Kurogane's Anime Blog

Okay, just got back to Malaysia. Man, it’s been really tiring.

So Day 2. I’ll get straight to the main points.

The cosplay competition was surprisingly lacking of competition with only 9 groups joining and well… let’s just say only 2-3 groups were really entertaining while the rest are pretty unoriginal. The best one was the Roxas-Sora team musical which really had me in stitches. There was a valiant attempt by a Vincent cosplayer (yes, Rollo’s mecha) which actually won Aniki’s (Ichirou Mizuki) special award. Too bad the sketch they did was lame. Damn I kinda forgot who won, but if it were me, the SCC President was the best looking one on stage.

Oh wait, I remember now, it’s the Ultraman team that won for their seriously physical skit.

Proceeding onwards, May’n's concert was definitely the highlight of the day, though they really scalped the fans and the people who paid for the VIP tickets, especially Diamond pass holders. As promised, it was only 7 songs and May’n was really electrifying to see live on stage performing. I think someone already uploaded their recording of it, so look around if you wanna find it. I’m barred from linking it directly.

On the negative side, the sound system was terrible with overwhelming bass, tinny treble which was exacerbated by the fact the venue isn’t suitable for live singing performances since it echoes like mad. I still wish they brought in a live band rather than having her sing karaoke.

The Diamond VIP area was something like a cattle enclosure more than anything but I guess it was still better than to try and stand in the outer area where probably >9000 people were there.

Diamond VIP holders got especially scalped since the promised autograph was limited to pre-signed boards given out immediately and you couldn’t get her to sign any merchandises at all. That and coupled with the shortness of the “concert” seriously made me relieved I didn’t actually spend RM 280 on the Diamond pass.

My greatest regret is leaving my Diamond Crevasse CD at home. Sigh, should’ve gotten my media pass signed instead.

Anyways, it was fun going down to Singapore and participating in such a huge event as well as getting to see Ichirou Mizuki and May’n performing live. If they do have AFA 2009 with guests of similar or greater stature *coughJAMProjectcough* I guess I’ll pay SG another visit again.

I just hope this time they get their act much more properly and learn from their mistakes this year.

Tired as hell. After this I’m so gonna need a good day or two to rest.

So today marks the opening of AFA 2008 and wow, it was so crowded with people. Not to sound conceited, but thank god for the press pass. It was so packed that the lines at 1 hour before the opening was nearly stretching the entire floor outside the convention hall.

The opening ceremony started off simple without much fanfare. Today was pretty much a retail day though, since there wasn’t much on the stage apart from Kunio Okawara’s talk and the concert later. Had some Power Rangers and Tamagotchi events too, but they weren’t to my taste haha.

I also attended the industry seminar, first half only, and it was quite an enlightening one about the animation industry and the business opportunities in Asia for it. Sadly enough, they didn’t seem to take a liking to the online business model though…

Finally, the concert by Ichirou Mizuki. Sad to say, I haven’t heard a single song that he sang in the concert, but hell it was still a fun experience, as well as an eye-opening one since this is the first time I’ve heard an anison singer up close and love.

He really heated up the crowd and the diehard fans were sure having a big blast today. I’ll probably be as crazy as them tomorrow to when May’N sings. I’ll probably lose my voice tomorrow too. Haha.

P.S. Went to ate Tony Roma’s pork ribs. It costed me a bomb, but damn, they were good.

P.S. 2: I’d like to upload some pics but access is limited here. I hope to do that when I return back home.

God, I’m crazy tired. Thank god Singapore and thank god Hakuro for Internet access.

It’s been a hectic first day with me travelling from KL to Singapore and directly heading to the event venue with nary a break to catch the press conference and to interview May’n in person.

While things were fashionably late as usual, there was a high level of professionalism that the organizers did show that pretty much negates the wait.

Seeing all the special guests in the flesh was a really fun experience especially Ichirou Mizuki who really spiced up the stage.

The interview with May’n went well although I was really nervous the whole time I was doing it. Never thought 20 minutes would be ever so long lolololol. And to think I was scared I couldn’t get any questions in before hand. Gotta hand it to Ms Florence for accomodating us all for the interview.

Even managed to get Hakuro’s single signed for him. Fella’s pretty darn happy about it, hahaha, he tells me he is eternally greatful and can never trully repay me.I left mine at home sadly T_T. God so feel like jumping down from a building when I realised it earlier today.

Also met up with some of the Singaporean bloggers. sentinel, ume, bjorn, xak @ shane, dodgethis, julius_firefocht and they took me to Liang Court where I bought my Negima Ala Alba OAD2 for 56 SGD thanks to zelfi’s Kino discount card. God I love Singapore’s Kino.

Anyways, time to rest and sleep for tomorrow. Hopefully AFA 08 will be a blast.

Man, I so wanted to watch this episode earlier, but had a lot of preparations to do for AFA. Thank god I finally managed to watch it before going off because this was such an awesome episode. Taiga is truly Toradorable!

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Oh my, Anya. Is that you?! No wonder she’s been missing all this while. I was starting to think Akamatsu forgot about her totally. (btw her lines in Ala Alba OAD 02 are quite a bitch LOLOL)

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Yes. So even if Luke is a FUCKING ASSHAT RETARD. I couldn’t help but actually feel a bit sorry for him when this happened. Hell, his whole world and reason of existence practically crumbled in very, VERY bad day.

Anyways, I hope he changes a new leaf after this episode. Cuz I don’t think I can stop myself to FALCON PUNCH him if he ever starts his whiny tantrums again. Either that or more Tear screentime.

Like seriously more screentime.

Like making her the main lead.

Yuuko T_T.

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Ahh~ AFA in 3 days. Ala Alba OAD 2 stuck at 16:32 / 30:00. And I’m playing around with a cat’s camera.

I can’t wait till next week comes so I can wind down a bit.

BTW, the picture has been color-edited to highlight the poster and to blur out the monitor. This is what my desk looks like.

I heard of this quite a while back, but I didn’t know N-u-l-l was scanlating it until today. Mahjong series is a real guilty pleasure of mine and Saki just combines the best of both worlds for me. I know it’s really illogical at times, but man… it’s just an irresistible read.

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100 yen? I’d gladly lend you 100 million yen since you’re so beautiful.

Oh god, I didn’t want to blog Index but…

Noto MaMIKO!

Noto MaMIKO!!

Noto MaMIKO!!!