What a rush! Man, my arms are cramped now from all the frantic waving. T_T

If you look closely enough, you might be able to see me and Fariz waving our extra-long leek lightsticks in the front row. If you’re having difficulty, though:

Anyway, here are my thoughts on the concert.

The Fail:

While I was nearly deafened by the music, I can hand-wave it away with my inexperience with concerts and the fact that I was sitting in the front row (and didn’t have earplugs).

I thought the bass was way too deep and the VOCALOIDs’ voices could barely be heard over the accompanying band music. I guess out of all the things they tested, they goofed in the aural portion. Thankfully I was familiar with most of the songs so I could make out the words very easily.

Len sang Migikata no Chou. Alone. In fact, Rin and Len had no duet together. What the hell is this blasphemy.

Also, the concert could’ve used a little more hardcore fanboyism/fangirlism, IMO.

The Great:

I attended the concert expecting really great covers by the band, and I wasn’t disappointed. I’m not too sure who they are (couldn’t hear Miku introducing them), but they sure know how to rock out, especially the lead electric guitarist on the left. Thankfully, I sat near him so his guitar solos were more prominent throughout their performances.

The song selection was quite good, though I believe fans who have followed the past MikuPa concerts will find most of the songs and dance sequences very familiar.  I managed to predict a few after watching the free test stream (like Yellow and ARiA) but Miku Miku ni Shite Ageru as the first encore was a pleasant surprise (though Melt was a given). I totally didn’t see it coming, and man, did I cheer the loudest.

The projection and special effects were impressive, too! I was afraid we couldn’t see the VOCALOIDs clearly since we were sitting at a wide angle relative to the stage, and especially because we were sitting so close to the stage. Thankfully, we got to watch them dance in all of their virtual glory.

Afterword:

Although the concert lasted a full 2 hours, it didn’t feel very long when the time came for Miku to perform her encore songs. I was satisfied otherwise though, and I hope they’ll be able to pull off a concert again next year. And they probably will.

And hopefully even better than before.

P.S. To the stranger who snagged Project DIVA Extend from me: I actually thought you were my brother’s/friend’s friend LOL. Ah well, have fun with the game anyways.

And now for the first day of AFA itself.

I was originally planning to do a little write-up about this in the morning, but there’s no time for that now!

If you haven’t caught the last MikuPa (in Sapporo), here’s your chance to view a live (and free) screening! Head over here to watch it!

EDIT: It’s over now.

Also, I’m back, b*tches. For the time being.

Well, that stream was short-lived. No encore either. It was apparently a broadcasting test for the real concert tonight, and by the looks of it, the servers seem stable enough.

But enough about free-yet-outdated streams, the Promised Day has come.

We have seen Singapore’s 15-minute version of Miku’s part in Animelo on a video screen, with extra lagging-goodness!

We have seen gameplay videos representing Miku’s very presence at I LOVE ANISONG (and nothing else)!

But finally…5pb has answered our prayers! Now we’re getting a full-fledged, hologram-equipped concert, worthy of being referred to as a real Hatsune Miku Party concert. Hell, it’s actually a sequel to the last MikuPa in Sapporo.

Those overseas need not despair, Nico Nico Douga will also be streaming the concert itself! On two different sites, one for the Japanese and the other for the rest of the world!

With an event as big as this (and not to mention AFA itself), the Kyouran Kyōdai have come prepared!

I’ve applied for leave! (gasp!)

We’ve got VIP tickets! (shock!)

We’ve got front row seats! (awe!)

If you’ve managed to do the same (more or less) and are attending the concert too, yay-fications to you too! If you aren’t though…wait right there!

There’s still the exclusive MikuPa merchandise.

The KKnM-run booth will be located outside the concert hall, and will sell that delicious bag (and all those other things). In fact, there’s a rumour that they might start selling even before the concert starts. Hint hint.

