Kalafina - Afa 11 - just finished singing

just a short blurb. Kalafina just finished a little while ago and they were awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i can't remember the whole setlist.... The following was sung....
Magia
Oblivious
Lacrimosa
Kagayaku
Ongaku
Hikari ni seritsu

Maybe i missed one or two....i m too high high now. :) Kalafina ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


If i mess up the formatting.... Will fix later. :)

edit:  I forgot Sprinter. =p

Kalafina in Singapore - i met them!!!

Super short post. But i wanted to be all fan girl and shout it out. i met Kalafina a while ago.... They signed this poster just centimeters away. I was so excited!!! but i was so star struck.... I planned to tell them in Japanese that i love their music and am going to the Live on the 25th but i was so tongue tied i said nothing but konnichiwa and Arigatou. :P i am still super high from the experience... Now i m waiting for the concert tonight.... So excited. Will write more either later today or tomorrow night. :)

Anime Festival Asia 2011 - Day 2

The crowds at Suntec for AFA11 - crazy, right? :)

I went to the Anime Festival Asia today and it was fun!!!!  =)  I was unable to be there early because I had to attend my Japanese class this morning.  I switched my class from the Sunday class to Saturday so that I could be at AFA for the whole day tomorrow.

And in order to avoid the long queues to buy tickets, my friend and I had gone to the AKB48 Cafe at Scape to buy pre-sale Stage+ Festival tickets about a week ago.  I managed to get to the convention hall and squeeze pass a gabillion people to get into the Main Stage area to catch the last bit of the I Love Anisong Artiste Appearance featuring Flow and Mizuki Ichirou.  But I was really there to watch Akemi Homura's seiyuu Saito Chiwa who was going to appear at 215pm.

Main Stage - actually, no photos allowed but
I didn't know that when I shot this photo.
  Lucky you can't really see anything.  :p
Kalafina will appear on this stage on Sunday. :)

We managed to get seats after the Flow and Mizuki Ichrou left the stage and hence, were able to rest a bit while we waited for Saito to show up.  When she did, there were big cheers all around.  Saito was on stage to do a live dubbing session and she used 3 scenes from Mahou Shoujo Madoka.  The first scene was in the ep when we first see Akemi Homura in her first timeline I think .... that is when she was weak and when she first met Madoka.  At that point she was in Mami Tomoe's house and having tea with Madoka, Mami, Miki Sayaka and Kyubey.  The next scene was a long one and a cool one.  It's the scene when Homura shoots Kyubey.  The last scene was when Homura talks to Madoka through the windo before she goes of to fight.  If I have time... I'll go look up those eps and scenes and post up a more detailed post.

There was also a short q&a session with the seiyuu.  Unfortunately, as no photography or audio recording is allowed, I have forgotten most of it. I do remember her saying that she didn't grow up wanting to be a seiyuu.  It was a job she only found out about later when she was still in school (?), I think maybe when she was in high school or something, I'm not sure.  Then she goes on to say that to be a good seiyuu, you don't have to study for it.  Instead, one should try and experience many things in life because these experiences will help you perform better and become the character.  Oh... I'm majorly paraphrasing here because I think I kind of rolled some of what I remembered of her various answers to a few questions into one.  There was also a question when she was asked who was her favourite character or, was it what was the character type, she liked to play most and she said that she likes to play characters that are different from her real personality.  She also felt that in order to perform a role well, a seiyuu must become the character they are performing.  Also, when she prepares for a role, she will read the script and try and imagine how the other seiyuus will play their part and how she can match their performance, or something like that.  Finally, I remember she said that there were many emotional scenes in Mahou Shoujo Madoka so when she played Homura Akemi, she would return to her home completely drained because she poured all her emotions into this character when she played it.

Please note that I wrote the above paragraph completely from memory so some of it may not be accurate.

K... I think I really need to rest now... tomorrow will be a busy day.

Not going to proof read... will fix errors later... also will post up more photos of the event and my personal haul etc etc another day.

Good night. :)

Anime Festival Asia 2011 - Day 1

photo courtesy of AFA11

Yesterday was the first day of the Anime Festival Asia 2011.  If I'm not wrong, the day began with a press preview where the anisong singers and the other artistes showed up to say hello.  I'm no longer part of the press so, unfortunately, I was at work while this event was going on.  Then there is the Cool Japan Forum at 1pm which I also did not attend.  I don't think the anisong stars and the other artiste were at the forum.

photo courtesy of AFA11

I don't know what Kalafina was up to all day after the press preview.  I suspect they were doing a short city tour of Singapore and possibly documenting it on video or in photos for future publicity use.  That, or they were possibly also giving interviews for magazine etc.  I really don't know... I'm just speculating. :)

The organisers also made a little video thing which is hosted on both FB and youtube.  It's not much, just footage of the artistes on stage set to some generic library music.  For us Kalafina fans, the trio appear a few times in the video.  There is no VO and no audio from the event, just the library music.  If you're interested... here is the youtube vid. :)

I returned from work at 1145pm today... super long and very tiring day at work.  I'm not unhappy about it though... it was interesting, albeit, somewhat frustrating when I couldn't figure out how to clean up certain bits of the footage.  But the reward at the end of a day of pounding at the door was well worth it as I think I'm beginning to be able to wrap my head around the basics of doing this kind of clean up.  So am very happy, although I am super, super tired.

