Albotas » Otaku

Fresh-ass Fanart: Disney Princesses as Sailor Moon Girls

brownkidd — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:12:32 +0000

From casa de la Wiki:

The success of The Walt Disney Company’s 1937 feature film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs influenced Japanese animators. In the 1960s, manga artist and animator Osamu Tezuka [credited with meing the godfather of anime] adapted and simplified many Disney animation-techniques to reduce costs and to limit the number of frames in productions. He intended this as a temporary measure to allow him to produce material on a tight schedule with inexperienced animation-staff.

Thanks to the artist Manon Yapari, the circle is complete.

[Via The Daily What]

This little girl is the most adorable Voltron ever.

brownkidd — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 00:50:24 +0000

If any of you are stupid enough to consider having nerdy little offspring of your own some day, just forget it. This kid is cuter and a goblillion times more awesome than anything your sperm or ovaries (or both?) could ever produce.

[Via Geekologie]

So… this happened in Japan once.

brownkidd — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 00:44:49 +0000

Just wait for the money shot at the end. I tried really hard not to be turned on by this, but I kina’ blew it. Pun intended.

[Via Certified Bullshit Technician]

Custom 12″ Skitty Geisha by Tony Nakanari

brownkidd — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:12:51 +0000

Tony Nakanari from Mai Hiro turned Tokyo Plastic’s 12″ Geisha figure into a badass Hello Kitty themed piece for a private collector. I’d totally buy a poster, sticker, or shirt with the spiky-haired Hello Kitty flipping the bird.

Custom Strike Freedom Celsius from Rotobox Vinyl Anatomica

brownkidd — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:38:43 +0000

The insane customizers over at Rotobox Vinyl Anatomica have turned their Gunmetal Celsius figure into the ZGMF-X20A Strike Freedom unit from the Gundam Seed anime series. This piece is for their 2nd series of Gunpla themed customs.

In the email i received about this, Rotobox’s Spencer Ong says that Gundam Seed is his favorite series so far, then adds adds “but the Gundam Unicorn is looking awesome!”

And it is! Here’s a trailer:

Here’s more pics of the custom:

Kirsten Dunst is Turning Japanese (also, short skirts + thigh-highs FTW)

brownkidd — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:24:43 +0000

You may remember a while back when I posted some cosplay pics of Kirsten Dunst walking around in Akihabara. Well, it was for this video called “Akihabara Majokko Princess” for the “Pop Life: Art in a Material World” art exhibit in London’s Tate Modern museum. The song being used in the video is a cover of “Turning Japanese” by The Vapors and, yes, that’s really Dunst singing.

Obligatory pantsu shot around the 1:20 mark.

Thanks to Craigery Montoya for the heads-up!

Custom Panda Z Figure by Rotobox Vinyl Automatica

brownkidd — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:10:08 +0000

The fine dudes at Rotobox Vinyl Automatica (same dudes who did the amazing 16″ custom Gurren Lagann Qee) recently let me in on their latest custom for their Suparobo Project Series, Panda Z from the hilarious anime of the same name!

Panda Z: The Robonimation Opening

Instead of using their own Ganmetall Celsius for this custom, Rotobox decided to use a Robotar figure instead. They even included a cute little Pandatron to pilot Panda Z!

Oh, and if you’re wondering why Rotobox customized a Robotar instead of their own Celsius figure, it’s because this piece is for the upcoming Robotars Earth Day 2010 Exhibit.

To give you guys a better idea of just how insane this thing is, here’s what a Robotar figure looks like before it gets in the hands of Rotobox.

Enjoy the gallery of this super sexy custom below.

Review: If you only read one manga in 2010, make it Biomega.

brownkidd — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:21:15 +0000

Biomega is a gorgeously drawn, brilliantly told, gory sci-fi masterpiece. It’s Ghost in the Shell meets Akira, with zombies. The second volume can’t come soon enough!

Written and drawn by Tsutomu Nihei (Wolverine: Snikt!, Blame!, NSE, and NOiSE), Biomega will be sure to remind oldschool anime heads of the times when anime wasn’t all about cute girls in frilly outfits or never-ending series about people leveling up and fighting for the fate of something or other. This story takes a page right from the best of cyberpunk anime and mixes kick-ass action and gore with a story that doesn’t suck.

