Figma 479 Caster Merlin

 Just after the FGO Babylonia Anime finished the airing, the Grand Caster Servant candidate Merlin made his appearance in Figma lineup! Not the best time to release FGO related product but certainly there are people who are waiting for one of the most highly sought Servant in the game. The Premier Buster Meme D-Wizard will be scheduled for November 2020 release with 9000 Yen Price tag. The accessory for Merlin is rather lacking for its price tag as it only got his Staff, Sword and the flower effect parts in the package. The cost mostly goes to body sculpt considering his baggy design and long hair. I hope the Figma will still able to stand properly unlike Figma Tamamo. I will likely Figma Merlin considering i already had him in the game and my FGO Figma collection are mainly consist of Buster Oriented servants. I will be also waiting for Skadi's Figma which will have a good shot to be released eventually.

T-Arts Gashapon Densetsu no Takarabako SP Review

Some good Props for Fantasy Themed Toys!

Round Vernian Vifam

 Downed another 80s Sunrise mecha anime and Vifam is yet another of those wasted potentials. Like most of its peers of its time, Round Vernian Vifam is one of those Mecha anime that was pretty much glorified toys commercial. Perhaps Sunrise was still experimenting add the time but it just shows that Real Robot and Kids doesn't mix really well. The Plot of Vifam can be summarised as a story of group 13 Kids trying their best to survive in the midst of interstellar conflict with Robot thrown into the mix.

February-March 2020 Loot

 Some stuff i gathered from the past two months and i guess almost everytime i got myself some FGO-related merchandise. As usual most of them are from Pre-Orders save for the Proplica Dominator. Probably the Proplica is the rarest of the bunch which is the more affordable version of the Cerevo but the initial release price was still 20000 Yen. For Candy Toys product i subscribe to Coonuts and Ensemble nowadays which is why i always get the latest installments. As for Goodsmile products, i got myself some Monster Hunter and FGO stuff, surprisingly Nendoroid Kirin Hunter remade Box doesn't look to bad. Lastly I never thought myself getting a digivice but i suppose Nostalgia got the better of me since i never had the brick Model and the gameplay is not too bad. I guess the Candy Toys review will be the ones that come earlier and i think i should try to put more effort to put up some GSC Product review.

Fate/Grand Order Babylonia Absolute Demonic Front Anime

 The most anticipated Fate Anime of the year finally came to a wrap with its 21st episode and it certainly ended with a bang! FGO Babylonia was hyped back then because it was based on one of the best Singularity in FGO first arc and this one actually lived up to expectation. Overall FGO Babylonia Anime a solid anime with only slight hiccups mainly related with poor choice of staff due to cronyism. The Top Tier animation quality is definitely the selling point of FGO Babylonia considering the it has the backing of Salt Mine-fueled Unlimited Budget Works.

Desktop Army Fate Grand Order Vol 3 Review

 Time for the little fellows this time!

Ergo Proxy

 Literally one of the best anime that i have watched in a while! I think it has been a long time since the last time since I watched an anime TV series that can pull off a proper complex storytelling with poise and Ergo Proxy turns out to be a mind boggling but very enjoyable ride! Most anime usually had their storyline put on the platter for the viewer, but Ergo Proxy is one of those that leaves its viewer to ponder over with its masterfully crafted distortion over reality

Macross Delta

 So it took me 4 years to give latest Macross TV series a chance and it turns out not to be as bad as i imagined. I steered away from Macross Delta for quite a long time since i had rather bad initial impression with  choice of aesthetics which i find to be questionable at first, especially with the singers. In short i find Macross Delta appear to be less manly than its predecessors which turns out to be partly true.

 Robot Planes, Songs and Love Triangle have always been the Holy Trinity of Macross series and Delta attempted to take a new spin on it which is partially successful. Macross Tv series is usually about Humanity fight against Alien race that are monstrous in nature, but in Delta the protagonists are facing against another Humanoid civilizations named Windermere Kingdom equipped with Valkyrie Fighters. In Macross Delta Windermere Kingdom rely on Protoculture Civilization technology to mass hypnotize people into mindless violent creature to quickly subjugate planets. Whether intentional or not Macross Delta probably quite similar to Gundam SEED in terms of story formula.

Sengoku Rance Uesugi Kenshin IF Route clear!

 Took me three months, but I finally managed to settle my old debt with Sengoku Rance by clearing Uesugi Kenshin's route at long last! In Sengoku Rance Kenshin is known to be very strong frontline unit but her passive skill is what makes her pretty much one the most overpowered unit in the game.  Being a peerless Female Samurai when it comes to Strength and Beauty, Kenshin is practically the postergirl of Sengoku Rance and at some point even on par with Saber from Fate series. Such masterfully crafted character no doubt deserved her own route and Alicesoft delivered really well for Kenshin's story 

RIOBOT 1/12 Tekkaman Blade

 The Space Knight Tekkaman makes a comeback once again with the help of Sentinel! I think it has been like 8 years the last time we see any Tekkaman Merchandise and Sentinel's take certainly look promising if not for its Price Tag. Riobot Sentinel will be scheduled for July Release with 15800 Yen Price Tag. That price tag easily double the price of Riobot Detonator Orgun which is around the same size with Tekkaman Blade which makes me wonder if Japanese Yen had devaluate to half of its value within 8 years. Had it been under 10000 Yen, I might have considered getting this version Tekkaman Blade but it looks like i will be waiting for Bandai or Max Factory to finish the job. I liked Tekkaman Blade because he is one of the most hotblooded protagonist out there and one of these days i should take some photoshots for my Armor Plus Tekkaman again.

