One Piece #389

random screencaps from ep389.
(taken from Kaizoku Fansubs forum)

no, Sanji is not kicking himself.


and look at the obvious differences in their faces!


not that it's not hilarious anyway. heehee.

they had Seki Toshihiko to voice Duval, AKA guy-who-looks-like-Sanji-in-bounty.

most would probably remember him fondly as Sanzo in Saiyuki. i think it's rather fitting a character, given that Duval does eventually become a "bishonen".

courtesy of Sanji of course.

my new lovelies~

after making the effort (i even had to endure the 20min walk from Kallang MRT cos i missed the shuttle bus and was running late) to go down to Kallang Leisure Park last friday to get my latest One Piece gashapons, i thought it was only proper that i blogged about what i bought.

the One Piece Unlimited Cruise Location part 2 collection, complete with 2 secret variants of Luffy and Chopper, seen below in the middle.



i know i've put up random collections as i've bought them, eg. GSD petit studio, other OP collections, but i've never listed all of them before.

inspired, i shall try in my next entry, to "introduce" all my existing collections, including my mobile straps collections, if i manage to sort them out properly.

as of my latest collection, i have a total of 12 sets of OP gashapons and/or figurines.

my pride and joy would all be revealed soon.

new layout

have been wanting to upgrade the layout for ages, but i could never find a good picture for use.

after many tries and errors, finally finally managed to photoshop a decent yuuko picture.



and yes, my PS skills hadn't improved much since the last time.

nor my html skills.

*shrugs*

oh well, i tried my best anyway.

the new layout will make things much easier for me since they come in those page elements thingy that does all the html crap for me.

especially since i update my anime status very frequently.

the lesser html there is, the better.

tp actually posted a comment in the cbox before i even posted a blog entry. ahaha.

recommending anime

meow meow asked me to recommend her some anime during our kopi session tonight.

she is in the middle of changing jobs and has another week's break before hitting the new job in feb.

at that exact moment, i don't know whether it's because i was brain-dead, or was it really difficult to recommend anime i think might interest her.

as many of you know, i watch almost anything and everything though i tend to stay away from female harem series now.

and while i can take most romance genre, even then, i can't stomach series like clannad or DC or white album.

i'm more into rom-com (romantic comedies), love most slice-of-life, fantasy, sci-fi, and have an obvious fetish for mecha and vampire series. not forgetting my BL and male harem which i've been watching alot for the past few years.

well, after coming back and reading through myanimelist.net, here's a list of wat meow meow can try taking a look at.

1) Hyakko (absolute fun, no brainer)
2) Ga-Rei Zero (fantastic story, great fighting scenes)
3) Kannagi (another no brainer)
4) Soul Eater (great plot, shinigami fighting)
5) Toradora (rom-com)
6) Antique Bakery (for the BL lover)
7) Over Drive (cycling, sports)
8) Macross Frontier (great music)
9) Gurren Lagaan (mecha, fantastic show)

if you have time for long series

1) ARIA series (Aria the Animation, Aria the Natural, Aria the OVA, Aria the Origination)
2) Kyou Kara Maou (S1&2: 78 episodes, S3: finishing soon at 39 episodes)
3) Code Geass (for the drama-mama's)
4) Honey & Clover (did u watch this? or was this moo moo?)

hope something will interest you from so many series.

state of my walls

how my room, or basically, how my walls, has evolved over the last 4 years since i came back from tassie.

Year 2005



my walls were full of posters, the curtains were drawstring type which accumulated lots of dust and were impossible to clean.

i was also sharing room with my sister so the room seemed so much more smaller, with her mattress on the floor and the extra fan and something else i can't remember beside my table.

fast-forward 3 years later...


Year 2008



in between the 3 years, i managed to,
1) get my room back (i.e. my sis also finally got her own room)
2) got a new bed and mattress, together with new chest of drawers
3) changed my laptop from a toshiba to my current Sony Vaio-C.
4) changed my curtains to easy-to-wash cloth ones.
5) repainted my walls

i was intending to blue-tack up all my posters again after the repainting, but you know how procrastination totally messes up your most well-thought plans?

