Click the image to make Lukkage roll on you and flip her hair fabulously.

Weird because the scene just before that was noticeably low-budget quality.

Summary:

Amy has recovered from her depression and is back to being all smiles.

Ledo discovers that is indeed Kugel on the other fleet when he contacts him.

Pinion fires a warning shot with his laser cannon. They fire back to his surprise.

Ledo flies to the other fleet to meet Kugel.

Ledo observes the cult-like organization boarding the fleet.

One of them takes Ledo to a dining room. There, a hologram of Kugel tells him how he wants to put an end to the war between the demons and humans by way of non-violent means. Kugel tells Ledo “Be mine, Hero!” but Ledo refuses. Also, his horns were fake.

Kugel tells Ledo that he can’t meet him in person because of an illness forcing him to stay in his cockpit. Chamber confirms the details of Kugel’s conditions from Kugel’s Machine Caliber, Striker.

Meanwhile, Flange receives a message that the nearby fleet wants them to send a representative, but they specifically want Pinion.

Pinion gets picked up and transported by…the lesbian pirate queen?!

Ledo tells Kugel about the fact that the Hideauze are also fundamentally human. Kugel reveals that the higher-ups of the Galactic Alliance knew all along but they continue to fight since they believe that the Hideauze have lost their sense of humanity.

Pinion is brought in to a meeting room. There, he sees a cube and fiddles with it out of having nothing better to do.

The cube can actually talk. Cube-y tells Pinion that his technical proficiency is just what Cube-y needs.

Cube-y was actually a communication device from Striker. Striker offers Pinion blueprints to the lost technology in exchange for his work.

Pinion agrees to the deal and is ordered to announce the alliance between Flange and Kugel’s fleet.

Flange accepts the merge but is told that everyone in his fleet will be reassigned to where they can be most efficient to the community.

Lukkage brings Pinion to his assigned quarters. She tells him that in this society, there is no such thing as money. Everyone is fairly compensated with rations according to their line of work.

Pinion notices some weird cult ceremony going on.

Ledo gets Chamber to examine him (Supressing…urge to have…wierd…Yaoi fantasies! Superession…failing!) and comments on how it must be tough for Kugel to stay cramped up like that. Chamber figures that he doesn’t reveal himself to keep his image amongst the people of his fleet.

Ledo: Ch-chamber-san, P-please have a look at my body!
Chamber: Analysis complete. Ledo-senpai, you are perfect…
Ledo: Ah, Chamber-san~

Lukkage returns to her ship. She comments on how boring things have been lately.

Ledo receives an order from Kugel. He wants Ledo to help him by doing something that will send a message to the rest of the human race.

He wants Ledo to attack Gargantia….Well shit.

Thoughts:

A pretty good episode though there were a few things that didn’t right with me. As usual, this episode comes with a lot of plot development and it’s mostly brought out in dialogue. Now, there was no problem with the plot details itself. The way the script went made it easy to follow and understand. The problem is with the uninspired presentation. There was nothing but a bunch of people talking while all this information was being relayed. There was no effort to keep the show visually interesting. They could have done something like the episode back then with the series of spine-chilling videos about the Hideauze. THAT was awesome. It kept you engrossed in everything you were taking in. A bunch of talking heads doesn’t. Then there’s also the matter of not one, but two characters returning. I did complain before about how Kugel and Lukkage stood out yet never had any significant role in the early episodes, and I find this now to be an opportunity for the writers to flesh them out. I did wish they handled their returns better. Maybe go into a little explanation on how they got to where they are. As it is, it feels like these two characters were brought back for no other reason other than catching people by surprise. I want to know how Kugel survived the Hideauze onslaught or how Lukkage and her entire fleet ended up joining these cultists. Speaking of the cultists, I find that their existence lacks logical justification. If I assume that Kugel ended up on Earth around the same time as Ledo, then I find it hard to believe how he managed to mold this society into this creepy bunch of hiveminds. Maybe it’s still too early for me to be calling this a fault on the writings behalf, but if they go into explaining this (and they should) it better be a damn good explanation. For now, I’m skeptical. But hey, there were some nuggets of awesomeness in the writing for this episode. I liked how Lukkage hinted at doing something awesome in the future, whether it helps or harms our main characters. I knew she would be more than just another member of that hivemind and I’m looking forward to seeing what she’ll do (Don’t disappoint, Lukkage!). Finally, the last scene was absolutely mind-blowing. It’s not the fact that Ledo has to attack Gargantia, it’s that the entire scene mirrored the same scene in the first episode. Ledo wakes up to Kugel giving him orders. There are some pretty deep implications this. Ledo is caught in the same situation he was in before only this time, he’s pointing his gun at humans. I could go on, but I’ve already surpassed 900 words XP

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And it just took 1 and 11/12ths seasons to do it!

