Three of them, and a video game have arrived in the usual cardboard box mailed by Amiami.

This is my first time trying the combined orders deal. I am quite happy with the reduced custom fees. They were 97 euros. I would have added about 15+GodKnowsWhat euros for each extra package if I did not combine them in one order.

Price consideration aside, I have to say that my purchases satisfied me.

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Like many boys, back in my childhood, I was more drawn to robots and other boy things. I even started drawing robots, taking inspiration from the robots of the week in UFO Grendizer. I also had the luck to watch Space Sherif Gavan and Bioman back then, but that’s another thing.

However, when UFO Grendizer had been airing, I had to sit through episodes of Candy Candy, that I never quite liked, Versailles no Bara, that I found cool because of the rapier duels, and Minky Momo, that I liked a bit. I said a bit. Already in that day, the naked transformation scenes in Minky Momo started molding the pervert sleeping in me (a dose of Father hiding porn in Disney VHS leading to some accident did not help). One can argue that Minky Momo laid the ground for my future self as a moé enthusiasm.

Flash forward to a few years later, Little Princess, also known as Princess Sarah in France, aired alongside other magical girls shows like Magical Emi and Creamy Mami. Robotech and Saint Seiya was the rage and I happily followed those shows. Princess Sarah had grown a sentiment in me. This was not lust, and less perversion, because, you know, Sarah was in no way sexualized. Sarah cultivated in me a sentiment akin to a urge to protect the character from whatever bad things happened.

And a little after that, Kimagure Orange Road came. Madoka Ayukawa was the one reason I watched the show. Do note that in the 2000s, Motoko Aoyama, Sakaki, Matsuri Shihou, Mai Kawasumi and Mio Akiyama were among my favorite characters of this past decade. Notice a pattern in those characters?

What was the point of those paragraphs? Oh, that’s very simple. I enjoyed “boys” shows as much as the kids and teenagers belonging to the male gender in my age range did. I recognize that I drifted further away from the mecha genre since Evangelion, as I got exposed to cyberpunk and embraced heroic fantasy since I started reading books by Michael Moorcock as my definitive favorite genre (this is a story for later). However, the seeds of my enthusiasm for the moé subculture have already been planted way back in the Pinky Momo days. I had been a shounen fan primarily but I could not really say no to a few eye candy. This enthusiasm needed the right water for the seeds to grow and complete my conversion.

This happened in the early 2000s. I had few enthusiasm for the current offering of early 2000s. FMP by Gonzo was not so bad, but ought to be better. Hellsing made me rage when I got my hands over the scans of the original manga. And my first encounters with Gundam, Wing and a few UC here and there, left me with little enthusiasm toward the franchise (as much polarizing Eva was, I had a more enjoyable experience and UFO Grendizer AND Macross, as I learned more about Robotech, were definitely my favorite mechas). A show with a cult following had been lent to me by my friend, who was my only contact with anime on the intrabutt. It looked like Nikita meet conspiracy thriller. This was called Noir. Good idea, I loved the fact that it took place in France and awesome score by Kajiura. Moreover, I was utterly fascinated by the main duo, Mireille Bouquet and Kirika Yuumura.

I was drawn to that air of nobility that Mireille oozed, and also that slight vulnerability going on for Kirika. As you can see, Noir was flawed, but the duo made me willing to let them not bother me.

The fact that I could not access to Guilty Gear X2 made me search for alternatives. Zepy introduced me to doujin fighters. And I loved what I played. Glove on Fight, Queen of Hearts 2001 and Eternal Fighter Zero. Those games made me curious about the moé subculture, as I WANTED to know more about the characters who starred in those games. This was in that time that I started d/ling moé anime to see what they were about. I’ll be honest, this being the early 2000s (2002-2003 tbh), I was left disappointed with what I saw.

Then came a doujin game, with sprites that were not SDs, and having Ciel that I have known through Glove on Fight. You guessed it. This was Melty Blood. And that was a blast. Melty Blood was the turning point for me. A jaded, oldefag, got converted to moé subculture. That’s it. Type-Moon and Nasuverse are the things that turned me into a moéfag. And Touhou definitely helped sustaining the momentum. But this was not out of nowhere as you could see. Those was just the springs that nurtured the ground in which the seeds were planted.

Where do I stand now? I have explored a few classics I enjoyed back in the day, this time with proper dubbing (japanese with subs), so I could give shows like Hokuto no Ken the due respect, and sorrow over how the french executives mistreated them and disrespected the fans that were older than me when those shows aired, and all those fans could do is to lament the bad dubs or the gag dub.

So, I am a moé enthusisast, giving my classics their due respect. I cannot bring myself to completely hate those watching the Big Three, because I had been there and knew that they will eventually change. I now find myself unable look down on the moé subculture. This didn’t mean that I didn’t feel embarassed over that one guy marrying his body pillow. As a moé enthusiast, I think that people should be able to draw the line and realize when they are making monkeys of themselves. I sometimes go “mai waifu!!” like over Sakuya Izayoi or Byakuren Hijiri, but in the end I know it’s all tongue-in-cheek.

