Category Archives: Rakuen Suihou

Housekeeping, Expelled, Lantis Festival Vegas

I think I’m going to pre-order these three from CD Japan for early next year. So I’ll link them here for my own benefit (lol aff links):

  • WUG Best Collection – If we think of idols as a music industry thing, then I’m totally not a fan in the sense that I don’t buy the CD/BD stuff. Just merch. Kind of like how people feel about WUG regardless of the anime. Anyway, grab all/most of their songs here.
  • Haramii’s First Live BD – Mainly for the tokutens, but Haramii is lovely anyway.
  • IM@S CG St@rter Best – 14 existing chara songs on one disk, featuring the main 14 idols the anime will focus on.

And a few recent items:

I’ve been pretty delinquent with buying crap this year. More like, the crap I buy are not the usual stuff. They tend to be (equally) worthless things like doujinshi or happi from events I didn’t go to. What can I say besides they are swag? Like, they are swag, not that they are swag.

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Angela rotated

I went to see Expelled from Paradise, the 3DCG movie directed by Seiji Mizushima and created/written by Urobuchi. The movie comes from Graphinica, which is probably best noted these days as a photography and CG studio for some Aniplex shows (they worked on both moviem@s and anim@s). This season they’re doing the CG for Your Lie in April. They’re also credited for the memorable transformation scene in Penguindrum.

What sticks out more to me is that Itano is the chief CG action guy. You won’t see it here but he has a team just on all the action CGs. And it really shows. Like, REALLY. If you’re a fan of Itano’s action choreo and designs, it’s a must watch because the movie follows a very predictable Hollywood-ish plot (ie., lots of opportunity for eye candy and action sequences), and the second half of the movie had a couple awesome, jawdropping cuts. At least for me anyways.

When I saw the credits at the end I was having a Shirobako moment.

On a less technical note, Mizushima’s movie unloads all his tricks. It’s bang-bang all the way, although towards the end I’m not sure if the film has laid it enough on in the first 90 minutes to get “corny” on us. It has all the tricks you would expect a Japanese mainstream movie, except the crafting feels still like an Urobochi film, which means basically it’s as subtle and as graceful as a raging bull.

The main character in the movie is a kinpatsu twintail teenage tsundere with large jugs, voiced by Kugyuu. OK, now point out the one thing in my previous sentence that don’t belong. That is basically the problem of Expelled from Paradise allegorically.

Oh, before I give the wrong idea, Expelled from Paradise is a Toei animation film, even if it’s still mostly Graphinica? It’s also not all 3DCG, there are some 2D animation (mainly faces). It tickles my funny bones a bit, like how Karen Senki sometimes is too cartoony for the feel of the show.

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The PR engine in Lantis Fest Vegas is in full swing. I know because I’m getting PRs and Otakon is actually tweeting something about them. I also know because there’s a “rumors” channel I’m a part of and someone even got a part-time gig to canvas forums, SNS and sites with Lantis Fest Vegas stuff.

I also know because now I see those silly preview videos for Otakon Vegas/Lantis Fest. Com’on Otakon you can do better than this. Das Feenreich needs a bigger PR budget. It’s all but confirmed, but Sunday at Otakon Vegas there will be some panel or signing or whatever. We’ll see.

Sushio at the con, hopefully, means a jolly time.