"Songstress who is also a Spy" more like it.

November 21, 2009.

Macross Frontier the Movie : Itsuwari no Utahime (The False Songstress) opens in Japan theatres. Of course, it is a big thing. Macross fans are waiting for this moment to see how much the movie has changed from the TV series. Some wants the pairing issue resolved, some wants to see what’s new in the movie, even for non Macross fans, they are going to watch the movie (or not) because the following monday is a PUBLIC HOLIDAY. A perfect menu for dating couples to spend their weekend.

And I went for it today.

I had a very hard time watching this movie because my neck hurts from sitting on the front most row, facing up looking at the big screen for 119 minutes straight, which is the movie’s length. But you can see that everyone is eager to watch the movie. Else I won’t be sitting at the front most row when the rest of the rows are taken.

I was treated to a total of 80 to 90% of new scenes and cuts for the movie. Which essentially changed the story’s direction. It is almost impossible to relate this movie to the old TV series because of the changes it made. But what is guaranteed that the movie actually remained the bone of the concept : One pilot, two songstresses, triangle love story, Vajra, and war. I was never a strong Macross F fan, but I actually prefer the movie version better.

It’s also hard to write how I feel completely about the movie without spoiling it. But thinking of how Shoji Kawamori essentially tried to drive himself away from repeating his direction seen in the TV series. I’d say that he did well for attemping to do something new from an existing material which he already created. In this movie, action scenes are lesser, the developments are focused more on the characters which it took about 65% of it’s movie length so if you’re looking for heavy action scene..well I don’t know, you better not hope much for this.

Many thoughts came to me during the showing of the movie : The pacing of the movie essentially covers what it’s needed for a textbook movie. I find the pacing enjoyable but not to the point of “Wow” and “Splendid!”. And for those who are a fan of Nanase (I don’t know if there is even one…), She did not appear in the movie. Poor Luca got his lines extremely little this time round. The focus of the movie is mostly Sheryl-Alto-Ranka heavy. With Sheryl essentially the spotlight as you can see from the trailers. Quite a few terminology in this movie were given focus : like the origin of the song “Aimo”. Ranka also had her moments in the movie with 5 to 6 new songs even. But since Sheryl is heavily focused, it can be arguable if Ranka actually got her shining moments in this movie or not. But personally the balance of the both characters and their role are actually well done. Sheryl fans would love how mysterious and dazzling Sheryl has became in the movie (She is no longer just a pure songstress with sex appeal with a tablespoon of not-so-positive background); And Ranka fans will also be delighted with the treatment that the director gave her in the movie as well. Brera has his appearance doubled (almost), Grace…does not act like the Grace we knew in the TV series (yet). So essentially we are actually given a movie : A new Macross Frontier never seen before even though we already knew how it went.

Visuals are no doubt absolutely gorgeous and stunning. The mixture between 2D and 3D is well done and worth the eye-candy and quite impactful as a whole. The direction for Sheryl’s live scenes has been changed completely (not all though) and it’s worth the love it deserves. Free from drawing errors, you can say that it is one of the top notched animation quality that is not to be missed ever. Direction is as great as ever and the connection between scene to scene is smooth and I personally see no problems nor I doubt on Kawamori’s skillful direction as always.

Songs in Macross Frontier are the ones that shines the most in the movie. Given it’s Macross where song plays a huge role in the movie, Yoko Kanno has once again proved her skills in her composing. “Universal Bunny”, is a song of rhythm that makes you feel like jumping and dance along with it. “Obelisk” is my personal favourite because of it’s beat (and it heavily reminds me of Northen Cross). Some of the songs are re-used in the movie, but of course there are also new ones that are also memorable. Some songs in the movie are recomposed and remixed too. I also took a whole new liking to “Sou Da Yo”. Though Ranka’s other gag songs (in TV series, you only have “Ninjin loves you yeah”) made me laughed a lot (particularly because it’s funnily disgusting in a way). Which might be the reason for it’s enjoyable ride.

In the end, movie-goers would enjoy the movie that everyone had anticipated around, and Macross Fans will especially love the movie. That’s how it goes. Personally, it’s a 8 out of 10 movie for me. Not a perfect movie, but it is absolutely enjoyable for people who haven’t watch the TV series counterpart or knows nothing about Macross at all, and also for people who already have.

P/S : You will have to come to me personally if you want spoilers…

Some of the booklet scans can be viewed here (Beware, some MAY contain spoilers) :

(more…)

Belated post, I know. Because I’ve been looping this opening for quite a while before actually making this entry.

Subjectively I admit Shaft itself makes, in my honest opinion, best anime openings for anime shows. It can be eccentric, yet creative.

