New Blog

Yoz~ here's the add. to my new blog doubt there will be any updates to this blog anymore but check it out here 2.

Heres the add http://soutennohikari.wordpress.com/

New Blog - Word Press

Found a new blogging system with better control... Wordpress.com.

However, i'm still figuring out how to use it. Guess I will still be using blogspot to blog for awhile more...

Odex had no Rights!

Let me quote the article on straits times first...

Odex 'failed tough standard of proof'
Judge explains decision not to allow anime distributor access to PacNet downloaders' names
By Chua Hian Hou
ANIME distributor Odex's failed bid to win a court order forcing Pacific Internet (PacNet) to disclose the names of alleged illegal downloaders may have set an important precedent in the area of Internet privacy.
District Judge Ernest Lau released his judgment to the media yesterday and outlined his reasoning.

He compared a request for an Internet service provider's subscriber information to what is known as an Anton Piller order in the law world.

An Anton Piller order allows the plaintiff to enter someone else's premises, halt all activities, make a search - for days if necessary - and then seize all incriminating evidence found.

Because of its 'draconian' nature, such orders are only granted when the plaintiff can prove it had an 'extremely strong prima facie case of a civil cause of action', wrote Judge Lau.

He said he required a similar standard of proof in the Odex case to protect 'public interest'.

Service providers like PacNet, he wrote, owe it to both their customers and regulators to protect subscriber information. Singapore has no privacy law as such.

Odex, said Judge Lau, failed on two counts.

Only copyright owners - that is, the studios that made the anime - or an 'exclusive licensee' for the anime being downloaded, can take legal action under the Singapore Copyright Act.

Odex is a sub-licensee and had letters from rights owners authorising it to take action on their behalf, but the firm was neither a copyright owner nor an 'exclusive licensee'. An exclusive licensee has the sole right to distribute a product in a certain market.

Judge Lau added that he was also not wholly satisfied with Odex's explanation of how it identified the downloaders.

Five lawyers told The Straits Times that the high standard Judge Lau set for the Odex court order was unprecedented.

Such orders for subscriber information are usually routine procedures. A plaintiff would use the information discovered by the court order to decide his next step. In Odex's case, it needs the names so it can send its letters demanding settlement.

One lawyer who declined to be named said it now 'sounds like the plaintiff must prove to the court at a very early stage that it will very probably win, which may not always be possible in Internet-related cases'.

Other district judges do not necessarily have to follow Judge Lau's ruling.

But if Odex appeals to the High Court - it is considering this - and Judge Lau's ruling is upheld, all future rulings will have to meet the sort of standard of proof required to get an Anton Piller order.

The ruling, said corporate counsel and Nominated MP Siew Kum Hong, could make it 'cumbersome and expensive, although not impossible', for rights owners, and 'especially those overseas', to take legal action against downloaders.

The lawyers also noted that the ruling could have an impact on other online identity-related areas, for instance, those involving defamation or fraud.

Odex is acting against people allegedly downloading anime, or Japanese cartoons, illegally. Earlier this year it successfully forced StarHub and SingNet to disclose the names of subscribers allegedly downloading such anime.

It has been sending letters to these downloaders since May demanding settlement of between $3,000 to $5,000.


Why PacNet succeeded
SOME light has been cast on how the anime distributor Odex was able to obtain court orders against SingNet and StarHub but not Pacific Internet (PacNet).
All three cases were heard 'in chambers' at the Subordinate Courts by different judges and these proceedings are rarely made public.

But District Judge Ernest Lau released a 14-page written judgment yesterday explaining the ruling he handed down on Thursday in Odex's case against PacNet.

Odex had demanded that the three Internet service providers supply the names of subscribers who had been downloading content illegally from Odex's anime site.

It won orders against SingNet in May and StarHub earlier this month, but Judge Lau turned down its request for an order against PacNet on Thursday. He noted that 'for the SingNet case, the orders were made by consent'.

A lawyer familiar with such proceedings said this means during the run-up to the hearing, SingNet had written to Odex to 'consent' to its request.

Odex's lawyers, Rajah & Tann, presented this note at the hearing. Judge Lau also noted that SingNet's lawyers did not attend the hearing.

A SingNet spokesman said that 'when Odex first approached us through their solicitors, we told them that we will not provide any customer information to them unless they produce a court order.

'Subsequently, Odex obtained the court order and served it on us. We then complied with (it).'

In StarHub's case, its lawyers, Drew & Napier, were present, but 'the issues raised here (by PacNet) were never fully argued before the court', Judge Lau wrote. A StarHub spokesman told The Straits Times that the firm had 'resisted Odex's application...as we take a serious view of our obligation to safeguard our customers' confidentiality'.

Erm.. Something out into the light... thanks to Judge Lau. Well, I do not know anything about the law so I won't comment much on the first part. Now lets move to why Pacnet Succeeded.

For Singnet case... they just consented to it huh.. and previous article they will telling public that they have strict policy on the customer privacy but have to give out information because of a court order. So in the end, this court order was presented to them without putting up a fight on their part.. Hats off to you...

As for Starhub... ok.. u fought but with no ammo on ur side? Wow... this is asking the judge to award a court order to 'some company'

Anyway, here's the Today article on this news. Most of it is covered on the article above so i will just paste the unmentioned part here.

Today Article by Lee Chee Kong
cheekong@mediacorp.com.sg

That was the rationale behind the court's surprise dismissal of Odex's bid to get Pacific Internet(PacNet) to disclose its customers' identities. The judge's 13-page grounds of decision was released to the media on Friday.


Noting that SingNet did not engage lawyers to resist Odex's application, Judge Lau raised serveral issues that he felt "were never fully argued before the court" in the hearing involving StarHub, which was handled by a different judge.

Out of the 13 letters that Odex produced to support its claims that it was authorised to go after the illegal downloaders, only three parties - all distributors themselves- had "directly appointed" Odex to act for them.

The other 10 letters had authorised the Anti-Video Piracy Association (Singapore) to do so, Judge Lau pointed out.



Odex appeared to be the exclusive licensee for just one title, Mobile Suit Gundam Seed, the judge added.

Even then, the Act only gives the exclusive licensee the right to take civil action against the infringer.

For criminal prosecution, the complaints must be brought about by the Attorney-Genereal's Chambers or "the person aggrieved by the offence"

Judge Lau said he "could not justify" compelling PacNet to release the data unless Odex had an "extremely strong prima facie case" against the wrongdoers.

In this regard, the evidence provided by Odex was found wanting, said the judge.

Last year, Odex engaged BayTSP- an Internet investigation firm in the United States- to provide an online tracking solution to track odwn and collect details for unauthorised uploading and downloading of anime via BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer online file sharing platform.

But the judge said Odex director Peter Go - who filed the affidavit - had "no proof" that his firm had engaged the services of BayTSP in this matter, and neither did BayTSP give evidence in favour of Odex.

Mr Go merely provided articles and FAQ information on BayTSP's website on the services it provides.

