さよなら、もも、うら、きん、りゅう。。。

Farewell to the Imagins Momotaros, Urataros, Kintaros, Ryuutaros, Deneb, Sieg, and of course Ryoutaro and Yuuto. It's been a fun ride this past year, and Kamen Rider Den-O has become my favorite Kamen Rider series of all time. It's obvious that Den-O has enjoyed tremendous success in Japan, given the amount of products, commercials, concerts, live shows, and countless spoofs on youtube it has spawned. The ending episode was awesome in contrast with the previous few series, which always ended on a low. Although the whole time travel thing left lots of questions, the show remained true to its roots the entire time, and left behind many memorable scenes as well as characters. All of them have distinct character traits, and none were left behind as more characters were introduced. For those yet to see the show, don't hesitate any longer if you're looking for a fun filled series with a thought provoking plot. I'm sad that it has ended, but in the meantime I'll be looking foward to the first episode of Kamen Rider Kiva. It's going to be tough to overtake Den-O, but shots from the 1st episode look promising.

Great Decisive Battle! The Super 8 Ultra Brothers (大決戦!超ウルトラ8兄弟) is the latest Ultraman theatrical feature, due for release in fall 2008. Hiroshi Nagano of V6 will return to play Daigo Madoka, the human alter-ego of Ultraman Tiga, and will join Ultraman Dyna, Ultraman Gaia, Ultraman Mebius and four other Ultra characters (which have yet to be officially announced, although Ultraman Agul is rumored since the human form of Agul, Hiroya Fujimiya, has already been confirmed for the movie.) It will be the first theatrical film by the Ultra Series TV director Takeshi Yagi. Since Chinese New Year is just around the corner me and Mabel are slowing getting into spring cleaning our house. Just today, it took me a few hours to clean up one section of my figure collection. Here you can see my re-arrranged levels, consisting of stuff from Gekirangers, Kamen Rider series Hibiki, Blade, Kabuto and Den-O. Also added in my Kamen Rider Head display sets which I bought last weekend. Will be going to Chinatown again soon to hunt for the Den-O head to place beside the Zeronos head soon.

Also packed up my manga shelves. Was relatively simpler and easy compared to the figurines. Haven't been getting much manga these days, so for the most part the manga here are all old school stuff like Dragonball, SlamDunk, Dectective Conan, etc.
Mabel's not been cooking much lately, but was inspired by one of the new stores at our neighbourhood coffeshop to try her hand at making pasta. Well, the looks weren't really there and the taste could have been better, but I still ate the whole place anyway. I've never been the type to fuss over food (especially when I've been through the worst time of my life during overseas survival training back in Cadet school), so it was all good for me.

My package from Japan has finally arrived! Just last week, I ordered through a Japanese/English/Chinese electronic dictionary though ebay, and I received it yesterday. It costed me around $460 including shipping and handling, but it was still cheaper than buying direct from stores. I've always wanted one so that I can carry a lighter bag to school without 2 dictionaries inside, and that it would be so much simpler to use compared to manual flipping. So far, it's great and it'll definately help towards my JLPT 2 preparations this year.

I've been listening to this really cute song from H!P singers Abe Natsumi & Yajima Maimi from °C-ute (安倍なつみ＆矢島舞美). The title of the song is 16歳の恋なんて, and the lyrics follow the conversation of the two girls, aged 16 and 26 (Natsumi and Maimi respectively of course). The 2 girls, while queing up outside a ramen store, sing about the differences about falling in love at their age, such as having to deal with exams, stress, etc. The lyrics are cute too, with questions such as "Will you take me swimming even when I become old?", and ends off with the hope that they will meet their prince charming (ougisama). Maimi then jokes that Natsumi will meet an old man instead (ojisan/ojisama). Nice song, so check out the PV here:

Getting tired easily these days due to all the runs lately. Still trying to find time for books and also do learn some new stuff, especially when I've only covered the first chapter in my Photoshop book, and barely even flipped the first page of the JLPT guides. But time is meant to be found, and less sleep should be able to solve all my problems. Anyway, I hope to keep up with at least 1 post per weekend. Till the next one, ja!

Sean & Mabel's Tokyo video featured on STOMP!

