[anibee] Ani-Music: Sakamoto Maaya

This post has been scheduled. In Malaysia now XD

Image for Triangler single, from minitokyo.

This time, I hope many of you have heard of Sakamoto Maaya! I could go on and on about how amazing and lovely she is, but I will try to be concise :P She has established herself within the music industry as a singer-songwriter, working on long-time collaborations with famous producer Yoko Kanno! Not only that, she is a seiyuu of several notable roles such as Princess Tomoyo in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Ciel Phantomhive in Kuroshitsuji I/II (my personal favourite) and her most recent role, Rikako Ōryō in hit anime Psycho Pass!

I am sure you can see my bias -headdesks-

As a seiyuu, she has diversity and number in her role selection/acceptance, changing her voice to suit the character and differentiating every character she has voiced! Scrolling through her list of characters that she has voiced over the years, I was surprised to find that she was the one who voiced them O:

Maaya's first collab with Yoko Kanno, Yakusoku wa Iranai. Image from ichigo no kokoro.

Her debut single, Yakusoku wa Iranai, marked her debut into the anisong industry and her first collaboration with Yoko Kanno. However, my first interaction with this lovely singer was from Cardcaptor Sakura, where she sang Purachina (Platinum), the third opening song for the series. I watched this series more than 10 years ago, goes to show how long Maaya has been in the anisong industry (17 years and counting)! Following that, I 'rediscovered' her music again when she performed Triangler for as an insert song for Macross Frontier. In addition, she sang Tsubasa Chronicle's ending theme Loop, which was nominated for Best Musical Performance in the first Seiyuu Awards in 2007.

Image from aloe,dream.

Not only has she performed several anisongs, she even wrote some of them! In 2008, she penned the lyrics to some of Ranka Lee's songs (voiced by Nakajima Megumi), such as Sou da yo, Ao no Ether and Aimo O.C. for anime Macross Frontier.

Image from Tumblr.

Not only has she branched into pop/anime singing from being a seiyuu, she has also sung in theatre! She played Eponine in the Japanese version of Les Miserables in 2003! O: Check out her version of On My Own here!

Image from Tokyohive.

Just a few months ago in March, Maaya has released her 8th studio album, Singer-Songwriter, with all songs sung, written, composed and produced by herself! It also has a remix of the sweet song, everywhere. It is also her first studio album after You Can't Catch Me, her studio album released in 2011 which attained #1 in the Oricon Charts.

Promotional image for album Singer-Songwriter. Image from Smile-Radio.

I am sure that she will keep on producing more wonderful songs and bring many more intriguing, fascinating characters to life!

Want to stalk find out more about her? Check out the links below!
OFFICIAL WEBSITE

With love,
Amaya

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[Lolita] La robe de Cinderella by Chess Story

This post has been scheduled. In Malaysia now XD

All pictures are property of Chess Story.

After exams, there's more time to window shop! XD Window shopping because China Lolita brands are still pretty expensive and I am a broke student T.T But I still want to share pretty clothes, so I will be doing up a series of Lolita-related posts whenever I can ((:

dollonstrings will put in some notes about the seller and the quality whenever she can :D She's got way more experience than I do :P

Chess Story is an upcoming Lolita brand, with a new collection this March! Titled La robe de Cinderella, they have released an OP (One Piece), JSK (Jumperskirt) and SK (Skirt). I guess the inspiration is pretty clear and obvious as they have stated in the title. :P

You will get used to the short forms pretty soon. :P I find that the product photos taken by Chess Story are of pretty good quality too!

La robe de Cinderella JSK

Available in blue and pink, I really like the print! Prefer the blue version :P

Digital version of the print

Blue version

Pink version

Detail of the back!

La robe de Cinderella OP

Although I really like the ribbon at the front, I prefer lesser frills like the JSK. If only they could combine both XD Available in blue and pink. Made of 100% cotton except for the inner lining, which is made from a mix of cotton and polyester. The long sleeves are detachable!

Yes, I really like the blue version :P

La robe de Cinderella SK

I am not a great fan of half-skirts because I have no fashion sense ._. I can't mix and match, but dollonstrings can (LIES) XD Again, this is available in blue and pink. All their skirts are lined, but you'll need to provide your own poof for it to look like the stock pictures below.

as can be seen from the pictures ama-tan added below, the print is not aligned at the seams. This is common for taobao stores, but for japanese brand items, the print tends to match up at the seams. It's not a big deal, but it makes a different to the nit-picky!