*shrugs*

anyway, i kinda like my walls empty now.

fast-forward another year...


Year 2009, 1 week before CNY



and in less than 1 year, i've done another revamp,
1) gotten rid of both of the wall shelves that you saw in the previous 2 photos
2) replaced it with my pride and joy IKEA cupboard holding my gashapons, figurines and manga
3) replaced my old and quite possibly very dirty table with another IKEA product.

and just last week, i've repainted the slab of wall behind my bed a glorious purple.

the whole point of this entire post is really just to show my pretty new feature wall, which is a rich HARMONIOUS PURPLE color.

it was really just to cover the ugly drill marks holes that were still left behind from the wall shelves that were taken down in oct.

yes, it has been that long. i told you procrastination messes you up.

anyway, cos papa didn't have any of the wall paint left from previously, it was either blue-tacking up some posters to cover the holes, or buy wallpaper, or buy paint.

so painting it was. plus, i've always wanted to do a feature wall.

i painted 75% of it myself, so i did feel quite accomplished. mama bought everyone new curtains for CNY, so i have new purple curtains to go along with my new wall too.

^_^.``


so let me side-track alittle here...

the SELF FIX shop @ JP has the coolest machine.

did you know that paint colors don't just come in tins now? when i was at the counter choosing colors, i had my doubts on whether they had the color i chose from the color palette. cos the counter looks really small and doesn't seem like it has much stock of anything much.

so when i told the person my decision, he just asked me for the color code, took a tin of white paint, keyed the color code into the computer and place the tin at the dispensary area.

and just like coffee coming out of a coffee machine, the machine dispensed the correct amount of primary colors to give me my harmonious purple.

in the tin goes into another machine that vigorously shakes the tin to mix the paint contents.

! ! !

i was like,

"WOW!

is it just me? or does everyone know this already?"

now you don't have to worry about the paint shop not having the color you want.

that's pretty neat stuff.

Winter 2008

comparing to last winter where i only picked up 4 series, the current winter season looks so much more promising.

1) Shikabane Hime Kuro

direct sequel to the previous Shikabane Hime, one wonders why they even need to give a new last name to it.

initially, it had all the makings of a great series. somewhere, somehow, it wandered off into the land of boredom. i got through the 1st season, i'm just not sure if i can stay through the 2nd one. give me another couple of episodes to decide.

2) Maria Holic

psuedo-yuri romantic comedy. male-phobia girl enrolls in an all girls school only to find out that the "love-of-her-life" is a cross-dressing younger boy.

unlike most cross-dressing anime, the cross-dresser here is actually the one in control. that's already a freshing take from the usual. hopefully, lots of laughter ahead.

3) Zoku Natsume Yuujin-Chou

Natsume is back to free more spirits from his grandma's Book of Friends. and to gather more tears and heart-warming moments from everybody else. one of the best slice-of-life series i've watched. =)

4) Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo

space colonies, girls with mechas, artifical intelligence.

does anyone think it's similar to Vandread yet? the only interesting thing that made me continue watching this, was when Fukuyama Jun's voice came out as the AI of an abandoned colony.

i'm sure it perked the interest of most 1st episode viewers too, since most of us are more familiar with putting Fukuyama with a face, compared to a machine.

5) RIDE BACK

ballerina girl gives up ballet after hurting her ankle, but finds new inspiration in life after getting involved with the latest mecha craze in her university, called Ridebacks.

think mini-transformers on wheels, only cooler.

talk about girls with mechas. this had me way excited even after watching the trailers. the animation for this series is fantastically beautiful. add that to loads of heart-pumping racing scenes and load of politics (obviously), and you have yourselves a winning combi.

6) Chrome Shelled Regios

koyasu-sama, koyasu-sama, koyasu-sama.
that's my main draw to the series. plot-wise, there's nothing much out of the ordinary.

emo male lead (who obviously knows how to fight) hides as a normal course student instead of going to the battle course.
he gets found out (of course) after saving a girl on his 1st day at school.
he is then promptly transferred to a platoon which is ("surprise surprise") one man short.
continue on as he and platoon mates defends their city from gigantic bugs.

it's really not all that interesting, but hopefully, the animation quality will be able to make up for the rest. as long as there's no drop in quality that is.

