Inaniloquence
I attended the Anime Festival Asia ‘09 today, it was $12 for local students. My wallet wishes to kill me now, it’s starving because of my otaku needs for Kimi ni Todoke, Otomen and Arcana the other day when I spent around $80 during the Kinokuniya 20% off promotion. orz I think it’s true that once you buy the first volume of a manga series you simply can’t help but complete the collection.
So back to AFA. I was actually most interested in the Cosplay Competition, the I <3 Anisong concerts and to a certain extent, the Atsuki GL (punk/lolita?) fashion shows, the Summer Wars preview, and to a much smaller extent the Artist Alley (for the Heritage Hetalia fanartbook). Well, I kinda missed the whole of the Summer Wars preview, the fashion show and half of the cosplay competition today because I woke up late >_> Frankly, I kinda forgot about AFA after this long busy week :/
So anyway, I woke up at 11am today to hear a rather impatient little(lol) Jazzu ringing me up on my home phone to ask me if we were really going for AFA. I was kinda confused at first because I’d mentally prepared myself to play some DS the entire day. In the end, I thought Oh well, AFA comes only once a year and rushed down.
After around 30 minutes of queuing, we finally got our tickets and did quite a bit of loitering before watching the results of the regional cosplay competition. I was kinda rooting for the Witchblade team from Philippines based on their photos alone (and the Indonesian team had really pretty costumes), but the Singaporean Gundam team won :/ And it was a double win, too, they won the Special Prize or sth for having the most points for costume. I’m happy for them because Gundam is pretty dang hard to cosplay, but y’know… After that was some Animax makeup workshop, but it was pretty boring, meh :/
Surprisingly, I actually enjoyed the Danny Choo talk, although it is rather random and most of it was sort of pimping himself and his company among other things. Furthermore, it was aimed towards a largely male audience. :L But I guess he kind of is an otaku celebrity, in addition to him being the son of Jimmy Choo :s Also those dances he does are really hilarious |D
In any case, Jaz and I loitered around even more after we ate KFC in between lunch and dinner (just to kill time until the start of the concert). For one, the Tokyo Figure Show was pretty good, and Bandai had lots of figures on display as well. I might just up my photos sometime later. Speaking of Bandai, I eventually spent $11 on gachapon alone for 2 expensive but adorable llamas and a cute mameshiba keychain. Dang those Japanese sure know how to drain the money out of you… and it’s all because of that kawaii factor which they keep using for marketing. orz
We pretty much went around the entire place, without buying very much at all, although the stuff was, well, pretty pricey as it was. There was an artist’s alley where we browsed the Heritage book and I stared at the pictures and sighed a lot out of recognition of the talent of the artists, but sighed again out of despair at the price a few seconds later.
There was another exhibition with prints by artists on Pixiv, deviantart, or freelancers etc. Some were really gorgeous. How I envy them *3*
Some other interesting things were the (Animax?) Afureco and Joysound booths, the former allowing random people to try their hand at dubbing anime, the latter being basically (free? idk) anisong karaoke. I think very few managed to sound good while doing either, but oh well. Hopefully it gets better. Someday. Someday. orz
Then came the concert after quite a bit of loitering… Shoko-tan can actually sing! The TTGL songs sounded similar, of course, but she sang them pretty well for a live. It seems she’s got quite a bit of stage presence, almost as if she’s a performer by heart (she was rather hyper throughout, btw). They also had Miku address the crowd in her synthetic voice then go on to let her perform several Project Diva songs - Miku Miku ni Shite Ageru, some other song (forgot the title) and World is Mine (nice choice for a finale). It would have been nice if they totally choreographed another dance for her other songs like BRS or Melt, but oh well. As popular as Ichirou Mizuki is, Jaz and I aren’t huge fans of his or anything, so we kinda left after aniki performed half a song.
Ack it’s getting late and this is getting long. I shall (may?) elaborate with some photo posts next time. :D It was a pretty interesting event, actually, but even $12 is a little pricey for students like me. Price reduction plz? D: Oh and I’m not going for AFA tomorrow. I can’t go for the interesting events, and the concert’s rather meh.
Looking forward to the EOY convention~ Makino Yui will be there :D Sigh but it’s also $12 per entry (pre-sale) eeesh.
The Big Bang Theory
Now, I am not much of a fan of American sitcoms normally, but this is one hilarious comedy series. Well, at least for season 3, from the 8 or so episodes that I’ve watched.