Much as I would love to write more... I also have a very long busy weekend ahead of me.  First, table tennis in the morning, then Japanese class, then AFA11 =D and then dinner with the family, then home to rest for an even busier Sunday at AFA11. :)

I hope to write up a little something about my time at AFA11 when I have time... hopefully, I will have a post up by late Sunday night or Monday night... we'll see... for now... I need to sleep... it's 130am and I need to settle some details etc be4 I go to bed.

Good night everyone :)
p.s. not proof reading again. :p

Kalafina on the way to Singapore (AFA11) / Mahou Shoujo Madoka movie

I've been wanting to post more lately but have been so busy, it's been pretty near impossible to do anything too meaningful online.  Returned home late from work and just woke up from a 2hr snooze after dinner and now am able to write my response to what I read on the train 3 and half hours earlier.  Keiko left a message on their blog that the trio were at the airport and were about to leave to come to Singapore at approx 10pm Tokyo time.  This means they'll be in Singapore approx 6 1/2 to 7 or so hours later. YAY!!!

My friend initially thought they might fly in on late Thursday night and asked if I would like to go to the airport and see if we could catch them as they exited customs... I thought sure, why not, if we went there after work, I wouldn't mind just doing something goofy and fun just for the heck of it but... since it'll be early tomorrow morning when they arrive... that is no longer something I will be able to do.  I have to be at work and am in the middle of working on my first stereo 3D clean up shot, so am both stressed and excited about it... and not even the prospect of seeing Kalafina in the flesh at the airport will detract me from going to work tomorrow. =D

Also... super happy news to report... this afternoon, I really wanted to shout it out on the blog but work, unfortunately, must come first... so now at 1 plus AM in the morning... I would like to go YIPPEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!  I was one of the lucky winners in the autograph session draw for the Kalafina autograph session to be held this Sunday at the Anime Festival Asia 2011.  I almost couldn't believe it and kept checking again and again that that was my number in the list... I even got my boyfriend to check it.  His ticket, unfortunately, wasn't selected for the Kalafina autograph session.  He got Angela.  I suppose it's cool too since I like Angela too and I think he's unlikely to want to keep that autographed poster, so I'll get one autographed Kalafina poster and one autographed Angela poster. :p

Also for those of you who can read Japanese, Kalafina was interviewed for an article in the Animyu! (Autumn Issue) magazine.  I might get this magazine.  After hunting around for information on the nature of these interview, to see if the magazine was worth getting, I found out from oh-news that this isn't just a blurp, so I'm now more interested in purchasing the magazine... but we'll see... I haven't really made up my mind yet.

Another magazine I'm really interested in getting is the December issue of Newtype. A few days ago, the internet was abuzz with news of a Mahou Shoujo Madoka movie.  At that point in time, there was no official announce from Shaft, hence, there was speculation that it was just a rumour... although, that would be strange since the news comes from Newtype which is hardly the type of magazine to make things up.

Just a while ago, I read a twitter message from the production team for Mahou Shoujo Madoka and this is what they wrote:
いよいよ正式告知でございます。皆様の応援のおかげで、劇場プロジェクトを始動させていただくこととなりました。詳細は本日発売、まどかが表紙のニュータイプ12月号に掲載されます。 引き続きよろしくお願いします！ 公式HPもプチリニューアルしております。

That's the official announce that  there will be a Mahou Shoujo Madoka movie and that more details will be in the Newtype magazine December issue.  Also, if I read that tweet correctly, they say they have re-vamped their website as part of the publicity for the movie.

Also, I just found out that there is now a Mahou Shoujo USA website and they have announced special blu-ray boxsets of the anime... and.... ARRRGGGHHHH.... they are way cheaper than the Japanese blu-ray sets.  There will be 3 Limited edition boxsets and each of them will come with one extra CD, which would be Vol. 1-3 of Kajiura Yuki's OST.  They will also come with English subtitles and other freebies like posters and stickers etc... all of which were not in the original Japanese releases.  Grrrrrrr..... I will of course not be getting these since I already have the 6 volume Japan releases but for those of you would are interested here is the link to the website.

