.

I would like to wish Singapore a Happy 45th Birthday. So here goes,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SINGAPORE!!!

Next I would like to Dedicate this song from Corrinne May, Sing a song for Singapore

This song is just so beautiful and meaningful, especially if you are an Anime Fan… In the past that I remembered, I am only able to watch an anime on the national TV and the Cable Vision don’t really come along until I’m like 7 years old and I don’t watch cable TV until I’m 21…

Animax only arrive on our shore in the year 2004, and it’s so wonderful how far we have moved on from there. Being the few countries to first get same week telecast, the first in the world to watch the new EVA movies outside of Japan and many more.

No, The Sun is not setting on Singapore, It's just rising for the anime scene.

My generation have also witness the growth and decline of the local Anime VCD/DVD scene,  and the disappearance of once great Cosplay Clubs and their events.

Nonetheless I am at the beginning of Anime Festival Asia and ACME, along with the recent rise of the many activities to do with anime, even Anisong singer are coming to Singapore. And very soon, the first true LIVE SOLO Anisong concert is going to happen at the St James Power Station.

Not to say, I have also seen with my own eyes the growth of KKnM, and the starting of Genesis Frontier. I’m just so glad they are based in Singapore.

Also I love our Airport, with the direct flights to Tokyo, now if only there is a budget one way flight… Thou without it, a ticket to Japan is still attainable.

So, I am grateful for all the privileges I got as a Anime Fan in Singapore and I truly wish Singapore a Happy Birthday and may there be many more to come!

It’s JUST so good to be a SINGAPOREAN!

Screen Grab from Setokai no Ichizion thanks to Speed Knight. The rest are photos from the NDP 2010 Rehearsals and Previews.

Popularity: 6% [?]

A time-lapse of the RG 1:1 scale Gundam currently in Shizoka City, I have introduced it to you in a post made last month about 1:1 scale models. Now see the beauty of it in the extremely well done Time Lapse video by darwinfish105.

There is a quite a few more version of the time-lapse in the location and they good as well, you can see a few below.

Source: Kotaku | Darwinfish105 on Youtube

Popularity: 4% [?]

Want to grow your money?!

Do it now with the Figurine Investment Fund(FIF) where the you can just put in a fix amount of money everyone and be repaid with the figurines that you wanted or not. The investment fund will turn those money into more plastic for you, locking in the value of your acquisitions.

But why invest in figurines?

Why? Because collectors are looking for the figurines. For the beauty of it, the cuteness and most importantly the rarity  of the figures. Some just don’t get a re-issue regardless of how popular they are.

These can be view as a chance to make that extra bucks as collectors race to find and to keep the available stock in the market.

And now for the last song!

How does it works?

By putting a sum of money with the credit management firm, we will be pre-ordering the most sought after releases and calculating the possibility of either a re-issue or a limited edition.

Some of the recent examples that can be found in the market today,

Azusa Nendoroid, the first run’s market value rose from 3500 yen(54 SG$) to over SG$90. Before the 2nd release reduce the price back down to SG$59.90. Our assessment is to buy the 2nd run as there might not be a third run.

Who removed my Neko mimi? T_T

But who will be managing the fund?

The Figurine Investment Fund is managed by both  Ani-culture.net Money & Credits and KK&M Credit Investment & Assessment Company. We both have plenty of experience in the figurine market.

To sign up, please fill in the following non-existences form and submit it to the Comment box below. Then you can wait for the approval from us to join the program. Either that you can sign-up at the participating non-existences outlets.

After that may you have fun collecting the figures and playing with them!

Disclaimer: I know it’s not April Fools, but this is just a Joke… It’s not real. Why so Serious?

This is just a joke that was thought off when I was at KKnM today, watching a fellow mate tearing his hair out whether to buy the Azusa Nendoroid, me and Sharon(owner of KKnM) created the Figurine Investment Fund(FIF) to offer him a second option in return for his month allowance… Naturally he didn’t take it up, LOL!

And just a note, you won’t be able to make big bucks trying to do resell to collectors.

Lower your weapons!!

P.S: Do you like my new Nendoroid Azusa? She is just so Kawaii don’t you think?

As for the example above about the Azusa Nendoroid, it really quite true, since at some places which still do have stock of the Nendoroid is indeed retailing it at SG$90.

