Rkidz's Japan Travel Blog - Day 1: I'm flying to Japan!

Hey guys, It's me- Rkidz. I will be starting a series of posts featuring my 2 weeks travel to Japan. I had travelled to Japan from the 7th to 21st of August 2016. It had been an enlightening and exciting experience, and was a cherished memory that I will never forget about.



My main goal of going to Japan is to experience the culture and wonder of Japan - the Jewel of the East, and to get much experience as I could in the short span of time and limited travel expense. Tho truthfully, I mainly went there because of Akihabara and Comic Market. I've been travelling alone so that I won't feel too restricted (and because I don't have many friend). I can't really remember the exact details, but my logistic budget was around $1100. Flight ticket and accommodation alone cost me  $806.23. Mind you that I've booked a low-cost flight and a cheap, but comfortable capsule hotel nearby Asakusa. I've also bought a 7-days Japan Rail Pass for the price of $276, to travel around Japan as much and as fast as I could. I'll be covering more about the JR pass later on but you can check it out here. You might have to spend at least $10-20 a day for food and transportation around Japan, but that's up to your taste and travel itinerary. I've been eating Onigiri (rice ball) for the whole week so I've saved a bit on food expenses. Other than that, spending money for tourism destination entrance fees and merchandise is all up to you. I've spent  more than $400 for doujins alone, but that's just me. Just remember to plan your itinerary and travel expenses very, very well before coming to Japan,to ensure your travel will go smoothly. Web site such as japan-guide.com  provide excellent information for your trip to Japan, and had helped me a lot.

Alright, onward to the actual travel log.

Day 1 is the day where I basically travel to Japan via Air Asia X flight; from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Haneda, Japan. It is not the best air flight I've ride, but it's the cheapest one I could hoped for. The flight from Malaysia to Japan lasted for 7 hours or so, and I mostly spent my time up there watching anime on my phone basically. I went to the immigration without no problem at all, and no Visa was needed thanks for being the citizen of one of the over 50 countries with which Japan has a "general visa exemption arrangement". You just need your passport for that.

By the time I've arrived to Haneda airport, it's already near midnight. Thankfully I managed to catch the last train to the capsule hotel I've reserved beforehand in Kuramae. The hotel is MyCUBE by MYSTAYS Asakusa Kuramae; you can check its detail here. The reason I've chosen a capsule hotel instead of a full-fledged hotel or dormitory is to try a new experience staying in a different kind of hotel, and it's really cheap. It is surprisingly comfortable; it is decently spacious and had all the basic need provided for lodging. There is flat screen tv inside, radio, mirrors, electrical outlets, metal safe, etc provided. There is even locker underneath your bed to store all your luggage and stuff. After packing all my belongings, I went to loiter around the hotel itself before finally going to sleep.


It's a short post for day 1; nothing much other than riding the plane, getting past the immigration and finding the hotel itself to settle in. On the second day, I will be covering my trip to Akihabara. Look forward to it!

My Cosplay! part 7

"For glory and honour. For the Emperor!"

It's been a while, but I'm back with a new cosplay. During Animangaki 2016, I've cosplayed as Tempestus Scions, more easily known as the Imperial Guard Stormtrooper from the Warhammer 40k universe. I am a huge 40k fanboy, and I've done a Space Marine armour cosplay before. I decided that this year I'll do a simple but cool 40k cosplay again because of time constraint and after giving it some thought I went with Tempestus Scion. 

The elite of the Imperial Guard, and the core of the Militarum Tempestus, the Tempestus Scions are the best general-combat infantry that the Imperial Guard can field, and are the toughest, best-equipped, and best-trained soldiers available to an Imperial commander.  Stormtroopers normally pack Hotshot Lasguns, which fire much more penetrating shots that are capable of piercing most infantry armor with ease, and they are clad in Carapace Armor, which gives them substantially higher survivability on the battlefield.

"What is the strongest weapon of mankind? The god-machines of the Adeptus Mechanicus? No! The Astartes Legions? No! The tank? The lasgun? The fist? Not at all! Courage and courage alone stands above them all!"

Victory is achieved through mettle.Glory is achieved through metal.

Blessed is the mind too small for doubt.

Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

A good soldier obeys without question. A good officer commands without doubt. – quoting from the Tactica Imperium

Give me a gun, a google-eyed alien to shoot it at, and I’ll die a happy man.

Fate/kaleid line Prisma Illya: Let's Go To Jail Part 1

Sooooo hey fellow readers and anime fans. This is a wild anime review by me, due to a mobile game I am playing now is going to launch an event in collaboration with said anime, Fate/kaleid (I'll refer to it as this from now on).

And if you still didn't know me, the name's Wolvenciel.

P/S: I wanted to post this earlier but I was playing League with the other blog members.

taken from http://momoandcream.com/fatekaleidlinerprismailya/

Jail Anyone?

Okay. So the anime is about (this is a very very obvious thing I'm stating here) two girls who, under a certain string of events, accidentally became magical girls and are tasked in collecting cards that represents heroic spirits that create magical distortions if left alone.

Sounds a bit familiar if you ask me.

They also function as cellphones with video call.

For those who are not familiar with the Fate universe, this anime is somewhat of a spin-off of the main Fate/Stay Night anime/visual novel. It features a lot of characters from Stay Night and also some new characters to spice up the anime a bit.

This girl is another example of a Fate series character. Sella the "modest" maid

If for some reason you people think that it is wrong to watch this, it isn't. I'm just putting this here. This is legal, guys. Its... Completely harmless.

A Different Illyasviel

If anything, I was actually caught off guard by this anime. A lot of people just assumed and said that this anime is a parody and a (sort of it actually is) loli fan service anime for those guys who like to ogle elementary school kids and imagine that its their little sisters and such.

Ilya being Ilya?

It is in a way, a loli fan service anime, but it has its own plot (I mean its not a parody). I mean I really thought it was gonna be all fun and games (they said that serious shit only starts at season three) but it isn't. It was actually very grounded and its different from your usual happy go lucky magical girl stuff (yes yes sure madoka is unique too sure whatever). There were a few episodes of loli fan service but that is about it.

Really. You don't have to worry about turning into a lolicon for watching this. Or do you?

Inconsistent Illya

This is just me nitpicking but if you watch carefully, there are some stuff that are actually inconsistent in the anime and if you're somewhat a technical kind of person you'd definitely bitch about it. But hey, its a magical girl anime, so I am not gonna mind. Plus its only the first season. I'll see whether they improve or not (the studio I mean).

The moment you discover your fetish

Magical Girls Aside

I'm not gonna comment on the characters. Not yet. I'll save it till the next season because I want to give them a chance first. So yeah.

TSUNDERE MAID... I mean, here's another screenshot of the anime.

The music, on the other hand, is crazy. For those who are familiar with Fate music, they'd probably say the BGM of a certain heroic spirit was actually better in Fate/kalied than in Stay Night. For those who are not familiar with it, you'll enjoy it all the same. Both the BGMs and the songs are very good, especially the opening song.

Plus Choucho sang it, so there's also that. It has that magical girl feeling to it.

The fight scenes... Okay let me just get this straight first. This is a magical girl anime. Not a shounen battle anime. It is NOT supposed to have crazy melee action and explosions and all that. It should be full of magical rainbow-colored beams and cheeky transformation sequences. Fate/kaleid has both.

Sure there aren't too many of those amazing fight scenes but the anime is just 10 episodes and I can assure you half of those episodes are filled with fight scenes (both magical beams and melee fights combined) and will leave you wanting for more.

Loli on loli action... I mean look at them playing like elementary school students

P/S:

There are of course loli action in there... but hey, I'm just watching it for the event. Haha... ha... Anyways, I'll be back for the second season review tomorrow (if possible). See ya guys.

The Otaku Club 6th Anniversary

It's the 6th of September.... which means that today is the Otaku Club 6th anniversary! 

It's been a very memorable six years, and we are still going as strong as ever here. True to our motto; by Otaku for everyone, we try our best to deliver contents that are not only for geeks, but for all kind of people to help understand and recognize our true passion in fields including anime, games, manga, light novels and many more. Thanks to the writers that made great contents, we could publish posts much frequently now, me especially, as the founder and creator of this site extend humblest thanks to them. We also like to voice our gratitude to all the readers and fans that had been supporting us this far, because you guys are the people that motivate us to keep on going. We promise you to bring out contents more constantly now, and hope that you guys would keep on cheering for us!

