FAKY's 5th anniversary is coming up this July (which is when they released their first digital single "Better Without You"), they were meant to have their major debut in 2014 but due to Tina and Diane wanting to leave to follow a different direction, FAKY went into hiatus in Summer of 2014. They came back October of 2015 after Akina joined and ever since then, FAKY has been on a roll finally making their major debut with "Unwrapped" in 2017.
I want to collect messages and fan art for a FAKY fan book to show out support for their 5th year as a group. Submission are due by June 15th.
Send us your message to FAKY in general, or a member in particular, down below. You can also add an image, it can be a selfie, an image of your country, a collage, a hand-written message, art work, etc. Just let your creativity fly and show your support!
Your work MUST fit on a A4 Paper Sheet. (You can use one or both sides of the sheet).
All Messages will be printed in color and compiled in a folder.
Messages preferably in English or Japanese (are easier for the group to read).
Messages MUST Include name/nickname and country. (Messages without ANY of the two won’t be included)
Just ONE message / Sheet per person.
You can also add your Twitter/Instagram username so that FAKY can identify you
Submissions are due June 15th, it gives me time to compile everything into a PDF and have it printed by a printing company.
Submit your photo entries to the following address:
Trying to find something to eat for lunch? Well look no further because we've got the perfect idea. When watching your favorite anime, you may have noticed some delicious dishes that you may not know the origins of and I'm here to give you guys some info.
Ramen:
We'll start with Ramen, one of Japan's well known dishes along with Sushi. A Ramen bowl consists of Chinese style noodles served in meat based broth flavored with either soy sauce or miso. Toppings such as sliced pork, dried seaweed, bamboo shoots, and green onions are quite common.
In Japan, almost every region/prefectures has their own variation of Ramen from the broth to the toppings. The Ramen you see above was ordered from a local Ramen shop chain and it's known as the Tokyo style Ramen which consists of curly noodles in a soy sauce based chicken broth. Toppings here include sliced chicken, spinach, green onion, and fried onion.
Takoyaki:
On to the next dish, Takoyaki, one of Osaka's soul food. Takoyaki is a ball-shaped Japanese snack made of a flour-based batter and cooked in a special cast iron pan. Fillings often consists of diced octopus which is why is called Takoyaki because tako is octopus. The Takoyaki is then topped with a sauce similar to Worcestershire sauce, Japanese mayonnaise, thin green dried seaweed, and dried bonito shavings.
If you don't like the idea of eating octopus, a great option Okonomiyaki, another soul food from Osaka. It's essentially the same but it is shaped as a pancake and the base is made out of cabbage not diced octopus. It has the same toppings so you'll still get the same great flavor.
Karaage:
One thing I'm sure everyone will love is Karaage, which essentially is Japanese style fried chicken. Karaage itself is just the technique in which the meat, usually chicken but can be fish and other meat as well, is dipped in light batter and fried in light oil. It is similar to how tempura is fried. Karaage can be served in different ways such as a wrap or on it's own with a slice of lemon and salad as shown below.
Hello everyone, I've been pretty busy with university and this semester I have to be ever more focused so I decided to take a semi-hiatus. That just means there will be less articles coming out each month. For example, instead of the usual 4 article per month, it will go down to 1-2 articles. I'll get back to normal uploads in December-January. I also write for blog.onehallyu.com so you can check me there for new articles about J-pop/Anime.
Unwrapped is the third mini album released by FAKY but their first physical release. It will be released in three editions: a CD version, a CD+DVD version, and a CD limited version that is sold only at live events. The mu-mo version includes a signed poster from FAKY as a first press/external bonus. This mini album also marks their major debut which is very exciting!
The one I'll be reviewing is the iTunes version since it came out a week earlier than the CD release (I bought the CD/CD+DVD too). It comes with a total of 6 tracks plus one bonus remix track.
Keep Out
The song that everyone has been waiting for is now finally released in it's full version. This song was used for the "FAKY is Back" teasers. What I like the most about this song is that everyone is singing at a more higher note. The instrumentals is what makes this song so catchy, especially in the chorus.