Adding that he was "uncomfortable" with the "expediency by which (Odex) approached this case", the judge said:"This is an application that will impact potentially thousands of persons. The alleged breach of copyright is inferred from how the BitTorrent protocol works. It is not sufficient for (Odex) to adduce website information before a court of law or for (Mr Peter Go) to explain the mechanics."

Even though Odex lost the case, Judge Lau said:"If a clear case of infringement is proven, copyright owners and their exclusive licensees can expect preaction assistance from the Court subject to the principles laid out (in the judgement)

When contacted, Mr Go said Odex would be appealing against the judgement.

Erm.. Basically this meant AVPAS = Odex? Once the distributor authorized AVPAS = Odex can act also? As for the engagement for BayTSP, they do not have any clear information that they can produce to support that they DID engage their services. This meant that the ip address information was collected by themselves instead? Wa... someone should just hired people to check their computers.. So for the next appealing, I wonder what kind of tricks will Odex pull out...

Slow news - Xedo

Well, there quite a number of production from NCH. One of his production as attached below:

Theres also some comic strip about the situation now but well you can view it at his site.

Recommendation for new Blogging place?

Anyone has any recommendation for new place to blog? blogspot nowadays is lagging and lagging. Some more there's no control one over much functions one... anyone can recommend me?

PacNet Won the Onslaughter of the Legal Judgment

Yesterday was judgment day for Pacnet and its user and guess what, Pacnet survive the legal onslaughter.




Below is the quote from yesterday Straits Times online

ANIME distributer Odex has lost a court bid to force Pacific Internet to reveal names of subscribers who allegedly downloaded pirated versions of the Japanese cartoons.
The Subordinate Court handed down its decision in chambers on Thursday and no details were made public.

Pacific Internet (PacNet), which opposed the Odex action, would only say that it 'respects the rights of intellectual property owners and at the same time, also believes in protecting the privacy of all our subscribers'.

The Straits Times understands one reason for District Judge Ernest Lau's decision is that he believes Odex was not the right party to make the application, despite having the go-ahead to prosecute on the behalf of the Japanese anime studios.

Odex is demanding the names of up to 1000 PacNet downloaders.

A company spokesman said it will consult the rights owners before making its next move but it was likely to appeal. It has 14 days to do so.

The ruling on Thursday came as a surprise given that Odex had successfully obtained Court orders to get SingNet and StarHub to reveal names of their downloaders.

Different judges ruled on those cases, and both internet service providers declined to say what arguments they presented in court.

In light of the PacNet decision, a StarHub spokesman said on Thursday that it's 'assessing our options ...given the different decisions rendered by the court'.

But the deadline for lodging an appeal has expired for StarHub and SingTel.

My 3 cent:

Well, looks like theres gonna be a appeal by Odex on this judgment. But in the meanwhile, rejoice Pacnet subscriber. Too bad that Starhub and Singtel appeal is already over. But I still hope that they can do something about this should Odex not consider appealing or failed in its next appealing. If not, I can foresee alot of people going jumping over to Pacnet in the next few months.

Odex POV - Which i think is.....

Ok, after the lengthy post down below, let us continue with this. Odex POV article.

ODEX CLARIFICATION ARTICLE

Singapore, 20 August 2007- Singapore anime distributor Odex has commenced action to deal with and contain the state of rampant downloading of unauthorised anime video files on the internet.

To date, Japanese content owners have not made any anime titles legally available for download in Singapore. There are websites offering “free” anime downloads, such as Animesuki, but none of these websites are authorised by the Japanese content owners.

Odex is authorised by the Anti-Video Piracy Association (Singapore) (AVPAS), a non-profit organisation whose members consist primarily of Japanese companies involved in the anime industry, including major companies such as Sunrise Inc., TV Tokyo Medianet Co., Ltd, Gonzo Digimation Holding K.K., Kadokawa Pictures, Inc. and Aniplex Inc., to take all steps necessary to protect and enforce the copyrights subsisting in more than 400 anime titles.

These 400 over authorised titles do not consist only of anime titles that are licensed to Odex. Whether or not and to whom an anime title is licensed for sale in Singapore does not change the fact that they all enjoy copyright protection under Singapore law. Odex was appointed to conduct the present enforcement drive because it is the largest distributor of anime in the region, and it has conducted successful enforcement actions in the past in relation to the sale of pirated anime VCDs and DVDs.

In 2006, Odex engaged a US-based sentry company, BayTSP Inc, to provide Odex with a software solution that would track and record instances of unauthorised downloading of anime titles over the internet. BayTSP has provided similar solutions for companies such as Paramount Pictures and Viacom in its ongoing suit against Google.

Based on searches conducted over a 6-month period from November 2006 to April 2007 on 50 anime titles only using BayTSP’s tracking solution, Odex found that there were more than 400,000 instances of downloading in Singapore. Singapore was found to have the highest level of anime downloading in the world by population.

Upon consultation with the members of AVPAS as well as other affected Japanese content owners, Odex was tasked to organise a major enforcement effort, and represent all the content owners in enforcement action against downloaders in Singapore, under the auspices of AVPAS.

The objective of this enforcement drive is to carry out sustained action that will serve as a wake-up call to anime fans and other internet users in Singapore that downloading is illegal. Many internet users in Singapore download copyright material which is owned by major foreign companies, such as film production studios and television networks in the US and Japan. These companies have so far not taken action in Singapore, not because downloading is legal, but because Singapore has not been a priority for enforcement. This will now change, at least where anime is concerned, in view of the alarming statistics gathered from BayTSP’s data.

From March to May 2007, Odex made applications to court to require the three ISPs (Internet Service Providers) in Singapore to release information identifying subscribers whose accounts had been used to download unauthorised anime videos over the internet. The applications against SingNet and Starhub were granted by the courts, while the application against Pacific Internet is still pending. Such applications are nothing new – ISPs here have routinely been required by court orders to produce information containing subscriber details in order to facilitate the identification of potential defendants in lawsuits involving claims such as defamation and infringement of intellectual property.

At present, there are more than 3,000 IP addresses that are the subject of court orders already issued, or of pending applications in court. Some reports have referred to Odex obtaining information relating to 1,000 IP addresses from each ISP. This is inaccurate. None of the ISPs assigns unique IP addresses to their subscribers, and it highly unlikely that 1,000 IP addresses would in fact translate to the identification of 1,000 different subscribers – ie the figure would be much less.

Once the subscribers were identified, Odex wrote to all of them, to offer them a chance to settle the copyright owners’ claims against them out of court, before legal action was commenced against them. Many of those who received Odex’s letter have since come forward to admit that they had been engaged in downloading, and have settled the matter.

The average amount of compensation paid by those who have settled is about $3,000 to $5,000. At present, no damages have been claimed, and the copyright owners are only seeking reimbursement for the expenses that Odex has incurred on their behalf in pursuing these enforcement matters, as part of an early settlement before claims are filed in court.

