A blog specially for Anime & the occasional...regular...frequent...possibly non-existant rantings of Eneeli. Created & maintained by the Real Anime Freak. All Freaks Allowed.
Showing posts with label Naruto/Naruto Shippuden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Naruto/Naruto Shippuden. Show all posts
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Hey oh. Eneeli is now. One more year to being legal.
This year, she didn’t get much celebrating done, thanks to a recent pain in the neck. But never mind that. The many birthday greetings really made her day =D
Thank you to all those who offered a sincere wish or two. As cheesy as it is, I’m glad for these simple messages. It reminds me I’m not forgotten.
On a side note, my mum suddenly and randomly bought me a cake. I got rather suspicious initially (Like, what’s the catch?), but in the end decided to stop thinking too much about this because over-thinking never really did me any good anyway.
I can’t remember the last time I had a birthday cake. It was eons so long ago. Anyway, the cake was one of the best I’ve eaten so far. It was from a cakeshop in Bukit-something. It’s tucked away amongst rows of olden shophouses. I can vaguely recall the location because I went there with her way back when I still donned a seifuku-inspired uniform. There’s a lot of antiques being sold along that street, if my memory served me correctly.
This cakeshop, Lana Cakes, is helmed by this veteran baker who resembles a kindly old grandmother (that was years ago). She still handmixes the cakes herself and kept the secret recipe so well that no one knows what special ingredients she used in her cakes. The shop’s famous for its chocolate fudge cakes which are so sinfully rich, it’s criminal.
I'm tempted to redecorate the cake as Domo. They have the same colour and shape after all XD
The chocolate taste is strong without being overwhelming. And the taste lingers on even after you swallow. Not to mention it’s chewy enough and crumbles in your mouth. It’s so filling that a single slice (I cut the cake into 12 pieces) made me feel kinda bloated. But that’s just me (and my host of digestive problems).
The cake is deliciouso. But it cost a whopping S$40 despite being just 1kg. >_< I don’t know how much do cakes cost nowadays, but I get heartburn just from knowing the price.
It’s once a year, thankfully. I may or may not get a cake next year though.
P.S. There’s plenty of cake left over. Who wants a piece?
On yet another completely different side note.
Naruto Shippuden 114! Orochimaru's life story retold! Seriously though, how he became obsessed with gaining eternal youth and subsequently the power of the Sharingan is perfectly understandable. Poor twisted soul.
The appearances of the Sharingan was nicely done. Sasuke mirroring Itachi when they threatened Orochimaru. Can't wait for their showdown (The outcome of which I already know, but heck. It's gonna be good in Anime, rather than in black and white).
As usual, it was friggin' crowded. It amazes me that despite getting nice large venues, the crowds still overflow every single bloody time. It still irks me time and again that everytime I tried to take a photo, someone nudges/bumps into/blocks me. GRRRRRR.
Anyway, I did manage to take some pretty clear shots of some of the cosplayers there. Yeah, yeah. Missed a whole lot more as usual.
~The Cosplayers~
The ratio of cosplayers to crowd was even smaller than usual. At first that is. I think I missed out on alot of them because of the crowds. All photos were taken by me.
Cloud in a dress was sheer ROFL. I think it was fan-spawned as with all crack ideas.
I think. I hope actually. Coz I can't imagine the Final Fantasy franchise entertaining fangirls by putting Crossdressing Cloud in the game.
The Soi Fong cosplayer was PERFECT. She had that tough look which practically emanated this meanness. It sorta made me a bit hesitant to ask for a photo initially (What if she was TOO MUCH in character?). But when I did, she just nodded mutely and struck a pose even though I might have interrupted her break time.
The pirate, btw, was actually hired by a shop to promote something. He was giving out pamphlets at one point.
~The Competition~
The cosplayers were actually spontaneous and IN CHARACTER. I think the best was Hatsune Miku, she was so genki that she bordered on annoying. I'm not sure if a VOCALOID was suppose to even have a personality to begin with, but if you want judge by looks alone....Then I guess it fits. Typical Japanese Girl character, you see.
Then the guy with the massive wing (from a game, which I don't know) had all but threatened the audience into voting for him. LOL.
Hmm...What else...The afro dude was totally hip! And Kakashi (in spite of a lack of spikes in his hairstyle) remained so Kakashi-like even when the limelight is not on him. He read porn on stage while waiting for the other contestants.
I can't remember everyone, but the one-winged cosplayer was one of the winners. Shows that threats worked pretty well, eh? XD
~The Dolfies~
The dolfies on display had a more Western look, considering their facial features and all. While it's nice to see dolfies with another type of appearence, I still prefer the Asian-looking dolfies. They look more refined somehow.
One example is the very first picture of the black-haired dolfie. His owner had very kindly permitted me a picture. The rest of the dolfies were on display at some booths.
The LEGO Patriotism
It was probably some competition on showing iconic Singapore in the form of LEGO. I was quite impressed considering that many of these works were pretty intricate (buildings and more buildings). But I preferred the orang utan one [1st one in the slideshow]. Guess which Singapore icon it represents? Ah Meng
My favourite LEGO art was this though. It was not a part of the above collection, which was a pity since they just left it sitting in a miscellaneous display shelf of Star Wars merchandise. I just found it kinda cute. It's YODA! (how could anyone not like YODA)
They had this massive graffiti wall out front of the entrances. The graffiti style...Hmm...Psychedelic?
