intermission : heads up for the new dawn

twenty ten is coming in just a couple more hours, with billions of resolutions waiting to be spit out by the billions of them people out there, excluding myself [ and a number others ] who find such recurring [ annual ] ritual to be somewhat pointless these days; well you keep making new ones by each year but somehow were often fail to either achieve / complete / resolve-whatever them before the current year ends. new year resolutions might serve as a good way to discipline yourself, i agree. but either way i had chosen not to be practicing it any longer :3

moving on to the new year celebration-thingy; seems like i will be celebrating my new year alone, indoor [ no firework display viewing and yes, no over-celebrating crowds ] this time around as most of my friends has already headed for the capital city so to celebrate theirs in full grand [ i heard someone suggested for a clubbing-get, damn you peeps ], i myself otherwise has decided to stick behind and celebrate mine [ the geekier way ] with my imaginary harem coupled with a few snacks and yet-to-be-watched series in hands. truly went for the unhealthier way if i must say so, and i am very well happy with that :D

okay so i've decided to skip from keyboardng down my favorite 2009 series list for the time being as i am still in need to complete a few more titles before i could proceed so, perhaps mine will be made available for read as soon as either late january or maybe, mid to late february 2010. anyway, 2009 has been quite a slow year for anime [ as mentioned by others as well ], i agree. and though i've been wishing to remain as neutral and optimistic as i could over this year's offerings still i couldn't get myself to be much delighted enough in regard to my anime watching experience for the entire 2009 compared to how i was back in the years of 2006, 2007 and 2008, the first two years especially. well i won't put my blame upon the recent moe shows outbreak for this, instead i had chosen to direct my rage [ and distaste ] at them studios which have failed to deliver proper execution to these poor shows; they deserved much better treatment, yea.

by overall, 2009 wasn't quite an interesting year for me, and i can barely remember anything awesome nor remarkable [ within the positive spotlight ] aside from all the troubles i've been to instead, especially citrus mondial's near downfall [ we were almost forced to end our operation somewhere between march-april and again in august-september due to the lack of clients ] which would result in me being jobless and thrown to the hell of despair once more. lucky enough for us that we as a team somehow managed to fight our way through the darkest time and survived with our combined will and effort *put some epic, high-spirited bgm here* [ suddenly i was recalled to adam blade's party in needless ]. to esane, keenkeen and yuen-senpai if you were ever happened to be reading this, i am very well proud of you peeps !

i guess that is all i have to write for now as i couldn't think of anymore stuff to ramble on, and pardon me if this entry again wasn't much of an interesting read for you peeps out there, well it seems that i might've not born to become a good writer but i will still try to improve myself over and over again until i am [ and you peeps were ] very well satisfied with my own writings. until our next entry, both me and zange would like to wish all you peeps a HAPPY NEW YEAR, and may god bless us all with a prosperous life and fortune[s] ahead !

new years love from the smochizu duo;
/rayneholde + zange/

p/s 01 : don't you have anything personal to write here, zange-chan ? you may edit this entry to include yours, or perhaps just start a new one if desired :3 | p/s 02 : cosplay image credit - yuuro_an.

[ cosplay ] to aru majutsu no index group cosplay

layers : Midori Kanda, Suu / Sue and Ai Toujou
characters : Mikoto Misaka / Komoe Tsukuyomi / Kuroko Shirai
series : To Aru Majutsu no Index
collective score : *****

MY ONLY WORD, BREATHTAKING-

these were among the latest professionally-captured images i had manage to obtain from the internet that is shot / taken around the time of the recent comiket 77. a very impressive execution by the group if i must say myself, especially the familiar two layer midori-san and sue-san; i expect nothing less from them and once again the pair successfully delivers alongside the highly impressive kuroko cosplay by ai-san, a brand new entry to my watchlist. all three layers got / scored their character / looks right and i am very much grateful to have lived until this very day to witness such a flawless effort as this; may god bless me another year of life until the next summer / winter comiket :3

btw i was kinda wondering if midori-san had stick true to her chara by wearing a boxer under her skirt :D

