Site Launch Announcement

I was beginning to think Dive were on strike on something. There haven't been any significant CXW related toy announcements made since the "The Monstrous Ones" contest wrapped up last month. Today they break the silence in a big way with the announcement of the next Flashback Generation, Sera Naoki.

My preferences over the last few months have decidedly steered towards Crows, but it's still cool to see Worst getting some FBG love for a change, and you can't go wrong with Sera!

Damn, I love this manga.

Chapter 26: DDL | MU

aceDAWG sent me a revised version of the subs he and Shin had previously worked on. He went back and tweaked some of the spelling and grammar mistakes from the original. Thanks again, guys.

Crows Zero II Subs V.2

D-M takes down Volume 21! You can find the torrent for Chapter 84 on their home page.

I'm an old school skater at heart, so when I saw this deck posted by forum member panda666 I just had to put it on the front page. It's a little small for my tastes, (when I started skating Tony Hawk was still wearing braces) but damned if it doesn't make me want to dust off the old board, turn up The Faction, and shred a little!

Anyway, there's some more detailed pics including some WIP shots and a brief tutorial HERE.

7 down, 19 to go.

Chapter 25: DDL | MU

Finally we have subs to accompany the AVI previously making its rounds on the web. If you haven't already downloaded Crows Zero II, you can do so via Aladar's torrent or DDL from Tsubasa's blog. Once completed, simply download the link below and follow the simple instructions included within.

Huge thanks to forum members Shin Seijuurou and aceDAWG for taking the time to translate and time these subs for the rest of the English speaking CXW fans. Much appreciated, guys.

Crows Zero II Subs

I think you all know the routine by now. a few weeks after the announcement of a new Bones, Glam and Lucky Rudy follow it up with the Glam Exclusive version. We wouldn't have it any other way.

Coming to you live from Panera Bread. Don't ask.

Chapter 24: DDL

And another one by D-M! You can grab the torrent on their home page.

I'm actually posting this on the same day it was released, too! Amazing!

It appears I missed this as well. Kinda redundant at this point, but in case you don't follow the forums, Banchou's Worst Gaiden Chapter 6 is now available in either torrent or DDL.

This release marks the end of the Gaiden chapters. Worst will take a three month hiatus and resume with Part 3 (aka Hana's senior year) in October.

CXW news has been pretty light over the past two weeks. I guess I got so accustomed to it, I missed this news completely. Anyway, Delinquent-Manga released Chapter 82 of Worst a few days back. The torrent is available on their home page. Sorry about that.

We're back. Enjoy.

Chapter 23: DDL | MU

I'm not sure what happened? I'd been periodically checking the polls over the last few days, but nothing appeared to be updated. Today it seems not only has Round 5 been decided, but the Finals as well?!

Anyway, the winner of Dive's "The Monstrous Ones" Flashback Generation voting poll is none other than Snake Heads second-in-command, Mayumi Tetsuji. Coming in close second is Kiyohiro, followed by Hideomi, Abo, and Kei. While it's a given that Tetsuji will be the next FBG appearing in "The Monstrous Ones", I wouldn't count the runner-ups out just yet. It looks like even Dive were taken aback by some of the final picks. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if they took the statistics from this poll into consideration when determining future line-ups.

In case you missed it, Delinquent-Manga released Chapter 81 of Worst yesterday. The torrent is available on their home page.

Murata Jyuzo and Kunou Ryuushin are the next Armament members to get styled by the artists at Black Rebel. Seen here are early production photos of the 4th Generation Head and Vice-Head. While not a true representation of the final product, in some ways, images of raw, unpainted sculpts are even better at showing off the intricate details. Expect fully painted versions to follow in the next few weeks.

If you've never seen one of Union Creative's T.F.O.A Styling by Black Rebel statues in person, you are definitely missing out. The detail on these are crazy! What sets Black Rebel apart from other 30cm Next Label Nonstandard figures are the outfits. If you check out the product page, you'll see an itemized breakdown of the exact duds the 4th are styling. After adding up the prices of the actual clothing you'll no doubt be wondering where two young bikers get the scratch to rock $1,600 python jackets. I'll let you ask them.

