A rugged male figure without the delicacy and slender silhouette of my usual trope of bishies, an outlier in my collection. Who's this dude with that evil smile?

The first that I've heard of the anime GANGSTA. was during one of my daily religious visits to Amiami's webpage, where I chanced upon Worick Arcangelo's hot 1/8 scale by Kotobukiya. I have a soft spot for long hair males, and wanting to get him, I immediately checked out the show... Only to be drawn to this katana wielding, drug abuser, and deaf man in suit (who doesn't appreciate a smart attire?). I've since abandoned all thoughts of Worick and pre-ordered his deadly silent partner instead.

This is the star of the last day of 2016, Nicolas Brown.

Figure information:

Series: Gangsta.

Manufacturer: Kotobukiya

Product Line: ARTFX J

Scale: 1/8

Material: PVC

Sculptor: Hattori Tatsuya

Release Date: Oct. 2016

As my first and only Kotobukiya male figure (to-date), I did not realise, or perhaps chose not to, how Megahouse has distorted their male's body proportions. To proof my point, I captured a side-by-side comparison of Megahouse's Sebastian Michaelis to Nic:

Despite their glaring difference in thickness (pardon my crude wording), both proportions served their characters well, which I believe only good figure sculptors can pull off.

Alright I've delayed this shoot long enough, time to get down to business ---> 

Having swiftly decided on 'Classy' as the theme, I spent a day building the backdrop from my stocks of black styrofoam boards - I used 1 board for the top 2 'mould walls' & 1/2 board for the mirror wall.

Dimensions for construction:

Left wall (Mirror): 216 x 300 x 5 mm THK

Back wall: 225 x 300 x 5 mm THK

Right wall: 200 x 300 x 5 mm THK

Frames (rolled up strips of fancy paper, similar to background) are 15-17.5 mm width

Being a drug abuser who enjoys slaying his preys, the current backdrop looked too tame and clean for my liking, so I've to spice things up with some poster colour blood. Careful not to mix in too much black or you'll have a hard time getting out of the Brown zone.

Testing out the blood splattered wall next to a mirror that I blu-tacked on

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Nic's now ready to go rampage

So glad the blood fell neatly where I wanted it to be

Here's the highlight of the day - a leftover mirror from my Design & Technology Days in Secondary School, finally utilised for what it's worth, reflecting Nic's coolness

That's a hella of a strategic opening by his tummy~

I tried adding Motion Blur, but didn't really like the results... I was gearing for the comic strip dash effects and what is this geez

Your biggest enemy is you

Behind the scene: because the only floor I have didn't match with Nic's base I've deliberately avoided shots that captured that difference... I was too lazy to go and photocopy another floor >.>

Many thanks to Paul for offering timely advice on the blood splatters

xoxo

Upcoming shoots: Tsume Xtra's Uchiha Itachi

Movic's Saito Hajime

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Hopefully

For once, I wished to be in Sasuke's position and be the receiver of that beautiful poke...

This week has been spent slogging away to create a tribute to my man Itachi, and I've decided to document and share the process to make up for the lack of figure photography.

Rather than buying anime posters (both official & fan-made), I've always preferred doing it myself, one to save molah, and I'd like to look at the wall and feel impressed by my skills lol-

You know that kick when someone praises and acknowledges your hard work-

Hand drawn just feels a ton more sincere, so if you can do it, why not?

And it's Itachi we're talking about, I can't be halfhearted about this!

...Besides, I desperately needed a channel to funnel my deep-seated admiration & adoration for this man... That is definitely my number 1 fuel for drawing.

Oh, what I would give to be poked and be the receiver of that affectionate smile...

Round #1:

As usual, I began with researching the perfect possible arrangement of wall collages on Pinterest, and after some serious moments of pulsing my lips and eroding my screen protector, I've settled on using this:

How To: IKEA Ribba Frame Gallery Wall, taken from Pinterest

Round #2:

Commerce idea cramming and instead of arranging random shots of his handsome existence (oh how tempting), I've decided to use the collages to tell a story, make it more meaningful 

From top, clockwise: 

• Various frames for some shots
• O <--- Y (Old <--- Young) Starting from his childhood, when his brother Sasuke was born
• Numbers denote the sizes of the 'canvas'

Round #3:

Random drawings in various stages of completion - starting with penciling, fine lining, filling, and line shading

Round #4:

The Death Valley of Errors & Tools Malfunction

This $15 masking fluid was the death of me when it not only failed to be peeled off...

