Ta-dah!

Well, that’s what the whole book is – but too early to call it an annual book…I mean it’s not even the end of the year yet!

Pixiv Annual 2009 Official Book : One of the books that I missed during my purchase during Comiket76, but what was strange – Instead of having their booth to sell Pixiv Annual 2009 Official Book, they actually were selling it at Enterbrain booth. Because the publisher of this book IS Enterbrain.

Hence the prediction – Not ALL Pixiv stuffs are Comiket only, and Pixiv Annual 2009 Official Book is one of it.

This book is very very thick : 202 illustrator entries from all around the world (not just Japan, and some of them were from DeviantArt as well), 256 pages and only 2,940yen – this is perhaps one of their thickest book ever released yet (Pixiv Girls Collection was 162 pages). And lovely enough, it contains not just characters – but animals, and scenaries.

It’s okay if you find this repetitive, but if you’re a fan of pretty artworks – and then if you see this available at your bookstores? Buy it. Now I consider every purchase I wanted from Pixiv’s Comiket goods line up to be complete. And I’m waiting for them to churn out more in the future.

Of course this entry won’t be complete without pictures.
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Very. I wasted about 75% of my Comiket budget JUST for Pixiv stuff. Unfortunately I can’t pass them up, so I ended up buying a lot of their stuff, hence why they are evil.

On Comiket76, they released quite a bunch of stuff on sale :  Pixiv CV Illustrations ~ First Number Pixiv Hatsune Miku Illustrations, Twins in the Number Pixiv Kagamine Rin and Kagamine Len Illustrations, Time Go Round Pixiv Megurine Luka Illustrations; Touhou Rougaroku (東方朧画録), Pixiv Boys Collection, Pixiv Girls Collection ~Future to Future, Pixiv Compilation 2009, and much more.

But due to budget, I can only buy as much as 3 sets of Pixiv artbooks, though I do not regret any of it, I was actually hoping that I didn’t spent too much money on other stuff and focus all of my budget on Comiket instead…Too late to think that…but regardless.

Among all the 3 I’ve bought, Touhou Rougaroku is the thickest artbook I’ve ever got from Pixiv booth, with the price of 2,000yen and COMIKET ONLY (or so I heard), this sweet artbook contains artworks of all Touhou characters starting from Touhou 6 to Touhou 12 (up to stage 3 only). It’s extensive, pretty, and lovely. Because Touhou fanarts also took up quite an important place in Pixiv’s heart.

While Pixiv CV Illustrations ~ First Number Pixiv Hatsune Miku Illustrations, Twins in the Number Pixiv Kagamine Rin and Kagamine Len Illustrations, Time Go Round Pixiv Megurine Luka Illustrations (long ass name) is divided into three thin artbooks which consists of 3 main Vocaloids : 01 “Hatsune Miku”, 02 “Kagamine Rin & Len”, and 03 “Megurine Luka”. Why Kaito and Meiko isn’t included beats me, but you can ask them if you want. As usual Hatsune Miku’s book is by far the thickest among 3.

Pixiv Girls Collection~Future to Future is by far the cheapest among 3 artbooks that I’ve bought from Pixiv booth. It has quite a lot of unique arts that is actually quite “artistic” and not so “generic”. Definitions can be very subjective, but paying 500yen only for such artbooks that can possibly inspire you to draw not within restrictions, Anyone should obtain at least a copy of it if one is able to. At the very least, this isn’t something you should pass up on.

The only regret of mine would be not be able to obtain Pixiv Illustrations 2009 book. But oh well, can’t help it with the budget restriction…

Below would be pictures on the artbooks and it’s content. So explore it to your heart’s content – But I’m sorry that I am not taking every single page of it though.

