Birthday of Ayanami: Daykeeper

Yes, I took the plunge and bought the watch anyway. I wasn't sure about getting this that I had to ask around for people's opinion. I've had mixed feelings and I had mixed reactions from others as well. But I had a good excuse to finally get it, ok? It's not some kind of random purchase, ok? ^^;

This is part 1 of my Birthday of Ayanami series of posts on March 30th. Rei's birthday is actually based on Megumi Hayashibara's birthday, her voice actress. Megumi is also my favourite voice actress. Unfortunately she hasn't had much work lately since she's raising her family, but she still have some recent work, like Paprika, Evangelion movies and Slayers (at least it was just released here). March 30th is also Ayako Kawasumi's birthday, my second favourite voice actress... but I'll talk more about that later.

This is Daykeeper Relax Plus Plugsuits Edition, Rei Version... What a mouthful. Since this is the Rei version, she gets the first picture... Plus it's her birthday!

The watch was available in 3 versions including Asuka (red) and Shinji (light blue). As of this post there are actually other versions that is grey black coloured based on Kaworu and bright pink based on the new female pilot, Mari, from the new movie.

The reason why I bought this was because the strap on the watch I was wearing was about to fall apart... So I started to look for a new watch. I thought about getting something cheap, but I didn't want it to break easily. So I looked around for a nice Casio. One of the thing that I hated about the old watch was the light. It was too low... So the light was important. I found a really nice one, it had a compass and I was impressed by the illumination.

So I thought I decided on Casio, but then I suddenly had the urge to look around for anime-related watches when I got home from looking at watches... I researched some more and I kept going back to Relax Plus. This badly translated Japanese into English description somewhat piqued my interest: "RELAX PLUS is a small metal parts, most of them wrapped in rubber and PVC. PVC material by using a rubber belt, negative ions generated by friction. As its name implies you want to watch just RELAX!!!! Tamenai [wut?] high moisture permeable and breathable PVC sweat Quick dry effect of the fiber. Can comfortably wear it during the hot summer."

Either way I was sold since I was looking for a watch anyway. Thankfully the Daykeeper was back in stock at Hobby Search! They were the only one that had it and it was 15% off! Done deal. A couple of weeks later, trying to keep my watch intact as possible, the Daykeeper arrived!

And this is the content in the box... I played around and took photos of it right away because I was already planning this March 30th post.

Nice packaging! The inner case is a lego brick type of packaging. Supposedly if you have more Relax Plus watches, you can stack the cases... The plastic that surrounds the watch is quite unique.

Very intricate casing, I gotta say. It's like a giant bubble wrap.

Umm... I pretty much winged it when I set up the watch since I can't read all of this. Anyone that knows Japanese well and willing to translate, let me know. I still don't know how to make the watch beep hourly ^^;

And here's the watch! I'm a little disappointed because it's not as white as in the pictures... The top number is the hour, middle is minutes and seconds at the bottom. I have to press the top left button to check the date, kinda hard to press sometimes, but at least it has a calendar. I wasn't sure if there was a calendar or not... It does have an alarm too, but hard to setup. I need to read the manua... Damn, I forgot I can't read it...

The strap is made of PVC and metallic pieces. I'm surprised how the strap worked actually. It straps on like one of those watches with metallic band. Stainless steel, baby!

EVANGELION

You can also remove the timepiece from the strap if you need to replace the battery. But here you can actually see the buttons on the watch.

A close up of the timepiece. I haven't removed the plastic sticky part on the face of the watch, just so it can be protected and last a bit longer.

I gotta have a picture of the watch and Rei, right?

So I've been pretty much wearing it ever since I got it. It gets dirty easily, especially in my line of work, but it's easily cleaned. Hopefully the strap lasts, but I know they sell replacement straps for this line... I don't really want to replace the strap though...

Durarara!! Ending Parody

You can guess from the title and picture that this will be about the ending song from Durarara!! using Figma in the animation. Well you guessed right... Unless you guessed that I'm making a Saber Lily Can-can dance video, that is. Which I'm not.

But first let's get some things out of the way. Durarara!! is a new anime that started airing in January. I've only started watching it in the middle of February because of all the parody that has been made out of the ending animation. The anime is quite good actually. Different individuals with different background stories all live in the Ikebukuro district of Tokyo and somehow their lives are all connected in one way or another. The ending song, Trust Me, is done by Yuya Yamashita and a lot of parodies have been made out of this video.

So after seeing so many parodies on YouTube and NicoNicoDouga, I decided to make one of my own. Since I can't draw to save my life I use what I have available; my Figma (and one Revoltech). I needed 15 of them which I do have, but I decided to use one Revoltech because I wanted to use Rei and the Figma isn't out yet. Also, the purpose of making this video is to make a promo video for The Melancholy of Saber Lily comics, lol. So the characters that are in this video is either in the comics or will be there eventually.

Yes, I keep all my Figmas in their original boxes... Which was quite a hassle for this project. Anyway, enough talk... I'll show you the video first.

The Melancholy of Saber Lililily

I started this last Thursday and it took a few hours just to get all the characters off the original background. Taking the pictures took a couple of hours as well. And then I wanted to time the pictures to the song as well. Quite a pain, I tell you. I added the pictures in the beginning instead of the scenery ones in the original video. I also had to change Rei's hands position so it fits properly so that it looks like she's holding Ryomou's legs.

