Now, I am still looking forward any similar events, but I have also became more and more into solo concerts, staring voice-actresses who really sounds like true singers.
And for now I am idolizing both Mizuki Nana, of whom I bought her latest Live Formula triple DVD, and the rising Minori Chihara, whose first live has been immortalized in this DVD, titled Contact, released last month.

Such a fantastic concert. This is definitely the kind of event I would love to attempt, even more than figure festival, but this is sure not simple to plan when not living in Japan…
Anyway… there are fortunalely lovely DVDs for Minorin / Nana-chan fanboys/girls like me. Any other fan there?
Now I just need to take it back from Yuki… don’t understand why she is so fond of it hehe ^^;

But let me explain.

Last year, ALTER released a wonderful figure representing Megachu! (Megamisama Chuuihou) eroge game heroine : Fauna.
Unlike most of characters from this kind of games, I already knew who she was, and have already seen her in action thanks to great CG websites and the first OAV ^^;
So, it could have been a good reason to order this cute figurine and add it to my collection. But I made up my mind, deciding not to grab any Megachu! figures. Maybe because I had already too much figures ordered, or something like that. Haa~ nevermind. That was one year ago.

• Then Fauna figure was finally released.
• And then almost everybody arround exhibited their new treasure, with more and more amazing pictures showing how wonderful the figure was.
• So I finally had a second thought about it.
• But it was already too late ^^;

ALTER also revealed their plan of releasing Leukothea and Jordh, so finally, I was somehow relieved for not having ordered Fauna, since I would have wanted to get Jordh too. I really like her… « style » ^^;

All could have ended like this… if it had not been decided to re-release Fauna ¬_¬
And since I am a weak-against-bishoujo-figure-otaku, I lanched my favorite internet brower, went on my regular figure dealer website, and add both Fauna and Jordh to my cart. Damn!

I guess I have been trapped this time. Though I was quite proud for having resisted to ALTER (once again) Fate Testarossa reissue. This is a huge conspiracy…

So! In pawn of my displeasure** I will not provide other pictures until I have received this bloody Fauna, next month maybe. Na!

**Just to make it clear, I am definitely NOT displeased! This article was just a stupid way to write a self-criticism. Don't interpret it to the letter ^^;

Like the subtitle “my figurine collection” suggests it, you can through Tsuki-Board :

• List your anime character figurines from an always growing database, compting more than 1000 entries for now
• Meet new anime figurine collectors and/or meet again old pals with the same passion by exchanging comments and/or private messages
• Upload and share pictures of your figurines

That is the core of the site. There are certainly a lot of features that can be improved, and new ones quite willing to be developped, but that is already a good beginning.

So, if you like sharing your stuff, make other jealous, or browse people collections and become even more jealous, come and visit Tsuki-Board to start completing your figurine collection. Mine is almost full referenced ^^

And now I am more and more looking for other mugs featuring the series I like. However, those items run quickly out of stock, so I guess mugs are quite popular.

So. You may have recognised the classic laughing man, some Noizi Ito Shana and some Vocaloid.
I am thinking of bringing them at work to decorate my office. Very convenient to put pencils, since I always lose them. And well, I also need something for coffee-break ^^;
Anyway, it is a good way to express your otakuness discreetly, isn’t it?

Oh and yes, the absolutely cute nendoroid Miku is now the queen of my collection. She is adorable!

Now the only kind of goodies I miss is the ultimate accessory which allow anyone to reach the highest otaku level : dakimakuras. Should I cross this line? :|

Product Information

• Manufactured by COSPA
• List Price of 800 JPY each
• I ordered all of them at Hobby Link Japan, where I also grab my COSPA anime t-shirts

However, I want to congratulate the ABA team for this great project. Till now, I have to admit I was very centered on AnimeNano and Figure.fm members blogs, and did not really tried to “go” elsewhere. And I am glad to be able to discover new blogs through another portal than rss aggregators.

And well, the reason why I have been aware of it is because mukyaa.com has been nominated for the Best Figurine Blog award. This really makes me happy. Thanks for your support!

To plunge visitors in the Asian culture mood, conferences were organised during the festival, which is a bit the non visible part of the convention. Topics were for example the Art and Archeology in the Greco-Buddhism, or some explanations about Haiku, followed by a little constest, and there were also three students from Laos, South-Koera and China who came to speak about their country and how was life in France for them.

A lot of games like sudoku contest or anime song quizz were organised too.

Otherwise, some inevitable merchandise and goodies sotres were selling stuff like traditional clothes or decorative stuff…

Most of the clothes, if not all of them, were for women. But katanas for boys I guess.

mmmhh… can imagine a lot of daring things with this kimono.

Tea sets and others tea-related stuff. Tasting was possible too.

…or back into the anime/manga universe, artbooks, shirts, bags, figures… as usual. Dont really like to see those last ones, but I must say it is the best chance for them to live a little bit longer, since those products are not selling very well in France, unlike mangas. But who knows… maybe this will change in the future, since figures are more and more appreaciated.

The remaining stands were amateur fanzines. A lot of nice drawing to see and/or buy, but I prefer doujins and H CGs ^^;

Fanart exposition.

Fanzine stand, with drawing on demand. Was too shy to ask for a Nodame mongoose drawing ^^;

« Clothing and accessories for undead lolitas ». Undead lolitas!? *LOL*
Ever heard about this clothing brand?