[ image 1, 4-7 are property of yuuro_an / image 2-3 are property of toshiki_oxox ]

hokago teatime to be receiving another televi-run

according to the few sources i've read just now, a second season for k-on ! will most likely be put into production following an announcement made to those who were attending a recent k-on ~let's go !~ event. certainly for those who were fans of the series [ or should i say write, mio ? ] will be rejoicing in delight upon this recent revelation, while those who had been against the series during its prime will most likely be megassa offended :3

above is a pic taken by one of the event goers, and credit to the banzai effect for the image. anyway, seeing that the show ended up without resolving anything of plot importance in particular [ read : open ending ] +not to mention kyoani's known tendency of milking on some of its best titles well i believe most of us could have already seen this one coming from a mile :3

[ EDIT ] yup, there will be a second run for k-on !, the official anime site confirmed this so behave, sit back and wait :E

let's talk on hime's fave moe shows for 2009

for some anime fans out there, the year 2009 were considered to have been greatly harassed / contaminated [ etc ] by a plethora of moe shows which has brought in great dismay to those who were rooting for refined / quality stuff over such 'mindless' fanservice shows in the likes of k-on and co, but nevertheless i optimistically believe that this current outbreak of moefest has indeed painted in some more [ pleasant, if not vibrant ] colors to the anime industry / fan community etc, though i do agree that too much of 'moe moe kyun'-whatever can as well render you brain dead. anyway, putting the lame OP aside, the following were my list on the top 5 moe shows released throughout 2009 which i had great deal of interest into.

01. K-ON !
this one has to be on the top of this list for as far as i am concerned. nevermind the elitist, i had enough fun and joy watching this :3 [ in b4 'gosh, your taste and / or preference in anime sucks' ]. i believe i have wrote plenty enough for this series here that i'm practically left with nothing more to jot down without having to sound very repetitive with my words, thus i shall leave this one here and move on to the next subject of my list-

02. SAKI
i mostly avoid series which were primarily focused on sports [ though i have failed once with bamboo blade :9 ] but somehow saki's [ the series, not its lead tqvm ] charm was too great for me to keep my distance from, in particularly those of nodocchi of course :3 that aside, i certainly enjoy the staple mahjong battles which had often got me deeply engrossed enough to inspire my 'tsumo after a kan' spams in forums / twitter a while back. again, that aside, saki had also made [ almost, if not very ] impressive art and visual execution which is how it should always be with modern moe shows these days. i wasn't particularly fond of gonzo after their numerous screw-ups before but somehow i can forgive them and return once more to their circle of fans with the release of this one series here :3

03. NYAN KOI !
i wasn't quite sure of this but nyan koi ! can as well be considered as a moe show too right ? right ? okay, this series here could have easily beaten saki off the second seat but somehow there are quite a few things about saki which've been holding nyan koi off from advancing any further, i wasn't quite sure on what those things are but i pretty much believe that until the next season of nyan koi comes out somewhen soon, saki will still be holding firm to the second highest throne instead of nyan koi.

04. KANAMEMO
o hai i saw your facepalms, and yes i can see it very clearly from here. well anyway, yes i admit there wasn't anything much appealing, deep nor thought provoking whatever from this series, not to mention the comedic portion of it weren't very strong in certain episodes but yet it was the mood / atmosphere, as well as the naivety aspect of the title character's [ kana ] personality that had lured me all the way into the series, and yes sir for this i have very little to zero regret for giving myself in to kanamemo^^

05. TAYUTAMA : KISS ON MY DEITY
frankly speaking tayutama is a generic eroge adaptation, and the story wasn't much appetizing if i were to be honest, but somehow there's something about its visual presentation that had gotten me entirely hooked on, or perhaps i still have some attachment left on -mimis characters [ having had plenty of horo and chizuru prior ] but let's not talk too much on that shall we ? also there's a number of moments from the series which i had came to treasure very dearly, mostly of those which centered upon the central character mashiro, especially as the series crawls closer to its end.

