Wonder Festival is an amazing bi-yearly event for fans of Japanese figures, and this year’s winter Wonder Festival was no different! Just like last year, I wanted to round up some of my favorite announcements from the event. For the full rundown of all of the announcements from all the major companies, I highly recommend checking out Plastikitty’s Wonder Festival 2018 Winter coverage. Now, on to my own personal highlights!
Oh, 2017! I don’t think I’m the only one who was ready for 2017 to be over come December 31st. At the same time, there were a couple of really great things that happened to me in 2017! In lieu of separate favorite games/anime/whatever of 2017 posts, I’ve decided to round up all my favorites into an all-encompassing Best of 2017 post. I’ll share my favorite media of the year, but also some personal milestones, favorite products, and blog posts. I know it’s a little late, but I hope you enjoy it all the same!
Who doesn’t love pins these days? It seems like pins are all the rage with independent artists lately, and I’m not complaining! There’s no shortage of cute geeky pins available, but one of my personal favorite companies is Soul Piece Labs. I’ve purchased five pins from them now, and I figured it was high time I did a proper review!
Many years ago, I stumbled upon this Japanese Sailor Moon Sailor Stars coloring book by Seika – so long ago, in fact, that I don’t even remember where I got it! It’s been through some rough times, as it didn’t come with the stickers the cover says should be inside, and I managed to spill water on it at some point. Luckily, only the cover got really wet, and it’s not really noticeable!
Of course, there was no way I was ever going to actually color in this collector’s item. I’ve always been meaning to scan in the images so I could print them out and color to my heart’s content. Now that I’ve finally gotten around to it, I wanted to share those scans with all of you!
The holiday season is coming up fast, so that means it’s time for a new Chic Pixel Holiday Gift Guide! Each year I round up my favorite cute and nerdy gift suggestions for every budget. This year, I’ve decided to break my suggestions into two categories: “For the Video Game Fan” and “For the Anime Fan.” Many of the links included are affiliate links, so by clicking on them to make your holiday purchases, you’re also helping to support Chic Pixel! Thanks for spreading the holiday cheer!
This post was made possible by Kit, who purchased me a copy of Death Parade from my Amazon wishlist to review. Thanks so much! For more information on how to sponsor a Chic Pixel review, click here.
I originally became aware of what would eventually become the Death Parade anime through “Death Billiards,” an animated short produced by Madhouse for the Young Animator Training Project’s 2013 Anime Mirai festival. The premise is that whenever someone dies, they are sent to a bar run by an arbiter who judges souls to decide whether someone will be sent to “heaven” or “hell.” While each bar is different, arbiter Decim’s bar is where two souls who passed away at the same time are sent. When they arrive, their bodies are in such shock that they often don’t remember everything about themselves, let alone the fact that they are dead. In order to best judge each person’s character, Decim pits his patrons against one another in various games, from billiards to darts and even fighting games.
These days, you can buy almost anything from Japan your heart desires online, but there’s one kind of item that’s always been particularly hard to find: Gachapon! Because gachapon toys are generally only sold through machines that spit out a random capsule toy, living outside of Japan means you miss out of the surprise of putting a few hundred yen into a machine, turning the knob, and waiting with baited breath to see what comes out… But with Tokyo Gacha World, a subscription box dedicated to gachapon, you can experience the delight of receiving random gachapon every month!