Category: Otaku

30 Minutes Fantasy

July 8, 2025

Bandai has a new series of model kits out called ’30 Minutes Fantasy’. They are inexpensive, fantasy-themed, and they don’t take long to assemble. But the big gimmick is they are modular, and can be modified to create different fantasy-themed character classes.

I bought the above in Japan, and (for a model kit) it was very cheap at only ¥2100. As you can see it’s a knight, and part of the ‘Liber’ nation. I believe these are the good guys, with the other nation (‘Rosen’) being the bad ones. There’s an elaborate story behind the series, involving a ruined Earth and mechs using elemental magic and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if an RPG is being developed.

The lore goes deep with elements and jobs (the Japanese term for ‘classes’) and as you can see this knight is a starter class, at rank I. But it’s still a class, and much like any other RPG there’s a level below, in this case called a ‘silhouette’. Assembly of the kit begins with making the silhouette.

There’s a lot of runners for such a cheap kit! If you’ve made any humanoid model kits before you’ll notice how much simpler this one is, including no ‘under gate’ pieces and the lack of stickers or decals. I’ve made loads of kits, and I’m here to say that yes, the silhouette did indeed take me under 30 minutes:

In D&D parlance, the above is the ‘level 0’ equivalent character. The peasant that hasn’t adventured yet. The young man or woman about to join the army (fighter) or enroll in the magic academy (mage) or dedicate themselves to a pious life in the local religion (priest). Of course the big difference is this is a mech, but you get the idea.

For such a simple kit it’s very posable, and of course there are several different hands depending on what you want to do with it. But it’s also fairly generic, which is unsurprising since it’s the basis of all other classes. So let’s change its job!

Since I bought the knight kit, it came with the knight armor, and as you can see from the above pic the first step is to remove a handful of parts from the silhouette build. You then go through about 10 minutes of further assembly attaching the knight armor, until it looks like this:

It looks great for such an inexpensive and easy-to-build model kit! I don’t paint my models, and I feel this guy looks good enough without it. It’s very posable and holds the sword/shield well.

You can also see it’s got some obvious holes and slots as well. In Japan I saw impressively assembled and painted examples that had gems in a few of these empty holes, but I’m not sure if that was a custom job or if you can buy the gem pieces. Regardless, the holes are there for upgrades into higher level classes, such as these two shown in the instructions:

The advanced class armors are available in upgrade kits (for under $10) and once you own a silhouette you can change it into as many classes as you buy upgrades for. There seems to be about a dozen available now, and knowing Bandai many more are on their way. I don’t think I’m going to get many of these, but I’m impressed with what I’ve seen based on this knight I’ve made.

And I’ve also got this bishop kit, which is another silhouette with two (Class I and II) upgrades included 🙂

84 More Hours Of Ultraman

May 15, 2025

In my many prior review posts I had watched over 420 hours of Ultraman series. With this installment I’ve now watched every series I own and am now completely up to date with translated Ultraman. Or am I…

Ultraman Max (2005, 39 episodes, 16.5 hours)

After the unusual Ultraman Nexus, the series returned to the familiar format of an Ultraman helping to defend Earth against kaiju and alien threats. The weakest part of this show was the main actor, who I felt had low charisma, at least in the earlier episodes of the series. Thankfully the supporting cast was strong, especially robot-girl Elly, who stole every scene she was in. Actors from older Ultra-series also make appearances, and while they play different characters their presence suggests the world the show is set in may be somehow linked to ones we are familiar with.

About halfway through the show took a notable twist and the writing became tighter and took more risks. This led to some wonderful episodes, such as a very fourth-wall-breaking one about the Ultraman Max scriptwriter, and a few genuinely horrific episodes that I feel took inspiration from The X-Files. The last two episodes were magnificent, and ended the show perfectly. It started a bit weak, but I look back on Max with fondness.

The Ultraman (1979, 25 hours)

This was the first animated Ultraman series and is very much a product of its era. It is set on a future Earth where space travel and alien attacks aren’t unusual and the appearance of an Ultraman (retcon named ‘Joneus’) is taken for granted by the characters. The usual 1970s anime TV hijinks follow, including paper-thin plots, occasional inclusion of various -isms and reused animation. I watched much of this while doing other things, since to be honest it’s very slow by today’s standards. Fun fact: this is now canon, Joneus is one of the strongest Ultras, and his live-action appearance harkens back to the anime:

I’ll mention here that I own – but haven’t yet watched – another animated series called Ultraman Kids.

Ultraman Arc (2024, 12.5 hours)

This was the first series I watched live as it was simulcast on YouTube. Much like Blazar before it, Arc is not an M78 Ultra but instead a being of light sent to Earth to avert a disaster caused by his home planet. I liked the actor who played Arc’s host, as well as another guy who worked for the government, but overall I felt Arc’s basic setup a bit weak and the remainder of the crew a bit forgettable.

