Archive for April, 2010
A little hitch
Here's the situation: my main computer, the machine I blog from, scan things into, and process scans with, is down due to a few too many power outages causing corruption in the system volume. Yes, this is despite the system volume being a RAID 1 of SSDs. I have already pulled the essential data off it, including Chrome bookmarks, Photoshop actions, scans, downloads, etc. My plan is to take the opportunity to upgrade the firmware of the SSDs, in the process wiping them and making a clean start. I will then re-establish my array and reinstall everything. Unfortunately, the SSD manufacturer has decided to make the firmware upgrade technology in an extremely inferior manner, meaning my advanced and cluttered motherboard trips it all up somewhat. I am in the process of acquiring an old desktop computer which I can use as a redundant system for individual component tinkering in the future. All up, what this means is there will be a lack of posts until mid next week, earliest, if not end of next week. It's a bummer, because I actually have a number of shipments coming in full of interesting things. You can keep updated via Twitter, though (that's the thing called Micro Posts on the right), where I will post links of interest, findings, and mundane things.
4 commentsArtbook Review: Bungaku Shoujo Fantasy Art Book
At 64 pages, Bungaku Shoujo Fantasy Art Book (ISBN 9784047264908) is not a substantial volume at all, making it quite fortunate that the price is 1000 yen pre-tax. It contains two Chapters. The first is a selection of art from the actual Bungaku Shoujo by original artist Miho Takeoka, while the second has fan art from various artists. These are themselves divided into illustrations of the fantasy stories which are part of Bungaku Shoujo or fan art of the novels’ characters themselves. [Review][PNG]
YAYUYO (Takatora) Hana no Namae
This one is a bit different from normal releases, because it is not a book filled with illustrations – rather, it is a colour manga. YAYUYO, or Takatora, whose work also featured in the Alice CD-ROM, has a very distinctive style which reminds me somewhat of old shoujo manga, just in terms of the long eyelashes and twinkly eyes from genre works from that retro era. This vintage look is further enhanced by YAYUYO’s use of worn and soiled paper texture overlays. In any case, this unconventional look grew on me, and now I am a pretty big fan. [Release][PNG]
Just Be Friends Illustrations + Remix Album
Yunomi illustrated the original Just Be Friends music video for Dixie Flatline, which has since become a phenomena of its own. The song itself, about the end of a long-lasting relationship, resonated in hearts, while visually, its minimalist look, limited palette and simple dress has led to a lot of fans, and of course a lot of cosplaying. Dixie Flatline, an excellent producer and composer, has many other hits as well, including my current favourite, Sweetiex2. (Yes, I have been going on a Vocaloid retrospective recently, catching up on some truly fantastic songs which I missed out on previously.) For Comiket 77, Yunomi and Dixie Flatline released Just Be Friends ~ILLUSTRATIONS~, a 48 page full colour A4 sized book which comes bundled with the JBF Remix Album. [Album (mp3)][JPG][PNG][Torrent: Directory]
Alice: Game & Digital Side
Alice is a Reitaisai release organised by the “Alice Margatroid Project”, a collective of artists who are evidently besotted with Touhou Project’s Alice Margatroid. Incidentally, so am I, but only insofar as I identify her as my favourite character. The entire physical collection consists of a large fanbook, and a CD-ROM. The fanbook contains illustrations as well as interviews with the artists. The CD-ROM contains wallpaper versions of the illustrations, 32 in all, and with resolutions up to 1600 by 1200, negates the need for me to scan the book at all. Other things in the CD-ROM are a game and some music. [ISO in RAR]
TENMON (Densou Gakudan) Gensou Roku 幻想録
What? TENMON did a Touhou Project arrange album? Yes, he did, actually, and Gensou Roku was released during Reitaisai at Studio S.D.T.’s table. Oh, yes. Studio S.D.T. (Tatsuya Yuki) did the illustrations for this album. Catalogue number is DENG-0004, which I suppose puts it in the same class as his other independent stuff like DENG-0001 風のセルフェリアス, DENG-0002 PASTEL (I think – this one is a bit messy because it’s a collaboration with the PROMENADE group) and DENG-0003 悠久の老木 Lost Empire Saga. One thing to note is Gensou Roku does not have a vocal track. It’s all instrumental. [RAR] [Torrent (directory)]
A Few Reminders: General Release Information
I sometimes check referrals which come back to this site or look at how scans have been redistributed, and it can actually be quite interesting examining the time lag and link relationships between when stuff is released here and when it makes an appearance in torrents and such. I don’t do this all that often, since I don’t actually have that much time on my hands. However, I have seen some sniping going on, and it turns out some assumed knowledge about my releases actually aren’t too obvious. I thought I established some facts quite early on, but it might be time to do a bit of a refresher. In any case, I guess if people are commenting on re-distributions on other sites without coming back here to do some research, it might be understandable if they don’t get why things are the way they are.
13 commentsBlack Rock Shooter Visual Works 2 by huke
Black Rock Shooter Visual Works 2 is a 32 page huke book released during Comiket 77. It is of course a follow-up to the eminently popular Black Rock Shooter Visual Works, but unlike the first volume, this staple-bound book is in the portrait orientation, and expands on the world of Black Rock Shooter, looking at some other characters. This might be a bit controversial, but I found it a bit less appealing than the first Visual Works due to huke’s modified pallet, resulting in less colourful pictures. However, this might be justified because the book has a sub-title of “Black Side”, so darker, more monochrome tones are to be expected. [Release][PNG]
Kurogin/D.S.B. Archive Illustrations
This post covers a new artist for this blog, in the form of Kurogin/D.S.B. Archive was published for C77, released 31 December 2009. It contains artworks by Kurogin from 2006 to 2009, in a book of around 32 pages. It includes a fold-out section on the front cover, and I’m not sure how to count those. Perhaps I should say it’s 34 pages instead. Not that it shows in the file count, because after joining all the spread pages, there are “only” 20 files. Which brings me to one of the most annoying things about Archive – it has a lot of page spreads which I consider “unnecessary”, such as pictures which just have a small section going onto the opposing page. That made scanning a pain, though printing noise was pleasantly light. [Release] [PNG]
Gospelic Ichizero Girls (Chroma of Girls Series 02)
Gospelic Ichizero Girls is a release by Chrome of Wall (壁の彩度), which is a collaborative effort of the artists youkiss, TNSK and saitom. At 28 pages (including covers), Gospelic Ichizero Girls presents alternative illustrations by the above-mentioned artists and a number of guests for a number of popular Vocaloids songs. Each illustration includes the name of the song as well as the Nico Nico Douga link to the video. For those who are up-to-date with the Vocaloid scene, this book will be a refreshing look at some old favourites, though I also used this to discover some new songs which had slipped under my radar. [Release] [PNG]
