Life in the Eastern Fantastic Land

Singapore Toy, Game and Comic Convention 2011 and Natsu Matsuri

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 09:45:00 +0000

So quickly time flies and now it's already September.

Sometime this August, Singapore Toy, Game and Comic Convention (STGCC) put up an online notice saying that White Canvas was participating and that they were selling Touhou T-shirts, bags, tapestry, jigsaw puzzle and Comiket 80 items. In previous years, I mostly gave STGCC a miss due to the ticket cost and due to my utter lack of interest in most western comics. But because this year had White Canvas involved, I definitely had to go.

Myself and Friends in Front of White Canvas's Store in Akihabara, as seen in March 2011

White Canvas is one of the most well-known doujin-goods shops in Akihabara. They are well known for their extensive range of Touhou derivatives, which is better than Toranoana or Animate! I was also slightly interested in the appearance of Kishida Mel and Kipi, who are famous for illustration and cosplay respectively.

But I knew there were restrictions. Sure-as-hell WC couldn't sell their usual m-18 doujinshi or dakimakura or risk the bloody regime stepping down on them here in Singapore. They also surely wouldn't be able to sell Touhou Shinreibyou, which had just came out the previous weekend. Further, I also was put-off my the marketese emphasis on "Exclusives" So I had my reservations. But I decided to go anyway, since they said they had c80 items. No inventory of catalogue of items was offered, save for the following single image of a Remilia & Sakuya Tapestry, the HUGE Cirno plushie, and Cirno T-Shirt.

No, they did not sell Monster-Cirno at STGCC

Further, a relative of mine died on the Wednesday right before STGCC. The time I had previously set aside for me to work on my Tengu Geta [天狗下駄] vanished faster than I can say "ayayayaya". I was obligated to attend a wake and funeral on both Thursday and Friday. Anyway, this humble crow reporter was desperately looking for a pair of suitable shoes, given that the geta weren't going to be ready yet.

Fast forward to 20th August, the first day of STGCC, I went down to the venue at Suntec City Convention Center, excited at the news that a major doujin shop was coming to Singapore. Their presence here was, to me, a tiny hope that the repressive regime of this country would finally stop stiffling our artistic minds.

After reaching the place a little early, I collected my 2-day tickets which I had earlier bought online at $18. There was already a sizeable crowd by the time I entered the hall. I went straight to WC's booth and then had a fun time browsing their items. The variety did not disappoint at all. Most interstingly, they even had Sound Holic's PVD2. This was surprising, because I know these animated PV-DVDs are one of the first things to get sold out at Comiket and Reitaisai.

They had a very pretty Tenshi tapestry which both me and another anynymous fairy wanted to buy(I was there first). Personally I have no business displaying Tenshi's image in my home, but I was thinking that it would be good for Ren AKA Sy to get it, given he's a big Tenshi fan. Eventually, after some desperate messages over Facebook, I managed to contact him but he didn't want to buy it unless he was able to visually confirm it's worthiness it first. So the anonymous fairy got the Tenshi Tapestry.

Afterwards, I hung out a bit at the WC booth. I found out that the STGCC staff were actually the ones who approached WC's boss, Suzuki-san. As far as I can tell, this is the first time that items in Singapore were sold by a specialised doujinshi shop. At rates much closer to market price than a certain magical anime merchandise store too, if I may add. The one who invited them was Melvin from STGCC, a different Melvin from Melvin H., in our group. It also seems to me that the marketese on the official STGCC website and Facebook pages was written by this group of over-enthusiastic STGCC staff(I am guessing they didn't know how inappropriate loose use of language such as "exclusive" and other half-truths can piss off hardcore otaku).

Anyway, after I realised that Suzuki-san was not the one who initiated the marketese, I resolved to try to make things more palatable. Their pricing for regular items like Tapestries, Jigsaw puzzles, and T-shirts was pretty cheap, actually below market prices. For example, after coming back to the booth after lunch and a spot of walkabout shopping, I bought their Sakuya-Remilia Tapestry at $50 SGD, where the usual market price would be about 5000-8000 yen for a tapestry of that size. Perhaps they were doing a little bit of clearing of items. Their range of T-shirts was actually pretty poor compared to what they had on their website and when I visited their flagship store in March 2010. I only liked a few of them, and although they were selling at $20 dollars, I wasn't motivated enough to buy.

However, prices on C80 items and some official goods(ZUN's CDs, original games, Bunkachou Spinoffs, Tasofro Spinoffs) were pretty steep. I get the feeling that their pricing strategy was roughly like this:

(Price in JPY including tax/100)*2=Singapore dollar price.

Even when I bugged the STGCC staff about this rather steep pricing, all they would say is that they needed to add in the shipping costs(a true statement, but doesn't totally justify the increase since they bulk-shipped). After much deliberation and browsing, I decided to support the muscicians by buying Unlucky Morpheus's HEAVY METAL BE-BOP album as well as Team Shanghai Alice's Magical Astronomy CD. Oddly, though, even though I have some of the so-called official CDs, I've never bought any of them just by themselves. Those I have came with something(e.g. Bohemian Archive Book). Interestingly, they had all the windows games up to Seireisen, including spinoffs, and all the ZUN albums up till Michi no Hana, Michi no Tabi. The Tasofro games sold out by the second day.

I ended up buying 3 items in total, which is pretty humble and frugal by my standards:

Tapestry:$50, Unlucky Morpheus CD: $25, Magical Astronomy CD $15

Some time later(or was it earlier?), I met with Phoenix who was to handle the maintainance of 2 wigs. We discussed my plans for the makeup for the second day.(Memory is foggy, the exact order of events can't be remembered)

At about noon, I met with Schkyder, Dom and Melvin. Me, Schkyder and Dom met up with Jun Himemiya and we went over to the restaurant where Tim works(Just Acia) at Marina Square for lunch. After lunch we went over to Liang Seng sports shop because Jun wanted to look at some sparring equipment. The shop's staff stared at us pretty bad because Jun wanted to test out their

Shortly afterwards, while still in Marina Square, I ran into the perfect pair of red shoes for a non-geta version of my Aya. With that in the bag, I was able to cosplay for on the second day(my geta had become irreparably damaged after SOY'C)..... It was extremely hard to find neutral red shoes of the right size, I had been searching around for the past few weeks and then I finally found it. Most of those I found earlier were meant for ladies and did not have sizes above 41.

Shoes in the bag, we headed back to Suntec City, where we rendezvoused with roze, e2, and kuuki. Later, I went off alone and met up with Ren and kuma, and we played a spot of Hisoutensoku on a laptop near the crowd. At about 4.00 or so, went back to kuuki's group. We mostly waited outside the hall till Myon came, and later Tim. After we toured around I a bit, I went back to WC's booth, saw the Remi-Saku tapestry on display, and impulsively bought it.

Anyway, at about 6.00pm or so, we bid farewell to Schkyder and friends, and moved over to the Japanese Primary School in Changi for Natsumatsuri.The travel from Suntec to the Japanese Primary School took about 40 minutes of train ride to Bedok MRT followed by a 15 minute bus ride. At about 7.00pm we reached just as the sun was about to set.

Ouside, we paid $2 each for an entry pass. For the uninitiated, natsumatsuri [夏祭り] is the annual Japanese festival organised by the Japan Cultural Society and the Japanese Primary School at Changi. The event is held on a weekend from afternoon to evenimg, on the School's premises. It's attendees are mostly Japanophiles and Japanese expatriates, and it contains the typical elements of Japanese festival celebration.

It was getting dark just as we got in. The timing was right on cue for the Muslims in our group to break fast so we ordered from the many vendors in the area. I ordered some salmon bowl and katsudon, which each costed $5. The bowl was small enough that I needed 2 bowls(big eater). There were many stores in the area, selling various things including food, drink, merchandise, toys(including nendoroids), and, get this-broadband subscriptions.

The food and drinks being sold were pretty much common carnival/festival things, like rice bowls topped with ingredients(donboori), ramen, Korean Bulgolgi, sausages, sushi, ice cream, colourful sweet drinks, and, somewhat uniquely, Asahi Beer. Also on sale were colourful water balloons tied with rubber bands. Great fun when used as a mace.

After we bought our grub in containers, we walked around in the field till until we found the spot in the school's field where Knife and some others had set up. The main stage was located in the center of the school field and was open for viewing from all directions.

