Cosplay Photoshoot!

K-on!! (season 2)

The hottest all-girl band in Japan and across Asia is back to rock for a second season of K-ON!! Joining the pop music club in their first year to save it from being abolished due to a shortage of members, Yui Hirasawa (guitar), Ritsu Tainaka (drums), Mio Akiyama (bass), and Tsumugi Kotobuki (keyboard) are now in their third and final year in high school. With just one junior member Azusa Nakano (guitar), and no new members in sight, what will happen to the club when they graduate?
Back to their favourite music room to practice and get even better at playing as a band, the adorable, talented and amusing quintet are on the quest to recruit new members to the pop music club while still enjoying their favourite tea and pastries at teatime, as well as each other’s company.

premieres 20 October 2010, airs Wednesdays 9.30pm

Animax Musix Spring 2010

Made up of four 60-minute episodes, Animax Musix Spring 2010 is a series of live-action music concert shows featuring scintillating performances of popular anime theme songs by the hottest Japanese artistes. Catch exciting live performances by May’n (Macross Frontier), SCANDAL (Bleach, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood), ELISA (Ef - A Tale of Memories), Mizca (Katekyoshi Hitman Reborn!), Faylan (CANAAN), Shuhei Kita (Persona -trinity soul-), AKINO from bless4 (Genesis of Aquarion), Yoko Takahashi (Neon Genesis Evangelion) and Sayaka Sasaki (The Book of Bantorra).



Animax Musix Spring 2010 premieres 7 October 2010, airs Thursdays 9pm on Animax

Otaku Expo Reload Special

Otakuzine Anime Magazine will be hosting a photo shoot session with an area provided for cosplayers who want to be featured in our latest Cosplay magazine called COSMAG that will be first released on AFA X this coming November.

The photo shoot sessions will be from October 8-10, Friday-Sunday. Cut off time on Sunday will be at 6 PM.

MECHANICS:

Cosplayers will need to register at the Cosplayers photo shoot area and fill up the registration form.

Cosplayers can bring as many costumes as they like for the photo shoot. All photos taken will be featured in the magazine but only one will win the grand prize.

CPG will be the official photographers for this activity. The official photographers will ask each cosplayer to sign an agreement before the photo shoot starts.

Otaku Expo Reload staff will choose the best Cosplay Photo and the chosen Cosplayer will win a trip to Singapore to experience AFA X.

· Cosplayers must at least have a valid passport

· For minors we need a letter of consent from Parents/Guardians

Prizes are not convertible to cash

Otaku Expo Reload on OCT 8-10, 2010

CLICK ON PICS FOR BIGGER VERSION OF CONTEST RULES!

Cosplay and Blog to a Dream Halloween in HONG KONG!

Fancy being in your cosplay costume to revel in the most exciting and colourful costume parties lining the streets of fashionable Lan Kwai Fong, party capital of Hong Kong at Halloween? How about experiencing a Disney’s Haunted Halloween with Disney characters such as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck in a spectacular Glow in the Park Halloween Parade at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort? Or be part of Asia’s largest Halloween Bash featuring over 400 costumed characters, more than 20 ‘haunted’ attractions, street shows and entertainment at Ocean Park Hong Kong? Or indulge in some Halloween fun at the Avenue of Stars or Madame Tussauds Hong Kong?

The chance to win such a dream Halloween holiday in Hong Kong is now up for grabs by cosplayers and bloggers across Asia! Hong Kong’s Halloween parties are the biggest in all of Asia! Some of Hong Kong’s best-loved attractions such as Avenue of Stars, Hong Kong Disneyland, Madame Tussauds, and Ocean Park Hong Kong, among others, get dressed up in their Halloween finery to offer visitors a ‘spook-tacular’ time. Visitors can also try various Halloween-themed food and drink offers from the various bars and restaurants around town.

To ‘treat’ visitors to the buzz and festivities of the Halloween funfest in Hong Kong, Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) is teaming up with Asia’s premier anime and youth entertainment TV destination, Animax, to bring on the ‘HKTB-Animax Hong Kong Halloween Treats’ regional campaign, headlined by a regional cosplay competition and blogging contest to send winners on an all-expense-paid* trip to a dream Halloween holiday in HONG KONG!

Open to Animax viewers in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, the regional cosplay and blogging contests will each see three winners take home return airfares and hotel accommodations to join in the Halloween fun in Hong Kong!

The prize also includes a special invitation to an exclusive HKTB-Animax Halloween party on 17 October 2010 in Hong Kong. At the event, winners get to meet in person, global star blogger and the world-famous dancing ‘Stormtrooper’ Danny Choo, celebrity cosplayer and Ani-mate Alodia, and more, to party the night away!