-----------------------------------------

so that's the 6 new titles i'll be picking up. i did watch Kurokami and Akikan!, but nothing good enough to spark my interest.
Kurokami was because I couldn't stand the male lead.
Akikan! was just plain stupid. ultimately ridiculous. i can't believe Fukuyama Jun even voiced the male lead.

anyway, i still have my hands quite full with the other series from Fall 2008. the whole Christmas season, WII parties and going out almost every other night had me backlogging many of my series.

i haven't touched G00 since ep9 and i'm dying to know what is happening.

i need to run an anime marathon soon.

thankfully, CNY is just around the corner.

Sogeking

had a hard time deciding what to put up.

i was gonna put up another funny Usopp clip, but Sogeking won me over with his ultra-funny song.

i'll post the other clip in future.

anyway, that's the end of my One Piece withdrawal.

for now.

One Piece is back in its regular sunday slot after a week's break.

i can't wait to get my OP dose.

heehee.

ビンクスの酒

the song that was the core of the Rumbar Pirates.

Binks' Sake.

i shall be posting the last One Piece post for the week tomorrow.

Chopperman

Hero of Justice!

His weapon is his cuteness!

KYUUN SPARK!!

His special attack, Kyuun Spark, causes any enemy to pass out!

~~KYAAA!~~

~~KAWAI~~

仁義ない TIME

part 4 of the Mugiwara Theater that ran after the end of episode 282.

wanted to upload Chopperman instead, but this is just too funny.

even if the joke was on Sanji.

Luffione: Sanjino, a man like you without your hair all back has no reason to be the boss.

Sanjino: I did have a reason, and I did put one side back!

Luffione: "Only half?! Does that mean you only have half your balls too?!"

mwahahaha.

Chopperman in the next post.

One Piece Soccer King Special!

not cos it's soccer per say, since everyone knows how much i actually hate soccer.

i'm just suffering from slight One Piece withdrawal, since there was no new episodes of OP this week.

so instead, i'm scouting around youtube, looking for short OP clips.

my favorite cos sanji is all so drool-worthy here.

ahahaha.

will be posting 1 short clip a day this week.

enjoy~

2008 Top-Selling Manga

news from ANN,

the Top 10 best-selling manga by series in japan are,

01) One Piece (5,956,540 copies)
02) Naruto
03) 20th Century Boys
04) Katekyo Hitman Reborn!
05) Bleach
06) NANA
07) Soul Eater
08) Nodame Cantabile
09) Rookies
10) Gintama

as for the Top 10 best-selling manga by volume in japan,

01) One Piece #50 (1,678,208 copies)
02) One Piece #51 (1,646,978 copies)
03) NANA #19
04) One Piece #49 (1,544,000 copies)
05) NANA #20
06) Nodame Cantabile #20
07) Nodame Cantabile #21
08) Naruto #43
09) Naruto #42
10) Fullmetal Alchemist #19

somehow, i'm surprised that Nodame and Nana got into Top10 for both lists.

hmm.

maybe i shouldn't be surprised, since both series had anime and live-action adaptations that were immensely popular.

but all in all,

ONE PIECE (still) RULES!!

WOHOOOOO!!!

^_^.``

2008 Anime round-up

thinking of a creative way to start my 1st post of the year.

though i am tempted to do it like the other anime blogs i read, by doing up "Best-of-2008", i realized i can never choose an ultimate favorite.

so instead, i decided to list down all the anime series i've followed through for the entire 2008.

