Warning! The following post only contains thoughts of the author, and not much of actual coverage.

If you’re looking for proper coverage, you could head over to Fabrice Requin’s blog. He’s done several great posts on the convention. Otherwise, read on.

The reason I’m not going to do a proper event coverage post myself is because I’ve already attended 3 times. Say what you wish, but anything gets old after you’ve done it for a while.

(also laziness)

Now for my 2 cents.

First off, I’m not too sure how it happened, but they managed to screw up the infamous first-day queue. Again.

It may have been due to Suntec organizing 2 other major events on the same day, though, but you’d think Sozo would’ve worked out something by now. Or maybe they can’t. Maybe it’s a staple habit of Singaporeans, or events in general. Someone do enlighten me.

Other than that, AFA’11 was pretty awesome. They managed to rope in Nico Nico Douga of all things, offering streams of the convention and parts of the concert on both the English and Japanese versions of the site.

Crypton also had a presence there, though they were restricted to the Cool Japan Forum and a tiny booth in the Cool Japan Pavilion, in the back of the hall. They were promoting MIKUBOOK like no tomorrow, what with the itasha on display nearby.

Even ODEX (of all things) got into the fun, expanding their movie selection from 2 to 5, though you have to buy $10 tickets for each and watch in a separate theatre. And I’ll bet most old-timers burn the posters once they see the ODEX logo on them. ^_^;

To their credit, they did still air the 2nd Mardock Scramble movie and the 4th Gundam Unicorn for free. Only watched the latter though, but it was awesome.

Chiwa Saito came to answer questions, and also did live dubbing of Homura. Great stuff, especially when she dubbed that Kyubey shooting scene. People who haven’t watched the show got spoiler-ed lol.

It seemed that the technical issues haunting the MikuPa concert on Friday night were also present during the concerts on Saturday and Sunday, as well as some of the daytime stage events. While I didn’t attend the Saturday concert, I thought that there was way too much bass and reverb during the Kalafina portion.

Performance-wise, though, May’n actually turned out to be disappointing; she ended up singing only a few of her newer singles. Milky Holmes was meh (given since I’m not exactly a fan of the show), though I did get to see true Japanese fanboys in the act.

I think I became an angela fan after their portion though. They had the most enthusiasm and audience interaction among all the performances, and they even threw in Cruel Angel’s Thesis for good measure. Fuck yeah.

All in all, I think AFA’s really improved over the years in that they keep bringing things to the table, though I think the management needs to iron out the problems that have been hanging around since the previous conventions.

Up next, the obligatory swag post.

Also, thanks for some of the images, Subarashinki! Check out his AFA album here!

Just correcting some really outdated information here about the ｢Hello Kitty to Issho! X VOCALOID｣ project (and revealing the REAL DESIGN of the new VOCALOID).

About a month ago, we posted about a Hello Kitty VOCALOID by AHS, and we stated that it will be Rio, a kittyler from the ｢Hello Kitty to Issho!｣ series of characters, who was illustrated by KEI.

Unfortunately, that bit of info isn’t exactly true. A member of the AHS staff denied it in an interview (on the same day as our post too, no less). We forgot to update our post though, so for those of you who felt a bit lost reading other blogs, we’re really sorry about that. >_>

So if Rio isn’t the new AHS VOCALOID, who is?

As it turns out, the design for the new VOCALOID was revealed 3 days ago. She’s none other than Nekomura Iroha (猫村いろは), who was originally illustrated by okama. You can check out her kittyler page (which includes the original character design).

Iroha seems to be…more than sufficiently equipped for her new job. I mean, Dynamic Phonon Busters? A pair of floating Chorus Speakers? Any more and she’d qualify to be a mecha musume. ._.

Opening song to Clepsydra ~Hikari to Kage no Jujika~:
MP3

Tsubasa from AH-Software’s Sound PooL vol. 8:
MP3

You can also listen to a couple of song samples above, taken from the official page.

The new VOCALOID will be retailing for 15,750 JPY from the 22nd of October this year onwards, and the first-press release will also include a bonus CD containing 2 songs: Tsubasa and ABBEY FLY.

Source: Moetron [1], [2]

Today, the 31st of August marks a special occasion for Hatsune Miku fans who celebrate her 3rd Birthday Anniversary.. It is quite a subtle yet happy moment to celebrate her birthday after so many things that happened within just 3 short years.. From a humble beginning of just being known as just a simple Voice Synthesizer program to a “World Renown” Virtual Idol, Hatsune Miku has gone where no other character does..