I used this Maria-sama ga Miteru parody art as a basis for my sizing and template for the pictures. I changed the colour a little bit in my version to fit Nanoha and Fate's colours ^^

This is an unused picture for Cute. She's one of the new Figmas that I have to open for this project. She'll be in the comics soon. I have quite the plan for her... Mwahahaha! Oh the MEIKO was supposed to be a size reference, but I didn't really use the reference point, lol.

Nanoha gave me the most trouble! First... I couldn't find her at all! I searched high and low and I decided to give up and created a new roster for the video. It would've worked too, but I think a lot of people made me look for it and I finally found it. Then when I started to pose her, her shoulder started to stiffen up... Seriously, what a pain. I took off her arm to "massage" the shoulder joint.

Another thing I have to add is that even though I thought about making this video on my own, there was already a Durarara video made with Figmas. Ah well... I made it according to my storylines, lol. But anyway, to be fair to MrKammy, here is his version:

Anyway that's it for me... I'm really tired and this project really wiped me out! "Trust Me!"

Knee Pits

The colloquial term for the back of the knee, or if you'd like to be technical about it, popliteal fossa. It's the area where your knee bends. Since it's similar to where the arm bends at the shoulder, the arm pit, this area is also called the "knee pit".

The above photo of Kanu in cosplay is by Ren of Zark&Ren on Cosplay.com. Look through more of their cosplay at their site!

Please be wary that there may be some picture that are risque and NSFW...

Let MEIKO show you the knee pits (circled in red) that I'm talking about.

Gorgeous China dress... beautiful MEIKO & knee pit.

Knee pits are also visible through knee/thigh high boots.

Misaka's knee pits are very well drawn here!

And why am I talking about this? Well for years, I had thought I liked the body part I liked on an anime character is her thighs. Which is why I liked the thigh highs that anime characters wore... but I realize that the part I look at closely is actually the area where the knee bends. There doesn't seem to be an official name for knee pits in Japanese, like "futamomo" for "thigh". If there is one, then I don't know it.

What the girl, Eimi, doing in the bottom right panel is called "hiza kakkun". "Hiza" means "knee" and "kakkun" is the noise of the knee crumpling from knees hitting the back of the knee. Somewhat related to the knee pit topic, especially from one of my favourite manga, Beauty is the Beast. Closest thing I can find in Japanese for "knee pit"...

Yuji Shiozaki's Ryomou got some of the best knee pits in the business!

But why do I like them? I'm not quite sure why. There must be some thing about the shape of them. The muscle connecting the two joints... The crease that shows where the knee bends... Or the dimples on either side of the muscle in the middle... I don't know, but I know when I see kneepits of an anime character drawn this way, it's definitely the first thing I'll see. The more detailed it's drawn, the more I appreciate the art.

So apparently the reason why I like thigh highs, loose socks, or boots, is because the way they accentuate knee pits...

Not so visible, but for one of my favourite characters, she looks great in those thigh highs!

Loose socks are great, aren't they?

Cammy's one of the first that I remember to show of her knee pits in a victory pose.

Figures are also great works of art that features detailed knee pits. Such as the Maid Saber from Alter. You can see her knee pits covered by the thigh highs. Or the Gothic Lolita Ryomou figure based on the picture previously shown above. The Franco Il Nero pictured below is another great piece.

Tsukino Azusagawa from Yakitate Japan got some great ones too. One of my favourite figures!

Ok, most static figures are pretty good for knee pits... let's take a look at Revoltech Fraulein Haruka Hasegawa from Moyashiman and Figma Yuki Nagato from Haruhi Suzumiya series.

ARRRGH!! Never mind, forget it!

GYAH! I don't need a close up of it >_<

Ah, that's better...

First thing I notice about this picture of Angol Moa? The knee pits of course.

Now, I don't really think this is a fetish because it's not something that I think about sexually. It's something that I look at because it's beautiful... Or is that the same thing? NO! I deny it! It's the appreciation of beauty not something that you think of when you're by yourself and feeling the urge... The beauty of knee pits transcend that of a mere fetish!

Mogudan draws some of the best knee pits... Most of his art is ero doujinshi, so this is one of the cleanest ones I could find...

Umm... sorry, over dramatic. There are a lot of pictures of knee pits that are in ero positions unfortunately... So it can actually be difficult to find something clean to post here. It's also quite rare to have characters drawn from the back and their knee pits being shown. When there are knee pits visible then most likely there will be an upskirt picture as well...

Izurumi also draws knee pits quite well... A lot of his are ero doujinshi too...

It's difficult to find something clean to understand the beauty of knee pits... but when it's there, I don't think I can't take my eyes off of them. So without further words... I present to you, The Knee Pit Gallery.

Rei in a plugsuit sorta shows them off... or is that part of the plug suit?

Cosplay of Rei looks good too ^^

Not so visible under Yui's pantyhose here, but it's not too bad.

Just barely there, but I can see it!

Ikki Tousen seems to be a good source...

Ishikei's art really showcase the knee pits... But again, a lot of his art are ero doujinshi ^^;

That's all folks! If you see great arts of knee pits, show me! :D