Summary:

The girls attempt to transfer their ki to Muneakira.

Short flashback to Yukimura warning everyone about the risks of trying to create a Samurai Bride.

The seal on Muneakira’s arms prevent him from taking any more ki.

Meanwhile, Mataemon thinks she’s discovered the location of the Guardian stone.

Kojiro appears behind her to offer her support and point out that Mataemon is looking at an obvious trap.

Meanwhile, Inshun appears before Musashi to give her a charm that will release Muneakira. Then she disappears again.

Kojiro tells Mataemon about how each of the Dark Samurai were revived with a disability. Kojiro was initially blind, Mataemon had no limbs, Musashi had sensitive hearing and Inshun was mute.

They finally reach the Guardian Stone and attack all the guards around it.

Word of the breach reaches Yoshihiko. Nia moves out to stop the Dark Samurai.

Musashi finally arrives for the duel.

Mataemon and Kojiro finally reach the Guardian Stone and strike at it.

This allows evil ki to enter through the barrier.

Musashi and Jubei continue their duel while the others move to stop the Dark Samurai.

Inshun appears to stop Mataemon and Kojiro.

Musashi starts getting possessed by the evil spirit.

Nia and Gisen also appear to stop Mataemon and Kojiro.

Muneakira is unable to do anything with the seals on his hands.

Keiji appears out of nowhere to tell Muneakira to use his ki to break his seal. Translation: DO the Kamehameha.

The evil spirits with Inshun and the other Dark Samurai possessed combine to form one giant entity. We have our FINAL BOSS!

It easily defeats all the other Master Samurai.

Now it’s up to Jubei to save the day!

Thoughts:

Well, as the pre-final battle episode, I think this episode managed to do what it had to do. It built up the conflict to its high point and gave us a final boss. I am actually liking the situation here as far as boss battles go. Your allies defeated, the city in a state of calamity, your friend held captive by this giant evil monster, the fate of an entire nation lies soley on you, your incompetent boyfriend and your lesbian friend who suddenly came back after doing a dine-and-dash on you. You can’t ask for much more for this boss fight. Of course, there were a few bumps on the road leading up to this boss fight. I think the motives of each Dark Samurai could have been fleshed out a little more. Especially Inshun. I assume that Kojiro sided with Mataemon to spite Musashi being so obsessed with her duel. Mataemon is just that easy-going type who doesn’t mind destroying Japan for teh lulz. Musashi of course is looking for somebody to provide her with a decent challenge. Inshun, on the other hand, seemed to be against the destruction of the Guardian Stone for the sole reason of protecting Jubei. It’s weird. If she wanted to side with them, why did she go solo? Did she fear that the others wouldn’t accept her? See, this is the problem with characters who don’t talk. Then of course, there’s Gisen suddenly gaining her magic eye powers. She spent most of her time on-screen as a background character with little clips of her brooding here and there. I’m guessing that she’s been secretly training. Still, could have used more time actually showing Gisen getting involved with something. Finally, there’s Keiji returning out of nowhere and telling Muneakira how to break the seal on him. Blatant Deus Ex Machina right there, folks. Okay, so despite all the little things I pointed out, I’m quite confident that this show can pull out a satisfying boss battle. Last season’s was pretty good and I do believe the stakes are higher this time around. So yeah, stick around for the finale of Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Bride!

Public Service Announcement: I’ll be posting the photos I took from the 12th annual Philippine Toy Convention on the Facebook page soon.

I think he is a representative character of how confusion inducing this show is.

Summary:

Suspecting that Takayanagi placed a curse before the war games, Mayura, Manatsu, Miyuki and Izumiko search the school grounds at night.

Miyuki remembers the Himegami commenting that something inhuman is around.

Miyuki finds a cursed test tube from the science club.

Mayura and Manatsu call Masumi for help.

The next day, Miyuki returns Izumiko’s cellphone from episode two so they can keep in touch even if they’re assigned to different areas.

Suddenly, the science club releases a suspicious balloon.

Izumiko manages to call Miyuki to tell him that the balloon is indeed suspicious.

It’s also a big deal to her that she can actually use a cellphone now, an achievement Miyuki fails to recognize.

And so the war games finally begin.

Takayanagi and his posse appear before Izumiko. He explains that he has a mindset towards globalization which is why he’s opening himself to foreigners.

Miyuki hears their conversation and rushes to Izumiko.

Izumiko finally softens up to Takayanagi and they agree to meet again later.

Miyuki realizes that he’s been running in circles. He calls in Wamiya who tells him that it is all Izumiko’s doing since she doesn’t want him with her at the moment.

Izumiko gets the feeling that she’s forgetting something.

Izumiko meets Takayanagi’s other friend who takes her to see him.

Izumiko starts seeing ghosts among the students.

Miyuki tells Mayura about Takayanagi making advances on Izumiko.

Mayura changes the subject and asks Miyuki if he can pretend to be her fiance to appease a family member of hers who came all the way from the province to see her.

Their discussion gets interrupted when one student asks for Mayura’s help for the war games.

Izumiko enjoys some tea and crumpets with Takayanagi and co.

Izumiko realizes that Takayanagi has been manipulating her when she suddenly remembers Miyuki.

Izumiko’s anger turns into distress when she realizes how she can’t be normal with her powers.

The ground shakes in Izumiko’s wrath as Miyuki rejects Mayura’s proposal.

Thoughts:

A little bit of a momentum breaker, this episode. It wasn’t as fluid and engaging as the previous ones and became quite confusing sometimes. Well, I pretty much figured out that Takayanagi was playing tricks on Izumiko from the start. What I didn’t get was how he did it. That grey balloon was never mentioned again. Neither was the cursed test tube. So what did he do? Use his natural charm and charisma to win Izumiko’s affection? The thing is, a lot of these were never explained. The scene with Takayanagi gets cut off by Miyuki running around and when the figurative camera goes back to them, suddenly the mood of the conversation changes with no going back to show how it got to that point. Then there’s Mayura’s case with the relative visiting her. All I saw at first was some random guy waving at her. How was I supposed to know what that meant or how it mattered in the story? For all I know, that was just some random fan of hers. I had to sit it out until the show finally explains the thing a significant amount of time after it happened. This is just me, but I think those scenes should have followed each other. You know, keep the viewer from being confused and irritated as much as possible? I’d get it if this was some sort of mystery show where the writing really should get people scratching their heads looking for an answer but that’s not the case with RDG. All these confusing things are the effects of poor storytelling, really. Well, if there’s one good thing this episode did, it was show just how much Izumiko has grown. The cellphone brings us back to a time where Izumiko was wearing dorky glasses, depending on others to use devises for her and clinging on to whoever she could cling on to. Look at her now, going out on her own, trying to deal with her own problems. I’d say this would be really impressive character development if it weren’t for the fact that Izumiko still has too many faults. Like I said, these little panic attacks just revert her image back to the weak character she was from the start. I always said that Izumiko’s character would come full circle if she could over come these moments and she almost did with chanting the protective spell Miyuki taught her, but then she went into a rage and then had another panic attack…Oh well…

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Referring to the scrap metal Flange was gawking at in the episode, not Suisei no Gargantia itself. Don’t kill me.

Summary:

Ledo and Chamber return from the whalesquid nest.

While everyone is rejoicing, Ledo is very shaken by what he just experienced.

Mayta shows Pinion all the lost technology they’ll be hauling in.

Meanwhile, Ledo is still very shaken by everything he experienced.

Ledo and Flange get into an argument about how they’ll use their salvaged materials. FLange wants to use them to make improvements to their civilization while Pinion  wants to use it to get rich.

Pinion sends out an open message via radio boasting about destroying the whalesquids and challenging anyone to try and take their loot. The Gargantia crew are among those who picked up his message.

Flange recieves a letter from Melty who asks him if they’ll be alright after what Pinion just did. Flange answers that everything in uncertain.

Ledo dreams about a harem of Chambers.

Pinion tries to get Ledo to do some work but he outright refuses him.

Meanwhile, everyone in Gargantia is depressed.

Pirates attack Flange’s fleet. Pinion orders the men to use the new cannon they salvaged and repaired.

The massive blast causes the opposing crew to surrender. Pinion forces them to join his crew.

Pinion tries to approach Ledo once more.

He brings Ledo out and Ledo gets surprised that people are actually partying.

Pinion gets Chamber to scan an old cannon they picked up. Chamber tells him that the cannon is far more powerful than any technology Pinion’s civilization currently has.

Ledo learns from Chamber that the light bugs who form the sea galaxies are actually little particles used to build Hideauze, exoskeletons.

Ledo gets into an argument with Chamber about whether or not the Hideauze really are the enemy considering that they are made by man and are man themselves. Chamber tells him that through his own analysis, he believes it is justified to fight the Hideauze as they have diverged from humanity and chose to follow a path of survival contradictory to that of the human Galactic Alliance.

While Chamber goes on, a cult-like fleet brandishing whalesquid corpses approaches Flange’s fleet.

