Happy Halloween 08 everybody! As promised, I was to give you all a special surprise today and here it is. Thanks to playlist.com, I set up a Halloween music playlist for you all that should be good for both fans of Halloween and otaku alike. You'll find music from E Nomine, Michael Jackson, Exorcist, Nightmare Before Christmas; from anime like Death Note, Hellsing, and Vampire Knight and for video game fans, I added a little Castlevania to the mix. Just sit back and let it play while you browse to help you get into the Halloween spirit. This year Halloween can be a weekend event so have fun!
Enjoy a safe and fun Halloween ^_^.
(If the playlist is a bit buggy, you can try the main page here)
Here's a little treat for today on the eve of Halloween. Been way too busy in my job and the anime biz but there is more to come soon. Enjoy this nice anime Halloween pick. I have something in store for tomorrow though. Will it be a trick or a treat??
As of a few days ago, the hilariously funny TeamFourStar Dragon Ball Z Abridged parody got its latest episode. Like many otaku, I've become an instant fan of the parody.
Speaking of DBZ's early episodes; Danielle and I have been watching the DBZ Season 1 Uncut DVD and its amazing how different the series is when you see it in its original form and not the bastardized first dub. I'm so glad anime brought to America has been kept whole and not filtered into a kiddy-Christian abomination...for the most part.
After a long weekend and a rather buggy computer slowing me down, I'd like to introduce you to Chuck's Anime Shrine version 4.0. Now the completed product is still in the works but I'm sure you have noticed the difference here. Here's a list of what is new, what is gone and what's on the way:
New: -Recreated the whole look of the site to look like... well, a shrine!
-random backgrounds at the top (6 for now)
-a smaller blog address (thanks to redirects)...but the working url is still the same; new blog link shortcut: chucksanimeshrine.com/blog.html
-twitter : you get to see my twitter status, of course I do what you all to do tweets from here as well in the future
-addthis.com button: a simple button for adding posts to a large amount of news, blog sites
-fewer ads
-less cluttered blog
-broader page size
-MobileMe embedded gallery
-Fanart gallery that you can submit your work to
-an idol section; yes, you can now view japanese idols here as well
-anime figure gallery
-anime music section; the same system I have on anime.fm
-all older sections of the site are in the sitemap for now but will soon be integrated - "Non-series" pictures are all now part of the anime gallery with new pictures -all old fanart items will be added soon
On the way:
-If you are viewing this from the home page, I promise it will look nicer and will be more useful than just a text copy of the blog
-more contests: submit your fan-art to the new fan-art section because the best ones will be selected in the next contest and hopefully future ones as well
-more picture submission albums in the gallery
-all the anime series I currently have (not many) will have all their pictures in the gallery soon
-More anime series sections and pictures
-a better amv section, if possible
-this site to appear in Otaku USA (for the store mainly)
Well, there you have it. Version 4.0 is not a 100% but now the stage is set for a more functional site and more content for me to easily add and you all as well. Now I'm off to watch some uncut season one DBZ, I'm beat @_@.
Was busy all day fixing my Internet (again ~_~) and then I got to work on the new site. Got most of the template and new blog layout done but I sure have a load of anime figures and even video games to put up on the store. Keeping the blog updated with another quick anime girl pic. (and buying some time ^ ^;)
Been busy making version 4.0 of the site. In the mean time, enjoy this Code Geass picture. Since it's getting cold here in NY and x-mas is coming, I thought this would be a good pic. I know some you wish you were Lulu here.
Normally I don't do these kind of post but I feel this would be a good way to get some help. As of last x-mas, some of you might have known that Danielle and I got engaged after being together since a few weeks after I started this site back in March 2002. A radio station I listen to here on the island, Party 105 has a contest to pay for a couple's entire wedding. We have entered the contest and are one of the many couples up for grabs to get our wedding payed for.
