Hokosha Tengoku returning to Akihabara

Akihabara as seen in 2007, image from Wikipedia

It has been announced that the weekly-designated pedestrian zone will return to Akihabara in mid-July this year; a little more than 2 years after a notorious mass murder caused it to cease existing.


Image from zone otaku

The mass murder, often known as Akihabara massacre, occured on 8th June 2008. 7 were killed and 10 more were wounded in this incident, causing a wide shock to the whole nation itself as well as the international community.

The attack occurred on a Sunday, when the main road Chūō-dōri was open for pedestrians only. The perpetrator took this oppurtunity to carry out his attack by ramping a rented truck into the crowd before he got out of the truck and stabbed the victims with his knife. Because of the way the attack was carried out, the pedestrian zone was removed from Akihabara from then onwards.

The designated pedestrian zones are known as Hokosha Tengoku (歩行者天国, literally "pedestrians' heaven"). On designated days major roads of some places are closed to cars, so pedestrians are allowed to walk on them freely. Akihabara's Chūō-dōri road was one of them, and apparently the days of it with Hokosha Tengoku could be quite lively, with street performers and cosplayers populating the area.

I remember that I was in Akihabara on the day just before the attack happened. When I was in Yokohama on the next day and saw the breaking news I was frankly little shocked (especially when one has just been there not very long ago and everything seem normal back then). My father back home saw the news too and phoned me, my motehr, and my sister in Japan to make sure we were all well. One can imagine how it was quite a shock globally.


From a trip post of mine posted some time ago

Hearing about the return of Hokosha Tengoku reminds me of seeing an itachari from my trip to Tokyo last year. There was a small ema (絵馬, wooden plaque) below the seat of it wishing for the return of the pedestrian zone to Akihabara. Quite a small yet a touching moment when I saw it (in my humble opinion). Well, at least that person's wish has come true here finally.

No exact dates are confirmed for the return of the pedestrian zone, but hopefully this will be a return of the good (?) old days of Akihabara. I heard the place has been on a decline for in the reecnt years, with shops closing down here and there as well as prices going up. I will be going to Tokyo again some time next month, but I won't be able to witness the Hokosha Tengoku myself. Nevertheless I do hope to see this place to be livlier than I hear here and there.

Source from ANN
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New Taiko no Tatsujin DS game x Hatsune Miku

The well-known taiko drum rhythm game series by Namco is coming up with a 3rd installment for the NDS handheld, known as Taiko no Tatsujin DS: Dororon! Yokai Daikessen!! (鼓の達人ＤＳ ドロロン！ヨーカイ大決戦！！). And yep, as the blog title suggests, Hatsune Miku of Crypton's Vocaloid 2 voice synthesiser program is making a cameo appearance as well.


Taiko no Tatsujin is pretty simple: music notes come in red or blue across the screen from right to left, and you just have to hit the corresponding note at correct timing. Genres of songs vary from J-pop, anime songs, classics, to nusery rhymes, as well as songs originated from Namco.


Let's cut it to the chase - Hatsune Miku is making a cameo appearance in this game for the first time.





The song "MELT" (メルト) by ryo will be included as a playable song in the game. Here you can see Miku dancing along with other Vocaloid characters cheering at the corners on the 4th image (this happens when you are doing well in the song).

Here's MELT as seen played on PSP rhythm game Project DIVA:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk8qIHNrR_g


Another thing to make cameo appearance will be some kind of collaboration between band YMCK and Okashi Deka お菓子刑事 (translated as Sweet/Candy Detective), which is a manga series published on monthly manga magazine CoroCoro Comic.

Apparently this will be the song in the game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8BZchSPRNQ


THE IDOLM@STER will also make cameo appearance in the game. A song called "relations" will be playable in the game.


For them this is not their first time already as they have appeared in a lot of the previous games too with their own songs. This is not too surprising to know given that THE IDOLM@STER is also made by Namco.

Here's relations sung by various characters:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebkg0GzPj2E





The game will also include some sort of story mode with some elements of RPG in it. The main character Wada Don has to fight various kinds of ghosts in Japan. And judging from the screenshots it's got some kind of random encounter there too ^^;



A pair of styluses shaped as bachi (taiko drum sticks) will be bundled with the game. The initial batch will have them in bling bling gold colour in limited number.


To be released on 1st July 2010, official retail price 5040 Yen (tax inclusive).


I have several Taiko no Tatsujin games for my PS2 console along with 2 taiko controllers, and my sister has tried the 2nd instalment for the NDS before. It is genearlly a very casual and family-oriented game to play, suited for a variety of players from beginner to the hardcore rhythm gurus. The cute character designs are also greatly favoured by children and girls (my sister included). Didn't expect to see Hatsune Miku making a cameo appearance here, but I am not complaining at all. My sister may very well give this game a try too! ^^


Official site:
http://taiko.namco-ch.net/taiko-nds-yokai/

Wikipedia link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiko_no_Tatsujin_DS:_Dororon!_Yokai_Daikessen!!

Images from Dengeki Online
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IDOLM@STER Ita-plane spotted

Not as shocking as the Ita-carrier from last post, but still more military hardware are falling to the itasha treatment recently as shown in the recent Shizuoka Hobby Show 2010. This time it's various US military aircrafts from Hasegawa clad with character decals from THE IDOLM@STER.