The year is 3006 A.D. The N5S virus has turned most of the world’s population into zombie-like mutants. Zoichi Kanoe, a synthetic human agent created by Tao Heavy Industry, and Fuyu Kanoe, the holographic A.I. system in Zoichi’s bike are on a mission to find the key to humanity’s salvation: a girl named Eon Green who has the power to transmute the N5S virus.

The first volume of Biomega starts off with Zoichi and Fuyu heading to 9J0, a man-made floating island city in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. They’re in search of Eon Green, but they’re not the only one’s searching. The Public Health Service has sent their Compulsory Execution Unit to retrieve the girl so that they can use her cells to aid in creating a new race of superhumans immune to the N5S virus and purge the old race.

And there’s also a talking grizzly bear.

AWESOME
Eyegasmic: Tsutomu Nihei’s art is just incredible. The writer-slash-artist has a background in architecture study, and it shows in the incredible structures and post-apocalyptic backdrops where Biomega takes place. There’s also an element of speed and pacing in the visual storytelling that makes the action scenes seem so freaking fluid — almost like your watching a fully animated movie on each page.

Cyberpunk’s Not Dead: Nihei is well-known for his cyberpunk style when it comes to his manga — Blame! being the most popular example of this — but not only does it look good, but the ideas and technology in Biomega are just so damned creative. Tell most people to come up with a zombie apocalypse tale, and they’ll more than likely give you Dawn of the Dead. Rather than trudge down that beaten path, Nihei incorporates things like a government and corporations waging war against each other in the city streets and blends it with cool techie elements like a nearly indestructible motorcycle with holographic A.I. and secret compartments for things like battle axes and rifles that fire bullets into space. Your average zombie story, this ain’t.

Unusual Suspects: Whether it’s a creepy cyborg in a butcher’s apron with surveillance eyeballs embedded across the top of his skull, a creepy mummy chick, or a talking bear, Biomega has a truly awesome cast of characters.

Whoa There, Grizzly Bear!: Did I mention there’s a talking bear in this? Because there is. And the thing of it is, he fits in so well with the rest of the Biomega universe that you never really question just why the hell a bear is talking and shooting at people.

Not Awesome:
Wait, What Just Happened?: Maybe it’s because of the sketchy, heavily hatched art style, or maybe it’s just because there’s long gaps containing pages with no dialog and the mind just tends to wander, but I found myself having to reread a few pages because I just couldn’t follow the action or make out what was going on in a particular panel.

If you haven’t read a good manga in a while, or if you’re just getting into manga, I can’t recommend Biomega enough. Even if you’re sick of the apocalyptic zombie genre, there’s enough originality and overall awesomeness going on in this book that makes it deserves the attention of any fan of great stories.

Biomega and all images are © VIZ Media. Biomega Vol. 2 hits store shelves this May.

1/8 Sanya V. Litvyak PVC [Strike Witches]

brownkidd — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:28:21 +0000

Here’s another Strike Witches PVC figure announcement. Pre-orders are currently up for the 1/8 scale Sanya V. Litvak statue. This figure is going for $81.50 and ships in June 2010.

Head over to Otacute.com to make your pre-order without giving any payment info until they actually have the item in stock. Best pre-order system ever.

From Wikipedia:

The single Witch in the 501st out of the Orussian Empire at thirteen years old, later fourteen. Preferring to stay indoors during the day, Sanya has been described as “nocturnal.” At times she is literally asleep on her feet, counting on Eila to move her around. Despite this somewhat limiting her contact with the other members of the 501st, her low profile makes her ideal for night missions. Also helping her in this duty is her magical specialty, the ability to read signals such as radio waves that are invisible to the naked eye, giving her a highly advanced spatial awareness. Gains the ears and tail of a black cat with her Striker Unit equipped. Sanya’s rank is Flying Officer and her original unit affiliation is the Orussian Imperial Army 586th Fighter Regiment. Her weapon of choice is a modified Fliegerfaust called the “Fliegerhummer.” Her Striker Unit design is based on the MiG60 (a fictional warbird combining features of the MiG-1, MiG-3, and Yakovlev Yak-1) and her pilot archetype is Lydia Litvyak.