I know, we know, everyone in the world knows. It doesn’t take a genius or much analyzation to make a point about it.

But Bakemonogatari’s “Nadeko Snake” opening was one exceptional case where this entry has to be made to pimp it. It simply has to be there, P-E-R-I-O-D.

Simply because it’s MOE. Despite it has decent, to little, to almost none of relevance to what this show is all about (SHAFT style, Words and Subjective Quotes > Animation most of the time)

However, putting aside this moe comment (hence it cuts short), I couldn’t help but to realize that how good the movement and the animation that the staff has spent making on it. Fluid, natural and convincing – but unfortunately, it also takes quite a lot of animation paper for that (I estimate roughly about above 8 frames at least for Nadeko’s moe movements)

Point? This OP is one of the best among all 4 Bakemonogatari openings shown so far. Mayoi Snail is second (damn that bag movement!)

And conclusion? SHAFT is geniusly awesome. Keep it on, and bring some Maria+Holic style opening too if possible.

P/S : I haven’t watch the show yet, Still waiting for it to finish airing so I can marathon them at one go.

0➈/0➈/200➈

The rest is self explainatory, so Happy BakaCirno Day!

P/S : Screw minute and second for this, you can wait for such moment for all I care, Ba~ka.

Ta-dah!

Well, that’s what the whole book is – but too early to call it an annual book…I mean it’s not even the end of the year yet!

Pixiv Annual 2009 Official Book : One of the books that I missed during my purchase during Comiket76, but what was strange – Instead of having their booth to sell Pixiv Annual 2009 Official Book, they actually were selling it at Enterbrain booth. Because the publisher of this book IS Enterbrain.

Hence the prediction – Not ALL Pixiv stuffs are Comiket only, and Pixiv Annual 2009 Official Book is one of it.

This book is very very thick : 202 illustrator entries from all around the world (not just Japan, and some of them were from DeviantArt as well), 256 pages and only 2,940yen – this is perhaps one of their thickest book ever released yet (Pixiv Girls Collection was 162 pages). And lovely enough, it contains not just characters – but animals, and scenaries.

It’s okay if you find this repetitive, but if you’re a fan of pretty artworks – and then if you see this available at your bookstores? Buy it. Now I consider every purchase I wanted from Pixiv’s Comiket goods line up to be complete. And I’m waiting for them to churn out more in the future.

Of course this entry won’t be complete without pictures.
(more…)

Summer Wars – A Movie about “Family VS A.I Hacker” on epic scale.

There are no spoilers in this entry.

Eva 2.0 might not be enough to actually push me to write a full review about the movie, and I thought Eva 2.0 is great enough to go for a run on any sort of award that the movie deserves.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann : Lagann Chapter was a movie I thought surpasses everything I’ve enjoyed in the cinema so far (save for Lord of the Rings series but that’s merely personal, I’m not too much of a movie guy).

But Summer Wars is different. Summer Wars is unexpected – Summer Wars is/was a hit, Summer Wars is a movie where it unexpected thrown at my face with a lot of “seen before” elements yet still come out with a totally satisfying, touching, and enjoyable story to watch. My words might not weigh much, but I can say this : If Pixar has “Up” as their 2009 hit title, then Madhouse definitely has “Summer Wars” to compete with this.

The director of Summer Wars, Mamoru Hosoda (best known as the director of “The Girl that Leapt Through Time”, has a message to the people who watch “Summer Wars” :

“A story about a family that is the descendant of a warrior clan, fights off a world-level crisis that takes place in the world of the Internet (network). No matter how high tech or how modern technology has become, The bond that is “family” is stronger than any existing network. As a work of entertainment, regardless of young or old, male or female, I have taken in mind to make a story that is acceptable and easily taken in by the audiences, an adventure that can be enjoyed even by family, and have always wanted to make a suitable, lively, and refreshing summer movie for the audiences.”

He certainly made it : Summer Wars ranked 7th and grossed almost 127,000,000yen during its opening weekend, and in South Korea, the film debuted in 8th place and earned the equivalent of $369,156 on 118 screens.

(more…)

Seriously, Type-Moon. SERIOUSLY. S-E-R-I-O-U-S-L-Y…

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

Archetype Earth Arcueid, Mecha Hisui + Neco Arc, and Mecha Hisui + Kohaku!?

ECLIPSE STYLE? Boss only style, Continous shielding and high evasion, Reverse Speed, Magic Circuit auto recovery!?

