Puella Magi Madoka Magica Production Note

I really want this!!! But this thing weighs like 1.6kg and I'm afraid the shipping would be scary.  But I really want this.

This two volume release collects all the production notes and sketches etc for the anime and looking at the wiki page for it, I think any crazed fan of the anime would want to own this thing of beauty.  Check it out at this link.

I wished I owned books like this when I was studying last year. It would have come in handy for my storyboard class which I was utterly horrible at.  The only reason why I got a B in that class was because I tried very hard at all the assignments even though I know that my work was less than stellar.

Sigh... should I get it??!?!?!  Thank god the OP and EP for Fate/Zero isn't sung by FictionJunction or Kalafina.  I'm definitely not getting those cds. :-)

I wonder if I should be a conniving cheapskate and get my boyfriend to get this for me.  ;D

Man... I really should get back to practising my drawing.  I suck big time at it but I still wish I was better at it... of course I know using my mouth to say I want to get better at it isn't going to help... but unfortunately, drawing always comes after my work, my Japanese studies, sports and my relax time... I just don't have the same passion some of my classmates have for it.

Sigh... I'm going to have to think very hard about this purchase.  If I get this, I'm definitely not going to get the commentary book on the anime.  I'm very tempted. :)

update 3am:
Ok... I suck at resisting temptation. :)  I pre-ordered it in the end but I have quite a few points I have been saving up at CDJapan to offset a purchase such as this... so I'm getting this at quite a decent discount. Yay. :)  K... time to sleep.... it's 3am. Good night. :)

update 9:35am:
Wow... I just checked and the pre-order is sold out.  I'm not sure if there will be more available after release date.  I'm not sure about books like these but for the figures, they are often available again after release date, so if you want this book, you'll just have to keep checking the online sites to see if someone release their pre-order or if they have become available again.

update 7th Oct 2010:
I wrote an entry of the unboxing of this purchase for those who are interested.  Here is the link. Click me.

It's the end of the week!!!! :)

It's the end of the week and the end of a 12 day stretch at work. Happily, we are not required to work this weekend. Whew... when they first told us to expect to work weekends on this project, i prepared myself mentally to do a 30 day stretch. Luckily for us, it's only 12 days in a row.  We're not done with it yet but for now, we can relax over the weekend. :)

Today was a good day, work went well and I actually got onto a relatively empty train home and now this...  via the Kalafina staff twitter feed... we get two photos of the exterior of what i am assuming is the Kalafina-Parco Cafe and some advertising or something.  I couldn't read the kanji in the feed and admittedly, was too lazy to look it up.  ;p



Man... I so want to go. Unfortunately, I won't be in Japan till Nov. I've been so high at work lately. Probably too much adrenaline caused by too little rest. :) I don't know what it is but I've been jumping around the studio just talking about Japan, Kalafina, anime, maid cafes... basically anything related to Japan. :D It's gotten to a point where I've been banned from saying the word Japan. Hahahaha...

On a slightly disappointing note, Kalafina won't be singing the opening theme for the much anticipated Fate/Zero anime. Anticipation was really high that they would since Kajiura Yuki is writing the score and this was also a ufotable production that was being released by Sony.

I am admittedly somewhat disappointed by it. But i suppose the girls have been very busy this year and doing further promotion for yet another anime would have been tough.

In a way this is good news for me... having listened to the preview of the ending theme several times, i have already decided I will not be getting that single. The song seems like a pretty generic anime song... omoshirokunai. The theme song will be sung by Lisa of Angel Beats fame. I didn't know anything about her so i youtubed it. The music isn't too bad but unless the song is exceptional, i am unlikely to buy the single too. Not the type of music that interests me these days. This means i only have to concentrate on getting Kajiura's OST. Hopefully it won't be bundled with the dvds or blurays like Mahou Shoujo Madoka and Kara no Kyoukai cuz if the anime turns out to be anything but great i will have a very hard time justifying a purchase.