K... that's it from me... I need to sleep... it's 2am and although I had a short nap before I started writing this post.... I'm tiring fast... so time to go... not going to proof read... ... .... .... zzzzzz :)

Kajiura Yuki - new t-shirts / Kalafina Cafe stuff

New concert t-shirts for one of Kajiura Yuki's concerts are now available on CDJapan. :)

I'm so ordering one of them.  There are two colors but I think I'll probably go for the darker one. Click me for darker coloured shirt... and click me for lighter coloured shirt.

There's a bunch of other stuff like bags and water-bottles etc... I'll probably not get them but for those who are interested... check this link out.


CDJapan is also offering new stuff from Kalafina Cafe but it's a salad bowl and a lunch box... hmmmm.... I'm unlikely to get either one of those things... these aren't usually the kinds of things I would buy.  Too bad no t-shirt... I would totally get one. :)

Btw, it's been out for a while now but the Kalafina Calendar for next year is available for those who want them... I don't think I'll get them now... but if they are available at the concert venue later this month... I might go for them... not sure yet... I'm more into t-shirts and concert programmes... so we'll see... :)

Actually... I wanted to write more... but I'm rather tired today.... long day at work... so will go to sleep soon.... need to keep my strength up for AFA11 this weekend. :D

nite nite... :)

Fate/Zero Blu-ray Vol.1 (w/ Kajiura OST) & Kalafina (Animate promo)

EDIT: 10th Nov 2011 - I didn't realise that this blu-ray release comes with ENGLISH SUBS!!!!  Which kind of makes it a better purchase than the Mahou Shoujo Madoka Jpn limited edition releases which had no English subs.

Link to the PRE-ORDER for the blu-ray set at CDJapan .
Fate / Zero Blu-ray Disc Box I [5Blu-ray + 2CD]

Oh man... I just knew they were going to do this. Once again they have packaged the anime with Kajiura Yuki's OST for the series... just like they did for Mahou Shoujo Madoka. The price for this set won't be pretty.  The price at CDJapan is 38000yen... you'll get 1140 points (3% of total cost) which works out to be 1140yen discount on a future purchase. 

Yikes... that's not a cheap set at all... but that said, this is the type of pricing one gets with blu-ray releases of anime releases in Japan.  They only come in cheaper when you pick them up much, much later when they re-release budget sets etc.

This set is likely to be a relatively nice set for fans with money to spend.  Although it's only half the series, so you'll only get ep1-13 on 5 blu-rays... you'll also get 2 additional cds.  One of those cds will be Kajiura Yuki's OST, the other will be a drama CD.  The set will also come with a Production Note and other extras.  I'm not sure what this Production Note will look like... but it'll likely have interviews and art-work etc.  It's unlikely to be as nice as a stand-alone artbook release like the Mahou Shojo Madoka Production Note release but it should be relatively decent.

Hence, in the end, it works out to be of somewhat the same value as the Mahou Shoujo Madoka limited edition blu-ray releases.... except that this will only be half the series since Fate/Zero is a 26 ep series.  I'm hesitant to get this set even though I would really like to get Kajiura's OST but sigh.... I'm not sure if I like Fate/Zero the anime as much as I LOVED Mahou Shoujo Madoka yet.  I partly decided to get the Mahou Shoujo set for Kajiura and partly because I loved the anime.

It's cheaper to get the set at Amazon Japan though.  Amazon Japan is giving a 26% discount and the set will weigh in at 29526yen which is loads cheaper than CDJapan but Amazon Japan gives the buyer lesser options with regards to shipping.  I'll have to think long and hard about it but I'm leaning towards not getting the set and hoping that a few years from now... we may get a stand-alone OST featuring some of the signature tracks from the anime.

One of singles I don't own yet.

ALSO... aside from hosting Kalafina Museum in several of the Animate stores in Japan, Animate will also be holding a separate promotion for several anisong artists.  Kalafina will be one of them.  If I read the post from Sony correctly, if you buy a cd / dvd / bd from Kalafina (and other featured artists) from an Animate store during the promotion period from 8th Nov to 11th Dec, you'll get an artist card.  I don't know what an artist card is but it seems this is the 4th time that Animate has held the Anime Artist Fair (アニメイトアーティストフェア) event so maybe they have given out artist cards before and those who have them know what they are.  

I will be in Japan during that period and plan on paying a visit to Animate.  I'm still missing 2 or 3 singles in my Kalafina collection so if they have something I want, I may get it and hopefully get the artist card too.

Lastly, before I go... for those who can read Japanese, Vol. 7 of Lisani! features the Fate/Zero anime.  There is also a joint interview with Kajiura and Gen Urobuchi about Kajiura's music.  I've ordered the magazine. :)

Lisani! (Listen Anime!) Vol.7 [Cover & Top Feature] Fate/Zero / Sony Magazines

That's all from me for now... I need to get ready for lunch... it's my mum's birthday celebration today. :)  Later y'all. :)