Jul
23

Cyber Maid Alice - Every perverty Otaku’s dream

Cyber Maid Alice

I’m not sure how I should describe this, in a way this is really really cool but at the same time its just so.. ecchi.  Geisha Tokyo Entertainment Inc recently introduced the Cyber Figure Alice for all those lonely otakus out there. How it works is that you’ll get a cyber cube and a few different types of cyber sticks along with a software for your webcam-equipped computer. Once you have setup your computer, you just need to point the camera to the cyber cube, and Cyber Maid Alice will magically appear on the screen where you have placed your cube. Using the cyber sticks, you can “interact” with this new figure. And by “interact” I mean you could peep at her, touch her and naturally, undress her as well. Interesting, no?

Of course there could be many other applications but this technology is still too cool to be ignored. I’ve first heard of such technology, Augmented Reality from NASA’s research lab (if I’m not mistaken) to tag virtual notes and user guides for use in their space station technologies. But of course we could always rely on the Japanese to come up with whacky use of high tech gadgetry. Imagine building a Gundam using virtual parts, you could use it to mix and match different models simply by downloading new parts online and assembling it virtually.

Cyber Maid Alice Features

CrunchGear - Lonely? Try fondling Augmented Reality Cyber Maid Alice

Popularity: 2% [?]

Jul
23

Cowboy Bebop Live Action Movie in the Works

Cowboy Bebop

Via ANN - iF Magazine

THE SKINNY: If anybody is in the mood for some exhilarating, long-anticipated, previously-unannounced breaking news about anime series COWBOY BEBOP, iF Magazine has the exclusive scoop for you.

We caught up with producer-extraordinaire Erwin Stoff at the NBC TCAs where he was promoting his upcoming updated-David-and-Goliath-based show KINGS. When asked about other projects he is currently working on, Stoff, let slip some very juicy news about a very beloved anime franchise.

“I’m developing COWBOY BEBOP for Fox, but doing it as a live-action film, so I’m working on that at the moment,” Stoff tells iF. “I’m really excited to be working on it, and it’s in the really early stages. We just signed it the other day.”

Can’t tell you how excited I am on this movie adaptation, Bebop has some of the most unique characters around and a brilliant score by Yoko Kanno (please get her for this project !) Producer Erwin Stoff mentioned that one of their biggest concern is to keep the adaptation as faithful to the original as possible just as they had done for Philip K Dick’s A Scanner Darkly movie. The movie is still in its early stages, but we’re already prepared for the onslaught of Manga to Movie invasion !

iF Magazine - Exclusive: LIVE-ACTION ‘COWBOY BEBOP’ MOVIE IS IN THE WORKS

Anime News Network - Live-Action Cowboy Bebop Film in Development at Fox

Wikipedia - Cowboy Bebop

Popularity: 2% [?]

Jul
23

More Hikki Goodies

Utada Hikaru

More updates on Hikki. Here are two videos from her live performance of Beautiful World which was the theme song for the Evangelion 1.0 remake and her cover version of Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day. Enjoy.

Beautiful World

Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Hikki Forever Gallery

Zyrex - Utada Hikaru Wallpapers

Popularity: 2% [?]

Jul
22

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006)

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

I managed to catch the screening of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time(Toki o Kakeru Shōjo) last Saturday as part of Golden Screen Cinema’s Japanese Film Festival. TokiKake centers around a cheerful and energetic 17 year old Makoto Konno who by chance discovered the ability to jump back in time for days. With her new found gift, she immediately begins to change the events around her by avoiding mishaps, improving her test grades and also altering some personal relationships with her best friends Chiaki and Kousuke. However she soon realizes that the events that she changes affects the people around her and some takes a turn for the worse.

Makoto, Chiaki and Kousuke makes a very believable and lovable trio of friends. Just when Makoto thinks that the friendship between the three of them will never change, Chiaki decides to confess his feelings for her, and thats when the real mayhem starts. Makoto carelessly leaps back in time over and over again hoping to shape things her way but each ending up in a bigger mess than they originally were.

