Ghost in the Shell fans, rejoice as the Blu-Ray version of Ghost in the Shell 2 Innocence is out now, and as the title says, straight into the bargain bin with a discounted price of USD 33.90.

This is the US release of the movie, therefore everything is in English (apparently is a new North American dub, the original U.K. English dub is included as well).

Interested? Click here for purchase information.

I’ve got a friend who has one of those Super Mario Sound Drop Key Chains. Press on the key chain and it will emit the same sound effect played when Mario is getting a 1UP.

While the Super Mario Sound Drop key chains have become rare commodities, Bandai is now making available sound drop key chain collections featuring the animes One Piece and Evangelion.

The One Piece 2 Sound Drops Gashapon consists of 6 different kinds of sound drops, each of them feature a different character and play a unique sound when press. Click here for purchase information.

On the other hand, the Neon Genesis Evangelion Sound Drops collection features 8 different key chains. And like the One Piece series, each key chain represents a character from the anime and plays a unique sound when pressed. Priced at USD 2.90 each, click here for purchase information.

What happens when you take the characters from two popular animes, namely One Piece and Dragon Ball Z, mash ‘em up and make figurines out of them? You’ll get Banpresto’s 40th Weekly Jump collection of Dragon Ball Z x One Piece DX Non Scale Pre-Painted Figurines.

The collection is home to pretty weird designs, such as Luffy in Goku’s gi uniform, and Goku wearing Luffy’s signature pirate get-up.

The following characters are available for pre-order (will be released sometime in November, click on their respective names for further details):

• Luffy
• Son Goku
• Nami
• Bulma

For those of you who want something more immediate, Bandai has the Dragon Ball X One Piece X Naruto pre-painted candy toy figurine collection on sale. Click here for details.

One Piece fans, you guys are in luck. Mega House’s Excellent Model One Piece Portraits of Pirates (P.O.P) 1/8 scale Kid Version figurines are now available at a 15% discount. The only catch is the sale ends this Friday, so get them while they are still cheap!

The characters in this series are as follows:

• Zoro (click here for details)
• Nami (click here for details)
• Luffy (click here for details)
• Nojiko (click here for details)
• Robin (click here for details)

Check out the pictures below:

Macross/Robotech. Most people would argue that both are different (indeed they are) and that one is better than the other. It doesn’t really matter to me as I love ‘em both.

So it’s not suprising for me to snap up a Robotech novel and a Macross Frontier DVD Box Set on the same day . The novel in question would be Rubicon, part 5 of The Sentinels series. It’s pretty difficult to get a hold of these books nowadays and I was fortunate enough to find a copy in a used-books store at 1 Utama. The price? A mere RM 5 and in excellent condition too.

I did abit of shopping mall hopping today (I was on leave) and I ended up at AEON Bukit Tinggi as well. Popular Book Store was selling the Macross Frontier Box Set (Episodes 1 – 25, the entire series) bundled with the soundtrack, Nyan Furo for just RM 39.90.

I don’t really hold anime boxsets from Popular Book Store in high esteem, because most are produced by Hong Kong companies with really sub-par subtitles, not to mention the poor picture quality. Both qualities are present in the Macross Frontier boxset.

You would be better off thinking of them as legitimized pirated DVDs, no thanks to the Malaysian government passing them with the Censorship Board’s cert (which labels the boxset as Macross Zero instead…urgh… Malaysia Boleh! wtf).

The act of bundling the soundtrack CD was rather nice (for a change), even though the CD was sans inserts (legitimized piracy…remember?). The box set itself was also rather nice, different from the “big box with a whole bunch of DVD sleeves inside” approach. Pity the dumb designer who placed the words Macross Seven on the boxset (legitimized piracy..again). Here are some pictures:

Macross Frontier fans, you’re in for a treat. Meet the person behind Macross Frontier’s Sheryl Norme’s singing voice in Anime Festival Asia 2008 and like her anime counterpart, she is a looker.

Singapore, 06 October 2008 –May’n, Japan’s hottest J-pop star who performs the singing voice of Sheryl Nome in popular Japanese anime “Macross Frontier” will perform live at Anime Festival Asia 2008 (AFA08). Visitors to AFA08 will be able to catch May’n live on the main stage on Sunday, 23 November 2008.

Possessing a natural talent for “live” shows and coupled with her unique and dynamic vocal abilities, May’n takes pride in engaging her audiences profoundly during performances and this peformance in Singapore will be her first show outside of Japan.

Currently 18 years old, May’n performs the singing voice of Sheryl Nome, a pop idol character in the highly successful hit Japanese animation series “Macross Frontier”. In May 2008, her CD single release launch event was so successful that it became the most well-attended CD launch event in the history of the Japanese music scene. She has also achieved 2 consecutive single releases that topped the Japanese Oricon charts at number 3 – which is by itself a feat for an anime J-pop performer.

May’n has been singing since the tender age of 3, and when she was 13 she topped the “Horipuro – Talent Scout Caravan – Love Music – Audition” beating a total of 35,000 contestants to win the competition. She has since made way to become a professional singer thanks to her exceptional singing prowess.