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Gundam. A metaseries of Japanese anime. And the term that started the whole real robot genre, has reached it’s 30th Anniversary. While I can’t say that my first Gundam was the First Gundam a.k.a Gundam 0079 (My first was Gundam Wing Endless Waltz), I enjoyed the series a lot, mainly because of the mechas. Story is a different matter – because not ALL of them are good. Yes, some were terrible, yes I’m looking at you here Gundam Seed Destiny.

But when I heard of this 18.2m (what it’s claimed to be, correct me if I’m wrong) Gundam being  built by the Japanese to celebrate it’s 30th anniversary in a LIFESIZED form, that obviously means a trip to Shiokaze Park (located at Odaiba, Tokyo) is guaranteed.

And when I got there, I can understand that since it was a Sunday, there will be a lot of people, yes. But that place is none other than a Gundam version of BON ODORI (if you’re Malaysian you’ll get what I mean) – that means the place will be awfully smokey thanks to the BBQ vendors around the place…and dusty, too.

Back Entrance

How I wish I can actually take a ride on that Gundam, but unfortunately it has no cockpit. Full of nothing but concretes and metal inside it’s structure, but still cool nonetheless. It’s amazing if you actually see through it with your own eyes, get near it, touch it’s structure, which I did : Sturdy and feels like a real thing (now only if we have the real Gundanium Alloy/Lunar Titanium Alloy for this…)  with the well done decals as well.

And what’s pretty amazing was the design. Based by Okawara with the touches done by someone else, but it does feel like Katoki’s design. Which makes the Gundam design itself pleasant to the eyes. I personally liked the design, though holding no beam rifle was a little too bad.

I blame myself for not charging my handphone so the battery died halfway during picture takings, and therefore I’ll be making a second trip of it, soon enough.

Speaking of which, that reminds me – I need to put the MG Exia into my shopping list too.

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“あなただけのために咲く花” by tearfish. Do not claim his/her works as your own.

If we want to define Pixiv – It’s DeviantArt, for the Japanese. And usually it’s a good place for otaku to stalk fanarts, and even some professional known artists (Aoi Nishimata comes into mind) posts their stuff there.

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Usually, at Nico Nico Douga, there will be people with a talent or two recording their own performance on anisongs (Anime songs). Usually with tripods or without, or whatever methods they used to, these people tend to make people awed with their skills – Comeon, would you actually record horrible performance and actually show it to people? (well they might be a few, but that’s only for thick skin people. For people who perform, they usually perform their arrangements using piano, or violin, or guitar, or any other instruments available.

But this one individual might be different. Do no Hito, a talented pianist that actually plays his arrangement close enough to the original (though with mini mistakes that’s usually minor, don’t mind) yet his playstyle is very simple. He moves his hands fast, yet it doesn’t involve much finger moving (especially on the left hand, right hand is however another story).　In other words, he is damn good at piano arranging and manage to stay true to the original song most of the time. He might not be special, but he is worth mentioning. Though his play style is simple, it’s by no means easy to mimic nor easy to interpret, as thinking such will bring you fatal mistake. UNLESS you’re one such professional.

ESPECIALLY on how he perform on Seikan Hikou (a song from Macross Frontier, English name “Interstellar Flight”)

*Kira!*☆ with NO LAG, Amazing.

More of the songs he played can be found here

You have to admit, he is one helluva pianist. IF you have a Nico account. It’s worth giving a listen to his songs. Every of his videos are praised, but we all know that comments are definitely mixed with the range from positive to negative.

Looking at his playing makes me wanna relearn piano. But unfortunately, I will not have such opportunity until I go back to Malaysia.

I would have write up a better post. And most likely it will be about some rantage about recent anime episodes and whatsnot. But I’m not a guy who would actually follow TV schedule to chase on recent anime airings (Look, I haven’t even start Kannagi yet! But I know the “It’s a Sony” joke), and true to my own fandom : I only chase on Clannad ~AFTER STORY~ and Gundam OO as of now. So here’s an entry on how I actually got into the world of anime.

Although my feelings are mixed for writing this. Hopefully I can come up with a better entry next time.

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