Settlements before action are very common in practice. Far from amounting to extortion, they represent a sensible way of redressing wrongs and grievances, and allowing the parties a way out of unnecessary litigation. Should the copyright owners’ attempts (through Odex) to amicably resolve matters be rejected by any downloader, then the copyright owners are free to commence legal proceedings against the downloaders to claim all remedies that they are entitled to claim under Singapore law, including damages, an injunction, and legal costs.

Some reports have stated that Odex may earn up to $15 million through compensation payments received from downloaders, on the basis that Odex receives $5,000 from each of 3,000 subscribers. This is again not true. 3,000 IP addresses do not equate to 3,000 different subscribers. Further, Odex does not require all downloaders to pay $5,000 in compensation.

The main factor in deciding the compensation amount for early settlement purposes is the level of downloading carried out by each individual. Bearing in mind that the enforcement drive is still at an initial stage, conscious efforts have been made to keep the amount claimed to a minimum. The amount paid to Odex so far has not covered even 20% of Odex’s enforcement costs incurred to date. Additionally, downloaders who face genuine financial difficulties have been allowed to pay significantly reduced compensation amounts, or to pay in instalments.

There have been reports stating that Odex has charged 10% on compensation sums where the downloader was allowed to pay in instalments. This is not true – Odex has not asked anyone to pay interest on the compensation sums paid.

In the US, companies that have taken legal action against downloaders have typically been awarded hundreds or thousands of dollars in statutory damages for each infringing work downloaded, in addition to recovery of their legal costs and expenses from these downloaders. The Singapore Copyright Act also allows copyright owners to elect for an award of up to $10,000 in statutory damages for each infringing work.

The publicity generated from the enforcement campaign has caused some anime fans to react adversely and irrationally, some going to the extent of publishing profanity-laden postings on the internet, and issuing death threats against an Odex director. Some fans have also gone online to speculate on various aspects of the enforcement drive, or to accuse Odex of improper motives, causing the proliferation of untrue information on popular internet forums. For example, some anime fans had speculated that Odex had “done a deal” with the ISPs to obtain their subscriber details. This was later clarified in the press by the ISPs and by Odex, when they told the press that the information had been obtained as a result of court orders.

On the other hand, many other anime fans have responded by coming forward to admit that they have downloaded, and to ask for a settlement of any claims against them, even before receiving any letter from Odex. All downloaders who voluntarily settle in this way will be free from any legal action by Odex or the copyright owners represented by Odex for downloading, unless they subsequently breach their settlement terms by, for example, continuing to download anime illegally.

Ok... This is their what i think is a 1-sided article from them. However, those who do not support Odex also raise their one sided comments hehe... so I guess its alright... Now, this is a private article that one of the blogger recorded when he meet Peter Go. One of the director of Odex....

Despite the terribly irresistible pun of a title, this article aims to bring to light what Odex, at least officially, aims to achieve. This is the story from their Point of View.

I repeat, it’s their story, I have fabricated or modified nothing.

I met Peter Go, director of Odex, at about 9 pm, on a weekday. We went to a certain 24hour prata store, where he ordered a couple of drinks. Armed with a large notepad and a pen, a relic of my days as an army journalist, I listened attentively as Peter talked endlessly about his company, how fansubs were destroying the anime industry and what Odex was doing to counter the situation. It is obvious Peter is an anime fan - he has seen far more than most of you have. Except that for him, anime isn’t just a hobby, it’s his livelihood.

As anyone who has turned their hobby into a full-job would know, it is not easy to balance love and money. I would know, I worked in a figure store, where I had to sell people bad figures at high prices, despite them being fellow figure fans. I quit within a month. Even the esteemed RJC blogger, Darkmirage, told Peter Go to just fold his company, for anime is not the most lucrative of businesses and should be left as a hobby. But Odex still stands. Perhaps it could be seen as a testament to the strength of their love for anime. Or perhaps it’s just for money. While we won’t truly know, due to their secretive nature, I would like to share some of what I heard from him.

The central belief Peter holds is that an anime fan is one who gives back as much as he takes from the anime industry. That is the hallmark of a true fan. In other words, a free-loading downloader is not an anime fan. Animators in Japan slog for peanuts, because of their love for anime, bringing us the shows we enjoy. Watching it legally on TV in Japan and even here helps them, for it increases ad revenue. Buying DVDs, merchandise and others also help them. But downloading for free does not return anything to the industry and this is a form of theft, according to Peter. He has visited almost all the anime studios in Japan and is on close terms with the directors of a few like Sunrise (explains why ALL Sunrise anime are on the AVPAS list). He recalled that he wept when he first saw the working conditions of the animators, such was the harshness.

If you have lots of love for anime, channel it in the right places, Peter exclaimed. The days of fansubs being promotion material are long gone. Nowadays, they are more harm than good, people are not buying DVDs because they already have obtained the shows via illegal downloads. Peter believes he is a far greater anime fan than all the freeloaders because of what he has done for the local scene, and truth be told, he may be right. There is now a huge amount of anime shown on TV, many casual fans buy VCDs of anime legally and all these can be attributed to Odex obtaining the rights to these anime. Just a few years back, it was not possible to purchase such a wide variety of anime titles from retail stores. While there was anime on TV, it wasn’t shown in such great numbers.

The huge rise in anime popularity is noticeable in our daily lives. Even the least likely of people have watched anime. There’s this sweet statistics girl, who looks more attuned to the likes of studying than that of Inuyasha, but she is a fan of the latter. Almost all the guys watch anime. But the problem is, such popularity is not being reflected proportionately in terms of revenue collected by both the distributors and the studios. For that, Peter blames the downloads. Downloaders do not contribute to the economy of the anime industry, he stressed.

So what is Odex’s ultimate aim in stamping out the culture of downloading anime?

Peter wanted to keep this a secret, because he felt nobody would believe him, such is how seemingly impossible it sounds. But here it goes. He wants to see a unique Singaporean anime culture, one which is totally free of piracy, illegal downloads and 100 percent friendly to the Japanese studios. Most other countries cannot achieve this because of their geographical dispersion and lack of strong policing, but Singapore being so tiny and manageable, is a unique country able to attain this culture. So what happens when an entire nation is free of piracy and supports legal purchases of anime?

The Japanese studios would cease to think of Singapore as a small market and would reward us accordingly. Now that anime is so widespread, with the resulting high demand for legal goods, there would be much economies of scale and a subsequent lowering of prices. If Singapore is a big market, Singaporeans would have much clout with the Japanese studios and we will soon start seeing special Singapore-only extras in anime, or even more Singaporean anime characters and settings. Not only those, we can start demanding for same-time releases of DVDs and airtime of episodes, and invite high profile staff and seiyuu down here. In a capitalist economy, money talks and if everyone got their anime via legal means, Singapore would be ahead of the other countries in terms of attractiveness to the Japanese studios.

Beyond all those, the localised anime culture would also support cosplay, arts, music and other aspects of anime fandom. If these are of a high enough standard, Peter even wishes to have them included as DVD extras in his products, for a local touch.