Thank you very much guys. Looking forward to one more strong year with you guys here in the Otaku Club.

By otaku, for everyone.

MS Gundam Thunderbolt: The Weight of War

Yes its me, Wolvenciel. If you're wondering why the sudden consistent posting, its because I wrote the reviews back to back. Yes. Yes I did. Well anyways. Today I'll be talking about Thunderbolt. Boy this is one depressing series (but I like it this way).

P/S: I will be using gundam universe terms so any questions you have, feel free to ask (I doubt anyone would ask but eh, can't blame me for trying)

taken from www.rightstuffanime.com

I'm Lazy

Let's start off by getting this out of the way. I'll provide some pictures just for fun but that's kinda it. I didn't actually take notes when I reviewed this anime so I didn't get any good screenshots. Because I was too absorbed watching this one. Yeah.

Let's go with that.

What's Thunderbolt?

Thunderbolt is actually the nickname given to Side 2, a colony that was destroyed because of the war between the A.E.U.G. (earthlings) and Zeon (spacenoids). It was named as such because the area was ridden with space debris and for some reason electrical charges fire off around the area as if there were bolts of thunder in space.

Its a beauty ain't it?

The anime (which was a short four episodes) tells us the story of the earthlings trying to reclaim the Thunderbolt sector from the spacenoids. As all other Gundam anime styles of storytelling, both sides are driven to the edge of their limits trying to actually reclaim/defend said sector but this time, both sides suffer heavy casualties in the process (unlike most gundam animes where it was basically "run! its the white devil!")

Full Armor Gundam, the devil for this anime

But of course, the usual white devil vs red comet stuff is here (different characters, same concept, yada yada yada).

The Amuro and the Char

So the rivalry this time is between Io Fleming, a hot-blooded pilot with S-ranked luck and Daryl Lorenz who is an ace sniper for the Zeon forces. In the beginning of the anime you will see (or in this case hear) that these two have different music interests and as they fly into battle they played their favorite music (kind of gives you that Metal Gear Solid 5 feeling if you ask me) and Io even challenged Daryl by saying "When you hear jazz, you know I'm coming".

Here it is. Exactly what he said.

Oh right. I forgot to tell you guys this. Daryl is a friggin cripple. And he's the ace pilot. Io is just an ensign (like almost all the other gundam pilots) and he's not even a newtype.

Oh right. Sorry. Daryl's WHOLE DIVISION is made up of cripples.

The Weight of War

This is the highlight of Thunderbolt. At least it is, in my opinion. War is never actually profitable. It's total shit, no matter who wins. Sure, there's the saying that goes, "History is written by the victor" or something like that but I'm against it. Apparently, this anime says just that.

One of Daryl's sniper shots. He did this while listening to blues.

 The one very very obvious way of it conveying this to us is through the Thunderbolt Sector itself. Sure the Zeons took the sector from the earthlings, but they sacrificed a lot of good men by doing so and the sector became a wasteland. Its useless, save the fact that its full of debris and is a very optimal situation for the Zeons to place their snipers to guard the area.

Beautiful Beam Sword Action. Just Beautiful.

I am not going to spoil you the rest of this story, but you'll see that the anime is really nagging at you that war is no fun and games and a lot of people die for pointless causes. Its dark and depressing. But hey. That's what the original writer for the gundam series aimed for before his story go edited and sugarcoated (at least that's what I read).

Last One

One more thing is... the soundtracks are a bit too... well... too light and easy for a dark anime like this. I don't really know how to say this but it just kind of fits, you know. They're great by the way. The music I mean.

I guess that's it? I'm thinking that this is just too short for a review, so maybe this is just a piece of my mind on this anime. A little out of the ordinary and definitely a must-watch if you're a gundam fan or not as it has no real connection to other U.C. animes and it has top notch graphics and it sends a very strong message in general.

P/S: The endings have a lonely, sad feel to them. Try listening to them too.

P/S: Its the blog's anniversary. Kudos to the blogmaster. This blog is six years old now, people.