AmiAmi just got a pre-order up for Busou Shinki Magazine Vol. 2 by Ascii Media Works. No pictures are up yet but will put them up when they become available. So anyone thinking about getting it? I might pick one up myself.

Here's a link to the AmiAmi listing: http://www.amiami.com/shop/?set=english ... splay.html

Release date now set to late March.

Surprised I never stickied this...

Dengeki's got sample pics up. Added bonus, it has art for Arnval and Strarf MK2
As expected, it's Blade-centric.
http://hobby.dengeki.com/books/1003busomaga2.html#

Releasing tomorrow!

Busou Shinki Zero manga being released too.
http://hobby.dengeki.com/books/1003buso0.html#
Bit odd seeing Strarf in a style other then Fumikane's. Lot less cutesy. From the sample pages, seems a bit more like the more Western fan interpretations too.

EDIT: WTH did I call it?

¿what the heck is doing shmetterling there?

anyway... seeing different interpretations of strarf is interesting, makes me wonder what's the "global" interpretation of her... and shinkis in general....

...Zoids Zero, Caterwaul?

I got terribly excited when I saw that and thought ZOID SHINKIS? YS PLS and then there was much disappointment D:

Although it would be bitchin' awesome.

*Ninja Edit* Zoids Zero? I have no idea what you're talking about.

Received my copy of #2 over the weekend. Overall, I think issue 1 was a lot better, but there's some nice bits in this one.

We start with a nice fold out, reversible poster showing new art of Mao and Howling on one side, Partio and Pomock on the other.

Then we essentially 'waste' about half of the magazine on listing all the characters and owners from the various Shinki based manga out there. If the artwork was blown up a bit bigger, I could be happier about this section, but it's mostly just manga panels.

After that we get some info on Battlemasters. We've seen the pics by now. We also get a section on the Bunny and Space Bunny custom sets by the guy who designed Schmetterling, and some other customs floating around out there.

We finally get the stuff I wanted after that. The artwork from the Blade shinkis (plus schmetterling) and some of the design sketches. I wanted more design sketches but we get some nice bits here. Howling originally had a different color scheme and could hold her rings in armor mode. Also her jitte were more sci fi looking and she had another BFG. Mao had a wider variety of fist weapons, including knuckles, and grabber claw. Schmetterling had a wide variety of other styles they were fooling around with, some of them more magical girl, others more singing idol. There was one that had a bigger pair of 'butterfly' ribbon wings on her back, that had a creepy looking smiley face painted on them.

And then we come to a Blade interview. Which would be nice if I could read Japanese.

The full blown artwork is nice, but if that's the only thing you wanted you might want to hold off on getting it.