K, time for dinner. Have a good weekend everyone. :)

kalafina record - cover art (regular edition)

Got this off the kalafina staff twitter feed today. This is the cover art for the regular edition of the soon to be released artist book Kalafina Record.

It looks rather nice and I am glad I pre-ordered it cuz I don't think I could wait till Nov to look at the insides of this much anticipated book. I decided against ordering the regular edition of the After Eden cd in the end. Going to try and not be such a fan girl and save that money for the trip to Japan. :-)

Keiko still looks the best in my opinion. She really looks really good in these posed photos. Just the right amount of innocence with a subtle touch of sexuality. She doesn't always look the best in snapshots at events etc but in these photo shoots and photo spreads, she usually stands out. If she wasn't such a capable singer, I think she might have a relatively successful career as a model, the non-catwalk variety of course.

Today is my tenth straight day at work and i must say this old bag of bones is having a harder time working such long stretches compared to previously. But this picture made my day... yay... something to look forward to. :-)

And to keep myself energize as i try and finish the week on a high and prepare myself mentally for the possibilty of more work over the weekend... I placed this very nice pix as my lock screen wallpaper on the Galaxy S2. :-D



Now each time my phone goes, i will be reminded of my upcoming trip to Japan and the upcoming After Eden Live. :-)

Tonight, i have to renew my passport, arrange for travel insurance, research places to visit, train schedules etc... Fun!!! :-)

K, time to go. Bye bye. :-)

p.s. And for those who are interested, this is the link to the special micro-site for the Kalafina Week in Shibuya.There's not a lot up yet but I expect that would change in the coming days.

video test

I am back doing more testing of the samsung galaxy S2 capabilities. This time i'm testing the video camera and the video editing software that came pre-installed on the device.

The editing software is pretty basic but good enough for something that comes on a phone. I shot some video of my room and of the view from window. It is pretty rubbishy video. I had meant to shoot something on the way home but forgot. :-P

Anyhow, let's try and publish this post to test if i face the same problem i did this morning with the youtube link. This video is being uploaded directly from my phone's storage, so it may not be a problem, we'll see. Here goes. :)

ps. just checked this on the PC and on my phone browser and all looks fine :) ... now just left one thing to test and that's another youtube link... the first test was unsuccessful... maybe will try that tomorrow on the train ride in.

kalafina on after eden, kawaii girl japan

Usually i don't bother posting up videos etc. Too lazy, too busy. :) but today i wanted to do more testing. More samsung galaxy s2 and blogger droid testing.

I am trying to use my s2 as much as possible to blog, surf, watch videos, watch streaming video, facebook etc. So far i have been too busy at work to download any high performance games to try out on this phone.

Anyway first things.... the above video is a clip of a recent interview that kalafina did for kawaii girl japan. It's subtitled in english like the previous interview they did for the website. I think this is just part one of a series of 4 or 5 clips... am not sure as i zipped through the clip just before i left the house for work.

Interesting bits about the new album. Apparently, this time they recorded the album with a live band unlike their previous albums and singles. The girls, however, look kinda tired. Even the usually chatty Wakana and the ultra energetic & perky Keiko seem muted. Keiko  managed one moe moment in the clip and that was about it. Their schedule this year and the upcoming year looks really punishing. Hopefully they manage to get some quality rest and relax time in between gigs and events... and definitely before the live in Nov :D ... must be at optimum level for when i see them live at the concert. :)

UPDATE: (8th Sept 2011)
- according to the Kawaii Girl Japan website, they will update this clip every week in the month of Sept.  The video will change every Monday.

As for the Samsung Galaxy S2... I am still super impressed with it. The battery life is better than decent. I am just trying to run it down for the second time, so far since getting it, i have only charged it twice. And even when i use the phone for long periods of time, it doesn't feel hot and zips along nicely. Video playback is brilliant.

k. Time to go. Will be getting off the train soon. :-)

Ps.
Not sure if the video will be embedded properly. This is what i m testing on blogger droid today. If that fails, i will fix that later.

