Closure of KKnM

This blog post came a little late, but one day, about a month ago, I received an email from KKnM:

It has been 12 years since KKnM first began its operations. Importing original anime character goods direct from Japan for sale in Singapore has always been our specialty. But at last, the current business model and the other commitments that we have is unable to sustain the business. It has been a great run and tons of fun for us, thanks to all you loyal customers, friends and business partners.
It is with deep regret that we would like to announce that we will be taking a break indefinitely starting 1st March 2013. Our shop will cease operations on 28th Feb 2013. From now till then, we will be having a store-wide sale on all our products at the shop. Please feel free to drop by and take a look at what we have to offer. If there is something we have that you really like and money is a problem, feel free to talk to us. ^_< We hope all our products can find a good home and owner that will cherish it…
For all of you out there who still love your anime figurines, character goods and limited edition items, please talk to Toy Coin, they will be operational from our current shop location from 1st March 2013. We hope you will give them your full support!

 It's really sad to see that the first anime shop that I came to know of ever since I've became an anime fan is closing down. Even though I never bought much at the shop (i usually only buy things at events), the shop still hold memories as I would sometimes go down just to soak in the animeanime atmosphere or look at the goods. Granted that I didn't go to their PoMo shop that often as compared to when they were still at Sunshine, but the name of the shop will just bring back some memories. This really makes me wonder how AFA13 will be like without KKnM

AFA X Countdown : 3 days

Hey guys! bcotaku's back from the break :D
AFA X is going to take place in 3 days time!! For those who've been hiding in a cave for the past month, Anime Festival Asia 2010 , or AFA X, is going to take place on 13 November and 14 November 2010 in Suntec City Convention Hall 401 and 402! More information by clicking on the banner on top.

So, have you all prepared yet? Bought the tickets and saved up enough money already? I've decided to not go for the I love anisong concert due to LOW BUDGET and no one to accompany me to go with. ^^" At least that means that I have some extra money to spend on merchandises in the festival.

Hope you guys enjoy yourself at the festival!

AFA X - More infomation released.

The ticket prices of AFA X is announced. At first glance :
Festival Access - $8 : Access to the main event hall. But not to the stage area. That means we will be missing out on the special guest appearances.

Festival + Stage Access- $15 : Access to Stage Area and Festival hall.

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bcotaku's thoughts
So this doesn't seems like a bad price. Cheaper compared to last year. And we get to access the stage too! Wow!
NOT.
It might seem like a good deal , in fact a better deal than last year's at first, but then there is this notice

* Does not grant access to I LOVE ANISONG concerts.

NOOOOOOOOO. So how much does the concert ticket costs?

---

Starting with the cheapest :

Free Standing Area pass
SGD $55
(approx) 3 hours of concert performance in the Free Standing Area
1x Festival+ stage Access tickets

For EACH DAY
So if you are trying to save money but want to go to the I love anisong concert, this is the one for you.

Next,

1 day VIP pass
SGD$118
3 hours of concert performance
Premium numbered seating
1x Festival+ stage Access tickets
1x free lightstick

This is for those who have the cash to spare but only wants to go to 1 day of the concert. So basically , you get to sit and have a free lightstick for a whopping SGD$63 more.

Lastly, is the most expensive of the tickets

2 Day VIP Pass
SGD$198
6 hours of concert performance
Premium numbered seating
2x Festival + Stage Access tickets
2x lightstick

basically this is for the rich people who want to go for both days of the concert. You get 2x of what you get with the previous tickets for 2(118)-198 = SGD$38 less.

So after all these infomation on the tickets, WHO THE HECK ARE PERFORMING FOR US IN THE CONCERT?
The list might surprise you.

13 November
JAM Project
Ichirou Mizuki AKA Aniki

14 November
SCANDAL
angela
May'n

So? SHOCKED? I'd very much love to have another Miku concert like last year, but too bad it seems like my cute Miku won't be making it to AFA to sing for us this year. But. JAM PROJECT. ANIKI. SCANDAL. ANGELA. MAY'N!!!!!!! These names.... AHHH!! *money flies away*

I'm very looking forward to May'n's concert. Last year's was EPIC AWESOME. I wish that she will sing more Macross Frontier songs this year. OH! And Ready Go! The OP for Ookami-san.

