Zenmarket Haul - AKB48, Morning Musume, Momoiro Clover Z, MOMOLAND & m.o.v.e

After writing that title, I realised it was almost artists that start with the letter M! So I got another CD haul from Zenmarket last month and got some great new additions to my J-Pop collection. Last year I did get a large number of albums from Zenmarket but never ended up posting them on here. Maybe I'll do my CD collection posts later on this year and add them to that. 

This order I focused mainly on AKB48 releases as there was a number of singles I was interested in collecting. Then there was also some harder to find albums that I have been searching for that I managed to find selling on Yahoo Auctions which is the platform I use to buy all my CD's from in Japan. Here are all the items I received in this order from Zenmarket! 

Starting off with the large collection of AKB48 singles I brought from this one seller. They were selling a set of 20 singles for 400JPY. Absolutely insane and all of them were brand new and unopened. So I couldn't say no to this deal as it contained quite a few singles I had been wanting. Sustainable was the main one I have been looking for as I really enjoy this song and it feels like a true AKB48 song to me. There was one song on Negaigoto no mochigusare that I like from hearing the JKT48 version of it. I had originally brought this CD last year but sadly it got cancelled by Zenmarket due to issues with the seller. So it was nice to finally receive one. All of the below singles are the theater or shop editions which are usually the ones I collect.

After that massive lot of singles, I brought even more AKB48 singles! I had been wanting to get Ponytail to shushu for a while now as I love the Majijo Teppen Blues song. It's so dramatic and amazing to listen to and the part with Takahashi Minami is my favourite. Also brought a set that had some random singles in it mainly because I was looking for the Heavy Rotation CD which is the one in the case. A big thank you to Zemarket for helping with this specific item as they helped out with this a request I had regarding this item. Super helpful and great communication with everything! These were also all new sealed singles which are super easy to find with AKB48 as fans often bulk buy the CD's and rarely open them.

Colour Outfits Collection - Elegant Dark Green

The latest outfit in my Fashion Dreamer colour outfits collection features the dark green colour tone. I went for a classical and feminine inspired outfit. This pinafore style dress is just gorgeous and matches well with the lace top underneath. It gives it a more elegant look and makes the green tone stand out. The earrings feature a beautiful bead style and the shoes are quite proper. I rarely use this hairstyle and it is perfect for this outfit. The backdrop reminds me of a Doctor Who set with all the cogs and gears. It looks like we are in space but looking fabulous!

MODEL debut3 #nicola Play Journal - Chaotic Outfit Choices

Recently I was going through my Nintendo switch games and came to the realisation that I never finished MODEL debut3 #nicola! Ages ago, I spent heaps of time playing it and got my rank up super high. Ended up finding some screenshots saved on my switch SD card and thought it was the perfect time for a play journal on the game. These are just a random collection and I won't be highlighting the storyline much as these are mostly from jobs and a meet up with friends. First off is this simple looking outfit from a modelling job. It reminded me of the basic clothes in Style Boutique because I swear these same items appear.

No idea what on earth I was thinking with this look for this tv spot. Like why is my hair bright green? Sometimes the items available for the job are terrible and you end up with something like this. Maybe if the top had a pattern on it, it would've looked ten times better. 

This winter inspired outfit is much prettier and less chaotic. Usually I'm not one to use gloves in an outfit however they were suitable for this job. The cardigan looks super comfy and I could do with one like that currently as the temperatures dropped suddenly here the last few days. Last Friday it was t-shirt and shorts weather during the day, but at night it was freezing and I had to eventually put a thermal on the next day to stay warm. So I'm not looking forward to upcoming cold months :( After this toasty outfit, I headed out to meet up with a friend and take a cute photo to remember it. 

Fashion Dreamer Lookits Collection 9 - Green Skirt Styles

Last month, we bid a farewell to the Lookits feature in Fashion Dreamer as sadly the online functions of the game were shut down. I talked about my thoughts in this blog post if you are interested to see what the game looks like in the current state. Luckily for me, I have a huge backlog of Lookits to post on the blog. There a folder full of outfits I received from other players and now is the best time to clear them out! So I'll be posting the screenshots over the course of a few blog posts until they are all done. Let's take a look at today's Lookits! 

The main theme of this selection is the colour green however two pink ones have sneaked in! This first Lookit is totally my girly style that I adore in fashion games. And even features my favourite headpiece which is a beret! The second one reminds me of the April Bonbon brand as it is quite lively and fun with the print. 

Onto the green toned outfits with this gorgeous jumper skirt combo. I love how Fashion Dreamer tucks in the tops and it is well animated. No crazy clipping and it looks like it would in real life. I could never do this with my clothes as it would be rather bulking and that would drive me insane. This style of skirt has been on my mind lately, like the ones were it has the outer layer of the floral netting. I would love to make a skirt like this to wear and I know Spotlight has a great range of this type of fabric as I always stare at it when I got there.

