Post NYAF oh yeah!

When I first saw the seating plan for NYAF I was shocked to see the name Yang Fan on that, yea and then I saw I got the worst possible spot lol, right at the very corner away from all possible crowding, but I somehow managed to sell all my prints 0_0;;

Anyways when I knew was coming, I was like woah man need.prepare.$$
And then I called up my buddy in Singapore to yell HEY MAN LIEK JIUGE'S COMING TO MAH CON IMMA HELP U SPAM UR MONEYZ
We ended up spending $70 each..orz
But then there's one girl who came up to my booth and spent $90, I was sooo impressed.

九歌，你看到这个的话，麻烦发note给我你的msn，不好意思不记得拿了没，谢啦！

To think , the first artist I came upon on this site, and , lawl I remember exactly which two pics I saw on the front page. They actually inspired me to start learning to draw and 2~4yrs later I met them live 0__o
And *jiuge actually remembers my art.
Like srsly?SRSLY?SERIOUSLY???? *shot*
XD

Awesome guy I met at the con , I bought his cartoon book last yr and this yr when I saw his game concepts, whoa it's like done by a diff person. I never knew he could draw such pretty men, apparently this is the trend in China games now

I'm selling at the low end of the con, idk the cost price for prints is so low, is it really ok to sell them so much? 0_o
And why is it so damn difficult to find good printshops in NYC, the print quality in Singapore and even China cons are a lot better than the ones in NYAF. The printshops I've been to all gave crap quality prints like ewwwwww I don't wanna sell this $*(#%. So I always carry my prints all the way from Singapore. Well, I think print quality is quite important, especially when sold at high prices >_>

I find it kind of sad that even great artists factory churn out fanarts just for convention sales, imo it spoils the intention of a con.

Couple meme

SIX PAIRINGS I LIKE:

1. Cloud/Aerith (FFVII)
2. Sirius/Remus (HP)
3. Cecil/Lydia (FFIV)
4. Kanda/Lavi (DGM)
5. Ulquiorra/Orihime (Bleach)
6. All/Break (Pandora Hearts)

THREE SHIPS I'VE ABANDONED:

7. Itachi/Sasuke (Naruto)
8. Tyki/Lavi (DGM)
9. US/UK (Hetalia)

THREE SHIPS I'VE NEVER LIKED:

10. Sephiroth/Cloud and Cloud/Tifa
11. Golbez/Cecil
12. Kurogane/Fai

TWO SHIPS THAT HAVE PIQUED MY INTEREST:

13. Reno/Cloud
14. Toya/Yue (CCS)


1. Why do you dislike #11 so much?
Golbez/Cecil
Because I finished playing FF4 for a year and didn't even remember Golbez existed ._.
I sorta remember Cecil had a brother, then upon revisiting the game, I believe at the end it took everyone around to coax Cecil to even talk to Golbez. And Golbez was practically trying to murder Cecil throughout the game.

Then Dissidia came out and everyone started making Golbez/Cecil an official pair

What the hell?! Brotherly love what?! Just what?!

And Cecil should totally be with Cain

2. Who do you know that ships #13?
Reno/Cloud
I only know of one guy who ships Rufus/Reno.
And idk what the Reno fans ship, probably not Cloud.
I like to pair Cloud randomly with the FF7 boys excluding Sephy. Reno/Cloud takes the cake as I foresee Rufus/Cloud to be brutal.

3. What would be your ideal scenario for couple #3?
Cecil/Lydia
Little Lydia comforting Dark knight Cecil :3
I'm a sucker for pairings involving a bro/sis that knew the other since very young. It's just so sweet.

4. What is your favorite moment for #1?
Cloud/Aerith
When Aerith appeared in Cloud's dream and went with Sephiroth into the Sleeping Forest ;_;

5. How long have you been following couple #6?
All/Break
2yrs or so. I like all his pairings, Rem, Rufus, Vincent, Gil can all come aboard XD And Will of Abyss too if she wasn't a loli.

6. What's the story with #8? What made you stop caring?
Tyki/Lavi
Because it's a total crack pairing which can't hope to get canon justification in like forever.
And it's mostly OOC :/

7. Which ship do you prefer--#2 or #4?

Urrgh hard choice. Sirius/Remus will always have a special place there, being the longest lasting yaoi pair I like, but lately I'm more interested in Kanda/Lavi.