But of course, to achieve such an anime utopia would require the co-operation of both the anime-loving masses and the licensing company. It does seem like an impossible dream, what with the high-handed approach Odex is taking, and the juvenile cyber-terrorism undertaken by the online masses.

The dream does sound good, and it did bring a smile to my face as I heard it. Imagine the possibilities, like a female Gundam heroine who shouts, "Wah lau eh!" when her Merlion Gundam explodes! Hirano Aya coming to Singapore and performing in the indoor stadium! Anime DVDs of great quality for less than ten dollars! Watching the latest anime episodes on TV or VoD at the same time of Japanese releases, while the silly Americans struggle with their week-old fansubs! Sounds great right? But all that, apparently according to Peter, is dependant on whether we can generate that critical mass of anime demand needed for Japanese studios to take notice and care of us. And to do that, fansub downloads need to be eradicated.

So there you have it, it’s the vision of Odex. So what say you now?

My Cents:

Wow wow wow.... I really have to comment on this particular article as above. Lets break the above article into parts and view my comment on it.

I listened attentively as Peter talked endlessly about his company, how fansubs were destroying the anime industry and what Odex was doing to counter the situation. It is obvious Peter is an anime fan - he has seen far more than most of you have. Except that for him, anime isn’t just a hobby, it’s his livelihood.

Well, fansubs do not 'DESTROY' the anime industry. Instead it bring in new market point for the anime industry. Look at America. Can you tell me how in the world ANIME get into this super distance foreign country if no one in their country. Well for the very least, i agree that Peter might have seen more anime than us as he works in the anime industry. But from here, I suspect people inside Odex just keep the anime for themselves. Look at their lengthy release date for each of their anime works. Thou they might say its because of MDA hence they need to make sure that everything is in order before they can pass it for grading by MDA hence the date. But but.. its not as if you are drawing new things into the anime you are just cutting out the anime how in the world do you take so long for it??

The central belief Peter holds is that an anime fan is one who gives back as much as he takes from the anime industry. That is the hallmark of a true fan. In other words, a free-loading downloader is not an anime fan. Animators in Japan slog for peanuts, because of their love for anime, bringing us the shows we enjoy. Watching it legally on TV in Japan and even here helps them, for it increases ad revenue. Buying DVDs, merchandise and others also help them.

Well, i feel that he is the person who say one thing but does the other. Look at his comment here and what Odex is doing now. Even if the downloader have the original copies they still got fined etc. Even if the downloader buy dozens of figures in support of the anime they still got fine. This is kill all rather than give chance tactic and in the end this deter all true fans/ going to be fans from getting into anime. So what does this do? Give back to the anime industry? Don't make me laugh. What Odex is doing is just killing off the already small industry in Singapore rather than promoting.

Peter believes he is a far greater anime fan than all the freeloaders because of what he has done for the local scene, and truth be told, he may be right. There is now a huge amount of anime shown on TV, many casual fans buy VCDs of anime legally and all these can be attributed to Odex obtaining the rights to these anime. Just a few years back, it was not possible to purchase such a wide variety of anime titles from retail stores. While there was anime on TV, it wasn’t shown in such great numbers.

Actually, a few years back I'm sure that there are more DVDs/Vcds of anime genre around. Still rem. that everytime i went to IMM i will always go to the vcd/dvd shop to look at anime should there be a one that I find the 'COVER'/'CASING' nice i would buy it. But look at what Odex came out with. First time i saw those casing i thought it was a bootlegged. and further preview from comic connection show the quality of the vcd as ......... *insert your own imagination here* As for a huge amount of anime shown on TV, well i think i can count all the anime shown on channel 8 or central with 20 fingers or even less than that. If you are talking about animax, then thats a whole new story. （＾▽＾笑）

Almost all the guys watch anime. But the problem is, such popularity is not being reflected proportionately in terms of revenue collected by both the distributors and the studios. For that, Peter blames the downloads. Downloaders do not contribute to the economy of the anime industry, he stressed.

I feel that he is referring to ODEX sale/revenue. Well, we all know why Odex don't make much money but anime fans will buy stuffs related to the anime that they like if they have the money. Furthermore, I really do not think that they have make any effort to promote or to survey overseas market.

But here it goes. He wants to see a unique Singaporean anime culture, one which is totally free of piracy, illegal downloads and 100 percent friendly to the Japanese studios. Most other countries cannot achieve this because of their geographical dispersion and lack of strong policing, but Singapore being so tiny and manageable, is a unique country able to attain this culture.

Yeah, basically to say that this place is a cage? There's no such thing as free of piracy! Ok. Even should this this place be 100 percent free of illegal anime downloads how many people *think in future tense* do you think will get to know anime going by the way that Odex is doing its non-existing promoting now? How the **** is this FRIENDLY to the studios/animator in japan?

The Japanese studios would cease to think of Singapore as a small market and would reward us accordingly. Now that anime is so widespread, with the resulting high demand for legal goods, there would be much economies of scale and a subsequent lowering of prices. If Singapore is a big market, Singaporeans would have much clout with the Japanese studios and we will soon start seeing special Singapore-only extras in anime, or even more Singaporean anime characters and settings.

Japanese studio will always think of Singapore as a small market no matter what he says. If they do not think that Singapore is a small market, there will be Bandai Singapore in charge of bringing/licensing bandai anime and releasing it in Singapore. Rather than a 'ONLY' company who take pride in it being the only company in this region who subbed/dubbed anime. But let say that there are more company releasing anime should there be no illegal download. Now who do you think will buy the DVD when not even a single soul know what 'thing' is it about.

Not only those, we can start demanding for same-time releases of DVDs and airtime of episodes, and invite high profile staff and seiyuu down here. In a capitalist economy, money talks and if everyone got their anime via legal means, Singapore would be ahead of the other countries in terms of attractiveness to the Japanese studios.

Now, if they can demand same-time release of DVDs and airtime of episode in the first place, *when they first started out which i'm sure that downloads aren't so popular as of then* why didn't they do it? After all the comments, let me stress again, Singapore can never win in terms of market size as compared to other country. Basically because our anime market is small. 200k? as compared to america how many people do you think there are? Now if you are a Japanese company producing anime. Who will you give more of the benfits to?

Beyond all those, the localised anime culture would also support cosplay, arts, music and other aspects of anime fandom. If these are of a high enough standard, Peter even wishes to have them included as DVD extras in his products, for a local touch.

Well, extras are given by the company who are producing the DVDs, it all depends on whether they want to do it or not. I'm sure even now when people are downloading should there be a better packaging and EXTRAS not seen anywhere else in the world people would buy the DVDs. and whats of the culture? Killing off a market means killing any future culture there is.

All in all, this will in the end be a VISION only. Of which, i don't think they will achieve it. *Based on the actions taken by this company.

Support Anime? Support the Original!

Erm..

After quite awhile, here another post.

Ok. The following quote was extracted from here.

Well this will be a long quote. Ok... I cut some of those irrelevant part but the whole gist of it is in here. The life of Seiryuu and animators.

Animators are Slaves

The discussion starts with the pay and working hours of animators. Lets start with a Survey detailing the salaries earned by Japanese animators.