Candy
Probably FAKY's most popular song so far, Candy is an up and popping song with amazing dance moves. Their singing is full of confidence in this track and with Lil' Fang's high and long notes to top it off in the bridge of the song. Are You OK?
This was an instant favorite when I heard it on the Candy EP. They way it was sung had a tropical vibe to it, I loved the high notes in the chorus and edm beat as it makes you feel like dancing. Surrender
Surrender has a very 2000s pop feel with a touch of EDM as well. I'm going to be honest it's one of my least favorite track from them along with You but it has it's catchy parts here and there.
Bad Things
Probably my favorite new track from them! It's a song I could probably see someone like Fifth Harmony sing. This is probably one of their more western sounding tracks due to the type of instrumentals this has as well as how the song is sung with a lot of English. Either way, it's a song I'll be jamming to for a while. Someday We'll Know
I love songs that have a light instrumentals such as this because you can really focus on the amazing vocals, especially FAKY's. The chorus has an uplifting beat even though track it may seem sad during the rest of the song. Candy (Maria Remix)
I love how they were able to change a very pop and high energy song into a heartfelt song that gave me goosebumps! The song doesn't really have a large beat drop which I like because the original song was already poppy so to have a somewhat slow version of candy was nice to listen to.
Please support FAKY by buying the mini album either on iTunes or on CDJapan. CD version/CD+DVD version
Now to the giveaway, since I bought both versions of Unwrapped on mu-mo shop, I'll be getting two autographed posters so I thought I would give one away! This is a United States only giveaway, I would love to have had it an international giveaway but I'm already spending a lot to ship FAKY's Fan Book to Japan. Everything is down below.
Update (6/13): The FAKY fanbook arrived! I can't wait for FAKY to see it, I'll probably ship it either tomorrow or Thursday.
Update (6/7 part 2): I have created a PDF link where you guys can view the book. I have blur/blocked off photos that had your selfies for privacy. I kinda suck at graphic design so the book layout is pretty ugly but I tried my best XD
Update (6/7): I have ordered the booklet and it should arrive June 13. I will have the book shipped to Japan either June 14 or 15. Thank you so much to everyone who have participated in the fan book project. I'm not sure if you guys want to see the PDF now, if you do please comment below or if you want your message/photo blurred.
Update: (6/6): I'm close to finishing up the book on inDesign, I just have to wait for a few people who want to finish up their fan art for the book.
Update (6/2): Thank you to everyone who has participated in sending awesome messages and fan arts for this fan book. I've gotten over 30 entries and I'm so happy that I was able to get that many. Currently I'm composing everything on inDesign and then it will be professionally printed by Office Depot. If for any reason you weren't able to participate in time, you got until June 5th at the latest. Below you will see the finalized front cover design for the fan book!
Katsucon was definitely a different experience compared to my first ever convention experience. I was only able to Saturday since I was commuting to the National Harbor opposed to those who stayed at the hotel at the Harbor.
Katsucon is an annual three-day anime convention held during February at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. It is traditionally held in February over Presidents Day weekend and is held/was held in locations around D.C. Metropolitan Area (which is great for me since I'm from the area).
This convention, like other, offers an array of events and activities such as an art show, artist alley, costume contests, dealers room, formal ball, a maid cafe, masquerade, musical performances, panels, workshops, video gaming, etc. One of my favorite is the Japanese Culture Programming, which I think is unique to Katsucon due to it's array and informative panels on Japanese culture.
Artist Alley
After meeting up with an old Twitter friend when checking in, we went directly to the artist alley since it was near the registration room. I'll be honest, I never bought anything in the artist alley in previous years (though I feel like as an artist I should've supported by purchasing but I'm not into buying fanart). There were a lot of amazing merchandise, especially of Yuri on Ice. My amazing longtime Twitter friend did buy this pretty sketchbook, which I was in need of.
I went to two panels + a Kimono photoshoot during Katsucon 2017, though I wished I could've gone to more but I only attended on Saturday. The first panel I attended was "Anime's Culinary World with Captain Food Science" that was hosted by Captain Food Science(@FatedSoulBlake). His presentation about basic Japanese cuisine and mixing in anime was great, plus he had some great comedy lines in between. He also gave away food related manga and candy DIY kits for those who gave questions during the Q&A sessions.
