First off, I want to thank everyone who still visits my blog <3 I was surprised after not logging in for so long that I still get an awesome number of views, but sadly, I do not update here anymore^^; I’ve been debating the move for a while since I really love WordPress, but my friends are over at livejournal and I enjoy updating there much, much more. So here you guys go:

http://vixums.livejournal.com/

Most of the entries are public, and if you have an account, don’t be afraid to add me! The entries here will stay here, but I’m changing my blog link over at DannyChoo to my livejournal, and I won’t be linking here anymore. Thank you for your support guys!

This overview is on Haruhi-ism, the art collection of Noizi Ito. My regular visitors know that I love Haruhi and the gang very much, and any merchandise on the series is pretty well done (the figures alone are just amazing.), but this artbook was painful to look at. Not because of the art, because the art is as stunning as it should be, but the format of this book… I mean seriously, did the publishing company really think it was ok to release it like this? To see what i mean, read on.

Name: Haruhi-ism – Noizi Ito Art Collection
Pages: 120 (2 pages in Black and White, 118 in Color) This book is entirely illustrations
Average Price: $45 without shipping

I do like that this entire book is pure illustrations… but someone really messed up as to how the illustrations were presented. For real. This overview was painful to do, considering how bad the pictures came out -_-;

The book is separated in to seasons so the pictures in each season fit that theme. We start with Spring.

The book also includes these comic panel type illustrations that have Haruhi ~breaking barriers~ You get to see the main problem I faced here, though it isn’t so noticeable.

Hmm, see it yet? Don’t worry, you will.

Prime example, right here. The biggest peeve of mine with art books is when the book gets in the way of the illustration. Because, let’s be honest. You can find these images online and save them to your hard drive. If you have a big screen, you can enjoy them in HQ quality without having to buy the book. The reason I buy the art books is so I can enjoy them OFF the computer, in great quality, and have the pride of owning it. LOOK AT THIS CREASE. It completely ruins the image for me! Poor Haruhi’s face is cut off and everything!

Ah, this illustration ;-; The girl’s legs are all horribly creased inwards.

When I first opened up this book, I literally just sat there looking at this picture. It’s so pretty, and it got RUINED. I think this one is probably the worst one out of all of the pictures.

I don’t even see the point of putting this picture in the art book after seeing it so badly butchered.

I wish they stuck to this format through out. Just stick one image on each page so we can enjoy the entire thing! What’s this about making it all big, NOT NECESSARY if it’s going to ruin the picture! See how pretty this layout came out?

They also take tidbits from the novels and place them throughout the book. This layout works fine too because it isn’t ruining any images.

This picture wasn’t so large in the book, really. I just closed up on it to show that even if they scaled the image down, it would have been fine. This one came out great and it was only  apart of the page T_T

This is Fall. This one didn’t come out too badly either.

I had to almost break the binding to get to see Yuki. It was upsetting.

This picture is so wrong .-. The SOS Brigade Chief isn’t even in the picture thanks to someone’s stupidity!!!

Another thankfully well done picture.

Though they’re plain, I like these pictures that just show the characters, mainly because it adds more impact to them.

Ah Yuki, I was happy to see they included some of her cute faces.

My favorite gals.

Explanations of the images in Japanese

And I’m guessing that this is a letter from the author which I can’t read.

This book is filled with beautiful illustrations that unfortunately got butchered by whoever put the book together. And for such a hefty price, you’d think they’d put more care in to the images and how they’re presented. You feel the book in your hands and it feels professional and well worth the money, and if we’re basing it purely on the illustrations, yes, this book is worth the money you spent and more, but the way the images were put together… not so much :\

]]> http://vixums.wordpress.com/2010/03/04/haruhi-ism-noizi-ito-art-collection-overview/feed/ 4 vixums http://vixums.wordpress.com/2010/03/01/clamp-no-kiseki-volume-10-review/ http://vixums.wordpress.com/2010/03/01/clamp-no-kiseki-volume-10-review/#comments Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:00:57 +0000 vixums http://vixums.wordpress.com/?p=225 ]]> The last hijacked review from my previous blog, from now on there will be updated ones!

