It's been awhile...

last modified: Thursday, June 08, 2006 (12:45:18 PM CST)

It has been a while since I have written a weblog and a lot has happened since my last log.

I have quite a few new cels that I picked up through Yahoo! Jaapan auctions. They pretty much are all over the place as I picked up some Sakura Taisen, Cutey Honey (of course) and (ta dah) Dirty Pair. Then there are the cels that I have bought from other sellers online. All of them are in my 'Coming soon' gallery and they will get moved to the correct gallery when I get my greedy hands on them. Mwa ha ha ha.

As I stated earlier, I've been picking up Dirty Pair cels lately. This show has everything that I like in an anime. Fanservice, girls with guns, good art and humor. If you have never seen The Dirty Pair, I would suggest picking up "Project Eden" or "Flight 005 Conspiracy". I would really like to pick up some Dirty Pair Flash cels. For now, they are just a little past my limit as they average around $150-$200 for a good cel.

One day, I was tooling around the internet looking at Dirty Pair-related sites when I came upon a fan comic called "Dirty Angels". It was a roughly drawn strip that poked fun at anime fans. The neat thing about the strip was that it was drawn by the owner of one of our local anime shops. I asked him about it one day while picking up some manga. He said that he was thinking about doing another strip one day. I hope that he does.

On a sad note, our other local anime shop had to close it's doors this week. I met many people who would become good friends at this shop and it is disappointing to see the shop close. Sure, we will all still find ways to see each other but the shop was a good meeting place for us. Not only was the shop a good meeting place but, we had a viewing room where we would have "Fansub Friday", "Live-action Night" and "Anime Forum". (tears up...sort of)

On the fansub front, right now I'm checking out "Fate: Stay/Night" and "Shuffle". Both of these anime show a lot of promise. Then there is this one anime named "Black Lagoon" that I have seen one episode of. This show rocks. It's about a salaryman who gets kidnapped by a group of mercs in SE Asia. Of course, there is fanservice in the form of the pistol-packin', hot pants wearin' hottie named Revy. While I have only seen one episode, I plan on seeing more. That is, if the fansub pimp can hook me up...

So...what do you do when you get a bonus from work? Buy cels, of course.

last modified: Monday, March 20, 2006 (3:50:36 AM CST)

So, my bonus from work was a lot better than I intially thought it would be. With this, I did something that I haven't done yet. I picked up my first $100+ cel. That's right, I broke my first cel-collecting plateau. The cel in question was a cel of Lorelei from Saber Marionette J. From what I've seen, cels of Lorelei are like gold. Very hard to find. I also picked up a few more cels from Saber Marionette J (Cherry and two Tigers)and, of course, a couple more cels from Cutey Honey.

You know, Saber Marionette J is another show that I really, really like. I picked it up on a whim while looking through the Anime Village website a few years ago. What I thought would be a little bit of harmless fun turned out to be one of my anime favorites.

There's nothing really new on the fansub front as both Bleach and Blood+ have been licensed. So, that said, the days of getting fansubs of these two shows is probably coming to an end soon. The new Guyver series looks pretty good and the fansub pimp is hooking me up with the Zeta Gundam movies. So far, I have seen the first movie and I'm really looking forward to the second. I LOVE Zeta Gundam. Haman Karn is my girl.

Speaking of Gundam, I'm digging on Gundam SEED Destiny right now. In fact, I bought the box for the series recently. I love fold-out boxes and the magnetic seal is the kicker.

In closing, I also picked up a PSP recently. This is my new toy as I spend a lot of time on it. Of course, with my downloading pictures and AMVs on it, I probably will use it more as a mini computer and for watching movies than for playing games.

Oh, by the way, I love Cutey Honey

last modified: Tuesday, January 17, 2006 (2:03:32 PM CST)

It's true. I am a Cutey Honey fanboy. Have been one for years. The thing that I love about CH are the many different characters that she becomes when she says, "Honey Flash". Plus, as my friends would tell you, I don't mind a little fanservice. That said, last night I added the two CH cels that I own to my gallery. Ugh. I have had these cels for a while now but I have held off on putting them in my gallery because they are something of a letdown. With line fade and color fade, they leave much to be desired. But, hey, it is Cutey Honey.

As I said in my last entry, I have become something of a Yahoo Japan freak. I picked up a couple of BGC 2040 cels that I recently put in my gallery. I also put in some Sakura Taisen cels. (I really dig this show as well)But, what about Honey you ask?? Well, I recently won 4 CH cels on YJ. I cannot wait to get these cels in my hot, greeedy lil' hands.

So.... my fansub pimp introduced me to a new manga about a month ago. Deathnote. Let me just say that this manga is freaking awesome. At first, I was wondering what possessed the pimp to recommend this manga to me but after a few chapters I was hooked. I then cursed/thanked him for the recommendation. This manga is a very good read and I would recommend it to anyone who likes mystery and suspense.

As for the fansubs, I'm currently watching Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid and Blood + which are both excellent shows. Let me tell you, these are two titles that I will definately be buying when they get released in the States.

Yahoo Japan just may be my new friend

last modified: Friday, December 09, 2005 (4:38:07 PM CST)

So..a friend of mine alerted me to some BGC 2040 cels that were on auction at Yahoo Japan the other day. While I have had an account with Rinkya for a while, I haven't actually used it yet. Until now. The cels were of the hardsuit variety and I was quite pleased to find out that I won all three of my bids. Yay!! Nice hardsuit cels are hard to find. (Now if I could just find some cels of the girls in their body suits)

When it came to actually paying for the items that I won, I found it to be very confusing intitially. Cut and paste this, cut and paste that. Then if you are paying via-Paypal, it gets a little more cunfusing. I'm sure that it will become much easier and not as confusing the more I do it.

As for the cels themselves, I found two Sylia cels and one Linna that I just cannot wait to add to my gallery. There was a cel of Vision from the BGC OVA but, it was a little out of my price range for now.

Speaking of price ranges, I haven't crossed the $100 plateau yet. I almost did a few weeks ago when Anime Museum had a Priss from the OVA for $121. For some of you, that is a drop in the bucket but, for now, I'm not ready to take that plunge just yet.

What's on the menu?? Anime, of course.

last modified: Friday, November 18, 2005 (3:37:03 PM CST)

My love of Bubblegum Crisis was rekindled with the recent aquisition of the new Bubblegum Crisis figures at one of my local anime shops. I realised that I haven't seen the original OVA so, I rented it and watched the cyberpunk classic. WOW, it was really good. So good, in fact, that I decided to re-watch 2040. During this re-watch, I recognized where some of my cels were from. That was really neat. At that moment, I realized that the cool thing about collecting cels was having a piece of a show that you like and knowing where the cel is during that show. I know, I know. Most cel collectors realized that fact a long time ago but, forgive this newbie for coming to this realization recently.

I have a friend of mine who has recently become my 'hookup' for fansubs. One of the fansubs that I am currently "watching" is 'BLEACH'. I put watching in quotation marks because I haven't been very diligent about actually watching it. I am so far behind. I have 50 episodes but I just can't seem to be able to get past episode 20. Darn you, work. Perhaps my finishing of 2040 will help me get back to BLEACH.