Despite this the series had some extraordinary episodes, including one that dealt with lost love and another (somewhat remake of an Ultraman Cosmos episode) about a hikikomori communicating with an alien. There was also a nice Blazar cameo, and the final episodes wrapped the story up nicely. Was it better than Blazar? Maybe.

Ultraman Mebius (2006, 50 episodes + 4 specials, 30 hours)

This was the 40 year anniversary series of Ultraman and immersed itself with nostalgia. As the last existent series I would watch I had high hopes, and wasn’t disappointed!

This series tells the story of Mebius, an Ultra sent to Earth to complete his training. It’s one of the very rare series where the Ultra doesn’t have a host – instead he takes a human form (named Mirai in this case). He joins an earth defense group names Guys and helps to save the planet from monsters and aliens.

Unusually, about halfway through the series his teammates learn he is Ultraman Mebius. But the surprises don’t stop, because from that point on the show became a celebration of the history of Ultraman. Episode after episode a total of ten old Showa-era ultras in the show (including Astra and Yulian) make cameos and they are all crafted with love and respect. My favourite was probably the ‘school reunion’ Ultraman 80 episode, which I’ll admit brought a tear to my eye (80’s host was a school teacher).

Mirai was one of the most charismatic Ultraman actors, and played the alien-in-human-form role well. The Guys crew was equally likeable, especially their mysterious captain who had a wonderful moment in the epic finale. I loved this show from beginning to end, and it’s easily in my top five Ultra series, maybe even top three!

In addition to these four I’ve also watched a couple of average films (Ultraman Blazar, Ultraman Trigger), one fantastic film (Ultraman Mebius) and this year’s bonkers YouTube anthology series, which interestingly focused on Ultraman Z.

In addition the 2025 series – Ultraman Omega – has been announced and will start in a couple of months, and of course I’ll be watching that one live:

While there’s no word yet on the two ‘forgotten’ Ultra series made in Australia (Toward The Future) and the USA (The Ultimate Hero) ever being released on DVD, I’ll remain optimistic. Until they do though, I’ve now watched it all: over 500 hours of Ultraman series spanning nearly 60 years! That’s an accomplishment worthy of pride 🙂

The Men Who Turned Their Homes Into Arcades

May 13, 2025

The title of this entry is taken from the above book, which I bought a few months ago. It’s a beautiful ‘mook’ (magazine book) showcasing home arcades built by dedicated Japanese enthusiasts. While it’s in Japanese, I was able to read it using a translator.

I’ve also become a fan of topic-specific Japanese books like this, and have already purchased (and read through) similar ones about the history of certain game genres. The writing and detail in those impressed me, so I had high hopes for this one as well.

I was not disappointed: this book is fantastic, and the mania of some of these collectors fills me with profound respect. Page after page of beautiful photography shows rooms – sometimes multiple – of Japanese homes where every square inch is now dedicated to reproducing a Game Center in their house. We’re not talking one or two machines, but ten or more, including massive things like fishing games or even hydraulic sit-down cabinets.

There’s loads of wonderful and awesome anecdotes, of which the following is just an example

One man modified his home to add a massive external door on the second level so large cabinets could be installed from outside using a crane.
One man – a massive fan of the train game series Densha de Go! – has an entire room dedicated to arcade cabs of the series and even twice rented a train line so he could play his arcade cabs on actual running trains.
There are several stories of people having ceilings/floors reinforced to handle the weight of games, or removing doors, closets or even walls to make extra game space.
One guy took years to ‘brainwash’ (his words) his wife into letting him get his first arcade cabinet. A few years later he had a room full.
One man installed public toilets in his house incorporating fixtures he obtained from a closed Sega arcade!
Another man obtained an electricians license so he could rewire his home rather than pay someone else to do it.
One guy built his Game Center into a closet so it didn’t eat up living space can be invisible to guests (or family) when the door is closed.
An accountant converted his business waiting room into an arcade!
Several of the home arcades include common 1980s-era arcade extras – such as drink machines or coin changers – but one guy took it further to only include Showa-era coins in his money changer. (This is like a retro USA arcade only using 1980s quarters for their machines.)

Most allow friends and local children to play the games, and many are members of enthusiast clubs. The latter is important since maintenance is often cited as a big issue and being in a club would make it easier to find someone with the skills required to keep 40+ year old tech working.

I’d love to be able to do this myself, but for many reasons that’s impossible so I enjoyed living vicariously through this wonderful book. It was successful enough for a second volume, which I also own, but I’ll probably leave reading that one for when I return:

Robot Claw