[ i'm all in for kugimiya rie's tsunderes ]

there you have my list, and pardon me if it didn't read good enough as i were still having a slight creativity block which was triggered via the stresses experienced from my day job as a designer. i'll get myself to amend / beef up this entry a bit later on as soon as i get to recover from my block so until then, has moar love for them moe shows, try not to dig in the serious stuff too much and let yourself be pampered with mindless entertainment once in a while :3

musou kakyou : a summer day's dream

MUSOU KAKYOU : A SUMMER DAY'S DREAM
circle : MAIKAZE
director :
serial run : December 29, 2008 - ongoing
total episodes : 3 [ planned ]
score : ***1/2

TOUHOU, ANYONE ?

musou kakyou : a summer day's dream is a fan-made dojin anime [ read : independent-produced anime / indie anime ] based on the popular 2d danmaku / scrolling shooter game 'touhou project' by team shanghai alice. the first of the dvd were distributed at comiket 75 on december 29, 2008 [ inclusive of english subtitles ] while a sequel is hinted at the end of the first episode, suggesting that there will be more of it in times to come.

in honest, i wasn't quite a devoted player of touhou [ i've only played 1-2 games so far, but relied my interest more on dojinshis based on the game... simply put, i sucks at danmakus XD ], so i am a bit out of touch over the greater portion of the story but nevertheless i am quite familiar with some of its characters and their given personalities; that being said, i find the anime to be somewhat an exciting watch, especially since i get to see those characters which i am fond of [ patchouli, above all ] living in motion. plus, the action part of the series have also made proper homage to the game by retaining moves and attacks which most touhou gamers should already be familiar of. trust me, it won't take time for this series to grow and make its home into any devoted touhou gamers out there.

although being a fan produced project [ with limited financial backing definitely ], musou kakyou featured a cast of notable seiyuus with names such as mai nakahara [ reimu hakurei ], rie tanaka [ sakuya izayoi ] and aki toyosaki [ suika ibuki ] amongst its roster. the animation / visual aspect of it were finely executed [ even putting shame to series like akikan ! ] especially the background art which i personally find to have been done very tastefully; the character designs, however were a bit off like most of the time, but lets not probe much into that shall we ? story wise, the series is fun to be consumed upon although there wasn't much depth provided on the story [ yet, but there's the nice mystery which is yet to be resolved :9 ] as far as i'm concerned. that aside, anyway, musou kakyou is a well served light delicacy despite its nature as an amateur-born production, and respectfully is a bit more well done compared to certain titles by some well established commercial studios out there :3

[ screencap credit : otaku-complex, through google image :3 ]

p/s : if you somehow decided to watch over this one and wanted a quick in depth details on the story / characters / settings etc then you can always drop by the touhou wiki :3 and as for a side note; those elitist at MAL who refuses to acknowledge this piece of work [ for what it is worth ] were definitely made of fail. ask patchy, she'll greatly agrees :D

[ raw dojin ] simeon ! 2

[ click here to download ]

SIMEON ! 2
circle : Noraneko-no-Tama
derivative work : Needless
release : 2009
volumes : 2
score : ****

here's a needless dojin featuring the century-old techno-loli disk; just found this one a few days back while i were lurking for kampfer's and i thought the book were super nice [ especially the art, gosh it were just lovely i couldn't take my eyes off it for a while- okay, that sounded a bit exaggerated xD ] and i greatly believe that i should put it up for share wif ye peeps here^^. well as of now i have some other work pending to be done somewhere else so i'll try to expand my commentary on the dojin a bit later, but for now feel free to d/l the book through the megaupload link provided :3

in before the christmas eve :3

[ preferred background music : christmastime by the smashing pumpkins ]

it's that time of the year again, and for us here at +ophanium this would mark our second christmas to date since our foundation, and we're megassa happy on that, especially since the two of us [ and this blog here ] is still around to have a peek at the year that is to come soon :3 and also, we would like to thank and wish all of ye peeps who have been here since day one a merry christmas, and thank you... thank you so much for keeping up with us for all this time^^

