AFA 2013: I ♥ ANISONG ELISA (Interview)

ELISA

Photo Credits:  Project Harata

ELISA is a singer and model from Kanagawa Prefecture. She entered the music industry through a modelling contest in high school. Known for her wide vocal range, she has performed in Japan's largest anisong festival, Animelo Summer Live for four consecutive years since 2008.

Valvrave the Liberator 2nd Season ED: REALISM

Image Credits: SUNRISE/VVV Committee, MBS

This year, after a 16-month-hiatus, ELISA is back, singing the ending theme songs for Valvrave the Liberator. Like angela, ELISA performed in I ♥ ANISONG: Valvrave Night, with this concert being her first in Singapore.

Read on to find out more about her in Project Harata's interview!

Note: As this was a round robin interview,  we would like to credit the various media entities who were in the same group as us!

~Cheryl

AFA 2013: I ♥ ANISONG angela (Interview)

Atsuko and KATSU from angela

Photo Credits:  Project Harata

angela is one of the most popular Anisong bands in Japan, known for catchy theme/ending songs, such as "KINGS", the theme song of K. They made their debut in 2003, with "明日へのbrilliant road", the opening of Stellvia, and this year marks their 10th anniversary! Together with other Anisong artistes like T.M. Revolution and Elisa, angela performed in AFA'13 I ♥ ANISONG : Valvrave Night.

Read on to find out more about them in Project Harata's interview!

~Cheryl

AFA 2013: Guest Cosplayers Angie and Ying Tze (Interview)

Angie as Kotori from Love Live! and Ying Tze as Enoshima Junko from Dangan Ronpa
Photo Credits:  Project Harata

At AFA'13, Project Harata had the chance to interview guest cosplayers from Malaysia, Angie and Ying Tze who are also known as MMK meidos Ringo and Mio! They are rising cosplay stars in South East Asia known for their handmade costumes and amazing portrayals of characters. Both of them juggle their studies while going to international events.

Read on to find out more about their cosplay lives!

Note: As this was a round robin interview,  we would like to credit the various media entities who were in the same group as us!

~Cheryl

STGCC 2013: Redjuice (Interview)

A picture of the man himself, Redjuice!
Photo Credits: STGCC

A popular illustrator from the Kouchi prefecture in Japan, Redjuice (a.k.a. Shiru) blessed this year's Singapore Toys, Games and Comics Convention (STGCC) with his presence! For those who do not know who Redjuice is, maybe if i told you that he was a key character designer for the anime "Guilty Crown", then it would ring a few bells in your mind. Project Harata was lucky enough to squeeze in a quick interview with this awesome artist, and I sure was glad to meet such a well reknowned illustrator :)


Photo Credits: STGCC

Without further ado, the interview!
~ Rian

STGCC 2013: Aza Miyuko (Interview)

Aza as Inori from the popular hit anime, Guilty Crown
Photo Credits: STGCC

A cosplay sensation, Aza Miyuko is a well known cosplayer hailing from Korea. She made her way down to this year's Singapore Toys, Games and Comics Convention (STGCC) to be a VIP of this year's annual event. She was definitely a hit with the crowd at the main event, with many people queuing up to take pictures with her and trying to talk to her. I'm just glad that Emi and I were able to get to sit down and talk with her for a quick interview :) I hope she'll be able to get to return back to Singapore for another event!

~Rian

*Note: As this was a round robin interview, not all the questions were asked by us. Credits to all the other media entities who contributed questions!

STGCC 2013: Vampy Bit Me aka Linda Le (Interview)

Picture Credits : STGCC

I'm sure that a portion of you will jump at the sight of this beautiful girl's name.
Vampy Bit Me, also known as Linda Le, is a western cosplayer hailing from the US of A.


Picture Credits : STGCC
Meeting her was a very exciting thing for me, because for once i was able to meet a cosplayer this popular and all. (Still a newbie at media here, haha..)
So anyway, enough about me and more onto Vampy!~

~ Rian

*Note: As this was a round robin interview, not all the questions were asked by us. Credits to all the other media entities who contributed questions!