First victim: 1/48 scale A-10 Thunderbolt II with decals of Otonashi Kotori (音無小鳥). To be released in June 2010, retail price 5460 Yen.




Second victim: 1/48 scale F/A-18F Super Hornet with decals of Akizuki Ritsuko (秋月律子). To be released in May (this month), retail price 7140 Yen


Third victim (one image only): 1/48 scale F-117A Nighthawk with decals of Hagiwara Yukiho (萩原雪歩). To be released in July, retail price 5460 Yen.


According to GA Graphic, this is going to be the second set of IDOLM@STER ita-fighter models. This means a similar set was released before and they prove to be popular (or else why would Hasegawa make more of them?).

After looking at the pictures, I'd say that I would prefer the first set over this second set - at least the general colours look more appealing to me (execpt for that shocking pink F-22A Raptor which almost gave me a heart attack), and even though I am not into ita-planes, I prefer the decals on the first set over the newer ones in terms of placements and matching to the colours. The green colours of the A-10 and Super Hornet there really does not work well for me. Well, personal preferences really.

If you do want to have a look at them on online shops, you can search for them on Hobby Search, Hobby Link Japan, and AmiAmi.


All images are from GA Graphic
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K-On! Ita-carrier revealed...

Continued from a post earlier this month, a finished model of K-On! anime decal-clad aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk by FUJIMI is finally revealed in Shizuoka Hobby Show 2010.










Decal sheet.


Model is 1/700 scale. To be released in May (this month) for official retail price of 7800 Yen.

For those who are interested, it is available on Hobby Search, Hobby Link Japan, and AmiAmi for pre-order.


... Can't say I can approve this at all though ^^;;


Shizuoka Hobby Show is an annual exhibition event held in Shizuoka, Japan. It is a large event for all sorts of hobby-related items. For models, this includes but not limited to gunpla (Gundam models), military models, and car models. It also exhibits things like BB guns as well. Definitely sounds like a great place to go at least once when there is a chance. I know I will have something I will enjoy just to browse around there ^^

All images are from GA Graphic
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Mayday

It's that time of the year again - May is going to be one hectic month for me.


"... Oh bugger"

Blogging may still happen now and then, but everything else (e.g. visiting other people's blogs etc) will be kept to a minimum while I will try to deal with this Zaku (I mean real life).

Time to get focused on real life; should I really disappear this month, I will be back in June. Read More!

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty release date announced!

Something a bit different, but I am glad to know that the highly anticipated RTS game StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty has a release date now: 27th July 2010 ^^

For those who are not so familiar with the game, it is the sequel of the 1998 PC game by Blizzard, featuring 3 different races Terran (the humans), Protoss (high-tech humanoids), and the Zerg (aliens). StarCraft II will take place approximately 4 years after the original game, and singleplayer will be split to 3 different games. The first one to come out is for the Terran campaign called Wings of Liberty. Singpleplayer campaigns for Zerg and Protoss will come at later dates (yet to be confirmed) as seperate games, but the multiplayer will still be the same.

The singleplayer will be a bit different to the multiplayer part of the game. For example a number of old units from the first game will make appearance again in the singleplayer as playable units, and are not available in multiplayer.

Wings of Liberty will be released simultaneously in the United States, Canada, Europe, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Mexico, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.

Info from SC2 Blog, also reported by Ngee Khiong





Oh yeah~ I would love to get my hands on the game when it comes in Hong Kong! Even though I suck at the original game, I still love it and I enjoyed making singpleplayer missions with the campaign/map editor back in the earlier years. It was one of my first PC games that I have seriously played back then, and it still is considered a classic among a lot of us, gamers or not. Hell, even my sister knows what Zerg is (laughs).

Must buy a proper desktop for gaming purposes once the summer starts~ I am definitely looking forward to it! ^^



Screenshots from official site, last image from SC2 Blog
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K-On! Ita-carrier

A short post, but something that I can't keep silent about after seeing it since last month...



FUJIMI presents 1/700 scale Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier model with K-On! character decals. Essentially an Ita-carrier, or aircraft carrier version of itasha.

To be released in May (this month) for official retail price of 7800 Yen.

Out of all things, they decided to add anime character decals on an aircraft carrier?! Well maybe that works for some people, I don't know, but Ita-vehicles just don't work for me with some combinations - this is one of them. It reminds me an analogy comparing an itasha to, say, having ice-cream and curry mixed together; both are nice by themselves, but they can clash pretty awkwardly together. This is pretty much how I felt about this Ita-carrier. Makes me wonder how many people are actually gonna buy and build one.

For those who are interested, it is available on Hobby Search and Hobby Link Japan for pre-order.

Quick info on the Kitty Hawk itself - it is one of the last conventionally-fuelled (i.e. not nuclear powered) aircraft carrier used by the US Navy. Having served for nearly 49 years, she was decommisioned on 12th May last year. She is usually stationed in Yokosuka in Japan, but she has also participated in a number of conflicts, including Vietnam War, Somalia, as well as Iraq. More info can be found on Wikipedia.

No images of completed model with decals at the moment. Maybe we will see them once they are released. Speaking of K-On! I still haven't watched it yet despite the hype and that the second season (called K-On!!). Maybe I should watch it one day to see it myself whether it's worth appreciating or not.
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