Whether or not its because of the sizzling Japanese summer or if its because of the really weird and really strange situation Shana and Yuuji were currently in probably isn’t related. Its hard to understand how Alastor, being the king of fire and all, ever keeps his cool under awkward and frozen moments like these.

MATTAKU MATTAKU! BAKA BAKA BAKA BAKA HAYATE NO BAKA

After reading Artifact’s article on the one final saving grace for outlawed browser IE, I felt that it was unfair that only Tomoyo got that treatment. So I have prepared for us Shana fans, a tribute to our queen. All the pictures are after the jump. Click on the picture and press Ctrl+A the same way you do on sankaku. Make sure you are on IE.

Today I went to pick Shana up from school. No, she’s actually in high school, but she was waiting on the primary school side. It was Sunday but for some reason she had to attend some sort of student council meeting. I’d imagine it would be troublesome for kids to have to wear their uniforms even on a Sunday.

Its not a very big primary school, but has got the basic playground and stuff, which was actually more elaborate than any playground I’ve played on when I was little. This is not the only playground. There is another one behind the school, and a soccer field.

The front of the school. All one-storey buildings, so there’s no danger of suicidal kids jumping off the roof.

Shana loves to climb trees too. But since she can’t go very high, I felt no need to restrain her. And yes, my figmas do a LOT more than just sit at home looking pretty.

Shana sits on the fence while I buy some groceries.

Let’s go home!

“Whatcha doin’?”
“Looking at the stars”

“What stars? I only see /b/”

“Hey Yuki. Haruhi-nee is calling for you.”
“I can see your panties”

“o_o;”

“PERVERT!”

“That hurt.”

Sometimes I wonder why girls love wearing miniskirts so much, and when it becomes obvious that guys are staring at their nether regions, they get all angry and stuff. Maybe they don’t get angry, they just get “fired up”.

Dengeki has finally decided to get Max Factory to make a figma that has Shana’s original form! This is a special edition figma though, which was only available via magazine order through Dengeki. I managed to get my hands on one though, through voodoo magic taught by the witches at world’s end. She isn’t EXTREMELY different from the red haired Shana, but its nice and refreshing to see a normal Shana once in a while.

It struck me as strange that Shana, the girl who’s actually got black hair is mostly sold as a girl with red hair. I guess its because we remember Shana as the “red haired flame eyed hunter” and thus her image as a redhead stuck.

Black haired Shana comes with pretty much the same stuff has Red haired Shana came with. (I’m so happy I was given a chance to have a spare katana to replace my broken one ^^;) The only difference is, Shana’s hair and eyes and eyebrows are black, the melon pan doesn’t have a bite bitten out of it, and there’s a tsundere face.

Obligatory view from the side. *gets kicked by Shana*

I must say that the tsundere face is my favorite face. She can do all sorts of serious looking poses, and still look shy. Its incredible how attractive a girl who acts and looks insecure can be to other boys.

I…I…It’s not like I made it for you or anything >.>

Her tsundere face can also be used to show her being stubborn and angry at people. Here Nyoroloid just got on her nerves. Short-tempered Shana decided not to go red-haired and cut the living daylights out of her. But then again, it might be just me being too lazy to actually go and do that scene.

Or to reenact the first Shana scene in Cross of Venus. I must say that one of the things I wonder about with this Shana figma is the melon pan’s holdability. The figma comes with absolutely no hands that can hold a melon pan right. You have to make the character pose in such a way that the melon pan is actually held by the figma and not make the figma look like its some victim of Lazarus Syndrome.

A bit more light kinda erases the blushes on her cheeks. This takes the dere away, leaving her with the tsun face. Useful for the sword

Y…you… PERVERT! HENTAI! After learning my lesson with the previous Shana’s katana, I realized that Shana’s hands, although made to hold the sword, was still too small for me to comfortably fit the sword into the hand. So what I ended up doing was I used a drill bit to make the hole in the hand large enough for the katana to slip through without much pushing. If you intend to get a Shana and will to do more than just posing it, I’d recommend you do the same, for the sake of the Nietono no Shana.

Comparing Black Hair Shana with Red Hair Shana, there really isn’t much difference besides the hair. One can sense, however that her uniform is slightly different, and Alastor is also darker with black haired Shana. Apart from that they are still the same tasty loli with zettais. Expectedly, most of the parts are reused.