STGCC 2013: Hideo Baba (Interview)

Picture Credits : STGCC

Some of you will know this Japanese game producer from his popular game series, the "Tales of" series. This series includes titles like Tales of Xillia and Tales of Graces, released in 2011 and 2009 respectively.

Picture Credits : STGCC

It was an honour to meet such an awesome game producer, although this is my first interview.

I was nervous at first, so i couldn't really churn out many questions to ask..

Will try to become a better interviewer!

Before i go and babble on, here's the interview with Hideo Baba!

~Rian

We would also like to credit the other bloggers who were in the same round robin interview group as us, so if you're interested, do check out their blogs too!

The Neo Tokyo Project
Ani-Culture
Speedknight

//If we missed out anyone, please drop a comment and we will credit you too!

~Emi

Cosmo Youth Parade 2013: King x Mon, Misa,Yui & Saffron (Interview)

From Left: Misa, Saffron, Yui, Mon, King

KingxMon FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/kingxmon

Yui's FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/yui930

Saffron's FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/saffroncosplay

Misa's FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/misapage2

As part of Cosmo Youth Parade's International Cosplay Exchange and Meet and Greet segments, cosplay guests King x Mon, Misa, Yui & Saffron were in Singapore for the weekend. We were lucky to score a group interview with all five of them recently. 

If you haven't heard of these international guests (KingxMon and Misa are from Taiwan, while Yui and Saffron are from Hong Kong), do check out their FB pages for awesome cosplays and news about their stay in SG! 

The interview was conducted in a mix of English and Chinese, so we have translated it into English for the ease of our readers. 

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AFA 2012: RCC Champion Team SG (Interview)

PICTURE CREDITS: JIMMY COMETA

Section 8

https://www.facebook.com/WcsTeamSingapore2012

https://www.facebook.com/Section8Singapore

Raistlin

http://raistlin03.deviantart.com/

Shinji

http://worldcosplay.net/member/3516/

Cure No. 189408

Representing Singapore at the RCC held at AFA this year, Raistlin and Shinji competed against 4 other champions from regional countries Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines in an exciting finals and emerged as champions of RCC! 

We were lucky to score an interview with the champions with their hectic schedule, so read on !

~Emi

AFA 2012: Hiko & Mikot (Interview)

Credits: Golgolak's Den

Hiko's FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/HIKOCOSPLAY

Hiko's Blog: http://album.blog.yam.com/datowan

Mikot's FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/tokimikot

Mikot's World Cosplay account: http://worldcosplay.net/member/Mikot/

Meeting these 2 Taiwanese cosplayers were a real delight! Mikot looked really different up close and personal (as opposed to his pictures since he looks so different every single image) while Hiko was a ball of positive energy! 

The first time that i'm conducting an interview in Chinese (seeing as Seren does most of the Japanese interviews), and I was pretty nervous about it! Stumbled over my questions a couple of time simply cause I was too nervous....Guess it's time for more practice! 

Without further ado, Hiko and Mikot's interview!

~Emi

AFA 2012: T.M.R (Interview)

IMAGE SOURCE: LAST.FM

Official FB Fanpage: https://www.facebook.com/tmrevolutionofficial

To tell the truth, neither Emi nor I was very psyched up about this interview – it was the morning and we’d both slept late and neither of us knew much about T.M.R – though I WAS extremely familiar with the songs he’d done for Gundam SEED and Destiny and did love them. Still didn’t know much about T.M.R himself.

Anyway, we entered the hotel waiting area armed with questions and trying to gear up for the interview, before we were informed that due to time constraints, each media rep would only be allowed one question.

And that T.M.R’s team would have to scan our questions for propriety.

And that THEY would be the ones choosing which question we would ask out of the list we’d submitted.

And that they just had to pick the most redundant question out of all the ones we had – the one about food. Singapore’s food, specifically, which kind of sort of I suppose is relevant, considering the fact that this was his first time in Singapore, but when everyone else is asking deep, meaningful questions about his career and whatnot, WE had to be stuck with the stupid, banal-

Guh.