By the time we got there, it was pretty late, nearly sundown.

Thanks to Knife and friends(Melvin?) for letting us join in their picnic mats on the spot. Once we settled down, we ate our grub and chilled out. There were various groups performing on the stage, including a taiko performance.

The atmosphere was positively euphoric, with children running about in Yukata blowing bubbles and launching illuminated spinners into the air. Sometime later, the performance then moved on to the final segment, the bon odoori [盆踊り]. A large crowd gathered around the stage to dance various folk dances. These folk dances mimicked the motions of the agricultural and fishing livestyles that the Japanese ancestors presumably led. For reasons I cannot fanthom, one of the songs they danced to was Rasa Sayang.

Tim, looking very Japanese in a Tengu shirt, Kitsune Omen, and with a water balloon.

In our group e2, haruto, kuuki and went forward to dance. The rest of us hang back and just quietly observed or did our own things. Melvin, Masaki Ryodo and some of their friends were filming a little sketch live, with some featured discussion on "fireworks"... Eventually, at about ten or so, the festivities wound down and the last dance was danced.

After that last dance, Tim and I ran around the entire school looking for the $2 dollar ice cream. Originally at $4, they slashed the price to $2. The Matcha cup ice cream and chocolate stick ice cream which was passable, though not exactly Haagen Daz. After that, we wrapped up and crammed out of the school. On the way out, we spotted a cosplayer dressed as Gintoki from Gintama. How fitting for the occasion.

By now it was nearing 11pm. Hopping onto a bus, the majority of the Touhou group(Shiosaki Haruto, e2, Kuuki, Melvin, Tim, Myon, Roze and friend, and myself) headed to a Hong Kong cafe for some supper. As I was stuffed with icecream and the prices for drinks were overpriced, I refrained from buying anything. There were a whole bunch of bikers(10+) loudly revving their engines, which made me curse. The mood was also dampened by a whole bunch of smoking dudes next to us.

Anyway, after lots of conversation about Touhou, local politics, and food, with me FAILING at shotgunning in Shinreibyou Stage 1, we took the bus back to Tanah Merah Station. Hearing that the last train was about to leave we sprinted and got on despite a toilet break...

Next Up: STGCC Day 2 with exalt and friends cosplaying

Significance of Birthdays, Anniversaries

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 15:44:00 +0000

I suddenly remembered a very important reason to continue blogging. It seems that in the pursuit of a higher journalistic ideal I have forgotten the most important reason of this blog: to log my own memories. I became obssessed with newsworthiness and failed to realise that significant things are never spontaneously made, they are the sum of many small but beautiful things. Just like Touhou.

Today is TAM's Birthday. Happy Birthdat TAM!.

Just like TAM's birthday video, which tracks his year-on-year achievements, this blog serves a similar purpose, to record my own victories and trials. Of course, defeats will also be logged. It just so happens that today is also an important anniversary.

This time last year, I was in Singapore recovering from the breathtaking Reitaisai 7 trip. School started in late April and by July my foundation programme was complete. In August I became a student on the University of Newcastle Australia, reading Communications.

As time went on I became really involved in school. I still found time to continue being a Touhou fan. I attended various local events, including A.C.M.E, AFAX, Comifest, SOY'C, and most recently, Cosfest X.1.

I've become increasingly engaged on Facebook. You can find my profile here. I've actually taken a lot of photos of recent events, including the 5 events I mentioned earlier, and put them onto my facebook. If not for webs' clunky upload system, I wouldn't mind putting them up here too. It's too bad they make me upload one file at a time... For the half-a-soul out there who isn't sick of seeing cosplay photos, you can find them photos on Facebook.

Just a random crow that happened to be passing by.
Nothing significant about him.

On the academic and journalistic side of my life, I wrote several papers and articles, and made several websites. I am still quite a noob at web programming but this module has me learning flash, which is pretty interesting. I also had the chance to interview face-to-face two Signaporean political bloggers, whose writing is several hundred times more intelligent than mine. These are Gilbert Koh, the man behind Mr Wang Says So and Alex Au, of Yawning Bread. It turned out that my fears meeting these influential online personalities were unfounded.

