J's Chimes: Pokemon And L4D

What is the similarities of Pokemon with Left 4 Dead? Read this comic strip and find out. Parodies like that comes out very often in almost all successful franchises around the world and is seemingly humorous somehow to see the western and eastern artwork combine... In such cases, these can be seen in real life action films ripped from Japanese animes for example dragonball and even games like Tekken.

J's Chimes: Anime Music On The Yamaha Stagea Electone

What better is it to play the anime music that we so loved on the Yamaha Stagea Electone. This first video shows a musician playing the all so famous music we all know in Macross Frontier Lion. One of the most amazing performance ever heard...


Perhaps one of my favorites would be Clannad After Story's Toki Wo Kizamu Uta played on the Electone. Well... that is if you could afford one of these at a whooping price of at least SGD$15,000. A mini version of the Yamaha Stagea Electone costs about SGD$3000 and similarly boost the same functions of the original.


One of the best ever music I heard would definitely be Lupin The 3rd. Looks difficult to master though... However with only the electone, you could become a one man orchestra right at the comfort of your own home... The fact that this instrument could actually play almost all sounds made by theoretically all instruments you could find...

J's Chimes: Tech Is Moe Too!

Putting animes aside, sometimes technological machinery are moe too. Somehow such has also brought about different groups of otaku with different interest in stuff. For example those who like trains and keep them as hobbies are probably called Densha Otaku and those who like anime are called anime otaku, etc. However it might be, strangely they are able to click together discussing about such hobbies rather than those who doesn't have one. War weapons are really nice because of their hardcore design and cool look to it which makes it renegade. If you do play games like Metal Gear Solid or even Call of Duty, you'd truly appreciate what these techs could awe you in many ways than 1.

J's Chimes: The Amazing Anime Action Duplicates

Have you ever notice that some scenes or actions are similar to one another in other animes? Popular scenic views like doves flying into the sky or actions by characters are actually duplicated in such a way that either we did not really notice because of the different angles animators present to us or that our minds see it as a different anime altogether. But perhaps this little video best explains why anime has somehow been copied and paste over and again when animators are running out of creative camera views and ideas...

J's Chimes: The Hitting Gallery

Animated Gifs are made by people and looked great as they loop continuously at scenes which are funny and memorable. This time, we look into a gallery of hits at various anime characters. No one is harm inthe process though.


Love to play with drums but don't have one to practice on? How about trying this for once? That is if no one else is at home...


Slaps are common but sometimes such sadistic and unhappy actions are depicted as comedic in almost all animes. Perhaps such example would be Toradora where the head movements are of that to the hand movements...


Being hit there continuously in this animated gif really hurts a lot... No matter even if you are a Karate Black Belt...


Abuse to animals is a no no. However things are probably different in animes and you could hit them as much as you want without any animals injured in the process... But perhaps it's hard on the voice actors... (If there is for the cat)


What happens when just don't have the strength to punch someone in the face? How about letting your chest to do the job for you? (Provided if you are a girl...) Stay in front of the door for maximum power to unsuspected victims!


Not enough force in your punches? How about tying them up upside down and let gravity do the work for you? Comes with swinging action too!


Love money a lot? Try asking your sister to hit your face with a bunch of notes... Maybe you'd feel as satisfied as Yui...


A more serious punch than the others... I wonder how she'd felt after that many punches... Even so, anime tends to not let injured characters looked bruise and battered for some reason or another...


And finally, what could be worse than 2 enemies hitting you at the same time with absolutely no time to attack back...

J's Chimes: What Do You See?

Made from 900 eroge artworks, someone indeed has lots of time with him to put them all together to from yet another explicit picture. Though it's a bit blurry, but its outlines would catch your attention. And just to be sure, you could click on the picture above for a larger view so that you may see what it's made of. Well, sometimes it doesn't hurt to have a collection of eroges... That is if you have uses for them for times such as this...

J's Chimes: To Be Good At Cosplaying

Cosplays are slowly getting the hypes in Singapore and so does the demand for higher quality and details for the costumes. Well of course we can't compare cosplays with Japan because there are may professional cosplayers around that treat these very seriously. And thus these are the 10 factors to consider and ensure your cosplay is a success and worth of praise to audiences around.