I recently got to know about STOMP!'s DIY video compettition, where users are encouraged to send in their videos. Well, no harm trying since the video is already made. It's now being featured in the Top 5 section, and I stand a chance to win a DVD Handycam! Anyway, here's the link to the video, so do give your support!

http://diy.stomp.com.sg/video_details.php?id=277

You'd need to register to give a rating though. Anyway, thanks! :)

京都か北海道か？答えは聞いてない！

It's still quite some time away, but I've been thinking about a next trip to Japan already. While Mabel's bugging me on a weekly basis to go to another country, she keeps popping up new ideas, such as Thailand, Taiwan, and even Korea and the US. While I'm generally ok, another trip to Japan can't hurt. Yes, my wallet would ache a bit but we have time to save. I'm still considering either Kyoto or Hokkaido. Kyoto because I want to visit the movie world there to look at the Super Sentai and Kamen Rider exhibitions, and Hokkaido because of the scenary obviously. Lots of time from now to think about it, so no worries :)

In between the episodes of Gekirangers and Den-O and a couple of anime shows, I had time to pick up a new Tokusatsu series recently. Cutie Honey The Live (キューティーハニー THE LIVE) is a production of the popular Cutie Honey manga and anime series chief directed by Makoto Yokoyama. It began airing on TV Tokyo on October 2, 2007. Gravure idol Mikie Hara (原 幹恵) portrays Honey Kisaragi, the title character. I watched the pilot episode a few months back, but didn't really like it so I didn't follow through. However, after some good reviews I read, I went back to the series, and boy I'm glad I did.Initially, I thought that the show was full of fan service and served to satisfy otakus with its adult themes (hence the late night time slot). And yes, that statement still stand true. There is very mild nudity, in fact only 1 episode so far (not the main characters though) and lots of lesbian inclined scenes, with some violent fights. But what won me over was that the show was genuinely bone tickling funny. Outrageous and fully of comedic performaces, especially from Hayami, the private detective (played by Syouma Yamamoto, the same actor as the White Makai Knight from Garo).

The show starts with just one girl, Honey, who can henshin into this red hair xiao char bo (psychotic bitch). As the show progresses, she is joined by 2 other girls, very different in personalities. They are Miki, and Yuki. Each girl can henshin into a fighter of sorts, since they are actually andriods. The cast also includes familiar faces from other Tokusatsu shows, such as Mark Musashi from Garo & Kamen Rider: The First, and Kohei Murakami from Kamen Rider 555. For those interested in the series, please give it a try. Great characters and comedy. Here's a clip from the show.

Just finished watching the Kamen Rider Den-O Hyper Video and the Special Talk show featuring the seiyuu (voice actors) and the suit actors for all the imagins. Although the whole show is in Japanese, I felt that it was great finally being able to put a face to all the voices for the imagins. This show has been really popular in Japan, and part of the credit goes out to the imagins who have been great and really memorable. With just a few more episodes to go, I'm sure I won't be the only one who will miss Momotaros-tachi when they are gone. To show how popular they are, here's a clip of some of the fan-made spoofs from other anime series, using Den-O characters.

77 Star is starting their first Tokusatsu course in Feb. In March, 77 Star will be recruiting staff for their Tokusatsu production section. The company intends to produce a Singaporean Henshin hero TV series. The series is based on the Japanese “Local Hero” (ローカルヒーロー／ご当地ヒーロー) concept. According to Mr Enomoto Shinya, producer from 77 Star, this made-in-Singapore tokusatsu series is inspired by Akita’s Chojin Neiga (超神ネイガー). The series will focus on social and educational themes such as courtesy, not littering, disturbing the public peace, etc. Still, action and comedy will be pack of the show, which will be filmed and produced in Singapore. This is pretty exciting stuff, and since the flop VR-Man a decade ago, Singapore has never ventured into the Tokusatsu or Hero genre. Those who are intersted in joining 77 Star in this production, do feel free to contact them through their official website.

Macross Frontier (マクロス F) is an animated television series in the Macross universe. It is being produced by Satelight and is scheduled to premiere in April 2008 on MBS channel in Japan. The series will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross TV series (1982~1983), and will be a direct sequel to its follow-up Macross 7(1994~1996). This third TV series will feature the U.N. Spacy's latest main variable fighter, the VF-25 and a new spaceship called the Macross Frontier.

During a mission to an unexplored asteroid belt, a reconnaissance VF-17 Nightmare is destroyed by powerful & fast insectoid biomechanical alien lifeforms, which immediately begin their attack on the rest of the fleet. Not being able to stop the new enemy threat, the U.N. Spacy forces authorize the deployment of an organization called S.M.S., which utilizes the new VF-25 Variable fighter to destroy the alien menace. The first episode blew me away with its outstanding visuals. Hopefully the wait to the second episode won't be a long one.

Still waiting patiently for the next episode of Den-O, Honey, and Gekirangers. Anime seems to have taken a backstand now, but I still have a few unwatched episodes left from Gundam 00, Ghost Hound, Kekkaishi and Naruto. There seems to be a few new series worth my time, and perhaps I'll talk more about them in upcoming entries. Till then, ja! :p

Sean & Mabel: 幸せの歌

Yes, yet another video. Didn't really put much effort as all the pics were reused, mainly from previous blog entries. It looks like a messy slide show because I was tired of thinking of transitions half way through. Anyway, the song used is "GIMME ALL OF YOUR LOVE!!!" by Tommy Heavenly6. That's it for this week :)