I also learnt a couple of tricks with video production and editing, both in school and in my own time, and made a little video with some friends in the local scene dancing to Cirno's Perfect Maths Class.

I've also learnt some things about Photoshop, though I am still pretty new to it(that's how I got that first frame with the Cirno Cosplayer and the illustration together). I also made some attempt to learn the piano but have largely realised that it's not something easy.

Those 3 subscribers who actually are real people who follow my Youtube account would also know I've been spending a lot of time playing Hisoutensoku(Touhou 12.3), largely due to the influence of a certain Gravity-free person. On the Danmaku front, I've been playing a lot of the games' normal modes. I've managed to clear some of them with 1cc, but have been very much stumped by Yukari in PCB Phantasm stage.

I had initially made near-confirmed plans to head over to Tokyo in March for Reitaisai 8. Thankfully my friends couldn't make it at the last minute, because the even was eventually postponed to May because of the earthquake and tsunami. The May 8th event was wedged right into my current school semester and thus I gave it a miss. Nonetheless I kept abreast with the releases online(apologies to the doujin circles who I blatantly pirated) and through deputy services(photos included).

P.S. The trail version of shinreibyou was so easy I managed to 1cc it with Reimu on normal on the first time I started the game.

I guess that's about it for the significant events up to now, and now a little about the plans in the future.

For now, I have been considering whether to attend Summer Comiket and Winter Comiket. I feel that it will likely be a very interesting experience. I've been talking with a more experienced person who has advised that Natsukomi is extremely demanding and Fuyukomi is more relaxing. This, combined with my limited budget, and the fact that Fuyukomi is likely to take place during my term break, means that I am probably going for only the Winter rendition.

Nonetheless, I expect it to be a challenging experience, considering what one guy went through. Nothing more stimulating than a mad rush for limited-edition doujinshi/goods in the morning after a frozen night in the rain, eh?

Also, I will probably be making my way down for AFA, EOY, ACME 3, and any other cosplay events this year..

One very important thing, which I keep forgetting, is to get some kind of name card/business card or cos-card to give to friends and circles I meet. I think it's pretty important, at least if you want them to remember you. I was thinking of some kind of spellcard-like design, but its hard to convery an image of moving or dynamic danmaku with a static picture.... Something to ponder about for the moment, I guess...

Dissecting the Images of TH13

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:30:00 +0000

On top my recent post translating the text of th13's announcement, due to the juicy details offered within, I have decided to spend some time analysing the tantalising images that ZUN has offered us in his blog post.

Note. though, that ZUN offered a disclaimer at the end of his post to discourage unrealistic expectations.

＊ゲーム画面は開発中の為、確実に変わります。ほら変わった
あ、書き忘れた。例大祭で配布するのは体験版ですよ？

The game's interface screen is under development, and thus it will definitely change. Look, it just changed. Also, I forgot to say but the Reitaisai release will be a trial version..

The first thing that most people would notice is that, on top of the Game Start, Extra Start, and Practice Start, there is also a "Spell Practice". However, the latter 3 are greyed out. While Extra and Practice modes are a given, "Spell Practice" may indicate the return of 東方永夜抄　～ Imperishable Night’s Spell Practice mode. Again, bear in mind ZUN's disclaimer. If so, then it is likely that the six-stage structure from before will stay, although the existence of Spell Practice mode does seem to contradict ZUN's reference to keeping the complexity of the game moderated.

Also of some noteworthiness is the fact that the Manual is a permanant feature on the menu. This seems to suggest that either

the game features some complex mechanism like Double Spoiler's Shooting, or Great Fairy War's bullet freezing,
the Manual is going to be a permanent feature on the main menu,
or, that this main screen is just a draft and the trial or final versions may see such unecessary bits taken away.

I am personally leaning towards the last option. Looking at how late this announcement was made(less than 2 weeks to Reitaisai) I get the feeling that this is just a temporary appearance.

Lastly, the three red, blue and green blobs floating behind Reimu suggest that those are our "divine spirits", or at least a fundamental part of the storyline.

A Marisa shot. The lasers seem spread, with unfocussed mode. I noticed that lives are now represented with hearts, and bombs with green stars. Both of them seem to have some kind of counter underneath them. It's quite asumable that when you collect ten of either you get a full life/bomb. Points and power systems seem to be unchanged from UFO, with the point item value again being a variable for scoring purposes. Although the below shot of Sane having 3.07 power does raise some questions as to the power value of each power item, I think it's a minor issue for now.

On field, there seems to be a lot going on. Most visible is the skull emblem and some item near the bottom. This is likely to be some kind of PCB-esque Shinra-kekkai/Supernatural Border. This is somewhat supported by the image below of Marisa with the timer flashing. The fact that the symbol looks very item-ish suggests it can be activated or auto-activated. Just speculating here. Further, there are grey-ed out blue star items near the middle. These could have somehting to do with the main mechanism of the game.

The most visible feature in here is Marisa turning Super-Saiyan, with a counter visible in the middle. Notice how there is a flood of winged items on the screen. This could be the same blue items as seen in the second picture. I deduce and theorise that these must be grabbed for great justice. The lack of bullets on screen is also somewhat suspicious. Could the winged items actually be bullets transformed?

Also, Marisa's christmas tree missles are back as options, or that the shot during this special -mode allows some kind of shot modification. It's unclear whether there's any gameplay effect from the different-coloured shot though. The fact that she has both these missles and the lasers from above suggests that each character will have 2 shots, 1 bomb, which is further confirmed with the below image of Youmu.

Notice how the point item value here is relative high, -despite Sanae's low graze score? This is strong evidence to suggest that the new mechanism may eschew grazing as a form of scoring, which would be in line with ZUN's suggestion that complexity will be moderated. After seeing Subterranean Animism and UFO's best high score runs morph into grazing orgies, I would say this is a welcome change(perhaps MoF-style?).

Also note the green items on screen. I suspect these are the green equivalent of the blue star, and might change into special items during the "super-saiyan" mode. I could be wrong. The weirdest bit is Sanae's power of 3.07, which really isn't a variable of anything. Perhaps the game starts at one power and each item is worth 0.03 points?

I notice the Double Spoiler/Great Fairy Wars body-portrait conversation style with speech bubbles is back. Also note that despite Reimu's graze score, the point item value is low. Further proof that graze will not be a major scoring mechanism?

Incdentally, the text to translates something like(can't see the goddamn second line well enough) "Were Divine Spirits such bustlingly appearing numerous spirits?".

Finally, the most exciting image, according to Kuuki... Some say the new Youmu looks nice, I say it's a good ZUN drawing but she looks too happy. All of the other ZUN ilustrations of her are angsty. I like angsty. Unless it's battoujutsu-trigger-happy Youmu, she shouldn't be grinning too happy. Jokes aside, notice, as mentioned earlier, there are two different shots and one bomb. It's not clear whether the "super saiyan" mode will only emphasise one shot, with both shots being otherwise present, or that there will be a choice of shots(unlikely, since there are already 4 characters. Compare EoSD-PCB-IN with MoF-UFO-TD).

That's it for now, just waiting for the release on the interwebs, since I am too stuck in school work to go to RTS8. :(

TH13 Trial Version at Reitaisai8

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 11:28:00 +0000

As I rightly predicted in my previous post, ZUN has announced the Reitaisai8 release of 東方神霊廟(Touhou Shinreibyou)　～ Ten Desires, trial version, on his blog. This trial version is most probably a lead-up to a full-release at this year's summer comiket, with it likely to be limited to the first 3 stages(judging from previous trials). Full(attempted) translation of the blog post after the jump.

　二月なんて無かった。
　さて、今年も急に雪が降ったり冷え込んだりしましたが、ようやく春の兆しが感じられるようになってきました。
　で、今年も博麗神社例大祭に参加します。
　今年の作品は
「東方Project第13弾　東方神霊廟（とうほうしんれいびょう）　～ Ten Desires.」（体験版）

です。

I had no February.

So this year too had sudden snowfall causing a chill, but it looks like the first signs of spring have started to appear.

And, I am participating in this year's Reitaisai.

