Doesn't this bring back memories?

Remembered those days where there isn't any internet and we were still playing rpg consoles. The only news we can get from updates for the latest are only browsing the Japanese magazine at Kinokuniya. :D

Cosplay Challenge

Continuation of where I stopped from the previous SOYA post.
I left SOYA around 2pm to cover the other cosplay event happening at Singapore Discovery Center. One main reason I wanted to go C.C. is because of this guy.

Mecha cosplayer Goldy from Japan as Strike Freedom Gundam

Apparently, it ain't as crowded as SOYA since you need to pay $10 for the C.C. event.
Nevertheless, there's still a few cosplay photos which I would like to share with everybody.

Maka from Soul Eater

Kingdom Hearts?

Wang Liu Mei from Gundam 00

Trio(Lord Knight, Champion, Priest) from Ragnarok Online

Tsukasa from Lucky Star

Ashe from Final Fantasy XII

Sora from Kingdom Hearts

Characters from King of Fighters

Chii and Freya from Chobit

With this, I end both my cosplay event coverage. It's been a fruitful trip as I get to know more people in the various community. Once again, I'll like to thanks all the cosplayers who posed for me and the photographers who actually shared some photography tips with me. Many thanks!

SOYA 09

Start Of Year Again!

This has been quite a fruitful trip as I managed to cover 2 events happening on the same day and get to know more people in the cosplay, blogging or the photography community. Managed to learn a tip or two of photography on the same day too. ^^

Also I will be separating both the event in 2 different post. As you can see, most of my shots I tried to keep it very simple, I hope you all don't mind. ^^;

Suzumiya Haruhi no Tomadoi

And more Haruhi!

Naruto Series

Katekyo Hitman Reborn

C.C. and Euphemia from Code Geass

Illya from Fate/Stay Night

Amu from Shugo Chara and the other from series 'unknown'

Remembered her cosplaying as Chibi Medusa from AFA08 last year ^^

Shana from Shakugan no Shana

Some random shots

And more random shots

And lastly, my favorite cosplay for the event....

Ciel Phatomhive and Grell from Kuroshitsuji

Too bad we were leaving for Cosplay Challenge when we saw them, if not would had gotten more photos for the Kuroshitsuji group. Their costumes are so awesome!

Like I said most of my photos are very simple with not much of creativity and hopefully by the next event, I'll improve more of my photography skill. With that, thanks for viewing. ^^

SOYA / Cosplay Challenge

Will be updating on the event soon, till then please be patient. XD

Alter 1/7 Signum

Finally I decided to take out my camera and take some photos of my figurines. Well end up playing around with the lighting and getting different effects along the way. Also trying to get used to the focal length of the 50mm lens which I acquired.

Below are the 2 of the best photos among the many I've taken. Frankly speaking I'm not pro in photography and still at the learning stage. ^^;

Both the photos are taken handheld and at the same setting. Just that I have the flash firing from different directions. Just learned that just the lighting alone can give so much difference in the feel the photos are giving, guess I still have a long way to go. ^^;

Happy Lunar Chinese New Year

Just would like to wish everyone a happy cow year and may all your wishes come true.
And not to forget to collect a lot of ang baos. :D

It's finally here~!!!

1/7 Alter Signum

Now I need to find some time to do a proper photoshoot for all my figurines. :3

Simple Plan - I Can Wait Forever

Official theme song for LamB by Animax

Finally we have a preview of what is to be expected after so much effect Animax had been putting in to promote this title.
All I can say that the CG, lighting used are really good but then the 2D characters doesn't really seems to blend well to the environment... Maybe it's just me or they're just doing this for the PV for promotion purpose.

Well, let's hope not and the end product will be better. :3

New Loot for today!

A 30L dry cabinet and a SAL50F14 lens

Decided to do a final investment for my camera.
Bought a dry cabinet to keep my camera free from fungus and a big aperture lens for still/portrait shoot. Just tested a few shots with the new lens and I'm quite happy with the results.

ISO 200, f/1.4 at 1/8 sec (50mm lens)

Really loves the bokeh effect! Hopefully I can get used to the new lens before SOYA this coming 31st.

To get or not to get?

1/7 Signum from Alter

Well, always wanted a Signum figurine after getting Hayate and Unison Vita from Alter.
But I was hoping for a Unison version of Signum from Alter in the future....