More Bones coming your way care of Glam and Lucky Rudy. Thanks to the awesomeness that are online translators, I'm more than 60% sure this is going to be a Glam Dept. Store exclusive!

Having recently purchased a PS3, I'm always on the lookout for my favorite flicks to hit on Blu-ray. While quite a few self-proclaimed "classics" are unlikely to ever see the light of HD, I've always remained optimistic towards the eventual release of Crows Zero. Thankfully, as far as region coding is concerned, this time around North America shares the same Region (A) with Japan. This is great news considering the extreme likelihood that Crows Zero will debut on Blu-ray in its country of origin. Or will it?

On August 9th, Crows Zero will get a Blu-ray release, but it won't be North American or Japanese, but French! I know there's a fairly large CXW fan base in France, but I surely wasn't expecting CZ to make it's HD debut in Europe before the Asian market. Most likely a Japanese release is on the horizon.

Both the listing on Amazon.fr as well as asianblurayguide.com indeed label this disc as being Region "B". If this is true, it will not play in US (or Japanese) Blu-ray players. However, unlike most studio released DVDs, Blu-ray discs for the most part are region free, so it's very possible this French release will be playable stateside. Whether it features English subs or not is another issue altogether. I'll keep you posted.

Anyone familiar with the Crows RAWS floating around the web are most likely aware that Volume 6 comes to an abrupt halt about midway through Chapter 22. Harumichi was able to provide the missing pages from the Korean scans, but they were of a slightly lesser quality and half the size of the Japanese pages we've been currently releasing. nakea45 put in a lot of extra effort cleaning this chapter. I for one think it looks great considering what she had to work with, but thought I should explain just to clear up any confusion to those reading.

Chapter 22: DDL | MU

We knew they were coming, but that didn't make the waiting any easier. Dive finally revealed the newest additions to their Crows Zero II Flashback Generation line-up today. This second wave of figures includes; Bitou, Izaki, and Narumi. I'm guessing this will be the last batch of new characters from the Crows Zero films for a while. I kinda had my hopes up for Makise and Rindaman, but at this point I'm grateful they chose to go beyond the typical Genji-Tamao-Ken pattern they followed up until now.

These are available exclusively through TBSishop individually or sold as a set.

It never ceases to amaze me whenever I click on Dive's homepage. Sometimes I know exactly what to expect, but more often than not, it's a complete surprise. It's true, another Bouya is hardly shocking, but when it's a totally new sculpt with an original design, you won't hear any complaints from me!

New schools, new friends, new rivals, same Bouya.

Chapter 21: DDL | MU

Aladar from D-M posted a torrent to the much anticipated sequel to Crows Zero yesterday. Normally I'd suggest waiting until a DVD rip surfaced in the next few weeks, but I'd say this is a pretty decent copy, considering. The sound is a little rough, especially if you have the volume up too high, but other than that, it's completely watchable. Besides, like me, you wouldn't wait anyway.

Thanks to Aladar for the heads up and for taking the time to tweak the original source material a bit. Those of you unable to use torrent programs can head over to Tobenaitsubasa's blog for Megaupload links of the original file. Be sure to download both parts 001 and 002.

And no, it's NOT subbed!

Finally some news regarding new Crows X Worst Medicom figures. While the regular edition Murata Shougo RAH was revealed some time ago, this newly announced Glam Exclusive shows Shougo wearing his (actually Kousei's) signature bomber jacket, jeans, and bandana. Bandou, only glimpsed previously in a photo on a Korean toy site, has also been officially confirmed. Both Shougo and Bandou are each limited to 500 pieces.

Thanks to forum member Cowboy76 for the heads up.

Dive and Linda announced the next series of Crazy Kids will focus on members of T.F.O.A. Like the previous series, Series 2 contains 7 characters, 1 secret and will be offered in cases of 12.

Not only is this my favorite chapter of the series so far, but also the last chapter of the first Crows story arc. We may have gotten off to a slightly rough start, but I feel we've finally come into our own. We still aren't perfect, but we never claimed otherwise.

On behalf of P.A.D., we'd like to thank everyone for all of your support. So far, it's been a blast. We look forward to continuing to share all the greatness that is Crows with you. There are still more than 20 Volumes to go, so stick around. You ain't seen nothin' yet!

