This is actually old news now but, I added new cels to our gallery! Well honestly not so new as we've had them sitting around for quite some time we just couldn't share them, luckily though the scanner issue has been fixed and we can scan merrily. While of course all our additions are fantastic there are a few highlights which are as follows:
A large pan cel of Sonia from Midnight Panther.
I've always loved Sonia's character design and I missed out on this cel (or one like it) several years early so I was absolutely thrilled to get my hands on this one. I have to admit though that I'm pretty apathetic towards the story of Midnight Panther. I don't know if it's better in manga form but the ova is really only worth watching for the lovely character designs. As like most H anime, the artwork is lovely even in spite of the storyline being pretty blah.
Next highlight is:
Miruru from Tenshi Ni Narumon
Everybody loves a cat girl and we're no exception! Miruru has a wonderful character design and Tenshi Ni Narumon or I'm gonna be an Angel as (half) released in the US, has some of the most detailed and beautiful art of any anime series so it's always a treat to add her to our collection. It was was her look of being battered and beaten but not defeated is what really drew us to this shot. I have to admit that I haven't finished watching TNN yet, I do so wish it had finished being released on DVD here, so I don't know what's happening here hopefully knowing will make us love it more. I screwed up the resizing on this one so it's a lot smaller than our others scans, eventually I'll correct it.
Next one and the last one I'm going to blather on about is:
Vega/ Balrog, my first pixel love, from the Street fighter II V series
I absolutely love Street Fighter. When I was a wee lass there were these magical places known as arcades young people use to favor. In this magical land for the paltry price of a quarter or two or the equivalency in the local currency of the arcade, the token, you could be transformed into a world renowned fighter and be transported to various beautiful locations all the way around the globe in a stunning haze of bright colors, lights and sounds. With a knowledgeable flick of the arcade stick and the mash of the buttons you could fell the greatest warriors, Japan, Thailand, Russia, the US and others had to offer. Hours of my time effort and hard earned cash went into this Magical Street fighter II machine, I was always the one token girl, Chun Li and I always got hung up on the most beautiful of all fighters, Vega. Oh Vega (called balrog in the Japanese release) the most arrogant of beauties occupying the rarefied space women love so much of being decidedly androgynous with his long hair, dancers body and grace but with enough machismo to intimidate all but the most self assured man. His speed and "girly" fighting style always made it seem almost like a "mirror match" which every digital fighter knows is the hardest to win. Though he'd often defeat me I almost didn't mind as it'd give me another look at those beautiful pixels which gave me a peek at the lovely face behind the mask./end gushing fangirling
The cel itself is from the street fighter II V series which wasn't bad and wasn't good. It just was. I enjoyed it more than I probably should have but wouldn't recommend it for someone who isn't a street fighter fan. It does have a good thing going for it though, Vega looks closest to his original design in that one. I love his cocky expression in this shot it was a wonderful and thoughtful present from Jen.
Overall we updated 10 or 11 cels in various series and they can all be seen in
our gallery. There are several beauties I didn't touch on in there so go check em' out. :) Also, we're working on a super secret specialized cel gallery right now as well, it's still lacking in additions but I made the awesome layout. Get a sneak peek
here.
Next up, we're late to the party as we didn't get a 360 until RE5 came out with the snazzy LE red console, but viva pinata is so amazingly addictive. It's totally monster rancher all over again but with less ridiculous fighting and more emphasis on nurturing your adorable little pinatas. We've been alternating turns and are both a little bit stuck right now but looking for all the variants and trying to lure new pinatas into the garden is still proving fun. I've already put several hours into it though it's a little mystifying how it can be so much fun when it's basically just constantly working at something. I guess it's like animal crossing in that way. I wonder what it says about modern society when we put off real world chores and work to do it virtually? something to consider....
Last and certainly not least we saw
Freezepop Saturday night! They were at the
Triple Rock Bar in Minneapolis. If you're not a freezepop fan they're a synthpop band that's been featured in many video games over the years including:
Frequency,
Amplitude,
Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II,
Karaoke Revolution,
DDR,
Rock Band and others I'm just not remembering right now. Jen's been a big fan of them for the last 7 or 8 years and this is the second time they've toured near enough for us to go check them out. This time we were center stage and close enough to touch them at any point. Jen got a singed CD and a hug and a couple moments with Sean on the documentary tape. We'll see if it makes the final cut. :) If you're not a freezepop fan you should really check them out. Their
myspace has some fun tracks but my favorites aren't there :( But, the internet should yield some results for: science genius girl, I am not you gameboy and freezepop forever. Go take a listen. Also, the games listed above are also pretty fantastic as well, FreQuency is one of my favorite rhythm games ever!
I've got orders to pack and send (THANKS!) so that's all for now. If I have more time I'll add some pretty pictures of the signed freezepop CD later.
It's later so here's the picture. :) If I'm really industrious I'll eventually add in pics of the singed purse from last year so we can compare Sean's Kitty drawings.
~Stephanie
Don't forget to stop by our shop fro cels for sale and other goodies:
