Spider-Man™: Shattered Dimensions

Assalamualaikum/Peace Upon You

Activision has released the first details of Spider-Man™: Shattered Dimensions, the newest entry of non-stop heroic action to star the iconic wall-crawler. The video game is scheduled for release in September 2010 and will allow players to travel through four different worlds as distinctly different versions of Spider-Man from four universes across Marvel lore, two of which are announced today: The Amazing Spider-Man (Earth-616) and Spider-Man Noir ( (Earth-7207).

I really hope the other two would be Ultimate Spider-Man (Earth-1606) and Ninja Spider-Man (Earth-2301). I can't wait for this to be release in September, 2010. Gonna get myself a PS3 or an X-Box360.

Salam

Video Games Live™

What is Video Games Live?
Video Games Live™ is an immerse concert event featuring music from the most popular video games of all time. Top orchestras & choirs perform along with exclusive video footage and music arrangements, synchronized lighting, solo performers, electronic percussionists, live action and unique interactive segments to create an explosive entertainment experience!

Assalamualaikum/Peace Upon You

Video Games live just finished last Saturday and I'm being slowpoke by writing this blog entry now. Heh. For the first time, this event is being held in Malaysia. Luckily for me, it was at Kuala Lumpur Convention Center (Plenary Hall) which located quite near to my house. At first I thought it was going to be held at the Malaysia Philharmonic Orchestra but I was wrong.

Songs that was played during this event:
Mario™
Zelda®
Halo®
Final Fantasy®
Warcraft®
Sonic™
Metal Gear Solid®
Kingdom Hearts
Chrono Trigger™
Chrono Cross™
Mega Man™
Castlevania®
God of War™
Shadow of the Colossus
Classic Arcade Medley featuring over 20+ games from Pong® to Donkey Kong® including such classics as Dragon's Lair, Tetris, Duck Hunt, Ghosts 'n Goblins, Gauntlet, Punch-Out, OutRun and MANY MORE!

What made this event awesome was there were so many game OSTs that were being played. Not to mention the special appearance of Metal Gear Solid composer Norihiko Hibino from Japan who performed his hit song "Snake Eater" (from Metal Gear Solid 3) with the symphony!

Not to mentioned that Tommy Tollarico is actually a fan of Spider-Man and he have his Spider-Man electric guitar to proves it when he brought it on the stage to perform. I shouted 'Fuck Yeah' out loud when I saw this. I couldn't forgot that they played my all time favorite video games such as Chrono Cross, Chrono Trigger, Mega Man, and Metal Gear Solid.

Thank you, Video Games Live for coming to Malaysia. You guys better perform next year!!

Salam

Norihiko Hibino, The Composer of Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater

Laura Intravia who performed with her tenor voice during God of War and with her flute during Legend of Zelda

Jack Wall, the conductor of the orchestra. He played his acoustic guitar during Chrono Series.

Tommy Tallarico; video game composer, Video Games Live creator, and Spider-Man's fan. He performed with his electric guitars during several performance.

From left to right; Fahimi Sparda, Iskandar Zend, Wen, Vivian and Hadi

Zymz with Norihiko Hibino's signature on Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater's CD

My Tommy Tallarico, Jack Wall, Laura Intravia and Norihiko Hibino's signatures

P.S.: I cried at the end when they played Chrono Cross OST.

Not an Otaku, boy. Not an Otaku

Otaku (おたく/オタク) is a Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly animation, manga, and video games. Female otaku are occasionally referred to as fujoshi.

Assalamualaikum / Peace Upon You

As quoted above, an otaku is someone who is really obsessed with something. Ask them about their particular line of interest, and they will sure be able to tell and describe to you any facts about it. As such, an AniWota in Japan is regarded as one of the most important core target in terms of merchandising and DVD/Blu-Ray sales, since these are the guys who will fork out whatever and however much is needed to acquire that item. Thus why we are seeing how the direction of animation as a whole itself is changing, as they are trying to cater to the needs of these group. What they want, is what the animation studios will give them.

I would like to ask all the people in this forum that claimed themselves to be an Otaku, some questions. If you are a so called otaku from Malaysia, try asking yourself, how much do you really know about the animation you watch? Honestly in Malaysia there lies a misconception that if you watch animation, you’re automatically an “otaku”. WTF man, most of you don’t even know what the word really mean but you classify yourself as one? Do you know the names of every seiyuu? Do you buy all the DVD/Blu-Ray releases of the series? Do you spends your money relentlessly on any Japanese animaton merchandises without complaining on how high the prices are? Do you know who is Kawajiri Yoshiaki, Nagai Go, Ishiguro Noburo or Terasawa Buichi? Do you know who is Norio Wakamoto, Sakamoto Maaya, Fukuyama Jun, the most awesome Tomokazu Sugita or Hayashibara Megumi?

Lately, I found out it is irritating that there are some of people that only watched a couple of animations claimed that they are in fact an Otaku. That's not all, this so-called-otaku only buy animation DVDs that are being sold at some local shops and claimed it is original but in fact those things are Hong Kong bootlegs DVDs. I wonder if they really KNOW what original merchandise really means. I don’t think they are THAT stupid to not realize that the HK bootlegs DVD/VCDs are not original. But then again this is Malaysia. How do you show support for that particular series? Sure, by buying bootlegs of it, and proudly show them off…

A real otaku would go and try to buy the original release of that particular series. You bought pirated DVDs and you claimed yourself as an otaku? PTUI! Heck, even the figurines they buy are the Chinese knock off that cost just a fraction. And they are saying they are proud to be fans. Fans that are making the pirates richer by leeching off the hard work of others? If you say that the price is so high, there is a saying; Hendak seribu daya, taknak seribu dalih. If there is a will, there is a way. Bah! Not to mention to the people that doesn't cough up a single cent but just downloading the stuffs from the net and say that they are true fans. Do you know that the Japanese animation industry is actully going down? If they went any down further, all of those animation that you guys watch will either be stopped or the quality will go down.

I once met this so-called-otaku that claimed that he is a true fan of animations but when I asked him either he know about Shishio Gai, Nekki Basara, or even Captain Harlock, he answered he never heard of them.WTF?! You don't know that characters and you said you are an otaku? Man, what a sad thing this is turning out to be.

I would like to make it clear that I was never an otaku. I only like watching animation, reading comic books and playing video games. I have never been a hardcore fans of animations/comic books; I just like to watch/read them, but never to the point of obsessive interest. Heck! Even the first animation that I watched wasn't from Japan, it was from America and my favorite character wasn't even from Japanese animation whatsover, it's Spider-Man. I collect Spider-Man's stuffs either it is original or pirated but lately most of it is original. :P

Oh yeah, in case people were wondering this subject was inspired by linkinstreet's post at his blog (http://wakarimasenlol.com/2010/03/11/the-sad-case-of-malaysian-otaku/4193). I already asked him if I can use some of the contents inside his post for this and he approved.

Not an Otaku, boy. Not an Otaku.

Salam

Of Hobbies and Interests

Assalamualaikum / Peace Upon You

You know how people tend to make fun of you when your hobbies are slightly different from theirs? Like when you said you’re not into football and such, they treated you like a weird person just because you’re different then them.

I’ve encountered these types of people every time in my life. They tend to make fun and ridicule you when you stated that you enjoyed watching animation, reading comic books, and watching toku series. They will label you as childish and immature. Poke at you whenever they had the chance even though you didn’t do anything to them.

I got this person where I used to know. He likes to ridicule me whenever he saw me watching any animu or toku series. He would say; “Kau ni macam budak-budak ah, tak matang langsung. Dah besar tengok cerita macam ni. Bazir duit langsung.” (You’re just like a kid, very immature. You’re a grown up but still watching this sort of shows. Only wasting money). So I then reply; “Bazir duit? Sekurang-kurangnya aku tak bakar duit aku dengan beli rokok. Dah la rosakkan diri pastu nak bunuh orang lain lagi. Mak bapak aku tak kisah pun aku ada hobi macam ni. Yang kau nak sibuk kenapa? Mak bapak kau tahu ke yang kau habiskan duit dekat rokok?” (Wasting money? At least I don’t burn my money on buying cigarettes. Not only killing yourself but others too. My parent doesn’t mind of me having these kinds of hobbies. So why do you like to nag about it? Does your parent know about you smoking?).

You know the funny thing is? The people who like to ridicule people who like to watch animu and such, likes to watch the so-called kiddy shows such as Naruto and Bleach. Hypocrisy? I don’t think so, they are just to imbecile to see that what they are watching is also called a kiddy shows. Sure, animu is made for kids and so does mango and toku series. I only watch it because it is my hobby since I was little. I’m not stopping just because I had grown up. It’s a hobby. As long as I got a life and not neglecting my job as a Muslim, it is fine.

I remember one time there is a guy how made fun of me about my hobby but a few months later, he asked me either I have new animu for him to watch. I only managed to laugh at him and told him that I thought he would never want to watch kiddy shows. He replied that he was bored and it was the only thing that he could borrow from me.

In this world nowadays, people will only like things that they had familiar with and tends to make fun out of something that is new. Up until now, this type of hobby is nothing more than child’s hobby in the mind set of some of people not only in Malaysia but across the world. For me, I don’t care what others might think as long as I only treated this as a hobby and not get too hype with it.

Salam

Anime-Shrine October Fest

Assalamualaikum / Peace Upon You

Anime-Shrine had organized another gathering between their old forummers which is located in a place where only the people that went to previous gathering will know. I arrived there early as usual and helped out linkinstreet with his purchasing of 20 nos of 1901’s hotdogs which was ordered by other members. I sat there with him and leeched all the animu, and toku series that I asked him to buy.

After 1 p.m., wanvader arrived and after that people like RangerKarl, Czero, Oyaji and Steno also arrived at the meeting area. And then Exiled_Gundam paid a surprised visit to the gathering which we were quite surprised to see him. Veteran yafex couldn’t make it because he had to meet with his father. So, we sat there, exchanging(?) files with each other.

Around 3 p.m., linkinstreet departed to the cinema along with Oyaji and Steno to watch Johnny Depp’s film, Public Enemies. The rest of us continue to entertain ourselves with the free WiFi, and animu. After 5 p.m., shah_ho_nam, Eccenterial, and ultimaweaponx arrived since they said that they are going to be late.

At 6 p.m., the gathering was over but shah_ho_nam suggested that we go to A&W for an October Fest which is quite strange because it is July. For the sake of pure randomness, I agreed. We went there and have a hell of blast drinking root beer since we can’t drink beer. It was fun and such. We did many crazy things such as me wearing a Japanese bandana with a flu mask, shah_ho_nam carried around his Guitar Hero’s guitar and wanvader wears a German helmet.

We went separate ways around 9 p.m., I said my goodbyes and I hope that they would hold another gathering like this.

Salam