In order to win, we need as many votes as possible. If possible, I'm asking the readers of this blog to kindly put their name in the ballot to help us out. Being able to win this contest would help us big time in our quest to quit our day jobs and to have all our focus be on the anime site and business and not some stupid, mindless camera store site or Bob's Stores (Danielle's current job).
As a promise to the fans, I will be setting up contests for free figures and other cool stuff, plus making the site look much much better than ever before. If I can expand the store even more than the recent $40,000 pre-order (that I still need to post in the store ^^) I'm going to probably do something that no other anime store can do; and that is give free (good) manga with every figure purchase. I haven't set up things yet with my dealers but the possiblity is very real. This and many other things I still have in the backburner can be closer to achieveing if Danielle and I get our wedding paid for so, in a rare post as this is,
Vote for us Here on to help us win a free wedding. We are couple # 61
Any and all votes will be greatly appreciated and we will bring this site into the limelight for all the fans and...you might see us in Otaku USA Magazine in the coming months ^_^
(...also, don't mind how weird I look in that photo...its the image size and my weird smile. ^^)
I know, "dubbing" is basically the otaku "f-bomb" and fan dubbing tends to be all the more sinister but lets face it, anime dubbing has gotten better over the past years. With the advent of youtube, fan dubbing has been seen much more. Granted, like AMVs, fan-dubbing is a dime-a-dozen and its sometimes hard to find stuff that you just can't click away from amongst the sea of videos. Then there is stuff like the Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged Series. It's a very funny, fan-dub with practically all the voices done by the now famous dubber known as Little Kuriboh. If you haven't seen any of his stuff, I provided a few clips below. As of very recently, he's been guest staring in what has to be yet another very well done fan dubbing series, this one about Dragon Ball Z, also called an Abridged Series. Along with Little Kuriboh, a simply amazing group of dubbers known as TeamFourStar works these parody episodes. Danielle and I can't get enough of this fan-dub and already thousands of otaku have subscribed to their work. The voice of Vegeta, Lanipator sounds exactly like Chris Sabo and like Chris Sabo, he does a good chunk of the voices in the series. The other members of TeamFourStar, KaiserNeko, Takahata101 and the others and along with Little Kuriboh, couldn't be any better of a fan dub team. They really do give the real english dubbers (and writers) a run for their money.
One last thing about anime dubbing. As some of you might know, I was suppose to participate in the Bang Zoom! studio panel at Anime Fest 08 to hopefully get my foot in the door as well as an anime voice actor. That unfortunately was shot down due to the huge, huge crowd the latter two days had. No worries though, as I continue to break free from my job with my anime store, I'll be able to do Flash and dubbing myself to prove myself (please don't use my supposed podcast as an example ^^;, it sucked and wasn't really a podcast) plus I'm still in contact with Bang Zoom and will eventually attend their $300 lessons to get my old chorus voice back and improve my acting since both are a bit rusty. One of the other fellow attendees at Anime Fest 08, AnimeAlmanac was able to do an interview and in-depth report on the class when Bang Zoom did one in NYC not long after the festival. Check out the amazing blog post here and remember, if we american otaku are to get in the anime voice acting biz...its not all fun and games, its an art and must be done right.
TeamFourStar Convention Parody, LOL at last comment xD
First Episode of DBZ Abriged
Can't forget the amazing Yu-Gi-Oh Abrigded Series
LOL at the Beauty and the Beast Parody; f$%king birds! xD
Here's a much better set of Tifa Lockhart Wallpapers than that simple one I did a while back with smoother graphics and bigger sizes. Thanks to photobucket user altoidyoda for the 1820px x 1024px size that I edited for these. Each photo has been adjusted to the popular monitor sizes. Enjoy ^_^
Some exciting news from Square-Enix with the recent announcement of even more new figures! Many of you are aware of the new Crisis Core figures that will arrive state side beginning 09 but as of yesterday, one of my dealers gave the go-ahead to pre-order the latest in the line of Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts figures.