My Favorite anime for year 2008 - Part Two

The second and the final part of my favorite anime for 2008.
Part one of the review can be read here and again, the title here are not in any particular order of preferences.

Soul Eater 2nd OP - Papermoon (Tommy Heavenly6)

One of the ongoing series which had not ended yet. So far, Soul Eater is one of the best animated action anime in my opinion. The fight itself is very detailed and you won't get bored of it. Sadly, the anime is not following the actual storyline in the manga and hopefully, it won't end up like Claymore. Need more of Excalibur!!!

Kannagi OP - Motto Hade Ni Ne! (Haruka Tomatsu)

I guess this must be one of the more popular title this year, correct me if I'm wrong. ^^; The story is about a wood statue carved by a art student coming to life in the form of goddess. From then on, they have to live together to fight the impurities that are gathering within the town. Go watch it if you like those type of spice of life comedy.

Code Geass R2 - World End (Flow)

I don't think I need to elaborate much on this title. For those who had watched season one will not want to miss on this finale. Major plot twist, pretty mecha makes the 2nd season more enjoyable than the 1st season. Of course, the ending for R2 kinda took me by surprise too. :3

With this, we've come to the end of the short reviews. This are the few of the 2008 titles that I will recommend friends to watch.
Gonna be doing a must watch list for the winter 2008 anime next. Till then, seeya~

My Favorite anime for year 2008 - Part One

It's a bit late but I'm gonna do a small reviews of all my favorite animes which I've watched. It may be a bit biased on certain title due to to my personal liking.
Lastly, the title listed here are not in any particular order of preferences.

Macross Frontier 2nd OP - Lion (May'n, Nakajima Megumi)

One of the major hit in year 2008. Definitely earning the best anime soundtrack of the year award in my opinion. Music composed by Yoko Kanno, various song sang by May'n, Nakajima Megumi definitely brought life to a simple triangular love story. To top it off, the awesome CG of various mecha like the VF25 just makes the anime better. Go watch it if you had not done so!

Ga-Rei Zero OP - Paradise Lost (Chihara Minori)

One of the underdog title which I never expect that I would watch. The 1st episode really caught my attention when all the so call 'main' cast were killed. The story is staged at the timeline before the actual manga, Ga-Rei which might explain why there's a Zero at the end of the title. Surprisingly not many people have this title in their favorite listing for 2008, maybe I really like teenage girls welding samurai sword and summoning demons. :3

Toradora OP - Pre-Parade (Kugimiya Rie, Horie Yui, Kitamura Eri)

Ok, gonna be real frank and be biased on this one. I rarely missed any title voiced by Rie Kugimiya especially when she voiced a tsudere, loli type character. But seriously, this is those type of anime where you really need after a long tiring day of work/school. Really one of my favorite type of comedy I would like to watch anytime, anyday. :3

Itazura na Kiss 2nd ED - Jikan yo Tomare (AZU feat. Seamo)

Main female character is voiced by Nana Mizuki. It's a simple comedy romance story. Girl loves boy, boy hates girl and they lives happily ever after. I can't really explain why I like this title but somehow I'm grown attracted to it. I actually marathon-ed the whole series in one day during my exam study week. And the ED song as shown above had been in my mp3 playlist from the 1st day I listened to it and I never get bored of it.

With this, we've come to the end for the 2008 short anime review part one.
Will be doing the 2nd part sometime this week, thanks for reading. ^^

2009 New Year Resolution

ISO 100, f/18 at 10 sec (55-200mm lens)

Time do really flies, like those streaks on lights in the photo above, it's year 2009!
This year have been a blast for me, trying to balance work, school and hobby at the same time.
But still it's been a fruitful year for me, knowing more people and gaining some new skills too.

Even tho this is a relatively new blog which is barely 2 months old, I am quite surprised that there are a couple of peeps already reading this website. I will try to update more frequently with more interesting topics. ^^;

Now onto my new year resolution for year 2009.
* To finish my part time diploma in Digital Media
* To get sick less frequently(god.. my MC rate is 22 days this year)
* To visit Japan
* To improve on my photography skill
* To get laid?(hopefully)

Well, that's about all of the things that I want/hope to do for this new year. How about yours?
And before I end this post, one more of those night scene photo which I've just taken.
Guess Singaporean should know where I actually stay already. :D

ISO 100, f/8 at 15 sec (55-200mm lens)

Kagamin Miku

A must buy for myself!