This year's release is:

touhou project 13th part Touhou Shinreibyou~Ten Desires(Trial version)

　東方も第13弾まで来てしまいました（実際は13作どころの騒ぎではないのですが）。一年に１作品でも結構経っていることを考えると、もう遊んでいる層も入れ替わっている事でしょう。
　というわけで今回は難易度抑えめに、システムも程々の複雑さにしました。

　ストーリーはざっくり言う
「何か雑多な霊がワラワと湧いたと思ったら、それは何と神霊と呼ばれる物だった。これは放っておけな彼女は調査に出た」みたいな感じです。ストーリーなんてあってないようなもの。

Touhou has arrived at it's 13th part(Although the commotion(about touhou) exceeds just 13 works). Given that "one work per year" has already lapsed(note: th12 was released in September 2009), you'd probably want to be playing on new turfs.

Further, to control the difficulty this time, the system's complexity has been moderated.

The story roughly:

"It was thought there there was a surge of various spirits bustling about, but these were actually "divine spirits". She couldn't ignore this and went and and investigated", sort of story. It seems as if there actually isn't any story.

　主人公は霊夢と魔理沙のいつもの二人と、神霊を有効利用しようとする早苗、管理外の神霊を処分しようとする妖夢の４人です。
　難易度は低くても、敵を倒しているだけで気持ちよくなるあの感じ、を目指して現在開発中です。
　進化した「いつも通り」に刮目せよ！

The main characters are the usual Reimu and Marisa, with Sanae trying effectively use the divine spirits and Youmu trying to dispose of the spirits, a total of 4 people.

Right now the development plan is one where the difficulty may be low but satisfaction is had from defeating enemies.

Pay close attention to this newly evolved "usual style".

That's it for now, I have to rush school assignments. Was more than a little disappointed at the lack of Sakuya. I mean, she got second at recent huge-scale popularity post so it's more than enough fanservice to bring her back. I can only pray she will appear in the full version.

P.S. forgive any translation mistakes, was a rushed job.

Blog's First Aniversary

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 15:19:00 +0000

Without much fanfare or celebration, this blog's first aniversary came to pass yesterday. I realised I don't blog enough to make this site popular, but there's hardly any motivation to blog about minor entertainment news, even if it is touhou related. OTZ

Just a quick update then, the schoolwork is once again killing me. Most recently got the Panasonic LX5, my first camera. All the photos in this article were taken using it.

I got An2a's Petite Fatal 5 and the accompanying calender on my desk now. Excellent artwork, she's my personal favourite touhou illustrator. Also still using a Shigunyan+Pink+Milk Bar Calender from last year that lasts til this March.

The left side of my table is dominated by Sanae Shimapan >_<"

Also received both sets of the Touhou Nendoroido Petite, and I've actually got 2 spare sets of set two(Marisa, Patch, Alice), and will be selling them as soon as I find a buyer, price is SGD$55.

Buy 3 copies - one for use, one for display, and one for preservation

Other recent or not-so-recent arrivals included the Griffon Enterprises Yuyuko(Imperisahble Night ver.) and 1/7 Remilia(Spear the Gungnir)..

Also got a Kotobukiya PVC 1/8 Yukari from Amiami, and it came with a free Jigsaw puzzle of the source illustration of the figure.

Pretty small for 500 pieces, making it quite a hard puzzle.

Ques-Q Sanae. Shimapan :O

Also got a whole bunch of doujinshi, most of which were released at C79. Ryo Ueda's Touhou Art Collection 2 was reviewed by icie from pireze here, it's a fantastic quality artbook for its price so do check the review out.

When you don't even have time to open some doujinshi..:(

Was strongly considering going for Reitaisai 8, but unfortunately all my peers were either busy or didn't want to go, so I didn't have much motivation to travel alone. Don't think I'll be going.

School-wise, this semester promises to bog me down with numerous assignments too. I IRL failz.

Hot News: ZUN to Participate in Reitaisai 8, May Make New Game

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 13:37:00 +0000

Less than an hour ago, ZUN announced over his twitter account that he would be participating in this year's Reitaisai8, the yearly largest touhou-only convention. Following the initial tweet that has already been retweeted close to seventy times, he released another tweet announcing the booth number and his lack of acquaintance with his booth partner.