I've been talking about this "stage access" thing for quite some time. So why the heck would anyone wanna go to an empty stage? Of course, the stage won't be empty (duh!) . there will be Special Guest appearance by

Danny Choo (!!!!)
Kana Hanazawa
Kaname
and many others

during the festival itself.

I wonder if we will get to see the Tokyo Storm Trooper in action again this year. Certainly hopes so.

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bcotaku's thoughts (again)
So, this time round, we have to pay to watch the concert? hais. I am but just a poor little boy studying in Singapore. I don't think i wll be able to afford the $198 ticket for both days. Neither can i afford the $110 for standing ticket for both days. So what do I do? I think i might be skipping one of the I love anisong concert and get the $55 ticket for the other day. Conclusion? Little poor starving wallet of mine is going to break into tears if i do not suddenly find $X on the ground to pay for my AFA bills.

Source: http://animefestival.asia

AFA X

Okay guys, the dates for Anime Festival Asia 2010, AFA X is announced! The only information available now is that it would be held in Suntec Convention hall 403 and 404 on the 13 and 14 of November, 2010.
I will certainly be going and will be staying from opening till end. But then, due to budget constrains, I would probably not be buying much of things. I wonder who will be here to SING for us this year.
Will be updating the blog on more AFA X news

OneManga.com - Gone.

"It pains me to announce that this is the last week of manga reading on One Manga (!!). Manga publishers have recently changed their stance on manga scanlations and made it clear that they no longer approve of it. We have decided to abide by their wishes, and remove all manga content (regardless of licensing status) from the site. The removal of content will happen gradually (so you can at least finish some of the outstanding reading you have), but we expect all content to be gone by early next week (RIP OM July '10).

So what next? We're not really sure at this point, but we have some ideas we would like to try out. Until then, the One Manga forums will remain active and we encourage all of you to continue using them. OMF has developed into a great community and it would be a shame to see that disappear.

You can also show us some love in this moment of sadness by 'liking' our brand new Facebook page. It would be nice to see just how many of you came to enjoy our 'better than peanut butter and jelly' invention.

Regardless of whether you stay with us or not, on behalf of the One Manga team, I would like to thank you all for your unwavering support over the years. Through the ups and downs you have stuck with us, and that is what kept us going.

As a certain Porky was fond of saying... That's all folks!

Time for me to go lay down and let this all sink in.

- Zabi"

This message is what greeted me when I visited my favourite manga scanlation site. That's right. Onemanga.com would be gone soon. As a active visitor to onemanga.com, and a (quite) active member of it's forum, it saddens me to the max as I read this message. I have to read and reread it until i accept the fact about half and hour later. To make matter worse, upon logging in to FaceBook, I found a message that shows the exact same content as the above. Sadness over 9000!!

For the past years that I had been using OM, I had never had any complaints about it. The interface is easy to use, easy to navigate, the quality of the manga it hosts is always very good. Even if the quality is low, when higher quality ones are available, it would be replaced. With one of my favourite, most visited and most awesome site ever down, I will be feeling kinda lost whenever I turned on my macbook.

Onemanga.com has certainly been a wonderful site, and i am sure it will remain in my heart for a very long time, possibly even forever. I believe that goes the same for many online manga readers. To the very best manga scanlation site in my heart, onemanga.com, I salute you. And I hope that if possible, you guys will be back. With twice the awesomeness (If anymore awesomeness is possible).

Now I hope that the forum will remain..

I was sadded, shocked, & surprised when that pop-up's message was seen. Before it'd fully-loaded, I thought it was just some random adverts that OM has to financially support the site. I find it annoying & irritating, & felt that they should be obliterated from OM, but little did I know how diff. it is to manage sucha site.

Luckily, I did not tick it off like it was nothing. I took a good look since I saw a logo of OM, with 4-digit no. of LIKES...it wasn't any random crap. It was...the holy closure of OM. The 1st reaction of mine was a not-so-sad one...just a, "TOO BAD!" expression, even though OM's days were counted. Afterall, there's still a week left.

However, as OM's deathday drew nearer & nearer, I started to fear. Am I gunna lag TTM after OM, the unlaggy alternative, is gone? OM may not have such diverse manga series scans as other sites like MangaFox, MangaReader, etc., but it CERTAINLY is, most of the time, lagless.

