Haruka Asamiya is bored with her school life and decided to have some fun by starting the UFO-dan together with Jun, Kurumi Kohinata and Miyu Nagase…

The game cost ï¿¥1,500 excluding tax. You can find some NSFW CGs on the official website. I need to find the time to obtain a copy of this from somewhere.

Anyway, as you can probably guess, I’ve been quite busy in the real world. I spent 80% of my waking hours during the weekends away from home and barely managed to clear the new episodes that came out last week. I have applied primer to my Miina, but that post will have to wait. I got home at, like, 10.30pm today because I was celebrating a classmate’s birthday. I still have undone school work due tomorrow. I want my hikikomori life back…

P.S. Something good will probably happen tomorrow and I may be blogging about it. :P

The entrance to doom and horror

Warning: Pictures may be extremely disturbing to the uninitiated.

Rei and Mana

Turn right (although no one in the right mind would do that since you’d be facing the wall) after stepping through the door and you’ll see two large Evangelion posters that identify me as a level 12 Eva fanboy. Mana is hawt. That’s a not-for-sale promotional poster for the PS1 version of Girlfriend of Steel. I found it at Mandarake Shibuya for ï¿¥200. Yay.

The lair

Right across the door is where I spend 90% of my waking hours, excluding school.

Generally I do my stuff on the main monitor. The secondary monitor is mostly for IRC, Winamp and some misc. widgets.

The rig below is a Pentium 3 with a dead HDD. I was using it to run Linux, but it’s dead now. At least until I move a HDD over.

A Coolmaster case. It’s so cool that the PVC figures above it have not melted yet. In fact, it’s so cool that there’s a penguin sitting on it.

Louise stands above my Creative subwoofer.

Behind is the promotional poster for Maaya Sakamoto‘s “Kazemachi JET” single. I have the one for Yunagi LOOP too, but it was damaged when I took it down during the packing. I failed as a Maaya fanboy. orz

I have no idea why the penguin is there. It just is.

My wallet’s coin compartment has a huge hole, so I took out all my coins. That’s a Mahora school crest on the keychain.

When she’s not on a holiday, Saber sits on my desk. Gao.

Behind Saber is a wallscroll of Tama-nee. It’s a promotional item from Messe Sanoh that came with the limited edition copy of ToHeart2 XRATED. I bought it from Lashinbang in Ikebukuro for ï¿¥2,000.

And now we come to the interesting part…the shelves…

The storage area belong Kasumi is where I dump everything that can’t be displayed. I should invest more in displayable stuff, like posters.

I seem to be missing some books. Oh well. Maybe they got lost in one of the bajillion boxes during the move. Hopefully they’ll turn up one day…

My “study” desk. Do you see any studying materials around? I think not.

My laptop. It’s trying and failing to boot Linux off a Live CD. Sigh…

My phone charging. HARUHIISM FOREVER!!!

My HP printer and, uh, some CDs… Okay this is getting lame. Let’s wrap up with some shots of the posters and pencil boards that are haphazardly pasted all over the place.

Melons are nice

The princesses

The girls with guns

Setsuna-chan!!! Too bad the game sucked

This phone card costs more than any single poster

So…uh…yeah, I like Lacus

A brave issue of Megami gave up its life

Pretty bad picture due to the poor lighting (that or I just suck)

And finally…

FEEEEEEEEEEENA!!!!!!

Everyone knows that I have a thing against displaying posters with folds, but Feena is an exception. :3

BTW my room is defended by a USB missile launcher. So don’t even think about it!

View the rest of the pictures in the gallery.

I’m sure everyone knows and loves Rei, but what the heck is 絶対領域? Answer lies after the break.

絶対領域 (zettai ryouiki) literally means “absolute territory”. It is used in Evangelion for Absolute Terror Field (AT Field) which powers the Eva units. Although the term “absolute terror” was derived from Sigmund Freud‘s writings, “zettai ryouiki” was first used by Eva and has absolutely no relationship to “absolute terror” in psychology. (Absolutely. Get it? LOL!…nvm)

And right now, zettai ryouiki has almost nothing to do with Evangelion either, although it is frequently printed in the same style as it appeared in Evangelion (pictured above) as a form of homage. In fact, 絶対領域 today has more to do with knee socks than angst-filled mecha pilots.

Here’s a typical example of the zettai ryouiki.