...It went ahead and stained and broke my paper (red arrows)... Danzo, Shisui's already dead, cut him (AND ME) some slack!

As I attempted to savage this drawing, the water droplets from making the foliages dried up and had the nerve to stain the white spaces (blue arrows)... This despite using all self-proclaimed waterproof markers! After some serious investigation, the culprit turned out to be the black Copic markers zz

Round #5:

Repair & Last Minute Fixes

Of course this nonsense had to happen when I'm almost done with everything, and being the last piece, naturally I was compelled to redo... and redo it is.

Above: Spent a great deal of time taping the edges... This wouldn't have pissed me off so much if I didn't own the tool precisely to substitute these tapings

...Came across this cool way of creating realistic foliages on Pinterest (great space for inspiration!)  by dabbing black paint (top left, Pentel tube) on a damp sponge (bottom right), hence the tapings.

Can you spot the difference?

Round #6:

Canvas building

Since the whole point of doing it yourself is to save on cash, going out and buying pre-made canvas and frames would defeat the noble mission, so I've picked key drawings to pop up on the wall. I would love to elevate everything onto these canvas (above photo), but do you know the amount of paper I've used just to build these?!

Round #7:

Hanging up these without any guidelines (besides that scrap paper) was nerve-wrecking and fun

I teared as I was drawing the crying scene, how did the animator do it?

It was tough using eye power alone to gauge whether all frames are parallel...

Can you make out what's going on from this arrangement?

• For those who have watched Naruto, his favourite gesture of poking Sasuke's forehead shouldn't come off as a stranger, and I've used that as the common motif to represent his fondness and commitment to protect his brother across his lifespan on the wall.
• While Sasuke was the motivation behind many of his actions, many of those encompasses sacrifices - his clan, citizenship, reputation, acting very much like a double-edge sword. His brother's existence pulled him into the depth of hell and hence their scenes, no matter how blissful and genuine, were at the bottom (of the collage)
• His cousin Uchiha Shisui, on the other hand, was not only his one and only close friend, but his mentor, confidante, and someone he aspires to be (hence allocated at the top)
• The 3 biggest frames in the centre, from right to left, represents Hardwork, Suffering, and Decisions
• I picked two representative moments of Sasuke's 'interactions' with Itachi - his first encounter with him since he left the village (bottom, behind crying Itachi), and him visiting Itachi's grave (most left) to show the states of their relationship across his timeline

...And this is just the amount of space I have above my bed. How I would love to go on and cover more of his life in Akatsuki and edo tensei!

It's my dream to marry build an ultimate Itachi shrine in my room
#monogamy

xoxo

After showing some of the cosplayer's photographs to a partially into anime Paul, he replied, "It seems that the Japanese culture in Singapore is very strong." As someone who has been religiously attending such events year after year, a laugh slipped from my throat.

In retrospect, as I reflect on our culture and the reason so many fans were willing to pay premium just to get into the 4 grey walls of confinement, these events are indeed the few instances where otaku can publicly geek out with minimum judgement.

Be it openly dissing certain anime (I distinctly recalled the chad queuing in front of me pointing to the Asterisk War poster), righteously declaring Chitoge as waifu (same chad), salivating over husbando behind glass panels (while crossdressing as the same male, lol), the basic $13 entrance fee provided such entitlements.

Besides realising this, it hit me that I can no longer avoid splurging in a Camera. Cosplayers have attitude and they demand official lens, not my half-baked iPhone flashlight. The level of pathetic I experienced as I crouched by the side next to the swiping light reflectors and DSLRs was...

This was put out for those who wondered why the cosplayers were never looking into my camera phone.