Who’s the imposter? The tones of the black haired shana is also no less attractive than the red haired shana. Black haired Shana’s hair has obviously been coloured with some level of care to be able to look like its worthy of a fight against the translucent red hair.

Shana, being the incredibly cute loli that is extremely popular with me, is an awesome source of delight everytime I look at her. I think that Dengeki has made the right choice to license a black haired figma, even though its just an exclusive item, it is nonetheless very special to me. (Extras and backup replacements GET).

Rin found something, and after a bit of struggling she finally managed to cut open the cellotape and pull open the cover flaps. I wonder whats inside… Let’s follow Rin in and find out…

Woop… watch out!

Ow (O _ O) Are you ok, Rin?

Oh it turns out she’s fine. But lookie, she’s pulled up the top bubble wrap. It looks like ARIA is written on the box. Huh? I don’t remember ordering this…

Hmm. That won’t work, Rin. I think you need a knife.

Easy does it…

Phew. It must be pretty tiring for you. The packaging’s pretty tough, it would’ve taken you all day to cut that open.

Eh? Look! Haruhi and Tsuruya are coming here to help!

Shana’s here too! Did she bring her uber sword along?

HEAVE!!! Oh c’mon Haruhi. YOU PULL TOO!

Alright! Sticking that knife there to hold it up was a good idea. Now to push it out of the box.

Eh? Who’s that up there? Saviour? He’s back from his long journey to the Cosmic Era!

Ooh. He’s gonna grab the box as it falls off the flap

Woopdiedoo

Awright! We got it out!

I wonder what’s inside anyway.

Good thinking, Rin. Use a knife that’s your size.

There we go, all the bubble wrap’s almost completely taken off.

*Rin slices the paper mache* Mmmm. Hey! It actually looks like…

OMFG. ARIA COMPANY

Oh Mai Gourd! Look at those cute little things! AKARIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Look at how lively she looks!

Yes girls. You can play with them tomorrow.

To think, I have suddenly acquired ARIA Company. Is this destiny?

So I came home today tired and messed up from work and I find Haruhi on the floor with her megaphone making everyone slaves again. I was wondering at the time: WTF is she up to now? She better have not forced Mikuru’s clothes off her or something, because its going to be real expensive to get a replacement.

It turned out they were pulling a bag up off the floor on to the table for some reason. I always wondered why they liked the table better than the carpet. Maybe its because its hard for them to stand on the carpet?

It also seems Haruhi forced Mikuru to be the bag’s counterweight, though I don’t see how she’d be effective in any way. The two lolis are practically struggling to prevent mikuru from being catapulted off where she is now by her legs.

Poor Mikuru.

Well I really wonder what they were trying to pull up anyway. It looks like a bag of newly bought stuff. Was Haruhi using my credit card again…

So after a bit of heaving they finally managed to pull the entire package up, with the help of Fate-sensei’s leadership of course. Haruhi as usual didn’t do much but shout orders.

So it turns out Haruhi bought up a set of guitars. Looks like she wants to set up a band or something, or maybe she just wanted a guitar because Len and Nagato had one.

Looks like quite a few guitars. I wonder If I should open it.

“Listen up you commoners! The master will now open the package and ultimately decide who shall hold what guitar and in what circumstances. You must all listen to him, or else I won’t forgive you!”

Geez. “Master”. Look at what you did to Mikuru. I think she could potentially be eternally traumatized by Haruhi after extended exposure to her.

So we’ve got 9 guitars. 2 bass guitars, an acoustic, and one I haven’t opened yet. I wonder whats inside… From what I see in Haruhi’s eyes I think more instruments are on their way.

It appears ASCII Media Works and Nintendo DS are coming up with something that will be recieved very well in the anime fan world in the next few days. A game called Dengeki Gakuen: Cross of Venus is an action/RPG game for the DS that will feature all the stars from light novels published by under the Dengeki Bunko label. So what’s so special about them? Well, for those of you who don’t know, the light novels include some famous names like: Shakugan no Shana, To Aru Majutsu no Index, Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu and Toradora. Feeling the excitement now?

The game’s going to be released on March 19th, which is like, just days away. Who’s getting it? (Gameplay pics after the jump)

This looks like its going to be an extremely fun game to say the least. Being able to play some of the most famous characters in the anime world in one single game would be any moe lover’s wet dream. Our prayers have been answered. Oh and for those of you who were wondering, the girl in brown hair (not Taiga) is called Kasugai Kizuna. I like that name.

