Passionate about anime

By Alicia Doyle, Correspondent
October 18, 2006

An Agoura Hills 10th-grader's passion for anime led to her recently performing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic as Yuna Braska, a character who appears in the anime video game series "Final Fantasy."

Fourteen-year-old Ashley Parish was picked from among hundreds of entrants to perform at the Hollywood Bowl on Sept. 21 in a special event celebrating anime music, from movies to videos.

Thousands of fans cheered on Parish and other winners, who performed in elaborate costumes as popular anime characters from video games. Anime, a shortened form of "animation," popularly refers to animation originating in Japan.

Article here.

What attracts me to this article is participation of large scale musical group in conjunction with anime. It has come a long way.

Future Power Armour?

The main article is here.

The age of power armour is here, as an inventor in Japan ( what else) going to mass market this suit. Suddenly things that talked about in novels like Starship Trooper by Heinlein and featured in numerous anime mecha genre is taking shape in reality. Sooner or later, military and security application will find this suit irresistable and in this article, this very inventor refused a generous offer from Pentagon to build the suit for military application. US version known as BLEEX is noticeably bulkier and heavy than HAL-5.

Portents of future things to come?

BBC Otaku Test Quiz?

Otaku test from BBC's Japanorama. I scored 7/8 so I am officially an otaku.Hahahahhahahaah

Quiz is here.

Manga Cafes: short summary of history

I remembered these places back in Kuala Lumpur, it is cosy, easy on eye and stacks of mangas lining the wall waiting to be rented by patrons. The shops do not have facilities described like in the following article but they do have an almost similar concept to it. For otakus, it is also a place to check up and sometimes pick up girls, since they share the same passion for manga. I do wonder how well it will do, if something like this open in Western nations.

Tokyo's 'manga ' cafes serve a restless generation

TOKYO — Whether they be 200-year-old teahouses or modern-day coffee shops, "kissaten" (traditional cafes) hold a special place in Japan's national psyche. These are places where green tea greased the cogs for secret rendezvous between shogun and coup-plotting rebel leaders, and where kimono-clad girls doled out sexual favors over a brew of Vienna's finest. They are also where longhaired hippies could wig out all day on obscure free jazz records for the price of an American blend. A trip to a "kissaten" has long been about a whole lot more than just sipping on a hot beverage.

The latest incarnation of this noble trend, "manga kissa," can be found almost exclusively in metropolitan areas, hovering out of sight a few floors above or below ground level. They play host to a round-the-clock procession of no-nonsense businessmen, bashful teenage couples, students and parents who can leave the kids at the on-site nursery and indulge in a quick fix of manga and mocha.

Full article.


An old article.

Malaysian cosplay

Well, just more coverage on my country's cosplay scene. Nothing much to shout about, nothing less to scream in horror about. I have few friends who were into this hobby and it would seem that top cosplays is often gothic lolita genre. Quite a number of females are also into this anime, Saiyuki (anime interpretation of Journey to the West story)

This is their latest story.



Cosplaying’s cool
By MICHAEL CHEANG

Dressing up in fancy costumes is no longer just child’s play. Nowadays it’s the adults who love to dress up as their favourite fictional characters. MICHAEL CHEANG takes a peek at the world of cosplaying.

HAVE you ever shared a men’s urinal with a sexy female anime character? Or seen Captain Jack Sparrow crossing the road at Jalan Bukit Bintang? How would you like to go to a party where you can see Wolverine sharing some sushi with an elf, a Jedi and a couple of zombies?

Full article is here.

Second article.

More on Miyazaki Saga

Son of anime master enters family trade
He may have a hit, but he's known as the other Miyazaki - Charles Solomon, New York Times
Sunday, October 22, 2006


(10-22) 04:00 PDT Koganei , Japan -- For Goro Miyazaki, the summer ended on a bittersweet note. This 39-year-old filmmaker had the pleasure of seeing his first movie, the animated feature "Gedo Senki," or "Tales From Earthsea," blossom into the biggest hit of the summer in Japan, as it rose to the top spot and took in more than 7.3 billion yen, about $61.4 million, by the end of September.

But even his success brought inevitable reminders that he is, after all, the other Miyazaki. His Oscar-winning father, Hayao, regarded by many critics as the greatest director working in animation today, has earned much more with his own hits. Ursula K. Le Guin, author of the popular "Earthsea" novels, on which the new film was based, went out of her way to make the distinction on her Web site, calling the father "a genius of the same caliber as Kurosawa or Fellini." She went on to complain about the liberties Goro and his new film took with her work.

More on this.

Now I am still looking to watch the movie but looks like strained ego between father and son has taken into new heights. Why the author made such comparision is beyond me, but I do felt it flame more rivalry juice between them. The anime scene will be graced with the saga of Miyazaki family dispute. I would like to think that both will race with each other producing awesome anime movies that excite the world around us.