Chapter 20: DDL | MU

Genba, Sakota, and Butcher have been eliminated from Dive's "The Monstrous Ones" Flashback Generation voting poll this week. The Final 8 have been determined. Only two weeks of voting remain until the winner is announced, so get those votes in! If you don't care who wins, then vote for Hideomi! He's gonna need all the help he can get against the rest of these monsters.

It's been over three months since Dive and Linda announced a new Crazy Heads, and the wait was well worth it. We knew more T.F.O.A were coming by the teaser image posted a few months back. I pretty much figured this line-up would mainly focus on Fifth Generation members as well, but I have to admit I wasn't expecting a 5th Gen. Tesshou. I think this is going to have to be the first Crazy Heads I add to my collection. I'm really diggin' the expression, the pose, and that Regulus variant is just plain killer!

Tesshou is pictured above and will be offered in a Regular version as well as Dive, Official Hiroshi Takahashi Fan Club (FUN), Linda Garage, and Regulus exclusives.

The following chapter should contain all pages as well as a credits page that directs readers to D-M's actual site! Enjoy.

Chapter 19: DDL | MU

I did say we weren't perfect, right? While going over the chapters last night I noticed a couple of major problems with two of our releases. Both chapters 11 and 16 were actually missing complete pages! While I'm not pleased, I am somewhat relieved these omissions weren't parts of key scenes. I suppose if they were, someone would have alerted us to the issue before now.

All revisions ending in "v2" are the corrected versions. As with the last screw up, since only a single page is in question, anyone with the original chapters can simply download the missing pages below. All full volume DDLs have also been corrected to include these missing pages. Again, my apologies. We're new at this!

Chapter 11: pg 138 | Chapter 16: pg 40

Chapter 11.2: DDL

Chapter 16.2: DDL

Volume 3.2: DDL

Harumichi arrived at the 4th warehouse to find a bound and tortured Yasuda. Meanwhile, Megumi prepares to face off against the venomous Issei while Pon, Mako and Hiromi continue their battle against Anzai and his lackeys. Will our heroes survive this onslaught by the dreaded Front Of Armament...?

Chapter 18: DDL | MU

Results for Week 2 of Dive's "The Monstrous Ones" Flashback Generation voting poll are in! Combatants knocked out of the running this week are Tsutomu, Nara Akira, and Zen. Of the 11 remaining, it looks like all three of my favorites still have a shot at becoming the next FBG. Hideomi gets my vote again this week. I'm betting he's monstrous enough to at least make it to the final 8.

Dive announced the next figure in their Flashback Generation line to be none other than 5th Generation Armament member, Kai Yasunori. It's still unclear at this time as to whether Kai is part of "The Monstrous Ones" line-up or the more recently announced series featuring Mitsumasa. A comparison of the Japanese featured on their corresponding images would lead to me to assume the latter.

When we last left off, Yasuda was taken captive by the evil henchmen of the villainous Front of Armament. Will our beloved fair-haired hero make it to the 4th Warehouse before it's too late? Fear not, true believers!

Chapter 17: DDL | MU

More Banchou. More Worst. More Armament! Today is good day.

Torrent | DDL

Another chapter of Worst from the guys at Delinquent-Manga. This release marks the end of Volume 20. You can grab the torrent from their home page.

From this day forward I hereby appoint myself America's Number 1 Yasuda fan! Have a nice weekend.

Chapter 16: DDL | MU

Lucky Rudy posted images of what has to be one of the coolest Bones yet! Yeah, yeah, it's another repaint in a long line of Crows variants, but this one is a zombie! Maybe not officially stated as such, but he's got a hand in his bag! It's a well known fact that skeletons don't eat human flesh, so there's just no denying it. I bet that crow on zombie Ken's shoulder is a zombie crow as well! Get it?! Zombie crow?! Yeah, I don't either. BRAAAAAAAAAINNNNNNNS!

Flashback Generation and variants go together like fire and smoke, ketchup and french fries, hookers and cok...you get the idea. Anyway, up for the offering is a monochromatic version of the previously announced Takiya Genji from the Crows Zero II line. This version of Genji is offered exclusively through Puerta Del Sol's online shop.

