Intellectually-Gifted Appreciation Day

「元気があればなんでも　①・②・⑨！」

バーか　バーか
バーか　バーか　
バーか　バぁ～かじゃ（じゃじゃじゃ）ないか
(ad nauseum)

Hong Kong Loot Run #1: Mong Kok

This is probably the first ’serious’ merchandise search I’ve done since bemoaning my leaving Taipei, which had many high-quality anime/manga/game-dedicated stores.

Browsing several forums told me that there is a small concentration of stores in Mong Kok, Kowloon area that is pretty high up in the “best you can find in Hong Kong” listing.

View Larger Map

It’s about two streets down Exit E2 of Mong Kok Station (zoom in); my plan was to stroll down Sai Yeung Choi St. (a mainly pedestrian road), have lunch, try CTMA Centre first, then swing back to Nathan Centre and Sino Centre on Nathan Rd.

(Most of the malls had a “no photos” policy going, so most of this is going to be in words.)

McRoll the sequel

I don’t usually catch meme mutation much (late or otherwise)… but you have got to be fucking kidding me.

(Though I think this can be easily taken as Flandre’s canonical personality. And what was Wriggle doing in there?)

EDIT: And just to prove nothing is sacred (or too late to post), Mystia’s version.

This just makes me hate Mystia’s Spell Cards even more. But not as much as I hate myself for not being able to resist posting these damn things. Aaaargh.

Touhou 2nd Doujin Anime : Musou Kakyou

Short and sweet: I didn’t have much expectations for this, so it didn’t betray any one of them. Animation was amateur, as expected, but balanced out by beautiful, beautiful backdrops. Voice work was nice. The half-hearted ‘fight’ was unnecessary, to say the least – I doubt a fan effort will ever have a well-animated, dynamic danmaku sequence. And c’mon, how many fans actually watched this expecting ‘action’? Touhou runs on its characters, and it’s here in heaps.

It did keep my attention for all of thirty minutes, which for an anime is decent, so I’ll give it a ‘ye’. Those who watch this hoping to see what all the Touhou fuss is about will no doubt be disappointed, but from day one, this was something meant for the fans. Enjoy it for what it is. Or don’t, whatever.

PS: Compared to those from other recent big-name works (say, Toradora!, Gundam 00), the opening theme is pretty damn good. Not totally surprising I guess, considering…

U.N. Owen insanity

Late as usual, etc.

In this case, nooooooooo difference whatsoever.

The man’s right – no words can describe this. Though to be honest, my primary motivation for playing Touhou is the music.

PS: And as a pointless note, this was linked to from Flandre’s article.

PPS: By the way, a mix that does the song justice (without feeling too different) (Brain fart, it already is the version used in the above. Still, COOL&CREATE goodness):

Now I must leave before I fanboy any further.

PPPS: (Sudden Flandre affinity!)

Speaking of which, I have never cleared Flandre’s stage, ever – Sakuya already makes my fingers twitch…

PPPPS: What’s with all the Touhou all of a sudden? Shrug.

Haven’t gotten around to playing it yet, but… um, Subterranean Animism looks hard.

Musou Kakyou

I’ve always wondered why the Touhou Project IP never expanded into animation – just as good as an excuse for ridiculously overpowered girls to beat the crap out of each other as ever, while (more importantly) retaining the comedy and the character drama and the slice-of-life-esque tones and the comedy.

Yeah, I guess I can only ever see a Touhou animation as a gag series.

When all you have are phantasmal mushrooms…

I lol’d.