A serious and sometimes not so serious personal blog
This was an excellent anime adaptation of the #manga. I was really surprised that they didn’t tone down the violence much, and I’m really looking forward to watching “Goblin’s Crown”.
The vibe of this anime really reminds me of #Claymore, but it’s not as serious and has less depth, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes it’s fun to watch characters who are predictable.
I’m going to rewatch Claymore soon and see if it’s as good as I remember.
If you look at the red underlined portion under the menu item ‘Batchoy’ you’ll see that the ramen includes ‘naruto’. I don’t watch Naruto but I was really amused when I saw this. I was wondering if it was a typo or if there actually is something called ‘naruto’. Well, turns out that naruto is a type of kamaboko, which has the following definition on Wikipedia:
Kamaboko|蒲鉾 is a type of cured surimi, a Japanese processed seafood product, in which various white fish are pureed, combined with additives such as MSG, formed into distinctive loaves, and then steamed until fully cooked and firm.
It looks like this:
Public Domain picture via Wikipedia. Originally uploaded by Kinori.
Looks like I’ve eaten naruto quite a few times without even realizing it!
One other thing I thought worth mentioning is that there’s also a town called Naruto on the eastern end of the island of Shikoku in Japan.
One subculture of Japan is people who have a serious fascination with figurines. I’m not talking about the Precious Moments porcelain figures your grandma keeps in her cupboard either. I’m talking about anime or manga related figurines. These collectors sometimes go above and beyond simply filling shelves with their favorite figurines. They sometimes take a figurine with them wherever they go and take photos of it along with the background scenery. That’s some hardcore fandom right there!
There are a lot of anime and manga fans all over the world. There are even people that collect wall scrolls and figures. I’d sort of expected this particular hobby to be a Japan-only thing, for fear of being socially ostracized. I was wrong! I saw a group of young guys sitting next to the dome covering the Orchard MRT entrance in front of Ion with cameras and figurines out. They were busy positioning their figurines in the perfect poses while taking photos of them against the backdrop of the Christmas shopping crowds, the lights and the mall.
Well, I enjoy anime and manga, to some extent, but this is a bit over the line for me. Still, can’t help but respect their boldness for not caring what other people think and enjoying their hobby.
The guy was nice enough to let me take these photos of his figurine. Does anyone know what anime or manga this character is from?
If you’re into this sort of thing and want to find more about it, the biggest sites I can think of off the top of my head are Dannychoo.com and also his site specifically for figures, Figure.fm. I didn’t see anything specifically about figure photography in Singapore, but you might try this site: Singapore Anime News Network. The link goes to their forum section.
Saw this stuff in Takashimaya. The second picture is a little blurry because the sales lady was coming and I had to run before she started giving me special offers and deals and asking me to make a purchase.
Bradley Farless 