A total of half a million people attend comiket in the duration of 3 days. Knowing that, I went at a later time hoping I wouldn’t have to wait in line for long…. I was in line for an hour..

Discovered a Saber Lily itasha on the way to Tokyo Big Sight. Unlimited Codes was out for about 10 days before Comiket 75 and they already made an itasha?

Comiket episodes in Genshiken and Lucky Star weren’t exaggerating in their depictions of the event. Stood in line for about an hour before I could go in. Would probably have been longer if I had been there earlier. Was mailing people on my phone the whole time to kill time.

I don’t know if it was just me, but I noticed a larger amount of females to males. Hmmmm

I see it! The entrance!

Being my first time, I got really confused on where to go when I first entered. Luckily there were huge signs telling people where to go.

Bad blurry pic of the sea of people.

Went to the East exhibition hall first to take a look. While admiring the scenery, I realized that everyone around me was female. Looks like I walked into the yaoi and BL section without noticing. Ran out of there in no time.

Had a look at some of the other works but nothing really impressed me enough to buy. Walked around for about 30 minutes before I decided to head to the West exhibition hall.

This hall is where all the industry heavyweights (Key/Visual Arts/TYPE-MOON/Aquaplus etc.) are located. I figured since I was all the way here, might as well get in line for at least one booth.

The question is which..

It came down to these two. TYPE-MOON or Visual Arts. Ultimately the TYPE-MOON fanboy in me prevailed (the queue was shorter too) and I proceeded to stand in line.

On the way there (queue was LOOOOONG), the red cross set up a tent there for blood donations. Considering that 500,000+ people attended comiket, they must have gotten a significant amount. If any of you got a blood transfusion in Tokyo recently, remember that the blood of otaku runs through you.

Was nearing the booth only to have a guy come out and say that the posters were sold out… I bought a TYPE-MOON neck warmer and artbook instead. Checked out the CAPCOM booth next and bought some more stuff. Sigh.. and I said I wasn’t planning to buy anything at all. Luckily I withdrew money the day before.

Nendoroids on display back then. Most of them are out by now.

Washinomiya limited edition Lucky Star New Year set. I have the full set!

Nendoroid puchi Nagato-chan. Probably sold out by now.

No photography allowed. But hordes of people who snapping away in front of the displays. Pretty hard to get a good shot with people crowding around.

Unpainted GSC Saber Lily. I think this release was delayed recently?

Haruhi gekisou figures

Everything was pretty much sold out at this time, so I just took a stroll and circled around the hall. Next up, was the cosplay section~ Lots of great looking cosplay but a lot of bad ones as well XD.

Ragnarok cosplay. Was really into it during high school. It’s still popular?

Team Rocket and Satoshi. Meowth costume is awesome.

Fate/Stay Night gang. LOL

Lulu and Yuna

Reimu? Don’t know my touhou very well.

Vocaloid gang.

C.C and Euphemia.

No idea.

These guys were funny.

Haruhi.

Looks familiar.. not too sure which character this is.

Sailor Jupiter, Venus and Mars.

Piccolo.

Dragonball gang. I think they look more accurate compared to the live action movie.

Suigintou.

C-Cloud?

Cosplay grounds.

So many people..

On my way out. People are still queuing.

The line was looong. Glad I wasn’t in this line…

Tokyo Big Sight.

Everyone with their loot after a hard days work.

Taking a break, checking out their spoils of the day.

On the way out, was told of an itasha exhibition just around the corner.

Miku Racer.

Lots of Miku.

International Smoke Cheese Team.

Nyoro~n

ARIA

Omochikaeri

Fate/Lucky Star

Kagamin

Misuzu

Haruhi

Did this guy use google translate or something?

Lucky Star

Macross Frontier

Shana

Primula

Vocaloid Itachari

That was the last picture I took before heading back. Spent a good 4-5 hours there (waiting in line included). So glad I came to winter Comiket instead of the summer one. Can’t imagine being in that place with thousands of people in the heat. Ugh..