絶対領域

In the online Japanese geek lingo, “zettai ryouiki” refers to the area of uncovered thigh between the skirt and the knee sock. It can be found in almost any moé-type game or anime. It’s considered a moé attribute, just like nekomimi, megane and tsundere.

絶対領域

The presence of zettai ryouiki requires socks that go above the knees. Thus in the above picture, Tama-nee (red hair) is the only girl with it. In fact, Tama-nee from ToHeart2 is well-known for her awesome zettai ryouiki. :P

絶対領域

Another well-known zettai ryouiki belongs to Rin Tohsaka from Fate/stay night.

絶対領域

Pretty much all maid characters with short skirts have zettai ryouiki, such as the girls from He is My Master. Here’s a Mitsuki cosplayer.

絶対領域

Akiba-blog regularly goes around checking out the cosplayers at Akihabara for zettai ryouiki.

In fact, zettai ryouiki has become a science. According to Hatena Diary, the golden ratio for the ultimate zettai ryouiki is 4:1:2.5 (length of skirt : zettai ryouiki : length of socks above knee) and the acceptable margin for error is ±25％. The ratios are generally off because it is thought that the ultimate zettai ryouiki would generate so much moé that the equivalent energy would be enough to vaporize the planet.

絶対領域

While the term was originally used in Evangelion, it was not until the new millennium before zettai ryouiki was first used in its current context. According to Wikipedia, it was apparently used in reference to a desktop mascot program in the creator’s blog on 21 March 2001 and took off after becoming a web meme and subsequently referred to in various doujinshi.

絶対領域

Banpresto (a division of Namco Bandai Holdings and the makers of Super Robot Wars) registered 絶対領域 as a trademark under digital media last year but it is unknown whether it is related to Evangelion, for which they have the rights to develop games.

絶対領域

And not too long ago, COSPA released an event-limited zettai ryouiki shirt which I have yet to find.

The subtitle of Broccoli’s Galaxy Angel II for PS2 is 絶対領域の扉 (zettai ryouiki no tobira) or “Door of the Absolute Territory”. I wonder what that means? <_<

絶対領域

In conclusion, 絶対領域 are cool. <3 Tama-nee

This ends yet another useless post brought to you by DM.

More pictures to follow.

Nanaka Shirakawa teacup from COSPA!

I have a confession to make: I am a huge Nanaka fanboy. *gasp* I know, I know, it’s a shocking revelation. But it’s really a nice teacup… orz. I mean, come on, Nanaka in her hatsumode kimono and Chibi Nanaka on the reverse side, that’s a sure-fire recipe for fanboy overloading.

Thanks to Kieth Keith from KKnM for helping me secure it. I love that store. Everyone should buy from them. (Do I get discounts for this?)

If you don’t live in Singapore, you can always get Nanaka online from HLJ for ï¿¥800.

Moving on…

It’s Lacus Clyne! Lacus-sama! Lacus-sama! Lacus-sama!

Confession No.2: I am a huge Lacus fanboy. *more gasps* This 1/8 PVC figure from Megahouse’s RAH DX series returns Lacus to her somewhat lolilicious younger appearance from the original SEED.

As is mandated by Japanese industrial laws, she comes with removable skirts. Haruhi bless Japan.

Or you can leave only the top part of her skirt on to get a pseudo miniskirt. Mmmm… Human ingenuity reaches new heights.

One last look at her purplish-pink pantsu. Mmmmmm… And a pink Haro. Don’t forget the pink Haro.

You can get Lacus from HLJ for ï¿¥4,000.

Kasumi was an impulse buy. I don’t even like Dead Or Alive. This 1/6 figure of her from Max Factory originally came in blue, followed by white. Black is the top secret colour variation obtainable only by cool people like me. Yup.

Unfortunately, she’s probably sold out online, except maybe on some way overpriced websites. It’s quite an old release after all.

Just look at those nice-looking… strands of hair. Uh. Yeah. Those.

If you live in Singapore, you can get her from Urban Attic located on the 5th floor of Funan. Unlike tj han and tsubaki, you probably won’t get any discounts for mentioning my blog. :3

And of course, Mahoro. You can see the nice pictures here and buy her from HLJ for ï¿¥10,000.

Some pictures of the bike without Mahoro.

And on a final note: ALL YOUR FIGURES ARE BELONG TO CHINA!

Forget it. 400px wide content div it is. GAO!

I also tweaked the layout here and there and added a tagging system. Now all I need to do is to blog more often… :P

BTW the RSS feed from Danny is part of his “Featured Feeds” initiative.