I’m SO getting this game. This is NO JOKE man, NO JOKE. By putting Archetype Earth in means we are most likely going to see the long awaited and rumoured Tsukihime 2 news anytime soon. Though that’s my only personal assumption and wish though…(and I’m not very well versed with the Type Moon universe compared to Ci…)

Now if only Altrouge Brunstead is included…

Source : http://www.akiba-ch.com/?p=1209#more-1209

Very. I wasted about 75% of my Comiket budget JUST for Pixiv stuff. Unfortunately I can’t pass them up, so I ended up buying a lot of their stuff, hence why they are evil.

On Comiket76, they released quite a bunch of stuff on sale :  Pixiv CV Illustrations ~ First Number Pixiv Hatsune Miku Illustrations, Twins in the Number Pixiv Kagamine Rin and Kagamine Len Illustrations, Time Go Round Pixiv Megurine Luka Illustrations; Touhou Rougaroku (東方朧画録), Pixiv Boys Collection, Pixiv Girls Collection ~Future to Future, Pixiv Compilation 2009, and much more.

But due to budget, I can only buy as much as 3 sets of Pixiv artbooks, though I do not regret any of it, I was actually hoping that I didn’t spent too much money on other stuff and focus all of my budget on Comiket instead…Too late to think that…but regardless.

Among all the 3 I’ve bought, Touhou Rougaroku is the thickest artbook I’ve ever got from Pixiv booth, with the price of 2,000yen and COMIKET ONLY (or so I heard), this sweet artbook contains artworks of all Touhou characters starting from Touhou 6 to Touhou 12 (up to stage 3 only). It’s extensive, pretty, and lovely. Because Touhou fanarts also took up quite an important place in Pixiv’s heart.

While Pixiv CV Illustrations ~ First Number Pixiv Hatsune Miku Illustrations, Twins in the Number Pixiv Kagamine Rin and Kagamine Len Illustrations, Time Go Round Pixiv Megurine Luka Illustrations (long ass name) is divided into three thin artbooks which consists of 3 main Vocaloids : 01 “Hatsune Miku”, 02 “Kagamine Rin & Len”, and 03 “Megurine Luka”. Why Kaito and Meiko isn’t included beats me, but you can ask them if you want. As usual Hatsune Miku’s book is by far the thickest among 3.

Pixiv Girls Collection~Future to Future is by far the cheapest among 3 artbooks that I’ve bought from Pixiv booth. It has quite a lot of unique arts that is actually quite “artistic” and not so “generic”. Definitions can be very subjective, but paying 500yen only for such artbooks that can possibly inspire you to draw not within restrictions, Anyone should obtain at least a copy of it if one is able to. At the very least, this isn’t something you should pass up on.

The only regret of mine would be not be able to obtain Pixiv Illustrations 2009 book. But oh well, can’t help it with the budget restriction…

Below would be pictures on the artbooks and it’s content. So explore it to your heart’s content – But I’m sorry that I am not taking every single page of it though.

(more…)

Comiket, Day 3, around 3:05pm

And I got all I wanted from Comiket, flawlessly completed my mission for this Comiket.

This year’s Comiket saw an increase of 10K people compared to the last few years. Estimately 180,000 people attended just on Day 1. And I’m one of it.

Proud? Not really, Satisfying? Not really. But is it one of the best? HELL YES. Personally speaking of course. After running through crowds that broke the heavens, suffered myself from the heat for ongoing 4 hours with barely anything to cover myself from the heat – To get those stuff I wanted is like heading myself for a Touchdown in Amercian Football with a wall preventing me from passing. But still the mission is completed flawlessly…only some not quite.

Came back with sunburnt body and physicially tired body. That’s to be expected. Afterall Comiket is never meant to be fun. It’s war.

(more…)

Or any other studios in Japan, I would like to ask you a question.

What is with you all trying to adapt western stuff into anime these days?

First, Halo

Then Ironman (Which is wicked cool I have to admit, I’d watch it if it’s available)

And simultaneously, Wolverine (LOL JAPANESE’D)

I can see it now, people.

Japanese “YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG, THIS IS NOT HOW YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO ADAPT OUR STUFF, THIS IS HOW! YOU! DO! IT!”

Gotta say that no matter how QUALITY’D these stuff would turn out to be, it won’t be as TERRIBLE as this blasphemy…

Gundam. A metaseries of Japanese anime. And the term that started the whole real robot genre, has reached it’s 30th Anniversary. While I can’t say that my first Gundam was the First Gundam a.k.a Gundam 0079 (My first was Gundam Wing Endless Waltz), I enjoyed the series a lot, mainly because of the mechas. Story is a different matter – because not ALL of them are good. Yes, some were terrible, yes I’m looking at you here Gundam Seed Destiny.