2009 is such a nice year for the +ophanium team albeit it didn't turn out much to our initial expectation; we were off to a nice start but as july comes in we've begin to lose our focus and momentum- but hey, let's put that sad stuff aside and be more optimistic for the final week [ of 2009 ] to come^^ +not to mention, comiket 77 will be kicking off this december 29th and we'll certainly be looking forward to some of the good stuff; most particularly them cosplays and dojins [ fanbooks / music ] [ do want the 2nd volume of musou kakyou dojin anime as well ! ] among many others that is waiting for us there [ kinda sad that we didn't get to experience the whole event firsthand, yet... well hopefully we will in 2-3 years to come XD ]... wonder what's our fave layers and circles had in stores for us this time around-

i was hoping to key in a more thoughtful entry for this post but it seems that i couldn't get myself to think of something nice to be written, and i really do hate myself a bit for that; perhaps the great amount of erodojin i've read throughout this year might have eaten up a great number of my creative cells, who knows ? XD well anyways, here's a merry christmas and happy holidays to ye folks out there, and please do remember that there are those who weren't lucky enough to celebrate the festive in the warm / grand fashion as you were about to, and thus try not to overly celebrate it yea ? [ aha- there are few of our friends who often would :3 ]

has sum megassa warm love from the north pole :
/rayneholde + zange/

[ cosplay ] midori kanda : taiga aisaka

layer : Midori Kanda
character : Taiga Aisaka
series : Toradora !
score : *****

REJOICE ! FOR HERE IS THE MOST ULTIMATE TENORI TAIGA-GET !

ooh the unkempt hair and the badass look on her face, this definitely is an instant win from every single aspect of her taiga-get; the costume, the pose, the extreme character likeness factor and most of all, i greatly love those facial expression[s] she had on her, and that's midori-san for you :3

i am so megassa speechless that i've decided to stop writing here as there is nothing more left for me to write in regard of her taiga-get; these images alone had spoken much on behalf of the awesomeness :E

[ cosplay ] ibara : rumi kinoshita

layer : Ibara
character : Rumi Kinoshita
series : Welcome To Pia Carrot
score : *****

HIME APRROVES OF MORE IBARA-SAN-GET !

yes, ibara-san... again- well it can't be helped, she's good and for that i am since a well devoted fan of her :3 also, what's been keeping me from not featuring her this time around is the fact that she had went on to score a 96-97% character / costume likeness hit with this rumi kinoshita-get of her; well that is no longer a surprising feat as she had often pull such quality with most of her recent cosplays to date, and thus it will be a waste for me not to put this one up for our december cosplay deluxe edition^^

[ cosplay ] sue : yuuki kataoka

layer : Sue / Suu
character : Yuuki Kataoka
series : Saki
score : *****

TACOS, DONE FLAVORFULLY RIGHT !

if you're starting to question why were we having a bit too much of sue-san these days, well that's because she's good, and we at +ophanium were more than happy to bring upon you peeps some good cosplayers out there who deserved more limelight and exposure than kipi, arisa and saya-san [ combined ] get to have for themselves after all this time.

okay, OP aside- here's a few more of sue-san tacos-get for any tacos lover out there who simply wants more from the saki cosplay feature we had before, and hopefully these images would as well serve as a series of nice guide / template for those who were aiming for winning execution points for their cosplay; take extreme notice on how sue-san had gotten hers to be this delightfully awesome and pay extra attention to each and every details she had spent in making her costumes this megassa outstanding :3

[ some of the images featured above were property of kimokamehiro ]

