Archive for the ‘Otaku’ Category

89 More Hours Of Ultraman!

Wednesday, August 16th, 2023

My previous four posts covered 270 hours of ultra-series but only a fool would think that was enough. And I’m no fool. So let’s continue with dozens more hours over six series and a film…

Ultraman Gaia (1998, 51 episodes 20.5 hours)

This series had a somewhat tedious opening arc, despite the inclusion of a second antiheroic Ultraman (Agul) to introduce some tension. It got better mid-series, but the ‘big bad’ (some sort of ‘dark being’) was ill-defined, I was never a fan of the main character and the supporting cast lacked charm. Overall one of the weaker series.

Ultraman Neos (2000, 12 episodes, 5.2 hours)

This was a short direct-to-video series with a more adult tone. It had very impressive special effects for its era (mid 90s) and with no need for filler episodes it never outstayed its welcome. As a bonus the girls were cute and the fanservice addition of ‘Ultraseven 21’ was wonderful.

Ultraman Cosmos (2001, 65 episodes, 26 hours)

This was great! I loved the characters and the fx/monster suits were leagues beyond Gaia. The ‘pacifist Ultraman’ premise worked well enough, and the series included story arcs and returning guest characters that worked well. Some episodes were very poignant, and the ending a tear-jerker. My only negative: the prequel film isn’t great. One of the better ultra series.

Ultraman (Season 3) (2023, 12 episodes, 4.6 hours)

The third and final series of the Netflix animated series (based on the comic) was phenomenal. It has a wonderful story with nice twists, and the final villian reveal, although not unexpected, was magnificent. It introduced a new Ultra and – even better – a new suit for the hero, and the last episode is one of the best anime episodes I have ever seen. Fantastic!

Ultraman Nexus (2004, 37 episodes, 18.5 hours)

This is a strange show. Tsuburaya wanted an ultra series for an older viewer, and Nexus was the result. It departs from the usual setup in many ways, such as having multiple hosts for Nexus throughout the series, and monsters that stick around for several weeks. In some episodes Nexus barely appears! Unfortunately it mostly fails due to flat characters and a too-slow story. The last third redeems it somewhat, but I see why this was canceled early.

Ultraman Taiga (2019, 36 episodes, 13 hours)

The first of the Reiwa era Ultras! Taiga is a fast paced show full of colour and energy. There’s a lot to love here: a very likeable ultra, a mysterious and charismatic villian, fantastic and flashy special effects, cute girls and some wonderful self-referential writing. This is a series for fans of all ages and I loved every moment of it!

Shin Ultraman (2022, 2 hours)

Hideaki Anno drew obvious inspiration from Ultraman in his famous Evangelion series, and I knew when it was announced he was writing this film (and especially after his superb Shin Godzilla) that it would be something special. I was not disappointed! Everything here is crafted with style and care and love, from the first appearance of the redesigned Ultraman, through the episodic sequences that reimagine familiar (to a fan) foes in interesting ways, and finally to the confrontation with the ultimate antagonist. Absolutely sublime, and immediately one of my favourite ever films.

If you’re keeping track, I’m at about 360 hours of Ultraman series watched so far, but I’m not done yet. In the next installment there’ll be at least six additional full series, and maybe a film or two. And depending how long that takes me, maybe even the US-made animated film may be out as well?!

But before then I think it’s time for a review of some Ultraman-adjacent material. I’ll probably get to that soon…

Japan Pickups: Wizardry (Part 1)

Sunday, June 25th, 2023

As I’ve mentioned, I’ve been selling off my game collection over the past five years. I’ll never stop being a game collector – I still have all my handheld games for instance – and I enjoy collecting a certain series now to keep my fingers dipped in some of the systems I’ve divested from. That series is Wizardry, and once again I bought some more games from the series while I was in Japan.

This 1996 Super Famicom game was the fourth in the Gaiden series (the first three were Game Boy games) and, like its predecessors, was never released outside of Japan. Wizardry still existed as an ongoing series in the west when this game was released, but the Japanese spin-offs were well and truly established by now.