1/8 Erica Hartmann PVC [Strike Witches]

brownkidd — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:16:11 +0000

Fans of the pantie-fest/cutesy-moe anime Strike Witches will be pleased to know Alter has started taking pre-orders for a 1/8 scale Erica Hartmann PVC.

Read on for more pics and info.

From Wikipedia:

Karlsland’s sixteen year old “ultra ace” of the Luftwaffe JG 52 with more than 200 confirmed victories and the rank of Flying Officer. While extremely efficient and strategic in battle, Erica is surprisingly sloppy with her belongings and often neglects cleaning tasks. The type of person who is only serious when the situation calls for it. Her special technique is an offensive barrel roll named Sturm which manipulates gusts of ether to attack enemies. With her Striker Unit equipped, Erica gains Dachshund features. Her armaments are the MG42 and a MP40. Her Striker Unit is based on the Messerschmitt Bf-109G-6 and her ace archetype is Erich Hartmann.

This PVC will be released in May 2010 and you can pre-order it from Otacute for $70.90. And remember, Otacute doesn’t take payment info for pre-orders – you don’t pay a cent until they actually have the products in their warehouse and then they’ll email you for payment info.

Pre-orders for Rider Figma Open 2/16

brownkidd — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:30:41 +0000

Good Smile Co. just dropped word on the Figma Blog that they’ll be releasing a Figma version of Rider from the manga/anime series Fate/Stay Night. This is easily one of the coolest Figmas yet as far as how technical it is. First off, this is the first Figma to be released with a double-jointed neck. This one done so that collectors can display Rider in her crouched attack pose, which you’ll see after the jump. Another issue Good Smile had to overcome was the hair. Characters with a lot of hair have always been somewhat difficult to pose, but Rider has jointed hair made out of a soft, flexible material that allows for some really cool poses.

Pre-orders for Rider go up on February 16th and she will be released this May. Otacute.com usually puts pre-orders like this up around 10pm EST, so I’ll definitely be camping on the site for this one.

Rider comes with 2 faces, emotionless and screaming. She even comes with her visor which is removable, and her chain weapon thingies.

Aaaahghghg!!! Put the visor back on!!!

Here’s the action pose. I love how this gives off all the motion and expression you could normally only get with a PVC statue. This is why I love Figmas.

From this angle you can see the double neck joint. I really wish my Ikki Tousen Figmas had this.

Japan Uses Jelly Beans And Panties To Sell Cell Phones

brownkidd — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:19:36 +0000

Not sure what “jerry beans” taking each others’ pantsu off with their teeth has to do with cell phones, but it’s pretty hilarious. Mostly because they’re singing “jerry beans”. Oh, Japan. The only awesome thing we have that you don’t is the letter “L”.

[Via Japan Probe]

Japan Airlines Unveils Doraemon Jet

brownkidd — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 06:55:34 +0000

JAL just held and unveiling ceremony for their new Boeing 777-300 covered in characters from the Doraemon anime. Check out the news footage from the ceremony, complete with some poor sap bouncing around in a big scary Doraemon costume.

[Via Alafista]

Hello Clarice: Hello Kitty Hannibal Lecter Tattoo

brownkidd — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 15:38:49 +0000

Via Hello Kitty Hell:

Despite the terrible combo, I can understand why someone might think it is a good idea to place these two characters together. They both possess true evil that is unimaginable to most of us, and obviously the world would be a better place if Hello Kitty was restrained in this fashion.

Totoro Cameo in Toy Story 3!

brownkidd — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:07:14 +0000

Looks like Totoro will be making an appearance in the latest Toy Story flick. Not sure how much screen time he’ll get, but I’m sure fans will appreciate even the smallest opportunity to see the big fuzzy furball rendered in sexy Pixar CG. Kind of odd that Pixar would throw in a character who’s widely unknown to American audiences, but I’m not complaining one bit.

[Via Japanator]