Reflecting on Year 2018

 Well even 2018 is coming to a wrap and it is another of those Post for me doing evaluation for the year. The end of this year marks my second year(almost) working in Hobby Industry and i have learned even more things compared to last year and at the same time reached significant milestones in the career. I guess having a full time job does compromise my time to create content for Realm of Darkness but i will keep my commitment for this blog. Overall i am quite satisfied with my hauls for this year as i scored another great deal of rare items yet no time to review them ironically. Out of all the hauls, I think the Figmas are the one seeing some significant rise in numbers. 2018 also saw me getting commited to Fate/Grand Order more than i expected, Nevertheless i will still try my best to keep Mecha Contents in balance because it is still heart and soul of Realm of Darkness as i envisioned. No Doubt 2019 will come with more uncertainties especially to Indonesia's Hobby industry but let's just hope for the best while doing everything within our capacity. At some point i might even share some tidbits on my job considering it is quite relevant with the content of this Blog. For 2019 i will try to keep my promise to deliver more Quality Reviews and probably next month you will see some Fate Figmas Review popping up!

Quite happy that i can gather all of these within a year!

Cowboy Bebop

 One more post before wrapping up this year! I think it is the 20th anniversary of Cowboy Bebop and couldnt be happier to complete this series in time. Bebop is a showcase what an anime can pull off with its storytelling capacity and a top one at that. It is inevitable that the Anime nowadays are mostly created only to pander the consumers but back then there was more opportunity for anime to do its own thing and Bebop is a prime example. Cowboy Bebop had your typical Space Outlaws as premise with bunch of misfits doing their own things, I have watched Baccano and Coyote Rag Time which felt most similar to this one. But Bebop is a Space Outlaw anime with 26 Episodes of solid story and are not afraid of to pull some tragic stories. No Doubt this series is the all time favorite of Western anime fan because it is definitely a timeless masterpiece. If i want to get my fix for Space Outlaws again, i will be moving onto Dirty Pair and Outlaw Stars.

December 2018 Loot

 By far this is likely my most expensive haul for a month but it is definitely worth it! Christmas are usually associated with shopping spree and it rings true for me this year. With discounts flying around , the time was ripe for me to snatch stuffs in my wishlist. While my shopping bills rack worth about 2 or 3 Full Price of Soul of Chogokins i do get some items in bargain rates. The best haul in of the bunch are Max Factory Chamber and Megahouse Marida which are rare items and got them for discount rate. Suisei no Gargantia offered a solid mecha concept and thats why Amy and Chamber joins my collection. I scored myself quite a number figma as well with Nero finally joining rank in FGO Servants figmas after i accidentally missed the Preorder. I also got myself some Pokemon Gashapon and Bandai's Coonuts lineup seems to be a promising start. Overall my loot this month have sizeable amount of FGO merchandise and the trend will likely continue in the future but i am quite satisfied with my gain this month.

Ichiban Kuji Fate/Extra Last Encore 1/8 Saber Nero Review

 This is another Fate series PVC figure that i have from Banpresto's Ichiban Kuji. In Japan you normally get this figure by purchasing lottery tickets called Kuji that features certain series and these figures are the grand prize. But since Japan thought that their Kuji Lottery won't work out overseas they do sell the Figure outside Japan. Nero was not particularly my favorite servant but the Emperor of Rose definitely deserves her spot as Main Heroine.

FW Gundam Converge 15

 I have started collected Converge full set since the 10th volume and the lineup definitely goes for a steady pace. As usual the full box of 10 Pcs will cost 5000 Yen and i will likely get one. The Roster this time mainly features Gundam X which  will likely make recurring appearance on next two volumes. As usual Bandai had a bad habit of putting Old Zeon MS as duds for each box which is Z'Gok this time. The coolest one out of the bunch is the RXF-91 in my opinion but i welcome those Gundam X MS into my collection!

