Midori na Silhouette

If you have not already heard the news, Evangelion 2.0 - You Can (Not) Advance is going to be screened here in Malaysia! \o/

It’ll be screening from 11th March, at the Cathay Cineplex in Damansara (and if you don’t know where that is, perhaps “Cineleisure” or “the Curve” may ring a bell?).

Apart from thanking Cathay, we have to thank the local anime fan scene. If you did not know, Eva 2.0 might have never made it to screens here. However, with a petition run by local Anime Shrine, and with the collective efforts of all the fans, Cathay Cineplex agreed (and happily too) to bring in Eva 2.0 for everyone.

Admittedly and unfortunately, I was not able to be a part of that petition. Why? Simply because I was absent from the scene at the time, and by the time I checked back last year, everything was already over. I missed the whole petition, dammit. :\ Oh well.

Anyway, I am looking forward to the movie. To you fine gentlemen and ladies who helped bring this movie to us, I give you a heartfelt thanks, and a round of applause.

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Ossu. Long time no see (again). ^^;

In a few days, friendly neighbourhood Animax will be hosting at event down at Times Square.

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For the first time ever, there will be a bunkasai (or, Japanese cultural event) held in Malaysia!

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And we are into episode 5 of SoraKake.

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Another episode of SoraKake, another episode of LEOPARD MAE awesomeness.

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A maxi single by Diggy-MO’, 「Bakusou Yumeuta」, was released on 28th November. This single contains the third ED of Soul Eater.

The first track, 「Bakusou Yumeuta」, is a bit of light J-Rap. Among the three songs, this track is my favorite. There is a nice background melody, and Diggy-MO’s rapping is awesome!

Romaji lyrics for TV Size 「Bakusou Yumeuta」 here.

The second song, 「CHALLENGER」, is fast-paced, and personally, I am not too keen on this song. It is okay, but it’s not a song I’d want to listen to the whole day.

Also, half of the song is in English.

「UNCHAIN」, the last song, also has rapping, but is also heavy on the techno side. There are some parts where his voice is distorted, and I think the voice distortion doesn’t go very well with the overall flow of the song. This song is more on the “fail” side for me. :\

Here’s the third ED to Soul Eater.

Full versions of the songs below.

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5 days ago, the single 「Toki wo Kizamu Uta」 was released.

The single contains two songs, 「Toki wo Kizamu Uta」 and 「TORCH」. Both songs are sung by Lia, and they are the OP and ED (respectively) of CLANNAD ~After Story~.

The first song, 「Toki wo Kizamu Uta」, gives off a feel very similar to 「Megumeru ~cuckool mix 2007~」. The song has a nice melody, but I am, for some reason, finding it a little.. flat. While it is supposed to be a sad song, I personally do not feel that sad mood. IMO, this song doesn’t deliver.

Either that, or there’s something wrong with my ears. :\

Anyway, here’s the CLANNAD ~AS~ opening:

Lyrics to 「Toki wo Kizamu Uta」 here.

The second song, 「TORCH」, on the other hand, is a win in my books. It’s a happy, upbeat tune, and is pretty catchy.

While I do think it’s great as a song in itself, I do have one problem with it, as a song in regards to CLANNAD ~AS~. One of the genres of the CLANNAD series is drama, and so once a sad episode ends, this happy song plays, and it kinda ruins the mood.

Regardless, here is the ending of CLANNAD ~After Story~

Lyrics to 「TORCH」 here.

Which of Lia’s songs do you prefer?

You can listen to the full versions of both songs below.

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Those who watched Macross Frontier, or follow the Macross series would know that it is all about the power of songs. Even after releasing two soundtracks (Nyan Furo and Nyan Tora), Macross Frontier will be getting a third soundtrack. This will be titled “Nyan Tama♀”, and is scheduled to be for sale on December 3.

