Saku's AFK Corner » Events

Wonder Festival Summer 2010 Wish List

Saku — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 01:32:18 +0000

Tokyo Wonder Festival or most commonly known as Wonder Festival ((ワンダーフェスティバル) or WonFes (ワンフェス, wanfesu) is an event held twice every year: Summer and Winter. The purpose is to show various garage and/or resin for future releases. At the same time, various sculptors show off their creations in wonder showcase, however, our attention were mainly focused on major manufacturers such Alter, Good Smile Company, Max Factory, Kotobukiya, Griffon Enterprises, MegaHouse and many more.

We all wonders what kind of figures/nendos/figma will be released in the near future. So far we can all agree that we may need to file for bankruptcy before the end of this year ^^;. Ok, maybe not all but I know I am going to. Without further ado, here is my wish list from WonFes Summer 2010.

Hitagi from Bakamenogatari

Lovely pose from Hitagi. Her trademark staple makes her even more adorable and her pose was taken from the covert art of DVD volume 1. She is not yet painted so I will have to see if she will be worth buying, although, she is looking good so far.

Fate Testarossa in casual version

Alter does know their customer really well with this Fate Testarossa casual version not along after Fate Testarossa ~Phantom Minds~ is available for pre-order. Is this a way for milking $$$ from Nanoha the movies ? It sure does work on me.

Nodotchi (のどっち) and Koromo from Saki

I enjoy the series so that is why these figures are in my wish list. I may pass on Koromo but Nodotchi looks great and promising. Looks like there are quite few details on her clothing. Not to mention her wings and scarf makes her more appealing.

Phantom Xecty from Shining Wind

Now this looks very interesting since she looks top-less and her ‘top’ part is sculptured with great details ^^ . Since this is Kotobukiya, I have to look at painting quality before deciding to get her since it’s most likely 50-50 chance.

Alicia Melchiott from Valkyria Chronicles

Now, this one is a pure win. I’ve been longing for Alicia figure from any of well-known manufacturers since I played the game and watched the anime many months ago. The anime version is not as good as game and the game received several recognition as the best strategy game. This is definitely in my buy list and I will take my chances with Kotobukiya.

Mina Tepes from Dance in the Vampire Bund

For those who have watched anime, I am sure you remember her seductive pose at the end of anime ending. DFC and loli fans must be really excited to acquire her as their collection. Her pose is the most appealing point for me and which is why she is in my wish list ^^.

Yuri and Tenshi from Angel Beats

This is a tough decision. I have to choose between Yuri and Tenshi when the time comes. Tenshi’s pose is more appealing to me ^^.

Nemu Asakura from Da Capo

As a fan of Da Capo series, this nendoroid of Nemu Asakura is too good to pass it up. It includes the white cat (I think?) that always appears in Da Capo series. I couldn’t recall what its name >.<. I rarely buy nendoroids since I am not into those but I do make exceptions in case of my favourite series.

Nanoha Takamachi

And of course more Nanoha from the first movie as if we don’t have enough figures from Nanoha series already. She is only 1/12 scale but she takes a lot of space with her magic circle and divine buster pose.

Fate Testarossa

Since Nanoha and Fate go hand in hand, releasing only Nanoha sounds little bit weird so here goes another Fate. Majority of people probably will go with Fate but personally, I would choose Nanoha because her divine buster pose.

Rin from Fate/Stay Night series

Didn’t expect to see more figures from Rin especially in Unlimited Blade Works. Her hair is just great. Must be really hard trying to sculpt her hair.

Hatsune Miku Tony's Illustration version.

Her pose is taken from Tony Taka’s illustration in form of desktop wallpaper. You can get it from here. Her stunning pose is probably the highest appeal point in this figure. I am not a fan of Hatsune Miku per say but I do enjoy Tony Taka’s work so depending on the price, I most likely will be getting her.

Dark Sakura from Fate/Stay Night series

Best dark Sakura that I have ever seen and look at her clothing. There are a lot of details and pattern on her clothing. This is a must buy for me.

Mina Tepes ~Awakened Version~

Earlier, you have seen Mina tepes in her loli form and for those who are not a loli fan, you can rest assured that there will be awakened ver. of Mina. Her pose looks promising so far and I cannot to take a look at her painted.

