Tonigobe - Muv Luv Hero

For more than five years, freelance scanlator Tonigobe has been translating his way through the dense, complicated manga iterations of the Muv Luv Unlimited and Alternative universes and making them available in English.  As a fan who hasn't had the time or resources to really delve into the core visual novels that this property is rooted in, I can tell you that Toni's work has been a truly massive blessing.

Tonigobe has completely translated the four tankoban volumes that collect the Unlimited story as presented in Dengeki Daioh magazine.  He is currently working his way through Alternative.

Both he and I will also urge you to support Muv Luv's creators by purchasing the original publications, which can be had at cover-price at CDJapan (my consistent source for Muv Luv books - look over in the "Supply Container" section on the right) and through other on-line vendors.

Alternative - as you may know - is still underway in Dengeki Daioh's pages and has been collected in nine tankoban volumes thus far.  Toni has completed Volume 1, and is posting chapters from Volume 2 and Volume 3 alternately with each update.  This may seem odd at first.  But those of you who are rather familiar with the story might enjoy the faster-paced approach to catching up, as Takeru increasingly twists the Alternative world's events dramatically away from the fate of the Unlimited world...

In addition to giving Toni the credit he deserves for just how great it is to read through Unlimted and Alternative in English, special consideration has to be give to him for grappling with the mind-twisting technobabble inherent in the series, and for dealing so well with the various mannerisms Takeru and the other characters must speak in their courses of dealing with the layers of political and military rank they live within.

So, check out Tonigobe's Muv Luv work, linked over in the "Scanlators and Translators" section on the right.  He's translated material from other series as well and does work on commission

Plastic kit of the Russian TERMINATOR

Kotobukiya has announced the May release of their non-scale plastic kit of the Soviet TERMINATOR Tactical Surface Fighter piloted by the Scarlet Twins:

If I'm understanding correctly, the TSF's distinctive camo pattern is pre-painted on the kit, which is quite a selling point!  It comes with a flight stand, unit marking decals and - as revealed by Koto USA's Facebook page -  a gruesome little BETA "Venator" class soldier figure:

The Su-37UB kit - which is personally one of my favorite TSF designs - will cost you between $50-$65 USD before shipping, depending on where you get it.  Given that these kits contain anywhere up from 400 parts, a great display stand AND this one seems to have pre-painted camo, that's a bargain in my opinion. (That's less than twice what you'd pay for the Revoltech figure, but the plastic kit is about twice the size.)

Look for it at Hobby Search and Hobbylink Japan, over in the "Supply Container" links on the right.

I do hope they offer the Su-37M2 variant used by Lt Colonel Latrova's ill-fated Zhar Battalion, as I really liked the colorway on that unit's camo pattern.