Set to arrive some time near March-April here in the states comes these 6 figures Square-Enix:
Final Fantasy XII: Judge Master Gabranth Play Arts Action Figures
One in particular that catches my eye of course would be the Sephiroth Static Arts figure. This is really the first time since the old resin models that the characters from Final Fantasy VII are made into the standard, static PVC models. For a long time FFVII figures have been mainly the simple and poseable Play Arts $30 figures (minus those rather recent $400 models), which are great but many figure collectors look for those figures that are high in quality (and not over $400) that match more of say the figures of Good Smile Company.
As part of my site and store's expansion, I of course went and pre-ordered a bunch of every one of these figures for you guys. Check out the Final Fantasy + Kingdom Hearts sections of the store to put in any pre-orders*. The exact quantities that I should be getting are in the system but like all anime figures, they are usually limited edition and will sell quick ^_~
*Currently the store only allows for pre-order reserves by paying the full amount for the figure(s) but you can simply ask to be on the waiting list by emailing me here. People who pay for the figures in advance do get the figures first though and if you pay or not for pre-order figures you can always cancel at any time...just be sure to message me in advance ^_^...oh and shipping is FREE if you buy $100 or more and are in the US.
If any of you went to the anime store section of the site, you probably noticed a huge bunch of items are now gone. Don't worry though, I did this to fully optimize the store for the coming x-mas season. The store is over a year old now, and my original method of doing business was to have a few items from my only dealer at the time and put those in a "special category" to show that they are ready for immediate shipment. Everything else on the over 3000 item list was items I could get from that dealer but I'd have to wait almost 4 business days to be able to hand them out plus there were times that my wholesaler said were in but they themselves needed to update their site. Granted, the items I have kept for the store constantly come and go thanks to my amazon.com and ebay.com branches and I've held a perfect customer record on both sites. This year's sales are also very close to $100,000 but with the main store's site lagging in performance and with weird shipping amounts, I simply had to fix it. Also over time I have added a bunch of dealers including one for videogames that I have yet to utilize plus a very hefty stock of about $15,000 worth of items in storage at my house ^^;
With the success of the store, I've begun even more expansion with get this, about $40,000 worth of anime figures, manga, DVDs and more now on pre-order! This is for the coming months up till May of 09, with much more to be added to that list. Browse and shop the store all you like and the exact quantity of what I have to ship asap is there, plus all orders in the US that are over $100 get free shipping! As of today, the list looks small but I have loads of items on hand that I have yet to add along with an even bigger list of figures and otaku goodies for pre-order.
This is all part of the transition to version 4.0. Speaking of version 4.0, take a look below to see a quick peek at the new look of this site and hopefully the store as well ^_^.
-The final layout will look even better than this early image from about a week ago with the images behind the shrine randomly changing behind the shrine (yes, it'll acually be a shrine). Page-refresh backgrounds are nothing new on the web but a much smoother look with new features coming as well. (Sorry about the small iPhone images ^^;)
What has to be one of the most gorgeous figures I've seen in the past few months, Griffon really does well with this one. From the hentai, Jiburiru - Devil Angel, this 1/7th figure depicts St. Jibril. as a very stunning figure indeed. It's going to cost a bit though at around $97 retail which is much for a 1/7th scale figure but sure worth it if you like this series and if the final product looks this good. Granted, as expected from a figure that's in a hentai, the figure is cast-offable with St. Jibril having a version you can display of her with no top. Either the top comes off or there is a different torso, that of which I'm not sure. Of course, this is then meant for mature collectors only. I pre-ordered a handful for the store and with hopes of me keeping one as well...in her clothed version of course to not offend my soon-to-be-wife Danielle ^^;; Won't be out till some time in February.