Although with a huge amount of people, the staff did an incredible job controlling the crowd. Everything was orderly and well organized. The Japanese have definitely mastered the art of queuing up. I’ve been in a fair share of lines in Japan but nothing can compare to this. Queues are everywhere in Japan, whether you’re waiting to go in the restaurant or waiting for your train to arrive, the Japanese are in line. It’s almost as if it’s a national pastime.

No pictures of my loot as it’s not with me at the moment. But here’s the bag I got from the TYPE-MOON booth.

Neko-Arc

.. and the rest of the TYPE-MOON gang.

Related posts:

1. Luxury Import Itasha
2. Gion Matsuri
3. Ennichi

Was talking to a couple of my friends in Kyoto and they were talking to me about going to Gion Matsuri. For those who don’t know, Gion Matsuri or Gion Festival that occurs throughout the month of July every year in Kyoto. The high point of the festival takes place today, July 17.

Excerpt from wikipedia;

Kyoto’s downtown area is reserved for pedestrian traffic on the three nights leading up to the massive parade. These nights are known as yoiyama (宵山) on July 16, yoiyoiyama (宵々山) on July 15, and yoiyoiyoiyama (宵々々山) on July 14. The streets are lined with night stalls selling food such as yakitori (barbecued chicken skewers), taiyaki, takoyaki, okonomiyaki, traditional Japanese sweets, and many other culinary delights. Many girls dressed in yukata (summer kimono) walk around the area, carrying with them traditional purses and paper fans.

Talking to my friends about the festival made me feel kinda nostalgic about it prompting me to write up this article. While the festival has various events over the course of July, I was only able to go on two days, July 15 and 16.

Dressed in a yukata that I bought a few days before, I went downtown with about 10 people from my dorm. Here are some pics I took exactly a year ago.

After getting off the train, met another group of friends coincidently and we decided to join up. Ended up with about 20 people (=ﾟωﾟ=;). At this time there still wasn’t that many people yet.

A lot of people crowding around. I’m not tall enough to get a good shot.（；￣Д￣）

Got someone tall enough to take this for me XD

Began walking toward the main location of the festival. A lot more people starting appearing from this point making it hard to take pictures. It was difficult to stand still with a huge crowd walking behind me.

More and more people.

Clear skies. It was really hot though. Sweat a lot even though I was just wearing my yukata.

Was stopped by a cop here to let the cars pass.

7:31

A lot of cops were there. A LOT.

McDonalds taking advantage of the situation. A lot of other restaurants were doing the same thing. It was kinda annoying hearing them all shout into the loudspeakers at the same time.

Lack of trashcans. It became much worse later on.

Float sighted.

Many people came in their kimonos and yukatas. It wasn’t as cooling as I thought it’d be though. Should have worn shorts XD

By this time there were too many people and we had to split up our groups into smaller ones.

More floats.

Being one of Japan’s biggest festivals, the amount of people there was shocking. People and more people everywhere! Meet a lot people from uni randomly too. It was amazing given the amount of people there.

Can’t be a festival without food stalls~

I like this shot for some reason.

All the floats are decorated with a beautiful tapestries.

Already lost count on how many floats there were.

As Gion Festival was nearing its end, a lot of stores were selling their yukatas and geta at a discounted price. My friend got her geta for ¥1000.

Was there for about 3-4 hours. Was all sweaty and couldn’t wait to take a shower when I got back. Was planning to go the next day too which was the festivals high point but decided against it. Watched it on tv instead XD. Already been to it two days in a row and no one else felt like going through the unbearable heat again. Not to mention the amount of people. It was a good experience though~

Related posts:

1. Ennichi
2. Looking Back at Comiket 75

MMU is pretty much located in the middle of nowhere and it took about an hour drive to arrive. At the entrance to the grand hall, I was immediately approached by a hotlink staff asking about my current phone plan and why I should switch…. What are these guys doing here anyway?

Inside, there were various booths selling doujins and merchandises that didn’t really interest me. Two booths that really caught my attention were The Figure Mall’s impressive figure exhibition and the Macross booth.