My first year of college, I attended Pennstate University and I had my own apartment. At the time, I wasn’t really all too in to anime, it kinda started my second semester after my room mate showed me Fruits Basket. Well, when we transferred, I didn’t have a room in my house to call my own, just a bed and a dresser, no real decoration. I kept all my anime stuff in the basement, and that’s where it stayed. I called it my Office <3 Ah, looking at the images here brings back happy memories ^0^ It’s extremely messy, and it was never usually like this, but I wanted to include as many things as I could from my office in the shots XD I’m kind of embarassed about the mess, but I still want to share how it used to look!

I loved my office! It brought me so many good times during my first semester at Rutgers. I didn’t like the darkness of the room, but I made good of it all~

The only figmas I had at the time were Suzaku and Lelouch!! I used to think “These are the only one’s I’ll ever get.” FFFF. The Sakura doll was a christmas present from a friend overseas, and the Tsubasa doujin is one of Lexi’s. At the time, I didn’t draw as much as I do now, and that night sky picture is of my character Rosello, it was my proudest accomplishment to date.

Haha I remember the Layton obsession I had! I think I’ve beaten the first one four times, but I have yet to beat the second one .-. I was a much better fan last year XD And there’s Tramps Like Us! I was obsessed with that manga during Pennstate and a while during my third semester.

These were the posters on my wall. The Shugo Chara one is my favorite, the paper is very good quality and it’s glossy and just… I love looking at it X3 It came with the art book! Everything else came in a magazine, and the Professor Layton ones I printed out myself.

I used to put pictures up that I really liked that i found in magazines, but most of the time I found that they just cluttered my space, so I don’t do that anymore.

I had a wall where I mixed my own artwork with posters and a piece by the friend from overseas. It was pretty inspirational to look at. Satomi and Wazie are up there, the first pictures I ever did of them. They’re still on my wall, actually *stares at them*

Just a close up of Onigiri (my laptop) and a few more of my posters. And there is my pen/pencil/marker basket. I used to just reach over and grab whatever I needed, but now I have an art box because my collection… grew.

When I was down in the office, I had this little corner where I put all my art supplies, and I would go there whenever I wanted to draw. Too bad I made it during exam time, which was when I was the most busy with everything EXCEPT art. It went to waste -_- I used it once, when I drew my Rosello picture, and it was wonderful, though a pain in the butt because my music was nowhere near me, so I had to keep getting up to change it. That board was where I put my special items when I still lived in the apartment.

This was an art corner that was good in theory, but in actuality it was kinda of annoying. My music was nowhere near me so it was a pain in the ass to get up and change things. It didn’t last very long.That picture is Vixena, I drew her once when I was having a crappy day and dreading going to the cafe, but ever since then, it got better. Also, since I didn’t draw so much anymore, having a decent picture of Vixena up to look at was pretty refreshing.

SEE. I told you guys I referred the most to my Tsubasa art book!! It was always open in front of me! SEE THE BINDING’S ALL GROSS AND EVERYTHING ;0;

Close upu~ That tag hanging from my light was my nametag from my job when I worked at Victorias Secret (one of my temporary obsessions~) Hehe, learned how to measure le bewbs <3

omg I remember how obsessed I was with my Drago keychain last year XD I loved taking it with me everywhere, it was like a lucky charm of sorts. Then there are my boys on my phone, Box and Vix!

These are all the artbooks I used to have! I… have a lot more now XD WHAT CAN YOU DO, I love the stuff. And I take very good care of my books!

The doorway to my office looked like the walls in Fruits Basket, so I put up these decorations <3 They’re actually still there, despite me not occupying the office anymore. It still feels home-y.

Ok, these pictures were taken a bit before, but I thought I’d share them as well. It gives you a better idea of how clean I actually used to keep things haha

Yeah, this is usually what the place looked like. The board that I used to keep all my memory filled trinkets is still how I had it when I moved back from Penn. Ah, I was worried I had no pictures of it like that… I would literally stare at that board when I felt sad because it made me happy to look at my friends art <3

Close up of my board.