Dizzy from Guilty Gears

Now , this is something that you don’t see everyday. A figure from Guilty Gears game and they chose the best character in Guilty Gear. I can only imagine the amount of details/efforts in the making of this figure since technically it’s a 3-person figure: Devil/Necro, Dizzy and Angel.

Images via Hobby Search

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Anime North 2010

Saku — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 02:39:28 +0000

For us who are living in Canada especially on the east side, Anime North is one of the most event that we, con-goers/cosplayers, really look forward to every year and it’s no doubt that it’s the biggest anime convention in Canada in term of attendance averaging ten thousands for the last 3-4 years. Myself is no exception either as I was really looking forward to Anime North every year and I attend every year with one goal in mind, cosplayers .

I arrived at Toronto Congress Centre (TCC) where Anime North (AN) is usually held around 6pm and quickly went to Harvey’s to grab a bite. Long line-ups is really unavoidable in any restaurants around the convention so sometimes it’s better to bring your own food and drink. I always buy 12-pack bottle water and put them in my car to make sure I have enough water supply . Not to mention food and drink inside the convention is tend to be a rip off.

A typical line up on Friday at Anime North. Saturday’s line up will be at least twice much worse than this.

The line up continued inside but it’s moving quite fast so the waiting time was not that bad. Overall, there were less people that I had expected them to be in comparison to last year.

I grabbed my badge from Rin at Double Tree hotel and went straight back to TCC. Nia, from Gurren Lagann, was lucky to be the first cosplayer I took photo of . On a side note, I still haven’t finished watching Gurren Lagann lol.

Moving on to the artist alley area and I looked left and right for cosplayers that caught my eyes.

I bumped into this pair of “Magnet” Miku and Luka who were nice enough to do a kissing pose

It’s quite rare to a Lancer cosplayer from Fate Stay/Night and he did very well. One of my favourite in this year Anime North.

I have seen this group in previous anime cons and their cosplays are always nicely done. Kureha, name this character, Houmei and Ryuna from Shining Tears series. I couldn’t recognize the 2nd character from the left for some reasons.

Shippo from Inuyasha. When I was about to take a picture, he’s little bit shy in the beginning.

And he tried to avoid looking at my camera desperately

He finally gave up and looked at my camera.

No more shyness anymore as he seems to be enjoying his picture taken by many people. I was the first one to initiate to take his picture and five seconds later, a crowd people started taking his picture.

One thing that it’s great about this year Anime North was that people finally let go Final Fantasy 7 and began cosplaying Final Fantasy 13. I lost count how many FF13 cosplayers there were.

Nel from Bleach. Great smile

Ouran Host Club group cosplayer. If you know the names for each character please let me know

Line-ups on Saturday morning.

Another FF13 cosplayers. Nice Sarah cosplay.

Not sure from what series they are Ace Attorney group photo (Thanks, Shi Rose).

Characters from Bioshock. Name these characters.

And more from Bioshock. I didn’t play the game so I don’t know who they are. If you do, please let me know and will credit accordingly.

Ladies from Persona 3/4 and again I failed to name these characters but they all look great especially the girl on the left.

Ryder and Saber from Fate Stay/Night.

Lovely sisters from Trinity Blood. I have seen them before in major anime cons and they always caught my attention

Chise from Saikano. Quite a big gun she got there .

Persona group.

Name these characters/series

Zidane from FFIX. Awesome cosplay of Zidane.

Saber from Fate/Stay Night. I love her hair antenna thingy on her head

Ichigo(middle) and Zakuro(right) from Tokyo Mew Mew. Who’s the girl in red ? I couldn’t recall any Tokyo Mew Mew characters with red colour. Does anyone know?

Kaede-chan from Shuffle. She was so happy when I took her picture because I heard her saying that finally someone knew this character. How I could not have known anyways since Shuffle! is in my favourite anime list.

Yukari from Persona 3.

Another group shot from Persona series. I saw quite a few cosplayers from Persona in AN this year.

Sailor Pluto, Venus, Saturn, Moon, Mars, Mercury and Jupiter from Sailor Moon series.

Name this character.