Another panel I attended later in the day was "Cool Japan: The Panel" hosted by JCI teacher Charles Dunbar. I'm going to be honest, I didn't enjoy it as I thought I would. It's just the topic wasn't as interesting and I didn't watch any of the anime mentioned so I didn't really get the jokes said. I enjoyed the history though so I got something good out of this panel.
In between the two panels, I attended a Kimono/Yukata photoshoot, which needed to be reserved ahead of time. I've never been to a photoshoot of any sorts so I was kinda clueless but the experience was amazing, probably the highlight of Katsucon 2017. Kuniko and the other nice ladies were very great at picking the color combo for the Yukata robe and obi sash. I had lots of fun doing poses with a Japanese umbrella and they were very fun to work with. About two weeks after Katsucon, I got my HD photos from the photoshoot.
The maid cafe was the last thing I did at Katsucon at around 6pm on Saturday, I went along with my 3 other friends. It's actually my first experience at a convention maid cafe, my friend and I actually wanted to go during Anime USA but didn't get there in time on Sunday. We were assigned a butler for our maid cafe experience. He was really nice and kept us entertained as we wait for our meal. They had board games available for a dollar for us to play with, which we chose Jinga. I ordered the chicken katsu with a chocolate bear cake. It's was not the best food out there especially for what it costed but it's for the experience. Right before leaving, we took a group photo with him, which I think costed another dollar but he was nice to have it done for free. That was the end of my Katsucon experience, though my friends stayed later for the Katsucon rave/party. I'll be honest, I'm still trying to get used to the convention experience and so in my opinion Katsucon was crowded compared to my first anime convention experience. I think as I attend more anime convention and get good at planning everything, I'll enjoy it even more. Katsucon already announced it's dates for next year, February 16th-18th, 2018, though I'm sure it wouldn't be as warm as it was during this year's Katsucon.
Check out some awesome and hilarious cosplayers from Pokemon to Overwatch down below.
So, we are continuing off from where I left off in part one, looking at my favorite anime of 2016 from the Summer and Fall simulcast season. Most of the anime I've watched either were a second season or a spin-off.
Summer 2016
Sweetness and Lightning
So this is one of the most heartwarming anime of the year, if you liked Barakamon, you will love this. Kohei Inuzuka is a teacher who has been raising his daughter, Tsumugi, by himself following the death of his wife. Having mostly bought ready-made meals for his daughter since, Inuzuka's encounter with one of his students, Kotori, leads him to take up cooking in order to provide proper meals for Tsumugi. The reason for the comparison is because of Tsumugi and Naru, their personality is very spunky and bright. They also look very similar, only difference is that Tsumugi has overflowing hair.
Legend of Arslan: Dust Storm Dance
This is the continuation of the first season of The Heroic Legend of Arslan, sadly this season was only 8 episodes compared to 25 because of the Seven Deadly Sin 4 episode special later that Summer. This season was more focused on Arslan's adventures in the port city of Gilan after King Andragoras, his father, commanded Arslan to leave Peshawar without his allies, and not return until he has gathered an army of fifty thousand soldiers, which was pretty much exile. Of course, his closest teammates stayed by him. Too bad the season ended before a major battle, I think if they had at least a full 12 episode season it would've been better. Hopefully a 3rd season is coming soon.
Amanchu!
This is one of my favorite slice of life shows I have seen, it's very relaxing(seeing that it takes place in an ocean coast town). Futaba Ooki, a shy girl who just moved in from the city to the oceanside town of Shizuoka, meets Hikari Kohinata, an erratic girl who loves scuba diving. Together, they join their school's Diving Club and discover the joys of underwater exploration. The highlights of this show are the facial expressions, they are so cute, especially the cat looking animal. I've seen some people mention yuri which to be honest I don't see because girls in general can be this close without it being yuri, I mean Hikari is Futaba's only closest friend so of course she's going to be close to her. Also what I love is the opening, it really summarizes what the show is all about, and it's soothing to listen to.
