An episode leaning to the more serious side, but America makes everything crazy. It’s kind of refreshing, really. I’ve noticed that most anime airing now don’t use chibis or the classic sweatdrops and those sorts of expressions. It’s all fine to be more serious, but there’s something about chibis and chibi expressions that are so iconic and that I love to see. So watching something just nutty like Hetalia is refreshing.
Oh yes, Hetalia was licensed recently, so it’s gone from AnimeSuki. *sigh* I don’t even want to know what they’re going to do to Daisuke Namikawa’s voice…
Carnelian’s original doujinshi “Recipe” is a colorful collection of dessert-themed fairies or sprites. Each sprite is presented in the form of a colored sketch and a fully CG’ed super-deformed version of them swimming among the culinary treat of her choice. The cover is printed on sturdy textured paper and the pages on the inside are thick and glossy.
"recipe" cover
The cover girl herself is nameless, as far as I know, although you may have seen her before on the front of Carnelian’s 2008 calendar. You can view Carnelian’s CG of this image on Pixiv, too.
Inside the front cover.
The first page of the doujinshi introduces each of the characters in chibi form on a light purple checkered pattern.
Anne
The first food fairy is Anne. In her chibi portrait, she is sitting among dumplings and traditional Japanese wagashi. (和菓子) (View on Pixiv.)
Sugar
The second girl is named “Sugar”, and she is most appropriately the fairy of sugary sweet doughnuts! Notice that she has cute little glazed doughnuts in her hair. XD (View on Pixiv.)
Ginger
Ginger is knocking on the door of a rather delicious looking gingerbread house, complete with gingerbread cookies and… almond pocky! She looks rather like Kogami Akira from Lucky Star. She even has the ahoge. o_O (View on Pixiv.)
Limone
Limone is the mascot for Jelly desserts. Bill Cosby would be proud. She must be sitting in a glass of mint jelly because her chibi form appears to be holding mint leaves. (View on Pixiv.)
Chocolat
No list of desserts would be complete without Chocolate! Miss “Chocolat” presents to you here a luxurious box of truffles and chocolate-dipped fruits. (View on Pixiv.)
Cream
Our final dessert girl is “Cream”. Standing with a candle atop a cake with chocolate snowflakes and cream puff snowmen, this illustration is somewhat Christmas-themed. (View on Pixiv.)
Recipe Girl
Once again our pastry chef is showcased, without the sprites shown on the cover. Just in case you missed anything, there’s a handy ZOOM LAYER version of the picture as well. It’s kind of a filler, but I’m not complaining!
Chibi backs!
The last of the colored pages shows the back of the chibi image you saw inside the front cover. Cute! It’s followed by the introduction to the monochrome section, which is printed in chocolate brown.
Monochrome Section
The monochrome section starts off with the sketch of the cover girl and an introduction that I can’t read (sorry. :p)
Sketches of the Girls
For the sake of not becoming too redundant, I compiled the photos of the sketch section into one image.
The back!
The end!
There you have it. I hope you’ll forgive the quality of my photographs. I use a point and shoot with bad lighting, but the important thing is that now you know what this doujinshi contains! After waiting a couple of years to find scans of this book with no luck whatsoever, I finally gave in and bought it, and I’m certainly glad that I did so.
It seems I will be getting more figures than expected this month. Payment has just been taken from my supplier for Shining Wind’s Seena (Orchid Seed version) which means she can’t be far behind! I pretty much came across this figure by accident but am glad to have done so, I had thought that I was done with the Shining Wind series having picked up most of the Kotobukiya run from last year. For those who have not seen this figure, feast your eyes on her below:
**Shipping soon**
You can still pick up a pre-order for this figure HERE
I might not have too much order wises on the horizon but those few I have decided to add are in my opinion very nice ones or at least have stood out among the rest for my collecting tastes.
Thanks for reading
DiStudios
p.s. Wow! sorry so many posts this week due to so many things happening :s
At first I was afraid that it would be another fluffy, eyes stabbing anime with some poor sense of humour, BUT it turned out that my worries were limited only to the Opening, as after it everything was shining brightly and I can already say: I’m going to watch this serie to the very end.
F-ail
The plot begins when our Main Hero gets assigned to a class depending on his Exam result, it’s not that surprising that in a comedy focused on school-battles, he appears to be a moron and gets to the worst class. It can sound a bit cliche – I mean – the whole thing is appearently all about getting to the top class ‘A’ from the worst ‘F’, so it’s just ‘I want to get stronger’ kind of bullshit, which in this case means – Getting better at subjects and passing exam with better results, atleast from here it goes special.