Of cos, the 2nd run have already been released, but most of it, are either already been reserved or pre-ordered. Thou you can still find 1 or 2 left at KKnM(as of today, 29th July 2010) selling at SG$59.90. They also have 1  or 2 Nendoroid Francesca Lucchini in the shop… going at SG$64.90. So better make you way there ASAP… @_@

Not again?! TT-TT

Popularity: 4% [?]

The weekend’s another major event is the Cosfest IX: Let’s Make Friends at Downtown East. Unfortunately as I was over at Cosmo the first day, so I have only photos from the day 2 of Cosfest 2010 to show.

I know its late, but juggling daily work with 20 odd gigs of photos to process is not funny.

Anyway, here it goes.

Our good friend posing for a candid.

Misty: The Champ is here!!!

Zero in on the target.

Yui and Mio cosplay!

Pikachu captured!

GAR!!!

Azunyan!

Ghostbusters!

You want some GAR-tsby?

Yup, that’s all and the rest of my takes is at the gallery below and do allow some time to load. As I have uploaded them in full HD sizes. . .

All photos taken with Sony A900 with Sony 70-200 f2.8 G lens.

Popularity: 7% [?]

The start of a promising fun filled weekend begins with Cosmo Youth Parade. The Cosmo Youth Parade is a part of the Shine Youth Festival organised by the National Youth Council and with the support of Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports.

The heavens decided the throw spanner into the works from the morning, drizzling from my place back in AMK till the event location in *Scape. And it only gets worse the soon after, a heavy downpour ensued but the moods of the participants wasn’t dampened. As as time goes on, the rain gradually stopped and we are all ready for the kick-off events!

KKnM is over at Cosmo as well! Wonder how much blo-- opps, cash were spent then.

The helpful volunteers from Henderson Secondary School.

Folks from CDS posing for the camera.

And what did CDS brought out? K-On illustrations! Did you get yours?

Best deal! 3 for $10!!!

Our good friend, Nicholas enjoying himself with the WS cards.

Hmm, I spotted something familiar. . .

Yup, its Moe Moe Kyun!

Moe!

Looking for something? xD

Kawaii!

Getting ready for the parade!

Mash!

Little Snow White is getting a little restless. ^^

Off we go! Taking a little time off the march to pose!

"Don't play play! Best in Singapore & JB is here!"

Dancing storm troopers. And nope, Danny's isn't here. He's over at LA for AX.

"Don't play play hor!"

MYnT on the stage!

The fun at *Scape finally comes to a close.

Yup, thats all I have. This year’s edition is really a bang and I dare say, if the rain didn’t spoil the day from the morning, we may see even more mascots or cosplayers joining in the fun as well!

With that, let’s hope this year’s success will be a platform to bring more fun to the next edition!

All photos taken with Sony A900 with Sony 70-200 f2.8 G lens & Tokina 28-70 f2.8 lenses.

Popularity: 4% [?]

If you haven’t you are missing out on some of the most beautiful things human can capture with a camera and using the technique know as timelape. Because Mockmoon produced some of the most inspiring, beautiful and awesome looking videos on the internet.

For example a video I have used with the post featuring Danny Choo’s Culture:Japan, miniature city 2. A video made from the pictures he took of the city of Tokyo and the music by Vividblaze.

It made me realised that Japan is just so clean and orderly, to the point that I first thought this is a plastic miniature of Tokyo City, instead of the real city itself.

But still the best of his work are still for his Nature Time Lapse series of video, taken from the peak of the mountain, the side of a pond or the outside of the rest house in a forest trail. It’s not something we see everyday and not something we notice a lot due to the limited time we have to stay in the same location for that extend period of time.

His video made me realised how the environment never change or how drastic it changes, giving me the calm, my soul needs in that short wonderful minutes, especially with the beautiful music that accompanies it.

It’s so wonderful that his works have won him the Youtube Japan Video award 2009. But all these doesn’t matter for his contribution have already been rewarded by the countless souls he had sooth. Now to bring you a few of his other series.

The miniature trains.

Sunrise and Milky way rising at Kirigamine

And lastly Mockmoon’s most beautiful work, Nature Time Lapse 2

Website: Mockmoon

Popularity: 2% [?]

