[Event] Best of Anime PH 2017

Hello everyone!  The CosCon season is in full swing again here in the Philippines.  I managed to free up some time in my schedule to attend one of the biggest cons in the country: The Best of Anime.

The Best of Anime is an annual convention that runs for two days and features exhibitors that caters to toy collectors, Japanese fashion enthusiasts, cosplayers and the like as well as an artist alley that features local anime and manga fan artists.  The event also boasts its wide array of international guests from international cosplayers, to Japanese music acts.  Years ago, they were the first to bring a Japanese Visual Kei band, Uchusentai:Noiz to the Philippines setting a trend in the local convention scene as other conventions stepped up to the plate and brought Japanese bands and AniSong artists to our shores.

This year, BoA 2017 was held from September 9 to 10 at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City.  Their guests include international cosplayers Liu and Hana from Taiwan, Yuegene Fay from Thailand and Reika from Japan.  Musical acts included Starmarie, who are already BoA regulars and Spyair, a Japanese rock band who popularized songs from animes such as BLEACH, Gintama and Haikyuu!!

Personally, I was looking forward to seeing Yuegene Fay and Reika.  Since I started cosplaying 7 years ago, I have looked up to both of them in Cure World Cosplay and DeviantArt respectively. They have guested in several cons I used to attend, but due to some incidences that are out of my control, I never really got to see them.  Weeks leading up to this convention, I was debating on whether I should buy their fan meeting tickets or just hope that I get to see them on stage even just for a bit (guest performances are usually pushed up to later in the evening at conventions), knowing that I had to leave early for the day.  Eventually, I decided not to buy the tickets and just hope that I could sneak a glimpse of them even just for a while.

Me and my friend went on the second and last day of BoA dressed up in causal cosplay.  My friend was Bakugo Katsuki from Boku no Hero Academia while her sister opted to just go as her normal self.  I decided to go as a very casual Jolyne Cujoh from JoJo's Bizarre Adventures Part 6: Stone Ocean.

I was Jolyne Cujoh for the day

When I arrived at SMX, my friend was already in line outside of the convention center, waiting to be let in.  We decided to ditch the line when I arrived though, as the first agenda of the day was actually to meet up with a prop maker who we commissioned to make our weapons for our upcoming cosplay since we figured that we wouldn't have enough time between work and school (for me) to finish up everything.  So, we left the line and went inside the Mall of Asia which is right beside the convention center for our meet up.  Most of our selfies later on are photobombed by our huge bubble-wrapped props. hahaha!

It turns out that ditching the line was actually a good idea because when we returned, everybody has already been let inside the convention center and we were able to get past the bag checks smoothly.  Upon arrival, we queued up to get the tickets we purchased online verified at their ticket booth which was also unexpectedly quick.  I heard stories from my friends who went on the first day that the line for tickets, online or on-site was horrible and so I prepared myself for the worst.  

Another improvement by BoA that I noticed and kind of liked was the ID check that happens during ticket verification.  You see, as with other events with limited tickets (BoA meet and greet tickets are limited) there is a tendency for people to buy tickets and then re-sell them at a marked up price.  I liked the ID check because it somehow prevents that as there is no way for you to transfer the ticket holder name after you have paid for it.

The stage was showing Kimi no Na Wa when we entered and me and my friend's sister was having way too much fun sitting at the audience area and spoiling the whole movie that my friend decided to drag us to see the booths instead.

There was a big booth by Animax, one of the big anime networks in Asia and we had a bit of fun with their displays.  First was the Boku no Hero Academia standees featuring our favorite guys from Class A: Todoroki, Tsuyu, Bakugo, Ochaco, Tenya, our protag Deku and of course, All Might!  I was only able to take one pic because I was too shy and a lot of people were crowding the area.

It was supposed to look as if Todoroki was touching my shoulder but w/e.

Then, there are the posters of their current shows.  I had way too much fun posing with the JJBA: Stardust Crusaders poster.  Thanks to my friend and her sister for directing the pictures and the Animax staff for 'enhancing' the lighting via their phone lights. xD

When you see your dad's high school picture.

