The first day was to be honest an unexpected uncontrollable headache. The university apparently decided to have an open day on the very same time and the actual venue for GACC was pushed to the nearby classrooms which was hot, small, cramped and ridiculously hot. Did I mention hot? Cause it was like HOT! The air-conditioning was futile with the large amounts of visitors packed into the small makeshift venue. The MC’s both veterans of the ACG community were however there to lighten up the mood and try to create a fun atmosphere.

Then came the usual mix of activities that one would have expect from a large ACG event such as stage performances, competition and tournaments. The second day was a relief as the GACC committee was finally allowed to use the Examhall and to the relief of the visitors as well as it was fully air-conditioned. Cosplayers and the number of visitors were well below the amount seen in previous years. I guess maybe it was just at the wrong timing and the long distance from Kuala Lumpur. In any case, it was still a memorable event with friends meeting up and enjoying themselves with the ongoing activities in and out of the hall.

Yes, I know this isn’t much of a review but I was busy manning the the Anime Depot and the Emina booth. Besides I was too damn tired anyways. My head was spinning the entire weekend I was there. Too bad for me I guess. Be cause of that I really wasn’t able to take much pictures that I would like too. Now that was dissappointing to say the least.

In other news, I’ve finally made a proper watermark for all my future picture uploads. Looks way better than the previous one. As I’ve mentioned previously, I did not have much of a chance to take pictures of cosplayers and the like during my time at GACC but take a look at some of those that I did. Did some experimental photoshop. Kinda like how it turned out. As usual, comments and constructive criticism is very much appreciated.

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Sony A350 with kit lens. I so need to get myself a flash unit for the camera…sigh.

Tsubasa Resevoir Chronicle Photoshoot.

Location: Taman Tasik Perdana(Lake Gardens)
Date: 27th November 2009
Time: Late morning/early afternoon
Cosplayers/models: Arisa, WednesdayRaven
Photographers: Clow, KCLee
Random help: Ping, Chris(the other one), Linkinstreet
Costume: Arisa

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Mini Kuroshitsuji Photoshoot.

Location: Fullhouse, Synway Pyramid branch
Date: 20th December 2009 (end of CF’09 Day 2)

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Vocaloid Photoshoot.

Location: Multimedia University, Cyberjaya.
Date: 25th October 2009.

Cosplayers
Rayray as Nigaito
Cutiepie305 as Ainone Kana
Mint as Ainone Kai
Angie00 as Hatsune Miku(Project Diva ver.)
Kazuikori as Yowane Haku
akiko wolf as Hatsune Miku(Black Rock Shooter ver.)
Chikoness as Toeto Luka
DeidaraGS as MechaKaito

Helper:
Beatbox
Zend
Exo

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Full review after the jump.

A(sa)-side

I took the liberty to sneak in at the end of the day event since I had no intention to pay for another ACG event not to mentioned it wasn’t worth going in after reaching at 4.30 in the bloody hot afternoon. From what I can tell and also from listening to opinions of quite a number of con goers all I can say is that it was done better than last year but not to the extend of it being completely different. It had a problem what one con goer said as ‘the Daicon syndrome’ in which the seating in front of the stage was hardly occupied when the competition was going on.

For me, I feel the arrangement of the booths and such can be arranged much better. Even though the day event was somewhat over I had to maneuver myself from one point to another between masses of tables and chairs. As usual, The Figure Mall who was present had the largest booth at the event displaying their numerous figurines. Other than the standard ACG stuff like Doujin Booths and Figurines they also had a section for cosplay photography which I greatly approve of and also a Cosplay Cafe. Although I have to admit that the cosplay photography corner was a great idea the theme, props and backdrop for certain cosplayers is just out of place. No comments for the cosplay cafe since it was already closed by the time I was there. From what I’ve heard it was so-so.

The bands who performed like Zeolite were a great addition to liven up the mood and is definitely a plus point. The air-conditioning to me was good but I can’t say the same for the sound system though. Didn’t take any pictures from the inside. Was too tired and lazy to.

B(an)-side

The night event. Oh, the night event. This was my only intention of initially showing up for TAF. With the TAF PR guy promising a spectacular event I just had to give it the benefit of the doubt. It was actually quite fun. The whole mini bon odori dance around the stage, band performances, and a stall with authentic Japanese food for sale was top points for me. Sadly, the lack of omatsuri games, stalls, and bad sound system was a minus.

HOWEVER, (yes, its in caps on purpose) for visitors to buy a RM20 coupon to purchase food and stuff from the stalls is just too much and I mean in both a figurative and literal way. Not to mentioned that not informing visitors about the coupon price earlier really pissed me off as I did not bring enough for it. Its just too pricey.

