Category Archives: Catch-up Corner

Catch-Up Corner: Schick x Attack on Titan, #PuzzleMonth Update

I don’t think I need to reiterate my love for weird Japanese collaboration campaigns, but in case you’re new around here: I love Japanese collaboration campaigns! Even if it’s a collaboration featuring two products/franchises I’m not really interested in, a limited-time promotional campaign always catches my interest. Luckily for me, however, this new crazy Japanese campaign features Attack on Titan, an anime that, while it had its issues, I quite enjoyed when it aired!

I can’t say I’m as big a fan of shaving hygiene, but this Schick x Attack on Titan campaign is amazing. They even have a series of three promotional videos on their website with dorky redubbed anime footage with tons of funny voiceovers! The real purpose of the campaign, of course, is to get people to buy Schick razors, so they’re offering six little Attack on Titan figures which will be packaged in different razor products:

I’ll admit, I wouldn’t be adverse to owning a little Levi holding shaving razors instead of his usual weaponry! Schick is even offering razor stands with more realistically-proportioned Mikasa and Levi figures. Poor protagonist Eren has been kicked out of the limelight, I guess!

I still have time to decide if I’m going to seek out one of the cute mini figures or not…. But even if you can’t get your hands on them, I highly recommend poking around the official website for this collaboration if you’re looking for a laugh!

Pretty pleased with that score. #PuzzleMonth pic.twitter.com/8m5G4UsXLv
— Adam Lee (@Shiroth) June 2, 2014

Since June’s Community Game-Along theme is everything puzzle-related, I’ve been trying to get in a few puzzle games whenever I have a few free minutes. As always, it’s great to see everyone joining in the fun! So far, I’ve played a little of Tetris with Card Captor Sakura: Eternal Heart (it’s just like the title says, Card Captor Sakura Tetris!) and some of the new PS Vita rhythm puzzle game developed by Arc System Works, Magical Beat. I also reviewed the iOS puzzle game rainblocks, which is free to play and both looks and sounds great. I highly suggest checking it out if you have an iOS device and would like to try something for #PuzzleMonth!

Finally, I still have one code left for subaku for iOS to give away! Head over the the June Game-Along information post to see how you can claim it!

Catch-Up Corner: E3 Announcements and Japanese Treats Subscription Service

Phew! It’s already the start of a new week here in Australia, but I’m going to squeeze a Catch-Up Corner in before the clock strikes twelve in the last area of the world where it’s still Sunday.

Since this past week was all about the big E3 conference in the gaming world, I couldn’t help but tune in to some of the news and streams. For the most part, E3 doesn’t really feel like an event that caters to someone like me, but I was really impressed at how Nintendo came out guns blazing to announce a bunch of interesting titles and produce the most fun “conference” of the big three. I’m sure everyone has had their fill of E3 news and recaps (I know I have), so here’s a few quick favorites of mine from the show:

Splatoon (Wii U) – First of all, what a charming idea! Splatoon is a third-person “shooter” that pits cute little squid children against each other in paint splattering fights, and I couldn’t be more charmed by a game. I just love the premise of hurling paint to “claim” territory, and the fact that the characters can transform into actual squids to quickly traverse the area is such a neat mechanic. I wouldn’t go so far as to say this would sell me on a Wii U, but I’d definitely pick it up if I had one.

Fantasy Life (3DS) – Long have I awaited the day that Level 5 would announce a localization of Fantasy Life, their Animal Crossing-esque life sim/RPG for the 3DS. I could very well have purchased the Japanese version, but it’s always great to see interesting titles like this get an English release. The game will be out on October 24th, and I definitely plan on grabbing a copy.

Final Fantasy Type-0 HD (PS4 & Xbox One) – I have rather mixed feelings about this news, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t one of the more exciting announcements to come out of E3. Fans have been clamoring for an English version of Final Fantasy Type-0 (PSP) for ages, but I had pretty much given up hope and even have a copy of the Japanese version sitting on my shelf from my last trip to Japan. An HD release sounds like the perfect way to bring it to an English-speaking audience while still keeping the game on relevant platforms, but I just don’t understand why there isn’t a Vita version like Square Enix did for Final Fantasy X|X-2 HD! I’m most definitely not buying a PS4 or Xbox One anytime soon, so I think I’ll just have to stick with the Japanese PSP version. It’s great news for those with the hardware, though!

On the video front, I’ve posted an unboxing of a new Japanese snack subscription service, aptly named Japanese Treats! This is their first month, and I have to say, I’m really impressed with the initial selection of goodies. Please do check out the unboxing video to see what I got, and you can expect a full review of their service this week!

… And now I enter crunch time, as I’ve got a seminar to do on Friday! After that it will be relatively smooth sailing until I head to Japan on July 12th!