Pps.
I discovered some interesting things about blogger-droid and posting videos from youtube using the software.  Will probably do more testing later in the week just cuz I'm curious.  But suffice to say, the first time... I'm not exactly sure it was successful since I couldn't see the body of the text on my cel phone browser but could see it on PC browser...

There were other formatting problems too but that cuz I keep forgetting that blogger-droid automatically puts a line break code html code for me and I don't need to put empty lines between paragraphs.

Anyway... gotta go... at work and it's time to work. :)

my new toy :)

It's a sunday morning and i am at work but wasn't too unhappy about it till the server went down. Now i'm here with tons of work to do but no way to do it.  :( sigh...

Ah well... this gives me the opportunity to do a little mobile blogging. :)  I got myself a new phone last night.  I waited till i was sure of which phone i wanted before recontracting my mobile plan.  Much as i love my tactile keyboards, i have pretty much given up on the motorola milestone 3 coming to the shores of this sunny island anytime soon.  As i have definitely outgrown the capabilities of my milestone and the old trusty phone has become quite a whiner lately, it was time to get another phone.



My new phone of choice is the Samsung Galaxy S II.  I managed to recontract it with the current comex discount and boy am i loving it.  the screen is bright and vibrant.  The touchscreen is responsive and the duo-processor keeps things zipping along.  The portrait keyboard is kind of easy to type with which makes me happy cuz it means mobile blogging is easy, although no as easy as on my milestone which has a fuller qwerty keyboard but still quite nice.

The phone cames pre-loaded with a bunch of M1 crap which I have not tried uninstalling.  There is some microsoft office type software which i know i will love. I can't remember the name of the software now and I'm too lazy to check. :P 

K, that's it for my mini review of the new phone. I wanna go off and setup this phone properly and maybe get some japanese homework done while i wait for tech. Bye. :)

Ps. As this is my first time using the samsung galaxy to blog... there might be some formatting problems. If there are any, i'll fix them later.

Nendroid Madoka / Mahou Shoujo Madoka official guide book

After taking a short nap on the train, I feel refresh enough to attempt another post tonight. :)  Today, I received more Mahou Shoujo Madoka stuff in the mail... YAY!!!!

One of them is the, at this point in time, out of print Nendoroid Madoka figure.  I ordered them from 2 different places with the intention of giving one of them to a friend for her birthday.  As for my figure... I'm undecided as to whether to open it or not... I just might since I don't really sell my toys / figures anyway.



The other thing that came in the mail is the Official Mahou Shoujo Madoka Guide Book.  This is yet another nicely printed book.  Nice paper quality, lots of full coloured pages and lots of information.  I think any fan of the anime who can read Japanese should be quite happy to own this guide book.

I took some photos of a few pages so that anyone who is interested would have a better idea of the quality and content of this guide book.





And for us Kajiura Yuki fans... there is also a one page interview with the composer of the end theme "Magia" as well as the background music for the anime.  I haven't really tried to read the article... too tired.... so I'm not sure what the interview is about.  But I am presuming that it's about the choice of music etc.



Also, there is a slightly more than half page interview with Kalafina as well. I took a quick glance through it and as far as I can make out, the article seems to concentrate mostly on Kalafina's reactions to "Magia", the song they sang for Mahou Shoujo Madoka.

 

I'm rather happy with this purchase as well.  I still have yet to order the collection of commentaries on the anime.  That book is now titled 100nin ga Shaberi Taosu! "Puella Magi Madoka Magica".  I'm still interested in it but am unsure if I want to pre-order it now or just see if I can pick it up at Kinokuniya when I go to Japan in November.

Anyway, this is really it from me for today... my bed is calling me.  Good night. :)

p.s. sorry the photos aren't of nicer quality... low light and taken with my not great Motorola Milestone camera.