Blade Runner

 One of the classic movie that has been highly looked up by Sci-fi fans and certainly lived up to its reputation. Blade Runner is the forerunner of Dystopian Cyberpunk and you can find many similarities or inspirations of any works in this genre with this movie. Directed by same person who made Aliens series, Blade Runner is a crime noir movie with futuristic setting where the main character is a washed out detective tasked to chase after renegade androids. The story of Blade Runner itself is not anything special but there is something else that made this movie gains its legendary status.

 I think what Blade Runner will be remembered for by most people would be its Visual Effect. For a movie made in early 80s a glimpse of the future that the movie tried to offer is truly something else. The futuristic setting that Blade Runner is way ahead of its time by a decade or two and Its influence to Sci-fi genre is no doubt insurmountable on par with Star Wars series. While Star Wars influence Sci-Fi genre in grand setting scale with spaceships battles, Blade Runner influence more on individual level. The most memorable part of the Blade Runner for me would be the main antagonist Roy Betty, an Android who was created solely as tool of murder who in the end saves his would be killer instead of executing him, becoming more human than a human in the process. If you like Sci-Fi genre especially Cyberpunk Genre, you will encounter Blade Runner soon or later. One of these days i should gave Phillip K Dick's Novel Do Android dream of Electric Sheep a read considering Blade Runner is based on this book.

RE:Creators

 Another anime series from the recent years that seems to have a good potential to make it big but somehow didn't make any buzz once its season passed. Co-written by Black Lagoon's author, RE:Creators showcases what happen if various characters from differing fiction genres came into life and go fight some battle royale. So basically you have characters from popular anime genre like Fantasy, Sci-fi, Mecha, Slice of Life and somewhere in between duke it out in Smash Brawl fashion but then RE:Creators tried to bring something more out of it.

Sonic the Hedhehog Movie

 Out of Sega's IP, I avoided Sonic the Hedhehog series like a plague because it is one of the hotbed for Furries fanbase. But when this particular series that has been dying for about a decade getting a movie treatment by Hollywood, certainly it does draw my interest. While the movie draw some controversy from the initial trailer with questionable Sonic's design, it can be said that this Movie did really well. For a Video Game adaptation, I won't expect anything deep but Sonic movie is a good watch for family showing the beauty of friendship for Kids. One of the main pitfall for a Cartoon/Live Action Hybrid is that the human characters tend to be either Over/Under-represented but Sonic the Movie managed to nail the right balance. Sega seems to know what they are doing and no doubt picked the right team for this Movie. For once, Sega wins over Nintendo this time because Sonic the Movie definitely better than Detective Pikachu.

With the success of Sonic the Movie, Sega gave this series another chance for Reboot and certainly i am up for a sequel  or game compilation even if i am not a fan of the series. If you look for a family friendly mindless fun movie, definitely give Sonic the Movie a try.

Sengoku Rance Loot

 Some stuffs that i have been gathering along since early this year as I revisited Sengoku Rance! Most of these figures are actually acquired from my SG trip on January and i got them for quite reasonable price with MISB condition as icing on the cake. I think Kotobukiya was at its peak around a decade ago where they are capable of churning quality Model Kits and PVC Figures for reasonable price which Sengoku Rance was part of it. These Sengoku Rance figurines was my in wishlist long back when i was introduced to the Rance series VN during my Uni years. However at the time i was unable to buy any of these figures as they were just out of distributions as i just had interest on the series. I am very grateful that i had a second chance to obtain these rare Sengoku Rance with reasonable price which is partly due to Carousell SG which are treasure trove for Collector Toys if you know where to look at.

 At first i only prioritize Sill Plain for the Sengoku Rance figure but when i saw the availability of other variants, i took no hesitation because they are very rare figures actually. I recalled Kotobukiya made 7 Figures from Sengoku Rance and i managed to get 4 of them. The ones that i skipped are Kouhime, Nanjou Ran and Suzume because they are not particularly must get for me. Out of the 4 Sengoku Rance figures that i got, surprisingly Kenshin Uesugi's is the best deal that i had which i got for 60 SGD, whereas Isoroku almost cost twice as much though i didn't mind. I planned to make the review for these figures once i finished Kenshin route which hopefully will be done soon as i just finished Kill the Monkey route last week. I think Sill will be the first one to be reviewed out of these Sengoku Rance figures because i do have quite an attachment with her character when i got into Ranceverse for the first time back then.