We’re not sure which of the official MikuPa merch will be sold, though COSPA’s definitely confirmed at this point, being a KKnM0-run booth.

Now let’s just hope the concert will be worth the sudden gaping hole in my bank account. –_–

…And it happened to be Hatsune Mix!

If you follow the manga as well (as in read it online), you’d realize that it wasn’t getting updated since the Graduation Mix chapter.

I happened to hear that volumes of Hatsune Mix were being sold at Kinokuniya a couple of months ago, and I played with the idea of scanning the newer chapters (whilst acquiring them for Onii-chan).

Woxxy (who happened to know me since he happens to be a Rin fan as well) happened to hear about my idea, and proposed that I contributed scans of the newest volume to his team.

And through a great deal of coincidences, FoOlRulez presents to you the scan-lated result! It’s just the first chapter, though; I haven’t gotten around to scanning the rest just yet.

There’s also the “prologue” chapter with all of ‘dem pretty pictures by KEI. Sorry SaLaNoS, you won’t be the only one with them anymore. =D

Also, goddamn is de-binding hard. ( *A*)

Okay, okay, I know, KK’s been dead for about…a month or so? I’m a terrible blogger, I get it.

Anyhoo, if you somehow forgot about MikuPa, it’s about to start! Yup. Right now. And I was lucky enough to get the rest of the day off for this. I do pray I don’t disconnect halfway though.

You can join the stream and watch it, and for those of you who are at the scene itself, have fun!

EDIT: It wasn’t a bad concert…but it didn’t live up to last year’s 39′s Thanksgiving Day either.

While they managed to cram 39 songs into the much shorter timespan, most of them were cut and/or part of a medley, and there was a ridiculous 30-minute intermission during which they looped a set of adverts till even the audience got sick of it.

They used a slightly different set of models this time round, and IMHO they’re an improvement over the ones used last year (which IIRC were taken from Project DIVA Arcade). While the fact that they used a screen (as opposed to a holographic projection) may be a disappointment to most, I don’t really feel the difference. The camera angles used during the stream were terrible, though.

There were a couple of epic moments though. The first was the end of one of the medleys, when they started playing Hatsune Miku no Gekishou. Miku transformed Panty-&-Stocking-style into a silver outfit and sprouted wings near the end. Avid Project DIVA players will know it’s a reference to the way the same song ends in the second PSP game.

The second was the final encore song, When the First Love Ends. I’m not going to spoiler this bit though; you’ll have to see for yourself. That is, if someone manages to leak a full recording. >_>

Here’s a taste of the concert. It’s one of the few portions that was streamed for free:

(Yes, I ended up watching it through UStream. FFFFF)

Here’s the songlist, courtesy of pKjD:

XX.) 「かくれんぼ / Kakurenbo」 – buzzG & Aizawa Mai
01.) 「Ievan Polkka」 – Otomania feat.初音ミク
02.) 「こっち向いて Baby /Kocchi Muite Baby」 – ryo (supercell) feat.初音ミク
03.) 「二息步行 / Nisoku Hokou」 – DECO*27 feat.初音ミク
04.) 「アルビノ / albino」 – buzzG feat.初音ミク
05.) 「え？あぁ、そう。 / Eh? Aa Sou.」 – papiyon feat.初音ミク
06.) 「ぽっぴっぽ / Po Pi Po」 – ラマーズP feat.初音ミク
07.) 「トリノコシティ / Torinoko City」 – 40mP feat.初音ミク
08.) 「キャットフード / Cat Food」 – doriko feat.初音ミク
09.) 「崩壊歌姫 -disruptive diva- / Houkai Utahime -disruptive diva-」 マチゲリータP feat.初音ミク
10.) 「白い雪のプリンセスは / Shiroi Yuki no Princess wa」 – のぼる↑ feat.初音ミク
11.) 「ワールズエンド・ダンスホール / World’s End Dancehall」 – wowaka feat.初音ミク＆巡音ルカ
12.) 「ダブルラリアット / Double Lariat 」- アゴアニキ feat.巡音ルカ
13.) 「No Logic」 – ジミーサムP feat.巡音ルカ
14.) 「RIP RELEASE」 – ryuuseiP feat.巡音ルカ
15.) 「Japanese Ninja No.1」 – デッドボールP feat.巡音ルカ
16.) 「ルカルカ★ナイトフィーバー / Luka Luka★Night Fever」 – samfree feat.巡音ルカ
17.) 「結ンデ開イテ羅刹ト骸 / Musunde Hiraite Rasetsu to Mukuro」 – ハチ feat.初音ミク
18.) 「ローリンガール / Rolling Girl」 – wowaka feat.初音ミク
***30-MINUTE INTERMISSION***
19.) 「trick and treat」 – OSTER project feat.鏡音リン・鏡音レン
20.) 「悪ノ娘 / Aku no Musume」 – mothy_悪ノP feat.鏡音リン
21.) 「悪ノ召使 / Aku no Meshitsukai」 – mothy_悪ノP feat.鏡音レン
22.) 「いろは唄 / Iroha Uta」 – 銀サク feat.鏡音リン
23.) 「炉心融解 / meltdown」 – iroha(sasaki） feat.鏡音リン
24.) 「ココロ / Kokoro」 – トラボルタ feat.鏡音リン
25.) 「メランコリック / Melancholic」 – Junky feat.鏡音リン
26.) 「リンリンシグナル / Rin Rin Signal」 – Dios/シグナルP feat.鏡音リン・鏡音レン
27.) 「SPICE!」 – minato(流星P) feat.鏡音レン
28.) 「Fire◎Flower」 – halyosy feat.鏡音レン
29.) 「Packaged」 – livetune feat.初音ミク
30.) 「ハロー、プラネット。/ *HELLO, PLANET.」 – sasakure.UK feat.初音ミク
31.) 「マージナル / Marginal」 – OSTER project feat.初音ミク
32.) 「初音ミクの激唱 / Hatsune Miku no Gekishou」 – cosMo（暴走P） feat.初音ミク
33.) 「歌に形はないけれど / Uta ni Katachi wa Nai Keredo」 – doriko feat.初音ミク
34.) 「Yellow」 – livetune feat.初音ミク
35.) 「タイムマシン / Time Machine」 – 1640mP feat.初音ミク
36.) 「ARiA」 – とくP feat.初音ミク
***ENCORE***
37.) 「カラフル×メロディ / Colorful x Melody」 – ちーむMOER feat.初音ミク
38.) 「メルト / MELT」 – supercell feat.初音ミク
39.) 「初めての恋が終わる時 / When the First Love Ends」 – supercell feat.初音ミク

You can check out more photos and information from his post, as well.

Since I gotta go out for lunch with a couple of friends (and I really don’t want to delay this post any further), this is the best I can do for now.

In other (related) news, there’s a DLC for Project DIVA 2nd just for this occasion, and Rin/Len Append was released on the same day, too. The illustration was released way earlier, though. Totally dig Osamu’s design (which IMO is better than Masaki’s take on Miku Append).

To make up for the obvious lack of content, let’s play a little game. How many PVs can you identify from the header image of awesome (which has been my wallpaper for a while now BTW)?

Good luck! No prizes for those that can do 100%, though. (Hint: There are about 39 of them, if I’m not mistaken)

It has been quite a long while since the release of the preview for the Opening video of the upcoming game, Hatsune Miku – Project DIVA 2 - by SEGA.. Now just a few weeks before the release of the game itself, someone got a chance to grab a video of the full version of the video, with the song being played titled “こっち向いて Baby”..