1.) Your Passion For Cosplay
- Your interest in Cosplaying is perhaps the most important factors to note of. Without passion, all these will not be as truly enjoyable as you're doing it for the sake of it.

2.) Display Your Creativity And Skills
- Costumes aren't easy to make than you think it is. Especially when it comes to the details and such which make it time consuming to complete. Not only that, you'd need lots of creativity to make certain elements of the costume which aren't sold anywhere in the market.

3.) Know Where To Get The Right Materials
- It is important to know what material suits best for your costume so that it would turn out exactly as you want it to be. Different materials have different textures, feel, design, etc to it and thus it may affect your overall look of your entire costume if it fails to meet the standards.

4.) Know Which Character Suits You
- In layman terms, cosplay a character who has about the same built as you. For example, it would be weird to cosplay a well-built character when you are thin and so forth. The audiences prefer closer resemblance of your cosplay to the character rather than someone who forces himself to cosplay someone they can't.

5.) Learn The Basics Of Makeup
- Makeup plays an important role in any cosplays and could even change your looks to that desired. It does also gives you the confidence you need and cover up spots in which you do not want people to pry on.

6.) Allow Yourself Ample Time
- Give yourself ample amount of time to work on your costumes and not rush, only to realize that you didn't want it to be this way. Plan and schedule your time; from searching your materials, designing and making the costumes and to trial and errors needed. Only then will you be able to display yourself with confidence of your work without scrutiny.

7.) Acquire Feedback And Consult Your Friends
- Have your friends look at your cosplay and be the judge. If they like it, there wouldn't be much of a problem in events would it? At least your friends could give you some tips, ideas and valuable feedback about it so that you could improve.

8.) Gather Information To Spark Ideas
- Sometimes you'd run into road blocks and thus it is wise to gather some information thru websites and other materials to get new ideas for your work. Take a scroll in the arcade, maybe you'd find some interesting materials which could proved to be useful for your costumes.

9.) Motivate Yourself
- Low on morale or no motivation to do it? One way is to immerse yourself with much of cosplay events and stuff related to it. Only then will make you burn with enthusiasm to want to make a costume. Buy your materials, plan or sketch your costume, prepare something and place them in front of your work desk to make you feel motivated to do it.

10.) Enjoy And Express Yourself
- Enjoy your planning, making stages of your costumes. Enjoy them even more when displaying your finished product in cosplay events. Your hard work is finally paying off and believe that you've done a good job.


For more stuffs in relation to what constitutes a good cosplay, you can view it by clicking here.

J's Chimes: The Hand-held Fakes

Another4 batch of game consoles had just arrived and they've once again flooded the market with seemingly familiar designs that will fool unsuspected customers into purchasing them. One of the perfect examples would be this hand-held game which was originally a Nintendo Gameboy Micro...


Looks like the real thing and even down to the designs and the box cover. Sometimes it keeps me wondering how these consoles work... Perhaps once again with those 8bits pixel games that you might found in your classic Atari game sets?


If the anime The World God Only Knows could make a handheld console know as the PFP (Out from the PSP), I don't see why there wouldn't be a version known as the PCP... In fact, the name PCP rings a bell in the anime known as Bakuman (Where the duo becomes famous with this new series they created...)


This time, there's even a POP version of the popular PSP... With additional buttons too! Even to the box design, it is totally copied. But judging from the screen, it would probably load some pixel games out from the classic Nintendo world...

J's Chimes: Gotta Catch Them All!

Pokemon is a classic anime that we all know which involves monsters fighting in tournaments and stuff... This single anime had thus brought about a new genre of adventures and some examples would be Digimon, Yugioh, Beyblade, etc. However, Pokemon is still liked by people from around the whole and thus had decided to Ita their cars in tribute to them.


How about this Pokemon Itasha found in Singapore? Somehow of rather, there are a lot of people doing this with the Suzuki Swift. Perhaps this model is made to Ita?


Vans are not spared from the invasion of Pikachus. Perhaps this is one of the most outrageous mods around for a van. You wouldn't need to be worried that your van's stolen because its so obvious on the road...


Buses are also made into Pikachus to get those kids to school... I guess the front had to be remodeled and such to make the head of Pikachu...