Anime Festival Asia in an annual event held in various locations across Asia: Indonesia, Malaysia, and of course my Little Red Dot, appropriately bringing "together Japan Pop Culture Lovers from the region" (AFA Facebook). It also converges:

• Japanese food 
• Anime song artists (packaged into a separate premium known as "I Love Anisong" Concerts)
• Regional Cosplay Championship competitors
• Special guests (seiyuu), celebrity cosplayers (yes there's such thing lol)
• Selected anime live streams
• (Overpriced) merchandises

That said, this is not a full coverage, but with a focus on the merchandises (largely figures) and cosplayers. Once again, it was held at Suntec City Convention Hall, the "middle ground" of Singapore.

I'll be sectioning my photos by these categories:

1. Random convention ambience & displays
2. Merchandise brands
3. Cosplayers

With that, let's begin the photo ride!

*****

1. Random convention ambience & displays

As usual, capitalism it began with a long queue for the entrance tickets...

...With rather low budget queue delineations

Kiss Him, Not Me! or Watashi ga motete dousunda? by Junko

My favourite features are these gigantic posters (1.2 x 2.4 M) of various anime; I took this knowing it's one of the most anticipated Fall 2016 anime, based on the manga's popularity among fujoshi and guys alike.

Another forever relevant anime

As usual, I'm never up to date with any of the anime advertised during these annual conventions, but it seems like this year it's all about high school romance

So after Your Lie in April, we're travelling back a month...

Well I know sports anime is picking up but this is...

For lunch my Anime Encyclopaedia friend Hao and I fled the hall towards Keisuke, an authentic ramen store with an open concept dining floor, complete with free boiled eggs and bean sprouts! And of course, I have to snap a picture of Hijikata's weakness (re: mayonnaise~~)

I ordered Miso Tonkotsu Ramen with Egg, and I've come to the conclusion that I've only accepted tonkotsu (and sometimes miso) base as the way to guarantee a satisfying ramen experience.

P.S.:  I've always been self-conscious when I take photos of food in eateries, so pardon this half-cooked photo. The food is good though.

Back to the booths...

... Imagine my surprise at seeing our late Former Prime Minister, now manga-ised by Japanese artist no less. Going at $16 per issue, I'm still debating if this makes a good b'day gift for a fellow bud.

I've always wanted to wear something like the right outfit

While I did not see any drawing wall, I was quite amused by this overwhelming wall of otaku hearts

Hao was expressing uncharacteristic interest for this local printing company CG-I, which unfortunately has nothing to do with the Sword Art Online portrait but more to his desire to redeco his room...

Just when I was wondering why there isn't any gigantic posters of S.A.O. ... Like how is that possible?

For the record, they even have a customised booth for S.A.O. experience + advertisement for their various games (that I'm not interested in)

... Does this look representative of Malaysia in any sense?

While we're at the S.A.O. stage, might as well throw in a photo of Silica shopping for new weapons

2. Merchandise brands

Banpresto is undoubtedly (and usually) one of the bigger booths, given the popularity of their ichiban kuji (paid lucky draw) and affordable range of figures and merch

Found this pretty decent looking top prize Asuna figure

 Sneak preview of more S.A.O. goodness...

Adult Shinobu

Just to inject some manliness, and unfortunate not visible in this photo, but his shirt is shimmery!

Such pretty shikishi (coloured paper board for signature at the back) and simple companion figures

I'm a hundred percent rubber strap girl over acrylic keychains (yes, even those pretty, gigantic DEKKA acrylic ones) because they don't get SCRATCHED

Some pretty Cardcaptor Sakura files \*.*/

More delicate rubber keychains~ At least winning this isn't so bad

Bandai's model kit of Vegetta looking pissed off (?) in his space pod 

Not really sure what hair product he used but that volume

Piccolo looking sick like usual

I'm still pinning and searching  for that red fire effect T.T

More Shounen series to spice up the page

Where's Itachi? T.T

Warning: otome/bromance zone ahead

While I would continue to express my disdain for UtaPri (the above Shining Princes) and be perpetually puzzled by the announcement of new seasons (it's already at 4 this year), I believe the game by Animate does a better job at doing these beautiful boys justice

Itabags (bags that makes you hurt lol) - something I've sworn off not to buy from the start and the only thing I've done right in my otaku career

So pretty, so close, yet so far...

