Ah, Halloween! The time of ghosts, goblins, and all things orange. As an adult, I’ve had to get a little creative with how I celebrate this spooky holiday (they won’t let me trick or treat anymore, fancy that). How do I manage to do it in true Chic Pixel fashion? Read on to see the four things that make up my perfect Halloween, and let me know how you celebrate in the comments!
As a rule, I try not to buy many scale figures (talk about expensive!), but after I saw Altair’s Rin Matsuoka sculpt, there was no way I could resist. I preordered him in a heartbeat and pined away many months until he finally arrived on my doorstep late in September.
Of course, a new scale figure calls for a new unboxing video! I try to show off all the details in my latest video, so if you’re interested in this figure, I highly encourage you to give it a watch:
Unfortunately, it seems like there is an ongoing problem with this particular figure, which I only found out after browsing user comments at My Figure Collection. Multiple people have reported that there is a small, yet noticeable, gap between one of Rin’s feet and his swimsuit. Low and behold… Mine has it too! I probably wouldn’t have noticed this if I hadn’t seen complaints from others, which may be a cautionary tale in not reading comments, but it also goes to show that I don’t inspect my figures with the true eye of a collector. Luckily it’s not a particularly glaring flaw, but it’s likely the reason why Rin is still available for sale, despite the other Free! Haruka and Makoto figures selling out so quickly they needed re-releases.
Regardless, I’m still very happy! Would a flaw like this ruin your appreciation of a figure?
I’m quickly realizing that it’s going to take a lot of willpower not to just feature amazing artists in my spotlights every week! There are simply too many awesome people out there making art, whether it be fan art or otherwise Makku of Abstract Cactus is an artist I’ve been following for over a year now, and she stands out in particular for a really eye-catching, signature style.
Like Romy, who I featured the other week, Makku is a big fan of otome games. Head over to her Tumblr and you’ll quickly realize that Hakuoki is her otome game of choice, but she also has many illustrations of other popular nerdy characters. Some of my personal favorites include Lina and Naga from Slayers sharing a parfait and a slightly unsettling Hatoful Boyfriend birthday image. I also can’t neglect to mention the gorgeous Masato Hijirikawa (from Uta no Prince-sama) fan art she drew for my birthday last year!
Okay, so if it wasn’t obvious already, I’m totally partial to Makku’s work. Be sure to give her a follow on Tumblr and Twitter if you are, too! She’s also currently open for commissions right now and in need of money to pay some medical bills, so if you like her work, do consider hiring her to draw your favorite character!
Let me tell you, I can’t get enough Show By Rock!!. I wrote about one Show By Rock!! café collaboration earlier this year, but this time around, the adorable app/anime series is teaming up with an entirely different venue: Dohton Bori. The okonomiyaki chain will be offering an exclusive Show By Rock!! menu through November 8th, and they’ve even decked out the members of Plasmagica and Shingancrimsonz in appropriate attire. The menu doesn’t look too shabby, either:
I’ve finally ventured into the world of video tutorials! I’ve been meaning to try my hand at recording games on my iPhone, and the newly-released free to play smartphone game Yowamushi Pedal: Puchitto Racers seemed like the perfect opportunity. Since I haven’t seen much discussion of the game in English, I thought it would be helpful to do a tutorial on how to play. Watch and learn!
If you want to download the game for iOS, I have a tutorial on how to easily switch your iTunes account to a Japanese one. Unfortunately I’m not very familiar with Android devices, but if you have one and know how to download Japanese games, please share your method in the comments!
I had a lot of fun doing this video but I’d really like some feedback as to whether or not this is something you’d like to see more of. Would you like more how to play videos or highlights of interesting apps available in Japanese? Let me know! Also, if you enjoyed this video, please share it with your friends! It takes hours to record and edit videos like these, so any support will be a major boost to my confidence and help me make more in the future. Thanks everyone!
I can’t stress enough how much I am loving the current 90s shōjo revival! Of course there’s the always-popular Sailor Moon, but over the past year or two, we’ve also been seeing classics such as Magic Knight Rayearth, Revolutionary Girl Utena, and Cardcaptor Sakura receive a slew of all new merchandise and fun promotional items. And when a new line of affordable Cardcaptor Sakura necklaces popped up for preorder on Ami Ami, I immediately jumped on the opportunity. If it were up to me, I’d probably own necklaces of every magical girl trinket I could get my hands on!
If there’s anything I love more than a good themed café, it’s a good themed café of a property I’m really into! I literally just spoke of my newfound love for Show By Rock!! in the last episode of Chic Pixel Plus, so this café announcement would be perfect timing… if I lived in Japan. But alas, I do not, so once again I am reduced to swooning over all of the awesome creations concocted for this exciting new café. Care to join me?