From Tokyo to TOA: Akiba*Doujin Documentary

Sook Chiung and I thought that while it was nice to have me live in the hall, why not have a real stroll down the streets and make a video? It would really spice up the presentation, we thought.

So I did. And what better place to show doujin culture than Akihabara itself! Enjoy!

Chibi Miku-san

It's hard enough to resist Miku's charm, but it triples when she's in chibi form! Nom nom nom

I have been following the web comics of doujin creator Minami for almost a year now. Got hooked to them coz Minami simply knows how to make 4-panel comics, and it all started with Hidamari Sketch and Lucky Star doujinshis. All it takes is a Wacom and a great sense of humour.

Minami's latest venture, Chibi Miku-san, has close to no dialogue at all! It has an all-star cast of Vocaloids, even the fan-made ones. Strange thing is that Chibi Miku and Miku herself are sisters. Hard to tell the difference sometimes!

Here are some of my favourites among the almost 300 that I've read so far:



Sankaku Complex just posted this earlier today: One hardcore fan decided to do an animation trailer of Chibi Miku-san. Here's the wonderful MAD:



Miku fans unite! Sign the Chibi Miku anime petition today! *signs*

Miku... in Shibuya?

Hearing Hatsune Miku's voice in the streets of Akihabara is normal. Waaaaaaayyy normal. But how about along the street of Center Gai in Shibuya, the home of the young and trendy?

My cousins and I were having dinner there, and I thought I heard something familiar. It was Miku's voice coming out from the speaker above, singing my fave Miku song "Melt" :3 Her voice resonated throughout the entire street!



To promote the latest album by the synthesizer-voiced wonder, advertisements were placed on the lamp-posts of this busy street. Supercell, a group of composer geniuses in NicoNicoDouga, remastered their Miku songs and came out with a major debut album.



Needless to say, it became a BIG hit. It became 2nd place in the ORICON album chart. It was sold out in Amazon and Sony Music Japan in an instant. Heck, even the TV commercial looks awesome. (Yes there's a TV commercial!)



Looks like it's Akiba time this week! ^_^ I'm just glad that Miku and Supercell are gaining the wider recognition they deserve.

MikuMikuDance, Free Software by a Fan for Fans

Have you ever wondered how can there be so many 3D miku videos on the Net? No? Then you're in the wrong blog.

Seriously folks, does every freaking Japanese know how to animate 3D models? Apparently not, until a kind guy came along. He programmed a 3D software that has Miku's model data by default, and even a fool (that's me) could make her dance.

It's called MikuMikuDance, or MMD for short. You can download the software here. It's truly amazing, so easy to manipulate the body (oh yeah), even the facial expression! To top it off, he has refused any sort of donation/payment. Not for the money, he says! Damn, where do these Japanese find the time to do such noble things?!

Thanks to him, many have created, to date, 3,118 niconico videos with the tag "mikumikudance". Ranging from just replicating the Virtual Instanity music video to creating original dances for songs like the one from Macross Frontier. The power of creativity are now in hands of the fans!

For that reason, there's a new event in NicoNico called the MikuMikuDance Cup. Participants would enter their videos of Miku using MMD into the contest. The 2nd MMD Cup is due this 30th, so you can expect a lot of crazy innovative videos.

I especially like this entry, pure biasness because it's my favourite song of Polysics.



Love it, so random and has a bunch of cool Japanese Internet Memes inside. I kinda know most of them, wonder if that's good or bad. Can you spot them? There's even the angry german kid in there! And watch out for Miku's hair of doom!

MMD, giving power to the fans.

Windows Live Messenger + Nico Nico Douga

Just read the great news from Danny Choo. Apparently Microsoft is going to release a version of Windows Live Messenger that connects directly to Nico Nico videos! Yay~ :)

It's the first time that a corporate company (apart from Crypton Future Media, duh) used Hatsune Miku in advertising. Microsoft picked out regular contributors of Nico Nico to create the online advert. Microsoft has announced that they'll release it on TV this month.

Here's the CM, showing Miku walking around in Microsoft's Akasaka office:



Look at all those MSN icons flying about! The title is "The Song of Nico Nico Messe", Messe being the abbreviation of Messenger. What better way to teach the software features than to have Miku singing it out. Glad to see a giant company recognize Miku's kyootness :3

Sing along everyone! Messe, messe, messe, messe...

Miku Vids

I truly believe that once some people are given the right tools, their potential will get unlocked and be freed onto the world.

Give one person a singing voice synthesizer software like Hatsune Miku, for example, s/he who otherwise can't even sing crap can create an original vocal track. Give another person Adobe After Effects and a 3D software, a whole new MTV can be made for it. Two people are just enough to create a few truly original artsy musical extravaganzas.

You know, like these.

Last Night, Good Night



Black Rock Shooter



And this just in this month in Nico Nico Douga: Yukkuri Shite Itte ne!!!



I strongly advise everyone to appreciate this doujin (amateur) culture. Bask in their greatness!!

Romance Drama becomes Big Hit in Japan!

When I was walking past the cinema today, I saw a lot (and i really mean a WHOLE LOT!) of people queuing up for tickets. Apparently it was for this new romance show. Saw the trailer once or twice on TV, but I'm not really into live-action drama so much.

Until curiosity got the better of me. So I did a little research.

It just so happens that it's now the hottest selling japanese romance movie of all time. It sold around 2 million tickets just last weekend alone! And this is only in Japan :O

Here's the summary I ripped off straight from IMDB:

"The story traces the lives of two childhood friends. One, a guy who has given up on love, and the other a cheerful foreign girl who has high hopes for her playboy boyfriend.

While visiting a bookstore which recently appeared in the nearby forest, he buys a manga (comic book in Japan). On the way home, he laments about his bad luck in love, comparing his life to manga male leads. Suddenly, a green-haired 2D girl pops up from the manga, and magically turns his life into that of a comic book.

A simple tale of appreciating life and basking in the love that's already around you."

Interesting right? Well did some image search and out comes the poster.



Yes, it's called Hazmer no Koimonogatari (love story). Go watch it while you can XD

This was one of the pictures for the third festival. Was editing the pictures when suddenly an idea struck me :P It's already late, so I thought I'd show you this first keke.

Know where this is? It's in school. A high school ^_^ Let's see whether you can guess what the third festival is. Look forward to the pics (a freaking 40 of them!).

Oh btw, the first picture is the queue for a newly opened McCafe, taken last year. Simply snatched from some news site :P