Source: Kazenomise

Currently, I am wondering if we will still get any songs with vocals, or if this will truly be a soundtrack (where it is made mostly out of instrumentals). As far as I know, OST 1 and 2 have already covered all the tracks in the anime, so perhaps we can expect something new (or perhaps remixes) from OST3? It would be fantastic if we could hear more of May’n and Megumi.

Anyway, enjoy some Ranka and Sheryl.

Image source

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My vote for best cosplayer goes to this girl

Last Sunday (28th September) was the second day of the ACGC 2008 Finale. Since I already (sort of) covered the booths on my previous post, I will cover mostly cosplay in this post.
The cosplay competition was held on this second day of the convention, afterall.

Once again, a warning- I have level 0.1 0 photography skills, and since I (usually) refuse to use flash, the following contains both clear pictures and blur pictures.

Well, if you’ve read my coverage of day 1, you would know that all the computers at the convention were down for a long while. I got to the convention a little later this time (at around 1 PM), but it was good to see all the computers up and running already.

During both day 1 and 2 of the convention, random computers were running CoD4 at random times

After arriving home on the first day, I looked at the pictures I took, and was highly unsatisfied with the quality. So for day 2, I decided to try different settings.

What I deemed to be the convention’s “rest area” during day 1 was turned into a “cosplayer’s square” in day 2

Unfortunately, trying all those new settings drained my batteries. And since I am so noob, I only got tons of blur, unusable, overdeveloped, and underdeveloped pictures. As a result, I have much less pictures to share today as compared with day 1 coverage.

All the CoD4 tournament computers properly set up this time

I realized I forgot to mention this during day 1 coverage. There were a couple of (as some of my friends call it) CoD4 clans there. Like this one clan that’s supposedly one of the best: ESP (Eat Sleep Play)

Mr. Pikachu and Kitteh of ESP

Grr of SWL

Oh, remember the Panda Hammer I mentioned in day 1 coverage, and the queue it formed for the booth? Well, the queue got wayyyy longer in day 2.

The line stretched all the way towards the outside of the convention site

I had thought of getting one myself, but after looking at the massive queue, I gave up immediately

Anyway, who cares about all that? Let’s move on to the cosplayers. Once again, I will need help with identifying some cosplayers, so please feel free to point out any familiar characters.

Not sure if she meant to cosplay as Kurauchi Anna, or if she was just wearing the maid outfit from He is My Master

This next cosplayer, IMO was the most epic of them all. XD

Gao Hai of Code Geass R2

Ran Shuuei on the left, and Ri Kouyu on the left, both from Saiunkoku Monogatari. I can’t identify the character in the center

Keroro Lady from day one!

Apart from just cosplayers, there were some pretty goth-loli girls there too.

Girl on the right is <3

I really hope someone can help identify this character! I need to watch the anime she comes from. lol

Not sure who exactly, but some Naruto girl?

Graham Aker from Gundam 00. It’s the reverse trap Gino from day 1. I also found out later that she’s one of the judges for the cosplay competition

Hollow Ichigo from Bleach

At the Mo Siang booth, Runup (the company that owns Mo Siang) had a dance performance.

There was a dance performance on the first day as well, but I missed that.

In my panic, I forgot to use flash, and I even failed to get a shot of their finishing pose. So fail, me.

I also realized that I should have taken a VIDEO of the dance. Epic fail.

Spitfire (far left) from Air Gear, and Cross Yuki (far right) from Vampire Knight.

The three musketeers uhh… what?

Alternate costume Zasalamel from Soul Calibur (Thanks to Panther for helping identify this character)

Amane Misa (left) and Ryuuzaki/L/Lawliet (right) from Death Note

Why is L wearing shoes?

As with almost every anime convention with cosplayers, there will be a Narutard Naruto cosplayer or two. There were quite a number here, but I did not take many pictures of them. The only good Naruto cosplayer, IMO, was a (reverse trap) Gaara cosplayer (and I failed to get a picture of her. Yay).

