Plum Konomi Magic User Review

 

 愛佳でいくの！！柚原このみ マジックユーザー 1/7 PVC フィギュア

Edit: AmiAmi has sent a replacement wand and I have received it!

I ordered a large package from AmiAmi on Mon and it arrived here today, on Thur!  That was fast, and the shipping fee only cost me about 4000￥which is currently about 50$ USD, Ouch!

So as I collect alot of To Heart 2 stuff, I keep an eye out for any new items in the market. And here we have Konomi magic user by PLUM. As you might think, this statue resembles the konomi witch figure closely. The good news is if you passed on the konomi witch, the magic user figure is attainable at half the price! 

So what about this company PLUM? Who are they? Well, PLUM stands for Pretty Lovely Unique Mechanism. Sounds like a recipe for magic to me! They seem to dabble in all sorts of things. Have you every played G-Darius? You know, the old shooting game where you fire at big robotic fish on the sega genesis? Yeah, I loved that game. Well, PLUM makes a plastic model of the space ship. They also seem to make plastic model kits of Japanese temples... I guess bandai does that too, so we are cool here. I think this is their official blog link.

side of the box

back of the box

The first thing I noticed when I opened the package was, "Phew! What a smell!"

This thing just came off the presses, you could smell that polyurethane smell everywhere.

The packaging is good and similar to Kotobukiya, but the plastic is thin and flimsy,

but that is fine as it does the job

However, there was a sinister event waiting for me around the corner

Wha... I just opened this, where are the whiskers!

OH NOEZ, my product is DEFECTIVE!

Much sadness thus henceforth ensued. I'm just kidding. I love all my figures unconditionally. Now, if I had dropped the figure and broke it, then I would be crying.

Yes, I checked the box. Yes, I checked it again it is not there.

I contacted amiami to see what they know but they are probably still sleeping at this hour.

So let's talk about the quality of this figure. Bottom line: Good but could have been excellent. You see, What PLUM tried to do is make something modern but very affordable at the same time. What I love about this figure is that the hat is magnetic! I have always advocated that Figmas should have magnetic accessories. Hats, scarfs, whatever. I even thought about patenting my own figure magnetic system, wouldn't that be cool! But alas, reality states that adding a magnet increases costs and that is not good with the modern exchange rates.

The figure has been glued together. You cannot separate her at the waist as is common with most figures. Also, her little bag has been glued to the skirt. Why did they do this? Probably because it is cheap, but they should have used more magnets! The paint job is good and the pvc material is decent. But the other big issue with this figure is the scale. This is marked as 1/7 which is true compared to other figures, but not so if you compare Konomi's size to other To heart 2 figures. Konomi is supposed to small and petite. PLUM's magic user is a little thick. I would have preferred it a bit smaller and thinner or maybe list the scale as 1/6th.

 

Overall, I am pleased with the figure but I would like PLUM to take more care in production. As with all new companies sometimes you have to work out the bugs. I too have received defective Figmas when Good smile first started making them. Quality control is a standard you strive to live up to, not something to check off on a list. 

Oreimo last episode air date set for 5/31

artist unkown

the final episode of Oerimo will begin airing next Monday/Tuesday. Honestly, I think the series should go on a bit longer since lots of open ends abound. Oh well, trying to make a monthly schedule might be getting tedious and starting a new work might be beneficial as well. Here is a link to the preview on the official website.

kuroneko nendoroid has arrived

 

Finally got mine in the mail. Kuroneko is here!

This is what the box looks like, I'm sure you have seen it posted everywhere. So I won't bore you with regular pics. 

 

So let's do a few pics with her head on someone else's body! 

Kissy Kissy!

or how about this?

nope, that one is wrong.

It should be more like this!

Ah, the arrogance! 

The beauty!

It's a master piece.

a living work of art.

 

My Ordinary Life Nichijou first impressions and review

Spring is a great season for Anime

So many new shows, so little time. Just looking at the list of upcoming and recently released anime is daunting. But as usual, with how fast the industry is moving forward, not all anime is worth watching right away. Finding those gems is part of what makes watching anime fun. 

That brings us to My Ordinary Life. Alot of people had high expectations of this show. It has all the classic themes for a great anime in the making. School life, Comedy, Strange occurrences and behavior. Sadly, most people would agree with me that the show is having a hard time taking off. I want this show to be good, I want to like it, I want it to be the thing that makes anime great. It's hard to live up to those expectations though. 