AHHH This was all the manga I used to have!! Now I have 10 shelves filled with my favorite series instead of just 4.

I went through this thing where I was like “I should stop liking anime” and decided to take everything down and put it away in boxes… the result was a VERY boring office. Look at this depressingly empty desk.

D:

Yes, it was all put away in a box… but that lasted like a week.Then it became all anime filled again.

This was the condition of my office one year ago. MY HOW TIME CHANGES THINGS. Hopefully I’ll make a post that shows you all my updated room soon!

So I took a look at my fellow blogger Chibi and her blog a lot, and she updates a LOT. So she makes me want to update a lot as well (Let’s see how long this keeps up for.) I had a blog before this one (also called Little My Blog) but I didn’t know what I was doing and had no idea how to travel the blogging scene, though I had my own reviews up there as well. I’m stealing my own review for the Fruits Basket dvd collection here:

I compared the two releases for those who needed to decide which one to buy. I hijacked it from my own blog to put here, so enjoy!

I was confused as to why they were releasing yet ANOTHER Viridian collection, since the first one didn’t come out too long ago, but once I got to Best Buy, I realized why. This is a review of the Viridian Collection, NOT a review of the Fruits Basket series. Perhaps I will do that another day because Lord knows I love Fruits Basket ;-;

First is first: the disc contentes are EXACTLY the same in both collections. They’re both the same length, have the same menu screens, and the second collection doesn’t have any new features or anything. The only thing different is their design, so that’s what I’m going to cover. The original Viridian collection comes in a box that’s almost like cardboard; very durable and you can tell it’s made from good material. The art work on the cover is new, and I think it portrays the characters nicely, in a simplistic and delicate way.

Included are four discs, each disc with it’s own cover. You can get an idea of the thickness of the box by it’s side view.

The art on the covers of each disc are unique to the box set, I believe. It’s hard to find any real Fruits Basket images online, despite the series being so popular. Usually there are only screencaps form the anime or edited pictures from the manga, so it was nice to see some new pictures.

The discs themselves have the original art from the single discs that were released before the box set came out. There was a complete collection before this one, and if I remember correctly, that one was around 95 or so at Best Buy. It came with as OST and character songs and the single dvds compiled in the set. This Viridian collection cost 50 dollars without tax, so I decided to go with this one instead last year. I love the slim packaging and the beautiful pictures <3

Ah, my favorite part of the discs <3 These images are beautiful, I wish there was some way to take them out so I couldn hang them on my wall ;-; They’re the inside of the covers, and when the discs are put away, it covers up half the image. All in all, the original Viridian Collection is optimal for true Fruits Basket nuts, speaking solely on quality and the amount of product you get for the package. You can still find it online at www.bestbuy.com, but I think you can only find it at select stores.

The reson I say this is because one look at the new collection, and I knew what was going on. The anime industry must be getting hit pretty bad in this crisis (I have no idea how; I think otaku are the least likely of people to cut back spending. Most of us are fueled by our passions and will spend regardless if there’s a crisis or not on certain items, anime included x3) because once I got in to Best Buy, I looked at the section where Fruits Basket was supposed to be, and the original Viridian collection was gone, and they had plenty of copies when I last checked. They must be switching it out with this copy, which you can tell right off the bat is made with cheaper material and has only two disc covers. The cover has artwork that doesn’t look as nice as the original, and is made from cheap cardboard (the glossy kind)

I was debating on buying it as soon as I saw it; I was expecting… I dunno. Fruits Basket is so immensely popular that seeing the series in this packaging just got me angry. I got it anyway because it really is my favorite anime series, and having back up discs to the ones I have now was a good idea (I’ve watched the Hell out of my original discs XD)

The disc covers, I gotta say, are gorgeous. I am biased toward these boys, really, they are gorgeous, and the images really capture their faces well. I haven’t seen this image of them floating anywhere, so that was an added bonus!

The original discs don’t have any real back images, just descriptions of the episodes on each disc. These were limited on space, but I gotta say, I like the design of these disc covers over the original ones. Tohru in the yellow dress was used again, as you can see from above.

