Archive for the “KEY” Category

Looking ahead to the next season it seems I won’t be watching too many new series just like the winter season. However the few shows that I will be picking up will be more than enough to keep me entertained. Let’s have a look at what I’ll be watching:
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Exactly two years ago I posted “my ideal family” if it were to consist of anime, manga and game characters. Basically the idea came to me when I stumbled on an amazing thread randomly in which people would post a list of characters to form a family. Think of Kyouran Kazoku Nikki and that’s pretty much the basic premise. I found the idea so amusing that I started seriously thinking about it and after some major contemplation I posted my list a few days later. Suddenly two years have passed and I’ve finally gotten around to updating my family roster. I’ve been planning to redo it for a while since I have an even bigger “gene pool” from which to select family members from. The list is divided into the family I grew up with and the family I raise as an adult. Continue on for some strange shenanigans.
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Yesterday I came back to school and waiting for me at the house was a package containing a copy of Dengeki G’s Festival! DELUXE Vol.5, the Key special issue, and my Cospa Hirasawa Yui shirt. Since I can only talk so much about a t-shirt I’ll focus on the magazine only. The reason I decided to get it other than the obvious fact that I’m a Key maniac was the pack-ins. In hindsight I think I felt a little shafted having missed a similar promotion last time so I didn’t want to miss it this time. Aside from the magazine the box set also comes with a Kud Dakimakura Cover, Key Playing Cards and a Kanbe Kotori Key chain. I’ll definitely use the key chain and cards but I honestly don’t know what to do with the dakimakura cover so I’ll probably just keep it in the plastic and store it somewhere.
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If I didn’t think it looked horribly wordy I would have subtitled this post “Stepping into a past decade before exiting the current one” or something similar. Thanks to Shance I rediscovered the Anime Otaku-ness Test 200, a 200 question assessment of one’s otaku power-level. The test is terribly out-of-date but I think it is a good primer for letting people get to know me a little better. I’ve taken a few of the more interesting questions for me and explained my answers right here. I hope this will be a pleasant insight into who I am.
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Today non-directional translations released their final patch for Kanon in honor of Key’s anniversary. Although Kanon has been fully playable for a while this patch addresses typos, things that could use explaining and malformed sentences. The patch is compatible with both the standard edition of Kanon (18+) as well as the all ages version. I’ve been putting it off for a while so I’m really eager to finally start playing Kanon which is both my favorite Key story and favorite anime. Thank you to everyone at ndt for translating this wonderful masterpiece.

Today is my favorite company Key’s 11th anniversary so for the past few weeks I’ve been working on a drawing to submit as part of Cloud668’s 10th Anniversary Letter Project. Basically messages and illustrations addressed to Key to commemorate their 10th Anniversary will be compiled into a letter to be sent on the release date of the Key 10th Memorial Box compilation.

Key is probably the most important creative influence in my life affecting things like how I write stories and plan characters. I can thank Maeda Jun for introducing me to some of my favorite characters, stories and music. Out of Key’s main staff though Hinoue Itaru in particular is responsible for the change in my art over the years and you can see some of her style in this picture. I really wish my dream job of working with her doing art for Key would come true.

I really wanted to show my appreciation to Key to its fullest so I spent the longest time I have ever spent on a single drawing working to make this as perfect as I could so I paid meticulous attention to detail. The version I posted is only 4% the size of the orginal which is a ridiculous resolution of 5100 x 7200px.

Since I wanted to make this the greatest anniversary drawing ever I included the main heroines in EVERY Key series to date starting with pre-Key Moon to the unreleased Angel Beats with only one slight exception. At the top corners are the heroines from the Tactics’ games Amasawa Ikumi (Moon.) and Nagamori Mizuka (One: Kagayaku Kisetsu he). Technically I could also add Minase Manami from Dousei but I don’t really consider that a Key game since the first true gathering of Key’s main staff occurred during Moon’s time frame. In the middle are the heroines from all released games under the Key label: Tsukimiya Ayu (Kanon), Kamio Misuzu (Air), Furukawa Nagisa (CLANNAD), Hoshino Yumemi (planetarian: Chiisana Hoshi no Yume) and Natsume Rin (Little Busters!). I decided against adding Tomoyo since Tomoyo After is more of a side story to CLANNAD than its own real story. On the very bottom are the heroines from the unreleased Key series Kanbe Kotori (Rewrite) and Yuri and Tenshi (Angel Beats!).