Handa-Kun
This show gave me a good laugh throughout the whole series. Hated by everyone around him, Seishu Handa goes about his high school life regarded as an outcast—or at least that's what he believes. In reality, Sei is the most popular student on campus, revered by all for his incomparable calligraphy skills, good looks, and cool personality. However, due an endless series of misunderstandings, Handa perceives the worship he receives from his legions of fans as bullying, leading the school's idol to shut himself off from the rest of his classmates.
But distancing himself from his peers doesn't deter them from adoring him; in fact, his attempts at drawing attention away from himself often end up unintentionally converting even the most skeptical of students into believers and fans. This show is a spin-off series of Barakamon, in Barakamon, Handa is a pro calligrapher, despite his young age. When the elderly curator of an exhibition criticizes his calligraphy for being too unoriginal, Handa gets angry and punches him. Because of this, his father sends him off for a retreat on Goto Island There, he meets the colorful villagers, interacts with them, and begins to find his own style.
Shokugeki no Soma: The Second Plate
Shokugeki no Soma was the hotest thing back in the Spring and Summer simulcast 2015. This is the second season of this cooking anime. Shokugeki no Soma is about Soma Yukihira, whose dream is to become a full-time chef in his father's neighborhood restaurant and surpass his father's culinary skills. But just as Sōma graduates from middle school, his father, Jōichirō Yukihira, gets a new job that requires him to travel around the world and closes his shop. His father sends Soma to an elite culinary school where only 1% of the students manage to graduate, where he meets many amazing students and experiences new events that allow him to grow further towards his cooking goal.
In this season, it continues where the last season left off in the autumn elections. The Election is used to determine the current class standing of a Generation through a tournament styled event. I'm not going to spoil the winner for anyone who hasn't watched the season yet.
Other anime I watched in Summer 2016:
Nanatsu no Taizai: Seisen no Shirushi
Orange
QUALIDEA CODE
TABOO TATTOO
Fall 2016
Izetta: The Last Witch
Set on the eve of the Second World War, the story follows Izetta, the last surviving member of a clan of witches that possesses the ability to magically manipulate any object that they touch. Izetta pledges to help protect Princess Finé and the tiny Alpine country of Eylstadt from invasion by the imperialistic forces of Germania. What I love about this series is the setting and storyline. All the character development was great as well, this show was almost like a historic drama. One anime that is somewhat similar to this is Maria the Virgin Witch since it's in a similar time period, I believe World War I but there's more witches in it.
Sound Euphonium 2
What I love about this season is the dialog, there's more heart to heart discussion between the characters and we get to learn a lot about their background stories that we didn't know about in the first season. Following their success in the qualifying round for the Kansai regional competition, the members of the Kitauji High School concert band set their sights on the next upcoming performance. Kumiko Oumae and her friends remain determined to attain gold at the Kansai competition, but trouble arises when a student who once quit the band shows interest in rejoining and sparks unpleasant memories for the second-year members. Someone mentioned yuri between the main characters, which in my opinion it's just fan service because for one, we all know that Reina has a serious crush on the music instructor, Taki-sensei.
Lostorage incited WIXOSS
This is a new series from the WIXOSS storyline. This series follows a girl named Suzuko Homura who, along with her LRIG Riru, finds herself in a new Selector battle in which her memories are placed on the line. I think anyone who's new to the series can watch this and understand it well without having to watch the first two season which focuses on a different group of main characters. The difference between Selector and Lostorage is that in Selector, if you lose, you get the opposite of your dream and if you win, you become a LRIG. In Lostorage, if you let the coin time limit run out, you lose your memories and if you win, you get to recover a memory you either want to keep or remember again. Another season called Lostorage conflated WIXOSS has been announced and will air sometime in 2017.
E.G. Crazy is the fourth album released by E-girls. It was released in five editions: a 2CD+3DVD edition that comes in a special package with a photo booklet, a 2CD+3Blu-ray edition that comes in a special package with a photo booklet, a 2CD+DVD edition, a 2CD+Blu-ray edition, and a 2CD edition.
This album came with a whopping 24 tracks, 12 for E.G. Pop and 12 for E.G. Cool. I won't give a review to the entire album because most of the songs are older, from previous singles that I have listened to many times. I'll only review the songs that are from the album only.
