the super moon & kajiura yuki's fiction II

Hahahaha... okay, the super moon phenomenon occurred two saturday's ago. I shot a photo but never posted it. So here it is. :)

And I know it has no relation to the super moon. But, my shipping status for Kajiura Yuki's second solo album, Fiction II, says in shipping process. Yay!! :)

Yeah, that's it from me. Been very busy lately. Bye for now. :)

Mahou Shoujo Madoka & Android Froyo for Motorola Milestone

Before I go to sleep, i just wanted to do a quick update to the blog.

The new release dates for the blu-rays and dvds have been announced.  Basically, they are pushing the release dates of all volumes back by a month.  Here is the link to the announce on the official website.

Basically, here are the dates:

第1巻：3月30日→4月27日

第2巻：4月27日→5月25日

第3巻：5月25日→6月22日

第4巻：6月22日→7月27日

第5巻：7月27日→8月24日

They have yet to announce the availability of the 6th volume, but that will be a certainty and will probably be in the following month after the 5th volume is released.

This means that OST Vol. 1 by Kajiura Yuki will also be delayed by a month.  The cd will be packed with Vol.2 of the special editions and was scheduled for a April release.  We'll now have to wait to the end of May for this cd. 

The delay of Vol.1 is kind of expected, but I must say, I was a little surprised that all volumes were pushed back by a month.  :(  Ah well... although I am a little disappointed that even vol.2 has been delayed, still, given the circumstances, I'm not really that bothered by it. :)

Also, episode 11 and 12 of the anime will be postponed due to the recent events in Japan.  Although there has been no confirmed dates, according to the latest twitter message from the official website, the last episode will air in April.

From the tweet:

madoka_magica 魔法少女まどか☆マギカ

レギュラー放送とは形態が変わりますが、4月中を目途に最終話までをお届けできるように調整を進めてまいります。ご理解、ご了承のほど、よろしくお願いいたします。 #madoka_magica

It's a good thing for me actually, although other fans may be disappointed.  I'm really busy at work lately.  And had to put in some serious overtime tonight.  I'm also behind on my Japanese homework.  So a delay in the broadcast of these last two eps means less distraction for me. :D

Next.... FINALLY Android 2.2 (Froyo) is available for the Motorola Milestone.  It's not available in all regions yet but it is available in most of South East Asia.  I just upgraded my Milestone from Eclair to Froyo. Yay. :)  I've been waiting for this.  The biggest reason why I wanted it was so that I could move applications to SD card.  :)  I've not actually played with it too much yet.  Too tired.  :(

Anyway, strangely, I could not download the upgrade from Motorola's website.  BUT, you can still upgrade.  You just need to install the "Motorola Software Update" software on you computer and use that to update.  Just install the software and follow the instructions... it's pretty simple.

K... need sleep.  The shot I'm working on is really killing me.  A lot of work remains to be done and I need to deliver by end of today if possible.  So good night everyone. :) 

Mahou Shoujo Madoka - bluray / dvd Vol. 1 release delayed

Before I left on my cruise, I read from the official Mahou Shoujo Madoka website that Vol. 1's release has been delayed.  The dvd / blu-ray was scheduled to be released at the end of this month on the 30th.  The announcement of its delay was made on 15th Mar, just 4 days after the devastating earthquake and tsunami hit Japan's North Eastern region.  Given the circumstances, it's understandable that the release would be delayed.

From what I can understand with my still limited ability to read Japanese, the release was delayed due to the shortage of power and disruption to delivery services in Japan after the disaster.  They have not announced a new release date yet.  But I'm in no hurry to get these discs and I doubt if anyone who likes anime enough to order these discs would care that they are not getting Vol.1 on time.

I must say that Japan has coped with this disaster remarkably well given the scope of the devastation.  I was assured by CDJapan that my orders will be shipped as timely as possible.  I was in no hurry to get any of the items I had ordered from them and totally expected delays but was quite surprise that one of my orders actually shipped on time.  You really have to admire the Japanese.

It's my first anime related post since 11th Mar and hopefully there will be more.  :)

Oh... also, a friend's 6 year old daughter donated her "ang bao" money of SGD200 to the Red Cross for the Japan relief fund.  That's really cool. :)  Maybe I should donate more... how can I lose to a 6 year old? :)

K... off to rest.... it's been a very busy weekend and I'm really pooped.  I also hope to go to work early tomorrow to try and get a head start on work.  I'm in the middle of a difficult shot and I'm worried that I can't meet the deadline... so I should just call it an early night.  Ja... matta ne. :)

cruise trip day 3

A little late, considering I disembarked at approximately 2pm friday afternoon. :)

Yes, tadaima. I am home after my short cruise trip. :) We woke up really early this morning to catch the sunrise and I have several shots of it in various cameras. :)



This is just one of the many I shot.

