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Purirun “Cure Zukyoon” (プリルン/キュアズキューン) - Kimi to Idol Precure♪ - Episode 17

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Three more arrived so now I’m almost completed on the fave Precure Otedama plush stack.

I only need one more but space inside is very tight.

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I can’t even remember what month I started watching Heartcatch, my files says August 2010, but pretty sure it’s earlier than that.

I don’t even want to look at LiveJournal either.

But it will be 15 years since I started watching Precure and Heartcatch.

Also 15 years of Cure Moonlight as my favourite Precure of all fucking time.

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「馬越嘉彦 仕事集 第一巻」 (x)

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Getting tired of Precure acrylic stands since the 20th anniversary merch line. Precure Otedamas are truly the best Precure collectible plush right now!

Still missing a few Precure on the collection. Hopefully I will get them soon!

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My last post Tumblr was a reblog and depressing one at that 🫠

I should just start doing shit posting since I’m too lazy to finish my Master Grade Justice Gundam - I haven’t even started on the legs 🫠🫠🫠🫠

I just went to check up on my stash of Precure merch and good god I have waaaaaaayyyy too much Cure Moonlight stuff

Also RIP my Yuri/Cure Moonlight display merch that suffered from the 38 degree c heat, sunlight and weather. Some of the acrylic stands have super poor survivability quality, it hurts

I mean at least some I have spares in the stash

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This hurts now with Emi Shinohara’s passing

Sailor Moon Voice Actresses ~ Moon Revenge

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I’m having a mix of heartfelt sadness and some sense of anger (towards a certain company) right now

I know I’m mainly a Precure fan over here but I started my journey into the Japanese language, anime and manga when I first picked up and rented that Sailor Moon S DVD at a local hobby shop.

As I was watching the Region 1 DVD, I made a decision to try to watch it in another language because the old Pioneer DVD had both English and Japanese. I, a wee little depressed year 9 student was blown away by the voice acting from the Sailor Moon Japanese voice cast that I decided to look them up on the internet and find out the women behind these iconic characters.

What I realised was these women were not only around both my parents’ ages. They were in other anime that I literally grew up in, watching their anime in English. I decided to watch some of my childhood anime in those languages, just to hear how they performed. Spoiler alert: They we’re amazing.

And that’s how I started my journey into pursuing learning the Japanese language all the way to University where I graduated with a degree in that field.

The Sailor Moon Japanese voice cast were like those aunties (yes I am Asian) or older sisters (depending on the region) that you never knew but you connected with them through the anime that you have watched over the years. You watch them grow older seeing their public photos on news sites and social media through the events they attended, as you, yourself grows older.

The fact that we lost one of them in the 8th of September 2024 will be one of the most heartbreaking things to find out for me and a lot of people this year. Coincidently the shock announcement came on the birthday of one of the beloved Sailor Senshi makes it even more tragic.

Emi Shinohara was an fantastic seiyuu/voice actress. She worked in a lot of people’s childhood shows, many of us would have known her for her role as the ever reliable, ever strong Makoto Kino/Sailor Jupiter in the 90s anime of Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon (90s Sailor Moon for short). Others would have known her for Kaho Mizuki from Cardcaptor Sakura or if you’re old, B-Ko from Project A-Ko. However the majority of people (anime normies) would have mostly known her as the voice of Kushina Uzumaki from the Naruto Shippuden anime.

Her later years in life would really reflect on her roles she would later have with the aforementioned Kushina. A lot of younger seiyuu would have known her in Fafner (I hear that anime a lot on Twitter through some of the seiyuu involved and I know the character designer for Gundam Seed worked on the designs).

Probably the roles that really stood out for me personally asides her roles in Sailor Moon and CCS, would be an obscure 2007 anime called Claymore. That anime was one of those that the unfortunate case of “manga was still ongoing while the anime was airing situation”. However props to the casting staff involved in this anime because they brought in a chunk lot of veteran seiyuu that would get to show off their years of experience into this one single 24 episode anime. Emi Shinohara was no exception to this! She voiced the ax-crazy, hella insane, ultra mega bitch Ophelia and oh boy it was a ride and an experience to listen to her voice from the beginning right to the death of her character. I personally would recommend watching this anime for the voice acting in there, not for the anime itself because of its situation at the time.