Rachel Alucard from Blaz Blue. I love her umbrella <3

Name these characters/series

Yoko and Nia from Gurren Lagann. It’s not an anime convention without Yoko/Nia cosplayers

Oh my gosh, this was one of my favourite cosplayers in AN this year especially Suiseiseki cosplayer. I have seen her in multiple anime conventions and just love her cosplay as Suiseiseki (my favourite characters in Rozen Maiden). She had a watering can and it’s really well made. Hinaichigo, Suiseiseki and Suigintou. Awesome cosplays, ladies .

Gundam group photo. What kind of Gundam was that ? does anyone know ? Gundam MKII (Thanks Ichi, I knew I can depend on you on Gundam stuff )

Character from Halo

Ita-bike ?

Great cosplayers from Soul Calibur. Talim (Left), Yun Seong(Top-Middle), Tira (Bottom-Middle) and Amy(Right).

More cosplayers from FFXIII . Readers, are you getting sick of seeing FFXIII yet ? Snow, Lightning and Sarah.

Three Toyota Truenoswwd were on display at Anime North in front of main TCC entrance.

Any Initial D fans can confirm if these are the same as the one in Initial D (aside from colour of course). I vaguely remembered watching the first season of Initial D and I think these are pretty similar to the one that Takumi drives in Initial D series.

Closer shot of the Ita-bike that I found earlier. Name that character/series.

She just made my day. My favourite character in Shuffle!, Shigure Asa. I called her ‘Asa-senpai’ when I asked if I could take a photo of her . Nice pose from Asa-senpai. I just love it when cosplayers from favourite characters/series pose similarly to the characters themselves.

Cosplayers from Valkyria Chronicles. Where is my Alicia ?

Quite a rare sight to see Syaoran with his board and Sakura with her clow card book. Nice cosplay.

Moarrrrrrr!!!! FFXIII. Sarah and Snow. Snow cosplayer is just perfect since he is a big guy and it’s how I imagine Snow would be in real life.

The guy asked if I wanted him to carry her and I was like …. “Can you ?” and he said of course. I was like ‘sweettttt….’, I got another pose.

You may not want to mess around with her, Rank 4 Claymore, Ophelia. I have seen her before in previous conventions as she always cosplays as Ophelia.

Many people were hanging around outside TCC. Hot weather didn’t prevent them from cosplaying and having fun.

First time I have seen full Red Mage AF1 armor (Final Fantasy 11) that were nicely done and not to mention he’s a mithra and has an Excalibur. Awesome cosplay.

Lovely Sakura from Card Captor Sakura. I have seen her in previous conventions cosplayed as Sakura. Nicely done .

Bayonetta from Bayonetta (PS3 games)

Bleach group photo

More Saber cosplay. I think she is better than the previous one that I took. Her armor is not reflective so it’s easy to take a picture of her. Overall , she did a good job but Maridah is still my number 1 Saber cosplayer <3

Marisa Kirisame from Touhou. First time , I have seen Marisa Kirisame in anime convention. Great cosplay.

Usagi Tsukino from Sailor Moon. Nice dress.

Sakura vs Ryu in a Hadouken battle.

Group cosplay from Code Geass.

Is this some kind of Digimon ? I cannot remember the name.

Name these characters (I know they are from Naruto but are they all Kakashi ?)

Asuka from NGE. Nicely done.

Thanks to Tim for letting me know about them. I was waiting outside TTC and hopefully they passed by and they sure did. Lovely ladies from Bible Black.

Saber from Fate Stay / Night. I chuckled when I saw her head lol.

Characters from Sengoku Basara. From left, Yukimura, Name this character Chosokabe Motochika(Thanks Ichi) and Dante.

Vanille from FFXIII. Her staff was nicely done and her voice was very pleasant unlike the one in the game (English version) .

Name this character/series

Arale and Arale’s dad from Dr. Slump

Just in case you all are wondering what the pink-candy like is, it’s actually a poo. Arale likes poking at a poo.

This is ACG’s trademark pose.

They are from Luminous Arc (I asked them since I had no idea what they were cosplaying as). This group has always an awesome cosplay. I can see a lot of effort was put in their costumes. Name these characters Roland Rina and Rasche (Thanks, Rinaa) .

Name this character. Remilia Scarlet from Touhou Project (Thanks, Makushiiin)

Name this character.

