Yay, more awesome cute dancing MMD Remila! That's all I have to say. Now go watch. <a href="http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm9218728">【ニコニコ動画】【MMD-DMC】No Life Queenでレミリアに踊らせてみた</a> 【ニコニコ動画】【MMD-DMC】No Life Queenでレミリアに踊らせてみた

This video is full of references, I'm pretty sure I don't even get half of them. Most of the characters in it are Touhou, and I'm familiar with Buront, but not so much the other people that show up in it. The references I do get for sure are Gundam SEED, GaoGaiGar, Nadesico, Giant Robo, and probably some other stuff I forgot to mention. Anyway, it's a video with nice animation, so take a look and see what you can recognize. <a href="http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm9161505">【ニコニコ動画】【東方陰陽鉄】ユメみるOP【手描きパロ】</a> External Link This video is based on Shoot the Bullet, and has some nice animated Aya going around taking pictures, and of course being attacked while doing so. <a href="http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm9166766">【ニコニコ動画】【東方】明星ロケット【アニメOP風】&a

MMD (MikuMikuDance) has been used for quite some time now to make 3D animated dances and movies on Niconico. Although started with just Miku, a large number of good character models have since been created, and the old ones improved. MMD itself has improved over time, allowing more expressive movement of both the characters and clothing. Of course it's not perfect, but what do you expect for free? Anyway, the following video is notable for it's use of most every decent character model in use at the moment, and of course for having crazy Indian music. You just can't beat that! <a href="http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm9120191">【ニコニコ動画】【MMD】御三家＋UTAUで“CAN'T SLEEP, CAN'T インド”的ななにか【Ashok】</a> External Link

I had heard from a friend that m.o.v.e was on hard times due to the loss of their composer and producer t-kimura, with their only album so far released since his departure being anim.o.v.e 01, an album of anime song covers. Even so, I never expected a collaboration of Yukari Tamura and motsu (the rapping dude) from m.o.v.e! The result of that is this wonderfully contrasting PV, with half of it being a colorful happy Yukari Tamura, and the other half being a rapping motsu, in usual m.o.v.e PV style. I can't help but be amused. 【ニコニコ動画】田村ゆかり「You＆Me」PV (Full Ver.) <a href="http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8987371">【ニコニコ動画】田村ゆかり「You＆Me」PV (Full Ver.)</a> External Link

I'm sure this is old news for some people, considering the announcement was made at the end of March, but I just found out there's going to be Odoru Daisousasen (aka Bayside Shakedown) THE MOVIE 3! Apparently filming is to start sometime in the spring of 2010, and the movie is planned to come out in the fall of 2010. Which means it won't be out by the next time I go to Japan. Damn. Still, great news, looking forward to it coming out. Not sure what it's going to be like, since the in story cast has already split up, and Ikariya Chousuke is no longer around to reprise his role as Waku. At the same time though, they could probably just have it that Waku finally retired, like he'd been saying he was going to do for the whole series. Regardless, I'm sure it'll be awesome Wangan comedy police drama, and it'll be cool to see Aoshima come back (which I assume is occuring).

Apparently Google has now released their own Japanese IME, and some of its auto-complete suggestions are very otaku oriented, giving such awesome suggestions as 人がゴミのようだ for ひとがご, and パンツじゃないから恥ずかしくないもん for ぱんつじゃ. There are more examples at Sankaku Complex ( here , where I learned about it), and apparently the IME is now available ( here ).

So, after many years of using the same LCD screen, I finally decided to upgrade. I finally get to try working with a badass dual monitor setup at home now. Yay! I've always wanted to dedicate my old LCD to portrait mode. It's good too that my new monitor supports HDCP and has HDMI in, so now I can finally use my PS3 at HD quality and watch Blu-rays and so forth. Comparing my new screen to my old one, I can certainly see that monitor technology has improved over the past 6-7 years. Either that, or my old monitor has worn down considerably. Probably both. My setup with my new monitor. Totally badass (at least for me). Anyway, that was yesterday. Today, I stopped at Kinokuniya and picked up the December Megami Magazine, and ordered the January ゲーマガ (Gamer Magazine). Perhaps I will report on those sometime later.

For once, I'm posting about something that's not Touhou, and this time it's THE IDOLM@STER. Anyway, this video is to the song "Lion" from Macross Frontier and it's a clever video of Iori and Yayoi vying for the top in Idol Ultimate, as only one idol can stand at the top. Last time I watched, Yayoi was winning in the comment count, although Iori was right on her heels. Get to it Iori fans! 【ニコニコ動画】ライオン～伊織とやよいのサバイバル <a href="http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8937191">【ニコニコ動画】ライオン～伊織とやよいのサバイバル</a> External Link

The shadow picture version of Bad Apple that I posted about a few days ago has generated some pretty amazing derivative videos. I figured I'd post some of the ones I found especially good or clever. This first one was inevitable, they combined Bad Apple! with Donald McDonald. 【Bad_Apple!!Xドナルド】Bad Hamburger! <a href="http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8803470">【Bad_Apple!!Xドナルド】Bad Hamburger!</a> External Link This next one is actually a mix of a number of videos where people made their own arrangements of Bad Apple. This combines a version using a string orchestra, a version with a piano four hands, and a version with a brass ensemble. There were several earlier versions, but I think this is the most well mixed version. 【俺mix ver】Bad Apple!!　弦楽(最終版)＋ピアノ＋金管(改)【東方】 &amp

You might think that after being on Niconico a long time, you'd get used to all weird things they can come up with. That hasn't happened yet. This video is pretty weird, but somehow great at the same time. For those not so familiar with Touhou mythology, this video is probably about the battle that occured between the native Japanese god Suwako, and the conquering Yamato god Kanako. I have to say I'm not entirely sure why King Ghidorah and Minilla are there too. Also, shakōkidogū and various other traditional Japanese things can be seen fighting. Like I said, awesome, but also weird. <a href="http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8797644">【ニコニコ動画】【東方】神の御狩の道標【手描き動画】</a> External Link This other video is also a weird animation thing involving ZUN's artwork, except I'm pretty sure they just manipulated his images instead of really animating them. It's strangely catchy and mesmerizing

Most of my friends who'd be most interested in seeing this probably have, but I thought this would be an appropriate video to start out the blog with. It's on niconico, touhou related, recent, and awesome, giving it all the qualifications I arbitrarily decided were necessary for the first post. It's been keeping it's position at #1 on the overall video ranking at niconico, basically since it came out. <a href="http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8628149">【ニコニコ動画】【東方】Bad Apple!!　ＰＶ【影絵】</a> External Link The song is by a doujin circle called Alstroemeria Records, and is called "Bad Apple!! feat. nomico."