Now, get ready to be mesmerized by the wonderful and awesome video itself.. Enjoy~

Project DIVA 2 Opening Full Version:

When I watched the whole video, I was totally awed by its wonderful animation, especially the band-singing sequence.. This is also a first time SEGA decided to make a whole Opening PV with a full song.. Unlike the previous “Project DIVA” which plays a shorter version of the song, “The Secret Garden”, the 2nd one plays at a more energetic note and so-called allow players to listen to the cool song composed by “Ryo” himself.. XD

I kinda love it when I saw they put Tako Luka in the video as well apart from the tiny chibi Mikus.. Another thing to note is that Miku, Luka and the Kagamine twins are more detailed in the video itself.. I hope to see something like that if it is possible to play “Project DIVA 2″ on “Dreamy Theater”.. =3

After hearing this, I’m so excited to play the gmae once I received it on its release date which is on the July 29th..

Thanks to “inferno0748″ for the info.. XD

Sega has again released new gameplay videos from the game 「Hatsune Miku -Project DIVA- 2nd」.. This time, the videos showcased 3 well-known songs back in the days; “Innocence” by Kazu-P, “Promise” by Samfree & “VOiCE” by Lovely-P. More after the jump~

After the release of the gameplay videos of “PoPiPo” and “Sound”, I had a 50/50 view that they would release more gameplay videos from the game itself.. Although “PoPiPo” do caught my attention with its hyperness, I still don’t feel the vibe for the “Sound” PV in the game, but thats just my own opinion.. XD

This time however, all 3 videos really catch my attention for their own respective reasons, not just for their own unique outfits chosen perfectly for the PVs. So let us begin with the song “Innocence”..

“Innocence” [Project DIVA 2] – Hatsune Miku:

What I like about this PV is the stage used for the song; it really suits the theme the original animation showed.. However, instead of using the same colour theme, it is more of a white colour scheme, giving a livelier atmosphere..

Moving on to “Promise”~

“Promise” [Project DIVA 2] – Hatsune Miku & Kagamine Rin:

For this PV, I really like the dance sequence of Rin and Miku.. Although it resembles abit like “Magnet”, it’s really dynamic.. I and Fuzzy still remember the dance sequence from the Thanks Giving concert but it looks way better with the new costumes.. XD

Last but not least, we have “VOiCE”..

“VOiCE” [Project DIVA 2] – Hatsune Miku:

I particularly love this PV due to the fact that they recreated the room in the mansion, taking every detail that you’ve seen in the original 3DPV itself.. From the furniture to the painting, it is quite accurate.. For this scene, its part of the flashback for Miku who is now wandering around a post-apocalyptic landscape..

Here’s the original PV, in case you’re curious..

I can’t wait for the game to be finally released on the July 29th.. Just one more month to go~ Maybe SEGA will upload more gameplay videos..

Ame no Kisetsu was an event held by Piapro’s KarenT Network based on the rainy season, hence the name.

KarenT, by the way, is a distribution network set up by Piapro, and is also the label budding music artists can publish their works under on stores like the iTunes store. I’ll cover this in greater detail in a future post (if I can, that is).

Anyway, a total of 12 rain-themed tracks were compiled in the event, and previews for each one can be heard in the promotional video above.

I gave each track a listen, and I gotta say, TawashiP’s Hecto-Pastel impresses me the most, with U-ske’s Rain*Sweet*Umbrella getting a close second. It’s kind of refreshing to listen to tracks that aren’t in the VOCALOID Weekly Rankings, or accompanied by an awesome PV.

The tracks are on sale on several sites, though if you can’t read moonrunes (that probably means most of you), you can get the tracks from HearJapan:

• Rain*Sweet*Umbrella by U-ske
• Ame, Irodoreba by wato
• my rain by Wonderful★opportunity!
• Hecto-Pastel by TawashiP
• Broken rain by ShinjouP
• Ameoto to Itsuwari no Waltz by KidP
• skip;drop by BIRUGE
• Rainy Day by ValP
• Saka no Machi to Ame by Inashiki Joshu
• Ameoto Kishikan by X-Plorez
• in the rain by TeraKomuroP
• Amedoki Lover by Buriru

Each track in each album costs 150 JPY, including the off-vocal/instrumental tracks, though you have the option of purchasing each track separately. Do keep that in mind, especially if you’re short on cash.

