‘BanG Dream!’ Vol. 1 hits Singapore bookstores March 30, 2017; First-print edition includes exclusive Photo Card

‘BanG Dream!’ Vol. 1 hits Singapore bookstores March 30, 2017;  First-print edition includes exclusive Photo Card

Saturday, April 1, 2017 / No Comments

Singapore, March 28, 2017 – Shogakukan Asia Pte Ltd is pleased to announce that Volume 1 of the highly-anticipated English-language release of Bushiroad Media's BanG Dream! manga book series had arrived in Singapore bookstores on March 30, 2017.

BanG Dream! vol. 1 book cover

First-print edition Photo Card 

©BGDP ©Mami Kashiwabara 2016

To commemorate the launch, an exclusive BanG Dream! illustrated photo card previously only available in Japan will be included in the first-print edition of the book.

Readers in Singapore will also stand a chance to win an A2 sized BanG Dream! tapestry by taking part in a lucky draw contest.

After the launch in Singapore, the book will also be making its way to bookstores in five other Southeast Asian countries: Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Thailand and The Philippines. Shogakukan Asia is also exploring opportunities with overseas partners to release the manga in other territories.

The BanG Dream! manga tells the story of 1st year high school student Kasumi Toyama, who is determined to start a band despite being an absolute beginner.

While the BanG Dream! manga shares the same premise as the hit television anime series currently airing in Japan, Southeast Asia, the US, UK and other regions, the manga provides more comprehensive details to each character and features additional scenes not seen in the anime.

The first chapter of BanG Dream! Volume 1 is available online for preview.

About BanG Dream! The newest title from Bushiroad Inc -- the entertainment company behind Cardfight!! Vanguard, Future Card Buddyfight, Detective Milky Holmes, Weiss Schwarz and other titles – BanG Dream! is a media mix project featuring animated music videos, comics, song releases and much more. What’s more, the voice cast for the characters of BanG Dream! also perform in concerts in real-life as the girls’ band “Poppin’Party”.

BanG Dream! Volume 1 synopsis Kasumi Toyama has always been captivated by the "beat of the stars". Since then, she's been searching for something... a spark that'll excite and thrill her! Following a trail of star-shaped stickers, she soon stumbles upon a Random Star guitar at her school mate's house! Could this mark the start of something amazing? A sparkling, heart-racing high school life begins for Kasumi as she decides to form a band!

About Shogakukan Asia Pte Ltd Shogakukan Asia is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shogakukan Inc in Japan, which was first established on 8 August 1922 as a publishing house that specialises in educational magazines for elementary school children and teachers in Japan. Over the years, Shogakukan gradually expanded both its scale and its range of publications in order to cater to the various needs of its readers from different age groups and demographics.

Established in Singapore on September 2013, Shogakukan Asia was set up to lead the Japanese publisher's business expansion into Asia, especially Southeast Asia. Based in Singapore but with Asia in its vision, Shogakukan Asia adopts the direct publishing model, leveraging the rich experience and know-how in overseas licensing and publication of educational materials.

Since September 2013, Shogakukan Asia has published 95 manga titles and 20 children's educational titles. Its best-selling manga titles include Detective Conan, Silver Spoon, Doraemon, Future Card Buddyfight and Pokémon.

For more information, please visit :
Official Shogakukan Website
Shogakukan Asia Facebook Page

Written by Max

Catching up - Facing fears, Power Rangers and KamiNomi...

Catching up - Facing fears, Power Rangers and KamiNomi...

Thursday, March 30, 2017 / No Comments

March had been an eventful month. 

I had a chance to face my fears of heights by going rock-climbing. Surprisingly, I managed to control it the more I climb. Though it took me a while to trust the harness and the safety rope. 

I mean jumping off from a height while attached to a single rope isn’t what one would think to be safe. But it definitely was a fun experience.