And currently the biggest Ita that ruled them all would be the ANA Pokemon airplane. I guess Pokemon had really invaded into the many vehicles that we had seen today and perhaps will continue to live on and maybe broadcast a brand new story in the futures to come...

J's Chimes: Culture Japan

Back in AFA, Danny Choo presented his speech about Japanese Culture and one of the videos include an hour long programme directed by him was aired on stage. This is probably one of the most amazing programmes around and educational in some ways or another for people who wanted to know more about Japan. Episode 0 was loaded in Youtube as a preview for the other episodes to come and you can view it here below.



Danny Choo was probably one of the reason why I'd blog too. That's why I've always look upon him as a role model as he's able to make this passion of his into a job. Anyway, Culture Japan will be aired on Animax starting December so you might wanna consider subscribing to Mio or Starhub TV for that if you are really interested...

J's Chimes: Koe De Oshigoto!

And so with the end of AFA, it's back to normal posts on J's Chimes. This time we look into a brand new anime that was aired only recently and had certainly got people talking. Yup, Koe De Oshigoto is finally here and this anime zooms into the eroge industry where voice actors are to project their most embarrassing voices for climaxing scenes for the characters. This anime is something new and refreshing in a sense that voice acting for such is really not an easy feat...

(Before continuing, please take note that this anime is labelled as ecchi and contains scenes not suitable for the young. And so if you are offended in any way, please do not read this post. However, this anime is not classified as hentai as they are of a different level instead.)


Am pretty sure 90& of the time anime fans do venture into other genres of anime and ecchi is one of them. This is quite common in Japanese anime because of their culture. Ask anyone about what eroge is and normally they do not understand what it is or that they would give you a weird stare if they know it. In Koe De Oshigoto, the elder sister of the female protagonist works in a eroge company specialises in recordings and thus ecchi-ness is expected...


If you caught your sister playing an eroge... Then perhaps it's really quite an eye opener... Especially so when the female protagonist caught her sister playing one, only to realise in future that she actually works for an eroge company when invited to become a voice actress for a game...


The female protagonist gets sucked into the world of eroge and began seeing something explicit... (And it's a school too...) And of course, the dolphin is replaced with a spectrum of rainbow light as a mosaic or sorts...


Perhaps to make it more 'children-friendly', explicit scenes are not with characters being naked while doing it... though it is so, it doesn't mask the erotic scene this one is...


I love how the creativeness of Japanese censorship and this NG design certainly keeps you thinking deeply... Perhaps they would really uncensored it in the DVD version?


And so how do you understand more about eroges? Play them of course... The female protagonist is later encourage to play one by her sister. Eroge is a very big market in the Japanese industry and sometimes in other countries too... So don't think eroges are bad. They can be as popular as games like Gears Of War to epic games like Call of Duty.


The female protagonist tries to be in sync with the characters of the game and feel as though she's the one 'doing it'. Only then will her emotions be fully portrayed. It certainly isn't easy to be a voice actor for normal anime... But an eroge seems much worse off...


And how do you learn to make 'sucking' noises for eroges? Try practicing with your finger or someone elses... Keep your saliva flowing...


Perhaps a little too much... Oh no, she's messing up the scripts... Sometimes I also do wonder how these voice actors must have felt doing this... How in the world do you train to produce such erotic sounds without actually doing it and stuff? Some 'special' training?


The feeling of ecstasy right after a climax of some sorts... Guess she overdo it quite a bit...


And again another illusion scene as seen by the female protagonist... This time, late in the evening in the school library. A very common location in most eroges you would see which tells a story in a school life setting...


Perhaps voice recordings are a little too much to bear even if you are the sound controllers or producers of this recording... Imagine having to hear such voices in real time...


Koe De Oshigoto! is a nice anime which is comedic and entertaining in a different perspective. Much similar to animes like Doujin Works where sexual themes are seen in another light. We really should salute up to these people who voice over such games as it really isn't easy to do such jobs and not be embarrass about it...

J's Chimes: The Singapore Toy Games & Comic Convention

With the end of the Anime Festival Asia this month, another big event will be held once again at Suntec City Singapore on the 10 - 12 December 2010. Known as the Singapore Toys, Games & Comic Convention, this event once again showcase the various toys and stuff from all over the world. Then again there will also be cosplays and special guests which includes AKB48 who will be coming for the event. Somehow or rather, the entry fee is $10 per day and $21 for all 3 days into the event. Interested viewers can preorder their tickets online at the nearest AXS or SAM in your neighbourhood or simply visit their website here for more details...

