Saturday, January 21, 2012

Happy Birthday Takane and Yumi!

So it seems I only update this blog now when one of the iM@S idols has a birthday. This time it's Takane, also one of my favorites! Coincidentally, the birthday for Takane's voice actor, Yumi Hara, falls on the same day! So be sure to celebrate both of their birthdays today! As usual, you can get free wallpapers and such from the official site. Also, you get a birthday video from Niconico too!

Friday, December 23, 2011

Happy Birthday Yukiho!!

I've been away from this blog for a while, but I couldn't pass up saying Happy Birthday to one of my favorite iM@S idols, Yukiho. Happy Birthday! Yes, I know it's not the 24th here in the USA, but it is in Japan, so that means it's her birthday to me. Now go get the free wallpapers and such from the official site!

Friday, November 11, 2011

Translation Blog

Hey everyone, I recently decided that I need to do translations more regularly, partly to challenge myself, and partly to build a catalog of things I've translated. As such, I've decided to translate the THE IDOLM@STER Official Blog into English as it comes out. So as not to clutter up this blog, I'm going to be blogging my translations at http://amakasep.wordpress.com/. I'll also probably do random other translations there too.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

THE IDOLM@STER2 PS3 Unboxing

So I got THE IDOLM@STER2 First-run Limited Production Edition today for PS3! I was so excited! I would have gotten it the day before yesterday, but I just didn't get home early enough to pick it up from the post office. Anyway, I picked it up yesterday, and there was no stopping me. First, a shot of the box.

The box it came in next to my 360 copy of iM@S2

When I picked it up, it was lighter than I had imagined, and I it seemed a little small to get an A1-sized tapestry in it, but opening up would show my fears to be unfounded. Unpacking it all, I found everything I'd hoped for.

The contents of the shipping box

I unrolled the tapestry and the poster to take a look and them, as I had bought the game specifically from Gamers to get them. They are pretty awesome.

The A1-sized tapestryThe B4-sized poster

I also opened up the foil packet to see what was on my anime film strip. Turns out it's the same as the Gamers postcard I got with the set. I wonder if maybe certain stores actually got certain film strips for the pre-orders rather than them being random.

My pre-order film strip

With the pre-order goods out of the way, I decided to open up the actual game box. With the fact that the Complete Production Limited Edition of the iM@S anime Bluray was inside of that too, it made it so that I was opening boxes of awesome stuff inside boxes of awesome stuff. It was Christmas over and over again!

The contents of the game box (ignore the B4 poster on the side)

After going through the stuff in there, and doing things like ripping the Sound Track CD for my music collection, I opened up the Complete Production Limited Edition of the iM@S anime Bluray.

The contents of the LE iM@S anime Bluray box

After that, there's one last thing to do, which is take the Bluray out of its digipak casing, and see what's inside.

The digipak, unpacked

Finally, after opening all that up, I finally got around to actually starting up the game. As I should have expected on PS3, there was an install sequence.

The PS3 install screen

Once I got it installed though, I didn't actually play the game though, since I would want to have the e-mail address DLC before starting the game, and I did not have the funds to purchase them at this time. I did set up everything else I could though. I then tried some Gravure for You! and interestingly enough, that didn't need an install. I messed with it a little, and I think it'll take a bit before I can stop getting the controls confused. I kept taking pictures when I didn't mean to. I might get to a more detailed review of it later, but for now, I leave you with one of the pictures I took in it. Also, for those who want to see more pictures of the unboxing you can go here.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Kara-age!

So I just made some Kara-age tonight from some kind of Kikkoman kara-age mix. It was really straightforward. I just cut up some chicken, shook it around in a bag with the mix, and then fried it. My results are below.

I made some rice to go with it and just ate that. Wasn't bad. Some of the pieces were still a little powdery, but I blame that on my poor cooking ability. I feel like it was saltier than I would have liked, but I guess it's hard to adjust it when it's a pre-made powder. I'll have to look into a real recipe for kara-age sometime.