Basically, it’s about nerds and a bimbo. Which allows for a lot of interesting interaction between characters. Apparently the initial premise for the first season or so was really different from what it is in season 3 now, but oh well. I’m glad the humour has been kept intact, at least.
There are a number of things about the show that make me chuckle, even if the sex jokes are just unsuitable or unnecessary at times.
For one, Jim Parsons does a great job acting his role as the most dysfunctional/socially inept nerd in the series, and he has this straight poker face that really works for the comedic effect.
I also really love some of the jokes in the script, some of which I do not get at all because I’m…not American? (…and because I haven’t watched Star Trek properly before…), some of which I did not quite get at first but the next second I’m rofling, some of which have to do with slightly more sensitive stereotypes, but well, you know they’re just doing it for the money, it’s funny, and anyway we rarely get that here in Singapore ;D
Okay this is getting long, I shall stop before it becomes some full-fledged post. In any case, I think even non-nerds get the jokes in these series because smart people can really be quite funny sometimes. And the acting’s pretty good ;D
I might just post some screenshots some time :/ If I don’t it means I was just lazy. :D
I think one of the amazing things about Gintama is that they manage to pull off things like this (in this case, MS Paint remake for the entire OP) in an anime for goodness’ sake, without making the audience feel like they’re wasting their time or money on this show and instead provoking more than just several laughs from them ;D
Ah, this is much more convenient than the EJU. Or does this mean I have to apply for both of these if I do indeed want to go to Japan for studies? Hm but who knows about the environment there? And I’m especially worried about the cost of living :C If I do study overseas, I’m thinking Toudai or Kyoto U might be good :/ Hopefully I can even get this scholarship if I get serious about it orz.
It’s not like studying in America or the UK is much cheaper, either… >_>
Sigh. Hopefully I will have decided by around the end of next year.
…Bah this link will probably expire in a few months.
[the article linked is Japanese only]
童貞 - I have no idea how to pronounce that in Japanese, but it apparently refers to ‘Cinderella men’, often grouped together with the herbivorous men.
However, unlike herbivore men who in general have little to no interest in sex or women or are passive in pursuing these, cinderella men do have an idea of what type(s?) of women they want, but instead of getting experience with different types of women, they want to save their first for a woman they really like.
I personally don’t see anything wrong with that, unless their ideals are really too high, and thus they end up with nobody in the end, contributing to an aging population with only robots to take care of them. …This will probably happen to me |D In other words, it’s a worrying trend considering all the numerous other worrying trends already present in Japan, what with the herbivorous men and carnivorous women, and other women like these cinderella men who have high expectations of their future spouses.
And with no babies in Japan, what will happen to the anime, comics and games industries in Japan?! D: I kid |D But yes. Worrying trend.
This is actually a pretty funny article.
And yes, I agree with most of these points (the rest are a bit random…), namely: 1. We cannot handle any more Naruto characters, 3. Kishimoto has totally run out of ideas for superpowers, 6. Naruto has already become the Kyuubi, 8. Kakashi has nothing left to read, and also an important part of point 4:
If the show were to end with Sasuke waking up one day and soliloquizing “Oh my God, I have been the stupidest, worst person who has ever lived,” and decapitating himself (and he could do it; he’s quite skilled), then that would be awesome. But since the show’s probably not going to end the way it really should, just end it with something already.
:/ Glad I dropped the series quite a while ago, but I still hear lots of stuff about it from my brother and smint, who still watch it somehow. I will be very surprised if Kishimoto ends it off nice and proper without leaving Sasuke as the darned b`tch he is now, directing all his angsty hatred towards Konoha, apparently.
Nevertheless, I think Bleach has deteriorated into worse sludge as compared to Naruto. I don’t even have a clue wtf the series is heading or could possibly head to, and the art… meh :/ (Also, I think the comedy died a long time ago.)
I love these lists, they really tell you quite a bit about Japanese trends even if they aren’t long newspaper articles.
For one, herbivorous men/carnivorous women, state-run manga cafe (a plan which will not come to fruition thanks to PM Hatoyama), Change (‘obamu’ has been made a verb, it seems?), Otomen, etc. etc. are included in the list. :D
Also, that last one there… reminds me of the weird Japanese obsession (at least among the female demographics) of ancient warlords. Like in Sengoku Basara. …Seriously?
With the big hoo-ha over all this bowing, these comments are actually pretty funny.
