IT’S BACK ! ! One of the most highly anticipated anime event of the region, the Anime Festival Asia 2009 will be held from 21st – 22nd November at the Singapore Suntec Convention Center. Among the highlights this year are the great artists invited to perform the I Love Anisong Concert, featuring May’N, Shoko Nakagawa, Ichiro Mizuki, Yoshiki Fukuyama AND Hatsune Miku! Celebrity Otaku blogger Danny Choo will also be making an appearance this year and will most likely introduce some of his merchandise during the event. Other activities held during the event includes the Bandai World Gunpla Modeling Competition as well as the Regional Cosplay Championship 2009 and lots of other features.

Anime Festival Asia 2009 Official Site

Via PlayStation Lifestyle

From the critically acclaimed designer Fumito Ueda who brought us classics such as Ico and Shadow of the Collosus, Team Ico yet again brings us another instant classic. The new project, simply titled as Project Trico (Ico 3 ? with SOTC being Ico 2?) appears to combine the best elements of both Ico and SOTC. We get a collosal creature which appears to be a mythical Griffin and a innocent child-like character who helps guide the creature out of the maze like castle. Although the Griffin looks fearsome with its claws, it also displays signs of affection towards the child lending to a special bond between the two. The graphics while not complete at this stage still manages to evoke such emotions from the characters which is nothing short of amazing. Ico and SOTC tops my list of favorite games of all time, but Trico is set to join their ranks soon enough.

PlayStation Lifestyle – Team ICO’s Project Trico HD Trailer

Manufacturer: Strategic Naval Research Institute
Operator: Earth Federation Forces
Dimensions: Head height 15.2 meters
Weight: Empty 7.2 metric tons; max gross 19.9 metric tons
Pilot(s): Seabook Arno, Harrison Martin, Bergh Scred
Original mechanical designer(s): Yoshikazu Yasuhiko (principal design), Kunio Okawara (cleanup)

MAHQ – Gundam F91

From the producer of HERO and CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON comes BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE, based on the cult hit series. Demons have infested the earth. And only one warrior stands between the dark and the light: Saya, a half-human, half-vampire samurai who preys on those who feast on human blood. Joining forces with the shadowy society known as the Council, Saya is dispatched to an American military base, where an intense series of swordfights leads her to the deadliest vampire of all. And now after 400 years, Saya’s final hunt is about to begin.

The trailer looks awesome with some really cool CGI effects and action choreography. Based closely on the original  Production IG’s animation, the live action movie features Asian leading casts with mostly Western supporting casts and still keeps most of its dialogue in English. With an R rating when its released, this looks to be no holds barred vampire gore fest sure to satisfy fans of the vampire/horror genre.

Opening the package, and you’ll find the drive, a USB cable, the power adapter and 2 different pin adapters for use with your power outlet.

The drive itself is enclosed in a simple black casing with only one indicator light for power and blinks when its performing read/write operation. Connectors for power and USB is located behind the unit. You can place the drive flat or on its side as it is heavy enough to balance itself.  I would have preferred if they had included a power switch on the drive itself so that I do not have to reach into my power strip whenever I want to shut the drive off.

After formatting the drive, you’ll only get about 930Gb of available storage. I’ll be splitting the partition into two since my Mac’s only has 200Gb of harddisk space used for Time Machine and the rest will be used for temporary storage. The drive does produce some heat but its perfectly silent despite extensive writing to the drive during my Time Machine backup. Overall the drive is simple to setup and fuss free. They’re going for quite cheap nowadays and this makes them a good purchase for use as a backup drive.

Caught this cool trailer for the anime Cat Shit One : The Animated Series. It’s Metal Gear Solid meets cute furry bunnies. Produced by Studio Anima and directed by Kazuya Sasahara, Cat Shit One was based on a original manga by Motofumi Kobayashi. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, the Japanese brings you camels toting Kalashinokov. View the full trailer below:

Official CatShitOne Series Website

It reminds me of Freedom Gundam’s outstretched wing cannons which was pretty cool to look at. Unfortunately, as I’ve mentioned in my previous post, the F91 is a very stiff model with no polycaps. So when I tried to twist the VSBR 180 degrees upwards, the joint broke off. So now I have half the ball joint stuck in the VSBR and the other half still attached to the rails. Anyway, I figured since the joint wont be that visible if I glue them back together, I bought myself a tube of quick dry superglue from the nearest art supply shop and affixed them together.

After leaving it for 2 days to cure, the cannon is now firmly in place. Its a lot less flexible now since the ball joint is stuck, but I can still slide them along the rails.

Oh well, this reminds me to be more careful when posing with Gunplas in the future. Photos will be up in the next couple of days

Variety – Warner brings “Death” to big screen

I know I promised more updates earlier this year but due to an unexpected turn of events I have become part of a worrying global statistic. It took me a while to settle down and hopefully things are smooth sailing from now onwards. The F91 post was 2 months overdue actually but its better late than never right ?

Many thanks to those who’re still checking out the site.

Via Slashfilm
Mandalay Pictures has recently acquired the theatrical rights to the live-action movie version of the high-school action comedy anime Full Metal Panic!. Full Metal Panic started off as a novel which was later adapted to manga followed by 3 anime series with the latest one released in 2005, Full Metal Panic : The Second Raid. The story revolves around a covert mercenary agent, Sagara Sousuke who is tasked with protecting a high school girl named Kaname Chidori who possesses some mysterious knowledge. Mix a high strung uptight military guy with a head strong and high spirited school girl in the same class and you get an explosive combination… literrally. The series is known for its accurate portrayal of weapons and mech action.

Zac Efron of High School Musical fame is rumored to be interested in the leading role of Sagara Sousuke. I’m not sure if this is a good call considering the original character in the series is someone who’s war harddened and more mature. Zac might fit well in the high school setting but not really someone you’d expect piloting a mech or breaking a terrorist’s neck off. Oh well, the Transformer and Robotech rights are already taken up, so someone just gotta pick this up right ? So where’s my Gundam movie already ?

Slashfilm – Mandalay Acquires Rights to Full Metal Panic Movie
FirstShowing.net – Mandalay Picks Up Rights to Full Metal Panic Movie