Hmm, my steadily dropping page impression stats are essentially informing me that I’ve made not a single post in the last month. Whoops.

It’s not like I’ve not been watching anything – contrary to my expectations coming into this anime season, I’ve actually been watching a fair bit. It’s more that none of the shows I’ve been watching have hit that sweet spot between dumb and entertaining that I find amusing to write about – not even Valvrave, which is certainly dumb, and is certainly entertaining, but it wears it so much on it’s sleeve that there’s little to say about it other than, well, “This is duuuuuuuuumb“.

Unfortunately, this has left me in somewhat of a quandary in regards to posting blog content, in so much as there’s really not been much else going on that’s been worthy of lengthy comment. I suppose there’s plenty worthy of shorter commentary, though…

iOS Shiny Festa still isn’t available in the UK. This isn’t a Europe-wide exclusion, coincidentally – I can’t say I’ve checked availability in every country, but it’s certainly available in France at the very least. This matter continues to annoy me, unsurprisingly, but not really to the degree that I’m willing to jump through hoops to play it – setting up a fake foreign iTunes account, sourcing points cards for the relevant region (at a premium) and switching the accounts on one of my iOS devices is certainly series of things I could do, but it’s not something I’m presently willing to. Part of it is just the principle of the matter – not that it stopped me buying the Japanese editions (twice over), but an unavailable English version feels like a more egregious slap-to-the-face – but I also actually, you know, use my iOS devices for other things. Switching accounts around to play Shiny Festa seems like too much of a disruptive pain in the ass.

Speaking of things not available in the UK, Daisuki launched today, and whilst the service is available here in Blighty (putting it one step ahead of Animesols, at least), most the stuff I’d actually watch on there isn’t. Admittedly, “the stuff I’d actually watch” essentially boils down to Lupin III at this point – I’ve got the Gundam offerings on DVD already, and honestly don’t really like Zeta anyway, I’ve somehow acquired three different versions of Madoka, and, frankly, I’ve seen Sword Art Online too many times for my liking (by which I mean, once). The actual error message that pops up on region locked titles is hella-confusing as well, particularly for a site which seemed semi-broken for a while this morning.

Still, I’m going to keep visiting during the launch period, at least, if only to file my daily entry into the giveaway. I’m actually after the low-hanging fruit more than the big-ticket items, to be honest – that Madoka figure is nice, but I’ve seen how much space is required to display that darn thing, and I certainly wouldn’t have it without putting my Magical Girl Rin figure into storage. My day one ticket actually went into the pot for the Weiss Schwartz booster packs, having both the English Fate/Zero and Madoka starter decks already. Not that I’m particularly expecting to ever actually play Weiss Schwartz at any point, mind you, but I suppose it’d be neat to have a proper deck should the need arise!

In any case, I hope all you folks remembered to pop over to the the first round of their title voting in order to request Aikatsu! I gather a few other shows are available to vote for as well but, seriously, who’d vote for anything other than deliciously janky 3D idols?

Speaking of Madoka and iM@S, I picked up the first couple of Cu-poche character figures – Haruka and Madoka. The picture at the top of this post is a size comparison between Bandai’s Chibi-Arts range (Cure Marine) and the well-established Nendoroid range (Sherlock Shellingford), given those are the two figure series that play in the same ballpark.

I like these Cu-poche things. The proportions and the posability are good, and the joints that support that aren’t as unsightly as I’d have thought they’d have been. There’s some really smart design decisions as well – anyone who as ever struggled to properly seat an early Nendo on some of their ill-designed stands, or worse yet owns that Cure Marine Chibi-Arts, will really appreciate the stand. The standard crane-arm-to-back-socket, common to newer Nendo figures as well, is one thing (though I’m vaguely curious what they’ll do with long haired characters like the upcoming Kirino), but the magnetic feet and metal base combo is pretty great. Posed with both their feet on the stand, the figures would pretty much just about stand under their own weight without the crane-arm, if perhaps not surviving many a shock.

The figures could, perhaps, do with more accessories, though. The three faces they ship with is pretty standard across competing figure ranges, and both these girls did ship with at least one other accessory (Haruka has her microphone and stand, Madoka her bow and arrow, and also QB). Madoka’s bow is part of one of her hands, though, and none of Madoka’s hands is structured in such a way that it could hold Haruka’s microphone, which is kind of a shame. It feels pretty light in comparison to a Chibi-Arts in particular – those Heartcatch figures were loaded with bits. The Cu-poche figures do come with a branded bag to keep your spare bits in should you need to unbox it, though, which was a nice touch.

The next few Cu-poche figures I’m skipping – I’m not that big a fan of Kirino (though I am watching OreImo – I’m missing some of the more satirical bite of the first season, and the Saori back-story episode did nothing for me, but I’ve enjoyed the Ayase-centric stuff. Needs more Sena and Kuroneko), I’ve got too many Saber figures as it stands, and I’m not into Yu-Gi-Oh enough to want Dark Magician Girl, cute as it is. I do have Miki on pre-order already, though!

Not really much else to say, I guess. Whilst it’s rarely the most exciting of events, I will be floating around the event formally known as MCM Expo next weekend. Feel free to say “hi” if you spot me, though given they’ve actually pulled together a semi-impressive guest list this time around, I’m guessing it’s going to be overpacked enough to render that at least somewhat tricky. I should be at Otakon and Ayacon in August as well, whilst I’m talking about event attendance. Man, those flights where expensive…