Chamber also identifies another mech like him, Ledo recognizes it as Kugel’s personal machine caliber.

Thoughts:

Well, I guess this was a fairly understandable response to the last episode. This showcased the aftermath of the previous episode’s actions. Ledo had his Jimmies rustled and Pinion got over excited and became a massive dick. I wrongly predicted that this episode would be focused on Amy, by the way. Actually, a lot of the episode was focused on Pinion and his slow descent into corruption. The Pinion that we see in this episode is a far cry from the laid back guy we met in the first few episodes. This one is arrogant and greedy and it shows. I’m quite intrigued by his character and I’m very much interested in how things will turn out for him. Is he going to end up a villain or can he still change? I’d honestly prefer the latter. It would be epic to see him do something heroic (and maybe die for it ala Kamina) after all he’s been through. It’s also interesting to note that Melty is showing more independence as a character over always being paire with Saaya and Amy. I was almost certain the show would have casted her aside until she probably needed to die a classic Urobuchi death. Nope, she’s still around and she does show believable emotions about the things going on around her. On the other hand, Amy has done absolutely nothing but mope around with Saaya always beside her attempting to cheer her up with no effort. Kinda happy I wrongly predicted this episode being about her if that’s what she’ll be doing the whole time. Now, I did like the plot twist cliffhanger at the end of the episode, but I feel that it was overshadowed by Chamber’s epic infodump. After all the information we took in from Chamber’s lines, paired with some really fitting music, the whole part at the end didn’t live up to the impact of the scene that came before it. It was still a big deal, it’s just that everything Chamber said felt bigger. Still, it got me interested to find out what happens in the next episode.

As always, a link to the Facebook page you’ll probably not bother to like.

Click it. This was pretty much how everyone reacted to the PS4′s price tag.

Yep, been procrastinating on this post because I was watching all the E3 conferences.

Summary:

Kojiro confronts the evil spirit possessing Mataemon.

Meanwhile, the supporting characters are left in the dojo while the actually important people are away.

They’re at Yoshihiko’s place as he explains the situation of the Guardian Stone.

Great Japan is like a person. It has ki flowing through it and the Guardian Stone serves as the heart of Japan.

Yoshihiko has built several barriers to protect the Guardian Stone that’s right under the castle.

Unfortunately, that barrier was broken during Jubei’s epic fight with Gisen.

Because of that, evil spirits were able to enter through the broken barrier and revive the Dark Samurai. Yoshihiko tried to send Nia after them but she was overpowered.

It is revealed that Mataemon was revived because she was the most incomplete of the Dark Samurai so possessing her would have been easy.

Meanwhile, Inshun was summoned as a spirit medium.

Yukimura strikes a deal with Yoshihiko. They will fight the Dark Samurai in exchange for information about the Samurai Bride.

Mataemon actually likes her current state and sets out to do what she was revived for.

Yukimura locks herself up to read through all the books Yoshihiko provided her with.

Meanwhile, Hanzo is caught daydreaming about becoming a Samurai Bride.

Gisen thinks Jubei has the wrong idea about the power of a Samurai Bride.

Muneakira tries to wield a sword but the seal Inshun put on him is still in effect.

Cue a montage of characters doing random things.

Yukimura finally discovers the secret of the Samurai Bride. She gathers everyone to tell them about it. A Samurai Bride is created when a General has seven Master Samurai. One of them will absorb all their ki and ascend to a new level of power.

Thoughts:

That’s it. Sony has won. Microsoft pretty much threw the fight in the first place. I mean, 399 dollars on launch, no online requirements, COMPLETE ownership of games we’ll buy, Media services such as Netflix and PPV streams (probably WWE is included. A big YEEEEESSS for me!), support for indie game developers, and the focus on social media actually looks useful! Eat it, Microsoft! Eat it with your stupid online check-in requirements, anti-secondhand ownership policies, and mandatory Kinect 2! Anyway, guess I should be talking about Hyakka Ryouran now. This episode wasn’t incredibly boring or anything, it just lacked a lot of action. Most of it was spent on Yoshihiko explaining things, either that or it was the evil spirit talking to Kojiro. Speaking of Kojiro, it seems she’s jumping off the Bad Guy Bandwagon as well which leaves us with…Mataemon. It’s really hard to believe that this badass group of four has broken down into one and I’m supposed to expect that she’ll serve as a big enough threat for out protagonists. She got beat by Kanetsugu for Pete (whoever Pete is)’s sake. Sure, she has all those evil spirits backing her but it’s going to take something big to really pull out a big boss fight with just her. Sure, back in the first season, it was everyone versus Gisen but she almost destroyed the city before even fighting Jubei. Something on that level should happen with Mataemon and the evil spirits (That sounds like a rock band name). Now the big question is where do Musashi, Kojiro and Inshun go from here. I do believe Musashi will still have her big fight and this is stretching it but I predict all three of them will try to stop the evil spirits. One of my gripes from watching this episode was time management. It was obvious that the studio was really trying to stretch their content to fit twenty minutes. We have a lot of slow-moving frames and then there was the pointless montage of characters doing random things just to fill in some time. Honestly, they could have spent that time putting focus on Gisen or Inshun as they still have their own problems that they need to resolve. Also, I felt that the topic of the Samurai Bride was just brought up out of the blue. I’m sure it was in the back of all their minds but there should have been a few scenes or some lines in the dialogue making a bridge between the characters’ current predicament and the need to know more about the Samurai Bride. Ah well…