Mobile Suit Victory Gundam

 At last my journey to Universal Century come to a full circle as i get to finish watching Victory Gundam! This series is no doubt the most depressing one in whole gundam timeline but quality wise it is very mediocre. Victory strongest point is its undiluted portrayal of the bleakness of war which it still reigns at the top of all Gundam Titles. Where your average Gundam series glorify war to some extent with most of the main protagonists side mostly unscathed, V Gundam doesn't hesitate to kill most of the characters from both sides, sometimes dying meaningless deaths showing a good view on Horrors of War.

Code Hardcore 1/100 MFX 0-2T Thunderbolt

 Couple years ago there was this Mecha Game Kickstarter made by Chinese Dev called Hardcore Mecha which looks promising. The game is basically Assault Suit Valken with SRW style animation which will be wonderful if it actually got released. So in this year's Tokyo Game Show, The Dev made an appearance again with the update on the game which comes along with some Toy Prototypes for the Mechas. One of them is the 1/100 Diecast Action figure equivalent with Metal Build for the series posterboy, Thunderbolt. The Action figure will be sold for 145 USD with Mid 2019 release schedule and i am getting one as an investment for the series. Thunderbolt is not the most original design but it definitely fits the bill for a Protagonist Mecha. The Action figure is made by manufacturer called ShowZ which seems to have good track record on Transformer, so i think the finished product should be all right. The Devs promised Code Hardcore will be delivered by this year but by this point i rather doubt it can happen. In any case i will get copy of the game if it got Switch Release and hope the best for the Devs because the series had potential.

FW Gundam Converge #10 Review

 Early this year i began collecting Gundam Candy Toys once again which are mainly Converge, Forte and Ensemble. For the cheapest option i need to get the whole box each time and then sell the excess variants. Unfortunately Bandai had a bad habit of shoving the Old School MS from the first gundam in these Candy Toys lineup which are difficult to get rid of if you dont want them. Luckily so far my Converge leftovers are quite easy to sell off as long as i bundle the SSRs with the Duds. I have collected several Converge from previous Assortments but the 10th Edition is the first one i managed to get complete Set.

Suisei no Gargantia

 Suisei has been on my Watchlist for a while already and just got an opportunity to watch it. Regretted abit that i didn't watch this series earlier but this is a good mecha series with solid worldbuilding. The Premise of Suisei is about a Boy Soldier from a highly advanced civilization who got stranded into Earth after a major battle with alien which now fully covered with water. Coming from a human civilization that abandoned Earth a long time ago, The boy need to cope with the change upon finding himself in a new environment complete with new people and place. The main theme of the series is all about coping with change and no matter how bleak a situation is, things will get better.

 For me a Mecha Series will never be good without a Solid Concept of the Robot itself and Suisei, in this aspect passed in flying color . Machine Caliber K6821 Chamber is one of the best Sentient mecha out there and Suisei showcase how it complements the Pilot when they are competent enough. Chamber easily find a place for himself among Jehuty and Arbalest for this. To be honest the series can easily go for 24 Episodes with its material but Japanese Anime Industry has a notorious habit of wasting potentials. Nevertheless the series contained itself quite well within a season and there are supplemental materials lying around. If the series happen to be able to get another Season, i hope Ledo able to reunite with Chamber somehow. I still wonder why Suisei didn't made it into SRW T even though it would be a perfect chance for it.

MG 1/100 Gundam Dynames

 After Releases upon Releases of 00 Gundam Variant and their Swords, this time Bandai did throw a bone for the other Celestial Being Gundam. The Long Range Sniper, Dynames Gundam make it into the cut this time with its Full Kit. MG Dynames will be released on March 2019 with 4500 Yen Price Tag. Being 700 yen more expensive then the regular MG Exia, i believe Bandai will justify the cost of the kit because their track record with Master Grade are Superb until now. I will likely get this MG because Dynames was the first 00 Gundam HG that i bought back then. With this my 00 Gundam Season 1 collection will be complete once i got Virtue and i am still waiting Bandai to release MG for Reborns Gundam

