Actually a double arrival
I got one package in the morning via EMS and later during the day I found out that I have another waiting for me at the PO, so this ended up becoming a double arrival after all. ヾ(｡^ω^｡)ノ For once they were quick with package number #2, usually they like to keep the airmail packages as hostages for days…
But yeah, first up is a figure I snatched from Mandarake, Kotobukiya’s Levi. I was looking at this particular figure at Tracon X, but it costed 130 euros there so I hesitated… based on the original price, it wasn’t too expensive if I were to count customs and shipping fees, too, but still… I didn’t end up buying the figure from there. I was very tempted and there was this chick who really tried to advertise it to me, but I stayed strong… !
… and it’s a good thing I did, because now I found it for 8000 yen on Mandarake. A much better deal!╰(✧∇✧)╯
Happy to have (yet another) Levi at home, yaaaaay! ヾ(＠°▽°＠)ﾉ Clearly I have a “collect all the Levis and Mikasas” thing going on. Too bad I don’t like Kotobukiya’s Mikasa, because they put her into this stupid booty-out pose, grr… and her face isn’t nearly as pretty as GSC Mikasa’s either. Well, I am selling the FuRyu Mikasa figure, too, so my collection will lose one member once I get that sold… but well, SnK is pretty popular so there’s a chance that at some point there are going to be more figures that I want.
I really want figures of Armin, Jean and Annie but we’ll see if that ever happens. RAH Armin and Annie are so wonderful, but too expensive for my budget… and I’d rather have just figures anyway, not doll-figure-hybrids, lol. I’d even take figmas! Okay, there ARE figures of Armin but their faces and hair are somehow off… the RAH Armin is the only one that looks good to me. And then figma Armin was limited and is hard to find. *shakes fist* Cruel, cruel world… Armin is my faaaave! He’s a perfect example of damn good character development! It’s kinda funny that the same series that has a character like Armin can have someone like Eren as the protagonist, ha ha ha… he’s so one-dimensional and has pretty much zero character development. But then again, most shounen series have awful protagonists (like Aquarion EVOL drove me nearly insane – coincidentally that idiot protag was voiced by Kaji Yuuki just like Eren is. I hate Kaji Yuuki, he has no talent at all and his voice ticks me off).
I could go on forever about how great characters Armin and Levi are, for real. There are people who dislike them, Armin because he used to be a pathetic coward (keyword being USED to be) and Levi because he’s “too strong” and cold and violent or something because there was that scene where he beat up Eren. I’m just like… … are you people reading/watching the same show as me? Clearly not. Just because Armin doesn’t rush head first into everything (like Eren) doesn’t make him a coward… although, YES, he used to be rather pathetic in the beginning and I didn’t like him at first because of that. But he’s clearly matured as the series progressed, but he’s also clever and smart, so he thinks before he acts. And Levi is probably one of the most well-written and complex characters in the series. Like, honestly, no one cares as much as Levi does. Like, sure, he’s got that whole grumpy thug look going on and uses very coarse language, but there have been several scenes where you can tell that deep down he is a caring person. He probably cares too much even, you can see how it’s taking its toll on him as the series progresses. And yeah, he’s strong, but he’s not a typical super-handsome-super-tall-overpower-character… I mean, the dude is a grumpy little midget. Not exactly the traditionally cool type. Although, to me Levi is attractive BECAUSE of his unconventional rugged look, lol.
… but perhaps I’ll stop here before I end up writing a twenty page long paper on why Armin and Levi are such great characters. (*≧▽≦)ﾉｼ))
MOVING ON! (*•̀ᴗ•́*)و ̑̑
The second arrival is a pureneemo girl that I’ve been trying to hunt down for a while but she’s always eluded me. I’ve seen her up on Mandarake and Y!J several times, but always when my funds were already tied elsewhere and I couldn’t purchase her, and by the time I had money – she was already gone. (｡•́︿•̀｡) On Y!J especially I’ve come across several auctions for this doll starting at 10000 to 12000 yen, which were veeeery reasonable and bid on those… but of course, in the last minutes I would always get into a bidwar and the price would hike over my budget so I missed out. （；へ：）
This time I got into a bidwar, too. I’d hoped I could get her for around 15000 yen, but someone came to bid on her during the very last few minutes, so I ended up having to pay 17000 yen for her. I was a little bummed about that, but it’s still less than what the doll usually goes for, which is around 20000 to 25000 yen and more. So it’s a relatively good deal, but I was SO close to getting her for 15000 yen, if only that one person hadn’t come along, gahh… !!! (゜´Д｀゜)
Oh well, at least I finally have this lovely girl at home, and she’s soooo worth all the trouble! (/∇＼*)｡o○♡
Since this girl is Chiyo’s big sister, I wanted to give her a name that matches with Chiyo’s. I ended up with Chiemi, 千笑. The first kanji is the same as in Chiyo’s name, 千夜. Chiemi’s name could be loosely translated as “a thousand smiles”. Alisa sculpt has such a lovely smile, that I thought it would suit her well.（●´∀｀）ノ♡ She’s a very optimistic person, so it suits her character as well. She’s the artistic type and wants to study art in Europe someday. Chiemi is always drawing or painting, and Chiyo is also interested in art because of her sister.
Later on I also took a photo of Chiemi with Akemi, my other Alisa:
Only at this point I realised that their names are seemingly quite similar, Chiemi and Akemi, ahah… (ᗒᗜᗕ)՛̵̖ But their characters aren’t affiliated with each other so it’s okay. And if you look at the kanjis, they are actually 千笑 Chi-emi and 曉美 Ake-mi, so they’re not exactly the same.
