Artist Spotlight: Mayu Shinjo

Today's Artist Spotlight focuses on manga artist Mayu Shinjo. She's best known for titles such as Love Celeb, Haou Airen, and Kaikan Phrase. Kaikan Phrase (aka Sensual Phrase) received an anime adaptation back in 1999.

As far as I know, only Haou Airen and Sensual Phrase are available in America. Both series were licensed by Viz Media.

Image Archive (.zip)

Happy (Belated) 2nd Anniversary HFG!

You know you're busy when you forget your blog's anniversary. That's right, I actually forgot that February 7th was HFG's second anniversary. So, umm, happy 2nd anniversary!

In all seriousness, some of you longtime readers may have noticed that posts have been less frequent than they have in the past. It's not because of a lack of material or anything like that. It's mainly because my life has taken a turn where I don't have the time to post everyday anymore.

I appreciate every single person who checks out HFG, comments, or posts something in the shoutbox. I still enjoy doing this blog. Since I don't have as much time, my goal is to make sure that whatever I do post is going to be worth the wait.

While I'm not doing anything to mark HFG's anniversary this time around, some stuff is in the works. One immediate thing I'm working on is an FAQ for the blog for first-time visitors. If there are any questions you've always wanted to ask me, send them to me and I might answer them in the FAQ.

Also, All-Request Week is making a comeback in the spring and this summer, I would like to give the site itself a facelift.

Thanks for sticking with this blog for two years. I hope you'll continue to check it out for more.

More Fist of The North Star

Today's post features more pics from Fist of The North Star. In addition to a few pics from a calendar, this post also includes some artwork from the upcoming video game Hokuto Musou, which combines Fist of The North Star with the Dynasty Warriors engine. It hits stores in Japan next month. After the rest of the pics, check out the game's trailer.

New Kuroshitsuji

This July, a brand new season of Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler) will begin airing in Japan. However, instead of focusing on Sebastian & Ciel, it will focus on a new butler and master. A pic of the new duo Claude Faustus (butler) and Alois Trancy (master) is above.

The new characters were designed by the creator of the manga and I appreciate that the new master looks a little older than Ciel. However, I think Sebastian is a little hotter than Claude. Judge for yourself by checking out the pics below, which include a couple more of the new characters and pics of characters from the manga and first anime series.

By the way, the manga is now available in America from Yen Press.

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Dragon Ball Z

Checking out the comments in the Shoutbox, someone wondered about Dragon Ball Z. I've done only one DBZ post and that one featured just two pictures of Trunks. It's about time for the buff guys of this quintessential fighting anime to get their due. I'm not really a fan of this show anymore but it'll have a place in my heart as one of the first anime I ever got into.

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Mass Effect 2: Jacob Taylor

Mass Effect 2 is one of the biggest games of the year.  Although I really like the male version of main character Commander Shepard, I think the hottest guy in the game is Jacob Taylor.  The creators gave him an incredible body and they definitely show it off.

Below, you'll find some screencaps of Jacob from the game.  I made these caps from various videos found on YouTube.  These pics may contain spoilers so if you're currently playing the game, proceed with caution.  I have also kept the pics at their original 1280 x 720 size.