Print is pretty clear!

Just recently, Chess Story has also released a blouse under Le coeur de la mer. Not sure if it was based off mermaids, but it was inspired by the blouses from Baby, The Stars Shine Bright. Available in white and pink, and short-sleeved or long-sleeved.

Photo of details! 

Pink version.

I personally prefer white/cream blouses. What about you?

For a review from someone who has bought from Chess Story, you can check out this one~!

Hope you have enjoyed viewing this collection as much as I have ((: Would you like more of such posts?
Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

With love,
Amaya

P.S. dollonstrings here! I'm 100% sure that the chiffon blouse above is not 'inspired' but rather a direct replica of BABY's extremely popular blouse. BABY still releases different versions of the blouses, so do support BABY if you can afford it!

The lace Chess Story uses is extremely thick cotton and prone to fraying. Do give it a spritz with fray-check to prevent the embroidered patterns from unravelling! Incidentally, a similar version of this blouse was also released by taobao stores Olive & Ting and Elpress last season.

This Princess print is Chess Story's third(?) foray into printed clothing. For an original design lolita print with this level of vibrancy in colour, this is actually the most affordable on Taobao right now (compare to Krad's Mozaribic Chant and R-series. I'm not a big fan of this series because the colours have such strong lavender-pink tones. I much prefer the Starry-Night series which you can see here.  It's a bit of a disappointment because Starry Night had custom-lace. Lace that was created and produced just for that series! In addition to that, Chess Story created jewelry pieces to match it. This time, the lack of effort is a let-down. Seems like they've stepped down their game? Overall this series doesn't stand out for me because the colours in the print don't 'pop'.

For the la robe de la Cinderella dress, generic lace that can be found on taobao was used. For lace, hit laces.taobao.com, it's pretty affordable and they even have the same kind of lace Mary Magdalene uses for some dresses!

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[Event] JStar & Tokyo Fashion Night

Many thanks to anibee for this opportunity (:

Earlier this week, I had the chance to attend not one, but two! fashion-related events in one day! First off was the JStar contest, JRunway's brand ambassador contest. The chosen finalists will get 1-year modelling appointment to work with JRunway, and 1 grand winner will win a trip to Japan for modelling experience and fashion tour.

JStar Finalists! Image from JRunway FB.

The judging was held in the back area of JRunway, with a few benches to accommodate media. The judges sat at one end. It was like viewing the behind-the-scenes with all the cameramen and equipment around :P

Finalists with judges! Image from Jrunway,com

The 20 contestants had to style themselves, answer a few questions and have a quick shooting session with a professional photographer. The judges would give comments and ask questions from time to time, livening up the atmosphere. Judges were QiuQiu, Mr Ken Soda and Natsuko. Natsuko, from S Cawaii, will be debuting her own brand Riche je U in Singapore.

Mr Ken Soda, CEO of BARK in STYLe. Image from Jrunway.com

Some contestant highlights! You can read more about them either from JRunway's website or FB (:

Yiling, wearing denim that never goes out of style!

Yi Shiean, monochrome with a pop of colour!

Olivia, the youngest contestant at 16 years old!

Jacquelin, also known as blogger Gollylocks!

Pearlin, rocking the MODE look!

Second half of the night was dedicated to Tokyo Fashion Night, a fashion show a collaboration with Japanese model agency BARK in STYLe. Held at Japanese concept Club Kyo, this is a fashion runway and party proudly sponsored by Prime Group Asia. The fashion runway featured contestants from the JStar ambassador contest and a few guest models, including renowned blogger QiuQiu!

Top models from BARK in STYLe. Image by Wesley Kow/Herworldplus.

Ten out of the twenty finalists were chosen to move into the next round! They were Jacquelin, Yi Shiean, Olivia, Pearlin, Lynn, Yiling, Rachel, Liwen, Syiirin and Yu Shan. These chosen finalists twon a year’s modelling with JRunway, chances for paid modelling work and other prizes. In November 2013, they will compete to become the grand winner on the first anniversary of JRunway’s Singapore store.

Image by Wesley Kow/Herworldplus.

