You can find out more about the group of girls from Cotton Candy on the Animax Community Page.

The Fairy Tail anime series was actually adapted from the same-titled shounen manga series by Hiro Mashima. It is set in a magical world and whereby magic users (wizards) are group under different guilds to perform dangerous jobs. Of course, one of the top wizard guilds that everyone wants to join would be “Fairy Tail”, where it members are awesome wizards with great personalities just like any popular shounen series out there.

My Thoughts about the First Episode

Let me start off by saying, if you have a cute talking cat companion that flies in the show, that is already sufficient reason to watch the series.

I really enjoyed the happy-go-lucky nature of the show’s main male protagonist Natsu (a fire using wizard know as Salamander) and his cat companion Happy. You know that these kinds of folks are just magnets for trouble and will be able to shine as saviors at the end of the day. The first episode also introduces Lucy, the main female protagonist.  Even though she appears to be weak and needs to be rescued by Natsu from an evil band of wizard, she can really hold her own battles in subsequent stories.

Since it is a shounen series, you wouldn’t expect much for the artwork quality, but you can be sure that the action is fast and tight. I think one of the highlights would the first battle against Bora of Prominence where Natsu showcases his fire-eating skills. The special effects that appears when Natsu cast his dragon fire spells are quite cool.

The anime series is a close adaption of the manga series, so do expect to see more heart-pumping action as the story develops in subsequent episodes and more characters appear in this massive mystical world of magic.

As promised in my earlier post, Animax-Asia has prepared 10 sets of lovely Fairy Tail premiums to reward those who had caught the show. Each set of Fairy Tail premium is worth approximately USD$30 each, and includes a chain tag, a folder, a jigsaw key chain, a normal key chain and a stick poster.

All you have to do is to answer this simple question:

Question: In the first episode, Lucy Heartfilia wanted to buy the Doggy White gate key in a magic store. How much did it cost?

1. 20,000 jewels
2. 1,000 jewels
3. 10,000 jewels

Do take note that this contest is open to Singaporean residents only. Readers can submit their answer to contests@animax-asia.com along with the following particulars:

In conjunction with the premiere of Fairy Tail (フェアリーテイル), Animax-Asia will be giving away 10 sets of Fairy Tail premiums to my readers. All you need to do is to watch the show, keep track of the storyline and then answer a simple question that I will be posting on my blog.

I will be posting the contest question on this blog on Saturday, 2 Oct 2010 at 12pm noon. The first 10 readers with correct answer to the quiz will win this awesome set of Fairy Tail premium worth approximately USD$30 each. It includes a chain tag, a folder, a jigsaw key chain, a normal key chain and a stick poster.

(P.S. This giveaway contest is only open to those residing in Singapore.)

For folks who are not familiar with the anime series, here’s the synopsis of the first episode:

Fairy Tail
Premieres Thursday, 30th September 2010
Every Monday to Friday at 9.30pm
On ANIMAX (StarHub TV ch 532)

Set in a fantasy world where magic is the way of life, Lucy had always wanted to join the famous Fairy Tail mage guild and travelled to the kingdom of Fiore in that hope. Along the way, she crosses paths with Natsu and his talking-and-flying cat Happy who are seeking a dragon.

Abducted by someone posing as ‘Salamander’ from the Fairy Tail guild, Lucy is then rescued by Natsu who reveals that he is in fact the real ‘Salamander’ with dragon slaying abilities. Offering her membership into the Fairy Tail guild, Natsu, Happy and Lucy then join female warrior Erza Scarlet, and ice mage Gray Fullbuster as a team to embark of various missions for the Fairy Tail guild.

Fairy Tail is co-produced by top anime studios A-1 Pictures (Kuroshitsuji, Valkyria Chronicles) and Satelight (Macross Frontier, Hellsing OVA). Fairy Tail features top voice actresses Aya Hirano (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Death Note) and Rie Kugimiya (Shakugan no Shana, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood) as the voices of lead characters Lucy and Happy respectively.

An action video game for the Sony PlayStation Portable titled ‘Fairy Tail: Portable Guild’ was unveiled at the 2009 Tokyo Game Show and in development by Konami for release in 2010. A fighting game for the Nintendo DS, entitled ‘Fairy Tail Gekito Mado Shikkesen’ is also slated for release this year.

And here’s the first opening theme of Fairy Tail (フェアリーテイル) – Snow Fairy.

I think it was a very enjoyable concert since Mikuni had a great voice and she was accompanied by a live band. Mikuni recently released her latest album “Replay!”, which was an anime song cover album. Hence during the concert, she sang quite a few anime song covers in addition to her usual hit songs.

She ended the main part of the concert with Kimi Ga Iru Kara 君がいるから, which is the 4th ending theme from the anime series Fairy Tail フェアリーテイル. Just to side track a little, Fairy Tail is a great anime adapted from the Japanese manga series by Hiro Mashima, and it has a great storyline of adventure and comradeship. Folks who have not caught it yet can look forward to it premiering on ANIMAX on 30 Sep 2010. The series will then be screened daily on weekdays at 9.30pm.