HearJapan took the liberty of forwarding us their press release too. The page they linked to seems a little corrupted though, so here’s what they intended to show you:

As June brings rain to Japan, HearJapan brings rain-themed Vocaloid tracks to your ears!

The rainy season in Japan (known as “tsuyu” or “plum rain”) begins roughly around June and runs through July. It is a time when things slow down and some people might spend a little more time inside with someone special.

HearJapan is enjoying this time with a shower of new Vocaloid material. 12 new releases have just landed from a wide range of artists working in many different genres. For instance, there’s the traditional sounding folk of “Saka no Machi to Ame” by InashikiJoshu that features a duet with Hatsune Miku and MEIKO on vocals. Buriru’s “Amedoki Lover” celebrates having to be stuck inside together with a jazzy number. If it’s a dance party you’re looking for, the cue up the euro-trance track “Ameoto Kishikan” by X-Plorex. Or if it’s something more literal your want, then the gently shimmering “Broken Rain” by Shinjou-P is sure to evoke pleasant visions of the gently falling rain.

So take a moment to admire the rain, or simply enjoy the comforts inside, with your favorite Vocaloid tunes from HearJapan as the soundtrack.

Yokohama, Japan – June 8th, 2010

Sources:

• NotCliche (Yup, it’s a first for us too, guys)
• HearJapan (Press Release)

P.S. I personally feel the rainy seasons here suck, what with the flash floods and all.

At last, the designers behind Project DIVA have finally rendered the rest of the contest winners’ entries.

Let’s see how they look in 3D.

Angel Miku by Tomio

This one turned out as epic as I expected. Check out all those wings! I can’t wait to see this one dancing to a trance song.

Nurse+Spacy (Miku) by 奈良立鹿

Just to clarify, this one’s Miku. She barely resembles her, though.

Young Adult Dancer (Len) by only1

And then there’s this. I’m not sure how you can turn something so cool into something so…trap-worthy, but there you have it. Well done, SEGA. I suppose the Len fangirls will be all over this one. *runs*

Left to right:
Shirt and Tie and Glasses (KAITO) by あさひ
Geisha Style (Luka) by OHSE
Untitled (Rin) by eb
Idol Style (Miku) by 帯之

So now that there aren’t any more fan-made costumes to look forward to, it’s time to eagerly wait for the rest of the official costumes for the Project DIVA sequel. They’re probably not going to showcase them prior to the game’s release though, so you’ll probably see them only when you get the game yourself. Or if someone else does and uploads a few in-game videos or something.

Left to right:
White (Miku) by しんれい
Lady Luka by 箱（はこ）
70′s Moga (Modern Girl) Retro Pop (Meiko) by 志乃
Winter Ballad (Miku) by 壱飼ハノ

I just hope they don’t pull a fast one and make most of the rest of the costumes consist of the same one, only recoloured (read: P-Style). I mean, they will do it anyway (or at least just include the original P-Style), but I just hope they don’t overdo it. Seriously.

Here’s hoping. >w<

UPDATE: Apparently the developers thought it fit to re-render a couple of the costumes (namely the untitled Rin costume, and Luka’s Geisha Style) for Miku:

Sources:

• NotCliche
• Vocaloidism
• Piapro Developer Blog [1], [2]

I’ve been to both of these events in the last few weekends, and I felt I should write about them before covering Street Fest which occurred only last weekend.

They’re not getting dedicated posts though since they were actually pretty meh, more on that later.

Licence2Play

Licence2Play was held from the 28th to the 30th of May. It’s a local gaming convention held annually, and this year it was held at the Expo.