The game is rare and somewhat pricey these days, and I’m happy I found a great condition version, especially since the box is beautiful and features silver ink. I can’t of course play it (I don’t have a Super Famicom), but maybe one day I will.

The two PS1 games shown above contain remakes of the first five Wizardry games fancied up with new graphics and sound, and the PC-Engine game contains Wizardry III and IV. While I’ve played all these games in various versions over the years, I’ve never been able to play the PS1 remakes and would love to since they contain all new Jun Suemi monster art.

No Wizardry games were released in the west for PlayStation or the TurboGrafx, but with the above pickups I now (believe I) have all but one of the nine games released for these two systems. The one I am lacking (Wizardry Empire) doesn’t seem particularly rare or expensive; it’s just I haven’t found it yet.

One of the Busin games was the only PS2 game in the series released in the west (as Tales of The Forsaken Land), and was in fact the last physical release Wizardry game released outside of Japan. I own it, and played it at the time, and it was a great new installment. In Japan Wizardry saw many PS2 installments in multiple series (main, Gaiden, Empire) and I think I now own them all with the above three pickups.

A PS3 game – Labyrinth of Lost Souls – was released in 2011 and even came out in the west. Alas it was digital only, and since my PS3 is long dead I couldn’t play it any more even were it available. I’ve read that the Japanese physical edition (which you can see in the pic) was limited release (which may explain why it was pricey)! I’m glad I now own it, since it’s the last physical release of any Wizardry game.

With these eight pickups my physical Wizardry console game collection is very close to complete, but since the original series was released for so many machines there’s still a lot of retro versions out these I’d like to get my hands on. Wizardry for instance saw releases on Apple-II (in 1981), PC, Macintosh, MSX and a bevy of different Japanese home computers. Wouldn’t it be fun to own one of them?

As far as the ‘Part 1’ of this post is concerned, I also bought a few Wizardry books while in Japan. I’ll detail them in the next post…

Bikkuriman Star Wars

Friday, June 16th, 2023

You may have received a postcard from me in the past with a shiny square sticker on it. This is usually a Bikkuriman sticker, which is packed in with a wafer snack. On Thursday at Nakano I bought this:

It’s a sealed box of Bikkuriman Star Wars wafers! It cost me a grand total of ¥3040, or about $21. Not bad for a collectible from 7 years ago. “Seven years ago?!?” you say…

Yep, these wafers are loooooong expired. Obviously, I bought these just for the stickers. I had originally considered taking it home unopened, but I’m a bit tight for luggage space so last night I executed Operation Bikkuri and opened it in my hotel room!

Isn’t it lovely how it’s been packed? I found it interesting the pack colours align and are not equal. Here’s the two wrapper designs:

I was a bit cautious opening the first one. Things have changed now and the stickers are sealed inside little plastic bags but back in 2016 they were just loose so I feared the wafer may have rotted/melted and ruined the sticker. Happily my fears were unfounded:

Since I had done no research, I was not prepared for the stickers to be holographic! This was a most pleasant surprise. I didn’t try the wafer: I don’t really enjoy them even when fresh and I didn’t want to risk food poisoning 🙂

My next surprise was that amongst the 30 packs I obtained a full set of all 24 stickers. And don’t they all look fantastic? Which is your favourite?

Bikkuriman stickers have been around for decades now and are known for their particular style. When they do collaborations the same style is used and I think it matches Star Wars well. I’m astonished I didn’t know about this product before seeing it in a case in Nakano!

I love these stickers! This is the quintessential example of why otaku shopping here in Japan can be so much fun: finding a treasure you didn’t even know existed, and for cheap as well. A quick look online shows me there were followup series for later films. Maybe one day I’ll find some of them?

Oh, and yes I got 30 stickers where the set is only 24, which means I got 6 extras. If you want one, please leave a comment on this post (or text me) within the next day. First come, first served!

Ikebukuro

Friday, June 9th, 2023

I arrived in Japan late last night. The flight was uneventful (aside from the fact we flew over the Mariana Trench) and navigating the airport and getting to the hotel (by taxi) were both easy.