The designs for the second collection are more modern, and I prefer them over the original ones, though they could have done better with the chosen images. So all in all, I would have to say, if you manage to find the original Viridian collection, buy it over the newly released Viridian Collection. Or, if you’re a hardcore fan of the series like myself, buy them both, just to have the backup discs XD But there is absolutely no change in the disc contents. They have a total of 26 episodes, the menus are all the same, as well as the extra features. The original Viridian collection goes for about 50 dollars, and the second one is being sold for 35.99. Cheaper price for cheaper quality in packaging.

(Also, I keep sayign I don’t usually buy double of anything, but I’m not making a very good case for myself, haha! ._. I really don’t… This and the Tsubasa artbook are the only things, I swear!)

UGH SUCH AN EXHAUSTING WEEK.

As promised, I’m going to try to do more “A day in the life” with it being more like… “A certain time period in the life” because then I have no restraints.

ಠ_ರೃ

I took a bath for the first time in years, and I think I missed the point. I don’t understand bubble baths. I got confused and couldn’t sit still, so it was pretty short lived. I had this special bubble bath that would turn the water pink and soft and glitter-y, but it never happened. The bubbles are nice… in theory. In reality, they just confused me and I don’t think I’ll be taking a bath again for a while.

This was taken when we had that epic snow storm. Whenever it snows, I make Eric face outside and open the blinds so he can enjoy it. I mean, he is from South Park, after all. I thought it was cute X3

I KNOW I SAID NO MORE SOUTH PARK ART. But I’ve been practicing new techniques with coloring and outlining and everything, and Cartman was a good way for me to practice! (And I was studying for an exam and bloody cold.) Ok, now for reals, no more South Park art XD (Even though I’m kinda proud of this *puffs*)

Well, ok, anyway. This week has been a doozy for my desk. I like to keep my desk very clean and organized, but I do slip up, and this week… it was just messy all week. The first pic of the post was from Saturday morning, when I started working on design work for Fictopia. It was… yeah. Just, art supplies and methods of keeping me up (4 cups of coffee .0. You guys think this shit comes to me naturally? Only when there’s caffeine in my system. And really loud music.)

Then this was Sunday night. I sketched out Vixena after the meeting I had with the guys because I felt a bit restless with her. LOOK AT THIS MESS *cries*

Then this morning I woke up early (7:30) because I didn’t clean from the night before, and Justin was coming over (my partner in the project we’re working on). And I’m like… not ok with people seeing me be messy. It’s just a thing of mine. It took a really long time, but finally, the mess from last week got fixed up. I blame the exams and lack of time to myself.

Then this is the desk after Justin left. But now it has more books on it. Why can’t I keep things clean ;-;

Now for some art. In between theme layouts, I felt my soul dying, so I drew Vixena after a while. I put her gold tips back on because this was her original design back when I was in highschool. Love that coloring? IT’S THE BEST I’VE DONE : |

Ignore the design notes. Just look at pretty little Vixena I drew while waiting for the guys to get set up. I used scented markers on Vixena, and I thought black would be licorice… but it’s wasn’t. It was fucking oreos. I was so hungry. I used a combination of scented markers and Faber Castels for that Vixena up there.

Then the meeting ended around 11 pm and I just had to draw Vixena since it felt so refreshing to see her pretty colored in face again. I think she came out pretty good for using Faber Castels and crappy scented markers.

Vixena has a twin now. I didn’t want to do it, but it was either that or kill off Vix. Well, they aren’t really twins, I guess… they’re the same person, just the male and female versions of each other. My biggest thing is making them actually look like each other. Vix is from an alternate universe, but since they’re the same person, they act very alike. There’s just one crucial thing different about them… but I’ll leave that one for later!

HU HU. Just because I want to leave off with a sexual little tease~

To a good week, ne?

There are times where I do pull a Konata and I get multiple copies of things that I really love. It’s rare, but I do it. I got the Japanese Tsubasa art book back in Winter 2008, and it was something that I didn’t have to think twice about before getting. I was still in my early art book buying days and I was apprehensive about prices (because as all shoppers that go to Ebay and plan on ordering from Japan know, the shipping is killer.), but as soon as I saw this book, I acted on instinct and didn’t think twice about the price. That was in 2008, and just recently did the English version of the art book come out, which I got as well. I was debating buying another copy of the book anyway because my Japanese one is worn out from me looking at it so often. Wanna see if there are any differences?