Working an average of 10.2 hours a day, 49.5% of them reported that they feel that their salaries are not sufficient for the work they do and 90% of them feel that the benefits and pensions are insufficient.

26.8% earn less than 1 million yen (US$8,500 approx.) annually, 19.6% earn between 1 million yen and 2 million yen (US$17,000 approx.) annually, 18.6% earn between 2 million yen and 3 million yen (US$25,700 approx.) annually. 65% of Japanese animators earn less than 3 million yen annually.

One category of animators, the storyboard animators who are responsible for drawing up outlines and sketches of how the animation will run, earns even less. They are often paid on a "per frame" basis, earning an average of 187 yen (US$1.60 approx.) per frame. 73.7% of these animators earn less than 1 million yen per year and the highest paid storyboard animators earn at most 80% of what other types of animators make.

Kj1980 has quite the facts to add.
"Animators (gengaka) here are viewed as the bottom rung of society - people who work close to 20+ hours a day, have to sleep at their office, who gets paid less than the people flipping burgers at McDonald’s, and never see a single yen from the profits from the sales.

The head honcho (they can be the chief writer, the director, the original character designer, etc.) are the ones who bring up the idea, who do all the dealings with sponsors and TV studios, who are the brainchild of the series, stories, and whatnot. Hence, they reap in all the royalties and percentage of the profits. That’s why you have people like Akahori Satoru (main writer for many successful anime and games) who owns a Centurion American Express card, who lavishes around in expensive bars ordering $5,000+ bottles of wine, driving around in exotic cars and getting all the ladies. On the other hand, you have slaving low level animators who gets paid meager amounts in which they can’t pay their electric bills and are kicked out from their apartments for not being able to pay their rent.

If you persevere you might get a chance to be responsible for the chief animation director. And if you are able to get through that, you might make connections along the way to move up to become a director or a writer. But out of a pool of thousands of low level animators, the chances are slim."

Dafool, who is in the Filipino animation industry, gives some insight into hellish working conditions.

• Do you want to sleep and bathe in the animation studio, going home (if at all) only during the weekends?
• Do you want a steady diet of coffee, coke, Ministop fried chicken, 7-Eleven hotdogs, and cigarettes?
• Do you want to work very hard on a scene, only to have to redo it because someone down the pipeline thinks it sucks? Or worse, because some idiot accidentally deleted it.
• Do you want to be assured that after the current project is over, you have no guarantee of your next work?
• Do you just love to bask in the condescending attitudes of the expats who make no effort to mask the fact that they dislike you because you are doing their job for cheap and who blame all bad quality on the outsourcing and subcontractors, and yet at the same time change their minds at the last minute to redo some scenes worse than they were to begin with?
• Do you like to work with people who did not have a good education, or who were involved in drugs at some point in their lives?

Yes, it is still possible to be richer being a freelance animator than a salaryman. If you are superman and can pump out twenty feet a day, that is.

Eggplant, who is living in Japan, notes the reasons behind the working conditions.
"This atrocious working environment is not only tolerated, it is legal. These animators are not employed by their respective studios, but instead are servicing their skills under a contractual agreement, with remuneration based on output (i.e., number of pages penciled/painted). In essence, they are not subject to labor laws, including the application of minimum wages and maximum hours of labor per week. Despite being technically immune to corporate regulations such as working hours, studios bind them to their desks until the quota is fulfilled, hinting that the slightest sign of insubordinance will lead to his/her firing, as animators are literally disposable, replaced by the next flock of unwitting wannabes.

But the majority of young animators are at the mercy of studios, to be exploited at will, and those that manage to stay on board will eventually encounter a reality check in the form of their services no longer being necessary. Then again, how can an average digital artist make ends meet at a per page rate of under 200 yen, when the maximum number of pages one can physically complete is 20 per day?

The anime industry is extremely closed and it is so for a reason. In comparison to other forms of entertainment, production costs for anime are extremely expensive, mainly to cover labor costs for the immense amount of hand drawn artwork. A thrity minute late night episode averages around US$200K, which is rather unpractical considering the resources needed to re-collect the money (primarily by DVD sales).

This was already an issue from the dawning ages of anime. Mushi Productions, the first Japanese anime studio, led by the legendary Tezuka Osamu, realized that cutting production costs was essential in the survival of future anime. All other studios followed suit, and eventually horrible working conditions became synonymous with anime production. This remained tacit knowledge for a long time, as if competetive studios were working in collusion in order to cover up the dark side of the indsutry.

Tezuka is praised for his work, as his contributions to the industry surpass any of his vices. However, he is also the center of controversy within the anime industry, and high profile people such as director Miyazaki Hayao has been known to criticize the late Tezuka of setting a precedent."

---

Seiyuu are not Stars
Contrary to popular belief, the life is a seiyuu isn’t like that of a regular star. Majority of them live like normal people, or even less-well off than normal people. Without a fixed income, they have to search for as many auditions as possible, if not a part-time job may be required just to stay alive.

Kj1980 explains the harsh truth.
Seiyuus are paid around 2,000-3,000 yen per episode. That means, even if you have one line or hundred of lines, you are still paid the same amount. Almost every seiyuu that is tied to a talent agency is paid around that price. Once you are famous enough to make out on your own, you are your own boss so you can haggle your own price. A good example of how poor seiyuus are can be best exemplified from YuriC’s (Ochiai Yurika) personal blog - that she didn’t have enough money to pay the electric bill so her electricity was cut off, she almost had her mobile phone disconnected because she couldn’t pay that bill.

So in order to make a living as a seiyuu - they attend as many auditions as they can so that they can be selected to appear in almost every episode for at least two or three titles per season.

Singers are different. Their income mainly comes from revenues from CD sales. The difference between seiyuus that sings and real singers is exactly just that - seiyuus rarely ever see a single yen from royalties from their CDs, whereas real singers reap in huge royalties.

Seiyuu receives little to nothing when she sings. The deal is between the talent agency in which the seiyuu resides and the record company. Not the seiyuu him/herself.

They are just corporate workers who have a job at a talent agency. Their main job is to provide voice acting service for the company. The more they do, the more money companies make with deals.

Besides, the main royalties goes to people who writes the lyrics and makes the music - not the singer. So, if you look carefully at the credits, it reads:

• Lyrics by:
• Music by:
• Sung by:

Lyrics gets royalties because the lyrics to the song is published. If it is used in karaoke machines, then licensing costs margins goes to the person who wrote the lyrics. Same holds true for the original music. The singer just sings to the written lyrics and the music. Practically anyone can do that if they have a nice voice, so little money goes to them.

The flow:

• Talent agency calls up their seiyuu to sing.
• The lyrics and music are already made by the record company.
• The girl sings to the lyrics and the music. She is paid a stipend for doing that.
• The song is an instantaneous hit (to otakus).
• The royalties goes to: the talent agency (which provided the singer) and the record company (which provided the lyrics and the music)
• What did the seiyuu receive? The stipend only.