I also went back to my polytechnic to watch a few shortfilms done by the batch after mine. I wouldn’t really call them my juniors as I’ve never really interacted with them. I never really bothered to open up or reach out to them as I’m not really a sociable or outgoing person. And I still am. I still do shy away from conversing with new people. Being pushed to meet my friends’ boyfriend was very awkward for me. Keeping a normal face in front of them was super difficult. It’s like meeting face to face with my sister’s boyfriend. Well, not that she has one. Does she?

I also went to watch the Hollywood adaptation of a series that’s famous and quintessential in most of our childhood. I expected to be disappointed watching Power Rangers in the theatre and yes, I was. Making power rangers more adult-like put me off a bit as it kind of ruins the world that it has long build up from the numerous number of seasons that had been airing. And what was Optimus Prime doing in it? It oddly resembles him. I kind of expected they would stay close to how the megazord looks like but only the horns were familiar. But it was just cringey and cheeky as it was in the series. 

The design on the suit was really cool and seeing the zords brings back memories of both power rangers and the super sentai series. And that tease at the end was just cute. Disappointing as it was, it was still enjoyable to watch.

I decided to watch Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai again and it reminded me on why I love this series. 

The songs, though it is in engrish, it’s enjoyable. Watching the different arcs of the different heroines kept pulling me in and I soon realised I’ve reached the end of the series. I continued on by reading the manga again and then realised it has only been a day since I began KamiNomi and had already finished it. Once again, I went into this turmoil with my emotions as I finished a satisfying series. The first conquest with Ayumi, Tenri’s arc, followed by the beginning of the goddess arc with Kanon, 

the emotional scene of “Memories of My First Love” and the events that led up to it (Oh how my heart shattered to a million pieces when that happened), finding about a certain teacher’s identity, once again my glued-up heart was pounded to dust as the revelation of Tenri’s years of unrequited love and the heart-wrenching letter appeared (It hurts so much. Typing this while listening to the 8 minutes opening doesn’t really help as I break down the more I continue on) and finally reading the last few pages of the final chapter lifted my spirits (even though it’s weighed down by Ayumi and Tenri). I am also happy for Elsie as she gets to be with Keima as a family. It was incredibly enjoyable. I would read through the series again and again and will still enjoy it as much as I do now and then. I would really love to see another season of KamiNomi with its final arc. 

So, till that day arrives, I’ll just hope and pray it does so before I’m gone.

Mata ne~

Written by Zwei

Figure Unboxing and Review: Nendoroid Tokisaki Kurumi (Good Smile Company)

Figure Unboxing and Review: Nendoroid Tokisaki Kurumi (Good Smile Company)

Wednesday, March 29, 2017 / No Comments

Today, we'll be doing a review on the charismatic girl from Date-A-Live! She's so mysterious and interesting that everyone just falls to her charms be it her normal or her spirit form!

This is the rerelease version of Kurumi and thank god for the rerelease because she shot up so high for the original release.

 

Packaging

First, we take a look at her box where the main colors are black and red. These are her image colors and suits her perfectly. The contrasting gold-yellow adds in an elegant touch to her character in the series, and of course also her Nendoroid!

Her box is as sturdy as any other Nendoroid and her blister actually comes with tape to hold the two pieces together. I haven't seen that commonly in other Nendoroids (usually only scales for me) so it's a good change. It feels like GSC upped their efforts for her~

Posing and Assembly

Looking at the front of her blister, we see that she comes with a main body and three faceplates. She also has quite a few arms and hands to change around as well as her two weapons. Sadly, she does not come with any other legs, not even a bent one...

Assembly-wise, she's alright. For my copy, the stand was quite tight and held her sturdy even when lifted off the base. Perhaps even a little too tight for my comfort, but it's always better to be safe than sorry.

