Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler-Undertaker Scale Figure Impressions

Oddly enough perusing through Amiami the other day I saw the preorder for the Undertaker from Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler. From what we have gathered about the Undertaker is he's a renagade shinigami but has some sort of relation with the Phantomhive family, and currently a great interest in Ciel.

If you haven't read the manga yet, we get to see the true nature of the undertaker and get to learn more about the Shinagami's job, and why the Undertaker defected. Another interesting thing to learn about the Undertaker is that he's most likely really old as his scythe is different from everyone else. While everyone in the modern day within the Shinigami have modded their scythes to resemble tools; even the other Shinigami mention that his scythe is an old model.

What is odd about his scythe that we can see has to deal with the fact that he's using a skeleton and oddly enough the skull has a thorn crown on it. This is an odd allusion to Jesus, which would make sense giving the timeline of the story.

Another interesting thing that the Undertaker has is a mourning chain. This also is where we learn that the Undertaker knew the Phantomhive family. Each locket is detailed quite nicely just like in the manga. Though it is really interesting to see see the lockets in color.

I really enjoy how Kotobukiya got the smile of his down, as it is the most interesting and unique feature of him. It's rather a creepy yet cute facial expression of his. Also I enjoy the scar and how it looks on his face, I am really excited for him.

The Undertaker figure is 1/8 scale from Kotobikiya and is about 12,000yen roughly depending where you may order it from. The figure will be released on October 2015 if there are no complications with manufacturing.

Bloodstained-Igavania on Kickstarter

Growing up I played a lot of Castlevania games, and I mean A LOT. In fact I really like the concept of Igavania games; though more people will know and refer to them as Metriodvania. Well however way you want to say it, there hasn't been a good track with Konami this year and dealing with their IPs, so now Koji Igarashi the producer of Symphony of the Night has put out his own kickstarter campaign for his new title Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.

Though we only have concept art it does look really promising so far.

Igarashi has already stated that he's using 2.5D for the game and is taking inspiration from Guilty Gear Xrd as inspiration for usage of the Unreal Engine and will be focusing on shading ASAP to get a more painted/anime feel. Which if you haven't seen Xrd's graphics go check them out because they look pretty sweet and I think they'd lend well to Bloodstained.

Another great thing, and this is just a personal like on my side; our main character.

Our main character is named Miriam. While games don't usually have female protagonists Igarashi stated in a small Q and A that the main reason of my the main character was chosen to be a girl dealt with his previous workings on Castlevania. Whatever the reason my be, I am enamored with her design and how well it fits with the gothic and stained glass theme they're giving overall. Also... Even though I know that's a part of the curse on her legs, they look like cute tights instead.

 The main villain of the game, Gebel looks pretty awesome as well and looks like a mix between Alucard and Soma which also fits well in this. We don't know much about the characters yet but again the concept art does look promising.

While they're are many tiers since this is a kickstarter, I decided to go for the $60 tier and secure myself both a physical copy and the artbook. The kickstarter edition does include a few things not included anywhere else:
-The SwordWhip: If you went to swordorwhip.com it was a voting for items that you wanted to see or something (I'm not sure as I just answered whip), and is a limited item that joins both clans together.
-One special boss which is how you get the SwordWhip
-Kickstarter edition slipcase

Now I will have to get a PS4, because there's no way I'm just buying a glorified steam key and I don't like the Xbox (I already have a computer).

Though just a final note on this kickstarter, Igarashi has come out and said he has most of the cost of production secured but will only happen if he can prove there are people who want this type of game which is why Igarashi went to crowdfunding. It wasn't that they weren't confident with Igarashi but said that these games have no fanbase, so that's where we come in. If you want to donate go ahead, but as I'm writing this the campaign has already surpassed  2 million dollars. With it having a slated release of 2017 as well may bring people off of it.

Please everyone remember that this is kickstarter and there are risks, if you're uncomfortable with donating; or in other peoples cases have been spurned by video game kickstarters I do not blame you for not helping even if you want it to succeed. This is my first video game kickstarter and I am really anxious about it, but I do know the inherit risks with these kinds of things.

Funding for the project ends on June 12 at 8pm PST so if you want to donate here is the link again.

Golden Week- Shops Are Closed and a bit of Life Update

If you rely on Japanese websites like I do for things, you'll notice that pretty much all of them have come to a standstill for the first week of May. This has to deal with their holiday called Golden Week. But why is it that most things come to a standstill when it comes to sites like Amiami and such? It mainly has to deal with every one taking their vacation time and it's a popular time for travel (this includes overseas travel as well). So even though the celebration ends May 5th in Japan, most companies will observe the holiday time for just a bit longer.

So even though I know Golden Week is happening I keep going to sites like Amiami and then being sad because I know there's no updates. I've been having a bit of health problems and I still feel a bit sick from time to time, along with school and there's a ton of writing in both along with basically at least 4 chapters of reading. But I will have more updates; I have lots of pictures and I still have to edit all the pictures from the GSCxMax Factory panel from Sakura-con even though it's late. Also I've been watching One Piece, from the very beginning.

More updates will be soon, also I have a convention even though it's small this week about ball joint dolls, so I will probably talk about that too.