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She knows what you do in the dark…

Summary:

Mayura finds Izumiko crying in the middle of the night because she fears losing herself.

Day 2 of the festival. The student council will be roaming around making sure everything is okay.

In Izumiko’s class’ stall, her classmates are making a big deal of how she styled her hair for the day.

Izumiko learns that a class decided to hold betting games on which class will have the best stall. Mayura and Takayanagi’s class is currently leading.

Izumiko gets stopped by a bunch of middle schoolers asking her to be their princess for the parade.

Miyuki appears and tells the girls off.

Miyuki and Izumiko get into another argument about what transpired when the Himegami took over Izumiko’s body.

Their conversation is interrupted when Miyuki can’t help but laugh after a baby pulls on Izumiko’s hat revealing her hair buns.

Miyuki asks Izumiko if she’s ever considered the possibility that she and the HImegami are one and the same.

The student council have a mid-day meeting. Two guys report that there have been quite a number of girls sent to the infirmary after going through a horror house booth. Miyuki volunteers to check it out.

Miyuki and Izumiko visit the horror house booth. Miyuki leaves Izumiko in line while he goes on ahead. Two guys approach Izumiko asking for a picture, Izumiko finds them suspicious and runs away.

She ends up inside the horror house and falls into another hallucination with real ghosts.

Miyuki pulls her out of the booth. He brings Izumiko to the infirmary just to be safe.

They find out why so many girls have ended up there: Yukimasa.

As usual, Yukimasa continues to be a dick towards his own son.

Miyuki leaves having put up with Yukimasa for too long but Izumiko follows after him.

Festival comittee director Hayakawa gets called out over the popularity contest he’s been holding behind Kisaragi’s back.

Mayura gets called to the P.A. room where the middle schoolers publicly ask her to be their general for the war games the next day.

It turns out, Hayakawa was in support of Mayura and wanted her to hold a high position for the war games as Takayanagi is leading the opposing army.

Masumi makes a brief appearance in front of Izumiko.

The two talk about what it means to love and Masumi figures that he’s stalking his siblings out of love. Then he disappears.

It’s that hat from episode 2!

Thoughts:

Red Data Girl really is getting better and better as the series goes. I quite enjoyed this episode. It had a few moments that really made me smile out of amusement. The serious aspect of the show felt just right too. Little conversations and thought sequences kept this episode relevant while still pursuing the charms of a school festival. This time, the music actually fit the show. It was more subtle, yet more effective than last episode’s Lucky Star-esque soundtrack. Now on to more pressing matters, I fear that this show is going to end with A LOT of unanswered questions. So much, I had to bold, underline and italicize “a lot”. We are at episode 10. My Anime List lists RDG as a 12 episode anime. Surely, I’m not the only one who doubts that Red Data Girl can conclusively end with just 2 episodes left. Especially considering where we are now with the story. We are in the middle of a power struggle between Mayura and Takayanagi and it really has very little to do with the mysteries behind the Himegami. Sure, those camera guys are probably part of Takayanagi’s evil schemes but I don’t think that this will reveal the truth of the Himegami in its entirety. What’s more, we have yet to see anything in the show that actually refers to the show’s title, “Red Data Girl”. I really hope that My Anime List is wrong about this being 12 episodes. I don’t want the show to be pulling things out of its ass just to fit in an ending. This show still needs more build up, more time to progress and develop its plot. One last thing I have to point out, again, the hat! That really is the hat from episode 2! I know it’s just a minor detail but it’s still amusing how this hat made an unexpected 2nd appearance! Very few anime pay attention to detail like this!

I try to keep the Facebook page active <(“)

Heh. At least you don’t have to water it regularly.