8. You have the power to make one ship non-existent. Choose from #10 or #12.

KuroFai. Because it actually can be canon orz....
Why is everyone calling Fai a flamboyant rainbow anyway. I really think he's a gentleman who would make any girl with him happy. And I don't like this kind of yaoi pair in every possible way -_-

I used to like Fai/Chi until Clamp dropped teh bomb.

9. What interests you about #14?
Toya/Yue
Total impulse. Because when I first discovered that Toya/Yukito were a pair at 12 it was a bad surprise, I wasn't like oh yeah canon yaoi but like nooo I wanted Yukito/Sakura or Syaoran. It took me a looong time to like shonen-ai, but I strangely liked the Toya/Yue scene instantly.

10. When did you stop liking #7?
Itachi/Sasuke
When TS Sasuke revealed himself to be a major jerk and I'd rather not like incest pairings anymore. Damn I hate Sasuke now.

11. Did your waning interest in #9 kill your interest in the series?
US/UK
Eh no, c'mon, it's Hetalia we're talking about, the endless possibilties, all those scandals waiting to be discovered.

12. What's a song that reminds you of #5?
Ulquiorra/Orihime
Opening song of Bleach "Change"
I love that amv.

13. Which of these ships do you love the most right now?

Always Cloud/Aerith

14. Which do you dislike the most?

Squeenix pls don't make Cloud/Tifa canon. Amen.

I just don't like Tifa, I think Lightning is strong, but not her.

15. If you could have any of these pairings double date, who would they be?

Cecil/Lydia and Cloud/Aerith.
D'awwww

16. Have #2 kissed yet? Elaborate if yes.
Sirius/Remus
Canon-wise? Lawl nevaaaa.

17. Did #4 have a happy ending? Do you think one is likely?
Kanda/Lavi
Canon couple ending? Lawl nevaaa.

18. What would make you start shipping #14?
Toya/Yue
When Clamp went on crack and forgot their canon inseparable pairs and threw them together.

19. If only one could happen, which would you prefer--#2 or #6? Sirius/Remus or All/Break

#6. Quantity please kthxbye

20. You have the power to decide the fate of #10. What happens to them?

Sephiroth. Stay dead. Please.

As if I didn't have enough of it chasing Sephiroth all over in FF7. I am immune to this type of pairing and really, where is the love. They're trying to kill each other ._.

Aerith, climb out of your grave right now.

Akaboshi -Ibun Suikoden

Aka, the manga loosely based on Water Margin.
I was soooo thrilled when this came out, finally something on the least known 4 Classics of China. And I absolutely love the art style, this is a skilled man.

It's pretty obvious that he really really did his research. From the backgrounds, the clothes and the gestures, it's all the details that add to complete the scene. A lot of times when I read manga supposedly set in China, the manga is mixed with so much pop culture and Japanese influence that it's hard to imagine so (Saiyuki, Fushigi Yugi). But this one, the cultural feel fits the ancient China theme so well I can't believe the artist is Japanese 0_0




It has always been amusing to me that Lin Chong(or Rinchuu) is often thought of as a refined handsome man in Japan. Er actually he is rather... er beastly looking? Therefore earning him the title of Panther Head. (He looks like Zhang Fei) Anyway I'm currently drawing Lin Chong, the last of my Water Margin series, I'm siding with the Japanese on this one XD

The very very VERY sad thing is that this manga friggin got AXED!!! DAMN YOU SHONEN JUMP RAAAAAAAGE!!! It is one of my fav manga *sob* I can see why though, the beginning is so bland with some srsly LAME humor that even I wanted to stop reading. And he's trying to blend elements from a lot of popular manga but kinda fails at it (sorry), but near the end he's already forming his own style but it still... *sob* And the art style as much as I love it it's not mainstream enough.

But, BUT at the very end (shota)Yan Qing showed up!!! Oh yeah Akaboshi you can rest in peace, Yan Qing (Ensei) was not forgotten!!!! Man I didn't expect that, although Yan Qing was not a major character he still has lots of fangirls in China, not sure about Japan.