Painting and Sculpting

Moving on to the main figure itself, we see that Kurumi has a lot of reddish-orange tints on her outfit, similar to how it looked like in the series. I really should have waited till I had better lighting to take the photographs but my light got busted and wouldn't be repaired for the while. At least the dark shadows due to her bangs make Kurumi look much more sinister...? :)

Taking a closer look at Kurumi's outfit, we see that it's definitely very detailed, especially all the individual ruffles. Painting application was done well when viewed from far but a little sloppy if viewed close-up. The problem lies with painting out of line, resulting in not a clean and crisp finish. I would have expected more from GSC but at least it looks really amazing when displayed. 

From the image above, we see the details in her ribbons on her hairband and on her glove. The painting is clean and crisp for both of these and since the hairband is enlarged to this proportion, I expected GSC to put much more effort into it and they pulled through splendidly! There's absolutely no painting errors on it!

Here's Kurumi in her most iconic faceplate and I've posed her as if she is trying to shoot you. It's actually quite scary to see her like this, even in Nendoroid form. I have Nendoroid Itsuka Kotori too and they both have this sadistic faceplate which makes it really good to display them together!

Enjoyment
She doesn't have a lot of play-value due to the lack of accessories (only her weapons) however, she has many unique parts which other Nendoroids typically lack -- such as the insane faceplate and the weapons. Her attire is also very iconic and will give a very different aura to your other nendoroids, should you decide to interchange them. Definitely recommended!

~ Reina-rin

[Movie Review] Genocidal Organ

[Movie Review] Genocidal Organ

Thursday, March 23, 2017 / No Comments

"Hell lives inside the head"

Just last month, a number of movies were scheduled to be shown for around a week in Singapore, in line with an Odex event (The Odex Film Festival) but they are by no means just "ordinary" movies that can be easily pushed out worldwide, they are exclusive animated movies debuting under Odex. These movies included more popular titles like Sword Art Online and Kizumonogatari 3.

The event showed up as advertisements on Odex's facebook page as well, but I did not particularly pay attention till my friends enthused themselves over it, and invited me to watch one of the movie selections. Genocidal Organ has a killer lineup of voice actors that I know of, they say, and so I tagged along,

I did a little check, and well, they're not wrong. Nakamura Yuuichi and Sakurai Takahiro voiced the two main characters, and they're just some of my favourite seiyuus.

This was taken around the first floor stage that was set up for the Odex event.

(Post will contain minor spoilers from the movie from here on.)

Synopsis:

The story starts some years into the future, where technology has become even more advanced than before. For instance, now almost all people pay for things using various identification marks instead of cards or cash, like fingerprints or their eyes. Main character Clavis Shepherd works in an intelligence agency in the United States, and being a soldier, he gets the cooler stuff like being able to work much more with virtual reality, and having the equipment to become invisible, blending into the environment.

He also has a pal (Williams) he often eats pizza and watches football with, as well as going on missions together. In this movie they get assigned to a rather difficult task, to the extent that even the higher-ups are quite at loss with the next best course of action.

John Paul is the dangerous man they are looking for, a suspect behind the recent incidences of third-world countries carrying out genocides on their own citizens. The mission eventually brings them to France where they uncover details that unravel the mystery.

Verdict:

My friends who watched with me didn't particularly like how it ended: I do agree that it seemed rushed and hardly anything got resolved, even making the main character patch up the entire incident by himself. I also learnt after the movie it was adapted from a novel; and typically for novel to movie-length adaptations, many details have to be trimmed, which probably explains the loose ends and loopholes observed throughout the movie.

On the whole however, I liked how the movie explored themes of how the manipulation of language can also manipulate the human brain (though perhaps not to such a huge extent as shown in the movie) and of how different people sees humanity and morality differently. The wanted man comes off as very dangerous at first due to the massive impact of his actions, but even the characters in the story had been in for a big surprise.