Although it isn’t as grand as last year where there was a concert to celebrate her birthday a.k.a. Miku FES’09, people do still remember her till these day.. Well, ever since her last birthday, Miku has gotten an “upgrade” which is the Miku Append package..

Original Hatsune Miku with Hatsune Miku Append~

It consist of six different tones for Miku; Soft (gentle, delicate voice), Sweet (young, chibi voice), Dark (mature, heartbroken-like voice), Vivid (bright, cheerful voice), Solid (loud, clear voice), and Light (innocent, heavenly voice).

Also, SEGA has finally released the 2nd game for the Hatsune Miku Project DIVA rhythm game.. It features more new songs + new gameplay mode and of course for the first time a Max difficulty for a song, “Intense Song of Hatsune Miku”.. Not to mention a few songs by Megurine Luka when there were none in the previous game..

For figurine, there are quite a number of them which haven’t been officially announced like the “Love is War” or I would like to call it the “Tower 39″.. The recent one that was announced are the Nendo Petite Racing Vocaloids [2nd Version] by Good Smile Company (GSC) and the Tony Taka Hatsune Miku by Max Factory (Below)..

Well, thats all I have for now.. It has been a very interesting 3 years since Hatsune Miku was “born” and I quite enjoyed having her as my idol.. Alot of cosplays of her had been done, not just the default one but a variety of versions as well.. I’m hoping there would be something quite epic happening before her 4th birthday next year!! XD

As for now, do enjoy these pictures~

Source: RD@ぴくセミB組 @ pixiv

Source: ソニ @ pixiv

Souce: はなの @ pixiv

Source: 夢衣@塗りが定まらない @ pixiv

Source: スだち＠ついった @ pixiv

Source: meisa @ pixiv

Source: ほりみー＠ @ pixiv

Source: 犬飼 @ pixiv

Source: おがこっつ＠ニコ生 @ pixiv

Source: 千鶴＠ついった @ pixiv

Source: 捺妃 @ pixiv

Source: ぽんず飴沢 @ pixiv

Source: Neena @ pixiv

Sega has recently announced a new costume model of the Hatsune Miku Append Module for both the 「Project DIVA 2nd」 PSP rhythm game and the 「Project DIVA Arcade」. For the PSP game itself, it should be available on August 31st at the Japanese Playstation Store – on the 3rd anniversary of Crypton’s 「Vocaloid 2 – CV01 Hatsune Miku」 software.. XD

Left: Miku Append for the PSP ; Right: Miku Append Module for the 「Project DIVA Arcade」.

*Hatsune Miku -Project DIVA- 2nd DLC:

* Module: Hatsune Miku Append
* Release Date: August 31st, 2010
* Price: 300 yen (tax included)
* Available at: Japanese Playstation Store

*Hatsune Miku -Project DIVA- Arcade Add-on:

* Module: Hatsune Miku Append
* Release Date: August 31st, 2010
* VP: 300 points
* A fee is required to play

Here are some screengrabs of Hatsune Miku Append in both the PSP game as well as the Arcade version as well.. Enjoy the pictures~

Hatsune Miku -Project DIVA- 2nd DLC:

Hatsune Miku -Project DIVA- Arcade Add-on:

I’m so gonna get this DLC for my Project DIVA 2nd game.. Would most probably be suited for the song, “Intense Song of Hatsune Miku”.. Here is the how one get Perfect for it in “EXTREME” mode…

“Intense Song of Hatsune Miku [Perfect - EXTREME]:

Source: Miku.Sega.Jp via Moetron

Update: this post is now outdated, as the VOCALOID in question is not Rio. Read this post instead.

Yamaha’s official twitter recently announced that a new Vocaloid (not VY1) would be revealed at the Sanrio booth held at Comiket 78. According to this tweet by Tomohide Ogata (AHS) and Hatsune MikuMiku blog, it appears to be from AH-Software.

It is none other than “Rio“ (above), originally a ｢Hello Kitty to Issho!｣ kittyler illustrated by Hatsune Miku character designer KEI.

AH-Software is currently developing her voicebank and it should be ready in the near future.  Rio also appears in the PSP game, ｢Hello Kitty to Issho! Block Crash 123!!｣.

Here is the game trailer video~

Game trailer:

And for some good news, there is already a video on ”RIO” song demos from Comiket 78. Enjoy~

“Rio” song demos + ｢Hello Kitty to Issho! Block Crash 123!!｣ promo:

Source: Hatsune MikuMiku via Moetron

After months of waiting, I finally got my hands on these wonderful collection.. Not just any standard collection; It’s the Project DIVA 2nd “Super” Collection which I painstakingly tried to get since most of the usual sites don’t offer such products.. It was thanks to my brother, “Fuzzy” for his ultra knowledge and our good friend, “Zh3us” for helping us get the stuff via AmiAmi..