I really did not feel the need to shop for merch at that time because I was  only carrying a small amount of money with me and besides, I pre-order most of my merch.  However, it was really nice to see the artist alley (I hope I see those Gilgamesh and Ozymandias R-18 posters next con because I'd have the money to buy them next time for sure).  After a bit of shopping, we stepped outside to have some lunch.

The real fun for me began when we came back after our meal because that was when more cosplayers began coming to the con and I spent a good time chasing after my friends and some Touken Ranbu cosplayers and being chased by JoJo fans as well.  Here are some pictures I managed to take.  Most of them are selfies, though. you've been warned.

My friend BOMA as Ichigo Hitofuri

Nikkari Aoe and Heshikiri Hasebe cosplayers.  I forgot to get their names, tho :(

My friend Jun Tao as Souza Samonji

Now, queue the JoJo-ness.  There was one funny incident that happened.  Me and my friends were busy fangirling over the performance of the cosplay guests and then when I turned around, I almost bumped into this girl and she said "please don't be scared. I was just fangirling over your Jolyne from behind."

Anyway, here are the JoJo's that I managed to take pictures with:

Ceasar and Kakyoin.  They ran away before I could talk to them. Maybe me and my friend scared them with our Touken Ranbu fangirling ^^;

You know I've got to take a pic with this part 2 DIO after he menacingly said JoJo when he saw me coming.

The highlight of this event for me was when the guest cosplayers went up on stage for their performances.  First up is Reika who was cosplaying Mikazuki Munechika from Touken Ranbu for that day.  She went up on stage and sang anime themes - Hohoemi no Bakudan from Yu Yu Hakusho, Yuzurenai Negai from Magic Knight Rayearth and Zankoku na Tenshi no Thesis from Evangelion.  Her performance made me think that she really was jiji-like because she sang all those old-school anime songs.

Reika on stage during her performance

Next up was Liu and Hana.  Liu, cosplaying Prompto Argendum from FFXV opened up their performance with an acapella of Stand by Me.  She was later joined by her partner Hana, who was cosplaying Noctis Lucis Caelum for the fan service and later on as the...accompaniment which was kind of funny.  You'd have to wait for the fan videos to be uploaded to find out. They closed up their performance with their duet of History Maker as they went around the audience to shake our hands.

Liu and Hana during their performance

Last is Yuegene Fay cosplaying Tsurumaru Kuninaga from Touken Ranbu.  She was joined by Reika for her performance, which by the way gave me and my friends a heart attack.  We were all calm and fine when the AVP started with the sakura petals falling and jiji speaking in the background but then the music started and we went wild.  Yuegene chose TouMyu music for her performance, starting off with the titular Touken Ranbu.  She and Reika even did the dance routing that the Touken Danshi in the musical were doing.  After that, they went and did Kimi no Uta and by that time, I was half crying from happiness.  Not only did I get to see two of my favorite cosplayers together, they even did a musical-like performance for the audience.

Kimi no aitakute

Demo ainakute.. (sorry, my hands were shaking so much)

We left right after the guest performances since we still had places to go to, but overall, I feel like I still had the full con experience despite spending such a short time there.  I got to see my friends and finally saw my dream guests on stage (dressed up as my favorite characters, even!) and that was enough already to make me happy and continue going to CosCons no matter how old I get.

Mandatory pic of me and my con buddies: Reo and Raius Ouji

I hope the next con will be just as fun too!

XO's,
Saniwa Saltsuki

[Manga] Recommendation: Adekan

Hey everyone!  I hope you're all doing well.  It has been a pretty busy past week for me at work and it was kind of hard for me to come up with a new post for this blog but with the recent stage play announcements, I got the idea to make a manga recommendation for this week.

Stage plays and manga may not have that much of a connection, but it definitely is a big one if we're talking about Japanese stage plays.  You see, there's this specific genre of Japanese stage plays that is quite unique as compared to whatever stage productions we are used to.  This genre is called 2.5D theater which intends to bring 2D media such as games, manga, or anime into the stage and vice versa in some cases.