If you like action, sci-fi or maybe even a bit of politics (basically of the seinen genre), do give this movie a try. I haven't checked out the novel just yet, but I would expect it to be as riveting, if not more than the movie; thought I'm not sure if they actually have it officially translated just yet. (sigh)

I would want to rewatch the movie again to bask in the seiyuu's performance in their roles, and to understand the movie a little bit more.

Details:

Almost forgot to mention, the movie was rated NC16. (lol)

Each ticket was at $15, and comes with a goodie bag with a huge poster of the movie in it. I'm not very sure what to do with it so I'll most likely be giving it away to a friend.

The movie had been scheduled to run from 20th to 26th February so it's now no longer available, but you can view the trailers here and here and wait for its official release in the meantime.

Did you watch the movie? I would love to hear your thoughts about it as I do find it quite interesting. ^^

Written by
ritsu

Popin Cookin: Sushi Candy

Popin Cookin: Sushi Candy

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Hey hey hey!!

Welcome back to another episode of Popin Cookin! I'll be reviewing the Sushi candy today~ Unlike the Taiyaki & Dango one, this one is entirely candy. Which also means that although it might look like sushi, everything tastes like candy. It's real sweet too. 

This one doesn't require a microwave, so no extra preparation required except having your mobile handy for english instructions! 

Again, the package is super user-friendly, and as with most Japanese items, every part is usable and comes together to form your entire sushi plate. 

Orighty! Let's get down to it~

I'll list down corresponding color to the ingredient needed:

Pink: Tuna
Yellow: Egg

Green: Salmon Roe A

Orange: Salmon Roe B

Blue: Rice

Brown: Soy Sauce

Black lump: Seaweed!

This set doesn't require any cutting up of the trays, but I would suggest you cut up the external packaging to prepare the plates first, so you'll have a place to put your rice.

The instructions call for mixing the rice first, so that's what I did. The smell was sickly sweet, but that's to be expected, this whole set is candy. Be careful when adding the water! I would suggest less water first, then adding more to get the consistency you want. I misjudged, and ended up with rice that was slightly damp. 

The texture was really weird because it felt like rice, but my brain knows it's candy. I just couldn't wrap my head around how they managed to get that texture. And from just rice and powder!

Up next is the egg roll~ You can't mess this up, and it's super cute with the whirly pattern. You're supposed to wait 3 minutes for it to set, but you can just move on to the next step. 

The next step is the tuna, and be super duper careful here! I accidentally added the salmon packet here and had to do a massive turnabout to try to save the salmon paste when I realised. The tuna also has a pattern on it, looks pretty realistic! 

Then while the tuna sets, move on to rolling out the seaweed. It has a bubblegum sort of texture, annd you shouldn't pull it too hard. Gently roll to your desired size, or it'll break like blu-tack when you pull too hard and fast. Leave it on the mat when you've reached your desired size, and let's move on to the most fun part: Salmon Roe!

This is the best. You have to prepare packet A and B, and B is your actual salmon roe solution. I'm assuming A is one that firms the roe into the ball it's supposed to be. So, use the given dropper to suck B up, then slowly drip them into solution A. Ta-dah! Salmon roe to perfection!!

Okay, now that you've got everything up all done, it's time to plate your rice. There are six plates provided, but honestly it feels like a bit much. I had to make super small portions to fit all six plates. But once you've done that, very carefully remove the tuna and egg and place them on top of your rice!

The seaweed piece should match with the salmon roe! You can go ahead and mix and match the toppings, the main point is to have fun here~

Last but not least, don't forget the soy sauce. It looks pretty alright, but the taste is terrible.

In fact, everything in this set is terrible, except for the salmon roe. The roe has the same juiciness that bursts open, like a real roe! Unlike the Taiyaki, where I finished everything, I could barely take a couple of bites of this set. The seaweed was the worst. ):

Overall, 10/10 for fun, maybe a 2/10 for taste. But then again, most Popin Cookin are meant for more fun than taste so, I guess mission accomplished? 

Nerd out! 

Written by: ninetylives