So what if the seiyuu gets pissed off for not receiving more? The talent agency can just replace the seiyuu since they have a giant pool of them to choose from. The seiyuu need the agency to find them jobs.

"In the light" seiyuus that does voice acting for "in the light" games gets paid a modest amount. I’m not certain of the details as that is usually a haggling price between the game makers and the talent agency.

As for "in the dark" seiyuus who uses pseudonyms or who cannot get roles for "in the light" (sadly, majority of newly seiyuu graduates succumb to such roles) have no choice but to lend their voices for ero-games or ero-anime. They are usually paid quite low. Lately many previously "in the dark" seiyuus have come "into the light" with high popularity of the originally ero-game based-turned anime. The opposite also holds true: many "in the light" seiyuus lend their own voices (with pseudonyms) for "in the dark" ero-game industry in order to make a living.

In either case, whether you are popular or not, whether you have concerts or expos, seiyuus are not paid that well. Only a few, a very select few make money whose ranges are of several ten thousand yens per episode.

Who makes the most money? Veterans like Inoue Kikuko or Hayashibara Megumi aren’t in the top bracket. Legendary people in their late fifties, sixties, and in their seventies. The people who do (did) voices for Doraemon and Sazae-san. People who did the majority of kids’ shows back in the 70s and 80s. They are the ones in which the a large portion of the Japanese populace grew up listening to by watching "World Masterpiece Theater." Current big-name seiyuus learned their skills from these people. But even then, the top earning seiyuu legends like Kamiya Akira get paid an only a 10~50,000 yen per episode.

That is why most seiyuus need to do many auditions to get more anime series, dub voice overs for movies, voices for commercials, to make a living. If that doesn’t work, they need to find a job for secondary income (working at a restaurant, a convenience store, etc. etc.).

If you don’t have nothing to shine and impress the sponsors, sound directors, and the creators of anime, TV commercials or movies, you end up working for the dark side - voicing ero-anime and ero-games (though many seiyuus do ero-games under a pseudonym as it pays a bit better), getting quick cash by appearing in a porno.

The fans don’t care - the people that get irked are the sponsors. And the main reason is:

Let’s say a seiyuu goes to an audition and get the role for a very popular children’s show that runs on NHK (the nationally owned TV station).

A few days later, TV execs find out that the seiyuu did a role in an ero-game without covering up her name. She immediately loses her job that she acquired.

Why? Same as any other country with bitching parents and teachers associations that cry afoul "oh, think of the children! how can you be so obtuse to let such person doing a kid’s show! won’t please someone think of the children!?"

Miyamura Yuko, the seiyuu for Asuka in "Neon Genesis Evangelion" gained immense popularity when that anime became a hit. However, when a tabloid exposed that she appeared in a porno several years before (the days when she wasn’t famous and needed cash to make a living), the gossip press daunted her days after days. This continued to taunt Miyamu for several months during which she couldn’t get any job because of this.

Fans of Pamela Anderson and Paris Hilton could care less of their sexcapades (rather, many are interested), so do fans of seiyuus. It’s the tabloids and the press, bitching parents, teachers and liberal activists. It’s the sponsors and talent agencies who instantly distance themselves when such "facts" are broken to the press.

If seiyuus need the money, they’d better be sure to use pseudonyms when they take voice acting roles for ero-games and ero-anime.

Few examples:
Mizuhashi Kaori = Uehara Tomomi
Itou Shizuka = Misaki Rina
Nabatame Hitomi = Tezuka Maki

Eggplant, on the process of becoming a seiyuu.
Anime is not a role model for the entertainment industry, and unlike actors, singers, or athletes who are recognized and duly compensated for their skills, from the studio’s point of view, seiyuus are merely staff despite their actor/actress moniker, and are treated that way.

How ironic it is for seiyuus to be given recent recognition not only by hardcore otakus, but by the entertainment industry as well, when their paycheck pales in comparison to that of an office worker of the same age. Seiyuus, who have established themselves are no exception.

An aspiring seiyuu will usually have to endure 2 years of basic acting training at a vocational school, then enter an agency in Tokyo as a trainee for another 2-3 years of acting lessons before he or she can do any acting work. And that is if the said person is talented enough which is a 1% chance. Even then, such roles for newcomers are sparse, and the prospective seiyuu must win through auditions.

And what is his/her paycheck for this? 12,000 yen (appoximately $110) per episode minus tax deduction and agency commissions, assuming the seiyuu is a member of the Japan Actors Guild. And don’t think that such a union is for the mutual benefit of the seiyuu, as it simply stipulates the unique classification system which is the basis for their appearance fee.

This fixed rate is applicable whether you have one line or a thousand (though there are variable factors that are taken into account), and one’s rank will not be re-evaluated until after 2-3 years, where he/she can only step up to the next level.

The ten tier rating system starting off from Junior (15,000 yen per episode prior to deductions) to Veteran (45,000 yen), plus the special Non-Rank reserved for mainly 60 year olds and above, has hardly any leeway in terms of money. Essentially, a longtime veteran will make only maximum three times that of a rookie per episode. In fact, there are many seiyuus that resist on being promoted to a higher class, as a higher fee will lead to lesser jobs.

Put that into the rookie seiyuu’s shoes. He/she can only earn 60,000 yen per month without stipend, and it is likely that that role is the seiyuu’s only one. No wonder why seiyuus have to resort to other ways to make a living, by appearing in events, doing narration work, dubbing games or commercials, and that’s if there’s such an offer. Otherwise, it’s a continuation of the part-time job he/she did during the trainee days in order to make a living. Since you can only do seiyuu work in Tokyo, and if you’re out here on your own, you must take part time jobs to keep a roof over you.

Seiyuu who are not a union members are forced into worse conditions. Some studios or advertising agencies often hire non-union seiyuus due to budget constraints or animosity towards the union, and there are people who will due whatever it takes to grab a role. There are also seiyuu agencies that are not Management Association members, who exclusively handle non union member seiyuus, although it is up to the individual seiyuu whether to join the guild or not.

Due to the efforts of senior seiyuus, the road for incentives is open, mainly income based on re-runs, but royalties stemming from DVD sales have yet to be in implemented. Simply based on the information laid down here, for example, a 5 year veteran seiyuu with a base wage of 20,000 yen per show who does 4 shows a particular season will earn 240,000 yen a month on anime seiyuu work alone, which finally brings it up to normal living standards.

The spotlight on anime will most likely continue, generating lots of revenue for the select few people in the industry. Too bad that it isn’t adequately returned to the people responsible for putting it into life. And sadly enough, the truth will never reach the starry eyed seiyuu wannabes until confronted with the harsh reality.

Kj1980 gives a reality check for Foreigners who want to be seiyuu.
For foreign seiyuu wannabes, do you really want to go through the trouble of getting a student visa for Japan, submitting dozens of paperwork to prove that you have sufficient income to get by, paying a hefty fee for a temporary residential permit for foreigners, with the restrictions of not being able to get jobs due to "student" status, just to become a seiyuu?