This is the initial message:
例大祭受かってました！申し込んでないけどね。何か出すけどね

I was approved(to participate) for Reitaisai. Even though I didn't apply. Should I make something

The second tweet is as follows:

ちなみに「あ-01ab」です。隣は社務所用スペースさんでした。聞いた事のないサークルさんですが当日はよろしくお願いします

Incidentally it's あ-01ab(the booth no.). It's next to a booth meant for the Shrine personel. I am not familiar with the circle but all the best for the event day.

Shrine personnel refers the Hakurei Jinja(Shrine) who work to organise the Reitaisai event.

I am greatly looking forward to whatever ZUN will be doing, be it a new novel, Music CD, or, dare I say, Touhou 13?

御柱の墓場~Grave of the Shadow

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 17:08:00 +0000

Just a little something I made since I had some free time and was feeling restless. Copyright Demetori 2007, all rights reserved. HD Goodness galore.

Credits after the jump.

Copypasta from description: Music arrangement by Demetori(Il Mondo dove e finito il Tempo is Italian for The World where Time has Ended). Illustrations by NEKO WORKs(sayori), Studio s.d.t.(Tatsuya Yuki), and Luna Phase(結城えいし、ゆえ;). All character designs and compositions owned by ZUN@Team Shanghai Alice

Yay for 1080p- HD production.

In other news, schools started again. It looks to be more engaging than ever, which equates exciting for me, although things like blogging time tend to end up sacrificed for this school work.

It's the holidays... and stock taking

Sun, 12 Dec 2010 17:14:00 +0000

Well, finally the school term has ended and we are moving on to the festive season. Being in a tertiary institute which uses trimesters instead of semesters really makes one busy. But that aside, we have much celebrating to do for this festive season. Here's a stock take of the Books/CDs/figurines that I have received by yet to unbox or photograph.

CD: (mostly c78 stuff)

Format is [circle], [album name], [shop price], [link]

Crow's Claw, Over the Rainbow, 1300, (http://paeg0013.crowsclaw.info/)

TAMUSIC, CROW WING, 1300, (http://tamusic.jp/TAM3-0065/)

M2indManufactory, OUT OF COURT, 700, (http://www.m2ind.com/products/MMPD0011.html)

IRON ATTACK!,BESTCOLLECTIONS, http://www.toranoana.jp/mailorder/article/04/0010/21/95/040010219503.html

Silver Forest, 月光乱舞(Gekkou Ranbu), 1400, (http://www.silver--forest.com/yuri.htm)

TatshMusicCircle, FAR EAST OF EAST III, 1575, (http://tmccd.web.fc2.com/)

Xi-on, 東方志奏 6th Spell -Undesigned Emotion-(Touhou Shisou),1300, (http://xion.art-studio.cc/product.htm)

C.H.S., Honey I Scream!, 1300, (http://www.c-h-s.net/honey_i_scream/)

And a whole bunch of CDs from Sonic Hybrid Orchestra.

Figurines :

Touhou Project Yukari Yakumo Figure[Kotobukiya]

Touhou Project 1/8 Ghost of Paradise Yuyuko Saigyouji - Imperishible Night Clear Ver. Complete Figure[Griffon Enterprises]

Nendoroid Black Rock Shooter[Good Smile Company]

Black Rock Shooter Animation Version Complete Figure [Good Smile Company]

Touhou Project Reiuji Utsuho (Pre-painted), [Gathering, E2046]

Hatsune Miku VN02 mix [Max Factory]

Doujinshi :

東方幻想画報特別編新幻想紀行 http://www.toranoana.jp/mailorder/article/04/0010/22/42/040010224261.html 2100

Eastern Garden 02 http://www.toranoana.jp/mailorder/article/04/0010/22/93/040010229327.html 1260

Carefree Scribble 葬 Vol.5 http://www.toranoana.jp/mailorder/article/04/0010/20/72/040010207211.html 735

End of Dream III http://www.toranoana.jp/mailorder/article/04/0010/21/57/040010215703.html 525

Starship Voyager http://www.toranoana.jp/mailorder/article/04/0010/21/71/040010217165.html 630

TOHO Kemono MiMi Illust Collections http://www.toranoana.jp/mailorder/article/04/0010/22/07/040010220735.html 315

Show Time! http://www.toranoana.jp/mailorder/article/04/0010/22/19/040010221907.html 441

東方夢桜 TOHO BOSS MEDLEY BOOK 02 http://www.toranoana.jp/mailorder/article/04/0010/22/43/040010224361.html 630

東方華花宴 http://www.toranoana.jp/mailorder/article/04/0010/21/81/040010218121.html 441

Natural Colors3 http://www.toranoana.jp/mailorder/article/04/0010/23/05/040010230552.html 650

Hoping to review and document most of these soon! With this added free time during the holidays I should be able to churn out one blog post per week at least..