Taking place on the 22nd and 23rd of November 2008 (Saturday and Sunday) at the Suntec International Convention and Exhibition Center, Anime Festival Asia 2008 (AFA08) will showcase a wide array of Japanese Pop Culture related content, spanning over 5,000 sqm of space with 6 experience zones: Akiba Town, Anime Live, Anime Blockbusters, Industry, Mangaka and Planet Mech, where visitors will gain access to exclusive content, merchandise and live acts straight from Japan.

Tickets for AFA08 will cost S$5 for a single day pass and S$8 for a 2 day pass.

My GameBoy Micro never fails to amaze me. I got it back from my girlfriend more than 3 weeks ago, and despite playing it several times since then, it hasn’t paid a visit to the power socket, yet! Talk about long standby times.

In any case, it looks like I’m getting rusty at Digidrive. 3000 points in my first attempt after a very long lay-off isn’t enough to crack my high-score list. Hmm..

Since it’s already October, lets have a look at my purchases in September. Games wise, it’s one of those dry months but because of that I had the funds to purchase Nintendo’s first official flashkart for the Nintendo DS, the am3 DSVision. Along with it came a Pokemon movie.

Somewhere down the line, I manage to snag my only video games purchase, a slot machine game for the NDS titled Daito Giken Koushiki Pachi-Slot Simulator: Hihouden – Ossu! Banchou – Yoshimune DS. It’s selling for nearly USD 50 on Play-Asia but I got it for just RM 50 used on lelong.com.my.

For the first time in a long time I actually purchased anime off the shelf. The local Popular Bookstore outlet was having one of its cheap sales and it is like the anime section was on a fire sale with knocked-down prices.

I couldn’t help myself so I bought several boxsets namely Studio Ghibli Present: The Great Collection, Macross II Lovers Again and Initial D: Stage 1-3. Damage: RM 85.

Macross Frontier has come to an end with Episode 25 providing an explosive ending (not to mention a happy one, with lotsa mecha pr0n and good-old hentai overtones). So in between watching re-runs and dying of anticipation for the upcoming movie, what is a Macross fan to do?

In two words, buy stuff. So here’s a run-down on the essential stuff a Macross-tee (Macross + devotee, geddit?) should get:

Soundtracks:

1. Macross Frontier Original Soundtrack – Musume Furo. Click here for details.
2. Macross Frontier Original Soundtrack 2. Click here for details.
3. Lion (Macross Frontier Intro Theme). Click here for details.
4. Seikan Hikou (Macross Frontier – Ranka Lee Debut Single). Click here for details.
5. Iteza Gogo 9 Ji Don’t Be Late (Macross Frontier Outro Theme). Click here for details.
6. Triangler (Macross Frontier Intro Theme). Click here for details.

Blu-Ray:

1. Macross Frontier Vol. 1. Click here for details.
2. Macross Frontier Vol. 2. Click here for details.
3. Macross Frontier Vol. 3. Click here for details.

DVD:

1. Macross Frontier Vol. 1. Click here for details.
2. Macross Frontier Vol. 2. Click here for details.
3. Macross Frontier Vol. 3. Click here for details.

Books:

1. Macross & Orguss Design Works – Kazutaka Miyatake. Click here for details.

Before there was the Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles animated series by Columbia Tristar/Sony Pictures, before even the Paul Verhoeven movie, the Japanese had already beaten them to the punch with the release of Uchu no senshi way back in 1988.

A six parter anime based on Robert A. Heinlein seminal book, Starship Troopers, and produced by Bandai Visual and Sunrise, it presents a different take on the story when compared to the movie and English animated series. Apparently, it is also considered the closest interpretation of the story but having not read the book, I’m not in a position to comment.

One of the major differences between the anime and the movie (and the English animated series), is the depiction of powered armour. In the movie, the troopers were just equipped with body armour and while the Roughnecks continued in this tradition, the animated series also showcased, albeit sparingly, 10-feet tall and human piloted exoskeletons.

The anime however, potrayed troopers fighting entirely in powered suits. The designs looked more at home with series such as Macross, and it’s no surprise since the designs were done by Studio Nue.

The aliens themselves, portrayed as insect-like in the English movie and animated series have a more organic look in the anime. The method of attack is also different, with energy beams emitted from the mouth being the weapons of choice.

Being a product of the late 80s, Uchu no senshi (translates to English as Soldiers of Space) doesn’t really age well. This was done way before CG was popular in film and animation. One peculiar thing about this anime is the fact that the intro and ending songs are in English, albeit with a Japanese twang.

In any case, Starship Trooper fans may want to check this out anime. I’m still waiting for parts 5 and 6 to be fan-subbed.

I just finished watching episode 7 of Macross Frontier and it left me totally in awe of the series. Macross Quarter’s transformation scene and the way it pwned (excuse the net speak) the alien mothership rocks.

Not only that, the soundtrack is really good. I was looking for a translation for the song Diamond Crevasse when I bumped into Gabriela Robin’s site instead. It has both the Japanese text AND Romanized versions of Diamond Crevasse, at this link.

For those of you wanting to buy the soundtrack, you have a several, if not disparate, choices. There’s Iteza Gogo 9 Ji Don’t Be Late (Macross Frontier Outro Theme), which contains both Diamond Crevasse and Don’t Be Late (from the first episode). There’s also Triangler (Macross Frontier Intro Theme) EP (which is out now) and the Macross Frontier Original Soundtrack coming out on June 4th!