Here’s a Nice Trailer too.

Kagami would probably be delighted to play it when it comes out.

Haruhi managed to borrow Fate’s Barrier Jacket, and decided to have a cosplay party. So she decided to force a group of five fellow figmas to swap clothes and cosplay as each other! Since my room doesn’t quite fit the bill for a cosplay party, Fate-sensei decided to organize this trip, the first of many, to Ariake where we’ll have a chou moe cosplay party under the sun today!

First, we have our much required pre-trip pose! Look at the girls, aren’t they awesome in their new clothes? (Psst. I think Nagato’s hawt.)

Haruhi’s all fired up in her new Barrier Jacket. She looks surprisingly good in it.

Here we are in front of Tokyo Big Sight. Haruhi wastes no time to start posing for the camera. She’s saying “Enemies! Your time has come. Feel the deadly wrath of my Bardiche!”

It was quite hard to get the crazy crowd from stampeding their way through to take photographs. We finally had some of the security guards set up a perimeter to prevent mentally ill otakus from coming in to desecrate our figmas.

The powerful sword is yielded by a powerful person. I’m so happy the sword is an imitation of Fate’s real sword, and there’s no such person as Haruhi in real_life.exe.

Seto San comes next clad in Kita High School Uniform, full of awesomeness and fake dere. This girl brings to us the very essence of wife material. Her awesomeness could drown a person and sink him into the deepest depths of hell.

Look at her go. No wonder her father runs amok everytime a guy tries to ask her out for a date. However, a mermaid who does not consider the feelings of her audience will have disgraced the long tradition of mermaid’s excellent entertainment culture! The chivalry of mermaids “仁侠”, another way of writing “mermaid”　人魚 (ningyo)! (cue Japanese Edo-era music)

Nyan nyan nyan nyan ni hao niang. Present meets the future meets fantasy. If I ever start a shop called Golden Dragon, this would probably be a winning pose for my waitress audition.

Close up of Seto in Nekomimi mode.

Nagato in Misaki High School Uniform. Her short skirt is very very uncharacteristic of her. I know. But it really improves her image as a loli IMHO. Also, it was strangely arousing in a way.

Nagato in her chair. Haruhi thought of everything, she even remembered to bring the chair. Nagato had no books howerver, but the uniform is really a little too revealing for such a modest character as herself.

Nagato, being the quiet girl she is, is an excellent poser for damsel in distress poses.

She always looks so tough for some reason.

“Did you say something?”

Shana in Kita High uniform! It seems she fit very comfortably in Nagato’s uniform. It wasn’t all smooth sailing however, we had a Katana fight for a while and Shana’s katana broke again because Nagato caught it with her hand again. Why did Shana draw her sword? Well it was a small comment from Haruhi about her and Nagato’s chest size. I’m sure she has every reason to be mad. But surely Konata’s view of flat chests as a status symbol was not lost on her?

Even in a more modest uniform, she still has that ero-loli look to her. Somehow she gives of the vibe of a very very huggable girl.

Shana wants You.

Here’s Mikuru in Isumo High uniform. I think this modest uniform really suits her. Look at how mature she looks in a tie! I’m sure she’d look even better if that tie was loose

Pure win. Her charm is bound by no force and is superceded by no one. Somehow how her charms just shine like the brightest stars on a dark lonely night.

Haruhi however, is also on hand to harrass Mikuru. The cameraman, having no choice when faced up against the wrath of Haruhi, ends up having to take the pictures anyway.

Mikuru seems to find Haruhi’s princess cradle repulsive, and starts demanding to be put down immediately. However, Haruhi refuses and lets the camera have its way before giving in to Mikuru’s wriggling. Maybe Mikuru’s just being conscious of her skirt being lifted up to an easier angle. It seems Mikuru is not free of Haruhi’s haunts even here at Ariake.

Mikuru, having had enough pushes Haruhi away and runs away crying. We ended up having to take quite a bit of time to calm her down again. She really doesn’t like Haruhi.

Fate-sensei. Our trip organizer. She’s kickass at these sorts of things.

Finally, after several hours of fooling around, it is time to go, the kids settle down for one last group shot.

Back home, where the figmas go back to being themselves again. These are going to stay like this for a while, since I kinda like Nagato in that uniform.