And even if you manage to get by, there are 10,000+ seiyuus that graduate such voice acting schools each year, in which only a handful gets hired by talent agencies. And even then, your salary is extremely low.

Eggplant continues
Erogames are not subject to the rank payment system of anime, although standard video games has its own rating system. A seiyuu can earn 3 or 4 more times as much as he/she can by doing erogames, even though the seiyuu will assume a pseudonym.

This is because erogames/ ero anime videos are a niche market, catered to a minority willing to dish out huge bucks for a product and the production company knows that they have stellar quality by hiring an anime seiyuu.

Male seiyuu are not hesitant about appearing in erogames, as their identity is concealed and they can reap in good money. However, many female seiyuu resist such paths, and in some cases, their agency refuses to have them work in such fields.

In any case, anime seiyuus have to compete against proprietary erogame/eroanime seiyuu for the role, wherein the former has better acting skills while the latter has a better connections within the market.

Male seiyuu who can live a good life do narration work for TV, radio, videos, etc., as payment is very generous. In fact, seiyuus that are homeowners and who drive around in flashy cars built their fortune by doing such work.

In a way, seiyuus are better off than idol singers, who usually have a fixed income the first few years no matter how much that person rakes in for the agency, however when that idol starts switches to a performance based contract, it is a totally different story, as even a Morning Musume member can earn 40 million yen a year.

Listen to the voice acting in Miyazaki Hayao movies. He uses top notch actors/actresses as he depises the industry and anime seiyuus in general, but the end result is mediocre acting at best. This is an indication that top notch seiyuus are best at doing voice dubbing work, a talent often taken for granted.

Of course seiyuu will never attain the celebrity status of a leading actor/actress, as anime in general is a niche market where the seiyuu’s face and name are not recognizable to the public. Actors/actresses in Japan earn most of their money by endorsing products in TV commercials.

---

That’s not exactly a summary is it? But after reading through this, would you still think of Horie Yui and Noto Mamiko in the same way? It’s always better to know than to be ignorant. So next time, when you watch anime, keep in mind that this is the end product of a lot of effort and sacrifice.

So, are you thirsty yet after reading so a long quote?

Heres my 2 cents:

Well, if you plan to stay in japan or is already there, you should know that their working condition especially those low level exec. etc will pretty much have to slog for their petty, 鬼-like boss. However, I do agree that animators and seiyuu have to slog harder to get the money to feed themselves in japan as they work without a fixed income and there are so many of them in the market- they have specialized seiyuu schools there. If we compare them to Singapore, I think we are in the better light as this country have laws that protect workers. Imagine a company work you like a slave. I believe most of the people here will just say QUIT LOR. And either change to another sector of work or find another company of the same sector. You might be thinking that those seiyuu can also find different sector to work in ma... But most of the seiyuu comes from their seiyuu school meaning they skipped what we call studies/ cert/ diploma. Without all these, they can only focus on one sector to earn their livings.

Even thou some entertainer do become famous and earn big bucks, the road to fame for everyone is not easy even if you work in the entertainment sector. This is even harder for seiyuu which work behind the scene and even more harder than the one who draw the arts of the character to form their movements. Let me give you an example:

Have you seen a camera man(referring to those people who hold the camera and shooting the artist during a show) get famous even thou his camera skill is top notch?

Well, those who do get famous do just dub the voice of the anime character alone. They will usually sing the OP or the END of the anime. E.g. Mizuki Nana. Well, she is famous in Japan.. However, I do not know whether she is wealthy or not.

So, at the end of the story, let me put it in simpler terms. Buy the ORIGINAL ANIME. If sales is good, the company producing the show will/might produce a 2nd season. When that happens, seiyuu, animators from the first season will be able to earn a little more 2.

水樹奈々新Single - Massive Wonder

Ok.. Without any further ado.. Massive Wonder

Rem. to buy this album. 2nd OP to 魔法少女リりかなのはstrikerS... Trust me its good!! ^.^b
Just a side note: The MV appears to be a continuation on her MV of Secret Ambition 1st OP of 魔法少女リりかなのはstrikerS. Anyway, the MV posted was from ＧｙａＯジョッキーさん. Well 水樹様 hosted one hour on that show titled Massive Wonder.

Animelo Summer Concert 7/7/2007

Another song to recommend. If you guys are otaku, you should know what Animelo concert stands for. Yes! A concert whereby singers for various anime come together to perform for their fans at one place! This can easily become a 4 hrs concert. Below is the press conference whereby the concert date was announced and the singers who had been chosen to sing in the concert comments.

Following Up, here is the theme song for this year animelo. Generation A

Last year theme song was Outride. This year Generation A. Both are extremely good songs. Hmm... Guess I will need to save money to buy the DVD. For your information, the DVD will be coming out this year NOV. Costing 8900 Yen 3 DVDs in it.

The artist that appeared in animelo are:
ALI PROJECT,近江知永,奥井雅美,栗林みな実,サイキックラバー,Cy-Rim rev.,JAM Project,樹海,Suara,高橋直純,茅原実里,水樹奈々,m.o.v.e,桃井はるこ
There might be more. But I buy to watch Mizuki Nana and Suara perform hehe.. Guess I will need to find someone to share the cost of buying it with me.. Haiz.

The eye of the typhoon?!?

Update on the **** Saga: Are we currently in the eye of the typhoon?

Below are the informations from where I left off to the situation now.. Now before you read the info,

Please read:
Disclaimer: If you read the below information posted in this post, you agree to.

1) Not to bring anyone(post started or the people provided as the link) to court or ask for compensation as you are reading it with no guns pointed @ your head. If you do not agree, please do not continue reading this post. You may scroll down to other post or just click out of this webpage.

Recall: Some company director was clamping down on illegal downloads: anime specifically. However, he had left gloating comments on one of the forum that he frequent. This was subsequently dug up by hardwarezone members.

News Update

Picture courtesy from Harwarezone Forum

Summary: Basically, he called the police for protection as there was some comments left by forumers that might threaten his life etc. When asked for his comments on the forum which he left, he said that it was out of spite of a downloader which he met and left an unpleasant experience. However, hardwarezone CSI again set to work and found out something 'Unusual'

Courtesy from here

Well, what can I say? A picture says a thousand words. For more information you can look at one of the cnet entry which includes link to the undertaking which people need to sign to agree to the out of court/settlement thingz. Its clearly is one sided but poor people has the lower hand here.

Now, the next day one of the senior reporter made a report on the following:

Picture courtesy from here

Well, I agree with this reporter. Fans are the one that provide companies to bring in anime. Actually not just anime but various different language of variety show. As the saying goes. Whenever theres demand, theres supply. What some company are doing is killing supply IMO.

Even when they said that they are curbing down the downloads, they should at the very best give out clear warnings rather than use back dated informations to witch-hunt supplies. What *censored* is doing is just going to gather more hate from the public. Instead of witch hunting, why not cooperate with the fans here. To ensure that theres' always demand from the public for their goods? Well, don't know what I'm saying here but don't think anyone will read on this anyway haha..