Name: Tsubasa Album de Reproductions Original Art Collection
Pages: 112 in both books ( 10 in Black and White, 102 in full color)
Average Price: Japanese: 47 without shipping English: 20 dollars

Ok, when I bought the book, I bought it for almost 60 with shipping from Ebay. Now it looks like the Japanese version is a little harder to come by since the English version came out, but I don’t mind, English or Japanese, the books are completely the same, except for the language. They pages are a bit thicker in the Japanese version (as all artbooks in Japan go, the paper they use for artbooks is wonderful quality.), but really, you barely notice.

This is probably my favorite artbook in my bunch. Last year, I referred to it all the time when I was getting back in to the swing of drawing more properly. CLAMP has a style that’s very hard not to fall in love with, especially when the book is put in such wonderful quality. The images spans the page completely so it’s awesome to use for reference, and the colors are vibrant enough to inspire anyone.

The thing that tweaks me the mots about any artbook is when the crease in the center interrupts from the actual image. This isn’t too bad of a case in this book, the crease isn’t all too noticeable.

You have few images that don’t span the entire page, but the format is a bit odd :\ For these two, they probably separated it so the colors wouldn’t confuse people in to thinking it’s the same image?

Lovely Tomoyo <3 She’s in my Anime Heroines List

The images I used for the overview were taken from my Japanese version because I’m trying hard not to wear out my English one XD But there is almost no difference in quality.

I want to point out again that there are very few images that don’t span the entire page, like this one.

Ah, since this book was actually one of my first artbooks, I remember getting to this mini comic at the end and getting upset that I couldn’t read it!! I just admired the pretty big manga-like images~ And I remember thinking, “I wonder if we’ll ever get an English release of the book, since TRC is so popular…”

I got my wish 8D The comic is about Yuuko’s White day present, by the way, it was quite adorable.

Then at the end of the book you get the artists’ comments on the images, but I couldn’t read them all until I got the english version ;-;

I love reading the artists’ comments (especially if it’s CLAMP <3)

And that’s the end of the book~ This is truly an artbook among artbooks, the images span entire pages, it’s big enough for anyone to continuously reference, and I think it’s a great learning tool for anyone wanting to define their style, I know I refer to it a lot when it comes to eyes and hands!
Also, I won’t be uploading any more South Park art here :p I’ll be doing it over at my LJ community Dirty Little Boys (don’t be turned off by the name, it’s not like that at all XD). I figured, this is an anime blog, not my South Park doodle collection thing, so if you want to see anymore of that, please don’t hesitate to join the community~ It’s not all yaoi (I’m not allowed any of that for 37 more days ._.) just for anyone who likes Cartman or Kyle.

/shameless plugging

Alright everyone, hope you enjoyed!

Twincest Valentines Day by *Vixena-F on deviantART

And my main Valentines Day picture under the cut!

You Don’t Have a Clue by *Vixena-F on deviantART

Both images are for my friend and Valentine, Erika!! They were both done today too, I tried new painting techniques on the first one, and used my Digital style that I’m getting used to for the second one. I had to put up the smaller versions because WordPress doesn’t like it when I’m all *insert image here* But click on their titles to get to their full view on DA~ I wish my life was just belting out these drawings, EVERY DAY D: ALAS.