[ cosplay ] uriu : shana ( christmas version )

layer : Uriu
character : Shana
series : Shakugan no Shana
score : ****1/2

SOUP, IS TIEM FOR A BLAZING CHRISTMAS-GET :D

does any of ye peeps remember my previous entry in which i've mentioned that uriu-san makes the hottest shana i've come to see so far ? well i certainly got that one point right, especially when it comes to this christmas version of which nevertheless get to squeeze out twice more the sexiness in uriu-san's shana-get :9 also, one more thing i came to love about uriu-san is that she seems to love them camera[s], and in return them camera[s] too, loves her much :3

frankly speaking, the costume is pretty much standard in design [ 'standard' as in you get to see it very often IRL / nothing obviously outstanding for a fictional chara etc ] and so for those who weren't quite familiar with the character shana [ and is less likely to have seen the original artwork from which this version of shana was inspired from ] might have not realize that THIS IS actually a cosplay of the said chara, save for the blazing red wig of which is inarguably the most highly recognizable / distinctive trait of her chara :3

[ album ] pichnopop & sketch up ! rec. presents glitters

P*STYLE / DJ NORIKEN
glitters
Happy Hardcore / Electronic Dance
Pichnopop / Sketch Up ! Rec.
****1/2

our featured split album for this week comprises of 11 original tracks by both DJs, with blazing happy hardcore beats and [ delightfully ] dreamy soundscape in reminiscence of the electronic trance music that would serve as a great audio experience in long rides, especially when you got stuck big time in traffic jams. for those who aren't yet familiar with the japanese dojin music scene, the album were primarily made available through online pre-orders and in event such as the bi-annual comiket, and thus you won't find any copies of this album on the shelves of foreign record stores.

now back to our feature album, personally i did not listen much to electronic dance music these days, however glitters is an exclusive exception in which i find the album to be one of the best i had came to listen to in recent times; the music contained within each featured tracks were built upon a well, solid foundation and the overall mood of the record were set just right, and is best listened to very late at night given its mildly-nocturnal atmosphere as made apparent in tracks such as 'sweet and sour', 'conclude' and the title track, 'glitters', three of which were among my fave numbers by p*light [ the latter however were performed alongside dj noriken ].

execution wise, both DJs were at their best here, providing a wide selection of chiefly-delicious samples to go with their heart stomping remixes; the third track off the album 'miss you' especially being a very fine example of this, and not to mention dj noriken had also made a brief detour into aggrotech which can be heard from the harsh-grinding eighth track 'byzantino'. well, to sum it up, glitters had came to provide a highly delightful peek at the japanese electronic [ dojin ] music at its best, and it certainly promises to get you high on electronic dance nirvana the moment you have the music plugged to your ears and senses.

TRACKLIST :
01. Place 2 Place*
02. Sweet and Sour*
03. Miss You*
04. Surreal*
05. strange muzik
06. The Seek of Yourself*
07. Attack to my dream*
08. Byzantino*
09. Conclude ( P*Light Remix )*
10. The Ray of Sunlight ( DJ Noriken Remix )
11. glitters*

[ * +ophanium's pick ]

let's talk on hime's top five 2009 series

[ note : the following post were re-produced from a similar post i've made for hyperchrome here, albeit the one seen here had been slightly edited to include minor update on the list ]

so before we come to the end of 2009 i would love to share 5 of my most favorite series for the year 2009. i greatly believe that some of you out there might question my taste in anime [ most definitely in regard to the fifth title in the list ] but worry not, i'd care less over that very concern of yours heh; well long story short, here goes the list :D

01. DARKER THAN BLACK : RYUUSEI NO GEMINI
having been a fan of the first series [ kuro no keiyakusha ] i have definitely been looking forward for more adventures of hei and yin upon the revelation concerning on the coming of the second series, especially since the first season were left with an open ending and so much of the crucial questions were yet to be answered. to my surprise, hei started out as a thrice-more bitter character who gradually soften up to the new female lead, the lovely russian-japanese loli cutie [ my new love of the series aside from yin and the late amber ]. all in all, ryuusei no gemini took off on a good and promising start, with a handful of delicious character development ensuing very much later.

