Saturday, September 22, 2007
Friday, September 14, 2007
Hmm
I've fallen into a rut lately. Put together a semi-new computer and my schedule went all to hell. And then I started re-reading Maison Ikkoku and Kimagure Orange Road -- though that's not really related to the schedule collapse. Anyway, normalcy should reassert itself in the coming days.
On to tonight's subject: figures. PVC, resin, kit, pre-painted. Those sort.
I only became aware of the vast figure ecosystem when I started getting deeper into the otaku subculture. The watershed event that precipitated this descent was the airing of Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu. All of a sudden I was obsessed with a anime like I never had been before. I had considered myself fairly into Modern Visual Culture; I read manga voraciously, developed a pile of moonspeak volumes for verisimilitude and pride's sake, and watched certain anime that piqued my interest. Genshiken had provided a sketch of the otaku lifestyle, but I was unprepared for the sudden desire to go and acquire ridiculous quantities of goods. In trolling forums for news, I would come across T-shirts, rare towels, and other miscellany. Character albums? A manga adaptation? I had been peripherally aware of the massive marketing machine which invariably accompanied a popular property, but my personal interest brought it into painful, glaring focus. Should I bid on that towel? Should I import those soundtracks? Where can I get the novels without disfiguring my pocketbook? Special edition R2 DVDs with lemons? (Answers to these pressing questions will appear in future posts.) And finally, what's with these figures?
(Moar.) I still think this is one of the better Haruhi figures. Some of the others have odd faces, and bunny girls just aren't my thing, I guess. For a while (and right at this moment, actually), I was seriously contemplating getting this figure -- it's only around $30, an expense I can easily justify to my inflamed mind. Just imagine Haruhi standing between my monitor and my lamp, pointing aggressively, "Do your work, you lazy bum!" I can't say if it would provide tangible results, but it's a nice picture nonetheless.
This Tsuruya-san was announced recently (coming to my attention by way of Heisei Democracy). Need I rationalize the desire to get this figure? Yakisoba meido? やきそばメイド!？ My fervor is tempered by the fact that I live at home for the time being, and I don't need any more reasons for my parents to think I'm getting too obsessed this stuff. Which, you know, isn't true at all.
On to tonight's subject: figures. PVC, resin, kit, pre-painted. Those sort.
I only became aware of the vast figure ecosystem when I started getting deeper into the otaku subculture. The watershed event that precipitated this descent was the airing of Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu. All of a sudden I was obsessed with a anime like I never had been before. I had considered myself fairly into Modern Visual Culture; I read manga voraciously, developed a pile of moonspeak volumes for verisimilitude and pride's sake, and watched certain anime that piqued my interest. Genshiken had provided a sketch of the otaku lifestyle, but I was unprepared for the sudden desire to go and acquire ridiculous quantities of goods. In trolling forums for news, I would come across T-shirts, rare towels, and other miscellany. Character albums? A manga adaptation? I had been peripherally aware of the massive marketing machine which invariably accompanied a popular property, but my personal interest brought it into painful, glaring focus. Should I bid on that towel? Should I import those soundtracks? Where can I get the novels without disfiguring my pocketbook? Special edition R2 DVDs with lemons? (Answers to these pressing questions will appear in future posts.) And finally, what's with these figures?
(Moar.) I still think this is one of the better Haruhi figures. Some of the others have odd faces, and bunny girls just aren't my thing, I guess. For a while (and right at this moment, actually), I was seriously contemplating getting this figure -- it's only around $30, an expense I can easily justify to my inflamed mind. Just imagine Haruhi standing between my monitor and my lamp, pointing aggressively, "Do your work, you lazy bum!" I can't say if it would provide tangible results, but it's a nice picture nonetheless.
This Tsuruya-san was announced recently (coming to my attention by way of Heisei Democracy). Need I rationalize the desire to get this figure? Yakisoba meido? やきそばメイド!？ My fervor is tempered by the fact that I live at home for the time being, and I don't need any more reasons for my parents to think I'm getting too obsessed this stuff. Which, you know, isn't true at all.
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