Figma 420 Master/Ritsuka Fujimaru/Gudao

 With the popularity of FGO, the main protagonist even though he is just self insert character will eventually get his Figma released with Gudako following soon. Figma Gudao will be scheduled for July 2019 release  with 6800 Yen which kinda become the norm pricetag for this lineup. For the accessories, Gudao will come with Golden Apple, Summoning Ticket and 3 Saint Quartz. Gudao might not have his own Nendoroid but his Figma makes up for it and this is an automatic get for me so i can pull off some Harem Shenanigan with my FGO Figma collection. As for Gudako i wonder what kind of accessories and facial expression that will come with her considering she is portrayed more as maniacal type.

Super Robot Wars T

 With the yearly output for SRW games, we just got the announcement for next year's Super Robot Wars games dubbed as SRW T. The game will be released on Switch and PS4, and i guess SRW X is the last SRW for Vita. The Notable Roster for me in SRW T would be Gaogaigar and G Gundam making a comeback while Rayearth being the most hyped out of the new titles joining the series.

Ever since Bandai Namco acquired Banpresto, I feel that SRW series kinda lose its luster as it can't afford to go for Extra miles like what the series pulled off with Alpha 3. As a result the rosters are even more dominated by Sunrise series and Heavy reuse of assets become a common practice. in the end these games become merely commercial product and lacks the Passion that the older series had. I think i might get SRW T since i have a Switch but i need to finish my SRW V first.

A year with Fate/Grand Order

 When i started playing Fate/Grand Order , i never thought myself getting hooked into this game that i never miss any single day for daily login and now i made it to my first year! FGO is well known for one of the saltiest gacha game out there because the SSR Servant Rate are very horrible among its peers. But i guess i am able to persevere until now because i fared quite well as an F2P player though from time to time i do get my Salty moment.

As a game, FGO would be a mediocre RPG game without its gacha element. On one side this game watered down the concept of Servant in Fate Series and on the other hand this game prolong Fate Series as an existence longer than it normally would. But i had to admit that FGO is very good at goading players to spend real money just for PNG animated sprites.

Legend of Galactic Heroes ARTFXJ 1/8 Yang Wenli Review

In every Age
In Every Place
The Deeds of Men
Remains the same

 It took me longer than expected but finally i got opportunity to make a Review for Kotobukiya's Yang Wenli figure. When i finished Legend of Galactic Heroes few years ago, i promised to myself to get Yang Wenli's figure if it ever released, because it is the least thing i can do for this masterpiece of a series. To those who never watched LoGH , they might find this figure look rather unremarkable and wonder why such plain looking Guy got a figure. But being the pivotal character in LOGH, Yang Wenli deserve one even if it takes 30 Years, such a shame it is unlikely we will see a character of such Caliber in the future.

Fate/Extra Last Encore

 Last Encore is one of the recent Fate Anime apart from Apocrypha and for some reason it was not quite well received. To be honest, in order to appreciate Last Encore you should play Fate/Extra at least. If you do so, the anime is quite enjoyable. Last Encore supposed to be a new story for Fate/Extra timeline but it is just an excuse for Nero to make it into anime spotlight. If you didn't play the game, Last Encore would be rather confusing as it throws you straight into middle of the story without proper casts introduction. From what i am able to grasp from watching Last Encore, it is supposed to be the Bad Ending route where Hakuno and Nero failed to defeat Saver from Fate/Extra. It took 1000 years but an entity taking form of Male Hakuno with Nero by his side facing the Masters and Servants from the series once again to set things straight .While Last Encore is advertised as alternate story of Fate/Extra, it is pretty much the story retelling of Extra. 

 The Story might not be the strongest point of Last Encore but it has solid animation and you are in for a treat if you are fans of Nero. Best part from the anime for me is the Lancer Rin and Grown up Leo and Gawain makes awesome pair. At very least Last Encore is still better than Apocrypha so if you have played Extra there are no reason to skip this anime.