Dive have added even more Flashback Generation figures to their Crows Zero II line-up. Shown here are the film's key players, Genji, Tamao and Ken. These, like the previous films incarnations will be offered exclusively through TBSishop.

There's no doubt these look great, but word on the streets is other characters from the film will be making their FBG debut in the very near future. Hopefully we'll get some official images soon.

The voting continues in Dive's Flashback Generation "The Monstrous Ones" poll. Daito, Senda, Gaga, and Enjou were all eliminated in the first round. That leaves 14 men still standing. So far all of my favorites remain, including Hideomi. Did your pick make the cut?

Who will emerge victorious, Ryuushin or Bouya? There can only be one!

Chapter 15 (P.2): DDL | MU

I'd totally be lying if I told you I knew what these images were. Here's a snip from the Babel Fish'd article posted on CXW Dive Diary:

"...in the underpants the soldier of love...".

Right. That's what I get for not learning Japanese. I'll go ahead and guess it's an art contest of some sort and leave it at that. Anyway, the pictures are cool, so I thought I'd post them.

The origin of The Armament continues! Available in your choice of torrent or DDL. Go get it!

This release marks the completion of Volume 4. I also added full volume DDLs to P.A.D.'s release page for any new readers just catching on. Enjoy!

Chapter 15 (P.1): DDL | MU

I'm not the biggest fan of Crazy Heads, but these are pretty cool, actually. I'm thrilled to see characters from the films other than the big three make their way into the toy lines. Now if only some of them would get the Flashback Generation treatment as well.

Seen here are Izaki and the Mikami Brothers. Click the thumbnails above or check out all the details on Dive's CZII page.

Don't forget to cast your votes in Dive's Flashback Generation poll for the character you want to see made in their Monstrous Ones line-up. I voted for Hideomi. What of it?!

This chapter was a total nightmare. Lots of dialogue, cleaning and page redraws. Not to mention it took us a week to find a decent font for Ryuushin that still isn't perfect! Other than that, it rocks!

Update: While looking through the chapter again last night I noticed an error on page 171. It's since been fixed, so anyone downloading V2 is good. To those who already got it, you can just swap out the bad page with the corrected version. Sorry about that!

Chapter 14 V.2: DDL | MU

Another chapter of Worst from Delinquent-Manga. You can grab the torrent from their home page.

Another one down. This chapter was a lot of fun. In short, Mako rules! You'll see what I mean. Have a great weekend.

Chapter 13: DDL | MU

Dive posted a poll in which fans will be able to vote on who will become the next addition to their newest Flashback Generation line-up, "The Monstrous Ones". This marks the first time in Dive's history where direct input from fans would influence a future release.

Voting will commence on May 1st with results posted the following Friday. Those with the highest number of votes will go on to the next round. This elimination process will continue until the end of month until one man is left standing. The winner will be announced on June 1st and go on to become the next FBG.

Thanks to Harumichi Bouya for filling us in on all the details. I actually came across the poll yesterday, but had no clue what it was all about.

In other toy news, Dive Diary posted some detailed shots of the upcoming Murata Shougo.

The first chapter of Crows Volume 4 is complete. I also decided it was a good idea to get a P.A.D. release page up to keep everything nice and orderly. Eventually I'll get some DDL links up for full volumes as they are completed as well. Have at it!

Chapter 12: DDL | MU

That's right, Worst is back! Delinquent-Manga come through with a double release of first two chapters of Volume 20.

For now it looks like only the torrent is up, but keep checking their home page for a DDL link.

More Crows goodness to kick off your weekend. Chapter 11 brings us to the end of Volume 3. Twenty-three to go! Enjoy.

Chapter 11: DDL | MU

Box Office Mojo has reported that Crows Zero II earned a whopping $5,793,542 in its opening weekend in Japan. While not claiming the #1 spot (that went to Red Cliff: Part 2), Crows Zero II has surpassed Miike's first film in the series which took in $3,478,271 during its opening weekend. You can check out all the details here.

Thanks to some detective work by Harumichi Bouya, it looks as if the next Flashback Generation revealed yesterday, Tsukimoto Mitsumasa, is not actually part of "The Monstrous Ones" after all. It appears as if Dive have decided to release figures for two seperate lines in unison.