The kimono wearing slot was interesting and the mini Bon Odori was really fun. Too bad there wasn’t enough people to complete the circle around the stage though.

Small goldfishes are small...

Conclusion

I do not know the name of this band. OTL

Pros: Band performance, mini bon odori, good air conditioning, some Japanese food albeit limited, good sound system at night.

Cons: walking 3 floors up to the hall, messy hall arrangement, lack of stalls and games at night, wtf expensive coupons, NO MORE DANGOS!!!, not really good sound system in the hall, lack of signage to toilet.

Overall, other than the usual ACG convention problems it was done rather well with both ups and downs although with major improvements from last year. Hopefully, next year would be much much better.

Me and ma girls yo!!! XD

Location:
Glenmarie, Shah Alam

Cosplayers:
Shinji Ikari: Narukids Deadfish
Kaworu Nagisa: Miyavi Honey
Misato Katsuragi: Akiko
Kaji: Wgfai

Photographer:
KCLee
Clow

Additional help and director of the arts:
Dai

This is Miyavi Honey’s set with her editing. I’m so busy right now I haven’t even converted the pictures to jpeg yet. Beside her editing sure makes my pics look freakingly awesome. My photoshop skills are limited so I can’t do much anyways.

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This are my pics but only some of them. As usual there’s only minor lighting adjustments. I’m still learning how to use photoshop so it will be sometime till you get studio quality shots. Editing pictures before bedtime is so not what I’ll recommend to anyone. The temptation to sleep is overpowering.

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More pics wil be uploaded at a later time.

As usual, constructive comments are always welcomed.

If K-ON! was ever injected with tons of manly testosterone and GAR I believe it will no longer be the moe blob that millions love and something like the about poster raising the sales of puke buckets worldwide.

Via Sankaku-Complex.

Location: Presint 1, Putrajaya
Cosplayers:
L: Dreamer
N: Aki
Kira: Lucifre
Misa Misa: Arisa

Photographers:
Aoshi88
Clow

Additional help:
Chris(not this writer but another Chris)
Sean Eu

Type of shoot: Outdoors
Weather condition: Rainy, cloudy, fucked up

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A cute bunny welcomes visitors to GACC

Review after the jump.

This year’s Games, Anime, and Comics Circle was honestly smaller than usual. The crowd was smaller partly due to the H1N1 scare but then there were various reasons as well in which you will see later. The setup was a mess due to the last minute screw up of MMU’s mismanagement forcing the committees to only prepare the hall on the day itself because of an exam from 8am-10am. The doors were finally opened at 12pm. For the first time in 2 years there was NO seiyu appearence. Shocking, Isn’t it? Well, for me it felt much calmer and relaxed compared to when there was seiyu’s appearing though. This brings back the core purpose of what GACC was first meant to be when I was involved in 2006 which was to have fun and fun it was with Zend and Krauser literally gave a killing performance as MC for the event. The crowd was entertained and that was another plus point.

Honestly, I will have to admit that the highlight of this years GACC wasn’t the event itself but in the cosplayers that attended the event. Cosplayers were an abundance at this years GACC and the quality of their costumes really showed what the local cosplayers could do when they put their mind and energy at it. The Code Geass anime cosplay group was hueg huge literally dominating the entire day 1. I heard that the group was supposed to be bigger but due to various epidemic reasons that prevented the entire cast from forming. (Writer goes into OTL mode right here…)

The cosplay competition was well done with a spice of craziness. The first day’s group cosplay competition was started off with one of the best cosplay sketch I’ve seen to date. Kudos to the Code Geass group for a job well done. The second day of competition was ramped up a notch with the MC’s personally handling the competition with random sketches, trials and laughter to test the cosplayer’s ability to improvise and creativeness.

Photography taken within the exam hall was a breeze. Literally. With good lighting there wasn’t a need for this writer to use his non-affortable non-existant imaginary flash unit to take picutres. The air-conditioning was trying its best to accommodate the visitors but there are times where it just wasn’t powerful enough. This particular problem has nothing got to do with the committees. MMU should just really get their systems upgraded. There were complains about a lack of dustbins a.k.a rubbish disposal facilities which were again part of a normal mysterious unsolvable problem for almost all ACG events that I have been to. Its a conspiracy by the mysterious underground secret organization the Global Trash United I tell you.

The Dragonball group’s presence was clearly felt on Day 2 while Vocaloid turnout was especially high for both days. Now with that done I’m gonna start the “lets be totally frank” part of the review. The chibi omatsuri promised was so small it was an utter disappointment. People left immediately just after arriving.  There was no food vendors for which starving visitors were clearly irritated about. The middle eastern food place near the exit was a killer since it killed many wallets with its exorbitant pricing. There was only some ice drink thingy at the entrance of the hall together with EMiNA Cyber selling some awesome delicious Edo and Dai approved food for cosplay champions uber puddings which I help sell for both days. The lack of basic plain drinking water was solved by the latter on Day 2.

