How dare you bash eXceed!
Seriously though, the boss fights are too long? huh? They aren't half as long as some of the longer Touhou boss fights. I mean if you don't like the game I wont argue with you but that reasoning just sounds suspect to me since I could have sworn I thought you said you like the bosses in Touhou, which feature some that are longer. Granted the Stage 1 and 2 boss fights in eXceed aren't any shorter than the later ones.
I think you're thinking of Matsuri, who feels that the boss fights in Touhou are more exciting than the stages.
What I have mainly said about Touhou is that the scoring systems and stage design should be more varied so that each new Touhou game doesn't feel like a new coat of paint over the previous, which is how I feel about it right now (kind of in a Touhou slump).
But yeah, as far as eXceed 3rd is concerned, it felt like each boss phase had too much HP and lasted too long as a result. This might have made the fights feel longer than they really were. Touhou solves this by dividing the boss fights into shorter non-spellcard and spellcard phases, so that you usually don't end up facing the same patterns for too long.
But then again, I'm talking from memory here, so I might be way off-base.
As for Comiket, what's a good (english) place to research what's coming exactly? Last year I knew what was coming by word of mouth on these forums and such, but I really haven't heard anybody say much this time, so I'm kinda in the dark.
I don't know of any English doujin news "hub". If there was one, I'd be surprised if I didn't know about it by now. There is a French one called "Doujinsuki," which you might want to look at. Finally, a use for highschool French. :V
Sources like these aren't totally comprehensive, though. The best way would probably be to grab a rip of the CD-ROM version of the Comiket Catalogue and sift through it yourself (I hope I'm not crossing the line by saying that).
It's still pretty early though, and I haven't seen much (any, rather) hype around C77 building yet. More people should be talking about C77 as it nears.
What I do, is I keep a list of doujin circles that I like, and check them in early-August and -December to see if they have anything planned. Beyond that, I rely on word-of-mouth, and strict monitoring of what gets released for about a week or two after the event.
Still no Canadians with a copy of Mushi yet? I'm eager to know the duty cost. I've got to budget for Christmas gifts as well as comiket.
Right now, I think it's just GST and PST based on the value of the item in Canadian dollars, plus any courier brokerage fees. Later on in our Province, probably only HST plus fees. Goods marked as gifts under C$60 are exempt; if the gift is over C$60, you pay taxes and fees based on the difference. All goods under C$20 are exempt. I'm not sure if these exemptions apply to just to the taxes, or to the courier fees as well.
That's what I gather. Take my word with a grain of salt, though.