Catch-Up Corner: Regional Hello Kitty Blendy Stick Flavors, Yowamushi Pedal, and Website Woes

Ah, there’s nothing quite like a long weekend after a endlessly stressful week! This Monday is the Queen’s Birthday public holiday here in Queensland (though apparently her actual birthday isn’t in June at all), and while I don’t feel any particular fondness for the monarchy even though I live in a Commonwealth nation now, I tip my proverbial hat at Her Majesty for the day off. 
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There are two other things you could say I have quite the fondness for, however: Japanese collaboration campaigns and regional merchandise. That makes this new Blendy stick x Hello Kitty series is a real double whammy for me. Not only is the Blendy stick instant coffee/tea brand teaming up with Hello Kitty, but their new series of drinks are regional flavors only available in certain areas! Isn’t the packaging fabulous?

Unfortunately from the looks of the official shop listing, these may be rather hard to find depending on where in Japan you visit. There’s only one shop in Tokyo that carries any of these, and it’s the bottom middle Tochiotome Strawberry Café au Lait! The Tochiotome strawberry is a specialty of Tochigi prefecture, where the Tochiotome Blendy sticks will be primarily sold. The other flavors will be featured in other popular Japanese tourist destinations – check out the company’s website for the complete list.

via @acosmos

I don’t always talk about what anime I’m currently watching, but I’m going to try to remedy that! Hopefully this new weekend column will be the perfect opportunity to write a paragraph or two about whatever’s currently caught my fancy.

This week, I started Yowamushi Pedal, a shōnen bicycle anime currently at episode 34 of a 38-episode season. From what I understand, it’s pretty popular in Japan, and has already been renewed for a second season. Like many male sports anime, it also happens to have a large female fanbase, many of whom like to pair up the male characters with one another in fan-written dōjinshi… I must admit, that aspect of the series is one of the reasons why I was initially drawn to it, as I’m always looking for new things that I can relate to my thesis (not that I’m running out of stuff to cover…).

The first two episodes hooked me right away, I really like the relatively slow build the series takes to get the main character interested in the sport we all know he ultimately becomes obsessed with. The main character, Onoda, is also an otaku, and unlike the vast majority of media that depicts male otaku as moe-obsessed creeps, he is an extremely loveable protagonist who comes across as a very genuine shy teenager that I personally relate to pretty strongly. For me to relate to a character in a series that’s 90% about boys and sports is a pretty amazing feat! That said, I was a little disappointed to see the show fall into fairly stereotypical plot and character tropes as it developed. Since I’m only on episode 7, I hope it surprises me again sooner rather than later! I know quite a people who think pretty highly of it, so I’m willing to stick with it a while longer.

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If you’re reading this, you already know that Chic Pixel is back to residing at chicpixel.blogspot.com temporarily, but I just wanted to give another update on the situation: since chic-pixel.com is down, the podcast feed is no longer working, either. It looks like everything will likely be offline until the 12th as the domain is being transfered to a new host (long story). Disqus is also broken, which means all previous comments aren’t showing up right now, but I think once I start up the redirect again I should be able to fix it so they all reappear. Fingers crossed that my Google ranking and whatnot won’t be totally ruined by the time the site is back. Thanks for sticking with me through the move!

Catch-up Corner: Aoba Seragaki figure re-release, #PuzzleMonth, and some site maintenance

Here it is, the first weekend of my new “bits and bobs” series, Catch-up Corner! Since I often find there are a lot of things I want to talk about but don’t have enough to say to quite fill up a regular post, these weekly posts will be a place for me to touch on some little tidbits I’ve found interesting or keep you updated with what I’m up to. I hope you enjoy it!

The biggest news of my week has got to be the announcement that Max Factory will be re-releasing their scaled figure of Aoba Seragaki from the BL visual novel DRAMAtical Murder! They’ve been teasing this one for a long time, and since he was released before I got into figure collecting and is currently fetching prices of $300+, there was simply no way I would have been able to purchase him before. Granted, even his first release retailed at ¥14,095 (about $140), so the likelihood that I will break down and buy the re-release is probably nearly as low, but I like to dream that I might be able to get my hands on him someday. Maybe I should set my sights on something a little more affordable, like the Free! or Uta no Prince-sama boys…

Next, an embarrassing admission: it’s already June 1st here in Australia and I haven’t done an official announcement for June’s Community Game-Along theme! For those of you who like to get started right away, here it is: puzzles! Be sure #PuzzleMonth to share your experiences and chat with other participants on your favorite social medial of choice. If you’re at a loss to what game you should play, a post will be going up tomorrow with a handful of suggestions along with the usual Game-Along guidelines. And if you want to plan even further ahead, mark your calendar for #JRPGJuly!

I’d also like to let everyone know that Chic Pixel is going through a little bit of a move at the moment, and as a result there may be some hiccups over the next week. If you find any broken links, have troubles with the podcast, or have any other issues you notice, please let me know by leaving a comment here or messaging me on Twitter! If all goes well, you shouldn’t even notice anything. Fingers crossed!