j1m0ne's blog

Got back this morning after a quick weekend break in Singapore on a personal trip – I hadn’t been there in almost 10 years and AFA09 seemed as good a reason as any to make a stop.

Orchard Road hasn’t changed much in the interim, although Phoenix Hotel is now gone and that new ION place is open – all the other familiar haunts like HMV in The Heeren and Kinokuniya in Taka are still correct and present as I remember them. The Christmas decorations are rather cringeworthy though, like those 4 Santas near The Heeren – how fugly are those things? I should’ve taken a pic of them, but I was scared my lens would break…

Anyhow, I don’t have too much to say about the AFA09 experience – I’m not much of a con goer nor am I into figurines, merchandise or cosplay – so I spent most of the time wandering around in circles (somehow repeatedly ending up in front of the meido cafe). Ended up not taking many photos as usual, preferring to just walk around taking in the sights and…. absorb the otaku atmosphere? While rinerei was busy snapping away, I was busy… looking at stuff. Snapping pics of moving legs can be quite hard (sorry, Yuuko from xxxHOLiC cosplayer)…

Briefly, my AFA09 experience.

9 things about AFA09
1.Translator for Kaname panel was fail.
Not to be mean or anything, but translating 執事 (shitsuji) as ’servant’ is pretty much fail in anyone’s book. You should’ve heard the collective gaggle of fangirls groaning when Mr. Translator described Kaname as ‘working part-time at a servant cafe’. HAYATE THE COMBAT SERVANT!!! Plus he wasn’t really translating, more like reading the answers off a piece of paper. The other translator… er… Reiko was it?? was much better at on-the-fly translation and I was thankful that she was in charge of the K-ON! stage event.

2.Meido cafe was pretty much what I expected…

…a cafe with waitresses who coincidentally happen to dress somewhat like maids. Not like my own maid though, who’s a grandma. Skirts aren’t short enough, necklines too long, moe moe kyun chants were tee-hee-hee but not that moe. Let’s not talk about the quality of the food…. Incidentally, a couple of the meido were on stage on Sunday dancing along to Perfume’s love the world and that was 100000000 times better cos they wore really short pants. Yeap.

Oh, and HI AGAIN, bj0rn! I hope the maids gave you some moe moe kyun power-up to keep you going throughout both days….

3.Can I have that guitar please?
I saw a K-ON! cosplayer using a genuine Epiphone Les Paul as a mirror to fix her hair/make-up…. Like, can I have the guitar please, I can barely afford a new acoustic, sob…

4.Queueueueueueueue
I suppose ignorance etc means I got to enjoy the long-lost art of queuing (which as far as I know, doesn’t exist in Malaysia). Around an hour just to get my entrance ticket on the Saturday morning which meant I missed the Summer Wars thingy, whatever it was. Queued for Moe Moe Kyun cafe, queued to get into the K-ON! event, queued to pay for my stuff in Kino, queued for my frigging dinner in Taka. Lovely. Guess I’m too used to living in a tiny town in a tiny state in a tiny country where the roughest and rudest in the toilet queue win (ie me).

5.Hi Black Rock Shooter cosplayer!!

You know, I think I may have completely missed the point with this photo. I’m sure anyone who went to the event would’ve seen her in her full glory – I spent a good half an hour staring at her costume and weapon (yes I swear it was like that!!) from the top floor…

6. I❤AniSong was….
….PROBABLY AWSM, for the people who went (hint: I didn’t). I had never planned to go cos well… HELLO, the whole shebang costs around the price of one day of Animelo and I know which one I’d rather save my money for. Though I do kinda wonder how the autograph session with Shoko-tan turned out, saw people queuing for that one (remembers kowtow/shikishi rage from last year).

7.Kept my wallet in my pocket.