J's Chimes: Best Little Things In AFA...

Sometimes, even the most minute thing in the event catches your attention. Especially when you began to reminisce about it when you scroll through your photos taken at AFA. There are a couple of them and some of it would probably be the amazing figurines that had bought during this convention. Nonetheless, Black Rocker Shooter catches my eye and went about buying even the figma on the second day of the event as it looks pretty cool in the display cabinet...


The other would probably be the Nendoroid for Balck Rock Shooter as it looks so really cute... Not to mention her poker face attachment which is interchangeable for her serious look. Both Black Rock Shooter Models are highly rank in the top 10 bestsellers when it was up on sale.


This T-Shirt which was hanging at the edge of the COSPA booth caught my attention becuase of its attention seeking designs of Ikaros from the anime Sora No Otoshimono. Because of her amazing blossom and chain tied on her neck, it seems pretty erotic in some sense or another. Which makes me wonder who would be brave enough to wear this outside without having weird stares on your T-Shirt. For better or worse, nobody would know...


Black Cat was actually an Amercian-based comic book character but it was later drawn into anime due to the influence of the Japanese culture and artwork. But somehow or rather I'd prefer the Japan version due to the fact that it looks much more beautiful compared to American art because they tend to draw girls as some other style in which my eyes couldn't very much accept... (Perhaps due to too much Japanese animes instead of American Animations)


Cosplayers are pretty up-to-date too and already you could even see people cosplaying as Panty and Stocking in the AFA Convention. Perhaps one of the most eye-catching characters around this season due to the fact that the art style animation, the comedic and explicit random ecchi-ness. Not to mention using undergarments as weapons of purification... The weapons catches my attention as it lights up and somehow or rather looks nice and heavenly...


I was actually taking the photograph of this booth instead but to my surprise, the cosplayers manning this booth began posing when they saw me holding up my camera... I was dumbfounded but then I thought to myself, ok so she wants a photograph so I decided to take lots and lots so that I wouldn't disappoint them as they are quite eager to... All is well because I got to have a couple more moe sailor uniform girls in my photo collection.


Perhaps one of the most long awaited figma models of all time, the Danny Choo Mascot Mirai Figma. Heard that it is up for pre-order very soon and would probably be ordering mine asap when it's up. Looks really nice...


Last but not least, it's got to be Danny Choo. It's a surprise to see him back in Singapore for this AFA event. Amazingly, I got a photo with him once again but it was more of a coincidence because we suddenly saw him just beside us when we were taking photographs of this Itasha. He's indeed a very friendly person and charismatic and bows politely to me when I shook his hand after taking a photo with him... really cool.

J's Chimes: AFA X Mini Tour

Here's a little video I've scrapped up for the Anime Festival Asia X. For those who did not went, maybe this would give you anidea of what AFA is about. And for those who had already been there, you might wanna take a look to reminisce your enjoyable moments there...

J's Chimes: Danny Choo At AFA & CGM

Yesterday was a CGM hosted by DannyChoo at Lau Pa Sat in Singapore at 5pm. Due to certain circumstances, am unable to go and am pretty disappointed about it... There should probably be a few hundred comrades gathering there and would probably overtake the entire food center for this occasion. Hopefully I could get the updates on this asap online about the event though...


But in any case, am still happy due to the fact that I've manage to take a photo with Danny Choo once again in the AFA convention. (You can see my previous photos with him by clicking here)


It was really a big coincidence that I met him at the right place at the right time... Yup, and I mean at the right place where a copy of his Itasha is featured at AFA using another car for its designs...


Danny Choo also had his stage appearance in AFA to give us a little presentation on Japan Culture. It is rather educational and informative with the screening of his television programme known as the Danny Choo Network - Culture Japan.


One of the memorable moments of his presentation screenings. If maid cafes are like that in Singapore, perhaps people will start visiting one soon. In any case, his programme will soon be aired on Animax this December so if you do own Starhub or Mio TV, you might want to subscribe it asap so as not to miss an episode of it.