Some administration matters such as registration and stuff were clearly a mess. There were no announcement of the cancellation of the Taiko Drum arcade machine and the tags for the competitions were apparently missing for some unknown reason. Certain rules such as ‘no taking pictures in front of the doujin booth’ were not enforced by the security team. The extension hall was empty and under utilised. The figurine displays were in a lack of a better word ’sad’. With only a small amount of figurines on display(although of very good quality) and the terrible lighting of the extension hall it would be better if it was placed in the main hall instead. At least it wouldn’t look so empty.

Overall, with the amount of last minute changes and problems it was done quite well looking at the circumstances. The cohesiveness of the working committees working together and having fun a the same time was truly something that I had envisioned long ago and thus very jealous at. There is still room for improvement seeing how most of the original members of GACC have already graduated *glares at a certain Edo*. I’m truly glad that I was able to attend this years GACC. It was more cheerful and relaxed for me. Although there were certain crap along the way it was certainly worth my time. I’m looking forward to next year’s GACC. but I do hope they would work harder in having it in March again.

As usual, I always get some spoils of war from GACC and this GACC is no exception. So here’s the complementary pic of what I call as a technology demonstrator. My metamo Haruhi. The bunny costume changes colour according to room temperature. Too bad we do not get below 16 degrees celcius though. I had to put it in the fridge to see it change to black then imagine your mom start asking questions when she opens the freezer to find a figurine in it. Hilarity follows. XD

SHE’S COMING!!! SHE’S REALLY COMING!!! *fanboi/gurl screams*

So with the end of that major ‘capslock’ spamming lets get down to the juicy details shall we? Well, if you have been following my blog you might have noticed a few hints i left along the way on who’s coming *cough*YUKI*cough* to DaiCon. If you haven’t then it only means that you have not been following closely enough. Muahahaha…

Ehem…so anyways, she will be performing LIVE for you guys at DaiCon for the first time in South East Asia. Its gonna be quite a number of ‘first times’ and probably a historic moment in the local ACG scene. Well, I DID mention that ’something BIG is coming’ right?

She’ll also be having an autograph session and also a Q&A panel as well. Woot!!!

I’m so gonna be there for this. So hope that this helps to make up your mind up on going or not. Hope to see you there!!!

You can see her video and profile at www.daiconnews.com. Seriously, you should watch the video she sound so cute! XD

*UPDATE*

There will be special event tickets. Details below:

AWSM Tickets = RM 250
- Specially numbered AWSM seats for Miss Chihara Minori’s Q&A Panel on Day 1 and Mini-Concert on Day 2
- ONE Autograph Pass for Miss Chihara Minori’s Autograph Session.

ELITE Tickets = RM 150
- Specially numbers ELITE seats for Miss Chihara Minori’s Q&A Panel on Day 1 and Mini-Concert on Day 2.
- Lucky Draw chance to be upgraded in to AWSM tickets. (limited to 15 people only).

Note: AWSM ticket seating is front of stage while ELITE’s seating is (somewhat)behind AWSM. The Q&A panel session is only for ticket holders.

Early sales will begin at the 1Utama roadshow on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd May at the new-wing.

Hint: Take a look at our sponsors and ask yourself why do we need certain ’sponsors’ for?

Hint 2: Well, its not really a hint but its not really announced yet so I guess it can be a hint. Anyways, it has been confirm that there will be an open application for doujin booths and its gonna be on a first come first serve basis. Actual details will be release later.

‘Something BIG is coming but are you ready for it?’

For the past month or so Kadokawa has been producing short 5 min webisodes on youtube based on the Haruhi franchise called ‘The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya’. Using more chibified characters with a comedic story each episode(ala 4koma) that has no connection whatsoever to the main show. Voiced by the same original voice actors there’s a certain amount of quality that you can expect. Heck, its even subbed in english.

I like it. I really really do. Its so overly cute its a crime. With Asahina, Yuki and Achakura(yes, i spelled that correctly) having the highest cuteness-till-death ratio its a shame that’s its only 5 minutes long. I like the whole relationship part between Yuki ans Achakura. Hard to explain but you’ll get it once you see it.

But that’s not all though. Kadokawa has been releasing another work on youtube based on the same work. Called ‘Nyoron Churuya-san’ its a 2mins webisode based on a 4koma manga on the really minor side character Tsuruya. It was first a meme and now thanks to this I can’t help it but stop to say Nyoron~~ once in a while.

What’s next? A Haruhi Suzumiya stage production? Nyoron~