Not much to buy to be honest, both in terms of books or merchandise (not forgetting the fact that most of my spare cash goes on seiyuu stuff anyway). Conveniently joined rinerei near the end of her 2-hour journey towards the KKnM shop and grabbed a couple of shitajiki and clear folders, but otherwise didn’t get much – not even manga or light novels. I did got some reading material from Kinokuniya to last me ’til spring 2010 (ie my next Japan trip) – the 3 tankoubon of Umino Chika’s 3-gatsu no Lion, the newest volume of Kino no Tabi, volume one of Usotsuki Mi-kun to Kowareta Ma-chan (just to check it out) and a few books.

8.The people who were there…
Wut, Hibiki Reine (Marimite illustrator) was there? Gee did anyone know? I certainly would’ve tried to get her autograph if I did, but I didn’t have an internet connection for the duration of my stay. Oh wells. Ah yeah, Danny Choo was all over the place, went to watch the first bit of his stage event but left after he took off his stromtrooper headgear.

9.Thanks AFA09!

You brought out the shotacon in me!!!

K-ON! seiyuu

K-ON! seiyuu pic recycle is necessary cos I’m too lazy to find another one. Anyway, I passed on camping at Changi at 1am to greet the girls – was way too sleepy, and I heard they were wearing face masks too so I guess… I didn’t miss much.

I didn’t know, and didn’t think that many people would be queuing up for the event; I guess I have zero idea how popular K-ON! is in Singapore. I arrived at 10.15am and the queue was the length of the hall already – I think only a handful were actually queuing for Kaname at 11am (K-ON! was at 1.15pm). So to get a decent seat, I ended up sitting through a snoozefest screening of InuYasha Kenketsu-hen (while reading manga and listening to Nana on my iPod), facepalming through the bad translations of the Kaname panel and laughing at the Joysound karaoke/afureko machine thing.

Of course, I was rather bemused that of all the 5 K-ON! members to not come, it had to be Hikasa Yoko, voice of the most popular(?) character Mio. I had to slap myself when I saw Taketatsu Aya-nyan walking out instead of Hiyocchi, but was entirely grateful that Kotobuki Minako did make it over after all. Photography and video at the session wasn’t allowed, which wasn’t totally unexpected, but hey – at least I could 100% focus my attention on the seiyuu that way.

Anyhow I had a pretty awesome view from 5th row centre and spent most of the time staring at Mina-chan, occasionally stealing side-glances at Toyosaki Aki – their images are more or less permanently imprinted on my brain already. Honest to God, the girls were much, much cuter in person than I thought they would be – Satomi in particular came across as very warm and friendly while Mina-chan was constantly smiling (dimples!!!!) and waving at random members of the crowd…. oh to hell with it, I’ll just say Mina-chan is so bloody #$%#$^$ pretty omg hyperventilating….

I apologise to the people around me I may have bothered with my constant screaming as well as imposing myself upon their space & obstructing their view while trying to get a good glimpse of the seiyuu during the dubbing session. There appears to be a serious shortage of seiyuu fans in Singapore, definitely not enough people shouting for anybody except maybe a few for Aki-chan (and that’s only cos she voices Yui…)

So you got all the girls coming out one by one introducing themselves in terrible Engrish – HELLO!! I AM AKI TOYOSAKI!!! I AM DOING YUI!!… and so on. Seriously when Aki first said HELLO!!, the crowd was silent for a split second before responding HELLO!! – I was like HUHHHH, Hello what? It was a LOL attempt to engage the crowd that almost failed.

Dubbing bits
They did three scenes but without Hiyocchi along for the ride they had to pick Mio-less parts. My memory is really vague when it comes to the latter episodes of K-ON! and I don’t have them on hand to check – my descriptions are pretty vague, haha.

1.Azu-nyan trying to encourage the group to practice (and them feeding her cake in return), from ep 9.
2.When the group go to fix Yui’s guitar at the shop, from ep 11
3.The group walking in the snow (lol I cannot remember this in the anime at all)

It was a shame that most of the lines went to Yui and Azu-nyan, without Mio they couldn’t do too much involving Ritsu while Mugi-chan… didn’t say much (like in the anime). Also there was a part in Scene 3 that Aki-chan(?) inserted a line about ‘wanting to go to a warm country like Singapore!!!’ but fantastically it wasn’t subbed, leaving most of the crowd in the dark as to what they were saying. I kinda felt bad about it, since I was ha-ha-ha-ing by myself like a fool while nobody else laughed. Anyhow, I ended up watching the seiyuu more than the screen – the expressions Aki-chan made when saying her lines were pure comedy gold and way too good to miss.