There is still much more I wanted to do with this illustration but my ambition had to fight time so I decided it’s better to send something to Key than not. I’ll keep working on this drawing and I plan to add more references to Key’s work such as Sora (Air) and Miss Jena (planetarian); at the very least you can see Piro (Kanon) on top of Rin’s head. Overall though I am very happy with this drawing and I really do think that I truely conveyed how much I love Key. (I think I might offer prints for sale when I completely done but I don’t know how many people would actually buy it other than me to hang in my room.)

I hope Key continues to release top-quality stories and characters for many years to come. Thank you for the memories Key!!

While checking the official Angel Beats! Website for possible news and updates following the Dengeki G’s announcement, I found it inaccessible save for the top page that was replaced with the image shown above with the following text:

一時ひきこもり中
５月３０日復帰予定
麻枝准の殺伐RADIO同時配信

Roughly this translates to:

Temporarily in the middle of being withdrawn (from the public)
Plan to return May 30th
Maeda Jun’ Bloodthirsty Radio will simultaneously be transmitted

Could the possible downtime of the site signal a large unveiling of new information about Angel Beats! or is it just being updated with the information already published in Dengeki G’s. It seems strange though to limit access to the site and have a simultaneous radio broadcast if it is just old news so I’m betting there will be some sort of new announcement. Of course it could just be a complete site redesign in which case I maybe overreacting due to copious amounts of Key fandom but hopefully it truely is more new information on Angel Beats!

According to Dengeki G’s Magazine July issue, Key’s new project “Angel Beats!” was confirmed to be a TV anime series between Key, Aniplex and Dengeki G’s Magazine. I can’t find the words to express my excitement right now. I’m sort of relieved that Angel Beats is an anime instead of a visual novel since it means I don’t have to divide my attention between this and Rewrite. I wonder when it will actually air though and whether there will be some sort of formal connection with Rewrite. Of course what’s most important is which studio is animating Angel Beats. Although I really hope Key sticks with KyoAni it appears that it will be A-1 Pictures (Kannagi) working on this which I don’t mind.

I added a new Header to celebrate. I love Key so much.

物語
Story

緑化都市、風祭。文明と緑の共存という理想を掲げたこの都市に住む天王寺瑚太朗は神戸小鳥、吉野晴彦らの友人たちと平凡な日々を送っていた。そんな平和な風祭市に、年一回の騒がしい時期が訪れようとしていた。都市を上げての収穫祭。巨大な文化祭のようなその催しに瑚太朗は記事のネタ集めのバイトを始めることに。風祭では未確認生物の情報や、オカルトチックな噂がまことしやかに囁かれていたからだ。同時期、瑚太朗の身に不可解な出来事降りかかり始める。瑚太朗はオカルト研究会の部長千里朱音に助けを請い、知り合いの生徒たちをも巻き込んでの調査を開始するのだった。それは瑚太朗にとって、ちょっとした冒険心のつもりだった。騒がしく仲間たちと過ごしていけるなら、それで良かった。瑚太朗はまだ気付かない。それが誰も知らない『真実』の探求へ＊がっていくことを。

–書き換えることが出来るだろうか。彼女の、その運命を。

Afforestation, Kazamatsuri. Living in this city which touts an ideal where civilization and greenery coexist, Tennouji Kotarou, Kanbe Kotori, Yoshino Haruhiko and everyone spent ordinary days. In such a peaceful Kazamatsuri City, the yearly celebration arrived–A harvest festival to raise the city. In that massive culture festival-like event, Kotarou starts collecting news material part-time. It is because in Kazamatsuri, gossip of mysterious animals and occult rumors were being spread as the truth. Simultaneously Kotarou begins falling into an inexplicable incident. Kotarou requests assistance from the Head of the Occult Research Society, Senri Akane, and gets other students involved by starting investigations. That as far as Kotarou is concerned was the plan of petty adventurous spirit. If he were able to go with his boisterous friends that would be wonderful. Kotarou has yet to notice. That reality that no one knows.

–Could it be possible to Rewrite that girl’s fate?
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As previously promised I finished translating the character relations chart from Key’s Rewrite site. Although there wasn’t much to translate, arranging the text and cleaning up the image took some time. Hopefully I can also finish the character bios soon as well but at least that won’t involve any image editing.