Makoto literally needs to make huge leaps in order to make her time leaps and this often results in hilarious crashes into the scene and sometimes plowing into people unexpectedly. As she makes more of these leaps, she soon realised that for every mishap that she avoids, someone else will have to take her place in it, and this culminates to the final scene where she has to sacrifice her final jumps to save her best friend’s life.

The animation in this movie is above average, although the details are not as intricate as those produced by Makoto Shinkai’s production, Madhouse still did a great job animating the movie with its busy streets and school halls. The voice acting by the cast is great and Makoto is easily one of the funniest character around. Overall the movie was great fun to watch, the ending could have been better but rest of the show was entertaining enough to be forgiven.

Director
Mamoru Hosoda
Producer
Takashi Watanabe (Kadokawa Shoten)
Yūichirō Saitō (Madhouse)
Writer
Yasutaka Tsutsui (original novel)
Satoko Okudera (screenplay)

Running Time :  98 minutes

Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Golden Screen Cinemas - Japanese Film Festival 2008

Wikipedia - The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Popularity: 3% [?]

Jul
21

The Dark Knight (2008)

Why so serious

There’s already a lot of buzz surrounding this movie and lots more in depth reviews out there but I thought I’d just whip out a short review (minor spoilers). The Dark Knight is truly a landmark in the superhero movie genre. Never has there been a more serious and dark portrayal of the caped crusader doing what he does best, fighting crime. The Dark Knight doesn’t try to save the world or anything that epic, rather he’s cleaning up  Gotham City of its corruption and wiping out organized crime. The movie plays out like a dark moody detective drama with a healthy dose intense action sequences. If Batman Begins was the turning point from the earlier corny movie adaptions by Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher, then The Dark Knight comes to a full circle. No more corny gadgets or weapons of mass destruction, just raw mayhem and destruction as orchestrated by one of the best villains in super hero history, The Joker.

Christian Bale reprises his role as the Dark Knight and this time sees him more in his Bat suit kicking butt but the real star in this movie has got to be the villains. A lot has been said about the late Heath Ledger’s performance in this movie and I must agree, his portrayal of the Joker is a truly disturbing. His mere presence on screen would give you the chills as someone truly hell bent on creating chaos. Aaron Eckhart who plays Gotham City’s District Attorney, Harvey Dent gave an excellent performance as a ally who was later driven insane and became the infamous Two-Face Harvey. The rest of the cast held up just as good and made the movie truly fantastic.

The general overtone in the movie is dark and brings up some moral dilemma faced by our hero. Can one truly serve justice by breaking the laws that uphold it in the first place? The Dark Knight is no doubt an one heck of a movie experience of the year.

Director:
Christopher Nolan
Writers:
Jonathan Nolan
Christopher Nolan

Christian Bale - Bruce Wayne / Batman
Heath Ledger - The Joker
Aaron Eckhart - Harvey Dent / Two-Face
Michael Caine - Alfred Pennyworth
Maggie Gyllenhaal - Rachel Dawes
Gary Oldman - Lt. James Gordon
Morgan Freeman - Lucius Fox

Running Time : 2hrs 31mins

Rating: ★★★★★★★★★½

The Dark Knight Official Website

Popularity: 3% [?]

Jul
21

Taylor’s University College Anime Fest 2008

Venue : MPH Hall Taylor’s University College, Main Campus, Subang Jaya
Date : 26/07/2008(Saturday)
Time : 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Address: Taylor’s University College Main Campus
No. 1, Jalan SS 15/8, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan.
Admission Fees: RM5

Taylor’s University College of Subang Jaya is organizing their annual Anime Fest 2008 at their main campus this Saturday from 10am till 7pm. There will be cosplay competitions, performances as well as lucky draws.  Booths selling Doujinshi and other merchandise will also be set up at the hall.