Nendroids by Good Smile Company, by far the most profitable and genius idea, though these chibi forms ain't my thing (luckily)

I prefer my man figure in their original form

Like these 1/8 scale

All manly and delicately painted

All splendent and oozing dignity

With pre-modern accessories

With the occasion peek of chest in intricate kimono, oh yea

That being said, we still get the occasional fusion of debonair and cuteness in one package

Funny how Prince of Tennis never falls out of date - we have Ryoma and Atobe looking at the top of their game as usual 

(where's Fuji T.T)

More alternate outfits Sakura

This is so cute and OOC

Now here's what I'm talking about, HQ badass and sexiness

....Now this is just not my thing, too cute (I mean when you compare to Fate/Zero's Caster...)

God Eater lady with her sick weapon

1/8 Nadeko Sengoku: Medusa Ver. 

(Bakemonogatari Second Season)

We've got 1 more Idolmaster - 1/8 Rin Shibuya

1/8 Hatsune Miku: Greatest Idol Ver.

(Character Vocal Series 01)

1/7 Kagamine Rin and Len: Tony Ver. 

by Max Factory

I was quite disappointed that Kotobukiya only brought their Frame Arm Girls series to the convention

However, the boys looked content enough with their decision

3. Cosplayers

If there's one (not completely capitalised) stage event that I was looking forward to, it has to be KANAME☆, my favourite celebrity cosplayer <333 

We are fortunate to have a funny translator (left dude) who consistently exaggerate Kaname's words

I sincerely felt bad for him and embarrassed on behalf of Singaporeans for the inappropriate questions that the girls threw at him... Like it's one thing to fangirl and scream when he appears and another to ask him to wear tighter clothes and worse, take off his top. I mean SERIOUSLY...

I couldn't believe what I just wrote too, luckily I had it all recorded down in my phone's video... Alas,  he looked top form as usual, but my favourite is his cosplay of Saruhiko Fushimi <333

I'm not sure if this is called cosplay but since Edogawa Conan posed for me... Sekali inside is a girl 

Speaking of Edogawa, look who I found! It's my research subject for my Alternative Lives in Contemporary Japan - Edogawa Rampo <333

She's so pretty and kind to let me next to her for a photograph, ahh I'm seeing sparkles

This pair is too hilarious to pass up

{Umbrella Magus} Edna from my current addiction: Tales of Link... though she was not looking at my lens T.T

I really need a camera to boost my official presence

Lucina from Fire Emblem: Kakusei, gender ambiguous

If I recall correctly this is Anime Festival Asia, but oh well

Ugh it is moments like this that I curse my lack of camera. I don't mind getting ignored in favour of DSLR owners, but when this cutie is not camera-ist and cosplay on-point... I sincerely apologise for the bad resolution 

On the other hand, spring is approaching and the resolution is suddenly so good urgh

... I spoke too soon. Alas, I could not pass up on Ten Ten, my favourite female from Naruto <333

She's soooo sweet to let me handle her precious weapon scroll, and I felt so paiseh for no reason

Look.At.This.Life.Size.Bride.Saber (and that's Gilgamesh I assume...)

We have Cindy (aka Takasugi Shinsaku) from Bakumatsu Rock lol, cause this is not how I picture Takasugi in real life, carrying an electric instead of his shamisen, ah Gintama & Voltage

Speaking of Gintama, of course we need everyone's beloved Gin. He was by far the most handsome from the few Gintokis who showed up on Saturday (haha we purchased the same $13 entrance tix [att: wrist])

Feast for the eyes: pretty Cardcaptor Sakura in my favourite outfit, which reminds me of this figure that I've been eyeing on:

Image courtesy of Kotobukiya Facebook page

She's really pretty, one of the most radiant, idolish smile I've encountered, but unfortunately I do not know her character T.T

EDIT: Thanks to her latest figure revealed during Winter Fest 2017, I know she's none other than Ichinose Shiki from...THE iDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls!

Looking alike, don't you think?

Also spotted outside Tokyu Hands: another iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls Jougasaki Mika, aka my favourite outfit

Fortunately, I went home empty-handed spared for these brochures (which was already disposed of after photography lol). I've exceeded my budget for my hobby, and with more upcoming figures in the next Wonder Fes, I'll have to start saving now.

Yosh, that's all for this year's AFA report, till next post folks!

P.S.: Thanks Hao for helping with taking photos with my cosplayers! 楽しかった！