AFA X

Okay guys, I owe you all this. Super late post, but it's here : my post on AFA X.
AFA X lasts 2 days this year, on the 21st and 22nd of November. However, most of the photos in this post is taken on Sunday. And I've got many badly taken photos,and I've omitted them from the post, so this post might be a little too short for your liking.


AFA X brought in these Hatsune Miku Project Diva Arcade games. Above show someone being funny and playing World is Mine with Kaito. VERY EPIC.


Miku Nendoroid. Super cute! :D


Angel Beats nendo. Kanade nendo = WANT.


BRS


Moar BRS


Even moar. So cute!!

Moesome 2D girls.


Totally love this figure of Miku. She seems super genki!


Mirai Itasha.

Spotted someone doing a cosplay of one of Project Diva 2's Miku.


Empatsu Shakugan no Uchite


Dollfies assembled!


Closeup on Miku dollfie


Ticket to AFA X I <3 Anisong Side B


Loot

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?

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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

Students' Investiture + and Awesome New AVA members

Today is July 26 2010. Student's Investiture. In other words, the day when the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Student Council and each and every CCA officially step down from their positions and hand it over to the newly appointed ones. Of course, it is still not my turn to take over.. YET (As hinted by the Teacher in Charge of AVA). So hopefully, next year, it will be my turn to walk down the red carpet in the Grand Auditorium and take over as the new Chairman or Vice Chairman, preferably the former.

I am on AVA duty for the Investiture, so that means that the CHAOS and FUN of sitting in front of the mixer during a big event that requires multiple mics and multiple channel of music is BACK AGAIN after the 5 month of dormance after Chinese New year. BUT!! It doesn't count as I was doing the lights during CNY Concert, not the audio. SO, it means it has been 7 months of dormance for me, since Drama Nite '09. So EXCITED and HYPER the whole day because of the duty!! I thought I was out of job because I had only been assigned backstage duty ever since the new teacher in charge took over!

Happy to say that THE INVESTITURE WENT ON WITHOUT MUCH PROBLEMS! I am fairly confident in my abilities, until 2 days ago during the investiture rehearsal, I realised that due to the 7 month of dormance, my reaction time has lagged a little. But then again, there was no major problems with today's investiture (was there?)

Also, 2 of my MOST MOST MOST BELOVED JUNIORS, Li Hui and Kai Wen, wanted to join AVA Club!! I was so happy! Immediately after the investiture, I looked out of the AVA room in an attempt to spot my juniors so that I could introduce them to the Teacher In Charge. However, just as I spotted them , the teacher went out and back to his staff room. I had to chase after him to stop him from leaving and introduce the girls to him. Luckily, I managed to catch up to him and a brief introduction was done. Apparently, he was quite happy with having new members. So my dear juniors can begin their "AVA Duties" from next week onwards! I do hope that both Lihui and Kaiwen will enjoy their time working and slacking with the AVA club!

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

June Holidays 2010

In a flash, the June Holidays ended. By the standard of my boring life, it has certainly been entertaining. First off, we have the Leadership Camp in school.

It is the first camp I had been to in my Secondary School life and thank goodness it did not disappoint. The seniors that was with me are all very caring and fun. And our group leader had been very responsible too =) But We are all leaders in the camp, so I have to buck up alot and (hopefully) become the Chairman of AVA next year. And there's our fun and cheerful instructor, Milo. I thank all of you for giving me a wonderful memory of my first in school camp. (And going into the lake)

Thanks guys!

Also after the camp, there's the trip to KKnM with Jared. No photos for this journey though. Went to KKnM and Kinokuniya with Jared, and I'm glad that he seem to be enjoying himself. Let's hope he would remain as our 'comrade' forever =)
There's the second trip during the holidays to Pulau Ubin with my parents.We had a lunch there and took a stroll around the Sensory Trail area, while feeding mosquitoes with MY blood.

an unused Quarry at Ubin. Ubin means granite in Malay. Figure it out yourself.

A little dog i found under the chair at the place we were having our lunch at. Half asleep

Back at Changi Jetty. Saw this cute neko when we were having dinner at Subway.

I spent my last week of the holidays in my grandma's house, entertained by a certain someone and the uber old windows 2000 computer. Was actually supposed to finish my homework there, in the end, I finished Castlevania Symphony of the Night there instead.

During this holiday, I had not only made new friends in the camp, I get to know someone better too. But one regret was that i did not finish my homework earlier. Even now, my homework is still.. *Depressed*

Well, a good way to end the holiday is the rainbow i saw earlier on. I hop it's a good sign for my upcoming End of Years and Streaming.