Lovely mermaid inspired look from a Muse and I think these were items from one of the events. It just screams limited edition item! They did a good job matching it with the look of my hair as it is rather soft looking. After that is a lovely check dress which has the cutest belt detail.

Now this outfit is totally my style. It has many elements that I adore such as a loose fitted cardigan, plaid skirt, collar top and a preppy/girly style. Those are my favourite fashion styles to pick when playing fashion games and I swear most outfits I've made in games have been girly or leaning towards preppy. I wish I could wear this style more in real life however I usually wear t-shirts most of the week as they are the most versatile item of clothing for my job. Plus I get heaps of free t-shirts at work from brands and promotions so my shirt drawer is pretty full.

March Favourites

It has been a billion years on the blog since I posted a monthly favourites. Always a fun post on the blog and I've had a few interests in recent months that have taken up a large chunk of my time. March has been a strange month as the weather is still quite warm here which I'm all for! I do not want the cold weather to arrive and I'm loving the shorts and t-shirt weather. 

Gaming

Most nights I spend time playing colouring in games on my switch as I'm obsessed. My switch friends see a notification for the games I play and they are always like 'what on earth are you playing?'. I just find them so relaxing and I use a stylus which makes it super easy to colour in each section. COLOREE and Pixel Cross Stitch Color by Number are my current projects. COLOREE is a colour by number style game and Pixel Cross Stitch is the same but you can use the stylus to colour it in rather than just selecting the square. That's what makes using the stylus so perfect for the game! Nice and lowkey activity to do at the end of a busy day.

Books

This month I decided to spend less time on my phone as my screen time was getting out of hand. I was wasting so much time doing pointless things and decided I had enough! So I've set out on a mission to read every day and so far my streak is 9 days! Recently picked up 13 books at the library as they had a book sale for 50 cents each or $2 for a bag/as much as you could carry. I ended up getting two lots in different visits as I visit my library weekly. So far I've read one book which I really liked, two that weren't my vibe and currently 33% through a new romance one. 

Fashion Dreamer - Farewell Online!

A while ago, the developer of Fashion Dreamer announced that the online aspect of the game would be shutting down in March 2026. I talked more about it in this post and honestly it really came up quick! Online is now no more and is no longer available. First off, if you do play the game and haven't booted the game up for a while, make sure you select Online before going in solo-mode as you will receive all the content. You won't be able to go online and the game will just tell you it is no longer available with this sad message.

So after opening online for the final time it would appear on my menu screen, the other option was solo-mode. Let's take a look at how different the game looks now that the online features have been removed. The Eve Log only has one screen now and you no longer see the notifications from online things like Lookits. 

Went into the My World area and it is quite empty. Now it just shows the NPC's in the game and not a single muse from other players. Aww it's bad that we lost all the friends we added and encountered in the game. Also please excuse the ranks on my NPC's as I never spent time ranking them up. It really shows that I only played online in Fashion Dreamer and making Lookits was really all I did.

Hello Kitty Island Adventure - I Got Addicted

So I brought Hello Kitty Island Adventure a few months and it consumed my life. I couldn't stop playing it whenever I had free time. My work schedule was crazy busy and when I would come home from work, I would just sit for an hour and play Hello Kitty. Then I was unwell for all of January and now we are somehow halfway through March. I made it my mission this week to update the blog as I haven't had a chance to post on here for a little while. I've barely even played Model debut4 as I got so into playing Hello Kitty with my limited free time :(

Now onto the game which is amazing! When it first came out, I remember seeing people giving mixed opinions on it so I held off buying it. I thought I'll wait for a sale and indeed one came along! I was able to get it super cheap at work plus the deluxe expansion was on sale on the eShop at the same time. My friend had been recommending the game to me and I love Sanrio characters, so it seemed like the perfect time to buy it. And I do not regret it as it is super fun!! It's super cute seeing all the characters together and I love the art style. Look at Pochacco with his little arms up in the air!

This won't be a crazy filled play journal as I mainly wanted to share some screenshots. No idea what happened to this null who is just chilling on the umbrella. They seem to end up there quite often for some reason. Weird glitch possibly. After that is Pompompurin who is one of my top Sanrio characters. The list for me is Pompompurin/Cinnamoroll then Pochacco/Hangyodon/Tuxedosam. I also like Gudetama and have a few gachapon keyrings of the character as you used to be able to get them free with J-pop orders on YesAsia year ago.