There was this one booth, Gamefe, which was entirely Chinese (meaning I did not understand what their booth was about). But they seemed to be promoting some games, and a singer/actor.

The lady in the dark dress is the said actor/singer

Suigintou from Rozen Maiden

At this point, my battery died already, so now it’s pictures taken with my phone. *Cue horrible quality*

Am not too sure, but I think La Corda D’oro?

Spirit (left) and Maka Albarn (right) from Soul Eater

“MAKA CHOP!!”

For the cosplay competition, there were only 8 contestants. To name a few, Spitfire, Gaara, Hollow Ichigo, Spirit, and Gao Hai.

For the competition, each contestant had to do a performance on stage (with or without aides). Spitfire did a “skating tutorial”, Hollow Ichigo did a fight scene, while Spirit re-enacted two scenes from Soul Eater. Gaara, along with a few other Narutards Naruto cosplayers did a dance routine.. first to High School Musical (struck out for great justice), then to the “Ask a Ninja” theme song. XD

IMO, Gao Hai had the most epic performance. He forced a guy to hold a banana while he sang a Chinese song, then he suddenly grabbed the banana away from him and the tralala song played. XD

But as for who won the competition, I do not know. There was an hour an a half before the results were announced, and since my camera batteries were dead, I decided to head back home early.

Overall, the second day of the convention was much better as compared to the first day.

Albums: Day 1 Day 2

Day 1 coverage here.

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Last Saturday and Sunday, the ACGC 2008 Finale (Anime Comics Games Convetion) was held here in Malaysia, at the Mid Valley Exhibition Center.

But before I continue, I must warn you- I have photography skills at superb as a blind potato, so what you’ll see in the following is a mixture of clear pictures, blur pictures and very blur pictures.

I arrived at Mid Valley at 9AM. The convention was scheduled to start at 10AM, so I loitered around until about 9:30 AM.

At 9:30, I snuck in through the staff entrance (LOL), so I got to take a look around before the crowd arrived.

The stage where the events were held

Note that the pictures from this point on are out of chronological order.

Some games I expected hoped to see were Red Alert 3, Emil Chronicle Online, SPORE, Dead Space, and Soul Calibur 4. But let’s take a look at the booths there…

The U Mobile booth. As far as I know, they are a 3G service provider. And they support orenji.

Poser.. =_=ll

The Mo Siang booth. Some MMORPG in English and Chinese.

Top Speed - some MMO racing game by IAH

A couple of chibis playing the game. Looked like an average racing game to me.

Being advertised as one of the features of the ACGC, here’s the Nintendo booth.

The WiiFit. I did not get a chance to try this.

Aside from the Wii and WiiFit, Nintendo also had a couple of DS Lites (5 of them) for trial.

They attached the DS Lites to platforms, and in such a way that you couldn’t take out the stylus to use. So while everyone was using their fingers to try and play, I took out my phone’s stylus, and started laughing at everyone.. in my heart.

This booth, OffGamers, was pretty lulz. In the morning, almost NO ONE was paying any attention to it. But after people started to find out that you could get “Panda Hammers” (the thing the girl is holding in the top picture) at this booth for free, a QUEUE started to form. No other booth had a queue.

The panda hammers. They’re pretty cute, no? XD

Fantagetar. Another MMO I know nothing about, and want to know nothing about.

As I moved along the convention area, I was delighted to see an ECO booth.

*BUT* all the computers were down. YAY.
In fact, just about all the computers in the convention were down til lunchtime (or later).

At 2 PM, I get back to see this.

All screens blacked out except for one, which was playing an ECO trailer.

20 minutes after that, and all the computers are playing trailers. I pretty much gave up on this booth at that time.

Later still, at 5PM, I decided to just take another look at the booth, and guess what I see?

YES!! ECO!!