So this is one of my hauls from my short vacation at Singapore. Another Kotobukiya figure from the Shining game series with character designs by Tony Taka. Now when pictures of her first showed up on the web, I wasn’t really impressed by what I saw. I don’t know, her pose was simple, her face was typical Tony Taka. What convinced me to buy her was that she came cheap. 100 Singapore Dollars so that comes to around 3400 Philippine Pesos. Then there’s the 7% GST refund which put her at about 3200 pesos. Good deal considering she costs around 4000 pesos in local stores. The other thing that pulled the cash out of my wallet was the “unique” grass base she had going. Anyway, on to the review, as I said, she has the typical Tony Taka face. That’s not bad, mind you. Tony draws beautiful faces, and this is made even more beautiful with the bright smile she wears.

I’d hate to point out a poor design choice early on in this review, but it’s right there on her head where I usually start these reviews. You’ll notice that the hair on her side runs horizontally while her bangs obviously fall vertically. There is very little transition on her hair so it looks like her side hair just gets cut off by her bangs. The flow of her long hair and thin pigtails is nice though. Gives the impression of wind blowing on her.

One thing I really like about this figure is the shape of her body. It’s flawless! She’s not too slender and not too plump, her breasts are of a respectable size, not too small nor too big and her legs are long yet not scrawny. She has a developed and yet youthful look on her.

One thing worth pointing out is that she has no painted on shading whatsoever. Whatever shading is seen from my photos come from natural lighting. While it’s not too much of a bad thing, there will be angles where her armpits will simply look like smooth surfaces of skin as opposed, to say Saber Lily who has godly armpits.

Compare that to Saber Lily Gift Ver. bellow.

GODLY. ARMPITS.

There is some good detail on her breasts and abdomen though.

Side view. Her paint job is decent enough. I’d go on and say 99.9% of her paint is where it’s supposed to be.

One big part of the figure is obviously her long bow. Unlike most of my experiences with figures holding weapons, attaching the bow on her was not at all frustrating. It just fit iin smoothly.

I do love how her bow even has a bowstring even though it’s barely visible. It just shows how Kotobukiya works to add even the tiniest details on their figures.

Her frilly miniskirt offers a nice contrast to her mostly straight, foldless attire.

Now, I’ve always firmly believed that bare legs is best legs but  I do see the appeal of thigh highs. Though in this case, I find her long socks absolutely pointless as she’s already wearing long boots plus those socks blend with her skin too well.

Now on to her infamous grass base. This thing has been nothing but trouble. One, it looks weird. The figure has a consistent blue and white color palette and then suddenly there’s this patch of green. Also, the grass feels like the same thing they use on putting mats. Finally, it’s just barely glued on to the base and will come off with the lightest scratch.

On to her back. The best thing from this angle has to be her flowing hair.

A closer look at the awkward intersection of her hair.

That symbol on her back looks waaay too much like weed.

So there you have it. My final thoughts on the figure: She’s definitely not one of the best Kotobukiya Shining games figures but she’s decent. The sculpt and the paint suffice from a good distance but start to show some faults up close. Her pose is safe but big. She takes a decent amount of space with her arms outstretched. This makes her more eye-catching. Her design is also pretty good, though Tony Taka  has crafted hundreds of better designs before. The possible deal breaker of this figure is her grass base. I didn’t like it, didn’t like having to be extra careful around it. I would have much prefered a plain white base over this. Overall, a decent figure. The quality of her sculpt, paint and design will do for her reasonable price. The grass base, again, is going to be a factor on whether or not you’ll want to buy this. Altina’s not exactly a must-get but she makes a nice addition to my collection.

Side by side with Kaguya, one of my other Kotobukiya figures.

The obligatory Woody photo. Woody seems to agree that Altina has a perfect waist indeed.

Finally, here’s what her grass base looks like now. I had to mow the lawn because part of it came off as I was wiping her base clean so I decided to remove everything as well.

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Science, what have you done?!

Summary:

Ledo plays Dynasty Warriors with the whalesquids.

Pinion remembers his last moments with his big brother.

He remembers how he accidentally entered a whalesquid nest and got killed by the swarm.

Ledo starts using explosives to deal massive damage.

The crew on the ship support him by dropping explosive barrels.

Ledo annihilates most of the whalesquids and enters their nest.

He runs into a giant whalesquid but manages to defeat it.

Melty and the others lose track of Ledo as he’s deep inside the nest.

There, Ledo finds infant whalesquids whose shape vaguely bear resemblance to human infants.

Ledo finds storage devices containing information.

Chamber tells him that the data is locked by the Galactic Human Alliance. Ledo overrides their authority and orders Chamber to load the data.

A video plays of a man being interviewed about some organization’s plans for space migration.

There have been some protest against the Continental Union and “Evolvers” for their practices in science and research.

They did begin construction of space colonies.

