Rather interesting you should mention how the other japanese tools look like Shade... Metasequioa (which is definitely the best competitor there is that I've seen) and the four or five other tools out there are all actually attempts at doing an "improved" version of Shade, which has been the predominant modeler in japan for years. It's only been the last two years that Shade's begun losing marketshare in japan (primarily to metasequoia). ODF has users of Maya, Rhino, C4D, Wings, and a few other specialty tools. What works for one doesn't work for the other -- interface has an enormous impact on the user in modeling. One never knows what one will find useful until you try it. Shade 5, with magical sketch when it first came out, was kick butt. If the demo hadn't expired, it'd still be in use at ODF -- and in the hands of someone with skill using a tablet, it becomes an extremely powerful tool.