back from a hiatus to post this short video clip on Spiderman making an appearance over at the Central Library study area on the 23rd April at 0130am in the morning!

kudos to the guy for breaking what would otherwise be a stressful routine ^^

for the uninitated, nus is conducting its biannual “killing spree” exams and i am currently buried under piles of notes and rubbish as i type this sighhhh

Story 1: Yuuko’s indoor shoes go missing. Her outdoor shoes go missing as well. Her textbooks also get vandalised. “medium bullying” Yuuko says…. “The girls have their own problems, and need an area to vent” Yuuko says…

Story 2: After Mizuki’s confession in the last episode, Kuze ends up avoiding her. Mizuki finally finds out that Kuze actually has a terminal illness, after meeting Chihiro.

Night time, Yuu Himura sends a message through Chihiro: Last chance to listen to Kuze play the violin at the beach. Rushing there, Mizuki listens to Kuze play his last piece, before seeing Kuze burn his violin with kersosene. Initally using her hands, Mizuki finally puts out the fire by kicking the violin into the sea, putting out the fire.

Thoughts

Headache from the special effects.

Only highlight was chihiro’s appearance, but only as a side character.

I wished there was more of Nagi. And not just “i’m painting naked” kind of scenes. No story about her?

Whole episode only had a good 30 sec scene of Mizuki saving the violin + case. Otherwise… Bad epsidoe. 4/10

3 interchangeable faces. 2 different arms for each side, and 6 different hands. 2 arm bands complete the list of parts. Skirt is detachable and optional

She’s supposed to come in 3 standard poses. One normal, one as the Boss of S.O.S., and one as Film Director. But as you can see, you can mix it anyway you want. (actually, I was just lazy when taking the photos)

A closer look at the 2 different arm bands. ( director and boss)

My only grouse is the stand used to make Haruhi stand. It might look okay here. But the height is ridiculously hard to adjust. Mine didn’t fit very well, and it was hard to have Haruhi pose with different leg actions. It’s also quite fragile. Mine has cracks starting to appear. For most of my photos I actually used a stand provided from later generations of nendoroid.

Well…. we can’t end the review without a comparison with the 1/8 version from maxfactory. Personal preference? The 1/8 max factory version was very well done. But it’s not so easy to find 1/8 figurines that look nice. Some look terrible, even though I might have loved the character in the anime. Nendoroids will always have this cute factor to them

Here’s a look at the back of the box. Complete guide to the poses you can make. But like I said, it’s up to your imagination. Guess which nendoroid I will take photos of next.

That’s the LT 26 where the competition was held.

Group 1 of the Group cosplay. Haruhi.

Random Shots of winners of the various competitions. Not a lot of competitors. Solo had like 5 participants, group had 2 groups.

Impromptu Skits of zombie attack. With very sporting participants from the audience. Would have been a lot funnier if it didn’t drag so long.

How the place looked. This was at closing time. So don’t mind how empty it was.

Very familar….

Thoughts

The crowd seemed very young. Or was it me getting old. I thought the quality of cosplay seemed very high. Yes I know, it doesn’t look like it from the photos, but that’s just cause I didn’t take any. Quantity wasn’t high, but at least you don’t see floods of common anime characters. 

I thought the emcees were fairly innovative, and did the best they could given circumstances. There were parts that were too draggy… and way too many inside jokes. But okie. Good job compared to others I’ve been to.

Anyway, like I said, I should be back next year. Seemed like fun. Had this friendly and interactive aura in the air.

Story 1: We found out why Yuu doesn’t particularly want to remember about Yuko. Yuu lost his sister in a fire when young, with only a broken watch as memory. He meets Yuko in an orphanage, but Yuko reminds him too much of his sister. Yuko likes to call Yuu “Older Brother”, making it worst. And days after Yuu reveals that his sister had died, Yuko leaves, being adopted by a distant relative.

And on the school rooftop, Yuko tells Yuu that he was her first love, and still is.

Story 2: Apparently Mizuki likes cosplaying, suits Kuze’s fetish well I guess.

As a side story, Mizuki decides to do washing together with Kuze. Renji refuses to let her wash his clothes. End result sees Mizuki stripping Renji naked.

Kuze shares a story of a metronome that inspires him to take up violin. Irony is how the metronome is just ticking away the end of his life now. In fact, Kuze ends up collapsing while with Mizuki once. 

With the end of his life near, Kuze starts preparing by breaking off all his relationships. But his plans are all messed up whn Mizuki ends up confessing her love for him.

Thoughts

That figurine was a cute attention to detail. Fanservice I guess. Nagi is not forgotten about either. The artist who draws “rough” sketch of herself in the “rough”

Nothing deep developing yet.

