusa Rei (Gun Doll). The description bills it as a “completely castoffable, strawberry fragrance figure”, which is sounding pretty tempting… gallery below:

The following is a quasi-chronological look at the events of February 24th, 2008, and one person’s trip to Japan’s biannual hobby mecca Wonder Festival. In addition to boring personal anecdotes it contains information of a potentially useful nature - if you’ve been wondering when the next Wonder Festival is, what happened to Eropon, why there was a veritable army of Yoko kits for sale, what’s up with Organic, or who translated the text on the warning label of that Mr. Simple Mask for Paint you just bought - well, you’ve come to the right place!

Fresh from her debut last weekend at Wonder Festival Alter blazes ahead with their release schedule, presenting an official page for their upcoming Chuua Churam PVC figure from Chu x Chu Idol! As previously reported she’s scheduled to retail in July at 7,140 yen, non-scale (~20 cm tall), with a sculpt from Yagyuu Satoshi. Who is Chuua Churam? She’s the combined “gattai” form that appears when the game’s two main heroines, Chu Chu Astram and Nakauchi Chiyu, kiss. :3 Picture below:

Via Moon Phase: The Kanzaka Hajime official fan club is reporting that Slayers is to receive a new TV anime adaptation! It will feature an original story and be divided into two cours of ~12-13 episodes each. Direction will be from Watanabe Takashi, with animation production from J.C. Staff. The voice cast is reported to have “no significant changes.”

This news is still officially rumor until it can be corroborated with the upcoming release of Dragon Magazine, but the official fan club source seems credible enough. (no more)

I was planning to push out the final installment of our Wonder Festival coverage this evening, but lack of sleep for the past few days has turned my brain into a puddle of goo that can’t bear to string more than a few words together at a time. Tomorrow for sure!

News of the Day:

• Eroge: Rumor: To Heart 2 Another Days lacks Ikuno route?
• Figure: February 27th Figure News
• Anime: TRIGUN THE MOVIE announced for 2009
• Manga: Dengeki Gao suspension confirmed

Other Headlines:

• Anime: BaseSon’s popular 2007 eroge Koihime Musou to receive TV anime and manga adaptations (Moon Phase)
• Anime: The third season of School Rumble will be distributed as an OVA with the limited edition release of vols. 21-22 of the manga
• Anime: Strike Witches is getting a TV anime, according to April’s Comp Ace
• Eroge: The release of Discovery’s Hitozuma Sentai Aisaiger FLASH has been postponed from March 28th to “this spring”
• Figure: Goodsmile begins experimentation with a 3D digital printer, printing a 3D-rendered version of their “Goodsmile Alien” mascot
• Figure: Kaiyodo posted their Revoltech release lineup through May
• Hobby: Aoshima produces the second in their Itasha car model series, this one with a To Heart 2 theme

We’ll take a closer look at some of these tomorrow to see exactly what’s going on.

In site news, following input on the redesign we’ve created an option for those who would prefer to view HD content in a single chronological feed in the main column. This can be done by clicking the “All” link in the upper right corner of the layout, or going here; browsing this way means you’ll never miss content when it’s posted to one of the new sections of the site! Hopefully this will help ease the transition to the new layout for all concerned (myself included).

Whew… it’s dinner and then off to bed for me early tonight! Wonder Festival coverage concludes tomorrow.

An update at Moon Phase has lent credence to the rumor that the long-awaited latest installment in the To Heart 2 franchise, Another Days, lacks a story route for Komaki Ikuno. The invalid younger sister of Komaki Manaka was a big draw leading up to the release of the Another Days expansion, so if this news is true it could mean we’re in for another round of hellfire from irate Japanese fans similar to the ones that accompanied the release of Light’s Dies Irae and Cuffs’ Garden. We’ll be watching for further news on this; the game goes on sale this Friday, February 29th.

Affiliate whoredom:
buy Kotobukiya’s
Komaki Ikuno PVC
at Play-Asia!