The road behind is far, the road ahead is....

Sat, 20 Nov 2010 17:03:00 +0000

It's been about 2 years since It happened. While I don't remember the exact date in which It happened, I roughly recall that It happened sometime before the release of TH12 and TH12.3, yet that sometime is also unknown. Somewhere in between being awed by Anipix's PV Kaze of COOL&CREATE'S The Fastest Highest Shutter Girl(最速最高シャターガール ) and a friend sending me a bunch of game files, with the wise words "try them"... It happened. To paraphase an overly kitsch line from The Matrix Reloaded: What happened happened and could not have happened any other way.

The funny thing is, for something which is so much of my life now, I can't really remember how I started. It was a mixture coming across a COOL&CREATE batch torrent, getting interesting in nico nico douga, seeing lots of interesting things on various blogs talking about this phenomenon. At the same time I was fairly interested in nico nico douga's Utattemita singers like gazelle, nayuta, usa and choucho.

The same people ahead of their time like Vocahou and some other people ahead of the trend made me realise the link between memes like Kumikyoku Nico Nico Douga and Touhou Koumakyou~ The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil(The English subtitle still sounds somewhat strange to me). It's funny how the Internet connects one thing like wanting to download lossless music on LONE leads to finding out information about Utattemita artistes and that linking to Nanairo no Nico Nico Douga which in turn had arrangements of themes from the games.

It was in one such interconnected environment where, in a short span of about a year, I learnt and experienced so much on Nico, Pixiv, the various blogs and even Youtube. It was then that I started to pick up Touhou Project. Of course, there was also the all-encompassing Touhou Wiki.

The reflectiveness of retrospect makes me wonder what would have happened if on that fateful day I had decided not to take those files from that friend. I probably would have discovered Touhou one way or another. But the start of the love affair was a gradual thing, neither decisive nor radical.

It happened remarkably slowly, with infrequent listening to Silver Forest arrangements on Nico Nnico Douga, searching for downloads on Vocahou, taking stabs at EoSD and Touhou Hisouten~ Scarlet Weather Rhapsody. These slowly added up to no-continue-clears of the games and my first Touhou CD purchase. This gradually build-up was crystalised when I attended Reitaisai 7.

Throughout the way, I became a figurine, fine art, and CD collector. All these would surely have not happened if I didn't discover Touhou. I would elaborate more on my purchases, but each of these topics deserves their own series of posts to explain and list their merits.

Who knows what the future holds for this one fan? Only the community knows. I expect great things.

Yes, I'm not dead

Sun, 17 Oct 2010 15:35:00 +0000

I come to you, at a time when no posts have been made for the better part of a quarter of the year. What have I been doing, you ask. Well, mostly university work although that's not a good excuse not to update your blog. I have some videos, of course. Been through quite a bit in last few months. More after the jump!

Touhou is greater part of my life now more than ever. I just hope this passion doesn't fade out like some of my older interests. Thankfully the derivatives meet many of my demands!

In the lull, I have cleared many scenes from double spoiler, unlocked extra stage, unlocked and cleared spoiler, and made a video of the safespot/safezone exploit in scene 12-5 with Hatate.

Also had some time to clear many Shoot the Bullet scenes, although now I am deadlocked for many of the scenes :(. Luckily this one only took me a couple of hundred of tries.

I hope to be able to churn out more updates on Figurines soon. Many nifty figurines arrived quite recently, including a 1/8 PVC Sanae Kotiya by QuesQ and a 1/7 Remilia Scarlet by Griffon Enterprises. Also got some non-touhou figurines like the Black Rock Shooter Nendoroid. All can be bought through our comrades!

For now, gotta get some sleep, university life is busy!