We support bootleg!!

Noooo!! It's not my fault!!

After posting here on SGCafe concerning getting a bootleg figurine at EOY just as a caution for those patronizing the shop but all I've gotten so far are insults like how stupid I am not knowing it's a bootleg.

Quote from some of the forum user:

*So in other words, TS is an idiot to not observant on the price differences but still complains that he was disappointed in the quality in it, and now he plans to report this matter to CASE? Oh. My. God. New level of stupidity acheived.*

*TS >> u ownself never check properly wanna report to CASE.... +1000 for stupidity level higher than CITA.*

Maybe my tone in my last post is too harsh but wow, this is epic. I already said I am unable to bring this up to CASE since they don't issue receipt at the time of the purchase. Either my English sucks or some other reasons which they can't read what I wrote.
To me their replies is like saying it's ok to sell bootleg as long as you don't buy them.

Another quote:

*They do sadly , I mean , I dun blame PITB , their service is flawless , and not only tat , most SG peeps are cheapskates who just want all the good stuff , even if they are fakes XD Majority of PSP users (Inclusive of myself) Don't even have a UMD XD*

Wow, he is so proud that he is pirating PSP game that he needs to post on a public forum telling the whole world about it. Maybe he should tell the whole world how he's able to download animes and not getting Odex'ed.

*We are genetic copies of our parents, which in turn is a bootleg. Report to CASE nao!*

Post like this just makes my eyes bleed when I read them.

Impz made a good post on the reason why I was really upset about the bootleg Miku. To me it doesn't matter if your selling a cheap or an expensive bootleg, to me it's just dishonesty. Just think of those who doesn't have good knowledge of the product and buying them on impulse. Seriously I wonder how many of the people understands it. Well, I truely learned a lot from this $30 loss especially on the younger generation's thinking.

On a side note, to people of pan-in-the-box, I apologise if any of my comment in my last post was too harsh or rude. Please remove any of those bootlegs your having now, it doesn't looks good on you.

With this I end my rant. Thanks for reading.

Spot the difference!

One cookie to those who can spot it.

Apparently one of the Miku shown above is a bootleg which I bought from one of the store from EOY. My fault actually to never really checked before buying. There were like 2-3 on sales at the store which I purchased from and they were all sold out on the very day itself. So other than myself, there should be others who got cheated too. The shop name is "pan-in-the-box" if I'm not wrong.

The bootleg version

Made of glossy material, blushes on the cheek, eye staring to the front.
Others not shown in photo include loose joints and lousy paint work.

The original version

Made of non glossy material, no blushes on the cheek, eye staring to the top.

Seriously it's damn hard to differentiate between the 2 when they are in packaging. I guess the best way to be safe is to just buy from the reputated store even tho the price will be a bit higher rather taking the risk and getting a bootleg one without one knowing.

If anyone from "pan-in-the-box" is reading this, please reconsider the way you do business. If there's receipt for this bootleg I've bought, I'll make sure I report this to CASE. Too bad there isn't any. Good for you!

Thanks to Cleartranquil for pointing this out to me.

The video is awesome!

Thanks to Percula for his awesome work.

Hatsune Miku Nendoroid

Having fun taking photograph of Hatsune Miku.

Seriously, am I only the one having problem balancing Miku?
The 2 pony tail are kinda causing the imbalance on the nendoroid.

Massive spending this month. . .

Total spending for this month loot: $268.78

Photo above shows GSC Hatsune Miku Nendroid, Alter 1/7 Hayate Yagami, Re:(Artbook by Square Enix for games like FFXIII), Megumi Magazine Jan09 Edition, GS Magazine Jan09 Edition and Ga-Rei Manga 1-6. Actually never expect to spend so much this month after spending like 2k on the DSRL camera just weeks ago. Nevertheless, I usually never care much about spending especially on things that I really want which actually causes me to overspend. ^^;

Guess I really need to control my spending before the next payday. . . So what have you peeps gotta for this month? Wanna share? :D

The End of EOY

So apparently the EOY this year is the last and final for fans like us.
As you can read from the announcement here, STAC is dissolving.
And also they seems to be losing money from organizing the event every year.

Well one less event for me next year to attend... Gonna miss EOY.
To those who whine about paying $12, please try organizing the event yourself.