We finally have a pre-order system up and running on Figure Haven!

Placing a pre-order is as easy as going through our normal checkout process. Simply head over to our Pre-orders section and add the figures you want to your cart. Then checkout when you are ready and select “Bill me later” as your payment option. After placing the order, we will send you a PayPal invoice once your pre-order(s) arrive. Please pay the invoice in a timely manner and your order will be promptly shipped afterward.

We don’t believe in charging upfront for a product we don’t even have in-stock yet, so that’s why you only pay once it arrives and is ready to be shipped. With that said, please only place an order if you are planning on purchasing it for sure. We do allow cancellations for rare and dire situations, but we will no longer accept pre-orders from you if this becomes a repeated occurrence since we are left with more stock in our inventory than planned each time someone cancels.

I’ll be adding more pre-orders to the site as new figures become available from our distributors. Since we’re starting our pre-orders with new figures being released next year, I’ll be keeping the list of stuff we have arriving this year up on the Pre-orders informational page.

Figure Haven has finally transitioned from using OSCommerce to the vastly superior PrestaShop e-Commerce platform.

My experience this past year with setting up, modifying, and maintaining an OSCommerce site has been a rough journey. It is safe to say that PrestaShop is both easier to setup and a better e-Commerce platform overall. I’m impressed with many of the built-in features it has, which means you might be seeing promotional events and maybe a customer referral program sometime soon.

Unfortunately, all our previous customers will have to re-register new accounts. Sorry about the inconvenience.

At the moment the site only has our most recent figures, but I’ll be slowly adding our previous inventory back. Please inform us of any technical issues you might happen to encounter. It will be most appreciated!

There is also a twitter now solely for Figure Haven. The most up to date news (new arrivals, updates, pre-orders, etc.) will be posted there first.

Figure Haven’s checkout process is now secured via SSL as well. Cheers!

Well, Fanime officially opens tomorrow and we’re essentially done setting up our humble booth space. The empty shelves and part of the table will be filled tomorrow with scaled figures, nendos, and figmas put on display.

Please come visit us at Booth #511 near the back area next to concessions if you’re attending. You can take a look at our wares and even pick up a free Figure Haven bookmark (it features Alter’s Saber Lily).

While Fanime is in session these 4 days, the checkout process will be disabled on our site since most of our inventory is at the convention. Please rest assured that it will be enabled once we’re back.

After looking at the latest NIS America email, I found out that Yui Horie (Minori Kushieda from Toradora!) and Eri Kitamura (Ami Kawashima from Toradora!) were attending Anime Expo this year as Guests of Honor.

Here’s a quick summary about them from the latest AX news post:

Yui Horie has been an integral part of the voice acting industry since her debut. She has been featured in more than 125 popular anime titles, including Love Hina (Naru Narusegawa), Fruits Basket (Toru Honda), School Rumble (Eri Sawachika) and Negima! (Makie Sasaki). Also an accomplished singer, Ms. Horie has performed the theme song for anime titles such as Toradora!, Love Hina Again and Otoboku.

Eri Kitamura found success in her first major role as Saya Otonashi in the anime Blood+. Soon after, her list of credits grew to include several well-known anime titles, most notably Minami-ke (Yuka Uchida), Ga-Rei -Zero- (Natsuki Kasuga), Queen’s Blade (Alleyne) and Kodomo no Jikan (Rin Kokonoe).

Some of Eri Kitamura’s more recent roles include Yui from Angel Beats!, Kureha from Sora no Woto, and Yachiyo from Working!! while Yui Horie voiced major roles such as Ayu from Kanon.

Now the list of guests is even more amazing. I can’t pass up the autograph sessions, which means I’ll probably be standing in various lines for hours just like last year.

Image Source: Safebooru

I take back what I said during Winter’s midseason impressions about there not being many anime series this Spring.

I’m keeping up with just about every anime this season and the overall quality so far is more than satisfying.

Angel Beats! – My favorite series this season. It has it all: comedy, drama, action, and tragedy all rendered with superb animation and flanked by lovely OP/ED songs. Every episode gives me things to think about and to theorycraft on with others.