But when I heard of this 18.2m (what it’s claimed to be, correct me if I’m wrong) Gundam being  built by the Japanese to celebrate it’s 30th anniversary in a LIFESIZED form, that obviously means a trip to Shiokaze Park (located at Odaiba, Tokyo) is guaranteed.

And when I got there, I can understand that since it was a Sunday, there will be a lot of people, yes. But that place is none other than a Gundam version of BON ODORI (if you’re Malaysian you’ll get what I mean) – that means the place will be awfully smokey thanks to the BBQ vendors around the place…and dusty, too.

Back Entrance

How I wish I can actually take a ride on that Gundam, but unfortunately it has no cockpit. Full of nothing but concretes and metal inside it’s structure, but still cool nonetheless. It’s amazing if you actually see through it with your own eyes, get near it, touch it’s structure, which I did : Sturdy and feels like a real thing (now only if we have the real Gundanium Alloy/Lunar Titanium Alloy for this…)  with the well done decals as well.

And what’s pretty amazing was the design. Based by Okawara with the touches done by someone else, but it does feel like Katoki’s design. Which makes the Gundam design itself pleasant to the eyes. I personally liked the design, though holding no beam rifle was a little too bad.

I blame myself for not charging my handphone so the battery died halfway during picture takings, and therefore I’ll be making a second trip of it, soon enough.

Speaking of which, that reminds me – I need to put the MG Exia into my shopping list too.

(more…)

How I wish it’s winter now…

And here ends my second year first semester of my school. Things doesn’t come easy, but I’ve managed to get past all the bad things that came.

…and it was just the beginning.

And with the summer holidays coming I have a lot of materials to write from my absence. And it’s all in the backlog of mine. Considering that I’ll be making my visit to Odaiba tommorow (which makes me the 293103809128039th time to make an entry about a 18 feet tall Gundam which you might call it “OLDDDDDDDDD” – but I don’t aim for being the first of writing entries anyway, remember this blog is all mainly about my fandom experiences I encountered.)

A reminder is always a good thing, so that I won’t forget it. So here’s the list of backlogs.

- Rebuid of Evangelion 2.0 entry
- Yoko Kanno 7/7 Choujiku Tanabata Sonic concert
- Another experience with Director Shoji Kawamori
- Odaiba Gundam’s experience

I don’t know if there is any more, I consider this the list that I wanna clear off as of now.

Still glad that I manage to have fun with things despite having a very hectic, busy schedule. I don’t mind – considering it’s a good experience in a lifetime. And I’ll look foward into writing them all out.

Azu-nyan is a lovely girl, after Mio that is.

So…K-on ended.

But it seems that to me, and in my opinion : I’ll give that KyoAni has done not much of mistakes nor wrong in their animation. 作画としてはよかったけど. But the way of changing the direction of the series itself puzzles me a bit.

K-on is supposed to be a light fluffy show, the manga makes the direction very clear, but KyoAni’s dramafied K-On a little makes the show a bit haywired. This occured for episode 11 and 12 of it. I’m not too happy about the change of it because I like K-on for it’s mood setting initially. But still it doesn’t overdramatized it so I’m glad on that part.

Still, K-On on it’s entirety remained a very enjoyable show and worth following up to it’s end. the changes they made completely gave me a fresh view of how K-On on it’s other side were done. In a way they followed the original but added/removed parts to make it not a generic 100% followup like most anime did. This is expected of KyoAni considering to what they did to Clannad, which I also highly enjoyed.

I enjoyed the music, I enjoyed the characters, I enjoyed the interactions (though it does not beat Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, which to me, has the best character relationship and interactions in a show), I enjoyed the animation and studied a lot from the show.

And that’s why I buy their CDs. I’m a fan of K-On! Even so, K-On isn’t perfect. And that’s perfectly fine. <3

Thank you KyoAni for bringing us the show, just STOP dramatizing the show when it’s not needed!

P/S : Michael Jackson passed away/ or at least hospitalized around the same time K-On ended it’s broadcast. Ironic thing is that they both involve music. End of one show = end of a King of Pop’s life. But hopefully Michael Jackson will rest in peace regardless of that useless fact.

出たああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああああ――――――――――――――!!!!!

700 USD. 700 GOD DAMN USD. And if this falls into DoCoMo’s hands – I’ll turn white and cry for 2 months straight. So hopefully this goes into Softbank. Pretty please, Softbank? Please?

Or aU-KDDI is fine too.

Source : Here and Here

Once upon a time, or not too long ago, there was one anime that people hailed it for “piercing the heavens”. Most of us agreed with it, and it was named “Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann”.