More gadget news via Engadget. This one is particularly good if you own a PSP. The Playstation 3 (the last of the next gen system I have yet to own) soon will be getting firmware version 2.50, supposedly nothing big, mainly bug fixes and Bluetooth support for the SOCOM headset. The PSP will recieve version 5.00 which will include direct access to the Playstation Store in order to download games right to the PSP. Now the PSP can be added to the list of systems that utilize game downloads and patches, like the 360's Xbox Live downloads, The Playstation Store (for the PS3), the Wii's WiiWare and the iPhone/iPod Touch's App Store. The progression of game distribution is obviously heading towards an all download media.
You can bet your money that eventually all DVDs and Blue-ray disks will be replaced by just data flowing to and from your systems. Going to miss the days of opening a brand new video game box and getting that old "New-Game" smell.
(not like I smell the box but you gamers know what i mean ^^;;)
This news completely ticks me off! Check this article out by Anime News Network. An otaku in Iowa was charged with up to 20 years in prison for possession of obscene loli manga he bought from Japan. Now I'm completely against that type of manga but this is an obvious violation against First Amendment rights. Basically customs checked his shipment and browsed through his manga before handing it to him at the post office and then arresting him on his way home. He's winning due to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund but this arises worry and questions for us American otaku.
What if you buy regular manga with some strong scenes that aren't loli or if you buy hentai, yuri or yaoi?
I can easily see someone in customs mistaken some regular hentai as loli or just offensive enough for this kind of action
News also thanks to a twit on twitter from the creator of The Anime Almanac.
Sorry for the lack of blog posts, been busy pre-ordering inventory and getting ready to restructure the entire anime store and this site (plus my damn day-job is still a part of my life ;_;, for now). There will be more posts since we sure know there's been alot of news lately, mainly economic stuff. With x-mas coming and the new year that means lots of anime figures are coming!
Screw the economy! The anime and videogame industries are still on the grow and that's what we all care about anyways. Enjoy this high rez pic (click on it for full size) of the upcoming Jiburiru Holy Angel 1/7 Scale Figure by Griffon that will grace this blog and my store.
More on this figure and other stuff in the next few days. Just have to juggle the huge number of tasks ^^;
Was out for two days relaxing for the weekend and also cleaning up my huge anime inventory that I have to correctly add and count for my different stores. Anyway, got to work today on version 4 of the site by first upgrading the forum into the latest phpbb version and in a color scheme that better fits the site and the next version. Right now I'm using a badass pic of Lulu from Code Geass as the title pic but expect it to change to a random set of pictures plus a few more cosmetic changes. One major issue though as some of you might have noticed is that all the prior users and topics have been erase ^^;;;;;.
Looks like there was an error moving the database over to the new version and with the recent spamming done by some website named statuncore.com or something to that degree (beware of that site since it looks like they randomly add java code pages on your site!
Anyone who used the forum before I apologize for this but the newest version is now very secure and should hopefully be a better (and more populated) experiance.
Looks like some Japanese engineers, make that over 100 of them are taking something many of us probably thought of in middle school and planning on making it a reality. What is it might you ask? Why, its an elevator that takes you straight from the ground here on earth to a space station up above. This is something I know I've seen on an anime or two, the titles just can't come to mind but it appears that this is something that will be started in 2030 for real. The full story can be found here on CNN.
I know, another hot Gurren Lagen pic. I'll change things up but this is for people who wanted to see Yoko and other hotness from the show. Also, it's a good pic for those like me who are still upset about the passing of summer....just 8 months to go ~_~
Get ready to have your palm in your face...below is clip from a con goer in Europe viewing the Dragon Ball trailer. One big thing to take note is the quick clip of Goku making out with Bulma......The otaku world is going to flip its lid on this one!
Just had to add another pic of Yoko. The other picture was ok but hopefully this one is in a higher rez. Would be nice if I could blow up the thumbnail a bit but ShoZu hasn't updated that yet :/
Looks like the iPhone app ShoZu now shows pictures a bit bigger than before. Doubt the thumbnail is bigger though but if you click on this nice pic of Gurren Lagen's Yoko, she should be in a higher rez. Enjoy.
Posts