Black Rock Shooter

Celty from Durarara!

Nice pair of Edward and Major Armstrong from Full Metal Alchemist.

Bayonetta and name this character from Bayonetta.

Cloud’s riding a bike.

Another girl from Bible Black. Too bad I don’t know which girl is which

Hiyori from Bleach. Quite rare to see Hiyori cosplay in an anime convention and it’s nicely done too.

Name these characters Astharoshe Asran (Wine Dress ver)

Marisa Kirisame from Touhou.

Miku group photo ^^

“Magnet” Miku and Luka from Vocaloid.

Meroko from Full Moon wo Sagashite.

Maid with a sword ?

Another trademark pose of ACG.

Gin from Gintama. Nice cosplay, Tim

And of course, we cannot forget our trademark pose.

I just had to join them

Name these characters. Correct me if I am wrong, I believe the left one is Len from Vocaloid.

Our ACG mascot, Ansu. For some reasons, I just love this shot.

That basically wrapped up my Anime North 2010 coverage. It’s no doubt that it’s another great convention, although, it could have been better. Better japanese guest of honours would be nice although, I don’t see it happening since it’s a convention ran by fans for fans so no budget ^^;;. Despite that, I still enjoyed it and look forward to next year.

In case you are expecting a loot post, there won’t be any loot post since the only thing I bought was Claymore blu-ray for $72 after tax ^^.

Distant Worlds: music from Final Fantasy will be in Toronto

Saku — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 02:45:54 +0000

For those who live in Toronto and nearby area and an avid Final Fantasy series or even a fan of Nobue Uematsu, you may want to mark your calendar on November 27th, 2010 as Distant Worlds: music from Final Fantasy symphony concert world tour will perform at Sony Centre for the Performing Arts this year in Downtown Toronto. For those who live outside Canada, check out their upcoming events as they may come to your cities.

Ticket can be booked from ticketmaster.ca and it ranges from $35 to $125 depending where the seats are located.

Ticket price by seats:

ORCHESTRA : CA $83.50 – CA $123.50
MEZZANINE : CA $98.50
BALCONY: CA $35.00 – CA $83.50

My friends who happened to attend Dear Friends concert couple years ago told me that they really enjoyed it and it’s totally worth every penny spent ^^;;.

Here is the full list of songs. They are in no particular order and it may be subjected to change. I am hoping that they can add more theme songs from FFXI since that’s probably the longest Final Fantasy game that I’ve ever played.

1. FINAL FANTASY series: Main Theme

Main Theme

Swing de Chocobo (the theme song that keeps me company while I am doing a mini game of Chocobo digging ^^;;)

2. FINAL FANTASY I-III: Medley

3. FINAL FANTASY IV: Theme of Love

4. FINAL FANTASY V: Dear Friends

5. FINAL FANTASY VI: Opera “Maria and Draco”

6. FINAL FANTASY VII: One-Winged Angel, Opening – Bombing Mission, Aerith’s Theme

One-Winged Angel

Opening – Bombing Mission

Aerith’s Theme (is this everyone’s favourite ? )

7. FINAL FANTASY VIII: Liberi Fatali, Fisherman’s Horizon, Love Grows, Don’t be Afraid

Liberi Fatali

Fisherman’s Horizon

Love Grows

Don’t be Afraid (FFVIII battle theme song if I am not mistaken)

8. FINAL FANTASY IX: Vamo’ alla Flamenco (lol reminds me of funny scene in FFIX. See the youtube video to refresh your memory)

9. FINAL FANTASY X: To Zanarkand (never play FFX but I enjoy this song a lot)

10. FINAL FANTASY XI: Memoro de la Stono – Distant Worlds (This is the theme song from the final cs in Chains of Promethia(CoP) Expansion pack. It reminds me of staying late until like 4am in the morning and tried to beat those ridiculously hard CoP missions (SE made them easy afterward ^^;;)

Ronfaure (not part of their list but it was played during some of Distant Worlds concert)

It’s hard to believe that a game series like Final Fantasy lasts as long as FFXIV but with high quality music composed by maestro Nobuo Uematsu, it becomes one of the appealing factor to all major Final Fantasy branding (with some exception of course as he is not involved in FFXIII in order to work FFXIV). Gameplay, Music/Theme songs and Storyline become what defines a good RPG is.