Arakawa Under the Bridge – Despite having some similarities with Bakemonogatari, I just can’t really get into this series. I prefer the supernatural stories over this under the bridge homeless setting. Plus, tsundere is greater than alien. It’s still entertaining enough though.

B Gata H Kei – This series is still the lighthearted comedy romance that I was expecting. It’s definitely fun to watch the perverted but innocent female lead get into troublesome situations.

Giant Killing – I was expecting them to dominate all the way to the top, but reality deems otherwise. The heavy focus on characterization and overcoming obstacles in their way makes this soccer anime one of the most realistic and engaging sports series I have ever seen.

Hakuouki – Shinsengumi Kitan – The animation and battle scenes leave me with no complaints in that area, but the way that the female lead constantly rushes into combat and has to be saved by one of the many bishounens accompanying her is a major turn-off. Why even bring her along on a mission why she has shown no combat ability whatsoever?

Heroman – American superhero anime simply isn’t my thing. I gave the series a chance since Bones was the studio behind it, and it’s okay I guess, but I’m not impressed.

House of Five Leaves – Watching this anime is starting to bore me. The entire series feels slow, and the main character’s meek personality doesn’t help.

Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou – It would be nice if they toned down on some of the fan service. Your typical harem series taking place at a magic academy.

Kaichou wa Maid-sama! – Both the male and female leads are easily likable. I look forward to seeing their (romantic) relationship develop more.

K-ON!! – I didn’t do a first impressions post for this, but K-ON!! requires no introduction. The original cast is still going strong with their tea time antics. Azusa and Mio ftw!

Mayoi Neko Overrun! – There’s so many seemingly filler episodes that I treat the entire series as a filler.

RAINBOW – So many messed up things that they had to go through and put up with. I can’t wait to see them all released and what they end up doing in the future.

Senkou no Night Raid – I feel I was a bit harsh on their Mandarin, and I think now it’s actually great that A-1 Pictures experiments so much with having other languages spoken in their anime. Their ability to craft an immersive setting with beautiful backgrounds is simply astounding.

Working!! – Who could have known that working at a family restaurant is so fun? A prime example of comedic slice of life done right.

Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei – His “friend” seriously looks like some type of monster. I can’t help thinking that every time I see him on the screen. Otherwise, the rapid fire narration continues to amuse and delight me. Some of their antics fall on the epic threshold.

Two series that I also watch, which are still continuing from past seasons, are Durarara!! and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. FMA: Brotherhood leaves its predecessor in the dust while Durarara!! is still going strong with an all-out war imminent.

Well, this covers almost everything that I watch on a weekly basis.

It has been almost a year since I started Project Saber and plans were in motion to switch to a new theme on its anniversary.

However, I was in the mood so I prematurely changed the theme to Belle along with adding some modifications of my own. This minimalistic look is nice since it requires less bandwidth to load while being clean and simple, but still elegant.

I’m thinking about putting something on the blank areas to the left and right of the main content section, and I’ll be tinkering with other aspects of the theme/layout as well.

Please report any issues you encounter with the site and I’ll go fix it right away. Otherwise, enjoy the new look!

Image Source: Safebooru

My profile over at MyFigureCollection.net is now up to date and reflects my current figure collection.

If you haven’t joined already, I highly recommend that you do so. It’s an excellent resource for finding information about specific figures and also to network with fellow collectors. Plus, the site is always improving with new features and designs. Props to the people that made it; I’m highly impressed.

As for my own figures, I haven’t even opened some of the newer additions due to a lack of space. Do a lot of people have this issue? I see people with 100+ figures and wonder how they fit all that in their room and/or house.

I also added a MyFigureCollection.net widget to the sidebar that shows a preview of my collection. Neat stuff.

On a different note, it’s Spring Break!

It has been ages since I’ve made any changes to the blog features/layout. Here’s the first of possibly more changes in the near future.