This newly announced line-up of FBGs can be loosely translated as, "The Men Who Hold Power in Their Respective Domains". An image found on Yahoo Auctions may shed some light on future characters to join Mitsumasa. We'll keep you informed.

Another chapter of Crows coming at you. Judging by bandwith usage alone it looks like many of you downloaded the first two chapters. Hopefully my contribution to the process didn't scare you off. As I said we wanted to get the story out and not worry so much about the aesthetics. Still, another couple of chapters and I think the quality as far as cleaning/typesetting are concerned will vastly improve. I may even start adjusting b/w levels starting with Volume 4!

Chapter 10: DDL | MU

It's about time Dive did a little Moonlighting. I was hoping for one of the elder brothers as the next Flashback Generation, but Mitsumasa is a step in the right direction. Seen here are the usual batch of variants. No sign of a Regulus version as of yet, but I'll keep an eye out. Dive will begin accepting preorders sometime tomorrow.

Banchou has done it again! Worst Gaiden: Chapter 3 is available as a DDL or torrent. This chapter focuses on the origins of The Armament, so I'll keep this short and sweet so I can get to reading! Thanks to LoktarOgar from Delinquent for the heads up.

The Crows Zero II merchandise just keeps coming! Until I make a full blown CZII section complete with collectibles, I won't even bother trying to include them all here. For now, you can check out this new batch of stuff on Dive's special Crows Zero II page. Most of it's your run of mill movie tie-ins, but of special note is a variant of the original Flashback Generation Takiya Genji commemorating the release of the film.

I spent the weekend eating massive amounts of carbohydrates and chocolate bunnies, so this news is a little late I'm afraid. If you haven't already found the links in the forums, Banchou has translated and released the second installment of Worst Gaiden.

Take your pick from either DDL or torrent. Thanks to LoktarOgar from Delinquent for posting.

A couple of weeks ago some members from the forums contacted me with the possibility of picking up Crows translations where Delinquent had left off. Of course I was excited. Upon learning they were in need of some assistance on the technical end I was more than happy to lend a hand. After a few days discussion, we put together a guerrilla scanlating group whose sole purpose is to provide Crows to its English speaking fans. We're pleased to announce that we have succeeded in that respect.

The group responsible for bringing you these new Crows chapters will go by the name of Paula And Dangerers. P.A.D. consists of paulalala, Harumichi Bouya, nakea45 and I. Be advised that none of us have ever attempted anything like this before. No member is currently a part of or ever been involved with any scanlating groups. In other words, don't look for perfection, you won't find it. Perhaps one day D-M will take a second pass at Crows and polish it up properly. In the meantime, the story takes precedence. We felt fans of the series would be more than willing to forgive us for any shortcomings in exchange for the ability to read this great manga.

I want to thank everyone at Delinquent for inspiring us. None of this would have been possible without their continued dedication to the CXW community. Had they not put forth the effort in translating Crows & Worst, most of us wouldn't be here now. For that I'm ever grateful.

The first two chapters of Crows Volume 3 can be downloaded directly using the links below. I also included a second DDL Megaupload link in the event of any unforseen issues with our host. Hopefully someone who knows what they're doing (not me) will get a torrent up and running soon after. Be sure to check back next week as more chapters are on the way. If you're a member of our forums please swing by and tell us what you think. Enjoy!

In Japan it's officially 4-11-09 and that means only one thing, Crows Zero II is out! Chances are if you're an avid reader of this website you won't be seeing CZ II today. It sucks, I know, but we'll get our chance soon enough. In the event anyone from Japan actually does check us out, please don't hesitate to brag about how great it was. If nothing else, drop me an email and let me know if Bouya gets his cameo!

For the rest of you in need of a Crows fix, check back in an hour or two. We'll be making a special announcement we think may ease the pain a little...

I was just perusing TBS Shop's special CZ II merchandise page when I came across something pretty cool. What better way to attend the premiere of Crows Zero II than dressed as your favorite delinquent? Okay, maybe not. In any event Babelfish is being a jerk as usual, but my guess is these are exactly what they appear to be, costume replicas of Suzuran and Housen school uniforms from the film. There's some other cool stuff available in the shop as well. Check it out.

