Hunting the Elusive

Well, all the photos for the 2009 Sydney Supanova convention are now online at Pixels on Pireze [Day One] [Day Two] [Gundam 00: Day Two]. I must say I took much less photos on Day Two (which was a bit less crowded/intense compared to Day One), but still managed to catch quite a few great cosplayers. Overall, I thought Supanova was a great success. Organisers were able to efficiently manage the crowds, and the interests of all the pop culture groups (anime, sci-fi, fantasy, etc.) were catered to in nicely separated areas.

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The photos are up. It’s a bit late in the night now to do a detailed write-up and analysis of the event (and there’s day two to…day as well). Pardon the snap-shotty looks of the photos – that’s just my skill level showing me up. I’ll update this post (or make another post) with more details probably tomorrow or the day after. I would like to take this time to urge readers who might be interested in such content to subscribe to the Pixels on Pireze RSS feed for near-instantaneous updates when new stuff is added to that side of the site. [Associated post to gallery]

Just returned home, and got an email from Amazon Japan telling me “When we contacted our supplier we learned that the above item (Range Murata Anime Works 1996-2006) is no longer available. This unavailable item has been cancelled from your order and you have not been charged for it.  We apologize for this inconvenience.” Checking bk1, ordering the book is no longer possible. Amazon has even deleted the page for it. It seems that this artbook (ISBN: 978-4-86269-093-7 which I had been looking forward to) has been cancelled. Unbelievable. Anyone with more information?

It has (once again) been some time since I did a scan-related post, but since I created Photon, it was time to start putting the new system through its paces doing my primary task of picture processing. More details on the technicalities after the jump. But basically, “Aurora Gem” is a 96 page artbook retailing for 3000 yen. Release vintage June 9, 2009, ISBN 978-4-08-782237-3. The style could be considered unusual, IMO anyway. The artist’s arguably most well-known work is Kure-nai, which has been made into an anime. Artworks from Kure-nai and other works are collected in this volume. [Download Review][PNG]

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I must apologise to other Sydney-siders who might have gone to preview night after reading here that Byousoku 5cm was going to be screening there. Due to bad time arrangement on the part of the organisers and things running over time, the time slot for Byousoku 5cm was eliminated altogether (I was pretty upset). That said, the turnout for the preview night was quite astounding, and would be, I think, a small indication of the crowd which will be descending upon the Dome at Sydney Olympic Park come the main event (tomorrow and Sunday). The venue itself is pretty nice and big, though I think organisers need to look into air conditioning of the seminar rooms, and brush up on their time management. I didn’t bid for any of the items in the charity auction (which netted around 2.5k), since they were all signed by dubbed artists, but I was quite tempted by a few items. There were some cosplayers at the preview night already, so that bodes well for photos tomorrow.

I'm normally not one to do reposts, but some pieces of news are quite exciting. First of all, kudos to Tokyo Hunter, whose blog is a good source of news for exclusive figures and such. A number of WonFes exclusives have been announced by Good Smile Company. The first is figma Miku Live Stage version. For 2500 yen, if it includes all the accessories seen in the picture (in the product page), that's pretty good value. Secondly, a 1/8 Miku PVC (CM ver) which has a snow-flake decorated base, and has closed eyes and a peaceful expression on her face. 4500 yen (normal figure price). Also event-exclusive. Thirdly, it looks as if GSC is now getting into the Touhou figure business, with a Nendoroid Reimu due to be released August 2009 as a Comiket 76 exclusive. Could this be the start of something wonderful? Also, via Rinkya blog, HD Ponyo trailer (for the American release) is out!

The city lay in ruins, its once-mighty structures and monuments toppled, its centres of commerce stripped bare. In the place of the many-layered monolith which had once taken pride of place in its centre, there was but a ragged and potholed slab. The roads and buildings which had once run abuzz with trade, now silent, were covered with the fine dust of age, disease and war. In places around this defunct locus, evidence of the mighty struggles waged by its inhabitants and its god against the tides of time and invaders stood, gashes of wounds scabbed over without blood. The city’s ports were scarred and verdigrised, and in an adjacent block, a once-soaring building stood half-razed, metal stumps gleaming with dull rainbow.

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A small shipment came in for me today from the folks at Shopping Mall Japan, who decided enough was enough, it was time to clean the house and send me my stuff. Additionally, the shipment was small because I am spending less. The reason is also in the first picture below (also the reason for putting off scan posts: I want to try out the new processing capabilities). In terms of doujins, I concentrated on patching up stuff I had missed, like the Shimeko colour illustrations collection “Landmark” (was going at around 4000 yen at earlier auctions, picked up for about 1500 with no competition later on), the Kantoku artbook, and a SECOND copy of Atelier Tiv’s Botanical Times for archives.

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In the 31 May report update from Makoto Shinkai, he moved to a studio in Shinjuku, Tokyo and has started his new work. He's left his cat Sayuri with his parents in Nagano for now because it is happy there. If you have been keeping up with the Makoto Shinkai fanweb postings, Sayuri kinda forgot about Shinkai after his long trip to London. In regards to the new work, there are no details as yet, and it is still in early preparation stages. It seems it is the season for ennui, and Shinkai also says he doesn't feel like working. Might be the oppressive summer heat (over here it's the cloudy and cold weather for me). In any case, a new release of Makoto Shinkai's material is coming soon, with Anikuri 15 DVD x material (book) coming on sale on 27 June (on the same date as Range Murata's anime works art book). The Anikuri 15 set is 2940 yen and will include Makoto Shinkai's Neko no Shuukai. The book will include interviews and storyboards and setting illustrations. A bit strange that it's only coming out on DVD so far: I think a Bluray set will be forthcoming (considering all the raw releases so far are pretty HD resolution, unless the rippers have been upscaling).