I hope everyone has a good Valentines Day and hold your loved ones close <3

I describe this a lot as an ~anime~ blog, and I will continue to post the things I usually do, but it’s going to be really sketch oriented from now on. The main pictures that I’ll put up will link to my Deviantart account. I’m really excited about the DA page, and I wanted to share the link with you guys~ I still have many art book over views and I hope to post more about my day and what not, you know… update more regularly XD Like an anime fan journal thing haha~

Click on the image or

www.vixena-f.deviantart.com

to get to my DA~

I figured that I could do another sketch post, but I have no desire to do it. So the next one will be bigger than usual I suppose (is there a set amount anyway? Every one seems to be different in size ;-; ) But no, I decided to take care of another overview of one of my reference books <3 This time it’s the Suzumiya Haruhi Official Fan Book Art Book, a book I got on my first trip to NYC for otaku shopping with my friend last year. It was purchased at BookOff in NYC~

Once again, Figmas and Revoltechs not included XD

Name: Suzumiya Haruhi Official Fan Book Art Book
Pages: 120 (33 pages in Black and White, 87 in Color) The entire thing is in Japanese.
Average Price: 20 dollars without shipping

As you can see, a poster came included with the book, and since it was my first time ripping out a poster from a book, I failed miserably. It was such a pretty picture too T_T

The book works almost the same way as the Lucky Star one that I did earlier, except this one doesn’t have as many characters to cover, so they just loaded it up with images from the show (not complaining, they’re pretty.) Not all the pages are in this style though (I would have preferred if they printed the images sideways and to fit the entire page so we could get the full detail of the images… but eh. For 20 dollars, I am not complaining haha).

You get a bunch of these images before they cover the character profiles. Look at that tummy. Brilliant.

Nothing new with the character profiles, the book was probably done by the same people because it follows the Lucky Star format almost exactly; it shows the character along with the outfits they wore in the show. And it looks like they also do some episode highlights of the characters, but I can’t read any Japanese, so that’s just my wild guess.

I was biased towards which character profiles I’d show you guys haha~ Too bad Itsuki’s character profile got like, a page and a half ._. They cover even the minor characters, from Ryoko Asakura to Taniguchi.

After all the characters are displayed, they do a breakthrough of the opening dance and do the episode summaries.

Screen shots and summaries of each episode. I find the snapshots useful since they did a good job picking what to display~

Uwaaah Yuki~ (Yuki isn’t mine, she belongs to my brother, he let me borrow her for this.)

They separate from the summaires for a while and introduce the voice actors and give a bio of them, I suppose. Or a question and answer portion… unfortunately, I don’t get any of it ;-; I think for Spring Break, I’ll sit down with a Japanese textbook and get started learning. I think I’d get a lot more out of what I watch and attempt to read XD (Look at Kyon’s voice actor whispering sweet nothings to Itsuki’s voice actor. I love how they do these silly things!)

This was interesting. They had some pages where they inserted some very cute fanart. This one is my favorite (look how badass Itsuki is.)

Then there are some black and white images of the backgrounds and settings used in the show. I think I would appreciate this more if it were in color. But it’s not hard to see the insane amount of detail they put in to the rooms!

Following that, there are some shorts involving the main characters. I kinda wish manga came this big, the pictures are much lovelier <3

And I have to be honest, I have no idea what these few pages are about ^^; I think it’s half about the manga and novels, and half about the show… but yes, I have no idea XD It’s black and white and full of text.

Then we get to some official art, yey! I hate how the part in the center ruins it ;-; There’s the same problem in the actual Haruhi artbook, which I shall show soon. It really ruins an artbook when the images are cut off like that, such a turn off from a wonderful image D<

You also get an overview of the merchandise for Haruhi, including the manga and the novels.

And as I was taking pictures I would just shove the figures to the side when I didn’t need them anymore, and they ended up like this. How disturbing. And yet…

AND THEN. We get some more official artwork, never ceasing the cuteness. Overall, I like to look at this as a sort of guidebook, just like the Lucky Star one. Though if you’re going to get the actual artbook, which is at least twice the price of this one, I would skip this purchase. I honestly bought this on a complete whim XD I saw it at BookOff and I thought “OH I KNOW THIS SERIES” *buys* Lately, I can’t just buy artbooks of series I know. I went to NYC this past weekend and found many artbooks I wanted, but I just couldn’t bring myself to buy. Of course, now, I would’ve bought this anyway because I’m a bigger fan of Haruhi, but back then, it wasn’t exactly the best purchase XD I don’t regret it now, but I regretted it when I came home with a hole in my wallet last year haha!

Thank you for reading <3