Colour Outfits Collection - Cozy Green

This outfit is totally the opposite of the current weather here as it's almost been 40 degrees recently! For the colour light green, I made this cute look inspired by this large outer. Doesn't it look super comfy? The extra long sleeves are a nice touch and quite a unique design. Went with the classic plaid skirt as that's my staple and a darker toned top/inner to stand out. The top part of this outfit screams winter however no idea what I was thinking with the bottom half. Like those shoes wouldn't do well in the colder months or snow. I've never actually seen snow but I can guess they wouldn't be suitable. For the hair, I would've preferred a more pastel toned colour as I felt this one was slightly too bright.

Model Debut4 Is Finally Here!!

Imagine my surprise when I was browsing through the e-shop the other day and came across the perfect game for me. Model Debut 4!!! The English port of the game has been released and honestly rather quick as the Japanese one only came out in late November. The English version was released on the e-shop on the 11th of December and my motivation for getting through a busy day at work the next day was that I could go home & play the game. Then it took forever to download and I was too tired haha. So I ended up playing it for the first time yesterday. Excited to play the game in English as the previous two I have the Japanese version and won't have to do any translating this time. For reference, the game was $64.50 AUD on the Australian e-shop and I brought the DLC for about $4.50 as well which is just one item.

First thing I noticed about the game is the art style and graphics are way different from the previous ones. Very realistic and modern looking. Lots of menus to read through at the beginning of the game about what each menu and controls are. Basically they are the same as the previous game and I like how quickly you can move between each tab with the L+R buttons.

Starting off creating my character and there was lots of customisation for just the face! Some were nice and others had not many good options in my opinion. Like I disliked nearly all the eyes and it would've been nice to adjust the angle of them more. That would've fixed my problem if I could rotate it how I wanted. Love how you can pick the eyelashes options as I like lashes on both parts of the eyelid. Now for the big new addition to the Model Debut series - darker skin tones! The new game has a wide range of skin tones and this is a wonderful addition. There was some nice pink under toned skin tones that I almost picked. I totally forgot the change the lipstick colour on my character as I was super tired after work but I can always do it later.

Just like previous games, there is a wide variety of hair styles and I found it impossible to choose one! The buns hairstyle was cute and I almost went with it but decided on my usual long hair look I often choose in this game. Forget to even look at the hair colours options however this is pretty close to my normal hair, just a bit lighter.

Colour Outfits Collection - Groovy Yellow

At first when I saw this design of skirt in Fashion Dreamer, I thought it was quite unique. Like there is so much detail put into the skirt and all the other matching items! Plus you can find it in a variety of colours. Another muse gave me these items in a Lookit once and it was the perfect combination for a yellow themed outfit. Of course I had to go with the beret for the hair accessory as I'm obsessed. I should look back at all my previous outfits in fashion games and count how many times I've used berets. It would be in the high numbers definitely! Loved this entire look and the hair turned out super cute as well! I had lots of fun posing my muse for this photo shoot and got some groovy pictures!

 

Colour Outfits Collection - Bright Orange

Continuing on with my new series in Fashion Dreamer where I make outfits based on colours. Today is all about the colour orange and I went for a feminine inspired look. This top is one that I use quite often in outfits and it looks amazing when tucked into something. I feel the skirt is more of a psychedelic vibe that feminine honestly and I mainly used it as I liked the belt on it. The colour orange has been rendered quite nicely in Fashion Dreamer and isn't too over the top. This hair colour I used seems to be the opposite and is a bit too vibrant compared to the other orange tones in the clothes. Also that last pose of my muse is absolutely ridiculous and no idea why I picked it haha.

 

Thoughts on Fashion Dreamer online support ending

Recently the developers of the Nintendo Switch game Fashion Dreamer announced that support for the online mode of the game will end. Which means players will no longer be able to play online via the game's servers on March 16th/17th (depending on your region). I had read rumors of the server shut down online ages ago so I knew it would happen eventually. Honestly I am quite sad about the whole thing as I love playing online in Fashion Dreamer and most of the game is online content! Which is absolutely crazy to think like a huge portion of the game will be unplayable.

First off, I totally understand why online support is ending and the servers will no longer available. Running and maintaining servers costs money, resources and staff. The developers made a decision to retire the online and these factors would've contributed to that decisions. I've seen the online servers of another switch game MODEL Debut2 #nicola be shut down previously and I always thought that was because the servers were switched to the next installment in the series MODEL Debut3 #nicola. Even Nintendo themselves turned off the entire online system for the Nintendo 3DS and we sadly lost many Style Boutique online features.

I miss playing Fashion Dreamer online as I love seeing all the likes and interaction with my Muse from other muses. I barely play the game in solo mode and it's pretty much all online for me. So I'm going to be quite sad to see that entire aspect of the game gone. Making Lookits for other muses is like the only thing I do in the game! Most of my NPC's have low ranks as I spend zero time talking to them unless I need to for a fair event. Now I'm not going to see all the wonderful outfits other players create for my muse or view the items at the Pop-Up Area.