Overall, it took me a grand total of 30 minutes to check out the entire convention and I’m suddenly left with nothing else to see or do. The only thing left was Chihara Minori’s concert which was 2 hours away. So the three of us decided we’d get something to eat. Had a bit of catching up to do anyway.

We first thought to try out the maid cafe there, but after taking a peek inside it told me a few things, it looked just like a normal cafeteria (with maids) and didn’t really give the feel of an actual maid cafe. Plus, there were tons of people queuing up. Their prices were definately a lot cheaper than an actual maid cafe though.

Drove to a nearby restaurant for lunch and chatted for about 2 hours before heading back. Back in the hall, I noticed a few Japanese people sitting around and looking bored. Was later told that they were from Minori’s fan club, Minori Smile Seasons (m.s.s) and came all they way from Japan to attend Minori’s concert!  Talk about dedication…

There was also some drama that occured during the Minori’s stage preparation. Lighting from the entire hall was suddenly cut and the vendors and people from doujinshi booth went raaaaging. I can’t help but feel that they got screwed over by the organizers of the event. I wonder if it got sorted out in the end.

The concert started around 3:30p.m and I had to watch it from afar seeing as my friends weren’t willing to pay for a concert of someone they don’t even know (infidels!). When Minorin went on stage, the crowd went wilddd. Here’s a list of the 10 songs she performed.

1. Contact~ Shijin no Tabi (詩人の旅）
2. Fragment~ Shooting Star of the Origin
3. Yuki, Muon, Madobe ni te (雪、無音、窓辺にて)
4. Junpaku Sanctuary (純白サンクチュアリィ)
5. Kimi ga kureta ano hi (君がくれたあの日)
6. Aoi Kotou (蒼い孤島)
7. Paradise Lost
8. Tomorrow’s Chance
9. Prism in the Name of Hope
10. everlasting…

I’ll have to admit though that I’m not too familiar with any of her songs. I’ve only heard a portion of the songs she sang a couple of times at most. In between songs, she took the opportunity to talk to the audience and began with introducing herself in Malay. “Apa khabar semua~ nama saya Chihara Minori desu!“, which translates to; “Hello everyone~ My name is Chihara Minori desu!”  XD

After the 10th song, Minorin left the stage and the concert was supposedly over. But the crowd unrelenting, started shouting アンコール！アンコール！ (Encore! Encore!) over and over again. After a while, Minorin came out sporting a Baju Kebaya which is a traditonal garment of the Malays. It looked amazing on her I must say.

She then went on the perform 3 more songs for the encore.

1. Voyager Train
2. Ameagari no Hana yo Sake (雨上がりの花よ咲け)
3. Contact 13

Even though I had to watch from afar and didn’t know many of her songs, I thought it was a pretty good concert overall. Didn’t expect too much from a university hall. I did however expect to be able to view the concert anywhere in the hall but instead there was a wall enclosing the concert area. Had to stand around the entrance of the hall to be able to get a limited view of the show.

This is my first ever convention in Malaysia so I’m unable to compare it to other cons they hold here and my previous con was Comiket 75, which is not something you can compare this to.

Also heard later that after the concert someone got up on stage and stole a bottle of mineral water that Minori was drinking from and….. drank from it. I don’t know bout you but I thought that was both sad and disgusting. That creeped me out a bit. I wonder how Minori would react if she heard of it.

Inviting Chihara Minori was definately a great feat but it felt like this whole “convention” was more like “Chihara Minori Event” and that the other booths were just there as decoration and to fund the show. Of course this is only my observation of day 2. Day 1 might have been totally different.

Here’s a translation by me of what Minorin had to say of her time in Malaysia on her blog.

“♡DaiCon 2009♡

I had a live concert today.

Due to everyone’s warm cheering and smiling faces, I was able to perform with happiness.

A really big thank you to those who came all the way here and to my fans who came all the way from Japan!!!

Yesterday, I received a Malaysian Kebaya outfit from one of the DaiCon staff members and for the encore performance, I stealthily put it on!