Cosplay to a Dream Halloween in Hong Kong
From 10 – 24 September 2010, cosplayers are invited to upload pictures of themselves in their costumes to www.animaxtv.com and share why they wish to go to Hong Kong. These entries will then be featured on the ‘HKTB-Animax Hong Kong Halloween Treats’ microsite at www.animaxtv.com, to be voted upon by Animax viewers across Asia from 25 September – 6 October 2010.

In addition to viewers’ votes, winners will also be determined by a judging panel formed by HKTB and Animax who will review all contest submissions. Judges will be on the lookout for accuracy and authenticity of the contestants’ cosplay appearances based on the original characters, as well as the creativity and originality of the contestants’ reasons for wanting to visit Hong Kong.



BLOG to a Halloween not-to-be-missed in Hong Kong
The regional blogging contest will also see the top three bloggers win all-expense-paid* trips to Hong Kong to join in the Halloween fun! Bloggers simply have to write about the ‘HKTB-Animax Hong Kong Halloween Treats’ cosplay contest and share how Hong Kong is the dream destination for cosplayers during the Halloween season.

Running from 10 September – 6 October 2010, the blogging contest requires participants to email the URLs of their blog entries with their names and contact numbers to contests@animax-asia.com before 6pm (SG) on 7 October 2010 for a chance to win.

The HKTB-Animax judging panel will also review all entrants’ blog sites based on popularity (number of readers and comments), creativity (how well the blog site is designed with graphics, text, photos and videos), and originality (content) of their blogs to choose the winners.

“No other places celebrate Halloween like Hong Kong does! Hong Kong Halloween Treats is a funky month-long mix of street parties, ‘dressed up’ attractions, restaurants and bars offering themed menus and when shopping malls unleash a ghoulish assortment of shopping fun. HKTB is pleased to collaborate with Animax Asia to showcase the exciting variety of entertaining events and activities for the youth and young adults in Hong Kong. The zeal and enthusiasm of the Asia’s cosplayers and bloggers will be a great catalyst to the fun quotient of the Hong Kong Halloween Treats. They will certainly be enthralled by the spook-tastic experience,” said Mr David Leung, Regional Director-South & Southeast Asia, Hong Kong Tourism Board.

“It is not always that youth and young adults get recognition for simply indulging in hobbies such as cosplay and blogging. Both passions are widely shared and pursued by many young people across Asia who also share a common love for anime. With ‘HKTB-Animax Hong Kong Halloween Treats’, Animax is delighted to partner HKTB to enable Asia’s cosplayers and bloggers to simply do what they love, showcase their talents and be rewarded for their creativity and efforts. With the unique prize of a Hong Kong Halloween holiday, winners can look forward to making new friends from across Asia, and discovering a whole host of unique youth experiences that Hong Kong has to offer,” said Mr Gregory Ho, Vice President & General Manager, Animax Asia.

In addition to enjoying the HKTB-Animax Halloween Party, winners will be at the heart of where it all happens, with the unique opportunity to join in the fun at numerous Halloween-themed events in the month of October all across Hong Kong.

Be it at popular shopping malls, food districts, parties and fiestas, including the colourfully costumed Lan Kwai Fong street parties, Disney's Haunted Halloween 2010 at Hong Kong Disneyland, or the Ocean Park Halloween Bash, a dream Halloween holiday in Asia’s most diverse and modern metropolis of Hong Kong awaits the region’s best cosplayers and bloggers!



The regional cosplay competition is open for entry submission from 10 – 24 Sep, with voting to take place from 25 Sep – 6 Oct 2010 at www.animaxtv.com.
The regional blogging contest is open from 10 Sep – 6 Oct, with contestants’ blog entry URLs, names & contact numbers to reach contests@animax-asia.com before 6pm (SG) on 7 Oct 2010.