8 Comments
Alasse Carnesir
Congrats on the arrivals! I love the figure. The dynamic pose is quite eye catching. I keep meaning to watch Attack on Titan but I never seem to get around to it.
Ah … Alisa .. she is such a sweet looking girl. I love how the Sahra girls have that little white dot on their face. I really wish Azone would release more pink haired girls. The ones they have released are always so hard to get or are so pricey when you do find them.
mizya
Thank you! ^^ With figures I usually go for the ones with dynamic poses because they’re more interesting to photograph. :D Only if I really, really love the character and can’t find a better figure of that particular character, I go for the more basic poses.
I watched the anime when it aired, so I had one episode to look forward to every week. I’m now eagerly waiting for the continuation that should air in spring 2016. But I’m also bad at starting an anime that has already finished, I never seem to find the time to start watching those! ^^; And an on-going show that has hundreds of episodes, like One Piece for example, are another type that I never seem to be able to watch.
Yup, she is! ^^ I’m very happy that I was able to find this particular version of Alisa~ Luckily I’m quite picky about pink hair on dolls, so I only wanted this Alisa and Majokko Chiika. I usually tend to prefer natural hair colours for my dolls, especially browns and blacks. :3
NyteRaine
Wow, congratulations on both Levi and Alisa! I really like all the characters in SnK too… strangely, I think my least favorite main character is Eren (though he’s quite good looking, love his eyes… but he doesn’t really have the brain -_-‘). I like Armin’s character development, can’t wait to see more of him in the future, and plus points for being a cutie. Mikasa is awesome as always, she is definitely not your typical anime heroine. There’s Levi… what’s there not to like about him? I’m always confused when people make him out to be a cold sadistic bastard…. he is definitely not that, he is quite a caring person if you look pass his grumpy deadpan expression. And Erwin, my god he’s very handsome in my book. I really like his character, and I wish more people give him attention. I wish they’d make a Figma of Erwin, I would definitely buy him. These two old men (Erwin and Levi) are what I fawn over, and their relationship runs quite deep. It’s always interesting to see how they interact with each other… Plus I ship them so hard. Oh carp, that was long you’ve made my SnK nerd side come out~ Btw your Alisa is super cute, if I get an Azone, I want a pink hair one. Chiemi is such a pretty name. Congrats again!
mizya
Thank you! ^^
I always think that if someone says that they hate Levi, Armin or other favourites of mine, they just don’t understand the character so that’s why they can’t appreciate them like I do. xD
Erwin is also one of my favourites, I love how he’s so driven and determined to reach his goals. His character makes an interesting contrast with Levi, because he views sacrifices as necessary whereas Levi is more the type who is hurt by the all the casualties and would surely rather minimise the risks. I suppose that’s why someone like Erwin has to be the commander and the next logical leader was Hanji, because Levi is in a way “too soft” to step up to the plate. I always feel like Isayama is the kind of a ruthless writer who isn’t afraid to inflict pain on his characters… he could easily kill off Erwin but with Levi, if Isayama truly wanted to torture him, he’d keep him alive until the end because Levi hurts the most each time that his comrades die – especially since he himself is still alive. That’s why I’m always worried for Erwin when he pulls all these reckless stunts, while I would be very, very surprised if something happened to Levi… well, not to mention the publisher and editor want to keep the most popular characters alive not to piss off the readers (because more sales -> more money for them) and Levi is definitely one of the more popular ones. :’D
Haha, I don’t actually ship anyone in SnK, I’m too busy being worried for their lives. XD Also, the plot keeps me plenty intriqued (although for the past six months or so this whole humans vs humans thing has been rather boring, I want to know more about the titans and titan shifters) so I don’t really think about any possible romantic connections between the characters. To me it’s more about family bonds and bonds between friends and comrades rather than romance. Although, I do admit that from some of the fanart that I’ve seen, I kinda like the idea of Levi x Hanji… u__u
Kaitlin
Your sisters are so cute! >w< I just put my Koron in Sahra's summer melody outfit and she looks super cute in it <3 All ready to go to the beach when I go to Florida in a couple of weeks~
mizya
Thank you! :D
Aww, a beach photoshoot, how nice! Here it’ll soon be winter, so no trips to the beach in a while. :’D Well, at least I have plenty of time to make some bikinis and swimsuits for next summer! XD
Tiinyan
Upea Levi ja ihana Chiemi ^^ Itsekin jouduin aikoinaan metsästämään kyseistä Alisaa pitkään ennen kuin sitten lykästi. Tuo hiusten sävy on kyllä ihanimpia mitä Azoneilla on ♥
mizya
Kiitos! ^^ Tämä Alisa on sitten ollut hankala tapaus useammallekin meistä. :’3 Flickrissakin yksi tuttu mainitsi, että on koettanut löytää tätä tyttöstä muttei ole vielä onnistunut kotiuttamaan.
Nämä hiukset on kyllä aivan ihanat, tykkään kauheasti kun pehmennetään näitä erikoisempia värejä luonnollisilla sävyillä kuten ruskealla tai sellaisella maantie-blondilla. Olen vähän tylsä ihminen joka tykkää perusväreistä nukkejen hiuksissa, niin on heti jotenkin levollisempi minun silmään tällainen sävy. :D Jos Azone tekisi lisää tällaisia sävyjä, en voisi vastustaa! ♥