It looks very beautiful right? I’m glad it delighted everyone!!

I enjoyed myself yesterday and today because it felt as if I too became a student. (laughs)

I felt a very deep feeling of loneliness because I had to hurry back to Japan after the concert was over.

I want to stay here longer…

If there is a chance, I’d like to visit Malaysia again (if possible, for a live event).

To staff members of DaiCon 2009, I had fun preparing the stage with you all. Thank you for all your help and going as far as to give me chocolates everyday. ♡♡♡

I’m really happy to have been chosen to come this time.

I thank you from my heart. Let’s meet again!

Bye bye!!

Malaysia”

from: minorin

Looks like she had fun too. Shame she had to leave so early though. Her latest blog entry stated that she had to get straight back to work. Hope to see her perform live again~ Hopefully that time I’ll be able to watch her at a closer distance.

Finally, here are some random pics that I took. (Bad quality)

During the karaoke competition. Also the stage Minorin sang on.

The Macross booth.

The figure exhibition. LOTS of figures.

Is it a coincidence that figures of Kugimiya Rie’s roles are put together?

They had nendoroids too~

The only cosplay picture I took. Great looking Kuroshitsuji characters.

Basically the whole convention.

Spot the trooper.

The other half of the con. Notice the blue walls of hate. Never has a wall brought so much despair since the Berlin Wall.

The only picture I have of Minorin and also the barrier that separates us LOLOL

No related posts.

10. Cross Game

Although it isn’t a new series, Adachi Mitsuru’s unique pacing and simple outlook on life make it interesting. (Expected ranking: #19)

9. Asura Cryin’

A detailed and well-written story with many interesting characters. On the whole, it achieved a great level of accomplishment. (Expected ranking: #8)

8. Basquash

Mediocre at the beginning but only started to get interesting from the 5th episode onwards and is only getting better and better. Far exceeded expectations. (Expected ranking: #24)

7. Valkyria Chronicles

Played a bit of the game. Wasn’t too bad. I’ll watch this next. (Expected ranking: #3)

6. Dragon Ball Kai

Loved Dragon Ball to bits back in the day. Makes me feel like a kid again waiting anxiously for every week’s episode. (Expected ranking: #4)

5. Sengoku BASARA

Date. Masamune. (Expected ranking: #6)

4. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Remake that follows more closely to the manga than the previous adaptation. The flashy first episode won me over. (Expected ranking: #1)

3. Saki

Moe and Mahjong. (Expected ranking: #5)

2. Higashi no Eden

Excellent example of a mystery anime done correctly. A big leap from its expected ranking which was #23.

1. K-On!

Did anyone had a doubt? This show has become such a success that I saw this coming the moment I read the article. What’s surprising is that the expected ranking was #7.

Via Dengeki

No related posts.

During this festival, people write their wishes on to small strips of paper called tanzaku (短冊) and hang them on bamboo trees.

This year, Tanabata Shrine in Ogori, Fukuoka is introducing a free online service named, “Ogori Tankentai”. This service allows you to submit your wish online and the folks in Ogori will write it on to a tankazu for you! Your tankazu will then be placed in Tanabata Shrine. If you include your e-mail address, they’ll even send you a picture of it!

Wishes will be accepted until July 31 and the tankazu will be presented in the shrine on the August 7.

Anyone can do it! Here’s how:

First, head to this page.

There you’ll find the mail form where you submit your wish.

Type in your name, email, age, sex (男=Male 女=Female) and prefecture (if you’re not in Japan, your country will do). At the bottom will be your wish with a maximum limit of 30 characters. Anything you want! Although they probably won’t accept anything inappropriate…

When you’re done, click submit and a message will popup asking for a confirmation. Press “OK” if you don’t need to modify anything.

And… you’re done! According to the site, pictures of your tanzaku will be sent to your email (if you provided it).

If you want, you can also write the wish yourself. (I did both XD)

Use your mouse to write on the tanzaku, left button below is to undo your last stroke if you made a mistake. When you’re done click the right button. A confirmation window will popup in which you click OK.