That.. thing beside him. Lu Jun-Yi(Roshungi) you can go cry right now.

The art style.. kinda reminds me a little of Akimine Kamijyo, I'm reading Code Breaker now. Sometimes some artists make me think it's impossible for them to be female, like these 2.

Although I buy 99% of the manga I read, I still go on Onemanga occasionally for updates. Then it shut down, I was stuped for a sec, then remembered that online manga is all over the China interwebs.

Random thoughts

For me, for some reason manga painting is a lot harder than realism, I just can't choose the right colors. My realism painting/drawing is actually a lot faster than manga orz....

For now I can't speedpaint manga, I'll just stick to cellshade since it looks way more complete than a halfassed badly colored watercolor/semi-real style.

I will stop posting my obvious shonen-ai pics on my dev account, unless they're ones I really like. If you're interested you can go over to my ygallery [link]
One reason is that I mostly draw shonen-ai pics just for kicks aka I rarely put in real effort, so it's just for sharing among those interested.

In regards to my last poll, I'm currently drawing Hua Rong from Water Margin Just done with his chara design. He's not my fav tho, Yan Qing is

Sengoku Basara anime season 2 trailer...

What on earth were the animators thinking when they drew this in the middle of a battle scene??!
LOL XD



And no his pants did not fall right off after this

Am I not keeping up with times or what

What's with the 12~14 yr-olds watching yaoi (aka those with r18 scenes) 0__o
.....and even write them.

Am I weird for being slightly disturbed by lolis discussing hardcore ghey pronz 0__o

My buddy showed me her extensive collection of  the most hardcore yaoi manga (srsly) when she was 16, it remains one of the most shocking things to me, and lulz every now and then she has something new to shock me (for the record, her massive library of hardcore SM fics 2 yrs ago).
Darn, I've known you since you were 11 and what happened down the years lol.

Sometimes hardcore otaku can be identified easily, but you can never ever tell a fujoshi by her looks.

My first yaoi anime at age 21 (T_T) is Ai no Kusabi (1992 vers.) , I swear it's one of the most well-made animes of its time.
I'd make another journal about it.

Also, why the popularity of schoolgirl syndrome ukes...  just why?
For me I don't see the point in that, especially when sometimes it looks like yuri.

EDIT: So this is it, this is why some guys in yaoi look so friggin young.

強受王道，哦耶。

Lol Hetalia

So I heard that some people regard Hetalia as a good way to learn history.
Lol.
Hetalia is a parody of history, aren't you supposed to first know history?

I'm not sure about historical inaccuracies, but I know for sure Hetalia is extremely selective in its portrayals of nations and history. While it is fact that Italy did poorly in WW2, but a big factor is that the Italians weren't motivated to fight in an unjust war. And the artist is obviously biased toward Japan, lol, Spain being the pedo, really?? REALLY??? Lol.

Also, if the Italians weren't complaining about this show, why should the Koreans be. The Korean protestors deftly avoid the issues about plagiarizing China's culture and history which the Hetalia Korea gets a major characteristic in (aka everything originated in Korea), because they feel it's true? Lol. Btw, it's always been Korea vs China vs Japan , whenever one country screws up, the other 2 would gang up and laugh, sad thing.

That said, Hetalia is definitely not an anime for children, with its stereotyping and very biased view of history, not to mention the mansex between countries (.....) . I feel it should be banned on Kids Station due to Korean protests.

I really enjoy Hetalia for the laughs. But seriously no it's not meant to be a way of learning history.

Care to read? -China's minority races-

I am someone who is very reluctant to talk about my own life even to my closest friends, so I rarely make serious journals. But I feel that there's something I shouldn't be silent about anymore.

I am half Chaoxianzu, half Han, there are 56 ethnic races in China. Han makes up the vast majority of Chinese (92%), while Chaoxianzu basically is a race of immigrants from North Korea since 19th century and before. (wiki portal: [link]

Yesterday I just told the 2nd person that I'm part Chaoxianzu since I migrated out of China. I never felt the need to specifically state that I am Chaoxianzu, it never occurred to me. Because during my years in China, they make me feel fully that there is only one China and it doesn't matter which race I'm from, we're all Chinese people.

