[EVENT REPORT]: Japan: Endless Discovery

March 11, 2011 marked a tragic day for Japan when the Great East earthquake and tsunami struck, destroying the lives of many. Last Saturday marked the one year anniversary of the devastating event and to honor and commemorate those who contributed during the crisis, the the Consulate-General of Japan in Los Angeles and Japan Business Association of Southern California held a public appreciation event, "Japan: Endless Discovery" featuring foods, technology, fashion, and music from the land of the rising sun.

Seeing as there was Japanese fashion show hosted by Bubble Punch, I wanted to try a new style myself. Dolly-kei! Usually, I don't wear dresses or girly things, but I felt this style was a good mixture of eccentric and cute to balance out.



Hat, socks, leggings: Target
White dress underneath: Ross
Green pattern skirt: Swap meet
Brown pattern tank: Target
Brown/Orange over open-dress thing: Target
Green short sleeve blouse: Swap meet
Shoes: Charlotte Russe

haha, I be shopping cheap and thrifty!

I went with my friend, Frances, and her siblings and it took us about an hour getting there, an hour getting lost, and 20 minutes to find parking, it was so packed!

The Grove was very nice, a lot of people and it looked really fancy and rich. Unfortunately when we got there, they were already cleaning up the booths. Saved money on parking, but missed out on the food samples!

Instead we opted to go wait early for the fashion show. There was a variety of styles displayed: mori girl, lolita, visual kei, gyaru, and even some Sanrio inspired outfits. Here are some pictures of the models, excuse the poor camera skills and quality...











We got to enjoy a taiko drum performance after the fashion show and the performers were from all age groups, it was very fun and cute!




There was a special guest appearance by none other than the drummer of X JAPAN, YOSHIKI. He came on stage, very shy and modest, as always. He gave us some words on how he felt about the earthquake and tsunami, as well as sharing his words of gratitude for the help that Japan received from the world.

[ANIME REVIEW] Mawaru Penguindrum

Compared to all of last season's anime releases, Mawaru Penguindrum is the odd bird, err penguin out.

Judging from trailers previous to viewing this anime, I thought it was going to be a comedic slice-of-life genre with penguins randomly thrown in for the cute effect. I was wrong about that.




MPD opens with the Takakura family, twins Shouma and Kanba, and younger sister, Himari, who is afflicted with a terminal illness. After collapsing at the aquarium, she is brought back to life by a strange penguin hat that embodies an unearthly being. This entity is the only hope for Himari's survival and it demands that the Takakura brothers find a mysterious object called, "The Penguin Drum".



For the first 5 or so episodes, MPD could be classified as a comedy genre, with the antics of Penguins 1, 2, 3, and stalker, Ringo Oginome, bringing in the laughs. However, the series takes a turn for the darker side, questioning the destination of fate, introducing several other characters connected by tragedy, and leaving you questioning what the Penguin Drum truly is until the very end.




Defying traditional story telling styles, MPD doesn't follow a linear plot line. Much of MPD is told through flashbacks with a subway-esque motif. Initial perceptions of characters are shattered with each passing episode and you're left wondering what the Penguindrum is until the end.

[GAME NEWS] Japanese trailer for "Uncharted : Golden Abyss" for the PS Vita system just released!

Take a look!

Now I'm a big fan of the Uncharted franchise so obviously this game is win for me. One thing irks me however, the Japanese dubbing. The Japanese voice seems way too epic and serious for the likes of Nathan's Drake's signature sense of humor. Without Nolan North as Nathan Drake in this trailer... it somewhat lost it's appeal to me. It's all about Nathan's wisecrack remarks that makes the Uncharted franchise memorable... and the gameplay of course. The gameplay looks sweet and it seems like it will utilize the touchscreen capabilities of the PS Vita which brings out a different feel to it's predecessors. Even though this is just a trailer right now I am still looking forward to this release, with the original english voice overs of course. Cheers!

(Source: http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2011/12/05-1/video-uncharted-golden-abyss-japanese-trailer)

[BAND SPOTLIGHT] DELACROIX

Roughly translated to “of the cross”, DELACROIX is a loud kei band formed in 2009, with members: mitsuki (vocals), saya (guitar), kikyo (guitar), rei (bass), tomo (drums).



This band was recently featured on Babel Rock Radio’s VK IN YO FACE show, as the “Show Starting Sampler”. Initially, I heard this band without taking a look at their visuals and they made a pretty damn good impression.




The bass and guitar work surpass the run-of-the-mill VK bands that seem to be poorly generated by the dozens. Although not as impressive, the vocals do have a subtle old school VK touch to them and some semblance to NEGA’s vocals, Jin. With some more work, this band can reach A grade in no time.




Though not mind-blowing, DELACROIX is a breath of relief from the stereotypical band with subpar musicianship and high-pitched monotonous singers. Looking forward to more releases from this band & hope they don’t disappoint!!

[ANIME REVIEW] Mashiro-iro Symphony Review

When I first saw "Mashiro-iro Symphony" from the list of upcoming anime of the Fall 2011 season, I was a bit apprehensive to give it a shot as I am not too familiar with anime adaptations of ero-games. I have only watched a few such as "Shuffle!", "Da Capo" and "Kimi ga Nozomu Eien". However, they had very good plot lines and focused much on character development.

(from left to right Sakuno Uryu, Airi Sena, Angelina "Ange" Nanatsu Seawell, Miu Amaha)



My first impression as I perused the screen captures in the previews was that the animation was fairly good and gave a very bishounen/bishoujo feeling to it. Sure it couldn't hold a candle to the more popular releases currently going, but it still provides a plethora of eye candy. Included with the high quality animation, the production company recruited well-seasoned seiyuu to voice their characters such as Mai Goto (Uryu Sakuno), who is known for providing her voice for MANY ero-games, and Ryoko Ono (Sena Airi), who voiced in anime such as "Fairy Tail" and "Ouran High School Host Club". After reading the pre-production summary, the overall concept, character design and story seemed very typical of previous harem anime where the protagonist is inundated by unnumerable amount of beautiful girls. I wasn't very motivated at first but I was reluctant and forced myself to watch the first episode.

[UPDATE] Articles are in the works!

  
     Good morning everyone! Agito here with an update for you! I understand that the flow of material has been fairly slow but thats due to the fact that we are still getting used to this as we are both fairly new at blogging. Another reason is that we are both currently busy with personal stuff as well.
     Fear not, as time permits and we are able to post more often you're going to see a lot of new things on this blog. Who doesn't love that new out-of-the-box smell? Please look forward to our future posts and reviews! We will definitely put our blood,sweat and tears into this blog and not let you down! がんばれ！

- Agito

TATOBA TATOBA TATOBA!