There was a big sheet of paper where people were invited to draw. Tiamat who was displaying figures with me took the time to add this nice character from one of his favorite universe : Le Chevalier d’Eon.

At the end of the festival, a young pianist performed various anime and video game songs, while video scenes of the corresponding universes were screening. Picture was taken while performing Bratja, from Full Metal Alchemist. The concert was filmed, will update this article when the video will be available.

Video Games

I guess any Asia-related convension (or should I say Japan?) in France must have its video games section to bring visitors. And this one was the most popular in the way it was the place where most people were gathering. Did not have the time to try anything, but there was some fighting games running on PS2, PS3 and Xbox360 like latest Dragon Ball Z, Soul Calibur, Naruto etc…

Classic dancing games, running on PC with custom playlists. I was surprised to hear a song from Hatsune Miku album!

Girls seem to like Guitar Hero. Have only play the 2nd game. Here the 3rd was running.

This arcade machine was very popular too. Did not recognise the game though =_=

Ball-Jointed Dolls

A very interresting stand, especially for us, anime figure fans, was the Ball-jointed doll exposition. For those who dont know what it is, here the wikipedia definition :

Ball-jointed dolls (BJDs) or Asian Ball-jointed Dolls (ABJDs) are dolls made of resin, and predominantly manufactured in Japan and Korea. They are fully posable with ball and socket joints in the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, torso, hips, knees, ankles and sometimes even fingers. Body elements are held together with one or more elastic cords that attach to hands, feet and heads, creating tension between the parts.

And since pictures are better than words, here what a BJD looks like :

Those dolls are easily customizable, and it was funny to watch them being made-up.

The other funny thing is that their owners were girls only, while at our anime figures booth, owners were guys only ^^;
And I must congratulate them for this very well decorated stand they had.

Those two were very impressive. “Dark” style suits this kind of doll a lot. I am not really into BJDs, but I must admit they are beautiful.

There are also amazing clothes for them. But if I had to describe them with my own opinion, I would say it is cute and scary at the same time. Hope I wont offense BJD fans though.

Cosplay

And to end with : the costume play! I wasnt carrying my camera all the time, so I missed some girls with nekomimi and neko paws, or some Death Note / Naruto cosplay which were the animes the most represented.

Quite a lot of Gothic and/or Lolitas, and I am sure some of them were not cosplaying, actually ^^;

Maybe the most beautiful costumes Ive seen this weekend : Athena and Shaka from Saint Seiya.

And at last one Haruhi. I would have been very surprised not to see one at least, but I guess she was the only one. And as you can see, shes holding the Max Factory Haruhi figure she kindly accepted to pose with.

And by the way, as you can see in the background of this last picture, there were a lot of informative charts all around the place, with many texts about culture, political situation etc… of various Asia countries. A game was organised as well, with questions about those countries, to motivate people to read them and find the answers.

Thats all for now. Next will be our figurine stand ^^

A nice event and a great experience for us, but very exhaustive since there is two hours drive between Bayonne where I live and Bordeaux, and moreover we had to move our clocks one hour ahead of local standard time between satudary an sunday, according to Daylight Saving Time.

Anyway! I will post some pictures tonight, local time, so in more or less 12 hours, to share with you what a convention about Asian culture can look like over here ^^

Anyway, here my more or less new funny stuff:

First, an easily recognizable NERV logo. I have always wanted to wear one, so I am glad there was this kind of restock for Evangelion T-shirts.

Then some Dokuro-chan and Excaliborg. Too sad the second season is ridiculous, but I so loved the first 6 OVAs that I had to grab some goods from this show. Do not tell me there is a lovely Kotobukiya figure! I know that. But I do not want to hear about it… too painful, as I did not managed to have one.

A freaking Gurren-Lagann face. This one is very interresting, and is rather good to draw people’s attention ^^

Maybe my favorite shirt : Aika-chan and her’s famous line :
« 恥ずかしいセリフ禁止!! » Hazukashii serifu kinshi!! - embarassing remarks aren’t allowed!!
I kindda like when folks ask what is written, and make an odd (O_o?) face when I answer honestly.

And finally, the latest purchase, Miku-chan! Did not have the oportunity to wear it in public yet. But I will certainly keep it for special occasions ^^

I did not cross the towel and dakimakura step yet, even if it is more and more tempting, with all those Yoko, Shana or Kanu goods. I will perhaps think about it, at least for towels, when summer will come. However, lying on an 2D anime girl towel at the beach must not be advisable, to deal with 3D ladies ^^;

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For Wonfes Coverage, check out Danny’s blog or all the great sites he linked.

You can also give your favorite animes, mangas, characters and seiyuus. The picture aboves shows what I have listed as my favorite animes.

A lot of anime addicts wrote review of what they have seen, and/or discuss about the latest episode, but I skip that. I only used the rating function to give a mark to what I have liked or not.

And since it is a growing community, there are a lot of “clubs” for fans. Don’t really catch the aim of those groups, excepted to show your love for a character or an anime and discuss about he/her/it. Well, that is still funny, and I am proud to have been invited to join Hosaka (Minami-ke) and Primula (SHUFFLE!) fan clubs haha.
If you want to have a look at my profile, here is the link :

And now, I just need to have a look at my list so I can quickly know where I have left things last time. What about you, fellow anime avids? how do you trace all those series?