Darker than Black S2 OP Cover 「ツキアカリのミチシルベ」

'Tsukiakari no Michishirube' by Stereopony, also the OP Song for Season II of Darker than Black. Not a good cover, but thought I'd at least attempt it since it's one of my current fave songs :D

ステレオポニー 「スマイライフ」 (Semi-Failed Cover)

More AIMI goodness ... in the small screen! 'Smilife' by Stereopony's one of the rare happy-ish songs that I actually listen to, so here's a (failed) attempt to cover it. Just stare at the small screen :D

Again （少しだけ弾いてみた）

鋼の錬金術師のOPでYuiの曲を簡単に弾いてみました。20分くらい練習したのに、超下手だｗ

君の知らない物語（少しだけ弾いてみた）

この歌が大好きなので、少し弾いてみようかと思った。初心者で練習時間もあまりないから間違いだらけですまん！

Test

Short intro test XD

Saber Lily

While I am not really a fan of figurines, an upcoming one did catch my eye. It is none other than an alternate form of Saber, Saber Lily! A pleasant change from the blue outfit that we usually see, this is from Fate/Unlimited Codes and if I'm not wrong, is a limited edition. Enjoy the pics!

DaeJangGeum and the Ninja Diary

The village set for the drama series is an open set built at Yangjoo city Gyunggido, inside the MBC cultural valley. The drama series is based on a real historic character that was borin a lowly untouchable class who rises to the position of court doctor. Let us take a look at the set (Not that I've watched the drama)!



(DaeJangGeum and I)




(Entrance area, Palace doorway and Grand Hall)



(TweSunGan, or kitchen area, attached to the room of court lady Han and young JangGeum)




The drama series is set in the Chosun Dynasty with emphasis on court culture, food depiction, costume, medical practices and games of the period.




(I think this was the Royal Kitchen or SuRaGan)

On this somewhat cold day, I was left with a lot of time to kill and wandered towards the backyard or village, I'm not too sure which. Being part of a film set, it was indeed a fitting location for my ninja diary :)




The whole place gave off a tranquil vibe and coupled with the cold and refreshing air away from traffic pollution, it provided a temporary respite from city life.


The Ninja Diaries
(Do not attempt some of these at home)

Objective : To reach the scenic endpoint without being detected


(Room clear, no sign of any enemy)


(Stealthily breaking and entering the room)


(Out at the corridor, the coast seems clear)


(Approaching Objective, final check to look out for security forces)


(All clear! Time to scale the building! I repeat, do NOT try this at home)



(Mission accomplished!)



(Nice view of the village/backyard from the top isn't it ? Worth the trouble!)




The thing that I am holding, I've no idea what it's called, is something like roti-prata, just that green tea powder or flour of sorts is used for the skin and it has a filling which tastes like cinnammon (it probably is). I think its usually sold during winter. Delicious and warm!

メリークリスマス (Merry Christmas) !

Distant Worlds : Music From FINAL FANTASY Asia Tour

According to the official site, the Distant Worlds concert will be making its asian premiere in Taiwan before staging 2 concerts in Singapore as part of the Singapore Arts Festival 2009. To find out more about the concert and the tracks covered, do visit their site. How nice it would be to hear a live rendition of "Memoro de la Stono ~ Distant Worlds" from FFXI . . . :)

Anime Festival Asia 2008 Mini-Gallery (Day 2)

Picking up from where I ended off in the last post, I shall start with more pictures of the exhibits from the anime booths.



Particularly interesting was the showcase exhibition of Genius Party Beyond from Studio 4°C. Below, you can see some of the stills and pre-renders from what is presumably part of the storyboard used by the various titles. Look at the attention to detail! Koji Morimoto, founder of the studio, was also on stage to talk about his works, the latest being 'Dimension Bomb' (which was visually stunning by the way, albeit a little abstract).

(The train station gives me 5 Centimeters per second vibes)






Following that, we have more figurines! First up, we have chibi Death Note characters, the same Vocaloids (かわいい！） as taken on Day 1 and Chun Li.





Up next is non-chibi Death Note characters and some ecchi thingy based on a certain someone's request. (Thanks for the Lenalee poster by the way!)




Last but not least, Mickey and Minnie! (Sadly, I did not see any Kingdom Hearts versions)




Unfortunately, due to class and lunch, I missed the cosplay competition and only arrived in time to take the last shot of them on stage. Nevertheless, many of them stayed on and hence, I actually have some pictures for show. Would probably have more if I wasn't so darn lazy with the camera XD

In the first picture, you can see Ichirou Mizuki, guest singer and one of the judges for the competition. I was not around for his concert on the first day, but I heard that it went pretty well.




There were characters from popular anime such as Macross Frontier, Bleach, Naruto, Gintama, Code Geass and too many others to name. If I am not mistaken, the obliging Ranka Lee cosplayer in the first picture below is the same one that I will be mentioning later. Interestingly enough, some actually cosplayed as a Menos Grande from Bleach instead of the more humanoid-looking characters :)







Finally, the main event for Day 2 would undoubtedly be May'n 'Live'. If you don't know who she is, she's the one who sang the songs for Sheryl Nome in the popular anime entitled Macross Frontier. If you are still clueless, wiki's yet another good friend. Since photo-taking and recording were technically not allowed, I'm contemplating removing the next few pictures after a while so enjoy them while you can. The quality of the pictures are really horrible though, so I doubt anything can be seen anyway. (I need a new cam!)

Anyway, she did mention that similar to her anime counterpart, she hopes that her voice can reach out to the real world and save it through her music.

Here's the tracklist of songs that she sang at the concert, in the order that she sang :

1. Welcome to My Fanclub's Night! (Sheryl on Stage)
2. What bout' My Star (Sheryl on Stage)
3. Infinity
4. Yousei ('Fairy')
5. Diamond Crevasse
6. Northern Cross
7. Iteza - Gogo 9ji - Don't be late (Sheryl On Stage)

Nakabayashi's voice 'live' was really good, with my only complain being that the backing track was not loud enough at times resulting in her voice drowning it out occasionally. I was hoping so much for a solo rendition of Lion, but alas, it was not to be. There was hardly any time for shouts of 'Encore!' to go around before she disappeared from stage.





[Northern Cross]



[Diamond Crevasse]



Post-concert, it was time for those who had purchased the VIP Diamond Pass to her concert to receive their pre-signed autographs and handshake. It was really amusing when the Ranka Lee cosplayer went on stage for her turn as May'n had this cute, surprised face upon seeing her! (I think there was a Sheryl Nome cosplayer who went up as well, but since I wasn't there at that time, I can't describe May'n's reaction then)




By the way, if anyone's interested, May'n has been blogging about her time here as well as some of her thoughts about the 'Live', so head over to her blog and take a look :)

Anyway, that's all the coverage for AFA08 and hopefully they'll be able to organize it again next year!


             (さよなら！)