• All the blogs that I’m following on my Blogroll have an image associated with them now.
• The “Blogroll widget” on the sidebar has been replaced with a “Featured Blogs widget” that randomly displays three blogs on my Blogroll.
• A Blogroll page has been added.

Since many people don’t pay attention to the default Blogroll widget on the sidebar anyways, this will hopefully be an upgrade.

If you have a blog that’s related to Anime/Figures/Manga/Games/Japan and would like to exchange links, feel free to leave a comment here or on the Blogroll page. I’m always up for reading new and diverse content, but I’ve been a bit lazy on searching out new blogs lately.

I have a few blogs in mind that I’m already planning to add and will do so soon.

Image Source: Danbooru

It’s close enough to the middle of the Winter 2009 season to give a quick update on my impressions.

Durarara!!: My favorite series this season. It has met and exceeded my initial impressions. Each episode focuses on a different character and reveals to you their past history while creating connections to other characters.

Sora no Oto: The setting helps to make the story shine. On the outside it may all seem like fun and games with the lighthearted atmosphere, but…

Katanagatari: Slow releases at 1 episode per month, but at least they’re 50 minutes long. The witty wordplay is the defining characteristic; you’ll either love it or hate it.

Nodame Cantabile: Finale: The story just keeps pushing on. Can’t wait to see how it all ends.

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu: These past few episodes don’t seem as funny as some of the initial ones, but still amusing nevertheless.

Dance In The Vampire Bund: Failed to keep me hooked. Need to pick this one up again.

Ookami Kakushi: The beginning plot build-up felt a bit slow. Need to catch up on this one too.

Omamori Himari: Standard harem/fan service fare.

Seikon no Qwaser: Besides having a gg premise, they have to censor their normal airing due to the content.

Ladies versus Butlers!: Blatant fan service to the extreme; dropped it after the first episode.

Chuu Bra!!: The premise is too gg for me to even consider watching episode 1.

Hanamaru Youchien: It’s okay I guess, but not my cup of tea.

There doesn’t seem to be that many anime series coming up next season, but at least there’s Angel Beats! and K-ON! Second Season.

I think it’s around the middle of the Fall anime season right now, so here are some quick updates on my impressions.

My initial impressions can be found here.

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun: Lots of seemingly irrelevant episodes plot-wise, but still entertaining to watch.

Seiken no Blacksmith: I thought it would be better than this. Seems like I thought wrong. Now it has a lot of filler/fanservice type episodes, but I still watch it.

Seitokai no Ichizon: Lots of fun, especially when you understand the parodies. The main guy is awesome.

White Album 2nd Season: I stopped watching this. Just didn’t feel like it at the moment I guess.

Tegami Bachi: Better than I thought it would turn out to be, although the main character’s crying sometimes got on my nerves.

Takakau Shisho: Vastly better than my initial impression on it, with a plot and story that can leave you thinking.

Kampfer: Uhhh, fun to watch even with the fanservice.

Nyan Koi!: Harem building is hard work. At least the main guy isn’t your typical annoying male lead. I look forward to this series every week!

Miracle Train: Same impression as before, wtf.

Darker than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini: AWESOME. The action scene animations are amazing and the plot is perfectly aligned with my tastes.

Kimi ni Todoke: Too much focus on the misunderstandings. Speed up the plot!

11eyes: Getting better as the main character learns to harness his powers.

Kobato: Very episodic. Kobato needs to sing more often.

Sora no Otoshimono: Stopped watching this. The excessive fanservice got to me.

Sasameki Koto: Meh, didn’t really give it a chance.

Shin Koihime Musou: Same impression as before.

Yume-iro Patissiere: Good weekly dose of Shoujo. Makes me want to go eat some sweets.

Kiddy Girl-and: Hmm, haven’t seen more so I don’t know if it got better.

Kuuchuu Buranko: Meh, not my style.

Aoi Bungaku: Some pretty intense stories.

Winter Sonata: Where are the new episodes? They need to release them quicker!

Animal Detectives Kiruminzoo: No.

You don’t really realize you follow quite a few anime series until you list them all out.