Category Merchandise

Jul 9 2011

Blue Rose’s character song single

Blue Rose’s character song single came out yesterday and we were able to sample it today. If we have to find something nice to say about it, I guess it would be that it’s very in-character. The single has two songs sung by Minako Kotobuki, Blue Rose/Karina’s seiyuu, and karaoke versions of them.

The first track is GO NEXT! which is also the in-series Hero TV closing theme. It’s credited to Blue Rose, and even at best ear-grating. The song doesn’t suit Kotobuki’s voice and we felt that it was purposefully made to sound worse than it could have been. It makes sense from the character’s point of view. It’s something the sponsors want Blue Rose to sing, unlike the other song on the CD.

The second track is My Song which was the insert song in episode 4. It’s credited to Karina Lyle and is a much more pleasant listening experience. It’s a song that represents Karina’s own dreams and it does much better justice to Kotobuki’s voice. Still, overall My Song doesn’t leave a lasting impression.

We can’t really recommend this CD for the music. But if you’re a big fan of Minako Kotobuki or if you liked the insert song in episode 4, then it might be worth getting.

Jul 8 2011

Comparing the TV and BD versions

Sunrise have been advertising about fixing the animation for BD/DVD release, but they’re not just fixing derpy character animation. I was skipping through the 2nd BD last night and noted a few additional changes because these scenes really bothered me in the original TV airing. Click the image to view it in full size.

So the Ouroboros symbol on the dollar bill was just a derp changed because people read too much into it, and here we were trying to figure out why the hell it was there…

(By the way, Tiger & Bunny looks really good in full HD and the BDs have English subtitles.)

And in totally unrelated news, HLJ are getting undersupplied with their figure preorders, our Deformeister order was just cancelled. щ(ﾟДﾟщ)

Jul 4 2011

Comic anthology announced (updated July 14th)

Monthly Comic ZERO-SUM magazine announced today on their Twitter that there will be a Tiger & Bunny manga anthology. The manga anthology will have cover art drawn by Touya Mikanagi whose manga Karneval is currently being serialized in Comic ZERO-SUM. The expected street date for the anthology is August 25th.

It will be published by Ichijinsha which is also publishing the Tiger & Bunny Official Hero Book set to be released on July 25th. (Ichijinsha is also the publisher of Monthly Comic ZERO-SUM magazine.)

Update: I checked Ichijinsha’s main site and ZERO-SUM site, but I couldn’t find any further information on the anthology yet. I’m hoping the artist list will be announced soon so we’ll know what to expect.

Update 2: The anthology is now listed at least at CDJapan and Amazon Japan and available for preorder.

Jul 2 2011

You may still get lucky with the figures

So who managed to snag a preorder? I sure didn’t, but it’s more due to not having the finances right now, since I’ve ordered the official books and stuff. (Also, I’m not a figure collector, I only buy figures occasionally.)

Deformeister set is still available at HLJ as a blind box set of 10. I’ve been checking other stores and seems that Toys Logic is still taking preorders not only for Deformeisters but also Wild Tiger and Barnaby. (I’ve never ordered from Toys Logic but HLJ in my experience has good service.) It’s possible there are more stores where they’re still available.

If you missed your chance on Wild Tiger and Barnaby Brooks Jr. figures this time, don’t despair. There’s still hope. Be ready to stalk the stores when the release dates near, because it’s possible that people cancel their preorders.

Jul 1 2011

Figure preorders now open (updated)

The preorders for both Barnaby Brooks Jr. by S.H. Figuarts and the Deformeister SD figure set have opened at 16:00 Japan time (which was about an hour ago as I’m writing this post). It took me 40 minutes to get through to Animate site because it was under such a heavy load that they even had to put up a notice for it.

Coincidence? I think not.

If these figures sell on preorders like the Wild Tiger figure, they’ll probably skyrocket in value once they’re finally released. Like the Limited Edition of the first BD of Tiger & Bunny – it’s now out of print everywhere I’ve checked, and I’ve seen it resold for 22,000 JPY. People have reported even higher prices, up to four times the original retail price of ~7,000 JPY. I was checking some stores yesterday and I noticed that the stocks on the LE of 2nd BD are running low in them, too.

It seems that it’s best to act fast if you want to own the LE BDs or figures, they’re flying off the shelves.

Update: Preorders have been open for 2 hours at Animate, site finally loads for me again, and both Deformeisters and Barnaby figure are marked sold out.

Update 2: Turns out Deformeisters aren’t Animate exclusives, you can find them on preorder also in other stores. For example, HLJ still has Deformeisters and Barnaby Brooks Jr. available. Amiami and Hobby Search have had them, too. (Thanks to Weslea J M for info!) I still recommend to act fast if you want to preorder, chances are that many stores will quickly run out of preorder stock.