When the TV series ended, it enjoyed massive popularity. Many people loved it, and like every other popular shows, comes with some pointless haters who hate the show just because it’s overrated, etc. But they cannot deny that it’s a show that makes your adrenaline pump, though how much is totally subjective. To put it simply, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann enjoyed massive success from it. People loved it, I especially loved it, Gainax is happy.

Then it comes the movie version. Honestly at first, I was skeptical.

Personally, the after feeling of watching TTGL TV series was rather sweet – but perhaps it’s so sweet, my mind formed a very defensive opinion of how the movie version, especially 2 hours of the length trying to cover half of the whole TV series seems to be rather pushing it and will not match up to the TV series counterpart itself. Gurren was on screen last year which at that time I wasn’t at Japan to watch it yet (or I missed it), so I caught myself up by downloading BSS fansub of it.

(And the rest below would be spoilers, onwards – and it’s a long ass entry, read it at your own risk)

(more…)

Kenji Kawai did it again.

If there are any songs worth listening on live, and will completely make you listen it up to the end…

THIS will be the one.

Mezame no Hakobune – Hyakkin (めざめの方舟 – 百禽)

Makes you wonder what will happen if you manage to get the DVD, hook it up with a Home Theatre system, sit back and enjoy?

Read more about Mezame no Hakobune here

やばい、やばすぎ…シングル買う決定だなこれはｗｗｗ….

I don’t dare on any comments saying that this is better than God Knows. But it has it’s own merit, despite how many people thinks K-On! is overrated piece of rubbish show. I, however enjoy it a lot.

And this song, owns me much (lol @ Yui’s croaked vocals for the song), that it deserves it’s own entry. Just hope that they will fix that on the single release on this song (you know they WILL).

The rest…

(more…)

The price however…is not.

See the price for yourself

Considering that Mio’s headphone is NOT meant for a normal consumer to use, I have to wonder where or how did Mio get her 77,000 yen to buy this?

Of course, Mio’s headphone is never meant for outdoor use, hence why the only time you would see her using the headphone will only be when she is either studying, or like this :

PORTABLE CD PLAYER IS STILL ON DEMAND OKAY? Don’t get 100% spoilt by mp3  format of yours. There is a reason why we still buy music CDs (because it’s NEAR lossless) these days.

Makes me wonder what KyoAni is trying to accomplish by putting in all the expensive stuff into the show?

And yes, if you’re wondering, I’m 100% aware that most of the people already know this by now.

—

P/S : Adobe, stop sucking already, seriously. What is with you and your error 1603 that I cannot even reinstall back my Photoshop into the laptop? STOP MAKING YOUR PRODUCTS SO GOD DAMN COMPLICATED DAMN IT.

P.P/S : I still had a hard time believing that Mio’s headphone would cost 77K yen, so I chose not to believe so! Denial for the win.

Pixiv can be sometimes, amusing.

We all know Doraemon, for manga or anime, is considered one anime where most of us grow up with. It became a memory for those who grew out of it, and a neverending journey for those who follow the series up till today. But still, when you hand on the series to the people who thinks the root of the series itself can be modified to a next level. You’ll get these kind of results in the end.

Note : These are taken from Pixiv. I do not claim any copyright for these pictures. All works belong to their respective owners.

Oh, I don’t responsible for your brain breaking, either!

(more…)

“あなただけのために咲く花” by tearfish. Do not claim his/her works as your own.

If we want to define Pixiv – It’s DeviantArt, for the Japanese. And usually it’s a good place for otaku to stalk fanarts, and even some professional known artists (Aoi Nishimata comes into mind) posts their stuff there.

(more…)

Obligatory Akyama Mio picture is needed for this welcome back post.

So…hallo, I’m back.

Where have I been? Well, taking my time resting, having tea, and…catching up some anime for the past 3 months. It doesn’t come easy. Initially I actually had this sort of writing dilemma that I do not know what am I suppose to write anymore. Nothing really caused it, it’s just once in a while sort of thing. Considering that now that I’m back into the spirit of blogging again. You can expect more things in the future.

…Maybe less, biased entries about episode summaries (I’m looking at my Gundam 00 entries here!).

Previously I was back at Malaysia having my lovely outing time with friends and families. Unlike most otakus around, I actually have a life. But now since I’m back in Japan – the loneliness kicks back again to it’s full gear. So writing and drawing is the only thing I can do to keep myself occupied from this boring lifestyle.

Coming up next (hopefully) would be more on anime stuff and seiyuu stuff. And this time, hopefully, it lasts for a while before I’m calling for another rest.

But what happend when you said you want to make a dual language for this blog?
That I’m still thinking what to do about it…eheh.

So, Tadaima.