In all my years in China I lived with my grandparents who are fully Chaoxianzu, and it is very clear in the suburban town that we are Chaoxianzu due to our language and culture, I used to wear Korean hanboks to festivals and events. In all those years not one, not one single insult was tossed our way because of our race as Chaoxianzu.We faced not one bit of discrimination in any way, and my grandparents were very well-respected in the community. In fact, I can tell you some of my Chaoxianzu relatives are the ones discriminating the Hans, and they're not alone. Most of the Chaoxianzu married within their race, and my relatives opposed my mum marrying my dad due to his Han race while his family didn't care, but that was in the 80s. I'm not so sure now.

Then I migrated and spent 10+ years in another country (not US) made of mostly Chinese. In all the 10+ years I was constantly reminded that I'm not the same people as them even though we are supposed to be of the same Chinese race. I have met many nice friends and people there, but I am disturbed by how casually they could toss insults at Chinese from China. In my years of school I've heard many times about the stereotyping of mainland Chinese as generally unlikeable, stealing their jobs etc,

It makes me sad that being a race of a foreign country in China, the people can welcome us wholeheartedly as one of their own, but I somehow felt a sense of alienation in another country made of mostly Chinese, and I told noone I'm Chaoxianzu.

The thing is China is generally not racist, especially to our own races, we love our minority races. Recently there are tensions between China and South Korea, it makes me very touched that the majority of Hans rushed to our defense when some asshats decided to bash us together with the South Koreans. On the topic of Japan, my mom taughted me not to hate the Japanese, and it's the general atmosphere in my hometown. How many people actually knew thousands of women and children were left behind in China after Japan's retreat after WW2. It very much surprised me that the Chinese did not kill them, but hid most of them as Chinese and adopted them as their own or took them as wives, and I know 2 persons from such families. I actually don't think very well of Chinese people because of lots of shit and injustice I see and hear around in China, but stuff like this just makes me rethink.

What sends me in flying rage is that some people actually think Chinese don't know what's going on because of coverups and the evil commies brainwash us to do their bidding. WHO THE HELL LIKES OPPRESSION?!!!WE FRIGGIN HATE THE CENSORSHIP. These asshats should really learn some Chinese and see what we type in forums and chat IRL, routine bash of govt and exposing of corruption in authority. Just because multiple views cannot be represented on the media doesn't mean Chinese people don't have the intelligence to do so and make right judgements. Btw, Western media is totally fair and would not even think of using propaganda tactics to manipulate people, right.

This years I'm very angry that Western media is trying to find fault in whatever China does and dismiss whatever China says as propaganda oppression tactics, and I'm angry with the Chinese media for it's hypocrisy and lies, making an excuse for others to accuse even the truths as lies. Han chauvinism is a thing of 16th century, even the most ultranationalist idiots would proclaim China superiority, not Han superiority, which is condemned. I never read the news or textbooks in China since I was a child then, nobody ever felt the need to specifically tell us not to be racist to our minorities, we just knew not to. We genuinely love our minority races and take pride in the diverse cultures. I'm really enraged by some Western media that says it is just propaganda by evil commies to make it seem like we're not racist. There are lots and lots of things that I'm very disappointed with China, but I never knew what racism was until I stepped out of China, it really pushed the wrong button in me when I heard that. Although I do not deny there would be racist thugs in China who would do that.

Btw, I wasn't brainwashed by the evil commies to love minorities in order to make this painting of Miao race, I would assume *jiuge and ~sei-ya weren't either.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

In this era of 3D games, I never thought I would totally fall in love with a 2D pixel game again. It is kind of true when they say during the time of 2D games gameplay is more important than anything whereas now they sort of diverted more to graphics. It is such a fun play through, I'm starting to love 2D platformer ARPG again.

