Muv-Luv 20th Anniversary

Today is the 20th anniversary of Muv-Luv – on this date in 2003, the original Muv-Luv game was first released. To celebrate, I thought I’d share my own Muv-Luv collection – my personal journey through 20 years of this amazing franchise.

Games:

The top two rows have the Muv-Luv games for PC. The third row is all the Muv-Luv games released for PS3. And the bottom row is Muv-Luv in English – the Kickstarter PC games and the Vita games.

Game Boxes:

Many of the games came in limited edition boxes. The top row is for PC games, the second row has the PS3 games and the English Kickstarter box. At the bottom is the Age 20th Anniversary Box, a huge tome that collects all of their old games, as well as CDs containing all of their songs, and a bunch of extra goodies.

20th Box Contents:

A picture of said goodies. The games are on the left, the CDs are on the right. Also included are the final two issues (#23 and #24) of their long-delayed fan club exclusive magazine, a CD containing digital copies of all 24 issues of those magazines, and a collection of new artwork from many of the artists associated with them, whether through their games, manga adaptations, anime, or whatever.

Anime:

The top two rows are for Total Eclipse, both Japanese and US Blu-rays, as well as a special DVD with interviews. We’ve also got Japanese Blu-rays for Schwarzesmarken and Alternative (volume 4 of Alternative is releasing next month).

CD (Booklets):

Various CDs I’ve bought for the franchise – I generally keep just the booklet and the CD itself, and I either toss the case or dump it in another box somewhere else.

The top row is for the soundtrack for the original Muv-Luv game – instead of a booklet, it came with a bunch of illustrated cards.

The second row is for game soundtracks. I lost the booklet for Vol. 1 of the Alternative soundtrack a while back, so I had to sub in the actual CD for that one.

The third row has the original JAM Project single CD for Alternative, a couple of song collections for Muv-Luv and Total Eclipse, and the latest CDs I bought – the soundtrack for the Alternative anime and the JAM Project opening theme for the second season. The one on the end is the soundtrack collection from the Kickstarter.

Novels:

The top row has the Muv-Luv novelizations – 2 for Extra, 2 for Unlimited, and 3 for Alternative. (I put them right-to-left because the three Alternative covers form a single picture when lined up that way.)

The second row has the Total Eclipse novels – the six officially released ones, and the special novelization of The Imperial Capital Burns that you get for buying all the Total Eclipse Blu-rays.

The third row has the main Schwarzesmarken novels. The fourth row has the various side novels – 2 Requiem collections of short stories, 2 that came bundled with the 2 Schwarzesmarken games, and 2 prequel novels.

Manga (1):

The 17 volumes of the Alternative manga by Azusa Maxima, and the original side-story also drawn by the same artist.

Manga (2):

I tried to fit all of the manga into a single shot, but there were just too many, so I split Alternative off into its own picture. This one has the rest.

The top row has the manga adaptations of Extra and Unlimited.

The rest is for the various Total Eclipse manga – the first one by Takashi Ishigaki, the second one (Rising) by Rohgun, the adaptation of The Imperial Capital Burns by Shirou Tsunashima, and some 4-koma collections from when the Total Eclipse anime was on the air.

Artbooks (1):

The first shot of artbooks.

The top row has official artbooks for Muv-Luv, Alternative, the side-stories, and Total Eclipse, as well as a collection of Duty: Lost Arcadia stories from TSFiA and an official artbook for the Total Eclipse anime.

The second row has the 6 TSF Cross Operation books, which collect artwork from the original novel serializations of Total Eclipse and Schwarzesmarken, as well as the TSFiA short stories that used to run in Hobby Japan.

The third row has both the Japanese Integral Works and the English equivalent, the Codex. There’s also a somewhat strange book of TSF variations, and the three volumes of the Dengeki Muv-Luv magazine that were released while the Total Eclipse anime was airing.

Artbooks (2):

This second shot of artbooks consist mostly of what are technically considered doujinshi – although they were generally published by the original creators, they were only sold at Comiket rather than through normal stores.

The first row has the three artbooks for Next Answer, the first Muv-Luv social mobile game, as well as written material intended to tease Duty: Lost Arcadia and the mythical Total Eclipse Yui route (to date, neither have materialized yet, so these doujinshi are largely all we have of them).

The second row has the four Allied Strategy books, which collect their earlier Comiket books, the Lunatic Dawn series. At the end are the two Exogularity books, which had replaced the Lunatic Dawn series. All of these were sold at Comiket to offer additional information and tease upcoming storylines.

The third row has a few leftover books – a volume of Gianism magazine that had a major feature on the Total Eclipse anime, a Newtype insert book also featuring the Total Eclipse anime, and a collection of lineart for the anime. Rounding out the row are a couple of random Comiket offerings – a volume of Lunatic Dawn and a collection of art from Age artist Monkey Chop – which I’m pretty sure I picked up during one of Age’s visits to Anime Expo.

By the way, I’m leaving out a ton of other stuff that is, shall we say, tangentially Muv-Luv related. Issues of Newtype and other anime magazines that I bought pretty much strictly for their Muv-Luv content. Issues of Hobby Japan and Tech Gian that have serialized Muv-Luv content that was never collected. There are also stuff like CDs (for example, for JAM Project and Minami Kuribayashi) that have a lot of Muv-Luv related material. Basically, if it didn’t have Muv-Luv content on the cover, it seemed silly to dig it up and take a picture of it for a Muv-Luv anniversary.