This specific manga that I am going to recommend has only been adapted on 2.5D form with a stage play and a musical with the same casts, respectively with no news of an anime adaptation in the near future.

This manga I'm talking about is, of course, Adekan.

L-R: Adekan's main characters Anri Yoshiwara, Kojiro Yamada and Shiro Yoshiwara

Adekan is a shoujo manga by Nao Tsukiji set in the Meiji Era.  The story centers around the mysterious umbrella maker Shiro Yoshiwara who seems to have an aversion towards fundoshis or loincloths ad refuses to wear them, preferring to go commando instead (this was mentioned right off the bat).  His friend Kojiro Yamada is a police officer who met Shiro through the events of the first chapter and has since then been determined to shape the umbrella maker into a better person by teaching him how to cook, clean and properly put on a loincloth.  Through a string of events, we also meet Shiro's older sworn brother Anri who is set on bringing him back to 'The Group' from which Shiro ran away years ago, despite being regarded as an important person.

I first found out about this manga through all the cosplays I've seen in WorldCosplay.  All of them were so beautiful and elaborate and I thought that I needed to see whatever material they are basing their cosplays from.  I then saw that it was actually male characters that were being portrayed and that made me decide right then and there to read that manga.  I mean, I am not one to say no to some good androgyny!  I have since lined it up on my 'to read' list and has only gotten around to reading it last month when work was not as busy as it usually is.  I was so absorbed into the story that I caught up to the latest chapter in about 3 days.

What first caught my attention upon opening the manga was the art.  Each page was drawn beautifully, it reminds me sometimes of CLAMP works such as RG Veda or xxxHolic where every page was a work of art.  Its like I can take that page and put it in a frame and it could be sold for thousands of bucks.  Its a beautiful explosion of details that you wouldn't know where to look first in a good way.  Even if whatever is being portrayed is somehow grotesque or creepy, you could not look away because there's still beauty underneath all the blood, death and madness.  Here's an example from Chapter 8.

All the creepy details were carefully drawn in

Now that you've seen how eerily creepy the art is, let's get into the next thing that got me into this manga which is the story.  The manga starts off as episodic with Shiro, Kojiro and their friends solving a different mystery in every chapter.  That in itself was enough to get me hooked as I am a sucker for mystery.  And it was not just your normal detective work where someone was murdered and the main characters work to find out who the perpetrator is.  Yes, we also have that but the manga also shows us just how ugly the human mind can be.  Our main characters encounters several characters that are totally bizarre for the shoujo category.  For example, a man kills a string of young men in order to keep spoiling his vain and aging mistresses, a woman willingly flings herself off a cliff in order for her husband to leave his lover and take care of her forever and a man who pretends to be his wife who unbeknownst to the people was already murdered by the husband himself in order for him to turn her into the perfect taxidermy subject are just some of the interesting cases that this bunch of friends encounter in the earlier parts of this manga.

Later on, we are introduced to the main story which involves Shiro, Anri and The Group which has been mentioned here and there all over the manga.  Apparently, The Group is a bunch of super humans with out of this world talents and strength, but with short life spans and to keep themselves living, they have to consume a certain type of drug called Red Veil which was sold only at a limited supply.  The only one who could help the group out to maintain their life energy is Shiro, who was somebody special born once every hundred or so years (what is so special about his appearance and how it was determined that he was 'the one' was not yet discussed in detail in the manga) but he ran away from The Group and now everyone is on the hunt for him.  Anri, with his brotherly instincts quickly tracked down Shiro and is keeping the secret of his location from the rest of the group for his own reasons.  

Scene from the stage play where Anri finally tracks down Shiro's location and yes, he always spreads his legs like that.

The manga is full of dialogues and narratives, but it was presented to us in a way that would not bore its readers.  Some info would be presented to you without you knowing that it was essential until a few chapters down the line.  There was one chapter where people were talking about a book which tells a story of a boy who ran from his tribe that needs him to keep on living, saying that the book was unrealistic and boring.  A few chapters down the line, Shiro finally tells Kojiro about his connection with the group and BAM, we were foreshadowed by that book mention all along.