They also bioengineered symbiotic space suits to adapt to the conditions in space and they resemble the Hideauze.

The tension escalates when it is revealed that the Continental Union created a wormhole generator which they’ll use for themselves only.

Ledo discovers a humanoid Hideauze but Chamber kills it without his permission.

Amy finds Bebel playing on Ledo’s flute and she starts crying.

Thoughts:

Wow. This episode was absolutely amazing. The first half pulled its own weight being decently animated and having a short flashback of Pinion that did enough to explain his motivations. It didn’t drag on for too long nor was it too short that it left some questions behind. The second half was what really blew my mind. Ledo enters that nest and engages with this giant whalesquid with bumps on its head that you’d figure to be eggs. He goes deeper and discovers Hideauze infants which was a haunting discovery even for Ledo. You could see the look on his face, a mixture of confusion and shock. That scene was even more haunting with how one floats by Chamber and Ledo could clearly see the shape of a human infant. And they cried. Like infants. Oh God. The crying. Finally, the highlight of this episode and the most impactful scene Suisei no Gargantia has had so far, that sequence of videos regarding the origins of the Hideauze. The music for this scene was absolutely brilliant too. It really amplified the impact and suspense of this part. It starts off normally enough, with people optimistic for their plans for the future which could save them. Then it gets scarier and scarier with scenes of protest, human experimentation, dispute between humans and then that scene with the swarm of Evolvers. That last scene shown with the humanoid Hideauze makes me think that the symbiotic suits that these scientists created may have permanently enveloped its human host creating that hybrid being. What kind of took away from that scene though was that mere seconds after seeing that humanoid Hideauze on screen, it appears right in front of them. Really. How convenient. I get that they wanted to show how traumatized Ledo was after what he saw but that thing basically went “O hai” and Chamber was like “I’mma keel you now!” Maybe instead they could have had a humanoid Hideauze corpse float by Ledo like with the infant Hideauze. Then there was the scene with Amy just breaking down into tears. There was no subtlety with that scene at all. It also stuck out as the entire episode save for that scene focused on Ledo and the Hideauze. Now, there’s nothing wrong with Amy but her part here really is just out-of-place. It’s like eating a bag full of bubble gum flavored jelly beans and then you suddenly end up eating a caramel flavored one. It’s taste is too different and leaves a weird sensation on your tongue. In the same way, that was an emotional scene in an episode that was shocking plot wise rather than emotionally dramatic. Anyway, this episode generated a lot of questions and has really caught my interest for this show as if the show didn’t have my interest already. There’s so much speculation to be made after everything that’s been revealed. It’ll be interesting to see how the show can keep with this momentum what with the next episode looking like it’s focused on Amy and all. This can prove to make or break the show. What it has to do now is to make us, the viewers, care for Amy as much as we’d care for what’s going on with the Hideauze.

ForGIF me for the bad GIF puns.

Summary:

Mataemon wakes up not realizing she has been possessed.

Meanwhile, Yoshihiko does in fact exist in this sequel and he’s been working on putting up a protective barrier over all of Great Japan.

Jubei insists that Inshun is innocent and runs away with Sasuke to find her.

Hanzo and Matabei have another failed attempt at kiss training.

Kanetsugu shows up to teach them but ends up getting bear hugged to death by Matabei.

Jubei runs into Musashi while looking for Inshun.

She tells Musashi about the slasher and Musashi says she’ll confront Inshun about it because attacking people at night is dishonorable even for the Dark Samurai.

Kojiro witnesses Mataemon get possessed by the evil tentacle monster spirit.

Musashi finds Inshun at a rooftop. Inshun remains silent throughout Musashi’s questions prompting Musashi to attack her.

Hanzo and Matabei report the Dark Samurai and the group minus Gisen for whatever reason roll out.

Meanwhile, Kojiro is secretly following the tentacle spirit as it searches for the Guardian Stone.

Hanzo senses the presence of the tentacle monster after the group as split.

Sen and Hanzo get caught.

Sen is forced to remember a memory where she overhears her brother talking about the Guardian Stone.

Matabei gets Muneakira to kiss her and turn her into a Master Samuai.

She manages to save Hanzo but Sen remains trapped.

Hanzo also kisses Muneakira and becomes a Master Samurai. She works with Matabei to defeat the monster and free Sen.

Inshun escapes Musashi when Musashi gets distracted by the spirit’s evil aura.

Mataemon returns to normal, not remembering anything and Kojiro escapes with her from the Master Samurai.

The group try to analyze their situation. Gisen believes that the Dark Samurai are only using the duel with Jubei as an excuse to stick around while they look for the Guardian Stone to destroy it and in effect, destroy Japan.