Cool class bro
Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t nowhere as annoyed by that fact as when I watched 1 minute of Dance in the Vampire Bund. Everything that disappointed me – Opening sequence which was Kampferishand a rather dumb main plot – was just a small piece of cake, as the serie appeared to be unexpectedly comfy to watch. I was glad that the difference between classes was crucial as I wished for it and I really liked how the whole F class is falling apart and the teacher replies to everything ‘Deal with it’ and he suddenly goes ‘Just kidding! Here, have some glue’.
Nevertheless all characters so far were atleast average, apart from Genius Pink-Haired Doom Girl(aka G.P.H.D.G). I really liked the guy who uses every possible chance to look under girls’ skirts like a true ninja, it’s not really surprising that his Summoned Being is a chibi lying on the ground with a camera. Main hero isn’t really awesome, yet gave me a lol when he summoned his chibi, who’s clumsy and as it turns out, the damage received by his chibi is transferred back to the master. There’s also that red-haired class rep, who is pretty much planning strategies and smiles all the time knowing the outcome of everything.. In the first episode I actually considered HIM a much better main character than the actual one.
Classic
And here goes the ninja
Thought it was going to be a lame ecchi scene? Actually it got followed up by dramatic nosebleed dying-scene
And just like in a good comedy, everything turns out to be on the side of classroom while others ignore them
Coming back to the plot, the school which characters attend is actually a Project, to be precise it’s meant to be a battlefield directly connected to the school subjects – you’re good at math? Do a math exam and your points become your summoned being’s attack points. Therefore the smarter(subjects-wise) you are, the stronger you are. That’s why classes can challenge each other anytime and if a lower class wins, they can swap places with losers and just like that, class A is the most powerful one, including all the best students.
Chibi 2d fights, damn cute
Camera guy is just awesome
In the first episode there’s already a battle between main characters (F) and E class. Class rep got his plan to beat them, which was so damn obvious from the very beginning but whatever, it was just natural that clumsy Main Hero was a sacrifice while G.P.H.D.G was the hidden striking force.
Main hero’s chibi is surprisingly funny, making his master bleed whenever he gets hurt as they’re exceptionally connected
G.P.H.D.G is getting ready to one-hit opposing class
A plot twist I guess, SHE’S OVER 4 HUNDREEED!
While the plot is average, lineart, animation are really good. What I found especially exciting though is the comedy part. Reminds me a lot of my favourite comedies like Ouran Highschool Host Club. The ending is also pretty decent, atleast not colorful and terrible like the opening, so here I won’t really judge as it’s really meaningless for a comedy anime.
First promising serie of this season, hopefully not last.
I’m blogging from Old Chicago’s via my WordPress iPhone app. Eating out with Ellie since Karen is out with her girl friends in Louisville. Ellie is playing in the arcade but just came back for more money. She showed me the ring she won. Wow. It took me back like Lennon singing a psychedelic song.
I was in the record shop in downtown Marion, Iowa. 45s cost 99 cents, not unlike iTunes today, except they had a B-side. I’d bought, well actually won from the weekly drawing, my 1st 45. I picked, “Me and You and a Dog Named Boo.” For whatever reason this little record shop also sold friendship rings. I picked up a ring that looked amazingly similar to the little faux metal ring Ellie just showed me. Same multiple rings of hammered steel design, except mine really was metal. I recall it costing like $1.39 or something.
The next day at school – Emerson Elementary – I gave it to this girl who was a friend of my older sister Diane. I was in 5th grade, Diane was in 6th grade, and her friend’s name was Tina Flemming. She was this incredibly pretty, petite (for a 6th grader) brunette with anime brown eyes. She was my Mary Ann Summers. Her dad was my little league baseball coach. I gave her the ring before the lunch recess and she agreed to go steady with me. She gave it back after recess. The first girl to ever break up with me, although not the last. I imagine she’s fat as a house now. I mean, she was pretty short.
The sixth DVD instalment of Pandora Hearts recently came out in Japan. Meaning another omake comes by full swing. This time (actually worthwhile to watch) the omake is focusing on about how Gil started smoking fags. Which the main catalyst for Gil’s addiction is simply due to his ionisation for Oz’s uncle, Oscar, and Break teasing Gil back when he was only 18 that he was missing something that would complete his frontal spitting image of Oz’s uncle (that is, cigarettes and a beard). Sadly, Gilbert decided not to grow a beard…
Fed up of Break and soon after of Oz’s ridicule upon that he was tricked into smoking and thinking that he’s a failure as a servant to Oz, Gil runs away to escape the shame. Oz decide to go to Gil, consoling him while giving a chocolate-scented fag, forgiving him for being a failure as a servant and promising that he’ll won’t make fun if his mistakes in life again. Three days later… Obviously, his promise is forgotten and Break and Oz go back to the usual and makes fun of Gil and calling him names like an incompetent fool.