The photo at the top of this post was shot on thursday morning, after breakfast. I was trying quite unsuccessfully to do my nihongo shukudai on the ship. :) In the end, after we reached home and rested, we headed out again to my favourite cafe to do my homework. I continued to do it at home after dinner. It is still not complete but I am making good progress. :)

K, need to sleep. Will try and post up some photos after I have developed the film and sorted out all the photos. Oyasumi. :)

cruise trip day two part 2

Hi hi. I'm back from the swim. It was very enjoyable. I've not gone swimming for months, the new work schedule makes it hard. :(

We awoke to a not dramatically beautiful day. No deep blue skies, no flying fish in the distance, nothing to make you go "wow". But still, I was happy. It is good to be alive and to be able to spend time with those whom you love. The recent troubles in the world has made me more acutely aware of this fact.

The sky this morning was a dull, pale blue and white but with the help of software filters I managed to make it more colourful, dramatic and interesting. The older I get, the more I'm aware of the fact that being "emo" and moody about everything changes nothing and just leaves me feeling like crap. Hence, I just want to live this life that I have been given the best that I can. And although I have not made my mark on the world, nor do I think I ever will or want to, I know that my life so far has been good and interesting and I am happy and grateful. :)

My Japanese friends in Japan are doing fine. They are getting on with life and doing the best they can. So it would be disrespectful of me to be all "emo" about it, I who live 5000 miles away. That is not to say I am not concern for them or those who lost so much. But the Japanese are really すごい. And I admire their spirit and and strength and I too would like to have a little bit of that in me. :)

K, I need to go rest a bit. That vigorous swim has tired me out a little. Ja matta ne. :)

cruise trip day 2

We've docked at the Port Klang Cruise Centre in Malaysia. After a late dinner and a magic show last night, the Super Star Virgo departed Singapore for Malaysia.

I've never been on a cruise before so I was quite interested to experience it. ...

I'll continue in a bit. We're going swimming. :)

cruise trip day 1

Am now on a cruise ship. This was a planned family trip with my parents, brother, sister in law and niece.

I have never been on a cruise before. So I hope it is interesting.

Am not sure if I have internet connectivity the further we head out. So will just post this short post and if I can't write more on the trip, will write more when I get back.

Take care everyone. :)

Japan Earthquake / Tsunami Fund Raising - Singapore

Hi guys, if any of you wish to donate to help Japan and you're in Singapore but don't know where and how to do it.  Channel News Asia aired the news item and posted up the news last night on their website.  Here is the link to the original CNA article and updated CNA article, click here.

The Straits Times also has an article, link here.

Also, click on the links to get to the Singapore Red Cross and Mercy Relief websites for details on how to donate.

You can also donate via ATM for OCBC, DBS and UOB bank customers.

Please donate if you can and do feel for the people of Japan.

cheers

i have no words

I really wanted, maybe even needed, to write about the whirlpool of emotions in my mind after the events in Japan.  But each time I tried, it all came out wrong.

So I'm glad that my friend and fellow blogger has kindly agree to let me post a link to her post.  It may not express everything that I wanted to say or had to say but I think her post lifted my spirits somewhat and I wanted to express that at the very least.

Webs of Significance post

cheers

time-out

As you all must know by now, Japan experienced it's worst earthquake in history just yesterday afternoon.  The offshore quake subsequently triggered a tsunami that devastated much of the coastal areas near Sendai, seriously shaking buildings in Tokyo, setting of massive fires at a oil refinery and a nuclear power plant, killing hundreds of people and cutting of electricity to millions of households.  It's still cold in many parts of Japan and no power means no heat.  The effects of this quake will be felt not just days but months and even years later.

My thoughts, at this point in time, are not only with my friends and their love ones in Japan but also with all the people of Japan, especially those in North East Japan.

Hence, it's time-out for today and maybe even tomorrow.  I'm not in the mood for blogging about anime, music or food etc.  It's time for some reflection and prayers.  May God be with the people of Japan. 

無事で良かった。

Earlier this afternoon a huge 8.9 earthquake rocked Japan triggering a huge tsunami which devastated much of the coastal area near Sendai. I think this is the 7th largest quake recorded inn history or something like that.

The visuals being transmitted over the internet and telly are quite chilling. :(

So far, I am happy to report that 4 of my 5 friends and their family are safe. We aren't able to contact koji on the phone but he lives in the Tokyo area and so does his family, so we're thinking... hoping... that they are okay too.