Her music prowess was no joke either. Of the original 5 seiyuu of the Sailor Moon cast, she was definitely the most experienced and you can clearly experience it though the Moon Revenge live for a Christmas event that happened 31 years ago. She has released her own albums during the 90s as well and 100% she slayed on every character song that came to her during her active years in the 90s

I really cannot believe that Emi Shinohara has left us. The Sailor Moon community is definitely in mourning right now for this iconic voice actress. Our heart goes to her husband, Tokusatsu actor Hiroshi Watari and their only son who made a heartfelt and saddening message to Shinohara’s own personal Twitter account.

And our hearts also go towards the remaining 4 seiyuu of the original Sailor Moon voice cast, who out of the two who have social media, are currently in a state of devastation and sadness to have lost a fellow cast mate who they have worked and truly bonded together on the 5 years of Sailor Moon’s airtime from 1992-1997.

In particular fellow cast mate Rica Fukami who she considered Emi Shinohara as her twin, having being born on the same year, month and day. To the point they even have their own duo name together back in the 90s as Funky Twins, where they last year held a 3 day fan live together. Who would have thought that this would be the only time they would be together for such a special occasion. Let’s not forget the constant amazing and interesting quote tweets interactions between the two of them since Shinohara started her Twitter account a few years back from the constant birthday congratulations, to recently finding a hidden Sailor Moon treasure while Rica Fukami was in the middle of decluttering. The fact that we will never get this kind of interaction ever again is heartbreaking but it will live on through the past interactions that they have shared together.

I will briefly mention my anger towards Toei for losing this once in a lifetime opportunity to reunite the original 5 Sailor Moon voice cast for the 30th anniversary of the franchise. The fact that their last public reunion together was for a DVD commemoration in Akihabara, late 2009 has given me this sense of anger, frustration and sadness inside me that I will never forgive them for. And we will never have an opportunity like this ever again.

With that part out of my head. I will now leave this insanely long message with a single part of a message that Emi Shinohara’s son has written in that post on Twitter, “the name ‘Emi Shinohara’ will continue to live on as long as people remember her voice and the roles that she has portrayed”

Thank you Mrs Emi Shinohara for the past nearly 40 years of service to the anime and voice acting industry. We, the fans, will never forget you and we definitely will look back to the voices and songs that you have given us over the years. Rest in Peace. 🕊️💚

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There is one thing to make constructive criticism on the Precure writers. Especially those of the modern era.

It’s fine to be frustrated. It’s okay to be frustrated about the direction of how Precure is going in this era.

But when you say they (the writers) can’t do shit and be very completely offensive about it, that is when is when the foot has to come down.

You should be venting your anger towards executives on Bandai and Toei’s end. Not the writers, animators etc.

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“I am the pretty guardian who fights for love and for intelligence. I am Sailor Mercury! Douse yourself in water and repent!”

Sailor Senshi Appreciation - Ami Mizuno / Sailor Mercury

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MG Sandrock EW 1.5 Review

It’s a 1.5 since the actual kit is the Armadillo Unit but I haven’t built it yet

Okay so the build itself wasn’t actually that bad. The problem is that because much like the MG RX-78-2 2.0, I had a difficult time assembling the kit because my Japanese reading is piss poor and I almost missed one part of the leg armour you have assemble in a particular order. The manual is all in Japanese and it relies on visuals to understand which is fine and dandy but there are texts that are in Japanese that do need to be understood (‘there is a small gap’ etc)

The guy is going to be in that basic standing pose for a very long time because apparently there is a small poly cap that is sandwiched between two joints that make up the the upper leg connection to the waist. It makes is super difficult to articulate the legs without being scared of breaking the abs connection. The joints in the arms is also pretty loose as well as it is a sandwiched part as well and I really don’t have a tool to press back the pieces into place

To be fair, I am going to have the Armadillo unit attached when I have him decal and topcoated so he is going to be just in a standing pose forever anyway.

He was an okay build to be honest. I actually preferred the MG Qan[t] Full Saber in terms of the build even though the Sandrock is much younger kit by I think a year or two. I like the design though which is why I bought him. The Heat Shotels are really unique for a twin blade design.

I’m in the process of starting the Armadillo unit as a complementary but I will need to take a week long break from kit building and then will come back to building the unit then.