I'm sure you're already aware the Crows Manga Section is incomplete. Hell, it's not even started yet. Turns out I may be able to start working on it sooner than I had originally anticipated. You may be asking yourself, "But KSC, how could you possibly complete the Crows Manga Section when the majority of Crows manga hasn't even been translated into English yet?!"

How indeed...

I spent way too much time with these guys over the weekend in order to post what I'd hoped to be comprehensive galleries of both new Crows Zero Real Action Heroes. As is usually the case with me, comprehensive became exhaustive which probably resulted in way more photos of Takiya Genji and Serizawa Tamao anyone would ever need, I'm sure.

This will probably be my last gallery update for a while. There is either something wrong with my camera or my eyes. It's my opinion that the majority of these photos just don't look good. I've tried multiple settings and lighting conditions, but can't seem to get the details to "pop". Everyone I've show them to assures me they look fine, but I'm still not pleased with the quality. I think it's time to invest in an SLR, better glasses or maybe both?

You could call this Chapter 89, but I don't think it was ever officially stated as such. Being that most of us still haven't read Chapters 79-88, this may seem like an odd release choice. However, Gaiden are considered more like side stories and can be read at any time. This particular story tells of the Umehoshi Brothers back when they were students at Suzuran.

Take your pick between DDL or torrent. Thanks again to LoktarOgar from Delinquent for the heads up.

LoktarOgar from Delinquent posted upload links to revised versions of Worst Volume 1 and Volume 2. These new versions by Banchou have been updated with improved translations as well as given an all around make over. You can grab the Megaupload versions above or visit the following thread to get torrent information and check out some comparison pages.

Previously announced a few days ago in a Japanese publication, today Dive Production Diary posted clearer images of the next two figures in Dive's Flashback Generation line. Seen here are the Bitou Brothers Tatsuya and Hideyuki.

As always, it's sometimes difficult to glean the exact information from an online translator, but it seems to me that these will be available exclusively through the previously mentioned magazine individually or sold as a set. It's also my understanding that anyone who purchases both brothers will be entered into a lottery for a chance to win a variant of Tatsuya in glasses which is limited to 100 pieces.

Whenever Glam and Lucky Rudy announce a new Bone you can expect a Glam Dept. Store exclusive soon after. This repainted version of Act3 "Rebel" is limited to 250 pieces. Like all other Bone In The T.F.O.A I wouldn't be at all surprised if it sold out by days end.

I figured it would happen sooner or later, but finally we have confirmation that Crows Zero manga will be reprinted and bound together into collected volumes. If you've been reading this site since the beginning you know I put in a lot of leg work trying to track down issues of Shonen Champion Weekly when the Crows Zero manga was first announced, but it never panned out. After giving up on owning them I figured someone would eventually scan the pages and post them online, but unless I somehow missed it, that never happened either. Looks like the best way to get what you want is patience. While the local Japanese bookstores do not carry SCW they do get new volumes of manga just a few days after their Japanese street dates.

It's a been a while since I made any additions to the Photo Gallery in the Toys section. I guess I felt like the pics I've been taking with my old camera weren't really good enough, but after receiving a new one for my birthday decided to give it another go. I'm still not entirely happy with them, but maybe I'm expecting too much from a point and shoot digi cam?

Anyway, you can click on the thumbnails above or the following links to see full galleries of Flashback Generation Murata Shougo and Dive Limited Edition Fujishiro Takumi.

Second only to Dive's Flashback Generation I would say Bones is probably my favorite line. At first I was a little hesitant to accept the inclusion of non Armament characters into the line-up, but since warmed up to the idea. It helps that Ken is one of my favorite characters from the films.

While it's impossible for me to attempt to translate a page that's mostly an image, judging by Lucky Rudy's Blog it looks like this will be a Crows Zero II Night exclusive as well as be offered in Glam's online store at some point.

I'm not sure what to say about these, but I'll try to remain as impartial as possible. At first glance it just screams of something I'd see for sale at the local mall or swinging from a cosplayers shoulder bag. While not my cup of tea, that's the great thing about Crows and Worst collectibles, there's something for everyone.