My first Castlevania game is Lament of Innocence, I thought it was an ok game and isn't as bad as the reviews, though it doesn't leave much of an impression. I absolutely love Leon's character design, but he has null personality and the story is really really lame, I saw both coming actually, when I finished the game I sort of ended up liking Mathias more. After playing Symphony of the Night I can totally see why people felt that LoI is a failure in the series. The repetitive stage designs and uninteresting gameplay is just so obvious when compared with the awesomeness of SotN. SotN felt so nostalgic since I grew up playing pixel games, but the only other Jap pixel game I still love now is Vampire Hurts. The game graphics are beautiful, the environment setting and general feel are just the kind I love. Whereas in LoI, it felt so lonely playing as Leon and even more so as Joachim as you don't even get to chat with the only old man there, the setting is too dark and the monsters are menacingly scary. I thought SotN monsters are pretty cute actually, the sound effect helps, it irks me that the exact same monsters seem downright creepy in LoI (flea man, skeleton etc) I prefer cuteness mixed with macabre themes, instead of horror all the way. Also, for second playthroughs, Castlevania discriminates game noobs like me DX, I want to play as Joachim in LoI since his attacks are way too cool even tho I dislike his personality, but no potion=death for me :/

The only complaint I have about SotN gameplay is the inverse castle, playing through that gave me nausea as my brain kept telling me there is something wrong with this imagery.... actually why do the men wear high heeled boots.

I love Ayami Kojima's art to pieces, I absolutely adore them, it's the only reason I'd even pick up a Castlevania game, in fact I refuse to play any Castlevania game that does not feature her illustrations ( I really wonder why the recent games not drawn by her has such bad anime art it doesn't even look professional). In the case of LoI, I was in awe of the cover art, but when I flipped to the back I lol'ed, becos WTF the 3D character rendering, it looks good from far, but the closeup is laughable, not that I didn't expect it from Konami. Fortunately it got remedied in Curse of Darkness. Castlevania is also known for its amazing music, love Yamane Michiru. SotN is a major success becos it had the best people working on it in so many aspects and preserved the spirit of a gothic vampire theme. I'm very very disappointed that now Castlevania is heading in a strange direction together with Final Fantasy :/ When I saw the trailer of the latest Castlevania game I had a major WTF moment, they might as well sell that under a  different franchise, there is nothing gothic vampirish about it, more like Lord of the Rings. Castlevania had such a refreshing taste to it, now that's just like any mainstream US game :/

Seems like it's a tradition for Castlevania games to have a lame predictable storyline, it's a pity actually, I'd love to see more interactions between Alucard and the inhabitants of Dracula Castle (like Librarian), it was where he grew up in after all. Although the uninteresting story doesn't affect SotN too much as Alucard is awesome on his own. I hope Alucard gets another 3D game as seen in the rumored trailer. Oh, and SotN is notorious for having hilariously bad English voice acting and translation, either they are clearly disinterested in any sort of acting or they overact, except Alucard's voice actor who is pretty good actually, this is the original PS version. The new PSP version.................. $(#*@&@(*$&@* WTF the voiceacting, I absolutely cannot stand it. Even though the PS cast are basically just reading the script, there is a certain level of characterization. The new cast just sound like they're random American teenagers instead of people/vampires from the 1700s, especially Alucard, did his voice actor even look at his character description??? Dammit I remember that voice, but because of its bad points, he also voices Cecil from FF4, one of my fav FF characters, urrrgh why him???

I don't know about Alucard's original PS voice since I couldn't find any vids of that, but his new PSP voice..... well I'd say even though Miyano Mamoru is one of my absolute fav seiyuus someone else could be better for the job. A darker deeper voice would be better, he sounds way too young in his new dubs.

Well, about the abomination that is Castlevania: Judgement..... I'd say becos of it I lost a great deal of respect for Obata.
If he wasn't the artist of Death Note, those shitty designs with utmost disrespect for the series would never have passed.
There is a difference between redesigning/stylization and just bastardizing the characters.
I'm suddenly glad that Leon,Hector,Richter etc are not in the game to be butchered by Obata's designs, the gameplay seems lame anyway.
Fortunate that Alucard has legions of fangirls to back him up so his design is still dignified comparatively, the rest.... most of them.......... how could anyone dare to step out in those ridiculous outfits....... (sigh Trevor, Carmilla)

Post Pandora Hearts Cosplay

Weeee my first cosplay ended~
Our team had 7 persons at first, but we got duped by the 3 main characters.
I was cosplaying as Break, with Echo (blue loli), W-Rabbit (white loli) and Ada (blonde schoolgirl).
There were 4 normal vers Breaks that day, WTH LOL

Our Echo and W-Rabbit are genuine 14-yr-old lolis, mwuha.
Ok now on to the photos

Photographer= me and dreamingice. Edits= me. Click link below photo for larger pic

Wild Ceshire Cat spotted, promptly dragged over for a shot with W-Rabbit, it's one of my fav pairs.


