[ cosplay ] miiko : miku hatsune, christmas edition

layer : Miiko / Meico
character : Miku Hatsune
series : Vocaloid 2
score : *****

メリークリスマス！

first of all, merry christmas and happy holidays everyone ! and sorry for not being active much lately [ eventhough we kept on promising to update this blog often :P - hime ]. but anyway, let us not ruin this merry mood of festive and proceed on with this lovely feast we got here for our christmas party this year, yum ! :9

and so, of all the christmas-themed cosplays we've seen this week / month, miiko [ or meico ]-san's christmas miku definitely is one of the best there is, and currently is our standing favorite as of now. truly a sight to behold; the overall execution + presentation are gorgeously neat, adorably pretty and really, really outstanding from every single inch of it - coupled with kaki-san's skillful take on every photos in the set.

and being one of the best and [ highly on demand ] cosplay photog in japan, kaki-san really does know how to play about with his subject[s] best ^w^ )b

[ all images are property of kaki ]

[ cosplay ] uriu : kobato hasegawa -reprise-

layer : Uriu
character : Kobato Hasegawa
series : Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai
score : *****

クックック！

finally ! the cosplay we've been looking forward to greatly since last week is finally here ! and behold this adorably cute kobato-get by our ultimate favorite layer uriu-san, a cosplay of which has been magnificently delivered with much precision in both execution and presentation-wise. and not to mention the outstanding level of attention paid to every inch / detail as present on the character.

once again a truly remarkable piece from uriu-san, just as how we has always been expecting from her since :3

[ cosplay ] uriu : kobato hasegawa

layer : Uriu
character : Kobato Hasegawa
series : Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai
score : pending

クックック！

unfortunately, this is the only image of uriu-san's kobato-get that is currently available for now. but fret not, for that only means that more will come soon, and we shall patiently wait for them to pop up somewhen soon :3

still we gotta write it down here that she looks really cute and adorable as kobato ♥ - really can't wait to see the rest of her cosplay as kobato x3

carnival phantasm

CARNIVAL PHANTASM
studio : Lerche
director : Seiji Kishi
serial run : August 12, 2011 - December 31, 2011
total episode : 12 + 2 extras
score : *****

carnival phantasm is a series of gag anime made of several short 'segment's compiled together into a number of brief episodes; usually below the 15 minutes mark. based on the gag manga series 'take-moon', the series focused on type-moon's two most prominent franchises - tsukihime and fate/stay night [ with added characters / materials from the melty blood arcade game series ] by subjecting all these series into a melting pot of parodies and intense jabs over the inside jokes often associated with type-moon creations and its growing fanbase.

in terms of plot and storytelling, carnival phantasm made very good use of its dynamic approach which resulted in the series being highly random at best - almost in the same vein as mayoi neko overrun ! [ the latter originally was a romantic comedy, but then reconstructed into a gag series by its revolving directors ]. but still carnival phantasm managed to closely maintain the consistency of its content well via its recurring 'segment's element which persisted in most of its episodes.

and for those unfamiliar with type-moon and its impressive media catalogue might end up becoming highly confused over what the hell has been happening within the entire span of this series. fans however [ excluding casual fans of whom might find themselves clueless against the plethora of inside jokes ] will discover their finest delight here as the series excellently provided good laughs and lighthearted anecdotes to the otherwise dark and grim series that both tsukihime and fate/stay night were.

anyway, the overall execution aspect of the series is very neat and impressive, from our perspective that is. both the art and animation were neat and consistent, as well as being very easy on the eyes and handsomely fluid without experiencing any noticeable decrease episode after episode. the overall character designs were absolutely gorgeous despite branching off greatly from the distinctive art style of takeuchi-sensei.

but of course, the greatest charm of carnival phantasm however went into the humor of the series; which were magnificently pulled off by the director himself [ never forget that this is the guy who directed the epic comedy - seto no hanayome for us :D ]

simply put, carnival phantasm is a fun and wholesomely entertaining series - with plenty of inside jokes and fanservices that would greatly appease every single type-moon fanboys / fangirls out there - though its a pity that fate/extra materials were excluded; else we'll be getting plenty of tamamo-chan on screen [ it was a good thing however that nero did made a brief appearance in taiga's segment ]. but anyway, we at +ophanium greatly endorse this series to any fans of anime out there, but most especially to longtime fans of type-moon works of course.

a-channel : ova release date announced

as tweeted by cowboybibimbop earlier, the release date for a-channel ova [ previously announced of its greenlighted status on august 21, 2011 ] has finally been confirmed to be march 21, 2012.



next on with a related news; well it has been announced a couple of days earlier that yuru yuri will resume its tv airing with a second season planned for next year. and according to the official site, the second season will be titled as yuru yuri ♪♪. [ sauce : moetron ]

[ figure of interest ] figma millhiore f. biscotti

character : Millhiore F. Biscotti
series : Dog Days
producer : Max Factory
official page : [ click ]

ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ｷﾀ━━━━━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━━━━━ !!!!!