People compare this show to Azumanga daioh, School Rumble, or some other well known slice of life comedy series. We are talking about heavy hitters here. Famous shows that raised the bar or turned the wheels to set the current trends in anime we see today. So I am trying to be very open minded. As long as the show is entertaining I will be Ok with that. Regrettably, so far I have found it to be more on the boring side, partly because some of the settings are so abstract or unbelievable that I find it not entertaining. 

First of all, I love maid robos. To heart 2 has maid robos. Maid robos are awesome. Why in the world does this show have maid robos? And the scientist is a preschool child? Ehhh... I think someone is trying a little too hard to put everything in one pot. I love a good Japanese/Chinese curry. But that doesn't mean you should stick anything and everything in it. You need to think about what flavor you want to achieve and add ingredients that compliment that flavor.

Anyway, I don't want to bore you with the problems of the series, so let's move on. 

Episode 6 is Awesome!

I loved this episode. This is what they should have done from the beginning. Just keep it simple and realistic with absurd situations. Anytime you have a School Life comedy with lucha libre you know it's going to be an awesome event. The principal has mad skills and he needs them to bring stability to an insecure world. 

Death or Die!

Even the smallest challenges in life can be a serious matter. That is what everyday life is about. Living to the fullest! I am happy to see this show is going to push-on strong. Let's not write this series off yet and keep them near the top of our viewing roster and continue to support them our best. Less explosions and more exploring the thought patterns of the excellent characters and this show could be a gold mine of awesomeness.

Kuroneko Pure nemo XS

I MUST HAVE THIS!!!!
is what I said to myself as soon as I took a glance.
You can still preorder it at HLJ but hobbysearch has stopped taking preorders.
This is one of those items where preorders filled up fast.
at 145$ she is not cheap, but this is the most accurate representation I have seen in such a long time. I am not a big pure nemo fan but I do have a few other small azone dolls. 

Marisa is also available and looks very well done.
you can order her from ami ami. 

My turn to cosplay!

Recently got some more Touhou figures in this past Jan. Aya is a nice figure. the quality is improving. They still feel delicate, of course. But the little balls that keep their hands stuck to their arms has been done away with. I really hated those things and always worried they would break. Aya comes with a bird and wings so other accessories were left out, such as, not having any fingers to point with...

Borders has also filed for bankruptcy if you had not heard. Everything in the store is 20% off. That is not killer savings yet, but I think the prices will lower as the stores get ready for closing. I picked up a few things.

Haqua du Lot Herminium and Aragaki Ayase to share the same voice actress

If you have not heard, the next season of The World God Only Knows starts this April. I am excited. The first season was decent but I always felt it was missing something. I believe the problem with the first series is that the anime attempted to resemble a love adventure novel instead of a love comedy. Yes, an anime about someone who likes dating sims is funny but that, fundamentally, does not make a love adventure anime; it is still just a comedy.

Because of this error in genre choice the anime series was forced into a very slow pace. Of course, I am sure the budget had much to do with this as well. Since the story did not progress fast enough I found myself waiting for the end of character arcs hoping the next would be more interesting.

You see, the manga takes a different approach. it is an extremely fast paced story line. So many interesting things are going on you literally cannot put it down without finding out what happens next. The first season of the show covers pretty much the first seventeen chapters of the manga. Currently, the series just released chapter 130. That is a huge gap, yet, the good news is that the slower the anime goes the more anime there might be *crosses fingers*, yea!

One of my favorite shows last season was oreimo. The show does have a lot of flaws and is no where near the level of Genshiken, but it is amusing none the less. I do like Aragaki Ayase as I am drawn to those type of negative characters myself. stabby, stabby, stabby... The voicing done by Saori Hayami was prefect and fits the character well. It was revealed that she is currently doing Haqua in the second season of The World God Only Knows in the very last episode of the first season . What makes this pairing up really great is how much Ayase and Haqua are alike. Haqua shows up in chapter 22 of the manga. She is not a yandere, but she does have very similar traits. She is the serious character always trying her best yet cannot beat Katsuragi and it frustrates her. Of course, she then begins to develop a romantic interest as well. She really starts to shine when she begins to act like how a real demon helper should be and constantly keeps Katsuragi in check. I have high expectations for this coming season.