Sachiko and her dad in Gunma are safe too but without electricity which is not great considering that we haven't reached Spring yet.

Manami was still stuck in her office a while ago but should be able to walk home soon. She said that there was just too many people out in the streets for her to make her way home. She and everyone in the Japan office hid under their desks when the quake first hit. Last I heard, they were still experiencing after shocks.

Itsuko and family are fine too. Although her office is a mess, no one is really worried about that now.

Teiji is not in Japan now, so he's fine too.

I am just happy they are okay. Now, I just need to hear from Koji...

Add:
11:05pm
From her twitter account, Kajiura Yuki reports that she's fine, just that her place is in a mess with CDs all over the ground etc.   I read somewhere that Kaida Yuriko is fine too  Still don't know about Kalafina and FictionJunction Kaori but they are based in Tokyo so at the very least, they should be okay.  I don't think they have twitter accounts.  I only follow Kajiura's twitter account and do nothing else with twitter so I'm not clear about the rest.

Still no word from Koji. :(

12:05am
Received word from Koji.  His family and him are safe.  He had to walk home cuz there were no buses to take in Tokyo.  I'm not sure if he's reached home yet but at least he's safe and so is his family. :)

1:22am
All the Kalafina members in Japan are safe too.  So are all the FictionJunction vocalists. :)  Yuriko Kaida hurt her finger but is otherwise unhurt.  Kajiura Yuki just tweeted this. :)

Sadly though, it looks like the death toll in Japan is likely to go over 1000 according to the Kyodo News Agency. :(

Koji said that it is still chaotic in Tokyo.  And Itsuko said in an earlier email that they are still feeling tremors in Tokyo every few minutes. :(  And I still don't know if power has been restored at Sachiko's home in Gunma.  As long as they all stay safe... I would be very grateful.

Mahou Shoujo Madoka ep 10 (short)

I interrupt this transmission of Ep10 of Mahou Shoujo Madoka to bring you a short message...

"OMG!!!!" 

:) The [gg] subbing team has been fantastic. The sub version was out so fast that I was able to download, encode and transfer to the milestone all within the short time between waking up and leaving for work.

Am in the middle of the ep now... just wanted to gush a little cuz the beginning was just fantastic. Thank you Kajiura Yuki!!! I only started watching this cuz of your music. Now I love this anime.  Ep10 is SUPER!!!!!  Okay... at least the first 7 mins were super... the rest is probably going to rock too. :)

K... gotta go. I want to finish the ep. :) later... :)

p.s. I'm so going to place my pre-order for Vol.3 and Vol.4 of the blu-rays later today. :)

no mahou shoujo for me tonight. :(

Give me some Mahou Shoujo magic Kyubey!!!!!

 Wow... super tired this week.  It's been busy, busy, busy and while I enjoy my work, there was this one shot that kept coming back again and again for fixes.  I had to juggle a few shots as a result of that.  That stress and the two table tennis games after work this week have combined to make me feel too tired to stay up too much later tonight.  So although Mahou Shoujo Madoka's ep10 airs tonight, I'm not even going to attempt to watch it.

Truth is, I've not even had the chance to watch ep9 again.  I needed to because I didn't watch it properly last week.  Also, today, as part of my company's policy of continued training for all on the job, I attended a lecture on Colour and Lighting which was very interesting, helped me recall several things I learnt in university regarding film analysis and theory and  a lot of what I recalled today would be very helpful in understanding the visuals in Mahou Shoujo Madoka.

Sadly, I can't write much more... too tired.  So here's hoping Akemi Homura isn't some cyborg or android from the future... oyasumi. :)

more stuff: )

Heh heh, more stuff. :)

I went to kinokuniya on sunday and got myself a copy of the Mahou Shoujo Madoka manga vol.1. :) Although I know this 3 volume series is based on the anime, I still want to try and read it. Reading material that interest me was one of the methods I used when I was studying mandarin which I really sucked at in the past. An unplanned side effect also occured because reading wuxia xiaoshuo, which were published in Hong Kong, ended up also becoming beneficial to my study of japanese. It meant that I was no stranger to many of the traditional chinese characters used in kanji.

I still have to finish vol. 1 of Conan. After that I will start on the Madoka manga which would be much slower for me since there is no furigana. So there will be lots more to-ing and fro-ing between the dictionary and the manga.