With so many different lines of toys and characters in the Crows universe there are a lot of really cool things out there to collect. The obvious downside is that you would need a lot of money to keep up with everything. On the other hand, with so much diversity, you're free to pick and choose what appeals to you the most while still amassing a decent sized collection. That being said, there are many items that don't particularly interest me. However, as much as I'm not into some of the lines I can't say I necessarily hated any of them either. Until now. Hey, I said I'd try!

For those fans who do dig this kinda of thing it looks like they will be sold in complete sets rather than blind boxed. That's something positive after all. These are available for order now on Dive with a scheduled release date of early April.

I believe I said the T.F.O.A should step aside and give other Crows and Worst characters a chance to become Flashback Generation figures, but perhaps I spoke too soon? I was secretly hoping for a few more Skulls before Dive switched gears, but I suppose it was time for a change. This was an unexpected direction and for long time fans of Crows a welcome one I'm sure.

Next up is head of the Zeniya Family, Ogawa Kenji AKA "Dosuken". While most English speaking fans know only of Dosuken by his brief appearance in Worst as Chiharu's uncle, rest assured when Crows is fully translated more will be revealed. Preorders should begin some time tomorrow.

Guriko has been announced as the next 10cm in Next Label line. I for one am glad to see Union Creative are picking up where Organic left off and making some decent character choices as well. While I'm certain Harumichi's debut to the line can't be too far off, here's hoping UC will keep the new characters coming rather than repainting the same ones over and over and...

Following in Tesshou's footsteps not only as Head of The Armament, but as the next redux in Dive's Flashback Generation series is none other than the 7th, Murata Shougo. Normally I would balk at yet another remake of a figure already done by Dive, but being Shougo is one of my favorite characters from Worst I tend to be a bit more on the forgiving side. As per tradition Shougo will be offered in multiple variants through the usual dealers.

As you're well aware, I'm a big fan of T.F.O.A, but in a series with so many interesting players I think it's time for something new. The Armament needs to step down. I can't believe I just said that!

Glam and Lucky Rudy announced two new Bone In The T.F.O.A are on the way. First up is a new addition to the 00 Style line entitled Act.3 "Rebel". Also being released is something completely new and unexpected, Ken Katagiri. Not only is Ken from outside of the manga realm, but also the first official character to appear in the Bones line who's not an Armament member.

While I'm a huge fan of Bone as well as Lucky Rudy, I'm a little iffy on the inclusion of Ken Katagiri here. Call me picky, but usually when you label something Bone In The T.F.O.A you kinda figure that Bone should be T.F.O.A. Still, there's no denying it looks awesome and maybe a broader range of characters will end up being a good thing. I'm really digging the added detail to the base, too. It really brings a lot to the piece in comparison to past releases which were kinda...bare bones.

I was never a big fan of the Crazy Heads line. It's not so much the SD styling that bothers me, but more of an overall hatred for anything that bobbles. In the US bobbleheads are considered more of a novelty item than a collectible with most seeing the inside of clearance bins. It's hard to see past that stigma, however I'm starting to warm up to them more and more with each new release.

With the movie a little more than a month away, it's no surprise that Crows Zero II makes its way into the Crazy Heads line. Seen here are the usual suspects, Genji, Tamao and Ken. While admittedly my tastes may be shifting towards adding a few of these to my collection, here's hoping we get a few other characters from the Crows Zero films in addition to the big three. Of course I'm a fan, but I'd like to see some diversification to the line as well.

I was beginning to think I'd never actually get to watch it. I thought maybe it was just a myth, an urban legend of long forgotten lore. I thought I had looked everywhere. No websites had downloads. Asian video store owners gave me puzzled looks. Anime and die hard Crows fans alike were unable to locate it. It was looking bleak. Just as I was about to give up hope, the search has come to an end.

HUGE thanks to asra from the forums for taking the time to upload and share this with the rest of the CXW community. For now you can download Part 1 and Part 2 through the links provided by asra on Megaupload. Hopefully within the next few days I'll have it hosted here. With a little luck (and the help of a translator) perhaps a subbed version won't be too far behind. Enjoy!

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