02. KIMI NI TODOKE

depending on how it will end, kimi ni todoke is in hold of a greater chance over securing the ultimate favorite seat from ryuusei no gemini and believe me, production i.g. truly delivers this time, and i am very well glad of it. another good example of how a show that were actually being overlooked as the season begins came to be the best. the female center of the story - sadako sawako is deep down adorable, and there is no way for you to feel otherwise than love for her.

03. KUROKAMI
for once the first spot belonged to kurokami, until ryuusei no gemini took over it in an extremely elegant manner. well i personally find kurokami to be so delightfully yummy that it gave me an almost exact sensation i had when i went picking and marathoned ga-rei -zero- earlier this year. the fight / action sequence were so well choreographed it had me wanting for more while plotwise, kurokami tasted like some kind of a spiritual gattai between shakugan no shana and fate/stay night; the series had the same supernatural feel as of SnS and the exact master-servant concept as F/SN, two delicious cake [ albeit the latter wasn't much of a filling treat ] for a price of one, eh ?.

04. TO ARU KAGAKU NO RAILGUN
truthfully speaking, i wasn't quite in favor of the parent series [ to aru majutsu no index ], which i considered as a mixed bag of good and messy [ plot ] stuffed in the same package. that, however doesn't stop me from digging into this one series here as mikoto herself is more than enough reason for me to check this one out, and to my happiness i also get to discover moar love in the form of saten [ who at first glimpse reminds me of the awesome isayama yomi-neesama :D ]. also, +1 on the yuri-get; something that would definitely turn my radar on :D

05. KANAMEMO
at first my thoughts were equally divided between choosing either kanamemo or nyan koi !, yet in the end i've decided to pick on the former as there has already been 3 autumn series occupying the list, and this should at least give enough justice to my list. i know a select mass of anime audience out there find kanamemo to be rather distasteful [ for reasons i am not quite sure of, afraid of being labeled as lolicon or just having hard time to chew on them moe works ? ], still the series had proven to be of a great worth to be listed into my personal viewing experience; what made kanamemo appeal much to my interest is the heartwarming mood it carries and its lighthearted look at the lives of those who were struggling to support themselves through their own hands. not to mention, it has aki toyosaki and rie kugimiya in it :3

p/s : contrary to the image up above, tanya and yoko didn't get to celebrate their christmas this year, and quite possibly, mina as well :3

[ cosplay ] ibara : teana lanster

layer : Ibara
character : Teana Lanster
series : Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS
score : ***1/2

HIME ONLY APPROVE THE TEANA BY IBARA-SAN :E

there should at least be 4 more images to make up our usual cosplay feature post, however this is as much as i can get a hold for ibara-san's teana-get v.v [ the sauce photog - trish-san's blog is no longer accessible by the time i noticed the existence of ibara-san's teana-get ], anyway, the score were originally meant to be a bit biased [ expect somewhere between a **** and a ****1/2 ] for the following two reason; 01. this is a teana cosplay, and she's technically in my waifu top 5 female character of all time and 02. the cosplay above were done by my number one favorite, ibara-san; and by default, i love every single cosplay she had done so far; the same for you kipi / saya / arisa cultist out there :D

despite having set a good one for her teana-get here the overall details on her costumes however doesn't really stand much to my preference compared to her other cosplays; the belt buckle most notably. the barrier jacket looks like they could use some more attention and detailing in execution / making since to me it looks a little bit of undone. her wig matches the original design [ for teana ] perfectly well in its color scheme but the twintails doesn't really stand much, perhaps because of how the bow-or-whatever-it-is-called were applied; my twintails point however does not valid much as this is the only picture of her teana-get i have seen so far; and if you have more of the above cosplay please do share them with me^^

now on to a slightly different note; i am currently planning for a special cosplay edition for +ophanium, and thus for the coming week there will only be streak[s] of cosplay related posts [ the same bandwidth raeping images and the usual, decently crafted commentaries i often write for them ] until the coming of the christmas week where i will cease posting them cosplays and focus on festive-related random entries for a change.