The Lost Canvas Chronicles tome 5

El Cid, golden saint of the Capricorn, has been send to a small desert village to investigate a city that appeared out of nowhere.

In this, there is a tournament to determine the best warrior, and the saint enters to find out more of the mysterious origins.  

He soon learns that the organiser is Mine, a girl he knew from his childhood... and who had died of tuberculoses, while her champion is no one other then Fergal, a kind giant of a man he knew back then as well.

It turns out the tournament is held by one of the dream gods (those whom El Cid will face off against in the anime later on), and Fergal has sold his soul to them to realise his ambitions, and to bring Mine back from the dead.

A small detail added at the end is the origins of one of the bronze saints that accompanied El Cid in the series as well, this Chronicles volume was, like the others, a very enjoyable read as it tells more of the back ground where the Gold saints of TLC hail from.

Myth Cloth Review: Orion Eden

Eden, the son of the god Mars and a human mother.  Brother of the deceased Aria who was bound to become Mars`s new world order Athena.  Personally trained by the gold Leo saint Mycaene.  And already at the power level of a Silver Saint when still at the Palaestra school.

The lone wolf of Omega, Eden is the powerhouse and a ferocious fighter, a bit cocky.  This often leads to the image of him being the Ikki of this series, but for me, he is actually more Cygnus Hyoga then the Phoenix saint.
He is driven by the loss of a close relative, is reluctant to get to close to people he considers his friends, and has a cool and calculated method of attacking compared to the onslaught Ikki usually unleashes.

More points of coincidence?  He infiltrated the opposition at the beginning of season 2, like Hyoga did in the Asgard movie, and both where trained personally by a Gold Saint (remember, in the manga the Crystal saint didn`t exist and Camus trained Hyoga).  And he is all melancholy when playing the piano at the grave of his little sister...

Now all that aside, Eden is one of the fan favorite characters of Omega, and I must say, I think he is one of the deeper `developped` characters of the `bronze brats`.  Which is saying something, because to a lot of the fanbase, the new bronzes don`t stand up in a million years to the original ones.

The cloth itself is of course, being a bronze only, fairly straight forward to put together, though it is a bit more complex with the collar piece and connecting to that chestpiece, then the older generation bronzes.  However, with the small shoulder pieces under his large pads, it is rather hard to bend the arms in 90+ degrees arcs.

The colouring is okay, but I find it a little to dark compared to the nearly white armour of the series, or even the more shiny and lighter one of the box art.  But never the less, he is a great figure, and not so over the top on crystals like for example Pegasus Koga.

And I like his baggy trouser ends ;-)

He also has the option to include all those `ghostly parts` from when his cloth powers up for the big Orion attack, but I left those off, it just didn`t look nice in the anime, and I want them to resemble real saints without the special effects of the cartoon hehehe.

All in all, the Omega line so far is only small with Koga released as well, though there have been images from Tamachii about a year ago showing Souma and Ryoho already, so it will become bigger then the discontinued Lost Canvas line, it will just be a matter of time (hopefully not to much time) before more join in, and I can`t wait personally to get my hands on the Lionet myth cloth.

But Eden definitly is a worthwhile addition to a collection, and he isn`t on the expensive end of the toyline hovering around the 70 euro mark.

A Beautiful Comic

I found this story this morning strolling over my Facebook start page, and I must say I find it very pretty and touching.

I would love to quote the artist, but unfortunatly it was a shared through shared through shared etc... posting, and the original asian name wasn`t readable as my pc doesn`t have the fond in question.

Keep it silent, but the first time I saw it, it actually got me teary-eyed...

The Wolf Among Us episode 3 - A Crooked Mile

Bigsby, aka the Big Bad Wolf, is back in the latest instalment of the excellent Telltale series (yes, I like it`s doom and gloom more then the apocalypse of The Walking Dead) telling the story of Fables.

After we learned in episode two that Ichibald Crane is the probable killer of Faith and Lily, Bigsby and Snow set out to hunt their old boss, whom also seems to have been in the business of stealing Fabletown riches for his use.

