2008 I could say was a huge change in my life towards anime and the Otaku culture. I had been apart of the online community Dannychoo for a few months by the time 2008 had rolled around so I knew quiet a bit about anime related good but never had gotten any besides a couple figures and some Gundam models. When I finally got my own debit card since I’m still in High School and living with my mom I was able to have more freedom on what to buy than I did before. Before this most of the money that was spent on anime relate stuff was spent on mangas and dvd boxsets but after getting it I started to buy more figures, and character goods. Two purchases that I made online and offline which I’m most proud of were the Chihiro Shindou and Hinagiku Katsura Dakimakura’s. They were the first non figure/manga/dvd anime related purchase I had ever made. When I saw the Chihiro Shindou dakimakura I thought “Must buy!” because I was a huge and still am Chihiro fan. I didn’t know at the time it was actually a limited edition dakimakura that came with the preorder of ef the latter tale visual novel.

My friend and family members think I have certain “issues” because of the amount of figures and character goods like Dakimakura’s I purchase.

Finally in the otaku world I experienced this past year was the creations known as Visual Novels. To most who do bare minimum research think that they’re Hentai games. To an extant that’s true as a lot of them do have H-scenes in them but not all are H-games. Over the course of 2008 I played both Demonbane Visual novels, Chaos;Head, Imouto Pet, ef the first tale, ef the latter tale, Wanko to Kurasou, Ever17 and Planetarian. The time spent on them was staggering. I remember thinking I’d be able to go through two routes in Ever17 in one night but they were so long it took me 2 days to do the two routes. Overall it was a great experience and I plan on playing more in the 2009 year.

Mizuki imagining Chihiro sleeping on a bench

Hidamari Sketch centers around a young girl named Yuno who finally is able to get accepted into Yamabuki Art High School, which she has longed for. To attend the school, Yuno moves and starts to live in a small apartment building named the Sunshine Apartments located near the school. Once there, she starts making new friends like her classmate Miyako and the second year students, Hiro and Sae. The events of the characters’ everyday lives are shown as they attend the school together and get to know each other better.
x365 is a sequel and isn’t in some aspects as a couple episodes actually take place before some of the episodes of the first series.

Detroit Metal City was certainly a great show in itself too. Show follows Negishi a musician who likes Swedish Pop but is pretty much forced into playing in a Metal band by the Names of Detroit Metal City. In DMC he is the lead singer and guitar player known as Johannes Krauser II. The longer he stays in the band the harder it is for him to keep his secret about playing in DMC from everyone he cares about and the Krauser Persona starts to pop up when he’s around them too.

Now for the worst of the season in my opinion.

Code Geass R2 was just so terrible I thought of it as the same level of crap that was known as Gundam Seed Destiny. I actually semi enjoyed the first season of Code Geass because the mecha used weren’t really bull shit and it was more Real Robot than Super Robot even though Lelouch had the Geass. R2 went down faster than America’s economy that’s how bad it was. Everyone had their own personal Knightmare and they were so over powered not even an army of grunt Knightmares could do anything. They try for the whole “What TWEEST” end each episode still and it got worse and worse each time. Needless to say I wish I had the time back I spent on this series. Doesn’t even deserve a picture or video that’s how bad it was.

Now on to the Good but were Let Downs of 2008.
I remember counting down the days til ef a tale of melodies started airing the day after I finished up ef a tale of memories. I was so moved by ef a tale of memories I was expecting the same level from melodies as I got from memories. Needless to say I was sorely mistaken. I didn’t baw until around episode 9 or 10 in melodies where as in memories it was a constant stream around episode 6. I still enjoyed melodies but it was a disappointment in my books.

Another big let down was Macross Frontier. I remember marathoning all the Macross series in the few weeks up to Macross Frontier’s start and after all the watching I did I was expecting a lot as I enjoyed all the previous series even Macross 7. The first 7 or so episodes were great but then it just kind of stopped…From 8 uptil 16 or 17 the plot had made no progression at all and then they rushed the ending. I was extremely annoyed with the fact they killed off Michel when he was the best character out of the less than stellar cast of characters. Was glad I took my time finishing up this series as it wasn’t that great.

Over all I was extremely disappointed in what had aired in the year 2008. From the early looks of what’s coming up in 2009 the only thing I will end up watching is Tower of Druaga Sword of Uruk and the Second season of Hayate no Gotoku.

Currently and pretty much forever artsnow is having a sale on custom mouse pads where you add an image to a mouse pad and order it. Without the coupon it’s around $6.99-7.99 for one without shipping but with the coupon the mouse pad drops from that price to $2.99 along with free shipping and it doesn’t matter how many you order they’re $2.99 each and free shipping. That being said a lot of mixed feelings regarding artsnow are out there about them losing the orders. I ordered my mouse pad knowing the risk but thought “it’s only $2.99 who cares” so I ordered it. Around two weeks later I get a package in the mail and it’s the mouse pad.

The mouse pad itself is of great quality for $2.99. Felt better than the one I used to have that was around $5.

Link to the mouse pad area: Mouse Pad
Coupon code: MSPD99

When I opened up the box that contained her I got a huge wiff of that new figure smell.  Being a huge fan of Macross and of Klan Klan in general, I had to get this figure.  The figure is exellently detailed and on my figure there were no mess ups from the mass production of the figure.    Her boots are extremely shinny for some reason but no complaints there.  Her hair is so long they had to seperate one of the locks of hair when packaging her or else the box would have been bigger than it already was.   The face is really well done, I’m anal when it comes to the face of a figure because if the face is messed up it ruins the whole figure for me.  For the $56.19 I paid for it, it was well worth the price.