If you are wondering how it got shipped here, below is what the box looks like~

If you are wondering why the box is freaking huge for such a loot, well “Zh3us” pre-ordered one more for one of our friends as well, the same whole collection as mine..

The whole collection consists of:

1 – “Super” Accesory Set and “Pouch” Set~

“Special” Accesory Set Containing:

1) Pouch,
2) Unique UMD case,
3) Cleaning cloth,
4) Special Project DIVA 2nd PSP cover,
5) PSP Strap, and
6) 4 decorative stickers (1 of each Vocaloid 2 characters, excluding Meiko and Kaito.)

“Pouch” Set Containing:

1) Monogram pouch, and
2) Another PSP strap.

2 – AmiAmi Special Goodies~

Containing:

1) Special DVD containing 2 full PV of the songs “こっち向いてBaby”　and “Yellow”,
2) Microfiber cloth printed with a Megurine Luka’s “Just be Friends” picture,
3) A card holder, and
4) A super nendo puchi Miku keychain.

To see how the items look like, we did a post 4 months back.. Total cost? SGD$283!! o.O

Well, forgot to add this one more stuff inside; the Black Rock Shooter’s “Rock Cannon” Metal Charm (below).. X3

Wait till Fuzzy comes back from Field Camp to post on the “Rock Cannon”.. Till then, here is the video that can be found in the DVD itself.. Enjoy~

“こっち向いてBaby” & “Yellow” PV – Project DIVA 2nd:

Just announced recently, the “Black Rock Shooter” Anime, one of the most popular show (I find it just alrite in my own opinion) made by Ordet is now going to be available on both DVD and Blu-Ray..

There are 2 versions which you can pre-order; The “standard” version and the “limited edition” version..

A standard edition, which goes for 2,000 yen at HobbySearch and comes with Black Rock Shooter Blu-ray and a Huke and Yuusuke Matsuo Color Illustration Book (36 pages)~

A limited edition which is retailing for 4000 yen at HobbySearch, comes with a nendoroid petite set (Black Rock Shooter and Dead Master) shown below, a Blu-ray, dvd and a Huke and Yuusuke Matsuo Color Illustration Book (36 pages)~

If you get either one, it includes the 50minute OVA that comes with subtitles in 7 languages and also contains an extra BRS Stop Motion Promotional Short (30secs) and The Making of BRS Stop Motion (13mins)..

This is an irresistible stuff, especially the Blu-Ray and DVD “Limited” Edition..

You can pre-order this at HobbySearch, the standard edition and the limited edition. KuroCha is also taking pre-orders.. What are you waiting for, get this good stuff now!!

So here’s the box that comes along with the August issue of Hobby Japan. There is one thing I’ll say about the packaging though.

It’s freakin’ overkill.

While the charm is tiny, I was quite surprised by the production quality, especially when you compare it with this preview shot by Hobby Search. Now I’m having doubts hooking it up to my bag and bringing it out and around.

Did I mention it’s goddamn cute? >_<;

Yesterday also marks the distribution of the September issue of the same magazine, so a lot of people should be getting their hands on the OVA. I took an “early sneak peek”, and although I don’t have the time to give it a good look-over at the moment, the action scenes look pretty awesome. Look forward to a review soon!

…which could very well be in a couple of weeks or so, since I’ll be having field camp. Ugh.

After a long hiatus, I finally got a chance to write something on this blog.. So firstly, I’m celebrating my “little” return with a song review post.. For today’s post, I would like to talk about a new animated PV by Megurine Luka titled “Secret”.. A very catchy and interesting English song to listen to.. More on that after the jump..

As usual, lets go take a look at the music video itself.. Enjoy~ XD

“Secret” – Megurine Luka:

This is by far one of the best English song sung by Megurine Luka; It is done by a nico user by the name “Arth” way back in January this year.. Although some do already know that her program can be made to sing english words, only few can come out with such nice English songs such as this for example..

After listening to the song, I felt that the tune is almost similar to that of Lady Gaga’s, not all of them.. The way the song is playing and how Luka sings the song is pretty upbeat and funky in a way.. =3

Animation-wise, I felt that it is quite interesting in a way since she gets turned into a “nekomimi”.. Done by a user called “Jet” with his signature mouse in one scene, the animation has a mixture of 3D/2D in it and I like how well and smooth it is made.. However, I don’t find it very eye-appealing.. Well, it deserved some credits for having such nice graphics..

Thats all I have for this music review.. Do catch for more future reviews in time to come.. Till then, take care.. =D

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