Since today's gunna be the last day I'm looking @ the URL http://www.onemanga.com/, I scrolled down, & below were the usual updates...WSJ, SS, etc. Totally normal, but when I looked @ this message, it kinda...pains me. A short but simple message, yet filled with so much feelings all compressed in those words.

Maybe I'm just exaggerating, but it's...CANNOT BE DESCRIBED BY MERE WORDS. I guess only fellow manga fanatics like me would understand, but there's still more to just that for me. Not just the message itself, I have MY OWN experiences with OM. Yeah..., I think that's what you call...FIRSTs.

OM's the 1st site I've ever been to to read manga. OM may not be the site which got me madly in love with anime/manga, but it was the place where I 1st got in contact with manga...even when it's not physically. As I clicked the pages of 怪物皇女, I started to be more & more immersed into the manga world. My adventures in manga-reading started in OM, & the undying spirit to ever-continue reading manga was also nurtured by OM. It's...ALL THANKS to OM that I'm who I am today...w/o regrets (:

Behind that happy-go-lucky facade of mine hides the kinda...sadded one. I'm trying to cheer myself up with the same ol' phrase of, "There's still MangaFox & other host sites...it's ok...it's ok..." but OM, still, is diff. from others to me. It's pissing me off that I could do nothing...with all those red tapes lingering...I'm more or less, powerless.

OM may be gone (soon, that is), but I'll still have "OneManga" etched on my mind. Who knows, I may habitually type in http://www.onemanga.com/ every now & then, even when the URL's a blank, but maybe...maybe, through the otaku-filter, it'll be a sight of a site with FAN-tabulous updates...

GlacieRain.bs.com

This post is a collaboration between bcotaku.bs and GlacieRain.bs

Nintendo 3DS

The new handheld system from Nintendo is announced. The Nintendo 3DS, which will be “set for release in all major markets by March 2011,”

Some brief specs of the handheld are

Size (when closed):
Approximately 134mm wide, 74mm long, 21mm thick.

Weight:
230g.

Top Screen:
3.53-inch (8.9cm approx) widescreen LCD display, enabling 3D view without the need for special glasses; with 800×240 pixel resolution (400 pixels are allocated for each eye to enable 3D viewing).

Touch Screen:
3.02-inch (7.6cm approx) LCD with 320×240 pixel resolution with a touch screen.

Cameras:
One inner camera and two outer cameras with 640×480 (0.3 Mega) pixel resolution.

Some new features are:

A 3.5 inch 3D screen

3D depth slider

Increased resolution

Analog pad

Motion & gyroscopic sensor

3D video distribution and playback

A 3D camera

Some Images:







What bcotaku feels

Well, after a long wait, the DS's sucessor is finally here, eh. The 3DS is slightly thicker than the PSP Slim , by about 2mm or so (I think) , but is not as wide as the PSP. about 3cm shorter. I think that the positioning of the D-Pad and analog pad is a little weird as i think it might be hard using the D-pad if it is so low. But i think if Nintendo make it this way, it would work out. I am also worried that the Power button might be accidentally pressed when we are using the ABXY bottons, but i might be worrying too much. So right now, i am just wishing that the price might not be that steep (who am I kidding), and that IT IS FINGERPRINT PROOF!!!

K-ON!!

According to Sankaku Complex, the second season of K-ON! moe-blob anime would be named K-ON!! , and it's airing date is confirmed on 6th of April, that is a day before my birthday!
Hope that it would be one of the best present I get ^^
However, the air time is at 0125 hours of the day, during the Otaku O'clock where most people are asleep. Would you stay up all night to watch K-ON!! ?

Source -  WARNING: GURO POST IMAGE! Sankaku Complex

K-ON! Second Season confirmed

It's kinda expected, but KyoAni's musical Moe-blob anime is getting a Second Season.
Is looking forward to it, but I know many people out there hate it.
Well, K-ON is one of the anime that I actually can just sit down and finish all the episodes without leaving the computer. Usually, I would stand up walk around or do something else after a few minutes into an episode. So I'm hoping that the second season is more promising than the first one.

Want more music tho.

Source:
Sankaku Complex