Q&A
The Q&A section was pretty standard, boring stuff. I’m not sure I can remember all of it, there were some questions that were quite similar and the order is probably messed up, not sure which came first. Salient points anyway:

Do you think you’re anything like the characters you play?
Aki-chan (Yui): Her unfashionable bedroom clothes, her my-pace attitude…
Satomi (Ricchan): I was actually a pretty quiet person, but since I played Ritsu I’ve become a bright, energetic person!
Mina-chan (Mugi): Mugi likes bringing sweets for the rest of the K-ON! members, and I like to do the same.
Aya-nyan (Azu-nyan): I’m not as serious as Azu-nyan, but like her I’m really weak when faced with sweets – just give me one and I’ll be happy. And like Azu-nyan, I’ve grown to like taiyaki.

Please tell us your character’s favourite line.
Aki-chan: Untan! Untan! Untan! from (castanets moment, ep 1) —> see youtube, everyone rofl and cheered at this.
Satomi: That promise we made…. was it all a lie!? (‘Ano toki no yakusoku wa… uso datta no ka!?’ to Mio, ep 1)
Mina-chan: Cheaper!!! (‘Mou hitokoe’, when Mugi was bargaining for Yui’s guitar, ep 2)
Aya-nyan: N—nyan (when Ritsu made Azu-nyan say ‘Nyan’ with the cat ears, ep 9) <--- Ayana got Ritsu to say the preceding line.

Do you think the character you voice resembles yourself in your younger days in school?
Aki-chan: The parts where me and my classmates would sit around in the club room after lessons but just sit around and chat without actually doing any activities…
Satomi: Like Ritsu, there was a point in high-school when I started getting jealous after a friend started getting closer to somebody else…
Mina-chan: I’m still in high school…(note: I can’t remember the rest. Something about passion and Ritsu being sick.)
Aya-nyan: I didn’t participate in club activities and spent more time going to karaoke, shopping with friends etc – those normal daily activities that the girls in K-ON! did too.

If you weren’t a seiyuu what job would you like to have?
Note – they all said ‘it was my childhood dream to be a seiyuu’, or words to that effect before adding on to their answers.
Aki-chan: Something that is related to my voice?
Satomi: If not a seiyuu then… maybe a storyteller at a library…. but I like animals so maybe a pet shop owner, or perhaps a childminder etc etc. I think I would keep changing jobs…
Mina-chan: I would like to have a job that’s creative & related to the industry – maybe doing make-up or a stylist?
Aya-nyan: A detective!! I used to read Sherlock Holmes when I was young, and also because of this detective manga that’s been going on for 60+ volumes that I used to love (note: this was actually a reference to Detective Conan but it didn’t get translated).

One of the questions was Was it difficult to portray the characters with your voices? I must admit I wasn’t paying much attention to the answers, it’s the sort of thing that gets asked in every single friggin’ anime/seiyuu interview so I errrr…switched off and can’t recall what they said. Oops. Oh well, I’m sure someone out there has a better transcript of the session than I do anyway.

They gave away four pre-signed shikishi at the end of the event, before their final messages. Each of the girls called out a random seat number to determine the lucky winners – obviously I wasn’t one of them….

Oh, Satomi briefly mentioned the event in her blog today…. accompanied by a picture of the Merlion (or Maa! Lion as she called it rofl).

What can I say really? I went to AFA09 in hopes of seeing Aki and Mina (and maybe some cute girls etc) and got exactly what I wanted, so I was a happy seiyuu fan. Others were probably disappointed by the non-appearance of a certain Akiyama Mio seiyuu, I was totally OK with it. Hey, I may even come for next year’s AFA if they get some decent seiyuu in (or I’ll just save my money to go catch Sphere next year zomg Mina……..)