I present to you my greatest masterpiece ever, after the jump.

otaku lifestyle crisis

～ fin. ～

＿|￣|O

Just take a look at these posters that have been found stuck to lamp posts along Akihabara. (Original post by Akiba-blog)

They all depict a cosplaying gaijin with the words “Baka Gaijin” over them. Baka bakka~

Image taken from Akiba-blog

I have to chalk this up as a fake: those fonts are nicely formatted and we all know that Japanese people can’t Photoshop for nuts! (Just take a look at 2ch, yuck) Those who can are probably too busy slaving away in office cubicles drawing the next episode of Naruto to find time to stick posters in Akihabara. :P

For those of you in Tokyo now, the lamp post in question is located right outside Gamers Honten. Go take more pics!!!

Interestingly, some other anonymous person has pasted replies to this with posters saying “I love Baka Gaijin“, ain’t that sweet. They love you!…

…but you are still stupid. XD

Read on for the transliteration and original:

Let me tell you a story.

/me walks past the new releases.
Me: “ZOMG Honey & Clover final volume!”
*Honey & Clover Vol.10 get*
/me walks past the magazine shelf.
*Newtype October get*
/me walks to Japanese counter to place order.
Staff member A is busy attending to another customer (who, coincidentally, is from my school).
/me waits.
Staff member B: “Excuse me, are you Mr. (my name)?”
/me goes wtf?
Me: “Ermmm… yeah.”
Staff member B: “The book you ordered has arrived. Do you wish to collect it today?”
/me looks at the book. It’s Genshiken Vol.8.
Me: “Okay, sure.”
/me takes a few minutes to fish out the correct order slip from my wallet.
*Genshiken Vol.8 get*
Staff member A is done and I finally get to place my order.

You know you spend too much on manga when you have six Kinokuniya order slips in your wallet and the counter person knows you by name.

Anyway, I’m somewhat disappointed with Honey & Clover‘s ending. Somehow it lacked the impact that I expected. The ending is… unfulfilling-ly realstic. That’s how I would put it. The unrelated short story 「星のオペラ」 (The Stars’ Opera) that was included as the last chapter is quite good, though.

Sad to say I own the entire series of that book

So the question is… What should I die for?

Item No.1

D.C. II – Nanaka Shirakawa mousepad + phonecard set

• Price: 3,500 yen
• Probably more since they don’t ship overseas and I have to use a middleman.
• Mousepad size: 190mm x 220mm

Everyone knows that I am a Nanaka fanboy. The design used by the phonecard is, in my opinion, the best CG of her in the game. I want this bad. The other D.C. II girls are also available from Chara-Ani.

Item No.2

D.C. II – Nanaka Shirakawa limited edition Zippo lighter

• Price: 7,000 to 10,000 yen
• Probably more since it’s Yahoo Auctions
• Officially licensed Zippo lighters
• Sold during Comiket 70
• Only 300 made, each with a serial number

I don’t smoke. I don’t collect lighters. BUT THIS IS JUST WAY TOO COOL. (Okay, maybe my definition of “cool” is a bit off) Each lighter has its unique serial number, which tickles my inner collector soul. The original retail price at Comiket was 6,000 yen, so Yahoo Auction prices aren’t too bad. Yet. (Just wait till a D.C. II anime is announced) Oh so tempting…

Item No.3

1/20 Tachikoma from Megahouse

• Release Date: Feb 2007
• Price: 10,000 yen
• Made of ABS
• Multiple articulations
• 130mm tall

I am lazy. I bought the 1/24 Tachikoma model kit last year and have yet to open the box. This however is pre-built, bigger and cooler. The only catch is that it’s a few times the price of the original too.

Item No.4

School Rumble – Yakumo Tsukamoto pillow cover from COSPA
School Rumble – Eri Sawachika pillow cover from COSPA

• Release Date: 20/11/2006
• Price: 9,000 yen each

Wait! I know what you are thinking… Take a deep breath. Relax. Anyway, COSPA quality is worth the money. But as much as I like Yakumo and Eri, they are not exactly my favourite characters of all time. Still, somewhat interested.

Item No.5

Want to buy: money-printing machine plz!

Anyway, considering the fact that I’ve already pre-spent most of my money for the next year or so, I think I need to think carefully about this and not make any rash deci…

…Oh fuck it. Nanaka is calling for me!