So, I felt like an idiot asking it, but there you go.

~Seren

AFA 2012: Team Shikon (Interview)

Yukari's Cure: http://en.curecos.com/profile/?ch=113662

Kaito's Cure: http://en.curecos.com/profile/?ch=35172

Yukari & Kaito are Japanese drama actors, and are well known for being the Champion of WCS 2012. 

AFA 2012: Kaname☆ (Interview)

Official Webpage: http://www.cosp.jp/prof.aspx?id=8491

Official Twitter: http://twitter.com/knm0q0

So, Emi didn’t really want to interview Kaname. Because she’d already met him so many times. BUT I HADN’T.

Hence, although he is a very prominent figure in the event cosplay scene and he’s done a billion interviews - we bring this interview to you.

~Seren

AFA 2012: Reika (Interview)

PICTURE CREDITS: GOLGOLAK'S DEN

Official Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Reika/315573555144954

Worldcosplay: http://worldcosplay.net/member/87/

Just for a bit, please allow a moment of fangirling.

…KYAH.

Oh, bishiebishie girls…

I suppose since this was my second time meeting an amazing crossplayer (first being Touya <3), my reaction to her was quite subdued. Though, I warmed up to her considerably when she said that she was a fashion designer, a profession I had seriously considered in the past (and have now dropped, but still). I was very amazed when she said that all her costumes were 100% hand-made – most other cosplayers I’ve encountered have said that they do a little of both.

~Seren

STGCC 2012: Piko (Interview)

Having first started sharing his voice to the world via song covers on Nico Nico Douga in 2007, he has since progressed immensely and become a professional singer. He is known for having an extremely large vocal range, spanning that of both genders, and also for his distinctly androgynous styling.

His videos online have received more than 25 000 000 (that’s million) views, and he holds the record as the individual who took the shortest time to stage his first live performance at Shibuya AX from the time of the debut of his first CD. His major single debut was made in 2010 with the song “Story”, and his third single, “Sakurane”, became an instant hit and was used as the ending song of the anime Yorinuki Gintama-san. Soon after, he released his first album, 1PIKO, attaining 7^th place on the Oricon charts.

When he walked into the interview room, he distinctly had the air of a celebrity - someone who was impeccably styled, with an entourage following behind. When he opened his mouth, this impression was enhanced by his friendly, yet slightly subdued tone. I (Seren) found myself getting nervous over my Japanese – with this person, it probably has to be perfect. When I actually started asking the questions, though, the nervousness subsided, and in place of it was the odd feeling of, “Oh, okay, he’s human too.”

Human with a better voice than most, it turns out. His short stage performance afterwards drew screams from the crowd, and he even came out again for an encore performance because the fans just wouldn’t stop yelling “Encore!” (In Japanese too, might I add – “Anko-ru!”) He has mentioned that he would be happy to do a full-scale concert in Singapore if he had the opportunity. Perhaps we will be able to see him here again sometime soon…

Check out the interview below~

STGCC 2012: Touya Hibiki & Kousaka Yun (Interview)

Two well-known female cosplayers from Japan, Touya Hibiki and Kousaka Yun, graced our shores last weekend as guests of STGCC. With cosplaying styles on opposite ends of the spectrum, Touya specialises in cosplaying (crossplaying) as male, typically “bishounen” characters while Yun makes full use of her delicate features and petite frame to cosplay cute, young girls.

We were very privileged to be able to have interviewed them during the STGCC Media Preview, a day before the actual convention. Touya and Yun were cosplaying as Kaito and Miku respectively from the “Senbonzakura” video, and I (Seren) swear my heart stopped for a second when we coincidentally passed them by at the escalators on the way to breakfast.

STGCC 2012: Tadaaki 'Jacky' Dosai (Interview)

A ‘must-know’ figure in the cosplay industry, Tadaaki “Jacky” Dosai started cosplaying since 1995. Jacky has organised various cosplay events in Japan and his rapid rise in popularity came when he was appointed as the official cosplayer for companies such as Capcom, Atlus and SNK.

Check out his interview below!