But on a more serious note, just get over it. After all, can you really fault him for not knowing that 45 degrees was the way to go? >_>
‘The Seiyu Awards was established as an annual award to honor voice actors for their achievements in memorable voice acting performances and creative works.’
That said, there’s an actual award (separate from the rest :/) for the favourite seiyuu among non-Japanese fans :D
The first recipient of this award last year was Fukuyama Jun, apparently…
Stop reading this and just vote now!
It would be interesting to find out who the most popular seiyuu of the year is… and for accuracy of results, more people should vote! :D And don’t worry, this time it’s all in English, although the rules are rather vague |D
Japan Creative Centre (JCC), Nassim Road, Singapore
Today, I went downtown to the Orchard area by bus to visit the new JCC which just opened yesterday or so, with a visit by PM Hatoyama and PM Lee. I thought JCC stood for Japanese Cultural Centre at first, but I guess I should have read the newspaper article more carefully… >_>
Anyway, it was really empty because we went there in the morning at around 10am. Also, Nassim Road isn’t exactly very convenient, which may have explained why the whole place felt really ulu, dilapidated, empty, rural despite being situated in the CBD area.
So yes, I was rather nervous just seeing the guards outside the front gate, and then outside the main entrance. We even had to show our ICs for the guard to record our names in the guestbook/logbook D:
But anyway, inside, it was actually a pretty interesting place. The interior design was really pretty, and apparently the same artistic director designed some of the designer’s chairs which were on display there.
There was also a very nice guide who gave us a short tour around the place and told us all sorts of things about the exhibits, and more about the centre. Apparently you can rent out the place for any kind of Japan-related exhibit/activity? on weekdays at no charge at all, except a ton of people have already booked the place up till the middle of next year. o_o
It’s quite a small centre, actually, but there were lots of past and present Japanese inventions on display, from household robots to the world’s very first rice cooker. There were also some showcased items which had very innovative design and function, like a very interesting biodegradable paper box which was compact (for packing), expandable (for convenient consumption) and flattenable (for better disposal), as well as a ‘silent’ violin which you could plug earphones into so that you wouldn’t disturb your neighbours while practising. It could also be potentially used for outdoor concerts so the quality of music is not compromised, apparently.
Apart from the exhibits, there was also a permanent part of the JCC - the E-library. There were several Japan-related books (no comics yet, but there’s that Osamu Tezuka book) on display - which I didn’t touch in the end because I wasted too much time on the computers available for use |D The computers are basically meant for visitors to play Japan-related videos, divided into various categories - educational, movies, anime, concerts/MVs (music-related, anyway) if I’m not wrong. Oh yes, and all of the videos (except the music-related stuff) have both English and Japanese subs, and of course no dubs. (y) Subs 1 Dubs 0?
Now to use these computers, you have to ask for a code from the reception counter near the main entrance of the centre. Being a relatively shy and socially awkward person, I was vehemently reluctant to ask for one, but in the end my dad went and got us both one code each, allowing us to use the computers for up to 3 hours :DD
They had a lot of educational videos, around 4-5 movies, some anime movies, as well as some Angela Aki and Ikimonogakari MVs for now. It seems they’ll be adding more to the collection in the future, though. In any case, since I’d seen all the Ghibli stuff they had there (Ponyo, Spirited Away, Mononoke) which also happened to be some of my favourites, I gave the Gundam 30th anniversary tribute thingum a try, although just the intro kinda bored me to death so I gave up soon after. Mecha just isn’t for me D: Then I tried watching one of the movies which one 11 awards or something (The Magic Show?), but the intro was too long, too.
So I settled for one of my favourite bands’ music videos. I mean Ikimonogakari, of course. Angela Aki’s music isn’t that bad, either, though. -glares at smint- And although some MVs were kinda dumb, others were cute, and of course the music is absolutely wonderful, with strong vocals, melody, background music and the very cool harmonica. I’m a sucker for ballads, too |D
We ended up glued to the computers for at least an hour, until some other teens started coming in to use the computers and my mom nagged us both to get out of there so we could grab some lunch. We had to leave our contact details with them, and provide feedback (if any).
All in all I think it was an interesting place, but the location’s rather ‘…’ (or zzzz as shu would say |D) and the exhibits aren’t all that intriguing at the moment. They will be changing those every few months, though, it seems. Can’t do much with that tiny space, though, I guess.
Phew, that was a long post. I must remember that Tumblr is for micro-ish blogging >__> Butbutbut the verbiage just randomly spews out of me…! D: D: D: D:
Ohwell. It won’t happen that often, I swear.
