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