Buffalostyle...reads...

That's right. There are quite a few manga that I have in my hold slot at the 'ol Gimme Anime (buffalostyle's "Official" anime shop). Roger hooks me up with something new pretty much every week. What's on tap for me this week???
Shonen Junai Gumi (aka: GTO: The Early Years)Ah, what fun this manga is. It follows the main character of Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO), Eikichi Onizuka, in his adventures as a high school student. There is quite a bit of action, drama and comedy. In fact, I find myself laughing out loud quite often when reading this story. Basically, Onizuka is something of a leader of a gang who is constantly getting into fights to protect his territory and his friends. Former foes become good friends and several near misses with "getting" a girlfriend ensue. Anywho, I just finished reading volume 8 of this series and it had me rolling on lunch at work today.
Cliff Notes: Eikichi finishes off a fight with a tough guy who wants to resurrect a former gang that controlled the town that they all live in. Ryuji (the second half of the famous Oni-Baku duo) gets a girlfriend and moves in with her. Some toughs from Yokohama begin beating up people from Shonan saying that they are looking for some competition. Mistaken identity leads to a knockdown-dragout brawl between Onizuka and another party from Yokohama. Meanwhile Onizuka has a nice (FUNNY) exchange with Hank the pr0n dealer. Classic!!!

Next up is Grenadier..Basically, Grenadier is about a buxom blonde gunfighter (grenadier) named Rushuna who has an "interesting" way to reload her gun and is on an adventure to find her homeland. She meets up with a young swordsman named Yajiro and a young girl named Mikan. Now, that's all I'm going to give you except for my "buffalostyle's seal of approval" rating. This story is a heck of a lot more impressive than you might think. I mean, the manga has it fair share of fanservice (oh yeah, I LOVE fanservice) and it starts out slowly but the action really begins to pick up around volume 3. What I just read was the final volume, number 7.
Cliff Notes: Basically, Rushuna beats the main villain early on in the volume. Or so we think. The villain is resurrected after we get the long-anticipated origin of Rushuna and how she came to be. Great story, really.

Then there was...Case ClosedCase Closed is actually Detective Conan in Japan. Copyright issues keep us from getting it by it's real name. Well, this is the story of a teen-aged super sleuth named, Jimmy Kudo. BTW, Jimmy is my hero. Anywho, Jimmy was on a case when he is knocked out and slipped some secret formula that turned him into a little kid. So, Jimmy comes up with an alter ego (Conan Edogawa) with the help of his friend, Dr. Agasa, so that no one else gets hurt and he continues to solve crimes to boot.
Cliff Notes: So I read the 25th volume of the series. Basically, this volume has a haunted house, giant spiders (I HATE spiders) and an appearance from Harley Hartwell. As true to form, volume 25 ends in one heck of a cliffhanger...This manga is also a "buffalostyle's seal of approval" recipient.

Finally, there was Blood +Blood + is right up my alley as it has my personal favorite, vampires, in it. Of course, they aren't called vampires in Blood +, though. Basically, the story is about a girl (Saya) who lives a normal everyday life as a high school kid. Then one day it all changes. Saya learns that she is a chiropteran (vampire) who hunts down other vampires.
Cliff Notes: Basically, if you want to know who Saya and Diva (for that matter) are, you must read volume 3. Period...

So, along with reading manga, watching anime and buying toys, I also collect doujinshi. Now, when it comes to my doujinshi collecting, I usually do it for the art.
That said, since I am a fan of Macross Frontier and the doujinshi circle Gold Rush, this new doujin is something I will be on the lookout for.
This doujinshi is named TSUNDERE Frontier. It is Gold Rush's 62nd volume that was released at the Summer Comiket in August 2008. It features Sheryl Nome and Alto Saotome. I can already tell that finding this one is going to be like finding gold as Gold Rush is pretty popular. As it is, I have a scanned copy of it for now and I will be looking for a hard copy for my collection.

DECULTURE!!!

Here's to being a poor otaku...

So, I finally took a look at my bank account today to find that I had A LOT less money than I expected to find...le sigh... I guess if I were going to sacrifice a month (by doubling up on bills) towards the end of the year, then October is it. Besides, I need to have moolah for X-Mas gifts and all.

You know, the bad thing about being a poor otaku is seeing all of the STUFF that you want and knowing that you can't afford them right now. An example... I'm on HobbyLink Japan recently and I see the Origin of Valkrie 'gokins.
Yeah..now that's what I'm talkin' about right there. A VF-1J brought to us by the good folks at Bandai is right up my alley. It is a 1/55 scale toy that is probably better (stability-wise) than it's Yamato counterpart.

Now, if you think that is cool...check this one out.
It's the VF-25 Messiah (Ozma variant) that I am straight up lusting after. Both it and the Alto variant are 1/60 scale from Bandai and runs about $120. That 's not bad, really. As something of a novice Valkrie collector (after meeting ZorMaster at NDK, I realize that I'm a novice), I don't have a problem shelling out that much for this incredibly awesome looking toy. I would love to see a Revoltech of this mech.
Speaking of Revoltechs...when i was at NDK, I went kind of nuts over them. I will post some of those pics at a later time. I need to re-take some of them because they didn't come out the way I wanted. Actually, I think that I need another camera, period. Anywho, I picked up a Maizinger, Star Scream, VF-1S and YF-19.
Now, while I really do like Revoltechs for their posability, the problem that I have with them is a very petty one. My problem with the toy is that they aren't to scale with each other. I really noticed it with my VF-1A (that I got from Cyphr for my B-day last year) and my VF-1S. The 1S is puny compared to the 1A and that's just not right. Skull One should NEVER be smaller than the other valkries. In fact, the YF-19 is smaller than the VF-1A as well.
As for other toys that are similar to Revoltechs, what I really am looking for is the GNU-Dou line from Yamato. Basically, it is Yamato's Revoltech as they are very poseable as well but they are a little bit bigger and made from a better type of plastic. Several people from other sites that I frequent are really high on this series so I need to check it out for myself.

Right now, the Krew is in the middle of Gurren Lagann at Anime Forum. Being a fanboy of most things Gainax, I became enamored with this show because of Yoko (see previous post). In time, I became a big fan of Simon the main character. The growth that he shows throughout the series is amazing. In fact, I will go on record as saying that Gurren Lagann is the best series that I have seen in more than 5 years. It's a compelling story with great character growth and a really good ending. (How often can you say that about an anime?) Anywho, we are showing one disc per evening so we will be done in two weeks. Then we will move to Code Geass for our feature anime. From what I have seen, I think that it will be enjoyable. Code Geass is one of those anime that I buy but never actually watch (like Last Exile).

I absolutely LOVE this scene....my friend, Card, hates this song but I love JPOP and this is right up my alley.

DECULTURE!!!