The majority of this episode is tied into this hunt, and I still need to pop back in for the last Book of Fables unlocks.  Every part of this series has one chapter which you need to finish one way or the other, and for this one, it is the decision wether to burn or not burn Aunti Greentea`s tree, but also the sequence in which you visit crime scenes or locations tied to the investigation.  I need to save that tree and visit Dum and Dee`s office, shouldn`t take more then half an hour or so.

But the storyline is very intriguing in this part, as the deeper you go in and start associating with the `stray` Fables, being the sidekicks and former bad guys from fairy tales, the more it seems to be that there is something far bigger going on.

And Ichibald, cowardly and vain that he is, just isn`t a killer.  It all starts falling together a little in the final part, when a hit(wo)man, the psychotic Bloody Mary (of the Urban Legend tales) confronts you together with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, and your forced to go in your true big bad wolf form.  Whom is far scarier then the one you briefly switched into before in the previous episodes.
Now your the real big killer, and you even get the choice of murdering one of the twins... and I definitly enjoyed ripping Tweedle`s throat out, they must have been the most prickish characters of the series.

As we end this episode, Crane is in the hands of the bad guy, and Snow sits by your beaten and battered up wolf form, and we can go hungering (pun intended) for more...

Antwerp Convention 2014 - picture report

Today it was time for the yearly convention nearly in my backgarden, the smaller anime and sci-fi convention of FACTS.

Well, they started with a second hall this year, and promotion was up compared to the previous 3 editions, so would there be more people on this sunday morning?

HECK YES, as this is the line at 11 this morning.  And when I left at 14.00, it was just as long with fresh arrivals, even with the running contest Antwerp 10 Miles and all today.

 The hall when we arrived and most of the masses where still entering... easily navigatable

 But this soon detoriated in a mass blurb of doom

This has as a result I couldn`t take as much pictures as I wanted, as you got bumped left to right constantly, and it was difficult to get decent photos of many of the awesome cosplayers.

Of course, all the necessary merchandise (some really overpirzed, especcially the few LEGO sets, seems nobody knows Bricklink) was present, though compared to Facts, it was a low turn out for Saint Seiya goodies.  I even went home with money left off my budget.

Hmmm, how kawaii would Chu be with a bow tie in her hair...

The second hall was calmer in people, but noisier due to the game stands and the karaoke floor.

And featured a lot of cool collectors material from various fanclubs.

In the end, we wrapped up around two, the masses kept swelling, and I really think after this edition the organisers are going to be brainstorming to make it a 2 day event like the Ghent one.

The loot?

Well, of course I had the pre-orders from Archonia to pick up, being the newest Lost Canvas Chronicles manga, and the Eden or Orion myth cloth

But I didn`t chase for Cherno Alpha and the comic book in the end, and chose my mainstay collection over my current hype collection.  At one trader, there where a LOT of gashapon and anime models, and I bought two of them, the Deathmask of the excellent Chibi series, and a very pretty Pisces Aphrodite model.

I`m going to check the map of the hall to see if I can track her down, it`s the one with also all kind of anime figures above, one which Chu was intrested in but didn`t buy in the end.  Still, my geek heart beats just that little faster knowing that my girl is albeit a little bit, starting to get into the spirit of things.  I know learned of a Narcissa wand she liked (this goes down the notebook of possible presents)


I found something better then the Pacific Rim stuff though, namely these two classic models at only 15 euros each, Surplice versions of Camus and again Aphrodite.

The final thing was something I snatched from the Geek Market Facebook group, for which I also had some stuff to trade with.  A still on closed card Micro Machines Predator set, which I honestly confess I mainly snatched for a future possible trade token.  Yes, `Treasure Hunting`... it`s stronger then myself.

All in all an enjoyable day once more, and the kids had a good time.  Now I got some sites to check out and some events to have a look at... another great thing about these conventions, you get to learn and meet new things, people and stores.