Find out more about JRunway below:
FACEBOOK
TWITTER 
WEBSITE
68 Orchard Road, Plaza Singapura
#01-54, Singapore 238839
Tel: +65-63377546

You can be updated with BARK in STYLe with the links below:
WEBSITE
FACEBOOK
TWITTER

Check out this post and more at http://anibee.tv/!


With love,
Amaya

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[Photoshoot] Of Capes and Bonnets

Finally blogging about my photoshoot in end April! I received the photos from Silver and dollonstrings really early, but only had time to blog about it now OTL

Ever since meeting Silver at J-obsession, we've been trying to plan for a second shoot. And it has finally happened after 2 months LOL. The outfits were different from what I had originally planned, because by the time the shoot happened, my Infanta piece had arrived XD

This will only be a small selection of pictures! You can view the rest in the photo album here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.583582051674223.1073741827.470622852970144&type=3

There were two outfits for the shoot, my Infanta Red Riding Hood JSK (TB) and Angelic Pretty Sugar Pansy OP (dollonstring's property). In both cases, Blouse is by Magic Tea Party (TB). Flower heels from Liz Lisa. Makeup & hair done by yours truly, though I still need to work on it >.<

It was a pretty short shoot since the afternoon one wasn't feasible; it was a very cloudy and rainy day. Still, we went to all sorts of places for the shoot, even to Clark Quay Central!

My favourite photo of the set!

My face angle is the same as the girl in the print XD

I like how the print shows up here!!

Loving the flower petals in the background XD

Saying hi to the tree. 

I really enjoyed myself in this shoot! I find that I learn more about myself when I figure what poses need practice and what ideas I can come up with on my own, and with others. I think I need to have more self-assertion XD

What do you think about this photoset? Feel free to leave a comment below or on the FB album (:

With love,
Amaya

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[Game] Eiyuu Densetsu VII: Ao no Kiseki

YAYYYYY I FINALLY GOT IT 

Eiyuu Densetsu (The Legend of Heroes) is a role-playing game series by Nihon Falcom. Trails of Blue (Ao no Kiseki) is the second game in the duology The Legend of Heroes VII, the first being Trails of Zero (Zero no Kiseki). Since the game was not likely to be released in English any time soon, and I cannot understand enough Japanese to fully enjoy this game, I decided to get the Chinese version that was released back in March.

AND NOW I HAVE IT (｡’▽’｡)♡

Many many pictures on what the game came with in the very beautiful box:

Bookmarks, with only one showing a character that only appeared in this game.

Chibi-ness <3

A puzzle picture that came already fixed.

3D cards.

The A4 art book that I could not take out.

 I had to resort to flipping the box and hitting it a few times before the book dislodged itself from the box.

(★^O^★)(★^O^★)(★^O^★)

Łazy Hemisphere. Played a bigger role in this game than the in Zero. 

Estelle Bright

Joshua Bright

Sample screenshot!

Estelle and Joshua Bright are the main characters (for the most part) of the previous game series, The Legend of Heroes VI: Sora no Kiseki (The Trails in the Sky trilogy). I really love the cast from this series more, and was really happy to see them appear in this duology even though they no longer have main roles.

What is good about this game is that the characters get to have a lot of development as the storyline progresses and the storyline changes depending on your choices during the game!! This was not available in The Legend of Heroes VI, so I'm really excited about this!!  ＼（＾ ＾）／ This game series packs more action and has expanded on many of the available mini-quests, so it's going to be really fun as well!

More pictures!  (((o(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)o)))

Back of the box

More chibi-ness!

A keyring and a necklace (:

Soundtrack for the game (:

The game disc itself!

Front cover of the guide book!

The last thing I found in the package was a bolster cover of a lead female character ._. I really don't want it...

Where to get it?

I bought the deluxe version from here. I decided to spend on the deluxe version because of the guide book. Really, without it, you'll be spending years and still not figuring out everything in this game O.o Or I am just really suck T.T

I usually play the first few times on my own and then referring to the book when I seriously am stuck. They also have the normal version available here. It seems that they have updated the deluxe version to have two mini figurines (COMPLETELY UNFAIR):

Oliver the flirt.

Leonhardt from the previous game series. More heart throb than Joshua <3

I will be working on a series of posts on The Legend of Heroes V and The Legend of Heroes VII, talking about the gameplay, the characters, mini-quests and more! These articles will be on anibee as well, so look out for them!

With love,
Amaya

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