On the very next day of the article from the senior reporter, another article came out from the same news paper to rebuke his comments. Sorry but do not have the article picture with me. So, i can't blog much about it as i didn't read that article also.

Anyway, this few days is the eye of the typhoon. Nothing new had happened yet which might still be the on pending case of the pacific internet ISP case. To reveal or not to that is the question. Oh and read darkmirage post. It will provide more insight. Basically a summary haha.

Surfing Youtube and...

Surfing youtube and stumble upon some old stuffs...

Chinese singer with a power voice. Feel that her voice almost near Mariah Carey. Powerhouse singer. Wonder does she have any CDs out. But even if have didn't come into some country also no use haiz.

Another singer which is multi-talented in my list will have to be BoA. Korean, japanese, chinese and even english version of various song.. Pro.. As for her voice also can considered to be power house.. When she is talking normally, can hear the rough rough feeling from her voice maybe is because of the way korean speaks as compared to japanese whereby their voice is normally smooth. Well, i think singaporean falls under the voice of the rough rough family hehe. Anyway, see the youtube below...

Her voice in this song which she wrote IIRC. is damn powerful. But the song i like most from her will have to be:

Notice the fountain in this clip. Shoot the water to quite a high level.

But for now I only support - Mizuki Nana

Big fan of her but 2 bad that her CDs is not available here have to import from Japan. Some of you guys might have notice but yup.. she is a Seiyuu. Those who watched anime should know of her.. Great singer!! Hope i can someday go to one of her concert.

One youtube of her song which I like.. actually i like her every songs >_<

水樹奈々大好きです！！

WRONG MAGAZINE!!

NOOOOO.......
I bought the wrong magazine!! Rem. the post about ignis whereby you will need a coupon from a specific magazine? YES!! I bought the wrong one!

This is the one that I bought:


Calling Kinokuniya first thing in the morning to see whether i can exchange it with them. Hope they still have the magazine that i want. So glad that i didn't tear it out of its package.

Will update this post with the Megami Magazine that i bought also. Nice pictures inside the magazine. 6((((≧▽≦))))9

Update: Called Kino and they replied that it's possible to change as an exceptional case! Now will have to go down later to see whether they is anymore hobby magazine left hope there is still some copies left.. Went down on tuesday and confirmed that there's no more Hobby JAPAN!! Haiz... not fated to buy limited ed ignis... now i'm stuck with this MG magazine no know whats inside also..

Review on Local Movie - 881 - 10 out of 10 STARS

Ok call me WOLS. But this week my blog is gonna be WOLS. ♪～θ(^0^ )

Check out the BIG BIG BIG POSTER! Careful the full size is really big.

Courtesy from Official Site

Review:

Ok. Below is my personal review.

Classified as: Comedy, Relationships

Story Score: 10/10

Story Review: This show has a super 'moving'(almost moved me to tears at the end of the movie 。・゜　°・(><)・° ° ・。 storyline powering it into the cinemas. As you all know, in the lunar calendar, its the 7th Month again. This is the month whereby the hell gates open and the ghost from the underworld is allowed to roam thru out the lands. Hence, people set up stages called getai to entertain the brothers' of the underworld.
This is the story of 2 ladies with one dream to follow in their idol footstep which is to become stars in the 'getai industry'. However, things did not turned out so well for them as they do not have the talent for it. SO they went to seek the help of a erm.. 'goddess?'. Rules that they must not break was set on them in exchange for the talent which they needed to become 'STARS' in the 'getai industry'.

Acting Score: 10/10

Acting Review: Really really like the actors who acted in this movie. They really gave in their 100% effort to bring out the feel of the movie. If i recall correctly, many years ago i still saw the 2 female leads acting in programmes shown on the TV but thats realllllllyyyyyyyyyyyy long ago. Glad to say that they still have the talent for acting after so many years!!

Song Score: 10/10

Song Review: Well, songs are mainly heard thruout the movie. Its what brings out the feel of this movie. Thus making the movie seems interesting and a moving one. Thats why the 10/10 in the scoring.

Comments:

Well thats the main gist of the movie without revealing any spoiler in the story review. I guess it can be put in as the Hokkian (Yes the language mainly used in this movie is hokkian) version of the high school musical concert or maybe even better IMO. The songs written inside are meaningful and completely fits into the storyline. Also, another reason why I liked this movie so much is because it reflected so much of Singaporean lifes especially the one in the getai line of entertainment. Also sad to say but Singaporeans KIASU attitude is also reflected in the movie (・_・　)―――――C＜―＿‐)))))).
Another thing to note is the Director for this movie. Royston Tan. He seems to be a very daring director which is rare in S'pore. Still rem. his short film about some entity in S'pore, sacrificing their noble self to cut out obscene scene from movies.

CUT CUT CUT. What to do when they are tired of cutting and still so many parts to cut? BAN!

Recommendation to Watch: ～(m~-~)(^^ ) Fell in love with this movie! 11 STARS out of 10 STARS.

Trivia: It seems that the script only took 2 wks to write and 22 days to finish shooting. However, the cost of the movie is quite high. It seems also, that one of the female lead really cut her hair for the sake of this movie. Kudos!
ヽ(^o^)ρ┳┻┳°σ(^o^)/ (Info from wiki)

Here's the teaser from youtube:

Heres some songs sung by the Mingzhu Sisters, the vocals behind the songs in the movie.

Really like this song. Can really feel the sadness in the song.

Update: Time to look for the OST of the movie. Really like the songs inside the movie (((((*^o^*)♪... Will be buying the DVD also... Review on that 2 hopefully!

Event?!?

You might call me WOLS but Kareshi Kanojo No Mise is having a FESTIVAL!!!


Guess... they hold this event every year. But heres the info:



For your information: they are closed from 15 Aug to 21 Aug to prepare for the event.
(Did they flew to japan to buy some gifts for the otaku in Singapore? )

Wonder whats in store for us... d(≧∀＜**)

Was surfing their webpage when I came into...

Shocked!! A Black IGNIS (picture from KKnM below!) Was already planning to buy the white ignis from hobbylink:

Picture courtesy from Hobbylink

Well.. hlj is not accepting orders for ignis for the moment but look what i found at KKnM


This black ignis is preorder only and need a Hobby Magazine Issue 9 coupon. Wonder any shop still sells it now... NEED TO GET ONE!!
(。>_<。) But the pricing.. WoW ish SO 高い！ but.. limited Ed.... must fiinnnddd thhheee couupooonn & money of course!

Sigh.. wonder will i have the money to buy it before the deadline of 31 Aug... Come to think of it.. i do not have money left for this month all went into DVD liao... 。・゜゜⌒(ＴＯＴ）⌒゜゜・。

Side Note: Heard there will be a free gift if they spot the picture of the event in anyone blog .. Thou i don't think they will see my blog but still... 期待している。。 ((○（＾▽＾）○))

Will update this blog or maybe post a new one when they update their page...

Always Tired

Tired... but might post something later... stay tune... might be review or Odex saga....