Apparently this song is a sequel to "Go! Go! Let's Go!," which was also about fashion. I love the MV set it's one of my favorite in awhile, it's super colorful and they have mini rooms on the wall which is pretty cool. Now for the song itself, I can't really explain what type of EDM it is but it's one of their great light pop EDM songs. So the lyrics are about depressing Monday to the weekends full of plans, the song sings about the 7 days of an office lady.
This is one of the more fun and catchy song as well to sing to, It was featured in the All Day Long Lady music video as a Harajuku fashion show. This was a fast tempo song and I think Ami, Aya, and Reina's voice worked well with the song because of their more higher pitched singing in terms of Ami and Reina. Overall, a solid E.G. Pop single.
Compared to most of the songs in this album, this has a more retro feel to it. This is of their most catchy song yet, it's a great song for a disco party. I love Ami voice in this song, it really goes together with the instrumentals. Although this is on the E.G. Pop side of the album it sounds more like an E.G. Cool song.
This one is a 90s, early 2000s like song, something that Amuro Namie would have rocked. Everyone's voice worked really well in this style, it's similar to Flower's "Lucky 7" because Reina's high notes are amazing in both songs. I feel like Ami's adlibs/high notes didn't really fit well because she's more high pitched while the song style was more mature sounding.
I hope you loved all the songs like I did. If you want to listen to the full version, the whole album is available on Spotify.
As you all know, from Twitter, Anime USA 2016 was my first ever anime convention. Anime USA 2016 was held at the Marriott Wardman Park during October 21-23. Since I live in the metropolitan area, I didn’t stay at the hotel so my friend and I attended just Saturday and Sunday. Since it rained the day before, Saturday was very cold and breezy.
There's one thing I have to remember next time is to bring an ID, when we went to pick up our badges at the pre-registration line, we didn't know that we had to bring and ID (Which I guess is to determinate if you're allowed to go to 18+ events). We were able to get our badges anyways since the staff was nice, we didn't plan on going to any 18+ events anyways since we were going to leave around 9pm.
Since the dealer's room was right next to the registration desk, we decided to go there. This place, of course, was amazing. I tried not to splurge all my money at one time. It wasn't before long before we both bought a merchandise. The first shop we went to was selling anime t-shirts, plush, and blind boxes. My friend bought herself a Fullmetal Alchemist shirt and I got myself a Kaneki Ken plush.
As you can see in the photos above, I splurged my money on other stuff such as the Selector Infected WIXOSS Blu-ray and Naruto blind boxes. On the last day of AnimeUSA, I was able to get a good deal on a Asuna figurine for $30.
We headed out to the gaming room, which of course was full of people. We played a lot of old games such as Takken 4 but we also played Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm. There was one game that we played on Nintendo 64 but I couldn't find the name of it, it looked like the game was translated by fans but I'm not sure.
After getting lunch and walking around some more at the convention on Saturday, my friend and I went to go watch the Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno and Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends until around 9pm. We went home after that since we weren't staying at a hotel since we lived in the metropolitan area. The next day was full of cosplay photography.
IG: amitycosplay
IG: riyuski
IG: liger041 IG: inertiacosplay
My friend and I went around finding great cosplay to photograph for the last day of Anime USA, above is what I got and I wrote down the IG for those I can find. I also went to one panel called "Majik Mystery Loot Brawl" where you pay $10 for the game where there's a table full of wrapped gifts and you take turns opening one and you can choose to keep it or "steal" another players gift. I got a Lupin the III mug which I ended up selling to a twitter friend. After that we just waited outside the ballroom for the closing ceremony.
All good things must come to an end. We got to hear from all of the directors and volunteers of Anime USA and congratulate them for a great convention. People also got to voice their comments or thoughts of improvements. The 2017 date was also announced: Anime USA 2017 The Christmas Special: Christmas in Japan December 8-10 2017
Of course the time frame is farther away from the usual but it's because it was hard for them to secure a time frame in October/November. I'm really looking forward to going again as I enjoyed my first ever anime convention.