Of course, after ending the main portion of the concert with Kimi Ga Iru Kara 君がいるから, the fans were still not ready to let her go. Mikuni came back onto the stage and performed another five songs. She also sang a great cover of A Cruel Angel’s Thesis” (残酷な天使のテーゼ) it got everyone standing up and waving their arms.

Here’s the entire list of song that was performed during the concert. Thanks to THE BONKURASU BRIGADE for the compilation.

Main Concert
1/3の純情な感情
輪舞-revolution-
ハレ晴レユカイ
MC
それが、愛でしょう
tomorrow
Alone
MC
蕾～tsubomi～
ねずみは米がすき
XTC
プラチナ
Truth
MC
夢の途中で
Naked
MC
南風
イ～じゃナイ!?
君がいるから

encore
残酷な天使のテーゼ
MC
愛・おぼえていますか
MC
Love song on the radio

By the way, those photos was taken by comrade kodomut since I didn’t bring my camera to the concert XD Anyway thanks to Animax Asia for the complementary tickets and Pei Ling for bringing them to us.

Props to Mike Abundo for uploading the clip onto youtube. I never imagine CNA would be discussing cosplay on their Primetime Morning slot, but still its good promotion for the community.

The event was hosted by the kawaii Ferlyn Yoshimi. I learnt that Animax was gonna be broadcasting some pretty cool anime such as K-On!!, Fairy Tale (in August), and Nurarihyon no Mago (ぬらりひょんの孫). Animax is also giving away S$532 every week for ten weeks starting 19 Jul 2010 to viewers for simply tuning in!

I really like this shot of them with the stormtrooper helmet that was “sponsored” by Gordonator. Too bad I was standing at a bad angle. But the folks at TheBanzaiEffect did managed to get some great shots.

Of course, I had to grab the chance to take a group shot with them as well (I did the “V” sign because I was the last person that managed to get a shot with them).

Here’s a youtube video of them playing a quick game of Table Tennis with one of their fans.

Some lovely anime wallpapers for your home?

Bandai had Kabuto at the event. Should have stolen his costume =P

Animax gave fans a chance to try out their own dubbing, and maybe talent spotting as well.

Lovely fashion show by the gorgeous girls from Kuro Bara.

Anime songs karaoke anyone?

Mamoru Hosoda, the director for Summer Wars during an autograph session. He was really approachable and took time to speak to the 15 folks who got the chance for an autograph.

Gigantic domo-kun plushie. I think it cost like $200 but I have no idea how anyone could have brought it home.

Ota-cool book signing session with Danny and the lovely Filipina cosplayers Alodia and Ashley Gosiengfiao.

Time for concert! I really like the large “I love anisong” helium ballons.

Gurren Lagann: Pierce through the heavens!!

Recently I’ve gotten introduced to a new service – Starhub TV on Mobile which allows me to tune in to Animax. But before I talk more about the service and my experiences, I’m curious to find out whether do you folks watching anime while travelling? And do you mind all the weirds stares, especially if you are watching some series like Queen’s Blade ^^

Here’s a quick look at the stage before the press conference started.

A shot of all the 5 specially invited guest. From left to right: Yasufumi Soejima, Koji Morimoto. May’N, Ichirou Mizuki, and Kunio Okawara.

Here’s a shot of May’N again. I think I taken quite alot of shots of her for the fanboys and fangirls out there. Personally I was more interested in Aniki than her.

A shot of Yasufumi doing a live demostration of drawing a storyboard. I was also accidentally featured on tonight’s news staring at him doing the storyboard. LOL I wonder how I’m going to explain that to my collegues back at work.

Here are some other things that you can see at the event: Artwork by Studio 4°C, Anime booths, prize winning gundam displays, figurines for sale and dollfies as well.

This short promotional video will tell you all that is happening at AFA 08. For those that are still unaware, Anime Festival Asia 2008 will be taking place in Singapore Suntec Convention Hall 4 from Nov 22-23.

Going to cover both days of the event as well. Do come up to say hi to me. ^_^

I need to get some sleep now. Need losta energy to be running around carry that huge camera.

Animax Asia has invited Tokyo Trooper DannyChoo to Singapore to conduct a workshop to share with Singaporean bloggers his vast experience in blogging.

Here’s a preview of the topics which will be covered in the workshop:

• Userbility and design
• How to monetize
• Nettiquette (sharing)
• How to generate traffic
• Tools to help bloggers
• Q&A Session
• And more!!

Interested bloggers can drop an email to [contests at animax-asia.com] and cc [support at dannychoo.com] with “Animax Blogging WorkShop Application” as the title of the mail and include:-

• Name
• E-mail address (in the body of mail)
• Contact number
• Blog url
• When you started to blog
• Blog genre
• dannychoo.com profile page url ( http://www.dannychoo.com/home/eng/danny/ )

The workshop date is November 19th (Wednesday) and the application deadline is 14 November

This year has been absolutely awesome for me. I recently managed to catch Dave Sifry in a symposium and now I get to see DannyChoo, someone who has truly been an inspiration for me, live in person!

This workshop would be an awesome opportunity to do some network.

Its also just came at the right time because I’m in the midst of planning some new contents to be introduce on this site come 2009. So hopefully I can meet some like-minded folks at the event to join me in my project.