Winter 2007 (jan-mar 2008)
01) Ah! Megami-sama! Tatakau Tsubasa
02) ARIA The ORIGINATION
03) Hatenkou Yuugi
04) PERSONA -trinity soul-
05) Spice & Wolf

Spring 2008 (apr-jun 2008)
06) Allison & Lillia
07) Amatsuki
08) Bus Gamer
09) CODE GEASS Hangyaku no Lelouch R2
10) Junjou Romantica
11) Kyou Kara Maou! 3rd Season (on-going)
12) Macross Frontier
13) Nabari no Ou
14) Neo Angelique Abyss
15) Special A
16) SOUL EATER (on-going)
17) Toshokan Sensou
18) Vampire Knight
19) Wagaya no Oinarisama
20) xxxHOLic Kei

Summer 2008 (jul-sep 2008)
21) Antique Bakery~
22) Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto ~Natsu no Sora~
23) Natsume Yuujin-chou
24) Neo Angelique Abyss -Second Age-
25) Xam'd: Lost Memories (on-going)
26) Zero no Tsukaima ~Princesses no Rondo~

Fall 2008 (oct-dec 2008)
27) Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka
28) ef - a tale of melodies
29) GA-REI -zero-
30) Gundam 00 S2 (on-going)
31) Hakushaku to Yousei
32) Hyakko
33) Junjou Romantica S2
34) Kannagi
35) Kuroshitsuji (on-going)
36) Kurozuka
37) Mouryou no Hako
38) Nodame Cantabile Paris
39) Shikabane Hime Aka
40) Skip Beat! (on-going)
41) Tales of the Abyss (on-going)
42) Tentai Senshi Sunred (on-going)
43) To Aru Majutsu no Index (on-going)
44) Toradora! (on-going)
45) Vampire Knight Guilty
46) Yozakura Quartet

let's not forget those that have been on-going since forever,
47) Bleach
48) Katekyoushi Hitman Reborn
49) One Piece

WOW!

it's only after listing down that it dawned on me how much anime i watch in 2008.

O_o

i'm 1 series short of hitting 50.
OVAs and movies not included.

2008 has been pretty good to me.

so, here's to a fruitful 2009!

^_^.``

Winter 2008 coming up soon.

Rabbids Christmas

Merry Christmas minna~

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh!!!!

One Piece #378-381

in which they did Brook's past and finished up the Thriller Bark arc.

gosh, these 4 episodes had my tears running more than when i was reading the manga.

i think it's the music.

u need the music to bring out the whole effect. and the talented people who does the BGM for One Piece always manages to get the right music across.

~~yo ho ho ho ho ho ho ho~~

~~yo ho ho ho ho ho ho ho~~

next week is the start of another filler arc, which is pretty much expected by most.

One Piece usually have better fillers comparatively to the rest like Naruto or Bleach. although for the last filler arc, i only remember macho twins ice-skating like mad.

hmm, wasn't all that entertaining really.

this time, they brought back Foxy! remember him, the fox look-a-like who can slow down people's movement? well, i'm not the biggest fan, so i can only hope the filler arc wouldn't screw up.

*prays earnestly*

AU-WACS

from madam (formerly known as birdy), when i told AU to welcome me to the WII club.

---------------------------------------
Welcome roar roar for officially joining Animals United WII Association Club of Singapore (AU-WACS: pronounce as 'O'~wacks ).

- Free membership for lifetime
- No monthly subscription required
- No cards required
- Free loaning of Wii buddies for your Wii training
- Enjoy 0% Interest-free loaning of games from your Wii buddies
- Festive seasons enjoy special deals like gift exchange with your Wii buddies and WIN a trip to changi broadwalk on the 27th Dec (tour guide provided) (subjected to weather conditions)
- Get a chance to recieve personal training on your Wii games from your Wii buddies (subjected the pro-level of your Wii buddies as well)
- There is also a weekly promotion, to savour your favourite drink @ your favourite coffee house with your Wii buddies (drinks and cakes are not included)
- For more promotions please stay tuned to our e-meow Animals United news group.
---------------------------------------

trust her to come up with these kind of creative ideas.

but anyway, the main point is...

~i got my WII~

~~WOHOO!!~~

and we, me and my sis each paid half, got it at a very good bargain too. well, at least better than what donny had for his. heehee...

but of course, still must thank him, who did all the negotations with the seller and setting up of the whole set in my house.

finally had the 1st Wii party at my own house last night.

i might have overdid it while playing Mario Olympics cos my arms are aching like mad now...

though i doubt i'll have much time to play these next week or so, with all the busy-ness of Christmas programs, but at least i have my Wii set now.

which reminds me...