zomg finally, the figma i've been looking forward to [ since getting alarmed of her existence a week prior ] is now open for pre-order. and having successfully pre-ordered two static pvc figures of her then [ with sole exception being her highly adorable nendoroid-get ], i'm so so so dying to obtain this figma millhi here for my growing figure collection. not to mention that having a millhi-hime that i can pose about in a wide variety of dynamic poses definitely sounded like a great idea for me.

from how i see it, figma millhi [ to me ] is one of the [ most ] cutest figma there is to date - so cute that i could immediately die from extreme moeverdose hoho :D . so anyway, as per other figma releases so far, figma millhi comes with a set of differing faceplates depicting differing facial expressions - all of which imbued with plenty of saccharine-level cuteness, as well as separate ear parts, her signature microphone and what written as 'bright power effect parts for her emblem arts' - which i assume is something akin to the magical circles seen in dog days' predecessor 'mahou shoujo lyrical nanoha'.

slated for april 2012 release, figma millhi-hime is currently open for pre-orders at the price of 3200 yen - inclusive of tax,

[ cosplay ] tocchi : kyoko toshino

layer : Tocchi
character : Kyoko Toshino
series : Yuru Yuri
score : ****1/2

RUM RAISINNN

a brief feature on the best toshino kyoko cosplay we could find yet. and by best, there has been none of which could stand up to our absurd standards until this of tocchi-san's appear.

tocchi-san's representation of kyoko by far is the best we've seen so far, altogether with memeko-san's cosplay of yui which we had featured on here much earlier. and with all due respect, these two cosplayers has given plenty of justice to their respective characters that we couldn't find any severe irregularities from their presentation, frankly speaking. and if, there really is any slight misfire[s] anywhere, well they both can easily be forgiven anyway.

[ all images are property of blue ]

[ cosplay ] memeko : yui funami

layer : Memeko
character : Yui Funami
series : Yuru Yuri
score : ****1/2

initially i planned to procrastinate a while longer following our latest intermission post that was submitted an hour earlier, but suddenly i stumbled upon these wonderful yuru yuri cosplay, and i couldn't resist myself from sharing them up with you folks in a haste.

the designs of yuru yuri characters are simple at best, but it requires you to understand the girls [ their personalities and quirks ] best in order to represent them correctly outside of their fictional realm. also, having the right kind of expressions and bodily gestures helps in adding forth a sense of perfection to the presentation / execution of these characters - all of which memeko-san has nicely achieved with this yui-get of hers :3

[ all images are property of blue ]

intermission : obligatory filter post, pt. 3

BEING A COMMITTED BLOGGER IS SUFFERING ;_____;

i have to admit that i always got distracted from updating this blog since; with all the blame primarily goes to twitter, video games, my day job and matters related to my band - leading me to procrastinate even more to my own frustration by the end of each month for not fulfilling the post / content quota our team has previously set upon the blog. not to mention that often times i got reminded of how hard it is to maintain a blog - especially one that is expected to be updated regularly each month - no matter how passionate i am with this hobby [ yes, blogging is just a hobby for me. nothing serious ].

anyway, if possible i'd like to put up something for share here - figures-related news aside - in the nearest time possible before christmas, and that will greatly depend on the availability of time and will at my disposal of course; as every single days of the week keep pressing me down with huge amount of stress and pressure enough to drain me off whatever i had to write or share in mind. and it doesn't help either that the remaining member of the team [ cough*zange*cough ] has elected not to participate in the writing process ( =w= )

thankfully we are not a dedicated news site, and so we are free to procrastinate just as much as we wanted xD . oh, and btw you can help restore my resolve in blogging by following us on twitter and / or being active on our facebook page :D

to everyone who has been supporting us all this time [ especially reizobaka aka bakaboredom ], we would like to express our deepest gratitude on behalf of the year 2011 - despite our constant lack of activities this year xP. anyway, may we continue to maintain our existence + presence through the next year that is to come !



p/s : this holiday season, tamamo-chan will be your host at +ophanium | the new minimalistic header design will be implemented from january 2012 onwards. and fumino will stay as our stolen-'mascot' of course :3

fate/extra ccc : alternate retelling, alternate costumes

initially announced a couple of months back, more details has been recently announced on famitsu in regard to the upcoming retelling of the dungeon-jrpg fate/extra, as well as showing forth a couple of early looks into the elegantly spunky new designs for the primary characters of the series. the story - set in the similar virtual world as the previous fate/extra were - will see a complex retelling that is slightly focused on the character sakura - previously a trivial npc within the original fate/extra; recreating a heaven's feel sort of tone for the story.

both saber bride and [ our dearest beloved ] caster caught our attention head on with their respective new and refreshing alternate look; the former retaining her ever-flowing sexual appeal with her wedding gown-inspired attire; reminiscing us of the design found on the gothic fiction 'trinity blood' - while the latter [ moe caster or tama-chan to most ] had us fully bewitched over her moetastic, hyper-cute gosurori [ goth-loli ] new look that further highlights her ever-glorious milkbuns; a great departure from her more traditional default look. hopefully, a pvc figure will be made on this gosurori tama-chan. hopefully !

fate/extra ccc will saw its release in japan on spring 2012.