It reminds me of the Beatles. A lot.
This are all the miscellanous random photos I took.
They had famous designers and cartoonists as guests. The range is pretty large, I have to say. The guest cartoonists included people like the Lao Fu Zi creator to modern ones like the creator of Tokidoki. This is a sample of Tokidoki art btw.
Damn cool siah.
What I liked was how down-to-earth the cartoonists were. I mean, they mingled amongst the crowds, signed autographs and did impromptu demostrations. It was cool, their lack-of-airs.
Besides that, there were THOUSANDS of figurines on display. From Star Wars to the Simpsons, it's...Whoa. I wished I spent more time snapping photos of them. It was simply exquiste!
Hopefully the next Singapore Toy & Comic Con would be more organized. And I want to see more cartoonists. And this time, do some research about time beforehand so I can get in onto the fuss. They're cool people who creates cool designs. It'll be a shame not to see them up close. Then they had veternans of the Animation industry give talks as well, but the ignorant me ended up dismissing that in favour of the cosplayeres. T_T
(This is my scrappy Streetfest booklet which got trodden on by accident, hence the shoeprint at the corner)
I arrived there late (as usual) and so, missed out on quite a number of bands.
And then I was running around taking photos and ended up missing a couple more bands. But thus far, these are the ones I've paid attention to.
It wasn't such a good idea to hold a cosplay/music event in such a small area of Suntec City (Where the CONVENTION HALLS could be used instead). To make things worse, the D'J Party clashed with some Canon promotion event. Which resulted in a lose-lose situation for both D'J Party peeps and Canon. The latter gets pissed off by the photography of cosplayers (takes up space) and the rest of us are peeved by them stopping random people to hawk their wares (takes up space). As you can see, this is the crowd AFTER the cosplay competition.
Despite a large no. of people leaving after the cosplay competition, the place was still considerably crowded.
Quis
Quis is relatively new on the scene (3 months old!). Did you know the vocalist was a former child actor? He played the character "Luo Tou" in the 1990s' mandarin drama "Tou Fu Street". In addition to that, he was a finalist in the first generation of Campus Superstar. I was kinda surprised to see him performing in a J-rock band because of all the Mandarin-related work he did.
Anyway, the videos don't do the band justice (Youtube never does). They were certainly much, much better live.
ALONES [by Aqua Timez] (Bleach)
The first cover of ALONES I've heard. These guys are pretty updated loh. At that time, ALONES was the latest Bleach opening theme.
Driver's High [by L'Arc~en~Ciel] (GTO)
Skyler
The vocalist had this uber-strong voice which is easily identified too. However, they seem to have a knack for choosing songs by artists with uniquely different voices (hard to emulate). It's great that they are challenging themselves to cover this kind of songs but they don't always work out though.
Jam [by YUI]
I like Skyler's cover of this. The vocalist's voice doesn't take your attention away from the music (which is actually pleasantly laid-back in a way) but manages to stand out anyhow. =)
YUI has this high-pitched, whiny-ish voice which sets her apart from other J-Pop songstresses, but it tends to grate on my nerves sometimes (That's just me though).
Ooh, I like the flute (Is that a flute?) solo at 2.43. And also the scat thingy she does before that. While it's a little faster than normal, I think it turned quite nicely.
Shiina Ringo (original vocalist) has one of those love-em-or-hate-em voices (with the occasional screeching and all). Just to note.
God Knows...[by Aya Hirano] (Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi)
I think this is a pretty decent cover (I've seen worse ones out there). Though it's kinda clear that the vocalist is quite tense. I'm not used to hearing this song being sung in a lower pitch(?). Aya Hirano has the typical Anime girl voice (a.k.a. High-pitched, squeaky-ish & annoying after prolonged exposure) and she did this song with much aplomb. So "God Knows..." is arguably a difficult song to cover. Kudos to Skyler for trying though.
This very performance led me to discover one of my all-time fave J-Rock songs. I'm partial to this cover since I saw it before the original. But once I got to know about X Japan's one, this cover version was quickly forgotten even though it is the only FEMALE cover version I've seen so far. Because once again, Skyler chose a song which is so closely tied to its original artists that anything else would pale in comparision.
X Japan is practically legendary and their vocalist Toshi had one of the more unique voices in the history of J-Rock. Attempting their songs is a whole new class of "difficult" regardless of whether you're keeping to the original style as much as possible or trying to imbue it with your own style.
Still, I like this cover enough. It's definately one of the better ones.
Although there were many Gothic characters around that day, this lady here caught my attention. She really stood out with her wild white tresses (complete with mask) and slender profile. For some reason she reminded me of Death from the Sandman comics. It's not the physical appearences, but the...mysterious charm they both possess.
Now this is one classy Gothic Lolita. Or should I even classify her as a lolita? She seems so much more mature than the others. The masquerade-like mask added a really nice touch to her poise.
Suzumiya Haruhi (Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi) CHIO!
Lavi (D. Gray Man)
Near (Death Note)
This young cosplayer was unfortunate enough to be the target of a teenage stalker. >_< I'm not kidding here..>_<...Fortunately, said teenage stalker didn't put him off cosplay permanently.
Reborn (Katekyo Hitman Reborn). This guy was with the KHR jumpsuit team. He's perched on Adult!Lambo's head (as seen by the turf of hair there).
Watching the team have fun makes me want to cosplay myself.
now. 