10 days more days to Christmas!

i can't wait to go on leave after that...

WOOHOO!!

if there was...

...a big kinokuniya store at the new JP extension (now known as JP2), there would be no need to go down to Orchard.

seriously.

the new extension is not juz HUGE, the amount of shops inside can rival 2-3 other heartland malls combined.

seriously.

to name a few, there's Aussino, Four Leaves, Burger King, Challenger, Blum, Joop, M)phosis, Ding Tai Fung, Adidas, Hur, Pretty Fit, etc.

even as of now, there are still some shops that aren't opened yet. so when everything is really up and running, probably within the next week, JP is gonna be packed with loads of people.

not that it ever lacked people in the first place.

it helps that the it is also easy to walk around. no winding passages like VivoCity, just long straight rows of shops that are easy to walk about it.

so seriously, if there really was a kinokuniya in JP2, who needs to go down to Orchard.

i can't wait to go through all the shops soon!!

Post AFA08

for a first time ever anime convention, i thot AFA08 was a big success.

i wouldn't say it was a huge success, cos obviously there was much more things that can be improved. but regardless, in trying to draw the crowd in, they did a pretty good job.

of course, with a finale ending of May'n on stage, it HAD to end with a huge bang. the turn-out of fanboys, and fangirls, was enormous. everyone was pushing around trying to get closer to the stage.

and as darkmirage had mentioned, her vocals were fantastic! it was great hearing her sing live, even though i had to stand all the way at the back. i may be a fangirl, but i still wouldn't pay the money to get the VIP access. *coughs*cheapskate*coughs*

thank goodness for moo moo and her 12x zoom camera! i'll probably post some of the nicer photos when i have time to go through them.

i was slightly disappointed with the variety of cosplayers too. too many people as bleach, naruto, gin-tama and vampire knight characters. or maybe i'm juz grouchy cos there was not even one who cosplayed as anyone in One Piece.

or could they be reserving their energy for next month's EOY08?
hmm...

as with singaporean culture, here's some suggestions to how it could've been better:

1) better lightings; it was really difficult to take photos of the figurines and posters cos the lighting was all wrong. you'll get what i mean when i post the photos.

2) better sound system; it wasn't all that bad. or at least, it wasn't all that bad from way back. but i heard from others that it wasn't all that great up front of the stage.

3) more guests; i want my seiyuus! and maybe some mangakas?

4) proper screenings; when they said anime screenings, the least i expected was that they would screen one episode (eg. Ep1) of each series they were promoting. definitely NOT just the OP on replay mode.

5) lesser power rangers & tamagochi; seriously, i know they wanna reach out even to the kids, but still! despite having to sound like a total b*tch, i wanna stress that this is an ANIME convention, not family convention. families, please go to sentosa where it was grandparent's day on sunday, or Bookfest on 6th level.

all in all, the success of AFA08 will most likely guarantee that we will have AFA09 next year. let's hope things will be bigger and better then!

Countdown AFA08

TWO days to AFA08 at suntec city convention halls 403-404.

except for Ichirou Mizuki's performance on sat 7pm, the cosplay competition on sun 2pm and May'n performance at 7pm, non of the other program schedules is up on the website yet.

WHY IS THE SCHEDULE NOT UP YET??!!

i wanna know what i will be missing in the mornings of both days.

another to the bimbo collection

my mouse died on me this morning.

although i had been thinking of changing mouse recently, i didn't actually think it would die on me so soon.

ughhhhhh.

in any case, i bought a new mouse from Courts.

TA-DAAA!!!



ohohohohohohohohoho....

pretty pretty crystals adorns my new PINK mouse.

now my laptop and the accessories match perfectly.



PINK laptop - CHECK!

PINKish-purple speakers - CHECK!!

PINK mouse - CHECK!!!

whole set - COMPLETE