NKDS

We at NKDS would like to wish our readers a happy and prosperous Chinese New Year! Since the incoming year is the year of the Dragon, I have taken care to pick an appropriate picture for the occasion. Good luck, and have fun over the festive season!

This is Julius Firefocht, signing off.

The Messiah has arrived.

A year ago, I made a similar post regarding the best of anime in 2010. At the end of the post, I speculated that Puella Magi Madoka Magica might become the best anime of 2011. Looking back at 2011, Madoka Magica would indeed have dominated if not for the sheer storytelling brilliance of the staff behind Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai, better known as AnoHana. These are the two giants of the anime industry in 2011, all other titles fade away in significance when compared to these twin titans.

For the record, I consider anime like Fate/Zero and Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon to be 2012 titles, since we will only know how good the final product is when the second season ends.

So, the top 10 anime of 2011, in my opinion of course. Titles will be listed in alphabetical order. Read the rest of this entry »

Fate wishes you a happy new year too!

It’s been an exciting year, for all of us at NKDS. Xak and I have graduated from our respective universities and found satisfying jobs that cater to our anime fandom. Bjorn, Dodgethis and Mycstea have also made their respective marks and significant contributions to our local anime industry. We are busy and you can tell; we have not been able to post on the blog as often as compared to last year. Rest assured that we are still watching anime though, and we are very much updated on the latest anime trend.

So, what are the highlights of this year, in my opinion? For me, entertainment-wise it has to be the Kalafina concert at AFA11. Being able to listen to Kalafina live is the fulfillment of one of my life’s goals. I will attend their concert again in 2012, in Japan if possible. Its a promise that I’ve made to myself.

Another personal highlight would have to be the founding of Metronome. It’s one of those cases where we thought, “Hey, it would be cool if we could do some crazy stuff and pull it off, nevermind the chances of success.” And next thing we knew, we really went out and got the group up and running. Our thanks to Mycstea, Xeph, Sharon and everyone who helped us along the way. Sentinel011 and Bjorn, we have got our work cut out for us next year!

What else… okay. Let’s talk about graduation. This blog was started while all of us were still schooling, back in the old innocent days of 2008. Three years later, the blog is still around, but members have graduated from their studies. For me, the evolution from a student to a working adult is complete. I honestly did not feel smarter even after I graduated from university, so I am not likely to go for Masters or any higher education qualification because I am probably not going to get smarter after graduating from those. Damn am I glad this part of my life is behind me.

Last but certainly not least would be finding meaningful employment as soon as I graduated. I cannot give too much details, but suffice to say that I am very, very lucky and very glad to be able to work for my current company and bosses. Working life is so much more fun and satisfying than studying, which makes me wonder as I’ve often heard that its supposed to be the other way round. I am guessing its the nature of my work, but I still have a long working life ahead, so who knows what the future might bring?

Anyways, back to NKDS. Longtime readers might recall that we posted quite a lot of sexy topics in the distant past back when the blog was first founded, before mysteriously stopping all ecchi content for a long, long time. I won’t explain why the ecchi and hentai content stopped, but I am glad to announce that the sex, drugs and rock and roll has returned! That’s right, we are back to the decadent ways of 2008, starting from 1st Jan 2012. I would like to start off with an article about the science of NTR in doujins, but yeah. Please look forward to the decadence that is coming(heh) right up!

Along with the return to our roots, I would like to make a solemn and personal promise to post more often on NKDS. Yes, I understand that Facebook is so much more tempting and so much more convenient. but a blog is still superior for communicating to readers who may not personally know us and are thus not in our list of friends on Facebook. Just do not be surprised to see articles with wildly differing interests popping up on NKDS, since at this point of time I am simply going to post anything that I feel like posting about.

Also, I will not make an effort to post about every single anime-related news from Japan, so readers who want the latest up-to-date news should visit websites like Anime News Network and Sankaku Complex. NKDS is not going to turn into yet another news aggregator, and it probably never will.

Time will tell if I am able to keep to the promise of blogging more often, but hey, at least I am making the effort, right?

And that’s all I have for now. May everyone have a good 2012 ahead of them. The Emperor protects.

Julius Firefocht, signing off.