Just an addition Sharon introduces the omake this time to the viewers and in the preview to the next DVD volume, they read out a fan letter asking who is the main heroine of the show. After a debate of whether it’s Alice or Sharon, the heroine role goes to Echo we all pretty much forgotten about…
Overall a pretty useful idea as a short omake peeking into one’s personal life… Dunno if this is true or not but I guess this was adapted from a omake chapter of the manga or something? Pretty sure it is since this couldn’t have been a last-minute idea by the producers. I personally haven’t gone beyond the first chapter of the manga so I don’t really have a say at this, but let me know if you read the manga and see if it is from some omake chapter, or somewhere in the manga itself, love to know.
Hello GWJ community. I’ve been a fan of the podcast for about a year now. I’ve been a gamer for most of my life , with a current focus on classic PC and Ipod games. I am also a Japanophile, having taken a couple semesters of Japanese, a big anime fan, and been able to visit Japan itself.
This week’s podcast topic on Japan finally got me to chime in on the forum.
TWO TYPES OF GAMES
Certis brought up a very important division to Japanese games – games made for international release and games with,originally, the Japanese market in mind. We are all familiar with the former ,of course, from examples such as Space Invaders, Street Fighter and Resident Evil that are so established in gaming that we do not think of them as Japanese.
Then there are games made for the Japanese market. Examples that have made it to the US shores are Persona or Dragon Quest. However, for every Persona, there are easily scores of JRPGs, dating simulations and other games that never cross the Pacific. The ones that do cross do so for a myriad of reasons such as import demand or a foreign license. Its these games where I feel the barrier goes up , not only for the GWJ commentators, but for the gaming community in general. To understand why that barrier exists, we need to take a look at Japanese culture, particularly, anime.
GAMES AND ANIME
The companies and individuals that work on Japanese games generally work in the anime industry. One important difference is that Western game developers are entities generally focused on gaming, while Japanese developers are often part of a broader entertainment company (1). Gamers generally know Nintendo started out as a card company, but do they know that Square Enix also has its own manga (comic) studio, which is responsible for the now well known Fullmetal Alchemist? Or that highly regarded Japanese animation studios like Studio Bones and Gainax developed their own games?
Another important fact is that Japanese artists, composers, voice actors and programmers interchangebly work on anime projects, be it games, movies, tv series or comics. One well known example is Akira Toriyama, the character designer for Chrono Trigger, who is the same artist for the comic manga Dragon Ball. Anime intellectual properties routinely cross mediums – e.g. a comic becoming a movie or a game becoming a tv series or vice versa(2). So its impossible to talk about Japanese gaming without having to talk about anime.
LOST IN TRANSLATION
Ever wonder why a common Japanese anime game trope has high school age kids with outlandish looks and fantastic abilities going on a world changing adventure? For the teen target market of that game, it can be seen as an expression of the escapist ideals of the conformist academic meat grinder that is being in a Japanese high school (3). Despite all the “wackyness” we see in JRPG’s that makes it to the States, its more often the case that anime is a mirror of Japanese society and its values, especially material made for the Japanese audience. (4)(5)
The problem arises when its time for that game to move beyond Japan’s shores. Both literally and figuratively, Japanese games get lost in translation. Can you say “All your base are belong to us?”. Even fantasy JRPG’s make reference to everyday Japanese life and annual festivals that every native knows by heart. Besides the butchered translation or lost culture references, there are the issues connected with localization production such as censorship and voice acting. One recent JRPG, ArTonelico II, suffered a game killing bug because one of the final bosses’ attacks was edited to the point where if this attack happens, you cannot finish the game.
Speaking of JRPG’s, when was the last time you heard a decent JRPG English dub? In Japan, being a seiyu (voice actor) is more serious business, with schools and training specifically for it. The GWJ crew praised how Batman:Arkham Asylum used the voice cast from Batman:The Animated Series. In Japanese anime, thats more the norm than the exception.It would be like having the entire Batman:Animated Series cast available to do every Batman game.
SUNSET ON A GAMER’S MECCA?
Besides every Japanese game being critiqued as a game, it also has to survive the scrutiny of how its translation is handled for and by the Western market. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve played some truly terrible Japanese games that were terrible as games. I take notice on how JRPG “has become a pejorative” for GWJ, because Japan, in many ways, can be seen as a gamers’ mecca.