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!!!

Leadership Camp Shirt

I am just back from a 3D2N leadership camp organised by my school =) We're the first batch of leadership campers that get a camp shirt

Frontal view of the shirt. Kinda plain.

Close up of the back with our Leadership Ethos, using the acronym of our school.

So glad I went to the camp. At first, I was hesitant to for the camp as I heard that we will be doing Abseiling during the camp. I am acrophobic. But after thinking it over, I realised that if I don't take this first step, I would never overcome my fear of heights. I had alot of fun during the camp, despite it being a sec3 camp and I am still a sec2. I had made friends with many of my seniors.
Next year, If i get to go for this camp, I WILL GO AGAIN!

K-ON!! Ep 7

This week's K-ON went back in time . No, it has not became a science fiction anime by introducing a time machine, it's just some simple flashback. It seems like the ex seitokaicho was a secret Mio-stalker
More importantly!!! After seven episodes, FINALLY!! A new song was introduced (that is neither the OP or ED). It's a song called.. Pure Pure Heart . Judging by the name, needless to say, the song was written by Mio-tan.

The new song was good though.


Well, here's something I must say to Kyo-Ani :

Ane Doki is back?

Ane Doki Review

After much waiting, it seems like Ane Doki has an extra chapter!!! Chapter 26.50 - SEQUEL.

It is set 4 years after chapter 26. And it finally gave our beloved Ane Doki a proper ending.
The new chapter is only 3 pages, but it is short and sweet and closes the story nicely. But... I feel that second season may be possible?

Before you go on : SPOILER ALERT!!

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===bcotaku's thoughts===

3 short pages. All it takes is three short pages and I am over the moon. The main event of the chapter was the last page. Kouta met Natsuki again. In summertime again. This time, instead of Ice Cream, it's popsicles. And no panchira.
A sad things was that Sakurai is not drawn into the chapter. Although it is said that she'd became a real beauty. I wonder if she's still dfc...

---

EDIT
CHAPTER 26.6 is out!! Omake of Ane Doki ^^ Funny.

Unboxing of Pokemon HeartGold

Heya guys! Pokemon HeartGold ans SoulSilver version has been released yesterday. Have you got your copy? I have bought the HeartGold version earlier today.


This is how it looks liek when you buy it. It's actually pretty thick. If you guys remember how the gameboy advance cartridges came in boxes, the HGSS game card came in similar, but thicker boxes.
It's around two fingers thick.


There are some fine details on the background of the box, such as the Tin Tower seen here.


What's in the box. Buncha random notes on the PokeWalker that came along with it. Have no idea what's a PokeWalker. Will follow up on it soon. Also, in the box is the PokeWalker itself and the usual box that has the game card in it.


This is what that is in the game card box. The usual papers on safety warning and whatnots, plus the game card itself.


The card itself.

Is gonna start on the game soon, after my DS finish charging.

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

Year of the Taiga Aisaka

It's the Year of the Taiga! Did everyone have a sweet dream on her?

So today, BCOtaku has been going around relative's houses to eat many goodies and get ang baos. But seems like the festive spirit began even before the actual new year as similar to other special holidays!

Lanterns are found all over the market where my parents work at. Can anyone guess which market it is?



School is decorated with Chinese calligraphy.

Boxes of mandarin oranges up for sold. It's the Chinese New Year afterall

Random lanterns and lights found in the market at night


This morning, when I woke up and has breakkie, BCOtaku went to my grandparents' house to 拜年. That is, going around wishing them a very happy New Year and to get red packets from them.


My parent's stall today. It's close as it is the CNY. But the decorations are up, although not that flashy.

WARNING : FOOD PHOTOS AHEAD, DO NOT PROCEED ON AN EMPTY STOMACH!

Loads of New Year snacks and sweets is prepared. Tissue is there for cleaning up after feeding yourself, not dolphin feeding.


Love Letters at grandma's this year have a different shape. Is bought in Bengawan Solo if I am not wrong. Tasty ^^.


Basket of Oranges. Realised that I haven't eaten any oranges today. Hafta munch on them later.



First Dinner of the year of Taiga-chan is steamboat! Not only that but abalone, some meat ball thingys and also chicken wings! It was yum!

So that's it for this year's New Year! This is to wishing everyone a really happy Taiga year , have a sweet dream of Taiga-chan and to those that's still collecting red packets, wish that you would collect alot and alot, much more so than the previous years!

HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR OF TAIGA!