But then I noticed it was all in Chinese. orz

On the outside of the ECO booth, we had Angels Online (and some other game, which I’ve forgotten about already).

Because it was an Anime Comics Games Convention, I had expected this (following) booth to be there.

ANIME TECH

I refuse to upload any more pictures of their booth.

Except maybe this poster.

Sasuke - a traine and teammate of Narut

There was this booth, Michael Soft, that constantly had people hanging around.

Their product was this system that would let your computer run without a hard disk. Not something that would normally attract many people, right?

What? Over 200? You mean it’s not over 9000?

The real reason this booth could attract so many visitors, was probably because they had WORKING computers. And all the gamers wanted to leech off of that.

Towards the end of the convention site, there were the CoD4 computers.

Unfortunately for the CoD4 players, the tournament, which was supposed to start in the morning, started at 4 PM, and lasted until past 10 PM (Note that the convention was scheduled to end at 9 PM). Why?

Because their computers were rendered useless too

They ended up using only one row of computers, which really slowed down the speed of the tournament.

As one of the better booths around, there was d_code Toys & Hobby.

A figure, gunpla, etc. online store. They had some pretty cool stuff up for display.

Is Haruhi supposed to be sitting on Nagato’s chair? O_O

There was also this coolsome car, which was mostly ignored throughout the convention.

At one booth, there was this SC4 banner, that made me think that I would get a chance to play the game. But noooooo. There wasn’t even a single PS3 at the convention site.

For PS2 as well aye? I must get this game then

Right at the end, there was a whole row of tables that were rented to artists and the like to sell their goods.

But honestly.. Their goods aren’t that great. ^^;
Not quite up to standard (unless you’re talking about Malaysian standard).

X chains. When I saw this, I immediately thought of Squee ^^;

I bought this comic, Project: Durian. I will talk about it some other time.

Another doujin. The cover is.. honestly, quite a turn off.

The woman who was selling the above doujin! Keroro Lady!

Well, there were a couple other booths there, but that’s all I’m willing to show. The rest were pretty minor.

Those who go to conventions regularly/have been to a convention would know that there is always at least a lady model or two, there to pass out flyers, provide assisstance, and the like.

This convention was no exception, and thankfully, there were PRETTY ladies.

The Wii girls were veeeewii pwiitty. *shoots self for lame pun*

As I was trying to get pictures of this cute girl, another girl at the same booth was glaring at me. I soon got too freaked out by her glare to try and take any more pictures.

This girl on the left was pretty much glaring at everyone too.

Race queens?!

She’s so pretty!

I realized only later that I had stopped her twice for pictures. How embarrassing of me.

Even though the cosplay competition was not on this day, there were a couple of cosplayers around. I’ll need help identifying them, so don’t hesistate to point out a familiar character.

Kikyo(?) and Luffy

This Luffy cosplayer was a rather hilarious guy. Throughout the first day of the convention, he was taking other characters props and playing around with them.

I could be wrong, but… Mulan?

Reverse trap Gino Weiberg!

Moar reverse traps. Himura Kenshin on the right.

Yet another reverse trap. Some character from Prince of Tennis I think?

As identified earlier, Himura Kenshin.

Axel (who later “switched” costumes to become Spitfire)

Kurosaki Ichigo on the right.

Everytime Luffy tried to shoot, the arrow would drop

Ichigo’s props

Wahaha

The mask Ichigo is holding belongs to Hirako Shinji. Did not see any Shinji cosplayers though.

Yaoi shot?!

Well, overall, I’d say that the ACGC 2008 Finale day 1 was pretty fail. Most of the computers, as I mentioned, were not set up properly until 12 PM+, the people there for the CoD4 tournament had to wait WAY overtime, and they had so little GOOD games to play there. I really wanted to give RA3 and SPORE a go, but this convention didn’t have either. :\

Day 2, on the other hand, was much better. Stick around for a post on that.

Albums: Day 1 Day 2

Day 2 coverage here.

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