The other purchase I managed to make was for the Kalafina Red Moon concert t-shirt. :) It's not my preferred color since, in general, I don't usually go for white t-shirts but the black large was sold out and I picked the white over the pink... although after that I kinda wanted the pink too... hahaha... so greedy. :)

Those t-shirts in the larger sizes really went very fast at cdJapan. I chanced upon the planned sale of Kalafina and FictionJunction memorabilia one day while surfing their site and wrote them an email asking if they could confirm if they will be selling the items. Before I received the reply to my email, the items went on sale. Luckily for me, I was checking their site religiously, so I managed to feed the t-shirt monster in me with the Kalafina shirt. :)

These things are so hard to purchase outside of Japan. A lot of them don't ship outside of the country. I hope cdJapan will continue to carry more of their stuff but in a reply to my email, they said they still can't confirm it as, understandably, that decision does not lie with them.

I actually ended up ordering more Kalafina and FictionJunction stuff. I am suck a sucker for these things. :) However, those will take some time to get to me since I bundled them with other stuff to save on shipping and to spread out my purchases.

K... enough mobile blogging for now. Need to get ready to change trains. :)

Mahou Shoujo Madoka - Visual Motifs 1

INTRODUCTION:

This isn't exactly my original planned post on Mahou Shoujo Madoka but I figured that it would actually be hard to write it without having finished the currently ongoing anime.  This post, however, would have formed part of that post on the anime.  And with my work now consuming a good part of my time and likely to get even busier, I might as well just write what I can.  I've already delayed writing it for weeks and weeks and if I don't write it now, I may never write it.

The 9th episode has aired, drawing us ever closer to the fast approaching end.  I have watched the 9th episode and liked it a lot too but haven't had time to re-watch it.  I actually need to watch that episode again as I watched it during lunch on Friday and I was kind of pressed for time so was not really paying as much attention as i would like.

While Mai Hime still remains my favourite Mahou Shoujo anime because of its strong storyline, its breaking of several Mahou Shoujo conventions, its cast of fantastic characters, very good characterization and an awesome soundtrack by Kajiura Yuki, Mahou Shoujo Madoka isn't that far behind.  Like Mai Hime and Revolutionary Girl Utena, Mahou Shoujo Madoka also wants to re-invent the Mahou Shoujo genre and where Mahou Shoujo Madoka most clearly differentiates itself from the others is through the use of many visual motifs.

For the ease of organisation and in preparation for the post I hope to write after the series ends, I won't really say that much in these posts.  The purpose of this series of posts is to catalogue and organize the recurring visuals first before trying to make further meaning of them in a later post.

BUT before I go ahead, I would like to say that in doing the screen captures and cataloguing, it seems very clear to me that Mahou Shoujo Madoka is heavily influenced by German Expressionism.  And saying heavily influenced is an understatement.  This anime is practically a study in German Expressionism and it relies heavily on The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, Metropolis etc for much of its visual inspiration.  I love it.  I was a big fan of German Expressionism when I studied film in university and Metropolis is one of my favourite films.

The use of German Expressionism in this anime is not hard to prove at all.  The starkly dramatic and contrasting lighting styles, the unrealistic shadows, the architecture, the mirrors, the railings, the mise-en-scene, the philosophy, the themes etc, a lot of it point to German Expressionism.

I don't know if I will ever have the time and the energy to write a proper post on this anime but the least I can do is to post up the screen captures to support my assertion that up to ep8 at least,  Mahou Shoujo Madoka is almost entirely about German Expressionism.  I've not watch ep9 properly and the rest of the series isn't out so I can't say with any certainty that German Expressionism is the only movement they are drawing inspiration from.  There may be other influences.  Also, I've not really had too much time to think even further but what I'm certain is that German Expressionism is the major influence here.

And lastly before I go.... the images below may have SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER info.  Please stop now if you don't want SPOILER information.

Without further ado... here goes...

VISUAL MOTIFS - GLASS, MIRRORS and REFLECTIVE SURFACES

Lots and lots of glass, mirrors and reflective surfaces. And sometimes it's not merely just one reflection but multiple reflections.

By the way, I won't post every shot that shows reflections, just the more interesting ones.

Episode 1:



I think I would go nuts in the place where Madoka and her mum brush their teeth.  To much glass and too many mirrors.

Episode 2:



Episode 3:

   

Episode 4:



Check out Madoka's reflection on a door knob.  That's quite an unsual reflection.

Episode 5:



Seriously Madoka, do you need so many mirrors in your house? :)

Episode 6:



Episode 7:



Episode 8:



Okay... that's it for now... I want to sleep before 1am... I've had too little sleep lately... :(  Sigh... no time for my obsessions. :)  Will post more on the Visual Motifs in Mahou Shoujo Madoka in the coming days or weeks. :)

Oyasumi. :)
p.s. - Oh... I forgot about the links... I'll come back another day to put in some more links. :)