Listening those songs bring back those memories playing those games. I still remembered how I used to play FFVII and FFVIII while my parents weren’t at home, otherwise, they would have told me to stop ^^. Or all those good time staying up late with fellow linkshell (guild) members doing CoP missions. We were waiting for our 2-hr ability (a special ability for a job that can be only be used once every 2 hour) to cool down in order to give the mission another try.

If this concert happens to be around your neighbourhood, will you go regardless ticket price ? and even if you are not a FF fan, will you still go ?

March Toronto Anime Convention 2010

Saku — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 00:48:20 +0000

An overdue post about March Toronto Anime Convention which was happening on March 20-21, 2010. It was held by the same people who held annual Fan Expo on August and December Toronto Anime Convention (DTAC).

MTAC, DTAC and Fan Expo are always held at Metro Toronto Convention Center at Front Street West.

As I arrived at the location of MTAC, I was greeted by fellow otaku cosplayed as Kinoshita Hideyoshi. He is no other than Rin from koiaichaku.com. Awesome cosplay ^^b. It’s nicely done.

Since it’s a small convention, there weren’t many cosplayers that caught my eyes, however, there’s no way I would miss C.C.

Saw this another nice cosplay of Yuna from FFX-2 and Link.

One of my favourite cosplay during MTAC 2010. The guy from Left 4 Dead game. Does anyone L4D or L4D 2 ?

Crowds at March Toronto Anime Convention 2010

Taokaka from BlazBlue game. Very nice cosplay.

Rin owned everyone in “Anime that tune” (well not really, since the girl beside him was only 4 points behind), although, he couldn’t remember the ED of King of Bandit, Jing.

Another round of “Anime that Tune” game. Bridget decided to participate but the guy in the middle won.

Final round, the girl in the middle knows a lot so no surprise that she won this round.

My favourite Allen from D.Gray-man cosplayer that I always see in most anime conventions around Toronto. I saw him last year at MTAC 2009.

Megurine Luka from Vocaloid. I saw her at Anime North last year and her cosplay is always great.

Dealer room is always crowded. When’s ever not crowded anyways ^^?

Lacus Clyne in kimono. So kawaii….. ^^

It wouldn’t be anime convention without Chii from Chobits ^^, would it ?

Double Kinoshita Hideyoshi? Which one is the real one ?

Name this character ^^:;. I don’t play enough Zelda games >.<

Name these characters. I have no idea which series they are from. Beatrice and Battler Ushiromiya from Umineko no Naku Koro Ni (Credit to Katakara).

Thoughts

MTAC and DTAC are always a small convention but it’s always a great reason to cosplay for those who enjoys cosplaying and for me, I was just glad that I was finally able to go out of my place and not working. Working for 3 straight weekends was very tiring and not to mentioned homeworks and quizzes so it was a great way to relax and refresh my self up.

Anzu Chigusa Birthday Party

Saku — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 02:10:26 +0000

Since the previous event got canceled due to lack of interest, ACG NA will be having Anzu Chigusa (the mascot) Birthday Party next month. See details below:

When: April 24th 2010, Saturday.
Time: 3PM ~ 9PM.Location: Bond Place Hotel.
65 DUNDAS STREET EAST,
TORONTO, ONTARIO M5B2G8
416-362-6064 www.bondplace.ca
Ticket: Cheaper tickets available online: http://anzubday2010.eventbrite.com/ (Special Discount code: “iSupportACG” for our supporters and followers. This code is limited to 40 people only.)
$28 cash-only at the door. ACG NA VIP Members receive $5 cash-back (even if you purchased tickets online). Membership for sale($35) at the event and on our website http://acgnorthamerica.com.
Cosplay: Encouraged (Cosplayers have the chance of winning more PRIZES!)
ACG NA’s very own Anzu Chigusa is having a birthday party on April 24th and everyone is invited! If you love Anime, Comics, or Gaming and wish to make some friends with the same interest or just want to relax and have a good time, this is where you should go. Don’t miss out on ACG NA’s biggest event so far!
For complete detail, visit the ticket page:
http://anzubday2010.eventbrite.com/

Hope to see you guys there