I’ll be completely honest though. I went to the Expo for one reason (and one reason only):

No %^$#, GameAxis.

The StarCraft 2 beta is actually pretty cool; you can pull a lot more “stunts” with all the new abilities and units Blizzard put into the game. I mean, Supply Depots that double as gates? Whoa.

…of course being terrible at RTSes, I got trashed in both my online matches. ^_^;

The other thing I tried was Samsung’s 3D LED TV technology. On paper, adding a 3rd dimension you can actually see (i.e. depth) to your 2-dimensional games sounds good and all, but I found it’s rather disorienting me after a while. Looking straight down into the ground (in-game) somehow also causes it to look unnaturally uneven.

Moving on, the rest of the booths were either:

• Online gaming
• Technology (including unrelated stuff like printers, etc), taking up about half the entire hall
• Competition areas

There’s really nothing else noteworthy; I didn’t stick around long enough to watch any of the, except for NLB which somehow managed to earn itself a booth there. You could actually borrow books from the booth (which is kinda digressing from the point of a gaming convention).

I had hoped the event would have at least wow-ed me, but it actually felt more boring than last year. Now that I think about it, there wasn’t much of a crowd at this year’s event too.

STARFEST

STARFEST is an anime/toy fair organized by the Singapore Cosplay Club, and it was held between the 31st of May to the 6th of June. Despite partly being an anime fair, the fair held a cosplay event only on the 5th of June. In fact, all the “good stuff” (maid cafe photoshoot, doujinshi booths) all coincided on that day, so (naturally) I went to take a look on that day.

Before I continue, I must confess that the quality of the photos absolutely suck, thanks to the fabulous combination my shaky hands and an iPhone camera. I won’t be held responsible, though, if your eyes bleed from the blurriness and/or pixelation.

The “toy” part involved several exhibitors putting up their items on sale. There were Alice88th, selling their jointed dolls, and Black Tactical, showcasing their replica weapon series.

Custom Workz was also there, selling their load of Masked Rider merchandise, and showing scenes from the net spinoffs of the All Riders vs. Great Shocker movie. I really should get around to watching that.

There was a small booth showcasing some remote-controlled model itasha. Fortunately (for me), they weren’t being driven around, so I could take this clear shot of the Miku-themed ones. Why no Rin love? ( *A*)

Anyway, yes, there was a maid cafe photoshoot booth. It was just a promotion for a maid cafe, officially named “Cawaii Koohii Maid Cafe”, that will open in September this year, on the fifth floor of Funan. Yeah, very “Akihabara”, I know. >_>

And yes, I know it’s supposed to be spelt “Kawaii Koohii”, unless there’s some deep meaning behind the ‘C’ that I haven’t quite grasped.

The cosplay event was actually a series of performances held by the semi-finalists of the World Cosplay Summit. While their outfits were accurate (as far as I could tell), their performances felt really lacking and a little rushed. It wasn’t until much later when I found out that they weren’t doing their best that day; they did way better during the actual competition in Korea.

Also, there was apparently no space for a backstage area, so the organisers had little choice but to have the performing cosplayers set themselves up out in front of the stage. This also meant photographers had to squeeze into a small section in front of the stage to snap photos. Someone obviously didn’t think this one through.

That’s not to say the performers were the only ones cosplaying though; there were a lot more cosplayers roaming around that day. Once again, apologies for the crappy quality.

All in all, cosplay aside, this event was okay, but felt a little…lacking. Hearing that the performers weren’t exactly doing their best was also a major turnoff. The toy booths didn’t really appeal to me either. The cosplayers didn’t have much room to work with in the mall; it was impossible to take a clear photo without any interference whatsoever (i.e. people in the background).

While I did mention there were supposed to be doujinshi booths that day, I failed to see any of them. Did anyone else who attended see them and their merchandise? Just curious.

You can also check out additional coverage at The Banzai! Effect.