My room is comedically small, but as with most things in this country it’s a marvel of efficiency and I know I’ll be comfy here during the ten days of this stay.

The hotel is in Akihabara on the river, and there’s a shrine right next door. This lovely fellow greets visitors to the shrine, and as you can see it was raining quite heavily both last night and this morning. I was jet lagged and very tired (I only got a few hours sleep) so today I visited Ikebukuro since I know the area well and knew it would be a less-hectic destination.

But first… I had to eat! I was still on Australian time and famished by the time Saizeriya opened at 10 am and I shoveled spaghetti into my mouth like a beast. I was still not feeling great at this point (from the flight) but I don’t exaggerate when I say the spaghetti energy was like a full life recharge and I left that place a new man!

What followed was a pleasant several hours otaku shopping in the many shops in Ikebukuro. I visited the enormous gacha machine shop, various game and anime stores, some character shops (Rilakkuma, Kamen Rider) an old candy shop and of course several game centers. Most of these I’ve been to – and described on this blog – before, so I won’t go into detail again.

The retro game shop Super Potato is world famous, and in my opinion their better store is the one in Ikebukuro. And yet whenever I visit I’m the only one there – compared to the Akihabara branch which is always mobbed. Once again today I goggled at the items in the cases, the prices on which just continue to rise as the hobby increases in popularity. Even though I sold out of all my non-handheld games, I still love looking at the rarities.

I was particularly thrilled to see The Black Onyx. This nearly 40-year-old game (the above is a 1987 port for a Sega console) is arguably the grand-daddy of all Japanese RPGs and went on to influence many other games including Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. It’s never been released in English which is unusual since it was actually written by an American. I’d never seen a copy before today, and would dearly love to play it one day.

A bit later in the day, on my way back to the train station, I visited Mikado, a game center specializing in retro video games (on original hardware). This place was incredible! Across three floors they have many dozens of retro arcade games going all the way back to the 1980s. While clean and well-kept, the building and interior have a bit of a grimy vibe to them, and when you step inside you feel like you’ve stepped back in time. The dimly-lot basement in particular was astounding: full of old men smoking whilst playing mahjong games with ‘questionable’ graphics! I played two somewhat ‘famous’ games I’ve never seen before, Dancing Eyes and Gals Panic 4, before the smoke chased me out 🙂

The new Animate mega-store opened since we were here in January and it’s very impressive. It has eight large floors of anime/otaku merchandise and there’s a good chance of you’re a fan of any current series there’s a whole swathe of merchandise in here for you. I didn’t have the time to look at every floor (or even half of them, this place is massive), but I was taken by a giant range of cookies on the ground floor. So I bought one:

The cookies feature extremely detailed printing onto the icing, and there were dozens (over a hundred even?) available. I chose this character from Granblue Fantasy and when I tried it after dinner was surprised to find it was very hard. As in a-bit-hard-to-bite hard! The icing was super solid and the cookie more like an iron ration. Are these designed to be eaten or collected? I’ll never know 🙂

I saw lots more than I’ve covered here (I’ll save Ultraman for another day for instance) but suffice to say this trip has started strong. Tomorrow I’ll change tack a bit, and show you something new. Stay tuned!

Picross For Bastards!!

Sunday, April 16th, 2023

Remember that insane Picross book I blogged about last year. I finished the Bastard!! puzzle. Here it is:

The accompanying contest required the entrant to identify the character in the puzzle from the three choices of Dark Schneider, Kall-Su or Tia Noto. Can you see which one it’s supposed to be:

Yep of course it’s Dark Schneider! That would be like making a Star Wars picross and having someone like Sio Bibble instead of a leading character!

The puzzle took me many hours over the last seven months, although to be honest I gave up on it at the end of last year before returning to it today for a five hour bender that has ruined my eyes. Alas I’m 7 months too late to win the Dyson vacuum cleaner, but I’ll forever have the self-satisfaction that I beat it.

Now about the >100 other puzzles in the book, not to mention the second book I bought since that last post…