Looks like I’m late and I have not much to review… … This month, I have only so much cash and hence the few items that I can buy…

The list includes a few CDs, 2 DVDs and a few mangas that is all… Nothing much… really…

In the list is are,

Studio Ghibli Collection by local company, Simply Fun, I have already got myself “Tombstone of the FireFly” another classic. These DVDs can be bought from their website at a price from SG$19.90 to SG$22.90.

And yes! My Scandal CDs finally came! They are bought from CDJapan the Single even comes with a freebie, so nice… Next month there should be another batch of CDs coming…

Best of SCANDAL, the album, it’s really a very well made, since I am almost always listening to them most of the time. It contains 13 songs from their previous Singles. My favorite is still the opening song Scandal Baby, a powerfully catchy song, My other favorites are Track 10: Kimi to Yoru to Namida, Track 12: Sakura Goodbye and  Track 13: Loop-On -Album Mix-.

There is also an Asia version from imported from Taiwan, and can be found at HMV and some CD shops, at a lower price…

If it’s not this album, I’ll be looping their latest single, Taiyo to Kimi ga Egaku Story, which I must say is very catchy especially the title song… It contains 4 tracks, 3 songs and an instrumental of  the title song.

It’s proving to be rather popular too, with 19 left on stock at CDJapan, the last time I checked. Even a certain boss of a dream company is a fan of the group.

Ah the other stuff, a coaster from my friend’s webbing dinner… So nice… It’s made of glass, I wonder when it will be my turn… Lady GaGa’s “The Fame Monster” I should have bought this 2 months ago instead… Since it’s a 2 CD release and includes the songs from “The Fame”. If you notice, this is the Singapore Edition, a strip down version at a very nice economical price.

Lastly in the picture is a pin, this one I got in a lucky draw or something like that, when we at ani-culture.net visited the best office to work at in Singapore. Will talk more about it in another post… =D

Then I increased my collection of manga, with volume 11 of Trinity Blood and Yuu Watase’s new work, Arata Kangatari, both from Chuang Yi. I must give them an applaud after all they have been churning out volumes more regularly now. And they are now releasing Black Lagoon at a pleasant speed of 1 volume a month! Did you know they now have an online store?

Of cos I have gotten it already, and this is my most liked cover so far. It’s just beautiful. Funny how this series can get pass the censorship board with much changes… or a visible warning sign. Oh yea, this manga is only recommend to those 15 and above.
With this, I end my loot post for the month… Nothing much, but do look forward to the next one, it might contain the Blu-ray animes.

Popularity: unranked [?]

You know what, looks like mine and ken’s Jiggy has been uploaded on the site already, and so you can vote for us… But that does not matter, for I am here to bring you some photos of the Canon 300HS. The one that we were playing with in the video, as you can see from my entry, we get to play with 2  out of the 3 colours available. Red, White and Black or isit gray…

Even our dear friends, Yuki and Drossel came out to greet the cameras… Yuki being so silently curious of the camera even got onto a scooter to race them…

Now for some information so you can digest properly.

It’s a 10MP camera with a DIGI 4 image sensor, the same one as the DSLR like 550D. The 300HS has just recently been launched in various location around the world and it’s design is just stunning, apparently based on a Lamborghini. The function it comes with includes a new video mode called super slow-mo, with which I’ll demonstrate later…

It uses a SD Card is compatible with my SDHC 8GB by kingston. Do note that, this post is not an in-debt review of the camera, it’s merely post to show you how nice the 300HS looks like.

Now for the photos…Hope you like them.

For more product information, do visit Canon Singapore’s site.

Now what other camera should we review…

Popularity: unranked [?]

Currently there is a competition going on at the website of Canon Singapore, and it a rather fun one. Something like the extended version of Pass it on, it’s name is “Get Jiggy with IXUS“.

Writers of ani-culture.net have also been invited to take part, when we went down to preview the new IXUS 300HS(It’s a beauty) recently. I’m sure our’s have not been uploaded yet. But if you do take a look, MYNT’s Yoshimi and Miyake have already entered the contest.

It’s really simple, fun and rewarding if you win, 2 tickets to Sydney, Australia with a new IXUS 130. All you need to do is submit a video of no more then 15 seconds, doing something fishy creative with your Canon IXUS camera, if you don’t have one… Just download it, really, it’s in the howto page.

Link: Canon SG|Styleaction Select “Get Jiggy with IXUS” on the Menu.

PS: There are no rules, just don’t do anything perverted…

Popularity: unranked [?]