[link]

Sweet loli Echo, gloooooompz


[link]

Crack pairing 1: Grab Echo for myself while Vincent is not around. XD Srsly I've never seen anyone cos as Vincent in Singapore before. I forgot Echo and Break even met before Echo coser told me, lol.


[link]

Group shots:


[link]





There were so many Pandora Hearts cosers this time round, we went around pokemon catching the various characters for a shot XD It was such a fun team with our cute lolis, so lovely~~~

I dunno whether I'll cosplay anymore, since I fearz teh camera. My camera distortion is so bad 90% of the time that when I was 14, someone pointed at my photo and asked me is that your mum, she was entirely serious... T_T

Stocks- ~enchanted-stock =Ivienn

Term's gonna end

Freedom fries.
This actually exists.
It's not a made up joke.
Oh my god.......
[link]
/old news is old.
--------------

Some guy in class drew a comic involving a guy kicking baby and taking people's eye out with cigarette.
Another guy drew porn and a girl drew yaoi.
/no comment.

---------------
Singapore EOY 2009
My stall will be there, I'll be cosplaying first time as Xerxes Break from Pandora Hearts

Well. about otaku pillow cases

Totally random.
You know, those kind of sausage pillows, their pillow cases with scantily dressed anime girls printed on them have been around for quite a while.

Recently I've seen their male versions getting more common as well...
If you haven't seen it before, here's an example lol [link]

But really, would anyone actually buy them 0_0

I sure as hell won't lol.

NYAF..who knows how to set up display?

New York Anime Fest.
orz... my 5th con and I still dunno how to set up a display... I wonder why my local hardware stores don't sell table grips and pipes.
any help is appreciated.

My booth is AA28A
Jacob Javits Convention centre NYC, Sep 25~27
Fri 1pm~7
Sat 10am~7pm
Sun 10am~5pm

A flooding in my dorm caused half my old prints to be destroyed, oh well, I still have my new ones.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

That is my 2nd anime, the first being Cardcaptor Sakura (on that note, why must Yukito be gay. Dam.)
I recently decided to rewatch it after 8 years, since I only watched the latter half then.
I didn't understand it when I was 12, and I still don't understand it when I'm 20.
Well, except I vaguely think that those pple should just shut up move on, really.
Actually, why did I love it back then when I didn't know what the hell was going on.

Eva old movie is something I totally regretted watching, it's creepier than the whole of Eva anime added together.
Especially Shinji, wtf was that, and I was just mildly disturbed by giant Rei.

I watched it when I didn't even know a thing called yaoi existed.
I totally didn't notice the thing between Kaworu and Shinji. At all.
Kaworu, why must you join Shinji's harem, you can totally create your own.
I'm kinda amused that Kaworu can turn real-life straight guys momentarily gay, srsly.
Well, he's the perfect gentle yet destructive enigmatic angel (who ends up OOC and being a yaoi fanservice in every Eva spin-off not directed by wazhisname), gotta love him.
I didn't expect Gainax to really put in a yaoi ending for the official game (the art iz major suk btw).

I love Sadamoto's anatomy drawings, the really slender style.
I didn't mind those for-guys fanservice at all.
I kinda like Rei's fragile-looking beauty, bandage look is

Looking forward to the new movies.
Hopefully mankind will not turn into orange juice again.
Kaworu, I'll see you dying again, I just hope you don't get crushed another time....

Aug 11 2009

Singapore Cosfest 11~12 July 2009

   
I'm here again for Cosfest. Not cosplaying again becos I'm lazy to make costumes =3=
Location: Downtown East D'Marquee
Time: 1pm~7pm,  July 11~12
My booth is no.4
See you there~




8th July 2009