Monday 19 September 2011

2012 anime calendar time!

It's mid-September, so it's time to think about the new year. Time flies you know.

As always, I'm shopping at CD Japan. There's a special offer there at the moment: spend 5000 yen (paying by PayPal) and get 1000yen's worth of loyalty points back, which works out as kind of 20% off, so that's good. There is a catch that the points are only valid for 90 days though, so it's not as good an offer as it could have been. Still, it's fairly good. It's valid until the 8th of October 8 2011 (Japan Standard Time GMT+9).

Anime calendars my brother is interested in:

ONE PIECE Release date: 2011/09/17, Price: 1500yen
SUITE PRECURE Release date: 2011/09/17, Price: 1500yen
Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu 2 Release date: 2011/10/01, Price: 1600yen
Shinryaku! Ika Musume Release date: 2011/10/22, Price: 1600yen

Some fun (and some funny) series ^_^

I want either the "Yotsuba to" one, or the "Chi's Sweet Home" one, but... I can't tell whether the Yotsuba one is another one that's full artwork or photos with Yotsuba being cute in them like it was the other year, and I can't tell what the Chi's Sweet Home one is like either, aside form being a wall calendar and slightly more expensive than the other calendars.
Yotsuba to (aka Yotsuba&) Release date: 2011/11 (sometime), Price: 1500yen
Chi's Sweet Home Wall Calendar 2012 from Kodansha Release date: 2011/11 (sometime), Price: 2200yen

I normally get myself an "All That's Ultraman" calendar as well, but I am not sure about that this year. I think I just want a super cute calendar. Decisions decisions!

One thing I have decided is that I want a copy of MIO (MIQ) The Perfect Best with the rebate points I get. :)

Kingdom Of Loathing

I've been playing Kingdom Of Loathing a lot over recent months. I'm nearly done with my second ascension (i.e. I finished the game and died, and got reborn, and have nearly finished it again).

It's... a web-based RPG that's free-to-play (though there is premium content), where all the graphics are stick people, just about all interaction is done via clicking links and things in menus, and it's all implemented in php, javascript and html forms. It's also several years old, but I only really discovered it about 2 months ago.

It's very tongue-in-cheek and funny; most of the time it's word-play and absurdity, a lot of the jokes are referential, some are just plain crude. I spent a lot of time just having fun reading battle text and descriptions of items.

And it's kind of an MMO but really not very at all. You don't really directly interect with any other players for the main core play of the game, you only really talk directly to others in chat (which is ever present but optional). There are clans and PvP but it's all optional. You can buy a shop in the mall or sell items through the marketplace to other players, so it does have an economy too.

All the same, it seems to have a friendly and active community, and it receives regular updates. It was even advertising a KoL convention and comic book coming out, recently.

Related links:
wiki,
fan site,
forum,
calendar,
foodstuff chart,
buffbot