For more information on Hong Kong Halloween Treats, visit http://www.discoverhongkong.com/festivehk2010

Fairy Tail on Animax

Premieres 9/30, Every Mon – Fri at 10pm

Set in a fantasy world where magic is the way of life, Lucy had always wanted to join the famous Fairy Tail mage guild and travelled to the kingdom of Fiore in that hope. Along the way, she crosses paths with Natsu and his talking-and-flying cat Happy who are seeking a dragon.
Abducted by someone posing as ‘Salamander’ from the Fairy Tail guild, Lucy is then rescued by Natsu who reveals that he is in fact the real ‘Salamander’ with dragon slaying abilities. Offering her membership into the Fairy Tail guild, Natsu, Happy and Lucy then join female warrior Erza Scarlet, and ice mage Gray Fullbuster as a team to embark of various missions for the Fairy Tail guild.
Fairy Tail is co-produced by top anime studios A-1 Pictures (Kuroshitsuji, Valkyria Chronicles) and Satelight (Macross Frontier, Hellsing OVA). Fairy Tail features top voice actresses Aya Hirano (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Death Note) and Rie Kugimiya (Shakugan no Shana, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood) as the voices of lead characters Lucy and Happy respectively.
An action video game for the Sony PlayStation Portable titled ‘Fairy Tail: Portable Guild’ was unveiled at the 2009 Tokyo Game Show and in development by Konami for release in 2010. A fighting game for the Nintendo DS, entitled ‘Fairy Tail Gekito Mado Shikkesen’ is also slated for release this year.

Highschool of the Dead CENSORED?

Fujimi High School was attacked by zombies and a group of students who were survivors attempts to escape not only to survive but to figure out the mystery behind the sudden attack and to find out if their parents and loved ones are still among the living.

One of the few anime shows I'm watching right now. It was a long time since I read the manga and I was hoping for an anime version and finally it came. The story is not so bad, imagine not expecting that an ordinary day in school would turn into a nightmare.


After watching the first few episodes one thing I find weird are the zombies not being able to see but they use their sense of hearing for hunting down humans, okay so how is that possible that they don't even use their sense of smell haha.


I also saw less gore but more ecchi >< okay ecchi is not so bad but this is a zombie theme anime so gore is a big factor. It's not fun to see a zombie movie nor a game without it. Then I was told the releases were censored hmm I wonder if it was the same for the gory parts, hopefully yes so I can enjoy seeing the uncensored versions. All in all the story got me going so I'm still looking forward to seeing the next episodes.

Rock Band Beatles version on PS3

Talk about relieving The Beatles fever. I used to listen to them a lot (cassette tapes era), I remember liking The Beatles because of the song Let It Be it was my first (and only) Beatles cassette. Other than that I also like their other songs like Yesterday, Twist and Shout, I Saw her standing there, Here There and Everywhere. After a long time I seemed to have forgotten about them but after playing Rock Band Beatles it was like a flashback experience to me. Unfortunately the songs Let it Be & Yesterday were not included on the game (obviously cause it won't fit haha) but Twist & Shout along with I saw her standing there are included. Singing those songs were fun. Will probably try to sing and play the guitar mode at the same time soon (that is if I can finally memorize the lyrics haha).

Candid Shots (and Chocos)

Another anything goes for the sake of an added entry hahaha...

Since I probably won't be doing a detailed review about chocolates and other pastry stuffs, I'll just post some candid shots of my anime figs (figma in particular) with sweet stuffs and a little something about them :D


POCKY and Lucky Star. This seems to be popular in anime shows, I remember seeing Kagura of Ga Rei Zero eating a stick of Pocky before fighting monsters.


Shana and Melon Bread (perfect combination haha)
Despite shana being my top favorite of all anime characters, I haven't tried eating melon bread yet (and I just borrowed that piece of melon bread from my friend).


Butterfinger and Babyruth. Butterfinger is on my #1 list of chocolate bars, as for Babyruth I find it too sweet and painful because of the large caramel thing inside. And here you see the 3 figs trying to split them XP


Snickers >:) #2 on my list of chocolate bars. Really love choco with nuts haha. Kit Kat tastes good as well, this one however is from the US so it tastes a bit different from the one sold here locally. As for the Oreos I find it too sweet, same for Ho Hos but aside from being too sweet it's a little painful on the teeth as well ><


Cadbury, hmm now I'm wondering if I was able to eat the Gold version.

Anyway will post about food review soon,just need to find and gather the right pics.

Hayate the Combat Butler 2nd Season

premieres 21 July 2010, airing Wednesdays 9pm only on Animax!

The second season continues after the events of the first season, with the luckless Ayasaki Hayate now working permanently as a butler to the incredibly wealthy Nagi Sanzenin, to pay off his debt to her. In addition to fulfilling Nagi’s many demands, the hapless Hayate finds himself the object of affection for Student Council President Katsura Hinagiku, as well as his childhood friend Nishizawa Ayumu, as he remains oblivious to Nagi’s growing feelings for him.