This seems to be a problem with oldefags, they looks down on moéfags, and are… just… SERIOUS. ALL THE TIME. And forgetting that anime is firstly, and mostly, just entertainment. This is my sentiment when I look at the seemingly joyless folk of a certain blog. They seems to think that there is a war, a righteous, against the moéfags, while forgetting that it is quite possible to enjoy every specter of the medium, but just that people likes one side more than the other. But this is another story, perhaps developped in another day.

tl;dr: I was not always a moéfag. In fact, I used to be one of those jaded oldfags. However, the seeds of moé love had been planted in me by Minky Momo, Little Princess, Orange Road and various magical girl shows. It only needed the right trigger to grow and convert me. This trigger is nothing less than Melty Blood.

Last but not the least. One can say I saved the best for the end. Mai waifu Byakuren Hijiri, the Great Sealed Magician, a fellow buddhist, and one who is as human as many of us in regard of death.

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For a change, a guy. But not the only one that will be in my collection, since I am planning to add Makoto Shishio AND Batman

The box IS HUGE

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Let’s be blunt here. Queen’s Blade IS my guilty pleasure, it’s not something I’d claim out loud that I like quite a bit. As a fantasy nerd who grew up with Sword & Sorcery, scantily clad swordwomen like Red Sonya, quite a lot of the designs the franchise offers appeal to me.

So when one of my favorite hentai artists, Oda Non, draws two characters, and that they got their own figurines, color me interested.

Unfortunately Siggy figurines were mostly sold out in the few places I have been looking at. But there be Branwen, fitting the stereotype of the scantily clad swordwoman, like the female lead of the first Queen’s Blade.

A couple of pictures below the cut might be NSFW for some of you.

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Next is CHRISTINA!!!

She might be the only one steins;gate char I’d ever purchase. Unless they makes a Okabe Rintaro that fully express his MAD SCIENTIST persona.

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I have gotten a little lazy on my updates, but this is not for naught. Those I got are Sanae, normal and nendoroid, Kurisu Makise, Branwen, Saito Hajime AND Byakuren. I shall now start with Sanae.

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2011 was… an interesting year for me.

Fitting pic since as a buddhist, I have been dragged, for some time, into taoism by mom. Credit: Ringetsumon

Anime

This first quarter of the year started out strong with Madoka setting the bar very, oh so very high, by daring to go where Nanoha itself did not dare to go. It also was a blind bet on Shaft’s part and Shaft certainly fared much better with one of its first tries on an original IP than KyoAni did years ago with Munto, does people still remember Munto TV btw?

The second quarter showed disappointment with Hidan no Aria, yes JC Staff should really be stopped to be entrusted light novel adaptations with reckless abandon. A damn shame, the whole Ariaverse IS an interesting sandbox for original characters creators or fanfic writers. I personally would have retconned Vlad as looking like an actual vampire from the lores or Hammer movies or Castlevania tbh. Denpa Onna was very nice to follow while Steins;Gate started out slow and took a while to get used to or to like. There was also Ano Hana, but later on the angst then the narm in the last episode downright pissed me off.

The third quarter had Idolmaster, a harmless yet good show. Those expecting the GRIMDARK study of the GRIMDARK world of idols complete course with couch casting and NTR could just fuck off. Then you had the pretentious Kama-sama no Memochou, that’s really the one word describing this show. Penguindrum IS a polarizing show, some will see it as THE anime of the decade, it is not so for me. Why? Because I think that Ikuhara have gone overboard with it. I liked what I have seen in Utena but what I have seen in Penguindrum did not strike the right cord with me. The likes of roriconfan can blow, I am not going to rain praise on Penguindrum just because Ikuhara did it. I did not have to like everything churned out by Tim burton, I just don’t see why I should do the same for Ikuhara. Finally the last shows of the third quarter of 2011 to me were Croisee and Usagi Drop. Croisee was a slice of life trying to see how a Japanese girl would do in late 19th Paris; but the painting of the Paris in Croisee was very far from the miserabilism I was see used to see since Emile Zola, it may not please those looking for something more ambitious, but it appealed to me. Usagi Drop was to me the winning show of Summer 2011. Yes, well over Penguindrum. Maybe because deep inside me I wanted to experience the hardship of being a father, adoptive or biological. But more importantly, this show have done it with a just tone, without excessive pandering. And steins;gate continued to gain momentum and confirmed its status around a certain episode.

Fall 2011 had Fate Zero, Ben-To and Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai. Fate Zero have yet to finish before I can fully judge it. So far, it delivered, less than Kara no Kyoukai (unfair when you know that it is comparing movies to TV series) but much better than Deen’s Stay Night. Boku wa Tomodachi could be called, for me, the Married with Children of the Harem Highschool Romcom genre. The comedy in it was crude and rude, and crass but it worked well for me. More importantly, the fanservice blended well with the series, and it looked good for most of its run, as you SHOULD expect from an entry in the genre. Not the most memorable comedy around, those for me are Excel Saga, Kimengumi and Cromartie High, but I will surely purchase the DVDs if I have the opportunity. Then Ben-to, an affectionate parody of the fighting shounen genre, but also the demonstration that one trope have overstayed its welcome. Nope, that girl don’t get a free pass because she is a lesbian, fuck you guys.

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I received my newest model. This one have gone sold out FAST on amiami. I am one of the lucky purchasers of Perfect Cherry Blossom Sakuya.

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If there are purchases that I could count as compulsive, those two are the ones. I don’t know much about the Muv Luv Alternative franchise, other than hot pictures on danbooru. Those hot pictures are mainly the reasons I rushed on those models like a predator on two schoolgirls.

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