On the development side, Elysium brought up in one podcast that he would like game developers to take more chances for original game ideas. Japanese game developers are consistently able to do so. Developers have revenue streams outside of making games, so their bottom line is not tied up with the success of a single release. Although the appetite for games by Japanese society is larger as a whole, the overall size of the gaming market in Japan is still smaller than the US and is much more crowded, so developers need to stand out with unique story lines or game mechanics. We Western gamers gain from this in releases such as Okami, Shadow of the Colossus, Parappa the Rappa, and Katamari, just to name a few.
On the consumer side, any gamer simply needs to visit the “electronic city” shopping areas of Japan like Akihabara in Tokyo to experience gaming geek nirvana. Gaming arcades that are 2-5 stories in size, with a cornucopia of cabinets from the classics to the latest releases, all costing around 100yen ($1-1.50) to play. Gaming sections in department stores that would put an entire Gamestop to shame. Hobby shops with restored old systems and well cataloged older game game libraries.
What is truly disturbing is expanding on what Certis meant by “game houses are going where the money is”. Japan is suffering from zero population growth, has a shrinking population base and a larger percentage of that population are senior citizens.. Besides the more important problems this causes, from a game industry standpoint,put simply this means the native market is going to become even smaller.
I can totally respect it when someone admits that Japanese games are not one’s cup of tea. Its also normal behavior for humans to dismiss or even make fun of a culture that one is unable or unwilling to understand.(6) However, taking the broader social picture into account, a dark possibility is the anime and gaming market in Japan collapsing entirely. Meaning that we gaijin won’t have any JRPG’s to make fun of at all. This, to me, is unlikely. A more realistic scenario are game companies forced to merge (e.g.Square/Enix/Taito, Namco/Bandai) and expand more into the foreign market. Smaller anime/game studios that do not have the same international reach will be forced to make tough decisions on how to continue.The Japanese gaming and anime industries both have to contend on how much they want to keep the art form as uniquely Japanese as possible versus the economic need to survive at the risk of diluting and homogenizing the product.
In my studies and travels as a Japanophile, I have come upon many good and not so good aspects of Japanese culture. But as a gamer, its important to understand that within that culture, there is passion for games that runs as a deep as any GWJ podcast presenter or forum member’s own love of gaming.
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SIDENOTES
(1) Not to a confuse a developer (software maker) with a publisher (game publisher and marketer). There are companies like EA that do both. However, Western game developers hardly branch out beyond gaming itself. It would be like BioWare making a Balder’s Gate show for the Cartoon Network.
(2) Another nice thing about this is that the artistic integrity of an anime intellectual property often stays intact. Plot points and specific elements may change, but its harder for the overall vision of an idea to change if the same people or company is working on it. Whether or not the IP makes a good game is a different story.
(3) Most students do attend but upper high school (10-12) is not mandatory in Japan. However, these schools are ranked based on how well their students did on placement tests for universities, so there is competition to get into a “better” one. Also, upper high school is not free. Add to this the rigid rules, the constant exams, the uniforms, and the societal pressure to conform. If I was a student there I probably would have wanted to paint my hair blue and go drive a giant robot.
(4) Its interesting for Rabbit to say during the PAX podcast that “geek culture won” because , in Japan, anime culture is part of the mainstream. Anime artists and voice actors are household names. Anime game themed merchandising is everywhere, not only in toys, but costumes and household items as well. What really took the cake for me in my visit to Japan was the presence of anime themed merchandise in gambling establishments and love hotels.
(5) Speaking of lost in translation, Dragon Quest/Dragon Warrior that was derided in the podcast is actually a hugely successful and beloved game franchise, 2nd only in success to the Final Fantasy series. It never achieved the same popularity here in the States. Still, its important to note that the Dragon Quest I game is arguably the first console RPG and its music was one of the first gaming soundtracks taken seriously enough to warrant a full orchestral recording. So dismissing its importance as a game franchise would be like dismissing “The Godfather” as a movie franchise. And speaking of the “blobs” , the Slimes are so iconic in Japanese culture that there are even children’s comics about it.
(6) Having traveled a bunch, the “stupid American” stereotype is something I’ve had to deal with as well.
It seems I will be getting more figures than expected this month. Payment has just been taken from my supplier for Shining Wind’s Seena (Orchid Seed version) which means she can’t be far behind! I pretty much came across this figure by accident but am glad to have done so, I had thought that I was done with the Shining Wind series having picked up most of the Kotobukiya run from last year. For those who have not seen this figure, feast your eyes on her below:
I’m blogging from Old Chicago’s via my WordPress iPhone app. Eating out with Ellie since Karen is out with her girl friends in Louisville. Ellie is playing in the arcade but just came back for more money. She showed me the ring she won. Wow. It took me back like Lennon singing a psychedelic song.