Continuing seamlessly from the first season, expect new characters to add to the comedy, drama and romantic developments in the 26-episode romantic comedy anime series. The direct sequel to the first season, Hayate the Combat Butler 2nd Season is based on the popular ongoing Japanese comedy manga of the same title, with 24 volumes published to-date. It is produced by J.C. Staff the studio responsible for anime hits including Nodame Cantabile and Shakugan no Shana, with director Yoshiaki Iwasaki (Love Hina) at its helm

YES. WE. DID.

Hearing this news really got me excited for the upcoming season. Lebron James alone is more than enough for me but adding Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade going back to Miami I went WHOA! I just hope they can blend as a team well. So far the only sad thing for me is hearing a lot of criticism against Lebron James for making this decision. I can understand the Cleveland Cavaliers fans but other NBA legends? As far as legacy is concern LBJ has already made a lot like winning MVP honors, becoming a top endorser, a basketball icon, an olympic gold medal and besides he wouldn't be in this position if he wasn't a big star. My take not just because I'm a heat fan, all he wants is a championship ring. Not all great players have experienced that in the NBA, talking about legends like Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley, Reggie Miller.



I think he doesn't want to gamble anymore like taking chances on being the only star player in one team and end up retiring not winning a championship. Today's level of game is a lot different from the past. So I hope the legends can understand his decision and again it's no longer about the legacy as an individual player but the chance to win a championship.



On a side note:
I've been Miami Heat fan ever since Alonzo Mourning joined them (traded from Charlotte Hornets Glenn Rice). It was years of bitterness and anger for me. I really hated the NY Knicks back then haha. The 2006 NBA Finals was really a classic for, despite being the first finals for Miami Heat it was also their first ever conference and first ever NBA Championship. Only big regret for me was not being able to watch it love on TV cause we had to attend a meeting (which unfortunately was a nonsense meeting ><). Sadly Alonzo Mourning already retired but his last finals game was an epic, disregard the other stats the 5 blocks alone are more than enough for me.

Manny Pacquiao vs Antonio Margarito

I saw once in a video that Margarito was tagged as "The Beast of Boxing". This was during his prime before (and probably after) he gave Miguel Cotto his first ever defeat by KOing him in the 11th round.


Miguel Cotto's first ever loss in his career.

During this time a fight between Pacquiao and Margarito would really be a big one, but it seems Pacman was targetting a big bout with The Golden Boy Oscar Dela Hoya. This was also his first time to move up to welterweight (147 lbs.) if I remembered correctly after his victory against David Diaz he was asked about moving up above Lightweight,he said it depends on his promoter and something like why not but when he was asked about 147 he smiled and said "No".

Anyway just a little something about the past of Pacman. Moving on to Margarito... his next fight was against Shane Mosley. Miguel Cotto back in 2007 defeated mosley in 12 rounds via unanimous decision, he outboxed Shane Mosley. Margarito on the other hand KO'd Cotto, and another thing was mosley is older so we can say he is close becoming an aging fighter back then and I would have bet against mosley on this fight but to everyone's surprise Mosley KO'd Margarito in the 9th round.


Mosley (Left) hit Margarito with a devastating punch.

But before we jump into any conclusions, before his fight with mosley, Margarito and his trainer was caught putting on illegal handwraps (handwraps containing plaster of paris ingredients). Still the fight went on but we see a demoralized Margarito so it might be the factor why Mosley was able to KO him. Margarito was then banned for a year from boxing.

Here we see a worthy opponent for Manny which is Sugar Shane Mosley. For some reasons I don't know why a fight between Mosley and Pacquiao didn't push through, it would have been interesting (I predict a close fight but a late KO win for Manny),instead we were left with...

Pacquiao vs Clottey

Never got me excited we didn't even bother watching it on cinemas like the previous fights. But the Mayweather vs Mosley really got me excited. I would have bet on Mosley but I was surprised at the results. But in my opinion Mosley threw that fight, and since Mayweather won I was expecting it was a hype for a mega fight between him and Pacquiao but unfortunately it didn't push through.

Oops we were talking about Margarito.... if this fight pushes through I'm not yet sure if it's really a worthy fight to see since Margarito came from a 1 year suspension and his last fight was won via decision against an opponent who I'm sure Pacquiao can KO with ease. But to be fair to Margarito, let's just say a 15-20% chance he can be a worthy opponent because his latest victory was probably a tune up to prepare him for a bigger fight but take note that age can be a big factor. For someone older and coming out from a year lay-off that can be a big loss. My take on this one...if Pacquiao is in tip top condition meaning well-prepared for this fight I predict an early KO win for Manny. And yes I'm also saying that the only way Manny can lose to Margarito is if he doesn't prepare for this fight.

(Just to get me started on blogging I had to lessen the details on this entry but will post more soon ^^)