Type in your name in the next screen and you’re done! Your wish will then be reviewed. If it is not offensive or inappropriate, it will printed out and put up in the lovely shrine below!

Tanabata Shrine

Via gigazine

No related posts.

Popular Japanese game-maker Sega has recently introduced their new humanoid robot, EMA, also known as Eternal Maiden Actualization (WHAT?). This kissing robot seems to be aimed towards lonely adult men.

Packed with a variety of funtions, including the ability to enter into “love mode”, where the robot puckers up to any nearby human heads using a series of infrared sensors. EMA is also able sing, dance and hand out business cards.

“Strong, tough and battle-ready are some of the words often associated with robots, but we wanted to break that stereotype and provide a robot that’s sweet and interactive,” said Minako Sakanoue, a spokeswoman for, Sega Toys to Reuters.

“She’s very lovable and though she’s not a human, she can act like a real girlfriend.”

Sega is hoping to sell 10,000 units within its first year and envisions a $10-billion market for artificial intelligence in a decade.

The robotic “girlfriend” is set to go on sale in Japan in September for $175.

Via Reuters

Oh Japan, you never cease to amuse me.

Related posts:

1. Saya-Sensei, Japan’s Robot Teacher

Vocaloids Hatsune Miku and Kagamine Rin

Melon-chan

Lenalee?

Lucky Star Chevy Corvette

Hiiragi Twins

Oh my

Shiki!

Awesome Lucky Star ride

Sign on the back says; “I’m a safe driver” – Hiiragi Kagami

BMW Miku

More Miku

Nitro+ itasha

Spot the dakimakura

This Import Itasha Show lasts for 2 days, with last day being the 21 June. The itasha on display will be different on both days.

Source: Mainichi & Walker plus (more images there!)

Would you drive one?

As awesome as these are, I wouldn’t want one. Stands out too much and will probably bring lots of unnecessary attention.

Related posts:

1. Looking Back at Comiket 75

In a move to promote the Awa Odori Festival to the younger generation, the Tokushima Tourism Association has ordered the printing of 600 Kara no Kyoukai posters.

In the poster, the main characters from Kara no Kyoukai, Ryougi Shiki and Kokuto Mikiya can be seen watching a dance during the festival.

The poster was made by Ufotable, the anime studio that also produced the films. On April this year, Ufotable opened a studio in Tokushima and was subsequently requested by the tourism association to create a poster. It is the first time in half a century that an anime poster is used to promote Awa Odori.

The posters will be placed around Tokushima stations, JR Main stations in Shikoku, and the Kinki region starting from early July.

Source

Awa Odori is held every year from the 12 to 15 August every year and is one of the biggest, if not the biggest dance festival in Japan.

Related posts:

1. Evangelion Pilgrimage

Following right after the final episode of almost-ero anime Queen’s Blade, an announcement detailing the second season was announced.

Ever since the first episode aired in April this year, there has been a huge debate on the risque portrayal of the characters in the show. Although the first season has ended, there are many characters that haven’t been introduced yet prompting expectations for a second season.

As the first season was horribly butchered by censors, there have been hopes for more lenient retouches for the next.

Source

No related posts.

In an official announcement made by Kodansha’s Kiss website, it is revealed that the scheduled chapter of Nodame Cantabile will not be appearing on volume 13 of Kiss, due out on June 25. The reason is because, Ninomiya Tomoko is currently being treated in the hospital.

Ninomiya was working to meet her next deadline when she was hit with a sudden abdominal pain and high fever. After further diagnosis at the hospital, it is revealed to be acute appendicitis. She was immediately hospitalized for treatment as her symptoms were on a considerably critical level and won’t be able complete her work before the release of volume 13.

Via Kodansha

Last year, due to Ninomiya’s pregnancy and carpal tunnel syndrome, serialization was put on hold. It was only till recently that it started up again too. Pretty bad luck. Hope she recovers soon

No related posts.