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NEW ICHIBAN KUJI SULEMIO FIGURES!

THE LITTLE CHIBIS EVEN HAVE RINGS!

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HG Demi Barding finally complete.

The build itself was very easy and simple. If you’ve done the Demi Trainer or Chuchu’s Demi, then it will definitely be a breeze to get through.

There is definitely issues with using the stickers for the small sections on the shoulders but it looks better if you use panel liner or paint the sections. Will use the stickers when I do topcoating. For now this will do.

One issue I have is definitely that you can’t really articulate the back heels of the feet that much without stressing the frame which is why I really struggled when adjusting this pose. I didn’t have much of this problem with Chuchu’s Demi. To be honest while the Demi Barding is definitely an upgrade with that neat Baori pack backpack, I actually prefer Chuchu’s Demi Trainer more in terms of aesthetics and that massive rifle.

The true Demi Barding posing experience is to have its beam rifle held up like club instead.

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The HG Gundam Calibarn is finally complete!

I love the build is really an understatement as I was building in while in the process of finishing the Qan[t] Full Saber. It’s very similar to the Aerials before her in terms of the build so it was a lot easier to get through with the familiar feeling. Because this kit is primarily white, I did get through it a little quicker which makes it fantastic for beginner builders.

Though you might want to put a little bit of effort on the V fin as it can be difficult to shape it after removing the safety nubs as it is an in-molded piece

The only con on this kit is definitely the stickers for the boosters on the Variable Rod Rifle in where a certain part you have to stick in a certain angle otherwise you will mess up. Despite that I managed to breeze though the kit

It’s a shame that it uses slant pegs for pretty much most of its connections for the Bit-On Form as it will be difficult to have them flying around since you need a two certain connector point from the WFM Display base. FYI you need FIVE plus FOUR of them for the Calibarn, and in those pack you get ONE of each, which is a pain in the ass to get. Which fairly sure the Aerial Rebuild has this exact same connector points for the Bits as the Calibarn (she DID loan off them anyway lol)

That asides I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE the Calibarn. Definitely one of my favorite MC final suits and really fits the motif of the Witch from Mercury. Her pose she has right now is based on Suletta’s Figurise Standard box art pose. Will be placing her on the shelf with the original Aerial that is in Miorine’s FRS pose!

Now GIVE THIS GIRL A MASTER GRADE PLEAAAASE BANDAI (I would k*** for an Aerial one too by the way)

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MG 00 Qan[t] officially 100% complete!

This is my longest MG project to date. Which lasted almost over a month. Though the building process took maybe a week or two, the long process was due to the days that I needed to topcoat and decal

While I did not use all of the custom decals (by Delphi). I did use most of them, primarily on the weapons or places that would stand out the most

I really like this build. Though it can be a little bit of a hand grenade when trying to attach the weapons on the hand tabs because some of the armour parts can fall off. But this is because I did not want to pull out any of the swords or GN Shield while trying to putt the weapons while it still has its load out attached. I did happen to do the GN Sword V and the bits as the last to decal and topcoat

Note that I did use Mr Hobby topcoat on this kit as it is the only topcoat available that can be used on ABS framed kits. If I used the Tamiya one then yeah…

Despite the flaws of an older kit. I had such fun with working on this kit. I really love the asymmetrical design of the Qan[t] and it’s basically the closest to the Exia in terms of main body design (I would get the 2009 MG but I would rather wait for a 2.0 of it anyway, don’t care how long it takes for Bandai to get their asses to do it lol). It’s has become one of my favourite MC Gundam designs, only behind the Wing Zero Custom, Aerial and Calibarn.

Will be doing these reviews more frequently soon since I will be speeding up my HG builds. Working my way up on MG kits and the next MG I’m planning is the Sandrock Armadillo unit.

BUT I won’t be working on that kit because I’ve been working on the Calibarn in conjunction with the Qan[t]. And I’m kind of pooped out having to work on a MG for 1 month. Once I’m done with my Calibarn and put a review on it, will be doing another HG next since I have bunch of HGs in the backlog I want to do.

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"Of course! I'm going to give it my best shot, and try to make lots of friends too!" "Nyaa... ?" "Hey, what's that face supposed to mean?!"