The author was also careful in pacing the story and knows just when to stop to keep his audience from having an information overload, while making the key revelations just as shocking as they should be.  One moment, we could be reading about the chapter's main criminal confessing about their motives in doing the crime and next moment, we are treated to some light comedy courtesy most of the time by Shiro simply refusing to let a loincloth near his nether regions.  One moment, I was reading Shiro telling Kojiro about the group and the next moment I was like "wait a minute wasn't the story of that book... OH MY GOD".  I guess the shock factor will come to you if you're paying close attention to the story?

I also liked how complex the characters are.  

Shiro was first introduced to be this flirty young man who simply refused to wear underwear, has superior seductive skills and is a master in the art of weapon concealment or anki, but as we go through every chapter, we learn more about him and his internal struggle to resolve his problem with his clan while trying his best to keep his first and only friend Kojiro out of the whole mess.

Yoshiwara Shiro, surprisingly wearing a fundoshi

Kojiro Yamada is the perfect police officer with superior athletic skills, good looks, a decent personality and whose heart is in the right place.  His sense of justice gets him into trouble sometimes as seen in one chapter where he tried to question the system of another country.  He is a very loyal friend to his sworn brother Saburota and later on, to Shiro.  I haven't seen a lot of character development for him yet, but I am guessing that there will eventually be things about his past that will be brought out and will help the readers understand him more.

Yamada Kojiro

Anri Yoshiwara is my favorite character mainly because of his cunning and devil-may-care attitude that sometimes shows to be quite destructive as well as his apparent intelligence most especially in technology (o-of course it w-was not the booty shorts! b-baka!!).  He was originally introduced as this sadistic and ambitious person who seeks to take over his troupe and bring Shiro back to The Group for his own personal gain, but as I go about reading, I discovered different sides to his personality.  I saw that he actually cares for his brother, even going as far as going all the way to where Shiro is the first thing after he built a 'plane' because he promised Shiro when they were kids that he will ride it with him once he has managed to build one.  Also, could he really be in love with Mutsukichi? (I'll be spoiling some major plot elements if I divulge more about Mutsukichi, so you've got to read the manga to find out who this person is!)

mmmmm.....Yoshiwara Anri

And as an added bonus...

'scuse me,sir. I would like to report these three for stealing my heart.

And now that we have all sufficiently questioned our sexuality, I guess it's not that necessary now for me to point out that YES, this manga has a ton of BL tones and a lot of fanservice here and there (what do you expect from a manga whose protagonist refuses to wear underwear??). Fanservice aside, I think it is also important to point out that this manga also shows some of the ugly sides of society such as prostitution of young under-aged boys to older people, for example as well as discrimination based on your racial mix, a twisted ranking within the society and lastly, making the females believe at a very young age that they only exist to give birth and take care of their children.

I would really recommend for any manga enthusiast to read it for the rich story and beautiful art, but I would have to warn you that BL especially the kind where men are very touchy with each other could not go unnoticed in this manga.  In fact, it is one of the key elements in the story.  Please take note of that in case stuff like that makes you uncomfortable and proceed reading at your own risk.

That being said, I would also want to recommend for you to see the stage play and musical if possible.  The mangaka, Tsukiji-sensei was all praises for these productions and after watching these for myself, I can see why.  The actors were all so good in portraying their roles and made it seem like the characters jumped out of the pages of the manga an on to the stage.  The first stage play was so well received, that a musical was made soon after and a new stage play has recently been announced for next year.

In case you would like to see how I reacted to the first stage play, please check out this thead --> https://twitter.com/twinklejourney/status/891152553924190209

Tell me what you think of this manga in the comment section below!

XOs,

Saniwa Saltsuki

[Touken Ranbu] Surviving the Village of Treasures

Saniwas (term used to refer to the players of Touken Ranbu where they take on the role of the sage or 'saniwa') around the world are busy grinding in order to collect enough beads to win the newest Touken Danshi (lit. Sword Boy), Kotegiri Gou.