Thoughts:

Well this episode didn’t go the way I expected it to. I was hoping to see a lot more of Inshun and get to know where her allegiance lies. Instead, she gets like two minutes of screen time and just disappears after fighting Musashi. This could mean that she’s probably kicked out of Team Bad Guy. Actually, Team Bad Guy’s situation is more complicated with what our protagonists have. Not only is Inshun’s loyalty questionable, but we also have Mataemon who has an uncontrollable spirit harming her and as shown by her attack on Kojiro, this could do the group a lot of harm. I guess the seeds of dissension here were planted when Musashi kept casually visiting the maid cafe which irritated Kojiro. Up until now, she remains quite friendly with the airheaded Jubei. Man, Kojiro sure has a lot to deal with. The way I see it now, that fight with badass Jubei isn’t gonna happen, not straight up at least. That tentacle monster is probably going to find the Guardian Stone and a possessed Mataemon is going to end up the final boss. I also expect to see Inshun make a grand save. On the other side of the story, seems everyone in the protaginist group is a Master Samurai (Gisen technically still is). This is sort of a bigger hint that Master Samurai vs Dark Samurai isn’t going to happen straight up. Hell, I expect both sides to end up working together ala Senran Kagura. Now, my sole gripe with this episode is the terrible communication between characters. Jubei doesn’t believe that Inshun is controlling the tentacle spirit. She encourages Musashi to play Bad Cop with Inshun anyway. Inshun says nothing at all. Made worse when we know that she is actually fighting the slasher. I really don’t get why Inshun didn’t just explain herself. She could have avoided a poorly animated fight. I know, it would be contradictory to her silent and mysterious character but seriously. How hard is it to point at someone else. I mean, it’s entirely possible she knew that Mataemon had that evil spirit within her as she had exorcised it before. We’ll just have to wait and see the next episode to see how these things will be explained or if they’ll be explained at all. What bothers me about all this is that it wasn’t a sudden appearance of plot, that evil spirit existed in earlier episodes but there was sort of a skip to this episode when it finally became relevant again. They could have spent a couple minutes every other episode to show that this thing is getting more and more dangerous.

I still wonder why Facebook doesn’t support GIFs. The Facebook page would be a lot more interesting if it did.

So at this point, I don’t I need to introduce Miku anymore. She’s had quite the incredible rise to popularity over the years and there have been hundred of figures and other merchandise made in her image. This is just one of those scale figures and it was manufactured by Sega as a prize figure. It was based on an illustration for the game Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA done by KEI, the artist who designed Miku which you can see on her box and the picture bellow.

Now what I like about this figure is that her body and facial design is much like her Project DIVA model while maintaining the pose of the art done by KEI. The details are pretty good too. The printed details are sharp and the paint job is good. Her shiny clothes and hair make her feel more valuable for her relatively cheap price.

One thing that’s not too great is that there are a couple of these half-circle bumps on her hair made from soft plastic. Sure wish the manufacturers would have taken a little more effort to smoothen out these parts.

It’s her standard design. Nothing special but its her iconic look and it works well on this figure.

The paint job is really good for a prize figure. I can’t find a single bad spot on her. Even her colored finger nails were done to perfection.

Her iconic Zettai Ryouki. The small yellow details on her skirt are there and even the little ridges on her long boots.

Her base is fine. It’s square so it’s easy to know where her front side is. It looks like frosted glass so it gives a little more than the generic plain black or plain white base. I also think her logo there stands out well enough.

How her pigtails are inserted to holes to the base doesn’t seem too appealing to me but I guess it’s for balance. Still, I do believe that there have been other Miku figures that had her hair in a similar position and they didn’t need any extra support.

View of her back. The waves of her hair don’t look all that convincing but it’s better than just leaving them undetailed and looking like two lumps sprouting off her head. The creases on her clothes as she twists, however, are pretty well done.

I’m guessing her pose is that of her while in the middle of a dance move. Fair enough. Better than her just standing there. Still, she looks like she could be dribbling so I wanna put a basketball on her left hand. I imagine her giant pigtails hitting people as she moves will cause her a lot of fouls.

So that’s it. Pretty simple figure, pretty simple review. She’s nice, with a reasonable price quite lower than the standard figure that can go from 7000 to 10000 yen. My Figure Collection lists her price at 1200 yen if you can believe it! Final verdict: Okay figure. Good enough paint job but could do better on the sculpt, especially the hair. She’s not a must-have figure but she’d make a decent addition to fill some space on a display cabinet. And now, I leave you with the obligatory Woody picture.

If ya got any comments or questions feel free to use the comment section below or message me on the Facebook page.