Paper Moon

FYI, the magazine Animedia holds monthly themed fanart contests.

Last month's theme was "Wedding." A selection of the twenty best entries was printed in this month's issue.

Of the twenty winning entries, eleven featured male characters wearing wedding dresses, and one featured a Gundam mobile suit in a wedding dress.

Sometimes I love Japanese fandom.

EDIT: Because neocloud9 requested it, here's a scan of the contest entries:

http://www.megami-sama.net/files/ljpics01/animedia08june_wedding.jpg (2.41 MB)

I tried my best to make a decent scan of the page, but the images of the fanart entries are so small that this was the best I could do.

Also, upon closer inspection, Kyon is wearing a bridal veil, but not a wedding dress. Ah well. I'll still count him among the eleven cross-dressing entries anyway.

( Behind the cut: Six pages and cover illustration. )

x-posted to disgaea, obviously.

Because we're obviously on a Haruhi kick tonight.

( He's heeeeeeeeere! )

x-posted to sos_brigade

( Behind the cut: Six pages. )

x-posted to disgaea, obviously.

Another three months, and another chapter of Eternal Song, the prequel manga for Shakugan no Shana.

( I waited three months for this?! (Warning: Image-Heavy) )

But, we'll see. Three more months until the next chapter! Maybe things will pick up then.

(Thank you, aster_dw, for the title of this post.)

FIRST! Because writing this series of posts has put me in the mood, this weekend I marathoned the fifth Sakura Taisen OAV series just for the heck of it. Then I did some poking around online, and, I am happy to report, the entire series is now available fansubbed, for those of you who want it. (The last time I checked it hadn't been completely fansubbed, but now... It has been!) The translation isn't the greatest, but it works. So, since this is the ONLY Sakura Taisen anime that is still unlicensed for distribution outside of Japan, y'all can check it out for free if you know where to look (*cough*).

And you all - or at least any of you that I've managed to get at least remotely interested in Sakura Taisen - should TOTALLY WATCH THIS OAV. Because it's one of the best introductions to the franchise that there is, and because it is awesome. First of all, because it's a completely self-contained story, and requires little to no knowledge of the game canon to watch. Second, it perfectly captures the COMPLETE AND UTTER INSANITY of Sakura Taisen in a way that no other animated version has yet managed to do. I mean, it's got everything, up to and including a carp-shaped spaceship. Yes, really. Plus, at one point in the series, some dude rips his own heart out - now there's the gore that previous Sakura Taisen anime shyed away from! Oh yeah, and at one point, a character actually shouts "Raise the quantum shields!" even though this anime is supposed to be set in frickin' 1928. Finally, I think it is worth mentioning that Our Hero Shinjiro spends prety much the ENTIRE series in drag, and not only that, is perpetually three seconds away from a makeout session with the manly villain of the series. Let me just say this now: This OAV is the gayest Sakura Taisen OAV ever. Heck, in the final episode, Rica even point-blank asks Shinjiro if he's going to marry the manly manly villain. That's kind of awesome.

But, anyway. The point of this entry is the Sakura Cafe. Yes, that's right. There's a cafe in Tokyo. And aster_dw and I visited it. ( LOL, pictures! )

Anyway, we're almost at the end. Only one post left!

Continued from this post!

Kosuke Fujishima, who some of you may know as that guy who draws really incredibly awesome women, is the man responsible for the original Sakura Taisen character designs, and much of the game and anime artwork. He was succeeded by the also-awesome Hidenori Matsubara. Between the two of them, they've produced an incredible body of Sakura Taisen-related artwork. ( Here is some of the best of it. )

Okay now. Remember what those characters look like. Burn their visages into your mind's eye... Because things are about to get freaky. ( Really freaky. )

( It was shitty and overpriced two years ago, and it's still shitty and overpriced now. )

x-posted to sos_brigade

( Behind the cut: Mikuru + Puppy = Cute Overload. Figma + Hare Hare Yukai = Death by Awesome. )

x-posted to sos_brigade

( Behind the cut: PSP fanbook scans, and a fresh issue of Replicant! )

x-posted to sos_brigade

Aaaaaaaand that's it for my backlog! All cleared!

...But new magazines hit the stands tomorrow. (*headdesk*)