As if by doing this post, I have not created more competition to win the prize… I’m going to let you know that you photos might also be used and seen by a lot of people. But it’s not that easy, there will be a voting process for this. So have fun!

And I’ll still win… I think… orz…

Prize Details

So you like Anime? You collect figurines? You absolutely love Japanese pop culture? Whatever your fancy, we would like you to show the world!

Simply, tell us what is “Japan Pop Culture” to you!

To enter this contest, send us an image of what symbolizes your passion for Japanese pop culture, together with a header explaining how you relate to this image.

Your entry will be made public, and the image with the most votes stand a chance to win S$300 worth of exclusive anime products!

Need more Details?
Read the Official Rules

About the Company
SOZO represents a cutting edge entertainment and youth-marketing driven company. Made up of a diverse talented pool of industry professionals, SOZO is focused towards developing entertainment content and service platforms… [more]

Follow this link to take part in the competition… Dammit, you still found it… orz…

Popularity: 2% [?]

Did you know just 3 hall away from License 2 Play, there is a Popular Fair and in there, there’s a RC Car Drifting circuit. Apparently there will be a competition later today, 30th May 2010. The cars are just awesome… too bad I don’t have the proper lens… … But here are some tries… Don’t blame me…

It’s the HPI Open Drift Challenge @ Singapore Expo 30th May

It sure is hard to shoot something so small on a 50mm… … …

Btw, I managed to find their schelude and they are open for audience participation other then for the competition happening later today. see,

We will be having a HPI Open Drift Challenge @ S’pore Expo Hall 3 as follows:-

28-May : Audience Participation & Free Practice
==============================
Session 1 – 1.00pm to 2.30pm (Audience Participation)
Session 2 – 4.00pm to 5.30pm (Audience Participation)

29-May : Audience Participation & Free Practice
==============================
Session 1 – 1.00pm to 2.30pm (Audience Participation)
Session 2 – 4.00pm to 5.30pm (Audience Participation)

30-May : Competition Day (NO Audience Participation)
====================================
From 10.00am to 7.00pm

31-May : Audience Participation
=====================
Session 1 – 1.00pm to 2.30pm
Session 2 – 4.00pm to 5.30pm
Session 3 – 7.00pm to 8.30pm

1-Jun : Audience Participation
=====================
Session 1 – 1.00pm to 2.30pm
Session 2 – 4.00pm to 5.30pm
Session 3 – 7.00pm to 8.30pm

This is so great!

I don’t think I’ll be heading down for the competition thou… too bad… Since I technically have my fill today…

Source: RCTECH Forum|HPI Open Drift Challenge @ S’pore Expo 30-May

Popularity: 4% [?]

Hmm, it’s true, the only thing that is keeping the event interesting is Blizzard’s Starcraft 2, distributed by IAH games. Other then that, the whole hall can be considered a No Event…

Well there might be a small Toy Fair right at the end of the hall, a booth by the NLB promoting their new FACEBOOK app, and kind people from MovieMania cosplaying game characters for us, but that is all that should interest us…

Unless you are troubled by Cyber bullying…

Even at the Blizzard Booth, you will only be disappointed by the price of the Pre-order, which include a piece of paper, a dogtag and free Starcraft II Beta-code, at a price of SG$109. It’s the normal version… Which in the US will cost you only SG$90(US$60) tops… And for 30 more you can get the very well packaged Limited Edition.

This is just Daylight robbery… $20 more for almost nothing extra… and they are expect us to join in the party on 27th July… haiz… why like dat?!

So if you really need to have Starcraft II, you might as well just order from Playasia.com, at least they are reasonable with the price at SG$92 with free delivery in Singapore. Now you pay less and have no need to go pick it up, like the rest buying from IAH…

IAH Games, you are a Disappointment… Ripping off people like that… But I did have fun playing a bit of Starcraft II at the event, even though I got owned upside down by a protoss player… He lied to me, saying that he is a noob… … even after I declaring that I’m new…

Popularity: 17% [?]

Well I took 1 small step to becoming more aware of the local anime scene tonight, joining quite a few other of the We Love Nendroid and Figmas movement, for dinner at Mr. Curry. I had a whole load of fun, and saw a lot of interesting stuff, i.e the Fate Nendroid that I was pondering whether to buy or not at KKNM, earlier that day.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 4% [?]