Schedule of Events
7 – 9 am Setup
9 – 10 am Arrival of participants
10 – 10:15 am Speech
10:15 – 10:30 am Performance
10:30 – 11:30 am Cosplay Competition: First Round
11:30 – 12 noon On-stage games
12 – 12:15 pm Lucky Draw
12:15 – 1 pm Break
1 – 2 pm Art Competition
2 – 2:30 pm Lucky Draw
2:30 – 3 pm Question and Answer Session
3 – 4 pm Stepmania
4 – 5 pm Cosplay Competition: Final Round
5 – 5:30 pm Performance
5:30 – 6 pm Prize Giving and Lucky Draw

Comic Fiesta - Anime Fest 2008

Popularity: 4% [?]

Jul
14

July Gunpla Updates

 A number of new BB Senshi releases (including prototypes) and Exia’s new TransAm mode which appears to be in Pearl finish.

BB Senshi Kampfer

Rakuten - BB Senshi Sangokuden Ryomou Dijeh / Kannei Kämpfer Gou Assault Marines

BB Gelgoog

Hobbynet - BB Senshi Sangokuden Chouryou Gelgoog

BB Doven Wolf

Hobbynet - BB Senshi Sangokuden Shuusou Doven Wolf

BB Hyaku Shiki

Hobbynet - BB Senshi Sangokuden Shuuyu Hyaku Shiki

Exia Transams Mode

Hobbynet - 1/100 Gundam Exia EXF (Trans-Am Mode)

Popularity: 6% [?]

Jul
11

Gundam 00 Season 2 Updates

Gundam 00 Season 2

Gundam OO’s official site has been updated with a whole load of new information on the upcoming season 2. Check out our hero’s new hardware below, the OO Gundam. It has not one but two GN Drives this time. Also missing in the new redesign is the glowing green orb in the center, so it looks more like the traditional Gundam design.

Gundam 00

Gundam 00 Official Website

Popularity: 7% [?]

Jul
11

Artist of the Month - Utada Hikaru

 Utada Hikaru

Via WikiPedia

Hikaru Utada (宇多田 ヒカル Utada Hikaru, born January 19, 1983), also known by her fans as Hikki (ヒッキー Hikkī?), is a third culture singer-songwriter, arranger and record producer in Japan. She is well-known internationally for her two theme song contributions to Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts video game series. Utada’s first official Japanese album First Love became the best-selling album of all time in Japan with over 7.65 million copies sold to date in Japan alone (10.056 million worldwide to date), cementing her status in the music industry in Japan. The release of her later works only help her reign as one of Japan’s top artist, with three of her Japanese studio albums being rank in the Top 10 all-time best-selling albums in Japan ranking (#1, #4, #8). She has had 12 #1 hits to date on the Oricon Singles chart, with a record five of them being million-sellers and four placing in the Top 100 List of Japan’s All-Time Best-selling Singles (the former record for a female solo or group artist she has tied with Namie Amuro, Pink Lady, and Ayumi Hamasaki ).

In addition, Utada has won the Nihon Golden Disk “Song of the Year” award for fourteen of her singles since 2000 and has won the Golden Disc “Pop/Rock Album of the Year” award for all four of her Japanese studio albums. In 2003, Utada was ranked the #24 Japanese pop artist in its survey of “Top 100 Japanese Pop Artists of All Time” by HMV,and #10 in HMV’s “Top 30 Best Japanese Singers of All Time” in 2006.

In 2007, her single “Flavor of Life” reached #2 in worldwide digital download yearly single chart with over 7.2 million downloads (the only non-American artist to hold such a distinction), and she sold a total of 12 million digital ringtones and songs in that same year, making her the first artist ever to have this many digital sales in a year’s time.

One of the more successful Jpop artist in recent times, Utada Hikaru, has never showed signs of slowing down. I’ll just leave you with a video of her Live version of Simple and Clean.

Official Utada Hikaru’s Website 

Wikipedia - Utada Hikaru

UtadaNet - A Comprehensive Udata Hikaru Fansite

Popularity: 7% [?]

Jul
10

Gunime Papercraft

Gunime Papercraft

Found this great site  that has various types of different papercraft from animes to mechas. There are some really impressive papercrafts of anime characters. Check it out below.

Gunime Papercraft

Popularity: 8% [?]

J-Pop Music