Here it is, Genesis Frontier’s booth layout in AFA11. Genesis Frontier (GF) is the distributor of major anime brands such as Bushiroad and Cospa in South-East Asia, and they have lined up a whole bunch of goodies for us to purchase. Many Botans died to bring us this information, so use it wisely and plan your purchase routes ahead of time!

From this map alone, you can see that anime merchandise from the following titles are available:

- Hatsune Miku (technically not an anime, but still…)

- Touhou (Also technically not an anime, but… yeah.)

- Fate/Zero

- Puella Magi Madoka Magica

- Cardfight! Vanguard

- AnoHana

- Shakugan no Shana

- K-ON!

- Angel Beats!

- Steins;Gate

This is a pretty impressive list, especially since the merchandise for Shana, K-On, Vanguard and Madoka Magica are original and new creations that are officially produced under license from their respective license owners. Which means that you can only buy these items for the first time at AFA11 itself and nowhere else, making the items truly exclusive to the event!

So, pad up your wallet in preparation for AFA11 and Genesis Frontier’s merchandise. You will need it.

This is Julius Firefocht, signing off.

There are lots of content to report about this time, but we are going to summarize everything into a quick-and-easy factsheet that is easy to digest. Basically, AFA2011 is going to rock.

Read the rest of this entry »

Featuring my favourite cosplayer in this post, just because I can.

A bit late on our part, but the details for the Regional Cosplay Championship in AFA11 are now available. Here’s the link to a SGcafe post, detailing everything that you might need to know in order to participate in the competition:

Regional Cosplay Championship 2011

In any case, we believe that more details about AFA 2011 will be revealed very soon, so remember to come back for more updates!

This is Julius Firefocht, signing off.

As mentioned in our previous post, here’s a picture of Metronome’s Hinagiku T-shirt, to be sold at A.C.M.E III. This is our most ambitious project to date, with a much larger print size and more daring colour coordination.

We will be at Booth 11 at A.C.M.E III. Do drop by to say hi and support us!

This is Julius Firefocht, signing off.

A.C.M.E III is a few short days away, and we have just received these updates in our mailbox. You gotta prepare for the sheer amount of anime merchandise that is going to be at the event!

~~~~~

KKnM Chara Fest list of products:
http://www.theanimehouse.com/ACME%20Release%202011/KKnMacme2011b.htm

List of goods from doujin artists: http://www.acme.sg/doujinlist.php

Touhou Elysium Goods: http://www.acme.sg/projectelysium.php

We also have the prices for the Touhou Elysium products:

T-shirts: $25, Phone Strap: $9, Tapestry: $35, Badges: $3

~~~~~

On the gaming front, the ACME Committee has made it known that this year’s Touhou Tournament will have 56 players fighting it out using their favorite Touhou characters. Expect to see some fierce competition in the tournament!

On a side note, you might notice that our group, Metronome, is featured among the doujin artist listed for A.C.M.E III. We will be officially debuting our Anaru, Menma and Hinagiku t-shirts there, so please do drop by to say hi and support A.C.M.E and us!

This is Julius Firefocht, signing off.

That is all. Only surprise I got was that it took them this long. So who’se next, Nana Mizuki and Takahiro Sakurai? Yuuichi Nakamura and Tomokazu Sugita?

This year’s STGCC is going to be a blast! Why so? We’re going to expect a few guest that I, myself, am dying to meet! So what’s out there for our dear otaku fans?

First off!~

ITOU SHIZUKA!~

Yes! Itou Shizuka to be appearing on Day 2 of the event. One of my favourite seiyuus that have voices major roles like Hinagiku from Hayate no Gotoku, Wilhelmina from Shakugan no Shana, Morishima Haruka from Amagami SS and many more! WAO!~

You can head down and meet her live and hear her read out your requested lines from her works and also answer your questions! You can send in your line request and questions now and and the selected ones will stand a chance to win her autograph!

They have four crews – music by ZANIO, illustration by CHAN*CO, design by PPRP and DJ & direction by Torinos. They will be appearing on Day 1 performing, so come and join in the party and spend our first Vocaloid night there!

Anymore?

We’ve got Kishida Mel!