Make way for the fashion police

As someone who has followed this god-forsaken franchise for 2 years, I've had my fair share of Village of Treasures event and so I'm writing this blog now to give you some tips on how you can possibly survive this event without Hakata chasing you out of your own citadel for driving it to bankruptcy.  Please note that these are just tips and suggestions.

Disclaimer: I may not have the same type of troops or the same toudans as your party so of course, our results may vary.  Also, I would like to point out that I grind without the intention of leveling up in the process.  I send out my most OP team to clear out stages as quickly as possible and I usually do the leveling after I have cleared the event.

Know your capacity
I've heard time and time again about people saying that their parties can't take on E4 because they are always forced to retreat due to injuries.  And to that, I suggest that you first measure your team's capacity.  Try out all 4 maps and see which is the map with the highest survival rate.  I know that there are unforeseen elements like drawing a 4th Yari or Naginata card (which happened to me several times), but try to gauge how much beating your team can take in a map with most of them making it through to the final node.  I know that this consumes tickets that you'd rather use for grinding, but from my standpoint, it is worth trying.

No need to send out your most OP swords if you don't want to!

The only way that you can get more beads out of each run faster is if a) you draw all the bead cards in one run (which is very unlikely) or b) you draw an enemy card and come out victorious with at least an A or S ranking (this gives you 30-36 beads depending on the enemy card for E4).  Losing a battle or retreating will only give you 25% of the beads of what is currently in your bag as well as make you lose all the instruments you have picked up in a run.  Sending boys to a map they can barely handle would also make them go into fatigue faster, which in turn will affect their performance in battle (I usually switch out fatigued toudans or use a dango/makunochi bento if they are available).

Do the math

This may be due to this hidden side of my that's a bit of a nerd, but I actually do my maths for once if it means getting my sword boy faster.  The reason why I encourage testing out the capacity of your team first is because it would help you determine how much you need to grind per day and sticking to that plan like glue.

I even wrote down all the rewards for Ookanehira's event and I check them off as I go.

Take the current event for example: The event started on August 15 and will end on August 29, meaning that you have14 days (I don't want to be grinding until the last minute so I subtracted 1 day from the timeline) to get 100,000 beads in order to get Kotegiri Gou.  Using simple division, we can say that we need to make at least 7,143 beads per day so that we can have Gou on the 14th day.  After knowing that fact, we can now use what we learned from earlier while testing out your team's capacity.

Here's what my computation looked like:
1 run = 450 beads (E4 map)
1 ticket = 300 koban
7143 beads per day/450 beads per run = 16 runs per day
16 runs x 300 koban per ticket = 4800 koban
4800 koban - 1800 koban (6 free tickets per day) = 3000 koban per day
3000 koban per day x 14 days = 42000 koban for the whole event

I have seen some people saying that they may not be able to finish the event because they do not have enough koban to spend.  I believe that this may be achievable if you have a good team at your disposal and also if you do not get too greedy.  Just like real life budgeting and work advice goes, learn to pace yourself and work within your budget and stick to it like glue.

It is not the end of the world

I remember the first VoT event happened on December 2015 with Monoyoshi Sadamune as the prize for completing the event.  This was before Touken Ranbu Pocket was introduced.  At the time, I was only able to play Touken Ranbu on my laptop during the weekend with a really laggy internet connection at home and I have just barely started Touken Ranbu last June.  That being said, I wasn't even able to complete half of the event because I can't play as often as I could and my team was still very weak and so and I was really sad that I missed the chance of getting Monoyoshi.

The event ended already?

Years later, I now know that missing a chance at completing an event is not the end of the world.  One of the reasons I am saying this is that even if you are just a newbie at the game, you can get a chance to level up your swords (have you seen how large the exp is for every enemy card?) as well as gain resources for your citadel to prepare you for future events or to make up for your loss from the past ones (VoT right after a smithing event helped me regain my resources quicker).  Prize swords for this event is also a great deal if you are just a starting Saniwa (I know I had a hard time smithing Shishiou and having him as an event prize is awesomesauce for me!)

