Adorable One Piece chibi-arts ♥

To be honest, other than Chopper, the rest of the One Piece characters aren't very "cute". But chibi-fy them and they become the most adorable things ever! Making something chibi is like rearranging their proportions to give an over-sized head and tiny limbs in proportion to the body.

If you didn't already know, One Piece is a hugely popular manga in Japan, it's been running for ~15 years now. The currently airing anime has over 500 episodes, 10 movies and has been on air for over a decade as well. One Piece is also the series where Chopper comes from! Anyway, it's about pirates travelling the oceans and the adventures they have. The variety of characters is awesome, and the storyline is interesting, amusing and has direction.

So there's a line of figures called chibi-arts, and they make One Piece characters. So far only 3 have been released, but at a recent convention they showcased prototypes of possible future releases. Super cute~!!

Perona and Zoro!

Two of my three favorite One Piece characters (the other is Chopper~)

Perona is slated for release in March 2012, Zoro is a prototype.

Close up of Zoro, holding a barbequed fish and a mug of beer.

Chibi-arts figures usually come with extra facial expressions and extra arms in different poses, but since this is still a prototype, not sure what the other arms will be holding. But at least one should have swords for sure!

Vivi, Nami, Sanji and Nico Robin.

Other than Nami, the rest are prototypes!

(Nami came out in Oct 2011)

Close-up of Vivi.

Close-up of Sanji, holding a cake with Nami's head :P

Close-up of Nico Robin

Another favorite character of mine, Chopper!

A prototype, looking adorable with the mushroom.

Close-up of Chopper.

The above pictures were taken during the Tamashii Nation 2011 event, where Tamashii Nation, the company (under Bandai, remember, almost all toys are made by Bandai!) that produces the toys, showcased future products. Photography was not allowed for the public, these pictures came from HobbyStock.

Anyway, onto the chibi-arts that have been released (and I got my hands on)! Nami, Luffy and Boa Hancock. (Ace comes out in Dec 2011 btw!)

First out was Boa Hancock in July 2011.

Then came Luffy in Aug 2011.

I should've given him a more greedy-looking pose by using the inflated stomach body :P

Nami came out end-Oct 2011.

As mentioned, they come with interchangeable faces, limbs, bodies and for Boa Hancock's case, interchangeable hair and legs as well. The limbs are rotatable, and a stand to prop up the figure comes along with the kit.

The "Looking down so much that she's looking up instead" pose. They even include a bunch of quotes in speech/effect bubbles that you can put on a stand and display together with the figure :D

I'm adoring their cuteness and can't wait for the rest to come get released! Hopefully they do get released and not remain as prototypes, and hopefully they get released regularly, and not like one every 2-3 months -.-

On another note, I've ordered a bunch of brushes from Sigma Beauty! Hoping they'll come soon, they've been shipped out! However my card was charged twice (no I did not click multiple times, the charges were 20min apart, their site was having huge traffic that day and oft crashed) and CS has been taking really long to reply...I just hope I can get my money back! :(

AFA 2011 - One Piece Galore ☆

A long overdue post! Part 1 (overview) here and part 2 (cosplay) here.

Huuuuge Chopper figure!

Sadly it wasn't for sale.

But even if it were I wouldn't buy it cos it's neither soft nor cuddly!

Mini models of the ships Thousand Sunny and Going Merry!

AFA 2011 - Overview/Summary

Anime Festival Asia 2011 was held this weekend, 11-13 Nov at Suntec City Convention Hall in Singapore.

A weekend filled with fun pertaining to anything anime~ Lotsa toys and goodies, cosplayers, Hatsune Miku concert, Anisong performances by Kalafina, May'n, Milky Holmes, Flow, Sea*A and more. An event where fans of all things anime could gather and share their love.

However, I admit I went to AFA 2011 mostly to look at One Piece stuff and see One Piece cosplayers...And Fairy Tail and Hakuouki, but sadly I didn't spot any :( To be honest, I don't really care much for other anime^^ And I wouldn't stop to glance at cosplayers cosplaying characters from series I have no clue of...sorry!

Group cosplaying as Shinsekai/New World versions of Zoro and Luffy. And a Mr 3.

Detailed post on (One Piece) cosplayers I saw here!

I saw people decked out in most of the Mugiwara crew, as well as most of the Shichibukai and other characters like Shanks, Jewelry Bonney, Perona and Mr 3.

Kaname as Sanji and Usagi as Nami.

Even Japanese cosplayers Usagi and Kaname, who were gracing the event, were cosplaying characters from One Piece! Usagi as Shinsekai/ New World Nami and Kaname as Shinsekai/ New World Sanji. This totally put a smile on my face as they're cosplaying characters from one of my favorite series, instead of some random series I don't follow or know of ^^ These two were also judges for the Regional Cosplay Competition 2011 which was held on Sunday 13 Nov.

For comparison, here're Shinsekai Nami and Sanji figures :D

Souvenirs from Matsumoto ♥

Remember around 2 months ago I went to Chubu/Hokuriku? One of the places I visited was Matsumoto. After coming back The Straits Times asked for a short write-up, and it came out in the papers a couple of weeks ago.

They asked for a picture as well, all the pictures I had of myself from the trip were self-shots...because I was travelling alone^^ This is one of the less obvious ones I think, at least my arm isn't showing :P The castle in the picture is Matsumoto Castle.

Anyway, sometime late in September, I was notified that the Matsumoto Convention and Tourism Association wanted to pass me a souvenir at the coming Japan Travel & Food Fair. I was quite surprised, wondering why they'd do that, as I didn't recall meeting anyone in Matsumoto, but thought that was such a random and nice gesture.

With the representative from the Matsumoto Convention and Tourism Association, Mr Y.

I don't think I can convey how touched I was by their very kind and thoughtful gesture. I certainly didn't do anything to deserve it, but it was really nice of them to specially give me a souvenir!

With the lovely folks at the Shinshuu/Matsumoto booth at the Japan Travel & Food Fair.

A little FYI about the 3 posters in the background:

from left to right they're of Norikura Kougen, Matsumoto City and Kamikouchi.

Mwahahaha I've been to 2 of the 3, they're all beautiful places!

The beautiful souvenir, Matsumoto oshie (松本押絵)!

This lovely lady currently graces my bedroom wall.

Close-up, the details are gorgeous ♥

It's a traditional, handmade, semi-3D craft;

made using different pieces of cloth, which are stuffed, shaped and arranged.

The lady in the artwork is holding a temari, a local traditional craft of Matsumoto.

Temari on a manhole cover I saw while in Matsumoto.

A mini temari keychain I bought while in Matsumoto.

Mr Y found out I was a fan of One Piece and got these as well!

One Piece figures, Shinsekai version~

I was really very touched by this, along with the letter they wrote.

Thank you very much for your kindness Matsumoto ♥

There are 8 different types, each one comes with a character and a bonus part.

When you gather all 8 types, you can combine the bonus parts to make Franky.

The ones I got were Robin and Brook~

Robin and Brook along with the Luffy, Zoro and Franky figures I recently bought ♥

Excuse the photo quality, this came from my phone^^