I find the voice of the characters quite cute. Pleasantly tickles my ears. It’s been a while since there’s such an anime. Anyway, you can see from the various screenshots the variety of “presentation”. This causes some distraction to the flow of the show. But fine with me. I just wished it had less “visual novel-type” kind of shots. 

A tale of Memories impressed me with their graphic and presentation style. It was very varied. The story line doesn’t drag you in, keeping you as a viewer, but it does present something very colourful to view. I also thought that the topics of loneliness and significance was dwelled on very well. I’m hoping that the sequel achieves the same.

As per previous, the anime has two concurrent storylines. Episode 1 basically gives an introduction to both.

Himura Yuu looks for Nagi Hirano, who is painting a nude painting of herself -_- After a quick banter, they end up shopping, after which they end up meeting Amamiya Yuko. Amamiya questions if Yuu remembers her, and he does….

The second story continues from a tale of memories.  Hayama Mizuki, counsin of  Aso Renji, ends up spending her vacation time over at Renji’s house. There, she is introduced to Shuuichi Kuze. She seems to like him, even though he is pretty mysterious, and seems to have some weird habits. Unknown to her though, Kuze is suffering from some illness….

Thoughts

I always thought that the first series had too many scenes that looked like it came straight out of a visual novel. The second series gives the same impression

Luckily, the “innovative” and impressive style of presentation is still there. Some might like it, some might not. I like it. 

I haven’t been watching anime for quite a while. (other than staple stuff like bleach and toradora) . I do hope to get back to blogging with this series. Generally, the first episode leaves me satisfied.

I forgot to wipe my lenses ’nuff said

The first thing a regular to EOY or any cosplay event for that matter would notice is the lack of bleach- or d-grayman-tards, with the exception of naruto, which was represented by a HORDE of 70 ninjas from konoha, akatsuki and god knows what. With their huge numbers, they vastly outnumbered every team in the team cosplay category. That’s not to say that was a bad thing. Their performance to the tune of Closer by Inoue Joe was synced and riddled with fanservice, ranging from team poses and fight sequences, much to the joy of narutards. Kudos to the team leader (who was cosplaying as Sasuke) for amassing such a huge group and bringing a breathe of fresh air to an otherwise boring anime series to cosplay as.

Throngs of Naruto Ninjas!

As much as Team BakaNinjas did a great job, i was equally impressed with the Team Kuroshitsuji, consisting of three cosplayers dancing to the tune of various jpop songs, the only one of which i recognised was Truth by Arashi ( name courtesy from one of the Japanese Studies sempai i happened to chance upon). Seldom do you find cosplayers who can dance as good as that.

The giant mecha role was undertaken by Lancelot from Code Geass.  As with every giant mecha, it attracted quite a bit of attention, and rightfully so.  Giant mechas are ostensibly difficult to construct, and even more tiresome to don for long periods of time.  In my opinion, the organisers should seriously consider consider a giant mecha award. DO THAT you hear me!

All Hail Lancelot!

I Look Cool I Know

HoHoi-San!

Yea I am a Code Geass Fan all rite

Other notable cosplayers include Yuko from XXXHolic (had to wiki that!),  some bald guy from FFIV and Yuki Cross from Vampire Knight ,this creepy Nurse from Silent Hill….(gave me quite a shock!) and Road Kamelot and Jasdevi from D.Gray-man. Do note this is only what i can recall from memory though…

Yuko Won the Best Female Cosplayer

Baldy guy

Thank you for looking at my camera!

I am gonna have nightmares for days

Awesome Dgrayman Cosplay

Well, i am grateful for the retro theme. It’s extremely nostalgic to watch retro characters the likes of Rama, Akazukin cha cha,Kenshin and Card Captor Sakura come to life. Having music from retro anime blaring over the speakers further adds on to that sensation of deja vu, especially when you come to realise how long anime has come!  It also comes as a relief that for once, a cosplay event was not dominated by the likes of Haruhi, Shinigamis and whatnot.  The cosplay was also a step-up over the various years. The one qualm i have is that EOY has outgrew its audience base. If today was any indication, Hall 1 can no longer hold the ever-increasingly patrons that come to EOY. Heck the stage could barely hold Team BakaNinja. Eitherway, i look forward to next year’s EOY. You can check out my album here and here. More photos below!

Awww Kawaii!

Too cute to resist!

Cockroach Killer!

Gai-sensei approves!

Took her only two days to make this!

Burst Angels

It’s dan… i mean Gordonator or ID Holder!

Cute and lethal I like!

Objection!

Gundam girl!

Shigofumi