Also, with new swords being introduced and the almost monthly events being held in game, TKRB is bound to reintroduce past event prize boys either as map drops or as swords obtainable through smithing.  If you are still not convinced, here are some swords whom I obtained at a later time after their first event or who came back after their event.

No need to be a sad burrito over missing the first opportunity

• Monoyoshi Sadamune. First obtainable through Village of Treasures. Became a rare drop sword for four War Training Expansion events and is now a map drop at Era 7-1.  I obtained him during War Training Expansion 7.
• Nihongou. First obtainable as a rare drop through the first War Training Expansion event.  Was also a rare drop sword for two more War Training Expansion events and is now a map drop at Era 6-4 where I originally obtained him.
• Fudou Yukimitsu.  First obtainabe through War Training Expansion 2.  Came back as a reward sword for War Training Expansion 4,5,6,7 and 8.  Obtained him during War Training Expansion 7.
• Hakata Toushirou, Gotou Toushirou, Shinano Toushirou and Houchou Toushirou were first obtainable on Underground Treasure Chest events and all came back as reward swords for the same events.  Obtained them during their original UTC events.
• Sengo Muramasa. First obtainable through a smithing campain.  Became a reward sword for one of my most favorite events in TKRB history, Edo Castle Infiltration Investigation where I also obtained him as prize.  I saw his musical version first before actually obtaining him in-game because I suck at smithing campaigns.
• Ookanehira.  First obtainable through Regiment Battle 2.  Came back as the reward sword for Regiment Battle - Early Summer Camp aka make the citadel as bright as the sun by collecting 60,000 fireflies.  Obtained him during Regiment Battle 2 and has regretted it ever since.
• Sohayanotsurugi and Oodenta Mitsuyo.  First obtainable through smithing campaigns and both came back as reward swords for Regiment Battle 2 and Regiment Battle - Early Summer Camp with Oodenta as a rare drop for these events.  Obtained them both in Regiment Battle 2.
• Juzumaru Tsunetsugu.  First obtainable through a smithing campaign.  Came back as a rare drop sword for War Training Expansion 3 and 4 and is now a map drop on Era 7-4.  Obtained him during War Training Expansion 3.
• Kogarasumaru.  First obtainable through a smithing campaign.  Came back as an reward sword for Village of Treasures - Instrument Gathering Stage 1 (PC users only), 2 and 3.  Obtained him during VoT-IGS 2.
• Akashi Kuniyuki. First obtainable as a rare drop during War Training Expansion.  Came back as rare drop for War Training Expansion 3, 5, 6 and 8.  Now a map drop on Era 6-2. He was the reason why I was finally convinced to play TKRB and it took me 2 years to finally get him.  Got him at War Training Expansion 8.
• Taikogane Sadamune. Is a map drop at Era 7-2.  Came back as a rare drop during War Training Expansion 5 and 8.  Got him at Era 7-2 because his Kiwame is beautiful and I just gotta have him.
• Higekiri and Hizamaru. First obtainable as rare drops (reward for Hizamaru) in Regiment Battle.  Came back as drops in War Training Expansion 3.  Now both obtainable as drops from Keibishii battles.  I got them both as Keibishii drops.
• Nagasone Kotetsu.  Was a Keibishii drop before getting replaced by the Genji brothers. Came as a drop for War Training Expansion events and is now obtainable through smithing.  I think I got him as a smith after his episode in Hanamaru came out.
• Urashima Kotetsu. Was a Keibishii drop before getting replaced by the Genji brothers.  Came as a drop for War Training Expansion events and as a reward for Uncharted Village of Treasures (Practice).  Now obtainable through smithing.  Got this kid through smithing.

With the new swords being introduced one after the other, I am sure that the devs will come up with an event other than smithing which will make them more obtainable so if you did not get them at the first try, cheer up coz I'm 300% sure that they will be back soon!

I hope you learned something from this entry and if not, just enjoy how much I torture myself as I get too mathematical over an in-game event.

Thanks for reading and may your sword family grow in numbers and in strength!





XO's,
Saniwa Saltsuki.