Models/Figures (1):

My collection of TSF models and figures. I’m not a big figure person – there are tons of Muv-Luv figures that have been released which I’ve just never been interested in collecting. The two at the top left I bought from Age directly at their booth at Anime Expo 2010. The rest I think I just picked up here and there along the way – for a while, I made it my mission to buy something from any store or convention booth that stocked TSFs, just to show my support for this fairly niche franchise. As you can see, there weren’t many.

I dunno where the actual figures are. They’re in another box somewhere (along with a bunch of Gundam figures), and I’m not going to track them down just so the box looks nicer.

Models/Figures (2):

Mostly a collection of figures and models I got from the Kickstarter. The TSF model on the right is a special version that came with the limited edition of the 2nd Blu-ray for the Alternative anime. A similar special version will be packaged with the 4th Blu-ray as well.

Bonus Goods (1):

Various bonus items that came bundled with some of the other stuff above. Some are from limited editions, some are pre-order bonuses, some just come packaged with them. If you’re wondering what some of those big game boxes from up above are for, they hold all these little trinkets. Some of them are pretty clearly labeled where they’re from, some are anybody’s guess at this point.

Yes, that item at the bottom right is a blood-splattered dogtag with Marimo’s name on it, and yes, that is a little twisted.

Bonus Goods (2):

Some larger bonus items – clear files, pencil boards, wipecloths. The poster at the bottom was included as a store bonus with the 3rd Blu-ray of the Alternative anime, and even though I know they’re just getting rid of excess stock, it’s still nice to have.

Bonus Goods (3):

A couple of wallscrolls. The Yui one is from the 20th Anniversary Box, the Meiya one is from the first season Blu-rays of the Alternative anime. Both are store-exclusive pre-order bonuses. The poster at the top was included with the Integral Works book. There’s a huge picture of a Takemikazuchi on the other side, but I think this side, showing the TSF development timeline, is cooler.

Bonus Goods (4):

Various knick-knacks from the Kickstarter. The jacket on the left is perfect for lazy quasi-cosplaying.

Other Age Stuff:

Originally, I was going to limit this post to just Muv-Luv items (it is, after all, only a Muv-Luv anniversary). But all the KimiNozo stuff was mixed in, so I had to sift through all of it, and at the end, I had a huge pile of other miscellaneous stuff, and it seemed a waste not to include it. So here’s a bonus picture.

At the top center, we have the KimiNozo anime – the DVDs released in America (back when they would sell single DVDs) and a nice chipboard box to hold them, as well as the Japanese Blu-rays. Also up top is the KimiNozo PC game, and a concert DVD featuring the cast of KimiNozo, as well as JAM Project.

In the middle, there are various artbooks (including one for the old version of KimiIta), as well as physical editions of the children’s books featured in KimiNozo.

At the bottom are some CD booklets for various Age CDs, as well as the 2-volume novelization for Owarinaki Natsu, Towanaru Shirabe.

Something Personal:

To close out, some stuff that’s a little more than just merchandise.

The boards on top are specially drawn shikishi that I bought from the Age booth at Anime Expo 2010. On the right is one by Kyousuke Himukai, artist on Owarinaki Natsu, Towanaru Shirabe and The Day After. At the time, all I knew from him was Owarinaki Natsu, Towanaru Shirabe, so I asked for a drawing of Ai, my favorite character from that game (she’s very much in that Mitsuki/Sumika/Marika mold that Age seems to like). Chronicles 01 came out just a month later – if that game had come out before the convention and I had had a chance to play it, I almost certainly would have asked for a drawing of Lilia instead. Such is life.

The left one was done by Sou Miyata, the then-current artist on Total Eclipse. I actually didn’t commission this one – I saw them put it on sale on the last day of the convention as they were packing up to go home, so I shrugged and bought it. I can’t remember why I didn’t bother commissioning my own. It may be that Miyata had taken over for the original artist on Total Eclipse (Tasuku Iizuki) not that long ago, and I still wasn’t used to Miyata’s art. I also wasn’t nearly as big a fan of Total Eclipse back then as I am now. When I look back now, I really kick myself for not getting a picture of Yui when I had the chance.

Lastly, a couple of items that I felt were appropriate for an anniversary. The first is the obi from the JAM Project CD for Alternative that I showed above. I already included it in this showcase, but I wanted to make a special mention of it, because this CD, containing the songs Asu e no Houkou, Tsubasa, and Carry On, was the first piece of Muv-Luv merchandise I ever bought. It came out in 2005, before Alternative was released (it was actually supposed to come out at the same time, but they wound up delaying the game for almost a year). At the time, you could describe me as more of a JAM Project fan than a Muv-Luv fan. I enjoyed Extra and Unlimited, and I was looking forward to Alternative, but I mostly bought this CD because of JAM Project. But after Alternative came out and blew me away, I had a feeling I would be sticking with this franchise for a while, so when I happened to find this obi sitting in the corner of my room, I decided to hang onto it on a whim (I usually throw these things out). Looking at it again reminds me of the early days, of going through the transition from a casual fan to a hardcore devotee. In a sense, all of the merchandise I showed above can be traced back to buying this one CD.

The last item is particularly special. It’s a receipt from a store in Akihabara, where I bought actual physical copies of the Muv-Luv trilogy (the same ones you can see in the first picture above). I’d like to say I flew all the way to Japan for the sole purpose of buying Muv-Luv – but no, obviously I’m not that crazy. But it just so happened that the all-ages versions of the games came out just a few months before a trip I had already planned, so I knew they should still be available without having to look too hard. I was already a huge fan by that point, so this was probably number one on my list of things to buy on the trip. There was something special about buying the games in an actual store in Japan. I hung onto the receipt because I knew this was something I would want to remember.

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